Mediaeval and modern history . the burghers, which resulted in what isknown as the enfranchisement of the towns. It was in the eleventh century that this revolt of the citiesagainst the feudal lords became general. The burghers by thistime had made their walls strong and had learned to fight, —if indeed they had ever forgotten that art. They became boldenough to defytheir lord, — toshut their gates inthe face of his tax-gatherer, and evenin the face of thelord himself, eventhough he wereking or emperor,when he came toparley with contest lastedtwo centuries andmore. The advantagein the
Mediaeval and modern history . the burghers, which resulted in what isknown as the enfranchisement of the towns. It was in the eleventh century that this revolt of the citiesagainst the feudal lords became general. The burghers by thistime had made their walls strong and had learned to fight, —if indeed they had ever forgotten that art. They became boldenough to defytheir lord, — toshut their gates inthe face of his tax-gatherer, and evenin the face of thelord himself, eventhough he wereking or emperor,when he came toparley with contest lastedtwo centuries andmore. The advantagein the end restedwith the process of timethe greater number of the towns of the countries of WesternEurope either bought with money, which was the usual mode ofenfranchisement of English and German cities, or wrested by forceof arms charters from their lords or suzerains. Many lords, how-ever, of their own free will gave charters to the towns within theirfiefs, granting them various exemptions and privileges, for the. Fig. 31. — A Count and his Wife granting aCharter to a City. (From a fifteenth-centurymanuscript; after Lacroix) 1/2 THE GROWTH OF THE TOWNS reason that this fostered their growth and prosperity and madethem more profitable vassals and tenants. In many cases the charters simply defined the ancient customsand privileges of the favored towns and guaranteed them againstunreasonable and arbitrary demands on the part of their this, however, was a great gain; and as, under the protec-tion of their charters, the cities grew in wealth and population,many of them in some countries became at last strong enoughto cast off all actual dependence upon lord or king, became ineffect independent states, — little commonwealths. Especiallywas this true in the case of the Italian cities, and in a lessmarked degree in the case of some of the German the fortunes of the cities in these two countrieswe shall speak with some detail in later paragra
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