Is the Prince of Mesolcina a "fake prince" because he's Brazilian? Reply to an anonymous coward on Reddit.

"The tragedy of the Internet is that it has promoted the village idiot to the bearer of truth," said the great author Umberto Eco in 2015, this is unfortunately true, and it is because of one of these idiots who has access to the Internet, that a Prince needs to make such a detailed response.

I was recently informed that a young man living in the city of Xaxim, in the interior of Santa Catarina, Brazil, who claims to be a genealogical researcher but is actually a simple used car salesman, whose name I will not dignify by writing out in full here, but will simply call him cowardly bastard, is undoubtedly frustrated by his plebeian and uninteresting life, since he is not well received even in his own diocese. He has to travel hundreds of kilometers to try to attend Mass in Frederico Westphalen, in Rio Grande do Sul, my home diocese, where my grandparents were married, my parents were baptized and married, and I myself was baptized, and the only reason I didn't get married there is because I moved out of state. This sad figure, who asked for information on how to become a Knight of the Dynastic Orders of which I am the Grand Master, but who was not accepted, precisely by the commission that verifies whether or not a person is worthy of receiving a Knight title, saw no dignity whatsoever in cowardly bastard, a used car salesman in Xaxim, Santa Catarina. Unhappy with the rejection, as he must be unhappy with his entire sad life, the aforementioned used car salesman, but who prefers to present himself as a "genealogist", published anonymously on a Reddit Forum, because he lacks courage, does not have the bearing worthy of someone who stands by what he says, and obviously, trying to escape the lawsuits of defamation, injury (with the criminal aggravating factor of being done via the internet, which aggravates his crime) and possibly the crime of slander, for having attacked my personal honor, having used my name and the title of Prince of Mesolcina, which is not only a historical title, to which I have the right guaranteed by Sentence, but is also my social name, counting in my identity. What cowardly bastard seems unaware of is that this type of offense leads to a criminal complaint, where IP addresses are disclosed, the CPF number appears, and criminal action becomes a reality against him. After all, I didn't graduate in law from one of Brazil's most prestigious universities for nothing...

But now that we've unraveled the personality of cowardly bastard, the used car salesman who accused me of not being the legitimate Prince of Mesolcina, let's look at the historical and legal facts.

The title of Prince of Mesolcina, Mesocco and the Holy Roman Empire was created in 1605 in favor of D. Giangiacomo Teodoro II Gonzaga Trivulzio, “in favor of the merits of his father”, D. Carlo Emanuele Teodoro Trivulzio, Duke of Mesolcina and Marquis of Melzo, who that year had lost his life fighting defending the Catholic flag in the Siege of Ruroort, in present-day Holland. The 1st Prince of Mesolcina was received at the Council of Imperial Princes on September 17, 1622. Later, in 1650, the Holy Roman Emperor also granted the Prince of Mesolcina Sovereignty over the Imperial Baronies of Retegno, Bettola, and Dornberg, with Imperial Immediacy, with the right to mint coins, administer justice, and all other privileges of Sovereignty. Therefore, the title of the Prince of Mesolcina became known as Prince of Mesolcina-Rettegno-Bettola-Dornberg. Anyone unaware of these basic facts shouldn't even have an opinion on the existence of my family's titles.

D. Giangiacomo Teodoro II Gonzaga Trivulzio, 1st Prince of Mesolcina (1597-1656), son of the aforementioned D. Carlo Emanuele Teodoro Trivulzio, 6th Duke of Mesolcina, Marquis of Melzo and D. Caterina Gonzaga, Marchioness of Castel Goffredo, married Princess Giovanna Maria Grimaldi of Monaco, daughter of Hercules I Grimaldi, Sovereign of Monaco. From this marriage were born two children, D. Ottavia Gonzaga Trivulzio, who married D. Tolomeo III Galli (or Gallio, both are valid spellings for our name), 4th Duke of Alvito (among other titles) and D. Ercole Teodoro Gonzaga Trivulzio, 2nd Prince of Mesolcina, of Mesocco and of the Holy Roman Empire, Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece. This 2nd Prince of Mesolcina married Princess Orsina Visconti Sforza di Caravaggio y Aldobrandini, and they had an only son, Antonio VI Teodoro Gonzaga Trivulzio, 3rd Prince of Mesolcina, who was also made a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece. For family reasons, he spent most of his childhood at the Ducal court of Alvito, under the care of his aunt, Ottavia Gonzaga Trivulzio, Duchess of Alvito. The 3rd Prince of Mesolcina, at the request of the Emperor himself, who wanted to unite, through marriage, members of the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish nobility, also a possession of the House of Habsburg, married Countess Josefa Maria Teresa Velez de Guevara y Taxis, but the marriage produced no children.

The 3rd Prince of Mesolcina, by will, named his two cousins, born of the Dukes of Alvito, his uncles, as successors in rights and titles of the House of Trivulzio of Mesolcina, with the obligation that these princes of Alvito adopt the name and coat of arms of the House of Mesolcina. The Principality of Mesolcina would become a secundogeniture of the Ducal House of Alvito. Thus, Prince Gaetano Galli d'Alvito adopted the name Antonio Gaetano and the surnames Gonzaga Trivulzio Galli (in some documents referred to as Galli Trivulzio, others as Trivulzio Gallio) and became, after the death of his cousin, 4th Prince of Mesolcina, Mesocco and the Holy Roman Empire, with the title of D. Antonio VII. The titles of Prince of Mesolcina, Prince of Mesolcina and Prince of the Holy Roman Empire are confirmed in the House of Trivulzio-Galli by the Bull of Emperor Leopold I (called the "Iron Bull"), signed in Vienna on 24 April 1679.

The 4th Prince of Mesolcina married Countess Laura Borromeo, his cousin, and they were the parents of D. Antonio Tolomeo Gonzaga Trivulzio Galli, who later became 5th Prince of Mesolcina and was also a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece. This is not a mere figment of my imagination; it is fully documented and recorded in official documents of the time, such as the publication "Les Souverains du Monde," the official publication of the Kingdom of France, which listed all the families holding sovereignty and with whom the King of France maintained diplomatic relations. You can easily verify this by searching for the 1734 edition, Volume IV, pages 202 to 209, where the Princely House of Mesolcina is listed alongside the Ducal House of Parma, the Princely House of Piombino, and other houses that held sovereignty in the Holy Roman Empire and held sovereignty in states on the Italian Peninsula.

The 5th Prince of Mesolcina, who left no descendants from his marriage to the Marquise Maria Archinto, became famous in Milan for his large donations that enabled the construction and maintenance, to this day, of the Pio Albergo Trivulzio. After his death, he was succeeded by his second cousin, D. Domenico II Gonzaga Trivulzio Galli, 6th Prince of Mesolcina, who, being the son of D. Domenico I Gonzaga Trivulzio Galli, 11th Duke of Boiano, 2nd Prince of Canterano (title of origin in the Pontifical Nobility), was the son of D. Francesco II Gonzaga Trivulzio Galli, 5th Duke of Alvito, that is, the son of Princess D. Ottavia Gonzaga Trivulzio, Duchess of Alvito, older brother of the 4th Prince of Mesolcina. My family's seat has always tended to follow the Habsburg sphere of power, while the branch of the Dukes of Alvito, over the generations, became closer to the Bourbon power in the Kingdom of Naples, the branch of the Princes of Mesolcina moved closer to Vienna, to the point that the 5th Prince, despite being a Senator of the Duchy of Milan, actually resided in Vienna.

The 6th Prince of Mesolcina resided at his estate, Viglas Castle, in Upper Hungary (present-day Slovakia), which remained my family seat until the beginning of the 20th century. Viglas Castle was then sold to the Archdukes of Austria-Techen, but later, fortunately, it was purchased by a cousin of mine, Count Daniel von Rechitar, who breathed new life into my family's former castle, which since the late 19th century had owned properties in several other countries, including South America, notably in Argentina and Brazil. After the tragic end of World War I in 1918, the Princes of Mesolcina took up residence on their estates in Brazil, where they maintained, for five generations, the tradition of landownership, bearing in mind that the only professions worthy of the Nobility are those connected with arms (militarism) and those connected with land. Commerce (especially used car sales, as cowardly bastard does in Xaxim, Santa Catarina) was never considered a noble profession, the only exception being the so-called "closed-door trade," that is, merchants who did not deal directly with the public.

Cowardly bastard, always concealing his identity for lack of dignity and honor, claimed that Prince D. Verginio, 16th Prince of Mesolcina, Mesocco, and the Holy Roman Empire, 19th Duke of Alvito, my grandfather, was "the illegitimate son of farmers." As stated above, the Princes of Mesolcina always dedicated themselves to arms or to the land. In Brazil, in 1916, being an aristocrat was not a "profession." Landowners were classified as agricultural landwner, while the landowners' employees were classified as "farmhand" or even "farm worker," something impossible for my great-grandparents, Princes Pietro and Giovanna, who owned their land and were then correctly classified as agricultural landwners. As for the accusation that my grandfather was an "illegitimate child," this is extremely serious, coming from the aforementioned cowardly bastard, who claims to be "Catholic" but does not recognize, or may even be just a very ignorant used car salesman, that Catholic marriages lost their validity as civil marriages in Brazil due to Decree No. 181/1890, which instituted civil marriage in Brazil, denying any recognition to religious marriages. The Brazilian Civil Code of 1916 reinforced this legal provision, stating that only legitimate children would be those who were born s from civil marriage.

However, the Princes of Mesolcina are above all Catholics. For us, religious marriage, celebrated before a priest, is the only one that has importance, because, for the Catholic Nobility, marriage is the Sacrament, and the Church defines the Sacraments. Pope Pius IX, in the 1880 Encyclical Arcanum Divinae Sapientiae, condemned civil marriage as a grave error and reaffirmed that matrimony was the exclusive jurisdiction of the Church. Hundreds of bishops in Europe and around the world wisely advised their faithful not to marry civilly, as this constituted legalized concubinage. cowardly bastard may not know, as he certainly does, as he is not a Noble, but what defines the dynastic character of a Prince is the religious marriage of his parents. My great-grandparents were sacramentally married. I proudly say they didn't go before a notary to "confirm" a Sacrament of God, as if the State could do that. Even though my grandfather, born in 1916, might have suffered some civil discrimination in Brazil, the important thing has always been to maintain the character of a Catholic Prince. Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's. Learn this, cowardly bastard, while you sell your junk there in Xaxim, Santa Catarina. And one could say, if the person did not study the history of my family, as I myself did, that all of this would be nothing more than an “argument” on the part of the Princely House of Mesolcina, that after the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire there was no longer international recognition of the House of Trivulzio-Galli. You couldn't be more wrong, you poor hater... The Annuaire de la Noblesse de France, considered the most respected catalog of families holding Sovereignty and Nobility, founded in 1843, listed my family until 1940 (the year in which publication ceased due to World War II) with the unmistakable entry:

Gallio (Trivulzio, dit Galli) – Tritre de Prince du Saint-Empire sous le nom de Prince de Misocchi e Valle Misolcina, d.d. Vienne 24 avril 1679 (Léopold I) pour Antoine-Gaëtan-Théodore Galli, par héritage du Prince Antoine-Théodore Trivulzio.

In other words:

Gallio (Trivulzio, called Galli) – Titles of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire under the predicate of Prince of Mesocco and Mesolcina, given in Vienna on April 24, 1679 (Emperor Leopold I) to Antonio Gaetano Teodoro Galli, by inheritance of Prince Antonio Teodoro Trivulzio.

And, before anyone, even without reading the Annuaire de la Noblesse de France, says that this entry, considered quite complete, would be just a "souvenir" of an old family, just look at the family that is listed right after it, the Gavre family, which, although extinct, is listed after its titles as titre éteint en 1790, that is, a title extinct in 1790. In other words, the Annuaire de la Noblesse de France would have listed "titre éteint" right after my family's entry, if it thought it was extinct, and obviously it did not, because my family did not become extinct. Proof of this is I, Don Andrea Giangiacomo Gonzaga Trivulzio Galli, 18th Prince of Mesolcina, of Mesocco, and of the Holy Roman Empire, 21st Duke of Alvito, who write and sign this declaration. And there can be no greater proof than that, with the presentation of all the relevant documents, I received confirmation of the titles of Prince of Mesolcina, Prince of Mesocco, Duke of Alvito, Marquis of Melzo, among other titles held by my family, by the Brazilian courts, as can be seen by the Arbitration Award for Case 000.09.10.2024.13-43 – final and binding case No. 0217.001/2023.

Now, regarding the "accusation" of being Brazilian, for me this is not an accusation, but rather a source of pride, because unlike so many others, like cowardly bastard himself, who are merely Brazilian, I have the joy of being a natural-born Italian citizen, not naturalized, in addition to proudly holding Brazilian citizenship! Leave that inferiority complex behind and start looking for something productive to do with your life! Regarding any idea that being descended from aristocrats classified as agricultural landwners, because they owned their own land, would have been a source of shame for me, cowardly bastard, who is a hater, because he actually hates his own life, should know that despite my training as a Lawyer, then as a History Professor, and as a Postgraduate in Methodology of Teaching Philosophy and Sociology, the profession I have enjoyed most, to this day, was precisely that of agricultural landwner, the same one also held by Prince D. Pedro de Orléans e Bragança, Head of the Imperial House of Brazil for 4 decades, when he had a coffee farm in Paraná, and so many other members of the Nobility. Because what the haters of Nobility must understand is that being a Prince is not a “profession”, it is God’s will to honor his people with examples of Nobility, and being a agricultural landwner as a profession, with great pride, much more than being a simple used car salesman in the interior of Santa Catarina, in Xaxim, a nobody, who is not descended from anyone.

Andrea Giangiacomo Gonzaga Trivulzio Galli

18th Prince of Mesolcina, Mesocco, and the Holy Roman Empire,

21st Duke of Alvito, Marquis of Melzo, etc.

Notes

1. Treccani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, s.v. “Gallio, Tolomeo”: acquisition of Scaldasole, 1582.

2. Lombardia Beni Culturali, scheda “Castello di Scaldasole”: held by Gallio Trivulzio, Dukes of Alvito, until 1799.

3. Castello di Scaldasole (site history), confirming perpetual investiture to Tolomeo Galli, 1602.

4. Alexander Marr, Between Raphael and Galileo: Mutio Oddi and the Mathematical Culture of Late Renaissance Italy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), appendix, entry “Don Carlo Galli, 2nd Marchese d’Isola.”

5. Villa del Balbiano (encyclopedic entry), inscription referring to “Carlo, Marchese d’Isola.”

6. Lombardia Beni Culturali, scheda opera d’arte: “Carlo Gallio, marchese di Balbiano e tribuno militare.”

7. Heritage Collection – Villa Balbiano and related site histories, confirming Gallio ownership.

8. Treccani, DBI, s.v. “Gallio, Tolomeo”: investiture as Count of the Tre Pievi by Philip II, 1580.

9. Histouring and North Lake Como cultural portals, “Palazzo Gallio”: seat of comital power over the Tre Pievi.

10. Dizionario Storico della Svizzera, entry “Tre Pievi.”

11. Treccani, DBI, “Trivulzio, Gian Giacomo Teodoro,” citing the marriage of his daughter Ottavia to Tolomeo III Galli, Duke of Alvito.

12. Archivio di Stato di Milano, Fondo Trivulzio, marriage contracts of the Gonzaga-Trivulzio alliance.

13. Dizionario Storico della Svizzera (HLS/DSS), entry “Trivulzio.”