Who is ugolino in inferno by dante

This is Count Ugolino of the city of Pisa. In , Ugolino made a pact with the Archbishop Ruggieri but the Archbishop betrayed him and had Ugolino imprisoned in a tower with his sons and grandsons. The keys to their prison were thrown into the Arno river which runs through both Pisa and Florence. They had no food of any kind, so the tower became known as the Torre della Fame, the "Tower of Famine. He refused this horrifying offer, and he watched as they died, one by one.

Ugolino and Ruggieri, by Gustav Dore, Danteworlds Circle 9 Gallery. The Traitorous Pair - Ugolino and Ruggieri I wanted to know more, and I was determined to get Virgil to tell us as much of his journey as he could. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a few others balk at the description.

In the city of Pisa, Ugolino attempted to install a Guelph government, but it failed. As a result, he and other conspirators were arrested. Some years passed before being deemed no longer a political threat, so he was released from prison. Despite Ugolino losing that battle, he and and his grandson Nino became a Podesta - a leader of the people. While Nino and Ugolino held power at the same time, Ugolino changed his alliances back to the Ghibellines when they began to gain more power in Pisa.

Archbishop Ruggieri, another Ghibelline, plotted with Ugolino and the two became allies of a sort. While he ruled, Ugolino gave away castles to threatening rivals in order to keep them away, something the people of Pisa were troubled by. Difficulties continued in Pisa for Ugolino. Sharply rising food prices incited multiple riots in the streets.

Amidst the chaos, Ugolino killed a nephew of Archbishop Ruggieri. When Ruggieri heard of this, he betrayed the Count and incited more riots against him. As Ugolino was leaving a meeting with leaders of a nearby rivaling city, he encountered a group of rioting Ghibellines.

However, early commentators and chroniclers describe other--even more damning--examples of shifting allegiances and betrayals in the long political life of Count Ugolino. Born into a prominent ghibelline family in Pisa, Ugolino switched to the guelph side following their ascendancy in Tuscan politics and tried to install a guelph government in Pisa in Unsuccessful in this attempt, he was imprisoned and later exiled. Taking advantage of resurgent ghibelline fortunes in Tuscany, Ugolino connived with the Pisan ghibellines, led by the Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini; Ugolino agreed to ghibelline demands that his grandson Nino be driven from the city, an order that was carried out--with Ugolino purposefully absent from the city--in