But the Pope Honorius having declared in favour of Lo thaire, and having engaged the cities of Pavia and Cre mona, with their allies, in his cause, the Milanese and Parmesans, on whom Conrad depended for assistancc,were obliged to defend themselves ; and on the arrival of Lo thaire with a very small army in Italy, he was forced to re tire into Germany.
The emperor having proceeded to Rome, was crowned in the church of the Lateran by Pope Innocent II. A. D. 1133. As the Vatican, however, was occupied by the troops of Roger I. king of Sicily, who espoused the cause of the antipope Anacletus and the family of the Fraysipani, in Rome, Lothaire was soon obliged to leave that city, and return to his own country, where, having de feated his two rivals, Conrad resigned his -pretensions to the crown, and was appointed commander of an army, sent into Italy to assist the Pope against Roger king of Sicily. These troops were at first successful, with the help of the Pisan fleet, in forcing Roger to raise the siege of Naples ; but, on their departure, Innocent having fallen into Roger's hands, was compelled to acknowledge his right to the kingdom of Sicily, and to grant him (what he had no pow er to give) the city and territories of Naples. The Nea politans, perceiving that resistance was vain, surrendered to the Norman prince ; and their republic, which had ex isted for several centuries, was incorporated with the kingdom of Sicily. These schisms in the church and the empire tended still more to strengthen the cause of the Lombard republics ; and even the inhabitants of Rome, weary of the climes of rival popes, and incited by the preaching of Arnold of Brescia, a monk, who inculcated the principles of liberty, elected a senate, and placed the ex ecutive power, formerly belonging to the pope's prefect, in the hands of an officer styled the patrician ; and even put to death Pope Lucius II. who ventured to resist the authority of the senate. On the death of the Emperor Lothaire, in 1137, his former competitor, Conrad III. was elected his successor. His reign lasted fourteen years ; but during the early part of it, he had to contend with the Guelph princes of Bavaria and Saxony' ; and in 1147, he had with Lewis VII. of France, been persuaded by St.
Bernard to lead a powerful army of crusaders into the East. The expedition was unsuccessful ; and, on his return, he died while meditating a visit to Italy to receive the impe rial crown.
By the election of his nephew, Frederic of Suabia, sur named Barbarossa, who was equally related to the Guelph and GhibLline families, the animosity of these factions was for a time laid to rest ; and the whole military forces of Germans, rendered more formidable by the civil wars in which they had been so long engaged, were united under the standard of a pi ince, not inure distinguished for his valour, than for the hi.,11 and unbending severity of his character. The new emperor was immediately solicited to march into Italy, by Robert, prince of Capua, who had been deprived of his states by Roger, king of Naples and by Pope Eugene IV. whose authority he promised to reestablish in Rome ; and by the Lodesans, whose city and territory had been conquerred by the Alilanese. In answer to the complaints of the citizens of Lodi, Frederic dispatched without delay a special messenger to Milan, commanding peremptorily the immediate restitution of the rights of the Lodesans. This message, when commu nicated by the consuls to the people of Milan, was re ceived with universal indignation, and treated with con tempt, while the envoy of the emperor with difficulty escap ed from the fury of the multitude.
They, however, transmitted to their new sovereign the usual pr,csents ; but prepared, by their arms, to take ven geance on the cities of Pavia and Cremona, who had joined with the Lodesans in arraigning their conduct before Bar barossa.
In 115.•, Frederic entered Italy at the head of a very powerful army, and encamping on the plains of Ron caglia, convoked there a meeting of his Italian feuda tories.
Already prepossessed against the free cities of Lom bardy, he appears to have willingly listened to the com plaints made against them. To the Marquess of Mont ferrat, and the Bishop of Asti, who accused the inhabi tants of Asti and Chieri, he promised to exercise exem plary vengeance on those republics.