This summary is taken from a book titled The Dawn of a New Era 1250-1435 written by Edward P. Cheney, the first book in the 20-volume historical series The Rise of Modern Europe. The original copyright was in 1936; this particular copy is dated 1971, so the monetary figures in �modern value� are not accurate.
Chapter three: The Rise of the Middle Class: The Development of Representative Government
The Towns:
Political recognition of the middle class was one of the principal characteristics of this period. The townsman and merchant were set to run their own government under the town charter. Along with the merchants and financiers were lawyers, scholars, soldiers, statesmen and travelers, the rise of the burghers as a class.
In Spain, where there was a centuries-long struggle to free the land from the Moors, walled cities were established as outposts. These communities were granted charters by the Spanish kings, enabling them to establish their own forms of government. As the re-conquest moved southward new cities were founded. These towns then engaged in trade and industry, organized gilds and increased in population. Under the civic control of these towns were the dependent villages or the extensive stretches of populated country that surrounded them.
Barcelona was one of the leading European cities. Along with its powerful self-government it was influential in commerce and was the location of the first bank of deposit of Europe and disseminated the most widespread of sea law in the 14th century. France was the richest of the cities, with great power and prosperity and an overflowing population. Forming were nearly independent republics: Marseilles, Narbonne, Toulouse, Montpellier and rural villages. Southern and northeastern France also flourished. The French king also enfranchised the towns of his direct domain and the towns in the domains of his great vassals. While these towns were granted charters they were still expected to provide the king with money and soldiers.
To ensure migration to new towns self-government was offered as an enticement to merchants, artisans and the rest. Though the government of these communities were more democratic than older towns it was still highly aristocratic, hereditary office-holders, land owners, affluent merchants, certain artisans and established families controlled city policy and appointed the officers and representatives. The cities of England were not as many, large or wealthy, and lacked the completeness of self-rule and the cities of France and Spain.
German and Italian cities fared much better than English cities. German communities along the Rhine and of the south prospered under their central governments and Italy was a land of cities. While eastern and southeastern Europe, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, etc., were less numerous in cities, some of the few they had were as important as the big cities of Western Europe.
Confederations of Cities:
One of the characteristic town practices in medieval Europe was the formation of leagues or confederations of towns. This was done more in Germany than anywhere else, where cities acted in disregard to the German king. Along with the Hanseatic League were the Rhenish League and the Swabian League, which at its height had 70 towns and had 10,000 men ready for war against the emperor or the territorial princes. Spain had similar leagues though temporary, formed when situations arose that called for protection against nobles or outlaws and to preserve order and enforce the law.
The union of Italian towns for the most part was the result of the stronger forcing the weaker into dependency. Florence subjected Pistoia, Pisa and ultimately all of Tuscany; Milan reigned over Pavia and Cremona; Venice made the cities on the adjacent mainland her dependencies. By the end of the 14th century Italy was reduced to few more than five states and groups of cities.
The Cortes of Castile and Leon:
There was another practice besides the leagues that was better suited for the attainment of power by the townspeople. This was the summons by kings of representatives of the towns to the meeting of the old national councils, the addition of a �third estate�, the commons, to the two already existent (nobles and churchmen).
Chronologically speaking, Spain is �the mother of parliaments�, a national body where the middle classes are represented. The previous council under the feudal system required the presence of only nobles and churchmen. Occurring in 12th century kingdoms in the Spanish peninsula (Leon, Castile, Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia) were meeting or cortes, where town representatives were assembled. These meetings were occasional, occurring only eighteen times before the end of the 13th century.
Access to the town�s coffers in times of war was the main reason why these meetings were held. The town�s representatives, however, could request certain conditions and favorable legislation before agreeing to the taxation. And from the very end of the 13th century the Spanish middle class were a permanent part of the cortes, and these meetings also took place more frequently as well. The town�s representatives gained more respect as the years passed and since they were the main source of funds for the monarchy (the clergy and nobility were exempt from taxes) the towns were able to request greater concessions as well. Among these concessions were the appointments of seats on the royal council, establishing the wages of laborers and soldiers, approval of new taxation, no executions or banishments without judicial trial and the king�s seeking of the corte�s approval before going to war.
The Cortes of Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia:
These Spanish countries also had meetings in the 12th century. Their courts were greatly independent. In Castile, any noble or churchman with a recognized office or lineage had a right to be included. A city once called could always send delegates. In Aragon the nobility was divided to form two estates, the most exalted nobles, the �ricos hombres� (men of the ruling class) and the lesser nobility, the �caballeros�. These two estates, combined with the others two (the clergy and the town deputies), formed four �arms� or four brazos.
These cortes had nearly complete control of legislation and the collection and use of funds. They received the oath of the king on his accession and he could not legally exercise his powers until the court recognized it. The cortes also shared in the declaration of war and the making of peace. It also had the right to investigate and provide for the correction of grievances brought to its attention. The authority of the cortes of Aragon were equal and in some instances superior to that of the king. The cortes of Catalonia and Valencia were similar to that stated above.
By the mid 15th century the court�s power began to wane while the authority of the king and his ministers increased. This absolute monarchy, the centralization of government, was seen throughout most of Europe.
The Estates General of France:
The dispute between Philip the Fair of France and Pope Boniface VIII (1298-1303) allowed for the representation of the middle class. Before this the �common� people had participated as individuals in the roles of advisors, bankers, as mentors in the Roman law and as court and province officials. Communities as a whole have, on occasion, been consulted concerning economic matters. But in order to gain strength against the pope, Philip formally included the cities.
In 1302 Philip forbid the collection of taxes imposed by the pope and did not allow the prelates to leave for Rome. He then sent letters to the nobility and the clergy requesting their presence at council. Letters were also sent to the bailiffs and stewards who were his representatives in the twenty-eight administrative divisions in the country. They were instructed to send delegates from the towns in their bailiwicks that would attend council, leading to the formal recognition of the �Third Estate�. Upon meeting at Notre Dame arguments were made over the pope�s claim to superiority over sovereigns and an appeal was made to the three estates for their council and aid for the king. The nobles and deputies agreed on the letter asserting the independence of France from Papal intrusion. The clergy sided with the pope.
In 1308 the Estates General was summoned again, this time concerning the Templar Knights. Philip opposed Pope Clement V in this council who had not yet agreed to the destruction of the Order of the Templars. The whole population of France was involved, including representatives from villages and small towns that had a fair or market. At least 226 town sent delegates who converged on Tours where all three estates agreed with Philip.
The next estates were held in 1314, this time as a request for more tax money for the war against Flanders. With the nobility and the clergy already making payments the appeal was focused on the townsmen. They met in the courtyard of the palace in Paris. Although no amount was specified the people agreed to taxation. When the tax was announced and collected there was much protest.
Other Estates General led to the �Salic Law� which excluded women from the throne, the rejection of Edward III claim to the crown, approval of money grants to the king, the adopting of common weights and measures and the regulation of coinage.
Another means of middle-class representation was in the form of two separate bodies, the estates of Languedoc and the estates of Langue d�Oil. Languedoc was the group of the five provinces south of the Garonne and the Dourance rivers, where Provencal and Catalan were the prevailing languages. Langue d�Oil consisted of the 23 provinces from the north of France. These estates sometimes attended the same meetings. Sometimes the estates of individual provinces were called upon to attend. It also was a practice for the king to get the consent of the Estates General to a tax or levy, then send his royal commissioners to gather the provincial estates together to obtain the grant of payment.
The Supremacy of the Third Estate in France:
While the French middle class had been invited to participate in government, the meetings were mainly for the king�s self interest. Due to the distress caused by the Hundred Years War the Estates General, and in Particular the Third Estate, for a time rose to surpass the power of the middle class elsewhere and even challenged the powers of their king.
The English invasion and civil wars that followed and the heavy taxation did much to injure the country. After the initial protest by the Estates General was ignored the Estates of the Langue d�Oil met in Paris in 1355 and proceeded to govern France. Their presiding officer was Stephen Marcel who was the head of the group of merchant and artisan companies whose officers governed Paris. The combined estates gave him enough money to supply 30,000 soldiers to the army.
In 1356, the French army was decimated in the battle of Poitiers and the king [John II, the Good] was taken prisoner to England. The dauphin [the title used by the eldest son of the king of France], acting as regent for his father, summoned the Estates General, which was led by Marcel. Again 30,000 soldiers were provided for the army. Then, concerning government reform, demands were made for the arrest and trial of eight of the king�s officers. The also sought a royal council of twenty-eight, four of the clergy, and twelve each from the nobles and the commoners. No action was to be taken without their consent. The dauphin saw this as an act of revolution and sought other means.
Threatened by revolt from Marcel and his Paris backers the dauphin yielded to demands, in a statue known as the �Great Ordinance�. With 63 articles to it, the Ordinance primarily concerned itself with restricting the powers of the king to ensure orderly government and supervision by the Estates General. Other concerns were the establishing of an appointed council, financial responsibility and the judicial system. After establishing a temporary commission of thirty-six members the government was under the control of the Estates.
The commission did not wield power responsibly, however, and created antagonism. The meetings were so frequent that attendance dropped. Without the presence of the nobles, the clergy and the towns, the meetings were more representative of the Third Estate and mainly of Paris, creating jealousy and opposition. The Great Ordinance was no longer effective and in the midst of the lack of unity of the Estates the dauphin grew in power. Adding to the dissatisfaction of the people the monarchy continued to collect money even though the English invaders were inactive.
Marcel became more radical and in 1358 led a Parisian mob to the Louvre where two noblemen were assassinated. The Dauphin was forced to take counselors according to the dictates of Marcel. Later that year the dauphin escaped and surrounded himself with the opponents of Paris. In Paris, the people turned against Marcel and executed him. They threw their support to the dauphin and renewed the war with England. The Great Ordinance was disavowed by the king from London in the year of its adoption and was never enforced. While the Estates General began to become less importance the meetings of the provincial estates, the estates of Languedoc and Langue d�Oil, and the warring sides in the civil wars still connected the middle class with the crown during the first half of the 15th century.
The English House of Commons:
The English Parliament included much the same elements of the population as the estates of France and the cortes of Spain. Parliament not only appeared at nearly the same time, by identical summons, and fulfilled the same functions as their counterparts on the Continent, but also was organized similarly and declined at the same time as the other bodies.
The first representatives of the English middle class were the rural landholders. More than once in the first half of the 13th century the king summoned �discreet men,� �knights,� chosen by the sheriff or elected in the county courts to attend consultations and give advice. The term �knight,� miles, at this time had little to do with the military, the chivalrous or the feudal sense. It meant a man of moderate position whose living came from the land but did not do the labor; men who could pay a certain amount to the exchequer and perform various public services.
A �knight�s fee,� in the judgment of treasury officials, was a holding of land of five hides (600 acres), an estate that would produce an annual income of $2,000 to $5,000 annually besides its value as a residence. �Distraint of knighthood� was the requirement of every man, irrespective of birth or training, who possessed such land to perform the services and make the payments proper to the status of a knight. The law �quia emptores� of 1290 was fast making all men direct tenants of the king, but the writs that brought the knights into parliament took no account of tenure. This meant that those attending parliament might not have been of the �upper class�; someone not knighted in the chivalrous sense, someone not of �noble� lineage, not the lord of a manor or a wealthy landowner. To change that, early in the 15th century, a statute was passed that would require the knights of the shire be at least gentlemen born and to exclude the yeomen and those below them. So the rural representatives summoned to Parliament corresponded closely to the rural gentry or the country squire.
As far as their duties were concerned the knights assessed subsidies, valued properties, were the members of juries and held the minor judicial offices of coroner and justice of the peace. The assisted the sheriff in the collection of certain taxes and assisted the king� judges when they held assize courts in their counties. They also inquired into and reported on abuses charged against the king�s officers.
Starting in the year 1265, along with the two knights from each county, two representatives from each considerable town attended parliament. Sometimes the estates would meet together, sometimes separately or in different combinations.
While there was scant regularity of recognition of knights or burgesses in 1295 the precedent was set for their inclusion. Edward I was at war with France, Scotland and Wales, with France seizing the king�s ancestral land in France and set to invade England. Edward, in need of financial support, summoned the barons, prelates, representatives of all the lower clergy, knights of the shires and town citizens to Westminster where he uttered, �What affects all should by all be approved; common dangers should be met by means provided in common.�
If all attended there would have been 2 archbishops, 18 bishops, 67 abbots, leaders of the Templar Knights, the Hospitallers and the Order of Sepringham, deans or priors of 17 Episcopal chapters, archdeacons from each diocese, 1 rep from each cathedral chapter, 2 reps of the parish clergy of each diocese, 2 knights from the 37 shires and 2 reps from the 110 cities and boroughs, an assemblage of about 500 persons. This has been called the �Model Parliament.� Only the serfs were not represented. Some 75 knights of the shire and 230 townsmen represented the middle class.
For a time the two middle-class groups, the knights of the shires representing the land-holding gentry and wealthy landowners and town delegates representing trade, handicrafts, civic wealth and independence seemed to have acted separately. The rate of taxation was usually different, with the townsmen either with more money or with more ready money. In 1296 the knights gave the same sum as the barons and clergy, a twelfth of their possessions; the burgesses gave an eighth. In 1306 the knights gave a thirtieth, the townsmen a twentieth. In 1322 the knights gave a fifteenth, the burgesses a tenth.
But the knights and the townsmen would unite merged into a single political body, the English House of Commons, starting in the 14th century. Due to the constant state of war and the king�s need for money the Commons grew in political might. Concessions by the king became �privileges of Parliament,� which then became rights. With complaints and petitions and the king�s favorable replies to them Parliament would be seen as the sole source of legislation. The king also sought advice from Parliament including matters of war and peace.
In the �Good Parliament� of 1376 the Commons threw it weight around. Among their requests were for a yearly parliament dedicated to correct errors and falsities; the exclusion of foreigners from retail trade in London; for the banishment of Lombard bankers; the prohibition of the export of grain and yarn; for the enforcement of the Statutes of Laborers; the regulation of fisheries; for the prevention of the grant of church preferment to aliens who lived in the �sinful city of Avignon.� And due to foreign defeat and domestic misgovernment they also made charges against several of the king�s officers, and all were removed from their offices, fined and imprisoned. Some judgments were later reversed and due to the death of the king and the rising of a new monarch and administration much of the action was made void.
Parliament was at its peak early in the 15th century. In 1399 the Lords and Commons agreed to the deposition of Richard II and accepted Henry of Lancaster as the new king. The relation of the king and Parliament was described: The king �cannot by himself or his ministers lay taxes, subsidies or any imposition of what kind so ever upon this subject, without the express consent if the whole kingdom in Parliament assembled.�
Parliament was able to choose and control the counselors of the king, and when Henry VI became king in 1422 as a nine-month-old child parliament appointed a council of regency and imposed upon it oaths and regulations. They also initiated all money bills, had freedom of speech in discussion, had the king�s answer to petitions for redress of grievances before granting money and regulated elections for the shire knights so that the electors would be of free status and owning about 100 acres.
The German Reichstag:
The Reichstag or diets are was not much different than its counterparts elsewhere in Europe. Prior to the Reichstag were royal councils that met in the early 12th to mid 13th centuries. But these assemblies only summoned magnates, lay and spiritual, or at most nobles, lesser barons and knights. The inclusion of the city reps or the �common-folk� first occurred during the period known as the Interregnum during the years 1254 to 1273 when there was no emperor and the central government was at its weakest.
During these dark years there was the unsettledness of coinage, the dangers of road and river traffic and crime that affected merchants, townspeople, the middle class. So in 1255 King William of Holland called a diet that was attended by princes, counts, councilors and city delegates from the Rhenish League. According to strict historical definition no imperial assembly from this time on could be considered a Reichstag unless it included reps from the Third Estate.
Due to the leagues they belonged to the German cities were strong, wealthy and organized. They were able to govern themselves and enforce order upon the country, and were confident enough to close city gates on the emperor and his representatives when new taxes for war-like purposes were demanded.
When imperial power was restored in 1273 with Rudolph, Count of Hapsburg, the cities were still called, cities that were �free and imperial cities,� not belonging to bishops, abbots or directly under lay princes. There could be as many as 50 city reps attending a Reichstag. The middle class, as a recognized Stande, or estate, had the most influence during the 14th century.
Provincial estates were known as the Landtage. As nearly independent states each provincial estate had its own separate body of estates. Their city populations were very influential. In the diets and the provincial assemblies the middle classes were represented in part by church delegates. Even the counts and lords of city territories mush have acted as reps of the populations from which their titles income came from.
The estates systems of eastern and northern Europe were different. In Bohemia the imperial diets could summon the entire kingdom, or the estates of each province was summoned separately. The estates were the magnates (including prelates), petty nobles (or knights) and, after the Hussite wars, the burgesses of the towns. The crown of Bohemia sent no representatives at all.
Moravia recognized four estates, with the nobility divided between the great nobles and the lesser nobles. Poland and Hungary had diets of large and turbulent membership.
The Swedish Riksdag came into being in 1435 during the national revolution of led by the farmers of Dalecarlia. They also had four estates, with the peasantry represented amongst the nobles, clergy and burgesses.