Colonna family
Ghibelline Roman baronial family, possessed of vast estates in the southern Papal State and in the kingdom of Naples. The Colonna's power and wealth were considerably increased after the election of Cardinal Oddone Colonna as Pope Martin V in 1407. Martin made wide grants of property in the Papal State to the Colonna, and also persuaded Giovanna of Naples to give his brothers large fiefs in her kingdom. Eugenius IV ordered the restoration of this territory but had little success in enforcing the order; hence, despite the attacks of the Borgias on their estates, until the mid-16th century, the Colonna remained the most dangerous of all baronial opponents of the Papacy. It was not until the time of Paul IV that the Papacy succeeded in reducing the Colonna to a position of political and economic dependency which ensured their loyalty as subjects.
