Cangrande (christened Can Francesco) della Scala (9 March 1291 – 22 July 1329) was an Italian nobleman, belonging to the della Scala family that ruled Verona from 1308 until 1387. He was indeed one of the most important characters at the time of signorie during the period where Italy divided in comuni. Now perhaps best known as the leading patron of the poet Dante Alighieri and featuring prominently in Giovanni Boccaccio's almost contemporary Decameron, Cangrande was in his own day chiefly acclaimed as a successful warrior and autocrat. Between becoming sole ruler of Verona in 1311 and his death in 1329 he took control of several neighbouring cities, notably Vicenza, Padua and Treviso, and came to be regarded as the leader of the Ghibelline faction in northern Italy.
Early life
Cangrande was born in Verona, the third son of Alberto I della Scala, ruler of Verona, by his wife Verde da Salizzole. Christened Can Francesco, perhaps partly in punning homage to his uncle Mastino ("mastiff") I, the founder of the Scaligeri dynasty, his physical and mental precocity soon earned him the name Cangrande, signifying "big dog" or "great dog". The canine allusion was emphasised by the Scaliger lords from Cangrande's reign onwards by the adoption of a dog's head heraldic crest atop their helmets and also on their tombs and other monuments.
Cangrande was held in great affection by his father who took the extraordinary step of knighting him while still a child on 11 November 1301. On Alberto's death in 1301, Cangrande was entrusted to the guardianship of his eldest brother Bartolomeo I della Scala, in whose brief reign he probably first met Dante when the poet took refuge in Verona following his exile from Florence.
Physical appearance and personality
Investigations following the exhumation of his mummified corpse in 2004 indicate that Cangrande was 1.73 metres (about 5 ft 8 in) tall with a long face, prominent jaw and curly chestnut hair. Considerable physical strength and endurance are attested to by the almost ceaseless military campaigns described by contemporary historians and poets. He was known both for his joviality and furious temper and for his open disposition, being fond of discourse with people of all social classes. He was an eloquent speaker, and argument and debate for its own sake was one of his favourite peacetime pastimes when he was not out hunting or hawking. His bravery in battle is well documented; his mercy to defeated foes impressed even his enemies, among them the Paduan historian and dramatist Albertino Mussato, who praised Cangrande's honourable treatment of Vinciguerra di San Bonifacio after the conflict at Vicenza in 1317. He was devoutly religious and fasted twice a week in honour of the Virgin Mary, to whom he was especially devoted.
The emperor's right-hand man
Cangrande saw his first military action in the campaigns of his other brother Alboino I della Scala—who succeeded Bartolomeo in 1304—fighting alongside other Ghibelline leaders against the Guelph dynast Azzo VIII of Este, Lord of Ferrara. In 1308, he began to share the rule of Verona with Alboino. This was also the year of his marriage to Giovanna, daughter of Conrad of Antioch and a descendant of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, a union which was to endure for his lifetime but bring no heirs, although he fathered several illegitimate children.
In November 1310, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII arrived in Italy intent on reconciling Guelph and Ghibelline under the banner of a united empire. In reality, he soon found himself reliant on the support of Ghibelline magnates to further his aims, prominent among them Cangrande and Alboino, whom he made Imperial Vicars of Verona. In April 1311, the two brothers co-led an Imperial Army which swiftly liberated Verona's neighbour Vicenza from the rule of Padua, this city having rebelled against the Emperor's authority.
From May to October of the same year, Cangrande commanded the Italian levies in the siege of Brescia, where the Guelph faction had seized control in defiance of Henry. When the Guelphs surrendered on 16 September 1311, he was chosen to ride at the head of three hundred knights in Henry's triumphal entry into the city. He set out later to accompany the Emperor on his coronation journey to Rome but hastened back to Verona on hearing that his brother had fallen dangerously ill. On 29 November 1311, Alboino died and Cangrande became sole ruler of Verona at the age of twenty.
Struggle for Vicenza
In February 1312, Cangrande became ruler of Verona's neighbouring city of Vicenza by an act of political opportunism, taking advantage of that city's disputes with its former overlords in Padua. Padua's ruling council decided to wrest their former territory from Cangrande and defy the Emperor who had backed his takeover by electing him Vicenza's Imperial Vicar. In early spring 1312 the Paduan army began to ravage the territories of Vicenza and Verona. For some eighteen months, Cangrande was hard-pressed to defend Vicenza and even Verona itself from these incursions.
The death of Henry VII in August 1313 freed Cangrande from his duty to provide resources to the Imperial cause and a change of government at Padua gave him time to amass a sizable army. From the spring of 1314, he pursued the same punitive tactics as his enemies, burning crops and towns in Paduan territory. The devastation of the rural districts tolled heavily on Padua, whose ruling council decided to end the war once and for all by taking Vicenza with overwhelming force. A large army under Padua's warrior Podestà Ponzino de' Ponzini marched through the night and invaded the Vincentine suburb of San Pietro in the early hours of 17 September 1314.
Cangrande was absent at Verona at the time but soon learned of events and rode out instantly for Vicenza, covering the distance in three hours. On arriving in the city he mounted a warhorse and without hesitation led an impromptu attack on the invaders who had still not penetrated beyond the suburbs. The historian and dramatist Albertino Mussato, who was with the Paduan forces, recounts how this sudden assault quickly developed into a rout of the whole Paduan army in which Cangrande, standing up in his stirrups, urged his followers to "slay the cowardly foe" before charging onwards, mace in hand, carrying all before him "as fire fanned by the wind devours stubble".
Cangrande's victory was so comprehensive he was able to conclude a peace treaty in October 1314 in which Padua recognised his supremacy over Vicenza. His military reputation was also much enhanced. Daring feats of arms such as his hell-for-leather ride to Vicenza appealed to the popular imagination, even gaining the reluctant admiration of such men as Mussato, who fervently opposed Cangrande's autocratic style of rule. It typified the qualities for which he was to become increasingly famous: an almost reckless bravery in battle, coupled with magnanimity towards defeated enemies, some of whom he befriended in captivity. Among his prisoners on this occasion were the influential Paduan nobles Jacopo da Carrara and his nephew Marsilio, who became major players in Cangrande's later career.
A staunch Ghibelline
With Vicenza secured, Cangrande was able to involve himself in territories to the west of Verona. With the aid of Rinaldo "Passerino" Bonacolsi, ruler of Mantua, he had by September 1316 helped secure Ghibelline supremacy in Western Lombardy. He then turned his attention back to his personal goal of conquering the Trevisan Mark, launching an unsuccessful attack on Treviso in November 1316.
On 16 March 1316, Cangrande had officially recognised Frederick I of Austria as Holy Roman Emperor, receiving from him confirmation of the Imperial Vicariates of Verona and Vicenza and incurring the wrath of Pope John XXII, who recognised neither Frederick nor his rival, Louis IV of Bavaria, as Emperor. Cangrande ignored the Pope's threats of excommunication and re-emphasised his Ghibelline credentials by attacking the Guelphs of Brescia in concert with the feared Tuscan warlord Uguccione della Faggiuola. He was about to lay siege to the city in May 1317 when he heard that Vicenza was about to be betrayed to a group of exiles backed by Paduan troops under the Guelph nobleman Count Vinciguerra di San Bonifacio, whose family had long ago been exiled from Verona by Cangrande's uncle Mastino I della Scala.
Second war with Padua
Cangrande and Uguccione della Faggiuola arrived outside Vicenza with a large force on 21 May 1317. Cangrande secretly entered Vicenza and the next day at dawn disguised as a Vincentine Guelph he encouraged the Paduans to enter the city, suddenly rushing upon them in person with a small body of troops as they moved to enter the gates while Uguccione's larger force attacked from the rear, albeit in the nick of time for Cangrande's habitual impetuosity had nearly cost him dearly, and decisively ended the battle. Cangrande showed magnanimity to his hereditary foe Vinciguerra di San Bonifacio who was seriously wounded in the conflict, having him nursed at his own palace and affording him a magnificent funeral on his death a few weeks later.
Cangrande wasted little time in accusing Padua of breaking the peace treaty of 1314. In December 1317, Venice, which had overseen this treaty, finally declared it null and void. Cangrande set out immediately with a large army to surprise the town of Monselice, a key Paduan stronghold on the eastern slopes of the Euganean Hills. Monselice was betrayed to the Veronese vanguard on 21 December and the rich town of Este soon followed, encircled by Cangrande's forces and called on to surrender. The garrison resisted, whereupon Cangrande plunged into the moat and led his forces on an all-out assault on the walls. In a short space of time, the town was taken, sacked and burnt. Following this, many other towns in the area surrendered in fear of suffering a similar fate.
After Christmas Cangrande marched his army to the walls of Padua itself in an effort to terrify the populace into surrender. The Paduan Greater Council represented by Jacopo da Carrara felt compelled to agree to any terms other than unconditional surrender and on 12 February 1318 ceded Monselice, Este, Castelbaldo and Montagnana to Cangrande for life and ordered the restoration of citizens exiled from Padua.
Second military campaign against Treviso
Cangrande spent the spring and summer of 1318 fighting for the Ghibelline cause in various cities, undeterred by the Pope's excommunication (enforced in April for his persistent refusal to renounce his Imperial Vicariates). In autumn his attention turned once more to the Trevisan Mark. He was unable to attack Padua because of the peace treaty but had considerable influence there due to his friendship with the Da Carrara family which was now dominant in the city. He cemented his informal alliance with the Carrara late in 1318 by betrothing his twelve-year-old nephew Mastino (the future Mastino II della Scala) with Taddea, Jacopo da Carrara's baby daughter. Meanwhile, in alliance with Uguccione della Faggiuola he had launched another military campaign against Treviso.
The attack on Treviso was made with the promise of help from certain nobles within the city who hoped Cangrande would restore them to power. Although this plot did enable him to take some outlying castles but fell short of taking the city itself for the citizens appealed to Frederick I of Austria who ordered Cangrande to stop his assault in return for the Trevisans accepting his authority and allowing him to appoint an Imperial Vicar.