The New International Encyclopædia/Guelphs and Ghibellines

​GUELPHS, gwĕlfs, AND GHIBELLINES, gĭb′ē̇-lĭnz. The names of two great political parties, whose contentions and wars distracted Northern and Central Italy in the latter part of the Middle Ages. The designation Guelph (Ital. Guelfo, pl. Guelfi ) is commonly supposed to be derived from Welf, the name of a princely family of Germany, which rose to great power in the twelfth century, when it was the rival of the House of Hohenstaufen, which occupied the Imperial throne. The most famous of the rulers of the House of Guelph was Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, who defied the power of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and who was finally deprived of most of his possessions in 1180–81. The origin of the designation Ghibelline (Ital. Ghibellino) is altogether uncertain. A theory which has been widely accepted, but which rests on an insufficient basis, is that it became current as a modification of Waiblinger (‘men of Waiblinger,’ one of the possessions of the Hohenstaufen in South Germany), the name, used as a battle-cry, under ​which the followers of Conrad III. (the first of the Hohenstaufen emperors) are said to have figured in the battle of Weinsberg, in which Welf VI., uncle of Henry the Lion, was defeated in 1140. About the beginning of the thirteenth century we find the names Ghibellines and Guelphs in use in Italy. The former may, in general, be described as the upholders of the Imperial authority in Italy (or, at the beginning, the supporters of the Hohenstaufen), the latter as the opponents of the Emperors. The opposition to Imperial authority in Italy arose from two distinct parties, which, for the most part, made common cause with each other—from the Church, which sought to assert its independence of the emperors, and from the principalities and city republics, which contended for their provincial or municipal rights and liberties. The Guelphs may therefore, in a measure, be said to have represented the National party. Florence, Bologna, and Milan took, as a general rule, the side of the Guelphs; while Pisa, Verona, and Arezzo were Ghibelline. Florence, especially, was the great stronghold of the Guelphs. The great Italian families in like manner took opposite sides, but the policy of each family frequently varied. As a rule, the nobles of the more northern districts of Italy inclined to the Ghibelline side, while those of the central districts were Guelphs. By degrees, however, and especially after the downfall of the preponderance of the German emperors in Italy, the contest ceased to be a strife of principles, and degenerated into a mere struggle of rival factions availing themselves of the prestige of ancient names and traditional or hereditary prejudices. In 1334 Benedict XII. practically disallowed altogether the reality of the grounds of division between the parties, by proscribing, under pain of the censures of the Church, the further use of those once-stirring names, which had long been the rallying words of a sanguinary warfare. After the fourteenth century we read little more of Guelphs or Ghibellines as actually existing parties. Consult: Browning, Guelphs and Ghibellines (London, 1893); Trollope, History of the Commonwealth of Florence (London, 1865); also the general works on mediæval history referred to under Italy and Germany. See Florence; Hohenstaufen; Italy.