Heroes of Modern Europe

								

the terrible fear inspired by the barefooted, black-robed figures, with
branches and candles in their hands and the holy Cross flaming red
before them.
One defeat after another brought the House of Hohenstaufen under the
control of the Church they had defied so boldly.  Frederick's own son
rebelled against him, and Frederick's camp was destroyed by a Guelf
army.  The Emperor had lived splendidly, making more impression on
world-history than any other prince of that {18} illustrious family,
but he died in an hour of failure, feeling bitterly how great a triumph
his death would be to the Pope who had conquered.
It was late in the year 1250 when the tidings of Frederick II's death
travelled slowly through his Empire.  Many refused to believe them, and
declared long years afterwards that the Emperor was still living,
beneath a mighty mountain.  The world seemed to be shaking yet with the
vibration of that deadly struggle.  Conrad and Conradin were left, and
Manfred, the favourite son of Frederick, but their reigns were short
and desperate, and when they, too, had passed the Middle Ages were
merging into another era.  The "two swords" of Papacy and Empire were
still to pierce and wound, but the struggle between them would never
seem so mighty after the spirit had fled which inspired Conradin, last
of the House of Swabia.
This young prince was led to the scaffold, where he asserted stoutly
his claim to Naples above the claim of Charles, the Count of Anjou, who
held it as fief of the Papacy.  Then Conradin dared to throw his glove
among the people, bidding them to carry it to Peter, Prince of Aragon,
as the symbol by which he conveyed the rights of which death alone had
been able to despoil him.

{19}
Chapter II
Dante, the Divine Poet
There were still Guelfs and Ghibellines in 1265, but the old names had
partially lost their meaning in the Republic of Florence, where the
citizens brawled daily, one faction against the other.  The nobles had,
nevertheless, a bond with the emperor, being of the same Teutonic
stock, and the burghers often sought the patronage of a very powerful
pope, hoping in this way to maintain their well-loved independence.
But often Guelf and Ghibelline had no interest in anything outside the
walls of Florence.  The Florentine blood was hot and rose quickly to
avenge insult.  Family feuds were passionately upheld in a community so
narrow and so zealous.  If a man jostled another in the street, it was
an excuse for a fight which might end in terrible bloodshed.  Fear of
banishment was no restraint to the combatants.  The Guelf party would
send away the Ghibelline after there had been some shameful tumult.
Then the fuori (outside) were recalled because their own faction was
in power again, and, in turn, the Guelfs were banished by the
Ghibellines.  In 1260 there had even been some talk of destroying the
famous town in Tuscany.  Florence would have been razed to the ground