15thc perception on swallowtail merlons?

[davidjackson]

I wonder if they were almost like political parties such as Capitalists and Socialists or Liberals and Conservative. However I am not clear as it what extent one can differentiate between the political policies or positions of one party versus the other. I wonder to what extent people viewed them in terms of their own tribal identity i.e. my father was a Guelph so I am a Guelph, that is why I compare them to football clubs where ideology is not a consideration. Also I wonder to what extent they were more defined in opposition to one another, so for example, I hate the way that the Guelphs have been running my city therefore I support the Ghibilines. So that Guelphs are really anti-Ghibilines and Ghibilines are really anti-Guelphs.

OK, stop thinking like that and you'll start to understand.
We are talking about factions here. The average serf had no choice in the matter, he and his family followed their master. The master followed their patron. The patron (doge) changed allegiance based on the politics of the era. An entire town could switch allegiance based on the whim of the doge. And the fact that a town had switched could cause their rival doges, who now found themselves on the same side, to switch in turn just to spite their enemy.... ie, when Milan switched to Guelph, the city of Parvia at once came out for the Ghibilines.
The two sides emerged from a civil war in Germany after the Holy Roman Emperor Henry V died in 1125. The heirs were quarrelling over who would be the new HRE. The Papacy supported one side, and the Imperials the other. Remember that the HRE was also the King of Italy, although this was mainly symbolic it did have political repercussions across Italy when the new King was crowned.
Eventually, the whole warring thing became unsustainable and everyone agreed to an electoral college, where the princes could vote the new HRE in. Far more dignified.