CALDORA, Giacomo. — Powerful Abruzzese baron and captain, born at Castel del Giudice, on the Sangro, in 1368, and died on 15 Nov. 1439. Elected captain-general of the Church and of Queen Joanna (Apr. 1424), together with Francesco Sforza he moved against Braccio, inflicting upon him the famous and bloody defeat beneath L’Aquila, in which Braccio met his death on 2 June 1424 (R. Valentini, *Lo stato di Braccio e la guerra aquilana*, in *Arch. della soc. rom. di storia patria*, 52 [1929], pp. 312, 318-31). His fame and power, after he had taken possession of all the lands taken from him by Braccio, then reached their zenith. All the Italian states vied for his allegiance, but he remained faithful to the Queen and to the Pope. In recompense for an expedition against Bologna, which had rebelled against the cardinal legate (1428), he received in pledge the castle of Bari and Carbonara, and assumed the title of duke (1430).
At the death of Queen Joanna (1435), in the struggle that followed between the two claimants to the throne, Alfonso of Aragon and René of Anjou, Caldora followed the latter with the favour of Pope Eugenius IV, and alone he often resisted the Aragonese. He died suddenly during a siege of the town of Colle Sannita, and was buried at Sulmona with great honour.