GHERARDES'CA, a family of Tuscan origin, which enacted a conspicuous part in the history of the Italian republics during the middle ages. Their vast territorial posses sions lay between Pisa and Piombino. In the 13th c., the counts Gharardesca exercised a preponderating authority in the republic of Pisa, and were prominent supporters of the popular interests, in opposition to the encroachments of the nobles. Iu the great feud between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, they became warm partisans of the latter, and Were the irreconcilable enemies of the Visconti, who headed the Guelphs. The most famous of this family, both with respect to the historical events of his career, and the appalling tragedy of his fate, is count Ugolino, whose name and fate have been invested with undying interest by Dante. Count Ugolino, more than any of his race, was possessed by a lawless ambition, and a subtle, unscrupulous spirit. 'Having resolved to usurp supreme power over Pisa, he formed an alliance with Giovanni Visconti, the head of the Gue]phic party, who promised to supply him secretly with soldiers from Sardinia. The plot was, however, discovered, and both Giovanni and Ugolino were banished from the city. The former died soon after; but the latter, uniting himself with the Florentines and the Lucchese, forced the Pisans, in 1276, to restore him his territories, of which he had been deprived. No sooner was he reinstated in his posses sions than he began to devise anew ambitious schemes. The war of the Pisans with the Genoese afforded him the opportunity he desired. In the battle fought at the
island of Malora, Aug. 0, 1284, Ugolino, by treacherously abandoning the Pisans, occasioned the complete annihilation of their fleet, together with a loss of 11,000 prisoners. When the news of this disaster spread, the Florentines, the Lucchese, the Sienese, the Pistoians, and all the other enemies of the Pisan republic, gathered together to destroy it, as the stronghold of the Ghibellines in Italy. Being thus brought to the brink of ruin, the Pisans had no other resource left than to throw themselves into the arms of him whose treachery had reduced them to such misery. From the time of his election, he gave free scope to his vindictive, despotic nature, persecuting and banishing all who were privately obnoxious to him, on pretexts of state delinquency, till at length a conspiracy was formed against him, headed by his former supporter, the archbishop of Pisa. Dragged from his palace, July 1, 1288, after a desperate defense, he was thrown into the tower of Gualandi, with his two sons and two grandsons, where they all perished amid the agonies of starvation, for which reason their dungeon has since borne the ominous name of the "tower of hunger." In spite of this, the family again rose into importance; and in 1329 we find Donavatico Gherardesca at the head of the republican authority in Pisa. See Sismondi's History of the Italian Republics.