Economic Development and Urban Growth in the High Middle Ages 187needed. Negotiations were rarely high-minded. A lord
or bishop would request money to meet a crisis, and
the commune would grant it on condition that he sur-
render a coveted right (see document 10.4). In time, a
substantial measure of self-government was achieved
even by cities such as London that were located in
powerful kingdoms. In regions such as Italy or north
Germany where conflicting ecclesiastical or feudal au-
thorities created a power vacuum, cities might easily
evolve into sovereign states.
Italy and the Emergence of the City-States
In Italy, this process was set in motion by the Investi-
ture Controversy. Communes apparently arose as a re-
ponse to military threats posed by the struggle between
pope and emperor. Once established, they were
courted by both parties in the hope of securing their
material support. The townsmen were happy to oblige
in return for privileges that escalated as the crisis be-
came more dire, and something like a bidding war de-
veloped between political authorities who supported
the pope and those who supported the emperor. By the
time the investiture issue was settled by the Concordat
of Worms (1122), most Italian cities had achieved full
sovereignty as a result of charters granted by one side
or the other. They now had the right to coin money,
declare war, and govern their own affairs without limi-
tations of any kind. They immediately used these pow-
ers to secure control over the surrounding countryside
or contado and to pursue policies of aggression against
neighboring towns. Control over the contado was essen-
tial to stabilizing food supplies that were inadequate.
Landholders were given the opportunity to become cit-
izens of the commune. If they refused, the city militia
would annex their estates and drive them into exile,
whereupon they typically complained to their liege
lord, the emperor, who was obliged by feudal agree-
ment to support them.
The whole process was attended by bloodshed and
disorder. The violent conflicts between cities were
worse. Localism in Italy was intensified by trade rival-
ries and by disputes over the control of scarce agricul-
tural land. This had been evident even in the throes of
the investiture crisis. Because Florence supported the
pope and had received its charter from his ally Matilda
of Tuscany, neighboring towns such as Siena or Pisa
were inevitably pro-imperial and received their charters
from Henry IV. Once free of political constraints, they
pursued their vendettas with enthusiasm. The resulting
wars were unnecessarily bloody and accompanied by
the wholesale destruction of vines, crops, and olive
groves. Pressured by dispossessed vassals and hoping to
profit from Italian disunity, the emperor Frederick Bar-
barossa (c. 1123–90) decided to intervene.
Pope Alexander III responded by organizing the
Lombard League, which defeated Frederick at the battle
of Legnano in 1176. At the Peace of Constance in
1183, Frederick confirmed the sovereign rights of the
Lombard towns. The Tuscans had refused to join the
league out of hatred for their northern neighbors and
were specifically excluded from the settlement. An im-
perial podestà or governor was installed at San Miniato, a
town on the road between Florence and Pisa that was
known thereafter as San Miniato del Tedesco (San
Miniato of the German). The Tuscans destroyed the
place when they regained their freedom in 1197, after
the premature death of Henry VII.
Internally, the Italian cities were beset from the
start by factionalism. Clientage and kinship ties often
proved stronger than allegiance to the commune, and
by the beginning of the thirteenth century, civil strife
was universal. Constitutional remedies such as electionsDOCUMENT 10.4
The Liberties of Toulouse, 1147
The following is a typical, if somewhat abbreviated, example
of the liberties granted by princes and noblemen to towns in the
High Middle Ages.Let it be known to all men living and to be born
that I, Alphonse, Count of Toulouse, proclaim,
recognize, and grant that in no way do I have tal-
lage or tolls in the city of Toulouse, nor in the sub-
urb of St. Sernin, nor against the men and women
living there or who will live there, nor shall I have
in the city the right to summon the militia to cam-
paign unless war be waged against me in Toulouse,
nor shall I make any loan there unless it should be
the lender’s wish. Wherefore I confirm and com-
mend to all citizens of Toulouse and its suburb,
present and future, all their good customs and
privileges, those they now enjoy and which I may
give and allow to them. All this, as it is written
above, Raymond of St. Gilles, son of the said
count, approves and grants.
Mundy, John H., and Riesenberg, Peter, eds. The Medieval
Town.Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1958.