A History of Verona Page: 148 of 493

                                
ALBERTO       I                129
admitted into the alliance between Verona and Mantua. The
Veronese were therefore now free from attack on all sides but
the east, but even so it was all they could do to hold their own
against the Paduans and Ferrarese. Fighting, as usual, ceased
in the winter, but in May, 1280, the Paduans and Obizzo II.
d' Este brought their troops to Villanova, on the Alpone, in the
centre of the S. Bonifacio country. Here they encamped, and
for a fortnight proceeded to burn and plunder the surrounding
villages, once penetrating to within five miles of Verona.
Alberto was not strong enough to march out against the enemy,
and in his extremity appealed to Venice and Treviso for help.
Meanwhile he sued for a truce, which the Paduans granted on
29th May, and eventually on 2nd September a permanent
peace was arranged. Tbe Veronese regained all their territory,
but swore never to rebuild the castle at Cologna.
A few years after this war the Scaligeri were set free from
one danger by the death of Ludovico di S. Bonifacio at Reggio
in April, 1283. Ludovico's only son Vinciguerra was still a
minor, and was entrusted by his father's will to the care of
several Guelph cities, Padua, Vicenza, Parma and Ferrara.
After Ludovico's death the bitterness between the Scaligeri,
and the rulers of Ferrara, the Estensi, began to die down.
The Estensi had always been among the most faithful adherents
of the Church, and therefore, as a matter of course,
enemies of Ghibelline Verona. For the time, however, the
struggle between Pope and Emperor had ceased, and since
Alberto had shown such marked submissiveness to the Papacy,
a friendly understanding between the two families was no
longer outside the range of practical politics. The reconciliation
was cemented, in July, 1289, by the marriage of Alberto's
eldest daughter, Costanza, to Obizzo II. d' Este. The match
was purely political, for Costanza was a young girl, and
Obizzo an elderly widower with grown-up sons. But it was a
wise one, for the Estensi had been lords of Ferrara in fact, if
not in name, for close on a century, and it was of the utmost
importance for a rising family like the Scaligeri to strengthen
their position by intermarriage with old-established dynasties.
It helped to confirm their authority over their own subjects,
9