Victory
Left alone and seeing his domains under attack by his enemies and Tortona and Acqui lost, William scrambled to form an alliance with the Ghibelline cities of Pavia, Asti, and Genoa. He continued to wait for aid from Alfonso, but the king had given up on Germany and Italy. Nevertheless, a small troupe of Spanish soldiers found their way to Montferrat. With these and his allies, despite the excommunication of Pope Gregory X, William prepared to defend his territories. On 10 November 1274, at the Battle of Roccavione, William and the Ghibellines definitively defeated Charles I and routed his forces. He advanced far, taking Trino Vercellese and Turin, which offended the House of Savoy, which considered itself the rightful possessor of the city on the Po.
Towards 1278, the commune of Vercelli recognised William as its lord and Alessandria named him captain and put itself under his dominion. Casale and Tortona also nominated him their captain and William exited the war in a superior position to that with which he had begun.
Read more about this topic: William VII, Marquess Of Montferrat
Famous quotes containing the word victory:
“Never mind the ridicule, never mind the defeat: up again, old heart!—it seems to say,—there is victory yet for all justice; and the true romance which the world exists to realize, will be the transformation of genius into practical power.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It must be a peace without victory.... Victory would mean peace forced upon the losers, a victor’s terms imposed upon the vanquished. It would be accepted in humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory upon which the terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but only as upon quicksand.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“It is not the cause for which men took up arms that makes a victory more just or less, it is the order that is established when arms have been laid down.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)