292 THE ROAD TO FREEDOM
most intelligent and most enterprising men of the nation. At the
same time, these men came into contact with traders and others
from foreign countries, and so gleaned from them new and dis-
turbing ideas of the steps taken by men of such towns as Rouen,
or of Laon, to win free from the control of feudal lords. Gradually
arose the imperious need to be masters in their own town, and
they agitated for their freedom.
But, as we Have seen, freedom was not gained merely for the
asking. A multiplicity of reasons actuated the holders of the
franchises; but, generally speaking, no liberty was won except
at the expense of much effort and much gold. Nevertheless, we
must remember that some lords realised it would be to their own
advantage to establish a free borough, well knowing that the de-
velopment of such a borough with its accruing profits from fairs,
markets, tolls, etc., would more than compensate them for the
loss of the services of their sometime serfs. At times a lord would
find that the granting of a charter of burgess rights was the most
fruitful method of restoring a dwindling revenue, or a dwindling
population, as William FitzAlan found about 1190, when he
granted a charter undertaking to protect his burgesses of
Oswestry who took messuages from his bailiff' ' ad emendationem
mercati mei'' .l Everywhere such local conditions had their effect;
yet, it is true that, in the majority of cases, the towns bought their
franchises from impoverished and needy overlords.
The process was gradual, going on step by step, faster here, and
more slowly there, according as circumstances favoured the towns,
and the chances of buying their own freedom occurred; the needs of
the nobles who were setting out for the East gave the opportunity of
bargaining for grants of privilege; and similarly the towns were able
to secure many immunities from royal interference at times when
Richard I started for the Holy Land, and when it was necessary to
raise money for his ransom.2
Even when necessity or expediency dictated the abdication of
some of his powers, the lord did not part with his franchises at a
blow. Only bit by bit, in many cases, could the burgesses win
completely free. We may see this struggle for freedom taking
place all over the country. It was long, for example, before either
Sheffield or Manchester gained complete freedom; the men of
1 EJI.R. xv, 593. * Cunningham, op. cit. an, aiaŤ