Defensive towers at San Gimignano, Tuscany, bear witness to the factional strife within communes.
Medieval communes in the EuropeanMiddle Ages had sworn allegiances of mutual defense (both physical defense and of traditional freedoms) among the citizens of a town or city. These took many forms and varied widely in organization and makeup.
Communes are first recorded in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, thereafter becoming a widespread phenomenon. They had greater development in central-northern Italy, where they became city-states based on partial democracy.[1][2] At the same time in Germany they became free cities, independent from local nobility.
Etymology
The English and French word "commune" (Italian: comune) appears in Latin records in various forms. They come from Medieval Latincommunia, plural form of commune (that which is common, community, state), substantive noun from communis (common). Ultimately, the Proto-Indo-European root is *mey- (to change, exchange).
When autonomy was won through violent uprising and overthrow, the commune was often called conspiratio (a conspiracy) (Italian: cospirazione).
Origins
During the 10th century in several parts of Western Europe, peasants began to gravitate towards walled population centers, as advances in agriculture (the three-field system) resulted in greater productivity and intense competition. In central and northern Italy, and in Provence and Septimania, most of the old Roman cities had survived—even if grass grew in their streets—largely as administrative centers for a diocese or for the local representative of a distant kingly or imperial power. In the Low Countries, some new towns were founded upon long-distance trade,[3][4] where the staple was the woolen cloth-making industry. The sites for these ab ovo towns, more often than not, were the fortified burghs of counts, bishops or territorial abbots. Such towns were also founded in the Rhineland. Other towns were simply market villages, local centers of exchange.
Such townspeople needed physical protection from lawless nobles and bandits, part of the motivation for gathering behind communal walls, but also strove to establish their liberties, the freedom to conduct and regulate their own affairs and security from arbitrary taxation and harassment from the bishop, abbot, or count in whose jurisdiction these obscure and ignoble social outsiders lay. This was a long process of struggling to obtain charters that guaranteed such basics as the right to hold a market. Such charters were often purchased at exorbitant rates, or granted, not by the local power, but by a king or by the emperor, who came to hope to enlist the towns as allies in order to centralize power.[5]
The walled city provided protection from direct assault at the price of corporate interference on the pettiest levels, but once a townsman left the city walls, he (for women scarcely travelled) was at the mercy of often violent and lawless nobles in the countryside. Because much of medieval Europe lacked central authority to provide protection, each city had to provide its own protection for citizens - both inside the city walls, and outside. Thus towns formed communes which were a legal basis for turning the cities into self-governing corporations. In most cases the development of communes was connected with that of the cities. However, there were rural communes, notably in France and England, that formed to protect the common interests of villagers. At their heart, communes were sworn allegiances of mutual defense. When a commune formed, all participating members gathered and swore an oath in a public ceremony, promising to defend each other in times of trouble, and to maintain the peace within the city proper.
The commune movement started in the 10th century, with a few earlier ones like Forlì (possibly 889), and gained strength in the 11th century in northern Italy, which had the most urbanized population of Europe at the time. It then spread in the early 12th century to France, Germany, Spain and elsewhere. The English state was already very centralized, so the communal movement mainly manifested itself in parishes, craftsmen's and merchants' guilds and monasteries. State officialdom expanded in England and France from the 12th century onwards, while the Holy Roman Empire was ruled by communal coalitions of cities, knights, farmer republics, prince-bishops and the large domains of the imperial lords. In eastern Europe, the splintering of Kievan Rus' allowed the formation of veche communes like the Novgorod Republic[6] (1136-1478) and the Pskov Republic[7] (1348-1510).
One in four urban communities in France were under the administration of mayors and échevins (Northern France) or consuls and jurats (Southern France) by 1300, and this number increased rapidly in the next 2 centuries due to the financial demands of city wall-building. Many were granted the rights to assembly, and executive power was often concentrated in one elected official, the mayor or first consul, with an advisory body of conseils. Election was often restricted to the wealthy local merchant elite.[8]
In medieval Spain, urban communities were self-governing through their concejo abierto or open council of property-owners. The larger towns delegated authority to regidores (town councillors) and alcaldes (law officers), who managed the town and the surrounding lands as one communidad. After the Middle Ages, selection of officials was changed from election to sortition, in order to resolve factional conflict.[9]:24–26 In Cantabria, seafaring towns led by Burgos formed the Hermandad de las Marismas (Marsh brotherhood), an organisation similar to the Hanseatic league. In the 1470s the Santa Hermandad or Holy Brotherhood was formed, in which all municipalities sent representatives to a junta general which would coordinate law enforcement to protect trade.[9]:14,19
Social order
According to Adalberon, society was composed of the three orders: those who fight (the nobles), those who pray (the clergy), and those who work (the peasants). In theory, this was a balance between spiritual and secular peers, with the third order providing labour for the other two. The urban communes were a break in this order. The Church and King both had mixed reactions to communes. On the one hand, they agreed safety and protection from lawless nobles was in everyone's best interest. The commune's intention was to keep the peace through the threat of revenge, and the Church was sympathetic to the end result of peace.
However, the Church had its own ways to enforce peace, such as the Peace and Truce of God movement, for example. Some communes disrupted the order of medieval society in that the methods the commune used, eye for an eye, violence begets violence, were generally not acceptable to Church or King. There was an idea among some that communes threatened the medieval social order. Only the noble lords were allowed by custom to fight, and ostensibly the merchant townspeople were workers, not warriors. As such, the nobility and the clergy sometimes accepted communes, but other times did not. One of the most famous cases of a commune being suppressed and the resulting defiant urban revolt occurred in the French town of Laon in 1112.[10]
The development of medieval rural communes arose more from a need to collaborate to manage the commons than out of defensive needs. In times of a weak central government, communes typically formed to ensure the safety on the roads through their territory to enable commerce (Landfrieden). One of the more successful of these medieval communities was the one in the alpine valleys north of the Gotthard Pass. This later resulted in the formation of the Old Swiss Confederacy. The Swiss had numerous written acts of alliance: for each new canton that joined the confederacy, a new contract was written.
Pyrenean villages such as Vicdessos, in common with many other montane communities, enjoyed far greater liberties than those enjoyed in the north of France. The Counts of Foix granted these villages charters recognising their right to governance and both civil and criminal justice administered by their own consuls, and exemption from fees on the use of forests, waters, mines, pastures, mountains, meadows and tolls on trading with other villages. They even successfully won their case against payment of taxes to King Philip IV of France.[11] The Vallée d'Aspe was another medieval Pyrenean republic, based in Accous and under the suzerainty of the Viscounts of Bearn.[12] The rights of the republic was confirmed by King Louis XIII when he united Bearn to France.[13] These communities thrived in natural isolation and lack of seigneurial interest in interference, particularly in the Western Pyrenees such as the Vallée d'Aspe (governed by their own jurats), Vallée d'Ossau, as well as the independent legislative assemblies in the Valley of Cauterets, or the Vallée d'Azun. These communities, called beziau, signed treaties with other villages generally meant to govern access to pastures.[14]
Some Southern-European medieval communes were influenced by the Italian precedent, but many northern ones (and even the Swiss communes north of Gotthard Pass) may well have developed concurrently and independently from the Italian ones. Only a few of these medieval rural communes ever attained imperial immediacy, where they would have been subject only to the king or emperor; most still remained subjects of some more or less distant liege.[15]
During the 11th century in northern Italy a new political and social structure emerged. In most places where communes arose (e.g. France, Britain and Flanders), they were absorbed by monarchical states. But in northern and central Italy, some medieval communes developed into independent and powerful city-states.
The breakaway from their feudal overlords by these communes occurred in the late 12th century and 13th century, during the Investiture Controversy between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor. Milan led the Lombard cities against the Holy Roman Emperors and defeated them, gaining independence (battles of Legnano, 1176, and Parma, 1248). Meanwhile, the republics of Venice, Pisa and Genoa were able to conquer their naval empires on the Mediterranean sea (in 1204 Venice conquered three-eights of the Byzantine Empire in the Fourth Crusade). Cities such as Florence, Parma, Ferrara, Verona, Padua, Lucca, Siena, Mantua and others were able to create stable states at the expenses of their neighbors, some of which lasted until modern times. In southern Italy, which then formed the Kingdom of Sicily, autonomous communes were rarer, Republic of Sassari in Sardinia being one example.[16]
In the Holy Roman Empire, the emperors always had to face struggles with other powerful players: the land princes on the one hand, but also the cities and communes on the other hand. The emperors thus invariably fought political (not always military) battles to strengthen their position and that of the imperial monarchy. In the Golden Bull of 1356, emperor Charles IV outlawed any conjurationes, confederationes, and conspirationes, meaning in particular the leagues of towns but also the rural communal leagues that had sprung up. Most leagues of towns were subsequently dissolved, sometimes forcibly, and where refounded, their political influence was much reduced. Nevertheless, some of these communes (as Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Hamburg) were able to survive in Germany for centuries and became almost independent city-state vassals to the Holy Roman Emperors (see Free imperial city).
Communalism
Anarchist Peter Kropotkin argued that the elements of mutual aid and mutual defense expressed in the medieval commune and its guild system were the same sentiments of collective self-defense apparent in modern communism and socialism.[17]
A republic, based on the Latin phrase res publica, is a state in which political power rests with the public through their representatives—in contrast to a monarchy.
In European history, the commercial revolution saw the development of a European economy – based on trade – which began in the 11th century AD and operated until the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century. Beginning c. 1100 with the Crusades, Europeans rediscovered spices, silks, and other commodities then rare in Europe. Consumer demand fostered more trade, and trade expanded in the second half of the Middle Ages. Newly forming European states, through voyages of discovery, investigated alternative trade routes in the 15th and 16th centuries, which allowed European powers to build vast, new international trade networks. Nations also sought new sources of wealth and practiced mercantilism and colonialism. The Commercial Revolution is marked by an increase in general commerce, and in the growth of financial services such as banking, insurance, and investing.
Pskov is a city in northwestern Russia and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, located about 20 kilometers (12 mi) east of the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: 193,082 (2021 Census); 203,279 (2010 Russian census); 202,780 (2002 Census); 203,789 (1989 Soviet census).
The Italian city-states were numerous political and independent territorial entities that existed in the Italian Peninsula from antiquity to the formation of the Kingdom of Italy in the late 19th century.
The Guelphs and Ghibellines were factions supporting respectively the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor in the Italian city-states of Central Italy and Northern Italy during the Middle Ages.
The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, Gemeinden in Germany, comuni in Italy, or municipios in Spain. The UK equivalent are civil parishes. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage the populations and land of the geographic area covered. The communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France.
The Lombard League was a medieval alliance formed in 1167, supported by the popes, to counter the attempts by the Hohenstaufen Holy Roman emperors to assert influence over the Kingdom of Italy as a part of the Holy Roman Empire.
The High Middle Ages, or high medieval period, was the period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended around AD 1500.
Podestà, also potestate or podesta in English, was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of central and northern Italy during the Late Middle Ages. Sometimes, it meant the chief magistrate of a city-state, the counterpart to similar positions in other cities that went by other names, e.g. rettori ('rectors').
The Novgorod Republic was a medieval state that existed from the 12th to 15th centuries in northern Russia, stretching from the Gulf of Finland in the west to the northern Ural Mountains in the east. Its capital was the city of Novgorod. The republic prospered as the easternmost trading post of the Hanseatic League, and its people were much influenced by the culture of the Byzantines, with the Novgorod school of icon painting producing many fine works.
The history of Italy in the Middle Ages can be roughly defined as the time between the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the Italian Renaissance. Late antiquity in Italy lingered on into the 7th century under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and the Byzantine Empire under the Justinian dynasty, the Byzantine Papacy until the mid 8th century. The "Middle Ages" proper begin as the Byzantine Empire was weakening under the pressure of the Muslim conquests, and most of the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell under Lombard rule in 751. From this period, former states that were part of the Exarchate and were not conquered by the Lombard Kingdom, such as the Duchy of Naples, became de facto independent states, having less and less interference from the Eastern Roman Empire.
Patricianship, the quality of belonging to a patriciate, began in the ancient world, where cities such as Ancient Rome had a social class of patrician families, whose members were initially the only people allowed to exercise many political functions. In the rise of European towns in the 12th and 13th centuries, the patriciate, a limited group of families with a special constitutional position, in Henri Pirenne's view, was the motive force. In 19th century Central Europe, the term had become synonymous with the upper Bourgeoisie and cannot be interchanged with the medieval patriciate in Central Europe. In the maritime republics of the Italian Peninsula as well as in German-speaking parts of Europe, the patricians were as a matter of fact the ruling body of the medieval town. Particularly in Italy, they were part of the nobility.
The Pskov Republic was a medieval state in northern Russia. Originally a principality and then a part of the Novgorod Republic, Pskov became an independent republic in 1348. Its territory was roughly equivalent to modern-day Pskov Oblast. Its capital city was Pskov.
Several leagues of cities became influential in the history of the Holy Roman Empire. Military alliance and mutual assistance strengthened the position of imperial cities, especially during the interregnum period of the 13th to 14th century.
The Kingdom of Italy, also called Imperial Italy, was one of the constituent kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire, along with the kingdoms of Germany, Bohemia, and Burgundy. It originally comprised large parts of northern and central Italy. Its original capital was Pavia until the 11th century.
The Old Swiss Confederacy, also known as Switzerland or the Swiss Confederacy, was a loose confederation of independent small states, initially within the Holy Roman Empire. It is the precursor of the modern state of Switzerland.
The Eastern Roman (Byzantine) imperial church headed by Constantinople continued to assert its universal authority. By the 13th century this assertion was becoming increasingly irrelevant as the Eastern Roman Empire shrank and the Ottoman Turks took over most of what was left of the Byzantine Empire. The other Eastern European churches in communion with Constantinople were not part of its empire and were increasingly acting independently, achieving autocephalous status and only nominally acknowledging Constantinople's standing in the Church hierarchy. In Western Europe the Holy Roman Empire fragmented making it less of an empire as well.
The flag of the Holy Roman Empire was not a national flag, but rather an imperial banner used by the Holy Roman Emperor; black and gold were used as the colours of the imperial banner, a black eagle on a golden background. After the late 13th or early 14th century, the claws and beak of the eagle were coloured red. From the early 15th century, a double-headed eagle was used.
The Pskov Krom, also known as the Pskov Kremlin, is a citadel in Pskov, Russia. In the central part of the city, the Krom is located at the junction of the Velikaya and Pskova rivers. The citadel is of medieval origin, with the surrounding walls constructed starting in the late 15th century.
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References
↑ Benvenuti, G. (1989). Le Repubbliche Marinare. Amalfi, Pisa, Genova, Venezia[The Maritime Republics. Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa, Venice] (in Italian). Rome: Newton & Compton editori.
↑ Lodolini, Armando (1967). Le repubbliche del mare[The republics of the sea] (in Italian). Roma: Biblioteca di storia patria.
↑ Pirenne, Henri (1927). Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade.
↑ Voivin, Alexei; Krom, Mikhail[in Russian] (2017). "The city of Pskov in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries: Baltic trade and institutional growth". In Blockmans, Wim; Krom, Mikhail[in Russian]; Wubs-Mrozewicz, Justyna (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Maritime Trade Around Europe 1300-1600: Commercial Networks and Urban Autonomy. Routledge History Handbooks. London: Taylor & Francis. p.319. ISBN9781315278568. Retrieved 2018-04-17– via Google Books. The merchants of Pskov and Novgorod, as well as their partners from Livonian cities, formed the local communes of sworn brothers, who were responsible for their brethren's deeds. [...] Pskov had some other pre-conditions for becoming a commune (a central power vacuum, parish organization, etc.) but it is likely that trade relations favoured its communal structure as well.
↑ Small, Graeme (2009). Late Medieval France. Macmillan International Higher Education. pp.185–192. ISBN978-1137102157.
↑ Barlow, Frank (1988). The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042-1216 (4thed.). p.261.
↑ John Victor Drendel, Kathryn Reyerson (1998). Urban and Rural Communities in Medieval France Provence and Languedoc, 1000-1500. BRILL. pp.188–190. ISBN9789004108509.
↑ Findlay Muirhead, Marcel Monmarché (1926). Southern France. Macmillan & Company Limited. p.398.
↑ Count Henry Russel (2023). Pau and the Pyrenees. Books on Demand. p.68. ISBN9783382163860.
↑ J. B. Bury; J. R. Tanner; C. W. Previté-Orton; Z. N. Brooke (1926). The Cambridge Medieval History - Vol. 5; Contest of Empire and Papacy. Cambridge University Press. pp.654–655. ISBN9780521045377.
Jones, Philip. 1997. The Italian City-State: From Commune to Signoria. (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Lansing, Carol, 1992. The Florentine Magnates: Lineage and Faction in a Medieval Commune. (Princeton: Princeton University Press)
Sella, Pietro, "The Statutes of the Commune of Bugelle (Biella)" 1904. 14th-century statutes of a Piedmontese commune (Latin and English translations), express the nature of the commune in vivid detail, productions of medieval society and the medieval personality.
Tabacco, Giovanni, 1989. The Struggle for Power in Medieval Italy: Structures of Political Rule, 400-1400, translator, Rosalind Brown Jensen (New York: Cambridge University Press)
Waley, Donald, 1969 etc. The Italian City-Republics (3rd ed. New York: Longman, 1988.)
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