del Carretto

The del Carretto were a noble house of Liguria and Piedmont, descended through the Aleramici from Boniface del Vasto. His son Henry, called il Guercio, held the march of Savona in the twelfth century and served Frederick Barbarossa as envoy at the Peace of Constance. The family lost sovereignty over the city of Savona in the wars of the communes but held Finale, fighting on the imperial Ghibelline side against Genoa and the Lombard League.

Henry's sons Otto and Henry divided their inheritance around 1185; their descendants held fiefs in Liguria and Piedmont. Otto del Carretto became podestà of Genoa and patronized troubadours. Ilaria del Carretto, wife of Paolo Guinigi of Lucca, had her tomb carved by Jacopo della Quercia, and Fabrizio became Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller in 1513.

Finale remained directly subject to the empire until 1602, when it passed to Philip III of Spain. The family's independence in Liguria ended.