ne of
demarcation, however, remains in the mutual oath which forms the basis
of the civic community in both varieties of the latter, and in the fact
that the _ville libre_ stands to its lord in the relation of vassal and
not in that of an immediate possession. But however _completement
assujettie_ Paris might be, its organization, naturally, was immensely
more complex than that of hundreds of smaller places which, formally,
might stand in an identical relationship to their lords. Like other
_villes franches_ under the king, Paris was governed by a _prevot_
(provost), but certain functions of self-government for the city were
delegated to the company of the _marchands de l'eau, mercatores aquae_,
also called _mercatores ansati_, that is, the gild of merchants whose
business lay down the river Seine, in other words, a body naturally
exclusive, not, however, to the citizens as such. At their head stood a
_prevot des marchands_ and four _eschevins de la marchandise_. Other
_prud'hommes_ were occasionally called in, and from 1296 _prevot_ and
_echevins_, appointed twenty-four councillors to form with themselves a
_parloir aux bourgeois_. The crafts of Paris were organized in
_metiers_, whose masters were appointed, some by the _prevot de Paris_,
and some by certain great officers of the court. In the tax rolls of
A.D. 1292 to 1300 no fewer than 448 names of crafts occur, while the
_Livre des metiers_ written in 1268 by Etienne de Boileau, then _prevot
de Paris_, enumerates 101 organized bodies of tradesmen or women and
artisans. Among the duties of these bodies, as elsewhere, was the _guet_
or night-watch, which necessitated a military organization under
_quartiniers, cinquantainiers_ and _dixainiers_. This gave them a
certain power. But both their revolutions, under the _prevot des
marchands_, Etienne Marcel, after the battle of Maupertuis, and again in
1382, were extremely short-lived, and the only tangible result was a
stricter subjection to the king and his officers.

An exceptional position among the cities of France is taken up by those
of _Flanders_, more particularly the three "Great Towns," Bruges, Ghent
and Ypres, whose population was Flemish, i.e. German. They sprang up at
the foot of the count's castles and rose in close conjunction with his
power. On the accession of a new house they made their power felt as
early as 1128. Afterwards the counts of the house of Dampierre fell into
financial dependence on the burg