Donna Olimpia Maidalchini Pomphilji was born in 1591 to a humble family in Italy. When she was fifteen, her father tried to imprison her in a convent to avoid paying a dowery. Olimpia defied him and married the wealthiest man in town. Her husband died three years later, leaving her a wealthy widow.
In 1612, at twenty-one, she married fifty-one-year-old Pamphilio Pamphilj, trading her wealth to obtain a title. She would now be known as Lady Olimpia. Olimpia took her brother-in-law, thirty-eight-year-old Monsignor Pamphilj, under her wing to help him climb the Vatican ladder to Cardinal.