Pallavicini

The Pallavicini, first called Pelavicino, are an Italian noble house descended from the Frankish Obertenghi; founder Oberto il Pelavicino lived from about 1080 to 1148. His sons founded the Lombard and Genoese branches, and the house became a great Po valley feudatory.

Oberto Pallavicino, born in 1197, served Emperor Frederick II as a Ghibelline captain, subduing Parma, Piacenza and other Po valley cities after 1250, then turned Guelph and helped defeat Ezzelino at Cassano. Another branch joined the Fourth Crusade: in 1204 Guy Pallavicini received the Marquisate of Bodonitsa in Greece, charged with guarding Thermopylae. His heirs held it until the margravine Guglielma died in 1358, when it passed to her Zorzi sons; the Turks took it in 1414.

In the fifteenth century Rolando Pallavicino, called the Magnificent, built the Stato Pallavicino around Busseto in western Emilia, which his descendants ruled for centuries. Later kinsmen served as Genoese doges, Church cardinals and Venetian generals, and one branch entered Habsburg service and settled in Hungary.