Lombard League

Lombard League, military alliance in the 12th and 13th centuries formed by cities in northern Italy, mainly in the Lombardy region, to resist the imperialistic aims of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, known as Frederick Barbarossa. Cremona, Mantua, Bergamo, and Brescia formed the league in March 1167, later to be joined by Parma, Padua, Milan, Verona, Piacenza, and Bologna. The Lombard League was victorious over Barbarossa at Legnano in 1176. This battle marked the first time that a major defeat of feudal cavalry, the basic military arm of the nobility, was accomplished by infantry, the basic military arm of the towns. The League, renewed in 1226 to combat Emperor Frederick II, grandson of Barbarossa, was defeated in 1237.

In the 1980s the League was revived as a political party, advocating the division of Italy into federated republics. Renamed the Northern League in 1991, it capitalized on the political turmoil and scandal in Italy and was swept to power in the March 1994 elections in alliance with two other right-wing parties.