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 ^FRENCH, FLEMISH, ENGLISH, GERMAN TOWNS 363 [ment which swept over the land, and became rural com- jimunes, carrying on their husbandry and administering local fljustice without interference from lords. The French communes were lively centers of local inde- pendence, vigor, and enterprise, but were not as large and ^powerful as the Italian cities, and did not like French and ithem pursue an aggressive foreign policy. That communes lis to say, they did not fight with one another nor ^To forei n jattempt to conquer the rural communes and policy Bother territory about them as the Italian cities did. Further- i more, they were willing to recognize in a loose way the sov- ereignty of the king or the head of the particular feudal state in which each was located, and in time of need to fur- nish him with funds or some of their militia, provided ordinarily he left them to attend to their own affairs. Nor [were their militia to be despised, as Henry II of England found in 1188 when the citizens of Mantes, a town of only I five thousand inhabitants, ventured forth from their walls 'fully armed and checked his advance. Not all the towns of northern France, by any means, suc- ceeded in becoming communes. Some of the largest cities, I like Paris, Chartres, and Troyes, could hardly Govern- jeven be called privileged towns, but were still ment of largely subject to the old seigneurial exploita- tion. Parts of Paris belonged to certain monasteries and I were immune from the royal officials. The Bishop of Paris I had well-nigh absolute power over the island in the Seine (known as La Cite and over portions of the neighboring I burghers enjoyed special royal favor. When the king went on a crusade in 1190, he appointed six burghers of Paris to the council of regency during his absence. All over France, as well as in the eastern lands colon- tury, feudal lords and monasteries now founded New towng "Newtons" (les villes neuves), laid out in regular 'squares instead of the crooked streets of old towns which
 * banks of the rivers. Otherwise the Parisians were ruled
 * by a royal provost. Gilds existed, however, and certain
 * ized by the Germans in the second half of the twelfth cen-