Toynbee "Guiglielmo_3"
William VII (or V), surnamed Spadalunga ('Longsword'), marquis of Montferrat and Canavese, 1254-92. D. places him among the Negligent Princes, but in an inferior position as being of lower rank, in the valley of fiowers in Ante-Purgatory, [Purg. vii. 133-136] [Antipurgatorio]; some think that he is il buono Marchese di Monferrato, who is commended for his liberality, Conv. IV. xi. 14, but the reference is almost certainly to his ancestor, Boniface II [Monferrato]. [See P. Toynbee, SR, pp. 146-148.]

William, who was the son of Boniface III, marquis of Montferrat and titular king of Salonica (1225-54), was twice married -- first, in 1257, to Isabella, daughter of Richard, earl of Gloucester, by whom he had two daughters, Isabella (married in 1271 to Don Juan, son of Alfonso X of Castile), and Iolanthe (called Irene by the Greeks, married in 1284 to Andronicus Paleologus II, emperor of Constantinople), secondly, in 1271, to Beatrice, daughter of Alfonso X of Castile (and sister of Don Juan to whom his eldest daughter, Isabella, had been married), by whom he had a son John, who succeeded him (1292-1305), and a daughter Alasia [Iohannes_3].

Shortly after his accession to power William took advantage of internal dissensions in several of the independent Lombard cities to reduce them to subjection. In 1264 he made an alliance with Charles I of Anjou and aided him in his descent into Italy ({Villani. vii. 4}); but he vigorously opposed him later, when Charles, after the defeat of Manfred and the conquest of Naples, attempted the subjugation of Lombardy. In 1281 William was at the head of a powerful Ghibelline league which included Milan, Vercelli, Novara, Tortona, Alessandria, Asti, Como, and Pavia; in consequence, however of the expulsion of his vicar from Milan, in 1282, by Otto Visconti, archbishop of Milan, several of these towns, Vercelli, Tortona, and Pavia, seceded from the league and joined the Guelphs. By the help of his son-in-law, the emperor of Constantinople, he reduced Tortona; and Vercelli and Pavia submitted to him soon after. In 1290 he marched against Alessandria to quell a rising which had been fostered by the people of Asti, but he was taken prisoner by the Alessandrians, and placed in an iron cage, in which he died (Feb. 6, 1292), after having been exhibited like a wild beast for seventeen months. In order to avenge his death, his son and successor, John I, declared war against Alessandria, but the Alessandrians, with the help of Matteo Visconti, invaded the territory of Montferrat and took possession of Trino, Pontestura, Moncalvo, and several other places. It is to this war that D. alludes, [Purg. vii. 135-136] [Alessandria]. On the death of John, in 1305, the marquisate of Montferrat passed to his nephew, Theodore Paleologus, second son of Irene (Iolanthe) and Andronicus Paleologus [Table XIX].

Benvenuto gives the following account of William of Montferrat, who appears to have incurred the deadly hatred of the cities he subjected:

. . . iste fuit Guillielmus marchio Montisferrati, vir ferox et crudus, tamen valens et potens, qui fuit aliquando capitaneus Mediolani contra Papiam. Iste anno Domini mccxc cum ivisset cum paucis ad civitatem Alexandriae, Alexandrini ad instantiam Astensium, quibus marchio erat inimicus, ceperunt eum proditorie, acceptis magnis pecuniis ab Astensibus, qui sunt pecuniosiores omnibus italicis, caeteris paribus, quia sunt magni usurarii; et mortuus est in carcere praedictorum captivus, imo unus civis saltavit crudeliter super corpus defuncti, et cepit caput eius cum manibus, et percussit ad terram.

Villani, wllose account is incomplete, says:

Nel detto tempo [1290] il marchese di Monferrato il quale essendo venuto nella città d'Alessandria in Lombardia, ch'egli tenea sotto sua signoria, i cittadini di quella, a petizione e sommossa degli Astigiani di cui egli era nimico (e ciò fu per gli molti danari ch'elli spesono ne' traditori d'Alessandria) i quali per tradimento presono il detto marchese e misonlo in pregione. ({Villani. i. 42}.)

[For further biographical details, see A. Bozzola, 'Guglielmo Marchese', Boll. stor. bibliogr. subalpino, xxiii (1921), 135-149.]

©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee (1968) by permission of Oxford University Press