Arms of the Colonna family.

The Colonna family is an Italian noble family ; it was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one Pope and many other Church and political leaders.

The first cardinal from the family was appointed in 1206 when Giovanni Colonna di Carbognano was made Cardinal Deacon of SS.

For many years, cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo ( elevated in 1193 ) was identified as member of the Colonna family and therefore its first representative in the College of Cardinals, but modern scholars have established that this was based on the false information from the beginning of 16th century.

This reinforced the pro-Emperor Ghibelline course that the Colonna family followed throughout the period of conflict between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire.

The Colonna family ( aside from the three brothers allied with the Pope ) declared that Boniface had been elected illegally following the unprecedented abdication of Pope Celestine V three years previously.

In honor of this event, the Colonna family was granted the privilege of using the imperial pointed crown on top of their coat of arms.

The celebrated poet Petrarch, was a great friend of the family, in particular of Giovanni Colonna and often lived in Rome as a guest of the family.

He composed a number of sonnets for special occasions within the Colonna family, including " Colonna the Glorious, the great Latin name upon which all our hopes rest ".

In 1627 Anna Colonna, daughter of Filippo I Colonna, married Taddeo Barberini of the family Barberini ; nephew of Pope Urban VIII.

In 1728, the Carbognano branch ( Colonna di Sciarra ) of the Colonna family added the name Barberini to its family name when Giulio Cesare Colonna di Sciarra married Cornelia Barberini, daughter of the last male Barberini to hold the name and grand-daughter of Maffeo Barberini ( son of Taddeo Barberini ).

The family residence in Rome, the Palazzo Colonna, is open to the public every Saturday morning.

The main ' Colonna di Paliano ' family is represented today by Prince Marcantonio Colonna di Paliano, Prince and Duke of Paliano ( b. 1948 ), whose heir is Giovanni Andrea Colonna di Paliano ( b. 1975 ), and by Don Prospero Colonna di Paliano, Prince of Avella ( b. 1956 ), whose heir is Filippo Colonna di Paliano ( b. 1995 ).

Fra Marino also claims to have been alerted to the existence of the Gospel of Barnabas, from an allusion in a work by Irenaeus against Paul ; in a book which had been presented to him by a lady of the Colonna family ( Marino, outside Rome, is the location of the Palazzo Colonna ).

Its original location is debated: the Roman Forum and Piazza Colonna ( where the Column of Marcus Aurelius stands ) have been proposed.

Meanwhile, Fabrizio Colonna, having seen the other Spanish cavalry engaged, rode out between the Ronco and the Spanish trenches and charged the French line ; his target is similarly the subject of disagreement among contemporary sources, but Oman and Taylor agree that he must have attacked the portion of the French vanguard under La Palice which the latter had not sent to assist Foix in the center.

Fabrizio Colonna, who had by this time returned to the camp with the remnants of his cavalry, charged into the flank of the attacking infantry ; he would write that " with 200 lances he could have retrieved the fortune of the day ".

There is also speculation that Barbarossa's attempt may have been motivated by members of the Colonna family wishing to recover their lands after Vespasiano Colonna's death.

The purpose, declared by Lord Fabrizio Colonna ( perhaps Machiavelli's persona ) at the outset, " To honor and reward virtù, not to have contempt for poverty, to esteem the modes and orders of military discipline, to constrain citizens to love one another, to live without factions, to esteem less the private than the public good.

This he did, and by the end of 1298 Colonna, Palestrina, and other towns had been captured and razed to the ground.

He was Great Constable of the kingdom of Naples ( 1639-1641 ) as had been his father Filippo I Colonna, ( 1578 – 11 April 1639 ).

Three years later Pope Boniface VIII appointed him Archbishop of Bourges, France, although Jean de Savigny had already been designated for this see by Pope Celestine V. The French nobility protested on the ground that Colonna was an Italian, but his appointment was maintained and approved by the king.

Close supporters of the former Pope Celestine V, who had been imprisoned by Boniface after his abdication, Sciarrillo's uncle, Giacomo Colonna, and brother Pietro were deposed of their positions in the Sacred College and stripped of their benefices and vestments.

As Colonna and La Palice fought along the French right, d ' Alègre, who had earlier been summoned by La Palice, arrived with 400 fresh heavy cavalry, as well as the infantry of the French reserve.

Art of War is divided into a preface ( proemio ) and seven books ( chapters ), which take the form of a series of dialogues that take place in the Orti Oricellari, the gardens built in a classical style by Bernardo Rucellai in the 1490s for Florentine aristocrats and humanists to engage in discussion, between Cosimo Rucellai and " Lord Fabrizio Colonna " ( many feel Colonna is a veiled disguise for Machiavelli himself, but this view has been challenged by scholars such as Mansfield ), with other patrizi and captains of the recent Florentine republic: Zanobi Buondelmonti, Battista della Palla and Luigi Alamanni.

Eighteen months later it was rumoured that she had been poisoned, and a lady of the court who owed money to Jacques Cœur, Jeanne de Vendôme, wife of François de Montberon, and an Italian, Jacques Colonna, formally accused him of having poisoned her.

The ' Colonna di Stigliano ' line is represented by Prospero Colonna di Stigliano, Prince of Stigliano ( b. 1938 ), whose heir is his nephew Stefano Colonna di Stigliano ( b. 1975 ).

* Federico Colonna y Tomacelli, Prince of Butera, ( 1601-1641 ) Viceroy of Valencia, in Spain, 1640 – 1641, Viceroy of Catalonia, 1641.

* Marcantonio V Colonna, Prince of Paliano, ( 1606 / 1610-1659 )

This honour is today held by Alessandro Torlonia and Marcantonio Colonna, Prince and Duke of Paliano.

Apart from some 6, 000 Spaniards under the Duke, the army included some 14, 000 Landsknechts under Georg von Frundsberg, some Italian infantry led by Fabrizio Maramaldo, Sciarra Colonna and Luigi Gonzaga, and some cavalry under Ferdinando Gonzaga and Philibert, Prince of Orange.

He was married twice, first to an American woman and then to the British widow of Prince Colonna.

The Colonna line became extinct again on the death of Prince Enrico Barberini-Colonna and the name went to his daughter and heiress Maria and her husband Marquis Luigi Sacchetti, who received the title of Prince of Palestrina and permission to use the Barberini name.

The Papal States were entrusted to a team of three cardinals, but Rome, the battleground of the Colonna and Orsini factions, was ungovernable.

* November 23 – Spanish – German – Papal forces under Prosper Colonna force French Marshal Odet de Lautrec to abandon Milan.

At Villafranca the French, led by Jacques de la Palice, surprised and captured the Papal commander, Prospero Colonna, in a daring cavalry raid deep behind the allied lines ( the Chevalier Bayard providing the impetus and expertise ).

Four years later, however, the city and the castle were ravaged by Papal troops under Prospero Colonna, and subsequently a new line of walls was built.

Colonna was born in Bologna, then part of the Papal States.

The Colonna, meanwhile, organized an attack on Rome, defeating the Papal forces and briefly seizing control of the city ; they were soon paid off and departed, however.

Born at Todi, the son of Francesco d ' Alviano and Isabella degli Atti, Bartolomeo fought very early in his life in Central Italy, serving in the Papal States and, in 1496, the Orsini family against Pope Alexander VI and the Colonna.

" At the north end of the camp, near the river, was the cavalry of the " vaward ", consisting of about 670 Papal men-at-arms under Fabrizio Colonna.