He immediately mustered an army, marched against Parma from Emilia, ousted Rolando Rossi, and installed Tebaldo Franceschi as the new city's captain.

Now that the papal participation in the plot against him had become clear, Frederick wrote to the noblemen to inform them of the pope's vile behavior, and marched with an army to Lyon in 1247.

The imperial army was also joined by Enzio, who raised the siege of Quinzano, and by a Cremonese contingent led by Ezzelino III da Romano, as well as by soldiers from Padua, Verona, and Vicenza.

Frederick ordered the construction of an entrenched camp near Grola, calling it Victoria (Latin for "victory"),[9] including houses, palaces, and a church, declaring that it would become the seat of his kingdom after the fall of Parma.

Further, on 12 February 1248 Gregorio di Montelongo launched a sortie: after the sufferings they had faced during the siege, the people in arms followed the image of the Holy Virgin and attacked, Frederick was hunting in the Taro valley, and Vittoria was destroyed.

The Second Lombard League recovered some territories, the whole Emilia and Romagna embraced the Guelph cause, while the Marquisate of Montferrat and the Republic of Genoa remained hostile to him.

Basing himself in Piedmont in June, Frederick hosted many nobles of northern Italy and ambassadors from foreign kings in his court, and neither his deposition by Innocent nor the defeat at Parma, it seems, had diminished his fame or preeminence.

[9] Since then, the town's motto has been "Hostis turbetur quia Parmam Virgo tuetur" ("May the enemy be scattered, because the Holy Virgin protects Parma").