WEBVTT - The Cannibal Count of Pisa 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:04.680 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:13.360 and Mild from Aaron Manky listener discretion advised. According to 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:19.119 the medieval Italian writer Dante Alighieri, in the Lowest Circle 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:24.040 of hell sits a frozen lake. At first, that might 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:28.320 not sound so bad, kind of a winter wonderland vibe. 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:32.839 That is, until you take into account the countless heads 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:37.800 and bodies sticking out of the ice and their screams 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:42.519 of eternal agony. Those souls who are condemned to this 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:47.320 the ninth circle of Hell, the circle reserved for traders. 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:53.240 We're all frozen in various configurations according to the kind 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:58.480 and depth of their betrayal. We get this chilling depiction 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:03.200 of Hell from Dante's Inferno, the first part of his 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:08.679 Divine Comedy, which he completed around thirteen twenty one. The 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:13.240 poem is the story of Dante imagining himself journeying through 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:17.680 Hell with the ancient Roman poet Virgil as his guide, 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:23.120 meeting various characters along the way and contemplating the nature 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:27.120 of sin and the soul. Of course, in the story, 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:31.680 Dante and Virgil make their way through the concentric sections 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:37.240 of the lake called Cocitus after the mythical Greek River 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:41.800 of Lamentation in the underworld, and they eventually come upon 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:46.639 two men frozen together in the ice, one in front 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:50.480 of the other. Dante thought it was odd the men 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:55.880 were so close that their heads were practically touching. As 0:01:56.000 --> 0:02:00.760 Dante and Virgil got closer, their confusion turned to horror 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:05.279 as they realized that the man behind was in fact 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:10.520 continuously gnawing through the skull of the man in front 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:16.520 of him, a gruesome element in their eternal torment aghast. 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:21.200 Dante asked the gnawing man who he was and why 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:25.000 he had been sentenced to such a fate. The poor 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:29.080 soul took a break from his meal, wiped his face 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.960 on a remaining patch of hair on the other man's head, 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:38.280 and began to tell his story of betrayal and horror. 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:42.600 His name, he told them, was Ugolino de la Guerridesco, 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:49.400 a disgraced peasan nobleman who had died some thirty years prior. Ugolino, 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:54.399 by his own admission, had led a treasonous life, always 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.800 willing to betray comrades, friends, and even family in the 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:04.520 pursuit of more his traitorous ways. Finally came to an end, however, 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:09.200 after he betrayed the Archbishop of Pisa, the man who 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.880 was now frozen in front of him during a riot 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:18.440 in the city. Enraged, the archbishop betrayed Ugolino, in turn 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:24.040 having him and his children imprisoned in a tower, before 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:28.240 throwing the key in the river and leaving them to starve. 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:34.680 After several days, Ugolino told the visitors his children saw 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:38.680 their father bite his knuckle in grief and mistook it 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:43.120 for hunger. With a sudden panic, they asked him to 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.640 eat their bodies when they died, so that he might 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:51.600 survive if only for a bit longer. Father, our pain 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:55.520 will lessen if you eat us, they begged. Ugolino had 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:59.080 tried to calm his children, but it did little good, 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:03.560 and soon it no longer mattered, as their already frail 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:08.320 bodies began to weaken one by one. Over the course 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:14.280 of two agonizing days, Ugolino outlived each of his children. 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:19.880 He grew hungrier by the minute. As the tortured soul 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:24.159 trapped in the frozen lake finished his tale, Dante and 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:29.880 Virgil realized exactly why his punishment was what it was 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:35.160 eternal cannibalism. Looking up at the writer and the poet 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:41.040 from his frozen tomb, Ugolino cried, quote, and I already 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:45.560 going blind, groped over my brood, calling to them, though 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:49.320 I had watched them die for two long days. And 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:53.599 then the hunger had more power than even sorrow over me. 0:04:54.920 --> 0:05:02.240 I'm Danish schwartz, and this is noble blood. Thirteenth century 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:07.280 Italy could be a brutal place. Ugolino de la Gardesca 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:12.159 grew up amidst a long standing conflict that centered on 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.440 the tension between the ambitions of the Pope and his 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:19.320 papal states on one hand, and the Holy Roman Emperor 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:24.880 on the other. The inciting debate, known as the investiture controversy, 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:28.640 began in the early twelfth century, and it was a 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:33.279 question over whether secular rulers or the Pope had the 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:38.479 authority to appoint in areas bishops and abbots. Over time, 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:42.360 the ruling families of the city states of northern Italy 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:45.880 began to take their sides on the issue, with the 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:51.400 Holy Roman Emperor's supporters being known as Gibelines and the 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:57.400 popes as Guelphs. The Geradesca family were of Germanic descent, 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.160 and their ties to the Hoefenstauffen emperors made them the 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:06.039 leaders of the Gibelin faction in Pisa, where Ugolino was born. 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:10.080 The conflict died down to some extent in the late 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:15.440 twelfth century, but was revived shortly after Ugolino's birth around 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:22.279 twelve ten twelve fourteen. Like many dynastic rivalries throughout history, 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:27.560 conflicts arose both over the quote unquote main conflict and 0:06:27.760 --> 0:06:33.560 increasingly over personal and political squabbles between the involved parties. 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:39.680 There is much more to the longstanding conflicts and entanglements 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:44.280 between the Ghibeline and Gwelf families, but for our purposes 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:49.720 it's mostly important to understand that Ugolino's personal and political 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:55.320 life was defined by pretty constant conflict. Pisa was a 0:06:55.440 --> 0:07:01.240 Gibeline outpost surrounded by several powerful Gwelf city states, notably 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:06.240 Genoa and Florence. The early years of Ugolino's life are 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:09.920 pretty unclear to us, but we know that as he 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:15.440 came of age, he accumulated power, experience, and connections. He 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:21.280 also accumulated children at least ten or eleven split between 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:24.880 two marriages, as well as at least one child born 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:30.600 out of wedlock. Ugolino's early career was defined by military successes, 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:35.240 particularly as a naval commander. In the wake of a 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:40.120 twelve fifty eight victory against the Genoese sympathetic judicate of 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:45.280 Calliari in Sardinia, he founded the silver mining city of 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:50.080 Via de Quisa on the island's west coast, rejuvenating the 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:54.000 existing town and building a castle, a hospital, and a 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:58.520 defense wall. That city still exists today, known by its 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:03.840 Spanish name Iglesia. This victory would have had Ugolino on 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:09.040 a high he had defeated the Genoese, even if by proxy, 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:13.840 and cemented his own legacy through the founding of a city. 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:18.880 It would also have earned him popularity amongst his fellow 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:23.240 Gibelins in Pisa. But, as would become clear over the 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:27.440 next several years, Ugolino was far more interested in growing 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:30.960 his own power than in serving the interests of the 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:36.920 Peasan nobility or their political faction. By the early twelve 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:42.840 seventies we find Ugolino already barreling towards his first accusation 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:47.720 of treason. He began to arouse the suspicions of his 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:51.920 fellow Gibelins in twelve seventy one, when he married his 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:57.479 daughter off to Giovanni Visconti, the judge or ruler of Galura, 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:03.000 another Sardinian judicate. The Visconti were among the most powerful 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:08.560 Gwelph families in Pisa and the surrounding areas. Ugolino had 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:13.880 bound his flesh and blood to the enemy under different 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:18.520 political circumstances that might have been seen as a diplomatic move. 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:23.360 Countless royal marriages throughout history, many of which we've covered 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:29.120 on this podcast, were diplomatic marriages meant to soothe dynastic 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:34.920 rivalries or prevent disputes over succession, even to merge kingdoms 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:39.880 to accumulate more power for both families or parties. But 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:44.640 the deeply entrenched nature of the rivalry between the Gebelins 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:49.440 and the Guelphs, and the geographically precarious position Pisa was 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:53.959 in as a Gebeline city surrounded by Gwelf power, meant 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:59.400 that Ugolino's marriage brokering was seen as very suspicious, and 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:04.080 in fact, it seems unlikely that his motives were diplomatic. 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:09.480 The marriage resulted mostly in increased tension between the Gibilins 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:14.600 and Guelphs and an opportunity for Ugolino himself to grab 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:18.840 at more wealth and power. Over the next few years, 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.760 Pisa was beset by riots led by none other than 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:27.360 Ugolino and his son in law Giovanni Visconti. In twelve 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:31.640 seventy four, their involvement in these riots came back to 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:37.479 bite them. Giovanni was exiled and Ugolino imprisoned. When Giovanni 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:41.680 died in exile the following year, it was Ugolino's turn 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:44.560 to be sent away, and he spent the next few 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:48.920 years in Sardinia until Charles, the first of Anjou, helped 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:53.920 to engineer his return to Pisa. Upon his return, Ugolino 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:57.840 went right back to leading Pisa as a military commander. 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:04.000 His sins seemingly were given and forgotten. However, another opportunity 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:09.680 to grab yet more power soon fell right into Ugolino's lap. 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:14.560 On August fifth and sixth, twelve eighty four, Pisa fought 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:17.480 Genoa in a naval battle that would come to be 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:22.160 known as the Battle of Milura. Ugolino had been appointed 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:25.839 to captain a naval fleet by the Podesta, or head 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:32.160 magistrate of Pisa, Albertino Morrissini. The battle was a disaster 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:37.480 for Pisa. Genoa not only enjoyed a decisive victory, but 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:42.800 also managed to capture over twenty eight Peasan ships and 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:48.720 eleven thousand Peason soldiers, including the Podesta himself, along with 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:54.120 a significant portion of the city's nobility. Ugolino, however, had 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:59.080 managed to escape Genoa's clutches in a move that would 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:03.920 be interpreted as calculated by later writers, although it doesn't 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:06.160 seem to have been seen that way at the time. 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:10.040 He got away by signaling his surrender to the Genoese 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:15.160 and withdrawing from the battle. Now there was a power 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:18.679 vacuum in Pisa, and with much of the nobility in 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:23.240 Genoese custody, there really was only one choice for who 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:28.520 should serve as the new Podesta. Why Ugolino della Garadeska. 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:33.240 Of course, Two years later, in twelve eighty six, he 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:37.120 was also appointed Captain of the People, although in this 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:41.000 he was forced to share power with his grandson, Giovanni's 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:46.400 son Nino Visconti. It was something of an uncomfortable pairing 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:52.080 a Ghibeline and a Guelph ruling together. In twelve eighty seven, 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:56.520 Nino was elected to the position of Podesta, upsetting the 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:03.160 already delicate balance of power between the two warring factions. That, 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:08.200 of course, did not sit well with the power hungry Ugolino, 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:13.120 and worse, while his own gwelf grandson challenged his power 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:18.520 from within, Pisa gwelth powers Florence and Luca were beginning 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:24.320 to advance from the outside, along with PISA's longtime rival Genoa. 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:30.520 Ugolino managed to pacify Florence and Luca by relinquishing some 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:36.160 landholdings and castles. When Genoa suggested the same in return 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:41.720 for the Peasan prisoners, Ugolino hesitated. He was already fighting 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:45.840 his grandson for supremacy. What was going to happen if 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:51.160 all of the other nobles returned to the city. Ugolino's 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:55.520 wheels began to turn, but so did his grandson Nino's. 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:59.720 It was becoming increasingly clear that the two could not 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:04.640 ruled together peacefully, and a struggle for power seemed imminent. 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:10.359 In twelve eighty seven, Nino turned to the Archbishop of Pisa, 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:15.000 a leader of the Gibeline nobility, asking for his support 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:19.200 were he to make a play for the position of Podesta, permanently. 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:24.480 The archbishop seemed sympathetic to Nino's cause and agreed to 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:30.440 help him. Ugolino got wind of these negotiations and was incensed. 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:35.320 He responded with what amounted to a coup. He expelled 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:39.040 from the city not only Nino, his grandson, but also 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:44.880 several of the remaining powerful Gibelin families, destroying their palaces 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:49.920 in the process. Ugolino and his militia occupied the town hall, 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:54.880 where he proclaimed himself the Lord of Pisa. What had 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:59.880 been a republic was now an absolute monarchy, with Ugolino 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:04.880 at its own. To prevent his grandson from taking power back, 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:09.600 Ugolino allowed the return of several of the exiled noble 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:14.400 families to Pisa, offering safety and a modicum of power 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:19.080 in exchange for their support. This had the additional benefit 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:24.119 of placating the archbishop, who rewarded Ugolino with his loyalty 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:28.240 by refusing to help Nino attempt to regain power in 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:33.600 the city. Ugolino had finally reached the pinnacle of power 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:37.840 in Pisa. It had taken a lot of backstabbing to 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:42.200 get there. He had betrayed his political faction, his superiors 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:46.000 practically in entire cities worth of nobles and even his 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.160 own grandson. But he had made it to the top. 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:53.560 But it would soon turn out there was one betrayal 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:59.760 left in his feverish quest to retain control of Pisaino 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:04.880 betray the very archbishop who had helped secure his path 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:11.760 to power. By twelve eighty eight, it seemed Ugolino de 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:15.960 la Geradesca had successfully claimed all of the power he 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.800 could ever want. He was the sole lord of Pisa, 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.680 with practically no nobles left in the city to oppose him, 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:27.320 and a truce with the archbishop, which meant that the 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:31.520 nobles who had returned would be loyal, at least for now. 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:36.800 All that meant, however, that when increasing prices and food 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.840 shortages hit the city, the starving populace had no one 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:47.000 else to blame except Ugolino. Ravenous and panicking, the city 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:53.080 quickly descended into chaos. Riots erupted as hungry citizens turned 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:57.600 on each other in desperation. They also turned on their Podesta, 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:02.920 demanding Ugolino restore the balance, lower the prices, find new 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:06.600 food sources, whatever it would take to reverse their fortunes. 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:11.800 Ugolino attempted to quash the unrest, and in the process 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:17.640 committed one final betrayal that sealed his fate. During one 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.879 of these food riots, Ugolino made his way through the 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:26.679 unruly crowd, fighting back angry citizens calling for bread. Wielding 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:32.360 his sword indiscriminately, He just so happened to kill Farinata 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:39.000 of Pisa, one of the archbishop's nephews. The archbishop was incensed. 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:44.080 It was a tragedy on top of indignity. Amidst the riots, 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:49.240 Ugolino's stonewalling of Genoa had continued, and the scores of 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:54.080 still captive nobles had sworn revenge against the Podesta for 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:59.439 their predicament aka allowing them to still be hostages. It 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:04.320 became clear to the archbishop that nothing was sacred to Ugolino, 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:08.359 and he would betray anyone, kill anyone, just to hold 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:12.840 on to his power. The archbishop had finally had enough, 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:17.120 and he began to hatch a plan. Some months later, 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:21.280 on July first, twelve eighty eight, Ugolino attended a council 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:26.000 meeting to discuss peace with Genoa. Some sources say that 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:30.800 the archbishop lured Ugolino to the meeting, pretending that he 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:34.960 wished to lend his support to the Podesta against attempts 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:39.560 by the still biitter Nino Visconti, his grandson, to regain 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:44.040 control of Pisa from his grandfather. It was, in any 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:49.000 case a trap. As Ugolino left the meeting, he was 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:53.879 attacked by a band of armed Gibeline nobles. He and 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:57.360 his supporters managed to hold off the attackers at first, 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.920 and they barricaded themselves in the town But the safety 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:08.280 of Ugolino's makeshift sanctuary would not last long, as the archbishop, 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.960 making his own betrayal clear, began to rouse the citizenry 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:17.960 against Ugolino. It wasn't hard, and the archbishop quickly and 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:24.000 successfully turned the desperation of the Peasan people against their Podesta. 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:28.399 Ugolino was a trader. He had betrayed not just the 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:33.720 captive nobles, not just Pisa, but every last citizen of 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:39.080 the republic who toiled and starved and died while he prospered. 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:44.520 Ugolino found that he had no choice but to surrender. 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:48.080 Once flames began to lick the edges of the town 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:52.400 hall's windows and doors, and smoke began to fill his 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:57.600 aged lungs. In the course of the unfolding riot outside, 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.679 someone had set fire to the town hall to force 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:06.920 the podestap from his hiding place. Ugolino was captured alongside 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:10.720 two of his sons and two of his grandsons, and 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:15.919 the archbishop imprisoned the five of them together. Ugolino stood 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:20.080 accused of treason. The archbishop chose to hang his hat 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:24.040 on the castles that Ugolino had taken from the nobles 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:28.959 and ceded to Florence and Luca. The archbishop argued that 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:33.240 this amounted to treachery against Pisa, although it was clear 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:37.760 to just about everyone that for many the archbishop included, 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:42.840 the betrayal was far more personal. The archbishop took the 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:48.280 opportunity to declare himself the new Podesta of Pisa, giving 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:53.040 himself nearly unchecked power when it came to deciding upon 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:57.520 a punishment for the deposed Ugolino and his captured heirs, 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:02.199 and with his rival now in charge, Ugolino must have 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:06.760 known that his punishment would be brutal, but the depth 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:11.439 of the Archbishop's vengeance would lead him to sentence Ugolino 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:15.280 and his family to a fate far worse than he 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:22.160 could have ever imagined. The Torre Delamuda, also called the 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:28.399 Torre del Gualandi now forms part of the Palazzo del Orolojo, 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:34.320 which houses the library of the Scuola Normale Superiore, PISA's 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:40.320 public university. It sits in a large square where visitors 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:44.080 can take in a number of historical buildings, including the 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:47.119 other part of the palazzo, which once was the seat 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:51.040 of the Peasan government. The facade of the tower itself 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:56.320 boasts some faded fragments of frescoes that give viewers a 0:21:56.480 --> 0:22:01.280 tantalizing glimpse into what must have once been a magnificently 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:06.919 adorned building. What tends to draw the eyes of visitors 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:10.560 about the Torre de la Muda most, however, is not 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:15.320 its frescoes or even its surroundings, but a plaque that 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:19.600 sits at eye level as one approaches the building. If 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:22.200 you go to Pisa, take a break from the famous 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:26.680 leaning tower and try to find it. Upon reading the plaque, 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:31.280 one might understand how the tower got its third name, 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:36.480 the Torre de la Fame, the Tower of Hunger. The 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:42.240 plaque translates to read, here stood the Torre de Gualandi. 0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:47.479 The tragic death of Count Ugolini Delaga Ordesca gave it 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:52.040 the title of Hunger, and sparked in the Divine Allegery, 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:56.439 indignation and a poem so that the memory of this 0:22:56.640 --> 0:23:03.600 miserable event will be eternal. In March twelve eighty nine, 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:07.679 Ugolino della Geradesca, two of his sons and two of 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:11.400 his grandsons, who I should note were all most likely 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:14.840 fully adults, despite the way they had been implied in 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:18.920 Dante's poem to have been children, were still awaiting their 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:22.400 fate in the Torre de la Moudha. They had been 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:27.200 imprisoned months prior by the Archbishop of Pisa, who had 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:33.120 proclaimed himself Podesta after leading a popular resistance against Ugolino's 0:23:33.280 --> 0:23:39.199 despotic and ineffective regime, but really also Ugolino's murder of 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:44.960 the archbishop's nephew. The time that passed did not seem 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:49.479 to have softened the archbishop's anger, and of course, now 0:23:50.040 --> 0:23:54.320 the archbishop also had his own power to defend. After 0:23:54.560 --> 0:23:58.880 months of not only deliberating on his rival's fate, but 0:23:59.080 --> 0:24:02.920 likely also in enjoying keeping him and his family in limbo, 0:24:03.440 --> 0:24:07.720 the archbishop came to a decision that Ugolino must die 0:24:07.840 --> 0:24:12.000 for his crimes, and so must his heirs, at least 0:24:12.280 --> 0:24:16.400 those heirs that he had in his custody, but executing 0:24:16.440 --> 0:24:20.199 them in any of the usual ways beheading, which was 0:24:20.240 --> 0:24:25.560 typical for the execution of nobles, hanging, even bludgeoning, ran 0:24:25.600 --> 0:24:29.439 the risk of making them into murders. Even with someone 0:24:29.520 --> 0:24:34.560 like Ugolino, executing a whole family, a noble family for 0:24:34.640 --> 0:24:40.560 its patriarch's crime would seem excessive, and the archbishop couldn't 0:24:40.560 --> 0:24:44.600 afford to lose even an ounce of support, and so 0:24:44.800 --> 0:24:49.879 he needed a route that was quieter, more private. In 0:24:49.960 --> 0:24:53.159 March twelve eighty nine, he finally found one that was 0:24:53.240 --> 0:24:58.320 not only quiet and private, but sufficiently cruel to quench 0:24:58.359 --> 0:25:03.120 his thirst for revenge. He ordered that the prisoners remain 0:25:03.359 --> 0:25:06.840 in their cell and that the key be thrown away. 0:25:07.640 --> 0:25:12.679 Ugolino and his family members were sentenced to death by starvation. 0:25:14.560 --> 0:25:17.200 Although the walk from the Mudah to the River Arno 0:25:17.400 --> 0:25:20.440 could only have taken a couple of minutes, it must 0:25:20.440 --> 0:25:25.719 have felt longer for whatever servant, soldier or magistrate carried 0:25:25.720 --> 0:25:29.800 out the archbishop's order. But the archbishop was far too 0:25:29.880 --> 0:25:34.560 angry to reverse course, and in reality he couldn't. Although 0:25:34.680 --> 0:25:38.720 Ugolino was at this point elderly at roughly seventy five 0:25:38.840 --> 0:25:43.040 or eighty years old, and likely frail after months of imprisonment, 0:25:43.720 --> 0:25:46.920 he was still the man who had nearly gotten Pisa 0:25:47.000 --> 0:25:50.920 all to himself. He would never let the archbishop live 0:25:51.119 --> 0:25:55.639 if he got free, and so the ad hoc executioner, 0:25:55.760 --> 0:25:59.960 whoever he was, walked south from the tower, the key 0:26:00.400 --> 0:26:04.280 to the Moudah jingling softly in his hand. He reached 0:26:04.359 --> 0:26:08.840 the Arno, and perhaps after a moment of hesitation, threw 0:26:08.960 --> 0:26:12.560 the keys in the river. They sank down and settled 0:26:12.600 --> 0:26:16.280 into the murky river bed, any hope of a reprieve 0:26:16.560 --> 0:26:21.200 or even a different kind of punishment sinking along with them. 0:26:21.640 --> 0:26:25.120 The five bodies were removed from the tower and buried 0:26:25.240 --> 0:26:28.399 once it was clear that all five of them had died. 0:26:29.320 --> 0:26:33.200 To cement their infamy and put on just the right 0:26:33.240 --> 0:26:36.679 amount of spectacle to placate the people and preserve his 0:26:36.720 --> 0:26:42.280 own power, the archbishop slash Podesta raised Ugolino's house on 0:26:42.359 --> 0:26:46.119 the southern bank of the Arno, salted the land, and 0:26:46.240 --> 0:26:50.080 forbade any of his remaining family or heirs from rebuilding 0:26:50.119 --> 0:26:54.639 on it. And though writers over time have tended to 0:26:54.720 --> 0:26:58.440 paint the story as a complete wiping out of Ugolino 0:26:58.560 --> 0:27:03.800 and all of his heirs. Ugolino did have remaining sons, daughters, 0:27:03.880 --> 0:27:08.880 and grandchildren, and in fact still has living descendants, and 0:27:08.960 --> 0:27:12.880 they indeed were not allowed to rebuild. To this day, 0:27:13.400 --> 0:27:16.840 the land on which his palace once stood is the 0:27:16.880 --> 0:27:22.280 only green space in Pisa that overlooks the Arno. Of course, 0:27:22.480 --> 0:27:25.920 the story of Ugolino de la Gardesca did not end 0:27:25.960 --> 0:27:29.199 with his death or even the fates of his land 0:27:29.359 --> 0:27:34.760 and descendants. The gruesome suggestion that Ugolino ate the flesh 0:27:34.880 --> 0:27:38.320 of his children and grandchildren to survive once they had 0:27:38.359 --> 0:27:42.840 perished has overpowered his legacy. He is known as the 0:27:43.200 --> 0:27:48.080 cannibal Count. Whether or not Ugolino or any of his 0:27:48.240 --> 0:27:53.720 children for that matter, actually engaged in survival cannibalism during 0:27:53.760 --> 0:27:58.399 their imprisonment has been a matter of intense scholarly debate. 0:27:59.160 --> 0:28:04.000 The whispers of cannibalism seemed to have been somewhat contemporary 0:28:04.480 --> 0:28:07.960 with the deaths of Ugolino and the family members, but 0:28:08.000 --> 0:28:12.919 the story really gained traction through Dante's retelling of the 0:28:12.960 --> 0:28:17.040 tale a few decades later. From there it took off, 0:28:17.160 --> 0:28:21.160 and before long it became hard to tell where history 0:28:21.320 --> 0:28:26.960 ended and legend began. The story as Dante told it 0:28:27.560 --> 0:28:32.399 certainly rings apocryphal. A father, already forced to watch his 0:28:32.520 --> 0:28:36.399 family suffer and die for his own sins, faced with 0:28:36.560 --> 0:28:41.080 one last cruel indignity before the hunger took him too. 0:28:42.080 --> 0:28:45.360 It's a little on the nose. There's also the matter 0:28:45.400 --> 0:28:50.720 of Ugolino's advanced age. While we can't discount the possibility 0:28:50.800 --> 0:28:54.760 that his son's or grandson's deaths were hastened by illness 0:28:54.960 --> 0:28:59.200 or some other factor, it seems unlikely that a nearly 0:28:59.360 --> 0:29:02.600 eighty year old old man would outlive all of them, 0:29:03.120 --> 0:29:07.000 especially after he too had suffered after months of imprisonment 0:29:07.160 --> 0:29:13.840 in likely harsh conditions. Additionally, although survival cannibalism under dire 0:29:13.960 --> 0:29:18.960 circumstances is certainly not unheard of, it was recorded during 0:29:19.040 --> 0:29:23.000 the Crusades, for example, not to mention better known and 0:29:23.240 --> 0:29:27.680 more recent examples like the Jamestown Colony or the Donner Party. 0:29:28.320 --> 0:29:33.000 Studies on the behavior of incarcerated people in particular have 0:29:33.160 --> 0:29:37.040 suggested that it would be an unlikely outcome in this case. 0:29:37.760 --> 0:29:41.720 But even as scholars began to doubt the veracity of 0:29:41.800 --> 0:29:47.320 the cannibal legend, it has persisted. In popular culture. The 0:29:47.360 --> 0:29:52.360 influence of Dante's telling, in particular, has inspired countless works 0:29:52.400 --> 0:29:56.760 of art, film, and literature that take for granted this 0:29:57.040 --> 0:30:02.720 morbid morsel of Ugolino's story and parley it into meditations 0:30:02.760 --> 0:30:07.240 on the poisonous nature of power and the cruel consequences 0:30:07.280 --> 0:30:11.080 of betrayal. For a while, it was believed that the 0:30:11.200 --> 0:30:15.560 question of cannibalism had finally been settled when in two 0:30:15.560 --> 0:30:21.040 thousand and two, Italian anthropologist Francesco Milegni claimed to have 0:30:21.160 --> 0:30:25.160 confirmed a set of excavated remains to be Ugolino and 0:30:25.240 --> 0:30:30.200 his family and found no evidence of cannibalism. In addition 0:30:30.360 --> 0:30:34.800 to not finding telltale signs of cannibalism like teeth marks, 0:30:35.480 --> 0:30:41.080 Milenni pointed in particular to Ugolina's advanced age and the 0:30:41.120 --> 0:30:44.360 poor state of his teeth, arguing that it would have 0:30:44.400 --> 0:30:48.800 been exceedingly unlikely for the elderly man to have outlived 0:30:48.800 --> 0:30:53.640 his family members, let alone consumed their flesh. In fact, 0:30:53.680 --> 0:30:57.760 he found no zinc in his bones, indicating that he 0:30:57.920 --> 0:31:01.600 hadn't eaten any kind of meat in some time before 0:31:01.640 --> 0:31:05.920 his death. The anthropologist also noted a head injury that 0:31:06.080 --> 0:31:11.400 might have contributed to death. Before starvation. The evidence against 0:31:11.600 --> 0:31:16.200 cannibalism seemed to be overwhelming. That is until a few 0:31:16.280 --> 0:31:20.440 years later, in two thousand and eight, when Millennie's findings 0:31:20.480 --> 0:31:25.120 were called into question by the Superintendent of Archival Heritage 0:31:25.160 --> 0:31:30.320 of Tuscany, Paula Benini, who claimed that the documents Milennie 0:31:30.400 --> 0:31:35.040 had used to find these supposed Garadsky bodies had been 0:31:35.120 --> 0:31:40.160 forged in the twentieth century, during Italy's period of fascist rule. 0:31:41.000 --> 0:31:45.800 And so although it remains unlikely that Dante's gruesome tale 0:31:45.880 --> 0:31:49.520 is true to life, with that little bit of uncertainty, 0:31:50.120 --> 0:32:05.840 the legend of the cannibal count lives on. That's the 0:32:06.000 --> 0:32:10.960