How a Romagnol family held Ravenna for over a century through war, alliance, and calculated brutality

Ravenna, ancient capital of the Western Roman Empire and later seat of the Byzantine exarchs, was in the high medieval period a city steeped in imperial memory, making its possession both prestigious and fiercely contested. The da Polenta established themselves as lords of the city from the mid-thirteenth century for more than a century and a half. The family name derives from the castle of Polenta, near Bertinoro, belonging to the archbishops of Ravenna; granted by them to the monastery of San Giovanni Evangelista, which in turn conceded it in emphyteusis to the family of the same name. To consolidate their power, members of the dynasty took an active part in all the struggles that beset the Romagna of their time: the tensions between the papacy and Ghibellinism, the rivalries with the Malatesta of Rimini, the Ordelaffi of Forlì, and the Este of Ferrara. They were soon called upon to hold the offices of podestà and captain of the people in some of the principal cities of northern Italy. In this capacity they often distinguished themselves for their combative spirit and the ferocity with which they pursued their objectives. The family embodied the typical model of the small Romagnol signoria: ambitious, at times violent, supremely adept at manoeuvring between far more powerful forces; and ultimately swept away by the very instability it had long known how to exploit.

The dynasty remained a militarily modest entity, whose members operated more as vassals, allies or mercenaries of great states than as autonomous protagonists of the Italian wars. To put it simply, intraspecific aggression was the dominant trait of this family, in which ambition, a fiery temperament and violence represented its deepest essence. Such was the case with Ostasio, who in 1322 plotted the conquest of Ravenna at the expense of his own kinsmen. He exploited the absence of Guido Novello (remembered in history as the patron of Dante Alighieri), who was at that moment serving as captain of the people in Bologna. He seized power by having Archbishop Rinaldo, Guido Novello’s brother, who had been entrusted with the city’s government, murdered in his bed. Four years later he took possession of Cervia, having his uncle Bannino and Bannino’s son Guido barbarously slaughtered, in order to assume the lordship of that town as well. He died, presumably, assassinated by his own son Bernardino. He hosted Giovanni Boccaccio at his court. His sole good deed was saving Dante’s bones from the funeral pyre, to which they had been condemned by the cardinal legate Bertrando del Poggetto.

With Bernardino, the series of murders within the da Polenta household continued. His brothers Pandolfo and Lamberto organised a conspiracy to overthrow him. Having escaped the consequences partly through the intervention of the Malatesta of Rimini, after five months — during which a false reconciliation had taken place — he had the two kinsmen arrested, imprisoned in the very citadel of Cervia where he himself had previously been confined, and left them to starve to death. He died in 1359 and was succeeded by his son Guido. The latter sought to erase the memory of his father’s misrule by recalling to Ravenna all those who had previously been sent into exile. It was under this lord of Ravenna that the most cruel episode in the family’s history occurred. In 1390, three of his sons — Obizzo, Ostasio and Pietro (biographies of all three appear on this site) — in order to hasten the succession, dragged him from his bed in the night and locked him in prison, where, forgotten by all, he ended his days. The act left the family with an indelible mark of internal treachery and prefigured its inevitable decline. In 1406, the last of the three, Obizzo, was compelled to accept a Venetian podestà; in 1410 he bequeathed to the Serenissima the inheritance of the lordship and his possessions, should his sons fail to follow the directives issued from the lagoon. His son Ostasio succeeded his father in 1431. Ten years later he was deposed, his loyalty to Venice having proved doubtful the previous year, when the Visconti troops of Niccolò Piccinino had forced him to ally himself with the Duke of Milan Filippo Maria Visconti. Ostasio and his son died in exile on the island of Crete. The family was extinct. “The death of Ostasio,” as one may read in Mario Tabanelli‘s L’aquila da Polenta, “remains a mystery; Litta says that some attributed it either to poison or to contagion; C. Spreti gives instead an account of it that is exceedingly strange, without providing any evidence: in 1442, while Ostasio was living in Candia (the island’s capital) in a Franciscan convent, some friars having come to blows with one another in the dark, they killed him by mistake. G. Rossi erroneously asserts that Ostasio, his wife and his son Gerolamo were buried in Crete, in the church of San Francesco; there, according to Spreti, no trace of them is any longer to be found. Thus closes the cycle of the da Polenta family.”

Guido da Polenta

Lord of Ravenna, Cervia, Cesena, Lugo, Cotignola, Bagnacavallo, Fusignano, Cesenatico, Polenta, Collinello, Russi.

Son of Bernardino. Married Elisa d’Este, daughter of Marquess Obizzo, in Ferrara in 1350. Father of Obizzo, Ostasio and Pietro; father-in-law of Alberico da Barbiano, of Francesco I Gonzaga and of Astorre Manfredi. Died in prison in January 1390.

Guido da Polenta is in some respects the most capable of the Ravennate lords of his dynasty. He succeeded his father Bernardino in the lordship of Ravenna in 1342, obtaining almost simultaneously the imperial vicariate from Louis of Bavaria and, the following year, the pontifical one from Pope Clement VI: a diplomatic equilibrium that encapsulates the family’s entire strategy, suspended between the two great powers of the moment. He served under the King of Hungary Louis in the Kingdom of Naples around 1350, then fought for the Holy See against the Ordelaffi and the Visconti, distinguishing himself at the battle of San Ruffillo (1361). Cardinal Albornoz, though on one occasion suspecting him of having favoured the Visconti in the conquest of Lugo, ultimately confirmed him in the vicariates of Ravenna and Cervia, thereby acknowledging his usefulness as a local stabilising force. Guido was skilled at forging matrimonial alliances at a high level: one of his daughters married Alberico da Barbiano, the founder of the Italian military school, and another wed first Francesco I Gonzaga and subsequently Astorre Manfredi, lord of Faenza. In political terms, Guido da Polenta oscillated between the papacy and the antipapacy, initially supporting Antipope Clement VII against the Roman Pope Urban VI in 1382, before realigning himself with the Holy See in 1384. His end was cruel: in November 1389 he fell ill with plague; and when he appeared to be recovering, his sons Obizzo, Ostasio and Pietro seized him and locked him in prison, fearing he might survive. Guido died in prison in Ravenna in January 1390. As is often the case, the judgements of the sources on his character are twofold in nature: negative with regard to his private life, positive with regard to his conduct as a statesman. The oldest testimonies, such as the Annales Forolivienses, conditioned as they are by the politics of the moment, prefer to highlight his negative qualities — “A man steeped in vices and also a paedophile,” as Ciucciovino recently summarised. More favourable, because more detached in time, are the assessments expressed by Italian historians from the nineteenth century onwards: “Guido was loved by his people, because he was kind of spirit and just; because, moved by wise counsel, he had recalled and brought back to Ravenna all the ancient and worthy citizens who, scattered throughout the world, had fled the anger and cruelty of his father, and had driven out all the wicked and iniquitous agents of the latter.” Litta

Ostasio da Polenta

Lord of Ravenna, Cotignola, Bagnacavallo and Lugo.

Son of Guido and of Elisa d’Este. Brother of Obizzo, of Pietro da Polenta, as well as of other brothers and sisters including Bernardino, Aldobrandino and Leta. Brother-in-law of Antonio della Scala. Died in March 1396.

Ostasio da Polenta is the most militarily active of Guido’s sons and, at the same time, the one with the most eventful career in strictly military terms. In 1382 he followed Luigi d’Angiò on the expedition against Carlo di Durazzo in the Kingdom of Naples; in 1386 he fought as captain general in the service of his brother-in-law Antonio della Scala against the Carraresi; he crossed the Piave with 300 lances, 400 crossbowmen and 400 infantry and invaded the enemy territory. After winning an initial victory near Conegliano, he was subsequently defeated at Le Brentelle on the outskirts of Padua; wounded by a lance in the chest, he was taken prisoner. Released on account of his kinship with the Carraresi as well, he returned to the field the following year: in 1387 he is recorded as having taken part in the brutal battle of Castelbaldo. On that occasion he commanded the second squadron of 1,500 cavalry; he appeared on the battlefield covered by a silver caparison; unhorsed by a knight of Francesco Novello da Carrara, he was captured once more and taken to Padua, where he was present, along with other Scaligeri captains taken prisoner, at the banquet held in the victors’ honour by the lord of Padua Francesco da Carrara. In the immediate aftermath he received from Niccolò d’Este the fiefs of Cotignola and Bagnacavallo in exchange for the Filo riverside territory. Having returned to Romagna, he was among the protagonists of the conspiracy against his father Guido in 1389; he obtained the pontifical vicariate of Ravenna in 1391 together with his brothers. He died in March 1396. He was buried in Ravenna in the church of San Francesco, in a Franciscan habit, beneath an epitaph recording the date of his death. Based on his conduct in the field, the Veronese sources judged his performance in the service of the Scaligeri harshly: “A rash young man, ignorant of the art of war,” as the chronicler Della Corte assessed his actions in his work Dell’istorie della città di Verona, for instance. The opposite view — partisan spirit? — was held by Romagnol historians, who regarded him (admittedly alongside other contemporary condottieri from the same region) as a captain of great worth. Such is the case of P. Bonoli in his Storia di Forlì.

Pietro da Polenta

(also known as Pietro da Ravenna) Lord of Bagnacavallo.

Son of Guido. Brother of Obizzo and of Ostasio da Polenta. Died of plague in August 1405.

Pietro da Polenta, among the three brothers, is the one judged by the sources as a valiant soldier: “A man of great spirit, he distinguished himself in the service he rendered to Pietro Ordelaffi against the Company of the Rose, and the Pope (Boniface IX), placing great trust in his worth, appointed him his Captain General against the Visconti.” S. Pasolini. He often fought side by side with his brother Obizzo, sharing the family’s principal campaigns. He took part in the conspiracy against his father in 1389; he obtained, together with his brothers, the pontifical vicariate of Ravenna in 1391. That same year he assisted, in an action that ultimately proved fruitless, Giovanni Acuto and the Carraresi in the direction of Verona, in an attempt to restore his nephew Cansignorio della Scala to the Scaligeri lordship. In 1394 he supported Ferrara’s Marquess Niccolò III d’Este against Azzo d’Este. The following year he changed sides, allying himself with the same Azzo and with Giovanni da Barbiano to launch an attack from the Ravenna territory at the head of 1,500 cavalry and 800 infantry. The attempt was blocked by the Este fleet on the Po. In December 1398 he routed at Ronco the company of Bartolomeo Gonzaga (the Company of the Rose), who was allied with the Este and the Ordelaffi. In 1404 he was engaged by the Venetians (300 lances) to oppose the Carraresi; he was recognised as marshal of the field. In recognition of his merits he was enrolled that same year in the Venetian nobility. During that campaign, in July of the following year, he left the camp situated near Padua to travel to Venice: he was caught in an ambush laid by il Camarino, who lay in wait with 50 crossbowmen among the reeds of the Brenta. He was taken to Piove di Sacco; he fell ill with plague and died the following month. He was buried in the church of San Martino in that locality.

Obizzo da Polenta

Lord of Ravenna and Bagnacavallo.

Son of Guido da Polenta. Brother of Ostasio, of Pietro, of Aldobrandino (whom he had murdered in 1406) and of Bernardino. Married Lisa Manfredi and Elisabetta Malatesta, daughter of Andrea Malatesta. Brother-in-law of Ludovico Manfredi and of Niccolò Roberti. Father of Ostasio, last lord of Ravenna. Died in February 1431 in Ravenna.

Litta‘s assessment of him is very poor; he is described by contemporary sources as a mediocre condottiere and an ineffective ruler in his governance of Ravenna: “The first acts of his rule bore the mark of tyranny, and those who had been on the side of Guido (his father), whom he had thrown into prison, had felt revulsion at his murder and had attempted to rebel, were made to pay the price. Some nobles were killed, others sent into exile, and many were stripped of their possessions.” Obizzo da Polenta may be considered the last effective lord of the dynasty, the one who exercised the lordship of Ravenna for the longest period, from the death of his brother Pietro (1405) until his own death in 1431. He took part with his kinsmen in the conspiracy against his father in 1389 and, again with his brothers, obtained the pontifical vicariate in 1391. On the military front, no results of particular note are attributed to him: he fought for the Visconti against the Bentivoglio in 1402, took part in the battle of Casalecchio di Reno, entered Bologna and was present in Milan, alongside other condottieri, at the obsequies of Gian Galeazzo Visconti. In 1404 he was engaged by the Venetians and enrolled in the nobility of the Serenissima. In July 1405 he was captured along with his brother Pietro by il Camarino among the reeds of the Brenta; unlike Pietro, he survived the ordeal after paying the Carraresi a ransom of 8,000 ducats. On returning to Ravenna, he found his brother Aldobrandino firmly established in power; according to a certain family tradition, he had him eliminated and in so doing recovered control of the lordship. His rule was characterised by political opportunism and dependence on the Serenissima: in 1406 he placed himself directly under Venice’s protection, naming the republic heir to the lordship in the absence of male heirs. In 1415 he received Pope Gregory XII; in 1419 he welcomed Martin V. He promoted hydraulic works on the Po and the Lamone, entrusted to the architect Giovanni da Siena. The sources describe him as an indolent lord, fond of festivities, who progressively left the management of power to his son and to his sister Beatrice; he raised taxes to finance his own pleasures. He died in Ravenna in February 1431, naming Venice in his will as guardian of his son. The extinction of the family came with Ostasio II, as noted above.