nd did valuable service in upholding and defending it.
After that, however, their political part was played out, mainly because
they proved unable to keep up with modern conditions of warfare. It
should be stated that seven among the episcopal cities, viz. Cologne,
Mainz, Worms, Spires, Strassburg, Basel and Regensburg, claimed a
privileged position as "Free Cities," but neither is the ground for this
claim clearly established, nor its nature well defined. The general
obligations of the imperial cities towards the Empire were the payment
of an annual fixed tax and the furnishing of a number of armed men for
imperial wars, and from these the above-named towns claimed some measure
of exemption. Some of the imperial cities lost their independence at an
early date, as unredeemed pledges to some prince who had advanced money
to the emperor. Others seceded as members of the Swiss Confederation.
But a considerable number survived until the reorganization of the
Empire in 1803. At the peace in 1815, however, only four were spared,
namely, Frankfort, Bremen, Hamburg and Lubeck, these being practically
the only ones still in a sufficiently flourishing and economically
independent position to warrant such preferential treatment. But finally
Frankfort, having chosen the wrong side in the war of 1866, was annexed
by Prussia, and only the three seaboard towns remain as full members of
the new confederate Empire under the style of _Freie und Hansestadte_.
But until modern times most of the larger _Landstadte_ or mesne-towns
for all intents and purposes were as independent under their lords as
the imperial cities were under the emperor. They even followed a foreign
policy of their own, concluded treaties with foreign powers or made war
upon them. Nearly all the _Hanseatic towns_ belonged to this category.
With others like Bremen, Hamburg and Magdeburg, it was long in the
balance which class they belonged to. All towns of any importance,
however, were for a considerable time far ahead of the principalities in
administration. It was largely this fact that gave them power. When,
therefore, from about the 15th century the princely territories came to
be better organized, much of the _raison d'etre_ for the exceptional
position held by the towns disappeared. The towns from an early date
made it their policy to suppress the exercise of all handicrafts in the
open country. On the other hand, they sought an increase of power by
extending rights