FLORENTINE AFFAIRS TILL DANTE'S EXILE
In order to understand the extent to which Dante's life was influenced
by the political circumstances of his age, it will be well to carry our
survey of events somewhat further, with special reference to the affairs
of Florence.
As we have seen, after frequent alternations of fortune, the city
passed, within two years of Dante's birth, for good and all to the Guelf
side. On St. Martin's Day, in November, 1266, Count Guido Novello and
his German horse were driven out of the city by the burghers; and though
in the January following a treaty of peace was made, and cemented by
various marriages between members of the leading families on either
side--an arrangement of which the chief result was to embitter party
spirit among the Guelfs who had taken no share in it--anything like a
lasting reconciliation was soon found to be out of the question. Charles
of Anjou, moreover, fresh from his victory over Manfred, was by no means
disposed to allow the beaten Ghibelines any chance of rallying.
Negotiations were entered into between him and the Florentine Guelfs,
and on Easter Day, 1267, Guy of Montfort (son of Sir Simon) entered the
city at the head of eight hundred French cavalry. The Ghibelines did not
venture to strike a blow, but departed on the day before his arrival. At
Easter, says Villani, the crime was committed which first split the city
into factions; and at Easter the descendants of the men who had
committed the crime went into exile, never to return.
The same year saw a general rally of the north Italian states to the
Guelf side, and before many months were out even Lombardy, where, says
Villani, there was hardly any memory of the Guelfs, followed the stream.
In Tuscany, Pisa and Siena alone held by the tradition--for it was
little more--of allegiance to the Empire. The Florentine exiles betook
themselves to those cities, and before long the spirits of the party had
revived sufficiently to allow them to play what must have been felt to
be their last stroke in the game. Profiting by the disaffection of
certain Apulian and Sicilian barons (whom one may imagine to have found
the gloomy discipline of Charles a poor exchange for the brilliancy and
licence of Frederick's Court), they cast their eyes towards the last
surviving representative of that Count Frederick who, some two hundred
years before, had fixed his seat in the hill-fortress of Staufen.
Conrad, or Corradino, as the Italians called him, grandson of Frederick
II., was a lad of sixteen, still under the tutelage of his mother, the
widow of Conrad IV. Germany seems to have been loyal to him, and had it
not been for the impatience of the Italian Ghibelines, he might well
have looked forward to regaining, perhaps under more favourable
auspices, the Empire which his predecessors had held. But the Tuscan
nobles, smarting under defeat, could not wait; and in spite of his
mother's opposition, they carried the boy off. Money was lacking; and of
the ten thousand German horsemen who accompanied him across the Brenner,
only three thousand five hundred went beyond Verona. He passed through
Lombardy, however, without opposition, and with the aid of the Genoese
fleet reached Pisa in May, 1268. The rising of the Apulian barons had
compelled Charles to return hastily to his kingdom, and Conradin found
his way clear to Siena. An action in the district of Arezzo resulted in
the defeat and capture of Charles's "marshal," who had come out from
Florence in pursuit, and the German force was able to enter Rome
unmolested. There they received a reinforcement of eight hundred good
Spanish cavalry under Don Henry, brother of the King of Castile, and,
elated with success, pushed on to strike a decisive blow. They marched
eastward to Tagliacozzo, just within the frontier of the Abruzzi, while
Charles reached the same point by forced marches from Nocera. The armies
met on St. Bartholomew's Eve, and at first everything seemed to go well
for Conradin. The Spanish division defeated the Provencals, and the
Germans crushed the French and Italians. But Charles had with him an
experienced old knight, Alard de St. Valery, by whose advice he held a
picked force in reserve, concealed behind some rising ground. With this
he now attacked the victorious Germans and Spaniards, who had got out
of hand in the excitement of pursuit and plundering. They made a bold
resistance, but discipline told in the end; they were utterly defeated
and their leaders put to flight. Conradin and his immediate staff,
comprising the Duke of Austria and some German and Italian nobles, made
their way to Astura on the coast of the Campagna, and had succeeded in
embarking when they were recognised by one of the Frangipani, who were
the lords of the territory. Arrested by him and handed over to Charles,
they were subjected to a form of trial, and beheaded in the market-place
of Naples. This act has always been regarded as an indelible blot on
Charles's record. Dante couples it with the alleged murder, by his
order, of St. Thomas Aquinas; and it seems to have been felt even by
members of the Guelf party as something, if one may so say, beyond the
rules of the game. Pope Clement, according to Villani, blamed Charles
severely; and the pious historian, for his own part, sees in the King's
subsequent misfortunes the judgment of God upon his cruelty towards an
innocent boy. The judge who pronounced the sentence was slain before
Charles's very eyes by his son-in-law, Robert, son to the Count of
Flanders, "and not a word was said, for Robert was great with the King,
and it appeared to the King and to all the barons that he had acted like
a valiant gentleman." In Conradin the Hohenstaufen line came to an end,
and therewith all _raison d'etre_ for the Ghibeline party. After this it
became merely a turbulent faction, until the accession of Henry of
Luxemburg; when Caesar once more began to take interest in his Italian
dominions.
It may be conceded that party rancour had much more to do with the
bringing of Conradin into Italy than any conscientious adhesion to views
such as those to which Dante afterwards gave utterance in the _De
Monarchia_, or faith in the benefit which would accrue to the world from
the rule of a single sovereign. But it shows the hold which the Empire
still had on men's minds, that the Ghibeline chiefs should have
preferred to take a boy from Germany as the figure-head of their cause,
rather than seek a leader of more experience from among their
fellow-countrymen. Nor does it seem to have entered any one's mind to
look out of Germany for an Emperor. There were, indeed, at the very
time, two rival Caesars-elect in existence--Richard, Earl of Cornwall,
and Alfonso, King of Castile, the former of whom his own countrymen,
more in derision than respect, were wont to call "King of Almayne;" but
clearly no Ghibeline cared to call upon either of them to "heal the
wounds which were killing Italy." Later, when the long interregnum was
brought to an end by the election of Rudolf of Hapsburg, even the Guelf
Villani holds that if he had been willing to pass into Italy he would
have been lord of it without opposition; but that astute prince no doubt
found himself much better employed in converting a petty baronial line
into one of the great houses of Germany, and ultimately of Europe, than
in acting up to a titular dignity which brought its bearer more
splendour than either wealth or ease. When he did send an Imperial Vicar
into Tuscany in 1281 his chance was gone, and the emissary was glad to
come to terms with the Florentines.
Thus, from the earliest time that Dante could remember, the Guelfs held
an almost undisturbed supremacy throughout Tuscany. There was occasional
fighting between Florence, as the head of the Guelf League, and Siena,
or Pisa, as the case might be. The Sienese, though helped by Guido
Novello and the Florentine exiles, and by some of the Spanish and German
troops who had escaped from Tagliacozzo, were badly beaten at Colle di
Val d'Elsa in 1269, and their commander, Provenzano Salvani (whom Dante
afterwards met in Purgatory), taken and slain. In the following year
this city too was purged of the Ghibeline taint, and a few Florentine
citizens who were caught were, after a reference to Charles, duly
beheaded. Pisa held out somewhat longer, and was able to expel its
Guelfs in 1275, among them the famous Count Ugolino de' Gherardeschi, a
member of the house of Donoratico, one of whose counts had been captured
and killed with Conradin; but in a year's time a Florentine success
brought them back. An effort made by Pope Gregory X. to reconcile the
factions, as he passed through Florence on his way to the Council of
Lyons, bore little or no fruit, and, as a pendant to former
excommunications of Emperors, the city was placed under interdict. When,
a year and a half later, Gregory died at Arezzo, "by his death," says
Villani, "the Guelfs of Florence were greatly cheered, by reason of the
ill will which he had towards them;"--an interesting remark, as showing
that the Guelfs were not prepared to support the Holy See farther than
their own interests as a party demanded.
The condition of Florence at this time cannot be better described than
in Villani's words. Writing of the year 1278, he says--
"In these times, the Guelf nobles of Florence, reposing from
their foreign wars with victory and honour, and fattened upon
the goods of the exiled Ghibelines, and by reason of their other
gains, began, through pride and envy, to quarrel among
themselves; whence came to pass in Florence more feuds and
enmities between the citizens, with slayings and woundings.
Among them all the greatest was the quarrel between the house of
the Adimari of the one part, who were very great and powerful,
and on the other side were the house of the Donati; in such wise
that nearly the whole of the city took sides, and some held with
one party and some with the other, whereby the city and the
Guelf party were in great danger."
We shall remember how, in Dante's judgement also, pride, envy, and
avarice were "the sparks that had set hearts on fire," in Florence.
Once again the Pope, who was now Nicholas III., interfered; and once
again representatives of the two great factions exchanged the kiss of
peace before a Papal Legate, this time in front of "the Preaching
Friars' new church of New St. Mary's, in Florence," of which the Legate,
Cardinal Latino, had but lately laid the first stone. The Ghibeline
leaders were still kept out, but the rank and file returned. The feud of
the Adimari and Donati was patched up for the time, whereby "the said
Cardinal had much honour, and Florence remained a good time in a
peaceful and good and tranquil state."
Cardinal Latino had arranged for the government of Florence by a
committee of fourteen "good men," of whom eight were to be Guelfs and
six Ghibelines. They were to hold office for two months. It marks the
Cardinal as a man of some organizing capacity that his peace continued
for four years, during which time Villani has next to nothing to relate
about the affairs of his city. These were the years in which Dante was
growing up to manhood. As a boy of thirteen he would doubtless have
looked on at the scene in front of Santa Maria Novella; and during the
next four peaceful years we may suppose that he would have begun to sit
at the feet of the old statesman, diplomatist, and scholar Brunetto
Latini, picking up from his lips the lore "how man becomes immortal."
We can picture him too, where the boys and girls were gathered together,
a silent and reserved lad, probably unpopular unless with one or two
special friends, paying little heed to any of his companions save one
girl of about his own age, whose movements he would follow, and for the
sound of whose words, though never addressed to him, he would listen,
with the speechless devotion which perhaps is only felt at sixteen or
seventeen, and then only by natures which fortunately are exceptional in
this world. "The child is father to the man;" and we can be pretty
certain from what we know of the man Dante what the boy Dante must have
been.
The tranquil period was disturbed in 1282. Pope Nicholas, who, whether
guilty of Simony or not--and one fears that the case against him must
have been strong, since not only Dante, but even Villani charges him
with the offence--at least deserved the blessing pronounced on
peacemakers, had died in the previous year at Viterbo, a town which,
during this period, seems to have suited the Popes better than Rome as a
place of residence. Charles, between whom and Nicholas no love had been
lost, was resolved that the next Pope should not come from the powerful
house of the Orsini, to a branch of which, the Guatani, the late Pontiff
had belonged, and by an arrangement with the people of Viterbo,
succeeded in getting the two most prominent clerical members of that
house imprisoned. Thus he secured the election of a Frenchman, Simon of
Brie, who, being a canon of Tours, took the name of Martin IV. His
Papacy, though it lasted little more than three years, was eventful. He
was elected in January, 1282, and on the following Easter Monday, March
30th, the people of Palermo, furious at the outrages of Charles's French
troops, rose and massacred every Frenchman upon whom they could lay
hands. Charles's efforts to recapture the island were baffled, chiefly
owing to the hostility of Manfred's son-in-law. King Peter of Aragon,
also, with the help of his famous admiral, Roger of Loria, began about
this time to prove a serious thorn in the side of the Angevin King. From
the day of the "Sicilian Vespers," fortune turned against Charles. His
son was taken prisoner by Loria in 1284, his life being spared only at
the entreaty of Peter's wife, while he did not recover his liberty till
1289. The King himself died broken down with grief and disappointment,
in the early days of 1285, and was followed a couple of months later by
his creature, Martin IV., and, before the year was out, by his enemy,
King Peter. It will be remembered that Peter and Charles were seen by
Dante in the "Valley of Princes," awaiting their entry into Purgatory,
and singing their Compline hymn in friendly accord: Martin IV. being
placed higher up the mountain, among the gluttonous.
At Florence the course of affairs was not much affected by the reverses
which befell Charles. At the same time, these, and a success gained by
Guy of Montefeltro over John of Appia, a French officer whom Martin had
appointed Count of Romagna, made the Guelf majority uneasy. Cardinal
Latino's Constitution was abandoned, and a new form of government
adopted. The trading-class resolved to get rid altogether of the
representatives of feudal authority, weak as they had become,[26] and to
this end the Fourteen were abolished, and the chief power placed in the
hands of the Priors of the Arts, or, as we should say, the Masters of
the great trading guilds. The number of those guilds which contributed
members to the governing body seems to have been gradually increased. At
first only three--the Clothmakers, the Money-changers, and the
Wool-dealers--were thus honoured; but by the end of the century, at
least twelve, seven greater and five lesser arts, were included. The
Priors, as the Fourteen had done, held office for two months only, and
various devices were employed to prevent any house or any person from
becoming dangerously powerful. Nobles, in order to qualify for office,
had to join a guild; and as the nobles, or _grandi_, were more
frequently on the Ghibeline side, this would yet further weaken that
party.
Florence had now fairly entered upon a period of great prosperity. Her
bankers lent money to kings; her trade extended all over Europe. Pisa,
her most dangerous rival, had been utterly crushed by the Genoese in the
great sea-fight off Meloria, with a slaughter which seems to have
struck awe into the hearts even of the victors; and though she expelled
her Guelfs four years later, in 1288, and, in 1291, under the brilliant
leader Guy of Montefeltro, won some successes in the field, she was
never again a power to be feared. Arezzo gave some trouble as a
rendezvous for the banished Ghibelines; but the battle of Campaldino, in
1289, already referred to, broke her strength for a long time. Florence
was thus free to attend to the arts of peace. The city walls were
extended and new gates built; and several of the buildings, which to
this day are among the glories of Florence, date from that period.
Still, however, much of the old class-jealousy smouldered; and, as
Machiavelli points out, all fear of the Ghibelines being removed, the
powerful houses began to oppress the people. Giano della Bella, himself
of noble family, casting in his lot with the commons, succeeded in
carrying what were called the Ordinances of Justice, whereby, among
other things, nobles were absolutely disqualified from taking any part
in the government. A measure so oppressive as this was bound to bring
about its own appeal, and, as a matter of fact, within two years from
its promulgation, Giano was driven into exile, and the nobles were more
turbulent than ever. It is at this time that the name of Corso Donati
first comes into prominence.
Another event, which was to influence the destinies of Florence and of
Dante, occurred shortly before Giano's overthrow. This was the election
to the Papacy, in 1294, of Benedetto Guatani, known to history as
Boniface VIII. The most vigorous Pope who had held the office for
several generations, he soon let it be known that he intended to revive
all the claims which his predecessors, Gregory VII. and Innocent III.,
had made to temporal as well as spiritual supremacy. His first efforts
were devoted to getting Tuscany into his hands, and to this end he seems
to have intrigued freely with the leaders of both parties in Florence.
In theory, of course, where all were Guelfs, the Pope ought to have had
little trouble; but there were Guelfs and Guelfs, and it was not long
before party differences were emphasised, and, so to say, crystallised,
by party names. Curiously enough, these again appear first at Pistoia. A
family feud there had led to two branches of the Cancellieri being
distinguished as Black and White, and towards 1300 the names appear at
Florence. The Donati headed the Black faction; their rivals, the Cerchi,
the White. The latter represented the more orderly section of the
community; the former reproduced all the worst features of the old
Ghibeline aristocracy, though in the end it was the Whites who had to
coalesce with the Ghibelines. At first, indeed, it would seem as if
Boniface might have been willing to work with the Whites. He sent for
Vieri de' Cerchi, the leader of that party, and tried to induce him to
live peaceably with the other side. Vieri, for reasons which we can only
conjecture, replied curtly that he had no quarrel with any one; and
Boniface resorted to the old expedient of sending a Cardinal--Matthew of
Acquasparta--to reconcile the factions.
We have now reached the critical year of Dante's life--that in which he
held the office of Prior. But for the events of this and the next two
years, it may be doubted whether the _Commedia_ would ever have come
into existence, at least in the form in which six centuries have studied
and admired it. Henceforth Dante's own history, rather than that of his
times, will be our chief subject.
FOOTNOTES:
[26] In 1300, when the Black and White factions arose, we find
among the twenty-eight houses enumerated by Machiavelli, as the
chief on either side, only _three_ which in the old days had
belonged to the Ghibeline party.