7. THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES

GROWING URBAN POWER Mid-1100s to Late 1300s

If you were to look at a map of the world at around 1200, you would see an amazing patchwork of colors indicating a huge variety of empires, kingdoms, duchies, caliphates, sultanates, emirates, khanates, etc. by which the world was then divided.  In some instances, these colors would show ethnic or tribal territories.  But in most cases, they would indicate the territories held by great landowners.   Emperors and Kings, popes and bishops, dukes and barons, sultans and amirs, khans and warlords, gave identity to the land over which they presided – and also over the people and animals and housing and barns and roads found within these lands.  These great landowners added (or lost) land through wars with neighboring rulers, through marriages in which land was exchanged as huge dowries, or through inheritances via family bloodlines.  Their rules or laws were the law of the land, their measures, their currencies, their taxes were the standards of their particular territory.  They consulted whom they wanted to consult, they fought with whom they wanted to fight with, they negotiated treaties and exchanged diplomats with whom they wished to do so.  They defined life (subject to long established custom, of course) within their own borderlands. The ability to give precise physical definition of the realms of these landowners on maps would seem to give their communities a more physically "real" character.  But in fact, this was not exactly the case.   As for medieval Western Europe, in theory it was a single political entity roughly termed "Christendom" and in theory presided over by a dual rulership of Holy Roman Emperor (military ruler) and Christian Pope (religious ruler).  Certainly, there was such a society as Christendom, and indeed it was symbolically held together by at least the religious rule of the Pope – though that hold was very loose outside of central Italy.  The Emperor also had effective rule – though only in a small part of Christendom: in parts of Italy (particularly the South of Italy) and parts of Germany.   Actually what held Christendom together was more importantly the idea of what Christians were not: namely Muslims, their ancient political and cultural arch rivals still located across the Pyrenees in Spain and in occupation of many of the Christian holy sites in the Middle East (the Christian crusades to "liberate" these holy sites East were still underway at this time).   Neither the Pope nor the Emperor possessed the means to rule directly this sprawling Christendom.  Postal, commercial and military communications were greatly hampered by the dangerous conditions of the roads.  The Emperor for instance had to trust to the loyalties of his "vassals," individuals theoretically appointed by the Emperor to fill regional governorships as princes and kings, acting supposedly under the authority of the Emperor and for his benefit.  But as these individuals operated at some distance from the Imperial palace it was impossible for the Emperor to oversee their work directly.  Worse, as princes and kings were adamant about passing on their political positions to their children it was even more difficult for the Emperor to hold the right of lordship over their appointed subjects, their vassals.  These more local rulers were developing a very well-developed sense of political independence. For the Pope the situation was much less difficult, for Christian priests were celibate (not married and thus supposedly childless) and thus not able as easily to develop entrenched interests of their own.  However, it was not uncommon for certain important families to expect the popes to name family members to particular bishoprics. But the looseness of this feudal pattern was repeated at lower rungs on the political ladder as well.  These appointed kings in turn could not effectively rule the whole of their large kingdoms. They too had to turn to trusted vassals (dukes, barons, counts, etc.) to rule on their behalf.  Here too, certain families expected to pass the right of such regional appointments on to their children and thus developed keen sense of their own political independence.  As these local lords could accumulate their own political holdings through war and marriage in many cases these dukes and barons not infrequently ended up holding more power than the kings to which they supposedly were vassals. For instance, around the year 1200 the Plantagenet family, through conquest and marriage, held the strategic duchy of Normandy and the kingdom of England, as well as the very rich duchy of Aquitaine (which briefly was associated with France before it was transferred to England through marriage).  In short, the Plantagenets as mere French vassals or dukes effectively held several times the land and wealth of their lord French king.  However, this relationship held true only when the Plantagenets were in France serving as dukes; when in England they were kings by their own right.  It would thus be very hard to say exactly how it was that the French king held rule over Normandy when their Norman vassal's power greatly exceeded their own!  Our maps show Normandy as part of the French kingdom at that time.  But was it really?  That this was part of France was only an idea – a very weak idea at that. As far as the little people – the peasant farmers – were concerned, none of this was their business.  The lords over them came and went, none of that however from any of their doing.  The peasant might wake up one day to hear that title over the region had been transferred in marriage or exchanged through treaty to another family.  Though they had a new lord over the land, life went on much as before.  Hopefully the new ruler, whether a son born to his father's title or a new ruler through transfer, would rule well so that the land would prosper.  But these were matters beyond their control.  These affairs belonged to the lords – and to God, who established these lords as their rulers.

A shocking cultural awakening In the 1100s Europe broke out of its dark isolation as its new energy took European crusaders East to "liberate" the Holy Lands from the West's long-standing rivals, the Muslims. But upon arrival at the Holy Lands, the Christian knights were shocked in discovering how truly backward their own Christian or Western feudal culture was in comparison to the lavish culture (architecture, furnishings, clothing, food, music ... and scholarship) of the Muslim Middle East.  But such a jolt of cultural awakening was truly the beginning of great things. To be sure, the crusaders were victorious in their "freeing" the Holy Lands from "infidel" control by enemy Muslims – at least initially ... but only briefly.   This was not destined to last.  Islam soon got its act together, and by the late 1100s had begun the process of reclaiming the lands recently lost to these invading European crusaders.  Eventually (late 1200s) all the Norman kingdoms in the Holy Lands were overrun by a strong Turkish Muslim revival ... and the crusades came to a close. The rise of East-West commerce But the Turkish overlords saw great economic benefit in keeping open trade relations with Western Europe, which was now stirring in its lust for the silks, spices, trinkets and even gold of the East, which the crusades had introduced to the folks back home.  Likewise the Europeans had goods that interested the Arabs and Turks, such as lumber, metals, fish, grains, and fine woolen cloth.  So the Muslim East indicated that it was willing to continue relations with the Christian West ... as long as it involved trade and not crusading. Cultural exchange Thus it was that the East West relationship of two centuries awakened an important symbiotic relationship between the two worlds ... but also intellectual as well as economic.  Christian Westerners came in rather large numbers to experience the world of Islam – but not just to Palestine in the East but also the Spain in the South.  Indeed, in particular the Spanish South is where most normally the Muslims opened up to these Christian pilgrims a new world, not only of material culture ... but also scientific knowledge.   Ironically (and thankfully) here the best of Greco-Roman material culture had been preserved by the Muslims, who had noticed no particular contradiction between their religious faith and the material legacy of Greece and Rome.  It was an eye-opening experience for the Westerner ... as Christian orthodoxy had earlier led to the destruction of much "pagan" literature, such as that of the various Greek philosophers.  But it was still available in Muslim schools and libraries ... and thus the Greek intellectual legacy made its way slowly back into Western culture ... via the Muslims! The impact of Europe's urbanization These newly emerging European commercial cities that grew up under the stimulus of the East-West world of trade (Venice, Genoa, Siena, Florence, Marseille, London, Antwerp, Bremen, etc.) constituted a distinct entity apart from the rural feudal societies of the European interior.  They were quite independent economic entities largely living off the wealth of overseas trade.  Of course, they traded with the European interior – much as they traded with their customers in the Arab East.  But they were dependent on nothing more than the income they were able to generate in their workshops, banks and shipyards.  They were a literate (needing to communicate trade terms and keep commercial records) and industrious lot.  Thus these cities grew quite wealthy ... and also politically quite powerful.  Whereas wealth in land (as in the European feudal system) is easily kept within a single-family domain – ownership easily being passed on from father to son over many generations – wealth in commercial and industrial capital is not so easily preserved within dynastic circles.  It is easily lost in the hands of lazy or foolish offspring – just as easily as it is acquired by the ambitious and the industrious of society ... who can spring up from most any corner of society.  Thus there was a much more dynamic quality to the way social and political power worked in these cities. Also ... these city-states tended to be more responsive to its citizenry – unlike the grand feudal estates which kept their vast number of peasants effectively excluded from the political life of their own societies.  Something like democracy or republicanism was being stirred in these European city-states.  For instance, Venice even called itself a "Republic" (as would also other Italian city-states) ... where the urban citizens – at least those most active in the upper circles of the banking and manufacturing industries – actively participated in the economic and political decision-making of their cities.

It was some of the port cities of Italy that first derived the greatest benefit from this East-West trade.  These city-states got the start of their development in the servicing of the crusaders – who by necessity required the strategic offerings of these cities:  water transportation.  Crusaders on their way to the Holy Lands basically needed to complete the trip by sea (overland routes generally required them to pass through the very hostile territory of the Turks).  In good weather, the Mediterranean was indeed something of a superhighway (as the Greeks had discovered centuries earlier). Two Italian port cities, Venice and Genoa, served the crusaders very well in this matter.  Consequently, both of these cities developed naval fleets for the purpose not only of transporting crusaders to their military destinations, but also transporting the rich treasure in plunder that these crusaders brought from the Middle East on their return. Both cities grew enormously rich from this service. The Republic of Venice It is hard to say when the Republic of Venice was actually founded.  The city, located in a lagoon – which made it very easy to defend – evidenced a strong political independence from even as early as the 600s. And its strategic location gave it natural advantages in the world of trade … beginning early-on simply with the salt industry. As it grew in power, thanks to the business of shipping crusaders to the Middle East, it also developed ever-strong political foundations.  Thus in the year 1172, the city established a Great Council, run by individuals drawn from the city's leading aristocratic and commercial families.  This council was authorized to oversee the city's affairs – and to elect its doge (from the older Latin dux or "leader") … individuals who served as doges for life.  The Council and Venice's Doge not only supervised closely the commercial-financial development of the Venetian Empire – which by this point extended along the shores of the Adriatic as well as in various parts of the Eastern Mediterranean – but also the city's development itself of its art and architecture … and just in general its own strategic urban development. By the 1300s Venice had become a massive maritime empire in the Mediterranean with thousands of ships moving among Venetian-controlled ports extending from Eastern Italy all the way to Syria and Palestine. It must also be remembered that one of its citizens, Marco Polo, became very famous in his efforts in the later part of the 1200s to extend Venice's commercial ties all the way to China ... consequently, in his publication in 1300 of The Travels of Marco Polo, opening the eyes of the Christian West to the vast wealth and geographic extent of Central and Eastern Asia. The Republic of Genoa At the same time, the crusaders in the 1100s and 1200s, coming by way of France, found the port city of Genoa – located on the other or Western side of northern Italy – to be their best maritime link to the Holy Lands.   Here too, the Genoese Republic worked along lines very similar to Venice's … a number of aristocratic-commercial families dominating the city's affairs as municipal consuls – and an elective doge overseeing the entire political process. And like Venice, Genoa developed a very powerful navy to support the huge commercial empire that the city developed in those days … an empire which reached all the way into the Black Sea just South of the Russian world and north of the Turkish world. And here too, it must be remembered that it was a Genoese, Christopher Columbus, who had the audacity in the late 1400s to seek sponsorship here and there (ultimately securing Spanish support) in his own quest for an alternate route – westward across the Atlantic Ocean – to the fabled wealth of the East. The Republic of Florence At around the same time, the city of Florence developed its own Republican government.  The Republic was founded in 1115 when the Florentines rose up in rebellion against the Canossa dynasty, feudal rulers (margraves) of the Tuscany region … and established their own independent commune, ruled by the Signoria of Florence, a council made up of regularly elected representatives of the various industrial-commercial guilds in the city.  There was some back and forth on their independence, with the city brought back under the rule of the margraves when Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI invaded Italy in 1185.  But when Henry died twelve years later, Florence regained its independence. But unlike Venice and Genoa, the Republic of Florence was built not on maritime commerce as much as on international banking … in which it excelled, making its florin (introduced in the mid-1200s) something of an international monetary standard. But family rivalries within Florence constantly shook Florentine politics … with the Guelphs (supported by the Florentine commoners) and the Ghibellines (supported by the noble families of Florence) actually going to war against each other.1  In 1303, that dispute resulted in a great fire which destroyed a great part of Florence ... and its economy.  But it bounced back fairly quickly. Then, just as the Florentine economy hit amazing heights in its prosperity, tragedies in the mid-1300s burst the Florentine bubble … due in part to the default on the Florentine loan to English King Edward III (but Europe itself was also suffering from a huge economic recession) and because of the impact of the Black Death (the Bubonic plague) at around the same time. Nonetheless, despite the varying fortunes of Florence, the city did serve as a home base to some of Europe's best intellects of the day:  Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, whose writing in the Tuscan vernacular (instead of High-Church Latin) not only popularized the world of Italian literature, it created an Italian national language built on these Tuscan foundations.  More about these writers in the pages that follow. Other Italian city-states Besides the big-three of Venice, Genoa and Florence, there were other Italian cities that had thrown off the older feudal system in order to secure their urban independence … and who too were able to do so because of the wealth they were able to acquire in the rising world of East-West trade – and with that wealth develop the military strength sufficient to protect that independence.   Unsurprisingly, like Venice, Genoa, and Florence, they too were proud players in the larger European political game … often fighting among themselves for political prominence.  Thus Siena became a major contender in Tuscany with the Florentines for local dominance (actually ahead of Florence in this matter … until the collapse of the Bonsignori banking family in 1298).  But Milan, Pisa, Ferrara, Mantua, Verona, Lucca, Arezzo and others also played the game … some of them, Pisa and Milan quite well. 1The ongoing and very bitter Guelph-Ghibelline contest originally arose around the issue of selecting church leaders – especially the pope – (the investiture controversy), a political contest which would run all the way into the 1500s, in the process drawing in other city-states across Northern Italy … and even various German and French rulers. EUROPEAN CITIES OF THE NORTH But the Italians were not the only ones to get in on the East West act.  Soon joining the Italians in this rich trade were the port cities along the Atlantic (Portuguese Lisbon, Belgian/Flemish Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, etc.) ... or having access to the Atlantic via the Thames River (London), or from the North and Baltic Seas (the German Hansa cities of Lübeck, Hamburg, Cologne, Bremen, Danzig, etc.).  These became not only shipping and banking centers but also important manufacturing centers.   Flanders, and its capital, Ghent Of particular note was the excellent wool sheared by English sheep farmers ... which was then spun into fine cloth by Flemish textile guilds – in high demand in the Muslim East.  This would come to produce in Flanders an economic miracle just as grand as the one developing in Italy at the same time.  For instance, in the 1200s, Ghent was the second largest city on the European continent north of the Alps, some 65,000 people within its walls busily manufacturing that famous Flemish wool cloth. Paris However most important of all the cities of the north was Paris, the political base for the Capetian Dynasty, a dynasty which progressed from counts to dukes and eventually to French kings.  Paris would possess both a very impressive royal residence and a magnificent cathedral built on the island (Isle de la Cité) – positioned at a strategic crossing point of the Seine River – and a famous university just opposite the Cité in the Latin Quarter.  By the early 1300s, Paris had a population of around 200,000. London But of increasing significance was London.  In the latter part of the 1100s, the Norman kings built a strong political-religious base there:  the Tower of London to intimidate the local population, Westminster Abbey as part of the king's role as "Defender of the Faith," and then Westminster Palace itself as a key royal residence.  But the City of London itself would develop as an increasingly important trading center for the wool that was shipped from England to the European continent … and as a banking center that managed this vital trade.  Thus London grew in population from some 18,000 in the year 1100 to nearly 100,000 by the year 1300. The Hanseatic League Lübeck, located at the western end of the Baltic Sea in Northern Germany, possessing vital trade relations with various cities eastward from there – reaching all the way to Novgorod in Russia – was the originator and leader of an ever-growing alliance of German cities.  This alliance, the Hanseatic League, originally formed in the mid-1200s, became deeply involved in the rapidly-expanding trade in wool, eventually fine cloth (even silk), metal products such as armor, finished wood items, but also timber, fur, salted fish, iron ore – sought eagerly by merchants in London and Flanders. Among those joining the Hanseatic League were the cities of Hamburg, Cologne, and Bremen, possessing strategic river access to the North Sea … becoming major cities themselves in the process.  Joining them, by the 1300s, were nearly 200 cities of various sizes – spread across Northern Europe, from today's Netherlands in the West to today's Lithuania in the East. These Hansa cities were politically "free" in the sense that no local counts or dukes ruled over them.  Only the Holy Roman Emperor stood above them in authority, although it was an authority which was mostly symbolic in nature.  In fact, the Hanseatic League was a political force by its own rights … even at one point (1360s) conducting successfully a war against the Danish King, forcing him to recognize their trading rights throughout Scandinavia. That event marked the height of Hansa power. Go on to the next section:  Powerful Monarchs   Miles H. Hodges