Beginnings His first notable action as a military leader was in 1484 when he defended the family castle of
Paliano against an assault by the rival
Orsini and
Riario families. After some other battle deeds, Prospero, who had joined Cardinal
Giuliano della Rovere's party, was imprisoned in
Castel Sant'Angelo (
Rome) by
Pope Alexander VI. Once freed, he was soon imprisoned again for his allegiance to
Charles VIII of France during his invasion of Italy. In the end, the King of France was victorious against the Pope and entered Rome, backed by Prospero and Fabrizio Colonna, in 1495. During the brief French rule over the
Kingdom of Naples, Prospero obtained the duchy of
Traetto and the county of
Forlì. However, when Charles returned beyond the Alps, Prospero helped King
Ferdinand II of Naples to evict the French viceroy from Naples. The situation changed again with the new French invasion of
Louis XII. While the Neapolitan king
Frederick IV fled to the island of
Ischia, Fabrizio and Prospero Colonna tried to defend the kingdom., but were defeated and imprisoned in the
Castel Nuovo of
Naples. They were also excommunicated by Alexander VI, who took their castles in the Lazio. Eventually ransomed, both cousins then introduced themselves to the Spanish general
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, the "Great Captain", and entered the service of the
Catholic Monarchs of Spain. They were followed by
Diego García de Paredes, a Spaniard working for the Colonna family.
Third Italian War Prospero and Fabrizio became an instrumental part of the Great Captain's army. They participated in the second
Challenge of Barletta in 1503, in which Italian soldiers led by
Ettore Fieramosca defeated French knights led by Charles de Torgues, and were also part of the Spanish contingent during the quick
Battle of Ruvo. After
Fernando de Andrade defeated the French in
Seminara, the Great Captain abandoned Barletta and crossed the
Ofanto, establishing a in
Cerignola which Colonna helped fortifying. During the subsequent
Battle of Cerignola, the French general
Louis d'Armagnac was felled by arquebusiers, after which cavalry finished the French army. Colonna pursued the remnants of the French to their camp with part of their heavy cavalry, and he and his entourage allowed themselves to sleep in d'Armagnac's tent, causing worry among the Spanish when they didn't return until next morning. After taking
Capua and the city of
Naples, Córdoba besieged
Gaeta, but he lifted the siege and strategically moved to
Mola. Due to the death of Pope
Alexander VI in August, Colonna and
Diego de Mendoza were sent to offer their condolences and negotiate with
Cesare Borgia, who had offered to ally with Spain. Borgia secretly sided with France and attempted to deceive Colonna and Mendoza into being captured by the French, but they realized the ruse and prepared for a brawl, forcing Borgia to negotiate to get them free pass to leave. He returned to join the Great Captain after the French and Spanish armies had taken positions at both sides of the
Garigliano river. The Spanish had been reinforced by
Bartolomeo d'Alviano, a condottiero from the Orsini family and an old rival to Colonna, who assisted the Great Captain and Prospero at assaulting the French positions during the
Battle of Garigliano. The French surrendered shortly after, and Colonna recovered his former feud in Fondi. He received offers from the
Republic of Florence to lead their armies, but he stayed in the service of Spain, being entrusted with taking the captured Cesare Borgia to the peninsula. He acted also as a liaison with another of the Great Captain's allies,
Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan. Nonetheless, after Diego García de Paredes issued a challenge to two anonymous slanderers of Great Captain, Colonna stated that Bartolomeo d'Alviano and himself would fight along with Paredes and not against him. Two other gentlemen present in the scene would die shortly after among suspicions of murder. In 1506, Bartolomeo d'Alviano was expelled from the Spanish army after attacking the lands of the Colonna family, and with the recalling of the Great Captain in 1507, Colonna was left as King Ferdinand's main local deputy in Italy. Around this time, he added
Itri,
Sperlonga,
Ceccano, and
Sonnino to his fiefs, and was also able to take back his territories in the Lazio after the Pope's death, becoming once again a great feudal lord in southern Italy. Milanese condottiero
Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, who served the French and had previously been defeated by Colonna in another of their encounters in opposing sides, taunted him for his fate while Colonna was being taken to France, to which Colonna replied jokingly, "It is a country I have always wanted to visit". The Italian looked to resume action in Lombardy, but Spanish participation in the war ended in August, preventing him from achieving revenge for his capture. He passed the next two years of peace busy with European politics from Naples, where he was a lover of Isabella d'Aragona. In 1518, due to the arranged marriage between King
Sigismund I of Poland and Isabella's daughter
Bona Sforza, Colonna organized the ceremony in Naples, and later escorted the couple to
Kraków. He also visited King Charles in Spain representing the Neapolitan nobility. Colonna eventually left Milan and engaged Giovanni and Lautrec in a series of marches and countermarches in northern Italy, eventually facing off with them and achieving a decisive Imperial-Spanish and Papal victory in the subsequent
Battle of Bicocca in April. In its course, Colonna capitazlied greatly on the power of well places fortifications, while Fernando d'Ávalos employed
volley fire, decimating the Swiss pikemen. The result was effective enough that
bicoca became a Spanish idiom for an easily achieved success. Colonna and d'Ávalos followed by
besieging Genoa in May, defeating the attempts by admiral
Andrea Doria of relieving the city. Its dux
Ottaviano Fregoso attempted to negotiate, but at that point d'Ávalos' men breached the walls, leading the city to be sacked.
Pedro Navarro was captured in the city. As the French forces in the
Piedmont retreated back to France, Colonna returned to
Lombardy, where he sent Pescara to conquer
Iseo, the last French bulwark in the zone, submitting his old rival Gian Giacomo Trivulzio and placing
Gian Giacomo Medici in command. By this point, with the French almost completely evicted from Italy, Colonna passed the winter in Milan. Adrian VI complained when he found out Colonna and the Imperial army were plundering the resources of Parma, but Spanish ambassador
Luis Fernández de Córdoba convinced the Pope to relent. His success infuriated King Francis I of France, who vowed to come personally to Italy in 1523 before being delegating on
Guillaume Gouffier, seigneur de Bonnivet due to the betrayal of
Charles of Bourbon. Finding about it through spies, Colonna warned the emperor and gathered reinforcements from the Holy Roman Empire and Italy, and moved to
Milan, which he successfully defended from Bonnivet's army. Harassed by Colonna's
Fabian tactics, Bonnivet eventually asked for a truce, which was negotiated by
Galeazzo II Visconti, providentially father to one of Colonna's lovers. The French eventually lifted the siege and retreated to
Abbiategrasso, but Colonna's health was declining, and he died in 1523 in l'Hôtel Clemenceau at Milan. ==Legacy==