Travelogue 1222 – 1 December
Condotta

Pompeo Colonna’s service as condottiero in the service of the Spanish Neapolitans and the Holy Roman Emperor was not done. He participated in the great sack of Rome in 1527, though his military role was a minor one, and though he seemed most concerned with harbouring cardinals and nuns who otherwise would have been in harm’s way. He assumed some degree of control over the Vatican and the Borgo during the darkest days of the occupation, but it seems hard to determine what, if any, control anyone really had in the anarchic conditions. Eventually, he left, as many others did, when plague threatened in June of 1528.

Of course, Pompeo was not a condottiero in the classic sense of the early Renaissance, when free-wheeling generals led their mercenary troops from conflict to conflict, with the only allegiance being to their condotte, their contracts. They played the delicate balance of power among small city-states with little regard for patriotism or loyalty.

But now the field was too crowded with grand armies of grand nation states for the old-fashioned adventurers to thrive. Italy had become a small pond, and the stakes were too high for the small fish. Pompeo never really wavered in his loyalty to the Spanish.

He was rewarded for his service. He became, by order of Charles V, the Lieutenant General of the Kingdom of Naples, and later the Viceroy. And he was ever attentive to the needs of the emperor. In 1532, Charles V was obliged to raise troops to defend Vienna from the Turks. Pompeo

And in Naples, he spent time with his cousin Vittoria. He was not all blood and glory. He was a courtier, and a sophisticate. He held his own in the company of his peers, attending parties and writing poetry. He dedicated one to his cousin, who was becoming famous around Italy for her poetry. It was called De Laudibus Mulierum, “In Praise of Women”. The topic was a minor fashion of the time, and perfectly suited to honour Vittoria. Unfortunately, the poem does not seem to have survived.