The battle Hostile_encounter was crucial in the long war Hostile_encounter waged Hold by the Holy Roman Empire to attempt to assert Statement its power over the municipalities of Northern Italy , which decided Deciding to put Placing aside their mutual rivalries by allying Collaboration themselves in a military union symbolically led by Pope Alexander III , the Lombard League .

With the conquest of Bitola the Serbs controlled Control southwestern Macedonia , including the symbolically important town of Ohrid .