were confiscated for the crown, and people caught in the middle longed for a strong
king who would keep the peace. When the dust settled, the Tudors were far more
powerful than previous English kings had ever been.
PRINCES, KNIGHTS, AND CITIZENS
The Hundred Years’ War, the Wars of the Roses, and other, more local wars of the
fifteenth century brought to the fore a kind of super-prince: mighty kings (as in
England, Scotland, and France), dukes (as in Burgundy), and signori (in Italy). All
were supported by mercenary troops and up-to-date weaponry, putting knights and
nobles in the shade. Yet the end of chivalry was paradoxically the height of the
chivalric fantasy. We have already seen how delighted Froissart was by Walter de
Manny’s chivalric vow. Heraldry, a system of symbols that distinguished each knight
by the sign on his shield, came into full flower around the same time. Originally
meant to advertise the fighter and his heroic deeds on the battlefield, it soon came to
symbolize his family, decorating both homes and tombs. Kings and other great lords
founded and promoted chivalric orders with fantastic names—the Order of the
Garter, the Order of the Golden Buckle, the Order of the Golden Fleece. All had
mainly social and honorific functions, sponsoring knightly tournaments and convivial
feasts precisely when knightly jousts and communal occasions were no longer useful
for war.
While super-princes were the norm, there were some exceptions. In the
mountainous terrain of the alpine passes, a coalition of members of urban and rural
communes along with some lesser nobles promised to aid one another against the
Habsburg emperors. Taking advantage of rivalries within the Holy Roman Empire,
the Swiss Confederation created c.1500 a militant state of its own. Structured as a
league, the Confederation put power into the hands of urban citizenry and members
of peasant communes. The nobility gradually disappeared as new elites from town
and countryside took over. Unlike the great European powers in its “republican”
organization, Switzerland nevertheless conveniently served as a reservoir of
mercenary troops for its princely neighbors.
Venice maintained its own republicanism via a different set of compromises. It
was dominated by a Great Council from whose membership many of the officers of
the state were elected, including the “doge,” a life-long position. Between 1297 and
1324 the size of the Council grew dramatically: to its membership of 210 in 1296,
more than a thousand new names were added by 1340. At the same time, however,
the Council was gradually closed off to all but certain families, which were in this
