Guelphs and Ghibellines << gwehlfs and GIHB uh lihnz >> were two political groups in Italy during the late Middle Ages. Guelph is the Italian form of the German family name Welf. It was the Welf family that held the duchies of Bavaria and Saxony in the 1100’s. Ghibelline is said to have come from Waiblingen, the name of an estate of the Hohenstaufen family.
The contest of these two families for the throne of Germany began the strife between the two Italian parties. The Ghibellines favored the imperial cause, and the Guelphs supported the pope, who opposed the authority of the German emperor in Italy.
The Hohenstaufens died out in the mid-1200’s and the names lost their original meaning. By tradition, certain towns were Guelph and others Ghibelline. If the ruling authorities in any town took one name, the opposition usually took the other.
