Читать книгу Under The Green Claws - Ivo Ragazzini - Страница 8

But why did the Church want Romagna?

What had happened between the papacy and emperors in those times?

Let's go back a few decades and take a look at a chronicle of the time.

Romagna in 1200

Although Pepin King of the Franks¹⁹ had given Romagna to the Church almost five centuries earlier, it was never perfectly under its possession. Often, therefore, many places in Romagna almost always joined the empire and towards the mid 1200s Gregory IX tried to take it back by force of arms. Because of the disagreements between Emperor Frederick II and the Church,²⁰ the people of Romagna were also split between the Ghibellines and Guelphs as happened with many other peoples in Italy.

The residents of Forlì continued to obey the laws of the empire, while the residents of Faenza and Ravenna obeyed those of the Church.

Forlì, formerly named Forum Livii, in particular, was one of the most Ghibelline city in Italy and it was not a coincidence that Guido Bonatti, one of the best astrologers of his time, despite being born in Florence, requested and obtained citizenship of Forlì, believing that location to be the final place left in the world that maintained imperial traditions after the fall of the ancient empire of Rome, for reasons that you will soon discover for yourself.

In 1240, when Pietro Traversari died, who was the leader of the Guelphs of Romagna and lord of Ravenna,²¹ Ravenna and Faenza were conquered by Frederick II who went to Romagna and one after the other put siege to them.

In less than a week Ravenna fell and surrendered.

Now it was Faenza's turn to surrender, but the city, believing that Frederick II's forces were insufficient to cause it to capitulate, did not surrender and the emperor placed it under siege.