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Battle of Legnano 1176 Date May 29, 1176 Legnano, Lombardy, Location present-day Italy Decisive Lombard League Result victory[1]
Belligerents Holy Roman Lombard League Empire Commanders and leaders Frederick I Barbarossa Strength [2] 3,000 men 3,500 men[2] Casualties and losses Heavy Heavy
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Contents
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1 The Lombard League 2 Frederick's 5th Italian Campaign 3 Siege of Alessandria 4 Treaty of Montebello 5 The battle 6 Aftermath 7 Actual battlefield 8 Garibaldi reference 9 See also 10 Sources 11 Notes
the removal of the Pope Alexander III. Frederick's next goal was therefore the Lombard city of Alessandria. Alessandria was founded by Milanese refugees, who fled after Frederick's forces burned and destroyed the city of Milan in 1162[6] and named after Pope Alexander III. The siege of the "Straw City", called so because all the roofs were covered with straw, began at the end of October. To Frederick's surprise and anger, his forces were not able to take the city so he had to spend the winter in front of its gates. On Holy Saturday, Frederick's forces managed to enter the city by digging tunnels under its walls, but the attack was repulsed by the Milanese with heavy losses.[5] Alessandria withstood, and that was the first victory of the Lombard League. Frederick had to break off the siege due to an advancing Lombard army and retreated to Pavia.[5]
Olona. The infantry with the Milanese war cart, the carroccio, stood in a hastily fortified position at Borsano. The Lombards knew that Frederick was about to skirt through their area, but did not realize how close Frederick already was. At dawn on May 29, the Lombard League sent a reconnaissance unit of 700 horsemen to the Seprio landscape. At the same time, the emperor had crossed the Olona and was marching south from Cairate, five miles northeast of Busto Arsizio. Here, the battle commenced. The Lombard reconnaissance and the 300 Imperial vanguard clashed. The clash was brief and bloody and with Frederick already on the horizon, the Lombard reconnaissance broke off and fled beyond Borsano. Now, Frederick and his imperial German army launched a rampant and brutal attack on the Lombard League forces near Borsano - Legnano. The Lombard cavalry was largely routed but managed to escape the skirmish, leaving the infantry and carroccio on its own. Frederick advanced to the carroccio and assaulted the infantry and the Company of Death with his cavalry. M.B. Synge wrote this about the Company of Death: "Nine hundred desperate patriots forming the Company of Death defended the sacred car. Seeing the Germans were gaining ground, fearful for the safety of their treasure, they suddenly knelt down and renewed their vow to God that they would perish for their country"[11] The infantry positioned itself in a phalanx-like line. The fight around the carroccio was a long and bloody fight in which the Lombard League infantry brought the Imperial army to a stalemate. Finally, the Lombard League forces received help from their regrouped cavalry and from a Brescian cavalry that was called to aid by the fleeing reconnaissance troops.[2] The regrouped reconnaissance troops and the Brescian cavalry jointly attacked Frederick's army from the rear. The decisive assault was made by the Brescians, who managed to break through the lines and attack Frederick directly. In this attack, his guards and standard-bearer were killed, and Frederick was thrown off his horse and believed to be dead. Upon this, the imperial troops panicked and fled, pursued to the Ticino by the League's cavalry. The generals tried to rally the men in vain.[12] The booty and prisoners taken by the League were immense.[2]
[edit] Aftermath
Lombard knights looking for Frederick's dead body. After the battle, Frederick's rule over Lombardy was decisively broken. The knights that managed to escape gathered in Pavia. There, they brought the news of Frederick's presumed death to his wife Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy. Beatrice and the Empire mourned Frederick's demise, but after several days the emperor appeared at the gates of Pavia.
H. E. Marshall wrote: "Then, greatly to the joy of all, after three days Barbarossa suddenly appeared before the gates of Pavia. Although wounded and bruised and left for dead Frederick had not been killed."[12] The victory of the Lombard League forced Frederick to travel to Venice. In the Peace of Venice, 1177, Frederick and Pope Alexander III were reconciled. The emperor acknowledged the pope's sovereignty over the Papal States, and in return Alexander acknowledged the emperor's overlordship of the imperial Church. The Peace of Venice was heavily instigated by Archbishop Wichmann of Magdeburg, who was amongst the defeated at Legnano. The cities of Lombardy, however, continued to fight until 1183, when, in the Peace of Constance, Frederick conceded their right to freely elect town magistrates. The Treaty was cast in bronze. Frederick did not forgive Henry the Lion for refusing to come to his aid in 1176. Taking advantage of the hostility of other German princes to Henry, Frederick had Henry tried in absentia by a court of bishops and princes in 1180, declared that imperial law overruled traditional German law, and had Henry stripped of his lands and declared an outlaw. On January 27, 1186, Frederick's son Henry VI married Constance of Sicily in Milan as a sign that peace had really been established.
Monument to Alberto da Giussano in Legnano, Milan province, commemorating the Battle of 29 May 1176 The battle is traditionally tied to the name of Legnano, since the League's forces came from that town. Actually, as local historians have ascertained, the battle was fought a couple miles west of Legnano, where today the little town of Villa Cortese and Borsano, frazione of Busto Arsizio, stand.
struggle for the unification of Italy: "Bergamo will be the Pontida of the present generation, and God will bring us a Legnano!".[13]