Guelphs, a political party in Italy, who from the 11th to the 14th centuries maintained, against the claims of the Emperors, the independence of Italy, and the supremacy of the Pope, in opposition to the Ghibellines (q.v.).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Guelderland * Guericke, Otto von