until after noon, and neither by persuasions nor by threats were they
allowed to enter in. They returned to Prato gloomy and shamed, and as
they were returning, being angry, they attacked the fortress of
Capalle, but did not take it. And when they came to Prato they
bitterly reproached each other; but after a thing ill-judged, and
worse carried out, repentance is in vain. The Florentines which were
left reorganized the town, and dismissed the said two Podestas, the
Jovial Friars of Bologna, and sent to Orvieto for aid in soldiers, and
for a Podesta and Captain, which Orvietans sent 100 horsemen to guard
the city, and M. Ormanno Monaldeschi was Podesta, and another
gentleman of Orvieto was the Captain of the People. And by a treaty of
peace, the following January the Popolo restored to Florence both
Guelfs and Ghibellines, and caused many marriages and alliances to be
made between them, among the which these were the chief: that M.
Bonaccorso Bellincioni degli Adimari gave for wife to M. Forese, his
son, the daughter of Count Guido Novello, and M. Bindo, his brother,
took one of the Ubaldini; and M. Cavalcante, of the Cavalcanti, gave
for wife to his son Guido the daughter of M. Farinata degli Uberti;
and M. Simone Donati gave his daughter to M. Azzolino, son of M.
Farinata degli Uberti; for the which alliances the other Guelfs of
Florence distrusted their loyalty to the party; and for the said
reason the said peace endured but a little while; for when the said
Guelfs had returned to Florence, feeling themselves stronger and
emboldened by the victory which they had gained over Manfred, with
King Charles, they sent secretly into Apulia to the said King Charles
for soldiers, and for a captain, and he sent Count Guy of Montfort,
with 800 French horsemen, and he came to Florence on Easter Day of the
Resurrection in the year of Christ 1267. And when the Ghibellines
heard of his coming, the night before they departed from Florence
without stroke of sword, and some went to Siena, and some to Pisa, and
to other places. The Florentine Guelfs gave the lordship over the city
to King Charles for ten years, and when they sent him their free and
full election by solemn embassy, with authority over life and death
and in lesser judgments, the king answered that he desired from the
Florentines their love and good-will and no other jurisdiction;
nevertheless, at the prayer of the commonwealth he accepted it simply,
and sent thither year