Final Triumph Over Padua
In September 1328 Cangrande at last took possession of Padua after 16 years of intermittent yet brutal conflict. The city was ripe for such a takeover, forsaken by its Imperial Vicar Henry of Carinthia and in a state of internal lawlessness as its most powerful autocrat Marsilio Da Carrara struggled to control dissolute noblemen, not least members his own family. Meanwhile Veronese forces under Cangrande's nephew Mastino della Scala in league with Paduan exiles, most prominent amongst them Nicolo da Carrara (a distant cousin of Marsilio) encamped not far away at Este posing a constant threat. Faced with these difficulties Marsilio eventually decided to surrender the city to Cangrande under an arrangement in which he retained some power rather than risk losing everything by fighting him or trying to do a deal behind his back with the exiles. Accordingly Marsilio was made Captain General of the City by a compliant General Council but the overall ruler was now Cangrande, who rode triumphantly into Padua on 10 September 1328 Cangrande was received enthusiastically by the populace who now craved any kind of stability. To cement the new order Jacobo da Carrara's daughter Taddea was betrothed to Cangrande's nephew Mastino della Scala, the wedding itself taking place at a great Curia at Verona in November 1328.
This, Cangrande's most significant triumph, was seen as a huge boost for the Ghibelline cause, weakened as it had been by the death of Castruccio Castracani earlier that year. Even cities under Guelph control such as Florence wrote to congratulate Cangrande and, in March 1329 he was made a citizen of Venice, an honour rarely granted at the time to people from outside that city.
Read more about this topic: Cangrande I Della Scala
Famous quotes containing the words final triumph, final and/or triumph:
“Still let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“By his mere quiet power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Our democracy, our culture, our whole way of life is a spectacular triumph of the blah. Why not have a political convention without politics to nominate a leader who’s out in front of nobody?... Maybe our national mindlessness is the very thing that keeps us from turning into one of those smelly European countries full of pseudo-reds and crypto-fascists and greens who dress like forest elves.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)