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yX.
PREFACE.
The present Edition of the " History of the Middle Ages "
has been undertaken with the concurrence of Mr. Hallam's
representatives, who consider that a great injustice h~as been
done to his literary character by the reprint of the obsolete
edition of 1816, after it had been superseded by the Author's
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plemental notes, which added one-third to the original size
of the Work.
A few words are necessary to explain the plan which the
Editor has adopted in order to bring the Work within one
volume, available for the use of Students. It must not be
regarded as an Abridgment; for though some omissions
have been made, for reasons stated below, they are few in
amount, and nothing essential or important has been left out.
In fact, the great bulk of the book remains unchanged. But
it is necessary to recollect the plan which Mr. Hallam pur-
sued in the later editions of his Work, in order to judge of
the necessity and expediency of the alterations and omissions
made in this Edition; He informed his readers, in the Pref-
ace to his " Supplemental Notes," " that he was always re-
luctant to make such alterations as would leave to the pur-
chasers of former editions a right to complain," and that
being anxious to bring his Work " nearer to the boundaries
of the historic domain, as it had been enlarged within his
own age," he published in a separate form various disqui'
sitions, in which his object was " to reconsider those portions
of the Work which related to subjects discussed by eminent
writers since its publication, to illustrate and enlarge some
passages which had been imperfectly or obscurely treated,
and to acknowledge with freedom his own errors." Now,
however much we may respect the Authr'^'s motives in
^909
50^'
tv PREFACE.
adopting this method, and his candor in acknowledging his
errors, the plan is attended with the obvious inconvenience
of having two books to consult instead of one, and of finding
statements in the Text not unfrequently contradicted or mod-
ified by corrections in the Notes. Accordingly, in preparing
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visable to incorporate in the Text the corrections made in
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end of each chapter the inform^ation which could not conven-
iently be interwoven with the Text. By this means, and by
giving the conclusions at which the Author had arrived, with'
out, in all cases, enumerating the opinions of writers which
he mentioned only to reject, much space has been saved.
Moreover, a further saving has been effected by occasionally
abbreviating some of the less important remarks, and by
leaving out most of the notes at the foot of the pages con-
taining reference to authorities, which, however serviceable
to historical inquirers, can be of no use to Students in Schools
and Colleges.
The Editor has added to the chapter on the Constitutional
History of England various original documents, which will
be of great service to the student. Of these, the most im-
portant are, the Statutes of William the Conqueror, the Char-
ter of Liberties of Henry I, the Constitutions of Clarendon,
and the Assize of Clarendon, the Magna Charta, and the Con-
firmation of the Charters. He has also inserted genealogical
and other Tables, and has supplied some information from
important w^orks treating of the subjects discussed by Mr.
Hallam, which have appeared since the last edition of his
book. But such alterations and additions have been made
sparingly, and it has been the aim of the Editor to present
the Work as nearly as possible in the form in which he con-
ceives the Author would have wished it to appear if he had
himself prepared an edition for the special use of Students.
Wm. Smith.
London, May 10, 1871.
CONTENTS.
OIIAP. PAQH
I. The History of France, from its Conquest by Clovis to
THE Invasion of Naples by Charles VIII. :
Part 1 8
Part II.— From the Accession of Philip of Valois to
the Invasion of Naples by Charles VIII. 44
Notes to Chapter I. — Part I.
I. The Armorican Republic 71
II. The Franks 71
III. The Consulship of Clovis 71
IV. The Mayor of the Palace 72
V. Aquitaine 73
VI. The Subjection of the Saxons 72
VII. Charlemagne, Emperor 73
VIII. The Kingdom of Burgundy 74
IX. Authorities for French History 75
11. On the Feudal System, especially in France:
Part 1 76
Part II 96
Notes to Chapter II.
I. The Salic and other Laws of the Barbarians 145
II. Tributarii, Lidi, and Coloni 140
III. Municipal Government 146
III. The History of Italy, from the Extinction of the Carlo-
viNGiAN Emperors to the Invasion of Naples by Charles
VIII. :
Part I 148
Part II 179
Note to Chapter III.
Authorities for Italian History 234
IV. The History of Spain to the Conquest of Granada 236
V. History of Germany to the Diet of Worms, in 1495 270
VI. History of the Greeks and Saracens 302
VII. History of Ecclesiastical Power during the Middle Ages:
Part 1 316
Part II 349
VIII. The Anglo-Saxon Constitution:
Part 1 384
Notes to Chapter VIII.— Part I.
I. The Bretwaldas 400
II. Saxon Kings of all England 401
HI. Eorls and Ceorls , 402
IV. The Witenagemot 404
V. Trial by Jury , , , . . , 405
vi CONTENTS.
OHAP. PAGB
VIII. Part II. — The Anglo-Norman Constitution 408
Notes to Chapter VIII.— Part II.
I. The Legislation of the Great Council 439
II. Duration of distinction between Norman and Saxon . . , 439
III. Statutes of William the Conqueror 440
Part III.— The English Constitution 441
Notes to Chapter VIII.— Part III. :
I. Municipal Rights of London 546
II. Popular Poetry 547
IX. On the State of Society in Europe during the Middle Ages:
Part 1 559
Part II 593
Notes to Chapter IX. — Part II.
I. Domestic Architecture 685
II. Petrarch's Laura 685
III. Early Legislative use of English 686
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS.
I. Charter of Liberties of Henry 1 548
II. Constitutions of Clarendon .549
III. Assize of Clarendon 5.50
IV. Magna Charta .5.52
V. Confirmation of the Charters .5.57
VI. Summons to the Parliament of 1265 558
GENEALOGICAL TABLES.
Of the Successors of Louis the Debonair 18
Of the Successors of Hugh Capet 25
Of the House of Valois of France 43
Of the Second Ducal House of Burgundy 64
Of the Kings of Naples of the House of Anjou 220
Of the Kings of Sicily of the House of Aragon 221
Of the Titular Kings of Naples of the Second House of Anjou 224
Of the respective Titles of the Competitors to tlie Crown of Aragon 258
LISTS.
Of Emperors during the Middle Ages 270
Of Popes during the Middle Ages 316
THE STUDENT'S
HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
CHAPTER I.
THE HISTORY OF FRANCE FROM ITS CONQUEST BY CLOVIS TC
THE INVASION OF NAPLES BY CHARLES VIIL
PART I.
5 L Fall of the Roman Empire^ § 2. Invasion of Clovis. § 3. The Meeovingianb,
or first Race of French Kings. Accession of Pepin. § 4. The Carlovingians.
State of Italy. § 5. Charlemagne. His Reign. § 6. His Coronation as iJmperor.
§ 7. His Character. § 8. Louis the Debonair. § 9. His Successors. § 10. Remarks
upon the Cariovingiau Period. § 11. Calamitous State of the Empire in the Ninth
and Tenth Centuries. § 12, The Hungarians. § 13. 'J'he Normans. § 14. Acces-
sion of Hugh Capet. § 15. His first Successors. § 10. Louis VII. § IT. Philip
Augustus. Conquest of Normandy. § 18. War in Languedoc. § 19. Louis IX.
His Character. § 20. Digression upon the Crusades. § 21. Philip III. § 22. Philip
IV. Aggrandizement of French Monarchy under his Reign. § 23. Suppression
of the Knights Templars. § 24. Reigns of his Children. Question of Salic Law.
§ 25. Claim of Edward III.
§ 1. Before the conclusion of the fifth century the mighty
fabric of empire which valor and policy had founded upon
the seven hills of Rome was finally overthrown in all the
west of Europe by the barbarous nations from the North,
whose martial energy and whose numbers were irresistible.
A race of men, formerly unknown or despised, had not only
dismembered that proud sovereignty, but permanently set-
tled themselves in its fairest provinces, and imposed their
yoke upon the ancient possessors. The Vandals were mas-
ters of Africa ; the Suevi held part of Spain ; the Visigoths
possessed the remainder, with a large portion of Gaul ; the
Burgundians occupied the provinces watered by the Rhone
and Saone ; the Ostrogoths almost all Italy. The north-west
of Gaul, between the Seine and the Loire, some writers have
filled with an Armorican republic ;^ while the remainder was
Btill nominally subject to the Roman Empire, and governed
* See Note I., '"The Armorican Republic."
8,^ ■ .' ." o-c'- ' INVASION OF CLOVIS. Chap. I. Takt I.
by a ceVtain Syagriiis, ra'ther with an independent than a
deputed authority.
§ 2. At this time Clovis, king of tlie Salian Franks,'^ a tribe
of Germans long connected with Rome, and originally set-
tled upon the right bank of the Rhine, but who had latterly
penetrated as far as Tournay and Cambray, invaded Gaul,
and defeated Syagrius at Soissons (a.d. 486). The result of
this victory was the subjugation of those provinces which
had previously been considered as Roman. But as their al-
legiance had not been very strict, so their loss was not very
severely felt ; since Anastasius, the Emperor of Constantino-
ple, was not too proud to confer upon Clovis the titles of
consul and patrician, which he was too prudent to refuse.^
§ 3. Clovis was the founder of the Merovingian dynasty.
But the history of this period is so intricate, that it may as-
sist the memory to distribute it into the following divisions:
I. The Meign of Clovis (a.d. 481-511). — Some years after
his recognition by the Emperor, Clovis defeated the Aleman-
ni, or Suabians, in a great battle at Zulpich, near Cologne.
In consequence of a vow, it was said, made during this en-
gagement, and at the instigation of his wife Clotilda, a prin-
cess of Burgundy, he became a convert to Christianity (a.d,
496). It would be a fruitless inquiry whether he was sincere
in this change ; but it is certain, at least, that no policy could
have been more successful. The Arian sect, which had been
early introduced among the barbarous nations, was predom-
inant, though apparently without intolerance, in the Burgun-
dian and Visigoth courts ; but the clergy of Gaul were stren-
uously attached to the Catholic side, and, even before his
conversion, had favored the arms of Clovis. They now be-
came his most zealous supporters, and were rewarded by him
with artful gratitude, and by his descendants with lavish
munificence. Upon the pretense of religion he attacked Al-
aric, king of the Visigoths, and by one great victory near
Poitiers, overthrowing their empire in Gaul, reduced them
to the maritime province of Septimania, a narrow strip of
coast between the Rhone and the Pyrenees (a.d. 507). The
last exploits of Clovis w^ere the reduction of certain independ-
ent chiefs of his own tribe and family, who were settled in
the neighborhood of the Rhine. All these he put to death
by force or treachery ; for he was cast in the true mould of
conquerors, and may justly be ranked among the first of his
class, both for the splendor and the guiltiness of his ambi-
tion.
8 See Note II., " The Franks." ^ See Note III., " The Consnlship of Clovis."
France. THE MEKOVIXGIAN DYNASTY. 9
II. The Reigns of the four Sons of Cloms (a.d. 511-561). —
Clovis left four sons ; one illegitimate, or at least born before
his conversion ; and three by his queen Clotilda. These four
made, it is said, an equal partition of his dominions, which
comprehended not only France, but the western and central
parts of Germany, besides Bavaria, and perhaps Suabia, which
were governed by their own dependent, but hereditary, chiefs.
Thierry, the eldest, had wdiat was called Austrasia, the east-
ern or German division, and fixed his capital at Metz; Clodo-
mir, at Orleans ; Childebert at Paris ; and Clotaire, at Sois-
sons. During their reigns the monarchy was aggrandized
by the conquest of Burgundy, and Provence, in Gaul itself,
while Thuringia, Suabia, and Bavaria, on the other side of
the Rhine, were added to their dominions. Clotaire, the
youngest brother, ultimately reunited all the kingdoms.
III. From the Death of Clotaire I. to the Accession of Clo-
taire II. (a.d. 561-613). — Upon the death of Clotaire I. a sec-
ond partition among his four sons ensued ; the four kingdoms
of Paris, Soissons, Orleans, and Austrasia revived ; but a new
partition of these was required by the recent conquests, and
Gontran of Orleans, without resigning that kingdom, removed
his residence to Burgundy. The four kingdoms were reduced
to three by the death of Caribert, king of Paris ; one, after-
wards very celebrated by the name of Neustria, between the
Scheldt and the Loire, was formed under Chilperic, compre-
hending those of Paris and Soissons. Caribert of Paris had
taken Aquitaine, which at his death was divided among the
three survivors ; Austrasia was the portion of Sigebert. This
generation was fruitful of still more crimes than the last, re-
deemed by no golden glory of conquest. Fredegonde, the
wife of Chilperic, diffused a baleful light over this period.
But while she tyrannized with little control in the west of
France, her rival and sister in crime, Brunehaut, w^ife of Sige-
bert and mother of Thierry IL, his successor, had to encoun-
ter a powerful opposition from the Austrasian aristocracy ;
and in this part of the monarchy a new feature developed
itself; the great proprietors, or nobility, acted systematically
with a view to restrain the royal power. Brunehaut, after
many vicissitudes, and after having seen her two sons on the
thrones of Austrasia and Burgundy, fell into the hands of
Clotaire II., king of the other division, and was sentenced to
a cruel death.* Clotaire united the three Frank kingdoms.
* The names of Fredegonde and Brunehant are distinguished even in that age for
the magnitude of their crimes ; of the atrocities of Fredegonde none have doubted ;
and Brunehaut has met with advocates in modern times, less, perhaps, from any fair
1*
10 THE MEROVINGIAN DYNASTY. Chap. I. Part I.
IV. Reigns of Clotaire II. and his Son Dagohert I. (a.d.
613-638). — The royal power, though shaken by the Austra-
sian aristocracy, was still effective. Dagobert, a prince who
seems to have rather excelled most of his family, and to
whose munificence several extant monuments of architecture
and the arts are referred, endeavored to stem the current.
He was the last of the Merovingians who appears to have
possessed any distinctive character.
V. From the Accession of Olovis II., Son of Dagobert, to
Pepin HeristaVs Victory over the Neustrians at Testry (a.d.
638-687). — After Dagobert the kings of France dwindled
into personal insignificance, and are generally treated by later
historians as insensati, or idiots. The whole power of the
kingdom devolved upon the mayors of the palace, originally
oflScers of the household, through whom petitions or repre-
sentations were laid before the king.^ The weakness of sov-
ereigns rendered this ofiice important, and still greater weak-
ness suffered it to become elective ; men of energetic talents
and ambition united it with military command ; and the his-
tory of France for half a century presents no names more
conspicuous than those of Ebroin and Grimoald, mayors of
Neustria and Austrasia, the western and eastern divisions of
the French monarchy. ° These, however, met with violent
ends ; but a more successful usurper of the royal authority
was Pepin Heristal, first mayor, and afterwards duke, of Aus-
trasia. After becoming the acknowledged head of this part
of the kingdom, he put an end to the independence of Neus-
tria also by the decisive battle of Testry, fought in 687. The
battle of Testry is one of the turning-points in French his-
presumptions of her iuuoceuce than from compassion for the cruel death which she
underwent. Brunehaut was no unimportant personage in this history. She had
become hateful to the Austrasiau aristocracy by her Gothic blood, and still more by
her Roman principles of government There was evidently a combination to throw
off the yoke of civilized tyranny. It was a great conflict, which ended in the virtual
dethronement of the house of Clovis. Much, therefore, may have been exaggerated
by Fredegarius, a Burgundian by birth, in relating the crimes of Brunehaut. But,
unhappily, the antecedent presumption, in the history of that age, is always on the
worse side. She was unquestionably endowed with a masculine energy of mind, and
very superior to such a mere imp of audacious wickedness as Fredegonde. BrunC'
haut left a great and almost fabulous name ; public causeways, towers, castles, in
different parts of France, are popularly ascribed to her. It has even been suspected
by some that she suggested the appellation of Brunechild in the Nibelungen Lied.
That there is no resemblance in the story or in the character, courage excepted, of
the two heroines, can not be thought an objection.
* See Note IV., "The Mayor of the Palace."
• The original kingdoms of Soissons, Paris, and Orleans were consolidated into
that denominated Neustria, to which Burgundy was generally appendant, though
distinctly governed by a mayor of its own election. But Aqnitaine was, from the
time of Dagobert I., separated from the rest of the monarchy, under a ducal dynasty,
sprung from Aribert, brother of that monarch. See Note V,, "Aqnitaine."
France. ACCESSION OF PEPIN. 11
tory. It gave the death-blow to Merovhigian royalty : it
brought to a termination the struggle between the two great
members of the Frank empire; it assured the preponderance
of Teutonic over Roman Gaul. Pepin fixed his residence
at Cologne, and his family seldom kept their court at Paris.
The kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria rested on different
bases. In the former the Franks were more numerous, less
scattered, and, as far as we can perceive, had a more con-
siderable nobility. They had received a less tincture of Ro-
man policy. They were nearer to the mother country, which
had been, as the earth to Antaeus, the source of perpetually
recruited vigor. Burgundy, a member latterly of the Neus-
trian monarchy, had also a powerful aristocracy, but not in
so great a degree, probably, of Frank, or even barbarian de-
scent. It is highly important to keep in mind this distinc-
tion between Austrasia and Neustria, subsisting for some ages,
and, in fact, only replaced, speaking without exact geograph-
ical precision, by that of Germany and France.
VI. From the Battle of Testry to the Accession of Pepin le
Bref (a.d. 687-752).— From this time the family of Pepin
was virtually sovereign in France, though at every vacancy
kings of the royal house were placed by them on the throne.
Charles Martel, indeed, son of Pepin, was not acknowledged,
even in Austrasia, for a short time after his father's death,
and Neustria attempted to regain her independence ; but he
was soon called to power, defeated, like his father, the west-
ern Franks, and became, in almost as great a degree as his
grandson, the founder of a new monarchy. But in 732 he
w^as called upon to encounter a new and terrible enemy.
The Saracens, after subjugating Spain, had penetrated into
the very heart of France. Charles Martel gained a complete
victory over them between Tours and Poitiers, in which
300,000 Mohammedans are hyperbolically asserted to have
fallen. The reward of this victory was the province of Septi-
mania, which the Saracens had conquered from the Visigoths.^
Such powerful subjects were not likely to remain long
'' The victory of Charles Martel has immortalized his name, and may justly be reck-
oned among those few battles of which a contrary event would have essentially va-
ried the drama of the world in all its subsequent scenes ; with Marathon, Arbela, the
Metaurus, Chalons, and Leipsic. Yet do we not judge a little too much by the event,
and follow, as usual, in the wake of fortune ? Has not more frequent experience con-
demned those who set the fate of empires upon a single cast, and risk a general bat-
tle with invaders, whose greater peril is in delay ? "Was not this the fatal error by
which Roderic had lost his kingdom ? Was it possible that the Saracens could have
retained any permanent possession of France, except by means of a victory ? And
did not the contest upon the broad champaign of Poitou afford them a considerable
prospect of success, which a more cautions policy would have withheld?
•12 THE CARLO VINGIANS. Chap. I. Part 1,
contented without the crown ; but the circumstances under
which it was transferred from the race of Clovis are connect-
ed with one of the most important revolutions in the histo-
ry of Europe. The mayor Pepin, surnamed le Bref, to dis-
tinguish him from his grandfather, inheriting his father
Charles Martel's talents and ambition, made, in the name
and with the consent of the nation, a solemn reference to the
pope Zacharias, as to the deposition of Chilperic III., under
whose nominal authority he himself was reigning. The de-
cision was favorable ; that he who possessed the power should
also bear the title of king. The unfortunate Merovingian
was dismissed into a convent, and the Franks, with one con-
sent, raised Pepin to the throne, the founder of a more illus-
trious dynasty (a.d. 752). In order to judge of the impor-
tance of this revolution to the See of Rome as well as to
France, we must turn our eyes upon the affairs of Italy.
§ 4. The Carlovingiaxs. — The dominion of the Ostrogoths
was annihilated by the arms of Belisarius and Narses in the
sixth century, and that nation appears no more in history.
But not long afterwards the Lombards, a people for some
time settled in Pannonia, not only subdued that northern
part of Italy which has retained their name, but, extending
themselves southward, formed the powerful duchies of Spo-
leto and Benevento. The residence of their kings was in
Pavia ; but the hereditary vassals, Avho held those two
duchies, might be deemed almost independent sovereigns.
The rest of Italy was governed by exarchs, deputed by the
Greek emperors, and fixed at Ravenna. In Rome itself nei-
ther the people nor the bishops, who had already conceived
in part their schemes of ambition, were much inclined to en-
dure the superiority of Constantinople ; yet their disaffection
was counterbalanced by the inveterate hatred, as well as
jealousy, with which they regarded the Lombards. But an
impolitic and intemperate persecution, carried on by two
or three Greek emperors against a favorite superstition, the
worship of images, excited commotions throughout Italy, of
which the Lombards took advantage, and easily wrested the
exarchate of Ravenna from the Eastern empire (a.d. 752). It
was far from the design of the popes to see their nearest
enemies so much aggrandized; and any effectual assistance
from the Emperor, Constantine Copronymus, would have kept
Rome still faithful. But having no hope from his arms, and
provoked by his obstinate intolerance, the pontiffs had re-
course to France ,' and the service they had rendered to
Pepin led to reciprocal obligations of the greatest magni-
France. CHARLEMAGNE. 13
tude. At the request of Stephen II. the new king of France
descended from the Alps, drove the Lombards from their re-
cent conquests, and conferred them upon the pope. This
memorable donation nearly comprised the modern provinces
of Romagna and the March of Ancona.
§5. Charlemagne (a.d, '768-814). —The state of Italy,
which had undergone no change for nearly two centuries,
was now rapidly verging to a great revolution. Under the
shadow of a mighty name the Greek empire had concealed
the extent of its decline. That charm was now broken ; and
the Lombard kingdom, which had hitherto appeared the only
competitor in the lists, proved to have lost its own energy in
awaiting the occasion for its display. France was far more
than a match for the power of Italy, even if she had not
been guided by the towering ambition and restless activity
of the son of Pepin. It was almost the first exploit of Char-
lemagne, after the death of his brother Carloman had re-
united the Frankish empire under his dominion, to subjugate
the kingdom of Lombardy (a.d. 774). Neither Pavia nor Ve-
rona, its most considerable cities, interposed any material
delay to his arms ; and the chief resistance he encountered
was from the dukes of Friuli and Benevento, the latter of
whom could never be brought into thorough subjection to
the conqueror. Italy, however, be the cause what it might,
seems to have tempted Charlemagne far less than the dark
forests of Germany. For neither the southern provinces nor
Sicily could have withstood his power if it had been steadily
directed against them. Even Spain hardly drew so much of
his attention as the splendor of the prize might naturally
have excited. He gained, however, a very important acces-
sion to his empire, by conquering from the Saracens the ter-
ritory contained between the Pyrenees and the Ebro. This
was formed into the Spanish March, governed by the Count
of Barcelona, part of which at least must be considered as
appertaining to France till the twelfth century.
But the most tedious and difficult achievement of Charle-
magne was the reduction of the Saxons. The wars with this
nation, who occupied nearly the modern circles of Westphalia
and Lower Saxony, lasted for thirty years. Whenever the
conqueror withdrew his armies, or even his person, the Sax-
ons broke into fresh rebellion, which his unparalleled rapid-
ity of movement seldom failed to crush without delay. From
such perseverance on either side, destruction of the weaker
could alone result. A large colony of Saxons were finally
transplanted into Flanders and Brabant, countries hitherto ill«
14 CHARLEMAGNE. Chap. I. Part I
peopled, in which their descendants preserved the same un-
conquerable spirit of resistance to oppression. Many fled to
the kingdoms of Scandinavia, and, mingling with the North-
men, who w^ere just preparing to ran their memorable career,
revenged upon the children and subjects of Charlemagne the
devastation of Saxony. The remnant embraced Christianity,
their aversion to which had been the chief cause of their re-
bellions, and acknowledged the sovereignty of Charlemagne
— a submission which even Witikind, the^ second Arniinius
of Germany, after such irresistible conviction of her destiny,
did not disdain to make. But they retained, in the main,
their own laws; they were governed by a duke of their own
nation, if not of their own election ; and for many ages they
were distinguished by their original character among the na-
tions of Germany.®
The success of Charlemagne on the eastern frontier of his
empire against the Sclavonians of Bohemia and Huns or
Avars of Pannonia, though obtained with less cost, were
hardly less eminent. In all his wars the newly conquered
nations, or those whom fear had made dependent allies, were
employed to subjugate their neighbors, and the incessant
waste of fatigue and the sword was supplied by a fresh pop-
ulation that swelled the expanding circle of dominion. The
limits of the new Western empire are not very exactly de-
fined by contemporary writers, nor would it be easy to ap-
preciate the degree of subjection in which the Sclavonian
tribes were held. As an organized mass of provinces, regu-
larly governed by imperial ofticers, it seems to have been
nearly bounded, in Germany, by the Elbe, the Saale, the Bo-
hemian mountains, and a line drawn from thence crossing the
Danube above Vienna, and prolonged to the Gulf of Istria.
Part of Dalmatia was comprised in the Duchy of Friuli. In
Italy the empire extended not much beyond the modern
frontier of Naples, if we exclude, as was the fact, the Duchy
of Benevento from any thing more than a titular subjection.
The Spanish boundary, as has been said already, was the
Ebro.
§ 6. A seal was put to the glory of Charlemagne when
Leo III., in the name of the Roman people, placed upon his
head the imperial crown (a.d. 800). His father, Pepin, had
borne the title of Patrician, and he had himself exercised,
with that title, a regular sovereignty over Rome. Money
was coined in his name, and an oath of fidelity was taken
by the clergy and people. But the appellation of Emperor
8 See Note VI., " The Subjection of the Saxons."
FRANCE. CHARACTER OF CHARLEMAGNE. 15
seemed to place his authority over all his subjects on a new
footing. It was full of high and indefinite pretension, tend-
ing to overshadow the free election of the Franks by a fic-
titious descent from Augustus. A fresh oath of fidelity to
him as emperor was demanded from his subjects.*
§ 7. In analyzing the characters of heroes it is hardly pos-
sible to separate altogether the share of fortune from their
own. The epoch made by Charlemagne in the history of
the world, the illustrious families which prided themselves
in him as their progenitor, the very legends of romance,
which are full of his fabulous exploits, have cast a lustre
around his head, and testify the greatness that has embodied
itself in his name. None, indeed, of Charlemagne's wars can
be compared with the Saracenic victory of Charles Martel ;
but that was a contest for freedom, his for conquest ; and
fame is more partial to successful aggression than to patri-
otic resistance. As a scholar, his acquisitions were probably
little superior to those of his unrespected son ; and in sev-
eral points of view the glory of Charlemagne might be ex-
tenuated by an analytical dissection. But, rejecting a mode
of judging equally uncandid and fillacious, w^e shall find
that he possessed in every thing that grandeur of conception
which distinguishes extraordinary minds. Like Alexander,
he seemed born for universal innovation : in a life restlessly
active, we see him reforming the coinage and establishing
the legal divisions of money ; gathering about him the learn-
ed of every country ; founding schools and collecting libra-
ries ; interfering, but with the tone of a king, in religious
controversies ; aiming, though prematurely, at the formation
of a naval force ; attempting, for the sake of commerce, the
magnificent enterprise of uniting the Rhine and Danube ;
and meditating to mould the discordant codes of Roman and
barbarian laws into a uniform system.
The great qualities of Charlemagne were, indeed, alloyed
by the vices of a barbarian and a conqueror. Nine wives,
whom he divorced with very little ceremony, attest the li-
cense of his private life, which his temperance and frugality
can hardly be said to redeem. Unsparing of blood, though
not constitutionally cruel, and wholly indifferent to the means
which his ambition prescribed, he beheaded in one day four
thousand Saxons — an act of atrocious butchery, after which
his persecuting edicts, pronouncing the pain of death against
those who refused baptism, or even w^ho ate flesh during
Lent, seem scarcely w^orthy of notice. This union of barba-
» See Note VII. , " Charlemagne, Emperor."
i(> LOLltS THE DEBONAIK. Chap. I. Part 1.
rous ferocity with elevated views of national improvement
might suggest the parallel of Peter the Great. But the de-
grading habits and brute violence of the Muscovite place
him at an immense distance from the restorer of the emjDire.
A strong sympathy for intellectual excellence was the
leading characteristic of Charlemagne, and this undoubtedly
biased him in the chief political error of his conduct — that
of encouraging the power and pretensions of the hierarchy.
But, perhaps, his greatest eulogy is written in the disgraces
of succeeding times and the miseries of Europe. He stands
alone, like a beacon upon a waste, or a rock in the broad
ocean. His sceptre was the bow of Ulysses, which could
not be drawn by any weaker hand. In the Dark Ages of
European history the reign of Charlemagne affords a solitary
resting-place between two long periods of turbulence and ig-
nominy, deriving the advantages of contrast both from that
of the preceding dynasty and of a posterity for whom he had
formed an empire which they were unworthy and unequal to
maintain.
§ 8. Louis the Debonair (a.d. 814-840). — Under this
prince, called by the Italians the Pious, and by the French
the Debonair, or good-natured,'" the mighty structure of his
father's power began rapidly to decay. I do not know that
Louis deserves so much contempt as he has undergone ; but
historians have in general more indulgence for splendid crimes
than for the weaknesses of virtue. There w^as no defect in
Louis's understanding or courage; he was accomplished in
martial exercises, and in all the learning which an education,
excellent for that age, could supply. No one was ever more
anxious to reform the abuses of administration ; and who-
ever compares his capitularies with those of Charlemagne
will perceive that, as a legislator, he was even superior to his
father. The fault lay entirely in his heart; and this fault
was nothing but a temper too soft and a conscience too
strict. It is not wonderful that the empire should have been
speedily dissolved ; a succession of such men as Charles
Martel, Pepin, and Charlemagne could alone have preserved
its integrity ; but the misfortunes of Louis and his people
were immediately owing to the following errors of his con-
duct.
Soon after his accession Louis thought fit to associate his
eldest son, Lothaire, to the empire, and to confer the prov-
inces of Bavaria and Aquitaine, as subordinate kingdoms
10 These names meant the same thins:. Piu^ had, even in good Latin, the sense
mitis, meek, forbearing, or what the French call debonnaire.
Fkance. LOUIS THE DEBONAIR. 17
upon the two younger, Louis and Pepin, a.d. 817. The step
was, in appearance, conformable to his father's policy, who
had acted towards himself in a similar manner. But such
measures are not subject to general rules, and exact a care-
ful regard to characters and circumstances. The principle,
however, which regulated this division was learned from
Charlemagne, and could alone, if strictly pursued, have given
unity and permanence to the empire. The elder brother
was to preserve his superiority over the others, so that they
should neither make peace nor war, nor even give answer to
ambassadors, without his consent. Upon the death of either
no further partition was to be made ; but whichever of his
children might become the popular choice was to inherit the
whole kingdom, under the same superiority of the head of the
family. This compact was, from the beginning, disliked by
the younger brothers ; and an event upon which Louis does
not seem to have calculated soon disgusted his colleague, Lo-
thaire. Judith of Bavaria, the emperor's second wife, an am-
bitious woman, bore him a son, by name Charles, whom both
parents were naturally anxious to place on an equal footing
with his brothers. But this could only be done at the ex-
pense of Lothaire, who was ill disposed to see his empire still
further dismembered for this child of a second bed. Louis
passed his life in a struggle with three undutiful sons, who
abused his paternal kindness by constant rebellions.
These were rendered more formidable by the concurrence
of a different class of enemies, whom it had been another er-
ror of the emperor to provoke. Charlemagne had assumed a
thorough control and supremacy over the clergy ; and his
son was perhaps still more vigilant in chastising their irreg-
ularities, and reforming their rules of discipline. But to this,
which they had been compelled to bear at the hands of the
first, it was not equally easy for the second to obtain their
submission. Louis, therefore, drew on himself the inveterate
enmity of men who united M'ith the turbulence of martial
nobles a skill in managing those engines of offense which
were peculiar to their order, and to which the implicit devo-
tion of his character laid him very open. Yet, after many
vicissitudes of fortune, and many days of ignominy, his wish-
es were eventually accomplished.
§ 9. Upon the death of Louis the Debonair, his youngest
son, Charles, surnamed the Bald, obtained most part of
France, while Germany fell to the share of Louis, and the
rest of the imperial dominions, with the title, to the eldest,
Lothair. This partition was the result of a sanguinary,
18 SUCCESSORS OF LOUIS THE DEBONAIR. Chap. I. Pakt I.
though short, contest ; and it gave a fatal blow to the em-
pire of the Franks. For the treaty of Verdun in 843 abro-
gated the sovereignty that had been attached to the eldest
brother and to the imperial name in former partitions : each
held his respective kingdom as an independent right. This
is the epoch of a final separation between the French and
German members of the empire. Its millenary was cele-
brated by some of the latter nation in 1843.*^
SUCCESSORS OF LOUIS THE DEBONAIR.
Louis the Debonair.
(S 14-840).
Lothaire,
emperor
(ob. 855).
Louis II.,
emperor
(ob. 8T6).
I
Lothaire,
k.of
Lorraine
(ob. 869).
Charles,
k. of
Burgundy
and
Provence
(ob. 803).
Pepin
(ob. 838)
Pepin II.,
k.of
Aquitaiue.
Louis the Charles the
German Bald,
(ob. 8TG). k.of France
(ob. 87T).
Charles
the Fat,
k. and
emperor
(ob. 888).
Louis
le Begue
(ob. 879).
Louis III.
(ob. 882).
Carloman
(ob. 884),
Charles the Simple
(ob. 929).
Louis IV.
(d'Outremer)
(ob. 954.)
Lothaire
(ob. 986).
I
Louis V.
(ob. 987).
Charles,
d. of Lorraine
(ob. 992).
The subsequent partitions made among the children of
these brothers are of too rapid succession to be here related.
In about forty years the empire was nearly reunited un-
der Charles the Fat, son of Louis of Germany ; but his short
and inglorious reign ended in his deposition. From this
time the possession of Italy was contested among her native
princes ; Germany fell at first to an illegitimate descendant
of Charlemagne, and in a short time was entirely lost by his
" In the division made by the treaty of Verdnn, the kingdom of France, which fell
to Charles the Bald, had for its eastern boundary the Meuse, the Saoue, and the
Rhone ; which, nevertheless, can only be understood of the Upper Meuse, since Bra-
bant was certainly not comprised in it. Lothaire, the elder brother, besides Italy,
had a kingdom called Lorrain, from his name (Lotharingia), extending from the
mouth of the Rhine to Provence, bounded by that river on one frontier, by France on
the other. Louis took all beyond the Rhine, and was usually styled the Germanic.
France. THE CARLOVINGIAN PERIOD. 19
family ; two kingdoms, afterwards united, were formed by-
usurpers out of what was then called Burgundy, and com-
prised the provinces between the Rhone and the Alps, with
Franche Comte and great part of Switzerland." In France
the Carlovingian kings continued for another century ; but
their line was interrupted two or three times by the election
or usurpation of a powerful family, the counts of Paris and
Orleans, who ended, like the old mayors of the palace, in dis-
persing the phantoms of royalty they had professed to serve.
Hugh Capet, the representative of this House, upon the
death of Louis V., placed himself upon the throne ; thus
founding the third and most permanent race of French sov-
ereigns. Before this happened, the descendants of Charle-
magne had sunk into insignificance, and retained little more
of France than the city of Laon. The rest of the kingdom
had been seized by the powerful nobles, who, with the nom-
inal fidelity of the feudal system, maintained its practical in-
dependence and rebellious spirit.
§ 10. The second period of Carlovingian history, or that
which elapsed from the reign of Charles the Bald to the ac-
cession of Hugh Capet, must be reckoned the transitional
state, through scenes of barbarous anarchy, from the artifi-
cial scheme devised by Charlemagne, in which the Roman
and German elements of civil policy were rather in conflict
than in union, to a new state of society — the feudal, which,
though pregnant itself with great evil, was the means both of
preserving the frame of European policy from disintegration,
and of elaborating the moral and constitutional principles
upon which it afterwards rested.
This period exhibits, upon the w^hole, a failure of the grand
endeavor made by Charlemagne for the regeneration of his
empire. This proceeded very much from the common
chances of hereditary succession, especially when not coun-
terbalanced by established powers independent of it. Three
of his name, Charles the Bald, the Fat, and the Simple, had
time to pull down what the great legislator and conqueror
had erected. Encouraged by their pusillanimity and weak-
ness, the nobility strove to revive the spirit of the seventh
century. They entered into a coalition with the bishops,
though Charles the Bald had often sheltered himself behind
the crosier ; and they compelled his son, Louis the Stam-
merer, not only to confirm their own privileges and those of
the Church, but to style himself " King, by the grace of God
and election of the people ;" which, indeed, according to the
" See Note VIII., "On the kingdom of Burgundy."
20 CALAMITOUS STATE OF THE EMPIKE. Chap. I. Part I.
established constitution, was no more than truth, since the
absolute right to succession was only in the family. The in-
ability of the crown to protect its subjects from their in-
vaders rendered this assumption of aristocratic independ-
ence absolutely necessary. In this age of agony, Sismondi
well says, the nation began to revive ; new social bodies
sprung from the carcass of the great empire. France, so de-
fenseless under the Bald and the Fat Charleses, bristled with
castles before 930. She renewed the fable of Deucalion ; slie
sowed stones, and armed men rose out of them. The lords
surrounded themselves with vassals; and had not tlie Nor-
man incursions ceased before, they would have met Avith a
much more determined resistance than in the preceding cen-
tury.^'
The theory propounded by Thierry, and accepted by many
French writers, to elucidate the Carlovingian period, re-
quires a brief notice. Thierry maintains that the key to all
the revolutions in two centuries is to be found in the antip-
athy of the Romans, that is, the ancient inhabitants, to the
Franks or Germans. The latter were represented by the
house of Charlemagne ; the former by that of Robert the
Brave, through its valiant descendants, Eudes, Robert, and
Hugh Capet. But though the differences of origin and lan-
guage, so far as they existed, might be by no means unim-
portant in the great revolution near the close of the tenth
century, they can not be relied upon as sufficiently explain-
ing its cause. The partisans of either family were not exclu-
sively of one blood. The house of Capet itself was not of
Roman, but probably of Saxon descent. It is certainly prob-
able that the Neustrian French had come to feel a greater
sympathy with the house of Capet than with a line of kings
who rarely visited their country, and whom they could not
but contemplate as in some adverse relation to their natural
and popular chiefs. But the national voice was not greatly
consulted in those ages. It is remarkable that several
writers of the nineteenth century, however they may some-
times place the true condition of the people in a vivid light,
are constantly relapsing into a democratic theory. They do
not by any means underrate the oppressed and almost servile
condition of the peasantry and burgesses, when it is their aim
to draw a picture of society ; yet in reasoning on a political
revolution, such as the decline and fall of the German dynas-
ty, they ascribe to these degraded classes both the will and
the power to effect it. The proud nationality which spurnc-d
»3 Sismondi, "Hist, des Franf ais," iii., 218, 878; iv.,9.
France. THE SCLAVONIANS. 21
a foreign line of princes could not be felt by an impoverished
and afflicted commonalty.
§ 11. These were times of great misery to the people, and
the worst, perhaps, that Europe has ever known. Even un-
der Charlemagne, we have abundant proofs of the calamities
which the people suffered. The light which shone around
him was that of a consuming fire. The free proprietors, who
had once considered themselves as only called upon to resist
foreign invasion, were harassed by endless expeditions, and
dragged away to the Baltic Sea, or the banks of the Drave.
Many of them, as we learn from his Capitularies, became ec-
clesiastics to avoid military conscription. But far worse
must have been their state under the lax government of suc-
ceeding times, when the dukes and counts, no longer checked
by the vigorous administration of Charlemagne, were at lib-
erty to play the tyrants in their several territories, of which
they now became almost the sovereigns. The poorer land-
holders accordingly were forced to bow their necks to the
yoke ; and, either by compulsion or through hope of being
better protected, submitted their independent patrimonies to
the feudal tenure.
But evils still more terrible than these political abuses
were the lot of those nations who had been subject to Charle-
magne. They, indeed, may appear to us little better than
ferocious barbarians ; but they were exposed to the assaults
of tribes, in comparison of whom they must be deemed hu-
mane and polished. Each frontier of the empire had to
dread the attack of an enemy. The coasts of Italy were
continually alarmed by the Saracens of Africa, who possessed
themselves of Sicily and Sardinia, and became masters of the
Mediterranean Sea. Though the Greek dominions in the
south of Italy were chiefly exposed to them, they twice in-
sulted and ravaged the territory of Rome (a.d. 846-849) ;
nor was there any security even in the neighborhood of the
maritime Alps, where, early in the tenth century, they settled
a piratical colony.
§ 12. Much more formidable were the foes by whom Ger-
many was assailed. The Sclavonians, a w^idely extended
people, whose language is still spoken upon half the surface
of Europe, had occupied the countries of Bohemia, Poland,
and Pannonia,^* on the eastern confines of the empire, and
^* I am sensible of the awkward effect of introducing this name from a more an-
cient geography, but it saves a circumlocution still more awkward. Austria would
convey an imperfect idea, and the Austrian dominions could not be named without a
tremendous anachronism.
22 THE NORMANS. Chap. I. Part I.
from the time of Charlemagne acknowledged its superiority.
But at the end of the ninth century, a Tartarian tribe, the
Hungarians, overspreading that country which since has
borne their name, and moving forward like a vast wave,
brought a dreadful reverse upon Germany. Their numbers
were great, their ferocity untamed. They fought with light
cavalry and light armor, trusting to their showers of arrows,
against whom the swords and lances of the European armies
could not avail. The memory of Attila was renewed in the
devastations of these savages, who, if they were not his com-
patriots, resembled them both in their countenances and cus-
toms. All Italy, all Germany, and the south of France, felt
this scourge ; till Henry the Fowler and Otho the Great
drove them back by successive victories within their own
limits, where, in a short time, they learned peaceful arts,
adopted the religion and followed the policy of Christendom
{a.d. 934-954).
§ 13. If any enemies could be more destructive than these
Hungarians, they w^ere the pirates of the north, known com-
monly by the name of Normans. The love of a predatory
life seems to have attracted adventurers of different nations
to the Scandinavian seas, from whence they infested, not only
by maritime piracy, but continual invasions, the northern
coasts both of France and Germany. The causes of their
sudden appearance are inexplicable, or at least could only be
sought in the ancient traditions of Scandinavia. For, un-
doubtedly, the coasts of France and England were as little
protected from depredations under the Merovingian kings,
and those of the Heptarchy, as in subsequent times. Yet
only one instance of an attack from this side is recorded, and
that before the middle of the sixth century, till the age of
Charlemagne. In 787 the Danes, as we call those northern
plunderers, began to infest England, which lay most immedi-
ately open to their incursions. Soon afterwards they rav-
aged the coasts of France. Charlemagne repulsed them by
means of his fleets; yet they pillaged a few places during his
reign. It is said that, perceiving one day, from a port in the
Mediterranean, some Norman vessels which had penetrated
into that sea, he shed tears, in anticipation of the miseries
which awaited his empire. In Louis's reign their depreda-
tions upon the coast were more incessant, but they did not
penetrate into the inland country till that of Charles the
JBald. The wars between that prince and his family, which
exhausted France of her noblest blood, the insubordination
of the provincial governors, even the instigation of some
France. THE NORMANS. 23
of Charles's enemies, laid all open to their inroads. They
adopted an uniform plan of warfare both in France and
England ; sailing up navigable rivers in their vessels of small
burden, and fortifying the islands which they occasionally
found, they made these intrenchments at once an asylum for
their women and children, a repository for their plunder, and
a place of retreat from superior force. After pillaging a
town, they retired to these strongholds or to their ships ; and
it was not till 872 that they ventured to keep possession of
Angers, which, however, they were compelled to evacuate.
Sixteen years afterwards they laid siege to Paris, and com-
mitted the most ruinous devastations on the neighboring
country. As these Normans were unchecked by religious
awe, the rich monasteries, which had stood harmless amidst
the havoc of Christian war, were overwhelmed in the storm.
Perhaps they may have endured some irrecoverable losses of
ancient learning ; but their complaints are of monuments
disfigured, bones of saints and kings dispersed, treasures car-
ried away. St. Denis redeemed its abbot from captivity
with six hundred and eighty-five pounds of gold. AH the
chief abbeys were stripped about the same time, either by
the enemy, or for contributions to the public necessity. So
impoverished was the kingdom, that in 860 Charles the Bald
had great difficulty in collecting three thousand pounds of
silver to subsidize a body of Normans against their country-
men. The kings of France, too feeble to prevent or repel
these invaders, had recourse to the palliative of buying peace
at their hands, or rather precarious armistices, to which reviv-
ing thirst of plunder soon put an end. At length Charles
the. Simple, in 918, ceded a great province, which they had
already partly occupied, partly rendered desolate, and which
has derived from them the name of Normandy. Ignomini-
ous as this appears, it proved no impolitic step. Rollo, the
Norman chief, with all his subjects, became Christians and
Frenchmen; and the kingdom was at once relieved from a
terrible enemy, and strengthened by a race of hardy colo-
nists. No measure was so conducive to the revival of France
from her abasement in the ninth century as the cession of
Normandy. The Normans had been distinguished by a pe-
culiar ferocity towards priests ; yet when their conversion to
Christianity was made the condition of their possessing Nor-
mandy, they were ready enough to comply, and in another
generation became among the most devout of the French na-
tion. An explanation of the new zeal for Christianity which
sprung up among the Normans may be found in, the irapor'
24 ACCESSION OF HUGH CAFET. Chap. I. Part I.
tant circumstance that, having few women with them, they
took wives (they had made widows enough) from the native
inhabitants. These taught their own faith to their children.
They taught also their own language ; and in no other man-
ner can we so well account for the rapid extinction of that
of Scandinavia in that province of France.
§ 14. The accession of Hugh Capet (a.d. 987) had not the
immediate effect of restoring the royal authority over France.
His own very extensive fief was now, indeed, united to the
crown ; but a few great vassals occupied the remainder of
the kingdom. Six of these obtained, at a subsequent time,
the exclusive appellation of peers of France — the Count of
Flanders, whose fief stretched from the Scheldt to the
Somme ; the Count of Champagne ; the Duke of Normandy,
to whom Brittany did homage; the Duke of Burgundy, on
whom the Count of Nivernois seems to have depended; the
Duke of Aquitaine, w^hose territory, though less than the an-
cient kingdom of that name, comprehended Poitou, Limou-
sin, and most of Guienne, with the feudal superiority over the
Angoumois, and some other central districts; and, lastly, the
Count of Toulouse, who possessed Languedoc, wdth the small
countries of Quercy and Rouergue, and the superiority over
Auvergne. Besides these six, the Duke of Gascony, not long
afterwards united with Aquitaine, the counts of Anjou, Pon-
thieu, and Vermandois, the Viscount of Bourges, the lords of
Bourbon and Coucy, with one or two other vassals, held im-
mediately of the last Carlovingian kings. This was the
aristocracy, of which Hugh Capet usurped the direction ; for
the suffrage of no general assembly gave a sanction to his
title. On the death of Louis V. he took advantage of the
absence of Charles, duke of Lorraine, who, as the deceased
king's uncle, was nearest heir, and procured his own consecra-
tion at Rheims. At first he was by no means acknowledged
in the kingdom; but his contest with Charles proving suc-
cessful, the chief vassals ultimately gave at least a tacit con-
sent to the usurpation, and permitted the royal name to de-
scend undisputed upon his posterity. But this was almost
the sole attribute of sovereignty which the first kings of the
third dynasty enjoyed.
§ 15. For a long period before and after the accession of
that family, France has, properly speaking, no national his-
tory. The character or fortune of those who were called its
kings were little more important to the majority of the na-
tion than those of foreign princes. Undoubtedly, the degree
of influence which they exercised with respect to the vassals
Fk.aNce.
SUCCESSORS OF HUGH CAPET.
25
oi'the crown varied according to their power and their prox-
imity. Over Giiienne and Toulouse the first four Capets
had very little authority ; nor do they seem to have ever re-
ceived assistance from them either in civil or national wars.
With provinces nearer to their own domains, such as Nor-
mandy and Flanders, they were frequently engaged in alli-
ance or hostility ; but each seemed rather to proceed from
SUCCESSORS OF HUGH CAPET.
Hcou Capet, king, 987-996
Robert, king, 996-1031.
Hugh, crowned in iiis father's
lifetime (ob. 1026).
Henry L,
king, 1031-1060.
Ptiilip I., king, 1000-1108.
Louis VI. (le Gros), king, 1108-113T.
Louis VIL (le Jeune), king, 1137-1180.
Philip IL (Augustus), king 1180-1223.
Louis VIII., king, 1223-1226.
Robert, dnke of Burgundy.
Louis IX. (St. Louis),
king, 1226-1270.
Charles, count oi" Anjou and Provence,
founder of the Royal House of Naples.
Philip IIL (le Hardi),
king, 1270-12S5.
I
Robert, count of Clermont,
founder of the House of Bourbon.
Philip IV. (le Bel),
king, 1285-1314.
Charles, count of Valois,
founder of the house of Valois.
(See table, p. 43.)
Louis X. (le Hutin),
king, 1314-1316.
I
Jeanne, m. Philip,
king of Navarre,
ob. 1349.
Charles,
king of Navarre.
Philip V. (le Long),
king, 1316-1322.
I
Charles IV. (le Bel),
king, 1322-1328.
Isabella,
m. Edward IL of
England.
'«<l4af6*III.
the policy of independent states than from the relation of a
sovereign towards his subjects.
It should be remembered that, when the fiefs of Paris and
Orleans are said to have been reunited by Hugh Capet to
the crown, little more is understood than the feudal superi-
ority over the vassals of these provinces. As the kingdom
of Charlemagne's posterity was split into a number of great
fiefs, so each of these contained many barons, possessing ex-
2
26 LOUIS VI.— LOUIS VIL Chap. L Fart L
elusive immunities within their own territories, waging war
at their pleasure, administering justice to their military ten-
ants and other subjects, and free from all control beyond the
conditions of the feudal compact. At the accession of Louis
VI. in 1108, the cities of Paris, Orleans, and Bourges, with
the immediately adjacent districts, formed the most consid-
erable portion of the royal domain. A number of petty bar-
ons, with their fortified castles, intercepted the communica-
tion between these, and waged war against the king almost
under the walls of his capital. It cost Louis a great deal of
trouble to reduce the lords of Montlhery, and other places
within a few miles of Paris. Under this prince, however,
who had more activity than his predecessors, the royal au-
thority considerably revived. From his reign we may date
the systematic rivalry of the French and English monarch-
ies. Hostilities had several times occurred between Philip
I. and the two Williams ; but the wars that began under
Louis VI. lasted, with no long interruption, for three centu-
ries and a half, and form, indeed, the most leading feature
of French history during the Middle Ages. Of all the royal
vassals the dukes of Normandy were the proudest and most
powerful. Though they had submitted to do homage, they
could not forget that they came in originally by force, and
that in real strength they w^ere fully equal to their sover-
eign. Nor had the conquest of England any tendency to
diminish their pretensions.
§ 16. Louis VII. ascended the throne (a. d. 1137) with bet-
ter prospects than his father. He had married Eleanor,
heiress of the great duchy of Guienne. But this union,
which promised an immense accession of strength to the
crown, was rendered unhappy by the levities of that princess.
Repudiated by Louis, who felt rather as a husband than a
king,f)fil^^ior immediately married Henry II. of England,
who, al*^My inheriting Normandy from his mother and An-
jou from his father, became possessed of more than one-half
of France, and an overmatch for Louis, even if the great vas-
sals of the crown had been always ready to maintain its su-
premacy. One might venture, perhaps, to conjecture that
the sceptre of France would eventually have passed from the
Capets to the Plantagenets, if the vexatious quarrel with
Becket at one time, and the successive rebellions fomented
by Louis at a later period, had not embarrassed the great
talents and ambitious spirit of Henry.
§ 17. But the scene quite changed when Philip Augustus,
son of Louis VIL, came upon the stage (a.d. 1180). No
France. PHILIP AUGUSTUS.— LOUIS VIII. 27
prince comparable to him in systematic ambition and mili-
tary enterprise had reigned in France since Charlemagne.
From his reign the French monarchy dates the recovery of
its lustre. He wrested from the Count of Flanders the Ver-
mandois (that part of Picardy which borders on the Isle of
France and Champagne)/^ and, subsequently, the county of
Artois. But the most important conquests of Philip were
obtained against the kings of England. Even Richard I.,
with all his prowess, lost ground in struggling against an ad-
versary not less active, and more politic, than himself. But
when John not only took possession of his brother's domin-
ions, but confirmed his usurpation by the murder, as was
very probably surmised, of the heir, Philip, artfully taking
advantage of the general indignation, summoned him as his
vassal to the court of his peers. John demanded a safe-con-
duct. Willingly, said Philip ; let him come unmolested.
And return ? inquired the English envoy. If the judgment
of his peers permit him, replied the king. By all the saints
of France, he exclaimed, when further pressed, he shall not
return unless acquitted. The Bishop of Ely still remonstrated
that the Duke of Normandy could not come without the
King of England ; nor would the barons of that country
permit their sovereign to run the risk of death or imprison-
ment. What of that, my lord bishop? cried Philip. It is
well known that my vassal the Duke of Normandy acquired
England by force. But if a subject obtains any accession
of dignity, shall his paramount lord therefore lose his rights ?
John, not appearing at his summons, was declared guilty
of felony, and his fiefs confiscated. The execution of this
sentence was not intrusted to a dilatory arm. Philip poured
his troops into Normandy, and took town after town, while
the King of England, infatuated by his own wickedness and
cowardice, made hardly an attempt at defense. In two
years Normandy, Maine, and Anjou were irrecoverably lost.
Poitou and Guienne resisted longer ; but the conquest of the
first was completed by Louis VIIL, successor of Philip (a.d.
1223), and the subjection of the second seemed drawing near,
when the arms of Louis were diverted to different but
scarcely less advantageous objects.
§ 18. The country of Languedoc, subject to the counts of
Toulouse, had been unconnected, beyond any other part of
France, with the kings of the house of Capet. Louis VII.,
having married his sister to the reigning count, and travelled
himself through the country, began to exercise some degree
"^ The principal towus of the Vermantloie are St. Queutiu and Pcronue.
28 WAR IN LANGUEDOC. Chap. 1. Part I.
of authority, chiefly in confirming the rights of ecclesiastical
bodies, who were vain, perhaps, of this additional sanction
to the privileges which they already possessed. But the re-
moteness of their situation, with a difterence in language and
legal usages, still kept the people of this province apart from
those of the north of France.
About the middle of the twelfth century, certain religious
opinions, which it is not easy, nor, for our present purpose,
material to define, but, upon every supposition, exceedingly
adverse to those of the Church,^ ^ began to spread over Lan-
guedoc. Those who imbibed them have borne the name of
Albigeois, though they were in no degree peculiar to the
district of Albi. In despite of much preaching and some
persecution, these errors made a continual progress ; till In-
nocent III., in 1198, dispatched commissaries, the seed of the
inquisition, with ample powers both to investigate and to
chastise. Raymond VI., count of Toulouse, whether inclined
towards the innovators, as was then the theme of reproach,
or, as is more probable, disgusted with the insolent interfer-
ence of the pope and his missionaries, provoked them to pro-
nounce a sentence of excommunication against him. Though
this was taken oiF, he was still suspected ; and upon the as-
sassination of one of the inquisitors, in which Raymond had
no concern. Innocent published a crusade both against the
count and his subjects, calling upon the King of France, and
the nobility of that kingdom, to take up the cross, with all
the indulgences usually held out as allurements to religious
warfare (a.d. 1208). Though Philip would not interfere, a
prodigious number of knights undertook this enterprise, led
partly by ecclesiastics, and partly by some of the first barons
in France. It was prosecuted with every atrocious barbari-
ty which superstition, the mother of crimes, could inspire.
Languedoc, a country, for that age, flourishing and civilized,
was laid waste by these desolators ; her cities burned ; her
inhabitants swept away by fire and the sword.
The Crusaders were commanded by Simon de Montfort, a
man like Cromwell, whose intrepidity, hypocrisy, and ambi-
tion marked him for the hero of a holy war. The energy of
such a mind, at the head of an army of enthusiastic warriors,
may well account for the successes which then appeared mi-
raculous. But Montfort was cut ofl" before he could realize
his ultimate object, an independent principality ; and Ray-
mond was able to bequeath the inheritance of his ancestors
»« For the real teuets of the Languedocian sectaries I refer to the last chapter of the
present work, where the subject will be taken up again
i^RANCE. LOUIS IX. 29
to his son. Rome, however, was not yet appeased ; upon
some new pretense she raised up a still more formidable en-
emy against the younger Raymond (a.d. 1222). Louis VIII.
sufiered himself to be diverted from the conquest of Guienne,
to take the cross against the supposed patron of heresy. Af-
ter a short and successful war, Louis, dying prematurely, left
the crown of France to a son only twelve years old. But
the Count of Toulouse was still pursued, till, hopeless of safe-
ty in so unequal a struggle, he concluded a treaty upon very
hard terms. By this he ceded the greater part of Languedoc
(a.d. 1229) ; and, giving his daughter in marriage to Alphonso,
brother of Louis IX., confirmed to them, and to the king in
failure of their descendants, the reversion of the rest, in ex-
clusion of any other children whom he might have. Thus fell
the ancient house of Toulouse, through one of those strange
combinations of fortune which thwart the natural course of
human prosperity, and disappoint the plans of wise policy
and beneficent government.
§ 19. The rapid progress of royal power under Philip Au-
gustus and his son had scarcely given the great vassals time
to reflect upon the change which it produced in their situa-
tion. The crown, with which some might singly have meas-
ured their forces, was now an equipoise to their united
weight. The minority of Louis IX. (a.d. 1226), guided only
by his mother, the regent, Blanche of Castile, seemed to offer
a favorable opportunity for recovering their former situa-
tion. They broke out into open rebellion ; but the address
of Blanche detached some from the league, and her firmness
subdued the rest. For the first fifteen years of Louis's reign,
the straggle was frequently renewed ; till repeated humilia-
tions convinced the refractory that the throne was no longer
to be shaken.
But Louis IX. had methods of preserving his ascendency
very different from military prowess. That excellent prince
was perhaps the most eminent pattern of unswerving probity
and Christian strictness of conscience that ever held the scep-
tre in any country. There is a peculiar beauty in the reign
of St. Louis, because it shows the inestimable benefit which a
virtuous king may confer on his people, Avithout possessing
any distinguished genius. For nearly half a century that he
governed France there is not the smallest want of modera-
tion or disinterestedness in his actions ; and yet he raised
the influence of the monarchy to a much higher point than
the most ambitious of his predecessors. To the surprise of
his own and later times, he restored great part of his con-
30 LOUIS IX. -HIS CHARACTER. Chap. I. Part I.
quests to Henry III., whom he might naturally hope to have
expelled from France (a.d. 1259). It would indeed have been
a tedious work to conquer Guienne, which was full of strong
places; and the subjugation of such a province might have
alarmed the other vassals of his crown. But it is the privi-
lege only of virtuous minds to perceive that wisdom resides
in moderate counsels : no sagacity ever taught a selfish and
ambitious sovereign to forego the sweetness of immediate
power. An ordinary king, in the circumstances of the French
monarchy, would have fomented, or, at least, have rejoiced
in, the dissensions which broke out among the principal vas-
sals ; Louis constantly employed himself to reconcile them.
In this, too, his benevolence had all the effects of far-sighted
policy. It had been the practice of his last three predeces-
sors to interpose their mediation in behalf of the less power-
ful classes, the clergy, the inferior nobility, and the inhabit-
ants of chartered towns. Thus the supremacy of the crown
became a familiar idea; but the perfect integrity of St. Louis
wore away all distrust, and accustomed even the most jeal-
ous feudatories to look upon him as their judge and legisla-
tor. And as the royal authority was hitherto shown only in
its most amiable prerogatives, the dispensation of favor and
the redress of wrong, few were watchful enough to remark
the transition of the French constitution from a feudal league
to an absolute monarchy.
It was perhaps fortunate for the display of St. Louis's vir-
tues that the throne had already been strengthened by the
less innocent exertions of Philip Augustus and Louis VIII.
A century earlier his mild and scrupulous character, unsus-
tained by great actual power, might not have inspired suffi-
cient awe. But the crown was now grown so formidable,
and Louis was so eminent for his firmness and bravery, qual-
ities without which every other virtue would have been inef-
fectual, that no one thought it safe to run wantonly into re-
bellion, while his disinterested administration gave no one a
pretext for it. Hence the latter part of his reign was alto-
gether tranquil, and employed in watching over the public
peace and the security of travellers ; administering justice
personally, or by the best counsellors ; and compiling that
code of feudal customs called the Establishments of St. Louis,
which is the first monument of legislation after the accession
of the house of Capet. Not satisfied with the justice of his
own conduct, Louis aimed at that act of virtue which is rare-
ly yjracticed by private men, and had perhaps no example
among kings — restitution. Commissaries were appointed to
France. THE CRUSADES. 31
inquire what possessions had been unjustly annexed to the
royal domain during the last two reigns. These were re-
stored to the proprietors, or, where length of time had made
it difficult to ascertain the claimant, their value was distribu-
ted among the poor.
The principal weakness of this king, which almost effaced
all the good effects of his virtues, was superstition. No
man was ever more impressed than St. Louis with a belief
in the duty of exterminating all enemies to his own faith.
With these he thought no layman ought to risk himself in
the perilous ways of reasoning, but to make answer with his
sword as stoutly as a strong arm and a fiery zeal could car-
ry that argument. Though, fortunately for his fame, the
persecution against the Albigeois, which had been the dis-
grace of his father's short reign, was at an end before he
reached manhood, he suffered a hypocritical monk to estab-
lish a tribunal at Paris for the suppression of heresy, where
many innocent persons suffered death. But no events in his
life were more memorable than his two crusades, which lead
us to look back on the nature and circumstances of those
most singular phenomena in European history. Though the
crusades involved all the western nations of Europe, with-
out belonging particularly to any one, yet, as France was
more distinguished than the rest in most of those enter-
prises, I shall introduce the subject as a sort of digression
from the main course of French history.
§ 20. Even before the violation of Palestine by the Sara-
cen arms it had been a prevailing custom among the Chris-
tians of Europe to visit those scenes rendered interesting by
religion, partly through delight in the efl'ects of local associ-
ation, partly in obedience to the prejudices or commands of
superstition. These pilgrimages became more frequent in
later times, in spite, perhaps in consequence, of the danger
and hardships which attended them. For a while the Mo-
hammedan possessors of Jerusalem permitted, or even en-
couraged, a devotion which they found lucrative; but this
was interrupted whenever the ferocious insolence with
which they regarded all infidels got the better of their ra-
pacity. During the eleventh century, when, from increas-
ing superstition, and some particular fancies, the pilgrims
were more numerous than ever, a change took place in the
government of Palestine, which was overrun by the Turk-
ish hordes from the North. These barbarians treated the
visitors of Jerusalem with still greater contumely, mingling
with their Mohammedan bigotry a consciousness of strength
32 THE CRUSADES. Chai. 1. PautL
and courage, and a scorn of the Christians, whom they knew
only by the debased natives of Greece and Syria, or by these
humble and defenseless palmers. When such insults became
known throughout Europe, they excited a keen sensation of
resentment among nations equally courageous and devout,
which, though wanting as yet any definite means of satisfying
itself, was ripe for whatever favorable conjuncture might arise.
Twenty years before the first crusade Gregory VII. had
projected the scheme of embodying Europe in arms against
Asia — a scheme worthy of his daring mind, and which, per-
haps, was never forgotten by Urban II., who in every thing
loved to imitate his great predecessor. This design of
Gregory was founded upon the supplication of the Greek
emperor Michael, which was renewed by Alexius Comnenus
to Urban with increased importunity. The Turks had now
taken Nice, and threatened, from the opposite shore, the very
walls of Constantinople. Every one knows whose hand held
the torch to that inflammable mass of enthusiasm that per-
vaded Europe ; the hermit of Picardy, who, roused by wit-
nessed wrongs and imagined visions, journeyed from land to
land, the apostle of a holy war. The preaching of Peter was
powerfully seconded by Urban (a.d. 1095). In the councils
of Piacenza and of Clermont the deliverance of Jerusalem
was eloquently recommended and exultingly undertaken.
"It is the will of God !" was the tumultuous cry that broke
from the heart and lips of the assembly at Clermont ; and
these words afford at once the most obvious and most cer-
tain explanation of the leading principle of the Crusades.
Every means was used to excite an epidemical frenzy ; the
remission of penance, the dispensation from those practices
of self-denial which superstition imposed or suspended at
pleasure, the absolution of all sins, and the assurance of
eternal felicity. None doubted that such as perished in the
war received immediately the reward of martyrdom. False
miracles and fanatical prophecieg, which were never so fre-
quent, wrought up the enthusiasm to a still higher pitch.
And these devotional feelings, which are usually thwarted
and balanced by other passions, fell in with every motive
that could influence the men of that time ; with curiosity,
restlessness, the love of license, thirst for war, emulation,
ambition. Of the princes who assumed the cross, some
probably from the beginning speculated upon forming inde-
pendent establishments in the East. In later periods the
temporal benefits of undertaking a crusade undoubtedly
blended themselves with less selfish considerations. Men
France. THE CRUSADES. 33
resorted to Palestine, as in modern times they have done to
the colonies, in order to redeem their fame or repair their
fortune. Thus Gui de Lusignan, after flying from France for
murder, was ultimately raised to the throne of Jerusalem.
To the more vulgar class were held out inducements which,
though absorbed in the overruling fanaticism of the first
crusade, might be exceedingly efficacious when it began rath-
er to flag. During the time that a Crusader bore tlie cross
he was free from suit for his debts, and the interest of them
was entirely abolished ; he Avas exempted, in some instances
at least, from taxes, and placed under the protection of the
Church, so that he could not be impleaded in any civil court,
except on criminal charges, or disputes relating to land.
None of the sovereigns of Europe took a part in the First
Crusade ; but many of their chief vassals, great part of the
inferior nobility, and a countless multitude of the common
people. Numbers of women and children swelled the crowd ;
it appeared a sort of sacrilege to repel any one from a work
which was considered as the manifest design of Providence.
But if it were lawful to interpret the will of Providence by
events, few undertakings have been more branded by its
disapprobation than the Crusades. So many crimes and so
much misery have seldom been accumulated in so short a
space as in the three years of the first expedition. Wc
should be warranted by contemporary writers in stating the
loss of the Christians alone during this period at nearly a
million ; but at the least computation it must have exceeded
half that number. To engage in the crusade, and to perish
in it, were almost synonymous. Few of those myriads who
were mustered in the plains of Nice returned to gladden
their friends in Europe with the story of their triumph at
Jerusalem. Besieging alternately, and besieged in Antioch,
they drained to the lees the cup of misery : three hundred
thousand sat down before that place; next year there re-
mained but a sixth part to pursue the enterprise. But their
losses were least in the field of battle; the intrinsic superi-
ority of European prowess was constantly displayed ; the
angel of Asia, to apply the bold language "of our poet, high
and unmatchable, where her rival was not, became a fear ;
and the Christian lances bore all before them in their shock
from Nice to Antioch, Edessa, and Jerusalem (a.d. 1099).*'
1'^ The work of Mailly, entitled L'Esprit des Croisades, is deserving of considerable
praise for its diligence and impartiality. It carries the history, however, no farther
than the first expedition. Gibbon's two chapters on the Crasades, thougli not with-
out inaccuracies, are a brilliant portion of his great work. Several new documents
have been collected by the industry of the modern historians of the Crusades, Michaud
2*
3i THE CRUSADES. Chap. I. Part I.
The conquests obtained at such a price by the first cru
sade were chiefly comprised in the maritime parts of Syria.
Except the state of Edessa beyond the Euphrates/^ which,
in its best days, extended over great part of Mesopotamia,
the Latin possessions never reached more than a few leagues
from the sea. Within the barrier of Mount Libanus their
arms might be feared, but their power was never establish-
ed; and the prophet was still invoked in the mosques of
Aleppo and Damascus. The principality of Antioch to the
north, the kingdom of Jerusalem with its feudal dependencies
of Tripoli and Tiberius to the south, were assigned, the one
to Boemond, a brother of Robert Guiscard, count of Apulia,
the other to Godfrey of Boulogne, whose extraordinary merit
had justly raised him to a degree of influence with the chief
Crusaders that has been sometimes confounded with a legit-
imate authority. In the course of a few years Tyre,Ascalon,
and the other cities upon the sea-coast, were subjected by
the successors of Godfrey on the throne of Jerusalem. But
as their enemies had been stunned, not killed, by the West-
ern storm, the Latins were constantly molested by the Mo-
hammedans of Egypt and Syria. They were exposed as the
outposts of Christendom, with no respite and few resources.
A Second Crusade (a.d. 11 4*7), in which the Emperor Con-
rad IIL and Louis VII. of France were engaged, each with
seventy thousand cavalry, made scarce any diversion ; and
that vast army wasted away in the passage of Natolia.
The decline of the Christian establishments in the East is
ascribed by William of Tyre to the extreme viciousness of
their manners, to the adoption of European arms by the Ori-
entals, and to the union of the Mohammedan principalities
under a single chief Without denying the operation of
these causes, and especially the last, it is easy to perceive
one more radical than all the three — the inadequacy of their
means of self-defense. The kingdom of Jerusalem was
guarded only, exclusive of European volunteers, by the feud-
al service of 866 knights, attended each by four archers on
horseback, by a militia of 5075 burghers, and by a conscrip-
tion, in great exigencies, of the remaining population. Wil-
liam of Tyre mentions an army of 1300 horse and 15,000 foot,
as the greatest which had ever been collected, and predicts
and Wilken. The original writers are chiefly collected in two folio volumes, entitled
Gesta Dei per Francos, Hanover, 1611.
18 EdcBsa was a little Christian principality, surrounded by, and tributary to, the
Turks. The inhabitants invited Baldwin, on his progress in the first crusade, and he
made no great scruple of supplanting the reigning prince, who indeed is represented
as a tyrant and usurper.
Fkance. the crusades. 35
the utmost success from it, if wisely conducted. This was
a little before the irruption of Saladin. Nothing can more
strikingly evince the ascendency of Europe than the resist-
ance of these Frankish acquisitions in Syria during nearly
two hundred years. Several of their victories over the Mos-
lems were obtained against such disparity of numbers, that
they may be compared with whatever is most illustrious in
history or romance. These, perhaps, were less due to the de-
scendants of the first Crusaders, settled in the Holy Land,
than to those volunteers from Europe whom martial ardor
and religious zeal impelled to the service. It was the pen-
ance commonly imposed upon men of rank for the most
heinous crimes, to serve a number of years under the banner
of the cross. Thus a perpetual supply of warriors was pour-
ed in from Europe; and in this sense the Crusades may be
said to have lasted without intermission during the whole
period of the Latin settlements. Of these defenders the
most renowned were the military orders of the Knights of
the Temple and of the Hospital of St. John ; instituted, the
one in 1124, the other in 1118, for the sole purpose of pro-
tecting the Holy Land. The Teutonic order, established in
1190, when the kingdom of Jerusalem was falling, soon di-
verted its schemes of holy warfare to a very diiferent quar-
ter of the world. Large estates, as well in Palestine as
throughout Europe, enriched the two former institutions ;
but the pride, rapaciousness, and misconduct of both, espe-
cially of the Templars, seem to have balanced the advantages
derived from their valor. At length the famous Saladin,
usurping the throne of a feeble dynasty which had reigned
in Egypt, broke in upon the Christians of Jerusalem ; the
king and the kingdom fell into his hands ; nothing remained
but a few strong towns upon the sea-coast (a.d. 1187).
These misfortunes roused once more the princes of Europe,
and the Third Crusade (a.d. 1189) was undertaken by three
of her sovereigns, the greatest in personal estimation as well
as dignity — by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, Philip
Augustus of France, and our own Richard Coeur de Lion.
But this, like the preceding enterprise, failed of permanent
effect ; and those feats of romantic prowess which made the
name of Richard so famous both in Europe and Asia proved
only the total inefficacy of all exertions in an attempt so im-
practicable ; Palestine was never the scene of another cru-
sade. One great armament was diverted to the siege of
Constantinople (a.d. 1204) ; and another wasted in fruitless
attempts upon Egypt (a.d. 1218). The Emperor Frederick
36 THE CRUSADES. Chap. I. Part I.
II. afterwards procured the restoration of Jerusalem by the
Saracens ; but the Christian princes of Syria were unable to
defend it, and their possessions were gradually reduced to
the maritime towns. Acre, the last of these, was finally
taken by storm in 1291 ; and its ruin closes the history of
the Latin dominion in Syria, which Europe had already
ceased to protect.
The last two crusades were undertaken by St. Louis. In
the first he was attended by 2800 knights and 50,000 ordi-
nary troops. He landed at Damietta, in Egypt, for that
country was now deemed the key of the Holy Land, and
easily made himself master of the city (a.d. 1248). But ad-
vancing up the country, he found natural impediments as
well as enemies in his way ; the Turks assailed him with
Greek fire, an instrument of warfare almost as surprising
and terrible as gunpowder ; he lost his brother, the Count of
Artois, with many knights, at Massoura, near Cairo ; and
began too late a retreat towards Damietta. Such calami-
ties now fell upon this devoted army as have scarce ever
been surpassed ; hunger and want of every kind, aggravated
by an unsparing pestilence. At length the king was made
prisoner, and very few of the army escaped the Turkish
scimiter in battle or captivity. Four hundred thousand
livres were paid as a ransom for Louis. He returned to
France, and passed near twenty years in the exercise of
those virtues which are his best title to canonization. But
the fatal illusions of superstition were 'still always at his
heart ; nor did it fail to be painfully observed by his subjects
that he still kept the cross upon his garment. His last ex-
pedition was originally designed for Jerusalem. But he had
received some intimation that the King of Tunis was desir-
ous of embracing Christianity. That these intentions might
be carried into effect, he sailed out of his way to the coast
of Africa, and laid siege to that city (a.d. 1270). A fever
here put an end to his life, sacrificed to that ruling passion
which never would have forsaken him. But he had sur-
vived the spirit of the Crusades ; the disastrous expedition
to Egypt had cured his subjects, though not himself, of their
folly ; his son, after making terms with Tunis, returned to
France ; the Christians were suffered to lose what they still
retained in the Holy Land ; and though many princes in
subsequent ages talked loudly of renewing the war, the
promise, if it were ever sincere, was never accomplished.
§ 21. Louis IX. had increased the royal domain by the an-
nexation of several counties and other less important fiefs ;
France. PHILIP III.— PHILIP IV. 87
but soon aftei the accession of Philip III., surnamed the
Bold (a.d. 12V0), it received a far more considerable aug-
mentation. Alfonso, the late king's brother, had been in-
vested with the county of Poitou, ceded by Henry III., to-
gether with part of Auvergne and of Saintonge ; and held
also, as has been said before, the remains of the great fief
of Toulouse, in right of his wufe Jane, heiress of Raymond
VII. Upon his death, and that of his countess, which hap-
pened about the same time, the king entered into possession
of all these territories (a.d. 1271). This acquisition brought
the sovereigns of France into contact with new neighbors,
the kings of Arragon and the powers of Italy. The first
great and lasting foreign w^ar which they carried on was
that of Philip III. and Philip IV. against the former king-
dom, excited by the insurrection of Sicily. Though effect-
ing no change in the boundaries of their dominions, this war
may be deemed a sort of epoch in the history of France and
Spain, as well as in that of Italy, to which it more peculiar-
ly belongs.
§ 22. There still remained five great and ancient fiefs of
the French crown ; Champagne, Guienne, Flanders, Burgun-
dy, and Brittany. But Philip IV., usually called the Fair
(a.d. 1285), married the heiress of the first, a little before his
father's death; and although he governed that country in
her name, without pretending to reunite it to the royal do-
main, it was, at least in a political sense, no longer a part
of the feudal body. With some of his other vassals Philip
used more violent methods. A parallel might be drawn be-
tween this prince and Philip Augustus. But while in ambi-
tion, violence of temper, and unprincipled rapacity, as well
as in the success of their attempts to establish an absolute
authority, they may be considered as nearly equal, Ave may
remark this difference, that Philip the Fair, who was desti-
tute of military talents, gained those ends by dissimulation
wdiich his predecessor had reached by force.
The duchy of Guienne, though somewhat abridged of its
original extent, was still by far the most considerable of the
French fiefs, even independently of its connection with En-
gland. Philip, by dint of perfidy, and by the egregious inca-
pacity of Edmond, brother of Edward I., contrived to obtain,
and to keep for several years, the possession of this great
province. A quarrel among some French and English sail
ors having provoked retaliation, till a sort of piratical war
commenced between the two countries, Edward, as Duke of
Guienne, was summoned into the king's cou»'t to answer foi
38 PHILIP IV. Chap. I. Part 1
the trespass of his subjects (a.d. 1292). Upon this he di&<
patched his brother to settle terms of reconciliation, with
fuller powers than should have been intrusted to so credu-
lous a negotiator. Philip so outwitted this prince, through
a fictitious treaty, as to procure from him the surrender
of all the fortresses in Guienne. He then threw off the
mask, and, after again summoning Edward to appear, pro-
nounced the confiscation of his fief This business is the
greatest blemish in the political character of Edward. But
his eagerness about the acquisition of Scotland rendered him
less sensible to the danger of a possession in many respects
more valuable; and the spirit of resistance among the En-
glish nobility, which his arbitrary measures had provoked,
broke out very opportunely for Philip, to thwart every ef-
fort for the recovery of Guienne by arms. But after re-
peated suspensions of hostilities a treaty was finally con-
cluded, by which Philip restored the province, on the agree-
ment of a marriage betw^een his daughter Isabel and the
heir of England.
To this restitution he w^as chiefly induced by the ill suc-
cess that attended his arms in P^landers, another of the great
fiefs which this ambitious monarcli had endeavored to con-
fiscate. The Flemings made, however, so vigorous a resist-
ance, that Philip was unable to reduce that small country;
and in one famous battle at Courtray they discomfited a
powerful army with that utter loss and ignominy to which
the undisciplined impetuosity of the French nobles was pre-
eminently exposed (a.d. 1302.)
Two other acquisitions of Philip the Fair deserve notice;
that of the counties of Angouleme and La Marche, upon a
sentence of forfeiture (and, as it seems, a very harsh one)
passed against the reigning count : and that of the city of
Lyons, and its adjacent territory, which had not even feudal-
ly been subject to the crown of France for more than three
hundred years.
§ 23. One of the most memorable events in the reign of
Philip ly. was the condemnation and suppression of the Or-
der of the Knights Templars on the charge of systematic
blasphemy and impiety, shameless immorality, and deliber-
ate apostasy from the Christian faith. Their innocence or
guilt has been the subject of much controversy. The gen-
eral current of popular writers in the eighteenth century was
in favor of their innocence ; in England it would have been
almost paradoxical to doubt of it. The rapacious and un-
principled character of Philip, the submission of the Pope,
i^RANCE. SUPPRESSION OF TPIE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 39
Clement V., to his will, the apparent incredibility of the
charges from their monstroiisness,the just prejudice against
confessions obtained by torture and retracted afterwards —
the other prejudice, not always so just, but in the case of
those not convicted on fair evidence deserving a better
name, in favor of assertions of innocence made on the scaf-
fold and at the stake — created, as they still preserve, a strong
willingness to disbelieve the accusations which came so sus-
piciously before us. The strongest case against them is con-
tained in an Essay written by Count Hammer Purgstall,-*
in which he endeavors to establish the identity of the idola°
try ascribed to the Templars with that of the ancient Gnos
tic sects, and especially with those denominated Ophites, oi
w^orshippers of the serpent ; and to prove also that the ex'
treme impurity which forms one of the revolting and hardly
credible charges adduced by Philip IV. is similar in all its
details to the practice of the Gnostics. This attack is not
conducted with all the coolness which bespeaks impartiali-
ty ; but the evidence is startling enough to make refutation
apparently difficult. The first part of the proof, which con-
sists in identifying certain Gnostic idols, or, as some suppose,
amulets, though it comes much to the same, with the de-
scription of what are called Baphometic, in the proceedings
against the Templars, is of itself sufficient to raise a consid-
erable presumption. We find the word inetis continually on
these images, of which Von Hammer is able to describe
twenty-four. Baphomet is a secret word ascribed to the
Templars.^" But the more important evidence is that fur-
nished by the comparison of sculptures extant on some Gnos-
tic and Ophitic bowls with those in churches built by the
Templars. Of these there are many in Germany, and some
in France. Von Hammer has examined several in the Aus-
trian dominions, and collected accounts of others. It is a
striking fact that in some we find, concealed from the com-
mon observer, images and symbols extremely obscene ; and
as these, which can not here be more particularly adverted
to, betray the depravity of the architects, and can not be ex-
f)lained away, we may not so much hesitate as at first to be-
ieve that impiety of a strange kind was mingled up with this
19 "Mysterinm Baphometis Revelatura, sen Fratres Militiae Terapli qna Gnostici et
qaidem Ophiani, Apostasiae, Idolodnliae, et Impnritatis convicti per ipsa eorum Moii-
nraenta." Published iu the sixth vohime of the "Mines de I'Orient Exploitees."
Vienna, 1818.
20 This word is generally identified with Mohammed, bnt Hammer supposes it to
be "the God who baptizes according to the spirit (Ba^^/ ^xi]^lho^)■, the God of the
Gnostics and of the Manichaeans." See Martin, " Hist, de France," vol. iv., p, 47T
40 REIGNS OF CHILDREN OF PHILIP IV. Ch. I. Pt. L
turpitude. The presumptions, of course, from the absohite
identity of many emblems in churches with the Gnostic su-
perstitions in their worst form, grow stronger and strong-
er by multiplication of instances ; and though coincidence
might be credible in one, it becomes infinitely improbable
in so many. One may here be mentioned, though among
the slightest resemblances. The Gnostic emblems exhibit a
peculiar form of cross, "J"; and this is common in the churches
built by the Templars. But the Freemasons, or that society
of architects to whom we owe so many splendid churches,
do not escape M. von Hammer's ill opinion better than the
Templars. Though he conceives them to be of earlier ori-
gin, they had drunk at the same foul spring of impious and
impure Gnosticism. Still, this evidence has not been uni-
versally received. It was attempted to be refuted by Ray-
nouard,'^' who had been partially successful in repelling
some of his opponent's arguments, though it appears to me
that he had left much untouched.^'* It seems that the archi-
tectural evidence is the most positive, and can only be re-
sisted by disproving its existence, or its connection with the
Freemasons and Templars.
§ 24. Philip the Fair left three sons, who successively
reigned in France: Louis X. (a.d. 1314), surnamed Hutin ;
Philip v., surnamed the Long ; and Charles IV., surnamed
the Fair; with a daughter, Isabel, married to Edward II. of
England.^^ Louis, the eldest, survived his father little more
than a year, leaving one daughter and his queen pregnant.
The circumstances that ensued require to be accurately
stated. Louis had possessed, in right of his mother, the
kingdom of Navarre, with the counties of Champagne and
Brie. Upon his death, Philip, his next brother, assumed the
regency both of France and I^^avarre ; and not long after-
wards entered into a treaty with Eudes, Duke of Burgun-
dy, uncle of the princess Jane, Louis's daughter, by which
her eventual rights to the succession were to be regulated.
It was agreed that, in case the queen should be delivered of
a daughter, these two princesses, or the survivor of them,
should take the grandmother's inheritance, Navarre and
Champagne, on releasing all claim to the throne of France.
But this was not to take place till their age of consent, when,
if they should refuse to make such renunciation, their claim
21 ••Jotirnal des Savans" for 1819,
22 H. Martin, who has given at great length the history of the condemnation of the
Templars ("Hist, de France," vol. iv., pp. 46T^9T), says— "Les Inmieres que I'etnde
des documents origiuaux ajetees snr la question, sembleut permettre aujourd'hui de
condaraner moralement I'ordre. niais avec de grandes reserves pour les individus."
28 See Genealogical T.-sble, p. 24.
France. QUESTION OF SALIC LAW. 41
was to remain, and right to he done to them therein; but in
return, the release made by Philip of Navarre and Cham-
pagne was to be null. In the mean time, he was to hold the
government of France, Navarre, and Champagne, receiving-
homage of vassals in all these countries as governor ; saving
the right of a male heir to the late king, in the event of
whose birth the treaty was not to take effect.
This convention was made on the 17th of July, 1316 ; and
on the 15th of November the queen brought into the world
a son, John I. (as some called him), who died in four days.
The conditional treaty was now become absolute ; in spirit,
at least, if any cavil might be raised about the expression :
and Philip was, by his own agreement, j^recluded from taking
any other title than that of regent or governor, until the
princess Jane should attain the age to concur in or disclaim
the provisional contract of her uncle. Instead of this, how-
ever, he procured himself to be consecrated at Rheims. Upon
his return to Paris, an assembly composed of prelates, barons,
and burgesses of that city, was convened, who acknowledged
him as their lawful sovereign, and, if we may believe an his-
torian, expressly declared that a woman was incapable of
succeeding to the crown of France. The Duke of Burgundy,
however, made a show of supporting his niece's interests, till,
tempted by the prospect of a marriage with the daughter of
Philip, he shamefully betrayed her cause, and gave up in her
name, for an inconsiderable pension, not only her disputed
claim to the whole monarchy, but her unquestionable right
to Navarre and Champagne.
In this contest, every way memorable, but especially on ac-
count of that which sprung out of it, the exclusion of females
from the throne of France was first publicly discussed. The
French writers almost unanimously concur in asserting that
such an exclusion was built upon a fundamental maxim of
their government. No written law, nor even, as far as I
know, the direct testimony of any ancient writer, has been
brought forward to confirm this position. For as to the
text of the Salic law, which was frequently quoted, and has
indeed given a name to this exclusion of females, it can only
by a doubtful and refined analogy be considered as bearing
any relation to the succession of the crown.** It is certain,
2* The Salic law simply provided that Salic land (?. e., the allodial property of the
tribe) should not descend to females,' and is improperly applied to the law which ex-
cluded females from the crown. But from the accession of Philip the Long this so-
called "Salic law has been regarded as an essential constitutional principle in France.
The advantages of such an enactment are great and obvious. It secured the con-
solid.uion of the royal authority in the hands of a line of native princes; it tended
to e^rcliide foreign influence from the highest functions and affairs of state; and, by
makiiig it impossible that the crown of France should ever be acquired by raarr'age.
42 CLAIM OF EDWARD III. Chap. I. Part 1.
nevertheless, that, from the time of Clovis, no woman had
ever reigned in France ; and although not an instance of a
sole heiress had occurred before, yet some of the Merovingian
kings left daughters, who might, if not rendered incapable by
their sex, have shared with their brothers in partitions then
commonly made. But, on the other hand, these times were
gone quite out of memory, and France had much in the
analogy of her existing usages to reconcile her to a female
reign. The crown resembled a great fief; and the great
fiefs might universally descend to women. Even at the con-
secration of Philip himself, Maud, countess of Artois, held
the crown over his head among the other peers. And it
was scarcely beyond the recollection of persons living that
Blanche had been legitimate regent of France during the
minority of St. Louis.
For these reasons, and much more from the provisional
treaty concluded between Philip and the Duke of Burgundy,
it may be fairly inferred that the Salic law, as it was "called,
was not so fixed a principle at that time as has been contend-
ed. But however this may be, it received at the accession
of Philip the Long a sanction which subsequent events more
thoroughly confirmed. Philip himself leaving only three
daughters, his brother Charles (a.d. 1322) mounted the
throne; and upon his death (a.d. 1328) the rule was so un-
questionably established, that his only daughter was excluded
by the Count of Valois, grandson of Philip the Bold. This
prince first took the regency, the queen-dowager being preg-
nant, and, upon her giving birth to a daughter, was crowned
king. No competitor or opponent appeared in France ; but
one more formidable than any whom France could have pro-
duced was awaiting the occasion to prosecute his imagined
right with all the resources of valor and genius, and to carry
desolation over that great kingdom with as little scrujjle as
if he were preferring a suit before a civil tribunal.
§ 25. From the moment of Charles IV.'s death, Edward III.
of England buoyed himself up with the notion of his title to
the crown of France, in right of his mother Isabel, sister to
the last three kings. We can have no hesitation in condem-
ning the injustice of this pretension. Whether the Salic law
were, jv were not valid, no advantage could be gained by Ed-
ward. Even if he could forget the express or tacit decision
of all France, there stood in his way Jane, the daughter of
Louis X., three of Philip the Long, and one of Charles the
Fair. Aware of this, Edward set up a distinction, that, al-
it cut oflF a dangerous temptation, which, in other countries, has proclnced destructive
consequences." See Martin, vol. iv., p. 536 ; " Student's Hist, cf Frauce,"p. 190.
France. THE HOUSE OF VALOIS OF FRANCE. 43
though females were excluded from succession, the same rule
did not apply to their male issue ; and thus, though his moth-
er Isabel could not herself become Queen of France, she might
transmit a title to him. But this was contrary to the common-
est rules of inheritance ; and if it could have been regarded at
all, Jane had a son, afterwards the famous King of Navarre,
who stood one degree nearer to the crown than Edward.
GENEALOGICAL TABLE OP THE HOUSE OF VALOIS OF FRANCE.
Charles, count of Valois, younger son of King Philip III. (See Table, p. 25.)
Philip VI., king, 1328-1350.
),kii
JoiiN (le Bon), king, 1350-1364.
C JAELES V. (le Sage), Louis, duke of Aujou, John, duke Philip, duke
king, 1304-1380, founder of the 2d royal of Berry. of Burgundy,
house of Naples. ob, 1404.
Jean Sanspeur,
assassinated at
Montereau, 1419.
Charles VI. (le Bieu-aimu). king. 1380-1422 Louis, duke of Orleans,
= Isabella of Bavaria. assassinated at Paris, 1407,
I founder of the line of Valois-Orleans,
Louis, John, Charles VII. Ii!<abella Catherine
ob.l415. ob.l4ia. (leVictorieux), =1. Richard IL of England. = Henry V.
king, 1422-14G1. 2. Duke of Orleans. of England.
L_ .
Louis XL, king, 1461-1483. Charles, duke of Berry, Four daughters.
Charles VTIL, king, Anne=: Jeanne =:
1483-1498. Sire de Beaujeu. Duke of Orleans,
afterwards Louis XII.
It is asserted in some French authorities that Edward pre-
ferred a claim to the regency immediately after the decease
of Charles the Fair, and that the States-General, or at least
the peers of France, adjudged that dignity to Philip de Val-
ois. Whether this be true or not, it is clear that he enter-
tained projects of recovering his right as early; though his
youth and the embarrassed circumstances of his government
threw insuperable obstacles in the way of their execution.
He did liege homage, therefore, to Philip for Guienne, and
for several years, while the affairs of Scotland engrossed his
attention, gave no sign of meditating a more magnificent en-
terprise. As he advanced in manhood, and felt the conscious-
ness of his strength, his early designs grew mature, and pro-
duced a series of the most important and interesting revolu-
tions in the fortunes of France, These will form the subject
of the ensuing pages.
44 WAR OF EDWARD III. IN FRANCE. Chap. I, Part II,
PART II.
FROM THE ACCESSION OF PHILIP OF VALOIS TO THE INVASION OP
NAPLES BY CHARLES VIIL
i 1. War of Edward III. iu Frauce. § 2. Causes of his Success. § 3, Civil disturb-
ances of Frauce. § 4. Peace of Bretigui. § 5. Charles V. Reuevval of the War.
§ C. Charles VI. His Minority and lusauity. § 7. Civil dissensious of the Parties
of Orleans and Burgundy, Assassination of both these Princes. § S. Intrigues
of their Parties with England uuder Henry IV. Henry V. invades France. § 9.
Treaty of Troyes. § 10. State of France in the first Years of Charles VII, § 11.
Progress and subsequent Decline of the English Arms. § 12, Their Expulsion
from France. § 13. Change in the Political Constitution. § 14. Louis XI. His
Character. Leagues formed against him. § 15, Charles Duke of Burgundy. His
Prosperity and Fall. § 16. Louis obtains possession of Burgundy. 5 17. His death.
§ 18. Charles VIII, Acquisition of Brittany.
§ 1. No war had broken out in Europe, since the fall of the
Roman Empire, so memorable as that of Edward III. and his
successors against France, whether we consider its duration,
its object, or the magnitude and variety of its events. It
was a struggle of 120 years, interrupted but once by a regu-
lar pacification, Avhere the most ancient and extensive domin-
ion in the civilized world was the prize, twice lost and twice
recovered in the conflict, while individual courage was
wrought up to that high pitch which it can seldom display
since the regularity of modern tactics has chastised its en-
thusiasm and levelled its distinctions. There can be no
occasion to dwell upon the events of this war, which are fa-
miliar to almost every reader : it is rather my aim to devel-
op and arrange those circumstances which, when rightly uu'
derstood, give the clue to its various changes of fortune.
§ 2. France was, even in the fourteenth century, a king-
dom of such extent and compactness of figure, such popula-
tion and resources, and filled with so spirited a nobility, that
the very idea of subjugating it by a foreign force must have
seemed the most extravagant dream of ambition. Yet, in the
course of about twenty years of war, this mighty nation was
reduced to the lowest state of exhaustion, and dismembered
of considerable provinces by an ignominious peace. What
was the combination of political causes which brought about
60 strange a revolution, and, though not realizing Edward's
hopes to their extent, redeemed them from the imputation
of rashness in the judgment of his own and succeeding ages?
The first advantage which Edward III. possessed iu this
FuANCE. WAR OF EDWARD III. IN FRANCE. 45
contest was derived from the splendor of his personal char,
acter and from the still more eminent virtues of his son. Be-
sides prudence and military skill, these great princes were
endowed with qualities peculiarly fitted for the times in
which they lived. Chivalry was then in its zenith ; and in
all the virtues which adorned the knightly character in
courtesy, munificence, gallantry, in all delicate and magnani-
mous feelings, none were so conspicuous as Edward III. and
the Black Prince. As later princes have boasted of being
the best gentlemen, they might claim to be the prowest
knights in Europe — a character not quite dissimilar, yet of
more high pretension. Their court was, as it were, the sun
of that system which embraced the valor and nobility of the
Christian w^orld ; and the respect w^hich was felt for their ex-
cellences, while it drew many to their side, mitigated in all
the rancor and ferociousness of hostility. This war was like
a great tournament, where the combatants fought indeed
d oictrance, but with all the courtesy and fair play of such an
entertainment, and almost as much for the honor of their la
dies. In the school of the Edwards were formed men not
inferior in any nobleness of disposition to their masters —
Manni and the Captal de Buch,Knollys and Calverley, Chan-
dos and Lancaster. On the French side, especially after Du
Guesclin came on the stage, these had rivals almost equally
deserving of renown. If w^e could forget, what never should
be forgotten, the Avretchedness and devastation that fell upon
a great kingdom, too dear a price for the display of any her-
oism, we might count these English w^ars in France among
the brightest periods in history.
Philip of Valois, and John his son, showed but poorly in
comparison with their illustrious enemies. Yet they both
had considerable virtues ; they w^ere brave, just, liberal; and
the latter, in particular, of unshaken fidelity to his word.
But neither was beloved by his subjects ; the misgovernment
and extortion of their predecessors during half a century had
alienated the public mind, and rendered their own taxes and
debasement of the coin intolerable. Philip was made by mis-
fortune, John by nature, suspicious and austere ; and although
their most violent acts seem never to have wanted absolute
justice, yet they were so ill-conducted, and of so arbitrary a
complexion, that they greatly impaired the reputation, as
well as interests, of these monarchs.
Next to the personal qualities of the King of England, his
resources in this war must be taken into the account. It
^ras after Ions: hesitation that he assumed the title and arms
46 CIVIL DISTURBANCES OF FRANCE. Chap. I. PartIL
of France, froni which, unless upon tlie best terms, he could
not recede without loss of honor. In the mean time he
strengthened himself by alliances with the emperor, with
the cities of Flanders, and with most of the princes in the
Netherlands and on the Rhine. Yet I do not know that he
profited much by these conventions, since he met with no
success till the scene of the war was changed from the Flem-
ish frontier to Normandy and Poitou. The troops of Hain-
ault alone were constantly distinguished in his service.
But his intrinsic strength was at home. England had
been growing in riches since the wise government of his
grandfather, Edward I., and through the market opened for
her wool with the manufacturing towns of Flanders. She
was tranquil within ; and her northern enemy, the Scotch,
had been defeated and quelled. The Parliament, after some
slight precautions agiiinst a very probable effect of Edward's
conquest of France, the reduction of their own island into a
province, entered, as warmly as improvidently, into his quar-
rel. The people made it their own, and grew so intoxicated
with the victories of this war, that for some centuries the
injustice and folly of the enterprise do not seem to have
struck the gravest of our countrymen.
There is, indeed, ample room for national exultation at the
names of Crecy, Poitiers, and Azincourt. So great was the
disparity of numbers upon those famous days, that we can
not, with the French historians, attribute the discom.fiture
of their hosts merely to mistaken tactics and too impetuous
valor. They yielded rather to that intrepid steadiness in
danger which had already become the characteristic of our
English soldiers, and which, during five centuries, has insured
their superiority, whenever ignorance or infatuation has not
led them into the field. But these victories, and the quali-
ties that secured them, must chiefly be ascribed to the free-
dom of our constitution, and to the superior condition of the
people. Not the nobility of England, not the feudal tenants,
won the battles of Crecy and Poitiers; for these were fully
matched in the ranks of France; but the yeomen, who drew
the bow with strong and steady arms, accustomed to use it
in their native fields, and rendered fearless by personal com-
petence and civil freedom. It is well known that each of
the three great victories was due to our archers, who were
chiefly of the middle class, and attached, according to the
system of that age, to the knights and squires who fought in
heavy armor with the lance. Even at the battle of Poitiers,
of which our country seems to have the least right to boast.
France. SUCCESSES OF EDWARD HI. 47
since the greater part of the Black Prince's small army was
composed of Gascons, the merit of the English bowmen is
strongly attested by Froissart.
§ 3. Yet the glorious termination to which Edward was
enabled, at least for a time, to bring the contest, was rather
the work of fortune than of valor and prudence. Until the
battle of Poitiers he had made no progress towards the con-
quest of France. That country was too vast, and his army
too small, for such a revolution. The victory of Crecy gave
him nothing but Calais, a post of considerable importance in
war and peace, but rather adapted to annoy than to subju-
gate the kingdom. But at Poitiers he obtained the great-
est of prizes, by taking prisoner the king of France. Not
only the love of freedom tempted that prince to ransom him-
self by the utmost sacrifices, but his captivity left France de-
fenseless, and seemed to annihilate the monarchy itself The
government was already odious; a spirit was awakened in
the people which might seem hardly to belong to the four-
teenth century ; and the convulsions of our own time are
sometimes strongly paralleled by those which succeeded the
battle of Poitiers. Already the States-General had estab-
lished a fundamental principle that no resolution could be
passed as the opinion of the whole unless each of the three
orders concurred in its adoption. The right of levying and
of regulating the collection of taxes was recognized. But
that assembly, which met at Paris immediately after the bat-
tle, went far greater lengths in the reform and control of
government. From the time of Philip the Fair the abuses
natural to arbitrary power had harassed the people. There
now seemed an opportunity of redress; and however sedi-
tious, or even treasonable, may have been the motives of
those who guided this assembly of the States, especially the
famous Marcel, it is clear that many of their reformations
tended to liberty and the public good.* But the tumultu-
ous scenes which passed in the capital, sometimes heighten-
ed into civil war, necessarily distracted men from the com-
mon defense against Edward. These tumults were excited,
and the distraction increased, by Charles King of Navarre,
surnamed the Bad. He was grandson of Louis Hutin, by
his daughter Jane, and, if Edward's pretense of claiming
through females could be admitted, was a nearer heir to the
crown ; the consciousness of which seems to have suggested
1 The reader is referred to the next chapter for more information on this subject.
This separation is inconvenient, but it arose indispensably out of my arrangement,
and prevented greater inconvenience.
48 SUFFERINGS OF FRANCE. Chap. I. Part II.
itself to his depraved mind as an excuse for his treacheries,
though he could entertain very little prospect of asserting
the claim against either contending party. He entered into
alliances with Edward, and fomented the seditious sj)int of
Paris. Eloquent and insinuating, he was the favorite of the
people, whose grievances he affected to pity, and with whose
leaders he intrigued.
There is no affliction which did not fall upon France dur-
ing this miserable period. A foreign enemy was in the lieart
of the kingdom, the king a prisoner, the capital in sedition,
a treacherous prince of the blood in arms against the sover-
eign authority. Famine, the sure and terrible companion of
war, for several years desolated the country. In 1348 a pes-
tilence, the most extensive and unsparing of which we have
any memorial, visited France as well as the rest of Europe,
and consummated the work of hunger and the sword.^ The
companies of adventure, mercenary troops in the service
of John or Edward, finding no immediate occupation after
the truce of 1357, scattered themselves over the country in
search of pillage. No force existed sufficiently powerful to
check these robbers in their career. Undismayed oy supersti-
tion, they compelled the pope to redeem himself in Avignon
by the payment of forty thousand crowns. France was the
passive victim of their license, even after the pacification
concluded with England, till some were diverted into Italy,
and others led by Du Guesclin to the war of Castile. Im-
patient of this wretchedness, and stung by the insolence and
luxury of their lords, the peasantry of several districts broke
out into a dreadful insurrection (a.d. 1358). This was call-
ed the Jacquerie, from the cant phrase Jacques Bonhomme,
applied to men of that class ; and was marked by all the
circumstances of horror incident to the rising of an exasper-
ated and unenlightened populace.
§ 4. Subdued by these misfortunes, though Edward had
made but slight progress tow^ards the conquest of the coun-
2 A full account of the ravages made by this memorable plague may be found in
Matteo Villaui, the second of that family who wrote the history of Florence. His
brother and predecessor, John Villani, was himself a victim to it. The disease began
in the Levant about 1346 ; from whence Italian traders brought it to Sicily, Pisa, and
Genoa. In 134S it passed the Alps, spread over France and Spain ; in the next year it
reached Britain, and in 1350 laid waste Germany and other northern states ; lasting
generally about Ave months in each country. At Florence more than three out of
live died. The stories of Boccaccio's Decamerone, as is well known, are supposed to
be related by a society of Florentine ladies and gentlemen retired to the country dur-
ing this pestilence.
Another pestilence, only less destructive than the former, wasted both France and
England in 1361. The plague caused a truce of several months. The war was in fact
carried on with less vigor for some years. \
France. CHARLES V.— PEACE OF BRETIGNI. 49
try, the regent of France, afterwards Charles V., submitted
to the peace of Bretigni (a.d. 1360). By this treaty, not to
mention less important articles, all Guienne, Gascony, Poitou,
Saintonge, the Limousin, and the Angoumois, us well as
Calais, and the country of Ponthieu, were ceded in full sov-
ereignty to Edward ; a price abundantly compensating his
renunciation of the title of France, which was the sole con-
cession stipulated in return. At Calais this treaty was re-
newed by John, who, as a prisoner, had been no party to
the former compact, and who now returned to his dominions.
When the peace of Bretigni was to be carried into effect
the nobility of the south remonstrated against the loss of
the king's sovereignty, and showed, it is said, in their char-
ters granted by Charlemagne, a promise never to transfer
the right of protecting them to another. The citizens of
Rochelle implored the king not to desert them, and protest-
ed their readiness to pay half their estates in taxes, rather
than fall under the power of England. John with heaviness
of heart persuaded these faithful people to comply with that
destiny which he had not been able to surmount. At length
they sullenly submitted : we will obey, they said, the En-
glish with our lips, but our hearts shall never forget their al-
legiance. Such unwilling subjects might perhaps have been
won by a prudent government ; but the temper of the Prince
of Wales, which was rather stern and arbitrary, did not con-
ciliate their hearts to his cause. After the expedition into
Castile, a most injudicious and fatal enterprise, he attempted
to impose a heavy tax upon Guienne. This was extended
to the lands of the nobility, who claimed an immunity from
all impositions. Many of the chief lords in Guienne and
Gascony carried their complaints to the throne of Charles V.,
who had succeeded his father in 1364, appealing to him as
the prince's sovereign and judge. After a year's delay the
king ventured to summon the Black Prince to answer these
charges before the peers of France, and the war immediate-
ly recommenced between the two countries (a.d. 1368).
§ 5. Though it is impossible to reconcile the conduct of
Charles upon this occasion to the stern principles of rectitude
which ought always to be obeyed, yet the exceeding injustice
of Edward in the former war, and the miseries Avhich he in-
flicted upon an unoffending people in the prosecution of his
claim, w^ill go far towards extenuating this breach of the
treaty of Bretigni. The measures of Charles had been so sa-
gaciously taken, that, except through that perverseness of
fortune, against winch, especially in war, there is no security,
3
50 RENEWAL OF THE WAR. Chap. I. Part II.
he cc'tIcI hardly fail of success. The elder Edward was de-
clining through age, and the younger through disease; the
ceded provinces were eager to return to their native king,
and their garrisons, as we may infer by their easy reduction,
feeble and ill-supplied. France, on the other hand, had re-
covered breath after her losses ; the sons of those who had
fallen or fled at Poitiers were in the field ; a king, not per-
sonally warlike, but eminently wise and popular, occupied
the throne of the rash and intemperate John. She was re-
stored by the policy of Charles V. and the valor of Du
Guesclin. This hero, a Breton gentleman without fortune
or exterior graces, was the greatest ornament of France dur-
ing that age. Though inferior, as it seems, to Lord Chandos
in military skill, as well as in the polished virtues of chival-
ry, his unwearied activity, his talent of inspiring confidence,
his good fortune, the generosity and frankness of his charac-
ter, have preserved a fresh recollection of his name, which
has hardly been the case with our countryman.
In a few campaigns the English were deprived of almost
all their conquests, and even, in a great degree, of their orig-
inal possessions in Guienne. They were still formidable en-
emies, not only from their courage and alacrity in the war,
but on account of the keys of P>ance which they held in
their hands — Bordeaux, Bayonne, and Calais, by inheritance
or conquest ; Brest and Cherbourg, in mortgage from their
allies, the Duke of Brittany and King of Navarre. But the
successor of Edward III. was Richard II. ; a reign of fee-
bleness and sedition gave no opportunity for prosecuting
schemes of^ambition^ The war, protracted witli few dis-
tinguished events for 'several years, was at length suspended
by repeated armistices, not, indeed, very strictly observed,
and which the animosity of the English would not permit to
settle in any regular treaty. Nothing less than the terms
obtained at Bretigni, emphatically called the Great Peace,
would satisfy a frank and courageous people, who deemed
themselves cheated by the manner of its infraction. The
war was therefore always popular in England, and the credit
which an ambitious prince, Thomas duke of Gloucester, ob-
tained in that country, was chiefly owing to the determined
opposition which he showed to all French connections. But
the politics of Richard IL were of a diflerent cast ; and Hen-
ry IV. was equally anxious to avoid hostilities with France ;
so that, before the unhappy condition of that kingdom tempt-
ed his son to revive the claims of Edward in still more fa-
vorable circumstances, there had been thirty years of respite,
Fkance. accession OF CHARLES VI. 51
and even some intervals of friendly intercourse between the
two nations.
§ 6. Charles Y., surnaraed the Wise, after a reign which,
if we overlook a little obliquity in the rupture of the peace
of Bretigni, may be deemed one of the most honorable in
French history, dying prematurely, left the crown to his son,
Charles V^I. (a.d. 1380), a boy of thirteen, under the care of
three ambitious uncles, the dukes of Anjou, Berry, and Bur-
_;yundy. Charles V. had retrieved the glory, restored the
tranquillity, revived the spirit, of his country ; the severe
trials which exercised his regency after the battle of Poi-
tiers had disciplined his mind; he became a sagacious states-
man, an encourager of literature, a beneficent lawgiver. But
all the fruits of his wisdom were lost in the succeeding reign.
During the forty years that Charles VI. bore the name of
king, rather than reigned, in France, that country was re-
duced to a state far more deplorable than during the captiv-
ity of John.
A great change had occurred in the political condition of
France during the fourteenth century. As the feudal mili-
tia became unserviceable, the expenses of war were in-
creased through the necessity of taking troops into constant
pay. Hence taxes, hitherto almost unknown, were levied
incessantly, and with all those circumstances of oppression
which are natural to the fiscal proceedings of an arbitrary
government. The ill faith with which the new government
imposed subsidies, after promising their abolition, provoked
the people of Paris, and sometimes of other places, to repeat-
ed seditions. The States-General not only compelled the
government to revoke these impositions and restore the na-
tion, at least according to the language of edicts, to all their
liberties, but, with less wisdom, refused to make any grant
of money. Indeed a remarkable spirit of democratical free-
dom was then rising in those classes on whom the crown
and nobility had so long trampled. An example was held
out by the Flemings, who, always tenacious of their privi-
leges, because conscious of their ability to maintain them,
were em^aged in a furious conflict with Louis, count of Flan-
ders. The court of France took part in this war ; and after
obtaining a decisive victory over the citizens of Ghent,
Charles V. returned to chastise those of Paris. Unable to
resist the royal army, the city was treated as the spoil of
conquest; its immunities abridged; its most active leaders
put to death ; a fine of uncommon severity imposed ; and
the taxes renewed by arbitrary prerogative. But the peo-
52 CIVIL DISSENSIONS OF THE PARTIES Cii. I. Ft. IL
pie preserved their indignation for a favorable moment;
and were unfortunately led by it, when rendered subservient
to the ambition of others, into a series of crimes, and a long
alienation from the interests of their country.
Though Charles VI. was considered from the time of his
coronation as reigning with full personal authority, the act-
ual exercise of government was divided betw^een Anjou,
Berry, and Burgundy, together with the king's maternal
uncle, the Duke of Bourbon. The first of these soon un-
dertook an expedition into Italy, to possess himself of the
crown of Naples, in which he perished. Beny was a pro-
fuse and voluptuous man, of no great talents; though his
rank, and the middle position which he held between strug-
gling parties, made him rather conspicuous throughout the
revolutions of that age. The most respectable of the king's
uncles, the Duke of Bourbon, being farther removed from
the royal stem, and of an unassuming character, took a less
active part than his three coadjutors. Burgundy, an am-
bitious and able prince, maintained the ascendancy, until
Charles, weary of a restraint which had been protracted by
his uncle till he was in his twenty-first year, took the reins
into his own hands (a.d. 1387). The dukes of Burgundy
and Berry retired from court, and the administration was
committed to a d liferent set of men, at the head of whom
appeared the constable de Clisson, a soldier of great fame in
the English wars. The people rejoiced in the fall of the
princes by whose exactions tliey had been plundered; but
the new ministers soon rendered themselves odious by sim-
ilar conduct.
Charles VI. had reigned five years from his assumption of
power, when he was seized with a derangement of intellect
(a.d. 1393), which continued, through a series of recoveries
and relapses, to his death. He passed thirty years in a piti-
able state of suffering, neglected by his family, particularly
by the most infamous of women, Isabel of Bavaria, his queen,
to a degree which is hardly credible.' The ministers were
immediately disgraced; the princes reassumed their stations.
§ 7. For several years the Duke of Burgundy conducted
' Sismondi inclines to speak more favorably of this qneen than most have done.
He discredits the suspicion of a criminal intercourse with the duke of Orleans, and
represents her as merely an indolent woman fond of good cheer. Yet he owns that
the king was so neglected as to suffer from an excessive want of cleanliness, some-
times even from hunger (xii., 218, 225). Was t'_,is no imputation on his wife ? Martin
says that contemporary writers do not mention expressly the criminal intercourse
between Isabel and the duke of Orleans, but he adds, "ce qn'on salt des moeurs du
due et de sa bcUe-soeur permet difficilemeut de croire en I'iuuoceuce de leur intimitu,"
(▼.. 471).
France. OF ORLEANS AND BURGUNDY. 63
the government. But this was in opposition to a formida-
ble rival, Louis, duke of Orleans, the king's brother. It was
impossible that a prince so near to the throne, favored by
the queen perhaps with criminal fondness, and by the peo-
ple on account of his external graces, should not acquire a
share of power. He succeeded at length in obtaining the
whole management of affairs ; wherein the outrageous dis-
soluteness of his conduct, and still more the excessive taxes
imposed, render him altogether odious. The Parisians com-
pared his administration with that of the Duke of Bur-
gundy; and from that time ranged themselves on the side
of the latter and his family, throughout the long distractions
to which the ambition of these princes gave birth.
The death of the Duke of Burgundy, in 1404, after several
fluctuations of success between him and the Duke of Or-
leans, by no means left his party without a head. Equally
brave and ambitious, but far more audacious and unprinci-
pled, his son John, surnamed Sanspeur, sustained the same
contest. A reconciliation had been, however, brought about
with the Duke of Orleans ; they had sworn reciprocal friend-
ship, and participated, as was the custom, in order to render
these obligations more solemn, in the same communion. In
the midst of this outward harmony, the Duke of Orleans
was assassinated in the streets of Paris (a.d. 1407). After a
slight attempt at concealment. Burgundy avowed and boast-
ed of the crime. From this fatal moment the dissensions of
the royal family began to assume the complexion of civil
war. The queen, the sons of the Duke of Orleans, with the
dukes of Berry and Bourbon, united against the assassin.
But he possessed, in addition to his own appanage of Bur-
gundy, the county of Flanders as his maternal inheritance ;
and the people of Paris, who hated the Duke of Orleans,
readily forgave, or rather exulted in, his murder. He soon
obtained the management of affairs, and drove his adversa-
ries from the capital. The princes, headed by the father-in-
law of the young Duke of Orleans, the Count of Armagnac,
from whom their party was now denominated, raised their
standard against him ; and the north of France was rent to
pieces by a protracted civil war, in which neither party scru-
pled any extremity of pillage or massacre. The dauphin,
aware of the tyranny which the two parties alternately ex-
ercised, was forced, even at the expense of perpetuating a
civil war, to balance one against the other, and permit nei-
ther to be wholly subdued. In 1417 the Count of Armagn-
ac, now constable of France, was in possession of the gov
54 CHARLES VI. Chap. I. Part li
ernraent. But his severity, and the weight of taxes, revived
the Burgundian party in Paris, which a rigid proscription
had endeavored to destroy. He brought on his head the
implacable hatred of the queen, whom he had not only shut
out from public affairs, but disgraced by the detection of
her gallantries. Notwithstanding her ancient enmity to
the Duke of Burgundy, she made overtures to him, and, be
ing delivered by his troops from confinement, declared her-
self openly on his side. A few obscure persons stole the.
city keys, and admitted the Burgundians into Paris. The
tumult which arose showed in a moment the disposition of
the inhabitants ; but this was more horribly displayed a
few days afterwards, when the populace, rushing to the pris-
ons, massacred the constable D'Armagnac and his partisans
(a.d. 1418). Between three and four thousand persons were
murdered on this day, which has no parallel but what the
last age witnessed, in the massacre perpetrated by the same
ferocious populace of Paris under circumstances nearly sim-
ilar. Not long afterwards an agreement took place be-
tween the Duke of Burgundy, who had now the king's per-
son as well as the capital in his hands, and the dauphin,
whose party was enfeebled by the loss of almost all its lead-
ers. This reconciliation, which mutual interest should have
rendered permanent, had lasted a very short time, when the
Duke of Burgundy was assassinated at Montereau, at an in-
terview with Charles, in his presence, and by the hands of
his friends, though not, perhaps, with his previous knowl-
edge (a.d. 1419). From whomsoever the crime proceeded,
it was a deed of infatuation, and plunged France afresh into
a sea of perils, from which the union of these factions had
just afforded a hope of extricating her.
§ 8. It has been mentioned already that the English war
had almost ceased during the reigns of Richard II. and
Henry IV. A long commercial connection had subsisted
between England and Flanders, which the dukes of Bur-
gundy, when they became sovereigns of the latter country
upon the death of Count Louis, in 1384, were studious to
preserve by separate truces. They acted upon the same pa-
cific policy when their interest predominated in the councils
of France. Henry had even a negotiation pending for the
marriage of his eldest son with a princess of Burgundy,
when an unexpected proposal from the opposite side set
more tempting views before his eyes. The Armagnacs,
pressed hard by the Duke of Burgundy, offered, in consid-
eration of only 4000 troops, the pay of which they would
FiiAscE. BATTLE OF AZINCOURT. 55
themselves defray, to assist him in the recovery of Guienne
and Poitou. Four princes of the blood — Berry, Bourbon,
Orleans, and Alen9on — disgraced their names by signing
this treaty (May, 1412). Henry broke off his alliance with
Burgundy, and sent a force into France, which found, on its
arrival, that the princes had made a separate treaty, witliout
the least concern for their English allies. After his death,
Henry V. engaged for some time in a series of negotiations
with the French court, where the Orleans party now pre-
vailed, and with the Duke of Burgundy. He even secretly
treated at the same time for a marriage with Catherine of
France (which seems to have been his favorite, as it was ul-
timately his successful, project), and with a daughter of the
duke — a duplicity not creditable to his memory. But Hen-
ry's ambition, which aimed at the highest quarry, was not
long fettered by negotiation ; and, indeed, his proposals of
marrying Catherine were coupled with such exorbitant de-
mands as France, notwithstanding all her weakness, could
not admit, though she would have ceded Guienne, and given
a vast dowry with the princess. He invaded Normandy,
took Harfleur, and won the great battle of Azincourt, on his
march to Calais (a.d. 1415).
Tlie flower of French chivalry was mowed down in this
fatal day; but especially the chiefs of the Orleans party, and
the princes of the royal blood, met with death or captivity.
Burgundy had still suffered nothing; but a clandestine ne-
gotiation had secured the duke's neutrality, though he seems
not to have entered into a regular alliance till a year after
the battle of Azincourt, when, by a secret treaty at Calais,
he acknowledged the right of Henry to the crown of France,
and his own obligation to do him homage, though its per-
formance was to be suspended till Henry should become
master of a considerable part of the kingdom. In a second
invasion the English achieved the conquest of Normandy ;
and this, in all subsequent negotiations for peace during the
life of Henry, he would never consent to relinquish. After
several conferences, which his demands rendered abortive,
the French court at length consented to add Normandy to
the cessions made in the peace at Bretigni ; and the treaty,
though laboring under some difficulties, seems to have been
nearly completed, when the Duke of Burgundy, for reasons
unexplained, suddenly came to a reconciliation with the
dauphin (July 11, 1419). This event, which must have been
intended adversely to Henry, Avould probably have broken
off all parley on the subject of peace, if it had not beer*
6G THE TREATY OF TROYES. Ciiav. 1. Paut 11.
speedily followed by one still more surprising — the assassina-
tion of the Duke of Burgundy at Montereau already men-
tioned (Sept. 10, 1419).
§ 9. An act of treachery s(5 apparently unprovoked in^
flamed the minds of that powerful party which had looked
up to the duke as their leader and patron. The city of
Paris, especially, abjured at once its respect for the supposed
author of the murder, though the legitimate heir of the
crown. A solemn oath was taken by all ranks to revenge
the crime ; the nobility, the clergy, the Parliament, vying
with the populace in their invectives against Charles, whom
they now styled only pretended (soi-disant) dauphin. Philip,
son of the assassinated duke, who, w^ith all the popularity
and much of the ability of his father, did not inherit all his
depravity, was instigated by a pardonable excess of filial
resentment to ally himself with the King of England. These
passions of the people, and the Duke of Burgundy, concur-
ring with the imbecility of Charles VI. and the rancor of
Isabel towards her son, led to the treaty of Troyes (May,
1420). This compact, signed by the queen and duke, as
proxies of the king, who had fallen into a state of uncon-
scious idiotcy, stipulated that Henry V., upon his marriage
with Catherine, should become immediately regent of PVance,
and, after the death of Charles, succeed to the kingdom, in
exclusion not only of the dauphin, but of all the royal fim-
ily. It is unnecessary to remark that these flagitious pro-
visions w^ere absolutely invalid. But they had at the time
the strong sanction of force ; and Henry might plausibly
flatter himself w4th a hope of establishing his own usurpa-
tion as firmly in France as his father's had been in England.
What not even the comprehensive policy of Edward III.,
the energy of the Black Prince, the valor of their KnoUyses
and Chandoses, nor his own victories, could attain, now
seemed, by a strange vicissitude of fortune, to court his am-
bition. During two years that Henry lived after the treaty
of Troyes, he governed the north of I"* ranee with unlimited
authority in the name of Charles YI. The latter survived
his son-in-law but a few weeks; and the infant Henry VI.
was immediately proclaimed King of France and England,
under the regency of his uncle, the Duke of Bedford.
§ 10. Notwithstanding the disadvantage of a minority, the
English cause was less weakened by the death of Heniy
than might have been expected. The Duke of Bedford par-
took of the same character, and resembled his brother in
faults as well as virtues ; in his haughtiness and arbitrary
France. PROGRESS OF I^NGLISH ARMS-^iN FRANCE. 57
temper as in his energy and address. At the accession of
Charles VIL (a.d. 1422) the usurper was acknowledged by-
all the northern provinces of France, excepts, few fortresses,
by most of Guienne, and the dominions of Burgundy. The
Duke of Brittany soon afterwards acceded to the treaty of
Troyes, but changed his party again several times within a
few years. The central provinces, with Languedoc, Poitou,
and Dauphine, were faithful to the king. For some years
the war continued without any decisive result ; but the bal-
ance was clearly swayed in favor of England. For this it is
not difficult to assign several causes. The animosity of the
Parisians and the Duke of Burgundy against the Armagnac
party still continued, mingled in the former with dread of
the king's return, whom they judged themselves to have in-
expiably offended. The war had brought forward some ac-
complished commanders in the English army ; surpassing
not, indeed, in valor and enteri^rise, but in military skill, any
whom France could oppose to them. Of these the most dis-
tinguished, besides the Duke of Bedford himself, were War-
wick, Salisbuiy, and Talbot. Their troops, too, were still
very superior to the French. But this, we must in candor
allow, proceeded in a great degree from the mode in which
they were raised. The war was so poj^ular in England, that
it was easy to pick the best and stoutest recruits, and their
high pay allured men of respectable condition to the service.
We find in Rymer a contract of the Earl of Salisbury to
supply a body of troops, receiving a shilling a day for every
man-at-arms, and sixpence for each archer.* This is, perhaps,
equal to fifteen times the sum at our present value of money.
They were bound, indeed, to furnish their own equipments
and horses. But France was totally exhausted by her civil
and foreign war, and incompetent to defray the expenses
even of the small force which defended the wreck of the
monarchy. Charles VII. lived in the utmost poverty at
Bourges. The nobility had scarcely recovered from the fatal
slaughter of Azincourt ; and the infantry, composed of peas-
ants or burgesses, which had made their army so numerous
upon that day, whether from inability to compel their serv-
ices, or experience of their inefficacy, were never called into
the field.
It was, however, in the temper of Charles YII. that his
* Rym. t. X., p. 392. This contract w-as for 600 meu-at-arms, including six bannerets
ind thirty-four bachelors ; and for 1700 archers ; bien et suffisamment montez, armez,
et arraiez comme a leurs estate appartient. The pay was, for the earl,6«, 8d. a day;
for a banneret, 4s. ; for a bachelor, 2s. ; for every other man-at-arms, 1«. ; and for each
<ircher, GcZ. Artillerymen were paid higher than men-at-arms.
3*
68 THE MAID OF ORLEANS. Chap. I. Part II.
enemies found their chief advantage. This prince is one of
the few whose character has been improved by prosperity.
During the calamitous morning of his reign he shrunk from
fronting the storm, and strove to forget himself in pleasure.
Though brave, he was never seen in war ; though intelli-
gent, he was governed by flatterers. Those Avho had com-
mitted the assassination at Montereau under his eyes were
his first favorites ; as if he had determined to avoid the only
measure through which he could hope for better success — a
reconciliation with the Duke of Burgundy.
§ 11. It can not, therefore, surprise us that, with all these
advantages, the regent Duke of Bedford had almost com-
pleted the capture of the fortresses north of the Loire when
he invested Orleans in 1428. If this city had fallen, the
central provinces, which were less furnished with defensible
places, would have lain open to the enemy ; and it is said
that Charles VII. in despair was about to retire into Dau-
phine. At this time his affairs were j-estored by one of
the most marvellous revolutions in history. A country giri
overthrew the power of England. We can not pretend to
explain the surprising story of the Maid of Orleans; for,
however easy it may be to suppose that a heated and en-
thusiastic imagination produced her own visions, it is a
much greater problem to account for the credit they ob-
tained, and for the success that attended her. Nor will this
be solved by the hypothesis of a concerted stratagem;
which, if we do not judge altogether irom events, must ap-
pear liable to so many chances of failure that it could not
have suggested itself to any rational person. However, it
is certain that the appearance of Joan of Arc^ turned the
tide of war, which from that moment flowed without inter-
ruption in Charles's favor. A superstitious awe enfeebled
the sinews of the English. They hung back in their own
country, or deserted from the army, through fear of the in-
cantations by which alone they conceived so extraordinary
a person to succeed. A« men always make sure of Provi-
dence for an ally, whatever untoward fortune appeared to
result from preternatural causes was at once ascribed to in-
fernal enemies ; and such bigotry may be pleaded as an ex-
cuse, though a very miserable one, for the detestable murder
of this heroine.
* I have followed the common practice of translating Jeanne d'Arc by Joan of Arc.
It does not appear, however, that any such place as Arc exists in that neighborhood,
though there is a town of that name at a considerable distance. Joan was, as is
known, a native of the village of Domremy, in Lorraine. The correct orthography of
her name is Dare, as is shown by Michelet and H. Martin.
France. CONDITION OF FRANCE. 59
The spirit which Joan of Arc had roused did not subside.
France recovered confidence in her own strength* which
had been chilled by a long course of adverse fortune. Thi
king, too, shook off* his indolence,® and permitted Richemont.
brother of the Duke of Brittany, to exclude his unworthy
favorites from the court. This led to a very important
consequence. The Duke of Burgundy, whose alliance with
England had been only the fruit of indignation at his fa-
ther's murder, fell naturally, as that passion wore out, into
sentiments more congenial to his birth and interests. .
prince of the house of Capet could not willingly see the ii -
heritance of his ancestors transferred to a stranger. Ye ;
the union of his sister with Bedford, the obligations by
which he was bound, and, most of all, the favor shown by
Charles VIL to the assassins of his father, kept him for many
years on the English side, although rendering it less and
less assistance. But at length he concluded a treaty at Ar-
ras (a.d. 1435), the terms of which he dictated rather as a
conqueror than a subject negotiating with his sovereign.
Charles, however, refused nothing for such an end ; and, in
a very short time, the Burgundians were ranged with the
French against their old allies of England.
§ 12. It was now time for the latter to abandon those mag-
nificent projects of conquering France which temporary cir-
cumstances alone had seemed to render feasible. As foreign
enemies, they were odious even in that part of France which
had acknowledged Henry ; and when the Duke of Burgundy
deserted their side, Paris and every other city were impa-
tient to throw off the yoke. A feeble monarchy, and a self-
ish council, completed their ruin : the necessary stlbsidies
were raised with difficulty, and, when raised, misapplied. It
« It is a curreut piece of history that Agues Sorel, mistress of Charles VII,, had the
merit of dissuading him from giving np the kingdom as lost at the time when Orleans
was besieged in 1428. Mezeray, Daniel, Villaret, and, I believe, every other modern
historian, have mentioned this circumstance ; and some of them, among whom is
Hume, with the addition that Agnes threatened to leave the court of Charles for that
of Henry, affirming that she was born to be the mistress of a great king. The latter
part of this tale is evidently a fabrication, Henry VI. being at the time a child of seven
years old. But the story is not mentioned by contemporary writers, and Martin has
shown (vi., 321) that Charles did not become acquainted with Agnes Sorel before 1433 ;
consequently five years after the siege of Orleans. The tradition, however, is as an-
cient as Francis I., who made in her honor a quatrain which is well known. This
probably may have brought the story more into vogue, and led Mezeray, who waa
not very critical, to insert it in his history, from which it has passed to his followers.
Its origin was apparently the popular character of Agnes. She was the Nell Gwyn
of France, and justly beloved, not only for her charity and courtesy, but for bring-
ing forward men of merit and turning her influence, a virtue very rare in her class,
towards the public interest. From thence it was natural to bestow upon her, in after
times, a merit not ill suited to her character, but which au accurate observation of
dates renders impossible.
GO CONDITION OF FRANCE. Chap. I. Taut II
is a proof of the exhaustion of France, that Charles wai
unable, for several years, to reduce Normandy or Guienne,
which were so ill-provided for defense. At last he came
with collected strength to the contest, and, breaking an ar-
mistice upon slight pretenses, within two years overwhelmed
the English garrisons in each of these provinces (a.d. 1449).
All the inheritance of Henry II. and Eleanor, all the con-
quests of Edward III. and Henry V. except Calais and a
small adjacent district, were irrecoverably torn from the
crown of England. A barren title, that idle trophy of dis-
appointed ambition, was preserved with strange obstinacy
to our own age.
§ 13. At the expulsion of the English, France emerged
from the chaos with an altered character and new features
of government. The royal authority and supreme jurisdic-
tion of the Parliament were universally recognized. Yet
there was a tendency towards insubordination left among
the great nobility, arising in part from the remains of old
feudal privileges, but still more from that lax administration
which, in the convulsive struggles of the war, had been suf-
fered to prevail. In the south were some considerable vas-
sals, the houses of Foix, Albret, and Armagnac, who, on ac-
count of their distance from the seat of empire, had always
maintained a very independent conduct. The dukes of Brit-
tany and Burgundy were of a more formidable character,
and might rather be ranked among foreign powers than
privileged subjects. The princes, too, of the royal blood,
who, duriiiig the late reign, had learned to partake or con-
tend for the management, were ill-inclined towards Charles
VII., himself jealous, from old recollections, of their ascend-
ancy. They saw that the constitution was verging rapidly
t-owards an absolute monarchy, from the direction of which
they would studiously be excluded. This apprehension gave
rise to several attempts at rebellion during the reign of
Charles VII. Among the pretenses alleged by the revolters
in each of these, the injuries of the people were not for-
gotten; but from the people they received small support.
Weary of civil dissension, and anxious for a strong govern-
ment to secure them from depredations, the French had no
inducement to intrust even their real grievances to a few
malcontent princes, whose regard for the common good they
had much reason to distrust. Every circumstance favored
Charles VII. and his son in the attainment of arbitrary pow-
er. The country was pillaged by military ruffians. Charles
established his companies of ordonnance, the basis of the
Fkance. LOUIS XI. Gl
French regular army, in order to protect the country from
such depredators. They consisted of about 9000 soldiers,
all cavalry, of whom 1500 were heavy-armed ; a force not
very considerable, but the first, except mere body-guards^
which had been raised in any part of Europe as a national
standing army. These troops were paid out of the produce
of a permanent tax, called the taille; an innovation still
more important than the former. But the present benefit
cheating the people, now prone to submissive habits, little
or no opposition was made, except in Guienne, the inhabit-
ants of which had speedy reason to regret the mild govern-
oient of England, and vainly endeavored to return to its pro-
tection.
§ 14. It was not long before the new despotism exhibited
itself in its harshest character. Louis XL, son of Charles
VII., who, during his father's reign, had been connected
with the discontented princes, came to the throne (a.d. 1461^
greatly endowed with those virtues and vices which con-
spire to the success of a king. Laborious vigilance in busi-
ness, contempt of pomp, aftability to inferiors, were his ex-
cellences; qualities especially praiseworthy in an age char-
acterized by idleness, love of pageantry, and insolence. To
these virtues he added a perfect knowledge of all persons
eminent for talents or influence in the countries with which
he was connected, and a well-judged bounty, that thought
no expense wasted to draw them into his service or interest.
In the fifteenth century this political art had hardly been
known, except perhaps in Italy ; the princes of Europe had
contended with each other by arms, sometimes by-treachery,
but never with such complicated subtlety of intrigue. Of
that insidious cunning, which has since been brought to per-
fection, Louis XI. may be deemed not absolutely the invent-
or, but the most eminent improver; and its success has led,
perhaps, to too high an estimate of his abilities. Like most
bad men, he sometimes fell into his own snare, and was be-
trayed by his confidential ministers, because his confidence
was generally reposed in the wicked. And his dissimula-
tion was so notorious, his tyranny so oppressive, that he was
naturally surrounded by enemies, and had occasion for all
his craft to elude those rebellions and confederacies which
jaight perhaps not have been raised against a more upright
sovereign. At one time the monarchy was on the point of
sinking before a combination wliich would have ended in dis-
membering France. This was the league denominated of
the Public Weal (a.d. 1461), in Avhich all the princes and
62 APPANAGES. Chap. I. Part II.
great vassals of the French crown were concerned; the
dukes of Brittany, Burgundy, Alen9on, Bourbon, the Count
of Dunois, so renowned for his valor in the English wars^
the families of Foix and Armagnac ; and at the head of all,
Charles, duke of Berry, the king's brother and presumptive
heir. So unanimous a combination was not formed without
a strong provocation from the king, or at least without
weighty grounds for distrusting his intentions ; but the
more remote cause of this confederacy, as of those which
had been raised against Charles YII., was the critical posi-
tion of the feudal aristocracy from the increasing power
of the crown. This war of the Public Weal was, in fact, a
struggle to preserve their independence; and from the weak
character of the Duke of Berry, whom they would, if success-
ful, have placed upon the throne, it is possible that France
might have been in a manner partitioned among them in the
event of their success, or, at least, that Burgundy and Brit-
tany would have thrown off the sovereignty that galled
them.
The strength of the confederates in this w^ar much exceed-
ed that of the king; but it was not judiciously employed;
and after an indecisive battle at Montlhery they failed in the
great object of reducing Paris, which would have obliged
Louis to fly from his dominions. It w^as his policy to prom-
ise every thing, in trust that fortune would afford some open-
ing to repair his losses and give scope to his superior pru-
dence. Accordingly, by the treaty of Conflans, he not only
surrendered afresh the towns upon the Somme, which he had
lately redeemed from the Duke of Burgundy, but invested
his brother with the duchy of Normandy as his appanage.
The term appanage denotes the provision made for the
younger children of the King of France. This always con-
sisted of lands and feudal superiorities held of the crown by
the tenure of peerage. It is evident that this usage, as it
produced a new class of powerful feudatories, wns hostile to
the interests and policy of the sovereign, and retarded the
subjugation of the ancient aristocracy. But an usage coeval
with the monarchy was not to be abrogated, and the scarcity
of money rendered it impossible to provide for the younger
branches of the royal family by any other means. It was
restrained, however, as far as circumstances would permit.
Philip IV. declared that the county of Poitiers, bestowed by
him on his son, should revert to the crown on the extinction
of male heirs. But this, though an important precedent, was
not, as has often been nsserted, a general law. Charles V,
Fkanck. appanages. G;J
limited the appanages of his own sons to twelve thousand
iivres of annual value in land. By means of their appan-
ages, and through the operation of the Salic law, which made
their inheritance of the crown a less remote contingency, the
princes of the blood royal in France Avere at all times (for
the remark is applicable long after Louis XL) a distinct and
formidable class of men, whose influence was always disad-
vantageous to the reigning monarch, and, in general, to the
people.
No appanage had ever been granted to France so enor-
mous as the duchy of Normandy. One-third of the whole
national revenue, it is declared, was derived from that rich
province. Louis could not, therefore, sit down under such
terms as, with his usual insincerity, he had accepted at Con-
flans. In a very short time he attacked Normandy, and
easily compelled his brother to take refuge in Brittany ; nor
were his enemies ever able to procure the restitution of
Charles's appanage. During the rest of his reign Louis had
powerful coalitions to withstand ; but his prudence and com-
pliance with circumstances, joined to some mixture of good
fortune, brought him safely through his perils. The Duke
of Brittany, a prince of moderate talents, was unable to make
any formidable impression, though generally leagued with
the enemies of the king. The less powerful vassals were suc-
cessfully crushed by Louis with decisive vigor; the duchy
of Alenyon was confiscated; the Count of Armagnac was as-
sassinated ; the Duke of Nemours, and the constable of St.
Poll, a politician as treacherous as Louis, who had long be-
trayed both him and the Duke of Burgundy, suffered upon
the scaffold. The king's brother Charles, after disquieting
him for many years, died suddenly in Guienne, which had
finally been granted as his appanage (a.d. 1472), Edward
IV. of England was too dissipated and too indolent to be
fond of war; and, though he once entered France with an
army more considerable than could have been expected af-
ter such civil bloodshed as England had witnessed, he was
induced, by the stipulation of a large pension, to give up the
enterprise. So terrible was still in France the apprehension
of an English war, that Louis prided himself upon no part
of his policy so much as the warding this blow (a.d. 1475).
Edward showed a desire to visit Paris ; but the king gave
him no invitation, lest, he said, his brother should find some
handsome woman there, Avho might tempt him to return in
a different manner. Hastings, Howard, and other of Ed-
ward's ministei-s, were secured by bribes in the interest of
04 THE HOUSE OF BURGUNDY. Chap, I. PartIL
Louis, which the first of these did not scruple to receive at
the same time from the Duke of Burgundy.
§ 15. This was the most powerful enemy whom the craft
of Louis had to counteract. In the last days of the feudal
system, when the house of Capet had almost achieved the
subjugation of those proud vassals among whom it liad been
originally numbered, a new antagonist sprang up to dispute
the field against the crown. John, king of France, granted
the duchy of Burgundy, by way of appanage, to his third
son, Philip. By his marriage with Margaret, heiress of Louis,
count of Flanders, Philip acquired that province, Artois, the
county of Burgundy' (or Franche-comte), and the Nivernois.
Philip the Good, his grandson, who carried the prosperity
of this family to its height, possessed himself, by various
titles, of the several other provinces which composed the
Netherlands. These were fiefs of the empire, but latterly
not much dependent upon it, and alienated by their owners
without its consent. At the peuce of Arras the districts
of Macon and Auxerre were r.br.olutely ceded to Pliilip, and
great part of Picardy conditionally made over to him, re-
deemable on the payment of four hundred thousand crowns.
GENEALOGICAL TABLE OP THE SECOND DUCAL HOUSE OP BURGUNDY.
John, king of France, inherits the duchy as nearest heir male of the late Duke Philippo
de Rouvre, 13G1.
Philip, fourth son of King John, created Duke of Burgundy, 13C4, ob. 1404.
Jean Sanspeur, killed at Moutereau, 1419.
Philip (le Bon), ob. 146T.
Charles (le Temeraire), ob. 1477.
Mary, dacbess of Burgundy=Maximilian, archduke of Austria.
Philip, archduke of Austria, = Juana, heiress of Castile and Aragon.
and sovereign of the Nelherliuids,
ob. 1506.
Charles V., king of Spain, sovereign of the Netherlands, and emperor, 1519.
These extensive, though not compact dominions, were abun-
dant in population and wealth, fertile in corn, wine, and salt,
and full of commercial activity. Thirty years of peace which
followed the treaty of Arras, with a mild and free govern-
ment, raised the subjects of Burgundy to a degree of pros-
perity quite unparalleled in these times of disorder ; and this
was displayed in general sumptuousness of dress and feast-
ing. The court of Philip and of his son Charles was distin-
guished for its pouip and riches, for pageants and tourna-
7 See NoTK VIII., p. T4.
Fkance. CHARLES THE BOLD. 65
ments ; the trappings of chivalry, perhaps without its spirit •,
for the military cliaracter of Burgundy had been impaired
by long tranquillity.
During the lives of Philip and Charles VII. each underv
stood the other's rank, and their amity was little interrupt-
ed. But their successors, the most opposite of human kind
in character, had one common quality, ambition, to render
their antipathy more powerful. Louis was eminently timid
and suspicious in policy ; Charles intrepid beyond all men,
and blindly presumptuous; Louis stooped to any humilia-
tion to reach his aim ; Charles was too haughty to seek the
fairest means of strengthening his party. An alliance of his
daughter with the Duke of Guieniie, brother of Louis, was
what the malcontent French princes most desired and the
king most dreaded ; but Charles, either averse to any French
connection, or willing to keep his daughter's suitors in de-
pendence, would never directly accede to that or any other
yjroposition for her marriage. On Philip's death, in 1467, he
inherited a great treasure, which he soon wasted in the pros-
ecution of his schemes. These w^ere so numerous and vast,
that he had not time to live, says Comines, to complete
them, nor would one-half of Europe have contented him. It
w^as his intention to assume the title of king ; and the em-
peror Frederick III. was at one time actually on his road to
confer this dignity, when some suspicion caused him to re-
tire, and the project was never renewed. It is evident that,
if Charles's capacity had borne any proportion to his pride
and courage, or if a prince less politic than Louis XI. had
been his contemporary in P7-ance, the province of Burgundy
must have been lost to th-e monarchy. For several years
these great rivals were engaged, sometimes in open hostili-
ty, sometimes in endeavors to overreach each other; but
Charles, though not much more scrupulous, was far less an
adept in these mysteries of politics than the king.
Notwithstanding the power of Burgundy, there were some
disadvantages in its situation. It presented (I speak of all
Charles's dominions under the commoii name. Burgundy) a
very exposed frontier on the side of Germany and Switzer-
land, as well as France ; and Louis exerted a considerable
influence over the adjacent princes of the empire, as well as
the united Cantons. The people of Liege, a very populous
city, had for a long time been continually rebelling against
their bishops, Avho were the allies of Burgundy ; Louis was
of course not backward to foment their inslirrections, which
sometimes gave the dukes a good deal of trouble. The
66 DEATH OF CHARLES THE BOLD. Chap. I. Par IL
Flemings, and especially the people of Ghent, had been dur-
ing a century noted for their republican spirit and contuma-
cious defiance of their sovereign. Liberty never wore a more
unamiable countenance than among these burghers, who
abused the strength she gave them by cruelty and insolence.
Ghent was absolutely impregnable at a time when artillery
was very imperfect both in its construction and manage-
ment. Hence, though the citizens of Ghent were generally
beaten in the field with great slaughter, they obtained tol-
erable terms from their masters, who knew the danger of
forcing them to a desperate defense.
An almost uninterrupted success had attended the duke's
enterprises for a length of time, and rendered his disposition
still more overweening. His first failure was before Neuss,
a little town near Cologne (a.d. 1474), the possession of
which would have made him nearly master of the whole
course of the Rhine, for he had already obtained the land-
graviate of Alsace. Though compelled to raise the siege,
(\(i succeeded m occupyi;ig, next year, the duchy of Lorraine.
But his overthrow was reserved for an enemy whom he de-
spised, and v;hom none could have thought equal to the con-
test. The Swiss had given him some slight provocation, for
which they were ready to atone ; but Charles was unused to
rbrbear; and perhaps Switzerland came within his projects
of conquest. At Granson, in the Pays de Vaud, he was en-
tirely routed, wuth more disgrace than slaughter. But hav-
ing reassembled his troops and met the confederate army of
Swiss and Germans at Morat, near Friburg, he was again de-
feated witTi vast loss. On this day the power of Burgundy
was dissipated : deserted by his allies, betrayed by his mer-
cenaries, he set his life upon another cast at Nancy, desper-
ately giving battle to the Duke of Lorraine with a small dis-
pirited army, and perished in the engagement (a.d. 1477).
§ 16. Now was the moment when Louis, who had held
back while his enemy was breaking his force against the
rocks of Switzerland, came to gather a harvest which his
labor had not reaped. Charles" left an only daughter, un-
doubted heiress of Flanders and Artois, as well as of his do-
minions out of France, but whose right of succession to the
duchy of Burgundy was more questionable. Originally the
great fief of the crown descended to females, and this was
the case with respect to the two first mentioned. But John
had granted Burgundy to his son Philip by way of appan-
age ; and it wnj? contended that the appanages reverted to
the crown in default of male heirs. In the form of Philip's
France. LOUIS XI.— HIS ILLNESS. 67
investiture, the duchy was granted to him and his lawful
heirs, without designation of sex. The construction, there-
fore, must be left to the established course of law. This,
however, was by no means acknowledged by Mary, Charles's
daughter, who maintained both that no general law restrict-
ed appanages to male heirs, and that Burgundy had always
been considered as a feminine fief, John himself having pos-
sessed it, not by reversion as king (for descendants of the
first dukes were then living) but by inheritance derived
through females. ^
There was one obvious mode of preventing all further
contest, and of aggrandizing the French monarchy far more
than by the reunion of Burgundy. This was the marriage
of Mary with the dauphin, which was ardently wished in
France. Whatever obstacles might occur to this connection
it was natural to expect on the opposite side — from Mary's
repugnance to an infant husband, or from the jealousy which
her subjects were likely to entertain of being incorporated
with a country worse governed than their own. The arts
of Louis would have been well employed in smoothing these
impediments. But he chose to seize upon as many towns
as, in those critical circumstances, lay exposed to him, and
stripped the young duchess of Artois and Franche-comte.
Expectations of the marriage he sometimes held out, but, as
it seems, without sincerity. Indeed he contrived irreconcil-
ably to alienate Mary by a shameful perfidy, betraying the
ministers whom she had intrusted upon a secret mission to
the people of Ghent, who put them to the torture, and after-
wards to death, in the presence and amidst the tears and
supplications of their mistress. Thus the French alliance
becoming odious in France, this princess married (a.d. 14V7)
Maximilian of Austria, son of the Emperor Frederick — a con-
nection which Louis strove to prevent, though it was im-
possible then to foresee that it was ordained to retard the
growth of France and to bias the fate of Europe during three
hundred years. This war lasted till after the death of Mary,
who left one son, Philip, and one daughter, Margaret. By
a treaty of peace concluded at Arras, in 1482, it was agreed
that this daughter should become the dauphin's wife, with
Franche-comte and Artois, whicli Louis held already, for her
dowry, to be restored in case the marriage should not take
efl:ect. The homage of Flanders was reserved to the crown,
§ 1^. Meanwhile Louis was lingering in disease and tor-
ments of mind, the retribution of fraud and tyranny. Two
years before his death he was struck with an apoplexy, from
68 LOUIS XL— HIS CHARACTER. Chap. L Part IL
which he never wholly recovered. As he felt his disorder
increasing, he shut himself up in a palace near Tours, to
hide from the world the knowledge of his decline.^ His sol-
itude was like that of Tiberius at Capreae, full of terror and
suspicion, and deep consciousness of universal hatred. All
ranks, he Avell knew, had their several injuries to remember:
the clergy, whose liberties he had sacrificed to the See of
Rome, by revoking the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII. ;
the princes, whose blood he had poured upon the scaffold ;
the Parliament, whose course of justice he had turned aside ;
the commons, who groaned under his extortion, and were
plundered by his soldiery.^ The palace, fenced with port-
cullises and spikes of iron, was guarded by archers and cross-
bow-men, who shot at any that approached by night. Few
entered this den ; but to them he showed himself in magnifi-
cent apparel, contrary to his former custom, hoping thus to
disguise the change of his meagre body. He distrusted his
friends and kindred, his daughter and his son, the last of
whom he had not suffered even to read or write, lest he
should too soon become his rival. No man ever so much
feared death, to avert which he stooped to every meanness
and sought every remedy. His pliysician had sworn that
if he were dismissed the king would not survive a week;
and Louis, enfeebled by sickness and terror, bore the rudest
usage from this man, and endeavored to secure his services
by vast rewards. Always credulous in relics, though seldom
restrained by superstition from any crime, he eagerly bought
up treasures of this sort, and even procured a Calabrian her-
mit, of noted sanctity, to journey as far as Tours in order to
restore his health. Philip de Comines, who attended him
during his infirmity, draws a parallel between the torments
he then endured and those he had formerly inflicted on
others. Indeed the whole of his life was vexation of spirit.
" I have known him," says Comines, " and been his servant
in the flower of his age, and in the time of his greatest pros-
perity ; but never did I see him without uneasiness and care.
Of all amusements he loved only the chase, and hawking in
its season. And in this he had almost as much uneasiness
* Plessis, his last residence, about an English mile from Tours, is now a dilapidated
farm-house, and can never have been a very large building. The vestiges of royalty
about it are few ; but the principal apartments have been destroyed, either in the
course of ages or at the revolution.
» See a remarkable chapter in Philip de Comines, 1. iv. c. 19, wherein he tells us that
Charles VII. had never raised more than 1,800,000 francs a year in taxes; but Louis
XL, at the time of his death, raised 4,700,000, exclusive of some military impositions-
et surement c'estoit compassion de voir et scavoir la panvretc du peuple.
France. AFFAIRS OF BRITTANY. 69
as pleasure ; for he rode hard and got up early, and some-
times went a great way, and regarded no weatlier ; so that
he used to return very weary, and almost ever in wrath with
some one. I think that from his childhood he never had any
respite of labor and trouble to his death. And I am certain
that if all the happy days of his life, in which he had more
enjoyment than uneasiness, were numbered, they would be
found very few ; and at least that they would be twenty of
sorrow for every one of pleasure."
§ 18. Charles VIII. was about thirteen years old when he
succeeded his father Louis (a.d. 1483). Though the law of
France fixed the majority of her kings at that age, yet it
seems not to have been strictly regarded on this occasion,
and at least Charles was a minor by nature, if not by law.
A contest arose, therefore, for the regency, which Louis had
intrusted to his daughter Anne, wife of the Lord de Beau-
jeu, one of the Bourbon family. The Duke of Orleans, af-
terwards Louis XII., claimed it as presumptive heir of the
crown, and was seconded by most of the princes. Anne,
however, maintained her ground, and ruled France for sev-
eral years in her brother's name with singular spirit and ad-
dress, in spite of the rebellions which the Orleans party
raised up against her. These were supported by the Duke
of Brittany, the last of the great vassals of the crown, whose
daughter, as he had no male issue, was the object of as many
suitors as Mary of Burgundy.
The duchy of Brittany was peculiarly circumstanced. The
inhabitants, whether sprung from the ancient republicans
of Armorica, or, as some have thought, from an emigration
of Britons during the Saxon invasion, had not originally be-
longed to the body of the French monarchy. They Avere
governed by their own princes and laws, though tributary,
perhaps, as the weaker to the stronger, to the Merovingian
kings. In the ninth century the dukes of Brittany did hom-
age to Charles the Bold, the right of which was transfcn-ed
afterwards to the dukes of Normandy. This formality, at
that time no token of real subjection, led to consequences
beyond the views of either party. For when the ieudal
chains that had hung so loosely upon the shoulders of the
great vassals began to be straightened by the dextei'ity of
the court, Brittany found itself drawn among the rest to the
same centre. The old privileges of independence were treat-
ed as usurpation; the dukes were menaced with confiscation
of their fief, their right of coining money disputed, their
jurisdiction impaired by appeals to the Parliament of Paris,
70 THE FKENCIi MOJSAUOllY. Cuai-. I. rAiixII,
However, tliey stood boldly upon their right, and always
refused to pay liege homage, wliich implied an obligation of
service to the lord, in contradistinction to simjyle homage,
which was a mei-e symbol of feudal dependence. In Francis
II., the then duke, the male line of that family was about to
be extinguished. His daughter Anne was naturally the ob-
ject of many suitors, and was at length married by proxy to
Maximilian, king of the Romans (a.d. 1489). But France
was resolved at all events to break off so dangerous a con-
nection. And as Maximilian himself was unable, or took
not sufficient pains, to relieve his betrotlied Avife from her
embarrassments, she was ultimately compelled to accept the
hand of Charles VIIL He had long been engaged by the
treaty of Arras to marry the daughter of Maximilian, and
that princess was educated at the French court. But this
engagement had not prevented several years of hostilities,
and continual intrigues with the towns of Flanders against
Maximilian. The double injury which the latter sustained
in the marriage of Charles with the heiress of Brittany
seemed likely to excite a protracted contest ; but the King
of France, Avho had other objects in view, and perhaps was
conscious that he liad not acted a fair part, soon came to an
accommodation, by which he restored Artois and Franche-
comte. Both these provinces had revolted to Maximilian;
so that Charles must have continued the war at some disad-
vantage (a.d. 1492).
France was now consolidated into a great kingdom : tlie
feudal system was at an end. The vigor of Philip Augustus,
the paternal wisdom of St. Louis, the policy of Philip the
Fair, had laid the foundations of a powerful monarchy, which
neither the arms of England, nor seditions of Paris, nor re-
bellions of the princes, were atile to shake. Besides the orig-
inal fiefs of the French crown, it had acquired two countries
beyond the Rhone, which properly depended only upon the
empire — Dauj^hine, under Philip of Valois, by tlie bequest of
Humbert, tlie last of its princes ; and Provence, under Louis
XI., by that of Charles of Anjou.'" Thus having conquered
herself, if T may use the phrase, and no longer apprehensive
"> The country now called Dauphioc formed part of the kingdom of Aries or 1 ro-
Teuce, bequeathed by Kodolph III. to the emperor, Conrad I. But the dominion of
the empire over these new acquisitions being little more than nominal, a few of the
chief nobility converted their respective fiefs into independent ijriiicipalities. One
of these was the lord or dauphin of Vienne, whose family became ultimately masters
of the whole province. Provence, like Daui)hine, was changed from a feudal depend-
ency to a sovereignty, in the weakness and dissolution of the kingdom of Aries, about
the early part of the eleventh century.
NOTES TO CllAi'TER I.
71
of any foreign enemy, France was prepared, under a monarch
fluslied with sanguine ambition, to carry her arms into other
countries, and to contest the prize of glory and power upon
the ample theatre of Europe.*^
11 See NoTK IX., "Authorities for French History."
NOTES TO CHAPTER I.
I. THE ARMORICAX REPUBLIC.
TuE existence of an Armorican Republic
is now adniitled by most French histori-
ans. Early in the lifth century, according
to Zasinius (vi. 5), about the time when
(;(;ii.^c:uitine usurped the throne of Brit-
ain and Gaul, or, as the sense shows, a lit-
tle later, in consequence of the incursions
of the barbarians from beyond the Rhine,
the natives of Britain, taking up arms for
themselves, rescued their cities from these
barbarians ; and the whole Armorican ter-
ritory, and other provinces of Gaul, in imi-
tation of the Britons, liberated themselves
in the same manner, expelling the Roman
rulers, and establishing an internal gov-
ernment. Martin considers that this con-
federation extended as ftir as Aquitaine,
and embraced some cities of the central
provinces, as well as Armorica jjroper.
— ("Histoire de France," vol. i. p. 339.)
II. THE FRANKS. j
The Franks are not among the German j
tribes mentioned by Tacitus, nor do they j
appear in history before the year 240.
They were jirobably a confederation of
*;he tribes situated between the Rhine, the
Weser, and the Main ; as the Alemanni
were a similar league to the south of the
la;>t river. Their oricrin may be derived
from the necessity of defending their in-
dependence agninst Rome ; but they had
become the aggressors in the period when
we read of them in Roman history ; and,
like other barbarians in that age, were oft-
01 the purchased allies of the declining
empre. M. LehuGron conceives them to
have l)ecn a race of exiles or outlaws from
other Geiman tribes, taking the name
Franc from /rec/i, fierce or bold, and set-
tling at first, by neccssit}', near tlie mouth
of the Elbe, whence they moved (mward
to seek better habitations at the expense
of less intrepid, though more civilized, na-
tions. — ("Institutions Merovingiennes."
vol. i. p. 91.)
Although the Frankish tribes were nom-
inally independent of each other, each pos'
sessing its own chieftain, yet in process of
time a certaiu predominance was acquired
by one or two over the rest. The warlike
Salians, who towards the close of the third
century obtained a tixed settlement in the
north of Gaul, became, in consequence of
this success and other advantages, the
dominant tribe; and it was fnmi one of
their families, that of the Meroioings or
children of Merowig, that the confedera-
tion chose its military leaders, as occasicm
arose. Such is the origin of what is com-
monly called the Merovingian Hue of
kings.
HI. THE CONSULSHIP OF CLOVIS.
The theory of Dubos, who considers Clo-
vis as a sort of lieutenant of the emperor's,
and as governing the Roman part of his
subjects by no other title, is partly coun-
tenanced by Gibbon, and has been re-
vived, in almost its fullest extent, by a
learned and spirited investigator of early
history, Sir Francis Palgrave, in his "Rise
and Progress of the English Common-
wealth," i. 3G0. The truth seems to be
that the investiture of Clovis with the
consular dignity by the Eastern empemr,
although it added nothing to his real jjow-
er, was a fortunate circumstance of which
the conqueror gladly took advantage to
ratify and consolidate his already acquired
sovereignty. It is plain, from the account
given by Gregory of Tours, that both Clo-
vis himself and his subjects, barbarian
and Roman, attached considerable im-^
portance to the fact. M. Lehuerou, in his
■'Institutions Morovingiennes," arrives at
the following conclusions: That the de-
tinitive establishment of the Franks in
Roman Gaul resulted at the same time
from the voluntary concessi(His of the em-
perors and from their violent aggressions.
That the Merovingians reigned partly by
legitimate succession and partly by r'-'ht
72
NOTES TO CHAPTER I.
of conquest. That Clovis, whose reign did
not commence till after the fall of the
Western Emi)ire, nevertheless recognized,
like the Visigoths of Spain, the Ostrogoths
of Italy, and the Burgundiaus of Gaul, the
superiority, and up to a certain point the
siizerainship, of the emperors of the East.
That the Gallo-Roraan provincials coin-
cided in this view, and that consequently
their acquiescence in the government of
Clovis became more willing and more
complete from the moment of his nomina-
tion as Consul and Patrician, acknowl-
edged dignities of the ancient empire.
Lastly, that, long after Clovis and his pos-
terity had become independent masters
of Gaul, the Merovingian princes looked
upon the Eastern emperors as their su-
periors, and addressed them, when occa-
sion arose, in terms expressive of this re-
lationship.
IV. THE MAYOR OF THE PALACE.
The Mayor of the Palace appears as the
flrst officer of the crown in the three Frank
kingdoms during the latter half of the
sixth century. He had the command, as
Guizot supposes, of the Antrustions, or
vassals of the king. Even afterwards the
office was not, as this writer believes,
properly elective, though in the case of
a minority of the king, or upon other spe-
cial occasions, the leudes, or nobles, chose a
mayor. The first instance we find of such
an election was in 575, when, after the
murder of Sigebert by Fredegonde, his
son Childebert being an infant, the Aus-
trasian leudes chose Gogon for their may-
or. There seem, however, so many in-
stances of elective mayors in the seventh
century, that, although the royal consent
may probably have been legally requisite,
U. is hard to doubt that the office had fall-
en into the hands of the nobles.
V. AQUITAINE.
Aiibert, or rather Caribert, brother of
Dngobert I., was declared king of Aqui-
taine in 02S; but on his death, in G31, it
became a duchy dependent on the mon-
archy under his two sons, with its capital
at Toulouse. This dependence, however,
appears to have soon ceased, in the decay
of the Merovingian line ; and for a centu-
ry afterwards Aquitaine can hardly be
considered as part of either the Neustrian
or Austrasian kingdom. Aquitaine, in its
fu'.lei?t extent, extended from the Loire
beyond the Garonne, with the exception
;)f Touinine and the Orluannois. The
l)ec)ple of Aquitaine, in this large sense
of the word, were chiefly Romans, with a
few Goths. The Franks, as a conquering
nation, had scarcely taken up their abod«
in these provinces. After the battle of
Testry, which subverted the Neustrian
monarchy, Aquitaine, and even Burgun-
dy, ceased for a time to be French ; undei
Charles Martel they were styled the Ro-
man countries. (Michelet, ii. 9 ) Eudon,
by some called Eudes, grandson of Cari-
bert, a prince of conspicuous qualities,
gained ground upon the Franks during
the whole period of Pepin Heristal's pow-
er, and united to Aquitaine not only Pro-
vence, but a new conquest from the inde-
pendent natives, Gascony. Eudon ob-
tained in 721 a far greater victory over the
Saracens than that of Charles Martel at
Poitiers. The slaughter was immense,
and confessed by the Arabian writers; it
even appears that a funeral solemnity, in
commemoration of so great a calamity,
was observed in Spain for four or five cen-
turies afterwards. (Fauriel, iii. 79.) But
in its consequences it was far less impor-
tant ; for the Saracens, some years after-
wards, returned to avenge their country-
men, and Eudon had no resource but in
the aid of Charles Martel. After the re-
treat of the enemy it became the necessa-
ry price of the service rendered by the
Fr;!nk chieftain that Aquitaine acknowl-
edged his sovereignty. This, however,
was still but nominal, till Pepin deter-
mined to assert it more seriously, and af-
ter a long war overcame the last of the
ducal line sprung from Clotairc IL, which
had displayed, for almost a century and a
half, an energy in contrast with the im-
becility of the elder branch. Even this,
as M. Fauriel observes, was little more
than a change in the reigning family; the
men of Aquitaine never lost their j)eculiai
nationality ; they remained a separate peo-
ple in Gaul, a people distinguished by their
character, and by the part which they were
called to play in the political revolutions
of the age.
Vr. THE SUBJECTION OF THE SAXONS.
The true cause, M. Michelet observes
("Hist, de France," ii., 39) of the Saxon
wars, which had begun under Chailes
Martel, and were in some degree defensive
on the part of the Franks, was the ancient
antipathy of race, enhanced by the grow-
ing tendency to civilized habits among the
latter. This, indeed, seems sufficient to
account for the conflict, Avithout any na-
tional antipathy. It was that which makes
the Red Indian perceive an enemy in the
Anglo-American, and the Australian sav-
age in the Englishman. The Saxons, in
their deep forests and scantily cultivated
plains, could not bear fixed boundaries of
NOTES TO CHAPTER I.
7S
.and. Their gau was indefinite ; the man-
8MS was certain ; it annihilated the barba-
rian's only method of combining liberty
with possession of land— the right of shift-
ing his occupancy. It is not probable,
from subsequent events, that the Saxons
held very tenaciously by ttieir religion ;
but when Christianity first offered itself,
it came in the train of a conqueror. Nor
could Christianity, according at least to
the ecclesiastical system, be made com-
patible with such a state of society as the
German in that age. Hence the Saxons
endeavored to burn the first churches,
thus drawing retaliation on their own
idols.
The first apostles of Germany were En-
glish ; and of these the most remarkable
was St Boniface. But this had been in
tlie time of Charles Martel and Pepin.
The labors of these missionaries were
chiefly in Thuriugia, Francouia, and Ba-
varia, and were rewarded with great suc-
cess. But we may here consider them
only in their results on the Frank mon-
archy. Those parts of Germany had long
been subject to Austrasia, but, except so
far as they furnished troops, scarcely form-
ed an integrant portion of that kingdom.
The subjection of a heathen tribe is total-
ly different from that of a Christian prov-
ince. With the Church came churches,
and for churches there must be towns, and
for towns a magistracy, and for magistra-
cy law and the means of enforcing it.
How different was the condition of Ba-
varia or Hesse in the ninth century from
that of the same countries in the seventh !
Not outlying appendages to the Austrasian
monarchy, hardly counted among its sub-
jects, but capable of standing by them-
selves, as co-ordinate members of the em-
pire, an equipoise to France herself, full
of populous towns, wealthy nobles and
prelates, better organized and more flour-
ishing states than their neighbors on the
left side of the Khine. Charlemagne
founded eight bishoprics in Saxony, and
distributed the eountry into dioceses.
VII. CHARLEMAGNE, EMPEROR.
The motive of Charlemagne in accept-
ing the title of emperor has been much
discussed. It is contended by Sir F. Pal-
grave that Charlemagne was ehosen by
the Romans as lawful successor of Con-
stantine V., whom his mother Irene had
dethroned in 795, the usage of the empire
having never admitted a female sovereign.
But it remains to be shown by what right
Leo HI., cum omni Christiano jiopulo — that
is, the priests and populace of degenerate
Rouie— could dispo.sc of the entire empire,
4
or affect to place a stranger on the throne
of Constantinople ; for if Charles were the
successor of Constantine V., we must draw
this conclusion. Rome, we should keep to
mind, was not a jot more invested with
authority than any other city ; the Greek
capital had long taken her place ; and in
every revolution of new Rome, the decrep-
it mother had without hesitation obeyed.
Nor does it seem to me exceedingly mate-
rial, if the case be such, that Charlemagne
was not styled Emperor of the West, or
successor of Augustulus. It is evident
that his empire, relatively to that of the
Greeks, was western ; and we do not find
that either he or h:.s family ever claimed
an exclusive right to the imperial title.
The pretension would have been diamet-
rically opposed both to prescriptive right
and actual possession. He wrote to the
Emperor Nicephorus, successor of Irene,
as /raternitas vestra; but it is believed
that the Greeks never recognized the ti-
tle of a western barbarian. Mr. Hallam
thinks that the probable design of Charle-
magne, in accepting the title of emperor,
was not only to extend his power as far as
possible in Italy, but to invest it with a
sort of sacredness and prescriptive digni-
ty in the eyes of his barbarian subjects.
These had beeia accustomed to hear of
emperors as something superior lo kings ;
they were themselves fond of pompous ti-
tles, and the chancery of the new Augus-
tus soon borrowed the splendid ceremoni-
al of the Byzantine court. But the real mo-
tive of Charlemagne in accepting the title
of emperor has been more correctly appre-
ciated by Mr. Maine in his work on "An-
cient Law " (pp. 103-107). The conception
of "territorial sovereignty" was at that
time unknown, and, when the descend-
ants of Clovis aspired to be something
more than kings of the Franks, the only
precedent which suggested itself was the
title of Emperors of Rome. "The world
had lain for so many centuries under the
shadow of Imperial Rome as to have for-
gotten that distribution of the vast spaces
comprised in the empire which had once
parcelled them out into a number of inde-
pendent commonwealths, claiming immu-
nity from extrinsic interference, and pre-
tending to equality of national rights. Af-
ter the subsidence of the barbarian irrup-
tions, the notion of sovereignty that pre-
vailed seems to have been twofold. On
the one hand it assumed the form of what
may be called 'tribe sovereignty.' Part
of Transalpine Gaul, with part of Ger-
many, had now become the country de
facto occupied by the Franks— -it was
France ; but the Merovingian line of chief*
74
NOTES TO CHAPTER I.
tains, the descendants of Clovis, were not
Kings of France — they were kings of the
Franks. The alternative to this peculiar
notion of sovereignty appears to have
been— and this is the important point—
the idea of universal dominion. The mo-
ment a monarch departed from the special
relation of chief to clansmen, and became
solicitous, for purposes of his own, to in-
vest himself with a novel form of sover-
eignty the only precedent which suggest-
ed itself for his adoption was the domina-
tion of the emperors of Rome. To parody
a common quotation, he became ^aut
Ccesar aut nullus.^ The chieftain who
would no longer call himself king of the
tribe must claim to be emperor of the
world. Thus, when the hereditary May-
ors of the Palace had ceased to compro-
mise with the monarchs they had long
since virtually dethroned, they soon be-
came unwilling to call themselves kings
of the Franks— a title which belonged to
the displaced Merovings ; but they could
not style themselves kings of France, for
such a designation, though apparently not
unknown, was not a title of dignity. Ac-
cordingly they came forward as aspirants
to universal empire. Territorial sover-
eignty—the view which connects sover-
eignty with the possession of a limited
portion of the earth's surface— was dis-
tinctly an offshoot, thoiigh a tardy one, of
VIII. THE KINGDOM OF BURGUNDY.
It is important for the student to bear
in mind the different uses of the name
Burgundy in different ages. Mr. Bryce
has pointed out the ten senses in wi.ich
the name generally occurs :
"I. The kingdom of the Burgundians
{reijnuyn Btmjtindiomcm), founded a.d. 400,
occupying the whole valley of the Saone
and lower Rhone, from Dijon to the Medi-
terranean, and including also the western
half of Switzerland. It was destroj^ed by
the sons of Clovis in a.d. 534.
'• II. The kingdom of Burgundy {regnum
Du7-gundice), mentioned occasionally un-
de.- the Merovingian kings as a separate
principality, confined within boundaries
apparently somcAvhat narrower than those
i)*" the older kingdom last named.
" III. The kingdom of Provence or Bur-
.^undy (regiium P)-ovincice seu Bur(fundiai)
—also, though less accurately, called the
kingdom of Cis-Jurane Burgundy— was
founded by Boso in a.d. 877, and included
Provence, Dauphiiu', the southern part of
Savoy, and the country between the Saone
und the Jura.
' IV. The kingdom of Trans- Jurane Bur-
gundy {regnumJurense, Jiurgnndia Tran»
iurensis), founded by Rudolph in a.d. 888,
recognized in the same year by the Em-
peror Arnulf, included the northern part
of Savoy, and all Switzerland between the
Reuss and the Jura.
" V. The kingdom of Burgundy or Aries
{regnum Burgttndice, regmtm Arelatense),
formed by the union, under Conrad the
Pacific, in a.d. 937, of the kingdoms de-
scribed above as III. and IV. On the
death, in 1032, of the last independent
king, Rudolph III., it came partly by be-
quest, partly by conquest, into the hands
of the Emperor Conrad II. (the Salic), and
thenceforward formed a part of the Em-
pire. In the thirteenth century, France
began to absorb it, bit by bit, and has now
(since the annexation of Savoy in 1861) ac-
quired all except the Swiss portion of it.
" VL The Lesser Duchy {Burgundia MP
nor), (Klein Burgund), corresponded very
nearly with what is now Switzerland west
of the Reuss, including the Valais. It was
Trans-Jurane Burgundy (IV.) minus the
parts of Savoy which had belonged to that
kingdom. It disappears from history af-
ter the extinction of the house of Zahrin-
geu in the thirteenth century. Legally it
was part of the Empire till a.d. 1G48, though
practically independent long before that
date.
"VII. The Free County or Palatinate
of Burgundy (Franche Comte), (Freigraf-
schaft), (called also Upper Burgundy), to
which the name of Cis-Jurane Burgundy
originally and properly belonged, lay be-
tween the Saone and the Jura. It formed
a part of III. and V., and was therefore a
fief of the Empire. The French dukes of
Burgundy were invested with it in a.d.
7SS4, and in 1G7S it was annexed to the
Crown of France.
•'VIII. The Landgraviate of Burgundy
(Landgrafschaft) was in Western Switzer-
land, on both sides of the Aar, between
Thun and Solothui'n. It was a part of the
Lesser Duchy (VI.), and, like it, is hardly
mentioned after the thirteenth century.
"IX. Tlie Circle of Burgundy (Kreia
Burgund), an administrative division of
the Empire, was established by Charles V.
in 1548 ; and included the Free County of
Burgundy (VII.) and the seventeen prov-
inces of the Netherlands, which Charles
inherited from his grandmother Mary,
daughter of Charles the Bold.
"X. The duchy of Burgundy (Lowe?
Burgundy), (Bourgogne), the most norths
erly part of the old kingdom of the Bur-
gundians, was always a fief of the crown
of France, and a province of France till
the Revolution. It was of this Burgundy
NOTES TO CIIArTER I.
75
that Phiiip the Good and Charles the Bold
were dukes. They were also counts of
the Free County (VII.)."— "The Holy Ro-
man Empire," pp. 437-439,
IX, AUTHORITIES FOR FRENCH HISTORY.
The history of France by Velly, Villaret,
and Gamier, was the principal authority
originally used by Mr. Hallam for this
chapter, exclusive of original writers. The
part of the Abbe Velly comes down to the
middle of the eighth volume (12mo edi-
tion), and of the reign of Philip de Valois.
His continuator, Villaret, was interrupted
by death in the seventeenth volume, and
in the reign of Louis XI, Subsequently
Mr. Hallam observed that " this history is
but slightly esteemed in France, especially
the volumes written by the Abbe Velly,
The writers were too much imbued with
the spirit of the old monarchy (though no
adulators of kings, and rather liberal ac-
cording to the standard of their own age)
for those who have taken the sovereignty
of the people for their creed. Nor are
they critical and exact enough for the
present state of historical knowledge. Sis-
moudi and Michelet, especially the former,
are doubtless superior ; but the reader will
not And in the latter as regular a narration
of facts as in Velly and Villaret, Sismondi
has as many prejudices on one side as they
have on the opposite," But the histories
of Sismondi and Michelet are in their turn
now superseded to a great extent by that
of H. Martin.
f6 STATE OF ANCIENT GERMANY. Chap. II. PartL
CHAPTER II.
ON THE FEUDAL SYSTEM, ESPECIALLY IN FRANCE.
PART I.
i 1. State of Ancient Germany. § 2. Effects of the Conquest of Ganl by the Franks.
5 3. Tenures of Laud. § 4. Roman Natives of Gaul. § 5, Proportion of Franks
and Romans. § 6. Distinction of Laws. § 7. Constitution of the ancient Frank
Monarchy, § S. Origin of Nobility. § 9. Gradual Establishment of Feudal Ten-
ures. § 10. Principles of a Feudal Relation. § 11. Ceremonies of Homage, Fealty,
and Investiture. § 12. Obligations of a Vassal. Military Service. § 13. Feudal In-
cidents of Relief, Fines, Escheats, Aids, Wardship, Marriage. § 14. Different Spe-
cies of Fiefs. § 15. Feudal Law-books.
§ 1. Germany, in the age of Tacitus, was divided among a
number of independent tribes, differing greatly in population
and importance. Their country, overspread with forests and
morasses, afforded no large proportion of arable land. Nor
did they ever occupy the same land two years in succession,
if what Caesar tells us may be believed, that fresh allotments
were annually made by the magistrates. But this could not
have been an absolute abandonment of land once cultivated,
which Horace ascribes to the migratory Scythians. The
Germans had fixed though not contiguous dwellings, and
the inhabitants of the gem or township must have continued
to till the same fields, though it might be with varying rights
of separate property. They had kings elected out of partic-
ular families ; and other chiefs, both for war and administra-
tion of justice, whom merit alone recommended to the pub-
lic choice. But the power of each was greatly limited ; and
the decision of all leading questions, though subject to the
previous deliberation of the chieftains, sprung from the free
voice of a popular assembly. The principal men, however,
of a German tribe fully partook of that estimation which is al-
ways the reward of valor, and commonly of birth. They were
surrounded by a cluster of youths, the most gallant and am-
bitious of the nation, their pride at home, their protection in
the field ; whose aml3ition was flattered, or gratitude concili-
ated, by such presents as a leader of barbarians could confer.
These were the institutions of the people who overthrew the
empire of Rome, congenial to the spirit of infant societies,
and such as travellers liave found among nations in tlie same
Feudal System. PARTITION OF CONQUESTS. 77
stage of manners throughout the world. And although, in
the lapse of four centuries between the ages of Tacitus and
Clovis, some change was wrought by long intercourse with
the Romans, yet the foundations of their political system
were unshaken. If the Salic laws were in the main drawn
up before the occupation of Gaul by the Franks, as seems
the better opinion, it is manifest that lands were held by
them in determinate several possession ; and in other re-
spects it is impossible that the manners described by Tacitus
should not have undergone some alteration.
§ 2. When these tribes from Germany and the neighbor-
ing countries poured down upon the empire, and began to
form permanent settlements, they made a partition of the
lands in the conquered provinces between themselves and
the original possessors. The Burgundians and Visigoths
took two-thirds of their respective conquests, leaving the
remainder to the Roman proprietor. Each Burgundian was
quartered, under the gentle name of guest {hos2:>es), upon one
of the former tenants, whose reluctant hospitality confined
him to the smaller portion of his estate. The Vandals in
Africa, a more furious race of plunderers, seized all the best
lands. The Lombards of Italy took a third part of the prod-
uce. We can not discover any mention of a similar ar-
rangement in the laws or history of the Franks. It is, how-
ever, clear that they occupied, by public allotment or indi-
vidual pillage, a great portion of the lands of France.
§ 3. The estates possessed by the Franks as their proper-
ty were termed allodial/ a word which is sometimes re-
stricted to such as had descended by inheritance.' These
were subject to no burden except that of public defense.
They passed to all the children equally, or, in their failure,
to the nearest kindred. But of these allodial possessions
there was a particular species, denominated Salic, from
which females were expressly excluded. What these land»
1 Allodial lands are commouly opposed to beneficiary or feudal ; the former bein^:
strictly proprietary, while the latter depended upon a superior. In this sense the
word is of continual recurrence in ancient histories, laws, and instruments. It some-
times, however, bears the sense of inheritatice. Hence, in the charters of the eleventh
century, hereditary fiefs are frequently termed allodia. The word allod or alod, in
Latin alodis, in French alleu, is of uncertain etymology. It has usually been thought
to be compounded of all and odh, and would thus signify full or entire property; but
MM. Guizot, Lehuorou, and other writers, derive it from the Teutonic loos, sors. The
word sors, when applied to land means only an integral patrimony, as it means capi-
tal opposed to interest when applied to money. It is common in the civil law, and is
no more than the Greek »c\/"/por; but it had been peculiarly applied to the lands as-
signed by the Romans to the soldiery after a conquest, which some suppose to have
been by lot. And hence this term was m<jst probably adopted by the barbarians, or
rather those wlio reiulerod their Inws ^lt<^ I.jitin.
78 ROMAN NATIVES OF GAUL. Chap. TI. Paut I
were, and what was the cause of the exclusion, has been
much disputed. No solution seems more probable than that
the ancient lawgivers of the Salian Franks prohibited females
from inheriting the lands assigned to the nation upon the
conquest of Gaul, both in compliance with their ancient us-
ages, and in order to secure the military service of every
proprietor. But lands subsequently acquired by purchase
or other means, though equally bound to the public defense,
were relieved from the severity of this rule, and presumed
not to belong to the class of Salic.'*
§ 4. A controversy has been maintained in France as to
the condition of the Romans, or rather the provincial inhab-
itants of Gaul,^ after the invasion of Clovis. While some
bring the two nations, conquerors and conquered, almost to
an equality, as the common subjects of a sovereign who had
assumed the prerogatives of a Roman emperor ; others find
no closer analogy for their relative conditions than that of
the Greeks and Turks in the days that have lately gone by.
But it seems impossible to maintain either of these two
theories. On the one hand, we find the Romans not only
possessed of property, and governed by their own laws, but
admitted to the royal favor and the highest offices ; while
the bishops and clergy, who were generally of that nation,
grew up continually in popul?.r estimation, in riches and in
temporal sway. Yet a marked line was drawn at the outset
between the conquerors and the conquered. Though one
class of Romans retained estates of their own, yet there was
another, called tributary, who seem to have cultivated those
of the Franks, and were scarcely raised above the condition
of predial servitude. But no distinction can be more un-
equivocal than that which was established between the two
nations, in the weregild^ or composition for homicide. Capi-
tal punishment for murder was contrary to the spirit of the
Franks, who, like most barbarous nations, w^ould have thought
the loss of one citizen ill repaired by that of another. The
weregild was paid to the relations of the slain, according to
a legal rate. This was fixed by the Salic law at 600 solidi
for an Antrustion of the king ; at 300 for a Roman conviva
regis (a man who had been admitted to the royal table) ; at
200 for a common Frank ; at 100 for a Roman possessor of
lands ; and at 45 for a tributary, or cultivator of another's
property. One essential difference separated the Frank
2 See Note I., "On the Salic and other Laws of the Barbarians."
3 It must be recollected that in the barbarian laws the word Roman is uniformly
applied to the provincial i ihabitants of Gaul.
Feudal System. ROMAN NATIVES OF GAUL. 79
from the Roman. The latter was subject to personal and
territorial taxation.
§ 5. It can not be too frequently inculcated on the reader
who desires to form a general but tolerably exact notion of
the state of France under the first line of kings, that he is
not hastily to draw inferences from one of the three divis-
ions, Austrasia, Neustria, and Aquitaine, to which, for a part
of the period, we must add Burgundy, to the rest. The dif
ference of language, though not always decisive, furnishes a
presumption of different origin. We may therefore estimate,
w^ith some probability, the proportion of Franks settled in
the monarchy on the left bank of the Rhine, by the extent
of country wherein the Teutonic language is spoken. The
French or Walloon followed in that early age the irregular
line which, running from Calais and St. Omer to Lisle and
Tournay, stretches north of the Meuse as far as Liege, and,
bending thence to the south-westward, passes through Long-
wy to Metz. These towns speak French, and spoke it under
Charlemagne, if we can say that under Charlemagne French
was spoken anywhere ; at least they spoke a dialect of Latin
origin. The exceptions are few ; but where they exist, it is
from the progress of French rather than the contrary.
The most remarkable evidence for the duration of the
lim it is the act of partition between Lothaire of Lorraine and
Charles the Bald, in 870, whence it appears that the names
of places where French is now spoken were then French.
Nothing, says M. Michelet, can be more French than the
Walloon country." He expatiates almost with enthusiasm
on the praise of this people, who seem to have retained a
large share of his favorite Celtic element. It appears that
the result of an investigation into the languages on the
Alsatian frontier would be much the same. Here, therefore,
we have a very reasonable presumption that the forefathers
of the Flemish Belgians, as well as of the people of Alsace,
were barbarians: some of the former may be sprung from
Saxon colonies planted in Brabant by Charlemagne; but we
may derive the majority from Salian and Ripuarian Franks.
These were the strength of Austrasia, and among these the
great restorer, or rather founder, of the empire fixed his cap-
ital at Aix-la-Chapelle.
In Aquitaine, on the other hand, every thing appears Ro-
man, in contradistinction to Frank, except the reigning fami-
ly. The chief difiiculty, therefore, concerns Neustria ; that
Is, from the Scheldt, or, perhaps, the Somme, to the Loire j
4 " Hist, de France," viii., 287.
80 DISTINCTION OF LAWS. Chap. II. Part 1
and to thfs important kingdom the advocates of the two na-
tions, Roman and Frank, lay claim. M. Thierry has paid
much attention to the subject, and come to the conclusion
that, in ther seventh century, the number of Frank land-hold-
ers, from the Rhine to the Loire, much exceeded that of the
Roman. And this excess he takes to have been increased
through the seizure of church lands in the next age by
Charles Martel, who bestowed them on his German troop,
enlisted beyond the Rhine.^
We may, therefore, conclude that the Franks, even in the
reign of Clovis, were rather a numerous people — including,
of course, the Ripuarian as well as the Salian tribe. They
certainly appear in great strength soon afterwards.
§ 6. The barbarous conquerors of Gaul and Italy were
guided by notions veiy different from those of Rome, who
had imposed her own laws upon all the subjects of her em-
pire. Adhering in general to their ancient customs, without
desire of improvement, they left the former habitations in
unmolested enjoyment of their civil institutions. The Frank
was judged by the Salic or the Ripuary code ; the Gaul fol-
lowed that ofTheodosius. This grand distinction of Roman
and barbarian, according to the law which each followed,
was common to the Frank, Burgundian, and Lombard king-
doms. The name of Gaul or Roman was not entirely lost
in that of Frenchman, nor had the separation of their laws
ceased, even in the provinces north of the Loire, till after
the time of Charlemagne. Ultimately, however, the feudal
customs of succession, which depended upon principles quite
remote from those of the civil law, and the rights of terri-
torial justice which the barons came to possess, contributed
to extirpate the Roman jurisprudence in that part of France.
But in the south, from whatever cause, it survived the rev-
olutions of the Middle Ages ; and thus arose a leading divis-
ion of that kingdom into pays coutumiers and ^:)ays du droit
' The method Avhich Thierry has pursued, in order to ascertain this, is ingenious
and presumptively I'ight. lie remarked that the names of tlie places will often indi-
cate whether the inhabitants, or more often the chief proprietor, were of Roman or
Teutonic origin. Thus Frauconville and Romainville, near Paris, are distinguished
in charters of the ninth century as Francorum villa and Romanorum villa. This is
an instance where the population seems to have been of different race. But common-
Jy the owner's Christian name is followed by a familiar termination. In that same
neighborhood proper names of German origin, with the terminations ville, court, mont,
cal, and the like, are very frequent. And this he finds to be generally the case north
of the Loire, compared with the left bank of that river. It is, of course, to be under-
stood that this proportion of superior land-holders did not extend to the general pop-
ulation ; for that, in all Neustrian France, was evidently composed of those who spoke
the rastic Roman tongue— the corrupt language which, in the tenth or eleventh centu-
ry, became worthy of the name of French ; and this was the case, as we have just seen.
In part of Austrasia, as Champagne and Lorraine.
FkudalSysik.-j. CLOVIS. 81
hcrit j the former regulated by a vast variety of ancient
usages, the latter by the Roman law down to the French
revolution ; the laws of Justinian, in the progress of learn-
ing, having naturally taken the place of the Theodosian/
§ 7. The kingdom of Clovis was divided into a number of
districts, each under the government of a count, a name fa-
miliar to Roman subjects, by which they rendered the graf
of the Germans/ The authority of this officer extended
over all the inhabitants, as Avell Franks as natives. It was
his duty to administer justice, to preserve tranquillity, t
collect the royal revenues, and to lead, when required, thv
free proprietors into the held. The title of a duke implied a
higher dignity, and commonly gave authority over several
counties.^ These offices were originally conferred during
pleasure; but the claim of a son to succeed his father would
often be found too plausible or too formidable to be rejected,
and it is highly probable that, even under the Merovingian
kings, these provincial governors had laid the foundations
of that independence which was destined to change the coun-
tenance of Europe. The Lombard dukes, those especially
of Spoleto and Benevento, acquired very early an hereditary
right of governing their provinces, and that kingdom be-
came a sort of federal aristocracy.
The throne of France was always filled by the royal house
of Meroveus. However complete we may imagine the elect-
ive rights of the Franks, it is clear that a fundamental law
restrained them to this family. Such, indeed, had been the
monarchy of their ancestors the Germans ; such long con-
tinued to be those of Spain, of England, and perhaps of all
European nations. The reigning family was immutable ; but
at every vacancy the heir awaited the confirmation of a pop-
ular election, whether that were a substantial privilege or a
mere ceremony. Exceptions, however, to the lineal succes-
sion are rare in the history of any country, unless where an
infant heir was thought unfit to rule a nation of freemen.
But, in fact, it is vain to expect a system of constitutional
laws rigidly observed in ages of anarchy and ignorance.
Those antiquaries who have maintained the most opposite
8 This subject is fully treated in Saviguy's work, *' History of the Roman Law in
the Middle Ages."
'' The word grra/ was not always equivalent to comes; it took iu some countries, as
in England, the form gerefa, and stood for the vicecomes or sheriflF, the count or alder-
man's deputy.
•* Some have supposed these titles to have been applied indifferently. But the con-
trary is easily proved, and especially by a line of Fortunatus :
Qui modo dat Comitis, det tibi jura Ducis.
82 CLOVIS.— KINGLY POWEK. Chap. IT. Part 1.
theories upon such points are seldom in want of particular
instances to support their respective conclusions.
Clovis was a leader of barbarians, who respected liis valor
and the rank which they had given him, but were incapable
of servile feelings, and jealous of their common as well as
individual rights. In order to appreciate the power which
he possessed, it has been customary with French writers to
bring forward the well-known story of the vase of Soissons.
When the plunder taken in Clevis's invasion of Gaul was
set out in this place for distribution, he begged for himself a
precious vessel belonging to the Church of Rheims. The
army having expressed their willingness to consent, " You
shall have nothing here," exclaimed a soldier, striking it
with his battle-axe, " but what falls to your share by lot."
Clovis took the vessel without marking any resentment, but
found an opportunity, next year, of revenging himself by
the death of the soldier. The whole behavior of Clovis ap-
pears to be that of a barbarian chief, not daring to withdraw
any thing from the rapacity, or to chastise the rudeness, of
his followers.
But if such was the liberty of the Franks when they first
became conquerors of Gaul, we have good reason to believe
that they did not long preserve it. A people not very nu-
merous spread over the spacious provinces of Gaul, wherever
lands were assigned to or seized by them. It became a bur-
den to attend those general assemblies of the nation which
were annually convened in the month of March, to deliber-
ate upon public business, as well as to exhibit a muster of
military strength. After some time it appears that these
meetings drew together only the bishops, and those invested
with civil offices. The ancient inhabitants of Gaul, having
little notion of political liberty, were unlikely to resist the
most tyrannical conduct. Many of them became officers of
state, and advisers of the sovereign, whose ingenuity might
teach maxims of despotism unknown in the forests of Ger-
many. We shall scarcely wrong the bishops by suspecting
them of more pliable courtliness than was natural to the
long-haired warriors of Clovis. Yet it is probable that some
of the Franks were themselves instrumental in this change
of their government. The court of the Merovingian kings
was crowded with followers, who have been plausibly de-
rived from those of the German chiefs described by Tacitus ;
men forming a distinct and elevated class in the state, and
known by the titles of Fideles, Leudes, and Antrustiones.
They took an oath of fidelity to the king upon their admis-
Feudal System. THE NOBILITY. 83
sion into that rank, and were commonly remunerated with
gifts of land. Under different appellations we find, as some
antiquaries think, this class of courtiers in the early records
of Lombardy and England. The general name of Vassals
(from GicaSy a Celtic word for a servant) is applied to them
in every country. By the assistance of these faithful sup-
porters it has been thought that the regal authority of
Clovis's successors was insured. However this may be, the
annals of his more immediate descendants exhibit a course
of oppression, not merely displayed, as will often happen
among uncivilized people, though free, in acts of private in-
justice, but in such general tyranny as is incompatible with
the existence of any real checks upon the sovereign.
But before the middle of the seventh century the kings of
this line had fallen into that contemptible state which has
been described in the last chapter. The mayors of the pal-
ace, who from mere officers of the court had now become
masters of the kingdom, were elected by the Franks, not in-
deed the whole body of that nation, but the provincial gov-
ernors and considerable proprietors of land. Some inequali-
ty there probably existed from the beginning in the parti-
tion of estates, and this had been greatly increased by the
common changes of property, by the rapine of those savage
times, and by royal munificence. Thus arose that landed
aristocracy which became the most striking feature in the
political system of Europe during many centuries, and is, in
fact, its great distinction both from the despotism of Asia
and the equality of republican governments.
§ 8. There has been some dispute about the origin of no-
bility in France, which might perhaps be settled, or at least
better understood, by fixing our conception of the term. In
our modern acceptation it is usually taken to imply certain
distinctive privileges in the political order, inherent in the
blood of the possessor, and consequently not transferable
like those which poverty confers. Limited to this sense, no-
bility, I conceive, was unknown to the conquerors of Gaul
till long after the downfall of the Roman Empire. They
felt, no doubt, the common prejudice of mankind in favor of
those whose ancestry is conspicuous, when compared with
persons of obscure birth. This is the primary meaning of
nobility, and perfectly distinguishable from the possession
of exclusive civil rights. Those who are acquainted with
the constitution of the Roman republic will recollect an in-
stance of the difference between these two species of heredi'
tarj distinction, in the patricii and the nohiles. Though I
84 FISCAL LANDS.— BENEFICES. Chap. II. Vaiu 1
do not think that the tribes of German origin paid so much
regard to genealogy as some Scandinavian and Celtic na-
tions (else the beginnings of the greatest houses would not
have been so enveloped in doubt as we find them), there are
abundant traces of the respect in which families of known
antiquity were held among them.
But the essential distinction of ranks in France, perhaps also
in Spain and Lombardy, was founded upon the possession of
land, or upon civil employment. The aristocracy of wealth
preceded that of birth, which indeed is still chiefly depend-
ent upon the other for its importance. A Frank of large
estate was styled a noble ; if he wasted or Avas despoiled of
his wealth, his descendants fell into the mass of the people,
and the new possessor became noble in his stead. Families
were noble by descent, because they were rich by the same
means. Wealth gave them power, and power gave them
pre-eminence. But no distinction was made by the Salic or
Lombard codes in the composition for homicide, the great
test of political station, except in favor of the king's vassals.
It seems, however, by some of the barbaric codes, those
namely of the Burgundians, Visigoths, Saxons, and the En-
glish colony of the latter nation, that the free men were
ranged by them into two or three classes, and a difference
made in the price at which their lives were valued : so that
there certainly existed the elements of aristocratic privi-
leges, if we can not in strictness admit their completion at so
early a period. The Antrustiones of the kings of the Franks
were also noble, and a composition was paid for their mur-
der treble of that for an ordinary (dtizen ; but this was a
personal, not an hereditary, distinction. A link was want-
ing to connect their eminent privileges with their posterity ;
and this link was to be supplied by hereditary benefices.
§ 9. Besides the lands distributed among the nation, others
were reserved to the crown, partly for the support of its dig-
nity, and partly for the exercise of its munificence. These
are called Fiscal Lands; they were dispersed over different
parts of the kingdom, and formed the most regular source
of revenue. But the greater portion of them were granted
out to favored subjects, under the name of benefices, subse-
quently called FIEFS,' the nature of which is one of the most
» The term fief {feodum, feudum) began to be applied to benefices when they be-
came hereditary, and first occurs in a capitulary of the reign of the Emperor Charles
the Fat, a.d. 884. Different etymologies are given of this word ; that which seems
most probable derives it from feh, salary or pay, and odh, property— implying that it
was land conferred as a reward or recompense of services. Others refer it to the
Latin fides; others again, among whom is Lehuorou, prefer the Teutonic root fodeii
Feudal System. SUB-INFEUDATION. 85
important points in the policy of these ages. Benefices
were, it is probable, most frequently bestowed upon the pro-
fessed courtiers, the Antrustiones or Leudes, and upon the
provincial governors. It by no means appears that any con-
ditions of military service were expressly annexed to these
grants: but it may justly be presumed that such favors
were not conferred without an expectation of some return ;
and we read both in law and history that beneficiary tenants
were more closely connected with the crown than mere allo-
dial proprietors. Whoever possessed a benefice was expect-
ed to serve his sovereign in the field. But of allodial propri-
etors only the owner of three mansi" was called upon for
personal service. Where there were three possessors of sin-
gle mansi, one went to the army, and the others contributed
to his equipment.
Most of those who have written upon the feudal system
lay it down that benefices were originally precarious, and
revoked at pleasure by the sovereign ; that they were after-
wards granted for life ; and at a subsequent period became
hereditary. No satisfactory proof, however, appears to have
been brought of th« first stage in this progress. The ordina-
ry duration of benefices was at least the life of the possessor,
after which they reverted to the fisc ; but they soon became
hereditary. Children would naturally put in a very strong
claim to what their father had enjoyed ; and the weakness
of the crown in the seventh century must have rendered it
difficult to reclaim its property. A natural consequence of
hereditary benefices was that those who possessed them
carved out portions to be held of themselves by a similar
tenure. Abundant proofs of this custom, best known by the
name of 8ub-Infeudation^ occur even in the capitularies of
Pepin and Charlemagne. At a later period it became uni-
versal ; and what had begun perhaps through ambition or
pride was at last dictated by necessity. In that dissolution
of all law which ensued after the death of Charlemagne, the
powerful leaders, constantly engaged in domestic warfare,
placed their chief dependency upon men whom they attached
by gratitude, and bound by strong conditions. The oath of
fidelity which they had taken, the homage which they had
paid to the sovereign, they exacted from their own vassals.
nutrire. Sir F. Palgrave deduces it ingeniously, but with slight probability, from the
Roraau law-term emphyteusis.
!• The precise area of a maiisus is uncertain. It consisted, according to Du Gauge,
of twelve jugera; but what he meant by a juger is not stated. The ancient Roman
juger was about five-eighths of an acre ; the Parisian arpeut was a fourth more than
one. This would make a difference as two to one.
86 MILITARY SERVICE. Chap. II. Part 1.
To render military service became the essential obligation
which the tenant of a benefice undertook ; and out of those
ancient grants, now become for the most part hereditary,
there grew up in the tenth century, both in name and reali-
ty, the system of feudal tenures.
This revolution was accompanied by another still more
important. The provincial governors, the dukes and counts,
to whom we may add the marquises or margraves intrusted
with the custody of the frontiers, had taken the lead in all
public measures after the decline of the Merovingian kings.
Charlemagne, duly jealous of their ascendency, checked it by
suffering the duchies to expire without renewal, by granting
very few counties hereditarily, by removing the administra-
tion of justice from the hands of the counts into those of his
own itinerant judges, and, if we are not deceived in his poli-
cy, by elevating the ecclesiastical order as a counterpoise to
that of the nobility. But in the tenth century there followed
an entire prostration of the royal authority, and the counts
usurped their governments as little sovereignties, with the
domains and all regalian rights, subject only to the feudal
superiority of the king. They now added the name of the
county to their own, and their wives took the appellation of
countess. In Italy the independence of the dukes was still
more complete; and although Otho the Great and his de-
scendants kept a stricter rein over those of Germany, yet we
find the great fiefs of their empire, throughout the tenth
century, granted almost invariably to the male and even fe-
male heirs of the last possessor.
Meanwhile, the allodial proprietors were exposed to the ra-
pacity of the counts, who, whether as magistrates and gov-
ernors, or as overbearing lords, had it always in their power
to harass them. Every district was exposed to continual
hostilities ; sometimes from a foreign enemy, more often from
the owners of castles and fastnesses, which in the tenth cen-
tury, under pretense of resisting the Normans and Hunga-
rians, served the purposes of private war. Against such a
system of rapine the military compact of lord and vassal was
the only effectual shield ; its essence was the reciprocity of
service and protection. But an insulated allodialist had no
support. Without law to redress his injuries, without the
royal power to support his right, he had no course left but
to compromise with oppression, and subject himself, in return
for protection, to a feudal lord. This was usually called
commendation, which created a personal relation between
lord and vassal, closely resembling that of patron and client
Feudal System. CHANGE OF TENURES. 87
in the Roman republic. Though originally this commendor
tion had no relation to land, but created a merely personal
tie — fidelity in return for protection — it is easy to conceive
that the allodialist who obtained this privilege, as it might
justly appear in an age of rapine, must often do so by sub-
jecting himself to the law of tenure. In this way, during
the tenth and eleventh centuries, allodial lands in France had
chiefly become feudal.
There is a famous edict of the emperor Conrad II., sur-
named the Salic, at Milan, in the year 1037, which, though
immediately relating only to Lombardy, marks the full ma-
turity of the feudal system, and the last stage of its progress.
Four regulations of great importance are established there-
in : that no man should be deprived of his fief, whether held
of the emperor or a mesne lord, but by the laws of the
empire and the judgment of his peers ; and that from such
judgment an immediate vassal might appeal to his sover-
eign ; that fiefs should be inherited by sons and their chil-
dren, 01', in their failure, by brothers, provided they were
feuda paterna^ such as had descended from the father ; and
that the lord should not alienate the fief of his vassal with-
out his consent.
Such was the progress of these feudal tenures, which de-
termined the political character of every European mon-
archy where they prevailed, as well as formed the founda-
tions of its jurisprudence. It is important to keep in mind
that the feudal system was the general establishment of a
peculiar relation between the sovereign (not as king, but as
lord) and his immediate vassals ; between these again and
others standing to them in the same relation of vassalage,
and thus frequently through several links in the chain of
tenancy. If this relation, and especially if the latter and es-
sential element, sub-infeudation, is not to be found, there is
no feudal system, though there are many analogies to it,
more or less remarkable or strict. If the reader asks what
were the immediate causes of establishing this polity we
must refer him to three alone — to the grants of beneficiary
lands to the vassal and his heirs, without which there could
hardly be sub-infeudation ; to the analogous grants of ofii-
cial honors, particularly that of count or governor of a dis-
trict ; and, lastly, to the voluntary conversion of allodial into
feudal tenure, through free land-holders submitting their per-
sons and estates, by way of commendation, to a neighboring
lord or to the count of a district. All these — though several
instances, especially of the first, occurred much earlier — be-
88 PRINCIPLES OF FEUDAL RELATION. Chap. II. Part I.
long generally to the ninth century, and may be supposed
to have been fully accomplished about the beginning of the
tenth ; to which period, therefore, and not to an earlier one,
we refer the feudal system in France. It is now time to
describe the legal qualities and effects of this relation, so far
only as may be requisite to understand its influence upon
the political system.
§ 10. The essential principle of a fief was a mutual contract
of support and fidelity. Whatever obligations it laid upon
the vassal of service to his lord, corresponding duties of pro-
tection were imposed by it on the lord towards his vassal.
If these were transgressed on either side, the one forfeited
his land, the other his seigniory or rights over it. Nor were
motives of interest left alone to operate in securing the feud-
al connection. The associations founded upon ancient cus-
tom and friendly attachment, the impulses of gratitude and
honor, the dread of infamy, the sanctions of religion, were
all employed to strengthen these ties, and to render them
equally powerful with the relations of nature, and far more
so than those of political society. It was a question agitated
among the feudal lawyers, whether a vassal was bound to
follow the standard of his lord against the king. In the
works of those who wrote when the feudal system was de-
clining, or who were anxious to maintain the royal authori-
ty, this is commonly decided in the negative. But it was
not so during the height of the feudal system in France.
The vassals of Henry II. and Richard I. never hesitated to
adhere to them against the sovereign, nor do they appear to
have incurred any blame on that account.
§ 11. The ceremonies used in conferring a fief were princi-
pally three — Homage, Fealty, and Investiture. 1. The first
was designed as a significant expression of the submission
and devotedness of the vassal towards his lord. In perform-
ing Homage^^ his head was uncovered, his belt ungirt, his
Bword and spurs removed ; he placed his hands, kneeling, be-
tween those of the lord, and promised to become his man
from thenceforward ; to serve him with life and limb and
worldly honor, faithfully and loyally, in consideration of the
lands which he held under him. None but the lord in per-
Bon could accept homage, which was commonly concluded
by a kiss. 2. An oath of Fealty^^ was indispensable in every
fief; but the ceremony was less peculiar than that of hom-
age, and it might be received by proxy. It was taken by
ecclesiastics, but not by minors; and in language differed lit*
»> Homacjium, hominium. ^^ Fidelita*.
Feudal System. TERM OF MILITARY SERVICE. 89
tie from the form of Iiomage. 3. Investiture,^^ or the actual
conveyance of feudal lands, was of two kinds ; proper and
improper. The first was an actual putting in possession
upon the ground, either by the lord or his deputy; which is
called, in our law, livery of seisin. The second was symbol-
ical, and consisted in the delivery of a turf, a stone, a wand,
a branch, or whatever else might have been made usual by
the caprice of local custom.
§ 12. Upon investiture, the duties of the vassal com?
menced. These it is impossible to define or enumerate ;
because the services of military tenure, which is chiefly to
be considered, were in their nature uncertain, and distin-
guished as such from those incident to feuds of an inferior
description. It was a breach of faith to divulge the lord's
counsel, to conceal from him the machinations of others, to
injure his person or fortune, or to violate the sanctity of his
roof an A the honor of his family. In battle he was bound to
lend his i?orse to his lord when dismounted ; to adhere to his
side, while fighting ; and to go into captivity as a hostage
for liim, when taken. His attendance was due to the lord's
courts, sometimes to witness, and sometimes to bear a part
in, the adminstration of justice.
The measure, however, of military service was generally
settled by some usage. Forty days was the usual term dur-
ing which the tenant of a knight's fee was bound to be in
the field at his own expense. This was extended by St.
Louis to sixty days, except when the charter of infeudation
expressed a shorter period. But the length of service di-
minished with the quantity of land. For half a knight's fee
but twenty days were due ; for an eighth part but five ; and
when this was commuted for an escuage or pecuniary assess-
ment, the same proportion was observed."^* Men turned of
sixty, public magistrates, and, of course, women, were free
from personal service, but obliged to send their substitutes.
A failure in this primary duty incurred perhaps strictly a
forfeiture of the fief. But it was usual for the lord to inflict
an amercement, known in England by the name of escuage.
The regulations as to the place of service were less uniform
than those which regarded time. In some places the vassal
was not bound to go beyond the lord's territory, or only so
far as that he might return the same day. Other customs
*3 Investitura.
1* The knight's fee was flxed in England at the annual value of i;20. Every estate
supposed to be of this value, and entered as such in the rolls of the exchequer, was
bound to contribute the service of a soldier, or to pay an escuage to the amount as-
sessed upon knights' f«e.
90 FEUDAL INCIDENTS. Chap. II. Part I
compelled him to follow his chief upon all his expeditions.
These inconvenient and varying usages betrayed the origin
of the feudal obligations, not founded upon any national
policy, but springing from the chaos of anarchy and intes-
tine war, which they were well calculated to perpetuate.
For the public defense their machinery was totally unserv-
iceable, until such changes were wrought as destroyed the
character of the fabric.
§ 13. Independently of the obligations of fealty and serv-
ice, which the nature of the contract created, other advan-
tages were derived from it by the lord, which have been
called feudal incidents: these were, 1. Reliefs. 2. Fines
upon alienation. 3. Escheats. 4. Aids ; to Avhich may be
added, though not generally established, 5. Wardship, and
6. Marriage.
(1.) A liellefwas a sum of money (unless where charter or
custom introduced a different tribute) due from every one of
full age, taking a fief by descent. This was in some countries
arbitrary, and the exactions practised under this pretense
both upon superior and inferior vassals, ranked among the
greatest abuses of the feudal policy. Henry I. of England
promises in his charter that they shall in future be just and
reasonable; but the rate does not appear to have been final-
ly settled till it was laid down in Magna Charta at about a
fourth of the annual value of the fief By a law of St. Louis,
in 1245, the lord was entitled to enter upon the lands, if the
heir could not pay the relief, and possess them for a year.
This riglit existed unconditionally in England under the
name of primer seisin, but was confined to the king.
(2.) Closely connected with reliefs Avere the Fines upon
alienation — that is, the fines paid to the lord upon the aliena-
tion of his vassal's feud ; and indeed we frequently find thera
called by the same name. The spirit of feudal tenure estab-
lished so intimate a connection between the two parties that
it could be dissolved by neither without requiring the oth-
er's consent. If the lord transferred his seigniory, the tenant
was to testify his concurrence ; and this ceremony was long
kept up in England under the name of attornment. The as-
sent of the lord to his vassal's alienation was still more es-
sential, and more diflicult to be attained. He had received
his fief, it was supposed, for reasons peculiar to himself or to
his family ; at least his heart and arm were bound to his su^
perior; and his service was not to be exchanged for that of
a stranger, who might be unable or unwilling to render it.
By the law of France the lord was entitled, upon every alien*
Feudal System. RELIEFS, FINES, ESCHEATS, AIDS. 01
ation made by his tenant, either to redeem the fief by pay-
ing the purchase-money, or to claim a certain part of the
value, by way of fine, upon the change of tenancy/*
(3.) Escheats. — As fiefs descended but to the posterity of
the first taker, or at the utmost to his kindred, they neces-
sarily became sometimes vacant for want of heirs ; especial-
ly where, as in England, there was no power of devising
them by will. In this case it was obvious that they ought
to revert to the lord, from whose property they had been
derived. These reversions became more frequent through
the forfeitures occasioned by the vassal's delinquency, either
towards his superior lord or the estate. Various cases are
laid down in the "Assises de Jerusalem," where the vassal
forfeits his land for a year, for his life, or forever. But under
rapacious kings, such as the Norman line in England, abso-
lute forfeitures came to prevail, and a new doctrine was in-
troduced — the corruption of blood, by which the heir was ef-
fectually excluded from deducing his title at any distant
time though an attainted ancestor.
(4.) Reliefs, fines upon alienation, and escheats, seem to be
natural reservations in the lord's bounty to his vassal. He
had rights of another class which principally arose out of
fealty and intimate attachment. Such were the aids which
he was entitled to call for in certain prescribed circum-
stances. These depended a great deal upon local custom,
and were often extorted unreasonably. Hence by Magna
Charta three only were retained in England — to make the
lord's eldest son a knight, to marry his eldest daughter, and
to redeem his person from prison. They were restricted to
nearly the same description by a law of William I. of Sicily,
and by the customs of France. These feudal aids are de-
serving of our attention, as the beginnings of taxation, of
which for a long time they in a great measure answered the
purpose, till the craving necessities and covetous policy of
kings substituted for them more durable and onerous bur-
dens.
I might here, perhaps, close the enumeration of feudal in-
cidents, but that the two remaining, wardship and marriage,
though only partial customs, were those of our own country.
*s In England even the practice of snb-iiifeudation, whicli was more conformable to
the law of fiefs and the military genius of the system, but injurious to the suzerains,
who lost thereby their escheats and other advantages of seigniory, was checked by
Magna Charta, and forbidden by the statute 18 Edward I., called Quia Emptores,
which at the same time gave the liberty of alienating lands to be holden of the
grantor's immediate lord. The tenants of the crown were not included in this act ;
but that of 1 Edward III., c. 12, enabled them to alienate, upon the payment of a com-
position into chancery, which was fixed at one-third of the annual value of the lands.
*J2 WARDSHIP, MARRIAGE. Chap. II. Part I.
and tend to illustrate the rapacious character of a feudal ar-
istocracy.
(5.) In England, and in Normandy, which either led the
way to, or adopted, all these English institutions, the lord
had the wardship of his tenant during minority. By virtue
of this right he had both the care of his person and received
to his own use the profits of the estate. There is something
in this custom very conformable to the feudal spirit, since
none was so fit as the lord to train np his vassal to arms, and
none could put in so good a claim to enjoy the fief, while the
military service for which it had been granted was suspend-
ed. This privilege of guardianship seems to have been en-
joyed by the lord in some parts of Germany ; but in the law
of France the custody of the land was intrusted to the next
heir, and that of the person, as in socage tenures among us,
to the nearest kindred of that blood which could not inherit.
By a gross abuse of this custom in England, the right of
guardianshij) in chivalry, or temporary possession of the
lands, was assigned over to strangers. This was one of the
most vexatious parts of our feudal tenures, and was never,
perhaps, more sorely felt than in their last stage under the
Tudor and Stuart families.
(6.) Another right given to the lord by the Norman and
English laws was that oi Marriage^ or of tendering a husband
to his female wards while under age, whom they could not
reject without forfeiting the value of the marriage — that is,
as much as any one would give to the guardian for such an
alliance. This was afterwards extended to male wards, and
became a very lucrative source of extortion to the crown, as
well as to mesne lords. This custom seems to have had the
same extent as that of wardships. It is found in the ancient
books of Germany, but not of France. The kings, however,
and even inferior lords, of that countrj'-, required their con-
sent to be solicited for the marriage of their vassals' daugh-
ters. Several proofs of this occur in the history as well as
in the laws of France ; and the same prerogative existed in
Germany, Sicily, and England.
These feudal servitudes distinguish the maturity of the
system. No trace of them appears in the capitularies of
Charlemagne and his family, nor in the instruments by which
benefices were granted. I believe that they did not make
part of the regular feudal law before the eleventh, or, per-
haps, the twelfth century, though doubtless partial usages of
this kind had grown up antecedently to either of those peri-
ods. Indeed, that very general commutation of allodial prop*
Feudal System. PJiOrER AND IMPKOrEK FEUDS. 93
erty into tenure which took place between the middle of the
ninth and eleventh centuries would hardly have been effected
if fiefs had then been liable to such burdens and bo much
extortion. In half-barbarous ages the strong are constantly
encroaching upon the weak; a truth which, if it needed illus-
tration, might find it in the progress of the feudal system.
§ 14. We have thus far confined our inquiry to fiefs holden
on terms of military service ; since those are the most an-
cient and regular, as well as the most consonant to the spirit
of the system. They alone were csiWed proper fends, and all
were presumed to be of this description until the contrary
w-as proved by the charter of investiture. A proper feud
was bestowed without price, without fixed stipulation, upon
a vassal capable of serving personally in the field. 13ut
gradually, with the help of a little legal ingenuity, improper
fiefs of the most various kinds were introduced, retaining lit-
tle of the characteristics, and less of the spirit, which distin-
guished the original tenures. Women, if indeed that were
an innovation, were admitted to inherit them ; they were
granted for a price, and without reference to military serv-
ice. The language of the feudal law^ was applied by a kind
of metaphor to almost every transfer of property. Hence
pensions of money and allowance of provisions, however re-
mote from right notions of a fief, were sometimes granted
under that name ; and even where land w^as the subject of
the donation, its conditions were often lucrative, often honor-
ary, and sometimes ludicrous.
There is one extensive species of feudal tenure which may
be distinctly noticed. The pride of wealth in the Middle
Ages was principally exhibited in a multitude of dependents.
The court of Charlemagne was crowded with officers of every
rank, some of the most eminent of w^hom exercised functions
about the royal person which would have been thought tit
only for slaves in the palace of Augustus or Antonine. The
free-born Franks saw nothing menial in the titles of cup-
bearer, steward, marshal, and master of the horse, which are
still borne by the noblest families in many parts of Europe,
and, till lately, by sovereign princes in the empire. From
the court of the king this favorite piece of magnificence de-
scended to those of the prelates and barons, w^ho surrounded
themselves with household oflficers called ministerials ; a
name equally applied to those of a servile and of a liberal
description. The latter of these were rewarded with grants
of lands, which they held under a feudal tenure by the con-
dition of peiforming some domestic service to the lord.
94 FEUDAL INCIDENTS. Chap. II. Part I.
Wliat was called in our law grand sergeanty affords an in-
stance of this species of fief. '^
These imperfect feuds, however, belong more properly to
the history of law, and are chiefly noticed in the present
sketch because they attest the partiality manifested during
the Middle Ages to the name and form of a feudal tenure.
In the regular military fief we see the real principle of the
system, which might originally have been defined an alliance
of free land-holders arranged in degrees of subordination
according to their respective caj^acities of afibrding mutual
support.
§ 15. The peculiar and varied attributes of feudal tenures
naturally gave rise to a new jurisprudence, regulating terri-
torial rights in those parts of Europe which had adopted the
system. For a length of time this rested in traditionary
customs observed in the domains of each prince or lord,
without much regard to those of his neighbors. Laws were
made occasionally by the emperor in Germany and Italy,
which tended to fix the usages of those countries. About
the year 1170, Girard and Obertus, two Milanese lawyers,
published two books of the law of fiefs, which obtained a
great authority, and have been regarded as the groundwork
of that jurisprudence. A number of subsequent commenta-
tors swelled this code with cheir glosses and opinions, to en^
lighten or obscure the judgment of the imperial tribunals.
These were chiefly civilians or canonists, who brought to the
interpretation of old barbaric customs the principles of a
very diflerent school. Hence a manifest change was wrought
in the law of feudal tenure, which they assimilated to the
usufruct or the emphyteusis of the Roman code ; modes of
property somewhat analogous in appearance, but totally dis-
tinct in principle, from the legitimate fief These Lombard
lawyers propagated a doctrine Avhich has been too readily
received, that the feudal system originated in their country.
But whatever weight it may have possessed within the limits
of the empire, a dififerent guide must be followed in the an-
cient customs of France and England. These were fresh
from the fountain of that curious polity with which the
stream of Roman law had never mingled its waters. In
England we know that the Norman system established be-
'* "This tenure," says Littleton, "is where a man holds his lands or tenements of
onr sovereign lord the king by snch services as he ought to do in his proper person t«
the king, as to carry the banner of the king, or his lance, or to lead his array, or to be
his marshal, or to carry his sword before him at his coronation, or to be his sewer at
his coronation, or his carver, or his butler, or to be one of his chamberlains at the
receipt of his exchequer, or to do other like services."— Sect. 153.
Feudal System. COMMON LAW. 95
tween the Conquest and the reign of Henry IT. was re-
strained by regular legislation, by paramount courts of jus-
tice, and by learned writings, from breaking into discordant
local usages, except in a comparatively small number of
places, and has become the j^rincipal source of our common
law. But the independence of the French nobles produced
a much greater variety of customs. The whole number col-
lected and reduced to certainty in the sixteenth century
amounted to two hundred and eighty-five, or, omitting those
inconsiderable for extent or peculiarity, to sixty. The ear-
liest written customary in France is that of Beam, which is
said to have been confirmed by Viscount Gaston IV. in 1088.
Many others were written in the two subsequent ages, of
which the customs of Beauvoisis, compiled by Beaumanoir
under Philip III., are the most celebrated, and contain a
mass of information on the feudal constitution and manners.
Under Charles VII. an ordinance was made for the formation
of a general code of customary law, by ascertaining forever
in a written collection those of each district ; but the work
was not completed till the reign of Charles IX. This was
what may be called the common law of the pays coiitumierSj
or northern division of France, and the rule oi ^1} their tribu-*
rials, unless where controlled by royal edicts.
96 ANALYSIS OF FEUDAL SYSTEM. Chap. H. Part IL
PART II.
S 1. Analysis of the Feudal System. § 2. Its Local Extent. § 3. View of the different
Orders of Society during the Feudal Ages. Nobility. Their Ranks and Privileges.
§ 4. Clergy. § 5. Freemen. § C. Serfs or Villeins. § T. Comparative State of France
and Germany. § 8. Privileges enjoyed by the French Vassals. Eight of coining
Money. § 9. Right of Private War. § 10. Immunity from Taxation. Historical
View of the Royal Revenue in France. Methods adopted to augment it by Depre-
ciation of the Coin, etc. § 11. Legislative Power. Its State under the Merovingian
Kings, and Charlemagne. His Councils. §12. Suspension of any general legisla-
tive Authority during the Prevalence of Feudal Principles. The King's Council.
§ 13. Means adopted to supply the Want of a National Assembly. § 14. Gradual
Progress of the King's Legislative Power. § 15. Philip IV. assembles the States-
General. Their Powers limited to Taxation. § 16. States under the Sons of Phil-
ip IV. § IT. States of 1356 and 1356. They nearly effect an entire Revolution.
§ 18. The Crown recovers its Vigor. § 19. States of 1380, under Charles VI. Sub-
sequent Assemblies under Charles VI. and Charles VII. § 20. The Crown becomes
more and more absolute. Louis XI. § 21. States of Tours in 1484. § 22. Histor-
ical View of Jurisdiction in France. Its earliest Stage uuder the first Race of
Kings, and Charlemagne. §23. TerritorialJurisdiction. Feudal Courts of Justice.
§ 24. Trial by Combat. § 25. Code of St. Louis. § 26. The territorial Jurisdictions
give way. Progress of the Judicial Power of the Crown. § 27. Parliament of
Paris. § 28. Peers of France. § 29. Increased Authority of the Parliament. Reg-
istration of Edicts. § 30. Causes of the Decline of the Feudal System. Acquisi-
tions of Domain by the Crown, i 31. Charters of Incorporation granted to Towns.
First Charters in the Twelfth Century. § 32. Privileges contained in them. § 33.
Military Service of Feudal Tenants commuted for Money. Hired Troops. Change
in the Military System of Europe. §34. Decay of Feudal Principles. §35. General
View of the Advantages and Disadvantages attending the Feudal System.
§ 1. The advocates of a Roman origin for most of the in-
stitutions which we find in the kingdoms erected on the
ruins of the empire are naturally prone to magnify the anal-
ogies to feudal tenure which Rome presents to us, and even
to deduce it either from the ancient relation of patron and
client, and that of personal commendation, which was its
representative in a later age, or from the frontier lands
granted in the third century to the La3ti, or barbarian sol-
diers, who held them, doubtless, subject to a condition of
military service. The usage of commendation especially, so
frequent in the fifth century, before the conquest of Gaul, as
well as afterwards, does certainly bear a strong analogy to
vassalage, and I have already pointed it out as one of its
sources. It wanted, hoAvever, that definite relation to the
tenure of land which distinguished the latter. The royal
Antrustio (whether the word commeoidatus were applied to
him or not) stood bound by gratitude and loyalty to his
sovereign, and in a very different degree from a common
Feudal Svsr„:... EXTENT OF FEUDAL SYSTEM. 97
subject ; but he was not perhaps strictly a vassal till he had
received a territorial benefice/ The complexity of sub-in-
feudation could have no analogy in commendation. The
grants to veterans and to the Lseti are so far only analogous
to fiefs, that they established the principle of holding lands
on a condition of military service. But this service was no
more than what, both under Charlemagne and in England,
if not in other times and places, the allodial freeholder was
bound to render for the defense of the realm ; it was more
commonly required, because the lands were on a barbarian
frontier ; but the duty was not even very analogous to that
of a feudal tenant. The essence of a fief seems to be, that
its tenant owed fealty to a lord, and not to the state or the
sovereign ; the lord might be the latter, but it was not,
feudally speaking, as a sovereign that he was obeyed. This
is, therefore, sufiicient to warrant us in tracing the real the-
ory of feuds no higher than the Merovingian history in
France ; their full establishment, as has been seen, is consid-
erably later. But the preparatory steps in the constitutions
of the declining empire are of considerable importance, not
merely as analogies, but as predisposing circumstances, and
even germs to be subsequently developed. The beneficiary
tenure of lands could not well be brought by the conquerors
from Germany ; but the donatives of arms or precious met-
als bestowed by the chiefs on their followers were also anal-
ogous to fiefs ; and, as the Roman institutions were one source
of the law of tenure, so these were another.
It is of great importance to be on our guard against seem-
ing analogies which vanish away when they are closely ob-
served. We should speak inaccurately if we were to use the
word feudal for the service of the Irish or Highland clans
to their chieftain; their tie was that of imagined kindred
and respect for birth, not the spontaneous compact of vas-
salage. Much less can we extend the name of feud, though
it is sometimes strangely misapplied, to the polity of Poland
and Russia. All the Polish nobles were equal in rights, and
independent^ of each other ; all who were less than noble
were in servitude. No government can be more opposite to
the long gradations and mutual duties of the feudal system.
§ 2. The regular machinery and systematic establishment
of feuds, in fact, may be considered as almost confined to
the dominions of Charlemagne, and to those countries which
* This word " vassal " is used very indefinitely ; it means, in its original sense, only
a servant or dependent, Bnt in the Continental records of histories we commonly
find it applied to feudal tenants.
5
98 ORDERS OF SOCIETY. Chap II. Part II
afterwards derived it from thence. In England it can hard-
ly be thought to have existed in a complete state before the
Conquest. Scotland, it is supposed, borrowed it soon after
from her neighbor. The Lombards of Benevento had intro-
duced feudal customs into the Neapolitan provinces, which
the IsTorman conquerors afterwards perfected. Feudal ten-
ures were so general in the kingdom of Aragon,that I reckon
it among the monarchies which were founded upon that ba-
sis. Charlemagne's empire, it must be remembered, extend-
ed as far as the Ebro. But in Castile and Portugal they
were very rare, and certainly could produce no political ef-
fect. Benefices for life were sometimes granted in the king-
doms of Denmark and Bohemia. Neither of these, however,
nor Sweden nor Hungary, come under the description of
countries influenced by the feudal system. That system,
however, after all these limitations, was so extensively dif-
fused, that it might produce confusion as well as prolixity
to pursue collateral branches of its history in all the coun-
tries where it prevailed. But this embarrassment may be
avoided without any loss, I trust, of important information.
The English constitution will find its place in another por-
tion of this volume ; and the political condition of Italy, after
the eleventh century, was not much affected, except in the
kingdom of Naples, by the laws of feudal tenure. I shall
confine myself, therefore, chiefly to France and Germany;
and far more to the former than the latter country. But it
may be expedient first to contemplate the state of society
in its various classes during the prevalence of feudal princi-
ples, before we trace their influence upon the national gov-
ernment.
§ 3. It has been laid down already as most probable that
no proper aristocracy, except that of wealth, was known un-
der the early kings of France ; and it was hinted that hered-
itary benefices, or, in other words, fiefs, might supply the
link that was wanting between personal privileges and those
of descent. The possessors of beneficiary estates were usu-
ally the richest and most conspicuous individuals in the es-
tate. They were immediately connected with the crown,
and partakers in the exercise of justice and royal counsels.
Their sons now came to inherit this eminence ; and, as fiefs
were either inalienable, or at least not very frequently al-
ienated, rich families were kept long in sight ; and, whether
engaged in public affairs, or living with magnificence and
hospitality at home, naturally drew to themselves popular
estimation. The dukes and counts, who had changed their
Fkudal System. THE NOBILITY. 99
quality of governors into that of lords over the provinces, in-
trusted to them, were at the head of this noble class. And
in imitation of them, their own vassals, as well as those of
the crown, and even rich allodialists, assumed titles from their
towns or castles, and thus arose a number of petty counts,
barons, and viscounts. This distinct class of nobility be-
came co-extensive with the feudal tenures. For the military
tenant, however poor, was subject to no tribute ; no presta-
tion, but service in the field: he was the companion of his
lord in the sports and feasting of his castle, the peer of his
court ; he fought on horseback, he was clad in the coat of
mail, while the commonalty, if summoned at all to war, came
on foot, and with no armor of defense. As every thing in
the habits of society conspired wdth that prejudice which, in
spite of moral philosophers, will constantly raise the profes-
sion of arms above all others, it Avas a natural consequence
that a new species of aristocracy, founded upon the mixed
considerations of birth, tenure, and occupation, sprung out
of the feudal system. Every possessor of a fief was a gen-
tleman, though he owned but a few acres of land, and fur-
nished his slender contribution tovvards the equipment of a
knight.
There still, however, wanted something to ascertain gen-
tility of blood where it was not marked by the actual tenure
of land. This was supplied by two innovations devised
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries — the adoption of sur-
names and of armorial bearings. The first are commonly re-
ferred to the former age, when the nobility began to add the
names of their estates to their own, or, having any way
acquired a distinctive appellation, transmitted it to their
posterity. As to armorial bearings, there is no doubt that
emblems somewhat similar have been immemorially used
both in war and peace. The shields of ancient warriors, and
devices upon coins or seals, bear no distant resemblance to
modern blazonry. But the general introduction of such
bearings, as hereditary distinctions, has been sometimes at-
tributed to tournaments, wherein the champions were dis-
tinguished by fanciful devices ; sometimes to the Crusades,
where a multitude of jiU nations and languages stood in need
of some visible token to denote the banners of their respect-
ive chiefs. In fact, the peculiar symbols of heraldry point
to both these sources, and have been borrowed in part fi-om
each. Hereditary arms were perhaps scarcely used by pri-
vate families before the beginning of the thirteenth century.
From that time, however, they became very general, and
100 THE NOBILITY. Chap. II. Part II
have contributed to elucidate that branch of history which
regards the descent of illustrious families.
When the privileges of birth had thus been rendered ca-
pable of legitimate proof, they were enhanced in a great de-
gree, and a line drawn between the high-born and ignoble
classes almost as broad as that which separated liberty from
servitude. All offices of trust and power were conferred on
the former; those excepted which appertain to the legal
profession. A plebeian could not possess a iief ' Such at
least was the original strictness ; but as the aristocratic prin-
ciple grew weaker, an indulgence was extended to heirs,
and afterwards to purchasers. They were even permitted
to become noble by the acquisition, or at least by its posses-
sion for three generations. But notwithstanding this enno-
bling quality of the land, which seems rather of an equivocal
description, it became an established right of the crown to
take, every twenty years, and on every change of the vassal,
a fine, known by the name of franc-fief, from plebeians in
possession of land held by a noble tenure.' A gentleman in
France or Germany could not exercise any trade without
derogating, that is, losing the advantages of his rank. A
few exceptions were made, at least in the former country,
in favor of some liberal arts and of foreign commerce. But
in nothing does the feudal haughtiness of birth more show
itself than in the disgrace which attended unequal marriages.
No children could inherit a territory held immediately of
the empire unless both their parents belonged to the higher
class of nobility. In France the off*spring of a gentleman
by a plebeian mother were reputed noble for the purposes
of inheritance, and of exemption from tribute." But they
could not be received into any order of chivalry, though
capable of simple knighthood ; nor were they considered as
any better than a bastard class deeply tainted with the al-
loy of their maternal extraction. Many instances occur
where letters of nobility have been granted to reinstate
them in their rank. For several purposes it was necessary
to prove four, eight, sixteen, or a greater number of quarters
2 We have uo English word that conveys the full sense of roturier. How glorious
is this deficiency in our political language, and how different are the ideas suggested
by commoner^ Roturier, according to Du Gauge, is derived from rapturarius, a peas-
ant, ab agrum rnmpendo.
' The right, originally perhaps usurpation, called franc-fief, began under Philip the
Pair. •' Ordonuances des Rois," t. i., p. 324 ; Denisart, art. " Franc-fief."
* Nobility, to a certain degree, was communicated through the mother alone, not
only by the custom of Champagne, but in all parts of France ; that is, the issue were
"gentilhommes dii fait de leur corps," and could possess fiefrf ; but, says Beaumanoir,
• la gentilesse par laquelle on devient chevalier doit venir de par le pere," c. 45.
Feudal Systkm. PRIVILEGES OF THE NOBIlA'^t- I '^ i[} \^^^S
■ — that is, of coats borne by paternal and maternal ancestors ;
and the same practice still subsists in Germany.
It appears, therefore, that the original nobility of the Con-
tinent were what we may call self-created, and did not de-
rive their rank from any such concessions of their respective
sovereigns as have been necessary in subsequent ages. In
England the baronies by tenure might belong to the same
class, if the lands upon which they depended had not been
granted by the crown. But the kings of France, before the
end of the thirteenth century, began to assume a privilege
of creating nobles by their own authority, and without re-
gard to the tenure of land. Philip the Hardy, in 1271, was
the first French king who granted letters of nobility ; under
the reigns of Philip the Fair and his children they gradually
became frequent. This effected a change in the character
of nobility, arid had as obvious a moral, as other events of
the same age had a political, influence in diminishing the
power and independence of the territorial aristocracy. The
privileges originally connected with ancient lineage and ex-
tensive domains became common to the low-born creatures
of a court, and lost consequently part of their title to respect.
The lawyers, as I have observed above, pretended that no-
bility could not exist without a royal concession. They ac-
quired themselves, in return for their exaltation of preroga-
tive, an oflicial nobility by the exercise of magistracy. The
institutions of chivalry again gave rise to a vast increase of
gentlemen, knighthood, on whomsoever conferred by the
sovereign, being a sufticient passport to noble privileges. It
was usual, perhaps, to grant previous letters of nobility to a
plebeian for whom the honor of knighthood was designed.
In this noble or gentle class there were several gradations.
All those in France who held lands immediately depending
upon the crown, whatever titles they might bear, were com-
prised in the order of Barons. These were originally the
peers of the king's court ; they possessed the higher territo-
rial jurisdiction, and had the right of carrying their own
banner into the field. To these corresponded the Valvas-
sores majores and Capitanei of the Empire. In a subordi-
nate class were the vassals of this high nobility, who, upon
the Continent, were usually termed Vavassors — an appella-
tion not unknown, though rare, in England."* The Chatelains
6 Chaucer concludes his picturesque description of the Franklin, in the prologue to
the " Canterbury Tales," thus ;
" Was never such a worthy Vavas^or."
This has perplexed some of our commentators, who, not knowing well what was
'1^,^ STATUS OF THE CLERGY. Chap. II. Part II.
(Castellani) belonged to the order of Vavassors, as they
held only arriere iiefs ; but, having fortified houses, from
which they derived their name (a distinction very important
in those times), and possessing ampler rights of territorial jus-
tice, they rose above the level of their fellows in the scale of
tenure.^ But after the personal nobility of chivalry became
the object of pride, the Vavassors who obtained knighthood
were commonly styled bachelors ; those who had not received
that honor fell into the class of squires,' or Damoiseaux.
§ 4. It will be needless to dwell upon the condition of the
inferior clergy, whether secular or professed, as it bears lit-
tle upon the general scheme of polity. The prelates and ab-
bots, however, it must be understood, were completely feudal
nobles. They swore fealty for their lands to the king or
other superior, received the homage of their vassals, enjoyed
the same immunities, exercised the same jurisdiction, main-
tained the same authority, as the lay lords among Avhom
they dwelt. Military service does not appear to have been
reserved in the beneficiary grants made to cathedrals and
monasteries. But when other vassals of the crown were
called upon to repay the bounty of their sovereign by per-
sonal attendance in war, the ecclesiastical tenants were sup-
posed to fall within the scope of this feudal duty, which men
little less uneducated and violent than their compatriots
were not reluctant to fulfill. Charlemagne exempted or
rather prohibited them from personal service by several
capitularies. The practice, however, as every one who has
some knowledge of history will be aware, prevailed in suc-
ceeding ages. Both in national and private warfare we find
meant by a franklin or by a vavassov, fancied tlie latter to be of much higher quality
than the former. The poet, however, was strictly correct : his acquaintance with
French manners showed him that the country squire, for his franklin is no other, pre-
cisely corresponded to the vavassor in France.
6 Whoever had a right to a castle had la haute justice ; this being so incident to the
castle that it was transferred along with it. There might, however, be a seigneur
haut-justicier below the chatelain ; and a ridiculous distinction was made as to the
number of posts by which their gallows might be supported. A baron's instrument
of execution stood on four posts ; a chiitelain's on three : while the inferior lord who
happened to possess la haute justice was forced to hang his subjects on a two-legged
machine. " Coutnmes de Poitou ; Du Cange, v. Purca."
Laurie-re quotes from an old manuscript the following short scale of ranks : Due est
la premiere dignite, puis comtes, puis viscomtes, et puis baron, et puis chatelain, et
puis vavasseur, et puis citaen, et puis villain.—" Ordonnances des Kois," t. i., p. 277.
' The sons of knights, and gentlemen not yet knighted, took the appellation of
squires in the twelfth century. That of Damoiseau came into use in the thirteenth.
The latter was more usual in France. Squire was not used as a title of distinction in
England till the reign of Edward III., and then but sparingly. Though by Henry
VI.'s time it was grown more common, yet none assumed it but the sons and heirs (A
knights and some military men ; except officers in courts of justice, who, by patent oi
prescription, had obtained that addition.
Fkddal System. FREEMEN. 103
very frequent mention of martial prelates. But, contrary as
this actual service might be to the civil as well as ecclesias-
tical laws, the clergy who held military fiefs were of course
bound to fulfill the chief obligation of that tenure and send
their vassals into the field. We have many instances of
their accompanying the army, though not mixing in the con-
flict ; and even the parish priests headed the militia of their
villages. The prelates, however, sometimes contrived to
avoid this military service, and the payments introduced in
commutation for it, by holding lands in frapk-almoigne, a
tenure which exempted them from every species of obliga-
tion except that of saying masses for the benefit of the grant-
or's family. But, notwithstanding the warlike disposition
of some ecclesiastics, their more usual inability to protect
the estates of their churches against rapacious neighbors
suggested a new species of feudal relation and tenure. The
rich abbeys elected an advocate, whose business it was to
defend their interests both in secular courts, and, if necessa-
ry, in the field. Pepin and Charlemagne are styled Advo-
cates of the Roman Church. This, indeed, was on a magnifi-
cent scale ; but in ordinary practice the advocate of a mon-
astery w^as some neighboring lord, who, in return for his pro-
tection, possessed many lucrative privileges, and very fre-
quently considerable estates, by way of fief from his eccle-
siastical clients. Some of those advocates are reproached
with violating their obligation, and becoming the plunder-
ers of those whom they had been retained to defend.
§ 5. The classes below the gentry may be divided into free-
men and villeins. Of the first were the inhabitants of char-
tered towns, the citizens and burghers, of whom more will be
said presently. As to those who dwelt in the country, we
can have no difficulty in recognizing, so far as England is
concerned, the socagers, whose tenure was free, though not
so noble as knight's service, and a numerous body of tenants
for term of life, who formed that ancient basis of our strength
the English yeomanry. But the mere freemen are not at
first sight so distinguishable in other countries. In French
records and law-books of feudal times, all besides the gentry
are usually confounded under the names of villeins or hom-
mes de pooste (gens potestatis).® This proves the slight esti
mation in which all persons of ignoble birth were considered.
For undoubtedly there existed a great many proprietors of
land and others, as free, though not as privileged, as the no*
8 Homo potestatis, non nobilis— Ita iiuncupantur, quod iu potentate domini sunt-j
Opponuntur viris nobi'.ibus.— Du Cange, v. "Potestas."
104 SERFS, OR VILLEINS. Chap. II. Part II.
bility. In the south of France, and especially Provence, the
number of freemen is remarked to have been greater than
in the parts on the right bank of the Loire, whel-e the feudal
tenures were almost universal. I shall quote part of a pas-
sage in Beaumanoir, which points out this distinction of T-anks
pretty fully. " It should be known," he says,'* " that thore are
three conditions of men in this world ; the first is that of
gentlemen ; and the second is that of such as anf naturally
free, being born of a free mother. All who havo a right to
be called gentlemen are free, but all who are free are not
gentlemen. Gentility comes by the father, and not by the
mother; but freedom is derived from the mother only; and
whoever is born of a free mother is himself free, and has free
power to do any thing that is lawful.'""
§ 6. In every age and country, until times comparatively
recent, personal servitude appears to have been the lot of a
large, pei'haps the greater, portion of mankind. We lose a
good deal of our sympathy with the spirit of freedom in
Greece and Rome, when the importunate recollection occurs
to us of the tasks which might be enjoined, and the punish-
ments w^hich might be inflicted, without control either of law
or opinion, by the keenest patriot of the Comitia, or the Coun-
cil of Five Thousand. A similar, though less pow^erful, feel-
ing will often force itself on the mind when we read the his-
tory of the Middle Ages. The Germans, in their primitive
settlements, were accustomed to the notion of slavery, in-
curred not only by captivity, but by crimes, by debt, and es-
pecially by loss in gaming. When they invaded the Roman
Empire they found the same condition established in all its
provinces^ Hence, from the beginning of the era now un-
der review, servitude, under somewhat different modes, was
extremely common. There is some difficulty in ascertaining
its varieties and stages. In the Salic laws, and in the Capit-
ularies, we read not only of Servi, but of Tributarii, Lidi, and
Coloni, who were cultivators of the earth, and subject to resi-
dence upon their lord's estate, though not destitute of prop-
erty or civil rights. Those who appertained to the demesne
lands of the crown were called Fiscalini. The composition
for the murder of one of these was much less than that for a
freeman. The number of these servile cultivators was un-
doubtedly great, yet in those early times, I should conceive,
much less than it afterwards became. Property was for the
most part in small divisions, and a Frank who could hardly
» " Coutumes de Beanvoisis," c. 45, p. 256,
" See Note IL, "The Tributarii, Lidi, and Coloni."
Feudal System. SERFS, OR VILLEINS. 105
support his family upon a petty allodial patrimony was not
likely to encumber himself with many servants. But the ac^
cumulation of overgrown private wealth had a natural tend-
ency to make slavery more frequent. Where the small pro-
prietoi*s lost their lands by mere rapine, we may believe that
their liberty was hardly less endangered. Even where this
was not the case, yet, as the labor either of artisans or of free
husbandmen was but sparingly in demand, they were often
compelled to exchange their liberty for bread. In seasons
also of famine, and they were not infrequent, many freemen
sold themselves to slavery.'^ A capitulary of Charles the
Bald in 864 permits their redemption at an equitable price.
Others became slaves, as more fortunate men became vassals,
to a powerful lord, for the sake of his protection. Many
were reduced to this state through inability to pay those
pecuniary compositions for offenses which were numerous and
sometimes heavy in the barbarian codes of law ; and many
more by neglect of attendance on military expeditions of the
king, the penalty of which was a fine called Heribann, with
the alternative of perpetual servitude. A source of loss of
liberty, which may strike us as more extraordinary, was su-
perstition; men were infatuated enough to surrender them-
selves, as well as their properties, to churches and monaster-
ies, in return for such benefits as they might reap by the
prayers of their new masters.
The characteristic distinction of a villein was his obliga-
tion to remain upon his lord's estate. He was not only pre-
cluded from selling the lands upon which he dwelt, but his
person was bound, and the lord might reclaim him at any
time, by suit in a court of justice, if he ventured to stray.
But, equally liable to this confinement, there were two classes
»i The poor early felt the necessity of selling themselves for subsistence in times of
famine. "Subdiderunt se pauperes servitio," says Gregory of Tours, a.d. 585, "ut
quantulumcunque de alimeuto porrigerent." (Lib. vii., c. 45.) This long continued
to be the practice; and probably the remarkable number of famines which are re-
corded, especially in the ninth and eleventh centuries, swelled the sad list of those
unhappy poor who Avere reduced to barter liberty for bread. Mr. Wright, in the
" Archgeologia," vol. xxx., p. 223, has extracted an entry from an Anglo-Saxon manu-
script, where a lady, about the time of the Conquest, manumits some slaves, "whose
heads," as it is simply and forcibly expressed, "she had taken for their meat iu the
evil days." Evil, indeed, were those days in France, when out of seventy-three years,
the reigns of Hugh Capet and his two successors, forty-eight were years of famine.
Evil were the days for five years from 1015, in the whole Western World, when not a
country could l)e named that was not destitute of bread. These were famines, as
Radulfns Glaber and other contemporary writers tell us, in which mothers ate their
children, and children their parents; and human flesh was sold, with some pretense
of concealment, in the markets. It is probable that England suffered less than
France ; but so long and frequent a scarcity of necessary food must have affected, in
the latter countrv, the whole oriranic frame of societv.
5*
106 CHARACTERISTICS OF VILLENAGE. Chap. II. Part II.
of villeins, whose condition was exceedingly different. In
England, at least from the reign of Henry II., one only, and
that the inferior species, existed ; incapable of property, and
destitute of redress, except against the most outrageous in-
juries. The lord could seize whatever they acquired or in-
herited, or convey them, apart from the land, to a stranger.
Their tenure bound them to what were called villein services,
ignoble in their nature and indeterminate in their degree;
the felling of timber, the carrying of manure, the repairing of
roads for their lord, who seems to have possessed an equally
unbounded right over their labor and its fruits. But by the
customs of France and Germany, persons in this abject state
seem to have been called serfs, and distinguished from vil-
leins, who were only bound to fixed payments and duties in
respect of their lord, though, as it seems, without any legal
redress if injured by him. "The third estate of men," says
Beaumanoir, in the passage above quoted, "is that of such as
are not free ; and these are not all of one condition, for some
are so subject to their lord that he may take all they have,
alive or dead, and imprison them whenever he pleases, be-
ing accountable to none but God ; while others are treated
more gently, from whom the lord can take nothing but cus-
tomary payments, though at their death all they have es-
cheats to him."
Under every denomination of servitude, the children fol-
lowed their mother's condition ; except in England, where
the father's state determined that of the children ; on which
account bastards of female villeins were born free, the law
presuming the liberty of their father. The proportion of
freemen, therefore, would have been miserably diminished if
there had been no reflux of the tide which ran so strongly
towards slavery. But the usage of manumission made a sort
of circulation between these two states of mankind. This,
as is well known, was an exceedingly common practice with
the Romans ; and is mentioned, with certain ceremonies pre-
scribed, in the Frankish and other early laws. The clergy,
and especially several popes, enforced it as a duty upon lay-
men ; and inveighed against the scandal of keeping Chris-
tians in bondage. As society advanced in Europe, the manu-
mission of slaves grew more frequent. By the indulgence of
custom in some places, or perhaps by original convention,
villeins might possess property, and thus purchase their own
redemption. Even where they had no legal title to proper-
ty, it was accounted inhuman to divest them of their little
possession (the pecuHum of Roman law) ; nor was their pov
Feudal System. ABOLITION OF VILLENAGE. 107
erty, perhaps, less tolerable, upon the whole, than that of the
modern peasantry in most countries of Europe. It was only
in respect of his lord, it must be remembered, that the vil-
lein, at least in England, was without rights ; he might in-
herit, purchase, sue in the courts of law ; though, as defend-
ant in a real action or suit wherein land was claimed, he
might shelter himself under the plea of villenage. The peas-
ants of this condition were sometimes made use of in war,
and rewarded with enfranchisement ; especially in Italy,
where the cities and the petty states had often occasion to
defend themselves with their own population ; and in peace
the industry of free laborers must have been found more
productive and better directed. Hence the eleventh and
twelfth centuries saw the number of slaves in Italy begin to
decrease ; early in the fifteenth a writer quoted by Muratori
speaks of them as no longer existing. The greater part of
the peasants in some countries of Germany had acquired
their liberty before the end of the thirteenth century ; in
other parts, as well as in all the northern and eastern regions
of Europe, they remained in a sort of villenage till the pres-
ent age. Some very few instances of predial servitude have
been discovered in England so late as the time of Elizabeth,
and perhaps they might be traced still lower. Louis Hutin,
in France, after innumerable particular instances of manu-
mission had taken place, by a general edict in 1315, reciting
that his kingdom is denominated the kingdom of the Franks,
that he would have the fact to correspond with the name,
emancipates all persons in the royal domains upon paying
a just composition, as an example for other lords possessing
villeins to follow. Philip the Long renewed the same edict
three years afterwards — a proof that it had not been carried
into execution.^'
§ 7. At the final separation of the French from the Ger-
man side of Charlemagne's empire by the treaty of Verdun
in 843, there was perhaps hardly any diiference in the con-
stitution of the two kingdoms. If any might have been con-
jectured to have existed, it would be a greater independence
and fuller rights of election in the nobility and people of
Germany. But in the lapse of another century France had
" Predial servitude was not, however, abolished in all parts of France till the Revo-
Intion. Throughont almost the whole jurisdiction of the Parliament of Besanpon the
peasants were attached to the soil, not being capable of leaving it without the lord's
consent ; and that in some places he even inherited their goods in exclusion of the
kindred. I recollect to have read in some part of Voltaire's correspondence an anec-
dote of his interference, with that zeal against oppression which is the shining side
of his moral character, 5n behalf of some cf these wretched slaves of Franche-comte,
108 STA TE OF FRANCE AND GtJRMANY. Chap. II. Fart II.
lost all her political unity, and her kings all their authority ;
while the Germanic empire was entirely unbroken under an
effectual, though not absolute, control of its sovereign. 'No
comparison can be made between the power of Charles the
Simple and Conrad the First, though the former had the
shadow of an hereditary right, and the latter was chosen
from among his equals. A long succession of feeble princes
or usurpers, and destructive incursions of the Normans, re-
duced France almost to a dissolution of society ; while Ger-
many, under Conrad, Henry, and the Othos, found their arms
not less prompt and successful against revolted vassals than
external enemies. The high dignitaries were less complete-
ly hereditary than they had become in France ; they were
granted, indeed, pretty regularly, but they were solicited as
well as granted ; while the chief vassals of the French crown
assumed them as patrimonial sovereignties, to which a royal
investiture gave more of ornament than sanction. In the
eleventh century these imperial prerogatives began to lose
part of their lustre. The long struggles of the princes and
clergy against Henry IV. and his son, the revival of more
effective rights of election on the extinction of the house of
Franconia, the exhausting contests of the Swabian emperors
in Italy, the intrinsic weakness produced by a law of the em-
pire, according to which the reigning sovereign could not
retain an imperial fief more than a year in his hands, gradu-
ally prepared that independence of the German aristocracy
which reached its height about the middle of the thirteenth
century. During this period the French crown had been in-
sensibly gaining strength ; and as one monarch degenerated
into the mere head of a confederacy, the other acquired un-
limited power over a solid kingdom.
It would be tedious, and not very instructive, to follow
the details of German public law during the Middle Ages ;
nor are the more important parts of it easily separable from
civil history. In this relation they will find a place in a
subsequent chapter of the present work. France demands
a more minute attention ; and in tracing the character of
the feudal system in that country, we shall find ourselves de-
veloping the progress of a very different polity.
§ 8. To understand in what degree the peers and barons
of France, during the prevalence of feudal principles, were
independent of the crown, we must look at their leading
privileges. These may be reckoned : I. The right of coin-
ing money; II. That of waging private war; HI. The ex-
em])tion from all public tributes, except the feudal aids; lY
Feudal System. PlilVlLEGES OF FRENCH VASSALS. 100
The freedom from legislative control; and V. The exclusive
exercise of original judicature in their dominions. Privileges
so enormous, and so contrary to all principles of sovereignty,
might lead us, in strictness, to account France rather a col-
lection of states, partially allied to each other, than a single
monarchy.
I. Silver and gold were not very scarce in the first ages
of the French monarchy ; but they passed more by weight
than by tale. A lax and ignorant government, which had
not learned the lucrative mysteries of a royal mint, was not
particularly solicitous to give its subjects the security of a
known stamp in their exchanges. In some cities of France
money appears to have been coined by private authority be-
fore the time of Charlemagne ; at least one of his capitularies
forbids the circulation of any that had not been stamped in
the royal mint. His successors indulged some of their vas-
sals with the privilege of coining money for the use of their
own territories, but not without the royal stamp. About
the beginning of the tenth century, however, the lords, among
their other assumptions of independence, issued money with
no marks but their own. At the accession of Hugh Capet
as many as a hundred and fifty are said to have exercised
this power. Even under St. Louis it was possessed by about
eighty, who, excluding as far as possible the royal coin from
circulation, enriched themselves at their subjects' expense
by high duties (seigniorages), which they imposed upon ev-
ery new coinage, as well as by debasing its standard.
Philip the Fair established royal officers of inspection in
every private mint. It was asserted in his reign, as a gen-
eral truth, that no subject might coin silver money. In fact,
the adulteration practised in those baronial mints had re-
duced their pretended silver to a sort of black metal, as it
was called {moneta nigra)^ into which little entered but cop-
per. Silver, however, and even gold, were coined by the
dukes of Brittany so long as that fief continued to exist.
No subjects ever enjoyed the right of coining silver in En-
gland without the royal stamp and superintendence'^ — a re-
markable proof of the restraint in which the feudal aristocra-
cy was always held in this country.
§ 9. — II. The passion of revenge, always among the most
ungovernable in human nature, acts with such violence upon
barbarians, that it is utterly beyond the control of their im-
perfect arrangements of polity. It seems to them no part
_" I do not extend this to the fact; for in the anarchy of Stephen's reign both
bishops and barons coined money for themselves. — Hoveden, p. 490.
110 WAR.— TAXATION. Chap. II. Part II.
of the social compact to sacrifice the privilege which nature
has placed in the arm of valor. Gradually, however, these
fiercer feelings are blunted, and another passion, hardly less
powerful than resentment, is brought to play in a contrary
direction. The earlier object, accordingly, of jurisprudence
is to establish a fixed atonement for injuries, as much for
the preservation of tranquillity as the prevention of crime.
Such were the weregilds of the barbaric codes, which, for a
different purpose, I have already mentioned. But whether
it were that the kindred did not alw^ays accept, or the crim-
inal offer, the legal composition, or that other causes of quar-
rel occurred, private feuds (faida) were perpetually breaking
out, and many of Charlemagne's capitularies are directed
against them. After his time all hope of restraining so in-
veterate a practice was at an end ; and every man who own-
ed a castle to shelter him in case of defeat, and a sufficient
number of dependents to take the field, was at liberty to re-
taliate upon his neighbors whenever he thought himself in-
jured. It must be kept in mind that there was frequently
either no jurisdiction to which he could appeal, or no power
to enforce its awards ; so that we may consider the higher
nobility of France as in a state of nature with respect to
each other, and entitled to avail themselves of all legitimate
grounds of hostility. The right of waging private \<ar was
moderated by Louis IX,, checked by Philip IV., suppressed
by Charles VI. ; but a few vestiges of its practice may be
found still later.
§ 10. — III. In the modern condition of governments tax-
ation is a chief engine of the well - compacted machinery
which regulates the system. But the early European king-
doms knew neither the necessities nor the ingenuity of mod-
ern finance. From their demesne lands the kings of France
and Lombard y supplied the common expenses of a barba-
rous court. Even Charlemagne regulated the economy of his
farms with the minuteness of a steward, and a large portion
of his capitularies are directed to this object. Their actual
revenue was chiefly derived from free gifts, made, according
to an ancient German custom, at the annual assemblies of
the nation, from amercements by allodial proprietors for de-
fault of military service, find from the freda, or fines, accru-
ing to the judge out of compositions for murder. These
amounted to one-third of the w^hole weregild ; one-third of
this was paid over by the count to the royal Exchequer.
After the feudal government prevailed in France, and nei-
ther the heribannum nor the weregild continued in use.
Feudal System. ROYAL REVENUE IN FRANCE. Ill
there seems to have been hardly any source of regular reve-
nue besides the domanial estates of the crown ; unless we
may reckon as such, that during a journey the king had a
prescriptive right to be supplied with necessaries by tie
towns and abbeys through which he passed; commuted
sometimes into petty regular payments, called droits de gist
et de chevauche. Hugh Capet was nearly indigent as king
of France, though, as count of Paris and Orleans, he might
take the feudal aids and reliefs of his vassals. Several other
small emoluments of himself and his successors, whatever
they may since have been considered, were in that age rath-
er seigniorial than royal. The rights of toll, of customs, of
alienage (aubaine), generally even the regale or enjoyment
of the temporalities of vacant episcopal sees and other ec-
clesiastical benefices, were possessed within their own do-
mains by the great feudatories of the crown. They con-
tributed nothing to their sovereign, not even those aids
which the feudal customs enjoined.
The history of the royal revenue in France is, however,
too important to be slightly passed over. As the necessities
of government increased, several devices were tried in order
to replenish the Exchequer. One of these was by extorting
money from the Jews. It is almost incredible to what a
length this was carried. Usury, forbidden by law and su-
perstition to Christians, was confined to this industrious
and covetous people. It is now no secret that all regula-
tions interfering with the interest of money render its terms
more rigorous and burdensome. The children of Israel grew
rich in despite of insult and oppression, and retaliated upon
their Christian debtors. If an historian of Philip Augustus
may be believed, they possessed almost one-half of Paris.
Unquestionably they must have had support both at the
court and in the halls of justice. The policy of the kings of
France was to employ them as a sponge to suck their sub-
jects' money, which they might afterwards express with less
odium than direct taxation would incur. Philip Augustus
released all Christians in his dominions from their debts to
the Jews, reserving a fifth part to himself. He afterwards
expelled the whole nation from France. But they appear
to have returned again — whether by stealth, or, as is more
probable, by purchasing permission. St. Louis twice ban-
ished and twice recalled the Jews. A series of alternate
persecution and tolerance was borne by this extraordinary
people with an invincible perseverance, and a talent of ac-
cumulating riches which kept pace with their plunderers;
112 TAXATION. Chap. II. Part II.
till, new schemes of finance supplying the turn, they were
finally expelled under Charles VI., and never afterwards ob-
tained any legal establishment in France.
A much more extensive plan of rapine was carried on by
lowering the standard of coin. Originally the pound) a
money of account, was equivalent to twelve ounces of sil-
ver; and divided into twenty pieces of coin (sous), each
equal, consequently, ta nearly three shillings and four pence
of our new English money. At the Revolution the money
of France had been depreciated in the proportion of seventy-
three to one, and the sol was about equal to an English half-
penny. This was the effect of a long continuance of fraud-
ulent and arbitrary government. The abuse began under
Philip I. in 1103, who alloyed his silver coin with a third of
copper. So good an example was not lost upon subsequent
princes ; till, under St. Louis, the mark-weight of silver, or
eight ounces, was equivalent to fifty sous of the debased
coin. Nevertheless these changes seem hitherto to have
produced no discontent ; whether it were that a people nei-
ther commercial nor enlightened did not readily perceive
their tendency; or, as has been ingeniously conjectured,
that these successive diminutions of the standard were near-
ly counterbalanced by an augmentation in the value of silver,
occasioned by the drain of money during the Crusades, with
which they were about contemporaneous. But the rapacity
of Philip the Fair kept no measures with the public ; and
the mark in his reign had become equal to eight livres, or a
hundred and sixty sous of money. Dissatisfaction, and even
tumults, arose in consequence, and he was compelled to re-
store the coin to its standard under St. Louis. His success-
ors practised the same arts of enriching their treasury ; un-
der Philip of Valois the mark was again worth eight livres.
But the film had now dropped from the eyes of the people ;
and these adulterations of money, rendered more vexatious
by continued recoinages of the current pieces, upon which a
fee was extorted by the moneyers, showed in their true light
as mingled fraud and robbery.
These resources of government, however, by no means su-
perseded the necessity of more direct taxation. The kings
of France exacted money from the roturiers, and particu-
larly the inhabitants of towns, within their domains. In this
they only acted as proprietors, or suzerains ; and the barons
took the same course in their own lands. Philip Augustus
first ventured upon a stretch of prerogative, which, in the
words of his biographer, disturbed all France, He deprived
Feudal System. NO SUPREME LEGISLATION. 113
by force both his own vassals, who had been accustomed to
boast of their immunities, and their feudal tenants, of a third
part of their goods. Such arbitrary taxation of the nobility,
who deemed that their military service discharged them
from all pecuniary burdens, France was far too aristocratical
a country to bear. It seems not to have been repeated ; and
his successors generally pursued more legitimate courses.
Upon obtaining any contribution, it was usual to grant let-
ters patent, declaring that it had been freely given, and
should not be turned into precedent in time to come. But
in the reign of Philip the Fair a great innovation took place
in the French constitution, which, though it principally af-
fected the method of levying money, may seem to fall more
naturally under the next head of consideration.
§ 11. — IV. There is no part of the French feudal policy
so remarkable as the entire absence of all supreme legisla-
tion. We find it difiicult to conceive the existence of a po-
litical society, nominally one kingdom and under one head,
in which, for more than three hundred years, there was want-
ing the most essential attributes of government. It will be
requisite, however, to take this up a little higher, and inquire
what was the original legislature of the French monarchy.
Arbitrary rule, at least in theory, was uncongenial to the
character of the Northern nations. Neither the power of
making laws, nor that of applying them to the circumstances
of particular cases, was left at the discretion of the sover-
eign. The Lombard kings held assemblies every year at
Pavia, where the chief officers of the crown and proprietors
of lands deliberated upon all legislative measures, in the
presence, and, nominally at least, with the consent, of the
multitude. Frequent mention is made of similar public
meetings in France by the historians of the Merovingian
kings, and still more unequivocally by their statutes. These
assemblies have been called Parliaments of the Champ de
Mars, having originally been held in the month of March.
But they are supposed by many to have gone much into dis-
use under the later Merovingian kings. That of 615, the
most important of which any traces remain, was at the close
of the great revolution which punished Brunehaut for aspir-
ing to despotic power. Whether these assemblies were com-
posed of any except prelates, great land-holders, or what we
may call nobles, and the Antrustions of the king, is still an
unsettled point. It is probable, however, not only that the
bishops took part in them, but also that the presence of the
nation was traditionally required in conformity to the an-
114 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES. Chap. II. Part XL
cient German usage, which had not been formally abolished ;
while the difficulty of prevailing on a dispersed people to
meet every year, as well as the enhanced influence of the
king through his armed Antrustions, soon reduced the free-
men to little more than spectators from the neighboring dis-
tricts.
Although no legislative proceedings of the Merovingian
line are extant after 615, it is intimated by early writers
that Pepin Heristal and his son Charles Martel restored the
national council after some interruption ; and if the language
of certain historians be correct, they rendered it consider-
ably popular.
Pepin the younger, after his accession to the throne,
changed the month of this annual assembly from March to
May ; and we have some traces of what took place at eight
sessions during his reign. Of his capitularies, however, one
only is said to be made in generali populi conventu; the rest
are enacted in synods of bishops, and all without exception re-
late merely to ecclesiastical affairs. And it must be owned
that, as in those of the first dynasty, we find generally men-
tion of the optimates who met in these conventions, but rare-
ly any word that can be construed of ordinary freemen.
Such, indeed, is the impression conveyed by a remarkable
passage of Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims during the time
of Charles the Bald, who has preserved, on the authority of
a writer contemporary with Charlemagne, a sketch of the
Prankish government under that great prince. Two assem-
blies (placita) were annually held. In the first, all regula-
tions of importance to the public weal for the ensuing year
were enacted ; and to this, he says, the whole body of clergy
and laity repaired ; the greater, to deliberate upon what was
fitting to be done ; and the lesser, to confirm by their volun-
tary assent, not through deference to power, or sometimes
even to discuss, the resolutions of their superiors. In the
second annual assembly, the chief men and officers of state
were alone admitted, to consult upon the most urgent affairs
of government. They debated, in each of these, upon certain
capitularies, or short proposals, laid before them by the king.
The clergy and nobles met in separate chambers, thougli
sometimes united for the purposes of deliberation. \\\ these
assemblies, principally, I presume, in the more numerous of
the two annually summoned, that extensive body of laws,
the capitularies of Charlemagne, were enacted. And though
it would contradict the testimony just adduced from Hinc-
mar to suppose that the lesser freeholders took a very ef-
Feudal System. POPULAR RIGHTS. 115
fective share in public counsels, yet their presence, and the
usage of requiring their assent, indicate the liberal principles
upon which the system of Charlemagne was founded. It is
continually expressed in his capitularies and those of his
family that they were enacted by general consent. In one
of Louis the Debonair we even trace the first germ of repre-
sentative legislation. Every count is directed to bring with
him to the general assembly twelve Scabini, if there should
be so many in his county ; or, if not, should fill up the num-
ber out of the most respectable persons resident. These
Scabini were judicial assessors of the count, chosen by the
allodial proprietors, in the county court, or raallus, though
generally on his nomination.^*
The circumstances, however, of the French Empire for sev-
eral subsequent ages were exceedingly adverse to such en-
larged schemes of polity. The nobles contemned the imbe-
cile descendants of Charlemagne ; and the people, or lesser
freeholders, if they escaped absolute villenage, lost their im-
mediate relation to the supreme government in the subordi-
nation to their lord established by the feudal law. Yet we
may trace the shadow of ancient popular rights in one con-
stitutional function of high importance, the choice of a sov-
ereign. Historians who relate the election of an emperor or
king of France seldom omit to specify the consent of the
multitude, as well as of the temporal and spiritual aristoc-
I'acy ; and even in solemn instruments that record such
transactions we find a sort of importance attached to the
popular suffrage. It is surely less probable that a recogni-
tion of this elective right should have been introduced as a
mere ceremony, than that the form should have survived al-
ter length of time and revolutions of government had almost
obliterated the recollection of its meaning.
It must, however, be impossible to ascertain even the the-
oretical privileges of the subjects of Charlemagne, much
more to decide how far they were substantial or illusory.
We can only assert, in general, that there continued to be
Bome mixture of democracy in the French constitution dur-
ing the reigns of Charlemagne and his first successors. The
primeval German institutions were not eradicated. In the
capitularies thti consent of the people is frequently expressed.
^* The Scabini are not to be confounded, as sometimes has been the case, with the
Rachimburgii, who were not chosen by the allodial ])roprietors, bnt were themselves
such, or sometimes, perhaps, beneficiaries, summoned by the court as jurors were in
England. They answered to the prud^hcmmef^ boni homvies, of later times; they
formed the county or the hundred court, for the determination of civil and criminal
causes.
IIG ASSEMBLIES OF BARONS. Chap. 11. Part II.
Fifty years after Charlemagne, his grandson Charles the Bald
succinctly expresses the theory of legislative power. A law,
he says, is made by the people's consent and the king's en-
actment. It would hardly be warranted by analogy or prec-
edent to interpret the word people so very narrowly as to
exclude any allodial proprietors, among whom, however un-
equal in opulence, no legal inequality of rank is supposed to
have yet arisen.
§ 12. But by whatever authority laws were enacted, who-
ever were the constituent members of national assemblies,
they ceased to be held in about seventy years from the
death of Charlemagne. The latest capitularies are of Carlo-
man in 882. From this time there ensues a long blank in the
history of French legislation. The kingdom was as a great
fief, or rather as a bundle of fiefs, and the king little more
than one of a number of feudal nobles, differing rather in dig-
nity than in power from some of the rest. The royal coun-
cil was composed only of barons, or tenants in chief, prelates,
and household officers. These now probably deliberated in
private, as we hear no more of the consenting multitude.
Political functions were not in that age so clearly separated
as we are taught to fancy they should be ; this council ad-
vised the king in matters of government, confirmed and con-
sented to his grants, and judged in all civil and criminal
cases w^here any peers of their court were concerned.
But, notwithstanding the want of any permanent legisla-
tion during so long a period, instances occur in w^hich the
kings of France appear to have acted with the concurrence
of an assembly more numerous and more particularly sum-
moned than the royal council. At such a congress held in
1146 the crusade of Louis VII. was undertaken. We find
also an ordinance of the same prince in some collections, re-
citing that he had convoked a general assembly at Soissons,
where many prelates and barons then present had consented
and requested that private wars might cease for the term of
ten years. The famous Saladine tithe was imposed upon lay
as well as ecclesiastical revenues by a similar convention in
1188. And when Innocent IV., during his contest with the
Emperor Frederick, requested an asylum in France, St. Louis,
though much inclined t'o favor him, ventured only to give a
conditional permission, provided it were agreeable to his
barons, whom, he said, a king of France was bound to con-
sult in such circumstances. Accordingly he assembled the
French barons, who unanimously refused their consent.
It was the ancient custom of the kinsrs of France as well
Fkudal System. LEGISLATIVE SUBSTITUTES. 117
as of England, and indeed of all those vassals who affected a
kind of sovereignty, to hold general meetings of their barons,
called (Jours Plmihres^ or Parliaments^ at the great festivals
of the year. These assemblies were principally intended to
make a display of magnificence, and to keep the feudal tenants
in good-humor; nor is it easy to discover that they passed
in any thing but pageantry. Some respectable antiquaries
have, however, been of opinion that aifairs of state were oc-
casionally discussed in them ; and this is certainly by no
means inconsistent with probability, though not sufficiently
established by evidence.
Excepting a few instances, most of which have been men-
tioned, it does not appear that the kings of the house of Ca-
pet acted according to the advice and deliberation of any
national assembly, such as assisted the Norman sovereigns
of England ; nor was any consent required for the validity
of their edicts, except that of the ordinary council, chiefly
formed of their household officers and less powerful vassals.
This is at first sight very remarkable. For there can be no
doubt that the government of Henry I. or Henry II. was
incomparably stronger than that of Louis VI. or Louis VII.
But this apparent absoluteness of the latter w^as the result
of their real weakness and the disorganization of the mon-
archy. The peers of France were infrequent in their attend-
ance upon the king's council, because they denied its coercive
authority. It was a fundamental principle that every feudal
tenant was so far sovereign within the limits of his fief, that
he could not be bound by any law without his consent.
The king, says St. Louis in his Establishments, can not make
proclamation, that is, declare any new law, in the territory
of a baron, without his consent, nor can the baron do so in
that of a vavassor. Thus, if legislative power be essential
to sovereignty, we can not in strictness assert the King of
France to have been sovereign beyond the extent of his
domanial territory. Nothing can more strikingly illustrate
the dissimilitude of the French and English constitutions of
government than the sentence above cited from the code of
St. Louis.
§ 13. Upon occasions when the necessity of common de-
liberation, or of giving to new provisions more extensile
scope than the limits of a single fief, was too glaring to be
overlooked, congresses of neighboring lords met in order to
agree upon resolutions which each of them undertook to ex-
ecute within his own domains. The king was sometimes a
contracting party, but without any coercive authority over
118 INCREASE OF REGAL POWER. Chap. II. Part IL
the rest. Thus we have what is called an ordinance, but, in
reality, an agreement, between the king (Philip Augustus),
the Countess of Troyes or Champagne, and the Lord of Dam-
pierre, relating to the Jews in their domains ; which agree-
ment or ordinance, it is said, should endure " until ourselves,
and the Countess of Troyes, and Guy de Dampierre, who
make this contract, shall dissolve it with the consent of such
of our barons as we shall summon for that purpose."
Ecclesiastical councils were another substitute for a regu-
lar legislature; and this defect in the political constitution
rendered their encroachments less obnoxious, and almost un-
avoidable. That of Troyes in 8V8, composed perhaps in part
of laymen, imposed a fine upon the invaders of church prop-
erty. And the Council of Toulouse, in 1229, prohibited the
erection of any new fortresses, or the entering into any
leagues, except against the enemies of religion ; and ordained
that judges should administer justice gratuitously, and pub-
lish the decrees of the council four times in the year.
§ 1 4. The original exemption of the vassals of the crown
from legislative control remained unimpaired at the date of
the Establishments of St. Louis, about 1269; and their ill-
judged confidence in this feudal privilege still led them to
absent themselves from the royal council. It seems impos-
sible to doubt that the barons of France might have asserted
the same right which those of England had obtained, that
of being duly summoned by special writ, and thus have ren-
dered their consent necessary to every measure of legisla-
tion. But the nobility did not long continue safe in their
immunity from the king's legislative power.
The ultimate source of this increased authority will be found
in the commanding attitude assumed by the kings of France
from the reign of Philip Augustus, and particularly in the
annexation of the two great fiefs of Normandy and Toulouse.
St. Louis, in his scrupulous moderation, forbore to avail him-
self of all the advantages presented by the circumstances of
his reign ; and his Establishments bear testimony to a state
of political society which, even at the moment of their pro-
mulgation, was passing away. The next thirty years after
his death, with no marked crisis, and with little disturbance,
sifently demolished the feudal system, such as had been es-
tablished in France during the dark confusion of the tenth
century. Philip the Fair, by help of his lawyers and his
financiers, found himself, at the beginning of the fourteenth
century, the real master of his subjects.
§ 15. There was, however, one essential privilege which he
Feudal System. RIGHTS OF THE STATES-GENERAL. 119
could not hope to overturn by force — the immunity from tax-
ation enjoyed by his barons. This, it will be remembered,
embraced the whole extent of their fiefs, and their tenantry
of every description — the king having no more right to im-
pose a tallage upon the demesne towns of his vassals than
upon themselves. Thus his resources, in point of taxation,
were limited to his own domains ; including certainly, under
Philip the Fair, many of the noblest cities in France, but by
no means sufficient to meet his increasing necessities. We
have seen already the expedients employed by this rapa-
cious monarch — a shameless depreciation of the coin, and,
what was much more justifiable, the levying taxes within
the territories of his vassals by their consent. Of these
measures, the first was odious, the second slow and imperfect.
Confiding in his sovereign authority — though recently, yet
almost completely, established — and little apprehensive of
the feudal principles, already grown obsolete and discounte-
nanced, he was bold enough to make an extraordinary inno-
vation in the French constitution. This was the convoca-
tion of the States-General, a representative body, composed
of the three orders of the nation. They were first con-
vened in 1302, in order to give more weight to the king's
cause in his great quarrel with Boniface VIII. ; but their
earliest grant of a subsidy is in 1314. Thus the nobility
surrendered to the crown their last privilege of territorial
independence ; and, having first submitted to its appellant
jurisdiction over their tribunals, next to its legislative su-
premacy, now suffered their own dependents to become, as
it were, immediate, and a third estate to rise up almost co-
ordinate with themselves, endowed with new franchises, and
bearing a new relation to the monarchy.
It is impossible not to perceive the motives of Philip in
embodying the deputies of towns as a separate estate in the
national representation. He might, no question, have con-
voked a parliament of his barons, and obtained a pecuniary
contribution, which they would have levied upon their bur-
gesses and other tenants. But, besides the ulterior policy
of diminishing the control of the barons over their depencl-
ents, he had good reason to expect more liberal aid from the
immediate representatives of the people than through the
concession of a dissatisfied aristocracy.
§ 16. It is very difficult to ascertain the constitutional
rights of the States-General, claimed or admitted, during
forty years after their first convocation ; but if, indeed, we
could implicitly confide in an Iiistorian of the sixteenth cen-
120 EIGHTS OF THE STATES -GENERAL. Chap. II. Part II.
tury, who asserts that Louis Hutin bound himself and his suc-
cessors not to levy any tax without the consent of the three
estates, the problem would find its solution. This ample
charter does not appear in the French archives ; and, though
by no means to be rejected on that account, when we con-
sider the strong motives for its destruction, can not fairly be
adduced as an authentic fact. Nor can we altogether infer,
perhaps, from the collection of ordinances, that the crown
had ever intentionally divested itself of the right to impose
tallages on its domanial tenants. All others, however, were
certainly exempted from that prerogative ; and there seems
to have been a general sentiment that no tax whatever could
be levied without free consent of the estates. Louis Hutin,
in a charter granted to the nobles and burgesses of Picardy,
promises to abolish the unjust taxes (maltotes) imposed by
his father; and in another instrument, called the charter of
Normandy, declares that he renounces for himself and his
successors all undue tallages and exactions, except in case of
evident utility. This exception is doubtless of perilous am-
biguity; yet, as the charter was literally wrested from the
king by an insurrectionary league, it might be expected that
the same spirit would rebel against his royal interpretation
of state necessity. His successor, Philip the Long, tried the
experiment of a gabelle, or excise upon salt. But it pro-
duced so much discontent that he was compelled to assem-
ble the States-General, and to publish an ordinance declar-
ing that the impost was not designed to be perpetual, and
that, if a sufficient supply for the existing war could be
found elsewhere, it should instantly determine. Whether
this was done I do not discover; nor do I conceive that any
of the sons of Philip the Fair, inheriting much of his rapaci-
ty and ambition, abstained from extorting money without
consent. Philip of Valois renewed and augmented the du-
ties on salt by his own prerogative, nor had the abuse of de-
basing the current coin been ever carried to such a height as
during his reign and the first years of his successor. These
exactions, aggravated by the smart of a hostile invasion,
produced a very remarkable concussion in the government
of France.
§ 17. I have been obliged to advert, in another place, to
the memorable resistance made by the States-General of
1355 and 1356 to the royal authority, on account of its in-
separable connection with the civil history of France.'^ In
the present chapter the assumption of political influence by
15 Chap, i., p. 47.
Feudal System. THE STATES-GENERAL. 121
those assemblies deserves particular notice. Not that they
pretended to restore the ancient constitution of the Northern
nations, still flourishing in Spain and England, the partici-
pation of legislative power with the crown. Five hundred
years of anarchy and ignorance had swept away all remem-
brance of those general diets in which the capitularies of the
Carlovingian dynasty had been established by common con-
sent. Charlemagne himself was hardly known to the French
of the fourteenth century, except as the hero of some silly
romance or ballad. The States-General remonstrated, in-
deed, against abuses, and especially the most flagrant of all,
the adulteration of money ; but the ordinance granting re-
dress emanated altogether from the king, and without the
least reference to their consent, which sometimes appears to
be studiously omitted. But the privilege upon which the
States under John solely relied for securing the redress of
grievances was that of granting money, and of regulating
its collection. The latter, indeed, though for convenience it
may be devolved upon the executive government, appears
to be incident to every assembly in which the right of taxa-
tion resides. That, accordingly, which met in 1355 nomi-
nated a committee chosen out of the three orders, which was
to sit after their separation, and which the king bound him-
self to consult, not only as to the internal arrangements
of his administration, but upon every proposition of peace
or armistice with England. Deputies were dispatched into
each district to superintend the collection and receive the
produce of the subsidy granted by the States. These as-
sumptions of power would not long, we may be certain, have
left the sole authority of legislation in the king, and might,
perhaps, be censured as usurpation, if the peculiar emergen-
cy in which France was then placed did not furnish their de-
fense.
§ 18. But whatever opportunity might now be aflbrded
for establishing a just and free constitution in France was
entirely lost. Charles, inexperienced and surrounded by
evil counsellors, thought the States-General inclined to en-
croach upon his rights, of which, in the best part of his life,
he was always abundantly careful. He dismissed, therefore,
the assembly, and had recourse to the easy but rumous ex-
pedient of debasing the coin. This led to seditions at Paris,
by which his authority, and even his life, were endangered.
In February, 1357, three months after the last meeting had
been dissolved, he was obliged to convoke the States again,
and to enact an ordinance conformable to the petitions ten-
6
122 THE STATES-GENERAL. Chap. II. Pakt II
dered by the former assembly. This contained many excel-
lent provisions, both for the redress of abuses and the vigor-
ous prosecution of the war against Edward ; and it is diffi-
cult to conceive that men who advised measures so condu-
cive to the public weal could have been the blind instruments
of the King of Navarre. But this is a problem in history
that wc can not hope to resolve. It appears, however, that
in a few weeks after the promulgation of this ordinance the
proceedings of the reformers fell into discredit, and their
commission of thirty-six, to whom the collection of the new
subsidy, the redress of grievances, and, in fact, the whole
administration of government, had been intrusted, became
unpopular. The subsidy produced much less than they liad
led the people to expect : briefly, the usual consequence of
democratical emotions in a monarchy took place. Disap-
pointed by the failure of hopes unreasonably entertained
and improvidently encouraged, and disgusted by the ex-
cesses of the violent demagogues, the nation, especially its
privileged classes, who seem to have concurred in the origi-
nal proceedings of the States-General, attached themselves
to the party of Charles, and enabled him to quell opposition
by foi'ce. Marcel, provost of the traders, a municipal mag-
istrate of Paris, detected in the overt execution of a traitor-
ous conspiracy with the King of Navarre, was put to death
by a private hand. Whatever there had been of real patri-
otism in the States-General, artfully confounded, according
to the practice of courts, with these schemes of disaffected
men, shared in the com.raon obloquy ; whatever substantial
reforms had been projected the government threw aside as
seditious innovations. Charles, who had assumed the title
of regent, found in the States-General, assembled at Paris in
1359, a very different disposition from that which their pred-
ecessors had displayed, and publicly restored all counsellors
whom in the former troubles he had been compelled to dis-
card. Thus the monarchy resettled itself on its ancient ba-
sis, or, more properly, acquired additional stability.
§ 19. Both John, after the peace of Bretigni, and Charles
V. imposed taxes without consent of the States-General.
The latter, indeed, hardly ever convoked that assembly.
Upon his death the contention between the crown and rep-
resentative body was renewed ; and, in the first meeting
held after the accession of Charles VI., the government was
compelled to revoke all taxes illegally imposed since the
reign of Philip IV. This is the most remedial ordinance.
perhaps, in the history of French legislation. " We will, or
Fkudal System. THE STATES-GENERAL. 123
dain, and grant," says the king, "that the aids, subsidies,
and impositions, of whatever kind, and however imposed,
that have had course in the realm since the reign of our
predecessor, Philip the Fair, shall be repealed and abolished ;
and we will and decree that, by the course which the said
impositions have had, we or our successors shall not have
acquired any right, nor shall any prejudice be wrought to
our people, nor to their privileges and liberties, which shall
be re-established in as full a manner as they enjoyed them
in the reign of Philip the Fair, or at any time since ; and we
will and decree that, if any thing has been done contrary to
them since that time to the present hour, neither we nor our
successors shall take any advantage therefrom." If circum-
stances had turned out favorably for the cause of liberty,
this ordinance might have been the basis of a free constitu-
tion, in respect, at least, of immunity from arbitrary taxa-
tion. But the coercive measures of the court and tumultu-
ous spirit of the Parisians produced an open quarrel, in which
the popular party met with a decisive failure.
It seems, indeed, impossible that a number of deputies,
elected merely for the purpose of granting money, can pos-
sess that weight or be invested in the eyes of their constit-
uents with that awfulness of station which is required to
withstand the royal authority. The States-General had no
right of redressing abuses, except by petition — no share in
the exercise of sovereignty, which is inseparable from the
legislative power. Hence, even in their proper department
of imposing taxes, they were supposed incapable of binding
their constituents without their special assent. Whether it
were the timidity of the deputies, or false notions of free-
dom, which produced this doctrine, it was evidently repug-
nant to the stability and dignity of a representative assem-
bly. Nor was it less ruinous in practice than mistaken in
theory. For as the necessary subsidies, after being provis-
ionally granted by the States, were often rejected by their
electors, the king found a reasonable pretense for dispensing
witli the concurrence of his subjects when he levied contri-
butions upon them.
The States - General were convoked but rarely under
Charles VI. and VII., both of whom levied money without
their concurrence. Yet there are remarkable testimonies
under the latter of these princes that the sanction of nation-
al representatives was still esteemed strictly requisite to any
ordinance imposing a general tax, however the emergency
of circumstances might excuse a more arbitrary procedure.
124 PROVINCIAL ESTATES. Chap. II. Part IL
Thus Charles VII., in 14.36, declares that he has set up again
the aids which had been previously abolished hy the consent
of the three estates. And in the important edict establishing
the companies of ordonnance, which is recited to be done by
the advice and counsel of the States-General assembled at
Orleans, the forty-first section appears to bear a necessary
construction that no tallage could lawfully be imposed with-
out such consent. It is maintained, indeed, by some writers,
that the perpetual taille established about the same time
was actually granted by these States of 1439, though it does
not so appear upon the face of any ordinance. And certain-
ly this is consonant to the real and recognized constitution
of that age.
But the crafty advisers of courts in the fifteenth century,
enlightened by experience of past dangers, were averse to
encountering these great political masses, from which there
were, even in peaceful times, some disquieting interferences,
some testimonies of public spirit, and recollections of liber-
ty to apprehend. The kings of France, indeed, had a re-
source, which generally enabled them to avoid a convoca-
tion of the States-General, without violating the national
franchises. From provincial assemblies, composed of the
three orders, they usually obtained more money than they
could have extracted from the common representatives of the
nation, and heard less of remonstrance and demand. Lan-
guedoc, in particular, had her own assembly of states, and
was rarely called upon to send deputies to the general body,
or representatives of what was called the Languedoil. But
Auvergne, Normandy, and other provinces belonging to the
latter division, had frequent convocations of their respective
estates during the intervals of the States-General — intervals
which by this means were protracted far beyond that dura-
tion to which the exigencies of the crown would otherwise
have confined them. This was one of the essential differ-
ences between the constitutions of France and England, and
arose out of the original disease of the former monarchy —
the distraction and want of unity consequent upon the de-
cline of Charlemagne's family, which separated the difierent
provinces, in respect of their interests and domestic govern-
ment, from each other.
§ 20. But the formality of consent, whether by general or
provincial states, now ceased to be reckoned indispensable.
The lawyers had rarely seconded any efforts to restrain arbi-
trary power : in their hatred of feudal principles, especially
those of territorial jurisdiction, every generous sentiment of
Feudal System. STATES-GENERAL OF TOURS. 125
freedom was proscribed ; or, if they admitted that absolute
prerogative might require some checks, it was such only as
themselves, not the national representatives, should impose.
Charles VII. levied money by his own authority. Louis XI.
carried this encroachment to the highest pitch of exaction.
It was the boast of courtiers that he first released the kings
of France from dependence (Jiors cle page) ; or, in other
words, that he effectually demolished those barriers whicli,
however imperfect and ill-placed, had imposed some impedi-
ment to the establishment of despotism.
§ 21. The States-General met but twice during the reign of
Louis XL, and on neither occasion for the purpose of grant-
ing money. But an assembly in the first year of Charles
VIIL, the States of Tours in 1484, is too important to be
overlooked, as it marks the last struggle of the French na-
tion by its legal representatives for immunity from arbitrary
taxation.
A warm contention arose for the regency upon the acces-
sion of Charles VIIL, between his aunt, Anne de Beaujeu,
whom the late king had appointed by testament, and the
princes of the blood, at the head of whom stood the Duke of
Orleans, afterwards Louis XII. The latter combined to de-
mand a convocation of the States-General, which according-
ly took place. The king's minority and the factions at court
seemed no unfavorable omens for liberty. But a scheme
was artfully contrived which had the most direct tendency
to break the force of a popular assembly. The deputies
were classed in six nations, who debated in separate cham-
bers, and consulted each other only upon the result of their
respective deliberations. It was easy for the court to fo-
ment the jealousies natural to such a partition. Two na-
tions, the Norman and Burgundian, asserted that the right
of providing for the regency devolved, in the king's minori-
ty, upon the States-General ; a claim of great botdness, and
certainly not much founded upon precedents. In virtue of
this, they proposed to form a council not only of the princes,
but of certain deputies to be elected by the six nations who
composed the States. But the other four, those of Paris,
Aquitaine, Languedoc, and Languedoil (which last comprised
the central provinces), rejected this plan, from which the
two former ultimately desisted, and the choice of councillors
was left to the princes.
A firmev and more unanimous spirit was displayed upon
the subject of public reformation. The tyranny of Louis
XL had been so unbounded, that all ranks agreed in calling
126 SCHEME OF JURISDICTION. Chap. II. Part II.
for redress, and the new governors were desirous, at least by
punishing his favorites, to show their inclination towards a
change of system. They were very far, however, from ap-
proving the propositions of the States-General. These went
to points which no court can bear to feel touched, though
there is seldom any other mode of redressing public abuses ;
the profuse expense of the royal household, the number of
pensions and improvident grants, the excessive establishment
of troops. The States explicitly demanded that the taille
and all other arbitrary imposts should be abolished, and
that from thenceforward, " according to the natural liberty
of France," no tax should be levied in the kingdom without
the consent of the States. It was with great difficulty, and
through the skillful management of the court, that they con-
sented to the collection of the taxes payable in the time of
Charles YIL, with the addition of one-fourth as a gift to the
king upon his accession. This subsidy they declare to be
granted "by way of gift and concession, and not otherwise,
and so as no one should from thenceforward call it a tax,
but a gift and concession." And this was only to be in
force for two years, after which they stipulated that anoth-
er meeting should be convoked. But it was little likely
that the government would encounter such a risk; and the
princes, whose factious views the States had by no means
seconded, felt no temptation to urge again their convocation.
No assembly in the annals of France seems, notwithstand-
ing some party selfishness arising out of the division into na-
tions, to have conducted itself with so much jjublic spirit
and moderation ; nor had that country, perhaps, ever so fair
a prospect of establishing a legitimate constitution.
§ 22. — V. The right of jurisdiction has undergone changes
in France and in the adjacent countries still more remarka-
ble than those of the legislative power ; and passed through
three very distinct stages, as the popular, aristocratic, or
regal influence predominated in the political system. The
Franks, Lombards, and Saxons seem alike to have been jeal-
ous of judicial authority, and averse to surrendering what
concerned every man's private right out of the hands of his
neighbors and his equals. Every ten families are supposed
to have had a magistrate of their own election ; the tithing-
man of England, the Decanus of France and Lombard y.
Next in order was the Centenarius or Hundredary, whose
name expresses the extent of his jurisdiction, and who, like
the decanus, was chosen by those subject to it. But the
authority of these petty magistrates was gradually confined
\
Feudal System. TERRITORIAL JURISDTCTIOX. 127
to the less important subjects of legal inquiry. No man, by
a capitulary of Charlemagne, could be impleaded for his life,
or liberty, or lands, or servants in the hundred court. In
such weighty matters, or by way of appeal from the lower
jurisdictions, the count of the district was judge. He, in-
deed, was appointed by the sovereign ; but his power was
checked by assessors, called Scabini, who held their office by
the election, or at least the concurrence, of the people. An
ultimate appeal seems to have lain to the Count Palatine, an
officer of the royal household ; and sometimes causes were
decided by the sovereign himself. Such was the original
model of judicature ; but as complaints of injustice and neg-
lect were frequently made against the counts, Charlemagne,
desirous on every account to control them, appointed spe-
cial judges, called Missi Regii, who held assizes from place
to place", inquired into abuses and maladministration of jus-
tice, enforced its execution, and expelled inferior judges from
their offices for misconduct.
§ 23. This judicial system was gradually superseded by
one founded upon totally opposite principles, those of feudal
privilege, which led to territorial jurisdictioti. An allodial
freeholder could own no jurisdiction but that of the king.
It was the general prevalence of sub-infeudation which gave
importance to the territorial jurisdictions of the nobility.
For now the military tenants, instead of repairing to the
county court, sought justice in that of their immediate lord ;
or rather the count himself, become the suzerain instead of
the governor of his district, altered the form of his tribunal
upon the feudal model. A system of procedure so congenial
to the spirit of the age spread universally over France and
Germany. The tribunals of the king were forgotten like his
laws ; the one retaining as little authority to correct, as the
other to regulate, the decisions of a territorial judge. The
rules of evidence were superseded by that monstrous birth
of ferocity and superstition, the judicial combat, and the
maxims of law reduced to a few capricious customs, which
varied in almost every barony.
These rights of administering justice were possessed by
the owners of fiefs in very different degrees ; and, in France,
were divided into the high, the middle, and the low jurisdic-
tion. The first species alone (la haute justice) conveyed the
power of life and death ; it was inherent in the baron and
the chatelain, and sometimes enjoyed by the simple vavas-
sor. The lower jurisdictions were not competent to judge
in capital cases, and consequently forced to send such crira-
128 TllIAL BY COMBAT. Chap. II. Part II.
inals to the court of the superior. But in some places a
thief taken in the fact might be punished with death by a
lord who had only the low jurisdiction. In England this
privilege was known by the uncouth terms of Infangthef
and Outfangthef. The high jurisdiction, however, was not
very common in this country, except in the chartered towns.
Several customs rendered these rights of jurisdiction far
less instrumental to tyranny than we might infer from their
extent. While the counts were yet officers of the crown,
they frequently appointed a deputy, or viscount, to admin-
ister justice. Ecclesiastical lords, who were prohibited by
the canons from inflicting capital punishment, and supposed
to be unacquainted with the law followed in civil courts, or
unable to enforce it, had an officer by name of advocate, or
vidame, whose tenure was often feudal and hereditary. The
viguiers (vicarii), bailiffs, provosts, and seneschals of lay
lords w^ere similar ministers, though not in general of so
permanent a right in their offices, or of such eminent sta-
tion, as the advocates of monasteries. It seems to have been
an established maxim, at least in later times, that the lord
could not sit personally in judgment, but must intrust that
function to his bailifl:' and vassals. According to the feudal
rules, the lord's vassals or peers of his court were to assist at
all its proceedings. And indeed the presence of these as-
sessors was so essential to all territorial jurisdiction, that no
lord, to w^hatever rights of justice his fief might entitle him,
was qualified to exercise them, unless he had at least two
vassals to sit as peers in his court.
§ 24. These courts of a feudal barony or manor required
neither the knowledge of positive law nor the dictates of
natural sagacity. In all doubtful cases, and especially where
a crime not capable of notorious proof was charged, the com-
bat was awarded ; and God, as they deemed, was the judge.^°
The nobleman fought on horseback, with all his arms of at-
tack and defense ; the plebeian on foot, with his club and
target. The same were the weapons of the champions to
whom women and ecclesiastics were permitted to intrust
their rights. If the combat was intended to ascertain a civil
right, the vanquished party of course forfeited his claim and
paid a fine. If he fought by proxy, the champion was liable
to have his hand struck off; a regulation necessary, per-
haps, to obviate the corruption of these hired defenders. In
»• Trial by combat does not seem to have established itself completely in France
till ordeals went into disuse, which Charlemagne rather encouraged, and which, in
his age, the clergy for the most part approved.
Fkudal Svstkm. code OF ST. LOUIS. 12J)
criminal cases the appellant suffered, in the event of defeat,
the same punishment wliich the law awarded to the offense
of which he accused his adversary. Even w^here the cause
was more peaceably tried, and brought to a regular adjudi-
cation by the court, an appeal for false judgment might, in-
deed, be made to the suzerain, but it could only be tried by
battle. And in this the appellant, if he would impeach the
concurrent judgment of the court below, was compelled to
meet successively in combat every one of its members ; un-
less he should vanquish them all within the day, his life, if
he escaped from so many hazards, was forfeited to the law.
If fortune or miracle should make him conqueror in every
contest, the judges were equally subject to death, and their
court forfeited their jurisdiction forever. A less perilous
mode of appeal was to call the first judge who pronounced
a hostile sentence into the field. If the appellant came off
victorious in this challenge, the decision was reversed, but
the court was not impeached. But for denial of justice, that
is, for a refusal to try his suit, the plaintiff repaired to the
court of the next superior lord, and supported his appeal by
testimony. Yet even here the witnesses might be defied, and
the pure stream of justice turned at once into the torrent of
barbarous contest.
§ 25. Such was the judicial system of France when St.
Louis enacted that great code which bears the name of his
Establishments. The rules of civil and criminal procedure,
as well as the principles of legal decisions, are there laid
down with much detail. But that incomparable prince, un-
able to overthrow the judicial combat, confined himself to
discourage it by the example of a wiser jurisprudence. It
was abolished throughout the royal domains. The bailiffs
and seneschals who rendered justice to the king's immediate
subjects were bound to follow his own laws. He not only
received appeals from their sentences in his own court of
peers, but listened to all complaints with a kind of patriarch-
al simplicity. "Many times," says Joinville, " I have seen
the good saint, after hearing mass^in the summer season, lay
himself at the foot of an oak in the wood of Vincennes, and
make us all sit round him ; when those who would, came and
spake to him without let of any ofticer, and he would ask
aloud if there were any present who had suits ; and when
they appeared, would bid two of his bailiffs determine their
cause upon the spot."
The influence of this new jurisprudence established by St.
Louis, combined with the great enhancements of the royal
6*
130 ROYAL COURTS. Chap. II. Part II
prerogatives in every other respect, produced a rapid change
in the legal administration of France. It was, in all civil
suits, at the discretion of the litigant parties to adopt the
law of the EstabHshments, instead of resorting to combat.
As gentler manners prevailed, especially among those who
did not make arras their profession, the wisdom and equity
of the new code was naturally preferred. The superstition
Avhich had originally led to the latter lost its weight through
experience and the uniform ojDposition of the clergy. The
same superiority of just and settled rules over fortune and
violence, which had forwarded the encroachments of the ec-
clesiastical courts, was now manifested in those of the king.
§ 26. Philip Augustus, by a famous ordinance in 1190, first
established royal courts of justice, held by the officers called
bailiifs or seneschals, wlio acted as the king's lieutenants in
his domains. Every barony, as it became reunited to the
crown, was subjected to the jurisdiction of one of these offi-
cers, and took the name of a bailliage or seneschaussee ; the
former name prevailing most in the northern, the latter in
the southern, provinces. The vassals whose lands depended
upon, or, in feudal language, moved, from the superiority of
this fief, were obliged to submit to the ressort or supreme
appellant jurisdiction of the royal court established in it.
This began rapidly to encroach upon the feudal rights of jus-
tice. In a variety of cases, termed royal, the territorial court
was |)ronounced incompetent; they were reserved for the
judges of the crown ; and in every case, unless the defend-
ant excepted to the jurisdiction, the royal court might take
cognizance of a suit, and decide it in exclusion of the feudal
judicature. The nature of cases reserved under the name
of royal was kept in studied ambiguity, under cover of
which the judges of the crown perpetually strove to multi-
ply them. Vassals were permitted to complain, in the lirst
instance, to the king's court, of injuries committed by their
lords. These rapid and violent encroachments left the nobil-
ity no alternative but armed combinations to support their
remonstrances. Philip the Fair bequeathed to his successor
the task of appeasing the storm which his own administra-
tion had excited. Leagues were formed in most of the
northern provinces for the redress of grievances, in which the
third estate, oppressed by taxation, united with the vassals,
whose feudal privileges had been infringed. Separate char-
ters were granted to each of these confederacies by Louis
Hutin, which contain many remedial provisions against the
grosser violations of ancient rights, though the crown per-
Feudal Systkm. TAKLIAMENT OF PARIS. 131
sisted in restraining territorial jurigdictions. Appeals be-
came more common for false judgment, as well as denial of
right ; and in neither was the combat permitted. It was
still, however, preserved in accusations of heinous crimes,
unsupported by any testimony but that of the prosecutor,
and was never abolished by any positive law, either in France
or England. But instances of its occurrence are not frequent
even in the fourteenth century.
§ 27. The supreme council, or court of peers, to whose de-
liberative functions I have already adverted, was also the
great judicial tribunal of the French crown from the acces-
sion of Hugh Capet. By this alone the barons of France, or
tenants-in-chief of the king, could be judged. To this court
appeals for denials of justice were referred. It was original-
ly composed, as has been observed, of the feudal vassals, co-
equals of those who were to be tried by it ; and also of the
household officers, whose right of concurrence, however anom-
alous, was extremely ancient. But after the business of the
court came to increase through the multiplicity of appeals,
especially from the bailiffs established by Philip Augustus in
the royal domains, the barons found neither leisure nor ca-
pacity for the ordinary administration of justice, and reserved
their attendance for occasions where some of their own or-
ders were implicated in a criminal process. St. Louis, anx-
ious for regularity and enlightened decisions, made a consid-
erable alteration by introducing some councillors of inferior
rank, chiefly ecclesiastics, as advisers of the court, though, as
is supposed, without any decisive suffrage. The court now
became known by the name of Parliament. Registers of
its proceedings were kept, of which the earliest extant are
of the year 1254. It was still, perhaps, in some degree am-
bulatory ; but by far the greater part of its sessions in the
thirteenth century were at Paris. The councillors nomina-
ted by the king, some of them clerks, others of noble rank,
but not peers of the ancient baronage, acquired insensibly a
right of suffrage.
An ordinance of Philip the Fair, in 1302, is generally sup-
posed to have tixed the seat of Parliament at Paris, as well
as altered its constituent parts. Perhaps a series of pro-
gressive changes has been referred to a single epoch. But
whether by virtue of this ordinance, or of more gradual
events, the character of the whole feudal court was nearly
obliterated iix that of the Parliament of Paris. A systematic
tribunal took tue place of a loose aristocratic assembly. It
was to hold two sittings in the year, each of two months' du-
132 PARLIAMENT OF PARIS. Chap. II. Part II.
ration ; it was composed of two prelates, two counts, thirteen
clerks, and as many laymen. Great changes were made af-
terwards in this constitution. The nobility, who originally
sat there, grew weary of an attendance which detained them
from war, and from their favorite pursuits at home. The
bishops were dismissed to their necessary residence upon
their sees. As they withdrew, a class of regular lawyers,
originally employed, as it appears, in the pre^Daratory busi-
ness, without any decisive voice, came forward to the higher
places, and established a complicated and tedious system of
procedure, which was always characteristic of French juriss
prudence. They introduced at the same time a new theo-
ry of absolute power and unlimited obedience. All feudal
privileges were treated as encroachments on the imprescrip-
tible rights of monarchy. With the natural bias of lawyers
in favor of prerogative conspired that of the clergy, who fled
to the king for refuge against the tyranny of the barons. In
the civil and canon laws a system of political maxims was
found very uncongenial to the feudal customs. The French
lawyers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries frequently
give their king the title of emperor, and treat disobedience
to him as sacrilege.
§ 28. But among these lawyers, although the general ten-
ants of the crown by barony ceased to appear, there still
continued to sit a more eminent body, the lay and spiritual
peers of France, representatives, as it were, of that ancient
baronial aristocracy. It is a very controverted question at
what time this exclusive dignity of peerage, a word obvious-
ly applicable by the feudal law to all persons co-equal in de-
gree of tenure, was reserved to twelve vassals. At the coro-
nation of Philip Augustus, in 1179, we first perceive the six
great feudatories, dukes of Burgundy, Normandy, Guienne,
counts of Toulouse, Flanders, Champagne, distinguished by
the offices they performed in that ceremony. It was natural,
indeed, that, by their princely splendor and importance, they
should eclipse such petty lords as Bourbon and Coucy, how-
ever equal in quality of tenure. During the reign of Philip
Augustus, six ecclesiastical i3eers,the duke-bishops of Rheims,
Loan, and Langres, the count-bishops of Beauvais, Chalons,
and Noyon, were added as a sort of parallel or counterpoise.
Their precedence does not, however, appear to have carried
with it any other privilege, at least in judicature, than other
barons enjoyed. But their pre-eminence being fully con-
firmed, Philip the Fair set the precedent of augmenting
their original number, by conferring the dignity of peerage
FEUDAL System. JUKISDICTION OF PARLIAMENT. 133
on the Duke of Brittany and the Count of Artoid. Other
creations took place subsequently ; but these were confined,
during the period comprised in this work, to princes of the
royal blood. The peers were constant members of the Parlia-
ment, from which other vassals holding in chief were never,
perhaps, excluded by law, but their attendance was rare in the
fourteenth century, and soon afterwards ceased altogether.
§ 29. A judicial body composed of the greatest nobles in
France, as well as of learned and eminent lawyers, must nat-
urally have soon become politically important. Notwith-
standing their disposition to enhance every royal preroga-
tive, as opposed to feudal privileges, the Parliament was not
disinclined to see its own protection invoked by the subject.
During the tempests of Charles VI.'s unhappy reign the Par-
liament acquired a more decided authority, and held, in some
degree, the balance between the contending factions of Orleans
and Burgundy. This influence was partly owing to one re-
markable function attributed to the Parliament, which raised
it much above the level of a merely political tribunal, and has
at various times wrought striking eifects in the French mon-
archy.
The few ordinances enacted by kings of France in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries were generally by the ad-
vice of their royal council, in which probably they were sol-
emnly declared as well as agreed upon. But after the grad-
ual revolution of government, which took away from the
feudal aristocracy all control over the king's edicts, and sub-
stituted a new magistracy for the ancient baronial court,
these legislative ordinances were commonly drawn up by
the interior council, or what we may call the ministry.
They were in some instances promulgated by the king in
Parliament. Others were sent thither for registration or en-
try upon their records. This formality was by degrees, if
not from the beginning, deemed essential to render them
authentic and notorious, and therefore indirectly gave them
the sanction and validity of a law. In course of time it
claimed to itself the right of judging the expediency of
edicts proceeding from the king, and we find it as early as
the fifteenth century manifesting pretensions of this nature :
first, by registering ordinances in such a manner as to testi-
fy its own unwillingness and disapprobation, and afterwards
by remonstrating against and delaying the registration of
laws which it deemed inimical to the public interest. A
conspicuous proof of this spirit was given in their opposition
to Louis XI. when repealing tlie Pragmatic Sanction of his
134 JURISDICTION OF PARLIAMENT. Chap. II. Part 11
father— an ordinance essential, in their opinion, to the liber-
ties of the Gallican Church. In this instance they ultimately
yielded; but at another time they persisted in a refusal to en-
register letters containing an alienation of the royal domain.
The counsellors of Parliament were originally appointed
by the king ; and they were even changed according to cir-
cumstances. But in 1468 Louis XI. published a most im-
portant ordinance, declaring the presidents and counsellors
of Parliament immovable, except in case of legal forfeiture.
This extraordinary measure of conferring independence on a
body which had already displayed a consciousness of its em-
inent privilege by opposing the registration of his edicts, is
perhaps to be deemed a proof of that short-sightedness as to
points of substantial interest so usually found in crafty men.
but, be this as it may, there was formed in the Parliament
of Paris an independent power not emanating from the royal
will, nor liable, except through force, to be destroyed by it ;
which in later times became almost the sole depository, if
not of what we should call the love of freedom, yet of public
spirit and attachment to justice. France, so fertile of great
men in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, might bet-
ter spare, perhaps, from her annals any class and description
of them than her lawyers. Doubtless the Parliament of
Paris, with its prejudices and narrow views, its high notions
of loyal obedience so strangely mixed up with remonstrances
and resistance, its anomalous privilege of objecting to edicts,
hardly approved by the nation who did not participate in
it, and overturned with facility by the king whenever he
thought fit to exert the sinews of his prerogative, was but
an inadequate substitute for that co-ordinate sovereignty,
that equal concurrence of national representatives in legisla-
tion, which has long been the exclusive pride of our govern-
ment, and to which the States-General of France, in their
best days, had never aspired. No man of sane understand-
ing would desire to revive institutions both uncongenial to
modern opinions and to the natural order of society. Yet
the name of the Parliament of Paris must ever be respecta-
ble. It exhibited upon various occasions virtues from which
human esteem is as inseparable as the shadow from the sub-
stance — a severe adherence to principles, an unaccommoda-
ting sincerity, individual disinterestedness and consistency.**
" A work has appeared within a few years which throws an abundant light on
the judicial system, and indeed on the whole civil polity of France, as well as other
countries, during the Middle Ages. I allude to " L'Esprit, Origine, et Progres des
Institutions judiciaires des principaux Pays de I'Europe," by M. Meyer, of Amster-
dam; especially the first and third volumes.
Feudal System. DECLINE OF FEUDAL SYSTEM. 135
§ 30. The principal causes that operated in subverting the
feudal system may be comprehended under three distinct
heads — the increasing power of the crown, the elevation of
the lower ranks, and the decay of the feudal principle.
It has been my object in the last pages to point out the
acquisitions of power by the crown of France in respect of
legislative and judicial authority. The principal augmenta-
tions of its domain have been historically mentioned in the
last chapter. The French kings naturally acted upon a sys-
tem, in order to recover those possessions which the improvi-
dence or necessities of the Carlovingian race had suffered al-
most to fall away from the monarchy. This course, pursued
with tolerable steadiness for two or three centuries, restored
their effective power. By escheat or forfeiture, by bequest
or purchase, by marriage or succession, a number of fiefs
were merged in their increasing domain. The reunion of so
many fiefs was attempted to be secured by a legal principle,
that the domain was inalienable and imprescriptible. This
became at length a fundamental maxim in the law of France.
But there was one species of infeudation so consonant to an-
cient usage and prejudice that it could not be avoided upon
any suggestions of policy ; this was the investiture of young-
er princes of the blood with considerable territorial appan-
ages. It is remarkable that the epoch of appanages on so
great a scale was the reign of St. Louis, whose efforts were
constantly directed against feudal independence. Yet he
invested his brothers with the counties of Poitou, Anjou, and
Artois, and his sons with those of Clermont and Alen9on.
This practice, in later times, produced very mischievous con-
sequences.
§ 31. Under a second class of events that contributed to
destroy the spirit of the feudal system we may reckon the
abolition of villenage, the increase of commerce and conse-
quent opulence of merchants and artisans, and especially the
institutions of free cities and boroughs. This is one of the
most important and interesting steps in the progress of soci-
ety during the Middle Ages, and deserves particular consid-
eration.
The provincial cities under the Roman Empire enjoyed, as
is well known, a municipal magistracy and the right of in-
ternal regulation. Nor was it repugnant to the spirit of the
Frank or Gothic conquerors to leave them in possession of
these privileges. The continuance of municipal institutions
has been traced in several cities, especially in the south of
France, from the age of the Roman Empire to the twelfth
130 DECLINE OF FEUDAL SYSTEM. Chap. II. Part II.
century, when the formal charters of communities first ap-
pear. ^^
The earliest charters of community granted to towns in
France have been commonly referred to the time of Louis VI.
Noyon, St. Quentin, Laon, and Amiens appear to have been
the first that received emancipation at the hands of this
prince. The chief towns in the royal domains were succes-
sively admitted to the same privileges during the reigns of
Louis VL, Louis VIL, and Philip Augustus. This example
was gradually followed by the peers and other barons ; so
that by the end of the thirteenth century the custom had
prevailed over all France. This enfranchisement of the
towns seems to have been due, both in the king and his bar-
ons, to their pecuniary exigencies ; for we could hardly
doubt that their concessions w^ere sold at the highest price,
even if the existing charters did not exhibit the fullest proof
of it. It is obvious, however, that the coarser methods of
rapine must have grown obsolete, and the rights of the in-
habitants of towns to property established, before they could
enter into any compact with their lord for the purchase of
liberty.
In some cases they were indebted for success to their own
courage and love of liberty. Oppressed by the exactions of
their superiors, they had recourse to arms, and united them-
selves in a common league, confirmed by oath, for the sake
of redress. Several charters bear witness that this spirit of
resistance was justified by oppression. Louis YII. frequent-
ly declares the tyranny exercised over the towns to be his
motive for enfranchising them.
§ 32. The privileges which these towns of France derived
from their charters were surprisingly extensive ; especially
if we do not suspect some of them to be merely in confirma-
tion of previous usages. They were made capable of pos-
sessing common property, and authorized to use a common
seal as the symbol of their incorporation. The more o}>
pressive and ignominious tokens of subjection, such as the
fine paid to the lord for permission to marry their children,
were abolished. Their payments of rent or tribute were
limited both in amount and as to the occasions when they
might be demanded : and these were levied by assessors of
their own electing. Some obtained an exemption from as-
sisting their lord in war; others were only bound to follow
him when he personally commanded ; and almost all limited
their service to one, or, at the utmost, very few days. If
*8 See "Note III., "Muuicipal Government."
Feudal System. DECLINE OF FEUDAL SYSTEM. 13?
they were persuaded to extend its duration, it was, like that
of feudal tenants, at the cost of their superior. Their cus-
toms, as to succession and other matters of private right,
were reduced to certainty, and, for the most part, laid down
in the charter of incorporation. And the observation of
these was secured by the most valuable privilege which the
chartered towns obtained — that of exemption from the juris-
diction, as well of the royal as the territorial judges. They
were subject only to that of magistrates either wholly elect-
ed by themselves, or, in some places, with a greater or less
participation of choice in the lord. They were empowered
to make special rules, or, as we call them, by-laws, so as not
to contravene the provisions of their charter or the ordi-
nances of the king.
It was undoubtedly fjir from the intention of those barons
who conferred such immunities upon their subjects to relin-
quish- their own superiority and rights not expressly con-
ceded. But a remarkable change took place in the begin-
ning of the thirteenth century, which affected, in a high de-
gree, the feudal constitution of France. Towns, distrustful
to their lord's fidelity, sometimes called in the king as guar-
antee of his engagements. The first stage of royal interfer-
ence led to a more extensive measure. Philip Augustus
granted letters of safeguard to communities dependent upon
the barons, assuring to them his own protection and patron-
age. And this was followed up so quickly by the court, if
we believe some writers, that in the next reign Louis VIII.
pretended to the immediate sovereignty over all chartered
towns, in exclusion of their original lords. Nothing, per-
haps, had so decisive an effect in subverting the feudal aris-
tocracy. The barons perceived, too late, that, for a price
long since lavished in prodigal magnificence or useless war-
fare, they had suffered the source of their wealth to be di-
verted, and the nerves of their strength to be severed. The
government prudently respected the 'privileges secured by
charter. Philip the Long established an officer in all large
towns to preserve peace by an armed police ; but, though
subject to the orders of the crown, he was elected by the
burgesses, and they took a mutual oath of fidelity to each
other. Thus shielded under the king's mantle, they ventured
to encroach upon the neighboring lords, and to retaliate for
the long oppression of the commonalty. Every citizen was
bound by oath to stand by the common cause against all ag-
gressors, and this obligation was abundantly fulfilled. In
order to swell their numbers, it became the practice to ad-
138 DECLINE OF FEUDAL SYSTEM. Chap. II. Part II.
mit all who came to reside within their walls to the rights
of burghership, even though they were villeins appurtenant
to the soil of a master from whom they had escaped. Others,
having obtained the same privileges, continued to dwell in
the country ; but, upon any dispute with their lords, called
in the assistance of their community. In the reign of Charles
V. the feudal independence had so completely yielded, that
the court began to give in to a new policy, which was ever
after pursued, that of maintaining the dignity and privileges
of the noble class against tliose attacks which wealth and
liberty encouraged the plebeians to make upon them.
The maritime towns of the south of France entered into
separate alliances with foreign states ; as Narbonne with
Genoa in 1166, and Montpellier in the next century. At the
death of Raymond VII., Avignon, Aries, and Marseilles af-
fected to set up republican governments; but they were
soon brought into subjection. The independent character
of maritime towns was not peculiar to those of the southern
provinces. Edward II. and Edward III. negotiated and en-
tered into alliances with the towns of Flanders, to which
neither their count nor the king of France were parties.
Even so late as the reign of Louis XI. the Duke of Burgundy
did not hesitate to address the citizens of Rouen, in conse-
quence of the capture of some ships, as if they had formed
an independent state. This evidently arose out of the an-
cient customs of private warfare, which, long after they were
repressed by a stricter police at home, continued with law-
less violence on the ocean, and gave a character of piracy
to the commercial enterprise of the Middle Ages.
§ 33. Notwithstanding the forces which in opposite direc-
tions assailed the feudal system from the enhancement of
royal prerogative, and the elevation of the chartered towns,
its resistance would have bfeen much longer but for an in-
trinsic decay. No political institution can endure which
does not rivet itself to the hearts of men by ancient prejudice
or acknowledged interest. The feudal compact had origi-
nally much of this character. Its principle of vitality was
warm and active. In fulfilling the obligations of mutual as-
sistance and fidelity by military service, the energies of
friendship were awakened, and the ties of moral sympathy
superadded to those of positive compact. While private
wars were at their height, the connection of lord and vassal
grew close and cordial, in proportion to the keenness of their
enmity towards others.
But the nature of feudal obligation was far better adapted
Fbitdal System. DECLINE OF FEUDAL SYSTEM. 139
to the partial quarrels of neighboring lords than to the wars
of kingdoms. Customs founded upon the poverty of the
smaller gentry had limited their martial duties to a period
never exceeding forty days, and diminished according to the
subdivisions of the fief. They could undertake an expedi-
tion, but not a campaign ; they could burn an open town, but
had seldom leisure to" besiege a fortress. Hence, when the
kings of France and England were engaged in wars which,
on our side at least, might be termed national, the inefficien-
cy of the feudal militia became evident. It was not easy to
employ the military tenants of England upon the frontiers
of Normandy and the Isle of France, within the limits of
their term of service. When, under Henry II. and Richard
I., the scene of war was frequently transferred to the Ga-
ronne or the Charente, this was still more impracticable.
The first remedy to which sovereigns had recourse was to
keep their vassals in service after the expiration of their
forty days, at a stipulated rate of pay. But this was fre-
quently neither convenient to the tenant, anxious to return
back to his household, nor to the king, who could not readily
defray the charges of an army. Something was to be de-
vised more adequate to the exigency, though less suitable to
the feudal spirit. By the feudal law the fief was, in strict-
ness, forfeited by neglect of attendance upon the lord's expe-
dition. A milder usage introduced a fine, which, however,
was generally rather heavy, and assessed at discretion. The
first Norman kings of England made these amercements very
oppressive. But when a pecuniary payment became the
regular course of redeeming personal service, which, under
the name of escuage, may be referred to the reign of Henry
II., it was essential to liberty that the military tenant should
not lie at the mercy of the crown. Accordingly, one of the
most important provisions contained in the Magna Charta
of John secures the assessment of escuage in Parliament.
This is not renewed in the charter of Henry HI, but the
practice during his reign was conformable to its spirit.
The feudal military tenures had superseded that earlier sys-
tem of public defense which called upon every man, and es-
pecially every land-holder, to protect his country. The rela-
tions of a vassal came in place of those of a subject and a
citizen. This was the revolution of the ninth century. In
the twelfth and tliirteenth another innovation rather more
gradually prevailed, and marks the third period in the mili-
tary history of Europe. Mercenary troops were substituted
for the feudal militia. Undoubtedly there could never have
140 DECLINE OF FEUDAL SYSTEM. Chap. IL Part II.
been a time when valor was not to be purchased with money ;
nor could any employment of surplus wealth be more natu-
ral either to the ambitious or the weak. But we can not
expect to find numerous testimonies of facts of this descrip-
tion. In public national history I am aware of no instance
of what may be called a regular army more ancient than the
body-guards, or huscarles, of Canute the Great. These select
troops amounted to six thousand men, on whom he probably
relied to insure the subjection of England. A code of mar-
tial law compiled for their regulation is extant in substance ;
and they are reported to have displayed a military spirit of
mutual union, of which their master stood in awe. Harold
II. is also said to have had Danish soldiers in pay. The
most eminent example of a mercenary army is that by whose
assistance William achieved the conquest of England. His-
torians concur in representing this force to have consisted of
sixty thousand men. He afterwards hired soldiers from va-
rious regions to resist an invasion from Norway. William
Rufus pursued the same course. Hired troops did not, how-
ever, in general form a considerable portion of armies till the
wars of Henry II. and Philip Augustus. Each of these mon-
archs took into pay large bodies of mercenaries, chiefly, as we
may infer from their appellation of Braban9ons, enlisted from
the Netherlands. These were always disbanded on cessation
of hostilities ; and, unfit for any habits but of idleness and li-
cense, oppressed the peasantry and ravaged the country with-
out control. In the French wars of Edward III., the whole, I
think, of his army served for pay, and was raised by contract
with men of rank and influence, who received wages for ev-
ery soldier according to his station and the arms he bore.
The rate of pay was so remarkably high, that, unless we im-
agine a vast profit to have been intended for the contractors,
the private lancers and even archers must have been chiefly
taken fi-om the middling classes, the smaller gentry, or rich
yeomanry of England, ^^ This part of Edward's military sys-
tem was probably a leading cause of his superiority over
the French, among whom the feudal tenantry were called
into the field, and swelled their unwieldy armies at Crecy
and Poitiers. Both parties, however, in this war employed
mercenary troops. Philip had 15,000 Italian crossbow-men
»» The wages allowed by contract in 1346, were for an earl, 6s. Sd. per clay ; for bar-
ons and baronets, 4s. ; for knights, 2s. ; for squires, Is. ; for archers and hobelers
(light cavalry), 6d. ; for archers on foot, M. ; for Welshmen, 2d. These sums, multi-
plied by about 24, to bring them on a level with the present value of money, will
show the pay to have been extremely high. The cavalry, of course, furnished them-
selves with horses and equipments, as well as arms, which were very expensive.
Feudal Systesi. DECLINE OF FEUDAL SYSTEM. 141
at Crecy. It had for some time before become the tra<le of
soldiers of fortune to enlist under leaders of the same descrip-
tion as themselves in companies of adventure, passing from
one service to another, unconcerned as to the cause in which
they were retained. These military adventurers played a
more remarkable part in Italy than in France, though not a
little troublesome to the latter country. The feudal tenures
had at least furnished a loyal native militia, whose duties,
though much limited in the extent, were defined by usage
and enforced by principle. They gave place — in an evil
hour for the people, and eventually for sovereigns — to con-
tracts with mutinous hirelings, generally strangers, whose
valor in the day of battle inadequately redeemed their bad
faith and vexatious rapacity. France, in her calamitous pe-
riod under Charles YI. and Charles VII., experienced the
full effects of military licentiousness. At the expulsion of
the English, robbery and disorder were substituted for the
more specious plundering of war. Perhaps few measures
have ever been more popular, as few certainly have been
more politic, than the establishment of regular companies of
troops by an ordinance of Charles VII. in 1444. These may
justly pass for the earliest institution of a standing army in
Europe, though some Italian princes had retained troops
constantly in their pay, but prospectively to hostilities, which
were seldom long intermitted. Fifteen companies were
composed each of a hundred men-at-arms, or lancers ; and, in
the language of that age, the whole body was 1500 lances.
But each lancer had three archers, a coutiller, or soldier
armed with a knife, and a page or valet attached to him, all
serving on horseback — so that the fifteen companies amount-
ed to 9000 cavalry. From these small beginnings, as they
must appear in modern times, arose the regular army of
France, which every succeeding king was solicitous to aug-
ment. The ban was sometimes convoked, that is, the pos-
sessors of fiefs were called upon for military service in sub-
sequent ages; but with more of ostentation than real effi-
ciency.
§ 34. The feudal compact, thus deprived of its original ef-
ficacy, soon lost the respect and attachment which had at-
tended it. ' Homage and investiture became unmeaning cere-
monies ; the incidents of relief and aid were felt as burden-
some exactions. And indeed the rapacity with which these
were levied, especially by our Norman sovereigns and their
barons, was of itself sufficient to extinguish all the generous
feelings of vassalage. Thus galled, as it were, by the armor
U2 EFFECTS OF FEUDAL SYSTEM. Chap. II. Part II.
which he was compelled to wear, but not to use, the military
tenant of England looked no longer with contempt upon the
owner of lands in socage, who held his estate with almost
the immunities of an allodial proprietor. But the profits
which the crown reaped from wardships, and perhaps the
prejudices of lawyers, prevented the abolition of military
tenures till the restoration of Charles II, In France the
fiefs of noblemen were very unjustly exempted from all ter-
ritorial taxation, though the tallies of later times had, strict-
ly speaking, only superseded the aids to which they had
been always liable. The distinction, it is well known, was
not annihilated till that event which annihilated all distinc-
tions, the French Revolution.
It is remarkable that, although the feudal system estab-
lished in England upon the Conquest broke in very much
upon our ancient Saxon liberties — though it was attended
with harsher servitudes than in any other country, particu-
larly those two intolerable burdens, wardship and marriage
— yet it has in general been treated with more favor by En-
glish than French writers. The hardiness with which the
ancient barons resisted their sovereign, and the noble strug-
gles which they made for civil liberty, especially in that
Great Charter, the basement at least, if not the foundation,
of our free constitution, have met with a kindred sympathy
in the bosoms of Englishmen ; while, from an opposite feel-
ing, the French have been shocked at that aristocratic inde-
pendence which cramped the prerogatives and obscured the
lustre of their crown. Yet it is precisely to this feudal poli-
cy that France is indebted for that which is ever dearest
to her children, their national splendor and power. That
kingdom would have been irretrievably dismembered in the
tenth century, if the laws of feudal dependence had not pre-
served its integrity. Empires of unwieldy bulk, like that of
Charlemagne, have several times been dissolved by the usur-
pation of provincial governors, as is recorded both in ancient
history and in that of the Mohammedan dynasties in the
East. What question can there be that the powerful dukes
of Guienne or counts of Toulouse would have thrown off all
connection with the crown of France, when usurped by one
of their equals, if the slight dependence of vassalage had not
been substituted for legitimate subjection to a sovereign ?
It is the previous state of society, under the grandchildren
of Charlemagne, which w^e must always keep in mind, if we
would appreciate the effects of the feudal system upon the
welfare of mankind. The institutions of the eleventh cen-
Feudal System. EFFECTS OF FEUDAL SYSTEM. 143
tury must be compared with those of the ninth, not with the
advanced civilization of modern times. If the view that I
have taken of those dark ages is correct, the state of anarchy
which we usually term feudal was the natural result of a
vast and barbarous empire feebly administered, and the
cause rather than effect of the general establishment of
feudal tenures. These, by preserving the mutual relations
of the whole, kept alive the feeling of a common country
and common duties, and settled, after the lapse of ages, into
the free constitution of England, the firm monarchy of
France, and the federal union of Germany.
The utility of any form of polity may be estimated by its
effect upon national greatness and security, upon civil liber-
ty and private rights, upon the tranquillity and order of soci-
ety, upon the increase and diffusion of wealth, or upon the
general tone of moral sentiment and energy. The feudal
constitution was certainly, as has been observed already, lit-
tle adapted for the defense of a mighty kingdom, far less for
schemes of conquest. But as it prevailed alike in several
adjacent countries, none had any thing to fear from the mili-
tary superiority of its neighbors. It was this inefficiency
of the feudal militia, perhaps, that saved Europe during the
Middle Ages from the danger of universal monarchy. If an
empire equally extensive with that of Charlemagne, and sup-
ported by military despotism, had been formed about the
twelfth or thirteenth centuries, the seeds of commerce and
liberty, just then beginning to shoot, would have perished,
and Europe, reduced to a barbarous servitude, might have
fallen before the free barbarians of Tartary.
If we look at the feudal polity as a scheme of civil free-
dom, it bears a noble countenance. To the feudal law it is
owing that the very names of right and privilege were not
swept away, as in Asia, by the desolating hand of power.
The tyranny which, on every favorable moment, was break-
ing through all barriers, would have rioted without control,
if, when the people were poor and disunited, the nobility had
not been brave and free. So far as the sphere of feudality
extended, it diffused the spirit of liberty and the notions of
private right. Every one, I think, will acknowledge this
who considers the limitations of the services of vassalage, so
cautiously marked in those law-books which are the records
of customs, the reciprocity of obligation between the lord
and his tenant, the consent required in every measure of a
legislative or a general nature, the security, above all, which
every vassal found in the administration of justice by his
144 EFFECTS OF FEUDAL SYSTEM. Chap. II. Part U.
peers, and even (we may in this sense say) in the trial by
combat. The bulk of the people, it is true, were degraded
by servitude ; but this had no connection with the feudal
tenures.
The peace and good order of society were not promoted
by this system. Though private wars did not originate in
the feudal customs, it is impossible to doubt that they were
perpetuated by so convenient an institution, which indeed
owed its universal establishment to no other cause. And as
predominant habits of warfare are totally irreconcilable with
those of industry, not merely by the immediate works of de-
struction which render its efforts unavailing, but through
that contempt of peaceful occupations which they produce,
the feudal system must have been intrinsically adverse to
the accumulation of wealth and the improvement of those
arts which mitigate the evils or abridge the labors of man-
kind.
But as a school of moral disci2)line the feudal institutions
were perhaps most to be valued. Society had sunk, for sev-
eral centuries after the dissolution of the Roman Empire,
into a condition of utter depravity, where, if any vices could
be selected as more eminently characteristic than others,
they were falsehood, treachery, and ingratitude. In slowly
purging off the lees of this extreme corruption, the feudal
spirit exerted its ameliorating influence. Violation of faith
stood first in the catalogue jof crimes, most repugnant to the
very essence of a feudal tenure, most severely and promptly
avenged, most branded by general infamy. The feudal law-
books breathe throughout a spirit of honorable obligation.
The feudal course of jurisdiction promoted — what trial by
peers is peculiarly calculated to promote — a keener feeling
and readier perception of moral as well as of legal distinc-
tions. And as the judgment and sympathy of mankind are
seldom mistaken, in these great points of veracity and jus-
tice, except through the temporary success of crimes, or the
want of a definite standard of right, they gradually recovered
themselves when law precluded the one and supplied the
other. In the reciprocal services of lord and vassal there
was ample scope for every magnanimous and disinterested
energy. The heart of man, when placed in circumstances
which have a tendency to excite them, will seldom be defi-
cient in such sentiments. No occasions could be more fa-
vorable than the protection of a faithful supporter, or the de-
fense of a beneficent suzerain, against such powerful aggres-
sion as left little prospect except of sharing in his ruin.
NOTES TO CHAPTER II.
145
From these feelings engendered by the feudal relation has
sprung up the peculiar sentiment of personal reverence and
attachment towards a sovereign which we denominate loy-
alty, alike distinguishable from the stupid devotion of East-
ern slaves and from the abstract respect with which free
citizens regard their chief magistrate. Men who had been
used to swear fealty, to profess subjection, to follow, at home
and in the field, a feudal superior and his family, easily trans-
ferred the same allegiance to the monarch. It was a very
powerful feeling which could make the bravest men put up
with slights and ill-treatment at the hands of their sover-
eign ; or call forth all the energies of disinterested exertion
for one whom they never saw^, and in whose character there
was nothing to esteem. In ages when the rights of the
community were unfelt, this sentiment was one great pre-
servative of society ; and, though collateral or even subserv-
ient to more enlarged principles, it is still indispensable to
the tranquillity and permanence of every monarchy. In a
moral view loyalty has scarcely, perhaps, less tendency to re-
fine and elevate the heart than patriotism itself; and holds a
middle place in the scale of human motives, as they ascend
from the grosser inducements of self-interest to the further-
ance of general happiness and conformity to the purposes of
Infinite Wisdom.
NOTES TO CHAPTER II.
I. THE SALIC AND OTHER LAWS OF THE
BARBARIANS.
The Salic law exists in two texts : one
purely Latin, of which there are fifteen
manuscripts ; the other mingled with Ger-
man words, of which there are three.
Most have considered the latter to be the
original ; the manuscripts containing it are
entitled Lex Salica antiquissima, or vehis-
tior; the others generally run Lex Salica
recentior, or emendata. This seems to
create a presumption. But others think
the pure Latin older than the other. But
though the Salic law in its present text is
probably not older than the seventh cen-
tury, it must be referred, in all its sub-
stance, to Germany for its birthplace, and
to the period of heathenism for its date.—
(Lehnerou, Institutions Merovingiennes, p.
83.)
The Ripuarian Franks, Guizot, with
some apparent reason, takes for the pro-
genitors of the Austrasians ; the Salian,
of the Neustriaus. The former were set-
tled on the left bank of the Rhine, as Loeti.,
or defenders of the frontier, under the
Empire. These tribes were united under
one government through the assassination
of Sigebert at Cologne, in the last years of
Clovis, who assumed his crown. Such a
theory might tend to explain the subse-
quent rivalry of these great portions of the
Frank monarchy, though it is hardly re-
quired for that purpose. The Ripuarian
code of law is referred by Guizot to the
reign of Dagobert. In this code we find,
says Guizot, "more of the Roman law,
more of the royal and ecclesiastical power ;
its provisions are more precise, more ex-
tensive, less barbarous; it indicates a far-
ther step in the transition from the Ger-
man to the Roman form of social life."
—("Civil, en France," Lepon 10.)
The Bnrguudian law, though earlier than
Ii6
^iOTES TO CHAPTER II.
either of these iu their recensions, displays
a far more advanced state of manners.
The Burgundian and Roman are placed on
the same footing ; more is borrowed from
the civil law ; the royal power is more de-
veloped. This code remained in force af-
ter Charlemagne ; but Hincmar says that
few continued to live by it. In the Visi-
gothic laws enacted iu Spain, to the exclu-
sion of the Roman, in 642, all the barbarous
elements have disappeared ; it is the work
of the clergy, half ecclesiastical, half im-
perial.
It has been remarked by acute writei*s,
Guizot and Troja, that the Salic law does
not answer the purpose of a code, being
silent on some of the most important reg-
ulations of civil society. The rules of the
Salic code principally relate to the punish-
ment or compensation of crimes ; and the
same will be found in our earliest Anglo-
Saxon laws. The object of such written
laws, with a free and barbarous people,
was not to record their usages, or to lay
down rules which natural equity would
suggest as the occasion might arise, but
to prevent the arbitrary infliction of pen-
allies. Chapter Ixii., "On Successions,"
may have been inserted for the sake of the
novel provision about Salic lands, which
could not have formed a part of old Teu-
tonic customs.
II. TRIBUTARII, LIDI, AND COLONI.
These names, though in a general sense
occupying similar positions in the social
scale, denote different persons. The Colo-
ni were Romans, in the sense of the word
then usual ; that is, they were the cultiva-
tors of land under the Empire, of whom
we find abundant notice both in the Theo-
dosian Code and that of Justinian. The
Roman colonus was free ; he could marry
a free woman, and have legitimate chil-
dren ; he could serve iu the army, and was
capable of property; his peculium, unlike
that of the absolute slave, could not be
touched by his master. Nor could his fix-
ed rent or duty be enhanced. He could
even sue his master for any crime com-
mitted with respect to him, or for uudue
exaction. He was attached, on the other
hand, to the soil, and might in certain
cases receive corporal punishment. He
paid a capitation tax or census to the state,
the frequent enhancement of which con-
tributed to that decline of the agricultural
population which preceded the barbarian
conquest. The documents of the Middle
Ages furnish abundant proofs of the con-
tinuance of the coloni in this middle state
between entire freedom and servitude.
And these were doubtless reckoned among
the Tributarii of the Salic law, whose
composition was fixed at forty-five solidi ;
for a slave had no composition due to his
kindred ; he was his master's chattel, and
to be paid for as such. But the tributary
was not necessarily a colonus. All who
possessed no lands were subjected by the
imperial fisc to a personal capitation. To
these Roman tributaries the barbarian Lidi
seem nearly to have corresponded. This
was a class not quite free-born, so that
"Fraucus iugeuuus " was no tautology, as
some have fancied, yet far from slaves ;
without political privileges or rights of
administering justice in the county court,
and so little favored, that, while the Frank
accused of a theft was to be brought be-
fore his peers, the lidus, under the name
of " debilior persona," which probably in-
cluded the Roman tributary, was to be
hanged on the spot. Throughout the Salic
and Ripuarian codes the ingenuus is op-
posed both to the lidus and to the servus ;
so that the threefold division is incontest-
able. It corresponds in a certain degree
to the edeltngi,/nlingi, and lazzi, or the eorl,
cerol, and thrall of the Northern nations.
III. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
The privileges of the municipal cities of
Italy were originally founded on the re-
publican institutions of Rome herself; the
supreme power, so far as it was conceded,
and the choice of magistrates, rested with
the assembly of the citizens. But after
Tiberius took this away from the Roman
comitia to vest it in the Senate, it appears
that this example was followed in every
provincial city. We find everywhere a
class named "curiales," or "decurioues"
(synonymous words), in whom, or in those
elected by them, resided whatever author-
ity was not reserved to the i)roconsul or
other Roman magistrate. Besides these
there was Defensor Civitatis— a standing
advocate for the city against the oppres-
sion of the provincial governor. His oflice
is only known by the laws from the mid-
dle of the fourth century, the earliest be-
ing of Valentinian and Valens, in 865;
but both Cicero (Epist., xii., 50) and Pliny
(Epist., x., 3) mention an Ecdicus with
something like the same functions; and
Justinian always uses that word to express
the Defensor Civitatis. He was chosen for
five years, not by the curiales, but by the
citizens at large. Nor could any decurion
be defensor : he was to be taken " ex aliis
idoueis personis."
From the curiales, or members of the
curia, there was in later times formed a
Senate, sometimes called "nobilissima cu-
ria." The name of Senator was given
NOTES TO CHAPTER II.
147
to a privileged class, who, having served
through all the public functious of the cu-
ria, were entitled to a legal exemption
in future, and ascended to the dignity of
"clarissirai." Many others, independent
of the decurions, obtained this rather by
the emperor's favor, or by the perform-
ance of duties which regularly led to it.
They were nominated by the emperor, and
might be removed by him ; but otherwise
their rauk was hereditary. In this way
the Senators became an aristocracy, and
formed the nobility of Gaul,
Under the domination of the Pranks, it
appears that the functions of *' defensor
civitatis" frequ«ntly devolved upon the
bishop. In course of time the bishop be-
came as much the civil governor of his
city as the count was of the rural district.
This was a great revolution in the internal
history of cities, and one which generally
led to the discontinuance of their popular
institutions; so that after the reign of
Charlemagne, if not earlier, we may per-
haps consider a municipality choosing its
own officers as an exception, though not a
very unfrequent one, to the general usage.
But instances of this are more commonly
found to the south of the Loire, where
Roman laws prevailed and the feudal spir-
it was less vigorous than in the Northern
provinces.
148 STATE OF ITALY. Chap. III. Pakt I.
CHAPTER m.
THE HISTOEY OF ITALY, FROM THE EXTINCTION OF THE CAE-
LOVINGIAN EMPERORS TO THE INVASION OF NAPLES BY
CHARLES VIIL
PART I.
§ 1. State of Italy after the Death of Charles the Fat. Coronation of Otho the Great.
§ 2. State of Rome. Conrad IL § 3. Union of the Kingdom of Italy with the
Empire. § 4. Period between Conrad II. and Frederick Barbarossa. § 5. Estab-
lishment of the Normans in Naples and Sicily. Roger Guiscard. § 6, Rise of the
Lombard cities. 5 7. Their internal wars. Frederick Barbarossa. Destruction of
Milan. 5 S. Lombard League. § 9. Battle of Legnano. Peace of Constance. § 10.
Affairs of Sicily. §11. Temporal Principality of the Popes. §12. Guelf and Ghibe-
lin Factions. $ 13. Otho IV. § 14. Frederick II. § 15. Arrangement of the Italian
Republics, § 16. Second Lombard War. § 17. Extinction of the House of Suabia.
§ 18. Causes of the Success of Lombard Republics. Their Prosperity. § 19. Their
Forms of Government. § 20. Contentions between the Nobility and People. Civil
Wars.
§ 1. At the death of Charles the Fat in 888, that part of
Italy which acknowledged the supremacy of the Western
Empire was divided, like France and Germany, among a few
powerful vassals, hereditary governors of provinces. The
principal of these were the dukes of Spoleto and Tuscany,
the marquises of Ivrea, Susa, and Friuli. The great Lom-
bard duchy of Benevento, which had stood against the arms
of Charlemagne, and comprised more than half the present
kingdom of Naples, had now fallen into decay, and was
straitened by the Greeks in Apulia, and by the principali-
ties of Capua and Salerno, which had been severed from its
own territory, on the opposite coast. Though princes of the
Carlovingian line continued to reign in France, their charac-
ter was too little distinguished to challenge the obedience
of Italy, already separated by family partitions from the
Transalpine nations ; and the only contest was among her
native chiefs. One of these, Berenger, originally marquis
of Friuli, or the March of Treviso, reigned for thirty-six
years, but with continually disputed pretensions; and after
his death the calamities of Italy were sometimes aggravated
by tyranny, and sometimes by intestine war.^ The Hunga-
1 Berenger, being grandson, by a daughter, of Louis the Debonair, may be reckon-
ed of the Carlovingian family.
Italy. INTERNAL STATE OF ROME. 149
rians desolated Lombardy; the southern coasts were infest-
ed by the Saracens, now masters of Sicily. Plunged in an
abyss from which she saw no other means of extricating
herself, Italy lost sight of her favorite independence, and
called in the assistance of Otho the First, king of Germany.
Little opposition was made to this powerful monarch. Be-
renger II., the reigning sovereign of Italy, submitted to hold
the kingdom of him as a fief. But some years afterwards,
new disturbances arising, Otho descended from the Alps a
second time, deposed Berenger, and received at the hands of
Pope John XII. the imperial dignity, which had been sus-
pended for nearly forty years (a.d. 962).
§ 2- Every ancient prejudice, every recollection, whether
of Augustus or of Charlemagne, had led the Italians to an-
nex the notion of sovereignty to the name of Roman em-
peror; nor were Otho, or his two immediate descendants, by
any means inclined to waive these suj)posed prerogatives,
which they were well able to enforce. Most of the Lom-
bard princes acquiesced without apparent repugnance in the
new German government, which was conducted by Otho the
Great with much prudence and vigor, and occasionally with
severity. The citizens of Lombardy were still better satis-
fied with a change that insured a more tranquil and regular
administration than they had experienced under the preced-
ing kings. But in one, and that the chief of Italian cities,
very different sentiments were prevalent. We find, indeed,
a considerable obscurity spread over the internal history of
Rome during the long period from the recovery of Italy by
Belisarius to the end of the eleventh century. The popes
appear to have possessed some measure of temporal power,
even while the city was professedly governed by the exarchs
of Ravenna, in the name of the Eastern Empire. This power
became more extensive after her separation from Constanti-
nople. It was, however, subordinate to the undeniable sov-
ereignty of the new imperial family, who were supposed to
enter upon all the rights of their predecessors. There was
always an imperial officer, or prefect, in that city, to render
criminal justice ; an oath of allegiance to the emperor was
taken by the people ; and upon any irregular election of a
pope, a circumstance by no means unusual, the emperors
held themselves entitled to interpose. But the spirit and
even the institutions of the Romans were republican.
Amidst the darkness of the tenth century, which no con-
temporary historian dissipates, we faintly distinguish the
awful names of senate, consuls, and tribunes, the domestic
150 HENRY II. AND ARDOIN. Chap. III. Pakt 1.
magistracy of Rome. Tliese shadows of past glory strike ug
at first with surprise ; yet there is no improbability in the
supposition that a city so renowned and populous, and so
happily sheltered from the usurpation of the Lombards,
might have preserved, or might afterwards establish, a kind
of municipal government, which it would be natural to dig-
nify with those august titles of antiquity. During that an-
archy which ensued upon the fall of the Carlovingian dynas-
ty, the Romans acquired an independence which they did
not deserve. The city became a prey to the most terrible
disorders ; the papal chair was sought for at best by brib-
ery or controlling influence, often by violence and assassi-
nation ; it was filled by such men as naturally rise by such
means, whose sway was precarious, and generally ended ei-
ther in their murder or degradation. For many years the su-
preme pontiffs were forced upon the Church by two women of
high rank but infamous reputation, Theodora and her daugh-
ter Marozia. The kings of Italy, whose election in a diet
of Lombard princes and bishops at Roncaglia was not con-
ceived to convey any pretension to the sovereignty of Rome,
could never obtain any decided influence in papal elections,
which were the object of struggling factions among the res-
ident nobility. Li this temper of the Romans, they were ill
disposed to resume habits of obedience to a foreign sover-
eign. The next year after Otho's coronation they rebelled,
the pope at their head (a.d. 903) ; but were of course sub-
dued without difficulty. The same republican spirit broke
out whenever the emperors were absent in Germany, espe-
cially during the minority of Otho IIL, and directed itself
against the temporal superiority of the pope. But when
that emperor attained manhood he besieged and took the
city, crushing all resistance by measures of severity ; and es-
pecially by the execution of the consul Crescentius, a leader
of the popular faction, to whose instigation the tumultuous
license of Rome was principally ascribed.
§ 3. At the death of Otho IIL without children, in 1002,
the compact between Italy and the emperors of the house
of Saxony was determined. Her engagement of fidelity was
certainly not applicable to every sovereign whom the princes
of Germany might raise to their throne. Accordingly, Ar-
doin, marquis of Ivrea, was elected king of Italy. But a Ger-
man party existed among the Lombard princes and bishops,
to which his insolent demeanor soon gave a pretext for in-
viting Henry II., the new king of Germany, collaterally re-
lated to their late sovereign. Ardoin was deserted by most
Italy. CONRAD II. 151
of the Italians, but retained his former subjects in Piedmont,
and disputed the crown for many years with Henry, who
passed very little time in Italy. During this period there
was hardly any recognized government ; and the Lombards
became more and more accustomed, through necessity, to
protect themselves, and to provide for their own internal
police. Meanwhile the German nation had become odious
to the Italians. The rude soldiery, insolent and addicted to
intoxication, were engaged in frequent disputes with the
citizens, wherein the latter, as is usual in similar cases, were
exposed first to the summary vengeance of the troops, and
afterwards to penal chastisement for sedition. In one of
these tumults, at the entry of Henry II. in 1004, the city of
Pavia was burned to the ground, which inspired its inhabit-
ants with a constant animosity against that emperor. Upon
his death in 1024, the Italians ^vere disposed to break once
more their connection with Germany, which had elected as
sovereign Conrad, duke of Franconia. They offered their
crown to Robert, king of France, and to William, duke of
Guienne ; but neither of them was imprudent enough to in-
volve himself in the difficult and faithless politics of Italy.
Eribert, archbishop of Milan, accompanied by some other
chief men of Lombardy, repaired to Constance, and tender-
ed the crown to Conrad, which he was already disposed to
claim as a sort of dependency upon Germany (a.d. 1024).
It does not, appear that either Conrad or his successors weni
ever regularly elected to reign over Italy ; but whether this
ceremony took place or not, we may certainly date from that
time the subjection of Italy to the Germanic body. It be-
came an unquestionable maxim that the votes of a few Ger-
man princes conferred a right to the sovereignty of a coun-
try which had never been conquered, and which had never
formally recognized this superiority. But it was an equally
fundamental rule that the elected king of Geraiany could
not assume the title of Ronian Emperor until his coronation
by the pope. The middle appellation of King of the Ro-
mans w^as invented as a sort of approximation to the imperial
dignity. But it was not till the reign of Maximilian that
the actual coronation at Rome was dispensed with, and the
title of emperor taken immediately after the election.
§ 4. The period between Conrad of Franconia and Fred-
erick Barbarossa, or from about the middle of the eleventh
to that of the twelfth century, is marked by three great
events in Italian history; the struggle between the empire
and the papacy for ecclesiastical investitures, the establish-
152 THE NORMANS AT AVERSA. Chap. III. Part I.
ment of the Norman kingdom in Kajjles, and the formation
of distinct and nearly independent republics among the cities
of Lombardy. The first of these will find a more appropri-
ate place in a subsequent chapter, where I shall trace the
progress of ecclesiastical power. But it produced a long
and almost incessant state of disturbance in Italy; and
should be mentioned at present as one of the main causes
which excited in that country a systematic opposition to the
imperial authority.
The southern provinces of Italy, in the beginning of the
eleventh century, were chiefly subject to the Greek empire,
which had latterly recovered part of its losses, and exhibit-
ed some ambition and enterprise, though without any in-
trinsic vigor. They were governed by a lieutenant, styled
Catapan,^ who resided at Bari,in Apulia. On the Mediter-
ranean coast three duchies, or rather republics, of Naples,
Gaeta, and Amalfi, had for several ages preserved their con-
nection with the Greek empire, and acknowledged its nomi-
nal sovereignty. The Lombard principalities of Benevento,
Salerno, and Capua had much declined from their ancient
splendor. The Greeks were, however, not likely to attempt
any further conquests : the Court of Constantinople had re-
lapsed into its usual indolence ; nor had they much right to
boast of successes rather due to the Saracen auxiliaries whom
they hired from Sicily. No momentous revolution, apparent-
ly, threatened the south of Italy, and least of all could it
be anticij^ated from what quarter the storm was about to
gather.
§ 5. The followers of RoUo, who rested from plunder and
piracy in the quiet possession of Normandy, became devout
professors of the Christian faith, and particularly addicted
to the custom of pilgrimage, which gratified their curiosity
and spirit of adventure. In small bodies, well armed on ac-
count of the lawless character of the countries through which
they passed, the Norman pilgrims visited the shrines of
Italy and even the Holy Land. Some of these, very early
in the eleventh century, were engaged by a Lombard prince
of Salerno against the Saracens, who had invaded his terri-
tory ; and through that superiority of valor, and perhaps of
corporal strength, which this singular people seem to have
possessed above all other Europeans, they made surprising^
havoc among the enemy. This exploit led to fresh engage-
ments, and these engagements drew new adventurers from
Normandy ; they founded the little city of Aversa, near
2 Catapanus, from Karu iruv, one employed in general arlministratiou of affairs.
Italy. SUCCESSES OF THE NORMANS. 153
Capua, and were employed by the Greeks against the Sar-
acens of Sicily. But, though performing splendid services
in this war, they were ill repaid by their ungrateful employ-
ers; and being by no means of a temper to bear with injury,
they revenged themselves by a sudden invasion of Apulia.
This province was speedily subdued, and divided among
•twelve Norman counts ; but soon afterwards Robert Guis-
card, one of twelve brothers, many of whom were renowned
in these Italian wars, acquired the sovereignty ; and, add-
ing Calabria to his conquests, put an end to the long do-
minion of the Eastern emperors in Italy. He reduced the
principalities of Salerno and Benevento ; in the latter in-
stance sharing the spoil with the pope, who took the city to
himself, while Robert retained the territory. His conquests
in Greece, which he invaded with the magnificent design of
overthrowing the Eastern Empire, were at least equally splen-
did, though less durable (a.d. 1061). Rooer, his younger
brother, undertook, meanwhile, the romantic enterprise of
conquering the island of Sicily with a small body of Norman
volunteers. But the Saracens were broken into petty states,
and discouraged by the bad success of their brethren in
Spain and Sardinia. After many years of war Roger became
sole master of Sicily, and took the title of count. The son
of this prince, upon the extinction of Robert Guiscard's pos-
terity, united the two Norman sovereignties, and, subjuga-
ting the free republics of Naples and Amalfi, and the prin-
cipality of Capua, established a boundary which has hardly
been changed since his time (a.d. 1127).
The first successes of these Norman leaders were viewed un-
favorably by the popes. Leo IX. marched in person against
Robert Guiscard with an army of German mercenaries, but
was beaten and made prisoner in this unwise enterprise, the
scandal of which nothing but good-fortune could have light-
ened. He fell, however, into the hands of a devout people,
who implored his absolution for the crime of defending them-
selves ; and, whether through gratitude or as the price of
his liberation, invested them with their recent conquests in
Apulia, as fiefs of the Holy See. This investiture was re-
peated and enlarged as the popes, especially in their con-
tention with Henry IV. and Henry Y., found the advantage
of using the Normans as. faithful auxiliaries. Finally, In-
nocent II., in 1139, conferred upon Roger the title of King
of Sicily. It is difticult to understand by what pretense
these countries could be claimed by the See of Rome in sov-
ereignty, unless by virtue of the pretended donation of Con-
(7*
154 SUCCESSES OF THE NORMANS. Chap. III. Part I.
stantine, or that of Louis the Debonair, which is hardly less
suspicious ; and least of all how Innocent II. could surrender
the liberties of the city of Naples, whether that was con-
sidered as an independent republic or as a portion of the
Greek empire. But the Normans, who had no title but
their swords, were naturally glad to give an appearance of
legitimacy to their conquest ; and the kingdom of Naples,
even in the hands of the most powerful princes in Europe,
never ceased to pay a feudal acknowledgment to the chair
of St. Peter.
§ 6. The revolutions which time brought forth on the op-
posite side of Italy were still more interesting. Under the
Lombard and French princes every city with its adjacent
district was subject to the government and jurisdiction of a
count, who was himself subordinate to the duke or marquis
of the province. From these counties it was the practice
of the first German emperors to dismember particular towns
or tracts of country, granting them upon a feudal tenure to
rural lords, by many of whom, also, the same title was as-
sumed. Thus by degrees the authority of the original offi-
cers was confined almost to the walls of their own cities ;
and in many cases the bishops obtained a grant of the tem-
poral government, and exercised the functions which had be-
longed to the count.
It is impossible to ascertain the time at which the cities
of Lombardy began to assume a republican form of g~overn-
raent, or to trace with precision the gradations of their prog-
ress. These cities were far more populous and better de-
fended than those of France ; they had learned to stand
sieges in the Hungarian invasions of the tenth century, and
had acquired the right of protecting themselves by strong
fortifications. Those which had been placed under the tem-
poral government of their bishops had peculiar advantages
in struggling for emancipation. This circumstance in the
state of Lombardy I consider as highly important towards
explaining the subsequent revolution. Notwithstanding sev-
eral exceptions, a Churchman was less likely to be bold and
active in command than a soldier ; and the sort of election
which was always necessary, and sometimes more than nom-
inal, on a vacancy of the see, kept up among the citizens a
notion that the authorityof their bishop and chief magistrate
emanated in some degree from themselves. In many in-
stances, especially in the Church of Milan, the earliest, per-
haps, and certainly the most famous of Lombard republics,
there occurred a disputed election ; two, or even three, com-
Italy. PROGRESS OF LOMBARD CITIES. 155
petitors claimed the archiepiscopal functions, and were com-
pelled, in the absence of the emperors, to obtain the exercise
of them by means of their own faction among the citizens.
These were the general causes which, operating at various
times during the eleventh century, seem gradually to have
produced a republican form of government in the Italian
cities. But this part of history is very obscure. The ar-
chives of all cities before the reign of Frederick Barbarossa
have perished. We perceive, however, throughout the elev-
enth century, that the cities were continually in warfare with
each other. This, indeed, was according to the manners of
that age, and no inference can absolutely be draw^n from it
as to their internal freedom. But it is observable that their
chronicles speak, in recording these transactions, of the peo-
ple, and not of their leaders, which is the true republican
tone of history. Thus, in the Annals of Pisa, we read, under
the years 1002 and 1004, of victories gained bythe Pisans
over the people of Lucca; in 1006, that the Pisans and
Genoese conquered Sardinia. These annals, indeed, are not
by a contemporary writer, nor perhaps of much authority.
But we have an original account of a war that broke out in
1057, between Pavia and Milan, in which the citizens are
said to have raised armies, made alliances, hired foreign
troops, and in every respect acted like independent states.
There was, in fact, no power left in the empire to control
them. The two Henrys IV. and V. were so much embar-
rassed during the quarrel concerning investitures, and the
continual troubles of Germany, that they were less likely to
interfere with the rising freedom of the Italian cities than to
purchase their assistance by large concessions. Henry IV.
granted a charter to Pisa,*in 1081, full of the most impor-
tant privileges, promising even not to name any marquis of
Tuscany without the people's consent ; and it is possible that
although the iuvStruments have perished, other places might
obtain similar advantages. However this may be, it is cer-
tain that before the death of Henry V., in 1125, almost all
the cities of Lombardy, and many among those of Tuscany,
were accustomed to elect their own magistrates, and to act
as independent communities in waging war and in domestic
government.
The territory subjected originally to the count or bishop
of these cities had been reduced, as I mentioned above, by
numerous concessions to the rural nobility. But the new
republics, deeming themselves entitled to all which their
former governors had once possessed, began to attack their
156 LOMBARD ACQUISITIONS. Chap. III. Part i.
nearest neighbors, and to recover the sovereignty of all their
ancient territory. They besieged the castles of the rural
counts, and successively reduced them into subjection. They
suppressed some minor communities, which had been formed
in imitation of themselves by little tovvms belonging to their
district. Sometimes they purchased feudal superiorities or
territorial jurisdictions, and, according to a policy not unu=
sual with the stronger party, converted the rights of proper-
ty into those of government. Hence, at the middle of the
twelfth century, we are assured by a contemporary writer
that hardly any nobleman could be found, except the Mar-
quis of Montferrat, who had not submitted to some city.
We may except also, I should presume, the families of Este
and Malaspina, as well as that of Savoy. Muratori produces
many charters of mutual compact between the nobles and
the neighboring cities; whereof one invariable article is,
that the former siiould reside within the walls a certain
number of months in the year. The rural nobility, thus de-
prived of the independence which had endeared their cas-
tles, imbibed a new ambition of directing the municipal gov-
ernment of the cities, which consequently, during this period
of the republics, fell chiefly into the hands of the superior
families. It was the sagacious policy of the Lombards to
invite settlers by throwing open to them the privileges of
citizenship, and sometimes they even bestowed them by
compulsion. Sometimes a city, imitating the wisdom of an-
cient Rome, granted these privileges to all the inhabitants
of another. Thus the principal cities, and especially Milan,
reached, before the middle of the twelfth century, a degree
of population very far beyond that of the capitals of the
great kingdoms. Within their strong walls and deep trench-
es, and in the midst of their well-peopled streets, the indus-
trious dwelt secure from the license of armed pillagers and
the oppressors of feudal tyi-ants. Artisans, whom the mili-
tary land-holders contemned, acquired and deserved the right
of bearing arms for their own and the public defense. Their
occupations became liberal, because they were the founda-
tion of their political franchises; the citizens were classed
in companies according to their respective crafts, each of
which had its tribune or standard-bearer (gonfalonier), at
whose command, when any tumult arose or enemy threaten-
ed, they rushed in arms to muster in the market-place.
But, unhappily, we can not extend the sympathy which
institutions so full of liberty create to the national conduct
of these little rejDublics. Their love of freedom was alloyed
Italy. THEIR MUTUAL ANIMOSITIES. 157
by that restless spirit, from which a democracy is seldom ex-
empt, of tyrannizing over weaker neighbors. They played
over again the tragedy of ancient Greece, with -all its cir-
cumstances of inveterate hatred, unjust ambition, and atro-
cious retaliation, though with less consummate actors upon
the scene. Among all the Lombard cities, Milan was the
most conspicuous, as well for power and population as for
the abuse of those resources by arbitrary and ambitious con-
duct. Thus, in 1111, they razed the town of Lodi to the
ground, distributing the inhabitants among six villages, and
subjecting them to an unrelenting despotism. Thus, in 1 11 8,
they commenced a war of ten years' duration with the little
city of Como; but the surprising perseverance of its inhab-
itants procured for them better terms of capitulation, though
they lost their original independence. The Cremonese treat-
ed so harshly the town of Crema that it revolted from them,
and put itself under the protection of Milan. Cities of more
equal forces carried on interminable hostilities by wasting
each other's territory, destroying the harvests, and burning
the villages.
The sovereignty of the emperors, meanwhile, though not
very effective, was in theory always admitted. Their name
was used in public acts, and appeared upon the coin. When
they came into Italy they had certain customary supplies
of provisions, called fodrum regale, at the expense of the
city where they resided ; during their presence all inferior
magistracies were suspended, and the right of jurisdiction
devolved upon them alone. But such was the jealousy of
the Lombards that they built the royal palaces outside their
gates ; a precaution to Avhich the emperors were compelled
to submit. This was at a very early time a subject of con-
tention between the inhabitants of Pavia and Conrad IL,
whose palace, seated in the heart of the city, they had de-
molished in a sedition, and were unwilling to rebuild in that
situation.
§ 7. Such was the condition of Italy when Frederick Bar-
barossa, duke of Suabia, and nephew of the last emperor,
Conrad III., ascended the throne of Germany (a.d. 1152).
His accession forms the commencement of a new period, the
duration of which is about one hundred years, and which is
terminated by the death of Conrad IV., the last emperor of
the house of Suabia. It is characterized, like the former, by
three distinguishing features in Italian history ; the victori-
ous struggle of the Lombard and other cities for independ-
ence, the final establishment of a t^emporal sovereignty ovei
15« FREDERICK BARBAROSSA. Chap. III. Part I.
the middle provinces by the popes, and the union of the
kingdom of Naples to the dominions of the house of Suabia.
In Frederick Barbarossa the Italians found a very differ-
ent sovereign from the two last emperors, Lothaire and Con-
rad III., who had seldom appeared in Italy, and with forces
quite inadequate to control such insubordinate subjects.
The distinguished valor and ability of this prince rendered
a severe and arbitrary temper, and a haughty conceit of his
imperial rights, more formidable. He believed that, as suc-
cessor of Augustus, he inherited the kingdoms of the world.
In the same right, he niorepowerfully, if not more rationally,
laid claim to the entire prerogatives of the Roman emperors
over their own subjects ; and in this the professors of the
civil law — which was now diligently studied — lent him tlieir
aid with the utmost servility. To such a disi^osition the
self-government of the Lombard cities appeared mere re-
bellion. Milan especially, the most renowned of them all,
drew down upon herself his inveterate resentment. He
found, unfortunately, too good a pretense in her behavior to-
w^ards Lodi. Two natives of that ruined city threw them-
selves at the emperor's feet, imploring him, as the ultimate
source of justice, to redress the wrongs of their country. It
is a striking proof of the terror inspired by Milan that the
consuls of Lodi disavowed the complaints of their country-
men, and the inhabitants trembled at the danger of provok-
ing a summary vengeance, against which the imperial arms
seemed no protection. The Milanese, however, abstained
from attacking the people of Lodi, though they treated with
contempt the emperor's order to leave them at liberty.
Frederick meanwhile came into Italy, and held a diet at Ron-
caglia, where complaints poured in from many quarters
against the Milanese. Pavia and Cremona, their ancient ene-
mies, were impatient to renew hostilities under the imperial
auspices. Brescia, Tortona, and Crema were allies, or rather
dependents, of Milan. Frederick soon took occasion to at-
tack the latter confederacy. Tortona was compelled to sur-
render, and levelled to the ground. But a feudal army was
soon dissolved ; the emperor had much to demand his atten-
tion at Rome, where he was on ill terms w^ith Adrian IV. ;
and when the imperial troops wei'e withdrawn from Lom-
bardy, the Milanese rebuilt Tortona, and expelled the citi-
zens of Lodi from their dwellings. Frederick assembled a
fresh army, to w^hich almost everj^ city of Lombardy, will-
ingly or by force, contributed its militia. It is said to have
exceeded a hundred thousand men. The Milanese shut
Italy. CAPTURE OF MILAN. 159
themselves up within their walls ; and perhaps might have
defied the imperial forces, if their immense population, which
gave them confidence in arms, had not exposed them to a
different enemy. Milan was obliged by hunger to capitu-
late, upon conditions not very severe, if a vanquished people
could ever safely rely upon the convention that testifies their
submission.
Frederick, after the surrender of Milan, held a diet at Ron-
eaglia, where the effect of his victories was fatally perceived
(a.d. 1158). The bishops, the higher nobility, the lawyers,
vied with one another in exalting his prerogatives. He de-
fined the regalian rights, as they were called, in such a man-
ner as to exclude the cities and private proprietors from coin-
ing money, and from tolls or territorial dues, which they had
for many years possessed. These, however, he permitted
them to retain for a pecuniary stipulation. A more impor-
tant innovation was the appointment of magistrates, with the
title of podesta, to administer justice concurrently with the
consuls ; but he soon proceeded to abolish the latter ofiice
in many cities, and to throw the whole government into the
hands of his own magistrates. He prohibited the cities from
levying war against each other. It may be presumed that
he showed no favor to Milan. The capitulation was set at
nought in its most express provisions ; a podesta was sent to
supersede the consuls, and part of the territory taken away.
Whatever might be the risk of resistance, and the Milanese
had experience enough not to undervalue it, they were de-
termined rather to see their liberties at once overthrown
than gradually destroyed by a faithless tyrant. They availed
themselves of the absence of his army to renew the war. Its
issue was more calamitous than that of the last. Almost all
Lombardy lay patient under subjection. The small town of
Crema, always the faithful ally of Milan, stood a memorable
siege against the imperial army; but the inhabitants were
ultimately compelled to capitulate for their lives, and the
vindictive Cremonese razed their dwellings to the ground.
But all smaller calamities were forgotten when the great city
of Milan, worn out by famine rather than subdued by force,
W'as reduced to surrender at discretion. Lombardy stood in
anxious suspense to know the determination of Frederick re-
specting this ancient metropolis, the seat of the early Chris-
tian emperors, and second only to Rome in the hierarchy of
the Latin Church. A delay of three weeks excited fallacious
hopes ; but at the end of that time an order was given to the
Milanese to evacuate their habitations. The deserted streets
160 LEAGUE OF LOMBAKDY. Chap. III. Part 1
were instantly occupied by the imperial army ; the people
of Pavia and Cremona, of Lodi and Como, were commis-
sioned to revenge themselves on the respective quarters of
the city assigned to them; and in a few days the pillaged
churches stood alone amidst the ruins of what had been Mi-
lan (a.d. 1162).
There was now little left of that freedom to which Lom-
bardy had aspired : it was gone like a pleasant dream, and
she awoke to the fears and miseries of servitude. Frederick
obeyed the dictates of his vindictive temper, and of the poli-
cy usual among statesmen. He abrogated the consular regi-
men in some even of the cities which had supported him, and
established his podesta in their place. This magistrate was
always a stranger, frequently not even an Italian ; and he
came to his office with all those prejudices against the peo-
ple he was to govern which cut off every hope of justice and
humanity. The citizens of Lombardy, especially the Mi-
lanese, who had been dispersed in the villages adjoining their
ruined capital, were unable to meet the perpetual demands
of tribute. In some parts, it is said, two-thirds of the prod-
uce of their lands, the only wealth that remained, were ex-
torted from them by the imperial officers. It was in vain
that they prostrated themselves at the feet of Frederick. He
gave at the best only vague promises of redress ; they were
in his eyes rebels ; his delegates had acted as faithful offi-
cers, whom, even if they had gone a little beyond his inten-
tions, he could not be expected to punish.
§ 8. But there still remained at the heart of Lombardy
the strong principle of national liberty, imperishable among
the perishing armies of her patriots, inconsumable in the
conflagration of her cities. Those whom private animosities
had led to assist the German conqueror blushed at the deg'
radation of their country, and at the share they had taken in
it. A league was secretly formed, in which Cremona^-cJiie
of the chief cities on the imperial side, took a proifiinent
part. Those beyond the Adige, hitherto not much engaged
in the disputes of Central Lombardy, had already formed a
separate confederacy to secure themselves from encroach-
ments which appeared the more unjust, as they had never
borne arms against the emperor. Their first successes corre-
sponded to the justice of their cause; Frederick was re-
pulsed from the territory of Yerona — a fortunate augury for
the rest of Lombardy (a.d. 1164). These two clusters of
cities on the east and west of the Adige now united them-
selves into the famous Lombard leasrue, the terms of which
Italy. LEAGUE OF LOMBARDY. 16i
were settled in a general diet. Their alliance was to last
twenty years, during which they pledged themselves to mu-
tual assistance against any one who should exact more from
them than they had been used to perform from the time of
Henry to the first coming of Frederick into Italy ; imply-
ing in this the recovery of their elective magistracies, their
rights of war and peace, and those lucrative privileges which,
under the name of regalian, had been wrested from them in
the diet of Koncaglia.
§ 9. This union of the Lombard cities was formed at a
very favorable juncture. Frederick had, almost ever since
his accession, been engaged in open hostility with the See of
Rome, and was pursuing the fruitless policy of Henry IV.,
who had endeavored to substitute an anti-pope of his own
faction for the legitimate pontiff. In the prosecution of this
scheme he had besieged Rome with a great army, which, the
citizens resisting longer than he expected, fell a prey to the
autumnal pestilence which visits the neighborhood of that
capital. The flower of German nobility was cut off by this
calamity, and the emperor recrossed the Alps, entirely unable
for the present to withstand the Lombard confederacy. Their
first overt act of insurrection was the rebuilding of Milan ;
the confederate troops all joined in this undertaking; and
the Milanese, still numerous, though dispersed and perse-
cuted, revived as a powerful republic. Lodi was compelled
to enter into the league ; Pavia alone continued on the im-
perial side. As a check to Pavia and to the Marquis of
Montferrat, the most potent of the independent nobility, the
Lombards planned the erection of a new city between the
confines of these two enemies in a rich plain to the south of
the Po, and bestowed uj^on it, in compliment to the pope,
Alexander HI., the name of Alessandria. Though, from itf
hasty construcTiion, Alessandria was even in that age deemei
rude in appearance, it rapidly became a thriving and popu-
lous city. The intrinsic energy and resources of Lombardy
were now made manifest. Frederick, who had triumphed by
their disunion, was unequal to contend against their league.
After several years of indecisive war, the emperor invaded
the Milanese territory; but the confederates gave him bat-
tle, and gained a complete victory at Legnano (a.d. 1176).
Frederick escaped alone and disguised, from the field, with
little hope of raising a fresh army, though still reluctant, from
shame, to acquiesce in the freedom of Lombardy. He was
at length persuaded, through the mediation of the republic
of Venice, to consent to a truce of six years, the provisional
162 PEACE OF CONSTANCE. Chap. III. Part 1.
terms of which Avere all favorable to the league. It was
weakened, however, by the defection of some of its own
members ; Cremona, which had never cordially united with
her ancient enemies, made separate conditions with Freder-
ick, and suffered herself to be named among the cities on
the imperial side in the armistice. Tortona and even Ales-
sandria followed the same course during the six years of its
duration — a fatal testimony of unsubdued animosities, and
omen of the calamities of Italy. At the expiration of the
truce, Frederick's anxiety to secure the crown for his son
overcame his pride, and the famous peace of Constance es-
tablished the Lombard republics in real independence (a.d.
1183).
By the treaty of Constance the cities were maintained in
the enjoyment of all the regalian rights, whether within
their walls or in their district, which they could claim by
usage. Those of levying war, of erecting fortifications, and
of administering civil and criminal justice, were specially
mentioned. The nomination of their consuls, or other mag-
istrates, was left absolutely to the citizens ; but they were
to receive the investiture of their office from an imperial leg-
ate. The customary tributes of provision during the em-
peror's residence in Italy were preserved ; and he was au-
thorized to appoint in every city a judge of appeal in civil
causes. The Lombard league was confirmed, and the cities
were permitted to renew it at their own discretion ; but
they were to take, every ten years, an oath of fidelity to the
emperor. This just compact preserved, along with every
security for the liberties and welfare of the cities, as much
of the imperial prerogatives as could be exercised by a for-
eign sovereign consistently with the people's happiness.
§ 10. Frederick did not attempt to molest the cities of
Lombardy in the enjoyment of those privileges conceded by
the treaty of Constance. His ambition was diverted to a
new scheme for aggrandizing the house of Suabia by the
marriage of his eldest son Henry with Constance, the aunt
and hen-ess of William IL, king' of Sicily. That kingdom,
which the first monarch Roger had elevated to a high pitch
of renown and power, fell into decay through the miscon-
duct of his son William, surnamed the Bad, and did not re-
coA^er much of its lustre under the second William, though
styled the Good. His death without issue was apparently
no remote event ; and Constance was the sole legitimate
survivor of the royal family. It is a curious circumstance
that no hereditary kingdom appears absolutely to have ex-
Italy. AFFAIRS OF SICILY. 163
eluded females from its throne, except that which from its
magnitude was of all the most secure from falling into the
condition of a province. The Sicilians felt too late the de-
fect of their constitution, Avhich permitted an independent
people to be transferred, as the dowry of a woman, to a for-
eign prince, by whose ministers they might justly expect to
be insulted and oppressed. Henry, whose marriage with
Constance took place in 1186, and who succeeded in her
right to the throne of Sicily three years afterwards, was ex-
asperated by a courageous but unsuccessful effort of the
Norman barons to preserve the crown for an illegitimate
branch of the royal family ; and his reign is disgraced by a
series of atrocious cruelties. The power of the house of Sua-
bia was now at its zenith on each side of the Alps ; Henry
received the imperial crown the year after his father's death
in the third crusade, and even prevailed upon the princes of
Germany to elect his infant son Frederick as his successor.
But his own premature decease clouded the prospects of his
family : Constance survived him but a year ; and a child of
four years old was left with the inheritance of a kingdom
which his father's severity had rendered disaifected, and
which the leaders of German mercenaries in his service
desolated and disputed.
§ 11. During the minority of Frederick H., from 1196 to
1216, the papal chair was filled by Innocent HI., a name
second only, and hardly second, to that of Gregory VII.
Young, noble, and intrepid, he united with the accustomed
spirit of ecclesiastical usurpation, which no one had ever
carried to so high a point, the more worldly ambition of
consolidating a separate principality for the Holy See in the
centre of Italy. The real or spurious donations of Constan-
tine, Pepin, Charlemagne, and Louis, had given rise to a per-
petual claim on the part of the popes to very extensive do-
minions ; but little of this had been effectuated, and in Rome
itself they were thwarted by the prefect — an officer who
swore fidelity to the emperor — and by the insubordinate
spirit of the people. In the very neighborhood the small
cities owned no subjection to the capital, and were probably
as much self-governed as those of Lombard y. One is trans-
ported back to the earliest times of the republic in reading
of the desperate wars between Rome and Tibur or Tuscu-
lum ; neither of which was subjugated till the latter part of
the twelfth century. At a farther distance were the duchy
of Spoleto, the march of Ancona, and what had been the
exarchate of Ravenna, to all of which the popes had more
164 INNOCENT III. Chap. III. Paut I.
or less grounded pretensions. Early in the last-mentioned
age, the famous Countess Matilda, to whose zealous protec-
tion Gregory VII. had been eminently indebted during his
long dispute with the emperor, granted the reversion of all
her possessions to the Holy See, iirst in the lifetime of Greg-
ory, and again under the pontificate of Paschal III. These
were very extensive, and held by different titles. Of her
vast imperial fiefs, Mantua, Modena, and Tuscany, she cer-
tainly could not dispose. The duchy of Spoleto and march
of Ancona were supposed to rest upon a different footing.
These had been formerly among the great fiefs of the king-
dom of Italy. They are commonly considered as her al-
lodial or patrimonial property ; yet it is not easy to see how,
being herself a subject of tlie empire, she could transfer even
her allodial estates from its sovereignty. Nor, on the other
hand, can it apparently be maintained that she was lawful
sovereign of countries which had not long since been impe-
rial fiefs, and tlie suzerainty over which had never been re-
nounced. The original title of the Holy See, therefore, docs
not seem incontestable even as to this part of Matilda's do-
nation. It is certain, however, that the emperors kept pos-
session of the whole during the twelfth century, and treated
both Spoleto and Ancona as parts of the empire, notwith-
standing continual remonstrances from the Roman pontiffs.
Frederick Barbarossa, at the negotiations of Venice in 1177,
promised to restore the patrimony of Matilda in fifteen
years ; but at the close of that period Henry VI. was not
disposed to execute this arrangement, and granted the county
in fief to some of his German followers. Upon his death, the
circumstances were favorable to Innocent III. The infant
King of Sicily had been intrusted by Constance to his guard-
ianship. A double election of Philip, brother of Henry VI.,
and of Otho, duke of Brunswick, engaged the princes of Ger-
many, who had entirely overlooked the claims of young
Frederick, in a doubtful civil war. Neither party was in a
condition to enter Italy ; and the imperial dignity was va'
cant for several years, till, the death of Philip removing one
competitor, Otho IV., whom the pope had constantly fa-
vored, was crowned emperor. During this interval the Ital-
ians had no superior, and Innocent availed himself of it to
maintain the pretensions of the See. These he backed by
the production of rather a questionable document, the will of
Henry VI., said to have been found among the baggage of
Marquard, one of the German soldiers who had been invest-
ed with fiefs by the late emperor. The cities of what we
Italy. GUELFS AND GHIBELINS. 165
now call the ecclesiastical state had in the twelfth century
their own municipal government like those of Lombavdy ;
but they were far less able to assert a complete independ-
ence. They gladly, therefore, put themselves under the pro-
tection of the Holy See, which held out some prospect of se-
curing them from Marquard and other rapacious partisans,
without disturbing their internal regulations. Thus the
duchy of Spoleto and march of Ancona submitted to Inno-
cent III. ; but he was not strong enough to keep constant
possession of such extensive territories, and some years after-
wards adopted the prudent course of granting Ancona in fief
to the Marquis of Este. He did not, as may be supposed,
neglect his authority at home ; the Prefect of Rome was now
compelled to swear allegiance to the pope, which put an end
to the regular imperial supremacy over that city, and the
privileges of the citizens were abridged. This is the proper
era of that temporal sovereignty which the bishops of Rome
possess over their own city, though still prevented by va-
rious causes, for nearly three centuries, from becoming un-
questioned and unlimited.
§ 12. In the wars of Frederick Barbarossa against Milan
and its allies, we have seen the cities of Lombardy divided,
and a considerable number of them firmly attached to the
imperial interest. The jealousies long existing between the
different classes, and onlj^ suspended by the national strug-
gle which terminated at Constance, gave rise to new modifi-
cations of interests, and new relations towards the empire.
About the year 1200, or perhaps a little later, the two lead-
ing parties which divided the cities of Lombardy, and whose
mutual animosity — having no general subject of contention
— required the association of a name to direct as well as in-
vigorate its prejudices, became distinguished by the cele-
brated appellations of Gitelfs and Ghlbelins ; the former
adhering to the papal side, the latter to that of the emperor.
These names were derived from Germany, and had been the
rallying word of faction for more than half a century in that
country before they were transported to a still more favora-
ble soil. The Guelfs took their name from a very illustrious
fixmily, several of whom had successively been dukes of Ba-
varia in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The heiress of the
last of these intermarried with a younger son of the house
of Este, a noble family settled near Padua, and possessed of
great estates on each bank of the lower Po. They gave birth
to a second line of Guelfs, from whom the royal house of
Brunswick is descended. The name of Ghibelin is derived
166 OTHO IV. Chap. III. Part I.
from a village in Franconia, whence Conrad the Salic came,
the progenitor, through females, of the Suabian emperors.
At the election of Lothaire in 1125, the Suabian family were
disappointed of what they considered almost an hereditary
possession ; and at this time an hostility appears to have
commenced between them and the house of Guelf, who were
nearly related to Lothaire. Henry the Proud and his son
Henry the Lion, representatives of the latter family, were
frequently persecuted by the Suabian emperors ; but their
fortunes belong to the history of Germany. Meanwhile the
elder branch, though not reserved for such glorious destinies
as the Guelfs, continued to flourish in Italy ; the marquises
of Este were by far the most powerful nobles in Eastern
Lombardy, and about the end of the twelfth century began
to be considered as the heads of the Church party in their
neighborhood. They were frequently chosen to the oftice of
podesta, or chief magistrate, by the cities of Romagna ; and
in 1208 the people of Ferrara set the fatal example of sacri-
ficing their freedom for tranquillity by electing Azzo VH.,
marquis of Este, as their lord or sovereign.
§ 13. Otho lY. was son of Henry the Lion, and consequent-
ly head of the Guelfs. On his obtaining the imperial crown
(a.d. 1198), the prejudices of Italian factions were diverted
out of their usual channel. He was soon engaged in a quar-
rel with the pope, whose hostility to the empire was certain,
into whatever hands it might fall. In Milan, however, and
generally in the cities which had belonged to the Lombard
league against Frederick I., hatred of the house of Suabia
prevailed more than jealousy of the imperial prerogatives ;
they adhered to names rather than to principles, and sup"
ported a Guelf emperor even against the pope. Terms of
this description, having no definite relation to principles
which it might be troublesome to learn and defend, are al-
ways acceptable to mankind, and have the peculiar advan-
tage of precluding altogether that spirit of compromise and
accommodation by which it is sometimes endeavored to ob-
struct their tendency to hate and injure each other. From
this time, every city, and almost every citizen, gloried in one
of these barbarous denominations. In several cities the im-
perial party predominated through hatred of their neighbors,
who espoused that of the Church. Thus the inveterate feuds
between Pisa and Florence, Modena and Bologna, Cremona
and Milan, threw them into opposite factions. But there
was in every one of these a strong party against that which
prevailed, and consequently a Guelf city frequently became
Italy. FKEDEKICK II. 167
Ghibelin, or conversely, according to the fluctuations of the
time.
§ 14. The change to which we have adverted in the pol-
itics of the Guelf party lasted only during the reign of Otho
IV. When the heir of the house of Suabia grew up to man-
hood, Innocent, who, though his guardian, had taken little
care of his interests, as long as he flattered himself with the
hope of finding a Guelf emperor obedient, placed the young
Frederick at the head of an opposition composed of cities
always attached to his family, and of such as implicitly fol-
lowed the See of Rome. He met with considerable success
both in Italy and Germany, and, after the death of Otho, re-
ceived the imperial crown (a.d. 1212). But he had no longer
to expect any assistance from the pope who conferred it.
Innocent was dead, and Honorius III., his successor, could
not behold without apprehension the vast power of Fred-
erick, supported in Lombardy by a faction which balanced
that of the Church, and menacing the ecclesiastical territo-
ries on the other side by the possession of Naples and Sici-
ly. This kingdom, feudatory to Rome, and long her firmest
ally, was now, by a fatal connection which she had not been
able to prevent, thrown into the scale of her most danger-
ous enemy. Hence the temporal dominion which Innocent
HI. had taken so much pains to establish, became a very pre-
carious possession, exposed on each side to the attacks of a
power that had legitimate pretensions to almost every prov-
ince composing it. The life of Frederick II. was wasted in
an unceasing contention with the Church, and with his Italian
subjects, whom she excited to rebellions against him. With-
out inveighing, like the popish writers, against this prince,
certainly an encourager of letters, and endowed with many
eminent qualities, we may lay to his charge a good deal of
dissimulation ; I will not add ambition, because I am not
aware of any period in the reign of Frederick when he was
not obliged to act on his defense against the aggression of
others. But if he had been a model of virtues, such men as
Honorius HI., Gregory IX., and Innocent IV., the popes
with whom he had successively to contend would not have
given him respite while he remained master of Naples as
as well as the Empire.
It was the custom of every pope to urge princes into a
crusade, which the condition of Palestine rendered indispen-
sable, or, more properly, desperate. But this great piece of
supererogatory devotion had never yet been raised into an
absolute duty of their station, nor had even private persons
168 THE GUELFS AND GHIBELINS. Chap. III. Part X.
been ever required to take up the cross by compulsion.
Honorius III., however, exacted a vow from Frederick, be-
fore he conferred upon him the imperial crown, that he
would undertake a crusade for the deliverance of Jerusa-
lem. Frederick submitted to this engagement, which per-
haps he never designed to keep, and certainly endeavored
afterwards to evade. Though he became by marriage nomi-
nal king of Jerusalem, his excellent understanding was not
captivated with so barren a prospect, and at length his de-
lays in the performance of his vow provoked Gregory IX. to
issue against him a sentence of excommunication. Such a
thunder-bolt was not to be lightly regarded, and Frederick
sailed, the next year, for Palestine. But having disdained to
solicit absolution for what he considered as no crime, the
Court of Rome was excited to still fiercer indignation against
this profanation of a crusade by an excommunicated sover-
eign. Upon his arrival in Palestine, he received intelligence
that the papal troops had broken into the kingdom of Na-
ples. No one could rationally have blamed Frederick, if he
had quitted the Holy Land as he found it ; but he made a
treaty with the Saracens, which though by no means so dis-
advantageous as under all the circumstances might have been
expected, served as a pretext for new calumnies against him
in Europe. The charge of irreligion, eagerly and success-
fully propagated, he repelled by persecuting edicts against
heresy that do no great honor to his memory, and availed
him little at the time. Over his Neapolitan dominions he
exercised a rigorous government, rendered perhaps necessary
by the levity and insubordination characteristic of the in-
habitants, but which tended, through tfyi artful representa-
tions of Honorius and Gregory, to alarm and alienate the
Italian republics.
A new generation had risen up in Lombardy since the
peace of Constance, and the prerogatives reserved by that
treaty to the Empire were so seldom called into action, that
few cities were disposed to recollect their existence. They
denominated themselves Guelfs or Ghibelins, according to
habit, and out of their mutual opposition, but without much
reference to the Empire. Those, however, of the former
party, and especially Milan, retained their antipathy to the
house of Suabia. Though Frederick II. was entitled, as far
as established usage can create a right, to the sovereignty
of Italy, the Milanese would never acknowledge him, nor
permit his coronation at Monza, according to ancient cer-
emony, v/ith the iron crown of the Lombard kings. The
Italy. AKKANGEMENT OF ITALIAN REPUBLICS. 169
pope fomented, to the utmost of his power, this disaffected
spirit, and encouraged the Lombard cities to renew their
former league. This, although conformable to a provision
in the treaty of Constance, was manifestly hostile to Fred-
erick, and may be considered as the commencement of a sec-
ond contest between the republican cities of Lombardy and
the Empire. But there was a striking difference between
this and the former confederacy against Frederick Barba-
rossa. In the league of 1167, almost every city, forgetting
all smaller animosities in the great cause of defending the
national privileges, contributed its share of exertion to sus-
tain that perilous conflict ; and this transient unanimity in a
people so distracted by internal faction as the Lombards, is
the surest witness to the justice of their undertaking. Sixty
years afterwards, their war against the second Frederick had
less of provocation and less of public spirit. It was, in fact,
a party struggle of Guelf and Ghibelin cities, to which the
names of the Church and the Empire gave more of dignity
and consistence.
§ 15. The republics of Italy in the thirteenth century were
so numerous and independent, and their revolutions so fre-
quent, that it is a difticult matter to avoid confusion in fol-
lowing their history. It will give more arrangement to our
ideas, and at the same time illustrate the chants that took
place in these little states, if we consider them as divided
into four clusters or constellations, not indeed unconnected
one with another, yet each having its own centre of motion
and its own boundaries, (l.) The first of these we may sup-
pose formed of the cities in central Lombardy, between the
Sessia and the Adige, the Alps and the Ligurian mountains;
it comprehends Milan, Cremona, Pavia, Brescia, Bergamo,
Parma, Piacenza, Mantua, Lodi, Alessandria, and several oth-
ers less distinguished. These were the original seats of Ital-
ian liberty, the great movers in the wars of the elder Fi-ed-
erick. Milan was at the head of this cluster of cities, and
her influence gave an ascendency to the Guelf party ; she
had, since the treaty of Constance, rendered Lodi and Pavia
almost her subjects, and was in strict union with Brescia and
Piacenza. Parma, however, and Cremona, were unshaken
defenders of the Empire. (2.) In the second class we may
place the cities of the march of Verona, between the Adige
and the frontiers of Germany. Of these there were but four
worth mentioning : Yerona, Vicenza, Padua, and Treviso.
The citizens of all the four were inclined to the Guelf inter-
ests ; but a powerful body of rural nobility, who had never
170 SECOND LOMBARD WAR. Chaf. III. Part I
been compelled, like those upon the upper Po,to quit their
fortresses in the hilly country, or reside within the walls, at-
tached themselves to the opposite denomination. Some of
them obtained very great authority in the civil lends of these
four republics ; and especially two brothers, Eccelin and Al-
beric da Romano, of a rich and distinguished family, known
for its devotion to the Empire. By extraordinary vigor and
decision of character, by dissimulation and breach of oaths,
by the intimidating effects of almost unparalleled cruelty,
Eccelin da Romano became after some years the absolute
master of three cities — Padua, Verona, and Vicenza ; and the
Guelf party, in consequence, was entirely subverted beyond
the Adige during the continuance of his tyranny. (3.) An-
other cluster was composed of the cities in Romagna : Bo-
logna, Imola, Faenza, Ferrara, and several others. Of these
Bologna was far the most powerful, and, as no city was more
steadily for the interests of the Church, the Guelfs usually
predominated in this class; to which, also, the influence of
the house of Este not a little contributed. Modena, though
not geographically within the limits of this division, may be
classed along with it from her constant wars with Bologna.
(4.) A fourth class will comprehend the whole of Tuscany,
separated almost entirely from the politics of LombarSy and
Romagna. Florence headed the Guelf cities in this province,
Pisa the Ghibelin. The Tuscan union was formed by Inno-
cent III., and was strongly inclined to the popes ; but grad-
ually the Ghibelin party acquired its share of influence; and
the cities of Siena, Arezzo, and Lucca shifted their policy, ac-
cording to external circumstances or the fluctuations of their
internal factions. The ])etty cities in the region of Spoleto
and Ancona hardly, perhaps, deserve the name of republics ;
and Genoa does not readily fall into any of our four classes,
unless her wars with Pisa may be thought to connect her
with Tuscany.^
§ 16. After several years of transient hostility and preca-
rious truce, the Guelf cities of Lombardy engaged in a regu-
lar and protracted w^ar with Frederick II., or more properly
with their Ghibelin adversaries. Few events of this contest
deserve particular notice. Neither party ever obtained such
8 I have taken no notice of Piedmont in this division. The history of that country
seems to be less ehicidated by ancient or modern w^riters than that of other parts of
Italy. It was at this time divided between the counts of Savoy and marquises of
Montferrat. But Asti, Chieri, and Turin, especially the two former, appear to have
bad a republican form of government. They were, however, not absolutely inde-
pendent. The only Piedmontese city that can properly be considered as a separate
Btate, In the thirteenth century, was Vercelli, and even there the bishop seems t€
have possessed a sort of temporal sovereignty.
Italy. GREGORY IX. 171
decisive advantages as had alternately belonged to Frederick
Barbarossa and the Lombard confederacy during the war
of the preceding century. A defeat of the Milanese by the
emperor, at Corte Nuova, in 1237, was balanced by his un-
successful siege at Brescia the next year. The Pisans as-
sisted Frederick to g^ain a great naval victory over the Gen-
oese fleet, in 1241 ; but he was obliged to rise from the
blockade of Parma, which had left the standard of Ghibelin>
ism, in 1248. Ultimately, however, the strength of the house
of Suabia was exhausted by so tedious a struggle ; the Ghib'
elins of Italy had their vicissitudes of success ; but their
country, and even themselves, lost more and more of the an-
cient connection with Germany.
In this resistance to Frederick II. the Lombards were
much indebted to the constant support of Gregory IX. and
his successor Innocent lY., and the Guelf or the Church
party were used as synonymous terms. These pontiffs bore
an unquenchable hatred to the house of Suabia. No con-
cessions mitigated their animosity ; no reconciliation was sin-
cere. Whatever faults may be imputed to Frederick, it is
impossible for any one, not blindly devoted to the Court of
Rome, to deny that he was iniquitously proscribed by hei
unprincipled ambition. His real crime was the inheritance
of his ancestors, and the name of the house of Suabia. In
1239 he was excommunicated by Gregory IX. To this he
was tolerably accustomed by former experience ; but the
sentence was attended by an absolution of his subjects from
their allegiance, and a formal deposition. These sentences
were not very effective upon men of vigorous minds, or upon
those whose passions were engaged in their cause ; but they
influenced both those who feared the threatenings of the
clergy and those who wavered already as to their line of
political conduct. In the fluctuating state of Lombardy the
excommunication of Frederick undermined his interests even
in cities like Parma, that had been friendly, and seemed to
identify the cause of his enemies with that of religion — a
prejudice artfully fomented by means of calumnies propaga-
ted against himself, and which the conduct of such leading
Ghibelins as Eccelin, who lived in an open defiance of God
and man, did not contribute to lessen. In 1240, Gregory
proceeded to publish a crusade against Frederick, as if he
had been an open enemy to religion ; which he revenged by
putting to death all the prisoners he made who wore the
cross. There was one thing wanting to make the expulsion
of the emperor from the Christian commonwealth more com-
172 COUNCIL OF LYONS. Chap. III. Part I.
plete. Gregory IX. accordingly projected, and Innocent lY.
carried into effect, the convocation of a general council (a.d.
1245). This was held at Lyons, an imperial city, but over
which Frederick could no longer retain his supremacy. In
this assembly, where one hundred and forty prelates ap-
peared, the question whether Frederick ought to be deposed
was solemnly discussed ; he submitted to defend himself by
his advocates : and the pope, in the presence, though without
formally collecting the suffrages of the council, pronounced
a sentence, by which Frederick's excommunication was re-
newed, the empire and all his kingdoms taken away, and his
subjects absolved from their fidelity. This is the most pomp-
ous act of usurpation in all the records of the Church of
Rome ; and the tacit approbation of a general council seemed
to incorporate the pretended right of deposing kings, which
might have passed as a mad vaunt of Gregory VII. and his
successors, with the established faith of Christendom.
§ 17. Upon the death of Frederick II. in 1250, he left to
his son Conrad a contest to maintain for every part of his
inheritance, as well as for the imperial crown. But the vig-
or of the house of Suabia was gone ; Conrad was reduced to
fight for the kingdom of Naples, the only succession which
he could hope to secure against the troops of Innocent TV.,
who still pursued his family with implacable hatred, and
claimed that kingdom as forfeited to its feudal superior, the
Holy See. After Conrad's premature death, which happened
in 1254, the throne was filled by his illegitimate brother,
Manfred, who retained it by his bravery and address, in do-
spite of the popes, till they were compelled to call in the as-
sistance of a more powerful arm.
The death of Conrad brings to a termination that period
in Italian history which we have described as nearly co-e:i'
tensive svith the greatness of the house of Suabia. It is per
haps, upon the whole, the most honorable to Italy — that it.
which she displayed the most of national energy and patriot-
ism. A Florentine or Venetian may dwell with pleasure upoi\
later times, but a Lombard will cast back liis eye across tho.
desert of centuries, till it reposes on the field of Legnano.
§ 18. The successful resistance of the Lombard cities to
such princes as both the Fredericks must astonish a reader
who brings to the story of these Middle Ages notions de-
rived from modern times. But when we consider not only
the ineffectual control which could be exerted over a feudal
army, bound only to a short term of service, and reluctantly
kept in the field at its own cost, but the peculiar distrust and
iTAiY. LOMBARD CITIES. 173
disaffection with which many German princes regarded the
house of Suabia, less reason will appear for surprise. Nor
did the kingdom of Naples, almost always in agitation, yield
any material aid to the second Frederick. The main cause,
however, of that triumph which attended Lombardy was the
intrinsic energy of a free government. From the eleventh
century, when the cities became virtually republican, they
put out those vigorous shoots which are the growth of free-
dom alone. Their domestic feuds, their mutual wars, the
fierce assaults of their national enemies, checked not their
strength, their wealth, or their population ; but rather, as the
limbs are nerved by labor and hardship, the republics of It-
aly grew in vigor and courage through the conflicts they
sustained.
We have few authentic testimonies as to the domestic im-
provement of the free Italian cities, while they still deserve
the name. But we may perceive by history that their power
and population, according to their extent of territory, were
almost incredible. In Galvaneus Flamma, a Milanese writer,
we find a curious statistical account of that city in 1288,
which, though of a date about thirty years after its liberties
had been overthrown by usurpation, must be considered as
implying a high degree of previous advancement, even if we
make allowance, as probably w^e should, for some exaggera-
tion. The inhabitants are reckoned at 200,000; the private
houses 13,000; the nobility alone dwelt in sixty streets;
8000 gentlemen or heavy cavalry (milites) might be mus-
tered from the city and its district, and 240,000 men capable
of arms — a force sufficient, the writer observes, to crush all
the Saracens. There were in Milan six hundred notaries,
two hundred physicians, eighty school-masters, and fifty tran-
scribers of manuscripts. In the district were one hundred
and fifty castles with adjoining villages. At this period the
territory of Milan was not, perhaps, more extensive than the
county of Surrey ; it was bounded at a little distance, on al-
most every side, by Lodi, or Pavia, or Bergamo, or Como.
It is possible, however, that Flamma may have meant to in-
clude some of these as dependencies of Milan, though not
strictly united with it. How flourishing must the state of
cultivation have been in such a country, which not only drew
no supplies from any foreign land, but exported part of her
own produce ! It was in the best age of their liberties, im-
mediately after the battle of Legnano, that the Milanese
commenced the great canal which conducts the waters of
the Tesino to their capital, a work very extraordinary for
174 LOMBARD CITIES. Chap. III. Part 1
that time. During the same period the cities gave proofs
of internal prosperity that in many instances have descended
to our own observation in the solidity and magnificence of
their architecture. Ecclesiastical structures were perhaps
more splendid in France and England ; but neither country
could pretend to match the palaces and public buildings, the
streets flagged with stone, the bridges of the same material,
or the commodious private houses of Italy.
The courage of these cities was wrought sometimes to a
tone of insolent defiance through the security inspired by
their means of defense. From the time of the Romans to
that when the use of gunpowder came to prevail, little
change was made, or perhaps could be made, in that part of
military science which relates to the attack and defense of
fortified places. We find precisely the same engines of of-
fense ; the cumbrous towers, from which arrows were shot
at the besieged, the machines from which stones were dis-
charged, the battering-rams which assailed the walls, and the
basket-work covering (the vinea or testudo of the ancients,
and the gattus or chat-chateil of the Middle Ages) under
which those who pushed the battering-engines w^ere protect-
ed from the enemy. On the other hand, a city was fortified
with a strong wall of brick or marble, with towers raised
upon it at intervals, and a deep moat in front. Sometimes
the antemural or barbacan was added^ — a rampart of less
height, which impeded the ajjproach of the hostile engines.
The gates were guarded with a portcullis; an invention
which, as well as the barbacan, was borrowed from the Sara-
cens. With such advantages for defense, a numerous and
intrepid body of burghers might not unreasonably stand at
bay against a powerful army; and as the consequences of
capture were most terrible, w^hile resistance was seldom
hopeless, we can not wonder at the desperate bravery of so
many besieged towns. Indeed it seldom happened that one
of considerable size was taken, except by famine or treachery,
§ 19. Of the government which existed in the republics of
Italy during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries no definite
sketch can be traced. The magistrates elected in almost all
of them, when they first began to shake off the jurisdiction
of their count or bishop, were styled Consuls — a word very-
expressive to an Italian ear, since, in the darkest ages, tradi-
tion must have preserved some acquaintance with the repub-
lican government of Rome. The consuls were always an-
nual ; and their ofl[ice comprehended the command of the
national militia in war, as well as the administration of jus-
Italy. LOMBARD CITIES. 175
tice and preservation of public order ; but their number was
various — two, four, six, or even twelve. In their legislative
and deliberative councils the Lombards still copied the Ro-
man constitution, or perhaps fell naturally into the form
most calculated to unite sound discretion with the exercise
of popular sovereignty. A council of trust and secrecy
(della credenza) was composed of a small number of persons,
who took the management of public affairs, and may be
called the ministers of the state. But the decision upon
matters of general importance, treaties of alliance or declara-
tions of war, the choice of consuls or ambassadors, belonged to
the general council. This appears not to have been uniform-
ly constituted in every city ; and according to its composition
the government was more or less democratical. An ultimate
sovereignty, however, was reserved to the mass of the peo-
ple; and a Parliament or general assembly was held to de-
liberate on any change in the form of constitution.
About the end of the twelfth century a new and singular
species of magistracy was introduced into the Lombard cit-
ies. During the tyranny of Frederick I. he had appointed
officers of his own, called Podestds, instead of the elective
consuls. It is remarkable that this memorial of despotic
power should not have excited insuperable alarm and dis-
gust in the free republics. But, on the contrary, they almost
universally, after the peace of Constance, revived an office
which had been abrogated when they first rose in rebellion
against Frederick. From experience, as we must presume,
of the partiality which their domestic factions carried into
the administration of justice, it became a general practice to
elect, by the name of podesta, a citizen of some neighboring
state as their general, their criminal judge, and preserver of
the peace. The last duty was frequently arduous, and re-
quired a vigorous as well as an upright magistrate. Offenses
against the laws and security of the commonwealth were
during the Middle Ages as often, perhaps more often, com-
mitted by the rich and powerful than by the inferior class
of society. The sentence of a magistrate against a powerful
offender was not pronounced without danger of tumult ; it
w^as seldom executed without force. A convicted criminal
was not, as at present, the stricken deer of society, whose
disgrace his kindred shrink from participating, and whose
memory they strive to forget. The law was to be enforced
not against an individual, but a family— not against a fami-
ly, but a faction — not perhaps against a local faction, but the
whole Guelf or Ghibelip name, which might become inter-
176 LOMBARD CITIES. Chap. III. Part i.
ested in the quarrel. The podesta was to arm the republic
against her refractory citizen ; his house was to be besieged
and razed to the ground, his defenders to be quelled by vio-
lence : and thus the people, become familiar with outrage
and homicide under the command of their magistrates, were
more disposed to repeat such scenes at the instigation of
their passions.
The podestar was sometimes chosen in a general assembly,
sometimes by a select number of citizens. His office was an-
nual, though prolonged in peculiar emergencies. He was in-
variably a man of noble family, even in those cities which
excluded their own nobility from any share in the govern-
ment. He received a fixed salary, and was compelled to re-
main in the city after the expiration of his office for the pur-
pose of answering such charges as might be adduced against
his conduct. He could neither marry a native of the city,
nor have any relation resident within the district, nor even,
so great was their jealousy, eat or drink in the house of any
citizen. The authority of these foreign magistrates was not
by any means alike in all cities. In some he seems to have
superseded the consuls, and commanded the armies in war.
In others, as Milan and Florence, his authority was merely
judicial. We find in some of the old annals the years head-
ed by the names of the podestas, as by those of the consuls
in the history of Rome.
§ 20. The effects of the evil spirit of discord that had so
fatally breathed upon the republics of Lombardy were by no
means confined to national interests, or to the grand distinc-
tion of Guelf and Ghibelin. Dissensions glowed in the heart-
of every city, and as the danger of foreign war became dis-
tant, these grew more fierce and unappeasable. The feudal
system had been established upon the principle of territorial
aristocracy ; it maintained the authority, it encouraged the
pride of rank. Hence, when the rural nobility were com-
pelled to take up their residence in cities, they preserved the
ascendency of birth and riches. From the natural respect
which is shown to these advantages, all offices of trust and
command were shared among them ; it is not material
whether this were by positive right or continual usage. - A
limited aristocracy of this description, where the inferior citi-
zens possess the right of selecting their magistrates by free
suffrage from a numerous body of nobles, is not among the
worst forms of government, and affords no contemptible se-
curity against oppression and anarchy. This regimen ap-
pears to have prevailed in most of the Lombard cities dur*
Italy. LOMBARD CITIES. 177
ing the eleventh and twelfth centuries ; but gradually dis-
sensions arose between the nobility and the plebeian burgess-
es, which at length broke out into civil war in most of the
Italian cities. About the year 1220 the question of aristo-
cratical or popular command was tried by arms in Milan,
Piacenza, Modena, Cremona, and Bologna.
There is a natural preponderance in the popular scale,
which, in a fair trial, invariably gains on that of the less nu-
merous class. The artisans, who composed the bulk of the
population, were arranged in companies according to their
occupations. Sometimes, as at Milan, they formed separate
associations, with rules for their internal government. The
clubs, called at Milan la Motta and la Crtdenza, obtained a
degree of weight not at all surprising to those who consider
the spirit of mutual attachment which belongs to such fra-
ternities ; and we shall see a more striking instance of this
hereafter in the republic of Florence. To so formidable and
organized a democracy the nobles opposed their numerous
families, the generous spirit that belongs to high birth, the
influence of wealth and established name. The members of
each distinguished family appear to have lived in the same
street ; their houses were fortified with square massive tow-
ers of commanding height, and wore the semblance of castles
within the walls of a city. Brancaleon, the famous senator
of Rome, destroyed one hundred and forty of these domestic
intrenchments, which were constantly serving the purpose
of civil broils and outrage. Expelled, as frequently hap-
pened, from the city, it was in the power of the nobles to
avail themselves of their superiority in the use of cavalry,
and to lay waste the district, till weariness of an unprofita-
ble contention reduced the citizens to terms of compromise.
But when all these resources were ineffectual, they were
tempted or forced to sacrifice the public liberty to their own
welfare, and lent their aid to a foreign master or a domestic
usurper.
In all these scenes of turbulence, whetjher the contest was
between the nobles and people, or the Guelf and Ghibelin
factions, no mercy was snown by the conquerors. The van-
quished lost their homes and fortunes, and, retiring to other
cities of their own party, waited for the opportunity of re-
venge. In a popular tumult the houses of the beaten side
were frequently levelled to the ground — not perhaps from a
sort of senseless fury, which Muratori inveighs against, but
on account of the injury which these fortified houses inflicted
upon the lower citizens. The most deadlv hatred is that
8* .
178 LOMBARD CITIES. Chap. III. Pakt I
which men exasperated by proscription and forfeiture bear
to their country ; nor have we need to ask any other cause
for the calamities of Italy than the bitterness with which
an unsuccessful faction was thus pursued into banishment.
When the Ghibelins were returning to Florence, after a de-
feat given to the prevailing party in 1260, it was proposed
among them to demolish the city itself which had cast them
out ; and, but for the persuasion of one man, Farinata degP
Uberti, their revenge would have thus extinguished all patri-
otism.* It is to this that we must ascribe their proneness to
call in assistance from every side, and to invite any servitude
for the sake of retaliating upon their adversaries.
Independently of the two leading differences which em-
battled the citizens of an Italian state, their form of govern-
ment and their relation to the empire, there were others
more contemptible though not less mischievous. In every
city the quarrels of private families became the foundation
of general schism, sedition, and proscription. Sometimes
these blended themselves with the grand distinctions of
Guelf and Ghibelin ; sometimes they were more nakedly con-
spicuous. Thus an outrage committed at Pistoja in 1300
split the inhabitants into the parties of Bianchi and Neri ;
and these, spreading to Florence, created one of the most
virulent divisions which annoyed that republic. In one of
the changes which attended this little ramification of faction,
Florence expelled a young citizen who had borne offices of
magistracy, and espoused the cause of the Bianchi. Dante
Alighieri retired to the courts of some Ghibelin princes,
where his sublime and inventive mind, in the gloom of exile,
completed that original combination of vast and extrava-
gant conceptions with keen political satire, which has given
immortality to his name, and even lustre to the petty con-
tests of his time.
In the earlier stages of the Lombard republics their differ-
ences, as well mutual as domestic, had been frequently ap-
peased by the mectiation of the emperors ; and the loss of
this salutary influence may be considered as no slight evil
attached to that absolute emancipation which Italy attained
in the thirteenth century. The popes sometimes endeavored
to interpose an authority which, though not quite so direct,
was held in greater veneration ; and if their own tempers
had been always pure from the selfish and vindictive pas-
* I can not forgive Dante for placing this patriot tr^ I'anime piu nere, in one of the
worse regions of his Inferno. The conversation of the poet with Farinata, cant. 10, i»
very fine, and illustrative of Florentine history.
Italy. STATE OF ITALY. 179
sioiis of those whom they influenced, might have produced
more general and permanent good. But they considered
the Ghibelins as their own peculiar enemies, and the triumph
of the opposite faction as the Church's best security. Greg-
ory X. and Nicholas III., whether from benevolent motives,
or because their jealousy of Charles of Anjou, while at the
head of the Guelfs, suggested the revival of a Ghibelin party
as a counterpoise to his power, distinguished their pontificate
by enforcing measures of reconciliation in all Italian cities ;
but their successors returned to the ancient policy and prej-
udices of Rome.
PART II.
1. State of Italy after the Extinction of the House of Snabia. § 2. Conquest of Na-
ples by Charles of Anjou. § 3. The Lombard Republics become severally sub-
ject to Princes or Usurpers. 5 4. The Visconli of Milan. Their Aggrandizement.
5. Decline of the Imperial Authority over Italy. § 6. Internal Slate of Rome.
§ 7. Rienzi. § 8. Florence, § 9. Her Forms of Government. Constitution of
1266. § 10. Struggles between the Nobility and the People. The Ordinances of
Justice. § 11. Despotism of the Duke of Athens. § 12. Rule of the Guelf Society.
§ 13. Revolutions in Florence. § 14. Territory of Florence. § 16, Conquest of
Pisa. Pisa: its Commerce, Naval Wars with Genoa, and Decay. §16, Genoa.
Her Contentions with Venice. War of Chioggio. § 17, Government of Genoa,
18. Venice. Her Origin and Prosperity, § 19. Venetian Government. Its Vices.
§ 20. Territorial Conquests of Venice. § 21. Military System of Italy. § 22. Com-
panies of Adventure. 1. Foreign: Guaruieri, Hawkwood ; and 2, Native; Braccio.
Sforza. § 23. Improvements in Military Service. Arms, offensive and defensive.
Invention of Gunpowder. § 24. Naples, Sicilian Vespers, First Line of Anjou.
§ 25, Charles II, Robert, Joanna I, § 26. Ladislaus. § 27. Joanna II. § 28.
Alfonso, king of Naples. § 29, State of Italy during the Fifteenth Century, § 30.
Florence. Rise of the Medici, and Ruin of their Adversaries. § 31. Lorenzo de'
Medici. § 32. Pretensions of Charles VIII, to Naples,
§ 1. From the death of Frederick II. in 1250, to the inva-
sion of Charles VIII. in 1494, a long and undistinguished
period occurs, which it is impossible to break into any nat-
ural divisions. It is an age in many respects highly bril-
liant — the age of poetry and letters, of art, and of continual
improvement. Italy displayed an intellectual superiority in
this period over the Transalpine nations which certainly had
not appeared since the destruction of the Roman Empire.
But her political history presents a labyrinth of petty facts
so obscure and of so little influence as not to arrest the at-
tention, so intricate and incapable of classification as to leave
only confusion in the memory. The general events that are
worthy of notice, and give a character to this long period,
are the establishment of small tyrannies upon the ruins of
180 D'iCLINE OF THE GHIBELINS. Chap. III. Part II
republican government in most of the cities, the gradual rise
of three considerable states, Milan, Florence, andVenice, the
naval and commercial rivalry between the last city and
Genoa, the final acquisition by the popes of their present ter-
ritorial sovereignty, and the revolutions in the kingdom of
Naples under the lines of Anjou and Aragon.
After the death of Frederick II. the distinctions ofGuelf
and Ghibelin became destitute of all rational meaning. The
most odious crimes were constantly perpetrated, and the ut-
most miseries endured, for an echo and a shade that mocked
the deluded enthusiasts of faction. None of the Guelfs de-
nied the nominal but indefinite sovereignty of the empire ;
and beyond a name the Ghibelins themselves Avould have
been little disposed to carry it. But the virulent hatreds
attached to these words grew continually more implacable,
tillages of ignominy and tyrannical government had extin-
guished every energetic passion in the bosoms of a degraded
people.
§ 2. In the fall of the house of Suabia, Rome appeared to
have consummated her triumph. She gained a still further
ascendency by the change of dynasty in Naples. This king-
dom had been occupied, after the death of Conrad, by his
illegitimate brother, Manfred, in the behalf, as he at first pre-
tended, of young Conradin the heir, but in fact as his own
acquisition. He was a prince of an active and firm mind,
well fitted for his difficult post, to whom the Ghibelins looked
up as their head, and as the re23resentative of his father. It
was a natural object with the popes, independently of their
ill-will towards a son of Frederick II., to see a sovereign
upon whom they could better rely placed upon so neighbor-
ing a throne. Charles, count of Anjou, brother of St. Lo«is,
was tempted by them to lead a crusade (for as such all w^ars
for the interest of Rome were now considered) against the
Neapolitan usurper (a.d. 1265). The chance of a battle de-
cided the fate of Naples, and had a striking influence upon
the history of Europe for several centuries. Manfred was
killed in the field ; but there remained the legitimate heir of
the Fredericks, a boy of seventeen years old, Conradin, son
of Conrad, who rashly, as we say at least after the event,
attempted to regain his inheritance. He fell into the hands
of Charles, and the voice of those rude ages, as well as of a
more enlightened posterity, has united in branding with ev-
erlasting infamy the name of that prince, who did not hes-
itate to purchase the security of his own title by the public
execution of an honorable competitor, or rather a rightfii'
Italy. SUBJECTION OF LOMBARD CITIES. 181
claimant of the throne he had usurped (a.d. 1268). With
Conradin the house of Suabia was extinguished; but Con-
stance, the daughter of Manfred, had transported his right
to Sicily and Naples into the house of Aragon, by her mar-
riage with Peter III.
This success of a monarch selected by the Roman pontiifs
as their particular champion turned the tide of faction over
all Italy. He expelled the Ghibelins from Florence, of which
they had a few years before obtained a complete command
by means of their memorable victory upon the River Arbia.
After the fall of Conradin that party was everywhere dis-
couraged. Germany held out small hopes of support, even
when the imperial throne, which had long been vacant, should
be filled by one of her princes. The populace were in al-
most every city attached to the Church and to the name of
Guelf ; the kings of Naples employed their arms, and the
popes their excommunications; so that for the remainder of
tlie thirteenth century the name of Ghibelin was a term of
proscription in the majority of Lombard and Tuscan repub-
lics. Charles was constituted by the pope vicar-general in
Tuscany. This was a new pretension of the Roman pontiffs,
to name the lieutenants of the Empire during its vacancy,
which indeed could not be completely filled up without their
consent. It soon, however, became evident tliat he aimed at
the sovereignty of Italy. Some of the popes themselves,
Gregory X. and Nicholas IV., grew jealous of their own
creature.
§ 3. Almost all the Lombard republics had, by force, or
stratagem, or free consent, already fallen under the yoke of
some leading citizens, who became the lord (signore) or, in
the German sense, tyrant of his country. The first instance
of a voluntary delegation of sovereignty was that of Ferrara,
which placed itself under the lord of Este. Eccelin made
himself truly the tyrant of the cities beyond the Adige ; and
such experience ought naturally to have inspired the Italians
with more universal abhorrence of despotism. But every
danger appeared trivial in the eyes of exasperated factions
when, compared with the ascendency of their adversaries.
Weary of unceasing and useless contests, in which ruin fell
with an alternate but equal hand upon either party, liberty
withdrew from a people who disgraced her name; and the
tumultuous, the brave, the intractable Lombards, became
eager to submit themselves to a master, and patient under
the heaviest oppression. Or, if tyranny sometimes over-
stepped the limits of forbearance, and a seditious rising ex-
182 THE VISCONTI. Chap. III. Part II.
pelled the reigning prince, it was only to produce a change
of hands, and transfer the impotent people to a diiferent, and
perhaps a worse despotism. In many cities not a conspiracy
v/as planned, not a sigh was breathed, in favor of republican
government, after once they had passed under the sway of
a single person. The progress, indeed, was gradual, though
sure, from limited to absolute, from temporary to hereditary
power, from a just and conciliating rule to extortion and
cruelty. But before the middle of the fourteenth century
at the latest, all those cities which had spurned at the faint-
est mai-k of submission to the emperors lost even the recol-
lection of self-government, and Avere bequeathed, like an un-
doubted patrimony, among the children of their new lords.
Such is the progress of usurpation, and such the vengeance
that Heaven reserves for those who waste in license and fac-
tion its first of social blessings, liberty.
§ 4. The city most distinguished, in both wars against the
house of Suabia, for an unconquerable attachment to repub-
lican institutions, was the first to sacrifice them in a few years
after the death of Frederick II. Milan had for a considera-
ble time been agitated by civil dissensions between the no-
bility and inferior citizens. These parties were pretty equal-
ly balanced, and their success was consequently alternate.
Each had its own podesta, as a party leader, distinct from
the legitimate magistrate of the city. In consequence of the
crime of a nobleman, who had murdered one of his creditors,
the two parties took up arms in 1257. A civil war, of vari-
ous success, and interrupted by several pacifications, which
in that unhappy temper could not be durable, was termina-
ted in about two years by the entire discomfiture of the
aristocracy, and by the election of Martin della Torre as
chief and lord (capitano e signore) of the people. Though
the Milanese did not, probably, intend to renounce the sov-
ereignty resident in their general assemblies, yet they soon
lost the republican spirit : five in succession of the family
della Torre might be said to reign in Milan ; each indeed by
a formal election, but with an implied recognition of a sort
of hereditary title. Twenty years afterwards the Visconti,
a family of opposite interests, supplanted the Torriani at
Milan ; and the rivalry between these great houses was not
at an end till the final establishment of Matteo Visconti in
1313 ; but the people were not otherwise considered than as
aiding.by force the one or other party, and at most deciding
between the pretensions of their masters.
The vigor and concert infused into the Guelf party by the
ITALY. REVIVAL OF THE GHIBELINS. 183
successes of Charles of Anjou was not very durable. That
prince was soon involved in a protracted and unfortunate
quarrel with the kings of Aragon, to whose protection his re-
volted subjects in Italy had recurred. On the other hand,
several men of energetic character retrieved the Ghibelin in-
terests in Lombardy, and even in the Tuscan cities. The Vis-
conti were acknowledged heads of that faction. A family
early established as lords of Verona, the della Scala, main-
tained the credit of the same denomination between the
Adige and the Adriatic. The inferior tyrants were partly
Guelf, partly Ghibelin, according to local revolutions; but,
upon the whole, the latter acquired a gradual ascendency.
Those, indeed, who cared for the independence of Italy, or
for their own power, had far less to fear from the phantom
of imperial prerogatives, long intermitted and incapable of
being enforced, than from the new race of foreign princes
whom the Church had substituted for the house of Suabia.
The Angevin kings of Naples were sovereigns of Provence,
and from thence easily encroached upon Piedmont, and
threatened the Milanese. Robert, the third of this line, al-
most openly aspired, like his grandfather Charles I., to a real
sovereignty over Italy. His offers of assistance to Guelf
cities in war were always coupled with a demand of the sov-
ereignty. Many yielded to his ambition ; and even Flor-
ence twice bestowed upon him a temporary dictatorship. In
1314 he was acknowledged lord of Lucca, Florence, Pavia,
Alessandria, Bergamo, and the cities of Romagna. In 1318
the Guelfs of Genoa found no other resource against the
Ghibelin emigrants who were under their walls than to re-
sign their liberties to the King of Naples for the term of ten
years, which he procured to be renewed for six more. The
Avignon popes, especially John XXII., out of blind hatred
to the Emperor Louis of Bavaria and the Visconti family,
abetted all these measures of ambition. But they were ren-
dered abortive by Robert's death, and the subsequent dis-
turbances of his kingdom.
. At the latter end of the thirteenth century there were al-
most as many princes in the north of Italy as there had been
free cities in the preceding age. Their equality, and the fre-
quent domestic revolutions which made their seat unsteady,
kept them for a while from encroaching on each other.
Gradually, however, they became less numerous : a quantity
of obscure tyrants were swept away from the smaller cities ;
and the people, careless or hopeless of liberty, were glad
tc change the rule of despicable petty usurpers for that of
184 POWER OF THE VISCONTL Chap. III. Part II.
niore distiDguished and powerful families. About the year
1350 the central parts of Lombardy had fallen under the do-
minion of the Visconti. Four other houses occupied the
second rank; that of Este at Ferrara and Modena; of Scala
at Verona, of Carrara at Padua, which later than any Lom-
bard city had resigned her liberty ; and of Gonzaga at Man-
tua, which, without ever obtaining any material extension of
territory, continued, probably for that reason, to reign un-
disturbed till the eighteenth century. But these united were
hardly a match, as they sometimes experienced, for the Vis-
conti. That family, the object of every league formed in
Italy for more than fifty years, in constant hostility to the
Church, and well inured to intei'dicts and excommunications,
producing no one man of military talents, but fertile of ty-
rants detested for their perfidiousness and cruelty, was nev-
ertheless enabled, with almost uninterrupted success, to add
city after city to the dominion of Milan, till it absorbed all
the north of Italy. Under Gian Galeazzo, whose reign be-
gan in 1385, the viper (their armorial bearing) assumed in-
deed a menacing attitude :^ he overturned the great family
of Scala, and annexed their extensive possessions to his own ;
no power intervened from Vercelli, in Piedmont, to Feltre
and Belluno ; while the free cities of Tuscany, Pisa, Siena,
Perugia, and even Bologna, as if by a kind of witchcraft,
voluntarily called in a dissembling tyrant as their master.
At length the Visconti were tacitly admitted among the
reigning princes, by the erection of Milan into a duchy under
letters patent of the Emperor Wenceslaus (a.d. 1295).
§ 5. The imperial authority over Italy was almost entirely
suspended after the death of Frederick II. A long inter-
regnum followed in Germany ; and when the vacancy was
supplied by Rodolph of Hapsburg (a.d. 1272), he was too
prudent to dissipate his moderate resources where the great
house of Suabia had failed. About forty years afterwards
the emperor, Henry VII., of Luxemburg (a.d. 1 308), a prince,
like Rodolph, of small hereditary possessions, but active and
discreet, availed himself of the ancient respect borne to the
imperial name, and the mutual jealousies of the Italians, to
recover for a very short time a remarkable influence. But,
though professing neutrality and desire of union between the
Guelfs and Ghibelins, he could not succeed in removing the
disgust of the former ; his exigencies impelled him to large
1 Allusions to heraldry are very common in the Italian writers. All the historians
ot the fourteenth century habitually use the viper, il biscione, aa a synonym for the
power of Milan.
Italy. RELATIONS WITH THE EMPIRE. 185
demands of money ; and the Italians, when they counted his
scanty German cavalry, perceived that obedience was alto^
gether a matter of their own choice. Henry died, howeve>,
in time to save himself from any decisive reverse. His suc-
cessors, Louis of Bavaria and Charles IV., descended from
the Alps with similar motives, but after some temporary
good-fortune were obliged to return, not without discredit.
Yet the Italians never broke that almost invisible thread
which connected them with Germany ; the fallacious name
of Roman emperor still challenged their allegiance, though
conferred by seven Teutonic electors without their concur-
rence. Even Florence, the most independent and high-
spirited of republics, was induced to make a treaty with
Charles IV. in 1355, which, while it confirmed all her actual
liberties, not a little, by that very confirmation, affected her
sovereignty. This deference to the supposed prerogatives
of the Empire, even while they were least formidable, was
partly owing to jealousy of French or Neapolitan interfer-
ence, partly to the national hatred of the popes who had se-
ceded to Avignon, and in some degree to a misplaced respect
for antiquity, to which the revival of letters had given birth.
The great civilians, and the much greater poets, of the four-
teenth century, taught Italy to consider her emperor as a
dormant sovereign, to whom her various principalities and
republics were subordinate, and during whose absence alone
they had legitimate authority.
In one part, however, of that country, the Empire had,
soon after the commencement of this period, spontaneously
renounced its sovereignty. From the era of Pepin's dona-
tion, confirmed and extended by many subsequent charters,
the Holy See had tolerably just pretensions to the province
entitled Romagna, or the exarchate of Ravenna. But the
popes, whose menaces were dreaded at the extremities of
Europe, were still very weak as temporal princes. Even In-
nocent III. had never been able to obtain possession of this
part of St. Peter's patrimony. The circumstances of Ro-
dolph's accession inspired Nicholas HI. with more confidence.
That emperor granted a confirmation of every thing included
in the donations of Louis I.,Otho, and his other predecessors,
but was still reluctant or ashamed to renounce his imperial
rights. Accordingly, his charter is expressed to be granted
without diminution of the Empire (sine demembratione im-
perii) ; and his chancellor received an oath of fidelity from
the cities of Romagna. But the pope insisting firmly on his
own claim, Rodolph discreetly avoided involving himself in
im INTERNAL STATE OF HOME. Chap. III. Part II.
a fatal quarrel, and, in 1278, absolutely released the imperial
supremacy over all the dominions already granted to the
Holy See.
§ 6. This is a leading epoch in the temporal monarchy of
Rome. But she stood only in the place of the emperor; and
her ultimate sovereignty was compatible with the practica-
ble independence of the free cities, or of the usurpers who
had risen up among them. Bologna, Faenza, Rimini, and
Ravenna, with many others less considerable, took an oath,
indeed, to the pope, but continued to regulate both their in-
ternal concerns and foreign relations at their own discretion.
The first of these cities was far pre-eminent above the rest
for population and renown, and, though not without several
intermissions, preserved a republican character to the end
of the fourteenth century. The rest were soon enslaved by
petty tyrants, more obscure than those of Lombard y. It
was not easy for the pontiffs of Avignon to reinstate them-
selves in a dominion which they seem to have abandoned;
but they made several attempts to recover it, sometimes
with spiritual arms, sometimes witli the more efficacious aid
of mercenary troops. The annals of this part of Italy are
peculiarly uninteresting.
Rome itself was, throughout the Middle Ages, very little
disposed to acquiesce in the government of her bishop. His
rights were indefinite, and unconfirmed by positive law ; the
emperor was long sovereign; the people always meant to be
free. Besides the common causes of insubordination and an-
archy among the Italians, which applied equally to the caj^i-
tal city, other sentiments more peculiar to Rome preserved
a continual though not uniform influence for many centuries.
There still remained enough in the wreck of that vast inher-
itance to swell the bosoms of her citizens with a conscious-
ness of their own dignity. They bore the venerable name,
they contemplated the monuments of art and empire, and
forgot, in the illusions of national pride,-that the tutelar gods
of the building were departed forever. About the middle
of the twelfth century these recollections were heightened
by the eloquence of Arnold of Brescia, a political heretic
who preached against the temporal jurisdiction of the hie-
rarchy. In a temporary intoxication of fancy, they were led
to make a ridiculous show of self-importance towards Freder-
ick Barbarossa, when he came to receive the imperial crown ;
but the German sternly chided their ostentation, and chas-
tised their resistance. With the popes they could deal
more securely. Several of them were expelled from Rome
Italy. KIENZI. 187
during that age by the seditions citizens. Lucius II. died
of hurts received in a tumult. The government was vested
in fifty-six Senators, annually chosen by the people through
the intervention of an electoral body, ten delegates from
each of the thirteen districts of the city. This constitution
lasted not quite fifty years. In 1192 Rome imitated the
prevailing fashion by the appointment of an annual foreign
magistrate. Except in name, the Senator of Rome appears
to have perfectly resembled the podesta of other cities.
This magistrate superseded the representative Senate, who
had proved by no means adequate to control the most law-
less aristocracy of Italy. I shall not repeat the story of
Brancaleon^s rigorous and inflexible justice, which a great
historian has already drawn from obscurity. It illustrates
not the annals of Rome alone, but the general state of Italian
society, the nature of a podesta's duty, and the difliculties of
its execution. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the
Senate, and the Senator who succeeded them, exercised one
distinguishing attribute of sovereignty, that of coining gold
and silver money. Some of their coins still exist, with le-
gends in a very republican tone. Doubtless the temporal
authority of the popes varied according to their personal
character. Innocent III. had much more than his prede-
cessors for almost a century, or than some of his successors.
He made the Senator take an oath of fealty to him, which,
though not very comprehensive, must have passed in those
times as a recognition of his superiority.
§ v. Though there was much less obedience to any legiti-
mate power at Rome than anywhere else in Italy, even dur-
ing the thirteenth century, yet, after the secession of the
popes to Avignon, their own city was left in a far worse con-
dition than before. Disorders of every kind, tumult and
robbery, prevailed in the streets. The Roman nobility were
engaged in perpetual war with each other. Not content
with their own fortified palaces, they turned the sacred mon-
uments of antiquity into strongholds, and consummated the
destruction of time and conquest. At no period has the city
endured such irreparable injuries ; nor was the downfall of
the Western Empire so fatal to its capital as the contempt-
ible feuds of the Orsini and Colonna families. Whatevel
there was of government, whether administered by a legate
from Avignon or by the municipal authorities, had lost all
hold on these powerful barons. In the midst of this degra-
dation and wretchedness, an obscure man, Nicola di Rienzi,
conceived the project of restoring Rome, not only to good
188 AFFAIRS OF ROME. Chap. III. Part II.
order, but even to her ancient greatness (a.d. 1347). He had
received an education beyond his birth, and nourished his
mind with the study of the best writers. After many ha-
rangues to the people, which the nobility, blinded by their
self-confidence, did not attempt to repress, Rienzi suddenly
excited an insurrection, and obtained complete success. He
was placed at the head of a new government, with the title
of Tribune, and with almost unlimited power. The first ef-
fects of this revolution were wonderful. All the nobles sub-
mitted, though with great reluctance ; the roads were cleared
of robbers; tranquillity was restored at home; some severe
examples of justice intimidated offenders; and the tribune
was regarded by all the people as the destined restorer of
Kome and Italy. Though the Court of Avignon could not
approve of such an usurpation, it temporized enough not di-
rectly to oppose it. Most of the Italian republics, and some
of the princes, sent ambassadors, and seemed to recognize
pretensions which were tolerably ostentatious. The King
of Hungary and Queen of Naples submitted their quarrel to
the arbitration of Rienzi, who did not, however, undertake to
decide upon it. But this sudden exaltation intoxicated his
understanding, and exhibited failings entirely incompatible
with his elevated condition. If Rienzi had lived in our own
age, his talents, which were really great, would have found
their proper orbit; for his character was one not unusual
among literary politicians — a combination of knowledge, elo-
quence, and enthusiasm for ideal excellence, with vanity, in-
experience of mankind, unsteadiness, and physical timidity.
As these latter qualities became conspicuous, they eclipsed
his virtues and caused his benefits to be forgotten ; he was
compelled to abdicate his government, and retire into exile.
After several years, some of which he passed in the prisons
of Avignon, Rienzi was brought back to Rome, with the title
of Senator, and under the command of the legate. It was
supposed that the Romans, w^ho had returned to their habits
of insubordination, would gladly submit to their favorite trib-
une. And this proved the case for a few months : but af-
ter that time they ceased altogether to respect a man who
so little respected himself in accepting a station where he
could no longer be free ; and Rienzi was killed in a sedition."
Once more, not long after the death of Rienzi, the freedom
2 An illustrious female writer has drawn with a single stroke the character of
Rienzi, Crescentius, and Arnold of Brescia, the fond restorers of Roman liberty, qui
ont pris Us souvenirs pour lea esperances. Corinue, t. i., p. 159. Could Tacitus have
excelled this ?
iTALi. GOVERNMENT OF FLORENCE. 189
of Rome seems to have revived in republican institutions,
though with names less calculated to inspire peculiar recol-
lections. Magistrates called bannerets, chosen from the thir-
teen districts of the city, with a militia of three thousand
citizens at their command, were placed at the head of this
commonwealth. The great object of this new organization
was to intimidate the Roman nobility, whose outrages, in the
total absence of government, had grown intolerable. Sev-
eral of them were hanged the first year by order of the ban-
nerets. In 1435 the Romans formally took away the gov-
ernment from Eugenius IV., and elected seven seigniors or
chief magistrates, like the priors of Florence. But this rev-
olution was not of long continuance, and the citizens soon
after acknowledged the sovereignty of the pope.
§ 8. The province of Tuscany continued longer than Lom-
bardy under the government of an imperial lieutenant. It
was not till about the middle of the twelfth century that the
cities of Florence, Lucca, Pisa, Siena, Arezzo, Pistoja, and
several less considerable, which might, perhaps, have already
their own elected magistrates, became independent repub-
lics. During the reign of Frederick II., Florence became, as
far as she was able, an ally of the popes. There was, indeed,
a strong Ghibelin party, comprehending many of the great-
est families, but the spirit of the people was thoroughly
Guelf After several revolutions, accompanied by alternate
proscription and demolition of houses, the Guelf party,
through the assistance of Charles of Anjou, obtained a final
ascendency in 1266 ; and after one or two unavailing schemes
of accommodation it was established as a fundamental law
in the Florentine constitution that no person of Ghibelin an-
cestry could be admitted to offices of public trust, which, in
such a government, was in effect an exclusion from the priv-
ileges of citizenship.
The changes of internal government and vicissitudes of
success among factions were so frequent at Florence, for
many years after this time, that she is compared by her great
banished poet to one in sickness, who, unable to rest, gives
herself momentary ease by continual change of posture in
her bed. They did not become much less numerous after
the age of Daiite. Yet the revolutions of Florence should,
perhaps, be considered as no more than a necessary price of
her liberty. It was her boast and her happiness to have es-
caped, except for one short period, that odious rule of vile
usurpers, under which so many other free cities had been
crushed. A sketch of the constitution of so famous a republic
^
190 GOVERNMENT OF FLORENCE. Chap. III. Part II.
ought not to be omitted in this place. Nothing else in the his-
tory of Italy after Frederick II. is so worthy of our attention.
§ 9. The basis of the Florentine polity was a division of
the citizens exercising commerce into their several companies
or arts. These were at first twelve : seven called the greater
arts, and five lesser; but the latter were gradually increased
to fourteen. The seven greater arts were those of lawyers
and notaries, of dealers in foreign cloth, called sometimes
Calimala, of bankers or money-changers, of woollen-drapers,
of physicians and druggists, of dealers in silk, and of furriers.
The inferior arts were those of retailers of cloth, butchers,
smiths, shoe-makers, and builders. This division was fully
established and rendered essential to the constitution in
1266. By the provisions made in that year each of the sev-
en greater arts had a council of its own, a chief magistrate
or consul, who administered justice in civil causes to all
members of his company, and a banneret (gonfaloniere) or
military officer, to whose standard they repaired when any
attempt was made to disturb the peace of the city.
The administration of criminal justice belonged at Flor-
ence, as at other cities, to a foreign Podestd^ or rather to two
foreign magistrates, the Podestd and the Capitano del popolo,
whose jurisdiction appears to have been concurrent. These
offices were preserved till the innovations of the Medici.
The domestic magistracies underwent more changes. In-
stead of consuls, which had been the first denomination of
the chief magistrates of Florence, a college of twelve or four-
teen persons called Anziani or J3uo7momini^ but varying in
name as well as number, according to revolutions of party,
was established about the middle of the thiiteenth century,
to direct public affiiirs. This order was entirely changed in
1282, and gave place to a new form of supreme magistracy,
which lasted till the extinction of the republic. Six Priors,
elected every two months, one from each of the six quarters
of the city, and from each of the greater arts, except that of
lawyers, constituted an executive magistracy. They lived
during their continuance in office in a palace belonging to
the city, and were maintained at the public cost. The actu-
al priors, jointly with the chiefs and councils (usually called
la Capitudme) of the seven greater arts, and with certain
adjuncts (arroti) named by themselves, elected by ballot
their successors. Such was the practice for about forty years
after this government was established. But an innovation,
begun in 1324, and perfected four years afterwards, gave a
peculiar character to the constitution of Florence. A lively
Italy. GOVERNMENT OF FLORENCE. 191
and ambitious people, not merely jealous of their public sov-
ereignty, but deeming its exercise a matter of personal en-
joyment, aware at the same time that the will of the whole
body could neither be immediately expressed on all occa-
sions, nor even through chosen representatives, without the
risk of violence and partiality, fell upon the singular idea of
admitting all citizens not unworthy by their station or con-
duct to offices of magistracy by rotation. Lists were sepa-
rately made out by the priors, the twelve buonuomini, the
chiefs and councils of arts, the bannerets and other respecta-
ble persons, of all citizens, Guelfs by origin, turned of thirty
years of age, and, in their judgment, worthy of public trust.
The lists thus formed were then united, and those who had
composed them, meeting together, in number ninety-seven,
proceeded to ballot upon every name. Whoever obtained
sixty-eight hlack balls was placed upon the reformed list;
and all the names it contained being put on separate tickets
into a bag or purse (imborsati), were drawn successively as
the magistracies were renewed. As there were above fifty
of these, none of which could be held for more than four
months, several hundred citizens were called in rotation to
bear their share in the government within two years. But
at the expiration of every two years the scrutiny was re-
newed, and fresh names were mingled with those which still
continued undrawn; so that accident might deprive a man
for life of his portion of magistracy.
Four councils had been established by the constitution
of 1266 for the decision of all propositions laid before them
by the executive magistrates, whether of a legislative nature
or relating to public policy. These were now abrogated;
and in their places were substituted one of 300 members, all
plebeians, called consiglio di popolo, and one of 250, called
consiglio di commune, into which the nobles might enter.
These were changed by the same rotation as the magis-
tracies, every four months. A Parliament, or general assem-
bly of the Florentine people, was rarely convoked ; but the
leading principle of a democratical republic, the ultimate
sovereignty of the multitude, was not forgotten. This con-
stitution of 1324 was fixed by the citizens at large in a Par-
liament ; and the same sanction was given to those tempo-
rary delegations of the seigniory to a prince which occasion-
ally took place. What is technically called by their histori-
an syars^^o^o^o was the assembly of a Parliament, or a reso*
lution of all derivative powers into the immediate operation
«f the popular will.
192 GOVERNMENT OF FLORENCE. Chap. III. P.uit II.
The ancient government of this republic appears to have
been chiefly in the hands of its nobility. These were very
numerous, and possessed large estates in the district. But
by the constitution of 1266, which was nearly coincident
with the triumph of the Guelf faction, the essential powers
of magistracy as well as of legislation were thrown into the
scale of the commons. The colleges of arts, whose functions
became so eminent, were altogether commercial, and it was
necessary to belong to one or other of the greater arts in or-
der to be admitted into the executive college of the priors.
Many, indeed, of the nobles enrolled themselves in these
companies, and were among the most conspicuous merchants
of Florence; but the majority of the ancient families saw
themselves pushed aside from the helm, which was intrusted
to a class whom they had habitually held in contempt.
§ 10. The nobility, however, set the new constitution at
defiance, and dwelling in strong and lofty houses among their
kindred, and among the fellows of their rank, committed all
sorts of outrages with impunity. At length in 1295, Giano
della Bella, a man of ancient lineage, but attached to the
popular side, introduced a series of enactments exceedingly
disadvantageous to the ancient aristocracy. The first of
these w^as the appointment of an executive officer, the gon-
falonier of justice, whose duty it was to enforce the sen-
tences of the podesta and capitano del popolo in cases where
the ordinary officers were insufficient. A thousand citizens,
afterwards increased to four times that number, were bound
to obey his commands. They were distributed into com-
panies, the gonfaloniers or captains of which became a sort
of corporation or college, and a constituent part of the Gov-
ernment. This new militia seems to have superseded that
of the companies of arts. The gonfalonier of justice was
part of the seigniory along with the priors, of whom he was
reckoned the president, and changed, like them, every two
months. He was, in fact, the first magistrate of Florence.
If Giano della Bella had trusted to the efficacy of this new
security for justice, his fame would have been beyond re-
proach. But he followed it up by harsher provisions. The
nobility were now made absolutely ineligible to the office of
prior. For an offense committed by one of a noble family,
his relations were declared responsible in a penalty of 3000
pounds. And, to obviate the difficulty arising from the fre-
quent intimidation of witnesses, it was provided that com-
mon fame, attested by two credible persons, should be suffi-
cient for the condemnation of a nobleman.
Italy. GOVERNMENT OF FLOKENCE. 193
These are the famous ordinances of justice which passed
at Florence for the great charter of her democracy.
The nobility were soon aware of the position in which
they stood. For half a century their great object was to
procure the relaxation of the ordinances of justice. But they
had no success with an elated enemy. The sort of proscrip-
tion which attended the ancient nobles lowered their spirit ;
while a new aristocracy began to raise its head, the aristoc-
racy of families, who, after filling the highest magistracies
for two or three generations, obtained an hereditary impor-
tance, which answered the purpose of more unequivocal no-
bility ; just as in ancient Rome plebeian families, by admis-
sion to curule offices, acquired the character and appellation
of nobility, and were only distinguishable by their genealogy
from the original patricians. Florence had her plebeian no-
bles (popolani grandi) as well as Rome ; the Peruzzi, the
Ricci, the Albizi, the Medici, correspond to the Catos, the
Pompeys, the Brutuses, and the Antonies. But at Rome
the two orders, after an equal partition of the highest offices,
were content to respect their mutual privileges ; at Florence
the commoners preserved a rigorous monopoly, and the dis-
tinction of high birth was, that it debf^rred men from polit-
ical franchises and civil justice.
This second aristocracy did not obtain much more of the
popular affection than that which it superseded. In order
to keep the nobles under more control the governing party
more than once introduced a new foreign magistrate, with
the title of captain of defense (della guardia), whom they in-
vested with an almost unbounded criminal jurisdiction. One
Gabrielli of Agobbio was twice fetched for this purpose (a.d.
1336,1340); and in each case he behaved in so tyrannical a
manner as to occasion a tumult. His office, however, was of
short duration, and the title at least did not import a sover-
eign command. But very soon afterwards Florence had to
experience one taste of a cup which her neighbors had drunk
off to the dregs, and to animate her magnanimous love of
freedom by a knowledge of the calamities of tyranny.
§ 11. A war with Pisa, unsuccessfully, if not unskillfully,
conducted, gave rise to such dissatisfaction in the city that
the leading commoners had recourse to an appointment
something like that of Gabrielli, and from similar motives.
Walter de Brienne, duke of Athens, was descended from one
of the French Crusaders who had dismembered the Grecian
empire in the preceding century ; but his father, defeated
in battle, had lost the principality along with his life, and the
9
194 GOVEKNMENT OF FLORENCE. Chap. Ill, Part II.
titular duke was an adventurer in the Court of France. He
had been, however, slightly known at Florence on a former
occasion. There was an uniform maxim among the Ital-
ian republics that extraordinary powers should be conferred
upon none but strangers. The Duke of Athens was accord-
ingly pitched upon for the military command, wiiich was
united with domestic jurisdiction. This appears to have
been promoted by the governing party in order to curb the
nobility ; but they w^ere soon undeceived in their expectar
tions. The first act of the Duke of Athens was to bring
four of the most eminent commoners to capital punishment
for military offenses. These sentences, whether just or oth-
erwise, gave much pleasure to the nobles, who had so fre-
quently been exposed to similar severity, and to the popu-
lace, who are naturally pleased with the humiliation of their
superiors. Both of these were caressed by the duke, and
both conspired, with blind passion, to second his ambitious
views. It was proposed and carried in a full Parliament, or
assembly of the people, to bestow upon him the seigniory for
life (a.d. 1342). The real friends of their country, as well as
the oligarchy, shuddered at this measure. Throughout all
the vicissitudes of party, Florence had never yet lost sight
of republican institutions. But happily the reign of tyranny
was very short. The Duke of Athens had neither judgment
nor activity for so difficult a station. He launched out at
once into excesses which it would be desirable that arbitrary
power should always commit at the outset. The taxes were
considerably increased ; their produce was dissipated. The
honor of the state was sacrificed by an inglorious treaty with
Pisa; her territory was diminished by some towns throwing
off their dependence. Severe and multiplied punishments
spread terror through the city. Ten months passed in this
manner, when three separate conspiracies, embracing most
of the nobility and of the great commoners, were planned for
the recovery of freedom. The city was barricaded in every
direction ; and after a contest of some duration the Duke of
Athens consented to abdicate his seigniory.
§ 12. Thus Florence recovered her liberty. Her constitu-
tional laws now seemed to revive of themselves. But the
nobility, who had taken a very active part in the recent lib-
eration of their country, thought it hard to be still placed
under the rigorous ordinances of justice. The populace of
Florence, with its characteristic forgetfulness of benefits, was
tenacious of those proscriptive ordinances. A new civil war
in the city streets decided their quarrel ^ after a desperate*
Italy. GOVERNMENT OF FLORENCE. 1»3.
resistance, many of the principal houses were pillaged and
burned; and the perpetual exclusion of the nobility was
confirmed by fresh laws. But the people, now sure of their
triumph, relaxed a little upon this oocasion the ordinances
of justice; and, to make some distinction in favor of merit
or innocence, effaced certain families from the list of nobility.
Five hundred and thirty persons were thus elevated, as we
may call it, to the rank of commoners. Conversely, several
unpopular commoners were ennobled, in order to disfranchise
them. Nothing was more usual in subsequent times than
such an arbitrary change of rank, as a penalty or a benefit.
Those nobles who were rendered plebeian by favor, were
obliged to change their name and arms. The constitution
now underwent some change. From six the priors were in-
creased to eight ; and instead of being chosen from each of
the greater arts, they were taken from the four quarters of
the city. The gonfaloniers of companies were reduced to
sixteen. And these, along with the seigniory and the twelve
buonuomini, formed the college, where every proposition was
discussed before it could be offered to the councils for their
legislative sanction. But it could only originate, strictly
speaking, in the seigniory, that is, the gonfalonier of justice,
and eight priors, the rest of the college having merely the
function of advice and assistance.
Several years elapsed before any material disturbance
arose at Florence; but in 1357 a spring was set in motion
which gave quite a different character to the domestic histo-
ry of Florence. At the time when the Guelfs, with the as-
sistance of Charles of Anjou, acquired an exclusive domina-
tion in the republic, the estates of the Ghibelins were confis-
cated. One-third of these confiscations was allotted to the
state ; another went to repair the losses of Guelf citizens ;
but the remainder became the property of a new corporate
society, denominated the Guelf party (parte Guelfa), with a
regular internal organization. The Guelf party had two
councils, one of fourteen and one of sixty members; three,
or afterwards four, captains, elected by scrutiny every two
months, a treasury, and common seal — a little republic with-
in the republic of Florence. Their primary duty w^as to
watch over the Guelf interest ; and for this purpose they
had a particular oflicer for the accusation of suspected Ghib-
elins. We hear not much, however, of the Guelf society for
near a century after their establishment ; but they now be-
gan to execute a preponderating influence in the state. In
this society the ancient nobles retained a considerable iuflu-
196 GOVERNMENT OE FLORENCE. Chap. III. Part II.
ence. The laws of exclusion had never been applied to that
corporation. Two of the captains were always noble, two
were commoners. The people, in debarring the nobility from
ordinary privileges, were little aware of the more dangerous
channel which had been left open to their ambition. With
the nobility some of the great commoners acted in concert,
and especially the family and faction of the Albizi. They
carried a law by which every person accepting an office who
should be convicted of Ghibelinism or of Ghibelin descent,
upon testimony of public fame, became liable to punishment,
capital or pecuniary, at the discretion of the priors. To this
law they gave a retrospective effect. Many citizens who
had been magistrates within a few years were cast in heavy
fines on this indefinite charge. But the more usual practice
was to warn (ammonire) men beforehand against undertak-
ing public trust. If they neglected this hint, they were sure
to be treated as convicted Ghibelins. Thus a very numer-
ous class, called Ammoniti^ was formed of proscribed and
discontented persons, eager to throw off the intolerable yoke
of the Guelf society ; for the imputation of Ghibelin con-
nections was generall}^ an unfounded pretext for crushing
the enemies of the governing faction. Men of approved
Guelf principles and origin were every day warned from
their natural privileges of sharing in magistracy. This
spread an universal alarm through the city; but the great
advantage of union and secret confederacy rendered the
Guelf society, who had also the law on their side, irresistible
by their opponents. Meanwhile the public honor was well
supported abroad; Florence had never before been so dis-
tinguished as during the prevalence of this oligarchy.
§ 13. The Guelf society had governed with more or less
absoluteness for near twenty years, when the republic be-
came involved, through the perfidious conduct of the papal
legate, in a war with the Holy See. Though the Floren-
tines were by no means superstitious, this hostility to the
Church appeared almost an absurdity to determined Guelfs,
and shocked those prejudices about names which make up
the politics of vulgar minds. The Guelf society, though it
could not openly resist the popular indignation against
Gregory XL, was not heartily inclined to this war. Its
management fell, therefore, into the hands of eight commis-
sioners, some of them not well affected to the society ; whose
administration was so successful and popular as to excite the
utmost jealousy in the Guelfs. They began to renew their
warnings, and in eight months excluded fourscore citizens.
Italy. GOVERNMENT OF FLORENCE. 197
The civil dissensions which followed need not be described
at length. The seven greater arts were generally attached
to the Guelf Society, while the fourteen lesser arts, com-
posed of retail and mechanical traders, were eager to make
Florence a democracy in fact as well as in name, by partici-
pating in the executive government. While the lesser arts
were murmuring at the exclusive privileges of the commer-
cial aristocracy, there was yet an inferior class of citizens
who thought their own claims to equal privileges irrefra-
gable. The arrangement of twenty-one trading companies
had still left several kinds of artisans unincorporated, and
consequently unprivileged. These had been attached to the
art with which their craft had most connection in a sort of
dependent relation. Thus to the company of drapers, the
most wealthy of all, the various occupations instrumental in
the manufacture, as wool-combers, dyers, and weavers, were
appendant. Besides the sense of political exclusion, these
artisans alleged that they were oppressed by their employers
of the art. A still lower order of the community was the
mere populace, who did not practice any regular trade, or
who only worked for daily hire. These were called Ciompi,
a corruption, it is said, of the French compere.
The inferior tradesmen demanded the establishment of
two new arts for themselves, and one for the lower people.
After various seditions, a violent insurrection, in which the
ciompi, or lowest populace, were alone concerned, broke out.
The gates of the palace belonging to the seigniory were
forced open, the priors compelled to fly, and no appearance
of a constitutional magistracy remained to throw the vail of
law over the excesses of anarchy. The republic seemed to
rock from its foundations ; and the circumstance to which
historians ascribe its salvation is not the least singular in
this critical epoch. One Michel di Lando, a Avool-comber,
half-dressed and without shoes, happened to hold the stand-
ard of justice wrested from the proper officer when the pop-
ulace burst into the palace. Whether he was previously
conspicuous in the tumult is not recorded ; but the wild,
capricious mob, who had destroyed what they had no con-
ception how to rebuild, suddenly cried out that'Lando should
be gonfalonier or seignior, and reform the city at his pleasure.
A choice, arising probably from wanton folly, could not
have been better made by wisdom. Lando was a man of
courage, moderation, and integrity. He gave immediate
proofs of these qualities by causing his office to be respect-
ed. The eight commissioners of the war, who, though not
198 CxOVERNMENT OF FLORENCE. Chap. III. Fart II .
instigators of the sedition, were well pleased to see the
Guelf party so entirely prostrated, now fancied themselves
masters, and began to nominate priors. But Lando sent a
message to them that he was elected by the people, and
that he could dispense with their assistance. He then pro-
ceeded to the choice of priors. Three were taken from the
greater arts ; three from the lesser ; and three from the two
new arts and the lower people. This eccentric college lost
no time in restoring tranquillity, and compelled the popu-
lace, by threat of punishment, to return to their occupations.
But the ciompi were not disposed to give up the pleasures
of anarchy so readily. They were dissatisfied at the small
share allotted to them in the new distribution of offices, and
murmured at their gonfalonier as a traitor to the popular
cause. Lando was aware that an insurrection was project-
ed ; he took measures with the most respectable citizens ;
the insurgents, when they showed themselves, were quelled
by force, and the gonfalonier retired from office with an ap-
probation which all historians of Florence have agreed to
perpetuate. The ciompi, once checked, were soon defeated.
The next gonfalonier was, like Lando, a wool-comber ; but,
wanting the intrinsic merit of Lando, his mean station ex-
cited universal contempt. None of the arts could endure
their low coadjutors ; a short struggle was made by the pop-
ulace, but they were entirely overpowered with considera-
ble slauijhter, and the government was divided between the
seven greater and sixteen lesser arts in nearly equal pro-
portions.
The party of the lesser arts, or inferior tradesmen, which
had begun this confusion, were left winners when it ceased.
But at the end of three years the aristocratical party re-
gained its ascendency. They did not revive the severity
practised towards the Ammoniti ; but the two new arts,
created for the small trades, were abolished, and the lesser
arts reduced to a third part, instead of something more than
one-half, of public offices. For half a century after this time
no revolution took place at Florence. The Guelf aristocracy,
strong in oj^ulence and antiquity, and rendered prudent by
experience, under the guidance of the Albizi family, main-
tained a preponderating influence without much departing,
the times considered, from moderation and respect for the
laws.
§ 14. Though fertile and populous, the proper district of
Florence was by no means extensive. The republic made
no acquisition of territory till 1351, when she annexed the
1TA..Y. PISA. 199
small city of Prato, not ten miles from her walls. Pistoja,
though still nominally independent, received a Florentine
garrison about the same time. Several additions were made
to the district by fair purchase from the nobility of the
Apennines, and a few by main force. The territory was
still very little proportioned to the frame and power of Flor-
ence. The latter was founded upon her vast commercial
opulence. Every Italian state employed mercenary troops,
and the richest was, of course, the most powerful. In 1336
the revenues of Florence are reckoned by Villani at 300,000
florins, which, as he observes, is more than the king of Na-
ples or Aragon possesses.^ The expenditure went at that
time very much beyond the receipt, and was defrayed by
loans from the principal mercantile firms, which were se-
cured by public funds — the earliest instance, I believe, of
that financial resource. Her population was computed at
innety thousand souls. Villani reckons the district at eighty
thousand men, I suppose those only of military age ; but
this calculation must have been too large, even though he
included, as we may presume, the city in his estimate. Tus-
cany, though well cultivated and flourishing, does not con-
tain by any means so great a number of inhabitants in that
space at present.
§ 15. The first eminent conquest made by Florence was
that of Pisa, early in the fifteenth century. Pisa had been
distinguished as a commercial city ever since the age of the
Othos. From her ports, and those of Genoa, the earliest
naval armaments of the Western nations were fitted out
against the Saracen corsairs who infested the Mediterranean
coasts. In the eleventh century she undertook, and, after a
pretty long struggle, completed, the important, or at least
the splendid, conquest of Sardinia, an island long subject to
a Moorish chieftain. Her naval prowess was supported by
her commerce. A writer of the twelfth century reproaches
her with the Jews, the Arabians, and other " monsters of the
sea," who thronged in her streets. The crusades poured
fresh wealth into the lap of the maritime Italian cities. In
some of those expeditions a great portion of the armament
was conveyed by sea to Palestine, and freighted the vessels
of Pisa, Genoa, and Venice. When the Christians had bought
with their blood the sea-coast of Syria, these republics pro-
cured the most extensive privileges in the new states that
were formed out of their slender conquests, and became the
3 The gold florin was worth abont ten shillings of our money. The district of
Florence was not then much larger than Middlesex.
200 PISA. Chap. III. Part II.
conduits through which the produce of the East flowed in
upon the ruder nations of Europe. Pisa maintained a large
share of this commerce, as well as of maritime greatness, till
near the end of the thirteenth century. In 1282 she was in
great power, possessing Sardinia, Corsica, and Elba, from
whence the republic, as well as private persons, derived
large revenues, and almost ruled the sea with their ships
and merchandise, and beyond sea were very powerful in the
city of Acre, and much connected with its principal citizens.
The prosperous era of Pisa is marked by her public edifices.
She was the first Italian city that took a pride in architect-
ural magnificence. Her cathedral is of the eleventh centu-
ry ; the baptistery, the famous inclined tower, or belfry, the
arcades that surround the Campo Santo, or cemetery of Pisa,
are of the twelfth, or, at latest, of the thirteenth.
It would have been no slight anomaly in the annals of
Italy, or, we might say, of mankind, if two neighboring
cities, competitors in every naval enterprise, had not been
perpetual enemies to each other. One is more surprised, if
the fact be true, that no war broke out between Pisa and
Genoa till 1119. From this time, at least, they continually
recurred. An equality ol forces and of courage kept the
conflict uncertain for the greater part of two centuries.
Their battles were numerous, and sometimes, taken sepa-
rately, decisive ; but the public spirit and resources of each
city were called out by defeat, and we generally find a new
armament replace the losses of an unsuccessful combat. In
this respect the naval contest between Pisa and Genoa,
though much longer protracted, resembles that of Rome
and Carthage in the first Punic war. But Pisa was re-
served for her ^gades. In one fatal battle, off* the little
isle of Meloria, in 1284, her whole navy was destroyed.
Several unfortunate and expensive armaments had almost
exhausted the state, and this was the last effort, by private
sacrifices, to equip one more fleet. After this defeat it was
in vain to contend for empire. Eleven thousand Pisans lan-
guished for many years in prison ; it was a current saying
that whoever would see Pisa should seek her at Genoa. A
treacherous chief, that Count Ugolino whose guilt was so ter-
ribly avenged, is said to have purposely lost the battle, and
prevented the ransom of the captives, to secure his power ;
accusations that obtain easy credit with an unsuccessful
people.
From the epoch of the battle of Meloria, Pisa ceased to be
a maritime power. Forty years afterwards she was strip*
Ital^. GENOA. 201
ped of her ancient colony, the island of Sardinia, which was
annexed to the crown of Aragon. Her commerce now dwin-
dled with her greatness. During the fourteenth century
Pisa almost renounced the ocean, and directed her main at-
tention to the politics of Tuscany. Ghibelin by invariable
predilection, she was in constant opposition to the Guelf
cities which looked up to Florence. But in the fourteenth
century the names of freeman and Ghibelin were not easily
united ; and a city in that interest stood insulated between
the republics of an opposite faction and the tyrants of her
own. Pisa fell several times under the yoke of usurpers ;
she was included in the wide-spreading acquisitions of Gian
Galeazzo Yisconti. At his death one of his family seized
the dominion, and finally the Florentines purchased for
400,000 florins a rival and once equal city. The Pisans
made a resistance more according to what they had been
than what they were.
§ 16. The early history of Genoa, in all her foreign rela- ^
tionSjis involved in that of Pisa. As allies against the Sara- ly^
cens of Africa, Spain, and the Mediterranean islands, as co- '^
rivals in commerce with these very Saracens or with the
Christians of the East, as co-operators in the great expedi-
tions under the banner of the cross, or as engaged in deadly
warfare with each other, the two republics stand in con-
tinual parallel. From the beginning of the thirteenth cen-
tury Genoa was, I think, the more prominent and flourishing
fii the two. She had conquered the island of Corsica at the
same time that Pisa reduced Sardinia ; and her acquisition,
though less considerable, was longer preserved. Her terri-
tory at home, the ancient Liguria, was much more extensive,
and, what was most important, contained a greater range of
sea-coast than that of Pisa. But the commercial and mari-'
time prosperity of Genoa may be dated from the recovery
of Constantinople by the Greeks in 1261. Jealous of the
Venetians, by whose arms the Latin emperors had been
placed, and were still maintained, on their throne, the Genoese
assisted Palieologus in overturning that usurpation. They
obtained in consequence the suburb of Pera or Galata, over
against Constantinople, as an exclusive settlement, where
their colony was ruled by a magistrate sent from home, and
frequently defied the Greek capital with its armed galleys
and intrepid seamen. From this convenient station Genoa
extended her commerce into the Black Sea, and established
her principal factory at Caffa, in the Crimean peninsula.
This commercial monopoly, for such she endeavored to ren-
202 WARS OF GENOA. Chap. III. Part II.
der it, aggravated the animosity of Venice. As Pisa retired
from the field of waters, a new enemy appeared upon the
horizon to dispute the maritime dominion of Genoa. Her
first war with Venice was in 1258. The second was not till
after the victory of Meloria had crushed her more ancient
enemy. It broke out in 1293, and was prosecuted with de-
termined fury and a great display of naval strength on both
sides. One Genoese armament consisted of 155 galleys, each
manned with from 220 to 300 sailors. It was, however, be-
yond any other exertion. The usual fleets of Genoa and
V enice were of seventy to ninety galleys.
But the most remarkable war, and that productive of the
greatest consequences, was one that commenced in 1378,
after several acts of hostility in the Levant. Genoa did not
stand alone in this war. A formidable confederacy was
raised against Venice, who had given provocation to many
enemies. Of this Francis Carrara, seignior of Padua, and the
King of Hungary were the leaders. But the principal strug-
gle was, as usual, upon the waves. During the winter of
1378 a Genoese fleet kept the sea, and ravaged the shores of
Dalmatia. The Venetian armament had been weakened by
an epidemic disease, and when Vittor Pisani, their admiral,
gave battle to the enemy, he was compelled to fight with a
hasty conscription of landsmen against the best sailors in the
world. Entirely defeated, and taking refuge at Venice with
only seven galleys, Pisani was cast into prison, as if his ill-
fortune had been his crime. Meanwhile the Genoese fleet,
augmented by a strong reinforcement, rode before the long
natural ramparts that separate the lagunes of Venice from
the Adriatic. Six passages intersect the islands which con-
stitute this barrier, besides the broader outlets of Brondolo
and Fossone, through which the waters of the Brenta and
the Adige are discharged. The lagune itself, as is well
known, consists of extreniely shallow water, unnavigable for
any vessel except along the course of artificial and intricate
passages. Notwithstanding the apparent difficulties of such
an enterprise, Pietro Doria, the Genoese admiral, determined
to reduce the city. His first successes gave him reason to
hope. He forced the passage, and stormed the little town of
Chioggia, built upon the inside of the isle bearing that name,
about twenty-five miles south of Venice. Nearly four thou-
sand prisoners fell here into his hands — an augury, as it
seemed, of a more splendid triumph. In the consternation
this misfortune inspired at Venice, the first impulse was to
ask for peace. The ambassadors carried with them se\en
Italy. WARS OF GENOA. 203
Genoese prisoners, as a sort of peace-offering to the admiral,
and were empowered to make large and humiliating conces-
sions, reserving nothing but the liberty of Venice. Francis
Carrara strongly urged his allies to treat for peace. But the
Genoese were stimulated by long hatred, and intoxicated by
this unexpected opportunity of revenge. Doria, calling the
ambassadors into council, thus addressed them : " Ye shall
obtain no peace from us, I swear to you, nor from the lord of
Padua, till first we have put a curb in the mouths of those
wild horses that stand upon the place of St. Mark. When
they are bridled you shall have enough of peace. Take back
with you your Genoese captives, for I am coming within a
few days to release both them and their companions from
your prisons." When this answer was reported to the Sen-
ate, they prepared to defend themselves with the character-
istic firmness of their Government. Every eye was turned
towards a great man unjustly punished, their admiral Vittor
Pisani. He was called out of prison to defend his country
amidst general acclamations. Under his vigorous command
the canals were fortified or occupied by large vessels armed
with artillery ; thirty-four galleys were equipped ; every
citizen contributed according to his power ; in the entire
want of commercial resources (for Venice had not a mer-
chant-ship during this war) private plate was melted ; and
the Senate held out the promise of ennobling thirty families
who should be most forward in this strife of patriotism.
The new fleet was so ill provided with seamen that for
some months the admiral employed them only in manoeuvring
along the canals. From some unaccountable supineness, or
more probably from the insuperable difficulties of the under-
taking, the Genoese made no assault upon the city. They
had, indeed, fair grounds to hope its reduction by famine or
despair. Every access to the continent was cut off by the
troops of Padua ; and the King of Hungary had mastered al-
most all the Venetian towns in Istria and along the Dalma-
tian coast. The Doge Contarini, taking the chief command,
appeared at length with his fleet near Chioggia, before the
Genoese were aware. They were still less aware of his se-
cret design. He pushed one of the large round vessels, then
called cocche, into the narrow passage of Chioggia which
connects the lagune with the sea, and, mooring her athwart
the channel, interrupted that communication. Attacked
with fury by the enemy, this vessel went down on the spot,
and the doge improved his advantage by sinking loads of
stones until the passage became absolutely un navigable It
204 WARS OF GENOA. Chap. III. Part li
was still possible for the Genoese fleet to follow the principal
canal of the lagune towards Venice and the northern pas-
sages, or to sail out of it by the harbor of Brondolo ; but,
whether from confusion or from miscalculating the dangers
of their position, they suffered the Venetians to close the ca-
nal upon them by the same means they had used at Chiog-
gia, and even to place their fleet in the entrance of Brondolo
so near to the lagune that the Genoese could not form their
ships in line of battle. The circumstances of the two com-
batants were thus entirely changed. But the Genoese fleet,
though besieged in Chioggia, was impregnable, and their
command of the land secured them from famine. Venice,
notwithstanding her unexpected success, was still very far
from secure : it was diflicult for the doge to keep his position
through the winter ; and if the enemy could appear in open
sea, the risks of combat were extremely hazardous. It is
said that the Senate deliberated upon transporting the seat
of their liberty to Candia, and that the doge had announced
his intention to raise the siege of Chioggia, if expected suc-
cors did not arrive by the 1st of January, 1380. On that
very day Carlo Zeno, an admiral who, ignorant of the dan-
gers of his country, had been supporting the honor of her
flag in the Levant and on the coast of Liguria, appeared with
a reinforcement of eighteen galleys and a store of provisions.
From that moment the confidence of Venice revived. The
fleet, now superior in strength to the enemy, began to at-
tack them with vivacity. After several months of obstinate
resistance, the Genoese — whom their republic had ineflect-
ually attempted to relieve by a fresh armament — blocked up
in the town of Chioggia, and pressed by hunger, were obliged
to surrender. Nineteen galleys only, out of forty-eight, were
in good condition ; and the crews were equally diminished
in the ten months of their occupation of Chioggia. The pride
of Genoa was deemed to be justly humbled; and even her
own historian confesses that God would not suffer so noble a
city as Venice to become the spoil of a conqueror.
Though the capture of Chioggia did not terminate the
war, both parties were exhausted, and willing, next year, to
accept the mediation of the Duke of Savoy. By the peace
of Turin, Venice surrendered most of her territorial posses-
sions to the King of Hungary. That prince and Francis
Carrara were the only gainers. Genoa obtained the isle
of Tenedos, one of the original subjects of dispute — a poor
indemnity for her losses. Though, upon a hasty view, the
result of this war appears more unfavorable to Venice, yet
Italy. HER GOVERNMENT. 205
in fact it is the epoch of the decline of Genoa. From this
time she never commanded the ocean with such navies as
before; her commerce gradually went into decay ; and the
fifteenth century — the most splendid in the annals of Ven-
ice — is, till recent times, the most ignominious in those of
Genoa. But this was partly owing to internal dissensions,
by which her liberty, as well as glory, was for a while sus-
pended.
§ 17. At Genoa, as in other cities of Lombardy, the prin-
cipal magistrates of the republic were originally styled con-
suls. Their number varied from four to six, annually elected
by the people in their full Parliament. These consuls pre-
sided over the republic, and commanded the forces by land
and sea ; while another class of magistrates, bearing the
same title, were annually elected by the several companies
into which the people were divided, for the administration
of civil justice. This was the regimen of the twelfth cen-
tury ; but in the next Genoa fell into the fashion of intrust-
ing the executive power to a foreign podesta. The podesta
was assisted by a council of eight, chosen by the eight com-
panies of nobility. This institution gave not only an aristo-
cratic, but almost an oligarchical character to the constitu-
tion, since many of the nobility were not members of these
eight societies. Of the Senate or Councils we hardly know
more than their existence ; they are very little mentioned
by historians. Every thing of a general nature, every thing
that required the expression of public will, was reserved for
the entire and unrepresented sovereignty of the people. In
no city was the Parliament so often convened — for war, for
peace, for alliance, for change of government. These very
dissonant elements were not likely to harmonize. The peo-
ple, sufficiently accustomed to the forms of democracy to
imbibe its spirit, repined at the practical influence which
was thrown into the scale of the nobles. Among the nobil-
ity themselves, four houses were distinguished beyond all
the rest — the Grimaldi, the Fieschi, the Doria, the Spinola ;
the two former of Guelf politics, the latter adherents of the
Empire. Perhaps their equality of forces, and a jealously
which even the families of the same faction entertained of
each other, prevented any one from usurping the seigniory
at Genoa. Neither the Guelf nor Ghibelin party obtaining a
decided preponderance, continual revolutions occurred in the
city. The most celebrated was in 1339, which led to the
election of the first doge. A large fleet in want of pay
broke out in open insurrection. Savona and the neighbor
206 KEVOLUTION OF GENOA. Chai-. 111. Part II.
ing towns took arms avowedly against the aristocratical tyr-
anny; and the capital was itself on the point of joining the
insurgents. There was, by the Genoese constitution, a mag-
istrate named the abbot of the people, acting as a kind of
tribune for their protection against the oppression of the no-
bility. This office had been abolished by the present gov-
ernment^ and it was the first demand of the malcontents that
it should be restored. This was acceded to, and twenty
delegates were appointed to make the choice. While they
delayed, and the populace was grown weary with waiting, a
nameless artisan called out from an elevated station that he
could direct them to a fit person. When the people, in jest,
bade him speak on, he uttered the name of Simon Boccane-
gra. This was a man of noble birth, and well esteemed, who
was then present among the crowd. The word was sudden-
ly taken up ; a cry was heard that Boccanegra should be ab-
bot : he was instantly brought forward, and the sword of
justice forced into his hand. As soon as silence could be
obtained he modestly thanked them for their favor, but de-
clined an office which his nobility disqualified him from ex-
ercising. At this a single voice out of the crowd exclaimed,
''^ Seignior r'' and this title was reverberated from every side.
Fearful of worse consequences, the actual magistrates urged
him to comply with the people and accept the office of abbot.
But Boccanegra, addressing the assembly, declared his readi-
ness to become their abbot, seignior, or whatever they would.
The cry of " Seignior !" was now louder than before ; Avhile
others cried out, " Let him be duke V Tlie latter title was
received with greater approbation ; and Boccanegra was
conducted to the palace, the first duke, or doge, of Genoa.
Caprice alone, or an idea of more pomp and dignity, led
the populace, we may conjecture, to prefer this title to that
of seignior ; but it produced important and highly beneficial
consequences. In all neighboring cities an arbitrary gov-
ernment had been already established under their respective
seigniors; the name was associated with indefinite power,
while that of doge had only been taken by the elective and
very limited chief magistrate of another maritime republic.
Neither Boccanegra nor his successors ever rendered their
authority unlimited or hereditary. The constitution of
Genoa, from an oppressive aristocracy, became a mixture of
the two other forms, with an exclusion of the nobles from
power. Those four great families who had domineered al-
ternately for almost a century lost their influence at home
after the revolution of 1339. Yet, what is remarkable
Italy. VENICE. 207
enough, they were still selected in preference for the high-
est of trusts : their names are still identified with the glory
of Genoa ; her fleets hardly sailed but under a Doria, a Spi-
nola, or a Grimalda — such confidence could the republic be-
stow upon their patriotism, or that of those whom they com-
manded. Meanwhile two or three new families, a plebeian
oligarchy, filled their place in domestic honors ; the Adorni,
the Fregosi, the Montalti, contended for the ascendant.
From their competition ensued revolutions too numerous al-
most for a separate history; in four years, from 1390 to 1394,
the doge was ten times changed — swept away or brought
back in the fluctuations of popular tumult. Antoniotto
Adorno, four times doge of Genoa, had sought the friend-
ship of Gian Galeazzo Visconti ; but that crafty tyrant medi-
tated the subjugation of the republic, and played her factions
against one another to render her fall secure. Adorno per-
ceived that there was no hope for ultimate independence but
by making a temporary sacrifice of it. His own power, am-
bitious as he had been, he voluntarily resigned; and placed
the republic under the protection or seigniory of the King
of France. Terms were stipulated very favorable to her lib-
erties ; but, with a French garrison once received into the city,
they w^ere not always sure of observance.
§ 18. While Genoa lost even her political independence,
Venice became more conspicuous and powerful than before.
That famous republic deduces its original, and even its lib-
erty, from an era beyond the commencement of the Middle
Ages. The Venetians boast of a perpetual emancipation
from the yoke of barbarians. From that ignominious servi-
tude some natives of Aquileia and neighboring towns fled to
the small cluster of islands that rise amidst the shoals at the
mouth of the Brenta. Here they built the town of Rivo-
alto, the modern Venice, in 421 ; but their chief settlement
was, till the beginning of the ninth century, at Malamocco.
Both the Western and the Eastern empire alternately pre-
tended to exercise dominion over her ; she was conquered
by Pepin, son of Charlemagne, and restored by him, as the
chroniclers say, to the Greek emperor, Nicephorus. There
is every appearance that the Venetians had always consid-
ered themselves as subject to the Eastern Empire. And this
connection was not broken in the early part, at least, of the
tenth century. But, for every essential purpose, Venice
might long before be deemed an independent state. Her
doge was not confirmed at Constantinople ; she paid no
tribute, and lent no assistance in war. Her ow^n navies, in
208 ACQUISITIONS OF VENICE. Chap. III. Part II.
the ninth century, encountered the Normans, the Saracens,
and the Sclavonians in the Adriatic Sea. TJpon the coast
of Dalmatia were several Greek cities, which the Empire had
ceased to protect, and which, like Venice itself, became re-
publics for want of a master. Ragusa was one of these, and,
more fortunate than the rest, survived as an independent
city till our own age. In return for the assistance of Ven-
ice, these little sea-ports put themselves under her govern-
ment ; The Sclavonian pirates were repressed ; and after ac-
quiring, partly by consent, partly by arms, a large tract of
maritime territory, the doge took the title of Duke of Dalma-
tia. Three or four centuries, however, elapsed before the
republic became secure of these conquests, which 'were fre-
quently wrested from her by rebellions of the inhabitants,
or by her powerful neighbor, the King of Hungary.
A more important source of Venetian greatness was com-
merce. In the darkest and most barbarous period, before
Genoa or even Pisa had entered into mercantile pursuits,
Venice carried on an extensive traffic both with the Greek
and Saracen regions of the Levant. The Crusades enriched
and aggrandized Venice more, perhaps, than any other city.
Her splendor may, however, be dated from the taking of
Constantinople by the Latins in 1204. In this famous enter-
prise, which diverted a great armament destined for the re-
covery of Jerusalem, the French and Venetian nations were
alone engaged ; but the former only as private adventurers,
the latter with the whole strength of their republic under its
doge, Henry Dandolo. Three-eighths of the city of Constan-
tinople, and an equal proportion of the provinces, were allot-
ted to them in the partition of the spoil, and the doge took
the singular but accurate title, Duke of three-eighths of the
Roman Empire. Their share was increased by purchases
from less opulent crusaders, especially one of much impor-
tance, the island of Candia, which they retained till the mid-
dle of the seventeenth century. These foreign acquisitions
were generally granted out in fief to private Venetian nobles
under the supremacy of the republic. It was thus that the
Ionian islands, to adopt the vocabulary of our day, came un-
der the dominion of Venice, and guaranteed that sovereignty
which she now began to affect over the Adriatic. Those of
the Archipelago were lost in the sixteenth century. Thia
political greatness was sustained by an increasing commerce.
No Christian state preserved so considerable an intercourse
with the Mohammedans. While Genoa kept the keys of the
Black Sea by her colonies of Pera and Caffa,Venice directed
Italy. HER GOVERNMENT. 209
her vessels to Acre and Alexandria. These connections, as
is the natural effect of trade, deadened the sense of religious
antipathy ; and the Venetians were sometimes charged with
obstructing all eflbrts towards a new crusade, or even any
partial attacks upon the Mohammedan nations.
§ 19. The earliest form of government at Venice, as we
collect from an epistle of Cassiodorus in the sixteenth cen-
tury, was by twelve annual tribunes. Perhaps the union of
the different islanders was merely federative. However, in
697, they resolved to elect a chief magistrate by name of
duke, or, in their dialect. Doge of Venice. No councils ap-
pear to have limited his power, or represented the national
will. The doge was general and judge ; he was sometimes
permitted to associate his son with him, and thus to prepare
the road foi- hereditary power ; his government had all the
prerogatives, and, as far as in such a state of manners was
possible, the pomp, of a monarchy. But he acted in impor-
tant matters with the concurrence of a general assembly,
though, from the want of positive restraints, his executive
government might be considered as nearly absolute. Time,
however, demonstrated to the Venetians the imperfections
of such a constitution. Limitations were accordingly im-
posed on the doge, and at length, in 1172, the Gi^eat Council
was established. It was at first elective, and annually re-
newed ; but it became gradually, by snccessive changes, an
exclusive hereditary aristocracy, and, m 1319, all elective
forms were abolished. By the constitution of Venice as it
was then settled, every descendant of a member of the Great
Council, on attaining twenty-five years of age, entered as of
right into that body, which, of course, became unlimited in
its numbers.
But an assembly so numerous as the Great Council could
never have conducted the public affairs with that secrecy
and steadiness which were characteristic of Venice; and
without an intermediary power between the doge and the
patrician multitude the constitution would have gained noth-
ing in stability to compensate for the loss of popular free-
dom. The executive government w^as committed to a Seri-
ate, consisting of sixty members, in which the doge presided,
and to which the care of the state in all domestic and for-
eign relations, and the previous deliberation upon proposals
submitted to the Great Council, was confided. It was en-
larged in the fourteenth century by sixty additional mem-
bers; and as a great part of the magistrates had also seats
in it, the whole number amounted to between two and three
210 GOVERNMENT OF VENICE. Chap. III. Part II
hundred. Though the legislative power, properly speaking,
remained with the Great Council, the Senate \ised to impose
taxes, and had the exclusive right of making peace and war.
It was annually renewed, like almost all other councils at Ven-
ice, by the Great Council. But since even this body was too
numerous for the preliminary discussion of business, six coun-
cillors, forming, along with the doge, the Seigniory^ or visible
representative of the republic, were empowered to dispatch
orders, to correspond with ambassadors, to treat with foreign
states, to convoke and preside in the councils, and perform
other duties of an administration.
It might be imagined that a dignity so shorn of its lustre
as that of doge would not excite an overweening ambition.
But the Venetians were still jealous of extinguished power ;
and while their constitution was yet immature the Great
Council planned new methods of restricting their chief mag-
istrate. An oath was taken by tlie doge on his election, so
comprehensive as to embrace every possible check upon un-
due influence. He was bound not to correspond with for-
eign states, or to open their letters, except in the presence of
the seigniory ; to acquire no property beyond the Venetian
dominions, and to resign what he might already possess ; to
interpose, directly or indirectly, in no judicial process; and
not to permit any citizen to use tokens of subjection in salut-
ing him. As a further security, they devised a i-emarkably
complicated mode of supplying the vacancy of his office. As
many balls as there were members of the Great Council pres-
ent were placed in an urn. Thirty of these were gilt. The
holders of gilt balls were reduced by a second ballot to nine.
The nine elected forty, whom lot reduced to twelve. The
twelve chose twenty -five by separate nomination. The
twenty-five were reduced by lot to nine ; and each of the
nine chose five. These forty-five were reduced to eleven, as
before; the eleven elected forty-one, who were the ultimate
voters for a doge. This intricacy appears useless, and con-
sequently absurd ; but the original principle of a Venetian
election (for something of the same kind was applied to all
their councils and magistrates) may not always be unworthy
of imitation.
An hereditary prince could never have remained quiet in
such trammels as were imposed upon the Doge of Venice.
But early prejudice aqcustoms men to consider restraint,
even upon themselves, as advantageous ; and the limitation?
of ducal power appeared to every Venetian as fundamental
as the great laws of the English constitution do to oirselves.
iiALT, GOVERNMENT OF VENICE. 211
For life the chief magistrates of their country, her noble citi-
zens forever, they might thank her in their own name for
what she gave, and in that of their posterity for what she
withheld. Once only a doge of Venice was tempted to be-
tray the freedom of the republic. Marin Falieri, a man fai'
advanced in life, engaged, for some petty resentment, in a
wild intrigue to overturn the government. The conspiracy
was soon discovered, and the doge avowed his guilt. An
aristocracy so firm and so severe did not hesitate to order
his execution in the ducal palace (a.d. 1355).
The commonalty, however, did not quietly acquiesce in
their exclusion from the Great Council. Several commotions
took place about the beginning of the fourteenth century,
with the object of restoring a more popular regimen. Upon
the suppression of the last, in 1310, the aristocracy sacrificed
their own individual freedom along with that of the people,
to the preservation of an imaginary privilege. They estab-
lished the famous Council of Ten^ that most remarkable part
of the Venetian constitution. This council, it should be ob-
served, consisted in fact of seventeen, comprising the seign-
iory, or the doge and his six councillors, as well as the ten
properly so called. The Council of Ten had by usage, if not
by right, a controlling and dictatorial power over the Senate
and other magistrates, rescinding their decisions, and treat-
ing separately with foreign princes. Their vast influence
strengthened the executive government, of which they formed
a part, and gave a vigor to its movements which the jealousy
of the councils would possibly have impeded. But they are
chiefly known as an arbitrary and inquisitorial tribunal, the
standing tyranny of Venice. Excluding the old council of
forty, to which had been intrusted the exercise of crimi-
nal justice, not only from the investigation of treasonable
charges, but of several other crimes of magnitude, they in-
quired, they judged, they punished, according to what they
called reason of state. The public eye never penetrated the
mystery of their proceedings ; the accused w^as sometimes
not heard, never confronted with witnesses ; the condemna-
tion was secret as the inquiry, the punishment undivulged
like both. The terrible and odious machinery of a police,
the insidious spy, the stipendiary informer, unknown to the
carelessness of feudal governments, found their natural soil
in the republic of Venice. Tumultuous assemblies were
scarcely possible in so peculiar a city ; and private conspira-
cies never failed to be detected by the vigilance of the Coun-
cil of Ten. Compared with the Tuscan republics, the tran-
212 GOVEKNMENT OF VENICE. Chap. III. Part II.
quillity of Venice is truly striking. The names of Guelf and
Ghibelin hardly raised any emotion in her streets, though
the Government was considered in the first part of the four-
teenth century as rather inclined towards the latter party.
But the wildest excesses of faction are less dishonoring than
the stillness and moral degradation of servitude.
§ 20. Until almost the middle of the fourteenth century
Venice had been content without any territorial possessions
in Italy ; unless we reckon a very narrow strip of sea-coast,
bordering on her lagunes, called the Dogato. Neutral in the
great contests between the Church and the Empire, between
the free cities and their sovereigns, she was respected by
both parties, while neither ventured to claim her as an ally.
But the rapid progress of Mastino della Scala, lord of Vero-
na, with some particular injuries, led the Senate to form a
league with Florence against him. The result of this com-
bination was to annex the district of Treviso to the Vene-
tian dominions. But they made no further conquests in
that age. On the contrary, they lost Treviso in the unfor-
tunate war of Chioggia, and did not regain it till 1389. Nor
did they seriously attempt to withstand the progress of Gian
Galeazzo Visconti, who, after overthrowing the family of
Scala, stretched almost to the Adriatic, and altogether sub-
verted for a time the balance of power in Lombardy.
But upon the death of this prince, in 1404, a remarkable
crisis took place in that country. He left two sons, Giovanni
Maria and Filippo Maria, both young, and under the care of a
mother who was little fitted for her situation. Through her
misconduct and the selfish ambition of some military lead'
ers, who had commanded Gian Galeazzo's mercenaries, that
extensive dominion was soon broken into fragments. Ber-
gamo, Como, Lodi, Cremona, and other cities revolted, sub-
mitting themselves in general to the families of their former
princes, the earlier race of usurpers, who had for nearly a
century been crushed by the Visconti. A Guelf faction re-
vived after the name had long been proscribed in Lombardy.
Francesco da Carrara, lord of Padua, availed himself of this
revolution to get possession of Verona, and seemed likely to
unite all the cities beyond the Adige. No family was so
odious to the Venetians as that of Carrara. Though they
had seemed indifferent to the more real danger in Gian Ga-
leazzo's lifetime, they took up arms against this inferior en-
emy. Both Padua and Verona were reduced, and, the Duke
of Milan ceding Vicenza, the republic of Venice came sud-
denly into the possession of an extensive territory. Fran-
Italy. WARS OF MILAN AND VENICE. 213
cesco da Carrara, who had surrendered in his capital, wa^J^
put to death in prison at Venice. I
Notwithstanding the deranged condition of the Milanese, \
no further attempts were made by the Senate of Venice for
twenty years. They had not yet acquired that decided love
of war and conquest which soon began to influence them
against all the rules of their ancient policy. Meantime the
dukes of Milan had recovered a great part of their dommions
as rapidly as they had lost them. Giovanni Maria, the elder
brother, a monster of guilt even among the Visconti, having
been assassinated, Filippo Maria assumed the government of
Milan and Pavia, almost his only possessions. But though
weak and unwarlike himself, he had the good-fortune to era-
ploy Carmagnola, one of the greatest generals of that mili-
tary age. Most of the revolted cities were tired of their
new masters, and, their inclinations conspiring with Carma-
gnola's eminent talents and activity, the house of Visconti
reassumed its former ascendency from the Sessia to the
Adige. Its fortunes might have been still more prosperous
if Filippo Maria had not rashly as well as ungratefully of-
fended Carmagnola. That great captain retired to Venice,
and inflamed a disposition towards war which the Floren-
tines and the Duke of Savoy had already excited. The Ve-
netians had previously gained some important advantages in
another quarter, by reducing the country of Friuli, with part
of Istria, which had for many centuries depended on the tem-
poral authority of a neighboring prelate, the patriarch of
Aquileia. They entered into this new alliance. No under-
taking of the republic had been more successful. Carma-
gnola led on their armies, and in about two years Venice ac-
quired Brescia and Bergamo, and extended her boundary to
the river Adda, which she was destined never to pass (a.d.
1426).
§ 21. Such conquests could only be made by a city so pe-
culiarly maritime as Venice through the help of mercenary
troops. But, in employing them, she merely conformed to
a fashion which states to whom it was less indispensable had
long since established. A great revolution had taken place
in the system of military service through most parts of Eu-
rope, but especially in Italy. During the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries, whether the Italian cities were engaged in
their contest with the emperors or in less arduous and gen-
eral hostilities among each other, they seem to have poured
out almost their whole population as an armed and loosely
organized militia. This militia was of course principally
214 MILITARY SYSTEM OF ITALY. Chap. III. Part 1L
composed of infantry. Gentlemen, however, were always
mounted ; and the superiority of a heavy cavalry must have
been prodigiously great over an undisciplined and ill-armed
populace. In the thirteenth and following centuries armies
seem to have been considered as formidable nearly in pro-
portion to the number of men-at-arms or lancers. A charge
of cavalry was irresistible; battles were continually won by
inferior numbers, and vast slaughter was made among the
fugitives.
As the comparative inefficiency of foot-soldiers became
evident, a greater proportion of cavalry was employed, and
armies, though better equipped and disciplined, were less
numerous. This we find in the early part of the fourteenth
century. The main point for a state at war was to obtain a
sufficient force of men-at-arms. As few Italian cities could
muster a large body of cavalry from their own population,
the obvious resource was to hire mercenary troops. Many
soldiers of fortune from Germany, France, and Hungary en-
gaged in the service of the Italian states. Their services
were anxiously solicited and abundantly repaid. An unfor-
tunate prejudice in favor of strangers prevailed among the
Italians of that age. They ceded to them, one knows not
why, certainly without having been vanquished, the palm of
military skill and valor. The word Transalpine (Oltramon-
tani) is frequently applied to hired cavalry by the two Vil-
lani as an epithet of excellence.
The experience of every fresh campaign now told more
and more against the ordinary militia. It has been usual
for modern writers to lament the degeneracy of martial
spirit among the Italians of that age. But the contest was
too unequal betvveen an absolutely invulnerable body of
cuirassiers and an infantry of peasants or citizens. The cav-
alry had about this time laid aside the hauberk, or coat of
mail, their ancient distinction from the unprotected popu-
lace ; which, though incapable of being cut through by the
sabre, afforded no defense against the pointed sword intro-
duced in the thirteenth century, nor repelled the impulse of
a lance or the crushing blow of a battle-axe. Plate-armor
was substituted in its place ; and the man-at-arms, cased
in entire steel, the several pieces firmly riveted, and proof
against every stroke, his charger protected on the face, chest,
and shoulders, or, as it was called, barded with plates of
steel, fought with a security of success against enemies in-
ferior perhaps only in these adventitious sources of courage
to himself.
Italy. COMPANIES OF ADVENTURERS. 215
§ 22. It could hardly be expected that stipendiary troops,
chiefly composed of Germans, would conduct themselves
without insolence and contempt of the effeminacy which
courted their services. Indifferent to the cause they sup-
ported, the highest pay and the richest plunder were their
constant motives. As Italy was generally the theatre of
war in some of her numerous states, a soldier of fortune,
with his lance and charger for an inheritance, passed from
one service to another without regret and without discredit.
But if peace happened to be pretty universal, he might be
thrown out of his only occupation, and reduced to a very in-
ferior condition, in a country of which he was not a native.
It naturally occurred to men of their feelings, that, if money
and honor could only be had while they retained their arms,
it was their own fault if they ever relinquished them. Upon
this principle they first acted in 1343,. when the republic of
Pisa disbanded a large body of German cavalry which had
been employed in the war with Florence. A partisan, whom
the Italians call the Duke Guarnieri, engaged these dissatis-
fied mercenaries to remain united under his command. His
plan was to levy contributions on all coimtries which he en-
tered with his company, without aiming at any conquests.
This was the first of the companies of adventure, which con-
tinued for many years to be the scourge and disgrace of
Italy. Guarnieri, after some time, withdrew his troops, sa-
tiated with plunder, into Germany ; but he served in the in-
vasion of Naples by Louis, king of Hungary, in 1348, and,
forming a new company, ravaged the ecclesiastical state.
A still more formidable band of disciplined robbers appeared
in 1353, under the command of Fra Moriale, and afterwards
of Conrad Lando. This was denominated the Great Com-
pany, and consisted of several thousand regular troops, be-
sides a multitude of half- armed ruffians, who assisted as
spies, pioneers, and plunderers. The rich cities of Tuscany
and Romagna paid large sums that the Great Company,
which was perpetually in motion, might not march through
their territory.
None of the foreign partisans who entered into the serv-
ice of Italian states acquired such renown in that career as
an Englishman whom contemporary writers call Aucud or
Agutus, but to whom we may restore his national appella-
tion of Sir John Hawkwood. This very eminent man had
served in the war of Edward III., and obtained his knight-
hood from that sovereign, though originally, if we may trust
common fame, bred to the trade of a tailor. After the peace
216 SIR JOHN HAWKWOOD. Chap. III. Part XL
of Bretigni, France was ravaged by the disbanded troops,
whose devastations Edward was accused, perhaps unjustly,
of secretly instigating. A large body of these, under the
name of the White Company, passed into the service of the
Marquis of Montferrat. They were some time afterwards
employed by the Pisans against Florence ; and during this
latter war Hawkwood appears as their commander. For
thirty years he was continually engaged in the service of
the Visconti, of the pope, or of the Florentines, to whom he
devoted himself for the latter part of his life with more fidel-
ity and steadiness than he had shown in his first campaigns.
The republic testified her gratitude by a public funeral, and
by a monument in the Duomo, which still perpetuates his
memory.
The name of Sir John Hawkwood is worthy to be remem-
bered as that of the first distinguished commander who had
appeared in Europe since the destruction of the Roman Em-
pire. It would be absurd to suppose that any of the con-
stituent elements of military genius which nature furnishes
to energetic characters were wanting to the leaders of a bar-
barian or feudal army : untroubled perspicacity in confusion,
firm decision, rapid execution, providence against attack,
fertility of resource and stratagem — these are in quality as
much required from the chief of an Indian tribe as from the
accomplished commander. But we do not find them in any
instance so consummated by habitual skill as to challenge
the name of generalship. Hawkwood appears to me the
first real general of modern times — the earliest master, how-
ever imperfect, in the science of Turenne and Wellington.
Every contemporary Italian historian speaks with admira-
tion of his skillful tactics in battle, his stratagems, his well-
conducted retreats. Praise of this description is hardly be-
stowed, certainly not so continually, on any former captain.
Hawkwood was not only the greatest but the last of the
foreign condottieri, or captains of mercenary bands. While
he was yet living, a new military school had been formed in
Italy, which not only superseded, but eclipsed, all the stran-
gers. This important reform was ascribed to Alberic di
Barbiano, lord of some petty territories near Bologna. He
formed a company altogether of Italians about the year
1379. It is not to be supposed that natives of Italy had be-
fore been absolutely excluded from service. But this was
the first trading company, if I may borrow the analogy, the
first regular body of Italian mercenaries, attached only to
their commander without any consideration of party, like
Italy. FRANCESCO SFORZA. 217
the Germans and English of Lando and Hawkwood. Al-
beric di Barbiano, though himself no doubt a man of mili-
tary talents, is principally distinguished by the school of
great generals which the company of St. George under his
command produced, and which may be deduced, by regular
succession, to the sixteenth century.
Two of the most distinguished members of this school
were Braccio di Montone, a noble Perugian, and Sforza At-
tendolo, originally a peasant in the village of Cotignuola.
Nearly equal in reputation, unless perhaps Braccio may be
reckoned the more consummate general, they were divided
by a long rivalry, which descended to the next generation,
and involved all the distinguished leaders of Italy. The
distractions of IN'aples, and the anarchy of the ecclesiastical
state, gave scope not only to their military but political am-
bition. Sforza was invested with extensive fiefs in the king-
dom of Naples, and with the office of Great Constable.
Braccio aimed at independent acquisitions, and formed a
sort of principality around Perugia. This, however, was
entirely dissipated at his death. When Sforza and Braccio
were no more, their respective parties were headed by the
son of the former, Francesco Sforza, and by Nicolas Picci-
nino, who for more than twenty years fought, with few ex-
ceptions, under opposite banners. Piccinino was constantly
in the service of Milan. Sforza married Bianca, the natural
daughter and only child of Filippo Maria, duke of Milan,
and last of his family. But upon the death of Filippo Maria
in 1447, the citizens of Milan revived their republican gov-
ernment. A republic in that part of Lombardy might, with
the help of Venice and Florence, have withstood any domes-
tic or foreign usurpation. But Venice was hostile, and Flor-
ence indifferent. Sforza became the general of this new
state, aware that such would be the probable means of be-
coming its master. No politician of that age scrupled any
breach of faith for his interest. Sforza, with his army, de-
serted to the Venetians ; and the republic of Milan, being
both incapable of defending itself and distracted by civil
dissensions, soon fell a prey to his ambition. In 1450 he
was proclaimed duke, rather by right of election, or of con-
quest, than in virtue of his marriage with Bianca, whose
sex, as well as illegitimacy, seemed to preclude her from in-
heriting.
§ 23. Whatever evils might be derived, and they were
not trifling, from the employment of foreign or native mer-
cenaries, it was impossible to discontinue the system with-
10
218 DEFENSIVE ARMS. Chap. III. Part II.
out general consent ; and too many states found their own
advantage in it for such an agreement. The condottieri
were, indeed, all notorious for contempt of engagements.
Theii' rapacity was equal to their bad faith. Besides an
enormous pay, for every private cuirassier received much
more in value than a subaltern officer at present, they ex-
acted gratifications for every success. But every thing was
endured by ambitious governments who wanted their aid. •
Florence and Venice were the two states which owed most
to the companies of adventure. The one loved war without
its perils ; the other could never have obtained an inch of
territory with a population of sailors. But they were both
almost inexhaustibly rich by commercial industry ; and as
the surest pay-masters, were best served by those they em-
ployed.
The Italian armies of the fifteenth century have been re-
marked for one striking peculiarity. War has never been
conducted at so little personal hazard to the soldier. Com-
bats frequently occur, in the annals of that age, wherein suc-
cess, though warmly contested, cost very few lives even to
the vanquished. This innocence of blood, which some his-
torians turn into ridicule, was no doubt owing in a great de-
gree to the rapacity of the companies of adventure, who, in
expectation of enriching themselves by the ransom of prison-
ers, were anxious to save their lives. But it was rendered
more practicable by the nature of their arms. For once,
and for once only, in the history of mankind, the art of de-
fense had outstripped that of destruction. In a charge of
lancers many fell, unhorsed by the shock, and might be suf-
focated or bruised to death by the pressure of their own ar-
mor; but the lance's point could not penetrate the breast-
plate, the sword fell harmless on the helmet, the conqueror,
in the first impulse of passion, could not assail any vital part
of a prostrate but not exposed enemy. Still less was to be
dreaded from the archers or cross-bowmen, who composed a
large part of the infantry. The bow indeed, as drawn by an
English foot-soldier, was the most formidable of arms before
the invention of gunpowder. It was a peculiarly English
weapon, and none of the other principal nations adopted
it so generally or so successfully. The cross-bow, which
brought the strong and w^eak to a level, was more in favor
upon the Continent. But both the arrow and the quarrel
glanced away from piate-armor, such as it became in the fif-
teenth century, impervious in every point, except when the
vizor was raised from the face, or some part of the body ac-
Italy. INVENTION OF GUNPOWDER. 219
cidentally exposed. The horse, indeed, /vras less completely
protected.
Meanwhile a discovery accidentally made had prepared
the way not only for a change in her military system, but
for political eifects still more extensive. There seems little
reason to doubt that gunpowder was introduced through the
means of the Saracens into Europe. Its use in engines of
war, though they may seem to have been rather like our
fire-works than artillery, is mentioned by an Arabic writer in
the Escurial collection about the year 1249. It was known
not long afterwards to our philosopher Roger Bacon, though
he concealed, iu some degree, the secret of its composition.
In the first part of the fourteenth, century, cannon, or rather
mortars, were invented, and the applicability of gunpowder
to purposes of war was understood. Edward III. employed
some pieces of artillery with considerable efiect at Crecy.
But its use was still not very frequent; a circumstance
which will surprise us less when we consider the unscientific
construction of artillery ; the slowness with which it could
be loaded; its stone balls, of uncertain aim and imperfect
force, being commonly fired at a considerable elevation ; and
especially the difficulty of removing it from place to place
during an action. In sieges and in naval engagements, as
for example, in the war of Chioggia, it was more frequently
employed. Gradually, however, the new artifice of evil
gained ground. The French made the principal improve-
ments. They cast theh- cannon smaller, placed them on
lighter carriages, and used balls of iron. They invented port-
able arms for a single soldier, which, though clumsy in com-
parison with their present state, gave an augury of a prodig-
ious revolution in the military art. John, duke of Burgun-
dy, in 1411, had 4000 hand-cannons, as they were called, in
his army. They are found, under different names and modi-
fications of form, in most of the wars that historians of the
fifteenth century record, but less in Italy than beyond the
Alps. The Milanese, in 1449, are said to have armed their
militia with 20,000 muskets, which struck terror into the
old generals. But these muskets, supported on a rest, nnd
charged with great delay, did less execution than our san-
guinary science would require; and, uncombined Avith the
admirable invention of the bayonet, could not in any degree
resist a charge of cavalry. The pike had a greater tenden-
cy to subvert the military system of the Middle Ages, and
to demonstrate the efficiency. of disciplined infantry. Two
free nations liad already discomfited, by the help of such in-
220
KINGS OF NAPLES.
Chap. III. Part II.
fantry, those arrogant knights on whom the fate of battles
had depended — the Bohemians, instructed in the art of war
by their great master, John Zisca ; and the Swiss, who, after
winning their independence inch by inch from the house of
Austria, had lately established their renown by a splendid
victory over Charles of Burgundy. Louis XL took a body
of mercenaries from the United Cantons into pay. Maximil-
ian had recourse to the same assistance. And though the
importance of infantry was not, perhaps, decidedly establish-
ed till the Milanese wars of Louis XII. and Francis L, in the
sixteenth century, yet the last years of the Middle Ages, ac-
cording to our division, indicated the commencement of that
military revolution in the general employment of pikemen
and musketeers.
§ 24. I have not alluded for some time to the domestic
history of a kingdom which bore a considerable part, during
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in the general combi-
KINGS OF NAPLES OF THE HOUSE OF ANJOU.
Chaeles I. of Anjou, eon of Louis VIII., king of France, and brother of
Loais IX., king of France, becomes king of Naples and Sicily,
A.1). 1265. Loses Sicily 1283, d. 1285.
Chableb IL,
" m. daughter of King of Hangary,
1286-1305.
Charles Martel,
king of Hangary,
d. 1296.
Carobert,
king of
Hungary,
d. 1342.
I
ROBEET,
1305-1343.
1
John,
duke of Durazzo.
I
Louis, Andrew,
king of m. Joanna I.
Hungary strangled
1346.
Charles,
duke of
Calabria,
d. 1328.
Joanna I.,
m. Andrew of
Hungary
and other
husbands,
1343-1378.
Charles,
duke of
Durazzo.
Margaret,
m. Charles III.
king of
Naples.
Louis.
Chaeles III.,
king
13S2-13S6,
m. Margaret
of Durazzo.
Ladislaus, Joanna II.,
king of Naples, 1414-1435.
1386-1414.
nations of Italian policy, not wishing to interrupt the read-
er's attention by too frequent transitions. We must return
again to a more remote age in order to take up the history
of Naples. Charles of Anjou, after the deaths of Manfred
and Conradin had left him without a competitor, might be
ranked in the first class of European sovereigns. (See p.
180.) Master of Provence and Naples, and at the head of
the Guelf faction in Italy, he had already prepared a formi-
dable attack on the Greek empire, when a memorable revo-
Italy. KINGS OF SICILY. 221
lution in Sicily brought humiliation on his latter years.
John of Procida, a Neapolitan, whose patrimony had been
confiscated for his adherence to the party of Manfred, retain-
ed, during long years of exile, an implacable resentment
against the house of Anjou. From the dominions of Peter
III., king of Aragon, who had bestowed estates upon him in
Valencia, he kept his eye continually fixed on Naples and
Sicily. The former held out no favorable prospects; the
Ghibelin party had been entirely subdued, and the principal
barons were of French extraction or inclinations. But the
island was in a very different state. Unused to any strong
government, it was now treated as a conquered country.
A large body of French soldiers garrisoned the fortified
towns, and the systematic oppression was aggravated by
those insults upon the honor of families which are most in-
tolerable to an Italian temperament. John of Procida, trav-
elling in disguise through the island, animated the barons
KINGS OF SICILY OF THE HOUSE OF ARAGON.
1. Pkter III. (king of Aragon), m. Constance, daughter of Conradin of Suabii
[see p. 180], and becomes king of Sicily after the Sicilian Vespers,
A.i>. 1283, d. 1285.
Alfonso III.,
James IL,
Frederick L,
king of Aragon.
king of Aragon
elected king of
and king of Sicily,
Sicily,
abdicates in favor of
1296-1336.
Charles II., king of
1
Naples, 1295.
Peteb IL,
king of Sicily,
1336-1342.
1
Louis,
Frederick [L,
king of Sicily,
king of Sicily,
1342-1356.
1355-13TT.
Maria,
queen of Sicily,
137T-1402,
m. Martin, princ*
of Aragon.
with a hope of deliverance. In like disguise he repaired to
the pope, Nicholas III., who was jealous of the new Neapoh
itan dynasty, and obtained his sanction to the projected in^
surrection ; to the Court of Constantinople, from which he
readily obtained money ; and to the King of Aragon, who
employed that money in fitting out an armament, that hov-
ered upon the coast of Africa, under pretext of attacking the
Moors. It is, however, difficult at this time to distinguish
the effects of preconcerted conspiracy from those of casual
resentment. Before the intrigues so skillfully conducted
222 WAR BETWEEN FllANCE AND AKAGON. Ch. III. Ft. II.
had taken effect, yet after they were ripe for development,
an outrage committed upon a lady at Palermo, during a pro-
cession on the vigil of Easter, provoked the people to that
terrible massacre of all the French in their island which lias
obtained tlie name of Sicilian Vespers. Unpremeditated as
such an ebullition of popular fury must appear, it fell in, by
the happiest coincidence, with the previous conspiracy. The
King of Aragon's fleet was at hand ; the Sicilians soon called
in his assistance ; he sailed to Palermo, and accepted the
crown (a.d, 1283).
§ 25. The long war that ensued upon this revolution in-
volved or interested the greater part of civilized Europe.
Philip III. of France adhered to his uncle, and the King of
Ara^on was compelled to fight for Sicily within his native
dominions. This, indeed, was the more vulnerable point of
attack. Upon the sea he was lord of the ascendant. His
Catalans, the most intrepid of Mediterranean sailors, were
led to victory by a Calabrian refugee, Roger di Loria, the
most illustrious and successful admiral whom Europe pro-
duced till the age of Blake and De Ruyter. In one of Lo-
ria's battles the eldest son of the King of liaples Avas made
prisoner, and the first years of his own reign were spent in
confinement. But notwithstanding these advantages, it was
found impracticable for Aragon to contend against the arms
of France, and latterly of Castile, sustained by the rolling
thunders of the Vatican. Peter III. had bequeathed Sicily
to his second son, James ; Alfonso, the eldest, king of Ara-
gon, could not fairly be expected to ruin his inheritance for
his brother's cause ; nor were the barons of that free coun-
try disposed to carry on a war without national objects. He
made peace, accordingly, in 1295, and engaged to withdraw
all his subjects from the Sicilian service. Upon his own
death, which followed very soon, James succeeded to the
kingdom of Aragon, and ratified the renunciation of Sicily.
But the natives of that island had received too deeply the
spirit of independence to be thus assigned over by the letter
of a treaty. After solemnly abjuring, by their ambassadors,
their allegiance to the King of Aragon, they placed the crown
upon the head of his brother, Frexierick. They maintained
the war against Charles 11. of Naples, against James of Ara-
gon, their former king, who had bound himself to enforce
their submission, and even against the great Roger di Loria,
Avho, upon some discontent with Frederick, deserted their
banner, and entered into the Neapolitan service. Peace was
at length made in 1300, upon condition that Frederick should
Italy. l.OBERT. ^JOANNA. 223
retain during his life the kingdom, which was afterwards to
revert to the crown of Naples : a condition not likely to be
fulfilled.
Upon the death of Charles II., king of Naples, in 1305, a
question arose as to the succession. His eldest son, Charles
Martel, had been called by maternal inheritance to the throne
of Hungary, and had left at his decease a son, Carobert, the
reigning sovereign of that country. According to the laws
of representative succession, which were at this time tolera-
bly settled in private inheritance, the crown of Naples ought
to have regularly devolved upon that prince. But it was
contested by his uncle, Robert, the eldest living son of
Charles II., and the cause was pleaded by civilians at Avig-
non before Pope Clement V.,the feudal superior of the Nea-
politan kingdom. Reasons of public utility, rather than of
legal analogy, seems to have prevailed in the decision which
was made in favor of Robert. The course of his reign
evinced the wisdom of this determination. Robert, a wise
and active, though not personally a martial prince, main-
tained the ascendency of the Guelf faction, and the papal
influence connected with it, against the formidable combina-
tion of Ghibelin usurpers in Lombardy, and the two emper-
ors Henry VII, and Louis of Bavaria. No male issue sur-
vived Robert, whose crown descended to his granddaughter
JoANXA. She had been espoused, while a child, to her cous-
in Andrew, son of Carobert, king of Hungary, who was edu-
cated with her in the court of Naples. Auspiciously con-
trived as this union might seem to silence a subsisting claim
upon the kingdom, it proved eventually the source of civil
war and calamity for 150 years. Andrew's manners were
barbarous, more worthy of his native country than of that
polished court wherein he had been bred. He gave himSelf
up to the society of Hungarians, who taught him to believe
that a matrimonial crown and derivative royalty were derog-
atory to a prince who claimed by a paramount hereditary
right. In fact, he was pressing the Court of Avignon to per-
mit his own coronation, which would have placed in a very
hazardous condition the rights of the queen, with whom he
was living on ill terms, when one night he was seized, stran-
gled, and thrown out of a window. Public rumor, in the
absence of notorious proof, imputed the guilt of this myste-
rious assassination to Joanna. Whether historians are au-
thorized to assume her participation in it so confidently as
they have generally done, may perhaps be doubted ; but the
circumstances of Andrew's death were undoubtedly preg-
224 HOUSE OF ANJOU. Chap. III. PAiix II.
nant with strong suspicion. Louis, king of Hungary, his
brother, a just and stern prince, invaded Naples, partly as an
avenger, partly as a conqueror. The queen and her second
husband, Louis of Tarento, fled to Provence, where her ac-
quittal, after a solemn, if not an impartial, investigation, was
pronounced by Clement VL Louis, meanwhile, found it
more difficult to retain than to acquire the kingdom of Na-
ples ; his own dominion required his presence ; and Joanna
soon recovered her crown. She reigned for thirty years
more without the attack of any enemy, but not intermed-
dling, like her progenitors, in the general concerns of Italy.
Childless by four husbands, the succession of Joanna began
to excite ambitious speculations. Of all the male descend-
ants of Charles L none remained but the King of Hungary,
and Charles, duke of Durazzo, who had married the queen's
niece, and was regarded by her as the presumptive heir to
the crown. But, offended by her marriage with Otho of
Brunswick, he procured the assistance of a Hungarian army
to invade the kingdom, and, getting the queen into his pow-
er, took possession of the throne. In this enterprise he was
seconded by Urban VL, against whom Joanna had unfortu-
nately declared in the great schism of the Church. She was
smothered with a pillow, in prison, by the order of Charles.
TITULAR KINGS OF NAPLES OF THE SECOND HOUSE OF ANJOU.
Louis I., duke of Anjou, son of John, king of France,
and uncle of Charles VI., king of France, was adopted by Joanna I. aa
king of Naples, d. 1384.
Lotris IT.,
titular king of Naples,
1384-1417.
I
Louis m., Regniee,
titular king of Naples, titular king of Naples,
1417-1434. 1484-1480.
§ 26. In the extremity of Joanna's distress she had sought
assistance from a quarter too remote to afford it in time for
her relief She adopted Louis, duke of Anjou, eldest uncle
of the young king of France, Charles VL, as her heir in the
kingdom of Naples and county of Provence. This bequest
took effect without difficulty in the latter country. Naples
was entirely in the possession of Charles of Durazzo. Louis,
however, entered Italy with a very large army, consisting at
least of 30,000 cavalry, and, according to some writers, more
than double that number. He was joined by many Nea-
politan barons attached to the late queen. But, by a fate
not unusual in so imperfect a state of military science, their
Italy. LADISLAUS. 225
armament produced no adequate effect, and mouldered away
through disease and want of provisions. Louis himself dy-
ing not long afterwards, the government of Charles III. ap-
peared secure, and he was tempted to accept an offer of the
crown of Hungary. This enterprise, equally unjust and in-
judicious, terminated in his assassination. Ladislaus, his
son, a child ten years old, succeeded to the throne of Naples,
under the guardianship of his mother, Margaret, whose ex-
actions of money producing discontent, the party which had
supported the late Duke of Anjou became powerful enough
to call in his son. Louis IL, as he w^as called, reigned at
Naples, and possessed most part of the kingdom, for several
years ; the young king Ladislaus, who retained some of the
northern provinces, fixing his residence at Gaeta. If Louis
had prosecuted the war with activity, it seems probable that
he would have subdued his adversary. But his character
was not very energetic ; and Ladislaus, as he advanced to
manhood, displaying much superior qualities, gained ground
by degrees, till the Angevin barons, perceiving the turn of
the tide, came over to his banner, and he recovered his whole
dominions.
The kingdom of Naples, at the close of the fourteenth cen-
tury, was still altogether a feudal government. This had
been introduced by the first Norman kings, and the system
had rather been strengthened than impaired under the An-
gevin line. The princes of the blood, Avho were at one time
numerous, obtained extensive domains by way of appan-
age. The principality of Tarento was a large portion of the
kingdom. The rest was occupied by some great families,
whose strength, as well as pride, was shown in the number
of men-at-arms whom they could muster under their banner.
At the coronation of Louis IL, the Sanseverini appeared with
1800 cavalry completely equipped. This illustrious house,
which had filled all the high offices of state, and changed
kings at its pleasure, was crushed by Ladislaus, whose bold
and unrelenting spirit well fitted him to bruise the heads of
the aristocratic hydra. After thoroughly establishing his
government at home, this ambitious monarch directed his
pow^erful resources tow^ards foreign conquests. The ecclesi-
astical territories had never been secure from rebellion or
usurpation ; but legitimate sovereigns had hitherto respect-
ed the patrimony of the head of the Church. It was reserved
for Ladislaus, a feudal vassal of the Holy See, to seize upon
Rome itself as his spoil. For several years, while the disor-
dered state of the Church, in consequence of the schism and
10*
226 JOANNA II. Chap. III. Part II.
the means taken to extinguish it, gave nim an oppoi-tmiity,
the King of Naples occupied great part of the papal territo-
lies. He was disposed to have carried his arms farther north,
and attacked the republic of Florence, if not the states of
Lombardy, when his death relieved Italy from the danger of
this new tyranny.
§ 27. An elder sister, Joanna II., reigned at Naples after
Ladislaus. Under this queen, destitute of courage and im-
derstanding, and the slave of appetites which her age ren-
dered doubly disgraceful, the kingdom relapsed into that
state of anarchy from which its late sovereign had rescued
it. She adopted first, as her heir and successor, Alfonso, king
of Aragon and Sicily, but subsequently revoked her adoption,
and substituted in his room another, Louis of Anjou, third
in descent of that unsuccessful dynasty. Upon his death,
the queen, who did not long survive him, settled the king-
dom on his brother Regnier. The Neapolitans were gener-
ally disposed to execute this bequest. But Regnier was un-
luckily at that time a prisoner to the Duke of Burgundy ;
and though his wife maintained the cause with great spirit,
it was difficult for her, or even for himself, to contend against
the King of Aragon, who immediately laid claim to the king-
dom. After a contest of several years, Regnier, having ex-
perienced the treacherous and selfish abandonment of his
friends, yielded the game to his adversary; and Alfonso
founded the Aragonese line of sovereigns at Naples, deriv^
ing pretensions more splendid than just from Manfred, from
the house of Suabia, and from Roger Guiscard.
§ 28. Sicily, after the reign of its deliverer, Frederick I.,
had unfortunately devolved upon weak or infant princes.
The marriage of Maria, queen of Sicily, with Martin, son of
the King of Aragon, put an end to the national independence
of her country. (See Genealogical Table, p. 221.) Dying
without issue, she left the crown to her husband. This was
consonant, perhaps, to the received law of some European
kingdoms. But, upon the death of Martin, in 1409, his fa-
ther, also named Martin, king of Aragon, took possession as
heir to his son, without any election by the Sicilian Parlia-
ment. Thus was Sicily united to the crown of Aragon. Al-
fonso now enjoyed the three crowns of Aragon, Sicily, and
Naples.
In the first year of Alfonso's Neapolitan war, he was de-
feated and takea prisoner by a fleet of the Genoese, who, as
constant enemies of the Catalans in all the naval warfare of
the Mediterranean, had willingly lent their aid to the Ange-
Italy. ALFONSO. 227
vin party. Genoa was at this time subject to Filippo Maria,
duke of Milan, and her royal captive was transmitted to his
court. But here the brilliant graces of Alfonso's character
won over his conqueror, who had no reason to consider the
war as his own concern. The king persuaded him, on the
contrary, that a strict alliance with an Aragonese dynasty
in Naples against the pretensions of any French claimant
would be the true policy and best security of Milan. That
city, which he had entered as a prisoner, he left as a friend
and ally. From this time Filippo Maria Visconti and Al-
fonso were firmly united in their Italian politics, and formed
one weight of the balance which the republics of Venice and
Florence kept in equipoise. After the succession of Slbrza
to the duchy of Milan the same alliance was generally pre-
served. Sforza had still more powerful reasons than his pred-
ecessors for excludmg the French from Italy, his own title
being contested by the Duke of Orleans, who derived a claim
from his mother Valentine, a daughter of Gian Galeazzo Vis-
conti. But the two republics were no longer disposed to-
wards war. Florence had spent a great deal without any
advantage in her contest with Filippo Maria ; and the new
duke of Milan had been the constant personal friend of Cos-
mo de' Medici, who altogether influenced that republic. At
Venice, indeed, he had been at first regarded with very differ-
ent sentiments ; the Senate had prolonged their war against
Milan with redoubled animosity after his elevation, deeming
him a not less ambitious and more formidable neighbor than
the Visconti. But they were deceived in the character of
Sforza. Conscious that he had reached an eminence beyond
his early hopes, he had no care but to secure for his family
the possession of Milan, without disturbing the balance of
Lombardy. Venice had little reason to expect further con-
quests in Lombardy ; and if her ambition had inspired the
hope of them, she was summoned by a stronger call, that of
self-preservation, to defend her numerous and dispersed pos-
sessions in the Levant against the arms of Mohammed II.
All Italy, indeed, felt the peril that impended from that side ;
and these various motions occasioned a quadruple league in
1455, between the King of Naples, the Duke of Milan, and
the two republics, for the preservation of peace in Italy.
One object of this alliance, and the prevailing object with
Alfonso, was the implied guaranty of his succession in the
kingdom of Naples to his illegitimate son Ferdinand. He
had no lawful issue ; and there seemed no reason why an ac-
quisition of his own valor should pass against his will to col-
228 ALFONSO. Chap. III. Part II.
lateral heirs. The pope, as feudal superior of the kingdom,
and the Neapolitan Parliament, the sole competent tribunal,
confirmed the inheritance of Ferdinand.
Alfonso, surnamed the Magnanimous, was by far the most
accomplished sovereign whom the fifteenth century produced.
The virtues of chivalry were combined in him with the pa-
tronage of letters, and with move than their patronage, a
real enthusiasm for learning, seldom found in a king, and es-
pecially in one so active and ambitious. This devotion to
literature was, among the Italians of that age, almost as sure
a passport to general admiration as his more chivalrous per-
fection. Magnificence in architecture and the pageantry of
a splendid court gave fresh lustre to his reign. The Nea-
politans perceived with grateful pride that he lived almost
entirely among them, in preference to his patrimonial king-
dom, and forgave the heavy taxes which faults nearly allied
to his virtues, profuseness and ambition, compelled him to
impose. But they remarked a very different character in
his son. Ferdinand was as dark and vindictive as his father
was affable and generous. The barons, who had many op-
portunities of ascertaining his disposition, began, immediate-
ly upon Alfonso's death, to cabal against his succession, turn-
ing their eyes first to the legitimate branch of the family,
and, on finding that prospect not favorable, to John, titular
duke of Calabria, son of Regnier of Anjou, who survived
to protest against the revolution that had dethroned him.
John was easily prevailed upon to undertake an invasion of
Naples, but he underwent the fate that had always attended
his family in their long competition for that throne. After
some brilliant successes, his want of resources, aggravated
by the defection of Genoa, on whose ancient enmity to the
house of Aragon he had relied, was perceived by the barons
of his party, who, according to the practice of their ances-
tors, returned one by one to the allegiance of Ferdinand.
§ 29. The peace of Italy was little disturbed, except by a
few domestic revolutions, for several years after this Nea-
politan war. Even the most short-sighted politicians were
sometimes withdrawn from selfish objects by the appalling
progress of the Turks, though there was not energy enough
in their councils to form any concerted plans for their own
security. Venice maintained a long but unsuccessful contest
with Mohammed 11. for her maritime acquisitions in Greece
and Albania ; and it was not till after his death relieved Ita-
ly from its immediate terror that the ambitious republic en-
deavored to extend its territories by encroaching on the
Italy. GENOA.— FLORENCE. 229
house of Este. Nor had Milan shown much disposition to-
wards aggrandizement. Francesco Sforza had been succeed-
ed — such is the condition of despotic governments — by his
son Galeazzo, a tyrant more execrable than the worst of the
Visconti. His extreme cruelties, and the insolence of a de-
bauchery that gloried in the public dishonor of families, ex-
cited a few daring spirits to assassinate him. The Milanese
profited by a tyrannicide the perpetrators of which they had
not courage or gratitude to protect. The regency of Bonne
of Savoy, mother of the infant duke Gian Galeazzo, deserved
the praise of wisdom and moderation. But it was over-
thrown in a few years by Ludovico Sforza, surnamed the
Moor, her husband's brother; who, while he proclaimed his
nephew's majority, and affected to treat him as a sovereign,
hardly disguised in his conduct towards foreign states that
he had usurped for himself the sole direction of government.
The annals of one of the few surviving republics, that of
Genoa, present to us, during the fifteenth as well as the pre-
ceding century, an unceasing series of revolutions, the short-
est enumeration of which Avould occupy several pages. The
latest revolution within the compass of this work was in
1488, when the Duke of Milan became sovereign, au Adorno
holding the office of doge as his lieutenant.
§ 30. Florence, the most illustrious and fortunate of Italian
republics, was now rapidly descending from her rank among
free commonwealths, though surrounded with mo-re than usu-
al lustre in the eyes of Europe. We must take up the story
of that city from the revolution of 1382, which restored the
ancient Guelf aristocracy, or party of the Albizi, to the
ascendency of which a popular insurrection had stripped
them. Fifty years elapsed during which this party retained
the government in its own hands with few attempts at dis-
turbance. Their principal adversaries had been exiled, accord-
ing to the invariable and perhaps necessary custom of a re-
public ; the populace and inferior artisans were dispirited by
their ill-success. But, while crushing with deliberate severi-
ty their avowed adversaries, the ruling party had left one
family whose prudence gave no reasonable excuse for perse-
cuting themj and whose popularity, as well as wealth, ren-
dered the experiment hazardous. The Medici were among
the most considerable of the new or plebeian nobility. From
the first years of the fourteenth century their name not very
unfrequently occurs in the domestic and military annals of
Florence. Throughout the long depression of the popular
iaction the house of Medici was always regarded as their
230 RISE OF THE MEDICI. Chap. III. Part II.
consolation and their hope. That house was now represent-
ed by Giovanni, whose immense wealth, honorably acquired
by commercial dealings, which had already rendered the
name celebrated in Europe, was expended with liberality
and magnificence. Of a mild temper, and averse to cabals,
Giovanni de' Medici did not attempt to set up a party, and
contented himself with repressing some fresh encroachments
on the popular part of the constitution which the Albizi
■were disposed to make. They, in their turn, freely admitted
him to that share in public councils to which he was entitled
by his eminence and virtues ; a proof that the spirit of their
administration was not illiberally exclusive. But, on the
death of Giovanni, his son Cosmo de' Medici, inheriting his
father's riches and estimation, with more talents and more
ambition, thought it time to avail himself of the popularity
belonging to his name. By extensive connections with the
most eminent men in Italy, especially with Sforza, he came
to be considered as the first citizen of Florence. The oli-
garchy were more than ever unpopular. Their administra-
tion since 1382 had indeed been in general eminently success-
ful; the acquisition of Pisa and of other Tuscan cities had
aggrandized the republic, while from the port of Leghorn her
ships had begun to trade with Alexandria, and sometimes to
contend with the Genoese. But an unprosperous war with
Lucca diminished a reputation which was never sustained by
public affection. Cosmo and his friends aggravated the er-
rors of the government, Avhich, having lost its wise and tem-
perate leader, Nicola di Uzzano, had fallen into the rasher
hands of Rinaldo degl' Albizi. He incurred the blame of
being the first aggressor in a struggle which had become in-
evitable. Cosmo was arrested by command of a gonfalonier
devoted to the Albizi, and condemned to banishment (a.d.
1433). But the oligarchy had done too much or too little.
The city was full of his friends ; the honors conferred upon
him in his exile attested the sentiments of Italy. Next year
he was recalled in triumph to Florence, and the Albizi were
completely overthrown.
It is vain to expect that a victorious faction will scruple
to retaliate upon its enemies a still greater measure of injus-
tice than it experienced at their hands. The Albizi had in
general respected the legal forms of their free republic, which
good citizens, and perhaps themselves, might hope one day
to see more effective. The Medici made all their govern-
ment conducive to hereditary monarchy. A multitude of
noble citizens were driven from their country ; some were
Italy. LORENZO DE' MEDICI. 231
even put to death. A Balia* was appointed f«r ten years to
exclude all the Albizi from magistracy, and, for the sake of
this security to the I'uling faction, to supersede the legiti-
mate institutions of the republic. After the expiration of
this period, the dictatorial power was renewed on pretense
of fresh danger, and this was repeated constantly. Cosmo
died at an advanced age, in 1464. His son, Piero de' Medici,
though not deficient either in virtues or abilities, seemed too
infirm in health for the administration of public aifairs. A
strong opposition was raised to the family pretensions of the
Medici. Like all Florentine factions, it trusted to violence ;
and the chance of arms was not in its favor. From this rev-
olution in 1466, when some of the most considerable citizens
were banished, we may date an acknowledged supremacy in
the house of Medici, the chief of which nominated the regu-
lar magistrates, and drew to himself the whole conduct of
the republic.
§ 31. The two sons of Piero, Lorenzo and Julian, especially
the former, though young at their father's death, assumed,
by the request of their friends, the reins of government (a.d.
1469). It was impossible that, among a people who had so
many recollections to attach to the name of liberty, among
so many citizens whom their ancient constitution invited to
public trust, the control of a single family should excite no
dissatisfaction. But, if the people's wish to resign their
freedom gives a title to accept the government of a country,
the Medici were no usurpers. That family never lost the
affections of the populace. The cry of Palle, Palle (their ar-
morial distinction), would at any time rouse the Florentines
to defend the chosen patrons of the republic. If their sub-
stantial influence could before be questioned, the conspiracy
of the Pazzi, wherein Julian perished, excited an enthusiasm
for the surviving brother that never ceased during his life.
Nor was this any thing unnatural, or any severe reproach
to Florence. All around, in Lombardy and Romagna, the
lamp of liberty had long since been extinguished in blood.
The freedom of Siena and Genoa was dearly purchased by
revolutionary proscriptions; that of Venice was only a
name. The republic which had preserved longest, and with
greatest purity, that vestal fire, had at least no relative deg-
radation to fear in surrendering herself to Lorenzo de' Me-
dici. I need not in this place expatiate upon what the name
■* A Balia was a temporary delegation of sovereignty to a number, generally a c6ii-
siderable number, of citizens, who during the period of their dictatorship named the
magistrates, instead of drawing them by lot, and banished suspected individuals.
232 LORENZO DE' MEDICI. Chap. III. Part II.
instantly suggests — the patronage of science and art, and the
constellation of scholars and poets, of architects and painters,
whose reflected beams cast their radiance around his head.
His political reputation, though far less durable, was in his
own age as conspicuous as that which he acquired in the
history of letters. Equally active and sagacious, he held his
way through the varying combinations of Italian policy, al-
ways with credit, and generally with success. Florence, if
not enriched, was, upon the whole, aggrandized during his
administration, which was exposed to some severe storms
from the unscrupulous adversaries, Sixtus IV. and Ferdinand
of Naples, whom he was compelled to resist. As a patriot,
indeed, we never can bestow upon Lorenzo de' Medici the
meed of disinterested virtue. He completed that subversion
of the Florentine republic which his two immediate ances-
tors had so well prepared. The two councils, her regular
legislature, he superseded by a permanent Senate of seventy
persons ; while the gonfalonier and priors, become a mockery
and pageant to keep up the illusion of liberty, were taught
that in exercising a legitimate authority without the sanc-
tion of their prince — a name now first heard at Florence —
they incurred the risk of punishment for their audacity.
Even the total dilapidation of his commercial wealth was re-
paired at the cost of the state ; and the republic disgraceful-
ly screened the bankruptcy of the Medici by her own. But,
compared with the statesmen of his age, we can reproach Lo-
renzo with no heinous crime. He had many enemies; his
descendants had many more ; but no unequivocal charge of
treachery or assassination has been substantiated against his
memory. So much was Lorenzo esteemed by his contempo-
raries, that his premature death has frequently been consid-
ered as the cause of those unhappy revolutions that speedily
ensued, and which his foresight would, it is imagined, have
been able to prevent ; an opinion which, whether founded in
probability or otherwise, attests the common sentiment about
his character (a.d. 1492).
§ 32. If, indeed, Lorenzo de' Medici could not have changed
the destinies of Ital}^ however premature his death may ap-
pear if we consider the ordinary duration of human exist-
ence, it must be admitted that for his own welfare, perhaps
for his glory, he had lived out the full measure of his time.
An age of new and uncommon revolutions was about to
arise, among the earliest of which the temporary downfall
of his family was to be reckoned. The long-contested suc-
cession of Naples >i'as again to involve Italy in war. The
Italy. FRANCE LAYS CLAIM TO NAPLES. 233
ambition of strangers was once more to desolate her plains.
Ferdinand, king of Naples, bad reigned for tbirty years after
tbe discomfiture of bis competitor witb success and ability,
but witb a degree of ill faith as well as tyranny towards bis
subjects that rendered bis government deservedly odious.
His son Alfonso, whose succession seemed now near at band,
was still more marked by these vices than himself. Mean-
while, the pretensions of tbe house of Anjou had legally de-
scended, after the death of old Regnier, to Regnier, duke of
Lorraine, his grandson by a daughter ; whose marriage into
the bouse of Lorraine bad, however, so displeased her father,
that be bequeathed his Neapolitan title, along witb his real
patrimony, the county of Provence, to a count of Maine ; by
whose testament they became vested in tbe crown of France.
Louis XL, while he took possession of Provence, gave him-
self no trouble about Naples. But Charles VIIL, inheriting
bis father's ambition without that cool sagacity which re-
strained it in general from impracticable attempts, and far
better circumstanced at home than Louis bad ever been, was
ripe for an expedition to vindicate his pretension upon Na-
ples, or even for more extensive projects. It was now two
centuries since tbe kings of France bad begun to aim, by
intervals, at conquests in Italy. Tbe long English wars
changed all views of the court of France to self-defense.
But in tbe fifteenth century its plans of aggrandizement be-
yond tbe Alps began to revive. Several times, as I have
mentioned, the republic of Genoa put itself under the do-
minion of France. Tbe dukes of Savoy, possessing most
part of Piedmont, and masters of the mountain-passes, were,
by birth, intermarriage, and habitual policy, completely ded-
icated to the French interests. Ludovico Sforza, who had
usurped tbe guardianship of his nephew, the Duke of Milan,
found, as that young man advanced to maturity, that one
crime required to be completed by another. To depose and
murder bis ward was, however, a scheme that prudence,
though not conscience, bade him hesitate to execute. He
bad rendered Ferdinand of Naples and Piero de' Medici,
Lorenzo's heir, his decided enemies. A revolution at Milan
would be tbe probable result of his continuing in usurpation.
In these circumstances Ludovico Sforza excited tbe King of
France to undertake the conquest of Naples (a.d. 1439).
But in relieving himself from an immediate danger, Ludo-
vico Sforza overlooked tbe consideration that the presump-
tive heir of tbe King of France claimed by an ancient title
that principality of Milan which he was compassing by usur-
234
NOTE TO CHAPTER III. Chai-. III. Part II.
pation and murder. But neither Milan nor Naples was free
from other claimants than France, nor was she reserved to
enjoy unmolested the spoil of Italy. A louder and a louder
strain of warlike dissonance will be heard from the banks of
the Danube, and from the Mediterranean Gulf The dark
and wily Ferdinand, the rash and lively Maximilian, are pre-
paring to hasten into the lists ; the schemes of ambition are
assuming a more comprehensive aspect; and the controversy
of Neapolitan succession is to expand into the long rivalry
between the houses of France and Austria. But here, while
Italy is still untouched, and before as yet the first lances of
France gleam along the defiles of the Alps, we close the his-
tory of the Middle Ages.
NOTE TO CHAPTER III.
AUTHORITIES FOR ITALIAN HISTORY,
The authorities upon which the preced-
ing chapter is founded are chiefly the
following: 1. Muratori's Annals of Italy
(twelve volumes in 4to, or eighteen in
8vo) comprehend a summary of its history
from the beginning of the Christian era
to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. The
volumes relating to the Middle Ages, iuto
which he has digested the original writers
contained in his great collection, " Scrip-
tores Rerum Italicarum," are by much the
best ; and of these, the part which extends
from the seventh or eighth to the end of
the twelfth century is the fullest and most
useful. Muratori's accuracy is in general
almost implicitly to be trusted, and his
plain integrity speaks in all his writings ;
but his mind was not philosophical enough
to discriminate the wheat from the chaff,
an4 his habits of life induced him to annex
an imaginary importance to the dates of
diplomas and other inconsiderable mat-
ters. His narrative presents a mere skel-
eton, devoid of juices; and besides its in-
tolerable aridity, it labors under that con-
fusion which a merely chronological ar-
rangement of concurrent and independent
events must always produce. 2. The Dis-
sertations on Italian Antiquities, by the
same writer, may be considered either as
one or two works. In Latin they form six
volumes in folio, enriched with a great
number of original documents. In Italian
they are freely translated by Muratori him-
self, abridged, no doubt, and without most
of the original instruments, but well fur-
nished with quotations, and abundantly
sufficient for most purposes. They form
three volumes in quarto. 3. St. Marc, a
learned and laborious Frenchman, has
written a chronological abridgment of
Italian history, somewhat in the manner
of Ilenault, but so strangely divided by
several parallel columns in every page,
that I could hardly name a book more in-
convenient to the reader. His knowledge,
like Muratori's, lay a good deal in points
of minute inquiry ; and he is chiefly to be
valued in ecclesiastical history. The work
descends only to the thirteenth centur}'.
4. Deniua's "Rivoluzioni d'ltalia," origin-
ally published in 1T6J), is a perspicuous and
lively book, in which the principal circum-
stances are well selected. It is not, per-
haps, free from errors in fact, and still less
from those of opinion ; but, till lately, I do
not know from what source a general ac-
quaintance with the history of Italy could
have been so easily derived. 5. The pub-
lication of M. Sismoudi's " Histoire des Re-
publiques Italiennes" has thrown a blaze
of light around the most interesting^, at
least, in many respects, of European coun-
tries during the Middle Ages. I am hap-
py to bear witness, so far as my own stud-
ies have enabled me, to the learning and
diligence of this writer, qualities which
the world is sometimes apt not to suppose
where they perceive so much eloquence
and philosophy. I can not express my
opinion of M. Sismondi in this respect
more strongly than by saying that his
work has almost superseded the Anuala
NOTE TO CHAPTER III.
235
of Muratori ; I mean from the twelfth cen-
tury, before which period his labor hardly
begins. Though doubtless not more ac-
curate than Muratori, he has consulted a
much more extensive list of authors ; and,
considered as a register of facts alone,
his history is incomparably more useful.
These are combined in so skillful a man-
ner as to diminish, in a great degree, that
inevitable confusion which arises from
frequency of transition and want of gen-
eral unity. It is much to be regretted
that, from too redundant details of unnec-
essary circumstances, and sometimes, if I
may take the liberty of saying so, from
unnecessary reflections, M. Sismondi has
run into a prolixity which will probably
intimidate the languid students of our
age. It is the more to be regretted, be-
cause the History of Italian Republics is
calculated to produce a good far more im-
portant than storing the memory with
historical f;icts— that of communicating to
the reader's bosom some sparks of the
dignified philosophy, the love for truth
and virtue, which lives along its eloquent
pages. G. To Muratori's collection of orig-
inal writers, the " Scriptores Rerum Itali-
carum,"in twenty-four volumes in folio, I
have paid considerable attention ; perhaps
there is no volume of it which 1 havs not
more or less consulted.
236 HISTORY OF SPAIN. Chap. IV.
CHAPTER IV.
THE HISTORY OF SPAIN TO THE CONQUEST OP GEANADA.
5 1. Kingdom of the Visigoths. § 2. Conquest of Spain by the Moors. Gradual Re-
vival of the Spanish Nation. § 3. Kingdoms of Leon, Aragon, Navarre, and Cas-
tile, successively formed, § 4. Chartered Towns of Castile. § 5. Military Orders.
§ C. Conquests of Ferdinand III. and James of Aragon. § 7. Causes of the Delay
in expelling the Moors. § 8. History of Castile continued. Character of the Gov-
ernment. Peter the Cruel. § 9. House of Trastamare. John H. Henry IV. §10.
Constitution of Castile. National Assemblies or Cortes. Their constituent Parts.
§ 11. Right of Taxation. 5 12. Forms of the Cortes. § 13. Legislation. § 14. Oth-
er Rights of the Cortes. § 15. Privy Council of Castile. § IC. Administration of
Justice. § IT. Imperfections of the Constitution. § 18. Aragon. Its history in
the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Disputed Succession. §19. Constitution
of Aragon. § 20. Free Spirit of its Aristocracy. Privilege of Union. § 21. Pow-
ers of the Justiza. Legal Securities. Illustrations. § 22. Other Constitutional
Laws. Cortes of Aragon. § 23. Valencia and Catalonia. 5 24. Union of two
Crowns by the Marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. § 25. Conquest of Granada.
§ 1. The history of Spain during the Middle Ages ought
to commence with the dynasty of the Visigoths — a nation
among the first that assaulted and overthrew the Roman
Empire, and whose establishment preceded by nearly half a
century the invasion of Clovis. Vanquished by that con-
queror in the battle of Poitiers, the Gothic monarchs lost
their extensive dominions in Gaul, and transferred their resi-
dence from Toulouse to Toledo. The Visigothic monarchy
difiered in several respects from that of the Franks during
the same period. The crown was less hereditary, or at least
the regular succession was more frequently disturbed. The
prelates had a still more commanding influence in temporal
government. The distinction of Romans and barbarians
was less marked, the laws more uniform, and approaching
nearly to the imperial code. The power of the sovereign
was perhaps more limited by an aristocratical council than
in France, but it never yielded to the dangerous influence of
mayors of the palace. Civil wars and disputed successions
were very frequent, but the integrity of the kingdom was
not violated by the custom of partition.
§ 2. Spain, after remaining for nearly three centuries in
the possession of the Visigoths, fell under the yoke of the
Saracens in 712. The fervid and irresistible enthusiasm
which distinguished the youthful period of Mohammedanism
might sufficiently account for this conquest, even if we could
Spain. CONQUEST BY THE SARACENS. 237
not assign additional causes — the factions Avhich divided the
Goths, the resentment of disappointed pretenders to the
throne, the provocations, as has been generally believed, of
Count Julian,^ and the temerity that risked the fate of an
empire on the chances of a single battle. It is more surpris-
ing that a remnant of this ancient monarchy should not
only have preserved its national liberty and name in the
northern mountains, but waged for some centuries a success-
ful, and generally an offensive warfare against the conquer-
ors, till the balance was completely turned in its favor, and
the Moors were compelled to maintain almost as obstinate
and protracted a contest for a small portion of the peninsula.
But the Arabian monarchs of Cordova found in their success
and imagined security a pretext for indolence : even in the
cultivation of science and contemplation of the magnificent
architecture of their mosques and palaces they forgot their
poor but daring enemies in the Asturias ; while, according to
the nature of despotism, the fruits of wisdom or bravery in
one generation were lost in the follies and effeminacy of the
next. Their kingdom was dismembered by successful reb-
els, who formed the states of Toledo, Huesca, Saragossa, and
others less eminent ; and these, in their own mutual contests,
not only relaxed their natural enmity towards the Christian
princes, but sometimes sought their alliance.
§ 3. The last attack which seemed to endanger the reviv-
ing monarchy of Spain was that of Almanzor, the illustrious
vizier of Haccham IT., tOAvards the end of the tenth century,
wherein the city of Leon, and even the shrine of Compostel-
la, were burned to the ground. For some ages before this
transient reflux, gradual encroachments had been made upon
the Saracens, and the kingdom originally styled of Oviedo,
1 The story of Cava, daughter of Count Julian, whose seduction by Roderic, the
last Gothic king, impelled her father to invite the Moors into Spain, enters largely
into the cycle of Castilian romance and into the grave narratives of every historian.
It can not, however, be traced in extant writings higher than the eleventh century,
when it appears in the Chronicle of the Monk of Silos. The most critical investi-
gators of history, therefore, have treated the story as too apocryphal to be stated as
a fact. Gayangos (" History of the Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain ") points out
that the account of Jnlian, in the " Chronicon Silense," is borrowed from some Arabian
authority; and this he proves by several writers from the ninth century downward,
" all of whom mention, more or less explicitly, the existence of a man living in
Africa, and named Ilyan, who helped the Arabs to make a conquest of Spain ; to
which I ought to add that the rape of Ilyau's daughter, and the circumstances at-
tending it, may also be read in detail in the Mohammedan authors who preceded
the monk of Silos." The result of this learned Avriter's investigation is that Ilyan
really existed, that he Avas a Christian chief, settled, not in Spain, but on the African
coast, and that he betrayed, not his country (except, indeed, as he was probably of
Spanish descent), but the interests of his religion, by assisting the Saracens to Bub-
j agate the Gothic kingdom.
238 CASTILE. Chap. IV.
the seat of which was removed to Leon in 914, had extended
its boundary to the Douro, and even to the mountainous
chain of the Guadarrama. The province of Old Castile, thus
denominated, as is generally supposed, from the castles erect-
ed while it remained a march or frontier against the Moors,
was governed by hereditary counts, elected originally by
the provincial aristocracy, and virtually independent, it seems
probable, of the kings of Leon, though commonly serving
them in war as brethren of the same faith and nation.
While the kings of Leon were thus occupied in recovering
the western provinces, another race of Christian princes grew
up silently under the shadow of the Pyrenean mountains.
Nothing can be more obscure than the beginnings of those
little states which were formed in Navarre and the country
of Soprarbe. They might, perhaps, be almost contemporane-
ous with the Moorish conquests. On both sides of the Pyr-
enees dwelt an aboriginal people, the last to undergo the
yoke, and who had never acquired the language, of Rome.
We know little of these intrepid mountaineers in the dark
period which elapsed under the Gothic and Frank dynasties,
till we find them cutting off the rear-guard of Charlemagne
in Roncesvalles, and maintaining at least their independence,
though seldom, like the kings of Asturias, waging offensive
war against the Saracens. The town of Jaca, situated among
long narrow valleys that intersect the southern ridges of the
Pyrenees, was the capital of a little free state, which after-
wards expanded into the monarchy of Aragon.^ A territo-
ry rather more extensive belonged to Navarre, the kings of
which fixed their seas at Pampelona. Biscay seems to have
been divided between this kingdom and that of Leon. The
connection of Aragon or Soprarbe and Navarre was very in-
timate, and they were often united under a single chief.
At the beginning of the eleventh century, Sancho the
Great, king of Navarre and Aragon, was enabled to render
his second son Ferdinand count, or, as he assumed the title,
king of Castile. This effectually dismembered that province
from the kingdom of Leon ; but their union soon became
more complete than ever, though with a reversed supremacy.
Bermudo IIL, king of Leon, fell in an engagement with the
new king of Castile, who had married his sister; and Ferdi-
nand, in her right, or in that of conquest, became master of the
2 The Fncros, or written laws of Jaca, M'ere perhaps more ancient than anf local
cnstomary in Europe. Alfonso III. confirms them by name of " the ancient usages
of Jaca." They prescribe the descent of lands and movables, as well as the election
of municipal magistrates.
Spain. MODE OF SETTLING CONQUESTS. 239
united monarchy. This cessation of hostilities between the
Christian states enabled them to direct a more unremitting
energy against their ancient enemies, who were now sensi-
bly weakened by the various causes of decline to which I
have already alluded. During the eleventh century the
Spaniards were almost always superior in the field; the
towns which they began by pillaging, they gradually possess-
ed ; their valor was heightened by the customs of chivalry,
and inspired by the example of the Cid; and before the end
of this age Alfonso YI. recovered the ancient metropolis of
the monarchy, the city of Toledo. This was the severest
blow which the Moors had endured, and an unequivocal symp-
tom of that change in their relative strength, which, from
being so gradual, was the more irretrievable. Calamities
scarcely inferior fell upon them in a difi*erent quarter. The
kings of Aragon (a title belonging originally to a little dis-
trict upon the river of that name) had been cooped up al-
most in the mountains by the small Moorish states north of
the Ebro, especially that of Huesca. About the middle of
the eleventh century, they began to attack their neighbors
with success ; the Moors lost one town after another, till, in
1118, exposed and weakened by the reduction of all these
places, the city of Saragossa, in which a line of Mohammedan
princes had flourished for several ages, became the prize of
Alfonso I. and the capital of his kingdom. The southern
parts of what is now the province of Aragon were suc-
cessively reduced during the twelfth century ; while all
New Castile and Estremadura became annexed in the same
gradual manner to the dominion of the descendants of Al-
fonso VI.
Although the feudal system can not be said to have ob-
tained in the kingdoms of Leon and Castile, their peculiar situ-
ation gave the aristocracy a great deal of the same power and
independence which resulted in France and Germany from
that institution. The territory successively recovered from
the Moors, like waste lands reclaimed, could have no propri-
etor but the conquerors, and the prospect of such acquisitions
was a constant incitement to the nobility of Spain, especially
to those who had settled themselves on the Castilian front-
ier. In their new conquests they built towns, and invited
Christian settlers, the Saracen inhabitants being commonly
expelled, or voluntarily retreating to the safer provinces of
the South. Thus Burgos was settled by a count of Castile
about 880 ; another fixed his seat at Osma ; a third at Sepul-
veda; a fourth at Salamanca. These cities were not free
240 CHARTERED TOWNS. Chap. IV.
from incessant peril of a sudden attack till the union of the
two kingdoms uhder Ferdinand I., and consequently the ne-
cessity of keeping in exercise a numerous and armed popula-
tion gave a character of personal freedom and privilege to
the inferior classes which they hardly possessed at so early
a period in any other monarchy. Villenage seems never to
have been established in the Hispano-Gothic kingdoms, Leon
and Castile ; though I confess it was far from being unknown
in that of Aragon, which had formed its institutions on a dif-
ferent pattern. Since nothing makes us forget the arbitrary
distinctions of rank so much as participation in any common
calamity, every man who had escaped the great shipwreck
of liberty and religion in the mountains of Asturias was in-
vested with a personal dignity, which gave him value in his
own eyes and those of his country. It is probably this sen-
timent transmitted to posterity, and gradually fixing the na-
tional character, that has produced the elevation of manner
remarked by travellers in the Castilian peasant. But while
these acquisitions of the nobility promoted the grand object
of winning back the peninsula from its invaders, they by no
means invigorated the government or tended to domestic
tranquillity.
§ 4. A more interesting method of securing the public de-
fense was by the institution of chartered towns or commu-
nities. These were established at an earlier period than in
France and England, and were, in some degree, of a peculiar
description. Instead of purchasing their immunities, and al-
most their personal freedom, at the hands of a master, the
burgesses of Castilian towns were invested with civil rights
and extensive property on the more liberal condition of pro-
tecting their country. The fuero, or original charter of a
Spanish community, was properly a compact, by which the
king or lord granted a town and adjacent district to the bur-
gesses, with various privileges, and especially that of choosing
magistrates and a common council, who were bound to con-
form themselves to the laws prescribed by the founder.
These laws, civil as well as criminal, though essentially de-
rived from the ancient code of the Visigoths, w^hich contin-
ued to be the common law of Castile till the fourteenth or
fifteenth century, varied from each other in particular usages,
which had probably grown up and been established in these
districts before their "legal confirmation. The territory held
by chartered towns was frequently very extensive, far be-
yond any comparison with corporations in our own country
or in France ; including the estates of private land-holders.
Spain. MILITARY ORDERS. 241
subject to the jurisdiction and control of the municipality as
well as its inalienable demesnes, allotted to the maintenance
of the magistrates and other public expenses. In every
town the king appointed a governor to receive the usual
tributes, and watch over the police and the fortified places
within the district ; but the administration of justice was
exclusively reserved to the inhabitants and their elected
judges. Even the executive power of the royal officer was
regarded with jealousy; he was forbidden to use violence
towards any one without legal process ; and, by the fuero
of Logrono, if he attempted to enter forcibly into a private
house he might be killed with impunity.
In recompense for such liberal concessions, the incorpo-
rated towns were bound to certain money payments and to
military service. This was absolutely due from every in-
habitant, without dispensation or substitution, unless in case
of infirmity. The royal governor and the magistrates, as in
the simple times of primitive Rome, raised and commanded
the militia. Every man of a certain property was bound to
serve on horseback, and was exempted in return from the
payment of taxes. This produced a distinction between the
eaballeros, or noble class, and the pecheros, or payers of trib-
ute. But the distinction appears to have been founded only
upon wealth, as in the Roman equites, and not upon heredi-
tary rank, though it most likely prepared the way for the
latter. The horses of these caballeros could not be seized
for debt; in some cases they were exclusively eligible to
magistracy; and their honor was protected by laws which
rendered it highly penal to insult or molest them. But the
civil rights of rich and poor in court* of justice were as equal
as in England.
§ 5. The progress of the Christian arms in Spain may in part
be ascribed to another remarkable feature in the constitution
of that country, the military orders. These had already
been tried with signal effect in Palestine ; and the similar
circumstances of Spain easily led to an adoption of the same
policy. In a very few years after the first institution of the
Knights Templars, they were endowed with great estates, or
rather districts, won from the Moors, on condition of defend-
ing their own and the national territory. These lay chiefly
in the parts of Aragon beyond the Ebro, the conquest of
which was then recent and insecure. So extraordinary was
the respect for this order and that of St. John, and so pow-
erful the conviction that the hope of Christendom rested
upon their valor, that Alfonso the First, king of Aragon, dy-
11
242 EXPULSION OF THE MOORS. Chap. IV.
ing childless, bequeathed to them his whole kingdom. The
states of Aragon annulled, as may be supposed, this strange
testament ; but the successor of Alfonso was obliged to pac-
ify the ambitious knights by immense concessions of money
and territory ; stipulating even not to make peace with the
Moors against their will. In imitation of these great milita-
ry orders common to all Christendom, there arose three
Spanish institutions of a similar kind, the orders of Calatra-
va, Santiago, and Alcantara. The first of these was estab-
lished in 1158; the second and most famous had its charter
from the pope in 1175, though it seems to have existed pre-
viously ; the third branched off from that of Calatrava at a
subsequent time. These were military colleges, having their
walled towns in different parts of Castile, and governed by
an elective grand master, whose influence in the state was at
least equal to that of any of the nobility. In the civil dis-
sensions of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the chiefs
of these incorporated knights were often very prominent.
§ 6. The kingdoms of Leon and Castile were unwisely di-
vided anew by Alfonso VII. between his sons Sancho and
{Ferdinand, and this produced not only a separation but a
revival of the ancient jealousj^ with frequent wars for near
a century. At length, in 1238, Ferdinand III., king of Cas-
tile, reunited forever the two branches of the Gothic mon-
archy. He employed their joint strength against the Moors,
whose dominion, though it still embraced the finest provinces
of the peninsula, was sinking by internal weakness, and had
never recovered a tremendous defeat at Banos di Toloso, a
few miles from Baylen, in 1210. Ferdinand, bursting into
Andalusia, took its great capital, the city of Cordova, not less
ennobled by the cultivation of Arabian science, and by the
names of Avicenna and Averroes than by the splendid
works of a rich and munificent dynasty. (a.t>. 1236.) In a
few years more Seville was added to his conquests, and the
Moors lost their favorite regions on the banks of the Guadal-
quivir. James I. of Aragon, the victories of whose long
reign gave him the surname of Conqueror, reduced the city
and kingdom of Valencia, the Balearic isles, and the kingdom
of Murcia ; but the last was annexed, according to compact,
to the crown of Castile.
§ 7. It could hardly have been expected about the middle
of the thirteenth century, when the splendid conquests of
Ferdinand and James had planted the Christian banner on
the three principal Moorish cities, that 250 years were yet to
elapse before the rescue of Spain from their yoke should be
Spain. EXPULSION OF THE MOORS. 243
completed. Ambition, religious zeal, national enmity, could
not be supposed to pause in a career which now seemed to
be obstructed by such moderate difficulties ; yet we find, on
the contrary, the exertions of the Spaniards begin from this
time to relax, and their acquisitions of territory to become
more slow. One of the causes, undoubtedly, that produced
this unexpected protraction of the contest was the superior
means of resistance which the Moors found in retreating.
Their population, spread originally over the whole of Spain,
was now condensed, and, if I may so say, become no further
compressible, in a single province. It had been mingled, in
the northern and central parts, with the T\Iozarabic Chris-
tians, their subjects and tributaries, not perhaps treated with
much injustice, yet naturally and irremediably their enemies.
Toledo and Saragossa, when they fell under a Christian sov-
ereign, were full of these inferior Christians, whose long in-
tercourse with their masters has infused the tones and dia-
lect of Arabia into the language of Castile. But in the
twelfth century the Moors, exasperated by defeat and jeal-
ous of secret disaffection, began to persecute their Christian
subjects, till they renounced or fled for their religion ; so that
in the southern provinces scarcely any professors of Chris-
tianity were left at the time of Ferdinand's invasion. An
equally severe policy was adopted on the other side. The
Moors had been permitted to dwell in Saragossa as the
Christians had dwelt before, subjects, not slaves; but on the
capture of Seville they were entirely expelled, and new set-
tlers invited from every part of Spain. The strong fortified
towns of Andalusia, such as Gibraltar, Algeciras, Tariffa,
maintained also a more formidable resistance than had been
experienced in Castile ; they cost tedious sieges, were some-
times recovered by the enemy, and were always liable to his
attacks. But the great protection of the Spanish Moham-
medans was found in the alliance and ready aid of their kin-
dred beyond the Straits. Accustomed to hear of the Afri-
can Moors only as pirates, we can not easily conceive the
powerful dynasties, the w^arlike chiefs, the vast armies, which
for seven or eight centuries illustrate the annals of that peo-
ple. Their assistance was always afforded to the true be-
lievers in Spain, though their ambition was generally dread-
ed by those who stood in need of their valor.
Probably, however, the kings of Granada were most in-
debted to the indolence which gradually became character-
istic of their enemies. By the cession of Murcia to Castile,
the kingdom of Aragon shut itself out from the possibility
244 EXPULSION OF THE MOORS. Chap. IV.
of extending those conquests which had ennobled her earlier
sovereigns ; and their successors, not less ambitious and en-
terprising, diverted their attention towards objects beyond
the peninsula. The Castilian, patient and undesponding in
bad success, loses his energy as the pressure becomes less
heavy, and puts no ordinary evil in comparison with the ex-
ertions by which it must be removed. The greater part of
his country freed by his arms, he was content to leave the
enemy in a single province rather than undergo the labor of
making his triumph complete.
§ 8. If a similar spirit of insubordination had not been
found compatible in earlier ages with the aggrandizement
of the Castilian monarchy (a.d. 1252), we might ascribe its
want of splendid successes against the Moors to the contin-
ued rebellions which disturbed that Government for more
than a century after the death of Ferdinand III. His son
Alfonso X. might justly acquire the surname of Wise for his
general proficiency in learning, and especially in astronomic-
al science, if these attainments deserve praise in a king who
was incapable of preserving his subjects in their duty. As
a legislator, Alfonso, by his code of the Siete Partidas, sacri-
ficed the ecclesiastical rights of his crown to the usurpation
of Rome ; and his philosophy sunk below the level of ordi-
nary prudence when lie permitted the phantom of an impe-
rial crown in Germany to seduce his hopes for almost twen-
ty years. For the sake of such an illusion he would even
have withdrawn himself from Castile, if the states had not
remonstrated against an expedition that would probably
have cost him the kingdom. In the latter years of his tur-
bulent reign, Alfonso had to contend against his son. The
right of representation was hitherto unknown in Castile,
which had borrowed little from the customs of feudal na-
tions. By the received law of succession the nearer was al-
ways preferred to the more remote, the son to the grandson.
Alfonso X. had established the different maxim of represen-
tation by his code of the Siete Partidas, the authority of
which, however, was not universally acknowledged. The
question soon came to an issue : on the death of his eldest
son, Ferdinand, leaving two male children, Sancho, their un-
cle, asserted his claim, founded upon the ancient Castilian
right of succession ; and this chiefly, no doubt, through fear
of arms, though it did not want plausible arguments, was
ratified by an assembly of the cortes, and secured, notwith-
standing the king's reluctance, by the courage of Sancho.
But the descendants of Ferdinand, generally called the in*
Spain. CIVIL DISTURBANCES OF CASTILE. 245
fants of la Cerda, by the protection of France, to whose royal
family they were closely allied, and of Aragon, always prompt
to interfere in the disputes of a rival people, continued to
assert their pretensions for more than half a century, and,
though they were not very successful, did not fail to aggra-
vate the troubles of their country.
The annals of Sancho IV. (a.d. 1284), and his two immedi-
ate successors, Ferdinand IV. (a.d. 1295) and Alfonso XI.
(a.d. 1132), present a series of unhappy and dishonorable
civil dissensions with too much rapidity to be remembered
or even understood. Although the Castilian nobility had no
pretense to the original independence of the French peers,
or to the liberties of feudal tenure, they assumed the same
privilege of rebelling upon any provocation from their sov-
ereign. When such occurred, they seem to have been per-
mitted, by legal custom, to renounce their allegiance by a
solemn instrument, which exempted them from the penalties
of treason. A very few families composed an oligarchy, the
worst and most ruinous condition of political society, alter-
nately the favorites and ministers of the prince, or in arms
against him. If unable to protect themselves in their walled
towns, and by the aid of their faction, these Christian patri-
ots retired to Aragon or Granada, and excited an hostile
power against their country, and perhaps their religion.
There is indeed some apology for the conduct of the nobles
in the character of their sovereigns, who had but one favor-
ite method of avenghig a dissembled injury, or anticipating
a suspected treason. But whatever violence and arbitrary
spirit might be imputed to Sancho and Alfonso was forgot-
ten in the unexampled tyranny of Peter the Cruel (a.d.
1350). The history of his reign charges him with the mur-
der of his wife, Blanche of Bourbon, most of his brothers and
sisters, with Eleanor Gusman, their mother, many Castilian
nobles, and multitudes of the commonalty ; besides continu-
al outrages of licentiousness, and especially a pretended mar-
riage with a noble lady of the Castrian family. At length
a rebellion was headed by his illegitimate brother, Henry,
count of Trastamare, wath the assistance of Aragon and Por-
tugal. This, how^ever, would probably have failed of de-
throning Peter, a resolute prince, and certainly not destitute
of many faithful supporters, if Henry had not invoked the
more powerful succor of Bertrand du Guesclin, and the com-
panies of adventure who, after the pacification between
France and England, had lost the occupation of war, and re-
tained only that of plunder. With mercenaries so disciplined
246 HOUSE OF TRASTAMARE. Chap. i\ .
it was in vain for Peter to contend ; but, abandoning Spain
for a moment, be bad recourse to a more powerful weapon
from the same armory. Edward tbe Black Prince, tben resi-
dent at Bordeaux, was induced by the promise of Biscay to
enter Spain as the ally of Castile ; and at tbe great battle
of Navarette be continued lord of tbe ascendant over those
who had so often already been foiled by his prowess (a.d.
1367). Du Guesclin was made prisoner ; Henry fled to Ara-
gon, and Peter remounted the throne. But a second revolu-
tion was at hand : the Black Prince, whom he had ungrate-
fully offended, withdrew into Guienne; and he lost his king-
dom and life in a second short contest with his brother.
§ 9. A more fortunate period began with the accession of
Henry H. (a.d. 1368). His own reign was hardly disturbed
by any rebellion ; and though his successors, John I. (a.d.
1379) and Henry HI. (a.d. 1390), were not altogether so un-
molested, especially the latter, who ascended the throne in
his minority, yet the troubles of their time were slight in
comparison with those formerly excited by the houses of
Lara and Haro, both of which were now happily extinct.
Though Henry II.'s illegitimacy left him no title but popu-
lar choice, his queen was sole representative of the Cerdas,
the offspring, as has been mentioned above, of Sancho IV. 's
elder brother, and, by the extinction of the younger branch,
unquestioned heiress of the royal line. Some years after-
wards, by the marriage of Henry HI. with Catherine, daugh-
ter of John of Gaunt and of Constance, an illegitimate child
of Peter the Cruel, her pretensions, such as they were, be-
came merged in the crown.
No kingdom could be worse prepared to meet the disor-
ders of a minority than Castile, and in none did the circum-
stances so frequently recur. John II. was but fourteen
months old at his accession (a.d. 1406), and but for the dis-
interestedness of his uncle Ferdinand, the nobility would
have been inclined to avert the danger by placing that
prince upon the throne. In this instance, however, Castile
suffered less from faction during the infancy of her sovereign
than in his maturity. The queen dowager, at first jointly
with Ferdinand, and solely after his accession to the crown
of Aragon, administered the government with credit. Fifty
years had elapsed at her death, in 1418, since the elevation
of the house of Trastamare, who had entitled themselves to
public affection by conforming themselves more strictly than
their predecessors to the constitutional laws of Castile, which
were never so well established as during this period. This
Spain. HOUSE OF TRASTAMARE. 247
companitively golden period ceases at the majority of John
II. His reign was filled np by a series of conspiracies and
civil wars, headed by his cousins John and Henry, the in-
fants of Aragon, who enjoyed very extensive territories in
Castile, by the testament of their father Ferdinand. Their
brother, the king of Aragon, frequently lent the assistance
of his arms. John himself, the elder of these two princes,
by marriage with the heiress of the kingdom of Navarre,
stood in a double relation to Castile, as a neighboring sover-
eign, and as a member of the native oligarchy. These con-
spiracies were all ostensibly directed against the favorite of
John H., Alvaro de Luna, who retained for five-and-thirty
years an absolute control over his feeble master. The ad-
verse faction naturally ascribed to this powerful minister ev-
ery criminal intention and all public mischiefs. He was cer-
tainly not more scrupulous than the generality of statesmen,
and appears to have been rapacious in accumulating wealth.
But there was an energy and courage about Alvaro de Luna
which distinguishes him from the cowardly sycophants who
usually rise by the favor of weak princes ; and Castile prob-
ably would not have been happier under the administration
of his enemies. His fate is among the memorable lessons of
history. After a life of troubles endured for the sake of this
favorite, sometimes a fugitive, sometimes a prisoner, his son
heading rebellions against him, John H. suddenly yielded to
an intrigue of the palace, and adopted sentiments of dislike
towards the man he had so long loved. No substantial
charge appears to have been brought against Alvaro de
Luna, except that general malversation which it was too late
for the king to object to him. The real cause of John's
change of affection was, most probably, the insupportable re-
straint which the weak are apt to find in that spell of a com-
manding understanding which they dare not break — the tor-
ment of living subject to the ascendant of an inferior, which
has produced so many examples of fickleness in sovereigns.
That of John IL is not the least conspicuous. Alvaro de
Luna was brought to a summary trial and beheaded ; his es-
tates were confiscated. He met his death with the intrepid-
ity of Strafford, to whom he seems to have borne some re-
semblance in character.
John H. did not long survive his minister, dying in 1454,
after a reign that may be considered as inglorious compared
with any except that of his successor. If the father was not
respected, the son fell completely into contempt. A power-
ful confederacy of disaffected nobles was formed against the
248 NATIONAL COUNCILS. Cuav. IV.
royal authority, and Henry IV. was deposed in an assembly
of their faction at Avila with a sort of theatrical pageantry
which has often been described (a.d. 1465). The confeder-
ates set up Alfonso, the king's brother, and a civil war of
some duration ensued, in which they had the support of Ara-
gon. The Queen of Castile had at this time borne a daugh-
ter, whom the enemies of Henry IV., and indeed no small
part of his adherents, were determined to treat as spurious.
Accordingly, after the death of Alfonso, his sister Isabel was
considered as heiress of the kingdom. She might have as-
-pired, with the assistance of the confederates, to its immedi-
ate possession ; but, avoiding the odium of a contest with her
brother, Isabel agreed to a treaty, by which the succession
was absolutely settled upon her (a.d. 1469). This arrange-
ment was not long afterwards followed by the union of that
princess with Ferdinand, son of the King of Aragon. This
marriage Avas by no means acceptable to a part of the Cas-
tilian oligarchy, who had preferred a connection with Portu-
gal. And as Henry had never lost sight of the interests of
one whom he considered, or pretended to consider, as his
daughter, he took the first opportunity of revoking his forced
disposition of the crown and restoring the direct line of suc-
cession in favor of the Princess Joanna. Ui^on his death, in
1474, the right was to be decided by arms. The scale be-
tween the two parties was pretty equally balanced till, the
King of Portugal having been defeated at Toro in 1476, Jo-
anna's party discovered their inability to prosecute the war
by themselves, and successively made their submission to
Ferdinand and Isabella.
§ 10. The Castilians always considered themselves as sub-
ject to a legal and limited monarchy. For several ages the
crown was elective, as in most nations of German origin,
within the limits of one royal family. In general, of course,
the public choice fell upon the nearest heir ; and it became
a prevailing usage to elect a son during the lifetime of his
father, till about the eleventh century a right of hereditary
succession was clearly established.
In the original Gothic monarchy of Spain, civil as well as
ecclesiastical affairs were decided in national councils, the
acts of many of which are still extant, and have been pub-
lished in ecclesiastical collections. To these assemblies the
dukes and other provincial governors, and in general the
principal individuals of the realm, were summoned along
with spiritual persons. This double aristocracy of Church
and State continued to form the great council of advice and
Spain. NATIONAL COUNCILS. 240
consent in the first ages of the new kingdoms of Leon and
Castile. The prelates and nobility, or rather some of the
more distinguished nobility, appear to have concurred in all
general measures of legislation, as we infer from the pream-
ble of their statutes. It would be against analogy, as well
as without evidence, to suppose that any representation of
the commons had been formed in the earlier period of the
monarchy. In the preamble of laws passed in 1020, and at
several subsequent times during that and the ensuing centu-
ry, we find only the bishops and magnates recited as present.
But in 1188, the first year of the reign of Alfonso IX., depu-
ties from the Castilian towns are expressly mentioned ; and
from that era were constant and necessary parts of those
general assemblies.
Every chief town of a concejo or corporation ought per-
haps, by the constitution of Castile, to have received its reg-
ular writ for the election of deputies to Cortes. J^ut there
does not appear to have been, in the best times, any uniform
practice in this respect. We find, in short, a good deal more
irregularity than during the same period in England, where
the number of electing boroughs varied pretty considerably
at every Parliament. Yet the Cortes of Castile did not cease
to be a numerous body and a fair representation of the peo-
ple till the reign of John II. The first princes of the house
of Trastamare had acted in all points with the advice of their
Cortes. But John R., and still more his son Henry IV., being
conscious of their own unpopularity, did not venture to meet
a full assembly of the nation. Their writs were directed
only to certain towns — an abuse for which the looseness of
preceding usage had given a pretense. It must be owned
that the people bore it in general very patiently. Many of
the corporate towns, impoverished by civil warfare and oth-
er causes, were glad to save the cost of defraying their depu-
ties' expenses. Thus, by the year 1480, only seventeen cities
had retained privilege of representation. A vote was after-
wards added for Granada, and three more in later times for
Palencia, and the provinces of Estremadura and Galicia.' It
might have been easy, perhaps, to redress this grievance while
the exclusion was yet fresh and recent. But the privileged
8 The cities which retained their representation in Cortes were Burgos, Toledo
(there was a constant dispute for precedence between these two), Leon, Granada,
Cordova, Murcia, Jaen, Zamora, Toro, Soria, Valladolid, Salamanca, Segovia, Avila,
Madrid,, Guadalaxara, and Cuenca. The representatives of these were supposed to
vote not only for their immediate constituents, but for other adjacent towns. Thus
Toro voted for Palencia and the kingdom of Galicia, before they obtained separate
votes; Salamanca for most of Estremadura ; Guadalaxara for Siguenza and four
hundred other towns.
11*
250 CONSTITUTION OF CORTES. Chap. IV.
towns, with a mean and preposterous selfishness, although
their zeal for liberty was at its height, could not endure the
only means of effectually securing it, by a restoration of elect-
ive franchises to their fellow-citizens. The Cortes of 1506
assert, with one of those bold falsifications upon which a pop-
ular body sometimes ventures, that " it is established by
some laws, and by immemorial usage, that eighteen cities of
these kingdoms have the right of sending deputies to Cortes,
and no more ;" remonstrating against the attempts made by
some otlier towns to obtain the same privilege, which they
request may not be conceded. This remonstrance is repeat-
ed in 1512.
From the reign of Alfonso XL, who restrained the govern-
ment of corporations to an oligarchy of magistrates, the
right of electing members of Cortes was confined to the rul-
ing body, the bailiffs or regidores, whose number seldom ex-
ceeded twenty-four, and whose succession was kept up by
close election among themselves. The people therefore had
no direct share in the choice of representatives. Experience
proved, as several instances in these pages will show, that
even upon this narrow basis the deputies of Castile were not
deficient in zeal for their country and its liberties. But it
must be confessed that a small body of electors is always
liable to corrupt influence and to intimidation. John TI. and
Henry IV. often invaded the freedom of election ; the latter
even named some of the deputies. Several energetic re-
monstrances v>'ere made in Cortes against this flagrant griev-
ance. Laws were enacted and other precautions devised to
secure the due return of deputies. In the sixteenth century
the evil, of course, was aggravated. Charles and Philip cor-
rupted the members by bribery. Even in 1573 the Cortes
are bold enough to complain that creatures of government
were sent thither, " who were always held for suspected by
the other deputies, and cause disagreement among them."
There seems to be a considerable obscurity about the
constitution of the Cortes, so far as relates to the two higher
estates, the spiritual and temporal nobility. It is admitted
that down to the latter part of the thirteenth century, and
especially before the introduction of representatives from
the commons, they v/ere summoned in considerable num-
bers. But from the reign of Sancho IV. they took much less
share and retained much less influence in the deliberation of
Cortes. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries they were
more and more excluded.
It is manifest that the king exercised very freely a prerog
Spain. RIGHT OF TAXATION. 251
ative of calling or omitting persons of both the higher or-
ders at his discretion. The bishops were numerous, and
many of their sees not rich ; while the same objections of in-
convenience applied perhaps to the ricoshombres, but far
more forcibly to the lower nobility, the hijosdalgo or cabal-
leros. Castile never adopted the institution of deputies from
this order, as in the States-General of France and some other
countries, much less that liberal system of landed representa-
tion, which forms one of the most admirable peculiarities in
our own constitution. It will be seen hereafter that spiritu-
al and even temporal peers were summoned by our kings
with much irregularity ; and the disordered state of Castile
through almost every reign was likely to prevent the estab-
lishment of any fixed usage in this and most other points.
§ 11. The primary and most essential characteristic of a
limited monarchy is that money can only be levied upon the
people through the consent of their representatives. This
principle was thoroughly established in Castile ; and the
statutes which enforce it, the remonstrances which protest
against its violation, bear a lively analogy to corresponding
circumstances in the history of our constitution. The lands
of the nobility and clergy were, I believe, always exempted
from direct taxation — an immunity which perhaps rendered
the attendance of the members of those estates in the Cortes
less regular. The corporate districts or conjegos, which, as
I have observed already, differed from the communities of
France and England by possessing a large extent of terri-
tory subordinate to the principal town, were bound by their
charter to a stipulated annual payment, the price of their
franchises, called moneda forera. Beyond this sum nothing
could be demanded without the consent of the Cortes. De-
mands of money do not seem to have been very usual before
the prodigal reign of Alfonso X. That prince and his im-
mediate successors were not much inclined to respect the
rights of their subjects ; but they encountered a steady and
insuperable resistance. An explicit law was enacted by Al-
fonso XI. in 1328, who bound himself not to exact from his
people, or cause them to pay any tax, either partial or gen*
eral, not hitherto established by law, without the previous
grant of all the deputies convened to the Cortes. This abo-
lition of illegal impositions was several times confirmed by
the same prince, and his successors. The Catholic kings, as
they are eminently called, Ferdinand and Isabella, never vio-
lated this part of the constitution. In the Recopilacion, or
code of Castilian law published by Philip II., we read a posi'
252 EIGHT OF TAXATION. Chap. IV
tive declaration against arbitrary imposition of taxes, which
remained unaltered on the statute-book till the present age.
The law was indeed frequently broken by Philip 11. ; but the
Cortes, who retained throughout the 16th century a degree
of steadiness and courage truly admirable when we consider
their political weakness, did not cease to remonstrate with
that suspicious tyrant, and recorded their unavailing appeal
to the law of Alfonso XL, " so ancient and just, and which so
long time has been used and observed."
The free assent of the people by their representatives to
grants of money was by no means a mere matter of form.
It was connected with other essential rights indispensable to
its effectual exercise ; those of examining public accounts
and checking the expenditure. The Cortes, in the best times
at least, were careful to grant no money until they were as-
sured that what had been already levied on their constitu-
ents had been properly employed.
The contributions granted by Cortes were assessed and
collected by respectable individuals (hombres buenos) of the
several towns and villages. This repartition^ as the French
call it, of direct taxes is a matter of the highest importance
in those countries where they are imposed by means of
a gross assessment on a district. The produce was paid
to the royal council. It could not be applied to any other
purpose than that to which the tax had been appropriated.
Thus the Cortes of Segovia, in 1407, granted a subsidy for
the war against Granada, on condition " that it should not
be laid out on any other service except this war;" which
they requested the queen and Ferdinand, both regents in
John II.'s minority, to confirm by oath. Part, however, of
the money remaining unexpended, Ferdinand wished to apply
it to his own object of procuring the ci'own of Aragon ; but
the queen first obtained not only a release from her oath by
the pope, but the consent of the Cortes.
The Cortes did not consider it beyond the line of their
duty, notwithstanding the respectful manner in which they
always addressed the sovereign, to remonstrate against pro-
fuse expenditure even in his own household. They told Al-
fonso X. in 1258, in the homely style of that age, that they
thought it fitting that the king and his wife should eat at
the rate of a hundred and fifty maravedis a day, and no
more ; and that the king should order his attendants to eat
more moderately than they did. Even in 1559 they spoke
with an undaunted Castilian spirit to Philip II : " Sir, the
expenses of your royal establishment and household are
Spain. POWER AND FORMS OF THE CORTES. 253
much increased ; and we conceive it would much redound
to the good of these kingdoms that your majesty should di-
rect them to be lowered, both as a relief to your wants, and
that all the great men and other subjects of your majesty
may take example therefrom to restrain the great disorder
and excess they commit in that respect."
§ 12. The forms of a Castilian Cortes were analogous to
those of an English Parliament in the fourteenth century.
They were summoned by a writ almost exactly coincident in
"expression with that in use among us. The session was
opened by a speech from the chancellor or other chief officer
of the court. The deputies were invited to consider certain
special business, and commonly to grant money. After the
principal aiFairs were dispatched they conferred together,
and, having examined the instructions of their respective
constituents, drew up a schedule of petitions. These were
duly answered one by one ; and from the petition and an-
swer, if favorable, laws were afterwards drawn up where the
matter required a new law, or promises of redress were given
if the petition related to an abuse or grievance. In the
struggling condition of Spanish liberty under Charles I., the
crown began to neglect answering the petitions of Cortes, or
to use unsatisfactory generalities of expression. This gave
rise to many remonstrances. The deputies insisted in 1523
on having answers before they granted money. They re-
peated the same contention in 1525, and obtained a general
law inserted in the Recopilacion enacting that the king
should answer all their petitions before he dissolved the as-
sembly. This, however, was disregarded as before ; but the
Cortes whose intrepid honesty under Philip II. so often at-
tracts our admiration continued as late as 1586 to af)peal to
the written statute and lament its violation.
§ 13. According to the ancient fundamental constitution
of Castile, the king did not legislate for his subjects without
their consent. This consent was originally given only by
the higher estates, who might be considered, in a large sense,
as representing the nation, though not chosen by it ; but from
the end of the twelfth century by the elected deputies of the
commons in Cortes. The laws of the Siete Partidas, compiled
by Alfonso X., did not obtain any direct sanction till the fa-
mous Cortes of Alcala, in 1348, when they were confirmed
along with several others, forming altogether the basis of
the statute-law^ of Spain. It appears, upon the whole, to
have been a constitutional principle, that laws could nei-
ther be made nor annulled except in Cortes. In 1506 this is
254 LEGISLATIVE RIGHT. Chap. IV.
claimed by the deputies as an established right. John I.
had long before admitted that what was done by Cortes and
general assemblies could not be undone by letters missive,
but by such Cortes and assemblies alone. For the kings of
Castile had adopted the English practice of dispensing with
statutes by a non obstante clause in their grants. But the
Cortes remonstrated more steadily against this abuse than
our Parliament, who suffered it to remain in a certain degree
till the Revolution. It was several times enacted upon their
petition, especially by an explicit statute of Henry II., that
grants and letters patent dispensing Avith statutes should not
be obeyed. Nevertheless, John II., trusting to force or the
servility of the judges, had the assurance to dispense explic-
itly with this very law. The Cortes of Valladolid, in 1442,
obtained fresh promises and enactments against such an
abuse. Philij) I. and Charles I. began to legislate without
asking the consent of Cortes ; this grew much worse under
Philip IL, and reached its height under his successors, who
entirely abolished all constitutional privileges. In 1555 we
find a petition that laws made in Cortes should be revoked
nowhere else. The reply was such as became that age : " To
this we answer, that we shall do what best suits our govern-
ment." But even in 1619, and still afterwards, the patriot
representatives of Castile continued to lift an unavailing
voice against illegal ordinances, though in the form of very
humble petition ; perhaps the latest testimonies to the expir-
ing liberties of their country. The denial of exclusive legis-
lative authority to the crown must, however, be understood
to admit the legality of particular ordinances designed to
strengthen the king's executive government. These, no
doubt, like the royal proclamations in England, extended
sometimes very far, and subjected the people to a sort of ar-
bitrary coercion, much beyond what our enlightened notions
of freedom would consider as reconcilable to it. But in
the Middle Ages such temporary commands and prohibitions
were not reckoned strictly legislative, and passed, perhaps
rightly, for inevitable consequences of a scanty code and
short session of the national council.
The kings w^ere obliged to swear to the observance of
laws enacted in Cortes, besides their general coronation oath
to keep the laws and preserve the liberties of their people.
§ 14. It w^as customary to assemble the Cortes of Castile
for many purposes besides those of granting money and con-
curring in legislation. They were summoned in every reign
to acknowledge and confirm the succession of the heir-appar-
Spain. COUNCIL OF CASTILE. 255
ent; and upon his accession to swear allegiance. These acts
were, however, little more than formal, and accordingly have
been preserved for the sake of parade after all the real dig-
nity of the Cortes was annihilated. In the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries they claimed and exercised very ample
powers. They assumed the right, when questions of regency
occurred, to limit the prerogative, as well as to designate
the persons who were to use it. And the frequent minori-
ties of Castilian kings, which were unfavorable enough to
tranquillity and subordination, served to confirm these par-
liamentary privileges. The Cortes were usually consulted
upon all material business. A law of Alfonso XI. in 1328,
printed in the liecopilacion or code published by Philip II.,
declares, " Since in the arduous affairs of our kingdom the
counsel of our natural subjects is necessary, especially of the
deputies from our cities and towns, therefore we ordain and
command that on such great occasions the Cortes shall be
assembled, and counsel shall be taken of the three estates of
our kingdoms, as the kings our forefathers have been used
to do.
§ 15. The kings of Leon and Castile acted, during the in-
terval of the Cortes, by the advice of a smaller council, an-
swering, as it seems, almost exactly to the king's ordinary
council in England. In early ages, before the introduction
of the commons, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish this
body from the general council of the nation ; being com-
posed, in fact, of the same class of persons, though in smaller
numbers. A similar difficulty applies to the English history.
The nature of their proceedings seems best to ascertain the
distinction. All executive acts, including those ordinances
which may appear rather of a legislative nature, all grants
and charters, are declared to be with the assent of the court
(curia) or of the magnates of the palace, or of the chiefs or
nobles. This privy council was an essential part of all Eu-
ropean monarchies ; and, though the sovereign might be
considered as free to call in the advice of whomsoever he
pleased, yet, in fact, the princes of the blood and most pow-
erful nobility had anciently a constitutional right to be mem-
bers of such a council, so that it formed a very material check
upon his personal authority.
The council underwent several changes in progress of time
which it is not necessary to enumerate. It was justly deemed
an important member of the. constitution, and the Cortes
showed a laudable anxiety to procure its composition in such
a manner as to form a guaranty for the due execution ot*
256 ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. Chap. IV.
laws after their own dissolution. Several times, especially
in minorities, they even named its members, or a part of theni;
and in the reigns of Henry III. and John II. they obtained
the privilege of adding a permanent deputation, consisting
of four persons elected out of their own body, annexed as it
were to the council, who were to continue at the court dur-
ing the interval of Cortes and watch over the due observance
of the laws. This deputation continued as an empty formal-
ity in the sixteenth century. In the council the king was
bound to sit personally three days in the week. Their busi-
ness, which included the whole executive government, was
distributed with considerable accuracy into what might be
dispatched by the council alone, under their own seals and
signatures, and what required the royal seal. The consent
of this body was necessary for almost every act of the crown ;
for pensions or grants of money, ecclesiastical and political
promotions, and for charters of pardon, the easy concession
of which was a great encouragement to the homicides so
usual in those ages, and was restrained by some of our own
laws. But the council did not exercise any judicial au-
thority, unlike in this to the ordinary council of the kings
of England. It was not until the days of Ferdinand and
Isabella that this, among other innovations, was introduced.
§ 16. Civil and criminal justice was administered, in the
first instance, by the alcaldes, or municipal judges of towns;
elected within themselves, originally, by the community at
large, but, in subsequent times, by the governing body. In
other places a lord possessed the right of jurisdiction by
grant from the crown, not, what we find in countries where
the feudal system was more thoroughly established, as inci-
dent to his own territorial superiority. The kings, however,
began in the thirteenth century to -appoint judges of their
own, called corregidores, a name which seems to express con-
current jurisdiction with the regidores, or ordinary magis-
trates. The Cortes frequently remonstrated against this en-
croachment. Even where the king appointed magistrates at
a city's request, he was bound to select them from among the
citizens. From this immediate jurisdiction an appeal lay to
the adelantado or governor of the province, and from thence
to the tribunal of royal alcaldes. As a court of appeal, the
royal alcaldes had the supreme jurisdiction. The king could
only cause their sentence to be revised, but neither alter nor
revoke it.
§ 17. Castile bore a closer analogy to England in its form
of civil polity than France or even Aragon. But the frequent
Sixain. AFFAIRS OF ARAGON. 257
disorders of its government and a barbarous state of manners
rendered violations of law much more continual and flagrant
than they were in England under the Plantagenet dynasty.
And besides these practical mischiefs, there were two essen-
tial defects in the constitution of Castile, through which,
perhaps, it was ultimately subverted. It wanted those two
brilliants in the coronet of British liberty, the representa-
tion of freeholders among the commons, and trial by jury.
The Cortes of Castile became a congress of deputies from a
few cities, public-spirited indeed and intrepid, as we find
them in bad times, to an eminent degree, but too much lim-
ited* in number, and too unconnected with the territorial
aristocracy, to maintain a just balance against the crown.
Yet, with every disadvantage, that country possessed a lib-
eral form of government, and was animated with a noble
spirit for its defense.
§ 18. Though the kingdom of Aragon was very inferior in
extent to that of Castile, yet the advantages of a better form
of government and wiser sovereigns, with those of industry
and commerce along a line of sea-coast, rendered it almost
equal in importance. Castile rarely intermeddled in the
civil dissensions of Aragon ; the kings of Aragon frequently
carried their arms into the heart of Castile. During the
sanguinary outrages of Peter the Cruel, and the stormy rev-
olutions which ended in establishing the house of Trastamare,
Aragon was not indeed at peace, nor altogether well gov-
erned ; but her political consequence rose in the eyes of Eu-
rope through the long reign of the ambitious and wily Peter
IV., whose sagacity and good-fortune redeemed, according
to the common notions of mankind, the iniquity with which
he stripped his relation, the King of Majorca, of the Belearic
Islands, and the constant perfidiousness of his character. I
have mentioned in another place the Sicilian war, prosecuted
with so much eagerness for many years by Peter III. and his
son Alfonso III." After this object was relinquished, James
II. undertook an enterprise less splendid, but not much less
difficult, the conquest of Sardinia. That island, long accus-
tomed to independence, cost an incredible expense of blood
and treasure to the kings of Aragon during the whole four-
teenth century. It was not fully subdued till the commence-
ment of the next, under the reign of Martin.
At the death of Martin, king of Aragon, in 1410, a memo-
rable question arose as to the right of succession. Though
Petronilla, daughter of Ramiro II., had reigned in her own
« See p. 222.
258
AFFAIRS OF AllAGON.
Chai-. IV.
right from 1137 to 1172, an opinion seems to have gained
ground from the thirteenth century that females could not
inherit the crown of Aragon. Peter IV. had excited a civil
war by attempting to settle the succession upon his daughter,
to the exclusion of his next brother. The birth of a son
about the same time suspended the ultimate decision of this
question ; but it was tacitly understood that what is called
the Salic law ought to prevail. Accordingly, on the death
of John I. in 1395, his two daughters were set aside in favor
of his brother Martin, though not without opposition on the
part of the elder, whose husband, the Count of Foix, invaded
the kingdom, and desisted from his pretension only through
want of force. Martin's son, the King of Sicily, dying in his
father's lifetime, the nation was anxious that the king should
fix upon his successor, and would probably have acquiesced
in his choice. But his dissolution occurring more rapidly
than was expected, the throne remained absolutely vacant.
The Count of Urgel had obtained a grant of the lieutenancy,
which was the right of the heir-apparent. This nobleman
possessed an extensive territory in Catalonia, bordering on
the Pyrenees. He was grandson of James, next brother to
Peter lY., and, according to our rules of inheritance, certainly
stood in the first place. The other claimants were the Duke
of Gandia, grandson of James II.,"^ who, though descended
from a more distant ancestor, set up a claim founded on
proximity to the royal stock, w^hich in some countries w^as
preferred to a representative title ; the Duke of Calabria,
son of Violante, younger daughter of John I. (the Countess
of Foix being childless) ; Frederick, count of Luna, a natural
8 The subjoined pedigree will show more clearly the respective titles of the com-
petitors :
James II., died 1327.
Alfonso IV., d. 1336.
I
D.ofG,
andia.
Petkr IV., d. 1337.
I
James, D. of Cfandia.
C. of Urgel.
II II
fileauor, Q. of Castile. John I., d. 1395. Martin, Peter,
d. 1410. C. of Urgel.
Henry III., Ferdinand.
K. of Castile.
C. of UrgeL
Martin,
K. of Sicily, 1409.
I Joanna, Violante, I
John 11. , Countess Q. of Naples. |
K. of Castile. of Foix. | Frederick,
I C. of Luna.
Louis, D. of
Calabria.
Spain. AFFAIRS OF ARAGON. 259
son of the younger Martin, king of Sicily, legitimated by the
pope, but with a reservation excluding him from royal suc-
cession ; and finally, Ferdinand, infant of Castile, son of the
late king's sister. The Count of Urgel was favored in gen-
eral by the Catalans, and he seemed to have a powerful sup-
port in Antonio de Luna, a baron of Aragon, so rich that
he might go through his own estate from France to Castile,
But this apparent superiority frustrated his hopes. The jus-
ticiary and other leading Aragonese were determined not to
suffer this great constitutional question to be decided by an
appeal to force, which might sweep away their liberties in
the struggle. ITrgel, confident of his right, and surrounded
by men of ruined fortunes, was unwilling to submit his pre-
tensions to a civil tribunal. His adherent, Antonio de Luna,
committed an extraordinary outrage, the assassination of the
Archbishop of Saragossa, which alienated the minds of good
citizens from his cause. On the other hand, neither the Duke
of Gandia, who was very old, nor the Count of Luna seemed
fit to succeed. The party of Ferdinand, therefore, gained
ground by degrees. It was determined, however, to render
a legal sentence. The Cortes of each nation agreed upon the
nomination of nine persons, three Aragonese, three Catalans,
and three Valencians, who were to discuss the pretensions of
the several competitors, and by a plurality of six votes to
adjudge the crown. Nothing could be more solemn, more
peaceful, nor, in appearance, more equitable than the pro-
ceedings of this tribunal. They summoned the claimants
before them, and heard them by counsel. A month was
passed in hearing arguments ; a second was allotted to con-
sidering them ; and at the expiration of the prescribed time
it was announced to the people, by the mouth of St. Vincent
Ferrier, that Ferdinand of Castile had ascended the throne
(a.d. 1412).
In this decision it is impossible not to suspect that the
judges were swayed rather by politic considerations than
a strict sense of hereditary right. It was, therefore, by no
means universally popular, especially in Catalonia, of which
principality the Count of IJrgel was a native ; and perhaps
the great rebellion of the Catalans fifty years afterwards
may be traced to the disaffection which this breach, as they
thought, of the lawful succession had excited. Ferdinand,
however, was well received in Aragon. Ferdinand's suc-
cessor was his son, Alfonso Y, (a.d. 1416), more distinguished
in the history of Italy than of Spain. For all the latter years
of his life he never quitted the kingdom that he had acquired
260 CONSTITUTION OF ARAGON. Chap. I\.
by his arms ; and, enchanted by the delicious air of Naples,
intrusted the government of his patrimonial territories to the
care of a brother and an heir, John II., upon whom they de-
volved by the death of Alfonso without legitimate progeny.
§ 19. It is consonant with the principle of this work to
pass over the common details of history, in order to fix the
reader's attention more fully on subjects of philosophical in-
quiry. Perhaps in no European monarchy except our own
was the form of government more interesting than in Ara-
gon, as a fortunate temperament of law and justice with the
royal authority. So far as any thing can be pronounced of
its earlier period before the capture of Saragossa in 1118, it
was a kind of regal aristocracy, where a small number of
powerful barons elected their sovereign on every vacancy,
though, as usual in other countries, out of one family ; and
considered him as little more than the chief of their confed-
eracy. These were the r icos ho inbres, or barons, the first or-
der of the state. Among these the kings of Aragon, in sub-
sequent times, as they extended their dominions, shared the
conquered territory in grants of honors on a feudal tenure.
For this system was fully established in the kingdom of Ara-
gon. A ricohombre was obliged to hold of the king an hon-
or or barony capable of supporting more than three knights ;
and this he was bound to distribute among his vassals in
military fiefs. Once in the year he might be summoned
with his feudatories to serve the sovereign for two or three
months; and he was to attend the royal court, or general
assembly, as a counsellor, whenever called upon, assisting in
its judicial as well as deliberative business. In the towns
ind villages of his barony he might appoint bailiifs to ad-
minister justice and receive penalties ; but the higher crim-
inal jurisdiction seems to have been reserved to the crown.
Below these superior nobles were the mesnadaries^ cor-
responding to our mere tenants in chief, holding estates not
baronial immediately from the crown ; and the military vas-
sals of the high nobility, the knights and infanzones: a word
which may be rendered by gentlemen. These had consider-
able privileges in that aristocratic government; they were
exempted from all taxes, they could only be tried by the
royal judges for any crime ; and offenses committed against
them were punished with additional severity. The ignoble
classes were, as in other countries, the burgesses of towns,
and the villeins or peasantry. The peasantry seem to have
been subject to territorial servitude, as in France and En-
gland.
Spain. PRIVILEGES OF ARAGON. 261
§ 20. Though from the twelfth century the principle of
hereditary succession to the throne superseded, in Aragon as
well as Castile, the original right of choosing a sovereign
within the royal family, it was still founded upon one more
sacred and fundamental, that of compact. No king of Ara-
gon was entitled to assume that name until he had taken a
coronation oath, adniinistered by the justiciary at Saragossa,
to observe the laws and liberties of the realm.
Blancas quotes a noble passage from the acts of Cortes in
1451. "We have always heard of old time, and it is found
by experience, that, seeing the great barrenness of this land,
and the poverty of the realm, if it were not for the liberties
thereof, the folk would go hence to live and abide in other
realms and lands more fruitful." This high spirit of freedom
had long animated the Aragonese. After several contests
with the crown, they compelled Peter III., in 1283, to grant a
law, called the General Privilege, the Magna Charta of Ara-
gon, and perhaps a more full and satisfactory basis of civil
liberty than our own. It contains a series of provisions
against arbitrary tallages, spoliations of property, secret proc-
ess after the manner of the Inquisition in criminal charges,
sentences of the justiciary without assent of the Cortes, a]>
pointment of foreigners or Jews to judicial offices ; trials of
accused persons in places beyond the kingdom, the use of tor-
ture, except in charges of falsifying the coin, and the bribery
of judges. These are claimed as the ancient liberties of their
country. "Absolute power, it is declared, never was the
constitution of Aragon, nor of Valencia, nor yet of Ribagor9a,
nor shall there be in time to come any innovation made; but
only the law, custom, and privilege which has been anciently
used in the aforesaid kingdoms."
The concessions extorted by our ancestors from John, Hen-
ry III., and Edward I. were secured by the only guaranty
those times could afford, the determination of the barons to
enforce them by armed confederacies. These, however, were
formed according to emergencies, and, except in the famous
commission of twenty-five conservators of Magna Charta, in
the last year of John, were certainly unwarranted by law.
But the Aragonese established a positive right of maintain-
ing their liberties by arms. This was contained in the Priv-
ilege of Union granted by Alfonso III. in 1287, after a vio-
lent conflict with his subjects ; but which Avas afterwards so
completely abolished, and even eradicated from the records
of the kingdom, that its precise words have never been re-
^iovered. It appears to have consisted of two articles: first,
262 OFFICE OF JUSTICIARY. Chap. IV.
that, in the case of the king's proceeding forcibly against any
member of the union without previous sentence of the jus-
ticiary, the rest should be absolved from their allegiance ;
secondly, that he should hold Cortes every year in Saragossa.
During the two subsequent reigns of James II. and Alfonso
IV., little pretense seems to have been given for the exer-
cise of this right. But dissensions breaking out under Peter
V. in 1347, rather on account of his attempt to settle the
crown upon his daughter than of any specific public griev-
ances, the nobles had recourse to the Union. They assem-
bled at Saragossa, and used a remarkable seal for all their
public instruments — an engraving from which may be seen
in the historian Blancas. It represents the king sitting on
his throne, with the confederates kneeling in a suppliant at-
titude around, to denote their unwillingness to oft'end. But
in the background tents and lines of spears are discovered,
as a hint of their ability and resolution to defend themselves.
The legend is " Sigillum Unionis Aragonum." This respect-
ful demeanor towards a sovereign against whom they were
waging war reminds us of the language held out by our
Long Parliament before the Presbyterian party was over-
thrown. These confederates were defeated by the king at
Epila in 1348. But his prudence and the remaining strength
of his opponents inducing him to pursue a moderate course,
there ensued more legitimate and permanent balance of the
constitution from this victory of the Royalists. The priv-
ilege of Union was abrogated, Peter himself cutting to pieces
with his sword the original instrument. But in return many
excellent laws for the security of the subject were enacted ;
and their preservation was intrusted to the greatest officer
of the kingdom, the justiciary, whose authority and pre-emi-
nence may in a great degree be dated from this period.
That watchfulness over public liberty, which originally be-
longed to the aristocracy of ricoshombres, always apt to
thwart the crown or to oppress the people, and which was
afterwards maintained by the dangerous Privilege of Union,
became the duty of a civil magistrate accustomed to legal
rules and responsible for his actions, whose office and func-
tions are the most pleasing feature in the constitutional his-
tory of Aragon.
§ 21. The functions of the Justiza ov Justiciar}/ of Aragon
did not differ, in any essential respect, from those of the
Chief-justice of England, divided, from the time of Edward I.,
among the judges of the King's Bench. But in the prac-
tical exercise, indeed, of this power, there was an abundant
Spain. JURISFIRMA AND MANIFESTATION. 2G3
difference. Our English judges, more timid and pliant, left
to the remonstrances of Parliament that redress of griev-
ances which very frequently lay within the sphere of their
jurisdiction. There is, I believe, no recorded instance of a
habeas corpus granted in any case of illegal imprisonment
by the crown or its officers during the continuance of the
Plantagenet dynasty. We shall speedily take notice of a
very different conduct in Aragon.
The office of justiciary, whatever conjectural antiquity
Bome have assigned to it, is not to be traced beyond the
capture of Saragossa in 1118, when the series of magistrates
commences. But for a great length of time they do not ap-
pear to have been particularly important ; the judicial au-
thority residing in the council of ricoshombres, whose suffra-
ges the justiciary collected, in order to pronounce their sen-
tence rather than his own. Gradually, as notions of liberty
became more definitCj and laws more numerous, the rever-
ence paid to their permanent interpreter grew stronger, and
there was fortunately a succession of prudent and just men
in that high office, through whom it acquired dignity and
stable influence. Still, it was not perhaps looked upon as
fully equal to maintain public liberty against the crown, till
in the Cortes of 1348, after the Privilege of Union was for-
ever abolished, such laws were enacted, and such authority
given to the justiciary, as proved eventually a more ade-
quate barrier against oppression than any other country
could boast. All the royal as well as territorial judges were
bound to apply for his opinion in case of legal difficulties
arising in their courts, which he was to certify within eight
days. By subsequent statutes of the same reign, it was made
penal for any one to obtain letters from the king impeding
the execution of the justiza's process, and they were declared
null. Inferior courts were forbidden to proceed in any busi-
ness after his prohibition. Many other laws might be cited
corroborating the authority of this great magistrate; but
there are two parts of his remedial jurisdiction which deserve
special notice.
These are the processes o? Jurisjirma, or firma del derecho,
and of Manifestation. The former bears some analogy to
the writs oi pone and certiorari in England, through which
the Court of King's Bench exercises its right of withdraw-
ing a suit from the jurisdiction of inferior tribunals. But
the Aragonese jurisjirma was of more extensive operation.
Its object was not only to bring a cause commenced in an
inferior court before the justiciary, but to prevent or inhibit
264 PROCESSES OF Chap. IV.
any proceiss from issuing against tlie person who applied for
its benefit, or any molestation from being offered to him;
so that, as Blancas expresses it, when we have entered into
a recognizance before the justiciary of Aragon to abide the
decision of law, our fortunes shall be protected, by thp in-
terposition of his prohibition, from the intolerable iniquity
of the royal judges. The process termed manifestation af-
forded as ample security for personal liberty as that of juris-
firma did for property. "To manifest auy one is to wrest
him from the hands of the royal officers, that he may not
suffer any illegal violence ; not that he is at liberty by this
process, because the merits of his case are still to be inquired
into ; but because he is now detained publicly, instead of
being, as it were, concealed, and the charge against him is
investigated, not suddenly or with passion, but in calmness
and according to law, therefore this is called manifestation."
The power of this writ (if I may apply our term) was such,
that it would rescue a man whose neck was in the halter. A
particular prison was allotted to those detained for trial un-
der this process.
Several proofs that such admirable provisions did not re-
main a dead letter in the law of Aragon appear in the two
historians, Blancas and Zurita, whose noble attachment to
liberties, of which they had either witnessed or might fore-
tell the extinction, continually displays itself I can not help
illustrating this subject by two remarkable instances. The
heir-apparent of the kingdom of Aragon had a constitutional
right to the lieutenancy or regency during the sovereign's
absence from the realm. The title and office, indeed, were
permanent, though the functions must of course have beeo
superseded during the personal exercise of royal authority.
But as neither Catalonia nor Valencia, which often demand-
ed the king's presence, were considered as parts of the king-
dom, there were pretty frequent occasions for this antici-
pated reign of the eldest prince. Such a regulation was not
likely to diminish the mutual and almost inevitable jealousies
between kings and their heirs-apparent, which have so often
disturbed the tranquillity of a court and a nation. Peter IV.
removed his eldest son, afterwards John I., from the lieuten-
ancy of the kingdom. The prince entered into a firma del
derecho before the justiciary, Dominic de Cerda, who, pro-
nouncing in his favor, enjoined the king to replace his son
in the lieutenancy as the undoubted right of the eldest born.
Peter obeyed, not only in fact, to which, as Blancas observes,
the law compelled him, but with apparent cheerfulness.
Spain. JURISFIRMA AND MANIFESTATION. 265
There are, indeed, no private persons who have so strong an
interest in maintaining a free constitution and the civil lib-
erties of their countrymen as the members of royal families,
since none are so much exposed, in absolute governments, to
the resentment and suspicion of a reigning monarch.
John I., who had experienced the protection of law in
his weakness, had afterwards occasion to find it interposed
against his power. This king had sent some citizens of
Saragossa to prison without form of law. They applied to
Juan de Cerda, the justiciary, for a manifestation. He issued
his writ accordingly ; nor, says Blancas, could he do other-
wise without being subject to a heavy fine. The king, pre-
tending that the justiciary was partial, named one of his
own judges, the vice-chancellor, as coadjutor. This raised a
constitutional question, whether, on suspicion of partiality,
a coadjutor to the justiciary could be appointed. The king
sent a private order to the justiciary not to proceed to sen-
tence upon this interlocutory point until he should receive
instructions in the council, to which he was directed to re-
pair. But he instantly pronounced sentence in favor of his
exclusive jurisdiction without a coadjutor. He then re-
paired to the palace. Here the vice-chancellor, in a long
harangue, enjoined him to suspend sentence till he had heard
the decision of the council. Juan de Cerda answered that,
the case being clear, he had already pronounced upon it.
This produced some expressions of anger from the king, who
began to enter into an argument on the mei^ts of the ques-
tion. But the justiciary answered that, with all deference to
his majesty, he was bound to defend his conduct before the
Cortes, and not elsewhere. On a subsequent day the king,
having drawn the justiciary to his country palace on pre-
tense of hunting, renewed the conversation with the assist-
ance of his ally, the vice-chancellor ; but no impression was
made on the venerable magistrate, whom John at length,
though much pressed by his advisers to violent courses, dis-
missed with civility. The king was probably misled through-
out this transaction, which I have thought fit to draw from
obscurity, not only in order to illustrate the privilege of
manifestation, but as exhibiting an instance of judicial firm-
ness and integrity, to which, in the fourteenth century, no
country perhaps in Europe could offer a parallel.
Before the Cortes of 1348 it seems as if the justiciary might
have been displaced at the king's pleasure. From that time
he held his station for life. But lest these high powers, im-
parted for the prevention of abuses, should themselves be
12
266 RIGHTS OF LEGISLATION, ETC. Chap. IV.
abused, the justiciary was responsible, in case of an unjust
sentence, to the extent of the injury inflicted; and was also
subjected, by a statute of 1390, to a court of inquiry, com-
posed of four persons chosen by the king out of eight named
by the Cortes ; whose oflice appears to have been that of ex-
amining and reporting to the four estates in Cortes, by whom
he was ultimately to be acquitted or condemned. This su-
perintendence of the Cortes, however, being thought dilatory
and inconvenient, a court of seventeen persons was appoint-
ed in 1461 to hear complaints against the justiciary. Some
alterations were afterwards made in this tribunal.^ The
justiciary was always a knight, chosen from the second or-
der of nobility, the barons not being liable to personal pun-
ishment. He administered the coronation oath to the king ;
and in the Cortes of Aragon the justiciary acted as a sort of
royal commissioner, opening or proroguing the assembly by
the king's direction.
§ 22. No laws could be enacted or repealed, nor any tax
imposed, without the consent of the estates duly assembled.
It may easily be supposed that the Aragonese were not be-
hind other nations in statutes to secure these privileges,
which upon the whole appear to have been more respected
than in any other monarchy. The General Privilege of 1283
formed a sort of groundwork for this legislation, like the
Great Charter in England. By a clause in this law, Cortes
were to be held every year at Saragossa. But under James
11. their time cff meeting was reduced to once in two years,
and the place was left to the king's discretion. Nor were
the Cortes of Aragon less vigilant than those of Castile in
claiming a right to be consulted in all important delibera-
tions of the executive power, or in remonstrating against
abuses of government, or in superintending the proper ex-
penditure of public money.
Four estates, or, as they were called, arms (brazos), formed
the Cortes of Aragon — the prelates and commanders of mili-
tary orders, who passed for ecclesiastics ; and barons, or ri-
coshombres ; the equestrian order, or infanzo^ies, and the
deputies of royal towns. The two former had a right of
appearing by proxy. There was no representation of the
infanzones, or lower nobility. But it must be remembered
« These rejjalations were very acceptable to the nation. In fact, the jnstiza of
Aragon had possessed much more unlimited powers than ought to be intrusted to
any single magistrate. The Court of King's Bench in England, besides its consist*
Ing of five co-ordinate judges, is checked by the appellant jurisdictions of the Ex-
chequer Chamber and House of Lords, and still more importantly by the right* of
juries.
Spain. VALENCIA AND CATALONIA. 267
that they were not numerous, nor was the kingdom large.
Thirty-five are reckoned by Zurita as present in the Cortes
of 1395, and thirty-three in those of 1412 ; and as upon both
occasions an oath of fealty to a new monarch was to be taken,
I presume that nearly all the nobility of the kingdom were
present. The ricoshombres do not seem to have exceeded
twelve or fourteen in number. The ecclesiastical estate was
not much, if at all, more numerous. A few principal towns
alone sent deputies to the Cortes; but their representation
was very full ; eight or ten, and sometimes more, sat for Sar-
agossa, and no town appears to have had less than four rep-
resentatives. During the interval of the Cortes a permanent
commission, varying a good deal as to numbers, but chosen
out of the four estates, was empowered to sit with very con-
siderable authority, receiving and managing the public rev-
enue, and protecting the justiciary in his functions.
§ 23. The kingdom of Valencia, and principality of Cata-
lonia, having been annexed to Aragon, the one by conquest,
the other by marriage, were always kept distinct from it in
their laws and government. Each had its Cortes, composed
of three estates, for the divisiorl of the nobility into two or-
ders did not exist in either country. The Catalans were
tenacious of their ancient usages, and averse to incorporation
with any other people of Spain. Their national character
was high-spirited and independent ; in no part of the penin-
sula did the territorial aristocracy retain, or at least pretend
to, such extensive privileges, and the citizens were justly
proud of wealth acquired by industry, and of renown achieved
by valor. At the accession of Ferdinand I., which they had
not much desired, the Catalans obliged him to swear three
times successively to maintain their liberties before they
would take the reciprocal oath of allegiance. For Valencia
it seems to have been a politic design of James the Con-
queror to establish a constitution nearly analogous to that
of Aragon, but with such limitations as he should impose,
taking care that the nobles of the two kingdoms should not
acquire strength by union. These three states, Aragon, Va^
lencia, and Catalonia, were perpetually united by a law of
Alfonso III. ; and every king, on his accession, was bound to
swear that he would never separate them. Sometimes gen-
eral Cortes of the kingdoms and principality were convened ;
but the members did not, even in this case, sit together, and
were no otherwise united than as they met in the same city.
§ 24. By the marriage of Ferdinand with Isabella, and by
the death of John II. in 1479, the two ancient and rival king-
268 UNION OF CASTILE AND ARAGON. Chap. IV.
donis of Castile and Aragon were forever consolidated in the
monarchy of Spain. There had been some difficulty in ad-
justing the respective rights of the husband and wife over
Castile. In the Middle Ages it was customary for the more
powerful sex to exercise all the rights which it derived from
the weaker, as much in sovereignties as in private possessions.
But the Castilians were determined to maintain the positive
and distinct prerogatives of their queen, to which they at-
tached the independence of their nation. A compromise,
therefore, was concluded, by which, though, according to our
notions, Ferdinand obtained more than a due share, he might
consider himself as more strictly limited than his father had
been in Navarre. The names of both were to appear jointly
in their style and upon the coin, the king's taking the prece-
dence in respect of his sex. But in the royal scutcheon the
arms of Castile were preferred on account of the kingdom's
dignity. Isabella had the appointment to all civil offices in
Castile ; the nomination to spiritual benefices ran in the name
of both. The government was to be conducted by the two
conjointly when they were together, or by either singly in
the province where one or other might happen to reside.
This partition was well preserved throughout the life of Isa-
bel without mutual encroachments or jealousies. So rare an
unanimity between persons thus circumstanced must be at-
tributed to the superior qualities of that princess, who, Avhile
she maintained a constant good understanding with a very
ambitious husband, never relaxed in the exercise of her pa-
ternal authority over the kingdoms of her ancestors.
§ 25. Ferdinand and Isabella had no sooner quenched the
flames of civil discord in Castile than they determined to
give an unequivocal proof to Europe of the vigor which the
Spanish monarchy was to display under their government.
For many years an armistice with the Moors of Granada had
been uninterrupted. Neither John 11. nor Henry IV. had
been at leisure to think of aggressive hostilities; and the
Moors themselves — a prey, like their Christian enemies, to
civil war and the feuds of their royal family — were content
with the unmolested enjoyment of the finest province in the
peninsula. If we may trust historians, the sovereigns of
Granada were generally usurpers and tyrants. But I know
not how to account for that vast populousness, that grandeur
and magnificence, which distinguished the Mohammedan
kingdom of Spain, without ascribing some measure of wis-
dom and beneficence to their governments. These southern
provinces have dwindled in later times ; and in fact Spain
Itself is chiefly interesting; to many travellers for the monu-
Spain. CONQUEST OF GRANADA. 269
merits which a foreign and odious race of conquerors have
left behind them. Granada was, however, disturbed by a
series of revolutions about tlie time of Ferdinand's accession,
which naturally encouraged his designs. The Moors, con-
trary to what might have been expected from their relative
strength, were the aggressors by attacking a town in Anda-
lusia. Predatory inroads of this nature had hitherto been
only retaliated by the Christians. But Ferdinand was con-
scious that his resources extended to the conquest of Gra-
nada, the consummation of a struggle protracted through
nearly eight centuries. Even in the last stage of the Moor-
ish dominion, exposed on every side to invasion, enfeebled by
a civil dissension that led one party to abet the common en-
emy, Granada was not subdued without ten years of san-
guinary and unremitting contest. Fertile beyond all the
rest of Spain, that kingdom contained seventy walled towns;
and the capital is said, almost two centuries before, to have
been peopled by 200,000 inhabitants. Its resistance to such
a force as that of Ferdinand is perhaps the best justification
of the apparent negligence of earlier monarchs. But Gra-
nada was ultimately to undergo the yoke. The city sur-
rendered on the 2d of January, 1492 — an event glorious not
only to Spain but to Christendom — and which, in the politic-
al combat of the two religions, seemed almost to counterbal-
ance the loss of Constantinople. It raised the name of Fer-
dinand and of the new monarchy which he governed to high
estimation throughout Europe. Spain appeared an equal
competitor with France in the lists of ambition. These great
kingdoms had for some time felt the jealousy natural to em-
ulous neighbors. The house of Aragon loudly complained
of the treacherous policy of Louis XL He had fomented the
troubles of Castile, and given, not indeed an effectual aid, but
all promises of support, to the Princess Joanna, the competi-
tor of Isabel. Rousillon, a province belonging to Aragon,
had been pledged to France by John IT. for a sum of money.
It would be tedious to relate the subsequent events, or to
discuss their respective claims to its possession. At the ac-
cession of Ferdinand, Louis XL still held Roussillon, and
showed little intention to resign it. But Charles VIIL,
eager to smooth every impediment to his Italian expedition,
restored the province to Ferdinand in 1493. Whether, by
such a sacrifice, he was able to lull the King of Aragon into
acquiescence, while he dethroned his relation at Naples, and
alarmed for a moment all Italy with the apprehension of
French dominion, it is not within the limits of the present
work to inauire.
270
SEPARATION FROM FRANCE.
Chap. V.
CHAPTER V.
HISTORY OF GERMANY TO THE DIET OF WORMS IN 1495.
§ 1. Sketch of German History. § 2. The Emperors of the Honse of Saxony. § 3.
House of Francouia. § 4. Lothaire XL, the Saxou. § 5. House of Snabia. Fred-
erick Barbarossa. Fall of Henry the Lion. Frederick 11. Extinction of House
of Suabla. § 6. Changes in the Germanic Constitution. Electors. Territorial
Sovereignty of the Princes. § 7. Rodolph of Hapsburg. § S. State of the Empire
after his Time. Causes of Decline of Imperial Power. § 9. Honse of Luxem-
burg. Charles IV. § 10. House of Austria. Frederick III. § 11. Imperial Cities.
§ 12. Provincial States. § 13. Imperial Domain. 5 14. Maximilian. Diet of
Worms. Abolition of private Wars. § 15. Imperial Chamber. § 16. Aulic Coun.
oil. § IT. Limits of the Empire. § 18. Bohemia. § 19, Hungary. § 20. Switzer-
land.
LIST OF EMPERORS DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
Philip, Otho IV. (rivals).
Otho IV.
Frederick II.
Conrad IV., William (rivals).
Interregnum.
Richard (Earl of Cornwall),
Alfonso (king of Castile)
rivals).
Rodolph I. (of Hapsburg)
Adolphus (of Nassau).
Albert I.
Henry VII. (of Luxemburg).
Louis IV. (of Bavaria).
(Frederick of Austria, rival).
Charles IV.
(Giinther of Schwartzburg,
rival).
Wenceslaus
Rupert.
Sigismund.
(Jobst of Moravia, rival).
Albert II.
Frederick III.
Maximilian I.
Charles V.
§ 1. After the deposition of Charles the Fat, which final-
ly severed the connection between France and Germany,
Arnulf,an illegitimate descendant of Charlemagne, obtained
the throne of the latter country, in which he was succeeded
Year of
Accession
Year of
Accession
A.D.
A.D.
800
Chades I. (the Great).
1198
Charlemagne.
1208
814
Louis I. (tiie Pious).
1212
840
Lothaire I.
1250
855
Louis II.
1254
875
Charies II. (the Bald). ,
Charles lU. (the Fat). J
1257
881
896
Araulf.
899
Louis (the Child).
1272
901
Louis III. (of Provence).
1292
911 (?) Conrad L
1298
915
Berengar.
1308
918
Heniy I. (the Fowler).
1314
936
Otho I. (the Great).
973
Otho II.
1347
983
Otho III.
1002
Henry II. (the Saint).
1024
Conrad II. (the Salic).
1378
1039
Henry III.
1400
1056
Henrv IV.
1410
1106
Henry V.
1125
Lothaire II. (the Saxon).
1438
1138
Conrad III.
1440
1152
Frederick I. (Barbarossa).
1493
1190
Henry VI.
1519
Germany. HOUSE OF SAXONY. *271
by his son Louis. But upon the death of this prince in 911,
the German branch of that dynasty became extinct. There
remained, indeed, Charles the Simple, acknowledged as king
in some parts of France, but rejected in others, and possess-
ing no personal claims to respect. The Germans, therefore,
wisely determined to choose a sovereign from among them-
selves. They were at this time divided into five nations,
each under its own duke, and distinguished by difference of
laws, as well as of origin'; (1) the I^ranks, whose territory,
comprising Franconia and the modern Palatinate, was con-
sidered as the cradle of the empire, and who seemed to have
arrogated some superiority over the rest, (2) the Siiabians,
(3) the JJavarians, (4) the Saxons, under which name the in-
habitants of Lower Saxony alone and Westphalia were in-
cluded, and (5) the Lorrainers, who occupied the left bank
of the Rhine as far as its termination. The choice of these
nations in their general assembly fell upon Conrad, duke of
Franconia, according to some writers, or at least a man of
hio-h rank, and descended throu«fh females from Charle-
vnagne (a.d. 911).
§ 2. House of Saxony. — Conrad dying without male is-
sue, the crown of Germany was bestowed upon Henry the
Fowler, duke of Saxony, ancestor of the three Othos, who fol-
lowed him in direct succession. To Henry, and to the first
Otho, Germany was more indebted than to any sovereign
since Charlemagne. The conquest of Italy, and recovery
of the imperial title, are indeed the most brilliant trophies of
Otho the Great; but he conferred far more unequivocal bene-
fits upon his own country by completing what his father had
begun, her liberation from the inroads of the Hungarians.
Two marches, that of Misnia, erected by Henry the Fowler,
and that of Austria, by Otho, were added to the Germanic
territories by their victories.
A lineal succession of four descents without the least op-
position seems to show that the Germans were disposed to
consider their monarchy as fixed in the Saxon family. Otho
H. and HL had been chosen each in his father's lifetime, and
during legal infancy. The formality of election subsisted at
that time in every European kingdom, and the imperfect
rights of birth required a ratification by public assent. If
at least France and England were hereditary monarchies in
the tenth century, the same may surely be said of Germany ;
since we find the lineal succession fully as well observed in
the last as in the former. But upon the early and unexpect-
ed decease of Otho HI., a momentary opposition was of-
272 HOUSE OF FRANCONIA. Chap. V.
fered to Henry, duke of Bavaria, a collateral branch of the
reigning family (a.d. 1002). He obtained the crown, how-
ever, by what contemporary historians call an hereditary
title, and it was not until his death, in 1024, that the house
of Saxony was deemed to be extinguished.
§ 3. House of Franconia. — No person had now any pre-
tentions that could interfere with the unbiased suffrages of
the nation; and accordingly a general assembly was deter-
mined by merit to elect Conrad, surnamed the Salic, a no-
bleman of Franconia (a.d. 1024). From this prince sprang
three successive emperors, Henry III., IV., and V. Perhaps
the imperial prerogatives over that insubordinate confeder-
acy never reached so high a point as in the reign of Henry
III., the second emperor of the house of Franconia. It had
been, as was natural, the object of all his predecessors, not
only to render their throne hereditary, which, in effect, the
nation was willing to concede, but to surround it with au-
thority sufficient to control the leading vassals. These were
the dukes of the four nations of Germany, Saxony, Bavaria,
Suabia, and Franconia, and the three archbisliops of the
Rhenish cities, Mentz, Treves, and Cologne. Originally, as
has been more fully shown in another place, duchies, like
counties, were temporary governments bestowed at the
pleasure of the crown. From this first stage they advanced
to hereditary offices, and finally to patrimonial fiefs. But
their progress was mucli slower in Germany than in France.
Under the Saxon line of emperors, it appears probable that,
although it was usual, and consonant to the prevailing no-
tions of equity, to confer a duchy upon the nearest heir,
yet no positive rule enforced this upon the emperor, and
some instances of a contrary proceeding occurred. Henry
III. put an end altogether to the form of popular concurrence,
which had been usual when the investiture of a duchy was
conferred; and even deposed dukes by the sentence of a few
princes, without the consent of the Diet. If we combine
with these proofs of authority in the domestic administration
of Henry HI. his almost unlimited control over papal elec-
tions, or rather the right of nomination that he acquired, we
must consider him as the most absolute monarch in the an-
nals of Germany.
These ambitious measures of Henry HI. prepared fifty
years of calamity for his son. It is easy to perceive that the
misfortunes of Henry IV. were primarily occasioned by the
jealousy with which repeated violations of their constitu-
tional usages had inspired the nobility. The mere circum-
Germany. HOUSE OF FRANCONIA. 273
Stance of Henry IV.'s minority, under the guardianship of a
woman, was enough to dissipate whatever power his father
had acquired. Through the neglect of his education, Henry
grew up with a character not well fitted to retrieve the mis-
chief of so unprotected a minority ; brave indeed, well-na-
tured, and affable, but dissolute beyond measure, and addict-
ed to low and debauched company. He was soon involved
in a desperate war with the Saxons, a nation valuing itself
on its populousness and riches, jealous of the house of Fran-
conia, who wore a crown that had belonged to their own
dukes, and indignant at Henry's conduct in erecting fortress-
es throughout their country.
In the middle of this contest another far more memorable
broke out with the Roman See, concerning eclesiastical in-
vestitures (a.d. 1077). The motives of this famous quarrel
will be explained in a difierent chapter of the present work.
Its effect in Germany was ruinous to Henry. A sentence,
not only of excommunication, but of deposition, which Greg-
ory VII. pronounced against him, gave a pretense to all his
enemies, secret as well as avowed, to withdraw their alle-
giance. At the head of these was Rodolph, duke of Suabia,
whom an assembly of revolted princes raised to the throne.
We may perceive, in the conditions of Rodolph's election, a
symptom of the real principle that animated the German
aristocracy against Henry IV. It was agreed that the king-
dom should no longer be hereditary, not conferred on the
son of a reigning monarch, unless liis merit should challenge
the popular approbation. The pope strongly encouraged
this plan of rendering the empire elective, by which he hoped
either eventually to secure the nomination of its chief for the
Holy See, or at least, by sowing the seed of civil dissensions
in Germany, to render Italy more independent. Henry IV.,
however, displayed greater abilities in his adversity than his
early conduct had promised. In the last of several decisive
battles, Rodolph, though victorious, was mortally wounded ;
and no one cared to take up a gauntlet which was to be won
with so much trouble and uncertainty (a.d. 1080). The Ger-
mans were sufficiently disposed to submit; but Rome per-
severed in her unrelenting hatred. At the close of Henry's
long reign she excited against him his eldest son, and, after
more than thirty years of hostility, had the satisfaction of
wearing him down with misfortune, and casting out his body,
as excommunicated, from its sepulchre.
§ 4. In the reign of his son Henry V. there is no event
worthy of much attention, except the termination of the
12*
274 HOUSE OF SUABIA. Chap. V.
great contest about investitures. At his death, in 1125, the
male line of the Franconian emperors was at an end. Fred-
erick, duke of Suabia, grandson by his mother of Henry IV.,
had inherited their patrimonial estates, and seemed to rep-
resent their dynasty. But both the last emperors had so
many enemies, and a disposition to render the crown elective
prevailed so strongly among the leading princes, that Lo-
thaire, duke of Saxony, was elevated to the throne. Lothaire,
who had been engaged in a revolt against Henry V., and the
chief of a nation that bore an inveterate hatred to the house
of Franconia, was the natural enemy of the new family that
derived its importance and pretensions from that stock. It
was the object of his reign, accordingly, to oppress the two
brothers, Frederick and Conrad, of the Hohenstaufen or
Suabian family. But this means he expected to secure the
succession of the empire for his son-in-law, Henry, surnamed
the Proud, who was descended from a distinguished family,
the Welfs of Altorf, in Suabia. From this family he inherited
the duchy of Bavaria. The wife of Lothaire transmitted to
her daughter the patrimony of Henry the Fowler, consisting
of Hanover and Brunswick. Besides this great dowry, Lo-
thaire bestowed upon his son-in-law the duchy of Saxony in
addition to that of Bavaria.
§ 5. House of Suabia, or Hohenstaufen.' — This amaz-
ing preponderance, however, tended to alienate the princes
of Germany from Lothaire's views in favor of Henry. On
the death of Lothaire, in 1138, the partisans of the house of
Suabia made a hasty and irregular election of Conrad, in
which the Saxon faction found itself obliged to acquiesce.
The new emperor availed himself of the jealousy which Henry
the Proud's aggrandizement had excited. Lender pretense
that two duchies could not legally be held by the same per-
son, Henry was summoned to resign one of them ; and on
his refusal, the Diet pronounced that he had incurred a for-
feiture of both. Henry made but little resistance, and be-
fore his death, which happened soon afterwards, saw himself
stripped of all his hereditary as well as acquired possessions.
Upon this occasion the famous names of Guelf and Ghibelin
were first heard, which were destined to keep alive the flame
of civil dissension in far distant countries, and after their
meaning had been forgotten. The Guelfs, or Welfs, were, as
I have said, the ancestors of Henry, and the name has become
a sort of patronymic in his family. The word Ghibelin is
• Hohenstaufen is a castle in what is now the kingdom of Wurtemberg, about foui
miles from the Goppingeu station of the railway from Stuttgart to Ulm.
Germany. HOUSE OF SUABIA. 275
derived fVora Wibelung, a town in Franconia, whence the
emperors of that line are said to have sprung. The house
of Suabia was considered in Germany as representing that
of Franconia; as the Guelfs may, without much impropriety,
be deemed to represent the Saxon line.
Though Conrad III. left a son, the choice of the electors
fell, at his own request, upon his nephew, Frederick Barba-
rossa. The most conspicuous events of this great emperor's
life belong to the history of Italy. At home he was feared
and respected; the imperial prerogatives stood as high dur-
ing his reign as, after their previous decline, it was possible
for a single man to carry them. But the only circumstance
which appears memorable enough for the present sketch is
the second fall of the Guelfs. Henry the Lion, son of Henry
the Proud, had been restored by Conrad HI. to his father's
duchy of Saxony, resigning his claim to that of Bavaria,
which had been conferred on the margrave of Austria. This
renunciation, which indeed was only made in his name dur-
ing childhood, did not prevent him from urging the Emperor
Frederick to restore the whole of his birthright ; and Fred-
erick, his first-cousin, whose life he had saved in a sedition at
Rome, was induced to comply with this request in 1156.
Far from evincing that political jealousy which some writers
impute to him, the emperor seems to have carried his gener-
osity beyond the limits of prudence. For many years their
union was apparently cordial. But, whether it was that
Henry took umbrage at part of Frederick's conduct, or that
mere ambition rendered him ungrateful, he certainly aban-
doned his sovereign in a moment of distress, refusing to give
any assistance in that expedition into Lombardy which ended
in the unsuccessful battle of Legnano. Frederick could not
forgive this injury, and, taking advantage of complaints
which Henry's power and haughtiness had produced, sum-
moned him to answer charges in a general Diet. The duke
refused to appear, and, being adjudged contumacious, a sen-
tence of confiscation, similar to that which ruined his father,
fell upon his head ; and the vast imperial fiefs that he pos-
sessed were shared among some potent enemies. He made
an ineffectual resistance : like his father, he appears to have
owed more to fortune than to nature ; and after three years'
exile, was obliged to remain content with the restoration of
his allodial estates in Saxony. These, fifty years afterwards,
were converted into imperial fiefs, and became the two
duchies of the house of Brunswick, the lineal representatives
of Henry the Lion, and inheritors of the name of Guelf.
276 FREDERICK II. Chap. V.
Notwithstanding the prevailing spirit of the German oli-
garchy, Frederick Barbarossa had found no difficulty in pro-
curing the election of his son Henry, even during infancy,
as his successor. The fall of Henry the Lion had greatly
weakened the ducal authority in Saxony and Bavaria ; the
princes who acquired that title, especially in the former
country, finding that the secular and spiritual nobility of the
first class had taken the opportunity to raise themselves into
an immediate dependence upon the empire. Henry VI. came,
therefore, to the crown (a.d. 1190) with considerable advan-
tages in respect of prerogative ; and these inspired him with
the bold scheme of declaring the empire hereditary. One
is more surprised to find that he had no contemptible pros-
pect of success in this attempt : fifty-two princes, and even
what appears hardly credible, the See of Rome, under Clem-
ent HI., having been induced to concur in it. But the
Saxons made so vigorous an opposition that Henry did not
think it advisable to persevere. He procured, however, the
election of his son Frederick, an infant only two years old.
But, the emperor dying almost immediately, a powerful body
of princes, supported by Pope Innocent III., were desirous
to withdraw their consent. Philip, duke of Suabia, the late
king's brother, unable to secure his nephew's succession,
brought about his own election by one party, while another
chose Otho of Brunswick, younger son of Henry the Lion
(a.d. 1198). This double election renewed the rivalry be-
tween Guelfs and Ghibelins, and threw Germany into con-
fusion for several years. Philip, whose pretensions appear
to be the more legitimate of the two, gained ground upon
his adversarj^, nothwithstanding the opposition of the pope,
till he was assassinated in consequence of a private resent-
ment. Otho IV. reaped the benefit of a crime in which he
did not participate (a.d. 1208), and became for some years
undisputed sovereign. But, having ofiended the pope by
not entirely abandoning his imperial rights over Italy, he
had, in the latter part of his reign, to contend against Fred-
erick, son of Henry VI., who, having grown up to manhood,
came into Germany as heir of the house of Suabia, and, what
was not very usual in his own history, or that of his family,
the favored candidate of the Holy See. Otho IV. had been al-
most entirely deserted except by his natural subjects, when
his death, in 1218, removed every difficulty, and left Frede-
rick II. in the peaceable possession of Germany.
The eventful life of Frederick 11. was chiefly passed in
Italy. To preserve his hereditary dominions, and chastise
Germany. THE INTERREGNUM. 277
the Lombard cities, were the leading objects of his political .
and military career. He paid, therefore, but little attention
to Germany, from which it was in vain for any emperor to
expect effectual assistance towards objects of his own. Care-
less of prerogatives which it seemed hardly worth an effort
to preserve, he sanctioned the independence of the princes,
which may be properly dated from his reign. In return, they
readily elected his son Henry king of the Romans ; and on
his being implicated in a rebelHon, deposed him with equal
readiness, and substituted his brother Conrad at the em-
peror's request. But in the latter part of Frederick's reign
the deadly hatred of Rome penetrated beyond the Alps.
After his solemn deposition in the council of Lyons, he was
incapable, in ecclesiastical eyes, of holding the imperial scep-
tre. William, count of Holland, was chosen by the party
adverse to Frederick and his son Conrad ; and after the em-
peror's death he had some success against the latter. It is
hard, indeed, to say that any one was actually sovereign for
twenty-two years that followed the death of Frederick II. ;
a period of contested title and universal anarchy, which is
usually denominated the grand interregnum (a.d. 1250-
1272). On the decease of William of Holland, in 1257, a
schism among the electors produced the double choice of
Richard, earl of Cornwall, and Alfonso X., king of Castile.
It seems not easy to determine which of these candidates
had a legal majority of votes ; but the subsequent recogni-
tion of almost all Germany, and a sort of possession evi-
denced by public acts, which have been held valid, as well
as the general consent of contemporaries, may justify us in
adding Richard to the imperial list. The choice, indeed, was
ridiculous, as he possessed no talents which could compen-
sate for his want of power ; but the electors attained their
objects — to perpetuate a state of confusion by which their
own independence was consolidated, and to plunder without
scruple a man like Didius at Rome, rich and foolish enough
to purchase the first place upon earth.
§ 6. That place, indeed, was now become a mockery of
greatness. For more than two centuries, notwithstanding
the temporary influence of Frederick Barbarossa and his son,
the imperial authority had been in a state of gradual decay.
From the time of Frederick II. it had bordered upon abso-
lute insignificance; and the more prudent German princes
were slow to canvass for a dignity so little accompanied by
respect. The changes wrought in the Germanic constitution
during the period of the Suabian emperors chiefly consist in
278 GERMANIC CONSTITUTION. Chap. V.
the establishment of an oligarchy of electors, and of the ter-
ritorial sovereignty of the princes.
(1.) At the extinction of the Franconian line by the death
of Henry Y. it was determined by the German nobility to
make their empire practically elective, admitting no right,
or even natural pretension, in the eldest son of a reigning
sovereign. Their choice upon former occasions had been
made by free and general suffrage. But it may be pre-
sumed that each nation voted unanimously, and according
to the disposition of its duke. It is probable, too, that the
leaders, after discussing in previous deliberations the merits
of the several candidates, submitted their own resolutions to
the assembly, which would generally concur in them with-
out hesitation. At the election of Lothair, in 1124, we find
an evident instance of this previous choice, or, as it was
called, prcBtaxation^ from which the electoral college of Ger-
many has been derived. In the course of the twelfth cen-
tury the other princes lost all voice in the election of the
emperor, and the right of prcetoica^^o;i was confined to Seven
Electors. But it is not easy to account for all the circum-
stances that gave to seven spiritual and temporal princes
this distinguished pre-eminence. The three archbishops,
Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, were always, indeed, at the head
of the German Church. But the secular electors should nat-
urally have been the dukes of four nations — Saxony, Fran-
conia, Suabia, and Bavaria. We find, however, only the first
of these in the undisputed exercise of a vote. It seems
probable that, when the electoral princes came to be distin-
guished from the rest, their privilege was considered as pe-
culiarly connected with the discharge of one of the great
offices in the imperial court. These were attached, as early
as the Diet of Mentz in 1184, to the four electors, who after-
wards possessed them ; the Duke of Saxony having then of-
ficiated as arch-marshal, the Count Palatine of the Rhine as
arch-steward, the King of Bohemia as arch-cupbearer, and
the Margrave of Brandenburg as arch-chamberlain of the
empire.'* But it still continues a problem why the three
latter offices, with the electoral capacity as their incident,
' The names and oflSces of the seven are concisely given in these lines, which ap-
pear in the treatise of Marsilius Patavinus, De Imperio Jioviatw :
"Moguntinensis, Trevirensis, Coloniensis,
Quiiibet Imperii sit Cancellarius horum ;
Et Palatinus dapifer, Dux portitor eusis,
Marchio praepositus camerse, pincerua Bohemus,
Hi statuunt dominura cunctis per ssecula snmmnra."
Bryce's " Holy Roman Empire," p. 252.
Germany. GERMANIC CONSTITUTION. 279
should not rather have been granted to the dukes of Fran-
conia, Suabia, and Bavaria. The final extinction of two
great original duchies, Franconia and Suabia, in the thir-
teenth century, left the electoral rights of the count palatine
and the margrave of Brandenburg beyond dispute. But the
dukes of Bavaria continued to claim a vote in opposition to
the kings of Bohemia. At the election of Rodolph, in 1272,
the two brothers of the house of Wittelsbach voted sepa-
rately, as count palatine and duke of Lower Bavaria. Otto-
car was excluded upon this occasion; and it was not till
1290 that the suffrage of Bohemia was fully recognized.
The Palatine and Bavarian branches, however, continued to
enjoy their family vote conjointly, by a determination of
Rodolph ; upon which Louis of Bavaria slightly innovated,
by rendering the suffrage alternate. But the Golden Bull
of Charles lY. (a.d. 1356) put an end to all doubts on the
rights of electoral houses, and absolutely excluded Bavaria
from voting. This Bull, which became the corner-stone of
the German constitution, finally ascertained the prerogatives
of the electoral college. The number was absolutely re-
strained to seven. The place of legal imperial elections was
fixed at Frankfort ; of coronations, at Aix-la-Chapelle ; and
the latter ceremony was to be performed by the archbishop
of Cologne. These regulations, though consonant to ancient
usage, had not always been observed, and their neglect had
sometimes excited questions as to the validity of elections.
The dignity of elector was enhanced by the Golden Bull as
highly as an imperial edict could carry it ; they were de-
clared equal to kings, and conspiracy against their persons
incurred the penalty of high treason.
(2.) It might appear natural to expect that an oligarchy
of seven persons, who had thus excluded their equals from
all share in the election of a sovereign, would assume still
greater authority, and trespass further upon the less pow-
erful vassals of the empire. But while the electors were
establishing their peculiar privilege, the class immediately
inferior raised itself by important acquisitions of power.
The German dukes, even after they became hereditary, did
not succeed in compelling the chief nobility within their
limits to hold their lands in fief so completely as the peers
of France had done. The nobles of Suabia refused to follow
their duke into the field against the Emperor Conrad IL Of
this aristocracy,- the superior class were denominated prin-
ces ; an appellation which, after the eleventh century, dis-
tinguished them from the untitled nobility, most of whom
280 RODOLPll OF HAPSBURG. Chap. V.
were their vassals. They were constituent parts of all
Diets; and though gradually deprived of their original par-
ticipation in electing an emperor, possessed, in all other re-
spects, the same rights as the dukes or electors. Some of
them were fully equal to the electors in birth as well as ex-
tent of dominions ; such as the princely houses of Austria,
Hesse, Brunswick, and Misnia. By the division of Henry
the Lion's vast territories, and by the absolute extinction of
the Suabian family in the following century, a great many
princes acquired additional weight. Of the ancient duchies,
only Saxony and Bavaria remained ; the former of which
especially was so dismembered, that it was vain to attempt
any renewal of the ducal jurisdiction. That of the emper-
or, formerly exercised by the counts palatine, went almost
equally into disuse during the contest between Philip and
Otho IV. The princes accordingly had acted with sover-
eign independence within their own fiefs before the reign of
Frederick II. ; but the legal recognition of their immunities
was reserved for two edicts of that emperor; one, in 1220,
relating to ecclesiastical, and the other, in 1232, to secular
princes. By these he engaged neither to levy the custom-
ary imperial dues, nor to permit the jurisdiction of the pala-
tine judges, within the limits of a state of the empire; con-
cessions that amounted to little less than an abdication of
his own sovereignty. From this epoch the territorial inde-
pendence of the states may be dated.
A class of titled nobility, inferior to the princes, were the
counts of the empire, who seem to have been separated from
the former in the twelfth century, and to have lost at the
same time their right of voting in the Diets.^ In some parts
of Germany, chiefly in Franconia and upon the Rhine, there
always existed a very numerous body of lower nobility; un-
titled at least till modern times, but subject to no superior
except the emperor. These are supposed to have become
immediate, after the destruction of the house of Suabia, with-
in whose duchies they had been comprehended.
§ 7. A short interval elapsed after the death of Richard of
Cornwall before the electors could be induced, by the deplor-
able state of confusion into which Germany had fallen, to fill
the imperial throne. Their choice was, however, the best
that could have been made. It fell upon Rodolph, count of
Hapsburg, a prince of very ancient family, and of considera-
3 III the instrnments relating to the election of Otho IV, the princes sign their
names, Ego N. elegi et subscripsi. But the covints only as follows: Ego N. consenei
et aubscripsi.
Germany. THE EMPIRE AFTER RODOLril. 281
ble possessions as well in Switzerland as upon each bank of
the Upper Rhine, but not sufficiently powerfnl to alarm the
electoral oligarchy (a.d. 1272). Rodolph was brave, active,
and just ; but his characteristic quality appears to have been
good sense, and judgment of the circumstances in which he
was placed. Of this he gave a signal proof in relinquishing
the favorite project of so many preceding emperors, and
leaving Italy altogether to itself At home he manifested a
vigilant spirit in administering justice, and is said to have
destroyed seventy strongholds of noble robbers in Thuringia
and other parts, bringing many of the criminals to capital
punishment. But he wisely avoided giving oifense to the
more powerful princes; and during his reign there were
hardly any rebellions in Germany.
It was a very reasonable object of every emperor to ag-
grandize his family by investing his near kindred with va-
cant fiefs; but no one was so fortunate in his opportunities
as Rodolph. At his accession, Austria, Styria, and Carniola
were in the hands of Ottocar, king of Bohemia. These ex-
tensive and fertile countries had been formed into a march,
or margraviate, after the victories of Otho the Great over
the Hungarians. Frederick Barbarossa erected them into a
duchy, with many distinguished privileges, especially that
of female succession, hitherto unknown in the feudal princi-
palities of Germany. Upon the extinction of the house of
Bamberg, which had enjoyed this duchy, it was granted by
Frederick II. to a cousin of his own name ; after whose death
a disputed succession gave rise to several changes, and ulti-
mately enabled Ottocar to gain possession of the country.
Against this King of Bohemia Rodolph waged two success-
ful wars, and recovered the Austrian provinces, which, as va-
cant fiefs, he conferred, with the consent of the Diet, upon his
son Albert.
§ 8. Notwithstanding the merit and popularity of Ro-
dolph, the electors refused to choose his son king of the Ro-
mans in his lifetime ; and, after his death, determined to
avoid the appearance of hereditary succession, put Adolphus
of Nassau upon the throne (a.d. 1292). There is very little
to attract notice in the domestic history of the empire dur-
ing the next two centuries. From Adolphus to Sigismund
every emperor had either to struggle against a competitor
claiming the majority of votes at his election, or against a
combination of the electors to dethrone him. The imperial
authority became more and more ineffective ; yet it was fre-
quently made a subject of reproach against the emperors
282 CUSTOM OF PARTITION. Chap. V.
that they did not maintain a sovereignty to which no one
was disposed to submit.
It may appear surprising that the Germanic confederacy
under the nominal supremacy of an emperor should have
been preserved in circumstances apparently so calculated to
dissolve it. But, besides the natural effect of prejudice and
a famous name, there were sufficient reasons to induce the
eiectors to preserve a form of government in which they
■bore so decided a sway. Accident had in a considerable de-
gree restricted the electoral suffrages to seven princes.
Without the college there were houses more substantially
powerful than any within it. The duchy of Saxony had been
subdivided by repeated partitions among children, till the
electoral right was vested in a prince who possessed only
the small territory of Wittenberg. The great families of
Austria, Bavaria, and Luxemburg, though not electoral, were
the real heads of the German body ; and though the two
former lost much of their influence for a time through the
pernicious custom of partition, the empire seldom looked for
its head to any other house than one of these three.
While the duchies and counties of Germany retained their
original character of offices or governments, they were of
course, even though considered as hereditary, not subject to
partition among children. When they acquired the natuie
of fiefs, it was still consonant to the principles of a feudal
tenure that the eldest son should inherit according to the
law of primogeniture ; an inferior provision or appanage, at
most, being reserved for the younger children. The law of
England favored the eldest exclusively; that of France gave
him great advantages. But in Germany a different rule be-
gan to prevail about the thirteenth century. An equal par-
tition of the inheritance, without the least regard to priority
of birth, was the general law of its principalities. Some-
times this was effected by undivided possession, or tenancy
in common, the brothers residing together, and reigning
jointly. This tended to preserve the integrity of dominion ;
but as it was frequently incommodious, a more usual prac-
tice was to divide the territory. From such partitions are
derived those numerous independent principalities of the
same house, many of which still subsist in Germany. In
1589 there were eight reigning princes of the Palatine fami-
ly; and fourteen, in 1675, of that of Saxony. Originally these
partitions were in general absolute and without reversion ;
out, as their effect in weakening families became evident, a
practice was introduced of making compacts of reciprocal
Gkkmany. house of LUXEMBURG. 283
succession, by which a fief was prevented from escheating
to the empire, until all the male posterity of the first feuda-
tory should be extinct. Thus, while the German empire sur-
vived, all the princes of Hesse or of Saxony had reciprocal
contingencies of succession, or what our lawyers call cross-
remainders, to each other's dominions. A different system
was gradually adopted. By the Golden Bull of Charles IV.
the electoral territory, that is, the particular district to which
the electoral suffrage was inseparably attached, became inca-
pable of partition, and was to descend to the eldest son. In
the fifteenth century the present house of Brandenburg set the
first example of establishing primogeniture by law ; the prin-
cipalities of Anspach and Bayreuth were dismembered from
it for the benefit of younger branches ; but it was declared
that all the other dominions of the family should for the fu-
ture belong exclusively to the reigning elector. This politic
measure was adopted in several other families ; but, even in
the sixteenth century, the prejudice was not removed, and
some German princes denounced curses on their posterity if
they should introduce the impious custom of primogeniture.
I^^otwithstanding these subdivisions, and the most remarka-
ble of those which I have mentioned are of a date rather sub-
sequent to the Middle Ages, the antagonist principle of con-
solidation by various means of acquisition was so actively
at work that several princely houses, especially those of Ho-
henzollern or Brandenburg, of Hesse, Wirtemburg, and the
Palatinate, derive their importance from the same era, the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, in which the prejudice
against primogeniture was the strongest. And thus it will
often be found in private patrimonies ; the tendency to con-
solidation of property works more rapidly than that to its
disintegration by a law of gavelkind.
§ 9. House of Luxemburg. — Weakened by these subdi-
visions, the principalities of Germany in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries shrink to a more and more diminutive size
in the scale of nations. But one family, the most illustrious
of the former age, was less exposed to this enfeebling sys-
tem. Henry VII., count of Luxembui^g, a man of much more
personal merit than hereditary importance, was elevated to
the empire in 1308. Most part of his short reign he passed
in Italy ; but he had a fortunate opportunity of obtaining the
crown of Bohemia for his son. John, king of Bohemia, did
not himself wear the imperial crown ; but three of his de-
scendants possessed it, with less interruption than could have
been expected. His son Charles IV. succeeded Louis of Ba-
284 HOUSE OF LUXEMBURG. Chap. V.
varia in 1347; not indeed without opposition, for a double
election and a civil war were matters of course in Germany.
Charles lY. has been treated with more derision by his con-
temporaries, and consequently by later writers, than almost
any prince in history ; yet he was remarkably successful in
the only objects that he seriously pursued. Deficient in per-
sonal courage, insensible of humiliation, bending without
shame to the pope, to the Italians, to the electors, so poor and
so little reverenced as to be arrested by a butcher at Worms
for want of paying his demand, Charles IV. affords a proof
that a certain dexterity and cold-blooded perseverance may
occasionally supply, in a sovereign, the want of more respei-t-
able qualities. He has been reproached with neglecting the
empire. But he never designed to trouble himself about the
empire, except for his private ends. He did not neglect the
kingdom of Bohemia, to which he almost seemed to render
Germany a province. Bohemia had been long considered as
a fief of the empire, and indeed could pretend to an electoral
vote by no other title. Charles, however, gave the states by
law the right of choosing a king, on the extinction of the
royal family, which seems derogatory to the imperial pre-
rogative. It was much more material that, upon acquiring
Brandenburg, partly by conquest, and partly by a compact
of succession in 1373, he not only invested his sons with it,
which was conformable to usage, but tried to annex that
electorate forever to the kingdom of Bohemia. He constant-
ly resided at Prague, where he founded a celebrated univer-
sity, and embellished the city with buildings. This king-
dom, augmented also during his reign by the acquisition of
Silesia, he bequeathed to his son Wenceslaus, for whom, by
pliancy towards the electors and the court of Rome, he had
procured, against all recent example, the imperial succession.
The reign of Charles IV. is distinguished in the constitu-
tional history of the empire by his Goldex Bull. (See p.
279.) The next reign evinced the danger of investing the
electors with such preponderating authority. Wenceslaus,
a supine and voluptuous man, less respected, and more neg-
ligent of Germany, if possible, than his father, was regularly
deposed by a majority of the electoral college in 1400. This
right, if it is to be considered as a right, they had already
used against Adolphus of Nassau in 1298, and against Louis
of Bavaria in 1346. They chose Robert count palatine in-
stead of Wenceslaus ; and though the latter did not cease
to have some adherents, Robert has generally been counted
among the lawful emperors. Upon his death the empire re-
GERMANr. HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. 285
turned to the house of Luxemburg ; Wenceslaus himself waiv-
ing his rights in favor of his brother Sigismund of Hungary.
§ 10. The HOUSE OF Austria had hitherto given but two
emperors to Germany, Rodolph, its founder, and his son Al-
bert, whom a successful rebellion elevated in the place of
Adolphus. Upon the death of Henry of Luxemburg, in 1 31 3,
Frederick, son of Albert, disputed the election of Louis, duke
of Bavaria, alleging a majority of genuine votes. This pro-
duced a civil war, in which the Austrian party were entirely
worsted. Though they advanced no pretensions to the im-
perial dignity during the rest of the fourteenth century, the
princes of that line added to their possessions Carinthia, Is-
tria, and the Tyrol. As a counterbalance to these acquisi-
tions, they lost a great part of their ancient inheritance by
unsuccessful wars with the Swiss. According to the custom
of partition, so injurious to princely houses, their dominions
were divided among three branches ; one reigning in Austria,
a second in Styria and the adjacent provinces, a third in the
Tyrol and Alsace. This had in a considerable degree eclipsed
the glory of the house of Hapsburg. But it was now its des-
tiny to revive and to enter upon a career of prosperity which
has never since been permanently interrupted. Albert, duke
of Austria, who had married Sigismund's only daughter, the
queen of Hungary and Bohemia, was raised to the imperial
throne upon the death of his father-in-law in 1438. He died
in two years, leaving his wife pregnant with a son, Ladislaus
Posthumus, who afterwards reigned in the two kingdoms just
mentioned; and the choice of the electors fell upon Frederick,
duke of Styria, second-cousin of the last emperor, from whose
posterity it never departed, except in a single instance, upon
the extinction of his male line in 1740.
Frederick IH. reigned fifty-three years (a.d. 1440-1493), a
longer period than any of his predecessors; and his personal
character was more insignificant. He reigned during an in-
teresting age, full of remarkable events, and big with others
of more leading importance. The destruction of the Greek
empire, and appearance of the victorious crescent upon the
Danube, gave an unhappy distinction to the earlier years of
his reign, and displayed his mean and pusillanimous charac-
ter in circumstances which demanded a hero. At a laler sea-
son he was drawn into contentions with France and Burgun-
dy, which ultimately produced a new and more general com-
bination of European politics. Frederick, always poor, and
scarcely able to protect himself in Austria from the seditions
of his subjects, or the inroads of the King of Hungary, was
286 FREDERICK III. Chap. V.
yet another founder of his family, and left their fortunes in-
comparably more prosperous than at his accession. The mar-
riage of his son Maximilian with the heiress of Burgundy be-
gan that aggrandizement of the house of Austria which Fred-
erick seems to have anticipated."* The electors, who had lost
a good deal of their former spirit, and were grown sensible
of the necessity of choosing a powerful sovereign, made no
opposition to Maximilian's becoming king of the Romans in
his father's lifetime. The Austrian provinces were re-united
either under Frederick or in the first years of Maximilian; so
that, at the close of that period which we denominate the
Middle Ages, the German Empire, sustained by the patrimo-
nial dominions of its chief, became again considerable in the
scale of nations, and capable of preserving a balance between
the ambitious monarchies of France and Spain.
§ 11. The period between Rodolph and Frederick III. is
distinguished by no circumstance so interesting as the pros-
perous state of the free imperial cities, which had attained
their maturity about the commencement of that interval.
We find the cities of Germany, in the tenth century, divided
into such as depended immediately upon the empire, which
were usually governed by their bishop as imperial vicar, and
such as were included in the territories of the dukes and
counts. Gradually they began to elect councils of citizens,
as a sort of Senate and magistracy. They were at first only
assistants to the imperial or episcopal bailiff, who probably
continued to administer criminal justice. But in the thir-
teenth century the citizens, grown richer and stronger, either
purchased the jurisdiction, or usurped it through the lord's
neglect, or drove out the bailiff by force. The great revolu--
tion in Franconia and Suabia occasioned by the fall of the
Hohenstaufen family completed the victory of the cities.
Those which had depended upon mediate lords became im-
mediately connected with the empire ; and with the empire
in its state of feebleness, when an occasional present of mon-
ey would easily induce its chief to acquiesce in any claims of
immunity which the citizens might prefer.
It was a natural consequence of the importance which the
free citizens had reached, and of their immediacy, that they
were admitted to a place in the Diets, or general meetings
of the confederacy. They were tacitly acknowledged to be
* The famotis device of Austria, A. E. I. O. U., was flrst used by Frederick III., who
adopted it on his plate, books, and buildings. These initials stand for, Aastrife Est
Imperare Orbi Uuiverso; or, in German, Alles Erdreich Ist Oesterreich Uuterthan:
a bold assumption for a man who was not safe in au inch of his dominions.
Germany. FKEE IMPERIAL CITIES. 287
equally sovereign with the electors and princes, and under
the emperor Henry VII. there is unequivocal mention of the
three orders composing the Diet — electors, princes, and depu-
ties from cities.
The inhabitants of these free cities always preserved their
respect for the emperor, and gave him much less vexation
than his other subjects. He was indeed their natural friend.
But the nobility and prelates were their natural enemies;
and the western parts of Germany were the scenes of ir-
reconcilable warfare between the possessors of fortified cas-
tles and the inhabitants of fortified cities. Each party was
frequently the aggressor. The nobles were too often mere
robbers, who lived upon the plunder of travellers. But the
citizens were almost equally inattentive to the rights of
others. It was their policy to offer the privileges of burgh-
ership to all strangers. The peasantry of feudal lords, fly-
ing to a neighboring town, found an asylum constantly open.
A multitude of aliens, thus seeking, as it were, sanctuary,
dwelt in the suburbs, or liberties, between the city walls and
the palisades which bounded the territory. Hence they
were called Pfahlbiirger, or burgesses of the palisades;
and this encroachment on the rights of the nobility was pos-
itively, but vainly, prohibited by several imperial edicts, es-
pecially the Golden Bull. Another class were the Ausbtir-
ger, or outburghers, who had been admitted to privileges of
citizenship, though resident at a distance, and pretended in
consequence to be exempted from all dues to their original
feudal superiors. If a lord resisted so unreasonable a claim,
he incurred the danger of bringing down upon himself the
vengeance of the citizens. These outburghers are in general
classed under the general name of Pfahlbtirger by contempo-
rary writers.
As the towns were conscious of the hatred which the no-
bility bore towards them, it was their interest to make a
common cause, and render mutual assistance. They with-
stood the bishops and barons by confederacies of their own,
framed expressly to secure their commerce against rapine,
or unjust exactions of toll. More than sixty cities, with
three ecclesiastical electors at their head, formed the league
of the Rhine, in 1255, to repel the inferior nobility, who, hav-
ing now become immediate, abused that independence by
perpetual robberies. The Hanseatic Union owes its origin to
no other cause, and may be traced perhaps to rather a higher
date. About the year 1370 a league was formed which,
though it did not continue so long, seems to have produced
288 PROVINCIAL STATES. Chap. V.
more striking effects in Germany. The cities of Suabia and
the Rhine united themselves in a strict confederacy against
the princes, and especially the families of Wirtemburg and
Bavaria. It is said that the Emperor Wenceslaus secretly
abetted their projects. The recent successes of the Swiss,
who had now almost established their republic, inspired their
neighbors in the empire with expectations which the event
did not realize ; for they w^ere defeated in this war, and
ultimately compelled to relinquish their league. Counter-
associations were formed by the nobles, styled Society of
St. George, St. William, the Lion, or the Panther.
§ 12. The spirit of political liberty was not confined to the
free immediate cities. In all the German principalities a form
of limited monarchy prevailed, reflecting, on a reduced scale,
the general constitution of the empire. As the emperors
shared their legislative sovereignty with the Diet, so all the
princes who belonged to that assembly had their ow^n pro-
vincial states, composed of their feudal vassals and of their
mediate towns within their territory. No tax could be im-
posed Without consent of the states; anr|,in some countries,
the prince was obliged to account for the proper distribution
of the money granted. In all matters of importance affect-
ing the principality, and especially in case of partition, it was
necessary to consult them ; and they sometimes decided be-
tween competitors in a disputed succession, though this in-
deed more strictly belonged to the emperor. The provincial
states concurred with the prince in making laws, except such
as were enacted by the general Diet.
§ 13. The ancient imperial domain, or possessions which
belonged to the chief of the empire as such, had originally
been very extensive. Besides large estates in every province,
the territory upon each bank of the Rhine, afterwards oc-
cupied by the counts palatine and ecclesiastical electors, was,
until the thirteenth century, an exclusive property of the
emperor. This imperial domain was deemed so adequate to
the support of his dignity that it was usual, if not obligato-
ry, for him to grant away his patrimonial domains upon his
election. But the necessities of Frederick II., and the long
confusion that ensued upon his death, caused the domain to
be almost entirely dissipated. Rodolph made some efforts
to retrieve it, but too late ; and the poor remains of what
had belonged to Charlemagne and Otho were alienated by
Charles IV. This produced a necessary change in that part
of the constitution which deprived an emperor of heredita-
ry possessions. It was, however, some time before it took
Germany. PUBLIC PEACE. 289
place. Even Albert I. conferred the duchy of Austria upon
his son, when he was chosen emperor. Louis of Bavaria
was the first who retained his hereditary dominions, and
made them his residence. Charles IV. and Wenceslaus lived
almost wholly in Bohemia, Sigisnmnd chiefly in Hungary,
Frederick III. in Austria. This residence in their hereditary
countries, while it seemed rather to lower the imperial dig-
nity, and to lessen their connection with the general confed-
eracy, gave them intrinsic power and influence. If the em-
perors of the houses of Luxemburg and Austria were not
like the Conrads and Fredericks, they were at least very su-
perior in importance to the Williams and Adolphuses of the
thirteenth century.
§14. The accession of Maximilian nearly coincides with
the expedition of Charles VIII. against Naples ; and I should
here close the German history of the Middle Age, were it not
for the great epoch which is made by the Diet of Worms in
1495. This assembly is celebrated for the establishment of
a perpetual public peace, and of a paramount court of justice,
the Imperial Chamber.
The same causes which produced continual hostilities
among the French nobility were not likely to operate less
powerfully on the Germans, equally warlike with their neigh-
bors, and rather less civilized. But while the imperial gov-
ernment was still vigorous, they were kept under some re-
straint. We find Henry III., the most powerful of the Fran-
conian emperors, forbidding all private defiances, and estab-
lishing solemnly a general peace. After his time the natural
tendency of manners overpowered all attempts to coerce it,
and private war raged without limits in the empire. Fred-
erick I. endeavored to repress it by a regulation which ad-
mitted its legality. This was the law of defiance {jus diffida-
^/oms), which required a solemn declaration of war, and three
days' notice, before the commencement of hostile measures.
All persons contravening this provision were deemed robbers
and not legitimate enemies. War, indeed, legally under-
taken, was not the only nor the severest grievance. A very
large proportion of the rural nobility lived by robbery.
Their castles, as the ruins still bear witness, were erected
upon inaccessible hills, and in defiles that command the pub-
lic road. An archbishop of Cologne having built a fortress
of this kind, the governor inquired how he was to maintain
himself, no revenue having been assigned for that purpose:
the prelate only desired him to remark that the castle was
situated near the junction of four roads. As commerce in-
13
290 IMPERIAL CHAMBER. Chap. V.
creased, and the example of French and Italian civilization
rendered the Germans more sensible to their own rudeness,
the preservation of public peace was loudly demanded.
Every Diet under Frederick III. professed to occupy itself
with the two great objects of domestic reformation, peace
and law. Temporary cessations, during which all private
hostility was illegal, were sometimes enacted ; and, if ob-
served, which may well be doubted, might contribute to ac-
custom men to habits of greater tranquillity. The leagues
of the cities were probably moi'e efficacious checks upon the
disturbers of order. In 1486 a ten years' peace was pro-
claimed, and before the expiration of this period the perpetual
abolition of the right of defiance was happily accomplished
in the Diet of Worms.
§ 15. The next object of the Diet was to provide an ef-
fectual remedy for private wrongs which might supersede all
pretense for taking up arms. The Imperial Chamber, such
was the name of the new tribunal, consisted, at its original
institution, of a chief judge, who was to be chosen among the
princes or counts, and of sixteen assessors, partly of noble or
equestrian rank, partly professors of law. They were named
by the emperor with the approbation of the Diet. The func-
tions of the Imperial Chamber were chiefly the two follow-
ing : (1.) They exercised an appellant jurisdiction over causes
that had been decided by the tribunals established in states
of the empire. But their jurisdiction in private causes was
merely appellant. They were positively restricted from tak-
ing cognizance of any causes in the first instance, even where
a state of the empire was one of the parties. It was enacted,
to obviate the denial of justice that appeared likely to result
from the regulation in the latter case, that every elector and
prince should establish a tribunal in his own dominions, where
suits against himself might be entertained. (2.) The second
part of their jurisdiction related to disputes between two
states of the empire. But these two could only come before
it by way of appeal. During the period of anarchy which
preceded the establishment of its jurisdiction, a custom was
introduced, in order to prevent the constant recurrence of
hostilities, of referring the quarrels of states to certain arbi-
trators, called Austregues, chosen among states of the same
rank. This conventional reference became so popular that
the princes would not consent to abandon it on the institu-
tion of the Imperial Chamber ; but, on the contrary, it was
changed into an invariable and universal law, that all dis-
putes between different states must, in the first instance, be
submitted to the arbitration of Austresjues.
Gkrmant. limits of THE EMPIRE. 291
The sentences of the Chamber would have been very idly
pronounced, if means had not been devised to carry them
into execution. The empire, with the exception of the elect-
orates and the Austrian dominions, was divided into six
circles, each of which had its council of states, its director,
whose province it was to convoke them, and its military
force to compel obedience. In 1512 four more circles were
added, comprehending those states which had been excluded
in the first division.
§ 16. As the judges of the Imperial Chamber were ap-
pointed with the consent of the Diet, and held their sittings
in a free imperial city, its establishment seemed rather to
encroach on the ancient prerogatives of the emperors. Max-
imilian expressly reserved these in consenting to the new
tribunal. And, in order to revive them, he soon afterwards
instituted an Aulic Council at Vienna, composed of judges
appointed by himself, and under the political control of the
Austrian government. Though some German patriots re-
garded this tribunal with jealousy, it continued until the
dissolution of the empire. The Aulic Council had, in all
cases, a concurrent jurisdiction with the Imperial Chamber ;
an exclusive one in feudal and some other causes. But it
was equally confined to cases of appeal ; and these, by mul-
tiplied privileges, de non appellando, granted to the electoral
and suj^erior princely houses, were gradually reduced into
moderate compass.
The Germanic constitution may be reckoned complete, as
to all its essential characteristics, in the reign of Maximilian.
In later times, and especially by the treaty of Westphalia,
it underwent several modifications. Whatever might be its
defects, and many of them seem to have been susceptible of
reformation without destroying the system of government,
it had one invaluable excellence : it protected the rights of
the weaker against the stronger powers. The law of nations
was first taught in Germany, and grew out of the public law
of the empire. To narrow, as far as possible, the rights of
war and of conquest, was a natural principle of those who
belonged to petty states, and had nothing to tempt them in
ambition.
§ 17. At the accession of Conrad I., Germany had by no
means reached its present extent on the eastern frontier.
Henry the Fowler and the Othos made great acquisitions
upon that side. But tribes of Sclavonian origin, generally
called Venedic, or, less properly, Vandal, occupied the north-
ern coast from the Elbe to the Vistula. These were inde*
292 CONSTITUTION OF BOHEMIA. Chap. V.
pendent, and iormidable both to the kings of Denmark and
princes of Germany, till, in the reign of Frederic Barbarossa,
two of the latter, Henry the Lion, dnke of Saxony, and Al-
bert the Bear, margrave of Brandenburg, subdued Mecklen*
burg and Pomerania, which afterwards became duchies of
the empire. Bohemia was undoubtedly subject, in a feudal
sense, to Frederick I. and his successors ; though its connec-
tion with Germany was always slight. The emperors some-
times assumed the sovereignty over Denmark, Hungary, and
Poland. But what they gained upon this quarter was com-
pensated by the gradual separation of the Netherlands from
their dominion, and by the still more complete loss of the
kingdom of Aries. The house of Burgundy possessed most
part of the former, and paid as little regard as possible to
the imperial supremacy ; though the German Diets in the
reign of Maximilian still continued to treat the Netherlands
as equally subject to their lawful control with the states on
the right bank of the Rhine. But the provinces between
the Rhone and the Alps were absolutely separated ; Switz-
erland had completely succeeded in establishing her own in-
dependence ; and the kings of France no longer sought even
the ceremony of an imperial investiture for Dauphine and
Provence.
§ 18. Bohemia, which received the Christian faith in the
tenth century, was elevated to the rank of a kingdom near
the end of the twelfth. The dukes and kings of Bohemia
were feudally dependent upon the emperors, from whom they
received investiture. They possessed, in return, a suffrage
among the seven electors, and held one of the great offices
in the imperial court. But separated by a rampart of mount-
ains, by a difference of origin and language, and perhaps by
natural prejudices, from Germany, the Bohemians withdrew
as far as possible from the general politics of the confederacy.
The kings obtained dispensations from attending the Diets
of the empire, nor were they able to reinstate themselves in
the privilege thus abandoned till the beginning of the last
century. The government of this kingdom, in a very slight
degree partaking of the feudal character, bore rather a re-
semblance to that of Poland ; but the nobility were divided
into two classes, the baronial and the equestrian, and the
burghers formed a third state in the national Diet. For the
peasantry, they were in a condition of servitude, or predial vil-
lenage. The royal authority was restrained by a coronation
oath, by a permanent Senate, and by frequent assemblies of
the Diet, where a inimerous and armed nobility appeared tc
German V. THE HUSSITES. 2<)3
secure their liberties by law or force. The sceptre passed,
in ordinary times, to the nearest heir of the royal blood ; but
the right of election was only suspended, and no king of Bo
hernia ventured to boast of it as his inheritance. This mix
ture of elective and hereditary monarchy was common, as we
have seen, to most European kingdoms in their original con-
stitution, though few continued so long to admit the partici-
pation of popular suiFrages.
The reigning dynasty having become extinct in 1306, by
the death of Wenceslaus, son of that Ottocar who, after ex-
tending his conquests to the Baltic Sea, and almost to the
Adriatic, had lost his life in an unsuccessful contention with
the Emperor Rodolph, the Bohemians chose John of Luxem-
burg, son of Henry VII. Under the kings of this family in
the fourteenth century, and especially Charles IV., whose
character appeared in a far more advantageous light in his
native domains than in the empire, Bohemia imbibed some
portion of refinement and science. An university erected
by Charles at Prague became one of the most celebrated in
Europe. John IIuss, rector of the university, who had dis-
tinguished himself by opposition to many abuses then pre-
vailing in the Church, repaired to the council of Constance,
under a safe-conduct from the Emperor Sigismund (a.d. 1416).
In violation of this pledge, to the indelible infamy of that
prince and of the council, he was condemned to be burned ;
and his disciple, Jerome of Prague, underwent afterwards the
same fate. His countrymen, aroused by this atrocity, flew
to arms. They found at their head one of those extraordi-
nary men whose genius, created by nature and called into
action by fortuitous events, appears to borrow no reflected
light from that of others. John Zisca had not been trained
in any school which could have initiated him in the science
of war ; that indeed, except in Italy, was still rude, and no-
where more so than in Bohemia. But, self-taught, he be-
came one of the greatest captains who had hitherto appeared
in Europe. It renders his exploits more marvellous that he
was totally deprived of sight. Zisca has been called the in-
ventor of the modern art of fortification ; the famous mount-
ain near Prague, fanatically called Tabor, became by his
skill an impregnable intrenchment. For his stratagems he
has been compared to Hannibal. In battle, being destitute
of cavalry, he disposed at intervals ramparts of carriages
filled with soldiers, to defend his troops from the enemy's
horse. His own station was by the chief standard ; where,
after hearing the circumstances of the situation explained,
294 HUNGARY. Chap. V.
he gave his orders for the disposition of the army. Zisca
was never defeated ; and his genius inspired the Hussites
with such enthusiastic affection, that some of those who had
served under him refused to obey any other general, and de-
nominated themselves Orphans, in commemoration of his
loss. He was indeed a ferocious enemy, though some of his
cruelties might, perhaps, be extenuated by the law of retalia-
tion ; but to his soldiers affable and generous, dividing among
them all the spoil.
Even during the lifetime of Zisca the Hussite sect was dis-
united; the citizens of Prague and many of the nobility con-
tenting themselves with moderate demands, while the Tabor-
ites. his peculiar followers, were actuated by a most fanat-
ical frenzy. The former took the name of Calixtins, from
their retention of the sacramental cup, of which the priests
had latterly thought fit to debar laymen ; an abuse so total-
ly without pretense or apology, that nothing less than the
determined obstinacy of the Komish Church could have
maintained it to this time. The Taborites, though no long-
er led by Zisca, gained some remarkable victories, but were
at last wholly defeated; while the Catholic and Calixtin
parties came to an accommodation, by which Sigismund was
acknowledged as King of Bohemia, which he had claimed by
the title of heir to his brother Wenceslaus, and a few indul-
gences, especially the use of the sacramental cup, conceded
to the moderate Hussites (a.d. 1433). But this compact,
though concluded by the Council of Basle, being ill ob-
served, through the perfidious bigotry of the See of Rome,
the reformers armed again to defend their religious liber-
ties, and ultimately elected a nobleman of their own party,
by name George Podiebrad, to the throne of Bohemia, which
he maintained during his life with great vigor and prudence
(a.d. 1458). Upon his death they chose Uladislaus, son of
Casimir, king of Poland (a.d. 1471), who afterwards obtained
also the kingdom of Hungary. Both these crowns were con-
ferred on his son Louis, after whose death in the unfortunate
battle of Mohacz, Ferdinand of Austria became sovereign of
the two kingdoms.
§ 19. The Hungarians, that terrible people who laid
waste the Italian and German provinces of the empire in
the tenth century, became proselytes soon afterwards to the
religion of Europe, and their sovereign, St. Stephen, was ad-
mitted by the pope into the list of Christian kings. Though
the Hungarians were of a race perfectly distinct from either
the Gothic or the Sclavonian tribes, their system of govern-
Germany. HUNNIADES. 295
ment was in a great measure analogous. None indeed could
be more natural to rude nations who had but recently ac-
customed themselves to settled possessions, than a territo-
rial aristocracy, jealous of unlimited or even hereditary pow-
er in their chieftain, and subjugating the inferior people to
that servitude which, in such a state of society, is the una-
voidable consequence of poverty.
The marriage of a Hungarian princess with Charles 11.,
king of Naples, eventually connected her country far more
than it had been with the affairs of Italy. I have mentioned
in a different place the circumstances which led to the inva-
sion of Naples by Louis, king of Hungary (see p. 224). By
marrying the eldest daughter of Louis, Sigismund, after-
wards emperor, acquired the crown of Hungary, which upon
her death without issue he retained in his own right, and
was even able to transmit to the child of a second marriage,
and to her husband Albert, duke of Austria. From this
commencement is deduced tlie connection between Hungary
and Austria. In two years, however, Albert dying left his
widow pregnant; but the states of Hungary, jealous of Aus-
trian influence, and of the intrigues of a minority, without
waiting for her delivery, bestowed the crown upon Uladis-
laus, king of Poland (a.d. 1440). The birth of Albert's post-
humous son, Ladislaus, produced an opposition in behalf of
the infant's right ; but the Austrian party turned out the
weaker, and Uladislaus, after a civil war of some duration,
became undisputed king. Meanwhile a more formidable
enemy drew near. The Turkish arms had subdued all
Servia, and excited a just alarm throughout Christendom.
Uladislaus led a considerable force, to which the presence of
the Cardinal Julian gave the appearance of a crusade, into
Bulgaria, and, after several successes, concluded an honor-
able treaty with Amurath II. But this he was unhappily
persuaded to violate, at the instigation of the cardinal, who
abhorred the impiety of keeping faith with infidels. Heav-
en judged of this otherwise, if the judgment of Heaven was
pronounced upon the field of Warna. In that fatal battle
Uladislaus was killed, and the Hungarians utterly routed
(a.d. 1444). The crown was now permitted to rest on the
head of young Ladislaus ; but the regency was allotted by
the states of Hungary to a native warrior, John Hunniades.
This hero stood in the breach for twelve years against the
Turkish power, frequently defeated, but unconquered in de-
feat. If the renown of Hunniades may seem exaggerated
by the partiality of writers who lived under the reign of his
296 EARLY HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. Ciiai-. V.
son, it is confirmed by more unequivocal evidence, by the
dread and hatred of the Turks, whose children were taught
obedience by threatening them with his name, and by the
deference of a jealous aristocracy to a man of no distin-
guished birth. He surrendered to young Ladislaus a trust
that he had exercised with perfect fidelity! but his merit
was too great to be forgiven, and the court never treated
him with cordiality. The last and the most splendid serv-
ice of Hunniades was the relief of Belgrade (a.d. 1456).
That strong city was besieged by Mohammed II. three years
after the fall of Constantinople ; its capture would have laid
open all Hungary. A tumultuary army, chiefly collected by
the preaching of a friar, was intrusted to Hunniades; he
penetrated into the city, and, having repulsed the Turks in
a fortunate sally wherein Mohammed was wounded, had the
honor of compelling him to raise the siege in confusion.
The relief of Belgrade was more important in its effect than
in its immediate circumstances. It revived the spirits of Eu-
rope, which had been appalled by the unceasing victories
of the infidels. Mohammed himself seemed to acknowledge
the importance of the blow, and seldom afterwards attacked
the Hungarians. Hunniades died soon after this achieve-
ment, and was followed by the king, Ladislaus. The states
of Hungary, although the Emperor Frederick HI. had se-
cured to himself, as he thought, the reversion, were justly
averse to his character, and to Austrian connections. They
conferred their crown on Matthias Corvinus, son of their
great Hunniades (a.d. 1458). This prince reigned above
thirty years with considerable reputation, to which his pat-
ronage of learned men, who repaid his munificence with very
profuse eulogies, did not a little contribute. Hungary, at
least in his time, was undoubtedly formidable to her neigh-
bors, and held a respectable rank as an independent power
in the republic of Europe.
§ 20. Switzerland. — The kingdom of Burgundy or Aries
comprehended the whole mountainous region which we now
call Switzerland. It was accordingly reunited to the Ger-
manic empire by the bequest of Rodolph along with the rest
of his dominions. A numerous and ancient nobility, vassals
one to another, or to the empire, divided the possession with
ecclesiastical lords hardly less powerful than themselves.
Of the former we find the counts of Zahringen, Kyburg,
Hapsburg, and Tokenburg most conspicuous; of the latter,
the Bishop of Coire, the Abbot of St. Gall, and Abbess of
Seckingen. Every variety of feudal rights was early found
Germany. EARLY HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND. 297
and long preserved in Helvetia; nor is there any country
whose liistory better iUustrates that ambiguous relation,
half property and half dominion, in which the territorial aris-
tocracy, under the feudal system, stood with resp^t to their
dependents. In the twelfth century the Swiss towns rise
into some degree of importance. Zurich was eminent for
commercial activity, and seems to have had no lord but the
emperor. Basle, though subject to its bishop, possessed the
usual privileges of municipal government. Berne and Fri-
burg, founded only in that century, made a rapid progress,
and the latter was raised, along with Zurich, by Frederick II.,
in 1218, to the rank of a free imperial city. Several changes
in the principal Helvetian families took place in the thir-
teenth century, before the end of which the house of Haps-
burg, under the politic and enterprising Rodolph and his son
Albert, became possessed, through various titles, of a great
ascendency in Switzerland.
Of these titles none was more tempting to an ambitious
chief than that of advocate to a convent. That specious
name conveyed with it a kind of indefinite guardianship, and
right of interference, which frequently ended in reversing the
conditions of the ecclesiastical sovereign and its vassal. But
during times of feudal anarchy there was perhaps no other
means to secure the rich abbeys from absolute spoliation ;
and the free cities in their early stage sometimes adopted
the same policy. Among other advocacies, Albert obtained
that of some convents which had estates in the valleys of
Schweitz and Underwald. These sequestered regions in the
heart of the Alps had been for ages the habitation of a pas-
toral race, so happily forgotten, or so inaccessible in their
fastnesses, as to have acquired a virtual independence, regu-
lating their own affairs in their general assembly with a per-
fect equality, though they acknowledged the sovereignty of
the empire. The people of Schweitz had made Rodolph
their advocate. They distrusted Albert, whose succession
to his father's inheritance spread alarm through Helvetia.
It soon appeared that their suspicions were well founded.
Besides the local rights which his ecclesiastical advocacies
gave him over part of the forest cantons, he pretended, after
his election to the empire, to send imperial bailiffs into their
valleys, as administrators of criminal justice. Their oppres-
sion of a people unused to control, whom it was plainly the
design of Albert to reduce into servitude, excited those gen-
erous emotions of resentment which a brave and simple race
have seldom the discretion to repress. Three men, Stauf-
13*
298 SWISS CONFEDERACY. Chap. V.
facher of Schweitz, Fnrst of Uri, Melchthal of Underwald,
each with ten chosen associates, met by night in a seques-
tered field, and swore to assert the common cause of their lib-
erties, without bloodshed or injury to the rights of others.
Their success was answerable to the justice of their under^
taking ; the three cantons unanimously took up arms, and
expelled their oppressors without a contest. Albert's as-
sassination by his nephew, which followed soon afterwards,
fortunately gave them leisure to consolidate their union
(a.d. 1308). He was succeeded in the empire by Henry YII.,
jealous of the Austrian family, and not at all displeased at
proceedings which had been accompanied with so little vio-
lence or disrespect for the empire. But Leopold, duke of
Austria, resolved to humble the peasants, who had rebelled
against his father, led a considerable force into their coun-
try. The Swiss, commending themselves to Heaven, and de-
termined rather to perish than undergo that yoke a second
time, though ignorant of regular discipline, and unprovided
with defensive armor, utterly discomfited the assailants at
Morgarten (a.d. 1315).
This great victory, the Marathon of Switzerland, confirmed
the independence of the three original cantons. Afte^' some
years. Lucerne, contiguous in situation and alike in interests,
was incorporated into their confederacy. It was far more
materially enlarged about the middle of the fourteenth cen-
tury by the accession of Zurich, Glaris, Zug, and Berne, all
which took place within two years. The first and last of
these cities had" already been engaged in frequent wars with
the Helvetian nobility, and their internal polity was alto-
gether republican. They acquired, not independence, which
they already enjoyed, but additional security, by this union
with the Swiss, properly so called, who in deference to their
power and reputation ceded to them the first rank in the
league. The eight already enumerated are called the ancient
cantons, and continued, till the late reformation of the Hel-
vetic system, to possess several distinctive privileges and
even rights of sovereignty over subject territories, in which
the five cantons of Friburg, Soleure, Basle, Schaffhausen, and
Appenzell did not participate. From this time the united
cantons, but especially those of Berne and Zurich, began to
extend their territories at the expense of the rural nobility.
The same contest between these parties, with the same ter-
mination, which we know generally to have taken place in
Lombardy during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, may
be traced with more minuteness in the annals of Switzerland.
GERMANY. SWISS CONFEDERACY. 299
Like the Lombards, too, the Helvetic cities acted with policy
and moderation towards the nobles whom they overcame,
admitting them to the franchises of their community as co-
burghers (a i)rivilege which virtually implied a defensive al-
liance against any assailant), and uniformly respecting the
legal rights of property. Many feudal superiorities they ob-
tained from the owners in a more peaceable manner, through
purchase or mortgage. Thus the house of Austria, to which
the extensive domains of the counts of Kyburghad devolved,
abandoning, after repeated defeats, its hopes of subduing the
forest cantons, alienated a great part of its possessions to
Zurich and Berne. And the last remnant of their ancient
Helvetic territories in Argovia was wrested, in 1417, from
Frederick, count of Tyrol, who, imprudently supporting Pope
John XXIU. against the Council of Constance, had been put
to the ban of the empire. These conquests Berne could not
be induced to restore, and thus completed the independence
of the confederate republics. The other free cities, though
not yet incorporated, and the few remaining nobles, whether
lay or spiritual, of whom the Abbot of St. Gall was the prin-
cipal, entered into separate leagues with different cantons.
Switzerland became, therefore, in the first part of the fifteenth
century, a free country, acknowledged as such by neighbor-
ing states, and subject to no external control, though still
comprehended within the nominal sovereignty of the empire.
The affairs of Switzerland occupy a very small space in
the great chart of European history. But in some respects
they are more interesting than the revolutions of mighty
kingdoms. Nowhere besides do we find so many titles to
our sympathy, or the union of so much virtue w^ith so com-
plete success. Li the Italian republics a more splendid tem-
ple may seem to have been erected to liberty; but, as we
approach, the serpents of faction hiss around her altar, and
the form of tyranny flits among the distant shadows behind
the shrine. Switzerland, not absolutely blameless (for what
republic has been so ?), but comparatively exempt from tur-
bulence, usurpation, and injustice, has well deserved to em-
ploy the native pen of an historian accounted the most elo-
quent of tiie last age, Johann Miiller. Other nations displayed
an insuperable resolution in the defense of walled towns ; but
the steadiness of the Swiss in the field of battle was without
a parallel, unless we recall the memory of Lacedaemon. It
was even established as a law that whoever returned from
battle after a defeat should forfeit his life by the hands of
the executioner. Sixteen hundred men, who had been sent
300 SWISS TROOPS. Chap. V
to oppose a predatory invasion of the French in 1 444, though
they might have retreated without loss, determined rather
to perish on the spot, and fell amidst a iar greater heap of
the hostile slain. At the famous battle of Sempach in 1385,
the last which Austria presumed to try against the forest
cantons, the enemy's knights, dismounted from their horses,
presented an impregnable barrier of lances, which discon-
certed the Swiss ; till Winkelried, a gentleman of Underwald,
commending his wife and children to his countrymen, threw
himself upon the opposite ranks, and, collecting as many
lances as he could grasp, forced a passage for his followers
by burying them in his bosom.
The burghers and peasants of Switzerland, ill provided
with cavalry, and better able to dispense Avith it than the
natives of champaign countries, may be deemed the principal
restorers of the Greek and Roman tactics, which place the
strength of armies in a steady mass of infantry. Besides
their splendid victories over the dukes of Austria and their
own neighboring nobility, they had repulsed, in the year
1375, one of those predatory bodies of troops, the scourge of
Europe in that age, and to whose licentiousness kingdoms
and free states yielded alike a passive submission. They
gave the dauphin, afterwards Louis XL, who entered their
country in 1444 with a similar body of ruffians, called Ar-
magnacs, the disbanded mercenaries of the English war, suf-
ficient reason to desist from his invasion and to respect their
valor. That able prince formed, indeed, so high a notion of
the Swiss, that he sedulously Cultivated their alliance during
the rest of his life. He was made abundantly sensible of the
wisdom of this policy when he saw his greatest enemy, the
Duke of Burgundy, routed at Granson and Morat, and his af-
fairs irrecoverably ruined, by these hardy republicans. The
ensuing age is the most conspicuous, though not the most
essentially glorious, in the history of Switzerland. Courted
for the excellence of their troops by the rival sovereigns
of Europe, and themselves too sensible both to ambitious
schemes of dominion and to the thirst of money, the united
cantons came to play a very prominent part in the wars of
Lombardy, with great military renown, but not without some
impeachment of that sterling probity which had distinguished
their earlier efforts for independence. These events, how-
ever, do not fall within my limits ; but the last year of the
fifteenth century is a leading epoch, with which I shall close
this sketch. Though the house of Austria had ceased to
menace the liberties of Helvetia, and had even been for many
Germany. SWISS INDEPENDENCE. 301
years its ally, the Emperor Maximilian, aware of the impor-
tant service he might derive from the cantons in his projects
upon Italy, as well as of the disadvantage he sustained by
their partiality to French interest, endeavored to revive the
unexticguished supremacy of the empire. That supremacy
had just been restored in Germany by the establishment of
the Imperial Chamber, and of a regular pecuniary contribu-
tion for its support, as well as for other purposes, in the Diet
of Worms. The Helvetic cantons were summoned to yield
obedience to these imperial laws ; an innovation, for such the
revival of obsolete prerogatives must be considered, exceed-
ingly hostile to their republican independence, and involving
consequences not less material in their eyes, the abandon-
ment of a line of policy which tended to enrich, if not to ag-
grandize them. Their refusal to comply brought on a war,
wherein the Tyrolese subjects of Maximilian, and the Suabian
league, a confederacy of cities in that province lately formed
under the emperor's auspices, were principally engaged
against the Swiss. But the success of the latter was deci-
sive ; and after a terrible devastation of the frontiers of Ger-
many, peace was concluded upon terms very honorable for
Switzerland. The cantons were declared free from the juris-
diction of the Imperial Chamber, and from all contributions
imposed by the Diet. Their right to enter into foreign alli-
ance, even hostile to the empire, if it was not expressly rec-
ognized, continued unimpaired in practice ; nor am I aware
that they were at any time afterwards supposed to incur the
crime of rebellion by such proceedings. Though, perhaps,
in the strictest letter of public law, the Swiss cantons were
not absolutely released from their subjection to the empire
until the treaty of Westphalia, their real sovereignty must
be dated by an histoi*ian from the year when every preroga-
tive which a government can exercise was finally abandoned
302 COMMENCEMENT OF MODERN HISTORY. Chap VI.
CHAPTER VL
HISTORY OF THE GREEKS AND SARACENS.
5 1. Rise ol. Mohammedism. § 2. Progress of Saracen Arms. § 3. Greek Empire.
Decline of the Caliphs. § 4. The Greelis recover Part of their Losses. § 5. The
Turks. § 6. The Crusades. Capture of Constantinople by the Latins. Its Recov-
ery by the Greeks. § T. The Moguls. The Ottomans. Tiraur. § 8. Capture of
Constantinople by Mohammed II. § 9. Alarm of Europe.
§ 1. The difficulty which occurs to us in endeavoring to
fix a natural commencement of modern history even in the
Western countries of Europe is much enhanced when we di-
rect our attention to the Eastern Empire. But the appear-
ance of Mohammed, and the conquests of his disciples, pre-
sent an epoch in the history of Asia still more important and
more definite than the subversion of the Roman Empire in
Europe ; and hence the boundary line between the ancient
and modern divisions of Byzantine history will intersect the
reign of Heraclius. That prince may be said to have stood
on the verge of both hemispheres of time, whose youth was
crowned with the last victories over the successors of Ar-
taxerxes, and whose age was clouded by the first calamities
of Mohammedan invasion.^
The prevalence of Islam in the lifetime of its prophet, and
during the first ages of its existence, was chiefly owing to
the spirit of martial energy that he infused into it. The re-
ligion of Mohammed is as essentially a military system as the
institution of chivalry in the west of Europe. The people
of Arabia, a race of strong passions and sanguinary temper,
inured to habits of pillage and murder, found in the law of
their native prophet not a license, but a command, to deso-
late the world, and the promise of all that their glowing im-
aginations could anticipate of Paradise annexed to all in
which they most delighted upon earth. Death, slavery, trib-
ute, to unbelievers, were the glad tidings of the Arabian
prophet. To the idolaters, indeed, or those who acknowl-
edged no special revelation, one alternative only was pro-
posed, conversion or the sword. The people of the Book, as
they are termed in the Koran, or four sects of Christians, Jews,
Magians, and Sabians, were permitted to redeem their adher-
* For a fuller account of the events, briefly narrated in this chapter, see " Student's
<3ibbou," eh. xxvii., seq.
Greeks, Etc. STATE OF THE GREEK EMPIRE. 303
ence to their ancient law by the payment of tribute, and oth-
er marks of humiliation and servitude. But the limits which
Mohammedan intolerance had prescribed to itself were sel-
dom transojressed ; the word pledged to unbelievers was sel-
dom forfeited ; and with all their insolence and oppression,
the Moslem conquerors were mild and liberal in comparison
with those who obeyed the pontiffs of Rome or Constanti-
nople.
§ 2. At the death of Mohammed in 632 his temporal and
religious sovereignty embraced, and was limited by, the
Arabian peninsula. The Roman and Persian empires, en-
gaged in tedious and indecisive hostility upon the rivers of
Mesopotamia and the Armenian mountains, were viewed by
the ambitious fanatics of his creed as their quarry. In the
very first year of Mohammed's immediate successor, Abu-
beker, each of these mighty empires was invaded. The lat-
ter opposed but a short resistance. The crumbling fabric
of Eastern despotism is never secure against rapid and total
subversion ; a few victories, a few sieges, carried the Arabian
arms from the Tigris to the Oxus, and overthrew, Avith the
Sassanian dynasty, the ancient and famous religion they had
professed. Seven years of active and unceasing warfare suf-
ficed to subjugate the rich province of Syria, though defend-
ed by numerous armies and fortified cities (a.d. 632-639) ;
and the caliph Omar had scarcely returned thanks for the
accomplishment ^of this conquest, when Amrou, his lieuten-
ant, announced to him the entire reduction of Egypt. After
some interval the Saracens won their way along the coast
of Africa as far as the Pillars of Hercules, and a third prov-
ince was irretrievably torn from the Greek empire (a.d. 647-
698). These Western conquests introduced them to fresh
enemies, and ushered in more sj)lendid successes ; encouraged
by the disunion of the Visigoths, and perhaps invited by
treachery, Musa, the general of a master who sat beyond the
opposite extremity of the Mediterranean Sea, passed over
into Spain, and within about two years the name of Moham-
med was invoked under the Pyrenees (a.d. VlO).
§ 3. These conquests, which astonish the careless and su-
perficial, are less perplexing to a calm inquirer than their ces-
sation ; the loss of half the Roman Empire, than the pres-
ervation of the rest. The fame of Heraclius had withered
in the Syrian war ; and his successors appeared as incapable
to resist as they were unworthy to govern. But this de-
praved people Avere preserved from destruction by the vices
of their enemies, still more than by some intrinsic resources
304 CALIPHS OF BAGDAD. Chap. VI.
which they yet possessed. A rapid degeneracy enfeebled
the victorious Moslem in their career. That irresistible en-
thusiasm, that earnest and disinterested zeal of the compan-
ions of Mohammed, was in a great measure lost, even before
the first generation had passed away. In the fruitful val-
leys of Damascus and Bassora the Arabs of the desert forgot
their abstemious habits. Rich from the tributes of an en-
slaved people, the Mohammedan sovereigns knew no employ-
ment of riches but in sensual luxury, and paid the price of
voluptuous indulgence in the relaxation of their strength and
energy. Under the reign of Moawiah, the fifth caliph, an he-
reditary succession was substituted for the free choice of the
faithful, by which the first repi-esentatives of the prophet
had been elevated to power; and this regulation, necessary,
as it plainly was, to avert in some degree the dangers of
schism and civil war, exposed the kingdom to the certainty
of being often governed by feeble tyrants. But no regula-
tion could be more than a temporary presei'vative against
civil war. The dissensions which still separate and render
hostile the followers of Mohammed maybe traced to the first
events that ensued upon his death, to the rejection of his son-
in-law Ali by the electors of Medina. Two reigns, those of
Abubeker and Omar, passed in external glory and domestic
reverence; but the old age of Othman was weak and impru-
dent, and the conspirators against him established the first
among a hundred precedents of rebellion and regicide. Ali
was now chosen; but a strong faction disputed his right;
and the Saracen empire was, for many years, distracted with
civil w^ar, among competitors who appealed, in reality, to no
other decision than that of the sword. The fiimily of Oni-
miyah succeeded at last in establishing an unresisted, if not
an undoubted, title. But rebellions were perpetually after-
wards breaking out in that vast extent of dominion, till one
of these revolters acquired by success a better name than
rebel, and founded the dynasty of the Abbasides (a.d. 750).
Damascus had been the seat of empire under the Ommi-
ades; it was removed by the succeeding family to their new
city of Bagdad. There are not any names in the long line
of caliphs, after the companions of Mohammed, more re-
nowned in history than some of the earlier sovereigns who
reigned in this capital — Almansor, Haroun Alraschid, and
Almamtln. Their splendid palaces, their numerous guards,
their treasures of gold and silver, the populousness and
wealth of their cities, formed a striking contrast to the rude-
ness and poverty of the Western nations in the same age*
Greeks, Etc. DECLINE OF THE CALIPHS. 305
In tlieir court learning, which the first Moslem had despised
as unwarlike or rejected as profane, was held in honor. The
Caliph Almamtin especially was distinguished for his pat-
ronage of letters ; the philosophical writings of Greece were
eagerly sought and translated ; the stars were numbered,
the course of the planets was measured. The Arabians im-
proved upon the science they borrowed, and returned it with
abundant interest to Europe in the communication of nu-
meral figures and the intellectual language of algebra. Yet
the merit of the Abbasides has been exaggerated by adula-
tion or gratitude. After all the vague praises of hireling
poets, which have sometimes been repeated in Europe, it is
very rare to read the history of an Eastern sovereign un-
stained by atrocious crimes. No Christian government, ex-
cept perhaps that of Constantinople, exhibits such a series
of tyrants as the caliphs of Bagdad, if deeds of blood,
wrought through unbridled passion or jealous policy, may
challenge the name of tyranny.
Though the Abbasides have acquired more celebrity,
they never attained the real strength of their predecessors.
Under the last of the house of Ommiyah, one command was
obeyed almost along the whole diameter of the known world,
from the banks of the Sihon to the utmost promontory of
Portugal. But the revolution which changed the succession
of caliphs produced another not less important. A fugitive
of the vanquished family, by name Abdalrahman, arrived in
Spain ; and the Moslem of that country, not sharing in the
prejudices which had stirred up the Persians in favor of the
line of Abbas, and conscious that their remote situation en-
titled them to independence, proclaimed him Caliph of Cor-
dova. There could be little hope of reducing so distant a
dependency ; and the example was not unlikely to be imi-
tated. In the reign of Haroun Alraschid two principalities
were formed in Africa — of the Aglabites, who reigned over
Tunis and Tripoli ; and of the Edrisites, in the western pai-ts
of Barbary. These yielded in about a century to the Fati-
mites, a more powerful dynasty, who afterwards established
an empire in Egypt.
The loss, however, of Spain and Africa was the inevitable
effect of that immensely extended dominion, which their
separation alone would not have enfeebled. But other rev-
olutions awaited it at home. In the history of the Abbas-
ides of Bagdad we read over again the decline of European
monarchies, through their various symptoms of ruin ; and
find successive analosries to the insults of the barbarians to-
306 FATAL POLICY. Chap. VL
wards imj^erial Rome in the fifth century, to the personal
insignificance of the Merovingian kings, and to the feudal
usurpations that dismembered the inheritance of Charle-
magne. 1. Beyond the north-eastern frontier of the Saracen
empire dwelt a warlike and powerful nation of the Tartar
family, who defended the independence of Turkestan from
the Sea of Aral to the great central chains of mountains. In
the wars which the caliphs or their lieutenants waged against
them many of these Turks were led into captivity, and dis-
persed over the empire. Their strength and courage dis-
tinguished them among a people grown eifeminate by lux-
ury ; and that jealousy of disaffection among his subjects
so natural to an Eastern monarch might be an additional
motive with the Caliph Motassem to form bodies of guards
out of these prisoners. But his policy was fatally erroneous.
More rude and even more ferocious than the Arabs, they
contemned the feebleness of the caliphate, while they grasped
at its riches. The son of Motassem, Motawakkel, was mur-
dered in his palace by the barbarians of the North ; and his
fate revealed the secret of the empire, that the choice of its
sovereign had passed to their slaves. Degradation and death
were frequently the lot of succeeding caliphs; but in the
East the son leaps boldly on the' throne which the blood of
his father has stained, and the praetorian guards of Bagdad
rarely failed to render a fallacious obedience to the nearest
heir of the house of Abbas. 2. In about one hundred years
after the introduction of the Turkish soldiers the sovereigns
of Bagdad sunk almost into oblivion. Al Radi, who died in
940, was the last of these that officiated in the mosque, that
commanded the forces in person, that addressed the people
from the pulpit, that enjoyed the pomp and splendor of roy-
alty. But he was the first who appointed, instead of a viz-
ier, a new officer — a mayor, as it were, of the palace — with the
title of Emir al Omra, commander of commanders, to whom
he delegated by compulsion the functions of his office. This
title was usually seized by active and martial spirits ; it was
sometimes hereditary, and in effect irrevocable by the ca-
liphs, whose names hardly appear after this time in Oriental
annals. 3. During these revolutions of the palace every
province successively shook off its allegiance ; new principal-
ities were formed in Syria and Mesopotamia, as well as in
Khorassan and Persia, till the dominion of the Commander
of the Faithful was literally confined to the city of Bagdad
and its adjacent territory. For a time some of these princes,
who had been appointed as governors by the caliphs, pro*
Greeks. Etc. REVIVAL OF THE GREEK EMPIRE. 307
fessed to respect his supremacy by naming him in the public
prayers and upon the coin; but these tokens of dependence
were gradually obliterated.
§ 4. Such is the outline of Saracenic history for three cen-
turies after Mohammed ; one age of glorious conquest ; a
second of stationary, but rather precarious, greatness; a third
of rapid decline. The Greek empire meanwhile survived,
and almost recovered from the shock it had sustained. The
position of Constantinople, chosen with a sagacity to which
the course of events almost gave the appearance of pre-
science, secured her from any immediate danger on the side
of Asia, and rendered her as little accessible to an enemy as
any city which valor and patriotism did not protect. Yet in
the days of Arabian energy she was twice attacked by great
naval armaments. The first siege, or rather blockade, con-
tinued for seven years (a.d. 068-675) ; the second, though
shorter, was more terrible, and her walls, as well as her port,
were actually invested by the combined forces of the Caliph
Waled, under his brother Moslema (a.d. 716-718). The final
discomfiture of these assailants showed the resisting force of
the empire, or rather of its capital ; but perhaps the aban-
donment of such maritime enterprises by the Saracens may
be in some measure ascribed to the removal of their metrop-
olis from Damascus to Bagdad. But the Greeks in their
turn determined to dispute the command of the sea. By
possessing the secret of an inextinguishable fire, they fought
on superior terms: their wealth, perhaps their skill, enabled
them to employ larger and better appointed vessels ; and
they ultimately expelled their enemies from the islands of
Crete and Cyprus. By land they were less desirous of en-
countering the Moslem. But the increasing distractions of
the East encouraged two brave usurpers, Nicephorus Phocas
and John Zimisces, to attempt the actual recovery of the lost
provinces (a.d. 963-975). They carried the Roman arms (one
may use the terra with less reluctance than usual) over Syr-
ia ; Antioch and Aleppo were taken by storm ; Damascus
submitted ; even the cities of Mesopotamia, beyond the an-
cient boundary of the Euphrates, were added to the trophies
of Zimisces, who unwillingly spared the capital of the caliph-
ate. From such distant conquests it was expedient, and in-
deed necessary, to withdraw ; but Cilicia and Antioch were
permanently restored to the empire. At the close of the
tenth century the emperors of Constantinople possessed the
best and greatest portion of the modern kingdom of Naples,
a part of Sicily, the whole European dominions of the Otto-
308 REVIVAL OF THE GREEK EMPIRE. Chap. VL
mans, the province of Anatolia or Asia Minor, with some
part of Syria and Armenia.
§ 5. These successes of tlie Greek empire were certainly
much rather due to the weakness of its enemies than to any
revival of national courage and vigor; yet they would prob-
ably have been more durable if the contest had been only
with the caliphate, or the kingdoms derived from it. But
a new actor was to appear on the stage of Asiatic tragedy.
The same Turkish nation, the slaves and captives from which
had become arbiters of the sceptre of Bagdad, passed their
original limits of the laxartes or Sihon. The sultans of
Ghazna, a dynasty whose splendid conquests were of very
short duration, had deemed it politic to divide the strength
of these formidable allies by inviting a part of them into
Khorassan. They covered that fertile province with their
pastoral tents, and beckoned their compatriots to share the
riches of the South. The Ghaznevides fell the earliest vic-
tims (a.d. 1038); but Persia, violated in turn by every con-
queror, was a tempting and unresisting prey. Togrol Bek,
the founder of the Seljukian dynasty of Turks, overthrew the
family of Bowides, who had long reigned at Ispahan, respect-
ed the pageant of Mohammedan sovereignty in the Caliph
of Bagdad, embraced, with all his tribes, the religion of the
vanquished, and commenced the attack upon Christendom
by an irruption into Armenia (a.d. 1038-1063). His nephew
and successor. Alp Arslan, defeated and took prisoner the
Emperor Roman us Diogenes (a.d. 1071) ; and the conquest
of Asia Minor was almost completed by princes of the same
family, the Seljukians of Rt\m,'' who were permitted by Malek
Shah, the third sultan of the Turks, to form an independent
kingdom, of which Iconium was the capital. Through their
own exertions, and the selfish impolicy of rival competitors
for the throne of Constantinople, who bartered the strength
of the empire for assistance, the Turks became masters of the
Asiatic cities and fortified passes; nor did there seem any
obstacle to the invasion of Europe.
§ 6. In this state of jeopardy, the Greek empire looked
for aid to the nations of the West, and received it in fuller
measure than was expected, or perhaps desired. The deliv-
erance of Constantinople was, indeed, a very secondary object
with the crusaders. But it was necessarily included in their
scheme of operations, which, though they all tended to the
recovery of Jerusalem, must commence with the first ene-
mies that lay on their line of march. The Turks were entire
* EOim, i. e., country of the Eonians.
Greeks, Etc. CONQUESTS OF THE TURKS. 309
ly defeated, their capital of Nice restored to the empire. As
the Franks passed onward, the Emperor Alexius Comnenus
trod on their footsteps, and secured to himself the fruits for
which their enthusiasm disdained to wait. He regained pos-
session of the strong places on the ^gean shores, of the de-
files of Bithyhia, and of the entire coast of Asia Minor, both
on the Euxine and Mediterranean seas, which the Turkish
armies, composed of cavalry and unused to regular w^arfare,
could not recover. So much must undoubtedly be ascribed
to the first crusade. But I think that the general effect of
these expeditions has been overrated by those who consider
them as having permanently retarded the progress of the
Turkish power. The Christians in Palestine and Syria were
hardly in contact with the Seljukian kingdom of Rilm, the
only enemies of the empire. Other causes are adequate to
explain the equipoise in which the balance of dominion in
Aiiatolia was kept during the twelfth century ; the valor
and activity of the two Comneni, John and Manuel, especial-
ly the former ; and the frequent partitions and internal feuds,
through which the Seljukians of Iconium,like all other Orient-
al governments, became incapable of foreign aggression.
But whatever obligation might be due to the first cru-
saders from the Eastern Empire w^as cancelled by their de-
scendants one hundred years afterwards, when the fourth in
number of those expeditions was turned to the subjugation
of Constantinople itself One of those domestic revolutions
which occur perpetually in Byzantine history had placed an
usurper on the imperial throne. The lawful monarch was
condemned to blindness and a prison ; but the heir escaped
to recount his misfortunes to the fleet and army of crusaders
assembled in the Dalmatian port of Zara. This armament
had been collected for the usual purposes, and through the
usual motives, temporal and spiritual, of a crusade ; the mili-
tary force chiefly consisted of French nobles ; the naval was
supplied by the Republic of Venice, whose doge commanded
personally in the expedition. It was not, apparently, consist-
ent with the primary object of retrieving the Christian affairs
in Palestine to interfere in the government of a Christian
empire ; but the temptation of punishing a faithless people,
and the hope of assistance in their subsequent operations, pre-
vailed. They turned their prows up the Archipelago, and,
notwithstanding the vast population and defensible strength
of Constantinople, compelled the usurper to fly, and the citi-
zens to surrender. But animosities springing from religious
schism and national jealousy were not likely to be allayed
310 PARTITION OF THE EMPIRE. Chap. VI.
by such remedies ; the Greeks, wounded in their pride and
bigotry, regarded the legitimate emperor as a creature of
their enemies, ready to sacrifice their Church, a stipulated
condition of his restoration, to that of Rome. In a few
!* months a new sedition and conspiracy raised another usurp-
er in defiance of the crusaders' army encamped without the
walls. The siege instantly recommenced, and after three
months the city of Constantinople was taken by storm (a.d.
1204).
The lawful emperor and his son had perished in the re-
bellion that gave occasion to this catastrophe, and there re-
mained no right to interfere with that of conquest. But the
Latins were a promiscuous multitude, and what their inde-
pendent valor had earned was not to be transferred to a sin-
gle master. Though the name of emperor seemed necessary
for the government of Constantinople, the unity of despotic
power was very foreign to the principles and the interests of
the crusaders. In their selfish schemes of aggrandizement
they tore in pieces the Greek empire. One-fourth only was
allotted to the emperor, three-eighths were the share of the
Republic of Venice, and the remainder was divided among
the chiefs. Baldwin, count of Flanders, obtained the imperial
title, with the feudal sovereignty over the minor principali-
ties. A monarchy thus dismembered had little prospect of
honor or durability. The Latin emperors of Constantinople
were more contemptible and unfortunate, not so much from
personal character as political weakness, than their predeces-
sors; their vassals rebelled against sovereigns not more pow-
erful than themselves ; the Bulgarians, a nation who, after
being long formidable, had been subdued by the imperial
arms, and only recovered independence on the eve of the
Latin conquest, insulted their capital ; the Greeks viewed
them with silent hatred, and hailed the dawning deliverance
from the Asiatic coast. On that side of the Bosporus the
Latin usurpation was scarcely for a moment acknowledged;
Nice became the seat of a Greek dynasty, who reigned with
honor as far as the Maeander ; and, crossing into Europe,
after having established their dominion throughout Roma-
nia and other provinces, expelled the last Latin emperors
from Constantinople in less than sixty years from its capture
(a.d. 1261).
§ 7. During the reign of these Greeks at Nice they had
fortunately little to dread on the side of their former enemies,
and were generally on terms of friendship with the Selju-
kians of Iconium. That monarchy, indeed, had sufficient
Gkeeks, etc. invasion OF ASIA. 311
objects of aiDprehension for itself. Their own example in
changing the upland plains of Tartary for the cultivated val-
leys of the south was imitated in the thirteenth century by
two successive hordes of Northern barbarians. The Karis-
mians, whose tents had been pitched on the lower Oxus and
Caspian Sea, availed themselves of the decline of the Turkish
power to establish their dominion in Persia, and menaced,
though they did not overthrow, the kingdom of Iconium. A
more tremendous storm ensued in the irruption of Moguls
under the sons of Zingis Khan. From the farthest regions
of Chinese Tartary issued a race more fierce and destitute
of civilization than those who had preceded, whose numbers
were told by hundreds of thousands, and whose only test of
victory was devastation. All Asia, from the Sea of China to
the Euxine, wasted beneath the locusts of the North. They
annihilated the phantom of authority which still lingered
with the name of caliph at Bagdad. They reduced into de-
pendence, and finally subverted, the Seljukian dynasties of
Persia, Syria, and Iconium. The Turks of the latter king-
dom betook themselves to the mountainous country, where
they formed several petty principalities, which subsisted by
incursions into the territory of the Moguls or the Greeks.
The chief of one of these, named Othman, at the end of the
thirteenth century, penetrated into the province ofBithynia,
from which his posterity were never withdrawn.
The empire of Constantinople had never recovered the
blow it received at the hands of the Latins. Most of the
islands in the Archipelago, and the provinces of proper
Greece, from Thessaly southward, were still possessed by
those invaders. The wealth and naval power of the empire
had passed into the hands of the maritime republics ; Ven-
ice, Genoa, Pisa, and Barcelona were enriched by a commerce
which they earned on as independent states within the pre-
cincts of Constantinople, scarcely deigning to solicit the per-
mission or recognize the supremacy of its master. In a great
battle fought under the walls of the city, between the Vene-
tian and Genoese fleets, the weight of the Roman Empire, in
Gibbon's expression, was scarcely felt in the balance of these
opulent and powerful republics (a.d. 1352). Eight galleys
were the contribution of the Emperor Cantacuzene to his Ve-
netian allies ; and upon their defeat he submitted to the ig-
nominy of excluding them forever from trading in his do-
minions. Meantime the remains of the empire in Asia were
seized by the independent Turkish dynasties, of which the
most illustrious, that of the Ottomans, occupied the province
312 THE TARTARS OR MOGULS. Chap. VL
of Bithynia (a.d. 1431). Invited by a Byzantine faction into
Europe about the middle of the fourteenth century, they
fixed themselves in the neighborhood of the capital, and in
the thirty years' reign of Amurath I. subdued, with little
resistance, the province of Romania and the small Christian
kingdoms that had been formed on the lower Danube. Ba-
jazet, the successor of Amurath, reduced the independent
emirs of Anatolia to subjection, and, after long threatening
Constantinople, invested it by sea and land (a.d. 1396). The
Greeks called loudly upon their brethren of the West for aid
against the common enemy of Christendom ; but the flower
of French chivalry had been slain or taken in the battle of
Nicopolis, in Bulgaria, where the King of Hungary, notwith-
standing the heroism of these volunteers, was entirely de-
feated by Bajazet. The Emperor Manuel left his capital
with a faint hope of exciting the courts of Europe to some
decided efforts by personal representations of the danger;
and, during his absence, Constantinople was saved, not by a
friend indeed, but by a power more formidable to her ene-
mies than to herself
The loose masses of mankind, that, without laws, agricul-
ture, or fixed dwellings, overspread the vast central regions
of Asia, have, at various times, been impelled by necessity
of subsistence, or through the casual appearance of a com-
manding genius, upon the domain of culture and civilization.
Two principal roads connect the nations of Tartary with
those of the west and south ; the one into Europe, along the
Sea of Azoph and northern coast of the Euxine ; the other
across the interval between the Bukharian Mountains and
the Caspian into Persia. Four times at least within the pe-
riod of authentic history the Scythian tribes have taken the
former course, and poured themselves into Europe, but each
wave was less effectual than the preceding. The first of
these was in the fourth and fifth centuries, for we may range
those rapidly successive migrations of the Goths and Huns
together, when the Roman ^Empire fell to the ground, and
the only boundary of barbarian conquest was the Atlantic
Ocean upon the shores of Portugal. The second wave came
on with the Hungarians in the tenth century, whose rava-
ges extended as far as the southern provinces of France.
A third attack was sustained from the Moguls, under the
children of Zingis, at the same period as that which over-
whelmed Persia. The Russian monarchy was destroyed in
this invasion, and for two hundred years that great country
lay prostrate under the yoke of the Tartars. As they ad-
vanced, Poland and Hungary gave little opposition, and the
Greeks, Etc. DANGER OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 313
farthest nations of Europe were appalled by the tempest.
But Germany was no longer as she had been in the anarchy
of the tenth century ; the Moguls were unused to resistance,
and still less inclined to regular warfare ; they retired before
the Emperor Frederick II., and the utmost points of their
western invasion were the cities of Lignitz, in Silesia, and
Neustadt, in Austria (a.d. 1245). In the fourth and last ag-
gression of the Tartars their progress in Europe is hardly
perceptible ; the Moguls of Timur's army could only boast
the destruction of Azoph and the pillage of some Russian
provinces. Timur, the sovereign of these Moguls and found-
er of their second dynasty, which has been more permanent
and celebrated than that of Zingis, had been the prince of a
small tribe in Transoxiana, between the Gihon and Sirr, the
doubtful frontier of settled and pastoral nations. His own
energy and the weakness of his neighbors are sufficient to
explain the revolution he effected. Like former conquerors,
Togrol Bek and Zingis, he chose the road through Persia;
and, meeting little resistance from the disordered govern-
ments of Asia, extended his empire on one side to the Syrian
coast, while by successes still more renowned, though not
belonging to this place, it reached, on the other, to the heart
of Hindostan. In his old age the restlessness of ambition
impelled him against the Turks of Anatolia. Bajazet has-
tened from the siege of Constantinople to a more perilous
contest; his defeat and captivity in the plains of Angora
clouded for a time the Ottoman crescent, and preserved the
wreck of the Greek Empire for fifty years longer (a.d. 1402).
§ 8. The Moguls did not improve their victory ; in the
western parts of Asia, as in Hindostan, Timur was but a bar-
barian destroyer, though at Samarcand a sovereign and a
legislator. He gave up Anatolia to the sons of Bajazet ; but
the unity of their power was broken; and the Ottoman king-
dom, like those which had preceded, experienced the evils of
partition and mutual animosity. For about twenty years
an opportunity was given to the Greeks of recovering part
of their losses ; but they were incapable of making the best
use of this advantage, and when Amurath II. reunited under
his vigorous sceptre the Ottoman monarchy, Constantinople
was exposed to another siege and to fresh losses (a.d. 1421).
Her walls, however, repelled the enemy ; and during the
reign of Amurath she had leisure to repeat those signals of
distress which the princes of Christendom refused to observe.
Every province was in turn subdued — every city opened her
gates to the conqueror : the limbs were lopped off one by
14
314 ALARM IN EUROPE. Chap. VI.
one; but the pulse still beat at the heart, and the majesty
of the Roman name was ultimately confined to the walls of
Constantinople. Before Mohammed II. planted his cannon
against them, he had completed every smaller conquest and
deprived the expiring empire of every hope of succor or de-
lay. It was necessary that Constantinople should fall ; but
the magnanimous resignation of her emperor bestows an
honor upon her fall which her prosperity seldom earned.
The long deferred but inevitable moment arrived, and the
last of the Caesars (I will not say of the Palaeologi) folded
round him the imperial mantle, and remembered the name
which he represented in the dignity of heroic death (a.d.
1453). It is thus that the intellectual principle, when en-
feebled by disease or age, is found to rally its energies in the
presence of death, and pour the radiance of unclouded rea-
son around the last struggles of dissolution.
§ 9. Though the fate of Constantinople had been protract-
ed beyond all reasonable expectation, the actual intelligence
operated like that of sudden calamity. A sentiment of con-
sternation, perhaps of self-reproach, thrilled to the heart of
Christendom. There seemed no longer any thing to divert
the Ottoman armies from Hungary ; and if Hungary should
be subdued, it was evident that both Italy and the German
Empire were exposed to invasion. A general union of Chris-
tian powers was required to withstand this common enemy.
But the popes, who had so often armed them against each
other, wasted their spiritual and political counsels in attempt-
ing to restore unanimity. War was proclaimed against the
Turks at the Diet of Frankfort, in 1454 ; but no efforts were
made to carry the menace into execution. No prince could
have sat on the imperial throne more unfitted for the emer-
gency than Frederick III. ; his mean spirit and narrow ca-
pacity exposed him to the contempt of mankind — his ava-
rice and duplicity insured the hatred of Austria and Hunga-
ry. During the papacy of Pius II., whose heart was thor-
oughly engaged in this legitimate crusade, a more specious
attempt was made by convening a European congress at
Mantua. Almost all the sovereigns attended by their en-
voys : it was concluded that 50,000 men-at-arms should be
raised, and a tax levied for three years of one-tenth from the
revenues of the clergy, one-thirtieth from those of the laity,
and one-twentieth from the capital of the Jews (a.d. 1459).
Pius engaged to head this armament in person ; but when
he appeared next year at Ancona, the appointed place of
embarkation, the princes had failed in all their promises of
men and money, and he found only a headlong crowd of ad-
Greeks, Etc. OTTOMAN CONQUESTS SUSPENDED. 315
venturers, destitute of every necessary, and expecting to be
fed and paid at the pope's expense. It was not by such a
body that Mohammed could be expelled from Constantino-
ple. If the Christian sovereigns had given a steady and sin-
cere co-operation, the contest would still have been arduous
and uncertain. In the early crusades the superiority of arms,
of skill, and even of discipline, had been uniformly on the
side of Europe. But the present circumstances were far from
similar. An institution, begun by the first and perfected by
the second Amurath, had given to the Turkish armies what
their enemies still wanted, military subordination and vet-
eran experience. Aware, as it seems, of the real superiori-
ty of Europeans in war, these sultans selected the stoutest
youths from their Bulgarian, Servian, or Albanian captives,
who were educated in habits of martial discipline, and form-
ed into a regular force with the name of Janizaries. After
conquest had put an end to personal captivity, a tax of every
fifth male child was raised upon the Christian population for
the same purpose. The arm of Europe was thus turned upon
herself; and the Western nations must have contended with
troops of hereditary robustness and intrepidity whose emu-
lous enthusiasm for the country that had adopted them was
controlled by habitual obedience to their commanders.
Yet forty years after the fall of Constantinople, at the
epoch of Charles VIII.'s expedition into Italy, the just ap-
prehensions of European statesmen might have gradually
subsided. Except the Morea, Negropont, and a few other
unimportant conquests, no real progress had been made by
the Ottomans. Mohammed II. had been kept at bay by the
Hungarians; he had been repulsed with some ignominy by
the knights of St. John from the island of Rhodes. A petty
chieftain defied this mighty conqueror for twenty years in
the mountains of Epirus; and the persevering courage of his
desultory warfare with such trifling resources, and so little
prospect of ultimate success, may justify the exaggerated
admiration with which his contemporaries honored the name
of Scanderbeg. Once only the crescent was displayed on
the Calabrian coast ; but the city of Otranto remained but a
year in the possession of Mohammed (a.d. 1480). On his
death, a disputed succession involved his children in civil
war. Bajazet, the eldest, obtained the victory ; but his ri-
val brother, Zizim, fled to Rhodes, from whence he was re-
moved to France, and afterwards to Rome. Apprehensions
of this exiled prince seem to have dictated a pacific policy
to the reigning sultan, whose character did not possess the
usual energy of Ottoman sovereigns.
316
LIST OF POPES
Chap. VII. Part I.
CHAPTER YII.
HISTORY OF ECCLESIASTICAL POWER DURING THE MIDDLE
AGES.
PART I.
[. Wealth of the Clergy. Its Sources, § 2. Spoliation of Church Property. § 3.
Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction. Arbitrative. Coercive. § 4. Political Power of the
Church. § 5. Supremacy of the Crown. § 6. Charlemagne. § 7. Change after his
Death, and Encroachments of the Church in the Ninth Century. § 8. Primacy of
the See of Rome. Its early Stage. § 9. Gregory I. 5 10. Council of Frankfort.
§ 11. False Decretals. 5 12. Progress of Papal Authority. 5 13. Excommunica-
tion. § 14. Interdicts. § 15. State of the Church in the Tenth Century. § 16.
Marriage of Priests. § IT. Simony. Episcopal Elections. § 18. Imperial Author-
ity over the Popes. § 19. Disputes concerning Investitures. Gregory VII. and
Henry IV. Concordat of Calixtus. 5 20. Election by Chapters. § 21. General
System of Gregory VII. § 22. Progress of Papal Usurpations in the Twelfth Cen-
tury. § 23. Innocent III. His Character and Schemes.
LIST OF POPES DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
Year of
Accession
A.D.
795
Leo III.
816
Stephen IV.
817
Paschal I.
824
Eugenius II,
827
Valentinus.
827
Gregory IV.
844
Sergius II.
842
Leo IV.
856
Benedict IIL
858
Nicholas I.
867
Hadrian IL
872
John VIIL
882
Martin II.
884
Hadrian III.
885
Stephen V.
891
Formosus.
896
Boniface VI.
896
Stephen VI.
897
Roraanus.
898
Theodore II.
898
John IX.
900
Benedict IV.
903
LeoV.
903
Christopher.
904
Sergius IIL
912^)Anastasius III.
Year of
Accession
A.D.
913
Laudo.
914
John X.
928
Leo VI.
929
Stephen VII.
931
John XI.
936
LeoVn. *
939
Stephen VIIL
942 (?) Martin III.
946
Agapetus II.
955
John XII.
963
Leo VIIL
964
Benedict V. (Anti
-pope?)
965
John XIII.
972
Benedict VI.
974
Boniface VII. (?).
974
Domnus II. (?).
974
Benedict VII.
983
John XIV.
984
John XV.
996
Gregory V.
996
John XVI.
1000
Sylvester IL
1003
John XVII.
1003
John XVIII.
1009
Sergius IV.
1012
Benedict VIIL
EccLEs. Power. DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
317
Year of
Accessiou
A.D.
Year of
Accession
A.D.
1024
John XIX.
1261
Urban IV.
1033
Benedict IX.
1266
Clement IV.
1044
Sylvester (Anti-pope).
1269
Vacancy.
1045 (?) Gregory VI. |
1271
Gregory X.
1046
Clement II.
1276
Innocent V.
1048
Damasus II.
1276
Hadrian V.
1048
Leo IX.
1277
John XX. or XXL
1054
Victor II.
1277
Nicholas III.
1057
Stephen IX.
1281
Martin IV.
1058
Benedict X.
1285
Honorius IV.
1059
Nicholas II.
1289
Nicholas IV.
1061
Alexander II.
1294
Celestine V.
1073
Gregory VII. (Hildebrand).
1294
Boniface VIII.
1080
(Clement, Anti-pope).
1086
Victor III.
Popes at Avignon.
1087
1099
Urban II.
Paschal II.
1303
1305
Benedict XI.
Clement V.
1118
Gelasius II.
1316
John XXL or XXIL
1119
Calixtus IL
1334
Benedict XII.
(Gregory, Anti-pope).
1342
Clement VI.
1121
(Celestine, Anti-pope).
1352
Innocent VI.
1124
1130
1143
Honorius II.
Innocent II.
(Anacletus, Anti-pope).
Celestine II.
1362
1370
U^'ban V.
Return to Rome.
Gregory XL
1144
Lucius II.
The great Schism.
1145
Eugenius III.
1153
Anastasius IV.
1378
Urban VI., Clement VII
1154
Hadrian IV.
1389
Boniface IX.
1160
Alexander III.
1394
Benedict (Anti-pope).
1160
(Victor, Anti-pope).
1404
Innocent VII.
1164
(Paschal III., Anti-pope).
1406
Gregory XII.
1168
(Calixtus, Anti-pope).
1409
Alexander V.
1180
Lucius in.
1410
John XXIL or XXIIL
1185
Urban III.
1417
Martin V.
1187
Gregory VIII.
1431
Eugene IV.
1187
Clement III.
1455
Calixtus IV.
1191
Celestine III.
1458
Pius IL
1198
Innocent III.
1464
Paul II.
1216
Honorius III.
1471
Sixtus IV.
1227
Gregory IX.
1484
Innocent VIII.
1241
Celestine IV.
1493
Alexander VI.
1241
Vacancy.
1503
Pius III.
1243
Innocent IV.
1503
Julius IL
1255
Alexander IV.
1513
LeoX.
§ 1. At the irruption of the northern invaders into the
Roman Empire they found the clergy ah-eady endowed with
extensive possessions. Besides the spontaneous oblations
upon which the ministers of the Christian Church had orig-
inally subsisted, they had obtained, even under the pagan
emperors, by concealment or connivance — for the Roman law
318 WEALTH OF THE CHURCH. Chap. VII. Part 1.
did not permit a tenure of lands in mortmain — certain im-
movable estates, the revenues of which were applicable to
their own maintenance and that of the poor. These, indeed,
were precarious, and liable to confiscation in times of perse-
cution. But it was among the first efiects of the conversion
of Constantine to give not only a security, but a legal sanc-
tion, to the territorial acquisitions of the Church. The Edict
of Milan, in 313, recognizes the actual estates of ecclesiastic-
al corporations. Another, published in 321, grants to all the
subjects of the empire the power of bequeathing their prop-
erty to the Church. His own liberality and that of his suc-
cessors set an example which did not want imitators. Pass-
ing rapidly from a condition of distress and persecution to
the summit of prosperity, the Church degenerated as rapidly
from her ancient purity, and forfeited the I'espect of future
ages in the same proportion as she acquired the blind ven-
eration of her own. Covetousness, especially, became almost
a characteristic vice.
The devotion of the conquering nations, as it was still less
enlightened than that of the subjects of the empire, so was
it still more munificent. The ecclesiastical hierarchy never
received any territorial endowment by law, either under the
Roman Empire or the kingdoms erected upon its ruins. But
the voluntary munificence of princes, as well as their sub-
jects, amply supplied the place of a more universal provision.
Large private estates, or, as they were termed, patrimonies,
not only within their own dioceses, but sometimes in distant
countries, sustained the dignity of the principal sees, and es-
pecially that of Rome. But it must be remarked that many
of these donations are of lands uncultivated and unappro-
priated. The monasteries acquired legitimate riches by the
culture of these deserted tracts and by the prudent manage-
ment of their revenues, which were less exposed to the or-
dinary means of dissipation than those of the laity. If the
possessions of ecclesiastical communities had all been as fair-
ly earned, we could find nothing in them to reprehend. But
other sources of wealth were less pure, and they derived
their wealth from many sources. Those who entered into
a monastery threw frequently their whole estates into the
common stock ; and even the children of rich parents were
expected to make a donation of land on assuming the cowl.
Some gave their property to the Church before entering on
militaiy expeditions ; gifts were made by some to take efiect
after their lives, and bequests by many in the terrors of dis-
solution. Even those legacies to charitable purposes, which
EccLES. Power. ITS INCREASE. 319
the clergy could with more decency and epeciousness rec-
ommend, and of which the administration was generally con-
fined to them, were frequently applied to their own benefit.
They failed not, above all, to inculcate upon the wealthy sin-
ner that no atonement could be so acceptable to Heaven as
liberal presents to its earthly delegates. To die without al-
lotting a portion of worldly wealth to pious uses was account-
ed almost like suicide, or a refusal of the last sacraments ;
and hence intestacy passed for a sort of fraud upon the
Church, which she punished by taking the administration of
the deceased's effects into her own hands. This, however,
was peculiar to England, and seems to have been the case
there only from the reign of Henry IH. to that of Edward
HI., when the bishop took a portion of the intestate's person-
al estate for the advantage of the Church and poor, instead
of distributing it among his next of kin. The canonical pen-
ances imposed upon repentant offenders, extravagantly se-
vere in themselves, were commuted for money or for immov-
able possessions — a fertile though scandalous source of mo-
nastic wealth, which the popes afterwards diverted into their
own coffers by the usage of dispensations and indulgences.
The Church lands enjoyed an immunity from taxes, though
not m general from military service, when of a feudal ten-
ure.' But their tenure was frequently in what was called
frankalmoigne, without any obligation of service. Hence it
became a customary fraud of lay proprietors to grant estates
to the Church, which they received again by way of fief or
lease, exempted from public burdens.
As an additional source of revenue, and in imitation of
the Jewish law, the payment of tithes was recommended or
enjoined. These, however, were not applicable at first to
the maintenance of a resident clergy. Parochial divisions,
as they now exist, did not take place, at least in some coun-
tries, till several centuries after the establishment of Chris-
tianity. The rural churches, erected successively as the ne-
cessities of a congregation required or the piety of a land-
lord suggested, were in fact a sort of chapels dependent on
the cathedral, and served by itinerant ministers at the bish-
op's discretion. The bishop himself received the tithes, and
apportioned them as he thought fit. A capitulary of Charle-
magne, however, regulates their division into three parts :
> Palgrave has shown that the Anglo-Saxon clergy were not exempt, originally at
least, from the trinoda necessitas imposed on all allodial proprietors. They were bet-
ter treated on the Continent ; and Boniface exclaims that in no part of the world
waa such servitude imposed on the Church as among the English.
320 TITHES. Chap. VII. Paut I.
one for the bishop and his clergy, a second for the poor, and
a third for the support of the fabric of the Church. Some
of the rural churches obtained by episcopal concessions the
privileges of baptism and burial, which were accompanied
with a fixed share of tithes, and seemed to imply the resi-
dence of a minister. The same privileges were gradually
extended to the rest; and thus a complete parochial divis-
ion was finally established. But this was hardly the case
in England till near the time of the Conquest.^ About the
year 1200, the obligation of paying tithes, which had been
originally confined to those called predial, or the fruits of
the earth, was extended, at least in theory, to every species
of profit, and to the wages of every kind of labor.
§ 2. Yet there were many hindrances that thwarted the
clergy in their acquisition of opulence, and a sort of reflux
that set sometimes very strongly against them. In times
of barbarous violence nothing can thoroughly compensate
for the inferiority of physical strength and prowess. The
ecclesiastical history of the Middle Ages presents one long
contention of fraud against robbery ; of acquisitions made
by the Church through such means as I have described, and
torn from her by lawless power. Notwithstanding the fre-
quent instances of extreme reverence for religious institu-
tions among the nobility, we should be deceived in suppos-
ing this to be their general character. Rapacity, not less
insatiable than that of the abbots, was commonly united
with a daring fierceness that the abbots could not resist.^
2 The grant of Ethelwolf m 855 has appeared to some antiquaries the most proba-
ble origin of the general right to tithes in England. This grant is recorded in two
charters ; the first transcribed in Ingulfus's " History of Crojiand," and dated at
Winchester on the Nones of November, 855; the second extant in two chartularies,
and bearing date at Wilton, April 22, 854. But the latter is marked by Mr. Kemble
as spurious (Codex Ang.-Sax. Diplom., ii., 52) ; and the work of Ingulfus is also re-
garded as spurious. The fact, however, that Ethelwolf made some great and gen-
eral donation to the Church rests on the authority of Asser, whom later writers have
principally copied. His words are, " Eodem quoque anno (855) Adelwolfus venera-
bilis, rex Occideutalium Saxonum, decimam totius regni sui partem ab omni regali
servitio et tributo liberavit, et in serapiterno graflo in cruce Christi, pro redemptionc
animae suae et antecessorum suorura, Uni et Trino Deo immolavit." (Gale, XV.,
Script, iii., 156.) It is really difficult to infer any thing from such a passage ; but
whatever the writer may have meant, or whatever truth there may be in his story, it
seems impossible to strain his words into a grant of tithes.
8 The Church was often compelled to grant leases of her lauds, under the name of
precarioe, to laymen who probably rendered little or no service in return, though a
rent or census was expressed in the instrument. These precarice seem to have been
for life, but Avere frequently renewed. They are not to be confounded with terrce
censuales, or lands let to a tenant at rack-rent, which of course formed a considerable
branch of revenue. The grant was called j)recaria from being obtained at the prayer
of the grantee ; and the uncertainty of its renewal seems to have given rise to the
adjective precarious. In the ninth century, though the pretensions of the bishops
were never higher, the Church itself was more pillaged under pretext of these pre-
carioe, and in other ways, than at any former time.
EccLES. Power. ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. 321
In every country we find continual lamentation over the
plunder of ecclesiastical possessions. The parochial tithes,
especially, as the hand of robbery falls heaviest upon the
weak, were exposed to unlawful seizure. In the tenth and
eleventh centuries nothing was more common than to see
the revenues of benefices in the hands of lay impropriators,
who employed curates at the cheapest rate, an abuse that
has never ceased in the Church. Both the bishops and con-
■vents were obliged to invest powerful lay protectors, under
the name of advocates, with considerable fiefs, as the price
of their assistance against depredators. But these advo-
cates became too often themselves the spoilers, and op-
pressed the helpless ecclesiastics for whose defense they had
been engaged. If it had not been for these drawbacks, the
clergy must, one would imagine, have almost acquired the
exclusive property of the soil. They did enjoy, according
to some authorities, nearly one half of England, and, I be-
lieve, a greater proportion in some countries of Europe.
They had reached, perhaps, their zenith in respect of terri-
torial property about the conclusion of the twelfth century.*
After that time the disposition to enrich the clergy by pious
donations grew more languid, and was put under certain le-
gal restraints, to which I shall hereafter advert ; but they
became rather more secure from forcible usurpations.
§ 3. The acquisitions of wealth by the Church were hard-
ly so remarkable, and scarcely contributed so much to her
greatness, as those innovations upon the ordinary course
of justice which fall under the head of ecclesiastical juris-
diction and immunity. Episcopal jurisdiction, properly so
called, may be considered as depending upon the choice of
litigant parties, upon their condition, and upon the subject-
matter of their differences.
1. Arhitrative Authority. — The arbitrative authority of
ecclesiastical pastors, if not coeval with Christianity, grew
up very early in the Church, and was natural, or even neces-
sary, to an insulated and persecuted society.^ Accustomed
to feel a strong aversion to the imperial tribunals, and even
to consider a recurrence to them as hardly consistent with
their profession, the early Christians retained somewhat of a
similar prejudice, even after the establishment of their re-
ligion. The arbitration of their bishops still seemed a less
objectionable mode of settling differences. And this arbi-
trative jurisdiction was powerfully supported by a law of
* The great age of monasteries in England was the reigns of Henry I., Stephen,
and Henry II. * See 1 Corinth, vi., 4.
14*
322 ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. Ciiaf. VII. Part 1
Constantine, which directed the civil magistrate to enforce
the execution of episcopal awards. But the Church had no
jurisdiction in questions of a temporal nature, except by
means of the joint reference of contending parties.
2. Coercive Authority. — If it was considered almost as a
general obligation upon the primitive Christians to decide
their civil disjjutes by internal arbitration, much more would
this be incumbent upon the clergy. The canons of several
councils, in the fourth and fifth centuries, sentence a bishop
or priest to deposition who should bring any suit, civil or
even criminal, before a secular magistrate. This must, it
should appear, be confined to causes where the defendant
was a clerk; since the ecclesiastical court had hitherto no
coercive jurisdiction over the laity. But the early Merovin-
gian kings adopted the exclusive jurisdiction of the bishop
over causes wherein clerks were interested, without any of
the checks which Justinian had provided. Many laws enact-
ed during their reigns, and under Charlemagne, strictly pro-
hibit the temporal magistrates from entertaining complaints
against the children of the Church.
This jurisdiction over the civil causes of clerks was not im-
mediately attended with an equally exclusive cognizance of
criminal offenses imputed to them, wherein the state is so
deeply interested, and the Church could inflict so inadequate
a punishment. Justinian appears to have reserved such of-
fenses for trial before the imperial magistrate, though with a
material provision that the sentence against a clerk should
not be executed w^ithout the consent of the bishop or the
final decision of the emperor. The bishop is not expressly
invested with this controlling power by the laws of the
Merovingians ; but they enact that he must be present at the
trial of one of his clerks; Avhich probably was intended to
declare the necessity of his concurrence in the judgment.
The episcopal order was, indeed, absolutely exempted from
secular jurisdiction by Justinian ; a privilege which it had
vainly endeavored to establish under the earlier emperors.
France permitted the same immunity ; Chilperic, one of the
most arbitrary of her kings, did not venture to charge some
of his bishops with treason, except before a council of their
brethren. Finally, Charlemagne seems to have extended to
the whole body of the clergy an absolute exemption from the
judicial authority of the magistrate.
3. The character of a cause, as w^ell as of the parties en-
gaged, might bring it within the limits of ecclesiastical juris-
diction. In all questions simply religious the Church had
EccLES. FowER. POLITICAL POWER OF CLERGY. 323
an original right of decision ; in those of a temporal nature
the civil magistrate had, by the imperial constitution, as ex-
clusive an authority. Later ages witnessed strange innova-
tions in this respect, when the spiritual courts usurped, under
sophistical pretenses, almost the whole administration of jus-
tice. But these encroachments were not, I apprehend, very
striking till the twelfth century ; and as about the same
time measures, more or less vigorous and successful, began to
be adopted in order to restrain them, I shall defer this part
of the subject for the present.
§ 4. In this sketch of the riches and jurisdiction of the
hierarchy, I may seem to have implied their political influ-
ence, which is naturally connected with the two former.
They possessed, however, more direct means of acquiring
temporal power. Even under the Roman emperors they had
found their roads into palaces ; but they assumed a far more
decided influence over the new kingdoms of the West. They
were entitled, in the first place, by the nature of those free
governments, to a privilege unknown under the imperial
despotism, that of assisting in the deliberative assemblies of
the nation. Councils of bishops, such as had been convoked
by Constantine and his successors, were limited in their func-
tions to decisions of faith or canons of ecclesiastical disci-
pline. But the Northern nations did not so well preserve the
distinction between secular and spiritual legislation. The
laity seldom, perhaps, gave their suffrage to the canons of the
Church; but the Church was not so scrupulous as to tres-
passing upon the province of the laity. Many provisions are
found in the canons of national and even provincial councils
which relate to the temporal constitution of the state. Thus
one held at Calcluith (an unknown place in England), in 787,
enacted that none but legitimate princes should be raised to
the throne, and not such -as were engendered in adultery or
incest. But it is to be observed that, although this synod
was strictly ecclesiastical, being summoned by the pope's
legate, yet the kings of Mercia and Northumberland, with
many of their nobles, confirmed the canons by their signa-
ture.
The bishops acquired and retained a great part of their
ascendency by a very respectable instrument of power — in-
tellectual superiority. As they alone were acquainted with
the art of writing, they were naturally intrusted with polit-
ical correspondence, and with the framing of the laws. As
they alone knew the elements of a few sciences, the educa-
tion of royal families devolved upon them as a necessary
824 SUPEEMACY OF THE STATE. Chap. VII. Part i.
duty. In the fall of Rome, their influence upon the barba-
rians wore down the asperities of conquest, and saved the
provincials half the shock of that tremendous revolution.
As captive Greece is said to have subdued her Roman con-
queror, so Rome, in her own turn of servitude, cast the fetters
of a moral captivity upon the fierce invaders of the North.
Chiefly through the exertions of the bishops, whose ambition
may be forgiven for its efiects, her religion, her language, in
part even her laws, were transplanted into the courts of
Paris and Toledo, which became a degree less barbarous by
imitation.
§ 5. Notwithstanding, however, the great authority and
privileges of the Church, it was decidedly subject to the su-
premacy of the crown, both during the continuance of the
VYestern Empire and after its subversion. The emperors
convoked, regulated, and dissolved universal councils ; the
kings of France and Spain exercised the same right over the
synods of their national churches. The Ostrogoth kings of
Italy fixed by their edicts the limits within which matri-
mony was prohibited on account of consanguinity, and
granted dispensations from them. Though the Roman em-
perors left episcopal elections to the clergy and people of the
diocese, in which they were followed by the Ostrogoths and
Lombards, yet they often interfered so far as so confirm a
decision or to determine a contest. The kings of France
went farther, and seem to have invariably either nominated
the bishops, or, what was nearly tantamount, recommended
their own candidate to the electors.
§ 6. But the sovereign who maintained with the greatest
vigor his ecclesiastical supremacy was Charlemagne. Most
of the capitularies of his reign relate to the discipline of the
Church ; principally, indeed, taken from the ancient canons,
but not the less receiving an adcfetional sanction from his
authority. Some of his regulations, which appear to have
been original, are such as men of High-church principles
would, even in modern times, deem infringements of spir-
itual independence; that no legend of doubtful authority
should be read in the churches, but only the canonical books,
and that no saint should be honored whom the whole Church
did not acknowledge. These were not passed in a synod of
bishops, but enjoined by the sole authority of the emperor,
who seems to have arrogated a legislative power over the
Church which he did not possess in temporal aflfairs. Many
of his other laws relating to the ecclesiastical constitution
are enacted in a general council of the lay nobility as well as
EcCLES. Power. PRETENSIONS OF THE HIERARCHY. 325
of prelates, and are so blended with those of a secular nature,
that the two orders may apjjear to have equally consented to
the whole. His father Pepin, indeed, left a remarkable prec-
edent in a council held in 744, where the Nicene faith is de-
clared to be established, and even a particular heresy con-
demned, with the consent of the bishops and nobles. But
whatever share we may imagine the laity in general to have
had in such matters, Charlemagne himself did not consider
even theological decisions as beyond his province; and, in
more than one instance, manifested a determination not to
surrender his own judgment, even in questions of that na-
ture, to any ecclesiastical authority.
§ 7. It is highly probable, indeed, that an ambitious hie-
rarchy did not endure without reluctance this imperial su-
premacy of Charlemagne, though it was not expedient for
them to resist a prince so formidable, and from whom they
had so much to ejcpect. But their dissatisfaction at a scheme
of government incompatible with their own objects of per-
fect independence produced a violent recoil under Louis the
Debonair, who attempted to act the censor of ecclesiastical
abuses with as much earnestness as his father, though with
very inferior qualifications for so delicate an undertaking.
The bishops, accordingly, were among the chief instigators
of those numerous revolts of his children which harassed
this emperor. They set, upon one occasion, the first exam-
ple of an usurpation which was to become very dangerous
to society — the deposition of sovereigns by ecclesiastical au-
thority. Louis, a prisoner in the hands of his enemies, had
been intimidated enough to undergo a public penance; and
the bishops pretended that, according to a canon of the
Church, he Avas incapable of returning afterwards to a secu-
lar life or preserving the character of sovereignty. Circum-
stances enabled him to retain the empire in defiance of this
sentence; but the Church had tasted the pleasure of tram-
pling upon crowned heads, and was eager to repeat the ex-
periment. Under the disjointed and feeble administration
of his posterity in their several kingdoms, the bishops availed
themselves of more than one opportunity to exalt their tem-
poral power. Those weak Carlovingian princes, in their mu-
tual animosities, encouraged the pretensions of a common
enemy. Thus Charles the Bald and Louis of Bavaria, hav-
ing driven their brother Lothaire from his dominions, held
an assembly of some bishops, who adjudged him unworthy
to reign, and, after exacting a promise from the two allied
brothers to govern better than he had done, permitted and
S26 ENCROACHMENTS OF THE CHURCH. Cii. VII. Tt. I.
commanded them to divide his territories. After concurring
in this unprecedented encroachment, Charles the Bald had lit-
tle right to complain when, some years afterwards, an assem-
bly of bishops declared himself to have forfeited his crown,
released his subjects from their allegiance, and transferred his
kingdom to Louis of Bavaria. But, in truth, he did not pre-
tend to deny the principle which he had contributed to main-
tain. Even in his own behalf he did not appeal to the rights
of sovereigns, and of the nation whom they represent. "No
one," says this degenerate grandson of Charlemagne, "ought
to have degraded me from the throne to which I was con-
secrated, until at least I had been heard and judged by the
bishops, through whose ministry I was consecrated, who are
called the thrones of God, in which God sitteth, and by
whom he dispenses his judgments; to whose paternal chas-
tisement I was willing to submit, and do still submit myself."
These passages are very remarkable, and afford a decisive
proof that the power obtained by national churches, through
the superstitious prejudices then received, and a train of fa-
vorable circumstances, was as dangerous to civil govern-
ment as the subsequent usurpations of the Roman pontiff,
against which Protestant writers are apt too exclusively to
direct their animadversions. Voltaire, I think, has remarked
that the ninth century was the age of the bishops, as the
eleventh and twelfth ware of the popes. It seemed as if
Europe was about to pass under as absolute a domination of
the hierarchy as had been exercised by the priesthood of an-
cient Egypt or the Druids of Gaul. Thus the Bishop of
Winchester, presiding as papal legate at an assembly of the
clergy in 1141, during the civil war of Stephen and Matilda,
asserted the right of electing a king of England to appertain
principally to that order ; and by virtue of this unprecedent-
ed claim, raised Matilda to the throne. England, indeed, has
been obsequious, beyond most other countries, to the arro-
gance of her hierarchy, especially during the Anglo-Saxon pe-
riod, when the nation was sunk in ignorance and effeminate
superstition. Every one knows the story of King Edwy in
some form or other, though I believe it impossible to ascer-
tain the real circumstances of that controverted anecdote.
But, upon the supposition least favorable to the king, the be-
havior of Archbishop Odo and Dunstan was an intolerable
outrage of spiritual tyranny.^
« Catholic writers, for the most part, contend that Elgiva was the mistress and not
the wife of Edwy; but it is impossible with the extant evidence to arrive at any cer-
tain conclasion upon the subject. What is manifest alone is, that a young king was
persecuted and dethroned by the insolence of monkery exciting a superstitious peo-
ple against him.
EccLES. Power. RISE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 327
§ 8. But, while the prelates of these nations, each within
his respective sphere, were prosecuting their system of en-
croachment upon the laity, a new scheme was secretly form-
ing within the bosom of the Church, to inthrall both that and
the temporal governments of the world under an ecclesias-
tical monarch. Long before the earliest epoch that can be
fixed for modern history, and, indeed, to speak fairly, almost
as far back as ecclesiastical testimonies can carry us, the
bishops of Rome had been venerated as first in rank among
the rulers of the Church. The nature of this primacy is
doubtless a very controverted subject. It is, however, re-
duced by some moderate Catholics to little more than a prec-
edency attached to the See of Rome in consequence of its
foundation by the chief of the apostles, as well as the dignity
of the imperial city. A sort of general superintendence was
admitted as an attribute of this primacy, so that the bishops
of Rome were entitled, and indeed bound, to remonstrate,
when any error or irregularity came to their knowledge, es-
pecially in the Western churches, a greater part of which
had been planted by them, and were connected, as it were by
filiation, wath the common capital of the Roman Empire and
of Christendom. Various causes had a tendency to prevent
the bishops of Rome from augmenting their authority in the
East, and even to diminish that which they had occasionally
exercised ; the institution of patriarchs at Antioch, Alexan-
dria, and afterwards at Constantinople, with extensive rights
of jurisdiction; the difference of rituals and discipline; but,
above all, the many disgusts taken by the Greeks, which ul-
timately produced an irreparable schism between the two
churches in the ninth century. But within the pale of the
Latin Church every succeeding age enhanced the power and
dignity of the Roman See. By the constitution of the
Church, such at least as it became in the fourth century, its
divisions being arranged in conformity to those of the Empire,
every province ought to have its metropolitan, and every
vicariate its ecclesiastical exarch or primate. The Bishop
of Rome presided, in the latter capacity, over the Roman
vicariate, comprehending Southern Italy, and the three chief
Mediterranean islands. But as it happened, none of the ten
provinces forming this division had any metropolitan; so
that the popes exercised all metropolitical functions within
them, such 'as the consecration of bishops, the convocation
of synods, the ultimate decision of appeals, and many other
sorts of authority. These provinces are sometimes called the
Roman patriarchate, the bishops of Rome having always
328 , GREGORY I. Chap. VII. 1»art I.
been reckoned one, generally indeed the first, of the patri-
archs ; each of whom was at the head of all the metropoli-
tans within its limits, but without exercising those privileges
which by the ecclesiastical constitution appertained to the
latter. Though the Roman patriarchate, properly so called,
was comparatively very small in extent, it gave its chief, for
the reason mentioned, advantages in point of authority which
the others did not possess.
I may perhaps appear to have noticed circumstances inter-
esting only to ecclesiastical scholars. But it is important to
apprehend this distinction of the patriarchate from the pri-
macy of Rome, because it was by extending the boundaries
of the former, and by applying the maxims of her admin-
istration in the south of Italy to all the Western churches,
that she accomplished the first object of her scheme of usur-
pation, in subverting the provincial system of government
under the metropolitans. Their first encroachment of this
kind was in the province of Illyricum, which they annexed
in a manner to their own patriarchate, by not permitting
any bishops to be consecrated without their consent.'' This
was before the end of the fourth century. Their subsequent
advances were, however, very gradual. About the middle of
the sixth century we find them confirming the elections of
archbishops of Milan. They came by degrees to exercise,
though not always successfully, and seldom without opposi-
tion, an appellant jurisdiction over the causes of bishops de-
posed or censured in provincial synods. But, upon the whole,
the papal authority had made no decisive progress in France,
or perhaps anywhere beyond Italy, till the pontificate of
Gregory I. (a.d. 590-604).
§ 9. This celebrated person was not distinguished by learn-
ing, which he affected to depreciate, nor by his literary per-
formances, which the best critics consider as below medioc-
rity, but by qualities more necessary for his purpose, intrepid
ambition and unceasing activity. He maintained a perpet-
ual correspondence with the emperors and their ministers,
with the sovereigns of the AVestern kingdoms, with all the
hierarchy of the Catholic Church — employing, as occasion
dictated, the language of devotion, arrogance, or adulation.
Claims hitherto disputed, or half preferred, assumed under
his hands a more definite forrA ; and nations too ignorant to
compare precedents or discriminate principles yielded to as-
sertions confidently made by the authority which they most
' The ecclesiastical province of Illyricum included Macedonia. Siricius, the authoi
of this encroachment, seems to have been one of the tirst usurpers.
EccLKS. Power. COUNCIL OF FRANKFORT. 329
respected. Gregory dwelt more than his predecessors upon
the power of the keys, exclusively, or at least principally,
committed to St. Peter, which had been supposed in earlier
times, as it is now by the Gallican Catholics, to be inherent
in the general body of bishops, joint sharers of one indivisi-
ble episcopacy. And thus the patriarchal rights, being man-
ifestly of mere ecclesiastical institution, were artfully con-
founded, or, as it were, merged, in the more paramount su-
premacy of the papal chair. From the time of Gregory the
popes appear in a great measure to have thrown away that
scaffolding, and relied in preference on the pious veneration
of the people, and on the opportunities which might occur for
enforcing their dominion with the pretense of divine authority.
§ 10. It can not, I think, be said that any material acquisi-
tions of ecclesiastical power were obtained by the successors
of Gregory for nearly 150 years. As none of them possessed
vigor and reputation equal to his own, it might even appear
that the papal influence was retrograde. But in eflect the
principles which supported it were taking deeper root, and
acquiring strength by occasional, though not very frequent,
exercise. Appeals to the pope were sometimes made by prel-
ates dissatisfied with a local sentence. National councils
were still provoked by princes, and canons enacted under
their authority by the bishops who attended. The Church
of France, and even that of England, planted as the latter
had been by Gregory, continued to preserve a tolerable meas-
ure of independence. The first striking infringement of this
was made through the influence of an Englishman, Winfrid,.
better known as St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany. Hav-
ing undertaken the conversion of Thuringia, and other still
heathen countries, he applied to the pope for a commission,
and was consecrated bishop without any determinate see.
Upon this occasion he took an oath of obedience, and be-
came ever afterwards a zealous upholder of the apostolical
chair. His success in the conversion of Germany was great,
his reputation eminent, which enabled him to effect a mate-
rial revolution in ecclesiastical government. At a synod of
the French and German bishops, held at Frankfort in 742
by Boniface as legate of Pope Zachary, it was enacted that,
as a token of their willing subjection to the See of Rome, all
metropolitans should request the pallium at the hands of the
pope, and obey his lawful commands. This was construed
by the popes to mean a promise of obedience before receiv-
ing the pall, which was changed in after times by Gregory
VH. into an oath of fealty.
330 FALSE DECRETALS. Chap. VII. Part L
§ 11. This Council of Frankfort claims a leading place as
an epoch in the history of the papacy. I shall but just glance
at the subsequent political revolutions of that period; the in-
vasion of Italy by Pepin, his donation of the exarchate to the
Holy See, the conquest of Lombardy by Charlemagne, the
patriarchate of Rome conferred upon both these princes, and
the revival of the Western Empire in the person of the lat-
ter. These events had a natural tendency to exalt the pa
pal supremacy, which it is needless to indicate. But a cir-
cumstance of a very different nature contributed to this in a
still greater degree. About the conclusion of the eighth cen-
tury there appeared, under the name of one Isidore, an un-
known person, a collection of ecclesiastical canons, now com-
monly denominated the False Decretals. These purported
to be rescripts or decrees of the early bishops of Rome ; and
their effect was to diminish the authority of metropolitans
over their suffragans, by establishing an appellant jurisdic-
tion of the Roman See in all causes, and by forbidding na-
tional councils to be holden without its consent. Every bish-
op, according to the decretals of Isidore, was amenable only
to the immediate tribunal of the pope ; by which one of the
most ancient rights of the provincial synod was abrogated.
Every accused person might not only appeal from an inferior
sentence, but remove an unfinished process before the supreme
pontiff. New sees were not to be erected, nor bishops trans-
lated from one see to another, nor their resignations accepted,
without the sanction of the pope. They were still, indeed, to
be consecrated by the metropolitan, bi)t in the pope's name.
It has been plausibly suspected that these decretals were
Torged by some bishop in jealousy or resentment ; and their
general reception may at least be partly ascribed to such sen-
timents. The archbishops were exceedingly powerful, and
might often abuse their superiority over inferior prelates ; but
the whole episcopal aristocracy had abundant reason to la-
ment their acquiescence in a system of which the metropol-
itans were but the earliest victims. Upon these spurious de-
cretals was built the great fabric of papal supremacy over
the different national churches — a fabric which has stood
after its foundation crumbled beneath it ; for no one has pre-
tended to deny, for the last two centuries, that the imposture
is too palpable for any but the most ignorant ages to credit.
§ 12. The Galilean Church made for some time a spirited
though unavailing struggle against this i-ising despotism.
In the reign of Charles the Bald a bold defender of ecclesi-
astical independence was found in Hincmar, archbishop of
EccLEs lowER. PAPAL ENCROACHMENTS. 331
Hheims, the most distinguished statesman of his age. Equal
in ambition, and almost in public estimation, to any pontiff,
he sometimes came off successfully in his contentions with
Rome. But time is fatal to the unanimity of coalitions ; the
French bishops were accessible to superstitious prejudice, to
corrupt influence, to mutual jealousy. Above all, they were
conscious that a persuasion of the pope's omnipotence had
taken hold of the laity. Though they complained loudly, and
invoked, like patriots of a dying state, names and principles
of a freedom that was no more, they submitted almost in
every instance to the continual usurpations of the Holy See.
One of those which most annoyed their aristocracy was the
concession to monasteries of exemption from episcopal au-
thority. These had been very uncommon till about the eighth
century, after which they were studiously multiplied. It was
naturally a favorite object with the abbots; and sovereigns, in
those ages of blind veneration for monastic establishments,
were pleased to see their own foundations rendered, as it would
seem, more respectable by privileges of independence. The
popes had a closer interest in granting exemptions, which at-
tached to them the regular clergy, and lowered the dignity
of the bishops. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries whole
orders of monks were declared exempt at a single stroke; and
the abuse began to awaken loud complaints, though it did
not fail to be aggravated afterwards.
§ 13. The principles of ecclesiastical supremacy were read-
ily applied by the popes to support still more insolent usur-
pations. Chiefs by divine commission of the whole Church,
every earthly sovereign must be subject to their interference.
The first instance where the Roman" pontiffs actually tried
the force of their arms against a sovereign was the excom-
munication of Lothaire, king of Lorraine, and grandson of
Louis the Debonair. This prince had repudiated his wife,
upon unjust pretexts, but with the approbation of a national
council, and had subsequently married his concubine. Nich-
olas I., the actual pope, dispatched two legates to investigate
this business, and decide according to the canons. They hold
a council at Metz, and confirm the divorce and marriage. En-
raged at this conduct of his ambassadors, the pope summons
a council at Rome, annuls the sentence, deposes the archbish-
ops of Treves and Cologne, and directs the king to discard
his mistress. After some shuffling on the part of Lothaire
he is excommunicated ; and in a short time we find both the
king and his prelates, who had begun with expressions of pas-
sionate contempt towards the pope, suing humbly for abso-
832 EXCOMMUNICATIONS. Chap. VII. Part I
lution at the feet of Adrian XL, successor of Nicholas, which
was not granted without difficulty.
Excommunication, whatever opinions may be entertained
as to its religious efficacy, was originally nothing more in
appearance than the exercise of a right which every society
claims, the expulsion of refractory members from its body.
No direct temporal disadvantages attended this penalty for
several ages ; but, as it was the most severe of spiritual cen-
sures, and tended to exclude the object of it not only from a
participation in religious rites, but in a considerable degree
from the intercourse of Christian society, it was used spar-
ingly and upon the gravest occasions. Gradually, as the
Church became more powerful and more imperious, excom-
munications were issued upon every provocation, rather as a
weapon of ecclesiastical warfare than with any regard to its
original intention. Princes who felt the inadequacy of their
own laws to secure obedience called in the assistance of more
formidable sanctions. Several capitularies of Charlemagne
denounce the penalty of excommunication against incendi-
aries or deserters from the army. Charles the Bald pro-
cured similar censures against his revolted vassals. Thus
the boundary between temporal and spiritual offenses grew
every day less distinct ; and the clergy were encouraged to
fresh encroachments as they discovered the secret of render-
ing them successful.
The civil magistrate ought, undoubtedly, to protect the
just rights and lawful jurisdiction of the Church. It is not
so evident that he should attach temporal penalties to her
censures. Excommunication has never carried such a pre-
sumption of moral turpitude as to disable a man, upon any
solid principles, from the usual privileges of society. Super-
stition and tyranny, however, decided otherwise. The sup-
port due to Church censures by temporal judges is vaguely
declared in the capitularies of Pepin and Charlemagne. It
became in later ages a more established principle in France
and England, and, I presume, in other countries. By our
common law, an excommunicated person is incapable of be-
ing a witness or of bringing an action, and he may be detain-
ed in prison until he obtains absolution. By the Establish-
ments of St. Louis, his estate or person might be attached
by the magistrate. These actual penalties were attended
by marks of abhorrence and ignominy still more calculated
to make an impression on ordinary minds. They were to be
shunned like men infected with leprosy, by their servants,
their friends, and their families. Two attendants only, if we
EccLES. fowER. INTERDICTS. 333
may trust a current history, remained with Robert, king
of France, who, on account of an irregular marriage, was
put to this ban by Gregory V., and these threw all the meats
which had passed his table into the fire. Indeed, the mere
intercourse with a prescribed person incurred what is called
the lesser excommunication, or privation of the sacraments,
and required penitence and absolution. In some places a bier
was set before the door of an excommunicated individual,
and stones thrown at his windows : a singular method of
compelling his submission ! Everywhere the excommunica-
ted w^ere debarred of a regular sepulture, which, though ob-
viously a matter of police, has, through the superstition of
consecrating burial-grounds, been treated as belonging to
ecclesiastical control.
§ 14. But as excommunication, which attacked only one,
and perhaps a hardened sinner, was not always efficacious,
the Church had recourse to a more comprehensive punish-
ment. For the offense of a nobleman she put a county, for
that of a prince his entire kingdom, under an Interdict or sus-
pension of religious offices. No stretch of her tyranny was,
perhaps, so outrageous as this. During an interdict the
churches were closed, the bells silent, the dead unburied, no
rite but those of baptism and extreme unction performed.
The penalty fell upon those who had neither partaken nor
could have prevented the offense ; and the offense w^as often
but a private dispute, in which the pride of a pope or bishop
had been w^ounded. Interdicts were so rare before the time
of Gregory VII., that some have referred them to him a«
their author; instances may, however, be found of an earlier
date, and especially that which accompanied the above-men-
tioned excommunication of Robert, king of France. They
were afterwards issued not unfrequently against kingdoms ;
but in particular districts they continually occurred.
This was the mainspring of the machinery that the clergy
set in motion, the lever by which they moved the w^orld.
From the moment that these interdicts and excommunica
tions had been tried the powers of the earth might be said
to have existed only by sufferance. Nor was the validity of
such denunciations supposed to depend upon their justice.
The imposer, indeed, of an unjust excommunication was guilty
of a sin ; but the party subjected to it had no remedy but
submission. The received theory of religion concerning the
indispensable obligation and mysterious efficacy of the rites
of communion and confession must have induced scrupulous
minds to make any temporal sacrifice rather than incur their
334 CORRUPTION OF MORALS. Chap. VH. Part 1.
privation. One is rather surprised at the instances of failure
than of success in the employment of these spiritual weapons
against sovereigns or the laity in general. It was, perhaps, a
fortunate circumstance for Europe that they were not intro-
duced upon a large scale during the darkest ages of super-
stition. In the eighth or ninth centuries they would proba-
bly have met with a more implicit obedience.
§ 15. So high did the popes carry their pretensions, that
John VIII. (a.d. 872-882) asserted very plainly a right of
choosing the emperor, and seems indirectly to have exercisei
it in the election of Charles the Bald, who had not primogen-
iture in his favor. This prince, whose restless ambition was
united with meanness as well as insincerity, consented to sign
a capitulation, on his coronation at Rome, in favor of the
pope and Church, a precedent which was improved upon in
subsequent ages. Rome was now prepared to rivet her fe^
ters upon sovereigns, and at no period have the condition
of society and the circumstances of civil government been so
favorable for her ambition. But the consummation was still
suspended, and even her progress arrested, for more than 150
years. This dreary interval is filled up, in the annals of the
papacy, by a series of revolutions and crim-es. Six popes
were deposed, two murdered, one mutilated. Frequently
two or even three competitors, among whom it is not always
possible by any genuine criticism to distinguish the true
shepherd, drove each other alternately from the city. A
few respectable names appear thinly scattered through this
darkness; and sometimes, perhaps, a pope who had acquired
estimation by his private virtues may be distinguished by
some encroachment on the rights of princes or the privileges
of national churches. But in general the pontiffs of that
age had neither leisure nor capacity to perfect the great
system of temporal supremacy, and looked rather to a vile
profit from the sale of episcopal confirmations, or of exemp-
tions to monasteries.
The corruption of the head extended naturally to all other
members of the Church. All writers concur in stigmatiz-
ing the dissoluteness and neglect of decency that prevailed
among the clergy. The bishops, indeed, who were to enforce
them had most occasion to dread their severity. They were
obtruded upon their sees, as the supreme pontiffs were upon
that of Rome, by force or corruption. A child of five years
old was made Archbishop of Rheinis. The See of Narbonne
was purchased for another at the age of ten. By this relax-
ation of morals the priesthood be^jan to lose its hold upon
EccLES. Tower. . CELIBACY. 335
the prejudices of mankind. These are nourished chiefly, in-
deed, by shining examples of piety and virtue, but also, in a
superstitious age, by ascetic observances, by the fasting and
watching of monks and hermits. The regular clergy accord-
ingly, or monastic orders, retained at all times a far greater
portion of respect than ordinary priests, though degenerated
themselves, as was admitted, from their primitive strict-
ness.
§ 16. Two crimes, or at least violations of ecclesiastical
law, had become almost universal in the eleventh century,
and excited general indignation — the marriage or concubin-
age of priests, and the sale of benefices. Celibacy had been,
from very early times, enjoined as an obligation upon the
clergy. It was perhaps permitted that those already mar-
ried for the first time and to a virgin, might receive ordina-
tion ; and this, after prevailing for a length of time in the
Greek Church, was sanctioned by the Council of Trullo, in
691,® and has ever since continued one of the distinguishing
features of its discipline. The Latin Church, however, did
not receive these canons, and has uniformly persevered in ex-
cluding the three orders of priests, deacons, and subdeacons,
not only from contracting matrimony, but from cohabiting
with wives espoused before their ordination. The prohi-
bition, however, during some ages existed only in the let-
ter of her canons. In every country the secular or pa-
rochial clergy kept women in their houses, upon more or less
acknowledged terms of intercourse, by a connivance of their
ecclesiastical superiors, which almost amounted to a positive
toleration. The sons of priests were capable of inheriting
by the law of France and also of Castile. Some vigorous ef-
forts had been made in England by Dunstan, with the assist-
ance of King Edgar, to dispossess the married canons, if not
the parochial clergy, of their benefices ; but the abuse, if such
it is to be considered, made incessant progress till the middle
of the eleventh century. There was certainly much reason
for the rulers of the Church to restore this part of their disci-
pline, since it is by cutting off her members from the chari-
ties of domestic life that she secures their entire aftection to
her cause, and renders them, like veteran soldiers, independ-
ent of every feeling but that of fidelity to their commander
and regard to the interests of their body. Leo IX. accoid-
« This council was held at Constantinople in the dome of the palace, called Trullns
by the Latins. The nominative Trullo, though solecistical, is used by ecclesiastica!
Writers in English. Bishops are not within this permission, and can not retain thcit
ivives by the discipline of the Greek Church.
336 SIMONY. , Chap. VII. Part X
ingly, one of the first pontiffs who retrieved the honor of the
aiiostolic chair, after its long period of ignominy, began in
good earnest the difficult work of enforcing celibacy among
the clergy. His successors never lost sight of this essen-
tial point of discipline. It was a struggle against the natu-
ral rights and strongest affectiorf^ of mankind, which lasted
for several ages, and succeeded only by the toleration of
greater evils than those it was intended to remove. The
laity, in general, took part against the married priests, who
were reduced to infamy and want, or obliged to renounce
their dearest connections. In many parts of Germany no
ministers were left to perform divine services. But perhaps
there was no eountry where the rules of celibacy met with
so little attention as in England. It was acknowledged in
the reign of Henry I. that the greater and better part of the
clergy were married, and that prince is said to have permit-
ted them to retain their wives.^ But the hierarchy never
relaxed in their efforts ; and all the councils, general or pro-
vincial, of the twelfth century, utter denunciations against
concuMnary priests. After that age we do not find them so
frequently mentioned ; and the abuse by degrees, though
not suppressed, was reduced within limits at which the
Church might connive.
§ 1 7. Simony, or the corrupt purchase of spiritual benefices,
was the second characteristic reproach of the clergy in the
eleventh century. The measures taken to repress it deserve
particular consideration, as they produced effects of the high-
est importance in the history of the Middle Ages. Accord-
ing to the primitive custom of the Church, an episcopal vacan-
cy was filled up by election of the clergy and people belonging
to the city or diocese. The subject of their choice was, after
the establishment of the federate or provincial system, to be
approved or rejected by the metropolitan and his suffrages ;
and, if approved, he was consecrated by them. It is proba-
ble that, in almost every case, the clergy took a leading part
in the selection of their bishops; but the consent of the laity
was absolutely necessary to render it valid. They were,
however, by degrees excluded from any real participation,
first in the Greek, and finally in the Western Church. But
this was not effected till pretty late times ; the people fully
preserved their elective rights at Milan in the eleventh cen-
9 Giraldus Cambreusis, about the end of Henry II. 's reign {a2md Wright's "Po-
litical Songs .of England," p. 353), mentions the marriage of the parochial clergy as
almost universal. They were called focarice, as living at the same hearth, on pre-
tense of service ; but the fellowship, we perceive, was not confined to the fireside.
EccLEs. Power. EPISCOPAL ELECTIONS. 337
tury, and traces of their concurrence may be found both In
France and Germany in the next age.
It does not appear that the early Christian emperors in-
terposed with the freedom of choice any further than to make
their own confirmation necessary in the great patriarchal
sees, such as Rome and Constantinople, which were frequent-
ly the objects of violent competition, and to decide in con-
troverted elections. The Gothic and Lombard kings of It-
aly followed the same line of conduct. But in the French
monarchy a more extensive authority was assumed by the
sovereign. Though the practice was subject to some varia-
tion, it may be said generally that the Merovingian kings,
the line of Charlemagne, and the German emperors of the
house of Saxony, conferred bishoprics either by direct nomi-
nation, or, as was more regular, by recommendatory letters
to the electors. In England, also, before the conquest, bish-
ops were appointed in the witenagemot ; and even in the
reign of William it is said that Lanfranc was raised to the
See of Canterbury by consent of Parliament. But, independ-
ently of this prerogative, which length of time and the tacit
sanction of the people have rendered unquestionably legiti-
mate, the sovereign had other means of controlling the elec-
tion of a bishop. Those estates and honors which compose
the temporalities of the see, and without which the naked
spiritual privileges would not have tempted an avaricious
generation, had chiefly been granted by former kings, and
were assimilated to lands held on a beneficiary tenure.
As they seemed to partake of the nature of fiefs, they re-
quired similar formalities — investiture by the lord, and an
oath of fealty by the tenant. Charlemagne is said to have
introduced this practice ; and, by way of visible symbol, as
usual in feudal institutions, to have put the ring and crosier
into the hands of the newly consecrated bishop. And this
continued for more than two centuries afterwards without
exciting any scandal or resistance.
The Church has undoubtedly surrendered part of her in-
dependence in return for ample endowments and temporal
power ; nor could any claim be more reasonable than that
of feudal superiors to grant the investiture of dependent
fiefs. But the fairest right may be sullied by abuse ; and
the sovereigns, the lay-patrons, the prelates of the tenth and
eleventh centuries, made their powers of nomination and in-
vestiture subservient to the grossest rapacity. According
to the ancient canons, a benefice was avoided by any simo-
niacal payment or stipulation. If these were to be enforce-^,
15
338 CONFIRMATION OF POPES. Chap. VII Part L
the Churcn must almost be cleaved of its ministers. Either
through bribery in places where elections still prevailed, or
through corrupt agreements with princes, or at least custom-
ary presents to their wives and ministers, a large proportion
of the bishops had no valid tenure in their sees. The case
was perhaps worse with inferior clerks; in the Church of
Milan, which was notorious for this corruption, not a single
ecclesiastic could stand the test, the archbishop exacting a
price for the collation of every benefice.
§ 18. The bishops of Rome, like those of inferior sees, were
regularly elected by the citizens, laymen as well as ecclesi-
astics. But their consecration was deferred until the popu-
lar choice had received the sovereign's sanction. The Ro-
mans regularly dispatched letters to Constantinople or to
the exarchs of Ravenna, praying that their election of a pope
might be confirmed. Exceptions, if any, are infrequent while
Rome was subject to the Eastern Empire. This, among oth-
er imperial prerogatives, Charlemagne might consider as his
own. He possessed the city, especially after his coronation
as emperor, in full sovereignty ; and even before that event
had investigated, as supreme chief, some accusations preferred
against the Pope Leo III. No vacancy of the papacy took
place after Charlemagne became emperor; and it must be
confessed, that in the first which happened under Louis the
Debonair, Stephen IV. was consecrated in haste, without that
prince's approbation. But Gregory lY., his successor, waited
till his election had been confirmed, and, upon the whole, the
Carlovingian emperors, though less uniformly than their pred-
ecessors, retained that mark of sovereignty. But during
the disorderly state of Italy which followed the last reigns of
Charlemagne's posterity, while the sovereignty and even the
name of an emperor were in abeyance, the supreme dignity
of Christendom was conferred only by the factious rabble of
its capital. Otho the great, in receiving the imperial crown,
took upon him the prerogatives of Charlemagne. There is
• even extant a decree of Leo \T[II., which grants to him and
his successors the right of naming future popes. But the
authenticity of this instrument is denied by the Italians. It
does not appear that the Saxon emperors went to such a
length as nomination, except in one instance (that of Greg-
ory v., in 996) ; but they sometimes, not uniformly, confirmed
the election of a pope, according to ancient custom. An ex-
plicit right of nomination was, however, conceded to the Em-
peror Henry III., in 1047, as the only means of rescuing the
Koman Church from the disgrace and depravity into which
EccLES. PowEP ECREE OF NICHOLAS Il» 339
it had fallen. Henry appointed two Or three very good
popes ; acting in this against the warnings of a selfish policy,
as fatal experience soon proved to his family.
This high prerogative was perhaps not designed to extend
beyond Henry himself. But, even if it had been transmissi-
ble to his successors, the infancy of his son, Henry IV., and
the factions of that minority, precluded the possibility of its
exercise. Nicholas H., in 1059, published a decree which re-
stored the right of election to the Romans, but with a re-
markable variation from the original form. The cardinal
bishops (seven in number, holding sees in the neighborhood
of Rome, and consequently suffragans of the pope as patriarch
or metropolitan) were to choose the supreme pontiff, with
the concurrence first of the cardinal priests and deacons (or
ministers of the parish churches of Rome), and afterwards of
the laity. Thus elected, the new pope was to be presented
for confirmation to Henry, "now king, and hereafter to be-
come emperor," and to such of his successors as should per-
sonally obtain that privilege. This decree is the foundation
of that celebrated mode of election in a conclave of cardinals
which has ever since determined the headship of the Church.
It was intended not only to exclude the citizens, who had,
indeed, justly forfeited their primitive right, but as far as
possible to prepare the way for an absolute emancipation of
the papacy from the imperial control ; reserving only a pre-
carious and personal concession to the emperors instead of
their ancient legal prerogative of confirmation.
The real author of this decree, and of all other vigorous
measures adopted by the popes of that age, whether for the
assertion of their independence or the restoration of disci-
pline, was Hildebrand, archdeacon of the Church of Rome,
by far the most conspicuous person of the eleventh century.
Acquiring by his extraordinary qualities an unbounded as-
cendency over the Italian clergy, they regarded him as their
chosen leader and the hope of their common cause. He had
been empowered singly to nominate a pope on the part of
the Romans after the death of Leo IX., and compelled Henry
III. to acquiesce in his choice of Victor II. No man could
proceed more fearlessly towards his object than Hilde-
brand, nor with less attention to conscientious impediments.
Though the decree of Nicholas H., his own work, had express-
ly reserved the right of confirmation of the young king of
Germany, yet on the death of that pope Hildebrand procured
the election and consecration of Alexander H., without wait-
ing for any authority. During this ponti6cate he was con
340 Dli FEKENCES OF GREGORY VII. Chap. VII. Part L
sidered as something greater than the pope, who acted en*
tirely by his counsels. On Alexander's decease, Hildebrand,
long since the real head of the Church, was raised with en-
thusiasm to its chief dignity, and assumed the name of Greg-
ory VII. (a.d. 1073).
§ 19. Notwithstanding the late precedent at the election
of Alexander IL, it appears that Gregory did not yet con-
sider liis plans sufficiently mature to throw off the yoke al-
together, but declined to receive consecration until he had
obtained the consent of the King of Germany. This modera-
tion was not of long continuance. The situation of Germany
speedily afforded him an opportunity of displaying his am-
bitious views. Henry lY., through a very bad education,
was arbitrary and dissolute ; the Saxons were engaged in a
desperate rebellion ; and secret disaffection had spread among
the princes to an extent of which the pope was much better
aware than the king. He began by excommunicating some
of Henry's ministers on pretense of simony, and made it a
ground of remonstrance that they were not instantly dis-
missed. His next step was to publish a decree, or rather to
renew one, of Alexander H., against lay investitures. The
abolition of these was a favorite object of Gregory, and
formed an essential part of his general scheme for emancipa-
ting the spiritual and subjugating the temporal power. The
ring and crosier, it was asserted by the papal advocates, were
the emblems of that power which no monarch could bestow.
Though the estates of bishops might, strictly, be of temporal
right, yet, as they had been inseparably annexed to their
spiritual office, it became just that what was first in dignity
and importance should carry with it those accessory parts.
The contest about investitures, though begun by Gregory
VH., did not occupy a very prominent place during his pon-
tificate, its interest being suspended by other more extraor-
dinary and important dissensions between the Church and
Empire. The pope, after tampering some time with the dis-
affected party in Germany, summoned Henry to appear at
Rome and vindicate himself from the charges alleged by his
subjects. Such an outrage naturally exasperated a young
and passionate monarch. Assembling a number of bishops
and other vassals at Worms, he procured a sentence that
Gregory should no longer be obeyed as lawful pope. But
the time was past for those arbitrary encroachments, or at
least high prerogatives, of former emperors. The relations
of dependency between Church and State were now about
to be le versed. Gregory had no sooner received accounts
EccLKS. Power. WITH HENRY J.V. S41
of the proceedings at Worms than he summoned a council
in the Lateran palace, and by a solemn sentence not only ex-
communicated Henry, but deprived him of the kingdoms of
Germany and Italy, releasing his subjects from their alle-
giance, and forbidding them to obey him as sovereign. Thus
Gregory YII. obtained the glory of leaving all his predeces-
sors behind, and astonishing mankind by an act of audacity
and ambition which the most emulous of his successors could
hardly surpass.'"
The first impulses of Henry's mind on hearing this denun-
ciation were indignation and resentment. But, like othei
inexperienced and misguided sovereigns, he had formed an
erroneous calculation of his own resources. A conspiracy,
long prepared, of which the dukes of Suabia and Carinthia
were the chiefs, began to manifest itself. Some were alien-
ated by his vices, and others jealous of his family. The re-
bellious Saxons took courage; the bishops, intimidated by
excommunications, withdrew from his side, and he suddenly
found himself almost insulated in the midst of his dominions.
In til is desertion he had recourse, through panic, to a miser-
able expedient. He crossed the Alps with the avowed de-
termination of submitting, and seeking absolution from the
pope. Gregory was at Canossa, a fortress near Reggio, be-
longing to his faithful adherent, the Countess Matilda. It
was in a winter of unusual severity. The emperor was ad-
mitted, without his guards, into an outer court of the castle,
and three successive days remained from morning till even-
ing in a woollen shirt and with naked feet, while Gregory,
shut up with the countess, refused to admit him to his pres-
ence. On the fourth day he obtained absolution; but only
on condition of appearing on a certain day to learn the jDope's
decision whether or no he should be restored to his kingdom,
until which time he promised not to assume the ensigns of
royalty (a.d. 1077).
This base humiliation, instead of conciliating Henry's ad-
versaries, forfeited the attachment of his friends. In his
contest with the pope he had found a zealous support in the
10 The sentence of Gregory VII. against the Emperor Heury was directed, we should
always remember, to persons already well disposed to reject his authority. Men are
glad to be told that it is their duty to resist a sovereign against whom they are in
rebellion, and will not be very scrupulous in examining conclusions which fall in
with their inclinations and interests. Allegiance was in those turbulent ages easily
thrown off, and the right of resistance was in continual exercise. To the Germans
of the eleventh century a prince unfit for Christian communion would easily appear
unfit to reign over them ; and though Henry had not given much real provocation tn
the pope, his vices and tyranny might seem to challenge any spiritual censure yi
temporal cbastisemeut
342 DISPUTE ABOUT INVESTITURES. Chap. VII. Part 1.
principal Lombard cities, among whom the married and si-
moniacal clergy had great influence. Indignant at his sub-
mission to Gregory, whom they affected to consider as an
usurper of the papal chair, they now closed their gates
against the emperor, and spoke openly of deposing him. In
this singular position between opposite dangers, Henry re-
trod his late steps, and broke off his treaty with the pope ;
preferring, if he must fall, to fall as the defender rather than
the betrayer of his imperial rights. The rebellious princes'
of Germany chose another king, Rodolph, duke of Suabia, on
whom Gregory, after some delay, bestowed the crown, with
a Latin verse importing that it was given by virtue of the
original commission of St. Peter. But the success of this
pontiff in his immediate designs was not answerable to his
intrepidity, Henry both subdued the German rebellion,
and carried on the war with so much vigor, or rather so lit-
tle resistance, in Italy, that he was crowned in Kome by the
antipope Guibert, whom he had raised in a council of his par-
tisans to the government of the Church instead of Gregory.
The latter found an asylum under the protection of Roger
Guiscard at Salerno, where he died an exile. His mantle,
however, descended upon his successors. But Henry Y. be-
ing stronger in the support of his German vassals than his
father had been, none of the popes with whom he was en-
gaged had the boldness to repeat the measures of Gregory
vll. At length, each party grown weary of this ruinous
contention, a treaty was agreed upon between the emperor
and Calixtus II., which put an end by compromise to the
question of ecclesiastical investitures (a.d. 1122). By this
compact the emperor resigned forever all pretense to invest
bishops by the ring and crosier, and recognized the liberty
of elections. But in return it was agreed that elections
should be made in his presence or that of his ofiicers, and
that the new bishop should receive his temporalities from
the emperor by the sceptre.
Both parties in the concordat at Worms receded from so
much of their pretensions, that w*e might almost hesitate to
determine which is to be considered as victorious. On the
one hand, in restoring the freedom of episcopal elections the
emperors lost a prerogative of very long standing, and al-
most necessary to the maintenance of authority over not
the least turbulent part of their subjects. And though the
form of investiture by the ring and crosier seemed in itself
of no importance, yet it had been in effect a collateral secu-
rity against the election of obnoxious persons. For the em-
EccLES. Power. CAPITULAR ELECTIONS. 343
perors, detaining this necessary part of the pontificals until
they should confer investiture, prevented a hasty consecra-
tion of the new bishop, after which, the vacancy being legal-
ly filled, it would not be decent for them to withhold the
temporalities. But then, on the other hand, they preserved
by the concordat their feudal sovereignty over the estates
of the Church, in defiance of the language which had recent-
ly been held by its rulers. It is evident that a general im-
munity from feudal obligations for an order who possessed
nearly half the lands in Europe struck at the root of those
institutions by which the fabric of society was principally
held together. This complete independency had been the
aim of Gregory's disciples ; and by yielding to the continu-
ance of lay investitures in any shape Calixtus may, in this
point of view, appear to have relinquished the principal ob-
ject of contention.
The emperors were not the only sovereigns whose prac-
tice of investiture excited the hostility of Rome, although
they sustained the principal brunt of the war. A similar
contest broke out under the pontificate of Paschal II. with
Henry I. of England ; for the circumstances of which, as they
contain nothing peculiar, I refer to our own historians. It
is remarkable that it ended in a compromise not unlike that
adjusted at Worms; the king renouncing all sorts of invest-
itures, while the pope consented that the bishop should do
homage for his temporalities. This was exactly the custom
of France, where investiture by the ring and crosier is said
not to have prevailed ; and it answered the main end of sov-
ereigns by keeping up the feudal dependency of ecclesias-
tical estates. But the kings of Castile were more fortunate
than the rest; discreetly yielding to the pride of Rome, they
obtained what w^as essential to their own authority, and have
always possessed, by the concession of Urban II., an absolute
privilege of nomination to bishoprics in their dominions.
An early evidence of that indifference of the popes towards
the real independence of national churches to which subse-
quent ages were to lend abundant confirmation.
§ 20. When the emperors had surrendered their preten-
sions to interfere in episcopal elections, the primitive mode
of collecting the suffrages of clergy and. laity in conjunction,
or at least of the clergy with the laity's assent and ratifica-
tion, ought naturally to have revived. But in the twelfth
century neither the people, nor even the general body of the
diocesan clergy, were considered as worthy to exercise this
function. It soon devolved altogether upon the chapters of
3H GENERAL CONDUCT Chap. VII. Part 1.
cathedral churches. The original of these may be traced
very high. In the earliest ages we find a college of pres-
bytery consisting of the priests and deacons, assistants as a
council of advice, or even a kind of parliament, to their bish-
ops. Parochial divisions, and fixed ministers attached to
them, were not established till a later period. But the can-
ons, or cathedral clergy, acquired afterwards a more distinct
character. They were subjected by degrees to certain strict
observances, little diff*ering, in fact, from those imposed on
monastic orders. They lived at a common table, they slept
in a common dormitory, their dress and diet were regulated
by peculiar laws. But they were distinguished from monks
by the right of possessing individual property, which was af-
terwards extended to the enjoyment of separate prebends or
benefices. These strict regulations, chiefly imposed by Louis
the Debonair, went into disuse through relaxation of disci-
pline ; nor were they ever effectually restored. Meantime the
chapters became extremely rich, and as they monopolized
the privilege of electing bishops, it became an object of
ambition with noble families to obtain canonries for their
younger children as the surest road to ecclesiastical honors
and opulence. Contrary, therefore, to the general policy of
the Church, persons of inferior birth have been rigidly ex-
cluded from these foundations.
§ 21. The object of Gregory VII., in attempting to redress
those more flagrant abuses which for two centuries had de-
formed the face of the Latin Church, is not incapable, perhaps,
of vindication, though no sufficient apology can be offered
for the means he employed. But the disinterested love of
reformation, to which candor might ascribe the contention
against investitures, is belied by the general tenor of his
conduct, exhibiting an arrogance without parallel, and. an
ambition that grasped at universal and unlimited monarchy.
He may be called the common enemy of all sovereigns, whose
dignity as well as independence mortified his infatuated
pride. Thus we find him menacing Philip I. of France, who
had connived at the pillage of some Italian merchants and
pilgrims, not only with an interdict, but a sentence of dep-
osition. Thus, too, he asserts, as a known historical fact,
that the kingdom of Spain had formerly belonged, by special
right, to St. Peter ; and by virtue of this imprescriptible
claim he grants to a certain Count de Rouci all territories
which he should reconquer from the Moors, to be held in
fief from the Holy See by a stipulated rent. A similar pre-
tension he makes to the kingdom of Hungarj^, and bitterly
EccLEs. Power. OF GREGORY VII. 345
reproaches its sovereign, Solomon, who had done homage to
the emperor, in derogation of St. Peter, his legitimate lord.
It was convenient to treat this apostle as a great feudal su-
zerain, and the legal principles of that age were dexterously
applied to rivet more forcibly the fetters of superstition.
While temporal sovereigns were opposing so inadequate
a resistance to a system of usurpation contrary to all prec-
edent and to the common principles of society, it was not
to be expected that national churches should persevere in
opposing pretensionr for which several ages had paved the
way. Gregory VII. completed the destruction of their lib-
erties. The principles contained in the decretals of Isidore,
hostile as they were to ecclesiastical independence, were set
aside as insufficient to establish the absolute monarchy of
Rome. By a constitution of Alexander II., during whose
pontificate Hildebrand himself was deemed the effectual
pope, no bishop in the Catholic Church was permitted to ex-
ercise his functions until he had received the confirmation of
the Holy See : a provision of vast importance, through which,
beyond perhaps any other means, Rome has sustained, and
still sustains, her temporal influence, as well as her ecclesias-
tical supremacy. The national churches, long abridged of
their liberties by gradual encroachments, now found them-
selves subject to an undisguised and irresistible despotism.
Instead of affording protection to bishops against their met-
ropolitans, under an insidious pretense of which the popes
of the ninth century had subverted the authority of the lat-
ter, it became the favorite policy of their successors to ha-
rass all prelates with citations to Rome. Gregory obliged
the metropolitans to attend in person for the pallium. Bish-
ops were summoned even from England and the Northern
kingdoms to receive the commands of the spiritual monarch.
William the Conqueror having made a difficulty about per-
mitting his prelates to obey these citations, Gregory, though
in general on good terms with that prince, and treating him
with a deference which marks the effect of a firm character
in repressing the ebullitions of overbearing pride, complains
of this as a persecution unheard of among pagans. The
great quarrel between Archbishop Anselm and his two sover-
eigns, William Rufus and Henry I., was originally founded
upon a similar refusal to permit his departure for Rome.
§ 22. This perpetual control exercised by the popes over
ecclesiastical, and in some degree over temporal affairs, was
maintained by means of their legates, at once the ambassa-
dors and the lieutenants of the Holy See. Previously to the
15*
346 ADRIAN IV. Chap. VII. Part 1.
latter part of the tenth age these had been sent not frequent-
ly and upon special occasions. The legatine or vicarial com-
mission had generally been intrusted to some eminent metro-
politan of the nation within which it was to be exercised ;
as the Archbishop of Canterbury was perpetual legate in En-
gland. But the special commissioners, or legates a latere^
suspending the pope's ordinary vicars, took upon themselves
an unbounded authority over the national churches, holding
councils, promulgating canons, deposing the bishops, and is-
suing interdicts at their discretion. They lived in splendor
at the expense of the bishops of the province. This was the
more galling to the hierarchy, because simple deacons were
often invested with this dignity, which set them above pri-
mates. As the sovereigns of France and England acquired
more courage, they considerably abridged this prerogative
of the Holy See, and resisted the entrance of any legates into
their dominions without their consent.
From the time of Gregory VII. no pontiff thought of await-
ing the confirmation of the emperor, as in earlier ages, before
he was installed in the throne of St. Peter. On the contra-
ry, it was pretended that the emperor was himself to be con-
firmed by the pope. This had, indeed, been broached by
John VIII. two hundred years before Gregory. It was still
a doctrine not calculated for general reception ; but the popes
availed themselves of every opportunity which the tempor-
izing policy, the negligence or bigotry of sovereigns threw
into their hands. Lothaire coming to receive the imperial
crown at Rome, this circumstance was commemorated by
a picture in the Lateran palace, in which, and in two Latin
verses subscribed, he was represented as doing homage to
the pope. When Frederick Barbarossa came upon the same
occasion, he omitted to hold the stirrup of Adrian IV., who,
in his turn, refused to give him the usual kiss of peace ; nor
was the contest ended but by the emperor's acquiescence,
who was content to follow the precedents of his predeces-
sors. The same Adrian, expostulating with Frederick upon
some slight grievance, reminded him of the imperial crown
which he had conferred, and declared his willingness to be-
stow, if possible, still greater benefits. But the phrase em-
ployed (majora beneficia) suggested the idea of a fief; and
the general insolence which pervaded Adrian's letter con-
firming this interpretation, a ferment arose among the Ger-
man princes, in a congress of whom this letter was delivered.
" From whom, then," one of the legates was rash enough
to say, " does the emperor hold his crown, except from the
EccLES. Power. INNOCENT III. 347
pope ?" which so irritated a prince of Wittelsbach that he
was with difficulty prevented from cleaving the priest's head
with his sabre. Adrian IV. was the only Englishman that
ever sat in the papal chair. It might, perhaps, pass for a fa-
vor bestowed on his natural sovereign, when he granted to
Henry II. the kingdom of Ireland ; yet the language of this
donation, wherein he asserts all islands to be the exclusive
property of St. Peter, should not have had a very pleasing
sound to an insular monarch.
§ 23. I shall not wait to comment on the support given to
Becket by Alexander III., which must be familiar to the En-
glish reader, nor on his speedy canonization ; a reward which
the Church has always held out to its most active friends,
and which may be compared to titles of nobility granted by
a temporal sovereign. But the epoch when the spirit of pa-
pal usurpation was most strikingly displayed was the pontifi-
cate of Innocent III. (a,d. 1198-1216). In each of the three
leading objects which Rome has pursued — independent sov-
ereignty, supremacy over the Christian Church, control over
the princes of the earth — it was the fortune of this pontiff to
conquer. He realized, as we have seen in another place, that
fond hope of so many of his predecessors, a dominion over
Rome and the central parts of Italy. During his pontifi-
cate Constantinople was taken by the Latins ; and however
much he might seem to regret a diversion of the Crusaders
which impeded the recovery of the Holy Land, he exulted in
the obedience of the new patriarch, and the reunion of the
Greek Church. Never, perhaps, either before or since, was
the great Eastern schism in so fair a way of being healed ;
even the kings of Bulgaria and of Armenia acknowledged the
supremacy of Innocent, and permitted his interference with
their ecclesiastical institutions.
The maxims of Gregory VII. were now matured by more
than a hundred years, and the right of trampling upon the
necks of kings had been received, at least among Church-
men, as an inherent attribute of the papacy. "As the sun
and the moon are placed in the firmament " (such is the lan-
guage of Innocent), "the greater as the light of the day, and
the lesser of the night, thus are there two powers in the
Church — the pontifical, which, as having the charge of souls,
is the greater ; and the royal, which is the less, and to which
the bodies of men only are intrusted." Intoxicated with
these conceptions (if we may apply such a word to success-
ful ambition), he thought no quarrel of princes beyond the
sphere of his jurisdiction. On every side the thunder of
348 INNOCENT III. Chap. Vli. Part 1.
Rome broke over the heads of princes. A certam Swero is
excommunicated for usurping the crown of Norway. A le-
gate, in passing through Hungary, is detained by the king :
Innocent writes in tolerably mild terms to this potentate,
but fails not to intimate that he might be compelled to pre-
vent his son's accession to the throne. The King of Leon
had married his cousin, a princess of Castile. Innocent sub-
jects the kingdom to an interdict. The king gave way, and
sent back his wife. But a more illustrious victory of the
same kind was obtained over Philip Augustus, who, having
repudiated Isemburga of Denmark, had contracted another
marriage. The conduct of the king, though not without the
usual excuse of those times, nearness of blood, was justly
condemned ; and Innocent did not hesitate to visit his sins
upon the people by a general interdict. This, after a short
demur from some bishops, was enforced throughout France ;
the dead lay unburied, and the living were cut off from the
offices of religion, till Philip, thus subdued, took back his di-
vorced wife. The submission of such a prince, not feebly su-
perstitious, like his predecessor Robert, nor vexed with sedi-
tions, like the Emperor Henry IV., but brave, firm, and vic-
torious, is perhaps the proudest trophy in the scutcheon of
Rome. Compared with this, the subsequent triumph of In-
nocent over our pusillanimous John seems cheaply gained,
though the surrender of a powerful kingdom into the vassal-
age of the pope may strike us as a proof of stupendous base-
ness on one side, and audacity on the other.''
I have mentioned already that among the new pretensions
advanced by the Roman See was that of confirming the elec-
tion of an emperor. It had, however, been asserted rather
incidentally than in a peremptory manner. But the doubt
ful elections of Philip and Otho after the death of Henry VI.
gave Innocent HI. an opportunity of maintaining more posi-
tively this pretended right. In a decretal epistle addressed
to the Duke of Zahringen, the object of which is to direct
him to transfer his allegiance from Philip to the other com-
petitor. Innocent, after stating the mode in which a regular
election ought to be made, declares the pope's immediate
authority to examine, confirm, anoint, crown, and consecrate
" The stipulated annual payment of 1000 marks was seldom made by the kings of
England ; but one is almost ashamed that it should ever have been so. Henry III.
paid it occasionally when he had any object to attain, and even Edward I. for some
years : the latest payment on record is in the seventeenth of his reign. After a long
discontinuance, it was demanded in the fortieth of Edward III. (1366), but the Parlia-
ment unanimously declared that John had no right to subject the kingdom to a su-
perior without their consent : which put an end forever to the applications.
EccLES. Power. PAPAL AUTHORITY. 349
the elect emperor, provided he shall be worthy; Or to reject
him if rendered unlit by great crimes, such as sacrilege, her-
esy, perjury, or persecution of the Church; in default of elec-
tion, to supply the vacancy ; or, in the event of equal suf-
frages, to bestow the empire upon any person at his discre-
tion. The princes of Germany were not much influenced by
this hardy assumption, which manifests the temper of Inno-
cent III. and of his court, rather than their power. But
Otho IV., at his coronation by the pope, signed a capitulation,
which cut off several privileges enjoyed by the emperors,
ever since the concordat of Calixtus, in respect of episcopal
elections and investitures.
PART II.
§ 1. Continual Progress of the Papacy. 5 2. Canon Law. § 3. Mendicant Orders.
§ 4. Dispensing Power. § 5. Encroachments on Rights of Patronage, Mandats,
Eeserves, etc. 5 6. Taxation of the Clergy. § 7. General Disaffection towards
the See of Rome in the Thirteenth Century. § 8. Progress of Ecclesiastical Juris-
diction. § 9. Immunity of the Clergy in Criminal Cases. § 10. Restraints im-
posed upon their Jurisdiction. § 11. Upon their Acquisition of Property. § 12.
Boniface VIII. His Quarrel with Philip the Fair. Its Termination. 5 13. Grad-
ual Decline of Papal Authority. Removal of the Papal Court to Avignon. § 14.
Louis of Bavaria. § 15. Conduct of Avignon Popes. § 16. Return to Rome.
Contested Election of Urban and Clement produces the great Schism. § 17.
Councils of Pisa and Constance. § 18. Council of Basle. § 19. Methods adopted
to restrain the Papal Usurpations in England, Germany, and France. Liberties
of the Gallican Church. § 20. Decline of the Papal Influence in Italy.
§ 1. The noonday of papal dominion extends from the pon-
tificate of Innocent III., inclusively, to that of Boniface VIII. ;
or, in other words, through the thirteenth century. Rome
inspired during this age all the terror of her ancient name.
She was once more the mistress of the world, and kings were
her vassals. I have already anticipated the two most con-
spicuous instances when her temporal ambition displayed
itself, both of which are inseparable from the civil history of
Italy.' In the first of these, her long contention with the
liouse of Suabia, she finally triumphed. After his deposition
by the Council of Lyons, the affairs of Frederick II. went
rapidly into decay. With every allowance for the enmity of
the Lombards and the jealousies of Germany, it must be con-
fessed that his proscription by Innocent IV. and Alexander
IV. was the main cause of the ruin of his family. There is,
however, no other instance, to the best of my judgment,
where the pretended right of deposing kings has been success-
1 See above, chapter iiL
350 CANON LAW. Chap. VII. Part II.
fully exercised. Martin lY. absolved the subjects of Peter of
Aragon from their allegiance, and transferred his crown to a
prince of France ; but they did not cease to obey their lawful
sovereign. This is the second instance which the thirteenth
century presents of interference on the part of the popes in a
great temporal quarrel. As feudal lords of Naples and Sicily,
they had, indeed, some pretext for engaging in the hostilities
between the houses of Anjou and Aragon, as well as for their
contest with Frederick II. But the pontiffs of that age, im-
proving upon the system of Innocent III., and sanguine with
past success, aspired to render every European kingdom for-
mally dependent upon the See of Rome. Thus Boniface VIII.,
at the instigation of some emissaries from Scotland, claimed
that monarchy as paramount lord, and interposed, though
vainly, the sacred panoply of ecclesiastical rights to rescue
it from the arms of Edward I.
§ 2. This general supremacy effected by the Roman Church
over mankind, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, de-
rived material support from the promulgation of the canon
law. The foundation of this jurisprudence is laid in the de-
crees of councils, and in the rescripts or decretal epistles of
popes to questions propounded upon emergent doubts relative
to matters of discipline and ecclesiastical economy. As the
jurisdiction of the spiritual tribunals increased and extended
to a variety of persons and causes, it became almost necessa-
ry to establish a uniform system for the regulation of their
decisions. After several minor compilations had appeared,
Gratian, an Italian monk, published, about the year 1140, his
Decretum^ or general collection of canons, papal epistles, and
sentences of fathers, arranged and digested into titles and
chapters, in imitation of the Pandects, which very little be-
fore had beojun to be studied as^ain with ofreat dilisrence. This
work of Gratian, though it seems rather an extraordinary
performance for the age when it appeared, has been censured
for notorious incorrectness as well as inconsistency, and espe-
cially for the authority given in it to the false decretals of Isi-
dore, and, consequently, to the papal supremacy. It fell, how-
ever, short of what was required in the progress of that usur-
pation. Gregory IX. caused the five books of Decretals to be
published by Raimond de Pennafort, in 1234. These consist
almost entirely of rescripts issued by the later popes, espe-
cially Alexander III., Innocent III.,Honorius III., and Gregory
himself They form the most essential part of the canon law
— the Decretum of Gratian being comparatively obsolete. In
these books we find a regular and copious system of juris-
EccLES. Power. (.^ANON LAW. 351
prudence, derived, in a great measure, fl'om the civil law,
but with considerable deviation, and possibly improvement.
Boniface VIII. added a sixth part, thence called the Sext,
itself divided into five books, in the nature of a supplement
to the other live, of which it follows the arrangement, and
composed of decisions promulgated since the pontificate of
Gregory IX. New constitutions were subjoined by Clement
V. and John XXII., under the name of Clementines and Ex-
travagantes Johannis ; and a few more of latei* pontiffs are
included in the body of canon law, arranged as a second sup-
plement, after the manner of the Sext, and called Extrava-
gantes Communes.
The study of this code became, of course, obligatory upon
ecclesiastical judges. It produced a new class of legal prac-
titioners, or canonists, of whom a great number added, like
their brethren, the civilians, their illustrations and commen-
taries, for which the obscurity and discordance of many pas-
sages, more especially in the Decretum, gave ample scope.
From the general analogy of the canon law to that of Jus-
tinian, the two systems became, in a remarkable manner, col-
lateral and mutually intertwined — the tribunals governed by
either of them borrowing their rules of decision from the
other in cases where their peculiar jurisprudence is silent or
of dubious interpretation. But the canon law was almost
entirely founded upon the legislative authority of the pope ;
the decretals are, in fact, but a new arrangement of the bold
epistles of the most usurping pontiffs, and especially of Inno-
cent III., with titles, or rubrics, comprehending the substance
of each in the compiler's language. The superiority of ec-
clesiastical to temporal power, or at least the absolute inde-
pendence of the former, may be considered as a sort of key-
note which regulates every passage in the canon law. It is
expressly declared that subjects owe no allegiance to an ex-
communicated lord, if after admonition he is not reconciled
to the Church. And the rubric prefixed to the declaration
of Frederick IL's deposition in the Council of Lyons, asserts
that the pope may dethrone the emperor for lawful causes.
These rubrics to the decretals are not, perhaps, of direct
authority as part of the law ; but they express its sense, so as
to be fairly cited instead of it. By means of ber new juris-
prudence, Rome acquired in every country a powerful body
of advocates, who, though many of them were laymen, would,
with the usual bigotry of lawyers, defend every pretension
or abuse to which their received standard of authority gave
sanction.
352 MENDICANT ORDERS. Chap. VII. Part II
§ 3. Next to the canon law, I should reckon the institu-
tion of the mendicant orders among those circumstances
which principally contributed to the aggrandizement of
Rome. By the acquisition, and in some respects the enjoy-
ment, or at least ostentation, of immense riches, the ancient
monastic orders had forfeited much of the public esteem.
Austere principles as to the obligation of evangelical poverty
were inculcated by the numerous sectaries of that age, and
eagerly received by the people, already much alienated from
an established hierarchy. Xo means appeared so efficacious
to counteract this efiect as the institution of religious so-
cieties strictly debarred from the insidious temptations of
wealth. Upon this principle were founded the orders of men-
dicant friars, incapable, by the rules of their foundation, of
possessing estates, and maintained only by alms and pious
remunerations. Of these the two most celebrated were
formed by St. Dominick and St. Francis of Assisi, and estab-
lished by the authority of Honorius III. in 1216 and 1223.
These great reformers, who have produced so extraordinary
an effect upon mankind, were of very different characters ;
the one, active and ferocious, had taken a prominent part in
the crusade against the unfortunate Albigeois, and was
among the first who bore the terrible name of inquisitor;
while the other, a harmless enthusiast, pious and sincere, but
hardly of sane mind, was much rather accessory to the in-
tellectual than to the moral degradation of his species. Va-
rious other mendicant orders were instituted in the thirteenth
century ; but most of them were soon suppressed, and, be-
sides the two principal, none remain but the Augustin and
the Carmelite.
These new preachers were received with astonishing ap-
probation by the laity, whose religious zeal usually depends
a good deal upon their opinion of sincerity and disinterest-
edness in their pastors. And the progress of the Dominican
and Franciscan friars in the thirteenth century bears a re-
markable analogy to that of our English Methodists. Not
deviating from the faith of the Church, but professing rather
to teach it in greater purity, and to observe her ordinances
with greater regularity, while they imputed supineness and
corruption to the secular clergy, they drew round their ser-
mons a multitude of such listeners as in all ages are attract-
ed by similar means. They practised all the stratagems of
itinerancy, preaching in public streets, and administering the
communion on a portable altar. Thirty years after their
institution an historian complains that the parish churches
EccLES. Power. PAPAL DISPENSATIONS. 353
were deserted, that none confessed except to these friars — in
short, that the regular discipline was subverted. This un-
controlled privilege of performing sacerdotal functions, which
their modern anti-types assume for themselves, was conceded
to the mendicant orders by the favor of Rome. Aware of
the powerful support they might receive in turn, the pon-
tiffs of the thirteenth century accumulated benefits upon the
disciples of Francis and Dominick. They were exempted
from episcopal authority ; they were permitted to preach or
hear confessions without leave of the ordinary, to accept of
legacies, and to inter in their churches. Such privileges
could not be granted without resistance from the other
clergy ; the bishops remonstrated, the University of Paris
maintained a strenuous opposition; but their reluctance
served only to protract the final decision. Boniface VIII.
appears to have peremptorily established the privileges and
immunities of the mendicant orders in 1295.
It was naturally to be expected that the objects of such ex-
tensive favors would repay their benefactors by a more than
usual obsequiousness and alacrity in their service. Accord-
ingly, the Dominicans and Franciscans vied with each other
in magnifying the papal supremacy. Many of these monks
became eminent in canon law and scholastic theology. The
great lawgiver of the schools, Thomas Aquinas, whose opin-
ions the Dominicans especially treat as almost infallible,
went into the exaggerated principles of his age in favor of
the See of Rome. And as the professors of those sciences
took nearly all the learning and logic of the times to their
own share, it was hardly possible to repel their arguments
by any direct reasoning. But this partiality of the new mo-
nastic orders to the popes must chiefly be understood to ap-
ply to the thirteenth century, circumstances occurring in the
next which gave in some degree a different complexion to
their dispositions in respect of the Holy See.
§ 4. We should not overlook, among the causes that con-
tributed to the dominion of the popes, their prerogative of
dispensing with ecclesiastical ordinances. The most remark-
able exercise of this was as to the canonical impediments of
matrimony. Such strictness as is prescribed by the Chris-
tian religion with respect to divorce was very "unpalatable
to the barbarous nations. They, in fact, paid it little regard ;
under the Merovingian dynasty, even private men put away
their wives at pleasure. In many capitularies of Charle-
magne we find evidence of the prevailing license of repudia-
tion and even polygamy. The principles which the Church
354 PAPAL DISPENSATIONS. Chap. VII. Part II.
inculcated were in appearance the very reverse of this laxi-
ty; yet they led indirectly to the same effect. Marriages
were forbidden, not merely within the limits which nature,
or those inveterate associations which we call nature, have
rendered sacred, but as far as the seventh degree of collat-
eral consanguinity, computed from a common ancestor. Not
only was affinity, or relationship by marriage, put upon the
same footing as that by blood, but a fantastical connection,
called spiritual affinity, w^as invented in order to prohibit
marriage between a sponsor and godchild. A union, how-
ever innocently contracted, between parties thus circum-
stanced might at any time be dissolved, and their subse-
quent cohabitation forbidden. One readily apprehends the
facilities of abuse to which all this led ; and history is full
of dissolutions of marriage, obtained by fickle passion or
cold-hearted ambition, to which the Church has not scrupled
to pander on some suggestion of relationship. It was not
until the twelfth century that either these laws as to mar-
riage or any other established rules of discipline were sup-
posed liable to arbitrary dispensation ; at least the stricter
Churchmen had always denied that the pope could infringe
canons, nor had he asserted any right to do so. But Inno-
cent III. laid down as a maxim, that out of the plenitude
of his power he might lawfully dispense with the law ; and
accordingly granted, among other instances of his preroga-
tive, dispensations from impediments of marriage to the Em-
peror Otho IV. Similar indulgences were given by his suc-
cessors, though they did not become usual for some ages.
The fourth Lateran Council, in 1215, removed a great part
of the restraint, by permitting marriages beyond the fourth
degree, or what we call third-cousins; and dispensations
have been made more easy, when it was discovered that they
might be converted into a source of profit. They served
a more important purpose by rendering it necessary for the
princes of Europe, who seldom could marry into one anoth-
er's houses without transgressing the canonical limits, to keep
on good terms with the Court of Rome, which, in several
instances that have been mentioned, fulminated its censures
against sovereigns who lived without permission in what was
considered an incestuous union.
The dispensing power of the popes was exerted in several
cases of a temporal nature, particularly in the legitimation
of children, for purposes even of succession. This Innocent
III. claimed as an indirect consequence of his right to remove
the canonical impediment which bastardy offered to ordina-
EccLEs. Power. PAPAL ENCROACHMENTS. 355
tion ; since it would be monstrous, he says, that one who is le-
gitimate for spiritual functions should continue otherwise
in any civil matter. But the most important and mischievous
species of dispensations was from the observance of promis-
sory oaths. Two principles are laid down in the decretals
— that an oath disadvantageous to the Church is not bind-
ing ; and that one extorted by force was of slight obliga-
tion, and might be annulled by ecclesiastical authority. As
the first of these maxims gave the most unlimited privilege
to the popes of breaking all faith of treaties which thwarted
their interest or passion, a privilege which they continually
exercised, so the second was equally convenient to princes
weary of observing engagements towards their subjects or
their neighbors. They protested with a bad grace against
the absolution of their people from allegiance by an author-
ity to which they did not scruple to repair in order to bol-
ster up their own perjuries. Thus Edward I., the strenuous
asserter of his temporal rights, and one of the first who op-
posed a barrier to the encroachments of the clergy, sought
at the hands of Clement Y. a dispensation from his oath to
observe the great statute against arbitrary taxation.
§ 5. In all the earlier stages of papal dominion the supreme
head of the Church had been her guardian and protector;
and this beneficent character appeared to receive its con-
summation in the result of that arduous struggle which re-
stored the ancient practice of free election to ecclesiastical
dignities. Not long, however, after this triumph had been
obtained, the popes began by little and little to interfere
with the regular constitution. Their first step was con-
formable, indeed, to the prevailing system of spiritual inde-
pendency. By the concordat of Calixtus it appears that
the decision of contested elections was reserved to the em-
peror, assisted hj the metropolitan and suff'ragans. But it
was consonant to the prejudices of that age to deem the
supreme pontiff a more natural judge, as in other cases of
appeal. The point was early settled in England, where a
doubtful election to the archbishopric of York, under Ste-
phen, was referred to Rome, and there kept five years in lit-
igation. Otho TV. surrendered this, among other rights of
the empire, to Innocent III. by his capitulation ; and from
that pontificate the papal jurisdiction over such controver-
sies became thoroughly recognized. But the real aim of In-
nocent, and perhaps of some of his predecessors, was to dis-
pose of bishoprics, under pretext of determining contests, as
a matter of patronage. So many rules were established, s6
356 MANDATS. Chap. VII. Part II.
many formalities required by their constitutions, incorpo-
rated afterwards into the canon law, that the Court of
Rome might easily find means of annulling what had been
done by the chapter, and bestowing the see on a favorite
candidate. The popes soon assumed not only a right of de-
cision, but of devolution ; that is, of supplying the want of
election, or the unfitness of the elected, by a nomination of
their own. Thus Archbishop Langton, if not absolutely
nominated, was at least chosen in an invalid and compulsory
manner by the order of Innocent III., as we may read in our
English historians. And several succeeding archbishops of
Canterbury equally owed their promotion to the papal pre-
rogative. Some instances of the same kind occurred in Ger
many, and it became the constant practice in Naples,
While the popes were thus artfully depriving the chapters
of their right of election to bishoprics, they interfered in a
more arbitrary manner with the collation of inferior bene-
fices. This began, though in so insensible a manner as to
deserve no notice but for its consequences, with Adrian IV.,
who requested some bishops to confer the next benefice that
should become vacant on a particular clerk. Alexander III.
used to solicit similar favors. These recommendatory letters
were called Mwidats. But though such requests grew more
frequent than was acceptable to patrons, they were preferred
in moderate language, and could not decently be refused to
the apostolic chair. But, as we find in the history of all
usurping governments, time changes anomaly into system,
and injury into right; examples beget custom, and custom
ripens into law ; and the doubtful precedent of one genera-
lion becomes the fundamental maxim of another. No coun-
try was so intolerably treated by the popes as England
throughout the ignominious reign of Henry III. Her Church
seemed to have been so richly endowed only as the free pas-
ture of Italian priests, who were placed, by the mandatory
letters of Gregory IX. and Innocent IV., in all the best bene-
fices. If we may trust a solemn remonstrance in the name
of the whole nation, they drew from England, in the middle
of the thirteenth century, sixty or seventy thousand marks
every year — a sum far exceeding the royal revenue. This
was asserted by the English envoys at the Council of Lyons.
But the remedy was not to be sought in remonstrances to
the Court of Rome, which exulted in the success of its en-
croachments. There was no defect of spirit in the nation to
oppose a more adequate resistance ; but the weak-minded in-
dividual upon the throne sacrificed the public interest some-
EccLES. Power. PROVISIONS AND RESERVES. 357
times through habitual timidity, sometimes through silly am-
bition. If England, however, suffered more remarkably, yet
other countries were far from being untouched. A German
writer about the beginning of the fourteenth century men-
tions a cathedral where, out of about thirty-iive vacancies of
prebends that had occurred within twenty years, the regular
patron had filled only two. The case was not very differ-
ent in France, where the continual usurpations of the popes
produced the celebrated Pragmatic Sanction of St. Louis
(a.d. 1268). This edict contains three important provisions ;
namely, that all prelates and other patrons shall enjoy their
full rights as to the collation of benefices, according to the
canons; that churches shall possess freely their rights of
election ; and that no tax or pecuniary exaction shall be
levied by the pope, without consent of the king and of the
national Church. We do not find, however, that the French
Government acted up to the spirit of this ordinance ; and
the Holy See continued to invade the rights of collation with
less ceremony than they had hitherto used. Clement IV.
published a bull in 1266, which, after asserting an absolute
prerogative of the supreme pontiff to dispose of all prefer-
ments, whether vacant or in reversion, confines itself in the
enacting words to the reservation of such benefices as be-
long to persons dying at Rome (vacantes in curia). These
had for some time been reckoned as a part of the pope's
special patronage ; and their number, when all causes of
importance were drawn to his tribunal, when metropolitans
w^ere compelled to seek their pallium in person, and even, by
a recent constitution, exempt abbots were to repair to Rome
for confirmation, not to mention the multitude who flocked
thither as mere courtiers and hunters after promotion, must
have been very considerable. Boniface VIII. repeated this
law of Clement IV. in a still more positive tone ; and Clem-
ent V. laid down as a maxim, that the pope might freely
bestow, as universal patron, all ecclesiastical benefices. In
order to render these tenable by their Italian courtiers, the
canons against pluralities and non-residence were dispensed
with ; so that individuals were said to have accumulated
fifty or sixty preferments. It was a consequence from this
extravagant principle, that the pope might prevent the ordi-
nary collator upon a vacancy ; and, as this could seldom be
done with sufficient expedition in places remote from his
court, that he might make reversionary grants during the
life of an incumbent, or reserve certain benefices specifically
for his own nomination.
358 PAPAL TAXATION. Chap. VII. Part II
§ 6. The persons as well as estates of ecclesiastics were
secure from arbitrary taxation in all kingdoms founded upon
the ruins of the empire, both by the common liberties of free-
men, and more particularly by their own immunities and the
horror of sacrilege. Such, at least, was their legal security,
whatever violence might occasionally be practised by tyran-
nical princes. But this exemption was compensated by an-
nual donatives, probably to a large amount, which the bish-
ops and monasteries were accustomed, and as it were com-
pelled, to make to their sovereigns. They were subject also,
generally speaking, to the feudal services and prestations.
Henry I. is said to have extorted a sum of money from the
English Church, But the first eminent instance of a general
tax required from the clergy was the famous Saladine tithe —
a tenth of all movable estate, imposed by the kings of France
and England upon all their subjects, with the consent of
their great councils of prelates and barons, to defray the ex-
pense of their intended crusade. Yet even this contribution,
though called for by the imminent peril of the Holy Land af
ter the capture of Jerusalem, was not paid without reluctance;
the clergy doubtless anticipating the future extension of
such a precedent. Many years had not elapsed when a new
demand was made upon them, but from a diflferent quarter.
Innocent HI. (the name continually recurs when we trace the
commencement of an usurpation) imposed in 1199 upon the
whole Church a tribute of one-fortieth of movable estate, to
be paid to his own collectors; but strictly pledging himself
that the money should only be applied to the purposes of a
crusade. This crusade ended, as is well known, in the cap-
ture of Constantinople. But the word had lost much of its
original meaning ; or rather, that meaning had been extend-
ed by ambition and bigotry. Gregory IX. preached a cru-
sade against the Emperor Frederick, in a quarrel which only
concerned his temporal principality ; and the Church of En-
gland was taxed, by his authority, to carry on this holy war.
After some opposition the bishops submitted, and from that
time no bounds were set to the rapacity of papal exactions.
The usurers of Cahors and Lorabardy, residing in London,
took up the trade of agency for the pope ; and in a few
years he is said, partly by levies of money, partly by the rev-
enues of benefices, to have plundered the kingdom of 950,000
marks ; a sum equivalent, perhaps, to not less than fifteen mil-
lions sterling at present. Henry III.'s pusillanimity would
not permit any effectual measures to be adopted ; and in-
deed he sometimes shared in the booty, and was indulged
EccLES. Power. DISAFFECTION TO THE CHURCH. 359
with the produce of taxes imposed upon his own clergy to
defray the cost of his projected war against Sicily. A nobler
example was set by the kingdom of Scotland : Clement IV.
having, in 1267, granted the tithes of its ecclesiastical reve-
nues for one of his mock crusades, King Alexander III., with
the concurrence of the Church, stood up against this en-
croachment, and refused the legate permission to enter his
dominions.
§ 7. These gross invasions of ecclesiastical property, how-
ever submissively endured, produced a very general disaf
fection towards the Court of Rome. Pillaged upon every
slight pretense, without law and without redress, the clergy
came to regard their once paternal monarch as an arbitrary
oppressor. All writers of the thirteenth and following cen-
turies complain in terms of unmeasured indignation, and
seem almost ready to reform the general abuses of the
Church. They distinguished, however, clearly enough be-
tween the abuses which oppressed them and those which it
was their interest to preserve, nor had the least intention of
waiving their own immunities and authority. But the laity
came to more universal conclusions. A spirit of inveterate
hatred grew up among them, not only towards the papal
tyranny, but the whole system of ecclesiastical independ-
ence. The rich envied and longed to plunder the estates of
the superior clergy; the poor learned from the Waldenses
and other sectaries to deem such opulence incompatible with
the character of evangelical ministers. The itinerant min-
strels invented tales to satirize vicious priests, which a pre-
disposed multitude eagerly swallowed. If the thirteenth
century was an age of more extravagant ecclesiastical pre-
tensions than any which had preceded, it was certainly one
in which the disposition to resist them acquired greater con-
sistence.
§ 8. To resist had, indeed, become strictly necessary, if the
temporal governments of Christendom would occupy any
better station than that of officers to the hierarchy. About
the beginning of the twelfth century the ecclesiastical juris-
diction had rapidly encroached upon the secitlar tribunals,
and seemed to threaten the usurpation of an exclusive su
premacy over all persons and causes. The bishops gave the
tonsure indiscriminately, in order to swell the list of their
subjects. This sign of a clerical state, though below the
lowest of their seven degrees of ordination, implying no spir-
itual office, conferred the privileges and immunities of the
profession on all who wore an ecclesiastical habit and had
360 ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION Chap. VII. Part II.
only once been married. Orphans and widows, the stranger
and the poor, the pilgrim and the leper, under the appella-
tion of persons in distress (miserabiles personae), came with-
in the peculiar cognizance and protection of the Church; nor
could they be sued before any lay tribunal. And the whole
body of Crusaders, or such as merely took the vow of engag-
ing in a crusade, enjoyed the same clerical privileges.
But where the character of the litigant parties could not,
even with this large construction, be brought within their
pale, the bishops found a pretext for their jurisdiction in the
nature of the dispute. Spiritual causes alone, it was agreed,
could appertain to the spiritual tribunal. But the word was
indefinite; and according to the interpreters of the twelfth
century the Church was always bound to prevent and chas-
tise the commission of sin. By this sweeping maxim, which
we have seen Innocent III. apply to vindicate his control
over national quarrels, the common differences of individuals,
which generally involve some charge of willful injury, fell
into the hands of a religious judge. One is almost surprised
to find that it did not extend more universally, and might
praise the moderation of the Church. Real actions, or suits
relating to the property of land, were always the exclusive
province of the lay court, even where a clerk was the de-
fendant. But the ecclesiastical tribunals took cognizance
of breaches of contract, at least where an oath had been
pledged, and of personal trusts. They had not only an ex-
clusive jurisdiction over questions immediately matrimonial,
but a concurrent one with the civil magistrate in France,
though never in England, over matters incident to the nup-
tial contract, as claims of marriage-portion and of doAver.
They took the execution of testaments into their hands, on
account of the legacies to pious uses which testators were
advised to bequeath. In process of time, and under favor-
able circumstances, they made still greater strides. They
pretended a right to supply the defects, the doubts, or the
negligence of temporal judges; and invented a class of
mixed causes, whereof the lay or ecclesiastical jurisdiction
took possession according to priority. Besides this exten-
sive authority in civil disputes, they judged of some offenses
which naturally belong to the criminal law, as well as of
some others which participate of a civil and criminal nature.
Such were perjury, sacrilege, usury, incest, and adultery,
from the punishment of all which the secular magistrate re-
frained, at least in England, after they had become the prov-
ince of a separate jurisdiction. Excommunication still con-
EccLES. PowEK. AND IxMMUNlTY. 361
tinued the only chastisement which the Church could direct-
ly inflict. But the bishops acquired a right of having their
own prisons for lay offenders, and the monasteries were the
appropriate prisons of clerks. Their sentences of excommu-
nication were enforced by the temporal magistrate by im-
prisonment or sequestration of effects ; in some cases by con-
fiscation or death.
§ 9. The clergy did not forget to secure along with this
jurisdiction their own absolute exemption from the crim-
inal justice of the state. This had been conceded to them
by Charlemagne ; and this privilege was not enjoyed by
clerks in England before the Conquest ; nor do we find it
proved by any records long afterwards ; though it seems, by
what we read about the constitutions of Clarendon, to have
grown into use before the reign of Henry II. About the
middle of the twelfth century the principle obtained general
reception, and Innocent III. decided it to be an inalienable
right of the clergy, whereof they could not be divested even
by their own consent. Much less were any constitutions of
princes, or national usages, deemed of force to abrogate such
an important privilege. These, by the canon law, were in-
valid when they affected the rights and liberties of Holy
Church. But the spiritual courts were charged with scan-
dalously neglecting to visit the most atrocious offenses of
clerks with such punishment as they could inflict. The
Church could always absolve from her own censures; and
confinement in a monastery, the usual sentence upon criminals,
was frequently slight and temporary. Several instances are
mentioned of heinous outrages that remained nearly unpun-
ished through the shield of ecclesiastical privilege. And as
the temporal courts refused their assistance to a rival juris-
diction, the clergy had no redress for their own injuries, and
even the murder of a priest, at one time, as we are told, was
only punishable by excommunication.
§ 10. Such an incoherent medley of laws and magistrates,
upon the symmetrical arrangement of which all social econ«
omy mainly depends, could not fail to produce a violent col-
lision. Every sovereign was interested in vindicating the
authority of the constitution which had been formed by his
ancestors, or by the people whom he governed. But the
first who undertook this arduous work, the first who appear-
ed openly against ecclesiastical tyranny, was our Henry II.
That king, in the constitutions of Clarendon, attempted in
three respects to limit the jurisdiction assumed by the
Church ; asserting for his own judges the cognizance of con-
16
362 ENDEAVORS TO REPEESS Chap. VII. Part II
tracts, however confirmed by oath, and of rights of advow-
son, and also that of offenses committed by clerks, whom, as it
is gently expressed, after conviction or confession the Church
ought not to protect. These constitutions were the leading
subject of difference between the king and Thomas a Becket.
Most of them were annulled by the pope, as derogatory to
ecclesiastical liberty. It is not improbable, however, that,
if Louis VII. had played a more dignified part, the See of
Rome, which an existing schism rendered dependent upon
the favor of those two monarchs, might have receded in
some measure from her pretensions. But, France implicitly
giving way to the encroachments of ecclesiastical power, it
became impossible for Henry completely to withstand them.
The constitutions of Clarendon, however, produced some
effect, and in the reign of Henry III. more unremitted and
successful efforts began to be made to maintain the inde-
pendence of temporal government. The judges of the King's
Court had until that time been themselves principally ec-
clesiastics, and consequently tender of spiritual privileges.
But now, abstaining from the exercise of temporal jurisdic-
tion, in obedience to the strict injunctions of their canons,
the clergy gave place to common lawyers, professors of a
system very discordant from their own. These soon began
to assert the supremacy of their jurisdiction by issuing writs
of prohibition whenever the ecclesiastical tribunals passed
the boundaries which approved use had established. Little
accustomed to such control, the proud hierarchy chafed un-
der the bit ; several provincial synods protest against the
pretensions of laymen to judge the anointed ministers whom
they were bound to obey ; the cognizance of rights of patron-
age and breaches of contract is boldly asserted ; but firm and
cautious, favored by the nobility, though not much by the
king, the judges receded not a step, and ultimately fixed a
barrier which the Church was forced to respect. In the en-
suing reign of Edward I., an archbishop acknowledges the
^ abstract right of the King's Bench to issue prohibitions ; and
the statute entitled Circumspect^ agatis^ in the thirteenth
year of that prince, while by its mode of expression it seems
, designed to guarantee the actual privileges of spiritual juris-
diction, had a tendency, especially with the disposition of the
judges, to yjreclude the assertion of some which are not there-
in mentioned. Neither the right of advowson nor any tem-
" The statnte Circumspeete agatis, for it is acknowledged as a statute, though not
drawn up in the form of one, is founded upon an answer of Edward I. to the prel-
ates who had petitioned for some modification of prohibitions.
EccLES. Power. ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION. 363
poral contract is specified in this act as pertaining to the
Church ; and accordingly the temporal courts have ever
since maintained an undisputed jurisdiction over them.
They succeeded also partially in preventing the impunity of
crimes perpetrated by clerks. It was enacted by the statute
of Westminster, in 1275, or rather a construction was put
upon that act, which is obscurely worded, that clerks indicted
for felony should not be delivered to their ordinary until an
inquest had been taken of the matter of accusation ; and, if
they were found guilty, that their real and personal estate
should be forfeited to the crown.
§ 11. The vast acquisitions of landed wealth made for many
ages by bishops, chapters, and monasteries, began at length
to excite the jealousy of sovereigns. They perceived that,
although the prelates might send their stipulated proportion
of vassals into the field, yet there could not be that active
co-operation which the spirit of feudal tenures required, and
that the national arm was jjalsied by the diminution of mili-
tary nobles. Again, the reliefs upon succession, and similar
dues upon alienation, incidental to fiefs, were entirely lost
when they came into the hands of these undying corpora-
tions, to the serious injury of the feudal superior. Nor could
it escape reflecting men, during the contest about investi-
tures, that, if the Church peremptorily denied the supremacy
of the state over her temporal wealth, it was but a just
measure of retaliation, or rather self-defense, that the state
should restrain her further acquisitions. Prohibitions of
gifts in mortmain, though unknown to the lavish devotion
of the new kingdoms, had been established by some of the
Koman emperors to check the overgrown wealth of the hie-
rarchy. The first attempt at a limitation of this description
in modern times was made by Frederick Barbarossa, who, in
1158, enacted that no fief should be transferred, either to the
Church or otherwise, without the permission of the superior
lord. Louis IX. inserted a provision of the same kind in his
Establishments. Castile had also laws of a similar tenden-
cy. A license from the crown is said to have been necessary
in England, before the Conquest, for alienation in mortmain ;
but however that may be, there seems no reason to imagine
that any restraint was put upon them by the common law
before Magna Charta — a clause of which statute was con-
strued to prohibit all gifts to religious houses without the
consent of the lord of the fee. And by the 7th Edward I.
alienations in mortmain are absolutely taken away ; though
the king might always exercise his prerogative of granting a
364 BONIFACE VIII. Chap. VII. Part II.
license, which was not supposed to be affected by the stat-
ute.
§ 12. It must appear, I think, to every careful inquirer that
the papal authority, though manifesting outwardly more
show of strength every year, had been secretly undermined,
and lost a great deal of its hold upon public opinion, before
the accession of Boniface VIII., in 1294, to the pontifical
throne. The clergy were rendered sullen by demands of
money, invasions of the legal right of patronage, and unrea-
sonable partiality to the mendicant orders; a part of the men-
dicants themselves had begun to declaim against the corrup-
tions of the papal court : while the laity, subjects alike and
sovereigns, looked upon both the head and the members of
the hierarchy with jealousy and dislike. Boniface, full of in
ordinate arrogance and ambition, and not sufficiently sensi-
ble of this gradual change in human opinion, endeavored to
strain to a higher pitch the despotic pretensions of former
pontiffs. As Gregory VII. appears the most usurping of
mankind till we read the history of Innocent III., so Inno-
cent III. is thrown into shade by the superior audacity of
Boniface VIII. But independently of the less favorable dis-
positions of the public, he wanted the most essential quality
for an ambitious pope — reputation for integrity. He was
suspected of having procured through fraud the resignation
of his predecessor, Celestine V., and his harsh treatment of
that worthy man afterwards seems to justify the reproach.
His actions, however, display the intoxication of supreme self-
Confidence. If we may credit some historians, he appeared
at the Jubilee in 1300 — a festival successfully instituted by
himself to throw lustre around his court and fill his treas-
ury^ — dressed in imperial habits, with the two swords borne
before him, emblems of his temporal as well as spiritual do-
minion over the earth.
It was not long after his elevation to the pontificate be-
fore Boniface displayed his temper. The two most powerful
sovereigns of Europe, Philip the Fair and Edward I., began
at the same moment to attack in a very arbitrary manner
tiie revenues of the Church. The English clergy had, by
their own voluntary grants, or at least those of the prelates
in their name, paid frequent subsidies to the crown from the
beginning of the reign of Henry III. They had nearly in
3 The Jubilee was a centenary commemoration in honor of St. Peter and St. Paul,
established by Boniface VIII. on the faith of an imaginary precedent a century be-
fore. The period was soon reduced to fifty years, and from thence to tw«nty-five, as
It sti\I continues.
EccLES. Power. DISPUTES OF BONIFACE VIII. 365
effect waived the ancient exemption, and retained only the
common privilege of English freemen to tax themselves in a
constitutional manner. But Edward I. came upon them with
demands so frequent and exorbitant, that they were com-
pelled to take advantage of a bull issued by Boniface, forbid-
ding them to pay any contribution to the state. The king
disregarded every pretext, and seizing their goods into his
hands, with other tyrannical proceedings, ultimately forced
them to acquiesce in his extortion. It is remarkable that
the pope appears to have been passive throughout this con-
test of Edward I. with his clergy. But it was far otherwise
in France. Philip the Fair had imposed a tax on the eccle-
siastical order without their consent, a measure perhaps un-
precedented, yet not more odious than the similar exactions
of the King of England. Irritated by some previous differ-
ences, the pope issued his bull known by the initial words
Clericis laicos, absolutely forbidding the clergy of every
kingdom to pay, under whatever pretext of voluntary grant,
gift, or loan, any sort of tribute to their government, with-
out his special permission. Though France was not partic-
ularly named, the king understood himself to be intended,
and took his revenge by a prohibition to export money from
the kingdom. This produced angry remonstrances on the
part of Boniface ; but the Galilean Church adhered so faith-
fully to the crown, and showed, indeed, so much willingness
to be spoiled of their money, that he could not insist upon
the most unreasonable proj^ositions of his bull, and ultimate-
ly allowed that the French clergy might assist their sover-
eign by voluntary contributions, though not by way of tax.
For a very few years after these circumstances the pope
and king of France appeared reconciled to each other; and
the latter even referred his disputes with Edward I. to the
arbitration of Boniface, " as a private person, Benedict of
Gaeta (his proper name), and not as pontiff;" an almost nu-
gatory precaution against his encroachment upon temporal
authority. But a terrible storm broke out in the first year
of the fourteenth century. A bishop of Pamiers, who had
been sent as legate from Boniface with some complaint, dis-
played so much insolence and such disrespect towards the
king, that Philip, considering him as his own subject, was
provoked to put him under arrest, with the view to institute
a criminal process. Boniface, incensed beyond measure at
this violation of ecclesiastical and legatine privileges, pub-
lished several bulls addressed to the king and clergy of
France, charging the former with a variety of offenses, sonie
366 DISPUTES OF BONIFACE VIII. Chap. VII. Part II,
of them not at all concerning the Church, and commanding
the latter to attend a council which he had summoned to
meet at Rome. In one of these instruments, the genuineness
of which does not seem liable to much exception, he declares
in concise and clear terms that the king was subject to him
in temporal as well as spiritual matters. This proposition
had not hitherto been explicitly advanced, and it was now
too late to advance it. Philip replied by a short letter in
the rudest language, and ordered his bulls to be publicly
burned at Paris. Determined, however, to show the real
strength of his opposition, he summoned representatives from
the three orders of his kingdom. This is commonly reck-
oned the first assembly of the States-General. The nobility
and commons disclaimed with firmness the temporal au-
thority of the pope, and conveyed their sentiments to Rome
through letters addressed to the college of cardinals. The
clergy endeavored to steer a middle course, and were re-
luctant to enter into an engagement not to obey the pope's
summons ; yet they did not hesitate unequivocally to deny
his temporal jurisdiction.
The council, however, opened at Rome; and notwith-
standing the king's absolute prohibition, many French prel-
ates held themselves bound to be present. In this assembly
Boniface promulgated his famous constitution, denominated
Unam scmctam. The Church is one body, he therein de-
clares, and has one head. Under its command are two
swords, the one spiritual, the other temporal ; that to be
used by the supreme pontiff himself; this by kings and
knights, by his license and at his will. But the lesser sword
must be subject to the greater, and the temporal to the spir-
itual authority. He concludes by declaring the subjection
of every human being to the See of Rome to be an article
of necessary faith. Another bull pronounces all persons of
whatever rank obliged to appear when personally cited be-
fore the audience or apostolical tribunal at Rome ; " since
such is our pleasure, who, by divine permission, rule the
world." Finally, as the rupture of Philip grew more evi-
dently irreconcilable, and the measures pursued by that
monarch more hostile, he not only excommunicated him, but
offered the crown of France to the Emperor Albert I. This
arbitrary transference of kingdoms was, like manj^ other
pretensions of that age, an improvement upon the right of
deposing excommunicated sovereigns. Gregory VJI. would
not have denied that a nation released by his authority from
its allegiance must re-enter upon its original right of elect-
EccLEs. Power. WITH THE KING OF FRANCE. , 367
ing a new sovereign. But Martin IV. had assigned the
crown of Aragon to Charles of Yalois; the first instance, I
think, of such an usurpation of power, but which was de-
fended by the homage of Peter XL, who had rendered his
kingdom feudally dependent, like Naples, upon the Holy See.
Albert felt no eagerness to realize the liberal promises of
Boniface, who was on the point of issuing a bull absolving
the subjects of Philip from their allegiance, and declaring
his forfeiture, when a very unexpected circumstance inter-
rupted all his projects.
Philip gave too much the air of a personal quarrel with
Boniface to what should have been a resolute opposition to
the despotism of Rome. Accordingly, in an assembly of his
states at Paris, he preferred virulent charges against the
pope, denying him to have been legitimately elected, imput-
ing to him various heresies, and ultimately appealing to a
general council and a lawful head of the Church. These
measures were not very happily planned; and experience
had always shown that Europe would not submit to change
the common chief of her religion for the purposes of a single
sovereign. But Philip succeeded in an attempt apparent-
ly more bold and singular. Nogaret, a minister who had
taken an active share in all the proceedings against Boni-
face, was secretly dispatched into Italy, and, joining with
some of the Colonna family, proscribed as Ghibelins, and
rancorously persecuted by the pope, arrested him at Anag-
nia, a town in the neighborhood of Rome, to which he had
gone without guards. This violent action was not, one
would imagine, calculated to place the king in an advanta-
geous light; yet it led accidentally to a favorable termina-
tion of his dispute. Boniface was soon rescued by the in-
habitants of Anagnia ; but rage brought on a fever which
ended in his death; and the first act of his successor, Bene-
dict XL, was to reconcile the King of France to the Holy See.
§ 13. The sensible decline of the papacy is to be dated
from the pontificate of Boniface VHL, who had strained its
authority to a higher pitch than any of his predecessors.
There is a spell wrought by uninterrupted good-fortune,
which captivates men's understandings, and persuades them,
against reasoning and analogy, that violent power is immor-
tal and irresistible. The spell is broken by the first change
of success. The tacit submission of the successors of Boni-
face VHL to the King of France might have been hailed by
Europe as a token that their influence was beginning to
abate. Imprisoned, insulted, deprived eventually of life by
368 DECLINE OF THE PAPACY. Chap. VII. Part M.
the violence of Philip, a prince excommunicated, and who had
gone all lengths in defying and despising the papal jurisdic-
tion, Boniface had every claim to be avenged by the inherit-
ors of the same spiritual dominion. When Benedict XI. re-
scinded the bulls of his predecessor, and admitted Philip the
Fair to communion, without insisting on any concessions, he
acted perhaps prudently, but gave a fatal blow to the tem-
poral authority of Rome.
Benedict XL lived but a few months, and his successor,
Clement Y., at the instigation, as is commonly supposed, of
the King of France, by whose influence he had been elected,
took the extraordinary step of removing the papal chair to
Avignon (a.d. 1305). In this city it remained for more than
seventy years ; a period which Petrarch and other writers
of Italy compare to that of the Babylonish captivity. The
majority of the cardinals w^as always French, and the popes
were uniformly of the same nation. Timidly dependent
upon the Court of France, they neglected the interests and
lost the affections of Italy. Rome, forsaken by her sover-
eign, nearly forgot her allegiance ; what remained of papal
authority in the ecclesiastical territories was exercised by
cardinal legates, little to the honor or advantage of the
Holy See. Yet the series of Avignon pontiffs were far from
insensible to Italian politics. These occupied, on the con-
trary, the greater part of their attention. But engaging in
them from motives too manifestly selfish, and being regard-
ed as a sort of foreigners from birth and residence, they ag-
gravated that unpopularity and bad reputation which from
various other causes attached itself to their court.
§ 14. Though none of the supreme pontiffs after Bonifaqe
YIII. ventured upon such explicit assumptions of a general
jurisdiction over sovereigns by divine right as he had made
in his controversy with Philip, they maintained one memo-
rable struggle for temporal power against the Emperor Louis,
of Bavaria. His predecessor, Henry YIL, whose measures,
much to the alarm of the Court of Avignon, were directed
towards the restoration of his imperial rights in Italy, had
conferred the rank of vicar of the empire upon Matteo Yis-
conti, lord of Milan. The popes had for some time pretend-
ed to possess that vicariate, during a vacancy of the empire;
and after Llenry's death insisted upon Yisconti's surrender
of the title. A war ensued between the pope's legate and
the Yisconti family. The Emperor Louis sent assistance to
the latter, as heads of the Ghibelin or imperial party. This
interference cost him above twenty years of trouble. John
EccLES. Power. PAPAL COURT AT AVIGNON. 369
XXII., a mail as passionate and ambitious as Boniface him-
self, immediately published a bull in which he asserted the
right of- administering the empire during its vacancy (even
in Germany, as it seems from the generality of his expres-
sion), as well as of deciding in a doubtful choice of the elect-
ors, to appertain to the Holy See ; and commanded Louis to
lay down his pretended authority until the supreme juris-
diction should determine upon his election. Louis's election
Iiad, indeed, been questionable ; but that controversy was al-
ready settled in the field of Mnhldorf, where he had obtained
a victory over his competitor, the Duke of Austria; nor had
the pope ever interfered to appease a civil war during sev-
eral years that Germany had been internally distracted by
the dispute. The emperor, not yielding to this peremptory
order, was excommunicated ; his vassals were absolved from
their oath of fealty, and all treaties of alliance between him
and foreign princes annulled (a.d. 1323). Germany, how-
ever, remained firm ; and if Louis himself had manifested
more decision of mind and uniformity in his conduct, the
Court of Avignon must have signally failed in a contest
from which it did not, in fact, come out very successful. But
while at one time he went intemperate lengths against
John XXII., publishing scandalous accusations in an assem-
bly of the citizens of Rome, and causing a Franciscan friar
to be chosen in his room, after an irregular sentence of depo
sition, he was always anxious to negotiate terms of accom-
modation, to give up his own active partisans, and to make
concessions the most derogatory to his independence and
dignity. From John, indeed, he had nothing to expect ; but
Benedict XII. would gladly have been reconciled, if he had
not feared the kings of France and Naples, political adversa-
ries of the emperor, who kept the Avignon popes in a sort
of servitude. His successor, Clement VI., inherited the im-
placable animosity of John XXII. towards Louis, who died
without obtaining the absolution he had long abjectly so-
licited.
§ 15. Though the want of firmness in this emperor's char-
acter gave sometimes a momentary triumph to the popes, it
is evident that their authority lost ground during the con-
tinuance of this struggle. Their right of confirming imperi-
al elections was expressly denied by a Diet held at Frankfort
in 1338, which established as a fundamental principle that the
imperial dignity depended upon God alone, and that who-
ever should be chosen by a majority of the electors became
immediately both king and emperor, with all prerogatives
16*
370 RAPACITY OF AVIGNON POPES. Chap. VII. Part 11
of that station, and did not require the approbation of the
pope. This law, confirmed as it was by subsequent usage,
emancipated the German Empire, which was immediately
concerned in opposing the papal claims. But some who were
actively engaged in these transactions took more extensive
views, and assailed the whole edifice of temporal power which
the Roman See had been constructing for more than two
centuries. Several men of learning, among whom Dante,
Ockham, and Marsilius of Padua are the most conspicuous,
investigated the foundations of this superstructure, and ex-
posed their insufficiency. Literature, too long the passive
handmaid of spiritual despotism, began to assert her nobler
birthright of ministering to liberty and truth. Though the
writings of these opponents of Rome are not always rea-
soned upon very solid principles, they at least taught man-
kind to scrutinize what had been received with implicit re-
spect, and prepared the way for more philosophical discus^
sions. About this time a new class of enemies had unex-
pectedly risen up against the rulers of the Church. These
were a part of the Franciscan order who had seceded from
the main body on account of alleged deviations from the
rigor of their primitive rule. Their schism was chiefly found-
ed upon a quibble about the right of property in things con-
sumable, whieh they maintained to be incompatible with the
absolute poverty prescribed to them. This frivolous sophis-
try was united with the wildest fanaticism ; and as John
XXII. attempted to repress their follies by a cruel persecu-
tion, they proclaimed aloud the corruption of the Church,
fixed the name of Antichrist upon the papacy, and warmly
supported the Emperor Louis throughout all his contention
with the Holy See.*
Meanwhile, the popes who sat at Avignon continued to
invade with surprising rapaciousness the patronage and rev-
enues of the Church. The mandats, or letters, directing a
particular clerk to be preferred seem to have given place in
a great degree to the more effectual method of appropria-
ting benefices by reservation or provision, which was carried
to an enormous extent in the fourteenth century. John
XXIL, the most insatiate of pontiffs, reserved to himself all
the bishoprics in Christendom. Benedict XII. assumed the
privilege for his own life of disposing of all benefices vacant
by cession, deprivation, or translation. Clement VI. natural
•^; * The schism of the rigid Franciscans or Fraticelli is one of the most singular parts
'Vf ecclesiastical history, and had a material tendency both to depress the tempora]
authority of the papacy and to pave the way for the Reformation.
EccLES. Power. RAPACITY OF AVIGNON POPES. 371
ly thought that his title was equally good with his prede-
cessors', and continued the same right for his own time;
which soon became a permanent rule of the Roman Chancery.
Hence the appointment of a prelate to a rich bishopric was
generally but the first link in a chain of translation which the
pope could regulate according to his interest. Another cap-
ital innovation was made by John XXII. in the establish-
ment of the famous tax called A7inates, or first-fruits of ec-
clesiastical benefices, which he imposed for his own benefit.
These were one year's value, estimated according to a fixed
rate in the books of the Roman Chancery, and payable to the
papal collectors throughout Europe. Various other devi-
ces were invented to obtain money, which these degenerate
popes, abandoning the magnificent schemes of their prede-
cessors, were content to seek as their principal object. John
XXII. is said to have accumulated an almost incredible
treasure, exaggerated perhaps by the ill-will of his contem-
poraries ; but it may be doubted whether even his avarice
reflected greater dishonor on the Church than the licentious
profuseness of Clement VI.
These exactions were too much encouraged by the kings of
France, who participated in the plunder, or at least required
a mutual assistance of the popes for their own imposts on the
clergy. A manlier spirit was displayed by our ancestors.
It was the boast of England to have placed the first legal
barrier to the usurpations of Rome, if we except the insu-
lated Pragmatic Sanction of St. Louis, from which the prac-
tice of succeeding ages in France entirely deviated. The
English barons had, in a letter addressed to Boniface VIII.,
absolutely disclaimed his temporal supremacy over their
crown, which he had attempted to set up by intermeddling
in the quarrel of Scotland. This letter, it is remarkable, is
nearly coincident in point of time with that of the French
nobility ; and the two combined may be considered as a
joint protestation of both kingdoms, and a testimony to the
general sentiment among the superior ranks of the laity. A
very few years afterwards the Parliament of Carlisle wrote
a strong remonstrance to Clement V. against the system of
provisions and other extortions, including that of first-fruits,
which it was rumored, they say, he was meditating to de-
mand. But the Court of Avignon was not to be moved by
remonstrances ; and the feeble administration of Edward II.
gave way to ecclesiastical usurpations at home as well as
abroad. His magnanimous son took a bolder line. After
complaining ineffectually to Clement VI. of the enormous
372 RETURN OF POPES TO ROME. Chap. VII. Part II.
abuse which reserved almost all English benefices to the
pope, and generally for the benefit of aliens, he passed, in 1350,
the famous Statute of Provisors. This act, reciting one
supposed to have been made at the Parliament of Carlisle,
which, however, does not appear, and complaining in strong
language of the mischief sustained through continual reser-
vations of benefices, enacts that all elections and collations
shall be free, according to law, and that, in case any provision
or reservation should be made by the Court of Rome, the
king should for that turn have the collation of such a bene-
fice, if it be of ecclesiastical election or patronage. This dev-
olution to the crown, w^hich seems a little arbitrary, was the
only remedy that could be effectual against the connivance
and timidity of chapters and spiritual patrons. We can not
assert that a statute so nobly planned was executed with
equal steadiness. Sometimes by royal dispensation, some-
times by neglect or evasion, the papal bulls of provision
were still obeyed, though fresh laws were enacted to the
same eflTect as the former. It was found, on examination in
1367, that some clerks enjoyed more than twenty benefices
by the pope's dispensation. And the Parliaments both of
this and of Richard IL's reign invariably complain of the
disregard shown to the statute of provisors. This led to
other measures, which I shall presently mention.
§ 16. The residence of the popes at Avignon gave very
general offense to Europe, and they could not themselves
avoid perceiving the disadvantage of absence from their
proper diocese, the city of St. Peter, the source of all their
claims to sovereign authority. But Rome, so long aban-
doned, ofifered but an inhospitable reception; Urban V. re-
turned to Avignon, after a short experiment of the capital;
and it was not till 1376 that the promise, often repeated, and
long delayed, of restoring the papal chair to the metropolis
of Christendom, was ultimately fulfilled by Gregory XL
His death, which happened soon afterwards, prevented, it is
said, a second flight that he was preparing (a.d. 1378). This
was followed by the great schism, one of the most remarka-
ble events in ecclesiastical history. It is a diflScult and by
no means an interesting question to determine the validity
of that contested election Avhich distracted the Latin Church
for so many years. In one fi;ict, however, there is a common
agreement, that the cardinals, of whom the majority were
French, having assembled in conclave for the election of a
successor to Gregory XL, were disturbed by a tumultuous
.populace, who demanded, wdth menaces, a Roman, or at least
EccLES. Power. ORIGIN OF THE GREAT SCHISM. 373
an Italian, pope. This tumult appears to have been suffi-
ciently violent to excuse, and in fact did produce, a consid-
erable degree of intimidation. After some time the cardi-
nals made choice of the Archbishop of Bari, a Neapolitan,
who assumed the name of Urban VI. His election satisfied
the populace, and tranquillity was restored. The cardinals
announced their choice to the absent members of their col-
lege, and behaved towards Urban as their pope for several
weeks. But his uncommon harshness of temper giving them
offense, they withdrew to a neighboring town, and, protest-
ing that his election had been compelled by the violence of
the Roman populace, annulled the whole proceeding, and
chose one of their own number, who took the pontifical name
of Clement VII. Such are the leading circumstances which
produced the famous schism. The two competitors shared
the obedience of Europe in nearly equal proportions. Urban
remained at Rome, Clement resumed the station of Avignon.
To the former adhered Italy, the empire, England, and the
nations of the North ; the latter retained^ in his allegiance
France, Spain, Scotland, and Sicily. Fortunately for the
Church, no question of religious faith intermixed itself with
this schism ; nor did any other impediment to reunion exist
than the obstinacy and selfishness of the contending parties.
As it was impossible to come to any agreement on the orig
inal merits, there seemed to be no means of healing the wound
but by the abdication of both popes and a fresh undisputed
election. This was the general wish of Europe, but urged
with particular zeal by the Court of France, and, above all,
by the university of Paris, which esteems this period the
most honorable in her annals. The cardinals, however, of
neither obedience would recede so far from their party as to
suspend the election of a successor upon a vacancy of the
pontificate, which would have at least removed one-half of
the obstacle. The Roman conclave, accordingly, placed three
pontiffs successively — Boniface IX., Innocent VI., and Greg-
ory XII. — in the seat of Urban VI. ; and the cardinals at Avig-
non, upon the death of Clement in 1394, elected Benedict
XIII. (Peter de Luna), famous for his inflexible obstinacy in
prolonging the schism. He repeatedly promised to sacrifice
his dignity for the sake of union. But there was no subter-
fuge to which this crafty pontiff had not recourse in order to
avoid compliance with his word, though importuned, threat-
ened, and even besieged in his palace at Avignon. Fatigued
by his evasions, France withdrew her obedience, and the Gal-
ilean Church continued for a few years without acknovvledg-
♦
37i^ COUNCILS OF PISA AND CONSTANCE. Ch VII. Pt. II.
ing ny supreme head. But this step, which was rather the
measure of the University of Paris than of the nation, it
seemed advisable to retract ; and Benedict was again obey-
ed, though France continued to urge his resignation. A sec-
ond subtraction of obedience, or at least declaration of neu-
trality, was resolved upon, as preparatory to the convocation
of a general council. On the other hand, those who sat at
Rome displayed not less insincerity. Gregory XII. bound
himself by oath, on his accession, to abdicate when it should
appear necessary. But while these rivals were loading each
other with the mutual reproach of schism, they drew on them-
selves the suspicion of at least a virtual collusion in order to
retain their respective stations. At length the cardinals of
both parties, wearied with so much dissimulation, deserted
their masters, and summoned a general council to meet at
Pisa.
§ 17, The council assembled at Pisa (1409), deposed both
Gregory and Benedict, without deciding, in any respect, as to
their pretensions^ and elected Alexander V. by its own su-
preme authority. This authority, however, was not univer-
sally recognized ; the schism, instead of being healed, became
more desperate ; for, as Spain adhered firml}^ to Benedict, and
Gregory was not without supporters, there were now three
contending pontiffs in the Church. A general council was
still, however, the favorite, and indeed the sole remedy ; and
John XXIII., successor to Alexander V., was reluctantly
prevailed upon, or perhaps trepanned, into convoking one to
meet at Constance (1414). In this celebrated assembly he
was himself deposed — a sentence which he incurred by that
tenacious clinging to his dignity, after repeated promises to
abdicate, which had already proved fatal to his competitors.
The deposition of John, confessedly a legitimate pope, may
strike us as an extraordinary measure. But, besides the op-
portunity it might afford of restoring union, the council found
a pretext for this sentence in his enormous vices, which indeed
they seem to have taken upon common fame, without any judi-
cial process. The true motive, however, of their proceedings
against him was a desire to make a signal display of a new
system, which had rapidly gained ground, and which I may
venture to call the whig principles of the Catholic Church.
A great question was at issue — whether the polity of that es-
tablishment should be an absolute or an exceedingly limited
monarchy. The papal tyranny, long endured, and still in-
creasing, had excited an active spirit of reformation which the
most distinguished ecclesiastics of France and other coun-
EccLEs. Power. COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. 375
tries encouraged. They recurred, as far as their knowledge
allowed, to a more primitive discipline than the canon law,
and elevated the supremacy of general councils. But in the
formation of these they did not scruple to introduce material
innovations. The bishops have usually been considered the
sole members of ecclesiastical assemblies. At Constance,
however, sat and voted not only the chiefs of monasteries,
but the ambassadors of all Christian princes, the deputies
of universities, with a multitude of inferior theologians, and
even doctors of law. These were naturally accessible to the
pride of sudden elevation, which enabled them to control the
strong and humiliate the lofty. In addition to this, the adver-
saries of the Court of Rome carried another not less impor-
tant innovation. The Italian bishops, almost universally in the
papal interests, were so numerous that, if suffrages had been
taken by the head, their preponderance would have impeded
any measures of transalpine nations towards reformation.
It was determined, therefore, that the council should divide
itself into four nations, the Italian, the German, the French,
and the English, each with equal rights; and that, every
proposition having been separately discussed, the majority of
the four should prevail. This revolutionary spirit was very
unacceptable to the cardinals, who submitted reluctantly, and
with a determination that did not prove altogether unavail-
ing, to save their papal monarchy by a dexterous policy.
They could not, however, prevent the famous resolutions of
the fourth and fifth sessions, which declare that the council
has received, by Divine right, an authority to which every
rank, even the papal, is obliged to submit, in matters of faith,
in the extirpation of the present schism, and in the reforma-
tion of the Church, both in its head and its members ; and
that every person, even a pope, who shall obstinately refuse
to obey that council, or any other lawfully assembled, is liable
to such punishment as shall be necessary. These decrees are
the great pillars of that moderate theory, with respect to the
papal authority, which distinguished the Galilean Church.
The purpose for which these general councils had been re-
quired, next to that of healing the schism, was the reformat
tion of abuses. All the rapacious exactions, all the scandalous
venality of which Europe had complained, while unquestioned
pontiffs ruled at Avignon, appeared light in comparison of
the practices of both rivals during the schism. Tenths re-
peatedly levied upon the clergy, annats rigorously exacted,
and enhanced by new valuations, fees annexed to the compli-
cated formalities of the papal chancery, were the means by
376 COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. Chap. VII. Part 1 1.
, which each halt of the Church was compelled to reimburse
its chief for the subtraction of the other's obedience. Boni
face IX., one of the Roman line, Avhose fame is a little worse
than that of his antagonists, made a gross traffic of his patron-
age — selling the privileges of exemption from ordinary juris-
diction, of holding benefices in commendam, and other dis-
pensations, invented for the benefit of the Holy See. Noth-
ing had been attempted at Pisa towards reformation. At Con-
stance the majority were ardent and sincere ; the representa-
tives of the French, German, and English Churches met witb
a determined and, as we have seen, not always unsuccessful
resolution to assert their ecclesiastical liberties. They ap-
pointed a committee of reformation, whose recommendations,
if carried into effect, would have annihilated almost entirely
that artfully constructed machinery by which Rome had ab-
sorbed so much of the revenues and patronage of the Church.
But men interested in perpetuating these abuses, especially
the cardinals, improved the advantages which a skillful gov-
ernment always enjoys in playing against a popular assembly.
They availed themselves of the jealousies arising out of the
division of the council into nations, which exterior political
circumstances had enhanced. France, then at war with En-
gland, whose pretensions to be counted as a fourth nation she
had warmly disputed, and not well-disposed towards the Em-
peror Sigismund, joined with the Italians against the English
and German members of the council in a matter of the utmost
importance — the immediate election of a pope before the arti-
cles of reformation should be finally concluded. These two
nations, in return, united with the Italians to choose the Car-
dinal Colonna, against the advice of the French divines, who
objected to any member of the sacred college. The Court
of Rome were gainers in both questions. Martin V., the new
2:)ope, soon evinced his determination to elude any substantial
reform. After publishing a few constitutions, tending to re-
dress some of the abuses that had arisen during the schism,
he contrived to make separate conventions with the several
nations, and as soon as possible dissolved the council.
§ 18. By one of the decrees passed at Constance, another
general council was to be assembled in five years, a second at
the end of seven more, and from that time a similar repre-
sentation of the Church was to meet every ten years. Mar-
tin V. accordingly convoked a council at Pavia, which, on ac-
count of the plague, was transferred to Siena; but nothing
of importance was transacted by this assembly. That which
he summoned seven years afterwards to the city of Basle had
EccLEs. Power. COUNCIL OF BASJiE. 377
very different results (a.d. 1433). The pope, dying before the
meeting of this council, was succeeded by Eugenius IV., who,
anticipating the spirit of its discussions, attempted to crush
its independence in the outset, by transferring the place of
session to an Italian city. No point was reckoned so mate-
rial in the contest between the popes and reformers as whetli
er a council should sit in Italy or beyond the Alps. The
Council of Basle began, as it proceeded, in open enmity to the
Court of Rome. Eugenius, after several years had elapsed
in more or less hostile discussions, exerted his prerogative of
removing the assembly to Ferrara, and from thence to Flor-
ence. For this he had a specious pretext in the negotiation,
then apparently tending to a prosperous issu^, for the re-union
of the Greek Church j a triumph, however transitory, of which
his council at Florence obtained the glory. On the other
hand, the assembly at Basle, though much weakened by the
defection of those who adhered to Eugenius, entered into
compacts Avith the Bohemian insurgents more essential to
the interests of the Church than any union with the Greeks,
and completed the work begun at Constance by abolishing
the annats, the reservations of benefices, and other abuses
of papal authority. In this it received the approbation of
most princes ; but w^hen, provoked by the endeavors of the
pope to frustrate its decrees, it proceeded so far as lo suspend
and even to depose him, neither France nor Germany concur-
red in the sentence. Even the Council of Constance had not
absolutely asserted a right of deposing a lawful pope, except
in case of heresy, though their conduct towards John could
not otherwise be justified. This question, indeed, of ecclesi-
astical public law seems to be still undecided. The- fathers
of Basle acted, however, with greater intrepidity than discre-
tion, and, not perhaps sensible of the change that w^as taking
place in public opinion, raised Amadeus, a retired duke of
Savoy, to the pontifical dignity by the name of Felix V.
They thus renewed the schism, and divided the obedience
of the Catholic Church for a few years. The empire, how-
ever, as well as France, observed a singular and not very
consistent neutrality ; respecting Eugenius as a lawful pope,
and the assembly at Basle as a general council. England
warmly supported Eugenius, and even adhered to his coun-
cil at Florence ; Aragon and some countries of smaller note
acknowledged Felix. But the partisans of Basle became
every year weaker; and Nicolas V., the successor of Euge-
nius, found no great difficulty in obtaining the cession of
Felix, and terminating: this schism. This victory of the Court
878 COUNCIL OF BASLE, Chap. VII. Part II.
of Rome over the Coun-cil of Basle nearly counterbalanced the
disadvantageous events at Constance, and put an end to the
project of lixing permanent limitations upon the head of the
Church by means of general councils. Though the decree
that prescribed the convocation of a council every ten years
was still unrepealed, twice alone lias the Catholic Church
been convoked since the Council of Basle.
It is a natural subject of speculation, what would have
been the effects of these universal councils, which were so
popular in the fifteenth century, if the decree passed at Con-
stance for their periodical assembly had been regularly ob-
served. Many Catholic writers, of the moderate or Cisal-
pine school, have lamented their disuse, and ascribed to it
that irreparable breach which the Reformation has made in
the fabric of their Church. But beyond the zeal, unques-
tionably sincere, which animated their members, especially
at Basle, for the abolition of papal abuses, there is nothing
to praise in their conduct, or to regret in their cessation.
The statesman who dreaded the encroachments of priests
upon the civil government, the Christian who panted to see
his rites and faith purified from the corruption of ages, found
no hope of improvement in these councils. They took upon
themselves the pretensions of the popes whom they attempt-
ed to supersede. By a decree of the fathers at Constance.
all persons, including princes, who should oppose any obsta-
cle to a journey undertaken by the Emperor Sigismund, in
order to obtain the cession of Benedict, are declared excom-
municated, and deprived of their dignities, whether secular
or ecclesiastical. Their condemnation of Huss and Jerome
of Prague, and the scandalous breach of faith which they in
duced Sigismund to commit on that occasion, are notorious.
But perhaps it is not equally so that this celebrated assem-
bly recognized by a solemn decree the flagitious principle
which it had practised, declaring that Huss was unworthy,
through his obstinate adherence to heresy, of any privilege ;
nor ought any faith or promise to be kept with him, by natu-
ral, divine, or human law, to the prejudice of the Catholic
religion.^ It will be easy to estimate the claims of this con-
6 This proposition is the great disgrace of the council in the affair of Huss. But
the violation of his safe-conduct being a famous event in ecclesiastical history, and
which has been very much disputed with some degree of erroneous statement on
both sides, it may be proper to give briefly an impartial summary. 1. Huss came to
Constance with a safe-conduct of the emperor very loosely worded, and not direct-
ed to any individuals. Lenfant, t. i., p. 59. 2. This pass, however, was binding
upon the emperor himself, and was so considered by him, when he remonstrated
against the arrest of Hnss. Id., p. 73, 83: 3. It was not binding on the council, who
Doseessed no temporal power, but had a right to decide upon the question of heresy.
EcCLES. Power. STAND AGAINST PAPAL DESPOTISM. 379
gress of theologians to our veneration, and to weigh the re-
trenchment of a few abuses against the formal sanction of an
atrocious maxim.
§ 19. It was not, however, necessary for any government
of tolerable energy to seek the reform of those abuses which
affected the independence of national churches, and the in-
tegrity of their regular discipline, at the hands of a general
council. Whatever difficulty there might be in overturning
the principles founded on the decretals of Isidore, and sanc-
tioned by the prescription of many centuries, the more fla^
grant encroachments of papal tyranny were fresh innova-
tions, some within the actual generation, others easily to be
traced up, and continually disputed. The principal Euro-
pean nations determined, with different degrees indeed of
energy, to make a stand against the despotism of Rome. In
this resistance England was not only the first engaged, but
the most consistent ; her free Parliament preventing, as far
as the times permitted, that wavering policy to which a court
is liable. We have already seen that a foundation was laid
in the statute of pro visors under Edward III. In the next"
reign many other measui'es tending to repress the interfer-
ence of Rome were adopted, especially the great statute of
praemunire, which subjects all persons bringing papal bulls
for translation of bishops, and other enumerated purposes,
into the kingdom to the penalties of forfeiture and perpetual
imprisonment. This act received, and probably was de-
signed to receive, a larger interpretation than its language
appears to warrant. Combined with the statute of provi-
sors,it put a stop to the pope's usurpation of patronage, which
had impoverished the church and kingdom of England for
nearly two centuiies. Several attempts were made to over-
throw these enactments; the first Parliament of Henry lY.
gave a very large power to the king over the statute of pro-
visors, enabling him even to annul it at his pleasure. This,
however, does not appear in the statute-book. Henry in-
deed, like his predecessors, exercised rather largely his pre-
4. It is not manifest by what civil authority Huss was arrested, nor can I determine
how far the imperial safe-conduct was a legal protection within the city of Con-
stance. 5. Sigismund was persuaded to acquiesce in the capital punishment of
Huss, and even to make it his own act (Lenfant, p. 409) ; by which he manifestly
broke his engagement. 6. It is evident that in this he acted by the advice and sanc-
tion of the council, who thus became accessory to the guilt of his treachery.
The great moral to be drawn from the story of John Huss's condemnation is, that
no breach of faith can be excused by our opinion of ill-desert in the party, or by a
narrow interpretation of our own engagements. Every capitulation ought to be
, construed favorably for the weaker side. In such cases it is emphatically true that
fc- if the letter killeth, the spirit should give life.
380 EFFORTS TO RESTRAIN Chap. VII. Part II.
rogative of dispensing with the law against papal provisions ;
a prerogative which, as to this point, was itself taken away by
an act of his own, and another of his son, Henry Y. But the
statnte always stood unrepealed; and it is a satisfactory proof
of the ecclesiastical supremacy of the legislature that in the
concordat made by Martin V., at the Council of Constance,
with the English nation, we find no mention of reservation
of benefices, of annats, and the other principal grievances of
that age ; our ancestors disdaining to accept by compromise
with the pope any modification, or even confirmation of their
statute law. They had already restrained another flagrant
abuse, the increase of first-fruits by Boniface IX. ; an act of
Henry IV. forbidding any greater sum to be paid on that
account than had been formerly accustomed.
It will appear evident to every person acquainted with
the contemporary historians, and the proceedings of Parlia-
ment, that, besides partaking in the general resentment of
Europe against the papal court, England was under the in-
fluence of a peculiar hostility to the clergy, arising from the
dissemination of the principles of Wicliff. All ecclesiastical
possessions were marked for spoliation by the system of this
reformer; and the House of Commons more than once endeav-
ored to carry it into eflTect, pressing Henry IV. to seize the
temporalities of the Church for public exigencies. This rec-
ommendation, besides its injustice, was not likely to move
Henry, whose policy had been to sustain the prelacy against
their new adversaries. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction was kept
in better control than formerly by the judges of common law,
who, through rather a strained construction of the statute of
praemunire, extended its penalties to the spiritual courts when
they transgressed their limits. The privilege of clergy in
criminal cases still remained ; but it was acknowledged not
to comprehend high treason.
Germany, as well as England, was disappointed of her
hopes of general reformation by the Italian party at Con-
stance; but she did not supply the want of the council's de-
crees with suflicient decision. The concordats of Aschaflen-
burg, in 1448, surrendered great part of the independence for
which Germany had contended. The pope retained his an-
nats, or at least a sort of tax in their place ; and instead of
reserving benefices arbitrarily, he obtained the positive right
of collation during six alternate months of every year. Epis-
copal elections were freely restored to the chapters, except
in case of translation, when the pope still continued to nom»
inate ; as he did also if any person, canonically unfit, were
EccLES. Power. PAPAL USURPATIONS. 381
N
presented to him for confirmation. Rome, for the remainder
of the fifteenth century, not satisfied with the terms she had
imposed, is said to have continually encroached upon the
right of election. But she purchased too dearly her triumph
over the weakness of Frederick III., and the Hundred Griev-
ances of Germany, presented to Adrian VI. by the Diet of
Nuremberg in 1522, manifested the working of a long-treas-
ured resentment, that had made straight the path before the
Saxon reformer.
France, dissatisfied with the abortive termination of her
exertions during the schism, rejected the concordat offered
by Martin v., which held out but a promise of imperfect ref-
ormation. She suff*ered in consequence the papal exactions for
some years, till the decrees of the Council of Basle prompted
lier to more vigorous efforts for independence, and Charles
VII. enacted the famous Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges. This
has been deemed a sort of Magna Charta of the Galilean
Church ; for though the law was speedily abrogated, its prin-
ciple has remained fixed as the basis of ecclesiastical liber-
ties. By the Pragmatic Sanction a general council was de-
clared superior to the pope ; elections of bishops were made
free from all control ; mandats or grants in expectancy, and
reservations of benefices, were taken away ; first-fruits were
abolished. This defalcation of wealth, which had now be-
come dearer than power, could not be patiently borne at
Rome. Pius II., the same ^neas Sylvius who had sold him-
self to oppose the Council of Basle, in whose service he had
been originally distinguished, used every endeavor to pro-
cure the repeal of this ordinance. With Charles VII. he had
no success; but Louis XL, partly out of blind hatred to his
father's memory, partly from a delusive expectation that the
pope would support the Angevin faction in Naples, repealed
the Pragmatic Sanction. This may be added to other proofs
that Louis XL, even according to the measures of worldly
wisdom, was not a wise politician. His people judged from
better feelings ; the Parliament of Paris constantly refused
to enregister the revocation of that favorite law, and it con-
tinued in many respects to be acted upon until the reign of
Francis L At the States-General of Tours, in 1484, the in-
ferior clergy, seconded by the two other orders, earnestly
requested that the Pragmatic Sanction might be confirmed ;
but the prelates were timid or corrupt, and the regent Anne
was unwilling to risk a quarrel with the Holy See. This
unsettled state continued, the Pragmatic Sanction neither
quite enforced nor quite repealed, till Francis L, having ac-
382 THE GxVLLICAN CHURCH. Chap. VII. Part II.
commodated the differences of his predecessor with Rome,
agreed upon a final concordat with Leo X., the treaty that
subsisted for almost three centuries between the papacy and
the kingdom of France. Instead of capitular election or pa-
pal provision, a new method was devised for filling the va.
cancies of episcopal sees. The king was to nominate a fit
person, whom the pope was to collate. The one obtained
an essential patronage, the other preserved his theoretical
supremacy. Annats were restored to the pope; a conces-
sion of great importance. He gave up his indefinite preroga-
tive of reserving benefices, and received only a small stipu-
lated patronage. This convention met with strenuous op-
position in France ; the Parliament of Paris yielded only to
force ; the university hardly stopped short of sedition ; the
zealous Galileans have ever since deplored it, as a fatal
wound to their liberties. There is much exaggeration in
this, as far as the relation of the Galilean Church to Rome
is concerned; but the royal nomination to bishoprics im-
paired of course the independence of the hierarchy.
From the principles established during the schism, and in
the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, arose the far-famed lib-
erties of the Galilean Church, which honorably distinguished
her from other members of the Roman communion. These
liberties do not strictly fall within my limits ; and it will be
suflScient to observe that they depended upon two maxims;
one, that the pope does not possess any direct or indirect
temporal authority; the other, that his spiritual jurisdiction
can only be exercised in conformity with such parts of the
common law as are received by the kingdom of France.
Hence the Galilean Church rejected a great part of the Sext
and Clementines, and paid little regard to modern papal bulls,
which in fact obtained validity only by the king's approbation.
The pontifical usurpations which were thus restrained af
fected, at least in their direct operation, rather the Church
than the State ; and temporal governments would only have
been half emancipated, if their national hierarchies had pre-
served their enormous jurisdiction. England, in this also, be-
gan the work, and had made a considerable progress, while
the mistaken piety or policy of Louis IX. and his successors
had laid France open to vast encroachments. But the Par-
liament of Paris, instituted in 1304, gradually established a
paramount a\ithority over ecclesiastical as well as civil tri-
bunals. Their progress was indeed very slow, and it was not
till the beginning of the sixteenth century that they devised
the'r famous form of procedure, the "appeal because of abuse."
EccLES. FowER, DECLINE OF PAPAL INFLUENCE. 383
This, in the course of time, and through the decline of eccle-
siastical power, not only proved an effectual barrier against
encroachments of spiritual jurisdiction, but drew back again
to the lay court the greater part of those causes which by
prescription, and indeed by law, had appertained to a differ-
ent cognizance. Thus testamentary, and even, in a great de-
gree, matrimonial causes were decided by the Parliament;
and in many other matters that body, being the judge of its
own competence, narrowed, by means of the appeal because
of abuse, the boundaries of the opposite jurisdiction. Tliis
remedial process appears to have been more extensively ap-
plied than our English writ of prohibition. The latter mere-
ly restrains the interference of the ecclesiastical courts in mat-
ters which the law has not committed to them. But the Par-
liament of Paris considered itself as conservator of the lib-
erties and discipline of the Galilean Church ; and interposed
the appeal because of abuse, whenever the spiritual court,
even in its proper province, transgressed the canonical rules
by which it ought to be governed.
§ 20. While the bishops of Rome were losing their gen-
eral influence over Europe, they did not gain more estimation
in Italy. It is indeed a problem of some difficulty, whether
they derived any substantial advantage from their temporal
principality. From the termination of the schism, as the
popes found their ambition thwarted beyond the Alps, it was
diverted more and more towards schemes of temporal sover-
eignty. In these we do not perceive that consistent policy
which remarkably actuated their conduct as supreme heads
of the Church. Men generally advanced in years, and born
of noble Italian families, made the papacy subservient to the
elevation of their kindred, or to the interests of a local fac-
tion. For such ends they mingled in the dark conspiracies
of that bad age, distinguished only by the more scandalous
turpitude of their vices from the petty tyrants and intriguers
with whom they were engaged. In the latter part of the fif-
teenth century, when all favorable prejudices were worn away,
those who occupied the most conspicuous station in Europe
disgraced their name by more notorious profligacy than could
be paralleled m the darkest age that had preceded^ and at
the moment beyond which this work is not carried — the in-
vasion of Italy by Charles VIII. — I must leave the pontifi-
cal tjhroue in the possession of Alexander VL
384 ANGLO-SAXON CONSTITUTION. Chap. VIII. Part L
CHAPTER VIII.
THE ANGLO-SAXON CONSTITUTION.
PART I.
5 I. Sketch of Aiiglo-Saxou History. §2. Succession to the Crown. §3. Influence
of Provincial Governors. §4. Orders of Men. Thanes and Ceorls. 5 5. Britisfc
Natives and Slaves. § 6. Witenagemot. § 7. Judicial System. Division into
Hundreds. County Court. § 8. Trial by Jury. Its Antiquity investigated. § 9.
Law of Frank-pledge. Its several Stages. § 10. Question of Feudal Tenures be-
fore the Conquest.
§ 1. The seven very unequal kingdoms of the Saxon Hep-
tarchy, formed successively out of the countries wrested from
the Britons, were originally independent of each otlier. Sev-
eral times, however, a powerful sovereign acquired a pre-
ponderating influence over his neighbors, marked perhaps by
the payment of tribute. Seven are enumerated by Bede as
having thus reigned over the whole of Britain ; an expression
which must be very loosely interpreted/ Three kingdoms
became at length predominant — those of Wessex, Mercia,
and Northumberland. The first rendered tributary the small
estates of the South-east, and the second that of the Eastern
Angles. But Egbert, king of Wessex, not only incorporated
with his own monarchy the dependent kingdoms of Kent
and Essex, but obtained an acknowledgment of his superior-
ity from Mercia and Northumberland; the latter of which,
though the most extensive of any Anglo-Saxon state, was
too much weakened by its internal divisions to offer any re-
sistance. Still, however, the kingdoms of Mercia, East An-
glia, and Northumberland remained under their ancient line
of sovereigns ; nor did either Egbert or his five immediate
successors assume the title of any other crown than Wessex.
The destruction of those minor states was reserved for a
different enemy. About the end of the eighth century the
Northern pirates began to ravage the coast of England.
Scandinavia exhibited in that age a very singular condition
of society. Her population, continually redundant in those
barren regions which gave it birth, was cast out in search of
plunder upon the ocean. Those who loved riot rather than
> See Note L, "The Bretwaldas."
Engt/.sh Const. DANISH INVASION. 385
famine embarked in large armaments under chiefs of legit-
imate authority as well as approved valor. Sucli were the
Sea-kings, renowned in the stories of the North — the young-
er^branches, commonly, of royal families, who inherited, as it
were, the sea for their patrimony. Without any territory
but on the bosom of the waves, without any dwelling but
their ships, these princely pirates were obeyed by numerous
subjects, and intimidated mighty nations. Their invasions of
England became continually more formidable ; and, as their
confidence increased, they began first to winter, and ultimate-
ly to form permanent settlements in the country. By their
command of the sea, it was easy for them to harass every
part of an island presenting such an extent of coast as Brit-
ian ; the Saxons, after a brave resistance, gradually gave way,
and were on the brink of the same servitude or extermina-
tion which their own arms had already brought upon the
ancient possessors.
From this imminent peril, after the three dependent king-
doms, Mercia, Northumberland, and East Anglia, had been
overwhelmed, it was the glory of Alfred to rescue the An-
glo-Saxon monarchy. Nothing less than the appearance of
a hero so undesponding, so enterprising, and so just, could
have prevented the entire conquest of England. Yet he
never subdued the Danes, nor became master of the whole
kingdom. The Thames, the Lea, the Ouse, and the Roman
road called Watling Street, determined the limits of Alfred's
dominion. To the north-east of this boundary were spread
the invaders, still denominated the armies of East Anglia
and Northumberland; a name terribly expressive of foreign
conquerors, who retained their warlike confederacy, without
melting into the mass of their subject population. Three
able and active sovereigns, Edward, Athelstan, and Edmund,
the successors of Alfred, pursued the course of victory, and
not only rendered the English monarchy co-extensive with
the present limits of England, but asserted at least a su-
premacy over the bordering nations.^ Yet even Edgar, the
most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kings, did not venture to
interfere with the legal customs of his Danish subjects.'
Under this prince, whose rare fortune as well as judicious
conduct procured him the surname of Peaceable, the king-
dom appears to have reached its zenith of prosperity. But
liis premature death changed the scene. The minority and
' See Note II., "Saxon Kings of all England."
<* It seems now to be ascertained, by the comparison of dialects, that the inhabit-
ants from the Hnmber, or at least the Tyne, to the Firth of Forth, were chiefly Danes.
17
386 ANGLO-SAXON CONSTITUTION. Chap. VIII. Part L
feeble character of Etheired II. provoked fresh incursions of
our enemies beyond the German Sea. A long series of dis-
asters, and the inexplicable treason of those to whom the
public safety was intrusted, overthrew the Saxon line, and
established Canute of Denmark upon the throne.
The character of the Scandinavian nations was in some
measure changed from what it had been during their first
invasions. They had embraced the Christian faith ; they
were consolidated into great kingdoms ; they had lost some
of that predatory and ferocious spirit which a religion in-
vented, as it seemed, for pirates had stimulated. Those, too,
who had long been settled in England became gradually
more assimilated to the natives, whose laws and language
were not radically different from their own. Hence the ac-
cession of a Danish line of kings produced neither any evil
nor any sensible change of polity. But the English still out-
numbered their conquerors, and eagerly returned, when an
opportunity arrived, to the ancient stock. Edward the Con-
fessor, notwithstanding his Norman favorites, was endeared
by the mildness of his character to the English nation, and
subsequent miseries gave a kind of posthumous credit to a
reign not eminent either for good-fortune or wise govern-
ment.
§ 2. In a stage of civilization so little advanced as that of
the Anglo-Saxons, and under circumstances of such inces-
sant peril, the fortunes of a nation chiefly depend upon the
wisdom and valor of its sovereigns. No free people, there-
fore, would intrust their safety to blind chance, and permit
an uniform observance of hereditary succession to prevail
against strong public expediency. Accordingly, the Saxons,
like most other European nations, while they limited the in-
heritance of the crown exclusively to one royal family, were
not very scrupulous about its devolution upon the nearest
heir. It is an unwarranted assertion of Carte, that the rule
of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy was " lineal agnatic succes-
sion, the blood of the second son having no right until the
extinction of that of the eldest."* Unquestionably the eld-
est son of the last king, being of full age, and not manifest-
ly incompetent, was his natural and probable successor;
nor is it, perhaps, certain that he always waited for an elec-
tion to take upon himself the rights of sovereignty, although
the ceremony of coronation, according to the ancient form,
appears to imply its necessity. But the public security in
< Vol. i., p 36.5. Blackstone has labored to prove the same proposition; but his
knowledge of English history was rather superficial.
English Const. SUCCESSION TO CROWN. 387
those times was thought incompatible with a minor king;
and the artificial substitution of a regency, which stricter no-
tions of hereditary right have introduced, liad never occurred
to so rude a people. Thus, not to mention those instances
which the obscure times of the Heptarchy exhibit, Ethelred
I., as some say, but certainly Alfred, excluded the progeny
of their elder brother from the throne. Alfred, in his tes-
tament, dilates upon his own title, which he builds upon a
triple foundation, the will of his father, the compact of his
brother Ethelred, and the consent of the West-Saxon nobili-
ty. A similar objection to the government of an infant
seems to have rendered Athelstan, notwithstanding his re-
puted illegitimacy, the public choice upon the death of Ed-
ward the Elder. Thus, too, the sons of Edmund I. were post-
poned to their Uncle Eldred, and again, preferred to his issue.
And happy might it have been for England if this exclusion
of infants had always obtained. But upon the death of Ed-
gar, the royal family wanted some prince of mature years to
prevent the crown from resting upon the head of a child;
and hence the minorities of Edward II. and Ethelred II. led
to misfortunes which overwhelmed for a time both the house
of Cerdic and the English nation.
§ 3. The Anglo-Saxon monarchy, during its earlier period,
seems to have suffered but little from that insubordination
among the superior nobility which ended in dismembering
the empire of Charlemagne. Such kings as Alfred and Ath-
elstan were not likely to permit it. And the English coun-
ties, each under its own alderman, were not of a size to en-
courage the usurpation of their governors. But when the
whole kingdom was subdued, there arose, unfortunately, a
fashion of intrusting great provinces to the administration
of a single earl. Notwithstanding their union, Mercia,
Northumberland, and East Anglia were regarded in some
degree as distinct parts of the monarchy. A difference of
laws, though probably but slight, kept up this separation.
Alfred governed Mercia by the hands of a nobleman who
had married his daughter Ethelfleda ; and that lady after her
husband's death held the reins with a masculine energy till
her own, when her brother Edward took the province into
his immediate command. But from the era of Edward II.'s
succession the provincial governors began to overpower the
royal authority, as they had done upon the Continent. En-
gland under this prince was not far removed from the con-
dition of France under Charles the Bald. In the time of
Edward the Confessor the whole kino^dom seems to have
888 ANGLO-SAXON CONSTITUTION. Chap. VIII. Part I.
Tjeen divided among five earls ;^ three of whom were God-
win and his sons Harold and Tostig. It can not be wonder-
ed at that the royal line was soon supplanted by the most
powerful and popular of these leaders, a prince well worthy
to have founded a new dynasty, if his eminent qualities had
not yielded to those of a still more illustrious enemy.
§ 4. The proper division of freemen was into Eorls and
Ceorls, a division corresponding to the phrase " gentle and
simple" of later times. The eorl was a gentleman, the ceorl
a yeoman, but both freemen. The eorl did not become a ti-
tle of office till the eleventh century, when it was used as syn-
onymous to alderman for the governor of a county or prov-
ince. After the word became used in this restricted sense,
the class of persons which it originally designated was called
Thanes, and accordingly we have the twofold division of
freemen into Thanes and Ceorls.
Among all the Northern nations, as is well known, the
weregild, or compensation for murder, was the standard
measure of the gradations of society. In the Anglo-Saxon
laws we find two ranks of freeholders ; the first, called King's
Thanes, whose lives were valued at 1200 shillings; the sec-
ond, of inferior degree, whose composition was half that sum.
That of a ceorl was 200 shillings. If this proportion to the
value of a thane points out the subordination of rank, it
certainly does not exhibit the lower freemen in a state of
complete abasement. The ceorl was not bound, at least uni-
versally, to the land which he cultivated. He was occasion-
ally called upon to bear arms for the public safety ; he
was protected against personal injuries, or trespasses on his
land ; he was capable of property, and of the privileges which
it conferred. If he came to possess five hides of land (or
about 600 acres), with a church and mansion of his own,
he was entitled to the name and rights of a thane. And if
by owning five hides of land he became a thane, it is plain
that he might possess a less quantity without reaching that
rank. There were, therefore, ceorls with land of their own,
and ceorls without land of their own ; ceorls who might com-
mend themselves to what lord they pleased, and ceorls who
could not quit the land on which they lived, owing various
services to the lord of the manor, but always freemen, and
capable of becoming gentlemen.
Nobody can doubt that the villani and iorc7am of Dooms-
day-book, who are always distinguished from the serfs of
the demesne, were the ceorls of Anglo-Saxon law. And I
» See D. 402.
Enolish Const. ORDERS OF MEN. 389
presume that the socmen, who so frequently occur in that
record, though flir more in some counties than in others,
were ceorls more fortunate than the rest, who, by purchase,
had acquired freeholds, or, by prescription and the indulgence
of their lords, had obtained such a property in the outlands
allotted to them that they could not be removed, and in
many instances might dispose of them at pleasure. They
are the root of a noble plant, the free socage tenants, or En-
glish yeomanry, whose independence has stamped with pe-
culiar features both our constitution and our national char-
acter/
§5. Beneath the ceorls in political estimation were the
conquered natives or Britons. In a war so long and so ob-
stinately maintained as that of the Britons against their in-
vaders, it is natural to conclude that in a great part of the
country the original inhabitants were almost extirpated, and
that the remainder w^ere reduced into servitude. This, till
lately, has been the concurrent opinion of our antiquaries;
and, with some qualification, I do not see why it should not
still be received. In every kingdom of the Continent which
was formed by the Northern nations out of the Roman Em-
pire, the Latin language preserved its superiority, and has
much more been corrupted through ignorance and want of a
standard than intermingled with their original idiom. But
our own language is, and has been from the earliest times
after the Saxon conquest, essentially Teutonic, and of the
most obvious affinity to those Low-German dialects which are
spoken along the coast from Flanders to Holstein. With
such as are extravagant enough to controvert so evident a
truth it is idle to contend ; and those who believe great part
of our language to be borrowed from the Welsh may doubt-
less infer that great part of our population is derived from
the same source. If we look through the subsisting Anglo-
Saxon records, there is not very frequent mention of British
subjects. But some undoubtedly there were in a state of
freedom, and possessed of landed estate. A Welshman (that
is, a Briton) who held five hides was raised, like a ceorl, to
the dignity of thane. In the composition, however, for their
lives, and consequently in their rank in society, they were
inferior to the meanest Saxon freeman. The slaves, who
were frequently the objects of legislation, rather for the pur-
pose of ascertaining their punishments than of securing their
rights, may be presumed, at least in early times, to have been
part of the conquered Britons. For though his own crimes,
• For further information upon these points, see Notk III., "Borl au3 CeorJ."
390 ANGLO-SAXON CONSTITUTION. Chap. VIII. Part 1
or the tyranny of others, might possibly reduce a Saxon ceorl
to this condition, it is inconceivable that the lowest of those
who won England with their swords should, in the establish-
ment of the new kingdoms, have been left destitute of per-
sonal liberty.
§ 6. The great council by which an Anglo-Saxon king was
guided in all the main acts of government bore the appella-
tion of WiTENAGEMOT, or the Assembly of the Wise Men.
All their laws express the assent of this council ; and there
are instances where grants made without its concurrence
have been revoked. It was composed of prelates and ab-
bots, of the aldermen of shires, and, as it is generally ex-
pressed, of the noble and wise men of the kingdom. Wheth-
er the lesser thanes, or inferior proprietors of lands, were en-
titled to a place in the national council, as they certainly
were in the Shirgemot, or County Court, is not easily to be
decided. If, however, all the body of thanes or freeholders
were admissible to the witenagemot, it is imlikely that the
privilege should have been fully exercised. Very few, I be-
lieve, at present imagine that there was any representative
system in that age; much less that the ceorls or inferior
freemen had the smallest share in the deliberations of the
national assembly. Every argument which a spirit of con-
troversy once pressed into this service has long since been
victoriously refuted. '^
§ 7. It has been justly remarked by Hume that, among a
people who lived in so simple a manner as these Anglo-Sax-
ons, the judicial power is always of more consequence than
the legislative. The liberties of these Anglo-Saxon thanes
were chiefly secured, next to their swords and their free spir-
its, by the inestimable right of deciding civil and criminal
suits in their owm County Court ; an institution which, having
survived the Conquest, and contributed in no small degree to
fix the liberties of England upon a broad and popular basis,
by limiting the feudal aristocracy, deserves attention in fol-
lowing the history of the British constitution.
The division of the kingdom into counties, and of these
into hundreds and decennaries, for the purpose of adminis-
tering justice, was not peculiar to England. In the early
laws of France and Lombardy, frequent mention is made of
the Hundred-court, and, now and then, of those petty village
magistrates who in England were called tithing-men. It
has been usual to ascribe the establishment of this system
among our Saxon ancestors to Alfred, upon the authority of
^ Note IV., "The Witenagemot"
English Const. JUDICIAL SYSTEM. 391
Ingulfus, a writer contemporary with the Conquest, but the
work which bears his name is now usually considered a for-
gery. Neither the biographer of Alfred, Asserius, nor the
existing laws of that prince, attribute the system to Alfred.
With respect, indeed, to the division of counties, and their
government by aldermen and sheriffs, it is certain that both
existed long before his time; and the utmost that can be
supposed is, that he might in some instances have ascertain-
ed an unsettled boundary. There does not seem to be equal
evidence as to the antiquity of the minor divisions. Hun-
dreds, I think, are first mentioned in a law of Edgar, and tith-
ings ill one of Canute. But as Alfred, it must be remem-
bered, was never master of more than half the kingdom, the
complete distribution of England into these districts can not,
upon any supposition, be referred to him.
There is, indeed, a circumstance observable in this division
which seems to indicate that it could not have taken place
at one time, nor upon one system ; I mean the extreme in-
equality of hundreds in different parts of England. Wheth-
er the name be conceived to refer to the number of free fom-
ilies, or of land-holders, or of petty vills, forming so many as-
sociations of mutual assurance or frank-pledge, one can hard-
ly doubt that, when the term was first applied, a hundred
of one or other of these were comprised, at an average reck-
oning, within the district. But it is impossible to reconcile
the varying size of hundreds to any single hypothesis. The
county of Sussex contains sixty-five, that of Dorset forty-
three ; Avhile Yorkshire has only twenty-six, and Lancashire
but six. No difference of population, though the south of
England was undoubtedly far the best peopled, can be con-
ceived to account for so prodigious a disparity I know of
no better solution than that the divisions of the North, prop
erly called wapentakes, were planned upon a different sys-
tem, and obtained tlie denomination of hundreds incorrectly
after the union of all England under a single sovereign.
Assuming, therefore, the name and partition of hundreds
to have originated in the southern counties, it will rather, I
think, appear probable that they contained only a hundred
free families, including the ceorls as well as their landlords.
If we suppose none but the latter to have been numbered,
we should find 6000 thanes in Kent, and 6500 in Sussex — a
reckoning totally inconsistent with any probable estimate.
But though we have little direct testimony as to the popula
tion of those times, there is one passage which falls in very
sufficiently with the former supposition. Bede says tnat iiiQ
392 ANGLO-SAXON CONSTITUTION. Chap. Vlll. Part i.
kingdom of the South Saxons, comprehending Surrey as well
as Sussex, contained 7000 families. The county of Sussex
alone is divided into sixty-five hundreds, which comes at
least close enough to prove that free families, rather than
proprietors, were the subject of that numeration.
The Court of the Hundred was held, as on the Conti-
nent, by its own centenarius, or hundied-man, more often
called alderman, and, in the Norman times, bailiff or consta-
ble, but under the sheriff's writ. It is, in the language of
the law, the sheriff's tourn and leet. And in the Anglo-Sax-
on age it was a court of justice for suitors within the hun-
dred, though it could not execute its process beyond that
limit. It also punished small offenses, and was intrusted
with the "view of frank-pledge," and the maintenance of the
great police of mutual surety. In some cases — that is, when
the hundred was competent to render judgment — it seems
that the County Court could only exercise an appellate ju-
risdiction for denial of right in the lower tribunal. But, in
course of time, the former and more celebrated court became
the real arbiter of important suits; and the court -leet fell al-
most entirely into disuse as a civil jurisdiction, contenting
itself with punisliing petty offenses and keeping up a local
police.** It was to the County Court that an English free-
man chiefly looked for the maintenance of his civil rights.
In this assembly, held twice in the year by the bishop and
the alderman,® or, in his absence, the sheriff, the oath of alle-
giance was administered to all freemen, breaches of the peace
were inquired into, crimes were investigated, and claims were
determined. In this court alone, the thanes, to the exclusion
of inferior freemen, were the judges of civil controversies.
The latter, indeed, were called upon to attend its meetings,
or, in the language of our present law, were suitors to the
court, and it was penal to be absent. But this was on ac-
count of other duties, the oath of allegiance which they were
to take, or the frank-pledges into which they Avere to enter,
not in order to exercise any judicial power; unless we con-
• Sir F. Palgrave, in the "Edinburgh Review" for 1822 (xxxvi., 28T>, dednces the
hundred from the hcerad of the Scandinavian kingdoms, the integral unit of the
Scandinavian commonwealths. He points out that the iuiudred was as much the or-
ganic germ of the Anglo-Saxon commonwealth as the haerad was of the Scandina-
vian. Thus, the leet, held every month, and composed of the tithing-men or head-
boroughs, representing the inhabitants, Avere both the inquest and the jury, possess-
ing jurisdiction, as he conceives, in all cases, civil, criminal, and ecclesiastical, though
this was restrained after the Conquest.
^ The alderman was the highest rank after the royal ftimily, to which lie sometimes
belonged. Every county had its alderman ; but the name is not applied in written
documents to magistrates of boroughs before the Conquest.
English Const. TRIAL BY JURY. 393
ceive that the disputes of the ceorls were decided by judges
of their own rank. No appeal could be made to the roy-
al tribunal, unless justice was denied in the County Court.
There were, however, royal judges, who, either by way of ap-
peal from the lower courts, or in excepted cases, formed a
paramount judicature; but how their court was composed un-
der the Anglo-Saxon sovereigns, I do not pretend to assert.
§ 8. It had been a prevailing opinion that trial by jury may
be referred to the Anglo-Saxon age, and common tradition
has ascribed it to the wisdom of Alfred ; but this opinion is
now universally abandoned. The only passage in the laws of
Alfred bearing upon this point is as follows : " If any one
accuse a king's thane of homicide, if he dare to purge him-
self, let him do it along with twelve king's thanes." " If any
one accuse a thane of less rank than a king's thane, let him
purge himself along with eleven of his equals, and one king's
thane." This law, which some contend to mean nothing but
trial by jury, really refers to that ancient usage of compurga-
tion, where the accused sustained his own oath by those of
a number of his friends, who pledged their knowledge, or at
least their belief, of his innocence. Other passages in the
Saxon laws which have been cited in favor of the antiquity
of trial by jury equally refer to compurgators. Their num-
bers were sometimes twelve, at other times twenty-four, and
occasionally thirty-six.
The principle of the whole law of compurgation is to be
found in that stress laid upon general character which per-
vades the Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence. The law of frank:
pledge proceeded upon the maxim that the best guaranty of
every man's obedience to the government was to be sought
in the confidence of his neighbors.
The seeds of our present form of trial by jury may be dis-
covered in a law of Ethelred II., by which a court was to be
held in every wapentake, where the sheriff and twelve princi-
pal thanes should swear that they would neither acquit any
criminal nor convict any innocent person. It seems more
probable that these thanes were permanent assessors to the
sheriff, like the scabini, so frequently mentioned in the oarly
laws of France and Italy, than jurors indiscriminately se-
lected. Their duties were to present offenders, and they bear
analogy to our grand juries. They must be clearly distin-
guished from the compurgators already mentioned.
The nearest approach to a regular jury which has been pre-
served in our scanty memorials of the Anglo-Saxon age oc-
curs in the history of the monastery of Ramsey. A contro-
17*
394 ANGLO-SAXON CONSTITUTION. Chap. VIII. Part I.
versy relating to lands between that society and a certain no-
bleman was brought into the County Court, when each party
was heard in his own behalf. After this commencement, on
account, probably, of the length and difficulty of the investi-
gation, it was referred by the court to thirty-six thanes, equal-
ly chosen by both sides. And here we begin to perceive the
manner in which those tumultuous assemblies — the mixed
body of freeholders in their County Court — slid gradually
into a more steady and more diligent tribunal. But this was
not the work of a single age. In the Conqueror's reign we
find a proceeding very similar to the case of Ramsey, in which
the suit had been commenced in the County Court before it
was found expedient to remit it to a select body of freehold-
ers. In the reign of William Rufus, and down to that of Hen-
ry II., when the trial of writs of right by the Grand Assize w^as
introduced, there are other instances of the original usage.
It is impossible not to be struck with the preference given
to twelve, or some multiple of it, in fixing the number either
of judges or compurgators. This was not peculiar to En-
gland — there are several instances of it in the early German
laws ; and that number seems to have been regarded with
equal veneration in Scandinavia. It is very immaterial from
what caprice or superstition this predilection arose, but its
general prevalence shows that, in searching for the origin of
trial by jury, we can not rely for a moment upon any analogy
which the mere number affords. I am induced to make this
observation, because some of the passages which have been
alleged by eminent men for the purpose of establishing the
existence of that institution before the Conquest seem to
have little else to support them.'"
§ 9. There is certainly no part of the Anglo-Saxon polity
which has attracted so much the notice of modern times as
the law oi frank-pledge^ or mutual responsibility of the mem-
bers of a tithing for each other's abiding the course of justice.
This, like the distribution of hundreds and tithings them-
selves, and like trial by jury, has been generally attributed to
Alfred ; and of this, I suspect, we must also deprive him.
The peculiar system of frank-pledges seems to have passed
through the following very gradual stages : At first, an ac-
cused person was obliged to find bail for standing his trial.
At a subsequent period, his relations were called upon to be-
come sureties for payment of the composition and other fines
to which he w^as liable. They w^ere even subject to be im-
prisoned until payment was made, and thifi impnsonment
JO Note V., " Trial by Jury."
English Const. FRANK-PLEDGE. 395
was commutable for a certain sum of money. The next
stage was, to make persons already convicted, or of suspicious
repute, give sureties for their future behavior. It is not till
the reign of Edgar that we find the iirst general law, which
places every man in the condition of the guilty or suspected,
and compels him to find a surety, who shall be responsible
for his appearance when judicially summoned. This is per-
petually repeated and enforced in later statutes, during his
reign and that of Ethelred. Finally, the laws of Canute de-
clare the necessity of belonging to some hundred and tith-
ing, as well as of providing sureties ; and it may, perhaps,
be inferred that the custom of rendering every member of a
tithing answerable for the appearance of all the rest, as it ex-
isted after the Conquest, is as old as the reign of this Danish
monarch.
It is an error to suppose, as some have stated, that "the
members of every tithing were responsible for the conduct
of one another ; and that the society, or their leader, might
be prosecuted and compelled to make reparation for an inju-
ry committed by any individual." In fact, the members of
a tithing were no more than perpetual bail for each other.
" The greatest security of the public order (say the laws as-
cribed to the Confessor) is that every man must bind him-
self to one of those societies which the English in general
call freeborgs, and the people of Yorkshire ten men's tale."
This consisted in the responsibility of ten men, each for the
other, throughout every village in the kingdom ; so that, if
one of the ten committed any fault, the nine should produce
him in justice ; where he should make reparation by his own
property or. by personal punishment. If he fled from jus-
tice a mode was provided according to which the tithing
might clear themselves from participation in his crime or
escape ; in default of such exculpation, and the malefactor's
estate proving deficient, they were compelled to make good
the penalty. And it is equally manifest, from every other
passage in which mention is made of this ancient institu-
tion, that the obligation of the tithing was merely that of
permanent bail, responsible only indirectly for the good be-
havior of their members.
Every freeman above the age of twelve years was required
to be enrolled in some tithing. In order to enforce this es-
sential part of police, the courts of the tourn and leet were
erected, or rather, perhaps, separated from that of the coun-
ty. The periodical meetings of these, whose duty it was to
inquire into the state of tithings, whence they were called
396 ANGLO-SAXON CONSTITUTION. C.iap. VIII. Part I
the view of frank-pledge, are regulated in Magna Charta.
But this custom, which seems to have been in full vigor
when Bracton wrote, and is enforced by a statute of Edward
II., gradually died away in succeeding times.
§ 10. It remains only, before we conclude this sketch of
the Anglo-Saxon system, to consider the once famous ques-
tion respecting the establishment of feudal tenures in En-
gland before the Conquest.
The distribution of landed property in England by the An-
glo-Saxons is clearly explained by Mr. Allen, in his inquiry
into the "Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative."
"Part of the lands they acquired was converted into estates
of inheritance for individuals ; part remained the property
of the public, and was left to the disposal of the state. The
former was called Bodand ; the latter Folcland.
" Folcland^ as the word imports, was the land of the folk^
or people. It was the property of the community. It might
be occupied in common, or possessed in severalty. But,
while it continued to be folcland, it could not be alienated
in perpetuity ; and therefore, on the expiration of the term
for which it had been granted, it reverted to the community,
and was again distributed by the same authority.
" Bodand was held by hooh^ or charter. It was land that
had been severed by an act of government from the folcland,
and converted into an estate of perpetual inheritance. It
might belong to the Church, to the king, or to a subject. It
might be alienable and devisable at the will of the proprie-
tor. It might be limited in its descent without any power
of alienation in the possessor. It was often granted for a
single life, or for more lives than one, with remainder in per-
petuity to the Church. It was forfeited for various delin-
quencies to the state.
"Folcland was subject to many burdens and exactions
from which bocland was exempt. The possessors of folcland
were bound to assist in the reparation of royal vills and in
other public works. They were liable to have travellers and
others quartered on them for subsistence. They were re-
quired to give hospitality to kings and great men in their
progresses through the country, to furnish them with car-
riages and relays of horses, and to extend the same assistance
to their messengers, followers, and servants, and even to the
persons who had charge of their hawks, horses, and hounds.
Such, at least, are the burdens from which lands are libera-
ted when converted by charter into bocland.
" Bocland wae liable to none of these exactions. It was
English Const. FEUDAL TENURES. 397
released from all services to the public, with the exception
of contributing to military expeditions, and to the repara-
tion of castles and bridges. These duties or services were
comprised in the phrase of trinoda oiecessitas^ which were
said to be incumbent on all persons, so that none could be
excused from them. The Church indeed contrived, in some
cases, to obtain an exemption from them ; but in general its
lands, like those of others, were subject to them" (p. 142).
The obligations of the trinoda necessitas, and especially
that of military service, have beea sometimes thought to de-
note a feudal tenure. There is, however, a confusion into
which we may fall by not sufficiently discriminating the rights
of a king as chief lord of his vassals, and as sovereign of his
subjects. In every country the supreme power is entitled
to use the arm of each citizen in the public defense. The
usage of all nations agrees with common reason in establish-
ing this great principle. There is nothing, therefore, peculiar-
ly feudal in this military service of land-holders ; it was due
from the allodial proprietors upon the Continent ; it was de-
rived from their German ancestors ; it had been fixed, proba-
bly, by the legislatures of the Heptarchy upon the first set-
tlement in Britain.
It is material, however, to observe that a thane forfeited
his hereditary freehold by misconduct in battle — a penalty
more severe than was inflicted upon allodial proprietors on
the Continent. We even find in the earliest Saxon laws that
the sithcundman, who seems to have corresponded to the
inferior thane of later times, forfeited his land by neglect of
attendance in war ; for which an allodialist in France would
only have paid his heribannum,or penalty. Nevertheless, as
the policy of different states may enforce the duties of sub-
jects by more or less severe sanctions, I do not know that a
law of forfeiture in such cases is to be considered as positive-
ly implying a feudal tenure.
But a much stronger presumption is afforded by passages
that indicate a mutual relation of lord and vassal among the
free proprietors. The most powerful subjects have not a
natural right to the service of other freemen. But in the
laws enacted during the Heptarchy we find that the sith-
cundman, or petty gentleman, might be dependent on a su-
perior lord. This is more distinctly expressed in some eccle-
siastical canons, apparently of the tenth century, which dis-
tinguish the king's thane from the land-holder, who depend-
ed upon a lord. Other proofs of this might be brought from
the Anglo-Saxon laws. It is not, however, sufficient to provie
398 ANGLO-SAXON CONSTITUTION. Chap. VIII. Fart L
a mutual relation between the higher and lower order of
gentry, in order to establish the existence of feudal tenures.
For this relation was often personal, and bore the name of
commendation. And no nation was so rigorous as the En-
glish in compelling every man, from the king's thane to the
ceorl, to place himself under a lawful superior. Hence the
question is not to be hastily decided on the credit of a few
passages that express this gradation of dependence ; feudal
vassalage^ the object of our inquiry, being of a 7'eal^r\ot 2i per-
sonal nature, and resulting entirely from the tenure of partic-
ular lands. But it is not unlikely that the personal relation
of client, if I may use that word, might in a multitude of
cases be changed into that of vassal. And, certainly, many
of the motives which operated in France to produce a very
general commutation of allodial into feudal tenure, might
have a similar influence in England, where the disorderly
condition of society made it the interest of every man to ob-
tain the protection of some potent lord.
The word thane corresponds in its derivation to vassal ;
and the latter term is used by Asserius, the contemporary
biographer of Alfred, in speaking of the nobles of that prince.
In their attendance, too, upon the royal court, and the fidel-
ity which was expected from them, the king's thanes seem
exactly to have resembled that class of followers who, under
diflerent appellations, were the guards, as w^ell as courtiers,
of the Frank and Lombard sovereigns. But I have remarked
that the word thane is not applied to the whole body of gen-
try in the more ancient laws, where the word earl is opposed
to the ceorl, or roturier, and that of sUhcundma?i to the royal
thane. It would be too much to infer, from the extension of
this latter word to a large class of persons, that we should
interpret it with a close attention to etymology, a very un-
certain guide in almost all investigations.
For the age immediately preceding the Norman invasion
we can not have recourse to a better authority than Dooms-
day-book. That incomparable record contains the names of
every tenant, and the conditions of his tenure, under the Con-
fessor, as well as at the time of its compilation, and seems to
give little countenance to the notion that a radical change
in the system of our laws had been effected during the inter-
val. In almost every page we meet with tenants either of
the crown or of other lords, denominated thanes, freeholders
(liberi homines), or socagers (socmanni). Some of these, it is
stated, might sell their lands to whom they pleased ; others
were restricted from alienation. Some, as it is expressed,
English Const. FEUDAL TENURES. 399
might go with their lands whither they would ; by which I
understand the right of commending themselves to any pa-
tron of their choice. These, of course, could not be feudal ten-
ants in any proper notion of that term. Others could not
depart from the lord whom they served ; not, certainly, that
they were personally bound to the soil, but that, so long as
they retained it, the seigniory of the superior could not be
defeated. But I am not aware that military service is speci*
fied in any instance to be due from one of these tenants;
though it is difficult to speak as to a negative proposition of
this kind, with any confidence.
No direct evidence appears as to the ceremony of homage,
or the oath of fealty, before the Conquest. The feudal ex-
action of aid, in certain prescribed cases, seems to have been
unknown. Still less could those of wardship and marriage
prevail, which w^ere no general parts of the great feudal sys-
tem. The English lawyers, through an imperfect acquaint-
ance with the history of feuds upon the Continent, have treat-
ed these unjust innovations as if they had formed essential
parts of the system, and sprung naturally from the relation
between lord and vassal. And, with reference to the pres-
ent question. Sir Henry Spelman has certainly laid too much
stress upon them in concluding that feudal tenures did not
exist among the Anglo-Saxons, because their lands were not
in ward, nor their persons sold in marriage.
It has been shown in another place how the right of terri-
torial jurisdiction was generally, and at last inseparably, con-
nected with feudal tenure. Of this right we meet frequent
instances in the laws and records of the Anglo-Saxons. And
Doomsday-book is full of decisive proofs that the English
lords had their courts wherein they rendered justice to their
suitors, like the Continental nobility — privileges which are
noticed with great precision in that record, as part of the sta-
tistical survey. For the right of jurisdiction, at a time when
punishments were almost wholly pecuniary, was a matter
of property, and sought from motives of rapacity as well as
pride.
Whether, therefore, the law of feudal tenures can be said
to have existed in England before the Conquest, must be left
to every reader's determination. Perhaps any attempt to
decide it positively would end in a verbal dispute. In trac-
ing the history of every political institution, three things are
to be considered — the principle, the form, and the name. The
last will probably not be found in any genuine Anglo-Saxon
record. Of the form, or the peculiar ceremonies and inci-
400
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.
Part I.
dents of a regular fief, there is some, though not much, ap-
pearance. But those who reflect upon the dependence in
which free and even noble tenants held their estates of other
subjects, and upon the privileges of territorial jurisdiction,
will, I think, perceive much of the intrinsic character of the
feudal relation, though in a less mature and systematic shape
than it assumed after the Norman Conquest.'*
'i It will probably be never disputed again that lands were granted by a military
tenure before the Conquest. But the general tenure of lauds was still allodial. We
may probably not err very much in supposing that the state of tenures in England
under Canute or the Confessor was a good deal like those in France under Charle-
magne or Charles the Bald— an allodial trunk with numerous branches of feudal
benefice grafted into it. But the conversion of the one mode of tenure into the oth-
er, so frequent iu France, does not appear by evidence to have prevailed on this side
of the Channel. Ou this question Professor Stubbs remarks (" Select Charters," etc.,
p. 13) : "From the end of the tenth century a change sets in which might ultimately,
by a slow and steady series of causes and consequences, have produced something
like Continental feudalism. The great position taken by Edgar and Canute, to
whom the princes of the other kingdoms of the island submitted as vassals, had the
effect of centralizing the government and increasing the power of the king. Early
in the eleventh century he seems to have entered on the right of disposing of the
public land without reference to the witan, and of calling up to his own court by writ
suits which had not yet exhausted the powers of the lower tribunals. The number
of royal vassals was thus greatly increased, and with them the power of royal and
noble jurisdictions. Canute proceeded so far in the direction of imperial feudalism
as to rearrange the kingdom under a very small number of great earls, who were
strong enough in some cases to transmit their authority to their children, though
not without new investiture, and who, had time been given for the system to work,
would have no doubt developed the same sort of feudality as prevailed abroad. Al-
ready by subinfeudation or by commendation great portions of the land of the coun-
try were being held by a feudal tenure, and the allodial tenure, which had once been
universal, was becoming the privilege of a few great nobles too strong to be unseat-
ed, or a local usage in a class of land-owners too humble to be dangerous,"
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.— Part I.
' I. THE BRETVl'ALDAS.
These seven princes enumerated by Bede
have been called Bretwaldas, and they
have, by some late historians, been ad-
vanced to higher importance and to a dif-
ferent kind of power than, as it appears
to me, there is any sufficient ground to
bestow on them. Bede is the original
witness for the seven monarchs who be-
fore his time had enjoyed a preponder-
ance over the Anglo-Saxons south of the
Humbert: "Qui cunctis australibus gen-
tis Anglorum provinciis, quas Humbrse flu-
vio et contiguis ei terminis sequestrantur
a Borealibus, imperarunt." (Hist. Eccl.,
lib. ii., c. 5.) The four first-named had no
authority over Northunibria; but the last
three being sovereign.* of that kingdom.
their sway would include the whole of
England.
The Saxon Chronicle, under the reign
of Egbert, says that he was the eighth
who had a dominion over Britain ; using
the remarkable word Bretwalda, which
is found nowhere else. This, by its root,
waldan, a Saxon verb, to rule (whence our
word wield), implies a ruler of Britain or
the Britons. The Chronicle then copies
the enumeration of the other seven in
Bede, with a little abridgment. The
kings mentioned by Bede are MUi or
Ella, founder of the kingdom of the South-
Sax(ms about 477 ; Ceaulin, of Wessex, af-
ter the interval of nearly a century ; Ethels
bert, of Kent, the first Christian king;
Redwald, of East Anglia; after him three
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.
401
Northumbrian kings in succession, Ed-
win, Oswald, Oswin, We have, therefore,
sufficient testimony that before the mid-
dle of the seventh century four Icings,
from four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, had, at
intervals of time, become superior to the
rest ; excepting, however, the Northum-
brians, whom Bede distinguishes, and
whose subjection to a southern prince
does not appear at all probable. None,
therefore, of these conld well have been
called Bretwalda, or ruler of the Britons,
while not even his own countrymen were
wholly under his sway.
We now come to three Northumbrian
kings, Edwin, Oswald, and Oswin, who
ruled, in Bede's language, with greater
power than the preceding, over all the in-
habitants of Britain, both English and
British, with the sole exception of the
men of Kent. This he reports in anoth-
er place with respect to Edwin, the first
Northumbrian convert to Christianity;
whose worldly power, he says, increased
go much that, what no English sovereign
had done before, he extended his domin-
ion to the farthest bounds of Britain,
*rhether inhabited by Euglisli or by Brit-
ons. (Hist. Eccl., lib. ii., c. 9.) There is a
remarkable confirmation of this testimony
of Bede in a life of St. Columba, publish-
ed by the BoUandists, in which Oswald is
called " totius Britanniae imperator ordi-
natus a Deo." (Acta Sanctorum, Jun. 23.)
We have here probably a distinct recog-
nition of the Saxon word Bretwalda ; for
what else could answer to emperor of
Britain ? And, as far as I know, it is the
• mly one that exists. It seems more like-
ly that this writing refers to a distinct ti-
tle bestowed on Oswald by his subjects,
than that he means to assert as a fact
that he truly ruled over all Britain. This
is not very credible, notwithstanding the
language of Bede, who loves to amplify
the power of favorite monarchs. For
though it may be admitted that these
Northumbrian kings enjoyed at times a
preponderance over the other Anglo-Sax-
on principalities, we know that both Ed-
win and Oswald lost their lives in great
defeats by Penda of Mercia. Nor were
the Strathcluyd Britons in any perma-
nent subjection. The name of Bretwal-
da, as applied to these three kings, though
not so absurd as to make it incredible that
they assumed it, asserts an untruth.
Rapin was the first who broached the
theory of an elective Bretwalda, possess-
ing a sort of monarchical supremacy in the
constitution of the Heptarchy ; something
like, as he says, the dignity of stadtholder
of the Netherlands. It was taken up in
later times by Turner, Liugard, Palgrave,
and Lappenberg. But for this there is
certainly no evidence whatever ; nor do I
perceive in it any thing but the very re
verse of probability, especially in the ear-
lier instances. With what we read in
Bede we may be content, confirmed as
with respect to a Northumbrian sover-
eign it appears to be by the Life of Co-
lumba; and the plain history will be no
more than this— that four princes from
among the southern Anglo-Saxon king-
doms, at difterent times obtained, proba-
bly by force, a superiority over the rest ;
that afterwards three Northumbrian kings
united a similar supremacy with the gov-
ernment of their own dominions; and
that, having been successful in reduciui.-
the Britons of the north and also the Scots
into subjection, they assumed the title of
Bretwalda, or ruler of Britain. This title
was not taken by any later kings, though
some in the eighth century were very
powerful in England ; nor did it attract
much attention, since we find the word
only once employed by an historian, and
never in a charter. The consequence I
should draw is, that too great prominence
has been given to the appellation, and un-
due inferences sometimes derived from it,
by the eminent writers above mentioned.
IT. SAXOX KINGS OF ALL ENGLAND.
The reduction of all England under a
single sovereign was accomplished by Ed-
ward the Elder, who may, therefore, be
reckoned the founder of our monarchy
more justly than Egbert. From this time
a striking change is remarkable in the
style of our kings. Edward, of whom we
have no extant charters after these great
submissions of the native princes, calls
himself only " Angul-Saxonum rex." But
in those of his son Athelstan, such as are
reputed genuine (for the tone is still more
pompous in some marked by Mr. Kemble
with an asterisk), \s-e meet, as early as 927,
with "totius Britannise monarchus, rex,
rector, or basileus;" "totius Britanniae
Bolio sublimatus ;" and other phrases of
itiHular sovereignty. What has been at-
tributed to the imaginary Bretwaldas, be-
longed truly to the kings of the tenth cen-
tury. And the grandiloquence of their ti-
tles is sometimes almost ridiculous. They
affected particularly that of Basileus as
something more imperial than king, and
less easily understood. Edwy and Edgar
are remarkable for th's pomp, which shows
itself also in the spurious charters of older
kings. But Edmund and Edred with more
truth and simplicity had generally denom-
inated themselves "rex Anglorum, c«te«
402
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIIL
roramque in circuitu persistentium guber-
nator et rector." An expressiou which
was retained sometimes by Edgar. And
though these exceedinglypompousphrases
eeem to have become less frequent in the
next century, we find "totius Albionis
rex," and equivalent terms, in all the
charters of Edward the Confessor.
"As a general rule it may be observed
that before the tenth century the proem
is comparatively simple ; that about that
time the influence of the Byzantine court
began to be felt ; and that from the latter
half of that century pedantry and absurd-
ity struggle for the mastery." (Kemble's
Introduction to vol. ii., p. x.)
III. EORLS AND CEORLS.
It has been remarked in the text that
the proper division of freemen was into
EoBLS and Ceorls: ge eorle — ge ceorle; ge
eorlische — ge ceorlische, corresponding to
the phrase "gentle and simple" of later
times. The Eorlcundman was generally,
though not necessarily, a freeholder ; he
might,'uuless restrained by special tenure,
depart from or alienate his land ; he was, if
a freeholder, a judge in the County Court ;
he might marry, or become a priest, at his
discretion; his oath weighed heavily in
compurgation; above all, his life was
valued at a high composition ; we add, of
course, the general respect which attaches
itself to the birth and position of a gentle-
man. Two classes indeed there were, both
Eorlcund, or of gentle birth, and so called
in opposition to ceorls, but in a relative
subordination. Sir F. Palgrave has point-
ed out the distinction in the following pas-
sage : " The whole scheme of the Anglo-
Saxcm law is founded upon the presump-
tion that every freeman, not being a Hla-
ford* was attached to a superior, to whom
he was bound by fealty, and from whom
he could claim a legal protection or war-
ranty, when accused of any transgression
or crime. If, therefore, the eorlcund indi-
vidual did not possess the real property
which, either from its tenure or its extent,
was such as to constitute a lordship, he
was then ranked in the very numerous
class whose members, in Wessex and its
dependent states, were originally known
by the name of sUhcundmen, an appella-
tion which we may paraphrase by the he-
raldic expression, 'gentle by birth and
• Hlaford was the chief, " the Loafgiver, a name
which, through a series of softenings and contractions,
and with a complete forgetfulness of its primitive
meaning, has settled down into the modern form of
Zord."— Freeman's " Hist, of the Norman Conquest,"
L,93.
blood.'* The term of sithcundman, hovri
ever, was only in use in the earlier periods.
After the reign of Alfred it is lost; and
the most comprehensive and significant
denomination given to this class is that
of sixh(endmen, indicating their position
between the highest and lowest law-wor-
thy classes of society. Other designations
were derived from their services and ten-
ures. Radechnights, and lesser thanes,
seem to be included in this rank, and to
which, in many instances, the general
name of sokemen was applied. But, how-
ever designated, the sithcundman, or six-
hoeridman, appears in every instance in the
same relative position in the community
— classed among the nobility, whenever
the eorl and the ceorl are placed in direct
opposition to each other; always con-
sidered below the territorial aristocracy,
and yet distinguished from the villenage
by the important right of selecting his
hlaford at his will and pleasure. By com-
mon right the sixhcendwan was not to be
annexed to the glebe. To use the expres-
sions employed by the compilers of Dooms-
day, he could ' go with his land whereso-
ever he chose,' or, leaving his land, he
might 'commend' himself to any hlaford
who would accept his fealty" (L, 14).
The influence of Danish connections pro-
duced great change in the nomenclature
of ranks. Eorl lost its general sense of
good birth and became an ofllcial title, for
the most part equivalent to alderman, the
governor of a shire or district. It is used
in this sense, for the first time, in the laws
of Edward the Elder, and in the time of
Edgar it had fully acquired its secondary
meaning ; in its original sense it seems to
have been replaced by Thane. Certain it
is that we find thane opposed to ceorl in
the later period of Anglo-Saxon monu-
ments, as eorl is in the earlier— as if the
law knew no other broad line of demarka-
tion among laymen, saving always the of-
ficial dignities and the royal family.t And
the distinction between the greater and
the lesser thaues was not lost, though they
were put on a level as to composition.
* Is not the word sithcundman properly descriptive
of his dependence on a lord, from the Saxon verb githi-
an, to follow ?
t " That the thane, at least originally, was a military
follower, a holder by military service, seems certain ;
though in later times the rank seems to have been en-
joyed by all great land-holders, as the natural concomi-
tant of possession to a certain value. By Mercian law,
he appears as a ' twelf hynde ' man, his 'wer' being
1200 shillings. That this dignity ceased from being
exclusively of a military character is evident from
numerous passages in the laws, where thanes are men-
tioned in a judicial capacity, and as civil officers."-*
Thorpe's " Glossary to Ancient Laws," voc. Thegen.
NOTES TO CHAPTER VI J I.
403
Meantime the composition for an earl,
whether we confine that word to office or
suppose that it extended to the wealthiest
land-holders, was far higher in the later
period than that for a thane, as was also
his heriot when that came into use. The
heriot of the king's thane was above that
of what was called a medial thane, or
mesne vassal, the sithcuudman, or syx-
hynder, as I apprehend, of an earlier
style.
In the laws of the Continental Saxons
we find the rank corresponding to the
Eorlcunde of our own country denomi-
nated Edelingi or noble, as opposed to the
Frilingi or ordinary, freemen. This ap-
pellation was not lost in England, and was
perhaps sometimes applied to nobles ; but
we find it generally reserved for the royal
family. FAhel or noble, sometimes con-
tracted, forms, as is well known, the pe-
culiar prefix to the names of our Anglo-
Saxon royal house. And the word Athe-
limj was used, not as in Germany for a
noble, but a prince; and his composition
was not only above that of a thane, but of
an alderman. He ranked as an archbishop
in this respect, the alderman as a bishop.
It is necessary to mention this, lest, in
speaking of the words eorl and ceorl as
originally distributive, I should seem to
have forgotten the distinctive superiority
of the royal family. But whether this had
always been the case I am not prepared to
determine. The aim of the later kings, I
mean after Alfred, was to carry the mo-
narchical principle as high as the temper
of the nation would permit. Hence they
prefer to the name of king, which was as-
sociated in all the Germanic nations with a
limited power, the more indefinite appella-
tions of imperator and basileus. And the
latter of these they borrowed from the By-
zantine court, liking it rather better than
the other, not merely out of the pompous
aff'ectation characteristic of their style in
that period, but because, being less intelli-
gible, it served to strike more awe, and also
probably because the title of Western em-
peror seemed to be already appropriated in
Germany. It was natural that they would
endeavor to enhance the superiority of
all atheliugs above the surrounding nobil-
ity.
In Doomsday-book, which is a record of
the state of Anglo-Saxon orders of society
under Edward the Confessor, we find new
denominations. The word Ceorl does not
occur, but is represented by VUlantis, which
is also distinguishable. And this word is
frequently used in the first Anglo-Norman
reigns as the equivalent of ceorl. No one
ought to doubt that they expressed the
same persons. In Doomsday-book the
number of Villani is 108,000. We find
also a very numerous class, above 82,000,
styled Bordarii, who must have been also
Ceorls, distinguished by some legal differ-
ence, some peculiarity of service or tenure,
well understood at the time. A small num-
ber are denominated Coscetz, or Cosceti.
There are also several minor denomina-
tions in Doomsday, all of which, as they do
not denote slaves.and certainly not thanes,
must have been varieties of the Ceorl kind.
The most frequent of these appellations is
Cutarii.
But, besides these peasants, there are
two appellations which it is less easy,
though it would be more important, to
define. These are the Libert Homines and
the Socmanni. Of the former there are in
Doomsday-book about 12,300 ; of the lat-
ter, about 23,000; forming together about
one-eighth of the whole population, that
is, of male adults. It is remarkable that
in Norfolk alone we have 44ST liberi homi-
nes and 4588 socmen — the whole enumer-
ated population being 2T,087. But in Suf-
folk, out of a population of 20,491, we find
7470 liberi homines, with 1060 socmen.
Thus these two counties contained al-
most all the liberi homines of the kingdom.
In Lincolnshire, on the other hand, where
11,504 are returned as socmen, the word
liber homo does not occur. These Lincoln-
shire socmen are not, as usual in other
counties, mentioned among occupiers of
the demesne lands, but mingled with the
villeins and bordars ; sometimes not stand-
ing first in the enumeration, so as to show
that, in one county, they were both a more
numerous and more subordinate class than
in the rest of the realm.
The concise distinction between what we
should call freehold and copyhold is made
by the forms of entering each manor
throughout Doomsday-book. Liberi ho-
mines invariably, and socmen, I believe,
except in Ltacolnshire, occupied the one,
villani and bordarii the other. Hence
liberum tenementum and villenagium.
What then, in Anglo-Saxon language, was
the kind of the two former classes ? We
must, upon the whole, I conceive, take
them for ceorls more fortunate than the
rest, who had acquired some freehold land,
or to whose ancestors possibly it had been
allotted in the original settlement. It indi-
cates a remarkable variety in the condition
of these East-Anglian counties, Norfolk
and Suffolk, and a more difl"used freedom
in their inhabitants. The population, it
must strike us, was greatly higher, rel-
atively to their size, than in any other part
of England ; and the multitude of small
404
KOTES TO CIIArTER VIII.
manors and of parish churches, which still
continue, bespeaks this progress. The -soc-
men, as well as the liberi homines, in whose
condition there may have been little dif-
ference, except in Lincolnshire, where we
have seen that, for whatever cause, those
denominated socmen were little, if at all,
better than the villani, were all commend-
ed; they had all some lord, though bear-
ing to him a relation neither of lief nor of
villenage ; they could in general, though
with some exceptions, alienate their lands
at pleasure ; it has been thought that they
might pay some small rent in acknowl-
edgment of commendation ; but the one
class undoubtedly, and probably the other,
were freeholders in every legal sense of
the word, holding by that ancient and re-
spectable tenure, free and common socage,
or iu a manner at least analogous to it.
Though socmen are chiefly mentioned in
the Danelage, other obscure denomina-
tions of occupiers occur in Wessex and
Mercia, which seem to have denoted a
similar class.
It may be remarked here that many of
our modern writers draw too unfavorable
a picture of the condition of the Anglo-
Saxon ceorl. Few, indeed, fall into the
capital mistake of Mr. Sharon Turner, by
speaking of him as legally in servitude,
like the villein of Bracton's age. But we
often And a tendency to consider him as in
a very uncomfortable condition, little car-
ing " to what lion's paw he might fall," as
Boliugbroke said in 1T45, and treated by
his lord as a miserable dependent. Half
a century since, in the days of Sir William
Jones, Granville Sharp, and Major Cart-
wright, the Anglo-Saxon constitution was
built on universal suffrage ; every man iu
his tithing a partaker of sovereignty, and
sending from his rood of land an annual
representative to the witenagemot. Such
a theory could not stand the first glimmer-
ings of historical knowledge in a mind
tolerably sound. But while we absolutely
deny political privileges of this kind to the
ceorl, we need not assert his life to have
been miserable. He had very definite le-
gal rights, and acknowledged capacities of
acquiring more ; that he was sometimes
exposed to oppression is probable enough ;
but, in reality, the records of all kinds
that have descended to us do not speak in
such strong language of this as we may
read in those of the Continent. We have
uo insurrection of the ceorls, no outrages
by themselves, no atrocious punishment
by their masters, as in Normandy. Per-
haps we are a little too much struck by
their obligation to reside on the lands
which tbey cultivated ; the term aacriptus
I glebce denotes, in our apprehension, an
! ignoble servitude. It is, of course, incon-
sistent with our modern equality of rights ;
, but we are to remember that he who
; deserted his land, and consequently his
I lord, did so in order to become a thief.
i Hla/ordlesmen, of whom we read so much,
I were invariably of this character — men
without land, lord, or law, who lived upon
what they could take. For the sake ot
protecting the honest ceorl from such men,
as well as of protecting the lord in what,
if property be regarded at all, must be pro-
tected—his rights to services legally due-
it was necessary to restrain the cultivator
fron^ quitting his land. Exceptions to this
might occur, as we find among the liberi
Tiomines and others in Doomsday ; but it
was the general rule. We might also ask
whether a lessee for years at present is
not in one sense ascrtptus glebai? It is
true that he may go wherever he will,
and, if he continue to pay his rent and
perform his covenants, no more can be
said. But if he does not this, the law will
follow his person, and, though it can not
I force him to return, will make it by no
means his interest to desert the premises.
Such remedies as the law now furnishes
were not in the power of the Saxon land-
lord ; but all that any lord could desire
was to have the services performed, or to
receive a compensation for them.
IV. THE WITENAGEMOT.
The best explanation of the history of
the Witenagemot has been given by Mr.
Freeman in his " Hist, of the Norman Con-
quest" (i., 106 seq.). Mr. Freeman points
out that every freeman had a theoretical
right to attend the assembly of the king-
dom, as well as the assembly of the shire,
but such a right of attendance became, of
course, purely nugatory. "The mass of
the people could not attend, they would
i not care to attend, they would find them-
I selves of no account if they did attend.
They would, therefore, without any formal
abrogation of their right, gradually cease
from attending. The idea of representa-
tion had not yet arisen ; those who did not
appear in person, had no means of appear-
ing by deputy ; of election or delegation
there is not the slightest trace, though it
might often happen that those who staid
j away might feel that their rich or oftici«l
I neighbors who went would attend to their
j wishes, and would fairly act in their iii-
1 terests. By this process, an originally
democratic assembly, without any formal
exclusion of any class of its members,
I gradually shrunk up into an aristocratic
i assembly. • • * * Thus an assembly of
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.
405
all the freemen of Wessex, when those
freemen could not attend personally, and
when they had no means of attending by
representatives, gradually changed into an
assembly attended by few or none but the
king's thegns. The great officers of church
and state, earldormen, bishops, abbots,
would attend ; the ordinary thegns would
attend more laxly, but still in considerable
numbers; the king would preside ; a few
leading men would discuss ; the general
mass of the thegns, whether they formally
voted or not, would make their approval or
disapproval practically fell ; no doubt the
form still remained of at least announcing
the resolutions taken to any of the ordinary
freemen, whom curiosity had drawn to the
spot ; most likely the form still remained
of demanding their ceremonial assent,
though without any fear that the habitual
' yea, yea,' would ever be exchanged for
'nay, nay.' It is thus that, in the absence
of representation, a democratic franchise,
as applied to a large country, gradually
becomes unreal or delusive. • * » •
"As to the constitution of these great
councils in any English kingdom, our in-
formation is of the vaguest kind. The
members are always described in the
loosest way. We find the witan con-
stantly assembling, constantly passing
laws, but we find no law prescribing or
defining the constitution of the assembly
itself. We find no trace of representation
or election ; we find no trace of any prop-
erty qualification ; we find no trace of
nomination by the crown, except in so far
as all the great oflicers of the court and the
kingdom were constantly present. On the
other hand, we have seen that all the lead-
ing men, earldormen, bishops, abbots, and
a considerable body of other thegns, did
attend ; we have seen that the people as a
body were in some M'ay associated with the
legislative acts of their chiefs, that those
acts were in some sort the acts of the peo-
ple themselves, to which they had them-
selves assented, not merely the edicts of
superiors which they had to obey. We
have seen that, on some particular occa-
sions, some classes at least of the people
did actually take a part in the proceedings
of the national council ; thus the citizens
of London are more than once recorded to
have taken a share in the election of kings.
No theory that I know of will explain all
these phenomena, except that which I have
just tried to draw out. This is, that every
freeman had an abstract right to be pres-
ent, but that any actual participation in the
proceedings of the assembly had, gradually
and imperceptibly, come to be confined to
the leading men, to the king's thegns.
strengthened, under peculiarly favorablo
circumstances, by the i)resence of excep-
tional classes of freemen, like the London
citizens."
V. TRIAL BY JURY.
The following note relates to the subse.
quent history of trial by jury.
In the " Leges Henrici Primi," a treatise
compiled probably early in the reign of
Henry IL [Stubbs], and not intended to
pass for legislative,* are numerous state-
ments as to the usual course of procedure,
especially on criminal eharges*. In this
treatise we find no allusion to juries ; the
trial was either before the Court of the
Hundred or that of the territorial judge,
assisted by his free vassals. But we do
find the great original principle, trial by
peers, and, as it is axWec], jter pais ; that is,
in the presence of the country, opposed
to a distant and unknown jurisdiction — a
principle truly derived from Saxon, though
consonant also to Norman law, dear to
both nations, and guaranteed to both, as it
was claimed by both, in the 29th section of
Magna Charta. " Unasquisque per pares
suos judicandus est, et ejusdem provinciae,
peregrina autem judicia modis omnibus
submovemus." (Leges H. I., c. 31).
As the court had no function but to see
that the formalities of the combat, the
ordeal, or the compurgation were duly re-
garded, and to observe whether the party
succeeded or succumbed, no oath from
them, nor any reduction of their numbers,
could be required. But the law of Nor-
mandy had already established the inquest
by sworn recognitors, twelve or twenty-
four in number, who were supposed to be
well acquainted with the facts ; and this in
civil as well as criminal proceedings. We
have seen an instance of it, not long before
the Conquest, among ourselves, in the his-
tory of the monk of Ramsey. [See p. 393.]
It was in the development of this amelio-
ration in civil justice that we find instances
during this period where a small number
have been chosen from the County Court
and sworn to declare the truth, when the
judge might suspect the partiality or igno-
rance of the entire body. Thus in suits
for the recovery of property the public
mind was gradually accustomed to see the
* It may be here observed, that, in all probability,
the title " Leges Henrici Primi " has been continued
to the whole book from the first two chapters, which
do really contain laws of Henry I., namely, his gener-
al charter, and that to the city of London. A similar
inadvertence has caused the well-known book com-
monly ascribed to Thomas a Kempis to be called " De
Imitatione Chrijti," which is merely the title of the
flrst chapter.
406
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.
jurisdiction of tlie freeliolders in their
court trangferred to a more select number
of sworn and well-informed men. But
tiiis was not yet a matter of riglit, nor
even probably of very common usage. It
was in this state of things that Henry II.
brought in the Assize of Novel DissAzin.
This gave an alternative to the tenant on
a suit for the recovery of land, if he chose
not to risk the combat, of putting himself
on the assize ; that is, of being tried by
four knights summoned by the sheriff and
twelve more selected by them, forming the
sixteen sworn recognitors, as they were
called, by whose verdict the cause was de-
termined. This may be regarded as the
first step to trial by jury in civil cases. An
assize of novel disseizin was always held
in the King's Court or that of the justices
itinerant, and not before the County or
Hundred, whose jurisdiction began in cou-
eequence rapidly to decline.
Changes not less important were effected
in criminal jirocesses during the second
part of the Norman period, which wc con-
sider as terminating with the accession of
Edward I. Henry II. abolished the ancient
privilege of compurgation by the oaths of
friends, the manifest fountain of unblush-
ing perjury ; though it long afterwards was
preserved in London and in boroughs by
some exemption which does not appear.
This, however, left the favorite, or at least
the ancient and English, mode of defense
by chewing consecrated bread, handling
hot iron, and other tricks called ordeals.
But near the beginning of Henry III.'s
reign the Church, grown wiser and more
fond of her system of laws, abolished all
kinds of ordeal in the fourth Lateran coun-
cil. The combat remained ; but it was not
applicable unless an injured prosecutor or
appellant came forward to demand it. In
cases where a party was only charged on
vehement suspicion of a crime, it was nec-
essary to find a substitute for the forbid-
den superstition. He might be compelled,
by a statute of Henry II., to abjure the
realm. A writ of 3 Henry III. directs that
those against whom the suspicions were
very strong should be kept in safe custody.
But this was absolutely incompatible with
English liberty and with Magna Charta.
"No further enactment," says Sir F. Pal-
grave, " was made ; and the usages which
already prevailed led to a general adoption
of the proceedings which had hitherto ex-
isted as a privilege or as a favor— that is
to say, of proving or disproving the testi-
mony of the first set of inquest-men by the
testimony of a second array— and the indi-
vidual accused by the appeal, or presented
by the general opinion of the hundred.
was allowed to defend himself by the pa^.
ticular testimony of the hundred to which
he belonged. For this purpose another
inquest was impanelled, sometimes com-
posed of twelve persons named from the
' visnc ' and three from each of the adjoin-
ing townships ; and sometimes the very
same jurymen who had presented the of-
fense might, if the culprit thought fit, be
examined a second time, as the witnesses
or inquest of the points in issue. Bnt it
seems worthy of remark that ' trial by in-
quest' in criminal cases never seems to
have been introduced except into those
courts which acted by the king's writ or
commission. The presentment or decla-
ration of those officers which fell within
the cognizance of the hundred jury or the
leet jury, the representatives of the ancient
cchevins, was final and conclusive ; no
traverse, or trial by a second jury, in the
nature of a petty jury, being allowed"
(p. 269).
Thus trial by a petty jury upon criminal
charges came in ; itisof the reign of Henry
III., and not earlier. And it is to be re-
marked, as a confirmation of this view,
that no one was compellable to plead;
that is, the inquest was to be of his own
choice. But if he declined to endure it he
was remanded to prison, and treated with
a severity which the statute of Westmin-
ster 1, in the third year of Edward I., calls
peine forte et dure: extended afterwards,
by a cruel interpretation, to that atrocious
punishment on those who refused to stand
a trial, commonly in order to preserve their
lands from forfeiture, which was not taken
away by law till the last century.
Thus was trial by jury established, both
in real actions, or suits affecting property
in land, and in criminal procedure, the
former preceding by a little the latter.
But a new question arises as to the prov-
ince of these early juries; and the view
lately taken is very different from that
which has been commonly received.
"Trial by jury," says Sir F, Palgrave,
"according to the old English law, was a
proceeding essentially different from the
modern tribunal, still bearing the same
name, by which it has been replaced.
Jurymen in the present day are triers of
the issue ; they are individuals who found
their opinion upon the evidence, whether
oral or written, adduced before them ; and
the verdict delivered by them is their dec-
laration of the judgment which they have
formed. But the ancient jurymen were
not impanelled to examine into the credi-
bility of the evidence: the question was
not discussed and argued before them .
they, the jurymen, were the witnesses
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.
407
them53lves, and the verdict was substan-
tially the examiuatiou of these witnesses,
who of their own knowledge, aud without
the aid of other testimony, afforded their
evidence respecting the facts in question
to the best of their belief. In its primitive
form a trial by jury was therefore only a
trial by witnesses ; and jurymen were dis-
tinguished from any other witnesses only
by customs which imposed upon them the
obligation of an oath and regulated their
number.
"I And it necessary to introduce this
description of the ancient ' Trial by Jury,'
because, unless the real functions of the
original jurymen be distinctly presented
to the reader, his familiar knowledge of
the existing course of jurisprudence will
lead to the most erroneous conclusions.
Many of those who have descanted upon
the excellence of our venerated national
franchise seem to have sitpposed that it
has descended to us unchanged from the
days of Alfred ; aud the patriot who claims
the jury as the 'judgment by his peers'
secured by Magna Charta can never have
suspected how distinctly the trial is re-
solved into a mere examination of wit-
nesses " (i. 243).
This theory is sustained by a great dis-
play of erudition, which fully establishes
that the jurors had such a knowledge,
however acquired, of the facts as enabled
them to render a verdict without hearing
any other testimony in open court than
that of the parties themselves, fortified, if
it might be, by written documents adduced.
Hence the knights of the grand assize are
called Recognitors, a name often given to
others sworn on an inquest.
At what precise period witnesses distinct
from the jury themselves, and who had
no voice in the verdict, first began to be
regularly summoned, can not -be ascer-
tained. The first trace of such a practice
occurs in the 23d year of Edward III., and
had probably been creeping in previously.
That it was perfectly established by the
middle of the 15th century we have clear
evidence from Fortescue's treatise 'De
Laudibus Legura Anglite ' (c. 26), written
soon after 1450 :
"Twelve good and true men being
sworn as in the manner above related,
legally qualified — that is, having, over and
besides their movable possessions, in land
sufficient (as was said) wherewith to main-
tain their rank and station — neither sus-
pected by nor at variance with either of
the parties ; all of the neighborhood ;
there shall be read to them in English by
the court the record and nature of the plea
at length which is dependingbetween the
parties ; and the issue thereupon shall be
plainly laid before them, concerning the
truth of which those who are so sworn are
to certify the court ; which done, each of
the parties, by themselves or their counsel,
in presence of the court, shall declare and
lay open to the jury all and singular the
matters and evidences whereby they think
they may be able to inform the court con-
cerning the truth of the point in question ;
after which each of the parties has a liberty
to produce before the court all such wit-
nesses as they please, or can get to appear
on their behalf, who, being charged upon
their oaths, shall give in evidence all that
they know touching the truth of the fiict
concerning which the parties are at issue.
And if necessity so require, the witnesses
may be heard and examined apart, till
they shall have deposed all that they have
to give in evidence, so that what the one
has declared shall not inform or induce
another witness of the sam'e side to give
his evidence in the same words, or to the
very same effect. The whole of the evi-
dence being gone through, the jurors shall
confer together at their pleasure, as they
shall think most convenient, upon the
truth of the issue before them, with as
much deliberation and leisure as they can
well desire; being all the while in the
keeping of an officer of the court, in a place
assigned them for that purpose, lest any
one should attempt by indirect methods to
influence them as to their opinion, which
they are to give in to the court. Lastly,
they are to return into court and certify
the justices upon the truth of the issue so
joined in the presence of the parties (if
they please to be present), particularly the
person who is plaintiff in the cause : what
the jurors shall so certify, in the laws of
England, is called the verdict " (c. 26).
But personal knowledge of a case con-
tinued to be allowed in a juror, who was
even required to act upon it; and it was
not till a comparatively recent period that
the complete separation of the functions
of juryman and witness was established.
408 ANGLO-NOKMAN CONSTITUTION. Chap. VIII. Part II
PART II.
THE ANGLO-NORMAN CONSTITUTION.
§ 1. The Anglo-Norman Constitution. Causes of the Conquest. § 2, Policy and
Character of William, § 3. His Tyranny. § 4. Introduction of Feudal Services.
§ 5. Difference between the Feudal Governments of France and England. Causes
of the great Power of the first Norman Kings. § 6. Arbitrary Character of their
Government. § 7. General Taxes. § 8. Right of Legislation. Great Council.
§ 9. Laws and Charters of the Norman Kings. § 10. Resistance of the Barons to
John. Magna Charta. Its principal Articles. § 11. Constitution under Henry
III. } 12. Limitations of the Prerogative. § 13. Judicial S3'stem of the Anglo-
Normans. Curia Regis, Exchequer, Justices of Assize, Common Pleas. 5 14. Es-
tablishment of the Common Law. § 15. Hereditary Right of the Crown estab-
lished. § 16. Remarks on the Limitation of Aristocratical Privileges in England.
§ 1. It is deemed by William of Malmsbury an extraordina-
ry work of Providence that the English should have given up
all for lost after the battle of Hastings, where only a small
though brave army had perished. It was, indeed, the con-
quest of a great kingdom by the prince of a single province
— an event not easily paralleled, v\ here the vanquished were
little, if at all, less courageous than their enemies, and where
no domestic factions exposed the country to an invader. Yet
William was so advantageously situated that his success
seems neither unaccountable nor any matter of discredit to
the English nation. The heir of the house of Cerdic had been
already set aside at the election of Harold ; and his youth,
joined to a mediocrity of understanding, which excited nei-
ther esteem nor fear, gave no encouragement to the scheme
of placing him upon the throne in those moments of immi-
nent peril which followed the battle of Hastings. England
was peculiarly destitute of great men. The weak reigns of
Ethelred and Edward had rendered the Government a mere
oligarchy, and reduced the nobility into the state of retainers
to a few leading houses, the representatives of which were
every way unequal to meet such an enemy as the Duke of
Normandy. If, indeed, the concurrent testimony of histori-
ans does not exaggerate his forces, it may be doubted whether
England possessed military resources sufficient to have re-
sisted so numerous and w^ell-appointed an army.
This forlorn state of the country induced, if it did not jus-
tify, the measure of tendering the crown to William, which
he had a pretext or title to claim, arising from the intentions,
perhaps the promise, perhaps even the testament of Edward,
English Const. WILLIAM L 409
which had more weight in those times than it deserved, and
was at least better than the naked title of conquest. And
this, supported by an oath exactly similar to that taken by
the Anglo-Saxon kings, and by the assent of the multitude,
English as well as Normans, on the day of his coronation,
gave as much appearance of a regular succession as the cir-
cumstances of the times would permit. Those who yielded
to such circumstances could not foresee, and were unwilling
to anticipate, the bitterness of that servitude which William
and his Norman followers were to bring upon their country.
§ 2. The commencement of his administration was toler-
ably equitable. Though many confiscations took place, in
order to gratify the Norman army, yet the mass of proper-
ty was left in the hands of its former possessors. Offices of
high trust were bestowed upon Englishmen, even upon those
whose family renown might have raised the most aspiring
thoughts. But, partly through the insolence and injustice
of William's Norman vassals, partly through the suspicious-
ness natural to a man conscious of having overturned the
national government, his yoke soon became more heavy. The
English were oppressed ; they rebelled, were subdued, and
oppressed again. All their risings were without concert, and
desperate ; they wanted men fit to head them, and fortresses
to sustain their revolt. After a very few years they sank in
despair, and yielded for a century to the indignities of a com-
paratively small body of strangers without a single tumult.
So possible is it for a nation to be kept in permanent servi-
tude, even without losing its reputation for individual cour-
age, or its desire of freedom !
The tyranny of William displayed less of passion or inso-
lence than of that indifference about human suffering which
distinguishes a cold and far-sighted statesman. Impressed
by the frequent risings of the English at the commencement
of his reign, and by the recollection, as one historian observes,
that the mild government of Canute had only ended in the
expulsion of the Danish line, he formed the scheme of rivet-
ing such fetters upon the conquered nation, that all resist-
ance should become impracticable. Those who had obtained
honorable ofiices were successively deprived of them ; even
the bishops and abbots of English birth were deposed ;^ a
1 This was clone with the concurrence and sanction of the pope, Alexander II., so
that the stretch of power was by Rome rather than by William. It must pass for a
gross violation of ecclesiastical as well as national rights, and Lanfranc can not be
reckoned, notwithstanding his distinguished name, as any better than an intrusive
bishop. He showed his arrogant scorn of the English nation in another and rather
a singular manner. They were excessively proud of their national saints, some of
18
410 WILLIAM I. Chap. VIIL Part XL
stretch of power very singular in that age. Morcar, one
of the most illustrious English, suffered perpetual imprison-
ment. Waltheoflf, a man of equally conspicuous birth, lost
his head upon the scalfold by a very harsh, if not iniquitous,
sentence. It was so rare in those times to inflict judicially
any capital punishment upon persons of such rank, that his
death seems to have produced more indignation and despair
in England than any single circumstance. The name of En
glishman was turned into a reproach. None of that race for
a hundred years were raised to any dignity in the State or
Church.'' Several English nobles, desperate of the fortunes
of their country, sought refuge in the Court of Constantino-
ple, and approved their valor in the wars of Alexius against
another Norman conqueror, scarcely less celebrated than their
own, Robert Guiscard. Under the name of Varangians, those
true and faithful supporters of the Byzantine Empire pre-
served to its dissolution their ancient Saxon idiom.^
An extensive spoliation of property accompanied these rev-
olutions. It appears by the great national survey of Dooms-
day-book, completed near the close of the Conqueror's reign,
that the tenants in capite of the crown were generally for-
eigners. Undoubtedly there were a few left in almost every
county who still enjoyed the estates which they held under
Edward the Confessor, free from any superiority but that of
the crown, and were denominated, as in former times, the
king's thanes. Cospatric, son, perhaps, of one of* that name
who had possessed the earldom of Northumberland, held for-
ty-one manors in Yorkshire, though many of them are stated
in Doomsday to be waste. But inferior freeholders were
much less disturbed in their estates than the higher class. It
is manifest, by running the eye over some pages of the list of
mesne tenants at the time of the survey, how mistaken is
the supposition that few of English birth held entire manors.
They form a large proportion of nearly 8000 mesne tenants.
whom were little known, and whose barbarous names disgusted Italian ears. The
Norman bishops, and the primate especially, set themselves to disparage, and in
fact to dispossess, St Aldhelm, St. Elflg, and, for aught we know, St. Swithin, St.
Werburg, St. Ebb, and St. Alphage ; names, it must be owned,
•'That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp."
We may judge what the eminent native of Pavia thought of such a hagiology. The
English Church found herself, as it were, with an attainted peerage. But the calen-
dar withstood these innovations.
2 Becket is said to have been the first Englishman who reached any considerable
dignity.
^ No writer, except perhaps the Saxon Chronicler, is so full of William's tyranny
as Ordericus Vitalis. Ordericus was an Englishman, but passed at ten years old, a.»
1084, into Normandy, where he became professed in the monastery of Eu.
Kngush Const. HIS CHARACTER. 411
And we may presume that they were in a very much greater
proportion among the " liberi homines," who held lands, sub-
ject only to free services, seldom or never very burdensome.
it may be added that many Normans, as we learn from his-
tory, married English heiresses, rendered so frequently, nc
doubt, by the violent deaths of their fathers and brothers, but
still transmitting ancient rights, as well as native blood, to
their posterity.
This might induce us to suspect that, great as the spolia-
tion must appear in modern times, and almost completely as
the nation was excluded from civil power in the Common-
wealth, there is fcome exaggeration in the language of those
writers who represent them as universally reduced to a state
of penury and servitude. But, whatever may have been the
legal condition of the English mesne tenant, by knight-serv-
ice or socage — for the case of villeins is of course not here con-
sidered during the first two Norman reigns — it seems evident
that he was protected by the charter of Henry I. in the heredi-
tary possession of his lands, subject only to a "lawful and just
relief towards his lord;" for this charter is addressed to all
the liege men of the crown, "French and English," and pur-
ports to abolish all the evil customs by which the kingdom
had been oppressed, extending to the tenants of the barons
as well as those of the crown.
The vast extent of the Norman estates in capite is apt to
deceive us. In reading of a baron who held forty or fifty or
one hundred manors, we are prone to fancy his wealth some-
thing like what a similar estate would produce at this day.
But if we look at the next words, we shall continually find
tliat some one else held of him ; and this was a holding by
knight's service, subject to feudal incidents, no doubt, but
not leaving the seigniory very lucrative, or giving any right
of possessory ownership over the land. The real possessions
of the tenant of a manor, whether holding in chief or not,
consisted in the demesne lands, the produce of which he ob-
tained without cost by the labor of the villeins, and in what-
ever other payments they might be bound to make in money
or kind. It will be remembered, what has been more than
once inculcated, that at this time the villani and bordarii,
that is, ceorls, were not, like the villeins of a later time, des-
titute of rights in their property; tlieir condition was tend-
ing to the lower stage, and, with a Norman lord, they were
in much danger of oppression ; but they were "law-worthy"
— they had a civil status (to pass from one technical style to
another) for a century after the Conquest.
412 WILLIAM I. Chap. VIII. Part II.
Yet I would not extenuate the calamities of this great rev-
olution, true though it be that much good was brought out
of them, and that we owe no trifling part of what inspires
self-esteem to the Norman element of our population and our
polity. England passed under the yoke — she endured the
arrogance of foreign conquerors — her children, even though
their loss in revenue may have been exaggerated, and still it
was enormous, became a low race, not called to the councils
of their sovereign, not sharing his trust or his bounty. They
were in a far difl*erent condition from the provincial Romans
after the conquest of Gaul, even if, which is hardly possible
to determine, their actual deprivation of lands should have
been less extensive. For not only they did not for several
reigns occupy the honorable stations which sometimes fell to
the lot of the Roman subject of Clovis or Alaric, but they
had a great deal more freedom and importance to lose. Nor
had they a protecting Church to mitigate barbarous superi-
ority ; their bishops were degraded and in exile ; the foot-
step of the invader was at their altars; their monasteries
were plundered, and the native monks insulted. Rome her-
self looked with little favor on a Church which had preserved
some measure of independence : strange contrast to the tri-
umphant episcopate of the Merovingian kings!*
§ 3. Besides the severities exercised upon the English after
every insurrection, two instances of William's unsparing cru-
elty are well known — the devastation of Yorkshire and of the
New Forest. In the former, w^hich had the tyrant's plea,
necessity, for its pretext, an invasion being threatened from
Denmark, the whole country between the Tyne and the Hum-
ber was laid so desolate that for nine years afterwards tliere
was not an inhabited village, and hardly an inhabitant left —
the wasting of this district having been followed by a famine
which swept away the whole population. That of the New
Forest, though undoubtedly less calamitous in its effects,
seems more monstrous from the frivolousness of the cause.
He afforested several other tracts. And these favorite de-
mesnes of the Norman kings were protected by a system of in-
iquitous and cruel regulations, called the Forest Laws, which
it became afterwards a great object with the assertors of lib-
erty to correct. The penalty for killing a stag or a boar was
loss of eyes ; for William loved the great game, says the
Saxon Chronicle, as if he had been their father.
* The oppression of the English during the first reigns after the Conquest is fully
described by the Norman historians themselves, as well as by the Saxon Chronicle.
Their testimonies are well collected by M.Thierry in the second volume of his val-
uable history
English Const. HIS TYRANNY. 413
A more general proof of the ruinous oppression of William
the Conqueror may be deduced from the comparative condi-
tion of the English towns in the reign of Edward the Con-
fessor and at the compilation of Doomsday. At the former
epoch, there were in York 1607 inhabited houses ; at the latter,
967: at the former, there were in Oxford 721 ; at the latter,
243: of 172 houses -in Dorchester, 100 were destroyed; of
243 in Derby, 103 ; of 487 in Chester, 205. Some other towns
had suffered less, but scarcely any one fails to exhibit marks
of a decayed population.'^
The demesne lands of the crown, extensive and scattered
over every county, were abundantly sufficient to support its
dignity and magnificence f and William, far from wasting
this revenue by prodigal grants, took care to let them at the
highest rate to farm, little caring how much the cultivators
were racked by his tenants. Yet his exactions, both feudal
and in the way of tallage, from his burgesses and the tenants
of his vassals, were almost as violent as his confiscations. No
source of income was neglected by him, or, indeed, by his suc-
cessors, however trifling, unjust, or unreasonable. His reve-
nues, if we could trust Ordericus Vitalis, amounted to £1060
a day. This, in mere weight of silver, would be equal to
nearly £1,200,000 a year at present. But the arithmetical
statements of these writers are not implicitly to be relied
upon. He left at his death a treasure of £60,000, which, in
conformity to his dying request, his successor distributed
among the Church and poor of the kingdom, as a feeble ex-
piation of the crimes by which it had been accumulated ; an
act of disinterestedness which seems to prove that Rufus,
amidst all his vices, was not destitute of better feelings than
historians have ascribed to him. It might appear that Wil-
liam had little use for his extorted wealth. By the feudal
constitution, as established during his reign, he commanded
the service of a vast army at its own expense, either for do-
mestic or Continental w^arfare. But this was not sufficient
for his purpose ; like other tyrants, he put greater trust in
mercenary obedience. Some "of his predecessors had kep\
bodies of Danish troops in pay; partly to be secure against
their hostility, partly from the convenience of a regular army,
and the love which princes bear to it. But William carried
this to a much greater length. He had always stipendiary
soldiers at his command. Indeed, his army at the Conquest
* The population recorded in Doomsday is about 283,000 ; which, in round nun*
bers, allowing for women and children, may be called about a railliou.
• They consisted of 1422 manors.
414 FEUDAL SERVICES. Chap. VIII. Part II.
could not have been swollen to such numbers by any other
means. They were drawn, by the allurement of high pay,
not from France and Brittany alone, but Flanders, Germany,
and even Spain. When Canute of Denmark threatened an in-
vasion in 1085, William, too conscious of his own tyranny to
use the arms of his English subjects, collected a mercenary
force so vast, that men wondered, says the Saxon Chronicle,
how the country could maintain it. This he quartered upon
the people, according to the proportion of their estates.
§ 4. Whatever may be thought of the Anglo-Saxon ten-
ures, it is certain that those of the feudal system were thor-
oughly established in England under the Conqueror. It has
been observed, in another part of this work, that the rights,
or feudal incidents, of wardship and marriage were more com-
mon in England and Normandy than in the rest of France.
They certainly did not exist in the former before the Con-
quest ; but whether they were ancient customs of the latter
can not be ascertained, unless we liad more incontestable
records of its early jurisprudence. There appears, however,
reason to think that the seizure of the lands in wardship, the
selling of the heiress in marriage, were originally deemed
rather acts of violence than conformable to law. For Hen-
ry I.'s charter exj^ressly promises that the mother, or next
of kin, shall have the custody of the lands as well as person
of the heir. And as the charter of Henry II. refers to and con-
firms that of his grandfather, it seems to follow that what is
called guardianship in chivalry had not yet been established.
At least it is not till the assize of Clarendon, confirmed at
Northampton in 11 76, that the custody of the heir is clearly
reserved to the lord. With respect to the right of consent-
ing to the marriage of a female vassal, it seems to have been,
as I have elsewhere observed, pretty general in feudal ten-
ures. But the sale of her person in marriage, or the exaction
of a sum of money in lieu of this scandalous tyranny, was
only the law of England, and was not, perhaps, fully author-
ized as such till the statute of Merton,in 1236.
One innovation made by William upon the feudal law is
very deserving of attention. By the leading principle of
feuds, an oath of fealty was due from the vassal to the lord
of whom he immediately held his land, and to no other. The
King of France, long after this period, had no feudal, and
scarcely any royal authority over the tenants of his own vas-
sals. But William received at Salisbury, in 1085, the fealty
of all land-holders in England, both those who held in chief
and their tenants ; thus breaking in upon the feudal compact
English Const. FEUDAL SERVICES. 415
in its most essential attribute, the exclusive dependence of a
vassal upon his lord. And this may be reckoned among the
several causes which prevented the Continental notions of.
independence upon the crown from ever taking root among
the English aristocracy.
§ 5. The system of feudal policy, though derived to En-
gland from a French source, bore a very different appearance
in the two countries. France, for about two centuries after
the house of Capet had usurped the throne of Charlemagne's
posterity, could hardly be deemed a regular confederacy,
much less an entire monarchy. But in England a govern-
ment feudal, indeed, in its form, but arbitrary in its exercise,
not only maintained subordination, but almost extinguished
liberty. Several causes seem to have conspired towards
this radical difference. In the first place, a kingdom com-
paratively small is much more easily kept under control than
one of vast extent. And the fiefs of Anglo-Norman barons
after the Conquest were far less considerable, even relatively
to the size of the two countries, than those of Fi-ance. The
Earl of Chester held, indeed, almost all that county '^ the
Earl of Shrewsbury nearly the whole of Salop. But these
domains bore no comparison with the dukedom of Guienne,
or the county of Toulouse. In general, the lordships of Wil-
liam's barons, whether this were owing to policy or accident,
were exceedingly dispersed. Robert, earl of Moreton, for
example, the most richly endowed of his followers, enjoyed
248 manors in Cornwall, 54 in Sussex, 196 in Yorkshire, 99
in Northamptonshire, besides many in other counties. Es-
tates so disjoined, however immense in their aggregate, were
ill calculated for supporting a rebellion. It is observed by
Madox that the knight's fees of almost every barony were
scattered over various counties.
In the next place, these baronial fiefs were held under an
actual derivation from the crown. The great vassals of
France had usurped their dominions before the accession of
Hugh Capet, and barely submitted to his nominal sovereign-
ty. They never intended to yield the feudal tributes of re-
lief and aid, nor did some of them even acknowledge the su-
premacy of his royal jurisdiction. But the Conqueror and
^ This %vap, upon the whole, more like a great French fief than any English earl-
dom. Hugh de Abrincis, nephew of William L, had barons of his own, one of whom
held forty-six and another thirty manors. Chester was first called a connty-palatine
under Henry II. ; but it previously possessed all regaliau rights of jurisdiction. Af-
ter the forfeitures of the house of Montgomery, it acquired all the country between
the Mersey and Ribble. Several eminent men inherited the earldom ; but upon the
death of the most distinguished, Rauulf, in 1232, it fell into a female line, and soon
escheated to the crown.
416 THE NORMAN KINGS. Chap. VIII. Paiit II.
his successors imposed what conditions they would upon a
set of barons who owed all to their grants ; and as mankind's
notions of right are generally founded upon prescriptions,
these peers grew accustomed to endure many burdens, re-
luctantly indeed, but without that feeling of injury which
would have resisted an attempt to impose them upon the vas-
sals of the French crown. For the same reasons the barons
of England were regularly summoned to the great council ;
and by their attendance in it, and concurrence in the meas-
ures which were there resolved upon, a compactness and uni-
ty of interests was given to the monarchy which was entire-
ly wanting in that of France.
We may add to the circumstances that rendered the
crow^n powerful during the first century after the Conquest,
an extreme antipathy of the native English towards their in-
vaders. Both William Rufus and Henry I. made use of the
former to strengthen themselves against the attempts of their
brother Robert, though they forgot their promisee to the En-
glish after attaining their object. A fact mentioned by Or-
dericus Vitalis illustrates the advantage which the govern-
ment found in this national animosity. During the siege of
Bridgenorth, a town belonging to Robert de Belesme, one of
the most turbulent and powerful of the Norman barons, by
Henry Lin 1102, the rest of the nobility deliberated togeth-
er, and came to the conclusion that if the king could expel
so distinguished a subject he would be able to treat them
all as his servants. They endeavored, therefore, to bring
about a treaty ; but the English part of Henry's army, hat-
ing Robert de Belesme as a Norman, urged the king to pro^
ceed with the siege, which he did, and took the castle.
§ 6. Unrestrained, therefore, comparatively speaking, by
the aristocratic principles which influenced other feudal
countries, the administration acquired a tone of rigor and
arbitrariness under William the Conqueror which, though
sometimes perhaps a little mitigated, did not cease during a
century and a half. For the first three reigns we must have
recourse to historians whose language, though vague, and
perhaps exaggerated, is too uniform and impressive to leave
a doubt of the tyrannical character of the government. The
intolerable exactions of tribute, the rapine of purveyance,
the iniquity of royal courts, are continually in their mouths.
" God sees the wretched people," says the Saxon chronicler,
" most unjustly oppressed ; first they are despoiled of their
possessions, then butchered. This was a grievous year (11 24).
Whoever had any property lost it by heavy taxes and un-
English Const. GOVERNMENT OF NORMAN KINGS. 4lT
just decrees." The same ancient chronicle, which appears
to have been continued from time to time in the Abbey of
Peterborough, frequently utters similar notes of lamentation.
From the reign of Stephen, the miseries of which are not
to my immediate purpose, so far as they j^roceeded from an-
archy and intestine war,^ we are able to trace the character
of government by existing records.** These, digested by the
industrious Madox into his History of the Exchequer, give us
far more insight into the spirit of the constitution, if we may
use such a word, than all our monkish chronicles. It was
not a sanguinary despotism. Henry II. was a prince of re-
markable clemency ; and none of the Conqueror's successors
were as grossly tyrannical as himself But the system of
rapacious extortion from their subjects prevailed to a degree
which we should rather expect to iind among Eastern slaves
than that high-spirited race of Normandy whoso renown then
filled Europe and Asia. The right of wardship was abused
by selling the heir and his land to the highest bidder. That
of marriage was carried to a still grosser excess. The kings
of France, indeed, claimed the prerogative of forbidding the
marriage of their vassals' daughters to such persons as they
thought unfriendly or dangerous to themselves ; but I am not
aware that they ever compelled them to marry, much less
that they turned this attribute of sovereignty into a means
of revenue. But in England women, and even men, simply
as tenants-in-chief, and not as wards, fined to the crown for
leave to marry whom they would, or not to be compelled to
marry any other. Towns not only fined for original grants
of franchises, but for repeated confirmations. The Jews
paid exorbitant sums for every common right of mankind, for
protection, for justice. In return they were sustained agamst
their Christian debtors in demands of usury, which super-
stition and tyranny rendered enormous. Men fined for the
king's good-will ; or that he w^ould remit his anger ; or to
have his mediation with their adversaries. Many fines
8 The following simple picture of that reign from the Saxon Chronicle may he
worth inserting: "The nobles and bishops built castles, and filled them with devil-
ish and wicked men, and oppressed the people, cruelly torturing men for their mon-
ey. They imposed taxes upon towns, and, when they had exhausted them of every
thing, set them on fire. You might travel a day and not find one man living in a
town, nor any land in cultivation. Never did the country suffer greater evils. If
two or three men were seen riding up to a town, all its inhabitants left it, taking
them for plunderers. And this lasted, growing worse and worse, throughout Ste-
phen's reign. Men said openly that Christ and his saints were asleep " (p. 239).
* The earliest record in the Pipe-office is that which Madox, in conformity to the
nsage of others, cites by the name of Magnum Rotulum quinto Stephani. But in a
particular dissertation subjoined to his History of the Exchequer he inclines, though
not decisively, to refer this record to the reign of Henry I.
18*
418 GENERAL TAXES. Chap. VIII. Part II.
seem, as it were, imposed in sport, if we look to the cause ;
though their extent, and the solemnity with which they were
recorded, prove the humor to have been differently relished
by the two parties. Thus the Bishop of Winchester paid a
tun of good wine for not reminding the king (John) to give
a girdle to the Countess of Albemarle ; and Robert de Vaux
live best palfreys, that the same king might hold his peace
about Henry Pinel's wife. Another paid four marks for
leave to eat (pro licentia comedendi). But of all the abuses
which deformed the Anglo-Norman government, none was
so flagitious as the sale of judicial redress. The king, we
are often told, is the fountain of justice ; but in those ages
it was one which gold alone could unseal. Men fined to
have right done them ; to sue in a certain court ; to im-
plead a certain person ; to have restitution of land which
they had recovered at law. From the sale of that justice
which every citizen has a right to Remand, it was an easy
transition to withhold or deny it. Fines were received for
the king's help against the adverse suitor ; that is, for per-
version of justice, or for delay. Sometimes they were paid
by opposite parties, and, of course, for opposite ends. These
were called counter-fines.^"
§ 7. Among a people imperfectly civilized the most out-
rageous injustice towards individuals may pass without the
slightest notice, while in matters affecting the commimity
the powers of government are exceedingly controlled. It
becomes, therefore, an important question what prerogative
these Norman kings were used to exercise in raising money
and in general legislation. By the prevailing feudal customs
the lord was entitled to demand a pecuniary aid of his vas-
sals in certain cases. These were, in England, to make his
eldest son a knight, to marry his eldest daughter, and to ran-
som himself from captivity. Accordingly, when such cir-
cumstances occurred, aids were levied by the crown upon its
tenants, at the rate of a mark or a pound for every knight's
fee." These aids, being strictly due in the prescribed cases,
were taken without requiring the consent of Parliament. Es-
cuage, which was a commutation for the personal service of
military tenants in war, having rather the appearance of an
indulgence than an imposition, might reasonably be levied by
" The most opposite instances of these exactions are well selected from Madoxby
Hume, Appendix II.
" The reasonable aid was fixed by the statute of Westminster 1, 3 Edw. I., c. 36, at
twenty shillings for every knight's fee, and as much for every i;20 value of land held
by socage. The aid pour faire fitz chevalier might be raised when he entered into
his fifteenth year; pour fille marier when she reached the age of seven.
English Const. LEGISLATION. 419
the king. It was not till the charter of John that escuage
became a parliamentary assessment ; the custom of commut-
ing service having then grown general, and the rate of com-
mutation being variable.
None but military tenants could be liable for escuage ; but
the inferior subjects of the crown wei-e oppressed by tallages.
The demesne lands of the king, and all royal towns, were lia-
ble to tallage ; an imposition far more rigorous and irregular
than those which fell upon the gentry. Tallages were con-
tinually raised upon difterent towns during all the Norman
reigns without the consent of Parliament, which neither rep-
resented them nor cared for their interests. The itinerant
justices in their circuit usually set this tax. Sometimes the
tallage was assessed in gross upon a town, and collected by
the burgesses ; sometimes individually at the judgment of
the justices. There was an appeal from an excessive assess-
ment to the barons of the Exchequer. Inferior lords might
tallage their own tenants and demesne towns, though not, it
seems, without the king's permission. Customs upon the im-
port and export of merchandise, of which the prisage of wine
— that is, a right of taking two casks out of each vessel —
seems the most material, were immemorially exacted by the
crown. There is no appearance that these originated with
Parliament. Another tax, extending to all the lands of the
kingdom, was Danegeld, the ship-money of those times. This
name had been originally given to the tax imposed under
Ethelred II., in order to raise a tribute exacted by the Danes.
•It was afterwards applied to a permanent contribution for
the public defense against the same enemies. But after the
Conquest this tax is said to have been only occasionally re-
quired ; and the latest instance on record of its payment is in
the 20th of Henry II. Its imposition appears to have been at
the king's discretion.
§ 8. The right of general legislation was undoubtedly
placed in the king, conjointly with his Great Council, or, if
the expression be thought more proper, with their advice. So
little opposition was found in these assemblies by the early
Norman kings, that they gratified their own love of pomp,
as well as the pride of their barons, by consulting them in
every important business. But the limits of legislative pow-
er were extremely indefinite.^" New laws, like new taxes,
afifecting the community, required the sanction of that as-
sembly which was supposed to represent it ; but there was
no security for individuals against acts of prerogative which
»2 See Note L, "The Legislatiou of the Great CounciL"
420 CHARTERS. Chap. VIII. Part II.
we should justly consider as most tyrannical. Henry II., the
best of these monarchs, banished from England the relations
and friends of Becket, to the number of four hundred. At
another time he sent over from Normandy an injunction
that all the kindred of those who obeyed a papal interdict
should be banished and their estates confiscated.
§ 9. The statutes of those reigns do not exhibit to us many
provisions calculated to maintain public liberty on a broad
and general foundation. And although the laws then enact-
ed have not all been preserved, yet it is unlikely that any of
an extensively remedial nature should have left no trace of
their existence. We find, however, what has sometimes been
called the Magna Charta of William the Conqueror. "We
will, enjoin, and grant," says the king, " that all freemen of
our kingdom shall enjoy their lands in peace, free from all
tallage, and from every unjust exaction, so that nothing but
their service lawfully due to us shall be demanded at their
hands.'"^ It is remarkable that no reference is made to this
concession of William the Conqueror in any subsequent char-
ter. A charter of Henry I., the authenticity of which is un-
disputed, though it contains nothing specially expressed but
a remission of unreasonable reliefs, wardships, and other feud-
al burdens,'* proceeds to declare that he gives his subjects the
laws of Edward the Confessor, with the emendations made by
his father with consent of his barons. The charter of Stephen
not only confirms that of his predecessor, but adds, in fuller
terms than Henry had used, an express concession of the laws
and customs of Edward. Henry II. is silent about these, al-
though he repeats the confirmation of his grandfather's char-
ter. The people, however, had begun to look back to a more
ancient standard of law. The Norman Conquest, and all
that ensued upon it, had endeared the memory of their Sax-
on government. Its disorders were forgotten, or, rather,
were less odious to a rude nation than the coercive justice
*3 This charter contains a clause— "Hoc quoque pr^cipio et volo ut cranes habeant
et teneaut legem Edwardi Regis in omnibus rebus, adauctis his quae coustitui ad
utilitatem populi Auglorum." This charter seems to be fully established; it de-
serves to be accounted the first remedial concession by the crown ; for it indicates,
especially taken in connection with public history, an arbitrary exercise of royal
power which neither the new nor the old subjects of the^nglish monarchy reckon-
ed lawful. It is also the earliest recognition of the Anglo-Saxon laws, such as they
subsisted under the Confessor, and a proof both that the English were now endeav-
oring to raise their heads from servitude, and that the Normans had discovered some
immunities from taxation, or some securities from absolute power, among the con-
quered people, in which they desired to participate.
" The accession of Henry inspired hopes into the English nation which were not
well realized. His marriage with Matilda, "of the rightful English kin," is men-
tioned with apparent pleasure by the Saxon chronicler under the year 1100.
English Const. CHARTERS. 421
by which they were afterwards restrained. Hence it be-
came the favorite cry to demand the laws of Edward the
Confessor; and the Normans themselves, as they grew dis-
satisfied with the royal administration, fell into these English
sentiments.'^ But what these laws were, or more properly,
perhaps, these customs subsisting in the Confessor's age, was
not very distinctly understood. So far, however, was clear,
that the rigorous feudal servitude, the weighty tributes
upon poorer freemen, had never prevailed before the Con-
quest. In claiming the laws of Edward the Confessor, our
ancestors meant but the redress of grievances which tradi-
tion told them had not always existed.
It is highly probable, independently of the evidence sup-
plied by the charters of Henry I. and his two successors,
that a sense of oppression had long been stimulating the
subjects of so arbitrary a government before they gave any
demonstrations of it sufficiently palpable to find a place in
history. But there are certainly no instances of rebellion,
or even, as far as we know, of a constitutional resistance in
Parliament, down to the reign of Richard I. The revolt of
the earls of Leicester and Norfolk against Henry IL, which
endangered his throne and comprehended his children with
a large part of his barons, appears not to have been founded
even upon the pretext of public grievances. Under Richard
I. something more of a national spirit began to show itself
For the king having left his chancellor, William Longchamp,
joint regent and justiciary with the Bishop of Dui-ham during
his crusade, the foolish insolence of the former, who excluded
his coadjutor from any share in the administration, provoked
every one of the nobility. A convention of these, the king's
brother placing himself at their head, passed a sentence of
removal and banishment upon the chancellor. Though there
might be reason to conceive that this would not be un pleas-
ing to the king, who Avas already apprised how much Long-
champ had abused his trust, it was a remarkable assumption
of power by that assembly, and the earliest authority for a
leading principle of our constitution, the responsibility of
ministers to Parliament.
** The distinction between the two nations was pretty well obliterated at the end
of Henry II.'s reign, as we learn from the Dialogue on the Exchequer, then written :
Jam cohabitantibus Auglicis et Normannis, et alterutriim uxores ducentibus vel nu-
bentibtis, sic permixtae sunt nationes, ut vix discern! possit hodie, de liberis loquor,
quis Anglicns, quis Norraannus sit genere ; exceptis duntaxat ascriptitiis qui villani
dicuntur, quibus non est libernm obstantibus dominis snis a sni status conditione
discedere. Eapropter peue quicuuque sic hodie occisus reperitur, ut murdrum puni-
tur, exceptis his quibus certa sunt ut diximus servills conditionis indicia (p. 2(Q. See
Note II., "On the Duration of Distinction between Norman and Saxon."
422 KING JOHN. Chav. VIII. Part IL
§ 10. In the succeeding reign of John all the rapacious ex-
actions usual to these Norman kings were not only redoub-
led, but mingled with other outrages of tyranny still more
intolerable. These, too, were to be endured at the hands of
a prince utterly contemptible for his folly and cowardice.
One is surprised at the forbearance displayed by the barons,
till they took up arms at length in that confederacy which
ended in establishing the Great Charter of Liberties. As
this was the first effort towards a legal government, so is it
beyond comparison the most important event in our history,
except that Revolution without which its benefits would have
been rapidly annihilated. The constitution of England has
indeed no single date from which its duration is to be reck-
oned. The institutions of positive law, the far more impor-
tant changes which time has wrought in the order of society,
during six hundred years subsequent to the Great Charter,
have undoubtedly lessened its direct application to our pres-
ent circumstances. But it is still the key-stone of English
liberty. All that has since been obtained is little more than
as confirmation or commentary; and if every subsequent law
were to be swept away, there would still remain the bold
features that distinguish a free from a despotic monarchy.
It has been lately the fashion to depreciate the value of
Magna Charta, as if it had sprung from the private ambition
of a few selfish barons, and redressed only some feudal abuses.
It is indeed of little importance by Avhat motives those Avho
obtained it were guided. The real characters of men most
distinguished in the transactions of that time are not easily
determined at present. Yet if we bring these ungrateful
suspicions to the test, they prove destitute of all reasonable
foundation. An equal distribution of civil rights to all classes
of freemen forms the peculiar beauty of the charter. In this
just solicitude for the people, and in the moderation which
infringed upon no essential prerogative of the monarchy, we
may perceive a liberality and patriotism very unlike the
selfishness which is sometimes rashly imputed to those an-
cient barons. And, as far as we are guided by historical
testimony, two great men, the pillars of our Church and
State, may be considered as entitled beyond the rest to the
gloiy of this monument — Stephen Langton, archbishop of
Canterbury, and William, earl of Pembroke. To their tem-
perate zeal for a legal government, England was indebted
during that critical period for the two greatest blessings
that patriotic statesmen could confer — the establishment of
civil liberty upon an immovable basis, and the preservation
English Const. MAGNA CHARTA. 423
of national independence under the ancient line of sover-
eigns, which rasher men were about to exchange for the do-
minion of France.
By the Magna Charta of John reliefs were limited to a
certain sum according to the rank of the tenant, the waste
committed by guardians in chivalry restrained, the dispar-
agement in matrimony of female wards forbidden, and wid-
ows secured from compulsory marriage. These regulations,
extending to the sub-vassals of the crown, redressed the worst
grievances of every military tenant in England. The fran-
chises of the city of London and of all towns and boroughs
were declared inviolable. The freedom of commerce was
guaranteed to alien merchants. The Court of Common
Pleas, instead of following the king's person, was fixed at
Westminster, The tyranny exercised in the neighborhood
of royal forests met with some check, which was further en-
forced by the Charter of Forests under Henry III.
But the essential clauses of Magna Charta are those which
protect the personal liberty and property of all freemen,
by giving security from arbitrary imprisonment and arbi-
trary spoliation. "No freeman (says the 29th chapter of
Henry HL's charter, w^hich, as the existing law, I quote in
preference to that of John, the variations not being very
material) shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseized of his
freehold, or liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed, or
exiled, or any otherwise destroyed ; nor will we pass upon
him, nor send upon him, but by lawful judgment of his
peers, or by the law of the land.'^ We will sell to no man,
we will not deny or delay to any man, justice or right." It
is obvious that these words, interpreted by any honest court
of law, convey an ample security for the two main rights of
civil society. From the era, therefore, of King John's charter,
it must have been a clear principle of our constitution that
18 Nisi per legale judicium parium suorum, vel per legem terrse. Several explana-
tions have been offered of the alternative clause, which some have referred to judg-
ment l^default or demurrer— others to the process of attachment for contempt. Cer-
tainly there are many legal procedures besides trial by jury, through which a party's
goods or person may be taken. But one may doubt whether these were in contem-
plation of the framers of Magna Charta. In an entry of the charter of 1217 by a con-
temporary hand, preserved in a book in the town-clerk's office in London, called Li-
ber Custumarum et Rcgum antiquorum, a various reading, et per legem terne, occurs.
— Blackstone's Charters, p. 42. And the word vel is so frequently used for et, that I am
not wholly free from a suspicion that it was so intended in this place. The meaning
will be that no person shall be disseized, etc., except upon a lawful cause of action
or indictment found by the verdict of a jury. This really seems as good as any of the
disjunctive interpretations, but I do not offer it with much confidence.
But perhaps the best sense of the disjunctive will be perceived by remembering
j,hat judicium parium was generally opposed to the combat or the ordeal, which were
'equally lex terrce. The Magna Charta is printed at length on p. 552 seq.
424 MAGNA CHARTA. Chap. VIII. Paut II.
no man can be detained in prison without trial. Whether
courts of justice framed the writ of Habeas Corpus in con-
formity to the spirit of this clause, or found it already in
their register, it became from that era the right of every
subject to demand it. That wn-it, rendered more actively
remedial by the statute of Charles II., but founded upon
the broad basis of Magna Charta, is the principal bulwark
of English liberty ; and if ever temporary circumstances, or
the doubtful plea of political necessity, shall lead men to
look on its denial with apathy, the most distinguishing char-
acteristic of our constitution will be effaced.
As the clause recited above protects the subject from any
absolute spoliation of his freehold rights, so others restrain
the excessive amercements which had an almost equally
ruinous operation. The magnitude of his offense, by the 14th
clause of Henry III.'s charter, must be the measure of his
fine ; and in every case the contenement (a word expressive of
chattels necessary to each man's station, as the arms of a
gentleman, the merchandise of a trader, the plough and w^ag-
ons of a peasant) was exempted from seizure. A provision
was made in the charter of John that no aid or escuage
should be imposed, except in the three feudal cases of aid,
wdthout consent of Parliament. And this was extended to
aids paid by the city of London. But the clause was omit-
ted in the three charters granted by Henry III., though
Parliament seem to have acted upon it in most part of his
reign. It had, however, no reference to tallages imposed
upon towns without their consent. Fourscore years were
yet to elapse before the great principle of parliamentary tax-
ation was explicitly and absolutely recognized.
§ 11. From this era a new soul was infused into the peo-
ple of England. Her liberties, at the best long in abeyance,
became a tangible possession, and those indefinite aspirations
for the laws of Edward the Confessor were changed into
a steady regard for the Great Charter. Pass but from the
history of Roger de Hoveden to that of Matthew Paris, from
the second Henry to the third, and judge whether the victo-
rious struggle had not excited an energy of public spirit to
which the nation was before a stranger. The strong man, in
the sublime language of Milton, was aroused from sleep, and
shook his invincible locks. Tyranny, indeed, and injustice
will, by all historians not absolutely servile, be noted with
moral reprobation ; but never shall we find in the English
writers of the twelfth century that assertion of positive and
national riiiijhts which distinguishes those of the next age,
English Const. MAGNA CHARTA. 425
and particularly the monk of St. Alban's. From his prolix
history we may collect three material propositions as to the
state of the English constitution during the long reign of
Henry III. ; a prince to whom the epithet of worthless
seems best applicable ; and who, without committing any
flagrant crimes, was at once insincere, ill-judging, and pusil-
lanimous. The intervention of such a reign was a very for-
tunate circumstance for public liberty, which might possibly
have been crushed in its infancy if an Edward had imme-
diately succeeded to the throne of John.
1. The Great Charter was always considered as a funda-
mental law. But yet it was supposed to acquire additional
security by frequent confirmation. This it received, with
some not inconsiderable variation, in the first, second, and
ninth years of Henry's reign. The last of these is in our
present statute-book, and has never received any alterations ;
but Sir E. Coke reckons thirty-two instances wherein it has
been solemnly ratified. Several of these were during the
reign of Henry HI., and were invariably purchased by the
grant of a subsidy. This prudent accommodation of Parlia-
ment to the circumstances of their age not only made the
law itself appear more inviolable, but established that cor-
respondence between supply and redress which for some cen-
turies was the balance-spring of our constitution. The char-
ter, indeed, was often grossly violated by their administra-
tion. Even Hubert de Burgh, of whom history speaks more
favorably than of Henry's later favorites, though a faithful
servant of the crown, seems, as is too often the case with
such men, to have thought the king's honor and interest con-
cerned in maintaining an unlimited prerogative. The gov-
ernment was, however, much worse administered after his
fall. From the great difl^iculty of compelling the king to ob-
serve the boundaries of law, the English clergy, to whom we
are much indebted for their zeal in behalf of liberty during
this reign, devised means of binding his conscience and ter-
rifying his imagination by religious sanctions. The solemn
excommunication, accompanied with the most awful threats,
pronounced against the violators of Magna Charta, is well
known from our common histories. The king was a party
to this ceremony, and swore to observe the charter. But
Henry HI., though a very devout person, had his own no-
tions as to the validity of an oath that affected his power,
and indeed passed his life in a series of perjuries. Accord-
ing to the creed of that age, a papal dispensation might
annul any prior engagement ; and he was generally on suf
426 MAGNA CHARTA. Chap. VIII. Part IL
ficiently good terms with Rome to obtain such an indul-
gence.
2. Though the prohibition of levying aids or escuages
without consent of Parliament had been omitted in all
Henry's charters, yet neither one nor the other seems, in fact,
to have been exacted at discretion throughout his reign. On
the contrary, the barons frequently refused the aids, or rather
subsidies, which his prodigality was always demanding. In-
deed it would probably have been impossible for the king,
however frugal, stripped as he was of so many lucrative
though oppressive prerogatives by the Great Charter, to
support the expenditure of government from his own re-
sources. Tallages on his demesnes, and especially on the
rich and ill-aifected city of London, he imposed without
scruple ; but it does not appear that he ever pretended to a
right of general taxation. We may, therefore, take it for
granted that the clauee in John's charter, though not ex-
pressly renewed, was still considered as of binding force.
The king was often put to great inconvenience by the refusal
of supply; and at one time was reduced to sell his plate and
jewels, which the citizens of London buying, he was pro-
voked to exclaim with envious spite against their riches,
which he had not been able to exhaust.
3. The power of granting money must of course imply the
power of withholding it ; yet this has sometimes been lit-
tle more than a nominal privilege. But in this reign the
English Parliament exercised their right of refusal, or, what
was much better, of conditional assent. Great discontent
was expressed at the demand of a subsidy in 1237 ; and the
king alleging that he had expended a great deal of money
on his sister's marriage with the emperor, and also upon his
own, the barons answered that he had not taken their ad-
vice in those affairs, nor ought they to share the punishment
of acts of imprudence they had not committed. In 1241, a
subsidy having been demanded for the war in Poitou, the
barons drew up a remonstrance, enumerating all the grants
they had made on former occasions, but always on condition
that the imposition should not be turned into precedent.
Their last subsidy, it appears, had been paid into the hands
of four barons, who were to expend it at their discretion for
the benefit of the king and kingdom — an early instance of
parliamentary control over public expenditure. Finally, the
barons positively refused any money, and he extorted 1500
marks from the city of London. Some years afterwards they
declared their readiness to burden themselves more than eve/
English Const. UNDER HENRY III. 427
if they could secure the observance of the charter ; and re-
quested that the justiciary, chancellor, and treasurer might
be appointed with consent of Parliament, according, as they
asserted, to ancient custom, and might hold their oiRces dur-
ing good behavior.
Forty years of mutual dissatisfaction had elapsed, when a
signal act of Henry's improvidence brought on a crisis which
endangered his throne. Innocent IV., out of mere animosity
against the family of Frederick II., left no means untried to
raise up a competitor for the crown of Naples, which Man-
fred had occupied. Richard, earl of Cornwall, having been
prudent enough to decline this speculation, the pope offered
to support Henry's second son. Prince Edmund. Tempted
by such a prospect, the silly king involved himself in irre-
trievable embarrassments by prosecuting an enterprise which
could not possibly be advantageous to England, and upon
which he entered without the advice of his Parliament. Des-
titute himself of money, he was compelled to throw the ex-
pense of this new crusade upon the pope ; but the assistance
of Rome-w^as never gratuitous, and Henry actually pledged
his kingdom for the money which she might expend in a war
for her advantage and his own. He did not even want the
effrontery to tell Parliament in 1257, introducing his son Ed-
mund as king of Sicily, that they were bound for the repay-
ment of 14,000 marks with interest. The pope had also, in
furtherance of the Neapolitan project, conferred upon Henry
the tithes of all benefices in England, as well as the first-fruits
of such as should be vacant. Such a concession drew upon
the king the implacable resentment of his clergy, already
complaining of the cowardice or connivance that had during
all his reign exposed them to the shameless exactions of
Rome. Henry had now, indeed, cause to regret his precip-
itancy. Alexander IV., the reigning pontiff, threatened him
not only with a revocation of the grant to his son, but with
an excommunication and general interdict, if the money ad-
vanced on his account should not be immediately repaid, and
a Roman agent explained the demand to a Parliament as-
sembled in London. The sum required was so enormous, we
are told, that it struck all the hearers with astonishment and
horror. The nobility of the realm were indignant to think
that one man's supine folly should thus bring them to ruin.
Who can deny that measures beyond the ordinary course of
the constitution were necessary to control so prodigal and
injudicious a sovereign ? Accordingly, the barons insisted
that twenty-four persons should be nominated, half by the
428 STATE OF THE CONSTITUTION Chap. VIII. Part II.
king and half by themselves, to reform the state of the king-
dom. These were appointed on the meeting of the Parlia-
ment at Oxford, after a prorogation.
The seven years that followed are a revolutionary period,
the events of which we do not find satisfactorily explained
by the historians of the time. A king divested of preroga-
tives by his people soon appears even to themselves an in-
jured party. And, as the baronial oligarchy acted with that
arbitrary temper which is never pardoned in a government
that has an air of usurpation about it, the Royalists began
to gain ground, chiefly through the defection of some who
had joined in the original limitations imposed on the crown,
usually called the provisions of Oxford. An ambitious man,
confident in his talents and popularity, ventured to display
too marked a superiority above his fellows in the same cause.
But neither his character nor the battles of Lewes and Eves-
ham, fall strictly within the limits of a constitutional histo-
ry. It is, however, important to observe that, even in the
moment of success, Henry III. did not presume to revoke
any part of the Great Charter. His victory had been achieved
by the arms of the English nobility, who had, generally speak-
ing, concurred in the former measures against his govern-
ment, and whose opposition to the Earl of Leicester's usurpa-
tion was compatible with a steady attachment to constitu-
tional liberty.
§ 12. The opinions of eminent lawyers are, undoubtedly,
where legislative or judicial authorities fail, the best evidence
that can be adduced in constitutional history. It will, there-
fore, be satisfactory to select a few passages from Bracton,
himself a judge at the end of Henry III.'s reign, by which
the limitations of prerogative by law will clearly appear to
have been fully established. " The king," says he, " must not
be subject to any man, but to God and the law ; for the law
makes him king. Let the king, therefore, give to the law
what the law gives to him — dominion and power ; for there
is no king where will, and not law, bears rule." " The king
(in another place) can do nothing on earth, being the minis-
ter of God, but what he can do by law; nor is what is said
(in the Pandects) any objection, that whatever the prince
pleases shall be law; because by the words that follow in
that text it appears to design not any mere will of the prince,
but that which is established by the advice of his councillors,
the king giving his authority, and deliberation being had
upon it." This passage is, undoubtedly, a misrepresentation
of the famous Lex Regia, which has ever been interpreted
English Const. UNDER HENRY III. 429
to convey the unlimited power of the people to their emper-
ors. But the very circumstance of so perverted a gloss put
upon this text is a proof that no other doctrine could be ad-
mitted in the law of England. In another passage Bracton
reckons as superior to the king, " not only God and the law,
by which he is made king, but his court of earls and barons;
for the former (comites) are so styled as associates of the
king, and whoever has an associate has a master ; so that, if
the king were without a bridle, that is, the law, they ought
to put a bridle upon him." Several other passages in Brac-
ton might be produced to the same import; but these are
sufficient to demonstrate the important fac.t that, however
extensive or even indefinite might be the royal prerogative
in the days of Henry III., the law was already its superior,
itself but made part of the law, and was incompetent to
overthrow it. It is true that in this very reign the practice
of dispensing with statutes by a non-obstante was intro-
duced, in imitation of the papal dispensations. But this
prerogative could only be exerted w^ithin certain limits, and,
however pernicious it may be justly thought, was, when thus
understood and defined, not, strictly speaking, incompatible
with the legislative sovereignty of Parliament.
§ 13. In conformity with the system of France and other
feudal countries, there was one standing council, which as-
sisted the kings of England in the collection and manage-
ment of their revenue, the administration of justice to suit-
ors, and the dispatch of all public business. This was styled
Curia Regis (the King's Court), and held in his palace, or
wherever he was personally present. It was composed of
the great oflUcers; the chief justiciary, ^Hhe chancellor, the
constable, marshal, chamberlain, steward, and treasurer, with
any others whom the king might appoint. Of this great
court there was, as it seems, from the beginning, a particular
branch, in which all matters relating to the revenue w^ere
exclusively transacted. This, though composed of the same
I'' The chief justiciary (capitalis jmticiarius) was the greatest subject in England.
Besides presiding in the King's Court and in the Exchequer, he was originally, by vir-
tue of his office, the regent of the kingdom during the absence of the sovereign, which,
till the loss of Normandy, occurred very frequently. The first time when the dignity
of this office was impaired was at the death of John, when the justiciary, Hubert de
Burgh, being besieged in Dover Castle, those who proclaimed Henry III. at Glouces-
ter constituted the Earl of Pembroke governor of the king and kingdom, Hubert still
retaining his office. In 1241 the Archbishop of York Avas appointed to the regency
during Henry's absence in Poitou, without the title of justiciary. Still the office was
80 considerable that the barons who met in the Oxford Parliament of 1258 insisted
that the justiciary should be annually chosen with their approbation. But the sub-
sequent successes of Henry prevented this being established, and Edward I. discon-
tinued the office altogether.
430 LAW COUETS. Chap. VIII. Part IL
persons, yet, being held in a different part of the palace, and
for different business, was distinguished from the King's
Court by the name of the Exchequer — a separation which
became complete when civil pleas were decided and judg-
ments recorded in this second court. In the Exchequer the
justices were called barones, or barones scaccarii.
Henry II., in 1176, reduced the justices in the Curia Regis
from eighteen to five, and ordered that they should hear
and determine all writs of the kingdom. From this time,
and probably from none earlier, we may date the commence-
ment of the Court of King's Bench, which very soon acquired,
at first indifferently with the council, and then exclusively,
the appellation of Curia Regis. ^^
It is probable that in the age next after the Conquest few
causes in which the Crown had no interest were carried be-
fore the royal tribunals, every man finding a readier course
of justice in the manor or county to which he belonged.
But by degrees this supreme jurisdiction became more fa-
miliar ; and, as it seemed less liable to partiality or intimida-
tion than the provincial courts, suitors grew willing to sub-
mit to its expensiveness and inconvenience. It was obvious-
ly the interest of the King's Court to give such equity and
steadiness to its decisions as might encourage this disposi-
tion. But because few, comparatively speaking, could have
recourse to so distant a tribunal as that of the King's Court,
and perhaps also on account of the attachment which the
English felt to their ancient right of trial by the neighbor-
ing freeholders, Henry IL established itinerant justices to
decide civil and criminal pleas within each county." To
this excellent institution we have owed the uniformity of
our common law, which would have otherwise been split,
like that of France, into a multitude of local customs ; and
we still owe to it the assurance, which is felt by the poorest
and most remote inhabitant of England, that his right is
weighed by the same incorrupt and acute understanding
upon which the decision of the highest questions is reposed.
'8 For much information about the Curia Regis, and especially this branch of it,
the student of our constitutional history should have recourse to Madox's History of
the Exchequer, aud to the Dialogus de Scaccario, written in the time of Henry II. by
"Richard, bishop of London, Treasurer of the Exchequer, son of Nigel, bishop of
Ely, his predecessor in the office."— [Stubbs.] The reader must still keep in mind the
threefold meaning of Curia Regis : the common council of the realm ; the select coun-
cil for judicial as well as administrative purposes ; and the Court of King's Bench,
separated from the last in the reign of Henry II., aud soon afterwards acquiring, ex-
clusively, the denomination Curia Regis.
>* Justices in eyre, or, as we now call them, of assize, do not appear to have gono
their circuits regularly before 22 Henry II. (1170).
English Const. JUSTICES OF ASSIZE. 431
The justices of assize seem originally to have gone their cir-
cuits annually ; and as part of their duty was to set tallages
upon royal towns, and superintend the collection of the rev-
enue, we may be certain that there could be no long interval.
This annual visitation was expressly confirmed by the twelfth
section of Magna Charta, which provides also that no assize
of novel disseizin, or mort d'ancestor, should be taken except
in the shire where the lands in controversy lay. Hence this
clause stood opposed, on the one hand, to the encroachments
of the King's Court, which might otherwise, by drawing pleas
of land to itself, have defeated the suitor's right to a jury
from the vicinage ; and, on the other, to those of the feudal
aristocracy, who hated any interference of the crown to chas-
tise their violations of law, or control their own jurisdiction.
Accordingly, while the confederacy of barons against Henry
HI. was in its full power, an attempt was made to prevent
the regular circuits of the judges.
Long after the separation of the Exchequer from the King'b
Court, another branch was detached for the decision of pri-
vate suits. This had its beginning, in Madox's opinion, as
early as the reign of Richard I. But it was completely es-
tablished by Magna Charta. " Common Pleas," it is said
in the fourteenth clause, " shall not follow our court, but be
held in some certain place." Thus was formed the Court
of Common Bench at Westminster,^" with full and, strictly
speaking, exclusive jurisdiction over all civil disputes, where
neither the king's interest, nor any matter savoring of a crim-
inal nature, was concerned. For of such disputes neither
the Court of King's Bench nor that of Exchequer can take
cognizance, except by means of a legal fiction, which, in the
one case, supposes an act of force, and in the other a debt to
the crown.
§ 14. The principal oflScers of state, who had originally
been efiective members of the King's Court, began to with-
draw from it, after this separation into three courts of jus-
tice, and left their places to regular lawyers, though the
treasurer and chancellor of the Exchequer have still seats on
the equity side of that court, a vestige of its ancient consti-
tution. It would, indeed, have been difficult for men bred in
camps or palaces to fulfill the ordinary functions of judica-
ture under such a system of law as had grown up in En-
*" After the erection of the Common Bench the style of the Superior Court began to
alter. It ceased by degrees to be called the King's Court. Pleas were said to be
held coram rege, or coram rege ubicunqne fuerit. And thus the Court of King's
Banch was formed out »)f the remains of the ancient Curia Regis (see above, p. 430).
432 ORIGIN OF COMMON LxVW. Chap. VIII. Part II.
gland. The rules of legal decision among a rude people are
always very simple ; not serving much to guide, far less to
control, the feelings of natural equity. Such were those
which prevailed among the Anglo-Saxons ; requiring no sub-
tler intellect or deeper learning than the earl or sheriff at
the head of his County Court might be expected to possess.
But a great change was wrought in about a century after
the Conquest. Our English lawyers, prone to magnify the
antiquity like the other merits of their system, are ajn to
carry up the date of the common law, till, like the pedigree
of an illustrious family, it loses itself in the obscurity of an-
cient time. Even Sir Matthew Hale does not hesitate to
say that its origin is as undiscoverable as that of the Nile.
But though some features of the common law may be distin-
guishable in Saxon times, while our limited knowledge pre-
vents us from assigning many of its peculiarities to any de-
terminable period, yet the general character and most essen-
tial parts of the system were of much later growth. The
laws of the Anglo-Saxon kings are as different from those
collected by Glanvil as the laws of tw^o different nations.
The pecuniary compositions for crimes, especially for homi-
cide, which run through the Anglo-Saxon code down to the
laws ascribed to Henry I., are not mentioned by Glanvil.
Death seems to have been the regular punishment of murder,
as well as robbery. Though the investigation by means of
ordeal w^as not disused in his time, yet trial by combat, of
which we find no instance before the Conquest, was evident-
ly preferred. Under the Saxon government, suits appear to
have commenced, even before the king, by verbal or written
complaint ; at least, no trace remains of the original writ,
the foundation of our civil procedure. The descent of lands
before the Conquest was according to the custom of gavel-
kind, or equal partition among the children ; in the age of
Henry I, the eldest son took the principal fief to his own
share ; in that of Glanvil, he inherited all the lands held by
knight-service ; but the descent of socage lands depended on
the particular custom of the estate. By the Saxon laws,
upon the death of the son without issue, the father inherited;
by our common law, he is absolutely, and in every case, ex-
cluded. Lands were, in general, devisable by testament be-
fore the Conquest, but not in the time of Henry H., except
by particular custom. These are sufficient samples of the
differences between our Saxon and Norman jurisprudence ;
but the distinct character of the two will strike more forci-
bly every one who peruses successively the laws publi-sjied
English Const. CHARACTER OF ENGLISH LAW. 433
by Wilkins, and the treatise ascribed to Glanvil. The for-
mer resemble the barbaric codes of the Continent, and the
capitularies of Charlemagne and his family, minute to an ex-
cess in apportioning punishments, but sparing and indefinite
in treating of civil rights ; while the other, copious, discrim-
inating, and technical, displays the characteristics, as well as
unfolds the principles, of English law. It is difficult to as-
sert any thing decisively as to the period between the Con-
quest and the reign of Henry II. which presents fewer mate-
rials for legal history than the preceding age ; but the trea-
tise denominated the Laws of Henry I., compiled at the
soonest about the end of Stephen's reign, b(?ars so much of
a Saxon character, that I should be inclined to ascribe our
present common law to a date, so far as it is capable of any
date, not much antecedent to the publication of Glanvil. At
the same time, since no kind of evidence attests any sudden
and radical change in the jurisprudence of England, the ques-
tion must be considered as left in great obscurity. Perhaps
it might be reasonable to conjecture that the treatise called
Leges Henrici Primi contains the ancient usages still prevail-
ing in the inferior jurisdictions, and that of Glanvil the rules
established by the Norman lawyers of the King's Court, which
would of course acquire a general recognition and efficacy,
in consequence of the institution of justices holding their
assizes periodically throughout the country.
The capacity of deciding legal controversies was now only
to be found in men who had devoted themselves to that pe-
culiar study ; and a race of such men arose, whose eagerness,
and even enthusiasm, in the profession of the law were stim-
ulated by the self-complacency of intellectual dexterity in
threading its intricate and thorny mazes. The Normans are
noted in their own country for a shrewd and litigious tem-
per, which may have given a character to our courts of jus-
tice in early times. Something, too, of that excessive sub-
tlety, and that preference of technical to rational principles
which runs through our system, may be imputed to the scho-
lastic philosophy which was in vogue during the same period,
and is marked by the same features. But we have just rea-
son to boast of the leading causes of these defects — an ad-
herence to fixed rules, and a jealousy of judicial discretion,
which have in no country, I believe, been carried to such
a length. Hence, precedents of adjudged cases, becoming
authorities for the future, have been constantly noted, and
form, indeed, almost the sole ground of argument in questions
of mere law. But, these authorities being frequently unrea-
19
434 CHARACTER OF ENGLISH LAW. Chap. VIU. Pari IL
sonable and inconsistent — partly from the infirmity of all
human reason, partly from the imperfect manner in which a
number of unwarranted and incorrect reporters have handed
them down — later judges grew anxious to elude by impalpa-
ble distinctions what they did not venture to overturn. In
some instances this evasive skill has been applied to acts of
the legislature. Those who are moderately conversant with
the history of our law will easily trace other circumstances
that have co-operated in producing that technical and subtle
system which regulates the course of real property — for, as
that formed almost the whole of our ancient jurisprudence, it
is there that we must seek its original character. But much
of the same spirit pervades every part of the law, No tri-
bunals of a civilized people ever borrowed so little, even of
illustration, from the writings of philosophers, or from the
institutions of other countries. Hence law has been studied,
in general, rather as an art than a science — with more solici-
tude to know its rules and distinctions than to perceive their
application to that for which all rules of law ought to have
been established — the maintenance of public and private
rights.
§ 15. Whatever may be thought of the effect which the
study of the law had upon the rights of the subject, it con-
duced materially to the security of good order by ascertain-
ing the hereditary succession of the crown. Five kings out
of seven that followed William the Conqueror were usurpers,
according, at least, to modern notions. Of these, Stephen
alone encountered any serious opposition upon that ground ;
and, with respect to him, it must be remembered that all the
barons, himself included, had solemnly sworn to maintain the
succession of Matilda. Henry II. procured a parliamentary
settlement of the crown upon his eldest and second sons — a
strong presumption that their hereditary right was not abso-
lutely secure. A mixed notion of right and choice, in fact,
prevailed as to the succession of every European monarchy.
The coronation oath," and the form of popular consent then
required, were considered as more material, at least to perfect
a title, than we deem them at present. They gave seizin, as it
were, of the crown, and, in cases of disputed pretensions, had
a sort of judicial efficacy. The Chronicle of Dunstable says,
concerning Richard I., that he w^as "elevated to the throne
by hereditary right, after a solemn election by the clergy and
people:" words that indicate the current principles of that
21 The early kings always date their reign from their coronation, and not from the
decease of .neir predecessors.
English Const. HEREDITARY RIGHT TO CROWN. 435
age. It is to be observed, however, that Richard took upon
him the exercise of royal prerogatives without waiting for his
coronation. The succession of John has certainly passed, in
modern times, for an usurpation : I do not find that it was
considered as such by his own contemporaries on this side of
the Channel. The question of inheritance betw^een an uncle
and the son of his deceased elder brother was yet unsettled, as
we learn from Glanvil, even in private succession. In the case
of sovereignties, which were sometimes contended to require
different rules from ordinary patrimonies, it was, and continu-
ed long to be, the most uncertain point in public law. John's
pretensions to the crown might, therefore, be such as the En-
glish were justified in admitting, especially as his reversion-
ary title seems to have been acknowledged in the reign of his
brother Richard. In a charter of the first year of his reign
John calls himself king " by hereditary right, and through
the consent and favor of the Church and people."
It is deserving of remark that, during the rebellions
against this prince and his son Henry III., not a syllable was
breathed in favor of Eleanor, Arthur's sister, who, if the
present rules of succession had been established, was the un-
doubted heiress of his right. The barons chose rather to
call in the aid of Louis, with scarcely a shade of title, though
with much better means of maintaining himself. One should
think that men whose fathers had been in the field for Matil-
da could make no difficulty about female succession. But I
doubt whether, notwithstanding that precedent, the crown
of England ^as universally acknowledged to be capable of
descending to a female heir. Great averseness had been
shown by the nobility of Henry I. to his proposal of settling
the kingdom on his daughter. And from a remarkable pas-
sage which I shall produce in a note, it appears that even in
the reign of Edward III. the succession was supposed to be
confined to the male line."
At length, about the middle of the thirteenth century, the
lawyers applied to the crown the same strict principles of
22 This is intimated by the treaty made in 1339 for a marriage between the eldest
son of Edward III. and the Duke of Brabant's daughter. Edward therein promises
that, if his son should die before him, leaving male issue, he will procure the consent
of his barons, nobles, and cities (that is, of Parliament ; nobles here meaning knights,
if the word has any distinct sense) for such issue to inherit the kingdom; and if he
die leaving a daughter only, Edward or his heir shall make such provision for her as
belongs to the daughter of a king.— Rymer, t. v., p. 114. It may be inferred from this
instrument that, in Edward's intention, if not by the constitution, the Salic law was
to regulate the succession of the English crown. This law, it must be remembered,
he was compelled to admit in his claim on the kingdom of France, though with a car
tain modification which gave a pretext of title to himself.
436 EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGES. Chap. VIII. Part II.
descent which regulate a private inheritance. Edward I.
was proclaimed immediately upon his father's death, though
absent in Sicily. Something, however, of the old principle
may be traced in this proclamation, issued in his name by
the guardians of the realm, where he asserts the crown of
England " to have devolved upon him by hereditary succes-
sion and the will of his nobles." These last words were omit-
ted in the proclamation of Edward 11. ; since whose time the
crown has been absolutely hereditary. The coronation oath,
and the recognition of the people at that solemnity, are for-
malities which convey no right either to the sovereign or the
people, though they may testify the duties of each.
§ 16. I can not conclude the present chapter without ob-
serving one most prominent and characteristic distinction
between the constitution of England and that of every other
country in Europe — I mean its refusal of civil privileges to
the lower nobility, or those whom we denominate the gen-
try. In France, in Spain, in Germany, wherever, in short, we
look, the appellations of nobleman and gentleman have been
strictly synonymous. Those entitled to bear them by de-
scent, by tenure of land, by office or royal creation, have
formed a class distinguished by privileges inherent in their
blood from ordinary freemen. Marriage with noble families,
or the purchase of military fiefs, or the participation of many
civil offices, were, more or less, interdicted to the commons
of France and the empire. Of these restrictions nothing, or
next to nothing, was ever known in England. The law has
never taken notice of gentlemen. From the reign of Henry
III. at least, the legal equality of all ranks below the peerage
was, to every essential purpose, as complete as at prpsent.
Compare two writers nearly contemporary, Bracton with
Beaumanoir, and mark how the customs of England are dis-
tinguishable in this respect. The Frenchman ranges the
people under three divisions — the noble, the free, and the
servile ; our countryman has no generic class, but freedom
and villenage. No restraint seems ever to have lain upon
marriage ; nor have the children even of a peer been ever
deemed to lose any privilege by his union with a common-
er. The purchase of lands held by knight-service was al-
ways open to all freemen. A few privileges, indeed, were con-
fined to those who had received knighthood ; but, upon the
whole, there was a virtual equality of rights among all the
commoners of England. What is most particular is, that
the peerage itself imparts no privilege except to its actual
possessor. In every other country the descendants of no-
English Const. EQUALITY AMONG FREEMEN. 437
bles can not but themselves be noble, because their nobility
is the immediate consequence of their birth. But though
we commonly say that the blood of a peer is ennobled, yet
this expression seems hardly accurate, and fitter for heralds
and lawyers ; since, in truth, nothing confers nobility but the
actual descent of a peerage. The sons of peers, as we well
know, are commoners, and totally destitute of any legal right
beyond a barren precedence.
There is no part, perhaps, of our constitution so admirable
as this equality of civil rights — this isonomia^ which the phi-
losophers of ancient Greece only hoped to find in democratic-
al government." From the beginning our law has been no
respecter of persons. It screens not the gentleman of ancient
lineage from the judgment of an ordinary jury, nor from ig-
nominious punishment. It confers not, it never did confer,
those unjust immunities from public burdens which the su-
perior orders arrogated to themselves upon the Continent.
Thus, while the privileges of our peers, as hereditary legis-
lators of a free people, are incomparably more valuable and
dignified in their nature, they are far less invidious in their
exercise than those of any other nobility in Europe. It is, I
am firmly persuaded, to this peculiar democratical character
of the English monarchy that we are indebted for its long
permanence, its regular improvement, and its present vigor.
It is a singular, a providential circumstance, that, in an age
when the gradual march of civilization and commerce was
so little foreseen, our ancestors, deviating from the usages of
neighboring countries, should, as if deliberately, have guard-
ed against that expansive force which, in bursting through
obstacles improvidently opposed, has scattered havoc over
Europe.
This tendency to civil equality in the English law may, I
think, be ascribed to several concurrent causes. In the first
place, the feudal institutions were far less military in England
than upon the Continent. From the time of Henry II. the
escuage or pecuniary commutation for personal service be-
came almost universal. The armies of our kings were com-
posed of hired troops, great part of whom certainly were
knights and gentlemen, but who, serving for pay, and not by
virtue of their birth or tenure, preserved nothing of the feud-
al character. It was not, however, so much for the ends of
^^ n\;;#09 apxov, wpioTOv /ufv ovvofia KaWtarov f-'xf'i to^ovoniav, SayS the advOCate of
democracy, in the discussion of forms of government which Herodotus (iii., 80) has
put into the mouths of three Persian satraps, after the murder of Smerdis ; a scene
conceived in the spirit of Corneille.
438 EQUALITY AMONG FREEMEN. Chap. VIII. Part 1L
national as of private warfare, that the relation of lord and
vassal was contrived. The right which every baron in France
possessed, of redressing his own wrongs and those of his ten-
ants by arms, rendered their connection strictly military. But
we read very little of private wars in England. Notwith-
standing some passages in Glanvil, which certainly appear
to admit their legality, it is not easy to reconcile this witli
the general tenor of our laws. They must always have been
a breach of the king's peace, which our Saxon lawgivers were
perpetually striving to preserve, and which the Conqueror
and his sons more effectually maintained. Nor can we trace
many instances of actual hostilities among the nobility of Ep-
gland after the Conquest, except during such an anarchy as
the reign of Stephen, or the minority of Henry III. The most
prominent instance, perhaps, of what may be deemed a private
war arose out of a contention between the earls of Glouces-
ter and Hereford, in the reign of Edward I., during which
acts of extraordinary violence were perpetrated ; but, far
from its having passed for lawful, these powerful nobles were
both committed to prison and paid heavy fines. Thus the
tenure of knight-service was not, in effect, much more pecul-
iarly connected with the profession of arms than that of soc-
age. There was nothing in the former condition to generate
that high self-estimation which military habits inspire. On
the contrary, the burdens?)me incidents of tenure in chivalry
rendered socage the more advantageous, though less honora-
ble, of the two.
In the next place, we must ascribe a good deal of effica-
cy to the old Saxon principles that survived the conquest
of William and infused themselves into our common law.
A respectable class of free socagers, having, in general, full
rights of alienating their lands, and holding them probably
at a small certain rent from the lord of the manor, frequent-
ly occur in Doomsday-book. Though, as I have already ob-
served, these were derived from the superior and more for-
tunate Anglo-Saxon ceorls, they were perfectly exempt from
all marks of villenage both as to their persons and estates.
Most have derived their name from the Saxon soc, which
signifies a franchise, especially one of jurisdiction, and they
undoubtedly were suitors to the court-baron of the lord, to
whose soc, or right of justice, they belonged. They were con-
sequently judges in civil causes, determined before the ma-
nerial tribunal'. Such privileges set them greatly above the
roturiers or censiers of France. They were all Englishmen,
and their tenure strictly English ; whicli seems to have giveu
Snglish Const. NOTES TO CHAPTEli VIII.
43d
it credit in the eyes of our lawyers, when the name of English-
man was affected even by those of Norman descent, and the
laws of Edward the Confessor became the universal demand.
Certainly Glanvil, and still more Bracton, treat the tenure in
free soca^-e with great respect. And we have reason to think
that this^lass of freeholders was very numerous even before
the reign of Edward I.
But, lastly, the change which took place in the constitu-
tion of Parliament consummated tlie degradation, if we must
use the word, of the lower nobility : I mean, not so much
their attendance by representation instead of personal sum-
mons, as their election by the whole body of freeholders, and
their separation, along with citizens and burgesses, from the
House of Peers. These changes will fall under consideration
in the following chapter.
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.— Part II.
r. THE LEGISLATION OF THE GREAT
COUNCIL.
On this Council, the Commune Concilium
Regni, see the remarks in the Report of
Lords' Committee on the Dignity of a
Peer (1819, 2d edition, 1829), with the criti-
cisms upon it by Mr. Allen in the "Edin-
burgh Review " (vol. xxxv.).
The custom of the Anglo-Saxon kings
had been to hold meetings of their witan
very frequently, at least in the regular
course of their government. And this was
also the rule in the grand fiefs of France.
The pomp of their court, the maintenance
of loyal respect, the power of keeping a
vigilant eye over the behavior of the chief
men, were sufficient motives for the Nor-
man kings to preserve this custom ; and
the nobility of course saw in it the security
of their privileges as well as the exhibition
of their importance. Hence we find that
William and his sons held their courts de
•more, as a regular usage, three times a year,
and generally at the great festivals, and in
different parts of the kingdom. Here the
public business was transacted. Aids were
not regularly granted, and laws much more
rarely enacted in them, yet they were still
a national council.
It is to be remarked that, with the ex-
ception of the charters granted by William,
Henry, and Stephen, which are in general
rather like confirmations of existing privi-
leges than novel enactments, though some
clauses appear to be of the latter kind, lit-
tle authentic evidence can be found of any
legislative proceedings from the Conquest
to the reign of Henry II. But the Consti-
tutions of Clarendon, in 1164, are certainly
a regular statute ; whoever might be the
consenting parties, these famous pro-
visions were enacted in the great council
of the nation. This is equally true of the
Assizes of Northampton, in 1178. But the
earliest Anglo-Norman law which is ex-
tant in a regular form is the assize made
at Clarendon for the preservation of the
peace, issued by the king early in 11G6.
(This important document is given at
length on p. 550.) In other instances the
royal prerogative may perhaps have been
held sufficient for innovations which, after
the constitution became settled, would
have required the sanction of the whole
legislature. No act of Parliament is known
to have been made under Richard I. ; but
an ordinance, setting the assize of bread, in
the fifth of John, is recited to be established
" communi concilio baronum nostrorum."
Whether these words afford sufficient
ground for believing that the assize was
set in a full council of the realm, may pos-
sibly be doubtful.
ir. DURATION OF DISTINCTION BETWEEN
NORMAN AND SAXON.
The passage in a contemporary writer,
quoted on p. 421, being so unequivocal as
it is, ought to have much weight in the
question as to the duration of the distinc
440
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.
tion between the Norman and English
races. It is the favorite theory of M.
Thierry, pushed to an extreme length both
as to his own country and ours, that the
conquering nation, Franks in one case,
Normans in the other, remained down to
a late period— a period indeed to which
he assigns no conclusion — unmingled, or
at least undistinguishable, constituting a
double people of sovereigns and subjects,
becoming a noble order in the state,
haughty, oppressive, powerful, or, what is,
in one word, most odious to a French ear
in the nineteenth century, aristocratic.
It may be worthy of consideration,
whether the Norman blood were really
blended with the native quite so soon as
the reign of Henry II. ; that is, whether
intermarriages in the superior classes of
society had become so frequent as to efface
the distinction. M. ThieiTy produces a
few passages which seem to intimate its
continuance. But these are too loosely
worded to warrant much regnrd ; and he
admits that aftf ^ the reign of Henry I.
we have no proof of any hostile spirit on
the part of the English towards the new
dynasty ; and that some efforts were made
to conciliate them by representing Henry
II. as the descendant of the Saxon line.
(Vol. ii., p. 374.) This, in fact, was true ;
and it was still more important that the
name of English was studiously assumed
by our kings (ignorant though they might
be, in M. Thierry's phrase, what was the
vernacular word for that dignity), and
that the Anglo-Normans are seldom, if
ever, mentioned by that separate designa-
tion. England was their dwelling-place,
English their name, the English law their
inheritance ; if this was not wholly the
case before the separation of the mother
country under John, and yet we do not
perceive much limitation necessary, it can
admit of no question afterwards.
It is, nevertheless, manifest that the de-
scendants of William's tenants in capite,
and of others who seized on so large a
portion of our fair country from the Chan-
nel to the Tweed, formed the chief part of
that aristocracy which secured the liber-
ties of the Anglo-Saxon race, as well as
their own, at Runnymede ; and which,
sometimes as peers of the realm, some-
times as well-born commoners, placed
successive barriers against the exorbi-
tances of power, and prepared the way for
that expanded scheme of government
which we call the English constitution.
The names in Dugdale's Baronage and
in his Summonitiones ad Parliamentura
speak for themselves; in all the earlier
periods, and perhaps almost through the ,
Plantagenet dynasty, we find a great pre-
pouderauce of such as indicate a French
source. New families sprang up by de-
grees, and are now sometimes among our
chief nobility ; but in general, if we find
any at this day who have tolerable preten-
sions to deduce their lineage from the
Conquest, they are of Norman descent ;
the very few Saxon families that may re-
main with an authentic pedigree in the
male line are seldom found in the wealth-
ier class of gentry. And on this account
I must confess that M. Thierry's opinion
of a long-continued distinction of races
has more semblance of truth as to this
kingdom than can be pretended as to
France, without a blind sacrifice of un-
deniable facts at the altar of plebeian ma-
lignity.
III. STATUTES OF WILLIAM THE CON-
QUEROR.
Professor Stubbs remarks ("Select
Charters," etc., p. 80) : "The following
short record, which is found in this, its
earl'est form, in the ' Textus Roffeusis,'
a manuscript written during the reign of
Henry I., contains what is probably the
sum and substance of all the legal enact-
ments actually made by the Conqueror,
independent of his confirmations of the
earlier laws ; they are probably the alter-
ations or emendations referred to by Hen-
ry I. in his charter, as made by his father
in the laws of King Edward :"
Hie intimatur quid Willelmua Rex Anglo-
rum cum principibus suis con^tituit post
Conquisitionem Angliae.
1. In primis quod super omnia unum
vellet Deum per totum regnum suum ve-
nerari, unam fidem Christi semper iuvio-
latam castodiri, pacem et securitatem in-
ter Anglos et Normannos servari.
2. Statuinius etiam ut omnis liber homo
foedere et sacramento aflirmet, quod infra
et extra Angliam Willelmo regi fideles esse
volunt, terras et honorem illius omni fide-
litate cum eo servare, et ante eum contra
inimicos defendere.
3. Volo autem ut oranes homines quos
mecum adduxi aut post me venerunt siut
in pace mea et quiete. Et si quis de illis
occisus fuerit, dominus ejus habeat infra
quinque dies homicidam ejus si potuerit;
sin autem, incipiat persolvere mihi xlvi.
marcas argenti quamdiu substantia illius
domini perdnraverit. Ubi vero substantia
defecerit, totus hundredus in quo occisio
facta est communiter persolvat quod re-
manet.
4. Et omnis Francigena qui tempore re-
gis Edwardi propinqui mei fuit in Anglia
particeps consuetudinum Anglorura, quod
y,j^(ii.wn Const. THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
441
ipsi diciint ouhlote et auscote, persolva-
tur secuudum legem Auglorum. Hoc de-
cretum sancitum est in civitate Claudia.
5. Iiiterdiciraus etiam ut nulla viva pe-
cuuia vendatur aut ematur nisi infra civi-
tates, et hoc ante tres fldeles testes ; uec
aliquam rem velustam sine fidejussore et
waranto. Quod si aliter fecerit, solvat et
persolvat, et postea forisfacturam.
6. Decretum est etiam ibi, ut, si Franci-
gena appellaverit Anglum de perjurio aut
murdro, furto, homicidio, ran, quod Angli
dicunt apertam rapiuam quae uegari uon
potest, Anglus se defendat per quod me-
lius voluerit, aut judicio ferri aut duello.
Si amem Anglus infirmus fuerit, inveniat
alinra qui pro eo faciat. Si quis eorum
victus fuerit, emendet xl. solidos regi. Si
Anglus Francigeuam appellaverit et pro-
bare noluerit judicio aut duello, volo ta-
men Francigeuam purgare se sacramento
uon fractu.
7. Hoc quoque praecipio et volo, ut om-
nes habeaut et teneant legem Edwardi re-
gis in terris et in omnibus rel)us, adanctis
iis quae constitui ad utilitatem populi An-
glorum.
8. Omnis homo qui voluerit se tenei'/
pro libero sit in plegio, ut plegius teneai
et habeat ilium ad justitiam si quid offen-
derit. Et si quisquam talium evaserit, vi-
deant plegii nt simpliciter solvaut quod
calumniatum est, et purgent se quia in
evaso nullam fraudem uoverint. Reqni-
ratur hundredus et comitatus, sicut ante-
cessores nostri statuerunt. Et qui juste
venire deberent et venire noluerint, semel
suramoneantur ; et si secundo venire nolu-
erint, accipiatur unus bos, et suramonean-
tur tertio. Et si non tertio venerint, ac-
cipiatur alius bos: quarta autem vice si
non venerint, reddatur de rebus hominis
illius qui venire noluerit quod calumnia-
tum est, quod dicitur ceapgeld ; et insuper
forisfactura regis.
9. Ego prohibeo ut nullns vendat homi-
nem extra patriam super plenam forisfac-
turam meam.
10. Interdico etiam ne quis occidatur
aut snspendatur pro aliqua culpa, sed eru-
antur oculi, et testiculi abscidantur. Et
hoc praeceptum uon sit violatum super
forisfacturam meam plenam. — ("MS.
Bodl. Rawlinson," C. 641.)
PART III.
THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
I \ Reign of Edward 1. § 2. Confirmatio Chartarum. § 3. Constitution of Parlia-
ment. 5 4. The Spiritual Peers. § 5. The Temporal Peers. Tenure by Barony.
Difficulty of the Subject. § 6. Origin of Representation of the Commons. Knights
of Shires. Their Existence doubtfully traced through the Reign of Henry IIL
3 7. State of English Towns at the Conquest and afterwards. § 8. Their Progress.
5 9. Representatives from them summoned to Parliament by Earl of Leicester.
Improbability of an earlier Origin. § 10. Parliaments under Edward L § 11.
Separation of Knights and Burgesses from the Peers. § 12. Edward II. § 13.
Gradual Progress of the Authority of Parliament traced through the Reigns of
Edward III. § 14. Of Richard II. § 15. Of Henry IV. § 16. Authority of the
House of Commons under the House of Lancaster. (1.) Right of Taxation. (2.)
Appropriation of Supplies. (3.) Redrcs? of Grievances. (4.) Legislative Rights.
(5.) Controlling the Royal Expenditure. (6.) Impeachment of Ministers. (7.)
Privilege of Parliament. § 17. Election of Knights and Burgesses. § 18. House
of Lords. Baronies of Tenure. By Writ. Nature of the latter discussed. § 19.
Creation of Peers by Act of Parliament. § 20. And by Patent. § 21. Summons
of Clergy to Parliament. § 22. King's Ordinary Council. Its judicial and other
Power. § 23. Character of the Plantagenet Govern^nent. Prerogative. Its Ex>
cesses. § 24. Erroneous Views corrected. Testimony of Sir John Fortescue to
the Freedom of the Constitution. § 25. Causes of the superior Liberty of England
considered. § 26. State of Society in England. § 27. Habits of Rapine. § 28.
Villenage. Its gradual Extinction. § 29. Popular Outbreaks. 5 30. Manumis-
sion of Villeins. § 31. Latter Years of Henry VI. § 32. Regencies. Instances of
them enumerated. 5 33. Pretensions of the House of York, and War of the Roses.
§ 34. Edward IV. § 35. Conclusion.
§ 1. Though the undisputed accession of a prince like
Edward I. to the throne of his father does not seem so con-
19*
442 CONFIRMATION OF CHARTERS. Chap. VIII. Part HI.
venient a resting-place in history as one of those revolutions
which interrupt the natural chain of events, yet the changes
wrought during his reign make it properly an epoch in the
progress of these inquiries. And, indeed, as ours is emphat-
ically styled a government by king, lords, and commons, we
can not, perhaps, in strictness, carry it farther back than the
admission of the latter into Parliament ; so that if the con-
stant representation of the Commons is to be referred to the
age of Edward I., it will be nearer the truth to date the En-
glish constitution from that than from any earlier era.
§ 2. The various statutes affecting the law of property and
administration of justice, which have caused Edward I. to be
named, rather hyperbolically, the English Justinian, bear no
immediate relation to our present inquiries. In a constitu-
tional point of view, the principal object is that statute enti-
tled the Confirmation of the Charters, which was very reluc-
tantly conceded by the king, in the twenty-fifth year of his
reign. I do not know that England has ever produced any
patriots to whose memory she ow^es more gratitude than
Humphrey Bohun, earl of Hereford and Essex, and Roger
Bigod, earl of Norfolk. In the Great Charter the base spirit
and deserted condition of John take off something from the
glory of the triumph, though they enhance the moderation
of those who pressed no farther upon an abject tyrant. But
to withstand the measures of Edward, a prince unequalled
by any who had reigned in England since the Conqueror for
prudence, valor, and success, required a far more intrepid
patriotism. Their provocations, if less outrageous than those
received from John, were such as evidently manifested a dis-
position in Edward to reign without any control — a constant
refusal to confirm the charters, which in that age were hardly
deemed to bind the king without his actual consent ; heavy
impositions, especially one on the export of w^ool, and other
unwarrantable demands. He had acted with such unmeas-
ured violence towards the clergy, on account of their refusal
of further subsidies, that, although the ill-judged policy of
that class kept their interests too distinct from those of the
people, it was natural for all to be alarmed at the precedent
of despotism.^ These encroachments made resistance justi-
fiable, and the circumstances of Edward made it prudent.
His ambition, luckily for the people, had involved him in for-
^ The fullest account we possess of these domestic transactions from 1294 to 1298 is
in Walter Hemingford, one of the historians edited by Hearne, pp. 52-108. They have
been vilely perverted by Carte, but extremely well told by Hume, the first writer who
had the merit of exposing the character of Edward I.
I
English Const. CONSTITUTION OF PARLIAMENT. 443
eign warfare, from which he could not recede without disap-
pointment and dishonor. Thus was wrested from him that
famous statute, inadequately denominated the Confirma*
tion of the Charters, because it added another pillar to
our constitution, not less important than the Great Charter
itself.
It was enacted by the 25 Edward I. that the Charter of
Liberties, and that of the Forest, besides being explicitly
confirmed, should be sent to all sheriffs, justices in eyre, and
other magistrates throughout the realm, in order to their
publication before the people ; that copies of them should be
kept in cathedral churches, and publicly read twice in the
year, accompanied by a solemn sentence of excommunication
against all who should infringe them ; that any judgment
given contrary to these charters should be invalid, and holden
for nought. This authentic promulgation, those awful sanc-
tions of the Great Charter, would alone render the statute of
which we are speaking illustrious. But it went a great deal
farther. Hitherto the king's prerogative of levying money,
by name of tallage, or prize, from his towns and tenants in
demesne, had passed unquestioned. Some impositions, that
especially on the export of wool, affected all his subjects. It
was now the moment to enfranchise the people, and give that
security to private property which Magna Charta had given
to personal liberty. By the 5th and 6th sections of this stat-
ute, " the aids, tasks, and prizes " before taken are renounced
as precedents ; and the king " grants for him and his heirs, as
well as to archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and other folk
of Holy Church, as also to earls, barons, and to all common-
alty of the land, that for no business from henceforth we shall
take such manner of aids, tasks, nor prizes, but by the common
assent of the realm, and for the common profit thereof, saving
the ancient aids and prizes due and accustomed." The toll
upon wool, so far as levied by the king's mere prerogative, is
expressly released by the Yth section.'
§ 3. We come now to a part of our subject exceedingly
important, but more intricate and controverted than any oth-
er, the Constitution of Parliament, I have taken no notice
of this in the last section, in order to present uninterruptedly
3 The Conflrmatio Chartarnm is properly denominated a statute, and always printed
as such ; but in form, like Magna Charta, it is a charter, or letters patent, proceeding
from the crown, without even reciting the consent of the realm. And its "teste " is
at Ghent, 2 Nov., 1297— Edward having engaged, conjointly with the Count of Flan-
ders, in a war with Philip the Fair. But a Parliament had been held at London,
when the barons insisted on these concessions. The circumstances are not whollji
unlike those of Magna Charta. The Conflrmatio Chartarum is printed on p. 557.
444 TEMPORAL PEERS. Chap. VIll. Part III
to the reader the gradual progress of our legislature down
to its complete establishment under the Edwards.
§ 4. The Spiritual Peers. — One constituent branch of the
great councils held by William the Conqueror and all his
successors was composed of the bishops and the heads of re-
ligious houses holding their temporalities immediately of the
crown. It has been frequently maintained that these spirit-
ual lords sat in Parliament only by virtue of their baronial
tenure. And certainly they did all hold baronies, which, ac-
cording to the analogy of lay peerages, were sufficient to give
them such a share in the legislature. Nevertheless, I think
that this is rather too contracted a view of the rights of the
English hierarchy, and, indeed, by implication, of the peerage ;
for a great council of advice and assent in matters of legis-
lation, or national importance, was essential to all the North-
ern governments. And all of them, except, perhaps, the Lom-
bards, invited the superior ecclesiastics to their councils ; not
upon any feudal notions, which at that time had hardly be-
gun to prevail, but chiefly as representatives of the Church
and of religion itself; next, as more learned and enlightened
councillors than the lay nobility ; and in some degree, no
doubt, as rich proprietors of land. It will be remembered,
also, that ecclesiastical and temporal affairs w^ere originally
decided in the same assemblies, both upon the Continent and
in England. The Norman Conquest, which destroyed the
Anglo-Saxon nobility, and substituted a new race in their
stead, could not affect the immortality of Church possessions.
The bishops of William's age were entitled to sit in his coun-
cils by the general custom of Europe, and by the common
law of England, which the Conquest did not overturn.
§ 5. The Temporal Peers. — Next to these spiritual lords
are the earls and barons, or lay peerage of England. The
former dignity was, perhaps, not so merely official as in the
Saxon times, although the earl was entitled to the third pen-
ny of all emoluments arising from the administration of jus-
tice in the County Courts, and might, perhaps, command the
militia of his county, when it was called forth. Every earl
was also a baron, and held an honor or barony of the crown,
for which he paid a higher relief than an ordinary baron,
probably on account of the profits of his earldom.
It is universally agreed that the only baronies known for
two centuries after the Conquest were incident to the tenure
of land held immediately from the crown. There are, how-
ever, material difficulties in the way of rightly understanding
their nature which require careful examination. All tenants-
b
English Const. PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 445
in-chief of the crown, by knight-service, were summoned to
the king's council, and were peers of his court. To all of
these the term Baron was originally applied, a word of very
wide significance.' But in course of time a distinction arose
between the Greater Barons and Lesser Barons^ the former
holding their lands by barony {per baroniam)^ and the latter
simply by knight-service ; and gradually the name of baron
was confined to the former class. It is difficult to determine
the characteristic differences of the two, or the way in which
the distinction arose; but it would seem that the Greater
Barons held, under one title, a number of knight's fees — that
is, of estates, from each of which the feudal service of a
knight was due. There is, however, complete proof of the
separation between the two classes of barons before the reign
of John, and the term baron came to be applied exclusively
to the greater barons. Tenants-in-chief are enumerated dis-
tinctly from earls and barons in the charter of Henry I. (See
p. 548.) Knights, as well as barons, are named as present in
the Parliament of Northampton in 1165, in that held at the
same town in 1176, and upon other occasions.
We learn from the Great Charter that the greater barons
were summoned to the king's council by particular writs; the
other tenants-in-chief by one general summons through the
sheriffs of their several counties, w^henever an aid or scutage
was required.* The consent of all the tenants-in-chief was
required for taxation ; and there appears sufficient evidence
that they were occasionally present for other important pur-
poses. It is, however, very probable that writs of summons
were actually addressed only to those of distinguished name,
to those resident near the place of meeting, or to the serv-
ants and favorites of the crown. This seems to be deduci-
ble from the words in the Great Charter, which limit the
king's engagement to summon all tenants-in-chief, through
the sheriff, to the case of his requiring an aid or scutage, and
still more from the withdrawing of this promise in the first
year of Henry III. The privilege of attending on such occa-
sions, though legally general, may never have been generally
exercised.
The result of the whole inquiry into the constitution of
3 Tlie word haro originally meant only a man, and is not unfreqnently applied to
common freeholders, as in the phrase of conrt-barou. It was used too for the magis-
trates or chief men of cities, as it is still for the judges ct tibe Exchequer, and the
representatives of the Cinque Ports.
*"Faciemus summoneri archiepiscopos, episcopos, ahbates, comites et raajorea
barones regni sigillatim per literas nostras. Et praeterea faciemus summoneri in
gGnerali per vicecomites et ballivos nostros oranes alios qui in capite tenent d* notls."
446 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF Chap. VIII. Part III
Parliament, down to the reign of John, seems to be — 1. That
the Norman kings explicitly renounced all prerogative of
levying pioney on the immediate military tenants of the
crown, without their consent given in a great council of the
realm ; this immunity extending, also, to their sub-tenants
and dependents. 2. That all these tenants-in-chief had a con-
stitutional right to attend, and ought to be summoned; but
whether they could attend without a summons is not mani-
fest. 3. That the summons was usually directed to the high-
er barons, and to such of a second class as the king pleased,
many being omitted for difterent reasons, though all had a
right to it. 4. That on occasions when money was not to
be demanded, but alterations made in the law, some of these
second barons, or tenants-in-chief, were at least occasionally
summoned, but whether by strict right or usage does not ful-
ly appear. 5. That the irregularity of passing many of them
over when councils were held for the purpose of levying
money, led to the provision in the Great Charter of John by
which the king promises that they shall all be summoned
through the sheriff on such occasions ; but the promise does
not extend to any other subject of parliamentary deliber-
ation. 6. That even this concession, though but the recog-
nition of a known right, appeared so dangerous to some in
the government that it was withdrawn in the first charter of
Henry III.
But this attendance in Parliament of inferior tenants-in-
chief, some of them too poor to have received knighthood,
grew insupportably vexatious to themselves, and was not
well liked by the king. He knew them to be dependent upon
the barons, and dreaded the confluence of a multitude who
assumed the privilege of coming in arms to the appointed
place. So inconvenient and mischievous a scheme could not
long subsist among an advancing people, and fortunately the
true remedy was discovered with little difficiilty.
§ 6. The principle of representation, in its widest sense,
can hardly be unknown to any government not purely dem-
ocratical. The system of ecclesiastical councils, considered
as organs of the Church, rested upon the principle of a virtu-
al or an express representation, and had a tendency to ren-
der its application to national assemblies more familiar.
We find nothing that can arrest our attention, in search-
ing out the origin of county representation, till we come to
a writ in the fifteenth year of John, directed to all the sher-
iffs in the following terms: "Rex Vicecomiti N., salutem.
Prsecipimus tibi quod omnes milites ballivae tuae qui sum-
English Const. PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION. 447
moniti fuerunt esse apud Oxoniam ad Nos a die Omnium
Sanctorum in quindecim dies venire facias cum armis suis:
corpora vero baronum sine armis singulariter, et qiiat/iior dis-
cretos milites de comitatu tuo, illuc venire facias, ad eundem
terminum, ad loquendum nobiscum de negotiis regni nostri."
Still it remains problematical whether these four knights (the
only clause which concerns our purpose) were to be elect-
ed by the county or returned in the nature of a jury, at the
discretion of the sheriff. Since there is no sufficient proof
whereon to decide, we can only say with hesitation that there
ma]/ have been an instance of county representation in the
fifteenth year of John.
We may next advert to a practice, of which there is very
clear proof in the reign of Henry III. Subsidies granted in
Parliament were assessed, not as in former times by the jus-
tices upon their circuits, but by knights freely chosen in the
County Court. This appears by two writs, one of the fourth
and one of the ninth year of Henry IH. At a subsequent
period, by a provision of the Oxford Parliament in 1258,
every county elected four knights to inquire into grievances,
and deliver their inquisition into Parliament.
The next writ now extant, that wears the appearance of
parliamentary representation, is in the thirty-eighth of Hen-
ry HI. This, after reciting that the earls, barons, and other
great men (caeteri magnates) were to meet at London, three
weeks after Easter, with horses and arms, for the purpose of
sailing into Gascony, requires the sheriff to compel all within
his jurisdiction, who hold twenty pounds a year of the king
in chief, or of those in ward of the king, to appear at the same
time and place. And that, besides those mentioned, he shall
cause to come before the king's council at Westminster, on
the fifteenth day after Easter, two good and discreet knights
of his county, whom the men of the county shall have chosen
for this purpose, in the stead of all and each of them, to con-
sider, along with the knights of other counties, what aid they
will grant the king in such an emergency. In the principle
of election, and in the object of the assembly, which was to
grant money, this certainly resembles a summons to Parlia-
ment. There are, indeed, anomalies sufficiently remarkable
upon the face of the writ which distinguish this meeting from
a regular Parliament. But when the scheme of obtaining
money from the commons of shires through the consent of
their representatives had once been entertained, it was easily
applicable to more formal councils of the nation.
A few years later there appears another writ analogous to
448 PROGRESS OF TOWNS. Chap. VIII. Part III.
a summons. During the contest between Henry III. and the
confederate barons in 1261, they presumed to call a sort of
Parliament, summoning three knights out of every county,
" secum tractaturos super communibus negotiis regni." This
we learn only by an opposite writ issued by the king, direct-
ing the sheriff to enjoin these knights who had been con-
vened by the earls of Leicester and Gloucester to their meet-
ing at St. Alban's, that they should repair instead to the king
at Windsor, and to no other place, " nobiscum super prae-
raissis colloquium habituros." It is not absolutely certain
that these knights were elected by their respective counties.
But even if they were so, this assembly has much less the
appearance of a Parliament than that in the thirty-eighth of
Henry III.
At length, in the year 1265, the forty-ninth of Henry HI.,
while he was a captive in the hands of Simon de Montfort,
writs were issued in his name to all the sheriffs, directing
them to return two knights for the body of their county,
with two citizens or burgesses for every city and borough
contained within it. This, therefore, is the epoch at which
the representation of the commons becomes indisputably
manifest ; even should we reject altogether the more equiv-
ocal instances of it which have just been enumerated.
Whether the knights were still elected by only the king's
military tenants, to spare them the inconvenience of personal
attendance, or by the freeholders in general, is a difficult
question. The legal antiquaries are divided. Prynne does
not seem to have doubted but that the knights were " elect-
ed in the full county, by and for the whole county," without
respect to the tenure of the freeholders. But Brady and
Carte are of a different opinion. Yet their disposition to
narrow the basis of the constitution is so strong, that it
creates a sort of prejudice against their authority. And if
I might offer an opinion on so obscure a subject, I should be
much inclined to believe that, even from the reign of Henry
HI., the election of knights by all freeholders in the County
Court, without regard to tenure, was little, if at all, different
from what it is at present.^
§ 7. The progress of towns in several Continental countries,
from a condition bordering upon servitude to wealth and lib-
erty, has more than once attracted our attention in other
parts of the present work. Their growth in England, both
from general causes and imitative policy, was very shnilar
» This qnestion has been discnssed with much ability iu tho " Edinburgh Keview,"
vol. xxvi., p. 341.
English Const. PROGRESS OF TOWNS. 449
and nearly coincident. Some of the greater towns, and Lon-
don in particular, enjoyed the right of electing magistrates
with a certain jurisdiction before the Conquest/ But at the
time of the Conquest we find the burgesses or inhabitants of
towns living under the superiority or protection of the king,
or of some other lord, to whom they paid annual rents, and
determinate dues or customs. Besides these regular pay-
ments, which were in general not heavy, they were liable to
tallages at the discretion of their lords.
One of the earliest and most important changes in the
condition of the burgesses was the conversion of their indi-
vidual tributes into a perpetual rent from the whole bor-
ough. The town was then said to be affirmed, or let in fee-
farm, to the burgesses and their successors forever. Previ-
ously to such a grant the lord held the town in his demesne,
and was the legal proprietor of the soil and tenements ;
though I by no means apprehend that the burgesses were
destitute of a certain estate in their possessions. But of a
town in fee-farm he only kept the superiority and the inherit-
ance of the annual rent, which he might recover by distress.
The burgesses held their lands by burgage-tenure, nearly
analogous to, or rather a species of, free socage. Perhaps
before the grant they might correspond to modern copy-
holders. It is of some importance to observe that the lord,
by such a grant of the town in fee-farm, whatever we may
think of its previous condition, divested himself of his prop-
erty, or lucrative dominion over the soil, in return for the
perpetual rent ; so that tallages subsequently set at his own
discretion upon the inhabitants, however common, can hard-
ly be considered as a just exercise of the rights of proprie-
torship.
Under such a system of arbitrary taxation, however, it
was evident to the most selfish tyrant that the wealth of his
burgesses was his wealth, and their prosperity his interest ;
much more were liberal and sagacious monarchs, like Henry
II., inclined to encourage them by privileges. From the
time of William Rufus there was no reign in which charters
were not granted to diiferent towns of exemption from tolls
on rivers and at markets — those lighter manacles of feudal
tyranny ; or of commercial franchises ; or of immunity from
the ordinary jurisdictions ; or, lastly, of internal self-regula-
tion. Thus the original charter of Henry I. to the city of
London concedes to the citizens, in addition to valuable
commercial and fiscal immunities, the rio;ht of choosinsf theii:
* On the Municipal Rights of London, see Note I.
450 CHARTERS OF INCORPORATION. Chap. VIII. Part III.
own sheriff and justice, to the exclusion of every foreign
jurisdiction. These grants, however, were not in general so
extensive till the reign of John. Before that time the in-
terior arrangement of towns had received a new organiza-
tion. In the Saxon period we find voluntary associations,
sometimes religious, sometimes secular; in some cases for
mutual defense against injury, in others for mutual relief in
poverty. These were called guilds, from the Saxon verb
gUdan^ to pay or contribute, and exhibited the natural, if
not the legal, character of corporations. At the time of the
Conquest, such voluntary incorporations of the burgesses
possessed in some towns either landed property of their
own, or rights of superiority over that of others. An in-
ternal elective government seems to have been required for
the administration of a common revenue, and of other busi-
ness incident to their association. They became more nu-
merous and more peculiarly commercial after that era, as
well from the increase of trade as through imitation of simi-
lar fraternities existing in many towns of France. The spirit
of monopoly gave strength to those institutions, each class
of traders forming itself into a body, in order to exclude
competition. Thus were established the companies in cor-
porate towns, that of the Weavers in London being perhaps
the earliest; and these were successively consolidated and
sanctioned by charters from the crown. In towns not large
enough to admit of distinct companies, one merchant guild
comprehended the traders in general, or the chief of them ;
and this, from the reign of Henry II. downward, became
the subject of incorporating charters. The management of
their internal concerns, previously to any incorporation, fell
naturally enough into a sort of oligarchy, which the tenor
of the charter generally preserved. Though the immunities
might be very extensive, the powers were more or less re-
strained to a small number. Except in a few places, the
right of choosing magistrates was first given by King
John ; and certainly must rather be ascribed to his poverty
than to any enlarged policy, of which he was utterly in-
capable.
§ 8. From the middle of the twelfth century to that of the
thirteenth, the traders of England became more and more
prosperous. The towns on the southern coast exported tin
and other metals in exchange for the wines of France ; those
on the eastern sent corn to Norway ; the Cinque Ports bar-
tered wool against the stuffs of Flanders. Though bearing
no comparison with the cities of Italy or the Empire, they
English Const. FKOSPERITY OF ENGLISH TOWNS. 451
increased sufficiently to acquire importance at home. Ti^at
vigorous prerogative of the Norman monarchs which kept
down the feudal aristocracy compensated for whatever in-
feriority there might be in the population and defensible
strength of the English towns, compared with those on the
Continent. They had to fear no petty oppressors — no local
hostility; and, if they could satisfy the rapacity of the crown,
were secure from all other grievances. London, far above the
rest — our ancient and noble capital — might, even in those
early times, be justly termed a member of the political sys-
tem. This great city, so admirably situated, was rich and
populous long before the Conquest. Bede, at the beginning
of the eighth century, speaks of London as a great market,
which traders frequented by land and sea. It paid £15,000
out of £82,000 raised by Canute upon the kingdom. If we
believe Roger Hoveden, the citizens of London, on the death
of Ethelred II., joined with part of the nobility in raising Ed-
mund Ironside to the throne ; Harold I., according to better
authority — the Saxon Chronicle and William of Malmsbury —
was elected by their concurrence. Descending to later his-
tory, we find them active in the civil war of Stephen and Ma-
tilda. The famous Bishop of Winchester tells the Londoners
that they are almost accounted as noblemen on account of'
the greatness of their city — into the community of which it
appears that some barons had been received. Indeed, the
citizens themselves, or at least the principal of them, were
called barons. It was certainly by far the greatest city in
England. There have been different estimates of its popu-
lation, some of which are extravagant; but I think it could
hardly have contained less than thirty or forty thousand souls
within its walls, and the suburbs were very populous. These
numbers, the enjoyment of privileges, and the consciousness
of strength, infused a free and even a mutinous spirit into
their conduct. The Londoners were always on the barons'
side in their contests with the crown. They bore a part in
deposing William Longchamp, the chancellor and justiciary
of Richard I. They were distinguished in the great struggle
for Magna Charta — the privileges of their city are express-
ly confirmed in it, and the Mayor of London was one of the
twenty-five barons to whom the maintenance of its provisions
was delegated. In the subsequent reign the citizens of Lon-
don were regarded with much dislike and jealousy by the
court, and sometimes suffered pretty severely at its hands,
especially after the battle of Evesham.
Notwithstanding the influence of London in these seasons
452 DEPUTIES FROM BOROUGHS. Chai-. VIII. Part lit
of disturbance, we do not perceive that it was distinguished
from the most insignificant town by greater participation in
national councils. Rich, powerful, honorable, and high-spirit-
ed as its citizens had become, it was very long before they
found a regular place in Parliament. The prerogative of im-
posing tallages at pleasure, unsparingly exercised by Henry
III., even over Londonj left the crown no inducement to sum-
mon the inhabitants of cities and boroughs. As these, in-
deed, were daily growing more considerable, they were cer-
tain, in a monarchy so limited as that of England became in
the thirteenth century, of attaining, sooner or later, this emi-
nent privilege. Although, therefore, the object of Simon de
Montfort in calling them to his Parliament, after the battle
of Lewes, was merely to strengthen his own faction, which
prevailed among the commonalty, yet their permanent admis-
sion into the Legislature may be ascribed to a more general
cause ; for otherwise it is not easy to see why the innovation
of an usurper should have been drawn into precedent, though
it might, perhaps, accelerate what the course of affairs was
gradually preparing.
§ 9. It is w^ell known that the earliest writs of summons
to cities and boroughs, of which we can prove the existence,
are those of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, bearing
date 12th of December, 1264, in the forty-ninth year of Hen-
ry III. (See page 558.) After a long controversy, almost all
judicious inquirers seem to have acquiesced in admitting this
origin of popular representation. The argument may be very
concisely stated : we find, from innumerable records, that
the king imposed tallages upon his demesne towns at discre-
tion. No public instrument, previous to. the forty-ninth of
Henry III., names the citizens and burgesses as constituent
parts of Parliament, though prelates, barons, knights, and
sometimes freeholders, are enumerated ; while, since the un-
doubted admission of the Commons, they are almost invari-
ably mentioned. No historian speaks of representatives ap-
pearing for the people, or uses the word citizen or burgess
in describing those present in Parliament. Such convincing,
though negative, evidence is not to be invalidated by some
general and ambiguous phrases, whether in writs and records
or in historians. Those monkish annalists are poor authori-
ties upon any point where their language is to be delicately
measured. But it is hardly possible that, writing circum-
stantially, as Roger de Hoveden and Matthew Paris some-
times did, concerning proceedings in Parliament, they could
have failed to mention the Commons in unequivocal expres*
English Const. DEPUTIES FROM BOROUGHS. 453
sions, if any representatives from that order had actually
formed a part of the assembly.
§ 10. There is no great difficulty in answering the question
why the deputies of boroughs were finally and permanently
ingrafted upon Parliament by Edward I. The Government
was becoming constantly more attentive to the wealth that
commerce brought into the kingdom, and the towns were
becoming more flourishing and more independent. But
chiefly there was a much stronger spirit of general liberty,
and a greater discontent at violent acts of prerogative from
the era of Magna Charta ; after which authentic recognition
of free principles, many acts which had seemed before but the
regular exercise of authority were looked upon as infringe-
ments of the subject's right. Among these, the custom of
setting tallages at discretion would naturally appear the
most intolerable ; and men were unwilling to remember that
the burgesses who paid them were indebted for the rest of
their possessions to the bounty of the crown. In Edward
I.'s reign, even before the great act of Confirmation of the
Charters had rendered arbitrary impositions absolutely un-
constitutional, they might, perhaps, excite louder murmurs
than a discreet administration would risk. Though the ne-
cessities of the king, therefore, and his imperious temper often
led him to this course, it was a more prudent counsel to try
the willingness of his people before he forced their reluctance.
And the success of his innovation rendered it worth repeti-
tion. Whether it were from the complacency of the Com-
mons at being thus admitted among the peers of the realm,
or from a persuasion that the king would take their money
if they refused it, or from inability to withstand the plausible
reasons of his ministers, or from the private influence to which
the leaders of every popular assembly have been accessible,
much more was granted in subsidies after the representation
of the towns commenced than had ever been extorted in
tallages.
To grant money was, therefore, the main object of their
meeting ; and if the exigencies of the administration could
have been relieved without subsidies, the citizens and bur-
gesses might still have sat at home and obeyed the laws which
a council of prelates and barons enacted for their govern-
ment. But it is a diflicult question whether the king and the
peers designed to make room for them, as it were, in legisla-
tion; and whether the power of the purse drew after it im-
mediately, or only by degrees, those indispensable rights of
consenting to laws which they now possess. There are no
454 DIVISION OF PABLIAMENT Chap. VIII. Part IIL
sufficient means of solving this doubt during the reign of
Edward I. f but it must be highly questionable whether the
Commons, who had so recently taken their place in Parlia-
ment, gave any thing more than a constructive assent to the
laws enacted during this reign. They are not even named in
the preamble of any statute till the last year of Edward I.
Upon more than one occasion the sheriffs were directed to
return the same members who had sat in the last Parliament,
unless prevented by death or infirmity.
§ 11. It has been a very prevailing opinion that Parliament
was not divided into two houses at the first admission of the
Commons. If by this is only meant that the Commons did
not occupy a separate chamber till some time in the reign
of Edward III., the proposition, true or false, will be of little
importance. They may have sat at the bottom of Westmin-
ster Hall, while the Lords occupied the upper end. But that
they were ever intermingled in voting appears inconsistent
with likelihood and authority. The usual object of calling a
Parliament was to impose taxes; and these, for many years
after the introduction of the Commons, were laid in different
proportions upon the three estates of the realm. Thus, in
23 Edward I., the earls, barons, and knights gave the king
an eleventh, the clergy a tenth ; while he obtained a seventh
from the citizens and burgesses: in the twenty-fourth of the
same king the two former of these orders gave a twelfth, the
last an eighth : in the thirty-third year a thirtieth was tne
grant of the barons and knights and of the clergy, a twen-
tieth of the cities and towns. In the first of Edward IT. the
counties paid a twentieth, the towns a fifteenth. In the sixth
of Edward III. the rates were a fifteenth and a tenth. These
distinct grants imply distinct grantors; for it is not to be
imagined that the Commons intermeddled in those affecting
the Lords, or the Lords in those of the Commons. In fact,
however, there is abundant proof of their separate existence
' The writ in 22 Edward I. directs two knights to be chosen "cum plenfi potestate
pro se et totii commnnitate comitatus praedicti ad consulendum et conpentienduir,
pro se et communitate iHa, his qua; comites, barones, et proceres praedicti concorditei
ordinaveriut in praemissis." That of the next year runs, "ad faciendum tunc quo(}
dc comrauni consilio ordinabitur in praemissis." The same words are inserted in the
writ of 26 Edward I. In that of 28 Edward I. the knights are directed to be sent " cum
plena potestate audiendi et faciendi quae ibidem ordinari coutigerint pro communl
commodo." Several others of the same reign have the words " ad faciendum," The
diflSculty is to pronounce whether this term is to be interpreted in the sense of per-
furming or of enacting; whether the representatives of the Commons were merely to
learn from the Lords what was to be done, or to bear their part in advising upon it.
The earliest writ, that of 22 Edward I., certainly implies the latter ; and I do not
know that any of the rest are conclusive to the contrary. In the reign of Edward
If. the words "ad consentiendum" alone, or "ad faciendum et conseutiendara," be-
gin ; and from that of Edipard III. this form has been constantly used.
English Const. INTO TWO HOUSES. 455
long before the seventeenth of Edward III., which is the
epoch assigned by Carte, or even the sixth of that king, which
has been chosen by some other writers. Thus the Commons
sat at Acton Burnell in the eleventh of Edward L, while the
upper house was at Shrewsbury. In the eighth of Edward
II. " the Commons of England complain to the king and his
council," etc. These must surely have been the Commons
assembled in Parliament, for who else could thus have enti-
tled themselves ? In the nineteenth of the same king we find
several petitions, evidently proceeding from the body of the
Commons in Parliament, and complaining of public griev-
ances.
As the knights of shires correspond to the lower nobility
of other feudal countries, we have less cause to be surprised
that they belonged originally to the same branch of Parlia-
ment as the barons, than at their subsequent intermixture
with men so inferior in station as the citizens and burgesses.
It is by no means easy to define the point of time when this
distribution was settled ; but I tliink it may be inferred from
the rolls of Parliament that the houses were divided as they
are at present in the eighth, ninth, and nineteenth years of
Edward II. This appears, however, beyond doubt in the
first of Edward III. Yet in the sixth of the same prince,
though the knights and burgesses are expressly mentioned to
have consulted together, the former taxed themselves in a
smaller rate of subsidy than the latter.
§ 12. The proper business of the House of Commons was
to petition for redress of grievances, as much as to provide
for the necessities of the crown. In the prudent fiction of
English law no wrong is supposed to proceed from the
source of right. The throne is fixed upon a pinnacle which
perpetual beams of truth and justice irradiate, though cor-
ruption and partiality may occupy the middle region and
cast their chill shade upon all below. In his high court of
Parliament a king of England was to learn where injustice
had been unpunished and Avhere right had been delayed.
The common courts of law, if they were sufficiently honest,
were not sufficiently strong, to redress the subject's injuries
where the officers of the crown or the nobles interfered. To
Parliament he looked as the great remedial court for relief
of private as well as public grievances. For this cause it
was ordained in the fifth of Edward II. that the king should
hold a Parliament once, or, if necessary, twice every year;
" that the pleas which have been thus delayed, and those
where the justices have differed, may be brought to a close."
466 EDWARD III. Chap. VIII. Part III.
And a short act of 4 Edward III., which was not very strict-
ly regarded, provides that a Parliament shall be held'" every
year, or oftener, if need be." By what persons, and under
wliat limitations, this jurisdiction in Parliament was exer-
cised will come under our future consideration.
The efficacy of a king's personal character in so imperfect
a state of government was never more strongly exemplified
that in the two first Edwards. The father, a little before his
death, had humbled his boldest opponents among the nobil-
ity ; and as for the Commons, so far from claiming a right of
remonstrating, we have seen cause to doubt wlhether they
were accounted effectual members of the legislature for any
purposes but taxation. But in the very second year of the
son's reign they granted the twenty-fifth penny of their
goods, " upon this condition, that the king should take ad-
vice and grant redress upon certain articles wherein they are
aggrieved." These were answered at the ensuing Parlia-
ment, and are entered with the king's respective promises
of redress upon the roll. It will be w^orth while to extract
part of this record, that we may see what were the com-
plaints of the Commons of England, and their notions of
right, in 1309.
" The good people of the kingdom who are come hither to
Parliament pray our lord the king that he will, if it please
him, have regard to his poor subjects, who are much ag-
grieved by reason that they are not governed as they should
be, especially as to the articles of the Great Charter ; and
for this, if it please him, they pray remedy. Besides which,
they pray their lord the king to hear what has long ag-
grieved his people, and still does so from day to day, on the
part of those who call themselves his officers, and to amend
it, if he pleases." The articles, eleven in number, are to the
following purport: 1. That the king's purveyors seize great
quantities of victuals without payment ; 2. That new cus-
toms are set on wine, cloth, and other imposts ; 3. That the
current coin is not so good as formerly ; 4, 5. That the stew-
ard and marshal enlarge their jurisdiction beyond measure,
to the oppression of the people; 6. That the commons find
none to receive petitions addressed to the council; V. That
the collectors of the king's dues (pernours des prises) in
towns and at fairs take more than is lawful ; 8. That men
are delayed in their civil suits by writs of protection ; 9,
That felons escape punishment by procuring charters of par-
don ; 10. That the constables of *the king's castles take cog-
nizance of common pleas; 11. That the king's escheators
English Const. . EDWARD III. 457
oust men of lands held by good title, under pretense of an
inquest of office.
These articles display in a short compass the nature of
those grievances which existed under almost all the princes
of the Plantagenet dynasty, and are spread over the rolls of
Parliament for more than a century after this time. Edward
gave the amplest assurances of putting an end to them all,
except in one instance, the augmented customs on imports,
to which he answered, rather evasively, that lie would take
them off till he should perceive whether himself and his peo-
ple derived advantage from so doing, and act thereupon as
he should be advised. Accordingly, the next year, he issued
writs to collect these new customs again. But the Lords
Ordainers superseded the writs, having entirely abrogated
all illegal impositions. It does not appear, however, that,
regard had to the times, there was any thing very tyrannical
in Edward's government. He set tallages sometimes, like
his father, on his demesne towns, without assent of Parlia-
ment. In the nineteenth year of his reign the Commons
show that, " Whereas we and our ancestors have given many
tallages to the king's ancestors to obtain the charter of the
forest, which charter we have had confirmed by the present
king, paying him largely on our part ; yet the king's officers
of the forest seize on lands, and destroy ditches, and oppress
the people, for which they pray remedy, for the sake of God
and his father's soul." They complain at the same time of
arbitrary imprisonment, against the law of the land. To
both these petitions the king returned a promise of redress ;
and they complete the catalogue of customary grievances in
tliis period of our constitution.
During the reign of Edward II. the rolls of Parliament
are imperfect, and we have not much assistance from other
sources. The assent of the Commons, which frequently is not
specified in the statutes of this age, appears in a remarkable
and revolutionary proceeding, the appointment of the Lords
Ordainers in 1312. In this case it indicates that the aristo-
cratic party then combined against the crown were desirous
of conciliating popularity. An historian relates that some
of the Commons were consulted upon the ordinances to be
made for the reformation of government.
§ 13. During the long and prosperous reign of Edward
III. the efforts of Parliament in behalf of their country were
rewarded with success in establishing upon a firm footing
three essential principles of our Government — the illegality
of raising money without consent ; the necessity that the
20
458 ILLEGALITY OF EAISING Chap. VIII. Part IIL
two houses should concur for any alterations in the law ;
and, lastly, the right of the Commons to inquire into public
abuses, and to impeach public counsellors. By exhibiting
proofs of each of these from Parliamentary records I shall be
able to substantiate the progressive improvement of our free
constitution, which was principally consolidated during the
reigns of Edward III. and his two next successors.
I. Illegality of raising Money icithout Consent. — In the
sixth year of Edward III. a Parliament was called to pro-
vide for the emergency of an Irish rebellion, wherein, " be-
cause the king could not send troops and money to Ireland
without the aid of his people, the prelates, earls, barons, and
other great men, and the knights of shires, and all the Com-
mons, of their free will, for the said purpose, and also iu
order that the king might live of his own, and not vex his
people by excessive prizes, nor in other manner, grant to him
the fifteenth penny, to levy of the commons,^ and the tenth
from the cities, towns, and royal demesnes. And the king,
at the request of the same, in ease of his people, grants that
the commissions lately made to certain persons assigned to
set tallages on cities, towns, and demesnes throughout En-
gland shall be immediately repealed; and that in time to
come he will not set such tallage, except as it has been done
in the time of his ancestors, and he may reasonably do."
These concluding words arc of dangerous implication ; and
certainly it was not the intention of Edward, inferior to none
of his predecessors in the love of power, to divest himself
of that eminent prerogative which, however illegally since
the Confirmatio Chartarum, had been exercised by them all.
But the Parliament took no notice of this reservation, and
continued with unshaken perseverance to insist on this in-
contestable and fundamental right, which he was prone
enough to violate.
In the thirteenth year of this reign the Lords and Commons
gave their answer to commissioners sent to open the Parlia-
ment, and to treat with them on the king's part, in separate
sealed rolls. The Commons declared that they could grant
no subsidy without consulting their constituents ; and there-
fore begged that another Parliament might be summoned,
and in the mean time they would endeavor, by using persua-
sion with the people of their respective counties, to procure
the grant of a reasonable aid in the next Parliament. They
demanded also that the imposition on wool and lead should
* "La commonaltee" seems in this place to mean the tenants of land, or commons
of the counties, in contradistinction to citizens Hud burgesses.
English Const. MONEY WITHOUT CONSENT. 459
be taken as it used to be in former times, " inasmuch as it is
enhanced without assent of the Commons, or of the Lords, as
we understand ; and if it be otherwise demanded, that any
one of the Commons may refuse it without being troubled on
that account."
Wool, however, the staple export of that age, was too easy
and tempting a prey to be relinquished by a prince engaged
in an impoverishing war. Seven years afterwards, in 20
Edward III., we find the Commons praying that the great
subsidy of forty shillings upon the sack of wool be taken
off; and the old custom paid as heretofore was assented to
and granted. Tiie Government spoke this time in a more
authoritative tone. "As to this point," the answer runs,
"the prelates and others, seeing in what need the king stood
of an aid before his passage beyond sea, to recover his rights
and defend his kingdom of England, consented, with the con-
currence of the merchants, that he should have in aid of his
said war, and in defense of his said kingdom, forty shillings
of subsidy for each sack of wool that should be exported
beyond sea for two years to come. And upon this grant
divers merchants have made many advances to our lord
the king in aid of his war; for which cause this subsidy
can not be repealed without assent of the king and his
lords."
It is probable that Edward's counsellors wished to estab-
lish a distinction, long afterwards revived by those of James
I., between customs levied on merchandise at the ports and
internal taxes. The statute entitled Confirmatio Chartarum
had manifestly taken away the prerogative of imposing the
latter, which, indeed, had never extended beyond the ten-
ants of the royal demesne. But its language was not quite
so explicit as to the former, although no reasonable doubt
could be entertained that the intention of the legislature
was to abrogate every species of imposition unauthorized by
Parliament. The thirtieth section of Magna Charta had pro-
vided that foreign merchants should be free from all tributes
except the ancient customs ; and it was strange to suppose
that natives were excluded from the benefit of that enact-
ment. Yet, owing to the ambiguous and elliptical style so
frequent in our older laws, this was open to dispute, and
could, perhaps, only be explained by usage. Edward I., in
despite of both these statutes, had set a duty of threepence
in the pound upon goods imported by merchant-strangers.
This imposition was noticed as a grievance in the third year
of his successor, and repealed by the Lords Ordainers, . It
460 CONCURRENCE OF BOTH HOUSES Chap. VIII. Part III.
was revived, however, by Edward III., and continued to be
levied ever afterwards.
Edward was led by the necessities of his unjust and ex-
^^ensive w^ar into another arbitrary encroachment, of which
kve find as many complaints as of his pecuniary extortions.
The Commons pray, in the same Parliament of 20 Edward
fll., that commissions should not issue for the future out of
jhancery to charge the people with providing men-at-arms,
hobelers (or light cavalry), archers, victuals, or in any other
manner, without consent of Parliament. The king in reply
alleges absolute necessity; and the roll of Parliament in the
next two years, the 21st and 22d of Edward III., is full of
the same complaints on one side, and the same allegations
of necessity on the other. In the latter year the Commons
grant a subsidy, on condition that no illegal levying of
money should take place, with several other remedial pro-
visions ; " and that these conditions should be entered on
the roll of Parliament, as a matter of record, by which they
may have remedy, if any thing should be attempted to the
contrary in time to come." From this year the complaints
of extortion became rather less frequent ; and soon after-
wards a statute was passed, " that no man shall be con-
strained to find men-at-arms, hobelers, nor archers, other
than those which hold by such services, if it be not by com-
mon assent and grant made in Parliament."
II. The Concurrence of both Houses in Legislation neces-
sary. — The second constitutional principle established in the
reign of Edward III. was that the king and two houses of
Parliament, in conjunction, possessed exclusively the right
of legislation. Laws were now declared to be made by the
king at the request of the Commons, and by the assent of
the Lords and prelates. Such at least was the general form,
though for many subsequent ages there was no invariable
regularity in this respect. The Commons, who till this reign
were rarely mentioned, were now as rarely omitted in the
enacting clause. In fact, it is evident from the rolls of Par-
liament that statutes were almost always founded upon their
petition. These petitions, with the respective answers made
to them in the king's name, were drawn up after the end of
the session in the form of laws, and entered upon the stat-
ute-roll. But here it must be remarked that the petitions
were often extremely qualified and altered by the answer,
insomuch that many statutes of this and some later reigns
by no means express the true sense of the Commons. Some-
times they contented themselves with showing their griev-
English Const. IN LEGISLATION NECESSARY. 461
ance, and praying remedy from the king and his council.
Of this one eminent instance is the great statute of treasons.
In the petition whereon this act is founded it is merely
prayed that, "whereas the king's justices in different coun-
ties adjudge persons indicted before them to be traitors for
sundry matters not known by the Commons to be treason,
it would please the king by his council, and by the great and
wise men of the land, to declare what are treasons in this
present Parliament." The answer to this petition contains
the existing statute, as a declaration on the king's part.
But there is no appearance that it received the direct assent
of the lower house. In the next reigns we shall find more
remarkable instances of assuming a consent which was never
positively given.
The statute of treasons, however, was supposed to be de-
claratory of the ancient law : in permanent and material in-
novations a more direct concurrence of all the estates was
probably required. A new statute, to be perpetually incor-
porated with the law of England, was regarded as no light
matter. It was a very common answer to a petition of the
Commons, in the early part of this reign, that it could not be
granted without making a new law. After the Parliament
of 14 Edward III. a certain number of prelates, barons, and
counsellors, with twelve knights and six burgesses, were ap-
pointed to sit from day to day in order to turn such peti-
tions and answers as were fit to be perpetual into a stat-
ute ; but for such as were of a temporary nature the king
issued his letters patent. This reluctance to innovate with-
out necessity, and to swell the number of laws which all were
bound to know and obey with an accumulation of transitory
enactments, led apparently to the distinction between stat-
utes and ordinances. The latter are indeed defined by some
lawyers to be regulations proceeding from the king and
Lords without concurrence of the Commons. But if this be
applicable to some ordinances, it is certain that the word,
even when opposed to statute, with which it is often synon-
ymous, sometimes denotes an act of the whole legislature.
In the 37th of Edward III., when divers sumptuary regula-
tions against excess of apparel were made in full Parliament,
"it was demanded of the Lords and Commons, inasmuch as
the matter of their petitions was novel and unheard of be-
fore, whether they would have them granted by way of or-
dinance or of statute. They answered that it would be best
to have them by way of ordinance and not of statute, in
order that any thing which should need amendment might
462 STATUTES DISTINGUISHED Chap. VIII. Part III.
be amended at the next Parliament." So much scruple did
they entertain about tampering with the statute law of the
land.
Ordinances which, if it were not for their partial or tem-
porary operation, could not well be distinguished from laws'
were often established in great councils. These assemblies,
which frequently occurred in Edward's reign, w^ere hardly
distinguishable, except in name, from Parliaments; being
constituted not only of those who were regularly summoned
to the House of Lords, but of deputies from counties, cities,
and boroughs. Several places that never returned burgesses
to Parliament have sent- deputies to some of these coun-
cils. The most remarkable of these was that held in the
2'7th of Edward III., consisting of one knight for each coun-
ty, and of two citizens or burgesses from every city or bor-
ough wherein the ordinances of the staple were established.
These were previously agreed upon by the king and Lords,
and copies given, one to the knights, another to the burgesses.
The roll tells us that they gave their opinion in writing to
the council, after much deliberation, and that this was read
and discussed by the great men. These ordinances fix the
staple of wool in particular places within England, prohibit
English merchants from exporting that article under pain of
death, inflict sundry other penalties, create jurisdictions, and
in short have the eifect of a new and important law. After
they were passed the deputies of the Commons granted a
subsidy for three years, complained of grievances, and re-
ceived answers, as if in a regular Parliament. But they
were aware that these proceedings partook of some irregu-
larity, and endeavored, as was their constant method, to
keep up the legal forms of the constitution. In the last pe-
tition of this council the Commons pray, "because many ar-
ticles touching the state of the king and common profit of
his kingdom have been agreed by him, the prelates. Lords,
and Commons of his land, at this council, that the said ar-
ticles may be recited at the next Parliament, and entered
upon the roll ; for this cause, that ordinances and agreements
made in council are not of record, as if they had been made
in a general Parliament." This, accordingly, was done at the
ensuing Parliament, when these ordinances were expressly
confirmed, and directed to be "holden for a statute to en-
dure always."
* " If there be any diiference between an ordinance and a statute, ae some have col-
lected, it is but only this, that an ordinance is but temporary till confirmed and made
perpetual, but a statute is perpetual at first, and so have some ordinances also been."
— Whitelocke on Parliamentary Writ, vol. ii., p. 297.
English Const. FROM ORDINANCES. 4(J3
It must be confessed that the distinction between ordi-
nances and statutes is very obscure, and perhaps no precise
and uniform principle can be laid down about it. But it
sufficiently appears that whatever provisions altered the
common law or any former statute and were entered upon
the statute- roll, transmitted to the sheriffs, and promulgated
to the people as general obligatory enactments, were holden
to require the positive assent of both houses of Parliament,
duly and formally summoned.
Before we leave this subject it will be proper to take no-
tice of a remarkable stretch of prerogative which, if drawn
into precedent, would have effectually subverted this prin-
ciple of parliamentary consent in legislation. In the 15th
of Edward III. petitions were presented of a bolder and more
innovating cast than was acceptable to the court ; that no
peer should be put to answer for any trespass except before
his peers; that commissioners should be assigned to examine
the accounts of such as had received public moneys ; that
the judges and ministers should be sworn to observe the
Great Charter and other laws ; and that they should be ap-
pointed in Parliament. The last of these was probably the
most obnoxious ; but the king, unwilling to defer a supply
which was granted merely upon condition that these peti-
tions should prevail, suffered them to pass into a statute
with an alteration which did not take off much from their
efficacy — namely, that these officers should indeed be ap-
pointed by the king with the advice of his council, but should
surrender their charges at the next Parliament, and be there
responsible to any who should have cause of complaint
against them. The chancellor, treasurer, and judges entered
their protestation that they had not assented to the said
statutes, nor could they observe them, in case they should
prove contrary to the laws and customs of the kingdom,
which they were sworn to maintain. This is the first instance
of a protest on the roll of Parliament against the passing of
an act. Nevertheless they were compelled to swear on the
cross of Canterbury to its observance.
This excellent statute was attempted too early for com-
plete success. Edward's ministers plainly saw that it left
them at the mercy of future Parliaments, who would readily
learn the wholesome and constitutional principle of sparing
the sovereign while they punished his advisers. They had
recourse, therefore, to a violent measure, but which was
likely in those times to be endured. By a proclamation ad-
dressed to all the sheriffs the kinsj revokes and annuls the
464 RIGHT OF ^;Ox\IMONS Chap. VIII. Part III.
statute, as contrary to the laws and custems of England and
to his own just rights and prerogatives, which he had sworn
to preserve; declaring that he had never consented to its
passing, but, having previously protested that he would re-
voke it, lest the Parliament should have been separated in
wrath, had dissembled, as was his duty, and permitted the
great seal to be affixed ; and that it appeared to the earls,
barons, and other learned persons of his kingdom with whom
he had consulted, that, as the said statute had not proceeded
from his own good- will, it was null, and could not have the
name or force of law. This revocation of a statute, as the
price of which a subsidy had been granted, was a gross in-
fringement of law, and undoubtedly passed for such at that
time; for the right was already clear, though the remedy
was not always attainable. Two years afterwards Edward
met his Parliament, when that obnoxious statute was formal-
ly repealed.
Notwithstanding the king's unwillingness to permit this
control of Parliament over his administration, he suffered,
or rather solicited, their interference in matters which have
since been reckoned the exclusive province of the crown.
This was an unfair trick of his policy. He was desirous, in
order to prevent any murmuring about subsidies, to throw
the war upon Parliament as their own act, though none could
have been commenced more selfishly for his own benefit, or
less for the advantage of the people of England. It is called
" the war which our lord the king has undertaken against his
adversary of France, by common assent of all the Lords and
Commons of his realm in divers parliaments." And he sev-
eral times referred it to them to advise upon the subject of
peace. But the Commons showed their humility or discre-
tion by treating this as an invitation which it would show
good manners to decline, though in the eighteenth of the
king's reign they had joined with the Lords in imploring the
king to make an end of the war by a battle or by a suitable
peace.
in. Right of the Commons to inquire into Public Abuses.
— A third important acquisition of the House of Commons
during this reign was the establishment of their right to in-
vestigate and chastise the abuses of administration.
The most memorable example of the exercise of this right
occurred in the fiftieth of Edward HI. It will be remember-
ed by every one who has read our history that in the latter
years of Edward's life his fame w^as tarnished by the ascend-
ency of the Duke of Lancaster and Alice Perrers. The for
English Const. TO INQUIRE INTO ABUSES. 463
mer, a man of more ambition than his capacity seems to have
warranted, even incurred the suspicion of meditating to set
aside the heir of the crown when the Black Prince should
have sunk into the grave. Whether he were wronged or not
by these conjectures, they certainly appear to have operated
on those most concerned to take alarm at them. A Parlia-
ment met, in April, 1376, wherein the general unpopularity
of the king'^ administration, or the influence of the Princ'e
of Wales, led to very remarkable consequences.
The Commons alleged three particular grievances : the re-
moval of the staple from Calais, where it had been fixed by
Parliament, through the procurement and advice of the pri-
vate counsellors about the king; the participation of the same
persons in lending money to the king at exorbitant usury ;
and their purchasing at a low rate, for their own benefit, old
debts from the crown, the whole of which they had after-
wards induced the king to repay to themselves. For these
and for many more misdemeanors the Commons accused and
impeached the lords Latimer and Nevil, with four merchants,
Lyons, Ellis, Peachey, and Bury. Latimer had been cham-
berlain, and Nevil held another oflUce. The former was the
friend and creature of the Duke of Lancaster. Nor was this
Parliament at all nice in touching a point where kings least
endure their interference. An ordinance was made that,
"whereas many women prosecute the suits of others in courts
of justice by way of maintenance, and to get profit there-
by, which is displeasing to the king, he forbids any woman
henceforward, and especially Alice Perrers, to do so, on pain
of the said Alice forfeiting all her goods, and suffering ban-
ishment from the kingdom."
The part which the Prince of Wales, who had ever been
distinguished for his respectful demeanor towards Edward,
bore in this unprecedented opposition, is strong evidence of
the jealousy with which he regarded the Duke of Lancaster;
and it was led in the House of Commons by Peter de la
Mare, a servant of the Earl of March, who, by his marriage
with Philippa, heiress of Lionel, duke of Clarence, stood next
after the young Prince Richard in lineal succession to the
crown. The proceedings of this session were, indeed, highly
popular. But no House of Commons would have gone such
lengths on the mere support of popular opinion, unless insti-
gated and encouraged by higher authority. Without this,
their petitions might, perhaps, have obtained, for the sake of
subsidy, an immediate consent ; but those who took the lead
in preparing them must have remained unsheltered after
20*
466 KICHARD III. Chap. VIII. Part III.
dissolution, to abide the vengeance of the crown, with no as-
surance that another Parliament would espouse their cause
as its own. Such, indeed, was their fate in the present in-
stance. Soon after the dissolution of Parliament, the Prince
of Wales, who, long sinking by fatal decay, had rallied his
expiring energies for this domestic combat, left his inher-
itance to a child ten years old, Richard of Bordeaux. Im-
mediately after this event Lancaster recovered his influence,
and the former favorites returned to court. Peter de la Mare
was confined at Nottingham, where he remained two years.
The citizens, indeed, attempted an insurrection, and threat-
ened to burn the Savoy, Lancaster's residence, if De la Mare
were not released ; but the Bishop of London succeeded in
appeasing them. A Parliament met next year which over-
threw the work of its predecessor, restored those who had
been impeached, and repealed the ordinance against Alice
Perrers. So little security will popular assemblies ever af-
ford against arbitrary power, when deprived of regular lead-
ers and the consciousness of mutual fidelity.
The policy adopted by the Prince of Wales and Earl of
March, in employing the House of Commons as an engine of
attack against an obnoxious ministry, was perfectly novel,
and indicates a sensible change in the character of our con-
stitution. In the reign of Edward II., Parliament had little
share in resisting the Government ; much more was effected
by the barons through risings of their feudal tenantry. Fif-
ty years of authority better respected, of law better enforced,
had rendered these more perilous, and of a more violent ap-
pearance than formerly. A surer resource presented itself
in the increased weight of the lower house in Parliament.
And this indirect aristocratical influence gave a surprising
impulse to that assembly, and particularly tended to estab-
lish beyond question its control over public abuses. It is no
less just to remark that it also tended to preserve the rela-
tion and harmony between each part and the other, and to
prevent that jarring of emulation and jealousy which, though
generally found in the division of power between a noble and
a popular estate, has scarcely ever caused a dissension, except
in cases of little moment, between our two houses of Parlia-
ment.
§ 14. The Commons had sustained with equal firmness and
discretion a defensive war against arbitrary power under Ed-
ward III. ; they advanced with very different steps towards
his successor. Upon the king's death, though Richard's cor-
onation took place without delay, and no proper regency was
English Const. CHARACTER OF RICHARD 11. 467
constituted, yet a council of twelve, whom the great officers
of state were to obey, supplied its place to every efi'ectual
intent. Among these the Duke of Lancaster was not num-
bered, and he retired from court in some disgust. In the
first Parliament of the young king a large proportion of the
knights who had sat in that which impeached the Lancas-
trian party were returned. Peter de la Mare, now released
from prison, was elected speaker. The prosecution against
Alice Perrers was revived — not, as far as appears, by direct
impeachment of the Commons ; but articles were exhibited
against her in the House of Lords on the king's part, for
breaking the ordinance made against her intermeddling at
court ; upon which she received judgment of banishment and
forfeiture. At the request of the lower house, the Lords, in
the king's name, appointed nine persons of different ranks —
three bishops, two earls, two bannerets, and two bachelors —
to be a permanent council about the king, so that no business
of importance should be transacted without their unanimous
consent. The king was even compelled to consent that, dur-
ing his minority, the chancellor, treasurer, judges, and oth-
er chief officers, should be made in Parliament ; by which
provision, combined with that of the Parliamentary council,
the whole executive government was transferred to the two
houses.
For the first few years of Richard's reign we find from the
rolls repeated demands of subsidy on one side, remonstrance
and endeavors at reformation on the other. But the power
of the Commons steadily increases. After the tremendous
insurrection of the villeins in 1382, a Parliament was con-
vened to advise about repealing the charters of general man-
umission, extorted from the king by the pressure of circum-
stances. Li this measure all concurred ; but the Commons
were not afraid to say that the late risings had been pro-
voked by the burdens which a prodigal court had called for
in the preceding session.
The character of Richard IL was now developing itself,
and the hopes excited by his remarkable presence of mind
in confronting the rioters on Blackheath were rapidly de-
stroyed. Not that he was wanting in capacity, as has becR
sometimes imagined. For if we measure intellectual power
by the greatest exertion it ever displays, rather than by its
average results, Richard IL was a man of considerable tal-
ents. He possessed, along with much dissimulation, a deci-
sive promptitude in seizing the critical moment for action*
Of this quality, besides his celebrated behavior towards tha
468 POWER OF RICHARD II. Chap. VIII. Part 111
insurgents, he gave striking evidence in several circumstances
which we shall have shortly to notice. But his ordinary con-
duct belied the abilities Avhich on these rare occasions shone
forth, and rendered them ineffectual for his security. Ex-
treme pride and violence, with an inordinate partiality for
the most worthless favorites, were his predominant charac-
teristics.
Though no king could be less respectable than Richard,
yet the constitution invested a sovereign with such ample
prerogative, that it was far less easy to resist his personal
exercise of power than the unsettled councils of a minority.
Though the Commons did not relax in their importunities for
the redress of general grievances, they did not venture to
intermeddle as before with the conduct of administration.
Tliey did not even object to the grant of the marquisate of
Dublin, with almost a princely dominion over Ireland ;
which enormous donation was confirmed by act of Parlia-
ment to Vere, a favorite of the king. A petition that the
officers of state should annually visit and inquire into his
household was answered that the king would do what he
pleased.
There is nothing, however, more deceitful to a monarch
unsupported by an armed force, and destitute of wary ad-
visers, than this submission of his people. A single effort
was enough to overturn his government. Parliament met
in the tenth year of his reign, steadily determined to reform
the administration, and especially to punish its chief leader,
Michael de la Pole, earl of Suffolk and lord chancellor.
The charges against this minister, without being wholly
frivolous, were not so weighty as the clamor of the Commons
might have led us to expect. Besides forfeiting all his
grants from the crown, he was committed to prison, there to
remain till he should have paid such fine as the king might
impose — a sentence that would have been outrageously se-
vere in many cases, though little more than nugatory in ihe
present.
This was the second precedent of that grand constitutional
resource. Parliamentary impeachment ; and more remarkable,
from the eminence of the person attacked, than that of Lora
Latimer in the fiftieth year of Edward III. The Commons
were content to waive the prosecution of any other minis
ters ; but they rather chose a scheme of reforming the ad-
ministration which should avert both the necessity of pun-
ishment and the malversations that provoked it. They pe-
titioned the kins to ordain in Parliament certain chief offi-
English Const. COMMISSION OF REFORM. 469
cers of his household and other lords of his council, with
power to reform those abuses by which his crown was so
much blemished that the laws were not kept, and his rev-
enues were dilapidated, confirming by a statute a commission
for a year, and forbidding, under heavy penalties, any one
from opposing, in private or openly, what they should advise.
With this the king complied, and a commission founded upon
the prayer of Parliament was established by statute. It
comprehended fourteen persons of the highest eminence for
rank and general estimation ; princes of the blood and an-
cient servants of the crown, by whom its prerogatives were
not likely to be unnecessarily impaired. Still, the design as
w^ell as tendency of this commission was no doubt to throw
the whole administration into their hands during the period
of their sway.
Many have exclaimed against this Parliamentary commis-
sion as an unwarrantable violation of the king's sovereignty,
and even impartial men are struck at first sight by a meas
ure that seems to overset the natural balance of our consti-
tution. But it would be unfair to blame either those con-
cerned in this commission, some of whose names at least have
been handed down with unquestioned respect, or those high-
spirited representatives of the people whose patriot firmness
has been hitherto commanding all our sympathy and grati-
tude, unless we could distinctly pronounce by what gentler
means they could restrain the excesses of goverment. Thir-
teen Parliaments had already met since the accession of Rich-
ard ; in all the same remonstrances had been repeated, and
the same promises renewed. Subsidies, more frequent than
in any former reign, had been granted for the supposed exi-
gencies of the war; but this was no longer illuminated by
those dazzling victories which give to fortune the mien of
wisdom : the coasts of England were perpetually ravaged,
and her trade destroyed, while the administration incurred
the suspicion of diverting to private uses that treasure which
they so feebly and unsuccessfully applied to the public serv-
ice. No voice of his people, until it spoke in thunder,
would stop an intoxicated boy in the wasteful career of dis-
sipation. He loved festivals and pageants, the prevailing
folly of his time, with unusual frivolity ; and his ordinary
living is represented as beyond comparison more showy and
sumptuous than even that of his magnificent and chivalrous
predecessor. Acts of Parliament were no adequate barriers
to his misgovernment. By yielding to the will of his Par-
liament and to a temporary suspension of prerogative, this
470 ANSV7ERS TO RICHARD'S QUESTIONS. Ch. VIII. Pt III.
unfortunate prince might probably have reigned long and
peacefully ; the contrary course of acting led eventually to
his deposition and miserable death.
Before the dissolution of Parliament, Richard made a ver-
bal protestation that nothing done therein should be in prej-
udice of his rights — a reservation not unusual when any re-
markable concession was made, but which could not decently
be interpreted, whatever he might mean, as a dissent from
the statute just passed. Some months had intervened when
the king, who had already released SuiFolk from prison and
restored him to his favor, procured from the judges, whom he
had summoned to Nottingham, a most convenient set of an-
swers to questions concerning the late proceedings in Parlia-
ment. Tresilian and Belknap, chief justices of the King's
Bench and Common Pleas, with several other judges, gave it
under their seals that the late statute and commission were
derogatory to the prerogative ; that all who procured it to
be passed, or persuaded or compelled the king to consent to
it, were guilty of treason ; that the king's business must be
proceeded upon before any other in Parliament; that he may
put an end to the session at his pleasure ; that his ministers
can not be impeached without his consent ; that any mem-
bers of Parliament contravening the three last articles incur
the penalties of treason, and especially he who moved for the
sentence of deposition against Edward II. to be read ; and
that the judgment against the Earl of Suffolk might be
revoked as altogether erroneous.
These answers, perhaps extorted by menaces, as all the
judges, except Tresilian, protested before the next Parlia-
ment, were for the most part servile and unconstitutional.
The indignation which they excited, and the measures suc-
cessfully taken to withstand the king's designs, belong to
general history ; but I shall pass slightly over that season
of turbulence, which afforded no legitimate precedent to our
constitutional annals. Of the five lords appellants, as they
were called — Gloucester, Derby, Nottingham, Warwick, and
Arundel — the three former, at least, have little claim to our
esteem ; but in every age it is the sophism of malignant and
peevish men to traduce the cause of freedom itself, on ac-
count of the interested motives by which its ostensible ad-
vocates have frequently been actuated. The Parliament, who
had the country thoroughly with them, acted no doubt hon-
estly, but with an inattention to the rules of law, culpable
indeed, yet from which the most civilized of their succes-
sors, in the heat of passion and triumph, have scarcely been
English Const. APPARENT HARMONY. 471
exempt. Whether all with whom they dealt severely, some
of them apparently of good previous reputation, merited such
punishment, is more than, upon uncertain evidence, a modern
writer can profess to decide.
Notwithstanding the death or exile of all Richard's favor-
ites, and the oath taken not only by Parliament, but by ev-
ery class of the people, to stand by the lords appellants, we
find him, after about a year, suddenly annihilating their pre-
tensions, and snatching the reins again without obstruction.
The secret cause of this event is among the many obscurities
that attend the history of his reign. It was conducted with
a spirit and activity which broke out two or three times in
the course of his imprudent life; but we may conjecture that
he had the advantage of disunion among his enemies. For
some years after this the king's administration was prudent.
The great seal, which he took away from Archbishop Arun-
del, he gave to Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, another
member of the reforming commission, but a man of great
moderation and political experience. Some time after he
restored the seal to Arundel, and reinstated the Duke of
Gloucester in the council. The Duke of Lancaster, who had
been absent during the transactions of the tenth and eleventh
years of the king, in prosecution of his Castilian war, formed
a link between the parties, and seems to have maintained
some share of public favor.
There was now a more apparent harmony between the
court and the Parliament. It seems to have been tacitly
agreed that they should not interfere with the king's house-
hold expenses ; and they gratified him in a point where his
honor had been most ^vounded, declaring his prerogative to
be as high and unimpaired as that of his predecessors, and
repealing the pretended statute by virtue of which Edward
II. was said to have been deposed. They were provident
enough, however, to grant conditional subsidies, to be levied
only in case of a royal expedition against the enemy ; and
several were accordingly remitted by proclamation, this con-
dition not being fulfilled. Richard never ventured to recall
his favorites, though he testified his unabated afiection for
Vere by a pompous funeral. Few complaints unequivocally
affecting the ministry were presented by the Commons. In
one Parliament, the chancellor, treasurer, and counsel re-
signed their ofiices, submitting themselves to its judgment
in case any matter of accusation should be alleged against
them. The Commons, after a day's deliberation, probably to
make their approbation nppcar more solemn, declared in full
472 DISUNION AMONG LEADING PEERS. Ch. Vlll. Tt. in
Parliament that nothing amiss had been found in the con-
duct of these ministers, and that they held them to have
faithfully discharged their duties. The king reinstated them
accordingly, with a protestation that this should not be made
a precedent, and that it was his right to change his servants
at pleasure.
But this summer season was not to last forever. Richard
had but dissembled with those concerned in the transactions
of 1388, none of whom he could ever forgive. These lords,
in lapse of time, were divided among each other. The earls
of Derby and Nottingham were brought into the king's in-
terest. The Earl of Arundel came to an open breach with
the Duke of Lancaster, whose pardon he was compelled to
ask for an unfounded accusation in Parliament. Gloucester's
ungoverned ambition, elated by popularity, could not brook
the ascendency of his brother Lancaster, who was much less
odious to the king. And the latter had given keener provo-
cation by speaking contemptuously of that misalliance witli
Katherine Swineford which contaminated the blood of Plan-
tagenet. To the Parliament summoned in the 20th of Rich-
ard, one object of which was to legitimate the Duke of Lan-
caster's ante-nuptial children by this lady, neither Glouces-
ter nor Arundel would repair. There passed in this assem-
bly something remarkable, as it exhibits not only the arbi-
trary temper of the king, a point by no means doubtful, but
the inefficiency of the Commons to resist it without suppoi-t
from political confederacies of the nobility. The circum-
stances are thus related in the record :
During the session the king sent for the lords into Parlia-
ment one afternoon, and told them how he had heard of cei--
tain articles of complaint made by the Commons in confer-
ence with them a few days before, some of which appeared
to the king against his royalty, estate, and liberty, and com-
manded the chancellor to inform him fully as to this. The
chancellor accordingly related the whole matter, which con-
sisted of four alleged grievances — namely, that sheriffs and
escheators, notwithstanding a statute, are continued in their
offices beyond a year;'" that the Scottish marches were not
" Home has represented this as if the Commons had petitioned for the continn-
ance of elieriffs beyond a year, and grounds upon this mistalce part of his defense of
Richard II. (Note to vol. ii., p. 2T0, 4to edit.) For this he refers to Cotton's Abridg-
ment ; whether rightly or not I can not say, being little acquainted with that inaccu-
rate book, upon which it is unfortunate that Hume relied so much. The passage from
Walsingham in the same note is also wholly perverted ; as the reader will discover
without further observation. An historian must be strangely warped who quotes a
passage explicitly complaining of illegal acts in order to infer that those very acts
were legal.
English Const. PROSECUTION OF HAXEY. 473
well kept ; that the statute against wearing great men's liv-
eries was disregarded ; and, lastly, that the excessive charges
of the king's household ought to be diminished, arising from
the multitude of bishops and of ladies who are there main-
tained at his cost.
Upon this information the king declared to the Lords that
through God's gift he is by lineal right of inheritance King
of England, and will have the royalty and freedom of his
crown, from which some of these articles derogate. The
first petition, that sheriifs should never remain in office be-
yond a year, he rejected ; but, passing lightly over the rest,
took most offense that the Commons, who are his lieges,
should take on themselves to make any ordinance respect-
ing his royal person or household, or those whom he might
please to have about him. He enjoined, therefore, the Lords
to declare plainly to the Commons his pleasure in this mat-
ter; and especially directed the Duke of Lancaster to make
the speaker give up the name of the person who presented a
bill for this last article in the lower house.
The Commons were in no state to resist this unexpected
promptitude of action in the king. They surrendered the
obnoxious bill, with its proposer, one Thomas Haxey, and
with great humility made excuse that they never designed
to give offfense to his majesty, nor to interfere with his house-
hold or attendants, knowing well that such things do not be-
long to them, but to the king alone ; but merely to draw his
attention, that he might act therein as should please him
best. The king forgave these pitiful suppliants; but Haxey
was adjudged in Parliament to suffer death as a traitor. As,
however, he was a clerk,^* the Archbishop of Canterbury, at
the head of the prelates, obtained of the king that his life
might be spared, and that they might have the custody of
his person; protesting that this was not claimed by way of
right, but merely of the king's grace.^^
This was an open defiance of Parliament, and a declaration
of arbitrary power ; for it would be impossible to contend
" The record calls him Sir Thoraas Haxey, a title at that time regularly given to
the parson of a parish. If this be so, it is a remarkable authority for the clergy's ca-
pacity of sitting in Parliament.
12 In Henry IV. 's first Parliament the Commons petitioned for Haxey's restoration,
and truly say that his sentence was en aneantissement des custumes de la commune,
p. 434. His judgment was reversed by both houses. There can be no doubt with
any man who looks attentively at the passages relative to Haxey that he was a mem-
ber of Parliament ; though this was questioned some years ago by the committee of
the House of Commons, who made a report on the right of the clergy to be elected :
a right which, I am inclined to believe, did exist down to the Eeformation, as the
grounds alleged for Nowell's expulsion in the first of Mary, besides this infitauce of
Haxey, conspire to prove, though it has since been lost by disuse.
474 ARBITRAEY MEASURES Chap. VIII. Part III.
that, after the repeated instances of control over public ex*
penditure by the Commons since the 50th of Edward III.,
this principle was novel and nnauthoi'ized by the constitu-
tion, or that the right of free speech demanded by them in
every Parliament was not a real and indisputable privilege.
The king, however, was completely successful, and, having
proved the feebleness of the Commons, fell next upon those
he more dreaded. By a skillful piece of treachery he seized
the Duke of Gloucester, and spread consternation among
all his party. A Parliament was summoned, in which the
only struggle was to outdo the king's wishes, and thus to ef-
face their former transgressions. Gloucester, who had been
murdered at Calais, was attainted after his death ; Arundel
was beheaded, his brother, the Archbishop of Canterbury,
deposed and banished, Warwick and Cobham sent beyond
sea. The commission of the tenth, the proceedings in Parlia-
ment of the eleventh, year of the king were annulled. The
answers of the judges to the questions put at Nottingham,
which had been punished with death and exile, were pro-
nounced by Parliament to be just and legal. It was de-
clared high treason to procure the repeal of any judgment
against persons therein impeached. Their issue male were
disabled from ever sitting in Parliament or holding place in
council. These violent ordinances, as if the precedent they
were then overturning had not shielded itself with the same
sanction, w^ere sworn to by Parliament upon the cross of
Canterbury, and confirmed by a national oath, with the pen-
alty of excommunication denounced against its infringers.
Of those recorded to have bound themselves by this adjura-
tion to Richard, far the greater part had touched the same
relics for Gloucester and Arundel ten years before, and two
years afterwards swore allegiance to Henry of Lancaster.
In the fervor of prosecution this Parliament could hardly
go beyond that whose acts they w^ere annulling ; and each is
alike unworthy to be remembered in the way of precedent.
But the leaders of the former, though vindictive and turbu-
lent, had a concern for the public interest ; and, after punish-
ing their enemies, left the government upon its right foun-
dation. In this all regard for liberty was extinct ; and the
Commons set the dangerous precedent of granting the king
a subsidy upon wool during his life. Their remarkable act
of severity was accompanied by another, less unexampled,
but, as it proved, of more ruinous tendency. The petitions
of the Commons not having been answered during the ses-
Bion, which they were always anxious to conclude, a commis-
English Const. OF RICHARD II. 475
sion was granted for twelve peers and six commoners to sit
after the dissolution, and " examine, answer, and fully deter-
mine, as well all the said petitions, and the matters therein
comprised, as all other matters and things moved in the king's
presence, and all things incident thereto not yet determined,
as shall seem best to them." The " other matters" mentioned
above were, I suppose, private petitions to the king's council
in Parliament, which had been frequently dispatched after a
dissolution. For in the statute which establishes this com-
mission, 21 R. II., c. 16, no powers are committed but those
of examining petitions ; which, if it does not confirm the
charge afterwards alleged against Richard, of falsifying the
Parliament roll, must, at least, be considered as limiting and
explaining the terms of the latter. Such a trust had been
committed to some lords of the council eight years before, in
very peaceful times ; and it was even requested that the same
might be done in future Parliaments. But it is obvious what
a latitude this gave to a prevailing faction. These eighteen
commissioners, or some of them (for there were who disliked
the turn of affairs), usurped the full rights of the legislature,
which undoubtedly were only delegated in respect of busi-
ness already commenced. They imposed a perpetual oath on
prelates and lords for all time to come, to be taken before
obtaining livery of their lands, that they would maintain the
statutes and ordinances made by this Parliament, or " after-
wards by the lords and knights having power committed to
them by the same." They declared it high treason to dis-
obey their ordinances. They annulled the patents of the
dukes of Hereford and Norfolk, and adjudged Henry Bowet,
the former's chaplain, who had advised him to petition for
his inheritance, to the penalties of treason. And thus, hav-
ing obtained a ravenue for life, and the power of Parliament
being notoriously usurped by a knot of his creatures, the
king was little likely to meet his people again, and became
as truly absolute as his ambition could require.
It had been necessary for this purpose to subjugate the an-
cient nobility ; for the English constitution gave them such
paramount rights that it was impossible either to make them
surrender their country's freedom or to destroy it without
their consent. But several of the chief men had fallen or
were involved with the party of Gloucester. Two, who, hav-
ing once belonged to it, had lately plunged into the depths
of infamy to ruin their former friends, were still perfectly
obnoxious to the king, who never forgave their original sin.
These two, Henry of Bolingbroke, earl of Derby, and Mow-
476 HEREFORD AND NORFOLK QUARREL. Ch. VIII. Pt. IIL
bray, earl of Nottingham, now dukes of Hereford and Nor-
folk, the most powerful of the remaining nobility, were, by a
singular conjuncture, thrown, as it were, at the king's feet.
Of the political mysteries which this reign affords, none is
more inexplicable than the quarrel of these peers. In the
Parliament at Shrewsbury, in 1398, Hereford was called upon
by the king to relate what had passed between the Duke of
Norfolk and himself in slander of his majesty. He detailed
a pretty long and not improbable conversation, in which
Norfolk had asserted the king's intention of destroying them
both for their old offense in impeaching his ministers. Nor-
folk had only to deny the charge and throw his gauntlet at
the accuser. It was referred to the eighteen commissioners
who sat after the dissolution, and a trial by combat was
awarded. But when this, after many delays, was about to
take place at Coventry, Richard interfered and settled the
dispute by condemning Hereford to banishment for ten years
and Norfolk for life. This strange determination, which treat-
ed both as guilty where only one could be so, seems to ad-
mit of no other solution than the king's desire to rid himself
of two peers, w^hom he feared and hated, at a blow. But it
is difficult to understand by what means he drew the crafty
Bolingbroke into his snare. However this might have been,
he now threw away all appearance of moderate government.
The indignities he had suffered in the eleventh year of his
reign were still at his heart, a desire to revenge which seems
to have been the mainspring of his conduct. Though a gen-
eral pardon of those proceedings had been granted, not only
at the time, but in his own last Parliament, he made use of
them as a pretense to extort money from seventeen counties,
to whom he imputed a share in the rebellion. He compelled
men to confess under their seals that they had been guilty
of treason, and to give blank obligations, which his officers
filled up with large sums. Upon the death of the Duke of
Lancaster, who had passively complied throughout all these
transactions, Richard refused livery of his inheritance to
Hereford, whose exile implied no crime, and Avho had letters
patent enabling him to make his attorney for that purpose
during its continuance. In short, his government for nearly
two years was altogether tyrannical ; and, upon the same
principles that cost James II. his throne, it was unquestiona-
bly far more necessary, unless our fathers would have aban-
doned all thought of liberty, to expel Richard II. Far be it
from us to extenuate the treachery of the Percies towards
this unhappy prince, or the cruel circumstances of his death,
English Const. ACCESSION OF HENRY IV. 477
or in any way to extol either his successor or the chief men
of that time, most of whom were ambitious and faithless ;
but after such long experience of the king's arbitrary, dis-
sembling, and revengeful temper, I see no other safe course,
in the actual state of the constitution, than what the nation
concurred in pursuing.
The reign of Richard II. is, in a constitutional light, the
most interesting part of our earlier history ; and it has been
the most imperfectly written. Some have misrepresented
the truth through prejudice, and others through carelessness.
It is only to be understood — and, indeed, there are great
difficulties in the way of understanding it at all — by a pe-
rusal of the rolls of Parliament, with some assistance from
the contemporary historians, Walsingham, Knyghton, the
anonymous biographer published by Hearne, and Froissart.
These, I must remark, except occasionally the last, are ex-
tremely hostile to Richard ; and although we are far from
being bound to acquiesce in their opinions, it is at least un-
warrantable in modern writers to sprinkle their margins with
references to such authority in support of positions decidedly
opposite.^^
§ 15. The revolution which elevated Henry TV. to the
throne was certainly so far accomplished by force that the
king was in captivity, and those who might still adhere to
him in no condition to support his authority. But the sin-
cere concurrence which most of the prelates and nobility,
with the mass of the people, gave to changes that could not
have been otherwise effected by one so unprovided with for-
eign support as Henry, proves this revolution to have been,
if not an indispensable, yet a national act, and should pre-
vent our considering the Lancastrian kings as usurpers of
the throne. Nothing, indeed, looks so much like usurpation
in the whole transaction as Henry's remarkable challenge of
the crown, insinuating, though not avowing, as Hume has
justly animadverted upon it, a false and ridiculous title by
right line of descent, and one equally unwarrantable by con-
quest. The course of proceedings is worthy of notice. As
the renunciation of Richard might well pass for the effect
of compulsion, there was a strong reason for propping up its
instability by a solemn deposition from the throne, found-
ed upon specific charges of misgovernment. Again, as the
^3 It is fair to observe that Froissart's testimony makes most in favor of the king,
or rather against his enemies, where it is most valuable; that is, in his account of
what he heard in the English court in 1395, 1. iv., c. 62, where he gives a very indif-
ferent character of the Duke of Gloucester. In general this writer is ill-informed o *
English affairs, and undeserving to be quoted as an authority.
478 . CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDING Chap. VIII. Part III.
right of dethroning a monarch was nowhere found in the
law, it was equally requisite to support this assumption of
power by an actual abdication. But as neither one nor the
other filled up the Duke of Lancaster's wishes, who was not
contented with owing a crown to election, nor seemed al-
together to account for the exclusion of the house of March,
he devised this claim, which was preferred in the vacancy of
the throne, Richard's cession having been read and approved
in Parliament, and the sentence of deposition, " out of abun-
dant caution, and to remove all scruple," solemnly passed by
seven commissioners appointed out of the several estates.
" After which challenge and claim," says the record, " the
lords spiritual and temporal, and all the estates there pres-
ent, being asked, separately and together, what they thought
of the said challenge and claim, the said estates, with the
whole people, without any difficulty or delay, consented that
the said duke should reign over them." The claim of Henry,
as opposed to that of the Earl of March, was, indeed, ridicu-
lous ; but it is by no means evident that, in such cases of ex-
treme urgency as leave no security for the common weal but
the deposition of a reigning prince, there rests any positive
obligation upon the estates of the realm to fill his place with
the nearest heir. A revolution of this kind seems rather to
defeat and confound all prior titles ; though in the new set-
tlement it will commonly be prudent, as well as equitable, to
treat them with some regard. Were this otherwise, it would
be hard to say why William III. reigned to the exclusion
of Anne, or even of the Pretender, who^ had surely commit-
ted no ofi*ense at that time ; or why (if such, indeed, be the
true construction of the Act of Settlement) the more distant
branches of the royal stock, descendants of Henry VH. and
earlier kings, have been cut oif from their hope of succession
by the restriction to the heirs of the Princess Sophia.
In this revolution of 1399 there was as remarkable an at-
tention shown to the formalities of the constitution, allow-
ance made for the men and the times, as in that of 1688. The
Parliament was not opened by commission ; no one took the
office of president ; the Commons did not adjourn to their
own chamber; they chose no speaker; the name of Parlia-
ment was not taken, but that only of estates of the realm.
But as it would have been a violation of constitutional prin-
ciples to assume a parliamentary character without the king's
commission, though summoned by his writ, so it was still
more essential to limit their exercise of power to the neces-
sity of circumstances. Upon the cession of the king, as upon
English Const. HENRY IV. 'S ACCESSION. 479
his death, the Parliament was no more ; its existence, as the
council of the sovereign, being dependent upon his will. The
actual convention summoned by the writs of Richard could
not legally become the Parliament of Henry ; and the valid-
ity of a statute declaring it to be such would probably have
been questionable in that age, when the power of statutes to
alter the original principles of the common law was by no
means so thoroughly recognized as at the Restoration and
Revolution. Yet Henry was too well pleased with his friends
to part with them so readily ; and he had much to effect be-
fore the fervor of their spirits should abate. Hence an ex-
pedient was devised of issuing writs for a new Parliament,
returnable in six days. These neither were nor could be com-
plied with ; but the same members as had deposed Richard
sat in the new Parliament, which was regularly opened by
Henry's commissioner as if they had been duly elected. In
this contrivance, more than in all the rest, we may trace the
hand of lawyers.
§ 1 6. If we look back from the accession of Henry IV. to that
of his predecessor, the constitutional authority of the House
of Commons will be perceived to have made surprising prog-
ress during the course of twenty-two years. Of the three
capital points in contest while Edward reigned — that money
could not be levied, or laws enacted, without the Commons'
consent, and that the administration of Government was sub-
ject to their inspection and control — the first was absolutely
decided in their favor, the second was at least perfectly ad-
mitted in principle, and the last was confirmed by frequent
exercise. The Commons had acquired two additional engines
of immense efficiency — one, the right of directing the appli-
cation of subsidies, and calling accountants before them ; the
other, that of impeaching the king's ministers for misconduct.
All these vigorous shoots of liberty throve more and more
under the three kings of the house of Lancaster, and drew
such strength and nourishment from the generous heart of
England that in after-times, and in a less prosperous season,
though checked and obstructed in their growth, neither the
blasts of arbitrary power could break them ofif, nor the mil-
dew of servile opinion cause them to wither. I shall trace
the progress of Parliament till the civil wars of York and Lan-
caster : 1, in maintaining the exclusive right of taxation ; 2, in
directing and checking the public expenditure ; 3, in making
supplies depend on the redress of grievances ; 4, in securing
the people against illegal ordinances and interpolations of
the statutes; 5, in controlling the royal administration; 6,
480 RIGHT OF TAXATION. Chap. VIII. Part III.
in punishing bad ministers ; and lastly, in establishing their
own immunities and privileges.
1. Bight of Taxation. — The pretense of levying money
without consent of Parliament expired with Edward III., who
had asserted it, as we have seen, in the very last year of his
reign. A great council of lords and prelates, summoned in
the second year of his successor, declared that they could
advise no remedy for the king's necessities without laying
taxes on the people, which could only be granted in Parlia-
ment. Nor was Richard ever accused of illegal tallages, the
frequent theme of remonstrance under Edward. Doubtless
his innocence in this respect was the effect of weakness ; and
if the revolution of 1399 had not put an end to this newly-
acquired despotism, this, like every other right of his people,
would have been swept away. A less palpable means of
evading the consent of the Commons was by the extortion of
loans, and harassing those who refused to pay by summonses
before the council. These loans, the frequent resource of ar-
bitrary sovereigns in later times, are first complained of in
an early Parliament of Richard II. ; and a petition is grant-
ed that no man shall be compelled to lend the king money.
But how little this was regarded we may infer from a writ
directed, in 1386, to some persons in Boston, enjoining them
to assess every person who had goods and chattels to the
amount of twenty pounds, in his proportion of two hundred
pounds, which the town had promised to lend the king, and
giving an assurance that this shall be deducted from the next
subsidy to be granted by Parliament. After his triumph
over the popular party, towards the end of his reign, he ob-
tained large sums in this way.
Under the Lancastrian kings there is much less appearance
of raising money in an unparliamentary course. Henry IV.
obtained an aid from a great council in the year 1400; but
they did not pretend to charge any besides theinselves, though
it seems that some towns afterwards gave the king a contri-
bution. A few years afterwards he directs the sheriflTs to call
on the richest men in their counties to advance the money
voted by Parliament. This, if any compulsion was threat-
ened, is an instance of overstrained prerogative, though con-
sonant to the practice of the late reign.
2. Appropriation of Supplies. — The right of granting sup-
plies would have been very incomplete, had it not been ac-
companied with that of directing their application. The prin-
ciple of appropriating public moneys began, as we have seen,
in the minority of Richard, and was among the best fruits of
Knglish Const. REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES. 481
that period. It was steadily maintained under the new dy-
nasty. The Parliament of 6 Henry lY. granted two-fifteenths
and two-tenths, with a tax on skins and wool, on condition
that it should be expended in the defense of the kingdom,
and not otherwise, as Thomas lord Furnival and Sir John Pel-
ham, ordained treasurers of war for this Parliament to receive
the said subsidies, shall account and answer to the Commons
at the next Parliament. These treasurers were sworn in Par-
liament to execute their trusts. A similar precaution was
adopted in the next session.
3. Redress of Grievances. — The Commons made a bold at-
tempt in the second year of Henry IV. to give the strongest
security to their claims of redress, by inverting the usual
coxirse of parliamentary proceedings. It was usual to answer
their petitions on the last day of the session, which put an
end to all further discussion upon them, and prevented their
making the redress of grievances a necessary condition of
supply. They now requested that an answer might be given
before they made their grant of subsidy. This was one of
the articles which Richard II.'s judges had declared it high
treason to attempt. Henry was not inclined to make a con-
cession which would virtually have removed the chief im-
pediment to the ascendency of Parliament. He first said
that he would consult with the Lords, and answer according
to their advice. On the last day of the session the Com-
mons were informed that " it had never been known in the
time of his ancestors that they should have their petitions
answered before they had done all their business in Par-
liament, whether of granting money or any other concern ;
wherefore the king will not alter the good customs and usages
of ancient times."
Notwithstanding the just views these Parliaments appear
generally to have entertained of their power over the public
purse, that of the third of Henry V. followed a precedent
from the worst times of Richard II., by granting the king a
subsidy on wool and leather during his life. This, an histo-
rian tells us, Henry IV. had vainly labored to obtain ; but
the taking of Harfleur intoxicated the English with new
dreams of conquest in France, which their good sense and
constitutional jealousy were not firm enough to resist. The
continued expenses of the war, however, prevented this grant
from becoming so dangerous as it might have been in a sea-
son of tranquillity. Henry V.,like his father, convoked Par-
liament almost in every year of his reign.
4. Legislative Bights. — It had long been out of all question
21
482 DISPENSING POWER Chap. VIII. Part IIL
that the legislature consisted of the king, Lords, and Com-
mons ; or, in stricter language, that the king could not make
or repeal statutes without the consent of Parliament. But
this fundamental maxim was still frequently defeated by va-
rious acts of evasion or violence; which, though protested
against as illegal, it was a difficult task to prevent. The
king sometimes exerted a power of suspending the observ-
ance of statutes, as in the ninth of Richard II., when a peti-
tion that all statutes might be confirmed is granted, with an
exception as to one passed in the last Parliament, forbidding
the judges to take fees or give counsel in cases where the
king was a party ; which, " because it was too severe and
needs declaration, the king would have of no effect till it
should be declared in Parliament."
The dispensing power, as exercised in favor of individuals,
is quite of a different character from this general suspension
of statutes, but indirectly weakens the sovereignty of the
legislature. This power was exerted, and even' recognized,
throughout all the reigns of the Plantagenets. In the first
of Henry V. the Commons pray that the statute for driving
aliens out of the kingdom be executed. The king assents,
saving his prerogative and his right of dispensing with it
when he pleased. To which the Commons replied that their
intention was never otherwise, nor, by God's help, ever should
be. At the same time one Rees ap Thomas petitions the king
to modify, or dispense with, the statute prohibiting Welsh-
men from purchasing lands in England, or the English towns
in Wales; which the king grants. In the same Parliament
the Commons pray that no grant or protection be made to
any one in contravention to the statute of provisors, saving
the king's prerogative. He merely answers, "Let the stat-
utes be observed;" evading any allusion to his dispensing
power.
The practice of leaving statutes to be drawn up by the
judges, from the petition and answer jointly, after a disso-
lution of Parliament, presented an opportunity of falsifying
the intention of the legislature, whereof advantage was often
taken. Some very remarkable instances of this fraud occur-
red in the reigns of Richard II. and Plenry IV.
An ordinance was put upon the roll of Parliament, in the
fifth of Richard II., empowering sheriffs of counties to arrest
preachers of heresy and their abettors, and detain them in
prison till they should justify themselves before the Church.
This was introduced into the statutes of the year; but the
assent of Lords and Commons is not expressed. In the next
English Const. OF THE CROWN. 483
Parliament the Commons, reciting this ordinance, declare that
it was never assented to nor granted by them, but what had
been proposed in this matter was without their concurrence
(that is, as I conceive, had been rejected by them), and pray
that this statute be annulled ; for it was never their intent
to bind themselves or their descendants to the bishops more
than their ancestors had been bound in times past. The
king returned an answer agreeing to this petition. Never-
theless the pretended statute was untouched, and remains still
among our laws,** unrepealed, except by desuetude, and by
inference from the acts of much later times.
This commendable reluctance of the Commons to let- the
clergy forge chains for them produced, as there is much ap-
pearance, a similar violation of their legislative rights in the
next reign. The statute against heresy in the second of
Henry IV. is not grounded upon any petition of the Com-
mons, but only upon one of the clergy. It is said to be en-
acted by consent of the Lords ; but no notice is taken of the
lower house in the Parliament roll, though the statute re-
citing the petition asserts the Commons to have joined in it.
The petition and the statute are both in Latin, which is un-
usual in the laws of this time. In a subsequent petition of
the Commons this act is styled "the statute made in the
second year of your majesty's reign at the request of the
prelates and clergy of your kingdom ;" which affords a pre-
sumption that it had no regular assent of Parliament. And
the spirit of the Commons during this whole reign being re-
markably hostile to the Church, it would have been hardly
possible to obtain their consent to so penal a law against
heresy. Several of their petitions seem designed indirectly
to weaken its efficacy.
These infringements of their most essential right were re-
sisted by the Commons in various ways, according to the
measure of their power. But even where there was no de-
sign to falsify the roll it was impossible to draw up statutes
which should be in truth the acts of the whole legislature, so
long as the king continued to grant petitions in part, and to
ingraft new matter upon them. Such was still the case till
the Commons hit upon an effectual expedient for screening
1* 5 R. II., stat. 2, c. 5 ; Rot. Pari. 6 R. II., p. 141. Some other instances of the Com-
Tnous attempting to prevent these unfair practices are adduced by RufFhead, in hiJs
preface to the Statutes, and in Prynne's preface to Cotton's Abridgment of the Rec-
ords. The act 13 R. II., stat. 1, c. 15, that the king's castles and jails which had been
separated from the body of the adjoining counties should be reunited to them, is not
founded upon any petition that appears on the roll ; and probably, by making search^
other instances equally flagrant might be discovered.
484 CONTROLLING THE Chap. VIIL Part IIL
themselves against these encroachments, which has lasted
without alteration to the present day. This was the intro-
duction of complete statutes under the name of bills, instead
of the old petitions ; and these containing the royal assent
and the whole form of a law, it became, though not quite
immediately, a constant principle that the king must admit
or reject them without qualification. This alteration, which
wrought an extraordinary effect on the character of our con-
stitution, was gradually introduced in Henry VL's reign.
From the first years of Henry V., though not, I think,
earlier, the Commons began to concern themselves with the
petitions of individuals to the Lords or Council. The nature
of the jurisdiction exercised by the latter will be treated
more fully hereafter ; it is only necessary to mention in this
place that many of the requests preferred to them were such
as could not be granted without transcending the boundaries
of law. A just inquietude as to the encroachments of the
king's council had long been manifested by the Commons;
and finding remonstrances ineffectual, they took measures
for preventing such usurpations of legislative power by in-
troducing their own consent to private petitions. These
were now presented by the hands of the Commons, and in
very many instances passed in the form of statutes with the
express assent of all parts of the legislature. Such was the
origin of private bills, which occupy the greater part of the
rolls in Henry V. and VL's Parliament.
5. Controlling the Royal Expeyiditure. — If the strength of
the Commons had lain merely in the weakness of the crown,
it might be inferred that such harassing interference with
the administration of affairs as the youthful and frivolous
Richard was compelled to endure would have been sternly
lepelled by his experienced successor. But, on the contrary,
the spirit of Richard might have rejoiced to see that his mor-
tal enemy suffered as hard usage at the hands of Parliament
as himself. After a few years the government of Henry be-
came extremely unpopular. Perhaps his dissension with the
great family of Percy, which had placed him on the throne,
and was regarded with partiality by the people, chiefly con-
tributed to this alienation of their attachment. The Com-
mons requested, in the fifth of his reign, that certain persons
might be removed from the court ; the Lords concurred in
displacing four of these, one being the king's confessor.
Henry came down to Parliament and excused these four per-
sons, as knowing no special cause why they should be re-
moved ; yet, well understanding that what the Lords and
English Const. ROYAL EXPENDITURE. 485
Commons should ordain would be for his and his kingdom's
interest, and therefore anxious to conform himself to their
wishes, consented to the said ordinance, and charged the per-
sons in question to leave his palace; adding, that he would
do as much by any other about his person whom he should
find to have incurred the ill affection of his people.
But no Parliament came near, in the number and boldness
of its demands, to that held in the eighth year of Henry IV.
The Commons presented thirty-one articles, none of which
the king ventured to refuse, though pressing very severely
upon his prerogative. He was to name sixteen counsellors,
by whose advice he was solely to be guided, none of them
to be dismissed without conviction of misdemeanor. The
chancellor and privy seal to pass no grants or other matter
contrary to law. Any persons about the court stirring up
the king or queen's minds against their subjects, and duly
convicted thereof, to lose their offices and be fined. The
king's ordinary revenue was wholly appropriated to his house-
hold and the payment of his debts; no grant of wardship or
other profit to be made thereout, nor any forfeiture to be
pardoned. The king, " considering the wise government of
other Christian princes, and conforming himself thereto,"
was to assign two days in the week for petitions, " it being
an honorable and necessary thing that his lieges, who desired
to petition him, should be heard." No judicial officer, nor
any in the revenue or household, to enjoy his place for life or
term of years. No petition to be presented to the king by
any of his household at times when the council were not sit-
ting. The council to determine nothing cognizable at com-
mon law, unless for a reasonable cause and with consent of
the judges. The statutes regulating purveyance were af-
firmed — abuses of various kinds in the council ?.nd in courts
of justice enumerated and forbidden — elections of knights for
counties put under regulation. The council and officers of
state were sworn to observe the common law and all statutes,
those especially just enacted.
It must strike every reader that these provisions were of
themselves a noble fabric of constitutional liberty, and hard-
ly perhaps inferior to the petition of right under Charles I.
We can not account for the submission of Henry to condi-
tions far more derogatory than ever were imposed on Rich-
ard, because the secret politics of his reign are very imper-
fectly understood.
Power deemed to be ill gotten is naturally precarious ;
and the instance of Henry IV. has been well quoted to
48e TREATY OF TROYES. Chap. VIII.* Part III.
prove that public liberty flourishes with a bad title in the
sovereign. None of our kings seem to have been less be-
loved ; and indeed he had little claim to affection. But
what men denied to the reigning king they poured in full
measure upon the heir of his throne. The virtues of the
Prince of Wales are almost invidiously eulogized by those
Parliaments who treat harshly his fiither ; and these records
afford a strong presumption that some early petulance or
riot has been much exaggerated by the vulgar minds of our
chroniclers. One can scarcely understand, at least, that a
prince who was three years engaged in quelling the danger-
ous insurrection of Glendower, and who in the latter time
of his father's reign presided at the council, was so lost in a
cloud of low debauchery as common fame represents. Loved
he certainly was throughout his life, as so intrepid, affable,
and generous a temper well deserved; and this sentiment was
heightened to admiration by successes still more rapid and
dazzling than those of Edward III. During his reign there
scarcely appears any vestige of dissatisfaction in Parliament
— a circumstance very honorable, whether we ascribe it to
the justice of his administration or to the affection of his
people.
The Parliament confirmed the league of Henry V. with
the Emperor Sigismund ; and the treaty of Troyes, which
was so fundamentally to change the situation of Henry and
his successors, obtained, as it evidently required, the sanction
of both houses of Parliament. These precedents conspiring
with the weakness of the executive government, in the mi-
nority of Henry VI., to fling an increase of influence into the
scale of the Commons, they made their concurrence necessa-
ry to all important business both of a foreign and domestic
nature. Thus commissioners were appointed to treat of the
deliverance of the King of Scots, the duchesses of Bedford
and Gloucester were made denizens, and mediators were ap-
pointed to reconcile the dukes of Gloucester and Burgundy,
by authority of the three estates assembled in Parliament.
Leave was given to the dukes of Bedford and Gloucester,
and others in the king's behalf, to treat of peace with
France, by both houses of Parliament, in pursuance of an ar-
ticle in the treaty of Troyes, that no treaty should be set on
foot with the dauphin without consent of the three estates
of both realms. This article was afterwards repealed.
Some complaints are made by the Commons, even during
the first years of Henry's minority, that the king's sub-
jects, underwent arbitrary imprisonment, and were vexed by
English Const. IMPEACHMENT OF MINISTERS. 487
summonses before the council and by the newly-invented
writ of subpoena out of chancery. But these are not so com-
mon as formerly; and so far as the rolls lead us to any in-
ference, there was less injustice committed by the govern-
ment under Henry VI. and his father than at any former pe-
riod. Wastefulness, indeed, might justly be imputed to the
regency, who had scandalously lavished the king's revenue.
This ultimately led to an act for resuming all grants since his
accession, founded upon a public declaration of the great of-
ficers of the crown that his debts amounted to £372,000,
and the annual expense of the household amounted to
£24,000, while the ordinary revenue was not more than
£5000.
6. Impeachment of Ministers. — But before this time the
sky had begun to darken, and discontent with the actual ad-
ministration pervaded every rank. The causes of this are
familiar — the unpopularity of the king's marriage with Mar-
garet of Anjou, and her impolitic violence in the conduct of
affairs, particularly the imputed murder of the-people's favor-
ite, the Duke of Gloucester. This provoked an attack upon
her own creature, the Duke of Suffolk. Impeachment had
lain still, like a sword in the scabbard, since the accession of
Henry IV. In Suffolk's case the Commons seem to have
proceeded by bill of attainder, or at least to have designed
the judgment against that minister to be the act of the
whole legislature; for they delivered a bill containing arti-
cles against him to the Lords, with a request that they would
pray the king's majesty to enact that bill in Parliament, and
that the said duke might be proceeded against upon the said
articles in Parliament according to the law and custom of
England. These articles contained charges of high treason,
chiefly relating to his conduct in France, which, whether
treasonable or not, seems to have been grossly against the
honor and advantage of the crown. At a later day the Com-
mons presented many other articles of misdemeanor. To
the former he made a defense, in presence of tb'^ king as well
as the Lords, both spiritual and temporal ; and indeed the
articles of impeachment were directly addressed to the king,
which gave him a reasonable pretext to interfere in the judg-
ment. But from apprehension, as it is said, that Suffolk
could not escape conviction upon at least some part of these
charges, Henry anticipated with no slight irregularity tho
course of legal trial, and, summoning the peers into a private
chamber, informed the Duke of Suffolk, by mouth of his chan-
cellor, that, inasmuch as he had not put himself upon his
488 PRIVILEGE OF PARLIAMENT. Chap. VIII. Part III.
peerage, but submitted wholly to the royal pleasure, the
king, acquitting him of the first articles containing matter of
treason, by his own advice and not that of the Lords, nor by
way of judgment, not being in a place where judgment,
could be delivered, banished him for five years from his
dominions. The lords then present besought the king to
let their protest appear on record, that neither they nor their
posterity might lose their rights of peerage by this prece-
dent. It was justly considered as an arbitrary stretch of
prerogative, in order to defeat the privileges of Parliament
and screen a favorite minister from punishment. But the
course of proceeding by bill of attainder instead of regular
impeachment was not judiciously chosen by the Commons.
Privilege of Parliament. — Privilege of Parliament, an ex-
tensive and singular branch of our constitutional law, be-
gins to attract attention under the Lancastrian princes. It
is true, indeed, that we can trace long before by records, and
may infer with probability as to times whose records have
not survived, one considerable immunity — a freedom from
arrest for persons transacting the king's business in his na-
tional council. But in those rude times members of Parlia-
ment were not always respected by the officers executing
legal process, and still less by the violators of law. After
several remonstrances, w^hich the crown had evaded, the
Commons obtained the statute 11 Henry VI.,c. ll,for the
punishment of such as assault any on their way to the Par-
liament, giving double damages to the party. They had
more difficulty in establishing, notwithstanding the old prec-
edents in their favor, an immunity from all criminal process
except in charges of treason, felony, and breach of the peace,
which is their present measure of privilege. The most cele-
brated, however, of these early cases of privilege is that of
Thomas Thorp, speaker of the Commons in 31 Henry VI.
This person, who was, moreover, a baron of the Exchequer,
had been imprisoned on an execution at suit of the Duke of
York. The Commons sent some of their members to com-
plain of a violation of privilege to the king and Lords in Par-
liament, and to demand Thorp's release. It was alleged by
the Duke of York's counsel that the trespass done by Thorp
was since the beginning of the Parliament, and the judgment
thereon given in time of vacation, and not during the sitting.
The Lords referred the question to the judges, who said,
after deliberation, that " they ought not to answer to that
question, for it hath not be used aforetyme that the judges
should in any wise determine the privilege of this high court
English Const. PRIVILEGE OF PARLIAMENT. 489
of Parliament ; for it is so high and so mighty in his nature
that it may make hiw, and that that is law it may make no
law ; and the determination and knowledge of that privilege
belongeth to the Lords of the Parliament, and not to the jus-
tices." They went on, however, after observing that a gen-
eral writ of supersedeas of all processes upon ground of priv-
ilege had not been known to say that, " if any person that
is a member of this high court of Parliament be an-ested in
such cases as be not for treason, or felony, or surety of the
peace, or for a condemnation had before the Parliament, it is
used that all such persons should be released of sucli arrests
and make an attorney, so that they may have their freedom
and liberty freely to intend upon the Parliament."
Notwithstanding this answer of the judges, it was con-
cluded by the Lords that Thorp should remain in prison, with-
out regarding the alleged privilege ; and the Commons were
directed in the king's name to proceed " with all goodly
haste and speed" to the election of a new speaker, vlt is
curious to observe that the Commons, forgetting their griev-
ances, or content to drop them, made such haste and speed
according to this command that they presented a new speak-
er for approbation the next day.
This case, as has been strongly said, was begotten by the
iniquity of the times. The state was verging fast towards
civil war ; and Thorp, who afterwards distinguished himself
for the Lancastrian cause, was an inveterate enemy of the
Duke of York. That prince seems to have been swayed a
little from his usual temper in procuring so unwarrantable
a determination. In the reign of Edward IV. the Commons
claimed privilege against any civil suit during the time of
their session ; but they had recourse, as before, to a particu-
lar act of Parliament to obtain a writ of supersedeas in favor
of one Atwell, a member, who had been sued. The present
law of privilege seems not to have been fully established, or
at least effectually maintained, before the reign of Henry
VIIL
No privilege of the Commons can be so fundamental as
liberty of speech. This is claimed at the opening of every
Parliament by their speaker, and could never be infringed
without shaking the ramparts of the constitution. Richard
.IL's attack upon Haxey has been already mentioned as a fla-
grant evidence of his despotic intentions. No other case oc-
curs until the 33d year of Henry VI., w^hen Thomas Young,
member for Bristol, complained to the Commons that, " for
matters by him showed in the house accustomed for the
21*
490 PRIVILEGE OF PARLIAMENT. Chap. VIIL Part III.
Commons in the said Parliaments, he was therefore taken,
arrested, and rigorously in open wise led to the Tower of
London, and there grievously in great duress long time im-
prisoned against the said freedom and liberty ;" with much
more to the like effect. The Commons transmitted this peti-
tion to the Lords, and the king " willed that the lords of his
council do and provide for the said suppliant as in their dis-
cretions shall be thought convenient and reasonable." This
imprisonment of Young, however, had happened six years
before, in consequence of a motion made by him that, the
king then having no issue, the Duke of York might be de-
clared heir-apparent to the crown. In the present session,
when the duke was protector, he thought it well-timed to
prefer his claim to remuneration.
There is a remarkable precedent in the 9th of Henry lY.,
and perhaps the earliest authority for two eminent maxims,
of Parliamentary law — that the Commons possess an exclu-
sive right of originating money bills, and that the king ought
not to take notice of matters pending in Parliament. A
quarrel broke out between the two houses upon this ground ;
and as Ave have not before seen the Commons venture to
clash openly with their superiors, the circumstance is for this
additional reason worthy of attention. As it has been little
noticed,! shall translate the whole record.^*
IS " Friday, the second day of December, which was the last day of the Parliameut,
the Commons came before the king and the Lords in Parliament, and there, by com-
mand of the king, a schedule of indemnity touching a certain altercation moved be-
tween the Lords and Commons was read ; and on this it was commanded by onrsaid
lord the king that the said schedule should be entered of record in the roll of Parlia-
ment ; of which schedule the tenor is as follows : Be it remembered, that on Mon-
day, the 21st day of November, the king our sovereign lord being in the council-
chamber in the abbey of Gloucester, the lords spiritual and temporal for this present
Parliament assembled being then in his presence, a debate took place among them
about the state of the kingdom, and its defense to resist the malice of the enemies
who on every side prepare to molest the said kingdom and its faithful subjects, and
how no man can resist this malice unless, for the safeguard and defense of his said
kingdom, our sovereign lord the king has some notable aid and subsidy granted to
him in his present Parliament. And therefore it was demanded of the said Lords by
way of question what aid would be sufficient and requisite in these circumstances?
To which question it was answered by the said Lords severally, that, considering the
necessity of the king on one side and the poverty of his people on the other, no less
aid could be sufficient than one-tenth and a half from cities and towns, and one-fif-
teenth and a half from all other lay persons ; and, besides, to grant a continuance of
the subsidy on wool, wool-fells, and leather, and of three shillings on the tun (of
wine), and twelve pence on the pound (of other merchandise), from Michaelmas
next ensuing for two years thenceforth. Whereupon, by command of our said lord
the king, a message was sent to the Commons of this Parliament to cause a certain .
number of their body to come before our said lord the king and the Lords, in order
to hear and report to their companions what they should be commanded by our said
lord the king. And upon this the said Commons sent into the presence of our said
lord the king and the said Lords twelve of their companions ; to whom, by command
of our said lord the king, the said question was declared, with the answer by the said
lords severally given to it. Which answer it was the pleasure of our said lord the
English Const. PRIVILEGE OF PARLIAMENT. 491
Every attentive reader will discover this remarkable pas-
sage to illustrate several points of constitutional law. For
hence it may be perceived — first, that the king was used in
those times, to be present at debates of the Lords, personal-
ly advising with them upon the public business ; which also
appears by many other passages on record ; and this prac-
tice, I conceive, is not abolished by the king's present dec-
laration, save as to grants of money, which ought to be of
the free-will of Parliament, and without that fear or influ-
ence which the presence of so high a person might create :
secondly, that it was already the established law of Parlia-
ment that the Lords should consent to the Commons' grant,
and not the Commons to the Lords' ; since it is the inversion
of this order whereof the Commons complain, and it is said
expressly that grants are made by the Commons, and agreed
to by the Lords : thirdly, that the lower house of Parliament
is not, in proper language, an estate of the realm, but rather
the image and representative of the Commons ot England ;
who, being the third estate, with the nobility and clergy
make up and constitute the people of this kingdom and liege
subjects of the crown. ^"
king that they should report to the rest of their fellow?, to the end that they might
take the shortest course to comply with the intention of the siiid Lords. Which re-
port being thus made to the said commons, they were greatly disturbed at it, saying
and asserting it to be much to the prejudice and derogation of their liberties. And
after that our said lord the king had heard this, not willing that any thing should be
done at present, or in time to come, that might anywise turn against the liberty of
the estate for which they are come to Parliament, nor against the liberties of the
said Lords, wills and grants and declares, by the advice and consent of the said Lords,
as follows : to wit, that it shall be lawful for the Lords to debate together in this pres-
ent Parliament, and in every other for time to come, in the king's absence, concern-
ing the condition of the kingdom, and the remedies necessary for it. And in like
manner it shall be lawful for the Commons, on their part, to debate together concern-
ing the said condition and remedies. Provided always that neither the Lords on their
part, nor the Cxjmmons on theirs, do make any report to our said lord the king of any
grant granted by the Commons, and agreed to by the Lords, nor of the communica-
tions of the said grant, before that the said Lords and Commons are of one accord
and agreement in this matter, and then in manner and form accustomed— that is to
say, by the mouth of the speaker of the said Commons for the time being— to the end
that the said Lords and Commons may have what they desire (avoir puissent leur gree)
of our said lord the king. Our said lord the king willing, moreover, by the consent
of the said Lords, that the communication had in this present Parliament as above be
not drawn into precedent in time to come, nor be turned to the prejudice or deroga-
tion of the liberty of the estate for which the said Commons are now come, neither in
this present Parliament nor in any other time to come. But wills that himself and
all the other estates should be as free as they were before. Also, the said last day of
Parliament, the said speaker prayed our said lord the king, on the part of the said
Commons, that he would grant the said Commons that they should depart in as great
liberty as other Commons had done before. To which the king answered that this
pleased him well, and that at all times it had been his desire."
i« A notion is entertained by many people, and not without the authority of some
very respectable names, that the king is one of the three estates of the realm, the
lords spiritual and temporal forming together the second, as the Commons in Parlia-
ment do the third. This is contradicted by the general tenor of our ancient records
492 RIGHT OF VOTING FOR KNIGHTS. Chap. VIII. Part III
It was not only in money bills that the originating power
was supposed to reside in the Commons. The course of pro-
ceedings in Parliament, as has been seen, from the commence-
ment at least of Edward III.'s reign, was that the Commons
presented petitions, which the Lords by themselves, or with
the assistance of the council, having duly considered, the
sanction of the king was notified or withheld. This was so
much according to usage, that on one occasion, when the
Commons requested the advice of the other house on a mat-
ter before them, it was answered that the ancient custom
and form of Parliament had ever been for the Commons to
report their own opinion to the king and Lords, and not to
The contrary; and the king would have the ancient and laud-
able usages of Parliament maintained. It is singular that,
m the terror of innovation, the Lords did not discover how
materially this usage of Parliament took off from their own
legislative influence. The rule, however, was not observed in
succeeding times ; bills originated indiscriminately in either
house; and indeed some acts of Henry V., which do not ap-
pear to be grounded on any petition, may be suspected, from
the manner of their insertion in the rolls of Parliament, to
have been proposed on the king's part to the Commons.
§17. Whoever may have been the original voters for
county representatives, the first statute that regulates their
election, so far from limiting the privilege to tenants in cap-
ite, appears to place it upon a very large and democratical
foundation. For (as I rather conceive, though not without
much hesitation) not only all freeholders, but all persons
whatever present at the County Court, were declared, or
rendered, capable of voting for the knight of their shire.
Such at least seems to be the inference from the expressions
of 7 Henry IV., c. 15, "all who are there present, as well suit-
ors duly summoned for that cause as others." And this ac-
quires some degree of confirmation from the later statute,
8 Henry VI., c. 7, which, reciting that "elections of knights
of shires have now of late been made by very great, outra-
geous, and excessive number of people dwelling within the
same counties, of the which most part was people of small
substance and of no value," confines the elective franchise
to freeholders of lands or tenements to the value of forty
shillings.
and law-books ; and indeed the analogy of other governments ought to have the
greatest weight, even if more reason for doubt appeared upon the face of our own
authorities. But the instances where the three estates are declared or implied to
be the nobility, clergy, and commons, or at least their representatives in Parliament,
are too numerous for insertion.
English Const. ELECTION OF BURGESSES. 493
The representation of towns in Parliament was founded
upon two principles — of consent to public burdens, and of
advice in public measures, especially such as related to trade
and shipping. Upon both these accounts it was natural for
the kings who first summoned them to Parliament, little fore-
seeing that such half-emancipated burghers would ever clip
the loftiest plumes of their prerogative, to make these as-
semblies numerous, and summon members from every town
of consideration in the kingdom. Thus the writ of 23 Ed-
ward I. directs the sheriffs to cause deputies to be elected
to a general council from every city, borough, and trading-
town. And although the last words are omitted in subse-
quent writs, yet their spirit was preserved ; many towns
having constantly returned members to Parliament by reg-
ular summonses from the sheriffs, which were no chartered
boroughs, nor had apparently any other claim than their
populousness or commerce. These are now called boroughs
by prescription.*^
Besides these respectable towns, there were some of a less
eminent figure which had writs directed to them as ancient
demesnes of the crown. During times of arbitrary taxation
the crown had set tallages alike upon its chartered boroughs
and upon its tenants in demesne. When Parliamentary con-
sent became indispensable, the free tenants in ancient de-
mesne, or rather such of them as inhabited some particular
vills, were called to Parliament among the other representa-
tives of the Commons. They are usually specified distinctly
from the other classes of representatives in grants of subsi-
dies throughout the Parliaments of the first and second Ed-
wards, till, about the beginning of the third's reign, they
were confounded with ordinary burgesses. This is the foun-
dation of that particular species of elective franchise incident
to what we denominate burgage tenure ; which, however, is
not confined to the ancient demesne of the crown.
The proper constituents, therefore, of the citizens and bur-
gesses in Parliament appear to have been — 1. All chartered
boroughs, whether they derived their privileges from the
crown or from a mesne lord, as several in Cornwall did from
Richard, king of the Romans ; 2. All towns which were the
ancient or the actual demesne of the crow^n ; 3. All consid-
erable places, though unincorporated, which could afford to
defray the expenses of their representatives, and had a nota-
ble interest in the public welfare. But no Parliament ever
»' The majority of prescriptive boroughs have prescriptive corporations which carry
the legal, which is not always the moral, presumption of an original charter.
494 POWER OF SHERIFF. Chap. VIII. Part III.
perfectly corresponded with this theory. The writ was ad-
dressed ill general terms to the sheriff, requiring him to
cause two knights to be elected out of the body of the
county, two citizens from every city, and two burgesses
from every borough. It rested altogether upon him to de-
termine what towns should exercise this franchise; and it is
really incredible, with all the carelessness and ignorance of
those times, what frauds the sheriffs ventured to commit in
executing this trust. Though Parliaments met almost every
year, and there could be no mistake in so notorious a fact,
it was the continual yjractice of sheriffs to omit boroughs
that had been in recent habit of electing members, and to
return upon the writ that there were no more within their
county. Thus in the 1 2th of Edward III. the Sheriff of Wilt-
shire, after returning two citizens for Salisbury, and burgesses
for two boroughs, concludes with these words: "There are no
other cities or boroughs within my bailiwick." Yet, in fact,
eight other towns had sent members to preceding Parlia-
ments. So in the 6th of Edward II. the Sheriff of Bucks
declared that he had no borough within his county except
Wicomb; though Wendover, Agmondeshain, and Marlow
had twice made returns since that king's accession. And
from this cause alone it has happened that many towns
called boroughs, and having a charter and constitution as
such, never returned members to Parliament ; some of which
are now among the most considerable in England — as Leeds,
Birmingham, and Macclesfield.
It has been suggested, indeed, that these returns may not
appear so false and collusive if we suppose the sheriff to
mean only that there were no resident burgesses within these
boroughs fit to be returned, or that the expense of their
Avages would be too heavy for the place to support. And
no doubt the latter plea, whether implied or not in the re-
turn, was very frequently an inducement to the sheriffs to
spare the smaller boroughs. The wages of knights were four
shillings a day, levied on all freeholders, or at least on all
holding by knight-service, within the county. Those of
burgesses were half that sum ;"* but even this pittance was
^8 The wages of knights and bnrgesses were first rednced to this certain snm by
the writs De levandis expensis, 10 Edward II. These were issued at the request of
those who had served, after the dissolution of Parliament, and included a certain
number of days, according to the distance of the county whence they came, forgoing
and returning. It appears by these that thirty-live or forty miles were reckoned a
day's journey ; which may correct the exaggerated notions of bad roads and tardy
locomotion that are sometimes entertained.
The latest entries of writs for expenses in the close rolls are of 2 Henry V. ; bnt
they may be proved to have issued much longer ; and Prynne traces them to the end
English Const. ELECTORS IN BOROUGHS. 495
raised with reluctance and difficulty from miserable burghers
little solicitous about political franchises. Poverty, indeed,
seems to have been accepted as a legal excuse.
The elective franchise was deemed by the boroughs no
privilege or blessing, but rather, during the chief part of
this period, an intolerable grievance. Where they could not
persuade the sheriff to omit sending his writ to them they
set it at defiance by sending no return. And this seldom
failed to succeed, so that, after one or two refusals to comply,
which brought no punishment upon them, they were left in
quiet enjoyment of their insignificance.
The partiality of sheriffs in leaving out boroughs, which
w^ere accustomed in old time to come to the Parliament, was
repressed, as far as law could repress it, by a statute of
Richard IL, which imposed a fine on them for such neglect,
and upon any member of Parliament who should absent him-
self from his duty. But it is, I think, highly probable that a
great part of those who were elected from the boroughs did
not trouble themselves with attendance in Parliament. The
sheriff even found it necessary to take sureties for their exe-
cution of so burdensome a duty, whose names it was usual,
down to the end of the fifteenth century, to indorse upon the
writ along with those of the elected. This expedient is not
likely to have been very successful, and the statute of Rich-
ard 11. produced no sensible effect.
By what persons the election of burgesses w*as usually made
is a question of great obscurity. It appears to have been the
common practice for a very few of the principal members of
the corporation to make the election in the County Court,
and their names, as actual electors, are generally returned
upon the writ by the sheriff. But we can not surely be war-
ranted by this to infer that they acted in any other capacity
than as deputies of the whole body, and indeed it is frequent-
ly expressed that they chose such and such persons by the
assent of the community ; by which word, in an ancient cor-
porate borough, it seems natural to understand the freemen
participating in its general franchises, rather than the ruling
body, which, in many instances at present, and always per-
haps in the earliest age of corporations, derived its authority
by delegation from the rest. The consent, however, of the
inferior freemen we may easily believe to have been merely
of Henry VIIL's reign, p. 547. Withonh the formality of this writ a very few instances
of towns remunerating their bnrgesses for attendance in Parliament are known to
have occurred in later times. Andrew Marvel is commonly said to have been the
last who received this honorable salary.
496 MEMBERS OF THE COMMONS. Chap. VIII. Part III.
nominal ; and, from being nominal, it would in many places
come by degrees not to be required at all — the corporation,
specially so denominated, or municipal government, acquiring
iby length of usage an exclusive privilege in election of mem-
bers of Parliament, as they did in local administration. This,
at least, appears to me a more probable hypothesis than that
of Dr. Brady, who limits the original right of election in all
corporate boroughs to the aldermen or other capital bur-
gesses.^^
The members of the House of Commons, from this occa-
sional disuse of ancient boroughs as well as from the creation
of new ones, underwent some fluctuation during the period
subject to our review. Two hundred citizens and burgesses
sat in the Parliament held by Edward I. in his twenty-third
year, the earliest epoch of acknowledged representation.
But in the reigns of Edward III. and his three successors
about ninety places, on an average, returned members, so that
we may reckon this part of the C/ommons at one hundred and
eighty. These, if regular in their duties, might appear an
overbalance for the seventy-four knights who sat with them.
But the dignity of ancient lineage, territorial wealth, and
military character, in times when the feudal spirit was hard-
ly extinct and that of chivalry at its height, made these
burghers veil their heads to the landed aristocracy. It is
pretty manifest that the knights, though doubtless with some
support from the representatives of towns, sustained the
chief brunt of battle against the crown. The rule and in-
tention of our old constitution was, that each county, city, or
borough should elect deputies out of its own body, resident
among themselves, and consequently acquainted with their
necessities and grievances. It would be very interesting to
discover at what time, and by what degrees, the practice of
election swerved from this strictness. But I have not been
able to trace many steps of the transition. The number of
practising lawyers who sat in Parliament, of which there ai"e
several complaints, seems to aftbrd an inference that it had
begun in the reign of Edward III. Besides several petitions
of the commons that none but knights or reputable squires
should be returned for shires, an ordinance was made in the
forty-sixth of his reign that no lawyer practising in the King's
Court, nor sheriff during his shrievalty, be returned knight
for a county, because these lawyers put forward many peti-
tions in the name of the Commons which only concerned their
clients. This, probably, was truly alleged, as we may guess
>» Brady on Borough?, p. 132, etc.
English Coxst. MEMBERS OF THE COMMONS. 497
from the vast number of proposals for changing the course
of legal process which fill the rolls during this reign. It is
not to be doubted, however, that many practising lawyers
were men of landed estate in their respective counties.
An act in the first year of Henry V. directs that none be
chosen knights, citizens, or burgesses who are not resident
within the place for which they are returned on the day of
the date of the writ. This statute apparently indicates a
point of time when the deviation from the line of law was
frequent enough to attract notice, and yet not so established
as to pass for an unavoidable irregularit}^ Even at the time
when it was enacted, the law had probably, as such, very
little effect. But still the plurality of elections were made
according to ancient usage, as well as statute, out of the con-
stituent body. The contrary instances were exceptions to
the rule, but exceptions increasing continually till they sub-
verted the rule itself Prynne has remarked that we chiefly
find Cornish surnames among the representatives of Corn-
wall, and those of Northern families among the returns from
the North. Nor do the members for shires and towns seem
to have been much interchanged — the names of the former
belonging to the most ancient families, while those of the lat-
ter have a more plebeian caste. In the reign of Edward IV.,
and not before, a very few of the burgesses bear the addition
of esquire in the returns, which became universal in the mid-
dle of the succeeding century.
Even county elections seem in general, at least in the four-
teenth century, to have been ill attended, and left to the in-
fluence of a few powerful and active persons. A petitioner
against an undue return, in the 12th of Edward II., complains
that, whereas he had been chosen knight for Devon by Sir
William Martin, bishop of Exeter, with the consent of the
county, yet the sherifl* had returned another. In several in-
dentures of a much kter date a few persons only seem to have
been concerned in the election, though the assent of the com-
munity be expressed. These irregularities, which it would be
exceedingly erroneous to convert, with Hume, into law^ful cus-
toms, resulted from the abuses of the sherifl*'s power, which,
when Parliament sat only for a few weeks, with its hands full
of business, were almost sure to escape wdth impunity. They
were sometimes, also, countenanced, or rather instigated, by
the crown, which, having recovered in Edward II.'s reign the
prerogative of naming the sheriff's, surrendered by an act of
his father, filled that office with its creatures, and constantly
disregarded the statute forbidding their continuance beyond a
498 HOUSE OF LORDS. Chap. VIII. Part III.
year. Without searching for every passage that might illus-
trate the interference of the crown in elections, I will mention
one or two leading instances. When Richard II. was medi-
tating to overturn the famous commission of reform, he sent
for some of the sheriffs, and required them to permit no knight
or burgess to be elected to the next Parliament without the
approbation of the king and his council. The sheriffs replied
that the commons would maintain their ancient privilege of
electing their own representatives. The Parliament of 1397,
which attainted his enemies and left the constitution at his
mercy, was chosen, as we are told, by dint of intimidation and
influence.
§ 1 8. The House of Lords, as we left it in the reign of Hen-
ry HI., was entirely composed of such persons holding lands
by barony as were summoned by particular writ of Parlia-
ment. Tenure and summons were both essential at this time
in order to render any one a lord of Parliament — the first, by
the ancient constitution of our feudal monarchy from the Con-
quest; the second, by some regulation or usage of doubtful
origin, which was thoroughl}'^ established before the conclu-
sion of Henry IIL's reign. This produced, of course, a very
marked difference between the greater and the lesser, or un-
parliamentary barons. The tenure of the latter, however, still
subsisted ; and, though too inconsiderable to be members of
the legislature, they paid relief as barons, they might be chal-
lenged on juries, and, as I presume, by parity of reasoning,
were entitled to trial b}'- their peerage. These lower barons,
or more commonly tenants by parcels of baronies,'^" may be
dimly traced to the latter years of Edward IH. But many of
them were successively summoned to Parliament, and thus
recovered the former lustre of their rank, while the rest fell
gradually into the station of commoners, as tenants by simple
knight-service.
As tenure without summons did not entitle any one to the
privileges of a Lord of Parliament, so no spiritual person at
least ought to have been summoned without baronial tenure.
Great irregularities prevailed in the rolls of Chancery, from
which the writs to spiritual and temporal peers were taken
— arising in part, perhaps, from negligence, in part from will-
ful perversion ; so that many abbots and priors, who had no
baronial tenure, were summoned at times and subsequently
20 Baronies were often divided by descent among females into many parts, each
retaining its character as a fractional member of a barony. The tenants in such
case were said to hold of the king by the third, fourth, or twentieth part of a barony,
and did service or paid relief in such proportion.
English Const. TENURE OF LORDS SPIRITUAL. 499
omitted, of whose actual exemption we have no record. Out
of 122 abbots and 41 priors who at some time or other sat
in Parliament, but twenty-five of the former and two of the
latter were constantly summoned ; the names of forty occur
only once, and those of thirty-six others not more than five
times. Their want of baronial tenure, in all probability, pre-
vented the repetition of writs which accident or occasion had
caused to issue."
The ancient temporal peers are supposed to have been in-
termingled with persons who held nothing of the crown by
barony, but attended in Parliament solely by virtue of the
king's prerogative exercised in the writ of summons. These
have been called Barons by Writ; and it seems to be denied
by no one that, at least under the first three Edwards, there
were some of this description in Parliament. But, after all
the labors of Dugdale and others in tracing the genealogies
of our ancient aristocracy, it is a problem of much difficulty
to distinguish these from the territorial barons. As the lat-
ter honors descended to female heirs, they passed into new
families and new names, so that we can hardly decide of one
summoned for the first time to Parliament that he did not
inherit the possession of a feudal barony. Husbands of ba-
ronial heiresses were frequently summoned in their wives'
right, but by their own names. They even sat after the
death of their wives, as tenants by the courtesy. If we
judge, however, by the lists of those summoned, according
to the best means in our power, it will appear that the regu-
lar barons by tenure were all along very far more numerous
than those called by writ ; and that from the end of Edward
III.'s reign no spiritual persons, and few if any laymen, ex-
cept peers created by patent, were summoned to Parliament
who did not hold territorial baronies.
With respect to those who were indebted for their seats
among the Lords to the king's writ, there are two material
questions — whether they acquired an hereditary nobility by
virtue of the writ ; and, if this be determined against them,
whether they had a decisive or merely a deliberative voice
in the house. Now, for the first question, it seems that, if
the writ of summons conferred an estate of inheritance, it
9» It is worthy of observation that the spiritual peers summoned to Parliament
'vere in general considerably more numerous than the temporal. This appears,
among other causes, to have saved the Church from that sweeping reformation of its
wealth, and perhaps of its doctrines, which the Commons were thoroughly inclined
to make under Richard II. and Henry IV. Thus the reduction of the spiritual lords
by the dissolution of monasteries was indispensably required to bring the ecclesias-
tical order into due subjection to the state.
500 BARONS CALLED BY WRIT. Chap. VIII. Part III.
must have done so either by virtue of its terms or by estab-
lished construction and precedent. But the writ contains
no words by which such an estate can in law be limited ; it
summons the person addressed to attend in Parliament in
order to give his advice on the public business, but by no
means implies that his advice will be required of his heirs, or
even of himself, on any other occasion. We find that no less
than ninety-eight laymen were summoned once only to Par-
liament, none of their names occurring afterwards ; and fifty
others two, three, or four times. Some were constantly sum-
moned during their lives, none of whose posterity ever at-
tained that honor. The course of proceeding, therefore, pre-
vious to the accession of Henry VIL, by no means warrants
the doctrine which was held in the latter end of Elizabeth's
reign, and has since been too fully established by repeated
precedents to be shaken by any reasoning. The foregoing
observations relate to the more ancient history of our consti-
tution, and to the plain matter-of-fact as to those times, with-
out considering what political cause there might be to pre-
vent the crown from introducing occasional counsellors into
the House of Lords.
It is manifest by many passages in these records that ban-
nerets were frequently summoned to the upper house of Par-
liament, constituting a distinct class inferior to barons, though
generally named together, and ultimately confounded with
them. Barons are distinguished by the appellation of Sire ;
bannerets have only that of Monsieur, as le Sire de Berke-
ley, le Sire de Fitzwalter, Monsieur Richard Scrop, Monsieur
Richard Stafford. The distinction, however, between barons
and bannerets died away by degrees. In the second of Hen-
ry VI., Scrop of Bolton is called le Sire de Scrop — a proof that
he was then reckoned among the barons. The bannerets do
not often appear afterwards by that appellation as members
of the upper house. Bannerets, or, as they are called, ban-
rents, are enumerated among the orders of Scottish nobility
in the year 1428, when the statute directing the common
lairds or tenants in capite to send representatives was enact-
ed ; and a modern historian justly calls them an intermedi-
ate order between the peers and lairds. Perhaps a consider-
ation of these facts, which have frequently been overlooked,
may tend in some measure to explain the occasional discon-
tinuance, or sometimes the entire cessation, of writs of sum-
mons to an individual or his descendants ; since we may con-
ceive that bannerets, being of a dignity much inferior to tiiat
of barons, had ho such inheritable nobility in their blood as
English Const. BANNERETS IN THE LORDS. 601
rendered their Parliamentary privileges a matter of right.
But whether all those who without any baronial tenure re-
ceived their writs of summons to Parliament belonged to the
order of bannerets, I can not pretend to affirm ; though some
passages in the rolls might rather lead to such a supposition.
The second question relates to the right of suffrage pos-
sessed by these temporary members of the upper house. It
might seem plausible, certainly, to conceive that the real and
ancient aristocracy would not permit their powers to be im-
paired by numbering the votes of such as the king might
please to send among them, however they might allow them
to assist in their debates. But I am much more inclined to
suppose that they were in all respects on an equality with
other peers during their actual attendance in Parliament.
For, 1. They are summoned by the same writ as the rest, and
their names are confused among them in the lists ; whereas
the judges and ordinary counsellors are called by a separate
writ, vobiscum et cgeteris de consilio nostro, and their names
are entered after those of the peers. 2. Some, who do not
appear to have held land baronies, were constantly summon-
ed from father to son, and thus became hereditary lords of
Parliament through a sort of prescrijjtive right, which prob-
ably was the foundation of extending the same privilege af-
terwards to the descendants of all who had once been sum-
moned. There is no evidence that the family of Scrope, for
example, which was eminent under Edward III. and subse-
quent kings, and gave rise to two branches, the lords of
Bolton and Masham, inherited any territorial honor. 3. It
is very difficult to obtain any direct proof as to the right of
voting, because the rolls of Parliament do not take notice of
any debates ; but there happens to exist one remarkable pas-
sage in which the suffrages of the Lords are individually
specified."
22 In the first Parliament of Henry IV, the Lords were requested by the Earl of North-
nmberland to declare what should be done with the late King Richard. The lords
then present agreed that he should be detained in safe custody; and on account of
the importance of this matter it seems to have been thought necessary to enter their
names upon the roll in these words: The names of the lords concurring in their
answer to the said question here follow ; to wit, the Archbishop of Canterbury and
fourteen other bishops; seven abbots; the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and
six earls ; nineteen barons, styled thus— le Sire de Roos, or le Sire de Grey de Ruthyu.
Thus far the entry has nothing singular ; but then follow these nine names : Mon-
sieur Henry Percy, Monsieur Richard Scrop, le Site Fitz-hngh, le Sire de Bergeveny,
le Sire de Lomley, le Baron de Greystock, le Baron de Hilton, Monsieur Thomas
Erpyngham, chamberlayu. Monsieur Mayhew Gournay. Of these nine five were un-
doubtedly barons, from whatever cause misplaced in order. Scrop was summoned
by writ ; but his title of Monsieur, by which he is invariably denominated, would of
itself create a strong suspicion that he was no baron, and in another place we find
him reckoned among the bannerets. The other three do not appear to have been
502 CREATION OF PEERS. Chap. VIII. Pabt III.
§ 19. The next method of conferring an honor of peerage
was by creation in Parliament. This was adopted by Ed-
ward III. in several instances, though always, I believe, for
the higher titles of duke or earl. It is laid down by lawyers
that whatever the king is said in an ancient record to have
done in full Parliament must be taken to have proceeded
from the whole legislature. As a question of fact, indeed, it
might be doubted whether, in many proceedings where this
expression is used, and especially in the creation of peers, the
assent of the Commons was specifically and deliberately given.
It seems hardly consonant to the circumstances of their or-
der under Edward III. to suppose their sanction necessary
in what seemed so little to concern their interest. Yet there
is an instance in the fortieth year of that prince where the
Lords individually, and the Commons with one voice, are
declared to have consented, at the king's request, that the
Lord de Coucy, who had married his daughter, and was al-
ready possessed of estates in England, might be raised to the
dignity of an earl, whenever the king should determine what
earldom he would confer upon him. Under Richard II. the
marquisate of Dublin is granted to Vere by full consent of
all the estates. But this instrument, besides the unusual
name of dignity, contained an extensive jurisdiction and au-
thority over Ireland. In the same reign Lancaster was made
Duke of Guienne, and the Duke of York's son created Earl
of Rutland, to hold during his father's life. The consent of
the Lords and Commons is expressed in their patents, and
they are entered upon the roll of Parliament. Henry V. cre-
ated his brothers dukes of Bedford and Gloucester, by re-
quest of the Lords and Commons, But the patent of Sir John
Cornwall, in the tenth of Henry VI,, declares him to be made
Lord Fanhope " by consent of the Lords, in the presence of
the three estates of Parliament ;" as if it were designed to
show that the Commons had not a legislative voice in the
creation of peers.
§ 20. The mention I have made of creating peers by act
of Parliament has partly anticipated the modern form of let-
ters patent, with which the other was nearly allied. The first
instance of a barony conferred by patent was in the tenth
snmmoned, their writs probably being lost. One of them, Sir Thomas Erpyngham,
a statesman well known in the history of those times, is said to have been a ban-
neret ; certainly he was not a baron. It is not unlikely that the two others, Henry
Percy (Hotspur) and Gournay, an officer of the household, were also bannerets ; they
can not, at least, be supposed to be barons, neither were they ever summoned to any
subsequent Parliament. Yet in the only record we possess of votes actually givcu
iu the House of Lords they appear to have been reckoned among the rest.
English Const. CLERGY TO ATTEND PARLIAMENT. 503
year of Richard II., when Sir John Holt, a judge of the Com-
mon Pleas, was created Lord Beaucharap, of Kidderminster.
Holt's patent, however, passed while Richard was endeavor-
ing to act in an arbitrary manner ; and in fact he never sat
in Parliament, having been attainted in that of the next year
by the name of Sir John Holt. In a number of subsequent
patents, down to the reign of Henry VII., the assent of Par-
liament is expressed, though it frequently happens that no
mention of it occurs in the Parliamentary roll. And in some
instances the roll speaks to the consent of Parliament where
the patent itself is silent.
§ 21. It is now, perhaps, scarcely known by many persons
not unversed in the constitution of their country that, be-
sides the bishops and baronial abbots, the inferior clergy were
regularly summoned at every Parliament. In the writ of
summons to a bishop he is still directed to cause the dean
of his cathedral church, the archdeacon of his diocese, with
one proctor from the chapter of the former, and two from the
body of his clergy, to attend with him at the place of meet-
ing. This might by an inobservant reader be confounded
with the summons to the convocation, which is composed
of the same constituent parts, and by modern usage is made
to assemble on the same day. But it may easily be distin-
guished by this difference — that the convocation is provin-
cial, and summoned by the metropolitans of Canterbury and
York ; whereas the clause commonly denominated lyrmynu-
nientes (from its first woi'd) in the writ to each bishop pro-
ceeds from the crown, and enjoins the attendance of the cler-
gy at the national council of Parliament.
The first unequivocal instance of representatives appear-
ing for the lower clergy is in the year 1255, when they are
expressly named by the author of the Annals of Burton.
They preceded, therefore, by a few years the House of Com-
mons ; but the introduction of each was founded upon the
same principle. The king required the clergy's money, but
dared not take it without their consent. In the double Par-
liament, if so we may call it, summoned in the 11th of Ed-
ward I., to meet at Northampton and York, and divided ac-
cording to the two ecclesiastical provinces, the proctors of
chapters for each province, but not those of the diocesan
clergy, were summoned through a royal writ addressed to
the archbishops. Upon account of the absence of any depu-
ties from the lower clergy, these assemblies refused to grant
a subsidy. The proctors of both descriptions appear to have
been summoned by the prtcmunientes clause in the 22d, 23d,
604 CLERGY TO ATTEND PARLIAMENT. Ch. VIII. Pt. III.
24tb, 28th, and 35th years of the same king; but in some other
Parliaments of his reign the prtemunientes clause is omitted.
The same irregularity continued under his successor ; and the
constant usage of inserting this clause in the bishop's writ is
dated from the 28th of Edward III.
It is highly probable that Edward I., whose legislative
mind was engaged in modelling the constitution on a com-
prehensive scheme, designed to make the clergy an effective
branch ofParliament, however their continual resistance may
have defeated the accomplishment of this intention. We find
an entry upon the roll of his Parliament at Carlisle, contain-
ing a list of all the proctors deputed to it by the several dio-
ceses of the kingdom. This may be reckoned a clear proof
of their Parliamentary attendance during his reign under the
prsemunientes clause; since the province of Canterbury could
not have been present in convocation at a city beyond its
limits. And, indeed, if w^e were to found our judgment mere-
ly on the language used in these writs, it would be hard to
resist a very strange paradox, that the clergy were not only
one of the three estates of the realm, but as essential a mem-
ber of the legislature by their ivpresentatives as the Com-
mons." They are summoned in the earliest year extant (23
Edward I.) "ad tractandum, oidmandum et faciendum nobis-
cum, et cum ca?teris praelatis, proceribus, ac aliis incolis regni
nostri;" in that of the next year, "ad ordinandum de quan-
titate et modo siibsidii ;" in that of the twenty-eighth, " ad
faciendum et consentiendum his, qua? tunc de communi con-
silio ordinari contigerit." In later times it ran sometimes
"ad faciendum et consentiendum," sometimes only ad con-
sentiendum ; which, from the fifth of Richard II., has been
the term invariably adopted. Now, as it is usual to infer
from the same words, when introduced into the writs for elec-
tion of the Commons, that they possessed an enacting power,
implied in the words ad faciendum, or at least to deduce the
necessity of their assent from the words ad consentiendum,
it should seem to follow that the clergy were invested, as a
branch of the Parliament, with rights no less extensive. It
'• The lower house of convocation in 1547, terrified at the progress of reformation,
petitioned that, " according to the tenor of the king's writ, and the ancient customs
of the realm, they might have room and place and be associated with the Commons
in the nether house of this present Parliament, as members of the commonwealth
and the king's most humble subjects."— Burnet's Hist, of Reformation, vol. ii. ; Ap-
pendix, No. IT. This assertion that the clergy had ever been associated as one body
with the Commons is not borne out by any thing that appears on our records, and is
contradicted by many passages. But it is said that the clergy were actually so united
with the Commons in the Irish Parliament till the Reformation.— Gilbert's Hist, of
the Exchequer, p. 57.
English Const. CLERGY TO ATTEND PARLIAMENT, 505
is to be considered how we can reconcile these apparent at-
tributes of political power with the unquestionable facts that
almost all laws, even while they continued to attend, were
passed without their concurrence, and that, after some time,
they ceased altogether to comply with the writ.'^*
The solution of this difficulty can only be found in that
estrangement from the common law and the temporal courts
which the clergy throughout Europe were disposed to effect.
In this country their ambition defeated its own ends; and
while they endeavored by privileges and immunities to sep-
arate themselves from the people, they did not perceive that
the line of demarkation thus strongly traced would cut them
off from the sympathy of common interests. Every thing
which they could call of ecclesiastical cognizance was drawn
into their own courts; while the administration of what they
contemned as a barbarous system, the temporal law of the
land, fell into the hands of lay judges. But these were men
not less subtle, not less ambitious, not less attached to their
profession than themselves; and wielding, as they did in the
courts of Westminster, the delegated sceptre of judicial sov-
ereignty, they soon began to control the spiritual jurisdic-
tion, and to establish the inherent supremacy of the comnion
law. From this time an inveterate animosity subsisted be-
tween the two courts, the vestiges of which have only been
effaced by the liberal wisdom of modern ages. The general
love of the common law, however, with the great weight of
its professors in the king's council and in Parliament, kept
the clergy in surprising subjection. None of our kings after
Henry III. were bigots ; and the constant tone of the Com-
mons serves to show that the English nation was thorough-
ly averse to ecclesiastical influence, whether of their own
Church or the See of Rome.
It was natural, therefore, to withstand the interference of
the clergy summoned to Parliament in legislation, as much
as that of the spiritual court in temporal jurisdiction. With
the ordinary subjects, indeed, of legislation they had little
concern. The oppressions of the king's purveyors, or escheat-
ors, or officers of the forests, the abuses or defects of the
common laws, the regulations necessary for trading-towns
and sea-ports, were matters that touched them not, and to
which their consent was never required. And, as they w^ell
2* The prjemunientes clause in a bishop's writ of summons was so far regarded
down to the Reformation, that proctors were elected, and their names returned
upon the writ ; though the clergy never attended from tlie beginning of the fifteenth
certury, and gave their money only in convocation. Since the Reformation the
clanse has been preserved for form merely in the writ.
22
606 CLERGY TO ATTEND PARLIAMENT. Ch. VIII. Pt. III.
knew there was no design in summoning their attendance
but to obtain money, it was with great reluctance that they
obeyed the royal writ, which was generally obliged to be en-
forced by an archiepiscopal mandate. Thus, instead of an
assembly of deputies from an estate of the realm, they be-
came a synod or convocation. And it seems probable that
in most, if not all, instances where the clergy are said in the
roll of Parliament to have presented their petitions, or are
otherwise mentioned as a deliberative body, we should sup-
pose the convocation alone of the province of Canterbury to
be intended. For that of York seems to have been always
considered as inferior, and even ancillary, to the greater
province, voting subsidies, and even assenting to canons, with-
out deliberation, in compliance with the example of Canter-
bury ; the convocation of which province consequently as-
sumed the importance of a national council. But in either
point of view the proceedings of this ecclesiastical assembly,
collateral in a certain sense to Parliament, yet very intimate-
ly connected with it, whether sitting by virtue of the prae-
munientes clause or otherwise, deserve some notice in a con-
stitutional history.
In the sixth year of Edward III. the proctoi-s of the clergy
are specially mentioned as present at the speech pronounced
by the king's commissioner, and retired, along with the prel-
ates, to consult together upon the business submitted to their
deliberation. They proposed, accordingly, a sentence of ex-
communication against disturbers of the peace, which was
assented to by the Lords and Commons. The clergy are
said afterwards to have had leave, as well as the knights,
citizens, and burgesses, to return to their homes, the prel-
ates and peers continuing with the king. This appearance
of the clergy in full Parliament is not, perhaps, so decisively
proved by any later record. But in the eighteenth of the
same reign several petitions of the clergy are granted by the
king and his council, entered on the roll of Parliament, and
even the statute roll, and in some respects are still part of
our law. To these it seems highly probable that the Com-
mons gave no assent ; and they may be reckoned among the
other infringements of their legislative rights. It is remarka-
ble that in the same Parliament the Commons, a^ if appre-
hensive of what was in preparation, besought the king that
no petition of the clergy might be granted till he and his
council should have considered whether it would turn to the
prejudice of the Lords or Commons.
in the fii-st session of Richard IL the prelates and clergy
English CoxNst. JUKISDICTION OF KING'S COUNCIL. 507
of both provinces are said to have presented their schedule
of petitions whicli appear upon the roll, and three of which
are the foundation of statutes unassented to in all probability
by the Commons. If the clergy of both provinces were act-
ually present, as is here asserted, it must of course have been
as a House of Parliament, and not of convocation. It rather
seems, so far as we can trust to the phraseology of records,
that the clergy sat also in a national assembly under the
king's writ in the second year of the same king. Upon other
occasions during the same reign, where the representatives
of the clergy are alluded to as a deliberative body, sitting at
the same time with the Parliament, it is impossible to ascer-
tain its constitution ; and, indeed, even from those already
cited we can not draw any positive inference. But whether
in convocation or in Parliament, they certainly formed a
legislative council in ecclesiastical matters by the advice and
consent of which alone, without that of the Commons (I can
say nothing as to the Lords), Edward IIL and even Richard
II. enacted, laws to bind the laity. There is a still more con-
spicuous instance of this assumed prerogative in the memo-
rable statute against heresy in the second of Henry IV. ;
which can hardly be deemed any thing else than an infringe-
ment of the rights of Parliament, more clearly established
at that time than at the accession of Richard II. Petitions
of the Commons relative to spiritual matters, however fre-
quently proposed, in few or no instances obtained the king's
assent so as to pass into statutes, unless approved by the
convocation. But, on the othfer hand, scarcely any temporal
laws appear to have passed by the concurrence of the clergy.
Two instances only, so far as I know, are on record ; the
Parliament held in the eleventh of Richard II. is annulled by
that in the twenty-first of his reign, " with the assent of the
lords spiritual and temporal, and the proctors of the clergy^
and the Commons ;" and the statute entailing the crown on
the children of Henry IV, is said to be enacted on the peti-
tion of the prelates, nobles, clergy, and commons. Both
these were stronger exertions of legislative authority than
ordinary acts of Parliament, and were very likely to be ques-
tioned in succeeding times.
§ 22. The supreme judicature, Avhich had been exercised
by the King's Court, was diverted, about the reign of John,
into three channels — the tribunals of King's Bench, Common
Pleas, and the Exchequer. These became the regular fount-
ains of justice, which soon almost absorbed the provincial
jurisdictions of the sheriff and lord of mandr. : But the orig-
608 JURISDICTION OF Chap. VIII. Part III.
inal institution, having been designed for ends of state, po-
lice, and revenue, fully as much as for the determination of
private suits, still preserved the most eminent parts of its
authority ; for the king's ordinary or privy council, which is
the usual style from the reign of Edward I., seems to have
been no other than the King's Court (curia regis) of older
times, being composed of the same persons, and having, in a
principal degree, the same subjects of deliberation. It con-
sisted of the chief ministers ; as the chancellor, treasurer,
lord steward, lord admiral, lord marshal, the keeper of the
privy seal, the chamberlain, treasurer, and comptroller of the
household, the chancellor of the Exchequer, the master of the
wardrobe ; and of the judges, king's sergeant, and attorney-
general, the master of the rolls, and justices in eyre, who at
that time were not the same as the judges at Westmin-
ster. When all these were called together, it was a full
council ; but where the business was of a more contracted
nature, those only who were fittest to advise were sum-
moned — the chancellor and judges for matters of law ; the
officers of state for what concerned the revenue or house-
hold."
The business of this council, out of Parliament, may be re-
duced to two heads — its deliberative office as a council of
advice, and its decisive power of jurisdiction. With respect
to the first, it obviously comprehended all subjects of polit-
ical deliberation, which were usually referred to it by the
king ; this being in fact the administration or governing
council of state, the distinction of a cabinet being intro-
duced in comparatively modern times. But there were like-
wise a vast number of petitions continually presented to the
council, upon which they proceeded no farther than to sort,
as it were, and forward them by indorsement to the proper
courts, or advise the suitor what remedy he had to seek.
Thus some petitions are answered, " this can not be done
without a new law ;" some were turned over to the regular
court, as the Chancery or King's Bench ; some of greater
moment were indorsed to be heard " before the Great Coun-
ts The words "privy council" are said not to be used till after the reign of Henry
VI. ; the former style was "ordinary" or "continual council." But a distinction
had always been made, according to the nature of the business ; the great officers of
state, or, as we might now say, the ministers, had no occasion for the- presence of
judges or any lawyers in the secret councils of the crown. They become, therefore,
a council of government, though always members of the consilium ordinarium; and,
in the former capacity, began to keep formal records of their proceedings. The acts
of this council— though, as I have just said, it bore as yet no distinguishing name-
are extant from the year 1386, and for seventy years afterwards are known through
the valuable publication of Sir Harris Nicolas.
English Const. THE KING'S COUNCIL. 609
cil ;" some, concerning the king's interest, were referred to
the Chancery, or select persons of the council.
The coercive authority exercised by this standing council
of the king was far more important. It may be divided into
acts, legislative and judicial. As for the first, many ordi-
nances were made in council ; sometimes upon request of the
Commons in Parliament, who felt themselves better qualified
to state a grievance than a remedy ; sometimes without any
pretense, unless the usage of government, in the infancy of
our constitution, may be thought to afford one. These were
always of a temporary or partial nature, and were considered
as regulations not sufficiently important to demand a new
statute. But the council frequently so much exceeded what
the growing spirit of public liberty would permit, that it
gave rise to complaint in Parliament. The Commons peti-
tion, in 13 R. II., that "neither the chancellor nor the king's
council, after the close of Parliament, may make any ordi-
nance against the common law, or the ancient customs of the
land, or the statutes made heretofore or to be made in this
Parliament ; but that the common law have its course for
all the people, and no judgment be rendered without due
legal process." The king answers, " Let it be done as has
been usual heretofore, saving the prerogative ; and if any
one is aggrieved, let him show it specially, and right shall
be done him." This unsatisfactory answer proves the ar-
bitrary spirit in which Richard was determined to govern.
The judicial power of the council was in some instances
founded upon particular acts of Parliament, giving it power
to hear and determine certain causes. Many petitions like-
wise were referred to it from Parliament, especially where
they were left unanswered by reason of a dissolution. But,
independenily of this delegated authority, it is certain that
the king's council did anciently exercise, as well out of Par-
liament as in it, a very great jurisdiction, both in causes
criminal and civil. Some, however, have contended that
whatever they did in this respect was illegal, and an en-
croachment upon the common law and Magna Charta. And
be the common law what it may, it seems an indisputable
violation of the charter in its most admirable and essential
article, to drag men in questions of their freehold or liberty
before a tribunal which neither granted them a trial by their
peers nor always respected the law of the land. Against
this usurpation the patriots of those times never ceased to lift
their voices. Nothing, however, would prevail on the coun-
cil to surrender so eminent a power, and, though usurped,
510 JURISDICTION OF Chap. VIII. Part III
yet of so long a continuance. Cases of arbitrary imprison-
ment frequently occurred, and were remonstrated against by
tbe Commons. The right of every freeman in that cardinal
point was as indubitable, legally speaking, as at this day ;
but the courts of law were afraid to exercise their remedial
functions in defiance of so powerful a tribunal. After the
accession of the Lancastrian family, these, like other griev-
ances, became rather less frequent ; but the Commons re-
monstrated several times, even in the minority of Henry
VI., against the council's interference in matters cognizable
at common law. In these later times the civil jurisdiction
of the council was principally exercised in conjunction with
the Chancery, and accordingly they are generally named to-
gether in the complaint. The chancellor having the great
seal in his custody, the council usually borrowed its process
from his court. This was returnable into chancery even
where the business was depending before the council. Nor
were the two jurisdictions less intimately allied in their char-
acter, each being of an equitable nature ; and equity, as then
practised, being little else than innovation and encroachment
on the course of law. This part, long since the most impor-
tant of the chancellor's judicial function, can not be traced
beyond the time of Richard II., when, the practice of feoff-
ments to uses having been introduced, without any legal
remedy to secure the cestui que use, or usufructuary, against
his feoffees, the Court of Chancery undertook to enforce this
species of contract by process of its own.
Such was the nature of the king's ordinary council in it-
self, as the organ of his executive sovereignty, and such the
jurisdiction which it habitually exercised. But it is also to
be considered in its relation to the Parliament, during whose
session, either singly or in conjunction with the Lords' house,
it was particularly conspicuous. The great officers of state,
whether peers or not, the judges, the king's sergeant, and at-
torney-general, w^ere, from the earliest times, as the latter
still continue to be, summoned by special writs to the upper
house. But while the writ of a peer runs "ad tractandum
nobiscum et cum caeteris praelatis, magnatibus et proceri-
bus," that directed to one of the judges is only "ad tractan-
dum nobiscum et cum caeteris de consilio nostro;" and the
seats of the latter are upon the wool-sacks at one extremity
of the house.
In the reigns of Edward I. and II. the council appear to
have been the regular advisers of the king in passing laws
to which the houses of Parliament had assented. The pre-
English Const. THE KING'S COUNCIL. 511
ambles of most statutes during this period express their con-
currence. Thus the statute Westminster I. is said to be the
act of the king by his council, and by the assent of archbish-
ops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, and all the com-
monalty of the realm being hither summoned. Still more
striking conclusions are to be drawn from the petitions ad-
dressed to the council by both houses of Parliament. In
the eighth of Edward II. there are four petitions from the
Commons to the king and his council, one from the Lords
alone, and one in which both appear to have joined. Later
Parliaments of the same reign present us with several more
instances of the like nature. Thus in 18 Edward II. a peti-
tion begins, " To our lord the king, and to his council, the
archbishops, bishops, prelates, earls, barons, and others of
the commonalty of England, show," etc.
But from the beginning of Edward III.'s reign it seems
that the council and the Lords' house in Parliament were
often blended together into one assembly. This was de-
nominated the great council, being the lords spiritual and
temporal, with the king's ordinary council annexed to them,
as a council within a council. And even in much earlier
times the Lords, as hereditary councillors, were, either when-
ever they thought fit to attend, or on special summonses by
the king (it is hard to say which), assistant members of this
council, both for advice and for jurisdiction. This double
capacity of the peerage, as members of the Parliament or
legislative assembly and of the deliberative and judicial
council, throws a very great obscurity over the subject.
However, we find that private petitions for redress were,
even under Edward I., presented to the Lords in Parliament
as much as to the ordinary council. The Parliament was
considered a high court of justice, where relief was to be
given in cases where the course of law was obstructed, as
well as where it was defective. Hence the intermission of
Parliaments was looked upon as a delay of justice, and their
annual meeting is demanded upon that ground. " The king,"
says Flete, " has his court in his council, in his Parliaments,
in the presence of bishops, earls, barons, lords, and other
wise men, where the doubtful cases of judgments are re-
solved, and new remedies are provided against new injuries,
and justice is rendered to every man according to his desert."
In the third year of Edward II. receivers of petitions began
to be appointed at the opening of every Parliament, who
usually transmitted them to the ordinary, but in some in-
stances to the great couiicil. These receivers were com-
512 THE GREAT COUNCIL. Chap. VIII. Part III.
monly three for England, and three for Ireland, Wales, Gas-
cony, and other foreign donimions. There were likewise two
corresponding classes of auditors or triers of petitions. These
consisted partly of bishops or peers, partly of judges and
other members of the council ; and they seem to have been
instituted in order to disburden the council by giving an-
swers to some petitions. But about the middle of Edward
III.'s time they ceased to act juridically in this respect, and
confined themselves to transmitting petitions to the Lords
of the council.
The great council, according to the definition we have
given, consisting of the lords spiritual and temporal, in con-
junction with the ordinary council, or, in other words, of all
who were severally summoned to Parliament, exercised a
considerable jurisdiction, as well civil as criminal. In this
jurisdiction it is the opinion of Sir M. Hale that the coun-
cil, though not peers, had right of suffrage — an opinion very
probable, when we recollect that the council by themselves,
both in and out of Parliament, possessed in fact a judicial
authority little inferior; and that the king's delegated sov-
ereignty in the administration of justice, rather than any
intrinsic right of the peerage, is the foundation on which
the judicature of the Lords must be supported. But in the
time of Edward III. or Richard 11. the Lords, by their as-
cendency, threw the judges and rest of the council into
shade, and took the decisive jurisdiction entirely to them-
selves, making use of their former colleagues but as assist-
ants and advisers, as they still continue to be held in all the
judicial proceedings of that house.
Those statutes which restrain the king's ordinary council
from disturbing men in their freehold rights, or question-
ing them for misdemeanors, have an equal application to
the Lords' house in Parliament, though we do not frequent-
ly meet with complaints of the encroachments made by that
assembly. There was, however, one class of cases tacitly
excluded from the operation of those acts, in which the co-
ercive jurisdiction of this high tribunal had great conven-
ience — namely, where the ordinary course of justice was so
much obstructed by the defending party, through riots,
combinations of maintenance, or overawing influence, that
no inferior court would find its process obeyed. Those ages,
disfigured in their quietest season by rapine and oppression,
afibrded no small number of cases that called for this inter-
position of a paramount authority. Another indubitable
branch of this jurisdiction was in writs of error; but it may
English Const. CHARACTER OF GOVERNMENT. 613
be observed that their determination was very frequently
left to a select committee of peers and councillors. These,
too, cease almost entirely with Henry IV., and were scarcely
revived till the accession of James I.
§ 23. Although the restraining hand of Parliament was
continually growing more effectual, and the notions of legal
right acquiring more precision, from the time of Magna
Charta to the civil wars under Henry VI., we may justly
say that the general tone of adininistration was not a little
arbitrary. The whole fabric of English liberty rose step by
step, through much toil and many sacrifices, each generation
adding some new security to the work, and trusting that
posterity would perfect the labor as well as enjoy the reward.
There is a material distinction to be taken between the
exercise of the king's undeniable prerogative, however re-
pugnant to our improved principles of freedom, and the
abuse or extension of it to oppressive purposes. For we
can not fairly consider as part of our ancient constitution
what the Parliament was perpetually remonstrating against,
and the statute-book is full of enactments to repress. It
would be necessary to shut our eyes with deliberate preju-
dice against the whole tenor of the most unquestionable au-
thorities, against the petitions of the Commons, the acts of
the legislature, the testimony of historians and lawyers, be-
fore we could assert that England acquiesced in those abuses
and oppressions which it must be confessed she was unable
fully to prevent.
The word prerogative is of a peculiar import, and scarcely
understood by those who come from the studies of political
philosophy. We can not define it by any theory of execu-
tive functions. All these may be comprehended in it, but
also a great deal more. It is best, perhaps, to be understood
by its derivation, and has been said to be that law in case
of the king which is law in no case of the subject.^" Of the
higher and more sovereign prerogatives I shall here say
nothing ; they result from the nature of a monarchy, and
have nothing very peculiar in their character. But the
smaller rights of the crown show better the original linea-
ments of our constitution. It is said commonly enough that
all prerogatives are given for the subject's good. I must
confess that no part of this assertion corresponds with my
view of the subject. It neither appears to me that these
prerogatives were ever given nor that they necessarily re-
dound to the subject's good. Prerogative, in its old sei?€e,
28 Blackstone's Comment, from Fiuch, vol. i., c. 7.
22*
514^ PURVEYANCE. Chap. VIII. Paut Hi.
might be defined an advantage obtained by the crown over
the subject, in cases where their interests came into compe-
tition, by reason of its greater strength. This sprang from
the nature of the Norman government, which rather resem-
bled a scramble of wild beasts, where the strongest takes
the best share, than a system founded upon principles of
common utility. And, modified as the exercise of most pre-
rogatives has been by the more liberal tone which now per-
vades our course of government, whoever attends to the
common practice of courts of justice, and, still more, who'
ever consults the law-books, will not only be astonished at
their extent and multiplicity, but very frequently at their
injustice and severity.
1. Purveyance. — The real prerogatives that might formerly
be exerted were sometimes of so injurious a nature that we
can hardly separate them from their abuse: a striking in-
stance is that of purveyance, which will at once illustrate the
definition above given of a prerogative, the limits within
which it was to be exercised, and its tendency to transgress
them. This was a right of purchasing w^hatever was nec-
essary for the king's household at a fair price, in preference
to every competitor, and without the consent of the ownen
By the same prerogative, carriages and horses were impress*
ed for the king's journeys, and lodgings provided for his at^
tendants. This was defended on a pretext of necessity, or at
least of great convenience to the sovereign, and was both of
high antiquity and universal practice throughout Europe.
But the royal purveyors had the utmost temptation, and
doubtless no small store of precedents, to stretch this power
beyond its legal boundary ; and not only to fix their own
price too low, but to seize what they wanted without any
payment at all, or with tallies, which were carried in vain to
an empty exchequer. This gave rise to a number of petitions
from the Commons, upon which statutes were often framed ;
but the evil was almost incurable in its nature, and never
ceased till that prerogative was itself abolished. Purvey-
ance, as I have already said, may serve to distinguish the
defects from the abuses of our constitution. It was a re-
proach to the law that men should be compelled to send
their goods without their consent ; it was a reproach to the
administration that they were deprived of them without
payment.
The right of purchasing men's goods for the use of the kinsf
was extended, by a sort of analogy, to their labor. Thus Ed-
ward III. announces to all sheriffs that William, of Walsin^''
English Const. FEUDAL EIGHTS. 515
ham, had a commission to collect as many painters as might
suffice for "our works in St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, to
be at our wages as long as shall be necessary," and to arrest
and keep in prison all who sliould refuse or be refractory,
and enjoins them to lend their assistance. Windsor Castle
owes its massive magnificence to laborers impressed from ev-
ery part of the kingdom. There is even a commission from
Edward IV. to take as many workmen in gold as were want-
ing, and employ them at the king's cost upon the trappings
of himself and his household.
2. Feudal Rights. — Another class of abuses, intimately con-
nected with unquestionable though oppressive rights of the
crown, originated in the feudal tenure which bound all the
lands of the kingdom. The king had indisputably a right to
the wardship of his tenants in chivalry, and to the escheats
or forfeitures of persons dying without heirs or attainted for
treason. But his officers, under pretense of wardshij), took
possession of lands not held immediately of the crown, claim-
ed escheats where a right heir existed, and seized estates as
forfeited which were protected by the statute of entails. The
real owner had no remedy against this disposition but to pre-
fer his petition of right in Chancery, or, which was probably
more effectual, to procure a remonstrance of the House of
Commons in his favor. Even where justice was finally ren-
dered to him, he had no recompense for his damages ; and
the escheaters were not less likely to repeat an iniquity by
which they could not personally suffer.
3. Forest XcM^JS.^The charter of the forests, granted by
Henry HI. along with Magna Charta, had been designed to
crush the flagitious system of oppression which prevailed in
those favorite haunts of the Norman kings. They had still,
however, their peculiar jurisdiction, though from the time at
least of Edward IH. subject in some measure to the control
of the King's Bench. The foresters, I suppose, might find a
compensation for their want of the common law in that easy
and licentious way of life which they affected ; but the neigh-
boring cultivators frequently suffered from the king's officers
who attempted to recover those adjacent lands, or, as they
were called, purlieus, which had been disafforested by the
charter, and protected by frequent perambulations. Many
petitions of the Commons relate to this grievance.
4. Jurisdiction of Constable and Marshal. — The constable
and marshal of England possessed a jurisdiction, the proper
limits whereof were sufficiently narrow, as it seems, to have
extended only to appeals of treason committed beyond sea,
516 CHARACTER OF THE CONSTITUTION. Ch. VIII. i^x. III.
which were determined by combat, and to military oiFenses
within the realm. But these high officers frequently took
upon them to inquire of treasons and felonies cognizable at
common law, and even of civil contracts and trespasses. This
is no bad illustration of the state in which our constitution
stood under the Plantagenets. No color of right or of su-
preme prerogative was set up to justify a procedure so mani-
festly repugnant to the great charter. For all remonstrances
against these encroachments the king gave promises in re-
turn ; and a statute was enacted, in the thirteenth of Rich-
ard IL, declaring the bounds of the constable and marshal's
jurisdiction. It could not be denied, therefore, that all in-
fringements of these acknowledged limits were illegal, even
if they had a hundred-fold more actual precedents in their
favor than can be supposed. But the abuse by no means
ceased after the passing of this statute, as several subse-
quent petitions that it might be better regarded will evince.
§ 24. If I have faithfully represented thus far the history
of our constitution, its essential character will appear to be
a monarchy greatly limited by law, though retaining much
power that was ill calculated to promote the public good,
and swerving continually into an irregular course, which
there was no restraint adequate to correct. But of all the
notions that have been advanced as to the theory of this con-
stitution, the least consonant to law and history is that which
represents the king as merely an hereditary executive mag'
istrate, the first officer of the state. What advantages might
result from such a form of government this is not the place
to discuss. But it certainly was not the ancient constitution
of England. There was nothing in this, absolutely nothing,
of a republican appearance. All seemed to grow out of the
monarchy, and was referred to its advantage and honor. The
voice of supplication, even in the stoutest disposition of the
Commons, was always humble ; the prerogative was always
named in large and pompous expressions. Still more natu-
rally may we expect to find in the law-books even an obse-
quious deference to power, from judges who scarcely ventured
to consider it as their duty to defend the subject's freedom,
and who beheld the gigantic image of prerogative, in the
full play of its hundred arms, constantly before their eyes.
Through this monarchical tone, which certainly pervades all
our legal authorities, a writer like Hume, accustomed to phil-
osophical liberality as to the principles of government, and
to the democratical language which the modern aspect of
the constitution and the liberty of printing have produced,
iSNGLiSH Const. TORTESCUE ON OUR CONSTITUTION. 517
fell hastily into the error of believing that all limitations of
royal power during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
were as much unsettled in law and in public opinion as they
were liable to be violated by force. Though a contrary po-
sition has been sufficiently demonstrated, I conceive, by the
series of Parliamentary proceedings which I have already
produced, yet there is a passage in Sir John Fortescue's trea-
tise " De Laudibus Legum Angliae," so explicit and weighty,
that no writer on the English constitution can be excused
from inserting it. This eminent person, having been chief
justice of the King's Bench under Henry VI., was governor
to the young Prince of Wales during his retreat in France,
and received at his hands the office of chancellor. It must
never be forgotten that, in a treatisQ^ purposely composed for
the instruction of one who hoped to reign over England, the
limitations of government are enforced as strenuously by
Fortescue as some succeeding lawyers have inculcated the
doctrines of arbitrary prerogative.
"A king of England can not at his pleasure make any alterations in the
laws of the land, for the nature of his government is not only regal, but po-
litical. Had it been merely regal, he would have a power to make what in-
novations and alterations he pleased in the laws of the kingdom, impose tal-
lages and other hardships upon the people Avhether they would or no, with-
out their consent, Avhich sort of government the civil laws point out when
they declare 'Quod principi placuit, legis habet vigorem.' But it is much
otherwise with a king whose government is political, because he can neither
make any alteration or change in the laws of the realm without the consent
of the subjects, nor burden them against their wills with strange impositions ;
so that a people governed by such laws as are made by their own consent and
approbation enjoy their properties securely and -without the hazard of being
deprived of them, either by the king or any other. The same things may be
effected under an absolute prince, provided he do not degenerate into the ty-
rant. Of such a prince, Aristotle, in the third of his 'Politics,' says, 'It is
better for a city to be governed by a good man than by good laws.' But be-
cause it does not always happen that the person presiding over a people is so
qualified, St. Thomas, in the book which he writ to the King of Cyprus, ' De
Kegimine Principum,' wishes that a kingdom could be so instituted as that
the king might not be at liberty to tyrannize over his people; which only
comes to pass in the present case : that is, when the sovereign power is re-
strained by political laws. Rejoice, therefore, my good prince, that such is
the law of the kingdom which you are to inherit, because it will afford, both
to yourself and subjects, the greatest security and satisfaction.'"*'
The two great divisions of civil rule, the absolute, or regal
as he calls it, and the political, Fortescue proceeds to deduce
from the several originals of conquest and compact. Con-
cerning the latter he declares emphatically a truth not ah
ways palatable to princes, that such governments were insti-
8T Fortescue, "De Laudibus Legum Angliae," c. 9.
518 FORTESCUE ON OUR CONSTITUTION. Ch. VIII. Pt. III.
tuted by the people and for the people's good ; quoting St.
Augustin for a' similar definition of a political society :
"As the head of a body natural can not change its nerves and sinews,
can not deny to the several parts their proper energy, their due proportion
and aliment of blood ; neither can a king, who is the head of a body poHtic,
change the laws thereof, nor take from the people what is theirs by right
against their consent. Thus you have, sir, the formal institution of every
political kingdom, from whence you may guess at the power which a king
may exercise with respect to the laws and the subject. For he is appointed
to protect his subjects in their lives, properties, and laws ; for this very end
and purpose he has the delegation of power from the people, and he has no
just claim to any otlier power but tliis. Wherefore, to give a brief an-
swer to that question of yours, concerning the different powers which kings
claim over their subjects, I am firmly of opinion that it arises solely from the
different natures of their original institution, as you may easily collect from
what has been said. So the kingdom of England had its original from
Brute, and the Trojans who attended him from Italy and Greece, and be-
came a mixed kind of government, compounded of the regal and political."'^'*
It would occupy too much space to quote every other pas-
sage of the same nature in this treatise of Fortescue, and in
that entitled, " Of the Difference between an Absolute and
Limited Monarchy," which, so far as these points are con-
cerned, is nearly a translation from the former." But these,
corroborated as they are by the statute-book and by the rolls
of Parliament, are surely conclusive against the notions which
pervade Mr. Hume's history. I have already remarked that
a sense of the glaring prejudice by which some Whig writers
had been actuated, in representing the English constitution
from the earliest times as nearly arrived at its present per-
fection, conspired with certain prepossessions of his own to
lead this eminent historian into an equally erroneous system
on the opposite side. And as he traced the stream back-
ward, and came last to the times of the Plantagenet dynasty,
with opinions already biased and even pledged to the world
in his volumes of earlier publication, he was prone to seize
hold of, and even exaggerate, every circumstance that indi-
cated immature civilization, and law perverted or infringed.
To this his ignorance of English jurisprudence, which cer-
tainly in some measure disqualified him from writing our his-
tory, did not a little contribute; misrepresentations frequent-
ly occurring in his work which a moderate acquaintance with
the law of the land would haA'e prevented.
28 Fortescue, "De Landibus Legara Anglise," c. 13.
2^ The latter treatise having been written under Edward IV. — whom Fortescue, as
ft restored Lancastrian, would be anxious not to offend, and whom, in fact, he took
some pains to conciliate both in this and other writings— it is evident that the princi-
ples of limited monarchy were as fully recognized in his reign, whatever particular
acts of violence might occur, as they had been under the Lancastrian princes.
English Const. ERRONEOUS VIEWS OF HUME. 519
It is an honorable circumstance to England t'jat the histo-
ry of no other country presents so few instances of illegal
condemnations upon political charges. The judicial torture
was hardly known, and never recognized by law. The sen-
tence in capital crimes, fixed unalterably by custom, allowed
nothing to vindictiveness and indignation. There hardly oc-
curs an example of any one being notoriously put to death
without form of trial, except in moments of flagrant civil
war. If the rights of juries were sometimes evaded by ir-
regular jurisdictions, they were at least held sacred by the
courts of law ; and through all the vicissitudes of civil liber-
ty, no one ever questioned the primary right of every free-
man, handed down from his Saxon forefathers, to the trial
by his peers. A just regard for public safety prescribes the
necessity of severe penalties against rebellion and conspir-
acy ; but the interpretation of these offenses, when intrusted
to sovereigns and their counsellors, has been the most tre-
mendous instrument of despotic power. In rude ages, even
though a general spirit of political liberty may prevail, the
legal character of treason will commonly be undefined ; nor
is it the disposition of lawyers to give greater accuracy to
this part of criminal jurisprudence. The nature of treason
appears to have been subject to much uncertainty in En-
gland before the statute of Edward III. If that memorable
law did not give all possible precision to the off*ense, which
we must certainly allow, it prevented at least those stretches
of vindictive tyranny which disgrace the annals of other
countries. The praise, however, must be understood as com-
parative. Some cases of harsh if not illegal convictions could
hardly fail to occur in times of violence, and during changes
of the reigning family. Perhaps the circumstances have
now and then been aggravated by historians. Nothing could
be more illegal than the conviction of the Earl of Cambridge
and Lord Scrope in 1415, if it be true, according to Carte and
Hume, that they w^ere not heard in their defense. But wheth-
er this is to be absolutely inferred from the record is per-
haps open to question. There seems at least to. have been
no suflicient motive for such an irregularity, their participa-
tion in a treasonable conspiracy being manifest from their
own confession. The proceedings against Sir John Morti-
mer in the 2d of Henry YI. are called by Hume highly irreg-
ular and illegal. They were, however, by act of attainder,
which can not well be styled illegal. Nor are they to be
considered as severe. Mortimer had broken out of the Tow-
er, where he was confined on a charge of treason. This was
520 CAUSES TENDING TO EORM Chap. VIII. Part III.
a capital felony at common law ; and the chief irregularity
seems to have consisted in having recourse to Parliament in
order to attaint him of treason, when he had already forfeit-
ed his life by another crime.
§ 25. By what means the English acquired and preserved
this political liberty, which, even in the fifteenth century, was
the admiration of judicious foreigners,^" is a very rational and
interesting inquiry. Their own serious and steady attach-
ment to the laws must always be reckoned among the prin-
cipal causes of this blessing. The civil equality of all free-
men below the rank of peerage, and the subjection of peers
themselves to the impartial arm of justice and to a due share
in contribution to public burdens — advantages unknown to
other countries — tended to identify the interests and to as-
similate the feelings of the aristocracy with those of the peo-
ple; classes whose dissension and jealousy have been in many
instances the surest hope of sovereigns aiming at arbitrary
power. This freedom from the oppressive superiority of a
privileged order was peculiar to England. In many king-
doms the royal prerogative was at least equally limited. The
statutes of Aragon are more full of remedial provisions. The
right of opposing a tyrannical government by arms was more
frequently asserted in Castile. But nowhere else did the
people possess by law, and I think upon the whole, in effect,
so much security for their personal freedom and property.
Accordingly, the middling ranks flourished remarkably, not
only in commercial towns, but among the cultivators of the
soil. " There is scarce a small village," says Sir J. Fortescue,
" in which you may not find a knight, an esquire, or some
substantial householder (paterfamilias), commonly called a
frankleyn,^' possessed of considerable estate ; besides others
who are called freeholders, and many yeomen of estates suffi-
cient to make a substantial jury." I would, however, point
out more particularly two causes which had a very leading
eflficacy in the gradual development of our constitution: first,
the schemes of Continental ambition in which our govern-
so Philip de Comines takes seveml opportnnities of testifying his esteem for the
English government. See particnlarly 1. iv., c. i., and 1. v., c. xix.
31 By a franlcleyn in this place we are to understand what we call a country squire,
like the frankleyn of Chaucer; for the word esquire in Fortescue's time was only
used in its limited sense, for the sons of peers and knights, or such as had obtained
the title by creation or some other legal means.
The mention of Chaucer leads me to add that the prologue to his "Canterbury
Tales" is of itself a continual testimony to the plenteous and comfortable situation
of the middle ranks in England, as well as to that fearless independence and fre-
quent originality of character among them which liberty and competence have coi>-
epired to produce.
English Const. THE CONSTITUTION. 521
ment was long engaged ; secondly, the manner in which feud-
al principles of insubordination and resistance were modified
by the prerogatives of the early Norman kings.
1. At the epoch when William the Conqueror ascended
the throne, hardly any other power was possessed by the
King of France than what he inherited from the great fiefs
of the Capetian family. War with such a potentate was not
exceedingly to be dreaded, and William, besides his immense
revenue, could employ the feudal services of his vassals,
which were extended by him to continental expeditions.
These circumstances were not essentially changed till after
the loss of Normandy ; for the acquisitions of Henry II. kept
him fully on an equality with the French crown, and the di-
lapidation which had taken place in the royal demesnes was
compensated by several arbitrary resources that filled the
exchequer of these monarchs. But in the reigns of John and
Henry HI., the position of England, or rather of its sovereign
with respect to France, underwent a very disadvantageous
change. The loss of Normandy severed the connection be-
tween the English nobility and the Continent ; they had no
longer estates to defend, and took not sufficient interest in
the concerns of Guienne to fight for that province at their
own cost. Their feudal service was now commuted for an
escuage, which fell very short of the expenses incurred in a
protracted campaign. Tallages of royal towns and demesne
lands, extortion of money from the Jews, every feudal abuse
and oppression, were tried in vain to replenish the treasury,
which the defense of Eleanor's inheritance against the in-
creased energy of France was constantly exhausting. Even
in the most arbitrary reigns a general tax upon land-holders,
in any cases but those prescribed by the feudal law, had not
been ventured ; and the standing bulwark of Magna Charta,
as well as the feebleness and unpopularity of Henry HI.,
made it more dangerous to violate an established principle.
Subsidies were therefore constantly required ; but for these
it was necessary for the king to meet Parliament, to hear
their complaints, and, if he could not elude, to acquiesce in
their petitions. These necessities came still more urgently
upon Edward I., whose ambitious spirit could not patiently
endure the encroachments of Philip the Fair, a rival not less
ambitious, but certainly less distinguished by personal prow-
ess, than himself What advantage the friends of liberty
reaped from this ardor for continental warfare is strongly
seen in the circumstances attending the Confirmation of the
Charters.
522 CAUSES TENDING TO FORM Chap. VIII. Part III:
But after this statute had rendered all tallages without
consent of Parliament illegal, though it did not for some
time prevent their being occasionally imposed, it was still
more difficult to carry on a war with France or Scotland, to
keep on foot naval armaments, or even to preserve the court-
ly magnificence which that age of chivalry affecte(j, without
perpetual recurrence to the House of Commons. ' Edward
III. very little consulted the interests of his prerogative
when he stretched forth his hand to seize the phantom of a
crown in France. It compelled him to assemble Parliament
almost annually, and often to hold more than one session
within the year. Here the representatives of England
learned the habit of remonstrance and conditional supply ;
and though, in the meridian of Edward's age and vigor, they
often failed of immediate redress, yet they gradually swelled
the statute-roll with provisions to secure their country's free-
dom ; and, acquiring self-confidence by mutual intercourse
and sense of the public opinion, they became able, before the
end of Edward's reign, and still more in that of his grandson,
to control, prevent, and punish the abuses of administration.
Of all these proud and sovereign privileges, the right of re-
fusing supply was the key-stone. But for the long wars in
which our kings were involved, at first by their possession
of Guienne, and afterwards by their pretensions upon the
crown of France, it would have been easy to suppress re-
monstrances by avoiding to assemble Parliament. For it
must be confessed that an authority was given to the king's
proclamations, and to ordinances of the council, which difier-
ed but little from legislative power, and would very soon
have been interpreted by complaisant courts of justice to
give them the full extent of statutes.
It is common, indeed, to assert that the liberties of England
were bought with the blood of our forefathers. This is a very
magnanimous boast, and in some degree is consonant enough
to the truth. But it is far more generally accurate to say
that they were purchased by money. A great proportion
of our best laws, including Magna Charta itself, as it now
stands confirmed by Henry III., were, in the most literal
sense, obtained by a pecuniary bargain with the crown. In
many Parliaments of Edward HI. and Richard II. this sale
of redress is chafi*ered for as distinctly, and with as little
apparent sense of disgrace, as the most legitimate business
between two merchants would be transacted. So little was
there of voluntary benevolence in what the loyal courtesy
of our constitution stvles concessions from the throne ; and
Enulish Const. THE CONSTITUTION. 523
SO little title have these sovereigns, though we can not re-
fuse our admiration to the generous virtues of Edward III.
and Henry V., to claim the gratitude of posterity as the ben-
efactors of their people !
2. The relation established between a lord and his vassal
by the feudal tenure, far from containing principles of any
servile and implicit obedience, permitted the compact to be
dissolved in case of its violation by either party. This ex-
tended as much to the sovereign as to inferior lords ; the
authority of the former in France, where the system most
flourished, being for several ages rather feudal than political.
If a vassal were aggrieved, and if justice were denied him,
he sent a defiance, that is, a renunciation of fealty, to the
king, and was entitled to enforce redress at the point of his
sword. It then became a contest of strength as between two
independent potentates, and was terminated by treaty, ad-
vantageous or otherwise, according to the fortune of war.
This privilege, suited enough to the situation of France, the
great peers of which did not originally intend to admit more
than a nominal supremacy in the house of Capet, was evi-
dently less compatible with the regular monarchy of England.
The stern natures of William the Conqueror and his succes-
sors kept in control the mutinous spirit of their nobles, and
reaped the profit of feudal tenures without submitting to their
reciprocal obligations. They counteracted, if I may so say,
the centrifugal force of that system by the application of a
stronger power ; by preserving order, administering justice,
checking the growth of baronial influence and riches, with
habitual activity, vigilance, and severity. Still, however,
there remained the original principle that allegiance de-
pended conditionally upon good treatment, and that an ap-
peal might be lawfully made to arms against an oppressive
government. Nor was this, we may be sure, left for extreme
necessity, or thought to require a long-enduring forbearance.
In modern times a king compelled by his subjects' swords
to abandon any pretension would be supposed to have ceased
to reign ; and the express recognition of such a right as that
of insurrection has been justly deemed inconsistent with the
majesty of law. But ruder ages had ruder sentiments.
Force was necessary to repel force; and men accustomed to
see the king's authority defied by private riot were not much
shocked when it was resisted in defense of public freedom.
The Great Charter of John was secured by the election of
twenty-five barons as conservators of the compact. If the
king, or the justiciary in his absence, should transgress any
524 INFLUENCE OF THE NOBILITY. Chap. VIIL Part II)
article, any four might demand reparation, and on denial
carry their complaint to the rest of their body. "And those
barons, with all the commons of the land, shall distrain and
annoy us by every means in their power ; that is, by seizing
our castles, lands, and possessions, and every other mode, till
the wrong shall be repaired to their satisfaction ; saving our
person, and our queen and children. And when it shall be
repaired they shall obey us as before." It is amusing to see
the common law of distress introduced upon this gigantic
scale, and the capture of the king's castles treated as analo-
gous to impounding a neighbor's horse for breaking fences.
These feudal notions, which placed the moral obligation of
allegiance very low, acting under a weiglity pressure from
the real strength of the crown, were favorable to constitu-
tional liberty. The great vassals of France and Germany
aimed at living independently on their fiefs, with no further
concern for the rest than as useful allies having a common
interest against the crown. But in England, as there was
no prospect of throwing oif subjection, the barons endeav-
ored only to lighten its burden, fixing limits to prerogative
by law, and securing their observation by parliamentary re-
monstrances or by dint of arms. Hence, as all rebellions in
England were directed only to coerce the government, or at
the utmost to change the succession of the crowm, without
the smallest tendency to separation, they did not impair the
national strength nor destroy the character of the constitu-
tion. In all these contentions it is remarkable that the peo-
ple and clergy sided w^ith the nobles against the throne. No
individuals are so popular with the monkish annalists, who
speak the language of the populace, as Simon, earl of Lei
cester, Thomas, earl of Lancaster, and Thomas, duke of Glou-
cester — all turbulent opposers of the royal authority, and
probably little deserving of their panegyrics. Very few
English historians of the Middle Ages are advocates of pre-
rogative. This may be ascribed both to the equality of our
laws and to the interest which the aristocracy found in court- .
ing popular favor, when committed against so formidable an
adversary as the king.
§ 26. From the time of Edward I. the feudal system and
all the feelings connected with it declined very rapidly.
But what the nobility lost in the number of their military
tenants was in some degree compensated by the state of
manners. The higher class of them, who took the chief share
in public afiairs, were exceedingly opulent ; and their mode
of life gave wealth an incredibly greater efficacy than it po«-
English Const. PREVALENCE OF RAPINE. 525
sesses at present. Gentlemen of large estates and good fam-
ilies who had attached themselves to these great peers, who
bore offices which we should call menial in their households,
and sent their children thither for education, were of course
ready to follow their banner in rising, without much inquiry
into the cause. Still less would the vast body of tenants and
their retainers, who were fed at the castle in time of peace,
refuse to carry their pikes and staves into the field of battle.
Many devices were used to preserve this aristocratic influ-
ence, which riches and ancestry of themselves rendered so
formidable. Such was the maintenance of suits, or confed-
eracies for the purpose of supporting each other's claims in
litigation, which was the subject of frequent complaints in
Parliament, and gave rise to several prohibitory statutes.
By help of such confederacies parties were enabled to make
violent entries upon the lands they claimed, which the law
itself could hardly be said to discourage. Even proceedings
in courts of justice were often liable to intimidation and in-
fluence. A practice much allied to confederacies of mainte-
nance, though ostensibly more harmless, was that of giving
liveries to all retainers of a noble family ; but it had an ob-
vious tendency to preserve that spirit of factious attachments
and animosities which it is the general policy of a wise gov-
ernment to dissipate. From the first year of Richard II. we
find continual mention of this custom, with many legal pro-
visions asjainst it, but it was never abolished till the reign
of Henry VII.
§ 27. These associations under powerful chiefs were only in-
cidentally beneficial as they tended to withstand the abuses of
prerogative. In their more usual course they were designed
to thwart the legitimate exercise of the king's government
in the administration of the laws. All Europe was a scene
of intestine anarchy during the Middle Ages; and though
England was far less exposed to the scourge of private war
than most nations on the Continent, we should find, could we
recover the local annals of every country, such an accumula-
tion of petty rapine and tumult as would almost alienate us
from the liberty which served to engender it. This was the
common tenor of manners, sometimes so much aggravated
as to find a place in general history, more often attested by
records during the three centuries that the house of Plantag-
enet sat on the throne. Disseizin, or forcible dispossession
of freeholds, makes one of the most considerable articles in
our law-books. Highway robbery was from the earliest times
a sort of national crime. Capital punishments, though very
526 PREVALENT HABITS Chap. VIII. Part IIL
frequent, made little impression on a bold and a licentious
crew, who had at least the sympathy of those who had noth-
ing to lose on their side, and flattering prospects of impunity.
We know how long the outlaws of Sherwood lived in tradi-
tion — men who, like some of their betters, have been permit-
ted to redeem by a few acts of generosity the just ignominy
of extensive crimes. These, indeed, were the heroes of vul-
gar applause ; but when such a judge as Sir John Fortescue
could exult that more Englishmen were hanged for robbery
in one year than French in seven, and that, " if an English
man be poor, and see another having riches which may be
taken from him by might, he will not spare to do so," it may
be perceived how thoroughly these sentiments had pervaded
the public mind.
Such robbers, I have said, had flattering prospects of im-
punity. Besides the general want of communication, which
made one who had fled from his own neighborhood tolerably
secure, they had the advantage of extensive forests to facili-
tate their depredations and prevent detection. When out-
lawed or brought to trial, the worst oflenders could frequent-
ly purchase charters of pardon, which defeated justice in the
moment of her blow. Nor were the nobility ashamed to
patronize men guilty of every crime. Several proofs of this
occur in the rolls.^''
It is perhaps the most meritorious part of Ed ward T.'s gov-
ernment that he bent all his power to restrain these breaches
of tranquillity. One of his salutary provisions is still in con-
stant use — the statute of coroners. Another, more extensive,
and, though partly obsolete, the foundation of modern laws,
is the statute of Winton, which enacts that hue and cry shall
be made upon the commission of a robbery, and that the
hundred shall remain answerable for the damage unless the
felons be brought to justice. It may be inferred from this
provision that the ancient law of frank-pledge, though re-
32 A strange policy, for which no rational cause can be alleged, kept Wales and
even Cheshire distinct from the rest of the kingdom. Nothing could be more injuri-
ous to the adjacent counties. Upon the credit of their immunity from the jurisdic-
tion of the king's courts, the people of Cheshire broke with armed bands into the
neighboring counties, and perpetrated all the crimes in their power. As to the
Welsh frontier, it was constantly almost in a state of war, which a very little good
sense and benevolence in any one of our shepherds would have easily prevented, by
admitting the conquered people to partake in equal privileges with their fellow-
subjects. Instead of this, they satisfied themselves with aggravating the mischief
by granting legal reprisals upon Welshmen. Welshmen were absolutely excluded
from bearing offices in Wales. The English living in the English towns of Wales
earnestly petition (23 Henry VI., Rot. Pari., vol. v., p. 104, 154) that this exclusion may
be kept in force. Complaints of the disorderly state of the Welsh frontier are repeated
as late as 12 Edward IV., vol. vi., p. 8.
English Const. OF RAPINE. 621^
tained longer in form, had lost its efficiency. By the same
act, no stranger or suspicious person was to lodge even in
the suburbs of towns; the gates were to be kept locked
from sunset to sunrising ; every host to be answerable for
his guest ; the highways to be cleared of trees and under-
wood for two hundred feet on each side, and every man to
keep arms, according to his substance, in readiness to follow
the sheriff on hue and cry raised after felons. The last pro-
vision indicates that the robbers plundered the country in
formidable bands. One of these, in a subsequent part of
Edward's reign, burned the town of Boston during a fair,
and obtained a vast booty, though their leader had the ill
fortune not to escape the gallows.
The preservation of order throughout the country was
originally intrusted not only to the sheriff, coroner, and con-
stables, but to certain magistrates called conservators of the
peace. These, in conformity to the democratic character of
our Saxon government, were elected by the freeholders in
their County Court. But Edward I. issued commissions to
carry into effect the statute of Winton ; and from the be-
ginning of Edward III.'s reign the appointment of conserv-
ators was vested in the crown, their authority gradually en-
larged by a series of statutes, and their titles changed to
that of justices. They were empowered to imprison and
punish all rioters and other offenders, and such as they
should find by indictment or suspicion to be reputed thieves
or vagabonds, and to take sureties for good behavior from
persons of evil fame. Such a jurisdiction was hardly more
arbitrary than, in a free and civilized age, it has been
thought fit to vest in magistrates ; but it was ill endured by
a people who placed their notions of liberty in personal ex-
emption from restraint rather than any political theory. An
act having been passed (2 Richard II., stat. 2, c. 6), in conse-
quence of unusual riots and outrages, enabling magistrates
to commit the ringleaders of tumultuary assemblies without
waiting for legal process till the next arrival of justices of
jail delivery, the Commons petitioned next year against this
" horrible grievous ordinance," by which " every freeman in
the kingdom would be in bondage to these justices," con-
trary to the great charter, and to many statutes, which for-
bid any man to be taken without due course of law. So
sensitive was their jealousy of arbitrary imprisonment, that
they preferred enduring riot and robbery to chastising them
by any means that might afford a precedent to oppression,
or weaken men's reverence for Maojna Charta.
B2& VILLENAGE OF Chap. VIII. Part III.
There are two subjects remaining to which this retrospect
of the state of manners naturally leads us, and which I would
not pass unnoticed, though not perhaps absolutely essential
to a constitutional history ; because they tend in a very ma-
terial degree to illustrate the progress of society, with which
civil liberty and regular government are closely connected.
These are, first, the servitude or villenage of the peasantry,
and their gradual emancipation from that condition; and,
secondly, the continual increase of commercial intercourse
with foreign countries. But as the latter topic will fall
more conveniently into the next part of this work, I shall
postpone its consideration for the present.
§ 28. In a former passage I have remarked of the Anglo-
Saxon ceorls that neither their situation nor that of their de-
scendants for the earlier reigns after the Conquest appears
to have been mere servitude. But from the time of Henry
II., as we learn from Glanvil, the villein, so called, was abso-
lutely dependent upon his lord's will, compelled to unlim-
ited services, and destitute of property, not only in the land
he held for his maintenance, but in his own acquisitions.
If a villein purchased or inherited land, the lord might
seize it ; if he accumulated stock, its possession was equally
precarious. Against his lord he had no right of action ;
because his indemnity in damages, if he could have recov-
ered any, might have been immediately taken away. If he
fled from his" lord's service, or from the land which he held,
a writ issued de nativitate probanda, and the master recov-
ered his fugitive by law. His children were born to the
same state of servitude ; and, contrary to the rule of the
civil law, where one parent was free and the other in villen-
age, the offspring followed their father's condition.
This was certainly a severe lot ; yet there are circum-
stances which materially distinguish it from slavery. The
condition of villenage, at least in later times, was perfectly
relative; it formed no distinct order in the political econ-
omy. No man was a villein in the eye of law unless his
master claimed him : to all others he was a freeman, and
might acquire, dispose of, or sue for property without im-
pediment.
This class was distinguished into villeins regardant,, who
had been attached from time immemorial to a certain, manor,
and villeins in gross, where such territorial prescription had
never existed, or had been broken. In the condition of
these, whatever has been said by some writers, I can find no
manner of difference; the distinction was merely teclinicai,
English Const. THE PEASANTRY 529
and affected only the mode of pleading. The term "in
gross" is appropriated in our legal language to property
held absolutely and without reference to any other. Thus
it is applied to rights of advovvson or of common when pos-
sessed simply and not as incident to any particular lands.
And there can be no doubt that it was used in the same
sense for the possession of a villein. But there was a class
of persons, sometimes inaccurately confounded with villeins,
whom it is more important to separate. Villenage had a
double sense, as it related to persons or to lands. As all
men were free or villeins, so all lands were held by a free or
villein tenure. As a villein might be enfeoffed of freeholds,
though they lay at the mercy of his lord, so a freeman
might hold tenements in villenage. In this case his per-
sonal liberty subsisted along with the burdens of territorial
servitude. He was bound to arbitrary service at the will
of the lord, and he might by the same will be at any mo-
ment dispossessed ; for such was the condition of his ten-
ure. But his chattels were secure from seizure, his per-
son from injury, and he might leave the land whenever he
pleased.
From so disadvantageous a condition as this of villenage
it may cause some surprise that the peasantry of England
should have ever emerged. The law incapacitating a vil-
lein from acquiring property placed, one would imagine, an
insurmountable barrier in the way of his enfranchisement.
It followed from thence, and is positively said by Glanvil,
that a villein could not buy his freedom, because the price
he tendered would already belong to his lord. And even in
the case of free tenants in villenage it is not easy to com-
prehend how their uncertain and unbounded services could
ever pass into slight pecuniary commutations; much less
how they could come to maintain themselves in their lands,
and mock the lord with a nominal tenure according to the
custom of the manor.
This, like many others relating to the progress of society,
is a very obscure inquiry ; but the following observations
may tend a little to illustrate our immediate subject, the
gradual extinction of villenage.
The services of villenage were gradually rendered less on-
erous and uncertain. Lords of generous tempers granted in-
dulgences which were either intended to be or readily be-
came perpetual. And thus, in the time of Edward I., we
find the tenants in some manors bound only to stated serv-
ices, as recorded in the lord's book. Some of these, pei"^
23
530 VILLENAGE OF PEASANTRY. Chap. VIII. Part III.
haps, might be villeins by blood ; but free tenants in villen-
age were still more likely to obtain this precision in their
services ; and, from claiming a customary right to be en-
tered in the court-roll upon the same terms as their prede-
cessors, prevailed at length to get copies of it for their secu-
rity. Proofs of this remarkable transformation from ten-
ants in villenage to copy-holders are found in the reign of
Henry III. ; and in that of Edward IV. the judges permit-
ted the copy-holder to bring his action of trespass against
the lord for dispossession.
While some of the more fortunate villeins crept up into
property as well as freedom under the name of copy-holders,
the greater part enfranchised themselves in a different man-
ner. The law which treated them so harshly did not take
away the means of escape ; nor was this a matter of diffi-
culty in such a country as England. To this, indeed, the
unequal progression of agriculture and population in differ-
ent counties would have naturally contributed. Men emi-
grated, as they always must, in search of cheapness or em-
ployment, according to the tide of human necessities. But
the villein, who had no additional motive to urge his steps
away from his native place, might well hope to be forgotten
or undiscovered when he breathed a freer air, and engaged
his voluntary labor to a distant master. The lord had in-
deed an action against liim ; but there was so little commu-
nication between remote parts of the country that it might
be deemed his fault, or singular ill-fortune, if he were com-
pelled to defend himself Even in that case the law inclined
to favor him; and so many obstacles were thrown in the
way of these suits to reclaim fugitive villeins, that they
could not have operated materially to retard their general
enfranchisement. In one case, indeed — that of unmolested
residence for a year and a day within a walled city or bor-
ough — the villein became free, and the lord was absolutely
barred of his remedy. This provision is contained even in
the laws of William the Conqueror, as contained in Hove-
den, and, if it be not an interpolation, may be supposed to
have had a view to strengthen the population of those places
which were designed for garrisons. This law, whether of
William or not, is unequivocally mentioned by Glanvil.
By such means a large proportion of the peasantry before
the middle of the fourteenth century had become hired la-
borers instead of villeins. We first hear of them on a grand
scale in an ordinance made by Edward III. in the twenty-
third year of his reign. This was just after the dreadful
English Const. POPULAR OUTBREAKS. 531
pestilence of 1348, and it recites that, the number of work-
men and servants having been greatly reduced by that ca-
lamity, the remainder demanded excessive wages from their
employers. Such an enhancement in the price of labor,
though founded exactly on the same principles as regulate
the value of any other commodity, is too frequently treated
as a sort of crime by lawgivers, who seem to grudge the
poor that transient melioration of their lot which the prog-
ress of population, or other analogous circumstances, will,
without any interference, very rapidly take away. This or-
dinance, therefore, enacts that every man in England of
whatever condition, bond or free, of able body, and within
sixty years of age, not living of his own, nor by any trade,
shall be obliged, when required, to serve any master who is
willing to hire him at such wages as were usually paid three
years since, or for some time preceding ; provided that the
laws of villeins or tenants in villenage shall have the prefer-
ence of their labor, so that they retain no more than shall
be necessary for them. More than these old wages is strict-
ly forbidden to be offered, as well as demanded. Xo one is
permitted, under color of charity, to give alms to a beggar.
And, to make some compensation to the inferior classes for
these severities, a clause is inserted, as wise, just, and prac-
ticable as the rest, for the sale of provisions at reasonable
prices.
§ 29. This ordinance met with so little regard that a stat-
ute was made in Parliament two years after, fixing the wages
of all artificers and husbandmen with regard to the nature
and season of their labor. From this time it became a fre-
quent complaint of the Commons that the statute of laborers
was not kept. The king had in this case, probably, no other
reason for leaving their grievance unredressed than his in-
ability to change the. order of Providence. A silent altera-
tion had been wrought in the condition and character of
the lower classes during the reign of Edw^ard III. This was
the effect of increased knowledge and refinement, which
had been making a considerable progress for full half a cen-
tury, though they did not readily permeate the cold region
of poverty and ignorance. It was natural that the country
people, or uplandish folk, as they were called, should repine
at the exclusion from that enjoyment of competence and
security for the fruits of their labor which the inhabitants
of towns so fully possessed. The fourteenth century was,
in many parts of Europe, the age when a sense of political
servitude was most keenly felt. Thus the insurrection of
532 POPULAR OUTBREAKS. Chap. VIII. Part III.
the Jacquerie in France, about the year 1358, had the same
character, and resulted in a great measure from the same
causes, as that of the Englisli peasants in 1382. And we
may account in a similar manner for the democratical tone
of the French and Flemish cities, and for the prevalence of
a spirit of liberty in Germany and Switzerland.^^
I do not know whether we should attribute part of this
revolutionary concussion to the preaching of Wicliffe's disci-
ples, or look upon both one and the other as phenomena be-
longing to that particular epoch in the progress of society.
New principles, both as to civil rule and religion, broke sud-
denly upon the uneducated mind, to render it bold, presump-
tuous, and turbulent. But at least I make little doubt that
the dislike of ecclesiastical power, which spread so rapidly
among the people at this season, connected itself with a
spirit of insubordination and an intolerance of political sub-
jection. Both were nourished by the same teachers, the
lower secular clergy ; and however distinct we may think a
religious reformation from a civil anarchy, there was a good
deal common in the language by which the populace were
inflamed to either one or the other. Even the scriptural
moralities which were then exhibited, and which became the
foundation of our theatre, aflbrded fuel to the spirit of sedi-
tion. The common original and common destination of man-
kind, with every other lesson of equality which religion sup-
plies to humble or to console, were displayed with coarse
and glaring features in these representations. The familiar-
ity of such ideas has deadened their effects upon our minds ;
but when a rude peasant, surprisingly destitute of religious
instruction during that corrupt age of the Church, was led
at once to these impressive truths, we can not be astonished
at the intoxication of mind they produced.
The storm that almost swept away all bulwarks of civ-
ilized and regular society seems to have been long in collect-
ing itself. Perhaps a more sagacious legislature might have
contrived to disperse it; but the Commons only presented
complaints of the refractoriness with which villeins and ten-
ants in villenage rendered their due services; and the exi-
gencies of government led to the fatal poll-tax of a groat,
which was the proximate cause of the insurrection. By the
demands of these rioters we perceive that territorial servi-
tude was far from extinct ; but it should not be hastily con-
cluded that they were all personal villeins, for a large pro-
portion were Kentishmen, to whom that condition could not
83 NoTK II.. " Popular Poetry."
English Const. MANUMISSION OF VILLEINS. 533
have applied ; it being a good bar to a writ de nativitate
probanda that the party's father was born in the county of
Kent.
After this tremendous rebellion it might be expected that
the legislature would use little indulgence towards the lower
commons. Such unhappy tumults are doubly mischievous,
not more from the immediate calamities that attend them
than from the fear and hatred of the people which they gen-
erate in the elevated classes. The general charter of manu-
mission extorted from the king by the rioters of Blackheath
was annulled by proclamation to the sheriffs, and this revo-
cation approved by the Lords and Commons in Parliament ;
who added, as was very true, that such enfranchisement
could not be made without their consent ; " which they would
never give to save themselves from perishing all together in
one day." Riots were turned into treason by a law of the
same Parliament. By a very harsh statute in the 12th of
Richard II. no servant or laborer could depart, even at tlie
expiration of his service, from the hundred in which he lived
w^ithout permission under the king's seal; nor might any
who had been bred to husbandry till twelve years old exer-
cise any other calling. A i'ew years afterwards the Com-
mons petitioned that villeins might not put their children to
school in order to advance them by the Church ; " and this
for the honor of all the freemen of the kingdom." In the
same Parliament they complained that villeins fly to cities
and boroughs, whence their masters can not recover them,
and, if they attempt it, are hindered by the people ; and
prayed that the Lords might seize their villeins in such places
without regard to the franchises thereof But on both these
petitions the king jjut in a negative.
From henceforward we find little notice taken of villenage
in Parliamentary records, and there seems to have been a
rajjid tendency to its entire abolition.
§ 30. I can not presume to conjecture in what degree vol-
untary manumission is to be reckoned among the means that
contributed- to the abolition of villenage. Charters of en-
franchisement were very common upon the Continent. They
may perhaps have been less so in England. Instances, how-
ever, occur from time to time, and we can not expect to dis-
cover many. One appears as early as the fifteenth year of
Henry III., who grants to all persons born or to be born
within his village of Contishall, that they shall be free from
all villenage in body and blood, paying an aid of twenty
shillings to knight the king's eldest son, and six shillings a
534 KEIGN OF HENRY VI. Chap. VIU. Part III.
year as a quitrent. So in the twelfth of Edward III. certain
of the king's villeins are enfranchised on payment of a fine.
In strictness of law, a fine from the villein for the sake of en-
franchisement was nugatory, since all he could possess was
already at his lord's disposal. But custom and equity might
easily introduce different maxims ; and it was plainly for the
lord's interest to encourage his tenants in the acquisition of
money to redeem themselves, rather than to quench the ex-
ertions of their industry by availing himself of an extreme
right. Deeds of enfranchisement occur in the reigns of Mary
and Elizabeth ; and perhaps a commission of the latter prin-
cess in 1574, directing the enfranchisement of her bondmen
and bondwomen on certain manors upon payment of a fine,
is the last unequivocal testimony to the existence of villen-
age ; though it is highly probable that it existed in remote
parts of the country some time longer.
§ 31. From this general view of the English constitution,
as it stood about the time of Henry VI., we must turn our
eyes to the political revolutions which clouded the latter
years of his reign. The minority of this prince, notwith-
standing the vices and dissensions of his court and the in-
glorious discomfiture of our arms in France, w^as not perhaps
a calamitous jjeriod. The country grew more wealthy ; the
law was, on the whole, better observed ; the power of Par-
liament more complete and effectual than in preceding times.
But Henry's weakness of understanding becoming evident
as he reached manhood, rendered his reign a perpetual mi-
nority. His marriage with a princess of strong mind, but
ambitious and vindictive, rather tended to weaken the gov-
ernment and to accelerate his downfall — a certain reverence
that had been paid to the gentleness of the king's disposition
being overcome by her unpopularity. By degrees Henry's
natural feebleness degenerated almost into fatuity; and this
unhappy condition seems to have overtaken him nearly about
the time when it became an arduous task to withstand the
assault in preparation against his government. This may
properly introduce a great constitutional subject, to which
some peculiar circumstances in the reign of George HI. im-
periously directed the consideration of Parliament. Though
the proceedings of 1788 and 1810 are undoubtedly prece-
dents of far more authority than any that can be derived
from our ancient history, yet, as the seal of the legislature
has not yet been set upon this controversy, it is not perhaps
altogether beyond the possibility of future discussion ; and
at least it can not be uninterestino: to look back on those
English Const. HISTORICAL INSTANCES. 635
parallel or analogous cases by which the deliberations of Par-
liament upon the question of regency were guided.
§ 32. While the kings of England retained their continent-
al dominions, and were engaged in the wars to which those
gave birth, they were of course frequently absent from this
country. Upon such occasions the administration seems at
first to have devolved officially on tlie justiciary, as chief
servant of the crown. But Henry III. began the practice of
appointing lieutenants, or guardians of the realm (custodes
regni), as they were more usually termed, by way of tem-
porary substitutes. They were usually nominated by the
king without consent of Parliament; and their office carried
with it the right of exercising all the prerogatives of the
crown. The most remarkable circumstance attending those
lieutenancies was that they were sometimes conferred on the
heir-apparent during his infancy. The Black Prince, then
duke of Cornwall, was left guardian of the realm in 1339,
when he was but ten years old ; and Richard his son, when
still younger, in 1372, during Edward III.'s last expedition
into France.
These do not, however, bear a very close analogy to re-
gencies in the stricter sense, or substitutions during the nat-
ural incapacity of the sovereign. Of such there had been
several instances before it became necessary to supply the
deficiency arising from Henry's derangement. 1. At the
death of John, William, earl of Pembroke, assumed the title
of rector regis et regni, with the consent of the loyal barons
who had just proclaimed the young king, and probably con-
ducted the government in a great measure by their advice.
But the circumstances were too critical, and the time is too
remote, to give this precedent any material weight. 2. Ed-
ward I. being in Sicily at his father's death, the nobility met
at the Temple Church, as we are informed by a contempora-
ry writer, and, after making a new great seal, appointed the
Archbishop of York, Edward, earl of Cornwall, and the earl
of Gloucester, to be ministers and guardians of the realm ;
who accordingly conducted the administration in the king's
name until his return.^* It is here observable that the Earl
of Cornwall, though nearest prince of the blood, was not sup-
posed to enjoy any superior title to the regency, wherein
lie was associated with two other persons. But while the
crown itself was hardly acknowledged to be unquestionably
hereditary, it would be strange if any notion of such a right
to the regency had been entertained. 3. At the accession
34 Matt. Westmoiiast. ap. Brady's History of England, vol. ii., p. 1.
636 mSTOKICAL INSTANCES Chap. VIII. Part 111.
of Edward III., then fourteen years old, the Parliament,
which was immediately summoned, nominated four bishops,
four earls, and six barons as a standing council, at the head
of which the Earl of Lancaster seems to have been placed, to
advise the king in all business of government. It was an ar-
ticle in the charge of treason, or, as it w^as then styled, of ac-
croaching royal power, against Mortimer, that he intermed-
dled in the king's household without the assent of this coun-
cil. They may be deemed, therefore, a sort of Parliamenta-
ry regency, though the duration of their functions does not
seem to be defined. 4. The proceedings at the commence-
ment of the next reign are more worthy of attention. Ed-
ward III. dying June 21, 1377, the keepers of the great seal
next day, in absence of the chancellor beyond sea, gave it
into the young king's hands before his council. He imme-
diately delivered it to the Duke of Lancaster, and the duke
to Sir Nicholas Bode, for safe custody. Four days after-
wards the king in council delivered the seal to the Bishop
of St. David's, who afllixed it the same day to divers letters
patent. Richard was at this time ten years and six months
old ; an age certainly very unfit for the personal execution
of sovereign authoi-ity. Yet he was supposed capable of
reigning without the aid of a regency. This might be in
virtue of a sort of magic ascribed by lawyers to the great
seal, the possession of which bars all further inquiry, and
renders any government legal. The practice of modern
times requiring the constant exercise of the sign-manual has
made a public confession of incapacity necessary in many
cases where it might have been concealed or overlooked in
earlier periods of the constitution. But though no one was
invested with the office of regent, a council of twelve Avas
named by the prelates and peers at the king's coronation,
July 16, 1377, without whose concurrence no public measure
was to be carried into effect. I have mentioned in another
place the modifications introduced from time to time by Par-
liament, which might itself be deemed a great council of re-
gency during the first years of Richard. (See p. 467.) 5.
The next instance is at the accession of Henry VI. This
prince was but nine months old at his father's death ; and
whether from a more evident incapacity for the conduct of
government in his case than in that of Richard II., or from
the progress of constitutional principles in the forty years
elapsed since the latter's accession, far more regularity and
deliberation were shown in supplying the defect in the ex-
ecutive authority. Upon the news arriving that Henry V.
English Const. OF REGENCIES. 537
was deadj several lords spiritual and temporal assembled,
on account of the imminent necessity, in order to preserve
peace, and provide tor the exercise of offices appertaining to
the king. These peei*s accordingly issued commissions to
judges, sheriffs, escheators, and others, for various purposes,
and writs for a new Parliament. This was opened by com-
mission under the great seal directed to the Duke of Glouces-
ter, in the usual form, and with the king's teste. Some ordi-
nances were made in this Parliament by the Duke of Glouces-
ter as commissioner, and some in the king's name. The
acts of the peers who had taken on themselves the adminis-
tration, and summoited Parliament, were confirmed. On the
twenty-seventh day of its session, it is entered upon the roll
that the king, " considering his tender age, and inability to
direct in person the concerns of his realm, by assent of Lords
and Commons, appoints the Duke of Bedford, or, in his ab-
sence beyond sea, the Duke of Gloucester, to be protector
and defender of the kingdom and English Church, and the
king's chief counsellor." Letters patent were made out to
this effect, the appointment being, however, expressly during
the king's pleasure. Sixteen councillors were named in Par-
liament to assist the protector in his administration ; and
their concurrence was made necessary to the removal and
appointment of officers, except some inferior patronage spe-
cifically reserved to the protector. This arrangement was
in contravention of the late king's testament, which had con-
ferred the regency on the Duke of Gloucester, in exclusion
of his elder brother. But the nature and spirit of these pro-
ceedings will be better understood by a remarkable passage
in a roll of a later Parliament ; where the House of Lords, in
answer to a request of Gloucester that he might know what
authority he possessed as protector, remind him that in the
first Parliament of the king —
"Ye desii-ed to have had ye governaunce of yis land; affermyng yat hit
belonged unto you of rygzt, as well by ye mene of your birth as by ye laste
wylle of ye kyng yat was your broyer, whome God assoile ; alleggyng for
you such groundes and motyves as it was yought to your discretion made
for your intent ; whereupon, the lords spiritual and temporal assembled
there in Parliament, among which were there my lordes your uncles, the
Bishop of Winchester that now liveth, and the Duke of Exeter, and your
cousin the Earl of March that be gone to God, and of Wanvick, and other
in great number that now live, had great and long deliberation and advice,
searched precedents of the governail of the land in time and case semblable,
when kings of this land have been tender of age, took also information of the
laws of the land, of such persons as be notably learned therein, and finally
found your said desire not caused nor grounded in precedent, nor in the law
of the land ; the which the king that dead is, in his life nor might by his last
23*
538 HISTORICAL REGENCIES. Chap. VIII. Fait III.
will nor otherwise altre, change, nor abroge, without the assent of the three
estates, nor commit or grant to any person governance or rule of this land
longer than he lived ; but on that other behalf, the said lords found your
said desire not according with the laws of this land, and against the right
and fredome of the estates of the same land. Howe were it tliat it be not
thought that any such thing wittingly proceeded of your intent ; and never-
theless to keep peace and tranquillity, and to the intent to ease and appease
you, it was advised and aj^ointed by authority of the king, assenting the
three estates of this land, that ye, in absence of my lord your bi-other of Bed-
ford, should be chief of the king's council, and devised unto you a name dif-
ferent from other counsellors, not the name of tutor, lieutenant, governor,
nor of regent, nor no name that should impoit authority of governance of the
land, but the name of protector and defensor, Avhich importeth a personal
duty of attendance to the actual defense of the land, as well against enemies
outward, if case required, as against rebels inward, if any were, that God for-
bid; granting you therewith certain power, the which is specified and con-
tained in an act of the said Parliament, to endure as long as it liked the king.
In the which, if the intent of the said estates had been that ye more power
and authority should have had, more should have been expressed therein ;
to the which appointment, ordinance, and act, ye then agreed you as for your
person, making nevertheless protestation that it was not your intent in any
wise to deroge or do prejudice unto my lord your brother of Bedford by your
said agreement, as toward any right that he would pretend or claim in the
governance of this land ; and as toward any pre-eminence that you might
have or belong unto you as chief of council, it is plainly declared in the said
act and articles, subscribed by my said lord of Bedford, by yourself, and the
other lords of the council. But as in Parliament to which ye be called upon
your faith and ligeance as Duke of Glocester, as other lords be, and not oth-
erwise, we know no power nor authority that ye have, other than ye as Duke
of Glocester should have, the king being in Parliament, at years of most
discretion : We man'ailing with all our hearts that, considering the open
declaiation of the authority and power belonging to my lord of Bedford and
to you in his absence, and also to the king's council subscribed purely and
simply by my said lord of Bedford and by you, that you should in any wise
be stirred or moved not to content you therewith or to pretend you any oth-
er : Namely, considering that the king, blessed be our Lord, is, sith the time
of the said power granted unto you, far gone and grown in person, in wit,
and understanding, and like with the grace of God to occupy his own royal
power within few years : and forasmuch considering the things and causes
abovesaid, and other many that long were to write. We lords aforesaid pray,
exhort, and require you to content you with the power abovesaid and de-
clared, of the which my lord your brother of Bedford, the king's eldest uncle,
contented him : and that ye none larger power desire, will, nor use ; giving
you this that is aboven written for our answer to your foresaid demand, the
which we will dwell and abide with, withouten variance or changing. Over
this beseeching and praying you in our most humble and lowly wise, and also
requiring you in the king's name, that ye, according to the king's command-
ment, contained in his writ sent unto you in that behalf, come to this his
present Parliament, and intend to the good effect and speed of matters to
be demesned and treted in the same, like as of right ye owe to do." — Rot.
Pari., 6 Henry VI., vol. iv., p. 326.
It is evident that this plain, or rather rude, address to the
Duke of Gloucester was dictated by the prevalence of Car-
dinal Beaufort's party in council and Parliament. But the
English Const. DUKE OF YORK PROTECTOR. 539
transactions in the former Parliament are not unfairly rep-
resented ; and, comparing them with the passage extracted
above, we may perhaps be entitled to infer : ]. That the king
does not possess any constitutional prerogative of appoint-
ing a regent during the minority of his successor; and 2.
That neither the heir presumptive, nor any other person, is
entitled to exercise the royal prerogative during the king's
infancy (or, by parity of reasoning, his infirmity), nor to any
title that conveys them ; the sole right of determining the
persons by whom, and fixing the limitations under which,
the executive government shall be conducted in the king's
name and behalf, devolving upon the great council of Parlia-
ment.
In two years the party hostile to Gloucester's influence
had gained ground enough to abrogate his office of protect-
or, leaving only the lionorary title of chief counsellor. For
this the king's coronation, at eight years of age, was thought
a fair pretense. The government was conducted as before
by a selfish and disunited council ; but the king's name was
sufficient to legalize their measures, nor does any objection
appear to have been made in Parliament to such a mockery
of the name of monarchy. In the year 1454, the thirty-sec-
ond of Henry's reign, his unhappy malady, transmitted per-
haps from liis maternal grandfather, assumed so decided a
character of derangement or imbecility, that Parliament
could no longer conceal from itself the necessity of a more
efficient ruler. An act was passed accordingly, constituting
the Duke of York protector of the Church and kingdom, and
chief counsellor of the king, during the latter's pleasure ; or
until the Prince of Wales should attain years of discretion,
on whom the said dignity was immediately to devolve.
It may be conjectured by the provision made in favor of
the Prince of Wales, then only two years old, that the king's
condition was supposed to be beyond hope of restoration.
But in about nine months he recovered sufficient speech and
recollection to supersede the Duke of York's protectorate.
The succeeding transactions are matter of familiar, though
not, perhaps, very perspicuous history. The king was a pris-
oner in his enemies' hands after the affair at St. Albans, when
Parliament met, in July, 1455. In this session little was
done except renewing the strongest oaths of allegiance to
Henry and his family. But the tw^o houses meeting again
after a prorogation to November 12, during which time the
Duke of York had strengthened his party, he was reappoint-
ed to his charge of protector. It is worthy of notice that in
540 YORK'S CLAIM TO THE CROWN. Chap. VIII. Part III
this transaction the House of Peers assumed an exclusive
right of choosing the protector, though, in the act passed
to ratify their election, the Commons' assent, as a matter
of course, is introduced. The last year's precedent was fol-
lowed in the present instance, excepting a remarkable devia-
tion ; instead of the words " during the king's pleasure," the
duke was to hold his office " until he should be discharged
of it by the Lords in Parliament."
This extraordinary clause, and the slight allegations on
which it was thought lit to substitute a vicegerent for the
reigning monarch, are sufficient to prove, even if the common
historians were silent, that whatever passed as to this sec-
ond protectorate of the Duke of York w^as altogether of a
revolutionary complexion. In the actual circumstances of
civil blood already spilled, and the king in captivity, we may
justly wonder that so much regard was shown to the regular
forms and precedents of the constitution. But the duke's
natural moderation will account for part of this, and the
temper of the Lords for much more. That assembly appears
for the most part to have been faithfully attached to the
house of Lancaster. The partisans of Richard were found in
the Commons and among the populace. Several months
elapsed after the victory of St. Albans before an attempt
was thus made to set aside a sovereign, not laboring, so far
as we know, under any more notorious infirmity than before.
It then originated in the Commons, and seems to have re-
ceived but an unwilling consent from the upper house. Even
in constituting the Duke of York protector over the head of
Henry, whom all men despaired of ever seeing in a state to
face the dangers of such a season, the Lords did not forget
the rights of his son. By this latter instrument, as well as
by that of the preceding year, the duke's office was to cease
upon the Prince of Wales arriving at the age of discretion.
§ 33. But what had long been propagated in secret soon
became familiar to the public ear — that the Duke of York
laid claim to the throne. He was unquestionably heir gen-
eral of the royal line, through his mother, Anne, daughter of
Roger Mortimer, earl of March, son of Philippa, daughter of
Lionel, duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III. Roger
Mortimer's eldest son, Edmund, had been declared heir pre-
sumptive by Richard II. ; but his infancy during the revolu-
tion that placed Henry IV. on the throne had caused his pre-
tensions to be passed over in silence. The new king, how-
ever, was induced, by a jealousy natural to his situation, to
detain the Earl of March in custody. Henry V. restored his
English Const. YORK'S CLAIM TO THE CROWN. 541
liberty ; and, though he had certainly connived for a while
at the conspiracy planned by his brother-in-law, the Earl of
Cambridge, and Lord Scrope of Mashani, to place the crown
on his head, that magnanimous prince gave him a free par-
don, and never testified any displeasure. The present Duke
of York was honored by Henry VI. with the highest trusts
in France and Ireland, such as Beaufort and Gloucester
could never have dreamed of conferring on him if his title to
the crown had not been reckoned obsolete. It has been very
pertinently remarked that the crime perpetrated by Marga-
ret and her counsellors in the death of the Duke of Glouces-
ter was the destruction of the house of Lancaster. From
this time the Duke of York, next heir in presumption while
the king was childless, might innocently contemplate the
prospect of royalty; and when such ideas had long been
passing through his mind, w,e may judge how reluctantly the
birth of Prince Edward, nine years after Henry's marriage,
would be admitted to disturb them. The queen's adminis-
tration unpopular, careless of national interests, and partial
to his inveterate enemy, the Duke of Somerset; the king in-
capable of exciting fear or respect, himself conscious of pow-
erful alliances and universal favor — all these cii'cumstances
combined could hardly fail to nourish those opinions of he-
reditary right which he must have imbibed from his infancy.
The Duke of York preserved through the critical season
of rebellion such moderation and humanity that we may par-
don him that bias in favor of his own pretensions to which
he became himself a victim. Margaret, perhaps, by her san-
guinary violence in the Coventry Parliament of 1460, where
the duke and all his adherents were attainted, left him not the
choice of remaining a subject with impunity. But with us,
who are to weigh these ancient factions in the balance of
wisdom and justice, there should be no hesitation in decid-
ing that the house of Lancaster were lawful sovereigns of
England. I am, indeed, astonished that not only such histo-
rians as Carte, who wrote undisguisedly upon a Jacobite sys-
tem, but even men of juster principles, have been inadvert-
ent enough to mention the right of the house of York. If
the original consent of the nation, if three descents of the
crown, if repeated acts of Parliament, if oaths of allegiance
from the whole kingdom, and more particularly from those
who now advanced a contrary pretension, if undisturbed,
unquestioned possession during sixty years, could not secure
the reigning family against a mere defect in their genealogy,
when were the people to expect tranquillity? No prejudice
542 WAR OF THE ROSES. Chap. VIII. Part UL
has less in its favor, and none has been more fatal to the
peace of mankind, than that which regards a nation of sub-
jects as a family's private inheritance. The law of England
has been held to annex the subject's fidelity to the reigning
monarch, by whatever title he may have ascended the throne,
and whoever else may be its claimant. ^^ But the statute of
the 11th of Henry VII., c. 1, has furnished an unequivocal
commentary upon this principle, when, alluding to the con-
demnations and forfeitures by which those alternate successes
of the white and red roses had almost exhausted the noble
blood of England, it enacts that " no man for doing true and
faithful service to the king for the time being be convict or
attaint of high treason, nor of other offenses, by act of Par-
liament or otherwise."
Though all classes of men and all parts of England were di-
vided into factions by this unhappy contest, yet the strength
of the Yorkists lay in London and the neighboring counties,
and generally among the middling and lower people. And
this is what might naturally be expected. For notions of
hereditary right take easy hold of the populace, who feel an
honest sympathy for those whom they consider as injured;
while men of noble birth and high station have a keener
sense of personal duty to their sovereign, and of the baseness
of desertinor their allesriance. Notwithstandhio: the wide-
spreading influence of the Nevils, most of the nobility were
well affected to the reigning dynasty. They acquiesced re-
luctantly in the second protectorate of the Duke of York af-
ter the battle of St. Albans. Thirty-two temporal peers took
an oath of fealty to Henry and his issue in the Coventry Par-
liament of 1460, which attainted the Duke of York and the
earls of Warwick and Salisbury. And in the memorable
circumstances of the duke's claim personally made in Parlia-
ment, it seems manifest that the Lords complied not only
with hesitation but unwillingness, and in fact testified their
respect and duty for Henry by confirming the crown to him
during his life. The rose of Lancaster blushed upon the ban-
ners of the Staffords, the Percies, the Veres, the Hollands, and
the Courtneys. All these illustrious families lay crushed for
a time under the ruins of their party. But the course of for-
tune, which has too great a mastery over crowns and scep-
tres to be controlled by men's affection, invested Edward IV.
with a possession which the general consent of the nation
both sanctioned and secured. This was effected in no slight
degree by the furious spirit of Margaret, who began a system
35 Hale's Pleas of the Crown, vol. i., pp. Gl, 101 (edit. 1T36).
English Const. EDWARD IV. 543
of extermination by acts of attainder and execution of pris-
oners that created abhorrence, though it did not prevent im-
itation. And the barbarities of her Northern army, whom
she led towards London after the battle of Wakefield, lost
the Lancastrian cause its former friends, and might justly
convince reflecting men that it were better to risk the
chances of a new dynasty than trust the kingdom to an ex-
asperated faction.
§ 34. A period of obscurity and confusion ensues, during
which we have as little insight into constitutional as general
nistory. The/e are no contemporary chroniclers of any value,
and the rolls of Parliament, by whose light we have hitberto
Bteered, become mere registers of private bills,, or of petitions
relating to commerce. The reign of Edward IV. is the first
during which no »tatute was passed for the redress of griev-
ances or maintenance of the subject's liberty. Nor is there,
if I am correct, a single petition of this nature upon the roll.
The reign of Edward IV. was a reign of terror. One half
of the noble families had been thinned by proscription ; and
though generally restored in blood by the reversal of their
attainders — a measure certainly deserving of much approba-
tion — were still under the eyes of vigilant and inveterate en-
emies. Besides the severe proceedings against the Lancas-
trian party, which might be extenuated by the common pre-
tenses — retaliation of similar proscriptions, security for the
actual government, or just punishment of rebellion against
a legitimate heir — there are several reputed instances of vio-
lence and barbarity in the reign of Edward IV. which have
not such plausible excuses. Every one knows the common
stories of the citizen who was attainted of treason for an idle
speech that he would make his son heir to the crown, the
house where he dwelt ; and of Thomas Burdett, who wished
the horns of his stag in the belly of him who had advised the
king to shoot it. Of the former I can assert nothing, though
I do not believe it to be accurately reported. But certainly
the accusation against Burdett, however iniquitous, was not
confined to these frivolous words ; which, indeed, do not ap-
pear in his indictment, or in a passage relative to his convic-
tion in the roll of Parliament. Burdett was a servant and
friend of the Duke of Clarence, and sacrificed as a prelimin-
ary victim. It was an article of charge against Clarence that
he had attempted to persuade the people that " Thomas Bur-
dett, his servant, which was lawfully and truly attainted of
treason, was wrongfully put to death." There could, indeed,
be no more oppressive usage inflicted upon meaner persons
644 EDWARD IV. Chap. VIII. Part IIL
than this attainder of the Dnke of Clarence — an act for which
a brother could not be pardoned, had he been guilty, and
which deepens the shadow of a tyrannical age, if, as it seems,
his offense towards Edward was but levity and rashness.
But whatever acts of injustice we may attribute, from au-
thority or conjecture, to Edward's government, it was very
far from being unpopular. His love of pleasure, his affability,
his courage and beauty, gave him a credit with his subjects
which he had no real virtue to challenge. This restored him
to the throne, even against the prodigious influence of War-
wick, and compelled Henry VII. to treat his memory witli
respect, and acknowledge him as a lawful king. The latter
years of his reign were passed in repose at home after scenes
of unparalleled convulsions, and in peace abroad after more
than a century of expensive warfare. He was the first who
practised a new method of taking his subjects' money with-
out consent of Parliament, under the plausible name of be-
nevolences. These came in place of the still more plausible
loans of former monarchs, and were principally levied on the
wealthy traders. Though no complaint appears in the Par-
liamentary records of his reign, which, as has been observed,
complain of nothing, the illegality was undoubtedly felt and
resented. In Richard III.'s only Parliament an act was passed
which, after reciting in the strongest terms the grievances
lately endured, abrogates and annuls forever all exactions un-
der the name of benevolence. The liberties of this country
were at least not directly impaired by the usurpation of Rich-
ard ; but from an act so deeply tainted with moral guilt, as
well as so violent in all its circumstances, no substantial ben-
efit was likely to spring. Whatever difiiculty there may be in
deciding upon the fate of Richard's nephews after they were
immured in the Tower, the more public parts of the transac-
tion bear unequivocal testimony to his ambitious usurpation.^"
It would, therefore, be foreign to the purpose of this chapter
to dwell upon his assumption of the regency, or upon the sort
of election, however curious and remarkable, which gave a
pretended authority to his usurpation of the throne. Neither
of these has ever been alleged by any party in the way of
constitutional precedent.
§ 35. At this epoch I terminate these inquiries into the
>• The long-debated question as to the murder of Edward and his brother seems to
toe more probably solved on the common supposition that it was really perpetrated
by the orders of Richard, than on that of Walpole, Carte, Henry, and Laing:, who
maintain that the Duke of York, at least, was in some way released from the Tower,
and reappeared as Perkin Warbeck. But a very strong conviction either way is not
readily attainable.
English Const. CONCLUSION. 545
English constitution. From the accession of the house of
Tudor a new period is to be dated in our history, far more
prosperous in the diffusion of opulence and the preservation
of general order than the preceding, but less distinguished by
the spirit of freedom and jealousy of tyrannical power. We
have seen, through the twilight of our Anglo-Saxon records,
a form of civil policy established by our ancestors, marked,
like the kindred governments of the Continent, with aborig-
inal Teutonic features; barbarous indeed, and insufficient for
the great ends of society, but capable and worthy of the im-
provement it has received, because actuated by a sound and
vital spirit, the love of freedom and of justice. From these
principles arose that venerable institution, which none but a
free and simple people could have conceived, trial by peers —
an institution common in some degree to other nations, but
which, more widely extended, more strictly retained, and
better modified among ourselves, has become perhaps the
first, certainly among tlie first, of our securities against arbi-
trary government. We have seen a foreign conqueror and
his descendants trample almost alike upon the prostrate
nation and upon those who had been companions of their
victory, introduce the servitudes of feudal law with more
than their usual rigor, and establish a large revenue by con-
tinual precedents upon a system of universal and prescrip-
tive extortion. But the Norman and English races, each
unfit to endure oppression, forgetting their animosities in a
common interest, enforce by arms the concession of a great
charter of liberties. Privileges wrested from one faithless
monarch are preserved with continual vigilance against the
machinations of another; the rights of the people become
more precise, and their spirit more magnanimous, during the
long reign of Henry III. With greater ambition, and great-
er abilities than his father, Edward I. attempts in vain to
govern in an arbitrary manner, and has the mortification
of seeing his prerogative fettered by still more important
limitations. The great council of the nation is opened to
the representatives of the Commons. They proceed by slow
and cautious steps to remonstrate against public grievances,
to check the abuses of administration, and sometimes to
chastise public delinquency in the officers of the crown. A
number of remedial provisions are added to the statutes ; ev-
ery Englishman learns to remember that he is the citizen of
a free state, and to claim the common law as his birthright,
even though the violence of power should interrupt its enjoy-
ment. It were a strange misrepresentation of history to as-
546
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.
Part III.
sert that the constitution had attained any thing like a per-
fect state in the fifteenth century; but I know not whether
there are any essential privileges of our countrymen, any
fundamental securities against arbitrary power, so far as they
depend upon positive institution, which may not be traced to
the time when the house of Plantagenet filled the English
throne.
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.— Part III.
I. MUNICIPAL RIGHTS OF LONDON.
London was, from a very early period,
divided into wards, answering to hun-
dreds in the county ; each having its own
ward-mote, or leet, under its elected alder-
man. " The city of London, as well with-
in the walls as its liberties without the
walls, has been divided from time im-
memorial into wards, bearing nearly the
same relation to the city that the hundred
anciently did to the shire. Each ward is,
for certain purposes, a distinct jurisdic-
tion. The organization of the existing
municipal constitution of the city is, and
always has been, as far as can be traced,
entirely founded upon the ward system."
(Introduction to the French Chronicle of
London.— Camden Society, 1S44.) But the
portreeve of London, their principal mag-
istrate, appears to have been appointed by
the crown. It was not till 118S, the year
before the death of Henry II., that Henry
Fitzalwyn, ancestor of the present Lord
Beaumont,* became the first mayor of
London. But he also was nominated by
the crown, and remained twenty -four
years in office. In the same year the first
sheriffs are said to have been made {fac.~
if). But John, immediately after his ac-
cession in 1199, granted the citizens leave
to choose their own sheriffs. And his
charter of 1215 permits them to elect an-
nually their mayor. (Maitland's Hist, of
London, pp. 74, 76.) We read, however,
under the year 1200, in the ancient chron-
icle previously quoted, that twenty-five of
the most discreet men of the city were
chosen and sworn to advise for the city,
together with the mayor. These were ev-
idently different from the aldermen, and
*' This pedigree is elaborately traced by Mr. Staple-
ton, in his excellent introduction to the old chronicle
of London, already quoted. The name Alwyn appears
rather Saxon than Norman, so that we may presume
the first mayor to have been of English descent ; but
whether he were a merchant, or a land-owner living in
the city, must be undecided.
are the original common council of the
city. They were perhaps meant in a later
entry (1229) : " Omnes aldermauni et mag-
nates civitatis per assensum universorum
civium," who are said to have agreed nev-
er to permit a sheriff' to remain in office
during two consecutive years.
The city and liberties of London were
not wholly under the jurisdiction of the
several ward-motes and their aldermen.
Land-holders, secular and ecclesiastical,
possessed their exclusive sokes, or juris-
dictions, in parts of both. One of these
has left its name to the ward of Portso-
ken. The prior of the Holy Trinity, in
right of this district, ranked as an alder-
man, and held a regular ward -mote.
The wards of Farringdon are denomi-
nated from a family of that name, who
held a part of them by hereditary right
as their territorial franchise. These sokes
gave way so gradually before the power
of the citizens, with whom, as may be
supposed, a perpetual conflict was main-
tained, that there were nearly thirty of
them in the early part of the reign of
Henry III., and upward of twenty in that
of Edward I. With the exception of Port-
soken, they were not commensurate with
the city wards, and we find the juries of
the wards, in the third of Edward I., pre-
senting the sokes as liberties enjoyed by
private persons or ecclesiastical corpora-
tions, to the detriment of the croAvn. But,
though the lords of these sokes trenched
materially on the exclusive privileges of
the city, it is remarkable that, no condi-
tion but inhabitancy being required in
the thirteenth centnry for civic franchises,
both they and their tenants were citizens,
having individually a voice in municipal
affairs, though exempt from municipal ju-
risdiction. I have taken most of this par-
agraph from a valuable though short no-
tice of the state of London in the thir-
teenth century, published in the fourth vol-
ume of the Archaeological Journal (p. 273).
English Const.
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.
547
The inference which suggests itself from !
these facts is that London, for more than
two centuries after the Conquest, was not
BO exclusively a city of traders, a demo-
cratic municipality, as we have been wont
to conceive. And as this evidently ex-
tends back to the Anglo-Saxon period, it
both lessens the improbability that the
citizens bore at times a part in political
affairs, and exhibits them in a new light,
as lords and tenants of lords, as well as,
what of course they were in part, engaged
in foreign and domestic commerce. It will
strike every one, in running over the list of
mayors and sheriffs in the thirteenth ceu-
tnry, that a large proportion of the names
are French ; indicating, perhaps, that the
territorial proprietors whose sokes were
intermingled with the city had influence
enough, through birth and wealth, to ob-
tain an election. The general polity, Sax-
on and Norman, was aristocratic ; whatev-
er infusion there might be of a more pop-
ular scheme of government, and much cer-
tainly there was, could not resist, even if
resistance had been always the people's de-
sire, the joint predominance of rank, rich-
es, military habits, and common alliance,
which the great baronage of the realm
enjoyed. London, nevertheless, from its
populousness, and the usual character of
cities, was the centre of a democratic pow-
er, which, bursting at times into precipi-
tate and needless tumult easily repressed
by force, kept on its silent course till, near
the end of the thirteenth century, the rights
of the citizens and burgesses in the legisla-
ture were constitutionally established.
II. POPULAR POETRY.
The public history of Europe in the
Middle Ages inadequately represents the
popular sentiment, or only when it is ex-
pressed too loudly to escape the regard of
writers intent sometimes on less important
subjects. But when we descend below the
surface, a sullen murmur of discontent
meets the ear, and we perceive that man-
kind was not more insensible to wrongs
and sufferings than at present. Besides
the various outbreakings of the people in
several counties, and their complaints in
Parliament, after the Commons obtained
a representation, we gain a conclusive in-
sight into the spirit of the times by their
popular poetry. Two very interestins: col-
lections of this kind have been published
by the Camden Society: one, the poems
attributed to Walter Mapes ; the other, the
Political Songs of England, from John to
Edward II.
Mapes lived under Henry II., and has
'long been knovrn as the reputed author
of humorous Latin verses ; but it seems
much more probable that the far greater
part of the collection lately printed is not
from his hand. They may pass, not for
the production of a single person, but
rather of a class, during many years, or,
in general words, a century, ending with
the death of Henry III. in 12T2. Many of
them are professedly written by an imag-
inary Golias.
"They are not the expressions of hos-
tility of one man against an order of
monks, but of the indignant patriotism
of a considerable portion of the English
nation against the encroachments of civ-
il and ecclesiastical tyranny."— (Introduc-
tion to Poems ascribed t6 Walter Mapes,
p. 21.) The poems in this collection reflect
almost entirely on the pope and the high-
er clergy. They are all in rhyming Latin,
and chiefly, though with exceptions, in the
loose trochaic metre called Leonine. The
authors, therefore, must have been clerks,
actuated by the spirit which, in a Church
of great inequality in its endowments, and
with a very numerous body of poor clergy,
is apt to gain strength, but certainly, as ec-
clesiastical history bears witness, not one
of mere envious malignity towards the
prelates and the court of Rome. These
deserved nothing better, in the thirteenth
century, than biting satire and indignant
reproof; and the poets were willing enough
to bestow both.
But this popular poetry of the Middle
Ages did not confine itself to the Church.
In the collection eut'tled "Political Songs"
we have some reflecting on Henry III.,
some on the general administration. The
famous song on the battle of Lewes, in 1264,
is the earliest in English ; but in the reign
ofEdward I. several occur in thatlanguage.
Others are in French or in Latin ; one com-
plaining of the taxes is in an odd mixture
of these two languages ; which, indeed, is
not Avithout other examples in mediaeval
poetry. These Latin songs could not, of
course, have been generally understood.
But what the priests sung in Latin, they
said in English; the lower clergy fanned
the flame, and gave utterance to what oth-
ers felt. It may, perhaps, be remarked,
as a proof of general sympathy with the
democratic spirit which was then ferment-
ing, that we have a song of exultation on
the great defeat which Philip IV. had just
sustained at Courtrai, in 1.302, by the bur-
gesses of the Flemish cities, (m whose
I liberties he had attempted to trample (p.
I 187). It is true that Edward I. was on ill
I terms with France, bnt the political inter-
I ests of the king would not, i)erhaps, hav»
1 dictated the popular bal'.ad.
548
NOTES TO CHAFTEK VIII.
Part III.
Some of the political songs are written
in France, though relating to our kings
John and Henry III. Deducting these,
we have two in Latin for the forn^er
reign; seven in Latin, three in French
(or what the editor calls Anglo-Norman,
which is really the same thing), one in a
mixture of the two, and one in English,
for the reign of Henry III, In the reigns
of Edward I. and Edward II. we have
eight in Latin, three in French, nine in
English, and four in mixed languages— a
style employed probably for amusement.
It must be observed that a large propor-
tion of these songs contain panegyric and
exultation on victory rather than satire ;
and that of the satire much is general,
and much falls on the Church ; so that the
animadversions on the king and the no-
bility are not very frequent, though with
considerable boldness ; but this is more
shown in the Latin than the English
poems.
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS.
I. CHARTER OF LIBERTIES OF HENRY I.
Anno Incai'natiouis Dominicae M°C°I''.
Henkious filius Willelmi kegis post
obitum fralris sui Willelmi, Dei gratia
rex Anglorum, omnibus fldelibus salu-
tem.
1. Sciatis me Dei misericordia et com-
muni consilio baronum totius rcgni An-
gliae cjusdera regni legem coronatnm
esse; et quia rcgnum oppressum erat iu-
justis exactionibus, ego, Dei respectu et
amore quern erga vos habeo, sauctam Dei
ecclesiam imprimis liberam facio, ita quod
nee vendam nee ad firmam ponam, nee
mortuo archiepiscopo sive episcopo sive
abbafe aliqnid accipiam de clominico ec-
clesiae vel de hominibus ejus donee suc-
cessor in earn ingrediatur. Et omnes ma-
las consuetudines qnibus regnum Angliae
injuste opprimebatur inde aufero quas ma-
las consuetudines ex parte hie pono :
2. Si quis baronum, comitum meoram
sive aliorum qui de me tenent, mortuus
fuerit, haeres suns non redimet terram
suam sicut faciebat tempore fratris mei,
sed justa et legitima relevatione relevabit
earn. Similiter et homines baronum me-
orum justa et legitima relevatione releva-
bunt teiTas suas de dominis suis.
3. Et si quis baronum vel aliorum ho-
minum meorum filiam suam nuptum tra-
dere voluerit sive sororem sive neptim
3ive cognatam, mecum inde loqnatur ; sed
neque ego illiquid de suo pro hac licentia
accipiam neque defendam ei qnin earn det.
excepto si cam velletjungere inimico meo.
Et si mortuo barone sive alio homine meo
filia haeres remanserit, illam dabo consi-
lio baronum meorum cum terra sua. Et
si mortuo viro uxor ejus remanserit et
sine liberis fuerit, dotem suam et marita-
tionem habebit, et eam non dabo marito
nisi secundum velle suura.
4. Si vero uxor cum liberis remanserit,
dotem quidem et maritationem habebit,
dum corpus suum legitime servaverit, et
eam non dabo nisi secundum velle suum.
Et terrae et liberorum custos erit sive uxor
sive alius propinquorum qui justius esse
debeat. Et praecipio quod barones mei
similiter se contineant erga Alios et Alias
vel uxores hominura suorum.
5. Monetagium commune quod capie-
batur per civitates et comitatus quod non
fuit tempore regis Edwardi, hoc ne amt)do
fiat omnino detendo. Si quis captus fue-
rit sive monetarius sive alius cum falsa
moueta, justitia recta inde fiat.
6. Omnia placita et omnia debita quae
fratri meo debebantur condono, exceptis
rectis firmis meis et exceptis illis quae
pacta erant pro aliorum haereditatibus
vel pro eis rebus quae justius aliis contin-
gebant. Et si quis pro haereditate sua
aliquid pepigerat, illud condono, et omnes
relevationes quae pro rectis haereditatibus
pactae fueraut.
7. Et si quis baronum vel hominum
meorum infirmabitnr, sicut ipse dabit vel
dare disponet pecuniam suam, ita datam
esse concedo. Quod si ipse praeventus
arniis vel infirmitate, pecuniam suam non
dederit vel dare disposnerit, uxor sua sive
liberi aut parentes, et legitimi homines
ejus eam pro anima ejus dividant, sicut
eis melius visum fuerit.
8. Si quis baronum sive hominum me-
orum forisfecerit, non dabit vadium in
misericordia pecuniae, sicut faciebat tem-
pore patris mei vel fratris mei, sed secun-
dum modum forisfacti, ita emendabit sicut
emendasset retro a tempore patris mei, in
tempore aliorum antecessorum meorum.
Quod si perfidiae vel sceleris convictus
fuerit, sicut justum fuerit, sic emendet.
9. Murdra etiam retro ab ilia die qua in
regem coronatus fui omnia condono : et ea
quae amodo facta fuerint, juste emenden-
tnr secundum lagam regis Edwardi.
10. Forestas communi consensu baro-
num meorum in manu mea retinui, sicut
pater mens eas habnit.
11. Militibus qui per loricas terras suas
defendunt, terras dominicarum carruca-
rum suarum quietas ab omnibus gildis, et
omni opere, proj^rio dono meo concedo,
nt sicut tarn niagno allevamine alleviati
sint, ita se equis et armis bene instruant
English Const.
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.
549
ad servitium meum et ad defensiouem | te Ganfredo de Mandevilla, Hugone comite
rcj^ni mei. i Cestriae, Willelmo comite de Arundel, co*
12. Pacem flrmam in toto regno raeo i mite Patricio, Willelmo comite de Ferra-
pono et teneri amodo praecipio. riis, Ricardo tie Luci, Eeginaldo de Sane-
13. Lagam Edwardi regis vobis reddo ' to Walerico, Rogero Bigot, Reginaldo de
cnm illis emeudationibus qnibus pater Warenuia,Richero deAqnila, Willelmo de
mens earn emendavit cousilio baroiium
suoriim.
14. Si quis aliquid de rebus meis vel de
rebus alicnjns post obitum Willelmi regis
fratris mei ceperit, totum cito sine emen
Braiosa, Ricardo de Camvilla, Nigello de
Moubrai, Simone de Bello Campo, Hnm-
frido de Bonn, Malthaeo de Herefordia,
Waltero de Meduana, Manassero Biseth
dapifero, Willelmo Malet, Willelmo de
datioue reddatur, et si quis inde aliquid j Curci, Roberto de Dunstanvilla, Jocelino
retiuuerit, ille super quem iuveutura fue-
rit mihi graviter emendabit.
Testibus Matiricio Luudouiae episcopo
et Giiudulfo episcopo et Willelmo electo
episcopo et Henrico comite et Simone co-
mit-e et Waltero Giffardo et Rodberto de
Monfort et Rogero Bigoto et Henrico de
Portu, apud Lundoniam qnando fui coro-
natus. — ("Ancient Laws and Institutes,"
p. 215.)
II. CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON.
Anno ab lucarnatione Domini
M^CoLX^IV", papains Alexandri anno
IV'", illustrissimi regis Anglornni Henrici
de Baillolio, Willelmo de Lanvalis, Wil-
lelmo de Caisneto, Ganfrido de Ver, Wil-
lelmo de Hastiuges, Hngone de Morevilla,
Alano de Nevilla, Simone filio Petri, Wil-
lelmo Malduit camerario, Johanne Maldii-
it, Johanne Mariscallo, Petro de Mara, et
multis aliis proceribns et nobilibus regni,
tam clericis quam laicis.
Consuetndinnm vero et dignatatum reg-
ni recognitarum quaedam pars praesenti
pcripto continetur. Cnjns partis capitula
haec sunt :
I Cap. i. De advocationeetpraesentatione
j ecclesiarum si controversia emerserit inter
j laicos, vel inter laicos ct clericos, vel inter
secuudi anno decimo, in praesentia ejus- ( clericos, in curia domini regis tractetur vel
dem regis, facta est ista recordatio vel re- j terminetnr.
cognitio cujusdam partis consuetndinnm | Cap. ii. Ecclesiae de feudo domini regis
et libertatnm et dignitatnm antecessornm I non possunt in pei-petuum dari absque
suorura, videlicet regis Henrici avi sui, et j assensu et concessione ipsius.
aliorum quae observari et teneri debent in Cap. iii. Clerici rectati et accusati de
regno. Et propter dissensiones et discor- qnacunque re, summoniti a Justitia regis
dias quae emerserant inter clerum et Jus-
titias domini regis et baroncs regni de con-
snetndinibus et diguitatibns, facta est ista
recognitio coram archiepiscopis et episco-
pis et clero et comitibus et baronilms et
proceribus regni. Et easdem consuetudi-
nes recognitas per archiepiscopos et epi«?-
copos et comites et barones et per nobili-
ores et antiqulores regni, Thomas Cantu-
ariensis archiepiscopus, et Rogerus Ebora-
censis archiepiscopus, et Gillebertns Lon-
doniensis episcopus, et Henricus Wiltoni-
ensis episcopus, et Nigellus Eliensis epis-
copns, et Willelmus Norwicensis episco-
pus, et Robertus Lincolniensis episcopus,
et Hilarius Cicestrensis episcopus, et Jo-
celinus Sarisberiensis episcopus, et Ricar-
dus Cestrensis episcopus, et Bartholomae-
us Exoniensis episcopus, et Robertas He-
refordensis episcopus, et David Meneven-
sis episcopus, et Rogerus Wigorneusis
electus, concesserunt, et in Verbo Verita-
tis viva voce firmiter i)romiserunt tenan-
das et observandas, domino regi et haere-
veuient in curiam ipsius, responsuri ibi*
dem de hoc nude vidobitur curiae regis
quod ibidem sit respondendum ; et in cu-
ria ecclesiastica, uude videbitur quod ibi-
dem sit respondendum ; ita quod Justitia
regis mittet in curiam sanctae ecclesia ad
videndum qua ratione res ibi tractabitur.
Et si clericus couvictus vel confessus fue-
rit, non debet de cetero eum ecclesia tueri.
Cap. iv. Archiepiscopis, episcopis, et per-
sonis regni, non licet exire de regno absque
licentia domini regis. Et ei exierint, si
domino regi placuerit, assecnrabunt, quod
nee ineuudo, nee in moram faciendo, nee
in redeundo, perquirent malum vel dam-
num regi vel regno.
Cap. V. Excommuuicati non debent dare
vadium ad remanens, nee praestare jura-
mentnm, sed tantum vadium et plegium
standi judicio ecclesiae ut absolvantur.
Cap. vi. Laici non debent accusari nisi
per certos et legales accusatores et testes
in praesentia episcopi, ita quod archidia-
conus non perdat jns suum ; nee quic-
dibus suis, bona fide et absque malo inge- ! quam quod inde habere debeat. Et si ta-
nio, praesentibus istis: Roberto comite \ les fuerint qui culpantur, quod non velit
Leghestriae, Reginaldo comite Cornubiae, vel non andeat aliquis eos accusare, vice-
ConaHO comite Britauniae, Johanne com-- ! comes requisitus ab episcopo faciet jurare
te de Augo, Rogero comite de Clara, comi- ' duodecim legales homines de vicineto. sen
550
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.
Part HI.
de villa, coram episcopo, quod inde veri-
tatem secundum conscientiam suam ma-
iiifestabuut.
Cap. vii. Nnllus qui de rege tenet in
capite, nee aliquis dominicoium miuis-
trorum ejus, excommuuicetur, uec terrae
alicujus illorum sub interdicto ponantur,
uisi prius dominus rex, si in terra fuerit,
conveniatur, vel Justitia ejus, si fuerit ex-
tra regnum, nt rectum de ipso faciat : et
ita ut quod pertinebit ad curiam regiam
ibidem terminetur, et de eo quod specta-
bit ad ecclesiasticam curiam, ad eandem
mittatur ut ibidem tractetur.
Cap. viii. De appellatiouibus si emerse-
rint, ab archidiacono debent procedere ad
episcopum, ab episcopo ad archiepisco-
pum. Et si archiepiscopus defecerit in
justitia exhibeuda, ad dorainura regem
IKjrvcuiendum est postremo, ut praecepto
ipsius in curia archiepiscopi controversia
terminetur, ita quod uon debet ulterius
procedere absque asseusu domini regis.
Cap. ix. Si calumnia emerserit inter
clericum et laicum, vel inter laicum et
clericum, de ullo tenemento quod clericus
slA eleemosinam velit attrahere, laicus vero
ad laicum feudum, recoguitione duodecim
legalium hominum, per capitalis Justitiae j
regis considerationem termiuabitur, utrum
teuementum sit pertinens ad eleemosinam
sive ad laicum feudum coram ipso Justitia
regis. Et si rccognitura fuerit ad eleemo-
sinam pertiuere, placitum erit in curia ec-
clesiastica, si vero ad laicum feudum, uisi
ambo de eodem episcopo vel barone ad-
vocaveriut, erit placitum iu curia regia.
Sed si uterque advocaverit de feudo illo
ante eundem episcopum vel baronem, erit
placitum in curia ipsius ; ita quod propter
factam recoguitionem seisinam non amit-
tat, qui prior seisitus fuerat, donee per
placitum dirationatum fuerit.
Cap. X. Qui de civitate, vel burgo, vel
domiuico manerio domini regis fuerit, si
ab archidiacono vel episcopo super aliquo
delicto citatus fuerit, unde debeat eisdem
respondere et ad citationes eorum satis-
facere noluerit, bene licet eum sub inter-
dicto ponere, sed non debet excommuui-
cari priusquam capitalis minister domini
regis villae illius conveniatur, et justiciet
eum ad satisfactiouem venire. Et si mi-
nister regis inde defecerit, ipse erit in
misericordia domini regis, et exinde pote-
rit episcopus ipsum accusatum ecclesias-
tica justitia cohibere.
Cap. xi. Archiepiscopi, episcopi, et uni-
versae personae regni, qui de rege tenent
iu capite, habent possessiones suas de
domino rege sicut baroniam, et inde re-
spondent Justitiis et ministris regis, et
sequuutur et faciunt omnes rectitudines
et consuetudines regias, et s\cut barones
ceteri, debent interesse judiciis curiae do-
mini regis cum baronibus, usque dum per-
veniatur in judicio ad dimiuutionem mem-
brorum vel mortem.
Cap. xii. Cum vacaverit archiepiscopa-
tus, vel episcopatus, vel abbatia, vel prio-
ratus de dominio regis, debet esse in manu
ipsius, et inde percipiet omnes reditus et
exitus sicut dominicos. Et cum ventum
fuerit ad consulendum ecclesiae, debet
dominus rex mandare potiores personas
ecclesiae, et in capella ipsius domini regis
debet fieri electio assensn domini regis et
consilio personarum regni, quas ad hoc
faciendum vocaverit. Et ibidem faciet
electus homagium et fidelitatem domino
regi sicut ligio domino, de vita sua et de
membris et de honore suo terreno, salvo
ordine suo, priusquam sit consecratus.
Cap. xiii. Si quisquam de proceribus
regni defortiaverit archiepiscopo, vel epis-
copo, vel archidiacono, de se vel de suis
justitiam exhiberc, dominus rex debet eos
justiciare. Et si forte aliquis defortiaverit
domino regi rectitudinem suam, archiepis-
copi et episcopi et archidiaconi debent
eum justiciare ut domino regi satisfaciat.
Cap. xiv. Catalla eorum qui sunt iu
forisfacto regis non detiueat ecclesia vel
cimiterium contra justitiam regis, quia
ipsius regis sunt, sivc in ecclesiis sive
extra fueriut inventa.
Cap. XV. Placita de debitis, quae fide in-
terposita debentur, vel absque interposi-
tione fidei, sint in justitia regis.
Cap. xvi. Filii rusticorum non debent
ordinari absque assensn domini de cujus
terra nati diguoscuntur.
Facta est autem praedictarum consuetn-
dinum et dignitatum recordatio regiarum
a praefatis archiepiscopis et episcopis et
comitibus et baronibus, et nobilioribus, et
antiquioribus regni, apud Clarendonara
quarto die ante Purificationem Beatae
Mariae perpetuae Virginis, domino Hen-
rico cum patre suo domino rege ibidem
praesente. Sunt autem et aliae multae et
magnae consuetudines et dignitates sanc-
tae matris ecclesiae et domini regis et ba-
ronum regni, quae in hoc scripto non con-
tinentur. Quae saWae sint sanctae eccle-
siae et domino regi et haeredibus suis et
baronibus regni, et in perpetuum inviola-
biliter observentur. — (Lyttelton's "Life of
Henry II.," vol. iv., pp. 182-185, from MS.
Cotton, Claudius B. 2.)
HI. ASSIZE OF CLARENDON.
Incipit Asaisa de Clarenduna facta a rege
Henrico, scilicet secundo, de asaensu arch^
iepiscopornm, episcoporum, abbatum, co-
mitum, haronum, totius Angliac.
English Const.
NOTES TO CHArTEK Vlll.
651
1. luprimis statuit praedictus rex Henri-
ciis de consilio omnium barounm suorum,
pro pace servanda et justitia teneuda, quod
per singulos cumitatns inquiratur, et per
gingulos huudredos per xii. legaliores ho-
mines de hundredo, et per iv. legaliores
homines de qualibet villata, per sacramen-
tum quod illi verum dicent : si in hundre-
do suo vel villata sua sit aliquis homo qui
sit rettatus vel publicatus quod ipse sit
robator vel raurdrator vel latro vel aliquis
qui sit receptor robatorum vel murdrato-
rnm vel latronum, postquam dominus rex
fuit rex. Et hoc inquiraut Justitiae coram
se, et vicecomites coram se.
2. Et qui iuvenietur per sacramentum
praedictorum rettatus vel publicatus quod
fuerit robator vel murdrator vel latro vel
receptor eorum, postquam dominus rex
fuit rex, capiatur et eat ad juisara aquae,
et juret quod ipse uon fuit robator vel
murdrator vel latro vel receptor eorum
postquam dominus rex fuit rex, de valen-
tia V. solidorum quod sciat.
3. Et si dominus ejus qui captus fuerit
vel dapifer ejus vel homines ejus requisi-
erint eum per plegium infra tertium diem
postquam captus fuerit, replegiatur ipse ct
catalla ejus donee ipse faciat legem suam.
4. Et quando robator vel murdrator vel
latro vel receptores eorum capti fuerint
per praedictum sacramentum, si Justitiae
uon fuerint tam cito venturae in ilium
comitatum ubi capti fuerint, vicecomites
mandent propinijuori Justitiae per ali-
quem intelligentem hominem, quod tales
homines ceperint; et Justitiae remanda-
bunt vicecomitibus ubi voluerint quod illi
ducantur ante illos: et vicecomites illos
ducant ante Justitias ; et cum illis ducant
de hundredo et de villata ubi capti fuerint,
duos legales homines ad portandum recor-
dationem comitatus et hundredi, quare
capti fuerint, et ibi ante Justitiam facieut
legem suam.
5. Et de illis qui capti fuerint per prae-
dictum sacramentum hujus Assisae, nullus
habeat curiam vel justitiam uec catalla,
nisi dominus rex in curia sua coram Jus-
titiis ejus, et dominus rex habebit omnia
catalla eorum. De illis vero qui capti fu-
erint aliter quam per hoc sacramentum,
sit sicut esse solet ei debet.
6. Et vicecomites qui cos ceperint du-
cant eos ante Justitiam sine alia sumrao-
nitione quam inde habeant. Et cum roba-
tores vel raurdratores vel latrones et re-
ceptores eorum, qui capti fuerint per sa-
cramentum vel aliter, tradantur vicecomi-
tibus, et ipsi recipiant eos statim sine di-
latione.
7. Et in singulis comitatibus ubi non
sunt gaiolac, llaut in burgo vel aliquo
castello regis de denariis regi set bosco
ejus si prope fuerit, vel de alio bosco pro-
piuquo, per visum servientium regis, ad
hoc ut vicecomites in illis possiut illos qui
capti fuerint per ministros qui hoc facere
Solent et per servientes suos, custodire.
8. Vult etiam dominus rex quod omnes
veniant ad comitatus ad hoc sacramentum
faciendum, ita quod nullus remaueat pro
libertale aliqua quam habeat, vel curia vel
soca quam habuerit, quin veniant ad hoc
sacramentum faciendum.
9. Et non sit aliquis infra castellum vel
extra castellum, nee etiam in honore de
Walingeford, qui vetet vicecomites intrare
in curiam vel terram suam ad videndos
francos plegios, et quod omnes sint sub
plegiis : et ante vicecomites mittautur sub
libero plegio.
10. Et in civitatibus vel burgis nullus
habeat homines vel recipiat in domo sua
vel terra sua vel soca sua, quos uon in
manu capiat quod eos habebit coram Jus-
titia si requisiti fuerint, vel sint sub fran-
coplegio.
11. Et nulli sint in civitate vel burgo
vel castello vel extra, nee in honore etiam
de Walingeford, qui vetent vicecomites
intrare in terram suam vel socam suam,
ad capiendum illos qui rettati fuerint vel
publicati quod sint robatores vel murdra-
tores vel latrones vel receptores eorum,
vel utlagati vel rettati deforesta; sed prae-
cipit quod juvent illos ad capiendum eos.
12. Et si aliquis fuerit captus qui fuerit
saisiatus de roberia vel latrocinio, si ipse
fuerit diffamatus et habeat malum testi-
monium de publicamento, et non habeat
warantum, non habeat legem. Et si non
fuerit publicatus pro saisina quam habet,
eat ad aquam.
13. Et si aliquis fuerit recognoscens co-
ram legalibus hominibus vel hundredis
de roberia vel murdro vel latrocinio vel
de receptione eorum, et postea uegare
voluerit, uon habeat legem.
14. Vult etiam dominus rex quod ipsi
qui facient legem suam et mundi erant per
legem, si ipsi fuerint de pessimo testimo-
nio, et publice et turpiter diffamati testi-
monio multorum et legalium hominum,
foras jurent terras regis, ita quod infra
viii. dies mare transibunt, nisi aura eos
detinuerit ; et cum prima aura quam ha-
bebunt postea mare transibunt, et ultra in
Angliam non revertentur nisi per miseri-
cordiam domini regis: et ibi sint utlagati
et si redierent ; et si redieriut capiantur
sicut utlagati.
15. Et prohibet dominus rex ne aliquis
vaivua, id est vagus vel ignotus, hospite-
tur alicubi nisi in burgo, et ibi non ho-
epitetur nisi una nocte, nisi ibi infirraetur,
552
NOTES TO CHAFTER Vlll.
P..Kr III.
vel equus ejus, ita quod monstrare possit
monptrabile essonium.
16. Et si ibi fuerit plusquam una nocte,
capiatni- ille et teueatur donee dominus
ejus veuerit ad earn plegiandum, vel do-
nee ipse habeat salvos plegios ; et ille si-
militer capiatur qui hospitatiis fuerit.
17. Et si aliquis vicecomes mandaverit
alii vieeeoiniti quod homines fiigeriut de
comitatu suo iu alium eomitatum pro ro-
beria vel pro murdro vel latrocinio vel re-
ceptione eorum, vel pro utlagia vel pro
retta forestae regis, ille capiat eos: et
etiara si per se vel per alios sciat quod ta-
les homines fugerint in eomitatum sunm,
capiat eos et custodiat douec de eis habeat
salvos plegios.
18. Et omnes vicecoraites faciant inbre-
viari omnes fugitivos, qui fugerint de suis
comitatibus; et hoe faciant coram comi-
tatibus, et illornm uomina scripta porta-
bunt ante Justitias cum primo ad illos
venerint, ut illi quaerantur per totam An-
gliam, et eorum catalla capiautur ad opus
regis.
19. Et vult dominus rex quod ex quo
vieecomites suseeperint summon itioues
Justitiarum errautium, ut ipsi cum comi-
tatibus suis siut ante illos, ipsi congrcga-
bunt comitatus suos et inquirent omnes
qui de novo venerint in suos comitatus
post banc assisam; et illos mittent per
plegios, qnod erunt coram Justitias, vel
illos cnstodient, donee Jnstitiae ad eos
venerint, et tunc habebnnt coram Justi-
tias.
20. Prohibet etiam dominus rex ne mo-
naehl vel canouici vel aliqua domus reli-
gionum recipiant aliquem de populo mi-
uuto in monachum vel canonicum vel fra-
trem, donee sciatur de quali testimonio
ipse fuerit, nisi ipse fuerit infirmus ad
mortem.
21. Prohibet etiam dominus rex, quod
nullus in tota Anglia receptet in terra sna
vel soca sua vel domo sub se, aliquem de
secta illornm renegatorum qui excommu-
nieati et signati fuerunt apud Oxeneforde.
Et si quis eos reeeperit, ipse erit in miseri-
cordia domini regis : et domus, in qi^a illi
fuerint portetur extra villam et combura-
tur, Et hoc jurabit unusquisque viceco-
mes quod hoc tenebit, et hoc jurare faciet
omnes ministros suos, et dapiferos baro-
num, et omnes milites et franco tenentes
de comitatibus.
22. Et vult dominus rex quod baec assisa
teneatur in regno suo quamdiu ei plaenerit.
--("M.S. Bodl. Rawlinson," C. 641.)
IV. MAGNA CUARTA.
•Tohannes Dei gratia rex Angliae, do-
Boinus Hyberoiae, dux Normauniae et
Aquitanniae, comes Audegaviae, archie-
piscopis, episcopis, abbatibus, comitibus,
baronibus, justiciariis, forestariis, viceco-
mitibns, praepositis, ministris et omnibus
ballivis et lidelibus suis salutem. Sciatis
nos intuitu Dei et pro salute animae nos-
trae et omnium antecessornm et haeredum
nostrorum, ad honorem Dei et exaltatio-
nem sanctae ecelesiae, et emendationem
regni nostri, per concilium venerabilium
patrum nostrorum, Stephani Cantuarien-
sis arehiepiscopi totius Angliae primatis
et sanctae Romanae ecelesiae cardinalis,
Henriei Dnblinensis arehiepiscopi, Willel-
mi Loudouiensis, Petri Wintoniensis, Jo-
scelini Bathoniensis et Glastoniensis, Hu-
gonis Lincolnieusis, Walteri Wygornen-
sis, Willelmi Coveutreusis, et Benedict!
Roflfensis episcoporum ; magistri Pandulfl
domini papae subdiaconi et familiaris,
fratris Eymerici magistri milit'ae templl
in Anglia ; et nobilium virorum Willelmi
Marisealli comitis Pembrok, Willelmi co-
mitis Saresberiae, Willelmi comitis Wa-
renniae, Willelmi comitis Arnndelliae,
Alani de Galweya constabularii Scottiae,
Warini filii Gerokli, Petri tilii Hereberti,
Huberti de Burgo senescalli Pictaviae,
Hngonis de Nevilla, Mathei filii Hereber-
ti, Thomae Basset, Alani Basset, Philippi
de Albiuiaco, Roberti de Roppelay, Jo-
hannis Marisealli, Jobaunis filii Hugonis
et aliorum fldelium nostrorum ;
1. In primis concessisse Deo et hac prae-
seuti carta nostra eonfirmasse, pro nobis
et haeredibus nostris in perpetuum, quod
Anglieana ecelesia libera sit, et habeat jura
sua Integra, et libertates suas illaesas ; et
ita volnmus observari ; quod apparet ex eo
quod libertatem electiouum, quae maxima
et magis necessaria reputatur ecelesiae
Anglicanae, mera et spontanea voluntate,
ante discordiam inter nos et barones nos-
tros motam, concessimus et carta nostra
eonfirmavimus, et eam optiuuimus a do-
mino papa Innoeeutio tertio confirmari;
quam et nos observabimus et ab haeredi-
bus nostris in perpetuum bona fide voln-
mus observari. Concessimus etiam omni-
bus liberis hominibus regni nostri, pro
nobis et haeredibus nostris in perpetuum,
omnes libertates subscriptas, habendas et
tenendas, eis et haeredibus suis, de nobis
et haeredibus nostris ;
2. Si quis comitum vel baronnm nos-
trorum, sive aliorum tenentium de nobis
in capite per servitium militare, mortuus
fuerit, etcum deeesserithaeres suus plenae
aetatis fuerit et relevium debeat, habeat
haeredita tern suam per antiquum relevium;
scilicet haeres vel haeredes comitis, de
baronia comitis integra per centum libras ;
haeres vel haeredes baronis, de baronia in-
English Const.
NOTES TO CHAPTER Vlll.
553
tegra per centum libras ; haeres vel haere-
des militis, de feodo railitis iutegro per cen-
tum solidos ad plus ; et qui minus debue-
rit miuus det secundum antiquam consne-
tudinem feodorum.
3. Si autem tiaeres alicujus talium fuerit
infra aetatem et fuerit in custodia, cum ad
aetatem pervenerit, habeat haereditatera
suam gine relevio et sine tine.
4. Custos terrae iiiijusmodi haeredis qui
Infra aetatem fuerit, uon capiat de terra
haeredis nisirationabiles exitus, et rationa-
biles consuetudine?, et rationabilia servi-
tia, et hoc sine destructicme et vasto homi-
num vel rerum ; et si nos commiserimus
custodiam alicujus talis terrae vicecomiti
vel alicui alii qui de exitibns, illius nobis
respondere debeat, et ille destructionem de
custodia fecerit vel vastum, nos ab illo
capiemus emendam, et terra committatur
duobus legalibus et discretis hominibus
de feodo illo, qui de cxitibus respondeant
nobis vel ei cui eos assignaverimus ; et si
dederimus vel vendiderirans alicui costo-
diam alicujus talis terrae, et ille destruc-
tionem inde fecerit vel vastum, amittat ip-
sam custodian! et tradatnr duobus legali-
bus et discretis hominibus de feodo illo qui
similiter nobis respondeant sicut prae-
dictura est.
5. Custos autem, quaradiu custodiam
rerrae habuerit, susteutet doraos, parcos,
vivaria, stagna, molendina, et cetera ad
terram illam ])ertinentia, de exitibus terrae
ejnsdem ; et reddat haeredi, cum ad ple-
nam aetatem pervenerit, terram suam to-
tam instauratam de carrucis et wainnagiis
secundum quod tempus wainnagii exiget
et exitus terrae rationabiliter poteruut sus-
tincre.
6. Haeredes maritentur absque dispara-
gatione, ita tamen quod, antequam contra-
hatur matrimonium, ostendatur propin-
quis de consanguiuitate ipsius haeredis.
7. Vidua post mortem mariti sui statim
et sine diflScultate habeat maritagium et
haereditatem suam, nee aliquid det pro
dote sua, vel pro maritagio suo, vel haere-
ditate sua quam haereditatem maritus suus
et ipsa teuuerint die obitus ipsius mariti,
et maneat in domo rnariti sui per quadra-
ginta dies post mortem ipsius infra quos
assign etur ei dos sua.
8. Nulla vidua distringatur ad se mari-
tandum dum voluerit vivere sine marito,
ita tamen quod secnritatem faciat quod se
nou maritabit sine assensu nostro, si de
nobis tenuerit, vel sine assensu domini
Bui de quo tenuerit, si de alio tenuerit.
9. Nee nos nee ballivi nostri seisiemus
lerram aliquam uec redditum pro debito
iliquo, quamdiu catalladebitoris sufflciunt
lb deb:tum reddendum nee pleggii ipsius
24
debitoris distringantur quamdiu ipse capi-
talis debitor sufficit ad solutionem debiti ;
et si capitalis debitor defecerit in'solutione
debiti, non habens unde solvat, pleggii
respondeant de debito; et, si voluerint,
habeant terras et redditus debitoris donee
sit eis satisfactum de debito quod ante pro
eo solveriut, nisi capitalis debitor monstra-
verit se esse quietum inde versus eosdem
pleggios.
10. Si quis mutuo ceperit aliquid a Ju-
daei8,plus vel minu8,et moriatur antequam
debilura ilium solvatur, debitumnou usu-
ret quamdiu haeres fuerit infra aetatem,
de quocumque teneat ; et si debitum illud
inciderit in manus nostras, nos non capie-
mus nisi catallum contentum in carta.
11. Et si quis moriatur, et debitum de-
beat Judaeis, uxor ejus habeat dotem su-
am, et nihil reddat de debito illo ; et si li-
beri ipsius defuncti qui fuerint infra aeta-
tem remanseriut, provideantur eis neces-
saria secundum tenementum quod fuerit
defuncti, et de residuo solvatur debitum,
salvo servitio dominornm ; simili modo
tiat de debitis quae debentur aliis quam
Judaeis.
12. Nullum scutagium vel auxilium po-
natur in regno nostro, nisi per commune
consilium regni nostri, nisi ad corpus nos-
trum redimendum, et primogenitum filium
nostrum railitem faciendum, et ad liliam
uostram primogenitam semel maritaudam,
et ad haec uon fiat nisi rationabile auxili-
um : simili raodo flat de auxiliis de civi-
tate Londoniarum.
13. Et civitas Londoniarum habeat om-
nes autiquas libertates et liberas consue-
tudiues suas, tarn per terras, quam per
aquas. Praeterea volumus et concedimus
quod omnes aliae civitates, et burgi, et
villae, et portus, habeant omnes libertates
et libera*" consuetiidines suas.
14. Et ad habendum commune consiliam
regni, de auxilio assidendo aliter quam in
tribus casibus praedictis, vel de scutagio
assidendo, summoneri faciemus archie-
piscopos, episcopos, abbates, comites, et
majores barones, sigillatim per litteras
nostras ; et praeterea faciemus summoneri
in generali, per vicecomites et ballivos
nostros, omnes illos qui de nobis tenent
in capite ; ad certum d^em, scilicet ad ter-
minum qnadraginta dierem ad minus, et
ad certum locum ; et in omnibus litteris
illius summonitionis causam summouiti-
onis exprimemus ; et sic facta summoni-
tione uegotinm ad diem assignatum pro-
cedat secundum consilium illorum qui
praesentes fuerint, quamvis non omnes
snmmoniti venerint.
15. Nos non concedemus de cetero alicui
quod capiat auxilium de liberis homini-
554
NOTES TO CHAPTER VHI.
Part IIL
bus Buis, nisi ad corpus suum redimendum,
et ad facieudum priiuogeuitum filium suum
militem, et ad primogeuitara filiam suain
semel maritandam, et ad haec nou fiat nisi
rationabile auxiliurn,
16. Nullus distringatur ad faciendum
majus servitium de feodo militis, nee de
alio libero tenemento, quam iude debetur.
17. Communia placita non sequautur
curiam nostram sed teneantur in aliquo
loco certo.
18. Recognitiones de nova dissaisina, de
morte antecessoris, et de ultima praesen-
tatione, non capiautur nisi in suis comi-
tatibus et hoc modo ; nos, vel si extra reg-
num fnerimus, capitals jnsticiariusnoster,
mittemus duos justiciar; o& per uimmquem-
que comitatura per quataor vices iu anno,
qui, cum quatuor miiitibus cnjuslibet comi-
tatus electis per comitatum. cipiaut iu '
comitatu et in die et loco comitatus assisas
praedictas.
19. Et si in die comitatus assisae prae-
dictae capi non possint, tot milites et libere
tenentes remaneant de illis qui interfuerint
comitatui die alio, per quos possint judicia
sufficienter fieri, secundum quod negotium
fuerit majus vel minus.
20. Liber homo nou amercietur pro
parvo delicto, nisi secundum modum de-
licti ; et pro magno delicto amercietur se-
cundum magnitudinem delicti, salvo con-
tenemento suo ; et mercator eodem modo
salva mercandisa sua ; et villanus eodem
modo amercietur salvo wainuagio suo, si
inciderint in misericordiam nostram ; et
nulla praedictarum misericordiarnm poua-
tur, nisi per sacrameutum proborum ho-
minum de visneto.
21. Comites et barones non amercientur
nisi per pares snos, et nou nisi secundum
modum delicti.
22. Nullus clericus amercietur de laico
tenemento suo, nisi secundum modum
aliorum praedictorum, et nou secundum
quantitatem beneflcii sui ecclesiastici.
23. Nee villa nee homo distringatur fa-
cere pontes ad riparias, nisi qui ab anti-
quo et de jure facere debent.
24. Nullus vicecomes, constabularius,
coronatores, vel alii ballivi nostri, teneant
placita coronae nostrae.
25. Omnes comitatus, hundredi, wapen-
takii, et trethingii, sint ad antiquas firmas
absque uUo incremento, exceptis domini-
cis maneriis nostris.
26. Si aliquis tenens de nobis laicum
feodum moriatur, et vicecomes vel ballivus
noster ostendat litteras nostras patentes
de summonitione nostra de debito quod
defunctus nobis debuit, liceat vicecomiti
vel ballivo nostro attachiare et inbreviare
catalla defuncti inventa in laico feodo. ad
valentiam illius debiti, per visum legalium
homiuum, ita tamen quod nihil inde amo-
veatur, donee persolvatur nobis debitum
quod clarum fuerit ; et residuum reliuqna-
tur executoribus ad faciendum testamen-
tum defuncti ; et, si nihil nobis debeatur
ab ipso, omuia catalla cedaut defuncto,
salvis uxori ipsius et pueris rationabilibus
partibus suis.
27. Si aliquis liber homo intestatus de-
cesserit, catalla sua per manus propinquo-
rnm pareutum et amicorum suorum, per
visuDd ecclesiae distribuautur, salvis uui-
cuique debitis quae defunctus ei debebat.
28. Nullus constabularius, vel alius bal-
livus noster, capiat blada vel alia catalla
alicujus, nisi statim inde reddat denarios,
aut respectum inde habere possit de volun-
tate venditoris.
29. Nullus constabularius distringat ali-
qu^m militem ad daudum denarios pro
custodia castri, si facere voluerit custodiam
illam in propria persona sua, vel per aliura
probum hominem, si ipse cam facere non
possit propter rationabilem causam ; et si
nos duxerimus vel raiserimus eum iu ex-
ercitum, erit quietus de custodia, secun-
dum quantitatem temporis quo per nos
fuerit in exercitu.
30. Nullus vicecomes, vel ballivus nos-
ter, vel aliquis alias, capiat equos vel ca-
reta alicujus libcri hominis pro cariagio
faciendo, nisi de voluntate ipsius liberi
hominis.
31. Nee nos nee ballivi nostri capiemus
alieuum boscum ad ca^tra, vel alia agenda
nostra, nisi per voluntatem ipsius cujus
boscus ille fuerit.
82. Nos non tenebirans terras illoi-utn
qui convict! fueriut de felonia, nisi per
nnum annum et nnnra diem, et tunc red-
dantur terrae dominis feodorum.
33. Omnes kydelli de cetero deponantur
penitus de Thamisia, et de Medewaye, et
per totam Angliam, nisi per costeram ma-
ris.
34. Breve quod vocatnr Praecijje de ce-
tero non flat alien de aliquo tenemento
unde liber homo amittere possit curiam
suam.
35. Una mensura vini sit per totnro
regnum nostrum, et una mensura cer^
visiae, et una mensura bladi scilicet quar-
terium Londoniense, et una latitndo i)an-
norum tinctorum, et russettorum, et hal-
bergettorum, scilicet duae ulnae infra lis-
tas ; de ponderibus autem sit nt de men-
suris.
36. Nihil detua vel capiatur de cetero
pro bievi inquisitionis de vita vei mem-
bris, sed gratis concedatnr ct non negetur.
37. Si aliquis teneat de nobis per feodi-
flrmam, vel per eokagium, vel per burgac
English Const.
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.
555
gium, et de alio terrara teneat per servitl-
iiin militare, nos non habebimus custodi-
ara haeredis uec terrae suae quae est de
feodo alterius, occasioue illius feodifirmae,
vel eokagii, vel burgagii ; uec habebimus
cnstodiam Illius feodilirmae, vel sokagii,
vel burgagii, iiiai ipsa feoditirraa debeat
eervitium militare. Nos non habebimus
custodiam haeredis vel terrae alicnjus,
quam tenet de alio per servitium militare,
occasione alicujus parvae sergenteriae
quam tenet de nobis per servitium red-
dendi nobis cultellos, vel sagittas, vel hu-
jusmodi.
38. Nullus ballivus ponat de cetero ali-
quem ad legem simplici loquela sua, sine
testibus fldelibus ad hoc inductis.
39. Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel im-
prisouetur, aut dissaisiatur, aut utlagetur,
aut exuleter, aut aliquo modo destruatur,
nee super eum ibimus, nee super eum mit-
temus, nisi per legale judicium parium
euorum, vel per legem terrae.
40. Nulli venderaus, nulli negabimus,
aut differemus, rectum aut justiciam.
41. Omnes mercatores habeant salvum
et securum exire de Anglia, et venire in
Angliam, et morari et ire per Angliam,
tam per terram quam per aqnam, ad
emendum et vendendum, sine omnibus
mails toltis, per antiquas et rectas consue-
tudines, praeterquam in tempore gwerrae,
et si sint de terra contra nos gwerriua ; et
gi tales inveuiantur in terra nostra in prin-
cipio gw&rrae, attachientur sine dampno
corporum et rerum, donee sciatur a nobis
vel capital! justiciario nostro, quoraodo
mercatores terrae nostrae tractentur, qui
tunc invenientur in terra contra nos gwer-
riua; et si nostri salvi sint ibi, alii salvi
sint in terra nostra.
42. Liceat unicuiqne de cetero exire de
regno nostro, et redire, salvo et secure, per
terram et per aquam, salva fide nostra, nisi
tempore gwerrae per aliquod breve tem-
pus, propter communem utilitatem regni,
exceptis imprisonatis et utlagatis secun-
dum legem regni, et gente de terra contra
nos gwerrina, et mercatoribus de quibus
flat sicut praedictnm est.
43. Si quis tenuerit de aliqua escaeta,
sicut de honore Walingeford, Notingeham,
Bononiae, Lainkastriae, vel de aliis eskae-
tis, quae sunt in manu nostra, et sunt ba-
roniae, et obierit, haeres ejus non det aliud
relevium, nee faciat nobis alind servitium
quam faceret baroni si baronia ilia esset
in manu baronis ; et nos eodem modo eam
tenebimus quo baro eam tenuit.
44. Homines qui manent extra forestam
non veniant de cetero coram justiciariis
nostris de foresta per communes summoni-
lioues, nisi sint in placito, vel ploggii ali-
cujus vel aliquorura, qui attachiati sint pro
foresta.
45. Nos non faciemus justiciarios, con-
stabularios, vicecomites, vel ballivos, nisi
de talibus qui sciant legem regni et eam
bene velint observare.
46. Omnes barones qui fundaverunt ab-
batias, unde habent cartas regum Angliae,
vel antiquam tenuram, habeant earum
custodiam cum vacaverint, sicut habere
debent.
47. Omnes forestae quae aforestatae sunt
tempore nostro, statim deafForestentur ; et
ita flat de ripariis quae per nos tempore
nostro positae sunt in defense.
48. Omnes malae consuetudines de fo-
restis et warennis, et de forestariis et wa-
rennariis, vicecomitibus et eorum raiui-
stris, ripariis et earum custodibus, statim
inquirantur in quolibet comitatu per duo-
decim milites juratos de eodem comitatu,
qui debent eligi per probos homines ejus-
dem comitatus, et infra quadraginta dies
post inquisitionem factam, peuitus, ita
quod nunquam revocentur, deleantur per
eosdem, ita quod nos hoc sciamus prius,
vel jnsticiarius noster, si in Anglia non
fuerimus.
49. Omnes obsides et cartas statim red-
demus quae liberatae fuerunt nobis ab
Anglicis in securitatem pacis vel fidelis
servitii.
50. Nos amovebimus penitus de balliis
parentes Gerardi de Athyes, quod de cetero
nullam habeant balliam in Anglia ; Enge-
lardum de Cygoniis, Audream, Petrum et
Gyonem de Cancellis, Gyonemde Cygoniis,
Galfridum de Martyni et fratres ejus, Phi-
lippum Mark et fratres ejus, et Galfridum
nepotem ejus, et totam sequelam eorum-
dem.
51. Et statim post pacis reformationem
amovebimus de regno omnes alienigenas
milites, balistarios, servientes, stipendia-
rios, qui veneriut cum equis et armis ad
nocumentum regni.
52. Si quis fuerit disseisitus vel elon-
gatus per nos sine legali judicio parium
suorum, de terris, castallls, libertatibus,
vel jure suo, statim ea ei restituemus ; et
si contentio super hoc orta fuerit, tunc
inde flat per judicium viginti quinque ba-
ronum, de quibus flt mentio inferius in se-
curitate pacis : de omnibus autem illis de
quibus aliquis disseisitus fuerit vel elouga-
tus sine legali judicio parium suorum, per
Henricum regem patrem nostrum vel per
Ricardum regem fratrem nostrum, quae in
manu nostra habemus, vel quae alii tenent,
quae nos oporteat warantizare, respectum
habebimus usque ad communem terrainum
crncesignatorum ; exceptis illis de quibus
placitum motnm fuit vel inquisitiq facta
556
^OTES TO CHAPTER VIII.
Fakt IIL
per praeceptum nostrnm, ante susceptio-
uem crucis nostrae: cum autem redieri-
mus de peregrinatione nostra, vel si forte
remanserimus a peregrinatione nostra, sta-
tira inde plenam jnsticiam exhibebimus.
53. Euudem autem respectura habebi-
mus, ei eodem modo, de justicia exhiben-
da de forestis deafforestandis vel reniansu-
ris forestis, quas Henricus pater noster vel
Ricardus frater uoster aftbreslaveruut, et
de custodiis terrarum quae sunt de alieuo
feodo, cnjasmodi custodias hucusque ha-
buimus occasione feodi quod aliquis de
nobis tenuit per servitium militare, et de
abbatiis quae fiindatae fuerint in feodo
alterins quam uostro, in quibus dominus
feodi dixerit se jus habere ; et cum redieri-
mus, vel si remanserimus a peregrinatione
nostra, super fails conquereutibus plenam
justiciam statim exhibebimus.
54. NuUus capiatur nee imprisonetur
propter appellum foemiuae de morte al-
terius quam viri sui.
55. Omnes fines qui injuste et contra
legem terrae facti sunt nobiscum, et omnia
amerciamenta facta iujuste et contra legem
terrae, omnino condonentur, vel fiat inde
per judicium viginti quiuque baronum de
quibus fit meutio inferius in securitate
pacis, vel per judicium majoris partis
eonimdeni, una cum praedicto Stephano
Cantuarieusi archiepiscopo, si inieresi-e po-
terit, et aliis quos secum ad hoc vocare
voluerit ; et si interesse non poterit, nihi-
iominns procedat negotium sine eo, ita
quod, si aliquis vel aliqui de praedictis
viginti qninque baronibus fuerint in si-
mili querela, amoveantur quantum ad hoc
judicium, et alii loco illorum per residuos
de eisdem viginti quinque, tantum ad hoc
faciendum electi et jurati substituantur.
56. Si uos dissaisivimus vel elongavimns
Walenses de terris vel libertatibus vel
rebus aliis, sine legali judicio parium
suorum, in Anglia vel in Wallia, eis statim
reddantur; et si coiitentio super hoc orta
fuerit, tunc iude fiat in marchia per judi-
cium parium siiornm, de teuementis An-
gliae secundum legem Angliae, de tene-
raentis Walliae secundum legem Walliae,
de tenementis marchiae secundum legem
marchiae. Idem facient Walenses nobis
et nostris.
57. De omnibus au'.um illis de quibus
aliquis Walensium dissaisitus fuerit vel
elongatus sine legali judicio parium suo-
rum, per Uenricum regem patrem nostrum
vel Kicardum regem fratrem nostrum,
quae nos in manu nostra habemus, vel
quae alii tenent quae nos oporteat wa-
rantizare, respectum habebimus usque ad
commnnem terminum crucesignatorum,
illis exceptitf de quibus placitum motum
fuit vel inquisitio facta per praeceptum
nostrum ante susceptioneni crucis nostrae :
cum autem redierimus, vel si forte reman-
serimus a peregrinatione nostra, statim
eis inde plenam justiciam exhibebimus,
secundein lc;j;es Walensium et partes prae-
dictas.
53. NosreddemusfiliumLewelini tatira,
et omnes obsides de Wallia, et cartas quae
nobis liberatae fuerunt in securitatem pa-
cis.
59. Nos faciemus Allexandro regi Scot-
torum de sororibus suis, et obtidibus red
dendis, et libertatibus suis, et jure suo,
secundum formam in qua faciemus aliis
baronibus nostris Angliae, nisi aliter esse
debeat per cartas quas kabemns de Willel-
mo patre ipsius, quondam rege Scottorum ;
et hoc erit per judicium parium suorum in-^
curia nostra.
60. Omnes autem istas consuetudines
praedictas et libertates quas nos concessi-
raus in regno nostro teuendas quantum ad
nospertinet erga nostros, omnes de regno
nostro, tarn clerici quam laici, observeut
quantum ad se pertiuet erga suos.
61. Cum autem pro Deo, et ad emenda-
tionem regni nostri, et ad melius sopien-
dum discordiam inter nus et barones nos-
tros ortam, haec omnia praedicta conces-
serimns, vulentes ea Integra et firma sta-
bilitate gaudere in perpetuum, faciemus et
concedimus eis securitatem subscriptam ;
videlicet quod barones eligant viginti quin-
que barones de regno quos voluerint, qui
debeant pro totis viribus suis observare,
tenere, et facere observari, pacem et liber-
tates quas eis concessimns, et hac prae-
senti carta nostra confirma vim us, ita scili-
cet quod, si nos, vel justiciarius noster, vel
ballivi nostri, vel aliquis de ministris nos-
tris, in aliquo erga aliquem deliquerimus,
vel aliquem articulorum pacis aut securi-
tatis transgressi fuerimus, et delictum os-
tensum fuerit quatuor baronibus de prae-
dictis viginti quinque baronibus, illi qua-
tuor barones accedant ad nos vel ad jus-
ticiarium nostrum, si fuerimus extra reg-
num, proponentes nobis excessum : petent
ut excessum ilium sine dilatione faciamus
emendari. Et si uos excessum non emen-
daverimns, vel, si fuerimus extra regnum,
justiciarius noster non emendaverit infra
terapus quadraginta dierum computan-
dum a tempore quo monstratum fuerit no-
bis vel justiciario nostro si extra regnum
fuerimus, praedicti quatuor barones refe-
rant causam illam ad residuos de viginti
quinque baronibus, et illi viginti quinque
barones eum communa totius lerrae dis-
tringent et gravabunt nos modis omnibus
quibus poternnt, scilicet per captionemcas-
trorum, terrarum, possessrtonum, et aliis
English Const.
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.
657
modis quibuspotei-unt, donee fuerit emen-
datum secundum arbitrium eorum, salva
persona nostra et rc<2;iuae nostrae et liber-
orum nostrorum ; et cum fuerit emeuda-
tum iutendent nobis sicut prius fecerunl.
Et quicumque voluerit de terra juret quod
ad praedicta omnia exsequenda parebit
mandatis praedictorum vigiuti quinque ba-
rouum, et quod gravabit nos pro posise suo
cum ipsis, et nos publico et libere damns
licentiam juraudi cuilibet qui jurare volu-
eriL, et null! umquam jurare prohibebiinus.
Omnes autem illos de terra qui per se et }
eponte sua uohieriut jurare vigiuti quiuque |
barouibus, de distriiigeudo et gravando |
nos cum eis, faciemus jurare eosdem de I
mandato uostro, t<icut praedictum est. Et
si aliquisde vigiuti quinque barouibus de- |
cesserit, vel a terra recesserit, vel aliquo i
alio modo inipeditus fuerit, quo minus ista
praedicta pohteut exsequi, qui residui fue-
rint de praedictis vigiuti quinque baroui-
bus eligant alium loco ipsius, pro arbitrio
suo, qui simili modo erit juratus quo et
ceteri. In omnibus autem quae istis vi-
giuti quinque barouibus committuntur
exsequenda, si forte ipsi vigiuti quinque
praeseutes fueriut, et inter ee super re ali-
qua discordaverint, vel aliqui ex eis sum-
mouiti noliut vel nequeaut interesse, ra-
tum habeatur et firmum quod major pars
eorum qui praeseutes fuerint providerit,
vel praeceperit, ac si omues viginti quiuqu^
in hoc conseusisseut ; et praedicti viginti
quinque jureut quod omnia antedicta fide-
liter obgervabunt, et pro toto posse suo
facieut observari, Et nos nihil impetra-
bimus ab aliquo, per nos nee per alium,
per quod aliqua istarum coucessionura et
libertatum revocetur vel minuatur ; et, si
aliquid tale impetratum fuerit, irritum sit
et inane et numquam eo utemur per nos
nee i)er alium.
62. Et omues malas voluntates, indig-
natioues, et rancores, ortos inter nos et
homines nostros, clerieos et laicos, a tem-
pore discordiae, plene omnibus remisimus
et condonavimus. Practerea omnes trans-
gressiones factas occasione ejusdem dis-
cordiae, a Pascha anno regni nostri sexto-
decimo usque ad pacem reformatam, plene
remisimus omnibus, clericis et laieis, et
quantum ad nos pertinet plene condonavi-
mus. Et insuper fecimus eis fieri litteras
testimoniales patentes domini Stephani
Cantuariensis archiepiscopi, domini Hen-
rici DublineusiV^rchlepiscopi, et episco-
porum praedictorum, et magistri Pandulfi,
super securitate ista et cencessiouibus
praefatis.
6S. Quare volumus et firmiter praecipi-
mus quod Aiiglicana ecclesia libera sit et
quod homines in regno nostro habeant et
teneant omnes praefatas libertates, jura,
et concessiones, bene et in pace, libere et
quiete, plene et integre, sibi et haeredibus
suis, de nobis et haeredibus nostris, in
omnibus rebus et locis, in perpetuum, sicut
praedictum est. Juratum est autem tarn
ex parte nostra quam ex parte boranum ;
quod haee omnia supradicta bona tide et
siue malo ingenio observabuntur. Testi-
bus supradictis et multls aliis. Data per
manum nostram in prato quod vocatur
Ruuiugmede, inter Windelesoriim. et
Stanes, quinto decimo die Junii, anno
regni nostri septirao decimo.
V. CONnRMATION OF THE CHARTERS.
(Tra^islation.)
I. Edward, by the grace of God, King of
England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of
Guyan, to all those that these present let-
ters shall hear or see, greeting. Know ye
that we to the honor of God and of holy
Church, and to the profit of our realm,
have granted for us and our heirs, that the
Charter of Liberties and the Charter of the
Forest, which were made by common as-
pent of all the realm, in the time of King
I Henry our father, shall be kept in every
I point without breach. And we will that
! the same charters shall be sent under our
i seal as well to our justices of the forest as
to others, and to all sheriffs of shires, and
I to all our other officers, and to all our cities
I throughout the realm, together with our
writs iu the which it shall be contained,
that they cause the foresaid charters to be
published, and to declare to the people
that we have confirmed them in all points,
and that our justices, sheriffs, mayors, and
other ministers which under us have the
laws of our land to guide, shall allow the
t aid charters pleaded before them in judg-'
r.ient in all their points ; that is, to wit, the
Great Charter as the common law and the
Charter of the Forest according to the As-
size of the Forest, for tlio wealth of our
realm.
II. And we will that if any judgment be
given from henceforth, contrai'y to the
points of the charters aforesaid, by the
justices or by any other our ministers
that hold plea bef)re them against the
points of the charters, it shall be undone
and holden for nouirht.
III. And we will that the same charters
shnll be sent under our seal to cathedral
churches throufrhout our realm, there to
remain, and shall be read before the peo-
ple two times by the j^ear.
IV. And that all archbishops and bishops
shall pronounce the sentence of great ex-
communication against all those that by
word, or deed, or counsel do contrary ty
558
NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.
Part III.
the foresaid charters, or that in any point
break or undo them. And that the said
curses be twice a year denounced and pub-
lished by the prelates aforesaid. And if
the same prelates or any of them be remiss
in the denunciation of the said sentences,
the Archbishops of Canterbury and York
for the time being, as is fitting, shall com-
pel and distrain them to make that denun-
ciation in form aforesaid.
V. And for so much as divers people of
our realm are in fear that the aids and
tasks which they have given to us before-
time towards our wars and other business,
of their own grant and good-will, howso-
ever they were made, might turn to a bond-
age to them and their heirs, because they
might be at another time found in the
rolls, and so likewise the prizes taken
throughout the realm by our ministers ;
we have granted for us and our heirs,
that we shall not draw such aids, tasks,
nor prizes into a custom, for any thing that
hath been done heretofore or that may be
found by roll or in any other manner.
VI. Moreover, we have granted for us
and our heirs, as well to archbishops,
bishops, abbots, priors, and other folk of
holy Church, as also to earls, barons, and
to all the commonalty of the land, that for
no business from henceforth will we take
such manner of aids, tasks, nor prizes, but
by the common assent of the realm, and for
the common profit thereof, saving the an-
cient aids and prizes due and accustomed.
VII. And for so much as the more part
of the commonalty of the re-aim find them-
selves sore grieved with the maletote of
wools ; that is, to wit, a toll of fortv shil-
lings for every sack of wool, and have
made petition to us to release the same ;
we, at their requests, have clearly released
it, and have granted for us and our heirs
that we shall not take such thing nor any
other without their common assent and
good-will ; saving to us and our heirs the
custom of wools, skins, and leather grant-
ed before by the commonalty aforesaid.
In witness of which things we have caused
these our letters to be made patent. Wit-
ness Edward our son at London, the 10th
day of October, the five and twentieth year
of our reign.
And be it remembered that this same
charter in the same terms, word for word,
was sealed in Flanders under the king's
great seal, that is to say, at Ghent, the 5th
day of November, in the 25th year of the
reign of our aforesaid lord the king, and
sent into England. — (" Statutes of the
Realm," i., 124, 125.)
VI. SUMMONS TO THE PARLIAMENT OF 1268.
Item mandatum est singulis vicecomiti-
bus per Angliam quod venire faciant duos
milites de legalioribus, probioribus et dis-
cretioribus militibus siugulorum coraita-
tuum ad regem Londoniis in octavis prae-
dictis in forma supradicta.
Item in forma praedicta scribitur civibus
Eboraci, civibus Lincolniae, et ceteris bur-
gis Angliae, quod mittant in forma prae-
dicta duos de discretioribus, legalioribus et
probioribustamcivibusquamburgensibus.
Item in forma praedicta mandatum est
baronibus et probis hominibus Quinqne
Portnum. . . . —(" Report on the Dignity
of a Peer," App. i., p. 33.)
State or Society. INTRODUCTION. 569
CHAPTER IX.
ON THE STATE OF SOCIETY IN EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE
AGES.
PART I.
§ 1. Introduction. §2. Declineof Literature in the latter period of the Roman Empire.
§ 3. Its Causes. § 4. Corruption of the Latin Language : Means by which it was
effected. § 5. Formation of new Languages. § 0. General Ignorance of the Dark
Ages. § 7. Causes that prevented the total Extinction of Learning. 5 8. Preva-
lence of Superstition and Fanaticism. § 9. Enthusiastic Risings. § 10. Pretended
Miracles. 5 11. General Corruption of Religion. §12. Monasteries: their effects.
§ 13. Penances, Pilgrimages, § 14. Want of Law, and Degradation of Morals.
§ 15. Love of Field Sports. § 16. State of Agriculture. § 17. Of Internal and For-
eign Trade down to the End of the Eleventh Century. § 18. Improvement of Eu-
rope dated from that Age.
§ 1. The Middle Ages, according to the division I have
adopted, comprise about one thousand years, from the inva-
sion of France by Clovis to that of Naples by Charles VIII,
This period, considered as to the state of society, has been
esteemed dark throus^h i<?norance, and barbarous throusfh
poverty and want of refinement. And although this charac-
ter is much less applicable to the last two centuries of the
period than to those which preceded its commencement, yet
we can not expect to feel, in respect of ages at best imper-
fectly civilized and slowly progressive, that interest which
attends a more perfect development of human capacities, and
more brilliant advances in improvement. The first moiety,
indeed, of these ten ages is almost absolutely barren, and pre-
sents little but a catalogue of evils. The subversion of the
Roman Empire and devastation of its provinces by barba-
rous nations, either immediately preceded, or were coincident
with, the commencement of the middle period. We begin
in darkness and calamity; and though the shadows grow
fainter as wo advance, yet we are to break off our pursuit as
the morning breathes upon us and the twilight reddens into
the lustre of day.
§ 2. No circumstance is so prominent, on the first survey
of society during the earlier centuries of this period, as the
depth of ignorance in which it was immersed ; and as from
this, more than any single cause, the moral and social evils
which those ages experienced appear to have been derived
560 DECLINE OF LEAENIXG Chap. IX. Part I,
and perpetuated, it deserves to occupy the first place in the
arrangement of our present subject. We must not altogether
ascribe the ruin of literature to the barbarian destroyers of
the Roman Empire. So gradual and, apparently, so irre-
trievable a decay had long before spread over all liberal
studies, that it is impossible to pronounce whether they
would not have been almost equally extinguished if the au-
gust throne of the Caesars had been left to moulder by its in-
trinsic weakness. Under the paternal sovereignty of Marcus
Aurelius the approaching declension of learning might be
scarcely perceptible to an incurious observer. There was
much, indeed, to distinguish his times from those of Augustus ;
much lost in originality of genius, in correctness of taste, in
the masterly conception and consummate finish of art, in
purity of the Latin, and even of the Greek language. But
there were men who made the age famous — grave lawyers,
judicious historians, wise philosophers; the name of learning
was honorable, its professors were encouraged ; and along the
vast surface of the Roman Empire there was perliaps a great-
er number whose minds were cultivated by intellectual dis-
cipline than under the more brilliant reign of the first em-
peror.
§ 3. It is not, I think, very easy to give a perfectly satis-
factory solution of the rapid downfall of literature between
the ages of Antonine and of Diocletian. Perhaps the pros-
perous condition of the empire from Trajan to Marcus Aure-
lius, and the patronage which those good princes bestowed
on letters, gave an artificial health to them for a moment,
and suspended the operation of a disease which had already
begun to undermine their vigor. Perhaps the intellectual
energies of mankind can never remain stationary; and a na-
tion that ceases to produce original and inventive minds, born
to advance the landmarks of knowledge or skill, will recede
from step to step, till it loses even the secondary merits of
imitation and industry. During the third century, not only
there were no great writers, but even few names of indiffer-
ent writers have been recovered by the diligence of modern
inquiry. Law neglected, philosophy perverted till it became
contemptible, history nearly silent, the Latin tongue growing
rapidly barbarous, poetry rarely and feebly attempted, art
more and more vitiated ; such were the symptoms by which
the age previous to Constantino announced the decline of
human intellect. If we can not fully account for this un-
happy change, as I have observed, we must, however, assign
much weight to the degradation of Rome and Italy in the
State of Society. IN THE KOMAN EMPIRE. 5G1
system of Severus and his successors, to the admission of
barbarians into the military and even civil dignities of the
empire, to tlie discouraging influence of provincial and illit-
erate sovereigns, and to the calamities which followed for
half a century the first invasion of the Goths and the defeat
of Decius. To this sickly condition of literature the fourth
century supplied no permanent remedy. If under the house
of Constautine the Roman world suftered rather less from
civil warfare or barbarous invasions than in the preceding
age, yet every other cause of decline just enumerated pre-
vailed with aggravated force ; and the fourth century set in
storms, sufiiciently destructive in themselves, and ominous
of those calamities which humbled the majesty of Rome at
the commencement of the ensuing period, and overwhelmed
the Western Empire in absolute and final ruin before its
termination.
The diffusion of literature is perfectly distinguishable from
its advancement ; and whatever the obscurity we may find
in explaining the variations of the one, there are a few sim-
ple causes which seem to account for the other. Knowledge
will be spread over the surface of a nation in proportion to
the facilities of education ; to the free circulation of books ;
to the emoluments and distinctions which literary attain-
ments are found to produce ; and still more to the reward
which they meet in the general respect and applause of soci-
ety. This cheering incitement, the genial sunshine of appro-
bation, has at all times promoted the cultivation of literature
in small republics rather than large empires, and in cities
compared with the country. If these are the sources which
nourish literature, we should naturally expect that they must
have become scanty or dry when learning languishes or ex-
pires. Accordingly, in the later ages of the Roman Empire
a general indifference towards the cultivation of letters be-
came the characteristic of its inhabitants. Laws were, in-
deed, enacted by Constantine, Julian, Theodosius, and other
emperors, for the encouragement of learned men and the pro-
motion of liberal education. But these laws, which would
not, perhaps, have been thought necessary in better times,
w^ere unavailing to counteract the lethargy of ignorance in
which even the native citizens of the empire were contented
to repose. This alienation of men from their national litera-
ture may doubtless be imputed in some measure to its own
demerits. A jargon of mystical philosophy, half fanaticism
and half imposture, a barren and inflated eloquence, a frivo-
lous philology, were not among those charms of wisdom by
24*
562 DECLINE OF LEARNING Chap. IX. Part ).
which man is to be diverted from pleasure or aroused from
indolence.
In this temper of the public mind there was little probabil-
ity that new compositions of excellence would be produced,
and much doubt whether the old would be preserved. Since
the invention of printing, the absolute extinction of any con-
siderable work seems a danger too improbable for apprehen
eion. The press pours forth in a few days a thousand vol-
umes, which, scattered like seeds in the air over the republic
of Europe, could hardly be destroyed without the extirpation
of its inhabitants. But in the times of antiquity manuscripts
were copied with cost, labor, and delay ; and if the diffusion
of knowledge be measured by the multiplication of books —
no unfair standard — the most golden ages of ancient learning
could never bear the least comparison with the three last
centuries. The destruction of a few libraries by accidental
fire, the desolation of a few provinces by unsparing and illit-
erate barbarians, might annihilate every vestige of an author,
or leave a i'ew scattered copies, which, from the public indif-
ference, there was no inducement to multiply, exposed to sim-
ilar casualties in succeeding times.
We are warranted by good authorities to assign as a col-
lateral cause of this irretrievable revolution the neglect of
heathen literature by the Christian Church. I am not versed
enough in ecclesiastical writers to estimate the degree of this
neglect ; nor am I disposed to deny that the mischief was
beyond recovery before the accession of Constantine. From
the primitive ages, however, it seems that a dislike of pagan
learning was pretty general among Christians. Many of the
fathers undoubtedly were accomplished in liberal studies,
and we are indebted to them for valuable fragments of au-
thors whom we have lost. But the literary character of the
Church is not to be measured by that of its more illustrious
leaders. Proscribed and persecuted, the early Christians had
not, perhaps, access to the public schools, nor inclination to
studies which seemed, very excusably, uncongenial to the
character of their profession. Their prejudices, however, sur-
vived the establishment of Christianity. The Fourth Coun-
cil of Carthage, in 398, prohibited the reading of secular
books by bishops. Jerome plainly condemns the study of
them except for pious ends. All physical science especially
was held in avowed contempt, as inconsistent with revealed
truths. Nor do there appear to have been any canons made
in favor of learning, or any restriction on the ordination of
persons absolutely illiterate. There was, indeed, abundance
State of Society. IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 563
of what is called theological learning displayed in the con-
troversies of the fourth and fifth centuries; and those who
admire such disputations may consider the principal cham-
pions in them as contributing to the glory, or, at least, retard-
ing the decline, of literature. But I believe rather that po-
lemical disputes will be found not only to corrupt the genuine
spirit of religion, but to degrade and contract the faculties.
What keenness and subtlety these may sometimes acquire by
such exercise is more like that worldly shrewdness we see in
men whose trade it is to outwit their neighbors than the clear
and calm discrimination of philosophy. However this may
be, it can not be doubted that the controversies agitated in
the Church during these two centuries must have diverted
studious minds from profane literature, and narrowed more
and more the circle of that knowledge which tliey were de-
sirous to attain. ^
The torrent of irrational superstitions w^hich carried all
before it in the fifth century, and the progress of ascetic
enthusiasm, had an influence still more decidedly inimical to
learning. I can not, indeed, conceive any state of society more
adverse to the intellectual improvement of mankind than one
which admitted of no middle line between gross dissolute-
ness and fanatical mortification. An equable tone of public
morals, social and humane, verging neither to voluptuousness
nor austerity, seems the most adapted to genius, or at least
to letters, as it is to individual comfort and national prosper-
ity. After the introduction of monkery, and its unsocial the-
ory of duties, the serious and reflecting part of mankind, on
whom science most relies, were turned to habits which, in
the most favorable view% could not quicken the intellectual
energies; and it might be a difficult question whether the
cultivators and admirers of useful literature were less like-
ly to be found among the profligate citizens of Rome and
their barbarian conquerors, or the melancholy recluses of the
wilderness.
Such, therefore, was the state of learning before the sub
version of the Western Empire. And we may form some
notion how little probability there was of its producing any
excellent fruits, even if that revolution had never occurred,
by considering what took place in Greece during the subse-
quent ages ; where, although there was some attention shown
to preserve the best monuments of antiquity, and diligence
in compiling from them, yet no one original writer of any
superior merit arose, and learning, though plunged but for a
short period into mere darkness, may be said to have languish-
564 CORRUPTION OF LATIN. Chap. IX. Part I.
ed in the middle region of twilight for the greater part of a
tliousand years.
But not to delay ourselves in this speculation, the final set-
tlement of barbarous nations in Gaul, Spain, and Italy con-
summated the ruin of litei-ature. Their first irruptions were
uniformly attended with devastation ; and if some of the
Gothic kings, after their establishment, proved humane and
civilized sovereigns, yet the nation gloried in its original rude-
ness, and viewed with no unreasonable disdain arts which
had neither preserved their cultivators from corruption nor
raised them from servitude. Theodoric, the most famous of
the Ostrogoth kings in Italy, could not write his name, and
is said to have restrained his countrymen from attending
those schools of learning by which he, or rather perhaps his
minister, Cassiodorus, endeavored to revive the studies of his
Italian subjects. Scarcely one of the barbarians, so long as
they continued unconfused with the native inhabitants, ac-
quired the slightest tincture of letters; and the ])raise of
equal ignorance was soon aspired to and attained by the en-
tire mass of the Roman laity. They, however, could hardly
have divested themselves so completely of all acquaintance
with even the elements of learning, if the language in w^hich
books were written had not ceased to be their natural dialect.
This remarkable change in the speech of France, Spain, and
Italy, is most intimately connected with the extinction of
learning ; and there is enough of obscurity as well as of inter-
est in th^ subject to deserve some discussion.
§ 4. It is obvious, on the most cursoiy view of the French
and Spanish languages, that they, as well as the Italian, are
derived from one common source, the Latin. That must,
therefore, have been at some period, and certainly not since
the establishment of the barbarous nations in Spain and Gaul,
substituted in ordinary use for the original dialects of those
countries which are generally supposed to have been Celtic,
not essentially diflTering from those which are spoken in Wales
and Ireland. Rome, says Augustin, imposed not only her
yoke, but her language, upon conquered nations. The suc-
cess of such an attempt is indeed very remarkable. Though
it is the natural effect of conquest, or even of commercial in-
tercourse, to ingraft fresh words and foreign idioms on the
stock of the original language, yet the entire disuse of the
latter, and adoption of one radically different, scarcely takes
place in the lapse of a far longer period than that of the
Roman dominion in Gaul. Thus, -in part of Brittany the
people speak a language which has perhaps sustained no es-
State of Society. ANCIENT LATIN TRONUNCIATION. 565
sential alteration from the revolution of two thousand years ;
and we know how steadily another Celtic dialect has kept
its ground in Wales, notwithstanding English laws and gov-
ernment, and the long line of contiguous frontier which brings
the natives of that principality into contact with Englishmen.
Nor did the Romans ever establish their language (I know
not whether they wished to do so) in this island, as we per-
ceive by that stubborn British tongue which has survived
two conquests.
In Gaul and in Spain, however, they did succeed, as the
present state of the French and Peninsular languages renders
undeniable, though by gradual changes, and not by a sud-
den and arbitrary innovation. This is neither possible in
itself, nor agreeable to the testimony of Irenasus, bishop of
Lyons at the end of the second century, who laments the
necessity of learning Celtic. But although the inhabitants
of these provinces came at length to make use of Latin so
completely as their mother tongue that few vestiges, of their
original Celtic could perhaps be discovered in their common
speech, it does not follow that they spoke with the pure pro-
nunciation of Italians, far less with that conformity to the
written sounds which we assume to be essential to the ex-
pression of Latin woi'ds.
It appears to be taken for granted that the Romans pro-
nounced their language as we do at present, so far at least
as the enunciation of all the consonants, however we may ad-
mit our deviations from the classical standard in propriety
of sounds and in measure of time. Yet the example of our
own language and of French might show us that orthogra-
phy may become a very inadequate representative of pro-
nunciation. It is, indeed, capable of proof that in the purest
ages of Latinity some variation existed between these two.
Those numerous changes in spelling w^hich distinguish the
same words in the poefry of Ennius and of Virgil are best ex-
plained by the supposition of their being accommodated to
the current pronunciation. Harsh combinations of letters,
softened down through delicacy of ear or rapidity of utter-
ance, gradually lost their place in the written language.
Thus exfregit and adrogavit assumed a form representing
their more liquid sound ; and auctor was latterly spelt alitor,
which has been followed ir French and Italian. Alitor was
probably so pronounced at all times ; and the orthography
was afterwards corrected or corrupted, whichever we please
to say, according to the sound. We have the best authority
to assert that tl^e final ra was very faintly pronounced, rather.
566 CORRUPTION OF Chap. IX. Part I.
it seems, as a rest and short interval between two syllables
than an articulate letter ; nor, indeed, can we conceive upon
what other ground it was subject to elision before a vowal
in verse, since we can not suppose that the nice ears of Rome
would have submitted to a capricious rule of poetry for
which Greece presented no analogy.^
A decisive proof, in my opinion, of the deviation which
took place, through the rapidity of ordinary elocution, from
the strict laws of enunciation, may be found in the metre of
Terence. His verses, which are absolutely refractory to the
common laws of prosody, may be readily scanned by the ap-
plication of this principle.*
The licenses mentioned in the note below are in all proba-
bility chiefly colloquial, and would not have been adopted in
public harangues, to w^hich the precepts of rhetorical writers
commonly relate. But if the more elegant language of the
Romans, since such we must suppose to have been copied by
Terence for his higher characters, difiered so much in ordi-
nary discourse from their orthography, it is probable that
the vulgar went into much greater deviations. The popular
pronunciation errs generally, we might say perhaj^s invaria-
bly, by abbreviation of words, and by liquefying consonants,
as is natural to the rapidity of colloquial speech.^ It is by
their knowledge of orthography and etymology that the
1 Atque eadem ilia litera, qnoties ultima est, et vocalem verbi seqnentis ita contin-
git, ut in earn transire possit, etiam si scribitur, tameu paruin exprimitur, ut Multum
ille, et Quantum erat : adeo ut pene cujusdam novae literae sonum reddat. Neque euim
eximitur, sed obscuratur, et tautiim aliqtia inter duos vocales velut nota est, ne ipsae
coeant— Quintilian, Institnt., 1. ix., c. 4, p. 585, edit. Capperonier.
2 Thus, in the first act of the "Heautoutiinoruinenos," a part selected at random,
I have found, I. Vowels contracted or dropped so as to shorten the word by a sylla-
ble ; in rei, vid, diutius, ei, solius, earn, unius, suam, divitias, senex, voluptatem, illius,
semel : II. The procelensmatic foot, or four short syllables, instead of the dactyl ;
ecen. i., v. 59, 73, 76, 88, 109 ; seen, ii., v, 30 : III. The elision of « in words ending with
tis or is short, and sometimes even of the whole syllable, before the next word begin-
ning with a vowel ; in seen, i., v. 30, 81, 98, 101, 116, 119 ; seen, ii., v. 28: IV. The first
•syllable of ille is repeatedly shorteued, and indeed nothing is more usual In Terence
than this license ; whence we may collect how ready this word was ^'or abbreviation
iuto the French and Italian articles : V. The last letter ofapud is cut oflf, seen, i., v. 120;
and seen, ii., v. 8: VI. Hodie is used as a pyrrhichins, in seen, ii., v. 11 : VII. Lastly,
there is a clear instance of a short syllable, the antepenultimate oiimpulermi, length-
ened on account of the accent at the 113th verse of the first scene.
3 The following passage of Quintilian is an evidence both of the omission of harsh
or superfluous letters by the best speakers, and of the corrupt abbreviations usual
with the worst. " Dilucida vero erit pronunciatio primum, si verba tota exegerit,
quorum pars devorari, pars destitui solet, plerisque extremas syllabas non profc-
rentibus, dum priorum sono indulgent. Ut est autem necessaria verborum expla-
natio, ita omnes computare et velut adnumerare literas, molestum et odiosum. Nam
et vocales frequentissimS coeunt, et consonantium qnaedam insequente vocali dis-
Bimulantur; ntriusque exemplum posuimus: Mnltum ille et terris. Vitatur etiam
duriorum inter se congressus, unde pellexit et collegit, et quje alio loco dicta sunt."—
L.ii.,c. 3, p. 696.
State of Society. LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 567
more educated part of the community is preserved from
these corrupt modes of pronunciation. There is always,
therefore, a standard by Avhich common speech may be recti-
fied, and in proportion to the diffusion of knowedge and po-
liteness the deviations from it will be more slight and grad-
ual. But in distant provinces, and especially where the lan-
guage itself is but of recent introduction, many more changes
may be expected to occur. Even in France and England
there are provincial dialects which, if written with all their
anomalies of pronunciation as well as idiom, would seem
strangely out of unison with the regular language ; and in
Italy, as is well known, the varieties of dialect are still more
striking. Now, in an advancing state of society, and es-
pecially with such a vigorous political circulation as we
experience in England, language will constantly approxi-
mate to uniformity, as provincial expressions are more and
more rejected for incorrectness or inelegance. But where
literature is on the decline, and public misfortunes contract
the circle of those who are solicitous about refinement, as in
the last ages of the Roman Empire, there will be no longer
any definite standard of living speech, nor any general de-
sire to conform to it if one could be found; and thus the
vicious corruptions of the vulgar will entirely predominate.
The niceties of ancient idiom will be totally lost, while new
idioms will be formed out of violations of grammar sanc-
tioned by usage, which, among a civilized people, would have
been proscribed at their appearance.
Such appears to have been the progress of corruption in
the Latin language. The adoption of words from the Teu-
tonic dialects of the barbarians, which took place very freely,
would not of itself have destroyed the character of that lan-
guage, though it sullied its purity. The woi-st law Latin of
the Middle Ages is still Latin, if its barbarous terms have
been bent to the regular inflections. It is possible, on the
other hand, to w^rite whole pages of Italian wherein every
word shall be of unequivocal Latin derivation, though the
character and personality, if I may so say, of the language
be entirely dissimilar. But, as I conceive, the loss of liter-
ature took away the only check upon arbitrary pronuncia-
tion and upon erroneous grammar. Each people innovated
through caprice, imitation of their neighbors, or some of
those indescribable causes which dispose the organs of dif-
ferent nations to different sounds. The French melted down
the middle consonants, the Italians omitted the final. Cor-
ruptions arising out of ignorance were mingled with those
568 PRONUNCIATION NOT KEGULATED Chap. IX. Pakt I.
of pronunciation. It would have been marvellous if illiter-
ate and semi-barbarous provincials had preserved that deli-
cate precision in using the inflections of tenses which our
best scholars do not clearly attain. The common speech of
any people whose language is highly complicated will be
full of solecisms. The French inflections are not comparable
in number or delicacy to the Latin, and yet the vulgar con-
fuse their most ordinary forms.
But, in all probability, the variation of these derivative
languages from popular Latin has been considerably less
than it appears. In the purest ages of Latinity the citizens
of Rome itself made use of many terms which we deem bar-
barous, and of many idioms which we should reject as mod-
ern. That highly complicated grammar which the best
writers employed was too elliptical and obscure, too defi-
cient in the connecting parts of speech, for general use. We
can not, indeed, ascertain in what degree the vulgar Latin
differed from that of Cicero or Seneca. It would be highly
absurd to imagine, as some are said to have done, that mod-
ern Italian was spoken at Rome under Augustus. But I be-
lieve it may be asserted not only that mucii the greater part
of those words in the present language of Italy which strike
us as incapable of a Latin etymology are in fact derived
from those current in the Augustan age, but that very many
phrases which oflfended nicer ears prevailed in the same ver-
nacular speech, and have passed from thence into the mod-
ern French and Italian. Such, for example, was the frequent
use of prepositions to indicate a relation between two parts
of a sentence which a classical writer would have made to
depend on mere inflection.*
From the difficulty of retaining a right discrimination of
tense seems to have proceeded the active auxiliary verb.
It is possible that this was borrowed from the Teutonic lan-
guages of the barbarians, and accommodated both by them
and by the natives to words of Latin origin. The passive
auxiliary is obtained by a very ready resolution of any tense
in that mood, and has not been altogether dispensed with
even in Greek, while in Latin it is used much more frequent-
ly. It is not quite so easy to perceive the propriety of the
active hdbeo or teiieo^ one or both of which all modern lan-
< M. Bonamy, in an essay printed in Mem. de r Academie des Inscriptions, t. xxiv.,
has produced several proofs of this from the classical writers on agriculture and other
arts, though some of his instances are not in point, as any school-boy would have told
him. This essay contains the best view that I have seen of the process of transition
by which Latin was changed into French and Italian. Add, however, the preface to
Tiraboschi's third volume and the thirty-second dissertation of Muratori.
State of Society. BY QUANTITY. 569
guages have adopted as their auxiliaries in conjugating the
verb. But in some instances this analysis is not improper ;
and it may be supposed that nations careless of etymology
or correctness applied the same verb by rude analogy to
cases where it ought not strictly to have been employed.
Next to the changes founded on pronunciation and to the
substitution of auxiliary verbs for inflections, the usage of
the detinite and indefinite articles in nouns appears the most
considei'able step in the transmutation of Latin into its de-
rivative languages. None but Latin, I believe, has ever
wanted tliis part of speech; and tlie defect to which custom
reconciled the Romans would be an insuperable stumbling-
block to nations who were to translate their original idiom
into that language. A coarse expedient of applying unus^
ipse, or ille to the purposes of an article might perhaps be
no infrequent vulgarism of the provincials ; and after the
Teutonic tribes brought in their own grammar, it was natu-
ral that a corruption should become universal, which in fact
supplied a real and essential deficiency.
That the quantity of Latin syllables is neglected, or rath-
er lost, in modern pronunciation, seems to be generally ad-
mitted. Whether, indeed, the ancient Romans, in their or-
dinary speaking, distinguished the measure of syllables with
such uniform musical accuracy as we imagine, giving a cer-
tain time to those termed long, and exactly half that dura-
tion to the short, might very reasonably be questioned ;
though this was probably done, or attempted to be done,
by every reader of poetry. Certainly, however, the laws of
quantity were forgotten, and an accentual pronunciation
came to predominate, before Latin had ceased to be a living
language. A Christian writer named Commodianus, who
lived before the end of the third century according to some,
or, as others think, in the reign of Constantine, hits left us a
philological curiosity, in a series of attacks on the pagan su-
perstitions,^ composed in what are meant to be verses regu-
* No description can jjive so adequate a notion of this extraordinary performance
as a short specimen. Take the introductory lines, which really, prejudices of edu-
cation apart, are by no means inharmonious:
Prsefatio nostra viam erranti demonstrat,
Respectumqne honum, cum venerit sseculi meta,
^ternnm fieri, quod discredunt inscia corda.
Ego similiter erravi tempore raulto,
Fana prosequeudo, parentibus insciis ipsis.
Abstnli me tandem inde, legendo de lege.
Testiflcor Dominnm, doleo, proh I civica turba
Inscia quod perdit, pergens deos quaerere vanos.
Ob ea perdoctus ignoros instruo verum.
Commodianus is published by Dawes at the end- of his edition of Minucius Felix.
Some specimens are quoted in Harris's Philological Inquiries.
570 TROCHAIC VERSE. Chap. IX. Part 1
lated by accent instead of quantity, exactly as we read Vir-
gil at present.
It is not improbable that Comniodianus may have written
in Africa, the province in which more than any the purity
of Latin was debased. At the end of the fourth century St.
Augustin assailed his old enemies, the Donatists, with near-
ly the same arms that Comniodianus had wielded against
heathenism. But as the refined and various music of hex-
ameters was unlikely to be relished by the vulgar, he pru'
dently adopted a different measure.® AH the nations of Eu-
rope seem to love the trochaic verse. It w\as frequent on
the Greek and Roman stage ; it is more common than any
other in the popular poetry of modern languages. This pro-
ceeds from its simplicity, its liveliness, and its ready accom-
modation to dancing and music. In St. Augustin's poem he
united to a trochaic measure the novel attraction of rhyme.
As Africa must have lost all regard to the rules of meas-
ure in the fourth century, so it appears that Gaul was not
more correct in the next two ages. A poem addressed by
Auspicius, bishop of Toul, to Count Arbogastes, of earlier
date probably than the invasion of Clovis, is written with
no regard to quantity.^ The bishop by whom this was com-
posed is mentioned by his contemporaries as a man of learn-
ing. Probably he did not choose to perplex the barbarian
to whom he was writing (for Arbogastes is plainly a barba-
rous name) by legitimate Roman metre. In the next cen-
tury Gregory of Tours informs us that Chilperic attempted
to write Latin verses ; but the lines could not be reconciled
to any division of feet, his ignorance having confounded
long and short syllables together. Now Chilperic must
have learned to speak Latin like other kings of the Franks,
and was a smatterer in several kinds of literature. If Chil-
peric, therefore, were not master of these distinctions, we
« Archaeologia, vol. xiv., p. 188. The following are the first liues :
Abundantia peccatorum solet fratres coiiturbare ;
Propter hoc Dominus uoster voluit uos prseraonere,
Comparans regnum ccElorum reticulo misso in mare.
Congregant! multos pisces, onine genus hinc et inde,
guos cum traxispent ad littus, tunc coeperunt separare,
onos in vasa miseruut, reliquos malos in mare.
This trash is much below the level of Augustin ; but it could not have been later
than his age.
' Recueil des Historiens, t. i., p. 814 ; it begins in the following manner:
Praecelso expectabili bis Arbogasto comiti
Auspicius, qui diligo, salutem dico plurimam.
Magnas coelesti Domino repeudo corde gratias
Quod te Tnllensi proxime magnum in urbe vidiintfa.
Multis me tnis artibus laetificabas antea,
Sed nunc fecisti maximo me exultare gaudio,
State of Society. LATIN BECOMES ROMANCE. 671
may conclude that the bishops and other Romans with
whom he conversed did not observe them ; and that his
blunders in versification arose from ignorance of rules
which, however fit to be preserved in poetry, were entirely
obsolete in the living Latin of his age. Indeed, the frequen-
cy of false quantities in the poets even of the fifth, but much
more of the sixth century, is palpable. Fortunatus is quite
full of them. This seems a decisive proof that the ancient
pronunciation was lost. Avitus tells us that few preserved
the proper measure of syllables in singing. Yet he was
Bishop of Vienne, where a purer pronunciation might be ex-
pected than in the remoter parts of Gaul.
§ 5. Defective, however, as it had become in respect of
pronunciation, Latin was still spoken in France during the
sixth and seventh centuries. We have compositions of that
time, intended for the people, in grammatical language. A
song is still extant in rhyme and loose accentual measure,
written upon a victory of Clotaire IL over the Saxons in
622, and obviously intended for circulation among the peo-
ple. Fortunatus says, in his life of St. Aubin of Angers,
that he should take care not to use any expression unintel-
ligible to the people. Baudemind, in the middle of the
seventh century, declares, in his life of St. Amand, that he
writes in a rustic and vulgar style, that the reader may be
excited to imitation. Not that these legends were actually
perused by the populace, for the very art of reading was
confined to a few. But they were read publicly in the
churches, and probably with a pronunciation accommodated
to the corruptions of ordinary language. Still, the Latin
syntax must have been tolerably understood ; and we may
therefore say that Latin had not ceased to be a living lan-
guage, in Gaul at least, before the latter part of the seventh
century. Faults, indeed, against the rules of grammar, as
well as unusual idioms, perpetually occur in the best writers
of the Merovingian period, such as Gregory of Tours ;
while charters drawn up by less expert scholars deviate
much farther from purity.
The corrupt provincial idiom became gradually more and
more dissimilar to grammatical Latin ; and the lingua Ro-
mana rustica, as the vulgar patois (to borrow a word that I
can not well translate) had been called, acquired a distinct
character as a new language in the eighth century. Latin
orthography, which had been hitherto pretty well maintained
in books, though not always in charters, gave way to a new
spelling, conformably to the current pronunciation. Thus we
672 ITS CORRUPTION IN ITALY. Chap. IX. Part I.
find lui for illius^ in the Formularies of Marculfus ; and Tu lo
juva in a liturgy of Charlemagne's age, for Tu ilium juva.
When this barrier was once broken down, such a deluge of
innovation poured in, that all the characteristics of Latin were
effaced in writing as well as speaking, and the existence of a
new language became undeniable. In a council held at Tours
in 813, the bishops are ordered to have certain homilies of
the fathers translated into the rustic Roman, as well as the
German tongue. After this it is unnecessary to multiply
proofs of the change which Latin had undergone.
Li Italy the progressive corruptions of the Latin language
were analogous to those which occurred in France, though
we do not find in writings any unequivocal specimens of a
new formation at so early a period. But the old inscriptions,
even of the fourth and fifth centuries, are full of solecisms and
corrupt orthography. Li legal instruments under the Lom-
bard kings the Latin inflections are indeed used, but witli so
little regard to propriety that it is obvious the Avriters had
not the slightest tincture of grammatical knowledge. This
observation extends to a very large proportion of such docu-
ments down to the twelfth century, and is as applicable to
France and Spain as it is to Italy. In these charters the pe-
culiar characteristics of Italian orthography and grammar
frequently appear. Thus we find, in the eighth century, dive-
atis for debeatis, da for de in the ablative, avendi for hahendl^
dava for dabat, cedo a deo, and ad ecclesia^ among many sim-
ilar corruptions. Latin was so changed, it is said by a writer
of Charlemagne's age, that scarcely any part of it was popu-
larly known. Italy, indeed, had suffered more than France
itself by invasion, and was reduced to a lower state of barba-
rism, though probably, from the greater distinctness of pi-o-
nunciation habitual to the Italians, they lost less of then*
original language than the French. I do not find, however,
in the writers who have treated this subject, any express evi-
dence of a vulgar language distinct from Latin earlier than
the close of the tenth century, when it is said in the epitaph
of Pope Gregory V. (who died in 999), that he instructed the
people in three dialects — the Frankish, or German, the vul-
gar, and the Latin. ^
§ 6. When Latin had thus ceased to be a living language,
the whole treasury of knowledge was locked up from the eyes
of the people. The few who might have imbibed a taste for
literature, if books had been accessible to them, were reduced
® XJpTis Francises, vnlgari, et voce Latio
lusiituit populos elcquio tiipici.
State of Society. CONSEQUENT IGNORANCE. 573
to abandon pursuits that could only be cultivated through a
kind of education not easily within their reach. Schools,
confined to cathedrals and monasteiies, and exclusively de-
signed for the purposes of religion, afforded no encourage-
ment or opportunities to the laity. The worst effect was, that,
as the newly-formed languages were hardly made use of in
writing, Latin being still preserved in all legal instruments
and public correspondence, the very use of letters, as well as
of books, was forgotten. For many centuries, to sum up the
account of ignorance in a word, it was rare for a layman, of
whatever rank, to know how to sign his name! Their char-
ters, till the use of seals became general, were subscribed with
the mark of the cross. Still more extraordinary it was to
find one who had any tincture of learning. Even admitting
every indistinct commendation of a monkish biographer (with
whom a knowledge of church music would pass for literature),
we could make out a very short list of scholars. None, cer-
tainly, were more distinguished as such than Charlemagne
and Alfred ; but the former, unless we reject a very plain tes-
timony, was incapable of wanting ;^ and Alfred found difficul-
ty in making a translation from the pastoral instruction of St.
Gregory, on account of his imperfect knowledge of Latin.
Whatever mention, therefore, we find of learning and the
learned during these dark ages, must be understood to relate
only to such as were within the pale of clergy, w^hich, indeed,
was pretty extensive, and comprehended many who did not
exercise the offices of religious ministry. But even the cler-
gy were, for a long period, not very materially superior, as a
body, to the uninstructed laity. A cloud of ignorance over-
» The passage in Eginhard, which has occasioned so much dispute, speaks for it-
self: Tentabat et scribere, tabulasque et codicillos ad hoc in lecticula sub ceryicali-
bns circnmferre solebat, ut, cnm vacuum tempus esset,manum efflgiandis Uteris as-
suefaceret ; sed parum prosperd successit labor prseposterns ac sero iuchoatus.
Many are still unwilling to believe that Charlemagne could not write. M. Ampere
observes that the emperor asserts himself to have been the author of the Libri Caro-
lini, and is said by some to have composed verses. Hist. Litt. de la France, iii., 37.
But did not Henry VIII. claim a book against Luther, which was not written by him-
self? Quifarit per alium,facit per se, is in all cases a royal prerogative. Even if the
book were Charlemagne's own, might he not have dictated it ? I have been informed
that there is a manuscript at Vienna with autograph notes of Charlemagne In the
margin. But is there sufficient evidence of their genuineness? The great difficulty
is to get over the words which I have quoted from Eginhard. M. Ampere ingenious-
ly conjectures that the passage does not relate to simple common writing, but to cal-
ligraphy — the art of delineating characters in a beautiful manner, practised by the
copyists, and of which a contemporaneous specimen may be seen in the well-known
Bible of the British Museum. Yet it must be remembered that Charlemagne's early
life passed in the depths of ignorance ; and Eginhard gives a fair reason why he failed
in acquiring the art of writing, that he began too late. Fingers of fifty are not made
for a new skill. It is not, of course, implied by the words that he could not write his
own name ; but that he did not acquire such a facility as he desired.
574 IGNORANCE CONSEQUENT ON Chap. IX. Part I.
spread the whole face of the Church, hardly broken by a few
glimmering lights, who owe much of their distinction to the
surrounding darkness. In the sixth century the best writers
in Latin were scarcely read ; and perhaps from the middle of
this age to the eleventh there was, in a general view of liter-
ature, little difference to be discerned. If we look more ac-
curately, there will appear certain gradual shades of twilight
on each side of the greatest obscurity. France reached her
lowest point about the beginning of the eighth century ; but
England was at that time more respectable, and did not fall
into complete degradation till the middle of the ninth. There
could be nothing more deplorable than the state of letters
in Italy and in England during the succeeding century; but
France can not be denied to have been uniformly, though
very slowly, progressive from the time of Charlemagne.
Of this prevailing ignorance it is easy to produce abun-
dant testimony. Contracts were made verbally, for want of
notaries capable of drawing up charters; and these, when
written, were frequently barbarous and ungrammatical to an
incredible degree. For some considerable intervals scarcely
any monument of literature has been preserved, except a few
jejune chronicles, the vilest legends of saints, or verses equal-
ly destitute of spirit and metre. In almost every council the
ignorance of the clergy forms a subject for reproach. It is
asserted by one held in 992 that scarcely a single person was
to be found in Rome itself who knew the first elements of
letters. Not one priest of a thousand in Spain, about the
age of Charlemagne, could address a common letter of salu-
tation to another. In England, Alfred declares that he could
not recollect a single priest south of the Thames (the most
civilized part of England), at the time of his accession, who
understood the ordinary prayers, or could translate Latin
into his mother tongue. Nor was this better in the time of
Dunstan, when, it is said, none of the clergy knew how to
write or translate a Latin letter. The homilies which they
preached were compiled for their use by some bishops, from
former works of the same kind, or the writings of the fathers.
This universal ignorance was rendered unavoidable, among
other causes, by the scarcity of books, which could only be
procured at an immense price. From the conquest of Alex-
andria by the Saracens at the beginning of the seventh cen-
tury, when the Egyptian papyrus almost ceased to be im-
ported into Europe, to the close of the eleventh, about which
time the art of making paper from cotton rags seems to have
been introduced, there were no materials for writing except
State of Society. THE DISUSE OF LATIN. 575
parchment, a substance too expensive to be readily spared
for mere purposes of literature. Hence an unfortunate prac-
tice gained ground, of erasing a manuscript in order to sub-
stitute another on the same skin. This occasioned the loss
of many ancient authors, who have made way for the legends
of saints, or other ecclesiastical rubbish.
If we would listen to some literary historians, we should
believe that the darkest ages contained many individuals,
not only distinguished among their contemporaries, but pos-
itively eminent for abilities and knowledge. A proneness to
extol every monk of whose production a few letters or a de-
votional treatise survives, every bishop of whom it is related
that he composed homilies, runs through the laborious work
of " The Benedictines of St. Maur," " The Literary History
of France," and, in a less degree, is observable even in Tira-
boschi, and in most books of this class. Bede, Alcuin, Hinc-
mar, Raban, and a number of inferior names, become real
giants of learning in their uncritical panegyrics. But one
might justly say that ignorance is the smallest defect of the
writers of these dark ages. Several of them were tolerably
acquainted with books ; but that wherein they are uniformly
deficient is original argument or expression. Almost every
one is a compiler of scraps from the fathers, or from such
semi-classical authors as Boethius, Cassiodorus, or Martianus
Capella. Indeed I am not aware that there appeared more
than two really considerable men in the republic of letters
from the sixth to the middle of the eleventh century — John,
surnamed Scotus or Erigena, a native of Ireland ; and Ger-
bert, who became pope by the name of Silvester II. :'° the
first endowed with a bold and acute metaphysical genius ;
»" John Scotns, who, it is almost needless to say, mnat not be confounded with the
still more famous metaphysician Dnns Scot as, lived under Charles the Bald, in the
middle of the ninth century. It admits of no doubt that John Scotus was, in a litei'-
ary and philosophical sense, the most remarkable man of the Dark Ages ; no oue else
had his boldness, his subtlety in threading the labyrinths of metaphysical specula-
tions which, in the west of Europe, had been utterly disregarded. But it is another
question whether he can be reckoned an original writer; those who have attended
most to his treatise De Divisione Naturae, the most abstruse of his works, consider it
as the development of an Oriental philosophy, acquired during his residence in Greece,
and nearly coinciding with some of the later Platonism of the Alexandrian school,
but with a more unequivocal tendency to pantheism. This manifests itself in some
extracts which have latterly been made from the treatise De Divisione Naturae; but
though Scotus had not the reputation of unblemished orthodoxy, the drift of his phi-
losophy was not understood in that barbarous period. He might, indeed, have ex-
cited censure by his intrepid preference of reason to authority. "Authority," he
says, "springs from reason, not reason from authority— true reason needs not be
confirmed by any authority."
Silvester II. died in 1003. Whether he first brought the Arabic numeration into
Europe, as has been commonly said, seems uncertain ; it was at least not much prac-
tised for some centuries after his death.
576 WANT OF LITERARY EMINENCE. t;iiAP. IX. Pabt I.
the second excellent, for the time when he lived, in mathe-
matical science and mechanical inventions.
§ 7. If it be demanded by what cause it happened that a
few sparks of ancient learning survived throughout this long
winter, we can only ascribe their preservation to the estab-
lishment of Christianity. Religion alone made a bridge, as
it were, across the chaos, and has linked the two periods of
ancient and modern civilization. Without this connecting
principle, Europe might indeed have awakened to intellect-
ual pursuits, and the genius of recent times needed not to be
invigorated by the imitation of antiquity. But the memory
of Greece and Rome would have been feebly preserved by
tradition, and the monuments of those nations might have
excited, en the return of civilization, that vague sentiment
of speculation and wonder with which men now contem-
plate Persepolis or the Pyramids. It is not, however, from
religion simply that we have derived this advantage,
but from religion as it was modified in the Dark Ages.
Such is the complex reciprocation of good and evil in the
dispensations of Providence, that we may assert, with only
an apparent paradox, that, had religion been more pure, it
would have been less permanent, and that Christianity has
been preserved by means of its corruptions. The sole hope
for literature depended on tlie Latin language ; and I do not
see Avhy that should not have been lost, if three circum-
stances in the prevailing religious system, all of which we are
justly accustomed to disapprove, had not conspired to main-
tain it — the papal supremacy, the monastic institutions, and
the use of a Latin liturgy. 1. A continual intercourse was
kept up, in consequence of the first, between Rome and the
several nations of Europe ; her laws were received by the
bishops, her legates presided in councils ; so that a common
language was as necessary in the Church as it is at present
in the diplomatic relations of kingdoms. 2. Throughout the
whole course of the Middle Ages there was no learning, and
very little regularity of manners, among the parochial cler-
gy. Almost every distinguished man was either the mem-
ber of a chapter or of a convent. The monasteries were sub-
jected to strict rules of discipline, and held out, at the worst,
more opportunities for study than the secular clergy pos-
sessed, and fewer for worldly dissipations. But their most
important service was as secure repositories for books. All
our manuscripts have been preserved in this manner, and
could hardly have descended to us by any other channel ; at
least there were intervals when I do not conceive that any
STATE OF Society. PRESERVATION OF LEARNING. 577
royal or private libraries existed." 3. Monasteries, however,
would probably have contributed very little towards the
preservation of learning, if the Scriptures and the liturgy had
been translated out of Latin when that language ceased to
be intelligible. Every rational principle of religious worship
called for such a change ; but it would have been made at
the expense of posterity. Moreover, the clergy did not want
good pretexts, on the ground of convenience, for opposing
innovation. They were habituated to the Latin words of
the Church service, w^hich had become, by this association,
the readiest instruments of devotion, and with the majesty
of which the Romance jargon could bear no comparison.
Their musical chants were adapted to these sounds, and their
hymns depended, for metrical effect, on the marked accents
and powerful rhymes which the Latin language affords. The
vulgate Latin of the Bible was still more venerable. It was
like a copy of a lost original, and a copy attested by one of
the most eminent fathers, and by the general consent of the
Church. These are certainly no adequate excuses for keep-
ing the people in ignorance ; and the gross corruption of the
Middle Ages is in a great degree assignable to this policy.
But learning, and consequently religion, have eventually de-
rived from it the utmost advantage.
§ 8. In the shadows of this universal ignorance a thousand
superstitions, like foul animals of night, were propagated and
nourished. It would be very unsatisfactory to exhibit a few
specimens of this odious brood, when the real character of
those times is only to be judged by their accumulated multi-
tude. There are many books from which a sufficient num-
ber of instances may be collected to show the absurdity and
ignorance of the Middle Ages in this respect. I shall only
mention two, as affording more general evidence than any
local or obscure superstition. In the tenth century an opin-
ion prevailed everywhere that the end of the world was ap-
proaching. Many charters begin with these words, "As the
world is now drawing to its close." An army marching un-
der the Emperor Otho I. was so terrified by an eclipse of the
sun, which it conceived to announce this consummation, as to
disperse hastily on all sides. As this notion seems to have
been founded on some confused theory of the millennium, it
naturally died away when the seasons proceeded in the elev-
•* Charlemagne had a library at Aix-la-Chapelle, which he directed to be sold at
his death for the benefit of the poor. His son Louis is said to have collected some
books. But this rather confirms, on the whole, my supposition that, in some periods,
no royal or private libraries existed, since there were not always princes or nobles
w'th the spirit of Charlemagne, or even Louis the Debonair.
25
578 SUPERSTITIONS. Chap. IX. Part I.
enth century with their usual regularity. A far more remark-
able and permanent superstition was the appeal to Heaven
in judicial controversies, whether through the means of com-
bat or of ordeal. The principle of these was the same ; but
in the former it was mingled with feelings independent of
religion — the natural dictates of resentment in a brave man
unjustly accused, and the sympathy of a warlike people with
the display of skill and intrepidity. These, in course of time,
almost obliterated the primary character of judicial combat,
and ultimately changed it into the modern duel, in which as-
suredly there is no mixture of superstition." But, in the va-
rious tests of innocence which were called ordeals, this stood
undisguised and unqualified. It is not necessary to describe
what is so well known — the ceremonies of trial by handling
hot iron, by plunging the arm into boiling fluids, by floating
or sinking in cold water, or by swallowing a piece of conse-
crated bread. It is observable that, as the interference of
Heaven was relied upon as a matter of course, it seems to
have been reckoned nearly indifierent whether such a test
were adopted as must, humanly considered, absolve all the
guilty, or one that must convict all the innocent. The or-
deals of hot iron or water were, however, more commonly
used ; and it has been a perplexing question by what dex-
terity these tremendous proofs were eluded. They seem at
least to have placed the decision of all judicial controversies
in the hands of the clergy, who must have known the secret,
whatever that might be, of satisfying the spectators that an
accused person had held a mass of burning iron witli impu-
nity. For several centuries this mode of investigation was
in great repute, though not without opposition from some
eminent bishops. It does discredit to the memory of Char-
jemagne that he was one of its warmest advocates. But the
judicial combat, which, indeed, might be reckoned one spe-
cies of ordeal, gradually put an end to the rest ; and as tlie
Church acquired better notions of law, and a code of her
own, she strenuously exerted herself against all these barba-
rous superstitions.
§ 9. But the religious ignorance of the Middle Ages some-
'2 Duelling, in the modern sense of the word, exclusive of casual frays and single
combat during war, was unknown before the sixteenth century. But we find one
anecdote which seems to illustrate its derivation from the judicial combat. The
dukes of Lancaster and Brunswick, having some differences, agreed to decide them
by duel before John, king of France. The lists were prepared with the solemnity of
a real trial by battle : but the king interfered to prevent the engagement. The bar-
barous practice of wearing swords as a part of domestic dress, which tended very
much to the frequency of duelling, was not introduced till the latter part of the 15th
century.
State of SociETr. ENTHUSIASTIC RISINGS. 579
times burst out in ebullitions of epidemical enthusiasm, more
remarkable than these superstitious usages, though proceed-
ing in fact from similar causes. For enthusiasm is little else
than superstition put in motion, and is equally founded on a
strong conviction of supernatural agency, without any just
conceptions of its nature. Nor has any denomination of
Christians produced, or even sanctioned, more fanaticism
than the Church of Rome. These epidemical frenzies, how-
ever, to which I am alluding, were merely tumultuous,
though certainly fostered by the creed of perpetual miracles
which the clergy inculcated, and drawing a legitimate prece-
dent for religious insurrection from the Crusades. For these,
among other evil consequences, seem to have principally ex-
cited a wild fanaticism that did not sleep for several centu-
ries.
The first conspicuous appearance of it was in the reign of
Philip Augustus, when the mercenary troops dismissed from
the pay of that prince and of Henry 11. committed the
greatest outrages in the south of France. One Durand, a
carpent-er, deluded, it is said, by a contrived appearance of
the Virgin, put himself at the head of an army of the popu-
lace, in order to destroy these marauders. His followers
were styled Brethren of the White Caps^ from the linen cov-
erings of their heads. They bound themselves not to play
at dice nor frequent taverns, to wear no affected clothing,
to avoid perjury and vain swearing. After some successes
over the plunderers, they went so far as to forbid the lords
to take any dues fi-om their vassals, on pain of incurring the
indignation of the brotherhood. It may easily be imagined
that they were soon entirely discomfited, so that no one
dared to own that he had belonged to them.
During the captivity of St. Louis in Egypt, a more exten-
sive and terrible ferment broke out in Flanders, and spread
from thence over great part of France. An impostor declared
himself commissioned by the Virgin to preach a crusade,
not to the rich and noble, who for their pride had been le-
jected of God, but the poor. His disciples were called Pas-
toureaux^ the simplicity of shepherds having exposed them
more readily to this delusion. In a short time they were
swelled by the confluence of abundant streams to a moving
mass of a hundred thousand men, divided into companies,
with banners bearing a cross and a lamb, and commanded by
the impostor's lieutenants. He assumed a priestly charac-
ter, preaching, absolving, annulling marriages. At Amiens,
Bourges, Orleans, and Paris itself, he was received as a di-
680 ENTHUSIASTIC RISINGS. Chap. IX. Part I.
vine prophet. Even the Regent Blanche, for a time, was
led away by the popular tide. His main topic was reproach
of the clergy for their idleness and corruption — a theme well
adapted to the ears of the people, who had long been utter-
ing similar strains of complaint. In some towns his follow-
ers massacred the priests and plundered the monasteries.
The Government at length began to exert itself; and, the
public sentiment turning against the authors of so much con-
fusion, this rabble was put to the sword or dissipated. Sev-
enty years afterwards an insurrection almost exactly paral-
lel to this burst out under the same pretense of a crusade.
These insurgents, too, bore the name of Pastoureaux, and
their short career was distinguished by a general massacre
of the Jews.
But though the contagion of fanaticism spreads much
more rapidly among the populace, and in modern times is
almost entirely coniined to it, there were examples, in the
Middle Ages, of an epidemical religious lunacy from which
no class was exempt. One of these occurred about the year
1260, when a multitude of every rank, age, and sex, march-
ing two by two in procession along the streets and public
roads, mingled groans and dolorous hymns with the sound
of leathern scourges which they exercised upon their naked
backs. From this mark of penitence, which, as it bears at
least all the appearance of sincerity, is not uncommon in the
Church of Rome, they acquired the name of Flagellants.
Tlieir career began, it is said, at Perugia, whence they spread
over the rest of Italy, and into Germany and Poland. As
this spontaneous fanaticism met with no encouragement from
the Church, and was prudently discountenanced by the civil
magistrate, it died away in a very short time. But it is more
surprising that, after almost a century and a half of contin-
ual improvement and illumination, another irruption of pop-
ular extravagance burst out under circumstances exceeding-
ly similar. "In the month of August, 1399," says a contem-
porary historian, " there appeared all over Italy a descrip-
tion of persons, called Bianchi, from the white linen vest-
ment that they wore. They passed from province to prov-
ince, and from city to city, crying out Misericordia ! with
their faces covered and bent towards the ground, and bear-
ing before them a great crucifix. Their constant song was,
Stabat Mater dolorosa. This lasted three months; and who-
ever did not attend their procession was reputed a heretic."
Almost every Italian writer of the time takes notice of these
Bianchi ; and Muratori ascribes a remarkable refoi ination of
State; of Society. PRETENDED MIRACLES. 581
manners (though certainly a very transient one) to their in-
fluence. Nor were they confined to Italy, though no such
meritorious exertions are imputed to them in other coun-
tries. In France their practice of covering the face gave
such opportunity to crimes as to be prohibited by the Gov-
ernment ; and we have an act on the rolls of the first Parlia-
ment of Henry IV., forbidding any one, " under pain of for-
feiting all his worth, to receive the new sect in w^hite clothes,
pretending to great sanctity," which had recently appeared
in foreign parts.
§ 10. The devotion of the multitude was wrought to this
feverish height by the prevailing system of the clergy. In
that singular polytheism which had been grafted on Chris-
tianity, nothing was so conspicuous as the belief of perpetual
miracles — if, indeed, those could properly be termed mira-
cles which, by their constant recurrencej even upon trifling
occasions, might seem within the ordinary dispensations of
Providence. These superstitions arose in what are called
primitive times, and are certainly no part of popery, if in
that word we include any especial reference to the Roman
See. But successive ages of ignorance swelled the delusion
to such an enormous pitch, that it was as diflicult to trace,
we may say without exaggeration, the real religion of the
Gospel in the popular belief of the laity, as the real history
of Charlemagne in the romance of Turpin. It must not be
supposed that these absurdities were produced, as well as
nourished, by ignorance. In most cases they were the work
of deliberate imposture. Every cathedral or monastery had
its tutelar saint, and every saint his legend, fabricated in or-
der to enrich the churches under his protection by exagger-
ating his virtues, his miracles, and consequently his power
of serving those who paid liberally for his patronage. Many
of those saints were imaginary persons ; sometimes a blun-
dered inscription added a name to the calendar, and some-
times, it is said, a heathen god was surprised at the company
to which he was introduced, and the rites with which he was
honored.
§ 11. It would not be consonant to the nature of the pres-
ent work to dwell upon the erroneousness of this religion ;
but its effect upon the moral and intellectual character of
mankind was so prominent that no one can take a philosoph-
ical view of the Middle Ages without attending more than is
at present fashionable to their ecclesiastical history. That
the exclusive w^orship of saints, under the guidance of an art-
ful though illiterate priesthood, degraded the understanding,
582 MISCHIEFS OF SUPERSTITION. Chap. IX. Part I
and begot a stupid credulity and fanaticism, is sufficiently
evident. But it was also so managed as to loosen the bonds
of religion and pervert the standard of morality. If these
inhabitants of heaven had been represented as stern avengers,
accepting no slight atonement for heavy offenses, and prompt
to interpose their control over natural events for the detec-
tion and punishment of guilt, the creed, however impossible
to be reconciled with experience, might have proved a salu-
tary check upon a rude people, and would at least havp had
the only palliation that can be offered for a religious impos-
ture, its political expediency. In the legends of those times,
on the contrary, they appeared only as perpetual interces-
sors, so good-natured and so powerful, that a sinner was
more emphatically foolish than he is usually represented if
he failed to secure himself against any bad consequences.
For a little attention to the saints, and especially to the
Virgin, with due liberality to their servants, had saved, he
would be told, so many of the most atrocious delinquents,
that he might equitably presume upon similar luck in his
own case.
This monstrous superstition grew to its height in the
twelfth century. For the advance that learning then made
was by no means sufficient to counteract the vast increase
of monasteries, and the opportunities which the greater cul-
tivation of modern languages afforded for the diffusion of le-
gendary tales. It was now, too, that the veneration paid to
the Virgin, in early times very great, rose to an almost ex-
clusive idolatry. It is difficult to conceive the stupid ab-
surdity and the disgusting profaneness of those stories which
were invented by the monks to do her honor.
§ 12. At the same time, it must be admitted that the evils
of superstition in the Middle Ages, though separately con-
sidered very serious, are not to be weighed against the bene-
fits of the religion with which they were so mingled. In the
original principles of monastic orders, and the rules by which
they ought at least to have been governed, there was a charac-
ter of meekness, self-denial, and charity that could not wholly
be effaced. These virtues, rather than justice and veracity,
were inculcated by the religious ethics of the Middle Ages ;
and in the relief of indigence it may, upon the whole, be as-
serted that the monks did not fall short of their profession.
This eleemosynary spirit, indeed, remarkably distinguishes
both Christianity and Mohammedanism from the moral sys-
tems of Greece and Rome, which were very deficient in gen-
eral humanity and sympathy with suffering. Nor do we
tiTATE OF Society. VICES OF MONKS AND CLERGY. 583
find in any single instance during ancient times, if I mistake
not, those public institutions for the alleviation of human
miseries which have long been scattered over every part of
Europe. The virtues of the monks assumed a still higher
character when they stood forward as protectors of the op-
pressed. By an established law, founded on very ancient
superstition, the precincts of a church afibrded sanctuary to
accused persons. Under a due administration of justice this
privilege would have been simply and constantly mischiev-
ous, as we properly consider it to be in those countries where
it still subsists. But in the rapine and tumult of the Middle
Ages the right of sanctuary might as often be a shield to in-
nocence as an immunity to crime. We can hardly regret,
in reflecting on the desolating violence which prevailed, that
there should have been some green spots in the wilderness
where the feeble and the persecuted could find refuge. How
must this right have enhanced the veneration for religious
institutions ! How gladly must the victims of internal war-
fare have turned their eyes from the baronial castle, the
dread and scourge of the neighborhood, to those venerable
walls within which not even the clamor of arms could be
heard 'to disturb the chant of holy men and the sacred serv-
ice of the altar ! The protection of the sanctuary was never
withheld. A son of Chilperic, king of France, having fled
to that of Tours, his father threatened to ravage all the lands
of the Church unless they gave him up. Gregory the histo-
rian, bishop of the city, replied in the name of his clergy
that Christians could not be guilty of an act unheard of
among pagans. The king was as good as his word, and did
not spare the estate of the Church,"but dared not infringe its
privileges. He had, indeed, previously addressed a letter to
St. Martin, w^hich was laid on his tomb in the Church, re-
questing permission to take away his son by force ; but the
honest saint returned no answer.
The virtues, indeed, or supposed virtues, which had induced
a credulous generation to enrich so many of the monastic or-
ders, were not long preserved. We must reject, in the ex-
cess of our candor, all testimonies that the Middle Ages pre-
sent, from the solemn declaration of councils and reports
of judicial inquiry to the casual evidence of common fame in
the ballad or romance, if we would extenuate the general
corruption of those institutions. In vain new rules of disci-
pline were devised, or the old corrected by reforms. Many
of their worst vices grew so naturally out of their mode of
life, that a stricter discipline could have no tendency to ex-
584 COMMUTA riON OF PENANCES. Chap. IX. Part I.
tirpate them. Such were the frauds I have already noticed,
and the whole scheme of hypocritical austerities. Their ex-
treme licentiousness was sometimes hardly concealed by the
cowl of sanctity. I know not by what right we should dis-
believe the reports of the visitation under Henry VIII., en-
tering as they do into a multitude of specific charges both
probable in their nature and consonant to the unanimous
opinion of the world. Doubtless there were many commu-
nities, as well as individuals, to w^hom none of these re-
proaches would apply. In the very best view, however, that
can be taken of monasteries, their existence is deeply injuri-
ous to the general morals of a nation. They withdraw men
of pure conduct and conscientious principles from the exer-
cise of social duties, and leave the common mass of human
vice more unmixed. Such men are always inclined to form
schemes of ascetic perfection, which can only be fulfilled in
retirement ; but in the strict rules of monastic life, and un-
der the influence of a grovelling superstition, their virtue lost
all its usefulness. Their frauds, however, were less atrocious
than the savage bigotry with which they maintained their
own system and infected the laity. In Saxony, Poland,
Lithuania, and the countries on the Baltic Sea, a sanguinary
persecution extirpated the original idolatry. The Jews were
everywhere the objects of popular insult and oppression, fre-
quently of a general massacre, though protected, it must be
confessed, by the laws of the Church, as well as in general
by temporal princes. Of the Crusades it is only necessary
to repeat that they began in a tremendous eruption of fa-
naticism, and ceased only because that spirit could not be
constantly kept alive A similar influence produced the dev-
astation of Languedoc, the stakes and scaflblds of the In-
quisition, and rooted in the religious theory of Europe those
maxims of intolerance which it has so slowly, and still per-
haps so imperfectly, renounced.
§ 13. It is a frequent complaint of ecclesiastical writers
that the rigorous penances imposed by the primitive canons
upon delinquents were commuted in a laxer state of disci-
pline for less severe atonements, and ultimately indeed for
money. We must not, however, regret that the clergy should
have lost the power of compelling men to abstain fifteen years
from eating meat, or to stand exposed to public derision at
the gates of a church. Such implicit submissiveness could
only have produced superstition and hypocrisy among the
laity, and prepared the road for a tyranny not less oppressive
than that of India or ancient Egypt. Indeed the two earliest
State of Socidty. WANT OF LAW. 685
instances of ecclesiastical interference with the rights of sov-
ereigns — namely, the deposition of Wamba, in Spain, and that
of Louis the Debonair — were founded upon this austere sys-
tem of penitence. But it is true that a repentance redeemed
by money or performed by a substitute could have no salu-
tary effect on the sinner ; and some of the modes of atone-
ment which the Church most approved were particularly
hostile to public morals. None was so usual as pilgrimage,
whether to Jerusalem or Rome, which were the great objects
of devotion, or to the shrine of some national saint — a James
of Compostella, a David, or a Thomas a Becket. This li-
censed vagrancy was naturally productive of dissoluteness,
especially among the women. Our English ladies, in their
zeal to obtain the spiritual treasures of Rome, are said to
have relaxed the necessary caution about one that was in
their own custody. There is a capitulary of Charlemagne
directed against itinerant penitents, who probably consider-
ed the iron chain around their necks an expiation of future
as well as past offenses.
The Crusades may be considered as martial pilgrimages on
an enormous scale, and their influence upon general morality
seems to have been altogether pernicious. Those who served
under the cross would not, indeed, have lived very virtuously
at home ; but the confidence in their own merits, which the
principle of such expeditions inspired, must have aggravated
the ferocity and dissoluteness of their ancient habits. Sev-
eral historians attested the depravation of morals which ex-
isted both among the crusaders and in the states formed out
of their conquests.
§ 14. While religion had thus lost almost every quality
that renders it conducive to the good order of society, the
control of human law was still less efficacious. But this part
of my subject has been anticipated m other passages of the
present work; and I shall only glance at the want of regular
subordination which rendered legislative and judicial edicts
a dead letter, and at the incessant private warfare rendered
legitimate by the usages of most Continental nations. Such
hostilities, conducted as they must usually have been with
injustice and cruelty, could not fail to produce a degree of
rapacious ferocity in the general disposition of a people.
And this certainly was among the characteristics of every
nation for many centuries.
It is easy to infer the degradation of society during the
Dark Ages from the state of religion and police. Certain-
ly there are a few great landmarks of moral distinctions
25*
586 DEGRADATION OF MORALS. Chap. IX. Part I
SO deeply fixed in human nature, that no degree of rude-
ness can destroy, nor even any superstition remove, them.
Wherever an extreme corruption has in any particular so-
ciety defaced these sacred archetypes that are given to guide
and correct the sentiments of mankind, it is in the course of
Providence that the society itself should perish by internal
discord or the sword of a conqueror. In the worst ages of
Europe there must have existed the seeds of social virtues,
of fidelity, gratitude, and disinterestedness, sufficient at least
to preserve the public approbation of more elevated princi-
ples than the public conduct displayed. Without these im-
perishable elements there could have been no restoration of
the moral energies; nothing upon which reformed faith, re-
vived knowledge, renewed faw, could exercise their nourish-
ing influences. But history, which reflects only the more
prominent features of society, can not exhibit the virtues
that were scarcely able to struggle through the general dep-
ravation. I am aware that a tone of exaggerated declama-
tion is at all times usual with those who lament the vices of
their own time ; and writers of the Middle Ages are in abun-
dant need of allowance on this score. Nor is it reasonable
to found any inferences as to the general condition of socie-
ty on single instances of crimes, however atrocious, especial-
ly when committed under the influence of violent passion.
Such enormities are the fruit of every age, and none is to be
measured by them. They make, however, a strong impres-
sion at the moment, and thus find a place in contemporary
annals, from which modern writers are commonly glad to
extract whatever may seem to throw light upon manners.
I shall, therefore, abstain from producing any particular cases
of dissoluteness or cruelty from the records of the Middle
Ages, lest I should weaken a general proposition by offering
an imperfect induction to support it, and shall content my-
self with observing that times to which men sometimes ap-
peal, as to a golden period, were far inferior in every moral
comparison to those in which we are thrown. One crime,
as more universal and characteristic than others, may be
particularly noticed. All writers agree in the prevalence
of judicial perjury. It seems to have almost invariably es-
caped human punishment ; and the barriers of superstition
were in this, as in every other instance, too feeble to prevent
the commission of crimes. Many of the proofs by ordeal
were applied to witnesses as well as those whom they ac-
cused ; and undoubtedly trial by combat was preserved in a
considerable degree on account of the difficulty experienced
State or Society. LOVE OF FIELD SPORTS. 587
in securing a just cause against the perjury of witnesses.
Robert, king of France, perceiving how frequently men for-
swore themselves upon the relics of saints, and less shocked
apparently at the crime than at the sacrilege, caused an emp-
ty reliquary of crystal to be used, that those who touched it
might incur less guilt in fact, though not in intention. Such
an anecdote characterizes both the man and the times.
§ 15. The favorite diversions of the Middle Ages, in the
intervals of war, were those of hunting and hawking. The
former must in all countries be a source of pleasure ; but it
seems to have been enjoyed in moderation by the Greeks
and Romans. With the Northern invaders, however, it was
rather a predominant appetite than an amusement ; it was
their pride and their ornament, the theme' of their songs, the
object of their laws, and the business of their lives. Falcon-
ry, unknown as a diversion to the ancients, became from the
fourth century an equally delightful occupation. From the
Salic and other barbarous codes of the fifth century to the
close of the period under our review, every age would fur-
nish testimony to the ruling passion for these two species of
chase, or, as they were sometimes called, the mysteries of
w^oods and rivers. A knight seldom stirred from his house
without a falcon on his wrist or a greyhound that followed
him. Thus are Harold and his attendants represented in the
famous tapestry of Bayeux. And in the monuments of those
who died anywhere but on the field of battle, it is usual to
find the greyhound lying at their feet, or the bird upon their
wrists. Nor are the tombs of ladies without their falcon ;
for this diversion, being of less danger and fatigue than the
chase, was shared by the delicate sex.
It was impossible to repress the eagerness with which the
clergy, especially after the barbarians were tempted by rich
bishoprics to take upon them the sacred functions, rushed into
these secular amusements. Prohibitions of councils, however
frequently repeated, produced little efiect. In some instances
a particular monastery obtained a dispensation. Thus that
of St. Denis, in 774, represented to Charlemagne that the flesh
of hunted animals was salutary for sick monks, and that their
skins would serve to bind the books in the library. Reasons
equally cogent, we may presume, could not be wanting in
every other case. As the bishops and abbots were perfectly
feudal lords, and often did not scruple to lead their vassals
into the field, it was not to be expected that they should
debar themselves of an innocent pastime. It was hardly
such, indeed, when practised at the expense of others. Alex-
588 BAD STATE OF AGRICULTURE Chap. IX. Part I.
ander III., by a letter to the clergy of Berkshire, dispenses
with their keeping the archdeacon in dogs and hawks during
his visitation. This season gave jovial ecclesiastics an op-
portunity of trying different countries. An archbishop of
York, in 1321, seems to have carried a train of two hundred
persons, who were maintained at the expense of the abbeys
on his road, and to have hunted with a pack of hounds from
parish to parish. The Third Council of Lateran, in 1 180, had
Erohibited this amusement on such journeys, and restricted
ishops to a train of forty or fifty horses.
Though hunting had ceased to be a necessary means of
procuring food, it was a very convenient resource, on which
the wholesomeness and comfort, as well as the luxury, of the
table depended. Before the natural pastures were improved,
and new kinds of fodder for cattle discovered, it was impos-
sible to maintain the summer stock during the cold season.
Hence a portion of it was regularly slaughtered and salted
for winter provision. We may suppose that, when no al-
ternative was offered but these salted meats, even the lean-
est venison was devoured with relish. There was somewhat
more excuse, therefore, for the severity with which the lords
of forests and manors preserved the beasts of chase than if
they had been considered as merely objects of sport. The
laws relating to preservation of game were in every country
uncommonly rigorous. They formed in England that odi-
ous system of forest laws which distinguished the tyranny
of our Norman kings. Capital punishment for killing a
stag or wild boar was frequent, and perhaps warranted by
law, until the charter of John. The French code was less
severe, but even Henry IV. enacted the pain of death
against the repeated offense of chasing deer in the royal for-
ests. The privilege of hunting was reserved to the nobility
till the reign of Louis IX., who extended it in some degree
to persons of lower birth.
This excessive passion for the sports of the field produced
those evils which are apt to result from it — a strenuous idle-
ness which disdained all useful occupations, and an oppress-
ive spirit towards the peasantry. The devastation com-
mitted under the pretense of destroying wild animals, which
had been already protected in their depredations, is noticed
in serious authors, and has also been the topic of popular
ballads. What effect this must have had on agriculture it
is easy to conjecture. The levelling of forests, the draining
of morasses, and the extirpation of mischievous animals
which inhabit them, are the first objects of man's labor in
State of Society. AND OF INTERNAL TRADE. 589
reclaiming the earth to his use ; and these were forbidden
by a landed aristocracy, whose control over the progress of
agricultural improvement was unlimited, and who had not
yet learned to sacrifice their pleasures to their avarice.
§ 16. These habits of the rich, and the miserable servitude
of those who cultivated the land, rendered its fertility un-
availing. Predial servitude, indeed, in some of its modifica-
tions, has always been the great bar to improvement. In
the agricultural economy of Rome the laboring husband-
man, a menial slave of some wealthy senator, had not even
that qualified interest in the soil which the tenure of villen-
age afforded to the peasant of feudal ages. Italy, therefore,
a country presenting many natural impediments, was but
imperfectly reduced into cultivation before the irruption of
the barbarians. That revolution destroyed agriculture with
every other art, and succeeding calamities during five or six
centuries left the finest regions of Europe unfruitful and des-
late. There are but two possible modes in which the prod-
uce of the earth can be increased ; one by rendering fresh
land serviceable, the other by improving the fertility of that
which is already cultivated. The last is only attainable by
the application of capital and of skill to agriculture, neither
of which could be expected in the ruder ages of society.
The former is, to a certain extent, always practicable while
waste lands remain ; but it was checked by laws hostile to
improvement, such as the manerial and commonable rights
in England, and by the general tone of manners.
Till the reign of Charlemagne there were no towns in
Germany, except a few that had been erected on the Rhine
and Danube by the Romans. A house with its stables and
farm buildings, surrounded by a hedge or inclosure, was
called a court, or, as we find it in our law-books, a curtilage ;
the toft, or homestead, of a more genuine English dialect.
One of these, with the adjacent domain of arable fields and
woods, had the name of a villa or manse. Several manses
composed a march, and several marches formed a pagus or
district. From these elements in the progress of population
arose villages and towns. In France undoubtedly there
were always cities of some importance. Country parishes
contained several manses or farms of arable land around a
common pasture, where every one was bound by custom to
feed his cattle.
§ 17. The condition even of internal trade was hardly
preferable to that of agriculture. There is not a vestige,
perhaps, to be discovered for several centuries of any con^
590 DEARTH OF MANUFACTURES. Chap. IX. Part I.
siderable manufacture — I mean, of working up articles of
common utility to an extent beyond what the necessities of
an adjacent district required. Rich men kept domestic ar-
tisans among their servants ; even kings, in the ninth cen-
tury, had their clothes made by the women upon their
farms; but the peasantry must have been supplied with
garments and implements of labor by purchase ; and every
town, it can not be doubted, had its weaver, its smith, and
its carrier. But there were almost insuperable impediments
to any extended traffic — the insecurity of movable wealth,
and difficulty of accumulating it ; the ignorance of mutual
wants ; the peril of robbery in conveying merchandise, and
the certainty of extortion. In the domains of every lord
a toll was to be paid in passing his bridge, or along his high-
-wav, or at his market. These customs, equitable and nec-
essary in their principle, became in practice oppressive, be-
cause they were arbitrary, and renewed in every petty ter-
ritory which the road might intersect. Several of Charle-
magne's capitularies repeat complaints of these exactions,
and endeavor to abolish such tolls as were not founded on
prescription. One of them rather amusingly illustrates the
modesty and moderation of the land-holders. It is enacted
that no one shall be compelled to go out of his way in order
to pay toll at a particular bridge, when he can cross the
river more conveniently at another place. These provis-
ions, like most others of that age, were unlikely to produce
much amendment. It was only the milder species, however,
of feudal lords who were content with the tribute of mer-
chants. The more ravenous descended from their fortresses
to pillage the wealthy traveller, or shared in the spoil of in-
ferior plunderers, whom they both protected and instigated.
Proofs occur, even in the later periods of the Middle Ages,
when government had regained its energy, and civilization
had made considerable progress, of public robberies system-
atically perpetrated by men of noble rank. In the more
savage times, before the twelfth century, they were proba-
bly too frequent to excite much attention. It was a custom
in some places to waylay travellers, and not only to plunder,
but to sell them as slaves, or compel them to pay a ransom.
Harold, son of Godwin, having been wrecked on the coast
of Ponthieu, was imprisoned by the lord, says an historian,
according to the custom of that territory. Germany ap-
pears to have been, upon the whole, the country where
downright robbery was most unscrupulously practised by
the great. Their castles, erected on almost inaccessible
State of Society. STATE OF FOREIGN COMMERCE. 591
heights among the woods, became the secure receptacles of
predatory bands, who spread terror over the country. From
these barbarian lords of the Dark Ages, as from a living
model, the romances are said to have drawn their giants
and other disloyal enemies of true chivalry. Robbery, in-
deed, is the constant theme both of the capitularies and of
the Anglo-Saxon laws ; one has more reason to wonder at
the intrepid thirst of lucre, which induced a very few mer-
chants to exchange the products of different regions, than
to ask why no general spirit of commercial activity pre-
vailed.
Under all these circumstances it is obvious that very little
Oriental commerce could have existed in these western coun-
tries of Europe. Destitute as they have been created, speak-
ing comparatively, of natural productions fit for exportation,
their invention and industry are the great resources from
which they can supply the demands of the East. Before
any manufactures were established in Europe, her commer-
cial intercourse with Egypt and Asia must of necessity have
been very trilling ; because, whatever inclination she might
feel to enjoy the luxuries of those genial regions, she wanted
the means of obtaining them. It is not, therefore, necessary
to rest the miserable condition of Oriental commerce upon
the Saracen conquests, because the poverty of Europe is an
adequate cause ; and, in fact, what little traffic remained was
carried on with no material inconvenience through the chan-
nel of Constantinople. Venice took the lead in trading with
Greece and more eastern countries. Amalfi had the second
place in the commerce of those dark ages. These cities im-
ported, besides natural productions, the fine clothes of Con-
stantinople ; yet, as this traffic seems to have been illicit, it
was not probably extensive. Their exports were gold and
silver, by which, as none was likely to return, the circulating
money of Europe was probably less in the eleventh century
than at the subversion of the Roman Empire ; furs, which
were obtained from the Sclavonian countries ; and arms, the
sale of which to pagans or Saracens was vainly prohibited
by Charlemagne and by the Holy See. A more scandalous
traffic, and one that still more fitly called for prohibitory
laws, was carried on in slaves. It is a humiliating proof of
the degradation of Christendom, that the Venetians were re-
duced to purchase the luxuries of Asia by supplying the
slave-market of the Saracens. Their apology would perhaps
have been, that these were purchased from their heathen
neighbors ; but a slave-dealer was probably not very inquisi-
592 GENERAL IMPKOVEMENT. Chap. IX. Part I
tive as to the faith or origin of his victim. This trade was
not peculiar to Venice. In England it was very common,
even after the Conquest, to export slaves to Ireland, till, in
the reign of Henry II., the Irish came to a non-importation
agreement, w^hich put a stop to the practice.
§ 18. From this state of degradation and poverty all the
countries of Europe have recovered, with a progression in
some respects tolerably uniform, in others more unequal ;
and the course of their improvement, more gradual and less
dependent upon conspicuous civil revolutions than their de-
cline, affords one of the most interesting subjects into which
a philosophical mind can inquire. The commencement of
this restoration has usually been dated from about the close
of the eleventh century; though it is unnecessary to observe
that the subject does not admit of any thing approximating
to chronological accuracy. It may, therefore, be sometimes
not improper to distinguish the first six of the ten centuries
which the present work embraces under the appellation of
the Dark Ages — an epithet which I do not extend to the
twelfth and three following. In tracing the decline of so-
ciety from the subversion of the Roman Empire, we have
been led, not without connection, from ignorance to super-
stition, from superstition to vice and lawlessness, and from
thence to general rudeness and poverty. I shall pursue an
inverted order in passing along the ascending scale, and
class the various improvements which took place between
the twelfth and fifteenth centuries under three principal
heads, as they relate to the wealth, the manners, or the taste
and learning of Europe. Different arrangements might
probably be suggested, equally natural and convenient ; but.
in the disposition of topics that have not always an unbroken
connection with each other, no method can be prescribed as
absolutely more scientific than the rest. That which I have
adopted appears to me as philosophical and as little liable to
transitions as any other.
State of Society. PROGRESS OF IMPROVEMENT. 593
PART II.
§ 1. Progress of Commercial Improvement in Flauders, Germany, and England. § 2.
Baltic Trade: Hanseatic Towns. §3. Rapid Progress of English Trade. §4. In-
tercourse with the South of Europe. § 5. Progress of Commerce in the Countries
upon the Mediterranean Sea. § 6. Their Manufactures. § T. Invention of the
Mariner's Compass. §8. Maritime Laws. §9. Usury: Money Dealings of the
Jews. § 10. Banking Companies. § 11. Progress of Refinement in Manners.
§ 12. Domestic Architecture. 5 13. Ecclesiastical Architecture. § 14. State of
Agriculture. § 15. Value of Money. § IG. Improvement of the Moral Character
of Society: its Causes. § 17. Police. § 18. Changes in Religious Opinion: vari-
ous Sects. § 19. Chivalry: its Progress, Character, and Influence. §20. Causes
of the Intellectual Improvement of European Society. §21. (I.) The Study of
Civil Law. §22, (II.) Institution of Universities: their Celebrity. §23. Scho-
lastic Philosophy. § 24. (III.) Cultivation of Modern Languages. § 25. Pruven-
fal PoelB. § 26. Norman Poets : French Prose Writers. § 2T. Spanish. § 28.
Italian : early Poets in that Language. § 29. Dante. § .30. Petrarch. § 31. En-
glish Language: its Progress. §32. Chaucer. §33. (IV.) Revival of Classical
Learning: Latin Writers of the Twelfth Century: Literature of the Fourteenth
Century. §34. Greek Literature: its Restoration in Italy. §35. Invention of
Printing.
§ 1. The geographical position of Europe naturally di-
vides its maritime commerce into two principal regions — one
comprehending those countries which border on the Baltic,
the German, and the Atlantic oceans; another, those situated
around the Mediterranean Sea. During the four centuries
which preceded the discovery of America, and especially the
two former of them, this separation was more remarkable
than at present, inasmuch as their intercourse, either by land
or sea, was extremely limited. To the first region belonged
the Netherlands, the coasts of France, Germany, and Scandi-
navia, and the maritime districts of England. In the second
we may class the provinces of Valencia and Catalonia, those
of Provence and Languedoc, and the whole of Italy.
The former, or northern division, was first animated by
the woollen manufacture of Flanders. It is not easy either
to discover the early beginnings of this, or to account for
its rapid advancement. The fertility of that province and
its facilities of interior navigation were doubtless necessary
causes; but there must have been some temporary encour-
agement from the personal character of its sovereigns, or
other accidental circumstances. Several testimonies "to the
flourishing condition of Flemish manufactures occur in the
twelfth century, and some might perhaps be found even ear-
lier.' A writer of the thirteenth asserts that all the world
1 Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. i., p. 270.
594 WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE Chap. IX. Part II :
was clothed from English wool wrought in Flanders. This,
indeed, is an exaggerated vaunt ; but the Flemish stuffs were
probably sold wherever the sea or a navigable river permit-
ted them to be carried. Cologne was the chief trading-city
upon the Rhine ; and its merchants, who had been considera-
ble even under the emperor Henry IV., established a factory
at London in 1220. The woollen manufacture, notwithstand-
ing frequent wars and the impolitic regulations of magis-
trates, continued to flourish in the Netherlands (for Brabant
and Hainault shared it in some degree with Flanders), until
England became not only capable of supplying her own de-
mand, but a rival in all the marts of Europe. " All Christian
kingdoms, and even the Turks themselves," says an historian
of the sixteenth century, " lamented the desperate war be-
tween the Flemish cities and their Count Louis that broke
out in 1380. For at that time Flanders was a market for
the traders of all the world. Merchants from seventeen
kingdoms had their settled domiciles at Bruges, besides
strangers from almost unknown countries who repaired
thither." During this war, and on all other occasions, the
weavers both of Ghent and Bruges distinguished themselves
by a democratical spirit, the consequence, no doubt, of their
numbers and prosperity. Ghent was one of the largest cities
in Europe, and, in the opinion of many, the best situated.
But Bruges, though in circuit but half the former, was more
splendid in its buildings, and the seat of far more trade ; be-
ing the great staple both for Mediterranean and northern
merchandise. Antwerp, which early in the sixteenth century
drew away a large part of this commerce from Bruges, was
not considerable in the preceding ages ; nor were the towns
of Zealand and Holland much noted except for their fisheries,
though those provinces acquired in the fifteenth century
some share of the woollen manufacture.
For the first two centuries after the Conquest our English
towns, as has been observed in a different place, made some
forward steps towards improvement, though still very in-
ferior to those of the Continent. Their commerce was al-
most confined to the exportation of wool, the great staple
commodity of England, upon which, more than any other, in
its raw or manufactured state, our wealth had been founded.
A woollen manufacture, however, indisputably existed under
Henry H. ;" it is noticed in regulations of Richard L ; and
2 Blomefield, the historian of Norfolk, thinks that a colony of Flemings settled as
early as this reign at Worsted, a village in that county, and immortalized its name
by their manufacture. It soon reached Norwich, though not conspicuous till the
reign of Edward I.
State of Society. OF FLANDERS. 595
by the importation of woad under John it may be inferred
to have still flourished. The disturbances of the next reign,
perhaps, or the rapid elevation of the Flemish towns, retard-
ed its growth, though a remarkable law was passed by the
Oxford Parliament in 1261, prohibiting the export of wool
and the importation of cloth. This, while it shows the def-
erence paid by the discontented barons, who predominated
in that Parliament, to their confederates the burghers, was
evidently too premature to be enforced. We may infer from
it, however, that cloths were made at home, though not suffi-
ciently for the people's consumption.
Prohibitions of the same nature, though with a diff*erent
object, were frequently imposed on the trade between En-
gland and Flanders by Edward I. and his son. As their po-
litical connections fluctuated, these princes gave full liberty
and settlement to the Flemish merchants, or banished them
at once from the country. Nothing could be more injurious
to England than this arbitrary vacillation. The Flemings
w^ere in every respect our natural allies ; but besides those
connections with France, the constant enemy of Flanders,
into which both the Edwards occasionally fell, a mutual
alienation had been produced by the trade of the former peo-
ple with Scotland, a trade too lucrative to be resigned at the
king of England's request — an early instance of that con-
flicting selfishness of belligerents and neutrals which was
destined to aggravate the animosities and misfortunes of our
own time.
A more prosperous, era began with Edward III., the father,
as he may almost be called, of English commerce, a title not,
indeed, more glorious, but by which he may, perhaps, claim
more of our gratitude than as the hero of Crecy. In 1331
he took advantage of discontents among the manufacturers
of Flanders to invite them as settlers into his dominions.
They brought the finer manufacture of woollen cloths, which
had been unknown in England. The discontents alluded to
resulted from the monopolizing spirit of their corporations,
who oppressed all artisans without the pale of their commu-
nity. The history of corporations brings home to our minds
one cardinal truth, that political institutions have very fre-
quently but a relative and temporary usefulness, and that
what forwarded improvement during one part of its course
may prove to it in time a most pernicious obstacle. Corpo-
rations in England, we may be sure, wanted nothing of their
usual character, and it cost Edward no little trouble to pro-
tect his colonists from the selfishness and from the blind na-
696 CONTINENTAL MANUFACTURES. Chap. IX. Part II.
tionality of the vulgar. The emigration of Flemish weavers
into England continued during this reign, and we find it men*
tioned at intervals for more than a century.
Commerce now became, next to liberty, the leading object
of Parliament. For the greater part of our statutes from
the accession of Edward III. bear relation to this subject ;
not always well devised, or liberal, or consistent, but by no
means worse in those respects than such as have been enact-
ed in subsequent ages. The occupation of a merchant be-
came honorable ; and, notwithstanding the natural jealousy
of the two classes, he was placed, in some measure, on a foot-
ing with landed proprietors. By the statute of apparel in
37 Edward III., merchants and artificers who had five hun-
dred pounds' value in goods and chattels might use the same
dress as squires of one hundred pounds a year. And those
who were worth more than this might dress like men of dou-
ble that estate. Wool was still the principal article of ex
port and source of revenue. Subsidies granted by every Par-
liament upon this article were, on account of the scarcity of
money, commonly taken in kind. By degrees the exporta-
tion of woollen cloths increased so as to diminish that of the
raw material, but the latter was not absolutely prohibited
during the period under review, although some restrictions
were imposed upon it by Edward IV. For a much earlier
statute, in the 11th of Edward III., making the exportation
of wool a capital felony, was in its terms provisional, until it
should be otherwise ordered by the council ; and the king al-
most immediately set it aside.^
A manufacturing district, as we see in our own country,
sends out, as it were, suckers into all its neighborhood. Ac-
cordingly, the woollen manufacture spread from Flanders
along the banks of the Rhine and into the northern provinces
of France. In Germany the privileges conceded by Henry
V. to the free cities, and especially to their artisans, gave a
soul to industry; though the central parts of the empire
were, for many reasons, very ill calculated for commercial
enterprise during the Middle Ages. But the French towns
were never so much emancipated from arbitrary power as
those of Germany or Flanders ; and the evils of exorbitant
taxation, with those produced by the English wars, conspired
to retard the advance of manufactures in France.
§ 2. The manufactures of Flanders and England found a
8 It is worthy of notice ttiat English wool was superior to any other for fineness
dnrinjr these ages. An English flock transported into Spain about 1348 is said to
have l)een the source of the fine Spanish woW.
State of Society. BALTIC TKADE. 507
market, not only in these adjacent countries, but in a part of
Europe which for many ages had only been known enough
to be dreaded. In the middle of the eleventh century a na-
tive of Bremen, and a writer much superior to most others
of his time, was almost entirely ignorant of the geography
of the Baltic ; doubting whether any one had reached Russia
by that sea, and reckoning Esthonia and Courland among its
islands.* But in one hundred years more the maritime re-
gions of Mecklenburg and Pomerania, inhabited by a tribe of
heathen Sclavonians, were subdued by some German princes;
and the Teutonic order some time afterwards, having con-
quered Prussia, extended a line of at least comparative civ-
ilization as far as the Gulf of Finland. The first town erect-
ed on the coasts of the Baltic w^as Ltibeck, which owes its
foundation to Adolphus, count of Holstein, in 1140. After
several vicissitudes it became independent of any sovereign
but the emperor in the thirteenth century. Hamburg and
Bremen, upon the other side of the Cimbric peninsula, emu-
lated the prosperity of Ltibeck ; the former city purchased
independence of its bishop in 1225. A colony from Bremen
founded Riga, in Livonia, about 1162. The city of Dantzic
grew into importance about the end of the following century.
Konigsberg was founded by Ottocar, king of Bohemia, in the
same age.
But the real importance of these cities is to be dated from
their famous union into the Hanseatic^ confederacy. The
origin of this is rather obscure, but it may certainly be near-
ly referred in point of time to the middle of the thirteenth
century, and accounted for by the necessity of mutual de-
fense, which piracy by sea and pillage by land had taught
the merchants of Germany. The nobles endeavored to ob-
struct the formation of this league, which indeed was in
great measure designed to withstand their exactions. It
powerfully maintained the influence which the free imperial
cities were at this time acquiring. Eighty of the most con-
siderable places constituted the Hanseatic Confederacy, di-
vided into four colleges, whereof Ltibeck, Cologne, Bruns-
wick, and Dantzic were the leading towns. Ltibeck held
the chief rank, and became, as it Avere, the patriarchal c<ee of
the league ; whose province it was to preside in all general dis-
cussions for mercantile, political, or military purposes, and to
carry them into execution. The league had four principal
* Adam Bremensis, de Sitn Daniae, p. 13. (Elzevir edit.)
5 Derived from the ancient German word Hanse, t^ii^nifying an association for mu-
tual support.
598 BALTIC TRADE. Chap. IX. Part II.
factories in foreign parts — at London, Bruges, Bergen, and
Novogorod; endowed by the sovereigns of those cities with
considerable privileges, to which every merchant belonging
to a Hanseatic town was entitled. In England the German
guildhall or factory was established by concession of Henry
III. ; and in later periods the Hanse traders were favored
among many others in the capricious vacillations of our mer-
cantile policy. The English had also their factories on the
Baltic coast as far as Prussia and in the dominions of Den-
mark.
§ 3. This opening of a Northern market powerfully accel-
erated the growth of our own commercial opulence, especial-
ly after the woollen manufacture had begun to thrive. From
about the middle of the fourteenth century we find continual
evidences of a rapid increase in wealth. Thus, in 1363, Pic-
ard, who had been lord mayor some years before, entertained
Edward III. and the Black Prince, the kings of France, Scot-
land, and Cyprus, with many of the nobility, at his own
house in the Vintry, and presented them with handsome gifts.
Philpot, another eminent citizen in Richard II.'s time, when
the trade of England was considerably annoyed by privateers,
hired 1000 armed men, and dispatched them to sea, where
they took fifteen Spanish vessels with their prizes. We find
Richard obtaining a great deal from private merchants and
trading towns. In 1379 he got £5000 from London, 1000
marks from Bristol, and in proportion from smaller places.
In 1386 London gave £4000 more, and 10,000 marks in 1397.
The latter sum was obtained also for the coronation of Henry
VI. Nor were tlie contributions of individuals contemptible,
considering the high value of money. Hinde, a citizen of
London, lent to Henry IV. £2000 in 1407, and Whittington
one-half of that sum. The merchants of the staple advanced
£4000 at the same time. Our commerce continued to be
regularly and rapidly progressive during the fifteenth cen-
tury. The famous Canynges of Bristol, under Henry VI.
and Edward IV., had ships of 900 tons burden. The trade
and even the internal wealth of England reached so much
higher a pitch in the reign of the last-mentioned king than at
any former period, that we may perceive the wars of York
and Lancaster to have produced no very serious effect on na-
tional prosperity. Some battles were doubtless sanguinary ;
but the loss of lives in battle is soon repaired by a flourish-
ing nation ; and the devastation occasioned by armies was
both partial and transitory.
§ 4. A commercial intercourse between these northern
State of Society. COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE. 599
and southern regions of Europe began about the early part
of the fourteenth century, or, at most, a little sooner. Until,
indeed, the use of the magnet was thoroughly understood,
and a competent skill in marine architecture as well as navi-
gation acquired, the Italian merchants were scarce likely to
attempt a voyage perilous in itself, and rendered more for-
midable by the imaginary difficulties which had been sup-
posed to attend an expedition beyond the straits of Her-
cules. But the English, accustomed to their own rough
seas, were always more intrepid, and probably more skillful
navigators. Though it was extremely rare, even in the fif-
teenth century, for an English trading-vessel to appear in
the Mediterranean, yet a famous military armament, that
destined for the crusade of Richard I., displayed at a very
early time the seamanship of our countrymen. In the reign
of Edward II. we find mention in Rymer's Collection of Gen-
oese ships trading to Flanders and England. His son was
very solicitous to preserve the friendship of that opulent re-
public ; and it is by his letters to his Senate, or by royal or-
ders restoring ships unjustly seized, that we come by a
knowledge of those facts which historians neglect to relate.
Pisa shared a little in this traffic, and Venice more considera-
bly ; but Genoa was beyond all competition at the head of
Italian commerce in these seas during the fourteenth centu-
ry. In the next, her general decline left it more open to her
rival ; but I doubt whether Venice ever maintained so strong
a connection with England. Through London and Bruges,
their chief station in Flanders, the merchants of Italy and of
Spain transported Oriental produce to the farthest parts of
the North, The inhabitants of the Baltic coast were stimu-
lated by the desire of precious luxuries which they had never
known ; and these wants, though selfish and frivolous, are
the means by which nations acquire civilization, and the
earth is rendered fruitful of its produce. As the carriers of
this trade the Ilanseatic merchants resident in England and
Flanders derived profits through which eventually of course
those countries were enriched. It seems that the Italian ves-
sels unloaded at the marts of London or Bruges, and that
such part of their cargoes as were intended for a more north-
ern trade came there into the hands of the German mer-
chants. In the reign of Henry VI. England carried on a
pretty extensive traffic with the countries around the Medi-
terranean, for whose commodities her wool and woollen cloths
enabled her to pay.
§ 5. The commerce of the southern division, though it did
600 COMMERCE OF THE Chap. IX. Part II.
not, I think, produce more extensively beneficial effects upon
the progress of society, was both earlier and more splendid
than that of England and the neighboring countries. Be-
sides Venice, which has been mentioned already, Araalti kept
up the commercial intercourse of Christendom with the Sar-
acen countries before the first crusade. It was the singular
fate of this city to have filled up the interval between two
periods of civilization, in neither of which she was destined
to be distinguished. Scarcely known before the end ot the
sixth century, Amalfi ran a brilliant career as a free and trad-
ing republic, which was checked by the arms of a conqueror
in the middle of the twelfth. Since her subjugation by
Roger, king of Sicily, the name of a people who for a while
connected Europe with Asia has hardly been repeated, ex-
cept for two discoveries falsely imputed to them — those of
the Pandects and of the compass.
But the decline of Amalfi was amply compensated to the
rest of Italy by the constant elevation of Pisa, Genoa, and
Venice in the twelfth and ensuing ages. The Crusades led
immediately to this growing prosperity of the commercial
cities. Besides the profit accruing from so many naval ar-
maments which they supplied, aiid the continual passage of
private adventurers in their vessels, they were enabled to
open a more extensive channel of Oriental traffic than had
hitherto been known. These three Italian republics enjoyed
immunities in the Christian principalities of Syria ; possess-
ing separate quarters in Acre, Tripoli, and other cities, where
they were governed by their own laws and magistrates.
Though the progress of commerce must, from the condition
of European industry, have been slow, it was uninterrupted;
and the settlements in Palestine were becoming important as
factories, an use of which Godfrey and Urban little dreamed,
when they were lost through the guilt and imprudence of
their inhabitants. Villani laments tlie injury sustained by
commerce in consequence of the capture of Acre ; but the
loss was soon retrieved, not perhaps by Pisa and Genoa, but
by Venice, who formed connections with the Saracen govern-
ments, and maintained her commercial intercourse with Syria
and Egypt by their license, though subject probably to heavy
exactions. Sanuto, a Venetian author at the beginning of the
fourteenth century, has left a curious account of the Levant
trade which his countrymen carried on at that time. Their
imports it is easy to guess, and it appears that timber, brass,
tin, and lead, as well as the precious metals, were exported
to Alexandria, besides oil, saffron, and some of the produc-
State of Society. MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES. 601
tions of Italy, and even wool and woollen cloths. The Eu-
ropean side of the account had therefore become respect'
able.
The commercial cities enjoyed as great privileges at Con-
stantinople as in Syria, and they bore an eminent part in the
vicissitudes of the Eastern Empire. After the capture of Con-
stantinople by the Latin crusaders, the Venetians, having been
concerned in that conquest, became, of course, the favored
traders under the new dynasty ; possessing their own dis-
trict in the city, with their magistrate or podesta, appointed
at Venice, and subject to the parent republic. When the
Greeks recovered the seat of their empire, the Genoese, who,
from jealousy of their rivals, had contributed to that revolu-
tion, obtained similar immunities. This powerful and enter-
prising state, in the fourteenth century, sometimes the ally,
sometimes the enemy, of the Byzantine Court, maintained its
independent settlement at Pera. From thence she spread
her sails into the Euxine, and, planting a colony at Caffa, in
the Crimea, extended a line of commerce with the interior
regions of Asia which even the skill and spirit of our own
times has not yet been able to revive.
The French provinces which border on the Mediterranean
Sea partook in the advantages which it offered. ISTot only
Marseilles, whose trade had continued in a certain degree
throughout the worst ages, but Narbonne, Nismes, and espe-
cially Montpellier, were distinguished for commercial prosper-
ity. A still greater activity prevailed in Catalonia. From
the middle of the thirteenth century Barcelona began to
emulate the Italian cities in both the "branches of naval en-
ergy, war and commerce. Engaged in frequent and severe
hostilities with Genoa, and sometimes with Constantinople,
while their vessels traded to every part of the Mediterra-
nean, and even of the English Channel, the Catalans might
justly be reckoned among the first of maritime nations. The
comm(^rce of Barcelona has never since attained so great a
height as in the fifteenth century.
§ 6. The introduction of a silk manufacture at Palermo by
Roger Guiscard, in 1148, gave, perhaps, the earliest impulse
to the industry of Italy. Nearly about the same time the
Genoese plundered two Moorish cities of Spain, from which
they derived the same art. In the next age this became a
staple manufacture of the Lombard and Tuscan republics,
and the cultivation of mulberries was enforced by their laws.
Woollen stuffs, though the trade was, perhaps, less conspicu-
ous than that of Flanders, and though many of the coarser
26
602 THE MARINER'S COMPASS. Chap. IX. Part II.
kinds were imported from thence, employed a multitude of
workmen in Italy, Catalonia, and the south of France. Among
the trading companies into which the middling ranks were
distributed, those concerned in silk and woollens were most
numerous and honorable.
§ 7. A property of a natural substance, long overlooked,
even though it attracted observation by a different peculiar-
ity, has influenced by its accidental discovery the fortunes
of mankind more than all the deductions of philosophy. It
is, perhaps, impossible to ascertain the epoch when the polar-
ity of the magnet was first known in Europe. The common
opinion, which ascribes its discovery to a citizen of Amalfi in
the fourteenth century, is undoubtedly erroneous. Guiot de
Provins, a French poet, who lived about the year 1200, or at
the latest under St. Louis, describes it in the most unequivo-
cal language. James de Vitry, a bishop in Palestine before
the middle of the thirteenth century, and Guido Guinizzelli^
an Italian poet of the same time, are equally explicit. The
French as well as Italians claim the discovery as their
own; but whether it were due to either of these nations, or
rather learned from their intercourse with the Saracens, is
not easily to lie ascertained. For some time, perhaps, even
this wonderful improvement in the art of navigation might
not be universally adopted by vessels sailing within the Med-
iterranean, and accustomed to their old system of observa-
tions. But when it became more established, it naturally in-
spired a more fearless spirit of adventure. It was not, as
has been mentioned, till the beginning of the fourteenth cen-
tury that the Genoese and other nations around that inland
sea steered into the Atlantic Ocean towards England and
Flanders. This intercourse with the Northern countries en-
livened their trade with the Levant by the exchange of pro-
ductions which Spain and Italy do not supply, and enriched
the merchants by means of whose capital the exports of
London and of Alexandria were conveyed into each other's
harbors.
§ 8. The usual risks of navigation, and those incident to
commercial adventure, produce a variety of questions in ev-
ery system of jurisprudence, which, though always to be
determined, as far as possible, by principles of natural jus-
tice, must in many cases depend upon established customs.
These customs of maritime law were anciently reduced into
a code by the Rhodians, and the Roman emperors preserved
or reformed the constitutions of that republic. It would be
hard to say how far the tradition of this early jurisprudence
State of Society. MARITIME LAWS. 603
snrviv^ed the decline of commerce in the darker ages ; but
after it began to recover itself, necessity suggested, or recol-
lection prompted a scheme of regulations resembling in some
degree but much more enlarged than those of antiquity. This
was formed into a written code, " II Consolato del Mare," not
much earlier, probably, than the middle of the thirteenth cen-
tury ; and its promulgation seems rather to have proceeded
from the citizens of Barcelona than from those of Pisa or
Venice, who have also claimed to be the first legislators of the
sea. Besides regulations simply mercantile, this system has
defined the mutual rights of neutral and belligerent vessels,
and thus laid the basis of the positive law of nations in its most
important and disputed cases. The King of France and
Count of Provence solemnly acceded to this maritime code,
which hence acquired a binding force within the Mediterra-
nean Sea ; and in most respects the law merchant of Europe
is at present conformable to its provisions. A set of regula-
tions, chiefly borrowed from the " Consolato," was compiled
in France under the reign of Louis IX., and prevailed in their
own country. These have been denominated the laws of Ole-
ron, from an idle story that they were enacted by Richard
I. while his expedition to the Holy Land lay at anchor in that
island. Kor was the North without its peculiar code of mari-
time jurisprudence — namely, the ordinances of Wisbuy, a
town in the isle of Gothland, principally compiled from those
of Oleron, before the year 1400, by which the Baltic traders
were governed.
There was abundant reason for establishing among mari-
time nations some theory of mutual rights, and for securing
the redress of injuries, as far as possible, by means of acknowl-
edged tribunals. In that state of barbarous anarchy which
so long resisted the coercive authority of civil magistrates the
sea held out even more temptation and more impunity than
the land ; and when the laws had regained their sovereignty,
and neither robbery nor private warfare was any longer toler-
ated, there remained that great common of mankind, unclaim-
ed by any king, and the liberty of the sea was another name
for the security of plunderers. A pirate, in a well-armed quick-
sailing vessel, must feel, I suppose, the enjoyments of his ex-
emption from control more exquisitely than any other free-
booter; and darting along the bosom of the ocean, under the
impartial radiance of the heavens, may deride the dark conceal-
ments and hurried flights of the forest robber. His occupation
is, indeed, extinguished by the civilization of later ages, or con-
fined to distant climates. But in the thirteenth and fourteenth
604 PIRACY.— LAW OF REPRISALS. Chap. IX. Pakt It
centuries a rich vessel was never secure from attack ; and nei-
ther restitution nor punishment of the criminals was to be ob-
tained from governments who sometimes feared the plunderer
and sometimes connived at the oifense. Mere piracy, howev-
er, was not the only danger. The maritime towns of Flanders,
France, and England, like the free republics of Italy, prose-
cuted their own quarrels by arms, without asking the leave
of their respective sovereigns. This practice, exactly analo-
gous to that of private war in the feudal system, more than
once involved the kings of France and England in hostility."
But where the quarrel did not proceed to such a length as
absolutely to engage two opposite towns, a modification of
this ancient right of revenge formed part of the regular law
of nations, under the name of reprisals. Whoev^ was plun-
dered or injured by the inhabitant of another town obtained
authority from his own magistrates to seize the property of
any other person belonging to it, until his loss should be
compensated. This law of reprisal was not confined to mari-
time places ; it prevailed in Lombardy, and probably in the
German cities. Thus, if a citizen of Modena were robbed by
a Bolognese, he complained to the magistrates of the former
city, who represented the case to those of Bologna, demand-
ing redress. If this were not immediately granted, letters of
reprisals were issued to plunder the territory of Bologna till
the injured party should be reimbursed by sale of the spoil.
Edward III. remonstrates, in an instrument published by Ry-
mer, against letters of marque granted by the King of Ara-
gon to one Berenger de la Tone, who had been robbed by an
English pirate of £2000, alleging that, inasmuch as he had
always been ready to give redress to the party, it seemed to
his counsellors that there was no just cause for reprisals upon
the king's or his subjects' property. This passage is so far
curious as it asserts the existence of a customary law of na-
tions, the knowledge of which was already a sort of learning.
Sir E. Coke speaks of this right of private reprisals as if it
still existed ; and, in fact, there are instances of granting such
letters as late as the reign of Charles I.
A practice founded on the same principles as reprisal,
though rather less violent, was that of attaching the goods or
persons of resident foreigners for the debts of their country-
« The Cinque Ports aud other trading towns of England were in a constant state
of hostility with their opposite neighbors during the reigns of Edward I. and IL
One might quote almost half the instruments in Rymer in proof of these conflicts,
and of those with the mariners of Norway and Denmark. Sometimes mutual envy
produced frays between different English towns. Thus in 1254 the Winchelsea mar-
iners attacked a Yarmoiith galley, and killed some of her men.
State of Society. GREAT PROFITS OF TRADE. 605
men. This, indeed, in England, was not confined to foreign-
ers until the statute of Westminster I., c. 23, which enacts that
" no stranger who is of this realm shall be distrained in any
town or market for a debt wherein he is neither principal nor
surety." Henry III. had previously granted a charter to the
burgesses of Ltlbeck that they should " not be arrested for
the debt of any of their countrymen, unless the magistrates
of Ltibeck neglected to compel payment." But, by a variety
of grants from Edward II., the privileges of English sub-
jects under the statute of Westminster were extended to
most foreign nations. This unjust responsibility had not
been confined to civil cases. One of a company of Italian
merchants, the Spini, having killed a man, the officers of jus-
tice seized the bodies and effects of all the rest.
§ 9. If under all these obstacles, whether created by bar-
barous manners, by national prejudice, or by the fraudulent
and arbitrary measures of princes, the merchants of differ-
ent countries became so opulent as almost to rival the an-
cient nobility, it must be ascribed to the greatness of their
commercial profits. The trading companies possessed ei-
ther a positive or a virtual monopoly, and held the keys ot
those Eastern regions, for the luxuries of which the progress-
ive refinement of manners produced an increasing demand.
It is not easy to determine the average rate of profit ; but
we know that the interest of money was exceedingly higli
throughout the Middle Ages. At Verona, in 1228, it was
fixed by law at twelve and a half per cent. ; at Modena, in
1270, it seems to have been as high as twenty. The repub-
lic of Genoa, towards the end of the fourteenth century,
when Italy had grown wealthy, paid only from seven to ten
per cent, to her creditors. But in France and England the
rate was far more oppressive. An ordinance of Philip the
Fair, in 1311, allows twenty per cent, after the first year of
the loan. Under Henry III, according to Matthew Paris,
the debtor paid ten per cent, every two months ; but this is
absolutely incredible as a general practice. This was not
merely owing to scarcity of money, but to the discourage-
ment which a strange prejudice opposed to one of the most
useful and legitimate branches of commerce. Usury, or
lending money for profit, was treated as a crime by the the-
ologians of the Middle Ages; and though the superstition
has been eradicated, some part of the prejudice remains in
our legislation. This trade in money, and indeed a great
part of inland trade in^ general, had oi'iginally fallen to the
Jews, who were noted for their usury so early as the sixth
606 JEWS' MONEY DEALINGS. Chap. IX. Part II.
century.' For several subsequent ages they continued to
employ their capital and industry to the same advantage,
with little molestation from the clergy, who always toler-
ated their avowed and national infidelity, and often with
some encouragement from princes. In the twelfth century
we find them not only possessed of landed property in Lan-
guedoc, and cultivating the studies of medicine and Rabbin-
ical literature in their own academy at Montpellier, under
the protection of the Count of Toulouse, but invested with
civil offices. In Spain they were placed by some of the mu-
nicipal laws on the footing of Christians, with respect to the
composition for their lives, and seem in no other European
country to have been so numerous or considerable. The
diligence and expertness of this people in all pecuniary
dealings recommended them to princes who were solicitous
about the improvement of their revenue. Two kings of
Castile, Alonzo XL and Peter the Cruel, incurred much odi-
um by employing Jewish ministers in their treasury. But
in other parts of Europe their condition had, before that
time, begun to change for the worse — partly from the fanat-
ical spirit of the Crusades, which prompted the populace to
massacre, and partly from the jealousy which their opulence
excited. Kings, in order to gain money and popularity at
once, abolished the debts due to the children of Israel, ex-
cept a part which they retained as the price of their bounty.
One is at a loss to conceive the process of reasoning in an
ordinance of St. Louis, where, " for the salvation of his own
soul and those of his ancestors, he releases to all Christians
a third part of what was owing by them to Jews." Not
content with such edicts, the kings of France sometimes
banished the whole nation from their dominions, seizing
their eff*ects at the same time ; and a season of alternative
severity and toleration continued till, under Charles VI.,
they were finally expelled from the kingdom, where they
never afterwards possessed any legal settlement. They
were expelled from England under Edward L, and never
obtained any legal permission to reside till the time of
Cromwell. This decline of the Jews was owing to the
transference of their trade in money to other hands. In
the early part of the thirteenth century the merchants of
Lombardy and of the south of France took up the business
of remitting money by bills of exchange, and of making
profit upon loans. The utility of this was found so great,
especially by the Italian clergy, who thus m an easy man-
' Greg. Tnroii., 1. iv."
State op Society. BANKS OF GENOA AND OTIIEKS. 607
ner drew the income of their transalpine benefices, that, in
spite of much obloquy, the Lombard usurers established
themselves in every country, and the general progress of
commerce wore off the bigotry that had obstructed their
reception. A distinction was made between moderate and
exorbitant interest ; and though the casuists did not ac-
quiesce in this legal regulation, yet it satisfied, even in su-
perstitious times, the consciences of provident traders."
The Italian bankers were frequently allowed to farm the
customs in England, as a security, perhaps, for loans which
were not very punctually repaid. In 1345 the Bardi at
Florence, the greatest company in Italy, became bankrupt,
Edward III. owing them, in principal and interest, 900,000
gold florins. Another, the Peruzzi, failed at the same time,
being creditors to Edward for 600,000 florins. The King of
Sicily owed 100,000 florins to each of these bankers. Their
failure involved, of course, a multitude of Florentine citi-
zens, and was a heavy misfortune to the state.
§ 10. The earliest bank of deposit, instituted for the ac-
commodation of private merchants, is said to have been that
of Barcelona, in 1401. The banks of Venice and Genoa were
of a different description. Although the former of these two
has the advantage of greater antiquity, having been formed,
as we are told, in the twelfth century, yet its early history is
not so clear as that of Genoa, nor its political importance so
remarkable, however similar might be its origin. During the
wars of Genoa in the fourteenth century, she had borrowed
large sums of private citizens, to whom the revenues were
pledged for repayment. The republic of Florence had set a
recent, though not a very encouraging, example of a public
loan, to defray the expense of her war against Mastino della
Scala, in 1336. The chief mercantile firms, as well as indi-
vidual citizens, furnished money on an assignment of the
taxes, receiving fifteen per cent, interest, which appears to
have been above the rate of private usury. The state was
not unreasonably considered a worse debtor than some of
her citizens, for in a few years these loans were consolidated
into a general fund, or monte^ with some deduction from the
8 Usmy was looked upon with horror by our English divines long after the Eefor-
mation.
One species of UBury, and that of the highest importance to commerce, was always
permitted, on account of the risk that attended it. This Avas marine insurance,
which could not have existed until money was considered, in itself, as a source of
profit. The earliest regulations on the subject of insurance are those of Barcelona
in 1433 ; but the practice was, of course, earlier than these, though not of great antiq-
uity. It is not mentioned in the "Consolate del Mare," nor in any of the Hauseatie
Jaws of the fourteenth century-
608 DOMESTIC EXPENDITURE. Chap. IX. Part H
capital and a great diminution of interest ; so that an orig^
inal debt of one hundred florins sold only for twenty-five.
But I have not found that these creditors formed at Flor^
ence a corporate body, or took any part, as such, in the af
fairs of the republic. The case was different at Genoa. As
a security, at least, for their interest, the subscribers to pub-
lic loans were permitted to receive the produce of the taxes
by their own collectors, paying the excess into the treasury.
The number and distinct classes of these subscribers becom-
ing at length inconvenient, they were formed, about the year
1407, into a single corporation, called the Bank of St. George,
which was from that time the sole national creditor and
mortgagee. The government of this was intrusted to eight
protectors. It soon became almost independent of the state.
Every Senator, on his admission, swore to maintain the priv-
ileges of the bank, which were confirmed by the pope, and
even by the emperor. The bank interposed its advice in
every measure of government, and generally, as is admitted,
to the public advantage. It equipped armaments at its own
expense, one of which subdued the island of Corsica; and
this acquisition, like those of our great Indian corporation,
was long subject to a company of merchants, without any
interference of the mother country.
§ 11. The increasing wealth of Europe, whether derived
from internal improvement or foreign commerce, displayed
itself in more expensive consumption, and greater refine-
ments of domestic life. But these effects were for a long
time very gradual. It is not till the latter half of the thir-
teenth century that an accelerated impulse appears to be
given to society. The just government and suppression of
disorder under St. Louis, and the peaceful temper of his
brother Alfonso, count of Toulouse and Poitou, gave France
leisure to avail herself of her admirable fertility. England,
that to a soil not greatly inferior to that of France united
the inestimable advantage of an insular position, and was in-
vigorated, above all, by her free constitution and the steady
industriousness of her people, rose with a pretty uniform mo-
tion from the time of Edward I. Italy, though the better
days of freedom had passed away in most of her republics,
made a rapid transition from simplicity to refinement. "In
those times," says a writer about the year 1300, speaking of
the age of Frederick II., "the manners of the Italians were
rude. A man and his wife ate off" the same plate. There
were no wooden-handled knives, nor more than one or two
drinking-cnps in a house. Candles of wax or tallow were un*
State of Society. SUMPTUARY LAWS. 609
known ; a servant held a torch during supper. The clothes
of men were of leather unlined i scarcely any gold or silver
was seen on their dress. The common people ate flesh but
three times a week, and kept their cold meat for supper.
Many did not drink wine in summer. A small stock of corn
seemed riches. The portions of women were small ; their
dress, even after marriage, was simple. The pride of men
was to be well provided with arms and horses ; that of the
nobility to have lofty towers, of which all the cities in Italy
were full. But now frugality has been changed for sumptu-
ousness; every thing exquisite is sought after in dress — gold,
silver, pearls, silks, and rich furs. Foreign wines and rich
meats are required. Hence usury, rapine, fraud, tyranny,"*
etc. This passage is supported by other testimonies nearly
of the same time. The conquest of Naples by Charles of
Anjou, in 1266, seems to have been the epoch of increasing
luxury throughout Italy. His Proven9al knights, with their
plumed helmets and golden collars, the chariot of his queen
covered with blue velvet and sprinkled with lilies of gold,
astonished the citizens of Naples. Provence had enjoyed a
long tranquillity, the natural source of luxurious magnifi-
cence; and Italy, now liberated from the yoke of the em
pire, soon reaped the same fruit of a condition more easy
and peaceful than had been her lot for several ages.
Throughout the fourteenth century there continued to be
a rapid but steady progression in England of what we may
denominate elegance, improvement, or luxury ; and if this
was for a time suspended in France, it must be ascribed to
the unusual calamities which befell that country under Philip
of Valois and his son. Just before the breaking out of the
English wars an excessive fondness for dress is said to have
distinguished not only the higher ranks, but the burghers,
whose foolish emulation at least indicates their easy circum-
stances. Modes of dress hardly, perhaps, deserve our notice
on their own account ; yet, so far as their universal preva-
lence was a symptom of diffused wealth, we should not over-
look either the invectives bestowed by the clergy on the
fantastic extravagances of fashion, or the sumptuary laws
by which it was endeavored to restrain them.
The principle of sumptuary laws was partly derived from
the small republics of antiquity, which might, perhaps, re-
quire that security for public spirit and equal rights— partly
from the austere and injudicious theory of religion dissemi*
nated by the clergy. These prejudices united to render all
» Ricobaldns Ferrarensis, apnd Mnrat. Diesert., 23 Francisc. Pippinns, ibidem.
26*
610 REFINEMENT AND LUXURY. Chap. IX. Part II.
increase of general comforts odious under the name of luxury;
and a third motive, more powerful than either, the jealousy
with which the great regard any thing like imitation in
those beneath them, co-operated to produce a sort of restrict-
ive code in the laws of Europe. Some of those regulations
are more ancient ; but the chief part were enacted, both in
France and England, during the fourteenth century, extend-
ing to expenses of the table as well as apparel. The first
statute of this description in our own country was, however,
repealed the next year ;^° and subsequent provisions were en-
tirely disregarded by a nation w^hich valued liberty and com-
merce too much to obey laws conceived in a spirit hostile to
both. Law^s, indeed, designed by those governments to re-
strain the extravagance of their subjects may well justify the
severe indignation which Adam Smith has poured upon all
such interference with private expenditure.
Tow^ards the latter part of tlie fourteenth century there
w^as more refinement and hixury in Italy than in any other
part of Europe. In France the burghers, and even the infe-
rior gentry, were for the most part in a state of poverty at
this period, which they concealed by an aiFectation of orna-
ment; while our English yeomanry and tradesmen were more
anxious to invigorate their bodies by a generous diet than to
dwell in w^ell-furnished houses, or to find comfort in clean-
liness and elegance. The German cities, however, had ac-
quired with liberty the spirit of improvement and industry.
From the time that Henry V. admitted their artisans to the
privileges of free burghers they became more and more pros-
perous; while the steadiness and frugality of the German
character compensated for some disadvantages arising out
of their inland situation. Spire, Nuremberg, Ratisbon, and
Augsburg were not, indeed, like the rich markets of London
and Bruges, nor could their burghers rival the princely mer-
chants of Italy ; but they enjoyed the blessings of compe-
tence diffused over a large class of industrious freemen, and
in the fifteenth century one of the politest Italians could ex-
tol their splendid and well-furnished dwellings, their rich ap-
parel, their easy and affluent mode of living, the security of
their rights and just equality of their laws.^'
10 37 Edward III., Rep. 38 Edward III. Several other statutes of a similar nature
were passed in this and the ensuing reign. In France, there were sumptuary laws as
old as Charlemagne, prohibiting or taxing the use of furs ; but the first extensive
regulation was under Philip the Fair. These attempts to restrain what can not be
restrained continued even down to 1700.
" .^neas Sylvius, de Moribus Germanorum. This treatise is an amplified pane-
tjyric upon Germany, and contains several curious passages.
State of Society. CIRCULAR TOWERS. 611
. § 12. No chapter in the history of national manners would
illustrate so well, if duly executed, the progress of social life
as that dedicated to domestic architecture. The fashions of
dress and of amusements are generally capricious and irre-
ducible to rule ; but every change in the dwellings of man-
kind, from the rudest wooden cabin to the stately mansion,
has been dictated by some principle of convenience, neatness,
comfort, or magnificence.
The most ancient buildings which we can trace in this isl-
and, after the departure of the Romans, were circular towers
of no great size, whereof many remain in Scotland, erected
either on a natural eminence or on an artificial mound of
earth. Such are Oonisborough Castle in Yorkshire, and Cas-
tleton in Derbyshire. To the lower chambers of those gloomy
keeps there was no admission of light or air except through
long narrow loop-holes and an aperture in the roof. Regu-
lar windows were made in the upper apartments. Were it
not for the vast thickness of the walls, and some marks of
attention both to convenience and decoration in these struc-
tures, we might be induced to consider them as rather in-
tended for security during the transient inroad of an enemy
than for a chieftain's usual residence. They bear a close re-
semblance, except by their circular form and more insulated
situation, to the peels, or square towers of three or four
stories, which are still found contiguous to ancient mansion-
houses in the northern counties, and seem to have been de-
signed for places of refuge, though many of them were also
built for residence.
In course of time, the barons who owned these castles be-
gan to covet a more comfortable dwelling. The keep w^as
either much enlarged, or altogether relinquished as a place
of residence, except in time of siege; while more convenient
apartments were sometimes erected in the tower of entrance,
over the great gate-way, which led to the inner ballium, or
court-yard. The windows in this class of castles were still
little better than loop-holes on the basement story, but in the
upper rooms often large and beautifully ornamented, though
always looking inward to the court. Edward I. introduced
a more splendid and convenient style of castles, containing
many habitable towers, with communicating apartments.
Conway and Carnarvon will be familiar examyjles. The next
innovation w^as the castle-palace — of which Windsor, if not
quite the earliest, is the most magnificent instance. Aln-
wick, Naworth, Harewood, SpofForth, Kenilworth, and War-
wick, were all built upon this scheme during the fourteenth
612 PROGRESS OF Chap. IX. Part IL
century, but subsequent enlargements have rendered caution
necessary to distinguish their original remains. The provis-
ion for defense became now, however, little more than nuga-
tory ; large arched windows, like those of cathedrals, were
introduced into halls, and this change in architecture mani-
festly bears witness to the cessation of baronial wars and the
increasing love of splendor in the reign of Edward III.
To these succeeded the castellated houses of the fifteenth
century — such as Herstmonceux, in Sussex ; Haddon Hall, in
Derbyshire ; and the older part of Knowle, in Kent.'" They
resembled fortified castles in their strong gate-ways, their
turrets and battlements, to erect which a royal license was
necessary; but their defensive strength could only have
availed against a sudden affray or attempt at forcible dis-
possession. They were always built round one or two court-
yards, the circumference of the first, when they were two,
being occupied by the oflSces and servants' rooms, that of
the second by the state apartments. Regular quadrangu-
lar houses, not castellated, were sometimes built during the
same age, and under Henry VH. became universal in the
superior style of domestic architecture. The quadrangular
form, as well from security and convenience as from imita-
tion of conventual houses, which were always constructed
upon that model, was generally preferred — even where the
dwelling-house, as indeed was usual, only took up one side
of the inclosure, and the remaining three contained the of-
fices, stables, and farm-buildings, with walls of communica-
tion. Several very old parsonages appear to have been built
in this manner.'^ A great part of England affords no stone
fit for building, and the vast, though unfortunately not inex-
haustible, resources of her oak forests were easily applied to
less durable and magnificent structures. A frame of massive
timber, independent of walls and resembling the inverted
hull of a large ship, formed the skeleton, as it were, of an
ancient hall — the principal beams springing from the ground
naturally curved, and forming a Gothic arch overhead. The
intervals of these were filled up with horizontal planks ; but
in the earlier buildings, at least in some districts, no part of
the walls was of stone. Stone houses are, however, men-
tioned as belonging to citizens of London, even in the reign
" The rnins of Herstmoncenx are, I believe, tolerably authentic remains of Henry
VI.'s age, but only a part of Haddon Hall is of the fifteenth century.
13 The quadrangular form, however, was not ancient— Ay don, Northumberland
Little Wenham Hall, SnfTolk ; Markenfield Hall, Yorkshire ; and Great Chalfield,
Wilts— ranging in date from the latter half of the thirteenth century to the lattei
half of the fifteenth century— are not quadrangular. Others might be named.
State of Society. CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. 613
of Henry II. ; and, though not often, perhaps, regularly hewn
stones, yet those scattered over the soil or dug from flint
quarries, bound together with a very strong and durable ce-
ment, were employed in the construction of manerial houses,
especially in the western counties and other parts where that
material is easily procured. Gradually, even in timber build-
ings, the intervals of the main beams, which now became per-
pendicular, not throwing off their curved springers till they
reached a considerable height, were occupied by stone walls,
or, where stone was expensive, by mortar or plaster, inter-
sected by horizontal or diagonal beams, grooved into the
principal piers. This mode of building continued for a long
time, and is still familiar to our eyes in the older streets of
the metropolis and other towns, and in many parts of the
country, but it did not come into general use till the reign
of Henry VI. The use of brick in building seems to have
fallen into comparative disuse ; but so simple an art as mak-
ing bricks can hardly have been lost. We have an instance
of an early edifice constructed chiefly of this material in Lit-
tle Wenham Hall, in Suffolk, which was erected about 1270;
but many considerable houses as well as public buildings
were erected with bricks during his reign and that of Ed-
ward IV., chiefly in the eastern counties, where the defi-
ciency of stone was most experienced. Queen's College and
Clare Hall, at Cambridge, and part of Eton College, are
subsisting witnesses to the durability of the material as it
was then employed.
It is an error to suppose that the English gentry were
lodged in stately or even in well-sized houses. Generally
speaking, their dwellings were almost as inferior to those of
their descendants in capacity as they were in convenience.
The usual arrangement consisted of an entrance-passage run-
ning through the house, with a hall on one side, a parlor be-
yond, and one or two chambers above ; and on the opposite
side, a kitchen, pantry, and other oflices. Such was the or-
dinary manor-house oV the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Larger structures were erected by men of great estates after
the wars of the Roses ; but I should conceive it diflScult to
name a house in England, still inhabited by a gentleman and
not belonging to the order of castles, the principal apart-
ments of which are older than the reign of Henry VII. The
instances at least must be extremely few."
France by no means appears to have made a greater prog-
ress than our own country in domestic architecture. Except
'* For further defailn on Domestic Architecture iu Eu2:h\nd, see ISote L
614 INVENTION OF CHIMNEYS. Chap. IX. Fakt IL
fortified castles, I do not find any considerable dwellings
mentioned before the reign of Charles VII., and very few of
so early a date. Even in Italy, where, from the size of her
cities and social refinements of her inhabitants, greater ele-
gance and splendor in building were justly to be expected,
the domestic architecture of the Middle Ages did not at-
tain any perfection. In several towns the houses were cov-
ered with thatch, and suffiered consequently from destruct-
ive fires.
The two most essential improvements in architecture dur-
ing this period, one of which had been missed by the sagac-
ity of Greece and Rome, were chimneys and glass windows.
Nothing, apparently, can be more simple than the former;
yet the wisdom of ancient times had been content to let the
smoke escape by an aperture in the centre of the roof; and a
discovery, of which Vitruvius had not a glimpse, was made,
perhaps in this country, by some forgotten semi-barbarian.
About the middle of the fourteenth century the use of chim-
neys is distinctly mentioned in England and in Italy ; but
they are found in several of our castles which bear a much
older date.'" This country seems to have lost very early
the art of making glass, which was preserved in France,
whence artificers were brought into England to furnish the
windows in some new churches in the seventh century. It
is said that in the reign of Henry III. a few ecclesiastical
buildings had glazed windows. Suger, however, a century
before, had adorned his great work, the Abbey of St. Denis,
with windows, not only glazed but painted ; and I presume
that other churches of the same class, both in France and
England, especially after the lancet-shaped window had yield-
ed to one of ampler dimensions, were generally decorated in
a similar manner. Yet glass is said not to have been employ-
ed in the domestic architecture of France before the four-
is Mr. Twopeny observes : " There does not appear to be any evidence of the use
of chimney-shafts iu England prior to the twelfth centary. In Rochester Castle,
which is in all probability the work of William Corbyl, about 1130, there are com-
plete fire-places with semicircular backs, and a shaft in each jamb, supporting a semi-
circular arch over the opening, and that is enriched with the zigzag moulding ; some
of these project slightly from the wall ; the flues, however, go only a few feet up in
the thickness of the wall, and are then turned out at the back, the apertures being
small oblong holes. At the castle, Hedingham, Essex, which is of about the same
date, there are fire-places and chimneys of a similar kind. A few years later, the im-
provement of carrying the flue up the whole height of the wall appears ; as at Christ
Church, Hants; the keep at Newcastle; Sherborne Castle, etc. The early chimney-
shafts are of considerable height, and circular ; afterwards they assumed a great
variety of forms, and during the fourteenth century they are frequently very short."—
Glossary of Ancient Architecture, p. 100, edit. 1845. It is said, too, here that chimneys
were seldom used in halls till near the end of the fifteenth century; the smoke took
its course, if it pleased, through a hole in the roof.
State of Society. FURNITURE OF HOUSES. 615
teenth century ; and its introduction into England was prob-
ably by no means earlier. Nor, indeed, did it come into gen-
eral use during the period of the Middle Ages. Glazed win-
dows were considered as movable furniture, and probably
bore a high price. When the earls of Northumberland, as
late as the reign of Elizabeth, left Alnwick Castle, the win-
dows were taken out of their frames, and carefully laid by.
But if the domestic buildings of the fifteenth century
would not seem very spacious or convenient at present, far
less would this luxurious generation be content with their
internal accommodations. A gentleman's house containing
three or four beds was extraordinarily well provided ; few,
probably, had more than two. The walls were commonly
bare, without wainscot or even plaster ; except that some
great houses were furnished with hangings, and that per-
haps liardly so soon as the reign of Edward IV. It is un-
necessary to add, that neither libraries of books nor pictures
could have found a place among furniture. Silver plate was
very rare, and hardly used for the table. A few inventories
of furniture that still remain exhibit a miserable deficiency.
And this was incomparably greater in private gentlemen's
houses than among citizens, and especially foreign mer-
chants. We have an inventory of the goods belonging to
Contarini, a rich Venetian trader, at his house in St. Bo-
tolph's Lane, a.d. 1481. There appear to have been no less
than ten beds, and glass windows are especially noticed as
movable furniture. No mention, however, is made of chairs
or looking-glasses. If we compare this account, however
trifling in our estimation, with a similar inventory of furni-
ture in Skipton Castle, the great honor of the earls of Cum-
berland, and among the most splendid mansions of the North,
not at the same period — for I have not found any invento-
ry of a nobleman's furniture so ancient — but in 1572, after
almost a century of continual improvement, we shall be as-
tonished at the inferior provision of the baronial residence.
There were not more than seven or eight beds in this great
castle ; nor had any of the chambers either chairs, glasses, or
carpets. It is in this sense, probably, that we must under-
stand ^neas Sylvius, if he meant any thing more than to
express a traveller's discontent, when he declares that the
kings of Scotland would rejoice to be as well lodged as the
second class of citizens at Nuremberg. Few burghers of
that town had mansions, I presume, equal to the palaces of
Dumferlin or Stirling; but it is not unlikely that they were
better furnished.
616 FARM-HOUSES. Chap. IX. Part IL
In the construction of farm-houses and cottages, especially
the latter, there have probably been fewer changes; and
those it would be more difficult to follow. No building of
this class can be supposed to exist of the antiquity to which
the present work is confined ; and I do not know that we
have any document as to the inferior architecture of En
gland so valuable as one which M. de Paulmy has quoted
for that of France, though perhaps more strictly applicable
to Italy, an illuminated manuscript of the fourteenth centu-
ry, being a translation of Crescentio's work on agriculture,
illustrating the customs and, among other things, the habita-
tions of the agricultural class. According to Paulmy, there is
no other difference between an ancient and a modern farm-
house than arises from the introduction of tiled roofs. In
the original work of Crescentio, a native of Bologna, who
composed this treatise on rural affairs about the year 1300,
an Italian farm-house, when built at least according to his
plan, appears to have been commodious both in size and ar-
rangement. Cottages in England seem to have generally
consisted of a single room, without division of stories. Chim-
neys were unknown in such dwellings till the early part of
Elizabeth's reign, when a very rapid and sensible improve-
ment took place in the comforts of our yeomanry and cot-
tagers.
§ 13. It must be remembered that I have introduced this
disadvantageous representation of civil architecture as a
proof of general poverty and backwardness in the refinements
of life. Considered in its higher departments, that art is the
principal boast of the Middle Ages. The common buildings,
especially those of a public kind, were constructed with skill
and attention to durability. The castellated style displays
these qualities in great perfection ; the means are well
adapted to their objects, and its imposing grandeur, though
chiefly resulting, no doubt, from massiveness and historical
association, sometimes indicates a degree of architectural
genius in the conception. But the most remarkable works
of this art are the religious edifices erected in the twelfth
and three following centuries. These structures, imiting
sublimity in general composition with the beauties of varie-
ty and form, intricac}'' of parts, skillful or at least fortunate
effects of shadow and light, and in some instances wdth ex-
traordinary mechanical science, are naturally apt to lead
those antiquaries who are most conversant with them into
too partial estimates of the times wherein they were founded.
They certainly are accustomed to behold the fairest side of
State op Society. ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTUKE. 617
the picture. It was the favorite and most honorable employ-
ment of ecclesiastical wealth to erect, to enlarge, to repair,
to decorate cathedral and conventual churches. An immense
capital must have been expended upon these buildings in
England between the Conquest and the Reformation. And
it is pleasing to observe how the seeds of genius, hidden as
it were under the frost of that dreary winter, began to bud
in the first sunshine of encouragement. In the darkest period
of the Middle Ages, especially after the Scandinavian incur
sions into France and England, ecclesiastical architecture,
though always far more advanced than any other art, bespoke
the rudeness and poverty of the times. It began towards the
latter part of the eleventh century, when tranquillity, at least
as to former enemies, was restored, and some degree of learn-
ing reappeared, to assume a more noble appearance. The
Anglo-Norman cathedrals were perhaps as much distinguish-
ed above other works of man in their own age, as the more
splendid edifices of a later period. The science manifested
in them is not, however, very great ; and their style, though
by no means destitute of lesser beauties, is, upon the whole,
an awkward imitation of Roman architecture, or perhaps
more immediately of the Saracenic buildings in Spain and
those of the lower Greek Empire. But about the middle of
the twelfth century this manner began to give place to what
is improperly denominated the Gothic architecture; of which
the pointed arch, formed by the segments of two intersecting
semicircles of equal radius and described about a common
diameter, has generally been deemed the essential character-
istic. We are not concerned at present to inquire whether
this style originated in France or Germany, Italy or England,
since it was certainly almost simultaneous in all these coun-
tries; nor from what source it was derived — a question of
no small difficulty. I would only venture to remark that,
whatever may be thought of the origin of the pointed arch,
for which there is more than one mode of accounting, we
must perceive a very Oriental character in the vast profusion
of ornament, especially on the exterior surface, which is as
distinguishing a mark of Gothic buildings as their arches, and
contributes in an eminent degree both to their beauties and
to their defects. This indeed is rather applicable to the later
than the earlier stage of architecture, and rather to Continent-
al than English churches. Amiens is in a far more florid
style than Salisbury, thougli a contemporary structure. The
Gothic species of architecture is thought by most to have
reached its perfection, considered as an object of taste, by the
618 riiOGKESS OF AGKICULTUKE. Chap. IX. Part IL
middle or perhaps the close of the fourteenth century, or at
least to have lost somethmg of its excellence by the corre-
sponding part of the next age; an effect of its early and
rapid cultivation, since arts appear to have, like individuals,
their natural progress and decay. The mechanical execution,
however, continued to improve, and is so far beyond the ap-
parent intellectua^l powers of those times, that some have
ascribed the principal ecclesiastical structures to the fraterni-
ty of freemasons, depositaries of a concealed and traditionary
science. There is probably some ground for this opinion ;
and the earlier archives of that mysterious association, if they
existed, might illustrate the progress of Gothic architecture,
and perhaps reveal its origin. The remarkable change into
this new style, that was almost contemporaneous in every
part of Europe, can not be explained by any local circum-
stances, or the capricious taste of a single nation.
§ 14. It would be a pleasing task to tiaee with satisfactory
exactness the slow and almost, perhaps, insensible progress
of agriculture and internal improvement during the latter
period of the Middle Ages. I have already adverted to the
wretched condition of agriculture during the prevalence of
feudal tenures, as well as before their general establishment.
Yet even in the least civilized ages there were not wanting
partial encouragements to cultivation, and the ameliorating
principle of human industry struggled against destructive
revolutions and barbarous disorder. The devastation of war
from the fifth to the eleventh century rendered land the least
costly of all gifts, though it must ever be the most truly val-
uable and permanent. Many of the grants to monasteries,
which strike us as enormous, were of districts absolutely
wasted, which would probably have been reclamied by no
other means. We owe the agricultural restoration of great
part of Europe to the monks. They chose, for the sake of
retirement, secluded regions, which they cultivated with the
labor of their hands. Several charters are extant, granted
to convents, and sometimes to laymen, of lands which they
had recovered from a desert condition, after the ravages of
the Saracens. Some districts were allotted to a body of Span-
ish colonists, who emigrated, in the reign of Louis the Debo-
nair, to live under a Christian sovereign. Nor is this the
only instance of agricultural colonies. Charlemagne trans-
planted part of his conquered Saxons into Flanders, a coun-
try at that time almost unpeopled ; and at a much later pe-
riod there was a remarkable reflux from the same country, or
rather from Hollan^:,to the coasts of the Baltic Sea. In the
State of Societv. AGRICULTURE IN ENGLAND. 619
twelfth century, great numbers of Dutch colonists settled
along the whole line between the Eras and the Vistula. They
obtained grants of uncultivated land on condition of fixed
rents, and were governed by their own laws under magis-
trates of their own election.
There can not be a more striking proof of the low condi-
tion of English agriculture in the eleventh century than is
exhibited by Doomsday-book. Though almost all England
had been partially cultivated, and we find nearly the same
manors, except in the north, which exist at present, yet the
value and extent of cultivated ground are inconceivably small.
We are lost in amazement at the constant recurrence of two
or three carucates in demesne, with other lands occupied by
ten or a dozen villeins, valued altogether at forty shillings,
as the return of a manor, which now would yield a competent
income to a gentleman. If Doomsday- book can be consid-
ered as even approaching to accuracy in respect of these esti-
mates, agriculture must certainly have made a very material
progress in the four succeeding centuries. By the statute of
Merton, in the 20th of Henry III., the lord is permitted to
approve, that is, to inclose the waste lands of his manor, pro-
vided he leave sufiicient common of pasture for the freehold-
ers. Iligden, a writer who lived about the time of Richard
II., says, in reference to the number of hides and vills of
England at the Conquest, that by clearing woods and plough-
ing up wastes there were many more of each in his age than
formerly. And it might be easily presumed, independent-
ly of proof, that woods were cleared, marshes drained, and
wastes brought into tillage, during the long period that the
house of Plantagenet sat on the throne. From manerial sur-
veys indeed and similar instruments, it appears that in some
places there was nearly as much ground cultivated in the
reign of Edward III. as at the present day. The condition
of diflferent counties, however, was very far from being alike,
and in general the northern and western parts of England
were the most backward.
The culture of arable land was very imperfect. Fleta re-
marks, in the reign of Edward I. or 11. , that unless an acre
yielded more than six bushels of corn, the farmer would be a
loser, and the land yield no rent. And Sir John Cnllum, from
very minute accounts, has calculated that nine or ten bushels
were a full average crop on an acre of wheat. An amazing
excess of tillage accompanied, and partly, I suppose, produced,
this imperfect cultivation. In Hawsted, for example, under
Edward I., there were thirteen or fourteen hundred acres of
aiable, and only forty-five of meadow ground. A similar dis-.
620 AGRICULTURE IN ENGLAND Chap. IX. Part II.
proportion occurs almost invariably in every account we pos-
sess. This seems inconsistent with the low price of cattle.
But we must recollect that the common pasture, often the
most extensive part of a manor, is not included, at least by
any specific measurement, in these surveys. The rent of land
differed of course materially; sixpence an acre seems to have
been about the average for arable land in the thirteenth cen-
tury, though meadow was at double or treble that sum. But
the landlords were naturally solicitous to augment a revenue
that became more and more inadequate to their luxuries.
They grew attentive to agricultural concerns, and perceived
that a high rate of produce, against which their less enlight-
ened ancestors had been used to clamor, would bring much
more into their coffers than it took away. The exportation
of corn had been absolutely prohibited. But the statute of
the 15th of Henry VI., c. 2, reciting that "on this account
farmers and others w^ho use husbandry can not sell their corn
but at a low price, to the great damage of the realm," permits
it to be sent anywhere but to the king's enemies, so long as
the quarter of wheat shall not exceed Qs. 8d. in value, or that
of barley Ss.
The price of wool was fixed in the thirty-second year of
the same reign at a minimum, below whicli no person was
suffered to buy it, though he might give more — a provision
neither wise nor equitable, but obviously suggested by the
same motive. Whether the rents of land were augmented
in any degree through these measures, I have not perceived ;
their great rise took place in the reign of Henry VHL, or
rather afterwards. The usual price of land under Edward
IV. seems to have been ten years' purchase.
In Italy the rich Lombard plains, still more fertilized by
irrigation, became a garden, and agriculture seems to have
reached the excellence which it still retains. The constant
warfare, indeed, of neighboring cities is not very favorable to
industry ; and upon this account we might incline to place
the greatest territorial improvement of Lombardy at an era
rather posterior to that of her republican government ; but
from this it primarily sprung ; and without the subjugation
of the feudal aristocracy, and that perpetual demand upon
the fertility of the earth which an increasing population of
citizens produced, the valley of the Po would not have yield-
ed more to human labor than it had done for several preced-
ing centuries. Though Lombardy was extremely populous
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, she exported large
quantities of corn. But whatever mysterious influence of
soil or climate has scattered the seeds of death on the west-
State of Society. AND IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 621
ern regions of Tuscany, had not manifested itself in the Mid-
dle Ages. Among uninhabitable plains, the traveller is struck
by the ruins of innumerable castles and villages, monuments
of a time when pestilence was either unfelt, or had at
least not forbade the residence of mankind. Yolterra, whose
deserted walls look down upon that tainted solitude, was
once a small but free republic. Siena, round whom, though
less depopulated, the malignant influence hovers, was once
almost the nyal of Florence. So melancholy and apparently
irresistible a decline of culture and population through phys-
ical causes, as seems to. have gradually overspread that por-
tion of Italy, has not, perhaps, been experienced in any other
part of Europe, unless we except Iceland.
The Italians of the fourteenth century seem to have paid
some attention to an art of which, both as related to cultiva-
tion and to architecture, our own forefathers were almost en-
tirely ignorant. Crescentius dilates upon horticulture, and
gives a pretty long list of herbs, both esculent and medicinal.
His notions about the ornamental department are rather be-
yond what we should expect, and I do not know that his
scheme of a flower-garden could be much amended. His
general arrangements, which are minutely detailed with ev-
ident fondness for the subject, would of course appear too
formal at present; yet less so than those of subsequent times;
and though acquainted with what is called the topiary art,
that of training or cutting trees into regular figures, he does
not seem to run into its extravagance. Regular gardens,
according to Paulmy, were not made in France till the
sixteenth or even seventeenth century ; yet one is said to
have existed at the Louvre of much older construction. En-
gland, I believe, had nothing of the ornamental kind, unless
it were some trees regularly disposed in the orchard of a
monastery. Even the common horticultural art for culinary
purposes, though not entirely neglected, since the produce
of gardens is sometimes mentioned in ancient deeds, had not
been cultivated with much attention. The esculent vegeta-
bles now most in use were introduced in the reign of Eliza-
beth, and some sorts a great deal later.
§ 15. I should leave this slight survey of economical his-
tory still more imperfect were I to make no observation on
the relative values of money. Without something like pre-
cision in our notions upon this subject, every statistical in-
quiry becomes a source of confusion and error.
In the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I., previously to
the first debasement of the coin by the latter in 1301, the
ordinary price of a quarter of wheat appears to have been
622
CHANGES IN THE
Chap. IX. Part IL
about four shillings, aud that of barley and oats in propor-
tion. A sheep was rather sold high at a shilling, and an ox
might be reckoned at ten or twelve. The value of cattle is,
of course, dependent upon their breed and condition, and we
have unluckily no early account of butcher's meat ; but we
can hardly take a less multiple than about thirty for animal
food, and eighteen or twenty for corn, in order to bring the
prices of the thirteenth century to a level with those of the
present day. Combining the two, and setting the compara-
tive dearness of cloth against the cheapness of fuel and many
other articles, we may, perhaps, consider any given sum un-
der Henry III. and Edward I. as equivalent in general com-
mand over commodities to about twenty-four or twenty-five
times their nominal value at present. Under Henry VI. the
coin had lost one-third of its weight in silver, which caused
a proportional increase of money prices ; but, so far as I can
perceive, there had been no diminution in the value of that
metal. We have not much information as to the fertility of
the mines which supplied Europe during the Middle Ages ;
but it is probable that the drain of silver towards the East,
joined to the ostentatious splendor of courts, might fully ab-
sorb the usual produce. By the statute 15 Henry VI., c. 2,
the price up to which wheat might be exported is fixed at
6s. 8d., a point no doubt above the average ; and the private
documents of that period, which are sufficiently numerous,
lead to a similar result.'" Sixteen will be a proper multiple
when we would bring the general value of money in this
reign to our present standard.'^
»» These will chiefly be found in Sir F. Eden's table of prices ; the following may
be added from the account-book of a convent between 1415 and 1425. Wheat varied
from 4s. to 6«.— barley from 3«. 2d. to 4s. lOd.— oats from Is. 8d. to 2s. id. — oxen from
12s. to 168.— sheep from Is. 2d. to Is. 4d.— butter id. per lb.— eggs twenty-five for Id.—
cheese id. per lb.— Lausdowne MSS., vol. i., Nos. 28 and 29. These prices do not al-
ways agree with those given in other documents of equal authority in the same
period ; but the value of provisions varied in different counties, and still more so in
different seasons of the year.
I' I insert the following comparative table of English money from Sir Frederick
Eden :
Value of
pound
sterling,
present
money.
Proper
tion.
Value of
pound
sterling,
present
money.
Propor-
tion.
Conquest 1066
28 Edward 1 1300
18 Edward III.... 1344
20 Edward III.... 1346
27 Edward III.... 1363
13 Henry IV 1412
4 Edward IV.... 1464
IS Henry VIII.... 1527
£. ». d.
2 18 H
2 17 5
2 12 5i
2 11 8
2 6 6
1 18 9
1 11
1 7 6i
2-906
2-871
2-622
2-583
2-325
1-937
1-55
1-378
34 Henry VIII. . .1543
36 Henry VIII.. .1545
37 Henry VIII. . .1546
5 Edward VI.... 1551
6 Edward VI.... 1552
1 Mary 1553
2 Elizabeth 1560
43 Elizabeth 1001
£. s. d.
1 3 3i-
13 Hi
9 3f
4 7f
1 6f
1 5f
10 8
10
1-163
0-698
0-466
0-232
1-028
1-024
1-033
1-000 1
State of Society. VALUE OF MONEY. 623
But after ascertaining the proportional values of money
at different periods by a comparison of the prices in several
of the chief articles of expenditure, which is the only fair
process, we shall sometimes be surprised at incidental facts
of this class which seem irreducible to any rule. These dif-
ficulties arise not so much from the relative scarcity of par-
ticular commodities, which it is for the most part easy to ex-
plain, as from the change in manners and in the usual mode
of living. We have reached in this age so high a pitch of
luxury that we can hardly believe or comprehend the frugal-
ity of ancient times, and have in general formed mistaken
notions as to the habits of expenditure which then prevailed.
Accustomed to judge of feudal and chivalrous ages by works
of fiction, or by historians who embellished their writings
with accounts of occasional festivals and tournaments, and
sometimes inattentive enough to transfer the manners of the
seventeenth to the fourteenth century, we are not at all
aware of the usual simplicity with Avhich the gentry lived
under Edward I. or even Henry VI. They drank little wine ;
they had no foreign luxuries ; they rarely or never kept male
servants except lor husbandry ; their horses, as we may
guess by the price, were indifferent ; they seldom travelled
beyond their county. And even their hospitality must
have been greatly limited, if the value of manors were really
no greater than we find it in many surveys. Twenty-four
seems a sufiicient multiple when we would raise a sum men-
tioned by a writer under Edward I. to the same real value
expressed in our present money, but an income of £10 or
£20 was reckoned a competent estate for a gentleman ; at
least the lord of a single manor would seldom have enjoyed
more. A knight who possessed £150 per annum passed for
extremely rich. Yet this was not equal in command over
commodities to £4000 at present. But this income was com^
paratively free from taxation, and its expenditure lightened
by the services of his villeins. Such a person, however, must
have been among the most opulent of country gentlemen.
Sir John Fortescue speaks of five pounds a year as "a fair
living for a yeoman," a class of whom he is not at all inclined
to diminish the importance. So, when Sir William Drury,
one of the richest men in Suffolk, bequeaths, in 1493, fifty
marks to each of his daughters, we must not imagine that
this was of greater value than four or five hundred pounds
at this day, but remark the family pride and want of ready
money which induced country gentlemen to leave their
younger children in poverty. Or, if we read that the ex-
624 PAY OF LABORERS. Chap. IX. Part II.
pense of a scholar at the university in 1514 was but five
pounds annually, we should err in supposing that he had the
liberal accommodation which the present age deems indis-
pensable, but consider how much could be afforded for about
sixty pounds, which will be not far from the proportion.
And what would a modern lawyer say to the following en-
try in the church-warden's accounts of St. Margaret, West-
minster, for 1476 : '*Also paid to Roger Fylpott, learned in
the law, for his counsel -giving, 3s. 8c?., with fourpence for
his dinner f"* Though fifteen times the fee might not seem
altogether inadequate at present, five shillings would hardly
furnish the table of a barrister, even if the fastidiousness of
our manners would admit of his accepting such a dole. Bnt
this fastidiousness, which considers certain kinds of remunera-
tion degrading to a man of liberal condition, did not prevail
in those simple ages. It would seem rather strange that a
young lady should learn needle-work and good breeding in a
family of superior rank, paying for her board ; yet such was
the laudable custom of the fifteenth and even sixteenth cen-
turies, as we perceive by the Paston Letters, and even later
authorities.
There is one very unpleasing remark which every one who
attends to the subject of prices will be induced to make — that
the laboring classes, especially those engaged in agriculture,
were better provided with the means of subsistence in the
reign of Edward III. or of Henry VI. than they are at pres-
ent. In the fourteenth century Sir John Cullum observes a
liarvest-man had fourpence a day, which enabled him in a
Aveek to buy a comb of wheat ; but to buy a comb of wheat
a man must now (1784) work ten or twelve days. So, under
Henry VI., if meat was at a farthing and a half the pound,
which I suppose was about the truth, a laborer earning
threepence a day, or eighteen-pence in the week, could buy
a bushel o^ wheat at six shillings the quarter, and twenty-
four pounas of meat for his family. Several acts of Parlia-
ment regulate the wages that might be paid to laborers of
different kinds. Thus the statute of laborers in 1350 fixed
the wages of reapers during harvest at threepence a day
without diet, equal to five shillings at present ; that of 23
Henry VI., c. 12, in 1444, fixed the reapers' wages at five-
pence, and those of common workmen in building at 3|d,
equal to 6s. M. and 4s. 8c/. ; that of 11 Henry VII., c. 22, in
1496, leaves the wages of laborers in harvest as before, but
rather increases those of ordinary workmen. The yearly
wages of a chief hind or shepherd by the act of 1444 were
State of Society. PAY OF LABORERS. 625
£1 45,, equivalent to about £20 ; those of a common*servant
in husbandry, 18^. 4(^., with meat and drink: they were some-
what augmented by the statute of 1496. Yet, although
these wages are regulated as a maximum by acts of Parlia-
ment, which may naturally be supposed to have had a view
rather towards diminishing than enhancing the current rate,
I am not fully convinced that they were not rather beyond
it ; private accounts at least do not always correspond with
these statutable prices. And it is necessary to remember
that the uncertainty of employment, natural to so imperfect
a state of husbandry, must have diminished the laborers'
means of subsistence. Extreme dearth, not more owing to
adverse seasons than to improvident consumption, was fre-
quently endured. But after every allowance of this kind I
should find it difficult to resist the conclusion that, however
the laborer has derived benefit from the cheapness of manu-
factured commodities and from many inventions of common
utility, he is much inferior in ability to support a family to
his ancestors three or four centuries ago. I know not why
some have supposed that meat w^as a luxury seldom obtained
by the laborer. Doubtless he could not have procured as
much as he pleased. But, from the greater cheapness of cat-
tle, as compared with corn, it seems to follow that a more
considerable portion of his ordinary diet consisted of animal
food than at present. It was remarked by Sir John Fortes-
cue that the English lived far more upon animal diet than
their rivals, the French ; and it was natural to ascribe their
superior strength and courage to this cause. I should feel
much satisfaction in being convinced that no deterioration in
the state of the labormg classes has really taken place ; yet
it can not, I think, appear extraordinary to those who reflect
that the whole population of England in the year 1377 did
not much exceed 2,300,000 souls, about one-fifth of the results
upon the last enumeration — an increase with which that of
the fruits of the earth can not be supposed to have kept an
even pace.
§ 16. The second head to which I referred — the improve-
ments of European society in the latter period of the Middle
Ages — comprehends several changes, not always connected
with each other, which contributed to inspire a more eleva-
ted tone of moral sentiment, or at least to restrain the com-
mission of crimes. The first and perhaps the most important
of these, was the gradual elevation of those whom unjust
systems of polity had long depressed — of the people itself,
as opposed to the small number of rich and noble — by the
27
626 POLICE. Chap. IX. Pakt II.
abolitiftn or desuetude of domestic and predial servitude, and
by the privileges extended to corporate towns. The condi-
tion of slavery is, indeed, perfectly consistent with the ob-
servance of moral obligations; yet reason and experience
will justify the sentence of Homer, that he who loses his lib-
erty loses half his virtue. Those who have acquired, or may
hope to acquire, property of their own, are most likely to
respect that of others ; those whom law protects as a parent
are most willing to yield her a filial obedience ; those w^ho
have much to gain by the good-will of their fellow-citizens
are most interested in the preservation of an honorable char-
acter. I have been led, in different parts of the present work,
to consider these great revolutions in the order of society
under other relations than that of their moral efficacy, and
it will therefore be unnecessary to dwell upon them ; es-
pecially as this efficacy is indeterminate, though I think un-
questionable, and rather to be inferred from general reflec-
tions than capable of much illustration by specific facts.
§ 1 7. We may reckon in the next place, among the causes
of moral improvement, a more regular administration of jus-
tice according to fixed laws, and a more effectual police.
Whether the courts of judicature were guided by the feudal
customs or the Roman law, it was necessary for them to
resolve litigated questions with precision and uniformity.
Hence a more distinct theory of justice and good faith was
gradually apprehended ; and the moral sentiments of man-
kind were corrected, as on such subjects they often require
to be, by clearer and better grounded inferences of reason-
ing. Again, though it can not be said that lawless rajDine
was perfectly restrained even at the end of the fifteenth cen-
tury, a sensible amendment had been everywhere experi-
enced. Private warfare, the licensed robbery of feudal man-
ners, had been subjected to so many mortifications by the
kings of France, and especially by St. Louis, that it can hard-
ly be traced beyond the fourteenth century. In Germany
and Spain it lasted longer; but the various associations for
maintaining tranquillity in the former country had consider-
ably diminished its violence before the great national meas-
ure of public peace adopted under Maximilian. Acts of out-
rage committed by powerful men became less frequent as
the executive government acquired more strength to chas-
tise them. We read that St. Louis, the best of French kings,
imposed a fine upon the Lord of Vernon for permitting a
merchant to be robbed in his territory between sunrise and
Bunset. For by the customary law, though in general ill ol>
State of Society. EELIGIOUS SECTS. 627
served, the lord was bound to keep the roads free from dep-
redators in the day-time, in consideration of the toll he re-
ceived from passengers. The same prince was with difficulty
prevented from passing a capital sentence on Enguerrand de
Ooucy, a baron of France, for a murder. Charles the Fair
actually put to death a nobleman of Languedoc for a series
of robberies, notwithstanding the intercession of the provin-
cial nobility. The towns established a police of their own
for internal security, and rendered themselves formidable
to neighboring plunderers. Finally, though not before the
reign of Louis XL, an armed force was established for the
preservation of police. Various means were adopted in
England to prevent robberies, which indeed were not so fre-
quently perpetrated as they were o^ the Continent, by men
of high condition. None of these, perhaps, had so much effi-
cacy as the frequent sessions of judges under commissions
of jail delivery. But the spirit of this country has never
brooked that coercive police which can not exist without
breaking in upon personal liberty by irksome regulations and
discretionary exercise of power ; the sure instrument of tyr-
anny, which renders civil privileges at once nugatory and in-
secure, and by which we should dearly purchase some real
benefits connected with its slavish discipline.
§ 18. I have some difficulty in adverting to another source
of moral improvement during this period — the growth of re-
ligious opinions adverse to those of the Established Church —
both on account of its great obscurity, and because many of
these heresies were mixed up with an excessive fanaticism.
But they fixed themselves so deeply in the hearts of the in-
ferior and more numerous classes, they bore, generally speak-
ing, so immediate a relation to the state of manners, and they
illustrate so much that more visible and eminent revolution
which ultimately rose out of them in the sixteentn century,
that I must reckon these among the most interesting phe-
nomena in the progress of European society.
Many ages elapsed during which no remarkable instance
occurs of a popular deviation from the prescribed line of be-
lief ; and pious Catholics console themselves by reflecting
that their forefathers, in those times of ignorance, slept at
least the sleep of orthodoxy, and that their darkness was in-
terrupted by no false lights of human reasoning. But from
the twelfth century this can no longer be their boast. An
inundation of heresy broke in that age upon the Church,
which no persecution was able thoroughly to repress, till it
finally overspread half the surface of Europe. Of this re«
628 RELIGIOUS SECTS. Chap. IX. Part II.
ligious innovation we must seek the commencement in a dif-
ferent part of the globe. The Manicheans afford an emi-
nent example of that durable attachment to a traditional
creed which so many ancient sects, especially in the East,
have cherished through the vicissitudes of ages, in spite of
persecution and contempt. Their plausible and widely ex-
tended system had been in early times connected with the
name of Christianity, however incompatible with its doctrines
and its history. After a pretty long obscurity, the Manichean
theory revived with some modification in the western parts
of Armenia, and was propagated in the eighth and ninth cen-
turies by a sect denominated PauUcians. Their tenets are
not to be collected with absolute certainty from the mouths
of their adversaries, and no apology of their own survives.
There seems, however, to be sufficient evidence that the Pau-
licians, though professing to acknowledge and even to study
the apostolical writings, ascribed the creation of the world
to an evil deity, whom they supposed also to be the author
of the Jewish law, and consequently rejected all the Old Tes-
tament. Believing, with the ancient Gnostics, that our Sav-
iour was clothed on earth with an impassive celestial body,
they denied the reality of his death and resurrection.^* These
errors exposed them to a long and cruel persecution, during
which a colony of exiles was planted by one of the Greek
emperors in Bulgaria. From this settlement they silently
promulgated their Manichean creed over the western regions
of Christendom. A large part of the commerce of those coun-
tries with Constantinoi^le was carried on for several centuries
by the channel of the Danube. This opened an immediate
intercourse with the Paulicians, who may be traced up that
river through Hungary and Bavaria, or sometimes taking the
route of Lombardy into Switzerland and France. In the last
country, and especially in its southern and eastern provinces,
they became conspicuous under a variety of names, such as
^^ The most authentic account of the Paulicians is found in a little treatise of Pe-
truB Siculus, who lived about 870, under Basil the Macedonian. He had been em-
ployed on an embassy to Tephrica, the principal town of these heretics, so that he
might easily be well informed ; and, though he is sufficiently bigoted, I do not see
any reason to question the general truth of his testimony, especially as it tallies so
welL with what we learn of the predecessors and successors of the Paulicians. Pe-
trns Siculus enumerates six Pauliciau heresies. 1. They maintained the existence
of two deities— the one evil, and the creator of this world; the other good, called
wotJ/p kirovpdv or, the author of that which is to come. 2. They refused to worship
the Virgin, and asserted that Christ brought his body from heaven. 3. They rejected
the Lord's Supper. 4. And the adoration of the Cross. 5. They denied the authority
of the Old Testament, but admitted the New, except the epistles of St. Peter, and,
perhaps, the Apocalypse. 6. They did not acknowledge the order of priests.
There seems every reason to suppose that the Paulicians, notwithstanding their mis-
takes, were endowed with sincere and zealous piety, and studious of the Scriptures.
State of Society. WALDENSES. 629
Catharists, Picards, Paterins, but above all, Albigenses. It
is beyond a doubt that many of these sectaries owed their
origin to the Paulicians; the appellation of Bulgarians was
distinctively bestowed upon them ; and, according to some
writers, they acknowledged a primate or patriarch resident
in that country. The tenets ascribed to them by all contem-
porary authorities coincide so remarkably with those held by
the Paulicians, and in earlier times by the Manicheans, that I
do not see how we can reasonably deny what is confirmed
by separate and uncontradicted testimonies, and contains no
intrinsic want of probability.
But though the derivation of these heretics, called Albigen-
ses, from Bulgaria is sufficiently proved, it is by no means to
be concluded that all who incurred the same imputation ei-
ther derived their faith from the same country, or had adopt-
ed the Manichean theory of the Paulicians. From the very
invectives of their enemies, and the acts of the Inquisition, it
is manifest that almost every shade of heterodoxy was found
among these dissidents, till it vanished in a simple protesta-
tion against the wealth and tyranny of the clergy. Those
who were absolutely free from any taint of Manicheism are
properly called Waldenses ; a name perpetually confounded
in later times with that of Albigenses, but distinguishing a
sect probably of separate origin, and at least of different
tenets. These, according to the majority of writers, took
their appellation from Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons,
the parent, about the year 1160, of a congregation ofseceders
from the Church, who spread very rapidly over France and
Germany. According to others, the original Waldenses were
a race of uncorrupted shepherds, who in the valleys of the
Alps had shaken off, or perhaps never learned, the system of
superstition on which the Catholic Church depended for its
ascendency I am not certain whether their existence can
be distinctly traced beyond the preaching of Waldo, but it
is well known that the proper seat of the Waldenses, or
Vaudois, has long continued to be in certain valleys of Pied-
mont. These pious and innocent sectaries, of whom the very
monkish historians speak well, appear to have nearly re-
sembled the modern Moravians. They had ministers of their
own appointment, and denied the lawfulness of oaths and of
capital punisjiment. In other respects their opinions proba-
bly were not far removed from those usually called Protest-
ant. A simplicity of dress, and especially the use of wooden
sandals, was affected by this people.
I have already had occasion to relate the severe persecu
630 WIDE DIFFUSION OF NEW SECTS. Chap. IX. Part II,
tion which nearly exterminated the Albigenses of Languedoc
at the close of the twelfth century, and involved the counts
of Toulouse in their ruin. The Catharists, a fraternity of the
same Paulician origin, more dispersed than the Albigenses,
had previously sustained a similar trial. Their belief was
certainly a compound of strange errors with truth ; but it
was attended by qualities of a far superior lustre to ortho-
doxy, by a sincerity, a piety, and a self-devotion that almost
purified the age in which they lived. It is always important
to perceive that these high moral excellences have no nec-
essary connection with speculative truths ; and upon this ac-
count I have been more disposed to state explicitly the real
Manicheism of the Albigenses ; especially as Protestant writ-
ers, considering all the enemies of Rome as their friends, have
been apt to place the opinions of these sectaries in a very
false light. In the course of time, undoubtedly, the system
of their Paulician teachers w^ould have yielded, if the inquisi-
tors had admitted the experiment, to a more accurate study
of the Scriptures, and to the knowledge which they would
have imbibed from the Church itself. And, in fact, we find
that the peculiar tenets of Manicheism died away after the
middle of the thirteenth century, although a spirit of dissent
from the established creed broke out in abundant instances
during the two subsequent ages.
We are in general deprived of explicit testimonies in trac-
ing the revolutions of popular opinion. Much must, there-
fore, be left to conjecture ; but I am inclined to attribute a
very extensive effect to the preaching of these heretics.
They appear in various countries nearly during the same pe-
riod — in Spain, Lombardy, Germany, Flanders, and England,
as well as in France. Thirty unhappy persons, convicted of
denying the- sacraments, are said to have perished at Oxford
by cold and famine in the reign of Henry II. In every coun-
try the new sects appear to have spread chiefly among the
lower people, which, while it accounts for the imperfect no-
tice of historians, indicates a more substantial influence upon
the moral condition of society than the conversion of a few
nobles or ecclesiastics.
But even where men did not absolutely enlist under tlie
banners of any new sect, they were stimulated by the tem-
per of their age to a more zealous and independent discus-
sion of their religious system. A curious illustration of this
is furnished by one of the letters of Innocent III. He had
been informed by the Bishop of Metz, as he states to the
clergy of the diocese, that no small multitude of laymen and
State of Society. TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 631
women, having procured a translation of the gospels, epistles
of St. Paul, the Psalter, Job, and other books of Scripture, to
be made for them into French, meet in secret conventicles to
hear them read and preach to each other, avoiding the com-
pany of those who do not join in their devotion, and, having
been reprimanded for this by some of their parish priests, have
withstood them, alleging reasons from the Scriptures why
they should not be so forbidden. Some of them, too, deride
the ignorance of their ministers, and maintain that their own
books teach them more than they could learn from the pul-
pit, and that they can express it better. Although the de-
sire of reading the ScrijDtures, Innocent proceeds, is rather
praiseworthy than reprehensible, yet they are to be blamed
for frequenting secret assemblies, for usurping the office of
preaching, deriding their own ministers,and scorning the com-
pany of such as do not concur in their novelties. He presses
the bishop and chapter to discover the author of this trans-
lation, which could not have been made without a knowledge
of letters, and what were his intentions, and what degree of
orthodoxy and respect for the Holy See those who used it
possessed. This letter of Innocent III., however, considering
the nature of the man, is sufficiently temperate and concili-
atory. It seems not to have answered its end ; for in anoth-
er letter he complains that some members of this little as-
sociation continued refractory, and refused to obey either the
bishop or the pope.^*
In the eighth and ninth centuries, when the Vulgate had
ceased to be generally intelligible, there is no reason to sus-
pect any intention in the Church to deprive the laity of the
Scriptures. Translations were freely made into the vernacu-
lar languages, and, perhaps, read in churches, although the
acts of saints were generally deemed more instructive. Lou-
is the Debonair is said to have caused a German version of
the New Testament to be made. Otfrid, in the same centu-
ry, rendered the gospels, or rather abridged them, into Ger-
man verse. This work is still extant, and is in several re-
spects an object of curiosity. In the eleventh or twelfth
century we find translations of the Psalms, Job, Kings, and
the Maccabees into French. But after the diffusion of he-
retical opinions, or, what was much the same thing, of free in-
quiry, it became expedient to secure the orthodox faith from
lawless interpretation. Accordingly, the Council of Toulouse,
i» Opera Innocent. III., pp. 468, 53T. A translation of the Bible had been made by
direction of Peter Waldo ; but whether this nsed in Lorrain was the same does not
appear. Metz was full of t-he Vaudois, as we find by other authorities.
682 LOLLARDS. Chap. IX. Part il.
in 1229, prohibited the laity from possessing the Scriptures ;
and this precaution was frequently repeated upon subsequent
occasions.'*"
The ecclesiastical history of the thirteenth or fourteenth
centuries teems with new sectaries and schismatics, various
in their aberrations of opinion, but all concurring in detes-
tation of the Established Church. They endured severe per-
secutions with a sincerity and firmness which in any cause
ought to command respect.
But in general we find an extravagant fanaticism among
them; and I do not know how to look for any amelioration
of society from the Franciscan seceders, who quibbled about
the property of things consumed by use, or from the mystic-
al visionaries of difierent appellations, whose moral practice
was sometimes more than equivocal. Those who feel any
curiosity about such subjects, which are by no means unim-
portant, as they illustrate the history of the human mind, will
find them treated very fully by Mosheim. But the original
sources of information are not always accessible in this coun-
try, and the research would, perhaps, be more fatiguing than
profitable.
I shall, for an opposite reason, pass lightly over the great
revolution in religious opinion wrought in England by Wic-
lifFe, which will generally be familiar to the reader from our
common historians. Nor am I concerned to treat of theolog-
ical inquiries, or to write a history of the Church. Consid-
ered in its effects upon manners — the sole point which these
pages have in view — the preaching of this new sect certainly
produced an extensive reformation. But their virtues were
by no means free from some unsocial qualities, in which, as
well as in their superior attributes, the Lollards bear a very
close resemblance to the Puritans of Elizabeth's reign ; a
moroseness that proscribed all cheerful amusements, an un-
charitable malignity that made no distinction in condemning
the established clergy, and a narrow prejudice that applied
the rules of the Jewish law to modern institutions. Some
of their principles were far more dangerous to the good or-
20 The Anglo-Saxon versions are deserving of particular remark. It has been said
that our Chnrch maintained the privilege of having part of the daily service in the
mother tongne. " Even the mass itself," says Lappenberg, " was not read entirely
In Latin."— Hist, of England, vol. i., p. 202. This, however, is denied by Lingard,
■whose authority is probably superior.— Hist, of Ang.-Sax. Church, i., 307. But he
allows that the Epistle and Gospel were read in English, which implies an authorized
translation. And we may adopt in a great measure Lappenberg's proposition, which
follows the above passage : " The numerous versions and paraphrases of the Old and
New Testament made those books known to the laity and more familiar to the
clergy."
State of Society. HUSSITES. 633
der of society, and can not justly be ascribed to the Puritans,
though they grew afterwards out of the same soil. Such was
the notion, which is imputed also to the Albigenses, that civ-
il magistrates lose their right to govern by committing sin.
or, as it was quaintly expressed in the seventeenth century,
that dominion is founded in grace. These extravagances,
however, do not belong to the learned and politic Wicliffe,
however they might be adopted by some of his enthusiast-
ic disciples. Fostered by the general ill-will towards the
Church, his principles made vast progress in England, and,
unlike those of earlier sectaries, were embraced by men of
rank and civil influence. Notwithstanding the check they
sustained by the sanguinary law of Henry IV., it is highly
probable that multitudes secretly cherished them down to
the era of the Reformation.
From England the spirit of religious innovation was prop-
agated into Bohemia; for though John Huss was very far
from embracing all the doctrinal system of Wiclifie, it is
manifest that his zeal had been quickened by the writings
of that reformer. Inferior to the Englishman in ability, but
exciting greater attention by his constancy and sufferings, as
well as by the memorable war which his' ashes kindled, the
Bohemian martyr was even more eminently the precursor
of the Reformation. But still, regarding these dissensions
merely in a temporal light, I can not assign any beneficial
effect to the schism of the Hussites, at least in its immediate
results, and in the country where it appeared. Though some
degree of sympathy with their cause is inspired by resent-
ment at the ill faith of their adversaries, and by the associa-
tions of civil and religious liberty, we can not estimate the
Taborites, and other sectaries of that description, but as fero-
cious and desperate fanatics. Perhaps, beyond the confines
of Bohemia, more substantial good may have been produced
by the influence of its reformation, and a better tone of mor-
als inspired into Germany. But I must again repeat that
upon this obscure and ambiguous subject I assert nothing
definitely, and little with confidence. The tendencies of
religious dissent in the four ages before the Reformation
appear to have generally conduced towards the moral im-
provement of mankind ; and facts of this nature occupy a
far greater space in a philosophical view of society during
that period than we might at first imagine ; but every one
who is disposed to prosecute this inquiry will assign their
character according to the result of his own investigations.
§ 19. But the best school of moral discipline which the
27*
634 CHIVALRY. Chap. IX. Part II.
Middle Ages afforded was the institution of chivalry. There
is something, perhaps, to allow for the partiality of modern
writers upon this interesting subject ; yet our most skeptical
criticism must assign a decisive influence to this great source
of human improvement. The more deeply it is coiisidered,
the more we shall become sensible of its importance.
There are, if I may so say, three powerful spirits which
have from time to time moved over the face of the waters,
and given a predominant impulse to the moral sentiments
and energies of mankind. These are the spirits of liberty,
of religion, and of honor. It was the principal business of
chivalry to animate and cherish the last of these three. And
whatever high magnanimous energy the love of liberty or
religious zeal has ever imparted was equalled by the exquis-
ite sense of honor which this institution preserved.
It appears probable that the custom of receiving arms at
the age of manhood with some solemnity was of immemo-
rial antiquity among the nations that overthrew the Roman
Empire ; for it is mentioned by Tacitus to have prevailed
among their German ancestors ; and his expressions might
have been used with no great variation to describe the act-
ual ceremonies of knighthood. There w^as even in that re-
mote age a sort of public trial as to the fitness of the candi-
date, which, though perhaps confined to his bodily strength
and activity, might be the germ of that refined investigation
which was thought necessary in the perfect stage of chivalry.
Proofs, though rare and incidental, might be adduced to show
that in the time of Charlemagne, and even earlier, the sons
of monarchs at least did not assume manly arms without a
regular investiture. And in the eleventh century it is evi-
dent that this was a general practice.'^*
This ceremony, however, would perhaps of itself have done
little towards forming that intrinsic principle which charac-
terized the genuine chivalry. But in the reign of Charle-
magne we find a military distinction that appears, in fact as
well as in name, to have given birth to that institution. Cer-
tain feudal tenants, and I suppose also allodial proprietors,
were bound to serve on horseback, equipped with the coat of
mail. These were called Caballarii, from w^hich the word chev-
aliers is an obvious corruption. But he who fought on horse-
back, and had been invested with peculiar arms in a solemn
, '1 Nihil neque pnblicse neque privatae rei nisi armati agunt. Sed arma snmere non
ante cuiquam moris, quam civitas suffecturum probaverit. Turn in ipso concilio, vel
principum aliquis, vel pater, vel propinquus, scuto fraraeaque juvenem oraant ; hsec
apud eos toga, hie primus juveutse bones ; ante hoc domfts pars videntur, mox rei-
publicse.— De Moribns German., c. 13.
State of Society. CHIVALRY. 635
manner, wanted nothing more to render him a knight Chiv-
ahy therefore may, in a general sense, be referred to the age
of Charlemagne. We may, however, go farther, and observe
that these distinctive advantages above ordinary combatants
were probably the sources of that remarkable valor and that
keen thirst for glory which became the essential attributes
of a knightly character. For confidence in our skill and
strength is the usual foundation of courage ; it is by feeling
ourselves able to surmount common dangers that we become
adventurous enough to encounter those of a more extraordi-
nary nature, and to which more glory is attached. The rep
utation of superior personal prowess, so difficult to be at
tained in the course of modern warfare, and so liable to er-
roneous representations, was always within the reach of the
stoutest knight, and was founded on claims which could be
measured with much accuracy. Such is the subordination
and mutual dependence in a modern army, that every man
must be content to divide his glory with his comrades, his
general, or his soldiers ; but the soul of chivalry was individ-
ual honor, coveted in so entire and absolute a perfection that
it must not be shared with an army or a nation. Most of
the virtues it inspired were what we may call independent,
as opposed to those which are founded upon social relations.
The knights-errant of romance perform their best exploits
from the love of renown, or from a sort of abstract sense of
justice, rather than from any solicitude to promote the hap-
piness of mankind. If these springs of action are less gener-
ally beneficial, they are, however, more connected with ele-
vation of character than the systematical prudence of men
accustomed to social life.
In the first state of chivalry, it was closely connected with
the military service of fiefs. The Caballarii in the capitula-
ries, the Milites of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, were
land-holders who followed their lord or sovereign into the
field. A certain value of land was termed in England a
knight's fee, or in Normandy feudum lories, fief de haubert,
from the coat of mail which it entitled and required the ten-
ant to wear ; a military tenure was said to be by service in
chivalry. To serve as knights, mounted and equipped, was
the common duty of vassals ; it implied no personal merit, it
gave of itself a claim to no civil privileges. But this knight-
service founded upon a feudal obligation is to be carefully
distinguished from that superior chivalry, in which all was
independent and voluntary. The latter, in fact, could hardly
flourish in its full perfection till the military service of feudal
C36 CHIVALRY. Chap. IX. Part II.
tenure began to decline, namely, in the thirteenth century.
The origin of this personal chivalry I should incline to refer
to the ancient usage of voluntary commendation, which I have
mentioned in a former chapter. Men commended themselves,
that is, did homage and professed attachment to a prince or
lord ; generally, indeed, for protection or the hope of reward,
but sometimes probably for the sake of distinguishing them-
selves in his quarrels. When they received pay, which must
have been the usual case, they were literally his soldiers, or
stipendiary troops. Those who could afford to exert their
valor without recompense were like the knights of whom we
read in romance, who served a foreign master through love,
or thirst of glory, or gratitude. The extreme poverty of the
lower nobility, arising from the subdivision of fiefs, and the
politic generosity of rich lords, made this connection as
strong as that of territorial dependence. A younger broth-
er, leaving the paternal estate, in which he took a slender
share, might look to wealth and dignity in the service of a
powerful count. Knighthood, which he could not claim as
his legal right, became the object of his chief ambition. It
raised him in the scale of society, equalling him in dress, in
arms, and in title, to the rich land-holders. As it was due to
his merit, it did much more than equal him to those who had
no pretensions but from wealth ; and the territorial knights
became by degrees ashamed of assuming the title till they
could challenge it by real desert.
This class of noble and gallant cavaliers, serving commonly
for pay, but on the most honorable footing, became far more
numerous through the Crusades ; a great epoch in the history
of European society. In these wars, as all feudal service was
out of the question, it was necessary for the richer barons to
take into their pay as many knights as they could afford to
maintain ; speculating, so far as such motives operated, on an
influence with the leaders of the expedition, and on a share
of plunder, proportioned to the number of their followers.
During the period of the Crusades we find the institution of
chivalry acquire its full vigor as an order of personal nobility;
and its original connection with feudal tenure, if not alto-
gether effaced, became in a great measure forgotten in the
splendor and dignity of the new form which it wore.
The Crusaders, however, changed in more than one respect
the character of chivalry. Before that epoch it appears to
have had no particular reference to religion. We can hardly
perceive, indeed, why the assumption of arms to be used in
butchering mankind should be treated as a religious cere^
State op Society. CHIVALRY. 637
mony. The clergy, to do them justice, constantly opposed
the private wars in which the courage of those ages wasted
itself; and all bloodshed was subject in strictness to a canon-
ical penance. But the purposes for which men bore arms in
a crusade so sanctified their use, that chivalry acquired the
character as much of a religious as a military institution.
For many centuries the recovery of the Holy Land was con-
stantly at the heart of brave and superstitious nobility ; and
every knight was supposed at his creation to pledge himself,
as occasion should arise, to that cause. Meanwhile, the de-
fense of God's law against infidels was his primary and stand-
ing duty. A knight, whenever present at mass, held the point
of his sword before him while the gospel was read, to signify
his readiness to support it. Writers of the Middle Ages com-
pare the knightly to the priestly character in an elaborate
parallel, and the investiture of the one was supposed analo-
gous to the ordination of the other. The ceremonies upon
this occasion were almost wholly religious. The candidate
passed nights in prayer among priests in a church ; he re-
ceived the sacraments ; he entered into a bath, and was clad
with a white robe, in allusion to the presumed purification of
his lite; his sword was solemnly blessed; every thing, in
short, was contrived to identify his new condition with the
defense of religion, or at least of the Church.
To this strong tincture of religion which entered into the
composition of chivalry from the twelfth century, was added
another ingredient equally distinguishing. A great respect
for the female sex had always been a remarkable characteris-
tic of the Northern nations. The German women were high-
spirited and virtuous, qualities which might be causes or con-
sequences of the veneration with which they were regarded.
I am not sure that we could trace very minutely the condi-
tion of women for the period between the subversion of the
Roman Empire and the first Crusade; but apparently man
did not grossly abuse his superiority ; and in point of civil
rights, and even as to the inheritance of property, the two
sexes were placed perhaps as nearly on a level as the nature
of such warlike societies would admit. There seems, how-
ever, to have been more roughness in the social intercourse
between the sexes than we find in later periods. The spirit of
gallantry, which became so animating a principle of chivalry,
must be ascribed to the progressive refinement of society dur-
ing the 12th and two succeeding centuries. In a rude state
of manners, as among the lower people in all ages, woman
has not full scope to display those fascinating graces by which
638 CHARACTERISTIC VIRTUES Chap. IX. Part II.
nature lias designed to counterbalance the strength and en-
ergy of mankind. Even where those jealous customs that
degrade alike the two sexes have not prevailed, her lot is do-
mestic seclusion. Nor is she fit to share in the boisterous pas-
times of drunken merriment to which the intercourse of an
unpolished people is confined. But as a taste for the more ele-
gant enjoyments of wealth arises — a taste which it is always
her policy and her delight to nourish — she obtains an ascend-
ency at first in the lighter hour, and from thence in the seri-
ous occupations of life. She chases, or brings into subjection,
the god of wine — a victory which might seem more ignoble
were it less difficult, and calls in the aid of divinities more
propitious to her ambition. The love of becoming ornament
is not, perhaps, to be regarded in the light of vanity ; it is
rather an instinct which woman has received from nature to
give effect to those charms that are her defense; and when
commerce began to minister more eflfectually to the wants of
luxury, the rich furs of the North, the gay silks of Asia, the
wrought gold of domestic manufacture, illumined the halls of
chivalry, and cast, as if by the spell of enchantment, that in-
effable grace over beauty which the choice and arrangeYnent
of dress is calculated to bestow. Courtesy had always been
the proper attribute of knighthood ; protection of the weak
its legitimate duty; but these were heightened to a pitch of
enthusiasm when woman became their object. There was
little jealousy shown in the treatment of that sex, at least in
France, the fountain of chivalry ; they were present at fes-
tivals, at tournaments, and sat promiscuously in,the halls of
their castle. The romance of Perceforest (and romances have
always been deemed good witnesses as to manners) tells of
a feast where eight hundred knights had each of them a lady
eating off his plate. For to eat off the same plate was a
usual mark of gallantry or friendship.
Next, therefore, or even equal to devotion, stood gallant-
ry among the principles of knighthood. But all compari-
son between the two was saved by blending them together.
The love of God and the ladies was enjoined as a single
duty. He who was faithful and true to his mistress was
held sure of salvation in the theology of castles, though not
of cloisters.
The gallantry of those ages, which was very often adulter-
ous, had certainly no right to profane the name of religion ;
but its union with valor was at least more natural, and be-
came so intimate that the same word has served to express
both qualities. In the French and English wars especially,
State of Society. OF CHIVALRY. 639
the knights of each country brought to that serious conflict
the spirit of romantic attachment which had been cherished
in the hours of peace. They fought at Poitiers or Verneuii
as they had fought at tournaments, bearing over their armor
scarfs and devices as the livery of their mistresses, and as-
serting the paramount beauty of her they served in vaunting
challenges towards the enemy. Thus in the middle of a
keen skirmish at Cherbourg, the squadrons remained motion-
less while one knight challenged to a single combat the most
amorous of the adversaries. Such a defiance was soon ac-
cepted, and the battle only recommenced when one of the
champions had lost his life for his love. In the first cam-
paign of Edward's war some young English knights wore a
covering over one eye, vowing, for the sake of their ladies,
iiever to see with both till they should have signalized their
prowess in the field. These extravagances of chivalry are
BO common that they form part of its general character, and
prove how far a course of action which depends upon the
impulses of sentiment may come to deviate from common
sense.
But the morals of chivalry, we can not deny, were not
pure. In the amusing fictions which seem to have been the
only popular reading of the Middle Ages, there reigns a licen-
tious spirit, not of that slighter kind which is usual in such
compositions, but indicating a general dissoluteness in the
intercourse of the sexes. This has often been noticed of Boc-
caccio and the early Italian novelists ; but it equally charac-
terized the tales and romances of France, whether metrical or
in prose, and all the poetry of the Troubadours. The viola-
tion of marriage vows passes in them for an incontestable
privilege of the brave and the fair; and an accomplished
knight seems to have enjoyed as undoubted prerogatives, by
general consent of opinion, as were claimed by the brilliant
courtiers of Louis XV.
But neither that emulous valor which chivalry excited,
nor the religion and gallantry which were its animating
principles, alloyed as the latter w^ere by the corruption of
those ages, could have rendered its institution materially
conducive to the moral improvement of society. There
were, however, excellences of a very high class which it
equally encouraged. Three virtues may particularly be no-
ticed as essential in the estimation of mankind to the char-
acter of a knight — loyalty, courtesy, and munificence.
(i.) Loyalty. — The first of these, in its original sense, may
be defined fidelity to engagements ; whether actual prom-
040 CHARACTERISTIC VIRTUES Chap, IX. Part II.
ises, or such tacit obligations as bound a vassal to his lord
and a subject to his prince. It was applied also, and in
the utmost strictness, to the fidelity of a lover towards the
lady he served. Breach of faith, and especially an express
promise, was held a disgrace that no valor could redeem.
False, perjured, disloyal, recreant, were the epithets which
he must be compelled to endure who had swerved from a
plighted engagement even towards an enemy. This is one
of the most striking changes produced by chivalry. Treach-
ery, the usual vice of savage as well as corrupt nations, be-
came infamous during the vigor of that discipline. As per-
sonal rather than national feelmg actuated its heroes, they
never felt that hatred, much less that fear of their enemies,
which blmd men to the heinousness of ill faith. In the wars
of Edward III., originating in no real animosity, the spirit
of honorable as well as courteous behavior towards the foe
seems to have arrived at its highest point. Though avarice
may have been the primary motive of ransoming prisoners
instead of putting them to death, their permission to return
home on the word of honor in order to procure the stipulated
sum^an indulgence never refused — could only be founded
on experienced confidence in the principles of chivalry.
(ii.) Courtesy. — A knight was unfit to remain a member
of the order if he violated his faith ; he was ill acquainted
with its duties if he proved wanting in courtesy. This
word expressed the most highly refined good-breeding, found-
ed less upon a knowledge of ceremonious politeness — though
this was not to be omitted — than on the spontaneous mod-
esty, self-denial, and respect for others, which ought to
spring from his heart. Besides the grace which this beau-
tiful virtue threw over the habits of social life, it softened
down the natural roughness of war, and gradually intro-
duced that indulgent treatment of prisoners which was al-
most unknown to antiquity. Instances of this kind are con-
tinual in the later period of the Middle Ages. The behavior
of Edward III. to Eustace de Ribaumont, after the capture
of Calais, and that, still more exquisitely beautiful, of the
Black Prince to his royal prisoner at Poitiers, are such
eminent instances of chivalrous virtue, that I omit to repeat
them only because they are so well known. Those great
princes, too, might be ima'ginedto have soared far above the
ordinary track of mankind. But in truth, the knights who
surrounded them and imitated their excellences, were only
inferior in opportunities of displaying the same virtue.
(iii.) Miirtlfice?ice. — Liberality, indeed, and disdain of mon-
State of Society. OF CHIVALRY. 641
ey, might be reckoned, as I have said, among the essential
virtues of chivalry. All the romances inculcate the duty of
scattering their wealth with profusion, especially towards
minstrels, pilgrims, and the poorer members of their own or-
der. The last, who were pretty numerous, had a constant
right to succor from the opulent ; the castle of every lord
who respected the ties of knighthood was open with more
than usual hospitality to the traveller whose armor an-
nounced his dignity, though it might also conceal his pov-
erty.
Valor, loyalty, courtesy, munificence, formed collectively
the character of an accomplished knight, so far as was dis-
played in the ordinary tenor of his life, reflecting these vir-
tues as an unsullied mii-ror. Yet something more was re-
quired for the perfect idea of chivalry, and enjoined by its
principles ; an active sense of justice, an ardent indignation
against wrong, a determination of courage to its best end,
the prevention or redress of injury. It grew up as a salu-
tary antidote in the midst of poisons, while scarce any law
but that of the strongest obtained regard, and the rights
of territorial property, which are only rights as they con-
duce to general good, became the means of general oppres-
sion. The real condition of society, it has sometimes been
thought, might suggest stories of knight-errantry, which
weiV w^rought up into the popular romances of the Middle
Ages. A baron, abusing the advantage of an inaccessible
castle in the fastnesses of the Black Forest or the Alps, to
pillage the neighborhood and confine travellers in his dun-
geon, though neither a giant nor a Saracen, was a monster
not less formidable, and could perhaps as little be destroyed
without the aid of disinterested bravery. Knight-errantry,
indeed, as a profession, can not rationally be conceived to
have had any existence beyond the precincts of romance.
Yet there seems no improbability in supposing that a knight,
journeying through uncivilized regions in his way to the
Holy Land, or to the court of a foreign sovereign, might find
himself engaged in adventures not very dissimilar to those
which are the theme of romance. We can, not indeed, expect
to find any historical evidence of such incidents.
The characteristic virtues of chivalry bear so much resem-
blance to those which Eastern writers of the same period
extol, that I am a little disposed to suspect Europe of having
derived some improvement from imitation of Asia. Though
the Crusades began in abhorrence of infidels, this sentiment
wore off in some degree before their cessation ; and the reg
642 EVILS PRODUCED BY CHIVALRY. Chap. JX. Part IL
ular intercourse of commerce, sometimes of alliance, between
the Christians of Palestine and the Saracens, must have re-
moved part of the prejudice, v^^hile experience of their ene-
my's courage and generosity in war would with those gal-
lant knights serve to lighten the remainder. The romancers
expatiate with pleasure on the merits of Saladin, who actu-
ally received the honor of knighthood from Hugh of Tabaria,
his prisoner. An ancient poem, entitled tbe " Order of Chiv-
alry," is founded upon this story, and contains a circum-
stantial account of the ceremonies, as w^ell as duties, which
the institution required. One or two other instances of a
similar kind bear witness to the veneration in which the
name of knight was held among the Eastern nations. And
certainly the Mohammedan chieftains were for the most part
abundantly qualified to fulfill the duties of European chival-
ry. Their manners had been polished and courteous, while
the Western kingdoms were comparatively barbarous.
The principles of chivalry were not, I think, naturally pro-
ductive of many evils; for it is unjust to class those acts
of oppression or disorder among the abuses of knighthood
which were committed in spite of its regulations, and were
only prevented by them from becoming more extensive.
But some bad consequences may be more fairly ascribed to
the very nature of chivalry, I have already mentioned the
dissoluteness which almost unavoidably resulted from the
prevailing tone of gallantry. And yet we sometimes find in
the writings of those times a spii'it of pure but exaggerated
sentiment ; and the most fanciful refinements of passion are
mingled by the same poets with the coarsest immorality.
An undue thirst for military renown w^as another fault that
chivalry must have nourished ; and the love of war, suffi-
ciently pernicious in any shape, was more founded, as I have
observed, on personal feelings of honor, and less on public
spirit, than in the citizens of free states. A third reproach
may be made to the character of knighthood, that it widened
the separation between the different classes of society, and
confirmed that aristocratical spirit of high birth by w^hich
the large mass of mankind were kept in unjust degradation.
Compare the generosity of Edward III. towards Eustace do
Ribaumont at the siege of Calais with the harshness of his
conduct towards the citizens.
There is perhaps enough in the nature of this institution
and its congeniality to the habits of a warlike generation to
account for the respect in which it was held throughout Eu*
rope. But several collateral circumstances served to invig*
State of Society. ENCOURAGEMENT OF PRINCES. 643
orate its spirit. Besides the powerful efficacy with which
the poetry and romance of the Middle Ages stimulated those
susceptible minds which were alive to no other literature,
we may enumerate four distinct causes tending to the pro-
motion of chivalry.
The first of these was the regular scheme of education, ac'
cording to which the sons of gentlemen from the age of seven
years were brought up in the castles of superior lords, where
they at once learned the whole discipline of their future
profession, and imbibed its emulous and enthusiastic spirit.
This was an inestimable advantage to the poorer nobility,
who could hardly otherwise have given their children the
accomplishments of their station. From seven to fourteen
these boys were called pages or varlets ; at fourteen they
bore the name of esquire. They were instructed in the man-
agement of arms, in the art of horsemanship, to exercises of
strength and activity. They became accustomed to obedi-
ence and courteous demeanor, serving their lord or lady in
oflices which had not yet become derogatory to honorable
birth, and striving to please visitors, and especially ladies, at
the ball or banquet. Thus placed in the centre of all that
could awaken their imaginations, the creed of chivalrous
gallantry, superstition, or honor must have made indelible
impressions. Panting for the glory which neither their
strength nor the established rules permitted them to antici-
pate,"the young scions of chivalry attended their masters to
the tournament, and even to the battle, and riveted with a
sigh the armor they were forbidden to wear.
It was the constant policy of sovereigns to encourage this
institution, which furnished them with faithful supports, and
counteracted the independent spirit of feudal tenure. Hence
they displayed a lavish magnificence in festivals and tourna-
ments, which may be reckoned a second means of keeping
up the tone of chivalrous feeling. The kings of France and
England held solemn or plenary courts at the great festivals,
or at other times, where the name of knight was always a
title to admittance ; and the masque of chivalry, if I may
use the expression, was acted in pageants and ceremonies
fantastical enough in our apprehension, but well calculated
for those heated understandings. Here the peacock and the
pheasant, birds of high fame in romance, received the hom-
age of all true knights. The most singular festival of this
kind was that celebrated by Philip, duke of Burgundy, in
1453. In the midst of the banquet a pageant was intro-
duced representing the calamitous state of religion, in con-
644 KNIGHTHOOD. Chap. IX. Pari 11
sequence of the recent capture of Constantinople. This was
followed by the appearance of a pheasant, which was laid
before the duke, and to which the knights present addressed
their vows to undertake a crusade, in the following very
characteristic preamble : " I swear before God my Creatoi-,
in the first place, and the glorious Virgin his mother, and
next, before the ladies and the pheasant." Tournaments
were a still more powerful incentive to emulation. These
may be considered to have arisen about the middle of the
eleventh century ; for though every martial people have
found diversion in representing the image of war, yet the
name of tournaments, and the laws that regulated them, can
not be traced any higher. Every scenic performance of
modern times must be tame in comparison of these anima-
ting combats. At a tournament the space inclosed within
the lists was surrounded by sovereign princes and their no-
blest barons, by knights of established renown, and all that
rank and beauty had most distinguished among the fair.
Covered with steel, and known only by their emblazoned
shield, or by the favors of their mistresses, a still prouder
bearing, the combatants rushed forward to a strife without
enmity, but not without danger. Though their weapons
were pointless, and sometimes only of wood ; though they
were bound by the laws of tournaments to strike only upon
thfe strong armor of the trunk, or, as it was called, between
the four limbs, those impetuous conflicts often terminated in
wounds and death. The Church uttered her excommunica-
tions in vain against so wanton an exposure to peril; but it
was more easy for her to excite than to restrain that martial
enthusiasm. Victory in a tournament was little less glori-
ous, and perhaps at the moment more exquisitely felt, than
in the field, since no battle could assemble such witnesses of
valor. " Honor to the sons of the brave !" resounded amidst
the din of martial music from the lips of the minstrels, as
the conqueror advanced to receive the prize from his queen
or his mistress; while the surrounding multitude acknowl-
edged in his prowess of that day an augury of triumphs that
might in more serious contests be blended with those of his
country.
Both honorary and substantial privileges belonged to the
condition of knighthood, and had of course a material tend-
ency to preserve its credit. A knight was distinguished
abroad by his crested helmet, his weighty armor, whether
of mail or plate, bearing his heraldic coat, by his gilded
spurs, his horse barded with iron, or clothed in housing of
State of Society. MILITARY SERVICE. 645
gold; at home, by richer silks and more costly fars than
were permitted to squires, and by the appropriated color of
scarlet. He was addressed by titles of more respect. Many
civil officers, by rule or usage, were confined to his order.
But perhaps its chief privilege was to form one distinct class
of nobility, extending itself throughout great part of Europe,
and almost independent, as to its rights and dignities, of any
particular sovereign. Whoever had been legitimately dub-
bed a knight in one country became, as it were, a citizen of
universal chivalry, and might assume most of its privileges
in any other. Nor did he require the act of a sovereign to
be thus distinguished. It was a fundamental principle that
any knight might confer the order ; responsible only in his
own reputation if he used lightly so high a prerogative.
But as all the distinctions of rank might have been con-
founded if this right had been without limit, it was an equal-
ly fundamental rule that it could only be exercised in favor
of gentlemen.
The privileges annexed to chivalry were of peculiar ad-
vantage to the vavassors, or inferior gentry, as they tended
to counterbalance the influence which territorial wealth
threw into the scale of their feudal suzerains. Knighthood
brought these two classes nearly to a level ; and it is owing
perhaps in no small degree to this institution that the lo^er
nobility saved themselves, notwithstanding their poverty,
from being confounded with the common people.
Lastly, the customs of chivalry were maintained by their
connection with military service. After armies, which we
may call comparatively regular, had superseded in a great
degree the feudal milftia, princes Avere anxious to bid high
for the service of knights, the best equipped and bravest
warriors of the time, on whose prowess the fate of battles
was for a long period justly supposed to depend. War
brought into relief the generous virtues of chivalry, and gave
lustre to its distinctive privileges. The rank was sought
with enthusiastic emulation through heroic achievements to
which, rather than to mere wealth and station, it was con-
sidered to belong. In the wars of France and England, by
far the most splendid period of this institution, a promotion
of knights followed every success, besides the innumerable
cases where the same honor rewarded individual bravery.
It may here be mentioned that an honorary distinction was
made between knights-bannerets and bachelors. The former
were the richest and best accompanied. No man could prop-
erly be a banneret unless he possessed a certain estate, and
646 DECLINE OF CHIVALRY. Chap. IX. Part XL
could bring a certain number of lances into the field. His
distinguishing mark was the square banner, carried by a
squire at the point of his lance ; while the knight-bachelor
had only the coronet or pointed pendant. When a banneret
was created, the general cut off this pendant to render the
banner square. But this distinction, however it elevated
the banneret, gave him no claim to military command, ex-
cept over his own dependents or men-at-arms. Chandos was
still a knight -bachelor when he led part of the prince of
Wales's army into Spain. He first raised his banner at the
battle of Navarette ; and the narration that Froissart gives
of the ceremony will illustrate the manners of chivalry and
the character of that admirable hero, the conqueror of Du
Guesclin and pride of English chivalry, whose fame with
posterity has been a little overshadowed by his master's lau-
rels. What seems more extraordinary is, that mere squires
had frequently the command over knights. Proofs of this
are almost continual in Froissart. But the vast estimation
in which men held the dignity of knighthood led them some-
times to defer it for great part of their lives, in hope of sig-
nalizing their investiture by some eminent exploit.
These appear to have been the chief means of nourishing
the principles of chivalry among the nobility of Europe.
But notwithstanding all encouragement, it underwent the
usAal destiny of human institutions. St. Palaye, to whom
we are indebted for so vivid a picture of ancient manners,
ascribes the decline of chivalry in France to the profusion
with which the order was lavished under Charles VI., to the
establishment of the companies of ordonnance by Charles
VH., and to the extension of knightly honors to lawyers,
and other men of civil occupation, by Francis I. But the
real principle of decay was something different from these
three subordinate circumstances, unless so far as it may bear
some relation to the second. It was the invention of gun-
powder that eventually overthrew chivalry. From the time
when the use of fire-arms became tolerably perfect the weap-
ons of former warfare lost their efficacy, and physical force
was reduced to a very subordinate place in the accomplish-
ments of a soldier. The advantages of a disciplined infantry
became more sensible ; and the lancers, who continued till al-
most the end of the sixteenth century to charge in a long line,
felt the punishment of their presumption and indiscipline.
Even in the wars of Edward III. the disadvantageous tactics
of chivalry must have been perceptible; but the military art
had not been sufficiently studied to overcome the prejudices
State of Society. DECLINE OF CHIVALRY. 647
of men eager for individual distinction. Tournaments be-
came less frequent ; and, after the fatal accident of Henry
II., were entirely discontinued in France. Notwithstanding
the convulsions of the religious wars, the sixteenth century
was more tranquil than any that had preceded ; and thus a
large part of the nobility passed their lives in pacific habits,
and, if they assumed the honors of chivalry, forgot their nat-
ural connection with military prowess. This is far more ap
plicable to England, where, except from the reign of Edward
III. to that of Henry VI., chivalry, as a military institution,
seems not to have found a very congenial soil. To these cir-
cumstances, immediately affecting the military condition of
nations, we must add the progress of reason and literature,
which made ignorance discreditable even in a soldier, and
exposed the follies of romance to a ridicule which they were
very ill calculated to endure.
" The spirit of chivalry left behind it a more valuable suc-
cessor. The character of knight gradually subsided in that
of gentleman; and the one distinguishes European society
in the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries, as much as the
other did in the preceding ages. A jealous sense of honor,
less romantic, but equally elevated, a ceremonious gallantry
and politeness, a strictness in devotional observances, a high
pride of birth and feeling of independence upon any sover-
eign for the dignity it gave, a sympathy for martial honor,
though more subdued by civil habits, are the lineaments
which prove an indisputable descent. The cavaliers of
Charles I. were genuine successors of Edward's knights; and
the resemblance is much more striking if we ascend to the
civil wars of the League. Time has effaced much also of
this gentlemanly, as it did before of the chivalrous, character.
From the latter part of the seventeenth century its vigor
and purity have undergone a tacit decay, and yielded, per-
haps, in every country to increasing commercial wealth, more
diffused instruction, the spirit of general liberty in some, and
of servile obsequiousness in others, the modes of life in great
cities, and the levellmg customs of social intercourse.
§ 20. It is now time to pass to a very different subject.
The third head under which I classed the improvements of
society during the four last centuries of the Middle Ages
was that of literature. But I must apprise the reader not to
expect any general view of literary history, even in the most
abbreviated manner. Such an epitome would not only be
necessarily superficial, but foreign in many of its details to
the purposes of this chapter, which, attempting to develop
648 CIVIL LAW. Chap. IX. Part IL
the circumstances that gave a new complexion to society,
considers literature only so far as it exercised a general and
powerful influence. I shall, therefore, confine myself to four
points — the study of civil law ; the institution of universities;
the application of modern languages to literature, and espe-
cially to poetry ; and the revival of ancient learning.
§21. (I.) The Study op Civil Law. — The Roman law
had been nominally preserved ever since the destruction of
the Empire; and a great portion of the inhabitants of France
and Spain, as well as Italy, were governed by its provisions.
But this was a mere compilation from the Theodosian Code,
which itself contained only the more recent laws promul-
gated after the establishment of Christianity, with some
fragments from earlier collections. It was made by order
of Alaric, king of the Visigoths, about the year 500, and it is
frequently confounded with the Theodosian Code by v/riters
of the Dark Ages. The Code of Justinian, reduced into
system after the separation of the two former countries from
the Greek empire, never obtained any authority in them ;
nor was it received in the part of Italy subject to the Lom-
bards. But that this body of laws was absolutely unknown
in the West during any period seems to have been too has-
tily supposed. Some of the more eminent ecclesiastics, as
Hincmar and Ivon of Chartres, occasionally refer to it, and
bear witness to the regard which the Roman Church had
uniformly paid to its decisions.
The revival of the study of jurisprudence, as derived from
the laws of Justinian, has generally been ascribed to the dis-
covery made of a copy of the Pandects at Amalfi, in 1135,
when"^that city was taken by the Pisans. This fact, though
not improbable, seems not to rest upon sufficient evidence.
But its truth is the less material, as it appears to be unequiv-
ocally proved that the study of Justinian's system had re-
commenced before that era. Early in the twelfth century
a professor named Irnerius opened a school of civil law at
Bologna, where he commented, if not on the Pandects, yet
on the other books, the Institutes and Code, which were
sufficient to teach the principles and inspire the love of
that comprehensive jurisprudence. The study of law, hav-
ing thus revived, made a surprising progress; within fifty
years Lombardy was full of lawyers, on whom Frederick
Barbarossa and Alexander III, so hostile in every other
respect, conspired to shower honors and privileges. The
schools of Bologna were pre-eminent throughout this cen-
tury for legal learning. There seem also to have been sem-
State ov Society. CIVIL LAW. 649
inaries at Modena and Mantua; nor was any considerable
city without distinguished civilians. In the next age they
became still more numerous, and their professors more con-
spicuous ; and universities arose at Naples, Padua, and other
places, where the Roman law was the object of peculiar re-
gard.
The fame of this renovated jurisprudence spread very rap-
idly from Italy over other parts of Europe. Students flocked
from all parts of Bologna ; and some eminent masters of that
school repeated its lessons in distant countries. One of these,
Placentinus, explained the Digest at Montpellier before the
«nd of the twelfth century ; and the collection of Justinian
soon came to supersede the Theodosian Code in the dominions
of Toulouse. Its study continued to flourish in the universi-
ties of both these cities ; and hence the Roman law, as it is
exhibited in the system of Justinian, became the rule of all
tribunals in the southern provinces of France. Its authority
in Spain is equally great, or at least is only disputed by that
of the canonists ; and it forms the acknowledged basis of de-
cision in all the Germanic tribunals, sparingly modified by the
ancient feudal customaries, which the jurists of the empire re-
duce within narrow bounds. In the northern parts of France,
where the legal standard was sought in local customs, the civil
law met naturally with less regard. But the Code of St. Louis
borrows from that treasury many of its provisions, and it was
const^intly cited in pleadings before the Parliament of Paris,
either as obligatory by way of authority, or at least as writ-
ten wisdom, to which great deference was shown. Yet its
study was long prohibited in the University of Paris, from a
disposition of the popes to establish exclusively their decre-
tals, though the prohibition was silently disregarded.
As early as the reign of Stephen, Yacarius, a lawyer of Bo-
logna, taught at Oxford with great success ; but the students
of scholastic theology opposed themselves, from some unex-
plained reason, to this new jurisprudence, and his lectures
were interdicted. About the time of Henry III. and Edward
I. the civil law acquired some credit in England ; but a sys-
tem entirely incompatible with it had established itself in our
courts of justice ; and the Roman jurisprudence was not only
soon rejected, but became obnoxious. Everywhere, however,
fhe clergy combined its study with that of their own canons :
it was a maxim that every canonist must be a civilian, and
that no one could be a good civilian unless he were also a can-
onist. In all universities degrees are granted in both laws
conjointly; and in all courts of ecclesiastical jurisdiction the
28
650 INSTITUTION OF UNIVERSITIES. Chap. IX. Part IL
authority of Justinian is cited, when that of Gregory or Cle-
ment is wanting.
§ 22. (II.) The Institution of Universities. — The es-
tablishment of public schools in France is owing to Charle-
magne. At his accession we are assured that no means of
obtaining a learned education existed in his dominions ; and,
in order to restore in some degree the spirit of letters, he was
compelled ^to invite strangers from countries where learning
was not so thoroughly extinguished. Alcuin of England,
Clement of Ireland, Theodulf of Germany, were the true Pal-
adins who repaired to his court. With the help of these he
revived a few sparks of diligence,, and established schools in
different cities of his empire ; nor was he ashamed to be the
disciple of that in his own palace, under the care of Alcuin.
His two next successors, Louis the Debonair and Charles the
Bald, were also encouragers of letters; and the schools of
Lyons, Fulda, Corvey, Rheims, and some other cities, might
be said to flourish in the ninth century. In these were taught
the trivium and quadrivium — a long-established division of
sciences : the first, comprehending grammar, or what we now
call philology, logic, and rhetoric ; the second, music, arith-
metic, geometry, and astronomy. But in tliose ages scarcely
any body mastered the latter four ; and to be perfect in the
three former was exceedingly rare. All those studies, how-
ever, were referred to theology, and that in the narrowest
manner; music, for example, being reduced to church chant-
ing, and astronomy to the calculation of Easter. Alcuin was,
in his old age, against reading the poets ; and this discour-
agement of secular learning was very general ; though some,
as for instance, Raban, permitted a slight tincture of it, as
subsidiary to religious instruction.
About the latter part of the eleventh century a greater ar-
dor for intellectual pursuits began to show itself in Europe,
which in the twelfth broke out into a flame. This was mani-
fested in the numbers who repaired to the public academies or
schools of philosophy. None of these grew so early into rep-
utation as that of Paris. This can not, indeed, as has been
vainly pretended, trace its pedigree to Charlemagne. The
first who is said to have read lectures at Paris was Remigius
of Auxerre, about the year 900. For the two next centuries
the history of this school is very obscure; and it would be
hard to prove an unbroken continuity, or at least a dependence
and connection, of its professors. In the year 1100 we find
William of Champeaux teaching logic, and apparently some
higher parts of philosophy, with much credit. But this pre'
State of Society. ABELARD. 651
ceptor was eclipsed by his disciple, afterwards his rival and
adversary, Peter Abelard, to whose brilliant and hardy genius
the University of Paris appears to be indebted for its rapid
advancement. Abelard was almost the first who awakened
mankind in the ages of darkness to a sympathy with intellect-
ual excellence. His bold theories — not the less attractive,
perhaps, for treading upon the bounds of heresy — his impru-
dent vanity, that scorned the regularly acquired reputation
of older men, allured a multitude of disciples who would
never have listened to an ordinary teacher. It is said that
twenty cardinals and fifty bishops had been among his hearers.
Even in the wilderness, where he had erected the monastery
of Paraclete, he was surrounded by enthusiastic admirers, re-
linquishing the luxuries, if so they might be called, of Paris
for the coarse living and imperfect accommodation which
that retirement could afford. But the whole of Abelard's life
was the shipwreck of genius, and of genius both the source
of his own calamities and unserviceable to posterity. There
are few lives of literary men more interesting or more diversi-
fied by success and adversity, by glory and humiliation, by
the admiration of mankind and the persecution of enemies ;
nor from which, I may add, more impressive lessons of moral
prudence may be derived." One of Abelard's pupils was
Peter Lombard, afterwards Archbishop of Paris, and author
of a work called the " Book of Sentences," which obtained
the highest authority among the scholastic disputants. The
resort of students to Paris became continually greater ; they
appear, before the year 1169, to hav^e been divided into na-
tions ;" and probably they had an elected rector and volun-
tary rules of discipline about the same time. This, however,
is not decisively proved; but in the last year of the twelfth
century they obtained their earliest charter from Philip Au-
gustus.
The foundation of the University of Oxford is commonly
ascribed to Alfred, but we have no proof of its existence as
a school of learning before the middle of the twelfth cen-
tury. In the reign of Stephen, Vacarius read lectures there
*' Abelard's philosophical writitigs were published in 1836 by M. Cousin. See also
the excellent work of M, de Remusat, in 1845, with the title Abelard, containing a
copious account both of the life and writings of that most remarkable man, the fa-
ther, perhaps, of the theory as to the nature of universal ideas, now so generally
known by the name of conceptualism.
23 The faculty of arts in the University of Paris was divided into four nations ;
those of France, Picardy, Normandy, and England. These had distinct suffrages in
the affairs of the university, and consequently, when united, outnumbered the three
higher faculties of theology, law, and medicine. In 1269, Henry II. of England offers
to refer his dispute with Becket to the provinces of the school of Paris.
652 UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA. Chap. JX. Part II.
upon civil law ; and in that of Henry II., or at least of Rich-
ard I., Oxford became a very flourishing university, and in
1201, according to Wood, contained 3000 scholars. The ear-
liest charters were granted by John.
If it were necessary to construe the word university in the
strict sense of a legal incorporation, Bologna might lay claim
to a higher antiquity than either Paris or Oxford. There are
a few vestiges of studies pursued in that city even in the
eleventh century ; but early in the next the revival of the
Roman jurisprudence, as has been already noticed, brought
a throng of scholars round the chairs of its professors. Fred-
erick Barbarossa in 1158, by his authentic or rescript, enti-
tled Habita, took these under his protection, and permitted
them to be tried in civil suits by their own judges. This
exemption from the ordinary tribunals, and even from those
of the Church, was naturally coveted by other academies : it
was granted to the University of Paris by its earliest charter
from Philip Augustus, and to Oxford by John. From this
time the golden age of universities commenced ; and it is
hard to say whether they were favored more by their sov-
ereigns or by the See of Rome. Their history, indeed, is full
of struggles with the municipal authorities and with the
bishops of their several cities, wherein they were sometimes
the aggressors, and generally the conquerors. From all parts
of Europe students resorted to these renowned seats of learn-
ing with an eagerness for instruction Avhich may astonish
those who reflect how little of what we now deem useful
could be imparted. At Oxford, under Henry III., it is said
that there were 30,000 scholars ; an exaggeration which
seems to imply that the real number was very great. A re-
spectable contemporary writer asserts that there were full
10,000 at Bologna about the same time. I have not ob-
served any numerical statement as to Paris during this age;
but there can be no doubt that it was more frequented than
any other. At the death of Charles VII. in 1453, it is said
to have contained 25,000 students. In the thirteenth centu-
ry other universities sprang up in diflerent countries — Padua
and Naples under the patronage of Frederick II., a zealous
and useful friend to letters, Toulouse and Montpellier, Cam-
bridge and Salamanca. Orleans, which had long been dis-
tinguished as a school of civil law, received the privileges of
incorporation early in the fourteenth century, and Angers
before the expiration of the same age. Prague, the earliest
and most eminent of German universities, was founded in
1350; a secession from thence of Saxon students, in conse-
State of Socikty. ENCOURAGEMENT OF UNIVERSITIES. 653
quence of the nationality of the Bohemians and the Hussite
schism, gave rise to that of Leipsic. The fifteenth century
produced several new academical foundations in France and
Spain.
A large proportion of scholars in most of those institutions
r^eve drawn by the love of science from foreign countries.
The chief universities had their own particular departments
of excellence. Paris was unrivalled for scholastic theology ;
Bologna and Orleans, and afterwards Bourges, for jurispru-
dence ; Montpellier for medicine. Though national preju-
dices, as in the case of Prague, sometimes interfered with
this free resort of foreigners to places of education, it was in
general a wise policy of government, as well as of the univer-
sities themselves, to encourage it. The thirty-fifth article of
the peace of Bretigni provides for the restoration of former
privileges to students respectively in the French and English
universities. Various letters patent will be found in Ry-
mer's collection securing to Scottish as well as French na-
tives a safe passage to their place of education. The English
nation, including however the Flemings and Germans, had
a separate vote in the faculty of arts at Paris ; but foreign
students were not, I believe, so numerous in the English
academies.
If endowments and privileges are the means of quickening
a zeal for letters, they were liberally bestowed in the last
three of the Middle Ages. Crevier enumerates fifteen col-
leges founded in the University of Paris during the thirteenth
century, besides one or two of a still earlier date. Two
only, or at most three, existed in that age at Oxford, and but
one at Cambridge. In the next two centuries these univer-
sities could boast, as every one knows, of many splendid
foundations, though much exceeded in number by those of
Paris. Considered as ecclesiastical institutions, it is not sur-
prising that the universities obtained, according to the spirit
of their age, an exclusive cognizance of civil or criminaj
suits affecting their members. This jurisdiction was, how«
ever, local as well as personal, and in reality encroached on
the regular police of their cities. At Paris the privilege
turned to a flagrant abuse, and gave rise to many scandalous
contentions. Still more valuable advantages were those re-
lating to ecclesiastical preferments, of whicii a large propor-
tion was reserved in France to academical graduates. Some-
thing of the same sort, though less extensive, may still be
traced in the rules respecting plurality of benefices in out
Enslish Church.
654 SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. Chap. IX. Part II.
§ 23. This remarkable and almost sudden transition from
a total indifference to all intellectual pursuits can not be
ascribed perhaps to any general causes. The restoration of
the civil, and the formation of the canon law, were indeed emi-
nently conducive to it, and a large proportion of scholars in
most universities confined themselves to jurisprudence. But
the chief attraction to the studious was the new scholastic
philosophy. The love of contention, especially with such
arms as the art of dialectics supplies to an acute understand-
ing, is natural enough to mankind. That of speculating
upon the mysterious questions of metaphysics and theology
is not less so. These disputes and speculations, however,
appear to have excited little interest till, after the middle of
the eleventh century, Roscelin, a professor of logic, revived
the old question of the Grecian schools respecting universal
ideas, the reality of which he denied. This kindled a spirit
of metaphysical discussion, which Lanfranc and Anselm, suc-
cessively archbishops of Canterbury, kept alive ; and in the
next century Abelard and Peter Lombard, especially the lat-
ter, completed the scholastic system of philosophizing. The
logic of Aristotle seems to have been partly known in the
eleventh century, although that of Augustin was perhaps in
higher estimation ; in the twelfth it obtained more decisive
influence. His metaphysics, to which the logic might be
considered as preparatory, were introduced through transla-
tions from the Arabic, and perhaps also from the Greek, early
in the ensuing century. This work, condemned at first by
the decrees of popes and councils on account of its supposed
tendency to atheism, acquired by degrees an influence to
which even popes and councils were obliged to yield. The
Mendicant Friars, established throughout Europe in the thir-
teenth century, greatly contributed to promote the Aristo-
telian philosophy ; and its final reception into the orthodox
system of the Church may chiefly be ascribed to Thomas
Aquinas, the boast of the Dominican order, and certainly the
most distinguished metaphysician of the Middle Ages. His
authority silenced all scruples as to that of Aristotle, and the
two philosophers were treated with equally implicit defer-
ence by the later school-men.
This scholastic philosophy, so famous for several ages, has
since passed away and been forgotten. The history of liter-
ature, like that of empire, is full of revolutions. Our public
libraries are cemeteries of departed reputation, and the dust
accumulating upon their untouched volumes speaks as forci-
bly as the grass that waves over the ruins of Babylon. Few^
State of Society. SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. 655
very few, for a hundred years past, have broken the repose
of the immense works of the school-men. Yet we can not
deny that Roscelin, Anselm, Abelard, Peter Lombard, Al-
bertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Ockham
were men of acute and even profound understandings, the
giants of their own generation. Even with the slight knowl-
edge we possess of their tenets, there appear through the
cloud of repulsive technical barbarisms rays of metaphysical
genius which this age ought not to despise. Thus in the
works of Anselm is found the celebrated argument of Des
Cartes for the existence of a Deity, deduced from the idea of
an infinitely perfect being. One great object that most of
the school-men had in view was to establish the principles
of natural theology by abstract reasoning. This reasoning
was doubtless liable to great difficulties. But it would be
difficult to mention any theoretical argument to prove the
divine attributes, or any objection capable of being raised
against the proof, which we do not find in some of the scho-
lastic philosophers. The most celebrated subjects of discus-
sion, and those on which this class of reasoners were most
divided, were the reality of universal ideas, considered as ex-
trinsic to the human mind and the freedom of will. These
have not ceased to occupy the thoughts of metaphysicians.
But all discovery of truth by means of these controversies
was rendered hopeless by two insurmountable obstacles — the
authority of Aristotle and that of the Church. Wherever
obsequious reverence is substituted for bold inquiry, truth, if
it is not already at hand, will never be attained. The scho-
lastics did not understand Aristotle, whose original writings
they could not read ; but his name was received with implicit
faith. They learned his peculiar nomenclature, and fancied
that he had given them realities. The authority of the Church
did them still more harm. It has been said, and probably
with much truth, that their metaphysics were injurious to
their theology. But I must observe in return that their the-
ology was equally injurious to their metaphysics. Their dis-
putes continually turned upon questions either involving ab-
surdity and contradiction, or at best inscrutable by human
comprehension. Those who assert the greatest antiquity of
the Roman Catholic doctrine as to the real presence allow
that both the Avord and the definition of transubstantiation
are owing to the scholastic writers. Their subtleties were
not always so well received. They reasoned, at imminent
eril of being charged with heresy, which Roscelin, Abelard,
ombard, and Ockham did not escape. In the virulent fac
I
656 SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. Chap. IX. Part II.
tions that arose out of their metaphysical quarrels, either
party was eager to expose its adversary to detraction and
persecution. The Nominalists were accused, one hardly sees
why, with reducing, like Sabellius, the persona of the Trinity
to modal distinctions. The Realists, with more pretense, in-
curred the imputation of holding a language that savored of
atheism. In the controversy which the Dominicans and Fran-
ciscans, disciples respectively of Thomas Aquinas and Dans
Scotus, maintained about grace and free-will, it was of course
still more easy to deal in mutual reproaches of heterodoxy.
But the school-men were in general prudent enough not to
defy the censures of the Church ; and the popes, in return for
the support they gave to all exorbitant pretensions of the
Holy See, connived at this factious wrangling, which threat-
ened no serious mischief, as it did not proceed from any in-
dependent spirit of research. Yet, with all their apparent
conformity to the received creed, there was, as might be ex^
pected from the circumstances, a great deal of real deviation
from orthodoxy, and even of infidelity. The scholastic mode
of dispute, admitting of no termination and producing no
conviction, was the sure cause of skepticism; and the sys-
tem of Aristotle, especially with the commentaries of Aver*
roes, bore an aspect very unfavorable to natural religion.
The Aristotelian philosophy, even in the hands of the Mas-
ter, was like a barren tree that conceals its want of fruit by
profusion of leaves. But the scholastic ontology was much
worse. What could be more trifling than disquisitions about
the nature of angels, their modes of operatiop,'tTieir means
of conversing, or (for these were distinguished) the morning
and evening state of their understandings? Into such follies
the school-men appear to have launched, partly because there
was less danger of running against a heresy in a matter
where the Church had defined so little — partly from their
presumption, which disdained all inquiries into the human
mind, as merely a part of physics — and in i^o small degree
through a spirit of mystical fanaticism, derived from the Ori-
ental philosophy and the later Platonists, which blended it-
self with the cold-blooded technicalities of the Aristotelian
school. But this unproductive waste of the faculties could
not last forever. Men discovered that they had given their
time for the promise of wisdom, and been cheated in the bar-
gain. What John of Salisbury observes of the Parisian dia-
lecticians in his own time, that after several years' absence
he found them not a step advanced, and still employed in
urging and parrying the same arguments, was equally appli-
State op Society. SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY. en7
cable to the period of centuries. After three or four hun-
dred years, the scholastics had not untied a single knot, nor
added one unequivocal truth to the domain of philosophy.
As this became more evident, the enthusiasm for that kind
of learning declined ; after the middle of the fourteenth cen-
tury few distinguished teachers arose among the school-men,
and at the revival of letters their pretended science had no
advocates left but among the prejudiced or ignorant adher-
ents of established systems. How different is the state of
genuine philosophy, the zeal for which will never wear out
by length of time or change of fashion, because the inquirer,
unrestrained by authority, is perpetually cheered by the dis-
covery of truth in researches, which the boundless riches of
nature seem to render indefinitely progressive!
Yet, upon a general consideration, the attention paid in
the universities to scholastic philosophy may be deemed a
source of improvement in the intellectual character, w^hen we
compare it with the perfect ignorance of some preceding ages.
Whether the same industry would not have been more profit-
ably directed if the love of metaphysics had not intervened,
is another question. Philology, or the principles of good
taste, degenerated through the prevalence of school-logic.
The Latin compositions of the twelfth century are better
than those of the three that followed — at least on the north-
ern side of the Alps. I do not, however, conceive that any
real correctness of taste or general elegance of style was like-
ly to subsist in so imperfect a condition of society. These
qualities seem to require a certain harmonious correspond-
ence in the tone of manners before they can establish a prev-
alent influence over literature. A more real evil was the di-
verting of studious men from mathematical science. Early
in the twelfth century several persons, chiefly English, had
brought into Europe some of the Arabian writings on geom-
etry and physics. In the thirteenth the works of Euclid
were commented upon by Campano, and Roger Bacon was
fully acquainted with them." Algebra, as far as the Ara-
bians knew it, extending to quadratic equations, was actually
in the hands of some Italians at the commencement of the
2* The resemblance between Roger Bacon and his greater namesake is very re-
markable. Whether Lord Bacon ever read the Opus Majus, T know not ; but it is
singular that his favorite quaint expression, prcerogativce scientiarum, should be
found in that work, though not used with the same allusion to the Roman comitia.
And whoever reads the sixth part of the Opus Majus, upon experimental science,
must be struck by it as the prototype, in spirit, of the Novum Organum. The same
sanguine and sometimes rash confidence in the effect of physical discoveries, the
same fondness for experiment, the same preference of inductive to abstract reason-
ing, pervade both works.
28*
658 MODERN LANGUAGES. Chap. IX. Part IL
same age, and preserved for almost three hundred years as
a secret, though without any conception of its importance.
As abstract mathematics require no collateral aid, they may
reach the highest perfection in ages of general barbarism ;
and there seems to be no reason why, if the course of study
had been directed that way, there should not have arisen a
Newton or a Laplace, instead of an Aquinas or an Ockhara.
The knowledge displayed by Roger Bacon and by Albertus
Magnus, even in the mixed mathematics, under every disad-
vantage from the imperfection of instruments and the want
of recorded experience, is sufficient to inspire us with regret
that their contemporaries were more inclined to astonish-
ment than to emulation. These inquiries, indeed, were sub-
ject to the ordeal of fire, the great purifier of books and men ;
for if the metaphysician stood a chance of being burned as
a heretic, the natural philosopher was in not less jeopardy as
a magician.
§ 24. (III.) Cultivation of Modern Languages. — ^A far
more substantial cause of intellectual improvement was the
development of those new languages that sprang out of the
corruption of Latin. For three or four centuries after what
was called the Romance tongue was spoken in France,
there remain but few vestiges of its employment in writing ;
though we can not draw an absolute inference from our
want of proof, and a critic of much authority supposes trans-
lations to have been made into it for religious purposes from
the time of Charlemagne. During this period the language
was split into two very separate dialects, the regions of
which may be considered, though by no means strictly, as
divided by the Loire. These were called the Langue d'Oil
and the Langue d'Oc ; or, in more modern terms, the French
and Provengal dialects. In the latter of these I know of
nothing which can even by name be traced beyond the year
1100. About that time Gregory de Bechada, a gentleman
of Limousin, recorded the memorable events of the first
Crusade, then recent, in a metrical history of great length.
This poem has altogether perished; which, considering the
popularity of its subject, would probably not have been the
case if it had possessed any merit. But very soon afterwards
a multitude of poets, like a swarm of summer insects, ap-
peared in the southern provinces of France. These were the
celebrated troubadours, whose fame depends far less on their
positive excellence than on the darkness of preceding ages,
on the temporary sensation they excited, and their perma-
nent influence on the state of European poetry. From Wil-
State of Society. TROUBADOURS. 659
liam, count of Poitou, the earliest troubadour on record, who
died in 1126, to their extinction, about the end of the next
century, there were probably several hundred of these versi-
fiers in the language of Provence, though not always natives
of France. Among those poets are reckoned a king of En-
gland (Richard I.), two of Aragon, one of Sicily, a dauphin of
Auvergne, a count of Foix, a prince of Orange, many noble-
men, and several ladies. One can hardly pretend to account
for this sudden and transitory love of verse ; but it is mani-
festly one symptom of the rapid impulse which the human
mind received in the twelfth century, and contemporaneous
with the severer studies that began to flourish in the uni-
versities. It was encouraged by the prosperity of Languedoc
and Provence, undisturbed, comparatively with other coun-
tries, by internal warfare, and disposed by the temper of their
inhabitants to feel with voluptuous sensibility the charm of
music and amorous poetry. But the tremendous storm that
fell upon Languedoc in the crusade against the Albigeois
ehook off the flowers of Provenyal verse ; and the final ex-
tinction of the fief of Toulouse, with the removal of the counts
of Provence to Naples, deprived the troubadours of their most
eminent patrons. An attempt was made in the next century
to revive them, by distributing prizes for the best composi-
tion in the Floral Games of Toulouse, which have sometimes
been erroneously referred to a higher antiquity ; but it did
not establish the name of any Provenyal poet. Nor can we
deem these fantastical solemnities, styled Courts of Love,
where ridiculous questions of metaphysical gallantry were
debated by poetical advocates, under the presidency and
arbitration of certain ladies, much calculated to bring for-
ward any genuine excellence. They illustrate, however,
what is more immediately my own object — the general ardor
for poetry and the manners of those chivalrous ages.
§ 25. The great reputation acquired by the troubadours,
and panegyrics lavished on some of them by Dante and Pe-
trarch, excited a curiosity among literary men, which has
been a good deal disappointed by further acquaintance.
Translations from part of this collection, with memorials of
the writers, were published by Millot ; and we certainly do
not often meet with passages in his three volumes which
give us any poetical pleasure. The troubadours chiefly con-
fined themselves to subjects of love, or rather gallantry, and
to satires (sirventes), which are sometimes keen and spirit-
ed. No romances of chivalry, and hardly any tales, are found
among their works. There seems a general deficiency of im*
660 FRENCH METRICAL TRANSLATIONS. Chap. IX. Part II.
agination, and especially of that vivid description which dis-
tinguishes works of genius in the rudest period of society.
In the poetry of sentiment, their favorite province, they sel-
dom attain any natural expression, and consequently pro«
duce no interest. It must be allowed, however, that we can
not judge of the troubadours at a greater disadvantage than
through the prose translations of Millot. Their poetry was
entirely of that class which is allied to music, and excites
the fancy or feelings rather by the power of sound than any
stimulancy of imagery and passion. Possessing a flexible
and harmonious language, they invented a variety of met-
rical arrangements, perfectly new to the nations of Europe.
The Latin hymns were striking but monotonous, the metre
of the northern French unvaried; but in Proven9al poetry,
almost every length of verse, from two syllables to twelve,
and the most intricate disposition of rhymes, were at the
choice of the troubadour. The canzoni, the sestine, all the
lyric metres of Italy and Spain, were borrowed from his
treasury. With such a command of poetical sounds, it was
natural that he should inspire delight into ears not yet ren-
dered familiar to the artifices of verse; and even now the
fragments of these ancient lays, quoted by M. Sismondi and
M. Ginguene, seem to possess a sort of charm that has evap-
orated in translation. Upon this harmony, and upon the fa-
cility with which mankind are apt to be deluded into an ad-
miration of exaggerated sentiment in poetry, they depended
for their influence. And however vapid the songs of Pro-
vence may seem to our apprehensions, they were undoubted-
ly the source from whicli poetry for many centuries derived
a great portion of its habitual language.
§ 26. It is probable that the Northern Romance, or what
we properly call French, was not formed until the tenth
century. Translations of some books of Scripture and acts
of saints were made about 1100, or even earlier, and there
are French sermons of St. Bernard, from which extracts have
been published, in the royal library at Paris. ^ In 1126, a
charter was granted by Louis VI. to the city of Beauvais in
French. Metrical compositions are in general the first liter-
ature of a nation, and, even if no distinct proof could be ad-
duced, we might assume their existence before the twelfth
century. There is, however, evidence, not to mention the
fragments printed by Le Boeuf, of certain lives of saints
translated into French verse by Thibault de Vernon, a can-
on of Rouen, before the middle of the preceding age. And
we are told that Taillefer, a Norman minstrel, recited a song;
State of Society. NORMAN ROMANCES AND TALES. G61
or romance on the deeds of Roland, before the army of his
countrymen, at the battle of Hastings in 1066. Philip de
Than, a Norman subject of Henry I., seems to be the earliest
poet whose works as well as name have reached us, unless
we admit a French translation of the work of one Marbode
upon precious stones to be more ancient. This De Than
wrote a set of rules for computation of time and an account
of different calendars. A happy theme for inspiration, with-
out doubt ! Another performance of the same author is a
treatise on birds and beasts, dedicated to Adelaide, queen of
Henry I. But a more famous votary of the muses was Wace,
a native of Jersey, who, about the beginning of Henry H.'s
reign, turned Geoffrey of Monmouth's history into P^rench
metre. Besides this poem, called le Brut d'Angleterre, he
composed a series of metrical histories, containing the trans-
actions of the dukes of Normandy, from Rollo, their great
progenitor, who gave name to the Roman de Rou, down to
his own age. Other productions are ascribed to Wace, who
was at least a prolific versifier, and, if he seem to deserve no
higher title at present, has a claim to indulgence, and even
to esteem, as having far excelled his contemporaries, without
any superior advantages of knowledge. In emulation, how-
ever, of his fame, several Norman writers addicted them-
selves to composing chronicles of devotional treatises in me-
tre. The court of our Norman kings was to the early poets
in the Langue d'Oil what those of Aries and Toulouse were
to the troubadours. Henry I. was fond enough of literature
to obtain the surname of Beauclerc; Henry II. was more in-
disputably an encourager of poetry ; and Richard I. has left
compositions of his own in the two dialects spoken in France.
If the poets of Normandy had never gone beyond histor-
ical and religious subjects, they would probably have had
less claim to our attention than their brethren of Provence.
But a different and far more interesting species of composi-
tion began to be cultivated in the latter part of the twelfth
century. Without entering upon the controverted question
as to the origin of romantic fictions, referred by one party
to the Scandinavians, by a second to the Arabs, by others to
the natives of Brittany, it is manifest that the actual stories,
upon which one early and numerous class of romances was
founded, are related to the traditions of the last people.
These are such as turn upon the fable of Arthur; for though
we are not entitled to deny the existence of such a personage,
his story seems chiefly the creation of Celtic vanity. Tradi-
tions current in Brittany, though probably derived from this
662 NORMAN ROMANCES AND TALES. Chap. IX. Part II.
island, became the basis of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Latin
prose, which, as has been seen, was transfused into French
metre by Wace. The vicinity of Normandy enabled its
poets to enrich their narratives with other Armorican fic-
tions, all relating to the heroes who had surrounded the ta-
ble of the son of Uther. An equally imaginary history of
Charlemagne gave rise to a new family of romances. The
authors of these fictions were called trouveurs, a name ob-
viously identical with that of troubadours. But except in
name there was no resemblance between the minstrels of
the northern and southern dialects. The invention of one
class was turned to description, that of the other to senti-
ment ; the first were epic in their form and style, the latter
almost always lyric. We can not, perhaps, give a better no-
tion of their dissimilitude than by saying that one school
produced Chaucer, and the other Petrarch. Besides these
romances of chivalry, the trouveurs displayed their powers
of lively narration in comic tales or fabliaux (a name some-
times extended to the higher romance), which have aided
the imagination of Boccace and La Fontaine. These compo-
sitions are certainly more entertaining than those of the
troubadours; but, contrary to what I have said of the latter,
they often gain by appearing in a modern dress. Their ver-
sification, which doubtless had its charm when listened to
around the hearth of an ancient castle, is very languid and
prosaic, and suitable enough to the tedious prolixity into
which the narrative is apt to fall ; and though we find many
sallies of that arch and sprightly simplicity which character-
izes the old language of France as well as England, it re-
quires, upon the whole, a factitious taste to relish these Nor-
man tales, considered as poetry in the higher sense of the
word, distinguished from metrical fiction.
A manner very different from that of the fabliaux was
adopted in the Roman de la Rose, begun by William de
Loris about 1250, and completed by John de Meun half a
century later. This poem, which contains about 16,000 lines
in the usual octosyllable verse, from which the early French
writers seldom deviated, is an allegorical vision, wherein love
and the other passions or qualities connected with it pass
over the stage, without the intervention, I believe, of any
less abstract personages. Though similar allegories were
not unknown to the ancients, and, which is more to the pur-
pose, may be found in other productions of the thirteenth
century, none had been constructed so elaborately as that
of the Roman de la Rose. Cold and tedious as we now con-
State of Society. WORKS IN FRENCH PROSE. 663
sider this species of poetry, it originated in the creative pow-
er of imagination, and appealed to more refined feeling than
the common metrical narratives could excite. This poem
was highly popular in the Middle Ages, and became the
source of those numerous allegories which had not ceased in
the seventeenth century.
The French language was employed in prose as well as in
metre. Indeed it seems to have had almost an exclusive
privilege in this respect. "The language of Oil," says Dante,
in his treatise on vulgar speech, prefers its claim to be rank-
ed above those of Oc and Si (Proven9al and Italian), on the
ground that all translations or compositions in prose have
been written therein, from its greater facility and grace, such
as the books compiled from the Trojan and Roman stories,
the deliglitful fables about Arthur, and many other works of
history and science." I have mentioned already the sermons
of St. Bernard and translations from Scripture. The laws of
the kingdom of Jerusalem purport to have been drawn up
immediately after the first crusade, and, though their lan-
guage has been materially altered, there seems no doubt
that they were originally compiled in French. Besides some
charters, there are said to have been prose romances before
the year 1200. Early in the next age Ville Hardouin, sene-
schal of Campagne, recorded the capture of Constantinople
in the fourth crusade, an expedition the glory and reward of
which he had personally shared, and, as every original work
of prior date has either perished or is of small importance, may
be deemed the father of French prose. The Establishments
of St. Louis and the law treatise of Beaumanoir fill up the
interval of the thirteenth century ; and before its conclusion
we must suppose the excellent memoirs of Joinville to have
been composed, since they are dedicated to Louis X. in 1315,
when the author could hardly be less than ninety years of
age. Without prosecuting any further the history of French
literature, I will only mention the translations of Livy and
Sallust, made in the reign and by the order of John, with
those of Caesar, Suetonius, Ovid, and parts of Cicero, which
are due to his successor, Charles V.
§ 27. I confess myself wholly uninformed as to the origin-
al formation of the Spanish language, and as to the epoch
of its separation into the two principal dialects of Castile
and Portugal or Gallicia ; nor should I perhaps have alluded
to the literature of that peninsula, were it not for a remark-
able poem which shines out among the minor lights of those
times. This is a metrical life of the Cid Ruy Diaz, written
G64 EARLY ITALIAN WRITERS. Chap. IX. Fart 11.
in a barbarous style and with the rudest inequality of meas-
ure, but with a truly Homeric warmth and vivacity of delin-
eation. It is much to be regretted that the author's name
has perished ; but its date has been referred by some to the
middle of the twelfth century, while the hero's actions were
yet recent, and before the taste of Spain had been corrupted
by the Proven9al troubadours, whose extremely diiferent
manner would, if it did not pervert the poet's genius, at
least have impeded his popularity. A very competent judge
has pronounced the poem of the Cid to be " decidedly and
beyond comparison the finest in the Spanish language." It
is at least superior to any that was written in Europe before
the appearance of Dante,"
§ 28. A strange obscurity envelops the infancy of the Ital-
ian language. Though it is certain that grammatical Latin
had ceased to be employed in ordinary discourse, at least
from the time of Charlemagne, we have not a single pas-
sage of undisputed authenticity in the current idiom for
nearly four centuries afterwards. Though Italian phrases
are mixed up in the barbarous jargon of some charters, not
an mstrument is extant in that language before the year 1200.
Nor is there a vestige of Italian poetry older than a few
fragments of Ciullo d'Alcamo, a Sicilian, who must have
written before 1193, since he mentions Saladin as then living.
This may strike us as the more remarkable, when we consider
the political circumstances of Italy in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. From the struggles of her spirited republics
against the emperors and their internal factions we might,
upon all general reasoning, anticipate the early use and vig-
orous cultivation of their native language. Even if it were
not yet ripe for historians and philosophers, it is strange that
no poet should have been inspired with songs of triumph or
invective by the various fortunes of his country. But, on
the contrary, the poets of Lombardy became troubadours,
and wasted their genius in Provenyal love-strains at the
courts of princes. The Milanese and other Lombard dialects
were, indeed, exceedingly rude ; but this rudeness separated
them more decidedly from Latin : nor is it possible that the
Lombards could have employed that language intelligibly
for any public or domestic purpose. And indeed, in the
earliest Italian compositions that have been published, the
new language is so thoroughly formed, that it is natural to
25 An extract from this poem was published in 1808 by Mr. Southey, at the end of
his " Chronicles of the Cid." M. Sismondi has given other passages in the third
volume of his " History of Southern Literatnre."
State of Society. DANTE. 665
infer a very long disuse of that from which it was derived.
The Sicilians claim the glory of having first adapted their
own harmonious dialect to poetry. Frederick II. both en-
couraged their art and cultivated it ; among the very first
essays of Italian verse we find his productions and those of
his chancellor Pierodelle Vigne. Thus Italy was destined to
owe the beginnings of her national literature to a foreigner
and an enemy. These poems are very short and few ; those
ascribed to St. Francis about the same time are hardly dis-
tinguishable from prose ; but after the middle of the thir-
teenth century the Tuscan poets awoke to a sense of the
beauties which their native language, refined from the im-
purities of vulgar speech, could display, and the genius of
Italian literature was rocked upon the restless waves of the
Florentine democracy. Ricordano Malespini, the first his-
torian, and nearly the first prose writer in Italian, left memo-
rials of the republic down to the year 1281, which was that
of his death, and it was continued by Giacchetto Malespini
to 1286. These are little inferior in purity of style to the
best Tuscan authors ; for it is the singular fate of that lan-
guage to have spared itself all intermediate stages of refine-
ment, and, starting the last in the race, to have arrived al-
most instantaneously at the goal. There is an interval of
not much more than half a century between the short frag-
ment of Ciullo d'Alcamo, mentioned above, and the poems of
Guido Guinizzelli, Guitone d'Arezzo, and Guido Cavalcante,
which, in their diction and turn of thought, are sometimes
not unworthy of Petrarch.
§ 29. But at the beginning of the next age arose a much
greater genius, the true father of Italian poetry, and the first
name in the literature of the Middle Ages. This was Dante,
or Durante Alighieri, born in 1265, of a respectable family
at Florence. Attached to the Guelf party, which had then
obtained a final ascendency over its rival, he might justly
promise himself the natural reward of talents under a free
government — public trust and the esteem of his compatriots.
But the Guelfs unhappily Avere split into two factions, the
Bianchi and the Neri, with the former of whom, and, as it
proved, the unsuccessful side, Dante was connected. In 1300
he filled the office of one of the priori, or chief magistrates,
at Florence ; and having manifested in this, as was alleged,
some partiality towards the Bianchi, a sentence of proscrip-
tion passed against him about two years afterwards, when it
became the turn of the opposite faction to triumph. Ban-
ished from bis country, and baffled in several efforts of his
666 DANTE. Chap. IX. Part II.
friends to restore their fortunes, he had no resource but at
the courts of the Scalas at Verona, and otlier Italian princes,
attaching himself in adversity to the imperial interests, and
tasting, in his own language, the bitterness of another's bread.
In this state of exile he finished, if he did not commence,
his great poem, the Divine Comedy — a representation of the
three kingdoms of futurity. Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise,
divided into one hundred cantos, and containing about 14,000
lines. He died at Ravenna, in 1321.
Dante is among the very few who have created the na-
tional poetry of their country. For notwithstanding the pol-
ished elegance of some early Italian verse, it had been con-
fined to amorous sentiment; and it was yet to be seen that
the language could sustain, for a greater length than any ex-
isting poem except the Iliad, the varied style of narration,
reasoning, and ornament. Of all writers he is the most un-
questionably original. Virgil was indeed his inspiring gen-
ius, as he declares himself, and as may sometimes be per-
ceived in his diction ; but his tone is so peculiar and charac-
teristic, that few readers would be willing at first to acknowl-
edge any resemblance. He possessed in an extraordinary
degree a command of language, the abuse of which led to
his obscurity and licentious innovations. No poet ever ex-
celled him in conciseness, and in the rare talent of finishing
his pictures by a few bold touches — the merit of Pindar in
his better hours. How prolix w^ould the stories of Frances-
ca or of Ugolino have become in the hands of Ariosto, or of
Tasso, or of Ovid, or of Spenser ! This excellence, indeed, is
most striking in the first part of his poem. Having formed
his plan so as to give an equal length to the three regions
of his spiritual world, he found himself unable to vary the
images of hope or beatitude, and the Paradise is a continual
accumulation of descriptions, separately beautiful, but uni-
form and tedious. Though images derived from light and
music are the most pleasing, and can be borne longer in
poetry than any others, their sweetness palls upon the sense
by frequent repetition, and we require the intermixture of
sharper flavors. Yet there are detached passages of great
excellence in this third part of Dante's poem ; and even in
the long theological discussions, which occupy the greater
proportion of its thirty-three cantos, it is impossible not to
admire the enunciation of abstract positions with remarkable
energy, conciseness, and sometimes perspicuity. The first
twelve cantos of the Purgatory are an almost continual flow
of soft and brilliant poetry. The last seven are also very
State of SociETr. DANTE. 667
splendid ; but there is some heaviness in the intermediate
parts. Fame has justly given the preference to the Inferno,
which displays throughout a more vigorous and masterly
conception ; but the mind of Dante can not be thoroughly
appreciated without a perusal of his entire poem.
The most forced and unnatural turns, the most barbarous
licenses of idiom, are found in this poem, whose power of
expression is at other times so peculiarly happy. His style
is indeed generally free from those conceits of thought which
discredited the other poets of his country; but no sense is
too remote for a word which he finds convenient for his
measure or his rhyme. It seems, indeed, as if he never al-
tered a line on account of the necessity of rhyme, but forced
another, or perhaps a third, into company with it. For many
of his faults no sufficient excuse can be made. But it is can-
did to remember that Dante, writing almost in the infancy
of a language which he contributed to create, was not to an-
ticipate that words which he borrowed from the Latin and
from the provincial dialects would by accident, or through
the timidity of later writers, lose their place in the classical
idiom of Italy. If Petrarch, Bembo, and a few more, had
not aimed rather at purity than copiousness, the phrases
which now appear barbarous, and are at least obsolete, might
have been fixed by use in poetical language.
The great characteristic excellence of "Dante is elevation
of sentiment, to which his compressed diction and the em-
phatic cadences of his measure admirably correspond. We
read him not as an amusing poet, but as a master of moral
wisdom, with reverence and awe. Fresh from the deep and
serious, though somewhat barren, studies of philosophy, and
schooled in the severer discipline of experience, he has made
of his poem a mirror of his mind and life, the register of his
solicitudes and sorrows, and of the speculations in which he
sought to escape their recollection. The banished magis-
trate of Florence, the disciple of Brunetto Latini, the states-
man accustomed to trace the varying fluctuations of Italian
faction, is forever before our eyes. For this reason, even the
prodigal display of erudition, which in an epic poem would
be entirely misplaced, increases the respect we feel for the
poet, though it does not tend to the reader's gratification.
Except Milton, he is much the most learned of all the great
poets, and, relatively to his age, far more learned than Mil-
ton. In one so highly endowed by nature, and so consum-
mate by instruction, we may well sympathize with a resent-
ment which exile and poverty rendered perpetually fresh.
668 DANTE. Chap. IX. Part I L
The heart of Dante was naturally sensible, and even tender;
his poetry is full of simple comparisons from rural life ; and
the sincerity of his early passion for Beatrice pierces through
the veil of allegory which surrounds her. But the memory
of his injuries pursues him into the immensity of eternal
light; and, in the company of saints and angels, his unfor-
giving spirit darkens at the name of Florence.
This great poem was received in Italy with that enthusi-
astic admiration which attaches itself to works of genius
only in ages too rude to listen to the envy of competitors or
the fastidiousness of critics. Almost every library in that
country contains manuscript copies of the Divine Comedy,
and an account of those who have abridged or commented
upon it would swell to a volume. It was thrice printed in
the year 1472, and at least nine times within the fifteenth
century. The city of Florence in ISYS, with a magnanimity
which almost redeems her original injustice, appointed a
public professor to read lectures upon Dante; and it was
hardly less honorable to the poet's memory that the first
person selected for this oftice was Boccaccio. The universi-
ties of Pisa and Piacenza imitated this example : but it is
probable that Dante's abstruse philosophy was often more
regarded in their chairs than his higher excellences. Italy
indeed, and all Europe, had reason to be proud of such a
master. Since Claudian, there had been seen for nine hun-
dred years no considerable body of poetry, except the Span-
ish poem of the Cid, of which no one had heard beyond the
peninsula, that could be said to pass mediocrity; and we
must go much farther back than Claudian to find any one
capable of being compared with Dante. His appearance
made an epoch in the intellectual history of modern nations,
and banished the discouraging suspicion which long ages
of lethargy tended to excite, that nature had exhausted her
fertility in the great poets of Greece and Rome. It was as
if, at some of the ancient games, a stranger had appeared
upon the plain, and thrown his quoit among the marks of
former casts which tradition had Hscribed to the demigods.
But the admiration of Dante, though it gave a general im-
pulse to the human mind, did not produce imitators. I am
unaware, at least, of any writer, in whatever language, who
can be said to have followed the steps of Dante: I mean not
so much in his subject as in the character of his genius and
style. His orbit is still all his own, and the track of his
wheels can never be confounded with that of a rival.
§ 30. In the same year that Dante was expelled from
State of Society. PETE ARCH. " 669
Florence, a notary, by name Petracco, was involved in a sim-
ilar banishment. Retired to Arezzo, he there became the
father of Francis Petrarch. This great man shared of course,
during his early years, in the adverse fortune of his family,
which he was invincibly reluctant to restore, according to
his father's wish, by the profession of jurisprudence. The
strong bias of nature determined him to polite letters and
poetry. These are seldom the fountains of wealth ; yet they
would perhaps have been such to Petrarch, if his temper
could have borne the sacrifice of liberty for any worldly ac-
quisitions. At the city of Avignon, where his parents had
latterly resided, his graceful appearance and the reputation
of his talents attracted one of the Colonna family, then Bish-
op of Lombes, in Gascony. In him, and in other members
of that great house, never so illustrious as in the fourteenth
century, he experienced the union of patronage and friend-
ship. This, however, was not confined to the Colonnas.
Unlike Dante, no poet was ever so liberally and sincerely en-
couraged by the great ; nor did any, perhaps, ever carry to
that perilous intercourse a spirit more irritably independent,
or more free from interested adulation. He praised his
friends lavishly because he loved them ardently ; but his
temper was easily susceptil)le of ofiense, and there must have
been much to tolerate in that restlessness and jealousy of
reputation which is perhaps the inevitable failing of a poet.
But every thing was forgiven to a man who was the ac-
knowledged boast of his age and country. Clement VI.
conferred one or two sinecure benefices upon Petrarch, and
would probably have raised him to a bishopric if he had
chosen to adopt the ecclesiastical profession. But he never
took orders, the clerical tonsure being a sufficient qualifica-
tion for holding canonries. The same pope even afforded
him tjie post of apostolical secretary, and this was repeated
by Innocent VI. I know not whether we should ascribe to
magnanimity or to a politic motive the behavior of Clement
VI. towards Petrarch, who had pursued a course as vexa-
tious as possible to the Holy See. For not only he made the
residence of the supreme pontiflfs at Avignon, and the vices
of their court, the topic of invectives, too well founded to be
despised, but he had ostentatiously put himself forward as
the supporter of Nicola di Rienzi in a project which could
evidently have no other aim than to Avrest the city of Rome
from the temporal sovereignty of its bishop. Nor was the
friendship and society of Petrarch less courted by the most
respectable Italian princes ; by Robert, king of Naples, by
670 PETRAKCH. Chap. IX. Part It.
the ViscoDti, the Correggi of Parma, the famous doge of
Venice, Andrew Dandolo, and the Carrara family of Padua,
under whose protection he spent the latter years of his life.
Stories are related of the respect shown to him by men in
humbler stations which are perhaps still more satisfactory.
But the most conspicuous testimony of public esteem was
bestowed by the city of Rome, in his solemn coronation as
laureate poet in the Capitol. This ceremony took place in
1341 ; and it is remarkable that Petrarch had at that time
composed no works which could, in our estimation, give him
pretensions to so singular an honor.
The moral character of Petrarch was formed of disposi-
tions peculiarly calculated for a poet. An enthusiast in the
emotions of love and friendship, of glory, of patriotism, of
religion, he gave the rein to all their impulses ; and there
is not, perhaps, a page in his Italian writing which does not
bear the trace of one or other of these affections. By far
the most predominant, and that which has given the great-
est celebrity to his name, is his passion for Laura. Twenty
years of unrequited and almost unaspiring love were light-
ened by song ; and the attachment, which, having long sur-
vived the beauty of its object, seems to have at one time
nearly passed from the heart to the fancy, was changed to
an intenser feeling, and to a sort of celestial adoration, by
her death. Laura, before the time of Petrarch's first acci-
dental meeting with her, was united in marriage with an-
other; a fact which, besides some more particular evidence,
appears to me deducible from the whole tenor of his poetry."
Such a passion is undoubtedly not capable of a moral de-
fense ; nor would I seek its palliation so much in the preva-
lent manners of his age, by which, however, the conduct of
even good men is generally not a little influenced, as in the
infirmity of Petrarch's character, which induced him both to
obey and to justify the emotions of his heart. The lady, too,
whose virtue and prudence we are not to question, seems to
have tempered the light and shadow of her countenance, so
as to preserve her admirer from despair, and consequently to
prolong his sufferings and servitude.
The general excellences of Petrarch are his command over
the music of his native language, his correctness of style,
scarcely two or three words that he has used having been
rejected by later writers, his exquisite elegance of diction,
improved by the perpetual study of Virgil ; but, far above
all, that tone of pure and melancholy sentiment, which has
2« See Note II., " Petrarch's Laura."
State of Society. ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 671
something in it unearthly, and forms a strong contrast to the
amatory poems of antiquity. Most of these are either licen-
tious or uninteresting ; and those of Catullus, a man endow-
ed by nature with deep and serious sensibility, and a poet, in
my opinion, of greater and more varied genius than Petrarch,
are contaminated above all the rest with the most degrad-
ing grossness. Of this there is not a single instance in the
poet of Vaucluse ; and his strains, diffused and admired as
they have been, may have conferred a benefit that criticism
can not estimate, in giving elevation and refinement to the
imaginations of youth. The great defect of Petrarch was
his want of strong original conception, which prevented him
from throwing off the affected and overstrained manner
of the Proven9al troubadours, and of the earlier Italian
poets.
§ 31. None of the principal modern languages was so la*,e
in its formation, or in its application to the purposes of liter-
ature, as the English. This arose, as is well known, out of
the Saxon branch of the great Teutonic stock spoken in En-
gland till after the Conquest. From this mother dialect our
English differs much less in respect of etymology than of
syntax, idiom, and flexion. In so gradual a transition as
probably took place, and one so sparingly marked by any
existing evidence, we can not well assign a definite origin
to our present language. The question of identity is almost
as perplexing in languages as in individuals. But in the
reign of John, a version of Wace's poem of Brut, by one Lay-
amon,^' a priest of Ernly-upon-Severn, exhibits, as it were, the
'' The entire work of Layamon contains a small number of words taken from the
French ; about fifty in the original text, and about forty more in that of a manuscript
perhaps half a century later, and very considerably altered in consequence of the
progress of our language. Many of these words derived from the French express
new ideas, as admiral, astronomy, baron, mantel, etc. " The language of Layamon,"
says Sir Frederick Madden, "belongs to that transition period in which the ground-
work of Anglo-Saxon phraseology and grammar still existed, although gradually
yielding to the influence of the popular forms of speech. We find in it, as in the
later portion of the Saxon Chronicle, marked indications of a tendency to adopt
those terminations and sounds which characterize a language in a state of change,
and which are apparent also in some other branches of the Teutonic tongue. The
use of a as an article— the change of the Anglo-Saxon terminations a and an into e
and en, as well as the disregard of inflections and genders— the masculine forms given
to neuter nouns in the plural— the neglect of the feminine terminations of adjectives
and pronouns, and confusion between the definite and indefinite declensions— the
introduction of the preposition to before infinitives, and occasional use of weak pret-
erits of verbs and participles instead of strong— the constant recurrence of er for or
in the plurals of verbs— together with the uncertainty of the rule for the government
of prepositions— all these variations, more or less visible in the two texts of Laya-
mon, combined with the vowel-changes, which are numerous, though not altogether
arbitrary, will show at once the progress made in two centuries, in departing from
the ancient and purer grammatical forms, as found in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts."-—
Preface, p. xxviii.
672 SLOW PROGRESS OF Chap. IX. Fart II.
chrysalis of the English language, in a very corrupt modifi-
cation of the Anglo-Saxon. Very soon afterwards the new
formation was better developed ; and some metrical pieces,
referred by critics to the earlier part of the thirteenth centu-
ry, difier but little from our legitimate grammar. About the
beginning of Edward I.'s reign, Robert, a monk of Glouces-
ter, composed a metrical chronicle from the history of Geof-
frey of Monmouth, which he continued to his own time. This
work, with a similar chronicle of Robert Manning, a monk of
Brunne (Bourne), in Lincolnshire, nearly thirty years later,
stands at the head of our English poetry. The romance of
Sir Tristrem, ascribed to Thomas of Erceldoune, surnamed
the Rhymer, a Scottish minstrel, has laid claim to somewhat
higher antiquity. In the fourteenth century a great number
of metrical romances were translated from the French. It
requires no small portion of indulgence to speak fjivorably
of any of these early English productions. A poetical line
may no doubt occasionally be found ; but in general the nar-
ration is as heavy and prolix as the versification is unmusical.
The first English writer who can be read with approbation
is William Langland, the author of Piers Plowman's Vision,
a severe satire upon the clergy. Though his measure is more
uncouth than that of his predecessors, there is real energy in
■ his conceptions, which he caught not from the chimeras of
knight-errantry, but the actual manners and opinions of his
time.
The very slow progress of the English language as an in-
strument of literature is chiefly to be ascribed to the effects
of the Norman conquest, in degrading the native inhabitants
and transferring all power and riches to foreigners. The
barons, without, perhaps, one exception, and a large propor-
tion of the gentry, were of French descent, and preserved
among themselves the speech of their fathers. This contin-
ued much longer than we should naturally have expected ;
even after the loss of Normandy had snapped the thread of
French connections, and they began to pride themselves in
the name of Englishmen, and in the inheritance of tradition-
ary English privileges. Robert of Gloucester has a remark-
able passage, which proves that in his time, somewhere about
1290, the superior ranks continued to use the French lan-
guage. Ralph Higden, about the early part of Edward III.'s
reign, though his expressions do not go the same length, as-
serts that " gentlemen's children are taught to speak French
from the time they are rocked in their cradle ; and uplandish
(country) or inferior men will liken themselves to gentlemen,
State of Society. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 673
and learn with great business for to speak French, for to be.
the more told of." Notwithstanding, however, this predom-
inance of French among the higher class, I do not think that
some modern critics are warranted in concluding that they
were in general ignorant of the English tongue. Men living
upon their estates among their tenantry, whom they w }1-
comed in their halls, and whose assistance they were per-
petually needing in war and civil frays, w^ould hardly hive
permitted such a barrier to obstruct their intercourse. .VTor
we can not, at the utmost, presume that French was so well
known to the English commonalty in the thirteenth century
as English is at present to the same class in Wales and the
Scottish Highlands. It may be remarked, also, that the insti-
tution of trial by jury must have rendered a knowledge of
English almost indispensable to those who administered jus-
tice. There is a proclamation of Edward I. in Rymer, where
he endeavors to excite his subjects against the King of
France by imputing to him the intention of conquering the
country and abolishing the English language (linguam delere
Anglicanam), and this is frequently repeated in the procla-
mations of Edward III. In his time, or perhaps a little be-
fore, the native language had become more familiar than
French in common use, even with the court and nobility.
Hence the numerous translations of metrical romances, which
are chiefly referred to his reign. An important change was
effected in 1362 by a statute, which enacts that all pleas iii
courts of justice shall be pleaded, debated, and judged in En-
glish. But Latin was by this act to be employed in draw-
ing the record; for there seems to have still continued a sort
of prejudice against the use of English as a written language.
The earliest English instrument known to exist is said to
bear the date of 1343. And there are but few entries in our
own tongue upon the rolls of Parliament before the reign of
Henry VI., after whose accession its use becomes very com-
mon." Sir John Mandeville, about 1356, may pass for the
father of English prose, no original work being so ancient as
his Travels. But the translation of the Bible and other writ-
ings by Wicliife, nearly thirty years afterwards, taught us
the copiousness and energy of which our native dialect was
capable ; and it w^as employed in the fifteenth century by
two winters of distinguished merit. Bishop Pecock and Sir
John Fortescue,
§ 32. But the principal ornament of our English literature
was Geoifrey Chaucer, who, with Dante and Petrarch, fills up
98 See Note J'J«. " The Legislative Use of the English Language."
29
674 CHAUCER. Chap. IX. Part II.
the triumvirate of great poets in the Middle Ages. Chaucer
was born in 1328, and his life extended to the last year of
the fourteenth century. That rude and ignorant generation
was not likely to feel the admiration of native genius as
warmly as the compatriots of Petrarch ; but he enjoyed the
favor of Edward III., and still more conspicuously of John,
duke of Lancaster ; his fortunes were far more prosperous
than have usually been the lot of poets ; and a reputation was
established beyond competition in his lifetime, from which
no succeeding generation has withheld its sanction. I can
not in my own taste go completely along with the eulogies
that some have bestowed upon Chaucer, who seems to me to
have wanted grandeur, where he is original, both in concep-
tion and in language. But in vivacity of imagination and
ease of expression he is above all poets of the middle time,
and comparable perhaps to the greatest of those who have
followed. He invented, or rather introduced from France,
and employed with facility the regular iambic couplet ; and
though it was not to be expected that he should perceive
the capacities latent in that measure, his versification, to
which he accommodated a very licentious and arbitrary
pronunciation, is uniform and harmonious. It is chiefly, in-
deed, as a comic poet, and a minute observer of manners and
circumstances, that Chancer excels. In serious and moral
poetry he is frequently languid and diffuse ; but he springs
like AntsBus from the earth when his subject changes to
coarse satire or merry narrative. Among his more elevated
compositions, the Knight's Tale is abundantly sufficient to
immortalize Chaucer, since it would be difficult to find any-
where a story better conducted, or told with more animation
and strength of fancy. The second place may be given to
his Troilus and Creseide, a beautiful and interesting poem,
though enfeebled by expansion. But perhaps the most emi-
nent, or at any rate the most characteristic, testimony to his
genius will be found in the prologue to his Canterbury Tales;
a work entirely and exclusively his own, which can seldom
be said of his poetry, and the vivid delineations of which per-
haps very few writers but Shakspeare could have equalled.
As the first original English poet, if we except Langland, as
the inventor of our most approved measure, as an improver,
though with too much innovation, of our language, and as a
faithful witness to the manners of his age, Chaucer would
deserve our reverence, if he had not also intrinsic claims for
excellences which do not depend upon any collateral consid-
erations.
Statu of Society. REVIVAL OF ANCIENT LEARNING. 675
§ 33. (IV.) Revival of Ancient Learning. — The last
circumstance which I shall mention, as having contributed
to restore society from the intellectual degradation into
which it had fallen during the Dark Ages, is the revival of
classical learning. The Latin language, indeed, in which all
legal instruments were drawn up, and of which all ecclesias-
tics availed themselves in their epistolary intercourse, as well
as in their more solemn proceedings, had never ceased to be
familiar. Though many solecisms and barbarous words oc-
cur in the writings of what were called learned men, they pos-
sessed a fluency of expression in Latin which does not often
occur at present. During the Dark Ages, however, properly
so called, or the period from the sixth to the eleventh centu-
ry, we chiefly meet with quotations from the Vulgate or from
theological writers. Nevertheless, quotations from the Latin
poets are hardly to be called unusual. Virgil, Ovid, Statins,
and Horace are brought forw.-^rd by those who aspired to
some literary reputation, especially during the better periods
of that long twilight, the reigns of Charlemagne and his son
in France, part of the tenth century in Germany, and the
eleventh in both. The prose writers of Rome are not so fa-
miliar, but in quotations we are apt to find the poets pre-
ferred ; and it is certain that a few could be named who were
not ignorant of Cicero, Sallust, and Livy. A considerable
change took place in the course of the twelfth century. The
polite literature, as well as the abstruser science of antiquity,
became the subject of cultivation. Several writers of that
age, in diff*erent parts of Europe, are distinguished more or
less for elegance, though not absolute purity, of Latin style,
and for their acquaintance with those ancients who are its
])rincipal models. Such were John of Salisbury, the acute
and learned author of the Polycraticon, William of Malms-
bury, Giraldus Carabrensis, Roger Hoveden, in England ; and
in foreign countries, Otho of Frisingen, Saxo Grammaticus,
and the best perhaps of all I have named as to style, Falcan-
dus, the historian of Sicily. In these we meet with frequent
quotations from Livy, Cicero, Pliny, and other considerable
writers of antiquity. The poets were now admired and even
imitated. All metrical Latin before the latter part of the
twelfth century, so far as I have seen, is of little value ; but
at this time, and early in the succeeding age, there appeared
several versifiers who aspired to the renown of following the
steps of Virgil and Statins in epic poetry. Joseph Iscanus,
an Englishman, seems to have been the earliest of these; his
poem on the Trojan war cont.'iining an address to Ht^ury IL
676 LIBRARIES. Chap. IX. Part II.
He wrote another, entitled Antiocheis, on the third crusade,
most of which has perished. The wars of Frederick Barba-
rossa were celebrated by Gunther in his Ligurinus ; and not
long afterwards Guillelmus Brito wrote the^Philippis, in hon-
or of Philip Augustus, and Walter de Chatillon the Alexan-
dreisj taken from the popular romance of Alexander. None
of these poems, I believe, have much intrinsic merit ; but
their existence is a proof of taste that could relish, though
not of genius that could emulate, antiquity.
In the thirteenth century there seems to have been some
decline of classical literature, in consequence probably of the
scholastic philosophy, which was then in its greatest vigor;
at least we do not find so many good writers as in the pre-
ceding age. But about the middle of the fourteenth, or per-
haps a little sooner, an ardent zeal for the restoration of an-
cient learning began to display itself The copying of books,
for some ages slowly and sparingly performed in monaster-
ies, had already become a branch of trade; and their price
was consequently reduced. Tirabosclii denies that the in-
vention of making paper from linen rags is older than the
middle of that century; and although doubts may be justly
entertained as to the accuracy of this position, yet the confi-
dence with which so eminent a scholar advances it is at least
a proof that paper manuscripts of an earlier date are very
rare. Princes became fiir more attentive to literature when
it was no longer confined to metaphysical theology and canon
law. I have already mentioned the translations from clas-
sical authors, made by command of John and Charles V. of
France. These French translations diffused some acquaint-
ance with ancient history and learning among our own coun-
trymen. The public libraries assumed a more respectable
appearance. Louis IX. had formed one at Paris, in which
it does not appear that any work of elegant literature was
found. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, only
four classical ma'nuscripts existed in this collection — of
Cicero, Ovid, Lucan, and Boethius. The academical library
of Oxford, in 1300, consisted of a few tracts kept in chests
under St. Mary's Church. That of Glastonbury Abbey, in
1240, contained four hundred volumes, among which were
Livy, Sallnst, Lucan, Virgil, Claudian, and other ancient
writers. But no other, probably, of that age was so numer-
ous or so valuable. Richard of Bury, chancellor of England,
and Edward III., spared no expense in collecting a library,
the first, perhaps, that any private man had formed. But the
scarcity of valuable books was still so great, that he gave
State of Society. MANUSCRIPTS. 677
the Abbot of St. Albans fifty pounds' weight of silver for be-
tween thirty and forty volumes. Charles V. increased the
royal library at Paris to nine hundred volumes, which the
Duke of Bedford purchased and transported to London. His
brother Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, presented the Uni-
versity of Oxford with six hundred books, which seem to
have been of extraordinary value, one hundred and twenty
of them having been estimated at one thousand pounds.
This, indeed, was in 1440, at which time such a library would
not have been thought remarkably numerous beyond the
Alps; but England had made comparatively little progress
in learning. Germany, however, was probably still less ad-
vanced. Louis, elector palatine, bequeathed, in 1421, his li-
brary to the University of Heidelberg, consisting of one hun-
dred and fifty-two volumes. Eighty-nine of these related to
theology, twelve to canon and civil law, forty-five to medi-
cine, and six to philosophy.
Those who first undci'took to lay open the stores of an-
cient learning found inci'edible difiiculties from the scarcity
of manuscripts. So gross and supine was the ignorance of
the monks within whose walls these treasures were con-
cealed, that it was impossible to ascertain, except by indefat-
igable researches, the extent of what had been saved out of
the great shipwreck of antiquity. To this inquiry Petrarch
devoted continual attention. He spared no means to pre-
serve the remains of authors who were perishing from neg-
lect and time. This danger was by no means past in the
fourteenth century. A treatise of Cicero upon Glory, which
had been in his possession, was afterwards irretrievably lost.
He declares that he had seen in his youth the works of Var-
ro ; but all his endeavors to recover these and the second
Decade of Livy were fruitless. He found, however, Quintil-
ian, in 1350, of which there was no copy in Italy. Boccaccio,
and a man of less general fame, CoUuccio Salutato, were dis-
tinguished in the same honorable task. The diligence of
these scholars was not confined to searching for manuscripts.
Transcribed by slovenly monks, or by ignorant persons who
made copies for sale, they required the continual emendation
of accurate critics. Though much, certainly, was left for the
more enlightened sagacity of later times, we owe the first
intelligible text of the Latin classics to Petrarch, Poggio,
and their contemporary laborers in this vineyard for a huU'
dred years before the invention of printing.
What Petrarch began in the fourteenth century was car-
ried on by the new generation with nnabating industry.
678 MANUSCRIPTS. Chap. IX. Part II,
The whole lives of Italian scholars in the fifteenth century
were devoted to the recovery of manuscripts and the revival
of philology. For this they sacrificed their native language,
which had made such surprising shoots in the preceding ao-e,
and were content to trace in humble reverence the footsteps
of antiquity. For this, too, they lost the hope of permanent
glory, which can never remain with imitators, or such as trim
the lamp of ancient sepulchres. No writer, perhaps, of the
fifteenth century, except Politian, can aspire at present even
to the second class in a just marshalling of literary reputa-
tion. But we owe them our respect and gratitude for their
taste and diligence. This discovery of an unknown manu-
script, says Tiraboschi, was regarded almost as the conquest
of a kingdom. The classical writers, he adds, were chiefly
either found in Italy, or at least by Italians ; they were first
amended and first printed in Italy, and in Italy they were
first collected in public libraries. This is subject to some
exception, when fairly considered ; several ancient authors
were never lost, and therefore can not be said to have been
discovered ; and we know that Italy did not always antici-
pate other countries in classical printing. But her superior
merit is incontestable. Poggio Bracciolini, who stands, per-
haps, at the head of the restorers of learning in the earlier
part of the fifteenth century, discovered in the monastery of
St. Gall, among dirt and rubbish, in a dungeon scarcely fit
for condemned criminals, as he describes it, an entire copy of
Quintilian and part of Valerius Flaccus. This was in 1414 ;
and soon afterwards he rescued the poem of Silius Itali-
cus, and twelve comedies of Plautus, in addition to eight that
were previously known ; besides Lucretius, Columella, Ter-
tullian, Ammianus Marcellinus, and other writers of inferior
note. A bishop of Lodi brought to light the rhetorical trea-
tises of Cicero. Not that we must suppose these books to
have been universally unknown before ; Quintilian, at least,
is quoted by English writers much earlier. But so little in-
tercourse prevailed among different countries, and the monks
had so little acquaintance with the riches of their conventual
libraries, that an author might pass for lost in Italy who was
familiar to a few learned men in other parts of Europe. To
the name of Poggio we may add a number of others, distin-
guished in this memorable resurrection of ancient literature,
and united, not always, indeed, by friendship, for their bitter
animosities disgrace their profession, but by a sort of com-
mon sympathy in the cause of learning : Filelfo, Laurentins
Valla, Niccolo Niccoli, Ambrogio Traversari, more commonly
called II Camaldolense, and Leonardo Aretino.
State of Society. GREEK LANGUAGE. 679
§ 34. From the subversion of the Western Empire, or at
least from the time when Rome ceased to pay obedience to
the exarchs of Ravenna, the Greek language and literature
had been almost entirely forgotten within the pale of the
Latin Church. A very few exceptions might be found, es-
pecially in the earlier period of the Middle Ages, while the
Eastern emperors retained their dominion over part of Italy.
Thus Charlemagne is said to have established a school for
Greek at Osnaburg. John Scotus seems to have been well
acquainted with the language. And Greek characters may
occasionally, though very seldom, be found in the writings
of learned men ; such as Lanfranc, or William of Malmsbury.
It is said that Roger Bacon understood Greek ; and that his
eminent contemporary, Robert Grostete, bishop of Lincoln,
had a sufficient intimacy with it to translate a part of Suidas.
Since Greek was spoken with considerable purity by the no-
ble and well-educated natives of Constantinople, we may won-
der that, even as a living language, it was not better known
by the Western nations, and especially in so neighboring a
nation as Italy. Yet here the ignorance was, perhaps, even
more complete than in France or England. In some parts,
indeed, of Calabria, which had been subject to the Eastern
Empire till uq£.v the year 1100, the liturgy was still performed
in Greek; and a considerable acquaintance with the language
was of course preserved. But for the scholars of Italy, Boc-
caccio positively asserts that no one understood so much as
the Greek characters. Nor is there, probably, a single line
quoted from any poet in that language from the sixth to the
fourteenth century.
The first to lead the way in restoring Grecian learning in
Europe were the same men who had revived the kindred
muses of Latium, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. Barlaam, a Cala-
brian by birth, during an embassy from the Court of Con-
stantinople in 1335, was persuaded to become the preceptor
of the former, with whom he read the works of Plato. Leon-
tius Pilatus, a native of Thessalonica, was encouraged some ,
years afterwards by Boccaccio to give public lectures upon
Homer at Florence. Whatever might be the share of gen
eral attention that he excited, he had the honor of instruct-
ing both these great Italians in his native language. Nei-
ther of them, perhaps, reached an advanced degree of profi
ciency; but they bathed their lips in the fountain, and en
joyed the pride of being the first who paid the homage ol
a new posterity to the father of poetry. For some time lit-
tle fruit, apparently, resulted from their example ; but Italy
680 LEARNING AMONG THE GREEKS. Chaf. IX. Van Ii.
had imbibed the desire of acquisitions in a new sphere of
knowledge, which, after some interval, she was abundantly
able to realize. A few years before the termination of the
fourteenth century, Emanuel Chrysoloras, whom the Em-
peror John Palseologus had previously sent into Italy, and
even as far as England, upon one of those unavailing embas-
sies by which the Byzantine Court strove to obtain sympa-
thy and succor from Europe, returned to Florence as a pub-
lic teacher of Grecian literature. His school was afterwards
removed successively to Pavia, Venice, and Rome; and dur-
ing nearly twenty years that he taught in Italy most of
those eminent scholars whom I have already named, and
\vho distinguish the first half of that century, derived from
his instruction their knowledge of the Greek tongue. Some,
not content with being the disciples of Chrysoloras, betook
themselves to the source of that literature at Constantino-
ple ; and returned to Italy not only with a more accurate
insight into the Greek idiom than they could have attained
at home, but with copious treasures of manuscripts, few, if
any, of which probably existed previously in Italy, where
none had ability to read or value them ; so that the principal
authors of Grecian antiquity may be considered as brought
to light by these inquirers, the most celebrated of whom are
Guarino of Verona, Aurispa, and Filelfo. The second of
these brought home to Venice, in 1423, not less than two hun-
dred and thirty-eight volumes.
The fall of that Eastern Empire, which had so long out-
lived all other pretensions to respect that it scarcely retained
that founded upon its antiquity, seems to have been provi-
dentially delayed till Italy was ripe to nourish the scattered
seeds of literature that would liave perished a few ages ear-
lier in the common catastrophe. From the commencement of
the fifteenth century even the national pride of Greece could
not blind her to the signs of approaching ruin. It was no
longer possible to inspire the European republic, distracted
by wars and restrained by calculating policy, with the gen-
erous fanaticism of the Crusades ; and at the Council of
Florence, in 1439, the court and churcli of Constantinople
had^the mortification of sacrificing their long-cherished faith,
without experiencing any sensible return of protection or se-
curity. The learned Greeks were perhaps the first to antici-
pate, and certainly not the last to avoid, their country's de-
struction. The Council of Florence brought many of them
into Italian connections, and held out at least a temporary
accommodation of their conflicting opinions. Though the Ro-
STATij OF Society. LEARNING AMONG THE GREEKS. 681
man pontiffs did nothing, and probably could have done noth-
ing, effectual for the empire of Constantinople, they were very
ready to protect and reward the learning of individuals. To
Eugenius IV., to Nicolas V., to Pius IL, and some other popes
of this age, the Greek exiles were indebted for a patronage
which they repaid by splendid services in the restoration of
their native literature throughout Italy. Bessarion, a dispu-
tant on the Greek side in the Council of Florence, was well
content to renounce the doctrine of single procession for a
cardinal's hat— a dignity which he deserved for his learning,
if not for his pliancy. Theodore Gaza, George of Trebizond,
and Gemistus Pletho might equal Bessarion in merit, though
not in honors. They all, however, experienced the patron-
age of those admirable protectors of letters Nicolas V., Cos-
mo de' Medici, or Alfonso, king of Naples, These men emi-
grated before the final destruction of the Greek Empire;
Lascaris Musurus, whose arrival in Italy was posterior to
that event, may be deemed perhaps still more conspicuous ;
but as the study of the Greek language was already restored,
it is unnecessary to pursue the subject any farther.
The Greeks had preserved, through the coui-se of the Mid-
dle Ages, their share of ancient learning with more fidelity
and attention than was shown in the west of Europe. Gen-
ius, indeed, or any original excellence, could not well exist
along with their cowardly despotism and their contemptible
theology, more corrupted by frivolous subtleties than that
of the Latin Church. The spirit of persecution, naturally al-
lied to despotism and bigotry, had nearly, during one period,
extinguished the lamp, or at least reduced the Greeks to a
level with the most ignorant nations of the West. In the
age of Justinian, who expelled the last Platonic philosophers,
learning began rapidly to decline ; in that of Heraclius it had
reached a much lower point of degradation ; and for two cen-
turies, especially while the worshippers of images were perse-
cuted with unrelenting intolerance, there is almost a blank in
the annals of Grecian literature. But about the middle of
the ninth century it revived pretty suddenly, and with consid-
erable success. Though, as I have observed, we find in very
few instances any original talent, yet it was hardly less im-
portant to have nad compilers of such erudition as Photius,
Suidas, Eustathius, and Tzetzes. With these, certainly, the
Latins of the Middle Ages could not place any names in
comparison. They possessed, to an extent which we can not
precisely appreciate, many of those poets, historians, and ora-
tors of ancient Greece, whose loss we have long regretted and
29*
682 CLASSICAL LITERATURE. Chap. IX. Part II.
must continue to deem irretrievable. Great havoc, however,
was made in the libraries of Constantinople at its capture by
the Latins — an epoch from which a rapid decline is to be
traced in the literature of the Eastern Empire. Solecisms
and barbarous terms, which sometimes occur in the old By-
zantine writers, are said to deform the style of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries. The Turkish ravages and destruction
of monasteries ensued ; and in the cheerless intervals of im-
mediate terror there was no longer any encouragement to
preserve the monuments of an expiring language, and of a
name that was to lose its place among nations.
That ardor for the restoration of classical literature which
animated Italy in the first part of the fifteenth century was
by no means common to the rest of Europe. Neither England,
nor France, nor Germany, seemed aware of the approaching
change. We are told that learning, by which I believe is
only meant the scholastic ontology, had begun to decline at
Oxford from the time of Edward III. And the fifteenth cen-
tury, from wliatever cause, is particularly barren of writers
in the Latin hinguage. The study of Greek was only intro-
duced by Grocyn and Linacer under Henry VII., and met
with violent opposition in the University of Oxford, where
the unlearned party styled themselves Trojans, as a pretext
for abusing and insulting the scholars. Nor did any clas-
sical work pi'oceed from the respectable press of Caxton.
France, at the beginning of the fifteenth age, had several
eminent theologians; but the reigns of Charles VII. and Lou-
is XL contributed far more to her political than her literary
renown. A Greek professor was first appointed at Paris in
1458, before which time the language had not been publicly
taught, and was little understood. Much less had Germany
thrown off her ancient rudeness, ^neas Sylvius, indeed, a
deliberate flatterer, extols every circumstance in the social
state of that country ; but Campano, the papal legate at
Ratisbon in 1471, exclaims against the barbarism of a nation
where very few possessed any learning, none any elegance.
Yet the progress of intellectual cultivation, at least in the
two former countries, was uniform, though silent ; libraries
became more numerous, and books, after the happy invention
of paper, though still very scarce, might be copied at less ex-
pense. Many colleges were founded in the English as well
as foreign universities during the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. Nor can I pass over institutions that have so em-
inently contributed to the literary reputation of this country,
and that still continue to exercise so conspicuous an influ-
State of Society. INVENTION OF PRINTING. 683
ence over her taste and knowledge, as the two great schools
of grammatical learning, Winchester and Eton — the one
founded by William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, in
1373 ; the other in 1432, by King Henry VI.
§ 35. But while the learned of Italy were eagerly explor-
ing their recent acquisitions of manuscripts, deciphered with
difficulty and slowly circulated from hand to hand, a few
obscure Germans had gradually perfected the most important
discovery recorded in the annals of mankind. The inven-
tion of printing, so far from being the result of philosophical
sagacity, does not appear to have been suggested by any re-
gard to the higher branches of literature, or to bear any
other relation than that of coincidence to their revival in
Italy. The question why it was struck out at that particular
time must be referred to that disposition of unknown causes
which we call accident. Two or three centuries earlier, we
can not but acknowledge, the discovery would have been al
most equally acceptable. But the invention of paper seems
to have naturally preceded those of engraving and printing.
It is generally agreed that playing-cards, which have been
traced far back in the fourteenth century, gave the first no-
tion of taking oif impressions from engraved figures upon
wood. The second stage, or rather second application of
this art, was the representation of saints and other religious
devices, several instances of which are still extant. Some of
these are accompanied with an entire page of illustrative text,
cut into the same wooden block. This process is indeed far
removed from the invention that has given immortality to
the names of Faust, Schoeffer, and Gutenberg, yet it proba-
bly led to the consideration of means whereby it might be
rendered less operose and inconvenient. Whether movable
wooden characters were ever employed in any entire work
is very questionable — the opinion that referred their use to
Laurence Coster, of Haarlem, not having stood the test of
more accurate investigation. They appear, however, in the
capital letters of some early printed books. But no expe-
dient of this kind could have fulfilled the great purposes of
this invention, until it was perfected by founding metal
types in a matrix or mould, the essential characteristic of
printing, as distinguished from other arts that bear some
analogy to it.
The first book that issued from the presses of Faust and his
associates at Mentz was an edition of the Vulgate, commonly
called the Mazarine Bible, a copy having been discovered in
the library that owes its name to Cardinal Mazarin at Paris.
This is supposed to have been printed between the years
684 REVIVAL OF LEARNING. Chap. IX. Pakt IL
1450 and 1455. In 1457 an edition of the Psalter appeared,
and in this the invention was announced to the world in a
boasting colophon, though certainly not unreasonably bold.
Another edition of the Psalter, one of an ecclesiastical book,
Durand's account of liturgical offices, one of the Constitu-
tions of Pope Clement V., and one of a popular treatise on
general science, called the Catholicon, filled up the interval
till 1462, when the second Mentz Bible proceeded from the
same printers. This, in the opinion of some, is the earliest
book in which cast types were employed — those of the Maza-
rine Bible having been cut with the hand. But this is a con-
troverted point. In 1465 Faust and Schoeffer published an
edition of Cicero's Offices, the first tribute of the new art to
polite literatiire. Two pupils of their school, Sweynheim
and Pannartz, migrated the same year into Italy, and print-
ed Donatus's grammar and the works of Lactantius at the
monastery of Subiaco, in the neighborhood of Rome. Venice
had the honor of extending her patronage to John of Spira,
the first who applied the art on an extensive scale to the
publication of classical writers. Several authors came forth
from his press in 1470; and during the next ten years a mul-
titude of editions were published in various parts of Italy.
Though, as we may judge from their present scarcity, these
editions were by no means numerous in respect of impres-
sions, yet, contrasted with the dilatory process of copying
manuscripts, they were like a new mechanical power in ma-
chinery, and gave a wonderfully accelerated impulse to the
intellectual cultivation of mankind. From the era of these
first editions proceeding from the Spiras, Zarot, Janson, or
Sweynheim and Pannartz, literature must be deemed to have
altogether revived in Italy. The sun was now fully above
the horizon, though countries less fortunately circumstanced
did not immediately catch his beams ; and the restoration
of ancient learning in France and England can not be con-
sidered as by any means effectual even at the expiration of
the fifteenth century. At this point, however, I close the
present chapter. The last twenty years of the Middle Ages,
according to the date which I have fixed for their termina-
tion in treating of political history, might well invite me by
their brilliancy to dwell upon that golden morning of Italian
literature. But, in the history of letters, they rather apper-
tain to the modern than the middle period ; nor would it be-
come me to trespass upon the exhausted patience of ray read-
ers by repeating what has been so often and so recently told,
the story of art and learning, that has employed the compre-
hensive research of a Tiraboschi,a Gingucne, and a Roscoe.
NOTES TO CHAPTER IX.
685
NOTES TO CHAPTER IK—Pakt II.
I. DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.
The best accoaut of domestic architec-
ture hitherto given is in an article with
this title in the Glossary of Ancient Archi-
tecture by Mr, Twopeuy. " There is am-
ple evidence yet remaining of the domestic
architecture in this country during the
twelfth century. The ordinary manor-
houses, and even houses of greater con-
sideration, appear to have been generally
built in the form of a parallelogram, two
stories high, the lower story vaulted, with
no internal communication between the
two, the upper story approached by a flight
of steps on the outside ; and in that story
was sometimes the only fire-place iu the
whole building. It is more than probable
that this was the usual style of houses in
the preceding century." Instances of
houses partly remaini ig are then given.
We may add to those mentioned by Mr.
Twopeny one, perhaps older than auy, and
better preserved than some, in his list. At
Southampton is a Norman house, perhaps
built iu the first part of the twelfth cen-
tury. It is nearly a square, the outer walls
tolerably perfect ; the principal rooms ap-
pear to have been on the first (or upper)
floor ; it has in this also a fire-place and
chimney, and four windows, placed so as to
indicate a division into two apartments ;
but there are no lights below, nor any
appearance of an interior staircase. The
sides are about forty feet in length. An-
other house of the same age is near to it,
but much worse preserved. There were
in the twelfth century other considerable
houses not bi\iltin the form of a parallelo-
gram, but of these so few remains are to
be found that nothing can be said of their
plan, except that there was on the ground-
floor a considerable hall, which was di-
vided by columns and arches into a centre
and two side aisles, an arrangement which
was continued to a later period.
The parallelogram house, seldom con-
taining more than four rooms, with no
access frequently to the upper, which the
family occupied, except on the outside,
was gradually replaced by one on a diff"er-
ent type : the entrance was on the ground,
the staircase within ; a kitchen and other
offices, originally detached, were usually
connected with the hall by a passage run-
ning through the house ; one or more
apartments on the low^" floor extended
beyond the hall ; there was seldom or
never a third floor over the entire house,
but detached turrets for sleeping-rooms
rose at some of the angles. This was the
typical form which lasted, as we know, to
the age of Elizabeth, or even later. The
superior houses of this class were some-
times quadrangular, that is, including a
court-yard, but seldom, perhaps, with more
than one side allotted to the main dwell-
ing ; offices, stables, or mere walls filled
the other three.
Many dwellings erected in the fourteenth
century may be found iu England; but
neither of that nor the next age are there
more than a very few which are still, in
their chief rooms, inhabited by gentry.
But houses which, by their marks of deco-
ration, or by external proof, are ascer-
tained to have been formerly occupied by
good families, though now in the occu-
pation of small farmers, aud built ap-
parently from the reign of the second to
that of the fourth Edward, are comraou in
many counties. They generally bear the
napie of court, hall, or grange ; sometimes
only the surname of some ancient occu-
pant ; and very frequently have been the
residence of the lord of the manor.
The most striking circumstance in the
oldest houses is not so much their pre-
cautions for defense in the outside stair-
case, and, when that was disused, the bet-
ter safeguard against robbery in the moat
which frequently environed the walls, the
strong gate-way, the small window broken
by miillions, which are no more than we
should expect in the times, as the paucity
of apartments, so that both sexes, and that
even in high rank, must have occupied the
same room. The progress of a regard to
decency in domestic architecture has been
gradual, and in some respects has been in-
creasing up to our own age. But the me-
dieval period shows little of it ; though,
in the advance of wealth, a greater di-
vision of apartments distinguishes the
houses of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries from those of an earlier period.
11. PETRARCH'S LAURA.
The Abbe de Sade, in his memoirs of the
life of Petrarch, endeavored to establish
his own descent from Laura, as the wife of
Hughes de Sade, and born in the family de
Noves. This hypothseis has since been
686
NOTES TO CHAPTER IX.
received with general acquiescence by lit-
erary men; aud Tirabobcai in particular,
whose taleut lay in these petty biograph-
ical researches, and who had a prejudice
against every thing that came from France,
seems to consider it as decisively proved.
But it has been called in question in a
modern publication by the late Lord Wood-
houselee ("Essay on the Life and Charac-
ter of Petrarch," 1810). I shall not offer
any opinion as to the identity of Petrarch's
mistress with Laura de Sade ; but the main
position of Lord W.'s essay, that Laura was
an unmarried woman, and tlie object of an
honorable attachment in her lover, seems
irreconcilable with the evidence that his
writings supply. 1. There is no passage
in Petrarch, whether of poetry or prose,
that alludes to the virgin chai'acter of
Laura, or gives her the usunl appellations
of unmarried women— puella in Latin, or
donzella in Italian ; even in the Trioufo
della Castita, where so obvious an oppor-
tunity occurred. Yet this was naturally
to be expected from so etliereal an imagi-
nation as that of Petrarch, always inclined
to invest her with the halo of celestial
purity. 2. The coldness of Laura towards
80 passionate and deserving a lover, if no
iusunuountableobstacle intervened (luring
his twenty years of devotion, would be at
least a mark that his attachment was mis-
placed, aud show him in rather a ridiculous
light It is not surprising that persons
believing Laura to be unmarried, as seems
to have been the case with the Italian com-
mentators, should have thought his pas-
sion affected, and little more than poetic-
al. But, upon the contrary supposition, a
thread runs through the whole of his poet-
ry, and gives it consistency. A love on
the one side, instantaneously conceived,
and retained by the susceptibility of a
tender heart and ardent fancy; nourished
by slight encouragement, and seldom pre-
suming to hope for more ; a mixture
of prudence and coquetry on the other,
kept within bounds either by virtue or by
the want of mutual attachment, yet not
dissatisfied with fame more brilliant aud
flattery more refined than had ever before
been the lot of woman —these are surely
pretty natural circumstances, and such as
do not render the story less intelligible.
Unquestionably such a passion is not inno-
cent But Lord Woodhouselee, who is so
much scandalized at it, knew little, one
would think, of the fourteenth century.
His standard is taken, not from Avignon,
but from Edinburgh, a much better place,
no doubt, and where the moral barometer
stands at a very different altitude. In one
passage (p. 188) he carries his strictness to
an excess of prudery. From all we kuovr
of the age of Petrarch, the only matter of
astonishment is the persevering virtue of
Laura. The troubadours boast of much
better success with Provenpal ladies. 3.
But a passage from Petrarch's dialogues
with St. Augustiu, the work, as is well
known, where he most unbosoms himself,
leaves no doubt, I think, that his passion
could not have been gratified consistently
with honor (" De Contempiu Mundi," Dia-
log. 3, p. 367, edit. 1581).
III. EARLY LEGISLATIVE USE OF ENGLISH.
The progress of onr language in pro-
ceedings of the legislature is described in
the preface to the authentic edition of
Statutes of the Realm, published by the
Record Commission :
" The earliest instance recorded of the
use of the English language in any parlia-
mentary proceeding is in 36 Edward IIL
The style of the roll of that year is iu
French, as usual, but it is expressly stated
that the causes of summoning the Parlia-
ment were declared en Englou; and the
like circumstance is noted in 37 aud 38
Edward III.* In the 5th year of Richard
II. the chancellor is stated to have made
un hone collacion en Englcys (introductory,
as was then sometimes the usage, to the
commencement of business), though he
made use of the common French form for
opening the Parliament. A petition from
the 'Folk of the Mercerye of London,' in
the 10th year of the same reign, is in En-
glish ; and it appears also that in the 17th
year the Earl of Arundel asked pardon of
the Duke of Lancaster by the award of
the king and Lords, in their presence in
Parliament in a form of English words.
The cession and renunciation of the crown
by Richard II. is stated to have been read
before the estates of the realm and the
people in Westminster Hall, first in Latin
and afterwards in English, but it is entered
on the Parliament roll only in Latin. And
the challenge of the crown by Henry IV.,
with his thanks after the allowance of his
title, in the same assembly, are recorded
in English, which is termed his maternal
tongue. So also is the speech of Lord
William Thyrning, the chief-justice of the
Common Pleas, to the late King Richard,
announcing to him the sentence of his
deposition, and the yielding up, on the
part of the people, of their fealty and alle-
giance. In the 6th year of the reign of
Henry IV. an English answer is given to
a petition of the Commons, touching a
* References are given to the Rolls of ParliamenI
throughout this extract.
NOTES TO CHAPTEU IX.
687
proposed resumption of certain grants of
the crown, to the intent the king might
live of his own. The English language
afterwards appears occasionally, through
the reigns of Henry IV. and V. lu the
first and second and subsequent years of
Henry VI. the petitions or bills, and in
many cases the answers also, on which the
statutes were afterwards framed, are found
frequently in English ; but the statutes
are entered on the roll in French or Latin.
From the 23d year of Henry VI. these
petitions or bills are almost universally in
English, as is also sometimes the form of
the royal assent; but the statutes con-
tinued to be enrolled in French or Latin.
Sometimes Latin and French are used in
the same statute,* as in 8 Henry VI., 27
Henry VL, and 39 Henry VI. The last
* All the acts passed in the same session are legally
one statute ; the difference of language wau in separate
'jhapter* or acts.
I statute wholly in Latin on record is 33
I Henry VI., c. 2. The statutes of Edward
I IV. are entirely in French. The statutes
of Richard III. are in many manuscripts
j in French in a complete statute form ; and
they were so printed in his reign and that
of his successor. In the earlier English
editions a translation was inserted in the
same form ; but in several editions, since
1618, they have been printed in English, in
a different form, agreeing, so far as relates
i to the acts printed, with the enrollment in
1 chancery at the Chapel of the Rolls. The
' petitions and bills in Parliament, during
I these two reigns, are all in English. The
I statutes of Henry VII. have always, it is
believed, been published in English ; but
there are manuscripts containing the stat-
utes of the first two Parliaments, in his
first and third year, in French. From the
fourth year to the end of his reign, and
from thence to the present time, they are
) universally in English."
INDEX.
ABBASSIDES.
ANGLO-SAXONS.
A^bbassides, encouragement
of science and art by the,
305. Progress of their dy-
nasty, ib. Its decadence,
ib.
Abdalrahman proclaimed
caliph of Cordova, 305.
Abelard (Peler), enthusiasm
excited by the teachings of,
651. His erratic career, ib.
Acre, consequences to com-
merce by the capture of,
600.
Adorni and Fregosi factions,
disruption of Geuoabytiie,
207.
Adolphus of Nassau elected
Emperor of Germany, 281.
Adrian IV. (the only English
pope), insolence of, to-
wards Frederick Barba-
rossa, 340. His system of
mandats, 35G.
Adventurers (military). {See
Military Systems.)
.^neas Sylvius (afterwards
Pius II.), aliets the war
against the Turks, 314. He
obtains the repeal of the
Pragmatic Sanction, .381.
Agriculture, cause of the low
state of, 589, 618. Superi-
or cultivation of Church
lauds, 018. Agricultural
colonies, ib. Early inclos-
ures and clearances, 019.
Exportation of corn, 020.
How limited, ib. High
state of Italian agriculture,
ib. Effects of pestilence,
621. Excellence of the
Italian gardens, ib. Neg-
lect of horticulture in En-
gland, ib.
Alaric, defeated by Clovis, 8.
Laws compiled by his or-
der, 048.
Albert I. of Germany, 281.
His rule in Switzerland,
297, 298. His expulsion
andassassination,298. The
French crown offered to
him, 300.
Albert II. succeeds Sigis-
mund as emperor of Ger-
many, 285.
Albigensian heresy, spread
of the, 28. Massacre of
the Albigeois, ib. (See Re-
ligious Sectfe.)
Albizi, ascendency in Flor-
. ence regained by the, 229.
Cosmo deMedici banished
at their instigation, 230.
Their overthrow, ib. Ex-
clusion of their family
from the magistracy, 231.
Alcuin teaches Charle-
magne, C50. He discour-
ages secular learning, ib.
Alexander II. (pope), elec-
tion of, 339. He deposes
the English prelates, 409,
note.
III. (pope), supports
Thomas a Becket, 347.
Adopts the system of man-
dats, 350.
V. elected pope, 374.
His successor, ib.
. III. king of Scotland,
opposition to papal domi-
nation by, 359.
Alexius Comnenus attacks
the Turks, 309. He re-
covers the Greek terri-
tories, ib.
Alfonso I. of Aragon be-
queaths his kingdom to
the Knights Templars,
241.
III. of Aragon, 261.
V. of Aragon (the Mag-
nanimous), 220. Adopted
by Joanna II. of Naples,
ib. She revokes the adop-
tion, ib. His accession, ib.
His imprisonment by the
Genoese, ib. His alliance
with Milan, 227. His vir-
tues and patronage of lit-
erature, 228. His love of
Naples,.260.
VII. of Castile, unwise
division of his dominions
by, 242.
X. of Castile, scientific
acquirements and govern-
mental deticiencies of, 244.
His election as Emperor
of Germany, 277.
XI. of Castile, 245.
Alfred the Great, rescue of
the Anglo-Saxon mon-
archy by, 385. His alleged
division of the kingd(mi
into c(Hinties, 390. Ascrip-
tion of trial by jury to him,
393. Extent of his ac-
quaintance vith Latin, 573.
His declaration of the ig
norance of the clergy, 574.
Aliens held liable for each
other's debts, 005.
Allodial tenure, characteris-
tics of, 77, and note. Con-
verted into feudal tenure,
87.
Almamim and Almansor,
caliphs of Bagdad, patron-
age of letters by, 305.
Alvaro de Luna. {See Luna.)
Amadeus (diike of Savoy),
elected poi)e, 377.
Amalfi, early commercial
eminence of, 600. Its de-
cline, ib. Alleged inven-
tion of the mariner's com-
pass there, 002. Discovery
of the Pandects, 048.
Amurath I., progresses of
the Turkish arms under,
312.
II., rout of the Hunga-
rians by, 295. Reunion of
the Ottoman monarchy
under him, 313. He per-
fects the institution of the
Janizaries, 315.
Auastasius confers the dig-
nity of consulship on Clo-
vis, 8.
Andalusia, conquest of, by
Ferdinand IIL, 242.
Andrew of Hungary mar-
ried to Joanna of Naples,
223. His murder imputed
to Joanna, ib.
Anglo-Normans. {See En-
gland.)
Anglo-Saxons, divisions of
England under the, 384.
Their Danish assailants,
ib. Alfred and his suc-
cessors, 385. Descent of
the crown, 380. Influence
of provincial governors,
.387. Thanes and ceorls,
388. Condition of the ce-
orls, ib. Privileges an-
nexed to their pospession
of land, ib. Position of
690
ANJOU.
INDEX.
BARONS.
the socage tenants, 3S9.
Condition of the British
natives, ib. Constitution
of the Witenagemot, 390,
404. Administration of
justice, and divisions of the
land for the purpose, 390.
Hundreds and their prob-
able origin, ib., 391. The
tithing-mau and alder-
man, ?io<e, 392. TheConuty
Court and its jurisdiction,
?6., 393. Trial by jury and
its antecedents, ib., 394.
Introduction of the law of
frank-pledge, ?b. Progress
of the system of frank-
pledges, ib., 395, Respon-
sibilities and uses of the
tithings, ib. Probable ex-
istence of feudal tenures
before the Conquest, 396-
899. Observations ou the
change of the heptarchy
into a monarchy, 400, 401.
Consolidation of the mon-
archy, 401. Condition of
the eorlsand ceorls further
elucidated, 402-404. Ju-
dicial functions of the
Anglo-Saxon kings, 429.
Analogy between the
French and Anglo-Saxon
monarchies, ib. Peculiar
jurisdiction of the King's
Court, 16.-431.
Anjou (Louis, duke of), his
attempt on the crown of
Naples, and death, 52. {See
Charles of Anjou.)
Anselm (archbishop), cause
of his quarrel with Wil-
liam II. and Henry I., 345,
Descartes's argument ou
the Deity anticipated by
him, C55.
Appanages, effect of the sys-
tem of, 63.
Aquinas (Thomas), meta
physical eminence of, 654.
Aquitaine, extent of the do-
minions so called, 72
Character of its people, ib
Arabia and the Arabs. {See
Mohammed.)
Aragon, bequest of to the
Templars by Alfonso I.,
and reversal thereof, 242
Rise of the kingdom in
political importance, 251
Struggle for the succes-
sion to its crown, 258, 259
Points of interest in its
form of government, 260.
Privilegesof itsnobles and
people, ib. Its natural de
lects and political advan-
tages, ib. Grant of the
''privilege of union," 261
Supersession thereof, ib.
262. The office of justi-
ciary, ib. Instances of the
submission of kings to his
decrees, 264, 265. Duration |
and responsibilities of the
office, 265, 266. The Cortes
of Aragon, 266, 267. Its
union with Castile, 268.
Archers (English), invinci-
bility of the, at Crecy and
Poitiers, 46. {See Military
Systems.)
Architecture, as illustrative
of domestic progress, 611.
Early castles in England,
ib. Improvements there-
on, ib. Early houses, ib.
Revival of the use of bricks,
613. Arrangement of ordi-
nary mansion-houses, ib.
Dwellings in France and
Italy, 614. Iniroduction of
chimneys and glass win-
dows, ib., 615, and notes.
House furniture and do-
mestic conveniences, 615.
Fa rm- houses and cottages,
616. Ecclesiastical archi-
tecture, its grandeur and
varieties, 616-618. Domes-
tic architecture of the 12th
and 14tii centuries, 685
Aribert declared king of
Aquitaine, 72.
Aristocracy. (See Nobilit}'. )
Aristotle, writings of, how
tirst knownin Europe, 655.
Ignorance of his transla-
tors, 655. Character of the
Aristotelian philosophy
a56. Its influence on re-
ligion, ib.
Armaguac (count of) oppo-
ses the Duke of Burgundy,
53. Massacre of himself
and partisans, 54. Assas
sination of a later Count
of Armagnac, 63.
Armagnacs, rise of the fac-
tion of the, 53. Tactics of
the dauphin towardsthem,
ib. Their league with Hen-
ly IV. of England, 54.
Their defeat by the Sw'
300.
Armorial bearinsrs, general
introduction of, 99.
Armorican republic, 7. Sup
posed extent of its terri
tories, 71.
Armor. {See Military Sys
tems.)
Arundel (bishop and arch
bishop), deprived of, and
reinvested with, the great
seal, 471. His subsequent
deprivation and banish
ment, 474.
(earl of, temp. Richard
II.), his conduct as a lord
appellant, 470. His breach
with the Duke of Lancas
ter, 472. Refuses to aid in
legitimating Lancaster's
children, ib. His decapi-
tation, 474.
Aschafi'euburg, concordats
of, 380.
Assize, Justices of, 431.
— of Clarendon, 439. Text
of, 550.
Athens (duke oO- {See Bri-
enne.)
Augustin (St.), specimen of
the verses of, 570, iwte.
Aulic council, powers and
jurisdiction of the, 291.
Auspicius (bishop of Toul),
character of the poetry of,
570. Specimen thereof, ib.,
note.
Anstrasia, characteristics of
the people of, 11.
Auxiliary verb active, prob-
able cause of the, 56S.
Averroes, tendency of his
commentaries, 656.
Avignon, removal of the pa-
pal court to, 368. Rapaci-
ty of its popes, 370, 371.
Its abandonment by the
popes, 372.
Aziucourt (battle of), 55.
B.
Bacon (Roger), his acquaint-
ance with mathematics,
658. Parallel between him
and Lord Bacon, ib,, note.
His knowledge of Greek,
679.
Bagdad, celebrity of the early
caliphs of, 304. Character
of its later caliphs, 305.
Frequency of their assas-
sination, 306. Defection
of its provinces, ib.
Bajazet, military successes
of, 312. Defeated and cap-
tured by the Tartars, 313.
Baltic trade. {See Trade.)
Banks and bankers of Italy,
607.
Barbiano (Alberic di), mili-
tary eminence of, 216. His
pupils, 217.
Barcelona, 13. Its early com-
mercial eminence, 601. Its
code of maritime laws, 603.
And of marine insurance,
607, note. Its bank of de-
posit, ib.
Bardi, Florentine bankers,
English customs farmed
by the, 607.
Barons (in France), occa-
sional assemblies of the,
117. Consequences of
their non-attendance at
the royal council, 118.
They become subject to
the monarch, ib. Their
privileires curtailed by
Philip IV., 119. {See No-
bility.)
BARRISTERS.
INDEX.
CHARLEMAGNE. 691
Barristers' fees in the 15th
ceutury, 6-24.
Basle, council of. {See Coun-
cil.)
Beauraanoir, definition of
the three conditions of
men by, 104, lOG.
Bedford (duke of), regent for
Henry VI., 56. His char-
acter, ift. His successes in
France, 57. Overthrow of
his forces by Joan of Arc,
58.
Belgrade, siege and relief of,
296.
Benedict XL reconciles Phil-
ip the Fair to the holy see,
367. He rescinds the bulls
of Boniface VIII., 368.
XII., his rapacity, 370.
XIII. elected pope by
the Avignon cardinals, 373.
Deposed by the council of
Pisa, 374. Spain supports
him, ib.
Benefices, grants of land so
called, 84. Conditions an-
nexed to them, 85. Their
extent, ib. Character of
hereditary benefice.*, 1)8.
Benevolences, by whom first
levied in England, 544.
Berenger I. and II. (See
Italy.)
BermudoIII. (king of Leon),
killed in battle, 238.
Berry (duke of), appointed
guardian of Charles VI
51. His character, 52.
Bianchi. (See Superstiticm.s.)
Bianchi and Neri, factions
of, 665.
Bigod (Roger, earl of Nor
folk), patriotism of, 442.
Bills. {See Parliament.)
Birth, privileges of. (See
Nobility.)
Bishops. {See Church, Cler
gy-)
Blanche of Castile, acts as
regent during the minori
tyofLouisIX., 29. Qnells
the rebellion of the bar-
ons, ib.
Boccaccio, appointed to lee
ture on Dante, 668.
Boccanegra (Simon), first
doge of Genoa, story of
the election of, 206.
Bocland, nature of, 396.
Bohemia, nature of its con-
nection with Germany
292. Its polity, ib. The
Hussite controversy and
its results, 293, 294.
Bohun (Humphrey, earl of
Hereford), patriotism of,
442.
Bolingbroke (earl of Derby
and duke of Hereford)
made lord appellant, 470.
He Bides with the king.
472. His quarrel with the
Duke of Norfolk, 476. Ad-
vantage taken of it by
Richard II., ib. His ac-
cession to the throne, 477.
{See Henry IV.)
Bologuese law-schools, 648.
Boniface (St.). {See Wiu-
frid.)
— VIII. suspected of fraud
towards Ceiestine V., 364.
His extravagant preten-
sions, ib., and Tiote. Dis-
regard of his bulls by Ed-
ward I., 365. His disputes
with Philip the Fair, 365-
367. Success of Philip's
stratagem ' against him,
367. His death, ib. Re-
scindment of his bulls, 368.
— IX., elected pope, 373.
His traffic in benefices,
376. His rapacity in En-
gland checked, 580.
Books and booksellers. {See
Learning.)
Boroughs. {See Municipal
Institutions, Parliament,
Towns.)
Braccio di Montone, rivalry
of, with Sforza, 217.
Brienne (Walter de, duke of
Athens), invested with ex-
treme powers in Florence,
194. His tyranny and ex-
cesses, ib. His overthrow
ib.
Brittany, origin of the peo
pie of, 69. Its annexation
to the crown, ib.
Bruneliaut, queen of Austra
sia, 9. Her character and
conduct, ib. She falls into
the hands of Clotaire II.
and is sentenced to death,
ib.
Burdett (Thomas), cause of
the execution of, 543.
Burgesses. (S^e« Parliament.)
of the palisades, origin
of the, 287.
Bnrgundians, Roman prov-
inces occupied by the, 7.
Their mode of dividing
conquered provinces, 77.
Burgundy {Eudes, duke of),
undertakes the protection
of his niece Jane, 40. He
betrays her cause, 41.
(duke of), named guard-
ian of Charles VL, 51
Loses his ascendency ovei
the king, 52. Regains it
ib. His death, 53."^
{John, duke of, " Sans
Eeur"), assassinates the
luke of Orleans, 53. Ob
tains pardon for the crime,
ib. Consequence of his
reconciliation with the
court, 64. Is assassinated,
56.
Burgundy {Philip, duke of),
allies himself with Henry
v., 56. His French pred-
ilections, 59. And treaty
with Charles VIL, ib.
Splendor of his court, 64.
— {Charles, duke of), char-
acter and ambitious de-
signs of, 65. His contuma-
cious subjects, ib. His
rash enterprises and fail-
ures, 66. Is defeated and
killed, ib.
— {Mary, duchess of), de-
fends her rights against
Louis XL, 67. Marries
Maximilian of Austria ;
her death, ib.
— (kingdom of), 74.
(law of), 145.
C.
Caballcros of Spain, privi-
leges enjoyed by the, 241.
Calais, 47, 50.
Calixtins, tenets of the, 294.
Calixtus II. (pope), compro-
mise eff"cctcd by, 342. He
abolishes feudal services
by bishops, 343.
Cambridge university, first
mention «if, 652.
Canon law, promulgation of
the, 350. Its study made
imperative, 351.
Capet (Hugh), usurpation of
the JJ'rench throne by, 19.
State of France at his ac-
cession, '23. His sources
of revenue. 111.
Carlovingian dynasty, ex-
tinction of the, 19.
Carrara (Francesco da), Ve-
rona seized by, 212. Kill-
ed in prison, 213.
Castile and Leon united into
one kingdom, 238. Their
subsequent redivision and
reunion, 242. Composition
and character of the Cortes
of Castile {see Cortes), the
council and its functions,
253-255. Administration
of justice, 256. Similarity
of "its polity to that of En-
gland, ib.
Catalonia, character of th<?
people of, 267.
Catharists, religious tener
held by the, 630.
Ceiestine V., fraud of Bou
face VIII. towards, 364.
Champ de Mars. (.See Fiev
of March.)
Charlemagne, reunltm of tne
Frankish empire under,13.
His victories in Italy and
Spain, ib. Obstinate re-
sistance and ultimate sub-
mission of the Saxons to
his rule, ib. His Sclavo-
G92
CHaRLES.
INDEX.
CHURCH.
nian conquests, 14. Ex-
tent of his dominions, ib.\
His coronation as emper-;
or, ib., and note. Its con-
sequences, 15. His intel-
lectual acquirements and
domestic improvements,
ib. His vices, cruelties,
relictions edicts, ib. His
son's and successors, IG,
17. His control over the
clergy, 17. Degeneracy of
his descendants, 19. State
of the people under his
rule, 21. His dread of the
Normans, 22. His alleged
election by the Romans a&
emperor discussed, 73. Pe-
culiarities of his legisla-
tive assemblies, 113, 114.
His capituldry relative to
tithes, 319. His authority
over the popes, 338. State
of his education, 573, and
note. His library, 577, note.
His encouragement of or-
deals, 57S. His agricultu-
ral colonies, CIS. Public
schools in France due to
him, 650. Becomes a dis-
ciple of Alcuin, ib.
Charles the Bad. {See
Charles of Navarre.)
• the Bald, share of em-
pire allotted to, 17, and
note on IS. Ravages of
the Normans during his
reign, 22. His slavish sub-
mission to the Church, 326,
334.
the Fat, accession and
depositnm of, IS. Position
of Germany at his death,
270.
the Simple, policy of
towards the Normans, 23.
IV. (the Fair) ascends
the throne pursuant to the
Salic law, 42. Conduct of
Edward III. of England
after his death, ib.
V. (the Wise) submits
to the peace of Bretigni,
48. His summons to Ed-
ward the Black Prince, 49.
His successes against the
English, 60. His prt^ma-
ture death and character,
51. His conflicts with the
States -General, 121. He
imposes taxes without
their consent, ib.
VI., accession of, 51.
State of France during his
reign, ib. Defeats the cit-
izens of Ghent, ib. Mis-
application of taxes dur-
ing his minority, 52. His
seizuie with insanity, ib.
Disgraceful conduct of his
queen, 56, and note. His
death, ib. His submission
to the remonstrances of
the States-General, 122.
Charles VII., state of France
at the accession of, 57. His
impoverished exchequer,
ib. His character, and
choice of favorites, 58.
Change wrought in his
fortunes by Joan of Arc,
ib. His connection with
Agnes Sorel, 59, note. Re-
stores Richemont to pow-
er, ib. Is reconciled with
the Duke of Burgundy, ib.
Reconquers the provinces
ceded to the Englisli
crown, GO. Cousolidatitm
of his power, ib. Insur-
rection of Guienue against
taxation, 61. His conduct
relative to the States-Gen
eral, 124. He levies taxes
of his own will, 125. He
enacts the Pragmatic
Sanction of Bourges, 3S1.
VIII., accession of, 69
Contest for the regency
during his minority, 70,
Marries Anne of Brittany,
ib. Proceedings of the
States-General during his
minority, 125.
of Anj(m (I. of Naples)
seizure of the crown of Na-
ples by, 180. He puts Con
radin, the heir, to death
ib. He defeats the Ghibe
lins and governs Tuscany
ISl. Revolt of his sub
jccts, 1S3.
II. of Naples, war of the
Sicilians against, 222. His
death, 223.
of Durazzo (III. of Na-
ples), 224. Puts Queen Jo-
anna to death, ib. His as-
sassination, 225.
IV. of Germany, singu-
lar character of, 2S3. His
Golden Bull, 284. He al-
ienates the imperial do-
mains, 288. Advancement
of Bohemia under his rule,
293.
Martel, conquest of the
Saracens by, 11. His spo-
liation of the Church, SO.
of Navarre (the Bad),
tumults in France excited
bv, 47. His crimes, 48,
Allies himself with Ed
ward III., 49.
Charter of Henry I. and his
successors, 421. Text of
the Charter of Henry I.,
548. The Great Charter,
422, 552.
Chartered towns. {See
Municipal Institutions,
Towns.)
Chaucer (Geoffrey), testimo-
ny borne by his writin
520, note. Character of his
works, 073, 674.
Chiklebert (son of Clovis),
dominions allotted to, 9.
Chilperic, guilty conduct of
Fredegonde, the queen of,
9. His attempts at poetry,
570. His attack on the
sanctuary, 583.
Chilperic III., deposition of.
Chimneys. {See Architect-
ure.)
Chivalry, as a school of mor-
al discipline, 634. Remote-
ness of its origin, ib. In-
dividual honor its key-
stone, 635. Types of clnv-
alrj', ib. Its original ccm-
uection with feudal serv-
ice, ib. Effect of the Cru-
sades, 636. Its connection
with religion, ib. Entliu-
siasm insjiired by gallant-
ry, 637-639. Licentious-
ness incident to chivalry,
638. Virtues inculcated
by it, 639. Practice of
courtesy, liberality, and
justice, ib., 641. Obliga-
tions of chivalry to the
East, 641. Its attendant
evils, 642. Education pre-
paratory to knighthood,
643. Chivalric festivals,
ib. Tournaments and
their dangers, ib., 644.
Privileges of knighthood,
644. Who were admissi-
ble thereto, 645. Military
service: knights and bach-
elors, ib. Causes of the
decline of chivalry, (346.
Influences by which it was
superseded, 647.
Church, wealth of the, under
the empire, 318. Its posi-
tion after the irruption of
the barbarians, ib. Source
of its legitimate wealth,
ib. Its religious extor-
tions, ib., 319. Privileges
attached to its property,
319. Institution of tithes,
319, 320, and notes. Liabil-
ity of Church property to
^ spoliation, 320. Origin of
' precarice,ib.,7wte. Extent
of the Church's landed pos-
sessions, 321, and no<e. Its
participation in the admin-
istration of justice, 322.
Limitations interposed by
Justinian, ib. Its jiolitic-
al influence, 323. Source
thereof, ib. Its subjection
to the state, 324. Charle-
magne's edicts relative to
its aft'airs, ib. Its assump-
tion of authority over the
French kings, 325. Obse-
quiousness of England to
CITIES.
INDEX.
COUNCIL.
G93
its pretensions, 32C. lu
vestiture of its bishops
witli their temporalities,
337. Their simouiacal
practices, ib. Caucus and
chapters, 344. Liberties of
the Gallicau Church, 3S'2.
Privileges of sanctuary,
583. (See Clergy, Monas-
teries, Papal Power.)
Cities. {See Municipal Insti-
tutions and Towns.)
Civil Law. {See Laws.)
Clarence (duke of), put to
death by Edward IV., 543.
Clarendon, constitutions of,
301. Their influence on
Thomas a Becket's quar-
rel with Henry IL, 362.
Text of, 549.
Assize of, 439. Text of,
550.
Clement IV., effect of a bull
promulgated by, 357. Op-
position of the Scotch king
to his edict, 350.
v., his maxim relative
to benefices, 357. He re-
moves the papal court to
Avignon, 30S. England
remonstrates with him,
371.
VI. acquits Joanna of
Naples of murder, 224.
His licentiousness, 370.
VII., circumstances rel-
ative to his election as
pope, 373, Division of
the papacy thereupon, ib.
Proceedings after his
death, ib.
Clergy, their privileges un-
der the feudal system,
102. Fighting prelates, ib.
Their participation in leg-
islative proceedings, 114.
Immense territorial pos-
sessions of the clergy, 321.
Their acquisition of polit-
ical power, 323. Their neg-
lect of the rule of celibacy,
335. Sufferings of the mar-
ried clergy, 336. Lax mo-
rality of the English cler-
gy, ib., note. Practice of
simony, ib. Consent of
the laity required in the
election of bishops, ib.
Interference of the sover-
eigns therein, 337. Taxa-
tion of the clergy by the
kings, 358. Tribute levied
on them by the popes, ib.
Their disaffection towards
Rome, 359. Their exemp-
tion from temporal juris-
diction, 361. Extortions
of Edward I., 365. Ef-
fects of Wicliff's princi-
ples, 380. Spiritual peers
m the English Parliament,
444. Their qualifications,
498. Clergy summoned to
send representatives, 503.
Cause of their being suu:-
moned, 504. Result of
their segregating them-
selves from the commons,
505. Instances of their
Parliamentary existence,
500, 507. Their ignorance
of letters, 573, 574. Their
monastic vices, 583. {See
Church, Monasteries, Pa-
pal Power, Superstition.)
Clisson (constable de), 52.
Clodomir (son of Clovis), do-
minions allotted to, 9.
Clotairc, portion of domin-
ions allotted to, 9. LTnion
of the whole under him,
ib. Re-divisiou among his
sons, ib.
IL, reunion of the
French dominions under,
9.
Clotilda converts her hus-
band to Christianity, 8 ;
her sons, 9.
Clovis invades Gaul and de-
feats Syagrius, 8. Accepts
the title of consul, ib., and
note. Defeats the Aleman-
ni, ib. His conversion to
Christianity, ib. Defeats
Alaric, ib. His last ex-
ploits and sanguinary pol-
icy, ib. Division of his do-
minions among his sons,
9. His alleged subjection
to the emperors discussed,
note IIL, 71. His limited
authority : story of the
vase of Soissons, 82.
IL, 10.
Cobham, lord (temp. Rich-
ard II. ), banished, 474.
Coining, extensive practice
of among the French no-
bles, 109. Debased money
issued by them, ib. Sys-
tematic adulteration of
coin by the kings, 112.
Measures adopted for rem-
edying these frauds, ib.
Coloni, characteristics and
privileges of the, 146.
Combat. {See Trial.)
Commodianus, literary re-
mains of, 509. Specimen
thereof, 570, note.
Common Pleas, Court of,
431.
Comnenus. (See Alexius.)
Confirmatio chartarum, 483.
Text of, 557.
Conrad (duke of Franconia)
elected emperor of Germa-
ny, 271.
II. (the Salic), impor-
tant edict of, relative to
feuds, 87. Elected emper-
or of Germany, 272.
IIL joins in the second
crusade, 34. Elected em-
peror of Germany, 274.
Conrad IV., accession of,
172. His struggles for
dominion in Italy, and
death, ib. His difficulties
in Germany, 277.
Conradin (son of Conrad IV.)
attempts to regain his in-
heritance, 180. Put to
death by Charles of An-
jou, ib.
Constance, council of. {Se«
Council.)
, treaty of, 102.
Constantine V. dethroned by
his mother, 73.
Constantinople, advanta-
geous position of, 307. Its
resistance to the Moslem
assaults, ib. Its capture
by the Latins, 307. Its re-
capture by the Greeks, ib.
Besieged by Bajazet, 312;
and by Amurath, 313. At-
tacked by Mohammed IL,
314. Its fall, ib. Unreal-
ized schemes for its recov-
ery, ib.
Constitution of England,
(.b'ee English Constitution.)
Cordova taken from the
Moors, 242.
Corn. {See Agriculture,
Trade.)
Cortes of Castile, oi-iginal
composition of the, 249 ;
dwindling down of their
numbers, ib. Their re-
monstrance against cor-
ruption, 250. Spiritual and
temporalnobility,t6. Con-
trol of the Cortes over the
taxes, 251. Their resolute
defense of their right, 252.
Their control over.expend-
iture, ib. Its active exer-
cise, ib. Their forms of
procedure, 253. Their leg-
islativerights andattempt-
ed limitations thereon by
the kings, ib., 254. Their
right to a voice in the dis-
posal of the crown, 255.
Corvinus (Matthias) elected
king of Hungary, 290. His
patronage of literature, ib.
Council, Great,, of Enefland,
419, 429, 439. {See King's
Council, and Justice.)
of Basle, enmity of the,
towards the papal court,
377. Reforms effected by
it,?6. Its indiscretion s,t&.
of Constance condemns
John Hues and Jerome of
Prague to be burned, 293.
Deposes John XXIIL, 374.
Preponderance of Italian
interests therein, 375. Tac-
tics of the cardinals, 376.
National divisions in th«
694
COUNCIL.
INDEX.
ENGLAND.
council, ib. Its breach of
faith relative to Huss and
Jerome canvassed, 3TS, and
note.
Council of Frankfort con-
voked by Saint Boniface,
329. Its importance in pa-
pal history, 330.
of Lyons, 1T2.
of Pavia, 376.
of Pisa, proceedings at
the, 374.
Cours plonicres, character of
the, 117.
Court, King's, 429.
of Conimon Pleas, 431.
of Exchequer, 430.
of King's Bench, 430.
Crecy, battle of, 40.
Crusades, origin of the, 31.
Energetic appeals of Peter
the Hermit, 32. Induce-
ments offered to those who
joined in them, ib. Crimes
and miseries attendant on
them, 3.3. Results of the
flrst Crusade, 34. Second
Crusade, ib. Its failure, ib.
Origin of the third Cru-
sade, 35. Its famous com-
manders and inconclusive
results, t6. Crusades of St
Louis and their miserable
ending, 36, 37. Cause of
the cessation of Crusades,
584. Their demoralizing
influence, 5S5.
Curia Regis, 429.
Dagobert I., insiguiflcance
of the successors of, 10.
Damascus, degeneracy of the
caliphs of, 304.
Danes, English first infested
by the, 22.
Dante Alighieri expelled
fiom Florence, 17S. His
birth, 005. Characteristics
of his great poem, 000-068,
Enthusiasm which attend-
ed its publication, 068.
Dauphine annexed to the
French crown, 70. Its or-
igin, ib.i note.
Decuriones, 146.
Defensor Civitatis, 146.
Defiance, institution of the
right of, 289. Its aboli-
tion, 290.
De la Mare (Peter), opposes
the Duke of Lancaster, 465.
Conduct of the citizens
on his imprisonment, 460,
Elected speaker of the
Commons, 467.
Derby (earl of). {See Boling'
broke.)
Diet. (See Council.)
Diet of Worms, important
changes effected by the
289. Abolishes the right
of defiance, 290. Estab-
lishes the imperial cham-
ber, ib., 291.
Domestic life in the Middle
Ages, 008-611. Income
and style of living, 623.
Doomsday-book, 619.
Duelling, introduction of
the practice of, 578, and
note.
Du Guescliu (Bertrand), pro-
ceeds to Castile, 48. His
character, 50. He serves
against Peter the Cruel,
245. Is taken prisoner,
246.
Dunstan and Odo, and their
treatment of Ed wy and El-
giva, 326.
Earl, origin of the title of,
388, note.
Ebroin, exercise of supreme
power by, 10.
Eccelin da Romano, tyran
nic exercise of power by,
170.
Ecclesiastical jurisdiction,
(See Church, Clergy, Papal
Power.)
Edward the Confessor, pop
ularity of the laws of, 420,
439.
I. offends Philip IV. of
France, 37. His breather
Edmund outwitted by
Philip, 38. He curbs the
gower of the clergy, 362.
[istyrannytowards them,
366. His reign a constitu
tional epoch, 442. Hisdes
potic tendencies, ib. He
confirms the charters, 443,
and 7iote.
II. marries Isabel of
France, 40. He yields to
the pope, 371.
HI. lays claim to the
French throne, 42. Its in-
justice shown, ?■&. His pol-
icy prior to resorting to
arms, 43. Principal fea-
tures in his character, 46,
Extent of his resources,
ib., 46. Excellence of his
armies, 46. His acquisi-
tion after the battles of
Crecy and Poitiers, 47,
His alliance with Charles
the Bad, 48. Conditions
of the peace of Bretigni,
49. His opposition to the
pope, 371. Progress of
Parliamentunder him, 458
Ascendency of Lancaster
and Alice Perrers over him
464. Ordinance against Al-
ice, 465. Repeal thereof,
466. Revival of the pros-
ecution against her, 467.
His debts to Italian bauk-
ei-8, 607.
Edward the Black Prince,
character of, 45, His vic-
tory at Poitiers, 46, His
impolitic conduct in Gui-
eune, 49. Summoned be-
fore the peers of France,
ib. Machinations relative
to his heir, 465. His jeal-
ousy of the Dnke of Lan-
caster, ib. His death, 400.
IV, accepts a pension
from Louis XL, 63, His
military force, ib. Louis's
reasons for declining a vis-
it from him, ib. His acces-
sion to the throne, 543.
His inexcusable barbari-
ties, ib. Popularity of his
government, 544. His sys-
tem of benevolences, ib.
Edwy and Elgiva. (See Dun>
Stan.)
England, first invested by
the Danes, 22. Its re-
sources under Edward
III., 40. Causes of the
success of its armies, ib.
High payment to its men-
at-arms, 57, note. Discom-
fiture of its troo[)s by Joan
of Arc, 58. Deprived of
its French possessions l)y
Charles VII., 00. Its ob-
sequiousness to the hie-
rarchy, 327. Its opposi-
tion to ecclesiastical juris-
diction, 301, 362. Its pro-
test against the exactions
of the Church, 371. Its
eharein theCouncil of Con-
stance, 375. Enactment of
the statute of prsemnnire,
379, Eflect of Wicliff's
principles, 3S0. Progress
of the country under the
Anglo-Saxons. (iS'ee An-
glo-Saxons.) Its state at
the period of the Norman
conquest, 408, 409. Fruit-
less resistance of its peo-
ple to Norman rule, 409,
and note. Expulsion of its
prelates and maltreatment
of its nobles, ib., 410, and
note. Wholesale spolia-
tion of property, 410. Ab-
ject condition of English
occupiers, ib., 411. Vast-
ness of the Norman es-
tates explained, 411. Con-
quered England compared
with conquered Gaul, 412.
Forest devastations and
forest laws, ib. Depopu-
lation of the towns, 413.
Establishment of feudal
customs, 414. Preserva-
tion of the public peace,
415, Difference between
ENGLISH.
INDEX.
riRK-ARMS.
695
feudalism in Euglaud and Ethelwolf, tyrant of, relative
in France, ib., 416. Ha-! to tithes, 320, note.
tred by the English of the Eudes (duke of Burgundy).
Normans, 416. Oppres-I (.%e Burgundy.)
sions and exactions of the Eudon signally defeats the
Norman government, ib
417. Nature of the taxes
then levied, 41T-419. Laws
and charters of the Nor-
man kings, 420, 421. Ban-
ishment of Longchamp by
the barons, 421. Estab-
lishment of Magna Char-
ta, 422. Difficulty of over-
rating its value, ib. Out-
line of its provisions, 423
Saracens, 72. Receives aid
from Charles Martel, ib.
Eugenius IV. (cardinal Ju-
lian). His contests with
the councils, 377.
Exchequer, Court of, 430.
False Decretals,
dore.)
(See Isi
Couflrmation thereof bylFelixV. (pope), election and
Henry III., 424. Constitu-
tional , struggles between
him and his barons, 426,
427. Limitations on the
royal prerogative, 426, 42S.
Institution of the various
courts of law, 429-431.
Origin of the common law,
432, 433. Character and
defects of the English law,
433, 434. Hereditary right
of the crown established,
434, 435. Legal position
of the gentry, 436, 437.
Causes of civil equality,
437, 438. Character of its
government, 513. Prerog-
atives of its kings, 513-515.
Mitigation of the forest
laws, 515. Jurisdiction of
its constable and marshal,
ib. Its customs farmed by
Italian bankers, 607.
English constitution, char-
acter of the, 516. Sir John
Fortescue's doctrine, 517,
518. Hume's erroneous
views regarding it, 518,
519. Causes tending to
its formation, 520, 521. Ef-
fect of the loss of Norman-
dy, 521. Real source of
English freedom, 521, 522.
Princijile involved in the
relationship between lords
and their vassals, 523
Right of distress on the
king's property, ib. Feu
dal sources of constitu
tional liberty, 524. Influ-
ence of the nobility, ib.
Salutary provisions of Ed-
ward I., 526. Nature and
f gradual extinction of vil-
en age, 528-534. Instances
of regencies and principles
whereon they are founded
535-537. Doctrine of pre-
rogative, 539. {Sp£ Anglo-
Saxons, England, Feudal
System, Parliament.)
English language and liter-
nture, 671, 672.
Erigena. {See Scotus —
John.)
ipersession of, 377
Ferdinand confirmed in his
succession to the crown
of Naples, 228. Attempt
of John of Calabria to
oust him, 228. His odious
rule, 233.
I. of Aragon, independ
ence of the Catalans to-
wards, 267
II. of Aragon, marries
Isabella of Castile, 248.
They succeed to the Cas-
tilian throne, ib. Ferdi-
nand invested with the
crownof Aragon, 259. Ar-
rangement of the united
governments, 268. Con
quest of Granada, 269.
III. of Castile, capture
of Cordova by, 242.
IV. of Castile, preva-
lence of civil dissensions
in the reign of, 245.
Feudal system, rise of the,
76. Nature of allodial and
salic lands, 77, 78, and
notes. Distinction of laws,
80. Origin of nobility, 83.
Fiscal lands or benefices,
their nature, condition,
and extent, 84, 85. Intro-
duction ofsubinfeudation,
85. Origin of feudal ten-
ures, 86. Custom of per-
sonal commendation, ib.
Its character, ib. Edict of
Conrad II., 87. Principle
of a feudal relation
Rights and duties of vas-
sals, ib. Ceremonies of
homage, fealty, and in-
vestiture, ib. Obligations
of the vassal to his lord,
89. Military service, its
conditions and extent, ib..
and note. Feudal inci
dents : Origin of reliefs,
90. Offiues on alienation,
91. Escheats and forfeit
ures, ib. Objects for which
aids were levied, ib. Lim-
itations thereof by Magna
Charta, ib. Institution of
wardships, 92. Their vex
atious character in later
times, ib. Extortionate
and oppressive practices
relative to marriages, ib.
Introduction of improper
feuds, 93. Fiefs of office,
their nature and variety,
94, and note. Feudal law-
books, ib. Difference be-
tween that and the French
and English systems, ib.
The feudal system not of
Roman origin, 96. Local-
ities over which it extend-
ed, 97, 98. Privileges of
nobility, 98-100. Difler-
ence between a French ro-
turier and an English com-
vioner, 100, note. Condi-
tion of the clergy, 102. Of
the classes below the gen-
try, 103, 104. Assemblies
of the barons, 117. The
cours pleuieres, ib. Leg-
islative and judicial as-
semblies {see Legislation,
States - General, ' Justice).
Decline of the feudal sys-
tem, 132. Its causes : In-
crease of the domains of
the crown, 135. Rise of
the chartered towns, 136-
138 {see Towns). Commu-
tation of military service,
139 {see Military Systems).
Decay of feudal principles,
141. Influence of feudal-
ism upon the institutions
of England and France,
143. Civil freedom pro-
moted by it, ib. Its tend-
ency to exalt warlike hab-
its, ib. Its value as an
element of discipline, ib.
And as producing senti-
ments of loyalty, 145.
Question of the existence
of feudal tenures in En-
gland prior to the Con-
quest, 396-399. Feudalism
under the Normans, 413.
Innovation introduced by
William L, 414. Differ-
ence between the feudal
policy of England and
France, 415. Tenure of
folcland and bockland,
396. Abuses of feudal
rights, 515.
Fiefs. {See. Benefices, Feud-
al System.)
Field 'of March (or Champ
de Mars), origin of the as-
semblies so termed, 113,
Their character, ib.
Field Sports. {See Sports.)
Fines, extent and singu-
larity of, under the An-
glo-Norman kings, 417,
418.
Fire-arms. {See Military
Systems.)
696
FISCAL.
INDEX.
GERMANY.
Fiscal lauds. (See Benefi-
ces.)
Flanders, 3S. Successful re-
sistauce of its people, ih.
Their commerce with En-
gland, 46. Their rebellion
against Count Louis, 51.
Their woollen manufac-
ture, 593, 594. Their set-
tlement in England, 595.
Its policy relative thereto,
ib. {See Trade.)
Florence : exclusion of the
Ghibelins from offices of
trust, 189. Dante's simile
relative to its unsettled
state, ib. Corporations of
the citizens, 190. Its mag-
istracy, ib. Curious mode
of election, ib. The Con-
siglio di popolo, 191. De-
fiance of law by the nobil-
ity, 192. Giano del la Bel-
la reduces them to obe-
dience, ib. Kise of the
plebeian aristocracy, 193.
Walter de Brieune in-
vested with extraordinary
powers, ib. His tyranny
and excesses, 104. His
overthrow, ib. Singular
ordinances relative to the
nobles, ib. Machinations
of the Guelfs and persecn-
tions of the Ghibelins, 105,
19G. Prostration of the
Guelfs, 198. Insurrection
of the Ciompi and eleva-
tion of Lando, 197. His
judicious administration,
198. Restoration of the
Guelfs, ib. Comparative
security of the Floren-
tines, ib. Their territo-
rial acquisitions, revenue,
population, etc., ib., 199.
Pisa bought by them, 201.
Further disqixietudes in
their government, 229.
Rise of the Medici (see
Medici), ib. Florentine
bankers and their transac-
tions, GOT.
Polcland, nature of, 396.
Foreigners invested with
))ower in Italian states,
180,187,190,194,204.
Forest laws of the Anglo-
Norman kings, 412. Mit-
igation of their severity,
515. Punishments inflict-
ed, 588.
Fortestfue (Sir John), on the
English constitution, 517.
France, policy observed in
the territorial division of,
8, 9. Insignificance of its
early monarch?, 10, and
iMte. Loss of the English
possessions in, 27. In-
crease of the French do-
mains, 37, 38. Its state at
the commencement of hos-
tilities by Edward IIL, 44.
Its condition after the!
battle of Poitiers, 47. As-
sembly of the States-Gen-
eral, 47, 48. Desolation of
the kingdom by famine,
48, and note. Ravaged by
banditti, ib. The Jacque-
rie insurrection, ib. State
of the country under
Charles V. and VI., 50-54.
Under Charles VIL, 57-61.
Consolidation of its do-
minions, 70. Its histori-
ans, 75. Its progress from
weakness to strength, 108.
Revenue of its kings, how
raised, 111, 112. Its coin-
age, 112. Taxation, 111,
112. Designs of its kings
upon Naples, 233.
Franconia, rise of the house
of, 272. Its extinction, 279.
Frankfort, council of. {See
Council.)
Franks, territories occupied
by the, S, and 7wte. Their
probable origin, 71. Their
position under Pepin, 11.
Character of their ChurcJi
dignitaries, 78. Increase
of the power (,f their
kings, S3. SeiTd 'm and
villenage amoi.g them,
105. Extent to which they
participated in legislation,
113. Origin of the Ripu-
arian Franks and Salian
Franks, 79, 145. Their
numbers during the reign
of Clovis, SO.
Fredegonde, queen. {See
Chilperic.)
Frederick I. (Frederick Bar-
barossa), third crusade un-
dertaken by, 85. Com-
mencement of his career
in Italy, 158. He besieL:es
Milan, ib. Subjugation
and second rise of its citi-
zens, 159. Destrnction of
their city, ib. League of
Lombardv against him,
160. His defeat and flight,
161. Peace of Constance,
162. His i)olicy relative to
Sicily, ib. His accession
to the German throne, 275.
Henry the Lion's ingrati-
tude towards him, 275.
He institutes the law of
defiance, 289. His forced I
Gregory IX., 168. Result
of his cru^;ade, ib. Hisr
wars with the Lombards,
ib. His successes and de-
feats, 171. Animosity of
the popes towards him, ib.
Sentence of the Council of
Lyons against him, 172.
His accession to the Ger-
man throne, 276. His
deposition, 277.
Frederick III. of Germany,
character of the reign of,
285. His significant motto,
286, note. Objects of his
diets, 290. He betrays the
empire to the pope, 380.
Freemen, 103. Consequence
of their marriage with
serfs, 106.
Fregosi and Adorni factious,
207.
G.
Gaudia (duke of), claims the
throne of Ara^cm, 258.
Gaul invaded by Clovis, 8.
Condition of its Roman
natives, 78. Privileges of
the "con viva regi.^," ib.
Retention of their own
laws by the Romans, ib.
Their cities, ib. Their
subjection to taxation, ib.
Their accession to high of-
fices, 82.
Genoa, early history of, 200.
Her wars with Pisa and
Venice, ib., 2Ul. Victory
of her fleet over Pisani,
202. Insolence of her ad-
miral towards the Vene-
tian ambassadors, 203.
Her subsequent reverses,
204. Surrender of her
forces to Venice, ib. De-
cline of her power, 205.
Her government and its
various changes, ib. Dis-
sensions of the Guelfs and
Ghibelins, ib. Her first
doge, ib. Frequent revo-
lutions of her citizens, 206.
The Adorni and Fregosi
facticms, 207. Commercial
dealiufrs of the Genoese,
599. Their position in Con-
stantinople, 601. Their
manufactures, ib. Their
money transactions, 605,
607. State security taken
by their bankers, ib., 608.
submission to Pope Adri-:Germany conquered by
an IV., 346. His limita-
tion on the acquisition of I
property by the clergy, 363.
His patronage of learning,
434.
— II., position of, at hisl
accession, 167. Cause of j
his excommuuication by|
Charlemagne, 13. Passes
away frorn his family, 18.
Its Hungarian assailants,
22. Political state of an-
cient Germany, 76. Lands
in conquered prorinces,
how divided, 77. Custcms
respecting allodial and sal-
GHENT,
INDEX.
6i)<
ic lands, ib., 78, and iiote^,
Superior position of its
rulers as compared with
those of France, 107, 108.
Its position at the death of
Charles the Fat, 270, 271.
Election of its emperors,
in whom vested, 278, 280.
Partitions of territory
among its princes, 282,
283. Importance of its
free cities, 286. Privileges
conferred on them, ib.
Their warfare with the
nobles, 287. The sanctu-
ary of the palisades, ib.
League of the cities, ib.
Polity of the principali-
ties, 288. Extent of the
imperial domains, ib.
Their gradual alienation
by the emperors, ib. The
Diet of Worms and its re-
sults, 290. ' Limits of the
German empire at various
periods, 291, 292. Absence
of towns, 589. Pre-emi
uence of its robber chiefs,
590. (S'ffe Diet, Justice.)
Ohent, impregnability of, 60
Its tradnig eminence, 594
Ghibelins, origin of the
word, 165. {See Guelfs.)
Gloucester, duke of (temp.
Richardll.), made lord ap-
pellant, 470, Reinstated
lu the council, 471. His
animosity towards the
Duke of Lancaster, 472
His seizure by the king,
474. His murder and pos-
thumous attainder, ib.
Godfrey of Boulogne, East-
ern domains assigned to,
.^4.
Granada, fertility and im-
portance of, 268. Its una-
vailinsr resistance to Fer-
dinand, 269.
Gratian, character of the
Decretum compiled by,
350.
Greek empire, degeneracy
of the, 30H. Revival of its
power, 307. Exploits of
celebrated usurpers, 308.
Results of the ttrst Cru-
sade, 309. Expeditions of
Alexius Comnenus, ib.
Partition of the empire,
310. Its declining state,
311. Lukewarmness of
the Western Cyiristians,
312. Pall of the empire,
314. The last of the Cse
ears, ib. {See Constanti-
nople,)
Gregory I,, character of, 328
IV", and v., submission
of, to imperial authority,
338.
- — VII., projection of the
C rusades by, 32. His obi i-
gations to the countess
Matilda, 164. His ascend-
ency over the clergy, 340. |
Elected pope, ib. His dif-j
ferences with, and excom-i
munication of, Henry IV^.j
of Geiraanj', ib., 341^ and
iwte. Rigorous humilia-!
tiou imposed by him on
Henry, 341. His exile andj
death, 342. His declara-
tion against investitures,!
344. His illimitable am-!
bition and arrogance, ib.
His despotism towards ec-
clesiastics, 345.
Gregory IX., excommunica-
tions of Frederick II. bv,
168, 171. His further de-
signs against Frederick,
171. Decretals published!
by his order, 350. His en-
croachments on the En-|
glish Church, 356. His pre-
text for levyi)ig contribu-
tions, 358. Immense sum
extorted by him from En-
gland, ib.
XI, reinstates the papal
court at Rome, 372.
XII. elected and de-
posed, 373, 374.
Griraoald, usurpation of su-
preme power by, 10.
Grostete (Robert, bishop of
Lincoln), G79.
Guaruieri (duke), systematic
levy of contributions by,
215. Success of his ope-
rations, ib.
Guelfs and Ghibelins, origin
of the rival factions of,
165. Their German ante-
cedents, 166. Characteris-
tics of the two parties, ib.
Irrationality of the dis-
tinctions, ISO, Expulsion
of the Ghibelins from
Florence, 181, Revival of
their party, 183. Origin
of the name Guelfs, 274.
(See Florence, Genoa.)
Gui de Lusignau, canse of
his flight from France, 33.
Guienue, seized by Philip
IV., 37. Restored to En-
gland, 38.
Guiscard (Robert), territori-
al conquests of, 153. He
takes Leo IX. prisoner, ib.
His English opponents at
Constantinople, 410.
. — - (Roger), conquers Sici»
ly, 153. Declared king by
Innocent II., ib. He shel-
ters Gregory VII., 342, He
subjugates Amaltl, 600. He
introduces silk manufac-
tures at Palermo, 601.
Gunpowder. (See Military
Systems.)
30
H.
Hanse towns, confederacy
of the, 597.
Haroun Alraschid, maguiti-
cence of the rule of, 304.
Hastings, Lord (temp. Ed-
ward IV.), receives bribe.s
from Louis XL, 63.
Havvkwood (Sir John), mili-
tary renown acquired by,
215. Gratitude of the Flo-
rentines towards him, 216
His skill as a general, ib.
Ilaxey (Thomas), surrender-
ed by the Commons to the
vengeance of Richard II.,
473,489. Important princi-
ples involved in his cas-e,
473, rioted.
Hem-y II. of Castile rebels
against Peter the Cruel,
245- His defeat and sub-
sequent victory, 24(5.
III. of Castile marries
John of Gaunt's daughter,
246.
IV. of Castile, despica-
ble character of, 247. De-
posed by a conspiracv of
nobles, 248. Futile efforts
of his daughter to succeed
him, ib. Contests after his
death, ib.
I. of England, extor-
tions on the Church bv,
358.
II. marries the repudi-
ated wife of Louis VII., 26.
Opposes the tyranny of
the Church of Rome, 361.
Cause of his dispute with
Thomas a Becket, 362.
III. allows Italian
priests in English bene-
fices, 356. Abets papal
taxation on the clergy,
858. Provi.<ion8 contained
in his charter, 423. Worth-
lessness of his character,
424. His perjuries, 425.
His pecuniary difficulties
and extortions, 426. His
expensive foreign projects,
4'i7. Demands of the pope
and resolute conductof the
barons, 427.
IV., policy and views
of, towards France, 50, 54.
Circumstances attending
his succession, 477. Inva-
lidity of his hereditary ti-
tle, 478. His tactics to-
wards the Parliament, 479.
Aid granted to him in 1400,
480. Policy of the Com-
mons towards him, 4S1.
Limitations imposed on
him, 484. He comes to
terms with them, 485. (See
Bolingbroke.)
— - v., his exorbitant de*
698
HENRY.
INDEX.
raands on jDroposing to
raarx'y Catherine of France,
55. Invasion of France bj',
ib. His negotiations with
the Duke of Burgundy, ib.
His marriage and death,
5(5. Life subsidies granted
to him, 431. Improbability
of his alleged dissolute-
ue'ss, 4SG. His claims on
popular affection, ib. His
clemency to the Earl of
March, 541.
Henry VI., Parliamentary
policy during the minority
of,4SG. Unpopularity of his
marriage, 4S7. His con-
duct on Suffolk's impeach-
ment, 48T, 488. State of
the kingdom during his
minority, 534. His imbe-
cility, ib. Solemnities ob-
served in nominatinj^ a re-
gency during his infancy,
536, 537. Provisions in'
consequence of his mental
infirmities, 537, 539.
VII., conductofj towards
the memory of his prede-
cessors, 544.
I., the Fowler, elected
emperor of Germany, 271.
II. of Bavaria, elected
emperor of Germany, 272.
III. of Germany, im-
perial influence extended
by, 272. Instances of his
exercise of absolute pow-
er, ib., 289. His judicious
nomination of popes, 339.
IV. of Germany, prima-
ry cause of the misfortunes
of, 272. Conspiracy against
him during his infancy,273.
His excommunication and
its consequences, ib. His
contests with Gregorv
VJI.,340,341. His humili-
ation by Gregory, 341. The
tables turned, 342.
V. of Germany, acces-
sion and death of, 273, 274.
His compromise with the
popes, 342.
VI. of Germany, his am-
bitious project, 270. His
death, ib.
VII. of Germany, ac-
quires Bohemiaforhisson,
283. His opposition to the
papal power, 8G8.
the Proud, ancestry and
possessions of, 274. Con-
sequences of his disobe-
dience to the emperor's
sumuKHis, ib.
" '— the Lion restored to his
birthright, 275. Fatal re-
sults of his ingratitude, ib.
Hereditary succession, disre-
garded by the Anglo-Sax-
ons, 380. Establishment
of the principle in En
gland, 434-436.
Hereford (earl and duke
of). See Bohun, Boling-
broke.)
Hildebrand. (See Gregory
VIL)
HonorinsIIL, establishment
of mendicant orders by,
352
Hugh Capet. {See Capet.)
Hungarians, ravages in Eu-
rope by the, 22. Their con-
version to Christianity,
294. Their wars with the
Turks, 295, 290.
Hungary, kings and chiefs
of. {See Andrew, Corvi-
nus, Hunniades, Ladis-
laus, Louis of Hungary,
Sigismund, Uladislaus.)
Hunniades (John), heroic
career of, 295. His death,
290.
Ilnss (John), burned to
death, 293. Characteris-
tics of his schism and his
followers, 033.
InnocentllL, persecution of
the Albigeois by, 28. His
ambitious policy, 164. His
significant production of
tlie will of Henry VI. of
Germany, ib. Position of
the Italian cities towards
him, 165. Use made by
him of his cruardianship
of Frederick^., 107. In-
crease oftemporalauthori-
ty under him, 187. His ac-
cession to the papal chair,
347. Extravagance of his
pretensions, ib. His de-
crees and interdicts, 348.
His interference with the
German emperors, I'fc. His
claim tonominate bishops,
355. He levies taxes on the
clergy, 358. His pretext
for exercising jurisdic-
tion, 300. He exempts the
clergy from criminal proc-
ess, 361.
IV., outrageous pro-
ceedings of, against Fred-
erick II., 172. He quarters
Italian priests on England,
350.
VI. elected pope, 373.
Interdicts, 333. {See Papal
Power.)
Ireland a mediaeval slave de-
pot, 592.
Isabel of Bavaria (queen of
Charles VI.), infamous
conduct of, towards her
husband, 52. Her hatred
of Armagnac, and its con-
sequences, 54. Joins in
the treaty with Henry V.,
56.
Isabel of France, marries
Edward II. of England, 41.
Isabella of Castile. (See
Ferdinand II.)
Isidore, publication of the
False Decretals of, .33(i.
Theircharacterandohject,
ib. Authority accorded tu
them by Gratiau, 350.
Italy, occupied by the Ostro
goths, 7. Its subjection uy
the Lombards, 12. Con-
quests (< f Pepin and Charle-
magne, 13. Its state at tl.e
end of the ninth century,
148. Authorities refeired
to for its history, 234, note.
Its monarchs Berenger I.
and II., 148, 149, and note.
Assumption of power by
Otho the Great, 149. Exe-
cution of Crescentius bv
Otho III., 150. Election
and subsequent troubles of
Ardoin, ib. Conditicm cf
its people under Henry II.,
151. Causeofitssubjectiun
to German princes, ib. Ac-
cession of Conrad II., and
consolidation of Germanic
influences, ib. Its Greek
provinces, 152. Incursions
and successes of the Nor-
mans, 152, 153. Progress
of the Lombard cities. {See
Lombards.) Accession of
PrederickBarbarossa, 157.
{See Frederick I.) Its do-
mestic manners, 008, 010.
Jacqnerie, insurrection of
the, 48.
James II. of Aragon, re-
nounces the Sicilian
crown, 222. Undertakes
the conquest of Sardinia,
222.
Jane of Navarre, treaty en-
tered into on behalf i^f,
40. Betrayal of her cause
by the Duke of Burgundy,
41.
Janizaries, institution of
the, 315.
Jerome of Prague, burned
to death, 293.
Jerusalem, foundation of
the kingdom of, 34. Its
conquest by Saladin, 35.
Restored to the Christians
by the Saracens, 36. Title
of the kings of Naples to
sovereignty over it, 16S.
Jews, wealth amassed and
persecutions endured by
the, 111. Their early celeb
rity as usurers, ?ft. Tl^t-r
final expulsion from
JOAN OF ARC.
INDEX.
LEARNING.
699
France, ib. Ordinances
against them, 118. Exor-
bitant rates paid by them in
England, 417. Their mas-
sacre by the Pastoureaux,
580. Their liability to
maltreatment, 584. Their
early money dealings, G05.
Toleration vouchsafed to
them, ib. Decline of their
trade, GOG.
Joan of Arc, character, suc-
cesses, and fate of, 58. Her
name and birthplace, ib.
Joanuaof Naples, married to
Andrew of Hungary, 223.
Her husband's murder im-
puted to her, ib. She dies
by violence, 224.
. II. of Naples, and her
favorites, 22G. Her vacil-
lation relative to her suc-
cessors, ib.
John I. of Castile, accession
of, 24G.
- — II. of Castile, wise gov-
ernment by the guardians
of, during his infancy, 24G.
He disgraces and destroys
his favorite Alvaro de Lu-
na, 247. His death, -t'i;. Its
results, 248.
(king of England), cited
before Philip Augustus, 27.
Results of his contumacy,
ib. Singular fines levied
by him, 418. His rapacity
419. Magna Charta, 422,
423.
^ — I. of France, birth and
death of, 41.
^ — II. of France, character
of, 45. Submits to the
peaceof Bretigui, 49. His
response to the citizens
of Kochelle, ib.
< of Procida, designs of,
on Sicily, 221. Results of
his intrigues, ib.
■ VIII. (pope), asserts a
right to nominate the em-
peror, 3M.
. XXII. (pope), claims su-
premacy over the empire,
.3G9. His dispute with
Louis of Bavaria, ib. He
persecutes the Francis-
cans, 370. His immense
treasures, .371.
XXIII. (pope), convokes
and is deposed by the
Council of Constance, 374.
Judith of Bavaria, marries
Louis the Debonair, 17.
Julian's betrayal of Spain to
the Moors: credibility of
the legend, 237.
Jury. (See Trial by Jury.)
Justice, administration of,
under Charlemagne, 127.
Various kinds of feudal
jurisdiction, ib. Judicial
privileges assigned to the
owners of tiefs, ib. Trial
by combat, 128, and note.
The establishments of St.
Louis, 129. Limitations on
trial by combat, 130. Roy-
al tribunals and their ju-
risdiction, 131. The court
of peers, ib. The Parlia-
ment of Paris and its law-
yers, 131, 132. Imperial
chamberofthe empire, 290.
Its functions and jurisdic-
tion, ib. The six circles
and the Aulic council, 291.
Character of the king's
court in England, 429. Im-
portance of the office of
chief justiciary, ib., note.
Functions of the Ccjurt of
Exchequer, 430, and 7iote.
Institution of justices of
assize, 430, 431. Estab-
lishment of the Court of
Common Pleas, 431. Ori-
gin of the common law,
432. Difference between
the Anglo-Saxon and An-
glo-Norman systems of
jurisprudence, 432, 433.
Complicated character of
English laws, 433. Juris-
diction of the king's coun-
cil, 508-513. Rarity of in-
stances of illegal condem-
nation, 519.
King's council (England), ju-
risdiction of the, 508. Its
composition, ib. Its en-
croachments, 509. Limit-
ations on its power, 510.
Remonstrances of the
Commons, ib. Its legis-
lative status, 511. Its fre-
quent junction with the
Lords' house, 511-513.
Bench, court of, 430.
Knighthood. (&e Chivalry.)
Knights Templars, institu-
tion of the order of, 35.
Their large possessions
and rapacity, ib. Question
of their guilt and inno-
cence, 38. Count Purg-
stall's charges against
them, 39. Raynouard's
attempted refutation, 40.
Their estates and remark-
able influence in Spain,
241.
Koran, characteristics of the,
302.
Laborers, amount of Avages
paid to, G24. Degree of
comfort thereby indicated,
ib.
Ladislaus of Naples, acces-
sion of, 225. Energy dis-
played by him, ib. His
death, 226.
of Hungary, defeat of
the partisans of, 295. His
accession to the throne, ib.
His death, 29G.
Lancaster (duke of), ascen-
dency of, over Edward
HI., 464. His ambitious
projects, 4G5. Cause of his
.retirement from court, 4G7.
His quarrel with Arundel
and Gloucester, 472. His
marriage with Katherine
Swineford, ib. His ante-
nuptial children by her,
ib. Conduct of Richar(?
II. on his death, 47G.
Lancastrians and Yorkists,
wars of the, 541, 542.
Lando (Michel di), cause of
the elevation of, 197. His
just exercise of power, 197,
198.
Laufranc (archbishop), arro.
gant conduct of, 409, note.
Languedoc, spread of the
Albigensian heresy in, 28,
and note. Devastation of
the country by the papal
forces, 28. Its cession to
the crown of France, 29.
Its provincial assembly,
124.
Latimer (lord), impeached
by the Commons, 4G5.
Latin tongue, corruption of
the, 5G5. {See Learning.)
Laura (Petrarch's mistress).
(See Petrarch.)
Laws, characteristics of, at
certain periods, 145. Study
ofthe civil law, 648. Faiv.e
of the Bolognese school,
G49. Unpopularity of the
Roman law in England,
ib. (See Justice.)
Learning, causes of the de-
cline of,5G0. Neglect of pa-
gan literature by the early
Christians, 562. Blighting
influence of superstition
and asceticism, 563. Cor-
ruption of the Latin
tongue, 5G5. Rules ob-
served in its pronuncia-
tion, 565, 5GG. Errors ofthe
populace, 566. Changes
wrought by the Italians
and French, 567. Neglect
of quantity, 569. Speci-
mens of verses by St.
Augustin and others, 570,
noteti. Change of Latin
into Rcmiance, 571. Ital-
ian corruptions ofthe Lat-
in, 572. Effect of the dis-
use of Latin, ib. Extent
of Charlemagne's and Al-
fred's learning, 573, and
700
LEARNING.
INDEX.
LOTHAIUE.
note. Ignorance of the
elergy, 573, 574. Scarcity
of books, 574. Erasure of
manuscripts, ib. Lack of
eminent learned men, ib.
John ScotUB and Silvester
II., 570, 577, and note. Pre-
servative effects of relig-
ion on tlie Latin tongue,
676,577. Non-existence of
libraries, 577, note. Preva-
lence of superstitions, 577,
678. Revival of literature,
64S. Study of civil law,
648, 649. Establishment
of public schools, 650. Ab-
elard and the University
of Paris, 651. Oxford Uni-
versity and its founders,
ib. Rapid increase of uni-
versities, 652, 653. Causes
of their celebrity, 654.
Spread of the scholastic
phil()s<)phy, ib. Its emi-
nent disputants, 655. In-
fluence of Aristotle and
of the Church, 655, 656.
Unprofitableness of the
scholastic discussions, 656.
Labors of Roger Bacon
and Albertus Magnus, 657,
658, and note. Cultivation
of the new languages, 658.
The troubadours and their
productions, 658-660. Or-
igin of the French lan-
guage, 660. Early French
compositions, 660, 661.
Norman tales and roman-
ces, 661. The Roman de
la Rose, 662. French prose
writings, 663. Formation
of the Spanish language:
the Cid, 663, 664. Rapid
growth of the Italian lan-
guage, 665. Dante and his
Divine Comedy, 665, 666.
Petrarch and his writings,
669-671. Dawn of the En-
glish tongue, 671. Laya-
hion's Brut, ib. Robert of
Gloucester and other met-
rical writers, 672. Merit
of Piers Plowman's Vis-
ion, ib. Cause of the slow
f)rogress of the English
auguage,rZ>. Earliest com-
positions in English, 673.
Pre-eminence of Chaucer,
673, 674. Revival of clas-
sical learninsr, 675. Emi-
nent cultivators thereof,
ib. Invention of paper,
ib., 676. Rarity and dear-
ness of books, ib. Re-
covery of classical manu-
scripts, 677. Eminent la-
borers in this field, ib.,
678. Revival of the study
of Greek, 679, 680. State
of learning in Greece, 680.
Services rendered by the
mediaeval Greeks, 681.
Opposition to the study
of Greek at Oxford, 6S2.
Fame due to Eton and
Winchester schools, 683.
Invention of printing, ib.
First books issued Yrom
the press, ib. First print-
ing-presses in Italy, 684.
Earliest use of the English
language in public docu-
ments, 686.
Legislation under the early
French kings, 114. The
"Champ de Mars," or
Field of March, 113. Par-
ticipation of the people
in legislative proceedings.
114. Charlemagne's leg-
islative assemblies, 115.
Cessation of national as-
semblies, 116. Assemblies
of the barons, ib. The
cours pleuicres, 117. Lim-
itation of the king's pow-
er, tb. Ecclesiastical coun-
cils and their encroach-
ments, lis. Increase of
the legislative power of
the crown, and its causes,
ib. ■ Convocation of the
States-General, 119. Con-
stitution of the Saxon wi-
tenagemot, 390. Anglo-
Norman legislation, 419.
(See Justice, Parliament,
States-General.)
Leo III. invests Charle-
magne with the imperial
insignia, 14. Charle-
magne's authority over
him, 338.
VIII. confers on the em-
peror the right of nomina-
ting popes, 338.
IX. lends his army in
person, 153. Devotion of
his conquerors towards
him, ib. (See Papal Pow-
er.)
Leon, foundation of the
kingdom of, 238. Its king
killed in battle, ib. Its
union with Castile, 242.
Leopold of Austria defeated
by the Swiss, 298.
Libraries in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries,
676.
Literature. (See Learning.)
Lollards, rise of the, 6.32.
Their resemblance to thej
Puritans, ib. \
Lombards, original settle^
ment of the,'^12. Exten-
sion of their dominions,
ib. Defeated by Pepin and
Charlemagne, 13. Their
mode of legislating, 15.
Progress of their "cities,
154, 155. Frequency of
wars between them, 155.
Acquisition of territories
by them, 156. Democratic
tyranny of the larger cit-
ies, 157. Destruction of
Lodi by the Milanese, ib.
Courage of the citizens of
Como, ib. Exclusion of
royal palaces from Lom-
bard cities, ib. Siege and
subjugation of Milan by
Frederick Barbarossa,159.
Efforts of the Milanese to
regain their freedom, ib.
Destruction of Milan, 160.
League of the Lombard ci t-
ies, ib. Defeat and flight
of Barbarossa, 161. Peace
of Constance, 162. Their
wars with Frederick II.,
169. Party nature of these
struggles, 169. Arrange-
ment of the Lombard cit-
ies, 169, 170. Checkered
results of their conflicts
with Frederick, 170. Their
papal supporters, 171.
Causes of their success,
172. Their means of de-
fense, 173. Internal gov-
ernment of their cities,
175. Revival of the office
of podestii, 176. Position
of aristocratic offenders
among them, 175. Duties
and disabilities of the po-
destii, 176. Their internal
dissensions, 176, 177. Ar-
tisan clubs and aristocrat-
ic fortifications, 177. Vin-
dictiveness of conquerors
of all classes, ib. Inflam-
matory nature of private
quarrels, and their disas-
trous results, 178. Moral
deducible from the fall
of the Lombard republics,
182. The Visconti in Lom-
bardy, 212, (S'ee Visconti.)
London, municipal rights of,
546.
, early election of the
magistrates of, 449, Its
municipal divisions, 546,
Its first lord mayor, ib.
Not exclusively a city of
traders, 547.
Longchamp (William, bish-
op of Ely), constitutional
precedent established by
the banishment of, 421.
Loria (Roger di), naval suc-
cesses of, 222.
Lothaire (son of Louis the
Debonair), associated in
power with his father, 16.
His jealousy of his half-
brother, 17. Territories
allotted to him, 17, and
note. Cause of his excom-
munication, 331.
(duke of Saxony), elect-
ed emperor of Germany,
LOUIS
INDEX.
MILITARY.
701
274. Failure of bis scheme
of succession, ife. The pic-
ture aud couplet relative
to his coronation, 346.
Louis of Bavaria, emperor
of Germany, 283. His con-
test with the popes, 368.
He aids the Visconti, ib.
He dies unabsolved, 369.
I. (the Debonair) suc-
ceeds Charlemagne, 16.
His character, ib. Asso-
ciates his sons in power
with him, ib. His second
marriage and its conse-
qtaences, 17. Enmity of
the clergy against him, ib.
His attempted deposition
by the bishops, 325.
• of Germany (son of the
above) made king of Ba-
varia by his father, 16.
Share of the empire allot-
ted to him on h'« <'«ther's
death, 17. |
II. (the Stammerer),
conditions exacted by the
French nobles from, 19.
v., i;).
VI., state of France at
the accession of, 26. His
contests with the Norman
princes, i ).
VIL, untoward mar-
riage of, and its conse-
quences, 26. Confirms the
rights of the clergy, 2T.
Joins in the second cru-
sade, 34. His submissive-
ness to Rome, 362.
VIII., opposes Raymond
of Toulouse, 29.
IX. (Saint Louis), acces-
sion of, 29. Revolt of the
barons against him, ib.
Excellences of his charac-
ter, his rare probity, etc.,
29, 30. His superstition,
31. He embarks in the
Crusades, ib. Calamitous
results of his first crusade,
36. His seccmd expedition
and death, ib. His Estab-
lishments, 129. His open-
air administrations of jus-
tice, ib. The Pragmatic
Sanction and its provis-
ions, 357. His restraint
on the Church holding
land, 363.
■ X. (Louis Hutin), acces
sion and death of, 40. He
renounces certain taxes,
120.
XL, accession of, 61,
His character and policy,
61. Bestows Normandy
on his brother as an ap
panage, 62. And then de
priveshimofit, 63. Grants
pensions to the English
king and his nobles, ib.
His contests with Charles piracy, 603, 604. Law of
of Burgundy, 65. And reprisals, 604.
with Mary of Burgundy, Marriages, capricious ae-
67. His last sickness and crees of the popes con-
its terrors, 68. His belief cerning, 354. Dispensa-
in relics, ib. Court boast tions and their abuses, ib.
relative to his encroach- Martin (prince of Aragon)
ments, 125. He lepea^.sl marries the queen of Sici-
the Pragmatic SanctiwU,
381. His people oppose
the repeal, ib.
Louis XII. {See Orleans.)
of Hungary invades Na-
ples, 224.
of Anjou adopted by
Joanna of Naples, 224.
His death, 225.
II. of Anjou and Naples,
accession of, 225. Subdued
by Ladislaus, ib.
III. of Anjou and Na-
fles called in by Joanna
L,226. His death, ?6.
Lucius II. (pope), cause of
the death of, 187.
Lnna (Alvaro de), influence
exercised by, 247.
Dis-
graced and beheaded, ib.
(Antonio de) assassin-
ates the Archbishop of Sa-
ragossa, 259.
— (Frederick, count of),
clainis the throne of Ara-
gon, 258.
— (Peter de). (See Bene-
dict XIII.)
M.
Magna Charta, its principal
articles, 422. Text of, 552.
Mandats aud their abuses,
356.
Manfred, brave retention of
the imperial tliroue bv
172. Killed, ISO.
Maniclieans. {See Religious
Sects.)
Manners. {See Chivalrj', Do-
mestic Life, Learning, Su-
perstition.)
Manufactures. {See Trade.)
Manuscripts. {See Learn-
ing.)
Marcel (magistrate of Paris),
why assassinated, 122.
March (Roger, earl of), op-
poses the Duke of Lancas-
ter, 465. His significant
policy, 466. His exclusion
from the throne, 478, 540
Clemency of Henry V. to-
wards him, 541
Margaret of Anjou married
to Henry VI., 4S7. Con
sequences of her impolicy,
541, 542. {See Henry VI.)
Mariner's compass, tradition
of the invention of the
602.
Maritime laws of early
times, 602. Prevalence of
ly, 226. His death, ib.
(king of Aragon) suc-
ceeds to his son's Sicilian
dominions, 226. Contests
for the Aragonese throne
at his death, 258, 259.
- — V. elected poi)e, 376.
He convokes the Council
of Pavin, ib. His concor-
dat with England, 380.
Powers reserved to him
by the German concor-
dats, ib. Rejection of his
concordat by France, 381.
Mary of Burgundy. {See
Burgundy.)
MathiasCorvinus. {SeeCor-
vinus.)
Matilda (countess) be-
queaths her dominions to
Rome, 164.
Maximilian of Austria mar-
ries Mary of Burgundy, 67.
Becomes king of the Ro-
mans, 286. Ascends the
German throne, 289. In-
stitutes the Aulic council,
291.
Mayor of the palace, impor-
tance of the office of, 10, 72,
74. {See Charles Martel,
Pepin, Heristal, Ebroin.)
Medici, rise of the family,
229. Character of Giovan-
ni, ib. Banishment and
recall of Cosmo, 230. His
death: his son Piero, 231.
Death of Julian : popular-
ity aud princely career of
Lorenzo, 232. His bank-
ruptcy repaired at the cost
of the state, ib. His title
to esteem, ib.
Mendicant friars, first ap-
pearance of the, 352. Suc-
cess of their preachings,
ib. Their extensive priv-
ileges, 3.53.
Mercenary troops. {See Mil^
itary Systems.)
Merovingian dynasty, char,
acter of the times during
which it ruled, 8, 71, 72.
Middle Ages, period com.
prised under the term, 559.
Milan, its siege bv Fredericlj
L , 158. Destruction of the
city, 159. It« statistics in
the 13th century, 17.3. Its
public works, ?7>. Creation
of the duchy of Milan, 184.
{See Lombards.)
Military systems of the Mid.
die Ages, character of th«
702
MOGULS.
INDEX.
OSTROGOTHS,
English troops at Crecy,
Poitiers, and Aziucourt,
46, 55. Disadvautages of
teudal obligations in long
campaigns, 139. Substitu-
tion of mercenaries, ib.
Canute's soldiers, and his
institutes respecting them,
140. The mercenaries of
the Anglo-Norman kings,
ib. Advantages of merce-
nary troops, ib. High rate
of pay to English soldiers,
57, 140, and iwte. Estab-
lishment of a regular force
by Charles VII., 141. Mil-j
iiury resources of the Ital-!
iau cities, 213, Their for-
eign auxiliaries, 214. Arms
and armor, ?6. Companies
of adventurers: Guai'nie-
ri's systematic levies, 215.
Sir John Hawk wood's ca-
reer {see Hawkwood). Em-
inent Italian generals and
their services, 21C, 217.
Probable first instance of
half- pay, ib. Small loss
of life in mediteval war-
fare, 218. Long bows and
cross-bows, ib. Advan-
tages and disadvantages
of armor, ib. Introduction
of gunpowder, 219. Clum-
siness of early artillery and
fire-arms, ib. Increased
efliciency of infantry, 220.
Moguls, ravages of the, 311,
312. Their exploits under
Timur, 313.
Mohammed, advent of, 302.
State of Arabia at the time,
ih. Martial spirit of his
system, ib. Career of his
followers. {See Abbassi-
des. Moors, Ottomans, Sar-
acens, Turks.)
II. attacks the Vene-
tians, 227, Failure of his
assault upon Belgrade,
296. He captures Constan-
tinople, 314. Unrealized
schemes for his expulsion,
ib. His European success-
es and reverses, 315.
Monasteries, cultivation of
waste lands by, 31 R. Less
pure sources of income,
ib., 319. Their exemption
from episcopal control,
331, Preservation of books
by them, 576, Extent of
their charities, 583, Vices
of their inmates, rfc. Their
anti- social influence, 584.
Their agricultural exer-l dom of, 238
tions, 618, Neustria, exrent of the do-
Money, high interest paid! minions so termed, 10,
for, 605. Establishment of I
paper credit, 606. Banks of I
Italy, 607, Securities fori
publicloaus,608. Changes!
in the value of monej% 622,
623. Comparative table
value, 623, 7iote. {See Coin-
ing.)
Montfort (Simon de) heads
the crusade against the
Albigeois, 28,
(Simon de, earl of Lei-
cester), his writs of sum-
mons to the towns of En-i
gland, 462. I
Moors , successes of the Span- '
iards against the, 237. Vic-
tories of Alfonso VI., 239.
Cordova taken from them,
242, Cause of their uou-|
expulsion from Spain, 243.
Mowbray (Earl of Notting-
ham andDuke of Norfolk),
made lord appellant, 470,
He espouses the king's in-
terest, 472. His quarrel
with Bolingbroke and its
results, 476.
Municipal institutions, 146,
Municipal rights of Lon-
don, 546. Italian munici-
palities, 153 {see Lom-
bards), Free cities of Ger-
many. (.See Germany, Par-
liament, Towns,)
Murder, gradation of fines
levied as punishment for,
among the Franks, 78.
Rates of compensation
among the Anglo-Saxons,
N,
Naples subjugated by Roger
Guiscard, 153. Contests for
its crown between Man-
fred and Charles of Anjou,
ISO. Murder of the right-
ful heir by Charles,' ib.
Schemes relative to the
severance of Sicily, 221
(see Sicily). Accession of
Robert, 223, Queen Joan-
na and her murdered hus-
band, ib. Louis of Anion
and Charles III., 224, 225.
Reign of Louis IL, 225.
Ambition of the young
King Ladislans, ib. His
death, 226. Joanna II.,
her vices and her favorites,
ib. Career of Alfonso, ib.,
227 {see Alfonso V.), In-
vasion of the kingdom by
John of Calabria, 228. His
failure, ib. Ferdinand se-
cured on the throne, ib.
His odious rule, 233.
Navarre, origin of the king-
note. Its peculiar features
as distinguished from Aus-
trasin, ib. When first
erected into a kingdom,
9. Destruction of its in.
dependence, 10.
Nevil (lord) impeached by
the Commons, 465.
Nicolas IT. (pope), innova-
tions iiitroduced by, 339.
Nobility, origin of in France,
S3, 98. Privileges confer-
red on the class, 100. Con-
sequences of marriage with
plebeians, ib. Letters of
nobility, when first grant-
ed, ift. Diff"erent orders, and
rights belonging to each,
101. Their riglit to coin
money, 109. To levy pri-
vate war, 110. Exce&ses
of the Florentine nobili-
ty, 192. Turbulence of the
Spanish nobles, 245. Con-
tests of the German nobles
with the cities, 287. Rural
nobility, how supported,
ib. Their career, how
checked, 2S9. Source of
the influence of the En-
glish nobility, 524. Their
])atrouage of robbers, 526.
German robber lords, 590.
Legislative province of the
English nobility. (S'ecPar-
liament.)
Norfolk (earl and duke of).
{See Bigod, Mowbray.)
Normans, piratical pursuits
of the, 22. Their plan of
warfare, ib. Sufferings of
the clergy at their hands,
23. Conversion and settle-
ment in France, ib. Their
incursions into Italy, 152.
Successes of their leaders,
153. Their invasion of
England. {See England.)
Nottingham (earl of). {Se«
Mowbray.)
Oaths, papal dispensations
from, 355.
Odo (archbishop). (SecDuu-
stan.)
Oleron, laws of, 603.
Ordeals, nature of, 578.
Orleans (Louis, duke of), al--
leged amours of, with
Queen Isabel, 52, note.
Loses his popularity, 53
His assassination and its
probable causes, r6. Com-
motions which ensued, ib.
(Louis, duke of, after-
wards Louis XII.), claims
the regency during the
minority of "Charles VIII.,
69. Instigates the convo-
cation of the States-Gei>
eral, 125.
Ostrogoths, occupation of
Italy by the, 7. Annihila-
tion of their dominion, 14
othm4.:t.
INDEX.
PARLIAMENT, 703
Othman. (See Ottomans.)
Otho I. (the Great), beuelits
couferred upon Germany
by, 271.
II. and III., chosen em
perors of Germany, '271.
IV. aided by the Milan
ese, 1G6. Enmity of the
pope towards him, ib. Its
consequences, 276. Ob-
tains a dispensation from
Innocent III., 354. Rijjhts
surrendered by him to In
uocent, 355.
Ottoman dynasty, founded
by Othman, 311. Their
European conquests, ib.
Their reverses and revival
under Amurath, 312. They
capture Constantinople,
314. European alarm ex-
cited thereby, ib. Institu-
tion of the Janizaries, 315.
Suspension of Ottoman
conquests, ib.
Oxford University. {See
Learning.)
P.
Palermo, foundation of silk
manufacture in, GOl.
Palestine, commercial value
of the settlements in, COO.
{See Crusades.)
Pandects, discovery of the,
G4S.
Papal power, first germ of
the, 327. Preceded by the
patriarchate, ib. Charac-
ter of Gregory I., 329. His
wary proceedings, ?6. Con-
vocation of the synod of
Frankfort by Boniface,
329, 330. Effect produced
by the False Decretals,
330. Papal encroachments
on the hierarch}', 331. Ex-
emption of monasteries
from episcopal control, ib.
Kings compelled to suc-
cumb to papal supremacy,
ib. Origin of excommuni-
cations, 332. Helpless po-
sition of excommunicated
persons,??). Interdicts and
their disastrous conse-
quences, 333. Further in-
terference with regal rights
by the popes, ib. Scandal-
ous state of the papacy in
the tenth century, 334.
Leo IX.'s reformatory ef-
forts, 330, 337. Preroga-
tives of the emperors rel-
ative to papal elections,
33S. Innovations of Pope
Nicolas II.,. 339. Election
and death of Alexander II.,
840, .341. Career of Grego-
ry VII. {ses Gregory VII.).
Contests of his successors
^ith Henry IV. and V. of
Germany, 342. Calixtus
II. and the concordat of
Worms, ib. Papal opposi-
tion to investitures, 343.
Abrogation of ecclesiastic-
al independence, 345. Pa-
pal legates and their func-
tions, 345, 346. Alexander
III. and Thomas ii Becket,
347. Career of Innocent
III. {see Innocent III.).
Height of the papal power
in the 13th century, 349.
Promulgation of the canon
law, 350. Its analogy to
the Justinian code, 351.
Establishment of the men-
dicant friars, 352. Dispen-
sations ('f marriage, 354.
Dispensations from oaths,
355. Encroachments on
episcopal elections, ib. ;
and on rights of patronage,
356. Mandats and their
abuse, ib. The Pragmatic!
Sanction, 357. Pretexts!
for taxing the clergy, 358. i
Clericiil disaffection to-
wards the popes, 359.
Progress of ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, ib., 360. Op-
position thereto by En-
gland, 361. Careerof Bon-
iface VIII. {see Boniface
VIIL). Decline of the pa-
pacy, 367. Removal of the
papal court to Avignon,
368. Its contests with Lou-
is of Bavaria, ?&. Growing
resistance to the popes, |
369. Kapacity of the Avi-j
gnon popes, 370. Partici-
pation of the French kings
in the plunder, 371, Inde-
pendent conduct of En-
gland, ib. Return of the!
popes to Rome, 372. Con-
test between Urban VI.
and Clement VIL, 373.
The two papal courts,
ib. Three contemporary
popes, ib. Proceedings at
the Councils of Pisa, Con
stance, and Basle, 374, 376
{see Councils). Reflections
pertinent thereto, 37S-3S0.
Effects of the concordat
of Aschaffenburg, 380. Re-
straints thereon in France,
381. Further limits on
ecclesiastical jurisdiction,
882. Decline of papal in-
fluence in Italy, and its
causes, ib. {See Church,
Clergy, Monasteries.)
Paper from linen, when in-
vented, 676.
Paris, seditions at, 51. De-
feat and harsh treatment
of its citizens, ib. {See
Parliament of Paris.)
Parliament of England, con
stituent elements of the,
443. Right by which the
spiritual peers sit, 444.
Earls and barons, ib. Ten-
ants - in - chief in Parlia-
ment, 445. First germ of
representation, 446, 447.
County representation,
447. Parliaments of Henry
III., ib. Knights of the
shire, how elected, 448.
First summoning of towns
to Parliament, 452. The
Parliament of Acton Bur-
nell, 455. Cause of sum-
moning deputies from bor-
ough8,453. Division of Par-
liament into two houses,
454. I'roper business of the
House of Commons, 455.
Complaint of the Com-
mons in 1309, 456. Rights
established by them, 457.
Their struggle with the
king relative to taxation,
456-461. Concurrence of
both Houses in legislation
made necessary, 460. Dis-
tinction between statutes
and ordinances, 461-464,
Interference of Parliament
in matters of war and
peace, 464, Right to in-
quire into public abuses,
ib. Increase of the power
of the Commons under
Richard II., 467, Their
protests against lavi.sh ex-
penditure, 469. Their
charges against the Earl
of Suffolk, 468. Submis-
sion of Richard to their
demands, 470. They come
to an understanding with
him, 471. They fall under
his displeasure, 472, 473,
Servility of their submis-
sion, 473. Necessity for de-
posing Richard, 470. Cau-
tious proceedings of Par-
liament thereupon, 478,
479. Rights acquired by
the Commons during his
reign, 479. Their consti-
tutional advances under
the house of Lancaster, ib.
Their exclusive right of
taxation, 480. Their right
of granting and control-
ling supplies, ib. And to
make same depend on re-
dress of grievances, 481
Establishment of their leg-
islative rights, 481, 482,
Falsification of their in-
tentions, how accomplish-
ed, 482. Introduction of
bills, public and private,
484. Parliamentary inter-
ference with royal expend-
iture, ib. Limitations laid
on Henry I v., 484, 485. Re-
ro4
PARLIAMENT.
INDEX.
PREROGATIVE.
establishment of a good'Peers of England. (SeeNo-
understanding with him, I bility, Paniameut.)
486. Harmony betweeulPeers of France, original
Henry V. and the Parlia-| constitution of the, 131.
ment, ib. Parliamentary! People, their lawlessness,
advice songht on public
affairs, ib. Their right to
impeach ministers
Henry VI.'s mode of evad-
ing Suffolk's impeach-
ment, ib. Assertion of the
privilege of Parliament, ib.
Principles involved in
Thorp's case, 4S8, 489. In-
fringements on liberty of
speech, 489. Privilege of
originating money-bills,
490, 491. The three es-
tates of the realm, 491,
note. Course of proceed-
ings on other bills, 492.
County franchise, in whom
invested, ib. Eepresenta-
tion of towns, 493. Par-
tial omission of boroughs,
493, 494, and notes. Reluc-
tance of boroughs to send
members, 495. In whom
the right to vote was vest-
ed, 496, and iiote. Status^
of the members, ib. Ex
elusion of lawyers from
the Commons' House, ib.
Members originally com-
pelled to be residents, 497.
Election irregularities and
crown interference, ib.
Constitution of tiie House
of Lords, 498. Qualiflca
tion of spiritual barons, ib.
Barons by writ, 499, 500
Distinction between bar
ons and bannerets, 500.
Creation of peers by stat
ute and by patent, 502
Clergy summoned to send
representatives, 503-50"
Remonstrances of the
Commons against the en-
croachments of the Coun-
cil, 509, 510.
Parliament of Paris, consti-
tution and sittings of the,
131. Progress of its juris-
diction, 133. Enregistra-
tion of royal decrees con-
fided to it, 133. Its spirit-
ed conduct in reference
thereto, ib. Interference
of the kings with its priv-
ileges, ib. Establishment
of its independence by
Louis XL, 134. Its claims
on the respect of posterity,
ib.
Paschal II. (pope), opposi-
tion to investitures by,
348.
Pastoureaux. (See Super-
stitions.)
Paulicians. (See Religiouc
Sects.)
585. Their general im-
morality, ib.
Pepin Heristal, usurpation
of supremacy by, 10. He
qui si ti ons, ib. And siege
of Lyons, ib. He taxes
the clergy, 304. He arrests
the pope's legate, 365. He
burns the pope's bulls,
300. Retaliation of the
pope, ib. His stratagem
against the pope, 307. Its
consequences, ib.
restores the national couu- Philip V. (the Long), as-
cil, 114
Pepin (son of Charles Mar-
tel), deposes ChilpericIIL,
12. Ascends the throne,
ib. Subdues the Lom-
bards, 13. His legislative
assemblies, 114.
Perjury, prevalence of, in
the Middle Ages, 580.
Perrers (Alice). (See Ed-
ward IIL)
Peter the Cruel, succession
of, crimes perpetrated by,
245. His discomfiture and
death, 240.
Peter the Hermit. (See Cru-
sades.)
Peter II. of Aragon surren
ders his kingdom to the
pope, 350, 367
III. of Aragon assists
John of Procida, 221. He
accepts the crown of Sici-
ly, 222.
IV. of Aragon, charac-
ter and reign of, 257. Con-
sequences of his attempts
to settle the crown on his
daughter, 258.
Petrarch, his personal char-
acteristics, 609, 670. His
great popularity, 670. His
passion for Laura, ib.
Character of his poetry,
ib. His efforts for the
preservation of manu-
scripts, 677. Was Laura
married or single? 685,
686.
Philip Augustus, accession
of, 20. He cites John
sumption of the regency
of France by, 4(t. Violates
his treaty with his broth-
er's widow, 41. Salic law
confirmed in his reign, 42.
Result of his attempt at
an excise on salt, 120.
VI. (of Valois), regency
and coronation of, 42.
Sketch of his character,
45. His debasements of
the coin, 112.
of Suabia elected em-
Eeror of Germany, 276.
[is assassination, ib.
Piedmont, comparative ob-
scurity of the history of,
170, 7iote.
Piracy, temptations to the
practice of, 603. Difliculty
of repressing it, 604.
Pisa, early naval and com-
mercial importance of, 199.
Her wars with Genoa, 200.
Her reverses and sale to
Florence, 201. Effect of
the Crusades on her pros-
perity, 600.
Pisani (Vittor) defeated by
the Genoese, and impris-
oned by the Venetians,
202. His triumphant re-
call from prison, 203.
Pius II. (See .^neas Syl-
vius.)
Podestii, peculiarities of the
oflice of, 175, 176.
Podiebrad (George), vigor-
ous rule of Bohemia bv,
294.
Poetry, popular, 547.
king of England before Poggio Bracciolini, services
him, 27
English
French
Joins in
Deprives the
crown of its
possessions, ib.
the third cru-
)f, in the revival of learn-
ing, 677.
Poitiers, battle of. (See Ed-
ward III.)
sade, 37. Pope Gregory's Pole (Michael de la, earl of
menaces towards him, 344.
His fear of Innocent III.,
34S. Takes back his repu-
diated wife, ib.
IIL (the Bold), acces-
sion of, 37.
— IV. (the Fair), accession
of, 37. Policy adopted by
him, ib. His resentment
against the English king,
ib. His fraudulent con-
duct towards him, 38.
Successful resistance of
the Flemings against his|
attacks, ib. His farther ac-,
Suffolk), lord chancellor,
468. His impeachment
and sentence, ib.
Pragmatic Sanction of Bonr-
ges, 381. Repealed by
Louis XL, ib. Its popu-
larity with the people, ib.
Liberties secured by it,
382, 383.
Sanction of St. Louis,
enactment of the, 357.
Prague University, 293. Fate
of its rector, ib.
Prerogative of the kings of
England, observations on
PRICES.
INDEX.
SCACCAKIO.
705
the, S13, 514. (See English
Coustitiitioii.)
Prices of commodities, 621-
624.
Printing, invention of, 683.
First boolvs printed, ib.
Italian presses^^ 6S4. (See
Learning.)
Provence annexed to the
French dominions, 70.
Note upon its history, ib.
Public weal, origin of the
war of the, 61.
Purveyance, oppressive op-
eration of the prerogative
of, 514.
Rachimburgii, difference be-
tween them and the Sca-
bini, 115, note.
Raymond VI. (count of Tou-
louse) excommunicated by
Innocent III., 28. Re-
verses of his son Ray-
mond, 29.
Regencies, instances of re-
gencies in England, and
principles deducible there-
from, 535-537.
Religious sects, moral im-
provement accelerated by
the growth of, 627. Ten-
ets of the Manicheaus
and Paulicians, 62S, and
note. The Albigenses, and
controversies respecting
them, 629. Origin of the
Waldenses, ib. Maniche-
ism of the Albigenses, 630.
Persecutions at Oxford, ib.
Secret readings of the
Scriptures, 631. Permis-
sions and prohibitions
concerning the sacred
writings, ib. Continued
spread of heresies, 632.
Strictnesses of Lollard-
ism, ib. Schism of the
Hussites, 633.
Representatiouof the towns.
(See Parliament, States-
General.)
Representative legislation,
first germ of, 115. (See Par-
liament.)
Revenues of the kings of
France, how derived. 111.
(See Taxation.)
Richard L, non-success of,
against Philip Augustus,
27. Joins with Philip in
the Crusades, 35. His
Erowess; terror excited
y his name, ib. Depo-
sition of his chancellor,
421. Enactment of the
laws of Oleron imputed to
him, 603. His character
as a troubadour, 659.
11. loseu ground in
Praucft, 50 j>..< i corona-
tion, 466. His council
during his minority, 467.
His struggles with Parlia-
ment, ib. Sketch of his
character, ib., 468. His
dependence on favorites,
468. Determined conduct
of the Commons towards
him, ib. He yields to their
demands, 469. His further
attempts at independent
rule, 471. His complaint
against the Commons, 472.
Their submission, 473.
His seizure of the Duke of
Gloucester, and other ar-
bitrary acts, 474-^76. Ne-
cessity for his deposition,
ib. Progress of the con-
stitution during his reign,
479. Extent of his mal-
practices relative to the
raising of money, 480.
His attack upon Haxey,
473, 489.
Richard (earl of Cornwall),
chosen emperor of Ger-
many, 277. Absurdity of
the choice, ib.
(duke of York) (sa
York). Rienzi (Nicola di)
sudden accession to pow
er of, 187. His exile, re
call, and death, ISS.
Robert of Gloucester, and
other metrical writers, 672.
of Naples, wise rule of,
223.
(count palatine) super-
sedes Wenceslaus as em-
peror of Germany, 284.
Rochelle, patriotism of the
citizens of, 49.
Rodolph of Hapsburg elect
ed emperor of Germany,
280. Austria conferred
upon his son, 281. His as-
cendency in Switzerland,
296.
Rollo of Normandy, conver-
sion of, 23.
Romance language. (See
Learning.)
Romano (Eccelin da). (See
Eccelin.)
Rome, subversion of the em-
pire of, 7. Portion which
remained subject to it, ib.
Partition of its provinces
among their conquerors,
77. Internal state in the
tenth century, 149. Infa-
mous conduct of candi-
dates for the papal chair,
150. Execution of the
consul Crescentius, ib.\
The senators and their ju-
risdiction, 187. Mutual
animosities of the nobles,
ib. Rise and fall of Rien-
zi, 187, 188. Transient re-
vival of the republican
spirit, 189. (See Papal
Power.)
S.
Saint Boniface. (See Win-
frid.)
Denis, sum paid for re^
deeming the abbot of, 23.
John of Jerusalem,
knights of, 35. Their
enormous possessions, ib.
Louis. (See Louis IX.)
Poll (count of) executed
on the scaffold, 63.
Saiadin, conquest of Jerusa-
lem by, 35.
Salic lands, characteristics
of, 77, 78, and note.
Salic law, circumstances
which led to the confirma-
tion of the, 41, 42. Date
of its enactment, 146. Its
incompleteness as a code,
ib.
Sancho the Great bestows
Castile on his second son,
238.
Sancho IV., 245.
Sanctuary, institution of the
privilege of, 583.
Saracens, expulsion of the,
from France, 11. Their
inroads upon Italy, 23.
Eudon's great victory over
them, 72. Their conflicts
with the Christians (see
Crusades). Thev conquer
Spain, 236. Encroach-
ments of the Christians
on their territories, 237.
Mainspring of their hero-
ism, 302, Their Eastern
conquests, 303. Their tri-
umphs in the West, ib.
Effect of their successes,
304. Their internal dis-
sensions, ib. (See Cru-
sades, Moors.)
Saragossa taken from the
Moors, 239.
Sardinia conquered by the
Pisans, 199. Its cession
to the king of Aragon, 201.
Saxons, obstinate resistance
to Charlemagne by the, 13.
Enormous number be-
headed by him, 15. True
cause of their ware with
the Franks, 72. (See An-
glo-Saxons.)
Schemes of Innocent III. Scabini, representative^char-
for aggrandizing the holy
see, 164. Increase of the
temporal authority of the
popes, 185. Exj)ulsiou of
popes by the citizens, 186.
acter of the, 115. Differ-
ence between them and
the Rachimburgii, t6., note.
Their functions, 127.
Scaccario, Dialogus de 430.
706
SCANDERBEG.
INDEX.
TOULOUSE.
Scauderbeg, protracted op-
position to ttie Turks b3%
315.
Scandinavia and her sea-
kings, 3S4, 385.
Sclavonians, territories oc-
cupied by the, 21.
Scotns (Duns), notices of,
055.
Scotus (John), an exception
to the ignorance of his
times, 575, 5T6, and note.
Scrope (lord), 519.
Serfdom and villenage, dis-
tinctive features of, 103,
107. {See Villeins.)
Sforza Attendolo, rise to dis-
tinction of, 217.
Sforza (Francesco), powerful
position achieved by, 217.
Becomes Duke of Milan,
ib. Joins in the quadru-
ple league, 227. Accession
and assassination of his
son Galeazzo, 229. Policy
of Ludovico Sforza, ih.
He directs the French
king's attention towards
Naples, 233. Short-sight-
edness of his views, ib.
Sheriffs, partiality of, in elec-
tions, 494. How originallv
appointed, 497.
Jicily, conqu
Sicily, conquest of, by Roger
Guiscard, 153. Its subse-
qnent fortunes, 163. Its
rebellion against Charles
of Anjou, 221. The Sicil-
ian Vespers, 222. Oppo-
sition of the Sicilians to
Charles II. of Naples, ib.
Settlement of the crown
on Frederick, ib. Union
of Sicily with Aragon, 22G.
Sigismuud elected emperor
of Germany, 285. His safe-
conduct violated, 293. Ac-
quires the crown of Hunga-
ry, 249. His conduct at the
Council of Constance, 278.
Silk manufacture establish-
ed in Palermo, 601.
Sylvester II. (pope), scien-
tific acquirements of, 576,
twte.
Bimony. {Sec Church, Cler-
gy.)
Slavery, existence of, in an-
cient times, 104. Submit-
ted to by the poor for sub-
sistence' sake, 105. Vene-
tian ani English slave-
trading, 591, 592.
Society, state of. {See Archi-
tecture, Chivalry, Clergy,
Feudal System, Learning,
Superstition, Trade, Vil-
lenage.)
Spain, character of the Visi-
gothic kingdoms in, 236.
its conquest by the Sara-
iie\ii},ib. Kingdoms of Le-
on, Navarre, Aragon, and!
Castile, 238. Reverses of
the Saracens, 239. Charter-
ed towns, 240. Establish-
ment of military orders,
241. Non-expulsion of the
Moors, 243. Its probable
cause, ih. Alfonso X. and
his short-comings, 244.
Frequent defection of the
nobles, 245. Peter the Cru-
el, ib. Accession of the
Trastamare line, 246. Dis-
grace and execution of Al-
varo de Luna, 247. Con-
tests after Henry IV. 's
death, 248. Constitution
of the national councils,
248, 249. Composition of
the Cortes, 250. Its trade
relations with England,
599. (See Aragon, Castile,
Cortes.)
Sports of the fiel d , popularity
of, 587. Addiction of the
clergy thereto, ib. Evils
attendant thereon, 588.
States-General of France,
memorable resistance to
taxation bv the, 47. Con-
voked by Philip IV., 119.
Probability of their earlier
convocation canvassed, ib.
Philip's politic reason for
summoning them, ib. Ex-
tent of their rights as to
taxation, 119, 120. Their
resolute proceedings in
1355 and 135G, 120, 121.
Their protest against the
debasement of the coin,
121. Disappointment oc-
casioned by their proceed-
ings in 1357,122. They com-
pel Charles VI. to revoke
all illegal taxes, ib. Effect
of their limited functions
123. Theoretical respect
attached to their sanction,
ib. Provincial estates and
theirjurisdiction,124. En-
croachments of Louis XL,
125. The States-General
of Tours, ib. Means by
which their deliberations
were jeopardized, ib. Un-
palatable nature of their
remonstrances, 126.
Stephen (king), cruel treat-
ment of the people in his
reign, 417, note.
Succession to kingly and oth-
er dignities. {See Heredi-
tary Succession.)
Snevi, part of the Roman
empire held by the, 7.
Suffolk (duke of), impeach-
ment of, 487.
(earl of). {See Pole.)
Sumptuary laws, enactment
and disregard of, 609, 610,
note.
Superstition, learning dis-
couraged by, 563. Its uni-
versal prevalence, 577. In-
stances of its results, ib.
Ordeals, 578. Fanatical
gatherings : the White
Caps, 579. The Pastou-
reaux,^■6. TheFlagellants,
580. The Bianchi, i&. Pre-
tended miracles, and their
attendant evils, 58L Mira-
cles ascribed to the Virgin,
582. Redeeming features
ofthesystem,?&.,583. Pen-
ances and pilgiimages,
584, 585. {See Religious
Sects.)
Swineford (Katherine), pro-
ceedings relative to the
marriage of, 472.
Switzerland, early history
of, 290. Ascendency of
Rodolph, ib. Expulsion
and defeat of Albert and
Leopold, 298. Formation
ofthe Swiss confederation,
ib. Indomitable heroism
of the Swiss, 299, 300.
Their military excellence,
300. Failure of Maximil-
ian's attempt to subjugate
them, 301.
Syagrius, Roman provinces
foverued by, S. Defeated
y Clovis, ib.
Taborites, fanaticism and
courage of the, 294, 633.
Tartars. {See Moguls.)
Taxation : clumsy substi-
tutes for taxes in the Mid-
dle Ages, 111. Conditions
annexed by the States-
General to a grant of tax-
es, 122. Taxes under the
Anglo-Norman kings, 418,
419, and notes. (See States-
General.)
Temple, knights of the. {See
Knights Templars.)
Tenure of land under the
Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-
Normans, 390-400. {See
Feudal System.)
Teutonic knights, establish-
ment of the order of, 35.
Theodoric, disregard of
learning by, 504.
Thierry (son of Clovis), terri-
tories possessed by, 9.
Timur, conquering career of,
313.
Tithes, establishment of,
319. Charlemagne's ca-
pitulary relative thereto,
319, 320.
Toledo taken from the
Moors, 239,
Torriani. {See Visconti.)
iToulouse, non-submission
TOWNS.
INDEX.
707
of the couuts of, to the
kings of France, 2T. Their
fall, 29. (,S<?e Raymond VI.)
Towns and cities, earliest
charters granted to, 136.
Privileges of incorporated
towns, 136, 137. Their re-
lationship towards the
crown, 187. Independence
of maritime towns, 13S.
Chartered towns of Spain,
240. Their privileges and
duties, 241. Canse of their
importance, 249. Cities of
Germany {see Germany).
Cities of Italy. {See Flor-
ence, Genoa, Milan, Pisa,
Venice.)
, of England, progress of
the, 448. Conversion of in-
dividual tributes into bor-
ough rents, 449. Incorpo-
ration of towusby charter,
449,450. Prosperity of the
towns, 450. Early impor-
tance and populonsness of
London, 451. Participa-
tion of its citizens in con-
stitutional struggles, 452.
First summoning of towns
to Parliament, ib. {See
Municipal Institutions.)
Trade and commerce, me-
diaival non-existence of,
689. Barriers to their
progress, 590. Extent of
foreign commerce, 591.
Home traffic in slaves, 592.
Woollen raanufacturesand
vacillating policy of the
English kings relative
thereto, 594-590. Opening
of the Baltic trade, 597.
Growth , of English com-
merce, 598. Opulence of
English merchants, t6. In-
crease of maritime traffic,
598-GOO. Commercial emi-
nence of the Italian states,
600. Invention of the mari-
ner's compass, 602. Com-
pilaticni of maritime laws,
602, 603. Frequency and
irrepressibility of piracv,
603, 604. Practice of re-
prisals, 604. Liability of
aliens for each other's
debts, 605. Trade profits
and rates of interest, ib.
Price of corn and cattle,
620.
Trial by combat, ceremoni-
als attending, 128, note.
Trial by jury and its ante-
cedents, 393, 394. Early
modes of trial, 405. Abo-
iition of trial by ordeal,
40G. Difference between
ancient and modern trial
by jury, ib. Original func-
tions of juries, ?&. Origin
of the modern system, 407.
Troubadours (the) and their
productions, 65S-660.
Troyes, conditions of the
treaty of, 56.
Turks, Italian fears of the,
228. Triumphant progress
of their arms, 308. Their
defeat by the Crusaders
and Alexius, 309. Their
settlement under Othman,
311. War declared against
them at Frankfort, 314.
The Janizaries, 315. {See
Ottomans.)
Tuscany, espousal of the pa-
pal cause, 170. Progress
of its cities. {See Flor-
ence.)
U.
Uladislaus crowned king of
Hungary, 295. Violates his
treaty with the Turks, ib.
Its fatal results, ib.
Urban II., encouragement
ofthe Crusades by, 32. His
concession to the kings of
Castile, 343.
V. retrausfers the papal
court to Avignon, 372.
VL aids Charles of Du-
razzo in his designs on Jo-
anna of Naples, 224. His
contest with Clement VII.,
373.
Urgel (count of) lays claim
to the crown ofAragon,
259. Rejection of his pre-
tensions, ib.
Usury treated as a crime,
600, 607, note.
V.
Valencia, constitution of the
kingdom of, 267.
Vandals, portions ofthe Ro-
man Empire possessed by
the, 7.
Vase of Soissous, story of
the, 82.
Vassals and Vassalage. {See
Feudal System.)
Vavassors, privilegesattach-
ing to the rank of, 102, note.
Venice, conflicts of, with Ge-
noa, 202. Defeat of her
admiral by the Genoese,
ib. Insolence of the latter
towards her ambassadors,
203. Successful tactics of
her doge, 204. Triumph of
her fleet, ib. Her alleged
early independence, 207.
Her subjection to the f^m-
perors, ib. Her Dalmatian
and Levantine acquisi-
tions, 208. Her govern-
ment: powers of the doge,
209, 210. The great coun-
cil, 209. Checks to undue
influence on the part ofthe
doge, ib. Singular com«
plication in ballots for the
dogeship, 210. Marin Fa-
lieri's treason, 211. The
council of ten and its se-
cret proceedings, ib. Ter-
ritorial acquisitions of
Venice, 212. Venetian
conquests under Carmag-
nola, 213. Wars of the Re-
public with Mohammed
II., 227, 228.
Verdun, treaty of, 18.
Vere, favoritism of Richard
II. towards, 468. His fu-
neral, 471.
Verona, seized by Francesco
da Carrara, 212.
Villeins and villenage : con-
ditions of villeins, 104, 105.
Consequences of their
marriages with free per-
sons, 106. Privileges ac-
quired by them, 107, and
note. Villeinige never es-
tablished in Leon and Cas-
tile, 240. Dependence of
the villein on his lord, 528.
Conditio!* of his property,
and children, ib. Legal
distinctions, ib. Difficul-
ties besetting the abolitior
of villenage, 529. Gradual
softening of its features,
529,530. Merger of villeins
into hired laborers, 530.
Effects of the anti-poll-tax
insurrection, 532. Disap-
pearance of villenage, 533,
534.
Virgin, absurd miracles as-
cribed to the, 582.
Visconti and Torriani fami-
lies, rivalry of the, 182.
Triumph of the Visconti,
184. Giovanni Visconti's
assassination, 213. Filip-
go Visconti's accession, ib.
[isiugratitudeto Carmag-
nola, ib. His alliance with
Alf(mso, 227. Quarrels of
the family with the popes,
368.
Visigoths, portions of the
Roman provinces possess-
ed by the, 7. Their mode
of dividing conquered
provinces, 77. Difference
between the Frank mon-
archy and theirs,
W.
Wages, futility of laws for
the regulation of, 531. {See
Laborers.)
Waldenses. {See Religious
Sects.)
War, private exercise of the
right of, 110. By whom
checked and suppressed,
ib. Its prevalence among
708
WARNA.
INDEX.
ZISCA.
the German nobles, 289,
290.
Warua, circumstances which
led to the battle of, 295.
Warwick (earl of) made a
lord appellant, 470. Ban-
ished by Richard II., 474.
Water-Ordeal. (S'cfiOrdeals.)
Wenceslaus, confirmed in
the Imperial succession,
284. His deposition, ib.
He abets the league of the
Rhine, 388.
Weregild, or compensation
for" murder. {See Mur-
der.)
Wicliff (John), influence of
the tenets of, 380, 532, 632.
William of Holland elected
emperor of Germany, 277.
■ theCouqueror: position
of England at its conquest
by him, 408. Alleged in-
adequacy of the military
f(n-ces of the Saxons, ib.
Their fruitless rebellions
against him, 409. Instan-
ces of his oppressive con-
duct,
astatlng clearances for
forests, 412. And inhu-
man forest laws, ib. His
enormous revenues, 413.
His feudal innovations,
414. Policy of his manori-
al grants, ib. Tyranny of
his government, -llo. Stat-
utes of, 440, 441.
Windsor Castle, laborers for
the erection of, how pro-
cured, 515.
Wiufrid (St. Boniface), im-
portance of the ecclesi-
astical changes effected by,
329.
Winkelried, the Swiss patri-
ot, heroic death of, 300.
Wisbay, ordinances of, 603.
Witikind, acknowledgment
of Charlemagne's author-
ity by, 14.
Witenagemot: its charac-
teristics, 390. How often
assembled, 439. {See An-
glo-Saxons.)
Woollen manufacture estab-
lished in Flanders, 593.
410. His dev-i Export of wool from En-
gland, 594. English wool
Ten manufacture, 595. Pol.
icy adopted towards the
Flemings, ib. Laws rela-
tive to the trade, 596.
Worms, Diet of. {Sec Diet.)
Wykeham (bishop of Win-
chester) invested with the
great seal, 471.
Y.
York (Richard, duke of) ap-
pointed protector to Hen-
ry VI., 538. His claim to
the throne, 540, 541. His
cautious policy, ib.
Yorkists and Lancastrians,
wars of the, 541, 54i.
Zimisces (John), military
exploits of, 307.
Zisca (John), the blind hero,
victories of the Bohemians
under, 220. His exploits ;
enthusiasm of his follow-
ers, 293, 294.
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