TheGuelphs andGhibellines (/ˈɡwɛlfs ... ˈɡɪbɪlaɪnz/GWELFS ...GHIB-il-ynze,US also/-liːnz,-lɪnz/-eenz, -inz;Italian:guelfi e ghibellini[ˈɡwɛlfieɡibelˈliːni,-fje-]) were factions supporting thepope (Guelphs) and theHoly Roman emperor (Ghibellines) in theItalian city-states ofCentral andNorthern Italy during theMiddle Ages. During the 12th and 13th centuries, rivalry between these two parties dominated political life acrossItaly. The struggle for power between the Papacy and theHoly Roman Empire arose with theInvestiture Controversy, which began in 1075 and ended with theConcordat of Worms in 1122.
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The conflict between Guelphs and Ghibellines arose from the political divisions caused by theInvestiture Controversy, about whether secular rulers or the pope had the authority to appoint bishops and abbots. Upon the death ofEmperor Henry V, of theSalian dynasty, the dukes elected an opponent of his dynasty,Lothair III, as the new emperor. This displeased the house ofHohenstaufen, who were allied with and related to the old dynasty.[5] Out of fear of the Hohenstaufen, Lothair III placed himself under the pope's protection. To this end, he ceded all Imperial rights to the pope under Henry V'sConcordat of Worms. War then broke out in Germany between those who supported the Hohenstaufen, and those who were aligned to Lothair and the pope. Upon Lothair's death, the HohenstaufenConrad III was elected, while Lothair's heir,Henry the Proud, of theHouse of Welf, continued fighting.[6]
Guelph (often spelledGuelf; in ItalianGuelfo, pluralGuelfi) is anItalian form of the name of theHouse of Welf, the family of the dukes ofBavaria (including the namesake DukeWelf II of Bavaria, as well asHenry the Lion). The Welfs were said to have used the name as a rallying cry during theSiege of Weinsberg in 1140, in which the rivalHohenstaufens (led by Conrad III) used "Wibellingen" (the name of a castle today known asWaiblingen, as their cry; "Wibellingen" subsequently becameGhibellino in Italian).[7][8] Thus, the Hohenstaufen faction became known as the Ghibellines and the Welfs eventually became known as the Guelphs. The Ghibellines were the imperial party, while the Guelphs supported the pope. Cities more directly threatened by the enlargement of thePapal States tended to align with the Ghibelline faction, while the cities that wanted more autonomy from the Empire tended to belong to the Guelph faction. The clash between the municipalities of Northern Italy and imperial power originated in thestruggle for investitures.[9] The GuelphLombard League defeated EmperorFrederick Barbarossa at theBattle of Legnano in 1176. Frederick recognized the full autonomy of the cities of the Lombard league under his nominalsuzerainty.[10]
The conflict between the two factions dominated the politics of medieval Italy, and persisted long after the confrontation between emperor and pope had ceased. Smaller cities tended to be Ghibelline if the larger city nearby was Guelph. For example, GuelphRepublic of Florence and GhibellineRepublic of Siena faced off at theBattle of Montaperti, 1260.[11]Pisa maintained a staunch Ghibelline stance against her fiercest rivals, the GuelphRepublic of Genoa and Florence. Local or regional political reasons motivated political alignments. Within cities, party allegiances differed fromguild to guild,rione torione, and a city could easily change party after internal upheavals. The conflicts between Guelphs and Ghibellines ended in the 14th century with the creation of a new situation, where the State and the laity began to withdraw from any ecclesiastical interference.[12]
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At the beginning of the 13th century,Philip of Swabia, a Hohenstaufen, andOtto of Brunswick, a Welf, wererivals for the imperial throne. Philip was supported by the Ghibellines as a son of Frederick I, while Otto was supported by the Guelphs. Although the Guelphs initially succeeded in getting Otto crowned as Emperor, Otto turned against the Papacy, was excommunicated, and was replaced with Philip's heirEmperor Frederick II.[13] Frederick II was an enemy of both Otto and the papacy, and during Frederick's reign, the Guelphs became more strictly associated with the papacy while the Ghibellines became supporters of the Empire and Frederick in particular.Pope Gregory IX excommunicated Frederick II in 1227 for failing to go on Crusade, then again for going on theSixth Crusade (1228–1229) while excommunicated. While Frederick was in theCrusader states, this division developed there, and his regent in Italy fought awar with the Pope. That war was ended and the excommunication was lifted in 1230, but the hostility continued.
In 1237, Frederick entered Italy with a large army, intending to subdue the defiant cities of theLombard League. Pope Gregory tried to broker a peace, but failed. Frederickdefeated the League at Cortenuova and refused all peace offers from them. Hebesieged Brescia but was repulsed. In 1239, Frederick was again excommunicated by Pope Gregory. In response, he expelledFranciscan and theDominican friars from Lombardy and made his sonEnzo Imperial vicar in Italy. He also annexedRomagna,Marche, theDuchy of Spoleto, and part of thePapal States, and marched through Tuscany hoping to captureRome. He was forced to retreat, sacking the city ofBenevento. Soon the Ghibelline city ofFerrara fell and Frederick once more advanced, capturingRavenna andFaenza. The Pope convened a council, but an Imperial-Pisan fleet defeated a Papal fleet carrying cardinals and prelates from Genoa in theBattle of Giglio. Frederick approached Rome. Meanwhile, Pope Gregory died. Frederick withdrew his forces and freed two cardinals he had jailed in Capua. However, Frederick marched again against Rome throughout 1242 and 1243.
A new pope –Innocent IV – was elected. At first, Frederick was pleased with the election since Innocent had relatives in the Imperial camp. However, the new Pope immediately turned against Frederick. When the City ofViterbo rebelled, the Pope backed the Guelphs. and Frederick immediately marched to Italy and besiegedViterbo. The pope signed a peace treaty with the emperor, relieving the city. After the Emperor left, CardinalRaniero Capocci, leader of Viterbo, had the garrison massacred. The Pope made another treaty but he immediately broke it and continued to back the Guelphs. The Pope supportedHenry Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia as King of the Romans and soon plotted to have Frederick killed. After an attempted assassination failed, the pope fled toLiguria. Soon the tide turned against the imperial party. The Lombard city of Parma rebelled. Enzo – who had not been present – asked his father for help. Frederick andEzzelino III da Romano, the Tyrant of Verona, laid siege to the city. The imperial camp was ambushed by the Guelphs and in the ensuingBattle of Parma the imperial party was routed, losing much of their treasury.
Frederick lost his momentum against the rebellious communes in the immediate future. Sensing this, Innocent began plans for a crusade against Sicily. Frederick soon recovered and rebuilt an army, but this defeat encouraged resistance in many cities that could no longer bear the fiscal burden of his regime: parts of the Romagna, Marche and Spoleto were lost. In May 1248, Frederick's illegitimate son Richard ofChieti defeated a papal army led by Hugo Novellus nearCivitanova Marche and recaptured some areas of the Marche and Spoleto. Basing himself in Piedmont in June, Frederick hosted many nobles of northern Italy and ambassadors from foreign kings in his court, and his deposition, it seems, had not diminished his fame or preeminence.[14] Nevertheless, it was only by strenuous, even unrelenting effort that Frederick was able to stabilize the situation by the close of 1248 and replenish his coffers, raising some 130,000 gold ounces.[15] Frederick remained confident but after several years of war and conspiracy, he was increasingly suspicious and wearied.
The Ghibellines were eventually defeated in theBattle of Fossalta against the army of Bologna. Enzo was captured. Enzo was held in a palace in Bologna, where he remained captive until his death in 1272. Richard of Chieti was also killed in 1249, possibly in the same battle. Frederick named Manfred as Legate General of Italy to replace the now captive Enzo.
The struggle continued: the Empire lostComo andModena, but regainedRavenna. From early 1250, the situation progressively favoured Frederick II. In the first month of the year, the indomitable Ranieri of Viterbo died, depriving pro-papal leadership in Italy of an implacable foe of Frederick. An army sent to invade the Kingdom of Sicily under the command of Cardinal Pietro Capocci was crushed in the Marche at theBattle of Cingoli and Imperialcondottieri again reconquered the Romagna, the Marche and Spoleto.Conrad, King of the Romans, scored several victories in Germany against William of Holland and forced the pro-papal Rhenish archbishops to sign a truce. Innocent IV was increasingly isolated as support for the papal cause dwindled rapidly in Germany, Italy, and across Europe generally. Frederick of Antioch had relatively stabilized Tuscany as imperial vicar and podestà of Florence. Piacenza changed allegiances to Frederick andOberto Pallavicino, Imperial vicar of Lombardy, recaptured Parma and a swathe of central Lombardy. Ezzelino da Romano held Verona, Vicenza, Padua and theTrevisan March along with most of eastern Lombardy. Only Milan, Brescia, Modena, Mantua, Ferrara, and Bologna held out. Genoa was threatened by Frederick's allies and Venice's support for Innocent and the League waned. Even with imperial prospects brightening however, areas of Italy had been ravaged by years of war and even the resources of the wealthy and prosperous Kingdom of Sicily were strained. Frederick's unified regime in Italy and Sicily was despotic and brutal, imposing harsh taxes and ruthlessly suppressing dissent. Nevertheless, that his administrative system consistently recovered in the face of reversals remains an impressive feat.
Frederick, however, did not take part in any of the campaigns of 1250. He had been ill and likely felt tired, withdrawing to the Kingdom of Sicily where he remained for much of the year. Suddenly on 13 December 1250, however, after a persistent attack of dysentery, Frederick died inCastel Fiorentino (territory ofTorremaggiore), inApulia. Despite the betrayals, setbacks, and flux of fortune he had faced in his last years, Frederick died peacefully, reportedly wearing the habit of aCistercian monk. Of his father's death, Manfred wrote to Conrad in Germany, "The sun of justice has set, the maker of peace has passed away."[16]
At the time of Frederick's death, his preeminent position in Europe was challenged but certainly not lost.[17] The political situation remained fluid and the victories of 1250 had put Frederick seemingly in the ascendant once again. Everywhere Innocent IV's fortunes seemed dire: the papal treasury was depleted, his anti-king William of Holland had been defeated by Conrad in Germany and forced to submit while no other European monarch proved willing to offer much support for fear of Frederick's ire. In Italy, Frederick's lieutenants and partisans had recaptured much of the territories lost in the last two years; he was in a strong position and he prepared to march on Lyon in the new year. Despite the economic strains placed on theRegno, support from the Emperor of Nicaea,John III Doukas Vatatzes, enabled Frederick to relatively refill his coffers and resupply his forces. After the failure of Louis IX's crusade in Egypt, Frederick had skillfully imaged himself as the aggrieved party against the papacy, hindered by Innocent's machinations from supporting the campaign. Frederick won growing support on the wider diplomatic stage. Only his death halted this momentum. His testament left Conrad the Imperial and Sicilian crowns. Manfred received the principality ofTaranto, 100,000 gold ounces, and regency over Sicily and Italy while his half-brother remained in Germany. Henry Charles Otto, Frederick's son by Isabella of England, received 100,000 gold ounces and theKingdom of Arles or that ofJerusalem, while the son ofHenry VII was entrusted with the Duchy of Austria and theMarch of Styria. Perhaps aiming to lay stones for a potential peace settlement between Conrad and Innocent—or a final crafty scheme to further demonstrate papal prejudice against him, Frederick's will stipulated that all the lands he had taken from the Church were to be returned to it, all the prisoners freed, and the taxes reduced, provided this did not damage the Empire's prestige. In peacefully passing on his realms to his sons Frederick accomplished perhaps the main goal of any ruler. At his death, the Hohenstaufen empire remained the leading power in Europe and its security seemed assured in the persons of his sons.
After the death of Frederick II in 1250, the Ghibellines were supported by Conrad IV and later KingManfred of Sicily. The Guelphs were supported byCharles I of Naples.[7] The Ghibellines ofSiena defeated the Florentine Guelphs at theBattle of Montaperti (1260). After the Hohenstaufen dynasty lost the Empire when Charles I executedConradin in 1268, the terms Guelph and Ghibelline became associated with individual families and cities, rather than with the conflict between empire and papacy. The stronghold of Italian Ghibellines was the city ofForlì, inRomagna. That city remained with the Ghibelline factions, partly as a means of preserving its independence, rather than out of loyalty to the temporal power, asForlì was nominally in the Papal States. Over the centuries, the papacy tried several times to regain control of Forlì, sometimes by violence or by allurements.
The division between Guelphs and Ghibellines was especially important inFlorence. The two factions frequently fought each other over power in many other northern Italian cities. The two sides were now fighting either against German influence (in the case of the Guelphs) or against the temporal power of the Pope (in the case of the Ghibellines).[7] In Florence and elsewhere, the Guelphs usually included merchants and burghers, while the Ghibellines tended to be noblemen. To identify themselves, people adopted distinctive customs such as wearing a feather on a particular side of their hats, or cutting fruit a particular way, according to their affiliation.
The conflict between Guelphs and Ghibellines was important in theRepublic of Genoa, where the former were calledrampini ("grappling hooks") and the lattermascherati ("masked"), although the origin of these terms is not clear.[18] Local families likeFieschi andGrimaldi usually sided with the Guelph party, in conflict with theDoria and some branches of theSpinola families. WhileGenoa was often under Guelph rule in the early years of the 13th century, in 1270, GhibellinesOberto Spinola andOberto Doria revolted against the Guelphs and established a separate government which lasted a couple of decades. Guelph families fled to their strongholds east (Fieschi) and west (Grimaldi). They were forced to cease their resistance after several military campaigns: they were again accepted in the city's political life, after paying war expenses.
After the Tuscan Guelphs finally defeated the Ghibellines in 1289 at theBattle of Campaldino and atVicopisano, the Guelphs began infighting. By 1300, the Florentine Guelphs had divided into the Black and White Guelphs. The Blacks continued to support the Papacy, while the Whites were opposed to Papal influence, specifically the influence ofPope Boniface VIII.Dante was among the supporters of the White Guelphs. In 1302 he was exiled when the Black Guelphs took control of Florence.[19]
Those who were not connected to either side or who had no connections to either Guelphs or Ghibellines considered both factions unworthy of support but were still affected by changes of power in their respective cities. EmperorHenry VII was disgusted by supporters of both sides when he visited Italy in 1310. In 1325, the city-states of GuelphBologna and GhibellineModena clashed in theWar of the Bucket, resulting in Modena's victory at theBattle of Zappolino, which led to a resurgence of Ghibelline fortunes. In 1334,Pope Benedict XII threatened people who used either the Guelph or Ghibelline name withexcommunication.
The term Ghibelline continued to indicate allegiance to the declining Imperial authority in Italy, and saw a brief resurgence during the Italian campaigns of EmperorsHenry VII (1310) andLouis IV (1327).[20] Since the Pope grantedSicily (Southern Italy) to the French princeCharles I of Anjou, the Guelphs took a pro-French stance. As late as the 16th century, Ghibellines like the Colonna or Gonzaga still fought forCharles V, Holy Roman Emperor, while Guelphs like theOrsini and Este still fought for the French.[21] During the French-dominatedAvignon Papacy,Pope John XXII, who supported the French-allied KingJohn of Bohemia, excommunicated John's rival Emperor Louis IV in 1324 and threatened heresy charges against the Ghibellines. The Ghibellines then supported Louis' invasion of Italy and coronation as King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor.[22] The conflict over Naples broke out again when it wasconquered by Aragon in 1442 and remained fought over between theHabsburgs andBourbons until the Bourbons gained control for good followingWar of the Polish Succession in 1735.
InMilan, the Guelphs and Ghibellines cooperated in the creation of theGolden Ambrosian Republic in 1447. However, over the next few years they engaged in intense disputes. After the initial leadership of the Ghibellines, the Guelphs seized power at the election of the Captains and Defenders of the Liberty of Milan. The Guelph government became increasingly autocratic, leading to a Ghibelline conspiracy led by Giorgio Lampugnino and Teodoro Bossi. It failed, and many Ghibellines were massacred in 1449.[23] Others fled, including the prominent GhibellineVitaliano I Borromeo, who was sheltered in hisCounty of Arona. Public opinion turned against the Guelphs. In the next elections the Ghibellines were briefly victorious, but were deposed after imprisoning Guelph leaders Giovanni Appiani and Giovanni Ossona.[23] AfterFrancesco I Sforza was made Duke by Milan's senate in 1450, many Ghibellines who had fled such as Filippo Borromeo and Luisino Bossi were restored to positions of prominence in Milan.[24]
In the 15th century, the Guelphs supportedCharles VIII of France during his invasion of Italy at the start of theItalian Wars, while the Ghibellines were supporters of the emperorMaximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. Cities and families used the names untilCharles V, Holy Roman Emperor, consolidated the imperial power over Italy in 1529. In the course of the Italian Wars of 1494 to 1559, the political landscape changed radically and the division between Guelphs and Ghibellines became irrelevant. This became evident with the election ofPope Paul V (1605), the first to bear the "Ghibelline"Reichsadler inchief on hisPapal coat of arms.
On 25 March 2015, theParte Guelfa was reconstituted as a Christian order andarchconfraternity to serve theCatholic Church and the Catholic Archdiocese of Florence, guided by the Captain-General Andrea Claudio Galluzzo under the custody of Consul Luciano Artusi. The Mayor ofFlorence established the headquarters of the reborn Guelph Party in the historicPalazzo di Parte Guelfa in the city.[25]
| Main Ghibelline cities | Main Guelph cities | Cities of variable allegiance |
|---|---|---|
| Main Ghibelline families | Main Guelph families | Families of variable allegiance |
|---|---|---|
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Some individuals and families indicated their faction affiliation in theircoats of arms by including an appropriateheraldic "chief" (a horizontal band at the top of the shield). Guelphs had acapo d'Angiò or "chief of Anjou", containingyellow fleurs-de-lys on a blue field, with a red heraldic "label", while Ghibellines had acapo dell'impero or "chief of the empire", with a form of theblack German imperial eagle on a golden background.[26] Families also distinguished their factional allegiance by the architecture of their palaces, towers, and fortresses. Ghibelline structures had "swallow-tailed" crenellations, while those of the Guelphs were square.[27]
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During the 12th and 13th centuries, armies of the Ghibelline communes usually adopted thewar banner of the Holy Roman Empire – white cross on a red field – as their own. Guelph armies usually reversed the colors – red cross on white. These two schemes are prevalent in the civic heraldry of northern Italian towns and remain a revealing indicator of their past factional leanings.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Gardner, Edmund Garratt (1910). "Guelphs and Ghibellines". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
ItalianWikisource has original text related to this article:Istorie fiorentine
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