The Renaissance.--Changes in Political Affairs.--By 1400, however, the Middle Age had nearly passed and a new life had appeared, a new epoch was in progress, which is called the Renaissance, which means "rebirth." In political affairs the spirit of nationality had arisen, and feudalism was already declining. Men began to feel attachment to country, to king, and to fellow-citizens; and the national states, as we now know them, each with its naturally bounded territory, its common language, and its approximately common race, were appearing. France and England were, of these states, the two most advanced politically just previous to the fifteenth century. At this distant time they were still engaged in a struggle which lasted quite a century and is known as the Hundred Years' War. In the end, England was forced to give up all her claims to territory on the continent, and the power of France was correspondingly increased. In France the monarchy (king and court) was becoming the supreme power in the land. The feudal nobles lost what power they had, while the common people gained nothing. In England, however, the foundations for a representative government had been laid. The powers of legislation and government were divided between the English king and a Parliament. The Parliament was first called in 1265 and consisted of two parts,--the Lords, representing the nobility; and the Commons, composed of persons chosen by the common people. Germany was divided into a number of small principalities,--Saxony, Bavaria, Franconia, Bohemia, Austria, the Rhine principalities, and many others,--which united in a great assembly, or Diet, the head of which was some prince, chosen to be emperor. Italy was also divided. In the north, in the valley of the Po, or Lombardy, were the duchy of Milan and the Republic of Venice; south, on the western coast, were the Tuscan states, including the splendid city of Florence. Thence, stretching north and south across the peninsula, were states of the church, whose ruler was the pope, for until less than fifty years ago the pope was not only the head of the church but also a temporal ruler. Embracing the southern part of the peninsula was the principality of Naples. In the Spanish peninsula Christian states had arisen,--in the west, Portugal, in the center and east, Castile, Aragon, and Leon, from all of which the Mohammedans had been expelled. But they still held the southern parts of Spain, including the beautiful plain of Andalusia and Grenada.