According to THEMEPARKTOUR, Uberto Pelavicino, son of William who had been a friend of Otto IV, enemy of Innocent III, excommunicated between 1198- 1205, in the same years that Uberto was born into the world. Uberto is growing in power now, right in the middle of the Po Valley, where the family owns, between Piacenza and Parma, the “Podere Pelavicino”, a huge mass of allodial and feudal assets (which we learn about from the imperial diploma of Frederick II, 9 May 1249, in Uberto), later “Pallavicino state”, which from the plain goes up the Val di Taro and dominates the Cisa pass. And in the Marca Trevigiana, the Da Romano, modest gentlemen at the beginning of the century. XI, with the castles of Romano and Bassano, and managed to acquire influence, owning houses and vassals and friends, in Vicenza, Treviso, Verona, Cittadella, soon emerging in the region above the Da Camino, the Camposampiero, the counts of Verona, the Estensi, all a discordant tangle of relatives and ambitions. Countries among the most agitated in Italy, these of the Pelavicino and Da Romano, who become the center and leaders of local parties, gathered in vast agglomerations, facing other and opposing agglomerations; they obtain from the partisans who are powerful in those cities, and in more than one at the same time, the office of “podestà” or “rector” or “captain”; other offices, awards, sanctions, they get from the emperor. Multiple and varied legal basis for the effective exercise of their domain. Pelavicino made a great career in Federico’s services. Simple mayor of Cremona in 1234; “Imperial podestà” of Pavia in 1239. Then, when the king assumes the government of Lunigiana which is his road to the Po Valley and serves to divide the hostile forces of Lucca and Genoa, Pelavicino becomes “captain in Lunigiana”, then, “imperial vicar in Lunigiana, Versilia and Garfagnana ”, organizing the war in Genoa from there, cooperating with the Pisan and Sicilian fleets to win the Meloria. Declining Frederick’s authority, he gathered beyond the Apennines. He married a niece of Ezzelino and works in unison with him. He seeks a base of his own, now independently of the emperor. Frederick was still alive, but Ghibelline and popular Lombardy was headed by Pelavicino, as the head of the party and guardian of certain interests of his own and of others rather than the vicar of the emperor, far away.
Even greater autonomy is in the action of Ezzelino da Romano, who first had Verona as mayor, alternating there with Salinguerra; in 1226 he occupied Vicenza and placed his brother mayor there, thus dominating the Val d’Adige and Valsugana, roads between Italy and Germany, and dividing Venice from the renewed Lombard league. Pressed by Venice and the league, the two Da Romano’s approach the emperor, and the emperor goes to Verona in 37 to consolidate their position. And here, the same year, the great blow: Padua, a rich and powerful city that holds Venice closely, suddenly hit, surrenders to the emperor, represented there by Count Gebeardo di Arnsten. But who is in charge is Ezzelino. After Padua, it is the turn of Treviso. The encirclement of Venice is complete. In 1238 Ezzelino married Selvaggia, Federico’s natural daughter. dominum nominare ”, silencing his proper name as a sign of reverence: in short, the gentleman. And he becomes more and more independent from Federico. He receives in dedication people who have rebelled against the emperor; he puts the podestà sent by the emperor at the door and appoints him “podestà and vicarî from the Oglio to Trento” relatives of him who call him “lord”. He too and his podestà rest on the popular side, and everywhere elevates men of the people to military dignity: almost a new nobility. Conversely, he wants “omnes maiores et potentiores de Marchia Tarvisina delere pro posse” ( Annali Padovani). It struck without saving how many citizens had vassals and sworn clients; he demolished castles and towers and turreted houses. And this approached him, against the aristocracy and the rich bourgeoisie, who were the backbone of the factions, the lesser people, in the hope also that, if those partisans were put on a leash or exterminated, peace could be obtained. In short, the Ezzelino and Pelavicino and the others equal to them are a moment in the history of the city and of the people, against nobility, against ecclesiastical privileges and clerical intrusiveness in civil government. To this work they bring that unity of command and that military strength which the cities and the people lacked. They are strongly organized for the war, they sharpen their ingenuity to find new war machines, they keep Italian and German mercenaries in pay that the voice of the parties does not move and “nor fear. of excommunications or fear of swords ”, as the chronicler says, detaches from him. That’s why this mercenary militia appears right now in Italy.
