House of Gallone · Last Princess
Maria Bianca Gallone
- 10th Princess of Tricase
- 7th Princess of Moliterno
Natural daughter, then legitimated, of Pietro Giovanni Battista Gallone, 9th Prince of Tricase, and of Giuseppina Moncada of the Princes of Paternò. Wife of Augusto III della Posta, 7th Duke of Civitella Alfedena.
Last direct descendant of the House of Gallone. It is through her that the predicate of Tricase and of Moliterno passes to the della Posta line and, finally, to the Guerri dall'Oro.
The birth in Paris and the family drama
Maria Bianca is born in Paris in 1895, in circumstances marked by a scandal that stirred the Naples of the time. Her mother, the princess Giuseppina Moncada of the Princes of Paternò, was then married to Nicola Gaetani, Duke of Laurenzana; her liaison with Pietro Giovanni Battista Gallone, 9th Prince of Tricase, could therefore not be openly acknowledged.
To shield the birth from Neapolitan clamour, Giuseppina gave birth in Paris and the birth certificate was drawn up without the mother’s name: Maria Bianca thus came into the world as a natural daughter, formally without maternal filiation.
The legitimation of 1924
On the death of Nicola Gaetani, Duke of Laurenzana, Maria Bianca’s parents could at last unite in a formal marriage (1924). This marriage produced the legitimation by subsequent marriage, an institution which, with ex tunc effect, retroacts to the birth: Maria Bianca was thus recognised in all respects the legitimate daughter of Pietro Giovanni Battista Gallone and of Giuseppina Moncada, and therefore fully inserted into the line of succession of the House of Gallone.
On the death of her father, in 1931, she became 10th Princess of Tricase and 7th Princess of Moliterno, last direct holder of the house.
Marriage and transmission of the titles
Maria Bianca married Augusto III della Posta, 7th Duke of Civitella Alfedena. From their union was born the only daughter Simonetta della Posta (1916–1986).
With Maria Bianca the direct descent of the Gallone becomes extinct: it is therefore through her and her daughter Simonetta that the predicate passes to the della Posta line and, through Simonetta’s marriage to Aldo Guerri dall’Oro (1939), to the House of Guerri dall’Oro. This passage would finally be sanctioned by the Decree of the Minister of Grace and Justice of 21 January 1999, which recognises to the descendants the surname Guerri dall’Oro Gallone di Tricase e di Moliterno.
Maria Bianca is thus the pivot of the transmission between the ancient princely house and the present-day family.
The last of the Gallone
In the 1950s, after selling all the goods — including the Palazzo Gallone, the 17th-century castle of Tricase — Maria Bianca became municipal councillor, the first woman in the history of Tricase. She died on 24 July 1982. The local press hailed her as “the last of the Gallone”.
On 24 July passed away the last of the Gallone, Maria Bianca.
All will remember the last princess of Tricase, some in the resplendent guise of châtelaine, some in a more modest dimension, of a woman in search of a past forever lost.
Maria Bianca had been born in 1895 from the marriage of the 9th Prince of Tricase (prince also of Marsiconovo and Moliterno) Pietro Giovanni Battista with the princess Giuseppina Moncada, daughter of the prince of Paternò.
When she was born, 87 years ago, all the powerful paid her homage, the people spoke of it for months, the father ordered two days of festivity.
— “Nuove Opinioni”, August 1982