Citizens and Knights in the Low Countries and Italy

Abstract

Weber argued that authority can only be absolute; contracts and agreement cannot evoke desired behavior. He lamented occidental feudalism as a weak form of authority that was based on contract and not on command. Cities arose in the Low Countries, when counts and lower lords granted rights to cities to govern themselves. Issuing rights benefitted both lords and cities. Italian communes united in the Lombard League freed themselves from imperial control, but became engaged in endless factious fights that allowed condottieri to take control of cities. Italy fell into decline, when autocracy replaced communal government. The Low Countries prospered in the late middle ages, when cities expanded in both numbers and wealth. The Empire provided an institutional framework that prevented inter-city wars. The nobility shrank in numbers, but increased in power, when entry to the nobility was closed. A culture of chivalry regulated behavior of a noble caste that was mainly interested in warfare. Citizens lived by their own rules and engaged in trade and crafts. Courts and councils were installed to solve conflicts without taking recourse to arms in the Low Countries.