It is from this epoch that the supremacy of the Visconti, hitherto the unsuccessful rivals of the Guelphic Torriani for the signory of Milan, dates.
Its sympathies were always Guelphic, and it was closely allied with Florence, which it assisted in the battle of Monteaperto (1260), and its constitution owed much to her model.
Owing to the strong Guelphic sympathies of the inhabitants, and the inaccessible nature of the site, Orvieto was constantly used as a place of refuge by the popes.
In the same year in which the British Association held its first meeting, Brewster received the honour of knighthood and the decoration of the Guelphic order of Hanover.
The tumults against the Paterine heretics (1244-1245), among whom were many Ghibelline nobles favoured by the podestd Pace di Pesamigola, indicate a successful Guelphic reaction; but Frederick II., having defeated his enemies both in Lombardy and in the Two Sicilies, appointed his natural son, Frederick of Antioch, imperial vicar in Tuscany, who, when civil war broke out, entered the city with 1600 German knights.