Why was Dante shunned at the latter part of his life?

Question:

Why was Dante shunned at the latter part of his life?

Did he just fall out of political favor?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Briefly, because like virtually all prominent Florentine men, he was involved in politics and became embroiled in the conflict between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines.

The details of that conflict are extremely complicated, so I won't go into them. Suffice it to say, it arose from the friction between the spheres of influence of the Holy Roman Emperor (German ruler) on the one hand, and the Papacy on the other. Florence lay right on the borderline between these spheres of influence, and the conflict shaped much of the city's history before the Medici's Duchy was established in the 16th century. The Ghibellines supported the claims of the Emperor, the Guelfs were on the side of the Papacy. (In reality, these were mostly pretexts -- the initial Guelf-Ghibelline conflict erupted in the 13th century in the wake of a drunken brawl, followed by an improvident marriage engagement, followed by a bride left at the altar; whereas the eventual split among the Guelfs, too, was sparked by a snowball fight.)

In any event, Dante fought on the side of the Guelfs (pro-Pope). The Guelfs won and chased the Ghibellines out of the city. The Guelfs then split into White Guelfs, who wanted more independence from the Papacy, and the Black Guelfs, who supported greater involvement from the Papacy in the city politics. Dante became a White Guelf. The White Guelfs initially won the conflict and chased the Black Guelfs out of Florence. The Pope then appealed to the French king, Philippe le Bel, who sent his brother Charles de Valois, supposedly to broker peace between the parties. In reality, Charles de Valois occupied the city with his French troops and Black Guelfs, who proceeded to sack Florence. White Guelfs were officially banned from the city, and Dante (who was in Rome at the time as a White Guelf ambassador) was sentenced to death.

Dante never returned to Florence. Much more political wrangling occurred between the various factions, but Dante's outspoken anger in the wake of his proscription made his pardon very unlikely. He WAS eventually pardoned and allowed to return, on condition that he pay a fine and publicly submit to humiliation as a traitor. Dante adamantly refused, whereupon his death sentence was not only affirmed, but extended to his sons, as well.

Dante spent his exile mostly wandering from one Italian city-state to another, eventually settling in Ravenna, where he died and was buried. The Florentines later came to regret their treatment of the poet and repeatedly asked Ravenna's authorities to transfer Dante's remains to them. Ravenna never did so, at one point even hiding Dante's body, lest it be stolen or taken by force. Its position was, and remains: "You didn't want him when he was alive, you can't have him now that he is dead."

In the 19th century, a tomb was constructed for Dante in Florence's Santa Croce cathedral. The tomb remains empty to this day.

PS: Dante wrote the Divine Comedy when he was already in exile, so he wasn't exiled because of it.