Duchy of Castro

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Coat of arms of the Duchy of Castro

The Duchy of Castro was a central Italian fiefdom that was ruled as an independent state by the Farnese family from 1537 to 1649. It consisted of a small part of the Lazio region bordering on Tuscany .

Creation of the duchy

The Duchy of Castro was founded by Pope Paul III. created from the House of Farnese on October 31, 1537 by the Bull Videlicet immeriti to consolidate the family's holdings and furnish his son Pier Luigi Farnese and his male descendants. The duchy existed for only 112 years and was always overshadowed by the rest of the Farnese possessions, especially in the shadow of the Duchy of Parma .

The limits

The Duchy of Castro stretched between the Tyrrhenian Sea and Lake Bolsena and was bordered by the Marta and Fiora rivers; it reached to the mouth of the Olpeta and to the Mezzano lake. The county of Ronciglione was added to the Duchy of Castro, but the small lordship, from 1602 Duchy of Latera as a subsidiary of the Farnese, was not part of it.

The duchy included the following places: Castro as the capital, Montalto , Musignano , Ponte della Badia , Canino , Cellere , Pianiano , Arlena , Tessennano , Piansano , Valentano , Ischia , Gradoli , Grotto , Borghetto , Bisenzio , Capodimonte , Marta , the islands of Bisentina and Martana in Lake Bolsena, Ronciglione , Caprarola , Nepi , Fabrica di Roma , Canepina , Vallerano , Corchiano and Castel Sant'Elia . Since Carbognano and Vignanello were owned by female Farnese members and their respective spouses, these two places were not part of the Duchy of Castro.

The decline of the duchy

After Parma's elevation to duchy in 1545, the Farnese divided rulership between the two areas for a few years. Duke Pier Luigi Farnese ceded Castro to his son Ottavio Farnese , who in turn gave Castro to his brother Orazio Farnese when he succeeded in Parma . Orazio died without offspring, so that Castro fell back to Ottavio. Ottavio's successor was Alessandro Farnese , who never set foot in Castro, as he lived north of the Alps, where he temporarily held the office of governor of Flanders .

With Alessandro's son Ranuccio I Farnese , who inherited a disastrous financial situation, the decline began. His successor Odoardo I Farnese did not improve the situation, but declared war on Spain without warning Pope Urban VIII , who then managed to resolve the crisis diplomatically. The military adventures weakened his financial situation further, which is why he had to mortgage the Duchy of Castro. The strategically important location of Castro on the borders of the Papal States caused the Pope to increase the pressure when the Farnese were no longer able to pay their debts.

The first war for Castro

The cause of the first war for Castro can be found in the expansion policy of the Barberini family , whose plans Odoardo Farnese stood in the way. Under the pretext that the Duchy of Castro was largely part of the Papal States, Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini) and his nephews, Cardinals Francesco and Antonio Barberini , decided to deprive the Farnese of centuries-old privileges and property by driving them into ruin, after they had already tried to buy the Duchy of Castro.

In 1639 the bankers Siri and Sacchetti and the Prefect of Rome, Taddeo Barberini , also a nephew of the Pope, complained about the drop in grain prices and at the same time denied Odoardo the possibility of paying the agreed sums, which put him in a difficult situation. His financiers, who had linked the loans to the future income of the duchy, asked for their money back and demanded that Castro's income be auctioned.

Two decrees by Camerlengo Antonio Barberini from 1641 aggravated the dukes' situation: on the one hand, the transport of the grain was prohibited, a privilege of the Pope for centuries, and on the other, the construction of a road from Sutri to Rome ordered to dry up the route via Ronciglione .

Get all attempts Odoardos, the difficulties under control, came to nothing: the Barberini ended up leaving occupy the Duchy and possession of the Farnese in the Papal States seize. The invasion of the papal troops began on September 27, 1641. In return, the Farnese invaded the Papal States and occupied Acquapendente , which made the Pope think of a second Sacco di Roma.

The first phase of the war ended with peace negotiations in Castel Giorgio , which provided for the withdrawal of Odoardo's troops. The negotiations failed on October 26, 1642: the Barberini had in the meantime organized the defense and Odoardo gambled away his advantage. He tried to retake Castro, which ushered in the second phase of the war: a league consisting of Odoardo, Ferdinando II de 'Medici , Grand Duke of Florence, the Republic of Venice and the Duke of Modena , all of whom wanted to oppose the expansionist ambitions of the Barberini, demanded the handover of the duchy to its legitimate owner, in early 1643 the new participants entered the war.

After a heavy defeat of the papal troops in the battle of Lagoscuro , the Treaty of Ferrara of March 31, 1644, which came about with diplomatic help from France, ended the first war for Castro: the Farnese got Castro back and were reconciled with the Pope. The treaty was confirmed the following year with the appointment of a brother of Odoardo, Francesco Farnese, cardinal.

The second war for Castro

Pope Urban VIII died shortly after the Ferrara Treaty was signed, and Giovanni Battista Pamphili was succeeded as Innocent X. Duke Odoardo died in 1646, followed by his 16-year-old son Ranuccio II Farnese .

On April 17, 1648, the Pope appointed Cristoforo Giarda Bishop of Castro without consulting the Duke. Ranuccio II then forbade him to enter the city until an agreement was reached with Rome. A year passed without the question being resolved, so the Pope ordered the new bishop to take possession of his diocese. On March 18, 1649, Giarda was killed in an ambush near Monterosi , on the road from Rome to Castro, by Ranuccio Zambini from Gradoli and Domenico Cocchi from Valentano . Innocent X. immediately blamed the duke for the murder and ordered Giulio Spinola, the governor of Viterbo, to investigate the incident.

Intrigues by the Barberini and Olimpia Maidalchinis , the Pope's sister-in-law, then led Innocent X to declare war on Castro. In the summer the ducal troops were defeated, the besieged Castro surrendered on September 2, 1649 after the duke had fled to Parma. Eight months later, the Pope ordered the destruction of the city, including the main church. Ranuccio II had to put up with the loss of the duchy. The seat of the bishop was moved to Acquapendente. The works of art were distributed to the Roman nobility. The bells of the cathedral are now in the church of Sant'Agnese in Rome.

Recovery attempts

With the help of the King of Spain and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, on December 19, 1649, Ranuccio II recognized his inability to pay the family's debts and submitted his claims to the Duchy of Castro to the Apostolic Chamber against the sum of 1,629,750 Exit Écu . The chamber took over the Farnese's debts while giving the family the opportunity to repurchase the duchy within eight years by paying that sum in one installment. The Palazzo Farnese in Rome and the Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola were not affected by this agreement.

Since Ranuccio II could not raise the money, Pope Alexander VII declared the Duchy de non infeudandis on January 24, 1660 and finally confiscated it. In 1664, the French King Louis XIV achieved an extension of another eight years, this time with a payment in two tranches, but this period also passed.

literature

  • Giovanni Conctrucci, Le monete del Ducato di Castro , Comune di Ischio di Castro
  • George Dennis, The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria , Londres 1848
  • Edoardo del Vecchio, I Farnese, Istituto di Studi Romani Editore, 1972
  • Rivista Biblioteca e Società, Allegato al N.2, Consorzio per la gestione delle Biblioteche di Viterbo, June 1994
  • Romualdo Luzi, L'inedito ... , cit., Roma 1985
  • George Dennis, Vulci: Canino, Ischia, Farnese. Città e necropoli d'Etruria , a cura di Franco Cambi, Nuova Immagine Editrice, Siena 1993, ISBN 88-7145-053-1
  • Alfio Cavoli, La Cartagine della Maremma , Roma 1990.
  • Studio della città di Castro - Tesi di laurea in Architettura 2005
  • Romualdo Luzi, Qui fu Castro.
  • Romualdo Luzi, Storia di Castro e della sua distruzione.
  • Romualdo Luzi, L'inedito "Giornale" dell'assedio, presa e demolizione di Castro (1649) dopo l'assassinio del Vescovo barnabita Mons. Cristoforo Giarda. Roma 1985
  • Romualdo Luzi, La produione della ceramica d'ingobbio nella distrutta città di Castro: un fenomeno d'arte popolare d'intensa diffusione.
  • G. Gavelli, La città di Castro e l'opera di Antonio da Sangallo, Ed. Ceccarelli Grotte di Castro 1981
  • A. Cavoli, La Cartagine della Maremma, Roma 1990
  • Mons. E. Stendardi, Memorie Storiche della Distrutta città di Castro, Ed. Fratelli Quattrini, Viterbe 1955
  • D. Angeli, De depraedatione castrensium, et suae patriae historia, Lugdum Batavorum 1720 approx., Édition traduite par G. Baffioni et P. Mattiangeli, avec la collaboration de T. Lotti, Roma 1981

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