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The Guelphs and Ghibellines (/ ˈ ɡ w ɛ l f s ... ˈ ɡ ɪ b ɪ l aɪ n z / GWELFS... GHIB-il-ynze, US also /-l iː n z,-l ɪ n z /-eenz, -inz; Italian: guelfi e ghibellini [ˈɡwɛlfi e ɡibelˈliːni,-fj e-]) were factions supporting respectively the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy during the Middle Ages.
Corso and the Black Guelphs petitioned Pope Boniface VIII for aid, and returned to Florence with Charles of Valois in November 1301, killing or exiling many White Guelphs. One of the exiled was the famous poet Dante Alighieri , who by marrying Gemma Donati had become a distant relative of Corso.
After defeating the Ghibellines, the Guelphs divided into two factions: the White Guelphs (Guelfi Bianchi)—Dante's party, led by Vieri dei Cerchi—and the Black Guelphs (Guelfi Neri), led by Corso Donati. Although the split was along family lines at first, ideological differences arose based on opposing views of the papal role in Florentine ...
Since the Welf dynasty sided with the Pope in this controversy, partisans of the Pope came to be known in Italy as Guelphs (Guelfi). The first genealogy of the Welfs is the Genealogia Welforum, composed shortly before 1126. A much more detailed history of the dynasty, the Historia Welforum, was composed around 1170. It is the earliest history ...
By this time, the Guelphs began to fight among themselves. Guido Cavalcanti allied himself to the Cerchi, and outwardly expressed his disdain for his rival, Corso Donati. [3] In 1300, Florence was divided into the Black Guelphs and the White Guelphs. The Blacks continued to support the Papacy, while the Whites were opposed to Papal influence.
The Ghibellines resumed power and undid many of the advances of the Guelphs, for example the demolition of hundreds of towers, homes, and palaces. The fragility of their rule caused the Ghibellines to seek out an arbitrator in the form of Pope Clement IV , who openly favoured the Guelphs, and restored them to power.
In the 13th century, the states of Italy were beset by the strife of two parties, the Ghibellines and the Guelphs.While the conflict was local and personal in origin, the parties had come to be associated with the two universal powers: the Ghibellines sided with the Holy Roman Emperor and his rule of Italy, while the Guelphs sided with the Pope, who supported self-governing city-states.
By the time of Dante's exile, the Guelphs, who had supported the influence of the papacy in Italy over the Ghibelline preference for the Holy Roman Emperor, had splintered into "white" and "black" factions divided over support for pope Boniface VIII. The white Guelphs, to which Dante belonged, favoured Florentine autonomy and opposed Boniface ...