The first recorded member of the Pallavicini family was Oberto I (died 1148). The first Pallavicino fief was created by Oberto II, who received it from Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1162. A number of lines are descended from Guglielmo (died 1217), possessor of a series of fiefs between Parma and Piacenza.
Through the descendants of Guy and his brother Rubino, sons of Guglielmo, a branch of the family rose to prominence in the Latin Empire founded after the Fourth Crusade in 1204.
They governed the Margraviate of Bodonitsa from 1204 to 1358. They grew in riches and, after 1224, became also the most powerful family in the former Kingdom of Thessalonica (northern Greece). The first margraves were of Guy's line until his daughter Isabella died, at which time the line of Rubino inherited the throne. The Pallavicini were related to the De la Roche family then ruling in Athens. After the death of Albert in 1311 the Pallavicini influence slowly declined. The subsequent Zorzi margraves were matrilineal descendants of the last Pallavicini marquise, Guglielma.
Arms of the Marquises of Pallavicni and Csáky-PallavicniOberto Pelavicino or Pallavicino (1197-1269), Italian field captain under Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Setton, Kenneth M. (general editor) A History of the Crusades: Volume III — The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Harry W. Hazard, editor. University of Wisconsin Press: Madison, 1975.
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