ABSTRACT
The Baglioni, brave as the Knights of the Round Table, were able condottieri for six generations and the aristocratic de facto rulers of the most important town in Umbria and of many lesser towns and villages. Pandolfo Baglioni was murdered in the principal piazza, and in the general massacre which followed, some sixty other members of the Baglioni family were said to have been killed. So fierce was the Perugians’ hatred for Pandolfo that they tore down his palace and the houses of the other Baglioni and used the bricks to pave streets. In 1416 Braccio Fortebracci da Montone, a Perugian nobleman who nearly succeeded in making himself lord of all central Italy, conquered Perugia and established himself as its sole ruler. With him came Pandolfo’s son, Malatesta Baglioni. Malatesta Baglioni died in 1437 leaving four redoubtable sons, of whom the eldest, Braccio, was considered the real founder of the family greatness.
