Borghese

cousin branch

Rome

The Borghese branch descends from Maria Bianca Gallone (1852–1939), sister of Prince Gino and daughter of Giuseppe, 8th Prince of Tricase. Through her marriage into the Compagna family and the successive Caracciolo and Vallone alliances, the descent links to the Borghese, Princes of Sulmona, cousins of the House.

The Borghese family

The Borghese are an ancient and illustrious Italian noble family, originating in Siena, where a 13th-century wool merchant, Tiezzo da Monticiano, had a nephew named Borghese who gave the house its name. Members of the Sienese patriciate, the Borghese held important municipal offices before moving to Rome in the 16th century with Marcantonio I.

Their Roman ascent culminated in 1605 with the election of Camillo Borghese as Pope Paul V. The pontiff and his nephew, Cardinal Scipione Borghese — a great patron and collector — raised the family to the summit of Roman nobility, of which the Borghese remained one of the principal houses, Princes of Sulmona and of Rossano.

To the family is owed the celebrated Villa Borghese in Rome, built by Cardinal Scipione from 1607 on the Pincian Hill, with its rich art gallery. After Italian unification, at the end of a long dispute, the Villa was purchased by the Italian State in 1901; in 1903 the State ceded it to the City of Rome, which opened it to the public — thus becoming one of the principal parks of the capital.

The Borghese cousins — a link through the female line

The Borghese Princes of Rome are cousins of the Princes of Tricase through the female line, by way of a chain of marriages starting from Maria Bianca Gallone (1852–1939), daughter of Senator Giuseppe Gallone and sister of Pietro Giovanni Battista “Gino”, 9th Prince of Tricase.

The line then passes into the Barons Compagna, then into the Princes of Forino (Caracciolo), into the Vallone, and reaches the Princes Borghese: the branch of the Princes of Sulmona, descending from Paolo Borghese (1845–1920), from his son Livio (1874–1939, a diplomat), from Junio Valerio (1906–1974) and finally from Giulio Livio “Giulì” Borghese (1940–1989), who in 1965 married Loretta Vallone.

⚠️ Not to be confused with the other Maria Bianca Gallone (1895–1982), 10th Princess of Tricase, daughter of Gino and last of the direct Gallone line. The two namesakes belong to successive generations and both bear the name of the common ancestress.

Filiation — six generations

More on the family’s southern fiefs: Moliterno and Marsiconovo.

Compact tree on the common ancestress

For the continuation down to the present-day Borghese, see the filiation above (generations 3 → 6).

Reference

Kinship line reconstructed from the archive of the House of Gallone. For the complete history of the Borghese family, see the Wikipedia article.