[1] In more recent times, Corsican emigration to Rome slowly began after the end of the Avignon papacy during the 15th century, at which point the city again offered job opportunities to immigrants.

Consequently, it was not difficult for Corsicans to find employ as soldiers in the service of the popes, often attaining officer rank and high social status.

[10] In 1543 the members of the Corsican militia living in Trastevere asked the Pope for permission to establish the Arciconfraternita della Madonna del Carmine, with its seat in San Crisogono.

[12] Under the reign of Urban VIII, on April 21, 1642, Easter Monday, a fight broke out among Corsican soldiers and the Corazze ("cuirasses"), another Papal corps composed almost exclusively of men from Bologna, who were quartered at the slope of S. Onofrio on the Gianicolo hill.

[16] The end of the Corsican Guard, triggered by an incident that occurred in Rome on August 20, 1662, gives an insight into the evolution of the geopolitical situation in Europe and on the growing French influence in Italy.

Toward the middle of the 17th century, the presence in Rome of numerous diplomatic missions of the European states ended up creating a paradoxical situation in which the major powers – through over-extension of the concept of extraterritoriality, the so-called "liberty of quarters" – had in some cases provided their embassies with real military garrisons (whose soldiers were free to bear weapons throughout the city), leading to the transformation of entire areas of the city center into free zones, where criminals and killers could find refuge, untouchable by the law.

[13] Regarding the liberty of quarters issue, Créqui demanded that the pope extend it well behind the limit of Palazzo Farnese, including via Giulia, which was part of the way along which the Corsican soldiers had to walk each day in order to reach the Carceri Nuove (the state prison) from their barracks at the Trinità dei Pellegrini.

[14] A page of Lady Créqui was mortally wounded, and Louis XIV took advantage of the incident to escalate the confrontation with the Holy See, already started under the government of Cardinal Mazarin.

[14] The Pope and the Governor of Rome, Cardinal Lorenzo Imperiali, acknowledged the gravity of the incident at once, and dismissed the Corsicans immediately, nominating a commission to decide the amount of the indemnity to France.

[14] These included the immediate dissolution of the Corsican Guard, the issuing of an anathema against Corsica, the hanging in retaliation of a number of soldiers and condemnation to service in galleys as rowers for many others, the removal of Cardinal Imperiali from his office of Governor of Rome, the banishment of the commander of the Guardia Corsa, Mario Chigi, brother of the Pope, and the erection near the barracks of the Guard by the Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini of a "pyramid of infamy" which would curse forever the Corsicans who had dared to challenge French authority.

[19] With the humiliating Treaty of Pisa signed on February 12, 1664, the Corsican Guard was disbanded forever and some soldiers hanged, the pyramid of infamy was erected, and Mario Chigi was exiled from Rome.

[14][20] In exchange, the seized papal territories were returned, but in July, in Fontainebleau, the Cardinal-nephew and son of Mario, Flavio Chigi, was forced to humiliate himself and present the apologies of Rome to the King of France, who four years later gave permission to demolish the monument of infamy.