and had been accompanied by a considerable loss of territory. The
central power had become weakened and the central organization relaxed,
while the electorate had lost most of the advantages which formerly
distinguished it from other German fiefs. Under the rule of the earliest
margraves, it was the official side of their position that was
prominent, and it was not forgotten that they were technically only the
representatives of the emperor. But in the 13th century this feeling
began to disappear, and Brandenburg enjoyed an independence and carried
out an independent policy in a way that was not paralleled by any other
German state. The emperor was still suzerain indeed, but his relations
with the mark were so insignificant that they exercised practically no
influence on its development; and so the power of the Ascanian margraves
was virtually unlimited. This independence was enhanced by the fact that
few great nobles had followed Albert the Bear in his work of conquest,
and that consequently there were few large lordships with their crowd of
dependents. The towns, the village communities and the knights held
their lands and derived their rights directly from the margraves. The
towns and villages had generally been laid out by contractors or
_locatores_, men not necessarily of noble birth, who were installed as
hereditary chief magistrates of the communities, and received numerous
encouragements to reclaim waste lands. This mode of colonization was
especially favourable to the peasantry, who seem in Brandenburg to have
retained the disposal of their persons and property at a time when
villenage or serfdom was the ordinary _status_ of their class elsewhere.
The dues paid by these contractors in return for the concessions formed
the main source of the revenue of the margraves. Gradually, however, the
expenses of warfare, liberal donations to the clergy, and the
maintenance of numerous and expensive households, compelled them to
pledge these dues for sums of ready money. This proceeding gave the
barons and knights an opportunity to buy out the village magistrates and
to replace them with nominees of their own. Thus the condition of the
peasants grew worse, and their freedom was practically destroyed when
the emperor Louis IV. recognized the jurisdiction of the nobles over
their estates. Henceforth the power of the nobles steadily increased at
the expense of the peasants, who soon sank into servitude. Instead of
communicati