The Legacy of the Lorenzo Orsini Line of Monterotondo at the End of the 16th Century

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The Orsini of Monterotondo, divided since the fifteenth century into the two lines of Giacomo and Lorenzo, at the end of the sixteenth century faced complex events for the attribution of ancient feudal rights. The last of Lorenzo’s branch were the heirs of Giordano, who first married Emilia Cesi, from whom he had Ludovico and Valerio, the second marriage with Lucrezia dell’Anguillara, daughter of Maddalena Strozzi, gave him Raimondo and Pulcheria. It was inevitable to resolve the coincidence of claims on inheritance rights and find agreements. There was no shortage of tragic implications and untimely deaths that led to the end of that line with Valerio. In those events one can read the suffering of a world in crisis and in rapid change that was reaching a new definition of balance of power.