Dante, like most Florentines of his day, became embroiled in the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict. He fought in the battle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289), with Florentine Guelph knights against Arezzo Ghibellines, then in 1294 he was among those knights who escorted Carlo Martello d'Anjou (son of Charles of Anjou) while he was in Florence.
To further his political career, he became a doctor and a pharmacist; he did not intend to take up those professions, but a law issued in 1295 required that nobles who wanted to assume public office had to be enrolled in one of the Corporazioni delle Arti e dei Mestieri, so Dante obtained quick admission to the apothecaries' guild. The profession he chose was not entirely inapt, since at the time books were sold from apothecaries' shops. As a politician, he accomplished little of relevance, but he held various offices over a number of years in a city undergoing some political agitation.
After defeating the Ghibellines, the Guelphs divided into two factions: the White Guelphs (Guelfi Bianchi)—Dante's party, led by Vieri dei Cerchi—and the Black Guelphs (Guelfi Neri), led by Corso Donati. Although initially the split was along family lines, instigated by a snow-ball fight, it became an ideological difference based on opposing views of the role the papacy should have in Florentine affairs, with the Blacks supporting the Pope and the Whites wanting more freedom from Rome's control. Initially the Whites won and kicked out the Blacks.
In response Pope Boniface VIII was planning a military occupation of
