Filippo II Colonna (7 April 1663 – 8 November 1714) was an Italian nobleman of prominent

Colonna family The House of Colonna is an Italian noble family, forming part of the papal nobility. It played a pivotal role in Middle Ages, medieval and Roman Renaissance, Renaissance Rome, supplying one pope (Pope Martin V, Martin V), 23 cardinals and many ot ...

. He was the 9th Duke and Prince of Paliano.

Early life

Born in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

on 7 April 1663, Filippo was the son of Don Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna, hereditary Grand

Constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. ''Constable'' is commonly the rank of an officer within a police service. Other peo ...

of the Kingdom of

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, and Maria Mancini, a niece of

Cardinal Mazarin Jules Mazarin (born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino or Mazarini; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), from 1641 known as Cardinal Mazarin, was an Italian Catholic prelate, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Lou ...

. The Spanish had ruled Naples since the early sixteenth century, and the Colonna were prominent servants of the Spanish crown in Italy.

Career

In 1687, while his father served as head of the

interregnum An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of revolutionary breach of legal continuity, discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one m ...

council of Naples, Filippo was appointed commander of a company of

lancer A lancer was a type of cavalryman who fought with a lance. Lances were used for mounted warfare in Assyria as early as and subsequently by India, Egypt, China, Persia, Greece, and Rome. The weapon was widely used throughout Eurasia during the M ...

s. In 1689 he succeeded his father as Grand Constable and Duke-Prince of Paliano. As a patron of the arts, Filippo had the art gallery in the family's Roman palazzo refurbished. He opened the gallery in 1703. The composer

Giovanni Bononcini Giovanni Bononcini (or Buononcini) (18 July 1670 – 9 July 1747) (sometimes cited also as Giovanni Battista Bononcini) was an Italian Baroque composer, cellist, singer and teacher, one of a family of string players and composers. He was a rival ...

wrote six serenatas, an oratorio and five operas while in his service from 1692 to 1697. Opera Today: Bononcini: La nemica d’Amore fatta amante
/ref> Filippo was a member of the Academy of Arcadia, which had been established in Rome in 1690.Baroque Composers and Musicians: Giovanni Battista Bononcini
/ref> Among his other titles, Filippo was Prince of Castiglione, and Duke of Marino, Miraglia and Tagliacozzo. He was made a knight of the

Order of the Golden Fleece The Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece (, ) is a Catholic order of chivalry founded in 1430 in Brugge by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, to celebrate his marriage to Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy, Isabella of Portugal. T ...

by Spanish king Carlos II in 1679. In 1710 he became the first Colonna to be appointed hereditary Prince Assistant to the Papal Throne.

Personal life

Don Filippo married the Spanish aristocrat Lorenza de la Cerda in Madrid in 1681, but she died without issue in 1697. Later that year in Rome he wed his second wife, the Italian aristocrat Olimpia Pamphilj (1672–1731), by whom he had several children, including:
Alternative source
* Lorenzo Colonna (1698–1699), who died young. * Fabrizio II Colonna (1700–1755), who married Caterina Zefirina Salviati, a daughter of Antonio Maria Salviati, 3rd Duke of Giuliano (a direct descendant of Jacopo Salviati) and Maria Lucrezia Rospigliosi (niece of Cardinal Felice Rospigliosi). * Agnese Colonna (1702–1780), who married Camillo Borghese, 4th Prince of Sulmona. * Clemente Colonna (b. 1704) * Anna Colonna (1706–1745), who married Domenico Marzio IV Carafa, 8th Duke of Maddaloni. The Prince suffered from painful bladder stones and diseased kidneys prior to his death at Rome in 1714.V. Gazzaniga & S. Marinozzi, "Nephrology in the Lancisi Medical Dictionary (1672-1720)" ''Journal of Nephrology'', 19 (2006): 44–47.
/ref> His son Fabrizio II succeeded him in his hereditary titles. Fabrizio also commissioned a tomb for his father in the church of Sant' Andrea in the family seat of

Paliano Paliano is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Frosinone, in the Lazio region of central Italy. History Paliano was the seat of a branch of the powerful Colonna family whose head was Lord, then Duke, then Prince of Paliano. Their fortres ...

, which was executed by the sculptor Bernardino Ludovisi and installed in 1745.Robert Enggass, “Ludovisi's Tomb for a Colonna Prince” Burlington Magazine, CXXXV (1993): 822–824.

Descendants

Through his daughter Agnese, he was a grandfather of Marcantonio Borghese, 5th Prince of Sulmona.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colonna, Filippo II Filippo II Colonna Knights of the Golden Fleece 17th-century Italian nobility 18th-century Italian nobility 1663 births 1714 deaths