families had held their positions for generations. When, in the early 1270s, England
slapped a trade embargo on Flanders, discontented laborers, now out of work, struck,
demanding a role in town government. While most of these rebellions resulted in few
political changes, workers had better luck early in the next century, when the king of
France and the count of Flanders went to war. The workers (who supported the
count) defeated the French forces at the battle of Courtrai in 1302. Thereafter the
patricians, who had sided with the king, were at least partly replaced by artisans in
the apparatus of Flemish town governments. In the early fourteenth century, Flemish
cities had perhaps the most inclusive governments of Europe.
Similar population growth and urban rebellions beset the northern Italian cities.
(See Map 7.4 for the ballooning of the walls at Piacenza, a fair measure of its
expanding population. Each successive wall meant in large measure the dismantling of
the older one.) Italian cities were torn into factions that defined themselves not by
loyalties to a king or a count (as in Flanders) but rather by adherence to either the
pope or the emperor. “Outsiders,” they nevertheless affected inter-urban politics. City
factions often fought under the party banners of the Guelfs (papal supporters) or the
Ghibellines (imperial supporters), even though for the most part they were waging
very local battles. As in the Flemish cities, the late thirteenth century saw a
movement by the Italian urban lower classes to participate in city government. The
popolo (“people”) who demanded the changes was in fact made up of many different
groups, including crafts and merchant guildsmen, fellow parishioners, and even
members of the commune. The popolo acted as a sort of alternative commune within
the city, a sworn association dedicated to upholding the interests of its members.
Armed and militant, the popolo demanded a say in matters of government,
particularly taxation.
While no city is “typical,” the case of Piacenza may serve as an example.
Originally dominated by nobles, the commune of Piacenza granted the popolo—led
by a charismatic nobleman from the Landi family—a measure of power in 1222,
allowing the popolo to take over half the governmental offices. A year later the
popolo and the nobles worked out a plan to share the election of their city’s podestà,
or governing official. Even so, conflict flared up periodically: in 1224, 1231, and
again in 1250, when a grain shortage provoked protest:
In 1250 the common people of Piacenza saw that they were being badly
treated regarding foodstuffs: first, because all the corn [grain] that had
been sent from Milan, as well as other corn in Piacenza, was being taken
