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:
“I have been photographing our toilet, that glossy enameled receptacle of extraordinary beauty.... Here was every sensuous curve of the “human figure divine” but minus the imperfections. Never did the Greeks reach a more significant consummation to their culture, and it somehow reminded me, in the glory of its chaste convulsions and in its swelling, sweeping, forward movement of finely progressing contours, of the Victory of Samothrace.”
—Edward Weston (1886–1958)
“...I discovered that I could take a risk and survive. I could march in Philadelphia. I could go out in the street and be gay even in a dress or a skirt without getting shot. Each victory gave me courage for the next one.”
—Martha Shelley, U.S. author and social activist. As quoted in Making History, part 3, by Eric Marcus (1992)
“[holds her by the hand, silent] O mother, mother!
What have you done? Behold, the heavens do ope,
The gods look down, and this unnatural scene
They laugh at. O my mother, mother! O!
You have won a happy victory to Rome;
But, for your son, believe it—O, believe it—
Most dangerously you have with him prevailed,
If not most mortal to him.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)