Ptolemy II of Tusculum

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Ptolemy II of Tusculum (died 1153) was the count of Tusculum and Roman consul from 1126 until his death. He was the son of Ptolemy I and became co-ruler in 1117, marrying Bertha, the illegitimate daughter of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor. The Tusculum counts claimed descent from the Julii and Octavii and held the land once ruled by Consul Gregory, Ptolemy I’s grandfather. In 1137, Emperor Lothair II confirmed Ptolemy’s possessions and named him Prince of Latium at Tivoli, with Ptolemy pledging loyalty by giving his son Raino to the emperor.

On 8 April 1149, Pope Eugene III took refuge in Ptolemy’s Tusculan fortress—the first time in forty years that the count supported the pope. Louis VII of France passed through Tusculum on the way back from the Second Crusade but did not help the pope. In Ptolemy’s later years, his house declined. Bertha died in 1141, ending the tie to the old imperial family. Ptolemy married a daughter of Petrus Leonis of the Pierleoni family. He fell into debts, losing many properties in Tusculum, and the old fortress even fell to Eugene III.

Ptolemy II died in 1153 and was succeeded by his eldest son Jonathan of Tusculum. His second son, Raino, became joint and then sole count, the last ruler of Tusculum. Ptolemy also had a son named Jordan, who settled in Gavignano in Volscia after Tusculum’s destruction in 1191.