Guelfs

Guelfs and Ghibelins, the names given to the two contending parties which divided both Italy and Germany in the Middle Ages. They became party designations in consequence of their use as war-cries at the battle of Weinsberg in Suabia (1140) between Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, and Conrad of Hohenstaufen, Duke of Franconia, afterwards the first of the Suabian Emperors. Welf was the name both of the founder of the house and of Henry the Lion's brother, while Waibling was a village in the territory of the Hohenstaufen, in which Conrad's brother, Frederick, had been brought up. The forms Guelfi and Ghibellini were due to the Italian mode of pronunciation. As a general rule, the Guelfs supported the authority of the Popes, the Ghibelins that of the Emperors; but amid the confusion of political strife these principles were sometimes lost sight of, and the struggle became merely one of personal ambition. The Guelf party included many of the free cities of Northern Italy, which sought protection against the encroachments of the Emperors, but the leading cities were regarded with much jealousy by the others, and there was often a standing feud between two neighbouring cities, so that for each Guelf community there was generally one or more on the side of the Ghibelins. Of the great families those in the north generally adhered to the Ghibelins, those of Central and Southern Italy to the Guelfs. Many of the cities, as well as the nobles, constantly changed sides, according to the exigencies of the" moment. The feud practically came'to an end in the fourteenth century. The present royal family of Great Britain are descended from the house of Welf. through Ernest Augustus. Duke of Hanover (son of

George, Duke of Brunswick-Liineburg), who married Sophia, daughter of James I. [Dante.]