CHAP. XI. 1235-1239. entry into that faithful city, the stronghold of the Northern Ghibellines. According to a Lombard tradition, he said; Our gossips of Cremona have all the crown of this battle.* The Carroccio of Milan, repaired as well as possible, and set upon its severed wheels and planks, figured in the procession. On the next day, the Emperor's elephant was brought out, which had been kept at Cremona for the last three years, and which had drawn throngs of eager sight-seers from every part of Lombardy to gaze upon one of the wonders of the age, recalling the days of the Maccabees. It bore on its back a square tower, with a great banner in the centre and a flag at each corner; here its Saracen keepers sat.† The monster was led through Cremona amid the shouts of the people, drawing the Milanese Carroccio, upon which the captive Podesta had been bound. This was an imitation of the old Roman triumphs; the Carroccio was afterwards sent to the Eternal City as a trophy, and the brave Tiepolo was in the end doomed by the modern Cæsar to the fate of Vercingetorix; a cruel act, which is abhorrent to all our notions of chivalry. Indeed, this despiteful treatment of the prisoner was a blunder, which brought its own punishment by throwing Venice, the country of Tiepolo, into the arms of the Lombard League. If we were to believe the historians of Milan, the burghers of that city very soon recovered from the blow of Cortenuova. They sent word to Frederick, so runs the legend, that they would not act as he had done, but would attack him openly. Within a fortnight they would beat up his quarters, and would root up CHAP. XI. the oak which grew before the gate of Cremona. This defiance, it is added, was carried out; and shame, as the Milanese believed, drove the Emperor to Lodi.* 1235-1239. The story is evidently a plaster for wounded vanity. The real fact is, that the Milanese were in a state of utter hopelessness; they sent Brother Leo, a famous Franciscan friar, who very soon afterwards became their Archbishop, to entreat for peace. Frederick would not grant it, until they should withdraw from the lands of the Empire. Five hundred Milanese horsemen, who had been sent to garrison Lodi, were accordingly withdrawn from that town. The Emperor, on the 12th of December, rode to Pizzighitone and set free some of his Lodese prisoners, who instantly brought over their state to his side. He entered it that same day, after its Milanese Podesta, Otho Visconti, had been driven out. Brother Leo came once more from Milan, with the news that the citizens were ready to yield up to Frederick all his Imperial rights, and to pay a large sum of money, if he would only grant them terms. They were now willing to do what they had refused a few months before; they would give hostages, and would receive within their walls a Captain who was to represent the Emperor in all his power. So low was this haughty State fallen, which in the beginning of the year had been hammering all Italy, to use the language of the time. Frederick, after taking counsel with the Cremonese and Pavians, demanded unconditional surrender. In the mean time the Bishop of Piacenza was sent to make terms for his State with the Emperor, since a Dominican friar had brought * Gal. Fiamma. Ann Mediolanen. CHAP 1235-1239. the news, that the Milanese were treating without the knowledge of their allies. The envoys of Piacenza were not admitted into Frederick's presence at Lodi; they could only see Peter de Vinea. Now came tidings from Milan, that peace was out of the question; Piacenza instantly recalled her envoys, who set off in a hurry without partaking of a meal they had ordered.* Milan was in despair; the crucifixes were hung up by the heels; all Friday and Lent fasting was at an end; the Churches and altars were polluted with filth; and the clergy were driven out.† One ray of good fortune came to cheer the city; 1200 men, who had been missing ever since the battle of Cortenuova, marched home, having made a long circuit by Lake Como. Frederick at this time threw a bridge over the Lambro, a stream which he had good cause to remember. The men of Piacenza, fearing his approach, burnt Borgo Nuovo. He sent Eccelin to Padua and Azzo to Este. § He had already forwarded from Cremona a full account of the battle of Cortenuova to Richard Earl of Cornwall, with whom he chose to correspond rather than with the weak King Henry. He sent similar letters to the Archbishop of York, the Duke of Lorraine, and the Pope. He kept Christmas at Lodi with great rejoicings. Thus ended the year 1237, one of the most glorious in Frederick's life. It was probably not the less welcome to him, for removing his father-in-law, John de Brienne, after the aged chief had in vain. done all that man could do to revive that unnatural system, the Latin Empire of the East. John had spent * Chronicon. See Frederick's Circular of July, 1244. † M. Paris. Chron. Placentinum. the last thirty years of his long life in fruitless enterprises in Palestine, Egypt, Apulia, and Roumelia, all for the good of the Church. Frederick had sent a most decorous letter to Von Salza on hearing the sad news; in it he declared that he had meant to provide for the old Crusader, and he wished that the two sons, whom John had left, should be entrusted to his own Imperial protection. The year 1238 seemed to open with the brightest prospects for Frederick. The fame of Cortenuova was published abroad throughout all Christendom; nobles, prelates, and knights from far distant lands were all eager to learn the art of war under so skilful a Captain. A great effort was to be made in the summer of this year. Morra was sent into Apulia, where he arrived in time to enforce the usual January collection of taxes. Von Salza was despatched into Germany for men, not for money. If other countries were stirred in an unwonted manner at the news of the great battle, much more was Italy dismayed. Almost every one of her states waited upon Frederick with tribute; the Lombard League seemed to have been shivered to pieces by the late thunderbolt. Five cities alone showed the least spirit of resistance; these five were Bologna, Brescia, Piacenza, Milan, and Alessandria.* Ever since the middle of 1235, the time of Frederick's arrival in Germany to suppress his son's rebellion, the Emperor's star had been rising higher and higher. He had held a renowned Diet, had seen kings assemble to do him honour, had wedded a beautiful Empress well worthy to be his mate, had ⚫ I do not include the tributary states, such as Crema and Como. CHAP. 1235-1239. XI. 1235-1239. CHAP. been blessed with new offspring, had smitten Austria to the North and Lombardy to the South of the Alps, had won a bloody pitched field, and was now about to lead the forces of the world in arms, to put the finishing stroke, as it seemed, to his work. Rome was awed into silence; the Northern nobles, who had been the old supporters of Rome, had taken shelter under the wing of the Hohenstaufen Eagle. Just in the same way Napoleon enjoyed rather more than three years of wonderful, almost superhuman prosperity, from the time of his lucky escape out of the Isle of Lobau up to the day of his entry into Moscow. Those three years were almost identical, in their leading events, with the three happy years granted to Frederick the Second, beginning from 1235. Then comes the change, in both instances brought about by an overweening ambition never content, that grasps at everything, that has no respect for the rights of others, that turns the brain of its victim, persuading him that the world is at his feet. What change in the fortunes of the Medieval Emperor was wrought by the year 1238, will soon be made clear. On the 5th of January, Frederick, who was still at Lodi, gave a passport for Germany to Gerard von Sinzig and his train. This gallant knight became afterwards the main prop of the Hohenstaufen cause in his own district, not far from the foot of the Drachenfels; we may readily believe that he was one of the foremost men at Cortenuova. The day after granting this passport, the Emperor rode into Pavia, a city second only to Cremona in loyalty. Here he held his court for some time, which was attended by many Suabian nobles; none of them surpassed the young Habsburg brethren, Albert and |