Orsini family
Leading family of Roman barons which included Popes Celestine III, Nicholas III and Benedict XII, as well as numerous other churchmen, statesmen and soldiers. The Orsini first came to prominence in the 12th century. Pro-papal, although only in so far as this suited their own interests, and pro-Venetian, the Orsini were inveterate opponents of the Colonna. They held vast territories to the north of Rome, including the independent county of Pitigliano, which involved them in constant border disputes with Siena. Particularly favoured during the pontificates of Gregory XI, Sixtus IV and Innocent VIII, the Orsini were attacked at the time of Alexander VI by Cesare Borgia, who took their strongholds of Trevignano and Bracciano, but they recovered rapidly under Julius II and Leo X. The family provided many of the leading condottieri of the 15th and 16th centuries, and Lorenzo Orsini of Ceri (d. 1536) defended Rome and Castel S. Angelo in 1527.
