Born on 28 February 1468, Alessandro Farnese entered a patrician family in the region of Lazio of which Rome had long been the capital. Over the course of the fifteenth century the Farnese family were rapidly on the rise in status and wealth. Originally small landowners around Lake Bolsena, they also held positions as condottieri (military leaders) in the revitalisation of the Papal States that followed the end of the Avignon Schism. In recognition of his service to the papacy, in the 1430s Ranuccio Farnese, Alessandro's grandfather, was invested with six local fiefs, including Montalto, Gradoli and Latera. His growing income and territorial lordship prompted Ranuccio to stake a greater claim of status among the Roman nobility by building a palace in Viterbo. This claim was consolidated when his son, Pierluigi, married Giovannella Caetani, daughter of one of Rome's oldest baronial families whose members had included six cardinals, one of whom, Benedetto Caetani, had become Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303). Pierluigi and Giovannella's aspirations for their son, Alessandro, his brother, Angelo, and two sisters, Geroloma and Giulia were that they would continue the family's rise in Roman society. Core to Alessandro's formation were humanism and honour.

Humanism

In common with many noble families, the Farnese parents covered the bases for advancement by steering their older son, Angelo, toward the military and the younger Alessandro toward a career at the centre of the Church.