Guelphs and Ghibellines

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Guelph-Ghibelline wars
Part of Investiture Controversy
Guelfi e ghibellini.jpg
Painting of the Guelph and Ghibelline families, by Ottavio Baussano (Asti).
Date 1120s – 1320s
Location Italian Peninsula
Result Pacification between the two parties
Italian city-states and communes
Coat of Arms of Brunswick-Lüneburg.svg House of Welf
Supported by:
CoA Pontifical States 02.svg Papal States
CoA civ ITA milano.png Lombard League
Arms of the Kingdom of Naples.svg Kingdom of Naples
Hohenstaufen family arms.svg House of Staufen
Supported by:
King Manfred of Sicily Arms.svg Kingdom of Sicily
Commanders and leaders
Coat of arms of the House of Este (1239).svg Azzo VII d'Este
Argent a chief gules.svg William VII of Montferrat
CoA civ ITA milano.png Alberto da Giussano
CoA Pontifical States 02.svg Ottaviano degli Ubaldini
Blason famille it Montefeltro01.svg Guido I da Montefeltro
Arms of the Kingdom of Naples.svg Charles I of Naples
Armoiries empereurs Hohenstaufen.svg Frederick I Barbarossa
Armoiries Henri VII de Luxembourg.svg Henry VII
EzzdaRomcoa.jpg Ezzelino III da Romano
Arms of Sardinia.svg Enzo of Sardinia
King Manfred of Sicily Arms.svg Manfred of Sicily 
Units involved
Armies of the Papal States
Cities' guards
Army of the Holy Roman Empire
Cities' guards
Unknown Unknown

The Guelphs and Ghibellines (/ɡwɛlfs/; /ˈɡɪblnz/, also US /ˈɡɪbəlnz/, /ˈɡɪbələnz/; Italian: guelfi e ghibellini [ˈɡwɛlfi e ɡɡibelˈliːni]) were factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, in the Italian city-states of central and northern Italy. During the 12th and 13th centuries, rivalry between these two parties formed a particularly important aspect of the internal politics of medieval Italy. The struggle for power between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire had arisen with the Investiture Controversy, which began in 1075 and ended with the Concordat of Worms in 1122. The division between the Guelphs and Ghibellines in Italy, however, persisted until the 15th century.


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13th–14th centuries[edit]



After the Sixth Crusade, Frederick II quelled a rebellion led by his son Henry in Germany, and soon Invaded Lombardy with a large Army, Pope Gregory IX attempted to stop the Invasion with diplomacy but failed, Frederick defeated the Lombard League in the Battle of Cortenuova and refused any Peace treaty with any of the Guelph States, he then laid to Brescia but was forced to lift it, he was then excommunicated by the Pope, and in response expelled the friars from Lombardy and placed his son Enzo as Imperial vicar in Italy, he quickly annexed Romagna, Marche, and the Duchy of Spoleto as well as part of the Papal States. In the meantime Frederick marched through Tuscany hoping to capture Rome, however he was forced to retreat sacking the city of Benevento, soon however the Ghibelline city of Ferrara fell and Frederick once more marched into Italy capturing Ravenna and Faenza, The Pope called a council but an Imperial-Pisan fleet defeated a Papal fleet carrying Cardinals and prelates from Genoa in the Battle of Giglio and then Frederick continued marching towards Rome however Pope Gregory soon died and Frederick seeing the war being directed against the Church not the Pope, withdrew his forces releasing two cardinals from Capua, although Frederick did again march against Rome over and over throughout 1242 and 1243.

A new Pope Innocent IV was elected, at first Frederick was content with the election since Innocent had relatives in the Imperial camp, however Immediately the new Pope turned against Frederick, when the City of Viterbo rebelled the pope backed the Guelphs, Frederick immediately marched to Italy and besieged Viterbo the Pope signed a Peace treaty with the Emperor relieving the city, however after the Emperor left the Cardinal Raniero Capocci the leader in Viterbo, had the Garrison massacred, the Pope made another treaty but he immediately broke it and continued to back the Guelphs, the Pope also supported Henry Raspe, Landgrave of Thuringia as King of the Romans and soon plotted to have Frederick killed but this failed and the Pope fled to Liguria, however soon things turned bad for the Imperials, the Lombard city of Parma rebelled and Enzo who was not present asked his father for help. Frederick and Ezzelino III da Romano the Tyrant of Verona besieged the city, however the Imperial Camp was ambushed by the Guelphs and in the ensuing Battle of Parma the Imperials were routed, losing much of their treasury, Frederick retreated and gathered another Army but the resistance of Parma encouraged other cities to rebel and frederick was powerless to do anything, things turned worse for the Imperials, the Ghibellines were defeated in the Battle of Fossalta by the Bolognese, where Enzo was captured and Imprisoned where he would die, although the Ghibellines did start recovering defeating the Guelphs in the Battle of Cingoli, Frederick by then was ill, however, before he died much of his territory was recovered by his son Conrad, King of the Romans, thus leaving Italy at peace for very few years.




Later history[edit]





Allegiance of the main Italian cities[edit]

Main Ghibelline cities Main Guelph cities Variable adherence cities

In heraldry[edit]




In literature and popular culture[edit]

In literature[edit]

  • In Dante Alighieri's Inferno (1300s), participants in the conflict are featured prominently. For example, Mosca dei Lamberti is the character suffering in hell for the schism for which he was held responsible.[5]
  • In The Decameron (1350s) by Giovanni Boccaccio, one of the ladies is a firm adherent of the Ghibellines to the point where she will not even praise Charlemagne.
  • In the notes to the poem The Shepheardes Calender (1579), English poet Edmund Spenser's annotator E. K. claimed (incorrectly) that the words "Elfs" and "Goblins" derive etymologically from Guelphs and Ghibellines.
  • Valperga (1823) is a historical novel by Mary Shelley influenced heavily by both Dante and Boccaccio, that deals directly with the Guelph and Ghibelline conflict. Its central figure, Castruccio Castracani, is a Ghibelline, while his love, the Duchess of Valperga, is a Guelph.
  • In The Cantos (1915–1962), Ezra Pound makes repeated mention of both Guelfs and Ghibellines. The pro-Papal Guelfs are associated with usury and corruption while the pro-Imperial Ghibellines are associated with law and order. The famous "fascist" canto, LXXII, makes mention of Ezalino (who would appear to be the sometime-Ghibelline leader Ezzelino III da Romano), "who didn't believe the world was made by a jew" (i.e., he rejected papal and Christian claims and embraced the antisemitism of World War II in the fascist milieu in which the Canto was written).
  • In Christ Stopped at Eboli (1945), Carlo Levi compares the peasants and gentry of Agliano Terme to the Guelphs and Ghibellines, respectively, with the Fascist government as the Holy Roman Empire and the desire to be left alone for local rule as the Papacy.
  • In The Quentaris Chronicles fantasy book series (2003–2009), the Duelphs and Nibhellines are feuding families based on the Guelphs and Ghibellines.
  • In Schopenhauer’s essay “On Women”,[6] he claimed that women are usually unfriendly toward each other.[7] The reason is that “…with women only one thing is decisive, namely, which man they please.”[8] Schopenhauer asserted that “Even when they meet in the street, women look at one another like Guelphs and Ghibellines.[9]

In movies[edit]

poster of The Flame and the Arrow (1950)

See also[edit]


  5. ^ "You will remember Mosca, too, who said alas 'What's done is at an end, which was the seed of evil for the Tuscans'. I added: and brought death to your own kinsmen; then having heard me speak, grief heaped on grief." (Inferno, XXVIII, lines 106-110)
  6. ^ Parerga and Paralipomena, Volume 2, Chapter 27, § 368
  7. ^ ”…between women there is already, by nature, hostility….” (zwischen Weibern ist schon von Natur Feindschaft)
  8. ^ …bei ihnen (Weibern) nur eine entscheidet, nämlich: welchem Manne sie gefallen haben.
  9. ^ Schon beim Begegnen auf der Straße sehn sie einander an wie Guelfen und Ghibellinen.

External links[edit]