English views on Lombard city communes and their conflicts with Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa

The analysis of English sources from the second half of the twelfth and the early-thirteenth centuries, particularly historical works and letter collections, reveals a notable coverage of the conflict between Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and the Lombard cities, and a remarkable knowledge of the political framework of Northern Italy. This paper examines that evidence, some of which provides unique information, explores the possible pathways through which knowledge of Lombard affairs was acquired, and investigates what prompted interest in them by pointing, along with the Becket affair and the conflict between empire and papacy, to negotiations that were undertaken to transfer the Kingdom of Italy to the English royal house, which scholarship has tended to overlook. Overall, this enquiry suggests that the successful Lombard defiance of Barbarossa reached an iconic status well beyond the borders of the empire, touching upon issues that were not lost on the English audience in the years leading up to Magna Carta