By the aid of a Florentine spy, Nogaret gathered a band of adventurers and of enemies of the Gaetani (Boniface's family) in the Apennines.
Gaetani dell'Aquila d'Aragona, princes of Piedimonte, and dukes of Laurenzana, founded by Onorato Gaetani dell'Aquila, count of Fondi, Traetto, Alife and Morcone, lord of Piedimonte and Gioia, in 1454.
His paternal grandmother, Giuseppina De Gaetani, had settled in Valletta in the mid-19th century from Riposto, Sicily.
The great Colonna house, at bitter feud with the Gaetani, was his strongest ally, and Sciarra Colonna accompanied Nogaret to Anagni, Boniface's birthplace.