Ugolino della Gherardesca

Count Ugolino della Gherardesca (c. 1220 – March 1289), count of Donoratico, was an Italian nobleman, politician and naval commander. He was frequently accused of treason and features prominently in Dante's Divine Comedy.

In the 13th century, Italy was beset by the strife of two parties, the Ghibellines and the Guelphs. While the conflict was local and personal in origin, the parties had come to be associated with the two universal powers: the Ghibellines sided with the Holy Roman Emperor and his rule of Italy, while the Guelphs sided with the Pope, who supported self-governing city-states.

Pisa was controlled by the Ghibellines, while most of the surrounding cities were controlled by the Guelphs, most notably Pisa's trading rivals Genoa and Florence. Under the circumstances, Pisa adopted the "strong and vigilant government" of a podestà "armed with almost despotic power"

Ugolino was born in Pisa into the della Gherardesca family, a noble family of Germanic origins whose alliance with the Hohenstaufen Emperors had brought to prominence in Tuscany and made them the leaders of the Ghibellines in Pisa.

Between 1256 and 1258 he participated in the war against the filo-genoese giudicato of Cagliari, in Sardinia. Ugolino then obtained the south-western portion of the former giudical territory, with its rich silver mines, where he founded the important city of Villa di Chiesa, today Iglesias.

As head of his family, the Ghibelline party and podestà of Pisa, Ugolino took action to preserve his power in the face of the political hostility of Pisa's neighbours. In 1271, through a marriage of his sister with Giovanni Visconti, judge of Gallura, he allied himself with the Visconti, the leaders of the Guelphs in Pisa. In doing so, he aroused the suspicions of his fellow Ghibellines.

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