The leading characters throughout history

The family’s success surely began with Pietro I Count of Catanzaro (died 1257), who was firstly a courtier of Emperor Frederick II, who later appointed him as executor, grand marshal of the Kingdom of Sicily and bailiff of his son Conrad. The information contained in the ‘Historia de rebus gestis Frederici II imperatoris’ by the so-called Pseudo-Jamsilla, according to which Pietro I was of poor and humble origins, appears to be unfounded, if not downright false, and only intended to belittle his figure.

Appointed vicar in Sicily and Calabria by Conrad IV, he was reconfirmed in this post by Corradin, but having taken sides publicly against Manfredi, he was deprived of all his possessions and forced into exile, eventually dying assassinated by the Hohenstaufen partisans at Terracina.

Giordano Ruffo di Calabria, Pietro I’s second-born son (1188-1257), Count of Catanzaro and viceroy of Sicily and Calabria, was probably born in Tropea around the year 1188. He is known for a treaty on equestrian medicine (De medicina equorum) completed in 1250 and greatly appreciated by Emperor Frederick II, himself the author of a valuable treaty on falconry (De arte venandi cum avibus), to which Giordano had also actively collaborated. The De medicina equorum text focuses primarily  on the care of horses for war. It was the first veterinary treaty in Latin Europe, and is among the earliest to describe the practice of shoeing horses. It enjoyed considerable success, and was immediately translated into Hebrew. Thereafter, it went through several editions – including an incunabulum and some 16th century editions, in addition to various translations and reproductions. More recent editions were published in 1818 and 2002 (La Mascalcia, edited by Pasquino Crupi, Rubbettino Editore ISBN 978-88-498-0480-5).

Peter II (1230-1310), after having found refuge in France with part of his family, sided with Carlo I of Anjou, regaining the earldom of the county of Catanzaro as a reward for having taken back the town of Amantea from Corradino of Swabia’s (1268) followers. He later stood out for his courageous defence of Catanzaro (1280-1281) during the War of the Vespers.

The adherence to the Angevin party brought significant economic power and political influence to the various branches of the Ruffo family. The endless wars of succession that followed, initially between the Angevins and the Durazzos, and later between the Durazzos and the Aragonese, once again saw the Ruffo di Calabria as key players, nonetheless aligned with different contenders depending on the prevailing circumstances of the time.

Folco di Calavra was the nephew of Pietro Ruffo di Calabria, Count of Catanzaro, and cousin (or brother, depending on the records) of Giordano Ruffo. He was the author of the ‘Liber Mariscalciae’, and also the Executioner of Sicily and later Viceroy. He probably frequented the court of Palermo, as part of the group of poets remembered by literary critics as the ‘Sicilian poetic school’, which flourished in the refined cultural milieu of Frederick II’s court in the 1330s. It is not by chance that his presence among the emperor’s trusted collaborators is attested from this period onwards. In 1239, he is mentioned together with his uncle Pietro in a list of barons in charge of guarding two prisoners captured in Lombardy. Several years later – on 10 December 1250 – Folco appears with his uncle Pietro as a witness to Frederick II’s will in Castel Fiorentino.

An outstanding figure was the last Count of Catanzaro, Niccolò (1359-1434) who, as a partisan of the Anjou-Durazzo family, sided with Charles III of Naples against Louis I of Anjou. Appointed viceroy of Calabria in 1384 by Queen Margaret and vicar administrator of ecclesiastical property in Calabria by Pope Urban VI, he also obtained the title of Marquis of Crotone together with many other benefices from Ladislaus I of Naples in 1390. In 1399, having forgiven him a brief defection on the side of Louis II of Anjou, Ladislaus also confirmed Niccolò as viceroy of Calabria. Nevertheless, Niccolò sided again with the Anjou-Valois and rebelled, but at the end of 1404, after having barricaded himself in the city of Crotone, he was forced into exile in France and dispossessed of all his wealth.

Niccolò would only return to Calabria in 1420 with Louis III of Anjou, regaining titles and property and being reconfirmed Marquis of Crotone. During the war between the Angevins and the Aragons, Niccolò consolidated and expanded his power at times to the detriment of the opposing side, of the church, and of the Angevins themselves. He died in 1435 leaving no male heirs, and two daughters: Giovannella, who married Antonio Colonna, Prince of Salerno and nephew of Pope Martin V, and Enrichetta, who married Antonio Centelles, Count of Calisano.

Polissena Ruffo was born in 1400 to Carlo Ruffo and Ceccarella Sanseverino. Polissena and her younger sister Covella, Duchess of Sessa, were heirs of the Ruffo family of Montalto. The Queen of the Kingdom of Naples, Giovanna II of Anjou-Durazzo, gave permission for Polissena to marry the French knight and Grand Seneschal of the Kingdom, Giacomo di Mailly, who was part of the retinue of her husband Giacomo II of Bourbon-La Marche. The groom, however, died two years after the marriage.

In 1417, Giovanna queen of Naples declared the fief of Rossano a princedom by granting it to Polissena, who thus became the 1st Princess of Rossano. Already in 1414, Giovanna had granted her the territories of her late father Carlo Ruffo as an inheritance. On 23 October 1418, in Rossano, Polissena was married to Muzio Attendolo Sforza’s son, the 17-year-old and future Duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza.

Prior of Bagnara and Grand Prior of Capua (1619-1692)

He was considered among the most illustrious Captains of his time, and was Captain General of the Jerusalem fleet. He distinguished himself in the War of Candia where he rescued the Venetian fleet under the command of Admiral Morosini from assured annihilation. He founded the Ruffos’ Mount to support young cadets who wished to pursue an ecclesiastical or chivalric career.

A prominent figure was Fulco Giordano Antonio (1773-1852), Councillor of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, who as ambassador to the Spanish court negotiated the marriage of Maria Christina of Bourbon, daughter of Francis I, to King Ferdinand VII.  The King awarded him the Order of the Golden Fleece and appointed him Duke of Santa Cristina, raising him to the hereditary status of First Class Grande of Spain. In 1832 he was also entrusted with the task of escorting Princess Maria Christina of Savoy to Naples and marry Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. For this he was decorated with the collar of the Holy Annunciation.

The son of Carlo Ruffo, third duke of Bagnara, and Andreana Caracciolo, Tommaso Ruffo graduated in utroque iure (civil and canon law) at La Sapienza University. He was papal legate (ambassador) in Romagna in 1709, in Ferrara from 1710, and archbishop from 1717 to 1738. During his six years in Bologna as cardinal legate (1721 to 1727) he frequently visited the diocese.

As the archbishop of Ferrara he oversaw the renovation of the cathedral dedicated to Saint George the Martyr and moved the seminary to Via Cairoli. In 1717, he promoted the renovation and transformation of the bishop’s palace according to the project of Roman architect Tommaso Mattei. The work was entrusted to Vincenzo Santini and was completed in 1720. His personal collection of paintings was temporarily housed in the building. He repeatedly visited the diocese and held a synod in 1726, issuing excellent constitutions tailored to the needs of the time.

After being among the ‘papabili’ (those who could be elected to become pope) in the conclave of August 1740, in which Benedict XIV (1740-58) was later elected, he was appointed vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church and commendatory of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Damaso (1740-53), for which he commissioned the vestibule’s right chapel from Nicola Salvi, with frescoes by Corrado Giaquinto and an altarpiece by Sebastiano Conca. He thus settled in the Palazzo della Cancelleria, assuming the flat overlooking the square, where he also set up his collection of paintings, arranged in five rooms decorated in chiaroscuro to simulate travertine and with pilasters in false ‘portasanta’ marble. His important collection was donated between 1915 and 1919 by Prince Fabrizio Ruffo of Motta Bagnara (1845-1917) and destined partially to the San Martino Museum in Naples and partially to the Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia in Rome.

Years in the Roman Curia
Fabrizio Ruffo was born in the castle of San Lucido, a locality in Calabria Citeriore, at the time part of the Kingdom of Naples (currently in the province of Cosenza), on 16 September 1744. Fabrizio was the second-born son of Litterio Ruffo (1704-1772), second duke of Baranello (belonging to the dukes of Bagnara, a side branch of the Ruffo family of Calabria), and his second wife, the Lucanian noblewoman Giustiniana Colonna, princess of Spinoso and marchioness of Guardia Perticara (belonging to a side branch of the Colonna Romano, the ancient Roman family based in Basilicata).

Having moved to Rome as a young man, he took up an ecclesiastical career in 1748 and completed his studies at the Collegio Clementino before going on to La Sapienza University, where he obtained a doctorate in utroque iure (civil and canon law) on 19 September 1767, completing his legal apprenticeship under the lawyers Antonio Bucci and Antonio Maria Gasparri, with whom he collaborated for a short time.

Thanks to the support of his uncle, Cardinal Tommaso Ruffo (then dean of the Sacred College) and of his earlier instructor Pope Pius VI, he first became His Holiness’ domestic prelate in May 1764, and then entered the Roman prelature as tribunal referendary of the Apostolic Signature of Grace and Justice on 17 September 1767. In August 1775 he became commendatory abbot of the Abbey of San Filippo d’Argiro, in the diocese of Gerace, and in January 1781 he became a cleric of the Apostolic Chamber, replacing a relative, Tiberio Ruffo. He later became treasurer-general of the same Apostolic Chamber (14 February 1785), occupying this post for more than ten years together with the post of prefect of Castel Sant’Angelo and commissioner of the maritime fortifications of the Papal States.

Having earned the pope’s full trust, he demonstrated remarkable administrative skills and took on the main responsibility for the policy of financial, fiscal and economic reform called for by Pius VI. In this regard, it is worth remembering that it was him to introduce the measure of ‘customs at the state borders’ (1786).

A ‘forced’ cardinal
Because of the impartiality of his fiscal measures, he was antagonised by the Roman aristocracy, who lobbied the Pope. In 1791 Pius VI, surrendering to the pressure, dismissed the then Monsignor Fabrizio Ruffo from his prestigious post, offering him to become cardinal as recognition and appreciation for his work. And indeed, having become a cardinal under the title of Sant’Angelo in Pescheria on 21 February 1794, he was admitted as a member of the sacred congregations for both Good Government and the Waters and was therefore involved in land administration in the Agro Romano area, in which he showed exceptional ability and openness to modern social and economic theories, despite the closed-doors policy that characterised the Church State at that time.

Among the various buildings that he patronised was the beautiful Church of the Crucifix in Fiumicino. He was also later admitted to the Loreto congregations, and conferred the titles of protector of the Order of Minims of St. Francis of Paola, Conservatory of Divine Providence and of Ripetta, obtaining this position from two laic religious organisations, the Archconfraternities of the Holy Spirit both in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and in the Blessed Sacrament based in Rome at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. He later became patron of the Confraternity of St. Mary of Constantinople and of the Noble College of Wool Clothmakers, as well as of the city of Orte.

Due to his continuously growing popularity even as a cardinal, Fabrizio Ruffo obtained a dispensation from the pope for not receiving minor orders, which he then obtained on 13 January 1795 along with the sub-diaconate and diaconate.

The Army of the Holy Faith
In the same year, however, disappointed by the growing hostility towards him, he decided to leave Rome and return to the Kingdom of Naples, placing himself at the service of King Ferdinand IV of Bourbon, who immediately showed him great esteem, to the extent that he appointed him ‘Superintendent of the Royal Dominii of Caserta‘ and of the manufacturing settlement of San Leucio. At the same time, he also obtained the commendation of the Abbey of Santa Sofia in Benevento.

In January 1799, the Kingdom of Naples collapsed following the unexpected Bourbon expedition to liberate Rome from the French. Having quartered a few dozen kilometres away from Rome, the French army did not stop the Bourbons from entering the city. When the Bourbons unleashed the attack to liberate Rome, the French surprised them with a counteroffensive and chased them during the flee. The pursuit ended in Naples, where the Neapolitan French Republic was created and the tree of liberty was raised.

While Ferdinand IV’s court moved to safety in Palermo, Ruffo moved in defense of religion and of the legitimate sovereign monarch. On his own initiative, he went to Palermo to ask the king for men and ships to reconquer the kingdom. He made a programme that he delivered to the Crown, reading: ‘All papers concerning affairs, both political and military, are requested. We also request the most exact report on the present state of Naples, the papers, the proclamations published there and an account of the events that have recently taken place there. The Cardinal estimates that at least one regiment equipped with cannons should go with him to Calabria. It would be good if, when a sufficient body of troops has been formed, His Majesty would come and take command’.

Having received the title of ‘Commander General’ from the King, Ruffo obtained a ship and seven men. He set sail from Palermo and landed on 8 February in his native Calabria. The first centres for gathering volunteers were Scilla and Bagnara, his fiefdoms. Scores of peasants answered the call, until the number of 25,000 men fit for arms was reached. Ruffo called his army the Armata Cristiana e Reale (today known as the Army of the Holy Faith). Ruffo’s army conquered Crotone, then began the ascent of the peninsula first to Basilicata, then to Apulia (to Altamura and Modugno) and finally to Principato Ultra.

At the head of his army, Ruffo took part in the operations of the Second Anti-French Coalition for the conquest of Naples, which ended victoriously on 15 June 1799. Shortly afterwards, he proceeded to create and appoint the members of the Council of State to uncover and judge the pro-French municipalist rebels guilty of betrayal to the king.

Ruffo was probably the king’s favourite; nevertheless, some reliable sources (Domenico Sacchinelli’s Memoirs and in particular the correspondence between the king and the cardinal) suggest that Fabrizio Ruffo wanted to put his brother Francesco Ruffo on the throne. During his stay in Sicily, the king was afraid that this would happen, and asked Ruffo to send his brother to Sicily to offer him some prestigious positions. It should also be noted that, when in 1806 the king was forced to flee back to Palermo and asked Ruffo to ‘repeat the crusade’, the latter refused on the pretext that ‘those undertakings can only be done once’. The queen, contrary to the king, considered the cardinal unreliable and preferred the English admiral Horatio Nelson.

As Ruffo approached Naples, he had received several written orders from the court of Palermo warning him not to grant honourable surrender agreements. However, the cardinal, true to his style, decided to propose a general pacification anyway. He began negotiations aimed at signing a surrender agreement, before explicit orders arrived. In doing so, he sought, as much as possible, to ease the foreseen sufferings that the Jacobins would have to face, by allowing them to flee, either by embarking or by following the French garrisons that had already left the city.

On June 24, Admiral Nelson arrived in the harbor. The next day, when the first Jacobins were already waiting to embark, the English admiral made it known that the pact was ‘infamous’ and that he would not allow its execution. Cardinal Ruffo was practically stripped of command, and the English officer decided the fate of the Neapolitan prisoners – they were handed over to Bourbon justice, and 124 of them were executed.

Return to the Vatican and his role in the Kingdom of Naples
Following the capture of Naples, Ruffo decided to dispatch companies led by General Gian Battista Rodio to the Roman Republic. This marked the opening move in the invasion of the republican state. With the fall of the Roman Republic, Ruffo headed to the city or Rome (then Urbe) to change his title for that of Santa Maria in Cosmedin on August 11 1800.

In 1801, stepping down as general vicar for the King of Naples, he briefly served as Naples’ minister in Rome before taking up the reins of Giuseppe Bonaparte’s government in the Neapolitan region. In September 1805, he headed back to Naples, intending to leave Rome after Napoleon’s invasion. Following the French troops’ takeover of the kingdom, he sought refuge first in Amelia, Umbria, and then reunited with King Ferdinand IV and his court in Palermo. The king promoted him to the role of ambassador in Paris for Napoleon, leading him to attend the wedding between the French emperor and Archduchess Maria Luisa of Austria on April 2, 1810. This move earned him a place among the ‘red cardinals’ – those not penalized by the emperor, allowed to continue wearing the cardinal’s red attire.

Gaining Bonaparte’s trust, he became part of a commission of cardinals, alongside Aurelio Roverella and Giuseppe Doria, appointed by the emperor to draft a brief outlining the decrees of the Council of Paris on September 20, 1811. He then persuaded the imprisoned Pius VII in Savona to sign the act, receiving the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor for his efforts. Returning to Rome in May 1814, he received a rather chilly reception from the population and the College of Cardinals. Consequently, he opted to return to Naples, where he established his permanent residence.

Pope Pius VII, grasping the circumstances that led him to collaborate with the French, summoned him back to Rome and appointed him superintendent of Annona and Grascia (managing the supply of meat, fats, and oil) on February 8, 1815. From May 10, 1817, he assumed the role of Grand Prior of the Order of Malta for the Papal State. As the Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals, he held office from March 29, 1819, to February 21, 1820, when he was named prefect of the Congregation for Waters, Pontine Marshes, and Channels. Returning to Naples in March 1821 amidst revolts against the occupying Austrian troops, on June 27, 1821, in Rome, he chose the diaconate of Santa Maria in Via Lata and was appointed cardinal protodeacon.

During the tumult of the Carbonari uprisings, he was appointed by the King of Naples as a member of the provisional government council, and continued advising the king even after the restoration of full Bourbon power. In August 1823, he took part in the conclave that elected Leo XII, and toward the end of that year, he once again returned to Naples. He passed away in Naples on December 13, 1827, and found his resting place in the family chapel, dedicated to Santa Caterina d’Alessandria, in the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples.

Luigi Ruffo Scilla was born in Sant’Onofrio on August 25, 1750, to Guglielmo Ruffo, Prince of Scilla, and Lucrezia Reggio, of the Princes of Campoflorito and Aci. He pursued his studies at the University of “La Sapienza” in Rome. He received a priestly ordination on May 20, 1780. On April 11, 1785, he was elected titular Archbishop of Apamea in Syria and consecrated as a bishop on the 24th of the same month. From that April, he served as a papal representative in Tuscany until August 23, 1793, when he was appointed as a representative in Austria. This assignment lasted until 1800. Pope Pius VII raised him to the rank of cardinal in the consistory of February 23, 1801, and he assumed the title of cardinal priest of Saints Silvester and Martin in the Mountains. On August 9, 1802, he became the Archbishop of Naples, but on May 26, 1806, he was expelled by the French, confined to the fortress of Gaeta, and later transferred to Saint-Quentin in France, and finally to Fontainebleau. He managed to return to Naples on June 10, 1815. He participated in three conclaves: the one in 1823, which elected Pope Leo XII; the one in 1829, which elected Pope Pius VIII; and the one in 1830-1831, which elected Pope Gregory XVI. He passed away on November 17, 1832, at the age of 82.

Son of Fulco Beniamino Ruffo di Calabria and Laura Mosselman du Chenoy, he held the titles of the XVIII Count of Sinopoli, VI Duke of Guardia Lombarda, Noble of the Princes of Scilla, and Neapolitan Patrician. He became prince by surname on March 15, 1928.

At the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to Italy and volunteered for the Aviation Battalion. After obtaining his certification at the Training Center in Turin-Mirafiori in 1915, he was sent to the battlefronts, where he became a hero and champion of the Aviation Service for the Royal Army during the First World War, achieving twenty-five air victories. He earned a promotion for wartime merits and was awarded a gold medal for military valor, two silver medals, four bronze medals, and numerous other Italian and foreign honours.

After the war, Fulco Ruffo di Calabria remained in the Royal Army until 1925, retiring with the rank of first cavalry captain in the Royal Piedmont Regiment. In the following years, he dedicated himself to his agricultural business and plant studies. In this field as well, he left his mark by discovering a variety of clover, trifolium vesiculosum savi, known by the common name ‘trifoglio Ruffo.’

In 1934, he was appointed a senator of the Kingdom of Italy, serving as senator quaestor from April 1939 to July 1944. For this reason, immediately after the war, he was brought before the High Court of Justice for Sanctions Against Fascism (ACGSF). However, the request for removal was rejected by the High Court due to his proven opposition to fascism, and he was reinstated as a senator. It is worth noting that both his eldest son, Fabrizio, and his second son, Augusto, were partisans engaged in the Marche region. He passed away in his home in Ronchi di Apuania on August 23, 1946.

Paola Ruffo of Calabria, born as Paola Ruffo di Calabria of the Princes of Sinopoli, Palazzolo, and Licodia Eubea (Forte dei Marmi, September 11, 1937), served as Queen of the Belgians from 1993 to 2013 and consort of Albert II. Born at Villa Claudia in Forte dei Marmi, Tuscany, she was the seventh and youngest child of the Italian aviation champion of World War I, Fulco, Prince Ruffo di Calabria, VI Duke of Guardia Lombarda (1884–1946). Her mother was Luisa Gazelli of the Counts of Rossana and San Sebastiano (1896–1989), a matrilineal descendant of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette. +

She is primarily of Italian descent but also has indirect Belgian ancestry through the female line; her paternal grandmother, Laura Mosselman du Chenoy, left Brussels in 1877 to marry Don Beniamino, Prince Ruffo di Calabria. Queen Paola is fluent in Italian, French, and English. Since her arrival in the Belgian capital, she has also studied Dutch, the native language of about 60% of her future subjects. In her youth, she was considered to be one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe.