originally subject to service and tribute on the part of bishop,
cloister, or prince, the condition of the tradesman changed with the
establishment of the principle that long unchallenged residence in a
city insured personal freedom to the individual--a privilege which in
those days of marked class discrimination was shared only by the
burgher and the monk. Among the two last-mentioned classes even the
low-born individual could rise by his own efforts: here neither
prejudice nor privilege interfered with the free exercise of native
talent. Many a poor apprentice in the bureau of Bergen eventually
became the progenitor of a long race of distinguished merchants; and
some of these families are flourishing in Europe to-day. It is but
natural that the handicraftsman, once released from his bonds, should
have desired to share these privileges, more particularly as the old
aristocratic _régime_ constantly became more assertive and
presumptuous. It is necessary also to consider that the former social
position of the artisan should not be measured by present standards;
for the difference in the educational status of the classes was not
nearly so pronounced then as now, and the workman, moreover, was
characterized by a spirit often as chivalrous as that of the
commercial magnate. There is a well-authenticated case of a shoemaker
challenging another member of his craft to a duel--which, by the way,
had a fatal termination--without exciting either serious comment or
ridicule.
History teaches that where commerce and industry flourish, art also
secures its triumphs. The glorious Gothic cathedrals of the Hanseatic
cities bear eloquent testimony to this truth. "The Northlander who
entered the Trave or the Vistula and beheld the multitude of soaring
church spires must have felt as did once the German pilgrim to Rome,"
says a modern investigator. The principal representative and patron of
this art culture, here as elsewhere during the Middle Ages, was the
Church. But the splendid town halls as well as the few private
mansions preserved, with their step-like aggregation of gables, afford
convincing evidence alike of the solid appreciation of art as of the
love of splendor which characterized that distant generation. Certain
it is that they greatly surpassed us in the domain of Gothic
architecture. Owing to the strict adherence to the Catholic dogma a
scientific development in the modern sense was, of course, impossible
in those days; and, although most of the parish churches had their
schools also, these were commonly designed chiefly for the sons of
patricians, whose schooling usually embraced a little Latin and some
reading, writing, and singing. Not infrequently the only scholar in
the place was the town clerk, the forerunner of our present recorder.
The robust, healthy German of that day, yielding to a tendency which
has characterized our people from immemorial times, preferred the more
to surrender himself to a life of solid comfort and good cheer. The
Middle Age was one which inclined to favor the enjoyment of life. It
is but necessary to consider the variegated costumes, rich in color,
whose ultimate extravagances necessitated special dress regulations,
as well as the tournaments, the numerous archer festivals, and the
frequent masquerades, to realize that the people of that day
appreciated the good things of life. On the occasion of baptisms,
weddings, and other domestic events, great feasts were frequently
arranged in the house of the guilds or even in the town hall; and many
princely visitors were here also entertained at the expense of the
municipal budget. The administration of the cellarage of the municipal
council was also then considered a far more respectable post than now.
All these facts attest the prosperity of the Hanseatic towns. Fortunes
of one hundred thousand marks were by no means exceptional, and were
often invested in neighboring knightly estates (feofs), thereby
sometimes securing to the owner an eventual admission to the ranks of
the nobility. At one time--_i.e._, after the great Hanseatic war--the
city of Lubeck owned the entire dukedom of Lauenburg.
The constitution of these municipalities provided for a council
consisting of from twelve to twenty-four members who, though elected
for life, alternated in terms of office ranging from two to three
years. These members had the privilege of appointing their successors
from among the eligible families of the Hanse town. The heads of the
council consisted of from two to four burgomasters, who presided at
the meetings. The position of member of the council was a purely
honorary one. The duties comprised the administration of municipal
affairs; of military and judicial affairs; of the archives; the
exercise of police supervision over the market, the marine service,
and the guilds; and, most important of all, the administration of the
finances. They fixed the taxes, for which frequently no receipt was
given or demanded; the money on such occasions being deposited
unnoticed in a box set apart for the purpose--a proof that the payment
of taxes at that time was regarded as a point of honor by the burgher
and without suspicion by the magistrate.
The general character of the municipal life of the Hanse towns in
those days has been well compared by a modern writer to a family
household. The workman regarded himself within his circle as an
official of the city--a fact shown by the use of the word _Aemter_
("offices") to designate the guilds. Hence the strong municipal
patriotism which animated these burghers and which compensates in some
degree for the absence of that great political enthusiasm which is
derived from the consciousness of a united country. A quaint genre
picture of the time, preserved at Bremen, represents a native of the
latter city and another from Lubeck sitting together in a tavern and
disputing as to the comparative merits of their respective towns. The
controversy reaches its climax by one of the disputants declaring
stolidly that he too might "master such words" and taking a long and
mighty draught.
The separate towns, usually upon a request of the Lubeck council,
would send their deputies to confer jointly upon matters affecting the
league, these conferences or diets usually being held in some Wendish
city. On no occasion, however, were all the towns of the league
represented at these conferences. Their constitution was absolutely
free from all theoretical or rigid forms or ordinances. Whoever found
that his interests were especially affected by the subject under
discussion sent representatives to the diet of the league, and these
usually discharged their duties faithfully, without shirking the long
and arduous trip even during the winter season. The conferences held
in this way were probably wider in their scope than those of any other
power of the time. Usually, however, not political, but commercial,
matters were discussed. There was no common treasury. Whenever money
was required an export duty was levied, with which absolute compliance
was demanded. An infraction of the laws of the league was punishable
by a fine, and in extreme cases by exclusion from the Hansa--a
sentence necessarily involving the commercial isolation and eventual
bankruptcy of the delinquent city. Bremen, it is true, once withstood
the consequences of the Hanseatic ban for more than fifty years, but
this was before the extraordinary extension of Hanseatic power
consequent upon the Danish war. From all this it appears that the
constitution of the Hansa was a very slack but elastic one, which
easily adapted itself to the exigencies of the moment. A charter of a
Hanseatic constitution has never existed--proof in itself of the
desire to afford as much latitude as possible in the construction of
the laws. Theory is regarded as valueless; immediate facts and
interests are all in all. The supremacy of Lubeck, for example, was
never formally recognized by the other cities of the league.
Thus did the Hansa flourish until the close of the Middle Ages. With
the discovery of America and of the passage to India trade was
diverted into new channels; it became transoceanic and, not without
some culpability on the part of the Hanses themselves, fell into the
hands of the now more favorably situated countries of Western
Europe--Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and, finally,
England. Equally detrimental to the Hansa was the political
transformation wrought at this time, especially as regards the rapidly
growing power of the princes, who, with all the influence at their
command, sought to abrogate all special privileges and to foster a
levelling process in order that they alone might be exalted. One city
after another sank into utter dependence upon the sovereign rulers of
the respective provinces, who, in their turn, began to take an
interest in economic affairs, thus contributing to widen the breach
between these respective cities and the league. It was under these
circumstances that Gustavus Vasa declared of the Hansa that "Its teeth
were falling out, like those of an old woman." The Hollanders,
especially, had long been converted from allies into formidable
rivals. The most important and decisive factor of this decadence,
however, was the victorious opposition to the Hanseatic monopoly now
brought to bear by the hitherto commercially oppressed nations,
England and Russia, who simply closed the doors of the bureaus and
abrogated the privileges of the German merchants of the league. The
condition of the Hansa was akin to that of a healthy, vigorous tree,
set in poor soil and deriving its sustenance from the weakness of the
home rulers and the primitive or defective economic conditions of
foreign countries. As soon as these negative mediæval conditions were
swept away by the storms of the Reformation the tree gradually but
surely fell into decay. With this later stage there is associated the
historic tragedy of Jürgen Wullenwever, that genial and daring
democratic innovator, who, in an endeavor to conquer Denmark in order
to restore the prestige of the Hansa, was betrayed by his patrician
fellow-burghers and hanged.
The Hansa, though in a stage of increasing decrepitude, now lingered
on until the final crash came in 1630, when all the members dissolved
their allegiance to the league. Only the three Hanse towns of Hamburg,
Bremen, and Lubeck renewed the compact, which, however, to-day is
purely nominal. The Hansa had fulfilled its great historic mission. It
had impressed the stamp of German culture upon the North; given German
commerce the supremacy over that of all other nations; protected the
northern and eastern boundaries of the empire at a time when the
imperial power was impotent and the State disrupted; and maintained
and extended the prestige of the German flag in the northern seas.
Said a great German writer: "When all on land was steeped in
particularism, the Hansa, our people upon the sea, alone remained
faithful to the German spirit and to German tradition."
MAMELUKES USURP POWER IN EGYPT
A.D. 1250
SIR WILLIAM MUIR
From A.D. 969 to 1171 the Arabian dynasty of caliphs called
Fatimites--because they professed to trace their descent
from Fatima, the daughter of Mahomet--reigned in Egypt.
Their downfall was due to their own decline into imbecility,
through which they fell into the hands of Turkish viziers
who, keeping their nominal masters in subserviency,
themselves assumed the actual rule.
For several generations the caliphs of Bagdad, under whose
sway the Fatimites were now reduced, had attracted to their
capital slaves from Turcoman and Mongol hordes. These slaves
they used both as bodyguards and as contingents to offset
the dominating influence of the Arab soldiery in their
affairs. In the end the slaves superseded the Arab soldiers
altogether, and from bondmen became masters of the court.
They stirred up riots and rebellion and hastened the fall of
the effete caliphate.
Under the Eyyubite dynasty in Egypt, which Saladin founded
about 1174, the same practice was followed with the same
results. The Eyyubites were strangers in Egypt, and welcomed
the support of foreign myrmidons. Slave dealers bought
children of conquered tribes in Central Asia, promising them
great fortunes in the West. These children, together with
prisoners of war from the eastern hordes, streamed into
Egypt, where they were again bought by the rulers, who thus
unwittingly prepared the way for their own destruction. The
military body created by Saladin, called mamelukes
("slaves;" literally "the possessed"), obtained ascendency
in the manner here related by Muir.
The thousands who, with uncomely names and barbarous titles, began to
crowd the streets of Cairo, occupied a position to which we have no
parallel elsewhere. Finding a weak and subservient population, they
lorded it over them. Like the children of Israel, they ever kept
themselves distinct from the people of the land--but the oppressors,
not, like them, the oppressed. Brought up to arms, the best favored
and most able of the mamelukes when freed became, at the instance of
the Sultan, emirs of ten, of fifty, of a hundred, and often, by rapid
leaps, of a thousand. They continued to multiply by the purchase of
fresh slaves who, like their masters, could rise to liberty and
fortunes.
The sultans were naturally the largest purchasers, as they employed
the revenues of the state in surrounding themselves with a host of
slaves; we read, for example, of one who bought some six thousand.
While the great mass pursued a low and servile life, the favorites of
the emirs, and specially of the crown, were educated in the arts of
peace and war, and, as pages and attendants, gradually rose to the
position of their masters--the slave of to-day, the commander, and not
infrequently the sultan of to-morrow.
From the first, insolent and overbearing, the mamelukes began, as time
passed on, to feel their power, and grew more and more riotous and
turbulent, oppressing the land by oft-repeated pillage and outrage.
Broken up into parties, each with the name of some sultan or leader,
their normal state was one of internal combat and antagonism; while,
pampered and indulged, they often turned upon their masters. Some of
the more powerful sultans were able to hold them in order, and there
were not wanting occasional intervals of quiet; but trouble and uproar
were ever liable to recur.
The Eyyubite princes settled their mamelukes, chiefly Turks and
Mongols--so as to keep them out of the city--on an island in the Nile,
whence they were called Baharites, and the first mameluke dynasty
(1260-1382) was of this race, and called accordingly. The others, a
later importation, were called Burjites, from living in the Citadel,
or quarters in the town; they belonged more to the Circassian race.
The second dynasty (1382-1517) was of these, and, like the Baharite
dynasty, bore their name. The mamelukes were for the most part
attached faithfully to their masters, and the emirs, with their
support, enriched themselves by exactions from the people, with the
unscrupulous gains of office, and with rich fiefs from the state. The
mamelukes, as a body, thus occupied a prominent and powerful position,
and often, especially in later times, forced the Sultan to bend to
their will.
Such is the people which for two centuries and a half ruled Egypt with
a rod of iron, and whose history we shall now attempt to give.
It was about the middle of the twelfth century that Nureddin and King
Amalrich both turned a longing eye toward Egypt, where, in the
decrepitude of the Fatimites, dissension and misrule prevailed. The
Caliph, in alarm, sought aid first from one and then from the other;
and each in turn entered Egypt ostensibly for its defence, but in
reality for its possession. A friendly treaty was at last concluded
with both; but it was broken by Amalrich, who invaded the country and
demanded a heavy ransom. In this extremity, the Caliph again appealed
to Nureddin, sending locks of his ladies' hair in token of alarm.
Glad of the opportunity, Nureddin despatched his general, Shirkoh, to
the rescue, before whom Amalrich, crestfallen, retired. Shirkoh,
having thus delivered the Caliph, gained his favor, and, as vizier,
assumed the administration. Soon after he died; and his nephew,
Saladin, succeeded to the vizierate. The following year the Caliph
also died; and now Saladin, who had by vigorous measures put down all
opposition, himself as sultan took possession of the throne. Thus the
Fatimite dynasty, which had for two centuries ruled over Egypt, came
to an end.
Saladin was son of a Kurdish chief called Eyyub, and hence the dynasty
is termed Eyyubite. His capital was Cairo. He fortified the city,
using the little pyramid for material, and, abandoning the luxurious
palace of the Fatimites, laid the foundations of the Citadel on the
nearest crest of the Mokattam range, and to it transferred his
residence. After a prosperous rule over Egypt and Syria of above
twenty years he died, and his numerous family fell into dissension. At
last his brother Adlil, gaining the ascendency, achieved a splendid
reign not only at home, but also in the East, from Georgia to Aden. He
died of grief at the taking of Damietta by the crusaders, and his
grandson Eyyub succeeded to the throne.
It was now that the Charizmian hordes fell upon Syria, and, with
horrible atrocities, sacked the holy city. Forming an alliance with
these barbarians, the Sultan sent the mameluke general Beibars to join
them against his uncle, the Syrian prince Ismail, between whom and the
crusaders an unholy union had prevailed. Near Joppa the combined army
of Franks and Moslems met at the hands of Beibars and the eastern
hordes, with a bloody overthrow; and thus all Syria again fell under
Egypt. To establish his power both at home and abroad, the Sultan
bought vast numbers of Turkish mamelukes; and it was he who first
established them as Baharites on the Nile. His son Turan was the last
Eyyubite sultan.
In his reign Louis IX of France invaded Egypt, and, advancing upon
Cairo, was defeated and taken prisoner. Turan allowed him to go free;
and for this act of kindness, as well as for attempts to curb their
outlawry, he was pursued and slain by the Baharite mamelukes, who
thereupon seized the government.
The leading mamelukes chose one of themselves, the emir Eibek, to be
head of the administration. He contented himself at first to govern in
the name of Eyyub's widow, who, indeed, had been in complicity with
the assassins of her stepson Turan. The Caliph of Bagdad, however,
objected to a female reigning even in name, and so Eibek married the
widow; and still further to conciliate the Eyyubites of Syria and
Kerak, elevated to the title of sultan a child of the Eyyubite stock.
This concession notwithstanding, Nasir the Eyyubite, ruler of
Damascus, advanced on Egypt, but, deserted by his Turkish slaves, was
beaten back by Eibek, who returned in triumph to the capital. He soon
found it, however, impossible to hold the turbulent mamelukes in hand,
for, with the victorious general Aktai at their head, they scorned
discipline and defied authority. Eibek, therefore, compassed the death
of Aktai, on which the Baharite emirs all rose in rebellion. They were
defeated. Many were slain and cast into prison; the rest fled to
Nasir, and eventually to Kerak. Among the latter were Beibars and
Kilawun, of whom we shall hear more hereafter.
Eibek was now undisputed Sultan, recognized as such by all the powers
around. And so he bethought him of taking a princess of Mosul for
another wife; on which the Sultana, already estranged, caused him to
be put to death; and she too, in the storm that followed, was
assassinated by the slave girls of still another wife.
Eibek's minor son was now raised by the emirs to the titular
sultanate; and Kotuz, a distinguished mameluke of Charizmian birth,
persuaded to assume the uninviting post of vicegerent. The Eyyubite
Prince of Kerak, in whose service many of the Baharite mamelukes still
remained, attempting, with their help, to seize Egypt, was twice
repulsed by Kotuz, and thus obliged to disband the Baharites, who
returned to their Egyptian allegiance.
Their return was fortunate, a time of trial being at hand. For it was
now that Holagu with his Mongol hordes, having overthrown Bagdad and
slain the last of the Abbassides, launched his savage troops on the
West. He fulminated a despatch to Nasir the Eyyubite head of Syria, in
which he claimed to be "the scourge of the Almighty, sent to execute
judgment on the ungodly nations of the earth." Nasir answered it in
like defiant terms; but, not being supported by Kotuz, had to fly from
Damascus, which was taken possession of by the Mongol tyrant.
After ravaging Syria with unheard-of barbarity, Holagu was recalled to
Central Asia by the death of Mangu. Leaving his army behind under
Ketbogha, he sent an embassy to Egypt with a letter as threatening as
that to Nasir. Kotuz, who had by this time cast the titular Sultan
aside and himself assumed the throne, summoned a council and by their
advice put the embassy to death. Then awakening to the possibilities
of the future, he roused the emirs to action by a stirring address on
the danger that threatened Egypt, their families, and their faith.
Gathering a powerful army, the Egyptians advanced to Acre, where they
found the crusaders bound by a promise to the Mongols of neutrality.
The two armies met at Ain-Jalut, and there, after a fiercely contested
battle, and mainly by the bravery of Beibars as well as of Kotuz
himself, the Mongols were beaten and Ketbogha slain. On the news
reaching Damascus, the city rose upon their barbarian tyrants, and
slew not only all the Mongols, but great numbers also of the Jews and
Christians who, during the interregnum, had raised their heads against
Islam.
Following up their victory, the Egyptians drove the Mongols out of
Syria, and pursued them beyond Emessa. Kotuz, thus master of the
country, reappointed the former governors throughout Syria, on
receiving oath of fealty, to their several posts. For his signal
service, Kotuz had led Beibars to expect Aleppo; but, suspicion
aroused of dangerous ambition on Beibars' part, he gave that leading
capital to another.
Beibars upon this, fearing the fate that might befall him at Cairo,
resolved to anticipate the danger. On the return journey, while Kotuz
was on the hunting-field alone, he begged for the gift of a Mongol
slave girl, and, taking his hand to kiss for the promised favor,
seized hold of it while his accomplices stabbed him from behind to
death. Beibars was forthwith saluted sultan, and entered Cairo with
the acclamations of the people, and with the same festive surroundings
as had been prepared for the reception of his murdered predecessor.
THE "MAD PARLIAMENT"
BEGINNING OF ENGLAND'S HOUSE OF COMMONS
A.D. 1258
JOHN LINGARD
With the loss of Normandy under King John, the barons of
Norman descent in England had become patriotic Englishmen.
They forced their monarch to sign the Magna Charta and thus
laid the foundation of English constitutional liberty.
John died in 1216 and was succeeded by his son Henry of
Winchester, a minor in his eleventh year. The celebrated
Hubert de Burgh, chief justiciar, soon became regent, and
reigned comparatively without control, even after the young
King attained his majority. But in 1232 Henry, being in need
of money, imprisoned the regent and compelled him to forfeit
the greater part of his estate.
After De Burgh's fall, King Henry III became his own master,
and was responsible for the measures of government, the wars
with foreign powers, the disputes with the Pope and with the
barons, during which the evolution of the English parliament
made important progress, chiefly through the efforts of
Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester.
One of the most important episodes of that evolution was the
"Mad Parliament"--derisively so called by the royal
partisans--at which the Provisions of Oxford, long
considered the rash innovations of an ambitious oligarchy,
were promulgated. Of this Mad Parliament it has been said,
"It would have been well for England if all parliaments had
been equally sane."
As to the opinion, repeatedly emphasized in the following
account, that De Montfort was false and ambitious, it is
well to remind the reader that other historians have looked
upon Earl Simon as a disinterested patriot of the highest
type.