Battle of Fossalta

Battle of Fossalta
Part of Guelphs and Ghibellines

Battle of Fossalta and King Enzo captured
Date26 May 1249
Location
Fossalta stream near Modena
Result Guelph victory
Belligerents
Ghibellines:
Holy Roman Empire
Cremona and Modena		 Guelphs:
Bologna
Lombard League
Commanders and leaders
King Enzo (POW)
Buoso da Dovara		 Filippo Ugoni
Ottaviano degli Ubaldini
Antonio Lambertacci
Strength
15,000[1] 8,800[1]
Casualties and losses
Heavy[2]
Also, king Enzo and 400 knights were captured[3]		 Heavy[2]

The Battle of Fossalta was a battle of the War of the Guelphs and Ghibellines in Lombardy. It took place in Fossalta, a small location on the Panaro River, and is especially remembered for the capture of Enzo of Sardinia, son of Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen.

Prelude

In the spring of 1249, a Guelph Romagnol army of the Lombard League advanced to the Panaro. The army comprises 3,000 knights and 2,000-foot soldiers from the Margrave Azzo VII d'Este and 1,000 knights and 800-foot soldiers of Bolognese militias from Porta Stieri, Porta San Procolo, and Porta Ravegnana.[1]

To bolster these urban forces, the Commune of Bologna relied heavily on military contingents and heavily armed cavalry supplied by the newly integrated feudal lords of the countryside (signori del contado). Legally bound by recent deeds of submission, regional fortified centers—most notably the stronghold of Medicina—dispatched their own noble lineages and vassals, including knights from the Biancuzzi family and other local Cattani clans, to fight alongside the bolognese municipal army.[4] The entire unified army was led by the Brescian Filippo Ugoni, who had victoriously defended Milan while besieged by Emperor Frederick II and accompanied by Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, the Cardinal of Bologna.

The Guelph army threatened the Ghibelline city of Modena, so the Modenese requested help from Enzo of Sardinia, who was then imperial vicar in northern Italy and resided at Cremona.

Enzo organised a massive army of 15,000 men, composed of Imperial Germans and Lombard Ghibellines from Cremona and Modena.[5][6] He led the army across the Po using his self-constructed bridge at Bugno. They arrived at the Fossalta stream, some 5 km north of Modena.

Battle

Both armies faced each other for days, yet none dared to attack the other. On 26 May 1249, Enzo ordered his troops to assume a formation: he split his army into three corps and positioned them into two lines. Ugoni divided his forces into four corps on a broad line.[1] Once the 2,000 additional troops from Bologna had arrived, Ugoni charged for battle.

At dawn, the Guelph army furiously attacked Enzo. After a long struggle, the Guelphs were halted, but Bolognese attacks continued all morning and all day. The Imperial army resisted each attack, but the skirmish was fierce and bloody. By evening, the Imperial line was bent, and Enzo's horse was killed underneath him.[7] The Bolognese advanced, and the Imperial forces started to flee. The fleeing Imperial force, who fought with the network of canals and streams in their back, was now an easy target for the Bolognese, and many were killed or taken prisoner.

Aftermath

The Bolognese had taken many of German and Cremonese prisoners at Fossalta; among these was Enzo. The victorious Bolognese were greeted by a fanatical crowd upon their return to Bologna. Enzo, in his full armour and decorated helmet, was put in golden chains and paraded around Bologna on a horse.[8] Other high-ranking prisoners kept with Enzo in the Bolognese palace were Marino da Eboli, Boso of Dovara, Corrado of Solimburgo and Antonino dell'Andito.[9] Enzo would spend the remainder of his life in the palace, thenceforth named after him, the Palazzo Re Enzo. Even though he was a prisoner, such was his charisma and sophistication that he came to enjoy a measure of popularity among his Bolognese captors.

The battle had little larger effect and did not change or shape Italy's contemporary politics or map. Emperor Frederick remained in a dominant, if strained position. In fact, over the next year, the imperial cause would be on the ascendent again and several of the cities whose loyalty wavered after the battle returned to imperial allegiance. But his son Enzo's defeat and imprisonment was a heavy personal blow for the emperor. Enzo had been one of his father’s chief representatives in Lombardy and seems to have been one of the emperor’s favorites of his many children. Frederick demanded the release of Enzo, but the Bolognese refused.[10] Even as Frederick’s lieutenants swept from victory to victory during 1250 and most of Italy was under imperial control, Bologna, along with Milan, remained staunchly Guelph.

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 FEDERICO II – BIOGRAFIA E FATTI DAL 1216 al 1237
  2. 1 2 John William Warre Tyndale: p. 90-91 "The Island of Sardinia Vol.II"
  3. ↑ Kantorowicz Ernst: p. 614-621 "Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite"
  4. ↑ A. I. Pini, Campagne e villaggi dell'Emilia-Romagna nel Medioevo, Bologna, CLUEB, 1993, pp. 162–168.
  5. ↑ Kantorowicz Ernst: p. 614-621
  6. ↑ Lexikon des Mittelalters: Band III, Seite 2030
  7. ↑ Kantorowicz Ernst: Seite 614–621
  8. ↑ Kantorowicz Ernst: p. 614-621
  9. ↑ Roversi Monaco 2014, p. 284.
  10. ↑ Lexikon des Mittelalters: Band III, Seite 2030

References

  • Bedürftig, Friedemann. Taschenlexikon Staufer.
  • Kantorowicz, Ernst (1931). Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite. Berlin, G. Bondi.
  • Roversi Monaco, Francesca (2014). "'King of Bologna': The Captivity of Enzo, King of Sardinia, between History and Myth". Quaestiones Medii Aevi Novae. 19: 279–302.

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