FLORENTINE REPUBLIC IN 13TH CENTURY Dante WK II Th
12th C. Consular Commune: earliest reference in Florence 1138 (Siena 1125)
consuls serve for l year: judicial, warfare, treaty functions
aristocratic families dominate: knights & wealthy merchants
intermarry
13th
C. Podestá: outsider, executive brought in to curb noble family
violence
Emperor Frederick II (1220-50) Hohenstaufen
dynasty:
asserts Imperial power in Sicily and Italy,
including right to appoint city officials in communes (eg podestá)
Florence: factions choose sides Guelfs (papacy) or Ghibellines (Empire)
1216 Buondelmonte murder as explanation for Florentine
factions
1248 –1266 urban civil war in Florence between
noble families:
1248 Guelfs forced out of city due to power
of supporters of Empire
Ghibellines (Uberti faction) level towers of Guelf enemies
EXILE as central fact of medieval Italian politics (FUORUSCITI
= exiles)
property confiscated; continue battle from countryside,
"PRIMO POPOLO" 1250-60: first popular govt (popolo
= merchants)
slogan "Popolo e Libertá"
-- Liberty means freedom from Empire
Captain of People: head of popular militia (armi)
allied with guilds (arti)
war for control of Tuscany against Ghibelline cities of Siena and
Pisa
1255 Palazzo del Popolo (later Bargello) start of civic architecture
GUELFISM becomes party of Florentine popolo, symbol of civic patriotism
social basis = lesser
nobility, merchants, newer money
GHIBELLINES:
faction loyal to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation;
represent older feudal landed
aristocracy, resentful of popolo
Manfred, son of Frederick II resumes his father's Italian ambitions
1258 crowned King of Sicily; revives hopes of Ghibelline factions
1258 revolt of Florentine Ghibellines: support from Manfred, Siena
Ghibellines defeated &
exiled by Guelfs
Ghibellines now seen as
traitors due to support of Siena
houses, towers of Uberti & other Ghibellines razed
in revenge for 1248
(site of Uberti houses later becomes Piazza della Signoria)
1260 BATTLE OF MONTAPERTI: Siena (Ghibelline) victory over
Florentine Guelfs
Florentine army wiped out: Villani Chronicle says 2500 dead; 1500 captured
modern historians estimate 10,000 dead; 20,000 prisoners (army of
70,000 men
FARINATA DEGLI UBERTI (Dante, Inferno 10) = leader of Florentine
Ghibellines
Ghibellines take over Florence, send Florentine Guelf leaders
into exile
Farinata
keeps Siena from razing entire city of Florence
GUELF ALLIANCE: Papacy, France, Guelf
city states; anti-Imperial focus
Pope calls on Charles of Anjou (Angevin/French) to take Sicily from Manfred
l266 BATTLE OF BENEVENTO: Guelf alliance stops Imperial military
threat;
defeat of Manfred by Charles; ends Hohenstaufen rule
in ltaly
GUELF VICTORY in Florence: (1270 Siena & Pisa also conq'd by Guelfs)
1267 Papal/French forces march on Florence, Ghibellines leave without
fight
Exile
of Ghibellines: houses of exiles razed; death sentences in absentia
property confiscated divided in thirds between commune, Parte
Guelfa,
and individual Guelfs damaged by previous Ghibelline confiscations.
= political ruin of Florentine Ghibellines, all defined as traitors
GUILD REGIME in FLORENCE 1282-1434:
loyalties
are to PARTE GUELFA, POPOLO
new office of priors elected for short 2 month terms (mistrust)
priors elected from 21 guilds (7 greater guilds, 14 lesser
guilds)
must be merchants or master craftsmen paying set amount of taxes
Anti-noble agenda: 1289 serfdom abolished in Florentine countryside
by popolo
1293 Ordinances of Justice: exclude nobility from office holding
because of
history of noble violence; only guild members eligible
for office
1295 lesser nobility permitted to register in guild to get political
rights
Dante
joins guild of Physicians and Apothecaries (pharmacists)
Factional split: BLACK GUELFS versus WHITE GUELFS: origins in family
disputes
Black Guelfs:
older Guelf aristocracy closely allied with Papacy (Corso Donati)
White Guelfs:
newer families, money from banking and trade (Vieri dei Cerchi)
accused of pro-Imperial Ghibelline leanings by their
opponents
1300 leaders of both factions exiled by Priors in effort to calm
situation