Bologna had begun in the eleventh century…

Bologna had begun in the eleventh century to aspire to being a free commune, which it had been able to do when Matilda of Tuscany died, in 1115, and the following year the city had obtained many judicial and economic concessions from Henry V. Bologna had joined the Lombard League against Frederick Barbarossa in 1164.

In one of the few instances of persecution of Italian Jews during this age, the city expels its Jews in 1171.