The pressure builds
Decades of continued economic improvement for the common people meant the appearance of a new generation of Florentines free from hereditary obligations to the Guelphs or the Ghibellines. They organized themselves into guilds that eventually assumed much of the power that was squandered by others in internecine squabbling. As time went on, however, the growing ‘middle class’ yearned for independence and increasingly sided with the Guelphs against the interests of Frederick of Antioch, his father the emperor, and the Ghibellines.
At the same time, Ghibellines regularly triumphed over Guelphs and others in any legal dispute because Frederick controlled the government and the administration always helped the emperor’s man on the ground. Guelphs meanwhile rarely missed an opportunity to tell the pope that Ghibellines were spreading heresy. Tensions were running high.
The Candlemas brawl
During the winter of 1248, particularly nasty street fighting broke out. The lawlessness soon spilled over into a mostly unplanned Guelph attack on the homes and towers of the Ghibellines. The streets were blocked by fires and barricades, and everyone who had access to a tower was already safely enclosed within it. For two days, armed gangs representing each of the two parties roamed the streets looking for victims.
The Guelph leader, Rustico Marignolli, was struck in the face by a square-headed arrow and was dead before his body hit the ground. His unexpected death crippled their plans and led to confusion. The next day, the Guelphs laid their leader to rest in San Lorenzo and abandoned Florence, retreating to Lucca to consider their options and lick their wounds.
Brief victory
Though the Ghibellines won the day, their success was short-lived. The next year, Enzo, the emperor’s brother, was captured by the Bolognese. Then in the autumn of 1250, armies of men fighting alongside exiled Guelphs attacked and defeated the Ghibelline armies south of Florence, shouting Viva il Popolo! (Long live the people!).
In December, Frederick II himself died. His son, Frederick of Antioch, knew he couldn’t stay in Florence any longer. He and many of his Ghibelline supporters packed their bags and practically vanished in the middle of the night.
The Popolo
The Florentines, many of whom had no political goal other than independence, then set to work drafting the Republic’s constitution. This period is known as the Primo Popolo, or First Democracy. Eager to put an end to Guelph-Ghibelline conflicts, they organized the city into twenty districts. Each elected its own local leader and conscripted a local militia of men between 15 and 70 years of age. And each of the twenty districts had a standard of its own, called the gonfalone.
The members of the Popolo were generally of the non-elite middle class, which had been growing for some time. Those further down the social ladder, including craftsmen and salaried laborers, belonged to the so-called popolo minuto. The People’s most immediate concern was limiting the destruction that the noble families traditionally inflicted on one another, and the city more generally.
The new government
The single leader of the twenty new districts was called the Capitano del Popolo (Captain of the People, whose shield is above). It was his job not to replace the podestà, but to assist him while protecting the interests of the little guy at the same time. The Capitano, with his local officials in every district, was put in charge of civil order and obedience.
In fact, the Florentines also created a new body meant to provide a check on the powers of the podestà. It was made up of twelve ‘good men,’ two from each of the sestieri, or six neighborhoods. The Buonomini or Anziani, as they were called, had the duty of supervising the city-republic and its finances. Despite a constant division of some sort between the non-noble elites and the similarly non-noble working class, democratic fervor filled the piazze.
The white lily turns red
In 1251, the Florentine Ghibellines organized themselves in an attempt to regain control of the city. They say that when the Ghibelline army arrived, sporting the traditional white lily on the red field, the Guelphs quickly reversed the banner, so as to distinguish themselves in the skirmishes. The trick worked and the Guelphs won. The Popolo embraced the red lily on the white field, to which they added the Marzocco, or seated lion. Both images remain the symbols of Florence to this day (as you see outside the entrance to Palazzo Vecchio). The Ghibellines were defeated but were allowed to continue living in the city.
In the following years, the Popolo built a new town hall, called Palazzo del Popolo (or Bargello, whose square tower rises alongside the Badia’s pointed bell tower in the photo above), added three more bridges across the Arno next to Ponte Vecchio, invented the famous gold florin, established a maximum height for towers and even paved the streets of the city center.
Manfred and more Ghibellines
Meanwhile, back in Sicily, Frederick II’s illegitimate son, Manfred (remembered in Purgatorio 3), was doing all he could to avoid the collapse of the house of the Hohenstaufens. He was even being helped from inside Florence by the Uberti family. In 1258, agents of the Popolo uncovered their plot to take over the government with help from Manfred’s German troops.
The Florentines went wild, entered the Uberti’s palazzo and killed several people inside. Two of the Uberti ‘confessed’ and were executed. Numerous members of the family were forced to leave Florence, which they did, taking refuge in Siena with members of over a dozen other Ghibelline families, including some from the Amidei, Lamberti and Abati.
The battle of Montaperti
By 1260, it was inevitable that armed conflict between Guelphs and the Ghibellines would continue to escalate. Supported by German cavalry and led by Farinata degli Uberti (featured by Dante in a flaming tomb like Doré’s below), the Sienese Ghibellines met the vastly larger Florentine Guelph forces at the famous battle of Montaperti. The Guelphs, whose carroccio was decorated with the traditional red and white (as above), were certain of victory.
They say, though, that the Ghibelline cavalry was unexpectedly effective in disrupting the Guelph ranks. Then, total chaos ensued on the Guelph side once Bocca degli Abati chopped off the hand of the Guelph bannerman in an act of unforgivable treason, sending confusion through the ranks of infantrymen and earning himself a place in Dante’s Inferno.
Ghibelline supremacy
Dante’s family, being Guelph, were distraught by the news but not exiled. Some say it’s because his mother Bella was distantly related to the leaders of the Ghibelline Abati family.
They buried the great Farinata in Santa Reparata in 1264. Pope Urban IV died the same year, just after he brought the House of Anjou into the fight for Sicily. Pope Clement IV assumed the papal miter and, the following year, issued his permission to Florentine Guelphs to use his hereditary symbol as their shield (below). The Popolo was getting a helping hand from the pope, but what would it cost?