Pompeo Colonna

Belonging to one of the most important Roman families of the late Middle Ages and the early modern age, Pompeo Colonna was born on 12 May 1479. Early orphaned, he was taken under his wing by the powerful uncle Prospero and took part in the wars of Italy in the ranks of the Aragonese army, obtaining the esteem of the battle companions for the great military capabilities. Despite this, his uncle destined him to ecclesiastical life, so that he would take his place within the college of cardinals of his elderly uncle Giovanni, upon his death. Having become a cardinal, Pompeo distinguished himself for his actions of revolt against Pope Julius II, who deprived him of ecclesiastical benefits. Pope Leo X returned to him what had been taken from him and appointed him assistant of the chapel. Even with his successor, Adriano VI, Pompeo had excellent relations. With Clement VII, however, although Pompeo had been among his electors, relations soon deteriorated, also due to the distance of the political positions between the two: due to the support for Charles V, Colonna was declared a rebel to the authority of the Church. As a reaction, in 1526, the cardinal organized an armed sortie inside the city of Rome, forcing the pontiff to take refuge in Castel Sant’Angelo. The following year he participated in the sack of the city by the lansquenets; however, as a fine humanist he was, he went to see the pontiff, locked up in Castel Sant’Angelo, and together they mourned the ruin of the holy city. In the same year he became lieutenant of the kingdom of Naples, where, however, he had many conflicts with the local aristocracy. He died in Naples on June 28, 1532. Given his position, he was the dedicatee of many works; but he too was an accomplished man of letters, of which, however, only an epigram and the treatise Apologiae mulierum remain.