ABSTRACT
As towns revived during the High Middle Ages, a new social group developed with a new ideology which both challenged and complemented the traditional feudal orders of medieval society, those who worked, those who prayed, those who fought. This was the bourgeoisie—those who manufactured and traded. As a new group, not only did the members of the bourgeoisie have to invent themselves and their ethos, they also had to invent how they would relate to each other and the other orders. In other words, they had to invent politics for themselves. To separate themselves from feudal society and to distinguish themselves from the feudal orders, the bourgeoisie pushed for liberties of person and property and, eventually, for self-government of their towns. These liberties and this self-government would protect the accumulations and profits of their manufacturing and trading. Once they achieved these goals, sometimes through violence and sometimes through peaceful compromise with their feudal lords, the bourgeoisie further refined their self-government.
