Ruspoli family

The House of Ruspoli is an Italian noble family originally from Florence that became one of the great aristocratic families of Rome. Part of the black nobility, the family was elevated to princely status, as the Princes of Cerveteri, by Pope Clement XI in 1709. In 1721, the family was elevated to the status of Roman princes in the Papal States. The head of the family traditionally serves in the Pontifical Household as the Grand Master of the Sacred Apostolic Hospice.

The origins of the family can be traced back to the Ruspoli of Florence in the 13th century, and more remotely from Marius Scotus in the 8th century and his descendants the Marescotti of Bologna. In the 16th century, the Ruspoli family moved to Rome, where the last descendant, Vittoria Ruspoli, Marchioness of Cerveteri, married Sforza Vicino Marescotti, Count of Vignanello, a descendant of the Farnese family on both his mother's and father's side. One of Vittoria's sons took the Ruspoli name and coat of arms to guarantee the continuity of the house.

In 1708, Vittoria's grandson, Francesco Marescotti Ruspoli, head of the Ruspoli Regiment, fought to defend the Papal States. In 1709, he forced the Austrians to retreat, and Pope Clement XI named him the first Prince of Cerveteri. This title would then pass down to the first-born son of each generation. The papal title of Roman Prince was later conferred in 1721, and it is also held by the first-born son of each generation.

Since 1808, the head of the family also served as Grand Master of the Sacred Apostolic Hospice, which was an hereditary official of the Pontifical Household. He was a Participating Privy Chamberlain and the sole lay member of the Noble Privy Antechamber, as well as a Participating Privy Chamberlain of the Sword and Cape (who were all laymen, traditionally holding hereditary posts). The post was removed in the reforms of the Papal Curia after 1968, leaving just the honorific title.

There are traces of members of the Ruspoli family from the 13th century on tombstones in the churches of Ognisanti and of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.

Some of its members, in chronological order:

It is Bartolomeo, son of the above-mentioned Lorenzo, that the family moved away from the imperial Ghibellines and came closer to the Vatican State in Rome.

Bartolomeo Ruspoli was born in Florence in 1496. He formed a business partnerships with the Altoviti family, who were influential wool traders and bankers. In 1529 Bartolomeo travelled to Rome where he married Maria Ardinghelli niece of Cardinal Niccolò Ardinghelli, an influential member of the Farnese fraction and an intimate associate of Alessandro Farnese, future Pope Paul III. The Ruspoli were thus integrated into the Roman Curia and the papal court, and Bartolomeo's children, both sons and daughters, were all married into families of the Roman nobility: Muti, Cavalieri and Floridi. In 1531 Bartolomeo Ruspoli was named Petitioner of the apostolic letters by Pope Clement VII. In 1535 he was made Prior of Florence.