Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne.
But it was during the struggles of investiture between the papacy and the empire that they developed into a struggle for the right to elect emperors and administrators by the pope and bishops against the right claimed by the emperors to be elected directly by God without the intermediation of the Church.
Both symbols represented the power of God but there were two main ways to represent and understand them.
The first was imperial, that is, the power of God was pre-existent and was granted by Him in person directly to the emperors so that they ruled, already from the time of ancient Rome, long before the coming of Christ and the church.
The other was the power of the Church which, representing the will of God on Earth, acted as a direct intermediary and to whom the power of control by God over men had been granted and it was therefore he who decided whether or not to give it to the emperors.
Various disputes and many religious and military groups arose from these two visions, or philosophies, such as the Carolingians, the Templars, the Guelphs and the Ghibellines.
Two main symbols were used to represent these factions and ideas:
One was the cross of Saint John the Baptist, which was used by the Templars and Ghibellines.
The other was the cross of Saint George employed by the clergy and the Guelphs.
When the nobles and clergy organized expeditions or crusades, they put these flags on their heads that bore white or red crosses, depending on whether the divisions were under the nobles or the church or if emperors or popes had assembled them.
But how were these two flags made and what did they mean?
First you need to know that purple was the official color of ancient Rome and represented the Roman emperors, while white represented the color of God.
The Ghibelline flag of Saint John the Baptist was a large white cross on a completely purple background.
It meant that the imperial red and its nobility were already pre-existing everywhere, in which God then placed his white cross as a guarantee of purity and truth.
Opposite and contrasting in colors and meanings, was the Guelph flag of Saint George, where a purple cross on a completely white field meant that God pre-existed everywhere with his purity and granted a purple cross to the emperor who was therefore subordinate to God and to the Church. In practice, with God's permission, the cross of the imperial cardinal could be inserted in that flag on a white background.
The Guelphs said the church had granted permission through the pope and his bishops from the time of Pope Silvester, when he was crowned Constantine emperor of Rome, while the Ghibellines instead claimed that this was false.25
Subsequently, there was a split even within the Guelphs into white Guelphs and black Guelphs.
The white Guelphs, while recognizing their fidelity to God, did not recognize it in the wealth and moral corruption of the papacy, while the black Guelphs continued to be loyal to the papacy and the church in all things.
Gradually the white Guelphs simply called themselves the "Whites" and joined the cause of the Italian Ghibellines, while the "Black" Guelphs put themselves at the service of the clergy to make common cause against the Ghibellines and the "Whites".
So to these flags were also added the symbols of the white Guelphs and Florentine black Guelphs, which were nothing more than a white flag with Libertas26 written in silver for the whites, and a black flag with the same word Libertas, in gold, for the Black Guelphs. And incredibly these two coats of arms with the words Libertas belonging to the Whites and the Blacks, are still present today, one, that of the Whites in the municipal coat of arms of Forlì and that of the Blacks is part of the municipal coat of arms of Bologna, which at the time fought each other with no holds barred.
Thus, anyone today who takes the municipal coats of arms of the city of Bologna and Forlì will see, after careful observation that, even if arranged differently, the meanings and symbols they contain are exactly contrary to and opposite between papacy and empire, or Guelphs and Ghibellines, if you prefer.
It is possible to see in them not only the symbols of the empire in contrast to those of the papacy, but also that of the white Guelphs allied to the Forlì Ghibellines as opposed to the black Guelphs allied to the Bolognese.
In practice, in the coat of arms of Bologna the heraldic Anjou Chief27 is repeated twice and beneath are the Guelph crosses of Saint George in red and two bands in midnight blue, probably these were originally black, with the writing Libertas, or the flag of the black Guelphs.
On the other hand we find the Forlì coat of arms composed of the imperial eagle of Frederick II, which in the right claw holds an oval shield with the Ghibelline cross of Saint John and in the left claw holds a white shield with the writing Libertas, which is the symbol of the White Guelphs who were allied to the Forlì Ghibellines.
And if someone also wants to take a look at the Cesena coat of arms, a city a few miles from Forlì, they will notice how it is a subsequent symbol of reconciliation between white Guelphs and black Guelphs, being nothing more than a series of half white and half black symbols, gathered under the heraldic Anjou Chief .
7. The causes of the Guelph and Ghibelline battles in Romagna
In 1200, after the death of Frederick II, the Guelphs of Bologna, managed to conquer a large part of Romagna under the insignia of the Church, with the exception of the Ghibellines' Forlì, which continued to be a Ghibelline territory surrounded by Guelphs.
Until that time Bologna had been divided into three factions:
The Ghibellines led by the Lambertazzi.
The Guelphs led by the Geremei.
The populace was in the minority and neutral.
The Lambertazzi, perhaps to distract the Guelphs from Romagna, urged the people of Modena to attack, while the Geremei urged them to attack Forlì, and the people stood between the two factions to watch.
Bologna finally decided to try to conquer Forlì. So the Bolognese organized a regular army to march against the Romagna city, besiege it and subjugate the Romagna lands to the church.
This caused the people of Forlì to become aware of the danger they were in and they called upon Guido da Montefeltro to help them, who was known as "il Feltrano", an unparalleled Ghibelline, who was elected captain of the arms of Forlì and who prepared to fight against the Bolognese.
In 1273 the Bolognese army, ready to fight, set out along Via Emilia towards Forlì, to besiege it and force it to capitulate, but they found it very organized and equipped with numerous soldiers.
Furthermore, the Bolognese army was also made up of Ghibellines and Guelphs, and the people of Forlì took advantage of this during the first siege to establish friendships and make agreements with the Ghibelline Lambertazzi, which lead to future military and political alliances against the Geremei.
The Lambertazzi then pushed for peace, but the Geremei imposed conditions of surrender that were unacceptable to the people of Forlì.
Not even King Edward I of England, passing
