§ 23.—How the Colonnesi came to ask pardon of the Pope, and afterwards rebelled a second time.
1298 a.d.
In the said year, in the month of September, negociations having taken place between Pope Boniface and the Colonnesi, the said Colonnesi, both laymen and clergy, came to Rieti, where the court was, and threw themselves at the feet of the said Pope, asking pardon, who forgave them and absolved them from excommunication, and desired them to surrender the city of Palestrina; and this they did, and he promised to restore them to their state and dignity, which promise he did not fulfil, but caused the said city of Palestrina to be destroyed from the hill and stronghold where it was, and a new city to be built on the plain, to which the name of the Civita Papale was given; and all this false and fraudulent treaty the Pope made by the counsel of the Inf. xxvii. 67-111. count of Montefeltro, then a minor friar, when he said the evil word "ample promise and scant fulfilment." The said Colonnesi, finding themselves deceived in that which had been promised to them, and the noble fortress of Palestrina destroyed by the said deceit, before the year was ended rebelled against the Pope and the Church; and the Pope excommunicated them again with heavy sentence; wherefore, fearing lest they should be taken or slain through the persecution of the said Pope, they departed from the city of Rome and were dispersed, some to Sicily, some to France and to other places, concealing themselves in one place after another so as not to be recognised, and to the end no certain abiding-place of theirs might be known, especially M. Jacopo and M. Piero, which had been cardinals; and thus they continued in exile so long as the said Pope lived.
§ 24.—How the Genoese defeated the Venetians at sea. § 25.—Of the great earthquakes that befell in certain cities in Italy.
§ 26.—When the palace of the people of Florence was begun, where dwell the Priors.
1298 a.d.
In the said year 1298, the commonwealth and people of Florence began to build the Palace of the Priors, by reason of the differences between the people and the magnates, forasmuch as the city was always in jealousy and commotion, at the election of the Priors afresh every two months, by reason of the factions which had already begun; and the Priors which ruled the city and all the republic, did not feel themselves secure in their former habitation, which was the house of the White Cerchi behind the church of San Brocolo. And they built the said palace where had formerly been the houses of the Uberti, rebels against Florence, and Ghibellines; and on the site of those houses they made a piazza, so that they might never be rebuilt. And they bought other houses from citizens, such as the Foraboschi, and there built the said palace and the tower of the priors, which was raised upon a tower which was more than fifty cubits high, pertaining to the Foraboschi, and called the Torre della Vacca. And to the end the said palace might not stand upon the ground of the said Uberti, they which had the building of it set it up obliquely; but for all that it was a grave loss not to build it four-square, and further removed from the church of San Piero Scheraggio.
§ 27.—How peace was made between the commonwealth of Genoa and that 1299 a.d. of Venice. § 28.—How peace was made between the commonwealth of Bologna and the marquis of Este and Maghinardo da Sussinana by the Florentines. § 29.—How King James of Aragon with Ruggeri di Loria and with the armada of King Charles defeated the Sicilians off Cape Orlando. § 30.—How peace was made between the Genoese and Pisans. § 31.—When the new walls of the city of Florence were begun again. § 32.—How the king of France by his practices got hold of all Flanders, and had the count and his sons in prison. § 33.—How the king of France allied himself with King Albert of Germany. § 34.—How the prince of Taranto was defeated in Sicily. § 35.—How Ghazan, lord of the Tartars, defeated the soldan of the Saracens, and took the Holy Land in Syria.
§ 36.—How Pope Boniface VIII. gave pardons to all Christians which should go to Rome, in the year of the jubilee, 1300.
1300 a.d.