Events in Florence between Dante’s conviction and the expulsion of the Duke of Athens

The history of Florence in the first half of the 14th century was shaped by the fallout from the deep divide introduced into Italian politics by the alliance between the papacy and the Kingdom of France to fight the dominance of the Roman Empire, which culminated in the rule of Frederick II. Under the banner of the French popes Urban IV and Clement IV, and financed by Tuscan banks, the military conquest of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1266–8 by Charles of Anjou, brother of the king of France Louis IX, brought the Suevian dynasty to an end and marked the start of a long political era characterized by the dominance of the uelph faction and the decline of the Roman Empire throughout the peninsula. Florence was one of the main pillars of this alliance, due to the city’s strategic location and its flourishing economy: its merchants had been enticed by the opportunity to combine business in the Mediterranean with that in the North Sea. In the final few decades of the 13th century, several financial companies made an international name for themselves as major lenders of capital, counting the pope and the rulers of France, Sicily and England among their clients. Understanding this context enables one to better grasp the various phenomena that occurred within the Florentine political system between the 13th and 14th centuries, most notably the city’s unwavering gravitation towards the Guelph faction, even at the times the Roman emperors returned to Italy. Rather than the papacy – with which there was no shortage of disagreements, particularly when Boniface VIII proposed extending papal rule to include Tuscia – in this period the city enjoyed a privileged relationship with the house of Anjou. Florence came under the Angevin sphere of influence for a long time: for about twenty-six of the seventy-seven years between 1267 and 1343 the city was under the signoria (political control by a signore, or lord) of the sovereigns or their representatives (Charles in 1267–9, Robert in 1313–22, his son Charles in 1326–8 and Walter of Brienne in 1342–3). These periods of signoria differed from those experienced in other cities, where the signori were citizens and members of the community: nevertheless, they caused significant interference at an internal institutional level, because they prevented citizens from choosing the rectors (the podestà and Captain of the People) – who were replaced by officials appointed by the rulers – and forced the Commune to pay significant amounts of tax.