Milan–Lodi War
The Milan–Lodi War was a conflict fought in the early 12th century between the Lombard comuni of Milan and Lodi, resulting in the defeat and destruction of the latter. Background The death in 1052 of Boniface of Canossa without male heirs resulted in Isola Fulcheria, one of his fiefdoms, whose most important center was the city of Crema, passing under the direct control of the Holy Roman Emperor. In 1055 the emperor Henry III the Black donated the fiefdom to Upaldo, bishop of Cremona, but Beatrice of Lorraine, widow of Bonifacio, decided that after her death the fiefs of her husband would be inherited by her daughter, Matilde of Canossa. On 1 January 1098 Matilda decided to cede the countryside of Isola Fulcheria to the bishopric and to the city of Cremona on the condition that in exchange for it they would swear loyalty to her, recognizing her as their lady. The Cremonese accepted, but Crema refused to submit to Cremona, prompting the latter to send an army against Crema in May of the same year, without however being able to capture due to the city being well fortified and provided with a strong castle. In 1102 Crema went on the counteroffensive, re-establishing the status quo ante bellum. Due to the stalemate, both cities then started diplomatic negotiations with their neighbors in order to secure allies. Cremona made alliances with Lodi and Pavia, and Crema did the same with Milan and Tortona. War In August 1107 the militias of Cremona, Lodi and Pavia attacked Tortona and managed to set fire to one of its suburbs. This action triggered the intervention of its ally Milan, which promised to raze Lodi, its rival in the control of trade along the Lambro. The Milanese could count on the support of Arderico, bishop of Lodi, his brother Gariardo and a part of the nobility of Lodi; however the people and the clergy of Lodi, harboring strong suspicions regarding the partiality of their bishop towards the enemy, exiled him from the city. Arderico was in fact Milanese, hailing from Vignate, a village in the Martesana countryside, and spent a lot of time in Milan, rarely being seen in Lodi, being always partial to Grosolanus, archbishop of Milan, known for having been accused of simony by the priest Liprando. In 1108 Guido Pescari, archbishop of Pavia, moved against the Milanese with the local militia and most of the citizens. According to Leo of Ostia, the two armies met in Campo Ollii, a place not well identified. The most probable hypothesis is that it must be identified with an expanse of fields near the Olona river south of Milan, since Galvano Fiamma wrote that the site of the battle was "versus civitatem Mediolani", and "Olii" appears among the names for the Olona in some documents of that period. For this reason, the possibility that Campo Olii meant fields near the Oglio river, as claimed by Bernardino Corio, appears less likely. In the battle that followed, the Milanese