The battle of Campomalo and the siege of Milan 1036-37

Aribert of Intimiano, bishop and soldier

In the spring of 1034 a strong Italian contingent of loricati, heavily armed knights named for their armor known as lorica, crossed the Alps through the Great St. Bernard Pass, having left the fortified castle of Bard that protected the western Italic border from Burgundy. The Italic army pounced, swiftly, in the canton of Fribourg, against the castle of Murten, defended by the Burgundians and located north of the Alpine range, near the small lake of Morat, about 200 kilometers from the Great St. Bernard Pass, a distance apparently traveled by the Italics without encountering resistance. The castle was stormed and quickly taken by the Milanese warriors who made up the bulk of the Italic forces. Leading the army of the Kingdom of Italy in the assault on the castle was a knight, in armor, armed with an iron club, whose hairless appearance and placid manner were far from the stereotypical warrior of those violent times. Closer examination would have revealed the tonsure of the head of this condottiere who was none other than the archbishop of Milan Ariberto. Here, however, we shall recount his most important warlike adventures: the battle of Campomalo in 1036, and the subsequent siege of Milan in 1037!