THE WESTERN MEDITERR\NEAN KINGDOMS 1~00-1!100against him. Meanwhile a papal war was preached against
the crusading emperor: his father-in-law reappeared to settle
his grievances, leading a papal army into southern Italy and
Sicily in 1229. Frederick returned swiftly from the Holy Land
and suppressed the rebellion, beating back the invaders in
total victory. Gregory IX, agreed to terms of peace at San
Germano in 1231. Frederick characteristically did not try to
push his own advantage too far in dealing with the papacy.
He showed respect for the papal office: he sought as main
advantage peace. Frederick's mollification of the pope made
good sense: he needed a friend in his dealings with the
Lombard towns. Gregory IX did use his good offices to send
papal legates into northern Italy, but these legates felt less
bound than Gregory to respect the interests of the merci-
ful Frederick. They counselled the Lombards to end their
rebellion, but they also insisted Frederick should impose no
punishment, advice Frederick consistently ignored. He saw
the rebels as traitors who by denying his authority, as con-
stituted by Christ, were in effect heretics too."
Frederick's position in Lombardy was greatly strengthened
by his military victory at Cortenuova ( 1237). Controversy sur-
rounded his alliances with local despots, such as the infam-
ous Ezzelino da Romano, despot of Verona.'~ It was hardly
surprising that Frederick accepted allies wherever he could
find them, as in fact did the pope; it was something of
a diplomatic achievement that he had so many friends in
northern Italy. Nor were the Lombards free of taint: the free
communes resisting the 'tyrant' emperor had among allies
of their own the Este, another family of territorial lords
from north-eastern Italy, whose rivalry with Ezzelino could be
usefully exploited. The papacy used Frederick's opportunist
alliance with these and other despots to brand him and
his friends as heretics: Ezzelino certainly gave willing reh1ge
to heretics in Lombardy, and, if it was a sin for Ezzelino to
protect heretics, it was in papal eyes a sin for Frederick to
- Abulafia, Fmlnick If, pp. 302-10.
- The term 'despot' is not ideal; it is a pejorative description of a com-
monly accepted type of lordship. These figures were great lords, signori,
and signorial government became the norm in the vast majoritv of
Italian states by 1400. See D.l\1. Bueno de Mesquita, The place of
despotism in Italian politics', inJ.R. Hale,J.R.L. Highfield, B. Smalley.
eds, Europe in the fate Middle Ages (London, 1965), pp. 301-31.