ThePio family, laterPio di Savoia, an ancient nobleItalian family, was first mentioned by good authorities in the 14th century. After having long contended for the city ofModena with theHouse of Este, in 1336 they eventually agreed to renounce it, on condition that they retained the smaller domain ofCarpi for themselves. They maintained control of Carpi for nearly 200 years and later acquired the minorfiefs ofSassuolo,Meldola, andSarsina, etc. Many members of the family were distinguished ascondottieri, diplomats or ecclesiastics.
In 1450Alberto II Pio (1418–1463) obtained from the house ofSavoy, for himself, his brothers and their descendants, the privilege of adding the style "di Savoia" to their surname, as a reward for his military services. His grand-son, also named Alberto (Alberto III Pio di Savoia), who served asImperial and laterFrenchambassador inRome, won fame as a man of learning, but in 1525 he was stripped of the county of Carpi for "felony" byEmperor Charles V. Alberto's nephew,Cardinal Rodolfo Pio was a trusted adviser toPaul III and helped to establish theInquisition atMilan. The main branch of the family (the so called "Alberto line") died out in the early seventeenth century with the assassination in Venice of the cardinal's nephew, also calledRodolfo, after the latter had been forced in 1597 to sell the last family fiefdoms within thePapal States.
Another branch of the family, called "Giberto line" after one of Albert II's brothers, renounced in 1499 the coregency over the lordship of Carpi in favour ofErcole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and accepted in exchange theEste fief ofSassuolo. They held the domain of Sassuolo until 1599 when the fief was again illegitimately confiscated by the House of Este.Ascanio Pio (1587–1649), the heir to this branch of the family, was a dramatic poet of some merit. His son,Cardinal Carlo Pio purchased from thepope the title of prince ofSan Gregorio in order to increase the prestige of the family. Carlo's half-brotherGiberto Pio (ca 1637–1676), who had inherited the principality, soon moved toSpain, where, through his marriage to Juana de Moura Corte Real y Moncada (mid 17th century–1717), he also acquired for his descendants the merely nominalmarquis title of Castelo Rodrigo, and the effective one of theDukedom of Nocera (referring to the locality ofNocera de' Pagani in theKingdom of Naples at the time under Spain). In 1720, the title ofGrandee was conferred upon his sonFrancisco Pío de Saboya y Moura, erstwhile Governor ofMadrid andCaptain General of Catalonia. ThePríncipe Pío hill and thePríncipe Pío multimodal train station in Madrid are named after them. TheSpanish noble titles of 'Nochera' and Castelo Rodrigo withGrandeeship are still in force in the 21st century and are held by the Italian family Balbo Bertone di Sambuy, descended in the female line from the Spanish branch of the Pio di Savoia.
A third branch of the family, called "Galasso line" after another of Alberto II's brothers—which was forcibly excluded from the coregency over Carpi in 1469—, is still flourishing inRome, theUK and theUS.[1] In the second half of the 19th century this branch of the family sued theKingdom of Italy as the legal successor of the Este States, and succeeded in exacting a conspicuous compensation of 50,000 gold florins for the unfair seizure of the fiefdom of Carpi by the Este family, in violation of the aforementioned 1336 "Sovereign-to-Sovereign" agreement.[2] In 1930 the King of ItalyVictor Emmanuel III of Savoy again bestowed upon Don Manfredo, head of the Galasso family line, the title of Prince Pio di Savoia.[1]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pio di Savoia".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 632. | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(November 2010) |
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