Toynbee "Ghibellini"

The terms Guelfo and Ghibellino are Italianized forms of the two German names Welf and Waiblingen. Of these, the former was the name of an illustrious family, several members of which had successively been dukes of Bavaria in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The heiress of the last of these intermarried with a younger son of the house of Este; and from them sprang a second line of Guelphs, from whom the royal house of Brunswick is descended. (The British house of Windsor, through the houses of Hanover and Brunswick, are descendants of the Welfs.) Waiblingen was the name of an estate (now a town in Württemberg) in Franconia, whence Conrad II, the Salian (emperor 1024-1239) came, the progenitor, through the female line, of the Swabian emperors. At the election of Lothair in 1125 in succession to Henry V (emperor, 1106-1125), the Swabian family were deprived of what they regarded almost as a hereditary possession; and at this time a hostility appears to have commenced between them and the house of Welf (the name of the original estate in Altdorf, Swabia), who were nearly related to Lothair. In 1071, Henry IV (emperor, 1056-1106) had conferred the Duchy of Bavaria on the Welfs; and in 1080 the Duchy of Swabia had been conferred upon the counts of Hohenstaufen, who represented the Franconian line. The accession of Conrad III of Swabia (emperor, 1138-52) to the imperial throne, and the rebellion of Henry the Proud, the Welf duke of Bavaria and Saxony, gave rise to a bloody struggle between the two houses; and at the Battle of Weinsberg (Dec. 21, 1140) the names Welf and Waiblingen were for the first time adopted as war cries, which were subsequently adopted in Italy as Guelfo and Ghibellino, and became the distinctive appellations of the opposing factions of the pope and the emperor.

They appear to have been first introduced into Italy at the beginning of cent. xiii, when they were adopted by the two leading parties which divided the cities of Lombardy. Machiavelli, however, assigns an earlier date to their introduction, and states that they were first heard at Pistoia during the campaign of Frederick Barbarossa in Tuscany:

Fermossi Federigo a Pisa, desideroso d'insignorirsi di Toscana, e nel riconoscere gli amici e nimici di quella provincia seminò tanta discordia, che fu cagione della rovina di tutta Italia, perchè le parti guelfe e ghibelline moltiplicarono, chiamandosi guelfi quelli che seguivano la chiesa, e ghibellini quelli che seguivano l'imperatore; e a Pistoia in prima fu udito questo nome. (Istorie fiorentine, i. 21.)

R. W. Church ['Dante', in Dante and Other Essays (London, 1891), pp. 14-18] comments:

The names of Guelf and Ghibelline were the inheritance of a contest which, in its original meaning, had been long over. The old struggle between the priesthood and the empire was still kept up traditionally, but its ideas and interests were changed: . . . It had passed over from the mixed region of the spiritual and temporal into the purely political. The cause of the popes was that of the independence of Italy--the freedom and alliance of the great cities of the north, and the dependence of the centre and south on the Roman See. To keep the Emperor out of Italy--to create a barrier of powerful cities agamst him south of the Alps--to form behind themselves a compact territory, rich, removed from the first burst of invasion, and maintaining a strong body of interested feudatories, had now become the great object of the popes....

The two parties did not care to keep in view principles which their chiefs had lost sight of. The Emperor and the Pope were both real powers, able to protect and assist; and they divided between them those who required protection and assistance. Geographical position the rivalry of neighbourhood, family tradition, private feuds, and above all private interest, were the main causes which assigned cities, familes, and individuals to the Ghibelline or Guelf party. One party called themselves the Emperor's liegemen, and their watchword was authority and law; the other side were the liegemen of Holy Church, and their cry was liberty; and the distinction as a broad one is true. But a democracy would become Ghibelline, without scruple, if its neighbour town was Guelf, and among the Guelf liegemen of the Church and liberty the pride of blood and love of power were not a whit inferior to that of their opponents. . . The Ghibellines as a body reflected the worldliness, the licence, the irreligion, the reckless selfishness, the daring insolence, and at the same time the gaiety and pomp, the princely magnificence and generosity and largeness of mind of the house of Swabia; they were the men of the court and camp, imperious and haughty from ancient lineage or the Imperial cause, yet not wanting in the frankness and courtesy of nobility; careless of public opinion and public rights, but not dead to the grandeur of public objects and public services....

The Guelfs, on the other hand, were the party of the middle classes; they rose out of and held to the people ; they were strong by their compactness, their organization in cities, their commercial relations and interests, their command of money. Further they were professedly the party of strictness and religion, a profession which fettered them as little as their opponents were fettered by the respect they claimed for imperial law. But though by personal unscrupulousness and selfishness, and in instances of public vengeance, they sinned as deeply as the Ghibellines, they stood far more committed as a party to a public meaning and purpose-- to improvement in law and the condition of the poor, to a protest against the insolence of the strong, to the encouragement of industry. The genuine Guelf spirit was austere, frugal, independent earnest, religious, fond of its home and Church, and of those celebrations which bound together Church and home, but withal very proud, very intolelant; in its higher form intolerant of evil, but intolerant always to whatever displeased it.

And O. Browning [in Guelphs and Ghibellines: A Short History of Medieval Italy from 1250-1409 (London, 1893), p. 13]:

Speaking generally, the Ghibellines were the party of the Emperor, and the Guelphs the party of the Pope; the Ghibellines were on the side of authority, or sometimes of oppression, the Guelphs were on the side of liberty and self-government. Again, the Ghibellines were the supporters of an universal Empire of which Italy was to be the head, the Guelphs were on the side of national life and national individuality.

Villani relates that the names of Guelph and Ghibelline were introduced into Florence in 1215, on the occasion of the quarrel which arose out of the murder of Buondelmonte de' Buondelmonti by the Amidei on Easter Sunday in that year [Buondelmonti]. He says:

. . . questa morte di messer Bondelmonte fu la cagione e cominciamento delle maladette parti guelfa e ghibellina in Firenze, con tuttochè dinanzi assai erano le sette tra' nobili cittadini e le dette parti, per cagione delle brighe e questioni dalla Chiesa allo 'mperio; ma per la morte del detto messere Bondelmonte tutti i legnaggi de' nobili e altri cittadini di Firenze se ne partiro, e chi tenne co' Bondelmonti che presono la parte guelfa e furonne capo, e chi con gli Uberti che furono capo de' ghibellini, onde alla nostra città seguì molto di male e ruina, come innanzi sarà menzione, e mai non si crede ch'abbia fine, se Iddio nol termina.... I maladetti nomi di parte guelfa e ghibellina, si dice che si criarono prima in Alamagna, per cagione che due grandi baroni di la aveano guerra insieme, e aveano ciascuno uno forte castello l'uno incontro all'altro, che l'uno avea nome Guelfo e l'altro Ghibellino, e durò tanto la guerra, che tutti gli Alamanni se ne partiro, e l'uno tenne l'una parte e l'altro l'altra; e eziandio infino in corte di Roma ne venne la questione, e tutta la corte ne prese parte, e l'una parte si chiamava quella di Guelfo, e l'altra quella di Ghibellino: e così rimasero in Italia i detti nomi. ({Villani v. 38.})

He gives the following list of the Guelph and Ghibelline families in Florence, many of whose names occur in the D.C.:

Per la detta divisione questi furono i legnaggi de' nobili che a quello tempo furono e divennero guelfi in Firenze, contando a sesto a sesto, e simile i ghibellini. Nel sesto d'Oltrarno furono guelfi i Nerli gentiluomini tutto fossero prima abitanti in Mercato vecchio, la casa de' Giacoppi detti Rossi, non però di grande progenia di antichità , e già cominciavano a venire possenti; i Frescobaldi, i Bardi, e' Mozzi, ma di piccolo cominciamento; ghibellini nel sesto d'Oltrarno, de' nobili, i conti da Gangalandi, Obriachi, e Mannelli. Nel sesto di san Piero Scheraggio, i nobili che furono guelfi la casa de' Pulci, i Gherardini, i Foraboschi, i Bagnesi i Guidalotti, i Sacchetti, e' Manieri, e quegli da Quona consorti di quelli da Volognano, i Lucardesi, i Chiaramontesi, i Compiobbesi, i Cavalcanti, ma di poco tempo erano stratti di mercatanti; nel detto sesto furono i ghibellini, la casa degli Uberti, che ne fu capo di parte, i Fifanti, gl'Infangati, e Amidei e quegli da Volognano e Malespini, con tuttochè poi per gli oltraggi degli Uberti loro vicini, eglino e più altri legnaggi di san Piero Scheraggio si feciono guelfi. Nel sesto di Borgo furono guelfi la casa de' Bondelmonti, e furonne capo; la casa de' Giandonati, i Gianfigliazzi, la casa degli Scali, la casa de' Gualterotti, e quella degl'Importuni; i ghibellini del detto sesto, la casa degli Scolari che furono di ceppo consorti de' Bondelmonti, la casa de' Guidi, quella de' Galli e Cappiardi. Nel sesto di san Brancazio furono guelfi i Bostichi, i Tornaquinci, i Vecchietti; i ghibellini del detto sesto furono i Lamberti, i Soldaneri, i Cipriani, i Toschi, e gli Amieri, e Palermini, e Miglioretti, e Pigli, con tuttochè poi parte di loro si fecero guelfi. Nel sesto di porte del Duomo furono in quegli tempi di parte guelfa i Tosinghi, gli Arrigucci, gli Agli, i Sizii; i ghibellini del detto sesto, i Barucci, i Cattani da Castiglione e da Cersino, gli Agolanti, i Brunelleschi, e poi si feciono guelfi parte di loro. Nel sesto di porte san Piero furono de' nobili guelfi gli Adimari, i Visdomini, i Donati, i Pazzi, que' della Bella gli Ardinghi, e' Tedaldi detti que' della Vitella, e gia i Cerchi cominciavano a salire in istato, tutto fossono mercatanti, i ghibellini del detto sesto, i Caponsacchi, i Lisei, gli Abati, i Tedaldini, i Giuochi, i Caligari, e molte altre schiatte d'orrevoli cittadini e popolani tennero l'uno coll'una parte, e l'altro coll'altra, e si mutaro per gli tempi d'animo e di parte, che sarebbe troppa lunga matera a raccontare. E per la detta cagione si cominciaro da prima le maladette parti in Firenze, con tuttochè di prima assai occultamente, pure era parte tra' cittadini nobili, che chiamava la signoria della Chiesa, e chi quella dello 'mperio, ma però in istato e bene del comune tutti erano in concordia. (Villani v. 39)

The struggle between the Guelphs and Ghibellines in Florence continued, with varying fortune to either side, for sixty-three years, from 1215 to 1278, when the Guelphs finally remained masters of the situation. In 1248, the Emperor Frederick II, wishing to retaliate upon the papacy for the unjust sentence pronounced against him at the Council of Lyons, and to weaken the Church party, made offers to the Uberti, the leaders of the Florentine Ghibellines, to help them to expel from their city his enemies and their own; and, his offer being accepted, the Guelphs were driven out of Florence ([Inf. x. 48]). On the death of Frederick (Dec. 13, 1250), the Guelphs were allowed to return ([Inf. x. 49]), and the first pacification between the two parties took place. In 1258 the Ghibellines in their turn were expelled in consequence of their having entered into a conspiracy, at the head of which were the Uberti, with the aid of King Manfred, to break up the popular government of Florence, which was essentially Guelph. The majority of the banished Ghibellines took refuge in Siena, and not long after, with the help of troops supplied by Manfred, they gained under the leadership of Farinata degli Uberti the decisive victory at Montaperti (Sept. 4, 1260) over the Florentine Guelphs, who precipitately fled from Florence and took refuge in Lucca ([Inf. x. 85-93]) [Montaperti: Farinata]. The whole of Tuscany was now in the hands of the Ghibellines. In a few years, however, the tide once more turned against them. Manfred, their champion and protector, was defeated and slain at Benevento (Feb. 26, 1265/6) by Charles of Anjou with the aid of the Tuscan Guelphs; and this reverse was followed by a rising in Florence against the Ghibellines, the most prominent of whom were expelled (Nov. 1266). Shortly after this a second attempt was made to effect a reconciliation between the opposing parties, by means of matrimonial alliances--it was at this time that the daughter of Farinata degli Uberti was married to the Guelph Guido Cavalcanti. In the next year (1267), however, the Guelphs expelled the remaining Ghibellines from Florence, and offered the lordship of the city to Charles of Anjou for 10 years. After this the Ghibellines never regained their influence in Florence; and, though a partial pacification was effected in 1278 by Cardinal Latino at the instance of Pope Nicholas III, the government still remained in the hands of the Guelphs. In 1289 the exiled Ghibellines made an attempt to enter Florence by force of arms, and supported by the Aretines who were in alliance with Pisa against the Tuscan league, they risked a battle at Campaldino (June 11, 1289), where they were totally defeated [Campaldino]. The capitulation of Caprona in the same year completed their defeat [Caprona]. Twenty years later, the hopes of the Ghibellines were once more raised by the advent of the Emperor Henry VII into Italy, only to be finally dashed by his sudden death at Buonconvento, near Siena, Aug. 24, 1313 [Table XXXI].