Peace of Constance

June 25, 1183

After seven years of further negotiation, Barbarossa formally accepted the Lombard League's autonomy. The northern Italian cities kept their own consuls, walls, and armies in exchange for recognizing imperial sovereignty in name. It was the pragmatic settlement that allowed communal Italy to flourish. The peace established a model of urban self-governance within a nominal imperial framework that would define northern Italian politics for the rest of the Middle Ages.