Carlo Bravanatti (Napoleon's World)

Carlo Vittorio Bravanatti (4 May 1861 - 2 January 1934) was the Duke of Rome from 1882 until 1934, holding the ducal seat for almost 52 years. A staunch conservative and deeply distasteful of reformist principles espoused by the civilian governments of the Holy See during his reign, as well as a reactionary ruler with a violent tendency, Carlo Bravanatti set in motion the eventual decline of the ducal dynasty and the stagnation of the Papal States' infrastructure, economy and military while its neighbor in Naples flourished.

Unlike his pragmatic father Vittorio, Carlo was deeply suspicious of his political enemies and sympathised little with either the populace of his realm or with the needs of the clergy. Of his nine children, only three survived to adulthood, due largely to Carlo's marriage to his cousin Maria Bravanatti. He was despised in most circles of the Roman government and numerous assassination plots against the duke were foiled, in particular a nearly-successful plot against him in 1910 in which he was shot in the chest twice but survived for almost two and a half decades afterwards. By the 1920's, his sons Niccolo and Guiseppe were running the Roman government with their advisors as Carlo sank further into dementia, paranoia and potentially schizophrenia. English novelist John Wilde referred to him as "the Mad Duke of Rome."