{{short description|Italian cardinal}} {{other people}} {{Infobox Christian leader |type = Cardinal |honorific_prefix = His Eminence |name = Carlo Carafa |title = Cardinal-Deacon of San Nicola in Carcere |image = Carlo Carafa.jpg |image_size = |caption = Engraving of Cardinal Carafa, 16th century |birth_name = |church = Catholic Church |archdiocese = |appointed = January 1560 |term_end = 6 March 1561 |predecessor = Giovanni Battista Consiglieri |successor = Francesco Gonzaga |ordination = |ordinated_by = |consecration = |consecrated_by = |cardinal = 7 June 1555 |created_cardinal_by = Pope Paul IV |birth_date = 29 March 1517 |birth_place = Naples, Italy |death_date = {{death date and age|1561|03|06|1517|03|29|df=y}} |death_place = Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome |buried = |parents = |other = |rank = Cardinal-Deacon |previous_post = {{List collapsed|title={{nobold|''See list''}}|bullets=on|Cardinal-Deacon of Santi Vito e Modesto<br/>(1555–1560) |Administrator of Comminges<br/>(1555-1561) }} |coat_of_arms = Stemma cardinalizio di Oliviero Carafa.svg }}
'''Carlo Carafa''' (29 March 1517<ref>The date was unknown to Carafa's biographer Georges Duruy.</ref> – 6 March 1561) was an Italian cardinal,<ref>[https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1555.htm Salvador Miranda, "Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: Carlo Carafa"]: accessed 25 August 2010]</ref> and Cardinal Nephew of Pope Paul IV Carafa, whose policies he directed and whom he served as papal legate in Paris, Venice and Brussels.<ref>Francesco Sforza Pallavicino, ''Istoria del concilio di Trento'', Milan, 1745, vol. 13, ch. 12, quoted by Duruy 1882:10/</ref>
==Early years== {{Infobox cardinalstyles |cardinal name=Carlo Carafa |dipstyle=His Eminence |offstyle=Your Eminence |See=Naples }} He was born at Naples into one of the city's most ancient and distinguished families, a younger son of Giovanni Alfonso Carafa, count of Montorio, and his countess, Caterina Cantelma. One brother was Giovanni Carafa, Duke of Paliano another, Antonio Carafa (1520—1588), was made marchese di Montebello.<ref>Maria Gabriella Cruciani Troncanelli, «[http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/antonio-carafa_res-edcd59ff-87e9-11dc-8e9d-0016357eee51_%28Dizionario_Biografico%29/ CARAFA, Antonio]». In: ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', Volume 19, Roma: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 1976</ref>
Without making a name for himself,<ref>The Venetian ambassador Navagero took pains to uncover some of the previous career of Carafa, once he had suddenly arrived at a position of power: see Duruy 1882:7ff.</ref> he had a long and dubious career as a mercenary soldier in Italy and Germany. He entered the household of Cardinal Pompeo Colonna at an early age, as a page and was enrolled in the Order of St John of Jerusalem later, that of Pierluigi Farnese, Duke of Castro (later Duke of Parma), the son of Paul III. He then fought under the Alfonso d'Avalos, Marchese del Vasto, in Lombardy and Piedmont, and under Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma, in Flanders and Germany, fighting Protestants in the name of the Emperor. Here an incident occurred that reinforced perceptions among contemporaries for greed, arrogance and a violent nature: his possession of a captive gentleman worth a considerable ransom was challenged by a Spaniard, whose right was upheld by his compatriot, the Duke of Alba; and in the aftermath Carlo, pursuing his adversary to provoke a duel was incarcerated at Trento until he agreed not to pursue the vendetta.<ref>Duruy 1882:5.</ref>
He was subsequently exiled from Naples in 1545 for murder and banditry and, having withdrawn to Benevento, was embroiled in another assassination,<ref>Duruty 1882:8.</ref> and was then alleged to have perpetrated the massacre of Spanish soldiers as they recuperated in a hospital in Corsica.
==Cardinal Nephew==
Two weeks after Giovanni Pietro Carafa was elected pope, as Paul IV, he raised Carlo to the cardinalate on 7 June 1555. His tenure as Cardinal Nephew was not a great success, and he and Paul IV effectively brought the Papacy to a humiliating defeat against the Spanish that nearly resulted in another Sack of Rome. Carlo's government proved unpopular and he developed a reputation for avarice, cruelty and licentiousness, as well as for homosexual sodomy (Paul had chastised Cardinal Ghisleri for not sharing his suspicions on this latter point).<ref>Miles Pattenden, ''Pius IV and the Fall of The Carafa: Nepotism and Papal Authority in Counter Reformation Rome''</ref> In January 1559, Paul finally accepted the accuracy of the accusations made and exiled both his nephews from Rome and replaced Carlo as Cardinal Nephew with Carlo's own nephew Alfonso Carafa, Cardinal Archbishop of Naples.
==Arrest and death==
In June 1560, Paul's successor, Pope Pius IV arrested the leading members of the family - Carlo, his brother Duke Govanni, and their nephew the Cardinal Archbishop of Naples,<ref>Their names were torn from the cover of the trial manuscript, Archivio di Stato, Rome: Archivio criminale 54 (Duruy 1882:xv)</ref> seizing their papers, and levying a range of charges relating to abuses of power during Paul's reign. Carlo was charged with murder, sodomy, and the promotion of Protestantism. After a nine-month trial, he was condemned along with his brother, and was executed by strangulation at Castel Sant' Angelo on the night of 6 March 1561. His execution was considered at the time to have been motivated primarily by political factors such as his pro-French, anti-Spanish policies.
On 26 September 1567, the sentence was declared unjust by Pope Pius V. The memory of the victims was vindicated and their estates restored.
== References == {{Reflist|2}}
==Bibliography== *{{cite book|last= Aubert|first=Alberto|title=Paolo IV: politica, inquisizione e storiografia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NxvZAAAAMAAJ|year=1999|publisher=Le lettere|location=Firenze|language=Italian|isbn=978-88-7166-437-8}} *{{cite book|last= Duruy|first=George |title=Le cardinal Carlo Carafa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SmJBAQAAMAAJ|year=1882|publisher=Hachette|location=Paris|language=French}} *{{cite book|last= Pattenden|first=Miles |title=Pius IV and the Fall of The Carafa: Nepotism and Papal Authority in Counter-Reformation Rome|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4VVoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA2|year=2013|publisher=OUP |location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-164961-5|pages=2–}} *{{cite book|last=Pieper|first=Anton|title=Die päpstlichen Legaten und Nuntien in Deutschland, Frankreich und Spanien seit der Mitte des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-3ouAAAAYAAJ|year=1897|publisher=Verlag der Aschendorffschen Buchdruckerei|location=Münster|language=German|pages=71–118; 184–207}}
== External links == * [https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1555.htm#Carafa Biography]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Carafa, Carlo}} Category:1517 births Category:1561 deaths Category:Nobility from Naples Category:Cardinal-nephews Category:People executed by the Holy See Carlo Category:Executed Italian people Category:People executed by strangulation Category:16th-century executions by Italian states Category:Clergy from Naples Category:Military personnel from Naples