The relationship between towns and lords was fundamental both to the making of towns and to the making of polities in the late Middle Ages. The European literature on state growth has led historians to focus on the role of towns in historicizing narratives of state formation and national exceptionalism. These different narratives have depended on urban typologies that emphasize the importance of the self-governing town at the expense of the town that operated under conditions of lordship. Yet the relationship between towns and lords was an essential, and inescapable, aspect of urban life. The experiences of the English town of Walsall, in the historic county of Staffordshire, are set within a European context. Walsall’s small size made it typical of the majority of urban centres in late medieval Europe. In an enduring pattern, the late medieval town was a site of continuing political experimentation, and urban development necessitated lordship. The complex entanglements between towns and lords also shaped polities. The article makes a case for the comparability of local political landscapes in different parts of Europe.

中文翻译：

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城镇的建立，政体的建立：中世纪晚期欧洲的城镇和领主

城镇与领主之间的关系对于中世纪晚期城镇的形成和政体的形成都至关重要。关于国家发展的欧洲文献使历史学家关注城镇在国家形成和国家例外论的历史叙述中的作用。这些不同的叙述取决于城市类型，这些类型强调自治城镇的重要性，而牺牲了在领主条件下运作的城镇。然而，城镇和领主之间的关系是城市生活中一个重要且不可避免的方面。英国小镇沃尔索尔位于历史悠久的斯塔福德郡，其经历以欧洲为背景。沃尔索尔面积较小，使其成为中世纪晚期欧洲大多数城市中心的典型。在一个持久的模式中，中世纪晚期的城镇是一个持续政治实验的场所，城市的发展需要领主的统治。城镇和领主之间复杂的纠葛也塑造了政治。这篇文章论证了欧洲不同地区当地政治格局的可比性。