<P> 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 the split was along family lines at first, ideological differences arose based on opposing views of the papal role in Florentine affairs, with the Blacks supporting the Pope and the Whites wanting more freedom from Rome . The Whites took power first and expelled the Blacks . In response, Pope Boniface VIII planned a military occupation of Florence . In 1301, Charles of Valois, brother of King Philip IV of France, was expected to visit Florence because the Pope had appointed him peacemaker for Tuscany . But the city's government had treated the Pope's ambassadors badly a few weeks before, seeking independence from papal influence . It was believed that Charles had received other unofficial instructions, so the council sent a delegation to Rome to ascertain the Pope's intentions . Dante was one of the delegates . </P> <P> Pope Boniface quickly dismissed the other delegates and asked Dante alone to remain in Rome . At the same time (November 1, 1301), Charles of Valois entered Florence with the Black Guelphs, who in the next six days destroyed much of the city and killed many of their enemies . A new Black Guelph government was installed, and Cante de' Gabrielli da Gubbio was appointed podestà of the city . In March 1302, Dante, a White Guelph by affiliation, along with the Gherardini family, was condemned to exile for two years and ordered to pay a large fine . Dante was accused of corruption and financial wrongdoing by the Black Guelphs for the time that Dante was serving as city prior (Florence's highest position) for two months in 1300 . The poet was still in Rome in 1302 where the Pope, who had backed the Black Guelphs, had "suggested" that Dante stay . Florence under the Black Guelphs therefore considered Dante an absconder . Dante did not pay the fine, in part because he believed he was not guilty and in part because all his assets in Florence had been seized by the Black Guelphs . He was condemned to perpetual exile; if he returned to Florence without paying the fine, he could have been burned at the stake . (In June 2008, nearly seven centuries after his death, the city council of Florence passed a motion rescinding Dante's sentence .) </P> <P> He took part in several attempts by the White Guelphs to regain power, but these failed due to treachery . Dante, bitter at the treatment he received from his enemies, also grew disgusted with the infighting and ineffectiveness of his erstwhile allies and vowed to become a party of one . He went to Verona as a guest of Bartolomeo I della Scala, then moved to Sarzana in Liguria . Later he is supposed to have lived in Lucca with a woman called Gentucca, who made his stay comfortable (and was later gratefully mentioned in Purgatorio, XXIV, 37). Some speculative sources claim he visited Paris between 1308 and 1310, and other sources even less trustworthy took him to Oxford: these claims, first occurring in Boccaccio's book on Dante several decades after his death, seem inspired by readers who were impressed with the poet's wide learning and erudition . Evidently, Dante's command of philosophy and his literary interests deepened in exile and when he was no longer busy with the day - to - day business of Florentine domestic politics, and this is evidenced in his prose writings in this period, but there is no real evidence that he ever left Italy . Dante's Immensa Dei dilectione testante to Henry VII of Luxembourg confirms his residence "beneath the springs of Arno, near Tuscany" in March 1311 . </P> <P> In 1310, Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg marched into Italy at the head of 5,000 troops . Dante saw in him a new Charlemagne who would restore the office of the Holy Roman Emperor to its former glory and also retake Florence from the Black Guelphs . He wrote to Henry and several Italian princes, demanding that they destroy the Black Guelphs . Mixing religion and private concerns in his writings, he invoked the worst anger of God against his city and suggested several particular targets that were also his personal enemies . It was during this time that he wrote De Monarchia, proposing a universal monarchy under Henry VII . </P>

Where did dante live after he was exiled