 Assisi then came under the rule of the Lombards as part of the Lombard and then Frankish Duchy of Spoleto.The thriving commune became an independent Ghibelline commune in the 11th century.Constantly struggling with the Guelph Perugia, it was during one of those battles, the battle at Ponte San Giovanni, that Francesco di Bernardone (Saint Francis of Assisi) was taken prisoner, setting in motion the events that eventually led him to live as a beggar, renounce the world and establish the Order of Friars Minor.