Germany

In Germany productive forces grew from the 12th century: forests were cleared and marshes drained for fields, and flax, orchards and vines were grown. Cologne, Worms, Frankfurt, Ulm, Nuremberg and Augsburg became large centres of crafts and trade; German woollen cloth, linen and weapons were valued in other countries. Frederick I Barbarossa (1152–1190) of the Staufen dynasty tried to subdue the rich north Italian cities; jurists called from Bologna justified his power. The Lombard cities led by Milan resisted and in 1176 at Legnano routed the emperor’s knights, and the emperor had to grant the cities communes — the right of self-government. Frederick I died in 1190 during the Third Crusade. His grandson Frederick II (king from 1212, emperor from 1220) spent most of his life in Italy and Sicily; at his Palermo court Arab, Greek and Jewish scholars gathered, he founded the University of Naples in 1224 and wrote a book on falconry. Contemporaries called him the “Wonder of the World”. After his death the empire had no strong emperor for about twenty years; in 1273 the princes elected Rudolf of Habsburg, and from 1437 to 1806 the imperial crown stayed (apart from a short break) with the Habsburgs. Northern cities joined the Hanseatic League in the 14th century and in the 1370s dealt a blow to the king of Denmark; the southern towns formed the Swabian League of Cities in 1376. Rhine cities (Cologne, Worms, Strasbourg) led in metalwork and cloth.