natural centres of court life and court culture. Access to credit supplied by bankers and money-lenders, and the parallel rise of capital cities all contributed to a progressive 'urbanization' of political power during this period. By 1450, Brussels had emerged as the favourite residence of Philip the Good of Burgundy, who made the Coudenberg palace there a centre for his court; Westminster began to dominate over other English royal residences during the reign of Henry III ( 1216-72); while courtly Prague was enlarged and beautified by the building of the Karlštejn castle and the creation of the New Town ( 1348) under Charles IV of Bohemia. It was only in France that political conditions rendered Paris--already a capital city by the early thirteenth century--unpopular to Charles VII ( 1422-61) and Louis XI ( 1461-83), thereby locating the French court in a series of towns and castles along the Loire ( Tours, Loches, Chinon, Amboise). The châteaux of the French Renaissance thus have their origins in the Hundred Years War and the Anglo-Burgundian occupation of Paris ( 1420-36). Elsewhere, with permanent buildings close to the great Departments of State (Chancery, Hofgericht, Exchequer, Chambre des Comptes, Rekken kammer) princely administrations now had power-centres within an essentially urban setting.

The consequences of these developments were far-reaching. The nobilities of western European states found that they needed to maintain a presence at court either in person or by proxy. To hold a town house as well as a rural castle was not alien to some nobilities (such as those of Flanders or Holland), but others were obliged to establish urban hôtels in order to make their presence felt at court. The town residences of the dukes of Burgundy, Bourbon, or Orléans at Paris in the later fourteenth century, or of great English magnates in London, such as John of Gaunt's Savoy palace, pointed to the fact that seigneurial castles in remote rural settings were no longer a sufficient guarantee of political power. One should not exaggerate the significance of this change, because the elaborate building works of Robert II, count of Artois (d. 1302), Jean, duke of Berry (d. 1416), or Ralph, Lord Cromwell (d. 1455), at their own castles of Hesdin, Mehun-sur-Yèvre, or Tattershall

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