page_title: Orsini family
section_title: Gravina line
hierarchical_section_title: Orsini family / Gravina line
caption_attribution_description: Wappen der Fürsten Orsini di Gravina (Ursini de Gravina)
context_page_description: The Orsini family is an Italian noble family that was one of the most influential princely families in medieval Italy and Renaissance Rome. Members of the Orsini family include three popes: Celestine III, Nicholas III, and Benedict XIII. In addition, the family membership includes 34 cardinals, numerous condottieri, and other significant political and religious figures.
context_section_description: The line of Gravina, from the name of the eponymous city in Apulia, is the only existing line of the Orsini. It descends from Francesco (died 1456), a son of Count Carlo of Bracciano. Most of his fief was located in northern Lazio, but he entered in the Neapolitan orbit when in 1418 he was called by Sergianni Caracciolo to fight against the Angevine troops, which he defeated. By marriage, he obtained the title of Count of Gravina. He was made Duke of Gravina by King Alfonso, a title definitely assigned to his son Giacomo (died 1472), to which had been added the counties of Conversano, Campagna and Copertino. Two of Francesco's sons, Marino (died 1471) and Giovanni Battista (died June 8, 1476), were respectively archbishop of Taranto and Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes.
  The fourth duke, Francesco, was part of a conspiracy along with his brothers Giulio and Paolo against Cesare Borgia but were found out, and Francesco was strangled to death on 18 January 1503 along with his brother Paolo. One of Francesco's nephews, Flavio Orsini, was created cardinal in 1565. The fifth duke, Ferdinando (died December 6, 1549), had all his fiefs confiscated by the Spaniards, but he regained them after a 40,000 scudi payment.
  After the heirless death of Duke Michele Antonio (January 26, 1627), his lands passed to his cousin Pietro Orsini, count of Muro Lucano (died 1641). The latter's nephew Pier Francesco, who had renounced the succession in favour of his brother Domenico to become a Dominican, was later elected pope with the name of Benedict XIII.
  His successor raised Benedict XIII's nephew, Prince Beroaldo Orsini, to the dignity of Prince Assistants to the Papal Throne (title held until 1958), after the emperor Charles VI had already, in 1724, made him a prince of the Holy Roman Empire. The last cardinal from the family was Domenico.
  The family moved to Rome in the 18th century, where Duke Domenico (November 23, 1790 – April 28, 1874), married Maria Luisa Torlonia in 1823. In 1850, he was Minister of War and General Lieutenant of the Papal Armies, and also Senator of Rome.
  The remaining princely family is represented by Prince Domenico Napoleone Orsini, Duke of Gravina (b. 1948). With no sons or male-line descendants, the heir to the dukedom of Gravina is his unmarried brother Don Benedetto Orsini (b. 1956), followed by his cousin Prince Lelio Orsini d'Aragona (b. 1981), whose mother is Princess Khetevan Bagration-Mukhransky.
caption: Princely arms of the Gravina line
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