Commune of Milan

Who rules

Name

Not pinned. The names of Milan's podestà or consuls for 1199 and for 1200 were not found in the sources read

Title

The commune's chief magistrate (podestà) or its board of consuls (consoli) for 1199, until the officers of 1200 take over

Since

Officers serve for one year; the day on which the 1200 officers enter office is not pinned

Confidence

low

Milan has chosen a podestà in some years since the 1180s and boards of consuls in others. Beside them sit the consuls of justice (consoli di giustizia), the consuls of the merchants, the council of the commune and, since 1198, the consuls of the people's sworn association, the Credenza di Sant'Ambrogio, who join the podestà in public acts (Treccani, Credenza di S. Ambrogio). Treccani's DBI, the Italian and English Wikipedia and the Occhipinti study of the Pietrasanta give no name for 1199 or 1200; the acts of 1199-1200 that Occhipinti cites (Manaresi, Gli atti del Comune di Milano fino all'anno MCCXVI, nos.

CCXIII-CCXXXIII) would settle it. A Lampugnano named Rogerio was a consul in 1197-98 and an Alberto in 1198 (DBI, Filippo da Lampugnano), but the DBI does not say of which body.

Overlord

The Empire in law (the kingdom of Italy). Milan holds the emperor's rights (regalia) in its city and contado under the Peace of Constance (25 June 1183) and a privilege of Frederick I of 1185 for its contado [the 1185 grant is cited from general knowledge, not re-checked]. Since Henry VI's death (September 1197) two rival German kings, Philip of Swabia and Otto IV, have no officer in Milan.

What the realm holds

• The city of Milan, rebuilt after Frederick I destroyed it in March 1162, with its suburbs and the near countryside under the city's own jurisdiction (the corpi santi)
• The contado: the old counties of Seprio (Varese, Gallarate, Castelseprio), Martesana (Monza, Vimercate, Cassano, Trezzo) and Burgaria (Rho, Corbetta, Abbiategrasso, Rosate), the Brianza (Cantù, Mariano) and the Gera d'Adda round Treviglio [the Gera d'Adda's status is not pinned]
• Monza, under Milan again since 1185, when Frederick I left it to Milan after the Peace of Constance
• The castles and market borghi of the contado, among them Rosate (weekly market since 1190), Abbiategrasso, Melegnano, Cassano d'Adda and Trezzo
• The crossings of the Ticino and the Adda on its side, and the rights over the Lambro that Lodi gave up in the perpetual peace of 1198
• The mint, the tolls and the courts of the contado under the Peace of Constance
• Inside its contado but held by the Church: the archbishop's lordships (Lecco, the Valsassina and the eastern shore of Lake Como, Cassano, San Colombano al Lambro) and the cathedral chapter's valleys of Leventina, Blenio and the Riviera (Church map records; their ground is coloured as Milan's)

How it was acquired

The commune grew out of the archbishop's city in the late eleventh century. It was destroyed by Frederick I in March 1162, rebuilt from 1167 with the help of the Lombard League, and won at Legnano on 29 May 1176. The Peace of Constance (25 June 1183) confirmed its rights; in 1185 Frederick I gave up Monza to Milan and, by the usual account, confirmed Milan's hold on its contado [the 1185 privilege not re-checked]. The Seprio was cut down to the land between the Ticino, the Seveso and the Tresa and passed in practice under Milan (Wikipedia, Contado del Seprio).

Allies and rivals

Allies: Piacenza, with which Milan mediated between Asti and the marquis of Montferrat (acts of 23 and 28 March and 2 May 1199, before envoys of Milan, Piacenza, Alessandria and Vercelli); Lodi, bound by a perpetual peace since 1198; Brescia, Milan's partner against Cremona since Legnano (its standing in 1200 not re-checked); Vercelli, whose podestà in 1198, and again in 1200, is the Milanese Drudo Marcellino; Alessandria. Rivals: Pavia, at war with Milan in 1200 and 1201; Cremona, Pavia's partner and Milan's great rival in the plain. Como, Milan's old enemy (Milan destroyed it in 1127; it fought for the emperor at Legnano), is not pinned for January 1200; by 1213 it fights in Milan's league.

Bergamo: not pinned.

The realm that morning

The commune controls the city and the core of its contado. The officers of 1199 are in office (names not pinned). The truce between nobles and people after the strife of 1198 holds for now; the Credenza's consuls sit with the podestà in public acts. Across the Ticino the Lomellina and the borgo of Vigevano are Pavia's; across the Adda lie Cremona's and Bergamo's lands and the commune of Crema; south of Melegnano the land between the Lambro and the Adda is Lodi's; north of the Tresa and round Lake Como's western shore the land is Como's.

Whether there was open fighting with Pavia in the winter of 1199-1200 or a pause is not pinned: Pavia attacks Rosate in 1200 (month not pinned) and the war is open in 1201. No imperial castellan holds any castle in the contado: Monza returned to Milan in 1185 and the emperor's Como castles were given to Como in 1178.

Wealth

Milan is the great market of the Lombard plain: woollen cloth and fustian, arms and metalwork, money-lending, and the roads from the Po to the Alpine passes through Como and Bellinzona (the Lucomagno, the Septimer and the Splügen, and the Gotthard, which is just opening to through traffic). Rich irrigated farmland and the abbeys' granges (Chiaravalle, Morimondo) feed the city. The mint strikes the silver pennies (denari) current in Lombardy.

Tolls on the Ticino, the Adda and the Lambro and the markets of the borghi (Rosate's weekly market since 1190) add revenue.

Military

The city host is raised by the gates and quarters, with the knights of the capitanei and valvassori and the archbishop's vassals; it fights round the carroccio, the war cart that carries the city's standard, as it did at Legnano (1176). The castles and borghi along the Ticino (Abbiategrasso, Rosate, Besate) and the Adda (Cassano, Trezzo, Brivio) guard the frontiers. No figures for the host are given in the sources read.

Threats

• Pavia's raids across the Ticino (Rosate is attacked by Pavia's army in 1200)
• Cremona, Pavia's partner, and its friends east of the Adda
• The quarrel between the nobles (capitanei and valvassori) and the people that produced the Credenza in 1198 and breaks out again in 1201
• The archbishop's quarrels with Innocent III over benefices and the pope's mistrust of the commune (it won a stay of the excommunication of the imperial judge Passaguerra in 1198)
• Innocent III's tax on the clergy for the crusade (the fortieth, ordered at the end of December 1199), which the Milanese clergy will be asked to pay during 1200
• Lecco and the archbishop's lake and valley communities, whose relations with the commune are tense and will come to arms before the peace of 1219

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. early 1200 (day not pinned)The podestà or consuls for 1200 take office.Depends on: The usual yearly election. Stopped by: A new outbreak of the strife between nobles and people.
2. during 1200 (month not pinned)Pavia's army attacks the Milanese fortress of Rosate on the Ticino side of the contado.Depends on: The war between Milan and Pavia going on into 1200. Stopped by: A truce or peace between Milan and Pavia, or a strong Milanese garrison and field army on the Ticino.
3. 3 November 1200The council of Milan, meeting in the communal palace and acting also for Piacenza, ratifies the concord that Boniface of Montferrat, his son William and the commune of Vercelli have agreed to keep.Depends on: Milan and Piacenza remaining partners and arbiters in Piedmont, and Montferrat and Vercelli coming to terms. Stopped by: War between Montferrat and Vercelli, or a break between Milan and Piacenza.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201The Milanese besiege and take Pavia's borgo of Vigevano; the Pavesi are defeated at Negrino and in August 1201 the commune of Milan accepts their submission.Depends on: The war with Pavia continuing and Cremona failing to relieve its ally. Stopped by: A peace or long truce made during 1200, or a Pavese or Cremonese victory.
2. 1201The strife between nobles and people breaks out again; Drudo Marcellino leads the Credenza di Sant'Ambrogio.Depends on: The grievances of 1198 left unsettled. Stopped by: A settlement that shares offices between nobles and people.
3. September 1201The archbishop, sent by the pope with the prior of Camaldoli to reach an agreement with Bishop Sicard of Cremona, fails; Sicard accuses him of acting for Milan's commune.Depends on: The papal mission going ahead and the war with Cremona's side continuing. Stopped by: A Lombard peace made earlier.

Places of note

• Rosate: fortress and weekly market (1190) of the Avogadri, the archbishop's vassals: Milanese stronghold facing Pavia; attacked by Pavia's army in 1200.
• Abbiategrasso: Milanese borgo near the Ticino crossing toward Vigevano.
• Cassano d'Adda: castle and bridge: The archbishop's castle and residence on the Adda crossing toward Bergamo and Brescia.
• Trezzo sull'Adda: Castle on the Adda.
• Monza: Second town of the contado, under Milan since 1185.

Where the sources disagree

• None with the campaign notes. The campaign notes make Filippo da Lampugnano archbishop since 1196 and at odds with Innocent III; the DBI agrees (elected 14 July 1196, consecrated by 13 September 1196; quarrels with the pope from March 1198 over S. Donato di Scozzola, prebends and the chancery). The DBI adds that in April 1199 he and the abbot of Lucedio failed to settle the war of Parma and Piacenza over Borgo San Donnino.
• campaign notes Part 9 list 'Filippo of Milan' among the 'kings' bishops under Rome's displeasure'. The DBI supports Rome's displeasure (benefices, favour to his kin, the S. Donato dispute) but shows no tie to either German king: his entanglement is with the commune of Milan (Bishop Sicard of Cremona accused him in 1201 of acting for the commune). Suggest filing him as a commune's archbishop under papal displeasure rather than a king's bishop.

Evidence: The frame (Credenza 1198, the perpetual peace with Lodi 1198, Vigevano a Pavese borgo since 1197, the acts of March to May 1199 and 3 November 1200, the events of 1201) is sourced. The names of the 1199 and 1200 officers and the state of arms with Pavia in the winter of 1199-1200 are not pinned. The contado's outer limits are drawn from the later dioceses and contadi.

On the map: The outline follows the later contado and diocesan borders. In 1200 the commune's grip thins at the edges: the archbishop's lake and valley lordships keep their own communities, the border with Como in the Brianza and the hills north of Varese is rough, and the Gera d'Adda was disputed with Cremona and Bergamo.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of Sicard, bishop of Cremona, Sicard of Cremona (about 1210 to 1213). A universal chronicle whose last part is a well-placed eyewitness account by a Lombard bishop who served emperors and popes. Read online
• The Lombard city annals of Piacenza, Milan, Cremona, Parma, Mantua and Verona (kept in the 12th and 13th centuries). The communes' own year lists. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online