European Kingdoms

Duchy of Marsi (Colonna) (Italy)
AD 1459 - 1528

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The town of Marsi in Italy initially emerged as the main settlement of the Marsi tribe of Italics. During the Italian Iron Age they were located around central Italy's Lake Fucino (a region which today is known as Marsica). Eventually conquered by the increasingly dominant Latins under the leadership of Rome, they were originally part of the Oscan-Umbrian group, largely accepted as being Indo-Europeans (perhaps proto-Celts) who migrated into the peninsula from the north.

Marruvium (now known as San Benedetto dei Marsi) was a key settlement of theirs, while the ancient stream called the Pitonius was nearby (now known as Giovenco). The Marsi were a tough, enduring mountain folk whose chief divinity was Angitia, an ancient snake goddess.

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries AD of Medieval Italy a line of Frankish counts emerged in Marsi as part of the duchy of Spoleto in southern Italy. They had Celano as their main seat, governing territory between Lake Fucino and the Peligni. Their origins lay in one Berardo, known as 'Francisco' as he came from Francia.

He arrived in Italy as a supporter of Hugh of Arles, king of Francia Media, possibly from Hugh's native kingdom of Burgundy on the other side of the Alps. The later counts of Marsi referred to themselves as Berardinga or Berardings (a naming format which had Germanic origins), although modern historians use the term 'Bosonids'.

The Bosonids eventually fell out amongst themselves. That allowed Robert Guiscard, count of Apulia, to defeat them in piecemeal fashion and take control of large areas of southern Italy during a drive by Norman nobles to conquer territory.

Marsi once again became the seat of a noble family in the fifteenth century, this time for the Italian noble family of Colonna. They had already supplied Pope Martin V in 1417-1431. The duchy they controlled was short-lived, but it also served as the seat of an episcopal see.

The title and the lands which came with it did survive, however, going to a different branch of the family - and with those still being descendants of Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna. The town was known as Civitas Marsicana by the Middle Ages, although it had been destroyed in 1340 when the Angevin Normans were fighting for control of Naples, and had to be rebuilt.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from The Roman History: From Romulus and the Foundation of Rome to the Reign of the Emperor Tiberius, Velleius Paterculus, J C Yardley, & Anthony A Barrett, from An Historical Geography of Europe, Norman J G Pounds (Abridged Version), from The History of Rome, Volume 1, Titus Livius (translated by Rev Canon Roberts), from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from Encyclopaedia of the Roman Empire, Matthew Bunson (1994), from Brief Historical Grammar of the Latin Language, W Lindsey, and from External Links: Counts of the Marsi (Italy Heritage), and Enciclopedia.cat (Catalan Reference Search Engine), and Geni.)

? - 1423

Lord of Cave and count of Alba.

1459

Thirty-six years after his death, Count Lorenzo's domains are divided between his six children, with Odoardo gaining Marsi. Alba remains the most senior of the ensuing spread of titles while Marsi remains small and apparently insignificant, poorly recorded in any great detail.

The town of Scurcola Marsicana is today in the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of Italy which neighbours the former Marsi lands and those of the medieval duchy of Marsi

1459 - 1485

Son. Former count of Alba and Celano.

1485

The death of Odoardo Colonna sees the duchy passing to one of his sons. Which one, however, seems to be a small matter of confusion with a family which seems to be relatively poorly recorded in the available material.

Fabrizio Colonna, the first to bear that name, would seem to be the official duke, but Giordano has also been referred to as Odoardo's successor - and also a duke in his own right.

Possibly he remains in Marsi to govern while his successful brother concentrates more on his role as the first great hereditary constable of the kingdom of Naples (from 1490).

This oil on canvas depicts Lake Fucino, near San Benedetto dei Marsi in former Marsi tribal territory, before it was drained

1485 - 1520

Son. Hereditary constable of Naples (1490).

1485 - ?

Brother. Co-ruler governing the duchy?

1520? - 1528

Son. Imprisoned. No male heir.

1528

Prospero is imprisoned in Civita Lavinia. Both of his offspring are daughters, so ownership of the duchy passes away from the Colonnas and, in 1540, the episcopal see moves to nearby Pescina.

In the seventeenth century, the archbishop of Amasia (from 1643) and titular patriarch of the lost kingdom of Jerusalem (from 1638), Don Carlo, is titled duke of Marsi. He is able to trace his origins back to Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna, albeit via a different branch of the family.

The ill-fated Ottaviano Maria Sforza, who opposed the restoration of Ugo, count of Lugano, and soon afterwards was drowned while attempting to avoid arrest, was painted in oils by Botticelli