Rothschild loans to the Holy See
Rothschild loans to the Holy See refers to a series of major financial loans arranged between the Rothschild family and the Holy See of the Catholic Church. The first loan which occurred in 1832 took place in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars during the Pontificate of Pope Gregory XVI. This loan agreed on was for a sum of £400,000. A second loan occurred during the Pontificate of Pope Pius IX in the early 1850s with the same members of the Rothschild family after the collapse of Giuseppe Mazzini's short-lived revolutionary Roman Republic and the restoration of the Papal States.
Pope Gregory XVI oversaw the loan deal between the Rothschild family and the Holy See in 1832.
James Mayer de Rothschild negotiated the specific terms of the loan deal with Alessandro Torlonia.
Cardinal Antonio Tosti attempted to convert the debt with six Parisian banks who were rivals to the Rothschilds.
Prince Metternich worked closely with the Rothschilds and liaised with Pope Gregory XVI on issues such as the Ancona Jews on their behalf.
The Rothschild family is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish noble banking family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of Frankfurt, Holy Roman Empire, who established his banking business in the 1760s. Unlike most previous court factors, Rothschild managed to bequeath his wealth and established an international banking family through his five sons, who established businesses in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna, and Naples. The family was elevated to noble rank in the Holy Roman Empire and the United Kingdom. The family's documented history starts in 16th century Frankfurt; its name is derived from the family house, Rothschild, built by Isaak Elchanan Bacharach in Frankfurt in 1567.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild, founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty.
House of the Rothschild family, Judengasse, Frankfurt
Palace of Baron Albert von Rothschild (photo 1884)
A landmark Rothschild palace in Frankfurt, Germany, Villa Günthersburg (photographed 1855)