The link I gave earlier, http://www.thatsflorence.com/discoverin ... -florence/, says that the Florentine lily dates back to the 11th century. That seems plausible to me, as the Ghelph/Ghibilline struggles were before the Count of Anjou made his deal with the Pope to intervene on the side of the Guelphs in return for most of the spoils. After Manfred, defender of the Ghibellines (who got back in power in Florence and everywhere else), was defeated at Benevento in 1266, followed by Conradin in 1268, the French army occupied Northern Italy, Ghibillines were slaughtered, their property burned or confiscated. and it was all over (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred,_King_of_Sicily and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_Naples for some of this).Perhaps the earlier Florentine Lille already depended on the French Lille ... the Anjou, which manifested in Italy in the second half of 13th century had friends in Florence.
I don't know anything about the rest of what you say.