COMMUNITIES IN THE MIDDLE AGES. PART III.THE CITIES OF SPAIN AND GERMANY. THE Occupation of Spain by the Moors in the eighth century diverted its social and political history from the general course pursued by the other kingdoms of Europe during the middle ages. After the downfall of the Roman empire, it had been overrun by the Visigoths, who, in common with the barbarians in the rest of Europe, had embraced Christianity. On the establishment of the Moorish dominion, and with it of the Mohammedan religion, the Arabic language, and the manners of the East, many of the Gothic nobility, too deeply attached to their newly adopted faith, and to the language and manners of their fathers, to succumb to the foreign innovations thus introduced, fled to the inaccessible mountains of Asturias, where they established themselves in the independent enjoyment of the rites and comforts of Christianity, and preserved in their integrity their ancient manners and laws. They were, from time to time, joined by others in their secluded retreat, until they at length attained sufficient strength to commence a sort of guerilla warfare upon the nearest Moorish settlements, at first only for purposes of plunder, but afterwards expanded, by the encouragement of a constant succession of victories, into a nobler and more aspiring design. They established among themselves a regular system of government, disposed their forces for the carrying on of systematic warfare, and bent their energies to the attainment of a no less elevated aim than the restoration of Spanish independence. Trained by constant practice to regard warfare as the principal object of life, and fired by the invincible enthusiasm of men fighting for country, and liberty, and religion, they possessed an immense superiority in every respect, save that of numbers, over their Mohammedan foes. The latter had lost much of the religious zeal that had been their mightiest auxiliary during their original conquests; they had thrown off the yoke of the caliphs, and ceased all connection with their countrymen in Arabia, and devoted themselves more exclusively to the arts and sciences, and to the enervating enjoyments and luxuries of civilised life. Still, however, they continued to possess much of their pristine valour; and, though uniform success attended the mode of warfare carried on by the Asturian mountaineers, its steps were extremely slow and gradual-so much so, that, if we are to place reliance on the magniloquent language of the Spaniards themselves, it was not until after eight centuries of continued war, and until three thousand seven hundred battles had been fought, that the last remnant of Moorish dominion vanished from the Peninsula. From the desultory character of this protracted contest, the country, while it lasted, was in a constant state of terror, insecurity, and confusion, surpassing even the most disturbed portion of the feudal period in other countries. The baronial castles, which, in the latter instance, afforded a secure refuge to the weak and defenceless from the attacks of robbers, or the emergencies occasioned by private war, were, in the former, of no avail against the systematic operations of regular troops. In Spain, therefore, recourse was had to union for the attainment of strength and security; and the cities, as they were gradually acquired from the Moors, seem to have been fortified, and to have become the resort, as well of those who required the protection which they afforded, as of persons of valour and power, who were there enabled to make a more energetic stand against the enemy, and to concert in union the general plans to be pursued. Many of the most considerable of these cities were made the capitals of the small states into which the country was divided during the struggles with the Moors, and thus acquired many advantages, while the trade and manufactures that had been introduced by the latter, and continued and carried on with vigour by the Christians, combined to place the Spanish cities in a higher state of prosperity than any of the other European towns had at that time attained. They were as much frequented by the nobility and their families as by the lower and middle classes of the people; and this fact, taken in connection with the powerful part which they acted in the common struggle, united them to the former by a common interest, and rendered it a point of the first importance to conciliate and cultivate their favour. Accordingly we find that, as they were severally recovered from the Moors, their inhabitants were gifted with fueros or charters, securing to them more extensive privileges and property than were possessed by any of the other mediaval communities. We have already said that the earliest instance of the enfranchisement of a Spanish town recorded in history is that of Leon, by Alphonso the Fifth, in 1020. Carrion and Llanes subsequently received their liberties from the same monarch, and the example was gradually followed during the eleventh century by the incorporation successively of Naxara, Sepulveda, Logrono, Sahagun, and Sala. manca. Another circumstance, also, conspired to place the Spanish towns in a peculiarly favourable position for acquiring extensive immunities. It became evident, during the contest with the Moors, that the feudal array which the nobles were obliged by their tenure to bring into the field, was, without the additional aid of a body of regularly paid soldiers, insufficient to maintain a protracted war. The nobility, whose privileges were then greater in Spain than in any other European country, were exempt from taxation, and from every other public burthen, save those imposed by their feudal tenures. The entire weight, therefore, of maintaining these additional troops fell upon the cities. To recompense the latter for the frequent calls which the monarchs were obliged to make upon them, they granted them the most liberal and splendid concessions, secured by charters, which, at the same time, bound the cities to the performance of certain obligations upon their side, thus placing the matter in the light of a mutual compact, and fixing both parties upon the freest and most honourable footing. The general tenor of these charters is pretty minutely given in the treatise of Marina, published at Madrid in 1808. On the part of the king or lord, a town and its surrounding district were granted to the burghers, with the privilege of choosing magistrates and a common council, who, while they retained the exclusive control of the administration of justice, were bound, in doing so, to observe certain laws prescribed by the founder. The lands thus granted were not confined to those in the immediate vicinity of the town, and which were conferred upon the burghers as their own inalienable property. They also comprised the estates of private landholders situated at a distance, which were subjected to the jurisdiction and government of the municipal authori ties. In each town an officer was appointed by the king, whose duty it was to receive the tributes due to the royal treasury, and to exercise a supervision over the police and fortified places within the municipal district. On the part of the burgesses, it was agreed that they should contribute a specified amount of tribute and of military service. In the latter they were commanded by their own magistrates, and by the royal governor, those possessing a certain extent of property being permitted to serve on horseback, and exempted from the payment of all public taxes. The latter were termed caballeros, the others being denominated pecheros, or payers of tribute. The caballeros possessed very high privileges. Their horses could not be seized for debt ; in some cities they alone were eligible for the magistracy; and the slightest attempt to insult or molest them was punishable by severe penalties. In courts of justice, however, the caballeros and pecheros stood upon the same footing, and the rights of both were impartially protected and enforced. In the general constitution of the legislature, the Spanish cities seem to have possessed, at an early period, an extent of importance and consideration far exceeding that attained at the same time by the burghers of the rest of Europe. In Arragou, while the forms of government were nominally monarchical, its spirit and principles were really popular, if not republican. The public power was almost entirely centred in the Cortes, or Parliament. This was composed of four different orders : the nobility of the first rank; the equestrian order, or nobility of the second rank; the representatives of the cities; and the ecclesiastical order. Zurita, in alluding to the fact that, in 1118, the citizens of Saragossa had obtained their franchises, states that they had also been declared of equal rank with nobles of the second class; and, in another place, he refers to a meeting of Cortes, held in 1133, at which delegates from the cities attended, and mentions them under the following title" procuradores de las ciudades y villas." This and other authorities, taken in connection with the important part performed by the cities in the struggle for Spanish independence, render it all but certain that the latter possessed a voice in the legislature, and other extensive immunities, from the first establishment of the kingdom of Arragon. In Castile, the same causes seem to have operated to place the cities in a highly advantageous position. We have little notice of the circumstances or the time in which they were originally enfranchised, but, from the extent of power and importance which we find that they had, at an early period, attained, it is certain that their privileges were equally ancient and comprehensive with those of the cities of Arragon. In the council of regency appointed in 1390 to govern the country during the minority of Henry the Third, an equal number of nobility, and of representatives chosen by the cities, were appointed, and the latter were invested with the same rank and power as the ecclesiastical dignitaries and the nobles of the first rank. At a meeting of Cortes held in the same year, we learn that forty-eight cities had their representatives, and the number of the latter amounted to 125. At a later date, however, in 1505, we find that, at the meeting of Cortes held by Ferdinand at Toro, in order to secure for himself the continuance of the government of Castile, upon the death of his queen, in whose right he had obtained it, only eighteen cities had their representatives. The cause of the difference is not stated by contemporary historians. The wealth and splendour of the Spanish cities were in keeping with their extensive privileges. Trade and manufactures were conducted and cultivated with the utmost activity and enterprise, so much so, that they were enabled to become exporters upon a large scale, and to spread the benefits and the fame of their commercial greatness to other and distant countries. Nor was this all. The more refined and elegant tastes of civilised life also obtained a large share of culture and attention; and while the private wars of barbarous nobles, and the ravages of those whose peculiar element is a state of lawlessness and disorder, were spreading waste and desolation over Europe, the burgesses of the Spanish towns, surrounded by a well-earned security, were engaged in rearing cities that, in magnitude, were then only surpassed by the famous greatness of Naples, and, in commercial enterprise and architectural beauty, only by the grandeur and prosperity of Florence. Among their inhabitants, like the Italian cities already referred to, they numbered the proudest of Spanish nobility, who, unlike the former, were voluntary citizens, and had been so from the original foundation of Spanish communities. Their military force, when called forth for purposes of self-defence or foreign war, was numbered, in many instances, by tens of thousands. Their laws were adopted as the laws of Europe, and formed the foundation of modern mercantile jurisprudence. Their merchants were equally respected, and received on the same footing by foreign countries with those of the commercial republics of Italy, and placed, at home, in the same rank that appertained to the loftiest of the nobility, and even aspired to that honour, the most cherished of all others by a Spaniard, of being covered in the presence of their sovereign. The influence and power which their wealth and prosperity enabled them to exercise were not confined in their benefits to the burgesses themselves. Peculiar circumstances in Spanish history, to which we have already referred, had placed the nobility in possession of an extent of power and privileges greater than was enjoyed by their peers in any other country of Europe. It may well be expected, therefore, that feudalism, while it flourished, conferred upon Spain no frugal share of its disastrous consequences. The horrors of private war, the maladministration of justice, and the uncurbed lawlessness, which were its universal concomitants, there made for themselves one of their most cherished and congenial haunts. All the elements of the rudest phase of barbarism rode rampaut across the rural districts of Spain. Commerce was checked, life and property became alike insecure, and rapine and murder ceased to be accounted extraordinary, or indeed criminal, and were constantly committed with impunity. This state of things, which, in other European countries, was permitted to pursue its course with comparatively little opposition, was, in Spain, met by the influence and power of the communes. In the year 1269, the cities of Arragon entered into a sort of a league or association, which they denominated the Santa Hermandad, or Holy Brotherhood, having for its object the restraining of the crimes and disorders of the age-and their example was quickly followed by those of Castile. The necessary funds were made up by a contribution from each of the confederate towns; a military force, of considerable numbers, was levied for the protection of travellers and the prosecution of criminals; and courts and judges, appointed by the Brotherhood, were established from one end of the country to the other. This is the great prominent feature which marks the medieval history of the Spanish communities, and distinguishes them from those of the rest of Europe. Elsewhere, we do not find that the municipal institutions extended their operation beyond the walls of the city in which lay their peculiar jurisdiction. Rapine and disorder were left to roam at freedom across the country districts, and the feudal barons to pursue, without restraint or opposition, their wild and barbarous career. But the Spanish cities were not satisfied with being the favoured possessors of law, liberty, and order; they determined upon becoming their missionaries, and on extending to the feudal districts their blessings and their benefits. Wherever any crime against the public peace was committed, thither the troops of the Hermandad were at once despatched, to seek out the perpetrators, and to bring them up for trial before their judges, without regard to the feudal jurisdictions. The salutary consequences of such an encroachment can scarcely be sufficiently estimated by us of an enlightened age. When the most wasting and malignant form of civil war that has ever existed was holding perpetual carnival in every province of Europe-when crime stalked abroad in the face of day, with step undaunted and features undisguisedand the only tribunals to which the injured could repair for redress were governed in their decisions by the maxims of senseless superstition and brute force, by the ordeal and the combat-the courts of the Hermandad, supported by their strong military staff, and ruled by principles based upon justice and equity, seized upon those offenders, whom the interests or the prejudices of the barons, or the mode of trial, favourable as it was to those whose whole life was but a scene of continued conflict and of daring adventure, would have permitted, not only to pass unpunished, but to go forth again upon society with a recklessness increased by their triumph in the judicial combat, or their fortitude amid the trials and tortures of the ordeal. Its operation was highly effectual in repressing crime and in restoring order, and its establishment was hailed with the liveliest pleasure by every enlightened mind. The feudal barons alone grumbled against an institution which their flagrant abuse of the administration of justice had rendered necessary to stem the floods of crime that were desolating the country. But they were not in a position to offer to it any formidable resistance. The crown, anxious to curtail their overgrown privileges, supported the Hermandad as the most powerful instrument for the promotion of that end. Ferdinand especially, in the fifteenth century, patronised it with all the weight of his influence and policy. In his reign, its wealth and power seem to have been very great, insomuch that, in his expedition against the Moors of Grenada, the auxiliaries furnished by the Hermandad amounted to eight thousand men, and double that number of beasts of burden. It continued in vigour even after the circumstances that called it forth had passed away; and even yet it exists nominally, but with a very diminished share of utility and importance. The advance of enlightenment has rendered it unnecessary in the present age, but it was admirably suited to the times in which it originated; and if the municipalities of the middle ages had conferred upon society no other benefit than the establishment of the Hermandad in Spain, they would have founded a sufficient title to historical celebrity, and to the respect and gratitude of an enlightened age. ferred to in connection with the early prosperity of the cities of Spain. In the early part of the tenth century, the empire was kept in a constant state of alarm and annoyance by the irruptions of the Hungarians and other kindred barbarous tribes. From the scattered state of the population, during the exclusive predominance of the feudal system, it was found to be extremely difficult to impose a permanent check upon these incursions. To remedy this, and to create a more efficient agency for public defence, Henry the Fowler, who commenced his reign in the year 920, encouraged the growth of cities, and surrounded them with strong fortifications. The object, in pursuance of which he had granted them his patronage, required that the population should be trained to the use of arms, and held in a constant state of preparation for active service, and supplied with properly qualified commanders to superintend their organisation, and to direct, if necessary, their military operations. Such qualifications were, in those days, to be found only among one class of the population of the country; and, accordingly, many of the most consider We had intended to refer next to the cities of France. We could not, however, within the limits of the present article, concede to them that degree of consideration which their importance demands. We will, therefore, conclude at present with a brief account of the German communities. Tacitus, the principal authority upon the manners and customs of the ancient Germans, states that they had no towns, and that their villages were not even built with the houses contiguous to one another, but were each surrounded by a certain extent of unoccupied space, either as a precaution against the possible emergency of fire, or in consequence of their ignorance of the art of building.* In another place, he states that they regarded residence in a city as ignominious and unmanly, and as tending to weaken and debilitate the frame, and to efface those warlike propensities which they prized so highly.table of the nobility were induced to beThere seems, however, to be a difference of opinion upon the subject. Cæsar refers to cities as having existed among the Suevi; and Tacitus himself, in another place, mentions towns under the same designation (sedes), as in the passage already referred to. They do not seem, however, to have existed generally, especially in Germania Transrhenana; and, from other authorities, it appears that there were scarcely any towns in all the vast region lying between the Rhine and the Baltic previous to the ninth century. They were first founded, to any extent, by Charlemagne, and his immediate successors upon the imperial throne, who, by establishing in many of them archbishoprics and bishoprics, raised them to some degree of importance, and placed them in a favourable position for increase and advancement. But the circumstance which first gave them a prominent place in German history was one kindred to that which we have re * De Mor. Germ. cap. 16. come residents in the towns, and, by doing so, to lend to the name and condition of a citizen an amount of honour and respectability which they would not otherwise have possessed. These salutary measures were highly conducive to the desired end. The number, the population, and the wealth of the German cities rapidly increased, even though they were still ungifted with municipal privileges, and the grinding services and exactions appertaining to the feudal tenure still continued to bear down heavily upon their energies, and their rights and wrongs were still vindicated or redressed by the absurd and barbarous ceremonies of the ordeal and the combat. Frederic Barbarossa was the next emperor who systematically promoted the establishment and prosperity of communities in Germany. But his conduct in this matter was dictated by no affection that he entertained to the principle or the prevalence of municipal freedom. At the same time in which he was lending every encou Histor. iv. 64. |