es were under the jurisdiction of some territorial
magnate, or a nominee of the Emperor, but practically they enjoyed
various degrees of independence. Their effective organization would
depend upon their special circumstances, but in such a case as that of
Florence would be based on the trade guilds.

In Florence a number of the Teutonic nobles had settled in the city;
but it owed its importance to its trade. The city-dwelling nobles kept
up their clan life, and fortified their houses; but in other respects
they had become partially assimilated in feeling, and even in habits
and occupations, to the mercantile community in which they lived. They
filled the posts of military and civil administration, and were
conscious of a strong unity of interest with the people.

Under the vigorous and beneficent rule in Tuscany of the great
Countess Matilda (1076-1115) Florence was able quietly to consolidate
and extend her power without raising any thorny questions of formal
jurisdiction. But on the death of Matilda, when the Church and the
Empire equally claimed the succession and were equally unable
efficiently to assert their claims, it was inevitable that an attempt
should be made to establish the _de facto_ supremacy of Florence over
Fiesole and the whole outlying district upon a firmer and more formal
basis. It was equally inevitable that the attempt should be resisted.

Within Florence, as we have seen, there was a heterogeneous, but as
yet fairly united citizenship. The germs of organization consisted on
the side of the nobles in the clans and the Tower-clubs, and on the
side of the people in the Trade-guilds. The Tower-clubs were
associations each of which possessed a fortified tower in the city,
which was maintained at the common expense of the associates, and with
which their houses communicated. Of the Trade-guilds we shall speak
briefly hereafter.

In the surrounding country the territorial nobility watched the
growing power and prosperity of Florence with jealousy, stoutly
resisted her claims to jurisdiction over them and their demesnes, and
made use of their command of the great commercial highways to exact
regular or irregular tolls, even when they did not frankly plunder the
merchants.

Obviously two struggles must result from this situation. The city as a
whole was vitally concerned in clearing the commercial routes and
rendering the territorial nobility harmless; but within the city two
parties, who may almos