The Italian policies of Frederick Barbarossa

             The papacy was angry at this break from the Peace of Constance of 1153, (at which they had been allies) and his determination to exercise authority, especially in central and Northern Italy, proclaimed in the Roncaglia decrees.  The Roncaglia  decrees proclaimed he would resume all regalia, entire power of Bannus; full exercise of jurisdiction over all matters affecting property, life and liberty. This antagonism, the papacy felt went against the authority of God since the church should have authority over everything, and it resulted in a break of the papal alliance and a schism amongst the church. The papacy highly opposed the independence of many Lombard cities and would not allow any increase in imperial power in Italy.

 The emperor began his Italian policy swiftly, completing four campaigns into Italy in 1164 and supporting many imperial popes during the 1160s. Even earlier he had established imperial rule in Milan, during the time of Hadrian IV, with little opposition from the papacy but Milan found allies in the communes of Brescia and Piacenza. Milan was taken in 1162 and later destroyed which narrowed the anti-imperial coalition’s prospect for success, while he forced Alexander III into exile and enthroned Paschal III, a German in St. Peters in 1167.

The opposition of the Papacy to the Italian policy began with the succession of Alexander III, the emperor’s most formidable opponent. The papacy had already found allies in the Lombard city of Milan after the Roncaglia Decrees. Imperial rule over Milan was quickly answered two years after Frederick had taken Milan when Manual I, the Byzantine emperor organised an opposition in Venice, the “League of Verona” with its allies Verona, Padua and Vicenza, including the Norman King. This proved to perhaps achieve the greatest success in opposing the Italian policies of Frederick Barbarossa in Northern and Central Italy. The papacy went further in opposition under the politics of Alexander III by excommunicating the emperor after he established Paschal III as pope. The papacy then continued in its opposition in 1167 when the Imperial army was defeated outside Rome, by extending the League of Verona by allying itself into the ‘Lombard League’ in 1167, while at the same time the pope contributed large sums of money. This proved to wreck many of Frederick’s ambitions and gain support for the papacy. Alexander III gained the support of France and the Anglo-Norman Kingdom, while in Denmark and Poland the remaining allies of the imperial pope were exiled. A year later Alexander was able to establish the city of Alessandria with the help of the League.

 The city of Alessandria was to the emperor a symbol of papal achievement, and although efforts for settlement with the pope continued, the presence of the Lombard League was something the emperor could not allow during peace. The Italian policy again prevailed with the fifth campaign in 1174 against Alessandria. The emperor again faced defeat and was able to make peace in Montebello with the League, but the Italian policy once again got in the way when Frederick could not accept the inclusion of Alexander III in the peace. Frederick’s stubbornness in following his Italian policies (even in opposition to the papacy) however was weakened and a small success was granted to Alexander.

 The battle of Legnano in 1176 resulted in a near complete destruction of the imperial supremacy in Italy and convinced the emperor to reconcile with the pope. Negotiations at Anagni achieved a “far reaching settlement”  between emperor and pope. The emperor was forced to renounce the Matildine lands and ally with Alexander. He granted some independence to the cities he controlled in Italy and accepted the role of overlord. At this stage the Italian policies of Frederick had failed and the papacy was triumphant. The new relations with the pope had not destroyed the Italian policy, but had instead ended this period of conflict in the Peace of Venice in 1177.

Compromise was the aim of both Pope and emperor at the Peace of Venice. Frederick gave up his idea of domination of Italy in return he remained in control of the German church, evidence that the papacy was not as successful in exercising the idea of a papal monarchy and that much strain had been put on its authority over this period. Peace with the Lombard league and Norman King however was not entirely a defeat of the Italian policy, it had taken away much of the authority of Frederick’s in Northern Italy but it had left him the authority of the German church, although this was not in Italy it meant the papacy was back where it started. Frederick’s policy became focused on the Matildine lands and central Italy.

 The Peace was broken when Frederick continued his Italian policy in the 1180s; it was ‘the price of silence over many issues (at the treaty of Venice) which were to give rise to the troubles’. Frederick revenged the battle of Legnano in 1180 which was later followed by the peace of Constance in 1183.  The Peace of Constance meant Frederick was forced to allow the members of the League to have extensive constitutional independence within the city walls and the city territory. But Frederick’s  rights which could make large financial profits within the city remained. However with the death of Alexander in 1181 there followed a line of passive popes who complied with the emperor during his last Italian campaign (118-6) thus strengthening his influence in Lombardy. By 1189 compromise was again on the table and the papacy was granted a number of places in the Patrimony of St. Peter, reestablishing the area around Rome as a Papal domain. The papacy was left surrounded at the death of Frederick Barbarossa in 1190 when his son Henry VI became engaged to the heiress of the Norman Kingdom of Southern Italy. Frederick still held administrative power in some parts of central Italy but his Italian policy had failed.

 The Italian policy had failed because it did not answer the question of ecclesiastical versus imperial authority. Frederick Barbarosssa’s plans of supreme domination over the entire Holy Roman empire were not achieved, but though he yielded much of what he wished to gain it is not to say either that the papacy was entirely successful.) It had “radically altered the place of the papacy in the church” and left the Holy Roman emperor’s successors with many claims unanswered. The hard line of Alexander III had not been continued and the emperor was left for sometime unopposed. The Lombard communes can be recognised as the real reason the papacy emerged successful  but still the papacy had the future to deal with, a future that found them surrounded by the Holy Roman Emperor’s authority. Both the emperor and the Papacy paid the price of conflict, but the Papacy was successful enough to immobilise the Italian Policy of Frederick Barbarossa.