Papal Genealogy: The Families and Descendants of the PopesThe papacy has often resembled a secular European monarchy more than a divinely inspired institution. Roman pontiffs bestowed great wealth on their families and forged strategic alliances with other powerful families to increase their power. Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia), for example, forced his daughter Lucrezia into a series of marriages for political reasons. When her marital alliance was no longer advantageous, as was the case in her second marriage, her husband was brutally murdered. Many papal families also intermarried in hopes of forming a hereditary papacy; at least two members of the Fieschi, Piccolomini, Della Rovere, and Medici families served as pope. Papal families since the early history of the church are fully covered in this comprehensive work. Genealogical charts graphically show the descendants of the popes, presenting in many cases the interrelationships between the papal families and their relationships with many of the leading families of Europe. Detailed histories examine the impact of the papacy on each pope's family and how each influenced the history of the church. |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 1 |
and how far off everything seems | 3 |
In the Beginning The First 1200 Years | 7 |
The Family of Crescenzi Crescentii or Crescentius | 15 |
The Papal Families at the Close of the Middle Ages | 31 |
The Savelli Family Part One | 37 |
Bishops Cardinals the Pope | 42 |
Avignon Ends and a New Era of Italian Popes Begins | 45 |
82 | 108 |
The Papacy after 1740 The Modern Period | 131 |
Papal Dynasties and Noble Houses | 139 |
Table XVIIIb | 144 |
Table XXII | 162 |
Papal Dynasties and Nepotism | 165 |
Ancestors of Princess Diana of Wales | 172 |
Additional Genealogical Tables of Papal Families | 177 |
The Renaissance Popes and Their Families | 51 |
The House of Borgia | 58 |
The Medici and Farnese Families | 71 |
The Renaissance Comes to a Close | 82 |
The Papal Dynasties of the Baroque Period | 89 |
57 | 101 |
Reference Guide to the Papal Dynasties | 211 |
Chronological List of the Popes and Antipopes | 230 |
Notes | 237 |
Selected Sources | 251 |