Following many years of civil war, the Gherardinis were exiled in 1302 because they were accused of having forged an alliance with the neighbouring city of
Siena. According to historians (and contemporaries of the time), the accusation was based on false documents and invented by
Cante Gabrielli, the Podestà, to stamp out this family and its allies once and for all. Following this accusation, Florence attacked the Gherardinis. The land they owned or controlled went from the first sighting centres near the southern walls of
Florence, and from Marignolle up to
Impruneta. It then went on up to the main fortresses of Montagliari and Montaguto near the current
Greve in Chianti. To the west, their land went all the way up to the fortress of Linari near
Barberino Val d'Elsa. In the summer of 1302, following a siege, both Montagliari and Montaguto were burned to the ground. The
Republic of Florence then decreed that it was no longer possible to build on this area. This edict was breached by the Gherardinis in 1632 when they built a chapel. The western part of the Gherardini's land and properties withstood the attack by the Florentines because Andrea Gherardini was ruling the nearby city of
Pistoia and the Gherardinis enjoyed greater strength in
Valdelsa (a valley south of Florence). A few years later,
Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor tried to remove this family from Valdelsa but did not succeed because the Castle of
Linari, led by Vanne Gherardini, withstood the summer siege of 1313. Following the death of
Gherarduccio Gherardini in 1331 (buried in the Church of Sant'Appiano, near Linari), the family lost its last great commander and the last remaining properties were gradually lost too. After the fall of Montagliari, and the subsequent loss of their land and properties in Val d'Elsa, the last Gherardinis (except a small group) went into exile to
Verona that, at that time, was under the Empire.
Dante Alighieri went into exile with them too. At the same time, the Florentines finished to destroy the Gherardinis' buildings in the city as well as other evidence of their life there. This was their third exodus. The previous expulsion of the
Ghibellinis, half a century earlier, meant that some Gherardinis moved near Verona and Rovigo (they came together again later on). The first exodus took place around 1120 with the death of
Matilda of Tuscany. One of the heads of the family, Gherardino, and his children (Tommaso, Gherardo and Maurizio) decided to leave Tuscany. Initially they were members of the retinue of
Louis VII of France, called the Young, and then they were with
Henry II of England and went to conquer Ireland, where they started the
FitzGerald dynasty. This topic is still being studied by some historians. ==The Current Branch==