Kings or Magi which came to adore Christ by the guiding of the star,
which were in the city of Milan, in three tombs hewn out of porphyry,
he caused to be taken from Milan and sent to Cologne, whence all the
Lombards were very wrathful. And afterwards, crossing the mountains
to destroy the realm of France, with the aid of the king of Bohemia
and the king of Dacia--that is, Denmark--he entered into Burgundy; but
King Louis of France, with the aid of Henry, king of England, his
son-in-law, and with many lords and barons, was ready to oppose him,
so that by the grace of God he had no power, nor gained any land
there, but through lack of victuals those kings returned to their own
countries and Frederick to Italy. And he made war against the Romans,
forasmuch as they had come over to the side of the Church and of Pope
Alexander; and when the said Romans with their host were in the region
of Tusculum, they were defeated by the chancellor of the said
Frederick and his German troops in the place called Monte del Porco,
and many Romans were taken and slain in such great numbers that
cartloads of dead bodies were taken to Rome to be buried, and this
defeat is said to have been by reason of the treachery of the
Colonnas, which were always with the Emperor and against the Church;
wherefore they were by the Pope deprived of all temporal and spiritual
benefit; and because of the said defeat the Romans drove the Colonnas
away from Rome, and destroyed an ancient and very beautiful fortress
pertaining to them, which was called La Gosta, which is said to have
been built by Caesar Augustus, and this was in the year of Christ 1167.
And after this the Emperor came to Rome to besiege it and to destroy
it, and brought it into great straits. The Romans caused the clergy of
Rome to take the heads of St. Peter and of St. Paul and to carry them
in procession all through Rome, for the which thing the Romans all
took the cross against the Emperor, and the first which took it was M.
Matteo Rosso the Elder, of the Orsini family, grandfather to Pope
Nicholas III., and by reason of old age he had abandoned arms, and
taken the habit of a penitent; and for this cause he put off the said
habit and took his arms again, for which he was much commended, and by
reason of this he and his came into favour with the Church, and
increased greatly. After the said M. Matteo, Gianni Buovo, a great
citizen of Rome, took the cross, and afterwards all the others with
gre