Chapter 5

CHAPTER V

The state of Italy--Beginning of the greatness of the house of
Este--Guelphs and Ghibellines--Death of the Emperor Frederick II.
--Manfred takes possession of the kingdom of Naples--Movements of
the Guelphs and Ghibellines in Lombardy--Charles of Anjou invested
by the pope with the kingdom of Naples and Sicily--Restless policy
of the popes--Ambitious views of pope Nicholas III.--Nephews of
the popes--Sicilian vespers--The Emperor Rodolph allows many
cities to purchase their independence--Institution of the jubilee
--The popes at Avignon.

At this time the states of Italy were governed in the following
manner: the Romans no longer elected consuls, but instead of them, and
with the same powers, they appointed one senator, and sometimes more.
The league which the cities of Lombardy had formed against Frederick
Barbarossa still continued, and comprehended Milan, Brescia, Mantua,
and the greater number of the cities of Romagna, together with Verona,
Vicenza, Padua, and Trevisa. Those which took part with the emperor,
were Cremona, Bergamo, Parma, Reggio, and Trento. The other cities and
fortresses of Lombardy, Romagna, and the march of Trevisa, favored,
according to their necessities, sometimes one party, sometimes the
other.

In the time of Otho III. there had come into Italy a man called
Ezelin, who, remaining in the country, had a son, and he too had a son
named Ezelin. This person, being rich and powerful, took part with
Frederick, who, as we have said, was at enmity with the pope;
Frederick, at the instigation and with the assistance of Ezelin, took
Verona and Mantua, destroyed Vicenza, occupied Padua, routed the army
of the united cities, and then directed his course towards Tuscany.
Ezelin, in the meantime, had subdued the whole of the Trevisian March,
but could not prevail against Ferrara, which was defended by Azone da
Este and the forces which the pope had in Lombardy; and, as the enemy
were compelled to withdraw, the pope gave Ferrara in fee to this
Azone, from whom are descended those who now govern that city.
Frederick halted at Pisa, desirous of making himself lord of Tuscany;
but, while endeavoring to discover what friends and foes he had in
that province, he scattered so many seeds of discord as occasioned the
ruin of Italy; for the factions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines
multiplied,--those who supported the church taking the name of
Guelphs, while the followers of the emperor were called Ghibellines,
these names being first heard at Pistoia. Frederick, marching from
Pisa, assailed and wasted the territories of the church in a variety
of ways; so that the pope, having no other remedy, unfurled against
him the banner of the cross, as his predecessor had done against