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Why did Frederick I shift his ambitions from Lombardy to Tuscany after 1177?

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Medieval manuscript miniature showing Frederick I as a crowned crusader holding an orb and scepter, with Henry of Schaftlarn kneeling and presenting a book to him. — Frederick I Frederick I as a Crusader with (right) Henry of Schäftlarn dedicating to him a copy of the *History of the First Crusade* by Robert of St. Remy; miniature from a manuscript in the Vatican Library.

After his defeat by the Lombard League at the Battle of Legnano in 1176, Frederick I was forced to accept the realities of his military limitations in northern Italy. Following the diplomatic settlement reached at the Treaty of Venice in 1177, he secured a six-year truce with the Lombard communes and shifted his focus toward consolidating power in Tuscany.1

Specifically, Frederick sought to annex the Mathildine lands in Tuscany to establish a new, viable power base for the empire after his inability to fully suppress the northern Italian cities. While he ultimately renounced many of the regalia claimed at the Diet of Roncaglia in the subsequent Peace of Constance (1183), his pivot to Tuscany represented a strategic attempt to salvage imperial authority and administrative control following the collapse of his earlier, more aggressive policies in Lombardy.1