Under the green Claws is Dante"s reference to an epic battle, which ended in a massacre towards the end of the thirteenth century, between a Franco-Guelph army, sent by Pope Martin IV, and the last remaining Italian Ghibellines after the death of Frederick II. They had converged from all over Italy in Forli, to defend it as the last remaining Ghibelline city with imperial laws. With a sensational sortie, they surprised and massacred the French army that had been besieging them for a year. How and why this conflict came about and how things turned out will naturally be the subject of this book. In fact it is a historical battle, brought to light by the darkness of the centuries, dedicated to the last Italian Ghibellines who, refusing to bow to the Pope, were remembered by Dante, when in the divine comedy he wrote … and of the Franceschi a bloody pile, Under the green Claws are found.