Ghibellini senza impero? Pratiche, reti e identità politiche da Enrico VII a Carlo V

This article examines Ghibelline political traditions and the Empire in Italy from Henry VII to Charles V. It argues that the consolidation of the Guelph-Ghibelline binary was slower and less linear than often assumed: Henry VII’s Italian expedition was decisive in driving its diffusion beyond Tuscany. During the fourteenth century, these affiliations became durable traditions structuring networks and choices, while their supra-local reference points changed. Louis IV marks the last phase in which imperial action closely overlapped with networks whose Ghibelline identity was only beginning to take shape; under John of Bohemia, Charles IV and Sigismund, such convergence became intermittent and negotiated. The Italian Wars reactivated older factional networks within new international alignments. Under Charles V, Ghibelline traditions again served imperial power, before declining as the political geography they had helped connect was reshaped by the Spanish transatlantic monarchy.