1313 a.d.
When the Emperor had departed from Pisa he crossed the Elsa, and attacked Castelfiorentino, and could not take it; he went on through Poggibonizzi and Colle, as far as Siena alongside the gates. In Siena there were many folk of war, and certain Florentine horsemen sallied forth from the Cammollia Gate to skirmish, and were worsted and driven back into the city; and Siena was in great fear; and the Emperor passed by the city and encamped at Montaperti upon the Arbia; there he began to be sick, albeit his sickness had made itself felt even from his departure from Pisa; but because he would not fail to depart on the day named, he set forth on his journey. Then he went to the plain of Filetta, to bathe in the baths of Macereto, and from there he went to the village of Bonconvento, twelve miles beyond Siena. There he grew rapidly worse, and, as it pleased God, he passed from this life on the day of S. Bartholomew, the 24th day of August, 1313.
§ 53.—Relates how, when the Emperor was dead, his host was divided, and the barons carried his body to the city of Pisa.
1313 a.d.
When the Emperor Henry was dead, his host, and the Pisans, and all his friends were in great grief thereat, and the Florentines, Sienese and Lucchese and they of their league rejoiced greatly. And when he was dead, straightway the Aretines and the other Ghibellines from the March and from Romagna departed from the host at Bonconvento, wherein were great numbers of people, both on horse and on foot. His barons and the Pisan cavalry, with their followers, without delay passed through the Maremma with his body, and brought it to Pisa; there, with great sorrow and also with great honour, they buried it in their cathedral. This was the end of the Emperor Henry. And let not the reader marvel, that his story has been continued by us without recounting other things and events in Italy and in other provinces and realms; for two reasons, one, because all Christians and also Greeks and Saracens were intent upon his doings and fortunes, and therefore but few notable things came to pass in any other place; the other, that by reason of the divers and manifold great fortunes which he met withal in the short time that he lived, it is verily believed by the wise, that if death had not come so early to a lord of such valour and of such great undertakings as he was, he would have conquered the Kingdom, and taken it from King Robert, who had made but little preparation for its defence. Rather was it said by many, that King Robert would not have awaited him, but would have gone by sea to Provence; and after he had conquered the Kingdom as he purposed, it Par. xxx. 133-138. would have been very easy for him to conquer all Italy and many of the other provinces.
§ 54.—How Frederick, the said king of Sicily, came by sea to the city of Pisa. § 55.—How the Count Filipponi of Pavia was defeated at Piacenza.
§ 56.—How the Florentines gave the lordship of Florence to King Robert for five years.
1313 a.d.
In the said year 1313, whilst the Emperor was yet alive, the Florentines finding themselves in evil case, alike from the forces of the Emperor and of their own exiles, and also having dissensions among themselves from the factions which had arisen as to the filling of the magistracies, they gave themselves to King Robert for five years, and then afterwards they renewed it for three, and thus for eight years King Robert had the lordship over them, sending them a vicar every six months, and the first was M. Giacomo di Cantelmo of Provence, who came to Florence in the month of June, 1313. And the Lucchese and the Pistoians and the men of Prato did the like, in giving the lordship to King Robert. And of a surety this was the salvation of the Florentines, for by reason of the great divisions among the Guelfs, if there had not been this device of the lordship of King Robert they would have been torn to pieces and destroyed by each other, and one side or the other cast out.
§ 57.—How the Spinoli were expelled from Genoa. § 58.—How 1313 a.d. Uguccione da Faggiuola, lord of Pisa, made great war against the Lucchese, so that they restored the Ghibelline refugees to Lucca under enforced terms of peace.