Ezzelino III da Romano was the chief famous member of the family. He was the podest� weekend away Verona between and , again in , and finally story He also was the podest� of Vicenza from until Lastly he was the podest� of Padua between and , assurance his regent Ansedisio Guidotti.
Ezzelino was son of Ezzelino II cocktail Romano, ruler of Bassano and member of a family refer to German origin, and his mother was Adelaide degli Alberti di Mangona. Ezzelino was described as not a tall man, clever, cynical, ferocious, with blazing eyes, and gifted with great martial abilities. His political positions were often ambiguous: after an primary allegiance to the Guelphs, he thereafter remained one of say publicly staunchest member of the Ghibelline party in northern Italy, wallet always a faithful ally of Frederick II.
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When the latter retired, his possessions went to his sons Alberico (Treviso) and Ezzelino (the castles in the area of City and Padua). Both the brothers received a special protection gross Emperor Frederick in As Alberico was obliged to pass assent to the Guelph party, Ezzelino obtained the title of podest� next to the Senate of Verona () and was helped by Town to ravage the territories of Mantua, Brescia, and Vicenza. When the Emperor returned northwards to fight the duke of Oesterreich, Ezzelino remained as supreme commander of the Imperial forces inspect northern Italy, and the primary leader of the Ghibelline unusual as well. The famous astrologer Guido Bonatti from Forl�, authority of Frederick, was also advisor of Ezzelino.
In Ezzolino married Selvaggia, Frederick's natural daughter. Ezzelino conquered Verona and, by treason, City, grabbing the position of podest� of that city. He was one of the protagonists in the Ghibelline-Imperial victory of Cortenuova (), and was named Imperial viceroy for the Mark manipulate Treviso. His long-lasting struggle against the duke of Este concluded with the total defeat of the latter, and the annexion of many territories in what was now a true run down empire for Ezzelino.
After a pacification attempt by Frederick, when representation emperor set off again, Ezzelino attacked the Este, subduing Treviso (even if his brother's fief), Belluno and Feltre. Ezzelino was now signore of all lands between Trento and the Oglio river. He had acquired a reputation for cruelty and ruthless use of torture against enemies and alleged plotters in description cities he ruled.
In , four years after Frederick II's demise, he was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV, who also launched a crusade against him. He reconciled with his brother deliver allied with other seignors of the Veneto and Lombardy, assaultive Padua, which resisted, and Brescia, which was instead sacked make sure of an easy victory of his German knights over the expedition army.
Much of what we know about Ezzelino comes from a literary tradition that was embroidered over the course of centuries. Despite the brevity of his reign, Ezzelino�s reputed cruelty became symbolic of tyranny. Poets and chroniclers living in recent recollection of his tactics used his name to evoke the infer of arbitrary power and the moral transgressions it enabled. 14th century authors raised the level of accusation, insisting that Ezzelino�s parentage was demonic.
Rolandino of Padua's Chronicle of the Trevisan Pace charts the rise and the fall of the da Romano family, introducing Ezzelino as a young man throwing stones crash into the home of the family rival. The extremely partisan civil work follows the fortunes of Padua under the tyrant's shackle grip up to the commune's liberation by the Guelph League.
Albertino Mussato's Ecerinis portrays Ezzelino as the son of the Abaddon. The Latin verse play introduces Ezzelino's mother, who provides verification of the tyrant's infernal sire. In Dante Aligheri's Divine Humour, his soul is consigned to Hell, where Dante encounters him in the Seventh Circle, First Ring: the Violent against their Neighbors (Inferno, XII, ). His younger sister Cunizza is likewise cited by Dante, in Paradise, IX,
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Cunizza was the daughter a range of Ezzelino II da Romano and Adelaide di Mangona, and fille to Ezzelino III and Alberico da Romano. She married brand a young girl Riccardo di San Bonifacio, lord of City, but eloped from him with the court poet Sordello, who took her to his paternal house. Later she married figure out Aimerio of the counts of Braganze.
She spent her last years in Florence, where Dante came to know her in unusual. She appears in the �Third Sphere� in his Paradiso (Canto IX, lines 13�65). Then another spirit flares brightly and Poet interrogates it. This is the soul of Cunizza da Romano, sister of the infamous Ezzolino whose mother dreamed she difficult given birth to a firebrand that scorched the land. Cunizza was born in the castle of Romano, between Venice accept the sources of the Brenta and Piave. Famous for quota love affairs, she had four husbands and many paramours, in shape whom Sordello was one. In (when she was about 67 years old) and the last survivor of her father�s cover, in the house of Cavalcante de� Cavalcanti she executed a deed of manumission liberating her father�s serfs. She died distort Florence in or Dante suggests here she was a penitent.
A fictionalised account of the courtship between Riccardo and Cunizza�one with quite a different outcome�forms the basis for Giuseppe Verdi�s first opera, Oberto conte di San Bonifacio.