Diomede V Carafa, Duke of Maddaloni

Born in Naples in 1600, Diomede V Carafa was Duke of Maddaloni and sole heir, on his mother’s side, of the Spanish family of Pacheco. Prone to bickering and to dueling, Diomede was one of the richest and most powerful aristocrats of the kingdom of Naples, a prominent member of the barons who, in their fiefs, administered justice with rigour and often with violence. Through the banker Bartolomeo d’Aquino, Carafa also funded the expenses of the court, in exchange for substantial gains. In 1635 he was part of a delegation to protest against the actions of the Viceroy the Count of Monterrey, but in spite of his arrival to Madrid he could not do much against the viceroy, who enjoyed the protection of the brother-in-law, the Count-Duke of Olivares, Philip IV’s favourite. Diomede and his brother Giuseppe (who was later killed) played a prominent role during Masaniello’s uprising. The two were released from prison (where they had ended up after the explosion of the Spanish flagship in the port of Naples and under the suspicion that they were behind a conspiracy with the support of Mazzarino and Tommaso of Savoy) by the Viceroy d’Arcos and were soon disliked by Masaniello (whom they had attempted to murder) and the rebels. Diomede was among the first of the barons to respond to the Viceroy in October 1647, becoming the head of an army which he himself had helped raise and putting down the rebellion which, in the meantime, had spread throughout several provincial towns. The suspicions about his relation to the Duke of Guise in order to overthrow the Spanish government and gain the crown of Naples for himself in exchange for loyalty to France have never been proven. After the revolt, he ended up on trial, probably for murder, but was released from prison in 1658, on the occasion of the birth of the heir to the throne. He took refuge in Spain where he died on 5 October 1660.

Read more:

• C. Russo, Diomede, Carafa, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, v. 19 (1976).
• R. Villari, La rivolta antispagnola a Napoli. Le origini (1585-1647), Bari 1967.