[2] Horatio's parents, Tobias Palavicino and his wife Battina Spínola, were involved in managing the papal monopoly on alum, which they had received from close relatives, the Grimaldi family.
[3] Palavicino's position as a collector of political intelligence was equally important, and his numerous commercial correspondents frequently enabled him to forestall all other sources of information.
In 1585, when Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, was imprisoned, he sought the aid of Palavicino, as being "an honest man", in preparing his defence.
On 7 February 1585–6, Palavicino was recommended by Burghley to Leicester in the Low Countries, and in the same year, he was granted a patent of denization.
He was consulted by Burghley about raising money to meet the invasion, equipped a vessel at his own cost, and was present as a volunteer during the operations in the Channel and at Calais.
He wrote to Alexander Farnese, the Spanish commander in the Netherlands, suggesting a scheme by which Alexander was to assume the sovereignty of the Netherlands to the exclusion of Philip, was to guarantee the Cautionary Towns to Elizabeth until her advances to the Dutch had been repaid, and to receive the support and perpetual alliance of England.
The Queen owed him nearly £29,000, which subsequently formed a matter of frequent dispute between his sons and the government, and was never fully paid.
Subsequently, another family member, Peter Palavicino, came to England as a merchant, was knighted on 19 June 1687, and died in February 1694.