Six years elapsed before Frederic could return to demand
satisfaction, and even then he could only muster some eight thousand men. From
October 1174 to April 1175 he was engaged, first in besieging Alessandria, and then
in making fruitless overtures to the League for a compromise. By the end of
1175 he was virtually blockaded in Pavia with a dwindling remnant of his army.
Reinforced in the spring, he made a rapid march on Milan, in the hope of taking
unawares the headquarters of the League. But the Lombards were forewarned, and
met him, at Legnano (29th May 1176), with a force outnumbering his by more than
two to one.
The battle was hotly contested. The Lombard vanguard, composed of
cavalry, scattered before the onslaught of the Germans. The Emperor then led a charge
which penetrated to the centre of the enemy's position. Here was the banner of
Milan, mounted on a triumphal car (carroccio) and guarded by picked
burgesses, who had sworn to defend their trust to the death. Round them the
fighting raged for hours; the Germans made no impression on their ranks, and by
degrees the Lombard troops who had fled returned to renew the battle. At length
the imperial standard-bearer was slain, and Frederic himself unhorsed. Thinking
all was lost, the imperialists fled confusedly towards Pavia, which they reached
after suffering more loss in the flight than in the battle. Frederic, cut off
from his followers, only escaped capture by hiding for some days until the road
to Pavia was clear.
