FREDERICK BARBAROSSA AND THE COMMUNES OF LOMBARDY.*
A FOURTH of Signor Teata's book is occupied by an introduction describing the rise of the Lombard cities, and their social condi- tion during the twelfth century. The rest of the volume con- sists of a minute account of a struggle between the great Hohenstaufen and his subjects, and it concludes, rather abruptly, with the peace of Constance. We cannot con- gratulate Signor Testa on his translation. His English is painfully unidiomatic, and this is a serious defect in a work which aims at spirited and picturesque narrative. The quaint beauty of the chroniclers, whom Signor Testa quotes so often, is lost in the wearisome labyrinth of "buts," "tints," " hences," and " wherefores " which disfigures every page of the English version. We must protest, too, against "militias for the plural of "militia," "seigneurial," and such adjectives as " Lodigian," " Cremascan," " Tortonese," and " Parmigian." We agree with Signor Testa that "he has not told anything which has not been told by others" (p. 9), but we cannot assent to the conclusion he draws from this modest proposition ; namely, that he is not bound to give his authorities, because his readers will know where to find them already. The only legiti- mate object of a history which does not teach us anything new is to render more accessible the knowledge we possess, and this, we submit, is not satisfactorily done, unless the authorities are given "at every step." We regret this omission the more be- cause Signor Testa seems singularly fair-minded, and appears to approach his subject with an honest intention of treating every- one, Uruelf or Ghibelin, Italian or German, according to his deserts. It may occasionally suit a party writer to omit accurate references, but an author who desires to tell the truth can only be guilty of such negligence through laziness,—and a man who is too lazy to quote his authorities has no business to write at all.
At the end of his fifth book, Signor Testa has placed a long "apologetic digression," as his translator is pleased to term it, in which he gives his reasons for heaping together a mass of de- tails on the petty skirmishes of these wars. Signor Testa allows that "these may perhaps seem wearisome" (p. 262), and we must own to having found them extremely so. We are assured (p. 262) that the author has not omitted "any which could well be brought in and connected with the whole history," because he considers minuteness of description necessary to a true picture of these stormy times, and because he hopes that the records of the past may rekindle the patriotism of his countrymen.t We think that both these laudable ends might have been equally well attained without devoting a whole paragraph to the capture of a cartload of " stubble" (which we suppose is meant for " straw ") by the Milanese (p. 251), or inflicting upon us all the names of all the consuls of Milan for three successive years (pp. 971-2). Signor Testa defends himself by the example of the "writers of Greece and Rome" (p. 263), but, we acknowledge, without con- vincing us. Great as is the sympathy we feel for the noble Lombard burghers, who, first of all modern peoples, conquered the right to govern themselves, it is small indeed compared to the absorbing interest inspired by the contest between Greece and Persia, or that between Rome and Carthage. Even to Italians, the Lombard war is at most a glorious memory. The League did not last long enough to exercise any very permanent influence on the fortunes of their country. On the general development of Europe the effect of the war was very slight. This new scene in the great duel between Pope and Emperor showed what confederation might do, but the world was slow to learn the lesson. In the next generation the cities of Languedoc fell one by one ; united, they might have bidden defiance to their foes. In the wars related by the Greek and Roman historians, we all feel that our own destinies were decided as truly as at Trafalgar or • History tr■iti'lloi; .14:ar against the Communes of Lombardy. By Giovanni Battles Tea lotion from We Italian, Revised by the Author. London; Smith, Rider, and (Jo.
t The dedication of the origual Is dated 1868.
Waterloo. Details which are delightful when told about these great world-contests become tedious in the chronicles of mediaeval warfare. Many of the incidents related by Signor Testa are very beautiful, no doubt, but life is not long enough for us to learn all the brave deeds done in defence of home and country, and we think that he would have made his book more readable by a little judicious selection and compression.
The real interest of the contest between Frederick and the Lombards centres around Milan. Its natural advantages, and the fame of its Church, had already made the city of St. Ambrose great and powerful by the beginning of the twelfth century. The Archbishop ranked next to the Sovereign Pontiff among the prelates of Italy. In his custody was preserved the Iron Crown of Lombardy which the German Kings received at his hands, before claiming the Golden Crown of Empire from the successor of St. Peter. In all things the Church of Milan long maintained a higher degree of independence and individuality than any other in South Europe. The election to the Chair of St. Ambrose was vested in the burghers of the city, and the habit of exercising this import- ant franchise must have tended to educate them for political life.. Pavia alone of the neighbouring municipalities could pretend to dispute the supremacy of Milan, and between the two there sprang up a deadly hate. In the reign of Henry V., we find the rival cities, at the head of their confederacies, engaged in a series of fierce wars. And now Milan was guilty of two great crimes, crimes which drew down upon her a slow but terrible vengeance. Lodi, in alliance with Pavia and Cremona, had inflicted consider- able losses on the soldiers of Tortona and Milan. The Milanese determined to destroy the little State. In 1115, they fell suddenly upon the city, sacked it, and razed it to the ground. Then they divided the inhabitants into villages, subjected them to heavy tribute, and deprived them of civil rights. Three years later, war broke out with Como. The Milanese were again victorious, and again forced the conquered to dwell in huts amid the ruins of their city. For a quarter of a century the wretched exiles lived in hopeless slavery, and Milan triumphed in the success of her terrible policy.
In the spring of 1153 the newly-elected Emperor Frederick Barbarossa held a Diet at Constance. Two merchants of Lodi, who chanced to be in the town, implored his mercy for their countrymen. Their appeal gave him the very pretext he desired for interfering in the affairs of Lombardy, and humbling the Republican pride of her cities. In intellectual ability and force of character, Frederick was not unworthy of the age of Becket and Henry II., of Hadrian and Abelard. But his cruelty was fiercer than the cruelty of his time, his perfidy blacker than the perfidy of the Angevins. In the autumn of the following year he entered Italy. The Milanese strove to appease him by loyal professions and offers of tribute, but Frederick was bent on their destruction, and refused their gifts. Tortona was the first city in their alliance to feel his fury. After a long siege, he was compelled to grant the inhabitants their freedom ; they retired in a body to Milan, and we have seldom read anything more touching than the story of their reception by the grateful republic. After all, Frederick was forced to defer his vengeance. Fever, as usual, proved fatal to the Germans, and soon after his coronation he recrossed the Alps. Within two months of the surrender the Milanese were rebuilding the city of their allies. They spent the next two years in strengthening their defences, and destroying all neighbouring towns which might afford aid or shelter to the Germans. Pavia herself fell ; never had Milan been so glorious or so pitiless. With the summer of 1158 Frederick returned to Italy. His first step was to cite the Milanese before him. By appearing they seemed to acknowledge his jurisdiction, and thus enabled him from the beginning to put them in the wrong. This rnanceuvre was doubtless sug- gested by the subtle allies strangely provided for the Emperors by the hand of the Countess Matilda. The school of [menus had flourished, and his disciples delighted in overthrowing all those principles which his mistress had upheld. None hated the Papacy so fiercely, or attacked it with such skill, as the civil lawyers of Bologna. By August, Frederick had formed the siege of Milan. In a month famine compelled the citizens to surrender. The terms granted were easy, but as we shall see, they were quickly broken. Frederick now proceeded to reorganise Lombardy, in a Diet held at Roncaglia. Ably sup- ported by the civilians, he got his right to the " regalia " clearly defined, and to a great extent substituted consuls and podestas named by himself for the elected magistrates. These innovations, and the separation of Monza from Milan, in violation of the recent treaty, so infuriated the citizens that
they rose against the Imperial Commissioners as soon as they ap- peared , and drove them from the gates. Frederick resolved to reduce Crema, a town under the protection of Milan, before chastising the larger city. The siege lasted till January, 1160. Signor Testa's account of it is extremely minute, occupying no less than fifteen pages (pp. 227-34 and 238-44) Many of the details are very picturesque, reminding us at times of the famous siege of Plata in Thucydides, but we scarcely think that such a lengthened description will be acceptable to Signor Testa's English readers. Here Frederick committed a crime which has seldom been equalled in atrocity. Finding one of his battering- engines beaten back by the besieged, he hung the living bodies of his prisoners before it, and thus forced the miserable citizens to crush and maim their own sons and brothers, or permit his advance unopposed. With a courage which had in it something of the old Roman ferocity, the men of Crema continued the defence ; the assault was beaten back, but nine mangled corpses and many writhing bodies yet alive were let down from the blood-stained ropes (pp. 232-4). Next May the long-desired army from Germany arrived, and the Emperor again besieged Milan. By the end of February the supplies were exhausted, and famine once more furced the great city to yield. And now Milan was to experience the misery she had so ruth- lessly inflicted on others. On the Tuesday after the surrender, the Carroccio left the gates for the last time, followed by a train of weeping citizens. Lodi was the scene of their humiliation, as of their crime. The sacred car was drawn before the imperial throne, the banner of the Commune was lowered before Frederick, and the Consuls implored the mercy of their con- queror. Punishment was cruelly delayed, and the burghers had already dared to hope, when the terrible decree came forth, —Milan was to exist no more. On March 25th the sentence was executed, and the proudest city of Lombardy lay a heap of unsightly ruins. Its people were scattered into villages, and there, for the next five years, they endured a foreign tyranny unsurpassed even in the annals of Italy.
All this time Frederick had been at war with the Church ; he was now to feel the power of her enmity. Goaded to despair by the enormities of the German officials, and guided by the counsels of Venice, the men of Verona and the March leagued themselves together, and swore allegiance to the Emperor, pro- vided he were reconciled to the Church. Frederick at once felt the danger of the movement. He tried negotiations, and he tried arms ; both in vain. When he retired to Germany, he left this formidable union behind him. Maddened by the return of Alexander to Rome in the following year, he pushed into the heart of Italy early in 1167, with the new league un- broken in his rear. His arrival served but to quicken its proceedings. All Lombardy was in one vast con- spiracy. Deputies from towns, hitherto the bitterest enemies, met early in April, at the monastery of Pontida, to concert measures against the common oppressor. On the 27th, the terrified Milanese saw a body of horse advancing towards their villages. They thought the plot was discovered and their de- struction was assured. Presently they descried the standard of Bergamo ; they were friends, and deliverance was at hand ! They were indeed the soldiers of the League, come to restore their captive countrymen to liberty and power. When the long pro- cession at last reached what had once been Milan, they stood for a moment in the ranks gazing on their ruined homes, then, lifting up their tearful eyes to heaven, they thanked God for their re- turn, and swore to defend their liberty to the last. The Im- perialists had just won a great victory near Rome, and Frederick was on the eve of a triumph which would have enabled him to devote his whole strength to the Lombard war, when a pestilence broke out among his troops, so sudden and terrible that it seemed to the Germans themselves a visible judgment of God, and forced them to relinquish the campaign. When Frederick crossed the Alps, he was almost alone. He did not return for six years. The allies meanwhile built the great stronghold of Alessandria, between Pavia and Montferrat, thus dividing the only powerful supporters of imperial claims to Italy.
In October, 1174, Frederick sat down before the fortress named after his bated rival. In perfidy, in cruelty, in dogged bravery, and endurance he surpassed himself,—in vain ; spring saw the Emperor once more without an army, and engaged in treacherous negotiations to gain time. With the May of 1176 came the last army which Frederick was to lead against the cities of Lombardy. The League was ready, and on the 29th the Carroccio, once more escorted by its chosen guard, left the gates of Milan. The two armies came up with each other near Legnano, and instantly engaged. Frederick's plan was to break the left wing of the Lombards, and then take their centre in flank. Charge after charge of the heavy German cavalry was beaten back, their ranks thinned by the incessant shower of missiles poured on them by the Milanese. At length, Frederick's experienced eye saw that the defence had slackened, and that the crisis of the battle had come. Gathering his barons around him, he headed a furious rush in person, cut the contingent of Brescia to pieces, and routed the entire left wing. A terrible struggle now raged around the Carroccio. For a time the Emperor carried all before him, bearing back the guard of the sacred car, and tearing down its banners with his own hands. Then the Milanese reserve, the "Company of Death," sworn to conquer or to die, flung themselves upon the Imperialists. In a few minutes Frederick's standard was in the dust, and the Emperor himself lay buried beneath the bodies of his soldiers. The "Company of Death" pressed on, and easily routed the German right and centre, already discouraged by the reported fall of their leader. For eight miles the slaughter of the flying Germans continued. When the Lombards drew off from the pursuit, Italy was free. The remaining pages of Signor Testa's book are taken up with the tire- some negotiations which finally led to the reconciliation of Frederick and Alexander, and to the confirmation of the liberties of Lombardy by the peace of Constance. We can already discern in the few intervening years symptoms of the fatal spirit of discord which was to bring all this fair promise to nothing. In the very month in which the peace was signed, Alessandria, herself the creation of the League, made a separate treaty with Frederick.
In taking leave of Signor Testa, we can only express our astonishment that the history of his own country has not taught him how worthless is the miserable theory he so constantly preaches of a temporal dispensation. Can any one who has read that history, seriously believe that "divine justice never leaves guilt unpunished, even in this world ?" (p. 298.)
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