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| The battle of Colle |
Tradition has it that the names Guelfi and Ghibellini (in German: Welfen and Waiblinger) originated in Germany in the first half
of the 12th century, and it appears that the two names were the battle-cries used by the supporters of the House of Bavaria and the House of the Dukes of Swabia (Hohenstaufen), following the death of Emperor Henry V (1125), who had no direct heirs.
However, it is very likely that these names began to be used in a more political sense a few years later on, when the two parties who were struggling for the succession to the throne came to represent two opposing political approaches.
The followers of the Hohenstaufens backed a rigid opposition to any political interference on the part of the Church in Rome, while the first representative of the younger branch of the House of Welf-Este, Welf IV, Duke of Bavaria, was in favour of an agreement with the pontiffs aimed at securing moral support for his policies.
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Over the years these splits also emerged in Italy, with Emperor Frederick I, known as Barbarossa, and Pope Clement IV.
For a long time Colle was also caught up in the struggle between the two rival factions, since here the Guelf people had managed since 1267 to get rid of the Ghibellines, so that they fell within the orbit of Florence, which was Guelf, rather than Siena, which was Ghibelline.
In 1268 the Constable of France, Giovanni Britaud, and several Guelfs who had left Siena had made Colle di Val d'Elsa a mustering point for Guelf forces, thanks to its outlying position in Sienese territory, which they skilfully exploited to make sudden cavalry attacks and raids right as far as the very walls of the city of Siena.
Given this situation, a Sienese military commander, Provenzano Salvani, who had won the battle of Montaperti in 1260 against the Florentines, decided to mount a military action to storm the town of Colle.
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On 15 June 1269, the General Council of Florence, which held an urgent meeting at the news that Ghibelline forces were approaching Colle, ordered the men-in-arms of three city districts to stand ready "at lighted candle", in other words at dawn, ready to come to the aid of their ally, Colle.
On the Guelf side, there were 400 French horsemen under Britaud, 200 Florentines under Neri de' Bardi, and around 200 people from Colle and political exiles from Siena, as well as a few hundred infantrymen from Colle, all under the command of Britaud.
On the Sienese side, there were 1,400 horsemen and 8,000 infantrymen under the command of Provenzano Salvani, all hoping for an easy victory, but they had to win it before the reinforcements from Florence got to the town.
On Monday 17 June 1269, while the Sienese forces were moving camp from the Abbey of Spugna to a new location, probably where Gracciano stands today, the Guelf forces made a move that was daring, but also rash, given the disparity in numbers of men. They attacked the Ghibelline army, behind the Guelf flag borne aloft by messer Aldobrandino de' Pazzi, "for the honour of God and the victory of Florence."
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The battle was short, but bloody.
Few people on the Sienese side stood their ground and fought, one of them being Provenzano Salvani, in the general stampede of Sienese forces seized by panic. The Sienese army left around 1,000 dead and 1,644 soldiers wounded on the battle-field.
The entire Sienese camp was destroyed, and their banners and those of the Germans were dragged in the dust, while Provenzano Salvani himself was caught and killed by a Sienese exile, Regolino Tolomei, and his head was cut off, stuck on a pike, and displayed atop the walls of Colle.
Thus ended the dominion of the Ghibellines, a dominion won after the battle of Montaperti, and the final dominion of the Guelfs of Florence began.
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Dante Alighieri, in canto XIII of his Purgatory, in the second circle of envy, summed up the battle of Colle in these words, spoken by madonna Sapia:
"My fellow-citizens near unto Colle Were joined in battle with their adversaries, And I was praying God for what he willed.
Routed were they, and turned into the bitter Passes of flight; and I, the chase beholding, A joy received unequalled by all others..."
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"Life is like a comedy: it doesn't matter how long it is, what's important is how it is acted out."
Seneca, Philosopher (5 BC - 65 AD)
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