THE WESTER!\ :'viEDITERRA.J\E.\1\ Kll\CDOl\IS I ~00-1:100in the silver coinage during the 1220s and the issue of a fine
gold coin, the augustalis, in 1231; made most likely of African
gold, this coin was also an advertisement for the revival of
Frederick's authority throughout his realms, for it portrayed
him as Roman emperor rather than as a regional king.~H
One reason Frederick was able to enforce his will in
southern Italy is that his authority extended far beyond the
old Norman kingdom. As has been mentioned, a daring
expedition to Germany brought him the German crown in
1218, and, in consequence, the crown of the western Roman
Empire, which he received at Rome in 1220 from the hands
of Pope Honorius III. After this vigorous defeat of Frederick's
enemies in Germany, his enemies in southern Italy per-
haps judged it best to submit to the new emperor in 1220.
Certainly, many lost their lands, for Frederick took tight
control of feudal inheritance in the south of Italy. Though
possibly strengthened in southern Italy, Frederick was not
permanently strengthened in Italy as a whole. Memories were
now revived of the tactless behaviour of his grandfather
Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, who had caused great alarm
in Northern Italy by his expeditions in the ll:)Os and 1160s;
when a German emperor who was not merely Barbarossa's
lineal descendant but king of Sicily and southern Italy also
tried to visit the Lombard plain and to hold an imperial Diet
at Cremona (1228), many northern towns resisted, fearing
the loss of their autonomy to the emperor, to whom they
were technically su~ject. The Milanese refused to be present
at the Diet; they also blocked the mountain passes and pre-
vented Frederick's German vassals from attending the Diet.
Frederick insisted that the Lombards had nothing to fear:
he was mainly planning to organise a crusade to recover the
lost city of jerusalem. Since he had taken the cross in 1218,
on the occasion of his coronation in Germany, it was quite
reasonable to bring together, after such lengthy delays, his
German, Italian and Sicilian vassals. By no means all the
Lombard towns wished to join the Milanese uprising against
Frederick II, and even the papacy did not give vocal support
- Abulafia, Frederick II, pp. 214-25; and at greater length, David Abulafia.
'La politica economica di Federico II', F'Pdnico II e il mondo mediterraneo,
ed. P. Touhert and A. Paravicini Bagliani (Palermo, 1994), pp. 165-