Orsini family
From Free net encyclopedia
The Orsini family was of the most celebrated princely families in medieval Italy and renaissance Rome, and which, in former times, had large possessions in Hungary. The three Orsini popes were, including Pope Celestine III (1191-1198), Pope Nicholas III (1277-1280), and Pope Benedict XIII (1724-1730).
According to their family lore, the Orsini are descended from the Julio-Claudian family of ancient Rome. In the eleventh century, it held a brilliant rank among the Roman nobility, and, in spite of the rivalship of the powerful family of Colonna, maintained its splendor under the protection of several popes who belonged to it. The founder was John Cajetan, whose descendant Matthew Rubens had three sons, who founded three lines, of which there remains at present only one, that of Orsini-Gravina, derived from Napoleon Orsini, the youngest son of Matthew. Francis Orsini (descended from this Napoleon) was made, in 1417, count of Gravina, a city in the Neapolitan district of Bari. His son James obtained the title of duke. In 1426, the Orsini family constructed the castle "Castello Orsini-Odescalchi" in the town of Bracciano.
The eleventh duke after him, Peter Francis, in 1667, gave up the dukedom of Gravina to his brother Dominions, and, in 1724, was chosen pope He ruled, under the name of Benedict XIII, until 1730, when another Orsini (Clement XII) obtained the triple crown. The latter raised the nephew of Benedict XIII, Prince Beroald Orsini, to the dignity of Prince Assistants to the Papal Throne (title held until 1958), after the emperor Charles VI had already, in 1724, made him a prince of the Holy Roman Empire. The seat of the family was commonly in Naples. The family has given several distinguished men to Italy, among whom Nicholas Orsini and his cousin Lorenzo obtained some reputation in the war of Venice against the league of Cambray. The former distinguished himself by taking and valiantly defending Padua, in 1509, against the emperor Maximilian I; and the latter was the first who disciplined the Italian infantry, so that they could stand the attacks of the formidable Swiss and Spanish troops.