War.
War never changes.
And human history is absolutely filled with it.
We’ve had pointless wars, psychological wars, ambiguous wars, ideological wars, awesome
wars and really really really stupid wars, which is what we’ll be talking about today.
Or, in other words, this’ll be my six “Explained:” video in a row because I have no idea how
to vary my content.
Enjoy!
The quote “really really really stupid war” we’ll be talking about today is called “The
War of the Bucket”, but you already know that since you read the title before you even
clicked this video, so I’m not sure what the point of that sentence was.
Unlike last time, this title is quite descriptive, and quite accurate.
What you think when you read this title is actually what happened.
Some people in Italy had a war, over a bucket.
A Bucket.
That particular bucket in fact.
And 4,000 people died.
Yep.
How?
Well, time to explain.
And, surprise surprise, it’s not as simple as I made it sound.
This story starts around 1100ish in Italy, or what was to become Italy, as at the time
the peninsula was filled with these tiny-by-modern standards city states.
Like normal countries, these tiny states had their own alliances, political adversaries
and so forth.
In 1176, a power struggle was brewing between the Lombard League and also the Papal States
ruled by Pope Alexander III and the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa.
I won’t go into the complicated politics of why they were fighting, or the Battle of
Legando or even who won, because that’s not important for our purposes.
These aren’t the sides that fought in the War of the Bucket, neither is it even close
to being the right century, just trying to give you context, don’t worry about it.
This rivalry divided most of the Italian City-states between the two sides – you have the Guh
- welfs [Guelfs] supporting the Papal and Lombard League side of the argument and the
Gibel - lines [Ghibellines] who supported the HRE.
The actual rivalry soon died around 1250 for our purposes but the Guelf/Ghibelline rivalry
persisted within the states for a few centuries afterward, because why not.
The rivalry had changed, with a later HR Emperor calling both sides unworthy.
They went through periods of relative peace and then warfare, and as we lead up to 1325
we see a slow but gradual resurgence in violence between the two sides, leading to massive
tension.
An ancient grudge breaking into new mutiny, in medieval Italy?
Rings a bell.
That tension would be broken by a bucket, but I’m not done yet.
Finally, we get to the actual forces that fought in the Bucket War, the city-state of
Bologna which is of the Guelf persuasion and the other city-state of Moderna which sided
with the Ghibellines.
Due to their proximity, in 1325 opposing raids and border clashes happened extremely often,
but with one particular raid of note.
In around September or October of 1325, some soldiers from Moderna made it all the way
to Bologna and stole an oak bucket filled with riches of some sort.
This is the bucket in the War of the Bucket.
Yay, we did it guys, we got there.
It is definitely a situation that could best be described as ‘the straw that broke the
Camel’s back’, because on hearing this the Bolognese (mmm, tasty) were really quite
miffed, and that anger only grew when the Modernese proudly displayed their spoils afterwards.
Bologna demanded the loot and the bucket back.
Moderna refused.
So, Bologna declared war on Moderna.
[Anchorman] Well, that escalated quickly.
I mean, really, that got out of hand fast.
Yeah, because in the coming month 30,000 men and 2,000 knights (mostly from Guelf cities)
soon came to the Bolognese side, and even the then-Pope John the... 22nd (that’s a
lot of Johns) led the army – back then it was quite common to have religious officials
leading armies and whatnot.
The Montagues, I mean Modernese in return tried to raise a countering force, but only
managed to collect over 5,000 men not including cavalry, meaning they were outnumbered over
6:1 on the battlefield.
With a total count of over 40,000 people, it was double the size of the Battle of Hastings
at 17,000 (which decided the fate of England), and around the size of the Battle of Agincourt
in 90 years, which also decided the fate of England and France and the English won despite
being numerically outnumbered (foreboding).
However, from what I can tell, most of the participants weren’t trained mercenaries
which is this battle’s Achilles heel waiting to be struck.
Both sides first confronted each other in the first battle of the war on the evening
of the 15th November 1325, here, near the town of Zappolino leading to the battle being
called Battle of Zappolino.
The violence waged intensely, with at first each side losing 2,000 men, which is comparatively
worse for the Modernese, but despite this loss, they managed to cause a collapse in
order within the massive Pope-led army of 30,000, which in battle terms is called a
rout, and the opposing force fled to their city of Bologna, which was actually quite
close to Zappolino.
Despite outnumbering 6:1, the Bolognese had lost the first, and as it turns out the only
battle fought in the War of the Bucket.
The following January a treaty was signed ending the war, and giving up the Guelf domination
that they’d had since the very beginning.
The rivalry eventually ended, the war faded from local memory but today, almost 700 years
later, you can still go to the victorious Italian city of Moderna, to the Palazzo Comunale
and inside on display you can still find the bucket that started it all so long ago.
And that’s the War of the Bucket.
But, one question remains... ...is it really that silly?
On the surface of course, but when you look at the actual events, the complex buildup
to the war, it’s just a normal war, like WWI, that was winding towards conflict anyway,
it’s just in this case it was just something petty that started the whole thing – does
that make the entire war stupid?
And the bucket was apparently filled with loot, so that might’ve been a bit more important
than just a bucket.
Stupid or not?
Well, you decide.
But, if you like stupid conflicts, you’re in the right place because this video was
in collaboration with a fellow ‘describing-interesting-things’ channel called Shorts and Facts, who have
done a separate video on The Pig War of 1859 – a quote “war” between the US & UK
caused by the shooting of a pig.
Click here to watch it.
It’s really interesting (not just the war but the channel itself) so I can guarantee
if you like my channel then you’ll like his.
Enjoy, and all that is left for me to say is thank you for watching.