Intrigues and Betrayals
Cangrande had recovered well enough to take part in the campaign which ended in a great victory over the Bolognese Guelphs at Monteveglio by Passerino Bonacolsi in November 1325. However he seems to have become estranged from his old ally at this time, perhaps offended by Passerino favouring the Estensi of Ferrara into which family he had now married.
Despite the victory at Monteveglio and Castruccio Castracani's triumph over the Florentine Guelphs at Altopascio the Guelph faction was still strong and the pope and Robert of Naples sent envoys to Verona in July 1326 in an attempt to break Cangrande's allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV of Bavaria—however, when Louis entered Italy in January 1327, Cangrande was one of the first to pay him homage. He tried and failed to obtain the Vicariate of Padua from the Emperor but was reaffirmed as Imperial Vicar of Verona and Vicenza and made Imperial Vicar of Feltre, Monselice, Bassano and Conegliano.
On Whitsunday (31 May) Louis was crowned Holy Roman Emperor at Milan. Cangrande kept lavish and ostentatious court at the city with a retinue of knights numbering over a thousand at the lowest estimate. If his aim was to impress the emperor of his superiority over the other Lombard magnates the most telling result was to arouse the jealousy and suspicion of Milan's rulers the Visconti and he soon found it prudent to return to Verona, where in June 1327 he involved himself in revisions to the city's legislature.
In August 1328 Cangrande supported a coup d'état in Mantua in which his old ally Passerino Bonacolsi was overthrown and killed and his family supplanted by the Gonzaga family. Whether Cangrande was merely being brutally pragmatic here and supporting the winning side—Passerino's power was on the wane having lost Modena in June 1327—or whether his estrangement from his old ally had a deeper cause, is uncertain.
Read more about this topic: Cangrande I Della Scala
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