Ruggieri degli Ubaldini

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Ruggieri degli Ubaldini (fl. 1271–15 September 1295) was an Italian archbishop from Mugello. He was the son of Ubaldino and the nephew of Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldini. He began his church career in Bologna, and in 1271 the Ghibelline inhabitants of Ravenna named him archbishop of Ravenna-Cervia, opposing a rival Guelph archbishop. The pope later removed both rival bishops from office.

In 1278 he became archbishop of Pisa, a city then ruled by Guelphs Ugolino della Gherardesca and Nino Visconti. At first he tried to support the Ghibellines, but soon turned against them, playing Ugolino and his enemies off against each other. He led the revolt that overthrew Ugolino and the Gualandi, Sismondi and Lanfranchi families. Contemporary chroniclers, later Dante, say he tricked Ugolino and had him, his two sons, and his two grandsons imprisoned in the Torre della Muda, where they died. Dante places Ruggieri in the lowest circle of Hell for this act. Pope Nicholas IV rebuked him and condemned his behavior, but died before any action could be taken.

After Ugolino’s death in 1289, Ruggieri was named podestà of Pisa, but he could not hold the position against the Visconti and lost it. He remained archbishop and died in 1295 in Viterbo, where he had moved. His tomb was once in the monastery church of Santa Maria in Gradi, Viterbo (now the site of Tuscia University) but is now lost. He appears in Dante’s Inferno, canto XXXIII, as a traitor in Antenora; Ugolino gnaws on his skull for eternity, while Ruggieri remains silent.