XI. 1235-1239. hope of my life under the shield of your dominion.' CHAP. This advice was approved, and Frederick marched back to the siege of Brescia on the third of August, followed by the Cremonese with their Carroccio. He pitched his camp to the west of the city, between it and the river Mella. Several of the neighbouring Castles were given up to him, among which were some not far from Cortenuova, his late battle-field. Guala, the Bishop of Brescia, made over his fortresses to the Emperor, who had appeared at the head of an overwhelming host, drawn from many nations. Bergamo was zealous against her neighbour. Gebhard von Arnstein had brought up the Saracens, Apulians, and Tuscans.+ Florence had sent both Guelfs and Ghibellines to the siege. Siena had furnished twentyfive knights, five of whom fell in the course of the campaign. Reggio equipped 200 knights and 1000 infantry.§ Rome, Romagna, Lombardy, and the Trevisan March were all represented in Frederick's host. The Germans mustered strong under the Patriarch of Aquileia, the Archbishops of Mayence, Cologne, and Magdeburg, the Bishops of Passau, Meissen, Worms, and Wurzburg, and the Duke of Carinthia. The Count of Provence waited upon his liege Lord with a hundred knights. The Sultan, and Vataces the Schismatical Emperor on the Bosphorus, had cach sent succour to their Western brother. Knights from France and Spain had come to learn the art of war from its best living master. We may be pardoned for dwelling at greater length upon one little band in the mighty array. Henry the Third of Eng Malvecius. † Chronicon. Gio. Villani. Chron. Sanese. VOL. II. F 4 XI. 1235-1239. CHAP. land, directly after Easter, had despatched a hundred knights, well armed and well mounted, to the aid of his brother-in-law, together with a large sum of money. The band was led by Henry de Trubleville, a soldier of great skill, who had been in the King's service for at least seventeen years, and who had been endowed with lands for his support during the Royal pleasure. He had paid money into the treasury for the coveted privilege of being entrusted with the wardship and marriage of various young heirs.* This knight was chosen to lead the English contingent; whilst Mansell a Clerk, and Hardell a Londoner, were charged with the needful supply of money; the Clerk is said to have highly distinguished himself in the Italian Campaign. De Trubleville on one occasion, fighting under the Royal Standard of England, drove back the Brescians in a manner so much to Frederick's satisfaction, that the Emperor, in a letter of thanks to the knight's master, attributed the victory and his own safety to the islanders. The King wrote to the Pope on Frederick's behalf, at which his Holiness was very wroth, and suspended all business connected with England for a long time. Italy has not greatly benefited by English interference, from the time of De Trubleville and Hawkwood down to that of Lord William Bentinck and warriors of still later date. Such was the composition of the host that had been gathered by the Roman Emperor from all parts for the Leaguer of Brescia. The odds were fearful; but the city threatened was no common city. From time immemorial, Brescia has been renowned through Excerpta e Rotulis Finium. Roberts. †M. Paris. CHAP. out Italy for its many disasters and for the courage of its citizens. Arnold, the great Italian reformer, was a Brescian born. The townsmen boasted that 1235-1239. the mighty Barbarossa had been their captive for a short time, after his defeat at Lignano. They still talked with pride of the feats of one Conrad of Palazzo, whose fame had been widely spread even in far countries, and who had borne the Standard of the Emperor Henry the Sixth to the conquest of Apulia and Sicily.* Another Brescian, Biemino of Manerba, so it was said, had stood forth on Frederick's behalf, his chosen champion clad in the Royal arms, twentysix years before this siege, and had challenged the Emperor Otho to a combat. This took place near Basle, so ran the legend; and the result was said to have been the defeat of Otho, who thereupon made over to Frederick his claims to the Empire, and withdrew into Saxony. Such was the Brescian explanation of the great event of 1212. The city was now a bulwark of the Lombard League, and its glory never shone out brighter than in 1238. Coming down to more modern times, we find it undergoing the horrors of a sack by the French early in the Sixteenth century, when young Gaston de Foix led the assault, and Bayard was left wounded in the breach. It suffered under the rough hand of Napoleon, and bore its share in the turmoil of 1848. In the next year, it was the only city in Lombardy that dared to rise in the rear of the Austrians; it was afterwards cruelly punished by Haynau, traces * Malvecius. This Emperor gave the burghers a Charter, in which he says; 'Brixia strenuitate militiæ et armis commendata.' † Ottavio Rossi. CHAP. 1235-1239. of whose handwriting might long be read on its battered convents and palaces. This was the stronghold against which Frederick the Second had led the combined forces of Italy, of Germany, and of many other lands. His vast treasures were conveyed by a host of mules, camels, and dromedaries.* The siege began on the 3rd of August, probably three months too late. The camp, pitched between Brescia and the Mella, must have presented a strange mixture of different nations, religions, tongues, and costumes. The Imperial banners were hung out from the castle on the back of the Elephant. The men of the turban, whom Frederick had settled at Lucera, and whose arrows had proved so deadly to the Lombards at Cortenuova, were proud to follow one whom they admired as a Solomon in council and a Roostum in fight. The Germans, not less than the Hassans and Mustaphas, were loud in praise of their great Hohenstaufen Kaiser, who had raised the renown of the Fatherland to a higher pitch than ever. The Italian Ghibellines of the North, now headed by Uberto Pallavicino, could never do enough for their Imperial countryman who had so fearfully avenged them on their Guelf enemies, and who had won their hearts by his courtesy and national sympathies. The feudal Chivalry of the Kingdom served under a Sovereign not inferior to his Norman forefathers, Roger the Great Count and Roger the first King of Sicily. These troops had been led into Lombardy by Acerra and Morra, Frederick's trusty officials; the Apulian nobles were highly honoured by their King, being made Podestas over the towns that had yielded to the awe inspired by his name. The Kingdom of Sicily had also furnished him with a large supply of the sinews of war, the produce of the January taxes. About the time when the siege began, many of Frederick's best friends left his side for a time. The Archbishop of Palermo, the Bishop of Reggio, Thaddeus of Sessa, and Roger Porcastrella the Lombard were sent to Rome, in order to keep the Pope quiet. The Archbishop of Messina came back with Gregory's answer. Hermann von Salza, after having in vain done his utmost in the cause of peace, had returned from Germany in bad health, and bidding farewell to his Kaiser for the last time, he now undertook a journey to Salerno, in the hope of prolonging the short span of life that remained to him. The Empress Isabella arrived in the Kingdom in September, and by her husband's orders made Andria on the Eastern coast her residence. Three months later, finding that after all he could not leave Lombardy, Frederick had her once more brought back into the North by the Archbishop of Palermo.* When before Brescia, the Emperor was much taken up with the affairs of the Kingdom of Arles. He invested the Archbishop of that See by means of the Imperial Sceptre, on receiving from him the oath of fealty. The Bishops of Avignon, St. Paul-TroisChateaux, and Die, obtained confirmations of their privileges. The last-named Prelate was ordered to maintain just weights and measures in his city, which was in a state of great disorder. A large sum was exacted from the burghers, in order to pay the troops which their Bishop had led against Brescia. Never * Ric. San Germano. CHAP. 1235-1239. |