Essay On The Guelph Party

The Guelphs and Ghibellines were two different political parties in Italy and Germany during the Middle Ages. Guelph is derived from “Welf”, a dynasty of Bavarian German dukes who competed for the imperial throne in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Ghibelline is derived from Waiblingen, the Swabian Hohenstaufen dukes who were the Guelphs’ opponents. The Guelph party was sympathetic towards the papacy and the Ghibelline party was sympathetic towards the Holy Roman Emperor. The animosity between these two parties “contributed to chronic strife” within the Northern cities of Italy ("The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica"). The original purpose and beliefs of the different sides became “obfuscated by more struggles for power” because factions would choose sides based on their rival’s chosen party ("Guelphs and Ghibellines"). Fights that broke out in different communes between …show more content…
The attempts he made for power caused the Guelphs of Italy to be extremely worried about the common people’s freedom in the empire. Italy was then split between the people who believed their powers would be enhanced by supporting the emperor and those who opposed his imperial interference. Previously existing factions in states were now clearly identifying themselves as having a pro-papal, supportive of the pope, or a pro-imperial, supportive of military force, attitude ("The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica"). Disagreements between various members of the Guelph Party forced the party to split into two smaller factions: the Whites, “the moderate but 'disaffected faction'”, and the Blacks, “the 'pure papal extreme faction'”. In other words, the Whites were more on the fence of who they were loyal for and the Blacks were strictly supporters of the Pope ("Guelphs and