Milan, Archdiocese of

The Iron Crown of Lombardy, made for Theodelinda, Queen of the Lombards, was alleged to be crafted from one of the original nails in the True Cross used in the Crucifixion of Jesus.

According to tradition, the nail was first given to Emperor Constantine by his mother St. Helena, who had discovered the True Cross.

Helena supposedly cast one nail into the sea to calm a storm, while another was incorporated into Constantine's helmet, another fitted to the head of a statue of the Emperor, and a fourth melted down and molded into a bit for Constantine's horse.

Several were sent off to various dignitaries, one of whom was Princess Theodelinda. (Almost thirty European countries lay claim to fragments of the holy nails.)

Regardless of origin, her crown was crafted of six hinged plates of gold, set with twenty-two gemstones that stand out in relief, in the form of crosses and flowers, and held together with an iron circlet structure, underneath.

Thus, came the term “Iron Crown.” Its small size and hinged construction have suggested to some that it was originally a large armlet or perhaps a votive crown; for others, the small size of the present crown was caused by a readjustment after the loss of two segments, as described in historical documents.

Theolinda builds a church in the key Lombard city of Monza (Roman Modicia), ten miles (sixteen kilometers) northeast of Milan.

Upon Theolinda’s death in 628, her crown is donated to the Church at Monza, where it still remains.

It will be used during the coronation of Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, as he takes the throne of Lombardy, in 774.

Later Holy Roman Emperors will follow suit in this tradition.

Aribert, Archbishop of Milan, had gone to Konstanz in June 1025, with other bishops of Northern Italy, to pay homage to Conrad II of Germany, the beleaguered founder of the Salian dynasty.

There, in exchange for privileges, he had agreed to crown Conrad with the Iron Crown of Lombardy, which the magnates had offered to Odo of Blois.

This he does, on March 31, 1026, at Milan, for the traditional seat of Lombard coronations, Pavia, remains in revolt against imperial authority.

Aribert negotiates a decision of the precedence of the archdiocese of Milan over that of Ravenna at a synod at the Lateran in 1028.

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He was instigated to revolt, according to Ekkehard of Aura, by "one of his father's ministeriales, who was likewise named Conrad".

This is perhaps the same person as the Count Conrad sent by the young king as an envoy to King Roger II of Sicily, according to Geoffrey Malaterra.

Ekkehard otherwise gives positive account of Conrad's motivation, describing him as "a thoroughly catholic man, most devoted to the apostolic see, inclining to religion rather than government or war ... well enough furnished with courage and boldness [yet] preferr[ing] to occupy his time with reading rather than with sports" (Robinson, Ian S. (2000). Henry IV of Germany. New York: Cambridge University Press., p. 288).

Other sources favorable to Conrad include the Annales sancti Disibodi and the Casus monasterii Petrishusensis.

Among sources unfavorable to him are the Annales Augustani and Henry IV's anonymous biography, the Vita Heinrici IV, which describes Conrad as a pawn in hands of Matilda of Tuscany.

Bernold of Sankt Blasien records that Henry was so abject after Conrad's rebellion that he attempted suicide, but this may be a hyperbole allusive to the suicide of the biblical King Saul. (Robinson 2000, p. 288.)

Conrad is captured in mid-March by his father through a ruse, but soon escapes.

Otho de Lagery, named cardinal-bishop of Ostia around 1080 by Pope Gregory VII, has been one of the most prominent and active supporters of the Gregorian reforms, especially as legate in Germany in 1084 and is among the few whom Gregory VII had nominated as papabile (possible successors).

After Desiderous’s short reign as Victor III, Otho had been elected Pope Urban II by acclamation at a small meeting of cardinals and other prelates held in Terracina on March 12, 1088.

He has taken up the policies of Pope Gregory VII, and while pursuing them with determination, shows greater flexibility and diplomatic finesse.

At the outset, he has to reckon with the presence of the powerful antipope Clement III in Rome, but a series of well-attended synods held in Rome, Amalfi, Benevento, and Troia support him in renewed declarations against simony, lay investiture, clerical marriages (partly via the cullagium tax), and in continued opposition to Emperor Henry IV.

In accordance with this last policy, the marriage of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany with Welf, or Guelph, of Bavaria is promoted; Prince Conrad of Italy is assisted in his rebellion against his father and crowned King of the Romans at Milan in late July 1093 by Archbishop Anselm III; and Henry IV's wife, the Empress (Adelaide), is encouraged in her charges of sexual coercion against her husband.

According to the historian Landulf Junior, he is also crowned at Monza, where the Iron Crown is being kept.

After Conrad's coronation, Anselm dies and the new king invests his successor, Arnulf II, on December 6, 1093, although many of the bishops present to celebrate his coronation refuse to attend the simoniacal investiture of Arnulf.

The papal legate who is present, probably to speak with Conrad, immediately declares Arnulf deposed.

The accusation might have been that Arnulf had performed undue service to Conrad to secure his investiture, or that he had been too obeisant, a charge of simony ab obsequio.

Como, a free commune from the tenth century, loses a decade-long war with the nearby town of Milan in 1127.

Milan, made part of the German Empire by Charlemagne, has prospered as a center of trade due to its command of the rich plain of the Po and routes from Italy across the Alps.

The city’s Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, originally founded by Saint Ambrose and begun in the mid-tenth century, is completed in 1128 as the outstanding example of mature Lombard Romanesque architecture.

Although the atrium and narthex reflect adherence to Early Christian traditions, the features typical of the Lombard Romanesque include the basilican plan without transept, the lack of a clerestory, towers outside the perimeter walls, brick construction, and a vaulted covering.

From Nuremberg, Conrad quickly crosses the Alps to be crowned King of Italy by Anselm V, Archbishop of Milan.

Frederick’s expedition results in the revolt and capture of the leading city of Milan, where Vladislaus’s coronation is celebrated in a second ceremony on September 8.

An increasing anti-German sentiment sweeping through Lombardy had culminated in the restoration of Milan in 1169.

Frederick makes his fifth expedition to Italy in 1174, but is opposed by the pro-papal Lombard League (now joined by Venice, Sicily and Constantinople) which had previously formed to stand against him.

The cities of northern Italy have become exceedingly wealthy through trade, and represent a marked turning point in the transition from medieval feudalism.

While continental feudalism has remained strong socially and economically, it is in deep political decline by the time of Frederick Barbarossa.

When the northern Italian cities inflict a defeat on Frederick at Alessandria in 1175, the European world is shocked that such a thing could happen.

With the refusal of Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, to bring help to Italy, the campaign is a complete failure.

The Lombard League had split into rival factions after 1183.

Disputes in Lombardy and Tuscany had instigated Emperor Frederick’s sixth Italian expedition, from 1184 to 1186, which results in the establishment of firm imperial political control in Milan and parts of central Italy.