ANGUILLARA. - A comital family that takes its name from the homonymous locality situated on the southern shore of Lake Bracciano, 33 km from Rome. It is believed to be of Lombard origin, but only with Count Pandolfo I (1186) does its secure genealogy begin. From the second half of the 13th century, it is found in constant conflict with the Prefetti di Vico family, which dominated the northern part of the Patrimony. In the 14th century, the Anguillara held offices in Rome as representatives of the Angevins, aligning with them in the Guelph faction against the Vico; indeed, Francesco and Pandolfo were vicars of King Robert, and Orso, several times senator, crowned Petrarch as poet on the Capitoline Hill, already his guest at Capranica, by commission of the same king. During the 15th century, it was *Everso* who governed and expanded the fortunes of his house, maneuvering as a condottiere amid the rivalries of Rome’s great families—the Colonnas and Orsinis—and those of the Church with its neighbors. The palace with its tower that the Anguillara built on the right bank of the Tiber offered ample opportunity to intervene in the city’s affairs.
Everso, with his brother *Dolce*, sided with Eugenius IV and the Orsinis in August 1431 in the struggle against the Colonnas and their allies, and remained with the Orsinis during the disturbances of 1434. Both fought alongside Giovanni Vitelleschi at the siege of Vetralla, which they captured in August 1435, taking Giacomo di Vico prisoner, and participated in the division of his estates. Everso secured the return to the Church of Porta Maggiore, temporarily occupied by factions (23 March 1436), and in the following years served Vitelleschi, now a cardinal, in the recovery of the Church’s possessions in southern Lazio. He was with Vitelleschi when the latter was treacherously seized in Castel Sant’Angelo (19 March 1440) and deprived of his goods and executions; but he was compelled to restore them to the new papal envoy, Ludovico Trevisan, and followed him in subsequent enterprises.
Under Nicholas V, after brief discord, Everso was reconciled with the Pope along with other barons. With the Orsinis, he took part in an expedition in Umbria and the siege of Cascia, but in June 1454 was forced to flee and retreat to his domains. Yet his friendship with the Orsinis soon broke down, though *Deifobo*, Everso’s son, had married Maria, daughter of Antonio Orsini, Count of Tagliacozzo. Indeed, during the procession for the possession of the Lateran on 20 April 1455 following the election of Calixtus III, Everso provoked a tumult against Napoleone Orsini, quickly quelled by the intervention of Cardinal Orsini; the people took sides against Everso, accusing him of being “a traitor, enemy of the Roman Church, breaker of roads and public robber.” And these were not groundless accusations. The following year war broke out between the Orsinis and the Anguillara; in 1457 Everso was at Galeria (23 April), and in July fought again against the Vico; in 1458 he was with the Colonnas, continuing to fight against the Orsinis and against the Church on behalf of Jacopo Piccinino, against whom, however, he had fought under the orders of the Cardinal Camerlengo in July 1455. He made peace with the new pope, Pius II, though continuing to stir up trouble in the Patrimony. For this, Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa was compelled in 1459 to move against him and his son Deifobo; nonetheless, Everso managed for a time to seize Viterbo and occupy Capranica (June–July); in the autumn, he supported the Angevin expedition of Giovanni, Duke of Calabria, against Ferdinand of Naples, and Deifobo served in the Kingdom on his behalf.
On 12 October 1560, Everso took Anguillara from the sons of his brother Dolce and other lands near the Orsinis, but the Peace of Naples of 13 September 1462 made his position difficult. He died on 4 September 1464, leaving as heirs his sons Deifobo and *Francesco*, who paid homage to the new pope, Paul II. Yet good relations lasted only briefly; the two brothers were excommunicated on 24 June 1465 and defeated by Cardinal Nicholas Forteguerri, sent against them; Francesco was taken prisoner and died in 1471 in Castel Sant’Angelo; Deifobo fled to Venice and entered the service of the Republic as a condottiere. He attempted a reconquest under Innocent VIII in the summer of 1484, but later contented himself with a pension from the Pope. The Pope then conferred the county of Anguillara, vacant upon the death of Domenico, on Franceschetto Cybo on 21 February 1490; thus this family disappears from history.