hose gifts, genius, or force dominated the
movements of the day.

To her father's change of political allegiance, from the French to the
Spanish side, in the war raging between those countries in 1494,
Vittoria owed all her life in Ischia; and her marriage, and all that
resulted from her becoming a member of the d'Avalos family, was due to
this espousal of a new political faith on the part of Fabrizio Colonna.
To the fact that in 1425 the war with France again broke out was due the
loss of her husband and the conditions that consecrated her life to
poetry, to learning, and that made possible the beautiful and
sympathetic friendship between herself and Michael Angelo. Her life
presents the most forcible illustration of the overruling power on human
life and destiny.

It was the political change of faith on the part of Fabrizio Colonna
that initiated an unforeseen and undreamed-of drama of life for his
infant daughter, the first act of which included the command of the King
of Naples that the little Vittoria should be betrothed to Francesco
d'Avalos, the son of Alphonso, Marchese di Pescara, of Ischia, one of
the nobles who stood nearest to the king in those troubled days.
Francesco was born in the castle on Ischia in 1489, and was one year
older than Vittoria. Fabrizio exchanged his castle at Marino for one in
Naples, which city made him the Grand Constable. The d'Avalos castle in
Ischia had at this time for its chatelaine the Duchessa di Francavilla,
who is said by some authorities to have been the elder sister and by
others to have been the aunt of Francesco. Donna Constanza d'Avalos,
later the Duchessa di Francavilla, had been made the Castellana of the
island for her courage in refusing to capitulate to the French troops
when, after the death of her father, she was left in sole charge of the
d'Avalos estates, and Emperor Charles V elevated her rank to that of
Principessa. The Duchessa was one of the most remarkable women of the
day. She was a classical scholar, and herself a writer, the author of a
book entitled "_Degli Infortuni e Travagli del Mondo_." To the care of
this learned and brilliant woman, a great lady in the social life of the
time, the care of the little Vittoria was committed, and she studied and
played and grew up with Francesco, her future husband. The d'Avalos
family ranked among the highest nobility of the Court of Naples, and the
Principessa reigned as a queen of letters and society in her island