Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/672

 616 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE regions as Bavaria, Saxony, and Brandenburg were now practically independent territorial states. The study of Roman law, introduced into the German universities about the middle of the fifteenth century, is thought to have con- tributed considerably to the power of the princes at the head of such states. In a previous chapter we stated that the German cities reached the height of their prosperity only about the year German 1 500. By that time silver and copper were anTscSial mined extensively in Hungary, Bohemia, the conditions Tyrol, and Germany proper. Trade also flour- ished and companies with large capital were formed. These tended to establish monopolies and make things hard for the small merchant and the consumer. But an especially discontented class were the peasants who complained that their lords were requiring increased rents and services of them and were encroaching upon their common lands. From 1476 on local uprisings against the nobles and clergy were frequent in southern Germany. A sort of Christian socialism became popular among the peasants who based their demands upon the Bible and bore banners with pious inscriptions. But the great Peasants' Revolt of 1525 lies beyond the limits of our period. The origin of the House of Burgundy in the fourteenth century and its acquisition of both the Duchy and Free Growth of County of Burgundy, of Flanders and Artois, of dian poSes- Nevers and Rethel, and of other lands along the sipns northeastern frontier of the Kingdom of France during the Hundred Years War, have been already men- tioned. In the first half of the fifteenth century it also ac- quired the Duchy of Luxemburg and numerous principalities in the Netherlands, such as the Duchies of Brabant and Limburg, and the Counties of Hainault, Holland, and Zee- land. By the time of Charles the Bold (1467-1477), there- fore, his possessions included most of modern Belgium and the Netherlands, a considerable slice of eastern France, and a little of western Germany. In other words, he threatened to create an important third state between the French