Guelph and Ghibelline

Rival parties in medieval Germany and Italy, which supported the papal party and the Holy Roman emperors respectively.

They originated in the 12th century as partisans of rival German houses, that of Welf (hence Guelph or Guelf) of the dukes of Bavaria, and that of the lords of Hohenstaufen (whose castle at Waiblingen gave the Ghibellines their name). The Hohenstaufens supplied five Roman emperors: Conrad II (1138–52); Conrad's nephew Frederick Barbarossa (1152–89); Frederick's son, Henry VI ‘The Severe’ (1190–97); and Frederick's grandson and great-grandson Frederick II (1212–50) and Conrad IV (1250–54); but the dynasty died out 1268. The Guelphs early became associated with the papacy because of their mutual Hohenstaufen enemy. In Italy, the terms were introduced about 1242 in Florence; the names seem to have been grafted on to pre-existing papal and imperial factions within the city-republics.