A little about Knights and Tournaments.

Medieval City

By the end of the 12th century, European cities reached a period of intensive development. There were many of them (Florence, Genoa, Venice, Marseille, Carcassonne, Toulouse, Orleans, Frankfurt, Magdeburg, etc.). The city commune was a new entity for Europe. Originating from annual fairs in convenient locations (near bridges or fords, near castle walls), cities had grown considerably by the 12th century, and many were surrounded by walls. The city was inhabited by artisans, merchants, innkeepers, taverns, and brothels. As a social unit, the city had a number of characteristics. The city was governed by a city council (mayoralty, magistracy, municipality), headed by a mayor. In some cities, power was in the hands of the church - then the city was governed by a bishop (against such power, the townspeople sooner or later revolted - because, unlike the mayor, the bishop was not elected by them). The city had its own court with judges, lawyers, etc. It was quite natural that there was a city guard, which maintained order. The city did not have an army - in the event of war, all townspeople capable of wielding weapons joined the militia, which was usually led by the mayor himself. The population was divided into nobles and commoners. The former were representatives of the city's elite, who in turn were divided into two categories: townspeople who had become quite wealthy (large moneylenders and merchants, innkeepers) and nobles who had settled in the city for some reason. It was the nobles who made up the city council, and the mayor was chosen from among them. Commoners were the poor. Sometimes they disliked the nobles, but the city could not exist without them: it was the nobles who could easily find funds for the repair of city walls or roads. And most importantly, the nobles knew how to negotiate with large lords or even the king himself. The city commune was both united and divided at the same time. Of course, if any feudal lord encroached on the city's liberties, the townspeople, as one, rose up to defend their interests. But in peaceful times, in the absence of an external threat, the townspeople, living "side by side," immediately began to conflict. Fights between "artisans and bakers" or, for example, "shoemakers and residents of the pottery quarter" were not uncommon. Such "district against district" battles were not easy for the city guard to break up. However, the unity of the commune was clearly manifested in the event of a conflict with outsiders: a townsperson who had a fight at a fair with a visiting merchant could easily count on leniency from the court. The court, as a punishment, could impose a fine on the guilty party, but one of the most serious punishments was expulsion from the city. Undesirable persons could be banned from entering the city. Since by the 12th century there were no "free" lands left, cities, as they arose, occupied land owned by some feudal lord. Thus, the city became as if a tenant and had to pay a considerable amount of money to the landowner. Naturally, the cities tried to buy the land on which they were located. If the lord did not want to sell the land (which, in fact, no longer belonged to him), then the matter came to war, so to speak, for independence. Here, the city was greatly helped by strong walls (if they existed): it was one thing to fight a knight in an open field, and quite another to throw stones at him while sitting in a tower. Nevertheless, the knightly army, much better trained and armed, often took cities by storm. Feudal lords forcibly forced the commune to pay land tax. The situation of the cities would have been very bad, but then the kings intervened. Louis VI the Fat, Louis VII, Philip II Augustus, Louis VIII, who ruled France in the 12th and 13th centuries, understood that cities could be good allies in the fight against overconfident feudal lords. After all, such large lords as, for example, the Count of Champagne, had long pursued their own, independent policy, although formally they were vassals of the French crown. In addition, a city, freed from paying land tax to a feudal lord, could pay taxes to the royal treasury. Thanks to royal support, many cities by the end of the 12th century managed to get rid of land dependence. City communes introduced their own laws within the cities, their economic activity was not controlled from the outside, and they paid taxes only to the king. (It should be noted that the royal land tax was noticeably lower than the previous, feudal one). However, many cities followed a different path: they concluded agreements with feudal lords on the model of a vassal oath, which the city - a vassal - made to the lord - suzerain. However, a vassal treaty could only be concluded by parties recognizing each other as equals (because a peasant cannot be a vassal of a baron) and entering into an alliance by mutual agreement. Thus, the lords who entered into such an agreement recognized the cities as equal to themselves, which was what the communes primarily sought to achieve. ****************************** knights_9_13 century Archive with frescoes and pictures. 1 of them. I'm uploading via mobile, so I chose the best ones. Download archive with pictures, frescoes, details from excavations (24) = http://relaxbest.narod.ru/progi/9-13.zip ****************************** Book title: "Knight of Christ" ::::::::::::::::::: Book title: "Knight of Christ" Series: (Templars–1) Genre: Historical novel Author: Octavian Stampas Synopsis: A novel about the brave and glorious knight Lunelinka von Segenheim; about the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire - Henry IV, about Empress Adelheid, whose bright image illuminated the dark and bloody era; about sorcerers and witches; about many great battles and courageous duels; about the First Crusade and the capture of the Holy City of Jerusalem; about Duke Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother, King Baldwin I; about the brave warriors Hugo of Vermandois and Bohemond of Taranto, as well as about the founding of the Order of Christ and the Temple and about who the first Templars were. Size: 424.76 Kb Octavian Stampas - Knight of Christ.book Download = http://relaxbest.narod.ru/progi/kniga.zip Enjoy reading. The next section is dedicated to the Crusades.