Marcantonio Colonna, 3rd Prince of Sonnino and 4th Marquess of Castelnuovo ('' Grande de España'') (18 March 1724 – 16 August 1795) was an Italian nobleman, military and politician. He was Prince of Sonnino, Marquess of Castelnuovo, Grandee of Spain, and Knight of the

Order of Saint Januarius ) , clasps = , post-nominals = , established = 3 July 1738 , first_award = , last_award = , founder = Charles VII of Naples , head_title = Grand Master , head = Disputed:Prince P ...

. He became

Viceroy of Sicily This is a list of viceroys of Sicily: Aragonese direct rule 1409–1516 * John of Aragon, Duke of Peñafiel, later king John II of Aragon, 1458–1479, acted 1409–1416. * Domingo Ram y Lanaja, Bishop of Lleida 1416–1419 * Antonio de Cardona ...

in 1775.

Biography

Marcantonio was born in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...

, to Ferdinando Colonna and Luisa Caracciolo. He became a courtier with the title of ''Gentiluomo di camera d'esercizio'', and was very close to the young

King Ferdinand IV Ferdinand I (12 January 1751 – 4 January 1825) was the King of the Two Sicilies from 1816, after his restoration following victory in the Napoleonic Wars. Before that he had been, since 1759, Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples and Ferdinand ...

during the regency of the Prince of San Nicandro and the Marquess Tanucci. On June 16, 1765 he was sent as an extraordinary ambassador to Innsbruck, Austria, on the occasion of the marriage between the Infanta of Spain, Maria Luisa, daughter of Charles 3rd of Bourbon, and the then Archduke of Tuscany (future emperor)

Pietro Leopoldo Leopold II (Peter Leopold Josef Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard; 5 May 1747 – 1 March 1792) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria from 1790 to 1792, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. He was a son ...

. He became commander of the naval volunteer battalions in 1773. He became

and Captain general of Sicily in 1775. In October 1774, he was sent as viceroy to Sicily. He replaced in this role, Giovanni Fogliani, who had engendered a revolt in Palermo that caused him to flee to Messina. The events in Palermo had been triggered by food shortages, and the death of a popular leader at the hands of Fogliani's surgeon. Marcantonio held office in Sicily until 1781. During his tenure, he enlarged the library of Palermo and built a public garden in Palermo. He returned to Naples and was given the title of captain of the royal guards. He died in Naples in 1796.

References

, - {{Authority control 1724 births 1795 deaths Colonna family Italian nobility Italian Army generals Italian generals Spanish generals Viceroys of Sicily