page_title: Battle of Legnano
section_title: The first three descents of Frederick Barbarossa in Italy
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Legnano / Background / The first three descents of Frederick Barbarossa in Italy
caption_attribution_description: Español: Alejandro III (Rolando Bandinelli).English: Pope Alexander III.Français&#160;: Portrait gravé du pape Alexandre III.
context_page_description: The Battle of Legnano was a battle between the imperial army of Frederick Barbarossa and the troops of the Lombard League on May 29, 1176, near the town of Legnano in present-day Lombardy, in Italy. Although the presence of the enemy nearby was already known to both sides, they suddenly met without having time to plan any strategy.
  The battle was crucial in the long war waged by the Holy Roman Empire in an attempt to assert its power over the municipalities of Northern Italy, which decided to set aside their mutual rivalries and join in a military alliance symbolically led by Pope Alexander III, the Lombard League.
  The battle ended the fifth and last descent into Italy of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who after the defeat tried to resolve the Italian question by adopting a diplomatic approach. This resulted a few years later in the Peace of Constance, with which the Emperor recognized the Lombard League and made administrative, political, and judicial concessions to the municipalities, officially ending his attempt to dominate Northern Italy.
  The battle is alluded to in the Canto degli Italiani by Goffredo Mameli and Michele Novaro, which reads: «[...]
context_section_description: To try to pacify Northern Italy and restore imperial power, Frederick Barbarossa crossed the Alps at the head of his army five times. The first descent, which began in the autumn of 1154 and led only 1,800 men, led the king to besiege and conquer the riotous Asti, Chieri and Tortona and to attack some castles of the Milanese countryside, but not the capital of Milan, given that it did not have sufficient forces. This campaign continued with the convocation of diet of Roncaglia, with which Frederick re-established imperial authority, nullifying, among other things, the conquests made by Milan in previous years, especially with regard to Como and Lodi. The first part of that journey continued along the Via Francigena and ended in Rome with the coronation of Frederick Barbarossa as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Adrian IV (18 June 1155). During his stay in Rome, Frederick, who had left from the North with the title of King of Germany, was harshly contested by the people of the city; in response, the emperor reacted by stifling the revolt in blood. Following this episode, and to Frederick's military campaign, the relations between the Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy began to crack. During the return trip to Germany, the emperor destroyed Spoleto, accused of having paid the fodro, that is, the taxes to be paid to the sovereign, with a false currency. Already during this first descent, the difference between Frederick and his predecessors was felt. In fact, Barbarossa showed a strong aversion to municipal autonomies: his will was to restore effective power over Northern Italy.
  The second descent, which began in June 1158, was originated by the rebelliousness of Milan and the allied municipalities to accept imperial power. This long expedition began with the attack of Frederick Barbarossa in Milan and his allies of the Milanese countryside: after defeating Brescia, which was a Milanese company, and having freed Lodi from the Milanese yoke, Barbarossa directed the attack to the Milanese capital, who agreed to surrender (8 September 1158) to avoid a long and bloody siege. Milan again lost the conquests made in previous years (Como, Pavia, Seprio and Brianza), but it was not razed. Frederick Barbarossa, then, summoned a second diet to Roncaglia (autumn 1158) where he reiterated the imperial dominion over the municipalities of Northern Italy, with the authority of the sovereign that imposed itself on that of the local institutions, establishing, among other things, that the regalie were entirely paid to the sovereign. The proclamations of this second diet of Roncaglia had disruptive effects on the Italian communes, which immediately rebelled. After receiving reinforcements from Germany and having conquered several riotous municipalities in Northern Italy during a military campaign that lasted a few years, Barbarossa turned its attention to Milan, which was first besieged in 1162 and then, after its surrender (1 March), completely destroyed. A similar fate fell on several cities allied to Milan. Frederick then exacerbated the grip of imperial power on Italian cities, going beyond the provisions decided during Roncaglia's second diet: he set up a bureaucratic structure run by officials who responded directly to the emperor instead of the municipal autonomies, which were virtually suppressed, and established an imperial-nominated podestà at the head of the rebel cities. Meanwhile, Pope Adrian IV died and his successor, Pope Alexander III, soon proved to be in solidarity with the Italian municipalities and particularly hostile to the emperor.
  In 1163 the rebellion of some cities in northeastern Italy forced Frederick Barbarossa to descend for the third time in Italy in a military campaign that ended up in a stalemate, above all against the Veronese League, which in the meantime had formed between some cities of the March of Verona. With pacific Lombardy, Frederick in fact preferred to postpone the clash with the other municipalities of Northern Italy due to the numerical scarcity of his troops and then, after having verified
caption: Pope Alexander III
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