Papal Navy

Papal Navy Pontifical Navy
Italian: Marina Pontificia Latin: Classis Pontificiae
Ensign of the Papal Navy
Active	circa 843–1870
Disbanded	De facto: 1870 (capture of Rome by the nascent Kingdom of Italy) De jure: 1878 (sale of the last warship controlled by the Papacy)
Country	Papal States
Allegiance	The Pope
Type	Navy
Patron	Saint Peter Saint Paul
Engagements	Battle of Ostia, 849 Battle of Garigliano, 915 Battle of Lepanto, 1571 Italian revolutions, 1848 Battle of Ancona, 1865
Commanders
Notable commanders	Cardinal Ludovico Trevisan (Appointed Captain-General of the Church[1] in 1455 by Pope Callixtus III; Under Trevisan, the Papal fleet was greatly expanded and won several victories of over the Turks) Archbishop of Tarragona Pedro de Urrea (Appointed a Papal expedition fleet commander under Cardinal Trevisan in the 1450s) Velasco Farinha (Portuguese naval officer appointed as a vice admiral of the Papal Navy in the 1450s under Cardinal Trevisan) Duke-Prince Marcantonio Colonna (Appointed captain-general of the Holy League’s fleet, encompassing the Papal Navy, during the 1571 Battle of Lepanto) Alessandro Cialdi (19th-century commandant)

The Papal Navy (Italian: Marina Pontificia, "Pontifical Navy"; Latin: Classis Pontificiae^[2]) was the maritime force of the Papal States. Loosely constituted, it was sporadically extant from approximately the Battle of Ostia (849) during the pontificate of Leo IV until the ascension of Pope Leo XIII in 1878 (though the Navy had ceased all operations in 1870), when he sold the last remaining Papal warship, the Immacolata Concezione.

The Papal Navy was separate from the Papal Army, a varying combination of volunteers, mercenaries, and Catholic military orders, being disbanded in 1870. The modern Vatican City State does not maintain any naval or maritime forces; however, it does maintain a paramilitary police force, the Corps of Gendarmerie of Vatican City as well as the militarized Swiss Guard, responsible for the close protection of the Pontiff and other dignitaries of Vatican City, as well as providing a uniformed guard of honour across the city-state.