Guelph (pronounced gwelf)
(1) In the
politics of medieval Italian city states and in certain German states, a member
of a political party or faction that supported the sovereignty of the papacy
against the Holy Roman Emperor: politically opposed to the Ghibellines who
supported the claims of the emperor.
(2) The
beliefs of the Guelphs.
(2) A
member of a secret society in early nineteenth century Italy that opposed
foreign rulers and reactionary ideas.
(3) Any
member of the German-Hanoverian Party (1867–1933), a conservative federalist
political party in the German Empire (the so-called Second Reich 1871-1918) and
the Weimar Republic (1918-1933) founded as a protest against the annexation in
1866 of the Kingdom of Hanover by the Kingdom of Prussia.
1570–1580:
From the Italian Guelfo, from the Middle
High German Welf (the family name of
the founder of a princely German dynasty of Bavarian origin that became the
ducal house of Brunswick (literally “whelp”,
originally the name of the founder (Welf I). The family are the ancestors of the present Windsor
dynasty of Great Britain which until 17 July 1917 was the house of Saxe-Coburg
and Gotha, the change effected by decree of George V (1865–1936; King of the
United Kingdom & Emperor of India 1910-1936), responding to some
understandable anti-German sentiment during the World War I (1914-1918). One unintended consequence of the change was
it elicited from Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859–1941; German Emperor & King of
Prussia 1888-1918) the first of his two known jokes: Upon hearing of the
change, he quipped he hoped soon to attend the next Berlin performance of William
Shakespeare’s (1564–1616) The Merry Wives
of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1602).
Historians cite the name as a war-cry used at the Battle of Weinsberg
(1140) by forces loyal to Henry III (Henry the Lion, 1129-1195; Duke of Saxony
(1142–1180) and of Bavaria (as Henry XII, 1156–1180) who at the time was
aligned with Frederick Barbarossa (1122–1190; Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
1155-1190). The alternative spelling was
Guelf. Guelph & Guelphism are nouns
and Guelphic & Guelfic are adjectives; the noun plural is guelphs. During the “great controversy”, partisans of
the pope were in Italy known as Guelfi.
Ghibelline
(pronounced gib-uh-lin or gib-uh-leen)
A member of
the aristocratic party in medieval Italy and Germany that supported the claims
of the Holy Roman Emperors against the claims by the papacy of temporal power:
politically opposed to the Guelphs who supported the claims of the pope.
1565-1575: From
the Italian Ghibellino, from the German
Waiblingen, from the Middle High
German Wibellingen, the name of a
castle in Swabia held by the Hohenstaufen dynasty (the township of Waiblingen in modern Germany), from Old
High German Weibilinga & Weibelingen which may have been a suffixed
form of the personal names Wabilo
& Wahilo. Ghibelline & Ghibellinism are nouns, guelphic
is an adjective; the noun plural is Ghibellines.
The Guelf and
Ghibelline were members of two opposing factions in Italian and German politics
during the Middle Ages, the Guelfs supporting the claims of the papacy to
temporal power while the Ghibellines were aligned with the Holy Roman (German) Emperors. A variant of one of the many types of “state vs
church” conflicts which have played out over the last thousand-odd years, the
disputes between the Guelfs and Ghibellines contributed to making the strife
within northern Italian cities chronic in the thirteenth & fourteenth
centuries. It was the Hohenstaufen
emperor Frederick Barbarossa who in the twelfth century resorted to armed force
in an attempt to reassert imperial authority over northern Italy, his military
ventures opposed not only by the Lombard and Tuscan communes which wished to
preserve their autonomy within the empire, but also by the newly elected pope (Alexander
III, circa 1104-1181; pope 1159-1181).
Thus was the peninsula split between those who sought to increase their
power-bases and political influence and those (with the pope in the vanguard)
determined to resist renewed imperial interference.
The conflicts between cities
pre-dated the use of Guelf and Ghibelline, the deployment of which became a
sort of descriptive codification of the factions as the inter & intra-city
antagonisms intensified. Although many
of the potted histories of the era lend the impression the conflict was binary
as forces coalesced around the Guelfs and Ghibellines, each side existed with
what political scientists call “cross-cutting cleavages”: social, family,
class, economic and even occupational alliances all at play. Still, the characteristic depiction of Guelfs
representing wealthy merchants, traders and bankers and Ghibellines
(representing feudal aristocrats and the Italian equivalent of the landed
gentry) was not inaccurate and especially ferocious in Florence, where the
Guelfs were twice exiled. Although as a
piece of history the long-running conflict is understood as a political (and
even theological although that does take some intellectual gymnastics)
squabble, the series of wars fought between the mid-thirteenth and early
fourteenth century, although on a smaller scale than many, were as brutal and
bloody as any in the Middle Ages and were essentially between Guelf-controlled
Florence and its allies (Montepulciano, Bologna & Orvieto) and its
Ghibelline opponents (Pisa, Siena, Pistoia, and Arezzo).
Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December, 2011.
After the
Hohenstaufen loss of southern Italy in 1266 and the extinction of their line
two year later, the meanings of Guelf and Ghibelline morphed, Guelfism becoming
a system of alliances among those who supported the Angevin presence in
southern Italy (including the Angevin rulers of Sicily themselves, the popes, and
Florence with its Tuscan allies) while within the many cities where the Guelfs had
been victorious, the forces became a kind of blend of political party and
pressure group acting on behalf of the conservative, property-owning class
dedicated to maintaining the exile of the Ghibellines whose holdings had been
confiscated. Ghibellinism, although
there were periodic attempts at revivals, became more an expression of nostalgia
for empire although during the later part of the fourteenth century, the practical
significance both declined: the popes for decades re-located to France and the
emperors solved the problem of northern Italy by pretending it didn’t
exist. For another century the divisions
between Guelfs and Ghibelline lived as names for local factions but the days of
meeting on the battlefield were over.
However, Europe is a place of long
memories (“ancient traditions” also invented as required) and the terms were in
the nineteenth century revived during the emergence of the movement which in
1861 would secure the unification of Italy: the “Neo-Guelfs” urged the pope to
lead a federation of Italian states while the “Neo-Ghibellines” viewed the pope
as a medieval barrier to both modernization and the development of Italian
unity. By the mid-twentieth century
popes no longer laid claim to temporal authority but, as the “vicar of Christ
on Earth” his Holiness still, on behalf of God, asserted proprietorship over
the souls of Catholics and this annoyed Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce
(leader) & Prime-Minister of Italy 1922-1943) whose view was Fascism was
not to be seen as simply a political ideology but the primary dynamic of the
Italian state and the guiding light of its people. Authoritarian states are never comfortable if
having to co-exist with what might be alternative sources of authority whether
that be the Roman Catholic Church, the Falun Gong or the Freemasons (although
they’re probably right to be worried about the latter) and Mussolini mentally
divided the country in the fascist-supporting Ghibellines (good) and the
priest-ridden Guelfs (bad). Mussolini
did think of himself as something of a Roman Emperor, if not one especially
holy. Count Galeazzo Ciano (1903–1944;
Italian foreign minister 1936-1943 (and the son-in-law of Benito Mussolini who
ordered his execution)) was one of the more readable diarists of the wartime
years and a couple of his entries record the way the terms had lived on (and
would survive into the atomic age):
2 January
1939: “A
conversation with the Duce [Benito Mussolini] and Pignatti [Count Bonifacio Pignatti Morano di Custozza
(1877-1957; Italian Ambassador
to the Holy See 1935-1939)]. The Duce told the ambassador to tell the Vatican that he is dissatisfied with
the policy of the Holy See,
especially with reference to the Catholic Action Movement. He spoke also of the opposition of the clergy to the policy of the Axis, as well as
to racial legislation. Let them not be
under any illusion as to the possibility of keeping Italy under the tutelage of
the Church. The power of the clergy is
imposing, but more imposing is the power of the state, especially a Fascist
state. We do not want a conflict, but we
are ready to support the policy of the state, and in such a case we shall
arouse all the dormant anti-clerical rancor; let the Pope remember that Italy
is Ghibelline. Pignatti acted in a satisfactory manner. He said that the Vatican has made many mistakes, but that the Pope is a man of good faith, and that he is the one
who, more than any other prelate, thinks in terms of Italianism. I have given him instructions to act
tactfully. Notwithstanding Starace
[confessed Freemason Achille Starace (1889–1945; Secretary of the National
Fascist Party 1931-1939 who (along with Mussolini, his mistress and four other fascists) was on 29
April 1945 executed by partisans and hung by his ankles above a gas (petrol)
station forecourt in Piazzale Loreto, Milan)], I should like to avoid a clash with the
Vatican, which I should consider very harmful.”
On the site there now sits a bank building, the ground floor of which is occupied by a McDonalds “family restaurant”. Once an autopsy had been performed (clinically, one of the less necessary in medical history), Mussolini’s corpse was buried in a “secret” unmarked grave, but this was Italy so fascists soon discovered the location and exhumed the body, spiriting it away. That caused a scandal and when eventually the government tracked down the remains, such was the wish to avoid upsetting either the (anti-fascist) Guelphs or (pro-fascist) Ghibellines, an accommodating abbot was found who agreed to find a quiet corner in his monastery. For over a decade, there it sat until in the late 1950s it was returned to Mussolini’s widow, the need at the time being to appease the Ghibellines (ie the Italian right wing). The Duce's remains reside now in a crypt at Mussolini’s birthplace which has become a pilgrimage spot for neo-fascists from many countries and in Italy, it’s possible to buy items such as Mussolini postcards and coffee mugs. Of course the Vatican's gift shops have much papal merchandise for sale and despite the dramatic set-piece at the Esso gas station, what happened in 1945 really wasn't a victory of the Guelphs over the Ghibellines; since then the two sides have managed (mostly) peacefully to co-exist.
June 3,
1942: “Optimism prevails
at the Palazzo Venezia on the progress of operations in Libya. The Duce talks today
about the imminent siege of Tobruk and about the
possibility of carrying the action as far as Marsa Matruk. If these are roses… they will bloom. The Duce was very hostile to the Vatican
because of an article appearing in the Osservatore Romano [the daily newspaper of Vatican City (owned by
the Holy See but not an official publication)]
over the signature of Falchetto [“Falchetto” (little falcon) was the ambassador’s pseudonym,
used when publishing quasi-official or interpretative commentary on relations
between the Holy See and the Italian state, diplomatic developments or
political issues of mutual concern, without these writings being treated as
formal government statements. What this
meant was the statements could be read as reflecting viewpoint of the Italian
embassy to the Holy See (and, by extension, of the Italian government itself)
yet still providing the essential layer of “plausible deniability”]. The article spoke
about Greek philosophy, but the real purpose was evident. Guariglia [career diplomat
Raffaele Guariglia, Baron di Vituso (1889–1970)] will take
the matter up with the Secretariat of State of the Vatican. ‘I hate priests in
their cassocks,’ said Mussolini, ‘but I hate even more and loathe those without
cassocks [Italians who follow the Vatican line], who are vile Guelfs, a breed to be wiped
out.’” The Duce did though remain a
realist and whatever might have been his private fantasies, never suggested, as
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government
1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) did during one of the many dark
moments of his table talk: “sending a squad into
the Vatican and clearing out that whole rotten crew.” Tacitly, both Duce and Führer knew that to
exert his influence, the pope didn’t need any divisions at his command.
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