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The Crusade Against Frederick II: A Neglected Piece of Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2016

GIANLUCA RACCAGNI
GIANLUCA RACCAGNI*
Affiliation:
School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Old Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG; e-mail: gianluca.raccagni@ed.ac.uk
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Abstract

This study argues that contemporary historical works are an unparalleled source for charting the neglected subject of the implementation and impact in northern Italy of the crusade that was launched against Frederick II in 1240; and that a mostly uncritical acceptance of that crusade became a topos in works by laymen as well as clerics across the region. Above all, those works reveal that, while pro-papal factions are a fixture of scholarship on the Italian cities during the central and late Middle Ages, adherence to the Church actually became an explicit and distinguishing feature of Lombard factions only when the crusade was launched against Frederick II.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 67 , Issue 4 , October 2016 , pp. 721 - 740
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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