The Landi were a noble family from

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

, in northern Italy. From 1551 to 1582, they were princes of the

Val di Taro The Val di Taro is the valley of the Taro river, a tributary of the Po. The valley lies almost entirely in the Province of Parma, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Geography The Val di Taro is approximately 126 km long, and runs f ...

, now in the province of Parma, at that time in

papal territory The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

. Their principality is sometimes called ''Lo Stato Landi'' ("the Landi state"); although the term is not well known, there is substantial documentation of it in the Archivio Segreto Vaticano, in the

Vatican City Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...

History

Stato del Prencipe Landi, Ioannis Blaeu, 1662

The Landi were a feudal family from the area of

; they may have originated in

Bobbio Bobbio ( Bobbiese: ; lij, Bêubbi; la, Bobium) is a small town and commune in the province of Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is located in the Trebbia River valley southwest of the town Piacenza. There is also an abbey and a di ...

. They are thought to have descended from one Rodolfo Landi; however, it has also been suggested that they were descendants of an ancestor named Lando or Orlando. The family divided into several lines, of which the most notable is that of

Compiano Compiano ( Parmigiano: ) is a medieval walled town in the Taro Valley (Parmesan Apennines), a 50 minute-drive to the Ligurian Sea and to Parma. The top of Compiano's hill is home to the medieval Castello di Compiano. History It was said the G ...

, which descended from Giannone Landi, a great-grandson of Rodolfo. From mediaeval times, most of the

was held by the Landi family. In 1582, their lands passed into the hands of

Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma Ottavio Farnese (9 October 1524 – 18 September 1586) reigned as Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1547 until his death and Duke of Castro from 1545 to 1547 and from 1553 until his death. Biography Born in Valentano, Ottavio was the second ...

, following a failed conspiracy against the Farnese family, some thirty years before the better-known Sanvitale conspiracy. Claudio Landi, Prince of Val di Taro, plotted with Giambattista Anguissola and Giammaria and Cammillo Scotti to assassinate Farnese, but the plot was discovered; Landi lost the Val di Taro, and the other conspirators were executed. Landi was stripped of his titles and his feudal status in 1578 and condemned to death in 1580. However, as a prince of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

, he was not subject to the judgement of ordinary courts. He was pardoned on 27 September 1583 by the emperor

Rudolf II Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the Hous ...

, who also ordered Landi's confiscated lands returned to him; they were not. His daughter, Maria Landi, married Ercole Grimaldi, Lord of Monaco, on 15 September 1595. After Lord Ercole was assassinated in 1604, Maria's brother, Federico Landi, became guardian of her son Honoré, then six years old, and

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

History

References

Further reading