and Ghibellines. Two great parties whose conflicts make up the
history of Italy and Germany in the twelfth, thirteenth, and
fourteenth centuries. Guelph is the Italian form of Welfe, and
Ghibelline of Waiblingen, and the origin of these two words is
this: At the battle of Weinsburg, in Suabia (1140), Conrad, Duke
of Franconia, rallied his followers with the war-cry Hie
Waiblingen (his family estate), while Henry the Lion, Duke of
Saxony, used the cry of Hie Welfë (the family name). The
Ghibellines supported in Italy the side of the German emperors;
the Guelphs opposed it, and supported the cause of the Pope.
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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