The usual estimate is that even an average Florentine banker in 1310 had more ready cash than the emperor Henry VII when he came down to italy in 1310. Which meant they had a lot, a lot more money than the aristocrats who had been ruling their city. This difference in resources caused frictions, but the bigger issue was that the consuls did not run the city in the interest of the merchants and artisans.
A merchant and artisan may be a able to defend himself if need be with a sword, but that does not mean they wanted to fight wars for war’s sake. But War for war’s sake was very much the aristocratic raison d’etre. The other flashpoint was justice. A functioning system of courts that enforced contractual obligations was a key building block in any successful economy and hence a key concern for the burghers. The city aristocrats regarded justice as a source of income from fees and bribes.
Throughout the 13th century burghers formed associations or guilds to represent their interests. And as the struggle between the aristocrats and the burghers grew fiercer the city constitutions changed. Many communes had already called people from outside as Podestas to police the city streets and issue justice since the late 12th century. But now we also find many cities appointing a Capitano del Popolo who was to represent the interest of the people, aka the merchant and artisan classes. This role became ever more powerful as the merchants became ever more wealthy.
These two opposing groups did at some point adopt the names of Ghibellines and Guelphs. The aristocrats would usually become Ghibellines and the burghers tended to be Guelphs. The word Ghibelline refers to the castle of Waiblingen near Stuttgart which was the name of Agnes, the ancestor of the Hohenstaufen and the name they actually used when referring to their own family. So these were in principle the supporters of the emperor. The word Guelph is an Italianate form of the name Welf, the family of Henry the Lion and alleged antagonists of the Hohenstaufen. Though the name referred again to a German family, the Guelphs allegiance lay not with them, but with the pope. Bankers were particularly prone to be Guelph since the papal curia was in constant need of cash and in return appointed the Lombard and Tuscan bankers as tax collectors for the increasingly sophisticated set of church levies.
But like everything else in these convoluted times, this is not 100% the case in each city, but not a bad yardstick.
As we head into the 14th century a couple of things are happening. Unsurprisingly as the merchants and bankers get richer and richer, they gain the upper hand over the aristocratic oligarchs. More and more cities become Guelph. Most visibly in Tuscany where the hitherto modest settlement of Florence starts to dominate the region. In 1289 Florence and its Guelph allies beat the Ghibelline resistance based in Arezzo comprehensively.
If you want to find out whether this young and ambitious king and his beautiful wife will have more luck than the likes of Barbarossa and Frederick II, check out episode 146 of the History of the Germans available of Appel Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket casts or wherever you get your podcasts from. You find links to all these as well as transcripts, maps and more on the episode website here:
https://historyofthegermans.com/2024/05/02/returnoftheking/

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