Under The Green Claws. Ivo Ragazzini

      The Guelphs prevailed, while ten Lambertazzi leaders were captured and imprisoned during a coup by the mayor of Bologna, who had summoned them with an excuse to discuss their surrender.

      The Lambertazzi realized there was no escape and had to agree to come to terms and leave Bologna.

      Thus, on the morning of 2 June 1274, after months of guerrilla warfare, in the midst of an unreal silence, there was an exodus of twelve thousand armed Ghibellines with wives, children and supporters in tow, who left Bologna without anyone daring to stop them, leaving almost half the city empty in one sweep.

      They headed along the Via Emilia in the direction of Faenza, previously occupied by the inhabitants of Forlì, which was ready to welcome them.

      9. The Lambertazzi exiles in Romagna

      The long Ghibelline line, embittered but not defeated, headed towards Faenza, recently cleared by the Guelphs, which was ready to welcome them under the banner of the Forlì imperial eagles.

      Some of them with wives and children permanently sheltered in Forlì, but the bulk of the Bolognese Ghibellines were housed in the newly conquered Faenza.

      They placed themselves under the command of the Forlì captain Guido da Montefeltro and quickly began to reorganize to fight the Bolognese Guelphs again.

      The Bolognese, after the violence of those events and having recovered strength after the expulsion of the Lambertazzi, took courage from the situation and decided to organize an attack on Faenza and Forlì again, to defeat the Ghibellines of Romagna once and for all.

      But the Ghibellines from Romagna, even if numerically inferior, were more combative and had a very skilled military captain, and Bologna and the Guelphs would soon find out about him for themselves.

      10. Capture of the Bolognese carroccio

      The following year the Bolognese, believing that the Lambertazzi were preparing to return from Faenza to Bologna, decided to anticipate them and remove them from Romagna once and for all.

      The Bolognese made a conducted a few raids in the Faenza territories to test the strength of the Ghibellines. Subsequently they decided to put together an army that was reinforced by Guelphs from Lombardy, Imola, Cesena and Ravenna.

      Once assembled, they left to march towards Faenza to free it from the Lambertazzi so they would have a stronghold from which to attack Forlì.

      The people of Forlì and the Lambertazzi, knowing this, did their utmost to stop them.

      They gathered a sizeable Ghibelline army and set about reinforcing the Faenza and Forlì defenses, while Guido da Montefeltro managed to gather a series of worthy Ghibelline commanders under him, who came from various parts of Tuscany and Romagna, followed by their troops.

      Those who came under the Ghibelline insignia were Guglielmo de' Pazzi of Valdarno, commander of the Tuscan outcasts, Mainardo Pagani da Susinana, a Guido Novello and sons, Bandino, Tancredi, Ruggiero and Tigrino of the Guidi counts, lords of Modigliana with their people, to whom they joined the Forlì people Aliotto Pipini, Superbo Orgogliosi, Teodorico Ordelaffi³² and waited for the Bolognese near Faenza to forestall them before they put siege to the Ghibelline territory.

      On 13 June 1275 as soon as the news came that the Bolognese had crossed the San Procolo³³ bridge and were preparing to invade the territories of Faenza, they waited no longer and went to meet them so they could face them in open country.

      Having come within sight of the Bolognese, Count Feltrano with the help of the Ghibelline commanders Maghinardo Pagani, Theodoric degli Ordelaffi, and other captains of the Lambertazzi, organized the troops for war and made a speech to incite them to battle.

      The Bolognese captain Malatesta da Verucchio³⁴ did the same with his men and immediately after they blew their trumpets, starting the battle of Ponte San Procolo.

      Forthwith the Guelph cavalry, made up of the Bolognese nobility, were the first to relinquish their positions under the blows of the Lambertazzi.

      Then they fled openly, abandoning the Bolognese infantry on foot, composed of the commoners, around the Bolognese carroccio.

      The Bolognese army, left to itself, heroically organized themselves around the carroccio and the battle was kept in balance, but Guido da Montefeltro was decisive when he deployed heavy crossbows that systematically tore the Bolognese ranks to pieces.

      To help you understand the scale of this battle eight thousand Bolognese were killed.

      All fell, prey to the Forlivesi military pavilions, possessions, insignia, around three thousand chariots and, more importantly, the banner, which was the Bolognese municipal banner hanging from a pole, and the Bolognese carroccio, a four-wheeled cart decorated with the city insignia, around which the fighters gathered.

      Guido da Montefeltro was made to climb triumphantly onto the Bolognese carroccio he had just conquered and was towed away by five hundred Bolognese prisoners to the walls of Forlì, where he was welcomed as a conqueror by a riot of crowds.

      The Bolognese carroccio was kept as a trophy in the town hall, while the Bolognese banner was kept inside a Forlì convent, which at the time was named San Giacomo.³⁵

      11. The Ghibellines take all of Romagna

      On the impetus of that Guelph defeat, the Ghibellines advanced towards Bologna in the following months and sacked a few villas and castles in the surroundings; had it not been for the rain and the inclement season they would have attempted to capture Bologna and the return of the Lambertazzi.

      Again they set fire to Castel San Pietro, which had recently been rebuilt by the Bolognese, returned to Romagna and took the fortress of Cervia, which surrendered without a shot being fired, after three days of negotiations, in exchange for the freedom of the occupants.

      Now, in Romagna the cities of Rimini, Ravenna and Cesena remained loyal to the Bolognese and the Forlivese turned their weapons against the latter in an attempt to take possession of the stronghold of Roversano, a strategic location a few miles from Cesena, which the Bolognese and the captain Malatesta da Verucchio rushed to defend, after the defeat of Ponte San Procolo, they had returned to Rimini to reorganize.

      However, this time Malatesta da Verucchio was defeated and he had to flee with some troops and close himself up inside Cesena, leaving the Bolognese praetor with notables and a thousand soldiers, besieged inside the Roversano fortress, who eventually surrendered.

      The Bolognese notables were taken prisoner and also taken as a trophy inside Forlì, while the captured soldiers were led beneath the walls of Cesena and let free in exchange for opening the gates to the Forlì people.

      While the Malatesta and a few Guelphs fled towards Rimini, the people of Cesena opened their gates and accepted Teodorico Ordelaffi and Orgoglioso De' Orgogliosi from Forlì as their Ghibelline governors.

      Now only Ravenna was needed to have all of Romagna under the Ghibellines, and the Ghibellines worked hard to take the latter city as well.

      In 1276 il Feltrano surprised and dispersed a Bolognese rescue expedition near Bagnacavallo, which had been sent by the Geremei who, with the Florentine Guelphs and six hundred French knights, were marching to the rescue of Ravenna.

      The Bolognese then organized new troops to rescue the city.

      Guido da Montefeltro, like the good strategist he was, besieged Bagnacavallo so he would be able to control the road that led from Bologna to Ravenna and leave the latter isolated.

      To do this he had the Faentine and Forlivese troops build a small fortification³⁶ around the old castle of Cotignola, near Bagnacavallo, which, after fortified and enlarged, then became the town of Cotignola, where settlers from Forlì and Faenza were brought to provide for the capture of the Guelph Bagnacavallo.

      Bagnacavallo also, after twelve days of siege, surrendered