Were Romeo and Juliet real people?
The story was based on legends that grew up around either real people, or real political factions, (depending on whose article you’re reading) in 14th-century Verona. In Verona, as in much of Europe at that time, two factions, the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, were at the point of civil war over whether the Pope or the Holy Roman Emperor were the highest authority. Bartolomeo della Scala (“Prince Escalus” in the play) ruled as Verona’s regent from 1301-1304, and tried very hard (and unsuccessfully) to put an end to the fighting. The basis for the legend, supposedly, is that a girl from one faction had a lover from the other faction, and committed suicide after he was killed. The authorities felt so sorry for her that they had her buried in consecrated ground, even though she was a suicide. And that is all we know. But like all reality-based legends, the story probably got a little more interesting every time it was told. It would have begun as an oral tradition (books and literacy both
