Battle of Fossalta

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. The 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 Enzio of Sardinia, who was then imperial vicar in northern Italy and resided at Cremona.

Enzio organised a massive army of 15,000 men, composed of Imperial Germans and Lombard Ghibellines from Cremona and Modena. 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, Enzio 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. Once the 2,000 additional troops from Bologna had arrived, Ugoni charged for battle.

At dawn, the Guelph army furiously attacked Enzio. 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 Enzio's horse was killed underneath him. 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 Enzio. The victorious Bolognese were greeted by a fanatical crowd upon their return to Bologna. Enzio, in his full armour and decorated helmet, was put in golden chains and paraded around Bologna on a horse. He would spend the remainder of his life in the Bolognese 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 Enzio's defeat and imprisonment was a heavy personal blow for the emperor. Enzio 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 Enzio, but the Bolognese refused. 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

References

• Lexikon des Mittelalters: Band III
• Decker-Hauff Hansmartin: Band III

References

1. [http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/aa1238b.htm FEDERICO II – BIOGRAFIA E FATTI DAL 1216 al 1237]
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. Kantorowicz Ernst: p. 614-621
5. Lexikon des Mittelalters: Band III, Seite 2030
6. Kantorowicz Ernst: Seite 614–621
7. ''Lexikon des Mittelalters'': Band III, Seite 2030