Beyond the City

Abstract

Chapter 5 complements the previous chapter with a study of members of the aristocracy who chose to remain aloof from the cities. It begins with city–contado relations and the expansion of city control from the late twelfth century. Primary attention is fixed on the Guidi, powerful Tuscan counts whose area of control expanded and whose power intensified to such a degree that they effectively ruled a principality. It concentrates on the origins of their property and rights, on private and privatized public rights, and on their social relations and ambitions. It will look at their behavioural traits and at their wars. Key figures are Guido Guerra I, Guido Guerra III, and Countess Matilda. The chapter will also look at their clientage, their control of the populace, and at forms of dependence. The Guidi ultimately took the title of count palatine. From the Guidi, the chapter turns to examples of the aristocrazia intermedia in this context, specifically the Malapresa and the lords of Figline.