446 



GUELDER ROSE 



GUELPHS 



them by the Franks. In 870 it passed to Ger- 

 many ; and in the end of the llth century became 

 a territorial power, its ruler bearing the title of 

 count. This was exchanged for the higher title of 

 duke in 1383. These dynastic princes maintained 

 their independence for just one century longer ; 

 in 1483 their duchy was taken possession of by 

 Maximilian of Austria. Yet it was not until 

 1543 that the power of the Duke of Gueldres was 

 finally broken and his land definitively incorporated 

 with the Austrian Netherlands. On the revolt of 

 the northern provinces of Holland the northern 

 part of Gueldres threw in its lot ( 1579 ) with them, 

 whilst the southern part remained faithful to Spain. 

 The latter was given up to Prussia in 1713. By 

 the peace of 1814 Gueldres was finally divided be- 

 tween Holland and Prussia. 



Guelder Rose, a cultivated form of Viburnum 

 Opulus (see VIBURNUM), also popularly named 

 Snowball Tree. The normal or wild form of the 



Fig. 1. The Guelder Kose. 



guelder rose is a pretty plentiful native of England 

 and Ireland, but is less frequently to be found in 

 a wild state in Scotland. It is widely distributed 

 in Europe and Russian Asia, and even extends into 

 the Arctic regions. Its flowers appear in early 



summer in rather 

 dense cymes, 2 or 

 3 inches in dia- 

 meter ; the outer 

 flowers become 

 b xfSPSS^ much enlarged, at- 

 taining about an 

 inch in diameter, 

 but, having neither 

 stamens nor pis- 

 tils, are perfectly 

 a, flower ; 6, fruit of Viburnum Opulus. Barren The inner 



flowers are small, 



white, with two or three pistils on very short 

 styles, and are followed by globular, blackish-red 

 berries. In the cultivated form the flowers are 

 all monstrous and barren, like the outer flowers 

 of the cymes of the wild form ; and crowded as 

 they are together in the cyme, the structure of 

 which is not enlarged, the inflorescence assumes 

 the form of a compact ball, hence the name Snow- 

 ball Tree. In cultivation the plant attains the 

 proportions of a small tree, and flowers most freely 

 after it has acquired some age. When in flower in 

 May and June it is one of the most ornamental of 

 hardy trees, and is therefore planted largely in 

 pleasure-grounds and shrubberies. The wild form 

 is reared from seeds and cuttings, the monstrous 

 form from cuttings or layers only. 



Guelph, an inland port of entry in Ontario, 

 capital of Wellington county, on the river Speed, 



45 miles W. by S. of Toronto by rail. It is the 

 seat of the Ontario Agricultural College, and has 

 several flour-mills, woollen-mills, and manufactories 

 of sewing-machines, &c., the Speed supplying 

 abundant motive-power. Pop. (1891) 10,537. 



Glielphic Order, an order of knighthood for 

 Hanover, instituted by George IV., when Prince 

 Regent, in 1815. It is both a military and civil 

 order, and is unlimited in number. See ORDERS. 



Guelphs and Ghibellines, the names of two 

 great parties, the conflict between which may 

 be said almost to epitomise the history of Italy and 

 Germany from the llth to the 14th century. The 

 origin of these names was formerly the subject of 

 much speculation ; but historians are now agreed 

 in tracing them respectively to the two families, 

 Welf and Waiblingen, which in the 12th century 

 were at the head of two rival parties in the German 

 empire, and whose feuds came to be identified his- 

 torically with the respective principles for which 

 these parties contended. Welf was the personal 

 name of a prehistoric founder of the family still repre- 

 sented in the royal English and (dispossessed ) Han- 

 overian houses; Waiblingen, a small town in Wiir- 

 temberg, was a possession of the House of Hohen- 

 staufen. The assumption of the names as party 

 names is traditionally fixed at the battle of Weins- 

 berg, in Swabia, 1140, between the Emperor Conrad 

 of Hohenstaufen (Duke of Franconia) and Welf, 

 uncle of Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, when the 

 leaders rallied their followers by the respective war- 

 cries, ' Hie Waiblingen ! ' ' Hie Well ! ' It may 

 be mentioned that Matthew Villani ingeniously 

 gives as etymology of Ghibellini, Guida belli or 

 guidatori di battaglie, ' leaders in battles ; ' of 

 Guelfi, guardatori dife, 'defenders of the faith.' 



As the chief theatre of the conflict of these parties 

 was Italy, the original names took the Italian forms 

 of Ghibellini and Guelfi. The former may, in gene- 

 ral, be described as the supporters of the imperial 

 authority in Italy, the latter as the opponents of 

 the emperors. The opposition to imperial authority 

 in Italy arose from two distinct parties, which, for 

 the most part, made common cause with each other 

 from the church, which asserted its own spiritual 

 independence, and from the minor principalities 

 and free cities, which fought for their provincial 

 or municipal rights and liberties. Five great crises 

 in the strife of the Guelph and Ghibelline parties 

 are commonly noted by historians : under Henry 

 IV., in 1055; under Henry the Proud of Bavaria 

 and Saxony, in 1127 ; under Henry the Lion, in 

 1146 ; under Frederick Barbarossa, in 1159 ; and in 

 the pontificate of the great champion of churchman- 

 ship, Innocent III. The cities of northern Italy 

 were divided between the two parties Florence, 

 Bologna, Milan, Piacenza, Modena, Ravenna, and 

 others, as a general rule, taking the side of the 

 Guelphs ; while Pisa, Lucca, and Arezzo were 

 Ghibelline. Several important cities transferred 

 their sympathies from the one party to the other 

 according to the exigencies of domestic politics. 

 The great Italian families, in like manner, took 

 opposite sides ; but the policy of each family fre- 

 quently varied from one generation to another. In 

 general, it may be said that the nobles of the more 

 northern provinces of Italy inclined to the Ghibel- 

 line side, while those of the central and southern 

 provinces were Guelph. By degrees, however, 

 especially after the downfall of the preponderance 

 of the German emperors in Italy, the contest ceased 

 to be a strife of principles, and degenerated into a 

 mere struggle of rival factions, who availed them- 

 selves of the prestige of ancient names and tradi- 

 tional or hereditary prejudices. Even in 1272 

 Gregory X. could with truth reproach the Italians 

 with their sanguinary animosities for the sake of 



