In the said year, on the 11th of January, Henry of Namûrs, brother of Count Robert of Flanders, marshal of the Emperor, came by sea to Pisa with but small following, and two days after sallied forth from Pisa with his men, and took station this side Pontadera, and all the goods of the Florentines which were coming from Pisa he caused to be captured and taken back to Pisa; whence the Florentines had great loss. For this cause the Florentines sent foot and horse to Samminiato and the frontier there.
§ 36.—How the Paduans rebelled against the lordship of the Emperor.
1311 a.d.
In the said year, on the 15th of February, the Paduans, with the help of the Florentines and of the Bolognese, rebelled against the lordship of the Emperor, and drave out his vicar and his followers; and tumultuously slew M. Guglielmo Novello, their fellow-citizen and chief leader of the Ghibelline party in Padua.
§ 37.—How the Emperor Henry came to the city of Pisa. § 38.—How they of Spoleto were defeated by the Perugians.
§ 39.—Of the gathering together made by King Robert and the league of Tuscany at Rome to oppose the coronation of the Emperor Henry.
1312 a.d.
In the year 1312, in the month of April, when King Robert heard of the preparation which the king of Germany was making in Pisa, to come to Rome to be crowned, he sent forward to Rome, at the request and with the support of the Orsini, M. John, his brother, with 600 Catalan and Apulian horsemen, and they came to Rome the 16th day of April; and he sent to the Florentines and Lucchese and Sienese, and to the other cities of Tuscany which were in league with him, to send their forces there; wherefore there went forth from Florence on the 9th day of May, 1312, a troop of 200 horsemen of the best citizens, and the marshal of King Robert which was in their pay, with 300 Catalan horse and 1,000 foot, very fine soldiers; and the royal standard was borne by M. Berto di M. Pazzino dei Pazzi, a valiant and wise young knight, which died at Rome in the service of the king and of the commonwealth of Florence. And from Lucca there went 300 horse and 1,000 foot, and of Sienese 200 horse and 600 foot, and many other cities of Tuscany and of the Roman state sent men thither. Which all were in Rome on the 21st day of May, 1312, to oppose the coronation of the Emperor; and with the force of the said Orsini, of Rome, and of their followers they took the Capitol, and drave out thence by force M. Louis, of Savoy, the senator; and they took the towers and fortresses at the foot of the Capitol, above the market, and fortified Hadrian's Castle, called S. Angelo, and the church and palaces of S. Peter; and thus they had the lordship and rule over more than the half of Rome, and that, too, the most populous; and all the Transtiberine district. The Colonnesi and their following, which took the side of the Emperor, held the Lateran, Santa Maria Maggiore, the Coliseum, Santa Maria Ritonda, the Milizie, and Santa Savina; and thus each party was defended by bars and bolts in great strongholds. And as the people of Florence abode there, on S. John Baptist's Day, their principal feast, Cf. Par. xvi. 42. they ran the races in Rome for their cloth of crimson samite, as they were wont to do on the said day in Florence.
§ 40.—How the Emperor Henry departed from Pisa and came to Rome.
1312 a.d.