Chapter XX: Municipal Organization and Activity

57. Some Twelfth Century Town Charters

In the times of the Carolingians the small and scattered towns and villages of western Europe, particularly of France, were inhabited mainly by serfs and villeins, i.e., by a dependent rather than an independent population. With scarcely an exception, these urban centers belonged to the lords of the neighboring lands, who administered their affairs through mayors, provosts, bailiffs, or other agents, collected from them seigniorial dues as from the rural peasantry, and, in short, took entire charge of matters of justice, finance, military obligations, and industrial arrangements. There was no local self-government, nothing in the way of municipal organization separate from the feudal regime, and no important burgher class as distinguished from the agricultural laborers. By the twelfth century a great transformation is apparent. France has come to be dotted with strong and often largely independent municipalities, and a powerful class of bourgeoisie, essentially anti-feudal in character, has risen to play an increasing part in the nation's political and economic life. In these new municipalities there is a larger measure of freedom of person, security of property, and rights of self-government than Europe had known since the days of Charlemagne, perhaps even since the best period of the Roman Empire.

The reason for this transformation--in other words, the origin of these new municipal centers--has been variously explained. One theory is that the municipal system of the Middle Ages was essentially a survival of that which prevailed in western Europe under the fostering influence of Rome. The best authorities now reject this view, for there is every reason to believe that, speaking generally, the barbarian invasions and feudalism practically crushed out the municipal institutions of the Empire. Another theory ascribes the origin of mediaeval municipal government to the merchant and craft guilds, particularly the former; but there is little evidence to support the view. Undeniably the guild was an important factor in drawing groups of burghers together and forming centers of combination against local lords, but it was at best only one of several forces tending to the growth of municipal life. Other factors of larger importance were the military and the commercial. On the one hand, the need of protection led people to flock to fortified places--castles or monasteries--and settle in the neighborhood; on the other, the growth of commerce and industry, especially after the eleventh century, caused strategic places like the intersection of great highways and rivers to become seats of permanent and growing population. The towns which thus sprang up in response to new conditions and necessities in time took on a political as well as a commercial and industrial character, principally through the obtaining of charters from the neighboring lords, defining the measure of independence to be enjoyed and the respective rights of lord and town. Charters of the sort were usually granted by the lord, not merely because requested by the burghers, but because they were paid for and constituted a valuable source of revenue. Not infrequently, however, a charter was wrested from an unwilling lord through open warfare. It was in the first half of the twelfth century that town charters became common. As a rule they were obtained by the larger towns (it should be borne in mind that a population of 10,000 was large in the twelfth century), but not necessarily so, for many villages of two or three hundred people secured them also.

The two great classes of towns were the _villes libres_ (free towns) and the _villes franches_, or _villes de bourgeoisie_ (franchise, or chartered, towns). The free towns enjoyed a large measure of independence. In relation to their lords they occupied essentially the position of vassals, with the legislative, financial, and judicial privileges which by the twelfth century all great vassals had come to have. The burghers elected their own officers, constituted their own courts, made their own laws, levied taxes, and even waged war. The leading types of free cities were the communes of northern France (governed by a provost and one or more councils, often essentially oligarchical) and the consulates of southern France and northern Italy (distinguished from the communes by the fact that the executive was made up of "consuls," and by the greater participation of the local nobility in town affairs). A typical free town of the commune type, was Laon, in the region of northern Champagne. In 1109 the bishop of Laon, who was lord of the city, consented to the establishment of a communal government. Three years later he sought to abolish it, with the result that an insurrection was stirred up in which he lost his life. King Louis VI. intervened and the citizens were obliged to submit to the authority of the new bishop, though in 1328 fear of another uprising led this official to renew the old grant. The act was ratified by Louis VI. in the text (a) given below.

The other great class of towns--the franchise towns--differed from the free towns in having a much more limited measure of political and economic independence. They received grants of privileges, or "franchises," from their lord, especially in the way of restrictions of rights of the latter over the persons and property of the inhabitants, but they remained politically subject to the lord and their government was partly or wholly under his control. Their charters set a limit to the lord's arbitrary authority, emancipated such inhabitants as were not already free, gave the citizens the right to move about and to alienate property, substituted money payments for the corvee, and in general made old regulations less burdensome; but as a rule no political rights were conferred. Paris, Tours, Orleans, and other more important cities on the royal domain belonged to this class. The town of Lorris, on the royal domain a short distance east of Orleans, became the common model for the type. Its charter, received from Louis VII. in 1155, is given in the second selection (b) below.

Sources--(a) Text in Vilevault and Brequigny, _Ordonnances des
Rois de France de la Troisieme Race_ ["Ordinances of the Kings
of France of the Third Dynasty"], Paris, 1769, Vol. XI., pp.
185-187.

(b) Text in Maurice Prou, _Les Coutumes de Lorris et leur
Propagation aux XIIe et XIIIe Siecles_ ["The Customs of
Lorris and their Spread in the Twelfth and Thirteenth
Centuries"], Paris, 1884, pp. 129-141.

(a)

=1.= Let no one arrest any freeman or serf for any offense without
due process of law.[470]

[Sidenote: Provisions of the charter of Laon]

=2.= But if any one do injury to a clerk, soldier, or merchant,
native or foreign, provided he who does the injury belongs to the
same city as the injured person, let him, summoned after the fourth
day, come for justice before the mayor and jurats.[471]

=7.= If a thief is arrested, let him be brought to him on whose
land he has been arrested; but if justice is not done by the lord,
let it be done by the jurats.[472]

=12.= We entirely abolish mortmain.[473]

=18.= The customary tallages we have so reformed that every man
owing such tallages, at the time when they are due, must pay four
pence, and beyond that no more.[474]

=19.= Let men of the peace not be compelled to resort to courts
outside the city.[475]

(b)

=1.= Every one who has a house in the parish of Lorris shall pay as
_cens_ sixpence only for his house, and for each acre of land that
he possesses in the parish.[476]

=2.= No inhabitant of the parish of Lorris shall be required to pay
a toll or any other tax on his provisions; and let him not be made
to pay any measurage fee on the grain which he has raised by his
own labor.[477]

=3.= No burgher shall go on an expedition, on foot or on horseback,
from which he cannot return the same day to his home if he
desires.[478]

=4.= No burgher shall pay toll on the road to Etampes, to Orleans,
to Milly (which is in the Gatinais), or to Melun.[479]

[Sidenote: The charter of Lorris]

=5.= No one who has property in the parish of Lorris shall forfeit
it for any offense whatsoever, unless the offense shall have been
committed against us or any of our _hotes_.[480]

=6.= No person while on his way to the fairs and markets of Lorris,
or returning, shall be arrested or disturbed, unless he shall have
committed an offense on the same day.[481]

=9.= No one, neither we nor any other, shall exact from the
burghers of Lorris any tallage, tax, or subsidy.[482]

=12.= If a man shall have had a quarrel with another, but without
breaking into a fortified house, and if the parties shall have
reached an agreement without bringing a suit before the provost, no
fine shall be due to us or our provost on account of the
affair.[483]

=15.= No inhabitant of Lorris is to render us the obligation of
_corvee_, except twice a year, when our wine is to be carried to
Orleans, and not elsewhere.[484]

=16.= No one shall be detained in prison if he can furnish surety
that he will present himself for judgment.

=17.= Any burgher who wishes to sell his property shall have the
privilege of doing so; and, having received the price of the sale,
he shall have the right to go from the town freely and without
molestation, if he so desires, unless he has committed some offense
in it.

=18.= Any one who shall dwell a year and a day in the parish of
Lorris, without any claim having pursued him there, and without
having refused to lay his case before us or our provost, shall
abide there freely and without molestation.[485]

=35.= We ordain that every time there shall be a change of provosts
in the town the new provost shall take an oath faithfully to
observe these regulations; and the same thing shall be done by new
sergeants[486] every time that they are installed.

58. The Colonization of Eastern Germany

In the time of Charlemagne the Elbe River marked a pretty clear boundary between the Slavic population to the east and the Germanic to the west. There were many Slavs west of the Elbe, but no Germans east of it. There had been a time when Germans occupied large portions of eastern Europe, but for one reason or another they gradually became concentrated toward the west, while Slavic peoples pushed in to fill the vacated territory. Under Charlemagne and his successors we can discern the earlier stages of a movement of reaction which has gone on in later times until the political map of all north central Europe has been remodeled. During the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries large portions of the "sphere of influence" (to use a modern phrase) which Charlemagne had created eastward from the Elbe were converted into German principalities and dependencies. German colonists pushed down the Danube, well toward the Black Sea, along the Baltic, past the Oder and toward the Vistula, and up the Oder into the heart of modern Poland. The Slavic population was slowly brought under subjection, Christianized, and to a certain extent Germanized. In the tenth century Henry I. (919-936) began a fresh forward movement against the Slavs, or Wends, as the Germans called them. Magdeburg, on the Elbe, was established as the chief base of operations. The work was kept up by Henry's son, Otto I. (936-973), but under his grandson, Otto II. (973-983), a large part of what had been gained was lost for a time through a Slavic revolt called out by the Emperor's preoccupation with affairs in Italy. Thereafter for a century the Slavs were allowed perforce to enjoy their earlier independence, and upon more than one occasion they were able to assume the aggressive against their would-be conquerors. In 1066 the city of Hamburg, on the lower Elbe, was attacked and almost totally destroyed. The imperial power was fast declining and the Franconian sovereigns had little time left from their domestic conflicts and quarrels with the papacy to carry on a contest on the east.

The renewed advance which the Germans made against the Slavs in the later eleventh and earlier twelfth centuries was due primarily to the energy of the able princes of Saxony and to the pressure for colonization, which increased in spite of small encouragement from any except the local authorities. The document given below is a typical charter of the period, authorizing the establishment of a colony of Germans eastward from Hamburg, on the border of Brandenburg. It was granted in 1106 by the bishop of Hamburg, who as lord of the region in which the proposed settlement was to be made exercised the right not merely of giving consent to the undertaking, but also of prescribing the terms and conditions by which the colonists were to be bound. As appears from the charter, the colony was expected to be a source of profit to the bishop; and indeed it was financial considerations on the part of lords, lay and spiritual, who had stretches of unoccupied land at their disposal, almost as much as regard for safety in numbers and the absolute dominance of Germanic peoples, that prompted these local magnates of eastern Germany so ardently to promote the work of colonization.

Source--Text in Wilhelm Altmann and Ernst Bernheim,
_Ausgewaehlte Urkunden zur Erlauterung der
Verfassungsgeschichte Deutschlands im Mittelalter_ ["Select
Documents Illustrative of the Constitutional History of
Germany in the Middle Ages"], 3rd ed., Berlin, 1904, pp.
159-160. Translated in Thatcher and McNeal, _A Source Book for
Mediaeval History_ (New York, 1905), pp. 572-573.

=1.= In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. Frederick, by
the grace of God bishop of Hamburg, to all the faithful in Christ,
gives a perpetual benediction. We wish to make known to all the
agreement which certain people living this side of the Rhine, who
are called Hollanders,[487] have made with us.

[Sidenote: The Hollanders ask land for a colony]

=2.= These men came to us and earnestly begged us to grant them
certain lands in our bishopric, which are uncultivated, swampy, and
useless to our people. We have consulted our subjects about this
and, feeling that this would be profitable to us and to our
successors, have granted their request.

=3.= The agreement was made that they should pay us every year one
_denarius_ for every hide of land. We have thought it necessary to
determine the dimensions of the hide, in order that no quarrel may
thereafter arise about it. The hide shall be 720 royal rods long
and thirty royal rods wide. We also grant them the streams which
flow through this land.

=4.= They agreed to give the tithe according to our decree, that
is, every eleventh sheaf of grain, every tenth lamb, every tenth
pig, every tenth goat, every tenth goose, and a tenth of the honey
and of the flax. For every colt they shall pay a _denarius_ on St.
Martin's day [Nov. 11], and for every calf an obol [penny].

[Sidenote: Obedience promised to the bishop of Hamburg]

=5.= They promised to obey me in all ecclesiastical matters,
according to the decrees of the holy fathers, the canonical law,
and the practice in the diocese of Utrecht.[488]

[Sidenote: Judicial immunity]

=6.= They agreed to pay every year two marks for every 100 hides
for the privilege of holding their own courts for the settlement of
all their differences about secular matters. They did this because
they feared they would suffer from the injustice of foreign
judges.[489] If they cannot settle the more important cases, they
shall refer them to the bishop. And if they take the bishop with
them for the purpose of deciding one of their trials,[490] they
shall provide for his support as long as he remains there by
granting him one third of all the fees arising from the trial; and
they shall keep the other two thirds.

=7.= We have given them permission to found churches wherever they
may wish on these lands. For the support of the priests who shall
serve God in these churches we grant a tithe of our tithes from
these parish churches. They promised that the congregation of each
of these churches should endow their church with a hide for the
support of their priest.[491] The names of the men who made this
agreement with us are: Henry, the priest, to whom we have granted
the aforesaid churches for life; and the others are laymen,
Helikin, Arnold, Hiko, Fordalt, and Referic. To them and to their
heirs after them we have granted the aforesaid land according to
the secular laws and to the terms of this agreement.

59. The League of Rhenish Cities (1254)

About the middle of the thirteenth century the central authority of the Holy Roman Empire was for a time practically dissolved. Frederick II., the last strong ruler of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, died in 1250, and even he was so largely Italian in character and interests that he could bring himself to give little attention to German affairs. During the stormy period of the Interregnum (1254-1273) there was no universally recognized emperor at all. Germany had reached an advanced stage of political disintegration and it is scarcely conceivable that even a Henry IV. or a Frederick Barbarossa could have made the imperial power much more than a shadow and a name. But while the Empire was broken up into scores of principalities, independent cities, and other political fragments, its people were enjoying a vigorous and progressive life. The period was one of great growth of industry in the towns, and especially of commerce. The one serious disadvantage was the lack of a central police authority to preserve order and insure the safety of person and property. Warfare was all but ceaseless, robber-bands infested the rivers and highways, and all manner of vexatious conditions were imposed upon trade by the various local authorities. The natural result was the formation of numerous leagues and confederacies for the suppression of anarchy and the protection of trade and industry. The greatest of these was the Hanseatic League, which came to comprise one hundred and seventy-two cities, and the history of whose operations runs through more than three centuries. An earlier organization, which may be considered in a way a forerunner of the Hansa, was the Rhine League, established in 1254. At this earlier date Conrad IV., son of Frederick II., was fighting his half-brother Manfred for their common Sicilian heritage; William of Holland, who claimed the imperial title, was recognized in only a small territory and was quite powerless to affect conditions of disorder outside; the other princes, great and small, were generally engaged in private warfare; and the difficulties and dangers of trade and industry were at their maximum. To establish a power strong enough, and with the requisite disposition, to suppress the robbers and pirates who were ruining commerce, the leading cities of the Rhine valley--Mainz, Cologne, Worms, Speyer, Strassburg, Basel, Trier, Metz, and others--entered into a "league of holy peace," to endure for a period of ten years, dating from July 13, 1254. The more significant terms of the compact are set forth in the selection below.

Source--Text in Wilhelm Altmann and Ernst Bernheim,
_Ausgewaehlte Urkunden zur Erlauterung der
Verfassungsgeschichte Deutschlands im Mittelalter_ ["Select
Documents Illustrative of the Constitutional History of
Germany in the Middle Ages"], 3rd ed., Berlin, 1904, pp.
251-254. Translated in Thatcher and McNeal, _A Source Book for
Mediaeval History_ (New York, 1905), pp. 606-609.

[Sidenote: The league formed at Worms]

In the name of the Lord, amen. In the year of our Lord 1254, on the
octave of St. Michael's day [a week after Sept. 29] we, the cities
of the upper and lower Rhine, leagued together for the preservation
of peace, met in the city of Worms. We held a conference there and
carefully discussed everything pertaining to a general peace. To
the honor of God, and of the holy mother Church, and of the holy
Empire, which is now governed by our lord, William, king of the
Romans,[492] and to the common advantage of all, both rich and poor
alike, we made the following laws. They are for the benefit of all,
both poor and great, the secular clergy, monks, laymen, and Jews.
To secure these things, which are for the public good, we will
spare neither ourselves nor our possessions. The princes and lords
who take the oath are joined with us.

=1.= We decree that we will make no warlike expeditions, except
those that are absolutely necessary and determined on by the wise
counsel of the cities and communes. We will mutually aid each other
with all our strength in securing redress for our grievances.

[Sidenote: No dealings to be had with enemies of the league]

=2.= We decree that no member of the league, whether city or lord,
Christian or Jew, shall furnish food, arms, or aid of any kind, to
any one who opposes us or the peace.

=3.= And no one in our cities shall give credit, or make a loan, to
them.

=4.= No citizen of any of the cities in the league shall associate
with such, or give them counsel, aid, or support. If any one is
convicted of doing so, he shall be expelled from the city and
punished so severely in his property that he will be a warning to
others not to do such things.

[Sidenote: A warning to enemies]

=5.= If any knight, in trying to aid his lord who is at war with
us, attacks or molests us anywhere outside of the walled towns of
his lord, he is breaking the peace, and we will in some way inflict
due punishment on him and his possessions, no matter who he is. If
he is caught in any of the cities, he shall be held as a prisoner
until he makes proper satisfaction. We wish to be protectors of the
peasants, and we will protect them against all violence if they
will observe the peace with us. But if they make war on us, we will
punish them, and if we catch them in any of the cities, we will
punish them as malefactors.

=6.= We wish the cities to destroy all the ferries except those in
their immediate neighborhood, so that there shall be no ferries
except those near the cities which are in the league. This is to be
done in order that the enemies of the peace may be deprived of all
means of crossing the Rhine.

=7.= We decree that if any lord or knight aids us in promoting the
peace, we will do all we can to protect him. Whoever does not swear
to keep the peace with us, shall be excluded from the general
peace.

=10.= Above all, we wish to affirm that we desire to live in mutual
peace with the lords and all the people of the province, and we
desire that each should preserve all his rights.

=11.= Under threat of punishment we forbid any citizen to revile
the lords, although they may be our enemies. For although we wish
to punish them for the violence they have done us, yet before
making war on them we will first warn them to cease from injuring
us.

[Sidenote: Mainz and Worms to be the capitals of the league]

=12.= We decree that all correspondence about this matter with the
cities of the lower Rhine shall be conducted from Mainz, and from
Worms with the cities of the upper Rhine. From these two cities all
our correspondence shall be carried on and all who have done us
injury shall be warned. Those who have suffered injury shall send
their messengers at their own expense.

[Sidenote: The governing body of the league]

=13.= We also promise, both lords and cities, to send four official
representatives to whatever place a conference is to be held, and
they shall have full authority from their cities to decide on all
matters. They shall report to their cities all the decisions of the
meeting. All who come with the representatives of the cities, or
who come to them while in session, shall have peace, and no
judgment shall be enforced against them.

=14.= No city shall receive non-residents, who are commonly called
"pfahlburgers," as citizens.[493]

=15.= We firmly declare that if any member of the league breaks the
peace, we will proceed against him at once as if he were not a
member, and compel him to make proper satisfaction.

=16.= We promise that we will faithfully keep each other informed
by letter about our enemies and all others who may be able to do us
damage, in order that we may take timely counsel to protect
ourselves against them.

=17.= We decree that no one shall violently enter the house of
monks or nuns, of whatever order they may be, or quarter themselves
upon them, or demand or extort food or any kind of service from
them, contrary to their will. If any one does this, he shall be
held as a violator of the peace.

[Sidenote: The league to be enlarged]

=18.= We decree that each city shall try to persuade each of its
neighboring cities to swear to keep the peace. If they do not do
so, they shall be entirely cut off from the peace, so that if any
one does them an injury, either in their persons or their property,
he shall not thereby break the peace.

=19.= We wish all members of the league, cities, lords, and all
others, to arm themselves properly and prepare for war, so that
whenever we call upon them we shall find them ready.

[Sidenote: Military preparations of the league]

=20.= We decree that the cities between the Moselle and Basel shall
prepare 100 war boats, and the cities below the Moselle shall
prepare 500, well equipped with bowmen, and each city shall prepare
herself as well as she can and supply herself with arms for knights
and foot-soldiers.

FOOTNOTES:

[470] Such guarantees of personal liberty were not peculiar to the charters of communes; they are often found in those of franchise towns.

[471] The chief magistrate of Laon was a mayor, elected by the citizens. In judicial matters he was assisted by twelve "jurats."

[472] This is intended to preserve the judicial privileges of lords of manors.

[473] The citizens of the town were to have freedom to dispose of their property as they chose.

[474] This provision was intended to put an end to arbitrary taxation by the bishop. In the earlier twelfth century serfs were subject to the arbitrary levy of the taille (tallage) and this indeed constituted one of their most grievous burdens. Arbitrary tallage was almost invariably abolished by the town charters.

[475] By "men of the peace" is meant the citizens of the commune. The term "commune" is scrupulously avoided in the charter because of its odious character in the eyes of the bishop. Suits were to be tried at home in the burgesses' own courts, to save time and expense and insure better justice.

[476] This trifling payment of sixpence a year was made in recognition of the lordship of the king, the grantor of the charter. Aside from it, the burgher had full rights over his land.

[477] The burghers, who were often engaged in agriculture as well as commerce, are to be exempt from tolls on commodities bought for their own sustenance and from the ordinary fees due the lord for each measure of grain harvested.

[478] The object of this provision is to restrict the amount of military service due the king. The burghers of small places like Lorris were farmers and traders who made poor soldiers and who were ordinarily exempted from service by their lords. The provision for Lorris practically amounted to an exemption, for such service as was permissible under chapter 3 of the charter was not worth much.

[479] The Gatinais was the region in which Lorris was situated. Etampes, Milly, and Melun all lay to the north of Lorris, in the direction of Paris. Orleans lay to the west. The king's object in granting the burghers the right to carry goods to the towns specified without payment of tolls was to encourage commercial intercourse.

[480] This protects the landed property of the burghers against the crown and crown officials. With two exceptions, fine or imprisonment, not confiscation of land, is to be the penalty for crime. _Hotes_ denotes persons receiving land from the king and under his direct protection.

[481] This provision is intended to attract merchants to Lorris by placing them under the king's protection and assuring them that they would not be molested on account of old offenses.

[482] This chapter safeguards the personal property of the burghers, as chapter 5 safeguards their land. Arbitrary imposts are forbidden and any of the inhabitants who as serfs had been paying arbitrary tallage are relieved of the burden. The nominal _cens_ (Chap. 1) was to be the only regular payment due the king.

[483] An agreement outside of court was allowable in all cases except when there was a serious breach of the public peace. The provost was the chief officer of the town. He was appointed the crown and was charged chiefly with the administration of justice and the collection of revenues. All suits of the burghers were tried in his court. They had no active part in their own government, as was generally true of the franchise towns.

[484] Another part of the charter specifies that only those burghers who owned horses and carts were expected to render the king even this service.

[485] This clause, which is very common in the town charters of the twelfth century (especially in the case of towns on the royal domain) is intended to attract serfs from other regions and so to build up population. As a rule the towns were places of refuge from seigniorial oppression and the present charter undertakes to limit the time within which the lord might recover his serf who had fled to Lorris to a year and a day--except in cases where the serf should refuse to recognize the jurisdiction of the provost's court in the matter of the lord's claim.

[486] The sergeants were deputies of the provost, somewhat on the order of town constables.

[487] These "Hollanders" inhabited substantially the portion of Europe now designated by their name.

[488] This was the diocese from which the colonists proposed to remove.

[489] That is, judges representing any outside authority.

[490] In other words, if the bishop should go from his seat at Hamburg to the colony.

[491] In each parish of the colony, therefore, the priest would be supported by the income of the hide of land set apart for his use and by the tenth of the regular church tithes which the bishop conceded for the purpose.

[492] All that this means is that the members of the Rhine League recognized William of Holland as emperor. Most of the Empire did not so recognize him. He died in 1256, two years after the league was formed.

[493] These "pfahlburgers" were subjects of ecclesiastical or secular princes who, in order to escape the burdens of this relation, contrived to get themselves enrolled as citizens of neighboring cities. While continuing to dwell in regions subject to the jurisdiction of their lords, they claimed to enjoy immunity from that jurisdiction, because of their citizenship in those outside cities. The pfahlburgers were a constant source of friction between the towns and the territorial princes. The Golden Bull of Emperor Charles IV. (1356) decreed that pfahlburgers should not enjoy the rights and privileges of the cities unless they became actual residents of them and discharged their full obligations as citizens.