Welcome back to our third mission of the Barbarossa Campaign! After dealing with our cousin Henry the Lion in the previous one, it is now time to get back at what really matters to Barbarossa and that’s being the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The third mission is based on the sieges of Crema  in 1159 and 1160 as well as Milan in 1162 during Barbarossa's second Italian campaign, which was part of the Wars of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. These were factions supporting the Pope (Guelphs) and the Holy Roman Emperor (Ghibellines) in the Italian city-states of Central and Northern Italy during the Middle Ages. During the 12th and 13th centuries, rivalry between these two parties dominated political life across Italy and naturally Barbarossa has his own ideas on how to deal with this situation, which leads us to the name of this mission: Pope and Antipope

Chris

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Music: Teuton Intro Music of the official AoE II Soundtrack