William VII, Marquess of Montferrat - Final War

Final War

In compensation for the loss of Milan, William received Alba. His daughter by Beatrice of Castile, Violante (Yolanda), married the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus, taking the name Irene (Eirene). Through this marriage, his political situation appeared stabilised. But William was soon campaigning again. He saw a continuous flow of alternating defeats and victories. Having reduced Alessandria to submission, the citizens of Asti paid the Alessandrians a large sum of money and induced them to revolt against the margrave again. Constrained to deal with Alessandria once and for all, William encamped with a large army in front of the city walls. Heeding the appeals of the citizens, he enterred the city to negotiate a peace, but was imprisoned in an iron cage and died a year later, probably of hunger, certainly still a captive. Dante refers to the misery caused in Monferrato and the Canavese by the war with Alessandria which followed:

“

…Quel che più basso tra costor s’atterra,
guardando in suso, è Guiglielmo marchese,
per cui e Alessandria e la sua guerra

fa pianger Monferrato e Canavese.

— Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio; canto VII, 133–6.

He who the lowest on the ground among them
Sits looking upward, is the Marquis William,
For whose sake Alessandria and her war

Make Monferrat and Canavese weep.

— Translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

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