The Logic of Political Conflict in Medieval Cities

At the heart of Patrick Lantschner’s argument in this book lies the contention that European cities were not monolithic but polycentric, so that factionalism and conflict were inherent in their political make-up. In that, the author contends, European cities in general did not deviate significantly from patterns of urban dissent and rebelliousness encountered in the cities of the Near or Far East. Against the grain of arguments advanced by Charles Tilly or Perry Anderson, that European cities collaborated with consolidating monarchies to hasten the emergence of the early modern (national) state, Lantschner insists that their self-perception and behaviour were too various (or inconsistent) to be seen as embodying any collective will. This revisionism is traced through a series of case-studies which contrast the fluctuating fortunes of pairs of cities in northern Italy and the southern Low Countries: Bologna and Liège, Florence and Tournai, Verona and Lille. The justification for these pairings lies in a threefold distinction in their systems of conflict: respectively volatile, constitutional and contained. Lantschner is at pains to emphasise that the comparisons based on these criteria should not encourage any belief that the cities in other respects were necessarily comparable. Indeed, what stands out is the disparateness of their political, social or economic life. In Italy, Bologna was caught between constant papal interference and an unusually fractious nobility, yet derived much clout from the international renown of its university; Florence was the undisputed master of Tuscany, ruling a city-state of 11,000 square kilometres; while Verona might control an extensive contado (though it was largely in the hands of feudatories), but could boast a flourishing textile industry. The contrasts in the southern Low Countries were just as pronounced. Liège was the seat of a prince-bishop, bent on extending his power over the pays; Tournai, whose parishes formed an organic part of the city’s constitutional life, negotiated its way between pro-Burgundian and pro-French factions; Lille had both weak guilds and parishes, and inclined to accommodate itself to the French Crown, its ultimate superior

Argument (complex analysis · City-state · Dissent · Economic history · Monarchy · Nobility · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity