FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 67 tie by little enveloped the fair countries won three hundred years before by the valiant Charlemagne. Tidings of ever-recurring disturbances determined Frederick to make an expe dition into Italy, as soon as affairs in Germany would admit of his absence ; but there was much to be done first many princes to be dealt with, who, from dif ferent motives viewing his election with dissatisfaction, would take immediate advantage of his departure to bring all the horrors of civil war into his dominions. Bavaria, for example, had been wrested from Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, during his minority, by Conrad III., and now he conjured Frederick, with tears and threats, to restore it to him. This, by dint of much diplomacy, Frederick effected, and the result was that for some years he gained a stanch ally, instead of a designing enemy. Having decided this quarrel and several others, into which we need not enter, Frederick prepared for that first expedition into Italy which, as we have seen, he had resolved on from the commencement of his reign. At the head of a numerous army he passed into Switzerland, and encamped near the lake of Constance ; when, under the banner of Count von Lenzburg, the inhabitants of the three "cents" or cantons of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwal- den came to do homage and offer their feudal service in the field. At the same time, and while still engaged in assembling the forces with which to march into Italy, deputies from the city of Lodi arrived, and throwing themselves at his feet, besought his interference against the oppressions of the Milanese, who had declared for Adrian IV., and whose town was indeed the very hot-bed of the papal faction. The emperor instantly sent letters commanding the Milanese to make full reparation to their unfortunate neighbors ; but on perusal of his be- hests they tore the missives in a thousand pieces, and flung them in the faces of the messengers, sending back by them as their sole answer an open defiance of his authority. Enraged at this insolence, Frederick crossed the Alps, but, too prudent to risk an immediate attack on Milan, strongly fortified and well garri- soned as it was, he sought rather to weaken it through the other towns with which it was in league, and accordingly besieged in turn Rosate, Cairo, and Asti, which all fell into his hands, and ended with the total demolition of the city of Tortona, which he reduced to ashes, afterward even levelling the ground upon which it had stood. This last victory proved the accuracy of Barbarossa's judg- ment, as regarded the remainder of the fifteen towns of the so-called " Lombard League," most of which, intimidated by his energetic measures, sent ambassadors to do homage on their account. He now seized the iron crown of Lombardy ; was crowned at Pavia and again at Monza, after which he entered into negotia- tions with Adrian IV. for the performance of the coronation ceremony at Rome. We now come to the second marriage of our hero, when Beatrix, the only child and heiress of Reinold of Burgundy, became his bride ; and an echo of the old romantic halo which surrounds that incident in Barbarossa's life reaches us, even in this prosaic age, as we picture to ourselves the gallant, handsome Fred- erick riding off with his trusty knights to deliver the fair heiress of Count Reinold
