The Lords of the Caraffi enjoy at present in Naples many Signiories, as particularly the Dutchy of Matalone, which they had enjoyed a hundred years before Paul the fourth, without interruption, being anciently Dukes from the time of Ferdinando first King of Naples, and reckon’d amongst his principal Favourites; and are still esteem’d of very well by the Crown of Spain, though in the revolutions of Naples, upon I know not what considerations, the affection Philip the fourth had for a long time for the Duke of Matalone, was observed to grow cold.
This Branch that remained in Naples received no benefit or advantage by that which was establish’d in Rome, which last being extinguish’d by the two Popes aforesaid by the death and sequestration of so many Caraffi; the other remained in Naples daily augmenting by the favours and priledges they receive from the Crown of Spain.
Neither are the Neopolitan Caraffi of the same condition with the Roman, they having nothing, as many believe, or at least, very little of the Church Lands in their possession, which continued not long to the other House, not so much as to the second Generation; and therefore these Lords are still so considerable in Naples, because their Estates sprang rather from the reward of their valour, than the oppression of the poor.
All this notwithstanding, the People of Naples were always disaffected to the House of Matalone; for which reason in the Revolution of Masanello, Don Joseph Caraffa was slain by the fury of the People, his heart pull’d out of his breast, and his body drawn all about the City, with this Exclamation, This is he that betray’d the most faithful People of Naples. Besides, there were several Palaces of the Dukes, full of inestimable Furniture, burnt, without being able to preserve one; and I being then in Naples, heard several cry, We must burn all, to purge the House of Caraffa from the Leprosie of the rest of the Caraffi; alluding to them who in the time of Paul the Fourth had made themselves odious to all the World, as well as to Rome.
The Family of the Buoncompagni was considerable above thirty years after the death of Gregory the Thirteenth, which was the Person rais’d them to that height; for though before they were in some degree of Nobility, yet their Estate was but narrow and small; however in the twelve years of his Papacy he let them get so much, that without any great difficulty, they liv’d like Princes after the death of that Pope, who died in March 1585.
Giacomo Buoncompagno, General for the Holy Church, left many Sons all rich, and allied to good Houses; notwithstanding in a short time all was consumed: and though there was not one lavish or profuse person in the Family, though they had several Cardinalships and other Charges in Rome, yet could not all prevent their growing worse every day: And had not two Marriages sustained them, and put them into the condition they are in, which yet is but mean in respect of the grandeur they were in before, they had certainly before this been destroy’d.
But the greatest wonder, in the particular of the sudden destruction of the Popes Families, was in the House of Peretti rais’d by Sixtus the Fifth. That Pope, to immortalize his Name, and the Grandeur of his House, which was but of very low extraction, married two of his Nephews, or Nephews Sons, I know not which, into the principallest Families in Rome; giving each of them considerable Estates in Land, and an infinite quantity of Money: and that it might not meet with any untoward accident to subvert it, he settled their Estates in the surest and best places he could, thinking thereby to secure and establish his Family.
Ten years after the death of Sixtus, there were seven Males of the House of Peretti alive, that is, in the year 1600. all of them very rich; but particularly they which had the Inheritance of Cardinal Montalto, who left his Nephews an Estate of a hundred thousand Crowns in yearly Rent, besides what they had afore.
Many People conceiv’d this Family was establish’d for ever; and who would not have thought so, considering the number and fertility of the Males, their Alliance with the greatest Families, their Riches, and in short, their enjoyment of all things necessary to the immortalizing a Family? Yet the Name, the Wealth, the Granduer of this House, did all vanish like smoak at the death of Cardinal Froucesco Peretti, who died in the beginning of Innocent the Tenth’s Papacy, with no small trouble to the Romans, who loved his person exceedingly, having found him full of actions of generosity and nobleness to all that had to do with him.
And so was the House of Peretti extinct, not being able to continue half an Age. Yet notwithstanding, the death of the Cardinal was the rise of another Family from the Pope, which is called the Savelli, into which one of his Sisters was married, who remained Heir to a vast and inestimable Patrimony. Some People are confident, That if the House of Peretti had continued, the Savelli would have been in an ill condition; so as there was no great hurt done, to lose one Family, and have another rais’d.