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The War That Was Fought Because Of A Stolen Wooden Bucket
In 14th century Italy, two city states clashed when a wooden bucket was stolen
Sadly, war has been waged across the globe since the early days of mankind for many different reasons. In each case, at least one party has felt aggrieved enough to pursue armed conflict to find satisfaction. One of the most unusual examples of this occurred back in the 14th century when two city states in Italy went to war due to the alleged theft of a single wooden bucket (some stories also credit the capture of a Bolognese castle as the provocation for the scuffle)
Laura Kelly Wells of All That’s Interesting, wrote about the intriguing case of the War of the Bucket. It all started nearly 200 years before the actual conflict, in 1154, when Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of Germany pressed for the title of King of Italy. Italians were generally opposed to this, believing that the Pope, who had appointed Barbarossa as Emperor, was the true leader of their country. Since the Pope, and the Pope alone, officially recognized the spiritual authority of Christian European rulers at the time, Barbarossa was unable to get his title without this designation.
However, there was another way to get the power in Italy that Barbarossa craved. That was to take it by force…
