Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321) lived in Italy during a time of political competition and unrest. In those years, two factions, the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, fought for political control of Florence. The Guelphs represented the side of the conflict that supported the Pope, while the Ghibellines supported the Holy Roman Emperor. Eventually the Guelphs defeated the Ghibellines, but then split into two factions themselves. The Black Guelphs supported Papal influence while the White Guelps did not support papal influence in their city, and specifically Pope Boniface VIII's influence. Dante supported the White Guelphs, and his distaste for that pope is obvious since he writes him in the Eighth Circle of the Inferno, Canto XIX.

"Whoever you are, sad spirit," I began,
    "who lie here with your head below your heels
    and planted like a stake—speak if you can."

I stood like a friar who gives the sacrament
    to a hired assassin, who, fixed in the hole,
    recalls him, and delays his death a moment.

"Are you already there, Boniface? Are you there
    already?" he cried. "By several years the writ
    has lied. And all that is gold, and all that care—

are you already sated with the treasure
    for which you dared to turn on the Sweet Lady
    and trick and pluck and bleed her at your pleasure?"

The Black Guelphs gained control of Florence. Obviously, then, Dante was exiled from his home city. He travelled and stayed in a number of locations in Italy, including Verona and Lucca. Over the next few years Dante wrote strongly attacking his opposers. His strong words gained him the reputation that he lacked diplomacy, or simply that his ideas were unacceptable to the ruling class, so he was never let back in to Florence.

In 1318 he moved to Ravenna, finished his Paradiso, and died in 1321. He was 56 years old. He is burried in a monestary in Ravenna, but a tomb was also subsequently built in Florence to honor the poet. Above his Florentine tomb reads: "Onorate l'altissimo poeta", which means, "Honor the highest poet".