In addition to the military, not a few Italian politicians have left their name linked to the history of other countries, on which some of them have profoundly influenced. Let’s leave out the ranks of Italian princesses who have become queens of large and small states, many of which, due to their high culture or their political wisdom, had a great importance in historical events and in the intellectual development of individual countries, such as Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy (1688-1714), Elisabetta Farnese (1692-1766), Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Parma (1754-1819) and Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Naples (1806-1878), queens of Spain; Mafalda of Savoy (1125-58) and Maria Francesca Isabella of Savoy (1646-83), queens of Portugal; Beatrice of Savoy (1206-66), countess of Provence, Louise of Savoy (1476-1531), regent of France and mother of Francis I, Catherine (1518-89) and Maria (1573-1642) de ‘Medici, queens of France, Barbara Gonzaga (1456-1503), Duchess of Württemberg, Adelaide of Savoy (1636-76) , an electrician from Bavaria; Beatrice of Aragon (1457-1508), queen of Hungary, Bertha of Savoy (1052-88), empress of Germany; Bona Sforza (1493-1557) and Maria Luigia Gonzaga (1612-1667), queens of Poland; Anna of Savoy (1305-60) empress of the East, etc. Among the major politicians we note: in Spain Carmine Caracciolo who was viceroy of Peru (1716); Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, Prime Minister of Filippo V. In Hungary, Cardinals Ippolito d’Este and Gabriele Rangone, both Grand Chancellors of Mattia Corvino; Mercurino Arborio di Gattinara, from Vercelli, who was president of the parliament of Burgundy from 1507 to 1518, then adviser and ambassador of the emperor Maximilian, finally chancellor of Charles V; in Germany, Guelfo d’Este (11th century), Duke of Bavaria and founder of the electoral house of Brunswick and Girolamo Lucchesini, who between 1788 and 1806 ambassador of the King of Prussia in Poland, France, England, carried out the most important diplomatic missions; in Poland the Florentine jurist Scipione Piattoli had a large part in the last political events of the kingdom and was the inspirer of the constitution of 1791; in Turkey Gaspare Graziani was the sultan’s ambassador to the emperor and was made prince of Moldavia, but, in rebellion, he was defeated and killed; Marco Polo had important political positions at the imperial court of China; GB Pastene, towards the middle of the 16th century, was several times president of the cabildo of Santiago de Chile.
Some Italian missionaries held important political positions: the Jesuit Giuseppe Costantino Beschi (1680-1746) was minister of the Prince of Madura in India, and the Capuchin Domenico Reynaudi da Villafranca (1808-93), president of the Bulgarian parliament.
France had many and important politicians with us: Galeazzo San Severino greatly influenced the foreign policy of Charles VIII and Louis XII was appointed great squire of France; Livio Crotto, from Siena, was Francesco I’s butler and ambassador; Ludovico Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers, as well as a soldier distinguished himself as a very talented politician for 38 years (1557-95); Concino Concini, minister of Louis XI, was for a long time the most powerful man of the French court (1600-17); and above all Cardinal Giulio Mazarin, prime minister from 1643 to 1661, under whose government France greatly increased in size and power. In the last century Luigi Corvetto, from Genoa, was Louis XVIII’s finance minister in France; the aforementioned Giacomo Alessandro Bixio, from Liguria, was head of the cabinet of the provisional government of 1848, then vice-president of the Assembly, and under Louis Napoleon minister of Agriculture and Commerce. Finally, it should be remembered that the revolutionary Gian Paolo Marat, Leone Gambetta, the president of the Argentine Republic C. Pellegrini and Emanuele Belgrano were children of Italians.
