Battle of Zappolino

Part of Guelphs and Ghibellines
and War of the Bucket

Date	15 November 1325
Location	near Zappolino, Metropolitan City of Bologna, present-day Italy
Result	Modenese victory

Belligerents

Modena
(Ghibelline)

Bologna
(Guelph)

Commanders and leaders

Passerino Bonacolsi

Pope John XXII

Strength

2,000 cavalry
5,000 infantry

2,000 cavalry
30,000 infantry

Casualties and losses

1 Oaken bucket

2,000 between Bolognese and Modenese

The Battle of Zappolino (also known as the War of the Oaken Bucket) was fought in November 1325 between forces representing the Italian towns of Bologna and Modena, an incident in the series of raids and reprisals between the two cities that were part of the larger conflicts of Guelphs and Ghibellines. The Modenese were victorious. Though many clashes between Guelphs and Ghibellines loomed larger to contemporaries than to historians, in this unusually large encounter between 4000 estimated cavalry and some 35,000 foot soldiers, 2000 men lost their lives. The location of the battle, at the foot of a hill just outside the castle walls, is today a frazione of the municipality of Castello di Serravalle, Emilia-Romagna.

Though their boundaries had been set by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, in person, a century before, competitive friction along their mutual marches between Ghibelline Modena, with the Emperor as patron, and Guelf Bologna, with the Pope as patron, had flared over decades. In 1296 the Bolognese successfully invaded the Modenese lands of Bazzano and Savigno, with the support of Pope Boniface VIII, who recognized in 1298 the Guelf possession of these border castles. Within the two cities the situation was complicated by numbers of exiles and divided loyalties. In Modena the struggle for power after the death of Obizzo II d'Este, which divided his sons' friends into hostile camps, was resolved in favour of Azzo VIII, who confronted Bologna in part to bolster his lukewarm reception by his own city's nobles. His elected successor, the Mantuan Passerino Bonacolsi, the agent of Louis of Bavaria, King of the Romans, pursued the embittered war politics, with Parma, Reggio and Modena also under his power. For his part John XXIII declared him a rebel against the Church, granting indulgences as befitted a Crusader to any who could harm his person or his possessions.

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Wikipedia