Hello and welcome to the history of the Germans, episode 59, the city of straw, re-recorded.

This week we'll talk about Barbarossa's next move after his disastrous fourth Italian campaign.

It takes him a few years to come to grips with the failure of his

great imperial program before he makes one last attempt to resurrect it. This episode

has an episode website to go with it, where you can find transcripts, maps and images.

And this time I will even help you find the page. It's on Historyof the Germans.com slash 59-2.

Before we start, just a reminder, the History of the Germans podcast is advertising free,

thanks to the generous support from patrons.

And you can become a patron too and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes and other privileges from the price of a latte per month.

All you have to do is sign up at patreon.com slash history of the Germans or on my website, Historyof the Germans.com.

You find all the links in the show notes.

And thanks a lot to Florian, Hans and Karen,

who've already signed up. On March 9, 1168, Barbarossa left Italy via the pass of Monsigny,

disguised as a servant and accompanied by just a small number of attendance. He even had to leave

his wife, Beatrix of Burgundy, behind in

the town of Sousa, whose inhabitants he feared were about to murder him. He arrived in Basel on

March 15, 1168, and he was not going to return to Italy before September 1164, making these

six years the longest continuous stay in Germany during his entire reign.

So, how did he react to the catastrophe before Rome and the collapse of his imperial policy?

As we know, medieval monarchs are not exactly famous for oversharing, but we can get a glimpse of his initial reaction from the circular

he sent to the German princes in September 1167, that is, when he was still in Italy

raiding Milanese territory in a futile attempt to bring down the Lombard League.

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