Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/356

3 o6 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE ploughs entered the land, while Flemings and Hollanders, who had learned at home the art of reclaiming fens and morasses, were introduced in large numbers by the new lords of the soil. To get colonists, however, to settle the waste, it German North-Eastward Expansion Frontier of Holy Roman, Empire before 12th century Qerman colonization in 12th and th centuries SCALE OF MILES was necessary to offer them attractive terms and to free them from most of the restrictions imposed by feudal lords upon their peasants. Usually they merely paid a moder- ate money rent. They received larger allotments of land than the average peasant had at home; and in these new settlements the individual's holdings were not scattered about as on the ordinary medieval villa, but comprised one large strip which its holder was free to cultivate as he pleased. In 1 143 was founded by the Count of Holstein the first German city on the Baltic Sea, Lubeck, destined soon to be a great center of trade. In 1165 the discovery of silver in the land of the Sorbs caused a great inrush of fortune- hunters and the growth of the city of Freiberg, not far from