Ventimiglia (noble family)

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Family coat of arms of the Counts of Ventimiglia

Ventimiglia is the name of an old Italian noble family that came from Liguria and settled in one line in Provence and in another in Sicily , where they rose to the rank of prince .

history

The family is named after the town of Ventimiglia in Liguria, which was the capital of an independent county from the 10th century . At this time, the Counts of Ventimiglia also founded the towns of Apricale and Roquebrune-Cap-Martin . Around 1033 an Elena di Ventimiglia married an Otto del Vasto from a branch of the Aleramides . In 1039 a Corrado, son of Corrado, is mentioned as Count of Ventimiglia. The place Tenda belonged to the property . At the beginning of the 12th century they built a castle in Bussana Vecchia . In 1146 the Counts of Ventimiglia were militarily forced to submit to the suzerainty of the Republic of Genoa .

In 1258 they had to cede the western half of the county to Charles I of Anjou in exchange for some dominions in what is now the Alpes-Maritimes department ( La Rochette , Collongues , Puget-Figette, Penne, Chaudol, Cadenede, Toudon , Gilette ) , who reduced the county then to the places Tenda , Briga , Castellar , Saorge , Breil-sur-Roya , Pigna , Rocchetta Nervina , Prelà , Gorbio , Castillon , Limone Piemonte , Vernante as well as Roquebrune-Cap-Martin , Sainte-Agnès and Bussana , furthermore large parts of the Lantosque Valley . In Provence, the lines (with the French name Vintimille ) were formed in Turriers (extinct in 1572), in Marseille (extinct in the 18th century) and the Marquis du Luc (extinct in 1777). The Borgomaro dominion, located in the eastern part of the County of Ventimiglia, was separated in 1218 and became the seat of the younger Ventimiglia del Maro line , which then went to Sicily.

Lascaris di Ventimiglia line

Coat of arms of the Lascaris di Ventimiglia

Guglielmo Pietro I, Count of Ventimiglia and Tenda (1230–1283), received from Genoa his fiefdoms in Roccabruna , Sainte-Agnès , Codolis, Gorbio , Castellar , Briga, Castiglione, La Menour, Quous and Val Lantosque confirmed. He belonged to the Genoese fleet commanders the 1204 - after the conquest of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade set up exile - Empire of Nicaea supported and after the reconquest of Constantinople Opel in 1261 , the local Latin Empire eliminated and the Byzantine Empire newly founded by Emperor Michael Palaeologus inserting who dropped the Laskarids from Nikaia. Guglielmo Pietro I di Ventimiglia was then married to Eudoxia Lascaris (1248-1311), the sister of the overthrown last Laskarid emperor, John IV , who, like her sisters, was married to foreigners so that they could join the children of Michael VIII from the new Dynasty of palaeologists made no competition. Pietro and Eudoxia founded the older line of the House of Ventimiglia, which was named after the former imperial family Lascaris di Ventimiglia .

The best known of this line was Beatrice († 1418), daughter of Wilhelm Lascaris di Ventimiglia, Count of Tenda, who married the Duke of Milan , Filippo Maria Visconti , in 1412 . In 1418 Beatrice was arrested on charges of adultery with Michele Orombelli and beheaded in Binasco Castle. Her tragic fate was dealt with in the opera Beatrice di Tenda by Vincenzo Bellini in 1833 .

With Anna Lascaris (1487–1554) the county of Tenda fell in 1509 to her husband Renato of Savoy, a natural son of Philip II of Savoy , but the branches of the Lascaris di Ventimiglia continued to flourish in Briga , Gorbio and Castellar . With Jean de Lascaris-Castellar (1560–1657) they provided a grand master of the Order of Malta . The line expired in 1838 with Agostino Lascaris.

Ventimiglia del Maro line

Borgomaro , Liguria

In 1218 Count Enrico I di Ventimiglia inherits the dominion of Borgomaro in the eastern part of the County of Ventimiglia, thus establishing the younger Ventimiglia del Maro line . This owned a trading house in Genoa and acquired with Enrico II. (1230-1308), follower of Manfred of Sicily , trading establishments in Sicily, but remained in Liguria until the 15th century. Enrico II married Isabella, Countess of Ischia and Geraci from a sideline of the Norman-Sicilian royal family of the Hauteville , whereby these possessions fell to the Ventimiglia. The couple moved from Liguria to Cefalù in Sicily, where they built a city palace in the Norman-Romanesque style, the Osterio Magno , which remained in the family until it was sold in 1602. Enrico II was one of the main organizers of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282.

Coat of arms of the Ventimiglia di Geraci

The two branches of this line descend from the brothers Filippo I and Otto IV, Counts of Ventimiglia del Maro, who lived in the 13th century:

  • The (since 1258) counts and later margraves of Geraci , since 1595 also princes of Castelbuono and princes of Scaletta (sold to the Ruffo family in 1672 ) - extinct in the male line in 1898. As a side branch (since 1658) the princes of Belmonte (as heirs of the Afflitto family), since 1681 princes of Belmontino (as heirs to Corvino), since 1723 also imperial princes and since 1764 princes von Grammonte (as heirs to Spinola ), as well as u. a. Counts of Naso , Barons of Castellammare del Golfo and Pettineo, Lords of Gangi, Castelluzzo, San Mauro Castelverde, Pollina, Tusa, Valdina, Villadorata, Ventimiglia di Sicilia , Sant'Anna and Buonriposo; also extinguished and inherited by the Monroy. Giovanni Antonio († 1483) founded a Spanish branch, the Ventimiglia di Málaga , which went out in the 18th century.
  • The del Bosco Ventimiglia , Counts of Alcamo and Vicari , Dukes of Misilmeri , Marchesi di Alimena, Barons of Prizzi and Siculiana , and since 1620 also Princes of Cattolica Eraclea and Belvedere. The branch goes back to Otto V. Ventimiglia, called "del Bosco" , a son of Raimondo and nephew of Otto IV. He married Giovanna Abbate, whose father was in the service of Emperor Frederick II Burgrave of Malta. The del Bosco had their own coat of arms and went out in 1721 with Giuseppe del Bosco Sandoval, whereupon the title and inheritance fell to the Bonanno di Roccafiorita family.

In addition to the Alliata , Filangeri , Gravina , Lancia , Moncada , Notarbartolo , Paternò , Spucches , Stagno , Tomasi di Lampedusa , Valguarnera , the Ventimiglia di Geraci and del Bosco belong to the great princely houses of the former Kingdom of Sicily . After the famous novel The Gattopardo , these are sometimes referred to as The Leopards .

Known family members

literature

  • Antonino Mango di Casalgerardo: Nobiliario di Sicilia. Forni, Bologna 1970.
  • Francesco San Martino De Spucches: La storia dei feudi e dei titoli nobiliari in Sicilia dalla loro origine ai nostri giorni. Scuola Tipografica Boccone del Povero, Palermo 1924–1941.

Web links

Commons : House of Ventimiglia  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files