Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/678

 622 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE Charles the Bold so decisively, they became more indepen- -. . dent than ever. Whereas earlier their argument The Swiss. tilt i i Confedera- against Hapsburg rule had been that they were amenable to the emperor alone, now they began to refuse to be bound by anything that the imperial govern- ment did or wished them to do. They would neither pay taxes to the Holy Roman Empire nor abide by the decisions of an imperial court. The result was a brief war in 1499, after which the Swiss were confirmed in their ancient rights and conquests, and remained henceforth practically an in- dependent state quite severed from the Empire, although their formal separation and national independence did not come until 1648. Also in 1499 their territory had not yet attained the, extent of modern Switzerland; there were further additions to be made especially upon the French and Italian sides. In France as a result of the Hundred Years War the nobles and clergy lost a deal of their wealth, especially of their The bour- land. In the fifteenth century we find a consider- geoisie in 3,t>l e middle class in the country made up of the century owners of small estates and of tenant farmers who leased land for periods of a dozen or fifteen years. In the Estates General of 1484 even peasants participated in the local elections of representatives of the third estate. The bourgeoisie of the towns have become richer and more in- fluential than ever, especially as the Church has decayed and the feudal nobility has lost its military prestige through such defeats as those of Crecy and Agincourt. A townsman like Jacques Cceur, the silversmith of Bourges, where may still be seen his fine Gothic residence incorporating two Roman towers in its back wall, possessed more real power than any noble of the court of Charles VII, and was as im- portant to the French monarchy as the Bank of England or the Morgans are to a modern government. He became, in- deed, such a power behind the throne that he made enemies at court who procured his condemnation, but the death sentence was commuted to banishment at the intercession of the pope, and Jacques set out on a crusade against the