Remember yourself, as a child, arguing with your brother upon whose toy is better?
If you don’t remember, it’s a sign you got older and smarter, or maybe you didn’t have a brother at all, nevertheless, imagine yourself living in the Middle Ages, the year is 1325, a wonderful time to be alive, despite all the wars, diseases, poverty and other things characterizing this era.
After you turned on your imagination, replace yourself, as a little kiddo, with the Middle Ages knights, and your brother by other knights, also swap the toy with a stink, old, wooden bucket and you get an historical event called "War Of The Bucket".
The Backstory
Location marked in green is the area where the conflict took place~
"Emilia-Romagna"
Middle Ages Italy was divided into a lot of city-states, which conflicted each other for military, economic, and political superiority.
People that lived in those city-states sticked to a different political sights, there was two rival political camps that conflicted each other- The "Ghibellines" and on the opposite side The "Guelphs".
"Ghibellines" | "Guelphs" |
---|---|
Modena ![]() | Bologna ![]() |
Support the Holy Roman Emperor | Support the Pope |
Although, the pressure was slightly reduced by the year 1330, but the confrontation was still noticeably and the separation into two different camps kept it’s place.
From left- Holy Roman Empire coat of arms.
From right- Holy See coat of arms.
How I mentioned before, Italy wasn’t doing well in this ages and the confrontation between the city-states was getting higher, Bologna () and Modena (
) wasn’t an exception out of this tendency.
"Guelph-Ghibelline wars"
by Ottavio Baussano
In the start of 1325, the number of skirmishes grew up.
Bologna () expended it’s territory, Modena (
) tried to return them back, because of that, raids and theft kept going on until Modena’s (
) army captured the castle "Monteveglio", which was the bastion of Bologna (
), after that, castle "Zappolino" was the last bastion of defense for Bologna (
).
The Last Straw
The relationship between Bologna () and Modena (
), after all the mutual skirmishes, started to get worse and the last straw that broke the camels back has come.
Taking advantage of the general mess, a few soldiers of Modena () sneaked into Bologna (
) and took the wooden bucket that laid in the center of the city, whereupon came back to Modena (
) and showed the bucket to all the citizens with full pride.
From left- Bologna Coat Of Arms.
From right- Modena Coat Of Arms.
Bologna () citizens claimed the bucket back(for the protocol, the wooden bucket didn’t had any historical/other value, just a stink bucket), but Modena (
) refused to return it, shortly after, Bologna (
) declared war on Modena (
).
War Scenario
"Battle Of Zappolino"
"War Of The Bucket" started on November 15, 1325.
Bologna () mustered an army of about 32,000 men against Modena’s (
) 7,000, the battle took place near castle "Zappolino" in Bolonese territory.
Bologna () was crashed by Modena (
), despite they were outnumbered, Modena (
) was celebrating a victory upon Bologna (
).
Fun Fact
Some sources say, that Modena’s () soldiers took another bucket with them as a trophy 🏆 :)
Thank you for reading the post, hope you’ll like it!
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