User:Duchy of Canosa

One day many centuries ago (we are in the 12th century, under the Emperor Henry VI the Swabian Empire) an anonymous official, Ruggeri Gaudiosi, Vicar General of the imperial army, is fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. In charge of escorting the Empress Constance to Naples, Ruggeri becomes the protagonist of a story that brings privileges to himself and to his offspring: the empress is at the last days of pregnancy and when, at the City of Jesi, it gives light to Son, future Frederick II of Swabia, is relieved during the labor just by Ruggeri. That is why Ruggeri is appointed by the emperor's guardian of the newborn and namedMagnum Maresciallum and Gubernatoris Regni nostro Siciliae. That's how the good fortune of the Gaudiosi Family begins.

In the thirteenth century, the Gaudiosi family descends in Italy, for precision in Calabria, in Fiumefreddo (Cosenza). Here the Gaudiosi are associated with the local nobility, joining in the 1800s in the house of the Barons Viola of Aiello Calabro.

From Fiumefreddo also comes Matteo Gaudiosi, who, around the first half of the seventeenth century, governor of Tossicia, married Dorotea Mirti of Tossicia, widow of Baron Andrea Armeni, patrician of the City of Penne. The marriage sets the start of the Pennese branch of the Gaudiosi family. The Gaudiosi di Penne lived in a beautiful palace - still dominating the lower part of Piazza Luca Da Penne - portrayed in the picture below