Opening the text

The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 09 : $b Italy

History

The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 09 : $b Italy

World history

Frederick re-entered Italy in the year 1163, accompanied not by an army,
but by a brilliant retinue of German nobles. He did not imagine that in
a country which he now considered subdued, he needed a more imposing
force; besides, he believed that he could at all times command the
militias of the Ghibelline towns; and, in fact, he made them this year
raze to the ground the walls of Tortona. He afterwards directed his steps
towards Rome, to support by his presence his schismatic pontiff; but,
in the meantime, Verona, Vicenza, Padua, and Treviso, the most powerful
towns of the Veronese marches, assembled their consuls in congress, to
consider the means of putting an end to a tyranny which overwhelmed them.
The consuls of these four towns pledged themselves by oath in the name
of their cities to give mutual support to each other in the assertion
of their former rights, and in the resolution to reduce the imperial
prerogatives to the point at which they were fixed under the reign of
Henry IV. Frederick, informed of this association, returned hastily into
northern Italy, to put it down. He assembled the militias of Pavia,
Cremona, Novara, Lodi, and Como, with the intention of leading them
against the Veronese marches; but he soon perceived that the spirit of
liberty had made progress in the Ghibelline cities as well as in those of
the Guelfs; that the militias under his command complained as much of the
vexations inflicted by his podestas as those against whom he led them;
and that they were ill-disposed to face death only to rivet the chains of
their country. Obliged to bend before a people which he considered only
as revolted subjects, he soon renounced a contest so humiliating, and
returned to Germany, to levy an army more submissive to him.

Other and more pressing interests diverted his attention from this object
till the autumn of 1166. During this interval his anti-pope, Victor
III, died; and the successor whom he caused to be named was still more
strongly rejected by the church. On the other side, Alexander III had
returned from France to Rome; contracted an alliance with William, the
Norman king of the Two Sicilies; and armed the whole of southern Italy
against the emperor.


IMPERIAL CAMPAIGNS AND REVERSES

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 09 : $b Italy

World history

Frederick re-entered Italy in the year 1163, accompanied not by an army,
but by a brilliant retinue of German nobles. He did not imagine that in
a country which he now considered subdued, he needed a more imposing
force; besides, he believed that he could at all times command the
militias of the Ghibelline towns; and, in fact, he made them this year
raze to the ground the walls of Tortona. He afterwards directed his steps
towards Rome, to support by his presence his schismatic pontiff; but,
in the meantime, Verona, Vicenza, Padua, and Treviso, the most powerful
towns of the Veronese marches, assembled their consuls in congress, to
consider the means of putting an end to a tyranny which overwhelmed them.
The consuls of these four towns pledged themselves by oath in the name
of their cities to give mutual support to each other in the assertion
of their former rights, and in the resolution to reduce the imperial
prerogatives to the point at which they were fixed under the reign of
Henry IV. Frederick, informed of this association, returned hastily into
northern Italy, to put it down. He assembled the militias of Pavia,
Cremona, Novara, Lodi, and Como, with the intention of leading them
against the Veronese marches; but he soon perceived that the spirit of
liberty had made progress in the Ghibelline cities as well as in those of
the Guelfs; that the militias under his command complained as much of the
vexations inflicted by his podestas as those against whom he led them;
and that they were ill-disposed to face death only to rivet the chains of
their country. Obliged to bend before a people which he considered only
as revolted subjects, he soon renounced a contest so humiliating, and
returned to Germany, to levy an army more submissive to him.

Other and more pressing interests diverted his attention from this object
till the autumn of 1166. During this interval his anti-pope, Victor
III, died; and the successor whom he caused to be named was still more
strongly rejected by the church. On the other side, Alexander III had
returned from France to Rome; contracted an alliance with William, the
Norman king of the Two Sicilies; and armed the whole of southern Italy
against the emperor.


IMPERIAL CAMPAIGNS AND REVERSES

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 09 : $b Italy

The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 09 : $b Italy

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