The Battle
The Lombards believed the voices, which had been skilfully spread by the emperor, that he was retreating to Cremona to spend the winter there. Therefore, they also left the field, returning to their quarters. Frederick had however attested a contingent from Bergamo at Cividate al Piano, which would inform him of the Lombard retreat through smoke signals. When the Lombard army had completed its crossing of Oglio at Pontoglio and Palazzolo, the imperial troops saw large smoke clouds and moved to Cortenuova, which was 18 km from their current positions.
The imperial vanguard included Saracens and horsemen, which were the first units to attack the Lombard units, followed by the infantry. Taken by surprise, the Milanese and Piacentines were unable to form a defense line, and fled to Cortenuova. When Frederick and his main force reached the battlefield, it was scattered with knights, slain or wounded and his passage blocked by riderless horses. At Cortenuova, other Milanese and troops from Alessandria had amassed around their Carroccio, where the Lombards fought valiantly under the Saracen arrows and the Teutonic charges. A column of men from Milanese noble families, despite the arrival of other Bergamo troops, was able to protect the rest of the army's retreat to Cortenuova till night. To keep the army's morale as high as possible, Frederick ordered his troop to sleep with their armors on, and to attack at the first lights of dawn. On the other side, the podestà of Milan, recognizing that the troops could not withstand another battle, ordered to abandon the town together with the Carroccio and the rest of the baggage.
On the dawn of 28 November the imperial attacked the hastily retreating Lombards, who fell without nearly no resistance. Many drowned in the Oglio, which was in spate. At the end, some 5,000 Lombards were captured, casualties amounting to some other thousands killed. The Milanese alone lost 2,500 soldiers Of the battlefield, Pietro della Vigna recorded:
who can describe the heaps of corpses and the number of captives?... the Germans dyed their swords in blood;... the loyal Cremonese with the other states satiated their axes with blood; the Saracens emptied their quivers. Never in any war were so many corpses piled up; had not night come on suddenly, none of the enemy would have fled from Caesars hands.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Cortenuova
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