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 by Lord Rowton in 1894. Sport and athletics are provided by a number of clubs, notably the Touring Club Italiano, founded in 1894.

History.—(For earlier history see ).—After the establishment of the Lombard capital at Pavia in 569 Milan remained the centre of Italian opposition to the foreign conquest. The Lombards were Arians, and the archbishops of Milan from the days of Ambrose had been always orthodox. Though the struggle was unequal, their attitude of resolute opposition to the Lombards gained for them great weight among the people, who felt that their archbishop was a power around whom they might gather for the defence of their liberty and religion. All the innate hatred of the foreigner went to strengthen the hands of the archbishops, who slowly acquired, in addition to their spiritual authority, powers military, executive and judicial. These powers they came to administer through their delegates, called viscounts. When the Lombard kingdom fell before the Franks under Charlemagne in 774, the archbishops of Milan were still further strengthened by the close alliance between Charles and the Church, which gave a sort of confirmation to their temporal authority, and also by Charles's policy of breaking up the great Lombard fiefs and dukedoms, for which he substituted the smaller counties. Under the confused government of Charles's immediate successors the archbishop was the only real power in Milan. But there were two classes of difficulties in the situation, ecclesiastical and political; and their presence had a marked effect on the development of the people and the growth of the commune, which was the next stage in the history of Milan. On the one hand the archbishop was obliged to contend against the heretics or against fanatical reformers who found a following among the people; and on the other, since the archbishop was the real power in the city, the emperor, the nobles and the people each desired that he should be of their party; and to whichever party he did belong he was certain to find himself violently opposed by the other two. From these causes it sometimes happened that there were two archbishops, and therefore no central control, or no archbishop at all, or else an archbishop in exile. The chief result of these difficulties was that a spirit of independence and a capacity of judging and acting for themselves was developed in the people of Milan. The terror of the Hunnish invasion, in 899, further assisted the people in their progress towards freedom, for it compelled them to take arms and to fortify their city, rendering Milan more than ever independent of the feudal lords who lived in their castles in the country. The tyranny of these nobles drove the peasantry and smaller vassals to seek the protection for life and property, the equality of taxation and of justice, which could be found only inside the walled city and under the rule of the archbishop. Thus Milan grew populous, and learned to govern itself. Its inhabitants became for the first time Milanese, attached to the standard of St Ambrose—no longer subjects of a foreign conqueror, but a distinct people, with a municipal life and prospects of their own. For the further growth of the commune, the action of the great archbishop, Heribert (1018–1045), the establishment of the carroccio, the development of Milanese supremacy in Lombardy, the destruction of Lodi, Como, Pavia and other neighbouring cities, the exhibition of free spirit and power in the Lombard league, and the battle of Legnano, see the articles and . In 1157 an almost circular moat, still preserved in the inner canal or Naviglio, was constructed round the town; but in 1162 Frederick Barbarossa took and almost entirely destroyed the city, only a few churches surviving. The city with its walls was, however, rebuilt five years later by the allied cities of Bergamo, Brescia, Mantua and Verona.

After the battle of Legnano, in 1174, although the Lombard cities failed to reap the fruit of their united action, and fell to mutual jealousy once more, Milan internally began to grow in material prosperity. After the peace of Constance (1183) the city walls were extended; the arts flourished, each in its own quarter, under a syndic who watched the interests of the trade. The manufacture of armour was the most important industry. During the struggles with Barbarossa, when freedom seemed on the point of being destroyed, many Milanese vowed themselves, their goods and their families to the Virgin should their city come safely out of her troubles. Hence arose the powerful fraternity of the “Umiliati,” who established their headquarters at the Brera, and began to develop the wool trade, and subsequently gave the first impetus to the production of silk. From this period also date the irrigation works which render the Lombard plain a fertile garden. The government of the city consisted of (a) a parlamento or consiglio grande, including all who possessed bread and wine of their own—a council soon found to be unmanageable owing to its size, and reduced first to 2000, then to 1500 and finally to 800 members; (b) a credenza or committee of 12 members, elected in the grand council, for the despatch of urgent or secret business, (c) the consuls, the executive, elected for one year, and compelled to report to the great council at the term of their office.

The bitter and well-balanced rivalry between the nobles and the people, and the endless danger to which it exposed the city