After the death of Otho I. or the Great, Italy was for a long while without any general government, left under that species of municipal self-government that each city succeeded in securing to itself. This weak and fluctuating government relied on the division of interest of the factions, not on its own vigour. The common people in the meantime gained strength, and towards the end of the eleventh century, Landulph, archbishop of Milan, of the noble family of Carcano, having behaved haughtily and insolently, the citizens gave battle to him and to the whole of the aristocracy by whom he was supported, and drove them from the city. The Cremonese likewise waged a successful war against their bishop.

The dissensions between the emperor Henry IV. and pope Gregory VII. greatly tended to increase the independence of the cities of Upper Italy. The inhabitants, as well as their bishops, being generally in favour of the emperor, could dictate to him their conditions; and those who were for the Pope and the countess Matilda were not much inclined to respect the rights of the chief of the state. Whenever any follower of this party changed side in that great struggle, some new concessions were either forced from the Emperor, or graciously granted by him to gain supporters to his cause, and weaken his enemy's. The contest did not merely extend to the spiritual and temporal powers, but caused such schism, even in the former only, that Rome had two popes (one of which was afterwards declared an antipope by the winning party), and Milan three archbishops at the same time-Godfrey, elected by the Emperor; Otto, by the Pope; and Theobald, by the people. The prerogatives of that sovereign, who was twice beaten by the troops of one of the great vassals of

Non raro Germanicis regibus opus erat episcoporum præsidium, sive ut reges eligerentur, sive ut electi regnum adquisitum eorum ope deinde tuerentur. Opportunitatem adeo secundam amplificandæ potentiæ suæ non sinebant sacri antistites sibi e manibus elabi."—Antiq. Ital. Med. Ævi, Diss. viii. tom. i. col. 416. Muratori quotes many instances of bishops having obtained the county (that is the government of the town and its territory) from the sovereign; and publishes, among other documents, a charter from Rodolph, king of Burgundy, giving the county of the Tarantaise to the archbishop Amizo. The charter is dated 996, indict. x. in the third year of king Rodolph's reign; on which Muratori observes the indiction should be vi.; but he is mistaken. The same charter, published in the Monumenta Hist. Patria, (Chart. tom. i. col. 304,) copied from Besson, is not so complete as in Muratori, and no observation is made either as to his having edited it, or as to the supposed erroneous indiction.

the crown, the countess Matilda, became res nullius, and either fell into desuetude or were usurped by the strongest among the nobility, the commons or the clergy.

Henry V. was refused admittance into Milan by the citizens; and he destroyed the little city of Novara opposed to him; which shows how far the spirit of resistance had spread. Several years before, Pavia had refused to receive within its walls the emperor Conrad, who did not find himself strong enough to besiege it; whilst, soon after, he was ignominiously driven from before Milan, which had rebelled under its archbishop's direction*. By this time several cities had obtained, either by custom, charter or main force, not only that the Emperor's troops should not be allowed to enter their gates, but that the imperial palaces, which were one of the regalia due from the cities to the Emperor, should be built out of the walls, so that the sovereign could not enter the stronghold of his faithful subjectst. During the reign of Henry V. however, two facts are recorded as having happened in the year 1112, which show not only that the Emperor's power at Milan was little thought of, but that some of the cities of Lombardy had in fact entirely thrown off their allegiance. The archbishop of Milan, Grossolano, who had gone to Palestine as a crusader, was deposed by the people, and Giordano chosen in his stead. Azzo, bishop of Acqui, knowing the importance of the former to the imperial party, and unable to assist him in a direct, open and lawful manner, not only refused to assist at the consecration of Giordano, but had recourse to the vile stratagem of getting up a party among the people for the old archbishop; thus supporting the prerogative of the crown by the folly and wickedness of faction‡. Landulph, who lived at the time, says, that in the same year,

So early as 1039, according to Sigebertus Gemblacensis, " omnes Longobardi conjuraverant ut non paterentur quemlibet dominum, qui aliud quam ipsi vellent contra se ageret."

It is well known that no English sovereign, or his troops, can enter the City without the lord mayor's knowledge and consent.

"Licet ab ipsis [Mediolanensibus] multum rogatus hujusmodi consecrationi interesse, nec assensum præbere volui, immo dedi operam erigendi magnum parietem populi contra populum sub occasione alterius Archiepiscopi [i. e. Grossolani,] quem pars illorum intendit deponere, viri scilicet literatissimi et ingenio astutissimi et eloquentissimi, Curiæ vestræ [Imperatoris scilicet] valde necessarii, cuius partem propter honorem vestrum tantum auxi, quod medietas populi contra medietatem populi contendit."-Apud Muratori, Ann. ad an. 1113.

the citizens of Milan and Pavia concluded an offensive and defensive alliance against all sorts of people; which, the historian says, appeared to some persons against the imperial and papal authority*.

During the reign of Conrad III., the whole of Italy emancipated itself de facto from the king's government, and the most complete anarchy prevailed, not in the municipal government of each city, but in the general government of the country. The king's supremacy was theoretically admitted by each of them; and Genoa, for instance, as well as Placentia, humbly sued and obtained charters granting them power to coin money. But in the same year that they thus acknowledged the king's prerogative, the Genoese seized upon Ventimiglia by main force; Lucca made war on Pisa; Padua on Verona; Milan on Como; Modena on Bologna; Rome on Tivoli; Venice on Ravenna and Pisa; Vicenza took the side of Verona; Trevigi that of Padua; Siena supported Lucca; Florence, Pisa. At last, on king Conrad's coming to Italy, he was robbed on the road by a marquis Obizzo (either a Malaspina or Este), and was obliged to have recourse to Placentia to obtain redress. The people of that city took their king under their protection, and forced the noble robber to return every farthing of the plunder.

Such was the state of Italy when Frederic Barbarossa was called to the imperial throne. Circumstances had given him more power than to the preceding emperors, he being the representative of the Ghibelline and nearly connected with Guelph factions. He possessed a determined character, and firmly resolved to stand by his prerogative. It was not long before

"Papienses et Mediolanenses statuerunt et iuraverunt sibi fœdera, quæ nimium quibusdam videntur Imperatoriæ maiestati et apostolicæ auctoritati contraria, cum isti cives iurarent sibi servare se et sua contra quemlibet mortalem hominem natum vel nasciturum."-Landulph. de S. Paulo, Hist. Mediol. c. 21. R.I.S. tom. v.

"Duæ in Romano orbe apud Galliæ Germaniæve fines famosæ familiæ hactenus fuere una Henricorum de Gueibelinga, alia Guelforum de Alsdorfio, altera Imperatores, altera magnos duces producere solita. . . . . Fridericus Dux pater hujus [Imperatoris] qui de regum familia descenderat, de altera, Henrici scilicet [Guelphonis Estensis] Noricorum ducis filiam in uxorem acceperat, ex eaque Fridericum qui in præsentiarum est et regnat, generaret. Principis ergo non solum industriam ac virtutem jam sæpe dicti iuvenis, sed etiam hoc, quod utriusque sanguinis consors, tanquam angularis lapis, utrorumque horum parietum dissidentiam unire posset, considerantes, caput regni eum constituere adiudicaverunt."-Otto Frising. De Gestis Frederici I. Imper. II. 2. R. I. S., tom. vi., col. 700.

he went to Italy at the head of a large army, to bring to reason the Milanese, who had been solemnly tried as rebels, and condemned to the ban of the empire, after they had been heard in their defence*. A long siege ended in a capitulation, by which it was agreed that the Milanese should surrender all the regalia to the Emperor; but it was likewise especially agreed that the citizens should continue to elect their consuls, to be confirmed by the Emperor, who, in order to be able first, to restrain, and no doubt, afterwards, oppress, the Italians, had instituted certain magistrates, called Potestatest, or Podestà, who were to be appointed by him. A solemn diet was then held at Roncalia, where it was decided by the great expounders of the laws at the University of Bologna, assisted by twenty-eight lawyers, chosen by the Lombard cities, that all the regalia belonged to the sovereign-a decision often supposed savouring of partiality and adulation, but strictly correct in law and in the abstract, which was the only point of view under which it had been considered. The subject of dispute

The historian just quoted, who accompanied the Emperor, his nephew, to Italy, gives the following striking account of the state of Lombardy on the descent of Frederic into Italy, of the public spirit then prevailing, of the free and democratic principles of their government, and of the effects which were produced by these various causes :-" Longobardi (he says) Latini sermonis elegantiam morumque retinent urbanitatem. In civitatum quoque dispositione, ac Reip. conservatione antiquorum adhuc Romanorum imitantur solertiam. Denique libertatem tantopere affectant, ut potestatis insolentiam fugiendo, consulum potius quam imperantium regantur arbitrio. Cumque tres inter eos ordines, id est capitaneorum, valvassorum et plebis esse noscantur, ad reprimendam superbiam, non de uno sed de singulis prædicti consules eliguntur, neve ad dominandi libidinem prorumpant, singulis pene annis variantur. Ex quo fit ut tota illa terra intra civitates ferme divisa, singulæ ad commanendum secum diocesanos compulerint, vixque aliquis nobilis vel vir magnus tam magno ambitu inveniri queat, qui civitatis suæ non sequatur imperium. Consueverunt autem singuli singula territoria ex hac comminandi potestate Comitatus suos appellare. Ut etiam ad comprimendos vicinos materia non careant, inferioris conditionis iuvenes, vel quoslibet contemptibilium etiam mechanicarum artium opifices, quos cæteræ gentes ab honestioribus et liberioribus studiis tamquam pestem propellunt, ad militiæ cingulum, vel dignitatum gradus assumere non dedignantur. Ex quo factum est, ut cæteris orbis civitatibus, divitiis et potentia præemineant. Juvantur ad hoc non solum (ut dictum est) morum suorum industria, sed et principum in transalpinis manere assuetorum absentia. In hoc tamen antiquæ nobilitatis immemores, barbaricæ fæcis retinent vestigia, quod cum legibus se vivere glorientur, legibus non obsequuntur. Nam Principem, cui voluntariam exhibere deberent subjectionis reverentiam, vix aut numquam reverenter suspiciunt, vel ea, quæ secundum legum integritatem sanciverit, obedienter excipiunt, nisi ejus multi milites astipulatione coacti sentiant auctoritatem."-II. xiii., col. 708.

†The word is used by Latin writers to signify a magistrate, more particularly a provincial one. Forcellini quotes Suetonius:-" Jurisdictionem potestatibus per provincias demandare." The word occurs in this sense in documents of the eleventh century. We have thus transferred the name of justice to the judge,

between the sovereign and the cities was, whether either part or the whole of the regalia had or had not been either tacitly or expressly surrendered by the predecessors of Frederic to the cities to whom the self-government, for which they contended, had been granted, and of which they were possessed by right. The question submitted to the learned in the law was one of principle; the application of that principle was not then under discussion. Shortly afterwards Frederic endeavoured to break the capitulation entered into with the Milanese, by claiming the right of appointing a podestà of his own, and thus depriving them of their own magistrates, the consuls. This led to another rupture which ended in the taking and total destruction of Milan, by order of Frederic. But as this monarch was evidently aiming at the despotic government of Italy, the inhabitants of the upper parts of the Peninsula, moved by the common danger, laid aside their private quarrels; and, after having rebuilt Milan, and reinstated the inhabitants in their city, a league was formed, which forced from Frederic the great charter of the Italian liberties, known under the name of Treaty of the Peace of Constance. By it the Italians obtained all that they had contended for, and more than was perhaps compatible with a monarchical government, although not more than was necessary to secure themselves from the tyranny of a foreign sovereign, who had a party in the country itself, and who could always pour a large foreign army into Italy to force the people to submission, and to rob them of their just rights and

liberties.

Had the treaty of Constance taken place between a national sovereign and the commons, there is little doubt that it would have proved a lasting foundation of nationality and liberty for that country, and it is impossible to foresee to what a point of prosperity such a country might have risen. But when the fear of being overcome by the emperors ceased, the Italian cities ceased also to have a common bond of union. Each of them being left to itself, the others were not considered as members of one family constituting a whole, but as separate and independent states; hence jealousy, ambition, pride, avarice and envy inflamed each of them against its neighbours. The more powerful endeavoured to add to their territories the