60 ON THE PROBABLE ORIGIN 
peace between the contending orders. It is not 
meant that in every city, or even in every king- 
dom, the whole series of these changes was passed 
through; they began and stopped at different . 
points, but such was the general tendency. 
Originally the supremacy over the cities, whose 
contributions were almost the only source whence 
ready money was to be derived, had been care- 
fully reserved by the sovereign to himself, and — 
they were administered by his officers. As a 
consequence of this, no city could fortify itself 
without his permission, and during the earlier 
part of the middle ages they generally remained, 
more especially in the North of Italy, without 
any defence, or only surrounded by mounds 
and palisades.. But as the Dukes and Counts 
became independent of the crown, they took 
upon themselves to erect or allow the inhabitants 
to erect walls. In the towns, which Henry the 
First established throughout the interior of Ger- 
many, he obliged the landed proprietors of the 
adjacent district to reside by turns, in order 
that they might not want defence; and we find 
that in some cities of Languedoc and Germany 
lands were given on military tenure, on condi- 
tion of residence and service in their defence. 
In others, especially in the South of France, the 
citizens themselves possessed lands in military 
