Brunswick, the largest city in medieval Lower Saxony, is one of the earliest examples of a 'multitown'. Most German 'multi-towns' had two or three constituent towns. Brunswick was unusual in that it had five. The earliest, dating from the tenth century, were at Sack (around the fortified castle and cathedral) and Alte Wiek, a market-based settlement. In the eleventh century a mercantile quarter grew at Altstadt, while Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony founded Hagenstadt and Neustadt in the twelfth century. The three new towns had their own councils by the thirteenth century (before the two old ones). In 1269 they established a general council to overlook matters of common concern. Although the existence of councils in the component towns, increasingly styled municipalities, was confirmed in 1299, the general council began to dominate internal and external matters.
D. Ditchburn
Istanbul
The city which the Ottoman Turks conquered from the Byzantines in 1453 was nigh derelict. Its restoration was among the most urgent tasks facing Mehmed the Conqueror. He drafted in settlers from all parts of his empire. His success is revealed by a census of the city made in 1477. There were at least 16,324 households, representing a total population of perhaps 100,000. Muslims formed about three-fifths of the population; Greeks just under a quarter, already concentrated in Fener, where the patriarchate found a resting place. The next largest community were the Jews—about a tenth of the population. Though always cosmopolitan, Istanbul was a thoroughly Muslim city. St Sophia was turned into the chief mosque. Mehmed had the Fatih mosque constructed on the site of the Church of the Holy Apostles. Attached to these were religious, charitable and educational institutions and, by way
Of endowment, markets, shops and workshops. The foundation of such complexes—or imarets— was typical of the growth of the city. The Conqueror's example was followed by his viziers and his successors. Among the most impressive is the Suleymaniye built by Suleyman the Magnificent (1520-66). By his reign the population of Istanbul was approaching the half million mark.
M. Angold
Novgorod in the Later Middle Ages
Novgorod, in existence by the ninth century, was the seat of a bishopric, and from 1165 an archbishopric. It was also by the later Middle Ages the centre of a large city-state with far-flung trading interests. The town was divided by the River Volkov, but linked by a bridge. The St Sophia side was dominated by the cathedral and its surrounding fortress, the Kremlin. The market place, close to the wharfs on the commercial side, was surrounded by mercantile churches, such as St John's Church of the Russian merchants, and the Good Friday Church of the Russian longdistance merchants, and trading depots, such as the Gotenhof of the Gotland merchants and the Hanse's St Petershof. Politically, until its conquest by Ivan III of Russia in 1478, Novgorod was dominated by its archbishop and a group of urban dwelling nobility. For administrative purposes the city was divided into fifths and these in turn into smaller units, the smallest of which was the street.
D. Ditchburn
The Swabian Town League
Later medieval German urban leagues were temporary alliances between neighbouring towns. They were usually directed against knights and princes who threatened urban trading monopolies and jurisdictions. Despite their prohibition in the Golden Bull (1356), leagues flourished because weak kings failed to defend urban interests. When
Charles IV and Wenzel imposed high taxation on some towns, and mortgaged others to their princely enemies in order to fund their dynastic ambitions, fourteen towns under Ulm's leadership formed the Swabian Town League in 1376. The League defeated its main local enemy, the count of Wurtemberg, at Reutlingen (1377), encouraging other towns, notably Regensburg (1381) and Nuremberg (1384) to join. Alliances were made with the Rhenish League (1381) and Swiss Confederation (1385), and the League received implicit imperial recognition in 1384. Nevertheless in 1388 the princes defeated the Swabian League at Doffingen and its Rhenish allies at Worms. The leagues gradually fell apart thereafter and were again proscribed by the Pacification of Eger (1389).
D. Ditchburn
World History
