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The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 06 - (From Barbarossa to Dante) by Unknown
page 11 of 539 (02%)

It was this fatal insistence upon Italian authority that brought
disaster upon Frederick and all his house, and ultimately upon the
empire as well, and on the entire German race. The Italians had been
quite content to call themselves subjects of a Holy Roman Empire which
extended but vaguely over Europe, and whose chief took his title from
their ancient city and only came among them to be crowned. They looked
at the matter in a wholly different light when Frederick regarded his
position seriously, and interfered in their affairs with the strong
hand, crushing their feuds and exacting money tribute. Rebellion was
promptly kindled, and for twenty years one German army after another
dwindled away in the passage of the Alps, wasted under the fevers of
Italian marshes, or was crushed in desperate battle. By the treaty of
Constance, in 1183, Frederick confessed the one defeat of his career.
He acknowledged the practical independence of the Italian cities.[1]


CITIES AND KINGS

The Emperor had in fact encountered a power too strong for him. He had
been struggling against the beginnings of modern democracy, a system
stronger even in its infancy than the ancient rule of the aristocracy
which it has gradually supplanted. The resistance of Italy came not
from its knights and lords, but from its great cities, which had been
slowly growing more and more self-reliant and independent. The rise of
these city republics of the Middle Ages cannot be fully traced.
Everywhere little communities of men seem to have been driven by
desperation to build walls about their group of homes and to defy all
comers. As it was in Italy that the ancient Roman civilization had
been most firmly established and the barbarian dominance least
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