Lorenzetti, Ambrogio and Pietro 453opposed to the corruption of the CLERGYand the hypocrit-
ical wealth of the institutional church. The MENDICANT
ORDERS, who had a considerable influence on the political
life of the towns, were active, as was the INQUISITION.
Lombard culture was centered on urban communal civi-
lization and religious life. Its society was a blend of the lit-
erate and illiterate and the communal and the FEUDAL.
Further reading: Paul the Deacon, History of the
Lombards,trans. William Dudley Foulke (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1974); Paul Delogu,
“Lombard and Carolingian Italy,” The New Cambridge
Medieval History.Vol. 2, c. 700–c. 900,ed. Rosamond
McKitterick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1995), 290–319; Jan T. Hallenbeck, Pavia and Rome: The
Lombard Monarchy and the Papacy in the Eighth Century
(Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1982);
Dick Harrison, The Early State and the Towns: Forms of
Integration in Lombard Italy, AD568–774 (Lund: Lund
University Press, 1993); Chris Wickham, Early Medieval
Italy: Central Power and Local Society 400–1000(London:
Macmillan, 1981).
London London was sited on a natural river crossing
or hub where the tide flowed in and out of the Thames
estuary and where a bridge might be built for a road con-
necting the southern coast to the north. The Romans rec-
ognized this potential and built a commercial city there,
Londinium. The town suffered extensive damage during
the Saxon invasions; not until the end of the seventh cen-
tury did it recover any commercial prosperity.
The Normans considered holding the crossing of the
routes from north to south over London Bridge and the
east to west route along or on the River Thames essential.
To control crossing and overawe the town, they built the
White Tower, the core of the present Tower of London.
Their kings settled into a palace built by EDWARD THE
CONFESSORin Westminster. This latter royal town was
distinct and a few miles distant from the commercial city,
which had been rebuilt and expanded within the old
Roman walls during the 13th century.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND IMPORTANCEIn the 14th century London became a great international
mercantile city exporting wool via Calais in France to mar-
kets in FLANDERSand importing luxury goods such as
WINE, jewels, or tapestries for the rich and the court. There
were large foreign settlements of Gascons, Italians, Jews
(until their expulsion in 1290), Flemings, and Germans
from the HANSEATICLEAGUE. The population might have
been as high as 50,000 in 1300 and as low as 40,000 in
1377 after the Black Death and PLAGUESof 1348 and 1362.
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LIFEFrom 1191 the town was controlled by a commune
and a mayor and was divided into wards directed by
“aldermen” who were elected and formed a council
around a mayor. The political and social life of the city
was dominated by 12 professions, which formed “liver-
ied” companies of the wealthiest and the most powerful
citizens. The professions solidified their power by orga-
nizing GUILDS. They possessed such social prestige that
they could associate socially with nobles, country gentle-
men, and high churchmen. These guilds reinforced their
prestige by processions and celebrations, demonstrating
their wealth and worthiness.ECCLESIASTICAL LONDON
London was also a great ecclesiastical center with
the Benedictine abbey of WESTMINSTER, the richest in
England, and with the residence of the archbishop of
CANTERBURYin his palace at Lambeth on the Thames
opposite London. There were several large HOSPITALSand
many communities of mendicant and monastic houses of
both men and women.
See alsoPARLIAMENT, ENGLISH; PEASANT REBELLIONS.
Further reading:John Stow, Survey of London,ed.
C. L. Kingsford, 2 vols. (London: Clarendon Press,
1908); Julia Boffey and Pamela King, eds., London and
Europe in the Later Middle Ages (London: Centre for
Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Queen Mary and
Westfield College, University of London, 1995);
Christopher Brooke and Gillian Keir, London, 800–1216:
The Shaping of a City (London: Secker & Warburg,
1975); Christopher Thomas, The Archaeology of
Medieval London (Stroud: Sutton, 2002); Sylvia L.
Thrupp, The Merchant Class of Medieval London,
1300–1500(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
1948); Gwyn A. Williams, Medieval London from Com-
mune to Capital(London: Athlone Press, University of
London, 1963).Lorenzetti, Ambrogio(ca. 1290–1348)and Pietro
(ca. 1280–1348)brothers famous for their frescoes and
paintings
The Sienese artists Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti have
been considered among the foremost painters of the 14th
century. They had similar innovative styles and ideas and
perhaps even maintained a common workshop during the
later part of their careers. They combined styles from the
work of DUCCIO, their Sienese predecessor and probable
teacher, for whom they may have worked, and the treat-
ment of figures and use of space of GIOTTO. Both were
extremely influential among the later Sienese painters of
the 15th century and for the manuscript illumination of
the LIMBOURG BROTHERS.PIETRO
Pietro made major contributions to the development of
FRESCOand panel PAINTING. His earliest surviving work
from about 1319 is probably an undocumented Passion