TEXT: www.cumberlandgames.com
  A City-Dweller’s Look at Thirteenth to Fifteenth Century Europe
  by Lisa J. Steele
  The majority of images in Town are woodcuts or bookplates 
  adapted from historical sources.
  The text of Town, along with the map artwork prepared for 
  the appendices, is copyright © 2010 by Lisa J. Steele, used 
  under license. This edition’s index, page design and original 
  visual elements are copyright © 2010 by S. John Ross.
  All Rights Reserved. Licensed users of the PDF version of 
  Town may print unlimited hardcopies for personal use. 
  Researched and Written by Lisa J. Steele
  Edited by Allen Wilkins
  Proofread by Liz Rich, with Vickey A. Beaver, J.A. 
  Dettman, Dr. Phil Hendry, Darren Hill, Gerald James 
  Hollis, Jonathan Nichol, Marcelo Paschoalin, Cody 
  Reichenau, and Adam P.R. Zabell
  Indexed and Produced by S. John Ross, with additional 
  suggestions by the Cumberland Fire-Eaters
  Original Images by S. John Ross
  Original City Plans (for appendices) by Jonathan Turner, 
  with labeling and embellishments by S. John Ross
  Publisher’s Special Thanks to Adam Flynn, for fire-
  eating above and beyond, and to Mr. Oneness for 
  Pulsomnium, which sang the book to its rest.
  This book is part of the All-Systems Library™ – CG&D 
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  Contents
  Page 2
  INTRODUCTION 
  4
  FUNDAMENTALS 
  5
  A Short European Urban History   .  .  .  .  .  .  . 6
  Population   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 8
  Glossary   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 9
  AGRICULTURE 
  11
  Condato   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 12
  Waste.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 12
  Water.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 13
  ARCHITECTURE 
  15
  Construction Methods.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 15
  Types of Buildings .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 16
  Baths   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 16
  Bridges   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 16
  Inhabited Bridges .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 17
  Castle .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 17
  Cathedral  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 17
  Churches and Monasteries  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 18
  Clock Towers   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 18
  Guild Halls   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 19
  Hospitals   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 19
  Inns .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 19
  Market Places   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 19
  Mills and Factories .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 19
  Mines .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 20
  Ovens .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 20
  Residences .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 20
  Shops  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 21
  Roads  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 21
  Streets .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 21
  Roman Ruins   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 22
  Synagogues   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 22
  Town Hall .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 22
  Walls and Gates  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 22
  Sample Real Estate Prices 
     and Construction Costs   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 23
  CHURCH 
  25
  Almshouses .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 26
  Cathedral .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 26
  Bishop    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 26
  To Be a Bishop   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 27
  Canons   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 29
  Churches and Subordinate Chapels.  .  .  .  .  .  . 29
  Relics  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 30
  Mendicant Chapters  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 31
  Monasteries  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 31
  Convents   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 32
  Hospitalers and Templars .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 32
  Tithes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 33
  Universities   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 33
  Other Religious Movements   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 34
  Béguines .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 35
  Brethren of the Free Spirits.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 35
  Cathars  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 35
  Flagellants .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 36
  Lollards  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 36
  Waldensians  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 36
  COMMERCE 
  37
  Money   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 37
  A Merchant’s Arrival   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 38
  Credit .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 39
  Pawnshops .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 40
  Banks .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 40
  Debt Collection   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 40
  Medieval Economic Theory  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 40
  Commodities  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 41
  Beer .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 41
  Wool Cloth   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 42
  Spices .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 42
  Diplomacy and Reprisals.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 42
  Forms of Business .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 43
  Accounting   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 44
  Markets.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 44
  Seld .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 45
  Fairs   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 45
  Champagne Fairs.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 46
  Flemish Merchant Companies   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 47
  Inns and Taverns   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 47
  Travel.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 48
  Typical Costs For Services 
     and Common Goods .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 50
  CRIME & PUNISHMENT 
  53
  Curfews and Night .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 54
  Courts   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 54
  Punishment .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 55
  Penance.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 56
  Organized Crime and Crime Control .  .  .  .  .  . 56
  Watch .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 57
  Inquisition .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 57
  Organized Crime.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 58
  Typical Fines and Punishments  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 59
  
  Town: Page Header
  Page 3
  Town: Contents
  Page 3
  EDUCATION 
  61
  Master-Apprentice System .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 61
  Universities .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 62
  ENTERTAINMENT 
  63
  Civic Processions   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 63
  Religious Processions   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 63
  Historical Commemorations .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 63
  Religious Feasts .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 64
  Candlemas.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 64
  Corpus Christi .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 64
  Fete des Fous (Feast of Fools) .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 64
  Lent and Easter   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 65
  Assumption of the Virgin .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 65
  Neighborhood Competitions .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 65
  Races  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 65
  Snowmen   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 66
  Tournaments  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 66
  Entertainers .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 67
  Prostitutes   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 68
  FINANCE 
  70
  Monte and Public Debt   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 70
  Taxes .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 71
  GOVERNANCE 
  72
  Subject Towns.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 72
  Chartres – Subject Town 
     with Two Sovereigns .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 73
  Chartered Towns   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 74
  Independent City-States .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 74
  Charter of St. Omer, 1127  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 75
  Leagues of Towns  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 76
  Record Keeping .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 77
  Forms of Government .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 77
  Podestàs, Captains, and Councils .  .  .  .  .  .  . 77
  Holding Public Office   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 78
  Guelf and Ghibelline .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 79
  GUILDS 
  80
  The Medieval Business Cycle   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 81
  Work Days and Work Weeks.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 81
  Holding Guild Office   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 81
  Types of Guilds and Other Regulated Trades  .  . 82
  Artisans .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 82
  Examples of Guilds   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 83
  Artists and Goldsmiths .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 84
  Builders  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 84
  Doctors  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 84
  Merchants .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 85
  Victuallars .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 85
  Typical Salaries and Wages .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 87
  JEWISH COMMUNITIES 
  89
  SOCIETY 
  93
  Class  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 94
  Clothing .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 94
  The Poor   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 94
  Immigrants  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 95
  Servants .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 95
  Slaves  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 96
  Muslims.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 96
  Women .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 97
  Neighborhoods   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 98
  Rituals of Life .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 98
  Birth   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 99
  Marriage.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 99
  Death .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 100
  Inheritance   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 102
  Orphans   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 102
  Threats .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 103
  Disease   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 103
  Leprosy   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 103
  The Black Plague.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 104
  Famine   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 104
  Rural Uprisings   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 104
  Fire  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 105
  Interdict .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 105
  Natural Disasters.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 105
  Urban Uprisings  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 106
  War.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 106
  Bandits   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 107
  Abroad at War   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 107
  Mercenaries  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 108
  Militias   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 109
  Siege  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 109
  Conclusion  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 109
  TIMELINE 
  110
  APPENDIX I: PARIS 
  115
  APPENDIX II: VENICE 
  124
  APPENDIX III: YORK 
  132
  SOURCES 
  141
  INDEX 
  145
  
  Introduction
  Page 4
  Medieval cities and towns were home to a tiny 
  percentage of Europe’s population. The vast major-
  ity of people were farmers who lived their entire lives 
  within the sound of their own parish church’s bell. To 
  a farmer, a town was a market for his goods, and a 
  source of those few items that could not be made in 
  his village. Rural adolescents went to towns looking 
  for work, before returning to take up their roles in vil-
  lage life. Others immigrated permanently in hopes of 
  a better, or at least different, life. The sick, injured, 
  or dying sometimes went to a town with hope for a 
  miraculous healing via the relics held in its churches 
  and cathedral. And, of course, towns were the homes 
  of powerful indirect influences on a farmer’s life – the 
  local bishop, and, if not the landholder of the farmer’s 
  fief, then perhaps that landowner’s feudal superior.
  To a townsperson, farms and fiefs were the source 
  of their food, fuel, and industrial raw materials like 
  wool and hides. Clergy and regional landholders 
  depended on rural parishes and fiefs for their incomes. 
  A steady influx of rural immigrants maintained and 
  grew urban populations. Wealthy townsfolk some-
  times owned rural estates, providing a private source 
  of fresh food and a refuge from the town during hot, 
  often disease-ridden summer months.
  Towns and cities were important nodes in a 
  vast network of international trade, commerce, and 
  finance. They were home to scholars, artists, and 
  administrators. Clergy were trained in their cathe-
  drals, monasteries, and universities. Workers came 
  from the countryside, many in hopes of escaping feu-
  dal duties and attaining better lives.
  Traditionally, medieval society was divided into 
  three classes or estates – those who fight (nobles), those 
  who pray (clergy), and those who work (farmers). Urban 
  merchants did not fit cleanly into those divisions, an 
  uncomfortable problem for medieval theologians and 
  philosophers. In England and France, the urban work-
  ing estate was subdivided into two basic groups: the 
  wealthy merchant class which ruled the towns (the “wor-
  thy men”, prud’hommes, or probi hominess), and everyone 
  else (the “lesser people”, le menu people, or animale viles). 
  The tension between these two urban classes became an 
  ongoing feature of town life.
  Town is the companion volume to Fief, an intro-
  duction to English and Norman French small land-
  holdings in the 9th to 11th century. Town primarily 
  focuses on urban life in the 13th to 15th centuries in 
  England, France, and Italy, with some digressions into 
  other areas and times. Like Fief, this book discusses 
  the fundamentals of a town’s political, economic, and 
  religious roles, as well as its logistics, physical archi-
  tecture, and inhabitants.
  Town is designed for armchair historians, medi-
  eval re-creationists, and role-playing gamers. Its focus 
  is to help the reader understand the interlaced struc-
  tures of town governance and life, in an effort to por-
  tray or recreate that setting, rather than for pure-
  ly academic study. It was written, in part, from the 
  author’s curiosity about the urban portion of medi-
  eval society and a frustration with implausible fiction-
  al settings. In the course of the project, the author 
  was amused to discover how many aspects of medi-
  eval urban life remain unexplored, perhaps because 
  historians seem to focus on their particular special-
  ties, and not on the town as its own entity.
  As always, many people have been involved in this 
  project over the decades since it began, including sev-
  eral helpful reference librarians at a variety of universities 
  and libraries including the University of Massachusetts 
  at Amherst, Boston Public Library, Mount Holyoke 
  College, and the Worcester County Law Library. Their 
  help has been invaluable.
  Any errors are the author’s.
  
  Fundamentals
  Page 5
  What was a town? For the purposes of this book, 
  it was a permanent settlement where most of the 
  inhabitants made their living in administration, trade, 
  and industry, rather than as farmers or monks. It was 
  defined by its economic function, by its religious role, 
  by the political rights of its citizens, or by its political 
  rights as an entity. Its key feature, however, was its 
  role as a trade center. Thus, a town can be defined as 
  a settlement holding one or more permanent (year-
  around) markets.
  Towns evolved in natural locations where people 
  came to buy and sell goods. A large village might hold 
  markets once or twice a year, often on the feast day 
  of the village’s patron saint. Market towns of a thou-
  sand inhabitants or more held more frequent regional 
  markets, generally collecting goods from fifteen or 
  more farming villages within a day’s travel by laden 
  cart (about 7 miles). 
  Because towns were defined by markets, many 
  of their characteristic institutions were dedi-
  cated to protecting peaceful 
  relationships with key trading 
  partners, maintaining safe trade 
  routes, controlling the quality of the 
  town’s goods, and protecting the value of its money. 
  Towns regulated much of their trade through guilds 
  – organizations of artisans and merchants who self-
  regulated trade and manufacturing. The existence 
  of one or more guilds is another indicator of a town, 
  rather than a village.
  At the opposite end of the urban scale from a 
  market town was a city like Palermo or Paris, which 
  might have 200,000 to 250,000 permanent residents, 
  and several specialized markets collecting goods from 
  multiple nations. Cities were rare. One historian 
  estimated that in 1300, there were only six or seven 
  towns in all of Western Europe with a population 
  greater than 50,000, thirty with a population between 
  20,000 and 50,000, forty with a population between 
  10,000 and 20,000, and perhaps a hundred with a 
  population between 5,000 and 10,000.
  Many towns grew around, and in the shadow of, a 
  bishop and his cathedral. Bishops were powerful polit-
  ical figures and major landholders, as well as spiritual 
  leaders. Often the cathedral and its associated prop-
  erty was virtually a separate entity intermingled with-
  in the secular town – tenants of cathedral property 
  and clergy had their own jealously guarded privileges 
  and rights, but might not share in the rights given by 
  the secular ruler to the town’s other inhabitants.
  In addition to a cathedral, most towns had sev-
  eral neighborhood parish churches, monasteries, and, 
  in a few cases, a university, all of which comprised a 
  complex religious society. The leaders of the cathe-
  dral, various wealthy, powerful monastic orders, men-
  dicant orders, parishes, and universities all had their 
  own traditional privileges and rights, and often jeal-
  ously competed with each other for power and pres-
  tige. Churches competed for donations and tithes 
  from the faithful, and in turn provided vital chari-
  table services, as well as daily religious rites and com-
  mon sacraments.
  One 
  medieval myth held 
  that “town air makes one 
  free” – that a serf or a peasant 
  who left a rural fief, arrived in a town, 
  and survived there for a year would 
  become a free citizen of that town. The 
  reality was more complex. On the one hand, towns 
  depended on rural landholders and farmers for their 
   food and could not afford to take in every discon-
  tented peasant. On the other hand, urban mortality 
  rates were high; towns needed a constant influx of 
  immigrants as workers and artisans. (See p. 95)
  Towns often accreted specific rights for their 
  inhabitants. Townspeople (bourgeois) had protected 
  rights within their home town and lands subject to 
  it, or to the landowner who controlled the town. 
  Outside of those boundaries, the bourgeois became 
  
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  Town: Fundamentals
  Page 6
  a foreigner (aubaine), protected by the grace of the 
  landowner in whose lands he traveled. Towns nego-
  tiated with their neighbors and trade partners on 
  behalf of their bourgeois to protect their inhabitants’ 
  rights to safe travel and commerce. Often reciprocal 
  treaties gave inhabitants of one town similar rights 
  in the other. A town, or its landholder, also might 
  become involved in disputes between its inhabitants 
  and others, seeking to redress the losses of a promi-
  nent citizen wronged on another’s lands, including 
  raising a ransom or threatening trade restrictions 
  or punitive taxes on the offender’s inhabitants and 
  their goods.
  As collective entities, 
  towns often acquired many, 
  or all, of a noble landholder’s 
  rights. Towns often had their 
  own law courts, or were sub-
  ject to the courts of powerful 
  large landholders, rather than 
  local  knights. Many were, to 
  a greater or lesser extent, self-
  governing and self-regulat-
  ing, with customs and rights 
  set forth in written charters 
  purchased from landhold-
  ers, rather than having their 
  rights dependent on rural 
  custom and oral memory.
  Perhaps the most com-
  mon indicator of a town was 
  physical – its walls. Many towns had large stone bar-
  riers which provided some protection during war and 
  unrest, and made it easier for the town to enforce 
  its monopoly on goods and services. Walls also pro-
  vided a sense of urban solidarity, providing a physi-
  cal separation between the urban household and its 
  rural counterparts.
  A SHORT EUROPEAN URBAN HISTORY
  The medieval town evolved from Roman and 
  pre-Roman settlements, although their historical 
  continuity was often more tenuous than proud urban 
  historians alleged. In some cases, parts of the old 
  Roman street plan or Roman building foundations 
  survived into (and past) the Middle Ages, but that 
  was often the only connection between the medieval 
  and Roman town.
  The Romans often laid out their towns on a 
  rectangular plan with two major cross streets – one 
  running east-west, the other north-south. The two 
  streets met at a central market forum. The Romans 
  renovated some conquered settlements into a rect-
  angular plan. Roman towns were also likely to be 
  found on plains, where they could be more easily 
  connected to Roman roads, rather than more defen-
  sible hilltop locations.
  As the Roman Empire began to crumble, 
  unwalled settlements on the plains either were forti-
  fied, or abandoned in favor of more defensible sites. 
  Between wars and a general collapse in trade, town 
  populations shrank. The 
  Catholic Church, recognized 
  by Emperor Constantine in 
  312, had established church-
  es in urban centers. As other 
  authorities collapsed, its bish-
  ops asserted themselves as 
  urban leaders and defenders. 
  By the 5th century, bishops 
  were common rulers in most 
  towns in Italy, France, and 
  the remains of the Roman 
  Empire.
  In other places, monas-
  teries became the nucleus of 
  new towns as people settled 
  near them. Although mon-
  asteries, like rural manors, 
  were generally self-sufficient, they often produced 
  and exported surplus wool and  food. Monastery-
  based towns were often smaller than those based 
  around a cathedral or landholder’s castle because 
  the monastery’s market was smaller. Monastic 
  towns often had their market place right outside the 
  monastery’s gates, with streets radiating outward, 
  which created a different street plan than towns 
  evolved from Roman settlements.
  As invading tribes like the Visigoths and Franks 
  settled around the surviving towns, their leaders 
  began to challenge the bishops for control of towns 
  and their surrounding lands. Some towns were divid-
  ed: the bishop ruled the area around the cathedral, 
  often within the old Roman center; the settled invad-
  ing leader ruled the remainder of the town and the 
  countryside. Ruling landholders made favored towns 
  their capitals, generally stripping the bishop of any 
  Walls provided 
  a sense of urban 
  solidarity, providing 
  a physical separation 
  between the urban 
  household and its 
  rural counterparts.
  
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  Town: Fundamentals
  Page 7
  significant legal power beyond the immediate cathe-
  dral neighborhood.
  As the new rulers established order in the coun-
  tryside, trade began to return, but the Roman trade 
  routes had been disrupted. Coastal towns and those 
  which relied on navigable  rivers as trade routes were 
  endangered by  Viking raiders in the 9th and 10th 
  centuries. Coastal towns on the Mediterranean were 
  likewise threatened by Muslim raiders. Most popula-
  tion centers were raided at least once. Those which 
  had neglected their fortifications since the Germanic 
  invasions were frequent targets. Frequently-attacked 
  towns contracted into a defensible nucleus.
  At the dawn of the 11th century, towns were 
  small and generally well-fortified. Most were gov-
  erned by a local noble landholder, a bishop, or 
  some combination of the two. Trade mostly relied 
  on inland routes (roads and rivers), and was based 
  on basic goods like grain and cloth. But things were 
  improving for townspeople. Increased grain yields 
  caused rural populations to expand, which in turn 
  created a surplus of inexpensive food and of labor. 
  Surpluses allowed urban populations to expand. 
  These larger groups became restless under the con-
  trol of secular and ecclesiastical rulers and began to 
  demand self-government, or at least greater rights. 
  Communes and chartered towns began to appear. 
  As towns began to expand, their streets sometimes 
  followed a radial or fan-shaped pattern, drawing in 
  what were once suburbs along the towns’ main roads. 
  Other cities planned their expansion; new districts 
  were laid out on a rectangular plan.
  During the 12th and 13th centuries, trade routes 
  continued to expand. Landholders created new towns 
  and trade colonies and sold charters to existing ones 
  to raise cash for their needs. Not all new towns sur-
  vived; some could not compete with established mar-
  kets and withered back into villages or were aban-
  doned altogether. The towns that survived were 
  planned, and tended to follow a loose grid pattern 
  of rectangular blocks. Town manufacturing became 
  increasingly sophisticated and specialized. Luxury 
  goods from Outremere (the Christian-occupied 
  Eastern Mediterranean coast during the Crusades), 
  Egypt, and even China made their way into Europe 
  through Italian merchants. The grain trade expand-
  ed over a wider area, making it easier for towns to 
  weather regional shortfalls. Even the supply of gold 
  and silver for coins expanded due to trade, increasing 
  the supply of money and allowing inflation to rise.
  By the late 13th century, urban and rural popu-
  lations were beginning to outstrip agricultural yields. 
  By 1270, many towns had reached the limits of their 
  growth. Purchasing power began to diminish as inheri-
  tance divided rural lands into plots too small to support 
  a family. Increasing numbers of farmers moved to the 
  towns, which soon could not provide enough jobs for 
  the immigrants. Towns had to look further for grain to 
  feed the working poor and the destitute. At the same 
  time, climate shifts towards longer, colder winters and 
  shorter growing seasons stressed agricultural yields. 
  Guilds began to restrict new apprentices and new 
  members. Trade patterns again shifted when Italian 
  merchant ships began sailing through the newly-liber-
  ated Straits of Gibraltar to northern European ports, 
  bypassing the old land-based trade routes.
  Things began to fall apart in the 14th century. 
  Plague killed millions in the towns and in the coun-
  tryside. The survivors were in a stronger bargaining 
  position for wages and political rights, due to the 
  shortage of labor. Weavers and other workers began 
  to rebel against guilds and urban rulers from Ghent 
  to Florence. Wars and unrest drove refugees from 
  farms into the towns and, at the same time, con-
  stricted trade and agricultural yields. Towns began 
  to spend an increasing amount of their budgets on 
  new fortifications.
  The early 15th century brought the Renaissance 
  to Italy. Towns were again growing wealthy. Much 
  of that wealth was spent on the arts, including grand 
  buildings. While wars and unrest remained a major 
  problem, plague-related deaths had stabilized and 
  agricultural production was once again able to sup-
  port an expanding population. By the end of the 15th 
  century, however, much of northern Italy had been 
  conquered by the French. Southern Italy was mostly 
  in Spanish hands. The remaining independent Italian 
  city-states were mostly controlled by hereditary rul-
  ers or royal governors. Wealth was shifting from 
  Mediterranean trade routes to the Atlantic ports as 
  ships began to sail around Africa to the Far East or 
  across the Atlantic to the Americas.
  Town ends in 1500, at the dawn of the Renais-
  sance, although there are a few examples from later 
  years.  Towns and cities continue to expand after this 
  date, but their structures and roles were changing and 
  becoming less recognizably medieval.
  
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  Town: Fundamentals
  Page 8
  Location
  Year
  Population
  Assisi
  1232
  12,400
  Barnstaple
  1377
  1,400
  Canterbury
  1377
  6,240
  Cologne
  Mid-15th century
  30,000
  Dartmouth
  1377
  1,200
  Exeter
  1086
  2,000
  Exeter
  1377
  3,100
  Florence
  1172
  10,000
  Florence
  1200
  15,000 – 20,000
  Florence
  1300
  96,000
  Florence
  1336
  90,000
  Florence
  1349
  32,000
  Florence
  1362
  70,000
  Florence
  1375
  56,500
  Florence
  1389
  54,700
  Florence
  1427
  36,910
  Florence
  1480
  40,300
  Hamburg
  1300
  5,000
  Hamburg
  1375
  8,000
  Hamburg
  Mid-15th century
  16,000
  Leipzig
  1474
  4,000
  London
  1377
  30,000 – 40,000
  London
  1501
  33,000 – 46,000
  Lübeck
  1300
  15,000
  Lübeck
  Mid-15th century
  25,000
  Paris
  1100
  3,000
  Paris
  1328
  214,000
  Paris
  1380
  90,000
  Paris
  1500
  150,000
  Perugia
  1285
  28,505
  Perugia
  1495
  28,455
  Pisa
  1315
  50,000
  Plymouth
  1377
  2,700
  Provins
  1270
  12,000
  Reims
  1328
  15,000 – 18,000
  Toulouse
  Early 14th century
  35,000
  Venice
  1200
  80,000
  Venice
  1300
  120,000
  Venice
  1350
  48,000
  Venice
  1500
  120,000
  York
  1066
  9,000
  York
  1377
  14,000
  York
  15th century
  14,000
  Ypres
  1412
  10,000
  POPULATION
  
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  Town: Fundamentals
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  GLOSSARY
   Alderman: English name for a member of a guild coun-
  cil or representative of a ward on a municipal council. 
  Equivalent terms include: échevins (Fr.), schepenen 
  (Flanders), Schöffen (Gr.), and scabini (It.).
   Aljama: (Sp.)  Jewish quarter within a city. A corporate 
  body with its own officials and taxes, often directly 
  subject to the monarch.
   Arte: (It.) Trade guild.
   Ban mile: The area outside a town’s wall in which it 
  had legal powers.
   Bourgeois: (Fr.) A town citizen who owned land within 
  the walls.
   Burgage: A way of holding urban land in England and 
  Scotland where the landholder rented urban prop-
  erty to another person in return for a yearly rent or 
  service. It was easier to sell, inherit, or dispose of bur-
  gage land than most rural property. Burgage tenants 
  often had to refer their disputes to the borough court, 
  which was an important source of urban revenue.
   Burgess: (En.) An urban citizen who owned land 
  within the town, rather than renting it. Often asso-
  ciated with a higher social status and legal privileges. 
  Where applicable, the term implies a member of the 
  sworn association of the town.
   Burgrave: Count of the “burg”, a kind of seigniorial 
  officer.
   Citizen: Urban resident with full civic rights. Citizenship 
  could be inherited or earned, and often required a 
  citizenship oath at majority. In England, full-citizen-
  ship (described as having the “freedom” of the city) 
  could be inherited, purchased, given, or earned by 
  service or apprenticeship. Prospective citizens gener-
  ally had to be of “free birth” (not slaves or serfs) and 
  not involved in any lawsuits that might embroil the 
  town if citizenship were granted. Some towns required 
  a period of residence in the town, guild membership, 
  minimum property qualifications, and/or a history of 
  tax payments.
   Commune: (Fr.) A sworn association of inhabitants of 
  a town or neighborhood pledged to mutual aid, the 
  oath acknowledged by the landholder. In the 11th 
  century, French landholders began to recognize town 
  governments as communes, but the recognition was 
  separate from a charter or grant of liberties. By the 
  13th century, a commune was expected to have a 
  written charter granting its liberties, a communal bell 
  to summon or warn citizens, and a municipal seal.
  Commune: (It.) A sworn association of the inhab-
  itants of a town pledged to mutual aid. An Italian 
  commune was an assertion of independent self-gov-
  ernment against a secular or ecclesiastical land-
  holder. In some case, the populace came together as 
  a commune; in others, it evolved from pre-existing 
  associations.
  
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  Town: Fundamentals
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   Confraternity: A charitable or religious organization. 
  Historical sources sometimes refer to these groups 
  as guilds or gilds, although they are often distinct 
  from trade and craft organizations. For purposes of 
  Town, this term refers only to charitable and reli-
  gious entities unless a specific historic organization 
  is being discussed. Economic organizations are gener-
  ally referred to in this text as guilds to avoid confus-
  ing the modern reader.
   Consorteria: (It.) A mutual protection association 
  composed of ten to forty adult men descended from 
  a common ancestor, usually a rural noble. Normally, 
  the group occupied adjoining houses in a single neigh-
  borhood, at least one of which had a defensive tower. 
  The group held property in common, to prevent the 
  family’s wealth from dispersion by inheritance. Group 
  leaders could discipline members by excluding them 
  from income or property. In some cases, leaders held 
  the right of high justice (execution) over their mem-
  bers. Groups of consorteria might ally into armed 
  family associations and “tower societies” for mutual 
  defense.
   Consul: (It., Southern Fr.) Member of a city counsel.
  Condato: (It.) Countryside around a town that is 
  legally subject to it.
   Estimo: Sworn statement of taxable property, given 
  orally or in writing.
   Farm: Fixed payment collected by English towns and 
  paid to the monarch.
   Franchise charter: (Fr.) A formal grant of rights to 
  a town. It does not involve a communal oath, but 
  membership in the town is defined and includes legal 
  privileges.
  Gild: (see Guild)
   God’s Penny:  A nominal sum used to seal a contract.
   Guild: For purposes of Town, this term and “arte” refer 
  only to economic entities unless a specific historic 
  organization is being discussed. Religious and chari-
  table organizations are generally referred to in this 
  text as confraternities to avoid confusing the mod-
  ern reader.
   Jurés: (Fr.) Officials who work for the sworn associa-
  tion of town inhabitants. The échevins (see alder-
  man) generally worked for a landholder. Jurés could 
  become a town council, succeeding a board of échev-
  ins, but often supplemented, then supplanted the 
  échevins.
   Magnate: (It.) Person with noble or aristocratic 
  ancestry.
   Mezzadría: (It.) A sharecropping system in which the 
  landholder generally received half of the harvest.
   Murage: (En.) Tax often imposed for building or main-
  taining urban walls. Murage was frequently assessed 
  as a tax on urban residents’ properties and as a toll on 
  goods passing into or out of a town’s walls.
   Pavage: (En.) Tax often imposed for building and main-
  taining streets, often assessed on goods by weight or 
  cartload as they entered a city.
   Podestà: (It.) Administrative and judicial officer in 
  some Italian cities. The office appeared in the early 
  13th century, when guilds sought a counterbalance 
  to consular “legislatures” dominated by wealthy fami-
  lies of noble ancestry. The podestà was traditionally 
  not a citizen of the town he governed (in order to 
  ensure impartiality), was appointed for a one to two 
  year term, and generally limited his private contacts 
  within the town during his term.
   Popolo: (It.) Political organization of prosperous mer-
  chants, artisans, crafters, and magnates, sometimes 
  with administrative functions. The term primarily 
  dates from the 13th century.
   Portage: (En.) Tax often imposed for building and 
  maintaining bridges, often assessed on goods cross-
  ing the bridge by weight or cartload, and on goods 
  offloaded from boats or ships.
   Prévôté: (Fr.) Landholder’s administrator of a town 
  responsible for collecting revenues due the land-
  holder and adjudicating disputes.
   Rat: (Gr.) Administrative council.
   Resident: A person dwelling in a town who does not 
  meet the criteria for citizenship.
   Schultheiss: (Gr.) Mayor or chief magistrate; seignio-
  rial officer in a town.
   Scula: (It.) A devotional fraternity. (See confraternity)
   Signoria: (It.) Town government by a single individual 
  or powerful family, often hereditary. Most common 
  from the late 13th century onward in some northern 
  Italian city-states.
   Staple: (En.) Monopoly right of a town to buy, sell, 
  manufacture, transport, and tax certain goods within 
  a given radius of the urban walls. Inhabitants of the 
  town were exempt from this fee on goods they did 
  not consume personally. Foreigners had to stop, pay 
  tolls, and often sell their goods to local merchants 
  or brokers.
   University: Community of scholars which has received 
  papal permission to grant graduates the ability to 
  teach anywhere (jus ubique docendi).
  
   Agriculture
  Page 11
  The country is very fertile and pleasant, with an 
  abundance of wine, fruits, and vegetables, and cere-
  als of every type. These nourish a warrior race ... The 
  city is surrounded by woods and marshes, and thus 
  well protected against enemy invasions.
  The city [Noyon] is located between two streams: 
  to the east flows the Goële, and to the west the 
  Marguerite. A third, called the Verse, receives both 
  streams, and the waters of all three flow into the Oise, 
  that river of renown, not far from the ramparts. In 
  the vicinity grow many fruit trees, and the radiant 
  soil, enlivened by its meadows and green verdure, is 
  very agreeable to the inhabitants. In addition, to the 
  east as well as to the west, the city is well fortified 
  by rocks, rivers, hills, and valleys, all around that it 
  could not be simpler to defend her with just a handful 
  of men against a huge and mighty invasion.
  – Radbod, Bishop of Noyon 
  (late 11th century)
  A town could not grow enough food within its 
  walls to feed its populace. Thus,  a town’s leader’s 
  primary, often paramount, concern was the security 
  of its  food supplies and the stability of the price for 
  grain. Grain was vital to make bread and ale, and to 
  feed the town’s many animals. Prodigious quantities 
  of grain, vegetables, fruit, ale, beer, wine, livestock, 
  and fish had to be brought into town. The amounts 
  involved could be staggering. In the late 13th centu-
  ry, Milan, one of the largest cities in northern Italy, 
  consumed an estimated 1,200 bushels of grain per 
  day. An inhabitant of early 14th century Frankfurt 
  ate more than 220 lbs. of  meat per year. Late-13th 
  century Paris annually consumed nearly 270,000 
  animals: 189,000 sheep, 30,000 oxen, 20,000 calves, 
  and 31,000 pigs. Early 14th century London import-
  ed 140,000 tons of wood each year to cook its food, 
  warm its inhabitants, and supply its industries. An 
  inhabitant of mid-14th century Lucca consumed five 
  to six barrels of wine per year. When possible, meat, 
  fish, and produce had to be fresh, as medieval stor-
  age methods were limited. Thus, it was crucial for a 
  town to be located in a fertile area which could sup-
  ply the vast majority of its typical needs. A major 
  city like London or Paris might draw supplies from a 
  radius of fifty to sixty miles. A 13th century town of 
  3,000 inhabitants might need the produce of at least 
  14 square miles of farmland, generally within 20 miles 
  of its walls. When a bad harvest threatened local sup-
  plies, a wealthy city might try to purchase grain from 
  great distances – in 1268, Venice sent ships to the 
  Black Sea for wheat.
  A town sought to control its  food supply. If it 
  had military control of the surrounding countryside, 
  it could force its subject farmers to sell their sur-
  plus grain to it and make it illegal for them to seek 
  other markets. Where the town’s military influence 
  was more limited, it became very interested in the 
  politics of the rural nobility. It could directly set 
  grain prices and  units of measurement within the 
  town’s limits. If it wished to influence the market 
  more subtley, it could tax imports and exports of 
  other foods. A town could also purchase and store 
  grain in plentiful years as a hedge against famine. 
  When those stores were exhausted, a town might 
  first cancel its taxes on imported goods (gabelle) in 
  order to encourage rural farmers to bring in needed 
  supplies tax-free. Generally, the remittance was 
  for a short duration, typically four to five days, to 
  encourage prompt action. If supplies remained 
  low, towns spent large sums of money and endured 
  heavy financial losses to purchase grain and sell it at 
  low prices to undercut speculators and avoid unrest 
  over scarce supplies. Some even paid bounties to 
  
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  Town: Agriculture
  Page 12
  merchants who imported foreign grain and prohib-
  ited grain exports. (Export bans were also regularly 
  imposed on pigs, sheep, and wine.)
  A town’s concern with  food was also reflected in 
  the number of food-related guilds and trades such as 
  grocers, spicers,  bakers,  butchers, fishmongers, brew-
  ers, and ale-wives. These guilds and trades (discussed 
  further at p. 80) could be quite powerful. However, 
  towns often regulated the quality of food, prices, mea-
  sures used, and disposal of wastes in an effort to pro-
  tect the populace from undue cheating.
  Towns did supply some of their own food. Urban 
  inhabitants often kept pigs and chickens for meat, 
  and grew some vegetables and herbs in their gardens. 
  Some towns had fields and pastures within their walls. 
  If a town’s population began to decline due to disease 
  or war, newly unused lands were often converted to 
  agricultural use. Most towns were located on a  river, 
  which supplied fish and eels. The water supply and 
  drainage ditches in Amiens, Rouen, and Troyes pro-
  vided each town with an estimated five tons of fish 
  per year.
   CONDATO
  We order that before next January the podestà and 
  the consuls will arrange for every citizen of Pistoia 
  whom they think fit, their dependants, men and wom-
  en of the district over 14 years of age, to take an oath 
  not to commit theft, sackings, fires, devastation or the 
  export of agricultural products like olives, grapes, figs, 
  chestnuts, wood, cabbages or leeks or anything else; 
  and they are to swear that if they see anyone else do-
  ing these things they will report it as soon as possible 
  to the owner or to the crier of the city.
  – Extracts from the Statute of the 
  Podestà, Pistoia (1162-1180)
  The  relationship between a town and the sur-
  rounding landholders was complicated. Landholders 
  wanted to sell their produce to a town’s ever-demand-
  ing market at the greatest prices. The town wanted 
  to ensure a steady supply of food at the lowest price, 
  which often involved complex diplomatic negotia-
  tions with nearby and distant landholders. Italian 
  city-states solved this problem by taking direct con-
  trol of their surrounding countryside (the condato), 
  often forcing rural landholders to reside in town, 
  where the urban government could keep an eye on 
  them. Other city-states directly controlled the farm-
  ers through a sharecropping system (mezzadría). 
  Taxes on rural hearths could amount to 10-15% of 
  a city-state’s budget. City-states could also demand 
  forced loans from rural villages,  soldiers for military 
  service, or labor for urban walls and roads. City-states 
  also imposed export bans (divieti), which required 
  rural farmers to sell their grains, wool, and livestock 
  to the city-state.
  Some members of the town’s urban elite, includ-
  ing its bishop and major monasteries, often owned 
  their own land in the surrounding countryside. The 
  produce of that land could be directly sent to the 
  urban household, bypassing the urban market. In the 
  alternative, during the summer, a wealthy urban fam-
  ily might spend weeks or months on land it owned in 
  the countryside, living directly from its products.
  Of course, the town depended on the same cycle 
  of seasonal sowing and harvests as the surrounding 
  landholders. Yields were limited by the soil’s quality 
  and on the weather, but a typical farmer could expect 
  a return of four to five bushels of grain for every bush-
  el of seed. The bulk of the harvest was stored in gra-
  naries and used within a year; surplus could be stored 
  for two to four years.
   WASTE
  A town also produced a great deal of waste: 
  human, animal, and from its crafts and industries. 
  Waste laws were rudimentary. Most waste was dis-
  posed of in open  sewers and ditches which then 
  dumped the effluent into the  river, preferably down-
  stream from the major parts of town. Wealthy houses 
  and monasteries might have their own private  sew-
  ers or waste-water canals. A few Italian cities had 
  the remains of their Roman underground sewers. In 
  Rome, the ancient Cloaca Maxima remained partly 
  functional and diverted some of the town’s wastes 
  into the Tiber. Paris dug its first underground sewer 
  in 1370, which drained wastes into a tributary of the 
  Seine River. Rubbish that was not disposed of in the 
  sewers might be eaten by pigs, which were sometimes 
  allowed to roam in the streets, or by dogs and rats. 
  The rest was carried out to the river or to dunghills 
  outside the city.
  Human waste was deposited in privies or cess-
  pits in private yards. Cleaners regularly dumped the 
  material in the river or sold it to farmers for fertilizer. 
  
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  Some towns built public latrines at the base of the 
  urban walls or over a designated canal, in an effort 
  to channel wastes from those too poor to have their 
  own facilities.
  Some towns limited animal wastes by restrict-
  ing how many stables could operate in town, and 
  limiting the numbers of pigs. Families often kept 
  chickens and geese for meat. Some owned dogs. 
  Cattle and sheep were generally only brought into 
  towns for slaughter. Rats, pigs, and baby geese for-
  aged in the streets for gar-
  bage and left behind their 
  own waste. Towns also 
  had to deal with the chaff 
  and dust from animal fod-
  der, which was flammable. 
  (Thus, towns often limited 
  stables and households to 
  only keeping a small sup-
  ply.) A few towns arranged 
  public garbage collections, 
  often on Saturdays. The 
  waste was either dumped 
  into the river or outside 
  the walls. Other towns 
  made each building owner 
  responsible for the street in 
  front of his or her home. A 
  combination of peer pres-
  sure and fines tended to 
  maintain a minimal level of 
  cleanliness.
  Industries known for their foul-smelling  wastes 
  like  butcher shops, fishmongers, tanneries, and dye 
  works were generally restricted to the down- river 
  parts of town, or even forced outside the town walls. 
  Again, their wastes were dumped directly into the 
  river, where it would be diluted. Slaughterhouses 
  killed thousands of animals each year for meat, 
  dumping thousands of pounds of blood, entrails, and 
  other wastes into the rivers. Fishmongers often set 
  nets along the river and cleaned their catch on the 
  riverbanks, adding more blood and entrails to the 
  water. Tanneries converted hides into leather using 
  slaked lime, tannic acid, and other chemicals, all both 
  odiferous and toxic. Dyeworks also used a variety of 
  toxic, and sometimes odiferous chemicals, some of 
  which were rinsed into the river. Cloth made from 
  flax needed to be soaked during a process called ret-
  ting. (Some towns forbade preparing flax entirely, or 
  allowed only enough for personal use.) All cloth was 
  also washed, which needed clean water, and fulled 
  (thickened) by being washed with lye, Fuller’s Earth, 
  and other treatments, the unused portions of which 
  were rinsed away into the river.
  Towns also produced a moderate amount of  air-
  borne waste from the wood and charcoal used for 
  heating and for various crafts. The amounts were not 
  large by modern standards, and generally drifted away 
  with the wind. Townspeople 
  were more concerned about 
  the odors from slaughterhous-
  es and tanneries, which were 
  often located on the periphery 
  of the town.
   WATER
  Almost all towns were 
  built along a river. A navigable 
   river was a more reliable trade 
  route than roads, which were 
  often in poor repair and more 
  subject to  bandits and tolls. 
  In addition, ships and boats 
  could carry bulk goods more 
  economically than carts and 
  pack animals. Rivers provided 
  power for mills, brought fresh 
  water for drinking and trades, 
  and carried away wastes.
  The character of the river helped to shape the 
  city. Was it affected by the tides? Was it swift-flowing, 
  with ample power for mills, but hazardous to navigate 
  because of the strong current? Was it slow and gentle, 
  requiring dams to create current for water wheels, 
  but easier to navigate? Was it prone to flooding? Did 
  it dwindle in droughts or in summer exposing sand-
  banks and impeding boats? All of these affected the 
  town’s use of its river and the architecture, particu-
  larly bridges, along it.
  Rivers were also important for waste disposal, 
  and for fresh water for drinking, cooking, and crafts. 
  Hilltop towns generally overlooked a river, and relied 
  on springs, wells, and rain water collected in cisterns. 
  In Rome, one ancient aqueduct, the Acqua Vergine, 
  still functioned during the Middle Ages. Its route was 
  mostly underground and less likely to be disrupted by 
  ...  butcher shops, 
  fishmongers, 
  tanneries, and 
  dye works were 
  generally restricted 
  to the down-river 
  parts of town, or 
  even forced outside 
  the town walls. 
  
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  war. The city’s magistrates appointed supervisors to 
  oversee the aqueduct from its entrance to the city to 
  its exit at the Trevi fountain. The supervisors tried 
  to prevent private siphons and preclude unsanitary 
  behavior at the fountain like bathing, washing laun-
  dry, or washing animals. Paris began building new 
  aqueducts in the late 12th century. Orvieto built one 
  in the late 13th century. The  Pozzo di S. Patrizio in 
  Orvieto is an extreme example of an urban well built 
  slightly after the Middle Ages. Built from 1527-37 as 
  a water supply for the Albornoz fortress, the 
  well is 175 feet deep, and lined with 
  two spiral stairwells large enough 
  for mules to transport jugs of 
  water to the surface.
  Venice may be the sole 
  example of a major town 
  which is not located on 
  or near a river. Instead, 
  Venice was built on a 
  series of islands in a salt-
  water lagoon. Much of 
  its fresh water came from 
  wells which collected and 
  filtered rainwater. At times, 
  Venetian sailors brought 
  additional amounts of fresh 
  water to town from nearby rivers 
  in boats and dumped the water by 
  bucket into the urban wells. (Medieval 
  technology was not sufficient to reach an aquifer 
  deep under the city.)
  Whatever its source, water had to reach homes 
  and craft shops. Wealthy families and some busi-
  nesses hired professional water carriers or dug private 
  wells. Those less fortunate families had to carry their 
  own water home from the river, public wells, or pub-
  lic fountains. (By the mid-13th century, towns were 
  increasingly able to pipe water to communal foun-
  tains – Milan had 6,000 fountains supplying drinking 
  water in 1288.) By the 15th century, English towns 
  were increasingly installing closed underground water 
  conduits, often lined with lead. A municipal conduit-
  keeper was charged with ensuring repairs and prohib-
  iting merchants and artisans from using the conduit 
  water for trade, instead of for cooking and drinking. 
  Homeowners paid a fee to maintain the conduits.
  While bathing was not common in the Middle 
  Ages, Roman-style public baths were found in a 
  few regions from the 10th to the 14th century. Other 
  towns offered a series of tubs, called stews, for bath-
  ers. Many baths and stews were closed in the 14th 
  century due to scandals over the bathers’ conduct.
  Crafts needed water to produce goods and to 
  power various kinds of water mills. Thus, towns dug 
  canals. A typical canal was three feet deep, six feet 
  wide, and had a sufficient grade to create a reason-
  able current to power mill wheels.  Butcher shops, 
  tanners, millers, and dyers all located their shops 
  along the canals for waste disposal.
  Town leaders  were concerned 
  about water pollution. They did 
  not understand precisely how 
  water quality affected pub-
  lic health, but they knew 
  that drinking water con-
  taminated with human 
  waste, offal, dye, and tan-
  nin (used to treat leath-
  er) was unhealthy. They 
  also knew that contami-
  nated water could lessen 
  the quality of their cloth 
  manufacturing, and thus 
  sometimes organized crafts 
  and trades so that the waste 
  from each would have a limited 
  impact on those downstream. The 
  freshest water was used for drinking, 
  cooking, and cloth cleaning. Dyers deposited alum 
  in the water as a byproduct of their work. Skinners, 
  glove-makers, and curriers could take advantage of 
  the dissolved alum to treat their skins and thus were 
  located downstream of dye works.  Butchers, who 
  needed large amounts of clean water while slaugh-
  tering animals, could be located upstream from tan-
  ners, who needed less water and who dumped tannin 
  downstream as a byproduct of their work. (On the 
  other hand, the smell of slaughtered animals often 
  resulted in butcher shops being located as far from 
  residential areas as possible, often well downstream 
  of other artisans.)
  While dyes and tannin were a health concern, 
  the amounts used in a typical town were not highly 
  polluting. Some of the chemicals even helped break 
  down organic wastes, making the water less danger-
  ous to downstream communities.
  
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  The city of Rouen is very populous and has been 
  made wealthy by different sorts of commerce. It is 
  an agreeable city due to the number of buildings sur-
  rounding the port, the murmur of running waters, 
  and the charm of the meadows. A large abundance 
  of fruits, fish and all sorts of products adds to her 
  wealth. The mountains and forests, with which she 
  is surrounded on all sides, the walls, the trenches 
  and other military constructions, make this city very 
  pleasant indeed. Much of her luster comes from her 
  churches, as well as the appearance of her houses 
  and buildings.
  – Orderic Vital, monk of Saint-
  Evroul, Normandie (c. 1148)
  A town’s physical structures, like its geography, 
  have a strong impact on its character and its econo-
  my. The town’s climate, wealth, common local build-
  ing materials, and social structures will be reflected in 
  its simplest residences as well as its grandest cathe-
  drals and guild halls. Each town had its own quirks, 
  but there were some common features.
  Due to the constant risk of fire, town rulers 
  encouraged residents to build in stone and brick, and 
  to replace older wooden buildings with less flamma-
  ble materials. London’s Assize of Buildings (1189) 
  encouraged builders to make residences from stone, 
  to use stone party-walls when buildings shared struc-
  tures, and to use tiled roofs. In 1213, London forbade 
  roofs of reeds, rushes, straw, stubble, or thatch. In 
  the 14th century, London forbade wooden chimneys. 
  By 1381, the city also required every house to keep a 
  container of water by the door to fight fires.
  Towns also limited building density, both to pre-
  vent fires and to maintain the width of streets and 
  squares for travel and trade. Lots were typically nar-
  row on the edge facing the major streets, which 
  encouraged narrow, deep homes. A typical English 
  burgage lot was 60 feet wide and 200 feet deep or 70 
  feet wide and 400 feet deep.  Street width and orien-
  tation was also affected by the prevailing climate. In 
  colder areas, streets might be angled to break up win-
  ter winds and make it easier to clear snow. In warmer 
  climates, buildings might be oriented to cast cooling 
  shadows on hot streets and squares.
  Urban builders relied to a large extent on profes-
  sional artisans like brickmakers, carpenters, wallers, 
  and stonemasons instead of the traditional peasant 
  and serf labor available to rural landholders. Towns 
  could conscript labor for municipal projects – in 1486, 
  Genoa required its stonemasons to each contribute a 
  day’s labor to building the Molo (a municipal wharf) 
  – but typically preferred to pay skilled workers. Urban 
  builders also had to purchase their materials; peasants 
  and serfs could often gather wood from the landhold-
  er’s forest.
   CONSTRUCTION METHODS
  Urban construction generally depended on pro-
  fessional builders, not family members and neighbors. 
  On the smallest projects, the patron acted as con-
  tractor, hiring and supervising artisans, and purchas-
  ing materials directly. Many projects involved written 
  contracts, although patrons rarely seemed to ask for 
  competitive bids or try to minimize costs. In England, 
  patrons tried to protect themselves from delays and 
  poor work with penalty, surety, and bond clauses. 
  Italian patrons rarely used similar means, although 
  
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  supply contracts often held the supplier responsible 
  for expenses resulting from delivery delays.
  On larger projects, the patron might hire a  pur-
  veyor of the works ( provveditore, It.) as a general con-
  tractor. The purveyor was responsible for supplies, 
  materials, and labor, and for securing the worksite 
  from thieves. His  accounts were open to inspection 
  by his patron, and often were regularly audited. A 
  cathedral building site, one of the largest projects of 
  the time, might employ over 100 workers at a time. 
  (Contrary to popular myth, cathedrals were built 
  by professional artisans, not religiously-motivated 
  volunteers.)
  Construction required a variety of materials: 
  brick, stone, and wood for the structure itself; sand 
  and lime for mortar; and gravel for foundations and 
  fill. Smiths were hired to provide nails, tie rods, brac-
  es, tools, and parts for scaffolding. Local materials 
  were generally used for most projects, although pres-
  tigious buildings like cathedrals might require import-
  ed stone despite the difficulty of transporting it. Large 
  projects might also require imported wood, particu-
  larly for large structures. A cathedral, for example, 
  might need 400 to 700 trees for its major wooden 
  parts, some of which required specific lengths, diam-
  eter, and curvature. All of this meant a large, diverse 
  urban construction industry with ties to nearby and 
  distant quarries and forests.
  TYPES OF BUILDINGS
  There were a wide variety of buildings in a typical 
  town. A few are described below to give some feeling 
  for the sorts of structures one might encounter while 
  strolling through a medieval town.
  Baths
  Private and public  bath houses existed in some 
  towns. A medieval bath house was not an elaborate 
  Roman-style thermae with multiple rooms and pools 
  of different temperatures. Instead, it had one or two 
  rooms with several individual or two-person wooden 
  tubs. Paris had 26 public baths to serve its 200,000 
  inhabitants in 1292. Reims had three bath houses in 
  1328 for a population of 15,000 to 18,000. Provins 
  had two bath houses for 12,000 inhabitants in 1270. 
  Bath houses were often made wholly or partly of 
  stone to reduce the risk from the fires used to heat 
  bath water. They also needed sturdy floors to support 
  the weight of water-filled tubs.
  Bath houses were often inexpensive, but were 
  mostly frequented by the nobility, higher clergy, and 
  wealthy townspeople. Merchants and the lower class-
  es were more likely to bathe in stews, which offered 
  heated water in wooden tubs and often a  prostitute’s 
  services. Bath houses tended to be better built with 
  tubs designed for one person. Stews often had larger 
  tubs designed for a bather and a prostitute. In both, 
  curtains often shielded the bather from drafts and 
  public view.
  Many towns closed their bath houses in the 
  14th century due to scandals and suspicion of public 
  immorality. It is unclear to what extent bathers were 
  separated by gender. Illustrations of men and women 
  bathing together typically are interpreted as showing 
  a prostitute and her customer, but might sometimes 
  portray a married couple.
  Jewish neighborhoods had a  ritual bath ( mik-
  vah) for men and women, and might have their own 
  bath house if local custom or law forbade Jews to 
  bathe with Christians. The mikvah was often locat-
  ed underground, in part because it often had its own 
  well to provide pure water, as well as a cistern to hold 
  rainwater.
  A few towns, including Bath, were known for 
  their hot mineral-laden springs, which often were 
  believed to have medicinal powers.
   Bridges
  A town’s riverside location generally meant that 
  it had one or two bridges for trade with the opposite 
  bank. Urban bridges were rarely simple spans; they 
  often included shops on each side of the roadway and 
  water-powered mills below. Many included fortified 
  gateways and drawbridge segments.
  Often travelers were charged a toll to cross, 
  which could provide a significant amount of reve-
  nue. Indeed, some bridges were built as investments 
  – the landholder granted the builder the right to the 
  tolls of the bridge (pontage) for a certain number of 
  years in return for the investor building and maintain-
  ing the bridge. In other cases, a religious order such 
  as the Augustinian Altopascio Order in Lucca, the 
  Benedictine Fratres Pontifices in France, or the Order 
  of St. Jacques du Haute Pas of Paris built bridges and 
  
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  supported themselves from tolls and from offerings at 
  a chapel on the bridge.
  The material for a bridge varied depending on 
  the river’s current and the traffic likely to pass over 
  it. Bridges were made entirely of timber, of a wood-
  en roadway over stone piers, or entirely of stone. A 
  typical span between piers ranged from five to twenty 
  feet, although the arches of the famed Avignon bridge 
  over the Rhône had spans of 100 feet. A bridge’s piers 
  were often protected by triangular projections (cut-
  waters) to shield them from the current and from 
  collisions with boats, fallen trees, and other debris. 
  Even with these precautions, bridges required con-
  stant maintenance to repair damage from water, col-
  lisions, and heavy carts with iron-shod wheels.
  A bridge also affected river trade. It formed a 
  physical obstruction to attackers trying to pass it. 
  Boats had to pass under the arches, with clearance 
  varying due to the river’s height, and between the 
  piers, which were often not evenly spaced. A bridge 
  also narrowed the river and could produce complex 
  currents and eddies. London Bridge’s 19 piers nar-
  rowed the river by half, and could produce standing 
  rapids six feet high.
  Inhabited  Bridges
  Many urban bridges had houses and shops on the 
  bridge itself. The most famous of these were London 
  Bridge (built 1176-1209) and the Ponte Vecchio in 
  Florence (built circa 1345). In both cases, the bridg-
  es were built on the site of earlier Roman bridges. 
  London Bridge was the larger, with twenty arches, 
  and buildings three to six floors high. Ponte Vecchio 
  had only three arches and three story buildings on 
  it. Rent from the bridge’s buildings helped pay for 
  repairs and upkeep, although London Bridge’s Bridge 
  Masters (sometimes called Bridge Wardens) came to 
  own considerable land in the city and beyond it.
  London’s Bridge Masters were elected on 
  Midsummer’s Day from among the city’s leading 
  guilds. They could serve two consecutive one-year 
  terms, and could be re-elected following a break in 
  service. Several held the office for ten to twelve years; 
  one served for 23 years. The Masters were responsible 
  for collecting rents from the 140 houses and build-
  ings on the bridge itself, and from lands and buildings 
  owned by the bridge. They were served by a staff that 
  included a clerk, carpenters, masons, sawyers, carters, 
  cooks, rent-collectors, and a rat-taker.
   Castle
  Many towns had fortified buildings for their own 
  defense, and to protect urban rulers in case of riot or 
  insurrection. If a town was subject to a landholder, it 
  might include the noble’s castle, often fortified by its 
  own walls, in addition to the town’s walls. The Tower 
  of London and the Louvre in Paris are both examples 
  of castles which formed part of the town’s defenses.
  Towns might also include fortified houses owned 
  by other landholders, or by higher clergy, and fortified 
  monasteries (often fortified when they were outside 
  the town’s walls, and later absorbed as it expanded).
   Cathedral
  As the third year that followed the year one thou-
  sand drew near, there was to been seen over almost 
  all the earth, but especially in Italy and in Gaul, a 
  great renewal of church buildings; each Christian 
  community was driven by a spirit of rivalry to have 
  a more glorious church than the others. It was as if 
  the world had shaken itself, and, casting off its old 
  garments, had dressed itself again in every part in a 
  white mantle of churches.
  – Raoul Glaber, Benedictine 
  monk, Historiarum libri quinque ab 
  anno incarnationis (c. 1026)
  Certainly not every town could boast of a cathe-
  dral (the seat of a bishopric), and not all bishoprics 
  could build the ornate structures one associates with 
  a medieval cathedral. In the mid-12th century, French 
  towns began a competition to build the largest cathe-
  dral. Laon’s cathedral reached 79 feet high in 1194. 
  By 1163, Notre Dame in Paris reached 108 feet. 
  Chartres exceeded it in 1194 at 121 feet. The largest 
  completed cathedral, Amiens, reached 426 feet in 
  length and 138 feet 10 inches in height in 1288.
  The cathedral at Beauvais was the tallest unsuc-
  cessful attempt. Its nave reached 157 feet 6 inch-
  es in height in 1225, but part of its vault collapsed 
  in 1284. Its builders made repairs over the next 50 
  years. Work was then interrupted by the Hundred 
  Years War and recommenced in 1500. In 1593, the 
  spire and bell tower collapsed, injuring a single priest. 
  Had the collapse occurred minutes earlier or later, it 
  would have collapsed in the midst of the Ascension 
  Day services and killed thousands. Faced with a huge 
  
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  repair bill, the cathedral chapter admitted defeat and 
  finished the building in its truncated form.
  Cathedral construction had a vast impact on the 
  town and its surroundings. It consumed vast amounts 
  of raw materials and labor over decades, sometimes 
  centuries. Chartres was built in a mere 28 years, 
  between 1194 and 1222. Reims took 70 years, Notre 
  Dame in Paris 75, and Laon 85 years. The cathedral 
  of Sens in Burgundy, which had a less dependable 
  stream of income, took over a century, between 1128 
  and 1230. Construction might not end when the 
  physical structure was complete. Subsequent bish-
  ops might renovate it, adding towers, spires, chapels, 
  and windows.
  During construction, the cathedral site was home 
  to a large work force of artisans. Many traveled from 
  building site to site as the construction progressed. 
  Cathedral construction also drew pilgrims who, like 
  modern tourists, needed lodging and food, and made 
  offerings and gifts to the cathedral chapter.
  Financing a cathedral was incredibly expen-
  sive; the surviving records suggest a typical cathe-
  dral chapter spent an average of 1,000 livre per year 
  when actively building the structure. To make mat-
  ters more complex, finances had to be maintained 
  over decades, through multiple architects, bishops, 
  and building committees.
  Italian chapters relied on a building committee 
  called an opera. It was often composed of three to 
  six members, each serving for at least one year. They 
  were charged with fund-raising and overall supervi-
  sion. The operai were not paid, but were given gifts 
  from the cathedral chapter. The opera delegated day-
  to-day management to a salaried purveyor.
  Italian city-states also often built a separate 
  baptistery alongside the cathedral. In the mid-12th 
  century, bishops consolidated baptisms into a sin-
  gle  Easter ceremony at which all of the commune’s 
  infants were baptized together. The Lateran baptis-
  tery, founded in 440, is one of the oldest. Its octago-
  nal shape was a model for many Italian baptisteries. 
  Florence’s baptistery was built between 1059-1128. 
  Pisa took much longer; its baptistery (the largest in 
  northern Italy) was started in 1153, but not com-
  pleted until 1363. Siena is one of the few Italian city-
  states which did not have a separate baptistery, but 
  included it within the cathedral. France had a few 
  cathedrals with detached baptisteries. In England, 
  there was one at Canterbury.
   Churches and  Monasteries
  A typical town might have had two dozen or 
  more neighborhood churches, chapels, monasteries, 
  and houses of religious orders. These buildings varied 
  widely in size, age, style, and decoration. Moreover, 
  they were not merely religious buildings, but were 
  used for council meetings, elections, civil courts, 
  storage, and various ceremonies. The Papacy tried to 
  limit non-religious uses. In 1215, the Fourth Lateran 
  Council strictly forbade household goods to be put 
  in churches except when necessary to protect them 
  from a fire or from war.
  Churches and monasteries often had their own 
  walled enclosure, especially if the building had origi-
  nally been outside the town walls. The area within 
  the church’s enclosure was subject to church law, not 
  that of the town, creating one or more cities within 
  the overall town, each with its own rivalries, tradi-
  tions, and needs.
   Clock Towers
  A few towns had mechanical clocks, which were 
  developed in the 14th century. Some had moving 
  hands, carillons, and mechanical figures. Milan’s 
  clock, built in 1335, is one of the oldest. The weight-
  driven clocks were accurate to within a half-hour per 
  day.
  
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  Guild Halls
   Guilds, organizations of master artisans and mer-
  chants, were wealthy, powerful forces in a town’s pol-
  itics and economy. Their large halls were places to 
  meet, to store records and official standard weights 
  and measures, to hold merchant courts, to inspect 
  and store goods, and to display the guild’s prominence 
  to the town’s residences and guests. The Florentine 
  Palazzo dell’ Arte della Lana, completed in 1308, was 
  built for the city’s powerful wool guild. In addition to 
  its halls, it had a fortified tower where guild members 
  could take refuge during unrest. The Guild Hall of 
  Merchant Adventurers of York, built between 1357-
  61, also had a large great hall; the lower level of the 
  hall held a chapel and a hospital for 13 poor people.
   Hospitals
  A medieval hospital or hotel-Dieu was created 
  to care for the sick, the elderly, or pilgrims. Some 
  served the public as a whole, others focused on spe-
  cific groups like lepers, pilgrims, orphans, or the blind. 
  Many of these institutions were created by a patron 
  in gratitude for a miraculous cure. If the donor did 
  not make sufficient financial provisions for ongo-
  ing care or if the hospital encountered hard times, 
  it might dissolve or be merged into another hospi-
  tal. Treatment was limited to fresh food, prayer, and 
  medicinal bleeding.
  During the 11th century, nearly every bishop built 
  a hospital near the cathedral. Over time, the build-
  ings were taken over for church administration or 
  residences, and new hospitals created on the fringes 
  of the town. Florence alone had 35 hospitals at the 
  end of the 15th century.
  Hospitals typically had wards for the sick, a cha-
  pel, and cloistered quarters for its clergy. Open wards, 
  which were divided by wooden screens, were replaced 
  with some private rooms in the 13th century. A hos-
  pital could be as small as a typical house, caring for a 
  half-dozen patients, or be a large building caring for 
  a hundred or more.
   Inns
  Most towns licensed inns for merchants and trav-
  elers; Milan had 150 in 1288. These were, in effect, 
  large residences, often with one or more common 
  rooms with multiple beds. A small inn might have 
  three or four beds; a large one seven to ten beds; 
  and a very large inn eighteen to twenty beds, often 
  with several beds to a room. Each bed often held 
  three guests. Inns also often offered safe storage for 
  a merchant’s goods and either owned, or were allied 
  with, a stable for horses and mules. Because inn-
  keepers often acted as agents to help merchants sell 
  their goods in town and navigate its taxes and tolls, 
  inns often became associated with specific trades or 
  nationalities.
  Market Places
  As noted above, the market was the town’s rea-
  son for existence. Thus, its market place was critically 
  important. It needed to be convenient both to local 
  consumers, and to visiting merchants. It might be as 
  simple as a large plaza or could have permanent stalls 
  and covered areas. Each town would have at least 
  one. Larger towns had two or three, each specializing 
  in different goods.
  In England, a market cross marked the site of 
  the  marketplace. The cross could be a small cross or 
  obelisk, or it could be a building or tower. Norwich’s 
  town cross, built in 1411, was a 60-foot-tall build-
  ing and was one of the largest market crosses outside 
  London. The market also held the tron, a public scale 
  or weighing beam with the town’s official weights and 
  measures.
   Mills and  Factories
  Medieval towns used their  rivers to power mills. 
  Some of the earliest mills were built in the 4th and 
  5th centuries, and were used to grind grain. A typi-
  cal grain mill would grind four to six quarters (32 to 
  48 bushels) of grain per day. A typical person ate at 
  least twelve bushels of grain per year. Thus, a typical 
  town would have one grain mill wheel for every 600 
  to 1,200 inhabitants. The exact number depended on 
  the size of the wheel, how it was powered (overshot, 
  undershot, or horizontal), and the average flow of 
  the current providing its power. Each mill powered 
  one grinding wheel. Mills specialized in grinding grain 
  for bread or making malt (for brewing and animal 
  feed). Using the same mill wheel for both tended to 
  affect the flavor of the malt and the consistence of 
  the bread flour. Mills for other purposes, such as full-
  ing cloth, were first mentioned in Normandy in 1087. 
  Because grain mills were more profitable than other 
  
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  kinds of mills, other kinds of mills existed only where 
  there was a surplus of water power.
  Mills were expensive to build and to maintain. 
  A mill was usually built and owned by a landholder 
  or by a religious order. The church typically owned 
  between half and three-quarters of a town’s mills. A 
  prospective owner had to create an appropriate flow, 
  often creating a mill dam. The mill building need-
  ed strong foundations, stone channels for water, two 
  millstones, and the oak or chestnut waterwheels and 
  gears. The building had to support the heavy equip-
  ment, and endure the vibration of its gears. It also 
  had to contain fires which might result from grain 
  dust and the friction of the mill’s wooden parts. 
  Sometimes, the sturdy building was used as a tempo-
  rary fortification or prison.
  In the 15th century, some rural water mills were 
  converted to wind mills, which were easier and 
  cheaper to build and repair, but less reliable. It was 
  rare to find enough steady wind or space for a wind 
  mill in an urban setting.
   Mines
  A few towns had mines beneath the town streets. 
  Paris’ Roman limestone mines were extended deep 
  underground in the 12th century to mine hard lime-
  stone for Notre Dame, the Louvre castle, and other 
  buildings. In the Holy Roman Empire, salt mines were 
  found near, and sometimes under, towns.
   Ovens
  Most houses had their own fireplaces and hearths 
  for cooking and heating, although Milan forbade 
  private hearths to reduce the risk of fire.  Bakers, of 
  course, had their own ovens; their buildings had tile 
  roofs for safety reasons. Towns also often provided 
  communal ovens for residents to bake bread and 
  meals.
  London had public  cook shops, a variation on a 
  communal oven, which provided pre-cooked meals 
  and cooked  meat.
  Residences
  Most of a town’s buildings were residences. They 
  commonly had shops on their first floor, with the 
  shopkeeper’s residence on the upper floor or floors. 
  In the rear, many residences had small yards for live-
  stock, tiny worksheds, gardens, and the disposal 
  of household garbage. Even merchants’ palaces in 
  Italian city-states often had store-rooms and offices, 
  or a least a study to conduct business, on their ground 
  floor.
  A  house often had washing hanging from poles 
  on its façade. In southern climates, awnings suspend-
  ed from poles provided shade from the summer sun. 
  Some houses had a holy image or statue in a niche 
  on their exterior, sometimes with a candle placed in 
  front of it.
  In England and northern France, houses were 
  typically made with timber frames and wattle-and-
  daub walls. In Italy, brick was more common. Stone 
  buildings were more expensive, but more durable and 
  more fire-resistant. Windows were small and often 
  covered with linen, hide, or oiled parchment. Glass 
   windows, made with tiny panes, were rare. Natural 
  light was obscured by narrow streets and overhang-
  ing buildings. Some buildings actually touched across 
  the street, forming a hautpass, which provided extra 
  room for the residences, and braced each building 
  against the other.
  A town’s poorest residents lived in windowless 
  rooms on the upper floors of residences, or in hovels 
  in back yards or courtyards. Artisans generally rented 
  houses, which they shared with apprentices and ser-
  vants. A small artisan’s house might measure only 15 
  feet by 15 feet.
  In northern Italy, the wealthiest families owned 
  large fortified homes. These buildings often had stone 
  towers, 150 to 200 feet high, which were both ref-
  uges and places from which to drop stones and oil on 
  intruders. The largest of these towers, the Torre degli 
  Asinelli in Bologna, was 315 feet high. These places 
  were often shared by several closely related families. 
  
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  More distant relatives lived in neighboring buildings, 
  which were often linked by arches or bridges.
   Shops
  As noted above, most residences in a town’s cen-
  ter had a shop on the lower level. Other retail build-
  ings included “lock-up” shops – a small room or rooms 
  without an attached residence used for sales, work, 
  and storage, and semi-permanent market stalls used 
  for sales and sometimes storage. In 1234, Canterbury 
  had 200 shops in its center. In 1300, Chester had 
  270 shops and 15 selds (private bazaars; see p. 45). 
  In 1437, Winchester had 437 shops and 102 semi-
  permanent stalls in its main marketplace.
  Location was critically important. Generally, the 
  building’s narrow side faced towards the street, leav-
  ing room for only one shop. Where a building’s long 
  side faced a major street, the owner might divide it 
  into two or three narrow shops, little bigger than per-
  manent market stalls.
  Shops generally had large windows to let in light 
  and display wares. Often it had two horizontal shut-
  ters – when open, the lower one (supported by two 
  legs) became a display shelf, and the upper one (hung 
  from rods or chains) an awning-like shade and rain 
  barrier. To minimize theft, a typical door was narrow 
  (27”), allowing only one person to enter at a time. 
  Valuable goods were made, kept, and sold deep with-
  in the shop. Cheaper goods could be sold from the 
  window. At  night, the door and window would be 
  closed and barred. The shop might also have internal 
  wooden shutters to further secure the wide window 
  opening. Stores might also hang wares like sausages 
  and dried  meats, shoes, or tools of the owner’s trade 
  from external poles as advertisements.
  Starting in the mid-13th century, some buildings 
  had jetties (cantilevered upper stories), which pro-
  vided shade and rain protection for the lower sto-
  ries, at the cost of narrowing the upper portions of 
  the street. Pedestrians might linger under its shelter, 
  and be attracted to the goods displayed in its stores. 
  The jetty’s beams could also be decorated to further 
  attract customers.
  In 13th century Chester, some merchants built 
  a group of shops on both the ground floor and the 
  upper story, connected by covered walkways. The 
  two-tiered district covered four main streets of the 
  town center. Shoppers saw the upper-story goods 
  from the street, and climbed stairs to reach the gal-
  leries and bridges. This two-level shopping area was 
  unique in Europe.
   Roads
  “Roads”, in this context, refers to the travel 
  routes across the countryside. Technically, these were 
  outside the physical boundaries of a town, but they 
  were key trade routes and a matter of urban concern. 
  The most common roads were the remnants of the 
  old Roman system. Because they were built for mili-
  tary purposes, they often did not follow logical trade 
  routes. However, even in ruins, the Roman roads 
  were often better than their medieval counterparts. 
  Landholders and monarchs built their own roads, and 
  charged tolls for their use.
  A 13th-century Veronese contract describes medi-
  eval road construction. The builder first laid a foun-
  dation of earth twenty-four feet wide and two feet 
  deep. Then, the builder laid a layer of small stones or 
  gravel twelve feet wide and one foot deep. The entire 
  length was bordered by a drainage ditch on one side. 
  The resulting road was narrow. If two travelers met 
  and could not pass, custom required the one with the 
  lightest load, or which was least subject to damage, 
  to give way.
   Streets
  Streets, on the other hand, were within the 
  town’s boundaries. Streets were often paved with 
  a bed of gravel or sand, over which was a layer of 
  stones or pebbles that was tamped down. Because it 
  was rare to completely close a street to repair it, new 
  layers were often placed over incompletely removed 
  old layers, making the street higher over time. Often 
  a street had a drainage ditch in its center, and there 
  were occasional open cesspits. Towns began to pave 
  major streets and squares with large stones starting 
  in the mid-13th century.
  London streets were, in theory, wide enough for 
  two carts to pass abreast or for sixteen armed men to 
  ride side by side. The widest streets in late 15th centu-
  ry Bristol were fifty feet wide. Others were thirty-five 
  feet wide. Lanes and alleys might be six to nine feet 
  wide. Homeowners often encroached on the streets 
  with sheds, steps, overhanging upper levels, signs, and 
  solars. Sometimes, the homeowner asked for a permis-
  sion to encroach on the public ways. Most, however, 
  
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  took the chance that a minor expansion would be 
  unnoticed, and thus tried to avoid the delays, bribes, 
  and risk that permission would be refused.
  Normally, those who owned property along a 
  street were responsible for maintaining and paving a 
  section of it along their frontage and up to the mid-
  dle of the roadway. If a building owner did not pay 
  taxes for this work within three months of receiv-
  ing notice, his goods could be seized and sold to pay 
  the bill. Public squares and the areas around walls 
  and gates were maintained at public expense. This 
  was often funded by pavage, a fee on goods entering 
  town based on the weight and type of cart carrying it. 
  (Pedestrians and personal goods were usually immune 
  from this fee.) A municipal paviour or surveyor of the 
  streets was often appointed to oversee repairs and 
  cleanliness. 
  Roman  Ruins
  In Italy, and along the Mediterranean coast, large 
  Roman structures were used as frameworks for build-
  ings or mined for their stone. Numerous European 
  churches and cathedrals reused parts of their Roman 
  predecessors both to save costs and to borrow some 
  of the allure of the Roman past.
  In Rome itself, the Colosseum was a crum-
  bling ruin used by prominent Roman families for 
  homes, like caves in a cliff. Another Roman family 
  had fortified the Roman Theater of Marcellus into 
  houses, apartments, and a fortified tower. (A family 
  similarly transformed the Roman amphitheater in 
  Arles, along the French Mediterranean coast.) The 
  catacombs, although ransacked by the Goths and 
  Lombards, were still sometimes used for shelters 
  and secret meetings. In other Italian cities such as 
  Orvieto, Etruscan excavations were supplemented 
  with medieval tunnels and rooms, honeycombing 
  the area under the city.
   Synagogues
  A Jewish house of worship was a rare building in 
  medieval towns. While small numbers of Jewish fami-
  lies could be found in many towns, large Jewish com-
  munities were uncommon. If a town was large enough 
  to build its own synagogue, the building was used as a 
  combination meeting house, house for prayers, place 
  for religious studies, and hall for community meet-
  ings. Customarily, Jewish  builders were forbidden to 
  build synagogues that were better decorated than the 
  town’s churches, thus the buildings were often plain 
  from the exterior, with decorated interiors.
  Town Hall
  The first purpose-built  town halls were Italian. 
  Rome built one in 1151, Parma in 1196, and Padua 
  in 1200. Other Italian city-states soon followed. 
  Previously, most town councils met in a church or 
  in their members’ homes. Other northern European 
  countries began building town halls in the mid-13th 
  century.
  Town halls were built for meetings and to house 
  municipal records, especially tax records. Many had 
  bell towers to summon the populace, and balconies 
  from which leaders could address crowds. Notaries 
  and clerics worked in the halls copying records and 
  drafting documents.
   Walls and  Gates
  Towns often needed defensive works to pro-
  tect their residents from  bandits, robbers, and sol-
  diers. Not all towns had walls, nor were such walls as 
  existed often well maintained. The state of a town’s 
  defenses depended on the current and historical sta-
  bility of the region. Montpellier, for example, had 
  stone walls about 6’ wide, and 40 to 50’ tall, with 
  a total of eleven gates and more than 20 towers. In 
  England, there were many unwalled towns, and those 
  towns that built walls used them more to force goods 
  through gates where they could be taxed than as 
  defensive works.
  Large towns might have several sets of walls. 
  Each set would be built beyond the current inhab-
  ited portion of the town, which would then expand 
  to fill the entire enclosure. Suburbs would develop 
  beyond the walls, which would eventually be 
  enclosed in a new set of defenses. Thus, a town 
  might grow along its roads, rather than in a more 
  symmetrical pattern.
  With walls came gates. Unlike a castle, towns 
  often had several gates to ease trade. In addition to 
  their military uses, gates also allowed towns to control 
  access, collect tolls, and inspect goods as they entered 
  or left. Urban gates were often decorated with tow-
  ers and drawbridges, as much a display of wealth and 
  power as useful defenses. Gate houses were also often 
  used as prisons or residences.
  
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  Item
  Date
  Location
  Cost
  Barn, large
  1309-10
  Buckinghamshire
  83 livre (see p.38 for a discussion of coinage)
  Brick, per thousand
  15th C.
  Florence
  4 lire per 1,000 including transportation to work site
  Brick, per thousand
  1429
  Venice
  10 lire, 10 soldi
  Bridge, stones, purchase
  1412
  Romans
  72 florins per 100 stones for arch
   Bridge, stones, transport
  1412
  Romans
  40 florins per 100 stones for arch (by land);
  20 florins per 100 stones per arch (by water)
  Bridge, wood, purchase
  1390
  Romans
  50 florins per thirty 30’ high fir trees
  Bridge, wood, transport
  1390
  Romans
  42 florins per thirty 30’ trees
  Chapel within church
  14th C.
  Florence
  210 fl. (typical)
   Church, large
  15th C.
  Venice
  38,000 lire (for construction)
  Iron bars
  1425
  Venice
  6 soldi for 4 bars
  Iron door lock
  1431
  Venice
  1 lire 5 soldi
   Gatehouse, stone
  1313
  Warwickshire
  16 livre, 13 sou, 4 dernier (not including 
  timber, or transporting stone)
  Glass
  1436
  Venice
  1 ½ soldi/pane
  Gold Leaf
  1432
  Venice
  10 lire 14 soldi per thousand
  Kiln, for bricks, tax value
  1427
  Florence
  100-200 florins
  Kiln, for tiles, tax value
  1427
  Florence
  30-40 florins
  House, bishop’s
  13th C.
  London
  50 marks
   House, row of 8
  1415
  London
  46 l 13 s 4 d
  House, small
  1335
  Paris
  70 l
  House, large
  1341
  Paris
  200 l
  House, Mercer’s, with chapel
  Mid-15th C.
  London
  100 marks (carpenter’s fee)
  House, Merchant’s
  1313
  London
  36 l (carpenter’s fee)
  Lead
  1425
  Venice
  2 soldi/ pound
  Lime, barrel
  1429
  Venice
  6 soldi, 9 denari
  Market stalls
  1380-1
  Exeter
  £ 11 (for 12 stalls in enclosed meat market)
  Mill
  1299
  Fladbury
  80 marks
   Mill
  1396
  Ivinghoe
  65 l 9 s 3 ½ d
  Mill, fulling
  1293
  Kent
  38 s 6 d
  Mill, horse-powered
  1408
  Ivinghoe
  108 s 4 d
  Mill, weir in river
  1370
  Downton
  118 s 3 d
  Mill cogwheel
  1373
  Castleford
  6 s 8 d
  Mill stone, for bread
  1301
  Taunton
  2 l 2 ½ d
  Mill stone, for malt
  1301
  Taunton
  9 s
  Mill stone
  1390
  Congleton
  11 s 1 ¾ d
  Mill waterwheel
  1373
  Castleford
  10 s
  SAMPLE REAL ESTATE PRICES AND CONSTRUCTION COSTS
  The tables are drawn from various sources, and to some extent reflect the idiosyncrasies both of surviving records and of information reported by 
  various historians. Prices have not been translated into a standard measure; some differences may reflect changes in the metal content of coins. 
  Thus, the tables are of more use for showing trends and examples than for allowing direct comparison of prices from one region or time to another.
  
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  Item
  Date
  Location
  Cost
  Nails
  1425
  Venice
  10 soldi per 50
  Palace
  1426-36
  Venice
  23,000 lire (estimated total building cost for the Cà d’Oro)
  Pasture, enclosed
  1299
  Throckmorton
  5 marks
  Rent, fulling mill
  1294
  Kent
  8 s/yr.
  Rent, fulling mill
  1302
  Kent
  18 d/yr.
  Rent, fulling mill
  1394
  Exeter
  40 s/yr.
  Rent, room in brothel 
  by  prostitute
  14th C.
  Nuremburg
  7 pfennings/week, plus 1 per customer and 
  3 per customer who stayed the night
  Rent, residence
  1427
  Florence
  5 florins/yr.
  Rent, laborer residence
  1427
  Florence
  10-20 lire/yr.
  Rent, standard lot
  1155
  Scarborough
  4 p/yr. if gable towards street
  Rent,  standard lot
  1155
  Scarborough
  5 p/yr. if side towards street
  Rent, standard lot
  1196
  Stratford-on-Avon
  12 d/yr.
  Rent, shop
  1380
  Exeter
  16 s/ yr. (near guild hall)
  Rent, shop
  1380
  Exeter
  3 – 10 s./yr. (on bridge)
  Rent, shop
  1427
  Florence
  10 ½ florins/yr.
  Rent, shop
  1457
  Florence
  18 florins/yr.
  Rent, town house
  1281
  Paris
  20 l. /yr.
  Rent, town house
  1297
  Berwick
  10 l 3 s 5 ½ d
  Rent, town house
  1297
  Edinburgh
  16 d /yr.
  Rent, town house
  1297
  Jedburgh
  8 d /yr.
  Rent, town house
  1297
  Haddington
  12 d /yr.
  Rent, town house
  1297
  Renfew
  40 d /yr.
  Rent, town house
  1297
  Stirling
  20 d /yr.
  Rent, town house
  1300
  Berwick
  46 s 8 d /yr.
  Rent, town house
  1300
  Berwick
  20 s /yr.
  Rent, town house
  1320
  Paris
  27 l. /yr.
  Stone, cartload
  1490
  Florence
  8-13 soldi
  Stone, cartload
  1500
  Florence
  12 soldi
  Tower
  1180
  Danemarche, France
  1175 l parisis (for architect and laborers)
  Tenement
  1424
  London
  62 l
  Tenement, rent
  1424
  London
  40 s/yr.
  Ultramarine
  1432
  Venice
  26 lire 15 soldi / pound
  Waller, for roof
  1390
  Florence
  1 soldo per square braccio
  Waller, for wall
  1360
  Florence
  12 soldi per braccio (about 27-28”) (inc. materials)
  Waller, for wall
  1390
  Florence
  2 soldi per braccio
  Waller, for wall
  1432
  Florence
  8-9 soldi per braccio (inc. materials)
  Waller, for wall
  1464
  Florence
  2 soldi per braccio
  Window glass
  1324
  Paris
  2 s per sq. ft. (clear)
   Window glass
  1324
  Paris
  3 s per sq. ft. (colored)
  Window glass
  1410
  Ghent
  6 s per sq. ft. (clear)
  
  Church
  Page 25
  The  religious life of a town centered on its many 
  churches and monasteries. The Catholic Church 
  was a significant political, economic, and social pres-
  ence. In older towns, the local bishop often became 
  the center of urban government after the Roman 
  Empire’s fall. Other towns grew around a monastery, 
  whose abbot had a significant voice in the town’s gov-
  ernment. Even if a town subsequently gained political 
  independence, its bishop or abbot remained a power-
  ful political force.
  Many towns started with only one parish church, 
  which might be the cathedral (seat of its bishop). As 
  the town’s population expanded, it generally out-
  grew that church. More parishes were created, along 
  with monasteries, friaries, and other religious houses. 
  Some large towns became the sites for communities of 
  scholars, who formed a university. Each parish priest, 
  abbot, and university leader had his own political and 
  economic interests. Some were subject to the local 
  bishop, others to their own orders, and all ultimately 
  to the Pope in Rome. There could be a large num-
  ber of churches. Medieval London was divided into 
  nearly 100 parishes; Norwich and York into over 40 
  each; Worcester and Cambridge into 10 each. A few 
  towns, such as Westminster, remained essentially one 
  parish. Of course, the number of parishes does not 
  include monasteries, mendicant houses, and other 
  religious organizations.
  The Church held a variety of legal privileges for 
  its property and clergy. As a general rule, its property 
  was exempt from secular laws and authorities. It did 
  not pay taxes or tolls to the town. Clergy, about six 
  percent of a cathedral city’s population, were immune 
  from prosecution by secular rulers and could be pun-
  ished only by their own superiors. Some of these 
  rights extended to tenants of church property, even 
  if they had not taken holy orders. Moreover, the 
  church’s property tended to expand at a slow pace 
  because parishioners donated or sold land and build-
  ings to it, and it rarely sold property to secular rulers. 
  This expansion caused significant friction between 
  the town and its clergy, and often resulted in agree-
  ments about the scope of church properties and when 
  newly acquired properties obtained privileges and 
  exemptions.
  Within the clergy,  tithes were a frequent source 
  of disagreement. The tithe was a tax on one-tenth 
  of every family’s annual profits from agriculture or 
  business. Everyone was subject to it, even the cler-
  gy. In addition, when someone died, their heirs owed 
  their parish church mortuary, a fee “for tithes will-
  fully or ignorantly detained, or imperfectly paid.” 
  Churches and religious orders struggled between 
  themselves over which urban residents owed tithe 
  to their churches and how tithe revenues would be 
  divided between the receiving church and its supe-
  riors. Churches also quarreled over donations from 
  the public, burial rights (and their attendant fees), 
  and other gifts.
  For the public, the Church was a key part of daily 
  life. Many urban residents worried about their souls. 
  Usury was a  sin. The New Testament itself suggest-
  ed that “It is easier for a camel to pass through a 
  needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter heaven.” 
  (Matthew 19:23, 24) Clerics preached, often in vain, 
  against vanity and ostentatious displays of wealth. 
  Thus, urban merchants and artisans often made 
  public displays of their faith by gifts to their parish 
  churches and to religious orders. Each guild had its 
  patron saint and donated generously to its associat-
  ed parish. Workers who could not afford cash gifts 
  offered labor or in-kind goods. In later centuries, mer-
  chants and artisans became more respectable in the 
  
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  clerics’ eyes. But even then, charismatic preachers 
  railing against ostentatious wealth could play on the 
  wealthy urban classes’ uncertainty and guilt, at least 
  until the preacher overreached himself or was caught 
  in a scandal.
  Socially, a town could be divided by religion. The 
  highest ranks of the clergy were the equivalent of 
  secular nobles – wealthy and powerful with signifi-
  cant administrative duties over scattered manors. All 
  other clergy were set apart by their vows, which made 
  them subject only to ecclesiastical law. These could 
  be further divided between those ultimately subject to 
  the local bishop, and those subject to their superiors 
  and ultimately to the papacy. In addition to the laity, 
  there were also protected religious minorities like 
   Jews (generally royal subjects with protected rights 
  to exercise their faith), and, in some areas, Muslims 
  and Eastern Orthodox clergy and laity. Finally, there 
  were those whose religious faith was not protected, 
  or outlawed, like non-Christian household  slaves and 
  heretics.
   ALMSHOUSES
  Monasteries and churches distributed money, 
  bread, and clothing to the poor at regular intervals, 
  with special donations on certain holy days, often 
  including the feast day of the church or order’s patron 
  saint. Over time, churches, monastic orders, guilds, 
  and hospitals created almshouses dedicated to dis-
  tributing charity. Often, the houses sheltered thir-
  teen paupers (a symbolic figure). Others sheltered 
  a large number of paupers, including orphans. Local 
  residents were given preference over others.
  In return for charity, the paupers had to agree 
  to obey the house’s rules. These usually prohibited 
  drunkenness, fornication, and fighting. The residents 
  were also forbidden to beg. Generally, they lived in 
  individual rooms arranged around a courtyard, similar 
  to a monastery’s cloister.
   CATHEDRAL
  A cathedral is the chief church of a diocese (a 
  bishop’s district); the location of the bishop’s throne 
  (cathedra); and is usually close to the bishop’s res-
  idence. In addition to its religious importance, a 
  cathedral is also the administrative center for a large 
  number of churches and monasteries. Senlis, the 
  smallest diocese in medieval France, had 73 parishes 
  to oversee. A typical diocese might have 2,000 to 
  3,000 parishes.
  As a building, a cathedral need be no bigger than 
  any other church. The term is associated, however, 
  with grand architectural masterpieces which housed 
  a large collection of religious relics and drew pil-
  grims from miles around. (see p. 17 for a discussion 
  of cathedral architecture)
  Within the cathedral is the high altar, generally 
  separated from public view by a wooden rood screen. 
  Only the bishop and the chapter of monks associated 
  with the cathedral were allowed to be near the high 
  altar. Scattered around the sides of the building were 
  smaller chapels, often donated by wealthy patrons. 
  The chapels allowed several priests to simultaneous-
  ly say Masses on behalf of the dead. At one point, 
  Canterbury cathedral had about 400 altars, and 600 
  priests who celebrated Masses for the dead four times 
  each day.
  Cathedrals and churches were also civic centers. 
  City officials often took their oaths of office in the 
  cathedral. Markets were sometimes held in the nave. 
  Bishops and clergy blessed the city’s militia at the 
  cathedral before they left for war. Major proclama-
  tions were often made from the cathedral’s porch. In 
  Ferrara, the city’s statutes were carved on the cathe-
  dral wall in 1187.
  In Italy, perhaps moreso than elsewhere in 
  Europe, the cathedral and its piazza, were sacred spac-
  es. Towns took special care to keep the cathedral and 
  its surroundings clean, neat, and free from unseemly 
  activities. Modena threatened anyone who profaned 
  its cathedral or piazza with perpetual banishment. In 
  Pistoia, a special contingent of  guards was assigned to 
  prevent couples from  copulating in the cathedral of 
  San Iacopo during the saint’s festival in July.
  Bishop 
  A medieval  bishop was a powerful landowner, 
  a man of enormous wealth and secular power. He 
  was also the spiritual leader of his diocese and the 
  supreme civil authority within the bishopric’s vast 
  holdings. He had the rights of high and low justice, 
  and the right to mint coins. As a landholder, he was 
  often a warrior. The bishops of Senlis and Beauvais, 
  for example, were crucial to the French victory at 
  Bouvines in 1214.
  
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  Unlike other landholders, bishops were elect-
  ed and held their office for life unless promoted to 
  another office or deposed by the Pope. Before the 
  11th century, they were elected by popular vote of 
  their parishioners, often with considerable influence 
  from the local landholders. The Papacy struggled to 
  assert its power over appointing its own officials dur-
  ing the Investiture Controversy. The issue was finally 
  resolved by the Concordat of Worms (1122), which 
  eliminated the overt role of secular landholders and 
  monarchs in appointing church officials, but allowed 
  some influence over the process.
  Thus, starting in the 11th and 12th centuries, 
  bishops were elected by the chapter of monks who 
  served the cathedral. In practice, powerful landhold-
  ers often drafted a list of nominees for the chapter to 
  consider; normally, the bishop was a clergy member 
  from a noble family, often related to nearby secular 
  landholders. If the chapter chose a candidate who 
  was not on the list, neighboring landholders might 
  resist the new candidate, sometimes violently. The 
  Papacy would then intervene to protect the Church’s 
  nominal independence, but Rome was quite far from 
  most bishoprics and its influence waxed and waned 
  depending on the Pope’s reputation and ability.
  Although the bishop was chosen by the chap-
  ter, his relationship to it was often hostile. Laon’s 
  bishops, for example, issued frequent rules prohib-
  iting the  monks (canons) from singing their offices 
  with undignified haste, talking in the cathedral, talk-
  ing to women, carrying weapons, selling goods in the 
  cathedral, or accepting bribes. The need to frequently 
  TO BE A BISHOP
  A new bishop’s role was complex and contradictory. 
  If he were fortunate, his election was essentially 
  undisputed and he could quickly receive his pall from 
  the Pope. If he were unlucky, he might find himself 
  dealing with years of expensive litigation in the papal 
  courts, while perhaps being locked out of his own see 
  by a rival claimant.
  The new bishop then had to take possession of his 
  secular estates, which might involve fees paid to his 
  feudal liege. He had to decide whether to keep existing 
  officials, or replace them with his own officers, and 
  deal with any debts and disputes left to him by his 
  predecessor. This would likely involve a tour of his 
  estates, which might extend over a wide area.
  Finally, he had to resolve his supervisory duties in his 
  parish, which again would likely involve touring major 
  parishes, monasteries, hospitals, and other clerical 
  institutions to assess the state of the parish’s physical 
  and spiritual health. Again, this might involve keeping 
  or replacing his officials. He would also be expected 
  to hold a synod, often in the spring, to introduce 
  himself and to discuss issues facing the diocese. (His 
  administrative duties would make it hard for him to 
  be a scholar, if he were so inclined, although a few 
  bishops and archbishops managed to balance those 
  roles.)
  If he were fortunate, he already had experience 
  administering complex estates either as the son of 
  a landholder, as an abbot, or as an official in his 
  predecessor’s administration. If not, he would be more 
  dependent on his officials, who might have their own 
  agendas.
  The new bishop would find himself expected to act as 
  a judge, resolving disputes on his many manors, and 
  between his parishes and clergy. He likely had his 
  own prison, where errant clergy could be imprisoned 
  for misdeeds. Depending on the state of his parish, 
  he might find himself involved in reform efforts, or 
  battling heresy among his parishioners. He would likely 
  find himself in a tangle of existing disputes involving 
  his neighboring landholders over his secular lands, 
  and resolving his parishes’ disputes with each other 
  and with rival clergy.
  He would have to set up a household able to travel 
  with him as he made his rounds among his parishes 
  and estates. He might also be expected to attend the 
  royal court and that of the nearest major landholder 
  for his diocese. He would be expected to be a good 
  host to guests, and to participate in hunts and other 
  social activities among nobles. As a secular landholder, 
  he would also be expected to maintain  knights and 
  to lead them into battle if necessary.
  All of those duties generally came with a generous 
  income and a lifestyle luxurious by medieval standards. 
  If his health permitted, he might well enjoy the benefits 
  of his new role for many decades.
  
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  repeat the rules suggests the canons often disobeyed. 
  In a few cases, bishops who died from a sudden ill-
  ness were rumored to have been poisoned by their 
  own canons.
  The basic duty of a bishop was, and is, to ordain 
  priests and to oversee the parishes within his diocese. 
  Bishops were divided into the “Ordinary” (concerned 
  with administration), and “Suffragan” (responsible 
  for sacramental duties). A large diocese might have 
  2-6 suffragan bishops and one ordinary bishop (“the” 
  bishop of the see).
  A bishop had a duty to visit each parish in his dio-
  cese once per year to interview the clergy and parish-
  ioners and resolve any ecclesiastical lawsuits. Many 
  bishops spent considerable time traveling from manor 
  to manor, visiting parishes enroute. In 1289-90, the 
  Bishop of Swinfield moved his household 81 times in 
  the course of ten months. He spent 57 days at one 
  manor, 34 days at another, and 29 at a third. Over a 
  period of 51 days in the spring, he stayed in 38 differ-
  ent places. It took 30-40 horses to move his house-
  hold, which included a pack of hunting hounds.
  Unfortunately, a typical diocese had too many 
  parishes scattered over too large an area to reason-
  ably visit that often. Archbishop Thomas Corbridge, 
  of York, spent his entire four-and-one-half year reign 
  (1300-1305) in his dioceses visiting his parishes and 
  still did not get to many. Richard Gravesend of Lincoln 
  tried to visit each of his 800 parishes at least once 
  every three years during his reign (1258-79). Even 
  conscientious bishops often delegated their duties 
  to various aides, including the  archdeacon (charged 
  with collecting the bishop’s share of  tithes),  archpriest 
  (later dean, a ceremonial post),  chancellor (private 
  secretary, head of the cathedral school, library, and 
  archives, judge of cases not handled by archdeacons, 
  and judge of appeals from archdeacons’ decisions), 
   vicar forane (later  rural dean, regional administrator 
  and investigator), and  vicar general (special confes-
  sor for sins normally only absolvable by the bishop). 
  Local parishes often hosted the archdeacon or rural 
  dean, who often visited on the feast of the church’s 
  patron saint to say Mass.
  When the bishop did personally visit a church, it 
  was a significant event. He could arrive with upwards 
  of 40 servants and their horses, which the parish was 
  expected to house and feed, and could stay as long 
  as he wished. (The Third Lateran Conference (1179) 
  limited an archbishop’s visiting retinue to himself and 
  50 people, a bishop to himself and 30 others, an arch-
  dean to 7 others, and a dean to 2 others.) During his 
  visit, he questioned the parish clergy and the rural 
  dean or archdeacon about the state of the parish, its 
  priest and parishioners. His servants might physically 
  inspect the church, its vestments, and vessels, and 
  interview leading parishioners about their religious 
  education and their priest’s behavior. Often the bish-
  op gave a sermon and announced official decrees. 
  He might also give the rite of confirmation to local 
  youths, but records suggest this was a rare event.
  Of course, the bishop also had duties as a secu-
  lar landholder and employed various manorial offi-
  cials such as stewards, receivers, and auditors who 
  managed his lands. His role as secular landholder 
  was a key to his wealth and power. In England, a 
  large part of a bishop’s income came from his man-
  ors. The Archbishop of Canterbury held 34 manors 
  in the 13th century; the bishop of Winchester held 50 
  manors at that time. Like other secular landholders, 
  he could be embroiled in property disputes, some-
  times lasting across several bishops’ reigns. As a sec-
  ular landholder, he had duties to inferior landhold-
  ers ( knights), and often duties to a feudal superior, 
  which might involve military service. Prominent bish-
  ops were often summoned to the royal court and, in 
  England, to Parliament. The bishop’s religious and 
  secular duties also required a staff of servants to aid 
  him in maintaining a suitable household and hosting 
  visiting nobles and clergy.
  The bishop could, and often did, compel all of the 
  clergy in his diocese to attend an annual synod. Clergy 
  could pay a fee in the range of 1-2 s to avoid the trip. 
  At this meeting, civil and ecclesiastical lawsuits were 
  heard and resolved, reforms were announced, and the 
  clergy informed of the latest directives from Rome. 
  The synod was normally held in the fall, just after 
  the harvest. Some bishops held a second synod in the 
  spring, before planting.
  A bishop’s job was expensive. Despite the 
  Bishop of Wincester’s enormous income (over 
  2,977 l. worth of land in 1291), he was often in 
  debt. Bishop Godfrey Lucy borrowed 3,000 l. from 
  the chapter in 1200; his successor, William Raleigh, 
  borrowed another large sum in 1238 to pay fees 
  caused by a dispute over his election. Boniface of 
  Savoy inherited a debt of 14,670 l. when he became 
  Archbishop of Canterbury in 1244; he was eventu-
  ally able to pay off his debt. His successors were less 
  
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  fiscally able; Archbishop Winchelsey found himself 
  owing 3,000 l. to a group of Italian merchants in 
  1295. Much of the money was spent on the bishop’s 
  household, including various officials, attendants, 
  servants, and  soldiers.
  By the 14th century, the Roman Curia charged a 
  new bishop a fee called the  servitia communia, which 
  equaled a third of the diocese’s first year’s income. 
  In 1215, Walter Gray, the incoming archbishop of 
  York, was charged 10,000 l. to have his election rati-
  fied by the papacy. In the late Middle Ages, bishops 
  were encouraged to borrow the sum from  papal bank-
  ers at a high interest rate. Moreover, bishops were, 
  in theory, required to travel to Rome for a private 
  papal interview. The trip, and the attendant bribes 
  and fees, were quite expensive, as was the fee for an 
  exemption from the journey. In England and France, 
  the crown claimed the right to seize the lands of a 
  bishopric during a vacancy (the “right of regalia”). 
  During the interregnum, the crown had a landhold-
  er’s authority to collect rents and taxes, settle dis-
  putes, and even grant a charter to a subject town. 
  Once elected, the new bishop had to appear before 
  the crown to reclaim his rights, a visit which often 
  involved its own “gifts” and fees.
   Canons
  The canons of a cathedral, or of any church, 
  were a group of clergy who had entered a religious 
  order. The name came from the canon, or rules, that 
  defined their community (chapter). There were sev-
  eral kinds of canons: cathedral canons (who formed 
  the council of the bishop), collegiate canons (who 
  performed Masses and other sacraments), preben-
  diary canons (who received a fixed income called a 
  benefice or prebend, for performing Masses and other 
  duties), and simple canons (who had some duties, but 
  did not receive a benefice or prebend). The canons’ 
  primary duty was to attend Mass and choir services, 
  sing the psalms, deliberate in chapter meetings, and 
  escort the bishop as needed. Normally, a canon was 
  bound to his chapter and could not travel from it for 
  any long period without official permission.
  Canons were usually appointed by the bishop, by 
  the chapter itself, or, in some cases, directly by the 
  Pope. In a few cases, the founding patron of a church 
  or the creator of a prebend or benefice reserved the 
  right to nominate canons.
  A cathedral might have 30 to 80 canons to advise 
  and assist the bishop in his duties. Although the bish-
  op may have been a member of the chapter before 
  his election, after election he was no longer a part 
  of it. Instead, the chapter was led by its dean (some-
  times known as a provost or archpriest). It might also 
  have officers like a treasurer, secretary, and sacris-
  tan. In the early Middle Ages, the chapter divided 
  its duties and resources equally. From the 9th century 
  onward, some chapters became lax, dividing revenues 
  unevenly and no longer living together as a religious 
  community. In 1059, the Papacy announced a series 
  of reforms to curb these problems. It found the need 
  to announce or repeat reforms in later centuries, sug-
  gesting the problem was ongoing.
  CHURCHES AND 
  SUBORDINATE CHAPELS
  Every town had one or more parish  churches. 
  If a cathedral was present, several urban churches 
  might be subordinate chapels, administered by the 
  cathedral’s canons. Other churches were indepen-
  dent parish churches, subject to the bishop just like 
  all the other parishes in the diocese, but otherwise 
  competing with each other for parishioners and their 
  tithes, fees, and donations, and for travelers’ gifts and 
  donations.
  Each church had one or more priests associat-
  ed with it. The priest said daily religious services, 
  performed sacraments, distributed charity, helped 
  parishioners who needed work find it, helped those 
  who needed laborers find them, arbitrated disputes 
  between parishioners, and gave religious lessons to 
  children.  A typical church had four to five clergy 
  and about 300 parishioners. Parish clergy were often 
  assisted by churchwardens, elected by the parishioners 
  and paid a small stipend to help manage the building, 
  vestments, and vessels. Each parish was expected to 
  maintain itself from donations, fees, tithes, and rents 
  from lands it might own besides its own building. The 
  Church discouraged priests from requesting payments 
  for sacraments, but clergy encouraged parishioners to 
  make offerings on major religious holidays, the feast 
  day of the church’s patron saint, and during Masses 
  said for the dead.
  The clergy collected the benefice of the parish 
  and either performed sacraments, or delegated that 
  role to other clergy. Parish clergy were responsible for 
  
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  teaching their parishioners about their faith, correct-
  ing sins, preventing heresy, and performing the sac-
  raments. Parishioners expected the clergy to protect 
  them from supernatural harm and from natural disas-
  ters like floods, fire, heavy storms, and illness.
  All Catholic clergy were, ideally,  celibate. Pope 
  Gregory VIII mandated  celibacy for the clergy in 
  1074. Enforcement varied. On the one hand, urban 
  clergy could be more closely supervised than their 
  rural counterparts. On the other hand, many of their 
  superiors were known for their own improprieties and 
  were willing to turn a blind eye to discreet affairs. 
  Churches were expected to give charity to the 
  poor and hospitality to travelers. On feast days, 
  churches were often crowd-
  ed with the sick and dying 
  lying on blankets or on lit-
  ters praying for a miracu-
  lous cure. Some stayed at a 
  church for weeks or months 
  in hopes that their prayers 
  would be answered. The ill 
  penitents sought to touch 
  reliquaries or relics – some 
  bought dust, stones, or 
  bits of cloth that had been 
  placed near a relic or tomb 
  and were believed to have 
  absorbed miraculous quali-
  ties. Others ate the wax and wicks of candles that 
  had burned in a church’s shrines.
  Churches were also often crowded with the 
  urban poor seeking distributions of bread and 
  money. Wealthy parishioners often left money in 
  their wills to be donated to the poor during their 
  funeral Mass in return for the beneficiary’s prayers 
  for the deceased’s soul.
   Relics
  Among a church’s most powerful symbols were 
  its relics – the remnants of saints or even of Christ 
  himself. Every church had at least one relic. A major 
  cathedral might own hundreds. In Laon, hundreds of 
  relics hung, each in their own gold and gem encrust-
  ed reliquaries, from a huge iron chandelier in the cen-
  ter of the cathedral’s crossing. The faithful sought to 
  touch relics, or at least the reliquaries, and in some 
  cases would settle for cloth coverings, or even dust 
  that collected on tombs, or waste water from clean-
  ing the tombs or reliquaries. (Holy water and a con-
  secrated host were also held in high esteem.)
  While few relics could be authenticated, the pub-
  lic did not seem to doubt their provenance or power. 
  Guilbert de Nogent, a 12th century French chroni-
  cler, was one of the few skeptics. He wrote of his 
  doubts about a relic of his home cathedral, a dove 
  made of crystal and gold said to contain milk from 
  the Virgin. The bird, housed in an ivory reliquary, 
  was displayed on the cathedral’s high altar on the 
  festival of the Virgin’s Milk (January 25). Among 
  the more improbable European relics were the three 
  heads of St. Quiriace (each found in a different part 
  of France), two heads of St. 
  John the Baptist (Amiens 
  and Constantinople), mul-
  tiple parts of the True Cross 
  and of the Virgin’s clothing, 
  Christ’s blood, the afore-
  mentioned Virgin’s milk, 
  an Italian convent which 
  claimed to hold a piece of 
  clay from which Adam was 
  made, one of Enoch’s fingers, 
  and an almond from Paradise; 
  and eight different claim-
  ants to being the foreskin 
  of Christ (Lateran in Rome, 
  Sainte Chapelle in Paris, Santiago de Compostela, 
  Le Puy en Velay, Calcata (near Rome), Charroux, 
  Coulombs, Langres).
  As manifestations of the divine, relics were kept 
  in richly decorated containers. Saints who were 
  renowned for their poverty during their life would 
  be honored with vast riches in Paradise. Thus, medi-
  eval priests felt it appropriate to reflect that honor on 
  earth by decorating the saint’s shrines and remains. 
  The reliquaries also served as emergency stores of 
  cash – gems could be sold and gold melted down in 
  an extreme crisis.
  Relics could be vital sources of gifts and dona-
  tions. Pilgrims and parishioners made offerings to 
  churches holding important relics, often in thanks 
  for or in hope of a miraculous cure or divine interven-
  tion. Canterbury cathedral received nearly two-thirds 
  of its annual income from pilgrims’ offerings. On the 
  other hand, the cash received was often spent to feed 
  pilgrims and guests drawn by the relics, thus the net 
  In Laon, hundreds 
  of relics hung, each 
  in their own gold 
  and gem encrusted 
  reliquaries, from a 
  huge iron chandelier.
  
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  profit is uncertain. Relics were sometimes stolen by 
  rival clergy or by powerful nobles, so churches often 
  hired armed  guards for their displays, and to accom-
  pany relics when they were displayed to the public.
  Mendicant Chapters
  The  mendicant orders (friars), of which the 
  Dominicans and Franciscans are the best known, 
  arose in the late 13th century. At the time, the 
  Church was struggling against two powerful hereti-
  cal movements, the Cathars and the Waldensians, 
  who preached a life of simple poverty in contrast 
  to the decadent lives of many wealthy bishops and 
  abbots. Unlike monks, friars did not live in cloisters 
  and were not isolated from the community. Instead, 
  they were expected to wander, preach, and live sim-
  ple lives as an example to the faithful. Their orders’ 
  houses and churches were often built near urban 
  gates and major streets, making it easy for friars to 
  preach in nearby public squares. As reformers, the 
  mendicant orders attracted patrons and donations 
  from merchants, nobles, and even royal grants. As 
  with other reform orders, the influx of wealth and 
  property quickly led to concerns that the orders 
  would themselves become corrupted. Some chap-
  ters succumbed to temptation. Others struggled to 
  remain true to their founders’ ideals.
  Friars could be extremely influential figures in 
  town life. In the late 15th century, for example, Fra 
  Savonarola, a Dominican friar, was able to briefly 
  drive the Medici family from Florence and became 
  the leader of a fundamentalist Catholic republic. 
  Unfortunately, Savonarola then preached against 
  Pope Alexander VI, who excommunicated him. The 
  popular friar was arrested, tried for heresy, forced to 
  confess, and publicly burned to  death.
  The mendicant orders were administratively 
  independent of the local bishop. Pope Boniface 
  VIII’s official pronouncement “Super cathedrum”, 
  for example, allowed friars to preach in their own 
  churches, although not at the same time as the 
  local bishop was preaching. They could offer 
  various sacraments, including hearing confessions, 
  without sharing the revenue with the cathedral 
  chapter, although they were encouraged to work 
  closely with bishops about confessions. This led to 
  friction between the friars and local parishes, as 
  the friars’ services to the sick and dying diverted 
  bequests from parish churches. Attendance at the 
  friars’ churches also weakened parish churches’ ties 
  to their neighborhoods. Parish priests also resented 
  being upstaged by the friars’ preaching. Clerical law-
  suits ensued, with varying success.
  As the mendicants enforced the church’s doc-
  trine against heretics, the friars provoked popular 
  resentment. When friars began to investigate popu-
  larly venerated saints, they concluded that several 
  were, in fact, heretics. When they broke open the 
  “saints’ tombs” to destroy their relics, they nearly pro-
  voked riots in several Italian city-states. Resentment, 
  although not riots, also flared when the  Inquisition 
  condemned as heretics community members who 
  were popularly thought to be orthodox, even exem-
  plary in their faith. On the whole, however, the friars 
  remained popular, despite some discontentment.
   Monasteries
   The earliest monastic orders trace their history 
  to St. Benedict’s first rule for his order, written at 
  Monte Cassino in Italy in 530. The Rule, with its 
  emphasis on work and prayer, became the basis for 
  monastic life for many orders. As noted above, in 
  the aftermath of the Roman Empire, some towns 
  formed around monasteries, providing a market to 
  supply its needs and sell its surpluses. Other towns 
  grew to encompass suburban monasteries. Often 
  monasteries and the local bishops were at odds over 
  tithes, donations, and land, leading to complex 
  political battles with local rulers and with the papal 
  bureaucracy.
  Urban monastic orders, like their rural counter-
  parts, followed long cycles of corruption and reform. 
  Would-be abbots became dissatisfied with existing 
  orders and took a group of followers to an isolated 
  location to found a new order. The new order set 
  an example of piety and good works. To maintain 
  control over the order, its founders sought and 
  often obtained papal protection against the local 
  bishop’s control. The new order attracted money 
  and donations from patrons seeking the monks’ 
  prayers for their souls. These donations allowed 
  the order to expand, creating daughter houses that 
  eventually overwhelmed the order’s administrative 
  capacity, leading to lax enforcement of rules and 
  to corruption. This, in turn, inspired a new cycle of 
  reformers.
  
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   Convents
  Religious groups of  women (nuns) arose not long 
  after the first male monastic orders. Women were 
  expected to stay in their cloisters. The Archbishop 
  of York forbade nuns in his diocese to go on pilgrim-
  ages in 1195 and again in 1318. Many convents fol-
  lowed similar rules to the Benedictines, Dominicans, 
  Franciscans, and Hospitallers, although female reli-
  gious communities were more strictly cloistered than 
  their male counterparts. In the 14th century, urban 
  convents became more common than rural con-
  vents. Many new urban convents were formed as 
  part of the Franciscan and Dominican orders, fol-
  lowing rules adopted for the nuns. (The rule for 
  female Franciscans, the Poor Claires, was written 
  by St. Francis himself for his follower St. Claire and 
  approved by the papacy before her death.)
  Nuns, like monks, were expected to live simple 
  lives and perform manual labor. Nuns were more 
  likely to hire male laborers to work their convents’ 
  fields, and worked at sewing or copying manuscripts 
  instead. Some convents were founded as abbeys; the 
  female abbess had the same power over her nuns and 
  lands as a male abbot. Others were founded as prio-
  ries, where the female prioress managed the nuns and 
  land, subject to a male abbot. A few abbeys, such as 
  France’s Fontevraud, were created as double mon-
  asteries, with both monks and nuns living in sepa-
  rate buildings on the same site. Fontevraud was con-
  trolled by its abbess, as were houses that followed its 
  model.
  Many women became nuns not out of religious 
  devotion, but because either their families could 
  afford an appropriate donation to the order, but not 
  the expense of a dowry and wedding; or else they 
  entered as widows in order to avoid remarriage.
  Rumors of  sexual activity were common. Some 
  orders tried to maintain their reputation by strict 
  measures. In Rome, one convent only allowed the 
  nuns to communicate with outsiders through one or 
  two grills. Supplies and goods were passed through a 
  rota (turntable) supervised by two nuns. Nuns who 
  went to draw water at the convent’s well were to do 
  so silently and, at least, not to be heard outside the 
  walls. Badly behaved nuns were punished for several 
  offenses by sitting on the ground in front of the con-
  vent and eating a harshly restricted diet.
   Hospitalers and  Templars
  The Crusades inspired two orders of knights who 
  took monastic vows. The  Knights Hospitaller and 
  the Knights  Templar were, like many  reform orders, 
  directly responsible to the Pope and protected from 
  supervision by local bishops. A large town, or one fre-
  quently visited by pilgrims and Crusaders, often had 
  a Hospitaller or Templar commanderie.
  The  Knights Hospitaller (Knights of St. John of 
  Jerusalem) was founded in 1113 by merchants from 
  Amalfi as a monastic order to care for sick pilgrims. 
  Their name was derived from the location of their 
  hospital near the Church of St. John the Baptist in 
  Jerusalem. Pilgrims and wounded Crusaders donated 
  lands and money to the order, which used the funds 
  to maintain castles and garrisons in Outremer as well 
  as extensive holdings in Europe. When Acre fell in 
  1291, the Hospitallers moved first to Cyprus, then 
  to Rhodes, which the Order ruled as an indepen-
  dent state. The Order’s holdings were organized into 
  eight tongues (one each in Aragon, Auvergne, Castile, 
  England, France, Germany, Italy, and Provence). 
  Each was administered in turn by a Prior or, if there 
  was more than one priory, by a Grand Prior. The 
  order itself was divided between the knight-monks 
  and the monks who cared for the sick.
  The Knights Templar (Poor Knights of Christ 
  and of the Temple of Solomon) was founded in 1119 
  by Hugh de Payens and eight other knights to pro-
  tect pilgrims in Outremer and to battle the Muslims. 
  The Order was led by its Grand Master, who in turn 
  appointed Masters of the Order for various regions. 
  The Order became wealthy from donations 
  and from  banking. At first, the Order had become 
  involved in arranging letters of credit for pilgrims, 
  who could deposit funds at a local commanderie, 
  receive a letter of credit, and use it to draw upon 
  funds from Templars in Outremer. From there, the 
  Order became involved in general banking, making 
  large loans to nobles, including the French crown. 
  Eventually, the order ran afoul of King Philippe IV 
  (the Fair) of France. In 1312, he persuaded Pope 
  Clement V to suppress the order due to allegations 
  of heresy and idolatry. Philippe IV was able to seize 
  many of the Order’s assets; the Grand Master of the 
  Order was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1314.
  
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   Tithes
  The reader may note a persistent theme in the 
  above section, about conflicts between monaster-
  ies, churches, and cathedrals over tithes. Tithes are 
  a complex topic, with many local variations. In gen-
  eral, the Church claimed a tax on one-tenth of every 
  person’s annual income to support priests and  monks 
  in their prayers. The tax was claimed from everyone, 
  including the poor, regardless of personal hardships. 
  Rural farmers paid their tithes in grain and livestock, 
  often rounding in their favor when possible. Urban 
  tithe payments were more commonly in other goods. 
  Butchers, for example, might donate tallow, a byprod-
  uct of their work which could be used to make can-
  dles. Others might pay their tithe in cash, which was 
  more common in urban areas. Failure to pay a tithe, 
  or blatant cheating, could result in a parishioner 
  being shut out of his parish church or fined. In some 
  cases, a local priest could ask the secular authorities 
  to close up the debtor’s home and seize his assets for 
  sale, or even imprison him until his debt was paid.
  Leo IV wrote that parishioners should pay tithe 
  to the church where their holy baptism was given. 
  This basic rule worked for rural areas, where most 
  people were born, lived, and died in the same par-
  ish. It became more complex in urban areas, where 
  the population was more mobile and could settle in 
  whatever part of town they wished. The basic rule 
  was one of seniority. When a new church was built, 
  it could not infringe on the tithe revenues of existing 
  churches. In practice, this led to complex arguments 
  over how tithe revenues should be divided and who a 
  parishioner owed a tithe to. Tithes could be assigned 
  to distant churches and monasteries, who hired local 
  agents to collect and transfer the revenues.
  Once collected, the tithe was divided between 
  the parish clergy, the fabric (physical maintenance of 
  the church building), the poor, and the local bishop. 
  (A monastery divided its tithe between the monks, 
  the fabric, the poor, and its mother house.) Each year, 
  a church would  account for its tithe revenues to its 
  superiors. The bishops, in turn, paid a share of their 
  receipts to the Papacy through a complex system that 
  evolved into a  papal bank.
   Universities
  In the 13th century, a series of universities were 
  founded in major European cities and came to be 
  recognized by the Papacy as independent of the 
  local bishops. A few institutions, such as the medi-
  cal schools of Salerno and Montpellier, and the law 
  school of Bologna, were much older, dating from the 
  9th to 11th centuries.
  Universities drew students from across Europe 
  to study, teach, debate, and philosophize. A large 
  university could add 7,000 students to a town’s 
  population; a smaller university perhaps 2,000. 
  Along with the students came servants, adminis-
  trators, paper makers, book makers, notaries, and 
  the university’s faculty. This was a mixed benefit. 
  Students had a well-deserved reputation for rowdi-
  ness, fighting, burglary, quarreling, and mayhem 
  and, as members of the clergy, were not subject to 
  the civil authorities. Their servants often shared 
  their legal privileges, and were frequently deemed 
  worse than the students themselves.
  Universities also added another layer of complex-
  ity to local politics because they were generally char-
  tered by the crown or by the Papacy and were fierce-
  ly protective of their, and their students’, rights. In 
  1320, for example, the podestà of Bologna executed 
  a university student from Catalan for sleeping with a 
  professor’s niece. The non-Italian students were so 
  shocked by this breach of their traditional privileg-
  es, that they organized a strike and demanded the 
  podestà be punished. He, in turn, arrested four stu-
  dent leaders and executed them. At that, the entire 
  university community left Bologna for the nearby city 
  of Imola. A year later, Bologna asked the faculty and 
  students to return, and offered economic recompense. 
  They eventually did so; the podestà had by then left 
  office, his fate is not clear. In 1404, a group of young 
  students in Bologna startled a group of nobles’ horses, 
  causing some to fall. Several days later, the nobles’ 
   soldiers charged, on horseback, a group of young-
  sters on their way to a church and beat several. The 
  University cancelled its classes and threatened to 
  leave the city. The crown intervened, banishing the 
  nobles from the kingdom, ordering their palace to be 
  utterly demolished, and imposing a fine. 
  Creating a university was not easy. The site had 
  to attract both faculty and students, and the univer-
  sity had to offer its graduates the ability to teach in 
  a wide area. Salerno, Montpellier, and Bologna had 
  longstanding reputations as centers of learning. The 
  origins of their universities are vague, mostly lost to 
  legend and history. Paris’ university developed from 
  
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  its cathedral school and later gained a papal charter. 
  The University of Toulouse, on the other hand, was 
  directly created by papal charter at the end of the 
  Albigensian Crusade and had both the Papacy and 
  the French monarchy as patrons. Its purpose was to 
  teach theology in the heart of the lands most affect-
  ed by the heresy. Emperor Frederick II created the 
  University of Naples as a matter of prestige, and as 
  an alternative to Bologna’s law school as a source of 
  administrators for his empire.
  Students and teachers were, almost without 
  exception, male. Most students were minor members 
  of the clergy whose moral character was vouched for 
  by their local bishop or the head of the local monas-
  tic order. This did not stop the students, often young 
  men, from gaining a reputation as rowdy, mischie-
  vous rogues, fond of drinking and casual  sex, who 
  escaped punishment for misdeeds by virtue of their 
  clerical status. While some students remained consis-
  tently at a university until they gained their degree, 
  others came and went as their finances and interests 
  allowed. Toulouse, for example, required a student 
  to attend only 15 days of classes per year in order 
  to obtain a certificate of matriculation, with all the 
  privileges that came with it. With diligence, a stu-
  dent might eventually gain mastery in his field (usu-
  ally Arts, Medicine, Law, or Theology) and become 
  licensed to teach others. If the university had a papal 
  charter, the license was accepted in all of Europe. 
  Degrees granted by universities chartered by a king 
  or emperor were generally recognized only in that 
  ruler’s lands.
  There were two major models of university struc-
  ture – the Paris and the Bologna systems. To put it 
  simply, in the Parisian model, the students themselves 
  managed the institution, setting the curriculum, hir-
  ing and firing faculty, and determining the require-
  ments for a degree. Students in the Parisian system 
  were organized into colleges – a combination of resi-
  dence and dining hall, organized geographically, and 
  supervised by the faculty. In the Bologna model, the 
  faculty managed the institution and set the standards. 
  Students in the Bologna system were organized into 
  “nations”, similar to a modern fraternity, but orga-
  nized geographically, which served as a social club, 
  study group, disciplinary body, sources of housing and 
  meals, and even moneylender during times of distress. 
  The nations had significant influence on the faculty, 
  and through it on the university.
  In general, a medieval university offered the fol-
  lowing privileges:
  All of its full-time students and full-time faculty 
  were considered protected by the highest secular 
  authority in the land (usually the monarchy or its 
  equivalent). By definition, both students and fac-
  ulty were also clergy with the usual privileges of 
  that status. It was a serious crime to falsely claim 
  university privilege.
  All students and faculty were subject only to ec-
  clesiastical justice and, when within a day’s travel 
  of the university, or on university business, sub-
  ject only to its own justice. The university could 
  withdraw this privilege if it saw fit.
  All universities had the sole right to determine 
  the standards for graduates without interference 
  from any secular official or bishop.
  Universities had the sole right to determine the 
  course of their studies, again free from outside 
  interference.
  Universities had the sole right to strike – to cease 
  all classes and instruction, in any place and for 
  any reason.
  Universities held a monopoly on instruction in 
  the higher arts of law, medicine, and theology 
  within a reasonable radius of their campus.
  The Dominicans and Franciscans were active-
  ly involved in university education, although 
  they generally educated their own friars outside 
  of “secular” schools. The Dominicans created 
  four studia in England, Germany, Lombardy, 
  and Provence to educate promising friars. The 
  Franciscans educated their friars at studia in 
  Assisi, Bologna, Oxford, Paris, and Toulouse. 
  The best Dominican and Franciscan students 
  were sent from the studia to Paris for a master’s 
  degree.
  Other Religious Movements
  In addition to the major religious orders, there 
  were various popular and heretical movements which 
  affected urban life. Some of the major groups are 
  mentioned here; however, a detailed history of these 
  groups is beyond the scope of this book. Most of the 
  popular religious movements were reactions to fail-
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  ings in the Church, principally worldly bishops and 
  priests whose lives did not reflect the Church’s ideals. 
  Many of these movements grew during times of social 
  unrest, war, and disease when the Church was not 
  seen as sufficiently protecting the faithful. Many of 
  the heretical groups allowed women significant lead-
  ership roles, again in contrast to the Church.
  The Church responded to heresy in a number of 
  ways. At first, local bishops had the duty to investi-
  gate heretics. They could excommunicate them and 
  either expel them from the diocese or turn them over 
  to secular authorities to punish. In 1184, Pope Lucius 
  III issued a decree, Ad abolendum, which clarified 
  the Church’s doctrine regarding heretics. It required, 
  among other measures, that bishops visit their par-
  ish more often, and investigate reports of heresy. 
  Supporters of heretics became subject to excommu-
  nication and secular punishment like banning from 
  public office. In 1199, Pope Innocent III decreed that 
  heresy was a form of treason; a heretic’s property could 
  be confiscated by a secular ruler and  the heretic’s heirs 
  disinherited. In 1220, Emperor Frederick II was the 
  first to decree that  heretics were to be burned at the 
  stake, which became the near universal punishment 
  in Europe. Later, the Church charged the mendicant 
  orders – the Dominicans and Franciscans with coun-
  tering heresy, and created a series of papal inquisitions 
  to investigate and fight heresy (see pg. 57).
   Béguines
  Women in northern France and the Low 
  Countries began to live in a semi-cloistered life of 
  prayer and good works starting in the 12th century. 
  They did not take orders and were not nuns, but were 
  often respected for their devotions. Some women 
  lived together in urban households, often support-
  ing themselves as weavers, caring for the sick or for 
  children, by working as servants, and by  begging. 
  At its height, a large town might have several hun-
  dred Béguines, living alone or in individual house-
  holds (each with its own rules). In general, beguines 
  held mainstream beliefs, but the Papacy considered 
  the movement potentially heretical and opposed it. 
  Despite official disapproval, some houses survived 
  well into the Renaissance and later.
  There was a male counterpart to the Béguines, 
  the Beghards, which was strongly associated with 
  male weavers in the same areas and met with similar 
  opposition from the Papacy and various local clergy. 
   Brethren of the Free Spirits
  The Brethren of the Free Spirits was a powerful 
  religious movement in Germany, the Low Countries, 
  and Northern France in the 13th and 14th centuries. 
  The group believed that its members were in a state 
  of grace without priest or sacraments and that God 
  was within them. Some Brethren claimed the right 
  to use and take what they needed without payment, 
  sometimes defending their thefts with violence. 
  Some records suggest bands of the Brethren wander-
  ing the countryside committing rapes and robberies, 
  although others suggest their misdeeds were exag-
  gerated by a hostile clergy. The group was declared 
  heretical by the Papacy in 1311-12. The movement 
  appears to have been very chaotic, with few leaders 
  and little clear overarching theology. Some Béguines 
  and Beghards were influenced by its broad theology 
  and lapsed into heresy.
   Cathars
  The Cathars, known in France as the Albigensians, 
  were one of the most prominent heretical groups in 
  the 11th through 13th centuries. Cathars believed 
  that the universe was divided between good and evil, 
  spirit and matter. The material world was created by 
  the Devil as a manifestation of evil, thus they prac-
  ticed strict asceticism. The Cathar liturgy was simple, 
  preached and discussed in the vernacular. Male and 
  female Cathar spiritual leaders, the  perfecti, lived in 
  the community and demonstrated their faith by good 
  works and austere living. This was often a persua-
  sive counter-example to the lives of distant monks 
  and more worldly urban clergy. The laity (credentes) 
  owed respect to the perfecti, but were also free to 
  attend Catholic Masses. The Cathar movement had 
  its strongest influence in the south of France, particu-
  larly in the County of Toulouse. Their church struc-
  ture was simple. There were four bishops in Agen, 
  Albi, Carcassone, and Toulouse. The bishops had 
  two assistants, the senior of which would succeed him 
  upon his death. Beneath them were the perfecti and 
  the credentes (converts). 
  The Church responded to the popularity of the 
  Cathars by recognizing the Dominican and Franciscan 
  orders, which also sent preachers to live pious lives of 
  poverty and preach to the faithful. The Papacy also 
  sponsored the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars 
  (1208-44). In Italy, Cathars were able to exploit anti-
  papal sentiments and live with relative peace prior to 
  
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  the Albigensian Crusade, settling in Florence, Orvieto, 
  Viterbo, and near Milan. The Crusade drove refugees 
  into Provence and Italy. Dominican inquisitors pur-
  sued them. Many of the survivors settled near Lake 
  Garda, in Italy, where they were attacked and killed 
  by Verona’s signore. Thereafter, Cathars survived only 
  in remote parts of Italy.
   Flagellants
  The first mention of the Flagellant heresy was 
  in Perugia in 1260. Following an outbreak of plague 
  in 1259, Raniero Fasani, an Umbrian hermit, orga-
  nized a brotherhood of “Disciplinati di Gesù Cristo” 
  which spread rapidly in Central and Northern Italy. 
  The brothers, men and women, scourged themselves 
  as penance for the world’s sins. They formed large 
  processions, some claimed amounting to 10,000 peo-
  ple, who beat themselves with leather thongs as they 
  marched through towns calling upon bystanders to 
  repent. A typical procession lasted 33 1/2 days, one 
  for each year of Christ’s life. By the end of 1260, the 
  movement had spread into the Holy Roman Empire 
  and east into Poland and the Balkans. A year later, 
  the Pope forbade the processions and they stopped, 
  for a time.
  There were periodic outbreaks of flagellant pro-
  cessions starting in Germany in 1296. The outbreak 
  spread from Poland to England. It became organized 
  with a distinctive costume (a white habit and mantle 
  with a red cross), a hierarchy, and public ceremo-
  nies which drew thousands into its processions. The 
  leaders boldly began to criticize the Church, claimed 
  to absolve sins, and claimed miraculous powers. The 
  Papacy condemned the movement, and suppressed 
  the processions in the fall of 1349. As public opinion 
  turned against the movement, it dwindled into iso-
  lated outbreaks.
   Lollards
  This heretical movement started in the mid-14th 
  century and was based on the writings of John Wyclif, 
  a theologian at the University of Oxford. The move-
  ment claimed that a priest must be pious to perform 
  sacraments, and that a pious layman could also do 
  so. Lollards translated the Bible into the vernacular, 
  favored religious poverty, and opposed the Church 
  hierarchy, especially for its large landholdings and 
  political role.
  A number of leaders of the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt 
  espoused Lollardism, thus leading the English mon-
  arch to suppress the movement along with the reb-
  els. In 1401, Henry IV passed a law which forbade 
  translating the Bible and allowed landholders to 
  burn heretics at the stake. A number of prominent 
  Lollards were arrested and burned, including Sir John 
  Oldcastle, a friend of Henry V.
   Waldensians
  The Waldensians, or Vaudois, were commonly 
  confused with the Cathars because of some similari-
  ties in their doctrines. The sect was founded by Pierre 
  Waldo, a merchant of Lyon, who had a friend trans-
  late the Scripture for him in 1160. Pierre later sold 
  all of his goods, gave the proceeds to the poor, and 
  swore to devote his life to preaching and to charitable 
  deeds. He was soon joined by followers.
  In 1180, the Archbishop of Lyon forbade the 
  Waldensians to preach, but they continued none-
  theless. The Archbishop appealed to the Papacy, 
  which lumped the Waldensians in with the Cathars 
  as heretics.  In response, many Waldensians became 
  more radical, rejecting the Church and many of 
  its sacraments. They denied the ability of saints or 
  prayers to intervene for the dead, claiming that the 
  soul’s fate was fixed at the moment of  death. Many 
  held that the efficacy of a sacrament depended on 
  the performing priest’s moral conduct, which was 
  contrary to the Church’s doctrine. The Waldensians 
  had a version of the Cathars’ perfecti, who they 
  called barbes (uncle). Their church did not have 
  bishops, although it did have ministers, deacons, 
  and priests. Male and female preachers spoke using 
  translations of the Bible, which they offered to their 
  faithful.
  As the Papacy began to move against them, 
  some Waldensians moved into the high Alpine val-
  leys of Dauphiné. In 1486, Pope Innocent VIII sent 
  an Italian Inquisitor into Dauphiné with military 
  support. Many Waldensians were taken prisoner: 
  some reconciled themselves with the Church, oth-
  ers were executed. In 1499, Louis XII sent his own 
  confessor, the Bishop of Sisteron, to investigate the 
  matter. In 1509, all of the sentences passed by the 
  previous Inquisitors were annulled. Confiscated 
  properties were returned to the original owners, or 
  their heirs.
  
   Commerce
  Page 37
  Towns were primarily centers for trade and com-
  merce. To drastically oversimplify, a town gathered 
  raw materials from its hinterland, and exported them 
  in bulk; or processed them into finished goods like 
  cloth, and sold the results to various consumers. 
  Over time, towns began to gain reputations for the 
  quality of certain wares, which allowed them to 
  charge a premium for their goods. In order to 
  protect their reputations, local merchants 
  formed guilds which controlled the sup-
  ply and manufacture of goods, by licens-
  ing and regulating manufacturers. Towns 
  and regions began to specialize, improving 
  their own profits while becoming increas-
  ingly reliant on others for raw materials and 
  for other types of goods.
  The heart of a town was its market place. 
  The market, held weekly in small towns and 
  daily in cities, provided everything from the 
  staples of daily meals to costly spices, from 
  the simplest plain wool cloth to ornate 
  silk brocades. Among storefronts and 
  stalls wandered itinerant hawkers, 
  often with protected rights to sell 
  their wares. By concentrating sales 
  in a single market place, municipal 
  and guild inspectors could more eas-
  ily monitor quality, quantity, and price. 
  The market place was the site of the pub-
  lic scales and official measures, both vital 
  to setting disputes. Often it was a place 
  where urban criminals were punished and 
  decrees proclaimed.
  The  market place was, first and fore-
  most, under the control of the town’s guilds. 
  As discussed in more detail on p. 81, guilds were 
  effectively monopolists, controlling demand for vari-
  ous raw materials and supplies of finished goods. Each 
  set rules concerning price, quantity, quality, compe-
  tition, locations for manufacture and sales, and the 
  investigation, trial, and punishment of infractions. 
  Generally, the guilds prohibited foreign merchants 
  from selling in stores; they could rent market stalls, 
  booths, or tables. Guilds set the legal weights and 
  measures, which required foreign merchants to make 
  and sell goods in conforming sizes or face confiscation 
  or destruction of non-conforming items. They some-
  times required language interpreters, at the foreign 
  merchant’s expense.
  The market place was also under the control 
  of the town government. Towns often established 
  their own laws about product safety, quality, and 
  price which generally overlapped guild rules. 
  Towns often taxed goods entering and leav-
  ing their gates, and charged fees for the use 
  of market stalls and other temporary sell-
  ing spaces. Unlike the guild, town govern-
  ment often encouraged foreign merchants, 
  regulating inns to make sure that travelers 
  were welcomed and kept safe, while requir-
  ing innkeepers to prevent frauds and min-
  imize violence.
   MONEY
  “ Coins are the most incomprehensible 
  things. Their value rises and falls, and one 
  does not know what to do. When one thinks 
  that he has gained, he finds the contrary.”
  – Gilles Li Muisis, Abbot 
  of Tournai (14th C.)
  The urban market, unlike its rural counter-
  part, was based primarily on cash, not on bar-
  ter or in-kind payments. Medieval money is 
  a complicated topic. On the one hand, each 
  region had a relatively simple set of silver, 
  and later gold, coins. On the other hand, 
  the value of those coins varied widely due 
  to changes in their metal content, and fluc-
  tuations in the supply of circulating coins. To 
  add an additional layer of complexity, some regions 
  kept accounts in a different system of money, which 
  might bear little relation to the physical coins in 
  circulation.
  Keeping track of the value of money was a major 
  headache for merchants and administrators, partic-
  ularly prior to the introduction of Arabic numbers 
  in the 12th century. (Prior accounts and arithmetic 
  operations used Roman numerals.) Many different 
  towns might hold the right to mint coins – each with 
  
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  their own metal content; which could change if the 
  town’s ruler decided to debase the coins to raise rev-
  enues from the mint by getting more coins per raw 
  silver, or if the mint itself became dishonest. Rulers 
  periodically demonetized existing coins, declaring 
  them unusable for transactions, and forced their 
  subjects to return the old coins to the mint for new 
  coins, which might contain less silver. Often, guild 
  and town rules required transactions to be made in 
  the coins minted in the town or, if the town did not 
  have its own mint, in the most commonly circulated 
  regional coins – which created a brisk business for 
  moneychangers.
  When manufacturing goods or entering a con-
  tract, a merchant had to anticipate the demand for 
  coins in the future. If, for example, a trade fair were 
  about to open, there would be a high demand for local 
  coins (which would raise their relative value), and a 
  surplus of foreign coins as foreign merchants changed 
  their money in order to make transactions in the local 
  currency. The problem would be reversed when the 
  trade fair ended and foreigners sought to change their 
  money back into their preferred coinage.
  Merchants also had to consider periodic short-
  ages of coins. In the late 14th and 15th centuries, there 
  was a systemic shortage of silver for coins. More coins 
  were being sent out of Europe to the Baltic, Middle 
  East, and Asia for spices, silk, and luxury goods, 
  than were being minted from newly-mined silver. 
  The shortage of silver may have expanded the use of 
  gold coins, which were first introduced in the mid-
  13th century. It may have also contributed to debased 
  coinage issued in the late 14th and early 15th century. 
  (A series of new mines opened in the mid-15th cen-
  tury reduced the silver shortage.)
  The basic Carolingian  money system was in com-
  mon use. A “pound” (489.6 grams) of silver (livre 
  tournois or l.) was divided into 240 pennies (dernier 
  or d.). At first, the livre was also divided into 20 shil-
  lings (sou or s.) as an  accounting measure. This cre-
  ated a ratio of 1 to 20 to 240, which was found across 
  western Europe. Only the dernier was a physical coin 
  at first – both the sou and livre were used only for 
  accounting. Over time, various other coins evolved. 
  England issued, at various points, half-pennies, far-
  things (quarter-pennies), groats (4 pennies), and 
  A MERCHANT’S ARRIVAL
  When a  merchant arrived in a new town for the first 
  time, he first encountered the watch at the gates who 
  collected any taxes or tolls on his merchandise. If he 
  wanted to claim an exemption from a fee, he might need 
  to speak to an urban official at the town’s hall.
  As he entered the gate, he might be surrounded by 
  young boys, each trying to persuade him to stay at a 
  particular inn. The choice was important: not only 
  did he want a safe place to stay that was (relatively) 
  vermin-free, but he also wanted a trustworthy inn-
  keeper, because an  innkeeper often served as a local 
  agent and intermediary between his guests and local 
  guilds. Negotiations often began in inns, which became 
  associated with guests from particular regions or 
  trades. Having picked an inn, the merchant would 
  let the young man lead him to it – negotiate a room, 
  and perhaps a place to stable his horse (if any) and 
  warehouse any bulky goods. If he was armed, he might 
  have to leave his weapons at the inn during his stay. If 
  he was arriving by ship or boat, some towns restricted 
  his ability to off-load his goods, requiring him to sell 
  from the ship, or the quay.
  From the inn, he might then go to the market to 
  conduct his business. He might rent a market stall to 
  sell his wares from the town government, show his 
  goods to a local guild inspector to prove their quality, 
  and make sure that his goods conformed to the local 
  weights and measures. Generally, all sales had to take 
  place in the marketplace, under the watchful eye of 
  urban and guild officials. He might also have to visit 
  a moneychanger to have enough local currency for 
  transactions.
  Some towns restricted how long a foreign (resident of 
  another town) or alien (citizen of another monarch) 
  merchant could stay in town. Typically, he might 
  only be able to stay in one place for 40 days at a time. 
  When he wanted to leave, he might hope to avoid 
  taxes on exporting any unsold goods.
  If he arrived alone, he might have difficulty with 
  transactions. Local merchants were often wary of 
  strangers – they might not be able to trust the quality 
  of his goods, nor be able to easily collect damages or 
  a debt. He might seek family members or others from 
  his home to vouch for him as pledges for his debts.
  
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  nobles (80 pence). The “mark” was also an account-
  ing unit worth 2/3 of a pound, not an actual coin.
  Physical money had to be small, so that it could 
  not be easily shaved or clipped. It had to be stamped 
  by its issuer to make it harder to forge. Its weight 
  and content had to be consistent, preferably over a 
  long period. One of the problems, of course, was that 
  units of measure were inconsistent or obscure. For 
  example, in the 13th century, an English penny was 
  expected to weigh 32 grains of wheat, taken from the 
  middle of the ear. This made it hard to be certain that 
  a coin had not been clipped or debased, or that two 
  different moneychangers were using essentially the 
  same weights.
  Until 1252, almost all medieval European coins 
  were based on silver, usually mixed with copper for 
  durability. In that year, Florence and Genoa first 
  struck gold coins: the florin and the genovino. In 
  1284, these were joined by the Venetian ducat. Gold 
  coins became the preferred coin for high-value trans-
  actions, which were most common in the Italian city-
  states. When, as periodically happened, the value of 
  gold coins rose in relation to silver coins, there was 
  a run on gold, which skewed the relative value of 
  the coins. This led to price increases and more fre-
  quent clipping or shaving of the more numerous sil-
  ver coins.
  The new currency created more complexity, and 
  opportunities for profits. Over time, two parallel sys-
  tems of money came into use in Italy: the piccolo (sil-
  ver and copper coins used for small transactions) and 
  the grosso (silver and gold coins used for large trans-
  actions). A merchant who paid his workers in piccolo 
  while selling the goods they produced in grosso, could 
  benefit from the exchange rate between the two sys-
  tems and increase his profits. 
  Some merchants realized that carrying around 
  large amounts of coins was physically demanding and 
  attracted robbers, and developed letters of credit and 
  a form of banking. In effect, a merchant in one town 
  could deposit money with a  banker and receive a let-
  ter of credit which would allow him to draw credit on 
  an office of the same bank in a different town. The 
  bank’s profit on the transaction was built, in part, into 
  the exchange rate between the two currencies. Banks 
  periodically exchanged correspondence to settle their 
  accounts and balance their books. Merchants also 
  used similar letters among themselves, settling out-
  standing balances in physical coins periodically.
  The advent of letters of credit also allowed paper 
  transactions for loans and deposits. The depositor 
  had to trust that the bank would return his money in 
  coins upon demand; however, banks kept only a frac-
  tion of their obligations in coins (the reserve). The 
  rest of their obligations existed primarily as value in 
  their ledgers. In 1321, Venice passed a law allowing 
  a bank up to three days to pay a depositor’s demand, 
  implicitly recognizing that the bank did not keep a 
  reserve of 100% of its deposits. Trust was important, 
  as banks periodically failed under the weight of poor 
  record keeping and uncollectible loans.
   Credit
  Most credit was handled within social networks 
  (family members, neighbors, or business contacts). A 
  shoemaker, for example, might borrow money from 
  a skinner to purchase raw leather, intending to repay 
  the debt from the shoes when sold. A weaver might 
  borrow money from his or her family to purchase or 
  repair a loom, intending to repay the debt from their 
  earnings. This kind of loan was generally informal, 
  made between parties who knew and trusted each 
  other. Repayment might be in cash, in kind (goods 
  or services), or by free labor for the creditor. In some 
  modern impoverished communities, business own-
  ers are often involved in tight-knit webs of informal 
  loans to and from their peers and neighbors – medi-
  eval small merchants and artisans may have had 
  similar networks to pay for equipment, raw materi-
  als, repairs, a sudden need for extra laborers, taxes, 
  bribes, or other emergency expenses. Since the lend-
  er and creditor know each other, the lender takes a 
  lesser risk of default. On the other hand, loans within 
  a geographically limited community mean that each 
  member is relying on others who are all vulnerable to 
  a decline in the local economy. Only wealthy mer-
  chants could draw credit regionally or internationally 
  from banks or distant peers.
  A lender might ask for a pledge for a large loan, 
  if he or she does not know the debtor well, or if the 
  debtor has a history of defaults. The pledge was a 
  person or persons who agreed to pay if the debtor 
  defaulted. Pledges were used to vouch for the repay-
  ment of loans and the payment of fines and fees; to 
  ensure that a vendor would actually deliver the goods, 
  or that a purchaser would actually pay for them; and 
  to ensure that a litigant would appear in court. Often, 
  
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  one could ask a family member, friend, or business 
  associate to act as a pledge. In some cities, one could 
  hire a professional pledge for a fee.
   Pawnshops
  Pawnshops were a predecessor to banks in many 
  areas. A pawnbroker lent money in return for physi-
  cal collateral (a pawn). Loans were generally for a 
  short term, often at a high interest rate. If the debtor 
  didn’t repay the loan, the pawnbroker could sell the 
  pawn. Towns often regulated pawnbrokers, limiting 
  the maximum rate of interest and the types of goods 
  that could be accepted as pawns.
  Pawnbroking was one of the few jobs open to 
  Jews. Jewish theology allowed Jews to charge interest 
  on loans made to non-Jews; Christian theology did 
  not (although the prohibition was often evaded by 
  clever merchants). Many small Jewish communities 
  had social and family ties to other such communi-
  ties, creating a network of allies that could exchange 
  money or make loans.  Jews were also often vassals 
  of the monarchy or a large landholder like a duke, 
  which provided some protection against local author-
  ities, but made the communities vulnerable to pres-
  sure from the monarchy or duchy to lend money and 
  to forgive old loans.
  Banks
  Great rogues … traitors and imposters … They 
  devour not only men and domestic animals, but al-
  so mills, castles, farmlands, meadows, heath, and 
  woods. … They hold a sheet of paper in one hand 
  and a pen in the other; with their help, they fleece 
  the local people and with their money they fill their 
  purses. … They grow fat on others’ needs, and they 
  themselves are like wolves who devour men.
  – English commentator on the 
  Lombards (Italian bankers)
  Christian lenders also sought to lend money 
  at interest. Would-be bankers found various ways 
  around the Church’s prohibition against usury. A 
  banker might charge high fees for failing to make 
  timely payments, or might label the interest as a gift 
  from the borrower to the lender. Interest might be 
  hidden in the exchange of one currency for another, 
  or in shares in a business transaction.
  Ironically, one of the preeminent medieval  bank-
  ers was the Knights  Templar, a religious order. The 
  Templars were founded in around 1100 to protect 
  pilgrims in Outremer. It created an internal banking 
  network to transfer donations from far-flung churches 
  to support its knights and to enable pilgrims to draw 
  funds on their travels. It later became a banker to 
  wealthy merchants and governments, including the 
  French crown. In 1312, a series of political scandals 
  led to the wholesale suppression of the Order and the 
   execution of its leaders as heretics.
   Debt Collection
  Creditors probably enforced many of their debts 
  informally, through renegotiated terms, personal or 
  community pressure, threats, or even physical vio-
  lence. (Presumably, there were medieval loan sharks, 
  although there are no records of their activities.) A 
  small creditor might have to settle for something 
  other than money like goods, services, or free labor.
  Creditors who lent medium-to-large sums occa-
  sionally had to sue to enforce their debts. First, they 
  had to find a court with jurisdiction over the debtor, 
  which might mean traveling to the debtor’s home. 
  Then they had to file the suit and have it resolved. 
  Large loans were often made in writing. Even then, 
  the lender had to prove that the debt had not been 
  repaid. Some courts would allow the debtor to prove 
  repayment by compurgators (friends of the debtor 
  who would support his sworn testimony).
  Once the lender received a judgment, he still had 
  to enforce it. He could ask the court to direct an 
  officer to seize and sell the debtor’s property. (Some 
  canny debtors sold their property to family or friends 
  before the lawsuit began.) He could demand satisfac-
  tion from the debtor’s pledges (if any). In some plac-
  es, he could insist on the debtor’s arrest and impris-
  onment until payment was made. In others, he could 
  seize goods from the debtors’ countrymen, leaving 
  them to collect from the defaulter.
  MEDIEVAL  ECONOMIC THEORY
  The laws of supply and demand, and the “invis-
  ible hand” of the market were not medieval con-
  cepts. Economics itself was not an academic field. 
  Instead, theologians and philosophers considered the 
  moral issues inherent in trade and investment. Thus, 
  medieval economics focused on ethics and morals. 
  
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  It was morally wrong to sell shoddy or adulterated 
  goods, to charge an excessive profit, or to demand an 
  unfair wage. Medieval philosophers were concerned 
  with the “just price” for goods and with the differ-
  ence between natural gain from land, livestock, and 
  trades, and unnatural gain from trade and money-
  lending. Usury (selling time), speculative buying (vio-
  lating the just price), and gambling were sins. Clergy 
  also fulminated against excessive consumption, par-
  ticularly of luxury goods. Clerical discussions of the 
  “just price” of goods were based on its inherent value, 
  which sometimes coincided with fair market value, 
  and sometimes was more abstract.
  Some historians speculate that the increasing 
  importance of purgatory as part of Catholic doctrine 
  was a response to the rise of merchants and the increas-
  ing problems of profit from trade and usury. Strictly 
  applied, medieval doctrine would have otherwise made 
  nearly every merchant eternally damned. Of course, 
  the concept of a moral debt paid off by years in pur-
  gatory spawned a market in indulgences, creating a 
  moral economy to parallel the terrestrial one.
   COMMODITIES
  Towns existed to produce and trade finished 
  goods. The three main urban trades were the  food 
  trades, textiles, and leather goods. Many foods, like 
  meat and bread, were manufactured and consumed 
  in the town or its immediate area. Some two-thirds 
  of a town’s capital might be involved simply in feed-
  ing itself.
  Other goods, like textiles, leather, and beer, were 
  made for both local use and for export. Most goods 
  were made and sold relatively quickly. Goods were 
  often left in their raw state (live animals, raw wool, 
  unmilled grain) until needed. Stocks of semi-finished 
  goods were less common. In some cases, a year’s sup-
  ply of raw materials arrived at once, after a harvest or 
  sheep shearing. In those cases, workers tried to quick-
  ly turn the raw materials into finished goods, or into a 
  form that was unlikely to spoil during storage.
  The most commonly traded commodity was wool 
  cloth, which was traded across western Europe. Raw 
  wool was, for example, gathered in England and sold 
  to manufacturers in Flanders. Italian cloth was sold 
  at the Champagne Fairs to buyers across Europe. Beer 
  and wine were also widely made and exported.
  Towns were centers for imports, sometimes for 
  their own use, and sometimes to re-export to other 
  areas. English ports imported Gascon wine, German 
  beer, dyestuffs from Flanders and Picardy, and many 
  other goods. Towns were also centers for local trade, 
  importing goods from one part of their countryside to 
  sell to another part of it.
   Beer
  Ale and beer were widely brewed in towns and in 
  the countryside. Until 1200, urban and rural brew-
  ers were using the same basic methods. Urban brew-
  ers did so on a larger scale. Both primarily sold their 
  wares locally, and soon after production. In the 13th 
  century, brewers began to make beer with hops on 
  a large scale. (Hops, a bitter herb, made beer more 
  long-lasting and more amenable to transport because 
  it inhibited bacteria growth).
  Starting in 1200, northern German brewers began 
  to make hopped beer in quantity. The brew sold 
  well within the brewers’ towns, and competed with 
  locally brewed ales and beers made with a mixture 
  of herbs called gruit. Because hopped beer could be 
  stored, it could be produced and stockpiled, instead 
  of being sold at once. As a relatively heavy, bulky 
  good, beer was easier to export by sea, thus German 
  ports began to dominate the trade. In the mid-14th 
  century, Hamburg’s sailors exported 5,600 tons of 
  beer to Amsterdam each year, in vessels with a cargo 
  capacity of only 40 to 50 tons each. (This trade was 
  a third of the value of Hamburg’s exports.) Once the 
  beer arrived in Amsterdam and other northern ports, 
  it was resold by local agents to shippers who carried 
  it along rivers and canals to Flanders and beyond. Of 
  course, brewers in Holland, Flanders, England, and 
  other places began to copy the German beers – slowly 
  figuring out the best brewing methods. Eventually, 
  acceptable hopped beer could be made locally in most 
  of northern Europe, reducing the beer trade to the 
  best luxury products.
  Brewing was relatively simple. The brewer pur-
  chased raw grain and malted it by first soaking it in 
  water then allowing the wet grain to germinate either 
  on a sunny floor or in a kiln. The malted grain was 
  crushed in a mill and “mashed” by adding hot water. 
  The resulting liquid (wort) was then sparged (drawn 
  slowly from the grains). Water could be added, and a 
  second or even third infusion drawn off – each infu-
  
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  sion and resulting brew progressively less alcoholic 
  than its predecessor. The wort was flavored with 
  hops and other herbs, then boiled, cooled, and fil-
  tered to remove sediment. Yeast was added, and the 
  final product poured into casks to ferment. Once the 
  brew had fermented sufficiently, it could be sold.
  Brewing, then, required various vessels for soak-
  ing, boiling, and mixing; access to a mill; and often 
  access to a kiln. Large amounts of grain, water, and 
  fuel were needed to make the final product. It was 
  thus somewhat capital intensive. However, large 
  quantities of beer could be made in a single large 
  building employing up to a dozen workers. As a food 
  trade, it was regulated by the town and dependent 
  on the same grain stocks as bread, making it vulner-
  able to price shifts and urban manipulation of the 
  grain market.
   Wool Cloth
  Raw wool was gathered from sheep owned by 
  rural landholders or monasteries. A factor then sold 
  the raw wool to carders who carded or combed it to 
  remove dirt and impurities. The factor then bought 
  the carded wool and resold it to spinners. The spin-
  ners spun the carded wool into thread using a dis-
  taff or spinning wheel. Again, the factor bought the 
  thread and resold it to weavers who turned it into 
  cloth on a loom. Using the same system, the cloth 
  was processed by fullers who prepared it for dying. 
  It was soaked and dried by tenters, then dyed. It was 
  then brushed, sheared, and folded for sale. Finished 
  cloth revealed the hand of a master weaver, who 
  often imprinted his or her work with a seal. For the 
  wool merchant, this system meant that little capital 
  was at risk – the various subcontractors bore the risk 
  of production mistakes and damaged wares. A cloth 
  merchant could tell the origin of fabric from its color, 
  shape, method of folding, and the width of fabric.
  The wool trade became one of the major engines 
  of the medieval urban economy and of internation-
  al trade. Raw wool, for example, was gathered from 
  England and sold to Flemish towns where it was made 
  into cloth. That cloth was then sold across north-
  ern Europe. Italian cloth similarly was made in the 
  northern Italian city-states and exported to the Holy 
  Roman Empire, around the Mediterranean, and 
  France. Clothmakers’ guilds were among the most 
  powerful in many city-states, and in many European 
  towns.
   Spices
  The spice trade is one of the most intricate and 
  exotic in medieval Europe. Most spices came from 
  India and Indonesia, along Arabic trade routes to the 
  Mediterranean, where they were shipped by Italian 
  merchants to Europe. Despite the long journey and 
  vast numbers of middlemen, some spices were so 
  common that, for example, there was sufficient pep-
  per in England in 1197 for traders to form London’s 
  Guild of Pepperers. European traders also sold cin-
  namon, ginger, saffron, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, 
  mace, and grains of paradise. Fraud was unfortunately 
  common – spices were adulterated with lesser quality 
  materials, or with other additives. Thus, guilds like 
  the Pepperers inspected incoming spices for quality 
  and purity before allowing them to be sold.
  As importers of a commodity that was quite valu-
  able for its weight and size, spice dealers did not need 
  large buildings, warehouses, or many employees. They 
  needed contacts among ship captains and merchants 
  along the trade routes to ensure supplies of depend-
  able quality and quantity.
   DIPLOMACY AND REPRISALS
  Towns balanced two competing goals. On the 
  one hand,  laws and customs were deliberately skewed 
  in favor of local merchants and artisans. On the other 
  hand, towns needed to trade with their counterparts 
  both near and distant. Thus, they sought favored 
  treatment for their merchants in other areas, in return 
  for reciprocal privileges for favored trading partners.
  The town’s residents held the most privileged 
  position. In an age before dependable means of iden-
  tification, it was difficult for a foreigner to prove his 
  good character and trustworthiness. Sometimes, 
  a visitor had a local contact who could vouch for 
  his identity and good conduct. A visitor who lacked 
  local business partners, relatives, or former neighbors 
  risked being cheated, robbed, or even killed. If a mer-
  chant could gain contacts in a foreign town to vouch 
  for him, post a bond for his performance of a con-
  tract, and otherwise look after his interest, then it 
  was much easier for him to trade in that town. Still, 
  he lacked the legal privileges of a town resident and 
  faced various legal restrictions and fees.
  
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  Over time, towns developed diplomatic relations 
  with frequent trading partners. Two towns could 
  negotiate a treaty, each giving the other’s residents 
  some or all of the legal privileges of their own resi-
  dents. Some of the most powerful towns were able to 
  negotiate unilateral treaties in which their residents 
  gained privileges, but the foreign partner’s residents 
  gained few in return. In a few cases, powerful towns 
  created trading colonies – neighborhoods where 
  the distant town’s laws and customs were enforced 
  instead of those of the host.
  Major port cities sought protection for their sail-
  ors as well as their merchants. They negotiated rights 
  for shipwrecked crews and recovery of cargo, agree-
  ments about salvage and compensation for pirate 
  attacks, mutual agreements to suppress piracy, rights 
  to promptly unload goods from a ship or dock to dry 
  warehouses, and relief from customs duties (particu-
  larly in the case of re-exported unsold merchandise). 
  In Muslim countries, Italian ports sought the right 
  to have their own churches, cemeteries, community 
  oven, residences, and warehouses.
  Thus, a bailiff seeking to collect a toll or fee from 
  an arriving merchant who claimed an exemption 
  under a treaty or trade agreement needed to establish 
  the merchant’s identity. In the absence of a local con-
  tact, the bailiff might rely on clothing, accent, and the 
  merchant’s goods. If the bailiff was unconvinced that 
  the visitor was entitled to the exemption, he could 
  seize a portion of the merchant’s goods equal to the 
  toll in distraint. If the claim was valid, the merchant’s 
  home town could try to resolve the dispute and have 
  the goods returned. If the merchant could not prove 
  his entitlement within a reasonable period, the seized 
  goods could be sold for the owed toll.
  When a town’s merchants were robbed or cheat-
  ed by another town, the merchant’s home could take 
  reprisals. The victim could apply to his home town 
  for the right to seize goods of equal value from any 
  merchant of the offending town. Sometimes, this 
  right of distraint was extended to debt collection. 
  The legal theory linked the person directly respon-
  sible for the misdeed to his family, guild, community, 
  or even sovereign. Thus, towns made the merchants 
  of other towns communally responsible for each oth-
  ers’ good behavior. A merchant from one town could, 
  having failed to obtain justice in the place where the 
  wrong was committed, try to seize goods from the 
  debtor’s townspeople at a convenient market or fair. 
  Generally, the owner of the goods offered a pledge 
  for their value and then pursued the original debtor. 
  Distraint could also be used if a merchant was robbed 
  and was unable to obtain justice from the robber’s 
  lord or from the place where they sold their spoils. 
  In more serious cases, towns could boycott the goods 
  and market of the offending town until the matter 
  was resolved.
  The potential for reprisal and being held respon-
  sible for another’s misdeeds caused merchants some 
  concern. Disputes sometimes arose about whether 
  the offender really was a resident of a particular city, 
  or member of a merchant company or guild. Treaties 
  between towns often discussed limits on reprisal 
  rights and offered amnesty from reprisals to those 
  attending periodic fairs and festivals. In some cases, 
  towns agreed to a method to settle disputes. Verona 
  and Mantua, for example, agreed in 1276 that in the 
  event of a dispute, each town’s podestà would appoint 
  a judge to hear suits from the citizens of the other city. 
  If the accusation was proven, the accused’s home city 
  would prosecute the offender under its laws.
  The web of treaties, customs, and relationships 
  made medieval commercial laws and trade even more 
  complex. Local merchants dealing with foreign ven-
  dors had to know whether the foreigner was subject 
  to a local treaty and, if so, what rights applied in the 
  event of a dispute, fraud, or nonperformance of a con-
  tract. Foreign merchants had to establish their rights 
  to preferred status, when applicable, or be keenly 
  aware of the reputations and trustworthiness of their 
  trading partners.
   FORMS OF BUSINESS
  Most medieval businesses were small family-
  owned operations. The master owned and operated 
  a single shop. His spouse and children often assist-
  ed him. Many guilds allowed his spouse to continue 
  operating the business after his  death, but sometimes 
  limited her ability to do so if she remarried.
  A family business could only raise a limited 
  amount of capital. In a partnership, two merchants 
  would agree to share the profits and risks of their 
  business. Both were jointly and separately liable to 
  creditors for the business’ losses. Early partnerships 
  were formed for a single venture and dissolved after 
  its conclusion. The commenda, an Italian temporary 
  partnership popular in the 12th and 13th centu-
  
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  ries, allowed one merchant to borrow capital from 
  another to fund an overseas trading venture. The 
  borrower was expected to return the capital and a 
  share of any profits from the venture. In its German 
  counterpart, the sendeve, the traveling partner 
  only received a salary, not a share of the profits. 
  Merchants might be involved in more than one 
  temporary partnership at a time, and often did not 
  get involved with the same temporary partner twice. 
  (This seems to be due not to mistrust or frequent 
  bad outcomes, but to timing of ventures, available 
  money, and difficulty planning ventures.) Other 
  temporary partnerships allowed a borrower to use a 
  sum of cash for a fixed term (usually 1-3 years), at 
  the end of which he was expected to repay the debt 
  and a share of his profits, if any.
  In addition to a temporary partnership, mer-
  chants used various loan and insurance agreements 
  to divide risk and profits. The “sea loan”, for example, 
  placed the entire risk of loss of principal on the lender 
  while the vessel was at sea (at double the normal rate 
  of interest), and entirely on the debtor once he had 
  docked safely at his destination. Even if the debtor 
  was unable to trade successfully, he still had to repay 
  the full principal and interest.
  More durable partnerships evolved over long-
  term ventures like trade between Italy and the 
  Champagne fairs. Partners could contribute equal-
  ly and share profits equally, or contribute uneven 
  amounts, and normally share profits either in pro-
  portion to the amount invested or with the partner 
  doing the greater amount of the work receiving a 
  greater profit. Generally, losses were likewise shared 
  in proportion to one’s contributions. Guilds limited 
  partnerships; often foreigners and non-guild mem-
  bers could not enter partnerships with guild mem-
  bers because of concerns about their creditworthi-
  ness. Early Italian banks were, in effect, nested long-
  term partnerships.
  The Church used a communal form of proper-
  ty ownership. Parishes, monastic orders, and men-
  dicant orders owned their property as a corpora-
  tion. Individual members could only use or man-
  age property. This was a particular problem for the 
  early Franciscans – St. Francis (the son of a wealthy 
  Italian cloth merchant) had directed his followers to 
  own nothing. His successors vested ownership in the 
  Papacy, and allowed Franciscan friars to merely use 
  what property they needed.
   Accounting
  Italian businesses were the first to adopt Arabic 
  numerals and double-entry bookkeeping, which gave 
  them a significant administrative advantage over 
  their rivals. Leonardo of Pisa wrote a book, “Liber 
  Abaci”, in 1202 which described the new notation, 
  then called Indian numerals. Positional notation 
  made it easier for businesses to make calculations, 
  but the new numerals were controversial. Florence 
  banned their use in 1299 due to concerns about 
  fraud. (Florentine merchants continued to use the 
  new system, but kept their official records in Roman 
  numerals.) Other towns banned the new system in 
  the 14th century for similar reasons. Padua, for exam-
  ple, required prices to be marked in clear letters, not 
  figures. Arabic numerals did not become common in 
  Europe until the mid-16th century.
  There are some records of double-entry bookkeep-
  ing in use in Florence in 1211. Surviving accounts 
  show a double-entry system in use in northern Italy 
  from the mid-13th century onward. Benedetto Cotrugli 
  wrote a manuscript on the method in 1458. The first 
  published book on the subject, Luca Paciolo’s Summa 
  (1494), describes a double-entry accounting system 
  then used in Venice.
  Bookkeeping was complex. Italian merchants 
  kept separate books for different parts of their busi-
  ness. There would be one book for income and 
  expense, another for long-distance trades, a third 
  book with the records of the corporation (the libro 
  secreto or secret book), and a fourth book for debts 
  and credits. Records were sometimes kept contem-
  poraneously, then reorganized and transcribed into 
  their appropriate volume. Superiors reviewed records 
  to make certain that their factors and clerks were not 
  embezzling funds.
  MARKETS
   Periodic markets, as opposed to permanent mar-
  ketplaces, were rights granted to a town or church, 
  often by a regional landholder or the monarch. The 
  town or church paid a fee for a monopoly on sales 
  of certain goods, or sometimes all non-locally pro-
  duced goods, in their market for a specific time. A 
  13th century English legal treatise recommended 
  that markets be held no closer than 6 2/3 miles 
  apart (which was a typical distance a merchant 
  could travel to the market, sell one’s goods, and 
  
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  return by nightfall), and no less than two to three 
  days apart. Market holders disagreed. Some filed 
  lawsuits over competing markets 15 or more miles 
  away. Others co-existed with markets less than a 
  mile apart.
  The grant of a market included various privi-
  leges, including jurisdiction in the town’s courts of 
  any disputes that arose during the market (often 
  the market holder had to install a pillory on the 
  site to punish offenders), a right to enforce regional 
  or royal assizes on prices (typically bread and ale) 
  and to keep any fines imposed on violators, the 
  right to collect tolls from those using the market, 
  the right to a monopoly on sales within the area 
  around the market, and the services of the regional 
  landholder’s sheriff to announce the establishment 
  of the market when the grant was received. Towns 
  holding markets made their revenues from tolls to 
  access the market, rental of stalls and tables, sales 
  taxes on many goods, and a toll (tronage) for using 
  the market’s public weights.
  Some smaller towns fell into a middle ground 
  between permanent markets and periodic markets. 
  Several held weekly markets. Some held bi-weekly, 
  or even thrice-weekly markets. Market holders had 
  the usual toll and stall rights, but generally had less 
  emphasis on market courts, instead using the town’s 
  courts to resolve disputes.
  The market holder could sue in the grantor’s 
  court to enforce this right against infringing mer-
  chants and/or towns. Towns fought to defend their 
  rights against newcomers – often a landholder would 
  not grant the right to a market if it would damage an 
  established market, and the condition was written 
  into the grant itself. In England, the royal sheriff could 
  ban an infringing market and order its stalls physically 
  dismantled. Sometimes the aggrieved townsfolk from 
  the old market tried to physically dismantle the new 
  market and seize the offenders’ goods. This often led 
  to riots, which were strongly discouraged by regional 
  landholders.
   Seld
  A few English towns had “ selds”, a sort of private 
  bazaar or shopping mall. Generally a seld was a large 
  building subdivided into stalls owned by a wealthy 
  merchant family or a guild. Generally, it focused on 
  one trade or good, and had its own trading rules. Selds 
  became popular in the 13th century, then declined in 
  the mid-14th century as the building became divided 
  by too many owners.
   FAIRS
  A trade fair was a periodic market held in addi-
  tion to the town’s normal markets. Where markets 
  generally sold goods from merchants to consumers, 
  fairs generally sold goods between merchants. Every 
  town of any size held at least one annual fair, often on 
  the anniversary of the town’s patron saint. A typical 
  fair often lasted for three days – the vigil, feast, and 
  morrow of the saint’s day.
  La Sensa, Venice’s fair held at Ascensiontide, 
  for example, celebrated the “marriage” of the doge 
  of Venice to the sea. In 1177, Pope Alexander III 
  rewarded the city for its aid with the grant of indul-
  gences (forgiveness for past sins) to anyone who vis-
  ited the Basilica of San Marco within 8 days of the 
  festival. The fair, held since 1000, was a time for 
  grand processions, ceremonies, celebrations of noted 
  victories of past years, pilgrimages to San Marco, 
  and trade. Venetian merchants displayed their finest 
  wares, both local products and imports from Venice’s 
  many trading posts and colonies.
   A large town might hold multiple fairs, which 
  could each last for a month or more. Paris’ Lendit 
  fair, created by royal grant to the monks of St. Denis 
  in 629 CE, was held annually beginning on October 
  9, the feast day of St. Denis, and lasted for a month. 
  During that month, no other town could hold a fair in 
  the vicinity of Paris, thus creating a monopoly for the 
  monks. The resulting gathering brought merchants 
  from across northern Europe. Eventually, the fair 
  became so successful that a second Parisian fair was 
  begun – this time under the auspices of Notre Dame 
  cathedral. The monks of St. Denis eventually took 
  control of the second fair, although the University 
  of Paris retained a ceremonial role. A third fair, the 
  Foire Saint-Germain, was held by the monastery of 
  St-Germain starting in the 13th century. (It was dis-
  continued in the 15th century during difficult times, 
  and revived in 1482.)
  A town did not have to be the size of Paris to 
  hold multiple fairs. In the 15th century, Exeter, a 
  town of perhaps 3,000 in south-western England, 
  held seven fairs each year and had three market 
  days per week. Exeter’s St. Nicholas’ fair (held for 
  
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  three days in early December) was one of the oldest 
  in Devon and Cornwall. The Whitsuntide fair was 
  held in late May and lasted for a week – attendees 
  were free from local tolls and various taxes and 
  customs duties. The Lammas fair was held for three 
  days in early August – during it, all goods were to be 
  sold at the fair; any goods exposed for sale within an 
  arm’s length of a door or window could be confis-
  cated by town authorities. Exeter also held a fair on 
  Ash Wednesday; Good Friday; the feast of St. Mary 
  Magdalene (July 21); and the feast of St. Thomas 
  the Apostle (December 21). No other English town 
  is known to have started five new fairs in the last 
  14th and early 15th centuries, or to have had all 
  seven fairs remain successful.
  Generally, anyone could rent a stall at a fair and 
  sell goods. Merchants were subject to less stringent 
  controls than in the host town’s usual market place. 
  Where town laws favored local merchants, laws at 
  major fairs strove to treat all merchants equally. 
  Disputes at major fairs were settled by the fair’s own 
  courts, rather than the host’s courts. In many towns, 
  urban leaders prohibited local merchants from 
  increasing their  food prices during the fair, or from 
  reselling local goods in the fair’s market instead 
  of their own shops. Fairs supervised their food 
  sales, garbage disposal, fire prevention, and con-
  tracts. Some had their own weights and measures, 
  sometimes different from the host town’s. Many 
  imposed a dusk to dawn  curfew on trade and travel 
  to improve safety. Others forbade fairgoers from 
  carrying weapons and required  innkeepers to con-
  fiscate and safely store travelers’ arms.  Prostitution 
  and gambling were regulated or prohibited, usually 
  unsuccessfully.
  A fair, then, was a significant opportunity for 
  trade which could bring prosperity and renown to 
  its host. Towns struggled for the rights to hold fairs, 
  which might involve negotiations with their neigh-
  bors, or political maneuvering with regional rulers. 
  Once established, the fair’s rights and privileges 
  were jealously protected in order to ensure the flow 
  of trade and profits to the host. Their owners had to 
  strictly adhere to their traditional rights. If the holder 
  of a fair extended it by a few days to take advantage 
  of good business, it might lose the right to the fair. 
  Similarly, it might lose its rights if it closed a fair early 
  because of bad weather or poor sales.
  Champagne Fairs
  The Champagne Fairs were the largest and 
  most famous trade gatherings in western Europe. 
  Champagne, a county in eastern France, was a con-
  venient market for drapers, wool merchants, import-
  ers, linen and fur traders, and leather sellers. A cycle 
  of six major fairs lasting 49 days each evolved: one 
  at the town of Lagny, one at Bur-sur-Aube, two at 
  Provins, and two at Troyes. Because of the fairs’ size, 
  each was divided by week: one week for merchants to 
  arrive and set-up, ten days for cloth sales, eleven days 
  for leather sales, one week for miscellaneous goods 
  (dyes, metals, spices, etc.) sold by weight, and one 
  week to settle debts and credits. Merchants who did 
  not deal in all the offered goods might use the inter-
  vening time to inspect purchases, negotiate contracts, 
  or start on their way to the next town.
  The fairs had their own legislation, magistrates, 
  and  guards. Each was supervised by two Keepers of 
  the Fair and their assistants; and the Keepers of the 
  Seal, who kept the official measures, issued negotiable 
  commercial paper (Letters of the Fair), and judged 
  crimes. The Fairs were guarded by 100 men-at-arms, 
  and maintained tax collectors, clerks, porters, nota-
  ries, and inspectors.
  Merchants too organized themselves into com-
  panies specifically to trade at the Fairs. In general, 
  each had its own captain, guards, counsels (to negoti-
  ate with the Fair officials) and harbingers (to arrange 
  lodgings for the company enroute and at the Fairs). 
  Towns regulated their merchants’ behavior at fairs, 
  often through their guilds. A merchant whose actions 
  brought disrepute upon his town could expect to be 
  punished by his guild, if not by the urban rulers.
  The Count of Champagne and the urban rulers 
  of the four towns derived a great deal of money from 
  the fairs. Thus, they actively protected and promot-
  ed them. Thibaud II the Great (1125-1151) and his 
  successors made considerable efforts to protect trav-
  elers to the fair on the roads of their land. Thibaud 
  II even negotiated with his neighbors to aid traveling 
  merchants wronged on their lands while enroute to 
  the Fairs.
  The Fairs reached their height in the 12th 
  and 13th centuries. During those decades, they 
  were the hub of trade and money exchanges in 
  Europe. By the end of the 13th century, they had 
  begun to decline. The French king had conquered 
  Champagne and reduced the power of its rulers. 
  
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  Trade moved to Paris, Flanders, and Italy. Italian 
  ships were able to cross the Straits of Gibraltar and 
  directly purchase English wool. By the 14th century, 
  the Champagne Fairs had all but died out. When 
  Italian weavers began to replace English wool with 
  Spanish wool in the late 14th century, there was 
  little need for a replacement fair.
   Flemish Merchant Companies
  Flemish merchant companies were one example 
  of an organization used for trading at English fairs and 
  the Champagne Fairs. As a group, they rented market 
  stalls, lodging, and warehouses at various fairs, and 
  along their route. They traveled together, for protec-
  tion both against  bandits, and against dishonest mer-
  chants at their destination.
  The companies were organized by town and led by 
   eswardeurs (inspectors). The merchants of the com-
  pany agreed to obey the eswardeurs; any act which 
  brought shame or ridicule on the town or the compa-
  ny could result in fines or exclusion from the trading 
  company. Each year, the company’s rules were read 
  aloud before the group left for a fair. Typical rules 
  required the merchants to sell only goods from their 
  home town, and generally only their own goods (tak-
  ing goods on commission was discouraged). Often 
  the goods were inspected before departure by the 
  appropriate guild inspectors, wrapped, and sealed for 
  the journey. Goods were unwrapped at their destina-
  tion and inspected again by the eswardeurs before 
  being offered for sale. The merchants agreed about 
  how many servants and apprentices could travel with 
  them. None could depart without enough goods to 
  sell to support themselves during the trip. Members 
  were urged not to gamble, and to obey the rules of 
  their host town and its fair. They were firmly dis-
  couraged from getting involved in litigation at the 
  fair, and were urged to settle disputes and pay fines 
  promptly. Merchants also agreed to collectively ostra-
  cize any merchant who cheated them or misused 
  credit extended to him.
  The company, thus, provided protection of num-
  bers for its members and acted to protect the reputa-
  tion of itself and its town. In return, the inspection 
  requirements ensured that substandard goods were 
  not sold abroad and that merchants were less like-
  ly to find themselves stranded without resources far 
  from home.
   INNS AND  TAVERNS
  When a merchant arrived in a town, he first 
  needed lodgings and storage for his goods. Most trav-
  elers stayed in inns. The larger the town, the more 
  were available. A large trade city like 13th-century 
  Florence had over 600. Inns often had associated 
  stables and warehouses for travelers’ goods and pack 
  animals. Many inns and taverns had a sign (enseigne), 
  often an animal, plant, or symbol to identify it in a 
  mostly-illiterate society. A branch or bunch of foliage 
  was also a common mark for lodging.
  A newly-arriving traveler could expect compe-
  tition for his business. Innkeepers sent boys to the 
  gates of the town each day to entice travelers to their 
  lodgings. Some had criers extol their food and wine. 
  Others were more direct. In 1205, Toulouse forbade 
  tavern and inn keepers from forcing pilgrims to enter 
  their businesses by seizing the traveler’s clothing or 
  his horses’ reins. Hosts were also not allowed to lock 
  travelers in the building or to force them to buy food 
  and drink only from the lodging. In 1425, Scotland, 
  uniquely, fined travelers 40 shillings if they stayed in 
  with friends when an inn room was available.
  Selecting a reputable inn was important. By cus-
  tom, the innkeeper provided not just lodgings, but 
  also acted as a liaison between foreigners and local 
  merchants, and sometimes as factor, moneylender, or 
  warehouse keeper. Merchant companies sent messen-
  gers ahead of the main body to arrange lodgings (and 
  retail space when appropriate) in advance. Long-stand-
  ing companies had habitual lodgings and long-stand-
  ing arrangements. When arriving in a new location, 
  the messenger’s task was to negotiate for appropriate 
  spaces, including details like inquiring about fleas and 
  other vermin in various inns. This was an important 
  point – innkeepers were not well liked and were often 
  accused of cheating their customers by serving poor 
  quality meats and wines, taking undue profits for their 
  liaison services, harboring prostitutes, and allowing 
  vermin to thrive in their rooms. By custom, if a guest 
  died, an innkeeper was entitled to a share of their goods, 
  which led to rare accusations of poisoning.
  Travelers also needed places to eat and drink other 
  than their inns; typically they frequented taverns and 
  alehouses. These establishments served both locals and 
  foreigners. Visitors learned of taverns by criers who 
  advertised the quality of its food and beverages, and 
  their price. London, in 1309, had 354 taverns and over 
  
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  1,300 brewshops (mostly ale-sellers) for its population 
  of 80,000. The categories overlapped. Taverns often 
  brewed and sold alcohol, as well as simple meals, but 
  often had to stop selling alcohol when the  curfew bell 
  sounded. Alehouses and brewshops generally only sup-
  plied drinks. Both were often places of poor repute, 
  associated with singing, brawling, gambling, and pros-
  titution. In literature, the tavern was the antithesis of 
  the church, a place of carnality and vice where honest 
  men were ruined by drink and other evils.
   TRAVEL
  A merchant’s trade involved travel. As one anon-
  ymous chronicler wrote, a merchant’s life consisted 
  of “journeys hither and thither, in rain and wind, in 
  snow and hail, now drenched, now dry, now sweat-
  ing, ill fed, ill lodged, ill warmed, and ill bedded.” 
  Time, not miles, was the true measure of distance.
  A rider could expect to travel thirty to forty miles 
  in a day. One willing to press a horse could travel 
  forty to fifty miles per day. Someone on foot averaged 
  fifteen to twenty miles per day. A merchant’s pack 
  train, similarly, would only travel fifteen to twenty 
  miles in a day on the rutted paths which were consid-
  ered roads; if the train was loaded with baggage wag-
  ons and footmen, it might average only eight miles 
  per day. In unsettled areas, a rider or pack train also 
  had to carry food for its mounts and their handlers, 
  which reduced their cargo capacity.
  The road always had many difficulties. Bad water, 
  illness, and injuries could strand a traveler far from 
  home, as could storms and floods. The traveler faced 
  tolls, dishonest merchants and innkeepers, ferrymen 
  willing to drown passengers for their goods, bandits, 
  unemployed  mercenaries, and avaricious nobles.
  For those traveling to or from Italy by land, the 
  Alps offered a special challenge. The trails were 
  marked by looming cliffs, avalanches, ice sheets, and 
  hidden crevasses. Travelers, animals, and sledges 
  traveled roped together over the worst sections. None 
  of the passes could be traveled by wheeled carts. 
  Wagons and carriages were dismantled and carried 
  over the pass by pack animals or by men. The Romans 
  preferred the Mont Joux and Colonne-Joux (Petit St-
  Bernard) passes into France. Medieval travelers pre-
  ferred the Mont Cenis to the Petit St-Bernard.
  Crossing snow and ice-covered parts of the passes 
  was impossible without a guide. Maronniers, Savoyard 
  mountaineers who guided travelers across the moun-
  tains, competed fiercely for business at either end of 
  each pass. Guides moved travelers and cargo swiftly 
  downhill using a ramasse. The ramasse was a sledge, 
  made of branches held together with rope. Passengers 
  and gear were tied to the sledge which was swiftly 
  propelled by gravity. The guide steered the sledge 
  with an iron-tipped staff.
  All of the passes were liberally dotted with alms-
  houses, hospices, inns, and monasteries. Innkeepers, 
  like maronniers, competed fiercely for travelers. If a 
  traveler fell ill, the innkeeper was bound to provide 
  reasonable aid and keep any belongings safe. If the 
  traveler died, his or her belongings were sent to the 
  hospice of Mont Joux or to Aosta where they were kept 
  for a year and a day to allow his heirs and creditors to 
  claim them. After that, they were sold and the proceeds 
  divided between the hospice and the innkeeper.
  Where  rivers were available, they offered con-
  venient trade routes. Most boats were flat-bottomed 
  cargo craft, built in forested regions where the river 
  first became navigable and sent downstream to pick 
  up passengers and cargo. Downstream speed varied 
  with the current; in a good season it averaged 15 miles 
  per day. At  night the boats tied up at riverside villages 
  where the crew and passengers could sleep ashore. 
  Once the boat reached the sea, it was often broken up 
  for timber and firewood. The crew then walked home 
  along the riverbanks, often exhausting their wages 
  along the way. Enterprising sailors sometimes pur-
  chased a mule or horse at the river mouth, walked or 
  rode back with it, and sold it to a farmer at home.
  In France, each major river had its own groups 
  of mariners which protected its trade from outsiders. 
  Among the better known were the “Communaté” of 
  the Loire, which levied a tax on everything passing 
  along the river and its tributaries; and the mariners 
  of Paris, who were so important a ship became part 
  of the city’s seal. 
  River transport was popular among merchants 
  because it was cheaper than transport over land. A 
  single mule can carry 350-400 pounds. The mules 
  themselves must be fed, and the merchant need pay 
  one muleteer for every 12 mules. A cart can carry 
  800 to 1,600 pounds, and the merchant must pay the 
  driver and feed the horse or oxen drawing the cart. 
  Small river boats, called variously argentants, garbares, 
  or sapins, carried 15-20 tons of cargo downstream, ate 
  nothing themselves, and needed a fairly small crew 
  
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  in relation to the cargo. The chaland, another cargo 
  craft, carried 20-60 tons of cargo and had a single 
  square-rigged sail that allowed it to return upstream 
  at the end of its voyage. On a relatively calm river 
  like the Loire, passenger craft might travel up and 
  down the river on a regular schedule. Most towns had 
  two departures each week. The journey took three 
  days per stage from Roanne to Nevers, from Nevers 
  to Orléans, and from Orléans to Nantes, which was 
  about the same speed one could make on the roads.
  The hazards of  river travel were numerous: dis-
  honest mariners, storms, floods, sandbanks, and rap-
  ids.  Bandits were somewhat more rare, but could 
  stretch chains across the narrow parts of rivers or pil-
  lage boats trapped on sandbars. In Italy, boats trav-
  eled the Po in large convoys for mutual protection. 
  Chapels to St-Nicolas, the patron of mariners, were 
  found along several rivers. Crosses or oratories some-
  time marked the beginnings of gorges or rapids which 
  claimed many boats.
  Finally, there was ocean travel. For those along 
  the Mediterranean coast, sailing was relatively easy. 
  Compared to the Atlantic, the Sea is calm and plac-
  id. Its temperature remains warm (a constant 65° F) 
  throughout the year. Its water is more salty than the 
  Atlantic (and this supports ships better); its waves are 
  small, short, and choppy. Storms come and go quick-
  ly. Winds in the smaller seas – the Adriatic, Aegean, 
  and Ionian – are erratic. The Mediterranean’s tides 
  are almost non-existent, a mere 10” on average. 
  The hazards generally came from other ships. For 
  many years, Muslim pirates preyed on shipping from 
  ports on various islands and in North Africa. Until 
  the Spanish captured Gibraltar, trade between the 
  Mediterranean and Atlantic was minimal, although 
  a few German cogs were among the Crusaders’ ships 
  in Outremer during the First and Second Crusades. 
  In later years, the Italian communes often preyed on 
  each others’ shipping.
  Mediterranean trade mostly involved shallow-
  draft sailing ships, and merchant galleys rowed by 
  sailors and, rarely, slaves. Sailing ships were larg-
  er than their Atlantic counterparts – both Venice 
  and Genoa had a pair of 500 ton merchant vessels 
  in the mid-13th century. Merchant galleys (galere da 
  mercato) of the late 14th century ranged from 100 to 
  300 tons. Typical sailing ships like the tarettes were 
  smaller, perhaps 100 tons. The galleys did not need a 
  favorable wind to sail and were often used as warships 
  and trade vessels for luxury goods. Sailors were often 
  better trained than in the Atlantic, in part because 
  the lanteen sails so common along the Mediterranean 
  were more complex to handle, and in part because 
  there was more trade and thus more demand for 
  trained sailors. The ratio of crew to cargo was even 
  more favorable for ocean travel than for land or river 
  transport – 1 sailor to 5 to 10 tons of cargo depend-
  ing on the ship design.
  Trade along the Atlantic and Baltic Seas had 
  its own hazards. For the Atlantic trade, the winds 
  come mostly from the west, driving ships towards 
  the French coast. The strongest currents flow south, 
  towards the north-west tip of Spain. Many ships were 
  lost in the Bay of Biscany when they were driven 
  shoreward by prevailing westerlies and were unable 
  to beat into the wind quickly enough to escape. The 
  Hanse prohibited ship travel in the winter, between 
  Martinmas (Nov. 11th) and St. Peter’s Day (Feb. 22), 
  due to ice. Any large ship entering a Hanseatic port 
  after  Martinmas which could not prove that it had 
  begun its journey before that date, would be confis-
  cated along with its cargo. Smaller ships involved in 
  purely local trade were not prohibited from sailing, 
  but risked ice damage or loss. Ships often traveled 
  the Baltic in convoys of two to five when piracy was 
  low, and larger convoys of ten or more when during 
  times of war or when piracy increased.
  Atlantic and Baltic shipping often used cogs, 
  which were small vessels with a bowl shaped hull, 
  and blunt “castles” fore and aft. They were slow, 
  unwieldy, and prone to bouncing about on storm-
  strengthened swells. Until 1200, most had single 
  square sails. Around 1200, carpenters began build-
  ing ships with two or more masts and combining 
  the square sail with the triangular lanteen sail. Such 
  rigging made the ship better able to use the winds, 
  although a more skilled crew was needed. A typical 
  13th century Hanseatic cog had a cargo capacity of 
  130 tons. In the 14th century it was replaced with the 
  larger hulk or holk with a capacity of 300 tons.
  Between England and France lay the English 
  Channel – a mere 112 miles at its mouth and but 
  21 miles at Calais. Crossing the Channel was rarely 
  easy. Its tides could change the water’s level greatly, 
  exposing and hiding shoals and rocks. In the Gulf 
  of St-Mâlo, the difference between tides is some 
  28 feet. Even open water was unsafe. Between 
  Cherbourg and Flanders, sand banks and ridges 
  
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  lurked mere feet below the surface to tear the bot-
  toms from unwary craft. Goodwin Sands, an infa-
  mous ships’ graveyard off the port of Deal, is roughly 
  11 miles long and 6 miles wide, with sand bars that 
  shift with each storm. At low tide, the sands might 
  be 13’ above the surface.
  The Channel crossing and entry into the French 
  ports was sufficiently tricky that in 1226, Queen Eleanor 
  of England enacted the rôles d’Orléron, a set of maritime 
  rules, which, among other things required sea captains 
  to allow native Breton pilots to guide ships into har-
  bors. By French custom, contracts made at sea had no 
  validity because seasickness could cause one to agree 
  to anything upon promise of safely regaining land.
  Trade between England and Flanders was some-
  what less hazardous. Thus, English wool could be 
  shipped to Flanders’ cities, where it was processed 
  into cloth and sold at the Champagne Fairs in west-
  ern France. There was also some trade between Baltic 
  Sea ports and England, primarily dominated by the 
  German Hansa. English efforts to obtain privileges for 
  its merchants in the Baltic similar to those enjoyed by 
  Hansa merchants in England was the source of ongo-
  ing tension in the 15th century.
  One final hazard for an oceangoing merchant was 
  the customs involving shipwrecks. Goods salvaged from 
  a wrecked ship belonged, in theory, to the monarch. 
  Salvage from river boats belong to the local landholder. 
  In practice, a fair amount of goods were kept by local 
  residents who came upon them. For oceangoing ves-
  sels, if an animal escaped alive, it was to be kept for 
  three months so that its owner could claim it. After 
  that, it belonged to the crown. If a person, dog, or 
  cat escaped the vessel alive, it was not a wreck. Any 
  salvaged goods were held for a year and a day so that 
  their owners could claim them. If the owners did not 
  come forward, the goods were forfeited to the crown. 
  TYPICAL COSTS FOR SERVICES AND COMMON GOODS
  Item
  Date
  Location
  Cost
  Assassination
  1355
  Venice
  48 ducats (noble killed by hired fur trader)
  Assassination
  1355
  Venice
  100 ducats (noble killed by hired boatman)
  Assassination
  1392
  Florence
  100 ducats (two Florentine dyers living in 
  Venice killed by hired Florentine merchants)
  Bath, steam
  Late 13C
  Paris
  2 d.
  Bath, warm
  Late 13C
  Paris
  4 d. 
  Burial
  1417
  Pisa
  100 s. (moderately inexpensive mass and burial)
  Livestock pasturage
  1487
  Aberdeen
  1 d. /animal (for foreigners)
  Prostitute
  Mid-14C
  London
  4 d.
  Multure (mill fee)
  Mid-14C
  England
  1/32 to 1/13 of the grain processed (1/20 is typical) 
  Public Execution 
  Ceremony
  1323
  Carcassone
  8 l. 14 s. 7 d. (4 heretics burned)
  Public Execution 
  Ceremony
  1323
  Carcassone
  5 l. 9 s. 6 d. (3 heretics’ corpses 
  exhumed and burnt)
  Ratcatcher
  Mid-14C
  London
  4 d. 
  Regrater (resell-
  er, huckster)
  Mid-14C
  London
  1/2 d. /day (fee to sell in market)
  Rent, inn room
  1345
  London
  1 1/2 d. /week 
  Toll, good car-
  ried by person
  1201
  Northampton
  1/4 d.
  Toll, cartload of goods
  1201
  Northampton
  1 d.
  Toll, packhorse of goods
  1201
  Northampton
  1/2 d.
  
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  TYPICAL COSTS FOR SERVICES AND COMMON GOODS
  Item
  Date
  Location
  Cost
  Ale, per gallon
  1320
  London
  1 d. (good quality)
  Ale, per gallon
  1320
  London
  3/4 d. (ave. quality)
  Ale, per gallon
  1423
  London
  1 1/4 d. (good quality)
  Ale, per gallon
  1423
  London
  3/4 d. (ave. quality)
  Almonds, pound
  1359
  Paris
  14 d.
  Arquebus
  1485
  Grenada
  11 reales
  Arquebus
  1519
  Nuremburg
  5 florins (elaborate gift)
  Bed, for hospital
  14th C.
  Florence
  10-15 lire
  Beef, pound
  1395-1405
  Florence
  1 soldi, 2 denari
  Beef, pound
  1491-1501
  Florence
  1 soldi, 3 denari
  Boots
  1470
  Derbyshire
  6 d. /pair
  Brooch with gems
  1444-45
  Worcester
  5 pounds (gift to noble)
  Calf
  1365
  Paris
  9 d.
  Candle, tallow
  1406
  Salisbury
  1 1/2 d. per pound
  Cloth, wool
  1380
  Ely
  5 s. /yard (for bishop)
  Cloth, wool
  1384-5
  Hereford
  2 s. 11 d. /yard (for knight)
  Cloth, wool
  1384-5
  Hereford
  2 s. /yard (for yeoman)
  Cloth, wool
  1384-5
  Hereford
  1 s. 7 d. /yard (for servant)
  Cloth, wool
  1390
  Exeter
  3 d. per narrow yard (12 x 1 yards), coarse material
  Copper, ingot
  1426
  Venice
  11 s./pound
  Crossbow
  1519
  Nuremburg
  13 1/2 florins (elaborate gift)
  Dates, pound
  1338
  Paris
  6 d.
  Fish, pound
  1395-1405
  Florence
  4 soldi, 3 denari
  Fish, pound
  1491-1501
  Florence
  3 soldi, 10 denari
  Fruit, dried
  1380
  London
  1 d. to 4 d /pound (currants, dates, 
  figs, prunes, raisins)
  Glass, small pane
  1426
  Venice
  1 ½ soldi
  Gloves, velvet
  1429
  Venice
  3 ducats
  Ginger, pound
  1338
  Paris
  15 s.
  Hazelnuts, pound
  1338
  Paris
  15 d.
  Herring, barrel
  1309
  Hull
  1 s. 2 d.
  Horse
  1391-2
  Exeter
  33 s. 4 d.
  Lamb
  1395-1405
  Florence
  2 soldi
  Lime
  1425
  Venice
  6 soldi, 9 denari/ barrel
  Oil, orico
  1445
  Florence
  1 1/2 florins
  Oxen (for  meat)
  1265
  Paris
  5 s. 3 1/2 d.
  Oxen (working)
  1265
  Paris
  10 s.
  Peas, field
  1270-80
  London
  3 s. /quarter
  
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  TYPICAL COSTS FOR SERVICES AND COMMON GOODS
  Item
  Date
  Location
  Cost
  Peas, green
  1270-80
  London
  9 s. /quarter
  Pears
  1270-80
  London
  1 s. /quarter
  Pears, warder
  1270-80
  London
  6 s. /quarter
  Pepper, pound
  1279
  Ducklington
  12 d.
  Pepper, pound
  1411
  London
  20 d. (royal price ceiling)
  Pork, pound
  1395-1405
  Florence
  1-2 soldi
  Pork, pound
  1491-1501
  Florence
  1 soldi 1 denari to 1 soldi 7 denari
  Rice, pound
  1359
  Paris
  1 s.
  Rose-water, pound
  1338
  Paris
  20 s.
  Saffron, pound
  1359
  Paris
  48 s.
  Saffron, pound
  1380
  London
  12 s. to 15 s.
  Sausage
  1395-1405
  Florence
  3 soldi
  Sausage
  1491-1501
  Florence
  2 soldi, 8 denari
  Slave, female
  1475
  Florence
  50-100 florins
  Slave, male
  1423
  Venice
  50 ducats
  Sheep
  1265
  Paris
  2 s. 6 d.
  Ship
  1250
  Genoa
  2,000 livre Genoese
  Shoes
  1470
  Derbyshire
  4 d. /pair
  Sugar, pound
  1338
  Paris
  13 s.
  Sugar, pound
  1359
  Paris
  8 s.
  Tablecloth
  1329
  Suffolk
  8 d.
  Towel
  1329
  Suffolk
  1 s.
  Veal, pound
  1395-1405
  Florence
  2 soldi
  Veal, pound
  1491-1501
  Florence
  2 soldi, 3 denari
  Wax, pound
  1305
  London
  2 1/2 d.
  Wax, pound
  1374
  Coventry
  5 1/2 d.
  Wax, pound
  1374
  Warwick
  6 d. 
  Wax, pound
  1406
  Salisbury
  6 1/2 d.
  Wheat, quarter
  1209
  Hampshire
  2 s 7 d.
  Wheat, quarter
  1302
  Hampshire
  5 to 6 s.
  Wine, barrel
  1425
  Venice
  3 lire 16 soldi
  Wine, cogno (405 litres)
  1445
  Florence
  3 1/2 florins
  Wine, English
  1270-80
  London
  1 d. – 1 1/2 d. /gallon
  Wine, Gascon
  1270-80
  London
  3 d. – 4 d. / gallon
  Woad
  1294
  Bristol
  1 1. 4 s. / quarter
  Woad
  1294
  Lincoln
  1 l. / quarter
  Woad
  1305
  Yarmouth
  13 s. 4 d. / quarter
  Wool (raw)
  1209
  Hampshire
  2 s per stone (14 lbs.)
  Wool (raw)
  1302
  Hampshire
  4 s. per stone
  
   Crime & Punishment
  Page 53
  Companions of our band, care-free,
  Rob ye for naught except for gold.
  Seek only those who’re weak, ye see;
  Let those go who seem too bold;
  And when ye take a purse or so,
  Nor backwards ever throw a glance:
  Beware the Law where’er ye go,
  Which makes you on the Gallows dance.
  – François Villon, Ballade 
  en jargon (c. 1460)
  Towns were crowded places with many oppor-
  tunities for frauds, thefts, and violent crimes. Urban 
  authorities sought the right to hold their own courts 
  which could resolve criminal complaints, administer 
  fines, and punish malefactors. Their courts, however, 
  were limited. Medieval society had a complex web of 
  legal privileges. Clergy, for example, had the right to 
  be tried under ecclesiastical law. Within the clergy, 
  certain orders and universities had the right to dis-
  cipline their own members separate from the bish-
  op’s court. The right of sanctuary allowed criminals 
  to seek protection from the Church against civil law 
  for 40 days (a few sites let criminals remain indefi-
  nitely). Often, sheriffs and urban officials could not 
  enter Church property to serve warrants or make 
  arrests, but had to wait on a public street for their 
  quarry to emerge. Royal vassals could demand trial 
  in royal courts. Guilds often held primary jurisdic-
  tion over their members for acts which violated guild 
  rules. Major fairs held their own courts during their 
  sessions to resolve merchants’ disputes and crimes 
  like assaults and thefts. This division of jurisdiction 
  made it hard for towns to keep order.
  Violence was a common feature of urban life. In 
  Antwerp, in the second half of the 14th century, court 
  records show twice as many cases for physical violence 
  as for theft. In early 15th century Brescia, nearly half 
  of the sentences imposed by the city’s podestà and 
  criminal court judges were for brawls, wounds, and 
  dire insults. Vendettas, common in Mediterranean 
  cultures, made quarrels more serious, creating a cycle 
  of revenge attacks and counter-attacks that could 
  quickly build into a riot.
  To some extent, ongoing low levels of violence 
  were part of the relationship between workers and 
  their employers. A dispute between an employee 
  and his employer was hard to fairly resolve in urban 
  courts, which were rightly regarded as biased in favor 
  of the wealthy. A disgruntled worker might instead 
  gain satisfaction by vandalism or violence. Town 
  records record many instances of nighttime vandal-
  ism, creditors being attacked, street brawls between 
  rival factions, gang rapes, and personal vendettas set-
  tled with knives and clubs.
  What could a town do? To reduce crimes which 
  took place after  dark, many towns imposed a strict 
   curfew forbidding most people from traveling on the 
  streets at night without permission. If, for some rea-
  son, a person needed to go into the streets, he was 
  expected to carry a lantern or light to demonstrate 
  honest intentions. In Siena, anyone caught outside 
  after dark was fined 20 s. Curfews primarily dissuaded 
  the easily temptable. They did not prevent groups of 
  youths, often university students or sons of wealthy 
  citizens, from congregating after dark in large groups 
  to engage in vandalism, robberies, or even house-
  breaking and rape. (Student groups were not to be 
  underestimated. In 1408, a group of Parisian students 
  armed with swords, daggers, axes, and polearms, wear-
  ing mail and padded leather jackets, invaded another 
  group of students’ party and killed their host.)
  Homeowners secured their houses and belong-
  ings. Ground floor windows were shuttered or pro-
  tected with iron bars. Doors were barred or chained 
  shut. Important papers and belongings were kept in 
  stout locked chests, often in the owner’s bedroom.
  Towns regulated  weapons. Most forbade foreign-
  ers and even many residents from carrying weapons. 
  Foreigners were usually required to deposit their 
  weapons for safekeeping with their host or innkeep-
  er on arrival in town. Residents and foreigners alike 
  were often precluded from carrying weapons to mar-
  kets and  fairs; even  knights and noble participants in 
  tournaments had their right to carry arms and arm 
  their followers limited.
   In 1099, Genoa forbade anyone to carry weapons 
  without a license, which was available for “defensive” 
  weapons to citizens known to have mortal enemies. 
  
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  When civil disorder increased in 1161, Genoese were 
  allowed to carry swords and knives, but not bows and 
  lances. In 1386, Milan prohibited anyone from carry-
  ing a weapon in the city, or any of its subject towns. 
  London allowed its residents to own bows designed 
  to throw stones, arbalests, and slings, but prohibited 
  shooting at birds as missed shots tended to damage 
  buildings or wound bystanders.
  Many towns blamed the urban poor for most of 
  their crime and, after distinguishing between the 
  deserving poor (cripples, widows, orphans, the infirm, 
  and the elderly), and the false poor (unemployed arti-
  sans and peasants who were able to work), tried to 
  expel those who could work, but did not have jobs. 
  French law allowed urban authorities to seize frequent 
  tavern patrons without steady incomes and expel 
  them. During and after the Black Plague, England 
  and France responded to a shortage of labor with laws 
  forcing the healthy unemployed to find work or be 
  expelled from towns. Armed men had to prove that 
  they were part of a militia, landholder’s army, or mer-
  cenary company, or they would be branded as vaga-
  bonds. Yet a third law ordered healthy unemployed 
  persons to work at public projects on municipal ditch-
  es and walls for whatever wage the town offered.
  When a crime occurred, towns did not have 
  detectives to investigate. Urban authorities depend-
  ed on the victim’s family and witnesses to identify 
  the culprit. Under English law, anyone who saw a 
  felony was expected to cry out (raise a hue and cry). 
  All able-bodied men were expected to respond to the 
  cry and try to apprehend the criminal. Failure to raise 
  a hue when appropriate, or respond to a hue, could 
  result in a fine.
  Some towns encouraged accusations and denun-
  ciations. In Siena, for example, an accuser could 
  receive from one-fifth to one-half of the fine imposed 
  on a malefactor. Venice installed a series of carved 
  lion’s mouths (bocca-di-leone), into which anyone 
  could anonymously post a denunciation which would 
  be read and considered by the appropriate authori-
  ties. (There were different boccas for various purpos-
  es, including denunciations related to tax evaders or 
  related to public health).
  Curfews and  Night
  At night, the streets of a medieval town were lit 
  only by moon light. In 1379, Venice was one of the 
  few places to require public illumination – the main 
  bridge was lit by lanterns. At  dusk, a town locked its 
  gates, denying entry to travelers until dawn. The last 
  travelers who were allowed to enter had just enough 
  time to find lodgings before darkness fell. At dark, 
  churches rang their bells to sound the  curfew. At that 
  point, workers ended their tasks. Taverns closed to 
  the public. Honest people were expected to remain 
  at home, or to carry a lantern or torch if they had to 
  wander the streets. Wanderers without lights could be 
  seized by the watch, detained until dawn, and fined.
  A few honest workers might be awake during the 
   night. Although guilds forbade artisans to work after 
  dark, so as to maintain the quality of their wares, a 
  few trades began their day at night or in the early 
  hours before dawn.  Bakers, for example, needed to 
  light their ovens and start their bread baking before 
  first light. Similarly, Venetian glass-makers needed to 
  tend their furnaces’ fires. For the most part, however, 
  a town’s inhabitants went to sleep as darkness fell.
  Within a town, the streets were narrow and 
  irregular, intermingled with alleys, squares, gardens, 
  and nooks. This made it hard to find one’s way with-
  out light, and easy for robbers and thieves to hide. 
  In 1427, Poitiers asked the French crown to install 
  chains to block some of its streets and trip fleeing 
  thieves. Towns also often placed chains across their 
  river to prevent boats from sneaking past.
  As noted above, these precautions did little to 
  deter burglars, thieves, and gangs of youths bent on 
  crime. For the most part, an honest citizen’s best 
  defense was to stay indoors, behind stout doors and 
  shuttered windows.
  At dawn, a market bell frequently signaled the 
  opening of the city gates. In many towns, no buying 
  or selling could occur until this bell sounded, or after 
  the evening  curfew bell.
   COURTS
  Towns sought the right to hold their own courts, 
  particularly to enforce economic laws favorable to 
  merchants and guilds. Towns had more than one 
  court. Bishops held courts to try ecclesiastical male-
  factors. English market towns and sea ports had 
  Courts of Pie Powder (from the French pied-pouldre 
  or dusty feet) to settle merchant disputes and enforce 
  rules on quality and weights and measures. Guilds 
  had internal courts to discipline their members. Even 
  
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  the town itself might have multiple courts. Faenza, 
  for example, had five courts – the Bench of the Eagle 
  for criminal cases; the Bench of the Lion for civil 
  cases; the Bench of the King for cases about agrarian 
  property; the Bench of the Oxen for contracts involv-
  ing minors; and the Bench of the Horse for contracts 
  involving women. The podestà and the Captain of the 
  Popolo (see pp. 77-79) both had their own courts as 
  well. For an aggrieved party, finding the right court, 
  and obtaining jurisdiction over the offender, was itself 
  an art. Siena provided one judge per neighborhood 
  (terzo) to serve as criminal and civil lawyers for the 
  poor, without charge to their clients.
  Of course, the various courts competed for 
  power, influence, resources, and revenues from 
  fines. There were bitter disputes between towns and 
  clergy, and between towns and their neighbors, over 
  misdeeds done by subjects of one against subjects of 
  the other. There were political struggles over who 
  would be appointed as a judge, and how that judge 
  resolved cases. Italy, for example, tried to limit 
  accusations of favoritism by hiring judges from other 
  towns. Others hired locals, assuming they would 
  be more familiar with the complex relationships 
  between parties, and might thus be able to craft a 
  more acceptable result.
  Normally, cases were heard by a judge. However, 
  chapter 39 of the Magna Carta stated that “No free 
  man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of 
  his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or 
  deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will 
  we proceed with force against him, or send others to 
  do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals 
  or by the law of the land.” This implied that English 
  freemen had a right to trial before a jury. This is not 
  the modern jury; an English jury of the time was more 
  of an investigating body, as well as one which could 
  decide cases. Still, it was often an improvement over 
  a trial before a judge appointed by a landholder or 
  town government.
  Trials often involved sworn testimony, often with 
  the aid of compurgators (oath helpers) who formally 
  supported the testimony of a witness or party. The 
  Church prohibited clergy from participating in trial by 
  ordeal in 1215, and the custom dwindled out there-
  after. In some places, disputants could opt for trial 
  by combat or a formal judicial duel, often subject to 
  various customary rules and oaths to try to balance 
  the party’s abilities.
   PUNISHMENT
  Once a defendant was convicted of a crime, pun-
  ishment ranged from fines to  torture to banishment 
  to execution. Treason and heresy were punished 
  most seriously, generally by execution in a particular-
  ly painful manner. Murder, arson, and other serious 
  crimes were generally punished by  death, banishment, 
  or a requirement to journey on a pilgrimage to a dis-
  tant shrine. Robbery and burglary were punishable by 
  death, even if the thief left empty-handed. Forgers, 
  coin clippers, and bearers of false witness often lost 
  their right hand, so long as their offenses were minor. 
  (A shilling’s value was the threshold between ampu-
  tation and execution in England.) Felony convictions 
  also meant forfeiture of the felon’s lands and goods to 
  the authorities. Assaults were commonly punished by 
  fines, levied at a rate primarily intended to prevent 
  violence between and against residents of the town. 
  Criminals, and the losers of civil suits, could also be 
  required to make promises of future good behavior, 
  enforced by posting a sum or money as a bond.
  Execution was the most common punishment 
  for serious crimes. Common criminals were generally 
  hung at the gibbet. The bodies were often left to rot 
  on the public gibbet as a warning to others. (Public 
  gibbets in a large town could hold dozens of bodies 
  at the same time.) Nobles were generally beheaded. 
  Heretics were often burned at the stake, sometimes 
  after being strangled to death. For treason and hei-
  nous crimes executions became more brutal, using 
  methods like drawing-and-quartering.
   Banishment was a common punishment. Normally, 
  most people were born, lived, and died in the same 
  area. To banish someone was to cast them away from 
  their homes, families, and any social support. Under 
  the Lex Salica, the banished person was wargus sit, to be 
  treated like a wolf and driven away from normal soci-
  ety. He or she could be killed, and the homicide would 
  be considered self-defense. In Italy, urban criminals 
  often fled into the condato. They were tried in absen-
  tia and banned from the city as punishment. Their 
  name, bandito, may have resulted from the ban (ban-
  nitus) which prohibited their return. Urban podestàs 
  were charged with regularly sending out patrols, and 
  communities in the condato were heavily fined for 
  sheltering  bandits. Factions in Italian city-states also 
  often routinely banished their political rivals (and their 
  families) upon taking power.
  
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   Mutilation, ranging from branding, to flogging, 
  to removing body parts, was a common punishment, 
  generally reserved for less serious offenses. Criminals 
  could also be sent to the public pillory, where their 
  survival and level of injuries depended on the mood 
  of the  crowd, which could pelt them with stones 
  and rubbish.
   Imprisonment was uncommon – feeding, hous-
  ing, and guarding prisoners was expensive. Towns 
  used jails to hold  prisoners prior to trial, between trial 
  and punishment, and rarely as a form of punishment. 
  Bishops and abbots used their own prisons to pun-
  ish errant clergy. Debtors were held until their debts 
  were paid.  War captives were held waiting ransom 
  payments. Papal inquisitors sometimes used prisons 
  both as punishment, and as a way to coerce suspects 
  into confessions.
  A prisoner was expected to pay for his or her 
  own support. Prisoners were generally held together 
  in large rooms –  disease and vermin were common. 
  Nobles and certain politically powerful captives were 
  often held in separate buildings in more comfortable 
  conditions depending on their wealth and the reason 
  for their captivity.
   PENANCE
  Most crimes were also  sins; secular punishment 
  did not provide absolution. Thus, the Church also 
  had a role in deterrence and punishment. Penance 
  ranged from self-denial, to prayers, to exile and forced 
  pilgrimages. Custom, and published penitentials, gave 
  guidance to a priest in setting an appropriate work 
  of satisfaction. In some cases, penance could also be 
  satisfied by fines. In the 14th century, the Church cre-
  ated an  indulgence system which allowed sinners to do 
  penance in advance of committing a sin. Worshipers 
  sometimes also imposed their own penance, ranging 
  from fasting, hair shirts, and other forms of self-mor-
  tification to public flagellation (see p. 36).
  A worshiper confessed his or her sins to a priest 
  in the worshiper’s parish. Some mendicant orders also 
  had the authority to hear confessions. Before the 13th 
  century, confession was made irregularly, often just 
  before a journey or during a life-threatening illness. 
  In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council required every 
  Christian to confess once a year and receive commu-
  nion at  Easter, else the worshiper could be denied a 
  Christian burial.
  Confession was generally public, not private, which 
  meant that one’s neighbors heard one’s misdeeds, and 
  vice-versa. On the one hand, this might inhibit full 
  disclosure; on the other hand, it was hard to keep 
  too many secrets from one’s neighbors. Even if one 
  could confess privately, many penances required read-
  ily observable public behavior, which led to general 
  speculation and gossip about the underlying cause.
   ORGANIZED CRIME AND 
  CRIME CONTROL
  Although medieval towns did not have police or 
  detectives, they did have a  watch. The watch, com-
  posed of volunteers or hired  guards, primarily looked for 
  fires and closed the city gates at night. The watch also 
  enforced town ordinances, pursued and arrested sus-
  pects after a hue-and-cry had been raised, kept prison-
  ers until they were released, and served town warrants. 
  Watchers were posted on the walls, gates, and towers 
  – sometimes the ladders to the walls were removed to 
  keep watchers from abandoning their posts. Watchers 
  also meandered through the  dark streets with torches 
  to look for troublemakers. As crime prevention, it was 
  a well-meaning system, but inefficient.
  A guard wearing his insignia of office, usually a 
  staff with the town’s arms, represented the entire com-
  munity. An assailant striking a guard assaulted the 
  town’s authority and was dealt with harshly. When the 
  guard put down the staff at the end of the night, how-
  ever, he returned to being an ordinary person, with no 
  protection from enemies he might have made during 
  his duties. Siena provided free medical treatment for 
  guards and  soldiers injured in its service, guaranteed 
  to pay its soldiers’ ransom if they could not afford it, 
  and offered a pension for life if a guard or solider were 
  disabled on duty and otherwise indigent.
  Siena used a volunteer watch system. Each neigh-
  borhood provided the names of 200 men eligible for 
  the night watch. Two men from each company of 200 
  men served for six months as paciarii, responsible to 
  the commune for enforcing the peace between rival 
  families and supervising their own companies. Often 
  they were stationed at the gates and bell towers to 
  sound warning of trouble. Two guards were stationed 
  at each gate every night. Others patrolled the streets 
  by day and by night.
  
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  Watch
  The structure of the watch varied by town. A typ-
  ical English watch was headed by the beadle, an aide 
  to the local  alderman who heard complaints about 
  crime. The beadle could summon the watch and 
  could settle minor disputes. The senior watch officer 
  was a sergeant, who reported to the town’s mayor, 
  royal sheriff, or landholder’s bailiff. A sergeant might 
  also be the town crier. A common watch man was a 
  “petty constable” who reported to the sergeants and 
  the beadle. In 1422, Coventry had 24 constables for 
  its population of 5,000.
  Siena, on the other hand, had one police officer 
  for every 145 inhabitants. The podestà, captain of the 
  Popolo, the Council of the Nine, and the war captain 
  all had their own separate police forces. All of these 
  forces were subject to official reviews to confirm that 
  they had the requisite number of watchmen, who were 
  properly equipped and well-behaved. Instead of hiring 
  individual watchmen, Italian towns generally hired a 
  captain, who in turn hired watchmen or brought them 
  with him from another job. If the watch company’s 
  turn was not tied to an official’s term of office, the 
  contract was usually for about six months.
   Inquisition
  The Inquisition was, perhaps, the closest thing 
  medieval Europe had to an organized investigation 
  force. The Inquisition was not a single unified orga-
  nization. There were many regional inquisitions, each 
  with its own duties, methods, and goals, which rarely 
  cooperated with each other. As with other areas of 
  medieval society, unifying themes were often tweaked 
  to regional needs and issues.
  The Papacy created the Inquisition in 1230 
  in response to the Cathar heresy. Prior to the 
  Inquisition, bishops and parish priests were expected 
  to uncover and correct heretics among their flock. 
  When this approach failed, as it did in southern 
  France, Dominican  monks and others were assigned 
  to investigate the faithful for signs of heresy and to 
  punish those who had lapsed from orthodoxy. The 
  Spanish Inquisition, begun in 1478, was a specific alli-
  ance between the Papacy and the Spanish monarchy 
  for similar purposes.
  The Inquisition had some aspects of a police force. 
  It had powers of arrest, imprisonment, interrogation, 
  and (effectively) execution, backed by the Papacy and 
  by secular authorities. Inquisitors arriving in a com-
  munity offered the public a period in which to confess 
  their sins and receive absolution. After that period 
  ended, the inquisitors began interviewing witnesses 
  and informants, gathering denunciations. The tribu-
  nals occasionally suspended trials when they believed 
  the accusation was false, but inquisitors did not think 
  false accusations were common. The consequences for 
  perjury were often light, although a perjurer could be 
  burned at the stake, scourged, publicly humiliated, or 
  sentenced to the galleys. The potential reward, on the 
  other hand, was tempting. The Inquisition seized a 
  heretic’s property (or more specifically a secular land-
  holder seized the property on the Inquisition’s behalf), 
  and often gave a portion of it to informants as a reward. 
  The remainder was used to pay for the heretic’s impris-
  onment before trial (less an allowance to support his 
  relatives). Any balance after the heretic’s execution 
  was sold by the landholder. In theory, the proceeds 
  were used to pay for the Inquisition’s activities.
  The accused was generally presumed to be guilty. 
  Inquisitors often imprisoned suspects for long peri-
  ods to coerce statements. Inquisition manuals also 
  advised investigators how to obtain confessions with 
  various ploys, including a predecessor to the good 
  cop/bad cop routine, feigned sympathy or pity, and 
  the use of jailhouse informants. The Inquisitors kept 
  records of their investigations, organized by village 
  and town, and were able to thus cross-reference state-
  ments – both those made by the suspect previously 
  and those made by his or her neighbors.
  Even  death was not an escape. Inquisitors some-
  times dug up the bodies of heretics to burn them. 
  (The practice had a long past. Pope Formosus (891-
  896) was exhumed by his successor and his corpse 
  tried for heresy. The body was dragged thru Rome 
  and dumped into the Tiber. The body was later recov-
  ered and buried with honor by a subsequent pontiff 
  in 898.) A heretic’s heirs were disinherited, which 
  made residents sensitive to accusations about their 
  ancestors’ beliefs, particularly as there would be few 
  witnesses able to disprove an allegation.
   Torture was allowed, according to “the con-
  science and will of the appointed judges, following 
  law, reason, and good conscience. Inquisitors should 
  take great care that the sentence of torture is justi-
  fied and follows precedent.” Torture was used in a 
  minority of cases for interrogations, not punishment. 
  In most cases, the threat of torture was enough to 
  
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  Town: Crime & Punishment
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  procure a confession. Confessions made under tor-
  ture were not valid evidence. The accused had to 
  ratify the confession a day after the ordeal. In theory, 
  an accused could only be tortured once, but a session 
  could be suspended and resumed several times.
  After investigation and interrogation, the case 
  was considered by a trial of judges outside of the 
  accused’s presence. He or she could be acquitted, 
  fined, given penance (including wearing a distinc-
  tive yellow cross on his or her clothing), sent on a 
  penitential pilgrimage, imprisoned (for life or a term 
  of years), reconciled to the faith, or executed by being 
  burned at the stake (in person or in effigy). The trial 
  could also be suspended and the accused released, 
  with the warning that a trial could be resumed at any 
  time. As a technical matter, the  Inquisition did not 
  execute the accused; they were “relaxed” to a secular 
  court which performed the execution.
   Organized Crime
  Historians know very little about whether there 
  were medieval counterparts to modern criminal gangs 
  or groups like the Mafia. For obvious reasons, thieves 
  did not keep written records for posterity. The only 
  sources come from court records, often from interro-
  gations which might be seen as exaggerated products 
  of torture.
  Thieves were a logical outgrowth of the wealth 
  found in towns. Petty theft by servants and appren-
  tices was common. In towns with a surplus of unem-
  ployed journeymen and other day laborers, bored 
  young men might turn to theft, burglary, and rob-
  bery for income or sport. Criminals could steal and 
  fence goods, or be involved in extortion, smuggling, 
  fencing, loan-sharking, gambling, and fraud.
  In is unlikely that thieves had formal organiza-
  tions. If any structure existed, it probably resembled 
  a modern street gang, organized by neighborhood or 
  ethnicity, with a hierarchy based on force and vio-
  lence. Local strongmen might extort money from 
  small merchants, hucksters, and hustlers in return 
  for “protection” from vandalism, shoplifting, and dis-
  ruptive patrons. They might demand a weekly fee or 
  percentage of profits from intinerant peddlars and 
  hustlers in return for protecting their monopoly on a 
  particular street or plaza. The strongmens’ greed was 
  tempered by self-interest – if the strongman demand-
  ed too much money, his targets were not able to make 
  a living, and had an incentive to complain to the 
  authorities. Strongmen could extort more from ped-
  dlars or hucksters involved in illegal activities because 
  they would be more reluctant to complain and thus 
  bring attention to their own actions, but even those 
  involved in illegal trades could be driven to complain 
  by too many demands for money.
  More formal organizations also existed. In 
  1455, the Dijon authorities complained about the 
   Coquillards, allegedly an association of an estimated 
  500 criminals, including specialists in picking locks, 
  sleight-of-hand, forging coins and selling false gems; 
  as well as robbers, gamblers, bandits, and footpads. 
  The group even waylaid merchants and travelers for 
  ransom. It was rumored to have a king, to whom the 
  Coquillards paid a share of their profits. They were 
  said to have their own jargon, and  inns and brothels 
  where they could take shelter from the authorities. 
  Eventually 15 members of the group were captured; 
  one betrayed the organization to save his life.
  At the same time, the  Grand Coesre ( Beggar 
  King) was rumored to hold court in Paris over the 
  Argot (Slang people). His interests were man-
  aged by Cagoux (lieutenants) in the provinces, and 
  Archsuppots (a clerical title) who recruited young 
  apprentices to the organization. The Argot gath-
  ered in brothels and inns sometimes called Cours des 
  Miracles (the Court of Miracles), because  beggars 
  who pretended by day to be crippled cast off their dis-
  guises within and resumed their “healthy” activities.
  In southern France, yet another group of 400 
  thieves led by a king and his constables was discov-
  ered in 1464. It was rumored to raid churches for 
  their altar vessels and reliquaries. At times, such a 
  group would be hard to distinguish from bands of 
  unemployed  mercenaries wandering France during 
  lulls in the Hundred Years’ War.
  In addition to these large organizations (assuming 
  the sources did not exaggerate), bands of rural  ban-
  dits might have urban confederates to watch inns and 
  markets for good targets and to help fence their stolen 
  goods. Generally, such groups existed by the sufferance 
  of their neighbors; the lack of privacy in urban neigh-
  borhoods made it unlikely that locals were unaware 
  of false beggars, thieves, and robbers. So long as the 
  rogues shared their profits with their neighbors through 
  gifts, loans, and patronizing local merchants and did 
  not endanger their neighbors, the community had little 
  incentive to cooperate with the authorities.
  
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  Town: Crime & Punishment
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   TYPICAL  FINES AND  PUNISHMENTS
  Offense
  Date
  Location
  Amount/Punishment
  Assault
  Early 13th c. Venice
  25 lire fine
  Assault
  1336
  Venice
  300 lire di piccolo fine
  Avoiding town market
  1321-2
  Exeter
  10 s. (frequently made 
  purchases outside of 
  town to avoid toll)
  Carrying knife beyond 
  legal length at night
  1320
  Venice
  50 l. (plus an additional 50 l. 
  if possessor refused a search)
  Climbing church façade
  1245
  Biella
  22 s.
  Concubine
  1458
  Avignon
  50 l.
  Concubine
  1466
  St-Michel-d’Euzet
  2 l.
  Driving an iron- wheeled cart 
  carrying stone, water, or wood
  1367
   Beverly
  12 p / offense
  Driving an iron- wheeled wagon 
  carrying a heavy load
  1369
  Beverly
  2 s / offense
  Driving an iron- wheeled cart 
  carrying a heavy load
  1369
  Beverly
  12 p / offense
  Disobeying city warder
  1364
  London
  10 – 40 s
  Failure to provide watch member
  1428
  Paris
  12 d. (fine used to pay for 
  substitute watcher)
  Fire, accidental
  1189
  London
  40 s (paid by each occupant 
  of house if flames could 
  be seen from street)
  Forestalling
  1309
  Ipswich
  20 s. (acting as middleman 
  in protected market)
  Forestalling
  1428
  Aberdeen
  20 s. (fine for buying food 
  before it reached the market)
  Forestalling
  1482
  Aberdeen
  66 s. (1st offense)
  Forestalling poultry
  1306
  Southwark
  40 d
  Horse, unattended
  1426
  Nottingham
  4 d (seizure of horse 
  until fine paid)
  Illegal fishing
  1337
  Iver
  2 d
  Improper accounting, 
  town chamberlain
  1309
  Ipswich
  4 d for every 1 d not 
  properly accounted for
  Improper grain storage
  15C
  Siena
  500 lire (violation of grain 
  storage law  intended 
  to prevent mercenaries 
  from foraging)
  Obstructing travel
  1436
  Nottingham
  40 d (fine on pedestrian 
  blocking horses on street)
  Organizing strike
  1245
  Douai
  Fine of 60 s. and banishment 
  for a year and a day
  Neglect of duties, bailiff
  1309
  Ipswich
  10 pounds
  
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  Town: Crime & Punishment
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  Offense
  Date
  Location
  Amount/Punishment
  Neglect of duty to host ambassador
  1483
  Venice
  10 ducat fine (debtor 
  ineligible for public office 
  until paid)
  Nuisance
  1302
  St. Ives
  6 d
  Nuisance
  1354
  Beverly
  40 d
  Nuisance
  1421
  Coventry
  12 d
  Pig, unattended
  Mid-14C
  London
  4 d (pig could be killed 
  on sight, owner could 
  purchase carcass for 4 d)
  Pig, unattended
  Mid-14C
  Sandwich
  12 d (pig killed and 
  carcass sold to charity)
  Pig, unattended
  1445
  Cambridge
  4 d
  Practicing medicine without license
  1330
  Bayons
  40 s
  Private meeting with foreign 
  ambassador by Senator 
  or Council member
  1481
  Venice
  1,000 ducat fine and 
  2 years exile
  Procuring
  1282
  Cordes
  Forfeit house, or if not a 
  homeowner, fined 20 l.
  Procuring
  1458
  Avignon
  200 l.
  Rape
  1369-70
  Rodez
  5 l
  Rape, attempted
  1307
  Montaillou
  20 l
  Rape, of  prostitute
  1194
  Pexiora
  1 s.
  Rape, of prostitute
  1286
  Pisa
  10 – 40 s.
  Rape, of prostitute
  1388
  Vallassina
  10 l.
  Robbery, 1st offense, less than 1 lire
  Early 13th c. Venice
  Whipping
  Robbery, 5-10 lire
  Early 13th c. Venice
  Loss of eye
  Robbery, 40 lire+
  Early 13th c. Venice
  Hanging
  Selling supplies to English
  1369-70
  Rodez
  5 l
  Sodomy (any “abnormal” 
   sexual behavior)
  14th c.
  Venice
  Burning alive
  Soliciting a  prostitute
  1369-70
  Rodez
  2 l
  Traveling at night
  15C
  Siena
  20 s
  Traveling at night w/o light
  1431
  Lyon
  60 s / offense
  Traveling at night while armed
  15C
  Troyes
  10 s (plus confisca-
  tion of weapon)
  Using false weights
  1335
  Canterbury
  80 l (plus reimbursement 
  to defrauded customers)
  Watch, failing to stop thief
  595
  Paris
  5 s (plus reimburse 
  for stolen goods)
  Watch, failing to stop thief
  813
  Paris
  4 s
  Weapon possession
  1409
  Venice
  25 lire (or 15 days in prison)
  
  Education
  Page 61
  Urban residents were more likely to be literate and 
  numerate than their rural counterparts, but an exact 
  rate can’t be determined. Merchants and shopkeepers 
  needed to manage basic accounts and keep records in 
  order to operate their businesses. Secular and ecclesi-
  astical administrators likewise needed to keep records 
  and  accounts in order to manage bishoprics, guilds, and 
  town government. Thus, there was a need for basic  edu-
  cation, as well as vocational training.
  At first, education was a Church monopoly. In 1215, 
  the Fourth Lateran Council directed every cathedral to 
  hire a grammar master for the clergy and indigent schol-
  ars, and every metropolitan bishop to hire a theologian. 
  No one could set up a grammar school in London, for 
  example, without the approval of the Bishop of London 
  and the chancellors of St. Paul’s cathedral. From the 
  12th century to the mid-15th century, London had 
  three approved grammar schools which taught basic 
  Latin vocabulary and grammar, and gave basic religious 
  instruction.
  In theory, church-sponsored teaching was free – 
  knowledge was a divine gift, not to be sold. But a teach-
  er had to earn a living and could be given a benefice or 
  salary, or charge reasonable fees. Teachers could also 
  accept gifts from those that could afford to donate to 
  them.
  When a Church education proved inadequate, or 
  too expensive, lay “primary” schools arose which were 
  focused on literacy in the vernacular and basic arith-
  metic. Lay schools first arose in Flanders and Italy, and 
  then spread across urban Europe. Urban students tend-
  ed to split their time between studies and work in shops, 
  so the schools focused on practical problems and taught 
  a rapid script (scrittura mercantesa), designed for record-
  keeping and merchant correspondence. In 1440, King 
  Henry VI founded Eton, a primary school in Windsor, 
  with a grant for the education of indigent scholars.
  By 1467, approximately 40% of the tradesmen in 
  London had basic literacy in English, and 50% of those 
  were literate in Latin as well. There is less evidence 
  about the literacy among London’s women. Women 
  were admitted to some primary schools, but excluded 
  from grammar schools. A woman who wanted to learn 
  Latin generally had to hire a private tutor.
  Monasteries had long maintained libraries and lent 
  books to other monasteries. Until 1436, all European 
  books were hand-copied, and were thus rare and expen-
  sive. Johannes Gutenberg invented his famous printing 
  press in 1436 (finishing the press in 1440). His combi-
  nation of press and moveable type spread rapidly, and 
  made printing far less expensive, vastly expanding the 
  number and types of available books. In the mid-15th 
  century, towns began to set aside rooms, and eventu-
  ally buildings, for their collections of books. These were 
  not public libraries, but the collections were available 
  to wealthy patrons.
   MASTER-APPRENTICE SYSTEM
  The apprentice system was the most common form 
  of vocational training for young men in Europe. A mas-
  ter was allowed by his guild to employ a limited num-
  ber of apprentices (in addition to his own spouse and 
  children). The Guild set standards for the fee a master 
  could charge the apprentice’s parents, and the minimum 
  length of the apprenticeship before an apprentice could 
  try to qualify as a master. If, upon completing an appren-
  ticeship, the apprentice then became a citizen of the 
  town, the urban government might also set standards 
  for  apprentice contracts.
  The prospective apprentice’s parent paid a master 
  a fee and entered into a written apprenticeship con-
  tract. The master agreed to house, feed, and train the 
  apprentice in his trade. The master was responsible for 
  the apprentice’s work and behavior. Often the contract 
  forbade the apprentice to gamble, fornicate, or hang 
  about in taverns. The agreement required the appren-
  tice to be appropriately trained, and not used merely as a 
  domestic servant. A master could discipline the appren-
  tice, including beating him, but not so seriously as to 
  permanently damage a limb. If the apprentice left before 
  completing the contract, his family could be fined.
  Once accepted, the master had to enter the appren-
  tice on the guild’s rolls and pay a fee to the guild. If the 
  guild required that an apprentice be literate, he would be 
  examined by the guild prior to enrollment. Some towns 
  also required the master to enroll the apprentice on its 
  records, and, of course, pay an additional fee. Enrollment 
  was often part of a ceremony to impress the event upon 
  the memory of the youth and on witnesses.
  
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  Disputes between masters and apprentices (or their 
  families) about the terms of the contract were resolved 
  by the guild or town, as appropriate. The contract 
  was assignable – the master could sell the  apprentice’s 
  contract to another master, or dispose of it in his will. 
  Generally, the apprentice could refuse to consent to a 
  sale of the contract, ending it prematurely.
  There are some records of senior German appren-
  tices hazing new apprentices. Hazing included teasing, 
  beatings, smearing with dirt and dung, cleanings, shav-
  ing, and other similar activities. The new apprentices 
  were expected to endure the hazing without protest, and 
  sometimes even to sing during the ceremony. This was 
  likely common in other cultures. In Bergen, new jour-
  neymen entering the merchants’ guild had to pass three 
  ordeals at the annual spring festival – they had to answer 
  questions while hoisted into a smoking chimney, make 
  their way back onto a ship having been thrown into the 
  water three times (aided by a friend armed with a stick), 
  and be whipped until they bled. After the ceremony, 
  they were expected to sing a humorous song for their 
  fellows during dinner.
  Upon completing the minimum term set by the 
  guild, the apprentice could request an examination by 
  a group of masters. If he passed their test and paid the 
  appropriate fees, he became a master and could open his 
  own workshop or store.
  In trades with a high demand for intermediate lev-
  els of skill such as many of the textile arts, some guilds 
  created a journeyman stage between apprenticeship and 
  mastery. The journeyman spent a term of years as an 
  apprentice under the supervision of a master. At the 
  end of that term, the apprentice was a journeyman and 
  could work under the supervision of any master. After 
  a still longer period as a journeyman, he could apply for 
  examination by a group of masters and become a master, 
  able to open his own shop or store.
   UNIVERSITIES
  As noted above, medieval universities were creat-
  ed by the Church to educate its clergy as theologians 
  and administrators. Students were almost universally 
  male, and Christian. There are more records of  Jewish 
  students than of  female students. Some universities, 
  especially in Italy and southern France, admitted a few 
  Jewish students. In the late 15th century, Padua became 
  a center for Jewish students, including many who fled 
  Spain during the Reconquista. In 1466, the King of Sicily 
  granted a charter to Sicilian Jews to create a university, 
  although it may have been limited in practice to teach-
  ing theology and training rabbis.
  Universities taught, in Latin, the trivium, which 
  consisted of grammar, rhetoric, and logic; and the qua-
  drivium, which consisted of arithmetic, geometry, music, 
  and astronomy. A thorough grounding in both was 
  needed to study philosophy or theology. Some univer-
  sities taught medicine, based on translated classic Greek 
  texts, and law, based in part on Roman texts.
  A university education was based on lectures from 
  respected texts. Students often sat in halls listening to a 
  lecturer reading from the text, then commenting on it. 
  A student’s notes became, in effect, a copy of the text 
  and of the comments. Students were examined on their 
  memory and understanding of these works. Students 
  who passed comprehensive examinations before the uni-
  versity faculty received their license to teach, or became 
  eligible to study more advanced fields.
  In the 12th century, Peter Abelard, a master at the 
  University of Paris, introduced a new style of analy-
  sis and debate with his book Sic et non (Yes and no), 
  discussing contradictions in various standard texts. 
  Abelard himself was tried for heresy at Soissons in 1121 
  and at Sens in 1140. In Soissons, one of his books was 
  burned. At Sens, more of his writings were condemned. 
  At that point, he retired to Cluny, where he died two 
  years later.
  Also in the mid-12th century, university classes 
  began to involve public debates among masters, and 
  among students, to teach students about reasoning and 
  oratory.
  Some subjects were restricted, or available only to 
  advanced students. There was, for example, consider-
  able debate about teaching Aristotle’s translated works, 
  particularly Physics, On the Soul, Metaphysics, and Ethics, 
  which conflicted with several then-standard texts. His 
  views on human reason and ability also conflicted 
  with theological positions on divine law and the cler-
  gy’s moral authority. Some commentators eventually 
  “Christianized” Aristotle by purging offensive passages. 
  Other parts of Aristotle’s writings became the standard 
  texts, replacing the prior works.
  In general, then, a university education was more 
  theoretical than practical, but it was a vital necessity for 
  anyone seeking to teach philosophy, medicine, theology, 
  or law, and useful to those seeking to advance in the 
  Church’s hierarchy.
  
  Entertainment
  Page 63
  Both  towns and rural villages held feasts and cel-
  ebrations during the medieval year. The difference 
  was scale. A village might hold a  fair, festival, or cel-
  ebratory dinner for a relative handful of residents. 
  Urban celebrations involved hundreds or thousands 
  of participants, often drawing spectators from signifi-
  cant distances. Some feasts were massive urban cel-
  ebrations, others were held by individual churches or 
  guilds. In Bruges, there were thir-
  teen processions each year, held 
  as part of civic or religious festi-
  vals. Venice held sixteen proces-
  sions per year.
  Urban celebrations were, in part, 
  intended to demonstrate and re-
  enforce local ties and relative 
  precedence. Many had a reli-
  gious element, and were intend-
  ed to seek salvation or religious 
  protection from the honored 
  saint. Others were, partly, 
  intended to draw money from 
  participants and spectators 
  into the local economy.
   CIVIC PROCESSIONS
  Many towns had periodic 
  processions to honor the elec-
  tion of new urban officials, or to 
  welcome important dignitaries 
  to the town. Generally, civic 
  processions were more ad hoc 
  and less elaborate than their 
  religious counterparts. Still, they 
  were occasions for the town’s 
  leaders to demonstrate their 
  importance and impress guests.
   RELIGIOUS  PROCESSIONS
  Weekly processions occurred in some towns. 
  Each Sunday, the leaders of the cathedral chapter, 
  its subject churches, and the bishop processed from 
  the bishop’s residence to the cathedral. At the cathe-
  dral, they were met by acolytes with lighted candles 
  and censers. On major saints’ days, the procession 
  might include important relics. The cathedral chap-
  ter might also process to a town’s church to honor it 
  on its saint’s day. In Bergamo, the cathedral clergy 
  processed each Sunday to one of its cloisters of nuns 
  in honor of the Virgin. In Pisa, there was a proces-
  sion each Friday from the cathedral to its cemetery in 
  honor of Good Friday and the town’s dead.
  Processions might also be held to invoke 
  divine favor after a natural disaster, a 
  major disease outbreak, bad weather 
  that might affect the harvest, or in times 
  of war. In some towns, the faithful 
  might even punish a patron saint 
  for failing to come to their aid by 
  placing the saint’s statue outside 
  the church or conspicuously hon-
  oring a rival saint instead.
  HISTORICAL 
  COMMEMORATIONS
   Some urban feasts celebrat-
  ed major historical events. Venice, 
  for example, annually celebrat-
  ed a military expedition against 
  Dalmatia launched on May 9, 
  1000,  Ascension Day. On that 
  date, Doge Sebastiano Ziani 
  sailed against Emperor Frederick 
  I. When the victorious Venetians 
  returned, Pope Alexander III gave 
  Ziani a consecrated ring symbolizing 
  Venice’s marriage to the Adriatic. 
  The feast became an elaborate 
  festival in which the Doge, the 
  Bishop of Olivolo, and important 
  Venetian notables sailed out by the 
  Lido in a gilded boat (bucintoro) into 
  the open sea for a service of supplica-
  tion and thanksgiving. The Doge and his court were 
  sprinkled with holy water while psalms were chanted. 
  A ring was thrown into the water to commemorate 
  Venice’s symbolic marriage to the sea.
  Perugia held an annual feast on December 7 start-
  ing in 1371 to mark the start of a popular uprising 
  
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  against a hated political party. The celebration was 
  far less elaborate, but similarly honored the town’s 
  past while re-enforcing civic  unity.
  RELIGIOUS FEASTS
  There were a variety of important religious fes-
  tivals during the year. Easter was one of the most 
  important. Towns often celebrated the feast of their 
  cathedral’s patron saint as well. Parishes held small-
  er celebrations in honor of their church’s patron 
  saint. Guilds often held feasts to celebrate their own 
  patron saint.
  Many towns had two 
  major processions in the 
  spring – one on the Major 
  Litanies (also the feast of St. 
  Mark the Apostle (April 25)) 
  and one held over three days 
  (the Minor Litanies) a few 
  days before the Ascension 
  (40 days after Easter). These 
  major processions involved 
  clergy, urban leaders, guilds, 
  and the public walking a tra-
  ditional route around the 
  entire town, pausing before its important religious 
  sites. (Some modern theologians link the spring pro-
  cessions to ancient pagan rituals to ensure a good 
  planting season.) Workers, even household servants, 
  were encouraged to attend the major celebrations.
   Candlemas
  Candlemas (February 2) was the first of several 
  celebrations dealing with candles used in the year’s 
  religious ceremonies, as well as smaller candles blessed 
  for use in the home. Candlemas commemorated the 
  Virgin’s offering of a candle in gratitude for Jesus’ safe 
  birth forty days after Christmas. Parishes offered can-
  dles to their churches on the churches’ saints’ feast. 
  Urban officials offered them after elections. Candles 
  might be offered in commemoration of public events, 
  including military victories.
   Corpus Christi
  Corpus Christi was a popular summer feast 
  authorized by a papal bull in 1264 and confirmed by 
  the Council of Vienne in 1311. The feast, a joyful 
  celebration of the Eucharist, commemorated a mir-
  acle where a torn host turned to flesh and began to 
  bleed near the town of Orvieto. The feast day was 
  held on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, some-
  time between the end of May and the end of June. 
  It, like most religious festivals, began with a Mass. 
  Afterwards, the congregation carried a consecrated 
  host through the main streets of the town to a market 
  square or other location suitable for a large feast. The 
  procession included all of the major civic and reli-
  gious leaders, each in their finest clothes, marching 
  in a strict order of least wealthy to most, ending with 
  the clergy, accompanied by the mayor. At the end of 
  the route, the clergy placed 
  the host in an appropriate 
  church near the feast site.
  The procession might 
  include wagons depicting 
  religious scenes, sponsored 
  by the guilds. In other towns, 
  religious plays might be held 
  at stationary locations or at 
  the feast site. York’s cycle of 
  Corpus Christi plays was one 
  of the most elaborate cele-
  brations of the holiday.
  Although Corpus Christi 
  was a joyful celebration, it could also spark guild rival-
  ries. In 1399, guild members rioted during a Corpus 
  Christi celebration in Chester.
   Fete des Fous (Feast of Fools)
  The feast of  Shrovetide (northern Europe) or 
   Carnival (southern Europe) was held on the eve of 
  Lent. Traditionally, the faithful fasted during Lent, 
  thus perishables like eggs and meat were used up 
  before the Lent fast began on  Ash Wednesday. In 
  the 13th century, some clergy organized feasts of fools 
  on that night to mock the higher clergy and satirize 
  religious rituals and sacraments. Groups of unmar-
  ried men in each neighborhood, known as abbayes de 
  jeunesse, conards, folle, or malgoverne, elected a “king” 
  to lead them in drunken revelry.
  In Paris, the  butchers led their best fattened ox 
  (le boeuf gras) through the city. A butcher’s young 
  child, dressed in finery and carrying a sword and scep-
  ter, rode on its back as king or queen of the day. 
  Musicians accompanied the procession. The butchers 
  offered the ox to the mayor on the steps of the city 
  Groups of unmarried 
  men in each 
  neighborhood elected 
  a “king” to lead them 
  in drunken revelry.
  
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  hall. With that ceremony, Carnival, with its feasts, 
  dances, and drinking, began in  Paris.
  The Church intermittently tried to discour-
  age the Feast. In 1207, Innocent III tried to have 
  it discontinued in Polish churches. In 1400, the 
  University of Paris tried to ban it. In 1436, Basle 
  allowed the feast to proceed, but only if it was not 
  irreverent.
   Lent and  Easter
  Lent, a 40-day period between Ash Wednesday 
  and Easter, was a time of fasting, marked by the 
  absence of celebrations. Men stopped cutting their 
  hair. All Christians refrained from eating  meat, 
  eggs, and dairy products. Churches often covered 
  images and crosses. Some towns restricted loud or 
  boisterous activities during Lent. Sumptuary laws 
  might encourage even more modest dress during 
  Lent. After the Fourth Lateran Council,  Jews were 
  encouraged to remain indoors during the season. 
  Prostitutes were often expected to limit or suspend 
  their activities.
  Easter Sunday was a major Church festival. It 
  was one of the few times each year when commu-
  nion (preceded by confession) was mandatory. In 
  Italy, Easter was also an occasion for communal bap-
  tism of the community’s infants. After Mass, it was a 
  time for celebration, feasts, and dances as the faithful 
  broke their Lent fast.
   Assumption of the Virgin
  The Assumption of the Virgin (August 15) was 
  an important festival. In Italy, it was a traditional 
  time for a truce, so that even  soldiers could attend 
  ceremonies in their home church. Assaults and vio-
  lent conduct during the festival were more strictly 
  punished than at other times. Tolls and fees were 
  suspended for visitors. Candles were sold in the 
  market, under the strict supervision of guild leaders 
  who required religious candles to only use beeswax 
  and linen wicks. During the feast, candles were 
  offered by the faithful to the cathedral and other 
  churches. The laity could also buy candles to be 
  blessed for their own use.
  Italian city-states required every male head of 
  household to attend the services. Urban officials 
  sometimes checked attendance, and looked for any-
  one banished from the city who might try to sneak 
  into the ceremony. Generally, foreigners,  women, and 
  children were excluded from the candle offering pro-
  cession, although they could observe the ceremony.
  NEIGHBORHOOD  COMPETITIONS
  Some events were intended to boost urban  unity 
  as a whole. Others were intended to channel neigh-
  borhood rivalries. Feasts, festivals, and fairs were 
  often a time for official or unofficial neighborhood 
  competitions.  Combats between rock-throwing mobs 
  (sassaioli) were common in Perugia and Rome. Milan, 
  Pavia, and Ravenna were known for fighting with 
  wooden weapons (giuocco del mazzascudo).
  In Siena, there was the elmora (a melee with 
  wooden swords and lances), the battaglia de’sassi 
  (a melee with thrown stones), the pugna (a brawl 
  fought with fists wrapped in cloth), and the pallone 
  (a soccer-like game). Sienese officials tried to limit 
  the mayhem with  laws. Stone throwing was  banned 
  in 1253. The elmora was banned by the end of 13C. 
  A group tried to convert the unarmed pugna into 
  an urban rebellion in 1325, but were thwarted by 
  alert authorities.
  In Venice, there are records of battles between 
  neighborhoods as early as 810. Combatants fought 
  with rocks and sharpened sticks hardened by repeat-
  ed soaking in boiling oil, protected by shields, hel-
  mets, and even armor. In 1369, the Great Council 
  encouraged a set of battles on the first day of the 
  New Year and during the regatta (early September) 
  to help young men learn combat skills. In the 15th 
  century, there are scattered records of battles fought 
  on bridges and in small plazas (campi). In 1421, 
  there is a record of a neighborhood battle fought on 
  a bridge, the Ponte dei Servi. In 1493, a bridge battle 
  was staged on the Ponte di Santa Fosca for the duke 
  of Ferrara. In 1505, the  Council of Ten tried to ban 
  “wars” at the bridges, and failed.
   Races
  The Palio was, and is, a horse race held in Siena 
  each year. It was one of many run in northern Italy 
  starting in the 13th century. The name refers to the 
  banner or flag given to the winner in honor of the 
  city’s patron saint. Records first mention the Sienese 
  palio in 1238 as part of a festival of the Assumption 
  of the Virgin. Palios often honored saints, rarely 
  other individuals.
  
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  Prior to the 16th century, the Sienese palio was 
  a race from one point to another. (During the 16th 
  century, it became a race around the main plaza of 
  Siena, a dangerous course to both riders and specta-
  tors.) Each of the Sienese neighborhoods (terzi) spon-
  sored a horse, which was decorated with the neigh-
  borhood’s colors and symbols.
  Another renowned Italian race was, and is, 
  Gubbio’s Festa dei Ceri, or Corsa dei Ceri, held in 
  mid-May since the mid-12th century. Three teams 
  of a score of men race to carry 15’ tall heavy wooden 
  statues (each with a large candle in it) through the 
  city to the cathedral on top of Monte Ignino. The 
  statues represent Gubbio’s patron saints: San Ubaldo 
  (city’s patron), San Giorgio (merchants’ patron), and 
  San Antonio (farmers’ patron). San Ubaldo  is always 
  first to enter the cathedral, but the winning team 
  makes the first offering.
   Snowmen
  In northern climates, the first heavy snowfalls 
  might result in snowmen, snow sculptures, and an 
  impromptu winter festival. During a three month 
  period of snow which fell on Arras in the winter of 
  1434, locals built a series of satirical snowmen and 
  snow sculptures including one of Jeanne d’Arc, who 
  had passed through the city in 1431. A Florentine 
  writer noted the nude snow figures and fine snow-
  lions built by famous masters in the winter of 1510. 
  In 1511, Brussels residents and guilds decorated the 
  city with snow sculptures celebrating biblical scenes, 
  folk heros, local personages and tradespeople, and 
  even some  lewd scenes – fifty scenes and 110 snow-
  men in all. 
   TOURNAMENTS
  In England and Northern France, tournaments 
  and jousts were popular hobbies for young nobles 
  and their followers. Many were regularly held near 
  towns, which provided comfortable lodging and sup-
  plies for the participants and their audience. It was 
  said, in fact, that almost every fortnight there was a 
  tournament in one place or another. A tournament, 
  in the sense of a mass combat, might draw hundreds 
  of  knights, each with several followers and servants, 
  adding thousands of people to the town and its sur-
  roundings. Jousts, combats between two individual 
  knights, attracted fewer participants, but could still 
  draw hundreds of nobles and their retinues to the 
  host town.
  There was no regular circuit for tournaments, 
  although there were customary locations. At times, 
  monarchs tried to ban tournaments and jousts out 
  of concern for the injuries to their knights, and the 
  potential for violence inherent in large crowds of 
  armed young men gathering for competition. Thus, 
  the customary locations tended to be in border 
  areas, distant from the monarch’s control, generally 
  near at least one medium-sized town which provid-
  ed a base for the competitors. Jousts, which tended 
  to be smaller and needed less space than mass com-
  bats, were held in conjunction with weddings and 
  other celebrations. 
  Tournaments originated in France and were 
  referred to elsewhere as Conflictus Gallicus or batailles 
  francaises. The term referred specifically to massed 
  combats or mêlées between knights; eventually it 
  came to refer to all knightly combat competitions. 
  A “joust” was often held as the preliminary event in 
  a tournament. Later, the joust became the almost-
  exclusive form of the competition.
  Early tournaments were little more than agreed-
  upon battles between opponents. The only difference 
  between an early tournament and war was the par-
  ticipants’ intent. They became popular around 1170. 
  Some were held in conjunction with markets and 
  fairs so that a tourneyer could find adequate food, 
  lodging, and stables, and buy armor, arms, harnesses, 
  and horses as needed. The tourneyer did not travel 
  alone – he generally had servants, squires, foot  sol-
  diers, archers, armorers, weaponers, and other com-
  panions.  Mercenary leaders and large landholders 
  often watched tournaments, hoping to hire successful 
  unlanded knights. The participants and the watching 
  crowds, of course, attracted artisans, entertainers, mer-
  chants, mountebanks, pickpockets, and prostitutes.
  Mêlée tournaments in the 12-14th centuries 
  involved teams of 20 to 250 contestants. The day 
  before the tournament was filled with trial jousts 
  and, when the Church permitted, Masses. The tour-
  nament itself lasted for a day – afterwards, both men 
  and horses were too tired to continue. The tourna-
  ment commenced with a series of individual jousts 
  (commençailles), then the mêlée tournaments with 
  lance, then sword. Those captured moved outside the 
  list to arrange terms with their captors. Others could 
  rest and rearm in refuges called recets.
  
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  Towards the end of the 12th century, mêlée tour-
  naments became less popular and jousts began to be 
  arranged. Later tournaments included both jousts by 
  individuals and mêlée between groups of up to 40 
  on a side. Some involved a fixed number of passes; 
  one in Toury, France, in 1380 involved three courses 
  with the lance, three exchanged blows with battle-
  axe, and three dagger thrusts.
  In the late 14th century, some  knights developed 
  an alternative to tournament jousts. They would hold 
  a pass or  bridge, denying passage to any knight who 
  would not joust with them. One of the most famous 
  jousts of this type was arranged by Boucicault in 1390 
  at St-Inglevert between Calais and Boulogne. The 
  heralds cried for three months that Boucicault and 
  two companions would hold the field for thirty days 
  (March 20 to April 20) and would joust with any 
  knight or squire who approached. No combats would 
  be allowed on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays, in keep-
  ing with the Truce of God. Those who were enemies 
  of France would run a course of five strokes with 
  sharpened lances. Friends of the king were restricted 
  to blunted lances. For the most part, these jousts did 
  not affect merchants passing through, except when 
  they were delayed while the knights battled.
  Tournaments were condemned by the Church 
  and  banned by many secular rulers. They made it 
  more likely that a knight would accidentally kill 
  another Christian, and even more likely that he 
  would commit the sin of pride. The Church was suc-
  cessful in banning tournaments during Lent, during 
  Crusades, and intermittently at other times. (The 
  various papal bans were lifted by John XXII in 1316, 
  who feared that the numbers of potential Crusaders 
  had been too badly limited by forbidding participation 
  of excommunicated tourneyers.)
  Monarchs and major landholders disliked tour-
  naments because tourneyers and their followers were 
  also brawlers. A Rochester tournament held in 1251 
  turned into a riot as foreign knights were chased into 
  the town. In 1288, a competition for squires at a fair 
  in Boston turned into a riot; participants looted part 
  of the fair. Other towns reported fights between par-
  ticipants over lodgings and invitations to dinner and 
  feasts. The Church offered the Crusades as an alter-
  native challenge, but knights saw no reason not to 
  participate in both pastimes. 
  Secular authorities were also concerned about 
  tournaments. Some feared bands of armed knights 
  roaming the countryside. Others feared that tourna-
  ments would provide a cover for major landholders 
  planning rebellion. And there was the possibility that 
  a tournament fatality might be a well-concealed mur-
  der. Tourneyers were sometimes ambushed enroute, 
  and tournaments sometimes turned into riots between 
  feuding factions. In England, the Statute of Arms 
  (1292) limited knights to three attendants at a tour-
  nament. The weapons and armor they could carry 
  and wear during the tournament was also limited. 
  Spectators and servants were not allowed to travel 
  to the tournament armed.
  The English crown alone tried to regulate tour-
  nament locations. In 1194, Richard I ordered that 
  tournaments could only be held under a charter. 
  Participants paid for entry by rank. An earl paid 20 
  marks, a baron 10 marks, a landed knight 4 marks, 
  and landless knights 2 marks. In 1477, the fees were 
  changed to 10 marks for an earl, 4 l for a baron, 40 s 
  for a landed knight, and 20 s 8 p for an esquire. The 
  crown tried to forbid foreign knights from attending 
  English tournaments, and set forth rules for conduct. 
  Violations were punished by forfeiting a horse and 
  armor, imprisonment, and fines.
  The crown authorized five lists (tournament 
  fields), all south of the river Trent. One was near 
  Wiltshire, another near Warwickshire, another near 
  Suffolk, a fourth near Northamptonshire, and the 
  last near Nottinghamshire. The site restriction and 
  the ban on foreigners quickly fell by the wayside, but 
  other restrictions survived.
  The last mêlée tournament was held in England 
  in 1342. In Flanders, they lasted until 1379. Jousts 
  continued for some time thereafter; however, armor 
  became much heavier and more specialized, increas-
  ing safety, but limiting the ability of many knights to 
  participate in the sport.
   ENTERTAINERS
   Entertainers were not normally organized into 
  guilds, but they often had societies or companies for 
  mutual aid and protection. Many entertainers were 
  wanderers, spending most of the year on the road 
  between trade fairs and festivals, seeking work where 
  they might find it. A few of the largest towns had suf-
  ficient audiences and patrons to support year-around 
  groups of  actors, acrobats, animal trainers (wards), 
  jugglers, and street musicians. Paris, for example, had 
  
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  the great Confraternity of the Passion, which was 
  given royal recognition in 1402. 
  These were often scandalous jobs. Acting, for 
  example, had been considered a disreputable profes-
  sion since the Roman Empire. German custom treated 
  actors as less than human. Early Christian custom 
  classed  actors with  prostitutes. St. Augustine wrote that 
  they should be denied sacraments. Thomas Aquinas 
  considered most entertainers reprehensible.
   Musicians, on the other hand, had somewhat more 
  respect. Those of higher status and greater skill were 
  employed by nobles, wealthy merchants, and clergy. 
  Others were hired by towns for festivals and feasts. 
  Patrons hired  minstrels to play at weddings, funerals, 
  and other ceremonies. Other musicians performed in 
  inns, taverns, bathhouses, and brothels. The lowest 
  status was reserved for wandering street musicians, 
  who were regarded as little better than serfs.
  There were a few guilds or confraternities of musi-
  cians. One of the first, the Confrérie des Jongleurs 
  et des Bourgois d’Arras, was founded in 1175. At 
  first, this guild was more of a religious organization 
  founded to honor a miraculous intervention in a dis-
  pute among the jounglers (wandering musicians). 
  Later, it evolved into a musician’s mutual protection 
  group. London developed a guild of church musi-
  cians in 1240. In Paris, the Confrérie de St-Julien 
  des Menestriers, a professional craft guild, was formed 
  in 1321. It included standards for apprenticeships, 
  wage guidelines, standards of behavior, and an effort 
  to limit competition. The confrérie was later able to 
  found a  hospital for ill musicians and a chapel.
   Bull-baiting, in which bulls were harried to 
  death by dogs, was a popular entertainment (and 
  a health requirement: unbaited bull meat 
  was believed to be 
  unhealthy). Several 
  London  butchers 
  were sued in 
  1349 for 
  selling 
  bulls’ 
  car-
  casses without baiting them. Thus, local residents 
  gathered to watch bulls being baited before slaugh-
  ter. (Bear-baiting, in which the bear was harried, 
  but often not killed, was an aristocratic pastime, 
  as the necessary dogs were expensive to raise and 
  maintain.) Trained animal acts were likewise popu-
  lar at fairs and festivals.
   PROSTITUTES
  During much of the Middle Ages, prostitution was 
  seen as a civic necessity and as a means of prevent-
  ing male  homosexuality. There was a large surplus of 
  young, unmarried men, including transient merchants 
  and recently-arrived male workers in towns; many 
  town governments deemed prostitutes necessary to 
  protect the honor of wives, daughters, and nuns. (A 
  few cities were noted for their male prostitutes, but 
  such men were never openly sanctioned by municipal 
  authorities.) Where prostitution was allowed, married 
  men and clergy were prohibited from frequenting pros-
  titutes and brothels, a prohibition as widely ignored 
  as efforts to ban the practice itself.
  Legal acceptance did not mean that prostitutes 
  were considered respectable townswom-
  en. Often, they were still social out-
  casts, sometimes required 
  to wear distinctive 
  clothing or a badge, 
  or prohibited from 
  wearing certain 
  clothing associated 
  with “respectable” 
  
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  wives and daughters. (Oddly, laws requiring that pros-
  titutes wear particular clothing sometimes co-existed 
  with bans on prostitution, a mixed message at best.) 
  Many towns required prostitutes to live outside the 
  walls, or on designated streets. Some towns prohib-
  ited prostitutes from attend-
  ing public church services, 
  walking in public during the 
  week preceding  Easter, or 
  even speaking with “respect-
  able” women.
  The Church also disap-
  proved of prostitution, both 
  because of the promiscuity 
  involved and the making of 
  money from it. It was willing 
  to accept it, however, as a 
  lesser evil than male homo-
  sexuality or the rape of “hon-
  est” women. A number of Church leaders tried to 
  redeem prostitutes, helping them marry or earn a liv-
  ing in a trade.
   Pimps (houlier, Fr.) and  procuresses (marquerelle, 
  Fr.), on the other hand, were rarely tolerated. The 
  Church viewed making a living from a woman’s pros-
  titution as a  sin similar to usury (making money from 
  money). Pimps were blamed for recruiting gullible 
  women from the countryside or small towns with false 
  promises of wealth or love. Some prostitutes found 
  that a male protector was necessary to prevent rape 
  or assault by customers. The procuress, the pimp’s 
  female counterpart, was often a retired prostitute 
  who arranged liaisons between customers and prosti-
  tutes, and was believed to offer abortion advice, con-
  traception, and  love  potions. Some pimps and pro-
  curesses managed prostitutes under the  cover of a 
  business like a school or textile making that could 
  recruit and employ many single young women with-
  out suspicion.
  Numerous women made their living as prostitutes. 
  At some points and times, there were few other ways for 
  a woman to make a living in a city. Some women became 
  prostitutes when they were widowed, or their family 
  fell into debt. Often they were recruited from different 
  towns, perhaps to avoid scandals involving women from 
  local families. Frequently, towns required prostitutes to 
  practice their trade in brothels, which were monitored 
  by the local officials. Some towns had municipal broth-
  els which were farmed, like other property, to inves-
  tors to manage. Some prostitutes lived in their brothels, 
  which were sturdy structures, often walled, to prevent 
  rowdy men from assaulting the residents. Others lived 
  elsewhere and were required, like all workers, to cease 
  their trade at dusk and return to their homes during the 
  dusk-to-dawn  curfew.
  Some towns tried to pro-
  tect prostitutes from exploi-
  tation by brothel keepers. A 
  few limited the amount of 
  rent and board the keeper 
  could charge. Others pro-
  hibited keepers from over-
  charging for food and beer, 
  or from lending money to 
  the prostitutes. Some forbade 
  prostitutes from spinning or 
  carding wool, which limited 
  their ability to earn an “hon-
  est” living, but also prevented the keeper from forc-
  ing them to work when not with a customer. (Some 
  German towns, conversely, encouraged prostitutes to 
  spin for their keeper when not otherwise busy.) A few 
   forbade keepers from beating the prostitutes. Bishops, 
  in some towns, had one of their clerics inspect the 
  brothels periodically to make sure that none of the 
  women were being held against their will.
  In 1254, Louis IX tried to outlaw prostitution in 
  France. When his ban proved unenforceable, he urged 
  towns to distance brothels from churches, monaster-
  ies, and cemeteries, and, in effect, create districts for 
  the trade. After 1350, many towns relaxed their laws. 
  Some founded municipal brothels. In 1400, Venice 
  and Florence even included prostitution among their 
  civic values because the trade provided a safe out-
  let for unmarried men’s sexual needs. (Florence did, 
  however, create a vice-squad, the  Ufficali di Notte 
  (Office of the Night) to prosecute male prostitutes 
  and male homosexuals.)
  Oddly, perhaps,  concubines and courtesans (the 
  educated female companions of male merchants and 
  nobles) were not regarded as prostitutes. The rela-
  tive fidelity of the relationship between concubine 
  and lover made it more acceptable than a prostitute’s 
  promiscuity. The courtesan’s education (and wealthy 
  clientele) made her more socially acceptable in some 
  areas. In others, during the 15th century, one could 
  be fined for keeping a concubine, but brothels were 
  licensed or permitted by the town.
  Some women 
  became prostitutes 
  when they were 
  widowed, or their 
  family fell into debt.
  
  Finance
  Page 70
  Money woes  were at the heart of many towns’ 
  problems and politics. Medieval towns did not plan 
  budgets in the modern sense; however, a medieval 
  urban government’s problems would seem familiar 
  to a modern city council. The expense side of the 
  ledger included building and maintaining public 
  works (streets, roads,  sewers, and canals), building 
  and maintaining public buildings, maintaining pub-
  lic safety through a city  watch (and sometimes by 
  hiring mercenaries), paying for public celebrations, 
  and, of course, paying the salaries of the town’s 
  clerks and administrators. One big difference would 
  be the education budget; medieval towns did not 
  provide public schools. Medieval towns also often 
  intervened in the grain markets to stabilize the 
  price of bread and grain during famines or shortages 
  (an expense unfamiliar to modern urban planners). 
  Finally, feudal superiors periodically demanded 
  loans and charter fees to fund wars and other 
  extraordinary endeavors which could also create 
  sudden large strains on municipal budgets.
  On the income side of the ledger, a modern 
  American town primarily depends on property 
  taxes and vehicle excise taxes. It may also impose 
  its own sales tax, hotel tax, and other fees. Often, a 
  modern town also receives funds from the county, 
  state, and federal government. The medieval town 
  had to depend more on its own resources. Its rev-
  enues came from four general sources: commercial 
  fees like gabelles (customs duties), tolls, fees charged 
  to guilds for charters and enrollment of their mem-
  bers, fees for use of public  weights and  measures, 
  and  fines collected on commercial offenses (which 
  together could total half of a town’s income); prop-
  erty taxes; rental income from municipal property; 
  and fines for criminal offenses. Italian city-states 
  added to that a personal property tax (lira or estimo) 
  and a municipal bond-like system (monte). Italian 
  towns also had control over their rural countrysides, 
  and could extract taxes, forced loans, and labor 
  from them, which provided a significant share of 
  the urban budget.
  Many towns managed their finances month-to-
  month with relatively little continuity or planning. 
  Officials were required to provide annual accounts 
  of revenues and expenses to the town councils, 
  which closely supervised an appointed treasurer, 
  insisting on official authorization for even small 
  sums. Officials were often personally liable for 
  any unapproved expenses and unaccounted-for 
  revenues.
   MONTE AND PUBLIC  DEBT
  Towns often found themselves in debt and had to 
  borrow money. Some encouraged their leading citi-
  zens to loan money and issued bonds in return. Over 
  time, Italian city-states formalized these loans into a 
  permanent organization, the monte. The monte issued 
  shares in the community’s debts, redeemable at its 
  option, which paid a fixed rate of interest. Venice’s 
  monte Vecchio paid 5% interest in 1270 and owed 
  over 1,000,000 ducats in 1313.
  Venice required every citizen of moderate wealth 
  to own shares in the monte, and repaid those loans 
  whenever it had a budget surplus. Investors could 
  transfer shares in a limited manner; their price varied 
  depending on the interest rate paid and public per-
  ception of the community’s finances. Some citizens 
  saw shares in the monte as a stable investment to 
  fund a dowry, or endow a charity. For the most part, 
  it was a good investment. Venice’s monte paid its 
  interest steadily for over 100 years. When, however, 
  the city was in dire financial straits, a monte could, 
  and sometimes did, fail.
  The monte also had a fiscal cousin, the monte delle 
  doti or monte delle fanciulle ( dowry fund). Florence cre-
  ated the first dowry fund in 1424. It allowed an inves-
  tor to deposit funds (typically 60 to 100 florins) in 
  anticipation of receiving a larger amount after a fixed 
  term of 5, 7 ½, 11 or 15 years. The interest rate was 
  high – up to 21% for a 7 ½ year term. If the daughter 
  had married, and consummated her marriage within 
  the term, the sum was paid to her husband or his 
  representative. If the  daughter died or became a nun 
  before the term ended, the principal was returned to 
  her family with no interest. If she married after the 
  end of the term, her husband only received the origi-
  nal principal. While this monte’s stated goal was to 
  aid families in providing adequate dowries for their 
  
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  daughters, the fund also provided a large cash reserve 
  to pay Florence’s debts.
  Another cousin of the monte was the monte 
  di Pietà, a municipal alternative to  pawnbrokers. 
  Perugia’s monte di Pietà, one of the first, was cre-
  ated in 1462. From there, the institution spread 
  throughout northern Italy. Franciscan monks 
  encouraged Italian city-states to create this type of 
  monte to provide low-interest loans (5-10% inter-
  est) to the poor, undercutting Jewish moneylend-
  ers, who the Franciscans regarded as dangerous 
  moral influences. (Dominicans generally opposed 
  the monte, contending 
  that lending at interest 
  was usury, regardless of the 
  interest rate charged.) Some 
  monte di Pietà also loaned 
  seed to peasant farmers, 
  asking for repayment at 
  harvest either in kind or in 
  the value of the seed at that 
  point. (Thus undercutting 
  sharecroppers who demand-
  ed one-third to one-half of 
  the harvest as repayment for 
  the loan of seed.) Although 
  primarily charitable, in later 
  years some montes made 
  loans to the wealthy as well. The monte di Pietà 
  was intended to be privately funded by donations 
  and interest-free loans, and run using the interest 
  charged to pay its workers and administrators. A 
  few montes received public funds. Some made loans 
  to the urban government as well as to the poor. 
   TAXES
  There were a wide variety of taxes and fees, 
  some of which have been discussed elsewhere in 
  this book. There were a few basic systems. A town 
  could tax homes by inhabitants (head or poll taxes) 
  or by the home (hearth taxes). It could tax property 
  or income (the Italian lira or estimo). It could tax 
  certain goods entering or leaving the town (gabelle). 
  English towns broadly imposed taxes on imported 
  goods to pay for walls (murage), streets (pavage), 
  and bridges (portage). A town could also impose 
  fees for violations of its laws and for the use of vari-
  ous services like the municipal scales and official 
  measures. It also kept any fines its courts imposed. 
  When the Hanseatic League needed to raise money 
  for a war with Denmark in 1361-70, it imposed a 
  tax (Pfundzoll) of four pfennigs for every pound of 
  value of goods exported from each Hanseatic port 
  by ship or by land.
  In some cases, towns collected taxes on behalf 
  of monarchs or other feudal superiors. In the late 
  14th century, for example, English towns collected 
  poll taxes for the monarchy to fund the Hundred 
  Years War. In 1377, the crown levied a simple tax 
  of 4d. on every person older than 14 who was not 
  a member of the clergy. The 
  clergy paid a separate tax. 
  The poor were exempt. In 
  1379, the tax was gradated 
  by social class. The mini-
  mum rate (now imposed 
  on those over 16) was 
  still 4d. Artisans paid 6d. 
  Wealthy merchants paid 
  10s. Members of the nobility 
  paid 2l to 6l. 13s.; bishops 
  typically paid 4l. In 1380-
  1, the rate again changed, 
  assessing a mean of 1s. per 
  person over age 15 – a large 
  amount. Anger over this 
  assessment contributed to the Peasant’s Revolt in 
  1381.
  The tax burden fell most heavily on small shop-
  keepers, artisans, and small landholders. These 
  groups owned a small bit of easily-valued property, 
  and lacked the wealth and connections to influence 
  the government and obtain tax exemptions. Most 
  basic foods, except bread, were taxed; a burden 
  which also fell most heavily on the working poor 
  and near poor, for whom food was a large share of 
  their expenses. Wealthy families often had lands in 
  the countryside from which they could obtain some 
  food, further reducing their share of that tax.
  Some towns raised money through tax farming. 
  The community sold the right to collect a tax or toll 
  to a collector for a fixed term. This allowed the com-
  munity to receive immediate cash for a future return; 
  however, the collector would pay less than it expect-
  ed to collect. In return, it tried to collect as much as 
  possible, and was not generally held accountable for 
  abuses in its collection methods.
  Most basic foods, 
  except bread, were 
  taxed; a burden 
  which fell heavily 
  on the working poor 
  and near poor.
  
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  Urban  governance came in many forms. Some 
  towns were subject to a major landholder or mon-
  arch and governed directly by an appointed offi-
  cial. Some held a charter which allowed them to 
  elect their own officials. A few, such as the north-
  ern Italian city-states, were independent and able to 
  select their own rulers. Within these broad catego-
  ries were many regional variations to accommodate 
  local needs, customs, and the complex interactions 
  between the town and its powerful religious and eco-
  nomic leaders, as well as surrounding landholders and 
  other political powers.
  One legacy of the fall of the Roman Empire was 
  a need for strong leadership to unify a town and 
  maintain its defenses. Towns from that era tended 
  to be either subject to a nearby landholder, or to the 
  local bishop. Over time, subject towns struggled for 
  and generally gained some measure of independence 
  through charters. The northern Italian city-states 
  took a separate path, freeing themselves from feu-
  dal and ecclesiastical overlords to become indepen-
  dent communities with control over their rural hin-
  terlands. Even there, however, wars and hard times 
  brought intermittent control by powerful rulers and 
  their families.
   SUBJECT TOWNS
  The subject town was the simplest form of urban 
  government. The town was controlled, much like 
  a medieval fief, by a powerful landholder, such as 
  a count or duke, or by an ecclesiastical landholder, 
  such as a bishop or abbot. Sometimes, the town was 
  literally divided between both a secular and an eccle-
  siastical landholder, each the absolute ruler of certain 
  neighborhoods, which may even have been divided 
  by a wall. In either case, the ruler generally controlled 
  the town’s taxes, finances, and trade.
  
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  Landholders needed towns. Monarchs wanted 
  cash to hire armies instead of relying on feudal levies, 
  and encouraged their vassals to pay them with cash 
  (scutage) instead of service. Thus, vassal landhold-
  ers needed to convert their agricultural surplus and 
  natural resources into cash in their towns markets, 
  as well as bringing in cash from tolls, taxes, and fees. 
  Town governments could also be pressed to make 
  forced loans at times of fiscal crisis. Thus, landhold-
  ers encouraged the creation of towns, and granted 
  liberties to existing ones. 
  Cities in the Italian Papal States were some-
  times governed  by papal “vicars.” The vicar’s pri-
  mary job was to raise an annual fee (census) for the 
  papacy and to raise troops for the papacy. If a town 
  did not pay its census, the entire population could 
  be placed under interdict and the vicar excommu-
  nicated. Vicars served for renewable terms. Towns 
  often insisted on the right to consent to a vicar’s 
  appointment.
  If a town was the home of a noble’s court, it might 
  be called upon to house guests and officials for major 
  festivals, weddings, or other occasions. A noble’s cas-
  tle rarely had enough space to house or feed all of the 
  members of its court. Courtiers rented or purchased 
  houses, and bought food from the local market. A 
  court could be a significant economic benefit to its 
  town. By one estimate, a monarch’s  court generally 
  had a couple hundred members and  employed two 
  locals (servants, merchants, artisans) per member of 
   CHARTRES – SUBJECT 
  TOWN WITH TWO 
  SOVEREIGNS
  Chartres, a small town of about 7,000 in the early 13th 
  century, was the capital of a rich agricultural center 
  and home to a noted cathedral. Its economy was mostly 
  agricultural, with few guilds, although the town did hold 
  four  fairs on the  feasts of the Purification, Assumption, 
  Annunciation, and Nativity of the Virgin.
  The Count of Blois and Chartres controlled part of 
  the town, and appointed masters for the wool trade, 
   butchers, fishmongers, furriers, shoemakers, and the 
  tavern keepers. A few years after the count appointed 
  a master for the butcher’s guild, the cathedral chapter 
  ordered the butchers who sold meat in the cloister 
  to discontinue their guild, which created a conflict 
  between the two sovereigns. The Count had the right 
  to set and collect taxes in his portion of the town, and 
  shared some of the revenues with the bishop.
  The bishop and cathedral chapter of Chartres controlled 
  the area around the cathedral, which included its own 
  communal oven and a butcher’s stall which were not 
  subject to the count’s regulations or taxes. Merchants 
  who lived in the area around the cathedral cloister 
  could practice their trades without paying the count’s 
  taxes or fees.
  When Count Louis I gave charters to two of his towns 
  in 1196, he did not grant one to Chartres because of 
  the bishop and cathedral chapter’s hostility to the idea. 
  In 1195, the Papacy gave the cathedral chapter the 
  right to prohibit their serfs from conspiring to form a 
  commune. In October, 1210, a riot erupted in which 
  the townspeople attacked and looted the house of the 
  cathedral’s dean. The French king intervened, and 
  ordered the Count to repay the cathedral chapter 
  for the damage. The bishop eventually received 500 
  Parisian livres, the chapter 1,500 livres, and the king 
  kept 1,000 livres for his troubles.
  Five years later, there was another riot when one 
  of the Count’s officers seized some of the chapter’s 
  serfs for a crime and hanged one of them. A panel of 
  the bishops of Paris, Orléans, and Senlis heard the 
  dispute and ordered the official to pay a 300 livres 
  fine. In 1249, another man holding the same office 
  for the count hanged another of the chapter’s serfs as 
  a criminal. The chapter’s dean fined the count 150 
  livres and ordered the provost to be publicly whipped. 
  In response, two of the Count’s men kidnapped a 
  cleric. The dean fined the Count and the provost 400 
  livres, ordered the provost undergo three whippings, 
  and banished the two kidnappers.
  Problems between the count, the town, and the 
  chapter continued through the 13th century, at one 
  point forcing the chapter to flee from the town for five 
  years. Finally, in 1258, the Count sold his interest in 
  the town to the French crown, which had also obtained 
  the chapter’s rights, making Chartres wholly subject 
  to the same monarch.
  
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  the court. A bishop’s or duke’s court had only a cou-
  ple dozen members, but employed over three locals 
  per member of the court. The cost, however, was the 
  landholder’s interference with the town’s administra-
  tion and finances, and problems controlling members 
  of the royal household who were generally not subject 
  to local courts.
  Towns sought  charters because the interests of 
  a subject town and its ruler were often quite differ-
  ent. The landholder generally wanted to maximize 
  his revenue from the town. The town’s merchants 
  wanted to increase local trade (which might mean 
  decreasing taxes and tariffs to compete with rivals) 
  and needed a body of commercial law with depend-
  able, predictable results. If the ruler’s administrator 
  consulted with prominent local merchants and guild 
  leaders, peace could be maintained. However, local 
  residents often became restless and demanded self-
  government. Rulers generally resisted ceding their 
  power, which sometimes led to violent demonstra-
  tions and riots. While the ringleaders of such unrest 
  were often severely punished, their successors might 
  be more successful in negotiating a charter.
   CHARTERED TOWNS
   Many chartered towns started as subject towns, 
  but a few were granted a charter at their creation. 
  In France, these planned communities were called 
  Villeneuve or Villefranche and were often created to 
  help a landholder settle and control a contested 
  rural area.
  A charter was a written grant of right from 
  a landholder to a town as a corporate landholder. 
  Generally, the landholder granted a charter in 
  return for a large sum of cash, and often periodic 
  payments thereafter. When a town held land in 
  this manner, the payment was sometimes called a 
  fee farm rent or the king’s fee. Charter terms var-
  ied widely depending on the parties’ needs and 
  negotiating power, regional conditions, and local 
  traditions.
  A well-written charter enabled a town to grow 
  or prosper. A poorly-written one crippled its growth, 
  especially if it denied the town the ability to protect 
  travelers from bandits and tolls, or limited its access 
  to key taxes or fees.
  Generally English and French charters 
  included:
  Terms establishing the form of the town govern-
  ment, including the method of choosing its ex-
  ecutive and legislative councils.
  Legal protection for urban merchants against feu-
  dal justice.
  An urban justice system that abolished trial by 
  duel and by ordeal. Townspeople often also had 
  the right to defend themselves against criminal 
  charges by oath, often with the aid of compurga-
  tors (oath helpers).
  Urban real estate being held as “free” land with-
  out feudal duties in return for rent paid in money, 
  not feudal labor.
  Exemption of urban merchants from various cus-
  tomary feudal duties and fees.
  Protection of property from arbitrary seizures. A 
  debt collection system was created.
  Granting the right to collect tolls, fees, and taxes 
  to the urban government.
  The peace of the market (paix du marché), which 
  protected travelers to and from the town’s market 
  from arrest or violence. In England, the peace 
  was often symbolized by a market cross raised in 
  the market place.
  Charters could be revoked or limited by the 
  granting landholder or his successors, especially if the 
  town failed to meet its obligations or rebelled against 
  the grantor of its rights. If the landholder died or was 
  conquered by another noble, his or her successor 
  could also change the charter’s terms or demand a 
  fee for renewing the charter.
   INDEPENDENT  CITY-STATES
  A few towns became independent landholders in 
  their own right. Most of these were found in northern 
  Italy where, for a combination of reasons, powerful, 
  wealthy towns were able to escape the control of local 
  landholders, while nominally acknowledging duties 
  to distant rulers like the Holy Roman Emperor or the 
  Papacy. Some cities in the Holy Roman Empire like 
  Basel, Cologne, Mainz, Ratisbon, Speyer, Strasbourg, 
  and Worms became free cities (freie Städte), with lim-
  ited duties to the Emperor. (There were also imperial 
  cities, also independent of a local landholder, with 
  slightly different duties to the Emperor.)
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  An independent city-state did not derive its rights 
  from a charter. Its powers could only be limited by a 
  military or political conquest of the city which forced 
  its government to submit. The Italian city-states 
  struggled among themselves over land, markets, and 
  political influence, often forming leagues to oppose a 
  city which threatened to become too powerful.
  In the 13th century, some Italian city-states fell 
  into the control of a single ruler. These leaders, signo-
  ries, acquired power in various ways. Some accumu-
  lated power gradually by capturing the various com-
  munal offices of podestà, captain, and others. Others 
  took control quickly, the populace virtually acclaim-
  ing a leader to resolve long-term tensions and fac-
  tional fighting. And some seized control after a vio-
  lent revolt against their opponents. Having assumed 
  political control, the leader then asked the commune 
  or Popolo to formalize his rights. He might also seek 
  further legitimacy by having a title confirmed by the 
  Emperor or Papacy, or both.
  CHARTER OF ST. 
  OMER, 1127
  There are several  charters available in translation. This 
  is a portion of the charter granted by Count William 
  of Flanders to the town of St. Omer, showing typical 
  provisions regarding justice and rights to be free of 
  various tolls and taxes.
  I, William, by the grace of God, Count of Flanders, 
  not wishing to reject the petition of the citizens of 
  St. Omer–especially as they have willingly received 
  my petition 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. 
  First that to every man I will show peace, and I will 
  protect and defend them with good will just as I do 
  my other men. And I grant that 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 bailiffs such as my 
  other bailiffs have. 
  If any citizen of St. Omer lend money to any one, 
  and the borrower freely acknowledge this in the pres-
  ence of lawful men of that town and of his heirs, if 
  the debt be unpaid on the agreed date, he or his goods 
  may be detained until all be paid. If he be unwilling to 
  pay, or deny the agreement, he shall be detained until 
  he pay the debt if he be convicted on the testimony of 
  two bailiffs or two sworn men. 
  All those who have their guild and belong to it, 
  and who reside within the limits of the town, I make 
  free of toll at the [various ports] I grant them the toll 
  which the people of Arras pay at Bapaume. 
  If it should happen that at any time I should acquire 
  land outside of Flanders, or if a treaty of peace be 
  made between me and my uncle, Henry, King of the 
  English, I will cause them to be made free of all toll 
  in the land acquired, or in the whole land of England, 
  or I will make them free of all customs by the terms 
  of such treaty. 
  All who dwell within the walls of St. Omer, or who 
  dwell there in the future, I make free from cavagium 
  [head-tax], and from suit of court. 
  As I wish the citizens of Flanders to be free hence-
  forward from all customs, I shall require from them 
  no scot, or taille, or forced loan. 
  The thirty pounds a year I had from St. Omer and 
  whatever I ought to have from there, I grant for the 
  restoration of their damaged property, and for the 
  maintenance of their guild. The burgesses shall see to 
  it that there is good and stable coinage during my life 
  whereby the town may be improved. 
  Since the  guards who nightly watch the castle of 
  St. Omer have had a fee decreed from of old to be in 
  oats, cheeses, and goatskins, and since they have been 
  accustomed to take bread and one or two denarii from 
  every house unjustly on the feasts of St. Omer and 
  St. Bertin and at the Nativity, or to take guarantees 
  from the poor for these things, we decree that they 
  shall not dare in the future to take anything above 
  their stipend. 
  I grant for their use the pasture in the wood near 
  St. Omer, which is called Lo, and the marshes, 
  meadows, whins and fallow lands, except the land of 
  the lepers, just as it was in the time of Count Robert 
  the Bearded. 
  I make free from all toll the houses which are in 
  the care of the advocate of the Abbey of St. Bertin, 
  namely, those which are inhabited. Each gives 
  twelve denarii at the feast of St. Michael, twelve 
  denarii as brotban, and twelve denarii as byrban. 
  Those which are empty pay nothing.
  
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   LEAGUES OF TOWNS
  Independent towns might form temporary or long-
  term alliances. German towns formed leagues called 
   Städtebund against local princes and bishops. The 
  Emperor allowed leagues so long as they respected 
  imperial rights and did not disturb the public peace. 
  In Italy, northern Italian city-states formed several 
  leagues, most notably the Lombard League, against 
  the Holy Roman Emperor.  The  Lombard League in 
  various incarnations lasted between 1167 and 1250. 
  The League maintained a common army, drawn from 
  its members, and inflicted several military defeats on 
  Emperors Frederick I and Frederick II, who were each 
  trying to assert their rights to tax the city-states and 
  appoint their rulers.
  Probably the best known league was the  Hanseatic 
  League of Northern Germany. The Hansa had started 
  as a merchant organization, but evolved in the 13th 
  century into a loose-knit league of towns. It was an 
  amorphous organization. There was no charter, no 
  statutes, no legislative body, not even any executive 
  officials. Members could expel an errant member, but 
  otherwise had little ability to maintain a united poli-
  cy. As a group, the Hansa members worked coopera-
  tively to gain merchants’ rights and privileges, and to 
  retaliate against foreign competitors. It was not even 
  clear which cities were members at various times – 
  the number fluctuated from under 100 to over 160.
  The Hanseatic League evolved from local allianc-
  es between Germanic towns over the course of sev-
  eral decades in the late 13th and early 14th century. 
  In 1259, Lübeck, Rostock, and Wismar formed an 
  agreement to mutually combat Baltic piracy. In 1264, 
  several towns agreed to assist each other during wars. 
  In 1280-82, Lübeck led several towns in a boycott 
  of Bruges over restrictions on German merchants. 
  In 1282, representatives from several towns met to 
  ally themselves against local landholders. In 1284-5, 
  a group of towns agreed not to ship grain to Norway 
  and sent armed ships (cogs) to patrol the exits from 
  the Baltic Sea to enforce the boycott. Within a year, 
  Norway agreed to give the towns the trading privi-
  leges they sought. In 1358, Lübeck hosted a meeting 
  of delegates from the Hansa towns (the Hansatag) 
  to discuss trade problems in Flanders. The delegates 
  agreed to impose an embargo against Flanders which 
  succeeded in restoring the league’s trade privileges 
  in 1360. A second group action against Denmark in 
  1361-70 eventually led to the League hiring a fleet 
  and army, which forced Denmark to agree to a favor-
  able treaty. The league embargoed Flanders again in 
  1388 and succeeded in renewing its privileges, despite 
  disputes among its members about participating in a 
  total embargo.
  The league continued, primarily as an econom-
  ic union to protect German trade in the North Sea, 
  Baltic, and with Flanders and England. In England, 
  the Germanic Hansa had evolved from three separate 
  merchant hansas founded by Cologne in the 12th 
  century, and by Hamburg and Lübeck in 1266-67. 
  The three merged in 1282; they became part of the 
  town-based Hansa in the late 14th century. The uni-
  fied Hansa was able to maintain an exemption from 
  various wool taxes and customs levies, and its mem-
  bers were able to form their own guilds in England, 
  provided that they elected a native Englishman as the 
  head of all the Hanseatic guilds in England. Germanic 
  Hansa guild halls were found in London, Boston, and 
  Lynn. (In this regard, the Hansa was unique. Italian 
  merchants, although more numerous and prosperous 
  in England, were unable to form any long-term asso-
  ciations to obtain or retain economic rights, because 
  the rivalries between the Italian city-states precluded 
  that level of cooperation.) There was another Hansa 
  in Flanders, normally in Bruges except during two 
  14th-century disputes when the merchant commu-
  nity relocated to Dordrecht in Holland (1358 and 
  1388-92).
  The League began to decline in the 15th cen-
  tury due to increased competition from English and 
  Dutch merchants, growing piracy, shifting trade pat-
  terns with Poland and Lithuania, stronger Germanic 
  landholders, and dissention within and among the 
  League towns. During the early and mid-15th cen-
  tury, Anglo-Hansa tensions were high over English 
  demands that its merchants in the Baltic have the 
  same privileges as Hanseatic merchants in England. 
  Merchants from both groups were harassed. Ships 
  were attacked by pirates, particularly in the waters 
  around England and France. In 1468, Anglo-Hansa 
  tensions led to a trade war. England seized Hansa 
  merchants and their goods. Cologne broke away from 
  the Hansa in an effort to protect its own trade. Hansa 
  privateers seized both French and English ships, lead-
  ing to a trade war with France in 1470. Privateers 
  from each faction attacked each other’s shipping and 
  warships. By 1473, all sides were tired of the trade 
  
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  disruption and began to negotiate. The trade war 
  ended with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1474. England 
  reconfirmed the Hansa’s privileges; the Hansa made 
  promises of reciprocity of privileges for English mer-
  chants in the Baltic. Cologne made its peace with 
  the Hansa in 1476. The Treaty did not end tensions 
  between England and the Hansa, but hostilities were 
  lessened and trade resumed. English trade privileges 
  in the Baltic remained a contested issue, which was 
  still unresolved in 1500.
  The Hansa collapsed in the 16th century due to 
  competition with England and the Dutch, shifts in 
  trade towards the Americas, increased pressure from 
  German territorial rulers, and the Catholic/Protestant 
  battles of the Reformation.
   RECORD KEEPING
  In the late 12th and early 
  13th century, there was a sig-
  nificant increase in the writ-
  ten records made and kept by 
  rulers and merchants alike. 
  By the middle of the 12th 
  century, the English monar-
  chy began keeping copies of 
  key documents. Other mon-
  archs and major landholders 
  followed. By the 14th century, monarchs and major 
  landholders depended on their archives and records 
  to understand and enforce their rights.
  Towns followed the same trend. They kept a vari-
  ety of records including contracts, legal judgments, 
  and their own charters. Each had its own official 
   seals to mark documents and prevent fraud. Seals 
  and important documents were kept in a chest with 
  several locks. The keys were divided among officials 
  to prevent fraud. Worn-out seals were kept in the 
  archives; new ones were introduced with a small cer-
  emony. Several towns used Franciscan monasteries 
  to store their documents. Occasionally, rioters would 
  threaten to destroy a town’s records, especially those 
  concerning debts.
  Larger towns had some form of official record 
  keeper. Italian towns had a chancellor to draft and 
  preserve statutes and legal records. Key documents, 
  like a charter, were sometimes drafted and signed in a 
  public ceremony to ensure that they were accepted by 
  the community. Major officials had their own nota-
  ries who submitted copies of all records to the local 
  chancery. Townspeople came to private scribes and 
  notaries to record their deeds, marriage contracts, 
  and wills, some of which were then taken to the town 
  hall and marked with an official seal. 
  In Italy, towns began collecting and copying 
  important documents into books (libri iurium or libri 
  privilegiorum). To some extent, these books were a 
  counterpart to northern European town  charters, 
  documenting the city-state’s territorial and political 
  rights. Towns also began collecting and publishing 
  their statutes. Ferrara’s was written on the walls of its 
  cathedral in 1173. The podestà of Milan had its stat-
  utes codified in 1216. Genoa’s podestà did likewise 
  in 1239. Over time, the statutes accreted changes 
  and clarifications, and had to 
  be periodically checked by an 
  appointed statute inspector 
  for accuracy.
  Preserving records was 
  important. Finding infor-
  mation in records was more 
  complex. Universities began 
  to develop indexes and con-
  cordances to help scholars 
  find materials within books. 
  Some papal inquisitors orga-
  nized their records geographically, to make it easier to 
  find rural recidivists. They also left generous margins 
  where subsequent investigators could make follow-
  up notes. The organization of merchant and urban 
  records varied – for many it was hard to spot trends 
  or find older information.
   FORMS OF GOVERNMENT
  Most towns had an executive and legislature, the 
  nature of which varied by time and by country. Some 
  towns had  a mayor (either elected or appointed by a 
  landholder) who was assisted by a council drawn from 
  among the town’s leading merchants and artisans. 
  Other towns were governed by a council of elected 
  officials with no executive.
   Podestàs,  Captains, and  Councils
  Italian city-states went through several phases of 
  governance. The earliest phase was a popular assem-
  bly (the commune), led by appointed counselors. 
  As towns grew larger and urban government more 
  Seals and important 
  documents were 
  kept in a chest with 
  several locks.
  
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  demanding, the popular assembly became first a leg-
  islature, and then often a bicameral legislature. When 
  local leaders proved unable to settle disputes between 
  factions, they created an appointed executive, a 
  podestà, who summoned and presided over the legis-
  lature, acted as a judge, and occasionally commanded 
  the military. Over time, that too proved unsatisfac-
  tory. Podestàs, although not locals, were from similar 
  social classes to the town elites. A third entity, the 
   Popolo, was created, which theoretically included a 
  wider segment of the population than the legislative 
  councils. The Popolo, led by its captain, often sup-
  plemented the council/podestà system. Finally, when 
  that too proved unsatisfactory, many towns turned to 
  signore (lords) to govern urban factions.
  The podestà was a man of at least 30 years, who 
  typically served a term of six months. Often he was 
  a noble, precluded from participating in his own 
  city’s government, but allowed to be an executive in 
  other allied city-states’ governments. The podestà 
  was almost always a foreigner (a citizen of another 
  Italian commune), so chosen because he had no 
  stake in local politics and could be trusted to fairly 
  administer the town’s affairs. Some communes even 
  forbade the podestà to eat with local citizens or to 
  accept gifts from them to avoid favoritism. Most for-
  bade the podestà to travel more than a day’s jour-
  ney from the city without special permission. Siena 
  required the podestà to remain in town for a week 
  after his term ended while it investigated his regime, 
  including its finances. Often, his last month’s salary 
  was withheld until the investigation (sindacamen-
  tum) ended satisfactorily. Verona’s podestà served 
  for 12 months, then remained for a month to assist 
  the new podestà and undergo an investigation. If, 
  for any reason, a podestà could not complete his 
  term, he forfeited his salary.
  The podestà usually brought his family and staff 
  with him. His staff often included judges, knights, 
  notaries, squires, and police, all of whom were paid 
  from his salary. Verona required the podestà to sup-
  ply 3 judges, 12 soldiers, and appropriate squires. In 
  Siena, the city held a parade twice each month to 
  make certain the podestà and his staff were actually 
  present in the city. Verona, on the other hand, for-
  bade the podestà to bring his wife, child, grandchild, 
  or nieces and nephews into the city during his 12 
  month term, and he was forbidden to receive gifts 
  from, or dine with, citizens.
  The general council and its smaller executive 
  body passed legislation and handled most local gov-
  ernance. Most decisions required a simple majority 
  vote, often by secret ballot. Members put a white ball 
  (favorable) or a black ball (unfavorable) into a box. 
  Certain decisions required a supermajority – a vote 
  to go to war in Siena required a ¾ majority vote on 
  three separate days, and any councilor who spoke in 
  favor of war was obliged to serve in the campaign 
  himself. The executive body, discussed below, was, 
  in theory, chosen by lot, but the elections were likely 
  rigged to allow the same names to reappear.
  Councilors generally had to be citizens, at least 
  30 years old, and literate.  Magnates (nobles) were 
  usually excluded as were judges, notaries, and phy-
  HOLDING  PUBLIC OFFICE
  Ambitious people sought political offices for 
  a variety of reasons, including the chance for 
  financial gain and social advancement. In most of 
  Europe, office holders could favor their friends and 
  family by appointing them to offices or hiring them 
  to supply urban needs. Office holders interacted 
  with other political leaders, which gave them a 
  chance to seek higher political offices and find 
  marriage alliances and favorable apprenticeships 
  for their children.
  On the other hand, a public official’s salary 
  rarely compensated for expenses. The time spent 
  serving in public office was time away from the 
  official’s own business and family. An official 
  spent time and money on elections, meetings, 
  and travel for the community’s business. Often 
  he had to host and entertain visiting dignitaries, 
  maintain an appropriate staff, and provide food 
  and entertainment for traditional ceremonies. 
  The office holder was often personally liable 
  for any financial irregularities;  accounts were 
  generally audited annually or at the end of his 
  term, whichever happened first.
  In Italy, many office holders were hired from allied 
  towns in order to maximize their impartiality. 
  They served under a variety of social restrictions, 
  sometimes prohibited from visiting or dining with 
  any local resident outside of official functions to 
  avoid any appearance of favoritism.
  
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  sicians (perhaps because of their close ties to noble 
  families). In many communes, councilors could not 
  hold successive terms and could not serve if a close 
  relative, business partner, or factor served on the 
  same council. In some communes, councilors could 
  not simultaneously head major guilds, or serve in 
  certain offices. Councilors were often chosen by lot 
  from a pool of eligible men drawn from each urban 
  district. In Florence, the names were placed into a 
  leather bag (borse) and drawn in a public ceremony. 
  Historians who have analyzed councilors’ names in 
  many city-states suggest that the repetition of the 
  same names indicates that election cheating and 
  fraud was widespread.
  At first, Italian communes were small enough 
  to be governed by general assemblies of all of their 
  members. A small number of consuls were elected 
  to handle day-to-day affairs. As the commune grew, 
  the general assembly often grew unwieldy. Executive 
  councils of six, nine, or ten members were found in 
  various Italian communes. In Siena, the Nine were 
  immune from ordinary criminal prosecution during 
  their six-month term. After 1323, they had immunity 
  from prosecution for major crimes, and protection 
  against  torture for 10 years after leaving office.
  The  Popolo or People was a quasi-government. 
  (Venice was unique in not having a Popolo.) It was 
  governed by a council of elders (anziani) made up of 
  guild elders and representatives from the town’s dis-
  tricts. The Popolo was led by a Captain, a foreigner 
  like the podestà. Over time, many Popolos gained 
  control of their communes’ finances and defense. In 
  some places, they assimilated the commune entirely 
  and replaced the podestà and council.
   Guelf and  Ghibelline
   Italian city-states often included various parties 
  or associations that followed guild and family lines. 
  In Brescia, there were the Rivola and the Coglioni; 
  in Cremona the Barbarasi (“clean-shaven”) and the 
  Capelleti (“hairy”); in Mantua, the Poltroni and 
  Calorosi; in Reggio the Palude and the Correggio; 
  in Vicenza the Vivaresi and the Counts of Vicenza; 
  and so on. Members of various  parties were allied 
  by marriage with parties in other communes. Party 
  loyalty even spread into the clergy, where bishops, 
  priests, monks, and nuns were partisans of one fac-
  tion or the other.
  In the early 13th century, many of these parties 
  coalesced into the Guelf and Ghibelline factions. 
  These parties were, at their most basic, supporters 
  of the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire respec-
  tively. As with other aspects of Italian city-state poli-
  tics, the full situation was far more complex. In effect, 
  many cities had organizations (parties) of supporters 
  for each faction in the complex struggle for control 
  of northern Italy. Supporters showed their allegiance 
  by symbols, like a particular color or style of cloth-
  ing, or by gestures, like how they cut their fruit or 
  drank their wine. The parties fought among them-
  selves. When one assumed dominance, the other was 
  exiled to join supporters in neighboring cities. The 
  exiles plotted their return. If they managed it, they 
  then exiled their foes.
  The struggle led to one of the bloodiest battles 
  in northern Italian history. On September 4, 1260, 
  Florence and Siena led their respective allies into bat-
  tle near Montaperti (the “hill of death”). The Sienese 
  Ghibellines were triumphant. Some commentators 
  estimated that 10,000 soldiers were killed, 15,000 
  Florentines were taken prisoner, and the Florentine 
  carroccio (see p. 107) was captured. Florence briefly 
  fell to the Ghibelline party, which exiled its Guelph 
  rivals. Within ten years, after several Guelph victo-
  ries, the Guelphs regained power in Florence and 
  Siena and exiled their Ghibelline foes.
  In 1300, the Guelph party, having soundly defeat-
  ed its Ghibelline foes, split into a White and Black 
  faction. (The original cause for the division was said 
  to be part of a family feud in the Cancellieri family of 
  Pistoia.) The two parties became associated with local 
  politics. In Florence, the White Guelphs, allied with 
  the Cerchi family, controlled the city in 1300. The 
  Black Guelphs were associated with the Donati fam-
  ily. A series of violent fights broke out, which led to 
  leaders of both factions being banished. Many of the 
  White Guelphs returned in 1301. In 1302, however, 
  the Black Guelphs had regained political power and 
  forced their White Guelph rivals (including Dante 
  Alighieri) into exile. In 1364, Florence enacted a law 
  stating that anyone who appealed to the pope or his 
  legate or the cardinals would be declared a Ghibelline 
  and exiled from the city.
  Over the course of the 15th century, the parties 
  died out, their rivalries becoming subsumed in other 
  struggles for control of the various city-states and the 
  rise of signorias.
  
  Guilds
  Page 80
   Guilds were one of the iconic features of medi-
  eval towns. They evolved to solve typical commer-
  cial problems – guaranteeing a minimum standard for 
  safety and quality of goods sold in the town’s market 
  and those produced for export; creating a collective 
  voice for manufacturers in town government and in 
  negotiations with other towns; providing a system for 
  debt collection and enforcement of contracts, partic-
  ularly those involving other towns; guaranteeing the 
  good conduct of merchant-members while traveling 
  to other towns; providing some security for members’ 
  widows and orphans; and providing burial services 
  and someone to remember the dead in prayers.
  In its most common form, a guild was an orga-
  nization of manufacturers in a specific trade which 
  protected their interests by controlling manufactur-
  ing standards and the ability to sell that good with-
  in the town. However, “guild” was a broad term. It 
  could also refer to many kinds of associations and 
  clubs whose members held communal feasts, religious 
  ceremonies, and had oaths between the members.
  The word “guild” or “gild” is old. In the 5th cen-
  tury, it referred to Frankish soldiers’ sacrificial feasts. 
  In Carolingian France, gilds could be drinking groups, 
  mutual aid groups, and/or organizations to maintain 
  altar candles or perform other religious duties. By 
  the 9th or 10th century, “guild” had become associat-
  ed with merchant and artisan groups, often with fra-
  ternal, social, and charitable functions. Whether the 
  social groups evolved into economic ones, or vice-
  versa, is debated among historians.
  A typical town might have dozens of  guilds. 
  Padua had 26 guilds in 1277. There were over 40 in 
  13th century Genoa. Rome, on the other hand, was 
  not a major commercial or manufacturing center and 
  had a mere 14 in the early 15th century. Generally, 
  there was a guild for each major trade in the city. 
  Construction workers like masons, carpenters, and 
  stonecutters each had a guild. Non-construction 
  wood-workers often had a separate guild. Food pro-
  ducers like  bakers, brewers, and  butchers had their 
  own guilds. Textile manufacturers had at least one 
  guild. Merchants might have a guild; specialists in 
  spices yet another. Lawyers and notaries might belong 
  to one guild; doctors and apothecaries to another. 
  In some areas, guild membership was exclusive; in 
  others, a merchant or vendor might be a member of 
  multiple guilds.
  Where a town had multiple guilds, they tended to 
  compete for prestige and political power. Competition 
  
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  was expressed in numerous ways. In Chartres and 
  other cities, guilds donated stained glass windows to 
  the cathedral, competing over the best artisans for 
  the project. Guilds also used public feasts and festi-
  vals as a way to demonstrate their wealth and impor-
  tance. The most direct demonstration was the guild’s 
  participation in parades and processions – each guild 
  member dressed in his finest livery, showing the 
  guild’s wealth and numbers. Some guilds also spon-
  sored musicians and  actors for public performances 
  at feasts and festivals.
  Each guild was a local monopoly. It controlled 
  the conditions for becoming an  apprentice in a trade, 
  the duration of apprenticeship, and the conditions 
  for becoming a master. Guilds regulated work hours 
  and conditions to ensure quality and to reduce com-
  petition among their members. As guilds assumed 
  more regulatory duties, they developed statutes and 
  bureaucracies of officials and internal courts. They 
  sponsored group religious activities and provided ben-
  efits for injured members, widows, and orphans. Some 
  held funeral Masses for their members. In Florence, 
  guilds even supplied the city’s fire brigade.
  Guilds helped their members minimize their 
  transaction costs. They helped members find pro-
  ducers and customers by limiting competition with-
  in the town and negotiating trade deals with other 
  towns. They reduced negotiation costs by standard-
  izing weights and measures, and guaranteeing mini-
  mum standards for members’ wares. They also helped 
  reduce enforcement costs by sponsoring urban courts 
  and helping members collect debts from foreign cus-
  tomers and suppliers.
  Guilds were also mutual protection societies. 
  They stood together to protect individual members 
  from extortion, violence, and unfair competition. 
  They routinely sent representatives to landholders 
  demanding satisfaction for members robbed in the 
  landholder’s domain, and to other towns demanding 
  satisfaction for cheated members. They imposed trade 
  embargoes on those who wronged their members.
  Guilds tried to control labor costs. Generally, 
  conservative leaders discouraged innovations that 
  might give some guild members unfair advantage over 
  others. They also tried to increase revenues by 
  increasing the quality of the town’s goods, and thus 
  the price they could demand.
  THE MEDIEVAL  BUSINESS CYCLE
  Towns, by their nature, were trade centers. Often, 
  a new town had few industries. As they became suc-
  cessful, they attracted more workers, who drove up 
  the cost of living, rents, food prices, and thereby 
  wages. This led to social unrest. Merchants respond-
  ed by moving their trade, when possible, to smaller 
  towns, where wage costs were lower and there was 
  less unrest. Of course, the new town would quickly 
  itself fall victim to the same cycle of increased immi-
  gration and inflation. Moreover, the old town risked 
  a decrease in population, stagnation of its industries, 
  and a declining standard of living. Left to itself, this 
  problem sometimes resulted in lower wages, making 
  the town again attractive to merchants and artisans.
   WORK DAYS AND WORK WEEKS
  The average work week was Monday through 
  Saturday, sunrise to sunset, with the possibility of 
  leaving work early on Saturday night. Workers did 
  not work on the 40 to 50 Christian holy days scat-
  tered through the year. Many jobs were seasonal. 
  Agricultural trades were based around the annual 
  cycle from sowing grain to harvest. Textile trades 
  were based around sheep sheering and transhumance 
  (the annual migration of flocks to high-altitude pas-
  HOLDING GUILD OFFICE
   Guilds appointed various officials to handle 
  administrative and inspection duties. This 
  was not always a popular task. Guild charters 
  frequently allowed the guild to fine members 
  who avoided appointment to guild offices. This 
  suggests that members regarded the task as an 
  onerous distraction from their own businesses 
  and families. Opportunities for patronage and 
  social advancement were limited.
  An officer’s role included administrative and 
  ceremonial duties. It is unclear whether office 
  holders received any pay for their work, or were 
  compensated for their expenses, or whether 
  officers were expected to pay any expenses and 
  costs from their own pocket. Guilds audited their 
  own records, although office holders, unlike civic 
  officials, were rarely required to have sureties to 
  guarantee their good conduct. 
  
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  tures in the summer and lower-lying valleys in win-
  ter). Most construction trades began in spring and 
  ceased in the late fall, when cold temperatures inter-
  fered with outside work, mortar setting, and brick 
  making. During the slow periods, many workers had 
  a second  job such as ale-brewing, selling garden pro-
  duce and domestic animals, and selling crafts related 
  to their primary occupation. 
  A typical work day began around dawn and 
  ended at dusk. Typically workers had a lunch break 
  of about an hour. Some employers even supplied a 
  food vendor for workers who did not bring their own 
  lunch. There was often another half-hour break in 
  the afternoon.
  Starting in the early 13th century, notaries began 
  to note the hour of the day (such as “after vespers”) 
  on contracts and records. The Church divided its 
  day into seven canonical “ hours” (Laud, Prime, 
  Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline), which 
  were adopted by the laity to divide its day. Thus, a 
  town’s bells might ring at Prime (6 a.m.) to start the 
  day, again at Terce (the third hour or 9 a.m.), Sext 
  (the sixth hour or 12 p.m.), None (the ninth hour 
  or 3 p.m.), and Vespers (dusk). Laud and Compline, 
  prayer services during the night, were not usually 
  accompanied by urban  bells. The day was further 
  divided into 24 hours, 12 between dawn and dusk, 
  and 12 between dusk and dawn. Thus, the length of 
  an hour varied by season, and “day hours” could be 
  longer or shorter than “ night” hours. Once mechani-
  cal clocks became dependable, cities installed public 
  clocks to toll the work day and sound the evening 
   curfew (p. 54). Work sites also kept their own clocks 
  and bells to sound breaks.
  Workers were generally  paid in cash, on 
  Saturdays. Typically urban workers did not receive 
  the same clothing and tool allowances given to rural 
  workers. Instead, urban workers were expected to 
  supply their own tools, but an employer might pro-
  vide a smith to make repairs.
  TYPES OF  GUILDS AND OTHER 
  REGULATED TRADES
  There were a large variety of guilds in various 
  towns. The table below, drawn from surviving records 
  lists some of the guilds in various cities; some entries 
  are incomplete. In some areas, guilds were divided 
  between a small number of prestigious “major” guilds, 
  and a larger number of “minor  guilds” Major guilds 
  often had greater wealth and more political power 
  than their lesser counterparts. Over time, the num-
  ber of guilds tended to grow as the market supported 
  more specialists, who wanted their own guilds instead 
  of remaining part of a larger organization.
   Artisans
  The artisans’ guilds were often the largest and 
  wealthiest in a town. Their guilds included those who 
  manufactured goods for local use and for export. As 
  noted above, wool cloth was the most common trade 
  good in Europe. Silk was “grown” in Italy as early as 
  the 11th century. (To be more precise, mulberry trees 
  were grown in Italy for silk worms to eat, and produce 
  cocoons which were made into silk cloth.) Silk cloth 
  was made in Bologna, Genoa, Lucca, Palermo, and 
  Venice in the 13th century. Florence began making 
  silk in the 14th century. By the 15th century, a dozen 
  other Italian cities were making silk.  Flax was also 
  manufactured, but its makers rarely had their own 
  guild.
  Textile workers were the largest group of artisans 
  in most towns, and their guilds ranged from small 
  organizations to Florence’s powerful  Arte della Lana 
  (wool) guild, at the heart of an international trading 
  network, and the somewhat smaller Arti di Por Santa 
  Maria (silk workers).
  An artisan’s guild was built from a number of 
  small workshops. Each employed a master, his family, 
  and one or two assistants. Among the largest record-
  ed shop staffs is that of a London pewterer in 1456 
  which had 11 apprentices and 7 hired servants.
  In the Italian cloth guilds, masters were limited 
  to the  lanaioli, investors who controlled the supply of 
  raw wool. Other “masters” (dyers, shearers, stretch-
  ers, etc.), no matter how wealthy were merely sot-
  toposti with no voice in the guild’s affairs. The Arte 
  della Lana also had a foreign officer who acted as an 
  impartial judge of infractions. He employed six guards 
  and an array of informers. The judge could fine guild 
  members and punish,  torture, or even execute errant 
  workers. He could amputate the right hand of those 
  in debt to the guild who had no hope of repayment. 
  He was in effect, podestà of a quasi-independent state 
  within the Florentine commune.
  Other cloth guilds, while powerful, did not 
  hold the same amount of power over their mem-
  
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  EXAMPLES OF  GUILDS
  Town
  Year
  Guilds
  Bologna
  14-15th century
  Major: Notai (lawyers), Cambiatori (bankers), Drappieri (cloth merchants), 
  & Arte Serica (silk makers). Unknown number of minor guilds.
  Dublin
  15th century
  Bakers, Butchers, Carpenters, Glovers & Skiners, 
  Shoemakers, Smiths, Tanners, Weavers
  Exeter
  Mid-15th century
  Major: Tailors; Weavers, Tuckers (fullers) and Shearmen 
  Minor: Bakers, Cordwainers, Skinners, Smiths
  Florence
  15th century
  Major: Arte dei Giudici e notai (judges and lawyers), Arte della Lana (wool), Arte 
  di Por Santa Maria (silk), Arte di Calimala (cloth trade), Arte del Cambio (bank-
  ers), Arte dei medici, speziali e merciai (doctors, apothecaries, & shopkeepers), 
  Arte dei vaccai e pellicciai (animal skins and furs) Minor(Arti Medie): fourteen 
  including butchers, shoemakers, smiths, stone-masons, & second-hand dealers
  Imola
  13th century
  Judges, Notaries, & Doctors; Butchers; Peasants; Shoemakers; Masons & 
  Carpenters; Hemp Dressers; Merchants; Skinworkers; Smiths & Artisans
  London
  1351
  Butchers, Cordwainers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Grocers, Ironmongers, 
  Mercers, Pepperers, Saddlers, Skinners, Tailors, Vintners, Woolmongers
  London
  1500
  Armorers, Barbers, Brewers, Butchers, Carpenters, Cooks, Cordwainers, 
  Drapers, Dyers, Fishmongers, Fullers, Goldsmiths, Grocers, Haberdashers, 
  Ironmongers, Leathersellers, Mercers, Musicians, Parish Clerks, Pewterers, 
  Saddlers, Skinners, Tallow chandlers, Vintners, Wax chandlers, Woolmongers
  Paris
  14th century
  Water Merchants, Bakers, Butchers, Criers, Goldsmiths & Jewelers
  Pisa
  12th century
  Major: order of merchants (ordo mercatorum); order of the sea 
  (ordo maris) Minor: tanners; iron workers; butchers; furriers
  Pisa
  13th century
  Wool-worker’s guild becomes major guild. Guilds of vintners, 
  shoemakers, & notaries recognized as minor guilds.
  Pistoia
  15th century
  Judges & Notaries; Dealers in Spices & Money Changers; Merchants, 
  Cloth Workers & Porters; Butchers, Leather Workers & Furriers; Iron 
  Workers & Merchants; Stone Masons & Wood Workers; Shoemakers, 
  Painters & Barbers; Vintners, Innkeepers & Food Vendors
  Rome
  13th century
  13 Major including mercatores pannorum (cloth merchants) and 
  bobacterii (agricultural guild). The mercatores were subdivided 
  into 5 lesser guilds including one for wool merchants.
  Rostock
  Mid-15th century
  Major: Bakers, Barbers, Bridlemakers, Butchers, Carpenters, Coopers, 
  Fishermen, Furriers, Haberdashers, Hoopers, Linen Weavers, Masons, Pewterers, 
  Porters, Retailers, Shoemakers, Smiths, Tailors, Tanners, Wool Weavers
  Venice
  Mid-14th century
  52 guilds including: Apothecaries, Bakers, Barbers, Bowyers, Carpenters 
  (house), Carpenters (ship), Cappers, Caulkers, Cobblers, Corn (grain) 
  Chandlers, Comb (textile) Makers, Doublet-makers, Dyers, Fishmongers, 
  Furriers, Glassmakers, Goldsmiths, Hatters, Kilnmen (brick makers), 
  Linen & Fustian Makers, Mercers, Oarmakers, Oil Measurers, Oil 
  Sellers, Painters, Physicians, Ropemakers, Sand Suppliers (for the city’s 
  wells), Sawyers, Second-hand Clothing Sellers, Silk Throwers, Skeiners, 
  Spindle Makers, Smiths (ship), Stonemasons, Tailors, Wallers
  York
  1415
  At least 57 guilds including: Bakers, Barbers, Bowers, Butchers, 
  Cordwainers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Glovers, Goldsmiths, Hostlers, 
  Ironmongers, Masons, Mercers, Plasterers, Parchment-makers, 
  Potters, Saddle-makers, Sausagemakers, Shipwrights, Skinners,  
  Smiths, Spicers, Taverners, Tailors, Weavers, Woolpackers
  
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  bers. However, each was concerned with ensuring 
  their members’ access to foreign markets by main-
  taining manufacturing standards and disciplining 
  members who cut corners, used substandard mate-
  rials, or behaved poorly and brought the town into 
  disrepute.
   Artists and  Goldsmiths
  Artists gravitated to towns, especially those build-
  ing cathedrals, palaces, and other prominent build-
  ings which would need professional ornamentation. 
  If the town drew enough artists, they might form a 
  guild. In a large enough town, different types of artist 
  might each form their own guilds.
  Master artists were well paid. Those that built 
  and decorated monasteries could become lay mem-
  bers of the house. Some might receive incomes simi-
  lar to a canon’s prebend. Some were made nobles 
  by their patrons; King Philippe IV of France made 
  his court goldsmith, Raoul, a noble. Others became 
  patrons to other artists, recommending them to their 
  network of clients.
  Goldsmiths were often regulated separate-
  ly from other artisans. They were of higher social 
  standing, and had wealthy clients who could assist 
  them with political, or other, problems. Working 
  with gold required a fair amount of skill, and cap-
  ital, which allowed smiths to limit newcomers to 
  their craft. Often, they had their own guild. In 1292, 
  Paris had 115 goldsmiths and jewelers in its guild. 
  London, in 1368, had 135 members of its Company of 
  Goldsmiths. Both France and England required gold 
  and silver smiths to mark their wares with distinctive 
  patterns to ensure quality. In northern Italy, on the 
  other hand, goldsmiths were less strictly regulated 
  – Florentine smiths belonged either to the Arti di 
  Por Santa Maria, dominated by silk workers, or to the 
  painters’ confraternity of San Luca.
   Builders
  The building trades were primarily local provid-
  ers of raw materials, services, and transportation of 
  building materials. In a town with a large long-term 
  project, like cathedral construction, one-tenth of the 
  local households might be involved in construction. 
  In Italy, most buildings were made of stone and brick, 
  which ensured a steady living for stone masons and 
  brick makers. In northern Europe, stone work was less 
  common; thus, stone masons traveled from job site to 
  job site and organized themselves at the work site.
  Builders generally worked by contract, sometimes 
  granted after an open competition for the job. Patrons 
  either paid a flat fee per task, or piece rates based 
  on completed work. Towns tried to regulate certain 
  products, like the standard size of bricks, but gener-
  ally left the selection of raw materials and manufac-
  turing standards to the guilds and their inspectors.
  Apprenticeship in the building trades varied from 
  one to eight years. Afterwards, an  apprentice gener-
  ally became a worker for one or more years before 
  becoming a master. Experienced builders could go 
  on to become architects, designing larger commis-
  sions. The most successful architects were sometimes 
   knighted and given lands.
  For the most part, builders were anonymous. 
  Part of the problem was the scale of large projects. A 
  cathedral architect could work full-time for his entire 
  life, and still only supervise a small part of the work. 
  Tradition was another problem. Patrons and labor-
  ers generally wanted to follow time-tested methods 
  and use traditional materials, making it hard for an 
  architect to stand out from his peers. Most innova-
  tion was in ornamentation, not in the basic structure 
  of a building.
  In the 15th century, architects began to come from 
  other areas. Brunelleschi, Ghilberti, and Michelozzo 
  were trained as goldsmiths. Guiliano da Maiano, 
  Antonio di Manetto Ciaccheri, and Baccio d’Angolo 
  were also trained as furniture makers.
   Doctors
  By the early 14th century, medicine was a reg-
  ulated profession. Prospective doctors were exam-
  ined by a panel of local doctors to ensure that they 
  understood both theory (often including astrology) 
  and practical techniques. The licensing board (called 
  protomedici in Italy) could examine both prospec-
  tive doctors and those practicing in the communi-
  ty. Licenses could be general, or restricted to certain 
  kinds of illnesses, or to only basic procedures, or to 
  only giving medicines after consulting with another 
  doctor. Candidates ranged from university graduates, 
  who were occasionally given limited licenses because 
  they lacked practical experience, to those who had 
  learned their trade as apprentices to other doctors.
  
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  Some Christian doctors were formally trained 
  at universities like Paris, Montpellier, and Salerno. 
  University-trained doctors were rare – Bologna only 
  granted 65 degrees in medicine between 1419 and 
  1435; Turin granted 13 degrees between 1426 and 
  1462. Paris had only eight university-trained doctors 
  in the mid-14th century. Some  monks and priests 
  also practiced medicine; the Church permitted this, 
  but declared, several times, that monks should not 
  study medicine for temporal gains. The majority of 
  the population relied on folk healers, barbers, mid-
  wives, and surgeons.
  Florence recognized a guild of physicians and 
  pharmacists in 1246. It quickly became one of the 
  seven major guilds of the town. Venice enacted a 
  series of laws regulating its doctors in the early 14th 
  century. Only doctors with a university degree, or 
  Jewish doctors, could practice. Doctors had to attend 
  an annual anatomy course, and monthly meetings to 
  discuss cases.
  Unlike  doctors, surgeons were often regarded 
  as artisans, not learned professionals. The Fourth 
  Lateran Council (1215) forbade the clergy from per-
  forming most surgeries, opining that it was “unclean”. 
  The Council also prohibited any dissection of human 
  bodies for study. (In 1300, a papal decree allowed 
  annual or biannual dissections of criminals’ bodies 
  for study.) Physicians and surgeons learned from dis-
  sections of pigs, monkeys, and Barbary apes. Surgeons 
  also learned their trade by observation and exper-
  imentation, frequently on the battlefield. In 1210, 
  Paris’ surgeons organized the College of St. Cosme, 
  which provided practical training in anatomy. 
  London’s Fellowship of Surgeons was formed to reg-
  ulate its trade in 1368-9. Previously, London’s may-
  ors had intermittently appointed skilled surgeons to 
  investigate complaints of poor care.
  There were also  barbers, sometimes referred to 
  as barber-surgeons, who performed minor procedures 
  such as bloodletting, removing boils, and treating 
  non-life-threatening wounds. Barbers had their own 
  guilds, which tried to protect their rights to practice 
  medicine in the face of increasing efforts by doctors 
  and surgeons to monopolize the trade.
  The Church prohibited clergy from studying medi-
  cine for temporal gain in bans issued in 1130 and 1139. 
  The Second Lateran Council noted that clergy were 
  supposed to engage in the “cure of souls”. The frequent 
  repetition of the bans suggests that they were widely 
  disobeyed. Some historians estimate that about 10% of 
  doctors in the 14th century were clergy. Cleric-doctors 
  included Pope John XII, who wrote a popular medical 
  text in the early 13th century before he became pope; 
  and two Italian bishops who wrote books on surgery 
  in the late 13th century. In addition, monasteries often 
  relied upon their members to treat their own sick with 
  herbs and simple medicines. Clergy also often admin-
  istered urban  hospitals, although medical care was 
  usually in the hands of lay physicians.
  There is not a great deal of information available 
  about medieval  midwives and female doctors. There 
  are illustrations and carvings of midwives at work. 
  Likely, they also learned their trade by observation 
  and experience. Some were familiar with herbs that 
  could aid contraception or induce abortion. There 
  are a few known female Christian doctors, including 
  Trotula, a teacher at the University of Salerno in the 
  12th century, and Jacoba Felicie (c. 1322) who litigat-
  ed her right to practice in Paris. Indeed, Salerno was 
  noted for its female doctors, known as “the women 
  of Salerno”.
   Merchants
  Among the first guilds were those formed by mer-
  chants, which appeared in the late 11th and early 12th 
  centuries. Early merchants’ guilds included all of the 
  town’s merchants, traders, and artisans in a single 
  organization. Over time, various groups separated 
  into their own guilds. Sometimes the original mer-
  chants’ guild dissolved. Sometimes, it evolved into a 
  home for those who traded at a distance, often over-
  seas. York’s Company of Merchant Venturers is an 
  example of the later form of a merchant’s guild.
  A general merchants’ guild provided mutual 
  protection. Travel was dangerous, particularly when 
  transporting valuable goods. A 1334 Genoese law, 
  for example, forbade its merchants to venture beyond 
  Sicily or Majorca unarmed. The guild could coordinate 
  travel to trade fairs and help individual merchants 
  negotiate with other towns. And, like other guilds, 
  it could coordinate reprisals against towns which 
  defrauded or otherwise ill-treated local merchants.
   Victuallars
  The  food trades, like the building trades, were 
  local producers primarily selling their wares to the 
  local market. This was the single largest occupation; 
  
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  20-30% of townspeople were involved in the food 
  trades as a primary occupation. In some areas, three-
  quarters of households brewed and sold some ale dur-
  ing the year. Urban households spent between 60-
  80% of their budget on food. Many supplemented 
  their purchases with small gardens and domestic live-
  stock like chickens, goats, and pigs.
  These trades also included intermediate trades, 
  like millers, sellers like tavern keepers, and the criers 
  who advertised prices in taverns. As noted above (p. 
  11), a town imported a vast amount of livestock, fish, 
  grain, fruit, and vegetables for its residents. Town 
  governments were very concerned about the quality 
  and quantity of food, and its price. Thus, towns were 
  very concerned about the conduct of their alewives, 
   bakers, brewers, butchers, and other food producers. 
  Towns regulated the wastes from food production, 
  particularly offal from the thousands of animals killed 
  each year in slaughterhouses. They were also con-
  cerned about the risk of fire from  bakery ovens.
  Town inspectors reviewed the quality of  meats 
  sold. They could remove any unclean, putrid, or unfit 
  meat from sale. Sometimes the offending  butcher was 
  sentenced to the pillory along with his substandard 
  wares. Inspectors also checked bakers’ loaves, brewers’ 
  ale and beer, and the weights and measures used by 
  tavern keepers. Any goods sold dishonestly could be 
  confiscated. Inspectors preferred that goods be sold in 
  the towns’ marketplaces for easier supervision; how-
  ever, hucksters (often women) fulfilled a large demand 
  by reselling bread, fish, poultry, eggs, and other small 
  goods from house to house. Towns tended to discour-
  age these petty merchants with prohibitions on fore-
  stalling and regrating (selling goods at a significantly 
  higher price than they were purchased for) and fined 
  hucksters who sold spoiled or adulterated goods.
   Butchers generally had a guild.  Bakers and other 
  food trades seem less likely to have any sort of orga-
  nization. In larger towns, butchers might have sepa-
  rate guilds for those who slaughtered beef, poultry, 
  and pork. Some towns forbade butchers and other 
  food traders to form a guild for fear that a guild would 
  drive up prices and thus spark public unrest.
  Towns also had a variety of merchants who pre-
  pared and sold cooked food. They were also subject 
  to town regulations and inspections, but the vendors 
  rarely formed guilds.
  Of the various food trades,  butchers were among 
  the most prosperous. The urban populace demanded 
  meat, but it could be hard for a customer to ensure 
  quality, especially in smaller cuts of meat. Like all 
  food trades, they were subject to a wide variety of reg-
  ulation, but court records suggest widespread infrac-
  tions. Butchers were often involved in the local live-
  stock trade, sometimes owning shares of cattle, and 
  renting or purchasing land to graze cattle prior to 
  slaughter.  Butchers also supplied hides to tanners and 
  tallow to  candle makers, making use of nearly every 
  part of an animal. If butchers had a common hall, 
  it often served as a public meat market where their 
  wares could be displayed and sold, under the watch-
  ful eye of guild and town inspectors.
  On the other hand,  butchers were less popu-
  lar than bakers or brewers. Their work involved the 
  sounds and smells of animal slaughter, scalding hides, 
  rendering fat, blood, and bile. The water used to flush 
  their stalls carried away bits of meat, blood, and 
  wastes, making it unfit for most other uses. Popular 
  legends warned of dishonest butchers, and even can-
  nibals like the croquemitaine, who ate misbehaving 
  small children.
   Parisian butchers tended to keep their trade with-
  in their families. In 1491, the guild’s thirty-one mas-
  ter butchers came from eight families. The right to 
  membership in the guild, and a share of ownership of 
  their hall, the Grande Boucherie, passed from father 
  to son. In other areas, butchers had a reputation for 
  clannishness, even as they relied on journeymen and 
  apprentices to supplement family labor. It is likely 
  that other towns’ butchers likewise tended to be more 
  organized along family lines than other trades.
   Butchers were also occasionally leaders in popu-
  lar revolts. Jan or Johan Breydel, a butcher, was a 
  leader of a 1302 revolt in Bruges. Siena’s butchers 
  and blacksmiths led a revolt in 1318. In 1413, Simon 
  Caboche led a group of butchers and skinners to seize 
  power in Paris. Butchers were generally one of the 
  more prominent “lesser” guilds. Despite price and 
  health requirements, they were usually able to make 
  a reasonable profit, and had control over distribu-
  tion of meat to regular customers. This put them in 
  a good position to be community leaders. Butchers 
  were also physically large men, used to heavy lifting, 
  skilled with knives, and inured to the sight of blood, 
  which made them imposing, sometimes frightening, 
  figures in the community. Some communities dis-
  persed butchers’ shops and stalls out of fears about 
  butchers’ potential for violence.
  
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  TYPICAL SALARIES AND  WAGES
  Office
  Date
  Location
  Amount
   Alderman
  1400-1450
  London
  None, but office carried some minor privileges
  Ambassador
  1460
  Venice
  Not more than 1/2 ducat per day
  Architect
  1253
  Meaux
  10 l./yr. & 10 s./day when on site
  Architect
  1261
  St-Gilles
  2 s. tournois/d, 100 s. on Whitsunday 
  for clothing, meals
  Bailiff
  1388
  London
  13 s./4 d./yr.
  Bailiff
  1444
  London
  23 s./4 d./yr. and clothing worth 5 s.
  Beadle
  14-15th C
  Winchester
  1 farthing/day
  Blacksmith
  1490
  Florence
  16 lire/mo. & expenses
  Branch manager (for 
  merchant house)
  1363
  Florence
  150 florins/yr.
  Builder, master
  1428
  Venice
  36 soldi/day
  Captain, papal guard
  1462
  Rome
  500 florin
  Carpenter, master
  1426
  Venice
  25-28 soldi/day
  Carpenter, skilled
  1426
  Venice
  20 soldi/day
  Carpenter, apprentice
  1426
  Venice
  6-7 soldi/day
  Carpenter
  1444
  London
  3 d./day, 4 d./day if not fed
  Carter
  1388
  London
  10 s./yr.
  Carter
  1444
  London
  20 s./yr. and clothing worth 4 s.
  Castellan
  1382
  Chios
  400-500 Genose pounds
  Chamberlain
  1419
  London
  10 pounds
  Chamberlain’s serjeants
  1419
  London
  2 pounds
  Common pleader
  1419
  London
  10 pounds
  Executioner
  1323
  Carcassone
  20 s. per head
  Foreman
  1489
  Florence
  60 fl./year
  Foreman
  1490
  Florence
  20-22 soldi
  Gaolkeeper
  1130
  London
  5 d./day
  Laborer
  1294-5
  Autun
  7 d.
  Laborer
  1324
  Florence
  3-3 ½ soldi
  Laborer
  1344
  Florence
  4-4 ½ soldi
  Laborer
  1415
  Florence
  6-8 ½ soldi
  Laborer
  1444
  London
  2 d./day, 3 d./day if not fed
  Laborer
  1477
  Florence
  8-11 soldi
  Laborer
  1489
  Florence
  8-10 soldi
  Laborer
  1497
  Florence
  10 soldi
  Laborer
  1499
  Florence
  9-10 soldi
  Mason
  1294-5
  Autun
  20-22 d.
  Mason
  1352
  Florence
  17-20 soldi
  
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  Office
  Date
  Location
  Amount
  Mason
  1345
  Florence
  16-18 soldi
  Mason, master
  1426
  Venice
  25-36 soldi/day
  Mason, skilled
  1426
  Venice
  16 soldi/day
  Mason, apprentice
  1426
  Venice
  5-8 soldi/day
  Mason
  1444
  London
  4 d./day, 5 d./day if not fed
  Mayor
  1400-1450
  London
  None, but office carried some minor privileges
  Messenger
  1431
  Assisi
  1 soldo/mile (within commune), 2 
  soldo/mile (beyond commune)
  Miller, master
  1380
  Exeter
  24 d/week
  Miller, assistant
  1380
  Exeter
  14-16 d/week
  Notary (for mercenary company) 1363
  Pisa
  50 florins/yr.
  Physician (for Papacy)
  1363
  Avignon
  50 florins/yr.
  Plasterer
  1294-5
  Autun
  10-11 d.
  Podestà
  1382
  Chios
  1,250 Genoese pounds
  Purveyor
  1422
  Florence
  36 florins/yr.
  Recorder
  1310
  London
  15 pounds
  Recorder
  1419
  London
  100 marks
  Servant
  1415
  Florence
  9-11 florins
  Servant, male
  1444
  London
  15 s. 11 d./yr.
  Servant, male
  1424
  Venice
  23 ducats/yr. (inc. board and lodging)
  Servant, male
  1426
  Venice
  20 ducats/yr. (inc. board/ lodging)
  Servant, female
  1444
  London
  10 s. 4 d./yr.
  Servant
  1475
  Florence
  7-9 florins
  Stonecutter
  1294-5
  Autun
  20-22 d.
  Stonecutter (head of 
  major project)
  1492
  Florence
  36 florins
  Stonecutter
  1494
  Florence
  6-7 soldi
  Terrazziero, skilled
  1429
  Venice
  1 lire/day (to lay terrazzo floor)
  Town Clerk
  1419
  London
  10 pounds
  Treasurer
  1431
  Assisi
  30 soldi/mo. (6 month term)
  Waller
  1324
  Florence
  6-7 soldi
  Waller
  1344
  Florence
  8-10 soldi
  Waller
  1415
  Florence
  12-18 soldi
  Waller
  1489
  Florence
  36 florins/yr.
  Weaver
  1466
  Exeter
  4 d/ day
  Wetnurse
  1438
  Piove (near 
  Venice)
  14 ducats/yr.
  Woolcarder
  1231
  Genoa
  6 d/ day
  Woolcarder (experienced)
  1231
  Genoa
  8 d/ day
  
  Jewish Communities
  Page 89
  Most European Jewish communities were found 
  in towns, rather than on rural manors. Those in 
  towns around the Mediterranean tended to be larger 
  than those in Northern Europe. Palermo’s commu-
  nity of 1,500 Jews in the 1160s was one of the largest 
  in southern Europe. Some of the smallest might have 
  only a few families. Whatever their size, Jewish com-
  munities tended to be tightly linked both internally 
  and to neighboring communities through marriage 
  and business partnerships.
  At a minimum, a Jewish community needed its 
  own  butcher trained in the proper slaughter of ani-
  mals according to religious requirements; its own 
   synagogue for worship, a  mikvah (ritual bath), and 
  a  cemetery for burials. It might have a communal 
  oven for preparing Passover mazzot, its own well, and 
  a bathhouse. A sufficiently large community might 
  have its own doctor. Often one or more members 
  of the community were involved in  pawnbroking or 
   banking, because most other trades were restricted 
  to Christians.
  The community was often built near the local 
  landholder’s castle or fortress. Frequently,  Jews were 
  subjects of the monarch or a major landholder like 
  the Count of Champagne, who offered protection 
  from sporadic Christian violence in return for loans 
  made on generous terms. Jewish neighborhoods 
  tended to be insular, partly by choice and partly 
  due to various Church prohibitions against Jewish/
  Christian interactions. Formal  ghettos did not arise 
  until after 1500.
  If the community’s patron was strong, it thrived. 
  The Counts of Champagne, for example, created 
  a major center for Jewish religion.  Rashi of Troyes 
  (1040-1106) became a noted commentator on the 
  Talmud. Champagne’s Jews were also involved in 
  wine-making and trading. (Ideally, a Jewish commu-
  nity’s wine should also be prepared by Jews or under 
  Jewish supervision, but many communities had to 
  settle for whatever wine was available.) Where a 
  patron could not provide strong protection, or was 
  ambivalent or hostile to the Jewish community, 
   anti-Semitic violence flared and laws restricting the 
  community flourished.
  A community’s rights might be protected by a 
   charter. In 1084, Bishop Rudiger of Speyer granted a 
  generous charter to its Jewish community, in which 
  he promised the local residents a walled neighbor-
  hood and land for a cemetery. He gave them rights 
  to buy and sell in the town, and freedom from the 
  town’s tolls. The charter specifically allowed Jews to 
  hire Christian wet nurses and servants, and to sell 
  surplus  meat to Christian butchers. The community 
  was allowed to resolve its own disputes; if a dispute 
  could not be resolved, then it could be appealed to 
  the bishop or the town’s chamberlain. In 1090, the 
  charter was confirmed by Emperor Henry IV, who 
  added additional provisions punishing anyone who 
  harmed Speyer’s Jews; protecting homes from impe-
  rial quartering, and horses from imperial or ecclesias-
  tical requisitions; and prohibiting forced baptisms.
  Landholders assessed taxes on the Jewish com-
  munity as a whole, which then had to impose and 
  collect taxes from its members. In general, the 
  Jewish community elected its own leaders and offi-
  cials who kept the community’s official seal and 
  resolved internal disputes, including those over 
  marriage and inheritance. It provided for education, 
  charity for the elderly, sick, and orphans, main-
  tained the synagogue and cemetery, and helped 
  
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  Town: Jewish Communities
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  hire the butcher. Some communities had a beth din 
  (rabbinical court), a parnas (president) and gabbai 
  (treasurer) of the congregation, as well as scribes 
  and  chirographers (an official in charge of seals 
  and official documents). London’s records mention 
  a chief rabbi (presbyter Judaeorum) for England, an 
  office which was part of the English Exchequer of 
  the Jews, which kept track of the monarchy’s share 
  of Jewish moneylending. Communities tended to be 
  oligarchic; wealthier members contributed more to 
  taxes and fees, and had a greater voice in the com-
  munity’s decisions. Rabbis and scholars also often 
  had an important voice in decisions.
  In a large community, the landholder might name 
  a bailiff to act as a liaison between the landholder and 
  the community, and as a tax collector. In England, 
  the royal sheriff served as protector and tax collector 
  for the monarch. The community depended on its 
  patron for debt collection. The landholder could for-
  give his own loans, or the debts owed to his political 
  allies. If the community did not make a demanded 
  loan, its leaders could be imprisoned.
  The public did not have a good understanding of 
  Jewish practices or theology. Christian theologians 
  did not begin to translate the Talmud until the 12th 
  century. Jewish theologians often dismissed Christian 
  faith as idolatrous. Discussions were risky. In one 
  13th century incident, a knight attacked a Jewish 
  rabbi who was discussing his faith in a debate with a 
  Christian priest. King Louis IX defended the knight’s 
  attack, saying that any layman who heard his faith 
  maligned in such a debate should “defend it only by 
  the sword, with a good thrust in the belly, as far as 
  the sword will go.”
  The Church had a long tradition of ambiva-
  lence towards Jews. On the one hand, Jews were 
  respected for maintaining a tradition respecting the 
  Old Testament. On the other hand, theologians dis-
  liked them for denying the New Testament. Popular 
  biblical interpretations blamed the  Jews for the 
  Crucifixion. For many centuries, the net result was a 
  policy of tolerance for Jews and their religious prac-
  tices, so long as they were not seen to pose a threat to 
  Christian theology. The Papacy imposed a variety of 
  rules on European Jews, prohibiting them from hav-
  ing political or personal power over Christians (whom 
  it was feared they might try to convert), limiting dis-
  plays of wealth and of faith, and limiting Jewish-
  Christian interactions. The Fourth Lateran Council 
  (1215) required  Jews and Saracens to wear distinctive 
  badges when in public. Until the late 14th century, 
  many communities were able to ignore this directive. 
  During the 14th century, towns began to enforce the 
  rule. Men usually wore a circle of yellow cloth on the 
  left-hand side of their clothes. Women wore circular 
  earrings and short cloaks. Children were exempt from 
  the badge requirement. Jewish travelers newly arrived 
  in a town often had one to ten days to comply with 
  the rule. Those who ignored the rule could be fined 
  by the town’s courts.
  In return, Church theology held that Christians 
  should not harm Jews because of their faith, nor dam-
  age their  synagogues or cemeteries. Other Church 
  rules often required synagogues to be modest in their 
  exterior decorations, and that religious services be 
  quiet, so as not to disturb Christian neighbors or 
  passers-by. Some towns forbade Jews to buy or sell 
  meat during Lent.  Sexual relationships between Jews 
  and Christians were strictly forbidden. Jews were for-
  bidden to convert Christians, but Christian leaders 
  were free to try to convert Jews, and even to compel 
  their attendance at lectures and speeches designed to 
  convert them. Jewish cemeteries were often located 
  outside town walls. Some towns insisted that buri-
  al processions take place at  night and take routes 
  that avoided major intersections, churches, and 
  monasteries, to avoid anti-Semitic attacks. Armed 
   guards accompanied the mourners. Some town stat-
  utes also forbade Jewish mourners to wearing tradi-
  tional mourning dress, a right reserved to Christian 
  bereaved.
  In most of Italy, Jews could bring lawsuits against 
  Christians in urban courts, swearing oaths on the 
  Talmud and by Mosiac law. In other areas, it was 
  harder for a Jew to resolve a problem without seeking 
  his community’s patron’s intercession.
  Jewish religious restrictions on meat preparation 
  meant that the community used more animals per 
  person. A specially trained butcher (shohet) had to 
  inspect an animal, slaughter it in a specific way, then 
  inspect the body again. Certain body parts could not 
  be used, but they could be sold to Christian butch-
  ers. Selling unusable meat to Christian custom-
  ers defrayed some of the costs, but it also raised the 
  Church’s suspicions. Often, the Jewish community’s 
  charter gave it the specific right to slaughter animals 
  at its own, or a local butcher’s shop, and gave the 
  butchers the right to sell rejected meat.
  
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  Town: Jewish Communities
  Page 91
  As noted elsewhere (p. 89), Jewish communities 
  were often involved in  moneylending – most other 
  professions being closed to them. Small loans, often 
  secured by pawned goods, served an important need 
  for credit, but also made debtors resentful of their 
  creditors. Anti-Semitic riots frequently involved 
  burning moneylenders’ records. (In England, an 1194 
  royal law required debts to be registered with the 
  Jewish community and a royal official ( chirographer), 
  thus creating better tax records for the crown and pre-
  venting debtors from easily destroying their records.) 
  When the French monarchy and several counts tried 
  to use papal concerns about Jewish moneylending to 
  force the cancellation of loans to themselves, Gregory 
  IX sent letters urging French archbishops and bish-
  ops to intervene in favor of the Jews to insist on the 
  honoring of legitimate debt obligations. Two centu-
  ries later, Italian Franciscan friars tried to undercut 
  Jewish moneylenders with 
  non-profit  banks, hoping to 
  force Jews to convert in order 
  to make a living. The papa-
  cy did not intervene on the 
  Jews’ behalf.
  Jews were also noted as 
  doctors. Moses Maimonides, 
  a Jewish physician living in 
  Spain in the late 12th cen-
  tury, was a prolific, influen-
  tial writer. His books, written 
  in Arabic, discussed various 
  medical topics and com-
  mented on ancient Greek 
  texts. Jewish immigrants from Muslim Spain and the 
  Middle East brought translated Greek texts and com-
  mentaries by Jewish physicians to European Jewish 
  communities. Jewish doctors seem to have mostly 
  learned their trade through a master- apprentice sys-
  tem. A few were able to study in Christian universi-
  ties, primarily in Italy and southern France.
  Jewish  doctors were well regarded. Even the 
  Papacy, despite its various bans, had Jewish doctors 
  at its court. There were 34 known Jewish doctors in 
  Avignon during the Papacy’s stay in that town.
  Jewish  women also practiced as doctors. There 
  are a few known female Jewish doctors who practiced 
  in towns like Frankfurt, Marseille, Paris, Palermo, and 
  Warsaw.  Female Jewish eye surgeons, who removed 
  cataracts and treated conditions like trachoma (a 
  parasite) and ingrown eyelashes, were often deemed 
  the best in Europe.
  Jewish communities were frequent targets of 
   mob violence. In some towns, young boys would pelt 
  Jewish homes with stones during the week leading 
  up to  Easter with no consequences. Town authorities 
  would only step in if the  stone throwing turned into 
  more serious violence. (The Fourth Lateran Council 
  prohibited Jews from traveling in the streets during 
  the week preceding Easter.) As noted, Jewish funeral 
  processions were also frequently pelted by stones.
  Sometimes the violence was more extreme. In 
  1189, a group of Jews attending Richard I’s corona-
  tion in London were attacked by a mob. The sur-
  vivors fled, and were attacked in various towns 
  around London as they tried to make their way 
  home. The violent outbreak ended a year later, with 
  the murder of a group of Jews in York in 1190. In 
  1096, Jewish communities 
  in the Holy Roman Empire 
  were attacked by Crusaders 
  enroute to Outremere. 
  Speyer’s community escaped 
  most of the violence, due to 
  protection by Speyer’s bish-
  op. In 1188, the leaders of 
  the Second Crusade tried to 
  prevent anti-Jewish attacks, 
  and German towns were bet-
  ter prepared to protect their 
  Jewish residents.
  Many Christians appar-
  ently believed that Jews 
  actively sought to harm them. There were numer-
  ous accusations of murder, ritual sacrifice of children, 
  ritual desecration of consecrated hosts (communion 
  bread), intentionally spreading disease, and/or poi-
  soning wells. Many of these accusations led to mass 
  arrests, false confessions, and  executions. In a few 
  cases, clerical or ecclesiastical authorities investigated 
  the claims – most concluded they were false. In some 
  cases, the clergy bowed to popular pressure, support-
  ing claims of martyrdom and/or miraculous protec-
  tion of consecrated hosts from harm. 
  The  false stories of ritual murder started in 1144, 
  when English locals accused Jews of ritually murder-
  ing a missing Norwich boy. The story, and others like 
  it, spread across Europe. Christians widely believed 
  the lurid stories. King Henry III learned of an alleged 
  Small loans served 
  an important need, 
  but also made 
  debtors resentful 
  of their creditors.
  
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  murder in Lincoln and entrusted the investigation 
  to one of his knights. A Jew was forced to confess – 
  and another 91 were taken to the Tower of London. 
  Eighteen of them were hanged before local clergy 
  asked for the executions to stop.
  Stories of Jews allegedly desecrating a consecrat-
  ed host surfaced in Paris in 1290 and spread widely. 
  In Paris, the monarchy and local bishop apparently 
  believed the claim and enshrined the host in a local 
  church (see pp. 122-123). In Germany, in the sum-
  mer of 1298, a local knight was inspired by an alle-
  gation of host desecration to lead a  mob to kill 21 
  Jews in Roettlingen and to attack other communi-
  ties over the following summer. The Holy Roman 
  Emperor was unable to suppress the attacks. In 1336-
  38, John Zimberlin, a German tavern-keeper, led an 
  anti-Jewish mob against communities in Alsace.
  All of this pressure led some Jews to convert to 
  Christianity. It was a one-way process. A convert who 
  relapsed could be excommunicated by the Church 
  and executed by civil authorities. Some Jews convert-
  ed out of sincere religious beliefs. Some converted to 
  marry a Christian spouse. Wealthy Jews sometimes 
  converted to protect their family’s position from anti-
  Semitic laws.  Beggars sometimes converted to receive 
  greater charity from churches, but rarely bettered 
  their situation significantly. A few enterprising crooks 
  called Iucchi (several times baptized) even went from 
  town to town claiming to be repentant Jews and get-
  ting gifts from the Christian community when they 
  were baptized. Jewish society disapproved of con-
  verts, but generally maintained social and business 
  ties. Christians often regarded converts with suspi-
  cion about the sincerity of the change, and of relapse 
  into their old faith.
   Southern Italy was an exception to many of these 
  trends. Jews and Muslims had longstanding commu-
  nities at the time of the Norman Conquest of Sicily. 
  Palermo’s community of 1,500 Jews in 1160s was one 
  of the largest in Italy. Jewish merchants were wide-
  spread in the South, and not as focused on money-
  lending as in the North. Jewish artisans in Palermo 
  were active in wool and silk making and trading. In 
  1221, Frederick II signed an edict requiring Jews to 
  wear a distinctive orange sign. Later, he revoked the 
  requirement, allowed new synagogues to be built, 
  and favored Jewish immigrants from North Africa. 
  In 1231, he formally confirmed a series of royal pro-
  tections for Jews and Muslims, including the ability to 
  bring lawsuits in royal courts. Unfortunately, a series 
  of popular attacks between 1290-1294 destroyed most 
  of the southern Jewish communities. When Aragon 
  captured Sicily, the Aragonese crown reimposed 
  the distinctive sign; however, the crown otherwise 
  encouraged Jewish communities to flourish.
  In several nations, Jewish-Christian relation-
  ships reached a point where the monarch expelled 
  the Jewish community en masse. England expelled 
  its  Jews in 1290, France in 1182-98, 1306-15, and 
  1394, Spain in 1492, and Portugal in 1497. A number 
  of Jews fled to Sicily and southern Italy. Exiles could 
  take their personal property, but their real estate was 
  confiscated by the monarch. Those that remained 
  behind either converted, or were executed. Some 
  continued to practice their faith in secret until the 
  restrictions were lifted centuries later.
  
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  Page 93
  Thus far, Town has discussed urban life through 
  its structures. In this chapter, the focus turns to the 
  roles and rituals of the townspeople themselves. 
  Townspeople were divided in many ways: by guild, 
  by parish, by neighborhood. At the most basic level, 
  however, a town’s inhabitants were divided by their 
  legal  rights as foreigner, resident, or citizen.
   Foreigners were those 
  who visited the town from 
  outside, regardless of wheth-
  er they traveled for a day 
  from a nearby farming village 
  or for a month from a distant 
  foreign land. Foreigners had 
  very few legal rights except 
  those they might have as 
  a landholder’s vassal, as a 
  member of the clergy, or as 
  a visitor from a town that 
  had negotiated a trade treaty 
  with the host town. Urban 
  residents suspected foreign-
  ers of all manner of mis-
  deeds, frauds, and crimes; it 
  was hard to trust someone 
  who had no references or 
  local contacts.
  Most townspeople were 
  mere  residents. Residency 
  had its privileges, including 
  the ability to transform a serf 
  into a free person. A serf was 
  a farmer with limited rights: 
  he or she was effectively a landholder’s property and 
  was required to work for the landholder, for free, for 
  a number of days each year.  Serfs were not slaves; 
  they could not be sold to another landholder unless 
  the underlying land was also transferred, and they 
  had other customary rights. A serf could buy his or 
  her freedom or go to a town. Under English law, a 
  serf’s unchallenged residence in a town for a year-
  and-a-day precluded the serf’s former landholder 
  from claiming him or her. Similar customs applied 
  in France and the Holy Roman Empire. In order to 
  invoke this privilege, the serf needed to register his 
  residence with town authorities. If the serf came from 
  a neighboring landholder, the town might refuse to 
  register him, and report his presence under agree-
  ments between the town and its neighbors.
   Citizenship entailed more privileges and rights. 
  The most important right was the ability to trade in the 
  market without paying taxes or tolls imposed on non-
  citizens. It was also a prerequi-
  site for holding most munici-
  pal and many guild offices. 
  One could become a citizen by 
  being born to citizens, by pur-
  chasing the right, or by receiv-
  ing it as part of becoming a 
  master of a prominent guild. 
  Prospective citizens usually 
  had to be sponsored by exist-
  ing citizens, to reside in the 
  town for at least a year, and 
  to own a minimum amount of 
  property. Milan required five 
  years continuous residence, 
  plus ownership of 500 florins 
  worth of fixed goods for a 
  new citizen. Siena demanded 
  a fee, and that the new citizen 
  build or own a house within 
  the town worth at least 100 
  livre. Once gained, citizenship 
  could be lost if the townsper-
  son were convicted of various 
  serious crimes.
  In an age before identity 
  documents, townspeople recognized each other’s sta-
  tus by clothing, language, and behavior. Urban life 
  was surprisingly intimate. Townspeople frequently 
  crossed paths on the streets, in churches and shops, 
  in the market, or at public wells. They knew each 
  other by name, reputation, guild, and family. Births, 
  marriages, and deaths were neighborhood events. 
  Strangers and new immigrants stood out, a subject 
  of gossip and scrutiny.
  It was difficult for a townsperson to escape 
  their neighbors’ eyes and ears. Streets were narrow. 
  Residences abutted each other. Windows were left 
  
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  open whenever possible for light and ventilation. 
  Sounds of quarrels and conversations traveled eas-
  ily. Townspeople shared informal codes of conduct 
  designed to protect each others’ privacy and avoid 
  inadvertent insult. One had to be careful to avoid 
  being  rude, being overly curious, or openly displaying 
  too much emotion. People tried to eat quietly and in 
  moderation, to share food, and to be circumspect at 
  church and in public squares.
  CLASS
  Townspeople were also divided by  social class. 
  A town’s classes included the usual medieval divi-
  sion of nobles, clergy, and commoners, then divid-
  ed commoners into the wealthier guild masters and 
  merchants, workers, and the poor. There is little sign 
  that these subdivisions were conscious of themselves 
  as separate classes. Workers, for example, might 
  ally across trades during a worker’s rebellion such as 
  the Ciompi in Florence and Siena, or the Maillotins 
  in Paris, but generally, they were more likely to 
  rally around their parish, neighborhood, or trade. 
  Rebellions tended to start in one area, usually among 
  the numerous cloth manufacturers, then spread spon-
  taneously to other workers with similar grievances 
  against their employers and the urban government.
   Clothing
  The style and materials used in one’s clothing 
  were key clues to social standing, which was particu-
  larly important in larger towns, where residents were 
  less likely to know people beyond their neighborhood 
  by sight. In the late Middle Ages, authorities tried to 
  legislate these cues with sumptuary laws that fined 
  those who wore clothing too ornate for their social 
  class. The clergy also railed against conspicuous con-
  sumption in clothing and accessories, chiding those 
  who flaunted their success.
  An English sumptuary law of 1363, for example, 
  forbade artisans from buying or wearing cloth that 
  cost more than 4 shillings; their cloth could not be 
  made of silk, silver, or gold, nor could it include fur 
  other than cat, fox, lamb, or rabbit. An artisan’s 
  clothing could not be embroidered; accessories could 
  not be made of silver or gold.
  Squires whose lands and rent were worth less 
  than 100 pounds, and their wives, had much the same 
  restrictions as artisans, except that their clothes could 
  cost up to 4 1/2 marks. If the squire’s lands and rent 
  was worth 200 marks or more, he and his spouse could 
  wear clothing costing up to 5 marks. In addition, a 
  squire was allowed to wear silver, could use any fur 
  except ermine or letuse (snow-weasel), and could have 
  gems on his headdress. Merchants who had goods 
  worth 500 pounds were equivalent to the lesser rank 
  of squires. Those who had goods worth 1,000 pounds 
  were equivalent to the greater rank of squires.
   Knights whose lands or rent were worth up to 200 
  pounds could wear clothing worth 6 marks. They could 
  not wear gold, ermine, or gems except in their head-
  dresses. A knight worth 400 to 1,000 marks could wear 
  anything except ermine and gems on his clothing.
  Higher nobles could wear gold and purple silk. 
  Ermine and letuse fur was reserved for the royal fam-
  ily and nobles possessing more than 1,000 pounds.
  In 1463, a new English sumptuary  law made it ille-
  gal for anyone except for higher nobility to wear gold 
  or sable fur. This law also prohibited styles as well as 
  fabrics. Knights, and urban leaders such as the Mayor 
  of London, could not wear velvet or purple silk. Those 
  who were not knights, London’s  aldermen, or mayors 
  of other towns, could not wear velvet, satin, or ermine. 
  Tailors were prohibited from making clothing that did 
  not cover a male client’s buttocks. Shoemakers could 
  not make shoes with points more than two inches long. 
  (Apparently, the law was widely disregarded. A new 
  version was passed in 1482 with different restrictions, 
  but the same basic class categories.)
   Prostitutes and  Jews were often required to 
  identify themselves with badges of a specific size, 
  color, and shape, worn on the outermost layer of 
  clothing. In addition, both groups were often fined 
  for wearing clothing deemed too ornate for their 
  disfavored status.  
  The  Poor
  About one-tenth of the population were  beggars 
  without a trade or family to support them. Custom 
  distinguished between those who were unemployed 
  but able to work, and those who were unable to work. 
  The able-bodied poor were seen as unworthy of char-
  ity. Churches and secular charities rarely gave money 
  or alms to anyone who seemed employable, some-
  times encouraging the able-bodied to return to rural 
  farms. The crippled, infirm, and insane, on the other 
  hand, were given charity. Beggars gathered, some-
  
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  times in the hundreds, to collect food, clothing, and 
  coins distributed on feast-days, festivals, or funerals. 
  Unless prohibited from doing so, beggars also sought 
  charity by gathering to beg along roads and public 
  plazas, and near churches.
  Some of the more-or-less able-bodied poor like-
  ly survived by  hustling – intermittent work such as 
  reselling food, running errands and carrying mes-
  sages, cutting hair, making minor repairs, caring for 
  household livestock, and as wetnurses or babysitters. 
  Hustlers might also be hired to scare away prostitutes 
  and drunks, and protect property from vandalism and 
  theft. Hustling was sporadic work, and often vulner-
  able to a “street tax” from local toughs,  aldermen, or 
  even priests, who helped their parishioners find work 
  and/or laborers. In some towns, hustlers stood at the 
  market cross each morning hoping to be hired. Urban 
  officials might seek bribes to allow hucksters to sur-
  vive without being fined for forestalling and regrat-
  ing (selling goods at a significantly higher price than 
  they were purchased for) or selling spoiled or adul-
  terated goods.
  Popular stories portrayed  beggars as clever liars, 
  vindictive, distrustful, debauched, and ungrateful to 
  their benefactors. Many were suspected of exaggerat-
  ing or faking infirmities and injuries to avoid honest 
  work. Other stories alleged that beggars avoided any 
  chance of a miraculous cure that might force them 
  to then earn a living. Rarely were they portrayed in 
  a sympathetic way.
  At times, towns tried to get rid of their beggars, 
  and solve rural labor shortages at the same time, by 
  expelling vagrants. In August, 1418, for example, 
  London’s authorities ordered vagrants to leave and 
  help with harvests. Another expulsion order was 
  made in November, 1475. It is unclear what effect 
  either order had in the long term.
  In 1405, Milan established the Officium Pietatis 
  Pauperum, a board of clergy and lay people led by the 
  Vicar-General of the diocese, to shelter the poor and 
  presumably separate the deserving poor from liars and 
  vagrants. In 1442, Bresca created a large hospital to 
  centralize its charity to the poor. (England similarly 
  began to centralize and reform its  hospitals in 1414.) 
  In 1477, Venice tried to restrict its Scuola (religious 
  confraternities) from distributing money to the poor 
  who were not members of the organization. Scuola 
  could make donations to monasteries and convents, 
  to prisoners, and to a foundling hospital. 
   IMMIGRANTS
  Most medieval towns could not sustain their own 
  populations by birth alone. Disease was endemic, cre-
  ating high rates of urban and child mortality. Towns 
  depended on immigrants for labor and as customers. 
  In Pisa, for example, around 1260, between one-half 
  and two-thirds of the population were immigrants to 
  the town.
  Most immigrants were rural  farmers from with-
  in a twenty-mile radius of the town. Rural people 
  immigrated to the town for many reasons. Nobles 
  and higher-ranking clergy came for the town’s com-
  merce and to make contacts with royal or ecclesiasti-
  cal courts. Rural artisans sent their  children to town 
  as apprentices to specialize in skills that were infre-
  quently in demand on rural manors, and with hope 
  of the child becoming a master. Some peasants and 
  serfs came because there were too many in their fam-
  ily for their lands to support or they had no hope of 
  inheriting their parents’ land. Immigration increased 
  when harvests were poor or there was a surplus of 
  agricultural labor, driving down wages. Others came 
  in hopes of finding better work as urban servants or 
  in workshops. Towns also hosted short-term immi-
  grants and visitors such as students, pilgrims, court-
  iers, and those pursuing lawsuits in urban or ecclesi-
  astical courts.
  Tax records suggest that most people came to 
  towns from the surrounding smaller market towns. 
  The majority traveled less than twenty miles, often 
  coming from a village or smaller market town within 
  a six to eight mile radius. Those who dwelt near a 
  town would be most familiar with its dialect, customs, 
  and measures. They would be most likely to have a 
  relative or acquaintance in the town who could pro-
  vide temporary lodging and help them find a job.
  Despite the need for a constant flow of immi-
  grants, residents and citizens were suspicious of new-
  comers. They were feared as competitors for jobs 
  and for political favors. Newcomers who did not 
  have established ties of family, guild, and parish were 
  unknowns, and thus hard to trust. Some commen-
  tators, such as Dante, also blamed immigrants for a 
  moral decline in the community.
   Servants
  Servants were often a sub-class of immigrants. 
  Wealthy urban households had between one and 
  
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  six household servants, often distant rural relatives 
  hired to perform domestic chores, care for animals, 
  and tutor children. In England, most servants were 
  young adults, typically 12 to 26 years old, who 
  traded their labor for wages, the experience of town 
  life, and a basic education in literacy and arithme-
  tic. Many youths returned to their homes after a 
  few years and used their savings to help them afford 
  marriage and a family. Others remained, becoming 
  an artisan or merchant’s  apprentice in the town. In 
  Italy, it was rare for young women to work outside 
  the home; female  slaves from the Black Sea were 
  imported as domestic servants.
  In England,  servants were usually hired for one 
  year terms, often from  Michelmas (September 29) to 
  Michelmas or based around  Martinmas (November 
  11). At the end of their term, they could stay, or go 
  elsewhere in hopes of higher wages or better work. 
  Those seeking new work might gather at the town’s 
  marketplace at a fair around Michelmas. Often 
  employers hired their own distant relatives, or rela-
  tives of trusted servants, or those they knew from 
  their guilds or parishes. Larger towns may have had 
  formal, or informal,  employment agents (recomman-
  dresse, Fr.).
  Some historians suggest that because more 
  young English  women were able to work as servants 
  outside their homes and villages, they were able 
  to learn a bit about their employers’ trades and to 
  save money for marriage, thus giving them greater 
  financial independence than their peers in other 
  countries.
   Slaves
  Slavery was illegal in much of Europe, and 
  uncommon where it was legal. The Church 
  required that slaves be “infidels”, heretics, or not 
  baptized. Some Italians purchased non-Christian 
  slaves from Muslim merchants. Most came from the 
  Black Sea region or the Balkans; relatively few were 
  Muslims or from sub-Saharan Africa. Most slaves 
  were women purchased as domestic laborers. In 
  the aftermath of the Black Plague when labor was 
  scarce, most northern Italian households had at 
  least one female domestic slave. Slaves were often 
  freed during their lives and were provided with 
  some financial help from their former owners upon 
  manumission.
   MUSLIMS
  Their King, William [II], is admirable for his just 
  conduct, and the use he makes of the industry of the 
  Muslims. ... He has much confidence in Muslims, re-
  lying on them for his affairs, and the most important 
  of matters, even the supervisor of his kitchen being a 
  Muslim; and he keeps a band of black Muslim slaves 
  commanded by a leader chosen from amongst them. 
  ... The King possesses splendid palaces and elegant 
  gardens, particularly in the capital of his kingdom, 
  al-Madinah [Palermo]. In Messina he has a palace, 
  white like a dove, which overlooks the shore. He has 
  about him a great number of youths and handmaid-
  ens, and no Christian King is more given up to the 
  delights of his realm, or more comfort and luxury-
  loving. William is engrossed in the pleasures of his 
  land, the arrangement of its laws, the laying down 
  of procedure, the allocation of the functions of his 
  chief officials, the enlargement of the splendor of the 
  realm, and the display of his pomp, in a manner that 
  resembles the Muslim kings.
  – Ibn Jubayr, 1185
  Muslims infrequently appeared in Christian 
  European towns. From the 7th to 11th century, Muslim 
  sailors raided Mediterranean coastal villages and 
  towns. Later, Mediterranean  merchants traded fre-
  quently in Muslim ports, but very few Muslim mer-
  chants came to European ports. (Islam discouraged 
  Muslims from trading in infidel ports.) Christian rul-
  ers and merchants sent embassies to Muslim lands, 
  but very rarely did Muslim envoys visit Europe.
  Sicily was one of the few places where Muslims 
  lived in a Christian kingdom prior to the reconquest 
  of Spain. It had been a Muslim kingdom when it was 
  captured by the Normans in the late 11th century. At 
  that point, some 60% of the Sicilian population was 
  Muslim. The Normans uprooted the Muslim land-
  holding patterns and imposed a northern French feu-
  dalism over the existing patchwork of local custom 
  and tradition.  Jews and  Muslims paid special taxes, 
  but were each allowed to be judged by their own lead-
  ers under their own laws. Arabic, French, Greek, and 
  Latin were all used in official documents and on coins. 
  Greek, Jewish, and Muslim administrators retained 
  important posts in the Norman administration. The 
  posts themselves had titles ranging from Judiciar and 
  
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  Seneschal to Baiulo, Cadi, Catapan, Emir, Logothete, 
  and Strategos.
  For about a century,  Muslims were able to live 
  in relative peace in  Sicily. There was a low level of 
  violence from Norman and Lombard settlers, but 
  many Muslims held offices in the royal court. During 
  a period of unrest in the mid-12th century, Muslims 
  suffered from Sicilian  mobs. When King Henry IV 
  died in 1197, his son Frederick was crowned as king 
  at the age of three. During his youth, his regents 
  were unable to prevent major landholders, including 
  Sicily’s Muslims, from asserting their independence.
  In the early 13th century, King (and Emperor) 
  Frederick II had to subdue 
  Sicily’s  Saracens. Many were 
  led by the emir, Ibn ‘Abbad, 
  who held the mountains 
  of central Sicily. In 1222, 
  the emir and his sons were 
  captured, then hanged in 
  Palermo. The major battles 
  were over by 1225, but 
  raids continued for at least 
  five more years. Thereafter, 
  Frederick II sent nearly 
  20,000 Muslims to found a 
  colony at Lucera in south-
  ern Italy. Another uprising 
  in 1243 led to the deporta-
  tion of Sicily’s remaining 
  Muslims to Lucera. There, 
  the Muslims opposed the 
  Angevin (French) conquest 
  of Sicily in 1269. Lucera 
  was besieged and starved 
  into surrendering. The Angevins expelled  Lucera’s 
  Muslims in 1300, selling many into slavery, and 
  turned their mosque into a cathedral.
  In Spain,  Muslims in conquered lands were gen-
  erally offered a choice of converting or leaving. Many 
  left for North Africa. Those who were able to remain 
  unconverted were subject to heavy taxes and lim-
  ited legal rights, and were forced to wear a distinc-
  tive badge. As the Spanish monarchs became more 
  able to enforce their laws, they required their subjects 
  to convert – forcing the departure of the remaining 
  Muslims. By 1502, all openly practicing Muslims had 
  left Spain. Some of the converts, known as Moriscos, 
  continued to practice their faith in secret.
   WOMEN
  God did not make woman from man’s head for her 
  to dominate him, nor from man’s foot for him to tread 
  her underfoot; but from his side so that he might hold 
  her close to his heart and cherish her.
  – Peter Lombard, Bishop of Paris (d. 1160)
  Women’s roles in medieval society were often 
  better than is popularly believed, and this is espe-
  cially true of urban women. Urban women generally 
  had greater legal rights and economic opportunities 
  than rural women. Many European women could 
  be citizens of towns in their own rights, although it 
  was uncommon for one to 
  do so. The maxim that town 
  air made one free of feudal 
  obligations applied to both 
  men and women. Town laws 
  often provided stronger prop-
  erty and inheritance rights, 
  and punished rape more 
  seriously.
  Women worked in a 
  variety of trades, either as 
  partners with their spous-
  es, as widows, or, less com-
  monly, as guild members in 
  their own right. They were 
  strongly associated with tex-
  tile trades as spinners and 
  carders of wool. Some were 
  weavers, although due to the 
  cost of a loom, many did so 
  as wives or widows of male 
  weavers. In France, some towns had female textile 
  guilds. Others were active as seamstresses, laun-
  drywomen, and as sellers of second-hand clothes. 
  Women were also strongly associated with many 
  food trades as alewives, brewers,  fishmongers, inn-
  keepers, and hucksters selling small amounts of poul-
  try, bread, eggs, cheese, and other goods. Butchers’ 
  wives and daughters often made blood pudding and 
  tallow  candles. Women were small retail shopkeepers 
  (institrix), hucksters, and peddlers. In several areas, 
  women were noted for operating ferries and small 
  boats. Jewish women frequently owned pawn shops. 
  Almost all midwives were women and there were a 
  few rare female doctors and surgeons.
  As the Spanish 
  monarchs became 
  more able to 
  enforce their laws, 
  they required 
  their subjects to 
  convert – forcing 
  the departure of the 
  remaining Muslims.
  
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  One of the common features of many of these 
  trades is that they did not need expensive tools or 
  materials. A woman with little access to capital or 
  credit could support herself in these. As wives and 
  widows, women were more likely to have access to 
  marital property, and thus the resources to operate 
  their husbands’ trades as his partner, in his absence, 
  or after his  death.
  In larger towns, women were sometimes wholesale 
  traders or merchants (mercatrix). Letters of credit and 
  Italian partnerships allowed female investors to profit 
  from trading ventures without leaving their homes. One 
  Genoese source suggests that women were involved in 
  12% of seafaring venture contracts, providing 14% of 
  the capital in the first half of the 13th century. Women 
  entered into contracts and collected debts while their 
  husbands traveled, or were ill. In some areas, a married 
  woman who was a member of a guild or trade in her 
  own right (femme sole) might be treated as if she were 
  single or widowed.
  Notwithstanding a high rate of mortality in 
  childbirth, urban  women tended to outnumber men 
  by a ratio of 1.2 or 1.3 to 1. The surplus of women 
  available for marriage, or widowed, was even greater 
  than it appears – some 30-40% of a town’s popula-
  tion were clergy (who could not marry), and the 
  majority of clergy were males. Unmarried women 
  and widows became a significant portion, 8% to 
  38%, of a town’s taxpayers.
  Florence was an exception to this trend. Florentine 
   women, it appears, had fewer legal rights than their 
  English and French counterparts or women in other 
  Italian city-states. Among the wealthier classes, 
  Florentine women were more likely to be virtually 
  cloistered in their homes, and to have their rights to 
  their dowry and inheritance restricted.
   NEIGHBORHOODS
  The ties between neighbors were the second-
  strongest urban link, after that of family. To some 
  extent, the two overlapped. Families, especially 
  wealthy families, tended to cluster around the house 
  of the most prominent member, or around the same 
  street, or the same parish church. Immigrants tend-
  ed to settle in neighborhoods with others from their 
  home town or region. Immigrants tended to intermar-
  ry, which resulted in neighborhoods interlinked by 
  family ties. Similarly, artisans and merchants’ shops 
  tended to cluster in the same neighborhood. Because 
  masters often lived above their shops, family and pro-
  fessional links intertwined.
  The link between family, work, and parish 
  resulted in neighborhoods where everyone knew 
  each other. Neighbors congregated for childbirth 
  celebrations, marriages,  death vigils, and funer-
  als. Children played together in the streets. Young 
  women could walk around without fear of harass-
  ment or assault; although in parts of Italy, wealthy 
  daughters were confined to their homes to watch 
  street life from upper story windows. Houses tended 
  to be dark and stuffy, so women tended to spin wool 
  sitting on a stoop. As noted above, sound carried 
  easily in urban neighborhoods. In the event of an 
  accident or violence, someone was likely to respond 
  to a cry for help.
  Neighbors were likely involved in webs of mutu-
  al obligations. Successful neighbors were expected 
  to help their neighbors with loans and jobs as well 
  as support the parish church and local charities. 
  Underemployed people worked for each other as ser-
  vants and laborers. On the one hand, such ties helped 
  the community survive. On the other hand, indi-
  vidual members might feel nervous about venturing 
  beyond their neighborhood for work, fearing that if 
  they failed they would be left without patrons, allies, 
  creditors, clients, and suppliers. If they returned to 
  their old neighborhood, some might fear their peers 
  would think they were less trustworthy because they 
  had abandoned the community. 
  Basic units of urban government formed around 
   wards, which were essentially collections of neighbor-
  hoods. Wards were also the focus for competitions 
  like races and even mock-wars between groups of 
  young men.
   RITUALS OF LIFE
  The family was an important part of urban life, 
  particularly in Italy. Marriage cemented alliances 
  between families. Inheritance passed on the family’s 
  wealth to the next generation. Family contacts 
  made it easier for an immigrant to find work in a 
  town, and for town residents to support each other 
  through illness or bad fortune. Guild membership 
  tended to pass from father to son, sometimes creat-
  ing an interlocking series of family alliances within 
  a profession or guild.
  
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   Birth
  The  infant mortality rate was high, perhaps as 
  much as 30-50%. Often children were baptized soon 
  after birth; however in northern Italy,  baptisms were 
  typically held en mass each year at  Easter, and later 
  at the Pentecost vigil as well. In an emergency, any 
  person could perform a baptism if there was no avail-
  able priest. Church councils recommended cler-
  gy explain the appropriate words and actions 
  in multiple sermons each year.
  Women tended to 
  have many children. In 
  the early 14th centu-
  ry, between 5,000 and 
  6,000 children were bap-
  tized each year in Florence 
  (population about 90,000). 
  An analysis of Italian wills sug-
  gests that when a will was drawn 
  (often when the father was in his 
  30s), the couple had 1.9 to 2.5 sur-
  viving children.
  There was a basic division 
  between legitimate children 
  (born within marriage) and ille-
  gitimate children. Illegitimacy 
  was a serious stigma on both 
  mother and child, but a father could chose to recog-
  nize an illegitimate child as an heir.
   Children generally stayed close to their mothers 
  through infancy and childhood. If a mother did not 
  have enough milk to feed an infant, she might hire a 
  wet nurse. Urban mothers also often hired rural wet 
  nurses so that their children could avoid urban dis-
  ease and might be more likely to survive. Sadly, rural 
  wet-nurses do not seem to have statistically decreased 
  infant mortality.  Children generally wore a long robe 
  without underclothes, and often had   amulets to ward 
  of illness or the “ evil eye”. At around age 14, male 
  children generally were apprenticed or became ser-
  vants. Female children often became servants at 
  around age 12, learning domestic skills and earning 
  money for a dowry. 
  Generally, when a child was baptized, its parents 
  chose  godparents, in theory to help instruct the child 
  in their faith. The role of godparents varied by region 
  and era. Often they were seen as future patrons, and 
  as allies to the parents’ family. 
   Marriage
  Here I take Janet to my wedded wife for farer for 
  lather for better for wars in sekens and in helth and 
  holy kirk wil it ordaynd and thereto plight I the my 
  trowth.
  Here I take Thomas for to my wedded husband 
  to holde and to have at bed and at burde for fare for 
  lather for better for wars in seknesse and in helth to 
  deth us depart and holy kirk wil it ordaynd and therto 
  plyght I the my trowth.
  – Wedding Vows, 
  Wakefield, 1480
  Marriage, and the ties it cre-
  ated between families, were impor-
  tant factors in urban life for moder-
  ately wealthy and wealthy families. 
  Historians know less about marriage cus-
  toms among the less-wealthy urban classes; how-
  ever, virtually every adult who was not a mem-
  ber of the clergy was expected to marry. The 
  Church had jurisdiction over any litigation 
  regarding marriage and divorce. Under its 
  rules, a marriage required the verbal mutu-
  al consent of both parties. A promise could 
  be made for the future, and became effec-
  tive when the relationship was consummated. In 
  order to prove a marriage in ecclesiastical court, how-
  ever, the couple needed two independent witnesses.
  For most couples, the marriage itself tended to 
  be a simple religious ceremony carried out at the 
  church door of the couple’s parish. The ceremony 
  was generally proceeded by public announcements 
  called banns. Depending on the wealth of the couple 
  and their families, the ceremony might have been 
  preceded by a large betrothal party several months 
  earlier, and followed by a dinner afterwards. During 
  the ceremony, the couple often exchanged tokens 
  such as gloves or silver rings. Both the betrothal party 
  and dinner were a celebration and an opportunity to 
  display the newly allied families’ wealth and power. 
  (Then, as now, the volatile mix of families, guests, 
  and flowing wine could cause insults and incidents 
  that could turn into lifelong feuds.)
  Among moderately wealthy and wealthy fami-
  lies, a marriage was a way to create or seal economic, 
  political, and social opportunities. Prestigious fami-
  lies tried to improve their prospects by “discovering” 
  
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  impressive genealogies and stories of their ancestors. 
  Generally, men did not marry until they had a suffi-
  cient income to provide for a family. They often mar-
  ried younger women who were deemed more likely 
  to survive the rigors of childbirth. In some regions, 
  a man would not marry until the  death of his par-
  ents, when his inheritance provided sufficient capital 
  for a family. In many regions, women did not marry 
  until they had a sufficient  dowry – property given by 
  the bride and her family to the couple. Some Italian 
  towns created public funds to help parents save a suf-
  ficient dowry for their daughters, and to help impov-
  erished women raise a dowry for themselves.
  Most marriages were arranged by the couples’ 
  family. The church prohibited child marriages, 
  although child betrothals were allowed. The church 
  also prohibited marriages between close relatives, and 
  between a child and his or her godparents’ family. 
  Town law sometimes enforced a family’s control over 
  marriages. Apprentice contracts often gave the mas-
  ter the right of approval over the  apprentice’s mar-
  riage or allowed the master to end the contract if 
  the apprentice married. Couples who married with-
  out their parents’ consent might find their inheri-
  tance rights limited, or even be disinherited. One 
  English town even banned those who married with-
  out approval from its borders for two years and fined 
  them two marks.
  In Italy, husbands tended to be much older than 
  their wives, who were expected to bring a consider-
  able dowry into the marriage. In parts of England, 
  husbands tended to be only a few years older than 
  their wives, who had often spent time as servants to 
  earn enough money to start a household.
  Once married, the couple might expect to live 
  together for about 12 to 16 years before one died. 
  Urban  families tended to be smaller than their rural 
  counterparts. This might be due to relatively late 
  marriages, high infant mortality, abortion, and con-
  traception. During the marriage, the husband had 
  legal control over most of the couple’s assets. Wives 
  in some towns had protected legal rights to their own 
  dowry, jewelry, and clothing, and sometimes to a por-
  tion of the family’s property. Wealthy families often 
  had a  marriage contract which specified control over 
  property and inheritance rights. Among the mer-
  chant classes and in some artisan professions, hus-
  bands traveled frequently for business, often for long 
  periods. Thus, wives were allowed to collect debts, 
  receive credit, buy and sell goods, and handle the 
  family’s business as needed.
  Towns generally did not punish a husband for 
  physically abusing his wife or  children so long as the 
  injuries were not too serious. Wives could be pun-
  ished for adultery or bearing an illegitimate child. If a 
  husband had intercourse outside of marriage, it was a 
  sin, but one often treated lightly by the Church.
   Divorce was rare and difficult. It was usually 
  easier for the unhappy couple to live apart within 
  the same city. However, if a separated spouse openly 
  took a lover, the adulterer might be banished from 
  the town, as well as punished by the Church for the 
  sin. Wealthy, powerful families could seek to have a 
  marriage annulled. With sufficient resources, a fam-
  ily might “discover” that an inconvenient marriage 
  was, in fact, prohibited due to a distant family tie and 
  thus seek an  annulment. In one of the most famous 
  examples, Louis VII of France was allowed to divorce 
  Eleanor of Aquitaine on the grounds of consanguity 
  (they were cousins), although the relationship may 
  have been “discovered” when Eleanor did not bear 
  any sons by Louis. Eleanor then married Henry II of 
  England (also a cousin), and became the mother of 
  Henry III, Richard I, and John I.
   Death
  As noted, the urban mortality rate was high. 
  Many infants did not survive their first year. Disease 
  and accidents killed many more before they reached 
  their teens. Life expectancy for adults was in the 
  30s to 40s.
  The deathbed could be a crowded place. Ideally, 
  a Christian would receive the last rites of confession, 
  communion, and anointing with oil while still con-
  scious and able to understand the ritual. Dying in a 
  state of sin, or worse, excommunication, could lead 
  to eternal damnation. Thus, a priest was often pres-
  ent to administer last rites and hear a final confession. 
  A notary might be present to write, or amend, a will, 
  with particular attention to bequests in satisfaction of 
  past sins and misdeeds. Those with sufficient wealth 
  might have a physician present. The deceased’s fam-
  ily and friends might visit and pray. However, if the 
  deceased were ill with plague, he might be alone. One 
  Italian testator left a bequest of fresh fruit to be left 
  out for the flies in the marketplace each year because 
  they had been his only attendants in his last days.
  
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  At a person’s  death, a priest was notified to sound 
  the “death bell” of his parish’s church. Wealthy per-
  sons hired criers to announce the death and ask for 
  prayers on the deceased’s behalf. The body was physi-
  cally prepared for burial – washed, shaved (for men), 
  and dressed in an appropriate shroud. Prayers were 
  said over it.
  Often there was a wake, typically held in the 
  deceased’s home, where family and neighbors could 
  come, say prayers, mourn, and pay their respects to 
  the family. Funerals were usually held quickly after 
  the death. A typical funeral for a moderately wealthy 
  townsperson included the sounding of the parish 
  death bell as the body was brought from home to 
  the church on a bier, a funeral Mass (with a gift for 
  wax candles and for the Mass from the deceased, and 
  funds, food, or clothing distributed to the poor who 
  came to the funeral as mourners), then a procession 
  to the cemetery for burial. In Italy, the procession 
  to the church and from the church to the cemetery 
  might be accompanied by loud public wailing, par-
  ticularly by the deceased’s female relatives (pianto). 
  Italian city-states tried to limit the volume and num-
  ber of mourners through sumptuary laws, with lim-
  ited effect.
  The dead were typically buried in cemeteries, 
  although a few prominent persons were buried in 
  cathedrals and parish churches. Chartres cathedral 
  is one of only a few cathedrals which does not have 
  any tombs in it. Other cathedrals and churches 
  were filled with tombs and family chapels, often 
  accompanied by religious art and religious items 
  decorated with the arms or names of parishioners 
  who wanted to be remembered. Many churches had 
  a cemetery nearby. In 12th – 14th century France, 
  some cemeteries had a lanterne des morts, a tall 
  stone tower with a lantern, which was lighted on 
  certain feasts and vigils. There was often an altar at 
  its base. If the cemetery was not near a church, it 
  often had a mortuary chapel. A cemetery frequently 
  had an ossuary where the bones of the dead might 
  be safely stored – either because the deceased could 
  not afford burial, or when graves were moved to 
  make room for the newly deceased.
  The cemetery was a sacred space. Criminals and 
  the unbaptised were not allowed to be buried in con-
  secrated ground. Often there was a small unconse-
  crated plot for unbaptised babies. Those who died 
  in obvious sin, for example, by suicide or in a duel, 
  were often left with their bodies exposed near the 
  cemetery. Executed criminals were buried near the 
  gallows. Heretics could not be buried in consecrated 
  ground – if heresy was discovered after death, their 
  bodies were exhumed.
  In a few cases, the deceased’s body might be bur-
  ied in several places. When Bertrand Du Guesclin, 
  the Constable of France, died in 1380, his body 
  was first embalmed in the county of Auvergne. His 
  entrails were buried in a church in nearby Le Puy 
  and his body began its journey back to his birthplace 
  in Brittany. Enroute, the body continued to putrefy. 
  His flesh was separated from his bones and buried in 
  Monteferrand. In Le Mans, a royal officer insisted the 
  body be sent to Paris to be buried in the cathedral of 
  St-Denis. Only Du Guesclin’s heart was buried in his 
  birthplace, a church in Dinan, Brittany.
  If the deceased were particularly saintly, the body 
  might be hidden to prevent relic hunters from steal-
  ing parts. St. Francis’ body was hidden by one of his 
  followers shortly after his funeral in Assisi. (The body 
  was found in 1818.)
  After the burial, the deceased’s family often held 
  a funeral dinner. Sometimes, dying persons made pro-
  visions for Masses to be said after their deaths, either 
  for a set number of days, on various holy days, or on 
  the anniversaries of their deaths.
  Generally, the deceased’s parish received one-
  sixth to one-quarter of the deceased’s estate as a 
  form of death tax. Some Italian communes insisted 
  that the deceased’s estate include charitable “dona-
  tions” (typically 20 s.) for favored charities like a hos-
  pital, or cathedral construction, or urban needs like 
  a city’s walls. One commune, Arezzo, ordered citi-
  zens to bequeath sums to its cathedral’s construction. 
  If a notary did not remind the testator to leave the 
  bequest, he could be fined 20 s., and the estate fined 
  40 s. (Surviving wills suggest the order was widely 
  ignored.)
  The remainder of the deceased’s estate passed 
  by custom, or by will. By the 14th century, written 
  wills were more common among merchants. The will, 
  recorded by a notary, generally included various spe-
  cific bequests and donations. Some bequests were 
  conditional. A testator might give property to his 
  children, with the provision that his wife could use 
  it during her life, and the children could not sell or 
  rent it while she was living. Property might be given 
  to a church on various conditions for its use, with 
  
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  provision to give it to another church if the condi-
  tions were broken.
  The dying often made bequests for Masses to be 
  said for them after their death. Early theologians had 
  written about purgatory as a way station for souls 
  on their way to heaven. The University of Paris dis-
  cussed purgatory in the 12th century. The doctrine 
  was adopted by the Council of Lyon in 1274. Under 
  this doctrine, the living could speed a soul’s journey 
  by offering prayers or performing charitable acts on 
  the deceased’s behalf. Thus, the dying had an interest 
  in donating money for memorial Masses and prayers. 
  To attract people (and their prayers) to memori-
  al Masses, some merchants 
  paid for criers to announce 
  memorial Masses or for the 
  church’s bells to be rung. 
  Others arranged for alms to 
  be given to the poor both at 
  their funerals and at memo-
  rial Masses. A few merchants 
  even hired pilgrims to make a 
  pilgrimage on their behalf.
   Inheritance
  Given the high rates of 
  urban mortality, and the typi-
  cal gulf in ages between men and women at marriage, 
  inheritance was a significant concern for moderately 
  wealthy and wealthy families. European inheritance 
  customs varied widely. They affected family struc-
  tures, which in turn affected business succession after 
  a master’s death. Rural and urban customs often dif-
  fered within the same area. Land could be difficult 
  to subdivide. For nobles, land also came with mili-
  tary duties that would become moot if too diluted by 
  many heirs. Cash and businesses were easier to divide 
  among many heirs. Cities could supervise guardian-
  ships and wardships for surviving minors. Widows had 
  more options for support. They were often supported 
  by their husbands’ guilds. In some places, a widow 
  maintained a right to continue her husband’s trade 
  and could become a member of his guild (if any). In 
  other places, she could continue to operate the busi-
  ness through a male relative or a journeyman.
  Typically, if a husband survived his wife, he gen-
  erally received all of his wife’s property (subject to the 
  Church’s share). If the wife was the survivor, then 
  she normally received a specific share of the family 
  property as her own; the rest was divided between 
  the Church’s inheritance tax, the couple’s children 
  (if any), and the husband’s relatives (if the couple 
  did not have children). Often, the estate was given 
  to male relatives; daughters were provided for in their 
  dowry. If there were no close male relatives, then 
  property might pass to daughters. 
  In England, a deceased husband’s estate was 
  divided into thirds: one-third to the Church for the 
  good of his soul, one-third to his wife, and one-third 
  to his children in equal shares. The widow’s share 
  (dower) remained hers until her death, at which 
  point any remainder revert-
  ed to her husband’s heirs. If 
  a widow with minor children 
  remarried, her new spouse 
  would hold 2/3 of her former 
  spouse’s estate (hers and her 
  children’s) – an attractive 
  prospect for many suitors.
  In Italy and Flanders, on 
  the other hand, the widow 
  had a right to the property 
  she brought into the mar-
  riage (dowry), but was other-
  wise dependent on her hus-
  band’s family. She generally had care of her children, 
  but legal custody was held by her husband’s family. 
  Some widows were forced by their husbands’ heirs to 
  return to their birth families, leaving their children 
  in the care of their husband’s kin.
   ORPHANS
  Often children lost one or both parents while still 
  minors. In London, the orphaned, or semi-orphaned, 
  child of a citizen became a ward of the Mayor. He 
  assigned a guardian to care for the child and the 
  child’s share of his parent(s) estate. The guardian 
  was often a relative, but one who would not inherit 
  if the child died. Guardians were required to have 
  sureties for the value of the child’s estate. (A surety 
  was a promise by another person or persons to repay 
  the estate in the event of the guardian mishandling 
  funds.) He also had to account to the Mayor’s office 
  for the child’s property when the child reached the 
  age of majority. If the child was destitute, the city 
  often provided for his care.
  The living could 
  speed a soul’s journey 
  by offering prayers 
  or performing 
  charitable acts.
  
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  In 1198, Pope Innocent III ordered convents 
  to install   foundling wheels, revolving stone com-
  partments, which allowed mothers to anonymously 
  donate unwanted infants to the church. Foundlings 
  might be given to other couples for adoption or raised 
  as  monks or  nuns.
   THREATS
  By eight o’clock there was such a crowd at the  bak-
  er’s door as one could never have believed without 
  seeing it. Poor creatures! Trying to get  bread for their 
  poor husbands away in the fields or for their children 
  dying of hunger at home – neither for their money 
  nor for all their  crowding could they get any after that 
  time; then you would hear said wailing and weeping 
  all over Paris, sad lamentations and little children 
  crying “I am dying of hunger!” In the year 1420, you 
  might see all over Paris here ten there twenty or thirty 
  children, boys and girls, dying of hunger and cold on 
  the rubbish heaps.
  – Anon. Journal d’un Bourgeois 
  de Paris (c. 1420)
  Towns thrived on peace and stability. They could 
  not exist without an agricultural surplus to feed their 
  residents, laborers to make goods, and peaceful trade 
  routes to their markets. Unfortunately, peace and sta-
  bility were rare things in the 11th to 15th centuries. 
  Towns had to react to natural disasters, fires, and 
  conflicts which could cause dramatic changes to their 
  resources and markets.
   Disease
  Disease and malnutrition were endemic in the 
  Middle Ages, especially in towns. Between the two, 
  the urban death rate generally exceeded its birth rate, 
  leading towns to need a constant influx of new immi-
  grants just to maintain their size. There were a variety 
  of common diseases, which were more-or-less taken 
  as given by the population. Extraordinary diseases or 
  serious outbreaks could cause significant panic and 
  urban disruptions. The problem was compounded by 
  medieval medical theory, which did not understand 
  how germs spread, and offered few successful rem-
  edies for illness.
  For the most part, town  water systems provided 
  some protection against diseases like cholera, dysen-
  tery, and typhoid. Medieval doctors did not under-
  stand how these diseases occurred, but urban rulers 
  tried to separate drinking water from water used to 
  dispose of human and animal wastes.
   Influenza (the common flu),  malaria ( ague in 
  England),  measles,  smallpox, and  typhus were com-
  mon seasonal diseases. Urban residents lived in 
  close quarters, which allowed influenza, measles, 
  smallpox, and typhus to spread easily. Fortunately, 
  survivors of measles and smallpox thereafter were 
  immune to future outbreaks. Doctors did not under-
  stand the link between mosquitoes and malaria, 
  but did understand that marshy air was unhealthy. 
  Unfortunately, towns needed  rivers for water and 
  trade, and urban residents needed to leave their 
  windows open for ventilation. Wealthy urban resi-
  dents tried to avoid such diseases by spending sum-
  mers on rural lands.
   Scurvy was a problem for towns distant from 
  the Mediterranean and trade routes for citrus fruits. 
  During the winter, food that provided vitamin C was 
  scarce, leading to mild scurvy and its muscle pains. 
  Urban residents were also at risk of vitamin A defi-
  ciencies when they could not get fresh milk.
   Leprosy
  Although leprosy is perhaps the least contagious 
  of communicable diseases, it was greatly feared. 
  “Leprosy” covered a variety of disfiguring diseases, 
  any of which could cause the sufferer to be expelled 
  from the community and sent to live apart. He or she 
  could only interact with the rest of the population in 
  very limited ways, and depended greatly on charity.
  In 1320, a leper named Guillaume Agasse con-
  fessed to a papal inquisition that he and a group of 
  40 other  lepers had met at Toulouse and agreed to 
  poison all the people in their region of France. Agasse 
  was imprisoned for the remainder of his life. As the 
  news of the confession and alleged plot spread, lepers 
  were arrested and executed. Forty-nine were killed in 
  Uzerche. In 1321, the French crown claimed jurisdic-
  tion over the lepers. They could be arrested and  tor-
  tured to determine whether they were involved in the 
  plot. Those who confessed were either imprisoned in 
  leprosaries or executed by burning at the stake. Their 
  property was to be confiscated and sold to benefit 
  the crown. When local authorities objected to the 
  royal claim, the monarchy relented and recognized 
  the rights of local landholders to investigate claims 
  
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  and confiscate the property of those who confessed. 
  Others lepers were killed by  mobs who had heard and 
  believed in the improbable and unlikely plot.
  The Black Plague
  The  Plague, or Black Death, was a critical turn-
  ing point in urban history. The Plague started in 
  Asia and traveled along various trade routes until 
  it reached Europe in 1347. Within a few years, the 
  disease had spread across all but the most isolated 
  areas in Europe, killing millions. After the first out-
  breaks, Plague returned periodically. The impact 
  was enormous – between a quarter and two-thirds 
  of Europe’s population died from the Plague in the 
  mid to late 14th century. The deaths had drastic 
  effects on medieval demographics, religion, art, 
  society, and politics.
  Urban areas were especially vulnerable to Plague, 
  which could be carried by infected travelers. Many 
  imposed quarantines – 40 days in isolation for any 
  person or place suspected of plague exposure. (The 
  incubation period for Plague is 1 to 6 days, but local 
  governments took no chances.) Arriving ships, and 
  even high-ranking visitors, were routinely quaran-
  tined during an outbreak. Towns limited or prohib-
  ited public gatherings to limit the disease’s spread. 
  Once Plague reached a town, it was highly infec-
  tious, spreading both by air, and by the bite of infect-
  ed fleas.
  The Plague caused massive social disruptions. 
  Every  family lost at least some of its members. The 
  survivors had to provide for widows and orphans, 
  transfer the property of the deceased, and find suc-
  cessors to undertake military and commercial obli-
  gations. Surprisingly, European society was able to 
  function despite the massive losses. Fiefs, towns, and 
  royal courts continued to function. Buildings, farms, 
  and even whole villages were abandoned, but the sur-
  vivors concentrated in new locations and rebuilt as 
  the society recovered.
  Survivors demanded higher  wages for their work, 
  leading to, for example, the English Ordinances of 
  Labourers (1349) and Statute of Labourers (1351), 
  which made it illegal for workers to demand higher 
  wages than those paid before the Plague. (They also 
  made it illegal to give alms to able-bodied beggars). A 
  few workers were fined each year under the statutes 
  in hopes of deterring others from demanding high-
  er wages. However, the effort was doomed to fail-
  ure. The decreased supply of workers, and increased 
  demand for the survivor’s work, inevitably drove pric-
  es higher. 
  Towns found that, with the decline in population 
  and trade, they could not pay their pre-Plague taxes. 
  Many asked for, and received, temporary reductions. 
  Towns also had increased risk of fire from abandoned 
  buildings, which were destroyed if no owner could 
  be found. Town buildings and walls were frequent-
  ly neglected for a time because the town could not 
  afford the labor to maintain them.
   Famine
  Towns were obsessively concerned about main-
  taining adequate supplies of  cheap  grain. Florence, 
  for example, imported grain from Sicily, North Africa, 
  Greece, and (via Genoa) the Black Sea region. For 
  the most part, town precautions worked. Tales of 
  urban starvation during a famine are far less com-
  mon than those of rural starvation, even after several 
  successive bad harvests in the same region.
  Towns could encourage rural suppliers by offer-
  ing shelter to their rural neighbors (and their grain 
  stores) during wars and unrest and by cancelling the 
  gabelle (import tax). Remittances on taxes were often 
  for a short period (typically 4 to 15 days) to encour-
  age farmers to quickly bring their goods to the urban 
  market.
  When those measures failed, however, the result 
  was  starvation and sometimes riots. Famine was one 
  of the least common reasons for urban rebellion, and 
  towns were quick to try to restore order with dis-
  tributions of grain from their reserves. If that failed, 
  however, the government was likely to fall. In 1353, 
  the people of Gaeta rioted following prolonged food 
  shortages, killing twelve merchants. In 1368, four 
  successive governments fell in Siena after a famine, 
  despite the execution of more than 400 “troublemak-
  ers” by urban leaders
   Rural  Uprisings
  A rural  tax rebellion had similar effects to a fam-
  ine – the supply of food was interrupted, combined 
  with trade route disruptions that could make it hard 
  to bring alternative foods into town. There were spo-
  radic rural uprisings throughout the Middle Ages. For 
  the most part, these were relatively small in scale and 
  
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  time. Often they were brutally suppressed by local 
  landholders, sometimes with the aid of urban leaders. 
  In a few cases, the rebels were able to force reforms, 
  although often several ringleaders were executed dur-
  ing the struggle.
  In the 14th century, there were a series of larger 
  scale rural uprisings in England, Flanders, France, and 
  Italy, generally sparked by regional and/or urban land-
  holders attempting to raise tax revenues. At times, 
  urban workers joined the rural farmers in a series of 
  rebellions, occasionally driving the urban government 
  from the town. In most cases, the rebellious govern-
  ment soon collapsed, unable to manage the necessary 
  trade to keep the town thriving. In a few cases, the 
  rebels restored displaced or exiled leaders, and the 
  new regime was able to govern for a time.
   Fire
  By their nature, urban areas were particularly 
  prone to fires. Buildings were often made from wood. 
  Streets were narrow, with buildings crammed one 
  atop another. Often they were filled with flamma-
  ble furnishings and inventory. Urban residents used 
  fire for heating, light, and manufacturing, creating 
  numerous opportunities for accidents. Add to that 
  a persistent risk of lightning striking tall buildings, 
  especially cathedrals. If not quickly extinguished, a 
  fire could easily destroy a large part of a town.
  Towns tried to limit fires by establishing building 
  codes concerning walls, chimneys, and roofs. Trades 
  that used a great deal of fire, like glassblowers, black-
  smiths, and potters, were banished to outlying dis-
  tricts. Venice set its glassblowing on an entirely sepa-
  rate island.
  The town watch was charged with watching for 
  fires and responding to outbreaks. Some towns had 
  rudimentary firefighting organizations comprised of 
  specific households or trades. Some, like London, 
  required households to keep containers of water 
  handy, and made sure each neighborhood had lad-
  ders, hooks, and chains to pull down houses or walls 
  to create fire breaks.
  After a fire destroyed three-quarters of Toulouse 
  in 1463, Louis XI came to the city and  remitted the 
  city’s royal taxes (tailles) for one hundred years to 
  help the city recover. He also pardoned a group of 
   bakers who had been blamed for accidentally start-
  ing the blaze.
   Interdict
  An interdict made all of the target’s subjects into 
   heretics. The target and his subjects were denied 
  most or all sacraments. (During the 1208-13 inter-
  dict in England, priests still baptized babies and gave 
  last rites.) All Christians were prohibited from law-
  fully trading with or assisting them, and could break 
  contracts with them with impunity. (Not all trading 
  partners observed these customs, preferring to main-
  tain discreet trade relations during the usually short 
  period of an interdict.) The target’s property, wherev-
  er it was, could be lawfully seized by other Christians. 
  The target’s person could also be arrested.
  The Papacy could place a person, a town, or even 
  an entire kingdom under interdict for disobeying its 
  commands. A bishop or other higher clergy could 
  impose an interdict on a person or town within his 
  jurisdiction. The Papacy placed interdicts on France 
  for several months in 1200 in response to a dispute 
  over Philip II Augustus’ attempt to divorce his wife; 
  England in 1208-13 in support of the papacy’s pre-
  ferred candidate as Archbishop of Canterbury; and 
  the city-state of Perugia in 1369 in response to its 
  refusal to submit to the papacy. (In a somewhat more 
  serious step, the Pope excommunicated all of the citi-
  zens of Venice in 1202 because of their actions in 
  sacking Zara during the Fourth Crusade. The excom-
  munication was lifted in 1204 following the successful 
  capture of Constantinople.)
  Often, an interdict resulted in intense popular 
  pressure on the offending landholder or monarch to 
  make peace with the clergy. John I retaliated for the 
  interdict by raiding some closed churches and selling 
  off their treasuries to raise cash. The Pope excom-
  municated him. Finally, John I made peace with the 
  Papacy and allowed the papacy’s preferred candidate 
  to become Archbishop of Canterbury, in part because 
  King Philippe II of France was preparing to invade 
  using John’s excommunication as a pretext. The pop-
  ular unrest caused by the interdict may have been 
  part of the reason for the barons’ discontent which 
  led to the Magna Carta in 1215.
   Natural  Disasters
   Earthquakes, floods, and major  storms were all 
  possible threats to a town. Italy, in particular, was 
  (and is) prone to earthquakes along geologic micro-
  plates. The most severe earthquakes occurred in the 
  
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  Apennine Mountains (primarily in central Italy), in 
  the Alps, and in Sicily and Calabria. Etna, Stromboli, 
  and Vesuvius, three of Europe’s active volcanoes are 
  also in Italy. For the most part, there was little a town 
  could do about earthquakes except clean up the debris 
  and rebuild afterwards – earthquake-resistant build-
  ing methods were beyond medieval technology.
   Floods were also a constant risk.  Rivers might 
  flood annually in spring when the snow melted in 
  the mountains. Heavy rainfall or spring ice dams could 
  also produce floods. Towns tried to mitigate flood 
  damage by building dikes and embankments, dredging 
  channels, and keeping drainage ditches clear. In some 
  areas, towns tried to build dams and canals to divert 
  flood waters, but doing so required control, or at least 
  influence, over the lands upstream of the town.
  It was not uncommon for storms to damage 
  buildings. Heavy winds sometimes posed a danger 
  to cathedrals, whose large walls were not always suf-
  ficiently braced for the stress. High heat could kill 
  dozens in poorly ventilated houses. Abnormal cold 
  could also kill those who had trouble affording suf-
  ficient fuel for fires.
  Historians have not discussed urban efforts to 
  recover and rebuild from large-scale disasters dur-
  ing the Middle Ages. Property insurance did not yet 
  exist, which suggests that building owners and others 
  affected by a disaster had to rebuild and replace their 
  losses from their own resources. Presumably commu-
  nities sought help from their neighbors and trading 
  partners and took out loans in order to rebuild.
  Urban  Uprisings
  Viva lu popolu! (Long live the people!)
  Urban uprisings were more common than rural 
  uprisings. Most arose during times of general unrest 
  and uncertainty. They could be sparked by worker 
  discontent, supply shortages, overly harsh gover-
  nance, or a political fight between factions. In 13th 
  century Flanders, there were a series of rebellions by 
  local weavers and fullers against the French counts 
  over workers’ rights, taxes, and working conditions. 
  The rebels succeeded in winning, and retaining, the 
  right to be citizens of their towns, to form their own 
  organizations, and to serve as elected officials.
  In 1378, Florence was host to the Ciompi, a rebel-
  lion led by the city’s wool workers and their allies 
  against the wool guilds and the local government. 
  The workers formed their own organization, the popo-
  lo minuto, and their own guilds. By creating guilds, 
  their members could become citizens, elect members 
  of Florence’s government, and serve in town offices. 
  They also sought changes in taxes, debt collection, 
  the Monte, and the exchange rate between Florence’s 
  gold and silver currency systems. The rebels’ govern-
  ment lasted for 48 days, but two of their guilds lasted 
  for four years thereafter.
  The uprising itself could be deadly. In 1375, 
  Perugia rebelled against its papal governor, resulting 
  in a 19-day siege of the papal castle by the populace 
  and dozens killed in the street fighting.
  The aftermath could be far worse. Normally, a 
  rebellion’s leaders risked  torture and a public exe-
  cution. Supporters risked fines and exile. But some-
  times, the response was much more severe. In 1377, 
  Cesena’s townspeople fought a group of papal  mer-
  cenaries occupying the town and killed several sol-
  diers. The papal governor told the townspeople that 
  if they surrendered their weapons and fifty hostag-
  es, they would be pardoned for the incident. After 
  the townspeople complied, the Cardinal governing 
  the town ordered the mercenaries to kill the inhabit-
  ants and plunder the town. Over the course of three 
  days, eight thousand of the town’s population of 
  25,000 were killed. All of the town’s clergy, except 
  for 24 Franciscans, were spared. The survivors were 
  forced to ransom themselves. Those who successfully 
  escaped, an estimated 15,000, took refuge in neigh-
  boring towns until the conflict ended. 
   WAR
  Towns were indirect participants in wars: man-
  ufacturers of armor and weapons, and sources of 
  tax revenue. Landholders founded towns in part to 
  convert their manors’ agricultural surplus into cash, 
  which could be used to buy horses, armor, weap-
  ons, and mercenaries. Towns were also a source of 
  forced loans to enable landholders to prepare for 
  war or pay ransoms.
   Merchants, while often able to afford a knight’s 
  equipment, did not have the training to lead urban 
  militias or levies into battle. Instead, they preferred 
  to spend their wealth on  mercenaries. Towns suf-
  fered when their trade routes and agricultural 
  sources were disrupted. Refugees often came to 
  towns, increasing crowding, and the demand on 
  
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  limited resources.  Soldiers passing through, or bil-
  leted in town, brought with them  disease and were 
  frequently accused of assaulting local women. 
  When armies pillaged the fields and villages around 
  a town, prices for food, fuel, and goods soared. 
  Residents were pressed into duty watching the walls 
  and streets, leaving them tired and frazzled. Urban 
  rulers confiscated goods needed to supply defensive 
  armies and raised taxes. In the worst years, food was 
  so scarce that wolves might enter a town at  night 
  to dig up and eat  corpses and anyone sleeping out-
  doors at night.
  On the other hand, war could be good for busi-
  ness. It provided a market for armor, weapons, and 
  myriad equipment. Merchants purchased the army’s 
  plunder, often doing better in barter than if the army 
  paid for its needs with cash. Banks profited from loans 
  to warlords, assuming, of course, they could collect 
  the principal later.
  From an adversary’s point of view, towns had 
  long been attractive targets. The walls and gates 
  were generally less secure than those of a castle, 
  and its population often more willing to surrender 
  to a sufficient show of force. Few towns were pro-
  visioned with enough soldiers to defend their walls 
  and keep order. Its merchants and churches held a 
  great deal of wealth; prominent inhabitants could 
  be held for ransom.
  For the northern Italian city-states, hostilities 
  were nearly constant from the 11th century through 
  the 15th century and beyond. Armed conflicts did not 
  tend to last long – any city-state that became too 
  powerful risked having its rivals band together in a 
  league against it. Leagues generally collapsed from 
  internal rivalries shortly after the status quo had 
  been restored. Hostilities also often involved raids. 
  Armies rarely followed upon victories, contenting 
  themselves with plunder, symbolic insults, and nego-
  tiated settlements.
  Italian city-states each had a  carroccio, a brightly 
  painted cart which served as a rallying point for its 
  forces. It was both a secular and religious symbol, fre-
  quently stored in the cathedral or baptistery itself. 
  The cart carried the city’s banners and an altar for 
  religious services and last rites. It was often deco-
  rated with images of the city’s patron saints. Leaders 
  could stand on the cart to survey the battle and issue 
  orders. The carroccio was protected by its own vol-
  unteer company, which was expected to fight to the 
  death to prevent its capture. If captured, the victo-
  rious city would often strip its foe’s carroccio to its 
  frame, then display the remains in its cathedral or 
  baptistery as both war trophy and offering to the vic-
  tor’s patron saints.
   Bandits
  During war or unrest, armed men often set up 
  extra tolls along major roads to extort money from 
  merchants. Historians do not have many details 
  of historic bandits, but a study of modern brigands 
  might shed some light on historical practices. When 
  bandits set up multiple tolls on the same road, each 
  toll might be relatively small, but the cumulative cost 
  may exceed the wages of the carters or sailors trans-
  porting the load. Tolls rise with proximity to a town 
  or trade center. The merchant thus has progressively 
  stronger incentives to pay the toll to avoid hassle and 
  protect their cargo. If there is a crackdown on ille-
  gal tolls, the number of tolls will fall, but the amount 
  demanded by each will rise. The merchant will save, 
  but not as much as he might hope – perhaps a third 
  of his prior expenses.
  ABROAD AT  WAR
  Merchants who were in a foreign land when it 
  went to war with their home were in a precari-
  ous situation. The  distrain custom allowed their 
  goods to be seized to repay local merchants for 
  goods lost to piracy or pre-war seizures by their 
  countrymen. Ships in port were seized; those at 
  sea prey for pirates and privateers. Merchants 
  could be detained, their goods seized, and debts 
  owed to them forgiven. Once war began, captured 
  enemy property was a legitimate spoil of war; no 
  reimbursement could be claimed.
  Generally,  merchants were given a short period 
  to leave a country with their goods before hos-
  tilities commenced. If they were not able to 
  depart, the campaign season was relatively 
  short. Merchants could try to get home during 
  seasonal lulls in the fighting, or travel home 
  through uninvolved countries. Truces generally 
  allowed merchants to come and go, but if one 
  were attacked, the breach of safe-conduct was 
  not a cause to resume hostilities.
  
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   Mercenaries
  Mercenaries were common in European wars. 
  Monarchs considered them more dependable and 
  better trained than feudal vassals or peasant levies. 
  Foreign mercenaries could also be used to suppress 
  domestic foes, although mercenaries were often sus-
  pected of not pursuing their patron’s foes with suffi-
  cient aggression.
  Locals did not like  mercenaries, especially those 
  billeted in their homes. One of the clauses of the 
  Magna Carta (1215) required the king to “remove 
  from the kingdom all foreign-born  soldiers, cross-
  bow men, servants, and mercenaries who have come 
  with horses and arms for the injury of the realm.” As 
  described above, Cesena’s residents revolted against a 
  group of Breton mercenaries employed by the papacy 
  in 1377, leading to the  death of 8,000 of the town’s 
  25,000 inhabitants, an infamous massacre even by the 
  standards of the day.
  Mercenaries were also hard to control. During 
  lulls in the Hundred Years War, unemployed mer-
  cenaries became a virtual plague in France. In 1360, 
  bands of them in Southern France formed a “Great 
  Company” of as many as 12,000 soldiers, a force larg-
  er than the English army of the time. Then, as in the 
  Italian civil wars, mercenaries took to threatening to 
  siege towns and then withdrawing to another area for 
  a sizeable ransom.
  The northern Italian city-states were almost 
  constantly at war in the 13-15th centuries. The cities 
  became concerned about their internal violence, and 
  sought to disarm their militias. They were wealthy 
  enough to replace them with mercenaries often hired 
  from northern Europe. The mercenary leaders were 
  known as Condottieri because of the complex condotta, 
  or  contract, they signed on behalf of their company. 
  Normally, the city-state negotiated with the company’s 
  leader, who in turn hired other groups as subcontrac-
  tors to meet the patron’s needs. The contract specified 
  equipment, duration of service, where the company’s 
  general could live, travel and visit (to avoid contact 
  with foes who might bribe or suborn him), division 
  of ransom and plunder, and so on. Contract negotia-
  tions could take weeks or months.
  Once hired, city officials (collaterali) inspected 
  the company, its soldiers, and its equipment to ensure 
  compliance with the contract. Horses were branded 
  to make sure that lesser mounts were not substituted 
  after the inspection. Collaterali could fine captains 
  if they found a company was not complying with its 
  contract. Customarily, the captain-general received 
  his baton of command at the end of the negotiations 
  and inspections and was presented to the community 
  in a parade. While in the field, officials continued 
  to inspect the company at agreed-to intervals. If the 
  patron chose not to re-hire the company, generally the 
  contract precluded it from working for its employer’s 
  foes for an agreed-to period (typically six months).
  In theory, mercenary captains were independent 
  of local politics, fighting based on their pay, not for 
  loyalty to any particular city.  Mercenary captains were 
  paid well. In 1467, one earned 60,000 ducats a year 
  in peace and 80,000 ducats a year in war from Milan 
  (the salary included payment to the captain’s soldiers 
  and officers). Another earned 50,000 ducats in peace 
  and 80,000 in war in 1481. Captains were also offered 
  titles, estates, and marriages in hopes of attracting 
  and keeping the best. A peacetime force might num-
  ber 8,000 to 10,000 professionals. In war, this force 
  would be augmented by others, including militias. A 
  mercenary company included not just the soldiers and 
  officers, but treasurers, notaries and lawyers to handle 
  contracts and records, priests, servants, cooks, barbers, 
  surgeons,  prostitutes, and camp followers.
  For a city-state, mercenaries had their own risks. 
  The city generally had to provide subsidized food and 
  supplies for the company when it was not in the field. 
  It also had to provide shelter, which often meant that 
  an idle company would set its tents outside of the city, 
  or a smaller town or village. Thus, the city-state had 
  an incentive to send its mercenaries into battle with 
  its neighbors where they could forage for supplies and 
  would not cause disruptions at home. In the field, the 
  city-state worried that its company might be defeated, 
  leaving it vulnerable, or might be bribed into betraying 
  it. In 1364, for example, Florence bribed the Pisan com-
  panies into withdrawing from a siege for about 100,000 
  florins. In 1427, Venice suspected that one of its cap-
  tains, Carmagnola, had betrayed it to Milan. It had him 
  arrested and  tortured. When he confessed to secret 
  agreements with Milan, Carmagnola was executed in St. 
  Mark’s Square. Mercenaries could also become involved 
  in internal politics. In 1478, the Perugian mercenary 
  captain, Gian Battista de Montesecco was involved in 
  the Pazzi family’s failed assassination attempt against 
  Florence’s Medici family. When the plot failed, Gian 
  Battista was captured, tortured, and beheaded. The 
  other conspirators were also tortured and executed.
  
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   Militias
  Urban militias, like peasant levies, were com-
  prised of locals who volunteered or were, in effect, 
  drafted into military service. They had few skills, but 
  were often given the best armor and equipment the 
  town could provide, and their equipment was adapt-
  ed specifically for defending a town from its walls 
  and fighting in its narrow streets. Militias thus pre-
  ferred crossbows and early handguns to longbows and 
  swords – these required skilled makers, but were rel-
  atively easy to use. Towns which had control over 
  their countryside could also raise rural levies to shore 
  up their defenses.
  Militias were normally organized by neighborhood 
  or by  guild. In Siena, each neighborhood was respon-
  sible for creating its own company. Between 1255 and 
  1349, it had between 18 and 43 companies of ten 
  men (the number of “neighborhoods” fluctuated over 
  time). Each company had its own captain, a stan-
  dard bearer, and a notary/treasurer. It was equipped 
  with war axes, crossbows, shields, and lanterns for 
  the men. Evidently, Siena had little faith in its mili-
  tia – it spent vast sums of money bribing mercenaries 
  employed by its rivals not to attack it.
   SIEGE
  Urban leaders tried to avoid being the target of a 
  siege. Many changed sides at the approach of a large 
  army, or tried to bribe it to continue onwards. If that 
  failed, towns manned their walls and waited.
  A siege was a contest between the defenders and 
  the attackers to see whose supplies ran out first, or 
  whose numbers fell faster to disease. The defenders 
  had often already stripped as much food as possible 
  from the countryside during the army’s advance and 
  had burned whatever they could not take. Thus, the 
  attacker had difficulty foraging for supplies. On the 
  other hand, the defender already had a large and 
  restless population to feed, and also had to care for 
  numerous rural refugees.
  If it seemed that the town would succumb, its 
  leaders had to decide whether to surrender or fight. 
  If the town surrendered, it could expect a certain 
  amount of looting, pillaging, rape, and assault, but 
  the opposing force’s leaders promised to do their best 
  to restrain their troops. If, on the other hand, it fell 
  to an attack, then the attacking army could loot as it 
  pleased, often burning buildings and raping and kill-
  ing hundreds of residents.
  In some cases, surrender was not an option. For 
  religious or political reasons, the opposing force was 
  determined to take the town by force. Hundreds, or 
  even thousands, might be killed and the city’s major 
  buildings burned.
  CONCLUSION
  At the close of the 15th century, towns and 
  cities were thriving. However, the focus of trade 
  was shifting from the traditional Italian centers to 
  Atlantic ports. The Portuguese had rounded Africa 
  and were trading directly with Asian spice suppliers. 
  Portuguese and Spanish ships were sailing across 
  the Atlantic. They would soon be joined by explor-
  ers from many nations.
  Europe was also on the verge of significant 
  social changes – the Italian renaissance, the intro-
  duction of the printing press, the pending religious 
  wars of the Reformation, and the rise of powerful 
  nation-states. The Reformation limited or elimi-
  nated many of the Church’s legal privileges and its 
  control over towns. More centralized governments 
  standardized laws, money, weights and measures, 
  and other signs of towns’ autonomy. In northern 
  Italy, city-states were changing from communes to 
  oligarchies or dictatorships.
  Not all of the changes were progressive.  Women’s 
  ability to earn an independent living began to decline 
  in the 15th century, a trend which accelerated in 
  later years. In 1446, for example, Elizabeth Baret, 
  an unmarried woman, was admitted to the franchise 
  of Norwich as a weaver of worsted fabric. Almost 
  fifty years later, in 1511, Norwich’s worsted weav-
  ers excluded women from their trade, claiming they 
  did not have the physical strength to produce qual-
  ity cloth. Similar restrictions could be seen in other 
  trades – growing standardization, larger businesses 
  and industries, and changes in culture tended to drive 
  many women out of the market and made it harder 
  for unmarried women and widows to survive.
  Towns and cities endured and thrived after 
  1500, but they became integrated more closely 
  into regional and national governments, and thus 
  became very different from their independent-
  minded medieval ancestors.
  
  Timeline
  Page 110
  410 
  Rome sacked by Visigoths
  455 
  Rome sacked by Vandals
  627 
  King Dagobert founds the St-Denis fair near 
  Paris
  669 
  Muslims raid Sicily, capture Syracuse
  741 
  Fire damages York’s cathedral
  763 
  Fire destroys York
  847 
  Fire in Rome
  858 
  Normans burn Chartres, France
  859 
  Normans devastate Noyon, France
  861 
  Normans devastate Noyon, France and Pisa, 
  Italy
  866-67 
  Vikings capture York
  885-85 
  Norman siege Paris over winter
  896 
  Earthquake in Rome
  897 
  Earthquake in Rome
  911 
  Norman attack on Chartres, France driven 
  back
  925 
  Norman attack on Noyon, France driven 
  back
  938 
  Large amount of silver, lead, and copper 
  ore discovered at Rammelsberg in the Harz 
  Mountains of Germany
  962 
  Fire damages London
  969 
  Châlons-sur-Marne, France, captured by king
  982 
  Fire in London
  994 
  Vikings attack London
  1004 
  Muslims raid Pisa
  1008 
  Jews in Rouen, France, massacred
  1011 
  Muslims raid Pisa
  1017 
  Truce of God movement to encourage inter-
  Christian peace begins
  1020 
  Fire at Chartres
  1022 
  King Robert of France orders 13 Cathars 
  burned at Orleans
  1026 
  Jews in Rouen, France, massacred
  1050 
  Flood in Ferrara, Italy
  1066 
  Norman Invasion of England
  1069 
  Failed commune revolt in Le Mans (one of the 
  1st in France); revolt in York leads to devastat-
  ing fire
  1073 
  Townspeople of Worms, Germany, expel bish-
  op and welcome Emperor Henry IV into town
  1075 
  Danes plunder York
  1077 
  Fire in London
  1084 
  Robert Guiscard captures Rome from Holy 
  Roman Emperor; Normans sack the city
  1087 
  St. Paul’s in London destroyed by fire
  1091 
  Major storm flattens 600 homes and a bridge 
  in London
  1092 
  Fire in London
  1095 
  First Crusade begins
  1096 
  Jewish communities in Holy Roman Empire 
  attacked by crusaders; bishop of Speyer suc-
  cessfully protects its Jewish community with 
  his militia
  1098 
  Cistercian order founded
  1102 
  Fire in Venice
  1110 
  Fire in London; medical school founded at 
  Salerno
  1112 
  Uprising in Laon over suppression of com-
  mune by crown and bishop; bishop killed, fire 
  damages cathedral, town virtually abandoned; 
  Uprising’s leaders arrested and executed in 
  1114-15; commune granted by crown in 1128
  1117 
  Louis IV of France sieges Amiens with aid 
  of local merchants; Earthquake in Tuscany, 
  Italy
  1119 
  Amiens commune controls city for French 
  monarchy; University of Bologna founded; 
  Templar order founded
  1123 
  First Lateran Council
  1128 
  Fire in Sens, France
  1130 
  Henry I allows London to choose its own sheriff 
  (Privilege is withdrawn and re-granted in later 
  years)
  1131 
  Fire in Bologna destroys cathedral
  1132 
  Fire in London
  1135 
  Fire in London
  1137 
  Fire in Amiens, France; Construction begun 
  on St-Denis near Paris (first Gothic cathedral); 
  Fire in York
  1138 
  Vesuvius erupts
  1140 
  King Roger II of Sicily enacts first known 
  requirement that doctors be examined and 
  licensed by their peers
  1144 
  First accusation of Jewish ritual murder of boy 
  made in Norwich
  1146 
  Earthquake in Rome; first mention of Paris 
  butcher’s guild
  1147 
  Second Crusade begins
  1159 
  Fire in Milan destroys one-third of city
  1162 
  Milan burned by Frederick I Barbarossa
  1163 
  Council of Tours orders confiscation of here-
  tics’ goods
  
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  1167 
  Arno floods Pisa 9 times in one fall; serious 
  malaria outbreak in Rome
  1169 
  Earthquake in Sicily
  1170 
  Peter Valdo founds the Waldensians; flying 
  buttresses first used in construction of Reims 
  cathedral
  1171 
  Jews massacred at Blois following allegation of 
  Jewish murder (no victim found)
  1173-74 Famine in Pisa
  1174 
  Fire in Canterbury, England
  1177 
  St-Bénézet bridge built at Avignon
  1179 
  Third Lateran Council
  1184 
  Fire in Sens, France
  1186 
  Philippe II Auguste paves Paris’ streets
  1188 
  Fires in Arras, Beauvais, Moissac, Poitiers, 
  Provins, Rouen, and Troyes
  1189 
  Count Raymond V gives liberties to Toulouse; 
  Third Crusade begins; London passes Assize of 
  Buildings (early building code)
  1190 
  Jews massacred in York
  1191 
  Emperor Henry VI invades Naples, unsuccess-
  fully sieges city
  1193 
  Henry FitzAilwin becomes first mayor of 
  London
  1194 
  Fire in Vincenza; fire damages Chartres 
  cathedral
  1195 
  Flood at Auxerre
  1196 
  William FitzOsbert leads revolt in London 
  against tax levied for ransom of Richard I 
  (FitzOsbert hanged later that year); Flood in 
  Paris
  1201 
  Fourth Crusade begins
  1200 
  Student riots at University of Paris
  1202 
  A Pisan merchant begins to widely dissemi-
  nate the Liber abaci (Book of the abacus) which 
  explained “Arabic” numerals; Venice excom-
  municated for its part in Fourth Crusade attack 
  on Constantinople
  1205 
  Flood at Caen
  1206 
  Earthquake in Bourgone and Limousin; flood 
  in Paris
  1207 
  Earthquake in Anjou
  1209 
  Albigensian Crusade begins; Béziers destroyed 
  by Crusaders; London bridge completed (stone 
  replacement for 1C wooden bridge)
  1210 
  Riot at Chartres
  1212 
  Major fire in London; Famine in Sicily
  1213 
  Flood at Limoges
  1214 
  Earthquake in Normandy
  1215 
  John I grants London the right to elect its 
  own mayor; Fourth Lateran Council; Riot in 
  Chartres
  1216 
  Flood in Paris
  1218 
  Fire in Amiens, France; Albigensian crusaders 
  siege Toulouse
  1219 
  Flood in Grenoble
  1220 
  Dominican rule approved
  1221 
  Tornadoes damage area between Paris and 
  Beauvais
  1222 
  University of Padua founded; Earthquake in 
  Bologna damages cathedral
  1223 
  Franciscan rule approved; earthquake rocks 
  Venice on Christmas Day; earthquake in 
  Aquitaine
  1224 
  Frederick II founds University of Naples
  1227 
  Famine in Sicily
  1230 
  University students temporarily leave Paris; 
  Tiber floods Rome
  1231 
  Series of tremors strike Rome, part of Coliseum 
  collapses; Emperor Frederick II enacts rules for 
  licensing doctors, including lists of suggested 
  books to study
  1232 
  Townspeople in Worms, Germany, destroy 
  town hall rather than surrender it to bishop; 
  Bristol has first water pipes laid
  1233 
  Fire in Tours, France
  1236 
  Emperor Frederick II investigates and denounc-
  es claim made in Fulda that Jews used blood of 
  Christian children in Passover rituals (Pope 
  Innocent IV will issue letter repudiating same 
  claim in 1247)
  1237 
  London develops conduit bringing fresh water 
  from Tyburn
  1241 
  Lübeck and Hamburg sign treaty to coordinate 
  resistance to highway bandits between the Elbe 
  and Trave estuaries
  1245 
  Douai, Flanders, enacts first legislation against 
  residents organizing to strike against their 
  employers
  1247-48 Emperor Frederick II sieges Parma
  1251 
  Pastoureaux uprisings near Paris
  1252 
  Florence first issues the gold florin; Parma’s 
  butchers lead revolt against town government
  1253-58 Chartres cathedral chapter flees unrest
  1254 
  Louis IX orders expulsion of prostitutes from all 
  French towns and villages and confiscation of 
  all belongings including clothing (The order is 
  singularly ineffective)
  1255 
  Lübeck and Hamburg sign currency alliance
  1256 
  Urban revolt in Genoa
  1260 
  Flagellant processions in northern Italy
  
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  1261 
  Council of Lambeth requires each bishop to 
  maintain one or two ecclesiastic prisons in his 
  diocese
  1262 
  Bishop Walter von Geroldseck defeat-
  ed by Strasbourg city militia on the field of 
  Hausbergen; Riot in Hereford, England, 
  against its bishop results in virtual siege of 
  cathedral district and eventual negotiations 
  over privileges
  1264 
  Simon de Monteforte, leader of a baronial oppo-
  sition to Henry III, forms a proto-Parliament at 
  Westminster in London
  1266 
  Urban uprising in Florence
  1267 
  Bologna cobblers revolt and set fire to the 
  podestà’s palace after arrest of one of their 
  members for adultery
  1268 
  South tower of Sens cathedral collapses
  1272 
  Riot in Norwich over clerical privilege protect-
  ing accused murderers leads to townspeople 
  setting fire to its cathedral (damaging it) and 
  killing several monks; the crown sided with 
  the bishop, executing 30 arsonists, suspending 
  town privileges for 3 years, and levying a large 
  fine.
  1273-79 Orvieto builds aqueduct
  1274 
  Verona burns 174 Cathars at Sirmione near 
  Lake Garda
  1276 
  Flood in Rome
  1277 
  Genoese ships first sail around Spain to 
  Flanders
  1278 
  Fire in Chester
  1280 
  Uprising (“blue nails”) in Flanders; Flood in 
  Cremona & Mantua
  1281 
  Mayors killed in separate tax revolts in Rouen 
  and Provins, France
  1282 
  Sicilian Vespers (uprising in Sicily against the 
  Angevin monarchy); Lübeck, Wisby, and Riga 
  enter alliance to promote peace in the Baltic
  1284 
  Partial collapse of Beauvais cathedral
  1285 
  Fire in Florence; riot in Arras
  1287 
  Genoa breaches Pisa’s harbor at battle of 
  Meloria, destroys several warships, and carries 
  off parts of the harbor chains as trophies
  1288 
  Cologne militia defeats archbishop’s forces at 
  Worringen; Fire in Boston
  1290 
  Jews expelled from England
  1292 
  Tax revolt in Rouen, France; King Philippe IV 
  abolishes Rouen’s commune
  1293 
  Fire in Florence
  1294 
  Flood in London
  1296 
  Flood in Paris; Fire in Carlisle
  1297-1304 Rural revolts in Flanders against King Philippe 
  IV of France
  1298 
  Fire in Strasbourg destroys 355 homes and 
  damages cathedral; 21 Jews killed in riot in 
  Roettlingen after allegations of host desecra-
  tion, local knight led anti-Jewish  mobs against 
  neighboring regions
  1301 
  Fire in Florence; uprising in Magdeburg, 10 
  guild leaders burned alive
  1303 
  Fire in Florence destroys 1,700 buildings
  1304 
  Fire in Florence
  1306 
  Bologna’s butchers revolt and depose papal leg-
  ate and his allies in favor of a government led 
  by the guilds; Paris artisans revolt over manip-
  ulation of coinage, king executes 23 leaders; 
  Jews expelled from France
  1307 
  King Philippe IV arrests the Templars
  1308 
  Revolt in Strasbourg
  1309 
  Mercanzia (guild court) founded in Florence; 
  Papacy moves to Avignon
  1311 
  Flagellant marches in Pisa, Lucca, and San 
  Miniato
  1312 
  Templars suppressed in England
  1313 
  England creates wool staple system
  1314 
  Unrest in Lucca causes silk workers to begin to 
  illicitly emigrate; Lucca offers  bounty for mur-
  der of illicit emigrant silk workers
  1315 
  Jews return to France after the payment of 
  22,500 livre with an agreement for an annual 
  payment of 10,000 livre 
  1315-18 Famine in England, northern Europe caused by 
  series of bad harvests
  1320 
  French crown fines Jews 150,000 livre (later 
  reduced to 75,000 livre) after mass hysteria 
  resulting from alleged plot by Jews, conspiring 
  with Spanish Muslims and lepers, to poison 
  wells; Paris’ Belleville aqueduct in use supply-
  ing fountains
  1321 
  Harsh winter in England; Shepherd’s Crusade 
  (rural rioters march through southern France 
  and Spain killing Jews and lepers); University 
  faculty and staff temporarily leave Bologna
  1322 
  Local landholder burns town of Recanati to the 
  ground over local bishop’s accusations of witch-
  craft and idolatry and town’s defiant response; 
  Jews again expelled from France (allowed to 
  trickle back in after 1350)
  1323-28 Jacquerie uprising in northern France; rural 
  uprising in Flanders against Count Louis of 
  Nevers, suppressed with aid of French crown
  1325 
  Fire in Vicenza destroys one-quarter of the 
  city
  
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  1326 
  Florence orders two magistrates to make bronze 
  cannons and iron shot (one of the 1st mentions 
  of firearms); anti-Italian riot in London
  1327 
  Riots in London against Edward II
  1331 
  Peaceful demonstration in Parma (8 days of 
  dancing and shouting) leads to tax reduction 
  and peace treaty between Parma and Lucca
  1332 
  Patrician feud in Strasbourg leads to general 
  uprising and revolution, greater participation 
  by guild leaders in government; flood in Pisa
  1333 
  Arno river floods Florence; fire in Verona
  1340 
  Hundred Years’ War begins; plague and fire in 
  Florence
  1341 
  French crown first imposes a gabelle on salt (all 
  salt had to be sold to a royal officer (gabellier) 
  who would hold a monopoly on its sale to the 
  public) 
  1342 
  Flood in Zurich
  1343 
  Peruzzi bank fails when Edward III of England 
  defaults on loans totaling 600,000 florins; 
  urban uprising in Florence; Storm damages 
  Amalfi and Ravello
  1344 
  Bardi bank fails likewise due to Edward III’s 
  defaults on loans totaling 900,000 florins
  1345 
  Revolt in Ghent, Flanders, results in angry  mob 
  killing its captain general
  1346 
  Bad harvest in Florence
  1347 
  Cola di Rienzi’s revolt in Rome
  1348 
  Black Plague begins; Earthquake in Venice and 
  Verona
  1349 
  Revolt in Strasbourg led by butchers leads to 
  greater participation by craft guilds, city’s Jews 
  burned; earthquake in Perugia, Rome, and cen-
  tral Italy; Ordinance of Labourers attempts to 
  regulate English wages
  1350 
  Jean II of France publishes sanitary code
  1351 
  Statute of Labourers attempts to regulate 
  English wages
  1353 
  Riot in Gaeta
  1355 
  Rebellion by cloth workers and others deposes 
  Siena’s government
  1356 
  Golden Bull in Germany regulating town 
  alliances
  1357-58 Paris uprising under Etienne Marcel; Jacquerie 
  uprising in countryside
  1358 
  Amiens, France captured by King Charles 
  the Bad; first mention of German Hanseatic 
  League of Towns
  1359 
  Milan suppresses popular revolt in Pavia
  1360 
  English siege  Paris; Pont-Saint-Esprit captured 
  by mercenaries and held for ransom
  1361 
  Pope Innocent IV bribes  mercenaries to raise 
  siege of Avignon and assist papal allies in north-
  ern Italy; plague (Grey Plague) in London; 
  University of Pavia founded
  1362 
  Hurricane destroys wooden spire of Norwich 
  cathedral
  1363 
  White Company of English mercenaries forces 
  truce between papacy and Milan; thus unem-
  ployed, the Company is hired by Pisa to harass 
  Florence
  1364-84 Tuchins revolt in rural southern France
  1367 
  Confederation of Cologne; White Company, 
  on behalf of the Papacy, captures Assisi.
  1368 
  Series of rebellions in Siena due to famine; 
  Plague in London
  1370 
  Cloth workers rebel in Perugia against high 
  taxes from struggle between town, papacy, 
  and rural nobles; Venice enacts fines on illic-
  itly emigrating silk workers
  1371 
  Second rebellion by cloth workers in Perugia 
  drives town government out, replaced with 
  papal governor; rebellion in Siena (Company 
  of the Caterpillar) over grain prices leads to 
  minor government reforms; England sacks 
  Limoges leaving only the cathedral standing
  1373 
  Earthquake in Verona
  1374 
  Famine followed by flooding in Florence; bur-
  gher riot in Brunswick
  1375 
  Third rebellion by cloth workers in Perugia 
  results in return of original town government; 
  harsh winter in Italy; Plague in London
  1375-78 Florence and Papacy at war (War of the Eight 
  “Saints”)
  1376 
  Bolognese rural peasants sneak into town, 
  attack the papal legate, and spark restoration 
  of local government
  1377 
   Mercenaries burn port of Boulogne; Cesena’s 
  population massacred in retaliation for minor 
  uprising against papal troops billeted in town
  1378 
  Great Schism begins with two rival claim-
  ants to the Papacy (one in Rome, the other 
  in Avignon); Ciompi (wool worker) revolt in 
  Florence
  1379 
  Weaver’s uprising in Ghent, Bruges, and 
  Ypres
  1380 
  Butchers’ revolt in Lübeck
  1381-82 Uprising in Flanders against Count Louis II, 
  rebels briefly capture Bruges
  1381 
  Peasant’s Revolt in England; Arezzo captured 
  by  mercenaries
  1382 
  Maillotins uprising in Paris; Harelle uprising in 
  Rouen
  
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  1384 
  Fire in Strasbourg; Butchers’ uprising in 
  Lübeck
  1385 
  Two fires in Cambridge destroy 100 homes; 
  Peasants storm Parma and destroy tax records
  1386 
  Flood in Pistoia 
  1386-90 Countryside disturbances in Piedmont and 
  Savoy (tucchini)
  1388 
  German princes defeat town alliances of the 
  Upper Rhine at Döffingen
  1391 
  University of Ferrara chartered by papal bull; 
  Jewish neighborhood in Seville destroyed, 
  many Jews forced to convert, violence spread 
  to other areas of Castile and Aragon.
  1393 
  Flood in Paris destroyed Petit Pont
  1394 
  Jews expelled from France
  1401-04 Rural revolts in Florentine condato
  1403 
  Papacy leaves Avignon; Revolt in Riems; 
  English merchants expelled from Danzig
  1404 
  Flooding in Flanders
  1405 
  Riot in Rome forces Papacy to briefly flee
  1407 
  Flood in Paris destroys Petit Pont and Pont St-
  Michel; cold winter causes ink to freeze on the 
  quill in northern France
  1408 
  Church council in Pisa attempts to resolve 
  Great Schism, but ends up furthering discord 
  by electing a third pope
  1408-16 Lübeck divided between two rival governing 
  councils
  1413 
  Cabochein (butchers’) revolt briefly seizes con-
  trol of Paris
  1416 
  French crown demolishes Parisian butcher’s 
  historic market and hall (Le Grande Boucherie), 
  and revokes the butchers’ guild’s privileges as 
  punishment for backing his rivals in a civil 
  struggle.
  1417 
  Council of Constance ends Great Schism with 
  the election of Martin V; Fire in Senlis dam-
  ages cathedral roof and bells
  1418 
  Henry V captures Senlis, Evreaux, and Rouen
  1419 
  Flood in Ferrara; Florence orders beheading of 
  illicit emigrant silk workers and large fine for 
  anyone abetting them
  1420 
  Filippo Brunelleschi begins construction on 
  dome of Florence’s cathedral; flood in Rome; 
  wolves reported scavenging in Paris at night
  1421 
  Parisian butchers finish rebuilding their hall (a 
  three-year project)
  1427 
  Gypsies first arrive in Paris and are soon ordered 
  to depart by the Bishop
  1432 
  Flood in Paris
  1437 
  Revolt in Bruges
  1437-40 Famine in northern Europe caused by series of 
  bad harvests
  1438 
  Siena begins manufacturing silk
  1439 
  Wolves reported to kill a dozen people in 
  Paris
  1440 
  Siena complains that Florence conspired to 
  destroy its new silk industry by, among other 
  things, trying to bribe masters and journeymen 
  to burn their looms and emigrate to Florence
  1444 
  Venice’s Rialto bridge collapses under weight 
  of  crowd watching a procession
  1450 
  Francesco Sforza captures Milan; King Charles 
  VII gives Lyon royal monopoly on silk manu-
  facture in France; Johannes Gutenberg invents 
  his first printing press in Mainz, Germany
  1451 
  Revolt in Ghent
  1453 
  Hundred Years’ War ends
  1457 
  First printing press appears in Italy
  1462 
  Brunelleschi’s dome completed in Florence
  1463 
  Lightning sets fire to spire of Norwich cathe-
  dral causing severe damage; Fire in Toulouse 
  destroys ¾ of town
  1466 
  Sicily charters Jewish university
  1467 
  Flood in Mantua
  1468 
  Burgundians destroy Liège; English Privy 
  Council orders arrest of all Hanseatic mer-
  chants in England
  1468-74 Hanseatic League at war with England over 
  merchant privileges
  1470-74 France declares war on Hanseatic League over 
  Hansa trade with England during Hundred 
  Years’ War
  1474 
  Venice creates first patent protection for 
  inventors, violators fined 100 ducats; Treaty 
  of Utrecht resolves dispute between England, 
  France, and Hanseatic League
  1475 
  Jewish community in Trento destroyed after 
  inflammatory preaching by Franciscan friar 
  alleging a ritual murder of a local boy
  1481 
  Flood in Mantua followed by locusts
  1486 
  Jews expelled from Vicenza
  1488 
  Crusade against Waldensians in north-eastern 
  France
  1492 
  Jews expelled from Spain and Sicily
  1494 
  French threats to Florence result in revolt
  1495 
  Flood in Rome
  1498 
  Fra Savonarola burned at the stake in 
  Florence
  1499 
  Genoa creates magistracy to control illicit emi-
  gration of silk workers, with power to impose 
  fines up to 500 ducats; Flood in Paris destroys 
  Pont Notre-Dame
  
  Appendix I: Paris
  Page 115
  I am in Paris, in that royal city where the abun-
  dance of natural gifts not only captivates those who 
  dwell therein, but invites and attracts those who are 
  afar. Just as the moon surpasses the stars in bright-
  ness, so this city, the seat of royalty, raises its proud 
  head above all others. It is situated in the midst of 
  a delightful valley surrounded by a crown of hills 
  which adorn it in emulation of Ceres and Bacchus. 
  The Seine, that superb river which comes from the 
  east, here flows level with its banks and with its two 
  branches forms an island which is the head, the heart, 
  and marrow of the entire city. The two suburbs ex-
  tend to the right and left, the smaller of which would 
  be the envy of many cities. Each of the faubourgs is 
  joined with the island by a bridge: the Grand pont fac-
  ing the north in the direction of the English Channel, 
  and the Petit pont which looks towards the Loire. 
  The former, large, rich, and bustling with trade is the 
  scene of busy activity; innumerable boats filled with 
  merchandise and riches surround it. The Petit pont 
  belongs to the logicis (students of logic) who cross or 
  walk upon it while debating. In the île, alongside the 
  palace of the kings ... stands the hall of philosophy, 
  where study reigns as sole sovereign, a citadel of light 
  and of immortality. That île is the eternal home of 
  the seven sisters, the liberal arts, it is there also that 
  decrees and laws resound from a trumpet of most 
  noble eloquence; there, finally, bubbles the fountain 
  of religious learning ...
  – Guy of Bazoches (c.1180)
   Paris is one of the largest and clearest examples 
  of a subject town. It was the home of the French 
  monarchy, and was the largest European town never 
  to have its own government or charter. By using the 
  chapters of this book as an outline for a discussion of 
  Paris, one sees more clearly the problems of an urban 
  government divided between the monarchy, the bish-
  op, and the university; and of a city used as a revenue 
  source, with a limited voice for the merchants and 
  artisans who generated that revenue.
   AGRICULTURE
  Paris was built along the  Seine river, about 280 
  miles from the Atlantic. The Seine’s current was 
  moderate, providing steady power for water mills and 
  allowing for boat traffic from the English Channel 
  to the east and from Flanders and Burgundy to the 
  north and west. It was also close to the Loire, which 
  provided river access to central France. The Seine 
  provided fresh   fish, often sold near the Grand-Pont or 
  Pierre-à-Poissons (a street near Châtlet). Fresh sea-
  fish caught in the English Channel was shipped by 
  cart overnight to Paris using relays of horses. The 
  provost of Paris prohibited these relays, the chasse-
  marée, from being stopped or hindered on their jour-
  ney. Brined, salted, and smoked fish was shipped at a 
  more leisurely pace.
  There were several islands in the Seine near Paris. 
  The largest, the Île de la Cité, was the original site 
  for Roman Paris. Several smaller islands upriver from 
  the Île were used for cow pastures, and sometimes for 
  judicial duels and executions.
  Paris was surrounded by good agricultural land, 
  ensuring a bountiful food supply during most years. 
  It drew its grain primarily from the north and north-
  west, in an area of about 625 square miles in an arc 
  from Poissy in the west to Meaux in the east. Some 
  
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  Town Appendix I: Paris
  Page 116
   bakers ground their flour and made their bread in 
  market towns (bourgs) and villages within a day’s 
  cart travel of the city, then shipped the loaves to 
  market in Paris.
  Parisians consumed a large amount of  meat. By 
  one estimate, in the 14th century, Parisians consumed 
  3,420 sheep, 514 oxen, 306 calves, and 600 pigs per 
  week. On the  Easter Fair (held from Holy Tuesday to 
  Good Friday), two to three thousand hams were sold. 
  Cattle and sheep were often driven to Paris, fattened 
  up from their journey in monastic fields around the 
  city (grandes prairies), and then butchered either in 
  the fields or in the city’s butcher shops. Pigs wandered 
  freely in the Parisian streets until 1131, when one ran 
  under the legs of the king’s son’s horse. The horse 
  threw the young man, who died the next day. King 
  Louis VI forbade anyone, other than the monks of 
  the abbey of St-Antoine (the patron saint of pigs), to 
  allow their pigs to wander Parisian streets.  Parisians 
  could keep pigs at home in their yards or gardens.
   ARCHITECTURE
  Paris was built on the right (north) and left (south) 
  banks of the Seine, divided by the central Île de la 
  Cité. There were several bridges connecting the city, 
  several of which were lined with shops and homes. 
  There were also water mills beneath the Grand Pont 
  which connected the Île to the Right Bank. 
   Notre-Dame Cathedral was, and is, one of the 
  most famous buildings in the city.  Construction 
  began in 1163 under Bishop Maurice de Sully, who 
  wanted to build a church in the style of the new 
  cathedrals at St-Denis, Senlis, and Sens. Some of 
  the stone needed for the new cathedral was mined 
  from tunnels under the city (see p. 22). The choir 
  was consecrated in 1182. Notre-Dame was part of a 
  large complex of ecclesiastical buildings known as la 
  Cité Cléricale or la Cloître which occupied the east-
  ern end of the island. The For l’Evêque, the court 
  of the bishops of Paris, was on the Right Bank. The 
  bishop’s provost managed his portion of the city, 
  Paris
  B
  C
  D
  E
  F
  G
  H
  I
  J
  K
  L
  M
  N
  O
  P
  Q
  A
  A – The Temple
  B – The Bastille
  C – St-Pol
  D – Hotel de Ville
  E – Place de Grève
  F – St-Jacques-de-
  la-Boucherie
  G – Les Halles
  H – The Louvre
  I –  Notre-Dame Cathedral
  J – Bishop’s Palace
  K – Île Market
  L – Palais des Rois
  M – Tour de Nesle
  N – Le Petit Châtelet
  O – Ste-Geneviève
  P – St-Germain-de-Près
  Q – St-Victor
  
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  imprisoning criminals in a prison within the For. 
  The area around Notre Dame was immune to the 
  King’s Justice; no officer of the Châtlet could enter 
  the Cloître. The portals of Notre Dame were, how-
  ever, used as a place of judgment and punishment.
  At the other end of the Île was the Palais du 
  Roi, the royal administrative center. It included 
  Sainte-Chapelle, a small chapel built by Louis 
  IX (St. Louis) in the early 13th century.  Sainte-
  Chapelle cost the King forty thousand livres tour-
  nois, a vast sum that did not include its reliquaries 
  and ornaments. Philippe IV the Fair constructed 
   the Conciergerie, a sumptuous palace on the Île. On 
  February 22, 1358, Étienne Marcel led a mob into 
  the apartments of the Dauphin at the Conciergerie 
  and slew his counselors in front of him. When he 
  regained control of the city, Charles V moved to 
  the more defensible Louvre, which became the new 
  royal residence.
  During the late 14th and 15th centuries, the 
  crown and several monarchs built fortified palaces 
  in the city. Charles V built St-Pol (or St-Paul), 
  known for its orchards, gardens, and menagerie. 
  Duke Jean of Burgundy (Jean Sans Peur) built a 
  citadel-palace, the Hôtel d’Artois. His rival, the 
  Duke de Berry, built the fortified Tour de Nesle on 
  the Left Bank.
  Paris was protected by a series of walls and gates. 
  It was also protected by the Louvre and Nesle for-
  tresses on the western side of the city. The Tour de 
  Nesle held one end of a  chain which stretched across 
  the Seine to the Louvre. During peacetime, the chain 
  was kept slack during the day, and raised at  night 
  to prevent smugglers from bypassing tolls. The Petit 
  Châtlet guarded one bridge to the Cité. The fortress 
  was the official residence of the provosts of Paris and 
  sometimes used as a prison.
  CHURCH
  Notre Dame was one of the most famous 
   churches in Paris, but it was not the only powerful 
  religious center. Its rivals included the University 
  of Paris (see p. 119), the Augustinian abbey of Ste-
  Geneviève, the Benedictine abbey of St-Germain-
  de-Près, and the Knights Templar’s Temple. Each 
  of these major churches owned land in and around 
  Paris creating a tangle of legal privileges and juris-
  dictions, jealously fought over among the religious 
  communities and with the Parisian government.
  One of the oldest religious centers in Paris was 
  the Augustinian Abbey of Ste-Geneviève, founded 
  in 510 and named for a pious woman credited with 
  saving the city from Attila the Hun. Its rival, St-
  German-des-Prés, a Benedictine abbey, was founded 
  in 542. Both abbeys were initially outside of the city 
  walls and slowly became incorporated into the grow-
  ing city. In the 12th century, the  Templars became 
  an important faction in Parisian finance and politics. 
  Their primary administrative and banking center, the 
  Temple, was built on the northern fringe of the city in 
  1147. The Order also controlled a great deal of land 
  within the city. The Templars were destroyed in 1254 
  after a dispute with the French king.
  The church of St-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie (11th 
  century) was the traditional starting point for pilgrim-
  ages to Santigo de Compostelle in Spain. Pilgrims had 
  their staves blessed, and their friends wished them 
  well. From there they walked across the river, past 
  Notre-Dame, and along the Rue St-Jacques to the 
  twin towers and drawbridge of the Port St-Jacques. 
  From there, a road led south, eventually reaching 
  Santiago de Compostelle.
  Finally, there were two important churches on 
  Montmatre, the highest hill in Paris. The name 
  Montmatre was derived from the Mound of Mercury, 
  although local legend referred to the martyrdom of 
  St. Denis and two other men in the third century. All 
  three were beheaded on the mount. According to leg-
  end, St. Denis picked up his blood-covered head and 
  walked two miles to the site of the St-Denis cathe-
  dral, the first major Gothic cathedral and necropolis 
  of many French kings. The hill’s two primary church-
  es are the Church of St-Pierre, built on the site of a 
  Merovingian church in the mid-to-late 12th century, 
  and the convent of the Filles Dieu, founded by St. 
  Louis in 1226. Condemned prisoners on their way to 
  the Montfaucon gallows stopped at the convent to 
  kiss a crucifix hanging on the east wall of the church. 
  They were anointed with holy water, and given bread 
  and wine.
  The  University of Paris was a major part of the 
  city’s religious life. Its leaders battled with Paris’ 
  bishop over the university’s privileges and immuni-
  ties, leading to several pointed conflicts. In 1219, 
  the Franciscans founded a house for students at 
  the University of Paris, and soon became important 
  
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  members of the University’s faculty. Similarly, the 
  Dominicans became important faculty members at 
  the University starting in the mid-13th century. 
   COMMERCE
  The Right (northern) Bank of the Seine was, 
  and is, the heart of Paris’ commerce and manufac-
  turing. In 1292, Paris had over 130 regulated pro-
  fessions – 18 dealing with food and firewood; 5 in 
  building and construction; 22 in metallurgy; 22 in 
  cloth and leather; 36 in clothing and accessories; 10 
  in house furniture; 3 in medicine; and 15 in bank-
  ing and other professions. Merchants purchased a 
  license (métier) from the crown and were subject 
  to guild and royal inspectors. The watermen’s guild 
  was the most politically powerful guild, followed 
  by the butcher’s guild from which several prévôtes 
  (provosts) were drawn.
  In the late 14th and early 15th centuries, north-
  ern France was frequently a target of rival English 
  and French armies fighting the Hundred Years 
  War. Paris’ trades declined both because of the dis-
  ruptions to trade routes, and due to internal chaos 
  in Paris as the monarchy and its rivals struggled 
  to control the city. The city’s weaving industry 
  declined in the 15th century because their uncard-
  ed cloth could not compete with carded rivals in 
  Flanders and other nearby towns. Its dyer and silk-
  making industry declined in the 15th century when 
  the French court, and its courtiers, increasingly 
  spent time in palaces along the Loire instead of in 
  Paris. Many workers moved to towns closer to Loire 
  palaces.
  Paris had three major  markets, on the Île, at 
  Place de Grève, and at Les Halles. Place de Grève 
  was primarily the city’s river port and a place where 
  day laborers looked for work. Les Halles, a major 
  produce market, became a covered marketplace 
  starting in 1183.
  Paris was the home of the Templars’ major 
  bank, the Temple, which made it a major center for 
  European banking until the Order’s demise. Philip II 
  Auguste and other monarchs kept the royal treasury 
  at the Temple until Philip IV destroyed the Order 
  in 1254. (The Templars’ treasure was then confis-
  cated by the monarchy.) Paris was also home to the 
  two Lendit Fairs in nearby St-Denis, and the Saint-
  Germain Fair (see p.45).
   CRIME PREVENTION
  Philip II Auguste organized the city’s watch. His 
  administrator, the prévôt-balli, controlled a group of 
  guards, often derisively referred to by the public as 
  ribauds or ribauz. An unimpressed public nicknamed 
  the prévot de Paris the roi de ribauds. The prévôt 
  was assisted by commissaries-enquêtes (magistrates), 
  sergents, and a watch (le guet). The prévôt also had 
  his own bodyguard (la douzaine).
  The  watch was organized by guilds. Each guild 
  was expected to provide a certain number of per-
  sonnel for three-week tours of duty. There was also 
  a royal watch. Both watches were commanded by 
  the chevalier du guet. The captain could refuse any 
  person he deemed unfit for duty and impose a fine. 
  When this led to abuses under the English control of 
  Paris, an ordinance required the captain to accept any 
  healthy male over 20 years old who was well known 
  in his neighborhood or village.
  There was also a militia organized by neigh-
  borhoods (quatiers). Neighborhoods elected a 
  Quartenier, who commanded its militia and portion of 
  the watch. The Quartenier was assisted by dizainiers, 
  who commanded groups of ten men. Cinquantiniers 
  were captains of groups of fifty men. 
  Crime, by most accounts, was rampant. By the 
  15th century, Paris was the home of the  Beggar King 
  and his band of  organized criminals (see p. 58). 
  François Villon, a clerk, wrote a series of poems 
  about one group of Parisian bandits, who he called 
  Coquillards (Brothers of the Cockle-Shell), in the 
  jargon of that group. Villon particularly warned the 
  Brothers to be wary of the Archers, presumably the 
  prévôte’s guards.
  During times of particular unrest, the prévôt 
  ordered Parisians to keep lit lamps in their front win-
  dows at night and to keep vessels of water nearby in 
  case of fire. Chains were set in the streets and bonfires 
  kept at major intersections. Many Parisians ignored 
  the order, barricaded their doors, and kept weapons 
  near their beds.
  Criminals were often  executed at the 
  Montefaucon gallows. The gallows included sixteen 
  large stone pillars with wooden beams between them. 
  Criminals were hung from chains on the beams, and 
  their  bodies left to rot. Fifty to sixty corpses were 
  commonly displayed at once. When a new criminal 
  was hung, the oldest body was thrown into a charnel 
  
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  pit in the center of the foundation. The stair leading 
  up the foundation was barred by a gate and guarded 
  to keep relatives or “sorcerers” from stealing the bod-
  ies. In rare cases, and during portions of the Hundred 
  Year’s War when travel from Paris to Montefaucon 
  was dangerous, criminals were executed at one of 
  Paris’ market places. Jean Hardi, accused of trying 
  to poison King Louis XI, was drawn and quartered 
  in Place de Grève in 1473. Jacques d’Armagnac, the 
  Duke of Nemours, was beheaded in Les Halles for 
  treason in 1477.  Jacques de Molay, grand master of 
  the Templars, and two other men were burned alive 
  on a small island in the Seine in 1314 on charges of 
  witchcraft and heresy.
  During the unrest of the Hundred Years War, 
  Paris was described by an anonymous chronicler 
  known as the Bourgeois of Paris as a very law-
  less place. Robbers and bandits raped, robbed, 
  and murdered people in the streets and in their 
  homes. Beggars confessed after  torture to kidnap-
  ping and mutilating children. Newborn babies were 
  kidnapped from their parents and held for ransom 
  – the kidnappers threatening to let them die unbap-
  tized if not paid. Women were forced into prostitu-
  tion to earn enough money to survive and feed their 
   children. Robbers and bandits caught by the watch 
  were quickly executed, but the sense of the anony-
  mous bourgeois’ chronicle is that no one could or 
  would maintain order in the city. 
   EDUCATION
  Paris had a noted cathedral school, La maîtrese, 
  the choir of Notre Dame. The choir included twelve 
  boys and six men who were taught to sing in the 
  cathedral. Their music set a standard for a large part 
  of Western Europe.
  Paris was also the home of the  University of Paris, 
  one of the largest universities in Europe. At its height, 
  it may have had 5,000 students and faculty, who 
  comprised a tenth of Paris’ population. Even after 
  the Hundred Years War and the Plague, it had about 
  3,500 students and faculty in the mid-15th century. 
  The University controlled many aspects of urban life 
  around it. It licensed book makers and sellers. It set 
  the maximum rent on apartments rented to univer-
  sity members.
  For the most part, students made individual 
  arrangements to pay their teachers a fee (collectae). 
  The teachers and the students’ nations paid rent and 
  maintenance for their buildings. Administrators were 
  paid from fees derived from various examinations and 
  promotions. When the university encountered an 
  unanticipated fee, such as to resolve a dispute about 
  its privileges or to send an ambassador to the papacy, 
  it took a special collection of its students and facul-
  ty (contributions pro debitis universitatis) –– some-
  times the amount varied by the university member’s 
  income; at other times it was a fixed fee.
  As mentioned above, the university set a maxi-
  mum on rents charged to the university community. 
  Often the landholder rented the building to a mas-
  ter, who in turn lived in part of the building and 
  sublet the remainder to his students. The landlord 
  often obtained pledges or a security deposit from 
  the master, and could not seize the students’ goods 
  in satisfaction of any unpaid rent. The master, in 
  turn, obtained pledges or a security deposit from 
  students, and could collect unpaid rent through the 
  university’s courts.
   ENTERTAINMENT
  The French monarchy often staged large celebra-
  tions in Paris in honor of coronations, knighting of 
  the king’s sons, and weddings, as well as smaller cel-
  ebrations to honor visiting dignitaries or mark impor-
  tant events. In 1313, for example, Philip IV held an 
  eight-day festival to honor his sons’ knighting.  The 
  feast began with the ceremonial entry of Philip IV’s 
  daughter Isabelle and her husband, King Edward II 
  of England into Paris. The couple was entertained at 
  a royal banquet while Philip’s sons spent the night 
  before their knighting in prayer and fasting at Notre 
  Dame. On Pentecost Sunday, the young men were 
  knighted and Philip IV held another banquet. During 
  the next week, a series of processions, banquets, dis-
  plays, plays, and street festivals ensued, involving 
  Paris’ clergy, guilds, and notables. On Thursday, the 
  kings of France, England, and Navarre all promised to 
  go on Crusade, joined by a large crowd of nobles and 
  townspeople. (The promised crusade did not occur 
  – Philip died in 1314.)
  In addition to the usual major religious feasts, 
  Paris had a procession in honor of Ste-Geneviève 
  on January 3, when her relics were taken from her 
  church and processed around Mont-Ste-Geneviève, 
  past Notre-Dame cathedral, and back to her church. 
  
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  If the king was in Paris, he and his court were part 
  of the procession. Other processions were also held 
  during times of strife, disease, famine, and whenever 
  the king was seriously ill. There was also a popular 
  midsummer bonfire held in Place de Grève on the 
  feast of St. John. In some years, members of the royal 
  family or important officials lit the fire.
  There were also less grand entertainments 
  including various ball games (such as a predecessor 
  to tennis), animal fights, and competitions (including 
  climbing a greased pole to win a purse or animal). 
  Parisian entertainment involved several guilds. 
  Paris was a center for  musicians. In 1292, at least 19 
  musicians lived near St-Josse church. The Confrérie 
  de St-Julien des Menestriers, a professional craft guild 
  of travelling musicians, was formed in 1321 and even-
  tually had its own church and lodging house.
  The Confrérie de la Passion was a troop of mer-
  chants and artisans recognized by a royal letter-pat-
  ent in 1402, which regularly performed mystery plays 
  (generally scenes from Scripture) and donated its 
  profits to charity. There were two other groups of 
   actors performing in Paris at around the same time. 
  The Clercs de la Basoche were a group of lawyers 
  who performed comedies (religious and social alle-
  gory plays) at the Palais de Justice. The Enfants sans 
  Souci were sons of merchants who performed politi-
  cal satires at the Hôpital de la Trinité, the Halle aux 
  Poissons, and sometimes in the open in market plac-
  es. The Enfants had to share their profits with the 
  Confrérie de la Passion, which had a monopoly on 
  theater performances in Paris.
  Like other major cities, Paris had municipal pros-
  titutes, confined by Louis IX to streets on the Right 
  Bank.
   FINANCE
  The French crown was actively involved in the 
  city’s finances. By one estimate, in the 1290s, Paris 
  provided 14% of the monarchy’s revenue. In return, 
  the crown paid for improvements like stone stalls at 
  Les Halles and several sets of defensive walls and cas-
  tles. Philip II Auguste paid for a wall on the Left Bank 
  (1200-1215); Parisian merchants paid for a wall on 
  the Right Bank (1190-1209). Charles V built a larger 
  wall on the Right Bank in the 14th century.
  Parisians paid an annual royal fee (tailles) based 
  on their income from commerce. The taille had 
  evolved from an arbitrary  tax assessed on unfree per-
  sons prior to 1200 into a system of taxes levied on 
  urban residents by their own government, then paid 
  to the monarchy in a lump sum. To assess the tax, 
  royal collectors went to each house in the city, noting 
  the occupant’s name, occupation, and the amount 
  they paid based on their income from trade or crafts. 
  Nobles, royal officials, clergy, and university members 
  were immune from this tax.
  French urban finances were complicated by 
  royal demands for money. The monarchy (or any 
  major landholder) could demand feudal aids from its 
  vassals for the knighting of the landholder’s eldest 
  son, for the marriage of his eldest daughter, for 
  ransom if captured, and if he went on crusade. At 
  times, these aids could be demanded in rapid suc-
  cession, which could create a large sudden demand 
  on a town’s budget. Fortunately, a large city like 
  Paris could negotiate the terms and schedule of its 
  payment with royal officials. The monarchy and 
  major landholders could also demand emergency 
  war aids – either  soldiers or money to pay for mer-
  cenaries. Often this was invoked through the arri-
  ère-ban, a general summons of all who could give 
  military service, excluding the elderly and children, 
  women, and those in certain critical occupations. 
  Year
  Amount
  Conditions
  1328
  400 men-at-arms 
  for 3 months 
  (18,000 l.)
  Payments stopped 
  if peace broke out; 
  monarchy not to 
  seek additional tax 
  for that conflict
  1340
  450 men-at-arms 
  for 4 months 
  (20,250 l.) if king 
  or his son person-
  ally went to war
  Monarchy not to 
  ask for additional 
  aid for 1 year
  1345
  500 men-at-
  arms at 6 months 
  (33,750 l.)
  To be raised 
  by sales tax on 
  wine and grain
  1348
  15,000 men-at-
  arms for 6 months 
  (81,000 l.)
  Many other royal 
  taxes suspended 
  for that year
  
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  Those who did not want to personally serve could 
  pay a fee.
  Towns often made their payments contingent on 
  the landholder personally leading their forces, or on 
  an actual conflict – the tax would be repaid if the 
  enemy did not attack. To provide some idea of the 
  amounts in involved, for the decade preceding the 
  Hundred Years War and the first decade of the con-
  flict, Paris promised to pay the following:
  Paris funded its payments through a sales tax 
  of 4 d./l. (1½%) to be paid by all of its residents. In 
  1341, Paris allowed the crown to directly collect 
  its 1½ percent sales tax, but was able to keep up to 
  25% of the revenue to maintain its own defenses. 
  Starting in 1347, the crown began to collect and 
  keep the entire tax. The royal sales tax began to 
  rise from 1347 to 1360, eventually reaching 12 d./
  l. (5%). Paris continued to raise money for its own 
  defenses, but does not appear to have made the 
  sorts of specific promises seen in 1328-48 in later 
  decades.
  In the 13th and 14th centuries, the monarchy 
  became involved in a series of  wars, which it financed 
  through increased taxes. This led to an economic 
  decline in Paris. The crown tried to revalue the cur-
  rency, reducing the amount of silver in each coin, 
  and ordered merchants not to accept coins minted by 
  its foes. The 1306 revaluation provoked a riot. The 
  crown crushed the riot, hanging the leaders. Unrest 
  continued, making revaluations a risky policy for the 
  monarchy.
   GOVERNANCE
  Paris was the largest European subject-city which 
  never had its own government or charter. This led 
  to weak civil institutions which were badly strained 
  by crises, such as a period during the Hundred Years 
  War when a weak monarchy and its Armagnac rivals 
  struggled with the Burgundians and their English 
  allies for control of the city.
  Paris’ government was primarily divided between 
  the king’s representative, the prévôt, who lived at 
  Châtlet, and the Bishop of Paris, who lived in his pal-
  ace near Notre Dame on the Île de la Cité. In the late 
  13th century, Paris’ merchants were able to elect a 
  second prévôt, who was also a royal official, and had 
  his own home in the city. His records were likely kept 
  in the Châtlet.
  Jurisdiction over Paris’ left bank was divided 
  between the crown, Notre Dame, the University of 
  Paris, and the monasteries of Ste-Geneviève and St-
  Germain-des-Pres. In 1222, Philip II Auguste and 
  the bishop agreed to a treaty, Forma Pacis, which 
  settled various conflicting legal and economic dis-
  putes between the monarchy and Paris’ religious 
  leaders.
  The monarch was based on the Île de la Cité 
  until the mid-14th century, when Charles V moved 
  his court to the Louvre. Towards the end of the 14th 
  century, the monarchy began to reside outside of 
  Paris, first at Vincennes, and later in castles along 
  the Loire. Under Philip II Auguste and his succes-
  sors, the Île became the home of the royal archives, 
  the chancery, and the Parlement of Paris (a law 
  court). 
  Paris had long been administered by a royal 
  appointee, the prévôt (later prévôt-baili), general-
  ly a merchant who purchased the position from the 
  monarchy. In 1190, when Philip II Auguste went on 
  Crusade, he entrusted supervision of Paris’ admin-
  istration to six Parisians from the watermen’s guild. 
  The six men were ordered to audit royal accounts for 
  Paris and other parts of the royal lands three times a 
  year during the king’s absence. In 1260, King Louis IX 
  (St. Louis) created a municipal council by appointing 
  leading members of the watermen’s guild as  aldermen 
  (échevins). The échevins in turn chose a merchant’s 
  provost (prévôt des marchands). 
  High taxes provoked unrest. In 1282, a new tax 
  led to a popular revolt (the maillotins) against tax 
  collectors and money-lenders. The monarchy (then 
  led by a regency) declared martial law and executed 
  over 100 rioters. The échevins were abolished, and 
  the prévôt des marchands was merged into the royal 
  prévôte. The guilds were also curbed to reduce their 
  power and influence as rivals to the royal administra-
  tors. Slowly, Paris began to regain its liberties in the 
  late 14th century.
  In 1355, Paris’ delegation to the Estates-
  General pushed for an investigation into corrupt 
  royal officials. Paris’ provost, Étienne Marcel, 
  pushed for concessions from the dauphin during 
  Jean II’s captivity. In January, 1358, Marcel later 
  led a  mob into the Conciergerie and killed two 
  important courtiers in front of the dauphin. Marcel 
  then sent groups of Parisians to destroy fortresses 
  and manor houses around Paris which could be 
  
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  Town Appendix I: Paris
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  used as bases for attacking the city. Two of his lieu-
  tenants, Pierre Gille (a grocer) and Jean Vaillant 
  (the provost of the mint) separately allied with the 
  forces of Guilliam Cale (leader of the Jaquerie upris-
  ing) to attack local fortresses. Other towns such 
  as Amiens, Beauvais, Orléans, Rouen, and Senlis, 
  followed Paris’ lead, allying with the Jacquerie to 
  destroy local manor houses and castles. Charles II 
  of Navarre allied with Marcel, then betrayed and 
  killed Cale. Marcel was killed in a Parisian uprising 
  against him in July, 1358 and Paris made peace with 
  the dauphin.
  In 1392-1422, a struggle broke out between the 
  Duke of Burgundy and the Duke of Orléans for con-
  trol of the monarchy. In 1405, Duke Jean of Burgundy 
  took virtual control of Paris. He restored power to 
  the guilds, including the watermen’s guild, re-creat-
  ed the prévôt des marchands, and granted liberties to 
  the University. Duke Jean particularly favored the 
  city’s butchers, and made a group of them part of his 
  personal bodyguard. Unfortunately, his allies proved 
  unreliable. Claude Caboche, a  butcher, led a revolt 
  in 1413. Jean was forced to flee the city in the wake 
  of Caboche’s brief revolt.
  Jean’s rivals, the Armagnacs, took control of Paris 
  for five years. They proved so unpopular because of 
  their inability to maintain order and protect trade 
  routes and food supplies that the Burgundians were 
  welcomed back in 1418. Paris fell under the control 
  of a gang led by Capeluche, an executioner. Jean him-
  self was assassinated in 1419; his heir allied with the 
  English. Henry V of England was crowned at Notre-
  Dame in 1420. English garrisons took control of the 
  Louvre, Vincennes, and the Bastille. When Henry V 
  died, his regent, the duke of Bedford, took control of 
  Paris. In 1429, Jeanne d’Arc led an attack on the city 
  and was wounded by an archer. Paris remained under 
  English control.
  The ongoing war caused the Parisian economy 
  to virtually collapse. In 1436, Paris allied again 
  with France, allowing the French army into the 
  city. Although the crown recognized Paris’ govern-
  ment in 1450, it manipulated Parisian elections in 
  favor of its candidates. The city economy remained 
  in decline during the 15th century. The university 
  lost much of its luster and pre-eminence. The city 
  became more an administrative center than an eco-
  nomic power.
   GUILDS
  Paris had a large number of guilds, chartered by 
  the monarchy. Many were small, specialized groups 
  which might have only five or six members. There 
  were also larger, more powerful guilds like the bakers, 
  butchers, and the watermen.
  The Seine was the home of Paris’ water mer-
  chants or watermen’s guild, who held a royal monop-
  oly on all river traffic between Paris and Mantes since 
  1171. Oddly, given the importance of this guild, there 
  is relatively little material about its structure or mem-
  bership. There are records showing that anyone else 
  who transported goods through this area was required 
  to share half of his profits with the water merchants. 
  The guild could confiscate all of the transported 
  goods of anyone caught violating this rule.
   JEWS
  The Parisian Jewish community existed from at 
  least the 5th century. In 1119, it founded a  synagogue 
  and mikvah (ritual bath) on rue de la Juiverie. The 
  community also had a cemetery on the Left Bank 
  near rue de la Harpe, and owned its own flour mills. 
  Jews were protected royal vassals, but suffered from 
  intermittent persecution and violence. Jews were 
  expelled from the city for brief periods in 1182-98, 
  1306-15, and 1394. One synagogue was converted 
  into a church, La Madeleine, in the 12th century. 
  Each Friday in Lent it dedicated the office of Good 
  Friday to the conversion of the Jews.
  In the 12th and 13th century, Paris was a major cen-
  ter for Jewish education. Benjamin of Tudela referred 
  to it as Ha-ir Hagedolah, “that Great City.” Juda ben 
  Issac (Rabbi Sire Léon) lectured to scholars from 
  around Europe. In the 12th century, theologians began 
  to translate the Talmud and study its role in Jewish 
  theology. In 1230, Nicolas Donin, a Jewish convert 
  to Christianity from southern France, alleged that the 
  Talmud contained blasphemies against Christianity. 
  King Louis IX confiscated a large number of Talmudic 
  books in 1240 and ordered them translated and exam-
  ined. A trial was then held by theologians from the 
  University of Paris. A number of northern-French rab-
  bis testified. The Talmudic books lost. In 1242, Pope 
  Gregory IX ordered them to be burned – 24 cartloads 
  were burned in Place de la Grève.
  There were various legends of Jewish offenses 
  against Christians (see pp. 91-92). In 1290, it was 
  
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  Town Appendix I: Paris
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  alleged that a Christian woman repaid a debt to a 
  Jewish pawnbroker by giving him a consecrated 
  host. The pawnbroker was said to have tried to 
  destroy the host by dropping it into boiling water. 
  When it then assumed a human shape, the man 
  tried to cut it into pieces causing a rush of blood. 
  After various attempts to destroy the host, the man 
  was discovered, arrested, and burned at the stake. 
  The host was saved, and kept at the church of St-
  Jean-en-Grève. The pawnbroker’s knife was kept as 
  a relic at Les Billettes. King Philip IV and the bish-
  op of Paris apparently believed the story and helped 
  build an appropriate site for the host at St-Jean. 
  The story became a popular subject for mystery 
  plays and St-Jean-en-Grève became crowded with 
  pilgrims. At first, Jewish leaders tried to refute the 
  outrageous claims. When that failed, many leaders 
  urged their community to maintain a low profile 
  and avoid conflicts with Christians, particularly dur-
  ing the emotionally-charged Lent season.
  SOCIETY
  Paris was traditionally divided into three parts, Le 
  Quarter d’Outre-Grand-Pont or La Ville (the Right 
  Bank), Le Quarter d’Outre-Petit-Pont or L’Université 
  (The Left Bank), and Le Quartier de la Cité or La 
  Cité (Île de la Cité). It was subdivided into various 
  neighborhoods (quartiers) – sixteen of them at the 
  time of Charles V’s 14th century wall. It does not 
  appear that the neighborhoods played an important 
  part in Paris’ politics or that there were strong neigh-
  borhood rivalries.
  Paris’ highest classes included the monarchy and 
  royal court, nobles who built second homes to be 
  near the court, its bishop and various distinguished 
  clergy, and noted academics teaching or studying at 
  the University. These, in turn, created a demand for 
  luxury goods made locally or imported from across 
  Europe, as well as for household servants and staff. 
  Many laborers and merchants migrated to Paris for 
  work. Like other cities, its birthrate could not over-
  come its high mortality rate, so it depended on immi-
  grants from across France.
  About a tenth of Paris’ population was poor, sub-
  sisting on casual labor, prostitution, petty crime, and 
  begging. Paris’ poor could seek charity from various 
  parish churches, hospitals, convents, and even col-
  leges. There were a variety of charities supporting 
  impoverished  widows, but far fewer that aided impov-
  erished elderly men. Parisians did not have the north-
  ern Italians’ obsession about dowries, but the city did 
  have charities which provided dowries to poor girls. 
  Charities also provided lodging, food, and apprentice-
  ships for orphans and poor children.
   THREATS
  Paris faced its share of disease, including out-
  breaks of the  Plague in 1348, 1360, 1374, and 1400, 
  mumps in 1414, scarlet fever in 1418, and smallpox in 
  1433 and 1438. Unlike Venice, Paris did not appear 
  to have created a municipal office to try to control 
  disease, quarantine the sick, or otherwise limit dis-
  ease. It, like other cities, did regulate food quality and 
  price, supervise the condition of its wells and water 
  pipes, and try to control waste disposal.
  The biggest threat to the city was war. At vari-
  ous points, England controlled the nearby duchy of 
  Normandy and threatened to invade Paris. In the 13th 
  and 14th centuries, the French monarchy expanded 
  Paris’ defenses. The later set of walls proved useful 
  during the Hundred Years War when rival armies 
  raided the areas around the city, sometimes briefly 
  encircling it or laying siege. The raids resulted in 
  unrest and uncertainty in the city, as well as short-
  ages. In 1410, Armagnac supporters burned many of 
  the towns around Paris – grain prices rose from 18 to 
  20 sou per setier (about two gallons) of flour to 864 or 
  960 sou per setier for several months. During the fol-
  lowing years, as English, Armagnac, and Burgundian 
  forces raided the villages around Paris, prices inter-
  mittently soared, and trade and wages fell. Food, 
  farm animals, and game became scarce.  Wolves were 
  reported to swim across the Seine to dig up corpses in 
  the graveyards to  eat and even to attack women and 
  children. One notorious  wolf, called  Courtaut, was 
  hunted as if it were a bandit or mercenary captain.
  War and high taxes led to urban unrest and occa-
  sional uprisings like Marcel and Caboche’s revolts 
  and the maillotins’ uprising. The town government 
  tried to quell unrest, executing those they thought 
  might cause trouble. During the Hundred Years’ War, 
  Parisians wore various sashes and badges in support 
  of which ever group controlled the city. The city’s 
  government sent out skirmishing parties to suppress 
  bandits and  mercenary companies and sometimes 
  escorted shipments of grain into the city.
  
  Appendix II: Venice
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  Rich with gold, but richer still in reputation;
  Strong in her wealth yet stronger in her virtue;
  Built on Marble, yet more firmly based on civil 
  concord;
  Surrounded by the salt sea, but made safer by her 
  saltier counsels
  – Petrarch
   Venice is an odd example of a medieval town. 
  It was, in many ways, an exception – a city built on 
  islands in a salt-water lagoon; a city wealthier than 
  many monarchs; and an oligarchy which never fell 
  to an invader or local tyrant. Its nature leaves open 
  many questions, such as how its numerous residents 
  were fed and provided with sufficient fresh water. 
  Was its fragmentation into hundreds of small islands 
  a cause for its multiple small institutions instead of a 
  small number of larger ones? How did it avoid much 
  of the factional politics and labor unrest that plagued 
  mainland city-states? Unfortunately, this appendix 
  is limited by its sources and can only outline some of 
  these issues.
   AGRICULTURE
  Venice is unique – it is a city built on islands 
  entirely surrounded by a salt-water lagoon. At first 
  glance, the site hardly seems promising. The fresh 
  water problem alone (p. 14) was daunting. A lack of a 
  river also meant a lack of water power to power mills; 
  Venetians may have used hand mills to grind their 
  grain into flour, or relied on transporting flour from 
  mainland mills. (Venice did experiment with tidal 
  mills and windmills in the lagoon, but these were not 
  a major source of flour.) The lack of power for full-
  ing mills and limited fresh water, may also partially 
  explain why Venice did not develop a major woolen 
  cloth manufacturing industry.
  But the lagoon provided fish and salt for trade 
  and a strong defense against invaders. It was stud-
  ded with shoals, some shallow enough for wading, 
  others deep enough to allow ships to pass. During 
  war, the channel marking posts were removed, 
  making access by any other than a native difficult. 
  In 1379-80, a Genoese fleet seized Chioggia, a port 
  at the southern end of the lagoon, which was the 
  closest any medieval invader came to threatening 
  Venice itself.
  The location was very favorable for trade. The 
  lagoon was at the mouth of the Adige and Po riv-
  ers, which provided trade routes deep into northern 
  Italy. It was near the east alpine passes from Italy 
  to the Holy Roman Empire. It was also at the head 
  of the Adriatic Sea, which allowed Venetian ships 
  to dominate trade along the east coast of Italy and 
  the Dalmatian coast. In fact, Venice regarded the 
  Adriatic as its own. Its Captain of the Gulf (capita-
  neus culfi) led a small group of ships to inspect any 
  vessel in the Adriatic for contraband. Armed vessels 
  (which could describe many merchant ships) could be 
  treated at the Captain’s discretion as pirates. During 
  grain shortages, Venice’s ships would seize food car-
  gos from any vessel its warships encountered north of 
  the Otranto Strait.
  Venice generally obtained its food and fuel from 
  the Italian mainland, along the Dalmatian coast, 
  and from Sicily. In 1224, it created a Grain Office 
  (offitiales supra granum) to monitor the city’s grain 
  reserves. (The office would later evolve into a gov-
  ernment treasury.) There were a few gardens in the 
  town itself and on the lagoon islands. Chioggia, a port 
  on the south end of the lagoon, provided salt. When 
  Venice held significant territory on the mainland (ter-
  rafirma), it could obtain food and fuel from those col-
  onies, although it also had to defend them from its 
  mainland rivals.
   ARCHITECTURE
  Venetian architecture is, of course, influenced by 
  its sandy soil. Venice’s early buildings were modest 
  two-story wooden structures roofed with straw thatch. 
  Most had two front doors, one facing land, the other 
  a canal. The campi, the fields behind the houses, were 
  used as gardens, boat storage, and for keeping ani-
  mals. They later evolved into market squares. After 
  a series of disastrous fires, particularly one in 1106, 
  brick and stone structures began to replace wooden 
  ones. Stone, however, is heavy. A stone building had 
  to be supported by wooden piles driven into the mud, 
  which made construction more expensive.
  
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  Town Appendix II: Venice
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  A typical  merchant’s home built prior to the 
  14th century was two stories tall. The ground floor 
  was used for commercial business and storing 
  goods. The upper floor contained the family’s liv-
  ing quarters. As the city grew more crowded in the 
  14th century, wealthy families drove the necessary 
  piles to support three and even four story buildings. 
  Again, the first floor was generally used for com-
  mercial purposes. The upper stories were used as a 
  residence.
  As the city grew, the waterways between its 
  islands were slowly filled in and became canals. The 
  Piovego, a city office established in the 13th century, 
  was responsible for maintaining the streets and canals, 
  approving private bridges, maintaining public ones, 
  and approving new construction. Wooden and later 
  stone bridges spanned some of the canals, but each 
  island was to some extent self-sufficient, with its own 
  church, wharf, and small market. Streets and plazas 
  were slowly paved, creating a maze of canals, streets, 
  and walkways. The early narrow paths and wooden 
  bridges provoked frequent arguments over the right 
  of way. The wooden Rialto bridge collapsed in  1444 
  under the weight of a  mob of spectators watching a 
  procession for a Ferrara noble.
  The cities’ major buildings include the Doge’s 
  Palace, the Basilica of San Marco, the Campanile (a 
  60’ bell tower near San Marco), and the Arsenal (a 
  major municipal shipyard).
  In the early 12th century, ancone, shrines to the 
  Virgin or parish patron, began to appear on the cor-
  ners of canals and principal calli (streets). In 1128, 
  the Doge ordered that each be lit with a lamp, to be 
  maintained by the parish priest, and paid for by the 
  Republic. Venice thus became the first European city 
  to have rudimentary street lighting.
   CHURCH
  Venice has long been associated with St. Mark, 
  and had a reputation for religious tolerance. By leg-
  end, St. Mark was blessed by an angel during a stop-
  over on the islands of Rialto on his way from Aquileia 
  to Rome. In 828, two Venetian merchants returned 
  from Egypt with what they claimed was St. Mark’s 
  body, stolen from his Alexandria tomb under the 
  noses of Muslim customs officials. The merchants 
  Venice
  B
  C
  D
  E
  F
  G
  H
  I
  J
  K
  L
  A
  A – Murano
  B – Isola di San Michele
  C – San Giovanni e Paolo
  D – Ca d’Oro
  E – Rialto Bridge
  F – San Salvador
  G – San Stefano
  H – The Doge’s Palace
  I – Basilica of San Marco
  J – The Campanile
  K – The Arsenal (Shipyard)
  L – San Pietro
  
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  Town Appendix II: Venice
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  brought the relics to the doge, who was often seen as 
  the head of Venice’s religious community. The doge 
  built a church for the relics, which was consecrated in 
  832. The Basilica San Marco was officially the doge’s 
  private chapel, but it was also a major site for religious 
  festivals and feasts. St. Mark, symbolized by a winged 
  lion, was the Republic’s protector.
  Venice’s  bishopric was created in 775. Its bishop 
  was a member of the city’s governing Grand Council. 
  At first each separate island was its own parish. By 
  1200, its parishes had consolidated into sixty sep-
  arate parishes whose priests were elected by the 
  parishioners. It had numerous monasteries, friaries, 
  convents, and hospitals. Parish churches, and San 
  Marco, were enriched with relics taken by Venetians 
  during the Crusades, particularly during the sack of 
  Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade.
  Venice had intermittently stormy relationships 
  with the Papacy. It traded heavily with Muslim ports, 
  often in defiance of a papal ban on goods of military 
  importance, like lumber. It also traded in  slaves from 
  Muslim areas and the Black Sea. The city was placed 
  under interdict in 1202-04 as a result of the Crusaders’ 
  attack on Zara; in 1284-89 for failing to respond to a 
  papal call for support in the Sicilian Vespers uprising 
  in Sicily and for later refusing to allow clergy to preach 
  a crusade against Peter of Aragon; in 1309-1313 dur-
  ing Venice’s war with neighboring Ferrara; and in 
  1484-85 during another war between Venice and 
  Ferrara (allied with Florence, Milan, and Naples).
   COMMERCE
  Venice was a major trade center for lumber, salt, 
  grain, spices, and other trade goods. It was involved 
  in the wool trade, although it did not have a major 
  wool manufacturing industry, and sent merchants to 
  the Champagne Fairs. Its widespread trading inter-
  ests created alternating rivalries and alliances with 
  Byzantium, Egypt, Genoa, Norman Sicily, Pisa, and its 
  neighbors on the Adriatic coast. At times, it founded 
  colonies along the Adriatic and Mediterranean. In 
  the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, Venice virtu-
  ally conquered Byzantium, seizing colonies along the 
  Adriatic and Aegean. For most of its history, Venice 
  did not control large parts of the Italian mainland. 
  In the 14th century, it gained control over Padua, 
  Treviso, Verona, and Vicenza and areas around those 
  towns, which drew it into mainland Italian strug-
  gles, particularly with Milan. Venice was an unof-
  ficial member of the anti-Imperial Lombard League 
  and often served as its banker. Relations with the 
  Papacy were marked by intermittent struggles over 
  Venice’s trade with Muslims; its half-hearted support 
  for Crusades in Outremere; and its diversion of the 
  Fourth Crusade to attack Byzantium.
  To maintain control over its commerce, Venice’s 
  city government had a strong hand over its guilds 
  and trade. Ships that did not meet its standards, for 
  example, were not allowed to join its trade convoys. 
  As noted above, Venice did not have a  river to power 
  mills or to provide large quantities of fresh water for 
  washing or dying cloth. Thus, its industries tended 
  towards high-value, rare goods like glass and silk. Its 
  shipyard, the Arsenal, was a unique center for ship 
  construction and maintenance.
  Venice’s  Salt Office managed trade in that valu-
  able commodity. Chioggia produced a fine-grained 
  salt. Coarse grained salt was imported. In 1250, 
  Ferrara and Mantua agreed to make Venice their 
  sole supplier of salt. In 1281, Venice began paying 
  merchants a subsidy on imported salt. This profit 
  allowed merchants to ship other goods at a discount, 
  undercutting their rivals. Venetians paid a very high 
  price on imported salt, but the subsidy allowed their 
  merchants to dominate other trades. The Office also 
  collected a fee on the sale of salt, which it used to 
  finance the government. Venice sought to control 
  Mediterranean salt producers, destroying salt works 
  on Crete, acquiring the Cervia salt works, and mak-
  ing Cyprus into the second-largest salt producer in 
  the Mediterranean. (Genoa controlled the largest 
  producer, on the island of Ibiza).
  Venice had a virtual monopoly on high-grade 
   glass made using Syrian methods. In 1291, glass-
  makers set up shop on the island of Murano, where 
  their furnaces would not spark fires in Venice itself. 
  Any worker with knowledge of the Syrian secrets 
  who tried to leave Venice was considered a traitor 
  and could be executed. Venice was also one of the 
  first Italian cities to manufacture silk cloth. In 1370, 
  Venice prohibited its silk workers from leaving the 
  city to reside in another town, with or without their 
  equipment. Violators were fined 300 (journeymen) to 
  500 (masters) lire, and imprisoned for up to a year. 
  Sailors and boatmen could be fined for transport-
  ing silk looms or other tools out of the city. Anyone 
  who instigated a silk maker’s departure could also be 
  
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  fined 500 lire, jailed for a year, deprived of citizen-
  ship, and/or banned from public office for five years. 
  Unlike Lucca, Venice did not offer a  bounty for kill-
  ing a fugitive silk maker; nor did it execute attempted 
  emigrants like Florence.
  Venice also had powerful  banks, located at the 
  Rialto and San Marco. There, depositors could trans-
  fer funds between their own accounts and those of 
  their creditors and debtors, creating, in effect, a sys-
  tem of checking accounts. Many transfers were made 
  by oral order, since the banking area was close to the 
  main markets. With permission of the banker, deposi-
  tors could even sometimes overdraw their accounts 
  by small amounts temporarily. The Great Council 
  only required bankers to keep a small reserve, but 
  they did have to pay any demand within three days. 
  They also had to keep their transfer records current 
  with all other local banks.
   CRIME PREVENTION
  Venice was large, hard to patrol, and difficult to 
  seal off. Disorder was common at night, often near 
  brothels, bathhouses, and inns. In response, the city 
  created a watch which, by the 14th century, had one 
  patrol officer for every 250 urban inhabitants. The 
  city also relied on anonymous denunciations placed 
  in collection boxes (see pg. 54).
  The Signori di Notte and Cinque alla Pace patrolled 
  the Rialto marketplace. The Cinque alla Pace, a 
  watch of five merchant-aristocrats, each assisted by 
  8-12 armed men, handled petty crime. The Signori 
  di Notte was a watch of one merchant-aristocrat per 
  neighborhood (sestiere), each assisted by 16-20 armed 
  men. By the late 14th century, the Signori di Notte 
  investigated homicides, robbery, sodomy, and other 
  serious crimes.
  In 1320, the  Council of Ten (see p. 129) created 
  its own  watch, the Capi di Sestiere, composed of six 
  merchant-aristocrats (one per sestiere), each accom-
  panied by eight armed men. It was expanded in 1328 
  to two merchant-aristocrats per sestiere each accom-
  panied by twelve armed men. The Capi di Sestiere, in 
  turn, appointed two captains for each neighborhood, 
  who were in charge of the militia (composed of every 
  able-bodied Venetian male).
  Three Avogadori, wealthy citizens appointed to 
  two-year terms and assisted by a staff of notaries and 
  clerks, investigated and prosecuted serious crimes 
  such as homicide and rape. Few of the Avogadori 
  were themselves lawyers; the post was often assigned 
  for political reasons. The staff did most of the day-to-
  day work. The Avogadori also complied Venice’s laws 
  into periodic registers and capitularies.
  Serious cases, including many homicides, were 
  brought to the Giudici di Proprio, a panel of three law-
  yer/judges. Premeditated homicides were investigated 
  by the Avogadori and heard before the Council of 
  Forty (see p. 128). Unusual or extremely serious cases 
  were heard by the Doge and his six counselors.
   EDUCATION
  Venice did not have private schools for chil-
  dren. Most learned through apprenticeships or pri-
  vate tutors. It had a school of medicine established in 
  1368. The University of Padua was the closest such 
  school to Venice. When Venice controlled Padua, 
  Venetian university students were required to attend 
  Padua’s university. In 1470, Pope Paul II (himself a 
  Venetian) granted university status to one of Venice’s 
  schools.
   ENTERTAINMENT
  Venice had several major festivals, including 
  Ascension Day (see p. 63), the feast of San Marco, 
  and the Purification of the Virgin. There were also 
  festivals celebrating the election of a new doge, state 
  funerals for noted Venetians, and receptions for 
  important visitors.
  The eight-day festival of the Purification of the 
  Virgin was also a commemoration of Venice’s victo-
  ry over a group of 10th-century pirates who had kid-
  napped a group of twelve brides. During the festival, 
  the Doge visited the church of Santa Maria Formosa, 
  families and neighborhoods held banquets, and dow-
  ries were given to a group of poor women. At the 
  end of the festival, a statue of Mary was carried in 
  a procession to the cathedral (San Pietro), then to 
  San Marco. The festival ended in 1379, during the 
  war with Genoa, but the Doge continued to visit the 
  church on the feast of the Purification.
  Public  executions were also a form of entertain-
  ment. Typically, the criminal was taken by boat or 
  through the streets across the city to the scene of the 
  crime. There, a herald announced the crime before 
  the executor typically amputated the criminal’s right 
  hand and hung it on a chain around the criminal’s 
  
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  Town Appendix II: Venice
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  neck. Then he was taken back across the city to the 
  Plaza San Marco and hung between its columns. 
  (After 1382, murderers were decapitated instead of 
  hung.) In extreme cases, the criminal was drawn and 
  quartered, with the body parts displayed at different 
  points around the city.
   FINANCE
   Venice had a large centralized bureaucracy and 
  had to impose high taxes and tariffs to support its 
  shipbuilding and civil service. It primarily depended 
  on indirect taxes and tariffs, rather than income or 
  property taxes for its routine expenses. It collected 
  a 1% tax at the Rialto and dei Tedeschi markets on 
  every wholesale transaction. It also taxed wine, salt, 
  meat, oil, and other goods. Like other Italian cities, it 
  had a public debt fund (Monte Vecchio), which it cre-
  ated in 1262. In 1453, Venice finally began to impose 
  direct taxes to pay for various wars on the mainland 
  and naval struggles with the Ottoman Turks.
  Urban finances were handled through the Grain 
  Office, which had expanded from its original role into 
  a state bank handling both municipal finances and 
  deposits from ordinary Venetians. The Office collect-
  ed a tax on wine and wood, as well as some export 
  licenses, which provided some funds for its activities. 
  It also held dowry investments, which later evolved 
  into a separate fund.
  To give some idea of Venice’s wealth, Doge 
  Tommaso Mocenigo wrote in 1423 that the city 
  received 750,000 ducats a year from its own  taxes and 
  tariffs, 464,000 ducats per year from the Terrafirma, 
  and 376,000 ducats per year from its overseas colo-
  nies. (This was significantly more than the income 
  of the entire kingdom of France.) Of that, it spent 
  26,000 ducats on government salary, 155,000 duc-
  ats on interest on its debts, 90,000 ducats on the 
  Terrafirma, and 200,000 ducats on its overseas colo-
  nies. Much of the rest of the money was available to 
  fund its military for Venice’s struggles with the Turks 
  and other foes.
   GOVERNANCE
  By legend, Venice was founded at the stroke of 
  noon, Friday, March 25, 421 CE by three consuls 
  sent from Padua to establish a trading post on the 
  islands of the Rialto. Historical records mention the 
  election of the first doge by a popular assembly, the 
  Arengo, in 697. Whenever it was formed, it was the 
  oldest free town in Europe until its defeat by France 
  in 1797. Venice avoided losing its republic to a signo-
  re because, in part, its government was obsessed with 
  preventing any one person, family, or faction from 
  becoming too dominant.
  The basic structure of Venetian government 
  began with its popular assembly. The Arengo became 
  defunct as a practical matter in the 12th century, and 
  was formally abolished in 1423. In its place, Venice 
  created the Maggior Consiglio (Great Council) in 
  1172. The Councilors held office for one year and 
  were nominated by two representatives from each of 
  the six sestieri. The Great Council then appointed 
  all the chief officials of the state. By 1297, the Great 
  Council was, in theory, open to any Venetian, but 
  membership was practically limited to those wealthy 
  merchant-aristocrats (nobles) from important fami-
  lies. In 1296, there were 210 members of the Council. 
  A few years later, every adult male in the ruling mer-
  chant-aristocracy could sit on it. By 1340, it had 
  1,212 members. The Council’s limited membership 
  provoked some resistance. In 1300, a group of twelve 
  conspirators tried to enter the chamber and assas-
  sinate several councilors responsible for the restric-
  tions. They were caught,  tortured, and executed 
  before they could harm anyone.
  As in other city-states, a large legislature proved 
  unwieldy. A smaller council, the  Quarantia ( Council 
  of Forty), was created in the 12th century. For the 
  most part, the Forty served as Venice’s legislature and, 
  on occasion, as a court hearing the most serious cases 
  involving members of the merchant-aristocracy.
  The Arengo, and later the Great Council, select-
  ed the city’s executive, the Doge. A doge was appoint-
  ed for life; his role varied from executive to ceremo-
  nial figurehead. He was forbidden to travel outside 
  Venice; to marry a foreigner; to have his children 
  or personal officers hold public positions other than 
  ambassador or naval commander; or even to choose 
  his official councilors. His salary was little more than 
  an honorarium. The doge was assisted by a group of 
  councilors called Signoria or consiglietto. 
  In 1172, the election system changed; the doge 
  was then chosen by a committee of eleven electors, 
  who were chosen by the Great Council, and present-
  ed to the populace. In 1178, it was changed again. 
  Instead of 11 electors chosen by the Great Council, 
  the Council selected four of its members, who would 
  
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  nominate 40 electors, each of whom must receive 
  votes of three of the four councilors and not more 
  than one of which could come from a single family. 
  By 1268, the system had become far more complex: In 
  a 10 step system, the Great Council chose a group of 
  electors by lot, who chose another group of electors, 
  which was reduced to a smaller number by lot, which 
  then chose another group of electors, and so on, until 
  the last group nominated the doge for approval by the 
  Assembly. The entire complex system was designed 
  to limit the influence of family factions in the doge’s 
  selection. 
  In 1312, the Great Council created the  Council 
  of Ten as a temporary response to a coup attempt. By 
  1334, it was a permanent body. Members of the Ten 
  were elected for a single year 
  term by the Great Council. 
  Councilors could not be 
  reelected until another year 
  had passed, during which 
  any abuses would be investi-
  gated. Two members of the 
  same family could not sit at 
  the same time. The Council 
  had three heads, the Capi dei 
  Diecti, who were sequestered 
  during their month long 
  term. Finally, the Council 
  was, at first, powerless to act 
  without the Doge and his six 
  councilors. It met daily; its members were unpaid, but 
  venality or corruption was punishable by  death.
  The Ten had significant power to suppress unrest 
  and conspiracies. It could punish anyone for suspicious 
  speech or meetings. It limited who could carry weapons. 
  It regulated drinking and gambling. Its agents watched 
  over inns, taverns, and other places where conspirators 
  might gather. Its members were chosen from the Senate 
  by the Great Council; they had to be over age 40, and 
  had to come from different families.
  The balance of power between the Ten, the Forty, 
  and the Doge varied. In 1355, the Ten and the Forty 
  ordered the execution of Doge Marin Falier, who was 
  accused of conspiring against Venice. In 1456, the 
  Ten ordered the deposition of another Doge, which 
  was seen as overstepping its role. Its authority was cut 
  back, for a time.
  Like other towns, Venice distinguished between 
  citizens and residents. It was not easy to become a 
  citizen (cittadini) if one was not the legitimate child 
  of a citizen. A foreigner needed to live in Venice or 
  its dominions as a law-abiding taxpayer for 25 years. 
  Citizenship de extra, which allowed one full protection 
  outside the Republic, was even harder to obtain, usu-
  ally it was given for singular skill or merit. Citizenship 
  brought commercial privileges and the right to be 
  treated as a Venetian under law and not as a for-
  eigner. Only citizens could be members of Venice’s 
  councils and could hold many public offices. Citizens 
  were given a monopoly of office in the Scuole Grandi, 
  the largest, wealthiest, and most prestigious confra-
  ternities in the city.
  Venice also had to manage several major trade 
  colonies, particularly in the wake of its success in the 
  Fourth Crusade. The details 
  of its colonial administration 
  are beyond the scope of this 
  book. In general, it appointed 
  doges for major colonies who 
  reported back to the Council 
  of Ten and the Doge.
   GUILDS
  Venetian guilds were 
  numerous and relatively weak. 
  The Justices (Giustizieri), 
  who were appointed by the 
  Great Council to oversee the 
  guilds, held the statutes of 52 guilds between 1218-
  1330; Florence had only 21 guilds during that time, 
  Bologna only 13. The three Justices enforced standard 
  weights and measures and decided market disputes. 
  Guild leaders (gastaldo) were elected by the guilds, 
  subject to the Justices’ approval. Some historians 
  suggest that having the Justices supported Venice’s 
  stability by providing a neutral body to resolve guild 
  disputes.
  The guilds did not have a direct role in gov-
  ernment, although their leaders were often part of 
  Venice’s merchant aristocracy. The guilds had a cer-
  emonial role when a new doge was crowned; each 
  guild made a presentation of its finest wares to the 
  new doge.
  Merchants and artisans were generally members 
  of both a guild (arte) and an associated religious con-
  fraternity (scuole). The Scuole performed religious 
  and charitable services for its members and their fam-
  The Council had 
  significant power 
  ... it could punish 
  anyone for suspicious 
  speech or meetings.
  
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  Town Appendix II: Venice
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  ilies. The scuole and guilds did not always overlap; 
  sometimes a scuola’s membership was broader than 
  its associated guild and there were some scuole which 
  were not associated with any guild. Each scuola was 
  generally associated with a parish church, which 
  became the guild’s church as well.
   JEWS
  There are few records of Jews in Venice prior to 
  the late 14th century. In 1382, Venice eased its restric-
  tions on lending money at interest in order primarily 
  to provide more credit to its less-wealthy residents. 
  Several Jewish moneylenders opened businesses in the 
  city. In 1388, the Great Council required Jewish mon-
  eylenders to make loans to the poor of up to 30 ducats 
  per person (if the lender had money available), secured 
  by a pledge. In 1394, the Council enacted series of 
  restrictions, prohibiting Jews from living in Venice 
  for more than 15 days at a time, and requiring male 
  Jewish visitors to wear a badge. (It is unclear whether 
  the prohibition included Jewish doctors, or just mon-
  eylenders.) The badge requirement was extended to 
  Jewish women in 1443; in 1496, it was changed to a 
  yellow hat. In 1408, Venice banned  Jews from hold-
  ing religious services in private homes upon penalty 
  of fines and jail for both the Jewish worshipers and 
  the Christian homeowner. (The ban was rescinded in 
  1464, but Jews were not allowed to have a  synagogue.) 
  Christian women, including prostitutes, were fined for 
  having  sexual relationships with Jewish men.
  SOCIETY
  Venice was divided in many different ways. 
  One of the basic divisions was by neighborhood. In 
  1171, Venice organized its parishes into six admin-
  istrative districts (sestieri). Cannareggio, Castello, 
  and San Marco were located on the right bank of 
  the Grand Canal. Dorsoduro, San Polo, and Santa 
  Croce were located on the left bank. This led to a 
  rivalry between the three districts closest to the main-
  land (Cannareggio, San Polo, and Santa Croce) and 
  those closest to the ocean (Castello, Dorsoduro, and 
  San Macro). Local myths traced the division to the 
  founding of Venice by settlers from the mainland and 
  those from the lagoon’s many islands. Another legend 
  traced the feud to a mid-15th century bishop, who 
  granted his home parish an exemption from inheri-
  tance taxes. Others claimed the exemption, which 
  led to a fight with the next bishop. Bishop Polo was, 
  by legend, killed by a  mob near a canal later called 
  Malcanton. Thus, a feud developed in the late 15th 
  century between the supporters of the bishop’s neigh-
  borhood (the Castellani) and those blamed for his 
  murder (the Nicolotto), which became fused with 
  an ongoing feud between the Arsenal’s shipbuilders 
  and local fishermen. The feud would become much 
  stronger in succeeding decades, provoking large pub-
  lic battles between the factions on Venice’s bridges 
  and in its squares.
  Venice also had the traditional divisions between 
  foreign residents, residents, citizens, and the high-
  est rank of merchant-aristocrats (called “nobles”). 
  By the late 14th century, Venetian society was highly 
  stratified and it had become difficult for newcomers 
  to break into the upper ranks. There were twenty 
  or thirty great families at the top of the society, and 
  another hundred who were members of the Great 
  Council. These were sometimes divided into the case 
  vecchie (older families claiming descent from the orig-
  inal settlers of Venice) and the case nuove (new fami-
  lies primarily rising to wealth in the 13th century). A 
  few families were admitted to the highest ranks in 
  1310 and 1381 as rewards for their members’ loy-
  alty and service to the city. Beneath this level were 
  wealthy citizens (cittadini), further subdivided into 
  native Venetians and those who had acquired citi-
  zenship. To keep track of the highest rank, the aris-
  tocracy registered marriages and births of legitimate 
  children in the Libro d’Oro (Golden Book), a custom 
  copied in other cities and Venetian colonies.
  While those who were not members of the high-
  est rank were excluded from many offices, they were 
  able to obtain prestigious posts such as in the Arsenal 
  or as part of the leaders of the Capi di Sestiere.
  Venice’s leaders were obsessed with order and 
  control of their city. They were able to restrict power 
  to an increasingly elite hereditary “nobility” com-
  posed of the city’s wealthiest families. 
  The poor received charity from Venice’s five 
   Scuole Grandi, each a religious confraternity com-
  prised of 500 to 600 members. The Scuole Grandi 
  were also known as Scuole dei Battuti because their 
  members publicly scourged themselves on ceremo-
  nial occasions.  Scuole created small hospitals and 
  almshouses in the 14th century. Some restricted their 
  almshouses to those who had been members of a 
  Scuola for five years, except in cases of extreme need. 
  
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  Town Appendix II: Venice
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  Any recipients of its charity had to attend all of its 
  religious processions. The  Council of Ten restricted 
  Scuole’s charity to their members, prisoners, the  Pietà 
  foundling hospital (founded in 1346 to match found-
  lings with wetnurses), and to monasteries and con-
  vents.  Venice, unlike its peers, did not create a large 
  central hospital or a Monte di Pietà. Instead it had 
  about 30 small hospitals and numerous almshouses. 
  Venice, like other city-states, tended to seques-
  ter its wealthy women at home. Its wealthiest fami-
  lies were concerned with providing dowries for their 
  daughters, although it did not have a specific Monte 
  for that purpose.
  The Doge’s wife, the Dogaressa, held the only 
  office for a woman in an Italian city-state. Her role 
  was limited, unlike a noblewoman, she could not rule 
  as a widow after her husband’s death, or as a regent for 
  a minor child. Nor could she exercise her husband’s 
  powers during an illness or absence. On the other 
  hand, her ceremonial and symbolic role was recog-
  nized in a part of the doge’s oath of office which she 
  swore to uphold. The Dogaressa, unlike a podestà’s 
  wife, was forbidden to write letters, make appeals, or 
  otherwise try to exercise influence for others. One 
  key difference may be that podestàs typically served 
  for only a year, while a dogaressa held office for her 
  husband’s life and thus would have more opportunity 
  to grant patronage if she were able to do so. If a doge 
  was not married or became widowed during his office, 
  his marriage to a foreigner had to be approved by the 
  Great Council. Similarly, the Great Council had to 
  approve a marriage of his children or grandchildren 
  to foreigners. By the 13th century, electors disfavored 
  a doge candidate whose wife was not Venetian.
   THREATS
  As a trade center, Venice was one of the first 
  European cities struck by the Black Plague. At the 
  height of the outbreak in 1348, some 600 people a 
  day died. Boats took the bodies to outlying islands for 
  burial. Fifty major families were completely destroyed; 
  Venice lost 3/5ths of its population. After a series of 
  plague outbreaks in the late 14th and early 15th cen-
  turies, Venice created the Provveditori alla Sanità, a 
  public health office, in 1459. Its three commissioners 
  had the power to take whatever steps they deemed 
  necessary to prevent plague outbreaks. They helped 
  enforce the quarantine on incoming ships and regu-
  lated  begging and immigration. The Provveditori also 
  regulated lodging houses with a reputation of cater-
  ing to rogues, vagabonds, and other undesirables. In 
  1459, it limited each lodging house to a maximum of 
  four lodgers. In 1498, it created a system to license all 
  lodging houses. It was one of the first ports to require 
  incoming ships to be quarantined to slow diseases.
  Venice was often at war, sending military ships to 
  patrol the Adriatic and escort its trade convoys, sup-
  pressing pirates along the Dalmatian coast, and later 
  protecting its Mediterranean and Aegean colonies 
  and its mainland territories. For most of its history, 
  Venice did not have significant mainland holdings 
  and did not need to hire large numbers of mercenar-
  ies. When it did need a large army, it hired condott-
  ieri because it feared that a native-born general might 
  be more likely to attempt a coup. It also had a militia. 
  In 1303, it required its citizens to practice archery, 
  and sponsored three annual competitions to inspire 
  practice. The Venetian militia defended the city’s ter-
  ritory against Milan’s invading forces in 1438.
  Venice was at war with the Papacy over its neigh-
  bor Ferrara in 1308. The Papacy responded, as was 
  becoming increasingly common, with an interdict, 
  which was pronounced on Maundy Thursday, March 
  27, 1309. Venetian goods were seized; assets were 
  confiscated; ships were attacked and plundered. Only 
  ships in Egyptian harbors were safe. A crusade was 
  proclaimed against Venice, which most of the north-
  ern Italian towns joined. To dampen popular unrest, 
  the government decreed that it was an offence to 
  carry arms. The Doge’s foes, led by Bajamonte 
  Tiepolo, planned a coup for the Feast of St. Vitus 
  (June 15). The plotters were betrayed and a violent 
  summer storm broke up their coordinated attack. The 
  coup was barely able to entrench itself in one quarter. 
  Tiepolo agreed to a 4 year exile in Dalmatia in return 
  for his surrender. His house in S. Agostino was torn 
  down after his departure and a column raised to mark 
  his crime. Another conspirator’s house was turned 
  into a slaughterhouse. The interdict was finally lifted 
  in 1313 after a payment of 9,000 florins.
  In 1400, Venice felt threatened by Padua, then 
  under control of Francesco Carrara. Venice allied 
  with Milan to capture Padua, Treviso, Verona, 
  Vincenza, and other nearby towns. Venice struggled 
  with Genoa in four major wars from 1257 to 1380. It 
  also fought the Ottoman Turks from 1423 to 1503, 
  eventually losing many of its overseas colonies.
  
  Appendix III: York
  Page 132
  ‘This here ye mair chamberleyns & gudemen that 
  I fro’ noweforthe shall be trustye and true to the 
  Kynge our Sou’eyne lord to this Citie of York And 
  ye same Citie & shall saue and maynteyne to oure 
  saide sou’eyne ye Kynge and his heyres and succes-
  sors And all the ffrauncheys & fredoms of ye saide 
  Citie maynteyn & upholde at my power & Counyng 
  wt my bodye & my gudes als ofte tymez as yt hathe 
  myster of helpe so helpe me god and holy dome.
  ‘And by this buke Ye shall be obeyynge to ye mair 
  & shirriff of this Citie yt er or shall be for ye tyme 
  beyinge & justifyed after ye lawe accustumez & or-
  dynauncez of yis same Citie. And no man knowe yt 
  usez byyng or sellynge in ony crafte or occupacon as 
  Maistr & not franchesst but ye shall make it knowyn 
  to ye mayer Chamberleyns or the Common Clerk for 
  the tyme beynge. Nor ne gudes of Anie Straunger ne 
  of man unfraunchest ye shall not avowe for youre 
  owne by ye whilk the Kyng or the Mayor & Shirraff 
  myght lose ye Tolles custumez chargez or ony oyer 
  maner of Dewtez yt longys unto theyme. The coun-
  seyle and privatez of this sade Citie ye shall kepe. 
  And all thees poyntez & articlez afore Rehersyd ye 
  shall hold enenst yowe and for nothinge lett. But ye 
  shall so do. So helpe you God and Holy dome & be 
  this buke.’
  – Oath of Citizenship, York 14th century.
   York was the second-largest city in England and a 
  major center for wool trading during most of the middle 
  ages. It provides a good example of a large chartered 
  city with an important archbishopric. It was the admin-
  istrative capital of England several times in the late 13th 
  and in the 14th centuries; Edward I first moved his court 
  there in 1298, so that it would be closer to him during 
  his campaigns in Scotland. In 1396, Richard II made 
  the city into a county in its own right and allowed it to 
  elect its sheriff.
  York was founded by the Romans in 71 CE. They 
  departed in the 5th century, leaving it primarily in the 
  care of its archbishop. By the 8th century, York had 
  become a prosperous trade center. In 866-67, it was 
  captured by  Vikings who held it until 1055. In 1068, 
  William I captured it, and built a castle there. The town 
  tried to rebel against William three times over the next 
  year. In the aftermath of the third attempt, the Normans 
  burned and destroyed many buildings in reprisal, creat-
  ing a famine in 1070-71.
  Over the next three centuries, York became a 
  major center for wool trade between northern England 
  and Flanders. In 1379, two-thirds of English wool was 
  exported through York. When York hosted the royal 
  court, it became an even stronger center for trade, brief-
  ly rivaling London. By 1500, York’s trade had been sur-
  passed by other towns like Bristol and Norwich, but it 
  remained a significant economic center.
   AGRICULTURE
  York lies at the junction of the  Ouse and  Foss riv-
  ers in the center of a large plain. The Ouse, a tidal river, 
  was navigable by small ships up to York itself. At the 
  start of the 14th century, it had numerous bakers, brew-
  ers, butchers, fishmongers, and other vendors supplying 
  its inhabitants. During the 11th and 12th centuries,  shad 
  and graylings disappeared from the Ouse. Both species 
  were  sensitive to pollution, suggesting rising levels of 
  unhealthy urban effluent. 
  York, like Paris, prohibited townspeople from 
  allowing their  pigs to wander the streets. A law of 1301 
  allowed anyone who caught a pig loose in the streets to 
  kill it and have his choice of the meat.
  The city consumed a fair amount of meat, but 
  it was illegal to graze cattle within 6 miles of the 
  city center. Instead, merchants in the shambles (the 
  butcher’s neighborhood) sold hay to fatten up cattle 
  before slaughter.
  York’s wealth derived from its location near areas 
  favorable for sheep herding, although sheep were rarely 
  found in the city itself. Instead raw wool came to York to 
  be shipped overseas, or processed into cloth for export.
   ARCHITECTURE
  Many of York’s buildings were made from wood 
  or half-timber construction. A few, such as its cathe-
  dral and some prominent churches were made from 
  stone imported from limestone quarries a few miles 
  west of the city.
  York was best known for its cathedral, the   Minster 
  of St. Peter, which was first built in the mid-7th cen-
  
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  Town Appendix III: York
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  tury. The first cathedral was damaged by a fire in 741, 
  rebuilt, and again destroyed by a fire in 1069. It was 
  rebuilt, then damaged by fire in 1127 and repaired. 
  Major reconstruction began in 1220. The resulting 
  church, completed in 1472 was the largest cathedral 
  in England for its time and the second-largest Gothic 
  cathedral by volume in Europe. 
  The Benedictine abbey of St. Mary’s was found-
  ed in 1055 as a church dedicated to St. Olave. 
  William I refounded it as St. Mary’s in 1088. The 
  church may have been built over an Anglo-Saxon 
  village, Earlsburh. The abbey  was rebuilt from 
  1271-1294. It covered 13 acres and was one of the 
  largest, and wealthiest in England. Within its walled 
  enclosure, the Abbey had full legal rights, subject 
  only to the monarchy and the papacy.
  The Church of All Saints, one of over 40 parish 
  churches in York, was said to be the site where St. 
  Cuthbert was consecrated Bishop of Lindisfarne. It was 
  one of the wealthiest parishes in York, and the burial site 
  of several mayors and Lord Mayors.
  The Church of St. Helen was built on the site of 
  a Roman temple to Diana, and was the parish church 
  of the stained-glass-window makers who worked on 
  the Minster.
   St. Leonard’s Hospital, another of York’s prominent 
  institutions, was founded in 937 and rebuilt in 1089, and 
  again in the mid-12th century.
  York’s fortifications were another important part 
  of its architecture. York’s first walls were built by the 
  Romans. Later walls were built in the 12-14th centuries, 
  finally enclosing an area of 263 acres. (They did not 
  York
  A – The Minster of St. Peter
  B – Monk’s Bar
  C – Merchant Taylor’s Hall
  D – Foss Bar
  E – Bootham Bar
  F – St. Leonard’s Hospital
  G – St. Mary’s Abbey
  H – Church of St. Helen
  I – Guild Hall
  J – Market
  K – Church of All Saints
  L – Merchant 
  Adventurer’s Hall
  M – Walmgate Bar
  N – Fishergate Bar
  O – Royal Castle
  P – Ouse Bridge
  Q – Micklegate Bar
  A
  Q
  P
  O
  N
  M
  L
  K
  J
  I
  H
  G
  F
  E
  D
  C
  B
  
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  Town Appendix III: York
  Page 134
  completely enclose the city; a marsh and lake protected 
  one side.) The walls themselves stood on an earthen-
  work rampart, a style unique in England.
  The walls had four large gates called Bars: Bootham 
  Bar, Monk Bar, Walmgate Bar and Micklegate Bar; and 
  one smaller gate: Fishergate Bar. Merchants paid their 
  tolls at the gates, which were also used to display the 
  bodies of those executed for serious crimes.
  York was also protected by a royal castle. William 
  I built a castle, the Old Baile, on the south-west bank 
  of the Ouse in 1068. After a local rebellion, William I 
  built a second, larger castle of timber and earthworks 
  at junction of the Ouse and Foss. The new castle was 
  protected by a dam, which created a moat, a large pond 
  called the King’s Pool, and a mill pond. (The large pond 
  became a royal fishery, limited to use by the crown’s offi-
  cers and, later, the Carmelite Friars.) Both castles were 
  destroyed during an uprising in 1069. The garrisons 
  were killed; the commanders and their families taken 
  hostage. When William I restored order, he rebuilt and 
  improved both castles. The castle’s wooden keep was 
  burnt down again in 1190, during a massacre of York’s 
  Jews who had taken shelter in it. In 1200, John I visited 
  York, and ordered improvements using stone instead of 
  wood. In 1245-59, the main castle gained a stone keep, 
  later called Clifford’s Tower. The castle was damaged in 
  a flood in 1315-16, and quickly repaired in preparation 
  for Edward II’s war with Scotland in 1319-20. By 1478, 
  it had fallen into serious disrepair. In 1487, the city’s 
  Lord Mayor wrote to Henry VII about the decayed state 
  of the castle and the city’s walls.
  York’s important commercial and civil buildings 
  included the Guildhall built in 1256 and rebuilt in the 
  15th century, the Merchant Adventurers’ Hall built in 
  1358, the Merchant Taylors’ Hall built around 1400, 
  and St. Anthony’s Hall, built in 1446-53. There were 
  several flour mills, including a group of four near the 
  castle on the banks of the Foss river. 
  There was a single bridge across the Ouse. In 
  the mid-12th century, the existing wooden bridge was 
  replaced by a stone bridge that had shops and houses on 
  it. There was also only one bridge over the Foss, likely 
  made of wood until the 15th century, when it was rebuilt 
  with stone. It also had shops and houses on it, as well as 
  a small chapel dedicated to St. Anne.
  Regular building lots were narrow. A typical 
  house in Coppergate was about 14 feet wide and 
  25 feet long; it sat on a lot only 18 feet wide with a 
  small garden in the rear. York prohibited anyone from 
  dumping excrement, filth, or animal manure in the 
  streets. It ordered surplus lumber removed and gut-
  ters and drains cleaned regularly.
   CHURCH
  The most powerful clergy in York was its archbish-
  op, who was also the Primate of Northern England. The 
  bishop held 23 manors, and was responsible for hun-
  dreds of parishes in and around the city. Within the city, 
  there were several monasteries and hospitals, four friar-
  ies (Augustinian, Carmelite, Dominican, Franciscan), 
  and over 40 parishes.
  The Minster was the second-most-important cathe-
  dral in England, but it was not a major pilgrimage cen-
  ter. It did not hold many important relics, and its only 
  major shrine was to Archbishop William Fitzherbert, 
  a local saint canonized in 1227. In 1396, Richard II 
  improved its pilgrimage prospects by donating a relic 
  of the Holy Innocents to the cathedral. The Minster 
  could also boast that its baptismal font was built over 
  the well where Edwin, the king of Northumbria, was 
  baptized in 627.
  York’s archbishops varied in their dedication to their 
  pastoral role. William Fitzherbert, the Archbishop can-
  onized in 1227, collapsed during a Mass and died. Some 
  legends said that he had been poisoned by Cisterican 
   monks who opposed his appointment as archbishop. 
  His distant successor, Richard Scrope, became famous, 
  or perhaps infamous, when he supported Henry Percy, 
  the Earl of Northumberland in a rebellion against Henry 
  IV in 1405. Henry IV had Scrope executed for trea-
  son in June, 1405, despite his status as a member of the 
  clergy, and the objections of his own Chief Justice, Sir 
  William Gascoigne. Scrope’s body was buried in the 
  Minster; several prominent clerics sought to have him 
  canonized. Pope Gregory XII threatened Henry IV with 
  excommunication over the execution, but made peace 
  with him in 1408. Scrope’s tomb became a popular pil-
  grimage destination.
  Relationships between the town and its churches 
  varied. York struggled with St. Mary’s over the abbey’s 
  claims regarding the Bootham neighborhood and the 
  Bootham market. Edward III tried to resolve the dis-
  pute in 1354 by deciding that the Marygate neighbor-
  hood belonged to York and Bootham to the Abbey, but 
  the dispute continued to simmer.  St. Leonard’s hospi-
  tal’s traditional right to one thrave (24 sheaves of about 
  30” diameter) of grain per ploughland in the region 
  
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  Town Appendix III: York
  Page 135
  (Petercon) provoked ongoing disputes with all of the 
  regions’ farmers. In 1371, the Franciscans argued with 
  the city’s butchers over disposal of their wastes in the 
  Ouse upstream of the friary. And, of course, there were 
  disputes over the right of the church to grant sanctu-
  ary to criminals and debtors. The church of St John of 
  Addle had a large brass ring on its door which someone 
  seeking sanctuary had to grab and hold until allowed 
  into the church.
   COMMERCE
  York was, for many centuries, the most impor-
  tant trade center after London. It was a major center 
  for the wool trade; its merchants traded their wares 
  in the Baltic and Flanders. In 1326, it was one of nine 
  towns with a wool staple; wool for export could only be 
  bought and sold at a staple town. By royal charter grant-
  ed by Henry III and confirmed by Edward II in 1312, 
  York’s citizens were immune to tolls and stallage fees in 
  England. However, by 1450, York’s fortunes had begun 
  to decline, in part due to hostility between England and 
  the Hanse, which made trade more difficult. It also faced 
  more competition from other English ports.
  York had two mints. The Archbishop’s Mint pre-
  dated the Conquest. In 1279, Edward I created a royal 
  mint in York’s castle. In 1344, the royal mint was 
  allowed to make both gold and silver coins.
  Until the mid-15th century, York’s fairs were all 
  associated with its churches. The archbishop had 
  a right to hold a Lammas fair from Vespers on the 
  Vigil of St-Peter-ad-Vincula (St. Peter in Chains) 
  (July 31) to the Morrow of the Feast, and had juris-
  diction over the city during the fair. The archbishop 
  held a merchant’s court (Pie Powder Court) during 
  the Lammas Fair; its jurors were generally merchants 
  using the fair. During a ceremony at the start of the 
  Fair, the city’s sheriffs turned their rods of office over 
  to the Archbishop’s officers, who became Sheriffs of 
  the Fair. The Clerk of the Ouse Bridge Jail gave the 
  keys to another officer named by the Archbishop 
  for the fair. The Bishop then swore in his jurors and 
  announced the opening of the Pie Powder Court.
  In 1449, Henry VI granted York its first municipal 
  fair, to be held for five days starting on Whit Monday. 
  This fair became known as the Whitsun Cattle Fair.
  In England, the monarchy exercised significant 
  control over local markets. It appointed a Clerk of the 
  Markets in each major town to collect tolls and stall fees, 
  ensure that weights and measures were fair, and enforce 
  the Assize of  Bread and Beer. York’s market clerk was 
  appointed by the town and had to strictly enforce royal 
  standards. York had several permanent markets. Its 
  two major market places were “Thursday Market” and 
  Pavement. Marke Skyre was held in Pavement three days 
  a week for the sale of grain and food. Thursday Market 
  was held in that market place two days a week to sell 
  cloth and other goods. There were two markets for fish: 
  one for freshwater fish held at King’s Staith at the foot 
  of Ouse Bridge and one for saltwater fish held on Foss 
  Bridge. Poultry was sold on the Ouse Bridge.
  THE  STAPLE
  Under the 1326 Staple  Law, wool for export had 
  to be bought and sold only at a “staple” town; of which 
  York was one. In 1353, the law was amended so that 
  wool could only be sold for export at a staple town; York 
  was one of fifteen such towns.
   Wool for sale had to be weighed and sealed by the 
  mayor of the Staple. Each staple town also had its own 
  court, which resolved disputes about credits, debts, con-
  tracts, and even crimes arising from wool transactions. 
  Thus, York had an official registry for merchant debts. 
  A Staple creditor and debtor could enroll a debt for a fee 
  (often 1/2 d. per l. of debt up to 100 l., 1/4 d. per l. for 
  larger debts). The debtor of a registered debt had a very 
  hard time escaping payment for a default. After 1362, 
  even non-merchants could register debts on the official 
  register in York and a few other Staple towns. There 
  was a separate set of registered debts under the Statute 
  Merchant, which required the seal of the debtor, mayor, 
  and city clerk, and cost 1 d. per l. in general, and 1/2 d. 
  per l. at fairs. Creditors were supposed to cancel debts 
  on payment, but often did not do so, leading to disputes 
  over whether a registered debt had been paid.
   CRIME PREVENTION
  There is not much surviving information about 
  the structure of York’s watch or what specific prob-
  lems it faced with criminals. It is likely that the parishes 
  and wards policed minor infractions. Serious matters 
  would be referred to the royal sheriff. The wards and 
  parishes probably managed disputes over street repairs, 
  encroaching buildings, clogged drainage ditches, and 
  waste disposal.
  In England,  homicides were investigated by the 
  royal coroner. He was required to view every corpse if 
  
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  there was a suspicion of violent death, and then inter-
  viewed the deceased’s family and neighbors to find out 
  why the deceased died and who was responsible for the 
  death. In 1301, York required its physicians to notify the 
  mayor if they treated someone who had been wounded. 
  This law was unique in England at the time.
  Serious crimes were heard by the sheriff’s court. 
  York’s 14th-century charters transferred that right to 
  local officials, including its sheriff and its justices-of-the-
  peace. Disputes and violations of guild ordinances were 
  heard by the guild searchers,  aldermen, justices-of-the-
  peace, and the mayor.
  The royal castle was used as a jail, as early as 1205. 
  In 1210, John I had several Irish hostages from his war 
  with Ireland held at York. The royal sheriff also had 
  some jurisdiction over the jail at St. Mary’s Abbey. 
  There were a number of escapes from the royal castle 
  – twenty-six prisoners escaped together in 1298. When 
  jailers discovered the missing prisoners, they raised a hue 
  and cry. Those who were recaptured were immediately 
  beheaded. The sheriff, John de Byroum, was convicted 
  for allowing the escape, but given a royal pardon. In 
  1307, Edward II ordered York’s sheriff to seize the local 
  Knights  Templar and hold them at the castle. Templars 
  from other areas were also brought to York.  In 1310, 
  a local council considered the evidence against the 
  Templars. Those who did not confess their guilt were 
   tortured on the rack. Instead of being executed, the 
  Templars were sent to a monastery near York to do pen-
  ance for their errors. A year later, Archbishop Graveston 
  released most of them from the sentence of excommuni-
  cation. The order itself was dissolved in 1312.
  The city had several gallows, gibbets, and stocks. 
  The Ainsty scaffold, a traditional  execution site, was 
  near the Micklegate Bar, These gallows and their nearby 
  fields later became known as the York Tyburn (named 
  after London’s Tyburn gallows), and were used to burn 
  condemned heretics as well. The heads and other body 
  parts of important executed criminals were displayed 
  on the Micklegate bar. The Archbishop had his own 
  gallows near the Fosse Bridge. St. Mary’s Abbey and St. 
  Leonard’s also each had their own scaffolds, having each 
  been given the right of justice over their tenants.
  York likely had problems with smuggling, 
  although most of that activity would have taken place 
  at coastal ports like Hull. Over time, royal trade regu-
  lations, and an export licensing system, became more 
  complex, making smuggling and bribery increasing-
  ly attractive and dangerous. Local merchants were 
  appointed as customs officials and commissioners. 
  Some were caught smuggling or aiding their relatives 
  and neighbors. If a smuggler was caught, the smug-
  gled goods were valued by other merchants and sold, 
  the profits going to the crown. 
   EDUCATION
  York had a cathedral school, several friaries, and 
  several libraries. It did not have a university. The 
  cathedral chapter and its chancellor asserted the right 
  to license grammar masters in the city. It had a distin-
  guished grammar school, St. Peter at York Minster, 
  which was founded in the 7th century. St. Leonard’s hos-
  pital had a grammar school which was founded some 
  time before the mid-14th century. St. Clement operated 
  a school for girls in the 14th century. Various cathedral 
  canons held small household schools, as did some par-
  sons and vicars. 
   ENTERTAINMENT
  York first observed the feast of Corpus Christi in the 
  early 14th century. It was an established celebration by 
  1376. In 1399, there were complaints about the expense 
  of staging Corpus Christi plays. The council limited the 
  plays to twelve stations, starting at the priory of the 
  Holy Trinity in Micklegate and ending at the Pavement 
  marketplace to reduce the number of locations and the 
  processional route. In 1408, a Corpus Christi guild was 
  formed to manage the procession itself. In 1417, the 
  town rescinded the limit of 12 locations, and allowed 
  those who wished to host a play to bid for the privilege. 
  In 1426, the city set the procession on one day, and the 
  plays on the following day to reduce unrest and distur-
  bances associated with the celebration. Its cycle of plays 
  became famous and was duplicated in other cities.
  The 1301 ordinances prohibited  prostitutes from 
  staying in York, and punished any prostitute who kept a 
  brothel within the city with imprisonment for a year and 
  a day. Otherwise, York seemed to tolerate prostitutes, 
  who tended to live near Aldwark and St. Andrewgate 
  and near Grape Lane by the Minster.
   FINANCE
  York’s aldermen and mayor  raised money for the 
  city from various local taxes and tariffs. It owned and 
  rented various properties, including stalls on the Ouse 
  and Foss bridges. At times, York raised  taxes by par-
  
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  ish, charging wealthier parishes more than less-wealthy 
  ones. It also raised money from the fee charged to free-
  man who wished to become citizens by entering the 
  franchise of the city. Starting in 1251, it also charged 
  murage, a tax intended to pay for building and repairing 
  the city walls and castle, although sometimes a portion 
  was used for other purposes.
   In 1212, York was granted the rights to collect 
  its own property taxes (the fee farm) in return for an 
  annual payment of 160 pounds to the monarchy. The 
  sum was paid each year until 
  it was partly remitted in the 
  late 15th century. A portion of 
  the fee was paid to local offi-
  cials and institutions on the 
  monarchy’s behalf; often less 
  than 10 pounds was paid to 
  the royal exchequer.
  During the Hundred Years 
  War, the English monarchy 
  asked York, like many English 
  cities, to make large loans to 
  it to pay for the war. The city 
  raised some funds from royal 
  taxes (the fifteenth, the tenth and poll taxes) and the 
  rest from special taxes and private loans. Here, as else-
  where in England and France, the fiscal demands led to 
  conflicts. In 1380-81, rioters laid siege to the Guildhall, 
  and forced the city’s mayor into exile. In response, the 
  monarchy fined York 1,000 marks in 1382 for a pardon 
  for the unrest. Afterwards, York scaled back its fiscal 
  commitments to the crown, limiting them to military 
  ventures against the nearby Scots.
   GOVERNANCE
  York was divided between three major fac-
  tions: the archbishop, the royal sheriff (representing 
  the crown), and the city’s councils and mayor. The 
  Minster controlled its own building and neighbor-
  hood, as did St. Mary, St. Leonard, the Holy Trinity 
  Priory, and a dozen other clerical institutions and 
  buildings. The sheriff controlled the royal castle, 
  Davy Hall (the offices and prison of a royal forest 
  official), and a few other royal buildings. The rest 
  belonged to York’s civil government. The division of 
  jurisdictions led to various legal, and sometimes phys-
  ical, clashes, between the clergy and the town over 
  its rights. In 1260, the city was placed under papal 
  interdict when it hung a woman who was a tenant 
  of the Minster. In 1264-65, York’s archbishop placed 
  the city under interdict when a group of men from St. 
  Mary’s were killed.
  York’s civic government was derived from its char-
  ter. It received its first  charter from Henry I. Its rights 
  were reconfirmed by John I in 1212. In 1189, Richard I 
  granted York freedom from various local trade fees, for 
  a payment of 122 l. 6 s. 8 d. Edward I punished York for 
  a dispute by taking over its management in 1280-83, 
  1290, and 1292-97. After each 
  interval, he restored the city’s 
  customary rights. In 1312, a 
  charter restricted the rights 
  of the king’s justices in eyre 
  (who generally heard disputes 
  about forestry laws) and gave 
  all persons living and trading 
  in the city the same rights as 
  citizens regarding tallage and 
  other charges. In 1316, a char-
  ter protected York from cer-
  tain special rights of the king’s 
  clerk of the market. In 1327, 
  it was protected from the royal court of the verge (a 
  special court with jurisdiction within a 12 mile radius of 
  the royal household), an important right because York 
  was then intermittently host to the crown and the royal 
  household during struggles with Scotland. 
  York sought new charters in 1393 and 1396. York’s 
  rights were reconfirmed in 1378. Both charters had been 
  negotiated when Richard II had moved the royal court 
  temporarily to York from London in 1392 and 1395. The 
  1393 charter allowed York to elect its own justices of the 
  peace, rather than rely on royally appointed justices, and 
  to obtain lands. It also allowed the mayor and any two 
  of the twelve aldermen to  hear and punish criminal fel-
  onies and other serious cases. The 1396 charter made 
  York a county in its own right, which allowed it to have 
  its own two sheriffs, which could hold their own month-
  ly court; the city could collect various fines and fees; and 
  it obtained jurisdiction over several areas including land 
  disputes, trespass, and contract disputes.
  In 1405-06, Henry IV withdrew York’s right of 
  government after a rebellion by the Percy family. The 
  rights were regained a few years later and consistently 
  re-affirmed during the remainder of the 15th century.
  Merchants, not guilds, dominated York’s civic gov-
  ernment. Most of its office-holders were members of 
  In the Hundred Years 
  War, the monarchy 
  asked York to make 
  large loans to it to 
  pay for the war.
  
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  Town Appendix III: York
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  established families and prominent professions. During 
  the 14th century, 34% of the men who served as bai-
  liffs were merchants. During the 15th century, 48% of 
  the sheriffs were merchants. During the 14-15th cen-
  tury, 79% of York’s mayors were  merchants. There was 
  some prejudice against certain occupations –  butchers 
  frequently served as chamberlains, but rarely as sheriff, 
  and  none was known to have served as alderman or 
  mayor. Innkeepers, too, rarely held high office in York.
  A merchant was eligible to become a chamberlain 
  within 6-10 years after becoming a member of the city’s 
  franchise, a bailiff or sheriff within two to three years 
  after that, an  alderman within six years, and a mayor 
  within four years. If the merchant became a member 
  of the franchise at 21, he might hope to have served as 
  mayor by the time he was 45. (Most died around age 
  50 or 60.) Older candidates had an advantage because 
  their businesses were stable, and the candidate could be 
  concentrating on his office without worrying about busi-
  ness matters. The candidate also had acquired enough 
  wealth to maintain his office by having sufficient ser-
  vants, wearing appropriate clothing, and providing 
  expected feasts, generally at his personal expense.
  York’s government was based around an elected 
  mayor, supported by several councils. The mayor’s office 
  may have predated the city’s first charter, given by John 
  I in 1212. In 1369, Richard II gave York’s mayors the 
  title of Lord Mayor, making them second in importance 
  to London’s Mayor himself. The mayors, generally cho-
  sen from and elected by the Council of 12 ( aldermen), 
  served for 1 year terms. In 1343, the Council of 12 man-
  dated that no person could be re-elected to the office. 
  In 1365, it prohibited a candidate from being re-elected 
  within eight years of holding the office. By 1392, no can-
  didate could be re-elected until each of the 12 council 
  members had served a term as mayor.
  The retiring mayor summoned the “searchers” 
  of each craft (guild officials appointed to police other 
  guild members) on January 14 to ensure that each craft’s 
  members would attend an election at Guildhall on the 
  next day. The artisans nominated two  aldermen, neither 
  of whom had been mayor twice or served as mayor in 
  the preceding five years. The nominations were given 
  to the mayor and council, who picked one candidate by 
  secret ballot. The candidate with the highest votes was 
  announced on February 3. In 1489, there was a minor 
  change – the artisans selected 3 candidates, none of 
  whom had served more than twice or had served in the 
  preceding 6 years. 
  The mayor was assisted by three bailiffs, each serv-
  ing one-year terms. Staring in 1357, the bailiffs each 
  picked their own successors, who each had to have two 
  pledges and had to be approved by the mayor and the 
  general council. In 1396, when York became a county, 
  the bailiffs were replaced by two sheriffs elected by the 
  council. In 1494, the council required that the sher-
  iffs have previously served as chamberlain. The cham-
  berlain was elected by the incoming mayor and by the 
  council. After 1475, a chamberlain had to have previ-
  ously served as a bridgemaster.
  By the late 14th century, York had three legisla-
  tive councils: one of 12 aldermen; another of 24 office 
  holders such as the chamberlain, bailiff, and mayor; 
  and one of 48 representatives of the “common” people. 
   Aldermen were associated with the city’s six wards; two 
  from each ward served on the highest council. The can-
  didates were chosen by councilors, who were elected by 
  parishes within the wards. Aldermen served until they 
  died or were too ill to attend meetings. Vacancies were 
  filled by the remaining  aldermen from the council of 24. 
  After 1418, new members of the 24 had to be chosen 
  from ex-sheriffs.
  In addition to the mayor and the aldermen, each 
  parish (subdivisions of the six wards) elected its own 
  officers, made its own by-laws, and levied and collected 
  taxes. It elected councilors to govern it and constables 
  to both keep the peace and respond to fires. Each par-
  ish kept hooks and buckets to fight fires in the parish 
  church, which also contained a chest with the watch’s 
  armor and weapons.
   GUILDS
  York had a plethora of guilds. It had long been 
  a center for leather and cloth workers, and a major 
  center for bell making. Its first guild was the Gild 
  Merchant, an association of traders first mentioned in 
  a charter from Henry II in 1256. The Gild Merchant 
  may have evolved from a Gildgarth, which is men-
  tioned in a record from 1080.
  By the 14th-15th centuries, the number of guilds had 
  grown to over 50. In 1305, York was fed by 36  bakers, 
  70 breweries, 45 butchers, 35 cooks, 50 fishmongers, 9 
  fish forestallers, 45 hostelers, 37 poulterers, 27 regrators 
  (middlemen), and 26 taverners. Its other guilds included 
  the weavers, butchers, girdlers, and vintners. One neigh-
  borhood, the market street near the butcher’s guild, was 
  known as the Shambles because of the large numbers 
  
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  of butchers who had their benches, the shambles, there 
  to sell their meat. 
  In 1363, the English crown passed a law requir-
  ing each merchant or craft guild to appoint two of 
  its members as “ searchers” to prevent other guild 
  members from agreeing to secretly horde goods and 
  inflate prices. The seachers were supervised by the 
  royal justices-of-the-peace. In 1393, York gained con-
  trol of this system when its charter allowed it to elect 
  its own justices of the peace. By 1400, the searchers 
  had become enforcers of guild monopolies. By the 
  mid-15th century, the craft guilds’ searchers were the 
  members of the council of 48.
  In addition to its craft guilds, York had three large 
  religious  guilds, including the one responsible for the 
  Corpus Christi plays, ten smaller religious guilds based in 
  parish churches, and a couple of guilds based in religious 
  orders. Religious guilds paid for the burials of members 
  and their families and for memorial Masses, as well as 
  supporting their host churches or orders.
   JEWS
  There may have been a settlement of Jews in York 
  during its Roman days, but there are few surviving 
  records of early Jewish settlement. A group of Jewish 
  scholars may have come to York in the late 11th cen-
  tury with Archbishop Gerard, who, like several scholars 
  of his time, was interested in Hebrew manuscripts and 
  early Church history. In the late 12th century, there are 
  records of Jewish moneylenders in York who replaced 
  Christian lenders.
  In 1180, York’s Jewish community of 150 or more 
  was led by Josce and Benedict, two moneylenders who 
  had made loans to the monarchy. It also included three 
  noted scholars, Rabbi Yomtob of Joigny, Rabbi Elijah, 
  and Josce. These four leaders became central when an 
  anti-Jewish riot which had started at Richard I’s coro-
  nation in London in 1189 led to a series of anti-Jewish 
  massacres in other towns during the following year. 
  In March, 1190, rioters looted and burned Benedict’s 
  house, killing his family. Josce led the Jewish community 
  to the shelter of the royal castle. When the royal consta-
  ble left on an errand, the community refused to let him 
  return, fearing he would betray them. The constable 
  and the sheriff gathered men to storm the castle. The 
  Jews held the castle for several days, until the besiegers 
  brought siege engines to the site. On March 16, 1190 
  (Shabbat ha-Gadol), Rabbi Yomtob led the community 
  to commit mass suicide. Some sources said he killed 60 
  before taking his own life. A few survivors were promised 
  mercy, but were then killed by the besiegers when they 
  left the castle. The community’s houses were sacked and 
  then destroyed. The crown dismissed the constable and 
  the sheriff, but was unable to identify most of the rioters. 
  They were not punished.
  Jews returned to York in the early 13th century. At 
  that time, all English Jews were under the direct pro-
  tection of the monarchy. In 1218, Henry III ordered 
  York to protect the Jews and enforced the law that 
  made them subject only to a royal justice charged 
  with custody of the Jews. In 1290, Edward I expelled 
  Jews from England.
  SOCIETY
  York’s population, like that of many towns, was 
  divided between its residents and those who were full 
  citizens. By the late 14th century, between a quarter and 
  a third of York’s inhabitants were citizens. A citizen 
  could engage in trade without paying tolls, could hold 
  political office, and paid certain taxes. A person could 
  become a citizen by birth to a citizen, by paying a fee of 
  around 20 s., or by completing an apprenticeship (gener-
  ally lasting at least 7 years) in a local guild. The Mayor 
  and  Aldermen could also give citizenship as a reward 
  for service to the city. Freemen had to take an oath, a 
  version of which is quoted at the start of this chapter. 
  Women could become citizens, and were required to do 
  so if they wanted to carry on certain trades.
  About a third of households were led by a master 
  artisan; most of the remaining two-thirds of households 
  were those of journeymen and other working artisans. 
  One-third of merchant households in the late 14th cen-
  tury had servants, generally two.
  York also had a small population of non-English 
  inhabitants, called aliens. In 1459, a municipal law 
  required all aliens to live in a single inn, the Bull on 
  Coney Street. The mayor could give specific people per-
  mission to live elsewhere.
  York, like many cities, had a high urban mortality 
  rate. A quarter to half of children died before reaching 
  age 21. If they survived childhood, York’s adults had 
  a reasonable chance of surviving into their 50s or 60s, 
  which was somewhat better than in many towns.
  Many families were not able to have legitimate 
  male heirs in more than two successive generations. 
  In the absence of a male heir, merchants left their 
  
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  estates to illegitimate male children, or to nephews. 
  Merchant families also tried to ensure their suc-
  cess and survival by a web of marriage alliances with 
  their peers. Widows, by custom, received a third of 
  their husband’s estate as dower. Another third of the 
  estate was reserved for any surviving children. The 
  last third was typically given to charity or other spe-
  cific bequests. York did not have a dowry fund like 
  Italian city-states, but dying merchants sometimes 
  left bequests ad maritagium, for impoverished  girls.
  York’s women worked as barber-surgeons, cappers, 
  chapwomen, cloth sellers, cooks, freshwater fishers, 
  fishmongers, ironmongers, listers, parchmentmakers, 
  stringers, and vinternes. They rented shops from the 
  city council and managed their own businesses. Some 
  were citizens. Married women were not allowed to carry 
  on a trade, independent of their husbands, without first 
  becoming citizens in their own name.
   THREATS
  Although well fortified with walls and a royal 
  castle, York was rarely directly threatened. In the 
  late 13th century, hostilities between England and 
  Scotland flared. York became an administrative 
  headquarters for English military campaigns. Scottish 
  raiders intermittently struck near York. In 1319, the 
  mayor led the city’s forces into a disastrous confron-
  tation at Myton on Swale. The English army had to 
  retreat from its siege of Berwick to protect the city. 
  In 1322, the city was again briefly threatened, but 
  not attacked. The intermittent presence of the royal 
  army caused various conflicts between townspeople 
  and  soldiers, including riots in 1318 and 1327.
  In 1380-81, rising taxes sparked a revolt. In 
  November, 1380, the town rose against the mayor, John 
  de Gysburn (or Gisburne), and drove him from the city 
  in protest of new royal demands for money. The riot 
  was led by a group of 6 butchers, 4 weavers, 3 drapers, 2 
  tailors, and several other tradesmen. The rioters broke 
  into the city’s guildhall, compelled a merchant, Simon 
  de Quixlay, to swear to be their mayor, and compelled 
  the councilors to swear their loyalty to the new mayor. 
  Shortly thereafter, York’s butchers protested a new tax 
  of a penny per week on their stalls (schamel toll). The 
  city’s rulers argued that the tax was a longstanding cus-
  tom which had not been recently enforced. Twenty of 
  the leading rioters were arrested and briefly imprisoned 
  in the Tower of London.
  In the summer of 1381, the Lord Mayor of London 
  killed Wat Tyler during a meeting with Richard II and 
  ended the Peasants’ Revolt. When news of Tyler’s death 
  reached York, rioters attacked several church buildings 
  including  St. Leonard’s hospital, and the Franciscan and 
  Dominican friaries. A month later, John de Gysburn led 
  an attack on Boothham Bar and rode through the city 
  trying to rally his allies. Five of his supporters were seized 
  and imprisoned. Sporadic violence between de Gysburn 
  and de Quixlay’s supporters continued in 1381-82. De 
  Quixlay was re-elected as mayor in 1381, 1382, and 
  1383. De Gysburn did not hold office again in York and 
  died in 1390.
  The city was besieged in 1489 during a rural uprising 
  protesting higher taxes. The Walmgate and Fishergate 
  Bars were burned, but the city was not taken.
  York often provided ships for the English monar-
  chy. The crown had few warships of its own. Often it 
  requisitioned or hired merchant ships, which were then 
  adapted to transport soldiers, horses, and supplies. From 
  1350-1400, York supplied at least 62 merchant ships for 
  naval use. The monarchy also granted captains licens-
  es to outfit their ships to “defend the realm”, provided 
  any booty was evenly shared between the crown, the 
  privateer, and the ship’s soldiers. Other captains were 
  licensed to arrest pirates who attacked English mer-
  chants. Some captains avenged losses to French and 
  Hanseatic rivals as unlicensed pirates.
  The monarchy could also order towns to build 
  ships for it, at the towns’ expense. In 1294, Edward 
  I ordered a total of 30 galleys from various towns, 
  including York.  In 1372 and 1377, the crown asked 
  York and other cities to build warships called barges 
  and balingers (rowed ships with masts) for the 
  Hundred Years War. When these ships were not 
  in use by the crown, the town’s merchants could 
  use them for trade. In return for this aid, York and 
  other cities received confirmations of their charters 
  in 1378-79.
  Merchants trading overseas protected them-
  selves from privateers by purchasing safe-conducts 
  and export licenses. Ships traveled in convoys for 
  mutual protection; many hired armed men to guard 
  them on their journey. Others purchased insurance 
  (bottomry) – a merchant could take out a loan for a 
  cargo or to repair a ship; if the ship arrived safely, the 
  loan was repaid with interest (often 12-15%); if the 
  ship was lost, the loan was forgiven and no interest 
  was owed.
  
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  Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, New York: 
  Atheneum (1969)
  Abulafia, Italy in the Central Middle Ages 1000-
  1300, Oxford: Oxford University Press (2004)
  Anderson & Zinsser, A History of Their Own (Vol. 
  1), New York: Harper & Row Publishers (1988)
  Baker, Medieval London, New York: Praeger 
  Publishers (1970)
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  RPG MATERIALS
  A number of sources were consulted to see what 
  topics various writers and publishers thought would 
  be of interest to their readers, and how writers and 
  publishers tried to explain the complexities of medi-
  eval urban life.
  A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe, 
  Expeditious Retreat Press (2003)
  Barrett, et als., The Ashen Knight, White Wolf (2000)
  Bøe, et als, Dark Ages Europe, White Wolf (2002)
  Crowe, et als., Three Pillars, White Wolf (1997)
  Hartford, et als., Spoils of War, White Wolf (2003)
  Karr, The King Arthur Companion, Pendragon (1983)
  King, Lionheart, Columbia Publications (1987)
  
  A
  Accounting, 44; audits of building 
  projects, 16; of tithe revenues, 
  33; public officials liable for fiscal 
  irregularities, 78; source of need 
  for urban education, 61; units of 
  account in money system, 38
  Actors; economic support of, 67; 
  morally and socially equivalent 
  to prostitutes, 68; Parisian 
  troupes, 120; sponsored by guilds 
  for public performances, 81
  Agriculture, 11; in Paris, 115; in 
  Venice, 124; in York, 132
  Ague (Malaria), 103
  Aldermen; as “searchers” (York), 
  138; associated with wards (York), 
  138; benefits in lieu of wages, 87; 
  clothing privileges (London), 94; 
  defined, 9; duration of service 
  (York), 138; electing mayor from 
  among their own (York), 138; 
  eligibility to serve (York), 138; 
  exacting a “street tax” from poor 
  hustlers, 95; heard complaints 
  about crime, 57, 136, 137; in 
  Parisian government (échevins), 
  121; occupational prejudice 
  (York), 138; power to grant 
  citizenship (York), 139; raised 
  money for the city (York), 136
  Aljama, 9
  Almshouses, 26
  Amulets; worn by children, 99
  Annulment, 100
  Anti-Semitic violence, 89-92
  Apprentices and Apprenticeship, 61; 
  apprenticeship in building trades, 
  84; guild control of requirements 
  and conditions, 81; hazing, 
  disputes, 62; Jewish doctors taught 
  via apprentice system, 91; master 
  given right to approve marriages 
  of, 100; rural artisans’ children 
  as, 95; servants becoming, 96
  Archdeacon, 28
  Architecture, 15-24; in Paris, 116; 
  in Venice, 124; in York, 132
  Archpriest (dean), 28
  Arte, 9
  Arte della Lana, 82
  Artisans, 82
  Artists, 84
  Ascension Day, 63
  Ash Wednesday, 64
  Assumption of the Virgin, 65
  B
  Bakers; besieged by starving citizens 
  (in epigraph), 103; blamed (and 
  pardoned) for blaze in Toulouse, 
  105; exceptions to night-work 
  laws, 54; less likely to have a 
  guild, 86; likely to have a guild, 
  80; numbers of (York), 138; 
  ovens, 20; fire risk, 86; power 
  of (and as indicators of town’s 
  concern with food), 12; sometimes 
  located outside town, 116; wares 
  inspected by town authorities, 86
  Bandits, 107; communities in the 
  condato fined for sheltering, 55; 
  merchant companies as defense 
  against, 47; more common on 
  roads than rivers, 13; river bandit 
  methods, 49; ties to organized 
  crime/urban confederations of, 58; 
  town walls protection against, 22
  Banishment, 55
  Banking, 39-40; Franciscan 
  non-profit banks, 91; Jewish 
  involvement in, 89; papal bank-
  ers, 29, 33; powerful Venetian 
  banks, 127; Templar, 32, 40
  Ban mile, 9
  Baptism, 99
  Barbers, 85
  Bath houses, 16
  Beasts; Courtaut (notorious wolf), 
  123; wolves digging up corpses, 123
  Beer, 41
  Beggars, 94; begging regulated 
  in Venice, 131; converting to 
  Judaism, 92; faking crippling 
  injuries, 58; popular stories of, 
  95; the Beggar King (Grand 
  Coesre), 58, 118; women, 35
  Béguines, 35
  Bells; announcing the hours, 82
  Birth, 99
  Bishops, 26-28; Venetian 
  bishopric, 126
  Black Plague, Black 
  Death; See Plague
  Bounty; offered for murder of 
  emigrant silk workers, 112; Venice 
  contrasted with Lucca, 127
  Bourgeois, 9
  Brethren of the Free Spirits, 35
  Bridges, 16; construction costs, 
  23; held by knights as an 
  alternative to tournament 
  jousts, 67; inhabited, 17
  Brothels; See Prostitutes, Sex
  Builders, 84; Jewish builders 
  forbidden to build pret-
  tier synagogues, 22
  Bull-baiting, 68
  Burgage, 9
  Burgess, 9
  Burgrave, 9
  Business Cycle, 81
  Butchers; and bull-baiting, 68; 
  appointment of masters (Blois and 
  Chartres), 73; as personal guards 
  of Duke Jean, 122; as polluters, 
  13, 14; in ceremony (Paris), 
  64; leaders in revolts, 86; less 
  popular than other food trades, 
  86; likely to have a guild, 80, 86; 
  minimal requirement for a Jewish 
  community, 89; occupational 
  prejudice against (York), 138; 
  Parisian guild practices, 86; 
  placement relative to tanners, 
  Page 145
  Index
  
  Page 146
  Town: Index
  14; power of (and as indicators 
  of town’s concern with food), 12; 
  prosperity of, 86; supplying raw 
  materials to other trades, 86; wares 
  inspected by town authorities, 86
  C
  Candle makers; See Chandlers
  Candlemas, 64
  Canons, 29
  Captains, 77
  Captives, war, 56
  Carnival, 64
  Carroccio, 107
  Castles, 17
  Cathars, 35
  Cathedrals; architecture & 
  construction, 17; Minster of St. 
  Peter, 132; Notre-Dame, 116; 
  social and religious roles, 26
  Celibacy; Catholic clergy, 30
  Chancellor, 28
  Chandlers; butchers’ wives 
  and daughters as, 97; sup-
  plied by butchers, 86
  Chartered Towns, 74
  Charters, 74; compared to books 
  of town records, 77; example 
  of (St. Omer), 75; for Jewish 
  communities, 89; of York, 137
  Chartres, 73
  Children, 99; and Parisian crime, 
  119; child abuse tolerated, 
  100; See also Orphans; sent to 
  town as apprentices, 95
  Churches; construction & 
  architecture, 18; construction 
  costs, 23; in York, 134; notable 
  churches in Venice, 125; parish, 
  29; powerful Parisian, 117
  Citizen; defined, 9; See 
  also Citizenship
  Citizenship, 93
  City-States, 74
  Civic Processions, 63
  Class; See Social Class
  Clock Towers, 18
  Clothing, 94; typical for children, 99
  Coins, 37
  Commerce, 37-52; Diplomacy 
  and Reprisals, 42; Forms of 
  Business, 43; in Paris, 118; in 
  Venice, 126; in York, 135
  Commodities, 41
  Commune, 9
  Competitions, 65-67
  Condato, 12
  Confraternity, 10
  Consorteria, 10
  Construction; builders and build-
  ing-trades, 84; methods, 15; of 
  Notre-Dame cathedral, 116
  Consul, 10
  Convents, 32
  Cook shops, 20
  Coquillards, 58
  Corpses; See Death
  Corpus Christi, 64
  Council of Forty, 128
  Council of Ten, 129; creation 
  of its own watch, 127; failed 
  attempts to ban recreational 
  bridge wars, 65; restricting the 
  charity of the Scuole, 131
  Councils and Councilors, 77-79
  Court, 54; estimated scale of, 73-74
  Courtaut (notorious wolf), 123
  Credit, 39
  Crime, 53; Coquillards, 58; false sto-
  ries of ritual murder, 91; organized 
  crime, 56, 58, 118; prevention in 
  Paris, 118; prevention in Venice, 
  127; prevention in York, 135
  Curfew, 54; at fairs, 46; cessation 
  of alcohol sales at, 48; church 
  bells heralding, 54; lanterns 
  required after, 53; mechanical 
  clocks automating the heralding 
  of, 82; prostitutes required 
  to return home for, 69
  D
  Dean (archpriest), 28
  Death, 100-102; announcements 
  of, 101; cemetery necessary for a 
  Jewish community, 89; continua-
  tion of business by family following, 
  43, 98; corpses displayed in Paris, 
  118; corpses eaten by wolves, 
  107, 123; Council of Ten corrup-
  tion punishable by, 129; English 
  homicide customs, 135; infant 
  mortality, 99; no escape from the 
  Inquisition, 57; parental death 
  as prerequisite for marriage, 100; 
  serious crimes punishable by, 55; 
  toll of anti-mercenary revolt, 108; 
  vigils, 98; Waldensian views on, 36
  Debt, 40; public, 70
  Disasters, 105
  Disease, 103; in prison, 56; 
  soldiers as source of, 107
  Distrain, 107
  Divorce, 100
  Doctors, 84; distinguished from 
  surgeons, 85; Jewish, 91
  Dowry, 100; dowry fund, 70
  E
  Earthquakes, 105
  Easter, 65; and Parisian ham sales, 
  116; communion mandated 
  on, 56; consolidated baptisms, 
  18, 99; Jews persecuted for, 91; 
  prostitutes prohibited from public 
  appearances just prior to, 69
  Échevins; See Aldermen
  Economic Theory, Medieval, 40
  Education, 61-62; in Paris, 119; 
  in Venice, 127; in York, 136
  Employment; See Jobs, Wages
  Entertainers, 67
  Entertainment, 63-69; entertain-
  ers, 67; in Paris, 119; in 
  Venice, 127; in York, 136
  Estimo, 10
  Eswardeurs, 47
  Evil eye, 99
  Execution; as entertainment in 
  Venice, 127; heretics burned at 
  the stake, 35; in Paris, 118; in 
  
  Page 147
  Town: Index
  York, 136; of Fra Savonarola by 
  fire, 31; of Jews under false pre-
  tenses, 91; of Templar leaders, 40
  F
  Factories, 19
  Fairs, 45-46; in Chartres, 73; scale 
  of, 63; weapons precluded from, 53
  Families; all affected by Plague, 
  104; rural families larger 
  than urban ones, 100
  Famine, 104
  Farm (payment), 10
  Farmers; as immigrants, 95
  Feasts; Fete des Fous (Feast of 
  Fools), 64; See also Fairs
  Finance, 70-71; in Paris, 120; 
  in Venice, 128; in York, 136; 
  See also Commerce, Taxes
  Fines; one source of a town’s 
  income, 70; typical fines 
  and punishments, 59
  Fire, 105
  Flagellants, 36
  Flax; makers of seldom 
  had own guilds, 82
  Floods, 106
  Food; as trade commodities, 41, 86; 
  cheap grain necessary to stave 
  off famine, 104; dependence on 
  rural fiefs and farms for, 5, 11; 
  English food markets, 135; fish 
  supply affected by pollution, 
  132; force used to control food 
  supply, 11; from monasteries, 
  6; hung as advertisement, 21; 
  Parisian fish supply, 115; Parisian 
  meat consumption, 11, 116; 
  political relationships between 
  town and food sources, 12; price 
  controls, 46; prices, 51-52; public 
  preparation facilities, 20; religious 
  practices; Christian, 65; Jewish, 
  89-90; river-food and seafood 
  in Paris, 115; starvation (in epi-
  graph), 103; town leader’s primary 
  responsibilty, 11; urban sources 
  of, 12; women associated with 
  food trades, 97; See also Famine
  Food trades, 85
  Foreigners, 93
  Foss, 132
  Foundling wheels, 103
  Franchise Charter, 10
  Friars; See Mendicant Orders
  G
  Gates, 22; gatehouse 
  construction costs, 23
  Ghettos, 89
  Ghibelline, 79
  Gild; See Guilds
  Glass; Venetian, 126
  God’s Penny, 10
  Godparents, 99
  Goldsmiths, 84
  Governance, 72-79; by papal 
  “vicars”, 73; Forms of, 77; in 
  Paris, 121-122; in Venice, 
  128; in York, 137
  Government; See Governance
  Grain; cheap supplies necessary 
  to stave off famine, 104
  Grand Coesre (Beggar King), 58
  Guards; assigned to Jewish 
  funeral processions, 90; assigned 
  to prevent copulation in cathedral 
  (Pistoia), 26; at Champagne 
  Fairs, 46; hired to protect holy 
  relics, 31; restricted from taking 
  from the populace (Charter of St. 
  Omer), 75; town watch, 56-57; 
  Ufficali di Notte (vice squad), 69
  Guelf, 79
  Guilds, 80-86; defined, 10; guild 
  halls, 19; holding guild office, 81; 
  in Paris, 122; in Venice, 129; major 
  versus minor, 82; militias organized 
  by, 109; number and frequency of, 
  80; religious guilds (York), 139; 
  searchers (English guild police), 
  139; table of examples by city, 83; 
  types of, 82; York’s plethora of, 138
  H
  Hanseatic League, 76
  Heretics; Interdict, 105
  Holidays; historical commemora-
  tions, 63; See also Fairs, Feasts
  Homosexuality; prostitutes toler-
  ated as measure against, 68
  Hospitalers, 32
  Hospitals, 19; administered by 
  clergy, 85; centralizing of, 95; for 
  ill musicians, 68; not centralized in 
  Venice, 131; Pietà foundling hospi-
  tal, 131; Scuole, 130; St. Leonard’s 
  Hospital (York), 133, 134
  Hotel-Dieu; See Hospitals
  Hours, 82
  Houses, 20; construction 
  costs, 23; rent, 24
  Hustling, 95
  I
  Immigrants, 95
  Imprisonment, 56
  Independent City-States, 74
  Indulgence (penance 
  by payment), 56
  Infant mortality, 99
  Influenza, 103
  Inheritance, 102
  Inns, 19; and taverns, 47; innkeep-
  ers as guild intermediaries, 
  38; innkeepers responsible for 
  confiscating weaponry, 46; 
  organized crime and, 58
  Inquisition, 57; resentment over 
  condemnation of respected com-
  munity members, 31; technically 
  did not perform executions, 58
  Interdict, 105
  J
  Jews, 89-92; Aljama (defined), 9; 
  encouraged to remain indoors 
  
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  Town: Index
  during Lent and Easter, 65; 
  family networks, 40; in Paris, 
  122; in town divisions, 26; in 
  Venice, 130; in York, 139; mass 
  expulsions of, 92; more common 
  in Universities than women, 
  62; required to wear badges, 
  90, 94, 130; ritual bath (mikvah), 
  16; southern Italy exception to 
  European trends regarding, 92; 
  special taxes for, 96; traditions 
  of tolerance and intolerance 
  toward, 90; See also Synagogues
  Jobs; employment agents, 96; 
  hustling, 95; scale of employ-
  ment by court, 73; second 
  jobs for slow periods, 82
  Jurés, 10
  K
  Knights; bishops expected to 
  maintain, 27; holding bridges as an 
  alternative to tournament jousts, 
  67; hundreds at tournament, 
  66; Knights Hospitaller, 32; laws 
  regarding price of clothing, 94; 
  rights to bear arms restricted in 
  town, 53; secular landholders’ 
  duties comparable to, 28; 
  successful architects knighted, 
  84; towns subject to the courts 
  of large lanholders rather 
  than, 6; See also Templars
  L
  Lanaioli, 82
  Laws; bans on tournaments, 67; 
  governing prostitution, 69; 
  governing styles of clothing, 94; 
  restricting local competitions, 65; 
  skewed in favor of local merchants 
  and artisans, 42; Staple towns, 
  135; typical fines and punish-
  ments, 59; wandering pigs, 132
  Leagues of Towns, 76
  Lent, 65
  Lepers, 103
  Leprosy, 103
  Lollards, 36
  Lombard League, 76
  M
  Magic; amulets worn by 
  children, 99; love potions 
  offered by procuresses, 69
  Magnates; defined, 10; 
  excluded from council member-
  ship requirements, 78
  Malaria, 103
  Manners, 94
  Markets, 19, 37; Paris markets, 118; 
  periodic markets, 44; selds, 45
  Marriage, 99; contracts, 100
  Martinmas; and Hansa prohibi-
  tions on ship travel, 49; as 
  hiring day for servants, 96
  Master-Apprentice System, 61
  Measles, 103
  Meat; See Food
  Mendicant orders, 31
  Mercenaries, 108; Arezzo captured 
  by, 113; bribed by Pope Innocent 
  IV, 113; burning port of Boulogne, 
  113; captains’ wages, 108; 
  capture of Pont-Saint-Esprit, 113; 
  company contracts (condotta), 
  108; grain storage law and, 59; 
  in war, 106-108; papal, 106; 
  recruited at tournament, 66; 
  removed by the Magna Carta, 108; 
  suppressed by Parisian skirmishing 
  parties, 123; unemployed ones 
  a threat to travelers, 48, 58
  Merchants, 85; arrival in town, 
  38; as employers of mercenaries, 
  106; Flemish companies, 47; 
  given time to leave before war, 
  107; homes in Venice, 125; 
  most of York’s mayors were, 138; 
  trading in Muslim ports, 96
  Mezzadría, 10
  Michelmas (Michaelmas); as a 
  hiring day for servants, 96
  Mikvah, 16, 89
  Militias, 109
  Mills, 19; construction costs, 23
  Mines, 20
  Minster of St. Peter (Cathedral), 132
  Minstrels, 68
  Mobs; collapsing the Rialto bridge 
  (Paris), 114, 125; combats between 
  rock-throwing, 65; crowd at the 
  public pillory, 56; crowds of starv-
  ing Parisians (in epigraph), 103; 
  death of Bishop Polo (Venice), 
  130; Étienne Marcel against 
  the Dauphin (Paris), 117, 121; 
  revolt in Ghent, 113; Sicilian 
  violence against Muslims, 97; 
  violence against Jews, 91, 92, 112; 
  violence against lepers, 104
  Monasteries; construction & 
  architecture, 18; religious 
  & cultural roles, 31
  Money, 37-41; basic 
  monetary system, 38
  Moneylending, 91
  Monks; and medical practice, 85; 
  investigating heresy, 57; orphans 
  raised as, 103; prohibitions placed 
  on by bishop, 27; tithes used to 
  support, 33; York’s archbishop 
  said to have been murdered by, 
  134; See also Monasteries
  Monte, 70
  Murage, 10
  Musicians, 68; Paris as 
  center for, 120
  Muslims, 96; in Spain, 97; living 
  peaceably in Sicily, 97; southern 
  Italy exception to European trends 
  regarding, 92; special taxes for, 96
  Mutilation, 56
  N
  Natural Disasters, 105
  Neighborhoods, 98
  Night, 54; activities of the watch, 
  56; artisans forbidden to work 
  after dark, 54; burial processions, 
  90; gates locked at dusk, 54; 
  hours of, 82; Paris river-chains 
  
  Page 149
  Town: Index
  raised at, 117; riverboats kept 
  ashore during, 48; shop precau-
  tions, 21; wolves entering down 
  during, 107; See also Curfew
  Notre-Dame Cathedral, 116
  Nuns; orphans raised as, 103
  O
  Orphans, 102; foundling 
  wheels (anonymous orphan 
  donations), 103
  Ouse, 132
  Ovens, 20
  P
  Papal bankers, 29, 33
  Paris, 115-123; map of, 116; 
  origins of Carnival, 65
  Parties, Political, 79
  Pavage, 10
  Pawnbrokers, 40; as common 
  Jewish profession, 89; municipal 
  alternative (monte di Pietà), 71
  Penance, 56
  Penny, God’s, 10
  Perfecti, 35
  Pietà foundling hospital, 131
  Pimps, 69
  Plague, 104; in Paris, 123
  Podestà, 77; defined, 10
  Pollution, 14; affecting the 
  food supply, 132; affecting 
  town layout, 13-14
  Poor, the, 94
  Popolo, 10, 78; structure, 79
  Portage, 10
  Potions; love potions offered 
  by procuresses, 69
  Pozzo di S. Patrizio, 14
  Prévôté, 10
  Prison, 56
  Processions, 63
  Procuresses, 69
  Prostitutes, 68-69; and bath houses, 
  16; brothels managed under 
  “front” businesses, 69; included 
  as part of a mercenary company, 
  108; legal status in York, 136; 
  morally and socially equivalent 
  to actors, 68; rape of (penalties), 
  60; rate paid for room rental, 
  24; required to wear badges, 94; 
  soliciting (penalties for), 60
  Provveditore, 16
  Public Office, 78
  Punishment, 55; typical fines 
  and punishments, 59
  Purveyor of the works, 16
  Q
  Quarantia (Council of Forty), 128
  R
  Races, 65
  Rashi of Troyes, 89
  Rat (council), 10
  Record Keeping, 77; 
  chirographers, 90, 91
  Reform orders, 32
  Relics, 30
  Religion, 25-36
  Religious Processions, 63
  Residences; See Houses
  Residents; defined, 10; 
  features of residency, 93
  Rights; as basic division of 
  people in a town, 93
  Rituals of Life, 98
  Rivers, 13; as a source of malaria, 
  103; as power for mills, 19; floods, 
  106; hazards of river travel, 49; 
  impact on Venetian economy for 
  lacking a river, 126; most towns 
  located on, 12; river-trade and 
  rivercraft, 48; source of threats 
  by Vikings, 7; town industry 
  positions along, 13; traffic halted 
  by chains at night (Paris), 117; 
  used for waste disposal, 12
  Roads, 21
  Ruins; Roman, 22
  Rural dean, 28
  Rural Uprisings, 104
  S
  Sainte-Chapelle, 117
  Salt; Venetian Salt industry 
  and Salt Office, 126
  Saracens; in Sicily, 97; 
  See also Muslims
  Sassaioli; See Mobs
  Schultheiss, 10
  Scula, 10
  Scuole Grandi, 130
  Scurvy, 103
  Seals, 77
  Searchers (English Guild Police), 139
  Seine, 115
  Seld, 45
  Serfs, 93
  Servants, 95; hired at Michelmas, 96
  Servitia communia, 29
  Sewers, 12; as a civic expense, 70; 
  private sewers owned by wealthy 
  houses and monasteries, 12
  Sex; celibacy ideal of Catholic clergy, 
  30; forbidden between Christians 
  and Jews, 90, 130; guards assigned 
  to prevent copulation in cathedral 
  (Pistoia), 26; prostitution, 68-69; 
  punishments for sex crimes, 60; 
  reputation of university students, 
  34; rumors of activity by nuns, 32; 
  sexuality in snow sculptures, 66
  Shops, 21
  Shrovetide, 64
  Sicily; haven for (then mob 
  violence against) Muslims, 97
  Siege, 109
  Signoria, 10
  Sin, 25; crimes as, 56; Flagellants, 
  36; pimping and usury equated, 69
  Slaves, 96; as servants in Italy, 96; 
  faith not protected, 26; Lucera’s 
  Muslims sold into slavery, 
  
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  Town: Index
  97; traded in Venice, 126
  Smallpox, 103
  Snowmen, 66
  Social class, 94
  Soldiers; as a source of disease and 
  threat to local women, 107; at 
  tournament, 66; benefits provided 
  to (Siena), 56; part of a bishop’s 
  household, 29; power of city-states 
  to demand, 12; power of monarchy 
  and major landholders to demand, 
  120; riots against (York), 140; 
  traditionally given holiday on the 
  Assumption of the Virgin, 65; 
  used against students, 33; See 
  also Guards, Mercenaries, War
  Spices, 42
  St. Leonard’s Hospital, 133, 134; 
  attacked by rioters, 140
  Städtebund, 76
  Staple, The, 135; defined, 10
  Starvation, 104
  Stone Throwing; banned in 
  1253, 65; combats between 
  rock-throwing mobs in Perugia 
  and Rome, 65; directed against 
  Jewish homes and funerals, 91
  Storms, 105
  Streets; construction of, 21
  Subject Towns, 72
  Synagogues, 22; basic requirement 
  for Jewish community, 89; forbid-
  den in Venice, 130; founding of 
  the Parisian Jewish community, 
  122; protected by Christian law, 90
  T
  Taverns, 47
  Taxes, 71; in Paris, 120; in York, 
  136; remitted in Toulouse 
  as fire relief, 105; scale of 
  Venetian wealth judged by, 
  128; tax rebellion, 104
  Templars, 32; as bankers, 40; in 
  Parisian finance and politics, 
  117-118; Jacques de Molay 
  burned for witchcraft and heresy, 
  119; torture of (York), 136
  Threats, 103; to Paris, 123; to 
  Venice, 131; to York, 140
  Tithes, 33; archdeacon charged 
  with collecting bishop’s share 
  of, 28; source of disagreement 
  among the clergy, 25
  Torture; as punishment for crime, 
  55; as punishment for urban 
  uprisings, 106; by the Inquisition, 
  57-58; of beggars during the 
  Hundred Years War, 119; of 
  Carmagnola and Gian Battista, 
  108; of lepers suspected of plotting, 
  103; of Templars, 136; of would-be 
  assassins (Venice), 128; power of 
  wool guild to (Florence), 82; pro-
  tection against (Siena council), 79
  Tournaments, 66-67
  Town halls, 22
  Trade; See Commerce
  Travel, 48-50
  Typhus, 103
  U
  Units of measurement, 11; See 
  also Weights and measures
  Unity; reinforced by feasting 
  in Perugia, 64; role of civic 
  events in maintaining, 65
  University; defined, 10; politics, 
  creation, relation to church, 
  33; subjects taught at, 62; 
  University of Paris, 117, 119
  Uprisings; rural, 104; urban, 106
  V
  Venice, 124-131; map of, 125
  Vicar forane (rural dean), 28
  Vicar general, 28
  Victuallars, 85
  Vikings; capture of York, 132; dan-
  ger to coastal and river towns, 7
  W
  Wages; chart of typical, 87-88; 
  increased by the Black Plague, 
  104; paid in cash on Saturdays, 82
  Waldensians, 36
  Walls, 22
  War, 106; Abroad at War, 107; 
  draining Parisian finances, 121
  Wards, 98
  Waste, 12; airborne, 13
  Watch, 56-57; as a civic expense, 
  70; Council of Ten’s own, 127; 
  Parisian, 118; See also Guards
  Water, 13; as protection 
  against disease, 103
  Weapon Regulations, 53-54
  Weights and measures; one 
  source of a town’s income, 70
  Windows; prices, 24; rarity of, 20
  Women, 97-98; concubines & 
  courtesans, 69; convents, 32; 
  dowry funds, 70; excluded from 
  Assumption of the Virgin candle 
  procession, 65; greater financial 
  independence of Englishwomen, 
  96; Jewish women as doctors 
  and surgeons, 91; Jews more 
  common in universities than, 
  62; limited rights of Florentine 
  women, 98; living together in 
  urban households (Béguines), 
  35; midwives and female doctors, 
  85, 91; prospects in business 
  worsening with time, 109; ratio 
  of men to unmarried women, 98; 
  widows receiving more charity 
  than elderly men (Paris), 123
  Wool, 42; and Staple towns, 
  135; Arte della Lana 
  (Florence wool guild), 82
  Work Days and Work Weeks, 81
  Y
  York, 132-140
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Old School Revival (OSR(ic))/[Adventure Design & Dungeoncraft]/Urban Development/Town, A City-Dweller's Look At 13th to 15th Century Europe.pdf