Definition of "Guelph"

Guelph

/ɡwɛlf/

noun
plural Guelphs
1. (historical, politics) In the politics of medieval Italian city states, any member of a faction that supported the Pope in a long struggle against the Ghibellines and the Holy Roman Emperor.
  Quotations
  The parties of Guelph and Ghibelline raged as fiercely as if the lances of the German hosts were ever glimmering on the crest of the Alps, or as if the Lombard leagues were in constant watchfulness against an impending foe. […] Speaking generally, the Ghibellines were the party of the emperor, and the Guelphs the party of the Pope; the Ghibellines were on the side of authority, or sometimes of oppression, the Guelphs were on the side of liberty and self-government.
  1893, Oscar Browning, Guelphs and Ghibellines: A Short History of Mediaeval Italy from 1250-1409, Methuen & Co., page 13
2. (historical, politics) Any member of the German-Hanoverian Party (1867-1933), a conservative federalist political party in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic founded in protest of the annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover by the Kingdom of Prussia.
  Quotations
  Bismarck was aware of the opportunity which the Reichstag afforded the Guelphs.
  1973, Stewart A. Stehlin, Bismarck and the Guelph Problem 1866-1890, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, page 111
proper noun
1. Synonym of Welf, a dynasty, a cadet branch of the Italian House of Este, founded in the 11th century by Welf I, Duke of Bavaria.
2. A city, the county seat of Wellington County, Ontario, Canada.