Maffeo Barberini (19 August 1631 – 28 November 1685) was an Italian nobleman of the Barberini and Prince of Palestrina. He was appointed Gonfalonier of the Church. Family Born in 1631, Barberini was one of the five children of Taddeo Barberini and Anna Colonna, daughter of Filippo I Colonna. His siblings included cardinal Carlo Barberini and Lucrezia Barberini who married Francesco I d'Este, Duke of Modena. His great uncle (on his father's side) was Barberini Pope Urban VIII. Wars of Castro Between 1639 and 1649, the Barberini fought the Wars of Castro alongside the Pamphili family. Maffeo's father, Taddeo, and Luigi Mattei led the papal armies loyal to Pope Urban VIII and the Barberini family. In 1644, after the first War of Castro, Pope Urban VIII died and Pamphili family Pope Innocent X was elected in his place. Pope Innocent subsequently began an investigation into Antonio Barberini (Maffeo's uncle), prompting him to flee into exile with his two brothers, Francesco and Taddeo (Maffeo's father). Marriage and titles Taddeo Barberini died in exile in Paris but the Barberini and Pamphili families were reconciled when, in 1653, his son Maffeo married Olimpia Giustiniani, grand-niece of Pope Innocent X. The marriage had been engineered by Giustiniani's maternal grandmother, papal power-broker Olimpia Maidalchini, and Barberini's uncle, Cardinal Antonio Barberini. Maidalchini, realizing her influence over Pope Innocent was waning, arranged the marriage to facilitate a return of the Barberini to Rome in order to curry favor with a number of the Barberini family's cardinals. The Barberini, too, were keen to return to Rome and were enthusiastic about Maidalchini's plan to marry Pope Innocent's grand-niece, Guistiniani, into their family. Despite the fact that 12-year-old Guistiniani stubbornly refused to marry her 22-year-old suitor, surprising few, the two were married at a lavish ceremony celebrated by Pope Innocent himself. After the ceremony, however, the child refused to go home with her new groom to allow the marriage to be consummated. Her mother, who had barely been involved in her upbringing, appealed to her by telling her that other girls were forced to marry decrepit old men and that, by comparison, Barberini was a far better option. When the child still refused, Maidalchini forced her granddaughter into a carriage that took her to the Palazzo Barberini and a new life as a daughter of the Barberini. Barberini was later restored to his father's former title of Prince of Palestrina