| Battle of Cortenuova | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofGuelphs and Ghibellines | |||||||
 Miniature depicting the capture of theCarroccio Nuova Cronica Vatican Library Chig.L.VIII.296 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Holy Roman Empire Kingdom of Sicily | Lombard League Milan,Lodi,Crema,Bergamo,Brescia,Verona,Vicenza,Padova,Treviso,Mantua,Alessandria andVercelli | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Frederick II Ezzelino da Romano Gebhard von Arnstein | Pietro TiepoloP  Guglielmo I da Rizolio | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| ~10,000[1][2][3][4][5] | ~15,000[1][3][6] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Thousands killed[6][7][8] Thousands captured[1] | ||||||
 | |||||||
TheBattle of Cortenuova (sometimes spelledCortenova) was fought on 27 November 1237 in the course of theGuelphs and Ghibellines Wars: in it,Holy Roman EmperorFrederick II defeated the SecondLombard League.[9]
In 1235 Emperor Frederick was in Germany to quell the rebellion of his sonHenry. In the autumn of that year he decided to return to Italy to suppress theLombard communes which, backed by PopeGregory IX, were contesting his authority.[10] He arrived atValeggio, nearVerona, and, with the help ofEzzelino III da Romano and otherGhibelline leaders, sacked the city ofVicenza. Satisfied with this first outcome, he came back to Germany to deal with another German princes' rebellion, leavingHermann von Salza,Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, in Italy to monitor the situation.[9]
In August 1237 the emperor returned again to Italy, this time aiming to definitively crush the SecondLombard League.[9] He crossed the Alps toVerona and here his 2,000 knights were joined byEzzelino III da Romano's troops, including soldiers fromTreviso,Padua,Vicenza, and Verona itself, as well as by Tuscan men led by Gaboard of Arnstein. Later 6,000 infantry and horsemen from the Kingdom of Sicily came, includingApulian Muslim archers.[11] The rest of the army was formed by Ghibellines fromCremona,Pavia,Modena,Parma, andReggio, for a total of 12,000 – 15,000 men[10]
The imperial army marched first againstMantua, which decided to surrender instead of being sacked,[9][12] and then toBergamo, whose council of nobles took the same decision in exchange for no formal submission.[9] Frederick then invadedBrescia's territory, capturingGoito andMontichiari among the others, although the latter's resistance gave time for most of the Lombard League troops to reach Brescia.[10] The 2,000-knights and 6,000-infantry[10] strong army, led byPietro Tiepolo,podestàof Milan and son of thedoge of Venice,[9] occupied a favorable position atManerbio (November 1237). The two armies remained fifteen days facing each other without battling, separated by a marsh that thwarted the knights' effectiveness. Frederick, whose army was becoming short of supply, left his camp in search of a more advantageous position, and on 24 November 1237 crossed theOglio River nearPontevico, where the Lombardian League's army was camped, marching northwards to wait for the enemy's moves atSoncino.[9][12]
The Lombards believed the rumors, skilfully spread by the emperor, that he was withdrawing to Cremona to spend the winter there.[9] Therefore, they also started towards their winter quarters. However, Frederick had posted a contingent from Bergamo atCividate al Piano, which would inform him of the Lombard movements throughsmoke signals. When the Lombard army had completed its crossing of Oglio atPontoglio andPalazzolo, the imperial troops saw large clouds of smoke and moved toCortenuova, which was 18 km from their current positions.[9]
The imperial vanguard included Muslim soldiers and horsemen, which were the first units to attack the withdrawing Lombards, followed by the infantry. Taken by surprise, theMilanese andPiacentines were unable to form a defense line, and fled to Cortenuova.[9] When Frederick and his main force reached the battlefield, it was scattered with knights, slain or wounded and his passage blocked by riderless horses.[1][4] At Cortenuova, other Milanese and troops fromAlessandria rallied around theirCarroccio, where the Lombards fought valiantly[6] under the Muslim archers' arrows and the Teutonic charges. A column of men from Milanese noble families, despite the arrival of other Bergamo troops, was able to protect the rest of the army's retreat to Cortenuova till nightfall.[9] To keep the army's morale as high as possible, Frederick ordered his troop to sleep with their armor on, and to attack at the first light of dawn. On the other side, thepodestà of Milan, recognizing that the troops could not withstand another battle, ordered the abandonment of the town along with the Carroccio and the rest of the baggage.[9]
On the dawn of 28 November the Imperials attacked the hastily-retreating Lombards, who collapsed with minimal resistance.[9] Many drowned in the Oglio, which was overflowing due to a flood. About 4,000 Lombards were captured, and the wounded and killed numbered several thousand. The Milanese alone lost 2,500 soldiers.[10] Of the battlefield,Peter de Vinea recorded:[4]
who can describe the heaps of corpses and the number of captives?... the Germans dyed their swords in blood;... the loyal Cremonese with the other states satiated their axes with blood; the Saracens emptied their quivers. Never in any war were so many corpses piled up; had not night come on suddenly, none of the enemy would have fled from Caesars hands–Peter de Vinea,Ep. II. 3.
The Lombard League's army was virtually annihilated. Frederick made a triumphal entrance in the allied city ofCremona, with the Carroccio towed by an elephant and Tiepolo chained on it.[9] The latter was first detained in Apulia and then publicly executed inTrani. The Carroccio was later sent to Rome as a show of the imperial power.[9]
The Lombard League disbanded.Lodi,Novara,Vercelli,Chieri, andSavona were captured or submitted to the emperor, whileAmadeus IV of Savoy andBoniface II of Montferrat confirmed their Ghibelline allegiance.[9]Milan,Brescia,Piacenza, andBologna remained alone in arms.[2] Frederick, now at the top of his strength, besieged Milan. He rejected all Milanese peace overtures, insisting on unconditional surrender. Milan and five other cities, however, held out, and, in October 1238, he had to raise thesiege of Brescia.[9]
The emperor then went on to invade thePapal States, and was excommunicated byPope Gregory IX.[9]
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