War of the Castle of Love
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The War of the Castle of Love was a conflict in 1215–1216 between Padua and Treviso on one side and Venice on the other. It began with an exchange of insults at a festival, escalated to raiding and finally to open warfare. The decisive engagement was fought near the mouth of the Adige on 22 October 1215 and a peace treaty was signed on 9 April 1216.
Narrative sources for the war include the Liber chronicorum of Rolandino of Padua, Les estoires de Venise of Martino Canal, the Chronicon of Andrea Dandolo, De origine urbis Venetiarum of Marino Sanuto and Historie venete of Gian Giacomo Caroldo.[1]
The March of Treviso was sometimes known poetically as the marca amorosa (amorous march) or marca gioiosa (joyous march) on account of its supposed predilection for pageantry.[2] In 1214, Treviso declared a "court of solace and mirth"[3] to be held over eight days starting on Easter.[4] On this most of the sources agree.[5] Several, however, place it in a different year. Sanuto places it on Whit Monday 1213.[4] Rolandino dates it to Albizzo da Fiore's term as podestà, which probably lasted from 29 June 1214 until 29 June 1215.[3][6] The Cronaca Foscariniana, a late 15th-century source that had access to earlier records, places the festival on 8 June 1215. According to the late source, it was held in celebration of a peace agreement between rival families signed at Spineda on 1 March 1215.[7]
Invitations were sent throughout the March and also to Venice and Lombardy. The number of attendees from out of town was reckoned at 1,200 gentlemen with their wives, with 360 of these men coming from Venice and the rest from Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Friuli, Feltre and Belluno. The total in attendance was over 5,000 plus 640 guests hosted by Treviso.[4] The peace treaty signed after the war refers to the festival as the ludi Tarvisii, games of Treviso.[8]
Festivities including dancing and jousting in the streets and piazzas. The centrepiece, however, was the wooden "castle of love" constructed outside the Porta San Tomaso in a place called La Spineta, corresponding to the neighbourhood of Selvana today. This was defended by ladies and damsels against the assaults of the young men of Treviso, Padua and Venice, who threw flowers, pastries and spices, respectively, at the battlements.[4] Rolandino describes the weapons of this pageant as follows:
and the arms and engines wherewith men fought against it were apples and dates and muscat-nuts [nutmeg], tarts and pears and quinces, roses and lilies and violets, and vases of balsam or ambergris or rosewater, amber, camphor, cardamums, cinnamon, cloves, pomegranates, and all manner of flowers or spices that are fragrant to smell and fair to see.[3]
A panel of knights was supposed to referee the event and decide to which city the castle would surrender.[9] Eventually the Venetians switched to throwing ducats, which the women abandoned the battlements to pick up. When the Venetians moved to enter the castle, a fight ensued with the Paduans.[4] The rectors of Treviso and the commander of the Paduan militia, Paolo da Sermodele, intervened to break it up,[4] and so narrowly averted bloodshed.[9]
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