Parma

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The Battle of Parma and the death of Piero delle Vigne

This week the epic struggle between empire and papacy goes into its final stretch. The pope has fled to Lyon. There he calls a church council which Frederick is now unable to forestall. Pope Innocent IV deposes Frederick, and – for the first time in history – calls a crusade, not against the Muslims, not against pagans, not against heretics or Greek orthodox rulers, but against a Latin Christian monarch who for years had tried to find an amicable solution to what was a political, not a religious disagreement. And all that against the backdrop of Jerusalem having fallen into the hands of the Turks, and the Mongol armies on the march.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans: Episode 90 – Things are Falling Apart

I have to start with a correction. Last week I erroneously ascribed the quote “from my cold dead hands” to Clint Eastwood, though it was – as every child knows – Charlton Heston who said it. What makes this particularly embarrassing is that Clint Eastwood had been very vocal in his support for gun control since the 1970s. I can only apologize unreservedly and thanks to listener Gary for making me aware.

This week things will indeed be falling apart. The never-ending war is exactly what it is, a never ending, unwinnable war against an enemy that hides on the other side of the Alps and cannot be attacked. Money is running seriously low, and Frederick II is getting concerned about the loyalty of his closest associates. And those he will lose, one due to the vagaries of war, the other through a bout of paranoia.

Before we start just a reminder. The History of the Germans Podcast is advertising free thanks to the generous support from patrons. And you can become a patron too and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes and other privileges from the price of a latte per month. All you have to do is sign up at patreon.com/historyofthegermans or on my website historyofthegermans.com. You find all the links in the show notes. And thanks a lot to Chris M., Geir and Curtis B. who have already signed up.

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Last week we had left Frederick II in ever worsening frustration about the progress of his struggle with Pope Innocent IV. He had suffered a humiliating defeat before the walls of Parma. His great new imperial capital of Victoria had been burned to the ground by the men, women and children of Parma. His most trusted advisor, Taddeo da Suessa had been captured, tortured and had died in prison. The imperial crown, the one today displayed in the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna had fallen to the enemy, was paraded through the city streets in a carnival procession. The soldier who took it sold it to the town for 200 pounds of silver and a small house next to the church of St. Christina so that for an undisclosed time thereafter it was kept in the sacristy of the cathedral of Parma. Salimbene reports that merchants from far and wide came to Parma to buy up the gold and silver vessels, the precious stones and cloth of gold for pittance. That is how the emperor’s own copy of the book on falconry ended up in the stock of a Milanese merchant in 1268 before vanishing forever.

What was almost a miracle was that Parma failed to trigger the domino effect the Guelfs had hoped for. None of the major cities went across to the other side in the immediate aftermath of Parma. He may have seen that as a sign of the unwavering loyalty of his communal allies, but it is more likely to be nothing but the continued animosity between Guelf and Ghibelline factions that is now largely detached from the fight between pope and emperor that had kicked it off in the first place.

Parma was nevertheless a massive blow to the imperial finances. The city of Victoria had held the imperial treasury, recently enlarged by the significant Babenberger funds. But all that had now been lost. Frederick had to again put a special tax on his Sicilian subjects. Subjects who had almost rebelled two years earlier.

Sicily had taken the imperial deal, which was peace and justice in exchange for obedience. They did accept loss of freedom of speech, worship and association into communes, but they drew the line when it came to their wallets. What had made things particularly irksome was that tax collection had been privatised. Tax farmers promised the emperor a fixed amount in exchange to charge his subjects whatever he can squeeze out of them. That meant taxation was not only a much heavier burden than necessary, but also grossly unfair. Frederick must have known that this was not sustainable, but at the same time, he could not give up. A one-sided end of hostilities would have brought the whole network of alliances to its collapse. And it would have allowed the pope to finally recruit what he called a true Athlete of Christ who would remove Frederick as emperor and as king of Sicily.

Politically Innocent’s position improved when King Louis of France finally left for his crusade in 1248. Until then Louis had undermined Innocent’s plans for a crusade against Frederick because Louis wanted all crusading efforts to focus on the Holy Land where Jerusalem had fallen to the Turks in 1244.

Do I need to mention that Saint Louis’ crusade was a catastrophic failure? Not really. You know the drill, though this one really is deja vue all over again. Because Saint Louis is a pious king and does things properly. So, he took his army to Damietta, and captured Damietta. The sultan offers peace with concessions and Louis being a true crusader, reject them. Then he moved on Cairo this time hoping not on prester John but on the Mongols. Yes, the Mongols, the same Mongols who had been putting the fear of god or fear of agile horsemen into anyone living east of the Rhine.

Just to give you an idea how deluded the papacy and the crusaders have become, here is a fun little story. In April 1245 Pope Innocent IV had sent two Franciscan friars to the court of the Great Khan in Karakorum with a letter. In this letter he enlightened the Khan about the errors of his ways, admonished him to get baptised in the catholic faith and recognise him as vicar of Christ. The great Khan Güyük’s response conveys his befuddlement with the papal proposition. Quote: “How do you think you know whom God will absolve and in whose favour He will exercise His mercy? How do you think you know that you dare to express such an opinion?” and concludes with “You personally, at the head of the Kings, you shall come, one and all, to pay homage to me and to serve me. Then we shall take note of your submission. If, however, you do not accept God’s order and act against our command, we shall know that you are our enemies.” (end quote). Unperturbed by this response Innocent sends further missions and for some reason the crusaders believe the Mongols are going to coordinate their attacks with their efforts in Egypt. Well they did not.

The crusaders get up to exactly the same spot the fifth crusade had perished at and -drumroll, did win the battle there. But then the inevitable happened. The honourable chivalric knights run into a trap laid by wily Egyptian commanders. The crusaders were beaten comprehensively, so comprehensively that the whole army including king Louis were captured. One year, 800,000 byzantine gold coins and the return of Damietta later, king Louis is released. Louis will stay in the Holy Land for another four years achieving nothing.

With Louis out of the picture, Innocent gains room to manoeuvre. He puts up a new anti-king to replace the luckless Heinrich Raspe. This “athlete of christ” is count William of Holland. This count has even less traction that the powerful landgrave. It takes him a year to get into Aachen and to get crowned. After that he returns back to Holland to fight some of his neighbours on the polders. His luck will improve later, but by 1248 he is no real threat to Frederick II and Konrad IV.

Innocent is also on the lookout for a second champion, the one who is supposed to take over the crown of Sicily. He talks to many, amongst them the two most ambitious men in 13th century Europe, both brothers of kings.

The first is Richard of Cornwall, brother of King Henry III of England. Richard has become a major player in the convoluted politics of England at the time. Usually supportive of his brother, but sometimes also siding with the barons. This game of back and forth has made him one of the richest landowners in England and Count of Poitiers. He does know Sicily well, having visited his sister, the beautiful Isabella who had been married to Frederick II. He was an accomplished soldier who had headed up the last partially successful crusade to the Holy Land in the early 1240s. But Richard turned Innocent down, claiming obligations under the still formally existing alliance between England and the empire. As with William of Holland, this is not the last we will hear from Richard of Cornwall.

The other ambitious man was Charles of Anjou, younger brother of King Louis of France. He too was carving out his own little empire. He had set his eyes on Provence, specifically on Beatrice of Provence, so beautiful she “set men’s hearts thumping and the fingers of Troubadours to fevered twanging of Lyres”. Beatrice was the daughter and heiress to Count Ramon Berengar IV of Provence. Provence was at that time part of the kingdom of Burgundy and hence part of the empire. Its counts were from the family of the counts of Barcelona who had by now risen to kings of Aragon. When Ramon Berengar IV died in 1245 king James I of Aragon immediately occupied the county, seeking to marry Beatrice himself. Beatrice hid in her castle at Aix-en-Provence and asked – who else, but pope Innocent IV for help. Meanwhile a number of other suitors were setting out for the land of olives, wine and troubadours. These included count Raymond VII of Toulouse and it seems Frederick II himself. In such a crowded field a younger son of the king of France needs a powerful sponsor – and that was our favourite pope, Innocent IV. Innocent used Provence as leverage to stop Louis to be overly supportive of Frederick and bang, the lovely Beatrice and her even lovelier inheritance goes to Charles of Anjou. So Charles owed Innocent big time. Still Charles too turns him down when he is asked to contest the crown of Sicily, officially because he was going on the ill-fated crusade of his brother. And again, this is not the last we hear about Charles of Anjou.

Hence in 1248 there was no rival monarch for Sicily and the pretender north of the Alps was a non-entity.

But that is not making things great. Frederick II was 54 years old and he was increasingly alone in his frustration. Not only had Taddeo da Suessa passed away, so had the love of his life, Bianca Lancia. Many of his closest advisors and fellow members of his poet’s society had turned against him in 1246. He began to only trust his immediate family members. His illegitimate sons, Enzio and Frederick of Antioch replaced members of his court as imperial vicars responsible for operations in Northern Italy.

By the end of 1248 he began losing confidence in one of his longest standing and most important advisers. Pietro da Vinea had joined the imperial chancery way back in the 1220s and had raced up the career ladder. By 1224 he was already a judge at the high court. In 1230/31 he was one of the authors of the constitutions of Melfi. In 1243 he was called the imperialis aule protonotarius et regno sicilie logotheta. As protonotary he produced the Latin announcements of the emperor and as we have heard before, was the brains behind the imperial propaganda machine after the excommunication in 1239. His elaborate style of Latin became the benchmark for future chancellors all across Europe. And as Logothet, a byzantine title, he was the actual voice of the emperor. On many of the great occasions when the imperial majesty is presented to the people, Frederick would not speak himself, but sit on a throne, wearing his crown and projecting the majesty of the ruler, whilst Vinea would speak on his behalf.

Between 1234 and 1239 Frederick had a monumental gate constructed in Capua. This enormous gate formed the grand entrance into his kingdom of Sicily. It had a lot in common with ancient Roman triumphal arches and was to symbolise the political program of Frederick II and his kingdom. He is shown in the guise of an ancient Roman emperor, the first time such an iconography had been seen in Western Europe since the fall of the empire. The message was that he has the power to provide peace and justice, the Pax Romana. And justice is made manifest through three tondi, just above the entrance in the kingdom, showing a female head of justice in the middle and two judges, one of the Piero da Vinea and the other either Taddeo da Suessa or Giacomo da Morro, the former loyal to the end, the latter a conspirator in 1246. Few things indicate how much Pietro da Vinea was at the heart of the concept of the state Frederick II had built.

And this heart is about to be torn out. We do not know what exactly happened, but by the end of 1248 Frederick became convinced that Pietro da Vinea was betraying him. Being at the heart of the financial, legal and political system of the empire and the kingdom of Sicily had made Pietro da Vinea immensely rich. Unsurprisingly that fuelled rumours that he was corrupt. But during this time it would have been most unusual for a man in his position not to amass a fortune. Kings and emperors were expected to be generous with their closest advisors and diplomacy involved expensive gifts being given to intermediaries.

The accusation that Frederick will bring forward in February 1249 is that Vinea had begun secret negotiations with the pope. Frederick had ordered that da Suessa and Vinea should always negotiate with Innocent IV together. Neither – so he said – should be allowed to have any conversation with the pope on their own. He did not accuse Vinea of having made any specific arrangements with his enemy, just that he had spoken to Innocent alone and unsupervised. Matthew Paris – always good for a bit a salacious gossip – reports that Vinea had bribed the royal physician to poison Frederick, all on behest of the pope.

Papal propaganda blamed the fall of Vinea on imperial money problems. According to them, Frederick had run out of other financing options and needed the wealth of his closest advisor to keep going.

Whatever the actual reason, Frederick ordered Vinea to be blinded and paraded across Italian cities “pour encourager les autres”. Pietro was not the kind of man who could bear such treatment. In April 1249 guards found Pietro da Vinea lifeless in his cell in the castle of San Miniato near Florence. He had smashed his head in on the column they had been chained him to.

Dante encounters Pietro da Vinea in the 7th circle of hell, where he has been turned into a gnarly dusky tree covered in poisonous thorns and picked at by Harpies. He is in the wood of suicides where men go who have thrown away their earthly bodies forsaking their right to have human form in the afterlife – according to Dante. On the question of his culpability, Dante let Vinea say the following: “By the strange roots of this tree, I swear to you, I never broke faith with my lord, so worthy of honour. If either of you return to the world, raise and cherish the memory of me, that still lies low from the blow Envy gave me.”  (End quote). That is my view too, Vinea was the victim of paranoia and court gossip.

That is not the only disaster 1249 has in store for Frederick. There is the city of Jesi where he had been born and which da Vinea had styled as the new Bethlehem in his propaganda that placed the emperor as the successor and vicar of Christ. Jesi had fallen to papal troops.

And a mere month later comes the next blow. Frederick had handed military command in Northern Italy to his oldest and favourite son Enzio, the Falconello, so similar to his father in appearance and interests. Enzio had been occupied with a retaliatory expedition against Parma when he is called upon by the city of Modena, one of the Ghibelline allies against an attack by Bologna. Enzio races along the Via Aemilia down to Modena. His exhausted troops encounter the army of Bologna at a creek called Fossalta on May 25th, 1249. In the initial encounter the imperial side is near defeated when nightfall stops fighting. The next morning the main combat action begins. As often in the warfare of this time, the battle is fought almost exclusively by knights on horseback who look for individual contests of strengths to show their chivalric mettle. The encounter is turning into dozens and dozens of individual skirmishes, one man against another. Both sides are almost equally matched. What turns the battle is that Enzio is getting unhorsed in one of his duels. Seeing their leader fall and the memory of the previous night’s failure disheartens the Guelfs and they run. Enzio is quickly back on a horse, but he cannot stem the tide. The imperial troops splinter and find themselves lost in the maze of rivers, creeks and canals that criss-cross the Po valley. Enzio and his remaining troop of knights find themselves surrounded by Bolognese fighters and concede.

For the Bolognese to capture Enzio, himself a king, even though only a king of Sardinia, but also the son of the emperor is a matter of enormous prestige. He and the other captives are led into the victorious city in a sumptuous parade. The citizens celebrate by hanging all their most valuable cloth out of the windows, put on their most sparkling jewels, most shiny armours as the mighty Carriocco of the republic of Bologna parades through the streets followed by the captives in chains, the broken imperial standards and finally King Enzio himself, riding on his warhorse and wearing his crowned helmet with his long blond hair flowing to his waist.  At the end of the great procession Enzio is brought to the palace of the Podesta where he is given a luxurious apartment, where he is held in honourable captivity. His father tries to get him out using both threats and concessions. Even when offered a silver ring going all around the city of Bologna, the consuls of the republic remain firm. They would not release Enzio since he would be the hostage that forever binds the wild boar that is Frederick II. For the remaining 22 years of his life, Enzio will remain in this building that still stands and is known as the Palazzo de Re Enzo in the centre of Bologna. Right in front of it rises the famous statue of Neptune by Giambologna and if visitors get to look at Enzo’s prison at all, it is because it houses the tourist office.

The domino effect that had been feared finally kicks in. Como, forever an enemy of Milan joins the league, the pass connecting Tuscany and Lombardy is taken and finally by the end of 1249 Modena, eternal enemy of Bologna makes peace. No worries, Bologna and Modena will resume fighting a few years later and their enmity is so deep they would fight a war over ownership of a bucket – not a joke. The bucket can still be seen in the cathedral of Modena. And let’s not forget that Ferrari is based in Maranello in the province of Modena whilst their rivals, Lamborghini are from Bologna. Modena going over to the League is a serious blow.

By the end of 1249 Frederick is tired and exhausted. There are no details, but from this time onwards he remains in Puglia, mainly in his favourite palace in Foggia. His health seems to be crumbling under the strain of a decade of warfare.

He leaves the fighting to his generals who are gradually being more successful. Even the citizens of Parma are being defeated, partially reversing the impact of the destruction of Victoria. He announced that he would travel to Germany and finally do the great show of unity with the princes, maybe even go on to Lyon and force the pope into an agreement. According to Matthew Paris Frederick renews his offer to go to the Holy Land, return church property and even abdicate, this time for the benefit of his youngest son, Henry, from his marriage to Isabelle of England. Here is how Matthew Paris describes the papal response (quote):

“To these offers, however, the pope obstinately persisted in the reply, that he would on no account so easily restore to his former condition him whom the general council of Lyons had deposed and condemned. By some it was positively affirmed, that the pope eagerly desired, above all things , to overthrow Frederick , whom he called the great dragon, in order that, he being trampled underfoot and crushed , he might more easily trample down the French and English kings, and the other kings of Christendom (all of whom he called “petty princes,” and “the little serpents “), who would be frightened by the case of the said Frederick, and might despoil them and their prelates of their property at his plea. These speeches, together with the enormous deeds which bore powerful evidence to the meaning of his words, generated offence in the hearts of many, and strengthened the justice of Frederick’s, so that his cause began to improve daily.”

But it is all too late. On December 13, 1250, at the now disappeared town of Castel Fiorentino in Puglia “Frederick, the greatest of earthly princes, the wonder of the world and the regulator of its proceedings, departed this life” to quote Matthew Paris.

On his last days he is surrounded by his son Manfred, the archbishop Berard of Palermo who had been his constant supporter and advisor since he was a teenager, the leader of his German knights, the Great Justice of Sicily and his personal physician. Neither of them left us with an eyewitness report what had happened.

Salimbene di Parma, consistent to the last in his disapproval of the emperor, says he had died as worms grew out of his corrupted body making his flesh fall off his bones under agonising pain. The stench of his cadaver he claims had been so unbearable, it could not be buried with the other kings of Sicily in Palermo. The fact that Frederick’s body is indeed buried in Palermo makes this account a little less credible.

Salimbene is not the only one on the papal propaganda team who has something to say about the manner of his death. The chronicler of the life of Innocent IV describes the emperor’s death as follows; Suffering from a horrific diarrhoea, gnashing his teeth and foaming at the mouth the emperor died under ear-splitting screams of agony, terrified of hell that awaited him, the excommunicate.

Then there is Giovanni Vilani who let the emperor die in his bed, but not from natural causes. According to him Manfred, his son by Bianca Lancia, had suffocated him with a cushion as he feared his father was about to cut him out of his will.

Matthew Paris paints a more typical death scene. The emperor feeling his end coming, makes his last will and testament.  Then he confesses his sins and takes on the habit of a Cistercian monk. Finally his old friend and longest standing supporter, the archbishop Berard of Palermo releases him from the excommunication. In Matthew Paris he dies a confessed sinner, a good death in the eyes of the Middle Ages.

What many agree is the death of the emperor is kept a secret for several days as Manfred grabs the levers of the state and informs his half-brother Konrad IV up in Germany about the demise of their father. News of his death are only circulated on December 26th, exactly 56 days after his miraculous birth in the town square of Jesi.

Meanwhile his body has been transported to Palermo. As he had ordered, he was to be buried in a large ancient Roman sarcophagus made from Porphyre, the most prized reddish marble. This sarcophagus had initially been destined for his grandfather Roger II, but Frederick had Roger put into another, still impressive tomb and reserved this one for himself.

He lies next to his father, Henry VI and his first mother Constance in Palermo Cathedral. There had been an inscription on his sarcophagus that is now lost, that read:

“If honesty, if wisdom, intelligence and success, if noble conduct could hold back death, then Frederick who lies in this spot, had never died.”

Manfred wrote to his half-brother Konrad IV: “Gone is the sun that shone above the people, gone is the beacon of justice, gone is the harbinger of peace. But great consolation is left to us as he, our father, lived his life joyfully and victorious to the end.”

Frederick had ordered his affairs before he died. His imperial title and the kingdom of Sicily were to go to his son Konrad IV, now a man in his thirties, an accomplished general and – other than his elder brother – an obedient son. Should Konrad IV die, the crowns should go to the youngest of his sons, Henry, from his marriage to Isabella of England. And finally, should Henry pass as well, his inheritance should go to Manfred, his son by Bianca Lancia, indicating that indeed Frederick had married her on her deathbed and legitimised their children. His grandson, the son of his unlucky eldest son was to gain the duchies of Austria and Steiermark.

At the end of December 1250 the picture is surely not rosy, but the imperial side is winning again and there are 4 legitimate Hohenstaufen heirs, let alone a brace of illegitimate ones. The empire North of the Alps is tightly managed by Konrad IV, Sicily is secured by Manfred as Konrad’s viceroy. What could possibly go wrong? Well, we will find out next week. I hope you will join us again.

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Pope Innocent IV calls a crusade against the emperor Frederick II

This week the epic struggle between empire and papacy goes into its final stretch. The pope has fled to Lyon. There he calls a church council which Frederick is now unable to forestall. Pope Innocent IV deposes Frederick, and – for the first time in history – calls a crusade, not against the Muslims, not against pagans, not against heretics or Greek orthodox rulers, but against a Latin Christian monarch who for years had tried to find an amicable solution to what was a political, not a religious disagreement. And all that against the backdrop of Jerusalem having fallen into the hands of the Turks, and the Mongol armies on the march.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans: Episode 89 – Holy War

This week the epic struggle between empire and papacy goes into its final stretch. The pope has fled to Lyon. There he calls a church council which Frederick is now unable to forestall. Pope Innocent IV deposes Frederick, and – for the first time in history – calls a crusade, not against the Muslims, not against pagans, not against heretics or Greek orthodox rulers, but against a Latin Christian monarch who for years had tried to find an amicable solution to what was a political, not a religious disagreement. And all that against the backdrop of Jerusalem having fallen into the hands of the Turks, and the Mongol armies on the march.

Before we start just a reminder. The History of the Germans Podcast is advertising free thanks to the generous support from patrons. And you can become a patron too and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes and other privileges from the price of a latte per month. All you have to do is sign up at patreon.com/historyofthegermans or on my website historyofthegermans.com. You find all the links in the show notes. And thanks a lot to Mark L., Dan M. , and Alexander K. who have already signed up.

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Last week we saw pope Innocent IV making a momentous decision. He had set off northwards from Rome when he came to a fork in the road. One path led to Narni where the emperor Frederick II was waiting for him to hammer out the last details of a peace agreement his envoys had negotiated on for months. The emperor – who had run out of money and whose support was slowly crumbling away as the excommunication had been going into its fifth year – was prepared to do almost anything. Return all church lands and property seized – tick, furnish an army to go into the Hoy Land – tick, lead the defence of the west against the Mongol invasion – tick. He might even have considered abdicating as emperor in favour of his son Konrad IV, though that is hotly disputed. This was the path to peace.

But it was also the path to political irrelevance for the papacy. Even with all the concessions made, there was the undeniable fact that Hohenstaufen power surrounded the papal states. Even if Frederick takes his troops back into Sicily, the last few years had shown that if need be, any imperial force can operate without hinderance in Lazio, can abduct cardinals and manipulate politics within the city of Rome. The other Christian monarchs had not come to the pope’s aid then and there is little chance they would come at any point in the future.

Because What neither party realised was that all the time pope and emperor had held each other in their mutual death grip, the kings of England, France, Hungary, Poland, Aragon, Castile and so forth had risen in stature. No longer Reguli, little kings, as Barbarossa had still called them, they had built powerful institutions, had begun to raise taxes and had brought the church in their lands into obedience to them. They were happy to formally recognise the pope as their overlord and in many cases as their actual feudal master, but in reality, they did as they pleased.

The political power of the papacy balanced precariously on feet of clay. Giving in to Frederick’s advances would have exposed its inherent weakness. And that mattered more to Innocent IV than the holy Land, it mattered so much, he was prepared to risk a Mongol invasion just to avoid releasing Frederick from the ban. That is why he took the other path, the path that led to Civitavecchia, to a waiting Genoese fleet that took him and seven of his cardinals first to his hometown and later to Lyon, far out of reach of Frederick.

The arrival of the pope in Lyon did not only cause a massive headache for Frederick but was less than welcome to King Louis of France. Louis, an profoundly pious man and later made a saint was nevertheless a cold calculating politician. And as such, the idea of hosting the pope in France itself did not appeal. When Innocent asked to proceed to Rheims, the pre-eminent archiepiscopate of France and at this point a vacant seat, the response was swift.

According to the inevitable Matthew Paris, Louis wrote that “his nobles were by no means willing to consent that he should come to France. For they were afraid lest he should reward his entertainers like a mouse in a sack, or a snake in one’s bosom;”. Not quite the response of an obedient son of the church.

Not being able to proceed to Rheims and live off the proceeds of that rich diocese, Innocent now needed money. The papal states could not send much given that military operations continued, and all resources had to be channelled into paying the troops of cardinal Rainald of Viterbo and his Guelf allies.  So the pope complained to the immensely rich abbots of Cluny and Citeaux, asking them his especial and dearest sons for pecuniary assistance. Which was no doubt forthcoming since we find one of them shortly afterwards as bishop of Langres. The archbishop of Rouen buys a cardinal’s hat, whilst the archbishop of Lyon resigns in disgust leaving the archbishopric to Philip of Savoy who never took holy orders and would end its days as a married Count. Money has become a huge issue for the church by now and Rome’s demands for cash are influencing domestic policies. One of the key criticisms of the reign of Henry III that will lead to the second Baronial war and the Provisions of Oxford was his willingness to send the tithes of the English church down to Rome. The stench of mammon is cutting through all that frankincense and myrhh.

Though the money flow was an issue, Lyon had some great advantages. For one, Innocent IV could now call for a full church council without having to fear interference from the emperor. Though this fear was probably unsubstantiated. Frederick’s previous attempt to prevent a council by attacking and imprisoning prelates had backfired so badly it is unlikely he would have done it again. This time, when the council was called for June 1245, he guaranteed safe passage to any Italian churchman who wanted to attend. And he sent his own representatives to argue his side and maybe prevent the worst that way.

Taddeo de Suessa was the man Frederick sent over. He had been a long-standing member of the imperial chancery, had worked closely with Pietro da Vinea and was also an accomplished poet in that intellectual circle that formed the centre of Frederick’s court. But most importantly he was the foremost legal brain on Frederick’s side.

Was there a chance for Frederick to prevail in the council? On the outset it looked like zero given the invitations left no doubt of Innocent’s intentions. But some of the cardinals were inclined to a more lenient handling of the affair. What was more significant was that the other monarchs were keen to resolve the conflict. Louis IX wanted to go on crusade and the ongoing conflict prevented many potential crusaders from joining up. The Latin emperor of Constantinople, who was at the council was equally keen to get the papacy to focus on his crumbling empire. King Henry III was still technically in an alliance with Frederick. Though the monarchs were not there in person, their prelates were. So things are not quite as hopeless as it may look.

Innocent leaves no doubt about what he wants, the deposition of the emperor, a declaration that all his crowns and titles are forfeit. His arguments are still the same. Frederick is a godless heretic, lover of Saracen company, female and horrible dictu, male also; the denier of God; the destroyer of churches, whose treatment of the Sicilian Church was especially notorious. As king of Sicily he is faithless vassal who does not abide the orders of his liege lord, he is an invader of the papal states, etc. etc. pp.

Having been repeating the same set of arguments over and over again makes it quite easy for Taddeo to refute them. He can point to the emperor’s constant offers to resolve these issues – see above. Taddeo goes one step further and makes the offer of offers, Frederick would end the fighting in Italy and focus solely on the defence against the Mongols, the safeguarding of Constantinople and the recovery of the Holy Land. He would even go there in person, never to return. And as for the emperor’s alleged heresy, these are allegations so serious, they demand the emperor’s right to defend himself. These cannot be prejudged. A decision has to be postponed until the emperor himself arrives. He is on his way, Taddeo lets his audience know.

Innocent responds saying, how can he trust this man who consorts with Muslims and has a harem of dancing girls?  But Taddeo has an answer for that too. Let the kings of France and England stand as the guarantors of the agreement, those he surely do trust. But that is an even bigger non no for Innocent who fears the three monarchs would simply gang up on him.

The pope is stuck. What reason could the ever-benevolent successor of St. Peter have to prevent a sinner to come before the council and explain himself and if he had indeed erred, renounce his errors and ask for forgiveness.

So the council postpones its decision in anticipation of the imperial arrival. Frederick is meanwhile travelling with all pomp and circumstance through Piedmont and seeks permission to cross the alps from none other than the count of Savoy, whose brother had just been made archbishop of Lyon. Progress stalls but is by no means permanently stalled. Innocent IV realises that within just weeks Frederick will be entering Lyon and he will be back to where he was at that juncture in the road north of Rome. Only that now there was no escape. France was closed to him and most other places in the empire he could reach from here were under even closer control of Frederick.

And so he does what he had wanted to do right from the beginning. On July 17th, 1245, he, not the council, proclaimed the sentence of excommunication and deposition of the emperor Frederick II. The council, which did not necessarily want to condemn him had to fall in line. Opposing the papal decision would have fatally undermined the status of the church, so they went along.

When Frederick hears that Innocent IV had declared all his crowns to be lost, he has his treasure chest brought up to him in Asti where he was staying, puts the imperial crown on his head and says, eyes blazing: “I have not yet lost my crown, neither will pope nor council take it from me without a bloody war”.

And a war it is. Not just a normal war, but a holy war. Innocent IV makes the fight against Frederick II a full-scale crusade. Anyone who picks up arms against the emperor will receive the same absolution from sins a crusader putting his life on the line in Acre or Tyre receives. And should one die in the pursuit of the heretic Sicilian, it is a direct road to heaven, without the need to stop even for the briefest of moments in purgatory. Never before had a full crusade been called against a Christian monarch, let alone an emperor. There were papal wars where soldiers received blessings and absolutions and to a degree Gregory IX had already called the fight against Frederick a crusade. But this is different. The crusade against the Hohenstaufen is given equal billing alongside the crusade in the Holy Land.

The crusader idea had been diluted for a while with actions against the Albigensian and the pagans in the east standing alongside the fight for Jerusalem. In fact the two great papal jurists, Gregory IX and Innocent IV had further developed the concept of crusades dividing them into two types, the ones fought outside Europe to spread Christianity and the ones fought here at home to purify the Mother Church from the gangrene of heresy and disobedience. Is anyone surprised that 150 years into the Crusades and an ideology of papal supremacy these two eminent thinkers conclude that the fight to keep the church pure was more important than those fought out in Palestine?

Louis IX of France is apoplectic about the papal move. He meets Innocent at Cluny and makes it clear to him that his new crusade against Frederick diverts from the urgently needed support to the Holy land, let alone the defence against the Mongols. But there is no way back for Innocent. He has singlehandedly convicted Frederick II despite all the arguments he had heard to the contrary. If he were to backtrack, it would be the admission of an error and since Gregory VII, the pope cannot err.

Where are the mongols when you need them to refute papal infallibility.

All Louis can do is banning the preaching of the crusade in France. Similarly the English barons force Henry III to cut off money flow to the papacy and only a small trickle of crusaders head for Italy. Equally attempts to raise forces in Denmark, Poland and Germany are ultimately unsuccessful. These guys quite sensibly think that defence against the Mongols has priority, and if one were to go on crusade, then properly, to Jerusalem.

Apart from the crusader absolution, Innocent tries various other ways to foster opposition to Frederick II. One very powerful instrument was the papal ability to control marriages, namely either to allow marriages within the otherwise prohibited level of consanguinity, aka marrying your cousin. Alternatively the pope could dissolve marriages that had been made between peoples too closely related. That was enormously powerful, since the prohibition was against consanguinity in the seventh degree, which basically meant virtually any marriage within the European high Aristocracy required a dispensation.

These efforts achieved at least one positive outcome for the pope, the election of an anti king in Germany, Heinrich Raspe, the Landgrave of Thuringia. He was elected mainly with the votes of the bishops and managed to achieve an initial victory against the forces of Frederick’s on, king Konrad IV. But luck quickly turned against the Landgrave and by 1247 he was dead. He had no children and there were no descendants left of that great family that had included the Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia.  Upon his death the great possessions of the Landgraves acquired with such astute wheeling, dealing were given to the House of Wettin. They later formed this string of duchies including Sachsen Anhalt, Sachsen Meiningen and Sachsen Coburg Gotha, of Prince Albert fame.

As a deposed emperor and king, Frederick’s reign is not legitimate, it is tyranny. And tyrannicide – as any decent scholastic will tell you – is justified. In 1246 a conspiracy is unveiled to kill the emperor and to take over the kingdom of Sicily for the pope. The conspirators are not some disgruntled Sicilian barons, but senior members of the imperial bureaucracy. One, Bernardo Orlando Rossi was the podesta of Parma and an administrator of a province in the regno of Sicily, Giacomo da Morra had been put in charge of the March of Ancona and a third, Guiglieno de Sanseverino was from a large family long loyal to the House of Hohenstaufen. When the plot was discovered, Morra and Snaseverino fled to Rome where the cardinals provided them with shelter and safety, which points the finger clearly at Innocent IV. Others were less fortunate. They holed up in some fortress which was quickly taken, and their bodies mutilated in the most gruesome fashion. Rebellion sparked across the kingdom as people had enough of the constantly rising taxes and interference in the economy to fund a war far, far away.

A direct involvement of the pope in the attempted murder was never established, but his behaviour towards the conspirators suggests he would have condoned their acts, had they been successful. For Frederick this conspiracy has a catastrophic effect on his mental state. These were men he had trusted, he had promoted and had relied upon to manage his beloved kingdom of Sicily. Their betrayal highlighted two things, on the one hand that the excommunication was undermining his moral authority and on the other that the constant demands for money and resulting tax burden was festering rebellion. Frederick badly wanted to get out of this cycle of eroding control, but Innocent was all the way out in Lyon and even if Frederick had got there, Innocent would fight tooth and nail not to lift the ban. There is more than a whiff of Greek tragedy about all that is happening from now on.

There is one bright spot in this otherwise quite dismal year 1246. The duke of Austria Friedrich der Streitbare, which roughly translates as Frederick the cantankerous, had died. His name was well deserved. This duke of Austria was almost perennially at war with his neighbours, the kings of Bohemia and Hungary but also with Frederick II himself. In 1236 Frederick had defeated him and the relationship had stabilised. In the 1240s it became clear that the warlike duke would die without male offspring. Under the Privilegium Minus, which you may remember from the days of Barbarossa, the dukes of Austria were able to pass their fief through the female line, which made his daughter Gertrud and his sister Margaret the potential heirs. Frederick had put in a bid for Gertrud but was most humiliatingly rebuffed by his vassal. The reason is not public, but it may well have been the excommunication that gave Gertrud and her dad pause for thought. Or it may have been all these wild rumours about harems and dancing girls and squads of illegitimate children that dented the imperial attractiveness as groom. Gertrud would marry someone else but by the time old Frederick the Cantankerous last of the house of Babenberg bit the bullet in – where else – a battle with a neighbour, the emperor took possession of Austria officially for safekeeping. But he had no desire to hand it to anyone else and the next 30 years are a convoluted mess of claims, counterclaims, battles and court cases, at the end of which a previously almost unknown count from Switzerland, a certain Rudolf whose castle was named after the hawks that flew above it took possession. His family, the lords of the hawks, the Habichtsburg later abbreviated to Habsburg would hold the reigns of Austria and quite a bid besides until 1918.

As 1246 gave way to 1247 Frederick’s position had not necessarily improved overall, but has remained stable, which is a great achievement given his deposition and the calling of a crusade against him. Sicily was back under control, and he had got his paws on the wealth of the house of Babenberg, providing very temporary relief for his money troubles.

Militarily the situation is somewhat bewildering. There are two papal armies active in central Italy but they are small and had suffered several defeats. In Lombardy the sort of baseline level of warfare is continuing. His vicars for the North, Ezzelino da Romano in Veneto and Enzio in the Romagna are reasonably successful. Not that any major cities could be swapped, but castles are being captured and enemy lands devastated.

It is a weird sort of war, since the enemy, the pope, sits unassailably in Lyon. And even if troops could be brought down, the PR backlash of capturing and mistreating a pope would defeat the whole purpose. But stopping hostilities isn’t an answer either, because once the Ghibelline side loses momentum, the Guelfs in the allied cities would take over and the whole house of cards would have crumbled. It is intensely frustrating.

Imperial propaganda tries to push back against the ever shriller allegations of imperial misdemeanours by highlighting the papal outfit in Lyon as one money-grabbing bazaar where all sorts of absolutions and dispensations are sold to the highest bidder. Tapping into the beliefs of the Franciscans, Pedro da Vinea calls for the church to focus purely on the spiritual and leave the worldly concerns to the temporal lords.

To break the gridlock, Frederick plans to go to Germany and at least put on a show of strength. If the German princes were to join him at one of his assemblies, the papal ban would look futile and petty. And that may help king Louis or one of the less fanatic cardinals to convince Innocent to reopen negotiations. Lots of ifs and buts, but something, anything to move this on…

Innocent does not want anything to move on or forward or anywhere. He knows Frederick is running low on cash and time is on his side. But the idea that the emperor could come to Germany is disconcerting. That needs to be stopped. Best way to stop that is stirring up something in Lombardy.

The city of Parma had been pro-imperial since hostilities began. But like in every Italian city, it did have a Guelf party within its walls. One of the conspirators of 1246, Bernardo Orlando Rossi had been Podesta of Parma and still counted many people there amongst his friends. Armed with plenty of papal cash he managed to instigate a Guelf uprising. The Ghibellines were thrown out, the gates closed and Parma joined the Lombard League.

Frederick had to respond. Parma controlled the road that connects Tuscany, where the empire had important bases and Lombardy. Parma was strategic. Hence, he ordered Enzio and Ezzelino to begin a siege of Parma. Frederick himself joined them in the summer.

Frederick decided that Parma was to be made an example of. He declared that the history of Parma was to come to an end. It was to be razed to the ground. In its place had a new city built, initially in wood, just outside the gates of the old one. This city he modestly called Victoria. Depending on the chronicler, Victoria was either a magnificent creation of astounding proportions or a rather unimpressive product of the febrile hubris of the emperor. Whatever it looked like, Frederick made it the nerve centre of the imperial activity in Lombardy. He had the imperial bureaucracy and treasury brought over there. Frederick had settled in Victoria for the long run. Sieges he knew could run for a long time and patience was the order of the day.

On February 18th, 1248, a good 7 months into the siege, Frederick went out to the nearby hills to do what he loved doing more than anything, hunting with falcons. Having seen the imperial party disappear, the Parmegiani attacked Victoria. The imperial army, led by Enzio came out to face them. The attackers saw their enemy coming out and fled, not straight back home, but around the walls, away from the wooden provocation. Believing this to be the great opportunity to bring an end to this rather draining siege, Enzio and his men gave chase. Soon they were too far from their great new city of Victoria to see what happened there. The remaining citizens or Parma, including women and children, armed with any weapon they could, came pouring out of the gates and quickly overwhelmed the skeleton crew that protected the wooden city.

The attackers put the ostentatiously named settlement to the torch. They captured the imperial treasury, which included not just gold and precious vestments, but also the imperial crown. Most historians agree that it was indeed the imperial crown, the one today displayed in Vienna the one the emperor had put on his head in 1245 and threatened the pope with war, that was the one captured by the citizens of Parma. Equally many of Frederick’s personal possessions were looted, including his copy of De Arte Venandi con Avibus, the Art of Hunting with Birds. This lavishly decorated copy seems to have been in the possession of a Milanese merchant in 1268 and later disappeared. It was the full text, i.e., three times larger than the copy we still have today. That is the famous moamin, I mentioned some episodes back.

But the most devastating loss for Frederick was that of his advisor Taddeo da Suessa, the man who defended him in Lyon in 1245 and had become ever closer to the emperor who had grown incredibly suspicious since the betrayal of 1246. Da Suessa had his hands cut off and was then dragged off to die in a dank prison cell in Parma.

The emperor returned a few days later to the scene of devastation. He did take one long look around, held a face-saving great assembly and left. The siege of Parma was over. His army occupied the pass across the Apennines into Tuscany so that communications remained open. But Frederick will never go to Germany again. There will not be a great display of princely loyalty. Innocent IV remains in Lyon, the ban stays.

What still surprises me how little PR mileage the papacy got out of the failure of the siege. What better symbol for the validity of the papal ban than the crown of the deposed emperor falling into the hands of the crusaders. But we have reached a point in this battle of fanatical ideologues where neither side believes a word the other is saying and trusts any old nonsense their own leadership is spouting. That sound familiar? Nothing new under the sun.

I think I will leave it here. Next week we will talk about the last leg of this sad and sorry tale that involves the emperor, Frederick II. I hope you will come along. And apologies for not publishing on the 29th of December. I was definitely in no state to record anything. My voice is gradually coming back, so normal service should resume. Before I go, let me thank all of you who are supporting the show, in particular the Patrons who have kindly signed up on patreon.com/historyofthegermans. It is thanks to you this show does not have to do advertising for products you do not want to hear about. If Patreon isn’t for you, another way to help the show is sharing the podcast directly or boosting its recognition on social media. If you share, comment or retweet a post from the History of the Germans it is more likely to be seen by others, hence bringing in more listeners. My most active places are Twitter @germanshistory and my Facebook page History of the Germans Podcast. As always, all the links are in the show notes.

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