Ivo Ragazzini

Under the Green Claws

The last of the Ghibellines

An historical account

Original title:

Sotto le Branche Verdi -- Gli Ultimi Ghibellini

Translated by: Rosemary Dawn Allison

Original title: Sotto le Branche Verdi -- Gli Ultimi Ghibellini

English translation by Rosemary Dawn Allison

Under the Green Claws -- The Last of the Ghibellines

© Ivo Ragazzini

All rights reserved

First edition in Italian 2013 -- MJM Edizioni

Second edition in Italian © Ivo Ragazzini -- 2021

Cover:

Patalakha Sergii/Shutterstock.com

The Ordelaffi Coat of Arms the "Green Claws" degli Ordelaffi

© All rights, including translations of the present work into any language are reserved by the author.

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Preface

In 1282, after a long series of hostilities between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, an army, organized by Pope Martin IV, composed of eighteen thousand French and Italian Guelph soldiers, was sent to Romagna to defeat once and for all the last of the Ghibellines who had gathered in Forlì to defend the land, which they considered to be their imperial dominion.

The last of the Italian Ghibellines, who were still faithful to the dictates of Emperor Frederick II, who had been dead for thirty years, converged from all sides to help the people of Forli, who still proudly carried the black imperial eagles on a field of gold, which Frederick II himself had personally given them.

The subject of this book is how things turned out and why this situation evolved.

This book is also about what Romagna represented in ancient times. Romagna is a land rich with traditions and history that have been handed down over the centuries.

It is not that difficult to find out how this land was created and what Romagna was at the time of the Rome Empire, and in fact you will see that this story will investigate a few of these themes.

Sooner or later I'll write a detailed historical account of Romagna, but the real purpose of this book is, and remains, the siege and battle, which involved the last of the Italian Ghibellines and took place in Forlì towards the end of the thirteenth century.

So, as this story will inevitably recount, for the first time ever, much of the information about the true origins of Forlì, the monuments and imperial traditions it inherited and why it became the last stronghold of the Ghibellines.

The book will explain who the Ordelaffi really were, and about the many other forgotten historical figures, such as the astrologer Guido Bonatti and the fighting friar Geremia Gotto, who were then also present among the ranks of the Ghibelline.

Of course it will also tell you the details of how the Ghibellines, commanded by Guido da Montefeltro, an unrivalled Italian captain at the time, defeated and massacred, in one day and one night, a French army of eighteen thousand French and Italian Guelphs who had put siege to them to force their submission to the church.

This historical account is thus dedicated to the honor and pride of the last of the Italian Ghibellines who, refusing to surrender to force of arms, and against all the odds, attacked and defeated the thousands of soldiers who had besieged them for a year. I conclude by telling you that this book will inevitably lead you to discover many other things that history has forgotten, and I gladly offer them for your perusal.

Enjoy this rediscovery.

I.R.

-- Part one --

1. Introduction

Inscription on an old tombstone dated 1282 set into the facade of an ancient funeral monument that was once placed in the center of Piazza Maggiore in Forlì, and had vanished for centuries.¹

PER IL CAPRICCIO DEL ROMANO PONTEFICE MARTINO IIII, GIOVANNI D'APPIA DUCE DELL'ESERCITO FRANCESE IN ITALIA, E I SOLDATI FORLIVESI, SI DIEDERO BATTAGLIA DA ENTRAMBE LE PARTI NEL LUOGO DOVE TI TROVI.

BEN PRESTO DAL POPOLO DIFENSORE FURONO RESPINTI, E TUTTI GLI OTTOMILA COMBATTENTI DISPERSI.

CON ESSI PERSERO LA LORO VITA DUE MILA SOLDATI SCELTI CHE QUI GIACCIONO.

IL DUCE FORLIVESE GUIDO FELTRANO, CALENDIMAGGIO MCCLXXXII (1282).

(On the whim of the Roman pontiff Martin IIII, Giovanni d'Appia duke of the French army in Italy, and the soldiers from Forlì, both parties were in combat in the place you stand.

The defending populace quickly repulsed them, and all eight thousand fighters were killed.

With those who lost their lives were two thousand select soldiers who lie here.

The Forlivese duke Guido Feltrano, May Day MCCLXXXII [1282])2

This plaque was dedicated specifically to the victims of a violent battle that was fought hand to hand, street by street, by the Forlì Ghibellines, inside the walls of their town, against an army made up of French and Italian Guelphs that had been sent by Pope Martin IV.

This plaque and the monument, which at the time proudly indicated the exact place in Piazza Maggiore where the Ghibellines and Guelphs battled for a day and a night and how it ended.

This tombstone is no longer present and these events are recalled by Dante in a few poetic lines.³

But what happened to lead to such a slaughter of citizens?

2. Perugia, town hall in 1281

Pope Martin IV had recently been elected in Viterbo but had been crowned in Orvieto on 23 March 1281 and, because of the serious riots that had broken out on his election, he had recently moved to Perugia.

After a series of long battles fought by the Ghibellines against the Bolognese, the Guelphs of Bologna quickly turned to the new pope to send a French army against the Forlì Ghibellines to punish them.

A group of Bolognese Guelphs received a Ghibelline delegation from Forlì in a crowded room standing before the papal officials.

Present are a legate and a few papal officials, plus several Guelph allies and the powerful Bolognese Guelph faction of the Geremei.

For the Ghibellines there are representatives from the Ordelaffi, the Orgogliosi and the Bolognese Lambertazzi families, a large Ghibelline faction that had been expelled from Bologna and were being hosted by the Forlivese.

The atmosphere immediately becomes agitated and heated:

"We want you to withdraw the request you made to the pope, who is sending a French army against us, and find an honorable and dignified agreement that respects our land and finds a dignified solution for the Lambertazzi who were unjustly expelled from their homes in Bologna several times only because they are Ghibellines," said the head of the Ghibelline delegation Guido Bonatti.⁴

"The Lambertazzi were expelled from Bologna only because of their violent acts and the daily crimes they have committed against our Guelph families, and you have helped them and share their responsibility. If you don't drive them from your land, you will answer for what happens to them, to you and to your people," a Guelph representative of the Geremei quickly answered.

"Our land is imperial. It is illegal to attack a sovereign state only because it grants asylum to people who have been expelled from Bolognese land, all the more so by the Church, which should have received from God the faculty of guaranteeing people the right to land."

"This is false. That land no longer belongs to you. Your emperor Rudolph of Habsburg, the legitimate heir of Frederick II and his dynasty, gave them to us in exchange for his being crowned King of the Romans by Pope Nicholas III⁵ a few years ago, and you should have given them to us some time ago and put yourself at our service. Furthermore, the right to land can only be granted to baptized Christians and not to apostates as are so many Ghibellines," answered a papal legate.

"The gift Rudolf made is not valid, since he never came to claim and take possession of our land as emperor, after the death of Frederick II. Nor did he ever come to Italy to be crowned King of the Romans, so the land does not belong to him. That land was given to us by Frederick II, which means it is ours, we governed and defended the land of the empire and since then it has belonged to us and we intend to defend it," replied the delegation from Forlì.

"That gift, on the other hand, is valid and legitimate since Rudolf gave that land to the pope. If he abandoned you it is not our fault and you should blame him, not us," replied the papal legate.

"How things really went, and what the truth was, is not your unique privilege to show here. You tried to fight us because you are faithful to the empire and we attempted to defend ourselves according to our inherited imperial military traditions, not to fear and never give up in front of the enemy and now, after we have beaten the Bolognese repeatedly and faithfully in all places in Romagna, you have been forced to turn to the King of France to send an army of fanatics to destroy us as they did the Albigensian heretics. This does you no honor," replied the Ghibelline Guido Bonatti.

"This is false, we were defeated because we were betrayed by the Lambertazzi, who made secret agreements with you while they were in Bologna and that is why we chased them from our city and now we will pursue you and them off the land as well. The land belongs to us because it was a gift from Rudolf I Habsburg," replied an angry Guelph noble from the Geremei family.

"You speak with hatred of people who were defeated in battle. You tried to attack us on the plains and in the mountains, you were defeated repeatedly and now you are here requesting assistance from the Pope and the French, thinking you will intimidate us, but you have underestimated our imperial military traditions and the skills of our captain Guido da Montefeltro, which date back to the old military school of Frederick II. We only ask to speak with the pope to halt this army, make peace with Bologna, permit the Lambertazzi to return again to their rightful city and prevent the spilling of more blood on both sides," replied Guido Bonatti.

Voices and whispers of dissent rose instantly from the Bolognese delegation.

"We have already defeated your imperial military traditions in Tagliacozzo and Benevento.⁶ As for you, you have only barbarously attacked and razed the castle of Calboli⁷ to the ground, after they requested a truce in Romagna, and I see no great military traditions in this. As for the Lambertazzi, they will never return to Bologna. And you who protect them only want a safe place to go because you will be banished and banned together with them," replied the noble Guelph of the Geremei.

"You shouldn't believe all the nonsense the losers tell you. The Calboli had requested a truce only after they had failed to hand Romagna over to you. I repeat that you are speaking out of anger and defeat as you were not able to conquer our land, but we are here to resolve these issues. If necessary, we will not give up even in front of the French, but first we want to talk to the new pope so as to prevent more bloodshed and to tell him not to listen to the complaints of defeated people who have no other way to fight us," replied Guido Bonatti firmly.

"No. You won't speak to the pope. The pope, like his predecessor, is tired of hearing your speeches and explanations. You have damaged and destroyed the castle of the Calboli in Romagna, caused the fall of Cesena and Ravenna with your terror, and you have already been excommunicated and banned by the bishop of Ravenna. And now you must submit and expel all the Lambertazzies and Ghibellines from your land, who fervently hate the Guelphs and the church," replied the Geremei noble.

"You have banished the Lambertazzi from everywhere you reign and even if we wished it, we could not send them anywhere that they have not been banned and excommunicated by you. Recognize Forlì to be a free Ghibelline city and we will have lasting peace between us. Let us talk about this with the pope immediately," stated Guido Bonatti resolutely.

"No. Pope Martin has already left for Avignon and your emperor Rudolph of Habsburg gave us that land and therefore it already belongs to us.

If you really want peace, give yourselves up to us and expel the Lambertazzi and all the tumultuous Ghibellines from your land," concluded the Geremei noble with the consent of the papal legate.

3. Pagan Romagna

Avignon 1281. Pope Martin IV and his military and papal legates speak of the papacy's plans for expansion in Romagna.

A legate told the Pope, "Excellence. It is extraordinary that more than thirty years after the death of Frederick II there are still places in Italy where pagan traditions are being followed that prevent Christian expansion and subjugation."

"Where are you talking about?" asked the Pope.

"About Foro Livii and Romandiola.8 Not only do they claim the land is theirs, the site of the ancient Roman Empire, but they also believe they were founded by a famous pagan priestess and still celebrate festivals in her honor that seem more pagan than Christian," replied the legate.

"What kind of celebrations do they perform?" asked the Pope.

The legate attempted to explain as best he could, "They have a kind of festival where a woman is dressed as the queen of fire, amidst lights and flames of all kinds."

"Are you talking about a woman or a fiend?" asked the Pope a little surprised.

"No, wait, Your Holiness. Perhaps it will be best if I explain everything," intervened a pontifical historian who was present at the meeting.

"Tell us about this," said the Pope.

"They celebrate a kind of golden calends,⁹ that is amburbal festivities,¹⁰ which are secretly dedicated to an ancient Roman priestess who was patron of that location, where they toast loaves of millet and spelt with grains of sacred salt, which come from the nearby Cervia¹¹ saltpans, complete with rites and fires along the roads that lead to Forum Livii, while the sacred salt is carried by," explained the papal historian.

"I've heard of something like this before. In various places the golden calends are still celebrated, but I did not know of this story of the spelt and salt loaves," said the Pope.

"In fact, there are many other cities and places that still celebrate the golden calends, and it will not be difficult to transform these feasts into Candlemas dedicated to Our Most Holy Mother," the papal legate suggested to the pope.

"That's true!" As far as I remember, the golden calends are celebrated in several places even in France. For example, in various locations they toast crêpes and savory griddle cakes instead of loaves of spelt and salt," said the French pope.

"Why do you think they still do these things?" asked the historian.

"As far as we know, it was handed down from Pope Gelasius in the distant fifth century, the golden calends were celebrated during the first days of February with fires and lights in the streets, which were usually celebrations dedicated to a priestess or goddess who had been elected patron or protector of a site at the time of Rome and the Caesars. Then someone tried to transform them into Candlemas or the feast of illuminated candles," replied the papal historian.

"Female pagan patrons?" asked the Pope in surprise.

"Yes, your Eminence. You are French and unfamiliar with Italian traditions, but they were usually priestesses, wives or daughters of high Roman officials who inaugurated¹² or became patrons of an Italic site complete with a sacred ceremony¹³ to found it and ensure it was sacred and loyal to Rome."

"And how can we fight these heresies?" asked the pope.

"After so many centuries none should believe in these heresies anymore, Eminence, but traditions and superstitions that are rooted in the population cannot be eradicated with arguments of faith or reason. Many Christians, including priests and bishops, bless them and still celebrate them as Christian holidays without knowing anything about their true origins," said the historian.

"And how do you fight these things then, if someone wanted to fight them?" the pope asked again.

"It is possible to deviate, or rather, gradually pilot their false pagan festivals and traditions towards other similar Christian festivals and traditions, as has already been done in the past with other places and personalities, to the point of completely replacing them with ceremonies that are more suited to Christian peoples as has been done with Candlemas, which is also known as the feast of the candles of our Most Holy Virgin Mother."

The pope cut him short, "So let it take root in Forolivii and in Romandiola, and then baptize all of them and establish papal legates to whom allegiance can be sworn, since that land has been ceded to us by the Emperor Rudolph of Alemania¹⁴ and is now ours."

"The question is a little more complex, Eminence..." said the historian.

"Explain this to me."

"They, unlike others, have already refused to elect the Most Holy Virgin Mary of Candlemas as their patron, claiming their patron to be an ancient priestess called Livia Drusilla, Diva Augusta¹⁵ and protector of these sites and they do the same in the salt pans of Cervia, when they transport the sacred salt they produce in that place, to celebrate this Roman patroness."

"Sacred salt? Diva Augusta?"

"Yes, Eminence, those saltpans were founded by Livio Salinatore, an ancient ancestor of this Livia Drusilla, and still today they send salt from there, during a sacred procession to that city for the feasts to honor her."

"And how can they still believe these things after centuries?" the pope laughed quietly.

"Well, Eminence, you should know that this Livia Drusilla was not a common priestess but the wife of Octavian Augustus and, in Forolivia, some still wish to remember her as such and to keep her as protector, even if it is partially hidden by them, replied the papal historian.

"How do you know all this?"

"I learned everything from a friar of a particular religious order that was founded in Ravenna by Emperor Otto III two hundred years ago, a very good friend of Geremia Gotto and Guido Bonatti."

"Geremia Gotto and Guido Bonatti? The armed patarines¹⁶ who claim to be four hundred years old and Frederick II's Ghibelline astrologer?" exclaimed the pope.

"In person, Excellency, and they are both in Forlì among the ranks of the Ghibelline in the service of Guido da Montefeltro."

"Oh dear, the excommunicated captain of the Ghibellines?"

"Yes, Excellency!"

"But are they all that mad!"

"Indeed, Excellency, they are a little peculiar."

"You also spoke of a religious order founded by Emperor Otto III in Ravenna. What religious order are you talking about?" asked the pope.

"In Ravenna, Otto III founded a religious group with all practices and beliefs that still seem to be extant today."

"What practices and beliefs do they follow?"

"They seem to affirm the reincarnation and pre-existence of souls."

"Oh, there you are. Gnostic heresy.¹⁷ Is that why they say he is four hundred years old?"

"That may be so, Otto III was that young emperor who two centuries ago claimed to have been Charlemagne and appointed an antipope named Sylvester II to be re-elected as Constantine the Great, the legitimate heir of the Roman Empire," replied the historian.

"Charlemagne, Constantine? Would you like to explain better what he did?" asked the pope.

"Certainly, Excellency. Otto III, around the year 1000, entered the Aachen cathedral, marked a point on the floor, then took a pickaxe, began to break through the floor and found the body of Charlemagne underground, it was still intact sitting on a throne, adorned and all decked out as a bishop, holding the Gospel in one hand and the staff of command in the other."

"And why did he do this?"

"Because he said he was his reincarnation and that he had returned to take his place as Holy Roman Emperor."

"And then?"

"He took the bishop's tiara that Charlemagne had on his head and put it on his own, then took Charlemagne's staff of command and said he had returned to rule."

"And then?" the pope asked more and more incredulously.

"Then, still not happy, he went to Ravenna and founded this particular religious group and appointed the bishop of Ravenna antipope, with the name of Sylvester II, to crown him emperor, exactly as Pope Sylvester had crowned Constantine emperor of the Christians, seven centuries earlier, at the time of ancient Rome," explained the historian.

"And why did he create this final scene?"

"To make everyone believe he was also the reincarnation of Constantine and to take back what he considered to be his property, that is the territories the church was trying to take from him, the empire, thanks to the gift of Constantine."

"And so he said he was the reincarnation of Charlemagne and Constantine to take the land back from the Holy Roman Empire?" exclaimed the pope.

"Those, Your Holiness."

"Those who?"

"Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick II also exhumed the body of Charlemagne and proclaimed something like this. And I would bet that this tradition has also been handed down to the astrologer Guido Bonatti and to Friar Geremia Gotto."¹⁸

"But these are all crazy."

"I told you, Excellency, that they were a little particular," concluded the historian.

4. Confrontations between the Guelphs and Ghibellines in Romagna

But why did the Church want Romagna?

What had happened between the papacy and emperors in those times?

Let's go back a few decades and take a look at a chronicle of the time.

Romagna in 1200

Although Pepin King of the Franks¹⁹ had given Romagna to the Church almost five centuries earlier, it was never perfectly under its possession. Often, therefore, many places in Romagna almost always joined the empire and towards the mid 1200s Gregory IX tried to take it back by force of arms. Because of the disagreements between Emperor Frederick II and the Church,²⁰ the people of Romagna were also split between the Ghibellines and Guelphs as happened with many other peoples in Italy.

The residents of Forlì continued to obey the laws of the empire, while the residents of Faenza and Ravenna obeyed those of the Church.

Forlì, formerly named Forum Livii, in particular, was one of the most Ghibelline city in Italy and it was not a coincidence that Guido Bonatti, one of the best astrologers of his time, despite being born in Florence, requested and obtained citizenship of Forlì, believing that location to be the final place left in the world that maintained imperial traditions after the fall of the ancient empire of Rome, for reasons that you will soon discover for yourself.

In 1240, when Pietro Traversari died, who was the leader of the Guelphs of Romagna and lord of Ravenna,²¹ Ravenna and Faenza were conquered by Frederick II who went to Romagna and one after the other put siege to them.

In less than a week Ravenna fell and surrendered.

Now it was Faenza's turn to surrender, but the city, believing that Frederick II's forces were insufficient to cause it to capitulate, did not surrender and the emperor placed it under siege.

5. The siege of Faenza

Faenza resisted for seven months, infuriating Frederick himself, since years before he had already conquered the town and it had come to terms with him.

Furthermore, during the siege Frederick II ran out of gold and money and had to resort to the help of the Forlì people to conquer Faenza, he also requested the Forlì people to issue special augustarians²² in leather, equivalent to imperial gold coins, which he then repaid in gold to the inhabitants of Forlì once the town had been taken and sacked.

So, after having conquered Faenza, Frederick II wanted to raze it to the ground and erase it from the earth, saying all who were against the Faenza who, defeated, were unable to appease his fury in any way and had begun to have it dismantled by teams of scouts.

The people of Faenza, not knowing what else to do, even turned to their nearby enemies from Forlì, begging them to intervene and intercede with the emperor to stop the devastation he was causing to the detriment of their city.

The people of Forlì accepted the requests for help from Faenza and went as a delegation to intercede with the emperor to halt the destruction of the city.

Frederick, not without objections and protests against the people of Faenza, whom he considered traitors,²³ finally agreed the city could be spared. However, he imposed that the city should become imperial definitively and should be governed under the banner of a mayor selected from among their Forlì neighbors, since they had helped him and proved to be Ghibellines in heart and soul. So he ordered that the people of Faenza stop doing "Guelph things" and merge with Forlì.

Thus the two cities became, until Frederick's death, two cities united in a small state governed by the same imperial laws and defended by the same arms.

Furthermore, because of their loyalty, Frederick granted the people of Forlì the right to use the black eagle on a gold field²⁴ on their municipal coat of arms and gave them the right to mint imperial coins because of their assistance and loyalty and, for this reason, the people of Forlì proudly left.

Many things changed, however, in 1249, when Frederick II died in Puglia and especially in the following years, when Carlo d'Anjou defeated Frederick II's son, Manfredi, in Benevento in 1266.

Thus the Guelphs, who had been expelled from Florence a few years earlier after their defeat at the battle of Montaperti, began to regain strength in Florence and Bologna. A battle began in those cities for dominance over the Ghibellines, which briefly extended to all of Romagna, with the support of the Church that claimed that land to be hers.

And so, while Carlo I d'Angiò was named pope the imperial vicar of Tuscany, the Tuscan Guelphs returned to Florence and the region, while the Tuscan Ghibellines had to leave and take refuge in Romagna, which remained one of the last of the Ghibelline sites still loyal to the imperial laws in Italy.

6. The dragon, the Guelph cross and the Ghibelline cross

At that time, from 1186, various apocalyptic stories circulating around Italy were attributed to the prophet Gioacchino da Fiore, which spoke of the coming of a dragon with the seven heads of seven antichrists.

Six heads had already been assigned to various historical figures of the past but the last, and most important, was still vacant.

Thus the final missing head of the dragon was quickly attributed to Frederick II, by a certain type of clergy, who believed in the prophecies of Gioacchino da Fiore, because of the fact that, in addition to wanting to reform the church, it was said that he was born out of a union between a prelate and an old nun. Furthermore, Frederick II spoke Arabic, his bodyguards were Arabs and, during the Crusades, he was more concerned with making peace than war in the Holy Land, so much so that he was nicknamed "the Dragon", while other Franciscan and poorer circles of the Church, paradoxically, attributed to him the role of reformer, as the expected apocalyptic persecutor of the corrupt Church and especially of the cardinals.

For this reason many poor friars and priests, and later also white Guelphs, fought in the ranks of the Ghibellines.

The Guelphs used a papal cross as their symbol and flag; while the Ghibellines, while not denying the existence of God, had the reverse an imperial cross with contrasting colors that mirrored the Guelph one and summed up the different philosophy between the two factions.

But how were they made and what was the difference between the two symbols? Let's take a look.

Perhaps the Ghibelline and Guelph crosses arose as symbols, even before the Guelphs and Ghibellines, during the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne.

But it was during the struggles of investiture between the papacy and the empire that they developed into a struggle for the right to elect emperors and administrators by the pope and bishops against the right claimed by the emperors to be elected directly by God without the intermediation of the Church.

Both symbols represented the power of God but there were two main ways to represent and understand them.

The first was imperial, that is, the power of God was pre-existent and was granted by Him in person directly to the emperors so that they ruled, already from the time of ancient Rome, long before the coming of Christ and the church.

The other was the power of the Church which, representing the will of God on Earth, acted as a direct intermediary and to whom the power of control by God over men had been granted and it was therefore he who decided whether or not to give it to the emperors.

Various disputes and many religious and military groups arose from these two visions, or philosophies, such as the Carolingians, the Templars, the Guelphs and the Ghibellines.

Two main symbols were used to represent these factions and ideas:

One was the cross of Saint John the Baptist, which was used by the Templars and Ghibellines.

The other was the cross of Saint George employed by the clergy and the Guelphs.

When the nobles and clergy organized expeditions or crusades, they put these flags on their heads that bore white or red crosses, depending on whether the divisions were under the nobles or the church or if emperors or popes had assembled them.

But how were these two flags made and what did they mean?

First you need to know that purple was the official color of ancient Rome and represented the Roman emperors, while white represented the color of God.

The Ghibelline flag of Saint John the Baptist was a large white cross on a completely purple background.

It meant that the imperial red and its nobility were already pre-existing everywhere, in which God then placed his white cross as a guarantee of purity and truth.

Opposite and contrasting in colors and meanings, was the Guelph flag of Saint George, where a purple cross on a completely white field meant that God pre-existed everywhere with his purity and granted a purple cross to the emperor who was therefore subordinate to God and to the Church. In practice, with God's permission, the cross of the imperial cardinal could be inserted in that flag on a white background.

The Guelphs said the church had granted permission through the pope and his bishops from the time of Pope Silvester, when he was crowned Constantine emperor of Rome, while the Ghibellines instead claimed that this was false.²⁵

Subsequently, there was a split even within the Guelphs into white Guelphs and black Guelphs.

The white Guelphs, while recognizing their fidelity to God, did not recognize it in the wealth and moral corruption of the papacy, while the black Guelphs continued to be loyal to the papacy and the church in all things.

Gradually the white Guelphs simply called themselves the "Whites" and joined the cause of the Italian Ghibellines, while the "Black" Guelphs put themselves at the service of the clergy to make common cause against the Ghibellines and the "Whites".

So to these flags were also added the symbols of the white Guelphs and Florentine black Guelphs, which were nothing more than a white flag with Libertas²⁶ written in silver for the whites, and a black flag with the same word Libertas, in gold, for the Black Guelphs. And incredibly these two coats of arms with the words Libertas belonging to the Whites and the Blacks, are still present today, one, that of the Whites in the municipal coat of arms of Forlì and that of the Blacks is part of the municipal coat of arms of Bologna, which at the time fought each other with no holds barred.

Thus, anyone today who takes the municipal coats of arms of the city of Bologna and Forlì will see, after careful observation that, even if arranged differently, the meanings and symbols they contain are exactly contrary to and opposite between papacy and empire, or Guelphs and Ghibellines, if you prefer.

It is possible to see in them not only the symbols of the empire in contrast to those of the papacy, but also that of the white Guelphs allied to the Forlì Ghibellines as opposed to the black Guelphs allied to the Bolognese.

In practice, in the coat of arms of Bologna the heraldic Anjou Chief²⁷ is repeated twice and beneath are the Guelph crosses of Saint George in red and two bands in midnight blue, probably these were originally black, with the writing Libertas, or the flag of the black Guelphs.

On the other hand we find the Forlì coat of arms composed of the imperial eagle of Frederick II, which in the right claw holds an oval shield with the Ghibelline cross of Saint John and in the left claw holds a white shield with the writing Libertas, which is the symbol of the White Guelphs who were allied to the Forlì Ghibellines.

And if someone also wants to take a look at the Cesena coat of arms, a city a few miles from Forlì, they will notice how it is a subsequent symbol of reconciliation between white Guelphs and black Guelphs, being nothing more than a series of half white and half black symbols, gathered under the heraldic Anjou Chief .

7. The causes of the Guelph and Ghibelline battles in Romagna

In 1200, after the death of Frederick II, the Guelphs of Bologna, managed to conquer a large part of Romagna under the insignia of the Church, with the exception of the Ghibellines' Forlì, which continued to be a Ghibelline territory surrounded by Guelphs.

Until that time Bologna had been divided into three factions:

The Ghibellines led by the Lambertazzi.

The Guelphs led by the Geremei.

The populace was in the minority and neutral.

The Lambertazzi, perhaps to distract the Guelphs from Romagna, urged the people of Modena to attack, while the Geremei urged them to attack Forlì, and the people stood between the two factions to watch.

Bologna finally decided to try to conquer Forlì. So the Bolognese organized a regular army to march against the Romagna city, besiege it and subjugate the Romagna lands to the church.

This caused the people of Forlì to become aware of the danger they were in and they called upon Guido da Montefeltro to help them, who was known as "il Feltrano", an unparalleled Ghibelline, who was elected captain of the arms of Forlì and who prepared to fight against the Bolognese.

In 1273 the Bolognese army, ready to fight, set out along Via Emilia towards Forlì, to besiege it and force it to capitulate, but they found it very organized and equipped with numerous soldiers.

Furthermore, the Bolognese army was also made up of Ghibellines and Guelphs, and the people of Forlì took advantage of this during the first siege to establish friendships and make agreements with the Ghibelline Lambertazzi, which lead to future military and political alliances against the Geremei.

The Lambertazzi then pushed for peace, but the Geremei imposed conditions of surrender that were unacceptable to the people of Forlì.

Not even King Edward I of England, passing through Romagna returning from a crusade in the Holy Land, was able to reconcile Bologna and Forlì. This is because the eternal conflict was not between the two cities, but between Guelphs and Ghibellines.

So, finally, after two months of useless siege, the Bolognese decided that they needed many more troops to conquer it and withdrew without having caused even one injury to the Forlì people.

Instead the people of Forlì took advantage of the retreat of the Bolognese to take back Faenza, which after the death of Frederick II had returned to the Guelphs.

In this case they left the city with the excuse of pursuing the Bolognese army as far as Cosima, a town between Forlì and Faenza. The people of Faenza, seeing the people of Forlì approaching, closed the gates to prevent their entering, but il Feltrano had secretly agreed with some Ghibellines from Faenza and, with the excuse of wanting to continue his march towards Bologna, pretended to want to make camp in the countryside around Faenza without destroying or interfering in that land, so as not to raise suspicion.

During the night, with the help of the Acciarisi Ghibelline family,²⁸ a door to Faenza was opened for him and Guido da Montefeltro's men, with the Mainardi family and many Ghibelline exiles, introduced themselves into Faenza to pursue the Manfredi Guelphs with all their factions. The next morning they completed the job by sending the Forlì army against the Guelph strongholds of Castel San Pietro and Solarolo, where the Guelphs who had escaped from Faenza were sheltered, and they also took those strongholds by force before they managed to organize themselves.

Finally, Guido da Montefeltro elected two Forlì imperial podestàs for Faenza²⁹ and became captain of arms of Faenza, which he transformed it into a Ghibelline stronghold that would be very useful in the future in support of the Lambertazzi and the Bolognese Ghibellines.

8. The Bolognese guerilla war

Learning of the fall of Faenza into Ghibelline hands, the Bolognese began to fear the Lambertazzi had planned the move so as to bring the Forlì troops closer to Bologna.

Therefore, the following year, they decided to send another army back to Romagna with the Bolognese carroccio³⁰ and the podestà at the head to free Faenza from the Forlì people.

When the Bolognese set out with the army, the Lambertazzi, regardless of the consequences of such a gesture, suddenly decided to attack the Bolognese mayor directly inside the city before he left with the army, while the Forlì Ghibellines advanced from Faenza as far as the walls of Bologna to give him their support.

This immediately, ignited a guerrilla war.

The gates of Bologna were closed to prevent the entry of the Forlivese, but when a fight broke out between the Lambertazzi and Geremei, the people abandoned all neutrality and sided with the Guelphs to expel the Ghibellines from Bologna and began attacking the Lambertazzi inside the city.

Somehow the people of Forlì managed to enter,³¹ and they began to help the Lambertazzi, therefore the Geremei and the populace had to retreat to their neighborhoods thanks to the Forlì reinforcements.

Thus between April and May 1274 a guerrilla war between the two factions began in Bologna that lasted, without respite, almost two months.

Guelphs and Ghibellines were grouped inside the walls and neighborhoods were divided, which challenged each other to the bitter end.

In those days anything could happen. There were clashes on both sides at all hours of the day and people were even murdered at night, and later found in ditches or floating in streams the next morning.

Bologna was in the balance and seemed to have fallen into the hands of the Ghibellines.

In the end, in order not to capitulate, the Bolognese Guelphs called upon a large reinforcement of Lombard Guelphs to support the city.

The Guelphs prevailed, while ten Lambertazzi leaders were captured and imprisoned during a coup by the mayor of Bologna, who had summoned them with an excuse to discuss their surrender.

The Lambertazzi realized there was no escape and had to agree to come to terms and leave Bologna.

Thus, on the morning of 2 June 1274, after months of guerrilla warfare, in the midst of an unreal silence, there was an exodus of twelve thousand armed Ghibellines with wives, children and supporters in tow, who left Bologna without anyone daring to stop them, leaving almost half the city empty in one sweep.

They headed along the Via Emilia in the direction of Faenza, previously occupied by the inhabitants of Forlì, which was ready to welcome them.

9. The Lambertazzi exiles in Romagna

The long Ghibelline line, embittered but not defeated, headed towards Faenza, recently cleared by the Guelphs, which was ready to welcome them under the banner of the Forlì imperial eagles.

Some of them with wives and children permanently sheltered in Forlì, but the bulk of the Bolognese Ghibellines were housed in the newly conquered Faenza.

They placed themselves under the command of the Forlì captain Guido da Montefeltro and quickly began to reorganize to fight the Bolognese Guelphs again.

The Bolognese, after the violence of those events and having recovered strength after the expulsion of the Lambertazzi, took courage from the situation and decided to organize an attack on Faenza and Forlì again, to defeat the Ghibellines of Romagna once and for all.

But the Ghibellines from Romagna, even if numerically inferior, were more combative and had a very skilled military captain, and Bologna and the Guelphs would soon find out about him for themselves.

10. Capture of the Bolognese carroccio

The following year the Bolognese, believing that the Lambertazzi were preparing to return from Faenza to Bologna, decided to anticipate them and remove them from Romagna once and for all.

The Bolognese made a conducted a few raids in the Faenza territories to test the strength of the Ghibellines. Subsequently they decided to put together an army that was reinforced by Guelphs from Lombardy, Imola, Cesena and Ravenna.

Once assembled, they left to march towards Faenza to free it from the Lambertazzi so they would have a stronghold from which to attack Forlì.

The people of Forlì and the Lambertazzi, knowing this, did their utmost to stop them.

They gathered a sizeable Ghibelline army and set about reinforcing the Faenza and Forlì defenses, while Guido da Montefeltro managed to gather a series of worthy Ghibelline commanders under him, who came from various parts of Tuscany and Romagna, followed by their troops.

Those who came under the Ghibelline insignia were Guglielmo de' Pazzi of Valdarno, commander of the Tuscan outcasts, Mainardo Pagani da Susinana, a Guido Novello and sons, Bandino, Tancredi, Ruggiero and Tigrino of the Guidi counts, lords of Modigliana with their people, to whom they joined the Forlì people Aliotto Pipini, Superbo Orgogliosi, Teodorico Ordelaffi³² and waited for the Bolognese near Faenza to forestall them before they put siege to the Ghibelline territory.

On 13 June 1275 as soon as the news came that the Bolognese had crossed the San Procolo³³ bridge and were preparing to invade the territories of Faenza, they waited no longer and went to meet them so they could face them in open country.

Having come within sight of the Bolognese, Count Feltrano with the help of the Ghibelline commanders Maghinardo Pagani, Theodoric degli Ordelaffi, and other captains of the Lambertazzi, organized the troops for war and made a speech to incite them to battle.

The Bolognese captain Malatesta da Verucchio³⁴ did the same with his men and immediately after they blew their trumpets, starting the battle of Ponte San Procolo.

Forthwith the Guelph cavalry, made up of the Bolognese nobility, were the first to relinquish their positions under the blows of the Lambertazzi.

Then they fled openly, abandoning the Bolognese infantry on foot, composed of the commoners, around the Bolognese carroccio.

The Bolognese army, left to itself, heroically organized themselves around the carroccio and the battle was kept in balance, but Guido da Montefeltro was decisive when he deployed heavy crossbows that systematically tore the Bolognese ranks to pieces.

To help you understand the scale of this battle eight thousand Bolognese were killed.

All fell, prey to the Forlivesi military pavilions, possessions, insignia, around three thousand chariots and, more importantly, the banner, which was the Bolognese municipal banner hanging from a pole, and the Bolognese carroccio, a four-wheeled cart decorated with the city insignia, around which the fighters gathered.

Guido da Montefeltro was made to climb triumphantly onto the Bolognese carroccio he had just conquered and was towed away by five hundred Bolognese prisoners to the walls of Forlì, where he was welcomed as a conqueror by a riot of crowds.

The Bolognese carroccio was kept as a trophy in the town hall, while the Bolognese banner was kept inside a Forlì convent, which at the time was named San Giacomo.³⁵

11. The Ghibellines take all of Romagna

On the impetus of that Guelph defeat, the Ghibellines advanced towards Bologna in the following months and sacked a few villas and castles in the surroundings; had it not been for the rain and the inclement season they would have attempted to capture Bologna and the return of the Lambertazzi.

Again they set fire to Castel San Pietro, which had recently been rebuilt by the Bolognese, returned to Romagna and took the fortress of Cervia, which surrendered without a shot being fired, after three days of negotiations, in exchange for the freedom of the occupants.

Now, in Romagna the cities of Rimini, Ravenna and Cesena remained loyal to the Bolognese and the Forlivese turned their weapons against the latter in an attempt to take possession of the stronghold of Roversano, a strategic location a few miles from Cesena, which the Bolognese and the captain Malatesta da Verucchio rushed to defend, after the defeat of Ponte San Procolo, they had returned to Rimini to reorganize.

However, this time Malatesta da Verucchio was defeated and he had to flee with some troops and close himself up inside Cesena, leaving the Bolognese praetor with notables and a thousand soldiers, besieged inside the Roversano fortress, who eventually surrendered.

The Bolognese notables were taken prisoner and also taken as a trophy inside Forlì, while the captured soldiers were led beneath the walls of Cesena and let free in exchange for opening the gates to the Forlì people.

While the Malatesta and a few Guelphs fled towards Rimini, the people of Cesena opened their gates and accepted Teodorico Ordelaffi and Orgoglioso De' Orgogliosi from Forlì as their Ghibelline governors.

Now only Ravenna was needed to have all of Romagna under the Ghibellines, and the Ghibellines worked hard to take the latter city as well.

In 1276 il Feltrano surprised and dispersed a Bolognese rescue expedition near Bagnacavallo, which had been sent by the Geremei who, with the Florentine Guelphs and six hundred French knights, were marching to the rescue of Ravenna.

The Bolognese then organized new troops to rescue the city.

Guido da Montefeltro, like the good strategist he was, besieged Bagnacavallo so he would be able to control the road that led from Bologna to Ravenna and leave the latter isolated.

To do this he had the Faentine and Forlivese troops build a small fortification³⁶ around the old castle of Cotignola, near Bagnacavallo, which, after fortified and enlarged, then became the town of Cotignola, where settlers from Forlì and Faenza were brought to provide for the capture of the Guelph Bagnacavallo.

Bagnacavallo also, after twelve days of siege, surrendered to the Forlì people.

For these actions the Forlì people were subjected to an interdiction by Bonifazio, archbishop of Ravenna.

12. The Guelph and Ghibelline battles in the Apennines

Indignant and fed up with all these wars, the Bolognese asked the pope for help to finish with the Romagna Ghibellines once and for all, as they seemed to be unbeatable on the plains and guerrillas in the city.

Thus, the Guelphs decided to mount a surprise attack and surround the land of Forlì from the mountains of Tuscany, that is to say on the southern border of the Forlì state, which was left unguarded in the Apennines.

The Bolognese, thanks to the Pope's Guelphs, gathered together troops from Florence, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Ravenna and with the help of some Forlì traitors, decided to conceive and organize a plan to attack the Ghibelline state from the Tuscan mountains and Apennines to surprise the Forlì people, who were almost all concentrated and located on the Romagna plain.

The Guelphs, under the command of Guido Selvatico, count of Romena, attacked the mountain possessions of Forlì from the mountains, quickly seizing Galeata, Pianetto, Civitella, Montevecchio and other sites in the mountains, while other Guelph troops advanced on the plains again towards the San Procolo bridge in the area of Faenza, to wage war and prevent Faenza from assisting the inhabitants of Forlì.

At the same time the Guelphs also besieged the castle of Piancaldoli in the Faenza Apennines, a territory that was controlled by the capable commander Maghinardo Pagani.³⁷

Thanks to the counterattacks of the latter, who summoned the captain of the Lambertazzi to come to him from Faenza and to the Forlì senate, who sent the army to those sites, with a furious battle that lasted a few hours, the Guelphs were vanquished and put to flight from the castle and village of Civitella, which they had recently occupied.

Il Feltrano decided to pursue them through the mountains and the fugitives attempted to turn towards Tredozio, where there was a Guelph stronghold, but they were caught up with and surrounded by the strategy of Montefeltro, and were forced to stop and fight in a difficult place and were easily defeated and taken prisoner.

Given the failed attack in the mountains, the Bolognese also retreated from Ponte San Procolo and attempted to escape into Imola, chased by the Faentine Ghibelline troops from Faenza who had entered the city, where the Guelphs were surprised while they were digging moats around the walls to defend themselves.

A small battle ensued during which another hundred Guelphs died.

Following this conflict, Guglielmo Ordelaffi, Paganino Orgogliosi and his son Francesco were captured and imprisoned inside the fortress of Cesena, as traitors for having betrayed the Ghibellines and having taken part in the revolt against Guido da Montefeltro.

Subsequently they tried to escape from the stronghold of Cesena, but were captured and beheaded.

At the same time il Feltrano decided to end the fight with the Guelphs in Romagna and moved against the castle of Calboli³⁸ in the Forlì Apennines where all the Guelphs, who had been en route and had remained in the mountains of Forlì, retreated.

The Guelphs of Forlì, Riniero and Guido De' Calboli, locked themselves up with other nobles and eight hundred guards, in the castle of Calboli, having given them twelve thousand lire to defend that location for at least ten months while awaiting help.

But because the steps were so narrow no help came from Bologna. At this point, il Feltrano decided to put siege to the castle of Calboli and after two months he destroyed it with seven enormous war machines that cast huge stones, razed its walls and its houses, which were reduced to nothing.³⁹

After this series of victories, there were no rivals to the fame of the Ghibellines in Romagna.

Ravenna and Rimini had to surrender and become a confederation with the Ghibellines. They feared invasion and forged a peace pact with the Forlì people, evading alliances with the Bolognese, who were considered too weak to defend them.

It was a period that seemed to be totally successful for il Feltrano and the Forlì people, but nothing for the Bolognese.

This greatly worried the Bolognese and the Geremei, who feared the Lambertazzi would be forced to return to Bologna. So they began to increasingly protest to the pope requesting further military reinforcements.

This was also the period during which the legendary reputation was born of the cunning and the militarily undefeatable Feltrano, but the bulk of his work and fame, which would make the rounds of Europe, had yet to occur.

After all these repeated defeats, the Bolognese again asked Pope Nicholas III for help,⁴⁰ who, as moderate as he was, sent them Bertoldo Orsini, his nephew, with the title of Count of Romagna, with the objective of mediating and placating the situation between the Bolognese and Romagna.

Orsini recognized that he would need to stop trying to resolve the matter with arms and to reconcile the Lambertazzi and Geremei in Bologna more than to try to defeat the Ghibellines of Forlì, and that there could be no other remedy than to bring the Lambertazzi back to Bologna, return their properties to them and to make peace between the Ghibellines and Guelphs of that land.

And so, very wisely, he did.

But the Geremei accepted this decision badly and believed that the pontiff, because of the belligerence of the Ghibellines, would fight them and not let them into the city.

But Bertoldo Orsini said that the church embraced both and organized the return and a banquet of peace for both factions where Feltrano⁴¹ also took part.

So, after the exile, the Lambertazzi returned to Bologna as brothers and peace seemed to have been made.

But that peace lasted only as long as Nicholas III was alive, when he died shortly thereafter, the new French pope, Martin IV, was not as meek as the former had been with the Ghibellines.

So, immediately after the death of Nicolas III, the Geremei and Lambertazzi again came to blows, and were driven out of Bologna and again took refuge in Faenza, which was still under the command of Guido da Montefeltro.

At the same time the Geremei turned to the newly elected French pope and asked him to organize a fearsome army to do away with the Ghibellines of Romagna once and for all.

Thus, with the support of the new pontiff, and the help of the King of France, Charles II d'Anjou, a real final crusade was organized, under the command of the French general Giovanni d'Appia, to be concluded once and for all against the last Ghibellines remaining in Italy.

At the time, after the victories over the heirs of Frederick II and the violent crusades against the Albigensian, the French army was considered unbeatable and terrible and what you will read from here on went down in history as the Dantean massacre of the "bloody heap" and I will tell you what happened and how everything turned out.

And I will also tell you, for the first time in centuries, why that land had remained irreducibly pro-imperial, and who had really founded it many centuries earlier at the time of ancient Rome.

-- Part two -- The crusade against the Ghibellines in Romagna

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