Ezzelino III da Romano

Ezzelino III da Romano (April 25, 1194 – October 7, 1259) was an Italian conqueror, dictator, political figure and soldier. He was the "podestà" of Verona between 1226 and 1230, again in 1232, and finally in 1259. He also was the "podestà" of Vicenza from 1236 until 1259. Finally he was the "podestà" of Padua between 1237 and 1256, through his regent Ansedisio Guidotti.

Biography

Ezzelino was son of Ezzelino II da Romano, ruler of Bassano and member of a family of German origin, and his mother was Adelaide degli Alberti di Mangona. Ezzelino was described as not a tall man, shrewd, cynical, ferocious, with blazing eyes, and gifted with great military abilities.Fact|date=March 2007 His political positions were often ambiguous: after an initial allegiance to the Guelphs, he thereafter remained one of the staunchest member of the Ghibelline party in northern Italy, and always a faithful ally of Frederick II.

When Ezzelino II retired, his possessions went to his sons Alberico (Treviso) and Ezzelino (the castles in the area of Verona and Padua). Both the brothers received a special protection by Emperor Frederick in 1232. As Alberico was obliged to pass to the Guelph party, Ezzelino obtained the title of "podestà" by the Senate of Verona (1235) and was helped by Frederick to ravage the territories of Mantua, Brescia, and Vicenza. When the Emperor returned northwards to fight the duke of Austria, Ezzelino remained as supreme commander of the Imperial forces in northern Italy, and the primary leader of the Ghibelline party as well. The famous astrologer Guido Bonatti from Forlì, advisor of Frederick, was also advisor of Ezzelino.

In 1236 Ezzolino married Selvaggia, Frederick's natural daughter. Ezzelino conquered Verona and, by treason, Padua, grabbing the position of "podestà" of that city. He was one of the protagonists in the Ghibelline-Imperial victory of Cortenuova (1238), and was named Imperial viceroy for the Mark of Treviso. His long-lasting struggle against the duke of Este ended with the total defeat of the latter, and the annexion of many territories in what was now a true small empire for Ezzelino.

After a pacification attempt by Frederick, when the emperor set off again, Ezzelino attacked the Este, submitting Treviso (even if his brother's fief), Belluno and Feltre. Ezzelino was now "signore" of all lands between Trento and the Oglio river. He had acquired a reputation for cruelty and merciless use of torture against enemies and alleged plotters in the cities he ruled.

In 1249, after Selvaggia's death, he married Beatrice di Buontraverso.

In 1254, four years after Frederick II's death, he was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV, who also launched a crusade against him. He reconciled with his brother and allied with other seignors of the Veneto and Lombardy, attacking Padua, which resisted, and Brescia, which was instead sacked after an easy victory of his German knights over the crusade army.

In 1258 he launched a broad Ghibelline offensive in Lombardy and Veneto along with Oberto Pallavicino of Cremona. In 1259 he assaulted the castle of Priola, near Vicenza, and had all the defenders mutilated. After a failed attempt to assault Milan itself, he was wounded by an arrow in the course of the Battle of Cassano d'Adda. He had to retreat but was captured near Bergamo.

Ezzelino the Tyrant

Much of what we know about Ezzelino comes from a literary tradition that was embroidered over the course of centuries. Despite the brevity of his reign, Ezzelino’s reputed cruelty became symbolic of tyranny. Poets and chroniclers living in recent memory of his tactics used his name to evoke the sense of arbitrary power and the moral transgressions it enabled. Fourteenth century authors raised the level of accusation, insisting that Ezzelino’s parentage was demonic.

Rolandino of Padua's "Chronicle of the Trevisan March" (c. 1262) charts the rise and the fall of the da Romano family, introducing Ezzelino as a young man throwing stones at the home of the family rival. The extremely partisan political work follows the fortunes of Padua under the tyrant's iron grip up to the commune's liberation by the Guelph League.

Albertino Mussato's "Ecerinis" (c. 1315) portrays Ezzelino as the son of the Devil. The Latin verse play introduces Ezzelino's mother, who provides testimony of the tyrant's infernal sire.

In Dante Aligheri's "Divine Comedy", his soul is consigned to Hell, where Dante encounters him in the Seventh Circle, First Ring: the Violent against their Neighbors ("Inferno", XII, 109). His younger sister Cunizza is also cited by Dante, in "Paradise", IX, 31-33.

Before Ezzelino, the seizing of political power in city-states throughout the Middle Ages had been based on real or pretended inheritance claims, or else were directed against infidels and the excommunicated. But with him, as the historian Jacob Burkhardt relates, "Here for the first time the attempt was openly made to found a throne by wholesale murder and endless barbarities, by the adoption in short, of any means with a view to nothing but the end pursued." [Jacob Burkhardt, ] The example set by the success of this kind of ruthlessness was not lost on the future tyrants of late Middle Age and early Renaissance Italy.

Notes

ee also

*Ezzelino da Romano
*Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
*Guelphs and Ghibellines

External links

* [http://www.mondimedievali.net/personaggi/ezzelino.htm Summary of Ezzelino's deeds] it icon