The contract which the citizens extorted from their lord was known as a charter. It specified what taxes they should be required to pay and usually granted to them various privileges, such as those of holding assemblies, electing magistrates, and raising militia for local defense. The revolt of the cities gradually extended over all western Europe, so that at the end of the fourteenth century hardly any of them lacked a charter.
CIVIC FREEDOM
The free city had no room for either slaves or serfs. All servile conditions ceased inside its walls. The rule prevailed that anyone who had lived in a city for the term of a year and a day could no longer be claimed by a lord as his serf. This rule found expression in the famous saying: "Town air renders free."
RISE OF THE "THIRD ESTATE"
The freedom of the cities naturally attracted many immigrants to them. There came into existence a middle class of city people, between the nobles and clergy on the one side and the peasants on the other side—what the French call the bourgeoisie. [4] As we have [5] learned, the kings of England and France soon began to summon representatives of this middle class to sit in assemblies as the "third estate," by the side of the nobles and the clergy, who formed the first two estates. Henceforth the middle class, the bourgeoisie, the "third estate," distinguished as it was for wealth, intelligence, and enterprise, exerted an ever-greater influence on European affairs.
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193. CITY LIFE
A CITY FROM WITHOUT
The visitor approaching a medieval city through miles of open fields saw it clear in the sunlight, unobscured by coal smoke. From without it looked like a fortress, with walls, towers, gateways, drawbridges, and moat. Beyond the fortifications he would see, huddled together against the sky, the spires of the churches and the cathedral, the roofs of the larger houses, and the dark, frowning mass of the castle. The general impression would be one of wealth and strength and beauty.