degli Antelminelli

The degli Antelminelli were a Ghibelline noble family of Lucca. Their greatest figure was Castruccio Castracani, exiled with his family by the Black Guelphs in 1300. He became a condottiero under the Pisan lord Uguccione della Faggiuola, fighting at Lucca in 1314 and Montecatini in 1315.

After Uguccione turned on him, a Lucchese revolt freed him, and in 1316 he was elected lifelong consul of Lucca. Made imperial vicar by Frederick of Austria in 1320, he crushed the Florentines at Altopascio in 1325, was named duke of Lucca and other cities, and took Pisa in 1327. His death in 1328 ruined his young heirs, and the family lost control of Lucca but survived there.

In 1596 its members were tried for treason; Alessandro Antelminelli escaped to London, lived as Amerigo Salvetti and served as Tuscan envoy.