Page 96 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

96 from Italy to the Canary Islands

the sky and infinity.
We were speaking of pride. Genoa, which had become smaller, imme-
diately boycotted Frederick II’s invitation to his coronation in 1220. Pisa,
its long-term rival, did the exact opposite, with a euphoric response to the
invitation. This outright refusal of citizenship and submission gravely of-
fended the emperor.
Frederick II would therefore opt for a persecuting policy towards the
Dominant city, wholly in favour of the rival on the seas, Pisa. The Emperor
dared to inflict that action upon Genoa, by flattering the Po valley cities
which could not stand the Genoese growth.
Genoa’s high esteem of itself blossomed once more when, in 1226,
Frederick II summoned a Diet in Cremona. This meeting would enable
the emperor to revoke all the concessions made by Barbarossa – Frederick
II’s grandfather – in favour of the Communes of Italy in the 1183 Peace of
Constance.
Sensing danger, the Communes founded the second Lombard League
in Mantua; Genoa still preferred the idea of neutrality – or rather, if we
may, the idea of equidistance from rivals – keeping in mind, once more,
its real interests, which were mainly commercial in nature, in the seas and
faraway lands. And it would not change its attitude during the Sixth Cru-
sade of 1227, when Frederick II was excommunicated by the Pope for
hesitating to leave. And it had the same indifferent approach towards the
Emperor’s requests when, in 1233 in Ravenna, Frederick II once more
attempted to limit the independence of the communes; precisely on that
occasion, the Emperor asked the Genoese ambassadors for the Commune
to renounce to the Milanese Podestà, as the latter belonged to cities of the
Lombard League. On the firm refusal of Genoa to such a request, Frederick
II promptly imposed sanctions which it put into effect by arresting men
and seizing Genoese goods in even the most secluded corners of the Em-
pire. Genoa retaliated with naval action in Syria, which ended in its favour
and forced Frederick II to lift those inappropriate sanctions.
If the by then shared feeling of those who embraced the Ghibelline
cause and those who instead supported the Guelph faction was breathed in
the air and found in the souls of many, not only those of the governors re-
vealed a more practical - we would be tempted to say “mercantile” - aspect
in Genoa, in the sense that people looked for what was actually profitable
rather than embracing a faction - but it is also true that embracing the cause
of one of the rivals also meant focusing on what was profitable. We could