Fancomics and fanarts: Barbarossa e la Lega Lombarda - Part 2
Title: "Barbarossa e la Lega Lombarda - Part 2"
Author: J.J.
Warning: There’s lot of history and still this is a very summarized version of the events of that time (things were much more complex and, if you’re interested in knowing more, please read a book). It’s unbetaed and includes cussing in assorted Italian regional languages.
Notes: To keep things simple I’ll assume all the characters are speaking in Latin (which is of course translated in English to allow everyone to understand it) when they talk to each other, okay? However, when the Italies are upset, they tend to slip on speaking into their own variations of ancient Italian and no, I’ve no idea how to speak ancient Italian, so I replaced it with present time Italian regional languages...
Main Characters: Chibi North Italy Veneziano (Feliciano Vargas), Holy Roman Empire (Ludwig?).
Main Guest Character: Chibi South Italy Romano (Lovino Vargas) who, in no way shape or form will represent the pope. Consider yourself warned. Romano kindly accepted to take part to this merely to help you readers better understanding his brother’s mind (and because his land is kind of involved).
Other Guest Characters: Roman Empire, Germania (in the role of Longobards and Franks... sorry Germania-san, Himaruya-san hasn’t drawn them yet and I’ve noticed he used you in ‘The battle for America’ when he spoke of German mercenaries going in America along with Sweden and Finland so I did the same), France (Francis Bonnefoy), England (Arthur Kirkland), Spain (Antonio Fernandez Carriedo) and Mafia (an OC named Salvatore Martura).
Time: Loosely from around 1100 to 1177 but with glimpses of Italy’s far, far past, a quick look at 1282 in Sicily and mentions about what happened after.
Disclaimer: "Axis Powers Hetalia" belongs to Himaruya Hidekaz.
Hey, do I own something here? Oh yes, I own the plot and a sensible heart which would surely break if you give me harsh reviews... so please be honest but nice ok?
Summary: A quick look into how Holy Roman Empire and Italy married and how things went between the two of them during medieval time. Yes, really.
Okay, we’re back with how the marriage between the kingdom of Germany and the kingdom of Italy was.
You see, the emperor had a big empire back then and was always kind of busy with other things so he rarely came to check things in Italy.
So, even if he technically ruled Italy (well, the north half of it), Italy was reminded of him only when he came to visit, once in a while, and was free to do as he pleased for the rest of the time.
It was kind of like this...
Yes, due to a reason or another you can say Holy Roman Empire was rather absent as a husband…
Now you might think, when Holy Roman Empire wasn’t around, Veneziano would keep himself busy lazing around, singing, panting, cooking and building assorted works of arts... Well, that too here and there but that wasn’t his favourite occupation.
His favourite occupation was MAKING MONEY BUSINESS.
You see... grandpa Rome left him good streets that allowed merchants to travel easily (well, more easily than in other parts of the world) and, if streets weren’t good enough, there were rivers and seas... and so Italy, instead than trying to conquer independence from Holy Roman Empire and built a kingdom/empire of his own, conquered markets.
So his and his brother’s cities, Milan, Venice, Pavia, Brescia, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, Amalfi, Gaeta, Bologna, Piacenza, Ferrara, Naples, Bari, Palermo just to name a few, were all engrossed in trading and this translated in them getting bigger... and richer.
And since Veneziano was left on his own by Holy Roman Empire, he could use that money for himself and this was good because that money allowed him to sing, pant, cook delicious things and build assorted works of arts. His cities learned to handle their own business on their own, coin money, ask taxes to their own citizens and use the money collected, built streets and walls, administering law and so on becoming communes (the first one had birth in Asti in 1095…).
However things were about to change. While Veneziano was busy making money business, Holy Roman Empire’s Emperor and the Pope were devoting themselves to their usual hobby. Bitching about who of them mattered the most and could rule over the other.
In the beginning Italy could care less about all this since his cities communes were too busy bitching over the control of markets to waste time bitching over the pope and the emperor until...
... until Friedrick I Hohenstaufen (later nicknamed Barbarossa, ‘Red Beard’) became the new emperor and decided to prove everyone he’s THE BOSS (1152).
Meaning, not only he was not going to let the Pope boss him but he also wanted to rule over Italy’s Communes, returning to do his job as a ruler and reclaiming all his imperial rights... meaning...
However Barbarossa didn’t come into this completely unprepared. In 1158 an imperial assembly at the fields of Roncaglia (Piacenza) explicitly reclaimed imperial rights (Iura Regalia) at the advice of Quattuor Doctores of the emerging judicial facility of the University of Bologna, citing phrases such as ‘princeps legibus solutus’ ("the emperor princeps is not bound by law") from the ‘Digestae’ of the ‘Corpus Juris Civilis’.
What were the ‘Iura Regalia’?
Here a list of the main ones but there were much more: vectigalia (the right to ask for taxes), argentaria (the right to mining), thesauri (the right over treasures that were found), fodrum (benefits payable for the maintenance of the imperial court) and monetae (the right to coin money).
That the Roman laws were created for an entirely different system and, according to some, didn't fit the structure of the Empire was obviously secondary.
Same was for the fact that in Italy the emperors had forgot for such a long time they had imperial rights that nobody believed he still had them anymore.
Up sides of all this? The court of the Emperor made an attempt to establish a legal constitution and to, finally, rule the empire.
Down sides? It took away all the power of the Italian communes and gave it back to the emperor and/or his delegates (who would likely be chosen among the Germans who were loyal to him).
Add to this that, back at that time, any change to the customs was viewed as something evil per se and you can guess easily many people weren’t exactly thrilled with the changes the emperor wanted to make.
Needless to say Milan, that, back then, was the medieval equivalent of a metropolis and also the richest and most powerful of the northern cities subjected to the emperor, kindly told the emperor to stuck his constitution up where the sun didn’t shine... okay, so they did it in more polite terms but still you couldn’t say it to an emperor so…
... and this of course means war... which Milan is willing to fight because it supports the Pope of course, not due to his fear of losing its business...
But I’ll explain you the rest in the next part!
As a sidenote I’ll add that most of the cities of north Italy were turning into Commune (yes, you heard it being mentioned in Vol 3 of Hetalia).
What’s a Commune back at that time in Italy?
Basically it’s a city in which the people decided they had interest in common and decided to handle their own business on their own instead than waiting for the king/emperor to do so, allowing two Consules Civitatis (Consuls of the city) elected by the citizens to have the regency of the government usually for a year. Communes built city walls, streets, asked taxes, coined money, judged people, tried to decide what the nearby communes could or couldn’t do all things that were Iura Regalia and therefore officially should have been done by the emperor and his men. However emperors in Italy had neglected for so long to do their own duty that the Communes kindly took upon themselves the duty to do them, using them to improve their own conditions.
It seems the Italian word ‘regalo’ (present, gift) derives from the word Iura Regalia, though it’s not sure if it was because the emperor could give as a present some Iura Regalia to his most loyal men or because due to them the citizens had to give to the emperor most of their money as a gift.
Translations from Milanese language
The translation used in the strips is the one that gives you the meaning of the sentences said. The direct translation is here:
Té see vegnuu giù colla piena? ‘Did you come down with the flooding?’ (Are you that naïve?)
Bìgul! ‘Dick!’ (Idiot!)
Te se propri un pirla! ‘You’re so stupid!’ (‘pirla’ originally meant spinning toy but it ended up meaning ‘dick’)
Te se andaa a scoeura de giovedì? ‘Did you go to school on Thursday?’ back in a far past in Milan school where closed on Thursday… (Did you go to school when it was closed?/Did you ever went to school?)
Offele, fa el tò mestere! ‘Baker, do your job!’ (Do only what you know how to do!)
Don't grumble silently, please let me know what you're thinking of this!
Send me your comments!
Author: J.J.
Warning: There’s lot of history and still this is a very summarized version of the events of that time (things were much more complex and, if you’re interested in knowing more, please read a book). It’s unbetaed and includes cussing in assorted Italian regional languages.
Notes: To keep things simple I’ll assume all the characters are speaking in Latin (which is of course translated in English to allow everyone to understand it) when they talk to each other, okay? However, when the Italies are upset, they tend to slip on speaking into their own variations of ancient Italian and no, I’ve no idea how to speak ancient Italian, so I replaced it with present time Italian regional languages...
Main Characters: Chibi North Italy Veneziano (Feliciano Vargas), Holy Roman Empire (Ludwig?).
Main Guest Character: Chibi South Italy Romano (Lovino Vargas) who, in no way shape or form will represent the pope. Consider yourself warned. Romano kindly accepted to take part to this merely to help you readers better understanding his brother’s mind (and because his land is kind of involved).
Other Guest Characters: Roman Empire, Germania (in the role of Longobards and Franks... sorry Germania-san, Himaruya-san hasn’t drawn them yet and I’ve noticed he used you in ‘The battle for America’ when he spoke of German mercenaries going in America along with Sweden and Finland so I did the same), France (Francis Bonnefoy), England (Arthur Kirkland), Spain (Antonio Fernandez Carriedo) and Mafia (an OC named Salvatore Martura).
Time: Loosely from around 1100 to 1177 but with glimpses of Italy’s far, far past, a quick look at 1282 in Sicily and mentions about what happened after.
Disclaimer: "Axis Powers Hetalia" belongs to Himaruya Hidekaz.
Hey, do I own something here? Oh yes, I own the plot and a sensible heart which would surely break if you give me harsh reviews... so please be honest but nice ok?
Summary: A quick look into how Holy Roman Empire and Italy married and how things went between the two of them during medieval time. Yes, really.
Okay, we’re back with how the marriage between the kingdom of Germany and the kingdom of Italy was.
You see, the emperor had a big empire back then and was always kind of busy with other things so he rarely came to check things in Italy.
So, even if he technically ruled Italy (well, the north half of it), Italy was reminded of him only when he came to visit, once in a while, and was free to do as he pleased for the rest of the time.
It was kind of like this...
Yes, due to a reason or another you can say Holy Roman Empire was rather absent as a husband…
Now you might think, when Holy Roman Empire wasn’t around, Veneziano would keep himself busy lazing around, singing, panting, cooking and building assorted works of arts... Well, that too here and there but that wasn’t his favourite occupation.
His favourite occupation was MAKING MONEY BUSINESS.
You see... grandpa Rome left him good streets that allowed merchants to travel easily (well, more easily than in other parts of the world) and, if streets weren’t good enough, there were rivers and seas... and so Italy, instead than trying to conquer independence from Holy Roman Empire and built a kingdom/empire of his own, conquered markets.
So his and his brother’s cities, Milan, Venice, Pavia, Brescia, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, Amalfi, Gaeta, Bologna, Piacenza, Ferrara, Naples, Bari, Palermo just to name a few, were all engrossed in trading and this translated in them getting bigger... and richer.
And since Veneziano was left on his own by Holy Roman Empire, he could use that money for himself and this was good because that money allowed him to sing, pant, cook delicious things and build assorted works of arts. His cities learned to handle their own business on their own, coin money, ask taxes to their own citizens and use the money collected, built streets and walls, administering law and so on becoming communes (the first one had birth in Asti in 1095…).
However things were about to change. While Veneziano was busy making money business, Holy Roman Empire’s Emperor and the Pope were devoting themselves to their usual hobby. Bitching about who of them mattered the most and could rule over the other.
In the beginning Italy could care less about all this since his cities communes were too busy bitching over the control of markets to waste time bitching over the pope and the emperor until...
... until Friedrick I Hohenstaufen (later nicknamed Barbarossa, ‘Red Beard’) became the new emperor and decided to prove everyone he’s THE BOSS (1152).
Meaning, not only he was not going to let the Pope boss him but he also wanted to rule over Italy’s Communes, returning to do his job as a ruler and reclaiming all his imperial rights... meaning...
However Barbarossa didn’t come into this completely unprepared. In 1158 an imperial assembly at the fields of Roncaglia (Piacenza) explicitly reclaimed imperial rights (Iura Regalia) at the advice of Quattuor Doctores of the emerging judicial facility of the University of Bologna, citing phrases such as ‘princeps legibus solutus’ ("the emperor princeps is not bound by law") from the ‘Digestae’ of the ‘Corpus Juris Civilis’.
What were the ‘Iura Regalia’?
Here a list of the main ones but there were much more: vectigalia (the right to ask for taxes), argentaria (the right to mining), thesauri (the right over treasures that were found), fodrum (benefits payable for the maintenance of the imperial court) and monetae (the right to coin money).
That the Roman laws were created for an entirely different system and, according to some, didn't fit the structure of the Empire was obviously secondary.
Same was for the fact that in Italy the emperors had forgot for such a long time they had imperial rights that nobody believed he still had them anymore.
Up sides of all this? The court of the Emperor made an attempt to establish a legal constitution and to, finally, rule the empire.
Down sides? It took away all the power of the Italian communes and gave it back to the emperor and/or his delegates (who would likely be chosen among the Germans who were loyal to him).
Add to this that, back at that time, any change to the customs was viewed as something evil per se and you can guess easily many people weren’t exactly thrilled with the changes the emperor wanted to make.
Needless to say Milan, that, back then, was the medieval equivalent of a metropolis and also the richest and most powerful of the northern cities subjected to the emperor, kindly told the emperor to stuck his constitution up where the sun didn’t shine... okay, so they did it in more polite terms but still you couldn’t say it to an emperor so…
... and this of course means war... which Milan is willing to fight because it supports the Pope of course, not due to his fear of losing its business...
But I’ll explain you the rest in the next part!
As a sidenote I’ll add that most of the cities of north Italy were turning into Commune (yes, you heard it being mentioned in Vol 3 of Hetalia).
What’s a Commune back at that time in Italy?
Basically it’s a city in which the people decided they had interest in common and decided to handle their own business on their own instead than waiting for the king/emperor to do so, allowing two Consules Civitatis (Consuls of the city) elected by the citizens to have the regency of the government usually for a year. Communes built city walls, streets, asked taxes, coined money, judged people, tried to decide what the nearby communes could or couldn’t do all things that were Iura Regalia and therefore officially should have been done by the emperor and his men. However emperors in Italy had neglected for so long to do their own duty that the Communes kindly took upon themselves the duty to do them, using them to improve their own conditions.
It seems the Italian word ‘regalo’ (present, gift) derives from the word Iura Regalia, though it’s not sure if it was because the emperor could give as a present some Iura Regalia to his most loyal men or because due to them the citizens had to give to the emperor most of their money as a gift.
Translations from Milanese language
The translation used in the strips is the one that gives you the meaning of the sentences said. The direct translation is here:
Té see vegnuu giù colla piena? ‘Did you come down with the flooding?’ (Are you that naïve?)
Bìgul! ‘Dick!’ (Idiot!)
Te se propri un pirla! ‘You’re so stupid!’ (‘pirla’ originally meant spinning toy but it ended up meaning ‘dick’)
Te se andaa a scoeura de giovedì? ‘Did you go to school on Thursday?’ back in a far past in Milan school where closed on Thursday… (Did you go to school when it was closed?/Did you ever went to school?)
Offele, fa el tò mestere! ‘Baker, do your job!’ (Do only what you know how to do!)
Don't grumble silently, please let me know what you're thinking of this!
Send me your comments!