I discussed the Della Scala (Scaliger / Scaligeri) family which ruled Verona in the late 1200s and early 1300s in the previous image regarding the tomb of Cangrande I. The church of Santa Maria Antica has several of these medieval Gothic tombs for some of the more notable family members.

In the foreground we see the tomb of Mastino II (ruled 1329-1351), who continued to pursue his predecessor and uncle Cangrande I's policy of territorial expansion but did it less judiciously. Cangrande struck me as being "Alexander Light"; a ruler who has no strategic goal other than winning for the sake of winning. I never regarded Alexander as "the great" even though I'll happily admit that he was a hell of a tactician and had a good grasp of logistics. But as a ruler he wasn't Augustus' bootlace. Similarly Cangrande showed no signs of a strategic plan, but since he was cut down at the age of 38 (which some suspect that Mastino II may have had a hand in; yes, Cangrande was family, but so is the Mafia) and since at least those territories were in his sphere of influence and not half way around the world, let's give him the benefit of the doubt.

However he did have a knack for taking territories that didn't matter much to anyone but those living in them. Mastino II on the other hand took a steamroller approach which saw him take out Brescia, Parma and Lucca in the space of 3 years and, in doing so, made the surrounding powers of Firenze, Venezia and others nervous enough about his intentions to form a league to take him out.

Although he held his own for a while the weight of resources against him was too great and he lost all of his and Cangrande's acquisitions except for Verona itself and Vicenza.

In the background on the right we see the tomb of Cansignorio della Scala, who was born in 1340 and who ruled from 1359 to 1375. What happened between Mastino II's death in 1351 and then? The sharp eyed will have noticed that Cansignorio was only 11 then but he inherited the lordship along with his brothers Cangrande II (born 1332, so he was 19 at the time) and Paolo Alboino. While Cangrande I was the Big Dog, Cangrande II was known as Can Rabbioso (the rabid or raging dog) and saw the city as his personal bankroll. So when Cansignorio came of age, he naturally had Cangrande II assassinated. Like I said, the Mafia is also "family". I'm not sure whether the raging dog got one of these nice tombs; I didn't see one. Still, 600 years later he's still remembered half a planet away in a place that he could never have even imagined by some guy writing a photo blog so I suppose that's a kind of immortality, though personally I prefer the more literal kind. Fortunately I don't have any brothers.

Actually when he bumped off Cangrande II, Cansignorio ruled with Paolo Alboino but it wasn't long before Paolo Alboino was in jail accused of "conjuring". An accusation of "witchcraft" was of course the medieval equivalent of tweeting that someone is sexist / racist / homophobic. He stayed there until 1375 when he was strangled by his nephew Bartolomeo II. ("Family is what maddahs in da woild.")

Cansignorio did apparently put something back into the city, with a number of civic construction projects and a moderate rule. So if you lived in the 1300's, you probably would be OK with him ruling your town. You just wouldn't necessarily want him as your brother.