Anguillara

ANGUILLARA. - A comital family that takes its name from the locality of the same name situated on the southern shore of Lake Bracciano, 33 km from Rome. It is supposed to be of Lombard origin, but only with Count Pandolfo I (1186) does its certain genealogy begin. From the second half of the 13th century it is found in constant struggle with the family of the Prefects of Vico, who dominated the northern part of the Patrimony. In the 14th century the A. also held offices in Rome, as representatives of the Angevins, following with them the party opposed to the Vico; indeed Francesco and Pandolfo were vicars of King Robert, and Orso, several times senator, crowned the poet Francesco Petrarch on the Capitoline, the latter having already been his guest at Capranica, on commission of the same king. During the 15th century it was Everso who governed and enlarged the fortunes of his house, maneuvering as a condottiere amid the rivalries of the great Roman families of the Colonna and the Orsini, and those of the Church with his neighbors. The palace with tower that the A. built for themselves on the right bank of the Tiber offered ample opportunity to interfere in urban affairs. Everso, with his brother Dolce, sided with Eugene IV and with the Orsini in Aug. 1431 in the struggle with the Colonna and their associates, and with the Orsini he also sided during the turmoils of 1434. Both sided with Giovanni Vitelleschi at the siege of Vetralla, which they conquered in Aug. 1435, afterward taking Giacomo di Vico prisoner, and they had a part in the division of his goods. Everso had Porta Maggiore restored to the Church after it had been momentarily occupied by factions (23 March 1436) and in the following years he served Vitelleschi, who had become cardinal, in the enterprise of recovering the Church's possessions in southern Latium. He was with him when he was treacherously captured in Castel S. Angelo (19 March 1440) and he seized the baggage train of his army; but he was forced to restore it to the new papal envoy Lodovico Trevisan; and he also followed the latter in the subsequent enterprises. Under Nicholas V, after brief discords, Everso was received into the Pope's favor together with other barons. With the Orsini he took part in an enterprise in Umbria and in the siege of Cascia, but in June 1454 he was forced to flee and withdraw to his domains. But the friendship with the Orsini was soon to break, although Deifobo, son of Everso, married Maria, daughter of Antonio Orsini count of Tagliacozzo. Indeed on the occasion of the election of Callisto III, during the procession for the taking of possession at the Lateran (20 Apr. 1455), Everso provoked a tumult against Napoleone Orsini, quelled by the intervention of Card. Orsini; the people took sides against Everso, accusing him of being "a traitorous enemy of the Roman Church, a breaker of roads and a public robber." And these were certainly not groundless accusations. The following year there was war between the Orsini and the A.; in 1457 Everso was besieging Galeria (23 Apr.), in July he fought again against the Vico; in 1458 he sided with the Colonna, continuing to fight against the Orsini and against the Church for Jacopo Piccinino, against whom, under the orders of the Cardinal Camerlengo, he had instead fought in July 1455. He made peace with the new pope Pius II, while continuing to keep the Patrimony in turmoil. For this reason Card. Nicholas of Cusa was forced in 1459 to move against him and against Deifobo his son; nevertheless Everso managed to seize Viterbo for a moment and to occupy Capranica (June-July); in the autumn he favored the enterprise of the Angevin Giovanni duke of Calabria against Ferdinand of Naples, and Deifobo served for him in the Kingdom. On 12 Oct. 1560 Everso took Anguillara from the sons of Dolce his brother and other lands near the Orsini, but the peace of Naples of 13 Sept. 1462 made his position difficult. He died on 4 Sept. 1464, leaving as heirs his sons Deifobo and Francesco, who paid homage to the new pope Paul II. However, the good relations lasted little; the two brothers were excommunicated on 24 June 1465 and remained defeated before Card. Nicolò Forteguerri sent against them; Francesco was taken prisoner and died in 1471 in Castel S. Angelo; Deifobo fled to Venice and entered the service of that Republic as a condottiere. He attempted a reconquest under Innocent VIII, in the summer of 1484, but then contented himself with having a pension from him. The Pope conferred upon Franceschetto Cybo the county of Anguillara, vacant through the death of Domenico on 21 Febr. 1490; thus this family disappears from history.

Pio Paschini