Guelphs & Guibellines
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Guelphs & Guibellines The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest was a conflict between church & state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops and to choose the pope. Public domain By limiting imperial power, the controversy led to nearly 50 years of civil war in Germany. It began as a power struggle between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV (then King, later Holy Roman Emperor) in 1076. The conflict ended in 1122, when Pope Callixtus II and Emperor Henry V agreed on the Concordat of Worms. The agreement required bishops to swear an oath of fealty to the secular monarch, who held authority "by the lance", but left selection to the church. It affirmed the right of the church to invest bishops with sacred authority, symbolized by a ring and staff. In Germany (but not Italy and Burgundy), the Emperor also retained the right to preside over elections of abbots and bishops by church authorities, and to arbitrate disputes. Holy Roman Emperors renounced the right to choose the pope. In the meantime, there was also a brief but significant investiture struggle between Pope Paschal II and King Henry I from 1103 to 1107. The earlier resolution to that conflict, the Concordat of London, was very similar to the Concordat of Worms. The Origins of the Conflict The conflict originated in the 12th century from rivalry of two German houses in their struggle for the title of Holy Roman Emperor. The election, favoured by the Pope, of Lothair II (c. 1070–1137), Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 and German king from 1125, was opposed by the Hohenstaufen family of princes. This was the start of the feud between the house of Welf (Guelph), the followers of the dukes of Saxony and Bavaria (Henry the Proud, 1108–1139; later of his son Henry the Lion, 1129– 1195), and that of the lords of Hohenstaufen whose castle at Waiblingen (near present-day Stuttgart) gave the Ghibellines their name. The Welfs were said to have used the name as a rallying cry during the Siege of Weinsberg in 1140, in which the rival Hohenstaufens of Swabia (led by Conrad III of Germany used "Wibellingen", the name of a castle today known as Waiblingen, as their cry; "Wibellingen" subsequently became Ghibellino in Italian. Eventually the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict gave way to a civil war which was finally settled in 1152 by the election of Frederick I (Barbarossa), the son of a Hohenstaufen father and a Welf mother. (When Henry the Lion, (Welf, incurred the wrath of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, Waiblingen, in 1180, his lands were forfeited to a duke of the Wittelsbach family – a dynasty that was to dominate Bavarian history until the end of World War I.) The Guelph-Ghibelline struggle continued for another two centuries as it became a specifically Italian conflict between forces opposed to the papacy and those supporting it. In 1334 Pope Benedict XII forbade, under pain of the censures of the Church, the further use of the Guelph and Ghibelline names. As late as the end of the XV century and the beginning of the XVI, after the invasion of Italy Charles VIII, the supporters of the French king called themselves guelphs and the opponents ghibellines. The Conflict in Italy The division developed its own dynamic in the politics of medieval Italy, and it persisted long after the direct confrontation between Emperor and Pope had ceased. Smaller cities tended to be Ghibelline if the larger city nearby was Guelph, as Guelph Republic of Florence and Ghibelline Republic of Siena faced each other at the Battle of Montaperti, 1260. Pisa maintained a staunch Ghibelline stance against her fiercest rivals, the Guelph Republic of Genoa and Florence. Adherence to one of the parties could therefore be motivated by local or regional political reasons. Within cities, party allegiances differed from guild to guild, rione to rione, and a city could easily change party after internal upheaval. Moreover, sometimes traditionally Ghibelline cities allied with the Papacy, while Guelph cities were even punished with interdict. Contemporaries did not use the terms Guelph and Ghibellines much until about 1250, and then only in Tuscany (where they originated), with the names "church party" and "imperial party" preferred in some areas. The House of Welf was an older branch of the Tuscan House of Welf-Este, Welf IV of the House of Este) inherited the titles Duke of Bavaria (as Welf I) and Duke of Carinthia and Verona from his uncle, who died childless, and thus gained the territories of Tuscany, Ferrara, Modena, Mantua and Reggio. These territories were involved on the side of the Pope in the previously mentioned Investiture Controversy. After the Tuscan Guelphs finally defeated the Ghibellines in 1289 at the Battles of Campaldino and Vicopisano, the Guelphs began infighting. Dante, a Guelph, fought at Campaldino. By 1300 the Florentine Guelphs had divided into the Black and White Guelphs. The Blacks continued to support the Papacy, while the Whites were opposed to Papal influence, specifically the influence of Pope Boniface III. By this time Dante was among the supporters of the White Guelphs, and in 1302 was exiled when the Black Guelphs took control of Florence. Those who were not connected to either side, or who had no connections to either Guelphs or Ghibellines, considered both factions unworthy of support but were still affected by changes of power in their respective cities. Emperor Henry VII was disgusted by supporters of both sides when he visited Italy in 1310. In 1325, the city-states of Guelph Bologna and Ghibelline Modena, clashed in the War of the Bucket, resulting in Modena's victory at the Battle of Zappolino, which led to a resurgence of Ghibelline fortunes. In 1334 Pope Benedict XII threatened people who used either the Guelph or Ghibelline name with excommunication. Gerald Williams (Group Leader) .