Europe in 1300

nation-states

People thought of themselves in local terms. A Breton would be deeply insulted to be called French. Even within traditionally "French" areas, a man from Poitou would call himself a Poitevin, not a Frenchman. He would probably only be called French by a foreigner, based on the language. His loyalty was to his lord first and then to the Count of Poitou. The King of France was only slightly less remote than God. In fact, when travelling abroad, the Poitevin would be more likely to identify himself as a Christian than a Frenchman. This tendency was less strong in England, though identification with the shire was still very marked, especially in certain areas such as Northumbria or Cornwall. The tendency was much stronger in Germany and Italy, where it really was the case that only foreigners used such phrases. So, for example, the Italian merchants in London were called "Lombards" or "Italians" regardless of where they came from in Italy. Similarly, there was the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice—the House of the Germans. But a man of Florence called himself a Florentine or maybe a Tuscan, but never "Italian" nor would any other Italian have used such a term. We see some changes in this over our two hundred years. It's most striking in France and England, where the Hundred Years War really did start to create a sense of national identity, particularly in England. We see it in Italy right at the end of our course, and again war was the agent of the change, though in Italy it has a different tone under the influence of humanism. It was always strongly literary and rhetorical, with little result in practical politics. We see it right at the end of our course in Spain as well, consciously cultivated by the court of Ferdinand and Isabella. Again at the end of our course, we see an attempt made in Germany under Emperor Maximilian, but the effort was only at the imperial level and was not at all effective.