- Giacomo Boncompagni
Giacomo Boncompagni (also "Jacopo Boncompagni";
may 8 1548 -August 18 1612 ) was an Italian powerful feudatory of the 16th century, the illegitimate son ofPope Gregory XIII (Ugo Boncompagni). He was alsoDuke of Sora ,Aquino ,Arce andArpino , and Marquess ofVignola .Boncompagni was a patron of arts and culture.
Pierluigi da Palestrina dedicated to him the first book of Madrigals. He was also a friend of another composer,Vincenzo Ruffo . He was also a fan oftheatre andchess .Biography
Early years
Giacomo Boncompagni was born in
Bologna , the son of Ugo Boncompagni and his mistress from Carpi, Maddalena Fulchini. His father was in that city to participate in theCouncil of Trento during the period in which had been moved there. He was legitimated onjuly 5 1548 and entrusted to theJesuits for education.When his father was elected pope in March 1572, Giacomo moved to
Rome where, two months later, was appointed prefect ofCastel Sant'Angelo . Later his father named him also General Governor of the Papal Army, and he move first toAncona and thenFerrara , remaining in the latter until 1574. The following yearPhilip II of Spain named him "Capitano Generale delle genti in armi" (commander-in-chief) of the Spanish-controlledDuchy of Milan .In 1576 Gregory XIII named him governor of
Fermo . In the same year Giacomo married Costanza Sforza of Santa Fiora, who gave him 14 children. In 1581, together withLatino Orsini , he received the task to counter thebanditism movement in the Papal States.Duke of Sora
Despite all the political and military charges he had been able to assign to his son, Gregory aimed to carve out for him a true state. After a failed attempt of acquisition of the
Marquisate of Saluzzo in 1577, in the same year the pope paid 70,000 goldenécu s for the small Marquisate of Vignola toAlfonso II d'Este . Two years later it was the turn of the largerDuchy of Sora andArce , for which the pope and Giacomo paid 100,000 golden écus to Francesco Maria II of Urbino.In 1583, in reward of other 243,000 golden écus, Giacomo acquired also the large Duchy of
Aquino andArpino in theKingdom of Naples , bought from theD'Avalos family. When Gregory died, Boncompagni was the most powerful man in central Italy, and, at the command of 2,000 infantry and some light cavalry, took the task to pacify the situation during the "sede vacante " period. However, at the election ofSixtus V he was stripped of all his charges in the Papal States.Philip II forced Boncompagni also to remain in Milan, while his family moved to Isola di Sora, near Sora, where his wife administered the Duchy. He was able to leave Milan only in 1612: but he was already ill, and died at Sora in the following August, at the age of 64.
His son Gregorio succeeded him in Sora.
ee also
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Duchy of Sora
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