Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/418

 368 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE local influence and were summoned to send representatives to the national assembly or parliament which then devel- oped. But they did not reach the height of their medieval prosperity and independence until the fifteenth century. Other prominent ports than London were Southampton in the south, and Bristol in the west. Foreign trade was largely carried on by foreign merchants, as is illustrated by the Flemish hanse in London already mentioned. The chief local fairs were at Winchester in the south, Stourbridge and Walsingham in the east. In Germany the change from rural to town life did not become marked until the thirteenth century, although be- Rise of f° re there were a few large cities, especially on German the Rhine, where Basel, Strassburg, Speyer, towns Worms, Mainz, and Cologne all dated from Roman times. And whereas the Lombard communes had established their practical independence of the Holy Roman Empire under Frederick Barbarossa in the twelfth century, the free or imperial cities of Germany did not acquire their full powers of government until the confused period of anarchy following the death of Frederick II in the second half of the thirteenth century. The building of stone walls, replacing rude earthworks and wooden stockades or ruined Roman fortifications, and enclosing a greater area, began in a few cases in the later twelfth century, but more often in the thirteenth. Even in the thirteenth century the inhabitants of most German towns still engaged to a large extent in agriculture, Their eco- and much of the land included within the new fortifications was still given over to farms and gardens. In the crowded streets of the center of the town, however, were to be found artisans carrying on various industries, and in the oldest and largest cities the gilds may be traced back to the twelfth century. Among the oldest craft gilds in Germany were the weavers of Mainz (1099), the fishermen of Worms (1106), the shoemakers of Wiirz- burg (1128), the makers of bed-ticks and the turners of Cologne, and the cobblers, tailors, and painters of Mag-