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Chapter 26 The Rise of Towns
Words, Terms and People to Know
• Fairs
• Wares • Burghers
• Master • Communes
• Burg • Dante’s Divine
• Journeyman Comedy
• Charters • Chaucer’s
• Guild Canterbury Tales
Chapter 26
• Rise of Trade and
Towns
• 500 A.D.—1400 A.D.
Section one: discusses
how the growth of
trade led to the rise of
towns in the Middle
Ages, focusing on
Venice and
Flanders.
Why The Crusades Matter
(as a graphic organizer!)
Turks gain control of Palestine
(the Holy Land) and threaten And they DO …as the
Constantinople. Why those emperor asks the Pope
guys!!!! WE oughta…. for help. Urban II
says “You BET YA!”
BOOM! The Feudal
order starts to unravel
and Europe emerges
from the Dark Ages.
Thousands of Europeans (many
of them serfs) take up the cause Pope Urban asks European
lords- and everyone else-to
and are exposed to new areas,
free the Holy Lands from the
ideas, and commodities- sparking
a new interest in trade and town Turks. Offering freedom from
church taxes and a free ticket
life. AND… to heaven the people begin to
move!
The Revival of Trade
Three functions of money
2. serves serves as brought
1. Money Moneyas a convenient medium of exchange.
Italian ships a measure of value
3. trade BOOM!store and services
• serves for goods
People canMoneymoney back from of value—
goods a s
Asia and Venice
You’ve people
which means that got… can hold their brought
prospers. Viking ships
wealth in the form of money until they Europe.
The Crusades Asian goods to
northern
stimulated trade.
are ready to use it.
Revival of Trade
Well,…at least, places to buy things
Flanders became
and things to buy-- Which means you
a meeting center of The Hanseatic
different trade routes. The League set up
need money!
next thing you know… trading posts.
Medieval Demographics
•The population levels of
Europe during the Middle
Ages can be roughly
categorized:
•400-1000: stable at a low level.
•1000-1250: population boom
and expansion. (end of foreign invasion and good weather)
Medieval Demographics
• 1250-1350: stable at very high level.
• 1350-1420 steep decline
• 1420-1470: stable at a low level
• 1470-onward: slow expansion gaining
momentum in the early 16th century.
Town or City?
• Technically speaking, during the
middle ages the difference was not one
Using the definitions here—a town!
of size but rather one of- did a bishop
there? or a had
have his seatA townA Citycity?a
Dalton.
bishop and a cathedral with its
dependent population.
• A “town” was an urban center 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket
without a bishop. was murdered in the Cathedral
a town?
What makes a place A "town"?
Dalton.
• Some scholars say that to have a town
you need a market, a charter (a legal
document granting rights or privileges)
Using the definitions here— probably not as it
and a jury of 12. Others will say that
lacks a wall--or defenses.
you need burghers and a mayor instead
of a reeve (English official elected annually
by the serfs to supervise lands for a lord a
reeve looked after the affairs in the
medieval village), and defenses, such
as a town wall.
•
makes a medieval towns in
Whatshared by manyplace a "town"?
Depends upon the where and the when it is located.
Some elements
excerpt (UN)
England (other areas had different elements in common):by the then Bureau of the
“Standard definitions of metropolitan areas were first issued in
(U.S.) 1949
Budget (predecessor of OMB), under the designation "standard metropolitan area" (SMA). The
• Defenses—most medieval cities are walled & have Street grid
term was changed to "standard metropolitan statistical area" (SMSA) in 1959, and to
"metropolitan statistical area" (MSA) in 1983. The term "metropolitan area" (MA) was adopted
• Markets and fairs
in 1990 and referred collectively to metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), consolidated
metropolitan statistical areas (CMSAs), and primary metropolitan statistical areas (PMSAs).
• Mint (where you make coins)
The term "core based statistical area" (CBSA) became effective in 2000 and refers collectively
to metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas.
• A Charter fromtofor theking,they were the responsibility ofor fair of Federal
OMB has been responsible
allowing a market were first
the official metropolitan areas since theythe Office defined,
except for the period 1977 1981, when
• metropolitan areas organization (cathedral, monastery,
Religious were modified in 1958, 1971, 1975, 1980, 1990, and 2000.
Statistical Policy and Standards, Department of Commerce. The standards for defining
churches…) and Micropolitan Statistical Areas
Defining Metropolitan
• Population (you couldn’t have must have at least urban area of 10,000ofor
20 people)
a town with one urbanized area
The 2000 standards provide that each CBSA must contain at least one
more population. Each metropolitan statistical area
Center (law 50,000 population…”
• Judicialinhabitants. Eachthan court)statistical area must have at least one urban
50,000 or more
cluster of at least 10,000 but less
micropolitan
• Housing you for clarifying what’s a town, …or a MSA
Thank
• Shops and production of goods (craft Census organized into
(Micropolitan Statistical Area)… people Bureau!!!
guilds) defines a town as “a place that supported a wide range
of professions” Professor C. Dyer University of Leicester
The Growth of Towns
Town Growth Helped by Decline of Serfdom caused by:
Serfs could now leave for towns
(during periods of surplus Population they were encouraged to leave for towns.
Serfs could earn money by
selling crops to townspeople.
Changing agricultural methods pushed
them off the land.
The Black Death killed many people in Europe
so the demand for workers increased.
Maritime Republics of Venice, Genoa, and a handful of others developed
I. Trading Centers
their own "empires" in the Mediterranean shores. From the 8th until the
15th century, they held the monopoly of European trade with the Middle
East. Venedig is German for Venice as is Genua for Genoa
• A. located on important sea routes connecting
Europe with Mediterranean Sea, Russia And
Scandinavia
• B. Venice
• Places to Locate: Venice , Flanders
– 1. founded in 500s by people fleeing Germans
– 2. Venetians had to depend on sea for living
– 3. fished, produced salt from seawater in exchange for
wheat, wine, and slaves to Byzantines for fabrics and
spices.
– 4. During 1100s Venice a leading port city
– 5. Venice’s prosperity spreads to other parts of Italy
– 6. The navies of Italian trading towns drove the
Muslims from the Mediterranean
– 7. Opened the Near East to Europeans
– 8. Italian trading towns quarreled and lost much trade
to towns along Europe’s Atlantic coast.
Run Time: [03:21]
Explains how the Venetian ship and merchant industry provided for a link between Europe and the Orient,
mentioning the travels of Marco Polo, and the impact of the link on the Renaissance and the Crusades
Law Merchant: the body of customary rules and principles relating to
merchants and mercantile transactions and adopted by traders themselves for
the purpose of regulating their dealings. Initially, it was administered for the
most part in special quasi-judicial courts, such as those of the guilds in Italy
and, later, regularly constituted courts in England
Compiègne—meeting city of trade
•
I. continued
• Prior to the rise of
C. Flanders the Hanseatic
•Hanseatic League: mercantile league of medieval German towns. It was
Flanders
amorphous in character; its origin cannot be dated exactly. Originally a Hansa
League controlled
company of merchants Belgium
Today part oflack of a powerful lands. national government to
•was a1. development was thetrading with foreignGerman A major impetus to the
league's
– 2.most trade. In trade along wool for weaving
provide security for of theorder to obtain mutual security, exclusive trading
raised sheep and produced
Northern Europe.
rights, and, wherever possible, trade monopoly, the towns drew closer together.
industry
The Hanseatic League declined because it lacked any centralized power with
which to withstand the new and more powerful nation-states forming on its
– 3. earliest Atlantic trading center
borders. The Dutch (Flanders) were growing in mercantile and industrial
– 4. in the harbors where their to oust met
strength, andbuild15th century they were able rivers German traders from
Dutch domestic markets and the North Sea region as a whole. By the mid-16th
– 5. by 1300 the most important trading partner was
century, Dutch ships had even won control of the carrying trade from the Baltic
London
to the west, dealing a serious blow to Lübeck. The league died slowly as England
contested with the Netherlands for dominance in northern European commerce
• a.) relied on English shepherds to supply wool
and Sweden emerged as the chief commercial power in the Baltic Sea region. The
which they for the last time in 1669.
Hanseatic League’s diet met turned into cloth which they sold back to
England
Section Two: tells how merchants became an important part
With the “feria” economic development and contributed to the
Theof European life andholy day wasMiddle Ages,of the was a growing need for money a
Latin world increasedmeaning activity of the the origin there word “fair.” Each feria was
exchange and the conversion would assemble for worship. The commerce and trade
day when large numbers of peopleof coins. Money changers were soon holding and transferring of
large of meant money. The church took an active part in sponsoring so did the
growthfairs burgs.
the Medieval sums of money and extending loans to merchants. As the demand increased,fairs on feast
number of services. Common financial activities came to include granting loans, investing, as
days, and as a result, fairs came to be an important source of revenue for the church.
• II. Merchants
well as most of the deposit, credit and transfer functions of a modern bank. (The Money
Lender and of the 1514)
Commerce, by wayhis WifeMedieval fairs and religion became closely entwined.
• A. Merchants became an important part of
European life
• B. First merchants were adventurers who traveled
in groups for protection
• C. Fairs
– 1. fairs were sponsored by nobles who collected taxes on
sales
– 2. held once a year for a few weeks at selected places
– 3. precious metals begin to replace bartering
– 4. coins of different countries were tested on benches to
determine their value. Banc, or bench comes the
English word bank
Times and Locations
• Trade fairs usually held once a year, specific locations
• Some trade fairs lasted for months
• Schedule staggered so merchants could travel from one to
another
• Some merchants spent most of time on road
Market
• Trade fairs not attended by average person
• Generally places for sales between merchants
• For everyday needs, people visited local markets
• Local markets sold locally-produced goods
II. continued
• D. The Growth of towns
– 1. Merchants chose places where they can permanently
store their goods (wares)
– 2. chose places along trade routes or road crossings
– 3. settle close to a castle or monastery
– 4. surrounded settlements with high stake fences and
moats
– 5. Germans called castle burgs. Towns came to be
called burgs because they were often located near
castles.
– 6. Once a week, nobles and peasants sold food for goods
they could not make
– 7. artisans came to find work and bring their families an
towns become place people live and not just work or sell
Section Three: describes the living conditions in
LIFE before and after the changes brought
medieval towns EXPECTANCY IN MEDIEVAL TOWNS
about by burghers. rich or poor, faced the same general
All residents, whether
environmental conditions and threats, including the constant
• III. Living Conditions
fear of sickness and life-threatening diseases. Average life
expectancy for all groups was low. Archaeological evidence
with walls and
– A. By 1200s towns replace fences of thirty-five
shows an average adult life expectancy
towers
for males and thirty-one for females.
England’s infant mortality rate was extremely high.
Crowded unhealthy places thirty times sewers
– B. plague was to visit England at leastwith openbetween
The
1348, the year streets
and narrow of the Black Death, and 1485. Other
common urban diseases included
– C. 1300s rats came to Europe on trading ships
tuberculosis,
from the middledysentry and smallpox. As an
east
example, Dartford England’s residents faced famine in 1391
due an acute shortage of
– D. tobread from fern roots;corn. Townspeople were forced to
make
Black death kills millions (roughly 1/3rd of
their survival depended on an
the total population) apples. All sections of Dartford’s
emergency diet of nuts and
community were economically inter-dependent. If trade
slumped or crops failed everybody was affected.
– E. People flee to the countryside
Ebgate Lane
Seriously BOOM
It was a mess!
My college room mate
was a real PIG! BOOM!
And…the next
BOOM I hated that GUY!
BOOM you have
thing you know-
my old college dorm room
Sorry
I had some left
over explosives I
needed to get rid
of.
Daily Life in Cities
Stocks to today’s the medieval times as a cities that grew
According are devices used instandards, the form of physical punishmentup in Europe and the
involving public humiliation. The stocks partially immobilized its victims and they
Middle Ages wereasmall and crowded. At times, life in these cities could
were often exposed in public place such as the site of a market to the scorn of those
who passed by. Since the the standards
be very unpleasant. purpose was to punish offenders against the victim. of
conduct of the time, anybody could assault, revile or aim filth at
Streets Fire and Crime Some Benefits
• Were narrow, • Made medieval • Churches, eating
winding cities dangerous halls, markets
The Gibbet
• Shops, houses • Air hazy with
Gibbeting was common law punishment, which a judge could • Guilds provided
impose inlined both sides This practice was from
addition to execution. smoke regularized plays, public
• High buildings
in England by the Murder Act 1752, which empowered judges
cooking, tanneries entertainment,
to impose this for murder. It was most often used for traitors,
blocked sunlight and festivals
murderers, highwaymen, pirates, and • Most buildings
sheep-stealers, and was
• to discourage others made of wood,
intended Crowded with from committing similar • Sports common
offences. The structures were therefore often placed next to
straw roofs
people, animals
public highways (frequently at crossroads) and waterways. • Guilds competed
There are many places named Gibbet • Violence common
• Sanitation bad Hill in England. against each
other
Late Medieval Town Dwellings
Marketplace of
Tubingen, Germany
Village houses in
Kellerei, Germany
A timber-framed house is one whose substantial
timbers are joined to form an open rigid frame which
supports the roof. With box frame construction there
are additional posts and rails that form the frame of
the wall, the intervening spaces (infilling) being filled
with (often light-weight) material to provide weather-
proofing.
Medieval Homes
• Medieval city homes between the rich and poor differed little
from the outside, each being made of the same stone brought
in from nearby quarries. But the inside accommodations were
far more telling. A poor family might be cramped into one
room, faring little better than peasants in the country, while
rich "burger" families might occupy four floors, from cellar to
attic, complete with servant quarters.
• Comfort was not always easy to find, even in the wealthiest of
households. Heating was always a problem with stone floors,
ceiling and walls. Little light came in from narrow windows,
and oil and fat-based candles often produced a pungent aroma.
Furniture consisted of wooden benches, long tables, cupboards
and pantries. Linen, when afforded, might be glued or nailed
to benches to provide some comfort. Beds, though made of the
softest materials, were often rife with bedbugs, lice and other
biting insects. Some tried to counter this by tucking in sheets
at nighttime in hopes of smothering the pests, while others
rubbed oily liniments on their skin before retiring.
The Medieval Game of Life
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/EventsExhibitions/Permanent/medieval/Games/Apprentice.htm
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Explore-online/Games/GamesIntroductions/The+Medieval+Game+of+Life+Introduction.htm
Medieval School—London
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/London-Wall/Whats-on/Galleries/medieval/Games/Game+1.htm
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/London-Wall/Whats-on/Galleries/medieval/Games/Game+2.htm
• Could you stand
the beatings?
Shopping Spree?
Although generally not aristocrats or nobles, medieval burghers
III. Continued
enjoyed a special legal and economic status because they were
citizens of a particular town. To become a citizen in many medieval
F. Burgher Life
•towns, a person had to be male or born into a citizen family,
1. at city a certain number of workers who lived in in a
reside in thefirst merchants, artisans and years, be engaged towns were all
–
called burghers. Later substantial entry used to have the rich
respectable business, pay a the title burgher wasfee, andrefer toother
vouch for
citizensmerchants his character. By no means was every resident of
a medieval city a citizen, and the exact percentage varied from place
– 2. day starts with prayers at status
to place. Moreover, although their dawn might not be documented
officially, burghers were often a special class of citizen. Generally
– 3. meets with business partners
the most prosperous, prestigious, and politically influential citizens,
– 4. burgher’s wife kept house, managed servants and cared for children
urban burghers dominated their towns, becoming almost urban lords.
– 5. two large meals a day
• G. Changing Ways
– 1. Under feudal system land was owned by kings and nobles who taxed
the people in the towns
– 2. Nobles viewed the rise of towns as a threat to their power and the
people of the towns resented the many feudal laws
– 3. Church against towns as they feared profit making would take
people away from religion
– 4. Burghers had wealth and power and depend less on nobles and
bishops
• a.) work together to build schools, hospitals and churches
I, William, by the grace of God, Count of Flanders, not wishing to reject the petition
III. continued
of the citizens of St. Omer---especially as they have willingly received my petition
Siena.
about the consulate of Flanders, and because they have always been honest and
faithful to me---grant them the laws written below, and command that those laws
remain inviolate.
1.
•FirstH. toCommunes and Charters and defend them with
that every man I will show peace, and I will protect
– just as I do towns in And I grant Italy form political
good will1. 1100s my other men. northernthat justice be done to all of them
by my bailiffs, and I wish that they do justice to me also. I grant liberty to my
groups called communes (examplesVenice,
bailiffs such as my other bailiffs have. 26 items followed
Milan, Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Siena)
– of purpose
William Clito, Counta.) Flanders: to work against nobles and church to gain
Charter for Townself-government
of St. Omer, 1127
– 2. Some kings and nobles gave towns people
charters charter allowing them to run their
own affairs.
– 3. elect officials to run their towns
– 4. set up courts and punish criminals
Section Four: focuses on the rise of craft guilds, explaining
why they were formed and why they were later opposed
• IV. The Rise of Guilds
• A. 1100s , merchants artisans and workers form
guilds to make sure their members were treated
fairly
• B. Craft guilds controlled the work of artisans.
• C. Guild members were not allowed to compete or
advertise.
– 1. worked same hours, hire same number of workers
and paid same wages A baker caught trying to cheat customers is punished by
being dragged around the community on a sleigh with
the offending loaf trade in a town
– 2. Guilds controlled all business and of bread tied around his neck.
– 3. decided fair price for a product or service
– 4. guild members who sold a substandard good could
be fined
– 5. Guilds provided food to members who became too ill
to work and provided other services. The main interest
of the medieval guild was to protect their members!
Crest of a Cooper’s Guild
Medieval Trade
IV. Cont.
• D. Job Training
– 1. Apprentice for two to seven years
– 2. taught by masters
– 3. journeyman was paid daily wages and
worked under a master
– 4. created a masterpiece and passed a test
to become a master
– 5. by 1400 many merchants and artisans
begin to challenge the guilds.
The Divine Comedy is composed of over 14,000 lines that are divided into European
Section Five: discusses the cultural changes that took place to
three parts— Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso
civilization during the 1400s, focusing on advances in education, art, and literature
(Paradise) — each consisting of 33 cantos.
The poem is written in the first person, and tells of Dante's journey
through the three realms of the dead, lasting from the night before Good
Friday to the Wednesday after Easter in the spring of 1300. The Roman
• V. guides him through Hell and Purgatory; Beatrice, Dante's
poet Virgil Cultural Changes
ideal woman, guides him through Heaven. Beatrice was a Florentine
– A. During the childhood and admired from afar in the
woman whom he had met in1400s merchants, artisans and bankers became more
then-fashionable courtly love tradition past is highlighted in
mode of theimportant than they had been in thewhichand their growing power led to the
decline of feudalism
The Canterburywork Laa collection of stories written in Middle-English by
Dante's earlier Tales is Vita Nuova.
Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part
– B. Many towns people were richer than the nobles
of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a
– C. Townspeople had more leisure time and money to
Dante shown holding a copy of the Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to spend
journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at
mask Hired
Hell,Death– D. of Dante Alighieri ?
Canterbury Cathedral.privatetowering achievement of Western culture. He
the seven terraces of Mount teachers and the city of Florence,
Purgatory
It is a
with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelino's fresco.
tales Sons descriptions of the characters to paint an ironic and
uses the – E.and thewent to universities to study law, religion and medicine.
– F. Most townspeople the time, and particularly of the
critical portrait of English society atused languages like German, French and English
Church.
– G. Dante writes the Divine Comedy in Italian
– H. Geoffrey Chaucer writes the Canterbury Tales in English
– I. Townspeople begin to think they should be free to
develop their talents and improve their way of life.
– J. Want a strong central government to provide leadership
and protection
– Fini! (Adjective finished; through; at an end)
– Origin: Fr
And so… to Summarize Medieval Towns:
• 1. Town life was distinct from country life;
the two were separate, though
interdependent, worlds. There were many
manifestations of rural life in the city:
gardens, herds of livestock, even farms
within the city walls. Yet townsmen saw
themselves as distinct from country folk,
and country folk viewed the cities with
suspicion and envy.
• 2. Towns were much smaller than what we're
used to in industrialized societies. Most
towns were only a few thousand people. Even
the big cities can be measured in the tens of
thousands, while a mere handful reached one
or two hundred thousand. Paris, Milan,
Naples, Venice, and not much more, and
even then only in the 1200s and 1300s. After
1350, the plague greatly reduced the size of
the big cities. The largest city on the
continent of Europe was Constantinople, with
about 400,000.
• 3. A town could be, and often was,
defined legally in the Middle Ages.
From around 1100 or so, towns started
to get charters from a bishop, a great
lord, or a king. The charters varied
greatly, but commonly authorized the
town to form its own city council and to
regulate certain aspects of city life.
Thus the towns after that period had a
legal identity within society and before
the law, much the same way a modern
corporation does.
• Citizenship
• 4. Those who were citizens formed perhaps
half the population, though sometimes they
were as little as 10 or 15 percent. The citizenry
were the skilled tradesmen and the merchants,
the economic lifeblood of the city. Citizenship
was generally only inherited, but it could be
granted to individuals or to families, usually as
a recognition for some extraordinary service to
the city. By the later Middle Ages, guild
membership and citizenship went hand in
hand. In Florence, for example, membership in
a guild was a requirement of citizenship.
• 5. Everyone knew who the citizens
were, for they annually swore an oath of
loyalty to the city. They would gather in
one of the city plazas, often in front of
the town hall, and there repeat the oath
out loud, for everyone to see. This
served the double purpose of binding
the citizens and of letting everyone else
see who were recognized as citizens.
• 6. Citizenship brought privileges but also
brought obligations. They were required to
serve in fire brigades and street patrols. In
times of war they manned the walls and
served in the city militia. Only citizens had to
pay taxes. On the other hand, they were
legally protected and often could only be tried
in the town courts.
• 7. The citizens were the real caretakers of the
city's prestige and reputation, ethics and the
common weal.
• Outsiders
• 8. Among those who were usually not
citizens were the clergy. Though they
were still privileged and prestigious
members of the community. The
nobility were sometimes allowed to be
citizens, sometimes were required (in
Italy) to be citizens, and sometimes
were forbidden citizenship.
• 9. Others who were not allowed
to be citizens were the Jews.
They were tolerated usually,
persecuted sometimes, but the
Jewish communities often
fulfilled necessary functions.
• 10. And then there were, the people
without honor. These included the
hangman, gravediggers, and
prostitutes. These were all
recognized and legitimate
professions, but they were socially
repugnant and these people were
never allowed to be citizens.
Rights and Privileges
• 11. Personal freedom was vitally
important to anyone who lived in a
town and was widely regarded as an
essential element of town life. A
townsman had to be free from the
obligations that bound a peasant, and
must be free also from the arbitrary
taxation to which a peasant was
subject. A merchant, moreover, must
be free to move from place to place,
while a villein had no right to leave his
lord's land.
• 12. The city itself, as a
corporation, had freedom too.
The city flourished best when
free from feudal lords, though
some cities were ruled by
bishops or barons. Even so,
cities needed to manage their
own legal affairs and their own
fiscal affairs.
• 13. The political history of many
cities in the 1100s and 1200s is
dominated by their struggles with
their feudal overlords, bishop or
baron. The final product was often
a charter of liberties that spelled
out the exemptions and rights the
city, and its citizens, would enjoy.
• 14. Cities often bought their
freedom by paying their lord for a
charter of liberties. Later, as the
profits of urban centers became
apparent, lords encouraged the
founding of cities by granting
privileges to some settlement
whose growth he hoped to
encourage.
• 15. The charter usually stipulated that
everyone living in the town would be
free. A widespread custom was that
anyone who lived in the town for a year
and a day would become free. The
Germans had a saying: Stadtluft macht
frei: "city air makes one free", a saying
that illustrates the role played by towns
in this regard.
• 16. Other elements of city charters might
include: Landholding was to be by lease and
rent, not by feudal tenure. Freedom from
taxation was achieved by fixing limits to what
the lord would levy. Freedom from tolls on
bridges in the lord's lands; freedom from sales
taxes levied by the lord on his other subjects;
freedom from the lord's courts -- a burger
could be tried only in the courts of his home
town; right to their own merchant courts
(these were commercial courts, but were
sometimes given jurisdiction over low justice).
• 17. There was a bewildering variety to
town governments, yet there were
common elements. Most had some sort
of chief executive. His powers might
vary widely, but some such office as
Mayor (from the Latin maior which
simply means "greater") existed in
nearly every town. The Mayor—by
whatever title—might be elected or
appointed, but it was unusual to find
no such office at all.
• 18. There was normally one or
more councils, and these were
vital. A Mayor might be a
powerful figure or merely a
figurehead (as the Doge was in
Venice) but real power always
lay with the city councils.
• 19. Cities tended to have multiple councils,
but most commonly you would find a Great
Council and a Small Council. The Great
Council might consist of hundreds of
members, met rarely as an entire body, and
really served as a kind of pool from which
were drawn the members of the Small
Council plus members of a myriad of
standing committees that actually got most
of the work done. The Small Council
comprised of only a few members (six or ten
or so). This Council made many of the tough
decisions, including deciding matters of
alliances, treaties, war, and so on.
• 20. Much of the day to day
administration of a town was done
by committee. Medieval towns
tended to spawn committees for
just about everything, and much of
the detailed politics of a town
centered around control of these.
• 21. One of the more unexpected
aspects of medieval town government
was their election process. Many
elections were by lot: candidates had
their names put in a hat (the mechanics
of this varied) and six names or fifty
names or whatever were drawn from it.
Elections were very rarely run the way
we mean, with the citizens stating their
choice; and they were never done in
secret ballot, which is a modern
invention.
• 22. Terms of office were extremely
short: a year, six months, even two
months. Since the election of a new
council was a matter of picking
names by lot, it could be done
quickly. The idea was to leave no
one person in power for too long.
Medieval towns were obsessed by a
fear of demagogues.
Essay Question Chapter 26
• During the 1000s and 1100s in western
Europe, there were more births than
deaths. Why was this an important
development at that time? In the world
today, there are also more births than
deaths. Is this still a positive pattern?
Why or why not?
