The Battle of Campaldino was a battle between the Guelphs and Ghibellines on June 11, 1289. Mixed bands of anti-papal Guelf forces of Florence and allies, Pistoia, Lucca, Siena and Prato, all loosely commanded by the paid condottiere Amerigo di Nerbona with his own professional following, met a Ghibelline force from Arezzo including the perhaps reluctant Bishop Guglielmino degli Ubertini, in the plain of Campaldino, which leads from Pratovecchio to Poppi, part of the Tuscan countryside along the upper Arno called the Casentino. One of the combatants was Dante Alighieri, 24 years old. The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting, respectively, the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire in Italy during the 12th century and 13th century. ... June 11 is the 162nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (163rd in leap years), with 203 days remaining. ... Events In this year English law set 1189 as the beginning of time immemorial. ... The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting, respectively, the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire in Italy during the 12th century and 13th century. ... Location within Italy Florence (Italian, Firenze) is a city in the center of Tuscany, in central Italy at 43°46′ N 11°15′ E. The city on the Arno River has a population of around 400,000, plus a suburban population in excess of 200,000. ... Pistoia (ancient Pistoria) is a city in the Tuscany region of Italy, the capital of a province of the same name, located about 30 km (18 mi) west and north of Florence. ... Lucca (population 90,000) is a city in Tuscany, northern central Italy, near (but not on) the Ligurian Sea. ... This page is not about the form of limonite clay called sienna. ... Prato is a city in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. ... Condottieri were mercenary leaders employed by Italian city-states from the late Middle Ages until the mid-fifteenth century. ... The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting, respectively, the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire in Italy during the 12th century and 13th century. ... Arezzo is a city in central Italy, capital of the province of the same name, located in Tuscany. ... Arno River in Florence, Italy The Arno is a river in region of Italy, that crosses all the region from Mount Falterona (near the city of Arezzo, in Casentino area), to Pisa where it enters Tyrrhenian Sea. ... Dante in a fresco series of famous men by Andrea del Castagno, ca. ...

Later, in the mid-14th century, Giovanni Villani recorded the long-remembered details— as Florentines remembered them— in his chronicle, though the casus belli he offers are merely conventional "outrages" on the part of Arezzo; the elaborately staged raid and fight led by aristocrats on both sides sounds like stylized gang warfare, though carried out, according to Villani, under the battle standard of the absent Charles, the Angevine King of Naples. The Florentines and their allies had 10,000 undisciplined armed rabble on foot, including light-armed infantry, and crossbowmen, and unmounted lancers, but 1600 knights and 600 mounted burghrers of Florence, Giovanni Villani (ca 1275-1348), the Florentine writer of the famous chronicles (the Cronica) is the greatest Italian chronicler of his own times and the cornerstone of the early medieval history of Florence. ... Charles II, known as the Lame (Fr. ...

the best armed and mounted which ever sallied out forth from Florence; and 400 mercenaries, together with the following of the Captain M[esser] Amerigo, in the pay of the Florentines; and of Lucca there were 500 horsemen; and of Prato 40 horsemen and foot soldiers; and of Pistoia, 60 horse and foot; and of Siena, 120 horse; and of Volterra, 40 horse; and of Bologna, their ambassadors with their company; and of Samminiato, and of Sangimignano, and of Colle, men mounted and on foot from each place; and Maghinardo of Susinana, a good and wise captain in war, with his Romagnoli." [1]

The forces were equal as far as the large groups of foot-soldiers were concerned, but the mounted knights of the Aretine forces only came to 800, but those were "the flower of the Ghibellines of Tuscany, of the March, and of the Duchy, and of Romagna; and all were men experienced in arms and in war." This Arentine force was quickly assembled and came out as word spread that the Guelfs were ravaging the places of Conte Guido Novello, who was Podestà of Arezzo and, worse, threatening the fortified place called Bibbiena Civitella. Lucca (population 90,000) is a city in Tuscany, northern central Italy, near (but not on) the Ligurian Sea. ... Prato is a city in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. ... Pistoia (ancient Pistoria) is a city in the Tuscany region of Italy, the capital of a province of the same name, located about 30 km (18 mi) west and north of Florence. ... This page is not about the form of limonite clay called sienna. ... Volterra is a town in the Tuscany region, Italy. ... Bologna (from Latin Bononia, Bulaggna in the local dialect) is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, between the Po River and the Apennines. ... San Gimignano San Gimignano is a small walled medieval hill-top town in Tuscany, Italy, about a 35 minute drive north-west of Siena. ... Emilia-Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. ... Panorama of Urbino with the cathedral and the palazzo ducale Urbino is a city in the Marche in Italy, southwest of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site with a great cultural history during the Renaissance as the seat of Federico da Montefeltro. ... Emilia-Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. ... The Palace of the Podestà in Florence, known as the Palazzo Vecchio or the Palazzo della Signoria Podestà is the name given to a high official in many Italian cities, during the later middle ages. ...

The scuttlebutt reported by Villani was that a plot had been intercepted at Arezzo, by which the Bishop agreed to give over to the Florentines Bibbiena Civitella, and all the villages of his see, in return for a life annuity of 5,000 golden florins a year, guaranteed by the bank of the Cerchi. The plot was uncovered by his nephew Guglielmo de' Pazzi, and they hustled the bishop onto his horse and brought him to the battlefield, where they left him dead among the slain of the battle and its aftermath: Guglielmino de' Pazzi in Valdarno and Bonconte, the son of Guido da Montefeltro. Ploughing the Campaldino plain used to turn up human remains and bones as recently as eighty years ago [2]. The Pazzi family were Tuscan nobles who had become bankers in Florence in the 14th century. ... Montefeltro is the name of an historical Italian family who ruled Urbino. ...

According to Villani, Corso Donati, podestà of Pistoia. though under orders to stand ready in reserve by his personal heroics, shouting “If we lose, I will die in the battle with my fellow citizens; and if we conquer, let him that will, come to us at Pistoia to exact the penalty” charged the Aretine flank and helped break up the lines and win the day for the Guelfs.

The battle of Campaldino secured the Guelfs in Florence, though internecine fighting among the Whites and the Blacks among the Florentine Guelfs resulted in upsets for city order, and the exile of many, including Dante, a member of the Whites, the more opposed to papal power.

External link

• Castelle e fortezze:Camaldino (in Italian)