Lorenzo Cybo, also spelt Cibo, (20 July 1500 – 14 March 1549) was an Italian general, who was duke of
Ferentillo, and co-owner
marquis of Massa and lord of Carrara.
Family
Born at
Sampierdarena
Sampierdarena (also San Pier d'Arena; Ligurian: San Pè d'ænn-a) is a major port and industrial area of Genoa, in northwest Italy. With San Teodoro it forms the West Central (Centro Ovest) ''municipio''.
Geography
Sampierdarena lies on ...
(in what is modern
Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
), he was the son of
Franceschetto Cybo
Franceschetto Cybo (baptized Francesco) (c. 1450 – 25 July 1519) was an Italian nobleman, noteworthy for being the illegitimate son of Pope Innocent VIII (Giovanni Battista Cybo). Later naturalized by his father into becoming his legitimate he ...
and
Maddalena de' Medici, daughter of ''
Lorenzo de' Medici
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (), known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (; 1 January 1449 – 9 April 1492), was an Italian statesman, the ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Lore ...
''. His paternal grandfather was
Pope Innocent VIII
Pope Innocent VIII (; ; 1432 – 25 July 1492), born Giovanni Battista Cybo (or Cibo), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 August 1484 to his death, in July 1492. Son of the viceroy of Naples, Cybo spent his ea ...
. His uncle was
Pope Leo X
Pope Leo X (; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521.
Born into the prominent political and banking Med ...
. His cousin was
Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII (; ; born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the most unfortunate o ...
.
In 1520 Leo X, in agreement with Lorenzo's elder brother,
Cardinal Innocenzo Cybo, arranged his marriage to
Ricciarda Malaspina
Ricciarda Malaspina (3 or 6 March 1497 – 13 or 16 June 1553) was an Italian noblewoman, who was marquise of Massa and lady of Carrara from 1519 to 1546, and again from May 1547 until her death in 1553. She was ultimately succeeded by her younge ...
, the aspiring heiress of the
Massa branch of the
Malaspina family
The House of Malaspina was a noble Italian family of Longobard origin that descended from Boniface I, Margrave of Tuscany, Boniface I, through the Obertenghi line, that ruled Lunigiana from the 13th to the 14th centuries, and the Province of Mas ...
. From this marriage the new
house of Cybo-Malaspina would originate:
[Petrucci (DBI)] it was to hold the
Marquisate (then Duchy) of Massa and Carrara until 1829, when it was annexed to the
Duchy of Modena and Reggio
The Duchy of Modena and Reggio (; ; ) was an Italian state created in 1452 located in Northern Italy, Northwestern Italy, in the present day region of Emilia-Romagna. It was ruled since its establishment by the noble House of Este, and from 1814 ...
, ruled by a
successor of theirs in the female line.
Despite producing offspring, the marriage turned out to be decidedly stormy. Lorenzo aspired to take control of his late father-in-law's Marquisate in his own name or in the name of his first-born son who came into the world in 1525, but Ricciarda was determined to keep it in her hands. In 1529 she succeeded in having herself invested
suo jure
''Suo jure'' is a Latin phrase, used in English to mean 'in his own right' or 'in her own right'. In most nobility-related contexts, it means 'in her own right', since in those situations the phrase is normally used of women; in practice, especi ...
by the
Emperor Charles V
Charles V (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain (as Charles I) from 1516 to 1556, and Lord of the Netherlands as titular Duke of Burgundy (as Charles II) fr ...
, but the following year Lorenzo in turn managed to have himself named co-owner ("co-padrone") of the fief. In 1538 he even made an attempt to force his wife out, but in vain, and in 1541 she finally obtained a new imperial decree revoking her husband's investiture for good.
[Calonaci (DBI)]
Their first-born son
Giulio, after having ousted Ricciarda by force from 1546 to 1547 with his father's help, ended up beheaded for treason in Milan in 1548.
Lorenzo Cybo died the following year, in 1549, and was succeeded as Duke of Ferentillo by his younger son
Alberico, although perhaps born from his mother's adulterous relationship with Lorenzo's brother, Cardinal Innocenzo Cybo.
In 1553, upon his mother's death, Alberico succeeded her too, adding, by her testamentary disposition, the style Malaspina to his paternal surname.
Military service
He held the position of commander-in-chief of the
Papal Army.
See also
*
Portrait of Lorenzo Cybo
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cybo, Lorenzo
1500 births
1549 deaths
15th-century Genoese people
16th-century Genoese people
16th-century Italian military personnel
Military personnel from the Republic of Genoa
Lorenzo
Dukes in Italy
Papal States military personnel
Generals of former Italian states
People from Sampierdarena
Jure uxoris lords