CHAP. XIII. that was stretched across the river. Montelongo now arrived with two hundred Milanese knights; Alberic of Romano, Philip the Bishop of Ferrara, and Paul 1239–1241. Traversaro with the men of Ravenna, joined the army; the Venetians and Bolognese crossed the Po by bridge of boats, and the siege of Ferrara was begun in earnest. Salinguerra had prepared for them a warm reception; he had eight hundred knights, the greater part of whom belonged to the Emperor, and many Lombard soldiers. He had also kept four casks full of money, when on their road to Frederick. It was the navy of Venice, as her Annalist boasts, that turned the scale against the Ghibellines. Mangonels and Petriers, some planted in ships, others on the land, hurled large stones into Ferrara and forced the besieged to toil night and day at new ramparts. The assault was made by Azzo and the Bolognese from one side, and by the Mantuans and Venetians from another quarter. The ladders and engines of Venice struck terror into the Ferrarese, although their valour extorted the admiration of the besiegers. The city would have been taken, but for a fearful storm, which checked the onset; happy was the man who had his head well covered. The fight was renewed on another day; and the ramparts, which Salinguerra had repaired, were once more dismantled. Still the city held out, for the desultory assaults gave its defenders breathing-time. Old Tiepolo, the Doge of Venice, impatient of delay, came himself with large reinforcements. All ran to welcome him; after reconnoitring the walls, the veteran chief, who had won his spurs in Candia and at Constantinople, offered to take Ferrara, if the besiegers would only XIII. 1239-1241. CHAP swear to obey his orders.* He planted the ladders against the walls, which he battered with his mangonels; and the garrison, headed by Ramberti the second in command, was soon entreating Salinguerra to yield. The aged Ghibelline, on being promised life and property for all his men, came to the tent of the Doge and did homage to the Legate, the representative of the Church, after the siege had lasted for four months. Montelongo now planned a detestable act of treachery. He drew the noble Azzo into his plot, although that chief at first shrank from the Legate's proposal to break their oath made to Salinguerra. They had promised to allow the Ghibelline to return safe home; they kept their promise to the car. Shortly afterwards, while partaking of Salinguerra's wine in his own house, the Guelfs unfolded their plot; Paul Traversaro rose and brought various charges against the host; Salinguerra began to defend himself, but the old man could not make his voice heard amid the scraping of feet that ensued. He left the room, but was seized and taken to Venice by the Doge, according to the advice of the Legate. He survived for four years, was honourably entertained by his gaolers, and was buried in the Church of St. Nicholas, where his epitaph may still be read. James Tiepolo was made Podesta of Ferrara, which was for ever lost to the Ghibellines. The traitor Ramberti was almost immediately banished. Fifteen hundred families, as a contemporary historian says, were driven out of Ferrara before the middle of * De sa proece et son sen ne vos poroie ie trop conter.' Canale, who describes the siege at great length, takes care not to say a word about the final act of treachery. June. The Venetians ruled the town with a rod of iron for two years, and then Azzo of Este was made CHAP. Podesta. His lavish expenses led him to exact large 1239-1241. sums of money from the burghers, who began to regret Salinguerra. Azzo, however, contrived to hand down Ferrara to his descendants, her future rulers for three hundred and fifty years. It was the opinion of many, that had the army which took Ferrara been directed against Eccelin, that tyrant must have been overthrown. He was dismayed at the disaster which had befallen Salinguerra.† But the Guelf host, to which so many states had contributed, could no longer be held together; indeed, it is no small proof of the Legate's abilities, that he was able to keep citizens, who had so many jarring interests, steady to one great object during four months. With some trouble he persuaded the states to go on with the payments which they had promised; the Pope wrote in angry terms, because Milan, Piacenza, Brescia, and Bologna had neglected to make good the 15,000 marks which was their appointed contribution. The war was far from being ended; the success of the Guelfs in the East was balanced, as usual, by a loss in the West. They took Ferrara in June; they had lost Alessandria in May. That city, built as a stronghold of the Lombard League, had long maintained her reputation; her sons had fought with the most determined bravery on the losing side at Cortenuova. She had been one of the Five states that held out against the Emperor in 1238, when all the other cities in Italy were bowing * See for the siege of Ferrara the Chronicon Parvum Ferrariense, Canale, and Riccobaldi of Ferrara. † Laur. de Monacis. СНАР. 1239-1241. before him. Gregory had in consequence restored to her the Bishoprick, of which she had been stripped by one of his predecessors. He had also threatened to deprive her troublesome neighbour Acqui of its Episcopal See.* But soon after receiving this favour, Alessandria broke her oath to the Church, made her old enemy the Marquess of Lancia her Podesta, and swore allegiance to him as Imperal Vicar.† The Ghibellines of Lombardy had been prevented by their unhappy divisions from aiding Ferrara; Cremona, Parma, Reggio, and Modena had all been distracted by seditions. But the only chief who could keep them together was now coming up from the South. Frederick had sent letters to his Lombard allies, announcing his truce with the Pope as certain, and declaring that he would never, while he had life, desist from enforcing peace in Lombardy. He was soon undeceived as to the truce; he reviled Gregory bitterly as being headlong and fickle in all his ways. The Emperor was furious at the treachery practised upon Salinguerra by a Ruler of the Church, and hoped soon to be able to crush the false priests, who threw aside the surplice to gird the sword upon their loins. He was now marching up from Ascoli. The Pope in vain besought the Bolognese, whom God had raised up for the exaltation of His Church, to succour the Anconitan March. Frederick was joined by his son, the King of Sardinia, and sat down before Ravenna on the 15th of August. Her great Captain, Paul Traversaro, had died only five days Raynaldus. † Barth. Scriba, Ann. Genuen. XIII. 1239-1241. before, and the city made but little resistance. The CHAP. ditches surrounding her walls were drained in four days, and a handful of the besiegers captured and burnt a suburb. Messengers were sent to implore Frederick's mercy, and they threw themselves at his feet. He was touched by their tears, called to mind the old loyalty of Ravenna which had been faithful to him from 1212 up to 1239, and granted their prayer. When he quitted the city, he left behind him a lieutenant, who entrenched and strengthened the Castle, making use of the stones of the houses lately destroyed by Traversaro.† The sons of that chief, and Theodoric the Archbishop of Ravenna, were sent off to Apulia. Those of the Ferrarese, who had been driven from their own city, made Ravenna their abode and took to piracy. rear. Frederick had resolved to attack Bologna, but was unwilling to leave Faenza, an old enemy, in his This little town had been long remarkable for its courage and its Guelf principles. It had sent two hundred men to the Crusade against Saladin under the command of its Bishop, nearly all of whom left their bones under the walls of Acre. It had furnished a contingent of fifty knights to the Lombard League, when Frederick was held in check at Parma in 1226. Three years later, it had sent fiftyfour knights to defend the Pope against Frederick's aggressive Viceroy. Though it had welcomed John de Brienne, it had honourably declined to join the rest of the Lombards in 1234, in the league which they then formed with the Emperor's rebellious son. *See his letters for 1240. † Spicilegium Ravennatis Historiæ. Chron. Ferrarien. Ginanni. |