Zitationsvorschlag
Lizenz (Kapitel)
Dieses Werk steht unter der Lizenz Creative Commons Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 4.0 International.
Identifier (Buch)
Veröffentlicht
Communal Italy and Crusading, between Participation and Regional Warfare Suppression, in the Age of Frederick II
Abstract There is surprisingly scarce scholarly literature on the interaction between Communal Italy, taken as a whole, and the crusades, and the impact that such interaction had on the communes. This study investigates the participation of the cities in the Po Valley in the crusades to the Holy Land and their connections with instances of regional warfare suppression at the time of Emperor Frederick II. It argues that, despite inconsistent levels of participation, the crusades acquired a new, pervasive and growing presence in the political life and culture of Communal Italy in that period. One of the manifestations of that presence was the key role that the crusades played in four of the most important regional truces of the first half of the thirteenth century. Those episodes could be associated with the Lombard League or forms of regional collective cooperation that mimicked some of its functions. While the crusades focused on the Holy Land and acted as a catalyst to suppress warfare and promote cooperation in the first quarter of the century, this element was gradually lost in the second quarter. After Frederick II’s imperial coronation, participation in crusades to the Middle East declined dramatically, crusading was increasingly weaponised within the region as a tool for factional strife, and Communal Italy itself ultimately became a new crusading theatre.
