e and fighting the Emperor Frederick sent into
Florence King Frederick, his bastard son, with 1,600 horsemen of his
German followers. When the Ghibellines heard that they were nigh unto
Florence, they took courage fighting with more force and boldness
against the Guelfs, which had no allies, nor were expecting any
succour, forasmuch as the Church was at Lyons on the Rhone beyond the
mountains, and the power of Frederick was beyond measure great in all
parts of Italy. And on this occasion the Ghibellines used a device of
war; for at the house of the Uberti the greater part of the Ghibelline
forces assembled, and when the fight began at the places of battle set
forth above, they went in a mass to oppose the Guelfs, and in this
wise they overcame them well nigh in every part of the city, save in
their own neighbourhood against the barricades of the Guidalotti and
the Bagnesi, which endured more stoutly; and to that place the Guelfs
repaired, and all the forces of the Ghibellines against them. At last,
the Guelfs saw themselves to be hard pressed, and heard that
Frederick's knights were already in Florence (King Frederick having
already entered with his followers on Sunday morning), yet they held
out until the following Wednesday. Then, not being able longer to
resist the forces of the Ghibellines, they abandoned the defence, and
departed from the city on the night of S. Mary Candlemas in the year
of Christ 1248. When the Guelf party were driven from Florence, the
nobles of that party withdrew, some of them to the fortress of
Montevarchi in Valdarno, and some to the fortress of Capraia; and
Pelago, and Ristonchio, and Magnale, up to Cascia, were held by the
Guelfs, and were called the League; and therein they made war against
the city and the territory around Florence. Other popolani of that
party repaired to their farms and to their friends in the country. The
Ghibellines which remained masters in Florence, with the forces and
the horsemen of the Emperor Frederick, changed the ruling of the city
after their mind, and caused thirty-six fortresses of the Guelfs to be
destroyed, palaces and great towers, among the which the most noble
was that of the Tosinghi upon the Mercato Vecchio, called the Palace,
90 cubits high, built with marble columns, and a tower thereto 130
cubits. Also the Ghibellines attempted a yet more impious deed,
forasmuch as the Guelfs resorted much to the church of S. Giovanni,
and all the good people asse