House of Malatesta
The House of Malatesta was an Italian family that ruled over Rimini from 1295 until 1500, as well as (in different periods) other lands and towns in Romagna.
Malatesta da Verucchio (d. 1312), a Guelph leader, became podestà (chief magistrate) of Rimini in 1239 and made himself sole master of the city after the expulsion of the family's Ghibelline rivals, the Parcitadi, in 1295.
His hunchback son Giovanni Malatesta is chiefly famous because he murdered his wife Francesca da Polenta and younger brother Paolo in 1285, having discovered them in adultery, and the murder is recorded in Dante's Inferno.
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Malatestas ruled over a number of cities in the Romagna and the Marche, including Pesaro, Fano, Cesena, Fossombrone and Cervia.
Several Malatestas were condottieri at the service of various Italian states. The most famous was Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, who was engaged in conflict with the papacy over territorial claims. His grandson Pandolfo was eventually expelled from Rimini in 1500 by Cesare Borgia and the city was finally incorporated in the Papal States in 1528, after the last failed attempt of Pandolfo's son, Sigismondo.
Malatesta Family
- (1) Malatesta dalla Penna (d.1248)
- (2) Malatesta da Verucchio (d.1312) (son of 1.) - Lord of Rimini, 1295
1st generation:
- (3) Malatestino 'dell Occhio' (d.1316) (son of 2) - Lord of Rimini, 1312
- (4) Paolo 'il Bello' (d.1285) (son of 2) - murdered by 5
- (5) Giovanni 'Gianciotto' (d.1304) (son of 2)
- (6) Pandolfo I (d.1326) (son of 2) - Lord of Rimini, 1317
2nd generation:
di Malatestino:
- (7) Ferrantino (d.1353) (son of 3) - Lord of Rimini, 1326, deposed & imprisoned by 11, 1334
di Paolo:
- (8) Uberto, Count of Giaggolo (d.1323) (son of 4) - murdered by 9
di Giancotto
- (9) Ramberto (d.1330) (son of 5) - murdered by 14
- (10) Guido the Archpriest (d.1334?) (son of 5)
di Pandolfo:
- (11) Malatesta II 'Guastafamiglia' (d.1364) (son of 6) - Lord of Pesaro, 1326; and Rimini, 1334
- (12) Galeotto I (d.1385) (son of 6) - Lord of Rimini,&c.
3rd generation:
di Ferrantino:
- (13) Pandolfino (d.?) (son of 7)
- (14) Malatestino Novello (d.1335) (son of 7) - imprisoned & prob. murdered by 11.
di Malatesta:
- (15) Malatesta 'Ungaro' (d. 1364) (son of 11) - Lord of Jesi
- (16) Pandolfo II (d.1373) (son of 11) - Lord of Pesaro
di Galeotto:
- (17) Carlo of Rimini (son of 12) - Lord of Rimini
- (18) Pandolfo III of Fano (d.1427) (son of 12) - Lord of Fano
- (19) Andrea of Cesena (son of 12) (d.1416) - Lord of Cesena
- (20) Galeotto II of Cervia (son of 12) (d.) - Lord of Cervia
4th generation
di Pandolfino:
- (21) Ferrantino Novello (d.1352) (son of 13)
- (22) Guido (d.1334) (son of 13) - imprisoned & prob. murdered by 11
Sources
- J. Larner (1965) The Lords of Romagna: Romagnol society and the origins of the Signorie, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, p. 243
- P. H. Wicksteed and E.G. Gardner, (1902) Dante and Giovanni del Virgilio, Westminster: Archibald Constable, p. 249, 336
See also
- House of Malatesta members
- Condottieri