THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
GIFT OF
PeriRord
^,.,,A^ /-.^^^^^
c
VIEW
STATE OF EUROPE
THE MIDDLE AGES.
BY H E N R ^ H A L L A. M
E/t 'Kaeo; S' Epe66s tc /jAaiva tc Tiv^ iyhovTO'
TUvKToi i' aSr' AiO/jO te Kai 'H/iipn i^iyCvovTO
HSIOAOr
FROM THE SIXTH LONDON EDITION.
COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME.
NEW YORK:
HARPER ct BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
327 to 335 PEARL STREET,
rSANELIN SQUAB E.
1871.
1 n
P H E F A C i*..
It is the object of the present work to exhibit, In a series of historical
dissertations, a comprehensive survey of the chief cir:umstances that can
interest a philosophical inquirer during the period usually denominated the
Middle Ages. Such an undertaking must necessarily fall under the class of
historical ^abridgments : yet there will perhaps be found enough to distinguish
It from such as have already appeared. Many considerable portions of time,
especially before the twelfth century, may justly be deemed so barren of
events worthy of remembrance, that a single sentence or paragraph is often
sufficient to give the character of entire generations, and of long dynasties
of obscure kings
" Non ragioniam di lor, ina guarJa e passa."
And even in the more pleasing and instructive parts of this middle period, ii
has been my object to avoid the dry composition of annals, and aiimng, with
what spirit and freedom I could, at a just outline rather than a miniature, U
suppress all events that did not appear essentially concatenated with others
or illustrative of important conclusions. But as the modes of govcrnmen.
and constitutional laws which prevailed in various countries of Europe, and
especially in England, seemed to have been less fully dwelt upon in former
works of this description than military or civil transactions, while they were
deserving of far more attention, I have taken pains to give a true represcnla
tion of them, and in every instance to point out the sources from which the-,
reader may derive more complete and original information.
Nothing can be farther from my wishes than that the following pages
should be judged according to the critical laws of hi?lorical composition.
Tried in such a balance, they would be eminently defective. The limited
extent of this work, compared with the subjects it embraces, as well as its
partaking more of the character of political dissertation than of narrative,
must necessarily precKide that circumstantial delineation of events and of
characters upon which the beauty as well as usefulness of a regular Irstory
so mainly depends. Nor can I venture to assert that it \yill be found alto-
gether perspicuous to those wdio are destitute of any previous acquaintance
with the period to which it relates ; though I have only presupposed, strictly
speaking, a knowledge of the common facts of English history, and have
endeavoured to avoid, in treating of other countries, those allusive reference?,
which imply more information in the reader than the author designs to com-
municate. But the arrangement which I have adopted has sometimes ren-
dered it necessary to anticipate both names and facts, which are to find s
more definite place in a subsequent part of the work.
This arrangement is probably different from tliat of any former his.crica!
retrospect. Every chapter of the following volumes completes its paricuiar
subject, and may be considered in some degree as independent of thr. rest.
The order, consequently, in which they are read, will not be very ma erial
thouf^h of course I should rather prefer that in which they are at presei.t dia-
630094
IV
PREFACE.
pose']. A solicitude to avoid continual transitions, and to give free scope to
the natural association of connected facts, has dictated this arrangement, to
which I confess myself partial. And I have found its inconveniences so trifling
in composition, that I cannot believe they will occasion much trouble to the
reader.
The first chapter comprises the history of France from the invasion of
Clovis to the expedition, exclusively, of Charles VIII. against Naples. It
IS not possible to fix accurate limits to the Middle Ages : but though the ten
centuries from the fifth to the fifteenth seem, in a general point of view, to
constitute that period, a less arbitrary division was necessary to render the
commencement and conclusion of an historical narrative satisfactory. The
continuous chain of transactions on the stage of human society is ill divided
6y mere fines of chronological demarcation. But as the subversion of the
western empire is manifestly the natural termination of ancient history, so
the establishment of the Franks in Gaul appears the most convenient epoch
for the commencement of a new period. Less diflEiculty occiurred in finding
the other limit. The invasion of Naples by Charles VIII. was the event
that first engaged the principal states of Europe in relations of alliance or
hostility which may be deduced to the present day, and is the point at which
every man who traces backward its political history will be obliged to pause
It furnishes a determinate epoch in the annals of Italy and France, and nearly
coincides with events which naturally terminate the history of the Middle
Ages in other countries.
The feudal system is treated in the second chapter, which I have subjoined
Lc the history of France, with which it has a near connexion. Inquiries into
the antiquities of that jurisprudence occupied more attention in the last age
than at present, and their dryness may prove repulsive to many readers.
But there is no royal road to the knowledge of law ; nor can any man render
an obscure and intricate disquisition either perspicuous or entertaining.
That the feudal system is an important branch of historical knowledge will
not be disputed, when we consider not only its influence upon our own con-
stitution, but that one of the parties which at present divide a neighbouring
kingdom professes to appeal to the original principles of its monarchy, as
they subsisted before the subversion of that polity.
The four succeeding chapters contain a sketch, more or less rapid and
general, of the histories of Italy, of Spain, of Germany, and of the Greek
and Saracenic empires. In the seventh I have endeavoured to develop the
progress of ecclesiastical power, a subject eminently distinguishing the Mid-
dle Ages, and of which a concise and impartial delineation has long been
desirable.
The English constitution furnishes materials for the eighth chapter. I
cannot hope to have done sufiicient justice to this theme, which has cost me
considerable labour ; but it is worthy of remark, that since the treatise of
Nathaniel Bacon, itself open to much exception, there has been no historica
development of our constitution, founded upon extensive researches, or calcu
lated to give a just notion of its character. For those parts of Henry's his
lory which profess to trace the progress of government are still more jejune
than the rest of his volumes ; and the work of Professor Millar, of Glasgow,
however pleasing from its liberal spirit, displays a fault too common among
the philosophers of his country, that of theorizing upon an imperfect indue
tion, and very often upoi? a total misapprehension of particular facts.
PREFACE.
The ninth and ast chapter relates to the general btate oi society in Europe
during the Middle Ages, and comprehends the history of commerce, of man-
ners, and of literature. None however of these are treated in detail, and the
whole chapter is chiefly designed as supplemental to the rest, in order to vary
the relations under which events may be viewed, and to give a moie adequate
sense of the spirit and character of the Middle Ages.
In the execution of a plan far more comprehensive than what, with a c ue
consideratioii either of my abilities or opportunities, I ought to have under-
taken, it would be strangely presumptuous to hope that I can have rendered
myself invulnerable to criticism. Even if flagrant errors should not be fre-
quently detected, yet I am aware that a desire of conciseness has prevented
the sense of some passages from appearing sufficiently distinct ; and though
I cannot hold myself generally responsible for omissions, in a work which
could only be brought within a reasonable compass by the severe retrench
ment of superfluous matter, it is highly probable that defective information,
forgetfulness, or too great a regard for brevity, has caused me to pass over
many things which would have materially illustrated the various subjects of
these inquiries.
I dare not, therefore, appeal with confidence to the tribunal of those supe-
rior judges, who, having bestowed a more undivided attention on the particu-
lar objects that have interested them, may justly deem such general sketchea
imperfect and superficial ; but my labours will not have proved fruitless, if
they shall conduce to stimulate the reflection, to guide the researches, to cor
'©ct the prejudices, or to animate the liberal and virtuous sentiments of in-
•ii«iikive youth •
"Mi satis airpl^
Merce* e* taibi ,in:««ide deoui.'. ffim ignot'>8 -r SBTum
TuM iMH'i, eittn*-' j,'«i^tujqJ6 injloriu* o. V *
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
TfI5 HISTORY OF FRANCE. FROM ITS
CONQUEST BY CLOVIS TO THE INVA-
SION OF NAPLES BY CHARLES VIII.
PART I.
Fall of the Roman Empire.— Invasion of Clovis.—
First race of French Kings.— Accession of Pe-
pin.—State of Italy.— Charlemagne.-His Reign
ind Character.— Louis the Debonair.— His Suc-
cessors.— Calamitous state of the Empire in the
ninth and tenth Centuries. — Accession of Hugh
Capet. — His first Successors. — Louis VI [. —
Philip Augustus.— Conquest of Normandy.—
War in Languedoc— Louis IX.— His Charac-
ter.—Digression upon the Crusades. — Philip III.
— Philip IV.— Aggrandizement of French .Mon-
flrchy under his Reign.— Reigns of his Children.
—Question of Salique-Law. — Claim of Edward
lit. Page 17
PART II.
An of Edward III. in France.— Causes of his
S jccess. — Civil Disturbances ef France. — Peaco
of Bretiga — its Interpretation considered. —
Charles V.— Renewal of the War.— Charles VI.
-his Minoiity and Insanity.— Civil Dissensions
of the Parties of Orleans and Burgundy. — Assas-
sination of both these Princes. — Intrigues of
their Parties with England under Henry IV.—
Henry V. invades France.- Treaty of Troyes.—
State of France in the first Years of Charles VII.
— Progress and subsequent Decline of the Eng-
lish Arms — their Expulsion from France. —
Change in the Political Constitution. — Louis XI.
—his Character. — Leagues formed against him.
—Charles, Duke of Burgundy— his Prosperity
and Fall.— Louis obtains Possession of Burgun-
dy—his Death.— Charles VIII.— Acquisition of
Brilany 39
CHAPTER H.
J>N THE FEUDAL SYSTEM, ESPECl.VL-
LY IN FRANCE.
PART I.
Slate of Ancient Germany.— Effects of the Con-
quest of Gaul by the Franks. — Tenures of Land.
— Distinction of Laws. — Constitution of the an-
cient Frank Monarchy.— Gradual Establishment
of Feudal Tenures. — Principles of a Feudal Re-
lation.— Ceremonies of Homage and Investiture.
— Military Service. — Feudal Incidents of Relief,
Aid, Wardship, &c.— DifTerent Species of Fiefs.
--F*'i5dsl Law Nviks *»4
PART II.
Analysis of the Feudal System. — [Is local extent
— View of the different Orders of Society during
the Feudal Ages. — Nobility — their Ranks and
Privileges.— Clergy. — Freemen. — Serfs or Vil-
leins.—Comparative State of France and Ger
many. — Privileges enjoyed by the French Vas-
sals.— Right of coining Money— and of private
War. — Immunity from Taxation. — Historical
View of the Royal Revenue in France. — Meth
ods adopted to augment it by depreciation of the
Coin, &c. — Legislative Power— iis state under
the Merovingian Kings — and Charlemagne.—
His Councils.— Suspension of any general Legis-
lative Authority during the prevalence of Feidal
Principles.— The King's Council.— Means adspt-
ed to supply the Want of a National Assembly.
— Gradual Progress of the King's Legislative
Power.— Philip IV. assembles the Stat'^s Gen
eral. — Their Powers limited to Taxation.—
States under the Sons of Philip IV.— States ot
1355 and 1356. — They nearly effect an entire
Revolution.— The Crown recovers its Vigour.—
States of 1380, under Charles VII.— Subsequent
Assemblies under Charles VI. and Charles VII
— The Crown becomes more and more absolute.
—Louis XL— States of Tours in 1484.— Histori-
cal View of Jurisdiction in France. — Its earli-
est stage under the first Race of Kings, and
Charlemagne.— Territorial Jurisdiction. — Feu-
dal Courts of Justice. — Trial by Combat.— Code
of St. Louis. — The Territorial Juiisdicticns give
wav. — Progress of the Judicial Power of the
Crown. — Parliament of. — Paris. — Peers of
France. — Increased Authority of the Parliament.
— Registration of Edicts.— Causes of the Decline
cf Feudal System.— .\cquisitions of Domain by
the Crown. — Charters of Incorporition granted
to Towns. — Their previous Condition. — First
Charters in the twelfth Century. — Privileges
contained in them.— Military Service of Feudal
Tenants commuted for Money.— Hired Troops,
— Change in the Military System of Europe. —
General View of the Advantages and Disadvan-
tages attending the Feudal System - - 33
CHAPTER HI.
THE HISTORY OF ITALY, FROM THE
EXTINCTION OF THE CARLOVINGIAN
EMPERORS TO THE INVASION OF NA
PLES BY CHARLES VIII.
PART I.
State of Italv after the death of Charles the Fat.—
Coronation of Otho the Great.— State c/ Rome
-Conrad I.— Union of the Kingdom of Ital)
CONTENTS.
VU
with the Empire. — Establishment of the Nor-
mans in Naples and Sicily. — Roger Guiscard. —
Rise of the Lombard Cities. — They gradually
become more independent of the Empire. — Their
Internal Wars. — Frederick Barbarossa. — De-
struction of Milan. — Lombarc Lejgue. — Battle
of Legnano. — Peace of Constance. — Temporal
Principality of the Popes.— Guelf and Ghibelin
Factions.- -Otho IV. — Frederick II. — Arratige-
mcntof the Italian Republics. — Secon<! Lombard
War. — E-ttinction of the House of Swab-a.—
Causes of the Success of Lombard Republics. —
Their prosperity — and P'cr.ms of Government. —
Contentions between the Nobility aid People.
—Civil Wars. — Story of Giovanni di Vicenza
Page 125
PART IL
Slate of Italy after the Extinction of the House ol
Swabia.— Conquest of Naples by Charles of
Anjou. — The Lombard Republics become sever-
ally subject to Princes or Usurpers.— The Vis-
conti of Milan— their Aggrandizement. — Decline
of the Imperial Authority over Italy.— Internal
State of Rome. — Rienzi. — Florence— her forms
of Government historically traced to the end of
the fourteenth Century. — Conquest of Pisa. —
Pisa— its Commerce, Naval Wars with Genoa,
and Decay. — Genoa — her Contentions with Ven-
ice.— War of Chioggia. — Government of Genoa.
— Venice— her Origin and Prosperity. — Vene-
tian Government— its Vices. — Territorial Con-
quests of Venice. — Military System of Italy. —
Companies of Adventure. — 1. foreign ; Guarni-
eri, Hawkwood — and 2. native; Braccio, Sforza.
Improvements in Military Service. — Arms, offen-
sive and defensive. — Invention of Gunpowder. —
Naples. — First Line of Anjou. — Joanna I. — La-
dislaus. — Joanna II.— Francis Sforza becomes
Duke of Milan. — Alfonso, king of Naples. —
State of Italy during the fifteenth Century. —
Florence. — Rise of the Medici, and Ruin of their
Adversaries. — Pretensions of Charles VIII. to
Naples - 148
CHAPTER IV.
THE HISTORY OF SPAIN TO THE CON-
QUEST OF GRANADA.
Kingdom of the Visigoths. — Conquest of Spain by
the Moors. — Gradual Revival of the Spanish
Nation. — Kingdoms of Leon, Aragon, Navarre,
and Castile, successively formed. — Chartered
Towns of Castile. — Military Orders. — Conquest
of Ferdinand III. and James of Aragon. — Causes
of the delay in expelling the Moors. — History of
Castile continued. — Character of the government.
— Peter the Cruel. — House of Trastamare. —
John II. — Henry IV. — Constitution of Castile. —
National Assemblies or Cortes. — Their constitu-
ent parts. — Right of Taxation. — Legislation. —
Privy Council of Castile. — Laws for the protec-
tion of Liberty. — Imperfections of the Constitu-
tion.— Aragon.— Its history in *.he fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries. — Disputed succession. — Con-
stitution of Aragon.— Free spirit of its Aristoc-
racy.— Privilege of Union. — Powers of the Jus-
tiza. — Legal Securities.— Illustrations. — Other
Constitutional Laws. — Valencia and Catalonia.
— Unior of two Crowns by the Marriage of Fer-
lioand and Isabella. — Conquest of Granada 197
CFI AFTER V.
HISTORY OF GERMAN y TO THE blEl
Ot^ WORMS IN 1495.
Sketch of German History uni'er the Emperors cf
the House of Saxony. — House of Franconia.-
Henry IV. — House of Swabia. — Frederick Bii
barossa. — Fall of Henry the Lion. — Frederick II
— Extinction of House of Swabia. — Changes ii
the Germanic Constitution. — Electors. — Tciri
torial Sovereignty of the Princes.— Rodolph ot
Hapsburg. — State of the Empire after his Time
— Causes of Decline of Imperial Power. — House
of Luxemburg. — Charles IV. — Golden Bull. —
House of Austria.T-iFrederick 111. — Imperia.
Cities. — Provincial States. — Maximilian. — Diet
of Worms. — Abolition of private Wars. — Im
perial Chamber. — ^'Aulic Council. — Bohemia. —
Hungary.— Switzerland - - - Page 227
CHAPl'ER VI.
HISTORY OF THE GREEKS AND SAKA-
CENS.
Rise of Mahometanism.— Causes of its Success.—
Progress of Saracen Anns. — Greek Empire.—
Decline of the Khalifs. — The Greeks recovei
part of their Losses. — The Turks. — The Cru
sades. — Capture of Constantinople by the Lat
ins. — Its Recovery by the Greeks. — The Mo-
guls.— The Ottomans. — Danger at Constan'.iuo
pie. — Timur. — Capture of Constantinople by Ma
hornet II — Alarm of Europe - - -348
CHAPTER VII.
HISTORY OF ECCLESIASTICAL POWER
DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
Wealth of the Clergy— its Sources. — Encroach
nients on Ecclesiastical Property— their Juris-
diction— arbitrative — coercive — their Political
Power. — Supremacy of the Crown. — Charle
magne — Change after his Death, and Encroach
mentsof the Church in the ninth Century.— Pri
macy of the See of Rome— its early Stage.-
Gregory I. — Council of Frankfort — false Decre-
tals.— Progress of Papal Authority. — Effects of
Excommunication. — Lothaire. — State of thr
Church in the tenth Century. — Marriage ol
Priests. — Simony. — Episcopal Elections. — Im
perial Authority over t[ie Popes. — Disputes coh-
cerning Investitures. — Gregory Vll. and Henry
IV. — Concordat of Calixtus. — Election by Chap-
ters— general System of Gregory VII. — Progres*
of Papal usurpations m the twelfth Century.—
Innocent III. — his Character and Schemes — con
tinual Progress if the Papacy. — Canon Law —
Mendicant Orders — dispensing Power. — Tax a
tion of the Clergy by the Popes — Encroachment*
on Rights of Patronage. — Mandats, Reserves,
&.C. — General Disaflection towards the See of
Rome in the thirteenth cer.'.ury. — Progress o/
Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction. —Immunity of Iht
Clergy in Criminal Cases. — Restraints imposed
upon their Jurisdiction — upon their Acquisition
of Property. — Boniface VIll. — his Quarrel with
Philip the Fair — its Termination. — Gradual De-
cline of Papal .-Vutlioi it y --Louis of Bavar'a —
VI II
CONTENTS.
Secessuxi lo Avignon and Return to Rome. —
Conduct of Avignon Popes — contested Election
of Urban and Clement produces the great Schism.
— Council of Pisa — Constance — Basle. — Meth-
ods adopted to restrain the Papa] usurpations in
England, Germany, and France. — Liberties of
the Galilean Church. — Decline of the Papal In-
fluence in Italy - - - Page 261
CHAPTER VIII
PART I.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF
ENGLAND.
The Anglo-Saxon Constitution. — Sketch of An-
glo-Saxon History. — Succession to the Crown.
— Orders of Men. — Thanes and Ceorls. — Wit-
tenagemot. — Judicial System. — Division into
Hundreds. — County-Court. — Trial by Jury — its
Antiquity investigated. — Law of Frank-pledge —
its several Stages. — Question of Feudal Ten-
ures before the Conquest - • - 318
PART II.
THE ANGLO-NORMAN CONSTITUTION.
The Anglo-Norman Constitution. — Causes of the
Conquest. — Policy and character of William —
his Tyranny. — Introduction of Feudal Services.
— Diffierence between the Feudal Governments
of France and England. — Causes of the great
Power of the first Norman Kings. — Arbitrary
Character of their Government. — Great Council.
— Resistance of the Barons to John. — Magna
Chaita — its principal Articles. — Reign of Henry
III. — The Constitution acquires a more liberal
Character. — Judicial System of the Anglo-Nor-
mans.— Curia Regis, Exchequer, &c. — Estab-
lishment of the Common Law — its effect in fix-
ing the Constitution. — Remarks on the Limita-
tion of Aristocratical Privileges in England 332
PART III.
THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
Reign of Edward I. — Confirmatio Chartarun/. —
Constitution of Parliament — the Prelates — the
Temporal Peers. — Tenure by Barony — its
Changes. — Difficulty of the Subject. — Origin of
Representation of the Commons. — Knights of
Shires — their Existence doubtfully traced
through the Reign of Henry III. — Question
whether Representation was confined to Ten-
ants in capite discussed. — State of English
Towns at the Conquest and afterward — their
Progress. — Representatives from them summon-
ed to Parliament by Earl of Leicester. — Im-
probability of an earlier Origin. — Cases of St. Al-
ban's and Barnstaple considered. — Parliaments
under Edwaid I. — Separation of Knights and
Burgesses from the Peers. — Edward II. — grad-
ual progress of the Authority of Parliament
traced through the Reigns of Edward III. and
his successors down to Henry VI. — Privilege of
Parliament — the early instances cf it noticed. -
Nature of Borough Representation. — Rights of
Election — other particulars relative to Elec
tions. — House of Lords. — Baronies by Tenur?
— by Writ. — Nature of the latter discussed.—
Creation of Peers by Act of Parliament and bj
Patent. — Summons of Clergy to Parliament.- •
King's Ordinary Council— its Judicial and othei
Power. — Character of the Plantagenet Govern
ment. — Prerogative — its Excesses — erroneou.
Views corrected. — Testimony of Sir John For
tescue to the Freedom of the Constitution.—
Causes of the superior Liberty of England con
sidered. — State of Society in England. — Want
of Police. — Villanage— its gradual extinction-
latter years of Henry VI. — Regencies. — Instan
ces of them enumerated. — Pretensions of thf
HoHse of York, and War of the Roses. — Ed
ward IV. — Conclusion - - Page 353
CHAPTER IX.
PART I.
ON THE STATE OF SOCIETY IN LD
ROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
Introduction. — Decline of Literature in the latta
period of the Roman Empire. — Its Causes.—
Corruption of the Latin Language. — Means bj
which it was effected. — Formation of new Lan
guages. — General Ignorance of the Dark Ages.—
Scarcity of Books. — Causes that prevented tht
total Extinction of Learning. — Prevalence oi
Superstition and Fanaticism.— General Corrup
lion of Religion.— Monasteries — their Effects.—
Pilgrimages. — Love of Field Sports. — State of
Agriculture — of Internal and Foreign Trad*
down to the End of the Eleventh Century. — Im
provement of Europe dated from that Age 45C
PART II.
Progress of Commercial Improvement in Germany
Flanders, and England. — In the North of Europe
— In the Countries upon the Mediterranean Sea
— Maritime Laws. — Usury. — Banking Compa-
nies. — Progress of Refinement in Manners. —
Domestic Architecture. — Ecclesiastical Archi-
tecture.— State of Agriculture in England. —
Value of Money. — Improvement of the Mora]
Character of Society — its Causes. — Police.—
Changes in Religious Opinion.— Various Sects
'—Chivalry — its Progress, Character, and Influ
ence. — Causes of the Intellectual Improvement
of European Society. — 1. The Study of Civil
Law. — 2. Institution of Universities— their Cele-
brity.— Scholastic Philosophy. — 3. Cultivation
of Modern Languages. — ProvenQal Poets.—
Norman Poets. — French Prose Writers. — Italian
— early Poets in that Language. — Dante. —
Petrarch. — English Language— its Progress.—
Chaucer. — 4. Revival of Classical Learning.—
Latin writers of the Twelfth Century. — Llter^
ture of the Fourteenth Century. — Greek Litera
ture — its Restoration in Italy. — Invention o*
Piinting 4"*
VIEW
or
THE STATE OF EUROPE
DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
CHAPTER I.
THE HISTORY OF FRaNCE, FROM ITS CONQUEST BY CLOVIS TO THE
INVASION OF NAPLES BY CHARLES VIII.
PART L
/a. ^''the Poman Empire.— Invasion of Clovis.—
f\-«t racoof French Kings —Accession of Pe-
p»> .— Sta'e of Italy.— Charlemagne.— His Reign
asf' Character. — Louis the Debonair. — His Suc-
cessors.— Calamitous state of the Empire in the
niniV. and tenth Centuries. — Accession of Hugh
Ca;yt. — His first Successors. — Louis VII. —
Pb'iliii Ai^gustus. — Conquest of Normandy.—
War in Languedoc. — Louis IX. — His Charac-
ter.— Digression upon the Crusades. — Philip III.
-Philip IV.— Aggrandizement of French Mon-
archy under his Reign.— Reigns of his Children.
— Question of Salique-Law.— Claim of Edward
Bewore the conclusion of the fifth cen-
tv^y, the mighty fabric of empire, which
vurour and pohcy had founded upon tlie
Subversion of seven hills of Rome, was final-
the Rninaii ly overthrown, in all the west
Empire. ^f Europe, by the barbarous
nations from the north, whose martial
energy and whose numbers were irre-
sistible. A race of men, formerly un-
known or despised, had not only dismem-
New settle- ^ered that proud sovereignty,
merits of iiie but permanently settled them-
barbarousna- gelves in its fairest provinces,
''""^' and imposed their yoke upon
the ancient possessors. The Vandals
were masters of Africa; the Suevi held
part of Spain ; the Visigoths possessed
the remainder, with a large portion of
Gaul ; the Burgundians occupied the
provinces watr'red by the Rhone and Sa-
one; the Ostiogoths almost all Italy.
The northwest of Gaul, between thy
Seine and the Loire, some writers have
filled with an Armorican republic ;* while
* It is impossible not to speak skeptically as to
tu» republic or rather confederation of independ-
the remainder was still nominally subjeci
to the Roman empire, and governed by
a certain Syagrius, rather with an inde-
pendent than a deputed authority.
[A. D. 486.] At this time, Clovis, king
of the Salian Franks, a tribe of inva'^ionoi
Germans long connected with ciovis.
Rome, and originally settled upon the
right bank of the Rhine, but who had lat-
terly penetrated as far as Tournay and
Cambray,* invaded Gaul, and defeated Sy-
agrius at Soissons. The result of this vic-
tory was the subjugation of those pror-
inces which had previously been consid-
ered as Roman. But as their allegiance
had not been very strict, so their loss was
not very severely felt ; since the empe-
rors of Constantinople were not too proud
to confer upon Clovis the titles of consul
and patrician, which he was to*) pruden'.
to refuse. t
ent cities under the rule of their respective bish
ops, which Du Bos has with great ingenuity raised
upon very slight historical evidence, and in defiance
of the silence of Gregory, whose see of Tours bor
dered upon their supposed territory. But his hy
pothesis is not to be absolutely rejected, because it
is by no means deficient in internal probability, and
the early part of Gregory's history is brief and neg-
ligent. Du Bos, Hist. Critique de I'Etablis-semeiv
des Fran^ais dansles Gaules, t. i.,p. 253. Gibbon,
c. 38, after following Du Bos in his te.\t, whisper*
as usual, his suspicions in a note.
♦ The system of Pftre Daniel, who denies anj
permanent settlement of the Franks on the lefl
bank of the Rhine before Clovis, seems incapabit
of being supported. It is difficult to resist the pre
sumption that arises from the discovery of the
tomb and skeleton of Childeric, father of Clovis, at
Tournay, in 1053. See Montfaucon, Monumens
de la Monarchie Frangaise, tome i., p. 10.
t The theory of Du Bos, who considers Clovu
as a sort of lieutenar.t of the empe-ors, anJ aa jro»
1»
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE i(JES
[Uhap.
Some years after this, Clovis defeated
ihe Alemanni, oi- Swabians, in a great bat-
tle at Zulpich, near Cologne. In conse-
quence of a vow, as it is said, made du-
ring this engagement,* and at the insti-
gation of his wife Clotilda, a princess of
Burgundy, he became a convert to Chris-
tianity. [A. D. 496.] It would be a fruit-
less inquiry whether he was sincere in
this change; but it is certain, at least,
that no policy could have been more suc-
cessful The Arian sect, which had been
early introduced among the barbarous na-
tions, was predominant, though apparent-
ly without intolerance,! in the Burgundi-
an and Visigoth courts ; but the clergy of
Gaul were strenuously attached to the
Catholic side, and even before his con-
version had favoured the arms of Clovis.
They now became his most zealous sup-
porters ; and were rewarded by him with
eming the Roman part of his subjects by no other
title, has justly seemed extravagant to later critical
inquirers into the history of France. But it may
nevertheless be true, that the connexion between
him and the empire, and the emblems of Roman
magistracy which he bore, reconciled the conquer-
ed to their new masters. This is judiciously sta-
ted by the Duke de Nivernois. Mem. de r.A,cad.
des Inscript, tomexx., p. 174. In the sixth century,
however, the Greeks appear to have been nearly
ignorant of Clovis's countrymen. Nothing can be
made out of a passage in Procopius, where he
seems to mention the Armoricans under the name
ApSopv^^ot ; and Agathias gives a strangely romantic
account of the Franks, whom he extols for theircon-
formity to Koman laws, troXiruii us ra woXAo ;^i'(i)v-
rai 'PouaiKrj, na vo/iois rots nvrots, K. r. A. He goes
onto coiiimen their mutual union, and observes
particularly that, in partitions of the kingdom,
which had frequently been made, they had never
taken up arms against each other, nor polluted the
land with civil bloodshed. One would almost be-
Ueve him ironical.
* Gregory of Tours makes a very rhetorical story
of this famous vow, which, though we cannot
disprove, it may be permitted to suspect. — L. ii.,
c. 30.
t Hist, de Languedoc, par Vich et Vaissette,
tome i., p. 2.'i8. Gibbon, c. 37. A specious objec-
tion might be drawn from the history of the Gothic
monarchies in Italy, as well as Gaul and Spain,
to the great principles of religious toleration.
These Arian sovereigns treated their Catholic sub-
jects, it may be said, with tenderness, leaving them
m possession of every civil privilege, and were re-
warded for it by their defection or sedition. But,
in answer to this, it may be observed : 1. That the
•ystem of persecution adopted by the Vandals in
Africa succeeded no better ; the Catholics of that
province having risen against them upon the land-
mg of Belisarius : 2. That we do not know what
msultsand discouragements the Catholics of Gaul
and Italy may have endured, especially from the
Arian bishops, in that age of bigotry ; although the
administrations of Alaric and The->doric were liber-
al and tolerant : 3. That the distinction of Arian
and Catholic was intimately connected with that
of Goth and Roman, of conqueror and conquered ;
eo that It IS difficult to separate the effects if na-
•innal, from those of sectarian, animosity.
artful gratitude, and by his descendants
with lavish munificence. [A. D. 507.1
Upon the pretence of religion, he attack-
ed Alaric, king of the Visigoths, and, by
one great victory near Poitiers overthrow-
ing their empire in Gaul, reduced them
to the maritime province of Septimania,
a narrow strip of coast between the Rhone
and the Pyrenees. The exploits of Clovis
were the reduction of certain independ-
ent chiefs of his own tribe and family,
who were settled in the neighbourhood
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 splendour and the
guiltiness of his ambition. f
[A. D. 511 ] Clovis left four sons ; one
illegitimate, born before his His descend-
conversion ; and three by his a"'s-
queen Clotilda. These "four made, it i
said, an equal partition of his dominions ,
which comprehended not only France, but
the western and central parts of Germa-
ny, besides Bavaria, and perhaps Swabia,
which were governed by their own de-
pendant, but hereditary, chiefs. Thierry',
the eldest, had what was called Austra-
sia, the eastern or German division, and
fixed his capital at IMetz ; Clodomir, at
Orleans ; Childebert, at Paris ; and Clo-
taire, at Soissons.;}; During their reigns
the monarchy was aggrandized by the
conquest of Burgundy. [A. D. 558.] Clo-
* Modern historians, in enumerating these reg
vli, call one of them King of Mans. But it is dif
ficult to understand how a chieftain, independent
of Clovis, could have been settled in that part of
PVance. In fact, Gregory of Tours, our only au-
thority, does not say that this prince, Regnomens,
was King of Mans, but that he was put to death in
that city : apud Cenomannis civitatem jussu Chlo
dovechi interfectus est.
t The reader will be gratified with an admirable
memoir, by the Duke de Nivernois, on the policy
of Clovis, in the twentieth volume of the Academv
of Inscriptions.
t Quatuor filii regnum accipiunt, et inter se
aequi lance dividunt. — Greg. Tur., 1. lii., c. 1. It
would rather perplex a geographer to m«ke ar
equal division of Clovis's empire into poitions, Oi
which Paris, Orleans, Metz, and Soissons should
be the respective capitals. I apprehend, in fact,
that Gregory's expression is not very precise. The
kingdom of Soissons seems to have been tlie least
of the four, and that of Austrasia the greatest.
But the partitions made by these princes were ex
ceedingly complex; insulated fragments of tern
tory, and even undivided shares of cities, being al-
lotted to the worse provided brothers, by way of
compensation, out of the larger kingdoms. It
would be very difficult to ascertain the limits of
these minor monatchies. But the French empire
was always considered as one, whatever might be
the number ot its inheriiors ; and from accidental
circumstances it was so fiequcntly reunited as fuliv
to keep up this notioa
Part I.,
FRANCE.
IS
taire, the youngest brother, ultimately re-
united all the kingdoms : "but upon his
death they were again divided among his
four sons, and brought together a second
time by another Clotaire [A. D. 613], the
grandson to the first. It is a weary and
unprofitable task to follow these changes
in detail, through scenes of tumult and
bloodshed, in which the eye meets with
no sunshine, nor can rest upon any inter-
estmg spot. It would be diflicult, as
Gibbon has justly observed, to find any-
where more vice or less virtue. Tlie
names of two queens are distinguished
even at that age for the magnitude of
;heir crimes : Fredegonde, the wife of
Chilperic, of whose atrocities none have
doubted ; and Brunehaut, queen of Aus-
trasia, who has met with advocates in
modern times, less, perhaps, from any
fair presumptions of her innocence, than
from compassion for the cruel death
which she undeiwent.*
[A. D. 628-638.] But after Dagobert,
son of Clotaire II., the kings of France
Their degen- dwindled into personal insig-
etacy. nificance, and are generally
treated by later historians as insensati,
or idiots. t The whole power of the king-
Mayors of the dom devolved upon the may-
paiace. ors of the palace, originally
officers of the household, through whom
petitions or representations were laid be-
fore the king. The weakness of sover-
eigns rendered this office important, and
still greater weakness suffered it to be-
come elective ; men of energetic talents
and ambition united it with military com-
mand; and the history of France, for
half a century, presents no names more
conspicuous than those of Ebroin and
* Every history will give a sufficient epitome of
the Merovingian dynasty. The facts of these times
are of little other importance than as they impress
on the mind a thorough notion of the e.xtreme
wickedness of almost every person concerned in
Ihein, and consequently of the state to which soci-
ety was reduced. But there is no advantage in
crowding the memory with barbarian wars and as-
lassinations. For the question al)out Brunehaut's
character, who has had partisans almost as enthu-
siastic as those of Mary of Scotland, the reader
may consult Pasquier, Recherches de la France, I.
viii., or Velly, Hist, de France, tome i., on one side,
and a dissertation by Gaillard, in the Memoirs of
the Academy of Inscriptions, tome xxx., on the
other. The last is unfavourable to Bruuchaut,
and perfectly satisfactory tc my judgment.
t An ingenious attempt is made by the Abb6
Vertot, Mem. de I'Academie, tome vi., to rescue
these monarchs from this long-established imputa-
tion. But the leading fact is irresistible, that all the
royal authority was lost during their reigns. How-
ever, the best apology seems to be, that, after the
Tictories of Pepin Heristal, the Merovingmn knigs
were, in effect, conquered, and their inelTiciency
(va.. a matter of pe;essary submission to a master.
B3
Grimoald, mayors of Neastria and Aus-
trasia, the western and eastern divisions
of the French monarchy.* Tiiese, how-
ever, met with violent ends ; but a more
successful usurper of the royal authority
was Pepin Heristal, first mayoi, and af-
terward duke, of Austrasia ; who united,
with almost an avowed sovereignty ovei
that division, a paramount command over
the French or Neustrian provinces, where
nominal kings of the Merovingian family
were still permitted to exist. This au-
thority he transmitted to a more renown-
ed hero, his son, Charles Martel, who,
after some less important exploits, was
called upon to encounter a new and ter-
rible enemy. The Saracens, after sub-
jugating Spain, had penetrated into the
very heart of France. Charles Martel
gained a complete victory over them be-
tween Tours and Poitiersf [A. D. T32],
in which 300,000 Mahometans are hyper-
bolically asserted to have fallen. The
reward of this victory was the province
of Septimania, which the Saracens ha*'
conquered from the Visigoths. |
Such powerful subjects were not like-
ly to remain long contented change in the
without the crown ; but the royal taniily.
* The original kingdoms of Soissons, Paris, and
Orleans, were consolidated into that denominated
Neustria, to which Burgundy was generally appen-
dant, though distinctly governed by a mayor of its
own election. But Aquitaine, the exact bounds o/
which I do not know, was, from the time of Dago
bert r., separated from the rest of the monarchy,
under a ducal dynasty, sprung from Aribert, brother
of that monarch.
t Tours is above seventy miles distant fromPoi
tiers ; but I do not find that any French antiquary
has been able to ascertain the place of this great
battle with more precision; which is remarkable,
since, after so immense a slaughter, we should ex
pect the testimony of " grandia elTossis ossa se-
pulcris."
The victory of Charles Martel has immortalized
his name, and may justly be reckoned among those
few battles of which a contrary event would have
essentially varied 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 fol-
low, as usual, in the wake of fortune ? Has not
more frequent experience condemned those who
set the fate of empires upon a single cast, and risk
a general battle 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 perma-
nent possession of France, except by means of a
virtory ? And did not the contest upon the broad
campaign of Poitou afford them a considoratle
prospect of success, which a more cautious policy
would have withheld ?
X This conquest was completed by Pepin m 759
The inhabitants preserved their liberties by treatv
and Vaissette deduces from this solemn issuianc.
the privileges of Lanifuedoc Hiet. de Lar^ . toim
i, P 4'3
80
EUROPE DUKIING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chah.
The Lombards.
Aecession 0/ circumstances under which
Pepin. jj ^yj^g transferred from the
race of Clevis are connected with one
of the most important revolutions in
the history of Europe. [A. D. 752.]
The mayor Pepin, inheriting his father
Charles Martel's talents and ambition,
made, in the name and with the con-
sent of the nation, a solemn reference
to the pope, Zacharias, as to the dep-
osition of Childeric III., under whose
i;ommal authority he himself was reign-
ing. The decision was favourable ; that
he who possessed the power, should also
bear the title of king. The unfortunate
Merovingian was dismissed into a con-
vent, and the Franks, with one consent,
raised Pepin to the throne, the founder ,
of a more illustrious dynasty. In order
to judge of the importance of this revo-
lution to the see of Rome, as well as to
France, we must turn our eyes upon the
affairs of Italy.
The dominion of the Ostrogoths was
annihilated by the arms of Belisarius
and Narses in the sixth cen-
tury. But not long after-
ward, the Lombards, a people for some
time settled in Pannonia, not only sub-
dued that northern part of Italy which
has retained their name, but, extending
themselves southward, formed the pow-
erful dutchies of Spoleto and Benevento.
The residence of their kings was in Pa-
via ; but the hereditary vassals, who held
those two dutchies, might be deemed al-
most independent sovereigns.* The rest
of Italy was governed by exarchs, depu-
ted by the Greek emperors, and fixed at
Ravenna. In Rome itself, neither the
people, nor the bishops, who had already
conceived in part their schemes of am-
bition, were much inclined to endure 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 perse-
cution, carried on by two or three Greek
emperors against a favourite superstition,
the worship of images, excited commo-
tions throughout Italy, of which the
Lombards took advantage, and easily
They reduce wrested thc exarchate of Ra-
the axarchate venna from the eastern em-
of Ravenna, pj^g. [A. D. 752.] It waS
far from the design of the popes to
see their nearest enemies so much ag-
* The history, character, and policy of the Lom-
bards are well treated by Gibbon, c. 45. See, too,
the fourth and fifth books of Giannone, and some
Dapers by Gaillard in the Memoirs of the Academy
af in»criptiDns, tomes xxxii., xxxv., xlv.
grandized ; and any effectual assistance
from the Emperor Constantine Coprony
mus would have kept Rome still faithful
But having no hope from his arms, and
provoked by his obstinate intolerance,
the pontiffs had recourse to France ;*
and the service they had rendered to Pe-
pin led to reciprocal obligations of the
greatest magnitude. At the ^.^ichPerin
request of Stephen II., the reconquers, are
new king of France descend- bestows on the
ed from the Alps, drove the ^°''*'
Lombards from their recent conquests,
and conferred them upon the pope. This
memorable donation nearly comprised the
modern provinces of Romagna and thc
March of Ancona.f
[A. D. 768.] The state of Italy, which
had undergone no change for ,,^ ,
, ^ ° . ■ ° Charlemacne.
nearly two centuries, was
now rapidly verging to a great revolu-
tion. 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 pow-
er 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 Charle-
magne, after the death of his brotnei
Carloman had reunited the Prankish em
pire under his dominion^ [A. D. 772],
to subjugate the kingdom of He conquers
Lombardy. [A. D. 774.] Nei- Lombardy;
ther Pavia nor Verona, its most con-
siderable cities, interposed any mate-
rial delay to his arms ; and the chief re-
sistance 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 Charle-
magne far less than the dark forests of
* There had been some previous overtures tc
Charles Mariel, as well as to Pepin himself; the
habitual sagacity of the court of Rome perceiving
the growth of a new western monarchy, which
would be, in faith and arms, their surest ally.—
Muratori, Ann. d'lial., A. D. 741.
t Giannone, 1. v., c. 2.
t Carloman, younger brother of Chti.Vs, tooX
the Austrasian or German provinces of the em-
pire. The custom of partition was so fully estab
iished, that those wise and ambitious princes,
Charles Martel, Pepin, and Charlemagne himself,
did not venture to thwart the public opinion by
introducing primogeniture. Carloman would noi
long have stood against his brother ; who, aftei
his death, tasurped the in'jeritance of his two \m
fant children.
Pakt 1]
FRANCL
tl
and Saxony.
Germany. For neilner the southern
provinces, nor Sicily, could have with-
stood his power, if it had been steadily
directed against them. Even
pa«of .Spam; ^^^^-^^ hardly drew so much
of his attention, as the splendour of the
prize might naturally have excited. He
gained, however, a very important ac-
cession o his empire, by conquering
from the Saracens the territory contain-
ed between the Pyrenees and the Ebro.
This was formed into the Spanish March,
governed by the Count of Barcelona, part
of wliich, at least, must be considered as
appertaining to France till the twelfth
century.*
But the most tedious and difficult
achievement of Charlemagne
was the reduction of the Sax-
ons. 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 Saxons broke into fresh rebellion ;
which his unparalleled rapidity of move-
ment seldom failed to crush without de-
ay. 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-peo-
pled, in which their descendants pre-
served the same unconquerable spirit of
resistance to oppression. Many fled to
the kingdoms of Scandinavia, and, mm-
gling with the Northmen, who were just
preparing to run their memorable career,
revenged upon the children and subjects
of Charlemagne the devastation of Sax-
ony. The remnant embraced Christi-
anity, their aversion to which had been
the chief cause of their rebellions, and
acknowledged tlie sovereignty of Char-
lemagne ; a submission, which even Witi-
kind, the second Arminius of Germany,
after such irresistible conviction of her
destiny, did not disdain to make. But
ihey 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
* The counts of Barcelona always acknowl-
edged the feudal superiority of the kings of France,
till some time after their own title had been mer-
ged in that of kings of Aragon. In 1180, legal in-
struments executed in Catalonia ceased to be da-
ted by the year of the King of France ; and as
here certainly remained no other mark of depend-
ance, the separation of the principality may be
referred to that year. But the rights of the French
crown over it were finally ceded by Louis IX.. in
1258.— De Marca, Marca Hispanica, p. 514. Art
ie verifier les Dates t.. ii., p. 291.
distinguished by their original character
among the nations of Germany.
The successes of Charlemagne on t.'ie
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 na-
tions, or those whom fe; r had made de-
pendant allies, were en!| loyed to subju-
gate their neighbours ; and the incessant
waste of fatigue and the sword was sup
plied by a fresh population
that swelled the expanding dolmnion''s'"'
circle of dominion. I do not
know that the limits of the new western
empire are very exactly defined by con-
temporary writers, nor would it be easy
to appreciate the degree )f subjection in
which the Sclavonian inoes were held
As an organized mass of provinces, regu
larly governed by imperial office iS, 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 Vien
na, and prolonged to the Gulf of Istria
Part of Dalmatia was comprised in the
dutchy of Friuli. In Italy, the empire
extended not much beyond the modern
frontier of Naples, if we exclude, as was
the fact, the dutchy of Benevento from
any thing more than a titular subjection.
The Spanish boundary, as has been said
already, was the Ebro.*
[A. D. 800.] A seal ^vas put to the glu
ry of Charlemagne, when Leo ^jg Corona
III., in the name of the Ro- tionasemp*'
man people, placed upon his "■'"■•
head the imperial crown. His fathei,
Pepin, had borne the title of patrician,
and he had himself exercised, with that
title, a regular sovereignty over Rome.-f
*I follow in this the map of Koch, in his Ta
bleau des Revolutions de I'Europe, tome i. That
of Vaugontiy, Paris, 1752, includes the dependant
Sclavonic tribes, and carries the limit of the em-
pire to the Oder and frontiers of Poland. The au
thors of L'Art de verifier les Dates extend it to the
Raab. It would require a long examination to give
a precise statement.
t The patricians of the lower empire were gov-
ernors sent from Constantinople to the provinces.
Rome had long been accustomed to their name
and power. The subjection jf the Romans, both
clergy and laity, to Charlemagne, as well before as
after he bore the imperial name, seems to beestub
lished. — See Dissertation Historique, par Le Blanc
subjoined to his Traite des Monnoyes de France,
p. 18, and St. Marc, Abr^ge Chronologique de
I'Histoire de I'ltalie, t. i. The first of these wri-
ters does not allow that Pepin exercised any author-
ity at Rome. A good deal of obscurity rests ovei lu
internal government for nearfiftv years ; but there
is some reason to believe that Hie nominal sover
eignty of the Greek emperors was not entirely at
roga'H.— Mur-jtoru Annali d'ltalia. ad ami. "^2
82
EUROPE DURING THK MIDDLE VGES.
[L,nAP. I
■"iloney was coii ed in his name, and an |
oath of fidelity was taken by the clergy
and people. But the appellation of em-
peror seemed to place his authority over
all his subjects on a new footing. It was
full of high and indefinite pretension,
ending to overshadow the free election
of the Franks by a fictitious descent from
Augustus. A fresh oath of fidelity to him
as emperor was demanded from his sub-
jects. His own discretion, however, pre-
vented him from alfecting those more
despotic prerogatives, which the imperial
name might stiU be supposed to convey.
In analyzing the characters of he-
roes, It is hardly possible to separate
altogether the share of for-
H.s character. ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ rp^^
epoch made by Charlemagne in the his-
tory of the world, the illustrious families
which prided themselves in him as their
progenitor, the very legion* of romance,
which are full of liis fabulous exploits,
have cast a lustre around his head, and
testify the greatness that has imbodied
itself in his name. None indeed of Char-
lemagne's wars can be compared witli
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 patriotic
resistance. As a scholar, his acquisitions
were probably httle superior to those of
his unrespected son ; and in several points
of view the glory of Charlemagne might
be extenuated by an analytical dissec-
vion.* But, rejecting a mode of judging
equally uncandid and fallacious, we shall
find that he possessed in every thing
that grandeur of conception which dis-
tinguishes extraordinary minds. Like
Alexander, he seemed born for universal
innovation: in a life restlessly active,
we see him reforming the coinage, and
estabhshing the legal divisions of money ;
St. Marc, t. i., p. 356, 372. A mosaic, still extant
in the Lateran palace, represents our Saviour giv-
iiig the keys to St. Peter with one hand, and with
the other a standard to a crowned prince, bearing
the inscription, Constantine V., But Constantine
V. did not begin to reign till 780; and if this piece
of workmanship was made under Leo III., as the
authors of L'Art de verifier les Dates imagine, it
could not be earlier than 795.— T. i., p. 262. Mura-
tori, ad ann. 798. However this may be, there can
he no question that a considerable share of juris-
diction and authority was practically exercised by
the popes during this period.— Vid. Murat., ad ann.
789.
♦ Eginhard attests his ready eloquence, his per-
fect mastery of Latin, his knowledge of Greek, so
far as to read it, his acquisitions in logic, grammar,
hetoric, and astronomy. But the anonymous au-
hor of the life of Louis the Debonair attributes
of these accomplishments to that infortu-
prince
gathering about him the learned of every
country ; founding schools, and collect
ing libraries ; interfering, but with the
tone of a king, in religious controversies;
aiming, though prematurely, at the lor
mation of a naval force ; attempting, for
the sake of commerce, the magnificent
enterprise of uniting the Rhine and Dan-
ube ;* and meditating to mould the dis-
cordant codes of Roman and barbarian
laws into a uniform system.
The great qualities of Charlemagi e
were indeed alloyed by the vices of <
barbarian and a conqueror. Nine wives
whom he divorced with very little cere
mony, attest the license of his private
life, which his temperance and frugality
can hardly be said to redeem. f Unspa-
ring of blood, though not constitution-
ally cruel, and wholly indiff"erent to the
means which his ambition prescribed, he
beheaded in one day four thousand Sax-
ons ; an act of atrocious butchery, after
which his persecuting edicts, pronoun
cing the pain of death against those Avho
refused baptism, or even who ate flesh
during Lent, seem scarcely worthy of
notice. This union of barbarous ferocitj
with elevated views of national improve-
ment, might suggest the parallel of Petei
the Great. But the degrading habits and
brute violence of the Muscovite place
him at an immense distance from the re
storer of the empire.
A strong sympathy for intellectual ex-
cellence was the leading characteristic o'
Charlemagne, and this undoubtedly biaa
ed 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 w^as as
the bow of Ulysses, which could not be
drawn by any weaker hand. In the dark
ages of European history, the reign ot
Charlemagne affords a solitary resting
place between two long periods of turbu-
lence and ignominy, deriving the advan-
* See an essay upon this project in the Memoirs
of the Academy of Inscriptions, tome xviii. The
rivers which were designed to form the links of
this junction were the Altniuhl, the Regnitz, and
the Maine ; but their want of depth, and the spon-
giness of the soil, appear to present inauperabl*
impediments to its completion.
■f I apprehend that there is no foundation for th«
charge of an incestuous passion for his daugh*er^
which Voltaire calls une foiblesse. The erroi
seems to have originated in a misinterpreted pas-
sage of Eginhard. These ladies, indeed, were fat
from being models of virtue, and their lives brougb)
scandal unon the roya pa'ace-
I ART i J
fKANCK
la
lages of contrasi both from that of the
preceding dynasty, and of a posterity for
whom lie had formed an empire which
they were unworthy and unequal to main-
tain.*
[A. D. 814.] Pepin, the eldest son of
Louis the Charlemagne, died before him.
Debonair, leaving a natural son, named
Bernard.! Even if he had been legit-
imate, the right of representation was
not at all estabhshed during these ages ;
indeed, the general prejudice seems to
have inchned against it. Bernard, there-
fore, kept only the kingdom of Italy,
which had been transferred to his father ;
while Louis, the younger son of Charle-
magne, inherited the empire. [A. D.
817.] But, in a short time, Bernard, hav-
ing attempted a rebellion against his un-
cle, was sentenced to lose his eyes, which
occasioned his death ; a cruelty more
agreeable to the prevailing tone of man-
ners, than to the character of Louis, who
bitterly reproached himself for the sever-
ity he had been persuaded to use.
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 de-
cay. I do not know that Louis deserves
80 much contempt as he has undergone ;
but historians have in general more in-
dulgence for splendid crimes, than for
the weaknesses of virtue. There was no
defect in Louis's understanding or cour-
age ; he was accomplished in martial ex-
ercises, and in all the learning which an
education, excellent for tliat age, could
supply. No one was ever more anxious
to reform the abuses of administration ;
and whoever 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 em-
* The lite of Charlemagne, by Gaillard, without
iieing made perhaps so interesting as it ought to
liave been, presents an adequate view both ot his
actions and character. — Schmidt, Hjst. des AUe-
mands, tome ii., appears to me a superior writer.
t A contemporary author, Thegan, ap. .Muratori,
A. D. 810, asserts that Bernard was born of a con-
cubine. I do not know why modern historians
leprcsent it otherwise.
t These names, as a French writer observes,
meant the same thing. Pius had, even in good
Latin, the ?3nse of mitis meek, forbearing, or what
the French call debonair.— Synonymesde Rouband,
tome i., p. 257. Our English word debonair is
hardly used in the same sense, if inde«d it can be
called an English word ; but I liave not aUered
Louis's appellation, by which he is so well known.
if ychnudt. Hist, des Allemands, tome ii., has
done more iustice than other historians to Louis's
pire should have been sfHje lily dissolved ;
a succession of such men as Charles Mar-
tel, Pepin, and Charlemagne, could alone
have preserved its integrity ; but the mis-
fortunes of Louis and his people were
immediately owing to the following er*
rors of his conduct.
[A. D. 817.] iSoon after his accti
sion, Louis thought fit to asso- m^ misfor-
ciate his eldest son Lothaire to tunes and
the empire, and to confer the '^'■'■°'^-
provinces of Bavaria and Aquitaine, do
subordinate kingdoms, upon the two
younger, Louis and Pepin. The step
was, in appearance, conformable to his
father's policy, who had acted towards
himself in a similar maimer. But such
measures are not subject to general rules.,
and exact a careful regard to characters
and circumstances. The principle, how-
ever, which regulated this division, was
learned from Charlemagne,* and could
alone, if strictly pursued, have given uni-
ty and permanence to the emiJire. The
elder brother was to preserve his superi-
ority 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 superior-
ity of the head of the family. f This com-
pact was, from the beginning, disliked by
the younger brothers ; and an event, upon
which Louis does not seem to have cal-
culated, soon disgusted his colleague Lo-
thaire. Jud.th of Bavaria, the emperor's
second wife, an ambitious woman, bore
him a son, by name Charles, wliom 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 dismember-
ed 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
character. Vaissette attests the goodness d( his
government in Aquitaine, which he held as a sub-
ordinate kingdom during his father's life. It ck-
tended from the Loire to the Ebro, so that the trust
was not contemptible. — Hist, de Languedoc, tome
i., p. 476.
* Charlemagne had made a prospective arrange-
ment in 80G, the conditions of which are nearly the
same as those of Louis; bnt the death of his two
elder sons, Charles and Pepii, prevented its takici
effect. — lialuz. Capitularia, p. 44'.
t Baluzii Cauitularia, tomi- i, p 575.
14
EcROPE DURING THL MIDDLE AGES.
[Ce.7 •
enemies, whom it liad been another error
of the emperor to provoke. Charlemagne
had assumed a thorough control and su-
premacy over the clergy; and his son
was perhaps still more vigilant in chasti-
sing their irregularities, and reforming
their rules of discipline. But to this,
which they had been compelled to bear
it the hands of the first, it was not equal-
y easy for the second to obtain their sub-
mission. Louis, therefore, drew on him-
self the inveterate enmity of men, who
united with the turbulence of martial
nobles, a skill in managing those engines
of offence which were peculiar to their
order, and to which the implicit devotion
of his character laid him very open. Yet,
after many vicissitudes of fortune, and
many days of ignominy, his wishes were
eventually accomplished. [A. D. 840.]
Charles, his youngest son, sur-
ftf/emp^re*"" named the Bald, obtained, up-
among his on his death, most part of
Loihaire France, while Germany fell to
Louis, and the share of Louis, and the
Charles ihe pest of the imperial dominions,
^^''^' with the title, to the eldest,
Lothaire. [A. D. 847.] This partition
was the result of a sanguinary, though
short, contest ; and it gave a fatal blow
lo the empire of the Franks. For the
treaty of Mersen, in 847, abrogated 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.*
The subsequent partitions made among
the children of these brothers
Decline of r . . , . ^
the Cariovin- ^re 01 too rapid succession to
Rian family, be here related. In about
S'emperor ^or^y years, the empire was
381. King of nearly reunited under Charles
epose /. jjj^jjy . jjy^ jjjg gj^oj.(. a,nd in-
glorious reign ended in his deposition.
From this time the possession of Italy
was contested among her native prin-
ces ; Germany fell at first to an illegit-
imate descendant of Charlemagne, and
Dismember- j'^ a short time was entirely
meiit of the lOSt by hlS family ; two king-
empire, doms, afterward united,! were
* Baluzii Capitularia, tome ii., p. 42. Velly,
lume ii., p. 75. The expressions of this treaty are
perhaps equivocal ; but the subsequent conduct of
the brothers and their family justifies the construc-
tion of Velly, which I have followed.
+ These kingdoms were denominated Provence
wtd Transjurane Burgundy. The latter was very
•mall, comprising only part of Switzerland ; but Us
•econd sovereifn, Rodolph II., acquired bv treaty
almost the while of the former; and the two uni-
leH were cUe^ the kingdom of Aries This lastrd
formed by usurpers, out of wnat wa/
then called Burgundy, and comprised the
provinces between the Rhone and the
Alps, with Franche Comte, and great pa ^
of Switzerland. In France,
the Car\ovingian kings con- France"*^
tinued for another centuiy; Eudesss?
but their line was interrupted g'^'^'i'^gg*
two or three times by the R^ert? siw
election or usurpation of a Ralph 92s.
powerful family, the counts of gs^e^'^iJ^hair*
Paris and Orleans, who end- 954! Louis v
ed, like tJie old mayors of ^f par"^'"'"
the palace, in dispersing the
phantoms cf royalty they had profess-
ed to serve.* 'Hugh Capet, the rep.
resentative of this house, upon the
death of Loms V. placed himself upon the
throne ; thus founding the third and most
permanent race of French sovereigns.
Before this happened, the descendants of
Charlemagne had sunk into insignifi-
cance, 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 nominal fidelity of
the feudal system, maintained its practi-
cal independence and rebellious spirit.
These were times of great misery to
the people, and the worst, per-
haps, that Europe has ever ^'*'® °^ '**
known. Even under Charle- ^*°^**
magne, 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 pro-
prietors, who had once considered them-
selves as only called upon to resist for-
eign invasion, were harassed with end-
less expeditions, and dragged away to the
Baltic Sea or the banks of the Drave.
Many of them, as we learn from his ca-
pitularies, became ecclesiastics to avoid
military conscription. f But far worse
from 933 to 1032, whwi Rodolph III. bequeathed
his dominions to the Emperor Conrad II. — Art de
verifier les Dates, tome ti., p. 427—132.
* The family of Capet is generally admitted to
possess the most ancient pedigree of any sovereign
line in Europe. Its succession through males is
unequivocally deduced from Robert the Brave,
made governo' of Anjou in 864, and father of Eu
des, king of France, and of Robert, who was cho-
sen by a party in 922, though, as Charles the Sim-
ple was still acknowledged in some pirovinces, it is
uncertain whether he ought to be counted in the
royal list. It is, moreover, highly probable that
Robert the Brave was descended, eqiially through
males, from St. Arnoul, who died in 640, and coQ
sequently nearly allied to the Carlovingian famiir,
who derive their pedigree from the same head.—
See Preuves de la Genealogiede Hughes Capet, La
I'Art de verifier les Dates, tome i., p. 566.
t Capitularia, A. D. 805. Whoever pojs^jsed
three mansi of allodial prop-^rly, was called tipon
for personal service, or at least tT furnish a e'.«rMti
tUte. Nieellus. auth'ir nf .» poff-tr.iJ. t.ifp r>r l tr:iit
RT 1 ]
fran(;e.
u
the Saracens.
must have been their stale under the lax
government of succeeding times, when
the dukes and counts, no longer checked
by the vigorous administration of Char-
lemagne, were at Uberty to play the ty-
rants in their several territories, of which
ihey now became almost the sovereigns.
The poorer landholders 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 feu-
dal tenure.
But evils still more terrible than these
pirUtical abuses were the lot of those na-
tions who had been subject to Charle-
magne. They, indeed, may appear to
us little better than ferocious barbari-
ans : but they were exposed to the as-
saults of tribes, in comparison of whom
Ihey must be deemed humane and pol-
ished. Each frontier of the empire had
10 dread the attack of an enemy. The
coasts of Italy were continu-
ally alarmed by the Saracens
of Africa, who possessed themselves of
Sicily and Sardinia, and became masters
of the Mediterranean Sea.* [A. D. 84G
-849.] Though the Greek dominions in
Vhe south of Italy were chiefly exposed
K) them, they twice insulted and ravaged
(he territory of Rome ; nor was there any
security even in the neighbourhood of the
maritime Alps, where, early in the tenth
century, they settled a piratical colony. f
Much more formidable were the foes
The Hun- by whom Germany was assail-
garians. ed. The Sclavonians, a widely-
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
I., seems to implicate Charlemagne himself in some
of the oppressions of his reign. It was the first
care of the former to redress those who had been
mjured in his father's time. — Recueil des Histo-
I'iens, tome vi. N. B. I quote by this title the
great collection of French historians, charters, and
other documents illustrative of the middle ages,
more commonly known by the name of its first
editor, the Benedictine Bouquet. But as several
learned men of that order were successively con-
cerned in this work, not one half of which has yet
been published, it seemed better to follow its own
title-page.
* These African Saracens belonged to the Agla-
bites, a dynasty that reigned at Tunis for tte whole
of the ninth cent\iry, after throwing off the yoke
of the Abbassite Khalifs. They were overthrown
themselves ir. the ne.tt age by the Falimites. Si-
cily was first invaded in 827 ; but the city of Syra-
cuse was only reduced in 878.
t Muratori, Annali d'ltalia, ad ann. 90C, et alibi.
These Saracens of Frassineto, sipposed to be be-
tween Nice and Monaco, were extirpated by a
Count of Provence in 972.
1 ] an\ sensible of the awkward effect of intro-
confines of the empire and from the
time of Charlemagne acKuowledged Us
superiority. But at the end of the ninth
century, a Tartarian tribe, the Hunga-
rians, overspreading that country which
since has borne their name, and movmg
forward like a vast wave, brought a
dreadful reverse upon Germany. Their
numbers were great, their ferocity un-
tamed. They fought with hght cavalry
and light armour, trusting to their show-
ers of arrows, against which 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 customs. [A. D. 934-
954.] 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 victo-
ries within their own limits, where, in a
short time, they learned peaceful arts,
adopted the religion, and followed the
policy, of Christendom.
If any enemies could be more de-
structive than these Hungarians, The Nor
they were the pirates of the "^ans.
north, known commonly by the name
of Normans. The love of a predatory
life seems to have attracted adventu-
rers of different nations to the Scandi
navian seas, from whence they infested,
not only by maritime piracy, but contin-
ual invasions, the northern coasts both
of France and Germany. The causes o4
their sudden appearance are inexplicable,
or at least could only be sought in the
ancient traditions of Scandinavia. For,
undoubtedly, the coasts of France and
England were as little protected from depv-
redations under the Merovingian kings
and those of the Heptarchy, as in subse-
quent times. Yet only one instance of
an attack from this side is recorded, and
that before the middle of the aixth cen-
ducing this name from a more ancicfit geography
but it saves a circumlocution stiil moi i awkward
Austria would convey an imperfect ic't^, and th
Austrian dominions could not be named without a
tremendous anachronism.
* In 924 they overran Languedoc. Ray.tiond-
Pons, count of Toulouse, cut their army to pieces •
but they had previously committed such ravage*,
that the bishops of that province, writing swin af-
terward to Pope John X., assert that scarcely any
eminent ecclesiastics, out of a great numter, were
left alive.— Hist, de Languedoc, tome li., p. 60.
They penetrated into Guienne as late as 951. —
Flodoardi Chron'con, in Recueil des Historiens,
tome viii. In Itely they inspired such terror, that
a mass was com,iose<l e.xpressly deprecating thii
calamity: Ab Ungaroruin nos defendas jaculis'
In 937 they ravaged the country as far is Brn.e
vento and Capn.i — Mu'ato'-i. Ann i^ I'al'a
26
EUROPE DURING 1 HE iMIUDLE AGES.
,CH4P. 1
tui'y * till the age of Charlemagiie In
787. the Danes, as we call those ncirthern
plunderers, c«gan to infest England,
which lay most immediately open to
their incursions. Soon afterward they
ravaged the coasts of France. Charle-
magne repulsed them by means of his
fleets ; yet they pillaged a few places
during his reign. It is said that, perceiv-
ing one day, from a port in the INIediter-
ranean, some Norman vessels Avhich had
penetrated into that sea, he shed tears,
in anticipation of the miseries which
awaited his empire. f In Louis's reign
their depredations upon the coasts were
more incessant,]: but they did not pene-
•trate into the inland country till that of
Charles the Bald. The wars between
that prince and his family, which exhaust-
ed J'rance of h(!r noblest blood, the in-
subordination of the provincial govern-
ors, even the instigation of some of
Charles's enemies, laid all open to their
inroads. They adopted a 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 intrenchraents at once an asylum
for their women and children, a reposito-
ry for their plunder, and a place of retreat
from superior force. After pillaging a
town, they retired to these sti-ongholds
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
afterward they laid siege to Paris, and
committed the most ruinous devastations
on the neighbouring country. As these
Normans were unchecked by religious
awe, tlie rich monasteries, which had
stood harmless amid the havoc of Chris-
tian war, were overwhelmed in the storm.
Perhaps they may have endured some ir-
recoverable losses of ancient learning;
but their complaints are of monuments
disfigured, bones of saints and kings dis-
persed, treasures carried away. St.
* Greg. Turon, 1. iii., c. 3.
t In the ninth century the Norman pirat«;s not
only ravaged the Balearic isles, and nearer coasts
of the .Mediterranean, but even Greece. — DeMarca,
Marca Hispaiiica, p. 327.
t Nigell-js, the poetical biographer of Louis,
gives the following description of the Normans : —
Nort quoque Francisco dicnntur nomine manni.
Veloces, agiles, armigerique nimis;
Ipse quidein popujus lat^ pernotus habetur,
Lintre dapes quagrit, incolitatque mare.
Pulcher ad est facie, vuliuque statuque deco-
rus. — 1. iv.
He goes on to tell us that they worshippe( Nep-
tune. Was it a similarity o name, or of atf. »utes,
that deceived him t
Denis redeemed its abbot from captivitj
with six hundred and eighty-five pounds
of gold. All the chief abbeys were strip,
ped about the same time, either by the
enemy, or for contributions to the public
necessity. So empoverished was the
kingdom, that in 860 CJiarles 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 armis-
tices, to which reviving 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
Ignominious as this appears, it proved no
impolitic step. RoUo, 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 col-
onists.*
The accession of Hugh Capet had not
the immediate ef!ect of resto- Accession o(
ring the royal authority over I'^g'' <-'»P«'-
France. His own very extensive fie/
was now indeed united to the crown ;
but a few great vassals occupied the re-
mainder of the kingdom. [A. D. 987.]
Six of these obtained, at a sub- g,3,g of
sequent time, the exclusive ap- France
pellation of peers of France; the "'^' """^•
Count of Flanders, whose fief stretched
from the Scheldt to the Sonime ; the
Count of Champagne ; the Duke of Nor-
mandy, to whom Britany did homage ;
the Duke of Burgundy, on whom the
Count of Nivernois seems to have de-
pended ; the Duke of Aquitaine, whose
territory, though less than the ancient
kingdom of that name, comprehended
Poitou, Limousin, and most of Guienne,
with the feudal superiority over the An-
goumois, and some other central dis-
tricts; and, lastly, the Count of Toulouse,
who possessed Languedoc, with the small
countries of Quercy and Rouergue, anc
the superiority over Auvergne.f Besides
* An exceedingly good sketch of these Norman
incursions, and of the political situation of Francs
during that period, may be found in two Memoirs
by M. Bonamy, Mem.del'Acad. des Inscrip., tomes
XV. and ivii. These I have chiefly followed in the
text.
+ Auvergne changed its feudal superior twice.
It had been subject to the Duke of Aquitaine til!
about the middle of the tenth century. The cf untt
of Toulouse then got possession of it ; but early in
the twellth century the ccunts of An-vergne ng'iia
f A«7 1.1
FRAACK
29
these SIX. the Duke of Gascony not long
afterward united with Aquitaine, the
counts of Anjou, Pouthieu, and Verman-
ilois, the Viscount of Eourges, the lords
of Bourbon and Coucy, with one or two
other vassals, held immediately of the last
Carlo vingian kings.* This was the aris-
tocracy 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 Lor-
raine, who, as the deceased king's uncle,
was nearest heir, and procured his own
consecration at Rheims. At first he was
by no means acknowledged in the king-
dom ; but his contest with Charles pro-
ving successful, the chief vassals ulti-
mately gave at least a tacit consent to
the usurpation, and permitted the royal
name to descend undisputed upon his
posterity.! But this was almost the sole
attribute of sovereignty which the first
kings of the third dynasty enjoyed. For
a long period before and after the acces-
sion of that family, France has, properly
speaking, no national history. The char-
acter or fortune of those who were called
its kings, was little more important to
the majority of the nation than that of
foreign princes. Undoubtedly, the de-
gree of influence which they exercised
n.,., . n,ic with respect to the vassals of
llooert 996. ., ^ . , ,.
the crown varied accordmg to
their power and their proximity. Over
Guienne and Toulouse, the four first Ca-
pets had very little authority ; nor do
they seem to have ever received assist-
Henry I. aucc from them either in civil
1031. or national wars.| With provin-
did homage to Guionne. It is very dilTicull to fol-
low the history of these fiefs.
* The immediacy/ of vassals, in times so ancient,
is open to much controversy. I have followed the
authority of those industrious Benedictines, the
editors of I'Art de verifier Ics Dates.
t The south of France not only took no part in
Hugh's elevation, but long refused to pay hun any
obedience, or rather to acknowledge his title, for
obedience was wholly out of the question. The
style of charters ran, instead of the king's name,
Deo rfonantc. rci^e exjjectante, or absente rege terreno.
He forced Guienne to submit about 090. Hut in
Limousin they continued to acknowledge the sons
of diaries of Lorraine till 1009. — Vaissette, Hist,
de Lang., t. ii., p. 120, 150- Before this, Toulouse
had refused to recognise Eudes and Raoul, two
kings of France, who were not of the Carlovingian
family, and even hesitated about Louis 1\'. and
Lothaire, who had an hereditary right. — Idem.
These proofs of Kugh Capet's usurpation seem
not to be materially invalidated by a dissertation in
the 50th volume of the Academy of Inscriptions,
p. 553. It is not, of course, to be denied, that the
northern parts of France acquiesced in his assump-
tion o( the roy!>l title, if they did not give an express
consent to it.
t I have not found anv autnority for supposing
ces nearer to their own domains, Phiipi
such as Normandy and Flanders, i"00.
they were frequently engaged in alliance
or hostility ; but each seemed rather to
proceed from the policy of independent
states, than from the relation of a sover-
eign 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 superiority 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-
clusive immunities within their own ter-
ritories, waging war at tlieir pleasure,
administering justice to their military
tenants and other subjects, and free from
all control beyond the conditions of the
feudal compact.* At the acces- .
sion of Louis VL, in 1108, the ^°""'^'
cities of Paris, Orleans, and Bourges,
with the immediately adjacent districts,
formed the most considerable portion of
the royal domain. A number of petty
barons, with their fortified castles, in-
tercepted the communication between
these, and waged war against tlie king
almost under the walls of his capital.
It cost Louis a great deal of trouble to
reduce the lords of IMontlehery, and
other places within a few miles of Paris
Under this prince, however, who had
more activity than his predecessors, the
royal authority considerably revived.
From his reign we may date the syste
that the provinces south of the Loire contributed
their assistance to the king in war, unless the
following passage of Gulielmus ]^ictav,< i,.is be
considered as matter of fact, and not rather as a
rhetorical flourish. He tells us that a vast army
was collected by Henry I. against the Duke of
Normandy : Burgundiam, Arverniam, atque Vas-
coniam properare videres horribiles ferro; immo
vires tanti regni quantum in ciimata quatuor mundi
patent cunctas. — Recueil des Historiens, t. \\., p.
83. But we have the roll of the army which Louis
VI. led against the Emperor H^nry V., A. D. 1120,
in a national war : and it wa^ entirely composed
of troops from Champagne, itie 'sle of France, the
Orleannois, and other provinces north of the Loire
— Velly, t. iii., p. 62. Yet this was a sort of convo-
cation of the ban : R'-x ut euni tota Francia sequn-
tur, invitat. Even to late as the reign of Ph'.ip
Augustus, in a list of the knights bannerets oi
France, though those of Britany, Flanders, Cham
pagne, and Burgundy, besides the royal domains
are enumerated, no mention is made of the prov
inces beyond the Loire. — Du Chesne, Script. Re
rum Gallicarum, t. v., p. 262.
* In a subsequent chapter, I shall illustrate, at
much greater length, the circumstances of tix
French monarchy with respect to its feudal vas
sals. It would be inconvenient *o anticipate th»
subject at present, whicl* i.'- railie'- of a legal thai
narrative character
28
EUROPE DURING IHE MIDDLE AGES
(CbaP. L
rnalic rivalry of the French and Eng-
lish monarchies. Hostihties had sever-
al times occurred between Philip I. and
the (wo Williams ; but the \vars that be-
gan under Louis YL lasted, with no long
interruption, for three centuries and a
lialf, and form, indeed, the most leading
feature of French history during the mid-
dle 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 were
fully equal to their sovereign. Nor had
the conquest of England any tendency
fo diminish their pretensions. f
Louis Vn. ascended the throne with
. , better prospects than his father.
horns Ml. ^-^ j^ jjg^-j jjg j^^^ married
Eleanor, heiress of the great dutchy of
Guienne. But this union, which prom-
ised an immense accession of strength
to the crown, was rendered unhappy
by the levities of that princess. Re-
pudiated by Louis, who felt rather as a
ftusband than a king, Eleanor immedi-
ately married Henry IL of England;
who, already inheriting Normandy from
his mother, and Anjou from his father,
became possessed of more than one half
of France, and an overmatch for Louis,
even if the great vassals of the crown
nad been always ready to maintain its
supremacy. One might venture perhaps
to conjecture that the sceptre of France
would eventually have passed from the
Capets to the Plantagenets, if the vexa-
tious quarrel with Becket at one time,
and the successive rebellions fomented
by Louis at a later period, had not em-
barrassed the great talents and ambitious
spirit of Henry.
[A. D. 1180.] But the scene quite chan-
Phiiip Au- ged when Philip Augustus, son
gusius. of Louis VIL, came upon the
stage. No prince comparable to him in
systematic ambition and military enter-
prise had reigned in France since Char-
lemagne. From his reign the French
monarchy dates the recovery of its lus-
tre. He wrested from the Count of
Flanders the Vermandois (that part of
Picardy which borders on the Isle of
♦ V^elly, t. iii.,p. 40.
t The Norman historians maintain that their
riukes did not owe any service to the King of
France, but only simple homage, or, as it was
tailed, per paragium.— Recueil des Historiens,
t. xi.. pref., p. ICl. They certainly acted upon this
principle; and the manner in which they first
time mto thi; countiy is no ^'ery consistent with
dependanrf
France and Champagne),* and subse-
quently, the county of Artois. But the
most important conquests of Philip were
obtained against the kings of England.
Even Richard L, with all his prowess,
lost ground in struggling against an ad-
versary, not less active, and more pol-
itic than himself. [A. D. 1203.] But when
John not only took possession conquest o/
of his brother's dominions, but Normandy
confirmed his usurpation by the mur
der, 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 conduct.
Willingly, said Philip ; let him come un-
molested. And return 1 inquired the Eng-
lish envoy. If the judgment of his peers
permit him, replied the king. By all the
saints of France, he exclaimed, when
farther pressed, he shall not return un-
less acquitted. The Bishop of Ely stili
remonstrated, that the Duke of Nor-
mandy 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 imprisonment.
What of that, my lord bishop T cried
Philip. It is well known that my vas-
sal, 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 If
It may be doubted whether, in thus
citing John before his court, the King of
France did not stretch his feudal sover-
eignty beyond its acknowledged limits.
Arthur was certainly no immediate vas-
sal of the crown for Britany ; and though
he had done homage to Philip for Anjou
and Maine, yet a subsequent treaty had
abrogated his investiture, and confirmed
his uncle in the possession of those prov-
inces.;}: But the vigour of Philip, and the
meanness of his adversary, cast a shade
over all that might be novel or irregulai
in these proceedings. John, not appear-
ing at his summons, was declared guilty
of felony, and his fiefs confiscated. The
execution of this sentence was not in-
* The original counts of Vermandois were de
scended from Bernard, king of Italy, grandson ol
Charlemagne : but their fief passed by the dona
tion of Isabel, the last countess, to her husband,
the Earl of Flanders, after her death in 1183. The
principal towns of the Vermandois are St. Quenlin
and Peronne.— Art de verifier ies Dates, t. ii
p. 700.
t Mat. Paris, p. 238, edit. 1684.
% The illegality of Philip's proceedings is well
argued by Mably, Observations sur I'His'.oire d«
France. 1. iii., c. 6.
F4RT I.]
FRANCE.
trusted to a dilatory arm. Philip poured
his troops into Normandy, and took town
after to vvn, while the King of England, in-
fatuated by his own wickedness and cow-
ardice, made hardly an attempt at defence.
In two years Normandy, Maine, and An-
jou were irrecoverably lost. [A. D. 1223.]
Poitou and Guienne resisted longer : but
the conquest (;f the first was completed
L VIII '^^ Louis VIII., successor of
Philip, and the subjection of the
second seemed drawing near, when the
arms of Louis were diverted to differ-
ent, but scarcely less advantageous ob-
jects.
The country of Languedoc, subject to
Affairs of the counts of Toulouse, had
LangueUoc. been unconnected, beyond any
other part of France, with the kings
of the house of Capet. Louis VII. hav-
ing married his sister to the reigning
count, and travelled himself through the
country, began to exercise some de-
gree of authority, chiefly in confirming
the rights of ecclesiastical bodies, who
were vain, perhaps, of this additional
sanction to th ■ privileges which they al-
ready possessed.* 15ut the remoteness
of their situation, with a difference 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 centu-
ry, certain religious opinions, which it is
not easy, nor, for our present purpose,
material to define, but, upon every suppo-
sition, 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 Innocent III.,
in 1198, despatched commissaries, the
* According to the Benedictine historians, Vich
and Vaissette, there is no trace of any act of sover-
eignty exercised by the kings of France in Lan-
guedoc from 955, when Lothaire confirmed a char-
ier of his predecessor Uaoul, in favour of the Bish-
op of Puy, till the reign of Louis VII. — (Hist, de
Languedoc, tome ii., p. 89.) They have published,
however, an instrument of Louis VI. in favour
of the same church, confirming those of former
princes. — (Appendix, p. 473.) Neither the counts of
Toulouse, nor any lord of the province, were pres-
ent in a very numerous national assembly, at the
coronation of Philip I. — (Id., p. 200.) I do not rec-
ollect to have ever met with the name of the Count
of Toulouse as a subscribing witness to the char-
ters of the first Capetian kings in the Uecueil des
Historiens, where many are published : though
that of the Duke of Guienne sometimes occurs.
t For the real tenets of the Languedocian secta-
ries, I refer to the last chapter of the present work,
wkere the subject will be t^'^en up again.
seed of the inquisition, with an»ple pew
ers both to investigate and to chastise
Raymond VI., count of Toulouse, wheth-
er inclined towards the innovators, as
was thpn the theme of reproach, or, a3
is more probable, disgusted with the inso-
lent interference of the pope and his mis-
sionaries, provoked them to pronounce
a sentence of excommunication against
him. [A. D. 1208.] Though this was
taken off, he was still suspected ; and
upon the assassination of one of the in-
quisitors, in which Raymond had no con-
cern. Innocent published a crusade both
against the count and his subjects, calling
upon the King of France, and the nobil-
ity of that kingdom, to take up the cross*,
with all the indulgences usually held
out as allurements to religious warfare.
Though Philip would not interfere, a
prodigious number of knights undertook
this enterprise, led partly by ecclesias-
tics, and partly by some of the first
barons in France. It was prosecuted
with every atrocious barbarity which su-
perstition, the mother of crimes, could
inspire. Languedoc, a country, for that
age, flourishing and civilized, was laid
waste by these desolaters ; her cities
burnt ; her inhabitants swept away by
fire and the sword. And this was lo
punish a fanaticism ten thousand timea
more innocent than their own, and er-
rors which, according to the worst im-
putations, left the lav.-s of humanity and
the peace of social life unimpaired.*
The crusaders were commanded by
Simon de Montfort, a man, like crusade
Cromwell, whose intrepidity, against the
hypocrisy, and ambition, mark- ^ibigeois.
cd him for the hero of a holy war.
The energy of such a mind, at tho
head of an army of enthusiastic war-
riors, may well account for successes
which then' appeared miraculous. But
Montfort was cut off before he could
realize his ultimate object, an independ-
ent principality ; and Raymond was able
to bequeath the inheritance of his an-
cestors to his son. [A. D. 1222.] Rome,
however, was not yet appeased ; upon
some new pretence, she raised up a
still more formidable enemy against the
younger Raymond. Louis VIII. suffer-
* The Albigensian war commenced with th«
storming of Beziires, and a massacre, whereii)
15,000 persons, or, according to some na-rationa
60,000, were put to the sword. Not a living soul
escaped, as witnesses assure us. It was here that
a Cistertian monk, who led on the crusaders, an
swered the inquiry, how the Catholics were to b*
distinguished from heretics. Kill them all ! Goi
will know his own. Besides Vaissette, see Sismoa
di, Litterature du Midi, t. i., p. Ml.
no
El ROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AOES.
[CKaP. 1
ed himself to be diverted from the con-
quest of Guieniie, to take the cross
against tlie supposed patron of heresy.
After a short and successful Avar, 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 safety in so
unequal a struggle, he concluded a trea-
y upon very hard terms. [A. D. 1229.]
By this he ceded the greater part of
Languedoc ; and giving his daughter in
marriage to Alphonso, brother of Louis
IX., confirmed to them, and to the king
n failure of their descendants, the rever-
sion of the rest, in exclusion of any other
children whom he might have. Thus fell
«he ancient house of Toulouse, through
onf of those strange combinations of for-
tune which thwart the natural course of
human prosperity, and disappoint the
plans of wise policy and beneficent gov-
ernment.*
[A. D. 1226.] The rapid progress of
roj^al power under Philip Au-
°*"^ ■ gustus and his son had scarce-
ly given the great vassals time to re-
flect upon the change which it produ-
ced in their situation. The crown, wdth
which some might singly have measured
their forces, was now an equipoise to
their united weight. And such a union
was hard to be accomplished among men
not always very sagacious in policy, and
divided tny' separate interests and animos-
ities. They were not, however, insensi-
ble to the crisis of their feudal liberties ;
and the minority of Louis IX., guided
only by his mother, the regent Blanche
of Castile, seemed to offer a favourable
opportunity for recovering their former
situation. Some of the most considera-
ble barons, the counts of Britany, Cham-
pagne, and la IMarche, had, during the
time of Louis VIII., shown an unwilling-
ness to push the Count of Toulouse too
far, if they did not even keep up a se-
cret understanding with him. They now
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 struggle was frequently renew-
ed ; till repeated humiliations convinced
the refractory that the throne was no
longer to be shaken. A prince so feeble
as Henry III. was unable to afford them
• The best account of this crusade against the
Albigeois is to be found in the thiwi volume of
Vaissette's History of Languedoc : the Benedictine
spirit of mildness and veracity tolerably counter-
balancing the prejudices of orthodoxy. Velly,
Hist, de Frani;c, t. iii., has abridged this work.
that aid from England, which, if h[2
grandfather or son had then reigned,
might probably have lengthened these
civil wars.
But Louis IX. had methods of preserv-
ing his ascendency very dif- ms eharac-
ferent from military prowess, ler. iisex-
That excellent prince was per- <=eiiences
haps tlie most eminent pattern of un-
swerving probity and Christian strict-
ness of conscience, that ever held the
sceptre in any country. There is a pe-
culiar beauty in the reign of St. Louis,
because it shows the inestimable ben-
efit which a virtuous king may confer
on his people, without possessing any
distinguished genius. For nearly half a
century that he governed France, there
is not the smallest want of moderation
or disinterestedness in his actions ; and
yet he raised the influence of the mon-
archy to a much higher point than the
most ambitious of his predecessors. [A.
D. 1259.] To the surprise of his own and
later times, he restored great part of his
conquests to Henry HI., whom he might
naturally hope to have expelled from
France. It would indeed have been a
tedious work to conquer Guienne, which
was full of strong places, and the subju-
gation of such a province might have
alarmed the other vassals of his crown.
But it is the privilege 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 ),mmediate
power. An ordinary king, in the circum-
stances of the French monarchy, would
have fomented,or, at least, have rejoiced
in the dissensions which broke out among
the principal vassals; Louis constantly
employed himself to reconcile them. In
this, too, his benevolence had all the ef-
fects of far-sighted policy. It had been
the practice of his three last predecessors
to interpose their mediation in behalf of
the less powerful classes ; the clergy, the
inferior nobility, and the inhabitants o/
chartered towiis. Thus the supremacy
of the crown became a familiar idea ; but
the perfect integrity of St. Louis wore
away all distnist, and accustomed even
the most jealous feudatories to look upon
him as their judge and legislator. And
as the royal authority was hitherto shown
only in its most amiable prerogatives,
the dispensation of favour, and the re-
dress of wrong, few were watchfid enough
to remark the transition of the French
constitution from a feudal league to an
absolute monarchy.
i It was perhaps' fortimate ^r the dii
Part I J
FRANCE
3]
play i)f St Louis's virtues, that the
throne had already been strengthened
by the less innocent exertions of Philip
Augustus and Louis VIIL A century
earlier, his mild and scrupulous character,
unsustained by great actual power, might
not have inspired sufficient awe. But the
crown was now grown so formidable, and
Louis was so eminent for his firmness
and bravery, qualities, without whicli
every other virtue would have been in-
effectual, that no one thought it safe to
run wantonly into rebellion, while his
disinterested administration gave no one
a pretext for it. Hence the latter part
of his reign was altogether tranquil, and
employed in watching over tlie public
peace and the security of travellers ;
administering justice personally or by
the best counsellors ; and compiling that
code pf feudal customs, called the Estab-
lishments of St. Louis, which is the first
monument of legislation after the acces-
sion of the house of Capet. Not satisfi-
ed with the justice of his own conduct,
Louis aimed at that act of virtue which
is rarely practised by private men, and
had perhaps no example among kings,
restitution. Commissaries were appoint-
ed to inquire what possessions had
been unjustly annexed to the royal do-
main during the two last reigns. These
were restored to the proprietors, or,
where length of time had made it diffi-
cult to ascertain the claimant, their value
was distributed among the poor.*
It has been hinted already that all this
and defects, excellence of heart in Lou-
is IX. was not attended with
that strength of understanding which is
necessary, we must allow, to complete
the usefulness of a sovereign. During
his minority, Blanche of Castile, his mo-
ther, had filled the office of regent with
great courage and firmness. But, after he
grew up to manhood, her influence seems
to have passed the limit which gratitude
and piety would have assigned to it ; and,
as her temper was not very meek or pop-
ular exposed the king to some degree of
contempt. He submitted even to be re-
strained from the society of his wife
Margaret, daughter of Raymond, count
of Provence, a princess of great virtue
and conjugal aflection. Joinville relates a
curious story, characteristic of Blanche's
* Velly, tome v., p. 150. This historian has verj
properly dwelt for almost a volume on St. Louii't
mternal administration ; it ie oii< of the most valu-
able parts of his work. Joinville is a real witness,
on whom, when we listen, it is impossible not to
rely. — Collection des Mfemoires re.atifs k I'Histoire
lie France, tome ii., pp. 140-1.'56.
arbitrary coiiluct, and sufficiently derog
atory to Louis.*
But the principal weakness of this king,
which almost effaced all the good efiects
of his virtues, was superstition. It would
be idle to sneer at those habits of abste-
miousness and mortification which were
part of the religion of his age ; and, at
the worst, were only injurious to his own
comfort. But he had other prejudices,
which, though they may be forgiven,
must never be defended. No one was
ever more impressed tlian 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 him-
self in the perilous ways of reasoning,
but to make answer witli his sword as
stoutly as a strong arm and a fiery zeal
could carry that argument.f Though,
fortunately for his fame, the persecu-
tion against the A^lbigeois, which had
been the disgrace of his father's short
reign, was at an end before he reach-
ed manhood, he suffered a hypocritical
monk to establish a tribunal at Paris for
the suppression of heresy, where many
innocent persons suffered death.
But no events in Louis's life were more
memorable than his two crusades, which
lead us to look back on the nature and
circumstances of that most singular phe-
nomenon in European history Though
the crusades involved all the western
nations of Europe, without belonging
peculiarly to any one, yet as France wa.'
more distinguished than the rest in mosi
of those enterprises, I shall introduce tho
subject as a sort of digression from tliC
main course of French history.
Even before the violation of Pales-
tine by the Saracen arms, it had been
a prevailing custom among the The cm-
Christians of Europe to visit s^^iics.
those scenes rendered interesting by
religion, partly through delight in the
effects of local association, partly ir
obedience to the prejudices or com-
♦ Collection des Memoires, tome ii., p. 241.
f Aussi vous dis je, me dist le roy, que nul, s;
n'est grant clerc, et theologien parfait, lie doit dis
puter aux Juifs ; mais doit i'omme lay, quant i! oil
mesdire d« la foy chr^tienne, defendre la chose,
non pas seulement des paroles, mais k bo.ine espee
tranchant, et en flapper les medisans el niescrean!<
a travers le corns, taut qn'elle y pourra entrer.--
Joinville, in Collection des Memoires, tome i., p.
23. This passage, which shows a tolerable degree
of bigotry, did not require to be strained farther
still by Mosheim, vol. lii., p. 273 (edit. 1803). 1
may observe by the way, that this writer, who
sees nothing in Louis IX. except his intolerance,
ought not to have charged hiin with issuing aL
edict in favour of the inquisition, ii, 1229, when h£
had not assumed the government.
S'i
EUROPE DURING THK MIDDLE AGES.
[Cjiai
mands of superstition. These pilgrim-
ages became more frequent in later times,
m spite, perhaps in consequence, of the
danger and hardships which attended
them. For a while the Mahometan
possessors of Jerusalem permitted or
even encouraged 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 rapacity. During the
eleventh century, when, from increasing
superstition, and some particular fancies,
the pilgrims were more numerous than
ever, a change took place in the govern-
ment of Palestine, which was overrun
by the Turkish hordes from the north.
These barbarians treated the visiters of
Jerusalem with still greater contumely,
mingling with their Mahometan bigotry
a consciousness of strength and cour-
age, and a scorn of the Christians, whom
tliey knew only by the debased natives
of Greece and Syria, or by these humble
and defenceless palmers. When such
jjisults became known throughout Eu-
rope, they excited a keen sensation of
resentment among nations equally cour-
ageous and devout ; which, though want-
ing as yet any definite means of satisfy-
ing itself, was ripe for whatever favoura-
ble conjuncture might arise.
Twenty years before the first crusade,
Gregory VII. had projected the scheme
of imbodying Europe in arms against
Asia; a scheme worthy of his daring
mind, and which, perhaps, was never for-
gotten by Urban II., who in every thing
k)ved to imitate his great predecessor.*
This design of Gregory was founded upon
tTie supplication of the Greek Emperor
Michael, which was renewed by Alexius
Comnenus to Urban with increased im-
portunity. The Turks had now taken
Nice, and threatened, from the opposite
shore, the very walls of Constantinople.
Every one knows whose hand held a
torch to that inflammable mass of enthu-
siasm that pervaded Europe ; the hermit
of Picardy, who, roused by witnessed
wrongs and imagined visions, journeyed
from land to land, the apostle of a holy
war. The preaching of Peter was pow-
erfully seconded by Urban. [A. D. 1095.]
In the councils of Piacenza and of Cler-
* Gregory addressed, in 1074, a sort of encyclic
lerter to all who would defend the Christian faith,
enforcing upon them the duty of taking up arms
»gainst the Saracens, who had almost come up to
Jhe walls of Constantinople. No mention of Pal-
Mtine is made in this letter. — Labb^, Concilia, t. x.,
p. 44. St. Marc, Abrege Chron. de I'Hi.st. de
^Italie. t iii., p 614.
mont, the deliverance o. Jenisalem was
eloquently recommendea and exultingly
undertaken. It is the wlJ of God ! was
the tumultuous cry that broke from the
heart and lips of the assembly at Cler-
mont ; and these words afford at once
the most obvious and most certain ex-
planation of the leading principle of the
crusades. Later writers, incapable of
sympathizing with the blind fervour of
zeal, or anxious to find a pretext for its
effect somewhat more congenial to the
spirit of our times, have sought political
reasons for that which resulted only from
predominant aff'ections. No suggestion
of these will, I believe, be found in con-
temporary historians. To rescue the
Greek empire from its imminent peril,
and thus to secure Christendom from
enemies who professed towards it eter-
nal hostility, might have been a legiti-
mate and magnanimous ground of inlerfe-
rence ; but it operated scarcely, or not a*
all, upon those who took the cross. In-
deed, it argues strange ignorance of the
eleventh century to ascribe such refine-
ments of later times even to the princea
of that age. The Turks were no doubt
repelled from the neighbourhood of Con-
stantinople by the crusaders ; but this
was a collateral eff'ect of their enterprise.
Nor had they any disposition to serve the
interest of the Greeks, whom they soon
came to hate, and not entirely without
provocation, with almost as much ani-
mosity as the Moslems themselves.
Every means was used to excite an ep-
idemical phrensy ; the remission of pen-
ance, the dispensation from those prac-
tices of self-denial which superstition im-
posed or suspended at pleasure, the ab-
solution of all sins, and the assurance of
eternal felicity. None doubted that such
as perished in the war received immedi-
ately the reward of martyrdom.* Falst
miracles and fanatical prophecies, which
were never so frequent, wrought up the
enthusiasm to a still higher pitch. And
these devotional feelings, which are usu-
ally thwarted and balanced by other pas-
sions, fell in with e\ery motive that could
influence the men of that time ; with cu-
riosity, 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 independent establishments
in the East. In later periods, the tempo
* Nam qui pro Christi nomine deccrtantes, u
acie fidelium et Christian4 militi4 dicuutur occum
here, non solum infamiae, verum et peccaminum al
delictor\im omnimodam credimus abolitionem pro
mereri.— WiU. Tyr.. 1. x., c. 20.
*RT 1.]
F&kS'^E.
4A
ral benefilf. of undertaking a crusade un-
doubtedly blended themselves with less
selfish considerations. Men resorte-d to
Palestine as in modern times they have
done to the colonies, in order to redeem
their time 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 vul-
gar class were held out inducements
which, though absorbed in the overruling
fanaticism of the first crusade, might be
exceedingly efficacious when it began
rather to flag. During the time that a
crusader bore the cross, he was free from
suit for his debts, and the interest of them
was entirely abolished ; he was exempt-
ed, in some instances at least, from tax-
es, and placed under the protection of the
church, so that he could not be im-
pleaded 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 in-
ferior nobility, and a countless multitude
of the common people. The priests left
their parishes, and the monks their cells ;
and, though the peasantry were then in
general bound to the soil, we find no
check given to their emigration for this
cause. 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 accumu-
lated in so short a space as in the three
years of the firet expedition. We 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 tliat numbcr.f To engage
in the crusade, and to perish in it, were
almost synonymous. Few of those myr-
iads who were mustered in the plains of
•■ Otho of Frisingen, c. 35, has inserted a tiiill
f Eiigenius HI., in 114C, containini,' some of these
privileges. Others are granted hy PliiHp Augustus
m 1214. — Ordonnances des Rois de France, tome i.
See also Du Cange, voc. Crucis Privilegia.
t William of Tyre says, tlial at the review be-
fore Nice there were found 600,000 of both sexes,
axclusive of 100,000 cavalry armed in mail. — L. li.,
c. 23. But Fulk of (^liartrf's reckons the Game
number, besides women, children, and priests. An
tnmense slaughter had previously been made in
' "ugary of the rabi^le under Gaultier Sans-.^voir.
Nice returned to gladden their friends iu
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 remained but a sixth part
to pursue the enterprise. But their loss-
es were least in the field of battle : the
intrinsic superiority of European prow-
ess was constantly displayed ; the angel
of Asia, to apply the bold language of
our poet, high and unmatchablc, where
her rival was not, became a fear ; and the
Christian lances bore all before them in
their shock from Nice to Antioch, Edes-
sa and Jerusalem. [A. D. 1099.] It was
here, where their triumph was consum-
mated, that it was stained with the most
atrocious massacre ; not limited to the
hour of resistance, but renewed deliber-
ately even after that famous penitential
procession to the holy sepulchre, which
might have calmed their ferocious dispo-
sitions, if, through the misguided enthu-
siasm of the enterprise, it had not been
rather calculated to excite them.*
The conquests obtained at such a price
by the first crusade were chiefly com-
prised in the maritime parts Latin cob
of Syria. Except the state of i!iit.>*isin
Edessa beyond the Euphrates,! '^y-'^-
which, in its best days, extended over
great part of Mesopotamia, the Latin
possessions never reached more than
a few leagues from the sea. Witliin
the barrier of Mount Libanus, their arms
might be feared, but their pov\'er was
never established; and the prophet was
still invcjked in the mosques of Aleppo
and Damascus. The principality of An-
tioch to the north, the kingdom of Jeru-
salem, with Its feudal dcpendances of
Tripoli and Tiberias, to tlic south, were
assigned, the one to Boemond, a brother
of Robert Guiscard, count uf Apulia, the
other to Godfrey of Boulogne,| whose ex-
*'rhe work of Mailly, entitled L'F.sprit des
Croisades, is deserving of considerable praise for
its diligence and impartiahty. It carries the his
tory, however, no farther than the first expedition
Gibbon's two chapters on the crusades, though noi
without inaccuracies, are a brilliant portion of his
great work. The original writers are chicHy col-
lected in two folio volumes, entitled Uesta Dei pei
F'rancos. Hanover, IGll.
t Edessa was a little Christian principality, ir.r
rounded by, and tributary to, the Tuiks i'he in-
habitants invited Baldwin, on his progress m tiio
first crusade, and lie made no great scruple of sup
planting, the reigning prince, who indeed is repre
sented as a tyrant ancl usurpe'. Esprit des Croi
sades, t. iv , p. r.-3 De Guignes, Ili>t. des Huns
t. ii., pp. 135-162.
X Godfiey never lock the titlo of King of Jeru
salein, not chooeing, he said, to wear a crown o
34
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
TChap. 1
lrac~'iiuary merit had justly raised him to
a de^ "ie of influence with the chief crusa-
ders, that has been sometimes confound-
ed with a legitimate authority.* In the
course of a few years, Tyre, Ascalon,
and the other cities upon the seacoast,
were subjected by the successors of
Godfrey on the throne of Jerusalem. But
as their enemies had been stunned, not
killed, by the western storm, the Latins
were constantly molested by the Mahom-
etans of Egypt and Syria. They were
exposed, as the outposts of Christendom,
with no respite and few resources. [A. D.
Second eru- 11-17.] A second crusade, in
Bade. which the Emperor Conrad III.
and Louis VII. of France were engaged,
each with seventy thousand cavalry,
uade scarce any diversion; and that
vast army wasted away in the passage
of Natolia.f
The decline of the Christian establish-
ments in the East is ascribed by William
,^ ,. ,. of Tyre to the extreme vi-
Decline of . •' c ^i • „ .„
the Latin ciousness of their manners, to
principalities tj^e adoDtiou «f European arms
in the East. ^^ the\)rientals, and to the
union of the Mahometan principalities
under a single chief.^ Without denying
he operation of these causes, and espe-
cially the last, it is easy to perceive one
more radical than all the three, the in-
adequacy of their means of self-defence.
The kingdom of Jerusalem was guarded
gold in that city where his Saviour had been
crowned with thorns. Baldwin, Godfrey's brother,
who succeeded him within two years, entities
nimself. Hex Hierusalein, Latinorum primus.—
Will. Tvr., 1. 11., c. 12.
* The heroes of the crusade are lust like those
of romance. Godfrey is not only the wisest, b-jt
the strongest man in the army. Perhaps Tasso
has lost some part; of this physical superiority for
the sake of contrasting him with the imaginary
Rinb'.do. He cleaves a Turk in twain from the
shoulder to the haunch. A noble Arab, after the
taking of Jerusalem, requests him to try his sword
upon a camel, when Godfrey with ease cuts ofil
the head. The Arab, suspecting there might be
something peculiar in the blade, desires him to do
the same with his sword ; and the hero obliges
him by demolishing a second camel.— Will. Tyr., 1.
II-, c. 22. . . ,
t Verlot puts the destrjction in the second cru-
sade at two hundred thousand men.— Hist, de
Malthe, p. 129 : and from William of Tyre's lan-
guage, there seems no reason to consider this an
fixagge'ation. — L. xvi., c. 19.
X L. XKi., c. 7. John of Vitry als ) mentions the
chani^e o"" weapons by the Saraceni in imitation of
[he Latins, using the lances and ioat of mail in-
stead o-^ bows and arrows, c. 92. But, according
to a mi)re ancient writer, part of Soliman's (the
Kilidge Arslan of de Guignes) army in the first
crusade was in armour, loricis et galeis et clypeis
aureis valde armati.— Alberlus Aquensis, I. li.. c.
27. I may add to this a testimony of another kind
not less decisive In the Abbey of St, Denis,
only, exclusive <;f European volunteers,
by the feudal service of eight hundred
and sixty-six knights, attended each by
four archers on horseback, by a militia
of five thousand and seventy-five burgh-
ers, and by a conscription, in great exj
gencies, of the remaining population.*
William of Tyre mentions an army of
one thousand three hundred horse and
fifteen thousand foot as the greatest
which had ever been collected, and pre-
dicts the utmost success from it if wise-
ly conducted. t This was a little before
the irruption of Saladin. In the las'
fatal battle Lusignan seems to have had
somewhat a larger force. | Nothing can
more strikingly evince the ascendency
of Europe, than the resistance of these
Prankish acquisitions in Syria during
nearly two hundred years. Several of
their victories over the Moslems were
obtained against such disparity of num-
bers, that they may be compared with
Avhatever is most illustrious in history
or romance.^ These perhaps w^ere less
due to the descendants of the first crusa-
ders, settled in the Holy Land,|| than to
those volunteers from Europe, whom
martial ardour and religious zeal impel-
led to the service. It was the penance
commonly imposed upon men of rank
for the most heinous crimes, to serve a
number of years under the baimer of the
cross. Thus a perpetual supply of war-
riors was poured in from Europe ; and in
there were ten pictures in stained glass, repre-
senting sieges and battles in the first crusade,
These were made by order of Sugcr, the minister
of Louis VI., and consequently in the early part
of the twelfth century. In many of them the
Turks are painted in coats of mail, sometimes
sven in a plated cuiras. In others they are quit*
unarmed, and in flowing robes.— Montfaucon, Mon
umens de la Monarchic Fran(;aise, t. i., pi. 50.
* Gibbon, c. 98, note 125. Jerusalem itself was
very thinly inhabited. For all the heathens, says
William of Tyre, had perished in the massacre
when the city was taken ; or, if any escaped, they
were not allowed to return : no heathen being
thought fit to dwell in the holy city. Baldwin in
vited some Arabian Christians to settle in it.
t L. xxii,, c. 27.
t A primo introitu Latinorum in terram sane
tam, says John de Vitry, nostri tot militcs in uno
prcelio congregare nequiverunt. Erant enim mille
ducenti milites loricati ; peditum autem cum ar-
mis, arcubus et balistis circiter viginti millia, iu-
faustae expeditioni interfuisse dicuntur. — GcslaDei
per Francos, p. 1118.
^ A brief summary of these victories is given by
John of Vitry, c. 93.
II Many of these were of a mongrel extraction,
descended from a Frank parent en one side, and
Svrian on the other. These were called Poulains,
Pullani ; and were looked upon as a mean, degen
erate race.— Du Cange ; Gloss, v., Pullani ; and
Observations sur Joinville, in Collection des M^
moires relatifs a 'Histoire de Fi u ce, t ii.. o. 19»
AKT 1 1
FRANCE
3S
♦his sense, the crusades may be said to ]
have lasted without intermission during
Ihe Avhole period of the Latin settle- j
ments. Of these defenders, the most re- 1
nowned were the miUtary orders of the
Knights of tlie Temple and of the Hos-
pital of St. John ;* instituted, the one in |
1124, the other in 1118. for the sole pur- 1
pose of protectmg the Holy Land. The
Teutonic order, established in 1190, when
tlie kingdom of Jerusalem was falling,
soon diverted its schemes of holy war-
fare to a very different quarter of the
world. Lai«e estates, as well in Pales-
tine as throughout Europe, enriched the
two former institutions ; but the pride,
rapaciousness, and misconduct of both,
especially of the Templars, seem to have
balanced the advantages derived from
their valour.f [A. D. 1187.] 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
i few strong towns upon the seacoast.
[A. D. 1189.] These misfortunes rous-
rhird cru- ed oucc more the princes of
»ade. Europe, and the third crusade
was undertaken by three of her sover-
eigns, the greatest in personal estima-
tion as well as dignity ; by the Empe-
ror Frederick Barbarossa, Philip Au-
gustus of France, and our own Richard
Cceur de Lion. But this, like the pre-
ceding enterprise, failed of permanent ef-
fect ; and those feats of romantic prow-
ess, which made tlie name of Richard
so famous both in Europe and Asia,|
■proved only the total inefficacy of all
exertions in an attempt so impractica-
ble. Palestine was never the scene of
another crusade. [A. D. 1204.] One
great armament was diverted to the siege
of Constantinople; and another [A. D.
1218] wasted in fruitless attempts upon
Egypt. The Emperor Frederick H. after-
ward procured the restoration of Jerusa-
lem by the Saracens ; but the Christian
• The St. John of Jerusalem was neither the
Evangelist, nor yet the Baptist, bat a certain Cyp-
riot. surnarned the Charitable, who had been pa-
triarch of Alexandria.
t See a curious instance of the misconduct and
insolence of the Tem|)lars, in William of Tyre, 1.
tx., c. 32. The Templars possessed nine thou-
iand manors, and the knights of St. John nineteen
thousand, in Europe. The latter were almost as
much reproached as the Templars for their pride
and avarice. — L. xviii., c. 6.
t When a Turk's horse started at a hush, he
Would chide him, JomviUe says, with, Guides tu
Hu'y soit le roi Richard ? Women kept tht^ir chil-
dren quiet with the threat of bringing Richard to
thorn.
pnnces 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 vSyria,
which Europe had already ceased to
protect.
The two last crusades were under-
taken by St. Louis. [A. D. Cru-sades or
1248.] In the first he was at- S'- '>ou's.
tended by 2800 knights and 50,000 or
dinary troops.* He landed at Damiet
ta in Effypt, for that country was now
deemed the key of the Holy Land, and
easily made himself master of the city.
But, advancing 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 al-
most as surprising and terrible as gun-
powder ; he lost his brother, the Count o:
Artois, with inany knights, at Massoura.
near Cairo ; and began too late a retreat
towards Damietta. Such calamities now
fell upon this devoted army, as have
scarce ever been surpassed ; hunger and
want of every kind, aggravated by an un-
sparing pestilence. At length the king
was made prisoner, and very few of tl^.e
army escaped the Turkish cimeter in
battle or in captivity. Four hundred
thousand livres v/ere paid as a rauioni
for Louis. He returned to Franere, 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 ob-
served by his subjects, that he still kept
the cross upon his garinent. [A. D. 1270.]
His last expedition was originally dcrsign-
ed for Jerusalem. But he had received
some intimation that the King of Tunis
was desirous of embracing Christianity.
That these intentions might be carried
into effect, lie sailed out of his way to
tlie coast of Africa, and laid siege to that
city. A fever here put an end to his life,
sacrificed to that ruling passion v.'hich
ne^'er would have forsaken him. But he
had survived the spirit of the crusades
the disastrous expedition to Egypt ha
cured liis subjects, though not himself, o(
their folly ;t his son, after making terms
*The Arabian writers give him 9500 knighl*
and 130,000 common soldiers. Rut I greatly pre-
fer the authority of Joiiiville, who has twice men
tioned the number of knights in the text. On Gib
bon's authority, I put the main body at 50,000 ; bu
if Joinville has stated this, 1 have missed '.he oas
sage. Their vessels amounted to 1800.
* The refusal of Joinville to accompany tlie bini
36
EUKUFE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
CUAP. /
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 -^ar, the
promise, if it were ever sincere, was nev-
er accomplished.
[A. D. 1270.] Louis IX. had increased
the royal domain by the an-
piuiip ni. vexation of several counties and
t)ther less important fiefs ; but, soon af- i
tttv the accession of Plhlip III. (sur- J
named the Bold), it received a far more j
considerable augmentation. Alfonso, the
late king's brother, had been ii ivested with ,
the county of Poitou, cedeil by Henry
III., together with part of Auvergne and
of Saintonge ; and held also, as has been
said before, the remains of the great fief
of Toulouse, in riglit of his wife Jane,
heiress of Raymond VII. [A. D. 1271.]
Upon his death, and that of his countess,
w hich happened about the same time,
the king entered into possession of all
these territories. This acquisition brought
the sovereigns of France into contact
with new neighbours, the kings of Aragon
and the powers of Italy. [A. D. 12b5.]
The first great and lasting foreign war
which they carried on was that of Phil-
ip III. and Philip IV. against the former
kingdom, excited by the insurrection of
Siciiy. Though effecting 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 whioh it more pe-
culiarly belongs.
There still remained five great and
ancient fiefs of the French crown ;
Philip Uie Champagne, Guienne, Flanders,
F^ir. Burgundy, and Britanv. [A. D.
1285.] But Philip IV., usually called the
Fair, married the heiress of the first, a
little before his father's death ; and, al-
in this second crusade is very memorable, and gives
U3 an insight into the bad effects of both expedi-
tions. Le Roy de France et le Roy de Na"arre
me pressoient fort de me croiser, et entreprendre
le chemiii du pelerinage de la croix. Mais je leur
respondi, que tandis que j'avoie este oullie-mer an
service de Dieu, que les gens et officers du Roy de
France, avoient trop greve et fouUe mes subjets,
,ant qu'ils en estoient apovris ; tellement que j;imes
il ne seroit, queeuls et moy ne nous en sortissons.
Et veoie clerement, si je me mectoie au pelerinage
de la croix, que ce seroit la locale destruction de
mesdiz povres subjets. Depuis ouy-je dire a plu-
Rieurs, que ceux qui luy conseillerent I'er/.erprmse
de la croix, firent un trez grant mal, et peche-
rent mortellement. Car tandis qu'il fust au roy-
uume de France, to\it son royaume vivoit en paix,
«t regnoit justice. Et incontinent qu'il en fust
ors, tout commencja a decliner, et a empirer. — T. ii.,
. 158.
'n thi> F-ilVij'vs of Le Grand d'Aussy, we have
though ne governe'l tliat county in hei
name, without pretending to reunite .t
to the royal domain, it was at least, ni
a political sense, lo longer a part of
the feudal body. With some of liis
other vassals Phihp used more violent
methods. A parallel miglit be drawn
between this prince and Pliihp Augus-
tus. But while in ambition, violence
of temper, and unprincipled rapacity
as well as in the success of their at-
tempts to establish an abso-
lute authority, they may be mefiroitht
considered as nearly equal, French mo.n
we may remark this differ- ^^s'rejgn'^*'^
ence, that Philip the Fair, who
was destitute of military talents gain
ed those ends by dissimulation which
his predecessor had reached by force.
The dutchy of Guienne, though some-
what abridged of its origina) extent, wad
still by far the most consid n-abie of the
French fiefs ; even indepei leniiy of il3
connexion with England.* Philip, by
dint of perfidy, and by the ;gregious in-
capacity of Edmund, broth ;r of Edward
I., contrived to obtain, and to keep fox
several years, the possession of this great
province. [A. D. 1292.] A quarrel among
some French and English sailors having
provoked retaliation, till a sort of pirati
cal war commenced between tlie two
countries, Edward, as Duke of Guienne,
was summoned into the king's court to
answer for the trespasses of his subjects.
Upon this he despatched his brother to
settle terms of reconciliation, v/ith fuller
powers ^han should have been intrusted
to so credulous a negotiator. Philip so
outwitted this prince, through a fictitious
treaty, as to procure from him the surren-
der of all the fortresses in Guienne He
then threw off the mask, and after again
a neat poem by Rutuboguf, a writer of St. Louis's
age, in a dialogue between a crusader and a non-
crusader, wherein, though he gives the last word
to the former, it is plain that he designed the oppo-
site scile to preponderate. — T. ii., p. 163.
* Philip was highly offended that instruments
made in Guienne should be dated by the year of
Edward's reign, and not of his ov^'n. This almost
sole badge of sovereignty had been preserved by
the kings of France during all the feudal ages. A
struggle took place about it, which fi recorded in
a curious letter from John de GreiHi to Edward.
The French court at last consented to let dates be
thus expressed: — Actum fuit, regnante P. rege
Francia?, E. rege Anglic tenente ducatum Aquita-
niae. Several precedents were shown by the Eng
lish, where the counts of Toulouse had used the
form, Regnante A. con'ite Toloss. — Rymer, t. u.,
p. 10S3. As this is the first time that I quote Ry
mer, it may be proper to observe that my rcferen
ces are to the London edition, the paging of which
is preserved on the rrergin of 'hal printi^.' at liii
Hague.
( ART i.
FRANCE.
a
iommoning Edv/ard to appear, pronoun-
ced the confiscation of his fief.* This
business is the greatest blemish in the
pohtical character of Edward. But his
►eagerness about the acquisition of Scot-
land rendered him less sensible to the
danger of a possession in many respects
more valuable ; and the spirit of resist-
ance among the English nobility, which
his arbitrary measures had provoked,
broke out very opportunely for Philip [A.
D. 13031, to thvv-art every efibrt for the
recovery of Guienne by arms. But after
repeated suspensions of hostilities, a trea-
ty was finally concluded, by which Phil-
ip restored the province, on the agree-
ment of a marriage between his daughter
Isabel and the heir of England.
To this restitution he was chiefly in-
duced by the ill success that attended his
arms in Flanders, another of the great
fiefs which this ambitious monarch had
endeavoured to confiscate. We have not
perhaps as clear evidence of the original
injustice of his proceedings towards the
Count of Flanders as in tlie case of Gui-
enne ; but he certainly twice detained his
person, once after drawing him on some
pretext to his court, and again, in viola-
tion of the faith pledged by his generals.
The Flemings made, however, so vigor-
ous a resistance, tJiat Philip was unable to
reduce that small country [A. D. 1302];
and m one famous battle at Courtray, they
discomfited a powerful army with that
utter loss and ignominy to which th« un-
disciplined impetuosity of the French
nobles wius pre-eminently exposed. f
Two other acquisitions of Philip the
Fair deserve notice ; that of the counties
of Angouleme and la Marche, upon a sen-
tence of forfeiture (and, as it seems, a
very harsh one) passed against the reign-
ing count ; and that of the city of Lyons
and its adjacent territory, which had not
even feudally been subject to the crown
of France for more than three hundred
years. Lyons was the dowry of Matilda,
daughter of Louis IV., on her marriage
with Conrad, king of Burgundy, and was
bequeathed with the rest of that kiugdom
by Rodolph, in 1032, to the empire. Fred-
erick Barbarossa conferred upon the arch-
bishop of 1 yens all regahan rights over
* In .he view I have taken of this transaction, I
have been guided by several instruments in Ry-
tner, which leave no doubt on my mind. Aelly, of
course, represents the matter more favourably for
Philip.
t The Flemings took at Courtray 4000 pair of
gilt spurs, which were only worn liy knigh'.s.
These V^eliy, happily enough, compares to Henni-
tal' three bushels of goM rings at CannK.
the city, with the title of Imperidl \ icat
France seems to have had no concern
with it, till St. Louis was called in as a
mediator in disputes between the chaptei
and the city, during a vacancy of the see,
and took the exercise of jurisdiction upon
himself for the time. Philip III. having
been chosen arbitrator in similar circum-
stances, insisted, before he would restore
the jurisdiction, upon au oath of fealty
from the new archbishop. This oath,
which could be demanded, it seems, icy
no right but that of force, continued to le
taken, till, in 1310, an archbishop resiist-
ing what he had thought a usurpation, th(-
city was besieged by Philip IV., and th.;
inhabitants not being unwilling to subniii
was finally united to the French crown *
Philip the Fair left three sons, wlu
successively reigned in prance ; Louis k
Louis, surnamed Hutin, Philip the ^^h.
Long, and Charles the Fair; with j
daughter, Isabel, married to Edward II
of England. Louis, the eldest, survive
his father little more than a year, lea^
ing one daughter, and his queen pre,'
hant. The circumstances that ensuef'
require to be accurately sta- Q^^,^.^^■^„, .
ted. Louis had possessed, in saiiqut-ii-v
right of his mother, the king- J'^'^'^" ^•
dom of Navarre, with the coun-
ties of Champagne and Biie. Upon hi
death, Philip, his next brother, assumea
the regency both of France and Na
varre ; and," not long afterward, entered
into a treaty witii Eudes, duke of Bur-
gundy, uncle of the princess Jane, Louis's
daughter, by which her eventful 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 surviver of them,
should take the grandmother's inherit-
ance, Navarre and Champagne, on re-
leasing all claim to the throne of France.
But this was not to take place till their
age of consent, when, if they should re-
fuse to make such renunciation, their
claim was to remain, and right to be done
to them therein ; but, in return, the release
made by Philip of Navarre and Cham
pagne was to be null. In the meantime
he was to hold the government of France,
Navarre, and Champagne, receiving hom-
age of vassals in all these countries as
governor; saving the right of a male heii
to the late king, in the event of wliose
birth the treaty was not to take eflcct.f
* Velly. t. vii„ p. 404. For a more precise ac-
count ol the political dependance of Lyons and iti
district, see I'Art de vtrifier leg Dates, t. ii., p 469
t Hist, de Charles le Mauvais, pa- ^izy.ifui
vol ii., u. '/..
38
ELROPE DunJiNG THE MlUULfc AGES.
Tliisconven jon 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 ex-
pression ; and Philip was, by his own
agreement, precluded from taking any
other title than that of regent or govern-
or, until the princess Jane should attain
the age to concur in or disclaim the pro-
visional contract of her uncle. Instead
of this, however, he procured himself to
be consecrated at Rheims; though, on
account of the avowed opposition of the
Duke of Burgundy, and even of his own
brother Charles, it was thought prudent
to shut the gates during the ceremony,
and to dispose guards throughout the
town. Upon his return to Paris, an as-
131- S6'i"'bly, composed of prelates,
^"' '' '■ barons, and burgesses of that
city, was convened, who acknowledged
him as their lawful sovereign, and, if we
may believe an historian, expressly de-
clared, 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 in?.onsiderable pension, not
only her disputed claim to the wiiole
monarchy, but her unquestionable right
to Navarre and Champagne. f I have
been rather minute in stating these de-
tails, because the transaction is misrepre-
sented by every historian, not excepting
those who have written since the publica-
tion of the documents which illustrate it. J
In this contest, every way memorable,
but especially on account of that which
sprung out of it, the exclusion of females
from the throne of France was first pub-
hcly discussed. The French writers
almost unanimously concur in asserting,
* Tunc etiam declaratum fuit, quod in regno
Francise mulier non succedit. — Contin. Qui. Nan-
gis, in SpicUegio d'Achery, tome iii. This monk,
wiihout talents, and probably without private infor-
mation, is the sole contemporary historian of this
.mportant period. He describes the assembly
A'hich confirmed Philip's possession of the crown ;
qiamplures proceres et regni nobiles ac magnates
Una cum plerisque praelatis et burgensibus Farisi-
ensis civitatis.
t Hist, de Charles le Mauvais, t. ii., p. 6. Jane
and her husband, the Count of Evreux, recovered
Navarre after the death of Charles the Fair.
t V'elly, who gives several proofs of disingenu-
ousness in this part of history, mutilates fiie treaty
of the 17th of july, 1316, in order to conceal Philip
Ihe L"rig"> '■ each of faith towards his niece.
that such an exclui^ion was built upon a
fundamental maxim of their government.
No written law, nor even, so far as L
know, the direct testimony of any an-
cient writer, has been brought forward to
confirm this position. For as to the text
of the Sahque-law, vvliich was frequently
quoted, and has hideed given a name to
this exclusion of females, it can only by
a doubtful and refined analogy be con-
sidered as bearing any relation to tho
succession of the crown. It is certain,
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, yt \
some of the Merovingian kings le'-
daughters, who might, if not rendered
incapable by their sex, have shared witl
their brothers in partitions then com
monly made.* But, on the other hand
these times were gone quite out ol
memory, and France had much in th<
analogy of her existing usages to recon
cile her to a female reign. The crowr
resembled a great fief; and the great fiefs
were universally capable of descending
to women. Even at the consecration ol
Philip himself, Maud, countess of Artois
held the crown over his head among tin
other peers. t And it was scarcely be
yond the recolle(fction of persons liviiig
that Blanche had been legitimate regen«
of France during the minority of St
Louis.
For these reasons, and much more frorr
the provisional treaty concluded betweer
Philip and the Duke of Burgundy, it ma-^
be fairly inferred, that the Sahque-law^ a;<
it was called, was not so fixed a principle
at that time as has been contended. But,
however this may be, it received at the
accession of Philip the Long a sanction
which subsequent erents more thorough-
ly confirmed. Philip himself leaving onl"»
* The treaty of Andely, in 5S7, will be found t*;
afford a very strong presumption that females were
at that time excluded from reigning in France.
— Greg. Turon., 1. ix.
t The continuator of Nangis says indeed of this :
de quo aliqui indignati fuerunt. But these were
probably the partisans of her nephew Robert, v he
had been excluded by a judicial sentence of P i'ip
IV., on the ground that the right of representation
did not take place in Artois ; a decision considered
by many as unjust. Robert subsequently renewed
his appeal tothecourt of Philip of V'alois : but, un-
happily for himse f, yielded to the temptation of
forging documents in support of a claim which
seems to have been at least plausible without such
aid. This unwise dishonesty, which is nut withoul
parallel in more private causes, not only ruined hi«
pretensions to the county of Artois, but producet?
a sentence of forfeiture, and even of capital punish
ment, against himself.— See a pretty good accojn'
of Robert's process in Velly t. viii . » 'i^2
'»sr il.j
FRANCE
39
three daughters, his brother
'jua.i. « . (^'j^^j-jgg nioiinted the throne
: rt . >. 1322] ; and upon his death, the rule
»*■ -ui so unquestionably established, that
Hi- only daughter was excluded by the
: iJip of Count of Valois, grandson of
V.10..S. Philip the Bold.. [A. D. 1328.]
I his j)rince first took the regency, the
■iUfcen dowager being pregnant, and, up-
;qi her giving birth to a daughter, was
j-TOwned king. No competitor or op-
ponent appeared in France ; but one
more formidable than any whom France
could have produced, was awaiting the
jccasion to prosecute his imagined right
tvith all the resources of valour and
genius, and to carry desolation over that
tfreat kingdom with as little scruple as if
he »vas preferring a suit before a civil tri-
tiiin.il.
From the moment of Charles IV.'s
vnai.iiof death, Edward III. of Eng-
■s.i ward III. land buoyed himself up with
1 iiotion of his title to the crown of
t'rmce, iu right of his mother, Isabel,
sister to the three last kings. We can
have no hesitation in condenming the in-
justice of tliis pretension. Whether the
Snlique-law were or were not vahd, no
td ventage could be gained by Edward.
r>en if we could forget the express or
vHi:it decision of all France, there stood
■;i fiis way Jane, the daughter of Louis
< three of Philip the Long, and one of
jh irles the Fair. Aware of this, Edward
ixs<, up a distinction, that, although females
were excluded from succession, the same
rule did not apply to their male issue ; and
chus, though his mother Isabel could not
herself become Queen of France, she
imght '.ransmit a title to him. liut this
^vis CO itrary to the commonest rules of
'uhfritp.nce : and if it could have been re-
> itded at all, Jane had a son, afterward
he lamous King of Navarre, who stood
t'lv degree nearer to the crown than Ed-
*Hrd.
It is asserted in some French authori-
'.les, that Edward preferred a claim to the
i-ei^ency immediately after the decease
}'' Charles the Fair, and that the States
(ifjneral, or at least the peers of France,
iJjudged that dignity to Philip de Valois.
Whether this be true or not, it is clear
Uiat he entertr?ined projects of recovering
ttis right as early, though his youth and
'.he embarrassed circumstances of his
jii'vernment threw insuperaole obstacles
'u the way of their execution.* He did
♦ Letters of Edward 111., addre.ssed to certain
jDles and towns in the south of France, dated
..larch 28, 1328, four d ^ys before the birth of
Qhailea IV.'a |;osthumou8 daughter, intimate this
liege Aomage therefore to Philip foi
Guienne, and for several years, while the
affairs of Scotland engrossed his atten
tion, gave no sign of meditating a more
magnificent enterprise. As he advanced
in manhood, and felt the consciousness
of his strength, his early designs grew
mature, and produced a series of the most
important and interesting revolutions in
the fortunes of J'rance. These will form
the subject of the ensuing pagei^
PART IL
War of Edward III. in France. — Causes of tia
Success. — Civil Disturbances of France. — Peace
of Breligni — its Interpretation considered. —
resolution. — Rymer, vol. iv., p. 344, et seq. But an
instrument, dated at Northampton, on the 16th ol
May, is decisive : This is a procuration to the bish-
ops of Worcester and Litchfield, to demand and
take possession of the kingdom of France, "in our
name, which kingdom has devolved and appcrtaiiit'
to us as to the right heir." — P. 354. To this mjs
sion Archbishop Stratford refers, in his vindication
of himself from Edward's accusation of treason in
1340 ; and informs us that the two bishops actually
proceeded to France, though without mentioning
any further particulars. Aovit eniin qui nihil igno-
rat, quod cuin quaestio de regno Francia^ post mor-
tem regis Caroli, fratris serer.issiniffi matris vestrae,
in parliamento tunc apud Northampton celebrato,
tractata discussaque fuisset ; quodque idem regnum
Franciae ad vos haereditario jure e.xtiterat legitime
devolutum ; et super hoc fuit ordinatum, quod dun
episcopi, Wigorniensis tunc, nunc autem VVintoni-
ensis, ac Coventriensis et Lichfeldeiisis in Fran
ciam dirigerent gressus sues, nomineque vestro
regnum Franci.-e vindicarent et praxlicti Philippi
de Valesio coronationem pro viribus impedirent ;
qui juxla ordinationem prsdictam legationem lis
mjunctam tunc assumentes, gressus sues versus
Franciain direxerunt ; quaiquidem legatio maxim-
am guerrae prssentis materiam ministravit. — V\'il
kins. — Concilia, t. i., p. GC4.
There is no evidence in Rymer's Fcedera to cor
roborate Edward's supposed claim to the regency
of France upon the death of Charles i V. ; and it i*
certainly suspicious, that no appointment of am
bassaaors or procurators for this purpose should
appear in so complete a collection of documents.
The French historians generally assert this, upon
the authority of the continuator of William of IS an-
gis, a nearly contemporary, but not always well
informed writer. It is curious to compare the four
chief English historians. Rapin afiirms both the
claim to the regency, on Charles l\'.'s death, and
that to the kingdom, after the birth of his daugh.
ter. Carte, the most exact historian we have,
mentions the latter, and is silent as to the former.
Hume passes over both, and intimates that Ed
ward did not take any steps in support of his pre
tensions in 1328. Henry gives the supposed trial
of Edward's claim to the regency before the States
General at great length, and makes no allusion to
the other, so indispuiably authenticated in Rymer.
It is, I think, most probable, that the two bishops
never made the formal demand of the throne a«
they were directed by their instructions. Strat-
ford's exp-essions seem to imply that thev did not
»0
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
iChap. J
V'-harln? V ,— Renewal of the War. — Charles VI.
— his Mniority and Insanity. — Civil Dissensions
of the Parties of Orleans aiid Burgundy. — Assas-
Fination of both these Princes. — Intrigues of
Uieir Parties with England under Henry IV. —
Menrv V. invades France. — Treaty of Troyes. —
State of France in the i..'st Years of Charles \'II.
— Progress and »a.joequent Decline of the Eng-
lish Anns — their Expulsion from France. —
Change in the Poiitic.d Constitution.— Louis XI.
— his Character. — Li;agues formed against him.
— Charles, Duke of Burgundy — his Prosperity
and Fall. — Louis obtains Possession of Burgun-
dy— his Death. — Charles VTU. — Acquisition of
Biitany.
No war had broken out in Europe, since
War of Ed- ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Romau Empire,
■^^ard HI. in SO memorable as that of Ed-
France, ward in. and his successors
against France, whether we consider its
duration, its object, or the magnitude and
variety of its events. It was a strug-
gle of one hundred and twenty years,
interrupted but once by a regular paci-
fication, where the most ancient and ex-
tensive dominion in the civilized world
was the prize, twice lost and twice re-
covered 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 chas-
tised its enthusiasm, and levelled its dis-
tinctions. There can be no occasion to
dwell upon the events of this war, which
are famihar to almost every reader ; it is
rather my aim to develop and arrange
those circumstances which, when rightly
understood, give the clew to its various
change3 of fortune.
France was, even in the fourteenth
Causes of iiis ccutury, a kingdom of such
success. extent and compactness of
figure, such population and resources,
and filled witli 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 slate of exhaustion, and dis-
membered of considerable provinces by
an ignominious peace. What was the
* The pope (Benedict XII.) wrote a strong letter
to Edward (.March, 1340), dissuading htm from ta-
king the title and arms of France, and pointing out
tiie impossibility of his ever succeeding. I have
no doubt but that this was the common opinion.
But the Avignon popes were very subservient to
France. Clement VI., as well as his predecessor,
Benedict XII., threatened Edward with spiritual
arms. — Rymer, t. v., p. 88 and 4C5. It required Ed-
ward's spirit and steadiness to despise these men-
aces. But the time when they were terrilile to
princes was rather passed by ; and the Holy See
n€ver venturjd to provoke the king, who treated
'•he ctiurch, ihroighout his reign, with admirable
InnneM ami lenper.
combina ion of political Cvuses which
brought about so strange a revolution,
and, though not realizing Kdward's hopes
to their extent, redeemed them from the
imputation of rashness in the judgmen'
of his own and succeeding ages'?
The first advantage which Edward
III. possessed in this contest, character oi
was derived from the splen- Edward in.
dour of his personal charac- andiusson
ter, and from the still more eminent vir
tues of his son. Besides prudence ano
military skill, these great princes were
endowed with qualities peculiarly fitted
for the times in which they lived. Chiv
airy was then in its zenith ; and in all the
virtues which adorned the knightly char-
acter, in courtesy, munificence, gallantry,
in all delicate and magnanimous feelings,
none were so conspicuous as Edward 111.
and the Black Prince. As later prince?
have boasted of being the. best gentle-
men, they might claim to be the prowesi
knights in Europe ; a character not quite
dissimilar, yet of more high pretensicn.
Their court was, as it were, the sun of
that system which embraced the valour
and nobility of the Christian world; and
the respect which was felt for their ex-
cellences; while it drew many to theii
side, mitigated in all the rancour and fe-
rociousness of hostility. This war was
like a great tournament, where the com-
batants fought indeed a outrance, but with
all the courtesy and fair play of such an
entertainment, and almost as much foi
the honour of their ladies. In the school
of the Edwards were formed men nol. in-
ferior in any nobleness of disposition to
their masters ; Manni, and the Captal de
Buch, Felton, Knollys. and Calverley,
Chandos, and Lancaster. On the French
side, especially after Du Guesclin came
on the stage, these had rivals almost
equally deserving of renown. If we could
forget, what never should be forgotten,
the wretchedness and devastation that
fell upon a great kingdom, too dear a
price for the display of any heroism, we
might count these English wars in France
among the brightest periods in history.
Phihp of Valois and John his son sliow-
ed but poorly in comparison character oi
with their illustrious enemies, rhiiip vi
Yet they had both considerable ^""^ •'°''"
virtues ; they were brave,* just, liberal
* The bravery of Philip is not questioned. Bu'»
a French historian, in order, I suppose, to enhance
this quality, has presumed to violate truth in ar
extraordinary manner. The challenge sent by Ed-
ward, offering to decide his claim to the kingdom
by single combat, is well known. Certainly it eon
veys no imputation on the King of Frpnce to havi
declined this unfair proposal. But Velly ha cp
.-«T If 1
FRANCE.
41
and the latter, lu pariicular, of unshaken l In the meantime he strengthened him-
fidehty to his word. But neither was be- self by alliances with tlie emperor, witli
loved by his subjects; the misgovern- the cities of Flanders, and with most of
ment and extortion of their predecessors , the princes in the Netherlands and on
during half a century had alienated the j the Rhine. Yet I do not fcnow that he
public mind, and rendered their own taxes profited much by these com cntions, since
and debasement of the coin intolerable.
Philip was made by misfortune, John by
nature, suspicious and austere ; and al-
though 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. In the execution of
Clisson under Philip, in that of the Con-
netable d'Eu under John, and still more
in that of Harcourt, even in the imprison-
ment of the King of Navarre, though ev-
ery one of these might have been guilty
of treasons, there were circumstances
enough to exasperate the disatlected, and
to strengthen the party of so politic a
competitor as Edward.
Next to the personal qualities of the
Resources of Ki"g of England, his resour-
the King of ccs in this war must be ta-
Eiigia.ui. ^^^^ jj^j^ ^l^g account. It was
after long hesitation that he assumed
the title and arms of France, from
which, unless upon the best terms, he
Jould not recede without loss of honour.*
resented him as accepting it, on condition that Ed-
ward would stake the crown of England against
that of France ; an interpolation which may be
truly called audacious, since not a word of this is
\n Philip's letter, preserved in Rymer, which the
historian had before his eyes, and actually quotes
upon tiie occasion.— Hist, de France, t. viii., p. 382.
* The first instrument in which Edward disal-
lows the title of Philip, is his convention with the
Emperor Louis of Bavaria, wherein he calls him
nunc pro rege Francoruni se gereiitein. The date
of this is August 2C, 1337, yet on the 28th of the
same month, another instrument gives hiin the
title of king; and the same occurs in subsequent
instances. At length we have an instrument if
procuration to the Uuke of Brabant, October 7,
1337, empowering him to take possession of the
crown of France in the name ot Edward : atteii-
dentes inciitum regnum Franciae ad nos fore jure
successionis legitime devolutum. Another of the
same date appoints the said duke his vicar-general
and lieutenant of France. The king assumed in
this commission the title Kcx Francias et Anglias ;
in other instruments he calls himself Rex Angliae
et Francia!. It was necessary to obviate the leal-
ousy of the English, who did not, in that age,
admit the jirecedence of France. Accordingly,
Edward had two great seals, on which the tvvo
kingdoms were named in a ditierent order. But, in
the royal arms, those of France were always in tlie
first quarter, as they continued to be until the ac-
cession of the house of Brunswick.
Probably Edward HI. would not have entered
into the war merely on account of his claim to the
crown. He had disp-ites with Philip about Gui-
enne ; and that prince had, rath \r unjustifiably,
Rbei.ed Robert Bruce Hi Scotland I am not in-
he met with no success till the scene ot
the war was changed from the Flemish
frontier to Normandy and Poitou. The
troops of Hainault 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 1., and through the market open-
ed 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 precau-
tions against a very probable elTect of
Edward's conquest of France, the reduc-
tion of their own island into a province,
entered, as warmly as improvidently,
into his quarrel. 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 tlie
enterprise do not seem to have struck
the gravest of our countrymen.
There is, indeed, ample room for na-
tional exultation at the names Excellence o/
of Crecy, Poitiers, and Az- the EngUsh
incourt. So great was the a""ies.
disparity of numbers upon those famous
days, that we cannot, with the French
historians, attribute the discomfiture of
their hosts merely to mistaken tactics
and too impetuous valour. They yield-
ed rather to that intrepid steadiness in
danger, which had already become the
characteristic of our English soldiers, anrj
which, during four centuries, has ensured
their superiority, whenever ignorance or
infatuation has not led them into the
field. But these victories, and the quali-
ties that secured them, must chielly 'be
ascribed to the freedom of our constitu-
tion, 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 fu ly
matched in the ranks of France ; but ti.e
yeomen, who drew the bow with strong
and steady arms, accustomed to its usf
in their native fields, and rendered fear-
less by personal competence and civil
freedom. It is well known that each o/
the three great victories was due to out
archers, who were chiefly of the middle
class, and attached, according to the sys-
clined to lay any material stiess upon tJ»<j insiiga
tion of Robert of Artois.
«2
EUROPE DURING TJIE MIDDLE AGES
[Chap i
teni of tiiat a^e, to the knights and
squires who fought in heavy armour with
the lance. Even at the battle of Poitiers,
of which our country seems to have the
least right to boast, 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.*
Yet the glorious termination to which
Edward was enabled, at least for a
Comiiiio- time, to bring the contest, was
or France rather the work of fortune than
bauL'of of valour and prudence. Until
Poitiers, the battle of Poitiers, he had
made no progress towards the conquest
of France. That country was too vast,
and his army too small, for such a revo-
lution. The victory of Crecy gave him
nothing but Calais ; a post of considera-
ble importance in war and peace, but
rather adapted to annoy than to subjugate
the kingdom. But at Poitiers he obtain-
ed the greatest of priaes, by taking pris-
oner the King of France. Not only the
love of freedom tempted that prince to
ransom himself by the utmost sacrifices,
but his captivity left France defenceless,
and seemed to annihilate the monarchy
Mself. The government was already
odious ; a spirit was awakened in the
people, which might seem hardly to be-
vong to the fourteenth century ; and the
r-onvulsions of our own time are some-
times strongly paralleled by those which
succeeded the battle of Poitiers. Al-
ready the States General had established
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. f The right of
levying and of regulating the collection
of taxes was recognised. But that as-
sembly which met at Paris immediately
ifter the battle, 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 seem-
ed an opportunity of redress ; and how-
ever seditious, or even treasonable, may
have been the motives of those who
guided this assembly of the Slates, espe-
cially the famous Marcel, it is clear that
many of their reformations tended to lib-
fcriy and the public good.J But the tu-
♦ Au vray dire, les archers d'Angleterre faisoient
k leurs gens grant avantage. Car ils tiroyent tant
espessement, que les Francois ne scjavoyent deque!
coste entendre, qu'ilsne fussent consuyvisde trayt ;
et s'avancoyent tousjours ces AngJois, et petit k
petit enqueroyent terre. — Part I.,c. iC2
t Ordonr.ances des Rois de France, t. ii.
t I must refer the reader onward to ih ; next
I multuous scenes which passed in the
capital, sometimes heightened into dvii
war, necessarily distracted men from the
common defence agains>t Edward. These
tumults were excited, and the distraction
increased, by Charles, king of Navarre
surnamed the bad, to w-hom the French
writers have, not perhaps unjustly, at
tributed a character of unmixed and in-
veterate malignity. He was grandson of
Louis Hutin, by his daughter Jane, and,
if Edward's pretence of claiming through
females could be admitted, was a nearer
heir to the crown ; the consciousness of
which seems to have suggested 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. John
had bestowed his daughter in marriage
on the King of Navarre ; but he very soon
gave a proof of his character, by procu-
ring the assassination of the king's favour-
ite, Charles de la Cerda. An irreconci-
lable enmity was the natural result of this
crime. Charles became aware that he
had offended beyond the possibility of
forgiveness, and that no letters of pardon,
nor pretended reconciliation, could secure
him from the king's resentment. Thus,
impelled by guilt into deeper guilt, he
catered into alliances with Edward, and
fomented the seditious spirit of Paris.
Eloquent and insinuating, he was the
favourite of the people, whose grievan-
ces he affected to pity, and with whose
leaders he intrigued. As his paternal
inheritance, he possessed the county of
Evreux in Normandy. The proximity
of this to Paris created a formidable di-
version in favour of Edward III., and
connected the English garrisons of the
north with those of Poitou and Guienne.
There is no affliction which did net
fall upon France during this miserable
period. A foreign enemy was in the
heart of the kingdom, the king a prisoner,
the capital in sedition, a treacherous
prince of the blood in arms against the
sovereign authority. Famine, the sure
and terrible companion of war, for sev-
eral years desolated the country. In
1348, a pestilence, 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
chapter for more information on this subject. This
separation is inconvenient, but it arose indispensa-
bly out of my arrangement, and prevented greatei
inconveniences.
* A full account of the ravages made by (hit
memorable plague may be found in Maneo Vill*
"iRT. II.J
FRANCE.
companies of adveiitui e, mercenar}' troops
in the service of John or Edward, find-
ing 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 by superstition, they com-
pelled the pope to redeem himself m
Avignon by the payment of forty tliou-
sand crowns.* France was tlie 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.
Impatient of this wretchedness, and stung
by the insolence and luxury of their lords,
the peasantry ofsevcral districts broke out
into a dreadful insurrection. [A. D. 1358.]
This was called the Jacquerie, from the
cant phrase Jacques bon homrae, applied
to men of that class ; and was marked by
all the circumstances of horror incident
to the rising of an exasperated and unen-
lightened populace. t
ni, the second of that family who wrote the histc-
•ry of Florence. His brother and predecessor, John
Villani, was himself a victiiu to it. Tho disease
began in the Levant aliont 1346 ; from whence
Italian traders brought it to Sicily, Pisa, and Ge-
noa. In 1348 it passed the Alps and spread over
France and Spam ; m the next year it reached
Britain, and in 1350 laid waste Germany and other
northern states ; lastmggenerally about five months
in each country. At Florenre. more than three
out of five died. — Muratori, arrijit Rerum Itali-
caruni, t. xiv., p. 12. The stories of Boccaccio's
Decamerone, as is well known, are supposed to be
related by a society of Florentine ladies and gen-
tlemen retired to the country during this pesti-
lence.
* Froissart, p. 187. This troop of banditti was
commanded by Arnaud de Cervole, surnamed
I'Archipr^tre, from a benefice which, although a
layman, he possessed, according to the irregularity
of those ages. See a memoir on the life of Arnaud
de Cervole, in the twenty-fifth volume of the Acad-
emy of Inscriptions.
t The second continuator of Nangis, a monk of
no great abilities, but entitled to notice as our most
contemporary historian, charges the nobility with
spending the money raised upon the people by op-
pressive ta.ves, in playing at dice " et alios inde-
centes jocos." — D'Achery, Spicilegium, t. iii., p.
114 (folio edition). All the miseries that followed
the battle of Poitiers he ascribes to bad govern-
ment and neglect of the common weal ; but espe-
cially to the pride and luxury of the nobles. 1 am
aware that this writer is biased in favour of the
King of Navarre ; but he was an eyewitness of the
people's /niseiy, and perhaps a less exceptionable
authority than Froissart, whose love of pageantry
and habits of feasting in the castles of the great,
seem to have produced some insensibility towards
the sufferings of the lower classes. It is a painful
circumstaiice, which Froissart and the continuator
of Nangis attest, that the citizens of Calais, more
interesting than the common heroes of history,
were unrewarded, and begged their bread in mis-
erv 'hroughout France. V'lllaret contradicts this,
Subdued by these misfortunes, though
Edward had made but slight progress
towards the conquest of the country, the
regent of France, afterward Charles V.,
submitted to the peace of Bre- peaceoi
tigni. [A. D. 1360.] By this treaty, uretigoL
not to mention less important articles,
all Guienne, Gascony, Poitou, Saintonge,
the Limousin, and the Angoumois, as
well as Calais, and the county of Pon-
thieu, were ceded in full sovereignty
to Edward ; a price abundantly compen-
sating his renunciation of the title of
France, which was the sole concession
stipulated in return. Every care seems
to have been taken to make the cession of
these provinces complete. The first six
articles of the treaty expressly surren-
der them to the King of England. By th«
seventh, John and his son engage to con-
vey within a year from the ensuing
Michaelmas all their rights over tliem,
and especially those of sovereignty and
, feudal appeal. The same words are re-
peated still more emphatically in the
eleventh; and some other articles. Tht
twelfth stipulates the change of mutual re-
nunciations ; by John, of all right over tho
ceded countries ; by Edward, of his claim
to the throne of France. At Calais, the
treaty of Bretigni was renewed by John,
who, as a prisoner, had been no party tc
the former compact, with the omission
only of the twelfth article, respecting the
exchange of renunciations. But that it
was not intended to waive them liy this
omission, is abundantly manifest by in-
stiuments of both the kings, in which
on the authority of an ordinance which he has seen
in their favour. But that was not a time when
ordinances were very sure of execution. — VilL, t.
ix., p. 470. I must add, that the celebrated story
of the sis citizens of Calais, which has of late been
called in question,, receives strong confirmation
from John Villani, who died very soon afterward.
— L. xii., c. 96. Froissart of course wrought up tlie
circumstances after his manner. In all the colour
ing of his history, he is as great a master as Livy ;
and as little observant of particular truth. M. de
Brequigny, almost the latest of those excellent
antiquaries whose memoirs so much illu.strate the
French Academy of Inscriptions, has discussed the
history of Calais, and particularly this remaikable
portion of it.— M^m. de I'Acad. des Inscriptions,
t. 1.
Petrarch has drawn a lamentable picture of the
state of France in 1360, when he paid a visit to
Paris. 1 could not believe, he says, that ihjs was
the same kingdom which I had once seen eo rich
and flourishing. Nothing presented itseJf to my
eyes but a fearful solitude, an extreme piverty,
lands uncultivated, houses in ruins. Even the
neigb.bourhood of Pans manifested cverywhe'€
marks of destruction and conflagration. Th<
streets are deserted ; the roads overgrown with
weeds: the whole is a vast iolitude. — .Mem d
Pi'trarque, t. iii, p. 541.
<4
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
lChai'. l
reference is made to their future inter-
changes at Bruges, on the feast of St.
Andrew, 1361. And, until that time
should »-rive, Edward promises to lay
aside the title and arms of France (an
engagement which he strictly kept),* and
John to act in no respect as king or su-
zerain over the ceded provinces. Finally,
on November 15, 1361, two commission-
ers are -ippointed by Edward to receive
the renunciations of the King of France
at Bruges on the ensuing feast of St. An-
drew,! ^iid to do whatever might be mu-
tually required by virtue of the treaty.
These, however, seem to have been
withheld, and the twelfth article of the
treaty of Bretigni was never expressly
completed. Byniutual instruments, exe-
cuted at Calais, October 24, it had been
declared, that the sovereignty of the
ceded provinces, as well as Edward's
right to the crown of France, should re-
main as before, although suspended as to
its exercise, until the exchange of renun-
ciations, notwithstanding any words of
present conveyance or release in the
treaties of Bretigni and Calais. And
another pair of letters patent, dated
October 26, contains the form of renun-
ciations, which, it is mutually declared,
should have effect by virtue of the pres-
ent letters, in case one party should be
ready to exchange such renunciations
at the ti;>ae and place appointed, and
the other should make default therein.
These instruments, executed at Calais,
are so prolix, and so studiously envel-
oped, as it seems, in the obscurity of
technical language, that it is difficult to
extract their precise intention. It ap-
pears, nevertheless, that whichever par-
ty Avas prepared to perfcrm what was
required of him at Bruges on November
30, 1361, tlie other, then and there making
default, M-ould acquire not only what our
lawyers might call an equitable title, but
an actual vested right, by virtue of the
provision in the letters patent of October
26, 1300. The appointment above men-
tioned of Edward's commissioners on
November 15, 1361, seems to throw upon
the French the burden of proving that
John sent his envoys with equally full
powers to the place of meeting, and that
the non-interchange of renunciations was
owing to the English government. But
though an historian, sixty years later
(Juvenal des Ursins), asserts that the
* Edward gives John the title of King of France,
in an instrument bearii g date at Calais, October
22, 13C0.— Rymer, t. vi.. p. 217. The treaty was
iigned October 24.— Id., ■? 219.
( Rviner, t. vi., p. 33S
French commissioners attended at Bru-
ges, and that those of Edward mado
default, this is certainly rendered impro>/-
able, by the actual appointment of coi/i-
missioners made by the King of England
on the 15th of November, by the silence
of Charles V. after the recommencement
of hostilities, who would have rejoiced in
so good a ground of excuse, and by the
language of some English instruments,
complaining that the F'rench renuncia-
tions were withheld.* It is suggested by
the French authors, that Edward \\ as un-
willing to execute a formal renunciation
of his claim to the crown. But we can
hardly suppose that, in order to evade
this condition, which he had voluntarily
imposed upon himself by the treaties of
Bretigni and Calais, he would have left
his title to the provinces ceded by those
conventions imperfect. He certainh
deemed it indefeisible, and acted with
out any complaint from the Frencl.
* It appears that, among other alleged infrac
tions of the treaty, the Kmg of France had re
ceived appeals from Armagnac, Albret, and otlier
nobles of Aquitaine, not long after the peace. For,
in February, 1362, ^ French envoy, the Counl de
Tancarville, being in England, the privy council
presented to Edward their bill of remonstrances
against this conduct of France ; et semble au con
sell le roy d'Angleterre que considere la fourme de
la ditte paix, qui tant esioit honourable et profita-
ble au royaume de France eta tout chretiente, que
la reception desdittes appellacions, n'a mie este
bien faite, ne passee si onlenement, ne a si bon af
fection et amour comme il droit avoir este faite de
raison parmi Teffet et Tintention de la paix, et ail-
liances atVerniees et entr'eux semble estre moult
prejudiciables et contraires a I'onneur et a I'estat
du roy et de son fils le prince et de toute la maison
d'Angleterre, et pourra estre evidente matiere de
rebellion des subgiez, et aussi donner tres-grant
occasion d'enfraindre la paix, si bon remede sur
ce n'y soit mis plus hastivement. Upon the whole,
they conclude that, if the King of France would re-
pair this trespass, and send his renunciation of
sovereignty, the king should send his of the title
of France.— Martenne, Thes. Anec, t. i., p. 1487.
Four princes of the blood, or, as they are termed,
Seigneurs des Fleurdelys, were detained as hos
tages for the due execution of the treaty of Bre-
tigni, which, from whatever pretence, was delayed
for a considerable time. Anxious to obtain their
liberty, they signed a treaty at London in Novem-
ber, 1362, by which, among other provisions, it was
stipulated that the King of France should send
fresh letters, under his seal, conveying and releas
ing the territories ceded by the peace, without the
clau.se contained in the former letters, retaining the
ressort : et queen ycelles letlressoitexpressement
compris transport de la souverainete et du ressort,
&c. Et le roi d'Engleterre et ses enfans ferroriJ
semblablement autiels renonciations, sur ce q'll
doit faire de sa partie.— Rymer, t. vi., p. 396. This
treaty of London was never ratified by the Fi-ench
government ; but I use it as a proof that Edward
imputed the want of mutual renunciations to
France, and was himself rea-^'y to perform his DVC
1 of the treaty.
Pjut LI.
FRANCE.
4fl
court, as tlie perfect manter of those
cjountries. He created his son Prince
of Aquitaine, with tiie fullest powers
over that new principality, holding it in
fief of the crown of England by the
yearly rent of an ounce of gold.* And
the court of that great prince was kept
for several years at Bordeaux.
I have gone something more than usual
into detail as to these circumstances, be-
cause a very specious account is given by
some French historians and antiquaries,
which tends to throw the blame of the
rupture in 1368 upon Edward Ill.f Un-
founded as was his pretension to the
crown of France, and actuated as we
must consider him by the most ruhious
ambition, his character was unblemished
byMU faith. There, is no apparent cause
to impute the ravages made in France by
soldiers formerly in the English service
to his instigation, nor any proof of a con-
nexion with the King of Navarre subse-
quently to the peace of Bretigni. But a
good lesson may be drawn by conquerors
from the change of fortune tliat befell Ed-
ward III. A long warfare, and unex-
ampled success, had procured for him
some of the richest provinces of France.
Within a short time lie v.-as entirely strip-
oed of them, less through any particular
misconduct, than in consequence of the
* Rym., t. vi., p. 385-389. One clause is re-
Oiarkabls; Edward reservRs to liimself the right of
creMing the j..ovince of Aqiiiiaiiie into a kingdom.
So high were the notions o' this great monarch, in
an age when tiie privdi;,e ul creating new king-
doms was deemed to belong only to the pope and
the emperor. Etiam si per nos hujusmodi pro-
vincite ad regalis honoris titulum et fastigium im-
posterum snblimentur ; quam erectioneni facien-
dam tier r OS e.K tunc speciahter reservamus.
t Besiiies Villaret, and other historians, the
reader who feels any curiosity on this subject
may consult three memoirs in the 15th volume ol
the Academy of Inscriptions by MM. Secousse,
Salier, and Bonamy. These distinguished anti-
quaries unite, but the third with much less confi-
dence and passion than the other two, in charging
ihe omission upon Edward. The observations in
the te.'ct will serve, I hope, to repel their argu-
ments, which, I may be permitted to observe, no
English writer has hitherto undertaken to answer.
"Phis is not said in order to assume any praisfi to
myself; in fact, I have been guided, in a great
degree, by one of the adverse counsel, M. Bonamy,
whose statement of facts is very fair, and makes
me suspect a little that he saw the weakness of
his own cause.
The authority of Christine de Pisan, % contem-
porary jiancgynst of the French king, is not per-
haps very material in such a question : \)ui she
seems wholly ignorant of this supposed omission
on Edward's side, and puts the justice of Charles
V.'s war an a very different ba.-iis ; namely, that
treaties not conduci'*? to the public interes". oui;ht
not to be kept.— Collection des Memoires, t. ».,
p. 137 •• •>rinciple more often 3fted UDon tl.-xn
intrinsic dillicnlty of preserving such ac
quisitions. The French were already
knit together as one people; and eveu
those whose feudal duties sometimes
led them into the field against tlieii
sovereign, could not endure the feeling
of dismemberment from the monarchy
When the peace of Bretigni was to bf
carried into effect, the nobihty of the
south remonstrated against the loss of
the king's sovereignty, and showed, it is
said, in their charters granted by Charle-
magne, a promise never to transfer the
right of protecting them to another. The
citizens of liochelle implored tlie king
not to desert them, and protested theii
readiness to pay half their estates ii'
taxes rather than fall under the powe)
of England. John, with heaviness of
heart, persuaded these faithful people to
comply with that destiny wliicli he had
not been able to surmount. At length
they sullenly submitted : we will obey
they said, the EngUsh with our lips, but
our hearts shall never forget their allegi-
ance.* Such unwilling subjects might
perhaps have been won by a prudent gov-
ernment ; but the temper of tlie Prince
of W' ales, which was rather stern and ar-
bitrary, did not conciliate their hearts to
his cause. t After the expedition into
Castile, a most injudicious and fatal en
terprise, he attempted to impose a heavy
tax upon Guienne. This was extended
to the lands of the nobility, who claimed
animmmiity from all impositions. Many
of the chief lords in Guienne and Gascony
carried their complaints to the throne of
Charles V., who had succeeded f,j,^^,gg y
his father in 1364, appealing to uu|ifureoi'
him as the prince's sovereign tiie »»iifc o.
and judge. After a year's delay, '^^'^"s"'
the king ventured to summon the Black
Prince to answer these charges before the
peers of France [A. D. 1368J, and the war
immediately recommenced between the
two countries. J
Though it is impossible to reconcile the
conduct of Charles upon this Occasion to
those stern principles of rectitude which
* Froissart, part i., chap. 214.
t See an anecdote of his difference with the
Seigneur d'Albret, one of the principal barons in
Gascony, to which Froissart, who was then at
Bordeaux, ascribes the alienation of the southern
nobility, chap. 244. Edward HI., soon after thn
peace of Bretigni, revoked' all his grants in Gui
enne. — Rymer, I. vi,, p. 201.
If On November 20, 1368, tome time before the
summons of the Prince of Wales, a treaty was con-
cluded between Charles, and Henry, king of Cas-
tile, wherein the latter e.xpressiy stipulates, thai
whatever parts of Guienne or Encland ho^migh
conquer, he would give up to the Kii g of Frar.tP
—Rymer. I. vi., p. 508,
46
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
^».'hap. 1
ought always to be obeyed, yet the ex-
ceeding injustice of Edward in the former
war, and the miseries which he inflicted
upon an unoffending people in the prose-
cution of his claim, will go far towards
extenuating this breach of the treaty of
Bretigni. It is observed, indeed, with
some truth, by Rapin, that we judge of
Charles's prudence by the event ; and
that, if he had been unfortunate in the
war, he would have brought on himself
the reproaches of all mankind, and even
of those writers who are now most ready
to extol him. But his measures had been
so sagaciously taken, that except through
that perverseness of fortune, against
which, especially in war, there is no se-
jurity, he could hardly fail of success.
The elder Edward was declining 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 recovered breath after
her losses : the sons of those who had
fallen or fled at Poitiers were in the field ;
a king, not personally warhke, but emi-
nently wise and popular, occupied the
throne of the rash and intemperate John.
She was restored by the pohcy of Charles
V. and the valour of Du Guesclin. This
hero, a Breton gentleman without for-
tune or exterior graces, was the great-
est ornament of France during that age.
Though inferior, as it seems, to Lord
Chandos in military skill, as well as in
the polished virtues of chivalry, his un-
wearied activity, his talent of inspiring
confidence, his good fortune, the gen-
erosity and frankness of his character,
have preserved a fresh recollection of his
name, which has hardly been the case
with our countryman.
In a few campaigns, the English were
The English deprived of almost all their con-
lose all Their qucsts, and cvcu, in a great de-
conquesis. gree, of their original posses-
sions in Giiienne. They were still formi-
dable enemies, not only from their cour-
age and alacrity in the war, but on ac-
count of the keys of France which they
held in their hands; Bordeaux, Bayonne,
and Calais, by inheritance or conquest ;
Brest and Cherbourg, in mortgage from
their allies, the Dujce of Britany and King
of Navarre. But the successor of Edward
III. was Richard II. ; a reign of feeble-
ness and sedition gave no opportunity for
prosecuting schemes of ambition. The
war, protracted with few distinguished
events for several years, w^as at length
susoendvl by repeated armistices, not in-
deed very strictly observed, and which
the animosity of the English would not
permit to settle in any regular treat5^
Nothing less than the terms obtained at
Bretigni, emphatically called the Great
Peace, would satisfy a frank and cour
ageous people, who deemed themselves
cheated by the manner of its infraction.
The war was therefore always populai
in England, and the credit which an am-
bitious prince, Thomas, duke of Glouces-
ter, obtained in that country, was cliiefly
owing to the determined opposition which
he showed to all French connexions.
But the politics of Richard II. were of a
different cast ; and Henry IV. was equal
ly anxious to avoid hostilities with France ;
so that, before the unhappy condition of
that kingdom tempted his son to revise
the claims of Edward in still more favour-
able circum.stances, there had been thirty
years of respite, and even some intervals
of friendly intercourse between the two
nations. Both, indeed, were weakened by
internal discord ; but France more fatally
than England. But for the calamities of
Charles VI. 's reign, she would probably
have expelled her enemies from the king-
dom. The strength of that fertile and
populous country was recruited with sur-
prising rapidity. Sir Hugh Calverley, a
famous captain in the Avars of Edward
III., while serving in Flanders, laughed at
the herald, who assured him that the King
of France's :;rmy, then entering the coun-
try, amounted to 26,000 lances ; asserting
that he had ofien seen their largest mus-
ters, but never so much as a fourth part
of the number.* The relapse of this
great kingdom imder Charles VI. was
more painful and perilous than her first
crisis ; but she recovered from each
through her intrinsic and inextinguisha-
ble resources.
Charles V., surnamed the Wise, after a
reign which, if we overlook a little ob-
liquity in the rupture of the peace of Bre-
tigni, may be deemed one of the most
honourable in French history, dying pre
maturely, left the crown to his Accession o.
son, a boy of thirteen, under Charles vi.
the care of three ambitious un- '■^'^'^•
cles, the dukes of Anjou, Berry, and Bur
gundy. Charles had retrieved the glory
restored the tranquillity, revived the spirit
of his country ; the severe trials which
exercised his regency, after the battle of
Poitiers, had disciplined his mind ; he be-
came a sagacious statesman, an encour-
ager of literature, a beneficent lawgiver.
He erred doubtless, though upon plausible
i
Froissart p ii., c. 14>
PlRT [I
FRANC fc.
47
grounds, in accumulating aviist treasure
which tlie Duke of Anjou seized before
he was cold in the grave. But all the
fruits of his wisdom were lost in the suc-
ceeding reign In a government essen-
tially p'opular. tlie youth or imbecility of
the sovereign creates no material de-
rangement. In a monarchy, where all
the springs of the system depend upon
one central force, these accidents, which
are sure in the course of a few genera-
tions to recur, can scarcely fail to dislo-
cate the whole machine. During t>he for-
ty years that Charles VI. bore the name
of king, rather than reigned in France,
that country was reduced to a state far
more deplorable than during the captivi-
ty 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 increased through the necessi-
ty of taking troops into constant pay ;
and while more luxurious refinements of
living heightened the temptations to pro-
fuseness, the means of enjoying them
were lessened by improvident alienations
of the domain. Hence taxes, hitherto al-
most unknown, were levied incessantly,
and with nil those circumstances of op-
pression which are natural to the fiscal
proceedings of an arbitrary government.
These, as has been said before, gave rise
to the unpopularity of the two first Valois,
and were nearly leading to a complete
revolution in the convulsions that suc-
ceeded the battle of Poitiers. The con-
fidence reposed in Charles V.'s wisdom
and economy kept every thing at rest
during his reign, though the taxes were
still very heavy. But the seizure of hi.s
vast accumulations by the Duke of Anjou,
and the ill faith with which the new gov-
ernment imposed subsidies, after promis-
ing their abolition, provoked the people
of Paris, and sometimes of other places,
Seditions to repeated seditions. The States
at Paris. General not only compelled the
government to revoke these impositions
and restore the nation, at least according
to the language of edicts, to all their lib-
erties, but, with less wisdom, refused to
make any grant of money. Indeed, a re-
markable spirit of democratical freedom
was then rising in those classes on whom
the crown and nobility had so long tram-
pled. An example was held out by the
Flemings, who, always tenacious of their
privileges, because conscious of their abil-
ity to maintain them, were engaged in a
furious conflict with Louis, count of Flan-
fiers The court of France t >ok part in
this war;* and after obtani.ng a decisive
victory over the citizens of Ghent, Charles
VI. 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 lead-
ers put to death; a fine of uncommon
severity imposed ; and the taxes renew-
ed by arbitrary prerogative. But the peo-
ple preserved their indignation for a fa-
vourable moment ; and were unfortunate-
ly led by it, when rendered subservient
to the ambition of others, into a series 0/
crimes, and a long alienation from the
interests of their country.
It is difficult to name a limit beyond
which taxes will not be borne without
impatience, when they appear to be call-
ed for by necessity, and faithfully ap-
plied ; nor is it impracticable for a skil-
ful minister to deceive the people in both
these respects. But the sting of taxation
is wastefulness. What high-spirited man
could see without indignation the earn-
ings of his labour, yielded ungrudgingly
to the public defence, become the spoil
of parasites and peculators \ It is this
that mortifies the liberal hand of public
spirit ; and those statesmen who deem
* The Flemish rebellion, which originated in an
attempt, suggested by bad advisers to the count, to
impose a tax upon the people of Ghent without
(heir consent, is related m a very interesting man-
ner by Froissart, p. ii., c. 37, &.C., who equals He-
rodotus in simplicity, liveliness, and power over the
heart. I would advise the historical student to ac-
quaint himself with these transactions, and with
the corresponding tumults at Paris. They are
among the eternal lessons of history ; for the un-
just encroachmentsof courts, the intemperate pas-
sions of the multitude, the ambition of demagogues,
the cruelty of vicious factions, will never cease to
have their parallels and their analogies ; while the
military achievements of distant times afTord, in
general, no instruction, and can hardly occupy too
little of our time in historical studies. The pref
aces to the fifth and sixth volumes of the Ordon
nances des Rois de France, contain more accurate
information as to the Parisian disturbances than
can be found in Froissart.
t If Charles VI. had been defeated by the Flem
ings, the insurrection of the Parisians, Froissart
says, would have spread over France ; toute gentil-
lesse et noblesse eut ete inorte et perdue en France ,
nor would the Jacquerie have ever been si grande
et si horrible, c. 120. To theevample of the ti;iii-
tois he ascribes the tumults which broke out about
the same time in England as well as in France, c
81. The Fleir.ish insurrection would probably
have Iwd more important consequences, ir 11 had
been cordially supported by the English govern
ment. But the danger of encouraging that demo-
cratical spirit which so strongly leavened the com
mons of England, might justly be deemed by Rich
ard ll.'s council much more than a counterbalance
to the advantage of distressing France. When tot
late, some attempts were made, ami the Fiemisl
towns acknowledged Richard as King of Fraiv::* u
i:tsa - Kymer t. vii., p. 418
48
EUROPE DUKIJNG THE MIDDLE AGES
fUHif . J
the secdrity of government to depend
not on laws and armies, but on the moral
sympathies and prejudices of the people,
will vigilantly guard against even the
suspicion of prodigality, in the present
stage of society it is impossible to con-
ceive that degree of misapplication which
existed in the French treasury under
Charles VI., because the real exigencies
of the state could never again be so in-
considerable. Scarcely any military force
\i as kept up ; and the produce of the
gi'.evous impositions then levied was
chiefly lavished upon the royal house-
hold, or plundered by the officers of gov-
ernment.* This naturally resulted from
the peculiar and afflicting circumstances
of this reign. The Duke of Anjou pre-
tended to be entitled by the late king's
appointment, if not by the constitution
of France, to exercise the government
as regent during the minority;! but this
* The expenses of the royal household, which
under Charles V. were 94,000 livres, amounted in
1412 to 450,000.— Villaret, t. iii., p. 243. Yet the
king was so ill supplied that his plate had been
pawned. When Jlontagu, minister of the finan-
ces, was arrested, in 1409, all this plate was found
concealed in his house.
+ It has always been an unsettled point, whether
the presumptive heir is entitled to the regency of
France ; and, if he be so to the regency, whether
this includes the custody of the minor's person.
The particular case of the Duke of Anjou is sub-
ject to a considerable apparent difficulty. Two
mstrunients of Charles V., bearing the same date
of October, 1374, as published by Dupuy (Traite
de Majorite des Rois, p. 161), are plainly irrecon-
cilable with each other ; the former giving the
exclusive regency to the Duke of Anjou, reserving
the custody of the minor's person to other guar-
dians ; the latter conferring not only this custody,
but the government of the kingdom, on the queen,
and on the dukes of Burgundy and Bourbon, with-
out mentioning the Duke of Anjou's name. Daniel
calls these testaments of Charles V., whereas they
are in the form of letters patent ; and supposes
that the king had suppressed both, as neither party
seems to have availed itself of their authority m
the discussions that took place after the kmg's
death.— (Hist, de France, t. iii., p. 602, edit. 1720.)
Villaiet, as is too much his custom, slides over the
difficulty without notice. But M. de Brequigny
(.Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscript., t. 1., p. 533) ob-
serves that the second of these instruments, as
published by M. Sccousse, in the Ordonnances
des Rois, t. vi., p. 406, dii!ers most essentially from
that in Dupuy, and contains no mention whatever
of the government. It is therefore easily recon-
cileahle with the first, that confers the regency on
the Duke of Anjou. As Dupuy took it from the
same source as S6cousse, namely, the Tressor
jes Chartes, a strong suspicion of wilful interpo-
lation falls upon him, or upon the editor of this
posthumous work, printed in 1655. This date
will readily suggest a motive for juch an interpo-
lation, to those who recollect the circumstances
of France at that time, and for some years before ;
Anne of Austria having maintained herself in pos-
»ession of a testamentary regency against the pre-
Miirptive hei"
period, which would laturally be very
short, a law of Charles V. having fixed
the age of majority at thirteen, was £...J
more abridged by consent ; and after the
young monarch's coronation, he was
considered as reigning with full personal
authority. Anjou, Berry, and Burgundy,
together with the king's maternal uncle,
the Duke of Bourbon, divided the actual
exercise of government.
The first of these soon undertook an
expedition into Italy, to possess himself
of the crown of Naples, in which he per
ished. Berry was a profuse and voluptu-
ous man, of no great talents ; though his
rank, and the middle position which he
held between struggling parties, made
him rather conspicuous throtighout the
revolutions of that age. The most re-
spectable of the king's uncles, the Duke
of Bourbon, being further 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
ascendency, until Charles, weary of a
restraint which had been protracted by
his uncles till he Avas in his twenty-first
year [A. D. 1387], took the reins into
his own hands. The dukes of Burgundy
and Berry retired from court, and the
administration was committed to a dif-
ferent set of men, at the head of whom
appeared the Constable de Ciisson, a sol-
dier of great fame in the English wars.
The people rejoiced in the fall of the
princes by whose exactions they had
been plundered; but the new ministers
soon rendered themselves odious by sim-
ilar conduct. The fortune of Chsson,
after a few years' favour, amounted to
1,700,000 livres, equal in weight of sil-
ver, to say nothing of the depreciation
of money, to ten times that sum at pres-
ent.*
[A. D. 1393.] Charles Yl. had reigned
five years from his minority, Derangemeni
when he was seized with a of Charles vi.
derangement of intellect, which continu-
ed, through a series of recoveries and
relapses, to his death. He passed thirty
years in a pitiable state of suflfering, neg-
lected by his family, particularly by the
most infamous of women, Isabel of Ba-
varia, his queen, to a degree which is
hardly credible. The ministers weie
immediately disgraced; the princes re-
assumed their stations. For several years
the Duke of Burgundy conducted the
government. But this was in opposition
to a formidable rival, Louis, duke of Or-
* Froissart, p. iv., c. 46
Pah* n.]
r'KANC E.
«ll
leans, the king's brother. It nas impos-
Partiesof ^ible that a prince so near to
Burgundy the throne, favoured by the
»nd Orleans, queen perhaps with criminal
fondness, and by the people on account
of his external graces, should not ac-
quire a share of power. He succeeded
at length in obtaining the whole manage-
ment of affairs ; wherein the outrageous
dissoluteness of his conduct, and still
more the excessive taxes imposed, ren-
dered him altogether odious. The Paris-
ians compared his administration with
that of the Duke of Burgundy; and from
that time ranged themselves on the side
of the latter and his family, throughout
the long distractions to which the am-
bition of these princes gave birth
The death of the Duke of Burgundy,
in 1404, after several fluctuations of suc-
cess 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 unprincipled,
his son John, surnamed °ans-peur, sus-
tained the same conle:.. A reconcilia-
tion had been, however, brought about
with the Duke of Orleans ; they had
sworn reciprocal friendship, and partici-
pated, as was the custom, in order to
render these obligations more solemn,
in the same communion. In the midst
Murder of ^^ ''^is outward harmony [A.
IheDukeof D. 1407], the Diikc of Orleans
Orleans. y,^^ assassinated in the streets
of Paris. ACter a slight attempt at con-
cealment, Burgundy avowed and boasted
of the crime, to which he had been in-
stigated, it is siid, by somewhat more
than politica. jealousy.* From 'Jiis fatal
moment the dissensions of the royal fam-
ily began to assume the complexion of
civil war. The quten, the sons of the
Duke of Orleans, with the dukes of Ber-
ry and Bourbon, united against the assas-
sin. But h'^ possessed, in addition to his
own apn.:.nage of Burgundy, the county
')f Fjjr.ders as his maternal inheritance ;
anc* 'ihe people of Paris, who hated the
fKike of Orleans, readily forgave, or rath-
'. r exulted in, his murder.
It is easy to estimate the weakness of
i'le government from the terms upon
which the Duke of Burgundy was per-
mitted to obtain pardon at Chartres, a
year after the perpetration of the crime.
As soon as he entered the royal pres-
ence, every one rose, except the king,
* Orleans is said to have boasted of the Datchess
of Burgundy's favours.— Vill.,t. xii., p. 474. Amel-
gan^, who wrote about eighty years after the tirr.e,
nays, vimetiam inferreattenlare praesuinpsit. — I»io-
♦v^es des Manuscrits du Roi, t. i., p. 411.
D
queen, and dauphin. The duke, approach-
ing the throne, fell on his knees ; when
a lord, who acted as a sort of counsel
for him, addressed the king : '' Sire, the
Duke of Burgundy, your cousin and ser-
vant, is come before you, being informed
that he has incurred your displ',;a.5tire on
account of what he caused to be done to
the Duke of Orleans your brother, for
your good and that of your kingdom, as
he is ready to prove when it shall please
you to hear it ; and therefore requests
you, with all humility, to dismiss your
resentment towards him, and to rtceive
him into your favour."*
This insolent apology was all Ihe
atonement that could be extorted for the
assassination of the first prmcu of the
blood. [A. D. 1410.] It is not wonderful
that the Duke of Burgundy soon obtained
the management of aff'airs, and drove his
adversaries from the capital. Tiie prin-
ces, headed by the father-in- (.|,.i, ^^^^
law of the young Duke of Or- hpiween tb*
leans, the Count of Armagnac, i'="'"«s.
from whom their party was now denomi-
nated, raised their standard against nim ;
and the north of France was reiit to
pieces by a protracted civil war, in which
neither party scrupled any extremity of
pillage or massacre. Several times peare
was made ; but each faction, conscious
of their own insincerity, suspected that
of their adversaries. The king, of whose
name both availed themselves, was only
in some doubtful intervals of reason ca-
pable of rendering legitimate the acts of
either. The dauphin, aware of the tyr-
anny which the two parties alternately
exercised, was forced, even at the ex-
pense of perpetuating a civil war, to
balance one against the other, and per
mit neither to be wholly subdued. He
gave peace to the Armagnacs at Aux-
erre, in despite of the Dnke of Burgundy ;
and having afterward united with them
against this prince [A. D. 1412], and car-
ried a successful war into Flanders, he
disappointed /heir revenge by concluding
with him a treaty at Arras. [A. D. 1414.1
This dauphin, and his next brother, died
within sixteen months of each other, by
which the rank devolved upon Charles
youngest son of the king. The Count
of Armagnac, now Constable of France,
retained possession of the government.
But his severity and the weight of tax-
es revived the Burgundian party in
Paris [A. D. 1417], which a rigid **""
proscription had endeavoured to destroy.
He brought on his head the implacable
• M'ln? tre'et, part i , I 12,
50
EUROPE DURING THE MlDOLt AGES
LCilir.
June ]2.
hatred of the queen, whom he had not
only sliut out from public affairs, but dis-
graced by the detection of her gallant-
ries. [A. D. 1417.] Notwithstanding her
ancient enmity to the Duke of Burgundy,
she made overtures to him, and, being
delivered by his troops from confinement,
declared herself openly on his side. A
fev.' obscure persons stole the city keys,
a:id admitted the Burgundians into Paris,
'fhe tumult which arose showed in a
moment the disposition of the inhabi-
tants ; but this was more horribly dis-
played a few days afterward, when the
populace, rushing to the prisons
[A. D. 1418], massacred the Con-
stable d'Armagnac and his partisans. Be-
tween three and four thousand persons
were murdered on tliis day, v.'hich has
no parallel but what our own age has
witnessed, in the massacre perpetrated
by the same ferocious populace of Paris,
under circumstances nearly similar. [A.
D. 1419.] Not long afterward an agree-
ment took place between tlie 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 enfee-
bled 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
Assassination ^uke of Burguudy was assas-
of iiie Duke of siuated at an interview with
Burgundy. Charles, in his presence, and
by the hands of his friends, though not
perhaps with his previous knowledge.*
* There are lliree suppositions conceivable to
f.spmin this important passage in history, the as-
sassination of .John Sans-peur. 1. It was pietcr.rl-
«Mi hy the dauphin's friends at the time, and has
been maintained more latelv (St. Foix, Essais sur
Pans, t. in., p. 209, edit. 1767), that he had pre-
meditated the murder of Charles, and that his own
was an act of self-defence. This is, I think, quite
improbable : the dauphin had a great army near
Uie spot, while the duke was only attended by five
hundred men. ViUaret indeed, and St. Foi.x, in
order to throw suspicion upon the Duke of Bur-
gundy's motives, assert that Henry V. accused
hini of having made proposals to»him which he
could not accept without offending God ; and con-
jecture that thie might mean the assassination of
the dauphin. But the expressions of Henry do
not relate to any private proposals of the duke, but
to demands made by him and the queen, as proxies
for f'harles VI., in conference for peace, which he
£avs he could not accept without offending God
and contravening his own letters patent. — (Rymer,
t. ix., p. 790.) it is not, however, very clear what
«his means. 2. The next hypothesis is, that it
was the dehberate act of Charles. But his youth,
his feebleness of spirit, and especially the conster-
nation into which, l>y all testimonies, he was
thrown by the event, are rather adverse to this ex-
planation. 3. It remains only to conclude that
TaHogHi rAe Chastcl, and other favourites of the
tiaupijin, ii'Cir att'ar.' «»•' ••« **"? Orleans fac!:or,vh.
From whomsoever the crime proceeded,
it was a deed of infatuation, and plunged
France afresl into a sea of perils, ironi
which the union of these factions had
just afforded a hope of extricating her.
It has been mentioned already that
the English war had almost i,„riguesor
ceased during the reigns of ivench princee
Richard II. and Henry IV. ""i** England.
The former of these was attached by in
clination, and latterly by marriage, to the
court of France : and though the French
government showed at first some dispo-
sition to revenge his dethronement, yet
the new king's success, as well as domes-
tic quarrels, deterred it from any serious
renewal of the Avar. A long commercial
connexion had subsisted between Eng-
land and Flanders, which the dukes of
Eurgimdy, when they became sovereigns
of the latter country upon the death of
Count Louis, in 1384, were studious to
preserve by separate truces.* They act-
ed upon the same pacific policy when
their interest predominated in the councils
of France. Henry had even a negotia-
tion pending for the marriage of his eld-
est son with a princess of Burgundy,t
when an unexpected proposal from the
opposite side set more temptmg views
before his eyes. The Armagnacs, press-
ed hard by the Duke of Burgundy, offer-
ed, in consideration of only 4000 troops,
the pay of which they would themselves
defraj'-, 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. J [A. D. 1412.]
Henry brjke off his alliance with Bur-
gimdy, and sent a force into France,
which found, on its arrival, that the prin
ces had made a separate treaty, without
the least concern for their English allies.
After his death, Henry V. engaged for
some time m a series of negotiations
with the French court, where the Or-
leans party now prevailed, and with the
Duke of Burgundy. He even secretly
treated at the same time for a marriage
with Catharine of France (which seems
justly regarded the duke as an infamous assassin,
and might question his sincerity or their own
safety if he should regain the ascendant, took ad
vantage of this opportunity to commit .-m act of re
taliation, less criminal, but not less ruinous in it
consequences, than that which had provoked it
Charles, however, by his subsequent conduct, ro
cognised their deed, and naturally exposed him
self to the resentment of the young Duke of Bur
gundy.
* Rymer, t. viii., p. 511. Villaret, t. s."i., f 174
t Idem, t. viii., p. 721.
, r. , t. viii , pp. 726. 737. "38.
KiST Il.J
FRANCE.
5i
lo h:i\e been his avouritc, as it was ulti- 1
nialely liis successful, project), and with
a daughter of the duke; a duphcity not |
creditable to his memory.* But Henry's
ambition, which aimed at the highest |
quarry, was not long fettered by ncgo- i
lialion ; and indeed his proposals of mar-
rying Catharine were coupled with such
exorbitan; demands, as France, notwith-
standing all her weakness, could not ad-
mit; though she would have ceded Gui-
enne, and given a vast dowry with the
invasion of P""«/^/-t [A- D- HIS-] He
France by mvaded jNormandy, took Har-
iienry v. fleur, and won the great battle
of Azincourt on his march to Calais.:);
The flower of French chivalry was
mowed down in this fatal day, but espe-
cially 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
negotiation had secured the duke's neu-
trality, though he seems not to have en-
tered into a regular alliance till a year
after the battle of Azincourt : ^vhen, 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 performance was
lo bs suspended till Henry should be-
come master of a considerable part of
the kingdom.^ In a second invasion
the English achieved the conquest of
Normandj'^; and this, in all subsequent
negotiations for peace during the life
of Henry, he would never consent to
i-elinquish. 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,
♦ Rymer, t. ix., p. 13G. .
t The terms required by Henry's ambassadors in
1415, were the crown of France ; or, at least, re-
serving Henry's rights to that, Normandy, Tou-
raine, Maine, Guienne, with the homage of Brit-
any and Flanders. The French oflbrcJ Guienne
and Saintongfe, and a dowry of 800,00'^ pold criiV.iis
tor Catharme. The J>,glish de:nar,ded U,U00,O0O.
— Rymer, t. ix., p. 213.
X The Fnghsh army at Azincourt was probably
of not more than 15,000 men ; the French were, at
the least, 50,000, and by some computations much
more numerous. They lost 10,000 killed, of whom
9000 were knights or gentlemen. Almost as many
were made prisoners. The English, according to
Monstrelet, lost 1600 men ; but their own his-
torians reduce this to a very small number, h is
curious that the Duke of Berry, who advised the
French to avoid an action, had been in the battle
ijf Poitiers fifty-nine years before. — Vill., t. xiii.,
p. .355.
^ Compare Rymer, t. ix., p. 31, 13S, 304, 394.
The last reference is to the treaty of Calais.
I) Rym., t. ix., p. 628, 7C3. Nothing can be more
0 2
though labouring under somv. dilSculties.
seems to have been nearly completed,
when the Duke of Burgundy [A.
D. 1419], for reasons unexplain- ""^ ^
ed, suddenly came to a reconciliatuin
with the daupliin. Tliis event, whicii
must have been intended adversely to
Henry, would probably have broken off
all parley on the subject of peace, if il
had not been speedily followed by one
still more surprising, the assassi-
nation of the Duke of Burgundy "^^ '
at Montereau.
An act of treachery so apparently un
provoked, inflamed the minds of that
powerful party Avhich 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, vy-
ing with the populace in their invec-
tives against Charles, whom they now
styled only pretended (soi-disant) dau-
phin. Philip, son of the assassinated
duke, who, Avith all the popularity and
much of the ability of his father, did nut
inherit 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, concurring with the
imbecility of Charles VI., and the ran-
cour of Isabel towards her son. Treaty oi
led to the treaty of Troyes. This Troves,
compact, signed by the queen ^^^^'' ''*~'^"
and duke, as proxies of the king, Avho
had fallen into a state of unconscious id-
iocy, stipulated that Henry V., upon his
marriage with Cathaiine, should become
immediately regent of France, and, after
the Seath of Charles, succeed to the
kingdom, in exclusion not only of the
dauphin, but of all the royal family.* It
is unnecessary to remark that these fla-
gitious provisions were absolutely inval
id. But they had at the time the strong
insolent than the tone of Henry's instructions to
his commissioners, p. 628.
* As if through shame on account of what was to
follow, the first articles contain petty stipulations
about the dower of Catharine. The sixth gives
the kingdom of France, after Charles's decease, lo
Henry and his heirs. The seventh concedes the
immediate regency. Henry kept Normandy by
right of conquest, not in virtue of any stipulation
in the treaty, which he was too proud to admit
The treaty of Troyes was confirmed by the States
General, or rather by a partial convention which
assumed the name, in December, 1420.— Rvin., t. x.,
p. 30. The parliament of England did the same
—Id., p. 110. It is printed at IhII length by Villa
ret. t. XV., p. 84.
53
EUROPE DLRI-SG THE MiDDLK AGES.
fCHAf.
sanction offeree ; and Henry might plau-
sibly flatter himself with a hope of estab-
lishing his own usurpation as firmly in
France as his father's had been in Eng-
land. What neither the comprehensive
policy of Edward III., the energy of the
Black Prince, the valour of their KnoUy-
ses and Chandoses, nor his own victories
could attain, now seemed, by a strange
vicissitude of fortune, to court his ambi-
tion. During two years that Henry hved
after the treaty of Troyes, he governed
the north of France with unlimited au-
thority in the name of Charles VI. 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.
Notwithstanding the disadvantage of a
Slate of ininority, the English cause
France at the was less weakened by the
accession of death of Henry than might
Charles VII. j^^^^ ^^^^ expected. [A. D.
1422.] The Duke of Bedford partook of
the same character, and resembled his
brother in faults as well as virtues ; in his
haughtiness and arbitrary temper, as in his
energy and address. At the accession of
Charles VII., the usurper was acknowl-
edged by all the northern provinces of
France, except a few fortresses, by most
of Guienne, and the dominions of Bur-
gundy. [A. D. 1423.] The Duke of Brit-
any soon afterward acceded to the treaty
ofTroyes,but changed his party again sev-
eral times within a few years. The cen-
tral provinces, with Languedoc, Poitou,
and Dauphine, were faithful to the king.
For some years the war continued without
any decisive result ; but the balance was
clearly swayed in favour of England.
For this it is not difficult to as-
the"sueees8 sigu Several causes. The ^ni-
oftheEng- mosity of the Parisians and the
itsh. Duke of Burgundy against the
Armagnac party still continued, mingled
in the former with dread of the king's re-
turn, whom they judged themselves to
have inexpiably offended. The war had
brought forward some accomplished com-
manders in the English army; surpas-
sing, not indeed in valour and enterprise,
but in military skill, any whom France
could oppose to them. Of these the
most distinguished, besides the Duke of
Bedford himself, were Warwick, Salis-
bury, and Talbot. Their troops, too,
were still very superior to the French.
But this, we must in candour allow, pro-
ceeded in a great degree from the mode
m which they were raised. The war
was so popular in England, that it was
easy to pick the best and stoute; t re
emits,* and their high pay allured mei
of respectable condition to the strvice
We find in Rymer a contract of the Ear
of Salisbury to supply a body of troops
receiving a shilling a day for every man
at arms, and sixpence lor each archer.j
This is perhaps equal to fifteen times the
sum at our present value of monejr.
They were bound indeed to furnish their
own equipments and horses. But France
was totally exhausted by her civil and
foreign war, and incoinpetent to defray
the expenses even of the small force
which defended the wreck of the monar-
chy Charles VII. lived in the utmost
poverty at Bourges.| The nobility had
scarcely recovered from the fatal slaugh-
ter of Azincourt, and the infantry, com-
posed of peasants or burgesses, which
had made their army so numerous upon
that day, whether from inability to com-
pel their services, or experience of their
inefficacy, were never called into the
field. It became almost entirely a war
of partisans. Every town in Picardy,
Champagne, Maine, or wherever the con-
test might be carried on, was a fortress ;
and in the attack or defence of these gar-
risons, the valour of both nations viss
called into constant exercise. This mode
of warfare was undoubtedly the best in,
the actual state of France, as it gradually
improved her troops, and flushed thein
with petty successes. But what princi-
pally led to its adoption was the license
and insubordination of the royalists, who,
receiving no pay, owned no control, and
thought that, provided they acted against
the English and Burgundians, they were
free to choose their own points of attack.
Nothing can more evidently show the
weakness of France, than the high terms
by which Charles VII. was content to
purchase the assistance of some Scot-
tish auxiliaries. The Earl of Buchan
was made constable ; the Earl of Doug-
las had the dutchy of Touraine, with a
new title, lieutenant-general of the king-
dom. At a subsequent time, Charles of-
fered the province of Saintonge to .Tames
I. for an aid of 6000 men. These Scots
fought bravely for France, though unsuc
* Monstrelet, part i., f. 303.
t Rym., t. X., p. 392. This contract was for 6(!<J
men at arms, including six bannerets, and thirty-
four bachelors; and for 1700 aichers; bien et
suffisamment montez, armez, et arraiez comme a
leurs estats appartient. The pay v. as, for the earl
6x. 8d. a day ; for a banneret, 4s. ; for a bachelor
2s. ; for every other man at arms. Is. ; and fo
each archer, 6d. Artillery-men were paid highc
than men at arms.
+ ViUaret, t. xiv., p ."OS.
I'lRl 11.)
FKANCK.
63
cessfully, at Crevant and Verneuil; but
it must be owiied they set a sufficient
value upon Jieir service. Under all
these disadvantages, it would be unjust
to charge the Krench nation with any in-
feriority of courage, even in the most
unfortunate periods of this war. Thcugh
frequently panic-struck in the field of bat-
tle, they stood sieges of their walled towns
with matchless spirit and endurance. Per-
haps some analogy may be found between
the character of the French commonalty
during the English invasion, and the
Spaniards of the late peninsular war.
But to the exertions of those brave
nobles who restored the monarchy of
Charles VII., Spain has afforded no ade-
quate parallel.
It was, however, in the temper of
Character Charles VII. that his enemies
.fcharu^i found their chief advantage. This
^"- prince is one of the few whose
character has been improved by prosper-
ity. During the calamitous morning of
ois reign, he shrunk from fronting the
storm, and strove to forget himself in
pleasure. Though Brave, he was never
6(;en in war ; though intelligent, he was
governed by flatterers. Those who had
iommitted the assassination at Monte-
•eau under his eyes were his first favour-
ites ; as if he had determined to avoid
lie only measure through which he could
'lope for better success, a reconciliation
with the Duke of Burgundy. The Count
de Richemont, brother of the Duke of
Britany, who becatne afterward one of
the chief pillars of his throne, consented
to renounce the English alliance, and ac-
cept the rank of constable, on condition
that these favourites should quit the
court. [A. D. 1424.] Two others, who
successively gained a similar influence
over Charles, Richemont pubhcly caused
to be assassinated, assuring the king that
it was for his own and the public good.
Such was the debasement of morals and
government which twenty years of civil
war had produced ! Another favourite.
La Tremouille, took the dangerous office,
and, as might be expected, employed his
influence against Richemont, who for
some years lived on his own domains,
rather as an armed neutral than a friend,
though he never lost his attachment to
the royal cause.
It cannot therefore surprise us, that with
all t'lese advantages the regent Duke of
Bedford had almost completed the cap-
ture of the fortresses north of the Loire,
giege of when he invested Orleans in 1428.
orieuns. jf i\i[^ city had fallen, the central
proriuces. which vv«u-e ]e§s furnished with
defensible piaces, would have lain open
to the enemy ; and '.c is said that Charles
VII. in despair was about to retire into
Dauphine. At this time his afi'airs wore
restored by one of the most marvellous
revolutions in history. A country gir!
overthrew the power of Eng-
land. We cannot pretend to "'*" "
explain the surprising st(iry of the Maid
of Orleans ; for, howevei easy it may be
to suppose that a heated and enthusiastic
imagination produced her own visions, it
is a much greater problem to account for
the credit they obtained, and for the suc-
cess that attended her. Nor will this be
solved by the hypothesis of a concerted
stratagem; waicli, if v/e do not judge al-
together from events, must appear liable
to so many chances of failure, that it
could not have suggested tself to any ra
tional person. Hcv/evcr, it is certain that
the appearance of Joan of Arc turned the
tide of war, which from that moment
flowed without interruption in Charles's
favour. A superstitious awe enfeebled
the sinews of the EngUsh. They hung
back in their own country, or deserted
from the army, through fear of the incan-
tations, by which alone they conceived so
extraordinary a person to succeed.* As
men always make sure of Providence
for an ally, whatever untoward fortune
appeared to result from preternatural
causes was at once ascribed to infernal
enemies ; and such bigotry may be plead-
ed as an excuse, though a very miserable
one, for the detestable murder of this
heroine. f
The spirit which Joan of Arc had roused
did not subside. France recovered con-
fidence in her own strength, which had
been chilled by a long course of adverse
fortune. The king, too, shook off his in-
♦ Rym., t. X., p. 458-472. This, however, is con
jecture ; for the cause of their desertion is not men
lioiicd in these proclamations, though Rymcr has
printed it in their title. But the Duke of Bedford
speaks of the turn of success as astonishing, and
due only to the superstitious fear which tiie Eng
lish had conceived of a female magician. — Rymer,
t. X., p. 408.
t M. de I'Averdy, to whom we owe the copious
account of the proceedings against Joan of Arc, as
well as those which Charles VII. instituted in or-
der to rescind the former, contained in the third
volume of Notices des Manuscrits du Roi, has just
ly made this remark, which is founded on the ea-
gerness shown by the university of Pans in the
prosecution, and on its being conducted before an
inquisitor ; a circumstance exceedingly rotnarkable
in the ecclesiastical history of France. But anoth
er material observation arises out of this. The
maid was pursued with peculiar bitterness by hci
countrymen of the English, or rather Buigundiari
faction ; a proof that, in 1430, their anmfios '.|
against Charles VII. was still ardnnt.
54
i:-UK01'E DURING THE MIL DLE AGES.
•l Hll
The kin" (lolence,* and permitted Riche-
reirieveshis mout to exclude his unworthy
affairs, favourites from the court. This
led to a very important consequence.
The Duke of Burgundy, whose alhance
with England had been only the fruit of
indignation at his father's murder, fell nat-
urally, as that passion wore out, into sen-
timents more congenial to his birth and
mterests. A prince of the house of Capet
«"nuld not willingly see the inheritance
x}l his ancestors transferred to a stranger.
And he had met with provocation both
from the regent and the Duke of Glou-
cester, who, in contempt of all pohcy and
justice, had endeavoured, by an invalid
marriage with Jacqueline, countess of
Hainault and Holland, to obtain provinces
which Burgundy designed for himself.
Yet the union of his sister with Bedford,
the obligations by which he was bound,
and, most of all, the favour shown by
andisrecon- Charles VII. to the assassins of
ciied 10 the his father, kept him for many
* It is a current piece of history, that Agnes So-
lel, mistress of Charles VII., had the merit of dis-
.suading him from giving up the kingdom as lost,
at the time when Orleans was besieged in 1128.
Mezeray, Daniel, Villaret, and, I believe, every oth-
er modern historian, have mentioned this circum-
stance ; 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 I have, to say the least, great
doubts of the main story. It is not mentioned by
contemporary writers. On the contrary, what they
say of Agnes leads me to think the dates incompat-
ible. Agnes died (in childbed, as some say) in
1450 ; twenty-two years after the siege of Orleans.
Monstrelet says that she had been about five years in
the service ot the queen ; and the king taking pleas-
ure in her liveliness and wit, common fame had
spread abroad that she lived in concubinage with
lum. She certainly had a child, and was willing
that it should be thought the king's ; but he always
denied it, et le pouvoit bien avoir emprunte ailleurs.
— Pt. iii., f. 25. Olivier de la Marche, another
contemporary, who lived in the court of Burgundy,
says, about the year 1444, le Roy avoit nouvelle-
ment eslev6 une pauvre demoiselle, gentifemme,
nommee Agnes Sorel, et mis en tel triumphe et tel
pouvoir, que son estat estoit a comparer aux grandes
princesses de Royaume, et certes c'estoit une des
plus belles femmes que je vey oncques, et fit en sa
qualite beaucoup au Royaume de France. Elle
avancoit devers le Roy Junes gens d'armes, et gen-
tils compaignons, et dont le Roy depuis fut bien
eervy.— La Marche. M4m. Hist., t. viii., p. 145.
Du Clercq, whose memoirs were first published in
the same collection, says, that Agnes mourut par
poisoi! moult leiine. — lb., t. viii., p. 410. And the
continuator of^Monstrelet, probably John Chartier,
speaks of the youth and beauty of Agnes, which
exceeded that of any other woman in France, and
of the favour shown her by the king, which so much
excited the displeasure of the dauphin, on his moth-
er's account., that lift was suspected of having caused
years on the English side, al- Duke of
though rendering it less and less ^"ig""»iT
assistance. But at length he concluded u
treaty at Arras, the terms of which he dic-
tated rather as a conqueror, than as a sub
jeci negotiating with his sovereign. [A. D
1435.] Charles, however, refused nothin|
for such an end ; and, in a very short time
the Burgundians were ranged with the
French against their old allies of England.
It was now time for the latter to aban
don those magnificent projects impolicy of
of conquering France, which ii>eEngiisti
temporary circumstances alone had seem -
ed to render feasible. But as it is a nat-
ural effect of good fortune in the game ol
war to render a people insensible to its
gradual change, the English could not
persuade themselves that their affairs
were irretrievably declining. Hence
they rejected the offer of Normandy and
Guienne, subject to the feudal superiority
of France, which was made to them at
the congress of Arras ;* and seme years
her to be poisoned. — Fol. 68. The same writer af
firms of Charles VII. that he was, before the peact
of Arras, de moult belle vie et devote ; but after
ward enlaidit sa vie de tenir malles femmes en
son hostel, &c., fol. 86.
It is for the reader to judge how far these passa
ges render it improbable that Agnes Sorel was
the mistress of Charles VII. at the siege of Orleans
in 1428, and, consequently, whether she is entitled
to the praise which she has received, of being in-
strumental in the dehverance of France. The tra-
dition, however, is as ancient as Francis I., who
made in her honour a quatrain whic lis well knowTi.
This probably may have brought ;he story more
into vogue, and led Mezeray, whj was not very
critical, to insert it in his history, from which it has
passed to his followers. Its origin was apparently
the popular cha acter of Agnes. She was the Nell
Gwyn of France ; and justly beloved, not only foi
her charity and courtesy, but for bringing forwan"
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 an accurate observation of dates seems
to render impossible. But whatever honour I api
compelled to detract from Agnes Sorel, I am wi.
ling to transfer undiminished to a more unblemisli
ed female, the injured queen of Charles VII., Mary
of Anjou, who has hitherto only shared with the
usurper of her rights the credit of av^akening Charlei
from his lethargy. Though I do not know on what
foundation even this rests, it is not unlikely to be
true, and, in deference to the sex, let it pass undis-
puted.
* Villaret says, Les plenipotentiaires de Charlet
offiirent la cession de la Normandie et de la Gui-
enne en toute propriety, smis la clause de Vhommage h
la couronne. t xv., p. 174. But he does not quote
his authority, and I do not like to rely on an histo
rian not eminent for accuracy in fact, orpiecision in
language. If his expression is correct, the French
must have given up the feudal appeal, or ressort,
which had been the great point in dispute between
Edward III. and Charles V., preserving only c
hom.age •per paragium, as jt v^as called, which ini
FRWCR
M
afterward, when Paris, with the adjacent
provinces, had Leen lost, the EngUsh am-
bassadors, though empowered by their
private instructions to relax, stood upon
demands quite disproportionate to the ac-
tual position of affairs.* As foreign ene-
mies, they were odious even in that part
of France wjiich had acknowledged to
Henry ;t and when the Duke of Burgundy
deserted their side, Paris and every other
city were impatient to throw off the yoke.
A feeble mouarchy and a selfish council
They lose Completed their ruiu : the neces-
aii iiieir sary subsidies were raised with
conquests, diffij-yity [A. D. 1449], aud, when
raised, misapplied. It is a proof of
the exhaustion of France, that Charles
was unable, for several years, to reduce
Normandy or Guienne, which were so
ill provided for defence. | At last he
came with collected strength to the con-
test, and, breaking an armistice upon
slight pretences, within two years over-
whelmed the English garrisons in each
of these provinces. All the inheritance
of Henry H. and Eleanor, all the con-
quests of Edward HI. and Henry V., ex-
cept Calais and a small adjucent district,
were irrecoverably torn from the crown
of England. A barren title, that idle tro-
phy of disappointed ambition, was pre-
served, with strange obstinacy, to our
own age.
In these second English wars, we find
Condition little left of that generous feel-
of France ^^^„ which had, in general, dis-
serondEn- tmguishcd the Contemporaries
giishwars. of Edward HI. The very vir-
tues which a state of hostility promotes
are not proof against its long continuance,
and sink at last into brutal fierceness.
Revenge and fear excited the two fac-
tions of Orleans and Burgundy to afi
atrocious actions. The troops serving
under partisans on detached expeditions,
according to the system of the war, lived
at free quarters on the people. The his-
tories of the lime are full of their outrages,
from which, as is the common case, the
unprotected peasantry most suffered.*^
plied no actual supremacy. Monstrelet says only,
que per certaines cotiditions luy seroient acconiees
Ics seigtieuries de Gwetine et Normandie.
* See tlie instruct <ns given to the English ne-
gotiators in U.'W, at length, in Rymer, t. x., p. 721.
t Vilbret, t. .xiv., p. 418.
t Amelgard, from whose nnpublished memoirs
of Charles Vt(. and Louis XI. some valuable ex-
tracts are made in the Notices des Manuscrits, t. i.,
p. 403, attriliutes the delay in recoverin;; Nontian-
(ly solely to the "ling's slothfulness and sensuality.
In fact, the people of that province rose upon the
English, and almost emancipated themselves, with
little aid from Charles.
4 Monstrelet, passim. A long metrical corn-
Even those laws of war, which the cour
teous sympathies of ch'valry had enjoin-
ed, were disregarded by a merciless fury.
Garrisons surrendering after a brave de-
fence were put to death. Instances o.
this are very frequent. Henry \. ex
cepts Alain Blanchard, a citizen who had
ditinguished himself during the siege,
from the capitulation of Rouen, and or-
ders him to execution. At the taking o(
a town of Champagne, John of Luxem-
burg, the Burgundian general, stipulates
that every fourth and sixth man should
be at his discretion ; which he exercises
by causing them all to be hanged.* Four
hundred English from Pontoise, stormed
by Charles VII., in li-il, are paraded in
chains and naked through the streets of
Paris, and thrown afterward into the
Seine. This infamous action cannot but
be ascribed to the king.f
At the expulsion of the English, Franco
emerged from tlie chaos with
an altered character and new ev^eius'm"'
features of government. The the reign or
royal authority and supreme '"'''"'■'•''* ^^*
jurisdiction of the parliament were uni-
versally recognised. Yet there was a
tendency towards insubordination left
plaint of the people of France, curious as a speci
men of versification, as well as a testimony to tLe
misfortunes of the time, may be fucJ in this his-
torian.— Part i., fol. 321. Notwithstanding th?
treaty of Arras, the French and Burgundians mad«
continual incursions upon each other's frontiers
especially about Laon and in the Vermandois
So that the people had no help, says Monstrelet,
si non de crier miserablement a Dieu leurcreateur
vengeance ; et que pis estoit, quand ils obtenoieiit
aucun sauf-coniiuit d'aucuns capitaines pen en es-
toit eiUretenu, inesmeinent tout d'un parti.— Pt. ii.,,
(. 13'J. These pillagers were called Ecorcheurs,
because they stripped the people of their shirts.
And this name superseded that of Armagnacs, by
which one side had hitherto been known. Eveii
Xaiiitrailles and La Hire, two of the bravest chnm
pions of Franco, were disgraced by the.se habitd
of outrage— ibid., fol. 144, 150, 175. Oliv. de la
Marche, m Collect, des .Memoires, t. viii., p. 25 ; I.
y., ,^ 323.
Pour la plupart, says Villaret, se faire guerrier,
ou voleur de grands chemins, signifioit la m^mfl
chose.
* Monstrelet, part ii., f. 79. This John of Lux-
emburg, count de Ligny, was a distinguished cap-
tain on the Huriiundian side, and for a long tinivi
would not acquiesce in the treaty of Arras. He
disgraced him.self by giving np to the Duke of
Bedford his prisoner Joan of .\rc for 10,000 francs.
The famous Count of St. Pol was his nephew, and
inherited his great possessions in the county of
Vermandois. Monstrelet relates a sinc^ular pronf
of the good education which his uncle gave hiiu
Some prisoners having been made in an engaye
ment, si fut )e jeune Cointe de St. Pol mis en voyt!
de guerre, ^ar le Comte de Ligny son oncle h;y
en feit occire aucuns, le quel y prenoit grind pl\i
sir, part ii., fol. 95.
i Villaret, t. xv., o. 327.
56
EUROPE DURINc 'I H^, MlfyiJLE AGES.
:*JilAK
among the great nobility, arising in part
from the remains of old feudal privileges,
but siill more from that lax administra-
tion, which, in the convulsive struggles
of the war, had been suffered to prevail.
In the south were some considerable vas-
sals, the houses of Foix, Albret, and Ar-
magnae, who, on account of their dis-
tance from the seat of empire, had al-
ways maintained a very independent con-
duct. The dukes of Britany and Bur-
gundy were of a more formidable charac-
ter, and might rather be ranked among
foreign powers ihan privileged subjects.
The princes, too, of the royal blood, who,
during the late reign, had learned to par-
take or contend for the management, were
ill inclined towards Charles VII., himself
jealous, from old recollections, of their
ascendency. They saw that the consti-
tution was verging rapidly towards 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., and to the war, commonly
entitled, for the Public Weal (du bien pub-
lic), under Louis XI. Among the preten-
ces alleged by the revolters in each of
these, the injuries of the people were
not forgotten ;* but from the people they
received small support. Weary of civil
dissension, and anxious for a strong gov-
ernment to secure them from depredation,
the French had no inducement to intrust
even their real grievances to a few male-
content princes, whose regard for tlie
common good they had much reason to
distrust. Every circumstance favoured
Charles VII. and his son in the attainment
of arbitrary power. The country was
pillaged by military ruffians. Some of
these had been led by the dauphin to a
war in Germany, but the remainder still
infested the high roads and villages.
Charles established his companies of or-
donnance, the basis of the French regular
army, in order to protect the country
from such depredators. They consisted
of about nine thousand soldiers, all cav-
alry, of whom fifteen hundred were hea-
vy-armed ; a force not very considerable,
♦The confederacy formed at Nevers in 1441,
by the dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, with many
other princes, made a variety of demands, all rela-
ting to the grievances which different classes of
the state, or mdividuals among themselves, snfter-
ed under the admmislration of Charles. These
may be found at length m Monstrelet, p. li., f. 193 ;
and are a curious document of the change which
was then working in the French constitution. In
his answer, the kzng claims the right, in urgent
cases, of levying taxes withe ut waiting for the con-
sent of the S'tates General.
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 pro-
duce of a permanent tax, called the taille;
an innovation still more important than
the former. But the present benefiv
cheating the people, now prone to sub-
missive habits, little or no opposition was
made ; except in Guienne, the inhabi-
tants of which had speedy rea«!on to re
gret the mild government of England,
and vainly endeavoured to return to itf
protection.!
[A. D. 14(51.] It was not long before Ihi.
new despotism exhibited itself in . .
its harshest character. Louis XI.,
son of Charles VII., who, during his fa-
ther's reign, had been connected \\ ith the
discontented princes, came to the throne
greatly endowed with those viitues and
vices which conspire to the success of a
king. Laborious vigilance in His rhcrac
business, contempt of pomp, af- 'cr.
fability to inferiors, were his excellen
ces ; qualities especially praiseworthy iv
an age characterized by idleness, love ol
* Olivier de la Marche speaks very much in fa
vour of the companies of ordonnance, as having
repressed the plunderers, and restored internal
police.— Collection des Memoires, t. viii., p. 148,
Amelgard pronounces a vehement philipic agains:
them ; but it is probable that his observation of the
abuses they had fallen into was confined to the
reign of Louis XI. — Notices des Manuscrits, ubi
sufira.
+ The insurrection of Guienne in 1452, which
for a few months restored that province to the Eng
lish crown, is accounted for in the curious me
moirs of Amelgard. above mentioned. It proceed-
ed solely from tne arbitrary taxes imposed by
Charles VII. in order to defray the expenses of his
regular anny. The people of Bordeaux complain-
ed of exactions not only contrary to their ancient
privilegL-s, but to the posiiive conditions of theii
capitulation. But the king was deaf to such re
monslrancss. The province of Guienne, he says,
then perceived that it was meant to subject it to
the same servitude as the rest of France, wherf.
the leeches of the state boldly maintain, as a fun-
damental maxim, that the king has a right to tax
all his subjects, how and when he pleases ; which
is to advance that in France no man has any thing
that he can call his own, and that the king can
take all at his pleasure ; the proper condition of
slaves, whose peculium, enjoyed by their master'."
permission, belongs to him, like their persons, and
may be taken away whenever he chooses. Thud
situated, the people of Guienne, especially those
of Bordeaux, alarmed themselves, and e.^cjied by
some of the nobility, secretly sought about for
means to regain their ancient freedom ; and hav
ing still many connexions with persons of rank :n
Eiigland, they negotiated with them, &c. — No
tices des Manuscrits, p. 433- The same cause it
assigned to this revolution by Du Clercq, also a con
temporary writer, living in the dominions of Bur
gundy.— Collection des Memoires, t. ix., p. 400
Villaret has not known, or not chosen t'l krow
•Tuv thing of the matter.
Part 11.1
FR4x>Ct.
pageantry, and insolence. To these vir-
tues he added a perfect knowledge of all
persons eminent for talents or influence
in the countries with which he was con-
nected, and a well-judged bounty, that
thought no expense wasted to draw them
into his service or interest. In the fif-
teenth century this political art had hard-
ly been known, except perhaps in Italy ;
the princes of Europe had contended with
each other by arras, sometimes by treach-
ery, but never with such complicated
subtlety of intrigue. Of that insidious
cunning, which has since been brought
to perfection, Louis XI. may be deemed •
not absolutely the inventor, but the most j
eminent improver; and its success has ■
led perhaps to too high an estimate of his :
abilities. Like most bad men, he some- '•
times fell into his own snare, and was be-
trayed by his confidential ministers, be-
cause his confidence was generally repo-
sed in the wicked. And his dissimulation
was so notorious, his tyranny so oppres-
sive, that he was naturally surrounded
by enemies, and had occasion for all his
craft to elude those rebellions and con-
federacies which might perhaps not have
been raised against a more upright sov-
ereign. At one tim-e the monarchy was
on the point of sinking before a combina-
,tion, which would have ended in dismem-
bering France. [A. D. 1461.]
noimnaied This was the league denomina-
ofiUc I'lib- ted of the Public Weal, in which
lie Weal, ^^j ^jjg princes and great vassals
of thi} French crown were concerned :
the dukes of Britany, Burgundy, Alen-
gon, Bourbon, the Count of Dunois, so
renowned for his valour in the English
wars, the famiUes of Foix and Armagnac ;
and, at the head of all, Charles, duke of
Berrv, the king's brother and presumptive
heir So unanimous a combination was
not lormed without a strong provocation
froi 1 the king, or at least without weighty
grounds for distrusting his intentions ; but
the more remote cause of this confeder-
acj , as of those which had been raised
agfinst Charles VII., was the critical po-
sition of the feudal aristocracy from the
increasing power of the crown. This
w:r of the Public Weal was in fact a
sti uggle to preser"e their independence ;
and from the weuic character of the Duke
o' Berry, whom they would, if successful,
hi.ve placed upon the throne, it is possi-
ble that France might have been in a
iTianner partitioned among them, in the
event of their success, or at least that Bur-
gundy and Britany would have throwr
off the sovereignty that galled them.
The strength of the confederates ir
this war much exceeded that of the king ;
but it was not judiciously employed, and,
after an indecis/ve battle at Montlnery,
they failed in the great object of reducing
Paris, which would have obliged Louis to
fly from his dominions. It was his policy
to promise evrry thing, in trust that for-
tune would aflurd some opening to repair
his losses, and give scope to his superior
prudence. 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 Bur
gundy, but invested his brother with the
dutchy of Normandy as his appanage
The term appanage denotes the provis
ion made for the younger chil- .
1 f 1 ■ c ri mi • Appanages.
dren of a king of rrance. This
always consisted of lands and feudal su-
periorities held of the throne by the te-
nure of peerage. It is evident that this
usage, as it produced a new class of
powerful feudatories, was hostile to tlie
interests and policy of the sovereign, and
retarded the subjugation of the ancient
aristocracy. But a usage coeval with the
monarchy was not to be abrogated, and
the scarcity of money rendered it impos-
sible to provide for the younger branches
of the royal family by any other means.
It was restrained, however, as far as cir-
cumstances would permit. Philip IV
declared that the county of Poitiers, be-
stowed by him on his son, should revert
to the crown on the extinction of male
heirs. But this, though an important pre-
cedent, was not, as has often been assert-
ed, a general law. Charles V. limited
the appanages of his own sons to twelve
thousand livres of annual value in land.
By means of their appanages, and througli
the operation of the Salique-law, wliich
made their inheritance of the crown a
less remote contingency, the princes of
the blood royal in France were at all
times (for the remark is applicable long
after Louis XI.) a distinct and formidable
class of men, whose influence was always
disadvantageous to the reigning monarch,
and, in general, to the people.
No appanage had ever been granted iir
France so enormous as the dutchy of Nor-
mandy. One third of the whole nation-
al 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 accept-
ed at Conflans. In a very short time he
attacked Normandy, and easily compell-
ed his brother to take refuge in Britany;
nor were his enemies ever able to pro-
cure the restitution of (-harles's appanage.
Duriiior the rest of hii reiga, Louis liad
58
EUKOPf; DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
powerful coalitions to withstand ; but his
prudence and compliance with circum-
stances, joined to some mixture of good
fortune, brought him safely through his
jicrils. The Duke of Britany, a prince of
moderate talents, was unable to make
»ay formidable impression, though gen-
erally leagued with the enemies of the
king. The less powerful vassals were
successfully crushed by Louis with deci-
sive '<igour : the dutchy of Alen9on was
confiscated ; the Count of Armagnac was
assassinated ; the Duke of Nemours, and
the Constable of St. Pol, a politician as
treacherous as Louis, who had long be-
trayed both him and the Duke of Burgim-
dy, suffered upon the scaffold. Theking's
brother, Charles, after disquieting him
for many years, died suddenly in Guienne
[A. D. 1472], which had finally been grant-
ed as his appanage, with strong suspicions
of having been poisoned by the king's
contrivance. Edward IV. of England
was too dissipated and too indolent to be
fond of war; and, though he once en-
icred France [A. D. 1475] with an army
more considerable than could have been
expected after 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. Edward showed a
desire to visit Paris ; but the king gave
4nm no invitation, lest, he said, liis broth-
er should find some handsome women
there, who might tempt him to return in
a different manner. Hastings, Howard,
and others of Edward's ministers, were
secured by bribes in the interest of Louis,
which the first of these did not scruple to
receive at the same time from the Duke
of Burgundy. t
This was the most powerful enemy
House of whom the craft of Louis had to
Burgundy, counteract. In the last days of
* The army of Edward consisted of 1500 men at
rrms, and 14.000 archers ; the whole very well ap-
pointed.—Comines, t. xi., p. 238. There seems to
have been a great expectation of what the English
would do, and great fears entertained by Louis,
who grudged no expense to get rid of them.
t Comines, 1. vi., c. 2. Hastings had the mean
sunning to refuse to give hit receipt for the pen-
sion he took from Louis XL " This present," he
eaid to the king's agent, " comes from your mas-
ter's good pleasure, and not at my request ; and if
you mean 1 should receive it, you may put it here
into my sleeve, but you shall have no discharge
from me ; for I will not have it said that the Great
Cliamberlain of England is apensioner of the King
of France, nor have my name appear in the tcijks
Df the Chamhrti des Comptes." — Itid,
the feudal system, when the Jiouse of
Capet haL^ almost achieved the subjuga-
tion of those proud vassals among \\ horn
it had been originally number- j,, s^cces-
ed, a new antagonist sprung up -sive acijuisi
to dispute the field against the '""'*•
crown. John, king of France, granted
tlie dutchy of Burgundy by way of appa-
nage to his third son, Philip. By his
marriage with Margaret, heiress of Louis,
count of Flanders, Philip acquired il.at
province, Artois, the county of Burgiiudy
(or Franche-comte), and the Nivernois
Philip the Good, his grandson, who car
ried the prosperity of this family to its
height, possessed himself, by various ti-
tles, of the several other provinces which
composed the Netherlands. These were
fiefs of the empire, but latterly not much
dependant upon it, and alienated by their
owners without its consent. At the peace
of Arras, the districts of Macon and Aux-
erre were absolutely ceded to Phihp, and
great part of Picardy conditionally made
over to him, redeemable on the pay-
ment of four hundred thousand crowns.*
These extensive, though not compact do-
minions, were abundant in population and
wealth, fertile in corn, wine, and salt, and
full of commercial activity. Thirty years
of peace which followed the treaty of Ar-
ras, with a mild and free government
raised the subjects of Burgundy to a de-
gree of prosperity quite unparalleled in
these times of disorder ; and this was dis-
played in general sumptuousness of dress
and feasting. The court of Philip and his
son Charles was distinguished for its
pomp and riches, for pageants and tour-
naments ; the trappings of chivalry, per-
haps without its spirit : for the military
* The Duke of Burgundy was personally excused
from all homage and service to Charles VII. ; but
if either died, it was to be paid by the heir, or t(
the heir. Accordingly, on Charles's death, Philip
did homage to Louis. This exemption can hatJly
therefore have been inserted to gratify the pride of
Philip, as historians suppose. Is it not probible
that, during his resentment against Charles, he
might have made some vow never to do him hem
age, which this reservation in the treaty was in
tended to jjreserve ?
It is remarkable that Villaret says, the Duke ot
Burgundy was positively excused by the 25th ar-
ticle of the peace of Arras from doing homage to
Charles, or his successors kings of France, t. xvi., p.
401. For this assertion too he seems to quote the
Tr^sor des Chartes, where probably the original
treaty is preserved. Nevertheless, it appears other-
wise, as published by Monstrclet at full length,
who could have no motive to falsify it ; and Phil
ip's conduct in doing homage to Louis is hardly
compatible with ViUarel's assertion. Daniel cop-
ies Monstrelet without any observation. In the
same treaty, Philip is entitled Duke by the grace o(
God; which was reckoned a mark of indepeiid
ence, ind not usually permitted to a vassal.
J'^KT II.]
FRA.SCL
56
character of Burgi:ndy had been impaired
by long tranquiUity.*
During the hves of PhiHp and Charles
VII., eachunderstood the other's
Character ' , ,, • -, i-i.i
or Charles, rank, and Iheir amity was little
Duke of interrupted. But their succes-
uurgundy. ^^^.^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ Opposite of hu-
mnn kind in character, had one common
qi'alily, ambition, to render their antipa-
thy more powerful. Louis was eminently
timid and suspicious in policy ; Charles
intrepid beyond all men, and blindly pre-
sumptuous : Louis stooped to any humili-
ation 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 Guienne,
brother of Louis, was what the malecon-
tent French princes most desired, and
the king most dreaded ; but Charles,
either averse to any French connexion,
or willing to keep his daughter's suit-
ers in dependance, would never directly
accede to that, or any other proposition
for her marriage. On Philip's death, in
1467, he inherited a great treasure, which
he soon wasted in the prosecution of his
schemes. These were so numerous and
vast, that he had not time to live, says
Comines, to complete them, nor would
>ne half of Europe have contented him.
[t was his intention to assume the title
•of king; and the Emperor Frederick III.
was at one time actually on his road to
confer this dignity, when some suspicion
caused him to retire ; and the project was
never renewed.f It is evident that, if
Charles's capacity had borne any propor-
tion to his pride and courage, or if a prince
less politic than Louis XI. had been his
contemporary in France, the province of
Burgundy must have been lost to the
monarchy. For several years these
great rivals were engaged, sometimes in
open hostility, sometimes in endeavours
to overreach each other; but Charles,
though not much more scrupulous, was
♦ P. de Comines I. i., c. 2 and 3 ; 1. v., c. 9. Du
Ulercq. in Collertim des Memoires, t. ix., p. 389.
In the investiture granted by John to the first Phil-
ip of Burgundy, a reservation is made, that the roy-
al taxes shall be evied throughout that appanage.
liut during the long hostility between the kingdom
and dutch/, this could not have been enforced .
and by the treaty of Arras, Charles surrendered all
right to tax the duke's dominions. — Monstrelet, f.
114.
t Gamier, t. xviii., p. 62. It is observable that
Comines says not a word of this ; for which Gar-
nier seems to quote Belcarius, a writer of the six-
teenth age. But even Philip, when Morvilhers,
Louis's chaiicelLor, used menaces towards him, in-
terrupted the orator with these words : Je veux
que chac.in scache que, si j'eusrs voulu, je fusse
iO» — Villaret t. xvii , p. 44.
far less an adept in these mysturies of
politics than the king.
Notwithstanding the power of Bur-
gundy, there were some dis- ,ns„bordin»
advantages in its situation, tionofnw
It presented (I speak of all ^jj^™^**
Charles's dominions under the
common name. Burgundy) a very ex
posed frontier on the side of Germany
and Switzerland, as well as France ; and
Louis exerted a considerable influence
over the adjacent princes of the empire
as Avell as the united cantons. Tlie peo-
ple of Liege, a very populous city, had
for a long time been continually rebelling
against their bishops, who were the allies
of Burgundy ; Louis was of course not
backward to foment their insurrections;
which sometimes gave the dukes a gooo
deal of trouble. The Flemings, and
especially the people of Ghent, had been
during a century noted for their repub-
lican spirit and contumacious defiance of
their sovereign. Liberty never wore a
more unamiable countenance tliaii amo:ig
these burghers ; who abused the strei.gth
she gave them by cruelty and insoler.ce.
Ghent, when Froissart wrote, about tho
year 1400, was one of the strongest cities
in Europe, and would have required, he
says, an army of two hundred thousand
men to besiege it on every side, so as to
shut up all access by the Lys and Scheldt.
It contained eighty thousand men of age
to bear arms ;* a calculation which, al-
though, as I presume, much exaggerated,
is evidence of great actual populousness.
Such a city was absolutely impregnable,
at a time when artillery was very imper-
fect both in its construction and manage-
ment. Hence, though the citizens of
Ghent were generally beaten in tlie field
with great slaughter, they obtained toler-
able terms from their masters, who knew
the danger of forcing them to a desperate
defence.
No taxes were raised in Flanders, oi
indeed throughout the dominions of Bui-
gundy, without consent of the three
estates. In the time of Philip, not a
great deal of money was levied upon the
people ; but Charles obtained every year
a pretty large subsidy, which he expend-
ed in the hire of Italian and English mer
cenaries.f An almost uninterrupted suc-
* Froissart, part ii., c. 67.
t Comines, 1. iv., c. 13. It was veiy reluctantly
that the Flemings granted any money. Philip oncg
begged for a tax on salt, proini.-iing never to ask any
thing more ; but the people of Ghent, and, in imr-
tat ion of them, the whole county, refused it. — Du
Clercq, p. 389. Upon his pretence of taking the
cross, they granted him a subsidy, though less
than he had requested, on tODdition that it ahnnW
CO
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
. Cha?.
tess had atlonded his enterprises for a
length of time, and rendered his dispo-
Kition still more overweening. [A. D.
14 /''4.] His first failure was before NuZ,
a little town near Cologne, the possession
s>i which would have made him nearly
ma;;ter of the wliole course of the Rhine,
for he liad ah-eady obtained the landgravi-
ate of Alsace. Though compelled to raise
die siege, he succeeded in occupying, next
year, the dutchy of Lorraine. But his
overthrow was reserved for an enemy
•/vhoni he despised, and whom none could
have thought equal to the contest. [A . D.
1476.] The Swiss had given him some
slight provocation, for which they were
ready to atone ; but Charles was unused
to forbear ; and perhaps Switzerland
came within his projects of conquest.
Defeats of ^* Granson, in the Pays de
Charles at Vaud, he was entirely routed,
Granson -vvith more disgrace than slaugh-
and.Morat. ^^^^ g^^^ having reassembled
his troops, and met the confederate army
of Swiss and Germans at Morat, near Fri-
burg, he was again defeated with vast
loss. On this day the power of Bur-
gundy Avas dissipated: deserted by his
aUies, betrayed by his mercenaries, he
set his life upon another cast at Nancy,
desperately giving battle to the Duke of
,,. , ^ Lorraine with a small dispirited
His death. , • i j • ^u
army, and perished in the en-
gagement. [A. D. 1477.]
Now was the moment when Louis,
viaimof who had held back while his
ixinisxi. to enemy was breaking his force
siionofBur- against the rocks of vSwitzer-
sundy. land, came to gather a harvest
which his labour had not reaped. Charles
not be levied if the crusade did not take place,
which put an end to the attempt. The states
knew well that the duke would employ any money
they gave him in keeping up a body of gensd'armes
likehisneighbour, the King of France ; and though
the want of such a force exposed their country to
pillage, they were too good patriots to place the
means of enslaving it in the hands of their sover-
eign. Grand doute faisoient les sujets, et pour
plusieurs raisons, de se mettre en cette sujetion, ou
lis voyoient le royaume de France, a cause de ses
gens d'armes. A la verite, leiir grand doute n'es-
toit pas sans cause : car quatid il se trouva cinq
cens hommes d'armes, la volonte luy vint d'en
avoir plus, et de plus hardiment entreprendre cen-
tre tous ses voisins. — Comines, 1. iii., c. 4, 9.
Du Clercq, a contemporary writer of very good
nthority, mentioning the story of a certain widow
who had remarried the day after her husband's
•Jeath. says that she was in some degree excusa-
ble, because it was the practice of the duke and
his officers to force rich widows into marrying
cheir soldiers or other servants, t. ix., p. 4! 8.
* A famous diai,iond, beloiigmg to Charles of
Bureiindy, was taker in the plunder of his tent by
ne Swiss at Granson. After several changes of
wner*, most of whom were ignorant of its value,
left an only daughter, undoubted heires-i
of Flanders and Artois, as well as of hia
dominions out of France ; but whose
right of succession to the dutchy of Bur
gimdy was more questionable. Origi
nally, the great fiels of tne crown de
scended to females ; and this was the
case with respect to the two first men-
tioned. But John had granted Burgundy
to his son Philip by way of appanage;
and it was contended that appanages re-
verted to the crown in default of male
heirs. Li the form of Philip's investi-
ture, the dutchy was granted to him and
his lawful heirs, without designation of
sex. The construction, therefore, must
be left to the established course of law.
This, however, was by no means ac-
knowledged by Mary, Charles's daughter,
who maintained, both that no general law
restricted appanages to male heirs, and
that Burgundy had always been consider-
ed as a feminine fief, John himself having
possessed it, not by reversion as king (for
descendants of the first dukes were then
living), but by inheritance derived through
females.* Such was this question of suc-
cession between Louis XI. and Mary of
Burgundy, upon the merits of whose pre-
tensions I will not pretend altogether to
decide ; but shall only observe, that if
Charles had conceived his daughter to
be excluded from this part of his inherit-
ance, he would probably, at Conflans
or Peronne, where he treated upon the
vantage-ground, have attempted at least
to obtain a renunciation of Louis's claim.
There was one obvious mode of pre
venting all further contests, and of conduct
aggrandizing the French monar- oi Louia
chy far more than by the reunion of Bur-
gundy. This was the marriage of Mary
with the dauphin, which was ardently
it became the first jewel in the French crown.—
Gamier, t. xviii., p. 361.
* It is advanced with too much confidence by
several French historians, either that the ordinan-
ces of Philip IV. and Charles V. constituted a
general law against the descent of appanages to
female heirs, or that this was a fundamental law
of the monarchy. — Du Clos, Hist, de Louis XI.,
t. ii., p. 252. Gamier, Hist, de France, t. xviii.,
p. 258. The latter position is refuted by frequent
instances of female succession; thus Artois had
passed by a daughter of Louis le Male into the
house of Burgundy. As to the above-mentioned
ordinances, the first applies only to the county of
Poitiers ; the second does not contain a syllable
that relates to succession. — (Ordonnances des Rois,
t. vi., p. 54.) The doctrine of excluding female
heirs was more consonant to the pretended Salique
la%v,and the recent principles as to inalienability of
domain, than to the analogy of feudal rules and
precedents. M. Gaillard, in his Observations sui
I'Histoire dc Velly, Villaret, et 'iarnier, has a ju<h
cious n"*« on this subject, t. iii., p. 304.
Pi PI 11.]
FRANCE.
61
»vished in Fran.e Whatever obstacles
might occur to this connexion, it was nat-
ural 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 incor-
porated with a country worse governed
Itian their own. The arts of Louis would
have been well employed in smoothing
tliese impediments.* But he chose to
seize upon as many towns as, in those
critical circumstances, lay exposed to
him, and stripped the young dutchess of
Artoi.5 and Tranche Comte. Expecta-
tions of the marriage he sometimes held
out, but, as it seems, without sincerity.
Indeed, he contrived irreconcilably to
dlienate Mary by a shameful perfidy, be-
traying the ministers whom she had in-
trusted upon a secret mission to the peo-
ple of Ghent, who put them to the torture,
and afterward to death, in the presence
and amid the tears and supplications of
their mistress. [A. D. 1477.] Thus the
French alliance becoming odious in
France, this princess married Maximilian
ef Austria, son of the Emperor Frederick ;
a connexion which Louis strove to pre-
vent, though it was impossible 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 o' peace
concluded at Arras in 1482, it was agreed
that this daughter should become the
dauphin's wife, with Franche Comte and
Artois, which Louis held already for her
dowry, to be restored in case the marriage
should not take effect. The homage of
Flanders, and appellant jurisdiction of
the parliament over it, were reserved to
the crown.
Meanwhile Louis was lingering in dis-
Sickness ^^^e and torments of mind, the
anddeaihof retribution of fraud and tyranny.
Louus XI. 'pwo years before his death he
was struck with an apoplexy, from whicli
* Robertson, as well as some other modems,
have maintained, on the authority of Co(niiies, that
Louis XI. ought in policy to have married the
voung princess to the Count of Angouleme, father
of Francis I., a connexion which she would not have
disUked. But certainly nothing could have been
more adverse to the interests of the French mon-
archy than such a marriage, which would have
put a new house nf Burgundy at the head of those
princes whose confederacies had so often endan-
gered the crown. Coinines is one of the most ju-
dicious of historians; bulhissincerity may be rath-
er doubtful in the opinion above mentioneci ; for he
wrote in the reign of Charles VIII., when the Count
of An?ouleme was engaged in the same faction as
himself
he never wholly recovered. As he feli
his disorder increasing, he shut hini.self uf
in a palace near Tours, to hide from tht
world the knowledge of his decline.* His
solitude was like that of Tiberius at Ca-
precB, full of terror and suspicion, and deep
consciousness of universal hatred. All
ranks, he well knew, had their several
injuries to remember : the clergy, whose
liberties he had sacrificed to the see of
Rome, by revoking the Pragmatic Sanc-
tion of Charles VI 1. ; 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 werf
plundered by his soldiery. f The palace
fenced with portcullises and spikes o/
iron, was guarded by archers and cross
bow men, who shot atany that approacli
ed by night. Few entered this den; bul
to them he showed himself in magnifi-
cent apparel, contrary to his former cus-
tom, hoping thus to disguise the change
of his meager body. He distrusted liis
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 physician had sworn
that, if he were dismissed, the king wouli^
not survive a week ; and Louis, enfee-
bled by sickness and terror, bore the
rudest usage from this man, and endeav-
oured to secure his services l)y vast
rewards. Always credulous in relics,
though seldom restrained by superstition
from any crime,J he eagerly bought up
* For Louis's illness and death, see Comnies,
1. vi., c. 7-12, an Gamier, t. xix., p. 112, &c
Plessis, his last residence, about an English mil*
from Tours, is now a dilapidated farmhouse, and
can never have been a very large buildins:. The
vestiges of royalty about it are few ; but tli'^ priii
cipal apartments have been destroyed, euher in
the course of ages or at the revolution.
+ See a remarkable chapter in Philip de Co
mines, I. iv., c. 10, wherein he tells us that Charle?
VII. had never raised more than 1,800,000 franc? a
year in taxes; but Louis XI., at the time of his
death, raised 1,700,000, exclusive of some military
impositions; et surement c'estoit compassion de
voir et scavoir la pauvrete du peuple. In this
chapter he declares his opinion that no kin? can
justly levy money on his subjects without '.hen
consent, and repels all common arguments (o thn
contrary.
t An exception to this was when he swoit liy
the cross of St. Lo, after which he feared to vio-
late his oath. The Constable of St. Pol. whom
Louis invited with many assurances to court, oc-
thought himself of requiring this oath before h<
trusted his promises, which the king refused ; and
.St. Pol prudently stayed away. Gam., t. xviii., p
72 Some report that he had a simi'ar Pispect f«)r
32
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGt^tJ.
tUHAf.
treasures of this sort, and even procured
a Calabrian hermit, of noted sanctity, to
journej' as far as Tours in order to re-
store iiis health. Philip de Comines,
who attended him during this intirniity,
draws a parallel between the torments
he then endul A and those he had for-
merly inflicted on others. Indeed, the
whole of his life was vexation of spirit.
" I have known him (saj's Comines), and
been his servant in the flower of his age,
and in the time of his greatest prosperi-
ty ; but never did I see him without un-
easiness and care. Of all amusements
he loved only the chase, and hawking in
its season And in this he had almost
as much uneasiness as pleasure ; for he
rode hard, and got up early, and some-
times went a great way, and regarded no
weather : so that he used to return very
weary, and almost ever in wrath with
some one. I think that from his child-
hood he never had any respite of labour
and trouble to his death. And I am cer-
tain 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."*
Charles VlII. was about thirteen years
Charles old whcu he succcedcd his father
^I'l- Louis. [A. D. 1483.] Though the
law of France fixed the majority of her
king; 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 thf^ regency, which Louis had intrusted
to his daughter Anne, wife of the Lord de
Beaujeu, one of the Bourbon family. The
Duke of Orleans, afterward 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 several years
in her brother's name with singular spirit
and address, in spite of the rebellions
which the Orleans party raised up against
her. These were supported by the Duke
of Britany, the last of the great vassals of
the crown, whose daughter, as he had no
male issue, was the object of as many
suiters as Mary of Burgundy.
The dutchy of Britany w'as peculiarly
AiTdirs of circumstanced. The inhabitants,
Briiany. -whether sprung from the ancient
republicans of Armorica, or, as some have
thought, from an emigration of Britons
tt leaden image of the Virgin, wliich he wore in his
nat ; as alluded to by Pope : " A perjured prince a
iKiden saint revere."
• ("!f»inines. I. vi., c. 13.
during the Saxon invasion, had not ori-
ginally belonged to the body of the French
monarchy. They were governed by their
own princes and laws ; though tributary,
perhaps, as the weaker to the stronger
to the Merovingian kings.* In the ninth
centuiy, the dukes of Britany did hom-
age to Charles the Bald, the right of which
was transferred afterward 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 feudal chains, that
had hung so loosely upon the shoulders
of the great vassals, began to be straiten-
ed by the dexterity of the court, Britany
found itself drawn among the rest to tlie
same centre. The old privileges of in-
dependence were treated as usurpation ;
the dukes were menaced with confiscation
of their fief, their right of coining money
disputed, their jurisdiction impaired by ap-
peals to the parliament of Paris. How-
ever, they stood boldly upon their right,
and always refused to pay liege /lomage,
which implied an obhgation of service to
the lord, in contradistinction to simple
homage, which was a mere symbol of
feudal dependance.f
About the time that Edward III. made
pretensions to the crown of France, a
controversy somewhat resembling it arose
in the dutchy of Britany, between the fam-
ilies of Biois and Montfort. This led to
a long and obstinate war, connected all
along as a sort of underplot with the great
drama of France and England. At last,
Montfort, Edward's ally, by the defeat and
death of his antagomst, obtained the
dutchy, of which Charles V. soon after
gave him the investiture. This prince and
his family were generally inclined to Eng-
Ush connexions ; but the Bretons w^ould
seldom permit them to be efiectiial. Two
cardinal feelings guided the conduct of
this brave and faithful people ; the one,
an attachment to the French nation and
monarchy in opposition to foreign ene
* Gregory of Tours says, that the Bretons were
subject to France from the death of Clovis, and
that their chiefs were styled counts, not kings, 1.
iv., c. 4. However, it seems clear from Nigelliis,
a writer of the life of Louis the Debonair, that they
were almost independent in his time. There was
even a march of the Britannic frontier which sep-
arated it from France ; and they had a king of their
own. It is hinted, indeed, that they had been lor
merly subject ; for, after a victory of Louis ovei
them, Nigellus says, Imperio social perdita re^na
diu. In the next reign of Charles the Bald, Hiiic
mar tells us, regnum undique a Paganis, et falsis
Christianis, scilicet Britonibus, est circumscriptum,
— Epist. 18. See, too, Capitularia Car. CalvL, A
D. 877, tit. 23.
+ Villaret. t. xii., p 82 t. xv,. p. 1£W
HlBT HI
FRANCE
6?
imes ; the other, a zeal for their own priv-
ileges, and the family of Montfort, in oppo-
sition to the encroachments of the crown.
In Francis II., the present duke, the male
line of that family was about to be ex-
tmguished. His daughter Anne was nat-
urally the object of many suiters, among
whom were particularly distinguished the
Duke of Orleans, who seems to have been
preferred by herself; the Lord of Albret,
a member of the Gascon family of Foix,
favoured by the Breton nobility, as most
likely to preserve the peace and liberties
of their country, but whose age rendered
him not very acceptable to a youthful
princess ; and Maximilian, king of the
Romans. Britany Avas rent by factions,
and overrun by the armies of the regent
of France, who did not lose this opportu-
nity of interfering with its domestic
troubles, and of persecuting her private
enemy, the Duke of Orleans. Anne of
Britany, upon her father's death, finding
no other means of escaping the addresses
of Albret, was married, by proxy, to Max-
imilian. [A. D. 1489.] This, however, ag-
gravated the evils of the country, since
France was resolved at all events to break
off so dangerous a connexion. And as
Maximilian himself was unable, or took
not sufficient pains, to relieve his betroth-
ed wife from her embarrassments, she
was ultimately compelled to accept the
Marria<'eof ^^^.nd of Charlcs VIII. He
ciiarielviii. had long been engaged by the
lotheDutcbess treaty of Arras to marry the
of Bniai.y. daughter of Maximilian, and
that princess was educated at the French
court. But this engagement had not pre-
vented several years of hostilities, and
continual intrigues with the towns of
Flanders against Maximilian. The double
injury v/hich the latter sustained in the
marriage of Charles with the heiress of
Britany seemed likely to excite a pro-
tracted contest ; but the King of France,
who had other objects in view, and per-
haps was conscious that he had not acted
a fair part, soon came to an accommoda-
tion, by which he restored Artois and
Franche Comte.
[A. D. 1492.] France was now consol-
idated into a great kingdom; the feudal
system was at an end. The vigour 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 Eng-
land, nor seditions of Paris, nor rebellions
of the princes, were able to shake. Be-
sides the original fiefs of the French
crown, it had acquired two countries be-
yond the Rhone which properly depend-
ed only upjn the empire Lauphine, un
der Philip ^i Valois, by the bequest oi
Humbert, the last of its princes ; and Pro-
vence, under Louis XL, by that of Charle:i
of Anjou.* [A. D. 14SL] Thus having
conquered herself, if I may use the phrase,
and no longer apprehensive of any for
eign enemy, France was prepared, undei
a monarch flushed with sanguine ambi-
tion, to carry her arms into other coun-
tries, and to contest the prize of glory
and power upon the ample theatre of
Europe. t
* The country now called Dauphine formeJ pan
of the kingdom of Aries or Provence, bequeathed
by Rodolp)h III. to the Emperor Conrad II. Liut
the dominion of the empire over these new acqui-
sitions being little more than nominal, a few of the
chief nobility converted their respective fiefs into
independent principalities. One of these was the
lord or dauphin of Vienne, whose family became
ultimately masters of the whole province. Hum-
bert, the last of these, made .lohn, son of Philip of
Valois, his heir, on condition that Dauphine should
be constantly preserved as a separate possession,
not incorporated with the kingdom of France. This
bequest was confirmed by the Emperor Charles
IV., whose supremacy over the province was thus
recognised by the kings of France, though it soon
came to be altogether disregarded.
Provence, like Dauphine, was changed from a
feudal dependance to a sovereignty, in the weak-
ness and dissolution of the kingdom of Aries, about
the early part of the eleventh century. By the
marriage of Douce, heiress of the first line of sover-
eign counts, with Raymond Berenger, count of
Barcelona, in 1112, it passed into that distinguish-
ed family. In 1IG7 it was occupied or usurped by
Alfonso II., king of Arragon, a relation, but not
heir, of the house of Berenger. Alfonso bequeath
ed Provence to his second son, of the same name,
and from whom it descended to Raymond Beren
gerlV. This count dying without male issue in
1245, his youngest daughter Beatrice took posses-
sion by virtue of her father's testament. But this
succession being disputed by other claimants, and
especially by Louis IX., who had married her eld-
est sister, she compromised ditferences by mar-
rying Cliarles of Anjou, the king's brother. The
family of Anjou reigned in Provence, as well as m
Naples, till the death of Joan in 1382, who, having
no children, adopted Louis of Anjou, brother ot
Charles V., as her successor. This second Ange-
vin line ended in 1481 by the death of Charles III.,
though Renier, duke of Lorraine, who was de-
scended through a female, had a claim which it
does not seem easy to repel by argument. It was
very easy, however, for Louis XI., to whom Charles
III. had bequeathed his rights, to repel it by force.
and accordingly he took possession of Provence,
i which was permanently united to the crown by let
tors patent of Charles VIII. in 148C. J
t The principal authority, e.xclusive of original
writers, on which I have relied for this chapter, is
the history of France by Velly, Villaret, and Gar
nier ; a work which, notwithstanding several de-
fects, has absolutely superseded those of Mezeray
and Daniel. The part of the Abbe Velly comes
down to the middle of the eighth volun.e (12mo
edition), and of the reign of Philip de Va/ )is. Hu
continuator Villaret was interru[)ted i)y death it
the seventeenth volume, and in the reigr. of Loui
S An de »erifirrlM Ui'es, t. i , 1 41"). namier, I. ili. pp. S7 < I
u
KVROPh UURLNG TJIE MIJDLE AGES.
[Csur. u.
CHAPTER il.
ON THE lEUDAL SYSTEM, ESPECIALLY LN FRANCE.
PART I.
hlAtc of Ancient Germany.— Effects of the Con-
quest of Gaul by the Franks. — Tenures of Land.
— Distinction of Laws. — Constitution of the an-
cient brank Monarchy. — Gradual Establishment
of Feudal Tenures. — Principles of a Feudal Re-
lation.— Ceremonies of Ho.iiage and Investiture.
— Mditary Service. — Feudal Incidents of Relief,
Aid, Wardship, &c. — Different Species of Fiefs.
- 'Feudal Law-books.
Germany, in the age of Tacitus, was di-
vided among a number of independent
tribes, differing greatly in population and
importance. Their country, overspread
with forests and morasses, afforded little
Political state arable land, and the cultivation
of ancient of that little was inconstant,
fjeriiiany. Their occupations were prin-
cipally the chase and pasturage ; without
cities, or even any contiguous dwellings.
They had kings, elected out of particu-
lar families ; and other chiefs, both for
v^ ar and administration of justice, whom
merit alone recommended to the public
choice. But the power of each was
greatly limited ; and the decision of all
KI. In my references to this history, which for
common facts I have not thought it necessary to
make, I have merely named the author of the par-
ticular volume which 1 quote. This has made the
above e.xpianation convenient, as the reader might
imagine that I referred to three distinct works.
Of these three historians, Gamier, fhe last, is the
most judicious, and, I believe, the most accurate.
His prolixity, though a material defect, and one
v/hich hasoccasioned the work itself to become an
immeasurable undertaking, which could never be
completed on the same scale, is chiefly occasioned
by too great a regard to details, and is more tolera-
ble than a similar iault in ViUaret, proceeding from
a love of idle declamation and sentiment. Villaret,
however, is not without merits. He embraces,
perhaps, more fully than his predecessor Velly,
those collateral branches of history which an en-
hghtened reader requires almost in preference to
civil transactions, the laws, manners, literature,
and, in general, the whole domestic records of a na-
tion. These subjects are not always well treated ;
but the book itself, to which there is a remarkably
full index, forms upon the whole a great repository
of useful knowledge. Villaret had the advantage
of official access to the French archives, by which
he has no doubt enriched his history ; but his ref-
erences are indistinct, and his composition breathes
an air of rapidity and want of exactness. Velly's
characteristics are not very dissimilar. The sty!e
of both is exceedingly bad, as has been severely
noticed, along with their other defects, by Haillard,
in Observations sur I'Histoire de Velly, Villaret, et
Gamier. — (Ivols. 12mo., Paris, ISOti. i
leading questions, though sLbject 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 always the reward
of valour, and commonly of birth. They
were surrounded by a cluster of youths,
the most gallant and ambitious of the na-
tion, their pride at home, their protection
in the field ; whose ambition was flat-
tered, or gratitude conciliated, 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 have
found among nations in the same stage
of manners throughout the world. And,
although in the lapse of four centuries
between the ages of Tacitus and Clovis,
some change may have been wrought by
long intercourse w'ith the Romans, yet
the foundations of their political system
were unshaken.
When these tribes from Germany and
the neighbouring countries poured down
upon the empire, and began to _ . .
^^ • ^ : ..1 » Parlition of
form permanent settlements, i3,.dsinc>(i
they made a partition of the queredprov
lands in tlie conquered prov- '"'^^*'
inces between themselves and the origi-
nal possessors. The Burgundians and
Visigoths took two thirds of their re-
spective conquests, leaving the remain-
der to the Roman proprietor. Each Bur-
gundian was quartered, under the gentle
name of guest, upon one of the former
tenants, whose reluctant hospitality con-
fined him to the smaller portion of his
estate. t The Vandals in Africa, a more
furious race of plunderers, seized all the
best lands. J The Lombards of Italy took a
third part of the produce. We cannot dis-
cover any mention of a similar arrange-
ment in the laws or history of the Franks.
* De minoribus rebus principes consultant, de
majoribus omnes ; ita tamen, ut ea quoque, quo-
rum penes plebem arbitrium est, apud princfpes
vertractentur. — Tac. de Mor. Gerni.,c. xi. Acida
".lus and Grotius contend for prairacicntur ; whick
vould be neater, but the same sense appears t ) it
onveyed by the common reading.
t Leg. Burgund., c. 54, 55.
t Procopius De Kello Vandal., I. i., r. 5.
Pait LI
FEUDA . SYSTEM.
65
It is, however, clcer that they jccupied,
by public allotment or individual pillage,
a'great portion of the lands of France.
The estates possessed by the Fraaks, as
M'.odiai and their property, were termed nl-
Saiique lands, lodial; a word which is some-
times restricted to such as had descended
by inheritance.* These were subject to
no burden except that of public defence.
They passed to all the children equally,
or, in their failure, to the nearest kin-
dred.f But of these allodial possessions,
then; was a particular species, denomi-
nated Salique, from which females were
expressly excluded. What these lands
were, and what was the cause of the ex-
clusion, has been much disputed. No
solution seems more probable, than that
the ancient lawgivers of the Salian
FranksJ prohibited females from inherit-
ing the lands assigned to the nation upon
its conquest of Gaul, both in compliance
with their ancient usages, and in order
to secure the military service of ever}-
proprietor. But lands subsequently ac-
quired, by purchase or other means,
though equally bound to the public de-
fence, were relieved from the severity
of this rule, and presumed not to belong
to the class of Salique.^ Hence, in the
Ripuary law, the code of a tribe of
Franks settled upon the banks of the
fthine, and differing rather in words than
\v substance from the Salique-law, which
it serves to illustrate, it is said, that a
woman cannot inherit her grandfather's
estate (haereditas aviatica), distinguish
ing such family property from 'what the
father might have acquired.* And Ma»
culfus uses expressions to the same ef-
fect. There existed, however, a right
of setting aside the law, and admittin
females to succession by testament. I
is rather probable, from some passage*
in the Burgundian code, that even the
lands of partition (sortes Burgundionum)
were not restricted to male heirs \ And
the Visigoths admitted women on equal
terms to the whole inheritance.
A controversy has been maintained m
France, as to the condition of the nomnn
Romans, or, rather, the provincial natives of
inhabitants of Gaul, after the in- •^''"'•
vasion of Clovis. But neither those who
have considered the Franks as barbarian
conquerors, enslaving the former pos-
sessors, nor the Abbe du Bos, in whose
theory they appear as alhes and frieni
ly inmates, are warranted by historical
facts. On the one hand, we find the Ro-
mans not only possessed of ];roperty,
and governed by their own lavvs, but ad-
mitted to the royal favour, and the high-
est offices \X while the bishops and clei
gy, who were generally of that nation,^
* Allodial lands are commonly opposed to bene-
ficiary or feudal ; tVie former being strictly pro-
prietary, while the latter depended upon a superi-
or. In this sense the word is of contmual recur-
rence in ancient histories, laws, and instruments.
It sometimes, however, bears the sense of inherit-
ance; and this seems to be its meaning in the
famous G2d chapter of the Saliquelaw: de Alodis.
Alodium interdum opponitur comparato, says Du
Cange, in formulis vetenbus. Hence, in the char-
ters of the eleventh century, hereditary fiefs are
frequently termed alodia. — Kecueil des Historiens
.de France, t. xi., preface. Vaisselte, Hist, de
Languedoc, t. ii., p. 109.
t Leg. Salicae, c. 62.
i The Salique-laws appear to have been framed
Dy a Christian prince, and after the conquest of
Gaul. Th^y are therefore not older than Clovis.
Nor can tSicy be much later, since they were altered
by one of his sons.
() By the German customs, women, though
treated with much respect and delicacy, were not
endowed at their marriage. Dotem non uxor ma-
rito, sed maritus uxori confert. — Tacitus, c. 18. A
similar principle might debar them of inheritance
in fixed possessions. Certain it is, that the exclu-
sion of females was nit unfrcquent among the
Teutonic nations. We tma it in the laws of the
Thuringians and of the Saxons ; both ancient
codes, though not free from interpolation. — Leib-
nitz, Scriptores Kerum Brunswicensium, t. i., pp.
81 and 83. But this usage was repugnant to the
principles of Roman law, which the Franks found
prevailing in their new country, and to the natural
♦■fieling which leads a man to prefer his own de-
K
scendants to collateral heirs. One of the prece
dents in Marculfus (I. ii., form 12) calls the exclu
sinn of females diuturna et impia consnetudo. In
another, a father addresses his daughter : Omnibus
non habelur incognitum, quod, sicut lex Salica coii-
tinet, de rebus ineis, quod mihi ex alode parentum
meoTum obveiiii, apud germanos tuos nlios meos
miiiime inhsereditate succedere poteras. — Formulae
Marculfo adjectae, 49. These precedents are sup-
posed to have been compiled about the latter end
of the seventh century.
* C. 56.
t f had in forjr.er editions asserted the contrary
of this, on the authority of Leg. Burgund., c. 78,
which seemed to limit the succession of estates,
called sories, to male heirs. But the expressions
are too obscure f) warrant this inference ; and M.
Guizot (Essais Sur I'Hist. de France, vol. i., p.
95) refers to the 14th chapter of the same code
for the opposite proposition. But this, too, is not
absolutely clear, as a general rule.
X Daniel conjectures that Clolaire I. was the
first who admitted Romans into the army, which
had previously been composed of Franks. From
this time we find many in high military commanc*
— (Hist, de .a Milice Francoise. t. i., p. 11.) ft
seems by a passage in Gregory of Tours, by Du
Bos (t. iii., p. 547), that some liomans affected the
barbarian character oy letting their hair grow. If
this were generally permitted, it would be a strong-
er evidence of approximation between the twu
races than any that Du Bos has adduced. Mon
tesquieu certainly takes it for granted that a Ro-
man might change his law, and thus become to all
material intents a Frank.— (Esprit des Loix, I
xxviii.. c. 4 ) But the passage on which he relies
is read dilTerently in the manuscripts.
(J Some bishops, if we may judge from their bar-
barojs names, and other circumstances, were no«
46
ETJUOPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
ICIIaP. fl
grew up continually in popular estima-
tion, in riches, and in temporal sway.
Yet it is undeniable that a marked line
was drawn at the outset between the
conquerors and the conquered. Though
one class of Romans retained estates of
'Jieir 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 ser-
vitude. But no distinction can be more
unequivocal than that which was estab-
lished between the two nations in the
luercgild, or composition for homicide.
Capital punishment for murder was con-
trary to the spirit of the Franks, who,
like most barbarous nations, would have
thought the loss of one citizen ill repair-
ed by that of another. The weregild
was paid to the relations of the slain, ac-
cording to a legal rate. This was fixed by
the Salique-law at six hundred solidi for
an Antrustion of the king ; at three hun-
dred for a Roman conviva regis (meaning
a man of sufficient rank to be admitted
to the royal table) ; at two hundred for a
common Frank; at one hundred for a
Roman possessor of lands ; and at forty-
five for a tributary, or cultivator of anoth-
er's property. In Burgundy, where re-
ligion and length of settlement had intro-
']uced different ideas, murder was pun-
ished with death. But other personal
uijuries were compensated, as among the
Franks, by a fine, graduated according to
.he rank and nation of the aggrieved
party.*
Ihe barbarous conquerors of Gaul and
iJistinc- Italy were guided by notions
tionofiaws. very diff'erent from those of
Rome, who had imposed her own laws
upon all the subjects of her empire. Ad-
hering in general to their ancient cus-
toms without desire of improvement,
they left the former habitations in unmo-
lested enjoyment of their civil inslitu-
ticms. The Frank was judged by the Sa-
Romans. See, for instance, Gregory of Tours, 1.
vi., c. 9. But no distinction was made among
ii.-em on this account. The composition for the
murder of a bishop was nine hundred solidi; for
that of a priest, six hundred of the same coin. —
Leges Sahcffi, c. 58.
* Leges SaUca;, c. 43. Leges Burgundionum,
lit 2. Murder and robbery wer2 made capital by
Childebert, l\ing of Paris ; but Francus was to be
sent for trial in the royfU courts debilior persona in
loco pendatur. —BAuz., t. i., p. 17. I am inclined
to think thai the won! Francus does not absolutely
refer to the nation of the party ; but rather to his
'ank, as opposed to debilior persona ; and, conse-
quently, that it had already acquired the sense of
Jrceman, or frceborn (ingenuus), which is perhaps
iw strict meaning Du Cange, voc. Francus,
yiotes the pas?\ge m this seise
lique or the Ripuary co ii; ; the Gaul follow-
ed that of Theodosius.* This grand dis-
tinction of Roman and barbarian, accoid-
ing to the law which each followed, was
common to the Frank, Burgundian, and
Lombard kingdoms. But the Ostrogoths,
whose settlement in the empire and ad
vance in civility of manners were earher,
inclined to desert their old usages, and
adopt the Roman jurisprudence.! The
laws of the Visigoths too were compiled
by bishops upon a Roman foundation,
and designed as a uniform code, by which
both nations should be governed. J 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 succes-
sion, which depended upon principles
quite remote from those of the civil law,
and the rights of territorial 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
revolutions of the middle ages ; and thus
arose a leading division of that kingdom
into pays coutumiers and pays du droit
ecrit; the former regulated by a vast va-
riety of ancient usages^ the latter by the
civil law. II
* Inter Romanos negotia causarum Romanis le-
gibus prascipimus terminari. — Edict. Clotair. L,
circ. 560. Baluz. Capitul., t. i., p. 7.
t Giannone, I. iii., c. 2.
X Hist, de Languedoc, t. i., p. 242. Heineccius,
Hist. Juris German., c. i , s. 15.
ij Suger, in his life of Louis VI., uses the ex-
pression le.x Salica (Recueil des Historiens, t. xii.,
p. 21); and 1 have some recollection of having met
with the like words in other writings of as modern
a date. But I am not convinced that the original
Salique code was meant by this phrase, which may
have been applied to the local feudal customs.
The capitularies of Charlemagne are frequently
termed lex Salica. Many of these are copied from
the Theodosian code.
II This division is very ancient, being found in
the edict of Pistes, under Charles the Bald, in
804 ; where we read, in illis regionibus, quae legem
Romanam sequuntur.— (Kecueil des Historiens, t.
vii., p. CCl.) iMoiitesquieu thinks that the Roman
law fell into disuse in the north of France on ac-
count of the superior advantages, particularly in
point of composition for offences, annexed to the
Salique-law; while that of the Visigoths being more
equal, the Romans under their government had
no inducement to quit their own code.— ( Ksprit dei
Loix, 1. xxviii., c. 4.) But it does not appear that
the Visigoths had any peculiar code of laws till
after their expulsion from the kingdom of Tou-
louse. They then retained only a small strip of
territory in France, about Narbonne and llor.j-'.'pe-
Ider.
However, the distinction of men according tf
their laws was preserved for many centuries, both
in France and Italy. A judicial oroceedmjj of Hw
t AhT I I
FEUDAL SYSTEM.
67
Tlie kingdom of Clovis was divided
into a number of districts, each under the
frovernment of a count, a name familiar
to Roman subjects, by which they ren-
dered the graf of the Germans. The
Provincial authority of this officer extend-
goveniment ^^ ^^^^ ^\\ ^\^q inhabitants, as
Frent-h well Franks as natives. It was
Empire. his duty to administer justice,
to preserve tranquillity, to collect the
royaJ revenues, and to lead, when requi-
red, the free proprietors into the field.*
The title of a duke implied a higher dig-
nity, and commonly gave authority over
several counties. f These offices were
year 918, published by the historians of Languedoc
(t. ii., Appendix, p. 561 proves that the Roman,
Gothic, and Salique cooes were then kept perfectly
separate, and that there were distinct judges lor
the three nations. The Gothic law is referred to
as an existing authority in a charter of 1070.—
Idem, I. iii., p. 274. De Marca, Marca Hispanica, p.
1159. Every man, both in France (Hist, de Lan-
guedoc, t. ii., Appendix, p. 69) and in Italy, seems
to have had the right of choosing by what law he
wou'd be governed. Volumus, says Lothaire I. in
924, jt cunctus populus Roinanus interrogetur,
quali lege vult vivere, ut tali, quali professi fuerint
vivere velle, vivant. Quod si offensionem contra
?andem legem fecerint, eidem legi quum profiten-
ur, subiacebunt. Women upon marriage usually
'.hanged their law, and adopted that of their hus-
jand, returning to their own in widowhood; but
() this there are exceptions; Charters are found,
»s late as the twelfth century, with the expression,
jui professus sum lege Longobardica [aut] lege
iSalica [aut] lege Alemannorum vivere. But soon
afterward the distinctions were entirely lost, partly
through the prevalence of the Roman law, and
Dartly through the multitude of local statutes in
he Italian cities. — Muratori, Antiquitates ltalia>,
Disserlai. 22. Du Cange, v. Lex. lleinecciusi,
Historia .huis Germanici, c. ii., s. 51.
* Maiculrt Formula;, I. i., 32.
I Houard, the learned translator of Littleton
^Anciens Loix des Francois, t. i., p. 6), supposes
^hese titles to have been applied indifferently. But
he contrary is easily proved, and especially by a
Jne of Fortunatus, quoted by Du Cange and others :
" Qui modo dat Comitis, det tibi jura Ducis."
The cause of M. Houard's error may perhaps be
worth noticing. In the above cited form of Mar-
culfus, a precedent (in law language) is given for
he appointment of a duke, count, or patrician.
The material part being the same, it was only tie-
:;essary to fill np the blanks, as we slicuiM call ii, liy
nserting the proper designation of office. It is ex-
pressed therefore, actionem comitatus, dacatus, out
oatriciatus in pago illo, qnam a7it!cessor tuus ills usque
.nunc visus est egisse, tibi agendum regenduinque
commisimus. Montesquieu has fallen into a sim-
ilar mistake (1. xxx., c. 16), forgetting for a mo-
.nent, like Houard, that these instruments in Mar-
culfus were not records of real transactions, but
general forms for future occasion.
The office of patrician is rather more obscure.
It seems to have nearly corresponded with what
was afterward called mayor of the palace, and to
have implied the command of all the royal forces.
Such at least were Celsus. ind his successor Mum-
molus, under Gontran. '1 . is is probable too from
tnalogy. The patrician was the highest officer in
E2
originally conferred during pleasure ; bin
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 IMerovin-
gian kings, these provincial governors
had laid the foundations of that independ-
ence which was destined to change thf
countenance of Europe.* The Lombard
dukes, those especially of Spoleto and
Benevento, acquired very early an hered-
itary right of governing their provinces
and that kingdom became a sort of fed-
eral aristocracy.!
The throne of France was always fil-
led by the royal house of Meroveus
However complete we may ima- ^^^^^^^-^^
gine the elective rights of the to uie
Franks, it is clear that a funda- French mo
mental law restrained them to "^'''^''y-
this family. Such indeed had been the
monarchy of their ancestors the Ger-
mans ; such long continued 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
popular election, whether that were a
substantial privilege, or a mere ceremo-
ny. Exceptions, however, to the lineal
succession, are rare in the history of any
country, unless where an infant heir was
tliought unfit to rule a nation of freemen.
But in fact it is vain to expect a system
the Roman empire, from the time of Constaiitine,
and we know how much the Franks themselves,
and still more their Gaulish subjects, affected tA.t
imitate the style of the imperial court.
* That the offices of count and duke were o igi
nally but temporary, may be inf' rred from several
passages in Gregory of Tours ; asl. v., c. 37; 1. viii.,
c. 18. But it seems by the laws of the Alemanni,
c. 35, that the hereditary succession of their dukes
was tolerably established at the beginning of the
seventh century, when their code was promulgated.
The Bavarians chose their own dukes out of one
family, as is declared in their laws ; tit. ii., c. 1 and
c. 20. — (Lindebrog, Codex Lcgum antiquarum.)
This the Emperor Henry II. confirms in Ditmar;
Nonne scitis (he says), Bojuarios ab initio ducem
rli^;('iidi liberam habere potestatcm ? — (Schmidt,
Hist, des AUemands, t. ii., p. 404.) Indeed, the
consent of these German provincial nations, if I
may use the expression, seems to have been always
required, as in an independent monarchy. Ditmar.
a chronicler of the tenth century, says, that Eckani
was made Dukeof Thuringia totius popuh consen
sn.— Pfeffel, Abrege Chronologique, t. i.. p. 184.
With respect to France properly so called, or the
kingdoms of Neustria and Burgundy, it may be
less easy to prove the existence of hereditary offices
under the Merovingians. But the feebleness of
their government makes it probable that so natural
a symptom of disorganization had not failed to en
sue. The Helvetian counts appear to have been
nearly independent, as early as this period. — (Plao
ta's Hist, of the Helvetic Co!.'<9'^«racv, ckap i.>
t Giati'^one, 1. iv.
68
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES'
Chap. .1
of constitutional laws rigidly observed
in ages of anarcliy and ignorance. Those
antiquaries who have maintained the
most opposite theories upon such points
are seldom in want of particular instan-
ces to support their respective conclu-
sions.*
Clovis was a leader of barbarians, who
Limited au- Tcspected his valour, and the
ijioniy of rank which they had given him,
uovis. ^^^ were incapable of servile
feelings, and jealous of their common as
well as individual rights. In order to
appreciate the power which he possessed,
we have only to look at the well-known
Vase of story of the vase of Soissons.
soissons. When the plunder taken in Clo-
vis's invasion of Gaul was set out in this
place for distribution, he begged for him-
self a precious vessel, belonging to the
church of Rheims. The army having
expressed their willingness to consent,
" You shall have nothing here," exclaim-
ed 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 him-
self by the death of the soldier. It is im-
possible to resist the inference which is
supplied by this story. The whole be-
haviour of Clovis is 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
Power of Franks when they first became
the kings conquerors of Gaul, we have
increases. gQQ^ reason to believe that they
did not long preserve it. A people not
very numerous spread over the spacious
provinces of Gaul, wherever lands were
assigned to, or seized by them.f It be-
came a burden to attend those general
assemblies of the nation, which were an-
nually convened in the month of March,
to deliberate upon public business, as
* Hotloman (Franco-Gallia, c. vi.) and Boulain-
Tilliers (Etat de la France) seem to consider the
crown as absolutely elective. The Abbe Vertot
(Memoires de I'Acad. des Inscriptions, t. iv.) main-
tains a limited right of election within the reigning
family. M. de Foncemagne (t. vi. and t. viii. of
the same collection) asserts a strict hereditary de-
scent. Neither perhaps sufficiently dislinguishes
acts of violence from those of right, nor observes
the changes in the French constitution between
Clovis and Childeric III.
t Du Bos, Hist. Critique, t. ii., p. 301, maintains
that Clovis had not more than 3000 or 4000 Franks
'•a his army, for which he produces some, though
Ot very ancient, authorities. The smallness of
• number of Salians may account for our finding
mention of the partitions made in their favour.
•e. howeyer, Du Bos, t. iii., p. 46G
well as to exhibit a muster of militart
strength. After some time, it appears
that these meetings drew together only
the bishops, and those invested with civD
offices.* The ancient inhabitants ol
Gaul, having little notion of political lib-
erty, were unlikely to resist the in ost ty-
rannical conduct. Many of them became
officers of state and advisers of the sov
ereign, whose ingenuity might teach
maxims of despotism unknown in the
forests of Germany. We shall scarcely
wrong the bishops by suspecting them ol
more pliable courthness tlianwas natural
to the long-haired warriors of Clovis. f
Yet it is probable that some of the
Franks were themselves instruments] in
tliis change of their government. The
court of the Merovingian kings was
crowded with followers, who have been
plausibly derived from those of the
German chiefs described by Tacitus;
men, forming a distinct and elevateo
class in the state, and known by the ti
ties of Fideles, Leudes, and Antrustiones.
They took an oath of fidelity to the kinf
upon their admission into that rank, ano
were commonly remunerated with gift?
of land. Under different appellations w :•
find, as some antiquaries think, this class
of courtiers in the early records of Lorn
bardy and England. The general namo
of vassals (from Gwas, a Celtic word for
a servant) is applied to them in every
country.! By the assistance of these
faithful supporters, it has been thought
that the regal authority of Clovis's suc-
cessors was ensured.^ However this
* Du Bos, t. iii., p. 327. Mably, Observ. sui
I'Histoire de France, 1. i., c. 3.
t Gregory of Tours, throughout his history,
talks of the royal power in the tone of Louis XI V.'s
court. If we were obliged to believe all we read,
even the vase of Soissons would bear witness to
the obedience of the Franks.
t The Gasindi of Italy, and the Anglo-Saxon royal
Thane, appear to correspond, more or less, to the
Antrustions of France. The word Thane, howev-
er, was used in a very extensive sense, and com-
prehended all free proprietors of land. That of
Leudes seems to imply only subjection, and is fre
quently applied to the whole body of a nation, at
well as, in a stricter sense, to the king's pe sonal
vassals. This name they did not acquire or^^'inal-
ly by possessing benefices, but rather, by being
vassals or servants, became the object of benefi-
ciary donations. In one of Marculfus's precedents,
!. i., f. 18, we have the form by which an Antrus-
tion was created. See Du Cange, under these sev.
eral words, and Muratori's thirteenth dissertation
on Italian antiquities. The Gardingi, sometimef
mentioned in the laws of the Visigoths, do not ap
pear to be of the same description.
() Boantus * * * * vallatus in domo sua, ab ho
minibus regis interfectus est. — Greg. Tur., 1, viii., t
11. A few spirited retainers were sufficient toei
ecute the mandates of arbitrary power among
barbarous, disunited people.
Part 1. 1
FEUDAL SYSTEM.
6fi
may be, the annals of his more immedi-
ate descendants exhibit a course of op-
pression, not merely displayed, as will
often happen among imcivilized people,
though free, in acts of private injustice,
but in such general tyranny as is incom-
patible 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
Degeneracy been described in the last chap-
or the royal tgr. The mayors of the palace,
Majwsof who, from mere officers of the
the palace, court, had HOW bccome masters
of the kingdom, were elected by the
Franks, not indeed the whole body of
that nation, but the provincial governors,
and considerable proprietors of land.f
Some inequality there probably existed
from the beginning in the partition of
estates, and this had been greatly in-
creased by the common changes of prop-
erty, by the rapine of those savage times.
* The proofs of this may be found in almost
every page of Gregory : among other places, see 1.
iv., c. 1 ; I. vi., c. 29 ; 1. ix., c. 30. In all edicts pro-
cecimg from the first kings, they are careful to ex-
Tireas tlie consent of their subjects. Clovis's lan-
guage runs — Populus noster petit. His son Chil-
debert expresses himself: una cum nostris optima-
tibus pertractavimus — convenit unk cum leudis
nostris. But in the famous treaty of Andeley, A.
D. 587, no national assent seems to have been ask-
ed or given to its provisions, which were very im-
portant. And an edict of one of the Clotaires (it is
uncertain whether the first or second of that name,
though Montesquieu has given good reasons for
the latter) assumes a more magisterial tone, with-
out any mention of the Leudes.
t The revolution which ruined Brunehaut was
brought about by the defection of her chief nobles,
especially Warnachar, mayor of Austrasia. Upon
Clotaire li.'s victory over her, he was compelled to
reward these adherents at the expense of tlie mon-
archy. Warnachar was made mayor of Burgundy,
with an oath from the king never to dispossess him.
— (Fredegarius, c. 42.) In C2G, the nobility of Bur-
gundy declined to elect a mayor, which seems to
have been considered as their right. From this
time nothing was done without the consent of the
aristocracy. Unless we ascribe all to the different
ways of thinking in Gregory and Fredegarius, the
one a Roman bishop, the other a Frank or Bur-
gundian, the government was altogether changed.
It might even be surmised, that the crown was
couoidered as more elective than before. The au-
thor of Gesta Regum Francorum,an old chronicler
who lived in those times, changes his form of ex-
pressing a king's accession from that of Clotaire
II. Of the earlier kings he says only, regnum
recepit. But of Clotaire, Franci quoque praedic-
tum Clotairium icgern parvulum supra se in reg-
num statuerunt. Again, of the accession of Dago-
bert I. : Austrasii Franci superiores congregati in
unum, Dagobertum supra se in regnum statuunt.
In another place, Decedente praefato rege Clodo-
veo, Fraud jloi.iinum seniorem puerum extribus
Bibi regem statuerunt. Several other instances
night be quoted
and by royal munificento. 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.
There has been som**- dispute about
the origin of nobility in France, „ . .,.
> • . * • 1 » 1 ,- ..11 Nobiliiy
which might perhaps.be settled,
or at least better understood, by fixing
our conception of the term. In our mod-
ern acceptation, it is usually taken to im-
ply certain distinctive privileges in the
political order, inherent in the blood of
the possessor, and consequently not
transferable like those which properly
confers. Limited to this sense, nobility.
I conceive, was unkno" n to the con-
querors of Gaul till long after the down-
fall of the Roman empire. They felt, no
doubt, the common prejudice of mankind
in favour of those whose ancestry is con-
spicuous, when compared with persons
of obscure birth. This is the primary
meaning of nobility, and perfectly distin
guishable from the possession of exclu-
sive civil rights. Those who are ac-
?[uainted with the constitution of the
toman republic, will recollect an in-
stance of the difference between these
two species of hereditary distinction, in
the patricii and the nohiles. Though I do
not think that the tribes of German ori-
gin paid so much regard to genealogy as
some Scandinavian and Celtic nations
(else the beginnings of the greatest
houses would not have been so envelop
ed 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 Lom-
bardy, was founded upon the possession
of land, or upon civil employment. The
aristocracy of wealth preceded that of
♦ The antiquity of French nobility is maintained
temperately by Schmidt, Hist, rtes Allemands, t. i.,
p. 361, and with acrimony by Montesquieu, Esprit
des Loix, 1. xxx., c. 25. Neither of them proves
any more than I have admitted. The e.xpression
of Ludovicus Pius to his freedman, Rex fecit te
liberum, non nobilcm : quod wnpossibiie est post
libertalem, is very intelligible, without imagining a
privileged class. Of the practical regard paid to
birth, indeed, there are many proofs. It seems to
have been a recommendation in the choice of
bishops. — (Marculfi Formulae, 1. i., c. 4, cum notis
Bignonii, in Baluzii Capitularibus.) It was proba-
bly much considerM in conferring dignities. Fre
degarius says of Protadius, n«ayor of the palace to
Brunehaut, Quoscunquegenere nobiles reperiebal,
totos humiiiareconabatur, utnullus reperiretur qu
gradum, quein arripueryt, potuissct a^sumero
70
EFJROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
H u»p 1\
birth, which indeed is still chiefly depend-
ant upon the other for its importance. A
Frank of large estate was styled a noble ;
if he wasted or was despoiled of his
Tvealth, his descendants fell into the
mass of the people, and the new pos-
sessor became noble in his stead. In
these early ages, property did not very
frequently change hands, and desert the
families who had long possessed it.
They were noble by descent, therefore,
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 Salique or
Lombard ;;;odes in the composition for
homicide, the great test of political sta-
tion, except in favour of the king's vas-
sals. It seems, however, by some of the
barbaric codes, those namely of the Bur-
gundians, Visigoths, Saxons, and the Eng-
lish 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 privileges, if
we cannot in strictness admit their com-
pletion at so early a period. The Antrus-
tions of the kings of the Franks were also
noble, and a composition was paid for their
murder treble of that for an ordinary citi-
zen : 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.
Besides the lands distributed among
Fiscal the nation, others were reserved to
lands, the crown, partly for the support of
its dignity, and partly for the exercise of
its munificence. These were called fis-
cal lands ; they were dispersed over dif-
ferent parts of the kingdom, and formed
the most regular source of revenue. f
But the greater portion of them were
granted out to favoured subjects, under
the name of benefices, the nature of
which is one of the most important
points in the policy of these ages.
♦ Leg. Burgund., tit. 26. Leg. Visigoth., 1. ii.,
t. 2, c. 4 (in Lindebrog). Du Cange, voc. Adalingus,
Nobilis. Wilkins, Leg. Ang. Sax., passim. 1 think
It cannot be denied that nobility, founded either
upon birth or property, and distinguished from mere
personal freedom, entered into the Anglo-Saxon
system. Thus the eorl and ceorl are opposed to
each other, like the noble and roturier in F.'-ance.
t The demesne lands of the crown are contmu-
aVly mentioned in the early writers ; the kings, in
journeying to different parts of their dominions,
took up their abode in them. Charlemagne is vp-y
full in his directions as to their management. — Ca-
pitularia, A. D. 707. et alibi.
Benefices were, it is probable,
most frequently bestowed UDon '^"'^ '**
the professed courtiers, the Antrustiones
or Leudes, and upon the provincial gov-
ernors. It by no means appears that
any conditions of military service were
expressly annexed to these grants : but
it may justly be presumed that such fa-
vours were not conferred without an ex-
pectation of some return ; and we read,
boin in law and history, that beneficiary
tenants were more closely connected
with the crown than mere allodial pro-
prietors. Whoever possessed a benefice
was bound to serve his sovereign in the
field. But of allodial proprietors oidy the
owner of three mansi was called upon
for personal service. Where there were
three possessors of single mansi, one
went to the army, and the others con-
tributed to his equipment.* Such at least
were the regulations of Chorlemagne,
whom I cannot believe, wi*h Mably, to
have relaxed the obhgations of military
attendance. After the peace of Coblentz
in 860, Charles the Bald restored all alio
dial property belonging to his subjects
who had taken part against him, but not
his own beneficiary grants, which thej
were considered as having forfeited.
Most of those who have written upon
the feudal system, lay it down that T.'icir
benefices were originally precari- "^'''-
ous, and revoked at pleasure by tht
sovereign ; that they were afterward
granted for hfe ; and, at a subsequent pe-
riod, became hereditary. No satisfactory
proof, however, appears to have been
brought of the first stage in this prog-
ress.! At least, I am not convinced.
* Capitul. Car. Mag., ann. 807 and 812. I can
not define the precise area of a man.^>us. It con
sisted, according to Du Cange, of twelve jugera;
hut what he meant by a juger I know not. The
ancient Roman juger was about five eij-hJhs of an
acre; the Parisian arpent was a fourth more than
one. This would make a difference as two to one.
t The position which I have taken upon .-ne to
controvert, is laid down in almost every writer on
the feudal system. Besides Sir James Craig, Spel
man, and other older authors, Houard, in his An--
ciennes Loix des Francjois, t. i., p. 5, and the edi
tors of the Benedictine Collection, t. xi., p. 163,
take the same point for granted. Mably, Observa-
tions sur I'Histoire de France, 1. i , c. 3, calls it,
une verite que M. de Montesquieu a tr^sbien prou-
vee. And Robertson affirms with unusual posi-
tiveness, " These benefices were granted origi-
nally only during pleasure. No circumstance rela
ting to the customs of the middle ages is better as-
certained than this : and innumerable proofs of it
might be added to those produced in L'Esprit des
Loix, and by Du Cange." — Hist. Charles V.,voL i.,
not. 8.
These testimonies, which Robertson has not
chosen tc bring forward, we cannot conjecture ■
nor is it easy to comprehend by wtat felicitf h«
Part i.]
FEUDAL SYSTEM.
►hat beneficiary gra.ils were ever consid-
ered as resumable at pleasure, unless
wvhcre some delinqu(-ncy could be impu-
ted to the vassal. It is possible, though
I am not aware of any documents which
prove it, tliat benefices may, in some in-
stances, have been granted for a term of
years, since even fiefs, in much later
times, were occasionally of no greater
extent. Their ordinary duration, how-
ever, was at least the life of the posses-
sor, after which Uiey reverted to the
has discovered, in the penury of historical records
during the sixth and seventh centuries, innumera-
ble proofs of a usage which, by the confession of
all, did not exist at any later period. But as the
authorities quoted by Montesquieu have appeared
conclusive both to Mably and Robertson, it may
be proper to examine them separately. The fol-
lowing is the passage in the L'Kspnt des Loix on
which they rely.
On ne peut pas douter que d'abord les fiefs ne
fussent amovibles. On voit, dans Gregoire de
Tours, que Ton ote a Sunegisile et a Galloman
tout ce qu'ils tenoient du lisc, et qu'on ne leur
laisse que ce qu'ils avoient en proprieie. Gontran,
elevant au trone son neveu Childebert, eut utie
conference secrette avec lui, et lui indiqua ceux a
qui il devoit donner des fiefs, et ceux a qui il devoit
les oter. Dans une formule de Marculfe, le roi
donne en echange, non seulement des benefices
que son .Isc tenoit, mais encore ceux qu'un autre
avoit tenus. La loi des Lombards oppose les ben-
efices a la propriety. Leshisioriens, les formules,
Ips codes des differens peupies barbares, tous les
monumens qui nous restent, sont unanimes. En-
fin, ceux qui ont ecrit le Livre des Fiefs, nous ap-
ptennent que d'abord les seigneurs purent les oter
k leur volont^, qu'ensuile ils les assur^rent pour un
an.etaprislesdonn^rent pour loujours, l.xxx., c.I6.
The fir.st of Montesquieu's authorities is from
Gregory of Tours, 1. ix., c. 38. Sunegisilus and
Gallomagiius, two courtiers of Childebert, having
been accused of a treasonable conspiracy, lied to
sanctuary, and refused to stand their trial. Their
beneficiary lands were upon this very justly taken
away by a judicial sentence. What argument can
be drawn from a case of forfeiture for treason or
outlawry, that benefices were granted only during
pleasure? 2. Gontran is said by Gregory to have
advised his nephew Childebert, quos honoraret
munenbus, quos ab honore depelleret, 1. vii., 33.
But honour is more commonly used in the earliest
writers for an office of dignity than for a landexl es-
tate ; and even were the word to bear in this place
the latter meaning, we could not fairly depend on
an authority, dr*wn from times of peculiar tyranny
and civil convulsion. I am not contending that
men were secure in their beneficiary, since they
certainly were not so in their allodial estates : the
sole question is as to the right they were supposed
to possess in respect of them. 3. In the precedent
of Mari:ulfus, quoted by Montesquieu, the king is
supposed to grant lands which some other person
had lately held. But this is meant as a designation
of the premises, and would be perfectly applicable,
though the late possessor were dead. 4. It is cer-
tainly true that the Lomliard laws (that is, laws
enacted by the successors of Charlemagne in Lom-
oardy), and the general tenour of ancient records,
with a few exceptions, oppose benefices to propri-
ety : but it does not follow that the former were
'vvocable at leasure. This opposition of a'lodial
fisc.* Nor can I agree with the so who
deny the existence of hereditary benefi
ces under the first race of French kings
The codes of the Burgundians and of the
Visigoths, which advert to them, are, by
analogy, witnesses to the contrary.! The
precedents given in the forms of Marcul-
fus (about 660) for the grant of a bene-
fice, contain very full terms, extending it
to the heirs of the beneficiary. J And
Mably has plausibly inferred the perpelu
ity of benefices, at least in some iiistan
to feudal estates subsists at present, though the U-u
ate of the latter is any thing rather than precarious
5. As to the Libri Feudorum, which are a coinpila
tion by some Milanese lawyers in the twelfth cen
tury, they cannot be deemed of much authority for
the earlier history of the feudal system in France.
There is certainly reason to think, that even in the
eleventh century, the tenure of f.efs m some parts
of Lombardy was rather precarioas; but whether
this were by any other law than that of the strong
er, it would be hard to determine.
Du Cange, to whom Robertson also refers, give'*
this definition of a benefice ; piaedium fiscate, quoa
a rege vei principe, vel ab alio quolibet ad vitam
viro nobili utendum conceditur. In a subsequent
place, indeed, he says : nee tantum erarit ad vi-
tam, sed pro libitu auferebantur. For this he only
cites a letter of the bishops to Louis the Debonair ;
Ecclesis nobis a Deo commissae non taiia sunt
beneficia, et hujusmodi regis proprietas, ut pro lib
itu suo inconsult^ illas possit dare, aut auferre
But how slight a foundation does this afford for
the inference that lay benefices were actually lia-
ble to be resumed at pleasure ! Suppose even thia
to be a necessary application in the argument of
those bishops, is it certain that they slated the ia-^r
of their country with accuracy ? Do we not find
greater errors than this every day in men's speech
and writings, relative to points with which they
are not immediately concerned ? In fact, there id
no manner of doubt that benefices were granted
not only for life, but as inheritances, in the reign ol
Louis. In the next sentence Du Cange adds a
qualification which puts an end to the controversy,
so far as his authority is concerned ; iS'un temere
tamen, nee sine legali judicio auferebantur. That
those two sentences contradict each other is man-
ifest ; the latter, in my opinion, is the more correct
position.
* The following passage from Gregory of Tour*
seems to prove, that although sons were occasion
ally permitted to succeed their fathers, an indul
gence which easily grew up into a right, the crown
had, in his time, an unquestionable reversion aftei
the death of its original beneficiary. Hoc tempore
et Wandelinus, nutritor Childeberti regis, obiit ;
sed in locum ejus nuUus est subrogatus, eo quod
regina mater curam velit propriam habere de lilio
QiuEcunque de fisco meruit, fisci jiiribus sunt relala
Obiit his diebus Bodegesilus dux plenus dierum
sed nihil de facultate eius liliis minuiuiu est, 1. viii
c. 22. Gregory's work, however, does nut go (ai
ther than 595.
t Leges Burgundionum, tit i. Leges Wisigoth
1. v., tit. 2.
t Marculf., form. xii. and xiv.,]. i. This preci
dent was in use down to the eleventh century ; iti
expressions recur in almost every charter. Tha
earliest instance 1 have seen of an actual grant to
a private person, is of Cliarlemagneto one Jotui ;n
7!)5. — Baluzii Capitularia, t li.. d. 1100
72
El'ROPE DL'RING THE MIDDLE AGES.
(CUAP. 11
ces, from th<5 language of the treaty at
Andely in 587, and of an edict of Clotaire
II. some years later.* We can hardly
doubt at least that children would 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
sub-infeu- benefices was that those who
aaiioii. possessed them carved out por-
tions to be held of themselves by a simi-
lar tenure. Abundant proofs of this cus-
tom, best known by the name of sub-in-
Ceudation, occur even in the capitularies
of Pepin and Charlemagne. At a later
period it became universal ; and what
had begun perhaps through ambition or
pride, was at last dictated by necessity.
In that dissolution of all law which en-
sued after the death of Charlemagne, the
powerful leaders, constantly engaged in
domestic warfare, placed their chief de-
pendance upon men whom they attached
by gratitude, and bound by strong condi-
■'ons. The oath of fidelity which they
had taken, the homage which they had
paid to the sovereign, they exacted from
their own vassals. To render military
service became the essential obhgation
wliic'i the tenant of a benefice under-
tooV ; and out of those ancient grants,
now become for the most part hereditary,
there grew up in the tenth century, both
in name and reality, the system of feudal
tenures.!
* Quicquid antefati reges ecclesiis aut fidelibus
suis contulerunt, aut adhuc coiiferre cum jiisiiiia
Deo propitiante voluerint, stabiliter coiiservetur ;
et quicquid unicuique fidelium in utriusque regno
per legem et justitiam redhibetur, nullum ei prs-
judicmm ponatur, sed liceat res debitas possidere
atque recipere. Et si aliquid unicuique per inter-
regna sine cuip& sublatum est, audientia habita
restauretur. Et de eo quod per munificentias prae-
cedentium regum unusquisque usque ad transitum
gloriosaj memoriaB domini Chlothacharii regis pos-
sedit, cum securilate possideat ; et quod e.xinde
fidelibus personis ablatum est, de praesenti recipiat.
Foedus Andeliacum, in Gregor. Turon., 1. ix., c. 20.
Quaecuni|Ue ecclesiae vel clericis vel quibuslibet
personis a gloriosae memoriae praefatis prmcipibus
muniticentise largitate collats sunt, omni tirmitate
perdurent. — Fklict Chlotachar. I. vel potius II. in
Kecueil des Hisloriens, i. iv., p. 116.
f Somner says, that he has not found the word
feudum anterior to the year 1000 ; and Muratori, a
still greater authority, doubts whether it was used
80 early. I have, however, observed the words
feum and fevum, which are manifestly corruptions
of feudum, in several charters about 960. — V'ais-
sette. Hist, de Languedoc, t. ii., Appendix, p. 107,
128, et alibi. Somrf of these fiefs appear not to
have been hereditary. But, independently of pos-
itive instances, can it be doubted that some word
of barbarous original must have answered, in the
vernacular languages, to the Latin benelicium ? See
l<u Cange v. Keudam.
This revolution was accompanied by
another still more important, usurpation
The provincial governors, the of )>rovinciii
dukes and counts, to whom governors.
we may add the marquises or mar-
graves, intrusted with the custody of the
frontiers, had taken the lead in all pub-
he measures after the dechne of iho
Merovingian kings. Charlemagne, duly
jealous of their ascendency, checked it
by suffering the dutchies to expire with-
out renewal, by granting very few coun-
ties hereditarily, by removing the admin-
istration of justice from the hands of the
counts into those of his own itinerant
judges, and, if we are not deceived in
his policy, by elevating the ecclesiasti-
cal order as a counterpoise to that of the
nobihty. Even in his time, the faults of
the counts are the constant theme of the
capitularies ; their dissipation and neglect
of duty, their oppression of the poore.
proprietors, and their artful attempts to
appropriate the crown lands situated
within their territory.* If Charlemagne
was unable to redress those evils, how
much must they have increased under
his posterity ! That great prince seldom
gave more than one county to the same
person ; and, as they were generally of
moderate size, co-extensive with episco-
pal diocesses, there was less danger, .f
this policy had been followed, of their
becoming independent.! But Louis the
Debonair, and, in a still greater degree
Charles the Bald, allowed several coun-
ties to be enjoyed by the same person.
The possessors constantly aimed at ac-
quiring private estates within the limits
of their charge, and thus both rendered
themselves formidable, r.n'l as.sumed a
kind of patnmomal right to their digni-
ties. By a capitulary fi Charles the
Bald, A. D. 877, the sir session of a son
to the father's county -I'/psars to be rec-
ognised as a known uiU'^e. J In the next
century there followed a.i entire prostra-
tion of the royal author' iy, and the counts
usurped their governn'.ents as little sover-
eignties, with the dompins and all rega-
li in rights, subject only to the feudal su-
periority of the king.^ They now added
* Capitularia Car. Mag. et Lud. Pii., passim.
Schmidt, Hist, des Allemands, t. ii.,p. 158. Gail
lard, Vie de Charlem., t. iii., p. 118.
+ Vaissette, Hist, de Languedoc, t. i., p. 587,
700, ai d not. 87.
X Baiuzii Capitularia, t. ii., p. 263 and 2(,».
This is a questionable point, and mote French an-
tiquaries consider this famous capi'jlary as tn«
foundatii n of an hereditary right in counties. I
am mcl'ied to think that there was at least a
practice )f succession, which is implied and guar
aniied b ■ this provision.
A It aooears. by the record of a orocess in OIH
Part l.
FEUDAl SYSTEM.
/3
the name of the county to their own,
aaid 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, tliroughout the tenth cen-
tury, granted almost invariably to the
male and even female heirs of the last
possessor.
Meanwhile, the allodial proprietors.
Change of ^^^o had hitherto formed the
aiioUiai into Strength of the state, fell into a
feudal le- much worse Condition. They
were exposed to the rapacity of
the counts, who, whether as magistrates
and governors, 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 own-
ers of castles and fastnesses, which in the
tenth century, under pretence of resisting
the Normans and Hungarians, 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 insula-
ted allodialist had no support : his for-
tunes were strangely changed, since he
claimed, at least in right, a share in the
legislation of his country, and could com-
pare with pride his patrimonial fields with
the temporary benefices of the crown.
Without law to redress his injuries, with-
out 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.
During the tenth and eleventh centuries
it appears that allodial lands in France had
chiefly become feudal : that is, they had
been surrendered by their proprietors,
and received back again upon the feudal
conditions ; or, more frequently, perhaps,
the owner had been compelled to ac-
knowledge himself the man or vassal of a
suzerain, and thus to confess an original
grant which had never existed. f Changes
that the counts of Toulouse had already so far
usurped the rights of their sovereign, as to claim
an estate on the ground of its being a royal bene-
fice.— Hist, de Languedoc, t. ii., Appen., p. 56.
♦ Vaissette, Hist, de Languedoc, t. i., p. 588, and
infri, t. ii., p. 38, 109, and Appendix, p. 56.
t Hist, de Languedoc, t. ii., p. 109. It must be
confessed, that there do not occur so many specific
inatances of this conveision of allodial tenure into
feudal, as might be expected, in order to warrant
the supposition in the text. Several records, how-
ever, are quoted by Robertson. Hist. Charles V.,
note 8 ; and others may be four, in diplomatic col-
Wctions A precedent for surrendering allodial prop.
of the same nature, though not perhaps
so extensive, or so distinctly to be traced,
took place ia Italy and Germany. Yet
it would be inaccurate to assert that the
prevalence of the feudal system has been
unlimited ; in a great part of France, allo-
dial teimres always subsisted ; and many
estates in the empire were of the same
description.*
There are, however, vestiges of a very
universal custom distinguishable
from the feudal tenure of land, of"pe?s"nai
though so analogous to it, that it coiiiiiu.ii(i
seems to have nearly escaped *"""•
the notice of antiquaries. From this si-
lence of other writers, and the great ob-
scurity of the subject, I am almost afraid
to notice, what several passages in an-
cient laws and instruments concur to
prove, that, besides the relation estabhsh-
ed between lord and vassal by beneficiary
grants, there was another species more
personal, and more closely resembhng
that of patron and client in the Roman
republic. This was usually called com-
mendalion; and appears to have been
founded on two very general principles,
both of which the distracted state of so-
ciety inculcated. The weak needed the
protection of the powerful ; and the gov
ernment needed Some security for public
order. Even before the invasion of the
Franks, Salvian, a writer of the fifth cen-
tury, mentions the custom of obtaining
erty to the king, and receiving it back as his bene-
fice, appears even m .Marculfus, 1. 1., form. 13. The
county of Cominges, between the Pyrenees, Tou-
louse, and Bigorre, was allodial till 1214, when it
was put under the feudal protection of the Count
of Toulouse. It devolved by escheat to the crown
in 1443.— Villaret, t. xv., p. 346.
In many early charters, the kjig confirms the
possession even of allodial property, for greater se-
curity in lawless times ; and, on the other hand, in
those of the tenth and eleventh centuries, the word
allodium is continually used for a feud, or heredita-
ry benefice, which renders this subject still more
obscure.
* The maxim, Nulle terre sans seigneur, was so
far from being universally received in France, thi.i
in almost all southern provinces, or pays du droit
ecrit, lands were presumed to be allodial, unless
the contrary was shown, or, as it was called, franc-
aleux sans litre. The parliaments, however, seem
latterly to have inclined against this prosiimption,
and have thrown the burden of proof on the part)
claiming allodiality. For this see Denisart, Die
tionnaire des Decisions, art. Franc-aleu. And the
famous maxim of the Chancellor Dupral, nulle
terre sans seigneur, was true, as I learn from the
dictionary of Houard, with respect to jurisdiction,
though false as to tenure ; allodial lands insulated
(enclaves) within the fief of a lord, being subject
to his territorial justice. — Diet, de Houard, art
A leu.
In Germany, according to Du Cange, voc. Bare
there is a distinction between Harones and Scm
per-Barones; the latter ' jlding their lands sl'«-'
dially.
74
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chaf I.
the protection of the great by money, and
blames their rapacity, though he allows
ihe natural reasonableness of the prac-
tice.* The disadvantageous condition of
iho less powerful freemen, which ended
.)i the servitude of one part, and in the
endal va?salage of another, led such as
■"ortunately still preserved their allodial
property to ensure its defence by a stipu-
lated payment of money. Such pay-
ments, called Salvamenta, may be traced
in extant charters, chiefly indeed of mon-
asteries.! In the case of private persons,
It may be presumed that this voluntary
contract was frequently changed by the
stronger party into a perfect feudal de-
pendance. From this, however, as I
imagine, it properly differed in being ca-
pable of dissolution at the inferior's pleas-
ure, without incurring a forfeiture, as well
as in having no relation to land. Hom-
age, however, seems to have been inci-
dent to commendation, as well as to vas-
salage. INIilitary sei^vice was sometimes
the condition of this engagement. It was
the law of France, so late at least as the
commencement of the third race of kings,
that no man could take a part in private
wars except in defence of his own lord.
This we learn from an historian about the
end of the tenth century, who relates that
one Erniinfrid, having been released from
liis homage to Count Burchard, on ceding
the fief he had held of him to a monas-
ter}, renewed the ceremony on a war
breaking out between Burchard and an-
other nobleman, wherein he was desirous
to give assistance; since, the author ob-
serves, it is not, nor has been the prac-
tice in France, for any man to be con-
cerned in war, except in the presence or
by the command of his lord.| Indeed,
there is reason to infer, from the capitu-
aries of Charles the Bald, that every man
was bound to attach himself to some lord,
though it was the privilege of a freeman
to choose his own superior.^ And this
* Du Cange, v. Salvamentum.
t Id., Ibid.
X Recueil des Historiens, t. x., p. 355.
f> Unusquisque liber homo, post mortem domini
sui, licentiam habeat se jommendandi inter haec
tria regna ad quemcunaae voluent. Similiter et
ille qui nondum alicui commendatus est. — Baluzii
Capitularia, tome i., p. 44.3. A. D. 806. Volumus
etiam ut unusquisque liber homo in nostro regno
seniorem qualera voluerit in nobis et in nostris
fidelibus lecipiat. — Capit. Car. Calvi. A. D. 8T7.
Et vclumus ut cujuscunque nostrum homo, in cu-
jusCT^nque regno sit, cum seniore suo in hostem,
vel, aliis suis utililatibus pergat. — Ibid. See too
Baluze, t. i., p. 536, 537.
By the Establishments of St. Louis, c. 87, every
s ranger coming to settle within a barony was to
* knowledge the baron as lord within a year and a
is strongly supported by the analogy oj
our Anglo-Saxon laws, where it is fre-
quently repeated, that no man should con
tinue without a lord. There are, too, as
it seems to me, a great number of pas-
sages in Domesday-book which confirm
this distinction between personal com-
mendation and the beneficiary tenure of
land. Perhaps I may be thought to dwell
too prolixly on this obscure custom; but
as it tends to illustrate those mutual re-
lations of lord and vassal which supplied
the place of regular government in the
polity of Europe, and has seldom or never
been explicitly noticed, its introduction
seemed not improper.
It has been sometimes said that feuds
were first rendered hereditary in Ger
many by Conrad II., surnamed Edict of Con
the Salic. This opinion is per- ""^'i "le Saiic
haps erroneous. But there is a famous
edict of that emperor at Milan, in the year
1037, which, though immediately relating
only to Lombardy, marks the full matu-
rity of the system, and the last stage of
its progress.* I have remarked already
the custom of sub-infeudation, or grants
of lands by vassals to be held of them-
selves, which had grown up with the
growth of these tenures. There had oc-
curred, however, some disagreement, for
want of settled usage, between these in-
ferior vassals and their immediate lords,
which this edict was expressly designed
to remove. Four regulations of great
importance are established therein ; 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 ;t that from
day, or pay a fine. In some places, he even be
came the serf or villein of the lord. — Ordonnances
des Rois, p. 187. Upon this jealousy of unknown
settlers, which pervades the policy of the middle
ages, was founded the droit d'auhaine, or right to
their moveables after their decease. — See preface
to Ordonnances des Rois. t. i., p. 15.
The article Commendatio, in Du Gauge's Glos-
sary, furnishes some hints upon this subject, which
however that author does not seem to have fully
apprehended. Carpentier, in his Supplement to
the Glossary, under the word Vassaticum, gives
the clearest notice of it that I have anywhere
found. Since writing the above note, 1 have found
the subject touched by M. de Montlosier, Hist, de
la Monarchie Frantjaise, t. i., p. 854.
* Spnlman tells us, in his Treatise of Feuds,
chap, ii., that Conradus Salicus, a French emperor,
but of German descent [what can this mean ?], wen'
to Rome about 915 to fetch his crown from Popa
John X., when, according to him, the succession
of a son to his father's fief was first conce-led. An
almost unparalleled blunder in so learned a writer '
Conrad the Salic was elected at Worm^ in 1024,
crowned at Rome by John XIX. in 1027, and mad«
this edict at Milan in 1037.
t Nisi secundum constitutionem ante(.assorum
FlRT ..]
FE.UDAL SYSTEM.
such judgmei t an immediate vassal might
appeal to his sovereign ; that fiefs should
fte inherited by sons and their children ;
or, in their failure, by brothers, provided
they were feuda paterna, such as had de-
scended from the father;* and that the
lord should not alienate the fief of his
k^assal without his consent.f
Such was the progress of these feudal
tenures, which determined the political
character of every European monarchy
where they prevailed, as well as formed
the foundations of its jurisprudence. It
IS certainly inaccurate to refer this sys-
tem, as is frequently done, to the destruc-
tion of the Roman empire by the northern
nations, though in the beneficiary grants
of those conquerors we trace its begin-
ning. Five centuries, however, elapsed
before the allodial tenures, which had
been incomparably the more general,
gave way, and before the reciprocal con-
tract of the feud attained its maturity. It
is now time to describe the legal quali-
ties and effects of this relation, so far
only as may be requisite to understand
its influence ujjun the political system.
The essential principle of a fief was a
Principles "^utual coutract of support and
oiiircuJai fidelity. Whatever obligations
•-■laiioii. jj ia,id upon the vassal of ser-
vice to his lord, corresponding duties
of protection were imposed by it on
the lord towards his vassal. | If these
were transgressed on either side, the
nostrorum, et judicium parium suorum; the Tery
expressions of Ma?na Charta.
* " Gerardus noteth," says Sir H. Spelman, " that
this law settled not the feud upon the eldest son,
or any other son of the feudatory particularly ; but
left it in the lord's election to please himself with
which he would." But the phrase of the edict
runs, filios ejus beneficium tenere : which, when
nothing more is said, can only mean a partition
among the sons.
t The last provision may seem strange, at so ad-
vanced a period of the system ; yet, according to
Giannone, feuds were still revocable by the lord in
some parts of Lombardy.—Istoriadi Napoli, l.xiii ,
c. 3. It seems, however, no more than had been
already enacted by the first clause of this edict.
Another interpretation is possible; namely, that
the lord should not alienate his ovi'n seignory with-
out his vassal's consent, which was agreeable to
the feudal tenures. This indeed would be putting
rather a forced construction on the words, ne do-
mino feudum militis alienare liceat.
t Crag., Jus Feudale, 1. ii.,tit. 11. Beaumanoir,
Coutumes de Beauvoisis, c. Ixi., p. 311. Ass. de
J6rus., c. 217 Lib. Feud., 1. ii., tit. 26, 47.
Upon the mutual obligation of the lord towards
his vassal seems to be founded the law of warranty,
which compelled him to make indemnification
where the tenant was evicted of his land. This
obligation, however unreasonable it may appear to
us, extended, according to the feudal iawye.s, to
cases of mere donation. — Crag., I. ii.,tit. 4. But-
Ler's Notes on Co. Litt., p. 3C5.
one forfeited his land, the oilier hii
seigniory, or rights over it. Nor were
motives of interest left aJone to operatt
in securing the feudal connexion. Thi.'
associations founded upon ancient custonr
and friendly attachment, the impulses ol
gratitude and honour, the dread of infamy,
the sanctions of religion, were all em-
ployed to strengthen these ties, and t(r
render them equally powerful with the
relations of nature, and far more so than
those of political society. It is a ques-
tion agitated among the feudal lawyers,
whether a vassal is bound to follow the
standard of his lord against his own
kindred.* It was one more important
whether he must do so against the king
In the works of those who wrote whei
the feudal system was declining, or Avhr
were anxious to maintain the roya-
authority, this is commonly decided ir
the negative. Littleton gives a form ol
homage, with a reservation of the allegi
ance due to the sovereign ;t and the same,
prevailed in Normandy and some other
countries. J A law of Frederick Barba-
rossa enjoins, that in every oath of fealty
to an inferior lord, the vassal's duty to the
emperor should be expressly reserved
But it was not so during the height of the
feudal system in France. The vassals
of Henry II. and Richard I. never hesi-
tated to adhere to them against the sover-
eign, nor do they appear to have incur-
red any blame on that account. Even
so late as the age of St. Louis, it is laid
down in his estabhshments, that if justice
is refused by the king to one of his vas-
sals, he might summon his own tenants,
under penalty of forfeiting their fiefs, to
assist him in obtaining redress by arms.§
* Crag., 1. ii., tit. 4. t Sect. Ixxxv.
X Houard,Anc. Loix des Frangois, p. 114. See
too an instance of this reservation in Kecueil dea
Historiens, t. xi., 447.
() Si le Sire dit a son homme ligc ; Venez vous
en avec moi, je veux guerroyer mon Seigneur, qui
me denie le jugement de sa coar, le vassal doit re-
pondre: j'irai scavoir, s'il est ainsi que vous me
dites. Alors il doit aller trouver le sup^rieur, et
luy dire : Sire, le gentilhomme de qui je tiens mon
fief, se plaint que vous lui refusez justice ; je viens
pour en scavoir la v6rite ; car je suis semonc6 de
marcher en guerre contre vous. Si la reponse est
que volontiers il fera droit en sa cour, I'homme
n'est point oblige de deferer a la requisition du
Sire; mais il doit, ou le sui.re, ou se resoudre a
perdre son fief, tii le chef Seigneur persiste dans
son refus. — Etablissemens do St. Louis, c. 49. I
have copied this from Velly, t. vi., p. 213, who has
modernized the orthography, which is almost unin
telligible in the Ordonnancea des Rois. One MS.
gives the reading Rni instead of Sei^neu". And the
law certainly applies to the king exclusiveli/ ; for, in
case of denial of justice by a mesne lord, there was
an appeal to the king's courts, but from his injur>
there could be no apneal but to the sword.
7R
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[ClIAP. t
Thf Count of Britany, Pierre de Dreux,
had practically asserted this feudal right
during the minority of St. Louis. In a
public instrument he announced to the
world that, having met with repeated in-
juries from the regent, and denial of jus-
tice, he had let the king know that he no
longer considered himself as his vassal,
but renounced his homage and defied
him.*
The ceremonies used in conferring a
fief were principally three : homage, fe-
Ceremonie- of, alty. and investiture. 1. The
1. Homage. ' first was designed as a signif-
icant expression of the submission and
devotedness of the vassal towards his
lord. In performing homage, his head
was uncovered, his belt ungirt, his sword
and spurs removed ; he placed his hands,
kneeling, between those of the lord, and
promised to become his man from thence-
forward ; to serve him with life and limb
and worldly honour, faithfully and loyal-
ly, in consideration of the lands which he
held under him. None but the lord in
person could accept homage, which was
commonly concluded by a kiss.f 2. An
oath of fealty was indispensable
1. Fealty, j^^ every fief; but the ceremony
leas less peculiar than that of homage,
and it might be received by proxy. It
was taken by ecclesiastics, but not by
minors; and in language differed little
i. inves- from the form of homage. J 3. In-
titure. vestiiure, or the actual convey-
ance 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 symbolical, and
consisted in the delivery of a turf, a
* Du Cange, Observations sur Joinville, in Col-
lection des Memoires, t. i., p. 196. It was always
necessary for a vassal to renounce his homage be-
fore he made war on his lord, if he would avoid
the shame and penalty of feudal treason. After a
reconciliation, the homage was renewed. And in
this no distinction was made between the king and
another superior. Thus Henry II. did homage to
the King of France in 1188, having renounced liis
former obligation to him at the commencement of
the preceding war. — Matt. Paris, p. 126.
t Du Cange, Hominium, and Carpentier's Sup-
plement, id. voc. Littleton, s. 85. Assises de Jeru-
salem, c. 204. Crag., l.i.. tit. 11. Recueildes His-
loriens, t. ii., preface, p. 174. Homagium per pa-
ragium was unaccompanied by any feudal obliga-
tion, and distinguished from homagium ligeum,
which carried wi;h it an obligation of fidelity. The
dukes of Nonnandy rendered only homage per
parasium to the kings of France, and received the
like from the dukes of Britany. In liege homage,
it was usual to make reservations of allegiance
to the king, or any other lord whom the homager
had previously acknowledged.
t Littl.. 8. 91. Du Gang", voc. Fidelitas.
stone, a wand, a branch, or whatever else
might have been made usual by the ca-
price of local custom. Du Cange enu-
merates not less than ninety-eight varie-
ties of investitures.*
Upon investiture, the duties of the vas-
sal commenced. These it is im- obiigatione
possible to define or enumerate ; of a vassni.
because the services of military tenure,
which is chiefly to be considered, were
in their nature uncertain, and distinguish-
ed as such from those incident to feuds
of an inferior description. It \vas a
breach of faith to divulge the lord's coun-
sel, to conceal from him the machinations
of others, to injure his person or fortune,
or to violate the sanctity of his roof and
the honour of his family.f In battle he
was bound to lend his horse to his lord
w^hen dismounted ; to adhere to his side
w^hile figliting ; and to go into captivity,
as a hostage for him, when taken. His
* Du Cange, voc. Investitura.
t Assises de Jerusalem, c. 265. Home ne dolt
a la feme de son seigneur, ne a sa fille requerre vi-
lainie de son cors, ne a sa soeur tant com die est de-
moiselle en xon hostel I mention this part of feudal
duty on account of the light it throws on the stat-
ute of treasons, 25 E. HI. One of the treasons
therein specified is, si omne violast la compaigne
le roy, ou leigni file leroy merit marii ou la compaig
ne leigne fitz et'heire le roy. Those who, like Sir
E. Coke and the modern lawyers in genera!, ex
plain this provision by the political danger of con-
fusing the royal bloo«l, do not apprehend its spirit.
It would be absurd, upon such grounds, to render
the violation of the kmg's eldest daughter treason
able, so long only as she remams unmarried, when,
as IS obvious, the danger of a spurious issue inher-
iting could not arise. I consider this provision
therefore as entirely founded upon the feudal prin-
ciples, which make it a breach of faith (that is, in
the primary sense of the word, a treason) to sully
the honour of the lord in that of the near relations
who were immediately protected by residence in
his house. If it is asked why this should be re-
stricted by the statute to the person of the eldest
daughter, I can only answer that this, which is not
more reasonable according to the common politica
interpretation, is analogous to many feudal cus
toms in our own and other countries, which attrib
ute a sort of superiority in dignity to Ihe eldest
daughter.
It may be objected, that in the reign of Edward
III. there was little left of the feudal principle in
any part of Europe, and least of all m England.
But the statute of treasons is a declaration of the
ancient law, and comprehends, undoubtedly, what
the judges who drew it could find in records now
perished, or in legal traditions of remote antiquity.
Similar causes of forfeiture are enumerated in the
Libri Feudorum, 1. )., tit. 5, and 1. ii., tit. 24. In the
establishments of St. Louis, c. 51, 52, it is said,
that a lord seducing his vassal's daughter intrust-
ed to his custody, lost his seigniory ; a vassal
guilty of the same crime towards the family of hi«
suzerain, forfeited his land. A proof of the tendency
which the feudal law had to purify public morals,
and to create that sense of indignation and resent
ment with which we now regai i such breaches «(
honour.
Part 1 ]
FEUDAL SYS I 'OM
71
uttendance was due to tho lord's courts,
sometimes to witness, and sometimes to
bear a part in, the administration of jus-
tice.*
'I'iie measure, however, of military ser-
i.irniiations vice, was generally settled by
ur iiiiiuary some usagc. Forty days was
service. jj^g usual term, during which
tlie tenant of a knight's fee was bound to
be in the field at his own expense. f This
was extended by St. Louis to sixty days,
except when the charter of infeudation
• xpressed a shorter period. But the
length of service diminished 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 com-
muted for an escuage, or pecuniary as-
sessment, the same proportion was ob-
served.J 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 strict-
ly a forfeiture of the fief. But it was
usual for the lord to inflict an amerce-
* Assises de Jerusalem, c. 222. A vassal, at
least- in many places, was bound to reside upon
his fief, or not to quit it without the lord's consent.
— Du Cange, voc. Reseantia, Remanentia. Recu-
ei! des Hisloriens, t. xi., preface, p. 172.
t In the kingdom of Jerusalem, feudal service
extended to a year. — Assises de Jerusalem, c. 230.
it is obvious that this was founded on the peculiar
circumstances of that state. Service of castle-
guard, which was common in the north of England,
Was performed without limitation of time. — Lyttle-
ton's Henry II., vol. ii., p. 184.
t Du Cange, voc. Feudum militis ; Membrum
Loricae. Stuart's View of Society, p. 382. This
division by knights' fees is perfectly familiar in the
feudal law of En;,'l:uid. But I must confess my
inability to adduce decisive evidence of it in that
of France, with the usual exception of Normandy.
According to the natural principle of fiefs, it might
seem that the same personal service would be re-
quired from the tenant, wiiatever were the extent
of his land. William the Conqueror, we know, dis-
tributed this kingdom into about GO.OOO parcels of
nearly equal value, from each of which the service
of a soldier was due. He may possibly have been
the inventor of this politic arrangement. Some rule
must, however, have been observed in all countries
in fixing the amercement for absence, which could
only be equitable if it bore a just proportion to the
value of the fief. And the principle of the knight's
fee was so convenient and reasonable, that it is
likely to have been adopted in imitation of England
iiv other feudal countries. In the roll of Philip
Hl.'s expedition, as will appear by a note immedi-
ately below, there are, I think, several presumptive
evidence's of it ; and though this is rather a late
authority to establish a feudal principle, yet I have
ventured to assume it in the text.
The knight's fee was fixed in England at the an-
nual value of 20^ Every estate supposed to be
of this value, and entered as such in the rolls of the
exche((uer, was bound to contribute the service of
a soldier, or to pay an escuage to the an ount as-
»essed upon knights' fees.
ment, known in Englai^d by the, name of
escuage.* Thus, in Philip IIl.'s expedi-
tion against the Count de Foix, in 1274.
barons were assessed for their default ol
attendance, at a hundred sous a day for
the expenses which they had saved, and
fifty sous as a fine to the king ; banner-
ets, at twenty sous for expenses, and ten
as a fine ; knights and squires in the same
proportion. But barons and bannerets
were bound to pay an additional assess-
ment for every knight and squire of theii
vassals whom they ought to have l)roughl
with them into the field. f The regula-
tions as to place of service were less uni-
form than those which regard time. In
some places, the vassal was not bound
to go beyond the lord's territory,! or o^'ly
so far as lie might return the same day.
Other customs compelled him to follow
his chief upon all his expeditions.^ These
inconvenient and varying usages betray
the origin of the feudal obligations, not
founded upon any national policy, but
springing from the chaos of anarchy and
intestine war, which they were well cal-
culated to perpetuate. For the public de-
fence, their machinery was totally unser
viceable, until such changes were wrought
as destroyed the character of the fabric
Independently of the obligations of fe-
alty and service, which the nature,of tne
contract created, other advantages were
derived from it by the lord, which have
been called feudal incidents ; these Feu.ia:
were, 1. Reliefs. 2. Fines upon incidents,
alienation. 3. Escheats. 4 Aids ; to
which may be added, though not general
ly established, 5. Wardsliip, and 6. Mar
riage.
1 . Some writers have accounted for re-
liefs in the following maimer. Ben- n^y^^.^
efices, whether depending upon the
crown or its vassals, were not originally
granted by way of absolute inheritance,
but renewed from time to time upon i!ie
* Littleton, 1. ii., r. 3. Wright's Tenures, p. 121.
+ Du Chesiie, Script. Rerum Gallicarum, t. v.,
p. 553. Daniel, Histoirc de la Milice Franijoise, ]).
72. The following extracts from the muster-roll of
this expedition will illustrate the varieties of feudal
obligation. Johannes d'Ormoy debet servitium per
qiKituor dies. Johannes Malet debet servitiuni per
viginli dies, pro quo servitio misit Richardum Ti
cliot. Guido de Laval debet servitium duorum
militum et dimidii. Dominus Sabrandus dictua
Chabot dicit quod non debet servitium dominc regi,
nisi in comitatu Pictaviensi, et ad sumptus regis,
tamen venit ad prcces regis cum iribus militibus ei
duodecim scutiferis. Guido de Lusigniaco Dom
de Pierac dicit, quod non debet ahquid regi prxtei
homagium.
J This was the custom of Beauvoisia - Peau
manoir, c. 2.
{) Du Cange et Carpentier, voc. I/a"«U*
78
EUROPE L'uRING THF. MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap.
<ic-xt]i of the possessor, till long custom
grew up into right. Hence a sum of
monov, something between a price and a
gratuity, would naturally be offered by
the heir on receiving a fresh investiture
of the fief ; and length of time might as
legitimately turn this present into a due
of the lord, as it rendered the inheritance
of the tenant indefeisible. This is a very
specious account of the matter. But
those who consider the antiquity to which
hereditary benefic ^s may be traced, and
the unreserved expressions of those in-
struments by which they were created,
as well as the undoubted fact that a large
proportion of fiefs had been absolute
allodial inheritances, never really granted
by the superior, will perhaps be led rath-
er to look for the origin of rehefs in that
rapacity with which the powerful are
ever ready to oppress the feeble. When
a feudal tenant died, the lord, taking ad-
vantage of his own strength and the co-a-
fusion of the family, would seize the es-
tate into his hands, either by the right of
force or under some litigious pretext.
A gainst this violence the heir could in gen-
eral have no resource but a compromise ;
and we know how readily acts of success-
ful injustice change their name, and move
demurely, like the wolf in the fable, under
the clwthing of law. Reliefs and other
feudal incidents are said to have been es-
tablished in France* about the latter part
of the tenth century, and they certainly
appear in the famous edict of Conrad the
Salic, in 1037, which recognises the usage
of presenting horses and arms to the lord
upon a eliange of tenancy. f But this also
subsisted under the name of heriot, in
England, as early as the reign of Canute.
A relief was a sum of money (unless
where charter or custom introduced a dif-
ferent tribute) due from every one of full
age taking a fief by descent. This was in
some countries arbitrary, or ad misericor-
diam, and the exactions practised under
this pretence, both upon superior and in
ferior vassals, ranked among the greatest
abuses of the feudal policy. Henry I. of
England promises in his charter that they
fihali i[i future be just and reasonable;
but the rate does not appear to have been
finally settled, till it was laid down in
Magna Charta, at about the fourth of the
anuua^ value of the fief. We find also
*■ Ordonnances des Rois de France, t. i., pre-
face, p. 10.
*, Servatottstivalvassorum majnrum intradendis
\rniisequisque suis senioribus. This, among oth-
er reasons, leads me to doubt the received oinnion,
that Italian fiefs were not hereditary Irelore the
ir'jniiilKatioi n( this edict
fixed reliefs among the old customs of
Normandy and Beauvoisis. By a law of
St. Louis, in 1'245,* the lord was entitled
to enter upon the lands, if the heir could
not pay the relief, and possess them for
a year. This right existed uncondition-
ally in England under the name of prime'
seisin, but was confined to the king.f
2. Closely connected with reliefs wert
the fines paid to the lord upon fikcs u|)on
the alienation of his vassal's ai'tMaiin-n.
feud; and indeed we frequently find them
called by the same name. The spirit of
feudal tenure established so intimate a
connexion between the two parties, thai
it could be dissolved by neither without
requiring the other's consent. If the lord
transferred his seigniory, the tenant was
to testify his concurrence ; and this cer-
emony was long kept up in England un-
der the name of attornment. The assent
of the lord to his vassal's alienation was
still more essential, and more difficult 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 supe-
rior; and his service was not to be ex-
changed for that of a stranger, who might
be unable or unwilling to render it. A
law of Lothaire H. in Italy forbids the
alienntion of fiefs without the lord's con-
sent.| This prohibition is repeated in
one of Frederick I., and a similar enact-
ment was made by Roger, king of Sicily.'^
By the law of France, the lord was enti-
tled, upon every alienation made by his
tenant, either to redeem the fief by pay-
ing the purchiise-money, or to clnim a
certain part of the value, by way of fine,
upon the change of tenancy. || In Eng-
* Ordonnances des Rois, p. 55.
t Do Cange, v. Placitum, Relevmm, Sporia.
By many customs a relief was due on every change
of the lord, as well as of the vas.-sal ; but this was
not the case in England. Beaumont speaks of re-
liefs as due only on collateral succession — Cou-
tumes de Beauvoisis, c. 27. In Anjou and Maine
they were not even due upon succession between
brothers. — Ordonnances des Rois, t. i., p. 58. And
M. de Fastoret, in his valuable preface to the six-
teenth volume of that collection, says it was a rule
that the king had nothing upon lineal succession
of a hef, v/hether in the ascending or descending
line, but la bouche et Ics mains ; i. e. homage and
fealty, p. 30.
t Lib. Feudornm, 1. ii., tit. 9 and 52. This was
principally levelled at the practice of alienating
feudal property in favour of the church, which was
called pro anim& judicare. — Radevicus in Gesiis
Frederic. 1 , 1. iv., c. 7. Lib. Feud., 1. i , tit. 7 10 •
1. ii.,tit. 10.
ij Giannone, 1. ii., c. 5.
II Du Cange, v. Rcaccapitum, Placitnm. Racha-
turn. Pastoret, preface au seizifeme tome dee
Ordonnances, p. 20. Houard, Diet, du Droit Nor
mand, art. Fief. Argou, Inst, du Droit FrancoU I
Part 1.1
FEUDAL SYSTEM.
75
land, even (he practice of sub-infeudation,
which v/as more conformable to the law
of fiefs and the military genius of the sys-
tem, but injurious to the suzerains, who
lost thereby their escheats and other ad-
vantages of seigniory, was checked by
Magna Charta,* and forbidden by the
statute 18 Edward I., called Quia Emp-
tores, 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 pay-
ment of a composition into chancery,
which was fixed at one third of the annual
value of the lands. f
These restraints, placed for the lord's
advantage upon tlie transfer of feudal
property, are not to be confounded with
those designed for the protection of heirs
and preservation of families. Such were
the jus prolimeseos, in the books of the
fiefs,! aiid retrait lignager of the French
law, which gave to the relations of the
vender a pre-emption upon the sale of
any fief, and a right of subsequent re-
demption. Such was the positive pro-
hibition of alienating a fief held by de-
scent from the father (feudum pater-
num), without the consent of the kindred
on that line.^ Such, too, were the still
ii., c. ii. In Beaumanoir's age and district at least,
sub-infeudation without the lord's license incurred
a forfeiture of the land ; and his reason extends of
course more strongly to alienation. — Coutumes de
Beauvoisis, c. 2. Velly, t. vi,, p. 187. But, by the
general law of feuds, the former was strictly regu-
lar, while the tenant forfeited his land by the latter.
Craig mentions this distinction as one for which he
is perplexed to account. — Jus Feudale, 1. iii.,tit. 3,
p. 632. It is, however, perfectly intelligible upon
the original principles of feudal tenure.
* Dalrymple seems to suppose that the 32d chap-
ter of Magna Charta relates to alienation, and not
to subinfeudation. — Essay on Feudal Property,
f.d 1758, p. S3. See Sir E. Coke, 2 Inst., p. 05 and
501 ; and Wright on Tenures, contri. Mr. Mar-
grave observes, that " the history of our law with
respect to the powers of alienation, before the stat-
ute of Quia emptores terrarum, is very much i)i-
volved in obscurity." — Notes on Co. Litt., 43, a.
(n Glanville's time, apparently, a man could only
alienate (to hold of himself) rationabilem partem
de terr& su4, 1. vii., c. 1. But this may have been
in favour of the kindred, as much as of the lord. —
Dalrymple's Essay, ubi supra.
It is prol>able that Coke is mistaken in supposing
that, " at the common law, the tenant might have
made a feoffment of the whole tenancy to be hold-
en of the lord."
+ 2 Inst., p. 66. Blackstone's Commentaries,
vol. ii., c. 5.
X Lib. Feud., 1. v.,t. 13. There were analogies to
this jus 5rj>oT(;<i;(r£os in the Roman law, and, stil
more closely, in the constitutions of the later By-
zantine emperors.
^ AlJenatio f3udi paterni non valet etiam domini
more rigoror.s fetters imposed by the En
glish statute of entails, which precluded
all lawful alisnation, till, after two centu-
ries, it was overthrown by the fictitious
process of a common recovery. Though
these partake in some measure of the feu-
dal spirit, and wculd form an important
head in the legal history of that system,
it will be sufficient to allude to them in
a sketch, which is confined to the devel-
opment of its pohtical influence.
A custom very similar in effect to sub-
infeudation, was the tenure by frerage,
which prevailed in many parts of France.
Primogeniture, in that extreme which
our common law has established, was
unknown, I believe, in every country
upon the continent. The customs of
France found means to preserve the dig-
nity of families, and the indivisibility of
a feudal homage, without exposing the
5'ounger sons of a gentleman to absolute
beggary or dependance. Baronies indeed
were not divided ; but the eldest son was
bound to make a provision in mone}^ by
way of appanage, for the other children,
in proportion to his circumstances and
their birth.* As to inferior fiefs, in many
places, an equal partition was made ; in
others, the eldest took the chief portion,
generally two thirds, and received the
homage of his brothers for the remaining
part, which they divided. To the lord of
whom the fief was held, himself did hom-
age for the wliole.f In the early times
of the feudal policy, when military ser-
vice was the great object of the relation
between lord andvassal, this, like all oth-
er sub-infeudation, was rather advanta-
geous to the former. For, when the
homage of a fief was divided, the service
was diminished in proportion. Suppose,
for example, the obligation of military
attendance for an entire manor to have
been forty days ; if that came to be equal-
ly split among two, each would owe but
a service of twenty. But if, instead of
being homagers to the same suzerain,
one tenant held immediately of the other,
voluntate, nisi agnatis consentientibus. — Lib. F'eud
apud Wright on Tenures, p. 108 and 150.
* Du Cange, v. Apanamentum, Baro. Baronie
ne depart mie entre fr^res se leur pere ne leur a
fait partie ; mes Ii ainsnez doit faire avenant bicn .
fet au puisne, et si doit les fiUes marier. — Etabli.s
sem. de St. Louis, c. 24.
t This was also the law of Flanders and Hai
nault. — Martenne, Thesaurus Anecdotor., t. i., p
1092. The customs as to succession were exceed
iiigly various, as indeed they continued to be unti!
the late generalization of French law.— Recuei.
des Histor., t. ii., preface, p. 108 .• Hist, de Langue
doc, t. ii., p. Ill and 511. In the former work if
is said that primogeniture was mtroduced bv Ih
Normans from Scandinavia
so
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap II
ds fvery feudatory might summon the
lid of his own vassals, the superior lord
*nuld in lact obtain the service of both.
Whatever opposition, therefore, vi^as
made to the rights !)f sub-infeudation or
c'rerage, would indicate a decay in 'he
iniUtary character, the living principle of
feudal tenure. Accordingly, in the reign
')f Philip Augustus, when the fabric was
beginning to shake, we find a confederate
igreement of some principal nobles, sanc-
'ioned by the king, to abrogate the mesne
.enure of younger brothers, and estab-
ish an immediate dependance of each
apon the superior lord.* This, however,
was not universally adopted, and the ori-
irinal frerage subsisted to the last in some
of the customs of France. f
3. As fiefs descended but to the poster-
F.sciieats ity of the first taker, or at the ut-
aiid forfeits, niost to his kindred, they neces-
sarily became sometimes vacant for want
of heirs ; especially where, as in England,
there was no power of devising tliem by
will. In this case, it was obvious that
they ought to revert to the lord, from
who^.e 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 state. Various cases
are laid down in the Assises de Jerusa-
lem, where the vassal forfeits his land,
for a year, for his life, or for ever.| But
under rapacious kings, such as the Nor-
man line in England, absolute forfeitures
came to prevail, and a new doctrine was
mtroduced, the corruption of blood, by
which the heir was effectually excluded
from deducing his title, at any distant
time, through an attainted ancestor.
4. Reliefs, fines upon alienation, and
escheats, seem to be natural reser-
*' ^' vations 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 circumstances. These
depended a great deal upon local custom,
and were often extorted unreasonably.
Du Cange mentions several as having
existed in France ; such as an aid for tlie
lord's expedition to the Holy Land, for
marrying his sister or eldest son, and for
paying a relief to his suzerain on taking
possession of his land.^ Of these, the
last appears to have been the most usual
in England. But this, and other aids oc-
* Ordonnances ties Rois, t. i., p. 29.
+ Du Cange, Dissert. III. siir Joinville. I^rau-
nanoir, c. 47'
t C. 200. 201. d On Cange, voc. Aiiyiluiin.
casionally exacted by the lords, were felt
as a severe grievance ; and by Magna
Charta three only are retained ; to make
the lord's eldest son a knight, to marry
his eldest daughter, dud to redeem his
person from prison. They were restrict-
ed to nearly the same description by a
law of William I. of Sicily, and by the
customs of France.* These feuual aids
are deserving of our attention, as the be-
ginnings 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 burdens.
I might here, perhaps, close the enu-
meration of feudal incidents, but that the
two remaining, wardship and marriage,
though only partial customs, were those
of our own country, and tend to illustrate
the rapacious character of a feudal aris-
tocracy.
5. In England, and in Normandy, which
either led the way to or adopted all these
English institutions, the lord had hardship,
the wardship of his tenant durmg
minority. t By virtue of this right, he
had both the care of his person, and re-
ceived to his own use the profits of the
estate. There is something in this cus-
tom very conformable to the feudal spir-
it ; since none was so fit as the lord to
train up 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 suspended. This
privilege of guardianship seems to have
been enjoyed by the lord in some paits
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 soccage tenures among us, to the near-
est kindred of that blood which could not
inherit.^ By a gross abuse of this cus
* Giannone, 1. xii., c. 5. Velly, t. vi., p. 200.
Ordonnances des Rois, t. i.,p. 138; t. xvi., preface.
I Recueil des Historians, t. xi., pref., p. J 62;
Argon, Inst, au Droit Francois, 1. i., c. 6; Houard,
Anciennes Loix des Francois, t. i., p. 147.
t Sciiiltcr, Institutiones Juris Feudalis, p. 85.
^ Du Cange, v. Custodia. Assises de Jerusalem,
c. 178; Etablissemens de St Louis, c. 17; Beau-
manoir, c. 15; Argou, 1. i., c. 6. The second of
these uses nearly the same expression as Sir .lohn
Fortescue in accounting for the exclusion of the
next heir from guardianship of the person ; that
mauvaise convoitise li fairoit faire la garde du loup.
I know not any mistake more usual in English
writers who have treated of the feudal law, than
that of supposing that guardianship in chivalry was
a universal custom. A charter of 11 18, in Rymer,
t. i., p. 105, seems indeed to imply that the inci-
dents of garde noble and of marriage existed in the
Isle of Oleron. But Eleanor, by a later instrument,
grants that the inhabitants of that island shouW
havethe wardshio and mniriage of their heirs wjtb
Air 1.]
FEUDAL SYSTKM.
81
torn in England, '.he right of guardianship
n chivalry, or temporary possession of
he lands, was assigned over to strangers.
This was one of the most vexatious parts
i)f our feudal tenures, and was never per-
haps 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
arriage ^^g ^^^^ ^j- j^^arriage, or of ten-
dering a husband to his fema'e 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 afterward extended
to male wards ; and became a very lucra-
tive 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 an-
cient boi^'ks of Germany, but not of
France.* The kings, however, and even
inferior lords of that country, required
their consent to be solicited for tlie mar-
riage of thtir vassals' daughters. Sev-
eral proofs or" *his occur in the history,
as well as in the laws of France ; and
the same prerogative existed in Germa-
ny, Sicily, and England. | A still more
remarkable law prevailed in the kingdom
3f Jerusalem, The lord might summon
3ut any interposifion, and expressly abrogates all
liie evil customs that her husband had introduced.
— P. 112. From hence I should infer, that Henry
II. had endeavoured to impose these feudal bur-
lens (which perhaps were then new even in Eng-
and) upon his contmental dominions. Radulplius
de Dicelo tells us of a claim made by hnu to the
wardship of Chaleauroux in Berry, which could
lot legally have been subject to that custom. —
Fwysden X. Scriptores, p. 599. And he set up
pretensions to the custody of the dulcliy of Brit-
any, after the death of his son Geoffrey. This
might perhaps be justified by the law of Norman-
iy, on which Britany depended. But Philip Au-
gustus made a similar claim. In fact, these polit-
ical assertions of right, prompted by ambition, and
supported by force, are bad precedents to establish
rules of jurisprudence. Both Philip and Henry
were abundantly disposed to realize so convenient
1 prerogative as that of guardianship in chivalry
■jver the fiefs of their vassals. — Lyttleton's Henry
'., vol. iii., p. 441.
* Scliilter, ubi supra. Du Cange, voc. Dispara-
gve, seems to admit this feudal right in France :
biu the passages he quotes do not support it. See
i!so the word Maritagium.
+ Ordonnances des Rois, t. i., p. 155 ; Assises
ie Jerus., c. 180, and Thaumassifere's note. Du
Cange, ubi supra. Glanvil.,1. vii.,c. 12. Giannone,
xi., c. 5. Wright on Tenures, p. 94. St. Louis
in return declared that he would not marry his
3wn daughter without the consent of his barons.
— JoinviUe, t. ii., p. 140. Henry I. of England had
iromised the same. The guardian of a female mi-
or was obliged to give security to her lord not to
narry hei- without his consent. — Etablissemens de
it Louis, c 63
any female vassal to accept cue ;)f threo
whom he should propose as her hus
oand. No otlier condition seems to have
been imposed on him in selecting these
suitei*, than that they should be of equal
rank with herself. Neither the maiden's
coyness, nor the widow's affliction, nei-
ther aversion to the proffered candidates,
nor love to one more favoured, seem to
have passed as legitimate excuses. One,
only one plea, could come from the lady's
mouth, who was resolute to hold her
land in single blessedness. It was, that
she was past sixty years of age ; and, af-
ter this unwelcome confession, it is just-
ly argued by the author of the hiw-book
which I quote, that the lord could not de
cently press her into matrimony.* How-
ever outrageous such a usage may ap-
pear to our ideas, it is to be recollected
that the peculiar circumstances of thai
little state rendered it indispensable to
possess in every fief a proper vassal to
fulfil the duties of war.
These feudal servitudes distinguish the
maturity of the system. No trace of them
appears in the capitularies of Charle-
magne and his family, nor in llie instru-
ments by which benefices were granted.
1 believe that they did not make part of
the regular feudal law before the eleventh,
or perhaps the twelfth century, though
doubtless partial usages of this kind had
grown up antecedently to either of those
periods. If I am not mistaken, no allusion
occurs to the lucrative rights of seignio-
ry in the Assises de Jerusalem, which
are a monument of French usages in
the eleventh century. Indeed, that very
general commutation of allodial prop-
erty into tenure, which took place be-
tween the middle of the ninth and elev-
enth centuries, would liardly have been ef-
fected, if fiefs had then been liable to such
burdens and so much extortion. In half-
barbarous ages, the strong are constant-
ly encroaching upon the weak ; a truth
which, if it needed illustration, might find
it in the progress of the feudal system.
We have thus far confined our inquiry
to fiefs holden on terms of mili- pmper mu\
tary service ; since those are iiniiruper
the most ancient and regular, as '''"^''"
well as the most consonant to tlie spirit
of the system. They alone were called
proper feuds, and all were presumed to
be of this description, until the contrary
was proved by the charter of investiture.
A proper fsud was bestowed without
* Ass, de Jems., c. 224. I must observe, tha'
Lauriere says this usage prevailed en plusieurt
lieu.':, though he quotes no authority. — Ordonnao
ces des Kois, p. 155.
H'Z
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
price, without fixed stipulation, upon a
vassal capable of serving personally in
the field. But gradually, with the help
of a little legal ingenuity, improper fiefs
of the most various kinds were intro-
duced, retaining little of the characteris-
"ics, and less of the spirit, which distin-
kfuished the original tenures. Women, if
indeed tliat were an innovation, were
admitted to inherit them;* they were
granted for a price, and without refer-
ence to mihtary service. The language
of the feudal law was applied by a kind
of metaphor to almost every transfer of
property. Hence, pensions of money, and
allowances of provisions, however remote
from right notions of a fief, were some-
times granted under that name ; and even
where land was the subject of the dona-
tion, its conditions were often lucrative,
often honorary, and sometimes ludi-
crous.f
There is one extensive species of feu-
Fiefs of dal tenure which may be distinctly
Dfficc. noticed. The pride of wealth in
the middle ages was principally exhibit-
ed in a multitude of dependants. The
court of Charlemagne was crowded with
officers of every rank, some of the most
eminent of whom exercised functions
al)out the royal person which would
have been thought fit only for slaves in
the palace of Augustus or Antonine.
The free-born Franks saw nothing me-
nial in the titles of cup-bearer, steward,
marshal, and master of the horse, which
are still borne by the noblest families in
every country of Europe, and by sover-
eign princes in the empire. From the
court of the king, this favourite piece of
magnificence descended to those of the
prelates and barons, who surrounded
themselves with household officers, call-
ed ministerials ; a name equally applied to
those of a servile and of a liberal descrip-
tion.J The latter of these were reward-
ed with grants of lands, which they held
under a feudal tenure by the condition of
performing some domestic service to the
♦ Women did not inherit fiefs in the German
empire. Whether they were ever excluded from
succession m France, 1 know not ; the genius of a
military tenure, and the old Teutonic customs,
preserved in the Salique-law, seem adverse to
tlieir possession of feudal lands ; yet the practice,
at least from the eleventh century downwards,
does not support the theory.
i Crag , Jus Feudale, 1. i., lit. 10. Du Cange,
voc. Feudum de Camera, &c. In the treaty be-
rv/e':n Henry I. of England and Robert, count of
Flanders, A. D. 1101, the king stipulates to pay
auiu.ally 400 marks of silver, in feodo, for the mili-
tary .service of his ally.— Rymer, Fopdera, t. i ,p. 'J.
1 .'ichmidt, Hist, des Allemands, t iii., p. 02.
Or 'uAnge, V Familia, Ministcri.iles.
lord. What was called in ou dw grand
sergeantry, aff"ords an instance of tliis spe
cies of fief.* It is, however, an iiistancb
of the noblest kind ; but Muratori has giv-
en abundance of proofs, that the common
est mechanical arts were carried en iv
the houses of the great, by persons receiv
ing lands upon those conditions.!
These imperfect feuds, however, be
long more properly to the history of law,
and are chiefiy 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 landholders, arranged in degrees
of subordination according to their re-
spective capacities of affording mutual
support.
The peculiar and varied attributes of
feudal tenures naturally gave Feudal law-
rise to a new jurisprudence, reg- book-s.
ulating territorial rights in those parts of
Europe v/hich had adopted the system.
For a length of time this rested in tra-
ditionary customs, observed in the do-
mains of each prince or lord, without
much regard to those of his neighbours.
Laws were made occasionally by the
emperor in Germany and Italy, which
tended to fix the usages of those coun
tries. About the year 1170, Girard and
Obertus, two Milanese lawyers, publish-
ed two books of the law of fiefs, which
obtained a great authority, and have been
regarded as the groundwork of that juris-
prudence.J A number of subsequent
commentators swelled this code with
their glosses and opinions, to enlighten
or obscure the judgment of the imperial
tribunals. These were chiefly civilians
or canonists, who brought to the inter-
pretation of old barbaric customs the
principles of a very different school.
Hence a manifest change was wrought
in the law of feudal tenure, which they
assimilated to the usufruct or the emphy-
teusis of the Roman code ; modes oj
property somewhat analogous in appear-
* " This tenure," says Littleton, " is where a
nan holds his lands or tenements of our sovereign
'.Old the king by such services as he ought to do in
his proper person to 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 a{
his coronation, or to be his sewer at his corona-
tion, 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.
i Antiq. Ital., Disseit. 11, ad finem.
+ Giannone, 1st. di Napoli, 1. xiii., c. 3. The
Lilri Feudorumare printed in most editions of th«
f ir^'US Juri> Civilis
Pakt U.1
FEUDAL SYSTEM.
83
Hijco, but '<nally distinct ia principle
from the legmniate fief. Tiiese Lom-
cant lawyers propagated a doctrine, which
has been too readily received, that the
teudal system originated in their coun-
iry; and some writers upon jiirispru-
iien( e. such as Duck and Sir James
(.^raig, incline to give a preponderating
authority to their code. But whatever
weiuht it may have possessed within the
Hmits of the empire, a different guide
must be followed in the ancient customs I
:)f 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 sys-
tem, established between the conquest
and the reign of Henry II., was restrain-
ed by regular legislation, by paramount
courts of justice, and by learned writings,
from breaking into discordant local usa-
gC!S, except in a comparatively small
number of places, and has become the
principal source of our common law.
But the independence of the French
nobles produced a much greater variety
of customs. The whole number collect-
ed and reduced to certainty in the six-
teenth century amounted to two hundred
and eighty-five, or, omitting those incon-
siderable for extent or peculiarity, to
sixty. The earliest written customary
in France is that of Beam, which is said
to have been confirmed by Viscount Gas-
ton IV., in 1088.t Many others were
written in the two subsequent ages, of
which the customs of Beauvoisis, com-
piled by Bcaumanoir under Philip III.,
are the most celebrated, and contain a
mass of information on the feudal consti-
tution and manners. Under Charles VII.,
an ordinance was made for the form.ation
of a general code of customary law, by
* Giannone explicitly contrasts the French and
Lombard lav/s respecting fiefs. The latter were
.he foundation of the Libri Feudoruni, and formed
"he common law of Italy. The former were intro-
duced by Roger <jiiiscard into his dotnininn.-', in
three books ol constitutions, printed m LHidel)ro;,''s
collection. There were seveial material differen-
ces, which Giannone enumerates, especially the
Norman custom of primogeniture. — 1st. di Nap.,
I. xi., c. 5.
t There are two editions of this curious old
Jode; one at Pan, in 1552, republished with a fresh
title-page and permission of Henry IV., in 1602;
the other at Lescars, in 1G33. These laws, as we
read them, are subsequent to a revision made in
the middle of the sixteenth century, in which they
were more or less corrected. The basis, however,
is unquestionably very ancient. We even find the
composition for homicide preserved in them, so
ihat murder was not a capital oflence in Beam,
though rcliliery was such. — Rubrica de Ho:uicidis,
Art. xx\i J-"ce too Rnhrica de Pcenis. Art. i. anil ii.
F '2
ascertaining for ever in a written :;ollec
tion 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 coutumiers, oi
northern division of France, and the rule
of all their tribunals, unless where con-
trolled by royal edicts.
PART n.
Analysis of the Feudal System. — Its local cxten'.
— View of the different Orders of Society during
the Feudal Ages. — Nobility — their Ranks and
Privileges. — Clergy. — Freemen. — Serfs or Vil
Itins. — Comparative State of France and 0"r
many. — Privileges enjoyed by the French Vi.s
sals. — Right of coining Money — and of private
War. — Immunity from Taxation. — Histonca
View of the Royal Revenue in France. — Meth
ods adopted to augment it by depreciation of the
Coin, «Sic.— Legislative Power — its state unde
the Merovingian Kings — and Charlemagne.^
His Councils. — Suspension of any general Legis
lative Authority during the prevalence of Feuda.
Principles.— The King's Council. — Means adopt
ed to supply the Want of a National Assembly
— Gradual Progress of the King's Legislative
Power. — Philip IV. assembles the States Gen-
eral.— Their Powers limited to Taxation. —
States under the Sons of Philip IV. — States of
1355 and 1356. — They nearly effect an entire
Revolution. — The Crown recovers its Vigour. —
States of 1380, under Charles VII.— Subsequeti
Assemblies under Charles VI. and Charles Vli
— The Crown becomes more and more absolute
— Louis XI. — States of Tours in 1484. — Histori-
cal View of Jurisdiction in France. — Its earli
est stage under the first Race of Kings, ami
Charlemagne. — Territorial Jurisdiction. — Feu
dal Courts of Justice. — Trial by Combat. — Code
of St. Louis. — The 'territorial Jurisdictions give
way. — Progress of the Judicial Power of the
Crown. — Parliament of. — Paris. — Peers of
France. — Increased Authority of the Parliament.
— Registration of Edicts. — Causes of the Decline
of Feudal System. — Acquisitions of Domain by
the Crown. — Charters of lncorporati>)n granted
to Towns. — Their previous Condition. — First
Charters in the twelfth Century. — Privilege!
contained in them. — Military Service of Feuda
Tenants commuted for Money. — Hired Troops
— Change in the Military System of Europe.^
General View of the Advantages and Disadvan
tages attending the Feudal Sysfem-
It has been very common to seek for
tlio origin of feuds, or, at least, Anaiojries to
for analogies to them, in the tiie feudal ic
history of various countries. ""'■"■
But, though it is of great importance to
trace the similarity of customs in diffci-
ent parts of the world, because it guide.'?
us to the discovery of general tlieorems
as to human society, yet we shoull bt
on our guard against seeming analogies
which vanish away when they are closely
observed. It is easy to find partial re
semblances to the feudal system. Tb'
relation of patron and client in the R..
man republic is not unlike that of lorJ
64
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[("HA? il
and vassal, in respect of mutual fidelity ;
but it was not founded upon the tenure
of land, nor military service. The veter-
an soldiers, and, in later times, some bar-
barian allies of the emperors, received
lands upon condition of public defence ;
but they were bound not to an individual
lord, but to the state. Such a resem-
blance to fiefs may be found in the Zemin-
daries of Hindostan, and the Timariots of
Turkey. The clans of the Highlanders
-nd Irish followed their chieftain into the
field ; but their tie was that of imagined
kindred and respect for birth, not the
spontaneous compact of vassalage. Much
less can we extend the name of feud,
though it is sometimes strangely misap-
plied, 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
Ihc feudal system.*
The regular machinery and systematic
Extent of establishment of feuds, in fact,
the feudal may be considered as almost con-
system, fjj^gfj to tjie dominions of Charle-
magne, and to those countries which af-
terward derived it from thence. In Eng-
land, it can hardly be thought to have ex-
isted in a complete state before the con-
quest. Scotland, it is supposed, borrow-
ed it soon after from her neighbour. The
Lombards of Benevento had introduced
feudal customs into the Neapolitan prov-
mces, which the Norman conquerors af-
terward perfected. Feudal tenures were
so general in the kingdom of Aragon, that
T reckon it among the monarchies which
-ere founded upon that basis. f Charle-
♦ In civil history many instances might he found
of feudal ceremonies in countries not regulated by
the feudal law. Thus Selden has published an in-
feudation of a vayvod of Moldavia by the Kin? of
Poland, A. U. 1485, in the regular forms, vol. lii.,
p. 514. But these pohtical fiefs have hardly any
connexion with the general system, and merely de
note the subordination of one prince or people to
another.
t It is probable that feudal tenure was as ancient
m the north of Spain, as in the contiguous prov-
inces of France. But it seems to have chiefly pre-
vailed in Aragon about the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, when the Moors south of the Ebro were
subdued by the enterprise of private nobles, who,
after conquering estates for themselves, did homage
for them to the king. James I., upon the reduction
of Valencia, granted lands by way of fief, on con-
dition of defending that kingdom against the Moors,
and residing personally upon the estate. Many did
not perform this engagement, and were deprived
of the lands in consequence. It appears by the tes-
tament of this monarch, that feudal tenures sub-
sisted in every part of his dominions. — Martenne,
Thesaurus Anccdotorum, t. i., p. 1141, 1155. An
edict of Peter II. in 1210 prohibits the alienation of
magne's empire, it must be remembered
extended as far as the Ebro. But in
Castile* and Portugal they werf very
rare, and certainly could produce no po-
litical effect. Benefices for life weie
sometimes granted in the kingdoms ol
Denmark and Bohemia. f Neither of
these, however, nor Sweden, nor Hunga-
ry, comes under the description of coun
tries influenced by the feudal system ^
That system, however, after all these
limitations, was so extensively diffused,
that it might produce confusion, as well
as prolixity, to pursue the collateral
branches of its history in all the coun-
tries where it prevailed. But this em-
barrassment may be avoided without
any loss, I trust, of important informa-
tion. The English constitution will find
ewphyteuses without the lord's consent. It is hard
to say whether regular fiefs are meant by thi»
word. — De Marca, Marca Hispanica, p. 1396. Thii
author says that there were no arriere-fiefs in Chi
alonia.
The Aragonese fiefs appear however to have dif
fered from those of other countries in some le
spects. Zurita mentions fiefs according to the cua
torn of Italy, which he explains to be such as were
liable to the usual feudal aids for marrying tlw
lord's daughter, and other occasions. We may iir-
fer, therefore, that these prestations were not cus
tomary in Aragon.— A nales de Aragon, t. li., p. 62,
* What is said of vassalage in Alfonzo X.'s code,
Las siete partidas, is short and obscure : nor am 1
certain that it meant any thing more Ihan voluntary
commendation, the custom mentioned in the former
part of this chapter, from which the vassal might
depart at pleasure.— See, however, Du Cange, v.
Honour, where authorities are given for the exist
ence of Castilian fiefs ; and I have met with occa
sional mention of them in history. I beheve that
tenures of this kind were introduced in the four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries ; but not to any gteat
extent. — Marina, Teoria de las Cortes, t. iii., p. 14.
Tenures of a feudal nature, as I collect from
Freirii Institut. Juris Lusitani, tome li., t. 1 and 3,
existed in Portugal, though the jealousy of the
crown prevented the system from being establish-
ed. There were even territorial jurisdictions in
that kingdom, though not, at least originally, ii
Castile.
t Dania; regni politicus status. — Elzevir, 1629
— Stransky, Kespublica Bohemica.— lb. In one
of the oldest Danish historians, Sweno, I have no-
ticed this expression : Waldemarus, patris tune
potitus feodo. — Langebek, Scrip. Kerum Danic,
t. i., p. 62. By this he means the dutchy of Sle«-
wic, not a fief, but an honour or governmeni pos-
sessed by Waldemar. Saxo Grammaticus callt
it more classically, paternK prffifectura dignitas.
Sleswic was, in later times, sometimes held as a
fief; but this does not in the least imply thatlande
in Denmark proper were feudal, of which 1 find no
evidence.
X Though there were no feudal tenures in Swe
den, yet the nobility and others were exempt fron
taxes on condition of serving the king with a horsi
and arms at their own expense ; and a distinctioc
was taken between liber and tiibutarius. But an;
one if the latter might become of the former class
or vice versa.— Sueci» Descriptio. Elzevir, 1631
p. 92.
Paht II ]
FEUDAL rJVSTEM.
•95
its place m unothcr portion of this work ;
and the political condition of Italy, after
the eleventh century, was not much af-
fe(;ted, except in the kingdom of Naples,
an inconsiderable object by the laws of
feudal tenure. I shall confine myself,
therefore, chiefly to France and Germa-
ny ; 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 preva-
lence of feudal principles, before we trace
their influence upon the national govern-
ment.
Vu has been laid down already as most
Classes of probable that no proper aristoc-
society. racy, except that of wealth, was
Nobiiiiy. known under the early kings of
France ; and it was hinted that hereditary
benefices, or, in other Avords, fiefs, might
supply the link that was wanting between
personal privileges and those of descent.
The possessors of beneficiary estates
were usually the richest and most con-
spicuous individuals in the estate. They
were immediately connected with the
crown, and partakers in the exercise of
justice and royal counsels. Their sons
now ;ame to inherit this eminence ; and,
as fiefs were either inalienable, or at least
not very frequently alienated, rich fam-
ilies were kept long in sight ; and, wheth-
er engaged in public affairs, or living with
magnificence and hospitality at home,
naturally drew to themselves popular es-
timation. The dukes and counts, who
had changed their quality of governors
into that of lords over the provinces in-
trusted to them, were at tiie head of this
noble class. And in imitation of them,
their own vassals, as well as those of the
crown, and even rich allodialists, assu-
med titles from their towns or castles, and
thu3 arose a number of petty counts, bai--
ons, and viscounts. This distinct class
of nobility became coextensive with the
feudal tenures. For the military tenant,
however poor, was subject to no tribute,
no prestation, 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 witji no armour of de-
fence. As every thing in the habits of
society conspired with that prejudice,
which, in spite of moral philosophers,
will constantly raise the profession of
arms above all others, it was a natural
consequence that a new species of aris-
tocracy, founded upon the mixed consid-
ttations of birth, tenure, and occupation,
sprang out of the feudal system. FiVerv
possessor of a fief was a gentleman
though he owned but a few acres of land,
and furnished his slender contribution
towards the equipment of a knight. In
the Libri Feudorum indeed, those who
were three degrees removed from the
emperor in order of tenancy are consid-
ered as ignoble ;* but t' is is restrained
to modern investitureij ; and in France,
where sub-infeudation was carried the
farthest, no such distinction has met my
observation.!
There still, however, wanted something
to ascertain gentility of blood, where
it was not marked by the actual tenure
of land. This was supplied by two in-
novations devised in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries : the r ^option of sur-
names, and of armorib," oearings. The
first are commonly referred 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 ap-
pellation, transmitted it to their poster
ity.| 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 war-
riors, and devices upon coins or seals,
bear no distant resemblance to modern
blazonry. But the general introductioi>
of such bearings, as hereditary distinc
tions, has been sometimes attributed to
tournaments, wherein the champions
were distinguished by fanciful devices ,
sometimes to the crusades, where a mul-
titude of all nations and languages stood
in need of some visible token to denote
the banners of their respective chiefs. In
fact, the peculiar symbols of heraldry
point to both these sources, and have
been borrowed in part from each.^ He-
reditary vms v>^ere perhaps scarcely used
by private families before the beginning
of the thirteenth century. || From that
* L. ii., 1. 10.
t The nobility of an allodial possession m France
depended upon its right to territorial jurisdiction.
Hence there were franc-aleux nobles, and franc
aleux roturiers ; the latter of which were subject to
the jurisdiction of the neighbouring lord.— Loiseau,
TraiUi des Seigneuries, p. 76. Denisart, Diction
naire des D6cision8, art. Franc-aleu.
t Mabillon, Traits de Diplomatique, 1. ii., c. 7
The authors of the Nouveau Traits de Diplomat
ique, t. li., p. 563, trace the use of surnanus in a
few instances even to the beginning '^f the tenth
century ; but they did not become general, accord
ing to them, till the thirteenth.
() Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscriptions, t. xx., p. 5T!».
II I should be unwilling to make a neg.^tlve as-
sertion peremptorily in a matter of mere antiqua
rian research ; but 1 am not aware of any decisive
evidence that hereditary arms were borne in t*>i
twelfth century, except by a very few royil or a.
«»6
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
[Chap
nine, however, hey became veiy general,
Jntl have contributed to elucidate that
branch of history, wliatever value we
may assign to it, which regards the de-
scent of illustrious families.
When the privileges of birth had thus
tis privileges. "^^^^ rendered capable of le-
gitimate proof, they were en-
hanced in a great degree, and a line
dra\vn between the high-born and ignoble
classes, almost as broad as that which
separated liberty from servitude. All of-
fices of trust and power were conferred
on the former ; those excepted which ap-
pertain to the legal profession. A ple-
beian could not possess a fief.* Such at
least was the original strictness : but as
tlie aristocratic principle grew weaker,
an indulgence was extended to heirs, and
afterward to purchasers.! They were
most royal families. — Mabillon, Traite de Diplo-
iruitique, 1. ii., c. 18. Those of Geoffrey the Fair,
ciiunt of Anjou, who died in 1150, are extant on
his shield : azure, four lions rampant or. — Hist.
Litteraire de la France, t. is.., p. 165. If arms had
been considered as hereditary at that time, thi\
should be the bearing of England, which, as we .>,
know, differs considerably. Louis VII. sprinl^l
his seal and coin with fleurs-de-lys, a very ancif
device, or rather ornament ; and the same as vvtui
are sometimes called bees. The golden ornaments
found in the tomb of Childeric I. at Tournay, which
may be seen in the library of Paris, may pass either
for fleurs-de-lys or bees. Charles V. reduced the
number to three, and thus fixed the arms of France.
The counts of Toulouse used the cross in the
twelfth age ; but no other arms, Vaissette tells us,
can be traced in Languedoc so far back, t. iii.,p.
514.
Armorial bearings were in use among the Sara-
cens during the later crusades ; as appears by a
passage in Joinville, t. i., p. 88 (Collect, des Me-
moires), and Du Cange's note upon it. Perhaps,
however, they may have been adopted in imitation
of the Franks, like the ceremonies of knighthood.
Villaret ingeniously conjectures, that the separa-
tion of different branches of the same family by
their settlements in Palestine led to the use of he-
reditary arms, in order to preserve the connexion,
t. xi., p. 113.
M. Sismondi, I observe, seems to entertain no
doubt that the noble families of Pisa, including that
whose name he bears, had their armorial distinc-
tions in the beginning of the twelfth century. — Hist,
des Republ. ItaL, t. 1, p. 373. It is at least proba-
ble that the heraldic devices were as ancient in
italy as in any part of Europe. And the authors
of Nouveau Traite de Diplomatique, t. iv., p. 388,
.ncline to refer hereditary arms even in France to
the beginning of the twelfth century, though with-
es.:', producing any evidence for this.
* We have no English word that conveys the
full sense of ro/un'er. How glorious is this deficien-
cy in our political language, and how different are
the ideas suggested by commoner! Roturier, ac-
cording to Du Cange, is derived from rupturarius,
a peasant, ab agrum rumpendo.
+ The Establishments of St. Louis forbid this
mnovation, but Beaumanoir contends that the pro-
hibition does not extend to descent or marriage, c.
4H The roturier who acquired o fief, if he chal-
even permitted to become noble by the
acquisition, or at least by its possession
for three generations.* But notwith
standing this ennobling 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. t A gentleman in France
or Germany could not exercise any trade
without derogating, tha.t is, losing the ad-
vantages of his rank. A few exceptions
were made, at least in the former coun
try, in favour of some hberal arts, and
of foreign commerce. J But in nothing
does the feudal haughtiness of birth more
show itself, than in the di.sgrace which
attended unequal marriages. No chil-
dren could inherit a territory held imme-
diately of the empire, unless both their
parents belonged to the higher class of
nobility. In France, the ofl'spring of a
gentleman by a plebeian mother were
reputed noble for the purposes of inherit-
ance, and of exemption from tribute. i^
Cut they could not be received into any
crder of chivalry, tliough capable of sim-
ple knighthood; nor were they consider-
ed as any better than a basiard .-lass,,
deeply tainted with the alloy of their
lenged any one, fought with ignoble arms ; but in
all other respects was treated as a gentleman, ibid.
Yet a knight was not obliged to do homage to th€
roturier, who became his superior by the acquis!
tion of a fief on which he depended. — Carpentiet
Supplement, ad Du Cange, voc. Homagium.
* Etablissemens de St. Louis, c. 143, and note
in Ordonnances des Rois, t. i. See also prefac;
to the same volume, p. xii. According to Mably
the possession of a fief did not cease to confer no-
bility (analogous to our barony by tenure) till the
Ordonnance de Blois, in 1579. — Observations sur
I'Hist. de France, 1. iii., c. 1, note 6. But Laurierc,
author of the preface above cited, refers to Bouteil-
ler, a writer of the fourteenth century, to prove
that no one could become noble without the king's
authority. The contradiction will not much per
plex us, when we reflect on the disposition of law-
yers to ascribe all prerogatives to the crown, at the
expense of territorial proprietors, and of ancient
customary law.
t The right, originally perhaps usurpation, call
ed franc-fief, began under Philip the Fair. — Ordon-
nances des Rois, t. i., p. 324. Denisart, Art. Franc
fief.
X Houard, Diet, du Droit Normand. Encyclop*
die. Art. Noblesse. Argou, 1. ii., c. 2.
6 Nobility, to a certain degree, was communica
ted through the mother alone, not only by the cus
torn of Champagne, but in all parts of f ranee ; tha
is, the issue were " gentilhommes du fait de leu..
corps," and could possess fiefs ; liut, says Beauman
oir, " la gentillesse par laquelle on devient chevalier
doit venir de par le pere," c. 45. There was a pro
verbial maxim in the French law, rather emphati*
than decent, to express the derivstion of ctitilifj
from the lather and of freedom from the laotltRr.
fiKT A. .J
FF.TTDAl SY5TE\f.
til
maternal extraction. Many instimces oc-
our where letters of nobility ha^•e 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, that is, of coats borne
by paternal and maternal ancestors, and
the same practice still subsists in Ger-
'nany.
It appear.s, therefore, that tlie original
nobility of the continent were what we
may call self-created, and did not derive
their rank from any such concessions of
their respective sovereigns as have been
necessary in subsequent sges. In Eng-
land, the baronies by tenu/e 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, be-
fore the end of the thirteentli century,
began to assume a privilege of creating
nobles by their own authority, and with-
out regard 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 fre-
quent.f This effected a change in the
ciiaracter of the nobility ; and had as ob-
vious a moral, as other events of the same
age had a political influence, in diminish-
ing the power and independence of the
territorial aristocracy. The privileges
originally connected with ancient lineage
and extensive 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 nobility could not
exist without a royal concession. They
acquired themselves, in return for their
exaltation of prerogative, an official no-
bility by the exercise of magistracy. The
institutions of chivalry again gave rise to
a vast increase of gentlemen ; knighthood,
on whomsoever conferred by the sover-
eign, being a sufficient passport to noble
privileges. It was usual, perhaps, to
grant previous letters of nobility to a ple-
beian for whom the honour of knighthood
was designed.
In this noble or gentle class there were
DiflVrcnt or- several gradations. All those in
dersoiiioi)!!- France who held lands imme-
"^' diately depending upon the
crown, whatever titles they might bear,
were comprised in the order of barons.
These were, originally, the peers of the
♦ I3caumanoir, c. 45. Du Cange, Dissert. 10,
lur Juinville. Carpentier, voc. Nobilitalio.
t Velly, t. vi., p. 432. Du Cange and Carpeii-
ler, voce Xobilitaire, &c. Bouiainvilliers, Mist.
<ie l'an:iei Gouvernemeiit de France, t. i., n 31"
' king's court ; they poisessed ihe highei
territorial jurisdiction, and ii;i<"l the rigli*.
I of carrying their own banner into the
j field.* To these corresponded the Val
vassores majores and Capitanei of the
empire. In a subordinate class were
the vassals of this high nobiHty, whn.
upon the continent, were usually termed
Vavassors ; an appellation not unknown,
though rare, in England. f The Chatc
lains belonged to the order of Vavassors,
as they held only arriere fiefs : but hav-
ing fortified houses, from which they de-
rived their name (a distinction very im-
portant in those times), and possessing
ampler rights of territorial justice, they
rose above the level of their fellows in
the scale of tenure. J But after the per
sonal nobility of chivalry became the ob
ject of pride, the Vavassors, who obtain
ed knighthood, were commonly stylci
bachelors ; those who had not receivea
that honour fell into the class of squires,^
or damoiseaux.
* Beauinanoir, c. 34. Du Cange, v. Baro. Etab-
lissemens de St. Louis, 1. i., c. 24 ; 1. ii., c. 36.
The vassals of inferior lords were however called,
iiuproperly, barons, both in France and EngU.:d.
— Kecueil des Historiens, t. xi., p. 300. Madox,
Baronia Anglica, p. 133. In perfect strictness,
those only whose immediate tenure of the crown
was older than the accession of Hugh Capet, were
barons of France; namely, Bourbon, Coucy, and
Beauieu, or Beaujolois. It appears, however, by
a register in the reign of Philip Augustus, that fif-
ty-nme were reciioned in that class ; the feudato-
ries of the Capetian ficfs, Paris aiid Orleans, benig
confounded with the original vassals of the crown.
— Du Cange, voc. Baro.
-f Du Cange, v. Vavassor. Velly, t. vi., p. 151.
Madox, Baronia Anglica, p. 135. There is, per-
haps, hardly any word more loosely used than Va-
vassor. Bracton says. Sunt etiain Vavassores,
magnoe dignitatis viri. In France and Germany
they are sometimes named with much less honour.
Je suis un chevauer ne de cest part, de vavasseura
ft de basse gent, says a romance. This is to be ex-
plained by the poverty to which the subdivision o(
liefs reduced idle gentlemen.
t Du Cange, v. Castellanus. Coutumesde Poi-
tou, tit. iii. Lolseau, 'I'raite des Seigneuries, p. 100.
Whoever had a right to a castle had la haute jus-
tice ; this being so incident to the castle, that it
was transferred along witli it. There might, how-
ever, be a Seigneur haut-juslicier below the Chale.
lain ; and a ridiculous distinction was made as tc
the numl)er of posts by which their gallows might
be supported. A baron's instrument of execution
stood on four posts ; a chdlelain's on three ; while
the inferior lorii, who happened to possess la haute
justice, was forced to hang his subjects on a two
legged machine. — Coutumesde Poit'ou. DuCitnce
V. Furca.
Lauri^re quotes from an old nannscrij.t the foi
lowing short scale of nnks. Due est la premiere
dignite, puis comtes, puis viscomtes, et puis baron,
et puis chtttelain, et puis vavasseur, et juiis citaoii,
et puis villain. — Ordonnances des Kois, t. i., p. 2T7.
6 The sons of knights, and gentlemen not yel
knighted, took the appellation of squires in llie
tW'Hfi.h century — Vaissette, Hist, de Lang., t. ii..
S8
fclllROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
[Cmap. 11
It wi.l be needless to dwell upon tlie
condition of the inferior clergy, whether
^1^^ . secular or professed, as it bears
^^^^' little upon the general scheme of
polity, The prelates and abbots, how-
ever, it must be understood, were com-
pletely feudal nobles. They swore feal-
ty for their lands to the king or other su-
perior, received the homage of their vas-
sais, enjoyed the same immunities, exer-
cised tlie same jurisdiction, maintained
the same authority, as the lay lords
among whom they dwelt. Military ser-
vice does not appear to have been re-
served 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 sover-
eign by personal attendance in war, the
ecclesiastical tenants were supposed to
fall within the scope of this feudal duty,
which men, little less uneducated and vi-
olent than their compatriots, were not
reluctant to fulfil. Charlemagne ex-
empted 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 succeeding ages.
Both in national and private warfare, we
find veiy frequent mention of martial
prelates.! But, contrary as this actual
service might be to the civil, as well as
ecclesiastical laws, the clergy who held
military fiefs were of course bound to
fulfil the chief obligation of that tenure,
and send their vassals into the field. We
have many insitances of their accompa-
nying the army, though not mixing in
the conflict ; and even the parish priests
p. 513. That of Damoiseau came into use in the
thirteentli.— Id., t. iii., p. 529. The latter was, I
think, more usual in France. Du Cange gives lit-
tle information as to the word squire. (Scutifer.)
" Apud Anglos," he says, " penultima est nobilitatis
descriptio, inter Equitemet Generosum. Quod et
alibi in usu fuit." 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 of knights, and
some military men ; except officers in courts of
justice, who, by patent or prescription, had obtain-
ed that addition — S3°.lman's Posthumous Works,
p. 234.
• Mably, 1. i., c. 5. Baluze, t. i., p. 410, 932, 987.
Any bishop, priest, deacon, or subdeacon bearing
anus was to be degraded, and not even admitted to
lay communion. — Id., p. 932.
•f One of the latest instances probably of a fight-
ing bishop is Jean Montaigu, archbishop of Sens,
who was killed at Azincourt. Monstrelet says,
that he was "non pas en estat pontifical, car au
lieu de mitre il portoit une bacinet, pour dalma-
tique portoit un haubergeon, pour chasuble la
piece d'acier ; et au lieu de crosse, portoit une
Whe," foJ 133
headed the militia of their villages.* The
prelates however sometimes contrived tc
avoid this military service, and the pay-
ments introduced in commutation for it,
by holding lands in frank-almoigne, a te-
nure which exempted them from every
species of obligation, except that of say-
ing masses for the benefit of the grant-
or's family. f But, notwithstanding the
warlike disposition of some ecclesiastics,
their more usual inability to protect the
estates of their churches against rapa
cious neighbours suggested a new spe
cies of feudal relation and tenure. The
ri<'h abbeys elected an advocate, whose
business it was to defend their interests
both in secular courts, and, if necessary,
in the field. Pepin and Charlemagne
are styled Advocates of the Roman
church. This indeed was on a magnifi-
cent scale : but in ordinary practice, the
advocate of a monastery was some neigh-
bouring lord, who, in return for his pro-
tection, possessed many lucrative privi-
leges, and, very frequently, considerable
estates by way of fief from his ecclesias
tical clients. Some of these advocates
are reproached with violating their obli
gation, and becoming the plunderers of
those whom they had been retained to
defend. J
The classes below the gentiy may be
divided into freemen 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 recognising,
so far as England is concerned, the socca-
gers, whose tenure was free, though not
so noble as knight's service, and a nu-
merous 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 hommes de pooste (gens potestatis).^
* Daniel, Hist, de la Milice Francoise, t. i.,
p. 88.
t Du Cange, Eleemosyna Libera. Madoi, Ba-
ronia Angl., p. 115. Coke on Littleton, anc: other
English law-books.
t Du Cange, v. Advocatus ; a full and useful
article. Recueil des Historiens, t. xi., preface,
p. 184.
i^i Homo potestatis, non nobilis — Ita nuncupan
tur, quod in potestate domini sunt— Opponuritui
viris nobilibus ; apud Butilerium Consuetudinari:
vocantur, Coiistumiers, prestationibus sdiicet ob-
iioxii et operis. — Du Cange, v. Potestas. As all
ihpse freemen were obliged, by the ancient law»
of France, tc Jive under the protectior of some pa;
Hart II-l
FEUDAL SYSTJ^M.
8y
This proves the slight estimation in
which all persons of ignoble birth were
considered. For undoubtedly there ex-
isted a great many proprietors of and
and others, as free, though not as privi-
leged, as the nobility. In the south of
France, and especially l^rovence, the
number of freemen is remarked to have
been greater than in the parts on the
right bank of the Loire, where the feudal
tenui'cs were almost universal.* I shall
quote part of a passage in Beaumanoir,
which points out this distinction of ranks
pretty fully. " It should be known," he
says,f " that there are three conditions
of men in this world ; the first is that of
gentlemen; and the second is that of
such as are naturally free, being born of
a free mother. All who have 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."
In every age and country, until times
Serfs or comparatively recent, personal ser-
viiieins. yitude appears to have been the
lot of a large, perhaps the greater portion,
of mankind. We lose a good deal of our
s^nnpathy 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 which might be inflicted, without
control either of law or opinion, by the
keenest patriot of the Comitia, or the
Council of Five Thousand. A simila.,
though less powerful, feeling v/ill often
force itself on the mind, when we read
the history of the middle ages. The
Germans, in their primitive settlements,
were accustomed to the notion of sla-
very, incurred not only by captivity, but
by crimes, by debt, and especially by
loss in gaming. When they invaded the
Roman empire, they found the same con-
dition established in all its provinces.
Hence, from the beginning of the era
now under review, servitude, under some-
what different modes, was extremely
Eommon. There is some difficulty in
ascertaining its varieties and stages. In
the Salique laws, and in the Capituharies,
we'read not only of Servi, but of Tribu-
licular lord, and found great difficulty in choosing
a new place of residence, as they were subject to
many tributes and oppressive claims on the part of
their territorial superiors, we cannot be surprised
that they are confounded, at this distance, with
men in actual servitude.
* Heeren, Easai sur les Crois£.Jes, p. 122.
f Coutui\e3 de Beauvoisis, r. 45, p. 256.
tarii, Lidi, and Coloni, who were cultiva-
tors of the earth, and subject to residence
upon their master's estate, though not
destitute of property or civil rights.*
Those who appertained to the demesne
lands of the crown were called Fiscalini.
The composition for the murder of ot>e
of these was much less than that for ;i
freeman. f The number of these scrviln
cultivators was undoubtedly great, yt i
in those early times, I should conceive,
much less than it afterward became
Property was for the most part in smaU
divisions, and a Frank who could haidly
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 tendency to make slavery
more frequent. Where the small propri-
etors lost their lands by mere rapine, we
may believe that their liberty was hard-
ly less endangered. J Even where thi.<
was not the case, yet, as the labour
either of artisans or of free husbandmen
was but sparingly in demand, they were
often compelled to exchange their liber-
ty for bread. 1^ In seasons also of fam-
ine, and they were not unfrequenl, many
freemen sold themselves to slavery. A
capitulary of Charles the Bald, in 864,
permits their redemption at an equitable
price. II Others became slaves, as morn
* Thess passages are too numerous for refer
ence. In a very early charter in Martenne's The
s.iurus Anecdotorum, t. i., p. 20, lands are gran'eil,
cum hominibus ibidem permanentibus, quos culona-
rio ordine vivrre constltuimus. Men of this class
were called in Italy Aldiones. A Lombard capitu-
lary of Charlemagne says : Aldiones efi lege vi
vunt in ItaliA sub servitute dominoruni suoruin,
qua Fiscalini, vel Lidi vivunt in Franciu.—Mura-
tori, Dissert. 14.
t Originally it was but 45 solidi. — Leges Sail
C8B, c. 43; but Charlemagne raised it to 100. — Ba-
luzii Capitularia, p. 402. There are several pro-
visions in the laws of this great and wise monarch
in favour of liberty. If a lord claimed any one ei-
ther as his villein or slave (colonus sive servus%
who had escaped beyond his territory, he was no;
to be given up till strict inquiry had been made ii:
the place to which he was asserted to belong, as fr
his condition and that of his family, p. 400. And
if the villein showed a charter of enfranchisement
the proof of its forgery was to lie upon the lorl
No man's liberty could be questioned in the Hun-
dred-court.
t Montesquieu ascribes the increase of pei-sona'
servitude in France to the continual revolts auc
commotions under the two first dynasties, 1. x.\x.
c. II.
() Du Cange, v. Obnoxatio.
II Baluzii Capitularia. The Greek traders pnr
chased famished wretches on the coasts of Italy
whom they sold to the Saracens — Muratori, An
nali .i'Jtalia. A. D. 785. .Much more wou'H per
sons in his pxtr'iinity sell ihemsclvi s toneiirhboUJ
ins lores.
m
LLKOPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGEn
rCn- p. I.
foiidjiate men became vassals, to a pow-
erful lord, Ibr the sake of his protection.
Many were reduced into this state through
inability to pay those pecuniary composi-
iions lor offences, which were numerous,
and sometimes heavy, in the barbarian
cod<.s of law ; and many more by neg-
lect of attendance on military expedi-
tions of the king, the penalty of which
was a fine called Heribann, with the al-
ternative 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 themselves, as well as their
properties, to churches and monasteries,
in return for such benefits as they might
reap by the prayers of their new mas-
ters, f
The characteristic distinction of a vil-
lein was his obligation 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 ventur-
ed to stray. But, equally liable to this
confinement, there were two classes of
villeins, whose condition was exceeding-
ly different. In England, at least from
the reign of Henry II., one only, and
that the inferior species, existed ; incapa-
ble of property, and destitute of redress,
except against the most outrageous in-
juries.! The lord could seize whatever
they acquired or inherited, 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 de-
gree ; the felling of timber, the carrying
of manure, the repairing of roads for their
lord, who seen:is to have possessed an
equally unbounded right over their la-
bour and its fruits. But by the customs
of France and Germany, persons in this
abject state seem to have been called
tierfs, and distinguished from villeins,
who wore only bound to fixed payments
and duties m respect of their lord, though,
as it sc-ems, without any legal redress,
if injured by him.^ " The third estate of
♦ Du Cinge, Heribannum. A full heiibaniuiin
'was 60 solidi ; but it was sometimes assessed in
proportion to the wealth of tl\e party.
t Beaumanoir, c. 45.
t Littleton, 1. ii., c IL Non potest aliquis
(says Glanvil), in villenagio positus, libertatem
suam propriis denariis suis qusrere— quia omnia
catalla cujuslibet nativi intelliguntur esse in potes-
late domiiii sui, 1. v., c. 5.
^ This is clearly expressed in a French law-
uook of the thirteenth century, the Conseil of
Pierre des Fontaines, q' oted by Du Cange, voc. I
men," says Beaumanoir, iu the passage
above quoted, " is that of such as are not
free ; and these are not all of one condi
tion, for some are so subject to their
lord that he may take all thev have,
alive or dead, and imprison him whenev
er he pleases, being accountable to none
but God ; while others are treated more
gently, from whom the lord can take
nothing but customary payments, though
at their death all they have escheats to
him."*
Under every denomination of servitude,
the children followed their mother's con-
dition ; except in England, where the
father's state determined that of the chil-
dren ; on which account, bastards of fe-
male villeins were born free ; the law
presuming the liberty of their father. f
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
Villanus. Et sache bien que selon Dieu tu n'as
mie pleniere poeste sur ton vilain. Dont se tu
prens du sien fors les droites redevances, que te
doit, tu les prens contre Dieu, et sur le peril dc
fame et come robierres. Et ce qu'on dit toutes
les choses que vilains a, sont an Seigneur, c'es
voirs a garden Car s'il estoient son seigneur pro-
pre, il n'avoii nule difference entre serf et vilain
mais par notre usage n'a entre toi et ton vilain juge
fors Dieu, tant com il est tes couchans et tes le-
vans, s'll n'a autre loi vers toi fors la commune.
This seems to render the distinclioi little more
than theoretical.
* Beaumanoir, c. 45. Du Cange, A illanus, Ser
vus, and several other articles. Scl.midt, Hist,
des AUemands, t. ii., p. 171, 435. By a .aw of the
Lombards, a free woman wlio married a slave
might be killed by her relations, or sold ; if they
neglected to do so, the fisc might claim her as its
own. — Muratori, Dissert. 14. In France also, she
was liable to be treated as a slave. — Marculfi For-
mulas, 1. ii., 29. Even in the twelfth century, it
was the law of Flanders, that whoever married a
villein became one himself, after he had lived with
her a twelvemonth. — Recueil des Historiens, t.
-xiii., p. 350. And, by a capitulary of Pepin, if a
man married a villein believing her to be free, he
might repudiate her and marry another.— Baiuze,
p. 181.
Villeins themselves could not marry without
the lord's license, under penalty of forfeiting
their goods, or at least of a mulct. — Du Cange, v.
Forismaritagium. This seems to be the true origin
of the famous mercheta mulierum, whicn nas been
ascrif)ed to a very difierent custom. — Du Cai^ge. v.
Mercheta Mulierum. Dalrympie's Ann:ils of Scot-
land, vol. i., p. 312. Archaaologia, vol. -xii., p. 31.
t Littleton, s. 188. Bracton indeed holds, that
the spurious issue of a neif, though by a free fa-
ther, should be a villein, quia sequitur conditionom
matris, quasi vulgo conceptus, I. i., c. 6. But the
laws of Henry I. declare th.at a son should follow
his father's condition ; so that thi? peculiarity is
very ancient in our law, — Lejes Hen. I., r. 75
and 77.
Past ll.j
FEUDAL SYSTEM
U)
General States of mauKiiid. This, as is
aboiiiion (f AvcU knowii, was an exceoding-
viiiaiiaga jy commoii practice with the
Romans ; and is mentioned, with certain
ceremonies prescribed, in the Frank ish
and other early law--- The clergy, and
especially several popes, enforced it as a
duty upon laymen ; and inveighed against
the scandal of keeping Christians in bond-
age.* But they were not, it is said, equal-
ly ready in performing their own parts ;
llie villeins upon church lands were
among the last who were emancipated.!
A.S society advanced in Europe, the man-
jmission 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 property,
it was accounted inhmnan to divest them
of their little possession (the peculium of
Jloman law) ; nor was their poverty, per-
haps, less tolerable, upon the whole, than
that of the modern peasantry in most
countries of Europe. It was only in re-
spect of his lor.!, it must be remembered,
that the villein, at least in England, was
without rights;^ he might inherit, pur-
chase, sue in the courts of law ; though,
* Kiifranchisements by testament are very com-
'Wii. Thus, in the will of Seniofred, count of Uar-
filona, in 966, we find the following piece of cor-
npt Latin : de ipsos servos meos et ancillas, illi
jui traditi fuerunt faciatis illos liberos propter ra-
nediuin animae me»; et alii qui fuerunt de paren-
orum meorum remaneant ad fratres meos. — Marca
-fispanica, p. 887.
t Schmidt, Hist. desAll.,t.i., p. 361. See, how-
ever, a charter of manumission from the chapter
af Orle.ms, in 1224, to all their slaves, imder certain
conditions of service.— Martenne, Thesa\irus Anec-
dot., t. i., p. 914. Conditional manumissions were
exceedingly common.— Du Cange, v. Manumis-
?.io ; a long article.
X No one could enfranchise his villein without
the superior lord's consent ; for this was to dimin-
ish the value of his land apeticer le jirf. — Beauma-
noir, c. 15. Etablissemens de St. Loius, c. 34.
Tt was necessary, therefore, for the villein to obtain
the suzerain's confirmation ; otherwise he only
changed masters and escheated, as it were, to the
superior ; for the lord who had granted the charter
of franchise was estopped from claiming him again.
^ Littleton, s. 189. Perhaps this is not applica-
l)Ie to other countries. Villeins were incapable of
being received as witnesses against freemen. — Re-
cueil des Historiens, t. xiv., preface, p. 65. There
are some charters of kings of France .admitting
theserfsof particular monasteries to give evidence, i
or to engage in the judicial combat, against free-
men.— Ordonnances des Kois, t. i., p 3. But I do |
not know that their testimony, except against their I
lord, was ever refused in England ; their state of '
servitude not being absolute, like that of negroes
in the West Indies, but particular and relative, as
that of an apprentice or hired servant. This sub-
ect, however, is not devoid of obscurity, and I may
probably return to it in another place
as defendant in a rea Action, or .^liil
wherein land was claimed, he mighi
shelter himself under the plea of villan-
age. The peasants of this conditior
were sometimes made use of in war, and
rewarded with enl'rauchisement ; espe-
cially in Italy, where the cities and petty
states had often occasion to defend them-
selves with their own population ; and in
peace the industry of free .abourcrsmiisl
liave 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 Murato-
ri 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 Eu
rope, they remained in a sort of villan
age till the present 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 manumission had taken
place, by a general edict in 1315, reci-
ting that his kingdom is denominated the
kingdom of the Franks, that he v/ould
have the fact to correspond with the
name, emancipates all persons in the
royal domains upon paying a just com-
position, as an example for other lords
possessing villeins to follow.! Philip
the Long renewed the same edict three
years afterward ; a proof that it had not
been carried into execution. i^ Indeed,
there are letters of the former prince,
wherein, considering that many of his
subjects are not apprized of the extent
of the benefit conferred upon them, he
directs his officers to tax them as high
as their fortunes can well bear.||
* Dissert. 14.
f Harrington's Observations on the ancient Stat
utes, p. 274.
X Ordonnances des Rois, t. i., p. 583.
() Id., p. C53.
II Velly.t. viii., p.38. Philip the Fair had eman-
cipated the villeins in the royal domains throughout
Languedoc, retaining only an annual rent for then
lands, which thus became censives, or emph>^i(^iises.
It does not appear by the charter that he sold this
enfranchisement, though there can be little doubt
about it. He permitted his vassals to follow the
example. — Vaissette, Hist, de Languedoc, t. iv.
Appendi.t, p. 3 and 12.
It is not generally known, I think, that predial
servitude was noi abolished in all parts of Franca
till the revolution. In some places, says Pzscuier,
the peasants are taillables a volonte, that is, theii
contribution is; not permanent, but assessed by the
lord with the advice of prud' homines resseant
92
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[CHap. n
It is deserving of notice that adistinc-
uon existed from very early times in the
nature of lands, collateral, as it were,
to that of persons. Thus we find mansi
mgenui and mansi serviles in the oldest
charters, corresponding to the bocland
•■liid folkland of the Anglo-Saxons, the
liberuin tenementum and villenagium, or
tYcehold and copyhold, of our later law.
la France, all lands held in rotiire appear
to be considered as villein tenements, and
are so termed in Latin, though many of
them rather answer to our soccage free-
holds. But, although originally this ser-
vile quality of lands was founded on the
state of their occupiers, yet there was
this particularity, that lands never chan-
ged their character along with that of the
possessor ; so that a nobleman might, and
often did, hold estates in roture, as well
as a roturier acquire a fief. Thus in
England the terre tenants in villanage,
ivho occur in our old books, were not
villeins, but freemen holding lands which
had been from time immemorial of a vil-
lein quality.
At the final separation of the French
c'otnp;ira- ^^^""^ the German side of Char-
tive state of lemaguc's empire by the treaty
France and of Vcrduu, in 843, there was
^^errnanj. pgj.y^j^pg hardly any difference
\\\ the constitution of the two kingdoms.
If any might be conjectured to have ex-
'sted, it would be a greater independence,
and fuller rights of election in the nobil-
ity and people of Germany. But in the
lapse of another century, F'rance had lost
all her political unity, and her kings all
their authority ; while the Germanic em-
pire 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
fur Ics lieux, according to tlie peasant's ability.
Others paj'a fixed sum. Some are called serfs de
poursuite, who cannot leave their habitations, but
may be followed by the lord into any part of France
for the taille upon their goods. This was the case
in part of Champagne, and the Nivernois. Nor
could these serfs, or gens de mainmorte, as they
were sometimes called, be manumitted without
letters patent of the king, purchased by a fine. —
Recherchcs de la France, 1. iv., c. 5. Du Bos in-
forms us that, in 1651, the Tiers Etat prayed the
king to cause all serfs (hommes de poote) to be en-
franchised on paying a coin,"osition ; but this was
not complied with, and they <!xisted in many parts
when he wrote. — Histoire Critique, t. iii., p. 298.
Argou, in his Institutions du Droit Francois, con-
firms this, and refers to the custoinaries of Niver-
nois and Vitry, 1. i., c. I. And M. de Urcqui^ny,
in his preface to the twelfth volume of the collec-
'ion of Ordor.nances, p. 22, says, Ihat throughout
uuiosL ihc wl ole jurisdiction of the parlisaicut of
right, and the latter was chosen from
among his equals. A long succession of
feeble princes or usurpers, and destruc-
tive incursions of the Normans, reduced
France almost to a dissolution of society ;
while Germany, under Conrad, Henry,
and the Othos, found their arms not less
prompt and successful against revolted
vassals than external enemies. The
high dignities were less completely he-
reditary than they had become in France
they were granted, indeed, pretty regu-
larly, but they were solicited as well as
granted ; while the chief vassals of the
French crown assumed them as patrimo-
nial sovereignties, to which a royal in-
vestiture gave more of ornament than
sanction.
In the eleventh century, these imperial
prerogatives began to lose part of then
lustre. The long struggles of the princes
and clergy against Henry IV. and his son,
the revival of more effective rights 04
election on the extinction of the house
of Franconia, the exhausting contests of
the Swabiari emperors in Italy, the in-
trinsic weakness produced by a law of
the empire, according to which the reign-
ing sovereign could not retain an impe-
rial fief more than a year in his hands,
gradually prepared that independence of
the German aristocracy, which reached
its height about the middle of the thir-
teenth century. During this period thf
French crown had been insensibly gain-
ing strength ; and as one monarch de-
generated into the mere head of a con-
federacy, the other acquired unlimited
power over a solid kingdom.
It would be tedious, and not very in-
structive, to follow the details of Ger-
man public lavv^ during the middle ages :
nor are the more important parts of it
easily separable froKi civil history. In
this relation they will find a place in a
subsequent chapter of the present work
BesanQon, the peasants were attached to tiie 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 recol-
lect to have read in some part of Voltaire's corre-
spondence, an anecdote of his interference, with that
zeal against oppres*on which is the stuning side
of his moral character, in behalf of some of these
wretched slaves of Franche-comt6.
About the middle of the fifteenth century\ some
Catalonian serfs who had escaped into France
being claimed by their lords, the parliament of
Toulouse declared that every man who entered
the kingdom m crinnt France, should become free.
The liberty of our kingdom is such, says Me7«ray,
that its air communicates freedom to those who
breathe it, and our liings are too august to reigy
over any but freemen. — Villaret, t. xv.,p. 348. How
much pretence Mezer.iy had for such a flourish
may be decided by the former; a ft of this lote
PiRr J
FEUDAL SYSTEM
9J
France demands a more mitrite attention ;
and in tracing the character of the feudal
system in that country, we shall find
ouriielves developing the progress of a
very different polity.
To understand in what degree the peers
Priviie-re-s of ^ud barous of France, during
itie Freiicii the prevalence of feudal prin-
vassais. ciples, wcrc independent of the
crown, we must look at their leading
privileges. These may be reckoned : —
I. The right of coining money; 2. That
of waging private war ; 3. The exemption
from all public tributes, except the feudal
aids; 4. The freedom from legislative
control; and, 5. 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 collection of states, partially allied to
each other, than a single monarchy.
• I. Silver and gold were not very scarce
Coining in the first ages of the French mon-
moneyr arcliy ; but they passed more by
weight than by tale. A lax and ignorant
government, which had not learned the lu-
crative mysteries of a royal mint, was not
particularly solicitous to give its subjects
;he security of a known stamp in their
exchanges.* In some cities of France,
iioney appears to have been coined by
private authority before the time of Char-
lemagne ; 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 vassals
with the privilege of coining money for
!,he use of their own territories, but not
without the royal .stamp. About the be-
ginning of the tenth century, however,
the lords, among th^ir other assumptions
of independence, issued money with no
marks but their own.f 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 pos-
sessed by about eighty; who, excluding,
as far as possible, the royal coin from
* The practice of keeping fine gold and silver
'wncoined prevailed among private persons, as well
as in tlie treasury, down to the time of Philip the
Fair. Nothing is more common than to find, in the
instruments of earlier times, payments or fines
stipulated by weight of gold or silver. Le Blanc
therefore thinks that little money was coined in
France, and that only for small payments. — Trait6
des Monnoyes. It is curious, that though there
are many gold coins extant of the firsi: race of
kings, yet few or none are preserved of the second
or third, before the reign of Philip the Fair.— Du
Cange, a . Moneta.
+ Vaissette, Hist, de Languedoc, t. ii., p. 110.
Kfc. des Historiens, t. xi., pref., p. IBO. Du Cange,
. Moneta
circulation, enriched themselves .it their
subjects' expense by high duties (seign-
iorages), which they imposed upon everj'
new coir^ge, as well as by debasing its
standard.* In 1185, Philip Augustus re-
quests the Abbot of Corvey, wlio Imd de-
sisted from usmg his own mint, to let the
royal money of Paris circulate tlirough
his territories ; promising that, when it
should please the abbot to coin money
afresh for hiinself, the king would not
oppose its circulation.!
Several regulations were made by Lou
is IX. to limit, as far as lay in his power,
the exercise of this baronial privilege;
and, in particular, by enacting that the
royal money should circulate in the do-
mains of those barons who had mintS;
concurrently with their own ; and ex-
clusively within the territories of those
who did not enjoy that right. Philip the
Fair estabUshed royal officers of inspec--
tion in every private mint. It was as-
serted in his reign, as a general truth,
that no subject might coin silver money. J
In fact, the adulteration practised in those
baronial mints had reduced their pretend-
ed silver to a sort of black metal, as it
was called (moneta nigra), into which
httle entered but copper. Silver, howev-
er, and even gold, were coined by the
dtikes of Britany so long as that fief con-
tinued to exist. No subjects ever enjoy-
ed the right of coining silver in England
without the royal stamp and superintend
ence ;^ a remarkable proof of the restraint
in which the feudal aristocracy was al-
ways held in this country.
II. The passion of revenge, always
among the most ungovernable Rigiit of
m human nature, acts with such pn^aie war.
violence upon barbarians, that it is utterly
beyond the control of their imperfect ar-
rangements of polity. It seems to them
* Le Blanc, Traite des Monnoyes, p. 91.
t Du Cange, v. Moneta. Velly, Hist, de France,
t. ii., p. 93. Villaret, t. xiv., p. 200.
t Du Cange, v. Moneta. The right of dcba.sing
the coin was also claimed by this prince as a choice
flower of his crown. Item, abaisser et ainenuser la
monnoye, est privilege especial au roy de son droit
royal, si que a luy appartient, et non a autre, et en
core en un seul cas, c'est a scavoir en necessite, el
lors lie vient pas le ganeg ne convertit en son pro
fit especial, mais en profit, et en la defence du coin
mun. This was in a process commenced by the
king's procureur-general against the Comtede Ncv-
ers for defacing his coin.— Le Blanc, Traito dt-t
Monnoyes, p. 9:^. In many places the lord took a
sum from his tenants eviry three years, un(ier the
name of monefagium or (ocagium, in lieu of c'eba
sing his money. This was finally abolishe iir i38a
— Du Cange, v. Monctagium.
^ I do not extend this to the fact ; for in t!ie an
archy of Stephen's reign, both bishops and baron«
coined mon«y for themselves. — Hovoden. p ■190
94
t-iJROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[CHiP. II
no part of the social compact, to sacrifice
the privilege which nature has placed in
the arm of valour. Gradually, however,
these fiercer feelings are blunted, and an-
other passion, hardly less povv'erful than
resentment, is brought to play in a contra-
ry direction. The earlier object accord-
ingly of jurisprudence is to establish a
fixed atonement for injuries, as much for
the preservation of tranquillity as the pre-
vention of crime. Such were the were-
gilds of the barbaric codes, which, for a dif-
ferent purpose, I have already mention-
ed.* But whether it were that the kindred
did not always accept, or the criminal
offer, the legal composition, or that other
causes of quarrel 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 inveterate a
practice was at an end ; and every man
who owned a castle to shelter him in case
of defeat, and a sufficient number of de-
pendants to take the field, was at liberty
to retaliate upon his neighbours whenev-
er he thought himself injured. It must
be kept in mind, that there was frequent-
ly either no jurisdiction to which he
could appeal, or no power to enforce its
awards ; so that we may consider the
hi;^her nobility of France as in a state of
nature with respect to each other, and en-
titled to avail themselves of all legitimate
grounds of hostility. The right of waging
private war 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.f
III. In the modern condition of gov-
iinmunity emments, taxation is a chief en-
irorn lax- ginc of the well-compactcd ma-
aiion. chinery which regulates the sys-
* The antiquity of compositions for murder is il-
lustrated by Iliad 2. 49S, where, in the descrip-
tion of the shield of Achilles, two disputants are
represented wranglmg before the judge for the wer-
Bgiid, w" price of blood; fiv«a xotvra avlpoi avo(p-
t The subject of private warfare is treated so ex-
actly and perspicuously by Robertson, that 1 should
only waste the reader's time by dwelling so long
upon It as its extent and importance would other-
wise demand. — See Hist, of Charles V., vol. i., note
21. Few leadnig passages in the monuments of the
middle ages, relative to this subject, have escaped
Che penetrating eye of that historian ; and they are
arranged so we!! as to form a comprehensive trea-
tise in small compass. I know not that I could
add any much worthy of notice, unless it be the
following. In the treaty between Philip Augustus
and Richard Coeur de Lion (1194), the latter re-
fused to admit the insertion of an article, that none
of the barons of either part) should molest the oth-
er ; lest he should infringe the customs of Foitou
»nd his other dominions, in quibus consiietum erat
*>• aiit.'fjuo, \it magnates causas propiias invicem
tern. . The payments, the prohi- Revenue*
bitions, the licenses, the watch- oiKing^
fulness of collection, the evasions "fi'""**
of fraud, the penalties and forfeitures, that
attend a fiscal code of laws, present con-
tinually to the mind of the most remote
and humble individual, the notion of a
supreme, vigilant, and coercive authority
But the early European kingdoms knew
neither the necessities nor the ingenuity
of modern finance. From their demesne
lands, the kings of France and Lombardy
supplied the common expenses of a bar-
barous court. Even Charlemagne regu-
lated the economy of his farms with the
minuteness of a steward, and a large pro-
portion of his capitularies are directed to
this object. Their actual revenue was
chiefly derived from free gifts made, ac-
cording to an ancient German custom, at
the annual assemblies* of the nation,
from amercements paid by allodial propri-
etors for default of military service, and
from the freda, or fines accruing to the
judge out of compositions for murder.j
These amounted to one third of the whole
weregild ; one third of this was paid over
by the count to the royal exchequer.
After the feudal government prevailed in
France, and neither the heribannum nor
the weregild continued in use, there
seems to have been hardly any source
of regular revenue besides the domanial
estates of the crown: unless we may
reckon as sucli, that during a journe}'',
the king had a prescriptive right to be
supplied with necessaries by the towns
and abbeys through which he passed ;
commuted sometimes into petty regular
payments, called droits de giste et de
chevauche.| Hugh Capet was nearly in-
digent as King of Prance ; though, as
Count of Paris and Orleans, he might
take the feudal aids and reliefs of his vas-
sals. Several other small emoluments
of himself and his successors, whatever
they may since have been considered,
were in that age rather seigniorial than
royal. The rights of toll, of customs, of
alienage (aubaine), generally even the re-
gale, or enjoyment of the temporalities
gladiis allegarent. — Hoveden, p. 741 (in Sjaville,
Script. Anglic).
* Du Cange, Dissertation quatri^rae sur Join
ville.
tMably, 1. i., c. 2, note 3. Du Cange, voc. Ho
ribannum, Fredum.
% Velly, t. ii., p. 329. Villaret. t. xiv., p. 174-
195. Recueil des Historiens, t. xiv., preface, p.
37. The last is a perspicuous account of the royal
revenue in the twelfth century. But far the most
luminous view of that subject, for the three next
ages, is displayed by M. de Pastoret, in his prefa-
ces to the fifieen'.h and sixteenth volumes of th
Ordonnances des Rois
/•art II.]
FEUDAL SV'STEM.
l)&
of vacant episcopal sees and other ec-
clesiastical benefices,* were possessed
jv'ithin their own domains by the great
feudatories of the crown. Tlie}^ 1 ap-
prehend, contributed nothing to their sov-
ereign ; not even those aids which the
. feudal customs enjoined. f
The history of the royal revenue in
Kxactions France is however too important
from the to bc slightly passed over. As
.lews. ti^g necessities of government in-
creased, partly through the love of mag-
nificence and pageantry, introduced by
:he crusades and the temper of chivalry,
partly in consequence of employing hired
troops instead of the feudal militia, it be-
came impossible to defray its expenses
by the ordinary means. Several devices,
therefore, were tried, in order to replen-
ish 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 superstition to Christians, was con-
fined to this industrious and covetous peo-
ple.| It is now no secret, that all reg-
ulations interfering with the interest of
money render its terms more rigorous
and burdensome. The children of Israel
grew rich in despite of insult and oppres-
sion, and retaUated upon their Christian
debtors. If an historian of Philip Au-
gustus may be believed, they possessed
almost one half of Paris. Unquestion-
ably they must have had support both at
the court and in the halls of justice. The
policy of tlie kings of France was to em-
ploy them as a sponge to suck their sub-
jects' money, which they might after-
ward 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
(iftli part to himself.^ He afterward ex-
pelled the whole nation from France.
But they appear to have returned again ;
whether by stealth, or, as is more proba-
ble, by purchasing permission. St. Louis
twice banished and twice recalled the
* The Duke of Burgundy and Count of Cliam-
pgiic did not possess the regale. But it was en-
loyed by all the other peers ; by the dukes of Nor-
mandy, Guienne, and Britaiiy ; the counts of Tou-
louse, Poitou, and Flanders. — Mably. 1. iii., c. 4.
Recueil des Historiens, t. li., p. 229, and t. xiv., p.
53. Ordonnances des Rois, t. i., p. C21.
t I have never met with any instance of a relief,
aid, or other feudal contribution paid by the vassals
of the French crown; but in this negative propo-
•ition it is possible that I may be deceived.
t Tht! .lews were celebrated for usury as early
as the ui.xth century.— Greg. Turon., 1. iv., c. 12,
and 1. vii., c. 23
i) Rigo'd, in Du Chesne I''st. Franr. Script , t.
ni.. D ti
Jews. A series of alternate persfc^ul:oI(
and tolerance was borne by this extraordi-
nary people witli an invincible perseve-
rance, and a talent of accumulating rich-
es which kept pace with their plunderers ;
till new schemes of finance supplying the
turn, they were finally expelled under
Charles VI., and never afterward obtain
ed any legal establishment in France.*
A much more extensive plan of rapine
was carried on by lowering the Debasemetu
standard of coin. Originally the or the com.
pound, a money of account, was equiv.
alent to twenty ounces of silver; and
divided into twenty pieces of coin (sous),
each equal consequently to nearly three
shillings and fourpence of our new P^ng-
hsh money.f 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 Englisli
half-penny. This was the efiect of a
long conthiuance of fraudulent and arbi
trary government. The abuse began un-
der Phdip I., in 1103, who alloyed his sil-
ver coin with a third of copper. So good
an example was not lost upon subse-
quent princes ; till under St. Louis, the
mark-weight of silver, or eight ounces,
was equivalent to fifty sous of the deba-
sed coin. Nevertheless these changes
seem hitherto to have produced no dis-
content ; whether it were that a people,
neither commercial nor enlightened, did
not readily perceive their tendency ; or,
as has been ingeniously conjectured, that
these successive diminutions of the stand-
ard were nearly counterbalanced by an
augmentation in the value of silver, oc-
casioned by the drain of money during
the crusades, with which they were about
contemporaneous. J But the rapacity of
Philip the Fair kept no measures with the
public ; and the mark in his reign liad be-
come equal to eight livres, or a hundred
and sixty sous of money. Dissatisfac-
tion, and even tumults, arose in conse-
quence, and lie was compelled to restore
the coin to its standard under St. Louis. ^
* Villaret, t. ix., p. 433. Metz contained, and
I suppose still contains, a gi-eat many Jews ; bu*
Metz was not part of the ancient kingdom.
t Besides this silver coin, there was a golden sol
worth forty pence. Le Blanc thinks the solidi ol
the Salique-law and capitularies mean the lattei
piece of money. The denarnis, or penny, wa»
worth two sous si.t deniers of modern French coin
X ViU.iret, t. xiv., p. 19S. The price of commod
itics, he asserts, did not rise till the time of St
Louis. If this be said on good authority, it is a re
markable fact ; but in England we know very lifJe
of prices before that period, and I doubt if their li.iB
tory has been better traced in France.
i) It is curious, and not perhaps unimportant, to
learn tte coursf pursued in adjustinjr DavmesiU
58
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
(Chap. Ji
Mis successors practised the same arts
nf enriching their treasury ; under Phihp
of Valois, the mark was again worth eight
li\ res. But the film had no%v dropped from
the eyes of the people ; and these adul-
terations of money, rendered more vexa-
tious by continued recoinages of the cur-
rent pieces, upon which a fee was extort-
ed by the moneyers, showed in their true
light' as mingled fraud and robbery.*
These resources of government, how-
Direct lax- ever, by no means superseded
aiioii. the necessity of more direct
taxation. The kings of France exacted
money from the roturiers, and particular-
ly the inhabitants of towns within their
domains. In this they only acted as pro-
prietors, 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 by force, says Rigord, both
his own vassals, who had been accustom-
ed to boast of their immunities, and their
feudal tenants, of a third part of their
goods. t Such arbitrary taxation of the
nobility, who deemed that their military
service discharged them from all pecu-
niary burdens, France Avas far too aris-
.ocratical a country to bear. It seems
act to have been repeated ; and his suc-
cessors generally pursued more legiti-
mate courses. Upon obtaining any con-
tribution, it was usual to grant letters
patent, declaring that it had been freely
given, and should not be turned into pre-
cedent in time to come. Several of these
letters patent of Philip the Fair are ex-
upon the resloiition of good coin, which happen-
ed pretty freqaently in the fourteer\th century,
when the States-General, or popular clamour, for-
ced the court to retract its fraudulent policy. Le
Blanc has published several ordinances nearly to
the same effect. One of Charles V'l. explains the
method adopted rather more fully than the rest.
All debts incurred since the depreciated coin began
to circulate were to be paid in that coin, or accord-
ing to its value. Those incurred previously to its
commencement were to be paid according to the
value of the money circulating at the time of the
contract. Item, que tous les vrais emprunts faits
en deniers sans fraude, se payeront en telle mon-
noye comme Ton aura emprunte, si elle aplein cours
3U temps du payement, et sinon, ils payeront en
monnoye coursable lors selon la valeur et le prix du
na-c d'or ou d'argent, p. 32.
♦ Continuator Gul. de Nangis in Spicilegio, t.
li. For the successive changes in the value of
■•"re'-ich coins, the reader may consult Le Blanc's
-.reitise, or the Ordonnances des Rois ; or he may
ind a summary view of them in Du Cange, v. Mo-
nela. The bad consequences of these innovations
are well treated by M. de Pastoret, in his elaborate
preface to the sixteenth volui le of the Ordonnances
liep Rois, p. 40.
< uu Chf sne, t. v., p. 43
tant, and published in the general collec-
tion of ordinances.* But in the reign of
this monarch, a great innovation took
place in the French constitution, which,
though it principally affected the method
of levying money, may seem to fall more
naturally under the next head of consid-
eration.
IV. There is no part of the Frojicti
feudal policy so remarkable as ,„„,„,,
the entire absence of all su- supreme !«-
preme Jeo^islation. We find it gisiative
difficult to conceive the exist- ^"' °"^^'
ence of a political society, nominally one
kingdom, and under one head, in which,
for more than three hundred years, there
was wanting the most essential attribute
of government. It will be requisite
however, to take this up a little higher,
and inquire what was the original legis-
lature of the French monarchy.
Arbitrary rule, at least in theory, was
uncongenial to the character of Q^i^j^g,
the northern nations. Neither legislative
the power of making laws, nor assemblies
that of applying them to the cir- *"" ^"""•
cumstances of particular cases, was left
at the discretion of the sovereign. The
Lombard kings held assemblies every
year at Pavia, where the chief officers
of the crown and proprietors of lands
deliberated upon all legislative meas-
ures, in the presence, and, nominally at
least, with the consent, of the mullitudt .f
Frequent mention is made of similar pub
lie meetings in France by the historians
of the IMerovingian kings, and still more
unequivocally by their statutes. | These
assemblies have been called parliaments
* Fasons scavoir et recognoissons que la derni-
ere subvention que ils nous ont faite (les barons,
vassaux et nobles d'Auveigne) de pure grace sans
ce que ils y fussent tenus que de grace ; et voulons
et leur octroyons que les autres subventions que
ils nous ont faites ne leur facent nul prejudice, es
choses esquelles ils n'etoient tenus, ne par ce nul
nouveau droit ne nous soit acquis ne amenuisie. —
Ordonnance de 1304, apud Mably, 1. iv.,c. 3, note 5.
See other authorities in the same place.
t Luitprand, king of the Lombards, says that
his laws sibi placuisse una cum omnibus judicibus
de Austriae et Neustrise partibus, et de Tuscia; fin-
ibus, cum reliquis fidehbus meis Langobardis, et
omni populo assistente. — Muratori, Dissert. 22.
X Mably, 1. i., c. 1, note 1. Lindebrog., Codes
Leguin Antiquarum, p. 363, 369. The following
passage, quoted by Mably (c. ii.,n. 6) from the pre-
amble of the revised Salique law under Clotaire II.
is explicit. Temponbus Clotairii regis una cum
principibus suis, id est 33 episcopis et 34 ducibiis
et 79 comitibus, vd caetero populo constituta est.
A remarkable instance of the use of vel instead of
et, which was not uncommon, and is noted by Du
Cange under the word Vel. Another proof of it
occurs in the very next quotation of Mably from
the edict of 615. cum pontificibus, vd cum magnu
\ir;s ODtiinatib'.is.
Habt 11."«
FEUDAL SYSTEM.
\fi
of tlie Ca-irap de Mars, having originally j
been held in the month of March. We
know very little of their constituent mem-
bers ; but it is probable that every allo-
dial proprietor had a legal right to assist
in their deliberations ; and at least equal- [
ly so, that the efficient power was nearly |
confined to the leading aristocracy. Such,
indeed, is the impression conveyed by a \
remarkable passage of Hincmar, arcli-
bishoji of llheims, during the time of
Charles the Bald, who has preserved, on
the authority of a w-riter contemporary
with Charlemagne, a sketch of the Frank-
ish government under that great prinre.
Two assemblies (placita) were annually
.. held. In the first, all regulations
iicidTy' '** of importance to the public weal
(Miarie- for the cusuiug year were en-
magtie. uded ; and to this, he says, tlie
whole body of clergy and laity repaired ;
the greater, to deliberate upon what was
fitting to be done ; and the less, to con-
firm by their voluntary assent, not through
deference to power, or sometimes even
to discuss, the resolutions of their superi-
ors.* 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 de-
bated, in each of these, upon certain ca-
pitularies, or short proposals, laid before
them by the king. The clergy and nobles
met in separate chambers, though some-
times united for the purposes of delibera-
tion. In these assemblies, principally,
I presume, in the more numerous of the
two annually summoned, that extensive
body of law's, the capitularies of Charle-
magne, were enacted. And though it
would contradict the testimony just ad-
duced from Hincmar, to suppose that the
lesser freeholders took a vey effective
share in public counsels, yet their pres-
ence, 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 con-
♦ Consuetuiio tunc temporis talis erat, ut non
saepius, sed bis in anno placita duo tenerentur.
IJnum, quando ordinahatur status totius regni ad
anni verlentis spatium ; quod ordinatum nulliis
eventus reruin, nisi suit, na necpssitas, qua3 siindi-
ter toti regno nicnmbcbav, mi'tabat. inquoplacito
generalitas universoruin majoruin, tam clencoruin
quainlaicoruin.conveniebat ; seniores, propter coti-
silium ordinanduni ; niinores, projiter idem consil-
ium suspiciendum, et interdum pariter tractandum,
et non ex potestate, sed ex proprio mentis in-
rellectu vel sententiA, ronfirmandum. — Hincmar,
Epist. 5, de ordiiie palatii. 1 iiave not translated
the word majoruin m the above quotation, not ap-
prehending its sense.
G
sent.* In one of Liui^ the Debonair, we
even trace the first germe of represent-
ative legislation. Every count is direct
ed to bring with him to the general as
sembly twelve Scabini, if there should be
so many in his county ; or, if not, should
fill up the number out of the most re-
spectable persons resident. The-se Sca-
bini were judicial assessors of the count,
chosen by the allodial proprietors.!
The circumstances, however, of tlie
French empire for several subsequent
ages were exceedingly adverse to such
enlarged schemes of polity. The nobles
contemned the imbecile descendants of
Charlemagne ; and the people, or lesser
freeholders, if thc}'^ escaped absolute vil-
lanage, lost their immediate relation to
the supreme government in the subor-
dination to their lord established by the
feudal law. Yet we may trace the shadow
of ancient popular rights in one constitu-
tional function of high importance, the
choice of a sovereign. 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 aristocracy ; and
even in solemn instruments that record
such transactions, we find a sort of ini
portance attached to the popular suf
frage.J It is surely less probable tlr*' ^
* Capitula quae prsterito anno legi Salics cuir
omnium consensu addenda esse censuiinus. (A
D. 801.) Ut populus interrogelur de capitulis qua
in lege noviter addita sunt, et postquam omnes con
senserint, subscriptiones et manutirmationes suai-
in ipsis gapitulis faciant. (A.I). 813.) Capilulariii
patris nostri qua; Franci pro lege tenenda judica
vernnt. (A.. 1). 837 ) 1 have liorrowed these quo
talions from Mably, who remarks that the word
pnpuius is never used in the earlier laws. See loo
Du Cange, vv. Le.\, Mallum, Factum.
t Vult dominus Imperator ut in tale placituin
quale ille nunc jusserit, veniat unusqiiisque comes,
et adducat secum duodecim scabinos si tanti fn
erint ; sin autem, de melioribus hominibus iliiua
comitatus suppleat numerum duodenarium. — .Ma-
bly, I. ii., c. ii.
t It has been intimated in another place, p. 67,
that the French monarchy seems not to have been
strictly hereditary under the later kings of the Me
rovingian race : at least expressions indicating: a
formal election are frequently employed by histo-
rians. Pepin of course came in by the choice ol
the nation. At his death he requesterl tiie consent
of the counts and prelates to the succession of his
sons (Haluzii Gapitularia, p. 187) ; though they had
bound themselves by oath at his consocration never
to elect a king out of another family. Ui nun
quam de alterius lumbis regem eliuere prKsnmant.
— (Formula Consecrationis Fippini m |{pciieil ile<:
Historiens, t. v.) In the instrument of ()artitiop
by Charlemagne among his descendants, he pro
vides for their immediate succession in absolute
torms, without any mention of consent. Hut in the
event of the decease of one o(hi^ mmis leaving acLlJd
whom the ptople shall choose, the otier princes were
to permit him to reign. — Baluze, p. 44^^. This
»«
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
rcHAp. •!
recognition of this elective right' should
have been introduced as a mere ceremo-
ny, than that the form should have sur-
vived after length of time and revolutions
of government had almost obliterated the
recollection of its meaning.
It must, however, be impossible to as-
certain even the theoretical privileges of
the subjects of Charlemagne, much more
to decide how far they were substantial or
illusory. We can only assert in general,
Ihat there continued to be some mixture
of democracy in the French constitution
during the reign of Charlemagne and his
first successors. The primeval German
institutions were not eradicated. In the
Capitularies, the consent of the people is
frequently expressed. 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 enactment.* It would hardly be
repeated more perspicuously in the partition made
by Louis I., in 817. Si quis eorum decedens le-
gitimos filios reliquerit, non inter eos potestas ipsa
dividatur, sed potius populus pariter conveniens,
unum e.\ iis, quern dominus voluerit, eligat, et
hunc senior frater in loco fratris et filii recipiat. —
Baluze, p. 577. Proofs of popular consent given
to the succession of kings during the two ne.\t cen-
turies are frequent, but of less importance on ac-
count of the irregular condition of government.
Even after Hugh Capet's accession, hereditary
right was far from bemg established. The first si.K
kings of this dynasty procured the co-optation of
their sons, by having them crowned during their
iwn lives. Ancl this was done without the con-
sent of the chief vassals.— (Recueil des Hi^., t. .xi.,
p. 133.) In the reign of Robert it was a great ques-
tion whether the elder son should be thus designa-
ted as heir in preference to his younger brother,
whom the queen, Constance, was anxious to place
upon the throne. Odolric, bishop of Orleans, writes
to Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, in terms which lead
one to think that neither hereditary succession
nor primogeniture was settled on any fi.xed prin-
ciple.— (Id., t. X., p. 504.) And a writer in the same
collection, about the year 1000, expresses himself
in the following manner : Melius est electioni
principis non subscnbere, quarn post subscription-
em eU'ctum contemnere ; in altero enim libertatis
amor iaudatur, in altero servilis contumacia probro
datur. Tres namque generales electiones novimus ;
quarum una est regis vel imperatoris, altera ponti-
hcis, altera abbatis. Et primam quidem facit con-
co.'dia totius regni ; secundam vero unanimitas
ci'kuux et cleri ; tertiam sanius consilium ccpiiobi-
ticai congregationis. — (Id., p.C2G.) At the corona-
tion of Philip I., in 1059, the nobility and people
(milites et popuh tam majores quam minores) tes-
tified their consent by crying, Laudamus, volumus,
fiat, t xi., p. 33. I suppose, if search were made,
mat similar testimonies might he found still later;
and perhaps hereditary succession cannot be con-
sidered as a fundamental law till the reign of Philip
Aiiirnsnis, ihe era of many changes in the French
consiitution.
* Lex consensu populi fit, corstitutione regis —
Reci'eil des Hist-, t. vii., p. 65G.
warranted by analogy or precedent, to
interpret the word people so very nar-
rowly as to exclude any allodial proprie-
tors, among whom, however unequal in
opulence, no legal inequality of rank is
supposed to have yet arisen.
But by whatever authority laws were
enacted, whoever were the constituent
members of national assemblies, they
ceased to be held in about seventy years
from tiio death of Charlemagne. The
latest capitularies are of Carloman, in
882.* From this time there ensues along
blank in the history of French legislation
The kingdom was as a great fief, or rath
er as a bundle of fiefs, and the king little
more than one of a number of feudal no-
bles, difiering rather in dignity thair in
power from some of the rest. The royal
council was composed only of barons, or
tenants in chief, prelates, and household
officers. These now probably delibera-
ted 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 advised the king Royai counc-i
in matters of government, con- "f the ttiird
firmed and consented to his "'^*'
grants, and judged in all civil and crimi
nal cases, where any peers of their court
were concerned.! The great vassals of
the crown acted for themselves in their
own territories, with the assistance of
councils similar to that of the king
Such indeed was the symmetry of feudal
customs, that the manerial court of every
vavassor represented in miniature that of
his sovereign. J
But, notwithstanding the want of any
permanent legislation during so long a
* It is generally said, that the capitularies cease
with Charles the Simple, who died in 921. But
Baluze has published only two under the name oi
that prince ; the first, a declaration of his queen'a
jointure ; the second, an arbitration of disputes in
the church of Tongres ; neither surely deserving
the appellation of a law.
t Regali potentia in nullo abuti volentes, say*
Hugh Capet, omnia negotia reipublica; in consulta
tione et seiitentia fidelium nostrorum disponimus
— Kecueil des Hist., t. x., p. 392. The subscrip
tions of these royal counsellors were necessary fo
the confirmation, or, at least, the authentication o
charters, as was also the case in England, Spain
and Italy. This practice continued in England till
the reign of John.
The Curia regis seems to have differed only in
name from the Concilium regium. It is also called
Curia parium, from the equality of the barons who
composed it, standing in the same feudal degree of
relation to the sovereign. But we are not yet ar
rived at the subject of jurisdiction, which it is very
difficult to keep distinct from what is immediateli
before us.
X Recueil des Hi t, t. xi., p. 300, and preface p
179. Vaissette, His de Languelnc.t. ii., p 503
♦ VBT ll.l
tbUDAL SYSTE'tf
9»
period, instances occur, in which the
tings of France appear to have acted
with the concurrence of an assembly,
•jecasionai ^ore numerous and more par-
issembiips ticularly summoned than the
)f barons, royal council. At such a con-
gress, held in 1146, the crusade of Louis
VII. was undertaken.* We find also an
ordinance of the same prince in some
collections, reciting 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. t The famous Saladine tithe was
imposed upon lay as well as ecclesiastical
revenues by a similar convention in 1 188. J
And when Innocent IV., during his con-
test with the Emperor Frederick, request-
ed an asylum in France, St. Louis, though
much inclined to favour him, ventured
only to give a conditional permission, pro-
vided it were agreeable to his barons,
whom, he said, a king of France was
Dound to consult in such circumstances.
Accordinglir he assembled the French
Darons, who unanimously refused their
consent. 1^
It was the ancient custom of the kings
<if France as well as of England, and in-
3ours Pi<i- deed of all those vassals who af-
T.eres. fectcd a kind of sovereignty, to
hold general meetings of their barons,
called Cours Plenieres 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-humour ;
nor is it easy to discover that they passed
in any thing but pageantry. || Some re-
spectable antiquaries have however been
of opinion, that affairs of state were oc-
casionally discussed in them ; and this is
* Velly, t. iii., p. 119. This, he observes, is the
first instance in which the word parhament is used
for a deUberative assembly.
t Ego Ludovicus Dei gratia Francoriim rex, ad
rcprimendum fervorem malignantium, et compe-
scendiHu violentas prsedonun manus, postulationi-
biis cleri et assensu baroniae, toti regno pacem con-
stituiinus. Ea cause, anno Incarnati Verbi 1155,
iv idiis Jun. Suessionense concilium celebre ad-
unavimus, et affuerunt archiepiscopi Kemensis,
Senonensis et eorum sud'raganei ; item barones,
comes Elandrensis, Trecensis, et Nivernensis ei
quamplures alii, et dux Burgundiaj. Ex quorum
beneplacito ordinavimus a veniente PaschA ad
decern annos, ut omnes ecclesiae regni et omncs
agricolae etc. pacem habeant et securitatein
In pacem istam juraverunt Dux Burgundiae, Comes
Fiandrire, et reliqui barones quiaderant.
This ordinance is published in Du Chesne,
Script, llerum. Gallicarum, t. iv., and in Recueii
les Histor., t. xiv., p. 387 ; but not in the general
{ollection.
t Velly, t. iii., p. 315. ^ Ibid,, t. iv., p. 306.
II Du Cange, Dissert. 5, sur Joinville.
certainly by no means inconsistent with
probability, though not sufficiently estab-
lished by evidence.*
Excepting a few instances, most of
which have been mentioned, it does nut
appear that the kings of tlie house of
Capet acted according to the advice and
deliberation of any national assembly,
such as assisted the Norman sovereigns
of England ; nor was any consent re-
quired for the validity of their edicts, ex-
cept that of the ordinary council, chiefly
formed of their household oihcers and
less powerful vassals. This is at first
sight very remarkable. For there can
be )io doubt that the government of Hen-
ry I. or Henry II. was incomparably
stronger than that of Louis VI. or Louis
VII. But this apparent absoluteness of
the latter was the result of their real
weakness and the disorganization of the
monarchy. The peers of France were
infrequent in their attendance upon the
king's council, because they denied it.s
coercive authority. It was a Limitations
fundamental principle, that ev- of royal
erv feudal tenant was so far i'""';^ '" '"
■^ . ... , .. ., r- gislation
sovereign withm the hmits of
his fief, that he could not be bound by
any law without his consent. The king,
says St. Louis in his Establishments,
cannot make proclamation, that is, de-
clare any new law, in the territory of a
baron without his consent, nor can the
baron do so in that of a vavassor. j- Thus,
if legislative power be essential to sover-
eignty, we cannot in strictness assert
the King of France to have been sover-
eign 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.
Upon occasions, when the necessity of
common deliberation, or of giv- substituies
ing to new provisions more ex- for legi-ia-
tensive scope than the limits of [[^ '^""'""^
a single fief, was too glaring to
be overlooked, congresses of neighbour-
ing lords met in order to agree upon reso-
lutions, which each of them undertook to
execute within his own domains. The
king was sometimes a contracting party,
but without any coercive authority over
the rest. Thus we have what is called
an ordinance, but, in reality, an agree-
* Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscript., t. xli. Recuei!
des Hist., t. xi., jir^face, p. 155.
t Ne li Rois ne puet mettre ban en la terre au
baron sans son assentment, ne li Hers [Baroni nc
puet mettre ban en la terre au favaeor.— Oiaoo
nances des Rois, t. i., p. 1?6
100
kjVKV^t, DlUiyi-' 'I'HE MIDULK AUi^S
'Char ii
rnent Le ween ihe king (Philip Augus-
tus), Ihe Countess of Troyes or Cham-
pagne, and the Lord of Dampierre (Count
of Flanders), relating to the Jews in their
domains ; which agreement 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 pur-
pose."*
Ecclesiastical councils were another
substitute for a regular legislature; and
tliis defect in the political constitution
'rendered their encroachments less ob-
noxious, and almost unavoidable. That
of Troyes in 878, composed perhaps in
part of laymen, imposed a fine upon the
invaders of church property'. f 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 rehgion ; and ordained
that judges should administer justice gra-
tuitously, and pubhsh the decrees of the
council four times in the year.|
The first unequivocal attempt, for it
First meas- was nothing more, at general
•uesofgea- legislation, was under Louis
wJio'''°'^' VIIL, in 1223, in an ordinance,
which, like several of that age,
relates to the condition and usurious deal-
ings of the Jews. It is declared in the
preamble to have been enacted, per as-
sensum archiepiscoporum, episcoporum,
comitum, baronum, et militum regni
FranciaB, qui Judreos habent, et qui Juda?03
non habent. This recital is probaldy un-
true, and intended to cloak the bold inno-
vation contained in the last clause of the
following provision : Sciendum, quod nos
et barones nostri statuimus et ordinavi-
nius de statu Judffiorum quod nullus nos-
trum alterius Judaecs recipere potest vel
retinere ; et hoc intelligendinn est tarn de his
qui stahilimentum juraverint, quam de illis
i/ui non juraverint.^ This was renewed
with some alteration in 1230, de communi
consilio baronum nostrorum.|i
But whatever obedience the vassals of
the crown might pay to this ordinance,
their original exemption from legislative
control remained, as we have seen, un-
impaired at the date of theEstablishments
* Quousque nos, et comitissa Tn'censis, et
Guido de Domna petra, qui hoc facimus, per nos,
et iiios de baronibus nostris, quos ad hoc ^ocare vo-
luiri'js, illud diffaciamus. — Ordonnances des Rois,
t. 1., p. 39. This ordinance bears no date, but it
waf, probably between 1218 and 1223, the year of
Philip's death.
+ V'aisseUe, Hist, de Languedoc, t. n., p. 6.
t Velly, t. IV., p. 132.
6 '■-rdonn. dcs Rois, t. i.. d. 47. |1 Id., p. 53.
] of St. Louis, about i2G9 ; dud their ill
judged confidence in this feudal privilege
still led them to absent themselves fron
the royal council. It seems impossible tc
doubt that the barons of France migh
have asserted the same right, which
those of England had obtained, that of
being duly summoned by special writ,
and thus have rendered their consent
necessary to every measure of legisla-
tion. But the fortunes of France were
different. The Establishments of St
Louis are declared to be made " pai
grand conseil de sages hommes et de
bons clers," but no mention is made of
any consent given by the barons ; nor
does it often, if ever, occur in subsequent
ordinances of the French kings.
The nobility did not long continue safe
in their immunity from tlie king's Legislative
legislative power. In the en- power of
sumg reign of Philip the Bold, ""■ "°'"'^
Beaumanoirlays it down, though
in very moderate and doubtful .erins,
that " when the king makes any ordi-
nance speciaay for his own domains,
the barons do not cease to act in theij
territories according to the ancient usage
but, when the ordinance is general, i'
ought to run through the whole kingdom
and we ought to beheve that it is made
with good advice, and for the commor
benefit."* In another place he says with
more positiveness, that '• the king is
sovereign above all, and has of right the
general custody of the realm, for which
cause he may make what ordinances he
pleases for the common good, and wha*
he ordains ought to be obsecved ; nor la
there any one so great but may be drawn
into the king's court for defaidt of right
or for false judgment, or in matters that
affect the sovereign."! These latter
words give us a clew to the solution of
the problem, by what means an absolute
monarchy was established in Causes oi
France. For though the barons ""^•
would have been lutle influenced by the
authority of a lawyer like Beaumanoir,
they were much less able to resist the
coercive logic of a judicious tribunal. It
was in vain for them to deny the obliga-
tion of royal ordinances within their own
domains, when tliey were compelled to
acknowledge the jurisdiction of the par-
liament of Paris, which took a very dif-
ferent view of their privileges. This
progress of the royal jurisdiction will
fall under the next topic of inquiry, and
is only now hinted at, as the probable
means of confirming the absolute Ingisla
live power of the French crown.
♦ Cciitumos de Beauvoisis, c 48.
r 34
f ART /I. J
FEUDAL iSVSTEM.
10
The ulti nate source, hov/ever, of this
increased authority, will be found in the
commanding attitude assumed by the
kings of France from the reign of Phihp
Augustus, and particularly in the annex-
ation of the two great fiels of Normandy
aud Toulouse. Though the ch&telains
and vavassors who had depended upon
those fiefs before their reunion were,
agreeably to the text of St. Louis's ordi-
nance, fully sovereign, in respect of le-
gislation, within their territories, yet they
were little competent, and perliaps little
disposed, to offer any opposition to the
royal edicts ; and the same relative su-
periority of force, which had given the
first kings of the house of Capet a tolera-
bly effective control over the vassals de-
pendant on Paris and Orleans, while they
hardly pretended to any over Normandy
and Toulouse, was now extended to the
greater part of the kingdom. St. Louis,
in his scrupulous moderation, forbore to
avail himself of all the advantages pre-
sented by the circumstances of his reign ;
and his Establishments bear testimony to
a state of political society, which, even
at the moment of their promulgation,
was passing away. The next thirty
years after his death, with no marked
crisis, and with little disturbance, silently
demolished the feudal system, such as
had been established 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
* It is almost unanimously agreed among- French
writers, thai Philip the Fair first introduced a rep-
resentation of the towns into his national assembly
of States General. Nevertheless, the Chronicles
of St. Denis, and other historians of rather a late
date, assert that the deputies of towns were pres-
ent at a parliament in 1311, to advise the king what
should be done in consequence of the Count of An-
pouleme'srefusalof homage. — Boulainvilliers, Hist,
de I'Ancien Gouvernemeiit de France, t. ii., p. 20.
Villaret, t. ix., p. 125. The latter pretends even
that they may be traced a century farther back:
on voit deja les gens de bonnes viiles assister aux
etats de 1145, ibid. But he quotes no authority
for this ; and his vague language does not justify
us in supposing that any representation of the
three estates, properly so understood, did, or in-
deed could, take place in 1145, while the power of
the aristocracy was unbroken, and very few towns
had been nicorporated. If it be true that the depu-
ties of some royal towns were summoned to tiie
parliament of 1211, the conclusion must not be in
ferrca, that they possessed any consenting voice,
nor perhaps that they formed, strictly speaking, an
mtegrant portion of the assembly, 'f here is reason
to believe, that lieputies from the royal burghs of
Scotland occasionally appeared at the bar of par-
liament long oefore they had any deliberative voice.
-Pinkerfon's Hist, of Scotland, vol. i., p. 371.
An ordinance of St. Louis, quoted in a very re-
»pectable book, Vaissette's History of Languedoc,
iii.. p. 480, but I'Ot nublished in the Recueil lU ■
beginning of the fourteenth cenlury, the
real master of his subjects.
There was however one essential priv-
ilege which he could not hope Convocation
to overturn by force, the iinmu- c'^nerai' ^T
nity from taxation enjoyed by i'i,ji,p nie
his barons. This, it will be re- Fair,
membered, embraced the whole extent
of their fiefs, and their teiantry of every
description ; the king having no more
right to impose a tallage upon the de
mesne towns of his vassals, than upon
themselves. Thus his resources, in point
of taxation, were limited to his own do-
mains; including certainly, under Pliilip
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 em-
ployed by this rapacious 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 sec
ond slow and imperfect. Confiding in
his sovereign authority, though recently,
j'^et almost completely established, aud
little apprehensive of the feudal princi-
ples, already grown obsolete and dis-
countenanced, he was bold enough to
make an extraordinary innovation in the
French constitution. This was the con-
vocation of the States General, a repre-
sentative body, cotnposed of the three
orders of the nation.* They were first
Ordonnances, not only shows the existence, in one
instance, o{ a provincial legislative assembly, init is
the earliest proof perhaps of the tiers etat appear-
ing as a constituent part of it. This relates to the
seneschaussee, or county, of Heaucaire in Langue-
doc, and bears date in 1254. It provides, that i( the
seneschal shall think fit to prohibit the export of
merchandise, he shall summon some of the pre-
lates, barons, knights, and inhabitants of the chief
towns, by whose advice he shall issue such prohi-
bition, and not recall it, when made, without like
advice. But though it is interesting to see the pro-
gressive importance of the citizens of towrys, yet
this temporary and insulated ordinance is not of
itself sufficient to establish a constitutional right.
Neither do we find therein any evidence of repre-
sentation ; it rather appears that the persons as-
sisting in this assembly were notables, selected by
the seneschal.
I am not aware of any instance of regula'r pro-
vincial estates being summoned with such full
powers, although it was very common in the four-
teenth century to ask their consent to grants of
money, when the court was unwilling to convoke
the States General. Yet there is a passage in i
book of considerable credit, the Grand Customary,
or Somme Rurale of Bouteiller, which seems to
render general the particular case of the seneschaus-
see of Beaucaire. Bouteiller wrote about the enc
of the fourteenth century. The great courts sum
moned from time to time by the baillis And senes-
chals were called assizes. Their usual furctiou
0^
EUROPE DUR -NG THE MIDDLE AGES.
H HAT li
convened in 1302, in order to give more
weight to the king's cause, in his great
•uiarrei with Boniface VIII. ; but their
earhest grant of a subsidy is in 1314.
Thus tlie nobility surrendered to the
jrown their last privilege of territorial
ndependence ; and having first subniit-
'ed to its appellant jurisdiction over their
iribunals, next to its legislative suprem-
acy, now suflering their own dependants
to become, as it were, immediate, and a
third estate to rise up almost co-ordinate
with themselves, endowed with new fran-
chises, and bearing a new relation to the
monarchy.
It is impossible not to perceive tlie mo-
tives of Philip in imbodying the deputies
of towns as a separate estate in the na-
tional representation. He might, no ques-
tion, have convoked a parliament of his
barons, and obtained a pecuniary contri-
bution, which they would have levied
upon their burgesses and other tenants.
But besides the ulterior policy of dimin-
ishing the control of the barons over
their dependants, he had good reason to
expect more liberal aid from the immedi-
ate representatives of the people, than
through the concession of a dissatisfied
aristocracy. He must be blind indeed,
says Pasquier, who does not see that the
roturier was expressly summoned to this
assembly, contrary to the ancient insti-
tutions of France, for no other reason
than that, inasmuch as the burden was
intended to fall principally upon him, he
might engage himself so far by promise,
that he could not afterward murmur or
become refractory.* Nor would I deny
the influence of more generous princi-
ples ; the example of neighbouring coun-
tries, the respect due to the progressive
civilization and opulence of the towns,
was to administer justice, especially by way of ap-
peal, and perhaps to redress abuses of inferior offi-
cers. But he seems to give them a more extendeil
authority. En assise, he says, appelles les sages
et seigneurs du pais, peuvent estre mises sus nou-
velles constitutions, et ordonnances sur le pais et
destruites autre que seront grevables, et im autre
temps non, et doivent etre publiees, afin que rnii ne
les pueust ignorer, et lors ne les peut ne doit ja-
mais nul redarg'jsr. — Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscrip-
tions,' t. XXX., p. 606.
The taille was assessed by respectable persons
chosen by the advice of the parish priests and oth-
ers, which gave the people a sort of share in the
repartkion, to use a French term, of public burdens ;
a matter of no small importance, where a tax is
levied on visible property. — Ordonnances des Rois,
p. 291. Beaumanoir, p. 269. This however con-
tinued, I believe, to be the practice in later times ;
\ know it is so in the present system of France ;
and is perfectly distinguishable from a popular con-
sent to taxation.
♦ Rccberches de la France, 1. ii.. c 7.
and the application of that ancient maxiin
of the northern monarchies, that whc
ever was elevated to the perfect dignity
ot~ a l>eeman, acquired a claim to partici-
pate in the imposition of public tribute.s
It is very ditficult to ascertain the con
stitutional rights of the States
General, claimed or admitted, the states
during forty years after their General av
first convocation. If indeed we '"'^.xat.on
could implicitly confide in an historian of
the sixteenth century, 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 ar
chives : and though by no means to bo
rejected on that account, when we con
sider the strong motives for its destruc
tion, cannot fairly be adduced as an au
thentic fact. Nor can we altogether in
fer, perhaps, from the collection of ordi
nances, that the crown had ever inten
tionally divested itself of the right to im
pose tallages on its domanial tenant.s.
All others, however, were certainly ex
empted from that prerogative ; and there
seems to have been a general sentiment,
that no tax whatever could be levied with-
out free consent of the estates. f Loui*
Hutin, in a charter granted to the nobles
and burgesses of Picardy, promises to
abolish the unjust taxes (maltotes) impo-
sed by his father ;J and in another instru-
ment, called the charter of Normandy,
declares that he renounces for himself
and his successors all undue tallages and
exactions, except in case of evident util-
ity.^ This exception is doubtless of per-
ilous ambiguity ; yet, as the charter was
literally wrested from the king by an in-
surrectionary league, it might be expect-
ed that the same spirit would rebel against
his royal interpretation of state-necessi
ty. His successor, Philip the Long, tned
the experiment of a gabelle, or excise
upon salt. But it produced so much dis
content, that he was compelled to assem-
ble the States General, and to publish an
ordinance declaring that the impost was
not designed to be perpetual, and that, if
* Boulainvilliers (Hist, de I'Anc. Gouvernement
t. ii., p. 128) refers for this to Nicholas Gilles, s
chronicler of no great repute.
t Mably (Observat. sur I'Hist. de France, 1. v.,
c. 1) is positive against the right of Philip the Fail
and his successors to impose taxes. Montlosiei
(Monarchic Fran^aise, t. i., p. 202) is of the same
opinion. In fact, there is reason to believe, thai
the kings in general did not claim that prcrogttivf
absolutely, whatever pretexts they might set n,i foi
occasional stretches of uower.
t Ordonnances des Rois, t. i, p oGb.
I Idem. 1. 1., p. 589.
Fart II. J
FEUDAL SYSTEM
IOj
a, sufficient sufpiy fjr the existing war
could be found elsewliere, it should in-
stantly determine.* Whether this was
done, I do not discover; nor do I con-
ceive that any of the sons of Philip the
Fair, inheriting much of his rapacity and
ambition, abstained from extorting money
without consent. Philip of Valois renew-
ed and augmented the duties on salt by
liis own prerogative, nor had the abuse
of debasing 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 re-
markable concussion in the government
of France.
Ihave been obliged to advert, in an-
siatesGen- o^^'iGr place, to the memorable
era! 011355 resistance made by the Estates
and 1356, General of 1335 and 1350 to the
royal authority, on account of its insep-
arable connexion with the civil history
of France. f In the present chapter, the
assump. ion of political influence by those
assemblies deserves particular notice.
Not that they pretended to restore the
ancient constitution of the northern na-
tions, still flourishing in Spain and Eng-
! md, the participation of legislative pow-
er with the crown. Five hundred years
of anarchy and ignorance had swept away
;U1 remembrance of those general diets,
i:i which the capitularies of the Carlovin-
gian dynasty had been established by
common consent. 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, indeed,
against abuses, and especially the most
flagrant of all, the adulteration of money;
but the ordinance granting redress ema-
nated altogether from the king, and with-
out the least reference to their consent,
which sometimes appears to be studiously
omitted.J But the privilege upon which
the states under John solely relied for
* Ordonnances lies Kois, t. i., p. 679.
* Chap, i., p. 42.
X The proceedings of States General held under
Philip IV. and his sons have left no trace in the
French statute-book. Two ordniances alone, out
of some hundred enacted by Philip of V'alois, ap-
pear to have been founded upon their suggestions.
It is absolutely certain that tl-'3 States General
of France had at no period, anc (n no instance, a
co-ordinate legislative authr-'ity with the crown,
or even a consenting voicf Mably, Boulainvil-
liers, and Monllosier, are as >K<;isive on this sub-
ject as the most courtly writers of tliat country.
It follows as a just consequence, that F' ranee never
pcwsessad a free constitution ; nor had the monar-
chy ary limitations in respect of enacting laws,
nave those which, until the reign of Philip the Fair,
the feudal Drinciples had imposed
securing the redress of grievances, was
that of granting money, and of regulalino
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 taxation resides. That, accord
ingly, which met in 1355 nominatet b
committee, chosen out of the three or
ders, which was to sit after tlieir separa-
tion, and which the king bound himsell'
to consult, not only as to the internal ar-
rangements of his administration, but
upon every proposition of peace or armi
stice with England. Deputies were de-
spatched into each district, to superintend
the collection, and receive the produce
of the subsidy granted by the states.*
These assumptions of power would iioi
long, we may be certain, have left the
sole authority of legislation in the king
and might perhaps be censured as usurpa-
tion, if the peculiar emergency in which
France was then placed did not furnisli
their defence. But, if it be true that the
kingdom was reduced to the utmost dan-
ger and exhaustion, as much by malver-
sation of its government as by the ar
mies of Edward III., who shall deny to
its representatives the rights of ultimate
sovereignty, and of suspending at least
the royal prerogatives, by the abuse of
which they were falling into destruc-
tion ?t I confess that it is exceedingly
difficult, or perhaps impracticable, with
such information as we possess, to de-
cide upon the motives and conduct of the
States General, in their several meetings
before and after the battle of Poitiers.
Arbitrary power prevailed; and its op-
ponents became, of course, the theme of
obloquy with modern historians. Frois-
sart, however, does not seem to impute
any fault to these famous assemblies of
the States General ; and still less a more
contemporary historian, the anonymous
continuator of Nangis. Their notices,
however, are very slight ; and our chief
knowledge of the parliamentary history
of France, if I may employ the expres-
sion, must be collected from tlie royal
ordinances made upon these occasions
or from unpublished accounts of their
* Ordonnances des Rois, t. iii., p. 21 , and preface,
p. 42. This preface by M. Secousse, the editor,
gives a very clear view of the general ami jirovin
cial assemblies held in the reign of .lohn. Houlain-
villiers. Hist, de I'Anc. Gouvernemcnt de Franc;
t. ii., or ViUaret, t. ix., may be perused with advaii
tage.
+ The secoiid continuator of Nangis in the Spi
cnegiuin dwells on the heavy taxes, diminution o(
money, and general oppressiveness of govrrunie-'il
in this age, t. iii.. p 108.
lot
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
(Chap. D
-lansactioiis. Some of these, which are
quoted by the later Trencli historians, are
(if course inaccessible to a writer in this
inuntry. Eut a manuscript in the British
Museum, containing the early proceed-
ings of that assembly which met in Octo-
ber, 1356, immediately after the battle of
Poitiers, by no means leads to an unfa-
vourable cstmiate of its intentions.* The
.rone of their representations to the Duke
of Normandy (Charles V., not then call-
ed dauphin) is full of loyal respect ; their
complaints of bad administration, though
bold and pointed, not outrageous ; their
offers of subsidy hberal. The necessity
of restoring the coin is strongly repre-
sented, as the grand condition upon which
they consented to tax the people, who
had been long defrauded by the base
noney of Philip the Fair and his succes-
sors.-j-
* Cotton MSS. Titus, t. xii., fol. 58-74. This
Tianuscnpt is noticed, as an important document,
m the preface to the third volume of Ordonnances,
p. 48, Isy M. Secousse, who had found it mention-
ed in the Bibliotheque Historique of Le Long, No.
11,242. No French antiquary appears, at least be-
fore that time, to have seen it ; but Bouhiinvilliers
conjectured that it related to the assembly of states
in February, 1356 (1357), and M. Secousse suppo-
sed it rather to be the original journal of the pre-
ceding meeting in October, 1356, from which a
copy, found among the manuscripts of Dupuy, and
frequently referred to by Secousse himself in his
preface, had been taken. M. Secousse was per-
fectly right in supposing the manuscript in ques-
tion to relate to the proceedings of October, and not
of February ; but it is not an original instrument.
it forms part of a small volume written on vellum,
and conlaining several other treatises. It seems,
however, as far as I can judge, to be another copy
ui lUe account which Dupuy possessed, and which
Secousse so often quotes, under the name of Pro-
ces-verbal.
+ Et estoit et est I'entente de ceulx qui a la ditte
oonvocation estoient quequelconque ottroyouayde
qu'ils feissent, ils eussent bonne monnoye et esta-
ble selon I'advis des trois estats — et que les char-
tres et lettres faites pour les reformations du roy-
aume par le roy Philippe le bel, et toutes celles
qui furent faites par le roy notre seigneur qui est a
present fussent confirmees enterniees tenues et
gardees de point en point ; et toutes les aides quel-
(onquesqui faiies soient fussent recues et distri-
buees par ceulx qui soient a ce commis par les trois
estats, et autorisees par M. le Due et sur certaines
autres conditions et modifications justes et raisson-
ahles et proutfitabies et semble que ceste aide eust
ete moult grant et moult prouffitable, et trop plus
lue aides de fait de monnoye. Car elle se feroit
de volonte du peuple et consentement commun
selon Dieu et selon conscience : Et !e prouffit que
on prent et ve.:lt on prendre sur le fait de la mon-
noye duquel on veult faire le fait de la guerre, et
ce soil a la destruction et a este au lemps passe du
loy et du royauine el des subjets ; Et si se destruil
le biUon tant par fontures et blanchis comme autre-
ment, ne le fait ne peust durer longuement qu'il ne
/ienne k destruction si on continue longuement ;
tt si est tout certain que les gens d'armes ne
»ouldroient e?tre contens de leurs gaiges par foible
'«j.ir.nove, &t
But whatever opportunity might now
be afforded for establishing a lust Trouble*
and free constitution in France »' I'ar's
was entirely lost. [A. D. 1357.] Charles
inexperienced and surrounded by evil
counsellors, thought the State? General
inchned to encroach upon his rights, of
which, in the best part of his life, he wag
always abundantly careful. He dismiss-
ed therefore the assembly, and had re-
course to the easy but ruinous expedient
of debasing the coin. This led to sedi-
tions at Paris, by which his authority and
even his life were endangered. In Feb-
ruary, 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 tendered by the former assem-
bly.* This contained many excellent
provisions, both for the redress of abnses,
and the vigorous prosecution of the war
against Edward ; and it is difficult to con-
ceive, that men who advised measures sc
conducive to the public weal, could have
been the blind instruments of the King
of Navarre. But this, as I have already
observed, is a problem in history thai
we cannot hope to resolve. It appears,
however, that in a few weeks after the
promulgation of this ordinance, the pro
ceedings of the reformers fell into dis-
credit, and their commission of thirty-six,
to whom the collection of the new sub-
sidy, the redress of grievances, and, in
fact, the whole administration of govern-
ment, had been intrusted, became unpop-
ular. The subsidy produced much less
than they had led the people to expect ;
briefly, tlie usual consequence of demo-
cratical emotions in a monarchy took
place. Disappointed by the failure of
hopes unreasonably entertained, and im-
providently encouraged, and disgusted by
the excesses of the violent demagogues,
the nation, especially its privileged class-
es, who seem to have concurred in the
original proceedings of the States Gen
eral, attached themselves to the party ol
Charles, and enabled him to quell oppo-
sition by force. f Marcel, provost of the
traders, a municipal magistrate of Paris,
detected in the overt execution of a trai-
torous conspiracy with the King of Na-
varre, was put to death by a private hand.
Whatever there had been of real patriot-
ism in the States General, artfully con-
founded, according to the practice of
* Ordjnnances des Rois, t. iii., p. 121.
+ Discordia mota, illi tres status ab incepio pro
posito cessaverunt. Ex tunc enim regni negotis
male ire, &c.— Continuator Gul. de Nan?i= 'n Sw
I cilegio, t. iii.. p. 115.
I-AKI 11]
FEUDAL SYSTEM.
i03
raxes im
post'il by
John and
Cliarles V
courts, Willi these schemes of disaffected
men, sliarcd in the common obloquy ;
whatever substantial reforms had been
projected, the government thr»\v 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 predecessors had dis-
played, and publicly restored all counsel-
lors whom in the former troubles he had
been compelled to discard. Thus the
monarchy resettled itself on its ancient
basis ; or, more properly, acquired addi-
tional stability.*
Both John, after the peace of Bre-
tigni, and Charles V. imposed
taxes without consent of the
States General.! The latter in-
deed hardly ever convoked that
dssembly. [A. D. 1380.] Upon his death
Remedial ^hc contention between the
iirdiriance of crown and representative body
Cliarles VI. ^^jj^g renewed, and in the first
meeting held after the accession of
Charles VI. the government was com-
pelled to revoke all taxes illegally im-
[losed since the reign of Philip IV. This
is the most remedial ordinance, perhaps
in the history of French legislation. " We
will, ordain, and grant," says the king,
' that the aids, subsidies, and impositions,
of wliatever 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 privi-
leges aiid 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 tiling has been
done contrary to them since that time
to the present hour, neither we nor our
successors shall take any advantage
therefrom. "J If circumstances had turn-
* A very full account of these transactions is
given by Secousse, in his History of Charles the
B.ui, p. 107, and in his prefnce to the third volume
ni the Ordonn. des Rois. The reader must make
allowance for the usual partialities of a French his-
torian, where an opposition to the reigning prince
18 his subject. A contrary bias is manifested by
Boulainvilliers and Mably, whom, however, it is
vvfll worth while to hear.
t Nf ably, 1. v., c. 5, note 5.
i Ordonnances des Rois, t. vi., p. 564. The
ord.n?nce is long, containing frequent repetitions,
and a great redundance of words, intended t: give
more force r at least solemnity.
ed out favourably fot the cause of Lberty
this ordinance might have been the basis
of a free constitution, in respect at least
of immunity from arbitrary taxatior;
But the coercive measures of the court
and tumultuous 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 constituents with tha"
awfulness of station, which is required
to withsta-nd 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 w-ere supposed
incapable of binding their constituents
without their specific assent. Whethei
it were the timidity of the deputies, or
false notions of freedom, which produced
this doctrine, it was evidently repugnant
to the stability and dignity of a represent-
ative assembly. Nor was it less ruin
ous in practice than mistaken in theory
For as the necessary subsidies, after be-
ing provisionally granted by the states,
were often rejected by their electors, the
king found a reasonable pretence for dis-
pensing with the concurrence of his sub-
jects when he levied contributions upon
them.
The States General were convoked but
rarely under Charles VI. and siates Genera'
VII., both of whom levied under Cliaries
money without their concur- ^'"•
reiice. Ytt there are remnrkable testi-
monies under the latter of these princes
that the sanction of national representa
tives was still esteemed strictly requisitt
to any ordinance imposing a general tax
however the emergency of circumstances
might excuse a more arbitrary procedure.
Thus Charles VII., in 1430, declares that
he has set up again the aids w hich had
been previously abolished by the consenl
of the three estates * And in the imjwrtan
edict establishing the companies of or-
dounance, which is recited to be done by
the advice and counsel of the States Gen-
eral assembled at Orleans, the ft)rty-firsl
section appears to bear a necessary con
struction, that no tallage could lawfully
be imposed without such conscnt.t Itii
maintained indeed by some writers, that
* Ordonnances des Rois, t. xiii., p. 211.
t Ibid., p. 312. Boulainvilliers mentions otliei
instances, where the states granted money durinj
this reign, t. iii., p. 70.
f06
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
IChaj-. (
£he pfi -petual taille established about the
same t me was actually panted by these
states of 1439, though it dots not so ap-
pear upon t\ve face of any ordinance *
And certainly this is consonant to the
rea: aiKJ recognised constitution of that
age.
But tlie crafty advisers of courts in the
I'rovinciai fifteenth century, enlightened by
stales. experience of past dangers, were
averse to encountering these great polit-
ical masses, from which there were, even
in peaceful times, some disquieting inter-
ferences, some testimonies of public spirit
and recollections of liberty to apprehend.
The kings of France, indeed, had a re-
source, which generally enabled them to
avoid a convocation of the States Gen-
eral, without violating the national fran-
chises. From provincial assemblies, com-
posed of the three orders, they usually
obtained more money than they could
have extracted from the common repre-
sentatives of the nation, and heard less
of remonstrance and demand. f Langue-
doc 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 lat-
ter division, had frequent convocations of
heir respective estates, during the inter-
vals of the States General ; intervals,
which by this means were protracted far
beyond that duration to which the exi-
gences of the crown would otherwise
have confined them. J This was one of
the essential differences 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 different provinces in re-
spect of their interests and domestic gov-
ernment from each other.
But the formality of consent, whether
by general or provincial states, now ceas-
ed to be reckoned indispensable. The
lawyers had rarely seconded any efforts
to restrain arbitrary power: in their ha-
tred of feudal principles, especially those
of territorial jurisdiction, every generous
sentiment of freedom was proscribed; or
if they admitted that absolute prerogative
might require some checks, it was such
only as themselves, not the national rep-
resentatives, should impose. Charles
* Brequigny, preface au treizieme tome fles Or-
«unnances. — Boulainvilliers, t. iii., p. 108
t Villaret, t. xi., p. 270.
«. Oidonnances des Rois. t. iii.. preface
VII. levied money by his own authority
Louis XI. carried this encroach- Taxes of
nient to the highest pitch of ex- ^°"'^ ^'•
action. It was the boast of courtiers,
that he first released the kings of France
from dependance (hors de page) ; or, in
other words, that he effectually deniol
ished those barriers, which, however im
perfect and ill-placed, had imposed somf
impediment to the establishment of des
potism.*
The exactions of Louis, hoH'ever,
though borne with patience, did not pas?
for legal with those upon whom they
pressed. Men still remembered their an
cient privileges, which they might see
with mortification well preserved in Eng-
land. " There is no monarch or lord
upon earth (says Philip de Comines, him-
self bred in courts), who can raise a far-
thing upon his subjects, beyond his own
domains, without their free concession,
except through tyranny and violence. It
maybe objected that in some cases there
may not be time to assemble them, and
that war will bear no delay ; but I reply (he
proceeds), that such haste ought not to
be made, and there will be time enough;
and I tell you that princes are more pow-
erful, and more dreaded by their enemies,
when they undertake any thing with the
consent of their subjects."!
The States General met but twice du-
ring the reign of Louis XL, and states Gene
on neither occasion for the pur- rai of Tour*
pose of granting money. But '" '
an assembly in the first year of Charles
VIII. , the States of Tours, in 1484, is too
important to be overlooked, as it marks
the last struggle of the French nation by
its legal representatives for immunity
from arbitrary taxation.
A warm contention arose for the re-
gency upon the accession of Charles
VIII., between his aunt, Anne de Beaujeu,
whom the late king had appointed by tes-
tament, and the princes of the blood, at
the head of whom stood the Duke of
Orleans, afterward Louis XI L The lat-
ter combined to demand a convocation
* The preface to the sixteenth volume of Ordon-
nances, before quoted, displays a lamenlable pic-
ture of the internal situation of France in conse-
quence of e.xcessive taxation, and other abuses.
These evils, in a less aggravated degree, coiitinued
ever since to retard the improvenaent, and diminish
the intrir.sic prosperity, of a country so extraordi-
narily endowed with natural advantages. Philip
de Comine? was forcibly struck witn the difierent
situatior. 1 1 England and the Netherlands. And
Sir John Fortescue has a remarkable passage (st
the poverty and servitude of the French commors
contrasted with English frtemen.— Difl'erence d
limited and absolute monarchy, p. 17
+ Mem. de Comines, 1. iv.. c. !•!
Pmt II.]
FEUDAL SYSTEM.
lUl
of the States General, wliica accordingly
took place. The king's minority and the
factions at court seemed no unfavourable
(unens 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 chambers, and consulted each
other only upon the result of their re-
spective dehberations. It was easy for
the court to foment the jealousies natural
to such a partition. Two nations, the
Norman and Burgundian, asserted that
the right of providing for the regency de-
volved, in the king's minority, upon the
States General; a claim of great bold-
ness, 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 Lan-
guedoil (which last comprised the cen-
tral provinces), rejecied this plan, from
which the two former ultimately desisted,
and the choice of cou.isellors was left to
the princes.
A firmer and more unanimous spirit
was displayed upon the subject of public
reformation. The tyranny of Louis XI.
had been so unbo\inded, that all ranks
agreed in calling for redress, and the new
governors were desirous, at least by pun-
ishing his favourites, to show their incli-
nation 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 re-
dressing public abuses ; the profuse ex-
pense of the royal household, the num-
ber 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 lev-
ied in the kingdom without the consent
of the states. It was with great difficul-
ty, and through the skilful management
of the court, that they consented to the
'!ollection of the taxes payable in the time
of Charles VII., with the addition of one
fourth, as a gift to tlie king upon his ac-
cession. 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 y» ar&.
after which they stipulated that anothe:
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 ny
no means seconded, felt no temptation to
urge again their convocation. No as-
sembly in the annals of France seems
notwithstanding some party sellishnesi'
arising out of the division into nations, to
have conducted itself with so much pub
lie spirit and moderation ; nor had that
country perhaps ever so fair a prospect
of establishing a legitimate constitution.*
V. The right of jurisdiction has under-
gone changes in France and in successi»
the adjacent countries, still more J^i^'g "^jf^/jj
remarkable than those of the poiuy'nr
legislative power ; and passed i" ranee
through three very distinct stages, as the
popular, aristocratic, or regal iniiuence
predominated in the political system
The Franks, Lombards, and onauai
Saxons seem alike to have been sciie.i.e ur
jealous of judicial authority, J"''*'^"^'""'
and averse to surrendering v.'hat con-
cerned every man's private right, out of
the hands of his neighbours and hia
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 Lombardy.f Next
in order was the centenarius or hundred-
ary, whose name expresses the extent
of his jurisdiction, and who, like the de-
canus, was chosen by those subject to
it. I But the auiliority of these petty
magistrates was gradually confined to the
less important subjects of legal inquiry.
No man, bj^ a capitulary of Charlemagne,
could be empleaded for his life, or liberty
or lands, or servants, in the hundred
court.^ In such weighty matters, or by
* I am altogether indebted to Gamier for the
proceedings of the States of Toiirs. His account,
Hist, de France, t. xviii., p. 154-^18, is extremely
copious, and derived from a manuscript journal.
Coinines alludes tDthem sometimes, but with little
particularity.
t The decanus is mentioned by a writer of the
ninth age as the lowest species of judge, immedt
ately under the centenanus. The latter is com
pared to the plebanus, or priest of a church, where
baptism was performed, and the former *.j an in-
ferior presbyter. — Uu Cange, v. Decanus ; and
Muraton, Antiq. Ital., Dissert, x.
t It is evident from the Capitularies of Charle-
magne, Baluze, t. i., p. 426 and 4GG, that the cen
tenarii were elected by the people . that is, 1 sup
posfi, the freeholders.
(/ lit nuUus homo in placito cenienarii noque ad
mortem, neque ad libertatem suamamittendam, aul
ad r.'s reildendas vel mancipia judicetur. Sed ista
aut i'l prrusentia comitis vel missorum nostrcrurs
judiceniur. — Capit , A. I). 812. Baluz., p. 40"'
U)a
EC ROPE DJRING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[C/HAP. .1
w ay ol a])pe:il from the lower jurisdic-
iiotjs, the count of the district was judge.
He indeed was appointed by the sover-
eign; but his power was checked by as-
sessors, called Scabini, who held their
office by the election, or at least the con-
currence, of the people.* These Scabini
may be considered as a sort of jury,
thougli bearing a closer analogy to the
.Indices Selecti, who sat with the pretor
in the tribunals of Rome. An ultimate ap-
peal seems to have lain to the count pal-
atine, an officer of the royal household ;
and sometimes causes were decided by
he sovereign himself.f Such was the
original model of judicature ; but as com-
j'laints of injustice and neglect were fre-
caently made against the counts, Charle-
magne, desirous on every account to
control them, appointed special judges,
called Missi Regii, who held assizes from
place to place, inquired into abuses and
maleadministration of justice, enforced
us execution, and expelled inferior judges
from their offices for misconduct, j
This judicial system was gradually su-
perseded by one founded upon totally op-
posite principles, those of feudal privi-
Territoriai lege. It is difficult to ascertain
jurisdiction, tjjg progress of territorial juris-
diction. In many early charters of the
French kings, beginning with one of
Dagobert I., in 630, we find inserted in
their grants of land an immunity from the
* Baluzii Capitularia, p. 4C6. Muratori, Dissert.
lO. D\i C.inge, V. Scabini. These Scabini may be
traced by the light of charters down to the eleventh
century.— Kecueildes Historiens, t. vi., preface, p.
186. There is, in particular, a decisive proof of
their existence in 918, in a record which I have al-
ready had occasion to quote. — Vaissette, Hist, de
Langueddc, t. li., Appendi.K, p. 56. Du Cange,
Baluze, and other antiquaries, have confounded the
Scabini with the Rachimburgii, of whom we read
in the oldest laws. But M. Guizot has proved the
latter were landowners, acting in the county
courts as judges under the presidency of the count,
but wholly independent of him. The Scabini in
Charlemagne's age superseded them. — Essai sur
I'Histoire de France, p. 259, 272.
t Du Cange, Dissertation 14, sur Joinville ; and
Glossary, v. Comites Palatini; Mem. de I'Acad.
des Inscript., t. xxx., p. 590. Louis the Debonair
^ave one iiy ir. every week for hearing causes ;
but his subjecljwere required not to have recourse
to him, unless where the Missi or the counts had
not done justice. — Baluze, t. i., p. 668. Charles
the Bald e.tpressly reserves an appeal to himself
from the inferior tribunals. — Capit. 869, t. ii., p. 2)5.
In his reign, there was at least a claim to sover-
eignty preserved.
I For tlie jurisdiction of the Missi Regii, besides
the Capitularies themselves, see Muratori's eighth
Dissertation. Th°y went their circuits four times
a year.— CapituL, A. D. 812. A. D. 823. A ves-
tige of this institution long continued in the prov-
ince of A u vergne, under the name of Grands Jours
d'.\uvergne; which Louis XI. revived in 1479. —
«T3rnier, Hist, da France, t. xviii., p. 458.
entrance of the ordina ry judges, eithei t:
hear causes, or to exact certain dues ac-
cruing to the king and to themselves
These charters indeed relate to church
lands, which, as it seems implied by a law
of Charlemagne, universally possessed
an exemption from ordinary jurisdiction.
A precedent, however, in Marculfus, leads
us to infer a similar immunity to have
been usually in gifts to private persons.*
These rights of justice in the beneficiary
tenants of the crown are attested in sev-
eral passages of the capitularies. And a
charter of Louis I. to a private individual
contains a full and exclusive concession
of jurisdiction over all persons resident
within the territory, though subject to the
appellant control of the royal tribunals.!
It is obvious, indeed, that an exeinption
from the regular judicial authorities im-
plied or naturally led to a right of admin-
istering justice in their place. But this
could at first hardly extend beyond the
tributaries or villeins who cultivated their
master's soil, or, at most, to free persons
without property, resident in the terri-
tory. To determine their quarrels, or
chastise their offences, was no very illus-
trious privilege. An allodial freeholder
could own no jurisdiction but that of the
king. It was the general prevalence cf
siib-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 th'; count himself, become the
suzerain instead of the governor of his
district, altered the form of his tribunal
upon the feudal model. J A system of
procedure so congenial to the spirit of the
age spread universally over France and
*■ Marculfi Formulae, 1. i., c. 17.
t Et nullus comes, nee vicarius, nee juniores
eorum, nee ullus judex publicus illorum homines,
qui super illorum aprisione habitant, aut in illorum
proprio, distringere nee judicare prassumant ; £ed
.Johannes et filii sui, et posteritas illorum, illi eos
judicent et distringant. Et quicquid per legem
judicaverint, stabilis permaneat. Et si e.xtra legem
fecerint, per legem emendent. — Baluzii Capitularia,
t. li., p. 1405.
This appellant control was preserved by the
capitulary of Charles the Bald, quoted already,
over the territorial, as well as royal tribunals. Si
aliquis episcopus, vel comes ac vassus noster suo
homini contra rectum et justitiam fecerit, et si inde
ad nos reclamaverit. sciat quia, sicut ratio et lej
est, hoc ernendare faciemus.
% We may perhaps infer, from a capitulary of
Charlemagne in 809, that the feudal tenants were
already employed as assessors in the administra-
tion of justice, concurrently with the Scabini men-
tioned above, l-'t nullus ad placitum venire cjga
tur, nisi qui causam habet ad qusrendum, exceptis
scabiniset va=sf;lliscomitum.— Baluz., Capitu !ari»
t. i., p. 46.5.
4R7 11.]
FEUDAL SYSTEM.
luy
Germany The tril;unals of the king
were forg jtten like his laws ; the one re-
gaining 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
m almost every barony.
These rights of administering justice
were possessed by the owners of fiefs in
very different degrees ; and, in France,
lis divisions, 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 vavassor. The lower jurisdic-
tions were not competent to judge in
capital cases, and consequently forced to
send such criminals 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 ju-
risdiction. 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. f
Several customs rendered these rights
Its iiJminis- of jurisdiction far less instru-
tration. mental to tyranny than we might
"infer from their extent. While the counts
were yet officers of tlie crown, they fre-
quently apptjinted a deputy, or viscount, to
Administer justice. Ecclesiastical lords,
who were ])rohibited by the canons from
inflicting capital punishment, and sup-
posed to be unacquainted with the law
followed in civil courts, or unable to en-
force it, had an officer by name of advo-
cate or vidame, whose tenure was often
feudal and hereditary. The viguiers (vi-
carii), bailiffs, provosts, and seneschals of
* Velly t. vi., p. i;U. Denisart, Houard, and
other law-books.
t A strangely cruel privilege was possessed in
Aragon by the lords who had not the higher juris-
diction, and consequently could not publicly exe-
cute a criminal; that ot starving hun to death in
prison. This was established by law in 1217. Si
vassallus domini non habentis merum nee mixtuni
imperium, in loco occiderit vassalluin, dominus loci
•lOtest eum occidere fame, frigore et siti. Et quili-
bet dominus loci habta banc jurisdictionem necandi
fame, frigore et siti in suo loco, licet nullam aliam
jurisdictionem criminalem habeat.— Du Cange,
voc. Fame necare.
It is remarkable, that the Neapolitan barons had
no criminal jurisdiction, at least of the higher kind,
till the reign of Alfonso, m 1413, who sold this de-
structive privilege, at a time when it was almost
abolishel mother kingdoms. — Giannonc. I. x.\ii., c.
5, and I. x.xvi. c C
lay lords were similar ministers, ihougn
not in general of so permanent a right m
their offices, or of such eminent station, as
the advocates of monasteries. It seems
to have been an estabhshcd maxim, at
least in later times, that the lord could
not sit personally in judgment, but must
intrust tliat function lo his bailiff and vas-
sals.* According to the feudal rules, the
lord's vassals or peers of his court were
to assist at all its proceedings. " There
are some places," says Beaumanoir,
"where the plaintiff 'lecidcs in judgment,
and others, where tl .j vassals of the lord
decide. But even where the baihff is the
judge, he ought to advise with the mosi
prudent, and determine by their advice ,
since thus he shall be most secure if ar
appeal is made from his judgment. "■(
And indeed the presence of these asses-
sors was so essential to all territorial •
jurisdiction, that no lord, to whatever
rights of justice his fief might entitle hiin,
was quahfied to exercise them, unless he
had at least two vassals to sit as peers
in his court. J
These courts of a feudal barony oi
manor required neither the knowledge ol
positive law, nor the dictates of natural
sagacity. In all doubtful cases, and es-
pecially where a crime not cai)able of
notorious proof was charged, tlie Trial by
combat was awarded; and God, as combat
they deemed, was the judge. i^ The ncv
* Boutillier, in his Somme Rurale, written neai
the end of the fourteenth century, asserts this pos
itively. II convient quUz facent jugier par aultre
que par eulx, cesl a savoir par leurs bommes feu
daulxa leur semonceetco>y'i/re[.''] on de leur bailirt
ou lieutenant, et ont ressort a leursouverain, fol. 3.
t Coutumes de Ueauvoisis, p. 11.
t It was lawful, in such case, to borrow the \?.s-
sals of the superior lord. — Thaumassiere sur Beau
manoir, p. 37o. See Du Cange, v. Pares ; an ex
cellent article, and Placitum.
In England a manor is extinguished, at least as
to jurisdiction, when there are not two freeholders
subject to escheat left as suiters to the court-baron.
Their tenancy must therefore have been created
before the statute of Quia cmptores, 18 Edw. I.
(1290), since which no new estate in fee simple can
be held of the lord, nor, consequently, be liable t<
escheat to him.
() Trial by combat does not seem to have estab-
lished itself completely in France till ordeals went
into disuse, which Charlemagne rather encouraged,
and wliich, in his age, the clergy for the most part
approved. The former species of decision may,
however, be met with under the first Merovingian
kings (Greg. Tuion., 1. vii., c. 19; 1. x., c. 10), and
seems to have prevailed in Burgundy. It is estab-
lished by the laws of the Alemanni or Swabians.—
Baluz., t. i., p. 80. It was always pojiular in Lorp
bardy. Luitprand, king of the Lomnards, says ii'
one of his laws : Incerli snmus de judicio Dei, et
quosdam audivimus per pugnam sine justa causa
suam causam peidere. Sed propter cons.ietudineio
gentisnostrae Iiangobardorum legem iinpiam •er.arf
ilO
hUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. IJ
blemati fought on horseback, with all his
arms of attack and defence; the plebeian
on foot, with his club and target. The
same were thfc weapons of the champi-
ons, 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 reg-
ulation necessary perhaps to obviate the
corruption of these hired defenders. In
criminal cases, the appellant suflTered, in
the event of defeat, the same punishment
which the law awarded to the offence of
which he accused his adversary.! Even
where the cause was more peaceably
tried, and brought to a regular adjudica-
tion by the court, an appeal for false
judgment might indeed be made to the
suzerain, but it could only be tried by bat-
tle.| 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 ; unless he should van-
quish them all within the day, his life, if
he escaped from so many hazards, was
forfeited to the law. If fortune or mira-
cle should make him conqueror in every
contest, the judges Av^ere equally subject
to death, and their court forfeited their ju-
risdiction for ever. 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 re-
versed, but the court was not impeached.^
But for denial of justice, that is, for a re-
fusal to try his suit, the plaintiff repaired
to the court of the next superior lord, and
supported his appeal by testimony. || Yet,
non possumus.— Muratori, Script. Rerum Italica-
rum, t. ii., p. Co. Otho II. established it in all dis-
putes concerning real property; and there is a fa-
mous case, where the right of representation, or
preference of the son of a deceased elder child to
his uncle m succession to his grandfather's estate,
was settled by this test.
* For the ceremonies of trial by combat, see
Houatd, Anciennes Loix Fran(;oises, t. i., p. 264.
Velly, t. VI., p. 106. Recueil des Historiens, t. xi.,
preface, p 189. Du Cange, v. Daelhim. The
great original authorities are the Assises de Jeru-
salem, c. 104, and Beaumanoir, c. 31.
+ Beaumanoir, p. 315.
t Idem, c. 61. In England the appeal for false
nidgment to the king's court was not tried by battle.
— Glanvil, 1. xii., c. 7.
(; Idem, c. 61.
Il Id., p. 315. The practice was to challenge the
lecnnd witness, since the testimony of one was in-
sufficient. But this must be done before he com-
etcs his oath, says Beaumanoir, for after he has
X. swo.m, he must be heard and believed, p. 316.
' even here, the witnesses might be defied)
and the pure stream of justice turned at
once into the torrent of barbarous con-
! test.*
I Such was the judicial system of France,
when St. Louis enacted that great Establish
I code which bears the name of his "lenis of
' 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, unable to overthrow
the judicial combat, confined himself to
discouraging it by the example of a wiser
jurisprudence. It was abolished through-
out the royal domains. The bailifis and
seneschals who rendered justice to the
king's immediate subjects, were bound to
follow his own laws. He not only re-
ceived appeals from their sentences in
his own court of peers, but Hstened to
all complaints with a kind of patriarchal
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 ofiicer,
No one was bound, as we may well believe, to be
a witness for another, in cases where such an ap
peal might be made from his testimony.
* Mably is certainly mistaken in his opinion, tha
appeals for derial o( justice were not older than
the reign of I'uiiip Augustus. — (Observations sut
I'Hist. de F., 1. m , c. 3.) Before this time the vas-
sal's remedy, he thinks, was to make war upon his
lord. And this m.iy probably have been frequently
practised. Indeed it is permitted, as we have seen,
by the code of St. Louis. But those who were not
strong enough to adopt this dangerous means of
redress, would surely avail themselves of the as-
sistance of the suzerain, which in general would be
readily afforded. We find several instances of the
king's interference for the redress of injuries, in
Suger's life of Louis VI. That active and spirited
prince, with the assistance of his illustrious biogra-
pher, recovered a great part of the royal authority,
which had been reduced to the lowest ebb in the
long and slothful reign of his father, Philip I. One
passage, especially, contains a clear evidence of
the appeal for denial of justice, and consequently
refutes Mably's opinion. In 1105, the inhabitants
of St. Severe, in Berri, complain of their lord
Humbald, and request the king aut ad exequendam
justitiam cogere. aut jure pro injuria castrum lege
Sailed amittere, I quote from the preface to the
fourteenth volume of the Recueil des Historiens, p.
44. It may be noticed by the way, that lex Salica
is here used for the feudal customs ; in which
sense I believe it not unfrequently occurs. Many
proofs might be brought of the interposition of both
Louis VI. and VII. in the disputes betwf^en their
barons and arriere vassals. Thus the war between
the latter and Henry II. of England, in 1166, was
occasioned by his entertaining a complaint from the
Count of Auvergne, without waiting for the deciy
ion of Henry, as Duke of Guienne. — Velly, t iii., p
190. Lyttleton's Henry II., vo . ii. p. 448 Recu-
eil des Historiens, ubi sup'i. f 49
Fart Ii ]
feijdal system.
Ill
and he would ask aloud if there were any which had originally led to the latter \osi
present wiio had suits ; and Vv'hen they its weight through experience and the
appeared, would bid two of his bailifi's uniform opposition of the clergy. The.
determine their cause upon the spot."* | same superiority of just and settled rules
The influence of tins new jurisprudence I over fortune and violence, which had for-
established by St. Louis, combined with , warded the encroachinents of the ecclo
the great enhancements of the royal pre- siastical courts, was now manifested ir.
rogatives in every other respect, produ- | those of the king. Philip Augustus, by a
ced a rapid change in the legal adminis- j famous ordinance in 1190, first establish-
tration of France. Though trial by com- j ed royal courts of justice, held by the
bat occupies a considerable space in the [ officers called bailifi's or seneschals, who
work of Beaumanoir, written under Phil- j acted as the king's lieutenants in his do-
ip the Bold, it was already nnich limited. I mains.* Every barony, as it became re-
Appeals for false judgment might some- united to the crown,, was subjected to the
times be tried, as he expresses it, par erre- I jurisdiction of one of these officers, and
mens de plait, that is, 1 presume, where ; took the name of a bailliage or a senes-
the alleged error of the court below was { chaussee ; the former name prevailing
hi matter of law. For wager of battle j most in the northern, the latter in the
was chiefly intended to ascertain contro- 1 southern provinces. The vassals whose
verted facts. f So where the suzerain | lands depended upon, or, in feudal Ian-
saw clearly that the judgment of the in- \ guage, moved from the superiority of this
ferior court was right, he ought not to fief, were obliged to submit to the ressort
permit the combat. Or if the plaintitf, ' or supreme appellant jurisdiction of the
even in the first instance, could produce royal court established in it.f This be-
a record or a written obligation ; or if the gan rapidly to encroach upon the feudal
fact before the court was notorious, there ; rights of justice. In a variety of cases,
was no room for battle.J It would be a
Qard thing, says Beaumanoir, that if one
had killed my near relation in open day,
before many credible persons, I should be
compelled to fight in order to prove his
death. This reflection is the dictate of
common sense, and shows that the pre-
judice in favour of judicial combat was
dying away. In the Assises de Jerusa-
lem, a monument of customs tw^o hun-
dred years earlier than the age of Beau
termed royal, the territorial court was
pronounced incompetent ; they were re-
served for the judges of the
crown ; and, in every case, un- ,^n7s*aiid'''"'
less the defendant excepted to progress of
the jurisdiction, the royal court ""■"■ J""«-
might take cognizance of a suit, "^""""
and decide it in exclusion of the feudaJ
judicature. I The nature of cases reserv-
ed under the name of royal was kept in
studied ambiguity, under cover of which
manoir, we find little mention of any j the judges of the crown perpetually strove
other mode of decision. The compiler to multiply them. Louis X., when re-
of that book thinks it would be very in- ' quested by the barons of Champagne to
jurious, if no wager of battle were to be [ explain what was meant by royal causes
allowed against witnesses in causes af- gave this mysterious definition : Every
fecting succession ; since otherwise ev
ery right heir might be disinherited, as it
would be easy to find two persons who
would perjure themselves for money, if
they had no fear of being challenged for
their testimony.^ This passage indicates
tlie real cause of preserving the judicial
combat; systematic perjury in v/itness-
es, and want of legal discrimination in
judges.
It was, in all civil suits, at the discre-
tion of the litigai.* parties, to adopt the
thing which by right or custom ought ex
clusively to come under the cognizance
of a sovereign prince.^ Vassals were
permitted to complain in the first instance
to the king's court, of injuries committed
by their lords. These rapid and violent
encroachments left the nobility no alter-
native but armed combinations to suppoi'
their remonstrances. Philip the Fair be
queathed to his successor the task of ap
peasMifr a storm which his own adminis
tration !iad excited. Leagues were form
law of the Establishments instead of re- i ed in most of the northern provinces foi
sorting to combat. II As gentler manners
prevailed, especially among those wlio
did not make arms their profession, the
wisdom and equity of the new code were
naturally preferred. The superstition
* Collection des Memoires, t. i., p. 25.
t Beaumanoir, p. ^2. J Id., p. 314.
* C 167. II Beaumanoir, p. 309.
the redress of grievances, in which the
third estate, oppressed by taxation, uni-
* Ordonnances des Rois, t. i., p 18.
+ Du Cange, v. Ballivi. Miv\. de I'Acad. des lu
scriptions, t. xxx., p. 603. Mal.ly, 1. iv., c 4. Bou
lainvilliers, t. ii., p. 22.
t Mably, Boulainvilljers. Montlosier, t. i.,p "Ca
^ Ordonnances dfs Rois. p. 60C
113
KUKOPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap il
tod with the vassals, whose feudal priv'-
leges had been infringed. Separate char-
ters were granted to each of these con-
federacies by Louis Hutin, which con-
tain many remedial provisions against
the grosser violations of ancient rights,
though the crown persisted in restrain-
ing territorial jurisdictions.* Appeals be-
came more common for false judgment,
as well as denial of right ; and in neitlicr
was the combat permitted. It was still,
however, preserved in accusations of hei-
nous crimes, unsupported by any testi-
mony but that of the proseeuror, and was
never abolished by any posi»»ve law, ei-
ther in France or England. But instan-
ces of its occurrence are >iot frequent
even in the fourteenth cent'-' ry ; and one
of these, rather remarkable m its circum-
stances, must have had a t*' ndency to ex-
olode the remaining superstition which
had preserved this mode of decision.!
The supreme council, -ar court of peers,
Rovai conn- *^o whosc deliberative functions
cii.'or court I have already adverted, was
ofpeers. ^^^^ jj^g great judicial tribu-
nal of the French CTown 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
ippeals for denials of justice were refer-
red. It was originally composed, as has
Ijeeji observed, of the feudal vassals, co-
aqnals of those who were to be tried by
it ; :nid also of the household officers,
whose right of concurrence, however
anomalous, was extremely ancient. J But
after the business of the court came to
* Hoc perpeluo prohibemus edicto, ne subditi,
seu justiciabiles prajlatorum aut baronum nostro-
ruin aut aliorum subjectorum nostrorum, trahan-
tur in causain coram nostris officialibus, nee eorum
causae, nisi in casu ressorti, in nostris curiis audian-
tur, vel in alio casu ad nos pertinenti. — Ordonnan-
ces des Rois, t. i., p. 3C2. This ordinance is of
Philip the Fair, in 1302; but those passed under
Louis Hutin are to the same effect. They may be
read at length in the Ordonnances des Rois ; or
abridi^ed by Boulainviliiers, t. ii., p. 94.
t Philip IV. restricted trial by combat to cases
where four conditions were united. The crime
must be capital : Its commission certain : The ac-
cused greatly suspected: And no proof to be ob-
tained by witnesses. Under these limitations. Jr
at least some of them, for it appears thai they were
not all regarded, instances occur for some cen-
turies.
See the singular story of Carouges and Le Gris,
to which i allude in the text. — Villaret, t. si., p. 412.
Trial by combat was allowed in Scotland exactly
under the same conditions as in France. — Pinker-
ion's Hist, of Scoll., vol. i., p. 66.
t This court had always, it must be owned, a
oretty ccnsic'erable authority over some of the
;oyal vassals. Even in Robert's reign, the Count
jf Anjou and mother nobleman of less importance
were summoi ed before it. — Rerueil des Historiens,
*.. X.. p. 473. 4 •'6.
increase through the multiplicity of ap
peals, especially from the bailiffs estab-
lished by Philip Augustus in the royal
domains, the barons found neither leisure
nor capacity for the ordinary administra-
tion of justice, and reserved their attend-
ance for occasions where some of their
own orders were implicated in a criminal
process. St Louis, anxious for regular
ity and enlightened decisions, cours Pi6
made a considerable alteration nieres.
by introducing some counsellors of infe-
rior rank, chiefly ecclesiastics, as advi-
sers of the court, though, as is supposed,
without any decisive suffrage. The court
now became known by the name of par-
liament. Registers of its proceedings
were kept, of which the earliest extant
are of the year 1254. It was still per-
haps in some degree ambulator^' ; but by
far the greater part of its sessions in the
thirteenth century were at Paris. The
counsellors nominated by the king, some
of them clerks, others of noble rank, but
not peers of the ancient baronage, ac-
quired insensibly a right of suffrage.*
An ordinance of Philip the Fair in 1302
is generally supposed to have parliament
fixed the seat of parhament at of fans.
Paris, as well as altered its constituent
parts. t Perhaps a series of progressive
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 in that of the parlia-
ment of Paris. A systematic tribunal
took the place of a loose aristocratic as-
sembly. It was to hold two sittings in
the year, each of two months' duration ;
it was composed of two prelates, two
counts, thirteen clerks, and as many lay-
men. Great changes were made after-
ward in this constitution. The nobility,
who originally sat there, grew weary of
an attendance which detained them from
war and from their favourite pursuits at
home. The bishops were dismissed to
their necessary residence upon obligations
their sees. J As they withdrew^ of a vassal,
that class of regular lawyers, original
♦ Boulainviliiers,. t. ii., p. 29, 44. Mably, 1. :v.,
c. 2. Encyclopedie, Art. Parlement. Mem. de
I'Acad. des Inscript., t. xxx., p. 603. The gieat
difficulty I have found in this investigation will
plead my excuse if errors are detected.
t Pasquier (Recherches de la France, 1. ii.. c. 3'.
published this ordinance, which, indeed, as the ed
itor of Ordonnances des Rois, t. i., p. 547, observes,
is no ordinance, but a regulation for the executioii
of one previously made ; nor does it establish ths
residence of the Parliament of Paris.
t Velly, Hist, de France, t. vii., p. 303, and En-
cyclopedie, Art. Parlement, are the best authorities
1 have found. There naiy very possibly be eup»
Part 'i.j
FEUr^AL SYSTEM.
iia
ly employed, as it appears, in the pre-
paratory business without any decisive
voice, came forward to the higher places,
and estabhshed a coniphcated and tedi-
rius system of procedure, which was al-
vvays characteristic of French jurispru-
dence. They introduced at the same
time a new theory of absolute power
and unUmited obedience. All feudal
Decline of privileges were treated as en-
iiic leudai eroachments on the imprescrip-
Bjbtcm. m^jg rights of monarchy. With
the natural bias of lawyers in favour 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 law-
yers of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
turies frequently gave their king the title
of emperor, and treated disobedience to
him as sacrilege.*
But among these lawyers, although the
general tenants of the crown by barony
ceased to appear, there still continued to
sit a more eminent body, the lay and
Peers of spiritual peers of France, repre-
France. gentatives, as it were, of that an
cient baronial aristocracy. It is a very con-
troverted question at what time this exclu-
sive dignity of peerage a word obviously
applicable by the feudal law to all persons
coequal in degree of tenure, was reserv-
ed to twelve vassals. At the coronation
of Philip Augustus, in 1179, we first per-
ceive the six great feudatories, .dukes of
Burgundy, Normandy, Guienne, counts of
Toulouse, Flanders, Champagne, distin-
guished by the offices they performed in
that ceremony. It was natural indeed
that, by their princely splendour and im-
portance, they should eclipse such petty
lords as Bourbon and Coucy, however
equal in quality of tenure. During the
reign of Philip Augustus, six ecclesiasti-
cal peers, the duke-bishops of Rheims,
[jaon, and Langrcs, the count-bishops of
Beauvais, Chfdons, and Noyon, were
added, as a sort of parallel or counter-
poise.f Their precedence does not, how-
ever, appear to have carried with it any
otlfsr privilege, at least in judicature,
than other barons enjoyed. But their
pre-eminence being fully confirmed, Phil-
ip the Fair set the precedent of augment-
ing their original number.^ by conferring
the dignity of peerage on the Duke of
'ior works on this branch of the French constitu-
'.lon, whicn have not thilen into my hands.
* Mably, 1. iv., c. 2, note 10.
t Velly, t. ii., p. 287 ; t. lii., p 221 ; t. iv., p. 41.
t Ibid., t. vii., p. 97.
H
Britany and the Count of Artois. Oth-
er creations took place subsequently; but
tney were confined, during the period
comprised in this work, to princes of the
royal blood. The peers were constant
members of the parliament, from which
other vassals holding in chief were nev-
er perhaps excluded by law, but their at-
tendance was rare in the fourteenth cen-
Inry, and soon afterward ceased altogeth-
er.*
A judicial body composed of the great
est nobles in France, as well as j.^.^ ^.^^.^ ^
of learned and eminent law- niejuHsdic-
yers, must naturally have soon "i"' ofihe
become politically important, i""" "'"'^'"•
Notwithstanding their disposition to en-
hance every royal prerogative, as op-
posed to feudal privileges, the parliament
was not disinclined to see its own pro-
tection invoked by the subject. It »{>-
pears by an ordinance of Cliarles V., in
1371, that the nobihty of Languedoc had
appealed to the parliament of Paris
against a tax imposed by the king's au-
thority; and this, at a time when the
French constitution did not recognise the
levying of money without consent of the
States Genera], must have been a just
ground of appeal, though the present ordi-
nance annuls and overturns it.f During
the tempests of Charles VI. 's unhappy
reign, the parliament acquired a more
decided authority, and held, in some de-
gree, the balance between the contending
factions of Orleans and Burgundy. This
influence was partly owing to one re-
markable function attributed to the par
liament, which raised it much above the
level of a merely political tribunal, and
has at various times wrought striking
eflects in the French monarchy.
The few ordinances enacted by kings
of France in the twelfth and „ . ,
41 ■ . ,1 . • Roval edicts
thirteenth centuries were gen- tnfe^i.siered
erally by the advice of their '» pariia-
royal council, in which prob- ""^'"'
ably they were solemnly declared as well
as agreed upon. But after the gradual
revolution of government, which took
away from the feudal aristocracy all con-
trol over the king's edicts, and substi-
tuted a new magistracy for the ancient
baronial court, these legislative ordi-
nances 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 entry upon their records. This for-
mality was by degrees, if not from the
* Encycl;'p6die, Art Parlemcnt, j. 6
i I/ablv, .. v., c. 5, note 5
u
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
i 'rav. IJ
beginning, deemed essential to render
them authentic and notorious, and there-
fore indirectly gave them the sanction
and vaUdily of a law.* Such, at least,
appears to have been the received doc-
trine before the end of the fourteenth
century. It has been contended by
Mably among other writers, that at so
early an epoch, the parliament of Paris
did not enjoy, nor even claim to itself, that
anomalous right of judging the expedi-
ency of edicts proceeding from the king,
which afterward so remarkably modified
the absoluteness of his power. In the
fifteenth century, however, it certainly
manifested pretensions of this nature :
first, by registering ordinances in such a
manner as to testify its own unwilling-
ness and disapprobation, of which one in-
stance occurs as early as 1418, and an-
other in 1443; and, afterward, by remon-
strating against, and delaying the regis-
tration of laws, which it deemed inimical
to the public interest. A conspicuous
proof of this spirit was given in their op-
position to Louis XI. when repealing the
Pragmatic Sanction of his father ; an or-
dinance essential, in their opinion, to the
liberties of the GaUican church. In this
instance they ultimately yielded ; but at
another time they persisted in a refusal
to enregister letters containing an aliena-
tion of the royal domain. f
The counsellors of parliament were
L^ounseiiors of Originally appointed by the
parliament ap- j^jng ; ^ud they were even
[ife"and by changed according to circum.-
eicction. siauces. Charles V. made
the first alteration, by permitting them to
fill up vacancies by election : which usage
continued during the next reign. Charles
VII. resumed the nomination of fresh
members upon vacancies. Louis XI.
even displaced actual eounsellors. But
in 1488, from whatever motive, he pub-
lished a most important ordinance, de-
claring the presidents and cotinsellors of
parUament immoveable, except in case
of legal forfeiture. I This extraordinary
measure of conferring independence on
a body, which had already displayed a
consciousness of its eminent privilege
bj' opposing the registration of his edicts,
is perhaps to be deemed a proof of that
short-sightedness as to points of substan-
tial interest so usually found in crafty
men. But, be this as it may, there wiis
formed in the parliament of Paris an in-
•■ Knr.yclopedie, Art. Par'.ement.
+ Mabiy, I. vi., c. 5, note 19 and 21. Girnier,
riist. de France, t. xvii , p. 219, 380.
J Villaret. L xiv., p. 231 Er^cvclopertie. Art.
Farlement
dependent, power not emanating from the
royal wil , nor liable, except through
force, to be destroyed by it ; which, in
later times, became almost the sole de-
positary, 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 better spare,
perhaps, from her a..mals 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 resist
ance, its anomalous privilege of objecting
to edicts, hardly approved by the nation
who did not participate in it, and over-
turned with facility by the king, when
ever he thought fit to exert the sinews oi
his prerogative, was but an inadequate
substitute for that co-ordinate sover-
eignty, that equal concurrence of natural
representatives in legislation, which has
long been the exclusive pride of our gov-
ernment, and to which tlie States Gen-
eral of France, in their best days, had
never aspired. No man of sane undei-
standing would desire to revive institu
tions both uncongenial to modern opin-
ions and to the natural order of society
Yet the name of the parliament of Paris
must ever be respectable. It exhibited,
upon various occasions, virtues from
which human esteem is as inseparable as
the shadow from the substance ; a severe
adherence to principles, an unaccommo-
dating sincerity, individual disinterested-
ness and consistency. Whether indeed
these qualities have been so generally
characteristic of the French people as to
afford no peculiar commendation to the
parliament of Paris, it is rather for the
observer of the present day than the his-
torians of past times to decide.*
* The province of Languedoc, with its depend-
ences of Quercy ?.nd Rouergue, having belonged
almost in full sovereignty to the counts of Tou
louse, was not perhaps subject to the feudal resort,
or appellant jurisdiction of any tribunal at Paris.
Philip the Bold, after its reunion to the crown, es-
tablished the parliament of Toulouse, a tribunal
without appeal, in 1280. This was however sus-
pended from 1291 to 1443, during which inten-al
the parliament of Paris exercised an appellant
I jurisdiction over Languedoc. — Vaissette, Hist, de
Lang., t. iv., p. CO, 71, 524. Sovereign courts o.
parliaments were established by Charles VII. at
Grenoble for Dauphine, and by Louis XI. at Bor
deaux and Dijon for Guienneand Burgundy. The
parliament of Rouen is not so ancient. These in
Blitutions rather diminished the resort of the par
liament of Paris, which had extended over Bur
gundy, and, in time of peace, over Guienne.
A work has appeared within a very few years,
which throws an abundant light on the judicia'
system, and indefid on the whole civil policv -'if
Part ll.J
FEUDAL SYSTEM.
IJ£
The principal causes that operated in
Causes of Subverting the feudal system
the decline may be comprehended under
«r the feu- three distinct heads ; the in-
lal system. • r *i
creasmg 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
Acnuisi- ^^ point out the acquisitions of
tionsof power by the crown of France
^wer by j^ rcspcct of legislative and ju-
e crown, ^jj^j^j authority. The principal
augmentations of its domain have been
Auginenia- historically mentioned in the
lionofthe last chapter; but the subject
Joiriain. j^^y }^gj.g require further notice.
The French kings naturally acted upon a
system, in order to recover those pos-
.sessions which the improvidence or ne-
cessities of the Carlovingian race had
suffered almost to fall away from the
monarchy. This course, pursued with
tolerable steadiness for two or three cen-
turies, restored their effective power.
By escheat or forfeiture, by bequest or
succession, a number of fiefs were mer-
ged in their increasing domain.* It was
France, as well as other countries, during the mid-
lile agf.s. I allude to L'Espnt, Origine et Progr^s
des Institutions judiciaires des principaux Pays de
TEuropc, by M. Meyer, of Amsterdam; especially
ihe first and third volumes. It would have been
il.Ttunate had its publication preceded that of the
first c<iition of the present work ; as I might have
rendered this chapter on the feudal system in many
res|)ects more perspicuous and correct. As it is,
without availing myself of M. Meyer's learning and
acuteness to illustrate the obscurity of these re-
searches, or discussing the few questions upon
which I might venture, with deference, to adhere
'•o another opinion, neither of which could con-
veniently be done on the present occasion, 1 shall
content myself with this general reference to a per-
formance of singular diligence and ability, which
no student of these antiquities should neglect. In
all essential points I am happy not to perceive that
M. Meyer's views of the middle ages are far dilFer-
ent from my own. — Note to the fourth edit.
* The word domain is calculated, by a seeming
ambiguity, to perplex the reader of French history.
In its primary sense, the domain or demesne (do-
minicum) of any proprietor was confined to the
lands in his immediate ocr\ipaliim : p.xchuling
those of which his tenants, whether in fief or vil-
lanage, whether for a certain estate or at will, had
an actual possession, or, in our law-language, per-
nancy of the profits. Thus the compilers of
Domesday-Book distinguish, in every manor, the
.aids held by the lord in demesne from those occu-
pitd by his villeins or other tenants. And in Eng-
land, the word, if not technically, yet in use is still
confined to this sense. But in a secondary accep-
tation, more usual in France, the domain compre-
hended all lands for which rent was paid (censives),
and which contributed to the regular annual rev-
enue of the proprietor. The great distinction was
between lands m demesne and tho.se in fief A
grant of territory, whether by the king or another
lord, comprising as well domanial estates and tribu-
tary towns as feudal superiorities, was expressed
H2
part of their policy to obtaui }.ossessior!
of arriere-fiefs, and thus to become ten-
ants of their own barons. In such cases
the king was obliged, by the feudal du-
ties, to perform homage, by proxy, to his
subjects, and engage himself to the ser-
vice of his fief. But, for every political
purpose, it is evident that the lord could
have no command over so formidable a
vassal.*
The reunion of so many fiefs was at-
tempted to be secured by a legal princi
pie, that the domain was inalienable and
imprescriptible. This became at length a
fundamental maxim in the law of France.
But it does not seem to be much older
than the reign of Philip V., who, in 1318,
revoked the alienations of his predeces-
sors, nor was it thoroughly established,
even in theory, till the fifteenth centurj'.f
Alienations, however, were certainly very
repugnant to the policy of Philip Augus-
tus and St. Louis. But there was one
species of infeudation, so consonant to
ancient 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 considera-
ble territorial appanages. It is remarka-
ble 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 in-
vested his brothers with the counties of
Poitou, Anjou, and Artois, and his sons
with those of Clermont and Alen^on
to convey " in dominico quod est in dominico, et in
feodo quod est in feodo." Since, therefore, fiefc,
even those of the vavassors or inferior tenantry,
were not part of the lord's domain, there is, as i.
said, an apparent ambiguity in the language of his
torians who speak of the reunion of provinces to
the royal domain. This ambiguity, however, is
rather apparent than real. When the dutchy of
Normandy, for example, is said to have been uni-
ted by Philip Augustus to his domain, we are not,
of course, to suppose that the soil of that province
became the private estate of the crown. It con-
tinued, as before, in the possession of the Norman
barons and their sub-vassals, who had held their
estates of the dukes. But it is meant only thai
the Kmg of France stood exactly in the place of
the Duke of Normandy, with the same rights of
possession over lands absolutely in demesne, of
rents and customary payments from the bdigessef
of towns and tenants in roture or villanage, and of
feudal services from the military vassals. The im
mediate superiority, and the immediate resort or
jurisdiction over these, devolved to the crown,
and thus the dutchy of Normandy, considered as
a fief, was reunited, or, more properly, merged in
the royal domain, though a very small part of the
territory might become truly domanial.
* See a memorial on the acquisition of arriere-
.'iefs by the kings of France, in Mem. de I'Acad.
des Inscript., t. 1, by M. Dacier.
+ Preface au 15me tome des Ordoa wnces, pw
M. de Pastoret.
116
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
fCHAI. l\
This practice, in later times, produced
vp.ry mischievous consequences.
Tinder a second class of events that
contributed to destroy the spirit of the
leudal system, v,e may reckon the aboli-
tion of villanage ; the increase of com-
merce, and consequent opulence of mer-
chants 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 consideration.
The provincial cities under the Roman
Free and empire enjoyed, as is well known,
chartered a municipal magistracy and the
towns, right of internal regulation. It
would not have been repugnant, perhaps,
to the spirit of the Frank and Gothic con-
querors, to have left them in possession
of these privileges. But there seems no
satisfactory proof that they were pre-
served either in France or in Italy ;* or,
if they existed at all, they were swept
away, in the former country, during the
confusion of the ninth century, which
ended in the establishment of the feudal
system. Every town, except within the
royal domains, was subject to some lord.
In episcopal cities the bishop possessed
a considerable authority ; and in many
there was a class of resident nobility.
It is probable that the proportion of free-
men was always greater than in the
country ; some sort of retail trade, and
even of manufacture, must have existed
m the rudest of the middle ages, and con-
sequently some little capital v/as required
for their exercise. Nor was it so easy to
oppress a collected body, as the scatter-
ed and dispirited cultivators of the soil.
Probably therefore the condition of the
towns was at all times by far the more
tolerable ser\'itude ; and they might en-
joy several immunities by usage, before
the date of those charters which gave
them sanction. In Provence, where the
feudal star shone with a less powerful
ray, the cities, though not independently
governed, were more flourishing than the
French. t Marseilles, in the beginning of
* M. de Brequigny says that Lyons and Rheims
can trace their own municipal government some
centuries higher than the establishment of com-
munes by Louis VL The former city, which indeed
was not French at that time, never had a charter
of incorporation. — Ordonnances des Rois, t. xi.,
preface, p. 4. This prefa'-e contains an excellent
account of the origin and privileges of chartered
towns in France.
t There were more freemen in Provence, says
an historian of the country, than in any other part
of France ; and the revolutions of the monarchy
bein^ less felt than els/^where or.r towns naturallv
the twelfth age, was aole to equip pow-
erful navies, and to share in the wars ol
Genoa and Pisa against the Saracens of
Sardinia.
The earliest charters of community
granted to towns in France have Earliest
been commonly referred to the f'larters
time of Louis the Sixth ; though it is not
improbable that some cities in the south
had a municipal government by custom, if
not by grant, at an earlier period.* Noy^n,
St. Quentin, Laon. and Amiens appeared
to have been the nrst that received eman-
cipation at the nanus of this prince. f The
preserved their municipal government. I hav
borrowed this quotation from Heeren, Essai sut
rinfluence des Croisades, p. 122, to whom 1 am in
debted for other assistance. Vaissette also thinks
that the inhabitants of towns in Languedoc wer«
personally free in the tenth century ; though thos€
of the country were in servitude. — Hist, de Lan-
guedoc, t. ii., p. in.
* Ordonnances des Rois, ubi supra, p. 7. These
charters are as old as 1110, but the precise date is
unknown.
t The Benedictine historians of Languedoc are
of opinion that the city of Nismes had municipal
magistrates even in the middle of tlie tenth centu
ry, t. ii., p. 111. However this may be, the citizens
of Narbonne are expressly mentioned in lOSO. — Ap
pendix, p. 208. The burgesses of Carcassone appear,
by name in a charter of 1107, p. 515. In one oi
1131, the cmsuls of Beziers are mentioned; they
existed therefore previously, p. 409, and Appen
dix, p. 959. The magistrates of St. Antonin en
Rouergue are named in 1136 ; those of Montpeliei
in 1142; of Narbonne in 1148; and of St. Gilles in
1149, pp. 515, 432, 442, 4G4. The capitouls of
Toulou.se pretend to an extravagant antiquity ; but
were in fact established by Alfonso, count of Tou
louse, who died in 1148. In 1152, Raymond V. con
firmed the regulations made by the common coun
cil of Toulouse, which became the foundation ol
the customs of that city, p. 472.
If we may trust altogether to the Assises de Je
rusalem in their present shape, the court of bur
gesses having jurisdiction over persons of that rant
was instituted by Godfrey of Bouillon, who dieo
1 100. — Ass. de Jerus., c. 2. This would be even ear
lier than the charter of London, granted by Henr)
I. Lord Lyttletongoes se <<irastocall it " certain,
that in England many civies and towns were bod-
ies corporate and communities long before the alter-
ation introduced into France by the charters of
Louis le Gros." — Hist, of Henry II., vol. iv., p. 29.
But this position, as I shall more particularly show
in another place, is not borne out by any good
authority, if it extends to any internal jurisdiction,
and management of their own police ; whereof,
except in the instance of London, we have nc
proof before the reign of Henry II.
But the incorporation of communities seems to
have been decidedly earlier in Spain than in any
other country. Alfonso V., in 1020, granti^d a char-
ter to Leon, which is said to mention the common
council of that city in terms that show it to Le an
established institution. During the latter part of
the eleventh century, as well as in subsequent
times, such charters arc very frec;uetit. — Marina
Ensayo Hislorico-Critico sobre las siete parlidas
In several instances, ne find concessions of smalle
privileges to towns without any political power
Thus Bf reneer. count of Barcelona, in I0''=i coc
fe'jdal system.
117
chief tuwiis ii' the royal domains were
successively admitted to the same privi-
leges during the reigns of Louis VI., Louis
VIL, and Philip Augustus. This exam-
ple was gradually followed by the peers
and other barons ; so that by the end of
tlie thirteenth century, the custom had
Causes of prevailed over all France. It
(framing jj^g been sometimes imagined,
bo''ibund'i'i° that the crusades had a mate-
tht! crusades, rial influence in promoting the
erection of communities. Those expedi-
tions would have repaid Europe for the
prodigality of crimes and miseries which
attended them, if this notion were found-
ed in reality. But I confess that in this,
as in most other respects, their beneficial
consequences appear to me very much
exaggerated. Tne cities of Italy obtain-
ed their internal liberties by gradual en-
croachments, and by the concessions of
the Franconian emperors. Those upon
the Rhine owed many of their privile-
ges to the same monarchs, whose cause
they had espoused in the rebellions of
Germany. In I'rance, the charters grant-
ed by Louis the Fat could hardly be con-
nected with the first crusade, in which
the crown had taken no part, and were
long prior to the second. It was not
till fifty years afterward that the barons
seem to have trod in his steps by granting
charters to their vassals, and these do
not appear to have been particularly re-
lated in time to any of the crusades.
Still less can the corporations, erected
by Henry II. in England, be ascribed to
these holy wars, in which our countrj^
had hitherto taken no considerable share.
The establishment of chartered towns
flor in dciib- "^ France has also been ascri-
erate poi- bed to deliberate policy. " Lou-
'''■"■ is the Gross," saj's Robertson,
firms to the inhabitants of that city all the franchi-
ser, which they already possess. These seem how-
ever to be confined to exemption from paying rent,
and from any jurisdiction below that of an nfTicer de-
puted by the count. — De Marca, Marca Hispanica,
p. lO-^S. Another grant occurs m the same volume,
p. 909, from the Bishop of Barcelona in favour of
% town of his diocess. By some inattention, Rob-
extson has quoted these charters as granted to " two
Tillages in tlie county of Roiisillon." — Hist. Charles
v., note 16. The charters of Tortosa and Lerida
in 1140 do not contain any grant of jurisdiction, p.
1303
The ccrjiorate towns in France and England
i.ways enjoyed fuliej privileges than these Cata-
lonian chnrters impart. The essential character-
istics of 1 commune, according to M. Brequigny,
were: — in association confirmed by charter; a
'.ode o! fixed sanctioiud customs; and a set of
jrivilei,'es, always including municipal or elective
/overnnient. — Ordonnances, ubi supra, p. 3. A
distinction oi ght hc'veverto be pointed out, which
m c.ather li.ibl> to e 4 observation, between com-
" in order to crv ate some power thai
might counterbalance those potent vas-
sals who controlled or gave law to the
crown, first adopted the plan of confer
ring new privileges on the towns situa-
ted within his own domain." Yet one
does not immediately perceive what
strength the king could acquire by grant-
ing these extensive privil ^.ges within his
own domains, if the great vassals were
only weakened, as he asserts afterward,
by following his example. In what
sense, besides, can it be meant, that
Xoyon or Amiens, by obtaining certain
franchises, became a power that could
counterbalance the Duke of Normandy
or Count of Champagne? It is more
natural to impute this measure, both in
the king and his barons, tr their pecunia •
ry exigencies ; for we could hardly doub..
that their concessions were sold at the
highest price, even if the existing char-
ters did not exhibit the fullest proof of
it.* It is obvious, however, that the
coarser methods of rapine must have
grown obsolete, and tlie rights of the in
habitants of towns to property establish
ed, before they could enter into any com-
pact with their lord for the purchase of
liberty. Guibert, abbot of St. No- rirn™-
gent, near Laon, relates the estab- svdu<:f^
lishment of a community in that t^^ihe
city with circumstances that, in the treaty of
main, might probably occur in any ^'""'•
other place. Continual acts of violence
and robbery having been committed,
which there was no police adequate to
prevent, the clergy and principal inhabi-
tants agreed to enfranchise the populace
for a sum of money, and to bind the
whole society by regulations for general
security. These conditions were gladly
accepted ; the money was paid, and the
leading men swore to maintain the priv
munes, or corporate towns, and boroughs (bourge-
oisies). The main difference was, that in the lat-
ter there was no elective government, the niagis
trates being appointed by the king or other supe
rior. In the possession of fixed privileges and ex
ernptions, in the personal liberty of their inhabitants,
and in the certainty of their legal usages, there
was no distinction between corporate towns and
mere boroughs ; and indeed it is agreed that every
corporate town was a borough, though every bor
ough was not a corporation. f The French anti-
quary quoted above does not trace these inferior
communities or boroughs higher than the charters
of Louis VI. But we find the name, and a pood
deal of the substance, m England under William
the Conqueror,as is manifest from Domesday- Book.
* Ordonnances des Rois,t. xi., preface, p. 18et50.
t The preface to the twelfth volume of Ordoiiiiances d'.«
Rois contains a full account of bours:enixies, as that tc
the eleventh does of rotn munes. A great part of it, how
ever, is applicable ti both species, or rather to the genus
and the species.— See too that to the fourieenti Tolume o»
Recuei' les Historiens. u. 74.
118
KURUPE DL RING THE MlDUbE AGES
'CiIaP it
'leges of he inferior freemen. The
Bishop of Laon, who happened to be ab-
sent, at first opposed this new institution,
but was ultimately induced by money to
take a similar oath ; and the community
was confirme by the king. Unluckily
for himself, the bishop afterward annull-
ed the charter; when the inhabitants, in
despair at seeing themselves reduced to
servitude, rose and murdered him. This
was in 1112 ; and Guibert's narrative cer-
tainly does not support the opinion that
charters of community proceeded from
iLe policy of government. He seems to
have looked upon them with the jealousy
of a feudal abbot, and blames the Bishop
' f Amiens for consenting to such an es-
.ablishment in his city, from which, ac-
cording to Guibert, many evils resulted.
In his sermons, we are told, this abbot
used to descant on " those execrable com-
munities, where serfs, against law and
justice, withdraw themselves from the
power of their lords."*
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
rms, and united themselves in a com-
mon league confirmed by oath, for the
sake of redress. One of these associa-
tions took place at Mans as early as
10(37, and, though it did not produce any
charter of privileges, is a proof of the
spirit to which ultimately the superior
classes were obhged to submit. f Sev^-
eral charters bear witness that this spir-
it of resistance was justified by oppres-
sion. Louis VII. frequently declares
the tyranny exercised over the towns to
be his motive for enfranchising them.
Thus the charter of Mantes in 1150 is
said to be given pro nimia oppressione
pauperum: that of Compiegne in 1153,
propter enormitates clericorum : that of
Dourlens, granted by the Count of Pon-
thieu in 1202, propter injurias et moles-
tias a potentibus terrae burgensibus fre-
quenter illatas.|
The privileges which these towns of
The extent France derived from their char-
of their ters wcre surprisingly exten-
priviieges. gjyg . especially if we do not
suspect some of them to be merely in
confirmation of previous usages. They
were made capable of possessing com-
mon property, and authorized to use a
common seal as the symbol of their in-
corporation. The more oppressive and
* Hist. Litteiaire de la France, t. x., 448. Du
3ange, voc. Communia.
t Recueil des Historiens, t. xiv., preface, p. 66.
1 Ordonoances des Rois, t. si., preface, o 17
ignominious tokens of subjection, such -ai
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 oc-
casions when they might be demanded :
and these Avere levied by assessors of
their own electmg Some obtained &n
exemption from assisting their lord in
war; others were only bound to follow
him Avhen he personally commanded;
and almost all limited their service to
one, or at the utmost very few days. If
they were persuaded to extend its diwa-
tion, it was, like that of feudal tenants, al
the cost of their superior. Their cus
toms, as to succession and other matters
of private right, were reduced to certain-
ty, 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 char-
tered towns obtained : that of exemption
from the jurisdiction, as well of the roy-
al as the territorial judges. They were
subject only to that of magistrates, either
wholly elected by themselves, or in some
places, with a greater or less participa-
tion of choice in the lord. They were
empowered to make special rules, or, as
we call them, by-laws, so as not to con-
travene the provisions of their charter or
the ordinances of the king.*
It was undoubtedly far from the inten-
tion of those barons who confer- „
, , . .,- .ti, ■ Connexion
red such immunities upon their of free
subjects to relinquish their own townswith
superiority and rights not ex- "'«'""8-
pressly conceded. But a remarkable
change took place in the beginning of the
thirteenth century, which affected, in a
high degree, the feudal constitution of,
France. Towns, distrustful of their lord's
fidelity, sometimes called in the king as
guarantee of his engagements. The first
stage of royal interference led to a more
extensive measure. Philip Augustus
granted letters of safeguard to communi-
ties dependant upon the barons, assuring
to them his own protection and patron
age.f And this was followed up so quick-
ly by the court, if we believe some wri-
ters, that in the next reign, Louis VIII.
pretended to the immediate sovereignty
over all chartered towns, in exclusion of
their original lords. J Nothing, perhaps,
* Ordonnances des Rois, prefaces aux tomes xl
et xii. Du Cange, voc. Communia, Hostis. Car-
pentier, Suppl. ad Du Cange, v. Hcistis. Mably
Observations sur I'Hist. de France, 1. iii., c. 7.
+ Mably, ibid.
i Reputabat civitates omnes suas esse, in qulDua
communiae esscnt. I mention this in deference tv
Du Cange, Mably, and others, vrho assume tht
1
<'ari tl-!
fF'^DAl <VS'^V.M
Hi'
had so decisive an effect in subverting the
feudal aristocracy. The barons perceiv-
ed too late, that for a price long since
lavished in prodigal magnificence or use-
less warfare, thej- had sufl'ered the source
of their wealth to be diverted, 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 po-
lice ; but, though subject to the orders
of the crown, he was elected by the bur-
gesses ; and they took a mutual oath of
fidelity to each other. Thus shielded un-
der the king's mantle, they ventured to
encroach upon the neighbouring 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 aggressors, and this ob-
ligation was abundantly fulfilled. In or-
der to swell their numbers, it becaine the
practice to admit aU who came to reside
within their walls to the rights of burgh-
efship, even though they were villeins,
appertenant to the soil of a master, from
whom they had escaped. f Others, hav-
fact as incontrovertible ; but the passage is only in
a monkish chronicler, whose authority, were it
even more explicit, would not weigh much in a
matter of law. Beaumanoir, however, sixty years
afterward, lays it down, that no one can erect a I
commi:ne without the king's consent, c. 50, p. 268. j
And this was an unquestionable maxim in the four-
teenth century. — Ordonnances, t. xi., p. 29.
* In the charter of Philip Augustus to the town I
of Uoye in Picardy, we read : If any stranger,
whether noble or vdlein, commits a wrong against
the town, the mayor shall summon him to answer
for it ; and, if he does not obey the summons, the
mayor and inhabitants may go and destroy his
house, in which we (the king) will lend them our
assistance, if the house be too strong for the bur-
gesses to pull down : except the case of one of our
vassals, whose house shall not be destroyed ; but
he shall not be allowed to enter the town, till he
, has made amends at the discretion of the mayor
and jurats.— Ordonnances des Rois, t. xi., p. 228.
This summary process could only, as I conceive,
be employed, if the house was situated within the
jurisdiction of the commune. — See charter of
Crespy, id., p. 253. In other cases, the application
for redress was to be made in the first instance to
the lord of the territory wherein the delinquent re-
lided. Out, upon his failing to enforce satisfaction,
the mayor and jurats might satisfy themselves ; li-
ceat )iistitiam risrere, prout poterint; that is,
might pull down his house, provided they could.
Mably po.-;itiveIy maintains the communes to have
had the right of levying war, 1. iii., c. 7. And Br6-
qiiigny seems to coincide with him.— Ordonnances,
ar^face, p. 46. See also Hist, de Languedoc, t.
ill., p. 115. The territory of a commune was call-
<*d Pax (p. 185) ; an expressive word.
t One of the most remarkable privileges of char-
ered towns was that ol conferring freedom on run-
way serfs, if they were not recl.iimed hv their
inasters within a certain time. This wis a pretty
ijeneri! law. Si quis nativu^ quiets pci unum an-
ing obtained the same prinlegts, contm-
ued to dwell in the country ; but, upon
any dispute with their lords, called in ih«
assistance of their community. Philip
the Fair, erecting certain communes in
Languedoc, gave to any who would de-
clare on oath that he was aggrieved by
the lord or his officers, the right of being
admitted a burgess of the next town, upon
paying one mark of silver to the king,
and purchasing a tenement of a definite
value. But the neglect of this condition,
and several other abuses, are enumerated
in an instrument of Charles V., redre?sing
the complaints made by the nobility and
rich ecclesiastics of the neighbourhood. *
In his reign the feudal independence had
so completely yielded, that the court be
gan to give in to a new policy, which was
ever after pursued ; that of maintaining
the dignity and privileges of the noble
class against those attacks which wealth
and liberty encouraged the plebeians to
make upon them.
The maritime towns of the south of
France entered into separate jiaruime
alliances with foreign states ; towns pecu
as Narbonne with Genoa in ''^""'j ''"^^"
1166, and Montpelier in the next ^'^" "' '
century. At the death of Raymond YII ,
Avignon, Aries, and Marseilles affected to
set up repubhcan governments ; but they
were soon brought into subjection. f The
independent character of maritime towns
was not peculiar to those of the southern
provinces. Edward II. and Edward III.
negotiated, and entered into alliances
with the towns of Flanders, to which
neither their count, nor the King of
France were parties. J Even so late as the
reign of Louis XL, the Duke of Burgundy
did not hesitate to address the citizens of
Rouen, in consequence of the capture oi
some ships, as if they had formed an inde
pendent state. ^ This evidently arose out
of the ancient customs of private war-
fare, which, long after they were re-
pressed by a stricter police at home, con-
tinued with lawless violence on the ocean,
and gave a character of piracy to the
commercial enterprise of the middle ages
num et unum dicin in aliqua villa privilegiata man-
sent, ita quod in eorum communem gyldam tan
quain civis receptus fuerit, eo ipso k villenagio lib-
erabitur. — Glanvil., 1. v., c. 5. The cities of Lai
gurdoc had the same privilege. — Vaissette, t. iii..
p. 528, 530. And the editor of the Ordonnances
speaks of it as general, p. 44. A similar cusioni
was established in Germany; but the term of pre
scription was, in some places at least, much loi:ge
than a year and a day. — PfetVel, t. i., p. 294.
* Martenne, Thesaur. Anecd., t. i., p. 1515
t Velly, t. iv.. p. 416 ; t. v., p. 97.
t Kyiner, t. iv , passim.
<) Gamier, t. xvu,, p. 39G.
120
EUROPE DUKING '••HE MIDDLE AGES
[CUAP, i!
Notwithstandi ig the forces which in
opposite directijns assailed the feuda.
Military systciTi, from the enhancement
Bervice of of loyal prerogative, and the
tenants f levation of the chartered towns,
coinmu- its resistance would have been
ted lor much longer but for an intrinsic
iiiuney. jecay. 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 originally much of this
character. Its pnnc'nle of vitality was
warm and active, h ''ultiUing the obli-
gations of mutual assis ance and fidelity
by military service, the energies of friend-
ship Avere awakened, and the ties of
moral sympathy superadded to those of
positive compact. While private wars
were at their height, the connexion of
lord and vassal grew close and cordial,
in proportion to the keenness of their
enmity towards others. It was not the
object of a baron to disgust and empover-
ish his vavassors by enhancing the profits
of seigniory ; for there was no rent of
such price as blood, nor any labour so
serviceable as that of the sword.
But the nature of feudal obligation
was far better adapted to the partial
quarrels of neighbouring lords than to
the wars of kingdoms. Customs, found-
ed upon the poverty of the smaller gen-
try, had limited their martial duties to a
perJod never exceeding forty days, and
diminished according to the subdivisions
of the fief. They could undertake an ex-
pedition, but not a campaign ; they could
burn an open town, but had seldom leis-
ure 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 inef-
ficiency of the feudal militia became evi-
dent. 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 H. and
Richard I., the scene of war was fre-
quently transferred to the Garonne or the
Charente, this was still more impractica-
ble. The first remedy to which sover-
eigns 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 frequently neither
convenient to the tenant, anxious to re-
turn back to his household, nor to the
king, who could not readily defray the
charges of an army.f Something was
♦ Du Cange, et Carpet tier, voc. Hostis.
+ Tliere a:e several isan'^ where armies
to be devised more ad<>quaie to the cAi
gency, though less suitable to the feuda^
spirit. By the feudal law, the fief was,
in strictness, forfeited by neglect of at-
tendance upon the lord's expedition. A
milder usage introduced a fine, which
however, was generally rather lieavy
and assessed at discretion. An instanct
of this kind has been noticed in an eac
lier part of the present chapter, from the
muster-roll of Philip the Bold's expedi-
tion against tlie Count de Foix. The
first Norman kings of England made
these amercements very oppressive. Bu*
when a pecuniary payment became the
regular course of redeeming personal ser-
vice, which, under the name of escuage,
may be referred to the reign of Henry 11. ,
it was essential to liberty that the mili-
tary tenant should not lie at the mercy
of the crown.* Accordingly, one of the
most important provisions cojitained in
the Magna Charta of Jolin, secures the
assessment of escuage in parliament.
This is not renewed in the cliaracter of
Henry HI., but the practice during his
reign was conformable to its spirit.
The feudal mihtary tenures had super-
seded that earlier system of public de-
fence, which called upon every man, and
especially upon every landholder, to pro-
tect his country .f The relations of a vas-
broke up, at the expiration of their limited term of
service, in consequence of disagreement with the
sovereign, 'thus, at the siege of Avignon in \226
Theobald, count of Champagne, retired with hif
troops, that he might not proiriote the kmg's de
signs upon Languedoc. At that of Angers in 1230
nearly the same thing occurred. — M. Paris, p. 308
* Slados, Hist, of Exchequer, c. IC, conceives
that escuage may have been levied by Henry 1. ;
the earliest mention of it, however, in a lecord, is
under Henry 11. in 1159. — Lyttleton's Hist, of
Henry 11 , vol. iv., p. 13.
t Every citizen, however extensive may be his
privileges, is naturally bound to repel invasion. A
common rising of the people in arms, though not
always the most convenient mode of resistance
is one to which all governments ha\e a right to re
sort. Volumus, says Charles the I'ald, ut cujus
cunque nostrum homo, in cujuscunque regno sit,
cum seniore suo in hostem, vel aliis suis utilitati
bus pergat : nisi talis regni invasio,quam Laniweri
dicunt (quodabsit), acciderit, ut omnis populusilli
us regni ad earn repellendam commu niter pergat. —
Baluzii Capitularia, t. ii., p. 44. This very ancient
mention of the Landwehr, or insurrectional militia,
so signally called forth in the present age, will
strike the reader. The obligation of bearing arms
in defensive war was peculiarly incumbent on the
freeholder, or allodialist. It made part of the tnn
oda Dicessitas, in England, erroneously confound
ed by some writers with a feudal milftary tenure.
But when these latter tenures became nearly uni-
versal, the original principles of public defence
were almost obliterated ; and I know not how far
allodial propri'Hors, where they existed, were called
upon for sere:e. Kings did not, however, alwavi
tlispense will such aid as the lower people coiila
Part II.]
FEUDAL SVS'I'EM.
121
sal came m place of those of a subject
ma a citizen. This was the revolution
of the ninth century. In the .welfth and
thirteenth, another innovation rather
more gradually prevailed, and marks the
third period in the military history of
Europe Mercenary troops were substi-
EmpJoymen, tutcd for the feudal militia,
of mercenary Undoubtedly there could never
troops. have been a time when valour
was not to be purchased with money ; nor
could any employment of surpkis wealth
be more natural either to the ambitious
or the weak ; but we cannot expect to
find numerous testimonies of facts of
this description.* In public national his-
tory, I am aware of no instance of what
may be called a regular army (unless we
consider the Antrustions of the Merovin-
gian kings as such), more ancient than
the body-guards, or huscarles, of Canute
the Great. These select troops amount-
ed to six thousand men, on whom he
probably relied to ensure the subjection
of England. A code of martial law, com-
piled for their regulation, is extant in sub-
stance ; and they are reported to have dis-
played a military spirit of mutual union,
of which their master stood in awe.f
fjpply. Louis the Fat called out the militia of towns
»nd paiishes under their priests, who marched at
their head, though they did not actually command
them in battle. In the charters of incorporation
V hich towns received, the number of troops required
was usually expressed. These formed ihe infantry
of the Frei:ch amies, perhaps more numerous than
formidable to an enemy. In the war of the same
prince with the Emperor Henry V., all the popula-
tion of the frontier provinces was called out ; for
the militia of the counties of Rheims and Chalons
is said to have amounted to sixty thousand men.
Philip IV. summoned one foot-soldier for every
twenty hearths to take the field after the battle of
Courtrai. — (Daniel, Hist, de la Milice Fran(;aise.
Velly, t. iii., p. 62 ; t. vii., p. 287.) Commissions of
array, either to call out the whole population, or, as
was more common, to select the most serviceable
by forced impre-ssment, occur in English records
from the reign of Edward L — (Stuart's View of So-
ciety, p. 400.) And there are even several v.'rits
directed to the bishops, enjoining them to cause all
ecclesiastical persons to be arrayed and armed on
accountof an expected invasion. — Ryiner, t. vi., p.
726 (46 E. HI.) ; t. vii., p. 162 (I R. II.) ; and t.
viii., p. 270(3 H. IV.).
• * The preface to the eleventh volume of Recueil
des Historiens, p. 232, notices the word solidarii,
for hired soldiers, as early as 1030. It was proba-
bly unusual at that time ; though in Roger Hove-
den, Ordericus Vitalis, and other w iters of the
twelfth century, it occurs not very unfrequrntly.
We may perhaps conjecture the abbots, as both the
richest and most defenceless, to have been the first
who availed themselves of mercenary valour.
t For these facts, of which I remember no men-
tion in Engli.sh history, I am indebted to the Danish
collection of liangebek, Scriptores Reruin Danica-
rum Medii ./Evi. Though the Leges Castrenses
Caniiti Magni, publishe'l by him, t iii., p. V 1, are
Hivrold II. is d so said to have had Dunisli
soldiers in pay. But the most eminent
example in that age of a mercenaiy array,
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 afterward hired soldiers from vari-
ous regions to resist an invasion from
Norway. William Rufus pursued the
same course. Hired troops did not, liow-
ever, in general form a considerable por-
tion of armies, till the wars of Henry II.
and Philip Augustus. Each of these
monarchs took into pay large bodies of
mercenaries, chiefly, as we may infei
from their appellation of Brabancons, en
listed from the Netherlands. These were
alwaj'S disbanded on cessation of hostili-
ties : and unfit for any habits but of idle
ness and license, oppressed the peasant-
ry and ravaged the country without con-
trol. But their soldier-like principles of
indiscriminate obedience, still more than
their courage and field-discipline, render-
ed them dear to kings, who dreaded tlie
free spirit of a feudal army. It was by
such a foreign force that John saw him-
self on the point of abrogating the Great
Charter, and reduced his barons to iht
necessity of tendering his kingdom to a
prince of France.*
It now became manifest, that the prob
abiUties of war inclined to the party
who could take the field Avith selected
and experienced soldiers. The command
of money was the command of armed
hirelings, more sure and steady in battle,,
as we must confess with shame, than
the patriot citizen. Though the nobility
still composed in a great degree the
strength of an army, yet they served in
not in their original statutory form, they proceed
from the pen of Sweno, the earliest Danish histo-
rian, who lived under Waldemar I., less than a
century and a half after Canute. I apply the wold
huscarle. familiar in Anglo-Saxon documents, tc
these military retainers, on the authority of Lange
bek in another i)lace, t. ii., p. 454. The ol)ject oi
Canute's institutions was to produce a uniformity
of discipline and conduct among his soldiers, and
thus to separate them more decidedly from thcpeo
])le. They were distinguished by their dress and
golden ornaments. Their manners towards enrti
other were regulated ; quarrels and abusive wordi:
subjected to a penalty. All disputes, even respect
ing lands, were settled among themselves at hirii
general jiarliament. A singular story is told, which
if false, may still illustrate the traditionary charac
ter of these guards : that Canute having killed on(
of their body in a fit of anger, it was debated wlieth
er the king should incur the legal penalty of death
and this was only compromise'' by his kneeling f-i
a cushion before Ihe assc mblj, and awar'.in^' '''I'l!
permission to ris-e, t. iii , p. '5P
* Matt, rati"
lav
EUROPE DURIiVG THE MIDDLE AGt^S
[CHiP. (1
& new character; their animating spirit
jvas that of chivalry rather than of feu-
dal tennro ; their connexion with a su-
Lerior was personal rather than territo-
lial. The crusades had probably a ma-
terial tendency to effectuate this revolu-
tion, by substituting what was inevitable
in those expeditions, a voluntary stipen-
diary service for one of absolute obliga-
lion.* It is the opinion of Daniel, that
III the thirteenth century all feudal ten-
ants received pay, even during their pre-
scribed term of service. f This does not
appear consonant to the law of fiefs ; yet
their poverty may often have rendered
It impossible to defray the cost of equip-
ment on distant expeditions. A large
proportion of the expense must in all
cases have fallen upon the lord ; and
lience that perpetually increasing taxa-
tion, the effects whereof we have lately
been investigating.
A feudal army, however, composed of
all tenants in chief and their vassals, still
presented a formidable array. It is very
long before the paradox is generally ad-
mitted, that numbers do not necessarily
contribute to the intrinsic efficiency of
armies. Philip IV. assembled a great
force, by publishing the arriere-ban, or
feudal summons, for his unhappy expe-
dition against the Flemings. A small
and more disciplined body of troops
would not, probably, have met with the
discomfiture of Courtray. Edward I.
and Edward 11. frequently called upon
those who owed military service, in their
• invasions of Scotland. J But in the French
wars of Edward III., the whole, I think,
of his army served for pay, and was rais-
ed by contract with men of rank and in-
fluence, who received wages for every
soldier according to his station and the
arms lie bore. The rate of pay was so
remarkably high, that unless we imagine
a vast profit to have been intended for
the contractors, the private lancers and
even archers must have been chiefly
taken from the middling classes, the
smaller gentry, or rich yeomanry, of
»• Joinvilly, in several passages, intiinatcs that
mot,t of the knights serving in St. Louis's criisaiie
received pay, either from their superior lord, il' he
were on the expedition, or from some other, into
whose service tliey entered for the time. He set
out himself with ten knights, whom he afterward
found it difficult enough to maintain. — Collection
des M^inoires, t. i., p. 49, and t. ii., p. 53.
t Hist, de la Milice FranQaise, p. 84.
The use of mercenary troops prevailed much in
Germany during the thirteenth century. — Schmidt,
I. iv., p. 89. In Italy, it was also very common ;
though its general adoption is to be referred to the
commencement of the succeeding age.
t Uymer, t. lii., p. 173, 189, 199, etalilii ssepius.
England.* This part of Edward b mi]itar5
system 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 par-
ties, however, in this war employed mer-
cenary troops. Philip had 15,000 Ital-
ian crossbowmen at Crecy. It had for
some time before become the trade of
soldiers of fortune, to enlist under lead-
ers of the same description as them-
selves in companies of adventure, pas-
sing from one service to another, uncon-
cerned as to the c.iuse in which they
were retained. These military adven-
turers played a more remarkable part
in Italy than in France, though not a lit-
tle troublesome to the latter country.
The feudal tenures had at least furnish
ed a royal native militia, whose duties,
though much limited in the extent, wern
defined by usage, and enforced by princi
pie. They gave place in an evil hour for
the people, and eventually for sovereigns,
to contracts with mutinous hirelings, fre-
quently strangers, whose valour in the
day of battle inadequately redeemed their
bad faith and vexatious rapacity. France,
in her calamitous period under Charles
VI. and Charles VII., experienced tho
full effects of military licentiousness.
Ai me expulsion of the English, robbery
and disorder were substituted for the
more specious plundering of EsiabUsh-
war. Perhaps few measures nmno(a.
, , * , regular force
have ever been more popular, by charies
as few certainly have been "vn-
more politic, than the establishment ol
regular companies of troops by an ordi
nance of Charles VII., in 1444. f These
may justly pass for the first example of
a standing army in Europe ; though some
Italian princes had retained troops con-
stantly in their pay, but prospectively to
hostilities, which were seldom long inter-
mitted. Fifteen companies were com-
posed, each of a hundred men at arms,
* Many proofs of this may be adduced from Ry
mer's Collection. The following is from Brady's
History of England, vol. ii., Appendix, p. 86. The
wages allowed by contract, in 134G, were for an
earl, 6s. Bd. per day ; for barons and bannerets, 4s. ;
for knights, 2s. ; for squires. Is. ; for archers and
hobelers (light cavalry), Gd. ; for archers on foot,
3d. ; for Welshmen, 2d. These sums, mnltiplieid
by about 24, to bring them on a level with th«
present value of money, will show the pay to have
been extremely high. The cavalry, of course, fur-
nished themselves with horses and equipments, aa
well as arms, which were very expensive. — See
too Chap. I., p. 52 of this work.
f The estates at Orleans in 1439 had adviaeJ
this meas lire, as is recited in the preamble of .ht
ordinaix( — Ordonnances des Rois, t. xii., d. 3i 2
fx&l U
FEUDAL SVSi EAl
or lancets; and, in the language of that
age, the whole body was one thousand
five hundred 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 horse-
Dacic ; so that tlie fifteen companies
amounted to nine thousand cavalry.*
From these small beginnings, as they
must appear in modern times, arose the
regular army of France, whicii every suc-
ceeding king was solicitous to augment. I
The ban was sometimes convoked, that '
is, the possessors of fiefs were called
upon for military service in subsequent
ages ; but with more of ostentation than
real efficiency.
The feudal compact, thus deprived of
Decay of fuu- its Original efficacy, soon lost
rial principles, {fie respect and attachment
which had attended it. Homage and in-
vestiture became unmeaning ceremonies ;
the incidents of rehef and aid were felt
as burdensome exactions. And indeed
the rapacity with which these were lev-
ied, especially l)y our Norman sovereigns
and their barons, was of itself sufficient
to extinguish all the generous feehngs
of vassalage. Thus galled, as it were,
by the armour which lie was compelled
0 wear, but not to use, the military ten-
mt of England looked no longer with
contempt upon the owner of land in soc-
^agc, who held his estate with almost
the immunities of an allodial proprietor.
But the profits which the crown reaped
,rom wardships, and perhaps the preju-
lices of lawyers, prevented the abolition
of military tenures, till the restoration of
Charles II. In France, the fiefs of no-
blemen were very unjustly exempted
from all territorial taxation ; though the
tallies of later times had, strictly speak-
ing, only superseded the aids to which
Uiey had been always liable. This dis-
linction, it is well known, was not an-
iiihilated till that event which anr.ihilated
ill distinctions, the French revolution.
It is remarkable, that, although the
feudal sytem established 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, particularly
those two intolerable burdens, wardship
and marriage •, yet it has in general been
treated with more favour by English than
French writers. The hardiness with
which the ancient barons resisted their
sovereign, and the noble struggles which
• Daniel, Hist, de la Milice FranQaise, p. 266.
iTiUaret, Hist, de France, t. xv., p. 391
they made for civil lilnirty, 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 feeling, the
French have been shocked at that aris-
tocratic independence, which cramped
the prerogatives, and obscured the lustre,
of their crown. Yet it is precisely to
this feudal policy that France is indebt
ed for that which is ever dearest to her
children, their national splendour and
power. That kingdom would have been
irretrievably dismembered in the tenth
century, if the laws of feudal dependance
had not preserved its integrity. Empire?
of unwieldy bulk, like that of Cnarle-
magne, have several times been dissolv
ed by the usurpation of provincial gov
ernors, as is recorded both in ancient
history and in that of the Mahometan
dynasties in the East. What question
can there be, that the powerful dukes of
Guienne or counts of Toulouse wouh
have thrown off all connexion with th(
crown of France, when usurped by one
of their equals, if the slight dependance
of vassalage had not been substituted foi
legitimate subjection to a sovereign 1
It is the previous state of socielif
under the grandchildren of Charlemagne
which we must always keep in inind, i>
we would appreciate the effects of th»
feudal system upon the welfi»re of man-
kind. The institutions of the elevenl>«
century must be compared with those o?
the ninth, not with the advanced civiliza-
tion of modern times. If the view that
I have taken of those dark ages is cor-
rect, the state of aiiarchy, which we usu-
ally term feudal, was the natural result
of a vast and barbarous empire feebly ad
ministered, and the cause, rather than
cflect, of the general establishment of
feudal tfcuures. These, by preseiving 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 (.^,,^^3, g,
national greatness and security, timaie or
upon civil liberty and private nicacivan-
■' 1 ii i -ii'i. 1 t:ises and
rights, upon the tranquillity and ^vUs result
order of societ\-, upon the in- ingfromthe
crease and difiusion of wealth, ^'l^^^'^^'
or upon the general tone of
moral sentiment and energy. The feu-
dal constitution was certainly, as has
been observed already, little adapted for
lO-l
EiatOPE DUaiiNG THE MIDDLE AOES.
IChhi Ii
the deff Ece of a mighty kingdom, fai less
for schfciiies of conquest. But as it pve-
vailed alike iu several adjacent countries,
none had any thing to fear from the mil-
itaiy superiority of its neighbours. It
was this inefficiency of the feudal militia,
perhaps, tliat saved Europe during the
middle ages from the danger of universal
monarchy. In times when princes had
little notion of confederacies for mutual
protection, it is hard to say what might
not have been the successes of an Otho
the Great, a Frederick Barbarossa, or a
Philip Augustus, if they could have wield-
ed the whole force of their subjects
whenever their ambition required. If an
empire equally extensive with that of
Charlemagne, and supported by military
despotism, had been formed about the
twelfth or thirteenth centuries, the seeds
of commerce and liberty, just then begin-
ning to shoot, would have perished : and
Europe, reduced to a barbarous servi-
tude, might have fallen before the free
barbarians of Tartary.
If we look at the feudal polity as a
scheme of civil freedom, 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 favourable
moment,' was breaking through all bar-
riers, would have rioted without control,
if, wlien the people were poor and dis-
united, the nobility had not been brave
and free. So far as tlie sphere of feudal-
ity extended, it diffused the spirit of lib-
erty, and the notions of private right.
Every one, I think, will acknowledge
tliis, who considers the limitations of the
services of vassalage, so cautiously mark-
ed in these law-books which are the
records of customs, the reciprocity of ob-
ligation between the lord and his tenant,
the consent required in every measure of
a legislative or a general nature, the se-
curitj', above all, which every vassal
found in the administration of justice by
his peers, and even (we may in this sense
say) m the trial by combat. The bulk of
the people, it is true, were degraded by
servitude, but this had no connexion 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
.ither iranse. And as jfcdominant hab-
*,s of warfi'.re aro totally irreconcila-
ble with those of industiy, not merely
by the immediate works of destruction
which render its efforts unovailing, but
through that contempt of peaceful occu-
pations which they produce, the feudal
system must have been intrinsically ad
verse to the accumulation of wealth, ai;d
the improvement of those arts, which
mitigate the evils or abridge the labouis
of mankind.
But as the school of moral discipline,
the feudal institutions were perhaps nio.^t
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 characteris-
tic than others, they were falsehood
treachery, and ingratitude. In slowly
purging off the lees of this extreme cor-
ruption, the feudal spirit exerted its ame-
liorating influence. Violation of faith
stood first in the catalogue of crimes,
most repugnant to the very essence of c
feudal tenure, most severely and prompt
ly avenged, most branded by general in
famy. The feudal law-books breathe
throughout a spirit of honourable obliga-
tion. The feudal course of jurisdiction
promoted, what trial by peers is pecu-
liarly calculated to promote, a keener
feeling and readier perception of moral
as well as of leading distinctions. And
as the judgment and sympathy of man-
kind are seldom mistaken in these great
points of veracity and justice, 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 sup
pUed the other. In the reciprocal ser
vices of lord and vassal, there was ample
scope for every magnanimous and disin-
terested energy. The heart of man,
when placed in circumstances which
have a tendency to excite them, will sel-
dom be deficient in such sentiments. No
occasions could be more favourable thar
the protection of a faithful supporter, oi
the defence of a beneficent suzerain,
against such powerful aggression, as left
little prospect except of sharing in his
ruin.
From these feelings, engendered by the
feudal relation, has sprung up the peculiar
sentiment of personal reverence and at-
tachment towards a sovereign which we
denominate loyalty; alike distinguisha
ble from the stupid devotion of eastern
slaves, and from the abstract respect with
which free citizens regard their chief
magistrate. Men who had been used to
sv.'car fealty, to profess su')iection, to {ol
I -Llit. il.J
ITALY.
V.
low, at home and i i the fie/d, a feuJiil su-
perior and his family, easily transferred
the same allegiance to the monarch. It
was a very powerful feeling, which could
make the bravest men put up with shghts
and ill treatment at the hands of their
r,overeign ; or call forth all the energies
of disinterested exertion for one whom
Uiey never saw, and in whose character
there was nothing to esteem. In ages
when the rights of the community were
iinfelt, this sentiment was one great pre-
«r<-vative of society ; and, though collat-
eral or even siibseryieiit to more enlar-
ged principles, it is still indispensable tr,
the tranquillity and permanence of every
monarchy. In a moral view, loyalty has
scarcely perhaps less lendency to refine
and elevate the heart than patriotism it-
self; and holds a middle place in tlif
scale of human motives, as they asceuo
from the grosser inducements of self-in-
terest, to the furtherance of general hap-
piness and conformity to the purposes ol
infinite Wisdom.
CHAPTER III.
■■ HE HISTORY OF ITALY, FROM THE EXTINCTION OF THE CaRLOVINGIAN LM
PERORS TO THE INVASION OF NAPLES BY CHARLES VIIL
PART I.
late of Italy after the death of Charles the Fat. —
Coronation of Otho the Great. — State of Rome.
—Conrad II. — Union of the Kingdom of Italy
with the Empire. — Establishment of the Nor-
mans in Naples and Sicily. — Roger Guiscard. —
Rise of the Lombard Cities. — They gradually
become more independent of the Empire. — Their
liiternal Wars. — Frederick Barbarossa. — De-
struction of Milan. — Lombard League. — Battle
i)f Legnano. — Peace of Constance. — Temporal
I'rincipality of the Popes. — Guelf and Ghibelm
Factions. — Otho IV. — Frederick II. — Arrange-
ment of the Italian Republics. — Second Lombard
War. — Extinction of the House of Svvabia. —
Causes of the Success of Lombard Republics. —
Their prosperity — and Forms of Government. —
Contentions between the Nobility and People.
■Civil Wars. — Slory of Giovanni di Vicenza.*
At the death of Charles the Fat in 888,
a, . „rr, , that part of Italy which ac-
.-»(ate of Italy , V i i ^i r
at (tie end of knowledgcd the supremacy of
thenintii the westem empire was divi-
century. ^^^^ jjj,^ France and Germany,
* The authorities upon which this chapter is
•■ounded, and which do not always appear at the
toot of the page, are chiefly the following. 1. Mu-
ratori's Annals of Italy (twelve volumes in 4to. or
eighteen in 8vo.) comprehend a summary of its his-
tory from the beginning of the Christian era to the
peace of Aix la Chapelle. The volumes relating
to the middle ages, into which he has digested the
original writers contained in his great collection,
Scnptores Rerum Italicarum, are by much the
best ; and r*" these, the part which extends from
the seventh or eighth to the end of the twelfth cen-
tury, is the fifilest and most useful Muratori's ac-
curacy is in general almost implicitly to be trusted,
and his plait; integrity speaks in all his writings ;
l)ut his rnind was not philosophical enough to dis-
criminate the wheat from the chall', and his habits
uf life induced him to annex an imaginary impor-
tance to the dates of diplomas and other inconsid-
""«ble matters His narrative viresents a mere
among a few powerful vassals, hereditary
governors of provinces. The principal
of these were the dukes of Spoleto and
skeleton devoid of juices ; and besides its intolera
ble aridity, it labours under that confusion which a
merely chronological arrangement of concurrent
and independent events must always produce. 2
The dissertations on Italian Antiquities, by th«
same writer, may be considered either as one oj
two works. In Latin, they form six volumes in
folio, enriched with a great number of original doc
uments. In Italian, they are freely translated by
Muratori himself, abridged, no doubt, and without
most of the original instruments, but well futni.sh-
ed with quotations, and abundantly sullicient foi
most purposes. They form three volumes in quat-
to. l' have in general quoted only the number of
the dissertation, on account of the variance be-
tween the Latin and Italian works : in cases where
the page is referred to, I have indicated, b.v 'he
title, which of the two I intend to vouch. .1 S'
Marc, a learned and laborious Frenchman, has
written a chronological abridgment of Italian bis
tory, somewhat in the manner of Henault, but sc
strangely divided by several parallel coluiiins m ev
ery page, that I could hardly name a t-onk more
inconvenient to the reader. His knowledge, like
Muratori's, lay a good deal in points of minute in
quiry ; and he is cliietly to be valued in ecclesiaslica!
history. The work descends only to thi; thirteenth
century. 4. Denina's Rivoluzioni d'ltalia, origi-
nally published in I7C!), is a perspicuous and lively
book, in which the principal circumstances ar«J
well selected. It is not perhaps free from errors
In fact, and still less from those of opinion; but,
till lately, I do not know from what source a go i
eral acquaintance with the history of Italv cue lii
have been so easily derived. ^. The ]iul licalion
of M. Sisniondi's Histoire des Republiques Italian
nes has thrown a blaze of light around the nics'
interesting, at least in many respects, of Eurtipe id
countries during the middle ages. 1 atn hapjiy tt,
bear witness, so far as my own studies ha' e en.i
bled me, to the learning and diligence of this wri
ler; qualities which ih.c world is sometimes api
not to suppose, where they perceive so much elo-
quence and philosophy. 1 cannot express my ':-pm
126
EUROPE DURING THE MILDLE AGLS.
[Chap. Ill
Tuscany, the marquises of lA'rea, Susa,
and Friuli. The great Lombard dutchy
of Benevento, which had stood against
llie arms of Charlemagne, and comprised
more than half the present kingdom of
Naples, had now fallen mto decay, and
was straitened by the Greeks in Apulia,
and by the principalities of Capua and
Salerno, which had been severed from its
own territory, on the opposite coast.*
And in the Though princes of the Carlovin-
firstpartof giau fine continued to reign in
ihe tenth. France, their character was too
little distinguished to challenge the obe-
dience of Italy, already separated by fam-
ily partitions from the Transalpine na-
tions ; and the only contest was among
her native chiefs. One of these, Beren-
ger, originally Marquis of Friuli, or the
March of Treviso, reigned for thirty-six
years, but with continually disputed pre-
tensions ; and, after his death, the calam-
ities of Italy were sometimes aggravated
by tyranny, and sometimes by intestine
io!i of M. Sismondi in this respect more strongly
thai) by saying that his work has almost superseded
.he annals of iVluratori ; I mean from the twelfth
century, before which period his labour hardly be-
gins. Though doubtless not more accurate than
Muratori, he has consulted a much more extensive
list of authors ; nnd, considered as a register of
facts alone, his history is incomparably more use-
ful. Theso are combined m so skilful a manner,
as to diminish, in a great degree, that inevitable
confusion which arises from frequency of transi-
tion and want of general unity. Jt is much to be
regretted, that from too redundant details of unne-
cessary circuinstances, and sometimes, if I may
take the liberty of saying so, from unnecessary re-
flections, M. Sismondi has run into a prolixity which
will probably intimidate the languid students of our
hge. It is the more to be regretted, because the
History of Italian Republics is calculated to pro-
duce a good far more important than storing the
memory v\ith historical facts, that of communica-
ting to the reader's bosom some sparks of the dig-
nilieii philosophy, the love for truth and virtue,
which live along its eloquent pages. 6. To Mu-
ralori's collection of original writers, the Scriptores
Rerum Italicarum, in twenty-four volumes in folio,
I have paid considerable attention ; perhaps there
is no volume of it which I have noi more or less
consulted. But, after the annals of the same wri-
ter, and the work of M. Sismondi, I have not
thought myself bound to repeat a laborious search
into all the authorities upon which those writers
depend. The utility, for the most part, of perusing
original and contemporary authors, consists less
in ascertaining mere facts, than in acquiring that
insight into the spirit and temper of their times,
•'hich it IS utterly impracticable for any compiler
to impart. It would be impossible for me to dis-
tinguish what information 1 have derived from
these higher sources; in «:ases, therefore, where
MO particular authority is named, I would refer to
the writings of Muratori and Sismondi, especial-
ly the latter, as the substratum of the following
chapter.
* Giannone, Istoria C'vile di Napoli, 1. vi' <■
mondi. Hist, des Reji'i bn'jes -italienner
244
war. The Hungarians desclated Lom
bardy ; the southern coasts were infestec
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 favourite independ
ence, and called in the assistance of Othc
the First, king of Germany. Little op
position was made to this powerful mon
arch. Berenger II., the reigning sover
eign of Italy, submitted to hold the king-
dom of him as a fief.* But some years
afterward, new disturbances ari- oiho the
sing, Otho descended from the ^^<^'^'-
Alps a second time [A. D. 961], deposed
Berenger, and received at the hands o
Pope John XII. the imperial dignitj
which had been suspended for nearly foj-
ty years.
Every ancient prejudice, every recol-
lection, whether of Augustus or of Char
lemagne, had led the Italians to annex
the notion of sovereignty to the name
of Roman emperor; nor were Otho, ox
his two immediate descendants, by any
means inchned to waive these supposed
prerogatives, which they were well able
to enforce. Most of the Lombard princes
acquiesced without apparent repugnance
in the new German government, which
Avas conducted by Otho the Great Avith
much prudence and vigour, and occasion-
ally with severity. The citizens of Lom-
bardy were still better satisfied A\ith a
change, that ensured a more tranquil and
regular administration than they had ex-
perienced under the preceding kings.
But in one, and that tlie chief of Italian
cities, very different sentiments were
prevalent. We find, indeed, a con- internal
siderable obscurity spread over the state of
internal history of Rome, during '^"'"^
the long period from the recovery of Itaiy
by Belisarius to the end of the eleventh
century. The popes appear to have pos-
sessed some measure of temporal power,
even while the city was professedly gov
erned by the exarchs of Ravenna, in the
name of the eastern empire. This power
became more extensive after her separa-
tion from Constantinople. It was, how-
ever, subordinate to the undeniable sover-
eignty of the new imperial family, wIid
were supposed to enter upon all the rights
of their predecessors. There was al-
ways 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 irreg-
ular election of a pope, a circumstance
by no means unusual, the emperors held
I
i
* Muratori, A. D. 951.
tfiia. 1. ix. '6
Penina, Rivoluwoni
I
Part
TALY
12:
themselves entitled to interpose. But. the
spirit and even the institutions of the
Romans were republican. Amid the
darkness of the tenth century, which no
contemporary historian dissipates, we
faintly distinguish the awful names of
senate, consuls, and tribunes, the domes-
tic magistracy of Rome. These shadows
of past glory strike us at first with sur-
prise ; yet there is no improbability in
th<; supposition, that a city so renowned
and populous, and so happily sheltered
from the usurpation of the Lombards,
might have presei-ved, or might afterward
establish, a kind of municipal govern-
ment, which It would be natural o dig-
nify with those august titles of antiquity.*
During that anarchy which ensued upon
the fall of the Carlovingian dynasty, 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
briber)'-, or controlling influence, often by
violence and assassination ; it was filled
by such men as naturally rise by such
means, whose sway was precarious, and
At the death of Otho III. without chil
dren, in 1002, the compact be- iienryii
twcen Italy and the emperors a''^ Ardom
of the house of Saxony was determined
Her engagement of fidehty was certainly
not applicable to every sovereign whon'
the princes of Germany might raise t(
their throne. Accordingly Ardoin, mar
quis of Ivrea, was elected khig of Italy
But a German party existed among the
Lombard princes and bishops, to which
his insolent demeanour soon gave a pre-
text for inviting Henry II., the new king
of Germany, collaterally related to their
late sovereign. Ardoin was deserted by
most of the Italians, but retained his for-
mer subjects in Piedmont, and disputed
the crown for many years with Henr}',
who passed very little time in Italy. Du-
ring this period there was hardly any
recognised government ; and the Lom-
bards became more and more accustom
ed, through necessity, to protect them-
selves, and to provide for their own inter-
nal police. Meanwhile the German na-
tion had become odious to the Italians.
The rude soldiery, insolent and addicted
generally ended either in their murder or to intoxication, were engaged in frequent
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
daughter Marozia. The kings of Italy,
whose election in a diet of Lombard
princes and bishops at Roncaglia was not
conceived to convey any pretension to the
sovereignty of Rome, could never obtain
any decided influence in papal elections,
which were the object of struggling fac-
tions among the resident nobility. In
this temper of the Romans, they were ill
disposed to resume habits of obedience
to a foreign sovereign. The next year
after Otho's coronation [A. D. 972], they
rebelled, the pope at their head ; but were
of course subdued without difhculty.
The same republican spirit broke out
whenever the emperors were absent in
Germany, especially during the minority
of Otho III., and directed itself against
the temporal superiority of the pope.
But when that emperor attained man-
hood, he besieged and took the city,
crushing all resistance by measures of
severity; and especially by the execu-
tion of the consul Crcscentius, a leader
of the popular faction, to whose instiga-
tion the tumultuous hcense of Rome was
principally ascribed. f
* Muratori, A. D. 907, 987, 1015, 1087. Sis-
inondi, t. i., p. 155.
t Sismondi, t. i., p. 164, makes a patriot hero of
C-resceritius. Bnt we know so lif.le of the man
disputes with the citizens, wherein the
latter, as is usual in similar cases, were
exposed first to the summary vengeance
of the troops, and afterward to pena)
chastisement for sedition.* In one of
these tumults, at the entry of Henry II.,
in 1004, the city of Pavia was burnt to
the ground, which inspired its inhabitants
with a constant animosit)' against tha{
emperor. Upon his death in 1024, the
Italians were disposed to break once
more their connexion with Germany,
which had elected as sovereign Conrad,
duke of Franconia. They oflered their
crown to Robert, king of France, and to
William, duke of Guicnne ; but neither
of them was imprudent enough to involve
himself in the diflicult and faithless pol-
itics of Italy. It may surprise us that no
candidate appeared from among her na-
tive princes. But it had been the dex-
terous policy of the Othos to weaken fht
great Italian fiefs, which were still rathe)
considered as hereditary governments
than as absolute patrimonies, by separa-
ting districts from their jurisdiction, undei
inferior marquises and rural counts. i
The bishops were incapable of becoming
competitors, and generally attached to
or the times, that it seems better to follow tht
common tenour of history, without vouching fo.
the accuracy of its representations.
* Muratori. A. D. 1027, 1037.
t Denina, 1. ix., c. 11. Muratori. Ami:;. Cat
Dissert. 8. Annali d'ltalia, A. D. 1'89.
)18
ROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
tCitiP. 11
ihe Gprman i^arty. The cities already
oosscssp.d material influence, but were
disuailed Vy mutual jealousies. [A. D.
1024.] vS'Uce ancient prejudices, there
Eiec-ion rf forc, precluded a federate league
Conrad II. of independent principalities and
republics, for which perhaps the actual
condition of Italy unfitted her, Eribert,
archbishop of Milan, accompanied by
some other cnief men of Lombaray, re-
paired to Constance, and tendered the
crown to Conrad, which he was already
disposed to claim as a sort of dependance
upon Germany. It does not appear that
either Conrad or his successors were
ever regularly elected to reign over It-
aly.;* but whether this ceremony took
place or not, wc may certainly date from
that time the subjection of Italy to the
Germanic body. It became an unques-
tionable maxim, that the votes of a few
Gorman princes conferred a right to the
sovereignty of a country which had never
been conquered, and which had never for-
mally recognised this superiority.! But
it was an equally fundamental rule, that
the elected king of Germany could not
assume the title of Roman emperor, until
his coronation by the pope. The middle
Appellation of King of the Romans was
invented as a sort of approximation to the
imperial dignity. But it was not till the
reign of Maximilian that the actual coro-
nation ot Rome was dispensed with, and
the title of emperoi taken immediately
after the election.
The period between Conrad of Fran-
conia and Frederick 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 pa-
pacy" for ecclesiastical investitures, the
establishment of the Norman kingdom in
Naples, and the formation of distinct and
uearly independent republics among the
* Mnratori, A. D. 1026. It is said afterward, p.
367, that he was a Romanis ad Imperatorein eleo-
I'js. The people of Rome therelore preserved
.heir nominal right of concurring in llie election of
an emperor. Muratori, in another place, A. D.
1040, supposes that Henry III. was chosen king of
Italy, though he allows that no proof of it e.Kists ;
and there seems no reason for the supposition.
t Gunther, the poet of Frederick Barbarossa, ex-
^resses this not inelegantly : -
Romani gloria regni
iN^os penes est ; quemcunqne sibi Germania regem
Prseficit, hunc dives submisso vertice Roma
Acnpit, et verso Tiberim regit ordine Rhenus.
Gunther, Ligurimis ap. Stnivium Corpus Hist.
German., p. 266.
Vet it appears from Otho of Frisingen, an unques-
linnable authority, that some ItaHan nobles con-
u rred, or at least were present and ai^sistir g. m
\f. election of Frf lerick himself. 1. li.. c. t.
cities of Lombardy. The first of thes*
will find a more appropriLte place in a
subsequent chapter, where I shall ira(«;
the progress of ecclesiastical power. But
it produced a long and almost incessanl
state of disturbance in Italy ; and should
be mentioned at present as one of the
main causes which excited in that coun-
try a systematic opposition to the im-
perial authority.
The southern provinces of Italy, in the
beginning of the eleventh cen- ^^^^^ ^^^.^
tury, were chiefly subject to j,",ccsor
the Greek empire, which had ^['^^""^'■"
latterly recovered part of its '^^'
losses, and exhibited some ambition and
enterprise, though without any intrinsic
vigour. They were governed by a lieu-
tenant, styled Catapan,* who resided ni
Bari in Apulia. On the Mediterranean
coast, three dutchies, or rather republics,
of Naples, Gaeta, and Amalfi, had for
several ages preserved their connexion
with the Greek empire, and acknowl-
edged its nominal sovereignty. The
Lombard principalities of Benevento. ■
Salerno, and Capua, had much declined
from their ancient splendour. The Greeks
were, however, not likely to attempt any
further conquests : the court of Constan-
tinople had relapsed into its usual indo-
lence ; nor had they much right to boast
of successes, rather due to the Saraceu
auxiliaries, whom they hired from Sicily
No momentous revolution apparently
threatened the south of Italy, and least
of all could it be anticipated from what
quarter the storm was about to jjather.
The followers of Rollo, who rested
from plunder and piracy in the pp,,,^^^,,,
quiet possession of Normandy, oitiieNor
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 account of the lawless charac-
ter of tiie 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 territory ; and
through that superiority of valour, and
perhaps of corporal strength, which this
singular people seem to have possess-
ed above all other Europeans, they
made surprising havoc among the ene-
my.f This exploit led to frfsh engage-
* Catapanus, from Kar,', itr,v, one employed in th«
general administra lion of affairs.
I + Giann-Mie. t. li . p. 7 [edit. 17rj.3l. I should *»fc
I'ART I.j
.TALY.
1S«
ments, and these engagements drew new
adventurers from Normandy ; they found-
ed the little city of Aversa near Capua,
and were employed by the Greeks against
the Saracens of Sicily. But, though per-
forming splendid services in this war,
they were ill repaid by their ungrateful
employers ; and being by no means of a
temper to bear with injury, they revenged
tlicmselves by a sudden invasion of Apu-
lia. This province was speedily sub-
dued, and divided among twelve Norman
Conquests counts [A. D. 1042]; but soon af-
of Robert terward Robert Guiscard, one of
yumcard. ^^velve brothers, many of whom
were renowned in these Italian wars,
acquired the sovereignty ; and adding
Calabria to his conquests [A. D. 1057J,
put an end to the long dominion of the
Eastern emperors in Italy.* He reduced
the principalities of Salerno and Bene-
vento, in the latter instance sharing the
spoil with the pope, who took the city to
himself, while Robert retained the terri-
tory. His conquests in Greece, which
he invaded with the magnificent design
of overthrowing the Eastern empire,
were at least equally splendid, though
less durable. [A. D." 1061.] Roger, his
younger brother, undertook meanwhile
the romantic enterprise, as it appeared,
of conquering ihg Island of Sicily, with
a small body of Norman volunteers.
But the Saracens were broken into petty
states, and discouraged by the bad suc-
cess of their brethren in Spain and Sar-
dinia. 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 (Juiscard's
posterity, united the two Norman sover-
eignties, and subjugating the free repub-
ics of Naples and Anialfi, and the princi-
)alit.y of Capua [A. D. 1127], established
a boundary which has hardly been changed
since his tnne.f
The first successes of these Norman
I'apai inves- leaders were viewed unfavoura-
(iiurosof bly by the popes. Leo IX.
Naples. marched in person against Rob-
ert Guiscard witli an army of German
serve, thnt St. Marc, a more critical writer in ex-
amination of facts than Giannone, treats this first
adventure of the Normans as unauthenticated.
— .4br6ge Chronologique, p. 990.
* The final blow was given to the Greek domi-
nation over Italy by the capture of Ban, in 1071,
after a siege of Unu years. It had for some time
been confined to this single city. — Muratori, St.
Marc.
t M. Sismondi has excelled himself in descri-
'ling the cotiquest of Ain;ilfi and Naples by Roger
Guiscard (t. i., c. 4) ; wanning his imagination
.vith visions of liberty and virtue in those obscure
lennblics, which no real historv sn'v.ves to dispel.
mere enaries, but \\ as beateii and nia<w
prisoner in this unwise enterprise, th*;
scandal of which nothing but good fo»
tune could have lightened. He fell, how
ever, into the hands of a dev^out pe ,pit',
who implored his absolution for th^
crime of defending themselves ; and
whether through gratitude, or as thr.
price of his liberation, invested them
with their recent conquests in Apulia as
fiefs of the Holy See. This investiture
was repeated and enlarged, a^ ^e popes,
especially in their contentior -*,lh Henry
IV. and Henry V., found thv .idvantage
of using the Normans as faithful auxilia-
ries. Finally, Innocent II., in 1139, con-
ferred upon Roger the title of King of
Sicily. It is dlfficidt to understand by
what pretence these countries could be
claimed by the see of Rome in sover-
eignty, unless hj virtue of the pretended
donation of Conslantine, or that of Louis
the Debonair, which is hardly less suspi-
cious ;* and, least of all, how Innocent
II. could surrender the liberties of the
city of Naples, whether that was consid-
ered 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 con-
quest ; 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.
The revolutions which time brought
forth on the opposite side of Italy were
still more interesting. Under the Lom-
bard and Erench princes, every pro<Tress or
city with its adjacent district was the Lom-
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 em-
perors to dismember particular towns or
tracts of country, granting them upon a
feudal tenure to rural lords, by many ol
whom also the same title was assumed.
Thus by degrees the authority of the ori-
ginal ofllicers was confined almost to the
walls of tlieir own cities ; and in many
cases the bishops obtained a grant of the
temporal government,! and extrcisedthe
functions which had belonged to the counf
* Muratori presumes to suppose, that the inter
polated, if not si)urious, grants of Louis the Debo
nair, Otho I., and Henry IF., to the see of Rome,
were promulgated about the time of the first con
cessions to the Normans, in order to give the popes
a colourable pretext to dispose of the southern
provinces of Italy. A. D 1059.
t Muratori, Antiquit. Italiae, Dissert. 8. Aii'.ali
d'ltalia, A. I). 989. Antihita Estensi, p. 26
13(1
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
Chap, tf
I* is impossible to ascertain the time at
which the cities of Lombardy began to
assume a repubUcan form of government,
or to trace with precision the gradations
of their progress. The last historian of
Italy asserts, that Otho the First erected
them iiiio municipal communities, and
permitted the election of their magis-
■ rates ; but of this he produces no evi-
dence ; and Muratori, from whose author-
ity it is rash to depart without strong
reasons, is not only silent about any
charters, but discovers no express une-
quivocal testimonies of a popular govern-
ment for the whole eleventh century.*
The first appearance of the citizens act-
fng for themselves, is in a tumult at Mi-
lan, in 991, when the archbishop was ex-
j)elled from the city.f But this was a
transitory ebullition, and we must descend
lower for more specific proofs. It is pos-
sible that the disputed succession of Ar-
doin and Henry, at the beginning of the
eleventh age, and the kind of interregnum
which then took place, gave the inhabi-
tants an opportunity of choosing magis-
trates, and of sharing in public delibera-
tions. A similar relaxation indeed of gov-
ernment in France, had exposed the peo-
ple to greater servitude, and established
a feudal aristocracy. But the feudal te-
nures seem not to have produced in Italy
that systematic and regular subordination
whicli existed in France during the same
period ; nor were the mutual duties of
the relation between lord and vassal so
well understood or observed. Hence we
find not only disputes, but actual civil
war between the lesser gentry or vavas-
sors, and the higher nobility, their imme-
diate superiors. These differences were
adjusted by Conrad the Salic, who pub-
hshed a remarkable edict in 1037, by
which the feudal law of Italy was re-
duced to more certainty.| From this
disunion among the members of the feu-
dal confederacy, it was more easy for the
citizens to render themselves secure
against its dominion. The cities, too, of
Lombardy, were far more populous and
better dcYended than those of France;
they had learned to stand sieges in the
Hungarian invasions of the tenth century,
and had acquired the right of protect-
ing themselves by strong fortifications.
Those which had been placed under the
temporal government of their bishops
nad peculiar advantages in struggling for
t9.
Sismondi, t. i., p. 97, 304. Muratori, Dissert.
t Muratori, Annali d'ltaha.
3 hMd. :St Marc.
emancipation.* This circumstance in tlie
state of Lombardy 1 cjnsider as highly
important towards explaining the subse-
quent 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 some-
times more than nominal, on a vacancy
of the see, kept up among the citizens ?
notion that the authority of their bishop
and chief magistrate emanated in some
degree from themselves. In many in-
stances, especially in the church of Milan,
the earliest, perliaps, and certainly the
most famous of Lombard republics, there
occurred a disputed election ; two, or
even three competitors, claimed the
archiepiscopal functions, and were com-
pelled, in the absence of the emperors,
to obtain tlie exercise of them by means
of their own faction among the citizens. f
These were the general causes, which,
operating at various times during the
eleventh century, seem gradually to have
* The bishops seem to have become counts,
or temporal governors of their sees, about the
end of the tenth, or before the middle of the elev-
enth century.— Muratori, Dis. 8. Denina, 1. ix.,
c. 11. St. Marc, A. D. 1041, 1047, 1070. In Ar-
nulf s History of Milan, written before the close ol
the latter age, we have a contemporary evidence.
And from the perusal of that work I should infer,
that the archbishop was, in the middle of the 11th
century, the chief magistrate of the city. But, at
the same time, it appears highly probable, that an
assembly of the citizens, or at least a part of the
citizens, partook in the administration of public af
fairs. — Muratori, Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, .
iv., p. IC, 22, 23, and particularly the last. In most
cities to the eastward of the Tesino, the bishops
lost their temporal authority in the twelfth centu
ry, though the archbishop of Milan had no smal,
prerogatives while that city was governed as a re
public. But in Piedmont they continued longer ir
the enjoyment of power. Vercelli and even Turin
were almost subjest to their respective prelates til!
the thirteenth century. For this reason among
others, the Fiedmontese cities are hardly to be
reckoned among the republics of Lombardy. — De-
nina, Istoria dell'Italia Occidentale, t. i., p. 191.
t Muratori, A. D. 1345. Sometimes the inhab-
itants of a city refused to acknowledge a bishop
named by the emperor, as happened at Pavia and
A.sti about 1057.— Arnulf, p. 22. This was, in oth
cr words, setting up themselves as republics. But
the most remarkable instance of this kind occurred
in 1070, when ihe Milanese absolutely rejected
Godfrey, appointed by Henry IV., and after a re
sistanco of several years, obliged the emperor to
fix upon another person. The city had been pre
viously involved in long and violent tumults, which,
though rather belonging to ecclesiastical than civil
history, as they arose out of the endeavours made
to reform the conduct and enforce the celibacy cl
the clergy, had a considerable tendency to diminish
the archbishop's authority, and to give a republican
character to the inhabitants. These proceedings ar<
told at great length by St Marc, t. iii,, A. D. 1055-
1077. iVrnulf and Landu' fare the original sourcM
PiRT
ITALY.
131
produced a republican form of govern-
mc-nt in the Italiaji cities. Bui this part
of history is very obscure. The archives
of all cities before the reign of Frederick
Barbarossa have perished. For many
years there is a great deficiency of con-
temporary Lombard historians, and those
of a later age, who endeavoured to search
into the antiquities of their country, have
found only some barren and insulated
events to record. We perceive, howev-
er, throughout the eleventh century, that
the cities were continually in warfare
with each other. This, indeed, was ac-
.?ording to the manners of that age, and
no inference can absolutely be diawn
from it as to their internal freedom. But
It is observable, that their chx-onicles
speak, in recording these traii!:,actions,
of the people, and not of ih'Ar leaders,
which is tlie true repubMcan tone of his-
tory. Thus, in the i^nnals of Pisa, we
read under the year-. 1003 and 1001, of
victories gained by the Pisans over the
people of Lucca ; in 10C6, that the Pisans
and Genoese cor.r^uered Sardinia.* These
annals indeed are not by a contemporary
writer, nor perhaps of much authority.
But we have an original accomat of a
war that broke out in 1057, between Pa-
via and Milan, in which the citizens are
said to have raised armies, made allian-
ces, hired foreign troops, and in every
respect acted like independent states. f
There was, in fact, no power left in the
eir^/ie to control them. The two Hen-
ri^'? !V and V. were so much embar-
ra*^ ' :d during the quarrel concernhig in-
ve''\itnres, and the continual troubles of
Gciraany, that they Avere less likely to
inteifere with the rising freedom of the
Italian cities, than to purchase their as-
sistance by large concessions. Henry
IV. granted a charter to Pisa, in 1081,
full of the most important privileges,
promising even not to name any mar-
quis of Tuscany without the people"'s
consort;! and it is possible, that al-
though the instruments have perished,
other places might obtain sinailar ad-
van'/Lges. However this may be, it is
CGDjLjn that, before the death of Henry
■« Murat., Diss. 45. Arnulfus, the historian of
Mibn. maiies no mention of any temporal counts,
which seems to be a proof that there were none in
any authority. He speaks always of Mpcliolanen-
ses, Papienses, Ravenates, &c. This history was
written about 1085, but relates to the earlier part
of that century. That of Landiilfus corroborates
this supposition, which indeed is capable of ])roof
as to Mdan and several other cities in which the
temporal government had been legally vested in
'he bishops.
' Murat., Diss. 45. Arnulf , Hist Mediolan., p. 22.
l Murat., Dissert 45
1 2
v., in 1125, almost all the cities j{ Lom-
bardy, and many among those of Tusca-
ny, were accustomed to elect tlieir own
magistrates, and to act as independent
communities, in waging war and in do-
mestic government.*
The territory subjected originally lu
the count or bishop of these Their acquj-
cities had been reduced, as I siiions of
mentioned above, by numerous 'emtory
concessions to the rural nobility. But
the new repuMics, deeming themselves
entitled to all which their former gov-
ernors had once possessed, began to
attack their neares"; neighi>)iirs, and to
recover the sovereignty of ai. their an-
cient territory. They besieged the cas-
tles 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 towns belonging
to their district. Sometimes they pur-
chased feudal superiorities or territorial
jurisdictions, and, according to a pohcy
not unusual with the stronger party, con-
verted the rights of property 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 th©
Marquis of Montferrat, wlio had not sub-
mitted to some city. J 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 tlie neighbouring cities ; whereof
one invariable article is, that the former
should reside within the walls a certain
number of months in the year.^^i Tiie
rural nobility, thus deprived of the inde-
pendence which had endeared their cas
ties, imbibed a new ambition of directing
the municipal government of the cities,
which, during tlie first period of the re-
publics, Avas chiefly in 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. Some-
* Murat., Annalid'Ilal., A. D. 1107.
t II dominio utile delle citta e de' villaggi era tal
volta diviso fra due o piii padroni, ossia che s'as
segnassero a ciascuno diversi quartieri, o si divi
dessero i proventi della gabelle, ovvero (he Tunc
signore godesse d'una spezie dclla giurisdiziont,
e I'altro d'un' altra.— Denma, 1. .\ii., c. 3. Tim
produced a vast intricacy of titles, which v»
course advantageous to those who wantej
text for robbing their neighbours.
t Otho Frisingms., 1. li., c. 13.
<i Murat., Diss. 19.
li<2
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AUE».
Lha> ill
times a city, imitating the wisdom of
ancient Rome, granted these privileges
fo 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
iiingdoms. Within their strong walls and
J.eep trenches, and in the midst of their
well-peopled streets, the industrious dwelt
bfcure from the license of armed pilla-
gers and the oppression of feudal tyrants.
Artisans, whom the miUtary landholders
contemned, acquired and deserved the
right of bearing arms for their own and
the public defence. f Their occupations
became liberal, because they were the
foundation of their pohtical 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 threatened,
they rushed in arms to muster in the
market-place.
But, unhappily, we cannot extend the
Tiieir mutual Sympathy, which institutions
animosities, go fuH of liberty create, to the
national conduct of these Uttle republics.
Their love of freedom was alloyed by
that restless spirit, from which a democ-
racy is seldom exempt, of tyrannising
over weaker neighbours. They played
;)ver again the tragedy of ancient Greece,
with all its circumstances of inveterate
hatred, unjust ambition, and atrocious
retaliation, though with less consummate
actors upon the scene. Among all the
Lombard cities, jMilan was the most con-
spicuous, as well for pov/er and popula-
tion, as for the abuse of those resour-
ces by arbitrary and ambitious conduct.
Thus, in 1111, they razed the town of
Lodi to the ground, distributing the in-
habitants among six villages, and sub-
jecting them to an unrelenting despo-
tism.^ Thus, in 1118, they commenced
* Murat., Diss. 49.
I Otho Frisingensis ap. Murat. Scr. Rer. Ital.,
t. vi., p. 708. Ut etiam ad coinprimendos vicinos
materia non careant, inferioris ordinis juvenes, vel
quoslibet contemptibihum etiam meclianicarum ar-
tium opifices, quos ca;tera3 gentes ab honeslioribus
et liberioribus studiis tanquam pestem propellunt,
ad militiae cingulum, vel dignitatum gradus assu-
aiere non dedignantur. Ex quo factum est, ut
caeteris orbis civitatibus, divitiis et potentia prae-
emineant.
t The animosity between Milan and Lodi was of
very old standmg. It originated, according to Ar-
nulf, in the resistance made by the inhabitants of
the latter city to an attempt made by Archbishop
Eribert to force a bishop of his own nomination
upon thenr,. The bloodshed, plunder, and conlla-
rations wUich had ensued, would, he says, fill a
«lume if thev were related at length. — Scriptores
a war of ten years' duration with th«
little city of Como ; but the surprising
perseverance of its inhabitants procured
for them better terms of capitulation,
though they lost their original independ-
ence. The Cremonese treated so harsh-
ly the town of Crema, that it revolted
from them, and put itself under the pro-
tection of Milan. Cities of more equal
forces carried on interminable hostilities
by wasting each other's territory, de-
stroying the harvests, and burning the vil-
lages.
The sovereignty of the empeiors,
meanwhile, though not very ef- sovcreiKiuy
fective, was in theory always of the em
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 magis-
tracies were suspended, and the right of
jurisdiction devolved upon them alone
But such was the jealousy of the Lom-
bards, that they built the royal palaces
without their gates ; a precaution to
which the emperors were compelled to
submit. This was at a very early time
a subject of contention between the in-
habitants of Pavia and Conrad IL, wliose
palace, seated in the he.irt of the city, they
had demolished in a sedition, and were
unwilling to rebuild in that situation.*
Such was the condition of Italy when
Frederick Barbarossa, duke of Frederick
Swabia, and nephew of the last Barbarossa.
emperor, Conrad III., ascended the throne
of Germany. His accession forms the
commencement of a new period, the du-
ration of which is about one hundred
years, and which is terminated by the
death of Conrad IV., the last emperor ol
the house of Swabia. It is characteri-
zed, like the former, by three distinguish-
ing features in Itahan history; the vic-
torious struggle of the Lombard and oth-
er cities for independence, the final es-
tablishment of a temporal sovereignty
over the middle provinces by the popes,
and the union of the kingdom of Naples
to the dominions of the house of Swabia.
In Frederick Barbarossa the Italians
found a very different sovereign from
the two last emperors, Lothaire and Con-
rad III., who had seldom appeared in
Rerum Italic, t. iv., p. 16. And this is the lesti
mony of a writer who did not liv i beyond 1085
Seventy years more, either of hostility or servitude
elapsed, before Lodi was permitted to respire.
* Otho Frisingensis. p. 710. Muratori, A. P
1327
Part I.]
ITALV.
133
Italy, and with forces quite inadequate
to control such insubordinate subjects.
The distinguished valour and ability of
this prince rendered a severe and arbi-
tral y temper, and a haughty conceit of
his imperial rights, more formidable. He
behoved, or professed to believe, the
magnificent absurdity, that, as successor
of Augustus, he inherited the kingdoms
of the world. In the same right he
nicire powerfully, if not more rationally,
laid clami to the entire prerogatives of
the Roman emperors over their own sub-
jects; and in this the professors of the
civil law, which was now diligently stud-
ied, lent him their aid with the utmost
servility. To such a disposition the self-
government of the Lombard cities ap-
peared mere rebellion. Milan, especial-
ly, the most renowned of them all, drew
down updn her .self his inveterate re-
sentment. He found, unfortunately, too
good a preteucfi in her behaviour towards
Lodi. Two natives of that ruined city
threw themselves 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
countrymen, and the inhabitants trembled
at the danger of provoking a summary
vengeance, against which the imperial
arms seemed no protection.* The Mi-
lanese, however, abstained from attack-
ing the people of Lodi, though they treat-
ed with contempt the emperor's order to
leave them at liberty. Frederick, mean-
while, came into Italy, and held a diet at
Roncaglia, 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 rath-
er dependants, of Milan. P'rederick soon
took occasion to attack the latter confed-
eracy. Tortona was compelled to surren-
der, 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
with Adrian IV. ; and when the imperial
troops were withdrawn from Lombardy,
the Milanese rebuilt Tortona, and expell-
ed the citizens of Lodi from their dwel-
lings. Frederick assembled a fresh army,
♦•See an interesting account of tliese circum-
iitances in tht narrative of Otho Morena, a citizen
of Lodi.— Sc -ipt Rer. Ital., t. vi., p. 966. M. Sis-
mondi, who reproaches Morena for partiality to-
wards Frede ick in the Milanese war, should have
"^'menibered the provocations of Lodi. — Hist, des
,t-ei)ubl Ital , t i!.. p. 102.
to which almost every city of Lombardy
willingly or by force, contributed its nu
litia. It is said to have exceeded a hun
dred thousand men. The Milanese shut
themselves up within their walls; and
perhaps might have defied the imperial
l"orces,if their immense population, whicli
I gave them confidence in arms, had no!
exposed them to a ditfereiit enemy. Mi-
lan was obliged by hunger to capitulate,
upon conditions not very severe, if a van-
quished people could ever safely rely
upon the convention that testifies their
submission.
[A. D. 1158.] Frederick, after the sur-
render of Milan, held a diet at Ron- Diet or
caglia, where the efi"ect of his vie- K'"i'^^i'f;i''»
tories was fatally perceived. The bishops,
the higher nobility, the lav yers, vied with
one another in exalting his prerogatives.
He defined tne regalian rights, as they
were called, in such a manner as to ex-
clude the cities and private proprietor^-
from coining money, and from tolls or ter-
ritorial dues, which they had for many
years possessed. These, however, he per-
mitted them to retain for a pecuniary stij)-
ulation. A more important innovation
was the appointment of magistrates, wit!)
the title of podesta, to administer justici,
concurrently with the consuls ; but he
soon proceeded to abolish the latter of-
fice in many cities, and to throw the
whole government into the hands of his
own magistrates. He prohibited the cit-
ies from levying Avar against each otiier.
It may be presumed, that he showed no
favour to Milan. The capitulation was
set at naught in its most express provis-
ions ; a podesta was sent to supersede th(i
consuls, and part of the territory taken
av,ay. Whatever might be the risk ol
resistance, and the ]Milanese had experi-
enced enough not to undervalue it, they
were determined rather to see their liber-
ties 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 IMilan, stood a
memorable siege against the imperial
army ; but the inhabitants were ultimate-
ly compelled to capitulate for their lives,
and the vindictive Creinonese razed their
dwellings to the ground.* But all smaller
* The siege of Crenifi is told at great length by
Otto Morena ; it is interesting, not only as a disp.'aj
of extraordinary, though unsuccessful, perseve
ranee and intrepidity, but as the most detailed ac
count of tht methods used in Ih attack niv.' .'.*
iU
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chat n<
napwre ami calamities were forgotten, when
(lesiruciion the great city of Milan, worn
01 Milan. jjyj, ^y famine rather than sub-
dued by force, was redticcd to surrender
at discretion. Lombardy stood in anx-
ious suspense to know the detennination
of Frederick respecting this ancient me-
tropolis, the seat of the early Christian
emperors, and second only to Rome in
the hierarchy of the Latin church. A
delay of three weeks excited fallacious
nopes ; but, at the end of that time, an
order was given to the Milanese to evac-
uate their habitations. The deserted
streets were instantly occupied by the
imperial army ; the people of Pavia and
<'remona, of Lodi and Como, were com-
missioned to revenge themselves on the
respective quarters of the city assigned
to them ; and in a few days the pillaged
;hurches stood alone amid the ruins of
what had been Milan.
[A. D. 1162.] There was now little left
of that freedom to which Lombardy 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 policy usual among statesmen.
He abrogated the consular regimen in
.some even of the cities which had sup-
ported him, and established his podesta
in their place. This magistrate was al-
ways a stranger, frequently not even an
Italian ; and he came to his otfice with
all those prejudices against the people he
was to govern, which cut off every hope
of justice and humanity. The citizens of
Lombardy, especially the Milanese, who
had been dispersed in the villages ad-
joining their ruined capital, were unable
to meet the perpetual demands of tribute.
In some parts, it is said, two thirds of the
produce of their lands, the only wealth
that remained, were extorted 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 officers, whom, even if
they had gone a little beyond his inten-
tions, he could not be expected to punish.
But there still remained, at the heart
of Lombardy, the strong principle of na-
ional liberty, imperishable among the
perishable armies of her patriots, incon-
sumable in the conflagration of her cities.*
fence of fortified places, before the introduction of
artillery .—Scrip. Rer. Ital., t. vi., p. 1032-1052.
* Quaeneque Dardaniis cainpis potuere perire,
Nfic cum capta capi, nee cum combusta cremari.
Those whoin private animosities had led
to assist the German conqueror, blushed
at the degradation of their country, and
at the share they had taken in it. [A. D
1167.] A league was secretly league oj
formed, in which Cremona, one Lombardj
of the chief cities on the imperi- jP'"^'
al side, took a prominent part.
Those beyond the Adige, hitherto no
much engaged in the disputes of centra
Lombardy, had already formed a separate
confederacy, to secure themselves from
encroachments, which appeared the more
unjust as they had never borne arms
against the emperor. [A. D. 1164.] Their
first successes corresponded to the jus-
tice of their cause ; Frederick was re-
pulsed from the territory of Verona, a
fortunate augury for the rest of Lombar-
dy. These two clusters of cities, on the
east and west of the Adige, now uni
ted themselves into the famous Lombard
League, the terms of which were settled
in a general diet. Their alliance was to
last twenty years ; during which they
pledged themselves to mutual assistance
against any one who should exact more
from them than they had been used to
perform from the time of Henr}', to the
first coming of Frederick into Italy; im-
plying in this the recovery of their elect-
ive 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
Roncaglia.*
This union of the Lombard cities was
formed at a very favourable juncture.
Frederick had, almost ever since his ac-
cession, been engaged in open hostility
Avith the see of Rome, and was pursuing
the fruitless policy of Henry IV., whc
had endeavoured 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 that visits the neighbourhood
* For the nature and conditions of the Lombard
ieague, besides the usual authorities, seeMuratori's
48ih dissertation. The words, a tempore Hen-
rici Regis usque ad introitum imperatoris Frederi
ci, leave it ambiguous which of the Henries was in-
tended. Muratori thinks it was Henry IV., be-
cause the cities then began to be independent. It
seems, however, natural, when a king is mention-
ed without any numerical d /■signation, to interpret
it of the last bearing that name ; as we say iting
William for William the Third. And certainly
the libertief of Lombardy were more perfect under
Henry V. than his father ; besides which, the one
reign might still be remembered, and the othei
rested in tradition. The question, ho 'vcver, \s «
little mni'.ien*
tTALV
I3t
of that capital. The flower of German
liobiUty was cut off by this calamity, and
the emperoi- recrosscd 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 per-
secuted, 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 po-
tent of the independent nobility, the Lom-
bards planned the erection of a new city
between the confines of these two ene-
mies, in a rich plain to the south of the
Po, and bestowed upon it, in compliment
to the pope, Alexander IIL, the name of
Alessandria. Though, from its hasty
construction, Alessandria was, even in
that age, deemed rude in appearance, it
rapidly became a thriving and populous
city.* The intrinsic energy and resour-
ces of Lombardy were now made mani-
fest. Frederick, who had triumphed by
Iheir disunion, was unequal to contend
against their league. After several years
of indecisive war, the emperor invaded
the Milanese territory, but the confeder-
ates gave him battle, and gained a com-
flaiiie of plete victory at Legnano. [A. D.
Legnaiio. 1176.] Frederick escaped alone
:ind 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 terms of
which were all favourable to the league.
It was weakened, however, by tlie de-
fection of some of its own members ;
Cremona, which had never cordially uni-
ted with her aucient enemies, made sep-
arate conditions with Frederick, and suf-
fered herself to be named among the cit-
ies on the imperial side in the armistice.
Tortona, and even Alessandria, followed
the same course during the six years of
its duration ; a fatal testimony of unsub-
dued animosities, and omen of the calam-
ities of Italy. At the expiration of the
truce, Frederick's anxiety to secure the
crown for his son overcame his pride.
* Alessandria was surnamed, in derision, della
paglia: from the thatch with which the houses
"were covered. Frederick was very desirous to
change its name to Cx'sarea, as it is actually call-
ed in the peace of Constance, being at that time
on the imperial side Brt it soon recovered its
brm^! appellation.
and tie famous peace of Con- Peace o-
stance [A. D. 1183] established ConsiaL.«
the Lombard repubhcs in real independ
ence.
By the treaty of Constance, the ciiics
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 nomina-
tion of their consuls, or.other magistrates,
was left absolutely to the citizens ; but
they were to receive the investiture of
their office from an imperial legate. The
customary tributes of provision during
the emperor's residence in Italy were
preserved ; and he was authorized to ap-
point 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 se-
curity for the liberties and welfare of the
cities, as much of the imperial preroga-
tives as could be exercised by a foreign
sovereign, consistently with the people's
happiness.*
The successful insurrection of Lom-
bardy is a memorable refutation of that
system of policy to which its advocates
gave the appellation of vigorotis, and
which they perpetually hold forth as the
only means through which a disaffected
people are to be restrained. By a certain
dass of statesmen, and by all men of harsh
and violent disposition, measures of con-
ciliation, adherence to the spirit of trea-
ties, regard to ancient privileges, or to
those rules of moral justice which are
paramount to all positive right, are al-
ways treated with derision. Terror is
their only specific, and the physical ina-
bility to rebel their only security for alle
giance. But if the razing of cities, the
abrogation of privileges, the empoverish-
ment and oppression of a nation, could
assure its constant submission, Frederick
Barbarossa would never have seen the
militia of Lombardy arrayed against liiin
at Legnano. Whatever may be the pres-
sure upon a conquered people, there will
come a moment of their recoil. Nor is
It material to allege, in answer to the
present instance, that the accidental de-
struction of Frederick's army by disease
enabled the cities of Lombardy to suc-
ceed in their resistance. The fact may
*■ Muratori, Antiquitates Italiae, Diss 50
■36
EUROPE DL'KING THE MIDDLF. A(,ES.
\CiiAP. In
w ell be disput-'d ; since Lombardy, when
united, appears to have been more than
equal to a rrontest with any German force
that could have been brought against her ;
but, even if we admit the effect of this
circumstance, it only exhibits the preca-
riousness of a policy, which collateral
events are always liable to disturb. Prov-
idence reserves to itself various means,
by which the bonds of the oppressor may
be broken ; and it is not for human saga-
city to anticipate, whether the army of a
conqueror shall moulder in the unwhole-
some marshes of Rome, or stiffen with
frost in a Russian winter.
The peace of Constance presented a
noble opportunity to the Lombards of
establishing a permanent federal union
of small republics ; a form of government
congenial from the earliest ages to Italy,
and that, perhaps, under which she is
again destined one day to flourish. They
were entitled by the provisions of that
ireaty to preserve tfceir league, the basis
of a more perfect confederacy, which the
course of events would have emancipated
from every kind of subjection to Germa-
ny.* But dark, long-cherished hatreds,
and that implacable vindictiveness which,
at least in former ages, distinguished the
private manners of Italy, deformed her
national character, which can only be the
agjjregate of individual passions. For
revenge she^ threw away the pearl of
great price, and sacrificed even the rec-
ollection of that liberty, which had
stalked like a majestic spirit among the
ruins of Milan.! It passed away, that
high disdain of absolute power, that stead-
iness and self-devotion, which raised the
half-civilized Lombards of the twelfth
century to the level of those ancient re-
publics, from whose history our first no-
tions of freedom and virtue are derived.
The victim by turns of selfish and san-
guinary factions, of petty tyrants, and of
foreign invaders, Italy has fallen like a
* Thougti there was no permanent diet of the
Lombard leag^ue, the consuls and podestas of the
respective cities composing it occasionally met in
:ongr'.ss, to deliberate upon measures of general
safety. Thus assembled, they were called Rec-
tores Socictatis Lombardia?. It is evident that, if
Lombardy had continued in any degree to preserve
the spirit of union, this congress might readily
have become a permanent body, like the Helvetic
diet, with as extensive powers as are necessary in
a federal constitution. — Muratori, Antichita Ital-
jane, t. iii., p. 12C, Dissert. 50. Sismondi, t. ii.,
p. 169.
\ Anzi girar la liberta mirai,
E baciar lieta ogni riiina, e dire,
Ruine s^ ma servitd non mai.
(faetana Passerini {ossia piuilosto Giovan Bat-
tisia Paslorini) in Mathias, Componimenti
Li'i i. vol. iii., p. 331.
Star from its place in heaven ; she ha«
seen her harvests trodden down by the
horses of the stranger, and the blood of
her children wasted in quarrels not their
own ; Conquering or conquered, in tne m-
dignant language of her poet, slill alike a
slave,* a long retribution for the tyranny
of Rome.
Frederick did not attempt to molest
the cities of Lombardy in the en- Affairs oi
joyment of those privileges con- ^"^''>'-
ceded by the treaty of Constance. His
ambition was diverted to a new scheme
for aggrandizing the house of Svvabia, by
the marriage of his eldest son, Henry,
with Constance, the aiint and heiress of
William II., king of Sicily. That king-
dom, which the first monarch, Roger,
had elevated to a high pilch of renown
and power, fell into decay through the
misconduct of his son William, surnamed
the Bad, and did not recover 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
surviver of the royal family. It is a cu-
rious circumstance, that no hereditary
kingdom appears absolutely to have ex-
cluded 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 defect of their constitu-
tion, which permitted an independent
people to be transferred, as the dowry oi
a woman, to a foreign prince, by whose
ministers they might justly expect to be
insulted and oppressed. Henry, whose
marriage with Constance look place in
1186, and who succeeded in her right to
the throne of Sicily three years afterward,
was exasperated by a courageous, but un-
successful 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 cru-
elties. The power of the house of Swa-
bia was now at its zenith on each sid<i
of the Alps ; Henry received the Impe-
rial crown the year after his fathers
death in the third crusade, and even pre-
vailed upon the princes of Germany to
elect his infant son Frederick as his suc-
cessor. But his own premature decease-
clouded the prospects of his family : Con-
stance survived him but a year; and a
child of four years old was left with the
inheritance of a kingdom, which his fa-
ther's severity had rendered disaffected
* Per servir sempre, o vin' itrice o vinta — l-iJi
caja.
ITALY.
-3:
ajid which the leaders of German merce-
naries in his service desolated and dispu-
ted.
During the minority of Frederick II ,
Innocent from 119S to 1216, tho papal chaii
111- was filled by Innocent III. ; a
name second only, and hardly second, to
chat of Gregory VII. Young, noble, and
intrepid, he" united with the accustomed
f-pirit of ecclesiastical usurpation, which
no one had ever carried to so high a
point, the more worldly ambition of con-
solidating a separate principality for the
Holy See in the centre of Italy. The
real or spurious donations of Constantine,
Pepin, Charlemagne, and Louis, had given
rise to a perpetual claim, on the part of
the popes, to very extensive dominions :
but little of this had been etfectuated, 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 neigh-
bourhood, the small cities owned no sub-
jection to the capital, and were probably
as much self-governed as those of Lom-
bardy. One is transported back to the
earliest times of the repubhc, in reading
of the desperate wars between Rome
and Tibur or Tusculum, neither of which
was subjugated till the latter part of the
twelfth century. At a further distance
were the dutchy of Spoleto, the march
of Ancona, and what had been the exar-
chate of Ravenna, to all of which the
popes had more or less grounded pre-
tensions. Early in the last-mentioned
age, the famous Countess Matilda, to
whose zealous protection Gregory VII.
had been eminently indebted during his
long dispute with the emperor, granted
the reversion of all her possessions to
the Holy See, first in the lifetime of
Gregory, and again under the pontificate
Bequest of of Paschal III. These were
the Countess very extensive, and held by dif-
Matiida. ferent titles. Of her vast impe-
rial fiefs, Mantua, Modena, and Tus-
cany, she certainly could not dispose.
The dutchy of Spoleto and march of An-
cona were supposed to rest upon a differ-
ent footing. I confess myself not dis-
tinctly to comprehend the nature of this
part of her succession. These had been
formerly among the great fiefs of tlic
kingdom of Italy. But if I understand it
rightly, they had tacitly ceased to be sub-
ject to the emperors, some years before
they were seized by Godfrey of Lorraine,
father-in-law and stepfather of Matilda.
To his son, lier husband, she succeeded
in the possession of those countries.
They are commcnlv considered aa her
allodial or patrimonial property ; yet il
is not easy to see how, being acrself a
subject of the empire, she could transfer
even her allodial estates from Us sover-
eignty. Nor, on the other hand, can it
apparently be maintained, that she was
lawful sovereign of countries wliich liad
not long since been imperial fiefs, and
the suzerainty over wliich had never
been renounced. The original title of
the Holy See, therefore, does not seem
incontestable, even as to this part of Ma-
tilda's donation. But I state witli hesita
tion a difficulty, to which the authors 1
have consulted do not advert.* It is cer-
tain, however, that the emperors kept
possession of the whole during the
twelfth century ; and treated bolli Spole-
to and Ancona as parts of the empire,
notwithstanding continual remonstrances
from the Roman pontiffs. Frederick Bar
barossa, 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. vvas not
disposed to execute this arrangement,
and granted the county m fief to some
of his German followers. Upon his
death, the circumstances were favourable
to Innocent III. The infant king of Si-
cily had been intrusted by Constance to
his guardianship. A double election of
Philip, brother of Henry VI., and of Otlio.
duke of Brunswick, engaged the princes
of Germany, who had entirely overlooked
the claims of young Frederick, in a doubi-
ful civil war. Neither party was in a
condition to enter Italy ; and the impe-
rial dignity was vacant for several years,
till, the death of Philip removing one
competitor, Otho IV., wjiom the pope
had constantly favoured, was crowned
emperor. During this interval, tlic Ital-
ians had no superior; and Innocent
availed himself of it to maintain the pre-
tensions of the see. These he backed
by the production of rather a questiona-
ble document, the will of Henry VI., said
to have been found among tlie baggage
of Marquard, one of the German soldiers,
who had been invested with fiefs
by the late emperor. The cit- Eot-iesiafr.
^ , * n .1 Ileal si.-^te
les of what we now call the ec- redui.ej by
clesiastical state had in tlie innocent '
twelftii century their own muni- ' '•
* It is almost hopeless to look for explicit mfor
mation upon the rights and pretensions of the Ro
man see in Italian writers even of the eighteenth
century. Muratori, the most learned, and, upon
the whole, the fairest of them all, moves cautiously
over this ground : except when the claims ot
Romt- happen to clash with those of the house ol
E 5tL\ Bui I have not been nble to satisfy inysel'
i3f?
ELfROPE DURINii THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chai- (u
cipal s[Overnment, like those of Lombar-
■ly; Ijut they were far less able to assert
a complete independence. They gladly,
therefore, put themselves under the pro-
tection of the Holy See, which held out
some prospect of securing them from
Marquard, and other rapacious partisans,
without disturbing their internal regula-
tions. Thus the dutchy of Spoleto and
march of Ancona submitted to Innocent
III. ; but he was not strong enough to
keep constant possession of such exten-
sive territories, and some years after-
ward 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 pre-
fect 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
various causes, for nearly three centu-
ries, from becoming unquestioned and
unlimited.
The policy of Rome was now more
clearly defined than ever. In order to
preserve what she had thus suddenly
gained rather by opportunity than
strength, it was her interest to enfeeble
the imperial power, and consequently to
maintain the freedom of the Italian re-
League of publics. Tuscany had hitherto
Tuscany. Vjgen ruled by a marquis of the
emperor's appointment, though her cities
were flourishing, and, within themselves,
independent. In imitation of the Lom-
bard confederacy, and impelled by Inno-
cent HI., they now (with the exception
of Pisa, which was always strongly at-
tached to the empire) formed a similar
league for the preservation of their rights.
In this league the influence of the pope
was far more strongly manifested than
m that of Lombardy. Although the lat-
ter had been in alliance with Alexander
III., and was formed during the height
«)f his dispute with Frederick, this eccle-
siastical quarrel mingled so little in their
struggle for liberty, that no allusion to it
IS found in the act of their confederacy.
But the Tuscan union was expressly es-
tablished "for the honour and aggran-
dizement of the apostolic see." The
members bound themselves to defend
the possessions and rights of the chur.h,
and not to acknowledge any king or em-
peror without the approbation of the
supreme pontiff.* The Tuscans, accora-
ingly, were more thoroughly attached to
the church party than the Lombards,
whose principle was animosity towards
the house of Swabia. Hence, when In-
nocent HI., some time after, supported
Frederick H. against the Emperor Otho
IV., the Milanese and their allies were
arranged on the imperial side ; but the
Tuscans continued to adhere to the pope.
In the wars of Frederick Barbarossa
against Milan and their allies. Factions of
we have seen the cities of Lorn- Gueiis and
bardy divided, and a considera- GiubeUns.
ble number of them firmly attached to
the imperial interest. It does not appear,
I believe, from history, though it is by no
means improbable, that the citizens were
at so early a time divided among them
selves, as to their line of public policy,
and that the adherence of a particular
city to the emperor, or to the Lombard
league, was only, as proved afterward
the case, that one faction or another ac-
quired an ascendency in its councils.
But jealousies long existing between the
different classes, and only suspended by
the national struggle which terminated
at Constance, gave rise to new modifica-
tions of interests, and new relations to
wards the empire. About the year 1200,
or perhaps a little later, the two leading
parties which divided the cities of Lom-
bardy, and whose mutual animosity, hav-
ing no general subject of contention, re-
quired the association of a name to di-
rect as well as invigorate its prejudices,
became distinguished by the celebrated
appellations of Guelfs and Ghibelins ; 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 stiil
more favourable soil. The Guelfs took
their name from a very illustrious family,
several of whom had successively been
dukes of Bavaria in the tenth and eleventh
centuries. The heiress of the last of
these intermarried with a younger son oi
the house of Este, a noble family settled
near Padua, and possessed of great es
tates on each bank of the lower Po.
They gave birth to a second line of
by the perusal of some dry and tedious disserta-
tions in St. Marc (Abr6g6 Chronologique de I'Hist.
de I'ltalie, t. iv.), who, with learning scarcely infe-
rior to that of Muratori, possessed more opportu-
nitv and inclination to speak out.
♦ Qnod possessiones et jura sacrosanctaf ecclesi*
bona fide defenderent ; et quod nullum n regeni
aut imperatorem reciperent, nisi quem Romanus
pontifex approbaret. — Muratori, Dissert 48 (Latin
I. iv., p. 320 ; Italian, t. iii.. p. 112'
t Ai.T I.
ITALY.
L'iy
Guelfs, from whom the royal house of
Brunswick is descended. The name of
Ghibehn is derived from a village in
Franconia, whence Conrad the Salic
came, the progenitor, through females,
ol tlie Svvabian emperors. At the elec-
tion of Lothaire, in 1125, the Swabian
iamily were disappointed of what they
considered almost an hereditary posses-
sion ; and at this time an hostility appears
to have commenced between them and
the house of Guelf, who were nearly re-
.ated to Lothaire. Henry the Proud, and
his son, Henry the Lion, representatives
of the latter family, were frequently per-
secuted by the Swabian 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
tiie twelftli century began to be consider-
ed as heads of the church party in their
neighbourhood. They were frequently
chosen to the office of podesta, or chief
magistrate, by the cities of Romagna ;
and in 1208, the people of Ferrara set the
fatal example of sacrificing their free-
dom for tranquillity, by electing Azzo
VH., marquis of Este, as their lord or
sovereign. t
Otho IV. was son of Henry the Lion,
Othoiv. ai^d consequently head of the
Guelfs. On his ol itaining the im-
perial crown, the prejudices ol Italian
factions were diverted out of their usual
channel He was soon engaged in a
quarrel 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 be-
longed to the Lombard league against
Frederick I., hatred of the house of Swa-
bia prevailed more than jealousy of tlie
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 always acceptable to mankind, and
have the peculiar advantage of precluding
altogether tliat spirit of compromise and
accommodation, by which it is sometimes
endeavoured to obstruct their tendency
* The German origin of these celebrated fac
lions is clearly proTed by a passage in Otho ol
Frisingen, who lived half a century before we find
the denominations transferred to Italy. — Struvius,
Corpus Hist. German., p. 378, and Muratori, A. D
.152. t Sismondi, t ii., p. 329.
to hate and injure each other. P'rom thw
time, every city, and almost every cit:
zen, gloried in one of these baibarous
denominations. In several ci ies the im-
perial party predominated through hatred
of their neighbours, who espoused tha'
of the church. Thus the inveterate feudss
between Pisa and Florence, IModena 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 Ghibelin
or conversely, according to the fluctua
tions of the time.*
The change to which we have advert
ed in the politics of the Guelf party last
ed only during the reign of Otho IV,
When the heir of the house of „ j. • j. n
Swabia grew up to manhood.
Innocent, who, though his guardian, had
taken little care of his interests, as long
as he flattered himself with the hope oi
finding a Guelf emperor obedient, placed
the young Frederick at the head of an
opposition composed of cities always at-
tached to his family, and of such as im-
plicitly followed the see of Rome. He
met with considerable success both in
Italy and Germany, and, after the death
of Otho, received the imperial crown.
But he had no longer to expect any as-
sistance from the pope who conferred it.
Innocent was dead, and Honorius III.,
his successor, could not behold without
apprehension the vast power of Frede-
rick, supported in Lombardy by a faction
* For the Guelf and Ghibelin factions, besides
the historians, the 51st dissertation of Muratori
should be read. There is some degree of inaccu
racy m his language, where he speaks of these dis-
tractions expiring at the beginning of the fifteenth
century. Quel secolo, e vero, ablioiido anch' csso
di molte guerre, ma nulla si opero sotto nomo o
pretesto delle fazioni suddette. Solamente riten-
nero esse piede in alcune private famiglie. — Anti-
chita Italiane, t. iii., p. 118. But certainly the
names of Guelf and Ghibelin, as party distinctions,
may be traced all through the fifteenth century.
The former faction showed itself distinctly m tht
insurrection of the cities suoject to Milan, upon tlu
death of Galeazzo Visconti, in 1104. It appeareo
again in the attempt of the Milanese to re establish
their republic in 1447. — Sismondi, t. is., p. 334. So
in 1477, Ludovico Sforza made use of Giiibelin
prejudices to exclude the regent Bonne of Savoy a?
a Guelf— Sismondi, t. xl., p. 79. In the ecclesias
tical state, the same distinctions appear to have
been preserved still later. Stefano Infessura, in
1487, speaks familiarly of them. — Script Ker. Ital.,
t. iii., p. 1221. And even in the conauest of Milan
by Louis XII., in 1500, the Guelfs of that city are
represented as attached to the French party, while
the Ghibolins abetted Ludovico Sforza and Maxi
milian. — Guicciardini, p. 399. Other passages i»
the same historian show these fac'.ions to have bee
a/ ve in various parts of Italy
'40
EL'RUPE DURING THE MIDDLE AOr.a
lL««.p. Ui
which talanced that of the church, and
menacing the ecclesiastical territories on
the other side by the possession of Naples
and Sicily. This kingdom, feudatory to
Home, and long her firmest ally, was now,
by a fatal connexion which she had not
been able to prevent, thrown into the
ocale of her most dangerous enemy.
Hence the temporal dommion which In-
nocent III. had taken so much pains to
establish, became a very precarious pos-
session, exposed on each side to the ai-
tacks of a power that had legitimate pre-
tensions to almost every province com-
posing it. The life of Frederick II. was
wasted in an unceasing contention with
the church, and with his Itahan subjects,
whom she excited to rebellions against
hnii. Without inveighing, like the popish
writers, against this prince, certainly an
(incourager of letters, and endowed \vilh
many eminent qualities, we may lay to
his charge a good deal of dissimulation ;
J will not add ambition, because I am not
aware of any period in the reign of Fred-
erick when he was not obliged to act on
his defence against the aggression of oth-
ers. But if he had been a model of vir-
tues, such men as HonoriuslII., 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 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 devo-
tion had never yet been raised into an ab-
solute duty of their station, nor had even
[)rivate persons been ever required to
take up the cross by compulsion. Ho-
norius III., however, exacted a vow from
Frederick, before he conferred upon him
the imperial crown, that he would under-
take a crusade for the deliverance of Je-
rusalem. Frederick submitted to this en-
* The irtncour of bigoted Catholics against
Frederick has bardlj' subsided at the present day.
A very moderate commendation of him in Tirabos-
cbi, vol. iv., t. ■(", was not suffered to pass uncon-
tradicted by the Roman editor. And though Mu-
ratori bhows quite enough prejudice against that
emperor's character, a fierce Roman bigot, whose
•siaimadversions are printed in the 17th volume of
his annals (8vo edition), flies into paroxysms of fury
at every syllable that looks like moderation. It is
well known that, although the public policy of
Rome has long displayed the pacific temper of
weakness, the thermometer of ecclesiastical senti-
nent in that city stands very nearly as high as in
■.he tliirteenth century. Giannone, who suffered
for his boldness, has drawn Frederick II. very fa-
pourably, perhaps too favourably, in the 16ih and
i7ih books of ths Istoria Civile di Napoh.
gagement, which perhaps he ne\e.- de-
signed to keep, and certain'.y endeavour-
ed afterward to evade. ^I'hough he be-
came by marriage nominal king of Jeru-
salem,* his excellent understanding waa
not captivated with so barren a prospect,
and at length his delays in the perform-
ance of his vow provoked Gregory IX.
to issue against him a sentence of ex-
communication. Such a thunderbolt 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 sovereign.
Upon his arrival iir Palestine, he receiv-
ed intelligence that the papal troops had
broken into the kingdom of Naples. No
one could rationally have blamed Freder-
ick 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 disadvantageous as under all the cir-
cumstances might have been expected,
served as a pretext for new calumnies
against him in Europe. The charge of
irreligion, eagerly and successfully prop-
agated, he repelled by persecuting edicts
against heresy, that do no great honour
to his memory, and availed him little a!
the time. Over his Neapolitan dominions
he exercised a rigorous government, ren •
dered perhaps neceesary by the levity
and insubordination characterisdi; of the
inhabitants, but which tended, through the
artfid representations of Honorius and
Gregory, to alarm and alienate the Italian
rejtublics.
A new generation had lisen up in Lom-
bardy since the peace of Con- pug ^.g^s
stance, and the prerogatives re- wuh the
served by that treaty to the em- Lo^ibards
* The second wife of Frederick was lol.inte, oi
Vioiante, daughter of .lohn, count of Brienne, by
Mai ia, eldest daughter and heiress of Isabella, wife
of Conrad, marquis of Montferrat. This Isabel!?
was the youngest daughter of Almaric or Amaury
king of .lerusalem, and by the deaths of her broth-
er Baldwin IV., of her eldest sister Sibilla. wife or
Guy de Lusignan, and that sister's child Baldwin V.,
succeeded to a claim upon Jerusalem, which, since
the victories of Saladin, was not very profitable, h
is said that the kings of Naples deduce their title
to that sounding inheritance from this marriage of
Frederick (Giannone, 1. xvi., c. 2), but the e.xtinc-
tion of Frederick's posterity must have, etrictly
speaking, put an end to any right derived from
him ; and Giannone himself indicates a better titlfi
by the cession of Maria, a princess of Antioch, and
legitimate heiress cf Jerusalem, to Charles of An-
jou. in 1272. How far indeed this may have been
regularly transmitted to the present King of Naolfg
I do not know, ind arn sure that it i? v^i «ti*.ti
while to inquire
/•art I.]
ITALV
141
jire weie so seldom called into action,
that few cities were disposed to recol-
lect their existence. They denominated
'.hemsclves Guelfs or Ghibehns, accord-
ing to habit, and out of their mutual op-
position, but without much reference to
the empire. Those however of the for-
•aer party, and especially Milan, retained
'.heir antipathy to the house of Swabia.
Thougli Frederick II. was entitled, as far
as estabhshed usage can create a right, to
the sovereignty of Italy, the Milanese
would never acknowledge him, nor per-
mit his coronation at Monza, according
to ancient ceremony, with the iron crown
of the Lombard kings. The pope foment-
ed, to the utmost of his power, this dis-
affected spirit, and encouraged the Lom-
bard cities to renew their former league.
This, although conformable to a provis-
ion in the treaty of Constance, was man-
ifestly hostile to Frederick, and may be
considered as the commencement of a
second contest between the repubhcan
cities of Lombardy and the empire. But
there was a striking difference between
this and the former confederacy against
Frederick Barbarossa. In the league of
1167, almost every city, forgetting all
smaller animosities in the great cause of
de'"ending the national privileges, contrib-
uted its share of exertion to sustain that
perilous conflict ; and this transient una-
nimity in the people so distracted by in-
ternal faction as the Lombards, is the su-
rest witness to the justice of their under-
caking. Sixty years afterward, 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
Ghibelhi cities, tj which the names of the
church and the empire gave more of dig-
nity and consistence.
The republics of Italy in the thirteenth
century were so numerous and
meniot independent, and their revolutions
Lombard SO frequent, that it is a difficult
cities. matter to avoid confusion in fol-
lowing their history. It will give more
arrangement to our ideas, and at the same
time illustrate the changes that took place
in these little states, if we consider them
as divided into four clusters or constella-
tions, not indeed unconnected one with
another, yet each having iis own centre
of motion, and its own boundaries. The
first of these we may suppose formed of
the cities in central Lombardy, between
the Scssia and the Adigc, the Alps and
the Ligurian mountains ; it comprehends
.Milan, Cremona, Pavia, Brescia, Berga-
mo, Parma, Piacenza, Mantua, Lodi,
Alessandria, and several others less dis-
tinguished. These w ere the c \ i^inal seats
of Italian liberty, the great miivert :n the
wars of the elder Frederick. Milan wa?
at the head of this cluster of cities, and
her influence gave an ascendency to the
Guelf party ; she had, since th<! treaty of
Constance, rendered Lodi and Pavia al-
most her subjects, and was in strict
union with Brescia and Piacenza. Par
ma, however, and Cremona, were unsha-
ken defenders of the empire. In the sec-
ond class we may place the cities of the
March of Verona, between the Adige and
the frontiers of Germany. Of these ther«-
were but four worth mentioning : Vero-
na, Vicenza, Padua, and Treviso. The
citizens of all the four were inclined t(j
the Guelf interests ; but a powerful body
of rural nobility, who had never been
compelled, like those upon the upper Po,
to quit their fortresses in the hilly coun-
try, or reside within the walls, attached
themselves to the opposite denomina-
tion.* Some of them obtained very great
authority in the civil feuds of these fou/
republics ; and especially two brothers.
Eccehn and Alberic da Romano, of a rich
and distinguished fandly, known for its
devotion to the empire. By extraordina-
ry vigour and decision of character, by
dissimulation and breach of oaths, by the
intimidating eflects of almost unparalleled
cruelty, Eccelin da liomano became aftei
some years the absolute master of three
cities, Padua, Verona, and Vicenza ; and
the Guelf party, in consequence, was en-
tirely subverted beyond the Adige during
the continuance of his tyranny. f An-
other cluster was composed of the cities
in Romagna; Bologna, Iniola, Facnza,
Ferrara, and several others. Of t!i<v-=!0
Bologna was far the most powerful, and,
as no city was more steadily for the in-
terests of the church, the Guelfs usually
predominated in this class ; to whicli also
the influence of the house of Este not a
little contributed. Modena, though not
geographically within the limits of thia
division, may be classed along with it.
from her constant wars with Bologna
* Sismondi, t. ii., p. 222.
t The cruellies of Eccelin excited universal hor
ror, in an a^e vvlien inhumanity towards enemie*
was as common as fear and revenge could make it.
It was a usual trick of bi>ggars, all over Italy, to
pretend that they had been deprived of their eyes
or limbs by the Veronese tyrant. There is hardly
an instance in European history of so sanguinary
a government subsisting for more than twenty
years. The crimes of Eccelin are remarkably welj
authenticated by the testimony of several contem-
porary write'/«, who enter into great details. M-x'
of these are found in liic seventh volume o'" Scria
tores Rerum Italicarum. Sismcndi. t. iii., p. ii
111, 203, is more f; 11 than any of the modemK
Wi
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. I'd
A. fourtli class will comprehend the whole
of Tuscany, separated almost entirely
horn the politics of Lombardy and Ro-
magna. Florence headed the Guelf cit-
ies in this province, Pisa the Ghibelin.
The Tuscan union was formed, as has
been said above, by Innocent III., and
was strongly inclined to the popes ; but
gradually the Ghibelin party acquired its
share of influence ; and the cities of Sie-
na, A rezzo, and Lucca, shifted their poli-
cy, according to external circumstances
or the fluctuations of their internal fac-
tions. The petty cities in the region of
Spoleto and Ancona hardly perhaps de-
serve 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.*
After several years of transient hostil-
ity and precarious truce, the Guelf cities
of Lombardy engaged in a regular and
protracted war with Frederick II., or,
more properly, with their Ghibelin adver-
saries. Few events of this contest de-
serve particular notice. Neither party
ever obtained such decisive advantages
as had alternately belonged to Frederick
Barbarossa and the Lombard confedera-
cy, durnig the war of the preceding cen-
lury. A defeat of the Milanese by the
emperor, at Corte Nuova, in 1237, was
balanced by his unsuccessful siege of
Brescia the next year. The Pisans as-
sisted Frederick to gain a great naval vic-
tory over the Genoese fleet in 12-11 ; but
he was obliged to rise from the blockade
of Parma, \\ hich had left the standard of
Ghibelinism in 1248. Ultimately, how-
ever, the strength of the house of Swabia
was exhausted by so tedious a struggle ;
the Ghibelins of Italy had their vicissi-
tudes of success ; but their countiy, and
even themselves, lost more and more of
the ancient connexion Avith Germany.
In this resistance to Frederick II., the
Lombards were much indebted to the
* I have taken no noticeof Piedmont in this divis-
ion. The history of that country is far less ehici-
dated by ancient or modern writers 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, especial-
ly the two former, appear to have had a republican
form of government. They were however not ab-
solutely independent. The only Piedmontese city
that can properly be cCisidered as a separate state,
in the thirteenth century, was Vercelli ; and even
there the bishop seems to have possessed a sort of
temporal sovereignty. Denina, author of the Ri-
voluzioni d'ltalia, lirst printed in 1769, lived to pub-
lish in his old age a history of western Italy, or
Piedmont, from which I have gleaned a few facts.
— Istoria deir Italia Occidentale ; Torino, 1809, 6
»IM8 Hvo.
constant support of Gregory IX. and his
successor. Innocent IX.; and the Guelf,
or the church party, were used as sy-
nonymous terms. These pontifls bore
an unquenchable hatred to the house of
Swabia. No concessions mitigated their
animosity ; no reconciliation was sincere.
Whatever faults may be imputed to Fred-
erick, it is impossible for any one, not
blindly devoted to the court of Rome, to
deny, that he was iniquitously proscribed
by her unprincipled ambition. His real
crime was the inheritance of his ances-
tors, and the name of the house of Swa
bia. In 1239, he was excommunicated
by Gregory IX. To this he was tolera-
bly accustomed by former experience ;
but the sentence was attended by an ab-
solution of his subjects from their alle-
giance, and a formal deposition. These
sentences were not very eff'ective 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 cler-
gy, and those who wavered already as
to their line of political conduct. In the
fluctuating state of Lombardy, the ex
communication 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 fo
mented by means of calumnies propaga
ted against himself, and which the con-
duct of such leading Ghibelins as Ecce-
lin, who lived in an open defiance of God
and man, did not contribute to lessen.
In 12-10, Gregory proceeded to pubhsh 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 complete.
Gregory IX. accordingly projected, and
Innocent IV. carried into effect, the con-
vocation of a general council, conncii of
This was held at Lyons [A. D. Lyons.
1245], an imperial city, but over which
Frederick could no longer retain his su-
premacy. In this assembly, where one
hundred and forty prelates appeared, the
question whether Frederick ought to be
deposed was solemnly discussed ; he sub-
mitted to defend himself by his advo-
cates ; and the pope, in the presence,
though without formally collecting the
suff"rages of the council, pronounced a
sentence, by which Frederick's excom-
munication was renewed, the empire
»nd all his kingdoms taken away, and
I
Part 1.
ITALY.
I4f
ftis suljecls dbsolved from their fidelity.
This is the most pompous act of usurpa-
tion 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
tue established faith of Christendom.
Upon the death of Frederick II., in
1250, he left to his son Conrad
°'^'^ ' a contest to maintain for evei-y
part of his inheritance, as well as for the
imperial crown. But the vigour of the
house of Swabia was gone ; Conrad was
reduced to light for the kingdom of Na-
ples, the only succession which he
could hope to secure against the troops
of Innocent IV., who still pursued his
family with implacable hatred, and claim-
ed 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 legitimate
brother Manfred, who retained it by his
bravery and address, in despite of the
popes, till they wen- compelled to call
in the assistance of a more powerful
arm.
The death of Conrad brings to a ter-
mination that period in Italian history
which we have described as nearly co-
extensive with the greatness of the house
of Swabia. It is perhaps upon the whole
the most honourable to Italy ; that in
which she displayed the most of national
energy and patriotism. A Florentine or
Venetian may dwell with pleasure upon
later times ; but a Lombard will cast back
his eye across the desert of centuries, till
it reposes on the field of Legnano. Great
changes followed in the foreign and in-
ternal policy, in the moral and military
character of Italy. But before we de-
scend to the next period, it will be neces-
sary to remark some material circum-
stances in that which has just passed
under our review.
The successful resistance of the Lom-
causea of the ^'"'^ ^^^"^^^ ^^ ^^^^ princcs as
success or botli thc Fredericks, must as-
Lombardy. tonish a reader who brings to
the story of these middle ages notions
derived from modern times. But when
we consider not only the ineffectual con-
trol which could be exerted over a feu-
dal army, bound only to a short term of
service, and reluctantly kept in the field
at its own cost, but the peculiar distrust
and disaffection with which many Ger-
man prmces regarded the house of Svva-
Dia. less reason will appear for surprise.
Nor did the kingdom of Naples, almost
always in agitacion, yield any material
aid to the second Frederick. The main
cause, however, of that triumph which
attended Lombardy was the nurinsic en-
ergy of a free government. From the
eleventh century, when the cities be-
came virtually republican, they put out
those vigorous shoots which are the
growth of freedom alone. Their domes-
tic feuds, their mutual wars, the fierce as-
saults of their national enemies, checked
not their strength, their wealth, or their
population ; but rather, as the limbs are
nerved by labour and hardship, the re-
publics of Italy grew in vigour and cour-
age through the conflicts they sustained
If we but remember what savage license
prevailed during the ages that preceded
their rise, the rapine of public robbers,
or of feudal nobles little differing from
robbers, the contempt of industrious arts,
the inadequacy of penal laws, and the im-
possibility of carrying them into effect,
we shall form some notion of the change
which was wrought in the condition of
Italy by the growth of its cities. In
comparison with the blessings of indus-
try protected, injustice controlled, emu-
lation awakened, the disorders which
ruffled their surface appear slight and
momentary. I speak only of this first
stage of their independence, and chiefly
of the twelfth century, before those civL
dissensions had reached their height, by
which the glory and prosperity of Lom-
bardy were soon to be subverted.
We have few authentic testimonies as
to the domestic improvement of the free
Italian cities, while they still deserved the
name. But we may perceive by history,
that their power and population, accord-
ing to their extent of territory, were al-
most incredible. In Galvaneus Flamma,
a Milanese writer, we find a curious sta
tistical account of that city in 1283, which,
though of a date about thirty years after
its liberties had been overthrown by
usurpation, must be considered as imply-
ing a high degree of previous advance-
ment, even if we mak3 allowance, as
probably we should, for some exaggera-
tion. The inhabitants are reckoned ai
200,000; tiic private houses 13,000; the
nobility alone dwelt in sixty streets;
8000 gentlemen, or heavy c-ivalry (niili
tes) might be mustered from uie city and
its district, and 240,000 men capable of
arms ; a force sufficient, the writer ob-
serves, to crush all th.j Saracens. There
were in JNIilan six hv.idred notaries, two
hundred physicians, eighty schoolmas
ters, and fifty transcubers of manusci ipts
In the distiict wert^one hundr^-.i and tr/-^
144
tUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. I.
i^astles, with adjoining villages. Such \vi3
the state of Milan, Flamma concludes, in
1288 ; it is not for ine to say whether it
has gained or lost ground since that time.*
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 almost every side, by
Lodi, or Pavia, or Bergamo, or Como.
It is possible, however, that Flamma may
have meant to include some of these as
dependances of ISJilan, thougli not strictly
imited with it. How flourishing must the
state of cultivafion have been in such a
country, which not only drew no sup-
plies from, any foreign land, but exported
part of her own produce ! It was in the
best age o,f their liberties, immediately
after the battle of Legnano, that tire Mi-
lanese commenced the great canal which
conducts the waters of the Tesino to
their capital, a work very extraordinary
for that time. Durinj^ the same period
the cities gave prools of internal pros-
perity that in many mstances have de-
scended to our own observation, in the
solidity and magnificence of their archi-
tecture. Ecclesiastical structures were
perhaps more splendid in France and
England ; but neither country could pre-
iend to match the palaces and public
oiiildings, the streets flagged with stone,
'he bridges of the same material, or the
commodious private houses of Italy. f
The courage of these cities was
wrought sometimes to a to^e of insolent
defiance, through the seccirity inspired
by their means of defence. 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
\vhich relates to the attack and defence
of fortified places. We find precisely
* Muratori, Script. Rerum Italic, f. xi. This
s.xpression of Flamma may seem to intimate that.
Milan had declined in his time, which was about
1.340. Yet, as she had been continually advancing
in power, and had not yet experienced any tyran-
nical government, I cannot imagine this to have
been the case ; and the same Flamma, who is a
great flatterer of the Visconti, and has dedicated a
particular work to the praises of Azzo, asserts
therein that he had greatly improved the beauty
and convenience of the city ; though Brescia, Cre-
mona, and other places had declined. Azarius,
.00, a writer of the same age, makes a similar rep-
.•esentation. — Script. Rer. Ital., t. xvi, p. 314 and
317. Of Luchino Visconti he says: Statum Me-
iliolani reintegravit in tantum, quod non civitas,
«ed DTovincia videbatur.
•f "Sismondi, t. iv., p. 176. Tiraboschi, t. iv., p.
126. See also the observations of Denina on the
population and agriculture of Italy, I. xiv., c. 9,
10. chiefly indeed applicable to a period rather later
J»e./) that of her free republics.
the -same engines of off"ence , the cum-
brous towers, from which arrows were
shot at the besieged, the machines from
which stones were discharged, the bat-
tering-rams which assailed the walls, and
the basket-work covering (the vmea or
(testudo of the ancients, and the gattus or
chatchateil of the middle ages) under
which those who pushed the batteriiif
engines were protected 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 ante-mural or barbacan was added ;
a rampart of less height, which impeded
' the approach of the hostile engines. The
gates were guarded with a portcullis ; an
invention which, as well as the barbacan,
was borrowed from the Saracens.* With
such advantages for defence, a numerous
and intrepid body of burghers might not
unreasonably stand at bay against a pow-
erful army ; and as the consequences of
capture were most terrible, while resist-
ance was seldom hopeless, we cannot
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 treach-
ery. Tortona did not submit to Freder-
ick Barbarossa till the besiegers had
corrupted with sulphur the only fountain
that supplied the citizens ; nor Crema, till
her walls were overtopped by the batter-
ing engines. Ancona held out a noble
example of sustaining the pressure of
extreme famine. Brescia tried all the
resources of a skilful engineer against
the second Frederick ; and swerved not
from her steadiness, when that prince,
imitating an atrocious precedent of his
grandfather at the siege of Crema, ex-
posed his prisoners upon his battering
engines to the stones that were hurled by
their fellow-citizens upon tne walls. f
Of the government which existed in
the republics of Italy during the xiieirimer-
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, nai covem
no definite sketch can be traced. ''"^'''■
The chroniclers of those times are few
and jejune ; and, as is usual with contem-
poraries, rather intimate than describe
the civil polity of their respective coun-
tries. It would indeed bp a weary task,
if it were even possible, to delineate the
, constitutions of thirty or forty little states
which were in jierpetual fluctuation. The
I * Muratori, Antiquit. Ital., Dissert. 26.
t See these sieges in thesecond ard third vol
umes of Sismondi. That of Ancona, t. ii., p. 145
206, is told with remarkable elegance and s<^vpr»
1 interesting circnn'r^tancc*
?A«Y t /
TALY
14^
magis-Outes elected in almost ah of thom,
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, tradition must have preserved some
acquaintance with the republican govern-
ment of Rome.* The consuls were al-
ways annual; and their office compre-
liejided the command of the natioi lal mili-
tia in war, as well as the administration
of justice, and preservation of pt.blic or-
der; but their number was various ; two,
four, six, or even twelve. In their legis-
lative and deliberative councils, the Lom-
bards still copied the Roman 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 cre-
denza) was composed of a small number
of persons, who took the management
of jjublic affairs, and may be called the
ministers of the state. But the decision
upon matters of general importance, trea-
ties of alUance or declarations of war,
the Choice of consuls or ambassadors,
belonged to the general council. This
appears not to have been uniformly con-
stituted in every city; and, according to
its composition, the government was
more or less democratical. An ultimate
sovereigntj', however, was reserved to
the mass of the people ; and a parliament
or general assembly was held to deliber-
ite on any change in the form of consti-
tution t
About the end of the twelfth century,
a new and singular species of magist/;acy
was introduced into the Lomb-ard cities.
During the tyranny of Frederick I. he
had appointed officers of his own, called
podestas, instead of the elective consuls.
It is remarkable that this memorial of
despotic power should not have excited
insuperable alarm and disgust in the free
republics. But, on the contrary, they al-
most universally, after the peace of Con-
stance, revived an office which had been
abrogated when tlicy first rose in rebell-
ion against Frederick. From experi-
ence, as we must presume, of the partial-
ity which their domestic factions carried
inio ^he administration of justice, it be-
came a general practice to elect, by the
name >f podesta, a citizen of some neigh-
* bandiilf the younger, whose history of Milan
extene'^ Irom 1004 to 1133, calls himself publico-
nim e^iciorum particeps et consulum epistolarum
Jicla^)r.— Script. Rer. Ital., t. v., p. 486. This is,
; bbli«ve, tlie e.TTliest mention of those magistrates.
— Ml ratori, Annali il'Itaha, A. D. 1107.
+ J^uratori, Dissert. 46 and 52. Sismondi, t. i.,
bouring state, as their general heir crim-
inal judge, and preserver of the peace.
The last duty was frequently arduous
and required a vigorous as well as an up-
right magistrate Offences against Ine
laws and security of the commonwealth
were during the middle ages a'^ often,
43erhaps more often, committed by the
rich and powerful, than by the inferior
class of society. Rude and licentious
manners, family feuds and private re-
venge, or the mere insolence of strength,
rendered the execution of criminal jus-
tice, practically and in every day's expe-
rience, what it is now in theory, a neces-
sary protection to the poor against op
pression. The sentence of a magistrate
against a powerful offender was not pro-
nounced without danger of tumult ; it was
seldom executed without force. A con-
victed 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. Im
puling his sentence to iniquity, or glor)'-
ing in an act which the laws of his fel-
low-citizens, but not their sentiments,
condemned, he stood upon his defence
amid a circle of friends. The law was to
be enforced not against an individual, but
a family ; not against a family, but a fac-
tion ; not perhaps against a local faction,
but the whole Guelf or Ghibelin name
which might become interested in the
quarrel. The podesta was to arm the
republic against the refractory citizen;
his house was to be besieged and razed
to the ground, his defenders to be quelled
by violence : and thus ihe people, become
familiar with outrage and homicide undei
the command of their magistrates, were
more disposed to repeat such scenes a'l
the instigation of their passions*
The podesta was sometimes chosen in
a general assembly, sometimes by a
select number of citizens. His office
was annual, though prolonged in peculiar
emergencies. He was invariably a man
of noble family, even in those cities which
excluded their own nobility from any
share in the government. He received
a fixed salary, and was compelled to re-
main in the city, after the expiration of
his office, for the purpose of ans'vering
such charges as might be adduced againy-
his conduct. He could neither marry a
native of tlie city, nor have any relation
resident within the district, nor even, so
great was their jealousy, eat or drink in
♦ Sismonci, t. iii., p. 258, from whom the sub
stance of V.yf.sc observations is bonoutd. Thej
nay be copously illustrated by Viliani's histoi*
I cf Florence. ar:d Stella's annals of (-^iif"*
146
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[t^HAI*. Hi
the house of any citizen. The authority
of these foreign magistrates was not by
any means ahke 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 authori-
ty was merely judicial. We find, in some
uf the old annals, the years headed by th«
names of the podestas, as by those of the
consuls in the history of Rome.*
The effects of the evil spirit of discord,
And dissen- that had SO fatally breathed
•ions. upon the republics of Lombar-
dy, were by no means confined to nation-
al interests, or to the grand distinction of
Guelf and Ghibelin. i3issensions glowed
in the heart of every citj'', and as the dan-
ger of foreign war became distant, these
grew more fierce and unappeasable. The
feudal system had been established upon
the principle of territorial ai'istocracy ; it
maintained the authority, it encouraged
the pride of rank. Hence, when the ru-
ral nobility were compelled 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 pos-
itive right or continual usage. A limited
aristocracy of this description, where the
.nferior citizens possess the right of se-
lecting their magistrates by free suffrage
from a numerous body of nobles, is not
among the worst forms o*" government,
and affords no contempiible security
against oppression and anarchy. This re-
gimen appears to have prevailed in most
of the Lombard cities during the eleventh
and twelfth centuries ; though, in so great
a deficiency of authentic materials, it
would be too peremptory to assert this
as an unequivocal truth. There is on*^
very early instance, in the year 1041, of
a civil war at Milan between the capita-
nci, or vassals of the empire, and the
plebeian burgesses, which was appeased
by the mediation of Henry III. This is
ascribed to the ill treatment which the
latter experienced; as was usual indeed
in all parts of Europe, but which was en-
dured with inevitable submission every-
where else. In this civil war, which
lasted three years, the nobility were obli-
ged to leave Milan, and carry on the con-
.est in the adjacent plains ;f and one of
their class, by name Lanzon, whether
moved by ambition or by virtuous indig-
♦ Muratori, Dissert. 46.
t Landulfus, Hist. Mediolan. in Script. Rerum
Ital, I. iv., p. 86. Muratori, D'ssert. 52. AnnaU
d■It<;l;^. A. I) 1041 St Marc, f iij. n 91
nation against tyranny, put himself at the
head of the people.
From this time we scarcely find any
mention of dissensions among the twu
orders, till after the peace of Constance;
a proof, however defective the contem-
porary annals may be, that such disturb-
ances had neither been frequent nor seri-
ous. A schism between the nobles ami
people is noticed to have occurred at Fa-
enza in 1185. A serious civil war of
some duration broke out between them
at Brescia in 1200. From this time mu-
tual jealousies interrupted the domestic
tranquillity of other cities, but it is about
1220 that they appear to have taken a de-
cided aspect of civil war; within a few
years of that epoch, the question of aris-
tocratical or popular command was tried
by arms in INlilan, Piacanza, Modena, Cre
mona, and Bologna.*
It would be vain to enter upon the mer
its of these feuds, which the meager his.
torians of the time are seldom much di
posed to elucidate, and which they sa\
with their own prejudices. A writer o
the present age would show little philos
ophy, if he were to heat his passions by
the reflection, as it w^ere, of those forgot-
ten animosities, and aggravate, like a par-
tial contemporary, the failings of one oi
another faction. We have no need of
positive testimony to acquaint us with
the general tenour of their history. We
know that a nobility is always insolent,
that a populace is always intemperate,
and may safely presume that the former
began as the latter ended, by injustice
and abuse of power. At one time the
aristocracy, not content with seeing the
ar/iual magistrates selected from theii
body, would endeavour by usurpation to
exclude the bulk of the citizens from suf-
frage. At another, the merchants, growu
proud by riches, and confident of theu
strength, would aim at obtaining the hon-
ours of the state, which had been reserv
ed to the nobility. This is the inevitable
consequence of commercial wealth, and
indeed of freedom and social order, which
are the parents of wealth. There is in
the progress of civilization a term at
which exclusive privileges must be relax-
ed, or the possessors must perish along
with tliem. In one or two cities a tem-
porary compromise was made through
the intervention of the pope, whereby of-
fices of public trust, from the highest ;c
the lowest, were dividixl, in equal propc:
tions or otherwise, between the nobles
and the people. This also i^ no bad ex
"^ Sismondi, t. ii.,p. 444 Murato \nialidMt*'
lia, A. D lis^ &.r
Paev i.j
ITALY.
1(7
pedient, and proved singularly efficacious
••n appeasing the dissensions of Rome.
There is, however, a natural prepon-
derance in the popular scale, which, in a
fair trial, invariably gains on that of the
less numerous class. The artisans, who
composed the bulk of the population, were
arranged in companies according to their
occupations. Sometimes, as at Milan,
they formed sep irate associations, with
rules for their internal government.*
The clubs, called at Milan la Motta and
a Credenza, obtained a degree of weight
not at all surprising to those who consid-
er the spirit of mutual attachment which
belongs to such fraternities ; and we shall
see a more striking instance of this here-
after in the republic of Florence. To so
formidable and organized a democracy,
the nobles opposed their numerous fam-
ilies, 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 towers of
commanding height, and wore the sem-
blance of castles within the walls of a
city. Brancaleon, the famous senator of
Home, destroyed one hundred and forty
of these domestic intrenchments, which
•Arere constantly serving the purpose of
£ivil broils and outrage. Expelled, as fre-
quently happened, from the city, it was
in the poAver of the nobles to avail them-
selves of their superiority in the use of
cavalry, and to lay waste the district, till
weariness of an unprofitable contention
reduced the citizens to terms of com-
promise. 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, wheth-
«r the contest was between the nobles
and people, or the Guelf and Ghibelin
factions, no mercy was shown by the
conquerors. The vanC|uished lost their
homes and fortunes, and, retiring toother
cities of their own party, waited for the
opportunity of revenge. In a popular
'uinult the houses of the beaten side were
(requently levelled to the ground ; not
perhaps from a sort of senseless fury
which Muratori inveig?!is against, but on
account of the injury which tliese forti-
fied houses inflicted upon the lower citi-
zens. The most deadly hatred is that
which men, exasperated by proscription
2nd forfeiture, bear to their country ; nor
• Muratori, Dissert 5? Sismondi, t. iii., p 262.
K 2
have we need to nk 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 Flor-
ence, after a defeat given to the prevail-
ing party in 1200, it was proposed amont'
them to demolish the city itself which
had cast them out ; and, but for the per-
suasion of one man, Farinata degl' Uberti,
their revenge would have thus extinguish-
ed all patriotism.* It is to this that we
must ascribe their proneness to call in
assistance from every side, and to invito
any servitude for the sake of retaliating
upon their adversaries. The simple love
of public liberty is in general, I fear, too
abstract a passion to glow warmly in the
human breast ; and, though often invigo-
rated as well as determined by personal
animosities and predilections, is as fre-
quently extinguished by the same cause.
Independently of the two leading differ
ences which embattled the citizens of an
Italian state, their form of government
and their relation to the empire, there
were others more contemptible, thougli
not less mischievous. In every city the
quarrels of private families became the
foundation of general schism, sedition,
and proscription. Sometimes these blend-
ed themselves with the grand distinctions
of Guelf and Ghibelin; sometimes they
were more nakedly conspicuous. Thi«
may be illustrated by one or two promi-
nent examples. Iinilda de Lambertazzi,
a noble young lady at Bologna, was sur-
prised by her brothers in a secret inter-
view with Boniface Gieremei, whose fam-
ily had long been separated by the most
inveterate enmity from her own. She
Iiad just time to escape : wliile the Lam-
bertazzi despatched her lover with their
poisoned daggers. On her return she
found his body still warm, and a faint
hope suggested the remedy of sucking the
venom from his wounds. But it only
communicated itself to her own veins ■,
and they were found by her attendants
stretched lifeless by each otlier's side.
So cniel an outrage wrought the Giere-
mei to madness ; they formed alliances
with some neighboujiing republics ; the
Lambertazzi took the same measures ;
and after a fight in the streets of Bologna
of forty days' duration, the latter were
driven out of the city, with all the Ghibe-
* G. Villani, 1. vi., c. 82. Sismondi. I cannot
forgive Dante for placing this patriot trk I'anime
piu nere, in one of the worst regions of his Inferno.
The conversation of the poet with Fannata, cant
10, is very fine, and illustrative of Flnreatine hii
torv.
143
EMtOPE DURING THE MIDDLE AUIS.
[Chap. li.
tins, thcii political associates. Twelve
thousand citizens were condemned to
hdnishraont ; their houses razed, and their
estates confiscated.* Florence was at
rest till, in 1215, the assassination of an
individual produced a mortal feud between
the families Boundelmonti and Uberti, in
which all the city took a part. An out-
rage committed at Pistoja, in 1300, split
the inhabitants into the parties of Bian-
chi 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 ex-
travagant conceptions with keen political
satire, which has given immortality to
his name, and even lustre to the petty
contests of his time.f
In the earlier stages of the Lombard
republics, their differences, as well mu-
tual as domestic, had been frequently ap-
peased by the mediation of the emperors :
and the loss of this salutary influence
may be cunsiilered as no slight evil at-
tached to that absolute emancipation
which Italy attained in the thirteenth
century. The popes sometimes endeav-
oured 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 passions of those
whom they influenced, might have pro-
duced more general and permanent good.
But they considered the Ghibelins as
their own peculiar enemies, and the tri-
umph of the opposite faction as the
church's best security. Gregory 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 re-
turned to the ancient policy and prejudi-
ces of Rome.
The singular history of an individual
* Sismondi, t. iii., p. 442. This story may sug-
gest that of Romeo and Juliet, itself founded upon
ftn Italian novel, and not an unnatural picture of
manners.
f Dii o Compagni, in Scr. Rer. Ital., t. ix. Vil-
ani M Horent 1 tuL Dante, passim
far less elevated in station than Giovanni «
popes or emperors, Fra Giov \n- vieenza.
ni di Vieenza, belongs to theic times and
to this subject. This Dominican friar
began his career at Bologna, in 1233,
preaching the cessation of war and for-
giveness of injuries. He repaired from
thence to Padua, to Verona, and the
neighbouring cities. At his command
men laid down their instruments of war,
and embraced their enemies. With that
susceptibility of transient impulse nat-
ural to popular governments, several re-
publics implored him to reform their laws
and to settle their differences. A gen-
eral meeting was summoned in the plain
of Paquara, upon the banks of the Adige.
The Lombards poured themselves forth
from Romagna and the cities of the?
March ; Guelfs and Ghibelins, nobles
and burghers, free citizens and tenantry
of feudal lords, marshalled around their
carroccios, caught from the lips of the
preacher the illusive promise of universal
peace. They submitted to agreements
dictated by Fra Giovanni, which contain
little else than a mutual amnesty ; wheth-
er it were that their quarrels had been
really without object, or that he had dex-
terously avoided to determine the real
point of contention. But power and rep-
utation suddenly acquired are transitory.
Not satisfied with being the legislator
and arbiter of Italian cities, he aimed at
becoming their master; and abused the
enthusiasm of Vieenza and Verona, to
obtain a grant of absolute sovereignty.
Changed from an apostle to an usurper,
tlie fate of Fra Giovanni might be pre-
dicted ; and he speedily gave place to
those who, though they made a worse
use of their power, had, in the eyes of
mankind, more natural pretensions to
possess it.*
PART II.
State of Italy after the Extinction oi tuo House Ol
Svvabia.— Conquest of Naples by Charles 01
Anjou. — The Lombard Republics become sever
ally subject to Princes or Usurpers.— The Vis-
conti of Milan — their Aggrandizement. — Decline
of the Imperial Authority over Italy.--ln-,ernal
State of Rome. — Rienzi. — Florence— her forms
of Government historically traced to the end o!
the fourteenth Century.— Conquest of Pisa.- •
Pisa— its Commerce, Naval Wars with Genoa
and Decay. — Genoa— her Contentions with Vcn
* Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteiatura, .. iv , p
214 (a verv well-written account'*. Sismondi,
ij., p. 484
Part 11 J
ITALY
149
ice. — Wf.: of Ghioggia.— Government of Genoa.
—Venice— her Origin and Prosperity.— Vene-
tian Government— its Vices.— Territorial Con-
quests of Venice.— Military System of Italy.—
Companies of Adventure.- 1. foreign; Guarni-
eri Hawkwood— and 2 native ; Braccio, Sforza.
improvements in Military Service.— Arms, offen-
sive and defensive.— Invention of Gunpowder.—
Naples.— First Line of Anjou.— Joanna I.— La-
dislaus.— Joanna II.— Francis Sforza becomes
Duke of Milan.— Alfonso, king of Naples.—
State of Italy during the fifteenth Century.—
Florence.— Rise of the Medici, and Ruin of their
Adversaries.— Pretensions of Charles VIII. to
\aples.
Fr- m the death of Frederick II., in 1250,
;*. th"; invasion of Charles VIII., in 1494,
i long and undistinguished period occurs,
which it is impossible to break into any
natural divisions. It is an age in many
respects highly brilliant ; the age of poe-
try and letters, of art, and of continual
improvement. Italy displayed an intel-
lectual 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 ob-
scure and of so little influence as not to
arrest the attention ; so intricate and in-
capable of classification as to leave only
confusion in the memory. The general
events that are wortliy of notice, and
give a character to this long period, are
the establishment of small tyrannies upon
the ruins of republican government in
most of the cities, the gradual rise of
three considerable states, INIilan, Flor-
ence, and Venice, the naval and commer-
cial rivalry between the last city and
Genoa, the final acquisition by the popes
of their present territorial sovereignty,
and the revolutions in the kingdom of
Naples under the lines of Anjou and Ar-
agon.
After the death of Frederick II., the
distinctions of Guelf and Ghibelin became
destitute of all rational meaning. The
most odious crimes were constantly per-
petrated, and the utmost miseries endur-
ed, for an echo and a shade, that mocked
the deluded enthusiasts of faction. None
of the Guelfs denied the nominal, but in-
definite sovereignty of the empire; and
beyond a name the Ghibelins themselves
would have been little disposed to carry
it. But the virulent hatreds attached to
these words grew continually more im-
placaule, till ages of ignominy and tyran-
nical government had extinguished every
energetic passion in the bosoms of a de-
graded people.
In the fall of the house of Swabia,
Rome appeared to have consummated her
triumph; and although the Ghibelin party
was for a .ittle time able to mairitaia
itself, and even to gain ground in the
north of Italy, yet two events that oc-
curred not long afterward restored the
ascendency of their adversaries. The
first of these was the fall of Eccelin da
Romano [A. D. 1259], whose rapid suc-
cesses in Lombardy appeared to threaten
the establishment of a tremendous des-
potism, and induced a Umporary union
of Guelf and Ghibelin states, by whicli
he was overthrown. The next, and
far more important, was the change of
dynasty in Naples. This king- Amiirsoi
dom had been occupied, after the ^ap">^s-
death of Conrad, by his illegitimate broth-
er, Manfred, in the behalf, as he at first
pretended, of young Conradin the heir,
but in fact as his own acquisition. [A.
D. 1254.] He was a pr-^ce of an active
and firm mind, well fitted for his difiicult
post, to whom the Ghibelins looked up
as their head, and as the representative
of his father. It was a natural objec.
with the popes, independently of their ill-
will towards a son of Frederick II., t:
see a sovereign on whom they could
better rely placed upon so neighbouring
a throne. Charles, count of An- ciiariesot
jou, brother of St. Louis, was a»jou.
tempted by them to lead a crusade (for
as such all wars for the interest of
Rome were now considered) against the
Neapolitan usurper. [A. D. 12G6.] The
chance of a battle decided the fate of
Naples, and had a striking influence upon
the history of Europe for several centu-
ries. 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 everlasting infamy the
name of that prince, who did not hesitate
to purchase the security of his own title
by the public execution of an honourable
competitor, or rather a rightfid claimant
of the throne he had usurped. [A.]). 1268.]
With Conradir. the house of Swabia was.
extinguished; but Constance, the daugh-
ter of Manfred, had transported his right to
Sicily and Naples into the house of Ara-
gon, by her marriage with Peter III.
This success of a monarch, selected
by the Roman pontiffs as their neciinecr
particidar champion, tin-ned the tiie oiiiteim
fide of faction over all Italy. f-*">'
He expelled the Ghibelins from Florence
of wliich tiaey had a ""ew yea*-? before
tttO
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
rt'iiAi'. Ill
obtaiueJ a complete command by means
of their memorable victory upon the river
Arbia. After the fall of Conradin, that
party was everywhere discouraged. Ger-
many 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 almost 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 the thirteenth
century the name of Ghibelin was a term
of proscription in the majority of Lom-
bard and Tuscan republics. Charles was
constituted by the pope vicar-general in
Tuscany. This was a new pretension
of the Roman pontiffs, to name the lieu-
tenants of the empire during its vacancy,
which indeed could not be completely
filled up without their consent. It soon,
however, became evident, that he aimed
at the sovereignty of Italy. Some of the
popes themselves, Gregory X. and Nich-
olas IV., grew jealous of their ow-n crea-
ture. At the Congress of Cremona, in
1269, it was proposed to confer upon
Charles the seigniory of all the Guelf
cities ; but the greater part were prudent
enough to choose him rather as a friend
than a master.*
The cities of Lombardy, however, of
T,v,„ T either denomination, Avere no
The Lom- , . _ i i i
bard cities lougcr mfluenced by that gen-
oecoine sut>- erous disdain of one njan's will,
>ect 10 lords. i- i • ^ ui-
which IS to repubhcan govern-
ments what chastity is to women ; a
conservative principte, never to be rea-
soned upon, or subjected to calculations
of utility. By force, or stratagem, or
free consent, almost all the Lombard re-
publics had already fallen under the yoke
of some leading citizen, who became the
lord (signore), or, in the Grecian sense,
tyrant of his country. The first instance
of a voluntary delegation of sovereignty
was that above mentioned of Ferrara,
which placed itself under the Lord of
Este. Eccelin made himself truly the
.yrant of the cities beyond the Adige ;
* Sismondi, t. iii., p. 417. Several, however,
including Milan, took an oath of fidelity to Charles
ihe game year. — Ibid. In 1273, he was lord of Ales-
sandria and Piacenza, and received tribute from Mi-
lan, Bologna, and most Lombard cities. — Muratori.
It was evidently his intention to avail himself of
the vacancy of the empire, and either to acquire
tha.t title himself, or at least to stand in the same
relation as the emperors had done to the Italian
states ; which, according to the usage of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, left them in possession
of every thing that we call independence, wit\ the
MRfirvation of a nominal alleu^iance.
and such experience ought naturally to
have inspired the Italians with more
universal abhorrence of despotism. 13ut
every danger appeared trivial in the eyes
of exasperated factions, when compared
with the ascendency of their adversaries.
Weary of unceasing and U'iCless 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 overstepped
the limits of forbearance, and a sedi-
tious rising expelled the reigning prince,
it was only to produce a change of hands,
and transfer the impotent people to a dif-
ferent, and perhaps a worse, despotism.*
In many cities, not a conspiracy was
planned, not a sigh was breathed in fa-
vour of republican government, after once
they had passed under the sway of a sin-
gle person. The progress indeed was
gi-adual, 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 centurj^ at the
latest, all those cities Avhich had spurned
at the faintest mark of submission to the
emperors, lost even the recollection of
self-government, and were bequeathed,
like an undoubted 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 faction
its first of social blessings, liberty.f
* See an instance of the manner in which one
tyrant was exchanged for another, in the fate of
Passerino Bonaccorsi, lord of Mantua, in 1328.
Luigi di Gonzaga surprised him, rode the city
(corse la cilta) with a troop of horse, crying Viva
il popolo, e muoja Messer Passerino e le sue ga-
belle ! killed Passerino upon the spot, put his son
to death in cold blood, e poi si face signore della
terra. Villani, 1. x., c. 99, observes, like a good
republican, that God had fulfilled in this the words
of his Gospel (query, what Gospel?), I will slay
my enemy by my enemy ! abbattenilo I'uno tiranno
per I'altro.
t See the observations of Sismondi, t. iv., p. 212,
on the conduct of the Lombard signori (I know not
of any English word that characterizes them, ex
cept tyrant in its primitive sense), during the first
period of their dominion. They were generally
chosen in an assembly of the people, sometimes foi
a short term, prolonged in the same manner. The
people was consulted upon several occasions. At
Milan there was a council of 900 nobles, not per
manent or representative, but selected and con
vened at the discretion of the government, through
out the reigns of the Visconti. — Corio, p. 519, 583
Thus, as Sismondi remarks, they respe<-ted tli<
sovereignty of the people, while they dest.oyed in
liberty.
I
fART 11.,
ITALY.
i^i
The chv most distmguis;.ed in both •
TheToriiani ^^ars against the house of Swa- |
and visconti bia, for an unconquerable at-
at iMiian. tachment to repubhcan institu-
tions, was the first to sacrifice them in a
lew years after the death of Frederick II.
Milan had for a considerable time been
agitated by civil dissensions between the
nobility aud inferior citizens. These par-
ties were j-retty equally balanced, and
their succiss was consequently alternate.
Each had its own podesta, as a party-
leader, distinct from- the legitimate ma-
gistrate of the city. At the head of the
nobiUty was their archbishop, Fra Leon
Perego ; the people chose Martin della
Torre, one of a noble family which had
ambitiously sided with the democratic
faction. 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 various
success, and interrupted by several pa-
cifications, which, in that unhappy temper,
could not be durable, was terminated in
about two years by the entire discomfit-
ure of the aristocracy, and by the elec-
tion of Martin della Torre as chief and
lord (capitano e signore) of the people.
Though the Milanese did not probably in-
tend to renounce the sovereignty resident
in their general assemblies, yet they soon
lost the republican spirit ; five in succes-
sion of the family Delia Torre might be
said to reign in Milan ; each indeed by a
formal election, but with an implied re-
cognition of a sort of hereditary title.
Twenty years afterward, the Visconti, a
family of opposite interests, supplanted
the Torriani at Milan; and the rivality
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 preten-
sions of their masters.
The vigour and concert infused into
the Guelf party by the successes of
Charles of Anjou, were not very durable,
riial prince was soon involved in a pro-
tracted and unfortunate quarrel with the
kings of Aragon, to whose protection his
revolted subjects in Italy had recurred.
On the other hand, several men of ener-
RevWai of getic character retrieved the Ghi-
ihe(ihibe- belin interests in Lombardy, and
lit! party, even in the Tuscan cities. The
Visconti were acknowledged heads of
that faction. A family early established
as lords of Verona, the Della Scala, main-
tamed the credit of the same denomina-
tion between the Adige and tlie Adriatic.
Castruccio Castrucani. an adrc?iturer o»
remarkable ability, rendered himseli
prince of Lucca, ana drew over a formi-
dable accession to the imperial side from
the heart of the church-party in Tuscany,
though his death restored the ancient or-
der of things. The inferior tyrants wa^re
partly Guelf, partly Ghibelin, according
to local revolutions ; but, upon the whole
Ihe latter acquired a gradual ascendency.
Those indeed who cared for the independ-
ence of Italy, or for their own power,
had far less to fear from the phantom ol
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 Swabia. The Angevin K,ngg of
kings of Naples were sovereigns Naples am.
of Provence, and from thence ^j J,'!;;;';"'"'
easily encroached upon Pied-
mont, and threatened the Milanese. Rob-
ert, the third of this hue, almost openly
aspired, like his grandfather, Charles I.,
to a real sovereignty over Italy. His of-
fers of assistance to Guelf cities in war
were always coupled with a demand of
the sovereignty. Many yielded to his
ambition; and even Florence twice be-
stowed upon him a temporary dictator-
ship. In 1314 he was acknowledged
lord of Lucca, Florence, Pavia, Alessan-
dria, Bergamo, and the cities of Romagna.
In 1318 the Guelfs of Genoa found n(t
other resource against the Ghibelin emi-
grants who were under their walls, than
to resign their liberties to the King oJ
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 tlie Empe-
ror Louis of Bavaria and tiie Visconti
family, abetted all these measures of
ambition. But they were rendered abor-
tive by Robert's death, and the subse-
quent disturbances of his kingdom.
At the latter end of the thirteenth cen-
tury, there were almost as many princes
in the north of Italy as there had been
free cities in the preceding age. Their
equality, and the frequent domestic revo-
lutions which made their seat unsteady,
kepi them for a while from encroaching
on each other. Gradually, however, they
became less numerous ; a quantity of ob-
scure tyrants were swept away from the
smaller cities; and the people, careless
or hopeless of liberty, were glad to ex-
change the rule of despicable petty usurp-
ers for that of more distinguished and
powerful families. About the state of
year 1350, the central parts of J.X'mfi
Lombardy had fallen undsr the dieorttw
162
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLH AGES.
'Cut
n
ronrtoenih cfomiiiioii v)f the Visconti. Four
century, ^^tjjpj. houses occupied the sec-
ond rank ; that of Este at F'errara and
Mf^ena; of Scala at Verona, wliich un-
de: Canf! and Mastino della Scala had
seemed hkely to contest with the lords
of Milan the supremacy over Lombardy ;
:^{ Carrara at Padua, which later tlian
Dny Lombard city had resigned her lib-
erty ; and of Gonzaga at Mantua, which,
without ever obtaining any material ex-
tension of territiorx', continued, probably
for that reason, to reign undisturbed till
the eighteenth centur}^ But these uni-
ted were hardly a match, as they some-
I'owerofihe times experienced, for the Yis-
Viscomi. 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 interdicts
and excommunications, producing no
one man of military talents, but fertile
of tyrants detested for their perfidious-
ness and cruelty, was nevertheless ena-
bled, with almost uninterrupted success,
to add city after city to the dominion of
Milan, till it absorbed all the north of
[tah^ Under Gian Galeazzo, whose reign
began in 1385, the viper (their armorial
bearing) assumed indeed a menacing at-
titude :* lie overturned the great family
of Scala, and annexed their extensive
possessions to his own ; no power inter-
vened from Vercelli in Piedmont to Fel-
tre and Belluno ; while the free cities of
Tuscan}', Pisa, Siena, Perugia, and even
Bologna, as if by a kind of witchcraft,
voluntarily called in a dissembling tyrant
as their master.
Powerful as the Visconti were in Italy,
they were long in washing out the tinge
of recent usurpation, Avhich humbled
them before the legitimate dynasties of
Europe. At the siege of Genoa, in 1318,
Robert, king of Naples, rejected with con-
tempt the challenge of Marco Visconti to
decide their quarrel in single combat. f
But the pride of sovereigns, like that of
private men, is easily set aside for their
interest. Galeazzo Visconti purchased
with 100,000 florins a daughter of France
for his son, which the French historians
mention as a deplorable humiliat-.^n for
their crown. A few years aftcward,
* Allusions to heraldry are very common in the
Italian writers. All tiie historians of the fourteenth
century habitually use the viper, il biscione, as a
synonyme for the power of Milan.
t Della qual cjsa il Rh molto sdegno ne prese.
Villani, 1. ix.. c. 93. It was reckoned a misalliance,
«8 Dante tells us, in the widow of Nino di Gallu-
ra, a nobleman of Pisa, though a sort of prince in
Sarin... a, to niai -y one of the Visconti. — Purgalo-
rio, cant. 8.
Lionel, duke of Clarence, second son oi
Edward IIL, certainly not an inferior
match, espoused Galeazzo's daughter.
Both these connexions were short-lived ,
but the union of Valentine, daughter of
Gian Galeazzo, with the Duke of Orleans,
in 1389, produced far more important con-
sequences, and served to transmit a claim
to her descendants, Louis XIL and Fran-
cis L, from which the long calamities of
Italy at the beginning of the sixteenth
century were chiefly derived. Net long
after this marriage [A. D. 1395], the Vis-
conti were tacitly admitted among the
reigning princes, by the erection of Milan
into a dutchy under letters patent of the
Emperor Wenceslaus.*
The imperial authority over Italy was
almost entirely suspended after Relations oi
the death of Frederick II. A the empire
long interregnum followed in ^^"'' ''*'^'
German}' ; and when the vacancy wa*"
supplied by Rodolph of Ilapsburg [A. D.
1272], he was too prudent to dissipate
his moderate resources, where the gnat
house of Swabia had failed. About forty
years afterward [A . D. 1309], the emperoi
Henry of Luxemburg, a prince, like Ro
dolph, of small hereditary pos- ^^^^
sessions, 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 de-
sire of union between the Guelfs and
Ghibelins, he could not succeed in re-
moving the distrust of the former; his
exigences impelled him to large demands
of money; and the Italians, when they
counted his scanty German cavalrv', per-
ceived that obedience was altogether a
matter of their own choice. Henry died,
however, in time to save himself from
any decisive reverse. His successors,
Louis of Bavaria and Charles IV., de-
scended from the Alps witli similar mo-
tives, but after some temporary good for-
tune were obliged to return, not without
discredit. Yet the Italians never broke
that almost invisible thread which con-
nected them with Gemiany ; the fal
lacious name of Roman emperor stili
challenged their allegiance, though con-
ferred by seven Teutonic electors with-
out their concurrence. Even Florence
the most independent and high spir-
ited of republics, was induced to make
a .reaty with Charles IV. in 1355
which, while it confirmed all her actual
♦ Co:io. D. MS
P.tKT ll.j
ITALY
}§3
liberlies, not a little, by that ve y confirm-
ation, affected her sovereignty.* This
deference to the supposed prerogatives
of the empire, even while they were
least formidable, was partly ov.ing to
;ealousy of French or xVeapolitan inter-
ference, partly to the national hatred of
the popes who had seceded to Avignon,
and in f.ome degree to a misplaced re-
spect for antiquity, to which the revival
of letlers had given birth. Tlie great ci-
vilians, and the much greater poets of
the fourteenth century, taught Italy to
consider her emperor as a dormant sov-
ereign, to whom her various principali-
ties and repubhcs were subordinate, and
during whose absence alone they had le-
gitimate authority.
In one part, however, of that country,
Cession ofRo- ^^^ empire had, soon after the
magna lo iiio commencement of this peri-
Popes. yj^ spontaneously renounced
its sovereignty. From the era of Pe-
pin's donation, confirmed and extended
by many subsequent charters, the Holy
See had tolerably just pretensions to the
province entitled Romagna, or the exar-
chate of Ravenna. But the popes, whose
menaces were dreaded at the extremities
of Europe, were still very weak as tem-
poral princes. Even Innocent III. had
nevei been able to obtain possession of
this part of St. Peter's patrimony. The
circumstances of Rodolph's accession in-
spired Nicholas III. with more confidence.
That emperor granted a confirmation of
every thing included in the donations of
* The republic of Florence was at this tune in
considerable peril from a coalition of the Tuscan
cities against her, which rendered the protection
of the emperor convenient. But it was very re-
luctantly that she acquiesced in even a nominal
submission to his authority. 'I'he Florentine en-
voys, in their first address, would only use the
words, Santa Corona, or Serenissinio Pnnci[)e ;
sanza ricordarlo iinperadore, o dimostrargli alcuna
reverenza di suggezzione, domandando che il com-
mune di Firenze volea, essendogli ubbidiente, le co-
tali e le cotali Iranchigie per mantenere il suo popolo
neir usata libertade.— Mat. Villani, p. 274. (Script.
Rer. Ital.,t. xiv.) This style made Charles angry ;
and the city soon atoned for it by accepting his
privilege. In this, it must be owned, he assumes
a decided tone of sovereign ty. The gonfalonier
and priors are declared to be his vicars. 'I'he dep-
uties of the city did homage ind swore obedience.
Circumstances induced the principal citizens to
make this submission, wiiich they knew to be
merely nominal. But the high-spirited people, not
so indifferent about names, came into ii very un-
willingly. The treaty was seven times pro[)osed,
and as often rejected in the consiglio del popolo,
before their feelings were subdued. Its publica-
tion was received with no marks of joy. The pub-
lic buildings alone were illuminated : but a sad si-
lence il dicated the wounded pride of every private
citizen. -M. Villani, p. 2bG 290 Sismondi, t. vi.,
p 238.
! Louis I., Otlio, and his oilier pred(;ces
sors ; but was still reluctant or ashame'i
; to renounce his imperial rights. AccorcJ
ingly, liis charter is expressed to bt
granted without diminution of the empire
(sine demembratione imperii) ; and his
chancellor received an oath of fidelity
from the cities of Romagna. But tho
pope insisting firmly on his own claim,
Rodolph discreetly avoided involving him
self in a fatal quarrel, and, in 1::378, abso
lutely released the imperial supremacy
over all the dominions already granted
to the Holy See.*
This is a leading epoch in the tempo-
ral monarchy of Rome. But she stood
only in the place of the emperor; and
her ultimate sovereignty was compatible
with the practical 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 botli
their internal concerns and foreign rela-
tions 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 fill the
end of the fourteenth century. The rest
were soon enslaved by petty tyrants,
more obscure than those of Lombardy.
It was not easy for the pontitTs of Avig-
non to reinstate themselves in a domin-
ion which they seemed to have abandon
ed ; but they made several attempts to re
cover It, sometimes with spiritual arms
sometimes with the more efficacious aid
of mercenary troops. The annals of
this part of Italy are peculiarly uninter-
esting.
Rome itself was, throughout the middle
ages, very little disposed to ac- internal
quiesce in tlie government of lier state oi
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
anarchy among the Italians, which appli-
ed equally to tlie capital city, otlier senti-
ments more peculiar to Rome preserved
a continual, though not uniform, influ<-.<ce
for many centuries. There still remain-
ed enough, in the wreck of that vast in-
heritance, to swell the bosoms of her cit-
izens with a consciousness of their own
dignity. They bore the venerable name,
they contemplated the monuments of art
and empire, and forgot, in the illusions of
♦ Mu -atori, ad aiin. 1274, 1275, 1278. Sismoj
di. t. iii.. p. 461.
04
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
IClIAP.Ii.
national pride, that the tutelar gods of the
buildinajs were departed for ever. About
the middle of the twelfth century, these
recollections were heightened by the elo-
quence of Arnold of Brescia, a political
heretic, who preached against the tem-
poral jurisdiction of the hierarchy. In a
emporary intoxication of fancy, they
were led to make a ridiculous show of
self-importance towards Frederick. Earba-
rossa, when he came to receive the impe-
rial crown , but the German sternly chi-
ded their ostentation, and chastised their
resistance.* With the popes they could
dcil more securely. Several of them
were expelled from Rome during that age
by the seditious citizens. Lucius II. died
of hurts received in a tumult. The gov-
ernment 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 dis-
tricts of the city.f This constitution
lasted not quite fifty years. In 1192,
Rome imitated the prevailing fashion by
the appointment of an annual foreign ma-
gistrate.| Except in name, the senator
of Rome appears to have perfectly re-
sembled the podesta of other cities. This
magistrate superseded the representative
senate, who had proved by no means ade-
quate to control the most lawless aris-
tocracy of Italy. I shall not repeat the
Btor)' of Brancaleon's rigorous and inflex-
ible justice, which a great historian has
already drawn from obscurity. It illus-
trates "not the annals of Rome alone, but
the general state of Italian society, the na-
ture of a podesta's duty, and the diflicul-
ties of its execution. The office of sena-
tor survives after more than six hundred
years ; a foreign magistrate still resides
in the capitol ; but he no longer wields
the " iron flail"^ of Brancaleon, and liis
nomination proceeds of course from the
supreme pontiff, not from the people. In
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the
senate, and the senator who succeeded
them, exercised one distinguishing attri-
* The impertinent address of a Roman orator to
Frederick, and his answer, are preserved in Olho
of Frisingen, 1. ii., c. 22, but so much at length
that we may suspect some exaprgeration. Otho is
rather rhetorical. They .nay be read in Gibbon,
c. 69.
t Sismondi, t. ii., p. 36. Besides Sismondi and
MiiiLtori, I would refer for the history of Rome
during the middle ages to the last chapters of Gib-
bon s Decline and Fall.
t 6 smondi, t. ii., p. 308.
6 The rea.'.ers jf Spenser will recollect the iron
flail of Talus, tk. 3 attendant of Arthegal, emblemat-
ic of the severe ^-jslice of the lord deputy of Ire-
land, Sir Arthur'Grey, shadowed under that alle-
gory.
bute of sovereignty that of coining gok
and silver money, .-iome of their coin.s
stiL exist, with legends in a very repub-
lican tone.* Doubtless the temporal au-
thority of the popes varied according to
their personal character. Innocent III.
had much more than his predecessors for
almost a century, or than some of his suc-
cessors. He made the senator *ake idi
oath of fealty to him, which, though not
very comprehensive, must have passed in
those times as a recognition of his supe
riority.f
Though there was much less obedience
to any legitimate power at Rome than
anywhere else in Italy, even during the
thirteenth century, yet after the seces-
sion of the popes to Avignon, their own
city was left in a far worse condition
than before. Disorders of every kind,
tumult and robbery, prevailed in ihe
streets. The Roman nobility were en-
gaged in perpetual war with each other.
Not content with their own fortified pal
aces, they turned the sacred monumenta
of antiquity into strongholds, and con-
summated the destruction of time and
conquest. At no period has tlie city en-
dured such irreparable injuries ; nor was
the downfall of the western empire so
fatal to its capital, as the contemptible
feuds of the Orsini and Colonna fami-
lies. Whatever there was of govern-
ment, whether administered by a legate
from Avignon, or by the municipal au-
thorities, had lost all hold on these pow-
erful barons. [A. D. 1347.] In the midst
of this degradation and wretchedness, an
obscure man, Nicola di Rienzi, riie Tribune
conceived the project of resto- Kienzi.
ring Rome not only to good order, but
even to her ancient greatness. He had
received an education beyond his birth,
and nourished his mind with the study of
the best writers. After many harangues
to the people, which the nobility, blinded
by their self-confidence, did not attempt
to repress, Rienzi suddenly excited an in-
surrection, and obtained complete suc-
cess. He was placed at the head of a
new government, with the title of tribune,
and with almost unlimited power. The
first effects of this revolution were won-
derful. All the nobles submitted, though
with great reluctance ; the roads were
cleared of robbers ; tranquillity was re-
stored at home ; some severe exainples
of justice intimidated offenders; and the
tribune was regarded by all the people aa
the destined restorer of Rome and Italy.
♦Gibbon, vol. xii., p. 289. Muratori, AntiQuit
Ital., Dissert. 27.
t Sismondi, p. 309.
Ca*' llj
ITALY.
Itit
i hough ihe court of Avi.e^uijn could not
approve ol such a usurpation, it tempo-
rized enough not directly to oppose it.
Most of the Itahan repubhcs, and some
of the princes, sent ambassadors, and
seemed to recognise pretensions wliich
ft'ere tolerably ostentatious. The King
of Hungary and Queen of Naples sub-
mitted their quarrel to the arbitration of
Rienzi, who did not, however, undertake
to decide upon it. But this sudden exal-
tation intoxica-ted 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 char-
acter was one not unusual among litera-
ry politicians ; a combination of knowl-
edge, eloquence, and enthusiasm for ideal
excellence, with vanity, inexperience of
mankind, unsteadiness, and physical ti-
midity. As these latter qualities be-
came conspicuous, they eclipsed his vir-
tues, and caused his benefits to be forgot-
ten ; he was compelled to abdicate his
government, an 1 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 Ro-
mans, who had returned to their habits of
insubordination, would gladly submit to
their favourite tribune. And this proved
the case for a few months ; but after 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
Subsequent Ricuzi, the frccdom of Rome
aiTairs of secms to have revived in repub-
Rome. lican institutions, though with
names less calculated to inspire peculiar
recollections. Magistrates called ban-
nerets, chosen from the thirteen districts
of the city, with a miUtia of tlrree thousand
* Sismondi, t. v., c. 37; t. vi., p. 201. Gibbou,
c. 70. De Side, Vie de Petrarque, t. ii., passim.
Tiraboschi, t. vi., p. 339. It is diflicult to resist
the admiration which all the romantic circum-
stances of liienzi's history tend to excite, and to
which Petrarch so blindly gave way. That great
man's characteristic excellence was not good com-
mon sense. He had imbibed two notions, of which
it is hard to say which was the more absurd ;
that Rome had a legitimate right to all her an-
cient authority over the rest of the world ; and
that she was likely to recover this authority in con-
sequence of the revolution produced by Kienzi.
Giovanni Viilani, living at Florence, and a stanch
republican, formed a very different estimate, wliich
weieha more than the enthusiastic panegyrics of
citizens at their cciniiiand, weid placec*
at the head of this ciimmonwealth The
great object of this new organization was
to intimidate the Roman nobility, whoso
outrages, in the total absence of g-overu
ment, had grown intolerable. Sevrra.
of them were hanged the first year by
order of the bannerets. The citizen*
however, had no serious intention of
throwing ofl:' their subjection to the
popes. They provided for their own se-
curity, on account of the lamentable se-
cession and neglect of those who claimed
allegiance while they denied protection.
But they were ready to acknowledge
and welcome back their bishop as their
sovereign. ICven without this, lliey sur-
rendered their republican constitution in
1362, it does not appear for what reason,
and permitted the legate of Innocent VI
to assume the government.* We find,
however, the institution of bannerets re-
vived, and in full authority, some years
afterward. But the internal history of
Rome appears to be obscure, and I have
not had opportunities of examining it
minutely. Some degree of political free-
dom the city probably enjoyed during
the schism of the church ; but it is not
easy to discriminate the assertion of le
gitimate privileges from the licentious
tumults of the barons or populace. In
1435, the Romans formally took away
the governmen* from Eugenius IV., and
elected seven signiors or cliief magis-
trates, like the priors of Florence. f But
this revolution v/as not of long continu-
ance. On the death of Eugenius, the cit-
izens deliberated upon proposing a con-
stitutional charter to the future pope.
Stephen Porcaro, a man of good family,
and inflamed by a strong spirit of liberty,
was one of their principal instigators.
But the people did not sufficiently par
take of that spirit. No measures were
taken upon this occasion ; and Porcaro,
whose ardent imagination disguised the
hopelessness of his enterprise, tampering
in a fresh conspiracy, was put to death
under the pontificate of Nicholas V.J
The province of Tuscany continued
Petrarch. La detta impresa del tribuno era u:
opera fantastica, e di poco durare, 1. xii., c. 90. Ar
illustrious female writer has drawn with a single
stroke the character of Rienzi, Crescentius, ani
Arnold of Brescia, the fond restorers of Roman lib
erty, qui ont pris hi souvenirs pour les espirancta. —
Corinne, t. i., p. 159. Could Tacitus have excel!
ed this?
* Matt. Viilani, p. 57G, 604, 709. Sismondi, i
v., p. 02. He seems to have overlooked the formo-
period of government by bannerets, and refers thri
institution to 1375.
t Script, "ieri m Italic, t. iii., pars 2, p. 1120
t Id., f . .i31, 1134. Sismondi, t. \., p. 18
I5B
ELUOi^E DURING THE MlDliut. AiES.
[CllAf. Ill
longer ilv.in Lombardy under the govern-
ment (if an imperial lieutenant. It was
not til! about the middle of the twelfth
centur}' that the cities of Florence,
Cities of Lucca, Pisa, Sienna, Arezzo, Pis-
Tuscaiiy. toia, and several less considera-
r'lorence. ^^^,^ ^vhich might perhaps have al-
ready their own elected magistrates, be-
came independent republics. Their his-
tory is, with the exception of Pisa, very
scanty till the death of Frederick II.
Tlie earliest fact of any importance re-
corded of Florence occurs in 1184, when
it is said that Frederick Barbarossa took
from her the dominion over the district
or county, and restored it to the rural
nobility, on account of her attachment
to the church.* This I chiefly mention
to illustrate the system pursued by the
cities, of bringing the territorial proprie-
tors in their neighbourhood under subjec-
tion. 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 greatest families, which oc-
casionally predominated through the as-
sistance of the emperor. It seems, how-
ever, to have existed chiefly among the
nobility; the spirit of the people was
thoroughly Guelf. After several revolu-
tions, accompanied by alternate proscrip-
vion 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 estab-
lishedi as a fundamental law in the Flor-
entine constitution, that no person of
Ghibelin ancestry could be admitted to
offices of public trust ; which, in such a
governm3nt, was in effect an exclusion
from the privileges of citizenship.
The changes of internal government
norern- 'ind vicissitudcs of succes? among
meiit of factions were so frequent ai: Flor-
Horence. ^jj^^^ fg^ many years after this
time, that she is compared by her great
banished poet to a sick man, who, unable
to rest, gives himself momentary ease,
by continual change of posture in his
bed.f They did not become much less
mmierous after the age of Dante. Yet
the revolutions of Florence should per-
haps be considered as no more than a
necessary price of her liberty. It was
her boast and her happiness to have es-
* Villani, I. v., c. 12.
t E r>i! lien ti ricordi, e vedi il lume,
Ve''rai te sor.iigliante a quella inferma,
Che non pno trovar posa in sii le piume,
Ma con di- vnlta suo dolore schersna
Purgatorio, cant, v'
caped, except fcr one short period, thai
odious rule of vile usurpers, under which
so mary other free cities had been
crushed. A sketch of the constitution
of so famous a repubhc ought not to be
omitted in this place. Nothing else in
the history of Italy after Frederick II. is
so worthy of our attention.*
TIiO basis of the Florentine polity was
a division of the citizens exercising com-
merce, 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 Cal-
imala, of bankers or money-changers, of
woollen-drapers, of physicians and drug-
gists, of dealers in silk, and of furriers.
The inferior arts Avere those of retailers
of cloth, butchers, smiths, shoemakers,
and builders. This division, so far at
least as regarded the greater arts, was
as uld as the beginning of the thirteenth
century. t But it was fully established,
and londered essential to the constitu-
tion, in 1266. By the provisions made in
that year, each of the seven greater arts
had a council of its own, a chief magis-
trate or consul, who administered justice
in civil causes to all members of his com-
pany, 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 Florence, as at other cities,
to a foreign podesta, or rather to two
foreign magistrates, the podesta and the
capitano del popolo, whose jurisdiction,
so far as I can trace it, appears to have
been concurrent. J In the first part of
the thirteenth century, the authority of
the podesta may have been more exten-
sive than afterward. These offices were
preserved till the innovations of the Med-
ici. The domestic magistracies under-
went more changes. Instead of consuls,
which had been the first denomination of
the chief magistrates of Florence, a col-
* 1 have found considerable difficulties in this
part of my task ; no author with whom I am ac-
quainted giving a tolerable view of the Fiorentina
government, except M. Sismondi, who is himjelf
not always satisfactory.
t Ammirato ad ann. 1204 et 1235. Villani int/
mates, 1. vii. , c. 13, that the arts existed as commer
cial companies before lioG. Machiavelli and Sis
mondi express themselves rather inaccurf tely, a*
if they liad been erected at that time, which indee>J
is the era of their political importance.
% Matteo Villani, p. 194. G. Villani places thf
institution of the podesti in 1207 ; we find it how
ever as early as llb4 — Ammirato
kkt 11.
ITALY.
lOJ
lege of tw elve oi fourteen persons, called
Anziani or Buonuomini, but varying in
name as well as number according to
revolutions of party, was established
about the middle of the thirteenth centu-
ry, to direct public affairs.* This order
was entirel)'- changed in 1282, and gave
place to a new form of supreme magis-
tracy, which lasted till the extinction of
the republic. Six priors, elected every
Uvo months, from each of the six quar-
ters of the city, and from each of the
greater arts, except that of lawyers, con-
stituted 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
actual priors, jointly with the chiefs and
councils (usually called la capitudine) 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 afterward, gave a
peculiar character to the constitution of
Florence. A lively and ambitious peo-
ple, not merely jealous of their public
sovereignty, but deeming its exercise a
matter of personal enjoyment; Jiware, at
the same time, that the will of the whole
body could neither be immediately ex-
pressed on all occasions, nor even through
chosen representatives, without the risk
of vioL nee and partiality, fell upon the
singula : idea of admitting all citizens,
not un\irorthy by their station or conduct,
to offices of magistracy by rotation.
Lists were separately made out by llie
priors, the twelve buonuomini, the chiefs
and councils of arts, the bannerets and
other respectable 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 nine-
ty-seven, proceeded to ballot upon every
name. Whoever obtained sixty-eight
black 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 succes-
sively 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,
• <T. Villani. vi , c. 39
the scrutiny was renewed, and frcsk
names were mingled with those which
still continued undrawn ; so that accident
might deprive a man for life of his por
tion of sovereignty.*
Four councils had been established bj
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 con-
siglio di popolo, and one of 250, called con-
siglio di commune, into which the nobles
might enter. These were changed by the
same rotation as the magistracies, every
four months. t A parliament, or general
assembly of the Florentine people, was
rarely convoked ; but the leading princi-
ple of a democratical republic, the ulti-
mate sovereignty of the multitude, was
not forgotten. This constitution of 1324
was fixed by the citizens at large in "
parliament ; and the same sanction vvas
given to those temporary delegations of
the signiory to a prince, which occasion-
ally took place. What is technically
called by their historians farsi popolo,
was the assembly of a parliament, or a
resolution of all derivative powers into
the immediate operation of Ihe popular
will.
The ancient government of this repub-
lic 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 126G, which was nearly coincident
with the triumph of the Guelf faction,
the essential powers of magistracy, as
well as of legislation, were thrown nito
the scale of the commons. The colleges
of arts, whose functions became so em-
inent, were altogether commercial. Many
indeed of the nobles enrolled themselves
in these companies, and were among the
most conspicuous merchants of Florence.
These were not excluded from the exec-
utive college of the priors, at its first in-
stitution in 1282. It was necessary, how-
ever, to belong to one or other of the
great arts in order to reach that magis-
tracy. The majority, therefore, of the
ancient families, saw themselves pushed
♦ Villaiii.l. ix., c. 27; 1. x., c. 110; 1. xi., c. 105.
Sismoiidi, t. v., p. 171. This species of lottery,
recoinmcniiing itself by ati apparent fairness and
incompatibility with undue influence, was speedily
adopted in all the neighbouring republics, and haM
always continued, according to Sisinondi, in Lucca,
and in those cities of the ecclesiastical state which
preserved the privilege of choosing their niunicipa)
officers, p. 95. + Id. Ibid.
i5y
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AL.ES.
LOhap. II
aside from the helm, which was intrust-
nd to a class whom they naturally held
ui contempt.
It does not appear that the nobility
made any overt opposition to these dem-
ocratical institutions. Confident in a
force beyond the law, they cared less for
what the law might provide against them.
They still retained the proud spirit of per-
sonal independence which had belonged
to their ancestors in the fastnesses of the
Apennines. Though the laws of Flor'
ence, and a change in Italian customs,
had transplanted their residence to the
city, it was in strong and lofty houses
thai they dwelt, among their kindred, and
among the fellows of their rank. Not-
withstanding the tenour of the constitu-
tion, F'lorence was, for some years after
the estabUshment of priors, incapable of
resisting the violence of her nobility.
Her historians ail attest the outrages and
assassinations committed by them on the
inferior people. It was in vain that jus
tice was offered by the podesta and the
capitano del popolo. Witnesses dared
not to appear against a noble offender ;
or if, on a complaint, the officer of jus-
tice arrested the accused, his family
made common cause to rescue their kins-
man, and the populace rose in defence of
the laws, till the city was a scene of tu-
mult and bloodshed. I have already al-
,uded to this insubordination of the higher
classes as general in the Italian repub-
lics ; but the Florentine writers, being
fuller than the rest, are our best specific
testimonies.*
[A. D. 1295.] The dissensions between
the patrician and plebeian orders ran
very high, when Giano della Bella, a man
of ancient lineage, but attached, without
ambitious views, so far as appears, though
not without passion, to the popular side,
introduced a series of enactments ex-
ceedingly disadvantageous to the ancient
aristocracy. The first of these was the
appointment of an executive officer, the
gonfalonier of justice ; whose duty it was
to enforce the sentences of the podesta
and capitano del popolo, in cases where
the ordinary officers were insufficient. A
thousand citizens, afterward increased
to four times that number, were bound
to obey his commands. They were dis-
tributed into companies, the gonfaloniers
or captains of which became a sort of
corpoiation or college, and a constituent
part 01 government. [A. D. 1295.] This
new militia seems to have superseded
that of the companies of arts, which I
■^ Villani. 1. vii., c. 113; 1. viii c. 8. Ammirato.
'S'nria Fiurennna, 1. iv., in cominciamento.
have not observed to be mentioned at any
later period. The gonfalonier cf justice
was part of the signiory 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 reproach. But he fol.
lowed it up by harsher provisions. The
nobility were now made absolutely inel
igible to the ofl^ce of prior. For an of-
fence committed by one of a noble fam-
ily, his relations were declared responsi-
ble in a penalty of 3000 pounds. And, to
obviate the difficulty arising from the fre-
quent intimidation of Avitnesses, it was
provided that common fame, attested by
two credible persons, should be sufficient
for the condemnation of a nobleman. f
These are the famous ordinances of
justice, which passed at Florence for the
great charter of her democracy. They
have been reprobated in later times as
scandalously unjust, and I have little in
clination to defend them. The last, es-
pecially, was a violation of those eterna.
principles, which forbid us, for any cal-
culations of advantage, to risk the sacri-
fice of innocent blood. But it is impos-
sible not to perceive that the same un-
just severity has sometimes, under a like
pretext of necessity, been apjilied to the
weaker classes of the people, which they
were in this instance able to exercise
towards their natural superiors.
The nobility were soon aware of the
position in which they stood. For half
a century their great object was to pro-
cure the relaxation of the ordinances of
justice. But they had no success with
an elated enemy. In three years' time,
indeed, Giano della Bella, the author of
these institutions, was driven into exile;
a conspicuous, though by no means sin-
gular, proof of Florentine ingratitude.^
* It is to be regretted, that the accomplished
biographer of Lorenzo de' Medici should have
taken no pains to inform himself of the most ordi-
nary particulars in the constitution of Florence.
Among many other errors, he says, vol. ii., p. 51,
5th edit., that the gonfalonier of justice was sub
ordinate to the delegated mechanics (a bad expres
sion), or priori dell' arti, whose number too he aug
ments to ten. The proper style of the republic
seems to run thus : I priori dell' arti e gonfaloniers
di giustizia, il popolo e '1 comune della citta di Fi-
renze. — G. Villani, I. xii., c. 109.
t Villani, 1. viii., c. 1. Ammirato, p. 283, edit
1647. A magistrate, called 1' esecutor ^<eJla gius
tizia, was appointed with authority equa. to that
of the podesti, for the special purpose of watching
over the observann of the ordmatice? of justice -
Ammirato, p. 066.
1 ± Villani, 1. viii.. c. 8
Pa urn.]
ITALY.
I5i
The wealth and physical strength of the
nobles were however untouched ; and
their influence must always have been
considerable ; in the great feuds of Bian-
chi and Neri, the ancient families were
most distinguished. No man plays a
greater part in the annals of Florence at
the beginning of the fourteenth century
than Corso Donati, chief of the latter fac-
tion, who might pass as representative
of the turbulent, intrepid, ambitious citi-
zen-noble of an Itahan repubhc* But
the laws gradually became more sure of
obedience ; the sort of proscription which
attended the ancient nobles lowered their
spirit ; wiiile a new aristocracy began to
raise its head, the aristocracy of famihes
who, after filling the highest magistracies
for two or three generations, obtained an
hereditary importance, which answered
the purpose of more unequivocal nobili-
ty; just as in ancient Rome, plebeian
families, by admission to curule offices,
acquired the character and appellation of
nobility, and were only distinguishable
by their genealogy from the original pa-
tricians.f 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 Anio-
nics. 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
distinction of high birth was, that it de-
barred men from political franchises and
civil justice. j:
This second aristocracy did not obtain
much more of the popular affection than
that which it superseded. Public out-
rage and violation of law became less
frequent ; but the new leaders of Flor-
ence are accused of continual mis-
government at home and abroad, and
sometimes of peculation. There was of
course a strong antipathy between the
leading commoners and the ancient no-
bles; both were disliked by the people.
In order to keep the nobles under more
control, the governing party more than
*• Dino Compagni. Villani.
t La nobiltii civile, se bene non in baronaggi, i
capace di grandissiini honori, percioche esercilando
i suprenii inagistrati della sua patria, viene .spesso
a coa.andare a capitani d' eserciti e eila stessa per
Be 6 it. mare, 6 in terra, molte volta i supremi ca-
riclii adopera. E tale h la Fiorentina nohilta. —
Aniinirato dalle Famiglie Fiorentiiie. Firenze,
1614, p. 25.
t Quello, che all' altre citta suolo recare splen-
dore, in Firenze era dannoso, o verameute vano e
jiutile, says Ammirato o nobility. — Sloria Fioreij-
una, p. lei.
once introduced a new foreign magis-
trate, with the title of captain of defeiK «
(della guardia), whom they invested with
an almost unbounded criminal jurisdic
tion. [A. D. 133G-1340.] One GabrieUi,
of Agobbio, was twice fetched for this
purpose ; and in each case he behaved
in so tyrannical a manner as to occa,-
sion a tumult.* His office, however,
was of short duration, and the title al
least did not import a sovereign com-
mand. But very soon afterward Flor-
ence had to experience one taste of a
cup wliich her neighbours had drunk off
to the dregs, and to animate her magnaii
imous love of freedom by a knowledg(
of the calamities of tyranny.
A war with Pisa, unsuccessfully, il
not unskilfully, conducted, gave rise tt
such dissatisfaction in the city, that Hu
leading commoners had recourse to ai
appointment something like that of Ga
brielli, and from similar motives. Wal
ter de Brienne, duke of Athens, was de
scended from one of the French crusader.'
who had dismembered the Grecian em-
pire in the preceding century ; but hi;^
father, defeated in battle, had lost the
principality along with his hfe, and tlie
titular duke was an adventurer in the
court of France. He had been, however,
slightly known at Florence on a formei
occasion. There was a uniform maxin
among the Italian republics, that extraor
dinary powers should be conferred upoi
none but strangers. The Duke of Atheuf
was accordingly pitched upon for th(
military command, which was united witl
domestic jurisdiction. This appears tc
have been promoted by the governing
party, in order to curb the nobility ; but
they were soon undeceived in their ex-
pectations. The first act of the Duke of
Athens was to bring four of the most
eminent commoners to capital punish-
ment for miUlary offences. These sen-
tences, whether just or otherwise, gave
much pleasure to the '.lobles, who had
so frequently been exposed to similar
severity, and to the populace, who are
naturally pleased with the humiliation of
their superiors. Botli of these were ca-
ressed by the duke, and both conspired,
with blind passion, to second his ambi
tious views. It was proposed and car
ried in a full parliament, or assembly of
the people, to bestow upon him the
signiory for life. [A. D. V312.] The
real friends of their country, as well aa
the oligarchy, shuddered at this irirasure
Throughout aU the vic'ssitudcs oi party
Vilhni, 1. XI., I Wau'iJIT
160
EUKOPI UURLNG THE MIDDLE AGES.
IOhap. Cll
Florence had never yet lost sight of re-
publican institutions. Not that she had
never accommodated herself to tempo-
rary circumstances by naming a signior.
C]ia7les of Anjou had been invested with
that dignity for the term of ten years ;
Robert, king of Naples, for five ; and his
eon, the Duke of Calabria, was at his
ieath signior of Florence. These prin-
ces named the.podesla, if not the priors ;
and were certainly pretty absolute in
their executive powers, though bound by
oath not to alter the statutes of the city.*
But their office had always been tempo-
rary. Like the dictatorship of Rome, it
was a confessed, unavoidable evil ; a sus-
pension, but not extinguishment of rights.
Like that, too, it was a dangerous prece-
dent, through which crafty ambition and
popular rashness might ultimately sub-
vert the republic. If Walter de Brienne
had possessed the subtle prudence of a
Matteo Visconti, or a Cane della Scala,
there appears no reason to suppose that
Florence would have escaped the fate of
other cities ; and her history might have
J)eeome as useless a record of perfidy
ind assassination as that of Mantua or
/erona.f
But, happily for Florence, the reign of
tyratmy 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 pro-
duce was dissipated. The honour of the
state v/as sacrificed by an inglorious
treaty with Pisa; her territory was di-
minished by some towns throwing off"
their depenilance. Severe and multiplied
punishments spread terror through the
city. The noble families, who had on
the duke's election destroyed the ordi-
nances of justice, now found themselves
exposed to the more partial caprice of a
despot, lie filled the magistracies with
low creatuies from the inferior artificers ;
a class which he continued to flatter.|
Ten montlis passed in this manner, when
three separate conspiracies, embracing
most of the nobility and of the great
commoners, were planned for the rccov-
sry of freedom. The duke was protect-
ed by a strong body of hired cavalry.
Revolutions in an Italian city were gen-
erally effected by surprise. The streets
were so narrow and so easily secured by
barricades, that if a people had time to
^tand on its defence, no cavalry was of
♦ Villani, 1. ix., c. 55, GO, 135, 323.
I H. 1. xii, c. 1,2, 3. t 111., c.
any avail. On the other hand, a body of
lancers in plate-armour might dissipate
any number of a disorderly populaci:.
Accordingly, if a prince or usurper would
get possession by surprise, he, as it was
called, rode the city ; that is, galloped with
his cavalry along the streets, so as to
prevent the people from collecting to
erect barricades. This expression i?
very usual with historians of the four-
teenth century.* The conspirators at
Florence were too quick for the Duke of
Athens. The city was barricaded in
every direction; and, after a contest of
some duration, he consented to abdicate
his signiory.
Thus Florence recovered her liberty.
Her constitutional laws now seemed to
revive of themselves. But the nobility,
who had taken a very active part in the
recent liberation of their counir)', thought
it hard to be still placed under the rigor-
ous ordinances of justice. Many of the
richer commoners acquiesced in an equi-
table partition of magistracies, whicli was
established through the influence of the
bishop. But the populace of Florence,
with its characteristic forgetfulness of
benefits, was tenacious of those prescript-
ive ordinances. The nobles too, elated
by their success, began again to strike
and injure the inferior citizens. A new
civil war in the city streets decided their
quarrel ; after a desperate resistance,
many of the principal houses were pil-
laged and burnt ; and the perpetual ex-
clusion of the nobility was confirmed by
fresh laws. But the people, now sure
of their triumph, relaxed a little upon this
occasion the ordinances of justice ; and.
to make some distinction in favour of
merit or innocence, effaced certain fam
ilies from the list of nobility. Five hun
dred and thirty persons were thus ele-
vated, as we may call it, to the rank of
commoners. f As it was beyond the com-
petence of the republic of Florence to
change a man's ancestors, this nominal
alteration left all the real advantages of
birth as they were, and was undoubtedly
an enhancement of dignity, though in
appearance a very singular one. Con
{
* Villani. 1. X., c. 81. Castruccio .... corse
la citta di Pisa due volte. — Sismondi, t. v., p. 105.
t Villani, 1. xii., c. 18-23. Sismondi says, by a
niomentary oversight, cinq cent trente families, t.
v., p. 377. There were but thirty-seven noble fam-
ilies at Florence ; as M. Sismondi himself informs
us, t. iv., p. 60 ; though Villani reckons the number
of individuals at 1500. Nobles, or grandi, as they
are more strictly called, were sucli as had been
inscribed, or rather proscribed, as such in ihe ordl
nances of justice ; at least I do not know wha'
olher definition there wis.
/•art h j
ITAL\.
101
versely, several anpopular commoners
were eiiiiobled, in order to disfranchise
tneni Nothing was more usual, in sub-
sequent times, than such an arbitrary
change of rank, as a penalty or a benefit.*
Those nobles who were rendered ple-
beian by favour were obliged to change
their name and arms.f The constitution
now underwent some change. From six
the priors were increased to eight ; and,
instead of being chosen from each of the
greater arts, they were taken from the
four .quarters of the city, the lesser arti-
sans, as I conceive, being admissible.
The gonfaloniers of companies were re-
duced to sixteen. And these, along with
the signiory, and the twelve buonuomini,
formed the college, where every propo-
sition was discussed before it could be
offered to the councils for their legislative
sanction. But it could only originate,
strictly speaking, in the signiory, that is,
the gonfalonier of justice and eiglit
priors, the rest of the college having
merely the function of advice and assist-
ance. J
Several years elapsed before any ma-
terial disturbance arose at Florence. Her
contemporary historian complains in-
deed that mean and ignorant persons
obtained the office of prior, and ascribes
some errors in her external policy to this
cause. ^ Besides the natural effects of
the established rotation, a particular law,
called the diviefo, tended to throw the
better families out of public office. By
this law, two of the same name could
not be drawn for any magistracy : whicli,
as the ancient families were extremely
numerous, rendered it difficult for their
members to succeed ; especially as a
ticket once drawn Avas not replaced in
the purse, so that an individual liable to
the divieto was excluded until the next
biennial revolution.!) This created dis-
satisfaction among the leading families.
They were likewise divided by a new fac-
tion, entirely founded, as far as appears,
on personal animosity between two prom-
inent houses, the Albizi and the Ricci.
The city was however tranquil, when, in
i357, a spring was set in motion, which
* Messer Antonio di Baldinaccio degli Adimari,
tutto che fosse do pid prandi c nobili, per grazia era
messo tra "1 popolo. — ViUani, 1. xii., c. 108.
t Ammirato, p. 718. There were several ex-
ceptions to this rule in later timrs. The Pazzi
were made popolani, plebeians, by ta- our of Cosnie
le' Medici. — Machiavelli.
t Nardi, Storia di Firenzc, p. 7, edit. 1594.
fillani, loc. cit.
() Matteo VilJani, in Script. Ri-r Itar* t. xiv.,
f. 08-244.
'J Sismondi, t vi. p 3.38.
J.*
gave quite a ditl'erent character to tlie
domestic history of Florence.
At the time when the Guelfs', with th"
j assistance of Charles of Anjou, acquireJ
an exclusive domination 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 Guclf 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 after-
ward four, captains, elected by scrutiny
every two months, a treasury, and com-
mon seal ; a little republic witliin the re-
public of Florence. Their primary duty
was to watch over the Guelf interest •
and for this purpose they had a particular
officer for the accusation of su.spected
Ghibelins.* We hear not much, how-
ever, of the Guelf society for near a
century after their establishment. The
Ghibelins hardly ventured to show them-
selves after the fall of the White Guelfs
in 1304, with whom they had been con-
nected, and confiscation had almost ai ni-
hilated that unfortunate faction. But, as
tlie oligarchy of Guelf families lost part
of its influence through the divieto and
system of lottery, some persons of Ghib
elin descent crept into public offices ; and
this was exaggerated by the zealots of an
opposite party, as if the fundamental pol-
icy of the city was put into danger.
The Guelf society had begun, as early
as 131G, to manifest some disquietude at
the foreign artisans, who, settling at Flo-
rence, and becoming members of some
of the trading corporations, pretended to
superior offices. They procured accord-
ingly a \aw, excluding from public trust
and magistracy all persons not being na-
tives of the city or its territory. Next
year they advanced a step farther; and,
with the view to prevent disorder, whicli
seemed to threaten the city, a law wa.s
passed, declaring every one, whose an-
cestors at any time since 1300 liad been
known Ghibelins, or who had not the
reputation of sound Guelf principles, in-
capable of being drawn or elected to of-
fices.! It is manifest, from the language
of the historian wh.o relates these cir-
cumstances, and whoso testimony is more
remarkable from his having died several
years before the politics of the Guelf cor-
poration more decidedly show-ed them-
selves, that the real cause of their jeaV
* a. Viilani,
t ibid 1. \\\.,
ii., c. ]G.
72 arxl 79.
162
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AliES.
[(;hap. Ill
ous)- was no . the increase of Ghibelinism,
•I merely, plausible pretext, but the dem-
ocratical character which the govern-
ment had assumed, since the revohition
of 1343 ; which raised the fourteen infe-
rior arts to the level of those Avhich the
great merchants of Florence exercised.
In the Guelf society, the ancient nobles
retained a considerable influence. The
laws of exclusion had never been apphed
to that corporation. Two of the captains
were always noble, two were common-
ers. The people, in debarring the nobil-
ity from ordinary privileges, were little
aware of the more dangerous channel
which had been left open to their ambi-
tion. With the nobility some of the great
commoners acted in concert, and espe-
cially the family and faction of the Albizi.
The iniroduction of obscure persons into
office still continued, and some measures
more vigorous than the law of 1347 seem-
ed necessary to restore the influence of
their aristocracy. They proposed, and,
notwithstanding the reluctance of the
priors, carried by violence, both in the
preliminary dehberations of the signiory,
and in the two councils, a law by which
every person accepting an office who
should be convicted of Ghibehnism or of
Ghibelin descent, upon testimony of pub-
lic fame, became liable to punishment,
capital or pecuniary, at the discretion of
the priors. To this law they gave a re-
trospective effect, and indeed it appears
to have been little more than a revival of
the provisions made in 1347, which had
probably been disregarded. IMany citi-
zens, wlio had been magistrates within a
few years, were cast in heavy fines on
this indefinite charge. But the more usu-
al practice was to warn (ammonire) men
beforehand against undertaking public
trust. If they neglected this hint, they
were sure to be treated as convicted
Ghibelins. Thus a very numerous class,
called Ammoniti, was formed of proscri-
bed and discontented persons, eager to
throw off the intolerable yoke of the
Guelf society. For the imputation of
Ghibelin connexions was generally an
unfounded pretext for crushing the ene-
mies of the governing faction.* Men of
* Besides the effect of ancient prejudice, Ghibe-
linism was considered at Florence, in the four-
leenth cer.tury, as immediately connected with ty-
rannical usurpation. The Guelf party, says Mat-
teo Villani, is the foundartion rock of liberty in Ita-
ly ; so that, if any Guelf bxomes a tyrant, he must
of necessity turn to the Ghibelin side ; and of this
there have been many instances, p. 481. So Gio-
vanni Villani says of Passerino, lord of JIantua,
tna' his ancestors had been Guelfs, ma per essere
Bjg-orf e tiranno si fece Ghibellino, 1. x.. c. 99.
approved Guelf princ pies and origin were
every day warned from their natural
privileges of sharing in magistracy. This
spread a universal alarm through the city;
but the great advantage of union and se-
cret confederacy rendered the Guelf so-
ciety, who had also the law on their side
irresistible by their opponents. Mean
while the public honour was well sup
ported abroad; Florence had never be-
fore been so distinguished as during the
prevalence of this oligarchy.*
The Guelf society had governed with
more or less absoluteness for near twen
ty years, when the republic became in
volved, through the perfidious conduct
of the papal legate, in a war with the
Holy See. Though the Florentines wen;
by no means superstitious, this hostility
to the church appearea almost an ab-
surdity to determined Guelfs, and shock-
ed those prejudices about names whicli
make up the politics of vulgar minds.
The Guelf society, though it could not
openly resist the popular indignation
against Gregory XI., was not heartily in-
clined to this war. Its management fell
therefore into the hands of eight commis-
sioners, some of them not well affected
to the society; Avhose administration waa
so successful and popular as to excite the
utmost jealousy in the Guelfs. They be.
gan to renew their warnings, and in eight
months excluded fourscore citizens. |
The tyranny of a court may endure for
ages ; but that of a faction is seldom per-
manent. In June, 1378, the gonfalonier
of justice w'as Salvestro de' Medici, a
man of approved patriotism, whose fam-
ily had been so notoriously of Guelf prin-
ciples that it was impossible to warn him
from office. He proposed to mitigate the
severity of the existing law. His propo-
sition did not succeed; but its rejection
provoked an insurrection, the forerunner
of still more alarming tumults. The pop-
ulace of Florence, like that of other cit-
ies, was terrible in the moment of sedi-
tion ; and a party so long dreaded shrunk
before the physical strength of the multi
tude. Many leaders of the Guelf society
had their houses destroyed, and some
fled from the city. But mstead of annul-
ling their acts, a middle course was adopt-
ed by the committee of magistrates who
had been empcwered to reform the state;
the Ammoniti were suspended three
And Matteo Villani of the Pepoli at Bologna , e»
sendo di natura Guelfi, per la tiraniiia erano qua«l
alienati della parte, p. 69.
* M. Villani, p. 581, 6.-37, "31 Anuai^o. Iw*
ch'avelli. Sismondi.
t Ammirato, i 'OB-
Part II.]
ITALY
163
vears longer from office, and the Guelf
society preserved with some limitations.
This temporizing course did not satisfy
either the Ammoniti or the populace.
The greater arts were generally attached
to the Guelf society. Between them and
the lesser arts, composed of retail and
mechanical traders, there was a strong
jealousy. The latter were adverse to the
prevailing oligarchy, and to the Guelf so-
ciety, by whose influence it was main-
tained. They were eager to make Flo-
rence a democracy in fact as well as in
name, by participating in the executive
government.
But every political institution appears
to rest on too confined a basis, to those
whose point of view is from beneath it.
While the lesser arts were murmunAg 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 irrefragable.
The arrangement of twenty-one trading
companies had still left several kinds of
artisans unincorporated, and consequent-
ly unprivileged. These had been attach-
ed to the art with which their craft had
most connexion, in a sort of dependant
relation. Thus, to the company of dra-
pers, the most wealthy of all the various
occupations instrumental in the manufac-
ture, as wool-combers, diers, and weav-
ers, were appendant.* Besides the sense
of political exclusion, these artisans alle-
ged, that they were oppressed by their
employers of the art, and that when they
complained to the consul, their judge in
civil matters, no redress could be procu-
red. A still lower order of the commu-
nity was the mere populace, who did not
practise any regular trade, or who only
worked for daily hire. These were call-
ed Ciompi, a corruption, it is said, of the
French compere.
" Let no one," saj^s Machiavel in this
place, " who begins an innovation in a
state, expect that he shall stop it at his
pleasure, or regulate it according to his
intention." After about a m.outh from
'.he first sedition, another broke out, in
which the ciompi, or lowest populace,
were alone concerned. Through the sur-
prise, or cowardice, or disaffection of the
superior citizens, this was suff"ered to
pot ahead, and for three days the city was
Jin the hand of a tumultuous rabble. It
was vain to withstand their propositions,
liad they even been more unreasonable
than they were. But they only demand-
* Before the year 13 10, according to Villani's cal-
culation, the woo'lcn trade occupied 30,000 per-
ons, 1. xi., c. 93.
1.2
ed the establishment of two new arts for
the trades hitherto dependant, and one foi
the lower people ; and that tlirce of tht:
priors should be choseji from tlie greater
arts, three from the fourteen lesser, and
two from those just created. Some de-
iay, however, occurring to prevent the
sanction of these innovations by the
councils, a new fury took possession of
the populace ; the gates of the palace be-
longing to the signioiy were forced open,
the priors compelled to fly, and no ap-
pea.ance of a constitutional magistracy
remained to throw the veil of law over the
excesses of anarchy. The republic seem-
ed to rock from its foundation, and the
circumstance to which historians ascribe
its salvation is not the least smgular in
this critical epoch. One Michel di Lan-
do, a wool-carder, half dressed and with-
out shoes, happened to hold the standard
of justice wrested from the proper ofli
cer when the populace burst into the pal-
ace. Whether he was previously con-
spicuous in the tumult is not recorded;
but the wild capricious mob, who had de-
stroyed what they had no conception how
to rebuild, suddenly cried out that Lando
should be gonfalonier or signior, and re-
form the city at his pleasure.
A choice, arising probably from wan
ton folly, could not have been bettei
made by wisdom. Lando was a, man of
courage, moderation, and integrity. He
gave immediate proofs of these quahties
by causing his office to be respected.
The eight commissioners of the war,
who, though not instigators of the sedi-
tion, were well pleased to see the Guelf
party so entirely prostrated, now fancied
themselves masters, and began to nomi-
nate prinrs. But Lando sent r. message
to them that he was elected by the peo-
ple, and that he could dispense with their
assistance. He then proceeded 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 tranquil-
lity, and compelled the populace by threat
of punisliment to return to their occupa-
tions. But tlie ciompi were not c isposed
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 popu-
lar cause. Lando was aware that an in-
surrection was projected ; he took meas
ures with the most respectable citizens
the insurgents, when they showed tnem
selves, were quelled by force, and ih
!C4
EUROPE DURING THE .IIDDLE AGES.
ICiiiP. .11
i^'onfalonier retirtd from office with an
approbation which all historians of Flo-
rence have agreed to perpetuate. Part
of this has undoubtedly been founded on
3 consideration of the mischief which it
was in his power to inflict. The ciompi,
once checked, were soon defeated. The
next gonfalonier was, like Lando, a wool-
romoer; but, wanting the intrinsic merit
of Lando, his mean station excited mii-
versal contempt. None of the arts could
endure their low coadjutors ; a short
struggle was made by the populace, but
they were entirely overpowered with
"onsiderable slaughter, and the govern-
ment was divided between the seven
greater and sixteen lesser arts in nearly
equal proportions.
The party of the lesser arts, or inferior
tradesmen, which had begun this confu-
sion, were left winners when it ceased.
Three men of distinguished families, who
had instigated the revolution, became the
leaders of Florence ; Benedetto Alberti,
Tomaso Strozzi, and Georgio Scali.
Their government had at first to contend
with the ciompi, smarting under loss and
disappointment. But a populace which
is beneath the inferior mechanics may
with ordinary prudence be kept in sub-
jection by a government that has a well-
organized mihtia at its command. The
(JueVf aristocracy was far more to be
dreaded. Some of them had been ban-
ished, some fined, some ennobled ; the usu-
al consequences of revolution, which they
had too often practised to complain. A
more iniquitous proceeding disgraces the
new administration. Under pretence of
conspiracy, the chief of the house of Al-
bizi, and several of his most eminent
associates, were thrown into prison. So
little evidence of the charge appeared,
that the podesta refused to condemn
them ; but the people were clamorous
for blood, and half with, half without the
forms of justice, these noble citizens
were led to execution. The part he took
in this murder sullies the fame of Bene-
detto Alberti, who, in his general conduct,
had been more uniformly influenced by
honest principles than most of his con-
temporaries. Those who shared with
him the ascendency in the existing gov-
ernment, Strozzi and Scali, abused their
power by oppression towards their ene-
mies and insolence towards all. Their
popularity was of course soon at an end.
Alberti, a sincere lover of freedom, sepa-
roted himself from men who seemed to
euiulate the arbitrary government they
had overthrown. An outrage of Scali,
in rescuing a criminal from justice,
brought the discontent to a crisis ; he
was arrested, and lost his head on the
scafi'old ; while Strozzi, his colleague,
fled from the city. But this event was
instantly follow'cd by a reaction, which
A'berti perhaps did not anticipate. Armed
men filled the streets ; the cry of Live the
Guelfs was heard. After a three years
depression, the aristocratical party re-
gained its ascendant. They did not re-
vive 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, in
stead of something more than one half
of public offices. Several persons who
had favoured the plebeians were sen
into rxile ; and among these Michel de
Lando, whose great services in subduing
anarchy ought to have secured the pro-
tection of every government. Benedetto
Alberti, the enemy by turns of every fac-
tion, because every faction was in its turn
oppressive experienced some years after-
ward the same fate. For half a century
after this time, no revolution took place
at Florence. The Guelf aristocracy,
strong in opulence and antiquity, and ren-
dered prudent bv experience, under the
guidance of the Albizi family, maintained
a preponderating influence without much
departing, the tilnes considered, from
moderation and respect for the laws.*
It is sufficiently manifest, from this
sketch of the domestic history of Flo
rence, how far that famous republic was
from afl"ording a perfect security for civil
rights or general tranquillity. They who
hate the name of free constitutions may
exult in her internal dissensions, as in
those of Athens or Rome. But the calm
philosopher will not take his standard of
comparison from ideal excellence, nor
even from that practical good which has
been reached in our own unequalled con-
stitution, and in some of the republics ol
modern Europe. The men and the in-
stitutions of the fourteenth century are
to be measured by their contemporaries.
Who would not rather have been a citi-
zen of Florence than a subject of the
Visconti ] In a superficial review of his-
toiy, we are sometimes apt to exaggerate
* For this part of Florentine history, besidet
Ammirato, Machiavel, and Sismondi, I have read
an interesting- narrative of the sedition of the ci
ompi, by Gino Capponi, in the eighteenth volume ol
Muratori's collection. It has an air of liveliness
2nd truth which is very pleasing, but it breaks ofl
rather too soon, at the instant of Lando's issuming
the office of banneret. Another conteiiiporary
writer, Melchione de Stefani, who seems to hav<»
furnished the materinls of the three historian*
above mentioned, hai r.ot fallen in my way
I
PiXT II
ITAl.V.
leii
he vices of free slates, and to lose sight
nf those inherent in tyrannical power.
The bold censoriousness of republican
historians, and the cautious servility of
writers under an absolute monarchy,
conspire to mislead us as to the relative
prosperity of nations. Acts of outrage
Hnd tumultuous excesses in a free state
are blazoned in niinute detail, and de-
scend to posterity ; the deeds of tyranny
are studiously and perpetually suppressed.
Even those historians who have no par-
ticular motives for concealment turn
away from the monotonous and disgust-
ing crimes of tyrants. " Deeds of cruel-
ty," it is well observed by Matteo Villani,
after relating an action of Bernabo Vis-
conti, " are little worthy of remembrance ;
yet let me be excused for having recount-
ed one out of many, as an example of the
peril to which men are exposed under
the yoke of an unbounded tyranny."*
The reign of Bernabo afforded abundant
instances of a like kind. Second only to
Eccelin among the tyrants of Italy, he
rested the security of his dominion upon
tortures and death, and his laws them-
selves enact the protraction of capital
punishment through forty days of suffer-
ing.! His nephew, Giovanni Maria, is
said, with a madness like that of Nero or
Commodus, to have coursed the streets
of Milan by night with bloodhounds,
ready to chase and tear any unlucky pas-
genger.J Nor were other Italian princi-
palities free from similar tyrants, though
none perhaps on the whole so odious as
the Visconti. The private history of
many families, such for instance as the
Scala and the Gonzaga, is but a series of
assassinations. The ordinary vices of
mankind assumed a teint of portentous
guilt in the palaces of Italian princes.
Their revenge was fratricide, and their
lust was incest.
Though fertile and populous, the prop-
Aequisitions ^r district of Florence was by
of territory no mcaiis exteusivc. An inde-
by Florence, pej^^jent nobility occupied the
Tuscan A pcnnines with their castles. Of
these the most conspicuous were the
counts of Guidi, a numerous and power-
fu. family, who possessed a material in-
fluence in the affairs of Florence and of
all Tuscany till the middle of the four-
teenth century, and some of whom prc-
3trved their independence much longer.^
* P. 434.
t Sismondi, t. vi., p. 310. Corio, 1st, di Milano,
». 43G.
X Corio, p. 593.
^ G ViUani, 1. v., c. 37, 41, et alibi. The last of
hfl counts Guidi, having unwisely embarked in a
To the south, the reiublics of Arozzo.
Perugia, and Siena ; to the west, those
of Volterra, Pisa, and Lucca ; Prato and
Pistoja to the north, limited the Floren- *
tine territory. It was late before these
boundaries were removed. During the
usurpations of Uguccione at Pisa, and of
Castruccio at Lucca, the republic of Flo-
rence was always unsucce isful in the field.
After the death of Castruccio she began
to act more vigorously, and engage-l in
several confederacies with the powers of
Lombardy, especially in a league with
Venice against Mastino della Scala. But
the republic made no acquisition of ter •
ritory till 1351, when she annexed the
small city of Prato, not ten miles from
her walls.* Pistoja, though still nomi-
nally independent, received a Florentine
garrison about the same time. Several
additions were made to the district, by fail
purchase from the nobility of the Apen-
nines, and a few by main force. The
territory was still very little proportion-
ed to the fame and power of Florence
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 the war against IMastino della Seal?.,
in 1336, the revenues of Florence are
reckoned by Villani at three hundred
thousand florins ; which, as he observes,
is more than the King of Naples or of
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 secured by public funds ; the earli-
est instance, I believe, of that financial
resource. I ller population was computed
at ninety thousand souls. Villani reck-
ons the district at eighty thousand men,
I presume those only of military age ;
but this calculation must have been too
large, even though he included, as we
confederacy against Florence, was obliged to give
up his ancient patrimony in 1440.
* M. Villani, p. 72. This was rather a measure
of usurpation; but the republic had some reason to
apprehend that Prato might fall into the hands of
the Visconti. Their conduct towards Pistoja was
influenced by the same motive ; but it was still fur-
ther removed from absolute justice, p. 91.
t G. Villani, 1. xi., c. 90-93. These chapters
contain a very full and interesting statement of the
revenues, e.tpenses, population, and 'ritern.il con-
dition of Florence at that time. Part of them is
extracted by M. Sismondi, t. v., p. 305. The gold
florin was worth about ten shillings of our money.
The district of Florence was not then mucn largei
than Middlesex. At present the revenues of the
whole dutchy of Tuscany are much less thar
150,000/. sterling; though the difference inthc valu<
of moncv is very considerable.
i G. Villani, 1. XL. c. 4Q.
i66
EUROPE DURING THE MiDDLE AGES
[Chii-. JJi
may presume, the city in his estimate.*
Tuscany, though well cultivated and
flourishing, does not contain by any means
so great a number of inhabitants in that
space at present.
The first eminent conquest made by
Florence was that of Pisa, early in
the fifteenth century. Pisa had been
iistinguished as a commercial city ever
since the age of the Othos. From
Iier ports, and those of Genoa, the ear-
jest naval armaments of the western
nations were fitted out against the Sara-
cen corsairs who infested the Mediterra-
nean 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 chief-
lain. Several noble families of Pisa, who
* C. 93. Troviamo diligentemente, che in questi
tempi avea in Firenze circa a 25 mila uomini da
portare arme da 15 in 70 anni — Istamavasi avere
in Firenze da 90 mila bocche tra uomini e femine e
fanciulli, per I'avviso del pane bisognava al contin-
avo alia citta. These proportions of 25,000 men
between fifteen and seventy, and of 90,000 souls,
are as nearly as possible consonant to modern cal-
culation, of which Villani knew nothing, which
confirms his accuracy ; though M. Sismondi asserts,
p. 309, that the city contained 150,000 inhabitants,
en no better authority, as far as appears, than that
of Boccaccio, who says that 100,000 perished in the
great plague of 1318, which was generally suppo-
sed to destroy two out of three. But surely two
vague suppositions are not to be combined, in or-
der to overthrow such a testimony as that of Vil-
lani, who seems to have consulted all registers and
other authentic documents in his reach.
What ViUani says of the population of the dis-
trict may lead us to reckon it, perhaps, at about
180,000 souls, allowing the baptisms to be one in
thirty of the population. Ragionavasi in questi
tempi avere nel contado e distretto di Firenze de
80 mila uomini. Troviamo del piovano, che bat-
tezzava i fanciulli, imperoche per ogni maschio, che
battezzava in San Giovanni, per avere il novero,
raetea una fava nera, e per ogni feminauna bianca,
Irovo, ch' erano I'anno in questi tempi dalle 5800
in sei mila, avanzando le pia volte il sesso mascu-
lino da 300 in 500 per anno. Baptisms could only
be performed in one public font, at Florence, Pisa,
and some other cities. The building that contain-
ed this font was called the baptistery. The bap-
tisteries of Florence and Pisa still remain, and are
well known. — Du Cange, v. Baptisterium. But
there were fifty-seven parishes, and one hundred
and ten churches within the city. — Villani, ibid.
Mr. Roscoe has published a manuscript, evidently
written after the taking of Pisa, in 1406, though, as
1 should guess, not long after that evont, contain-
ing a proposition for an income tax of ten per cent,
throughout the Florentine dominions. Among its
other calculations, the population is reckoned at
400,000 ; assuming that to be the proportion to
80,000 men of military age, though certainly be-
yond the mark. It is singular that the district of
Florence, m 1343, is estimated by Villani to contain
a* great a number, before Pisa, Volterra, or even
Prato and Pistoja had been annexed to it.— Ros-
coe's Life jf Lorenzo, Appendix, No. 16.
had defrayed the chief cost of this exp.e
dition, shared the island in districts,
which they held in fief of the republic.
At a later period the Balearic isles were
subjected, but not long retained by Pisa.
Her naval prowess was supported by hei
commerce. A wTiter of the twelfth cen-
tuiy 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 seacoast of Syria, these republics
procured the most extensive privileges
in the new states that were formed out of
their slender conquests, and became the
conduits through which the produce of
the East flowed in upon the ruder natives
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, w^e are
told by Villani, she w^as in great power,
possessing Sardinia, Corsica, and Elba ;
from whence the republic, as well as pri-
vate persons, derived large revenues ;
and almost ruled the sea by their ships
and merchandises, and beyond sea were
very powerful in the city of Acre, and
much connected with the principal citi-
zens of Acre. I The prosperous era of
the Pisans is marked by their public edi-
fices. She was the first Italian city that
took a pride in architectural magnificence.
Her cathedral is of the eleventh century ;
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 neighbouring cities,
competitors in every mercantile occupa-
tion and 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 1 1 19. || From this time at least
* Sismondi, t. i., p. 345,372.
t Qui pergit Pisas, videl illic monstra marina ,
Hsec urbs Paganis, Turchis, Libycis q joque
Parthis,
Sordida ; Chaldoei sua lustrant moenia tetri.
Donizo, Vita Comitissa Mathildit, apud Jlfti
ratori, Dissert. 31.
t Villani, l.vi., c. 83.
() Sismondi, t. iv., p. 178. Tiraboschl t, )i'., (
406.
I: Muratori, ad ann. Ilia.
?Af.T II.
ITALY
101
ihey continually recurred, kn equality
of forces and of courage kejt the conflict
uncertain for the greater part of two cen-
turies. Tlieir battles were numerous,
and sometimes, taken separately, deci-
sive ; 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 con-
fcst between Pisa and Genoa, though
much longer protracted, resembles that of
Rome and Cartilage in the first Punic war.
But Pisa was reserved for her jEgades.
In one fatal battle, off the little isle of
Meloria, in 1281, her whole navy was
destroyed. Several unfortunate and ex-
pensive armaments had almost exhausted
the state ; and this was the last eflbrt, by
private sacrifices, to equip one more fleet.
After this defeat it was in vain to con-
tend for empire. Eleven thousand Pi-
sans languished for many years in prison ;
it was a current saying, that whoever
would see Pisa, should seek her at Ge-
noa. A treacherous chief, that Count
Ugolino, whose guilt was so terribly
avenged, is said to have purposely lost
the battle, and prevented the ransom of
the captives, to secure his power; accu-
sations that obtain easy credit with an
unsuccessful people.
From the epoch of the battle of Melo-
ria, Pisa ceased to be a maritime power.
Forty years afterward she was stripped
of her ancient colony, the Island of Sar-
dinia. The four Pisan families who had
been invested with that conquest had
been apt to consider it as their absolute
properly ; their appellation of judge
seemed to indicate deputed power; but
they sometimes assumed that of king ;
and several attempts had been made to
establish an immediate dependance on
the empire, or even on the pope. A new
potentate had now come foi-ward on the
stage. The malecontent feudatarics of
Sardinia made overtures to the King of
Aragon, who had no scruples about at-
tacking the indisputable possession of a
declining republic. Pisa made a few un-
availing efforts to defend Sardinia; but
the nominal superiority was hardly worth
a contest, and she surrendered her rights
to the crown of Aragon. Her commerce
now dwindled with her greatness. Du-
ring the fourteenth century, Pisa almost
renounced the ocean, and directed her
main attention to the politics of Tusca-
ny Ghibelin by invariable predilection,
she was in constant opposition to the
Guelf cities which looked up to Flo-
rence. But in the fourteenth centurv the
names of freeman and 'Jhibeliii were init
easily united ; and a city in that interesi
stoctd insulated between the republics of
an opposite faction and the tyrants of
her own. Pisa fell several times undek'
the yoke of usurpers ; she was included
in the wide-spreading acquisitions of
Gian Galeazzo Visconti ; at his death
one of his family seized the dominion,
and finally, the Florentines purchased
for -100,000 florins a rival and once equal
city. The Pisans made a resistancf!
more according to what they had beer,
than what they were.
The early history of Genoa, in all her
foreign relations, is involved in Genoa.—
that of Pisa. As allies against Her wars
the Saracens 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-op-
erators in the great expeditions under the
banner of the cross, or as engaged in
deadly warfare with each other, the two
republics stand in continual parallel.
From the beginning of the thirteentli
century, Genoa was, I think, the more
prominent and flourishing of the two.
She had conquered the Island of Corsica
at the same time that Pisa reduced Sar-
dinia; and her acquisition, though less
considerable, was longer preserved. Her
territory at home, the ancient Liguria
was much more extensive, and, what
was most important, contained a greater
range of seacoast than that of Pisa.
But the commercial and maritime pros-
perity of Genoa may be dated from the
recovery of Constantinople by the Greeks
in 1201. Jealous of the Venetians, by
whose arms the Latin emperors had been
placed, and were still maintained on their
throne, the Genoese assisted Paki^ologus
in overturning that usurpation. They
obtained in consequence the suburb of
Pera or Galata over against Constantino-
ple 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 tliis conve-
nient station ©enoa extended her com-
merce into the Black Sea, and established
her principal factory at CafTa, in the Cri-
mean peninsula. This commercial mo-
nopoly, for such she endeavoured to ren-
der itj aggravated the animosity of Ven-
ice. As Pisa retired from the AndVenino
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 sec-
, ond was not till after the victory of Me-
I6b
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
[Chap. 1/j
loria had enisled her more ancient ene-
my. It broke out in 1293, and was pros-
ecuted witli drtermined fury, and a great
display of na\ al strength on both sides.
One Genoese armament, as we are as-
sured by an historian, consisted of one
hundred and fifty-five galleys, each man-
ned with from two hundred and twenty
to tjiree hundred sailors ;* a force aston-
ishing to those who know the slender re-
sources of Italy in modern times, but
which is rendered credible by several
analoerous facts of good authority. It
was, however, beyond any other exer-
tion. The usual fleets of Genoa and Ven-
ire were of seventy to ninety galleys.
Perhaps the naval exploits of these
two republics may aff"ord a more inter-
esting spectacle to some minds than any
other part of Italian history. Compared
with military transactions of the same
age, they are more sanguinary, more
brilliant, and exhibit full as much skill
and intrepidity. But maritime warfare is
scanty in circumstances, and the indefi-
niteness of its locality prevents it from
resting in the memory. And though the
wars of Genoa and Venice were not
always so unconnected with territorial
politics as those of the former city with
Pisa, yet, from the alternation of success
and equality of forces, they did not often
produce any decisive effect. One mem-
orable encounter in the Sea of Marmora,
wh< re the Genoese fought and conquered
single-handed against the Venetians, the
Catalans, and the Greeks, hardly belongs
to Italian history.f
But the most remarkable war, and that
War nf productive of the greatest conse-
Chioggia quences, was one that commen-
ced in 1378, after several acts of hostility
in the Levant, wherein the Venetians
appear to have been the principal ag-
gressors. Genoa did not stand alone in
this war. A formidable confederacy was
exerted against Venice, who had given
provocation to many enemies. Of this
Francis Carrara, signor of Padua, and
the King of Hungary, were the leaders.
But the principal struggle 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 lar.lsmen against
the best sailors in the world. Entirely
defeated, a id taking refuge at Venice
with only seven galleys. Pisani was cas
into prison, as if his ill fortune had been
his crime. Meanwhile the Genoese fleet,
augmented by a strong re-enforcement
rode before the long natural ramparts
that separate the lagunes of Venice froiT<
the Adriatic. Six passages intersect th?
islands which constitute this barrier, be
sides the broader outlets of Brondolo anj'
Fossone, through which the waters ot
the Brenta and the Adige are discharged
The lagune itself, as is well known, con
sists of extremely shallow water, unnav
igable for any vessel, except along th''
course of artificial and intricate passages
Notwithstanding the apparent difiicultie!/
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 bearinf
that name, about twenty-five miles soufi
of Venice. Nearly four thousand prison
ers fell here into his hands : an augury
as it seemed, of a more splendid triumph
In the consternation this misfortune in
spired at Venice, the first impulse wai
to ask for peace. The ambassadors car-
ried with them seven Genoese prisoners,
as a sort of peace-offering to the admiralj
and were empowered to make large and
humiliating concessions, reserving noth-
ing but the liberty of Venice. Francis
Carrara strongly urged his allies to treat
for peace. But the Genoese were stim-
ulated by long hatred, and intoxicated by
this unexpected opportunity of revenge.
Doria, calling the ambassadors into coun-
cil, 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 1
am coming within a few days to release
both them and their companions from
your prisons." When this answer was
reported to the senate, they prepared to
defend themselves with the characteris-
tic 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 ainid general accla-
mations ; but, equal in magnanimity and
simple republican patriotism to the no-
blest characters of antiquity, Pisani rt>-
» Muiitori A. D 12'^.
t Gibbon c. 63
* Chioggia, known at Venice by the name ol
Chioza, according to the usage cf the Venetian
dialect, which changes the g into ?,
P*KT II.-"
1 TAlY.
169
piessed the favour!) rg voices of the mul-
titude, and bade them reserve their enthu-
siasm for St. Mark, the symbol and war-
ciy of Venice. Under the vigorous com-
mand of Pisani, the canals were fortified
or occupied by large vessels, armed wiih
artillery ; thirty-four galleys were equip-
j od; every citizen contributed according
1 1 hio power; in the entire want of com-
mercial resources (for Venice had not a
merchant-ship during this war), private
plate was melted ; and the senate held
out the promise of ennobling thirty fami-
lies, who should be most forward in this
strife of patriotism.
The new fleet was so ill provided with
seamen, that for some months the admi-
ral employed them only in manoeuvring
along the canals. From some unaccounta-
ble supinenesSjOr more probably from the
insuperable difficulties of the undertaking,
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 almost all the
Venetian towns in Istria and along the
Dalmatian coast. The Doge Contarini,
taking the chief command, appeared at
length with his fleet near Chioggia, before
the Genoese were aware. They were
still Irss aware of his secret design. He
pushed one of the large round vessels,
then called cocche, into the narrow pas-
sage of Chioggia, which connects the
lagune with the sea, and mooring her
athwart the channel, interrupted that com-
munication. 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 unnavigable. It was
still possible for the Genoese fleet to
follow the principal canal of the lagune
towards Venice and the northern passa-
ges, or to sail out of it by the harbour of
Brondolo ; but whether from confusion
or from miscalculating the dangers of
their position, they suffered the Vene-
tians to close the canal upon them by the
same means they had used at Chioggia,
and even to place their fleet in the en-
trance of Brondolo, so near to the lagune
that the Genoese could not form their
ships in line of battle. The circumstan-
ces of tlie two combatants were thus en-
tirely changed. But the Genoese fleet,
though besieged in Chioggia, was im-
[iregnable, and their command of the
and secured them from famine. Ven-
ice, notwithstanding her unexpected suc-
cess was still very far from secure; if
was difKcult for ttie doge to kee{) his
position througl) the winter; and if the
enemy could appear in open sea, the risks
of combat were extremely hazardous II
is said that tht senate deliberated upon
transporting the seat of tlieir liberty to
Candia, and that the doge had announced
his intention to raise the siege of Chiog
gia, if expected succours did not arrive by
the first of .January, 1380. On that very
day, Carlo Zeno, an admiral, who, igno-
rant of the dangers of his country, had
been supporting the honour of her flag in
the Levant and on the coasts of Liguria,
appeared with a re-enforcement of eigh
teen galleys and a store of provisions.
From that moment the confidenca of
Venice revived. The fleet, now suj'-erior
in strength to the enemy, began to ?.ttack
them with vivacity. After several i/ionths
of obstinate resistance, the Gi noese,
whom their republic had ineffVctually
attempted to relieve by a fresh arma-
ment, blocked up in the town oV Chiog-
gia, and pressed by hunger, wert; obliged
to surrender. Nineteen galleys onl)^ 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 Mas
deemed to be justly humbled ; and even
her own historian confesses, that God
would not sufl'er so noble a city as Venice
to become the spoil of a conqueror.*
Each of the two republics had sufli-
cient reason to lament their mutual pre-
judices, and the selfish cupidity of their
merchants, Avhich usurps in all n)arilimc
countries the name of patriotism. Though
the capture of Chioggia did not terminate
the war, both parties were exhausted,
and willing next year to accept the me-
diation of the' Duke of Savoy. By tht-
peace of Turin, Venice surrendered most
of hcT territorial possessions 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 in-
demnity for her losses. Thougli, upon a
hasty view, the result of this war appear.s
more unfavourable to Venice, yet 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 de
cay ; and the fifteenth century, the most
* G. Stella, Annales Geniienses; Gataro, Isto
ria Padovana. I3otli tfiese contemporary worlvs,
of which the latter gives the best relation, are it
the seventeentn vohiine of Muratori's collectian
M. Sismondi's narrative is very clear and spiriteJ
—Hist, des Republ. Ital .ii., p. 205-ii32
i/0
i;UUOPE DUPING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap, hi
splendid in the annals of Venice, is, till
recent times, the most ignominious in
-hose of Genoa. But this was partly
owmg to internal dissensions, by which
.^er libertj^, as well as glory, was for a
while suspended.
At Genoa, as in other cities of Lom-
Qgyg^n bard)', the principal magistrates of
ment ot the republic were originally styled
Genoa, consuls. A chronicle, drawn up
under the inspection of the senate, per-
petuates the names of these early magis-
trates It appears that their number va-
ried from four to six, annually elected by
the people in their full parliament. These
consuls presided over the republic, and
commanded the forces by land and sea ;
while another class of magistrates, bear-
ing the same title, were annually elected
by the several companies into which the
people were divided, for the administra-
tion of civil justice.* Tliis was the re-
gimen of the twelfth century ; but in the
next, Genoa fell into the fashion of in-
trusting 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, if in-
deed it were any thing more than a cus-
tom or usurpation, originated probably
not much later than the beginning of the
tliirteenth century. It gave not only an
aristocratic, but almost an oligarchical
character to the constitution, since many
of the nobility were not members of these
eight societies. Of the senate or coun-
cils we hardly know more than their ex-
istence ; they are very little mentioned
by historians. Every thing of a general
nature, every thing that required the ex-
pression of public will, was reserved for
the entire and unrepresented sovereignty
of the people. In no city was the parlia-
ment so often convened ; for v/ar, for
peace, for alliance, for change of gavern-
ment.f These very dissonant elements
were not likely to harmonize. The peo-
ple, sufficiently accustomed to the forms
of democracy to imbibe its spirit, repi-
ned at the practical influence which was
thrown into the scale of the nobles. Nor
did some of the latter class scruple to
enter that path of ambition, which leads
to power by flattery of the populace.
Two or three times within the thirteenth
century, a highborn demagogue had near-
ly overturned the general liberty, like the
Torriani at JNIilan, through the pretence
of defending that of individuals. J Amo.ig
the nobility themselves, four houses were
distinguished beyond all the rest ; the
* Sismondi. t. i.,p. 353.
Md.. t. ill. p. 319.
t Id., p. 3?4.
Grimaldi, the ries(;hi, the l»i>ria, tlie Spi-
nola; the two formei of Guelf politics,
the latter adherents of the empire.* Per-
haps their equality of forces, and a jeal-
ousy which even the families of the same
fadiion entertained of each other, pre-
vented any one from usurping tlie signio-
ry at Genoa. Neither the (Juelf nor
Ghibelin party obtaining a decisive pre-
ponderance, continual revolutions occur-
red in the city. The most celebrated was
the expulsion of the Ghibelins under the
Doria and Spinola, in 13IS. Tliey had
recourse to the Visconti of Milan, and
their own resources were not unequal to
cope with their country. The Guelfs
thought it necessary to call in Robert,
king of Naples, always ready to give as-
sistance as the price of dominion, and
conferred upon him the temporary sover-
eignty of Genoa. A siege of several
years duration, if we believe an historian
of that age, produced as many remarka-
ble exploits as that of Troy. They have
not proved so interesting to posterity
The Ghibelins continued for a length of
time excluded from the city, but in pos-
session of the seaport of Savona, whence
they traded and equipped fleets, as a rival
republic, and even entered into a separate
war with Venice. f Experience of the
uselessness of hostility, and the loss to
which they exposed their common coun-
try, produced a reconciliation, or rather a
compromise, in 1331, when the Ghibelins
returned to Genoa. But the people felt
that many years of misfortune liad been
owing to the private enmities of four
overbearing families. An opportunity
soon ofi'ered of reducing their influence
within very narrow bounds.
The Ghibelin faction was at the head
of affairs in 1339, a Doria and a Election of
Spinola being its leaders, when the first
the discontent of a large fleet in ^°=®-
want of pay broke out in open insurrec-
tion. Savona and the neighbouring towns
took arms avowedly against the aristo-
cratical tyranny ; and the capital was it-
self on the point of joining the insurgents.
There was, by the Genoese constitution,
a magistrate, named the abbot of the
people, acting as a kind of tribune for
their protection against the oppression
of the r,.obility. His functions are not,
however, in any book I have seen, very
clearly tiefined. This office had been
abolished by the present government, and
it was the first demand of the malecon-
tents that it should be restored. This
was acceded to, and twenty delegates
* Sismondi, t. iii p. 328.
t Villani, 1. ix., passim.
Part II]
TALV.
I7j
were aDpoiiit.od to make the choice.
While they delayed and the populace was
grown weary of waiting, a nameless ar-
tisan called out from an elevated station
that he could direct them to a fit person.
When the people, in jest, bade him speak
oil, he uttered the name of Simon Boc-
canegra. This was a man of noble birth,
and well esteemed, who was then present
among the crowd. The word was sud-
denly taken up ; a cry was heard that
Boccancgra should be abbot ; he was in-
stantly brought forward, and the sword
of justice forced into his hand. As soon
as silence could be obtained, lie modestly
thanked them for their favour, but decli-
ned an oflice which his nobility disquali-
fied him from exercising. At this, a sin-
gle voice out of the crowd exclaimed
Signio?-! and this title was reverberated
from every side. Fearful of worse con-
sequences, the actual magistrates urged
him to comply with the people, and ac-
cept the office of abbot. But Boccanegra,
addressing the assembly, declared his
readiness to become their abbot, signior,
or whatever they would. The cry of sig-
nior was now louder than before ; while
others cried out let him be duke. The
latter title was received with greater ap-
probation ; and Boccanegra was conduct-
ed to the palace, the first duke, or doge
of Genoa.*
Caprice alone, or an idea of more pomp
Subsequent and dignity, led the populace,
revolutions, -we may conjecture, to prefer
this title to that of signior; but it produ-
ced important and highly beneficial con-
sequences. In all neighbouring cities, an
arbitrary government had been already
established under their respective signi-
ors ; the name was associated with indef-
inite power : while that of doge had only
be^n taken by the elective anil very lim-
ited chief magistrate of another maritime
republic. Neither Boccanegra nor his
successors ever rendered their authority
unlimited or hereditary. The constitu-
tion of Genoa, from an oppressive aris-
tocracy, became a mixture of the two
other forms, with an exclusion of the
nobles from power. Those four great
families who had domineered alternately
for almost a century, lost their influence
at home after the revolution oi 1339.
Yet, what is remarkable enough, they
were still selected in preference for tlie
highest of tnists ; their names are still
identified with the glory of Genoa ; her
fleets hardly sailed but under a Doria, a
Spinola, or a Grimaldi ; such confidence
* G. Stella, Annal. Genuenses, a Script. Rer.
Ual, t. xvii., p. 1072
could the republic bestow upon their pa
triotism, or that of those whom they com-
manded. Meanwhile two or tliree ne\^
famines, a plebeian oligarchy, filled ihe'u
place in domestic honours ; the Adorni,
the Fregosi, tlie Montaiti, contended foi
the ascendant. From their competition
ensued revolutions too numerous almost
for a separate history ; in four years, from
1390 to 1394, the doge was ten times chan-
ged ; swept av/ay or brought back in the
fluctuations of popular tumult. Anloni-
otto Adorno, four times doge of Genoa,
had sought the friendship of Gian Galeaz-
zo 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 perceiv-
ed that there was no hope for ultimate in-
dependence, but by making a temporary
sacrifice of it. Ilia own power, ambi-
tious as he had been, he voluntarily re-
signed ; and placed the republic under the
protection or signiory of the King of
France. Terms were stipulated very
favourable to her liberties ; but with a
French garrison once received into the
city, they were not always sure of ob-
servance. *
While Genoa lost even her political in
dependence, Venice became more .^
conspicuous and powerful than be- '^"'*
fore. That famous republic deduces its
original, and even its liberty, from an era
beyond the commencement of the middle
ages. The Venetians boast of a pei-pet-
ual emancipation from the yoke of bar-
barians. From that ignominious servi-
tude some natives, or, as their historians
will have it, nobles of Aquileja and
neighbouring towns,f fled to the small
cluster of islands that rise amid the
shoals at the mouth of the Brenta. Here
they built the town of liivoalto, the mod-
ern Venice, in 421 ; but their cliief settle-
ment was, till the beginning of the nintli
century, at Malamocco. A living writer
has, in a passage of remarkable eloquence,
described the sovereign republic, immove-
able upon the bosom of the waters, fron-
which her palaces emerge, contemplating
tlie successive tides of continental inva-
sion, the rise and fall of empires, the
change of dynasties, the whole moving
scene of human revolution ; till, in her
own turn, the last surviving witness of
antiquity, the common link between two
periods of civilization, she has submitted
to the destroying hand of time. J Some
* Sismondi, t. vii., p. 237, 367.
t Ebbe principio, says Sanuto haughtily, non tl*
pastori, come el)be Roma, ma da poterii, e n Jbili
t Sismondi, t. i., p. 309
\,2
M.ROPE DURING THE MluDLE AGES.
rCHAP. Il
part of tliis renowi? must, on a cold-
olooded scrutiny, be detracted fi jm Ven-
ice. Her independence was, at the best,
tlje fruit of her obscurity. Neglected
Her depend ^'P^'^ ^^eir islands, a people of
once on the fishermen might without mo-
Greek em- lestation el act their own magis-
trates ; a very equivocal proof
of sovereignty in cities much more con-
siderable than Venice. But both the
western and the eastern empire alter-
nately pretended to exercise dominion
over her ; she was conquered by Pepin,
son of Charlemagne, and restored by him,
as the Chronicles say, to the Greek em-
peror Nicephorus. There is every ap-
pearance that the Venetians had always
considered themselves as subject, in a
large sense, not exclusive of their muni-
cipal self-government, to the eastern em-
pire.* And this connexion was not bro-
ken, in the early part, at least, of the
tenth century. But, for every essential
ourpose, Venice might long before be
leemed an independent state. Her doge
•vas not confirmed at Constantinople ;
rhe paid no tribute, and lent no assistance
■n war. Her own navies, in the ninth
century, encountered the Normans, the
Saracens, and the Sclavonians in the
A-driatic Sea. Upon the coast of Dalma-
lia were several Greek cities, which the
empire had ceased to protect ; and which,
like Venice itself, became republics for
want of a master. Ragusa was one of
these, and, more fortunate than the rest.
Conquest of survivcd as an independent city
Dainiatia. x[]\ our own age. [A. D. 997.]
In return for the assistance of Venice,
these little seaports put themselves under
her government ; the Sclavonian pirates
were repressed; and after acquiring,
partly by consent, partly by arms, a large
*ract of maritime territor)^ the doge took
♦ Nicephorns stipulates with Charlemagne for
his faithful city of Venice, Quae in devotions impe-
rii illibatae steterant.— DanduU Chronicon, in Mu-
ratori, Script. Rer. Ital., t. xii., p. 156. In the
tenth century, Constantino Porphyrogenitus, in his
sook De Administratione Imperii, claims the Ve-
netians as his subjects, though he admits that they
had, for peace' sake, paid tribute to Pepin and his
euccessors as kings of Italy, p. 71. I have never
seen the famous Squittinio della liljerta Veneta,
which gave the republic so much offence in the
eeven/teenth century ; but a very strong case is
made out against their early independence in Gi-
annone's history, t. ii., p. 283, edit. Haia, 1753.
Muratori informs us, that so late as 1084, the doge
obtained the title of Imperialis Protosevastos from
the court of Constantinople ; a title which he con-
tinued always to use.— (Annali d'ltalia, ad ann.)
But I should lay no stress on this circumstance.
The Greek, hke the German emperors in modern
imes, had a mint of specious titles, which passed
^or re.idv n onev over Christendom
the title of Duke of Dalmatia, which is said
by Dandolo to have been confirmed al
Constantinople. Three or four centu-
ries, however, elapsed, before the repub-
lic became secure of these conquests,
which were frequently wrested from her
by rebellions of the inhabitants, or by
her powerful neighbour, the King of Hun-
gary.
A more important source of A enetian
greatness was commerce. In .Heracqui
the darkest and most barbarous siiions in
period, before Genoa or even ""^ Levant.
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 splendour
may, however, be dated from the taking
of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204.
In this famous enterprise, which diverted
a great armament destined for the recov-
ery of Jerusalem, the French and Vene-
tian 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
Constantinople, and an equal proportion
of the provinces, were allotted 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 importance, the Island of
Candia, which they retained till the mid-
dle of the seventeenth century. These
foreign acquisitions were generally grant-
ed out in fief to private Venetian nobles
imder the supremacy of the republic*
It was thus that the Ionian islands, to
adopt the vocabulary of our day, c^me
under the dominion of Venice, and guar-
antied that sovereignty which she now
began to aflTect over the Adriatic. Those
of the Archipelago were lost in the six-
teenth century. This political greatness
was sustained by an increasnig com-
merce. No Christian state preserved so
considerable an intercourse with the
Mahometans. While Genoa kept the
keys of the Black Sea by her colonies ol
Pera and Caffa, Venice directed her ves-
sels to Acre and Alexandria. These
connexions, as is the natural effect of
trade, deadened the sense of rehgiousan
tipathy ; and the Venetians were some
times "charged with obstructing all effort*
towards a new crusade, or even Lny par-
» Sismondi, m,, p. 431
Papt 11.]
ITALY
173
Ual attacks upon the Mahometan na-
tions.
The earUest form of government at
Venetian Venice, as we collect from an
government, epistle of Cassiodorus in the
sixth century, was by twelve annual trib-
unes. Perhaps the union of the dilfer-
ent island,ers was merely federative.
However, in 697, they resolved to elect
a, chiei magistrate by name of duke, or,
HI their dialect. Doge of Venice. No
councils appear to have limited his pow-
er, 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
for 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 important matters with the concur-
rence of a general assembly, though from
the want of positive restraints, his exec-
utive government might be considered as
nearly absolute. Time, however, de-
monstrated to the Venetians the imper-
fections of such a constitution. Limita-
tions were accordingly imposed on the
doge in 1032 ; he was prohibited from as-
sociating a son in the government, and
obhged to act with the consent of two
elected counsellors, and, on important
occasions, to call in some of the principal
citizens. No other change appears to
have taken place till 1172; long after
every other Italian city had provided for
its liberty by constitutional laws, more
or less successful, but always manifest-
ing a good deal of contrivance and com-
plication. Venice was, however, dissat-
isfied with her existing institutions. Gen-
eral assemblies were found, in practice,
hiconvenient and unsatisfactory. Yet
some adequate safeguard against a ma-
gistrate of indefinite powers was requi-
red by freemen. A representative coun-
cil, as in other republics, justly appeared
the best innovation that could be intro-
duced.*
The great council of Venice, as estab-
lished in 1172, was to consist of four
hundred and eighty citizens, equally
taken from the six districts of the city,
and annually renewed. But the election
* Sismondi, t. iii., p. 287. As I have never met
with the Storia civile Vcneta, by Veltor Saudi, in
nine vols. 4^0, or even Laugier's History of Venice,
my reliance has chiefly been placed on M. Sismondi,
who has made use ol Saudi, ihe latest and probably
anost accurate historian To avoid frequent refer-
et.'ce, the principal passages in Sismondi relative
to the domestic revolutions of Venice are, t. i., p.
i23 : t. iii., p. 28* -300: t. iv.. p. 349-370.
was not made mmediatelyby the people.
Two electors, called tribunes, from each o;
the six districts, appointed the members
of the council by separate nomination.
These tribunes, at first, were themselvei
chosen by the people ; so that the inter
vention of this electoral body did not ajK
parently trespass upon the dcmocratical
character of the constitution. But Ihe
great council, principally composed of
men of high birth, and invested by the
law with the appointment of the doge and
of all the councils of magistracy, seem,
early in the thirteenth century, to have
assumed the right of naming their own
constituents. Besides appointing the
tribunes, they took upon themselves an-
other privilege ; that of confirming or re-
jecting their successors before they re-
signed their functions. These usurpa-
tions rendered the annual election almost
nugatory ; the same members were usu-
ally renewed, and, though the dignity of
counsellor was not yet hereditarj', it re-
mained, upon the whole, in the same fam-.
ilics. In this transitional state the Vene-
tian government continued during the
thirteenth century ; the people actually
debarred of power, but an hereditary
aristocracy not completely or legally
confirmed. The right of electing, or
rather of re-electing, the great council,
was transferred in 1297 from the tri' uncs,
whose office was abolished, to the coun-
cil of forty ; they balloted upon the names
of the members who already sat ; and
whoever obtained twelve favouring balls
out of forty retained his place. The va-
cancies occasioned by rejection or death
were filled up by a supplemental list,
formed by three electors nominate 1 in
the great council. But they were ex-
pressly prohibited, by laws of 1298 and
1300, from inserting the name of any one
whose paternal ancestors had not enjoy
ed the same honour. Thus an exclusive
hereditary aristocracy was finally estab-
lished. And the personal rights of noble
descent were rendered complete in 1310,
by the abolition of all elective forms. By
the constitution of Venice, as it was then
settled, every descendant of a member ol
the great council, on attaining twenty-
five years of age, entered as of right into
that body, which of course became un-
limited in its numbers.*
* These gradual changes between 1297 and 1313
were first made known by Sandi, from whom M.
Sismondi has introduced the facts into his own nu
tory. 1 notice this because all former wrilrrs, both
ancient and modern, fix the complete and final ea
tablishment of the Venetian aristocracy in 1207.
Twenty-five years complete was the sl.itu.abui
174
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. Ill
But ai\ assembly 5o numerous as the
great council, even before it was thus
throwTi open to all the nobility, could
never have conducted the public affairs
with that secrecy and steadiness which
were characteristic of Venice ; and with-
out an intermediary power betweefi the
doge and the patrician mullitude, the con-
stitution would have gained nothing in
stability to compensate for the loss of
popular freedom. The great council had
proceeded, very soon after its institution,
to limit the ducal prerogatives. That
of exercising criminal justice, a trust of
vast importance, was transferred, in 1 179,
to a council of forty members, annually
chosen. The executive government it-
self was thought too considerable for the
doge without some material limitations.
Instead of naming his own assistants or
pregadi, he was only to preside in a coun-
cil of sixty members, to whom the care
of the state in all domestic and foreign
relations, and the previous deliberation
upon proposals submitted to the great
council, was confided. This council of
pregadi, generally called in later times
the senate, was enlarged in the fourteenth
century by sixty additional members;
and as a great part of the magistrates had
also seats in it, the whole number amount-
ed to between two and three hundred.
Though the legislative power, properly
tpeaking, remained with the great coun-
cil, the senate used to impose taxes, and
had the exclusive right of making peace
and war. It was annually renewed, like
almost all other councils at Venice, by
the great council. But since even this
body was too numerous for the prelimi-
nary discussion of business, six counsel-
lors, forming, along with the doge, the
signiory, or visible representative of the
republic, were empowered to despatch
orders, to correspond with ambassadors,
to treat with foreign states, to convoke
and preside in the councils, and perform
other duties of an administration. In
part of these they were obliged to act
with the concurrence of what was term-
ed the college, comprising, besides them-
selves, certain select counsellors from
different constituted authorities.*
age, at which every Venetian noble had a right to
take his seat in the great council. But the names
of those who had passed the age of twenty were
apnually put into an urn, and one fifth drawn out
by lot, who were thereuponadmitted. On an aver-
age, therefore, the age of admission was about
twenty-three.— .Tannoiusde Rep. Venet. Contare-
ni. Amelot de la Houssaye.
* The college of Savj consisted of sixteen per-
sons, and it possessed the initiative in al' pubic
irvpas'ircs that reouired the assent of the sena e
It might be imagined that a dignity
so shorn of its lustre as that of doge,
would not excite an overweening ambi-
tion. But the Venetians were still jeal-
ous of extinguished power; and whilr
their constitution was yet immature, the
great council planned new methods of
restricting their chief magistrate. An
oath was taken by the doge on his elec
tion, so comprehensive as to embrace ev-
ery possible check upon undue influence.
He was bound not to correspond with
foreign states, or to open their letters,
except in the presence of the signiory ;
to acquire no property beyond the Vene-
tian dominions, and to resign what he
might already possess ; to interpose, di-
rectly or indirectly, in no judicial process
and not to permit any citizen to use to
kens of subjection in saluting him. As a
further security, they devised a remark-
ably complicated mode of supplying the
vacancy of his office. Election by open
suffrage is always liable to tumult or cor-
ruption; nor does the method of secret
ballot, while it prevents the one, affotd
in practice any adequate security against
the other. Election by lot incurs the
risk of placing incapable persons in situ-
ations of arduous trust. The Venetian
scheme was intended to combine the two
modes without their evils, by leaving the
absolute choice of their doge to electors
taken by lot. It was presumed that,
among a competent immber of persons,
though taken promiscuously, good sense
and right principles would gain such an
ascendency as to prpvent any flagrantly
improper nomination, if undue influence
could be excluded. For this purpose,
the ballot was rendered exceedingly com-
plicated, that no possible ingenuity or
stratagem might ascertain the electoral
body before the last moment. A single
lottery, if fairly conducted, is certainly
sufficient for this end. At Venice, as
many balls as there were members of
the great council present 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
t wel ve chose twenty-five by separate nom
ination.* The twentj^-five were reduced
by lot to nine : and each of the nine chose
For no single senator, much less any noble of the
great council, could propose any thing for debate.
The signiory had the same privilege. Thus the
virtual powers, even of the senate, were far more
limited than they appear at first sight ; and no pos
sibility remained of innovation in the fundamenta
principles of the constitution.
* Amelot de la Houssaye asserts this : but, at
cordins'to Contareni, the method was by ballot.
J
PiRT II.]
ITALY
175
nve. These forty-five were reduced to
eleven, as before ; the eleven wlected for-
ty-one, who weie the ultimate voters for
a doge. This intricacy appears useless,
and consequently absurd ; but the origi-
nal principle of a Venetian election (for
Bomething of the same kind was apphed
to all their councils and magistrates) may
not always be unworthy of imitation. In
one of our best modern statutes, that for
regulating the trials of contested elections,
we have seen this mixture of chance and
selection very happily introduced.
An hereditary prince could never have
remained quiet in such trammels as were
imposed upon the Doge of Venice. But
early prejudice accustoms men to con-
sider restraint, even upon themselves, as
advantageous ; and the limitations of du-
cal power appeared to every Venetian as
fundamental as the great laws of the
English constitution do to ourselves
Many doges of Venice, especially in the
middle ages, were considerable men ; but
they were content with the functions as-
signed to them, which, if they could avoid
the tantalizing comparison of sovereign
princes, were enough for the ambition of
repubhcans. For life the chief magis-
trates of their country, her noble citizens
for ever, 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 betray the freedom of the republic.
[Jl. D. 1355.] Marin Falieri, a man far ad-
vanced in life, engaged, from 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 se-
vere did not hesitate to order his execu-
tion in the ducal palace.
For some years after what was called
the closing of the great council of the
law of 1296, which excluded all but the
famiUes actually in possession, a good
deal of discontent showed itself among
the commonalty. 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, tlie
aristocracy sacrificed their own individual
freedom along with tliat of the people,
to the preservation of an imaginary priv-
ilege. They established the famous coun-
cil of ten, that most remarkable part of
the Venef'ian constitution. This council,
it should be observed, consisted in fact
of seventeen ; comprising the signiory, or
the doge and his six counsellors, as well
as the ten properly so called. The coun-
cil of ten had by usage ii not by right, a
controlling and dictatoi ial power over the
senate, and other magistrates ; rescinding
their decisions, and treating separately
with foreign princes. Their vast influ-
ence strengthened the executive govern-
ment, of which they formed a part, ard
gave a vigour to its movements, which
the jealousy of the councils would possi-
bly have impeded. But they are chiefly
known as an arbitrary and inquisitorial
tribunal, the standing tyranny of Venice.
Excluding the old council of forty, a reg
ular court of criminal judicature, not only
from the investigation of treasonable
charges, but of several other crimes of
magnitude, they inquired, they judged
they punished, according to what they
called reason of state. The public eye
never penetrated the mystery of theil
proceedings ; the accused was sometimea
not heard, never confronted with witnes-
ses ; the condemnation was secret as the
inquiry, the punishment undivulged like
both.* The terrible and odious machinery
of a police, the insidious spy, the sti-
pendiary informer, unknown to tlie care-
lessness of feudal governments, found
t heir natural soil in the republic of Venice.
Tumultuous assemblies were scarcely
possible in so peculiar a city ; and pri-
vate conspiracies never failed to be de-
tected by the vigilance of the council of
ten. Compared with the Tuscan repub-
lics, the tranquillity of Venice is truly
striking. The names of Guelf and Ghib-
elin hardly raised any emotion in liei
streets, though the government was con-
sidered in the first part of the fourteenth
century as rather inclined towards the
latter party. f But the wildest excesses
of faction are less dishonouring than the
stillness and moral degradation of servi
tude.:j:
* Ilium etiam morem observant, ne renm, cum
de eo judicium laturi sunt, in collegium admittaiit,
neque cognitorein, aut oratorem quempiam, qui
ejus (»usam agat. — Contareiii de Rep. Venet.
t Villani several times speaks of the Venetians
as regular Ghibelins, 1. ix., c. 2 ; 1. x., c. 89, &c.
But this is put much too strongly: though the.r
government may have had a slight bias towards that
faction, they were in reality neutral, anti far enough
removed from any domestic feuds upon that score.
t By the modern law of Venice, a nobleman
could not engage in trade without derogating from
his ra!ik ; but I am not aware whether so absu d $
restriction existed in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. I do not hnd this peculiarly observed
by Jannotti and Contareni, the oldest writers on
the Venetian government. It is noticed by Anielot
de la Houssaye, who tells us also, that the nobility
evaded the law by secret partnership with the priv
ileged merchants, or ciltadini, who formed a sep-
arate class at \'enice. This was the cu».ton. u
modern times. ^ '' I have nevei • nders^ -^o t!i«
i78
Et'KUrK DURLNG THE AirODLE AGES
[Cha?. Ill
l! was a very common theme with
political writers, till about the beginning
of the lajt century, when Venice fell al-
most into oblivion, to descant upon the
. wisdom of this government. And indeed,
if the preservation of ancient institutions
bo, as some appear to consider it, not a
moans, Jut an end, and an end for which
the rights of man and laws of God may
at any time be set aside, we must ac-
knowledge that it was a wisely con-
structed system. Formed to compress
the two opposite forces from which re-
sistance might be expected, it kept both
the doge and the people in perfect sub-
ordination. Even the coalition of an ex-
ecutive magistrate with the multitude, so
fatal to most aristocracies, never endan-
gered that of Venice. It is most remark-
able, lliat a part of the constitution wliich
destroyed every man's security, and in-
curred general hatred, was still maintain-
ed by a sense of its necessity. The
council of ten, annually renewed, might
annually have been annihilated. The
great council had only to withhold their
suffrages from the new candidates, and
the tyranny expired of itself. This was
several times attempted (I speak now
of more modern ages) ; but the nobles,
though detesting the council of ten, never
iteadily persevered in refusing to re-elect
it. It was, in fact, become essential to
Venice. So great were the vices of her
constitution, that she could not endure
their remedies. If the council of ten had
been abolished at any time since the fif-
teenth century, if the removal of that
jealous despotism had given scope to the
corruption of a poor and debased aristoc-
racy, to the license of a people unwortliy
of freedom, tlie republic would have soon
lost her territorial possessions, if not her
ovv'n independence. If indeed it be true,
as reported, that during the last hundred
years this formidable tribunal had sensi-
bly relaxed its vigilance, if the Venetian
government had become less tjTannical
through slotli, or decline of national
spirit, our conjecture will have acquired
the confirmation of experience. Expe-
rience has recently shown that a worse
calamity than domestic tyranny might
befall the queen of the Adriatic. In the
place of St. Mark, among the monuments
of extin-guished greatness, i traveller may
principle or common sense of such a restriction,
espec ally combined with that other fundamental
bw, which disqualified a Venetian nobleman fron".
possessintr a landed estate on the terra firma of the
republic. The latter, however, did not extend, as I
have been informed, to Dalmatia or the Ionian
islands.
regret to think that an msoient German
soldiery has replaced even the senators oJ
Venice. Her ancient liberty, her briglit
and romantic career of glory in countries
so dear to the imagination, her magnani
mous defence in the war of Chioggia, a
few thinly-scattered names of illustrious
men, will rise upon his mind, and mingle
with his indignation at the treachery
which robbed her of her independence.
But if he has learned the true attributes
of wisdom in civil policy, he will not
easily prostitute that word to a constitu-
tion formed without reference to property
or to population, that vested sovereign
power partly in a body of empoverished
nobles, partly in an overruling despotism ,
or to a practical system of government
that made vice the ally of tyranny, and
sought impunity for its own assassina-
tions by encouraging dissoluteness of
private life. Perhaps, too, the wisdom
so often imputed to the senate in its for-
eign policy has been greatly exagger-
ated. Tlie balance of power estabhshed
in Europe, and, above all, in Italy, main-
tained for the two last centuries states
of small intrinsic resources, without any
efforts of their own. In the ultimate
crisis, at least, of Venetian liberty, that
solemn mockery of statesmanship was
exhibited to contempt ; too blind to avert
danger, too cowardly to withstand it, the
most ancient government of Europe »iaade
not an instant's resistance ; the peasants
of Underwald died upon their mountains :
the nobles of Venice clung only to their
lives.*
Until almost the middle of the four-
* See in the Edinburgh Review, vol. xii., p. 379,
an account of a book, vihich is perhaps little
known, though interesting to the history of oui
own age . a collection of documents illustrating
the fall of the republic of Venice. The article is
well written, and, I presume, contains a faithful
account of the work ; the author of which, Sig-
nor Barzoni, is respected as a patrioUc writer in
Italy.
Every one who has been at Venice must have
been struck with the magnificent tombs of the
doses, most of them in the church of S. Giovanni
e Paolo, in which the republic seems to identify
herself with her chief magistrate, and to m£.ke the
decorations and inscriptions on his monument a
record of her own wealth and glory. In the church
of the Scalzi, on a single square stone in the pave-
ment, a very different epitaph from that of Lore-
dano or Foscari may be read, Manini Cineres
These two words mark the place of intertnent of
Manini, the last dope, whose own pusillanimity, ot
that of those around him, joined to the calamity ol
the times, caused him to survive his own dignity
and the liberties of Venice. To my feelings this
inscription was more striking than the famoui
Locus Marim Falicri, pro criminibus decapitati, upoii
a vacant canvass among the pictures of ;he doget
in ilie hall of the Great Council
Faki 11. j
HALY
n7
Territorial teeuth century, Venice had been
acquisitions Content without any territorial
of Venice, possessions in Italy ; unless we
reckoa a very narrow strip of seacoast,
bordering on her lagunes, called the Do-
gato. Neutral in the great contests be-
'ween the church and the empire, be-
tween 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 delta
Scala, lord of Verona, with some partic-
ular injuries, led the senate to form a
league with Florence against him. Vil-
lani mentions it as a singular honour for
his country to have become the confed-
erate of the Venetians, " who, for their
great excellence and power, had never
allied themselves with any state or prince,
except at theiir ancient conquest of Con-
stantinople and Romania."* The result
of this combination was to annex the dis-
trict of Treviso to the Venetian domin-
ions. But they made no further conquests
in that age. On the contrary, they lost
Treviso in the unfortunate war of Chiog-
gia, 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 subverted for a time the
balance of power in Lombardy.
But upon the death of this prince in
,, 1404, a remarkable crisis took
State of I.om- , „. . . tt i r.
iardy at tiie place in that country. He lelt
v«girining of two SOUS, Giovauui Maria and
•eniury.""" I' ilippo Maria, both young, and
under the care of a mother
who was little fitted for lier situation.
Through her misconduct, and the selfish
ambition of some military leaders, who
had commanded Gian Galeazzo's merce-
naries, that extensive dominion was soon
t)roken into fragments. Bergamo, Como,
Lodi, Cremona, and other cities revolt-
ed, submitting 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 Guclf faction revived, after
the name had long been proscribed in
lx)inbardy. Francesco de Carrara, lord
of Padua, availed himself of this revolu-
tion to get possession of Verona, and
seemed hkeiy to unite all the cities be-
yond the Adige. No family was so odi-
ous to the Venetians as that of Carrara.
Though they had seemed indilTerent to
the more real danger in Gian Galeazzo's
'ifstime, tl ey took up arms against this
* L. xi c. J3
inferior enemy. Both Padua and Ver )na
were reduced, and the Duke of Milan ce-
ding Vicenza, the repubhc of Venice came
suddenly into the possession of an exten-
sive territory. Francesco do Carrara,
who had surrendered in his capital, was'
put to death in prison at Venice ; a cruel-
ty perfectly characteristic of that govern
ment, and which would hardly have been
avowedly perpetrated, even in the fif-
teenth century, by any other state in Eu-
rope.
Notwithstanding the deranged condi-
tion of the Milanese, no further attempts
were made by the senate of Venice for
twenty years. They had not yet acqui-
red that decided love of war and con-
quest, which soon began to influence
them against all the rules of their ancient
policy. There were still left some wary
statesmen of the old school to check am-
bitious designs. Sanuto has preserved
an interesting account of the wealth and
commerce of Venice in those days. This
is thrown into the mouth of tlie Doge
Mocenigo, whom he represents as di&>-
suading his country, with his dying words,
from undertaking a war against iNIilan
" Through peace our city has every year,'
he said, " ten millions of ducats employ-
ed as mercantile capital in dift'ereiU parts
of the world ; the annual profit of otu- tra
ders upon this sum amounts to four mill-
ions. Our housing is valued at 7,000,000
ducats , its annual rental at 500, OOC
Three thousand merchant ships carry on
our trade ; forty-three galleys, and threj^i
hundred smaller vessels, manned by
19,000 sailors, secure our naval power
Our mint has coined 1,000,000 ducats with-
in the year. From the IMilanese dominions
alone we draw 1,000,000 ducats in coin,
and the value of 900,000 more in cloths ;
our profit upon this traffic may be reckon
ed at 600,000 ducats. Proceeding as you
have done to acquire this wealth, you will
become masters of all the gold in Chris-
tendom; but war, and especially unjust
war, will lead infallibly to ruin. Already
you have spent 900,000 ducats in the ac-
quisition of Verona and Padua ; yet the
expense of protecting these places ab-
sorbs all the revenue which they yield
You have many among you, men of prob-
ity and experience ; choose one of these
to succeed me ; but beware of Francesco
Foscari. If he is doge, you will soon
have war, and war will bring poverty and
loss of honour."* Mocenigo died, and
♦ Sanuto, Vite di Dnchi di Venezia. in Srript.
Rer. kal., t. xxii^ ,). 958. Moccnig^'a harangue is
v«!ry long in Sanulo : I have endeavoured to pr»
serve the sub.^tanco
M
178
ElyROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
(.CHAr 111
Foscari became doge : the prophecies of
the former were neglected ; and it cannot
wholly be affirmed that they were fulfill-
ed. Yet Venice is described by a writer
thirty years later, as somewhat impaired
(.1 opulence by her long warfare with the
dukes of Milan.
The latter had recovered a great part
Wars of of ^^eir dominions as rapidly as
Milan and they had lost them. Giovanni
Venice, jjaria, the elder brother, a mon-
ster 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 employ Carmag-
nola, one of the greatest generals of that
military age. Most of the revolted cities
were tired of their new masters, and their
nclinations conspiring with Carmagno-
la'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, offended
Carmagnola. That great captain retired
to Venice, and inflamed a disposition to-
wards war which the Florentines and
The Duke of Savoy had already excited.
The Venetians had previously gained
some important advantages in another
quarter, by reducing the country of Fri-
uli, with part of Istria, which had for
many centuries depended on the tempo-
ral authority of a neighbouring prelate,
the patriarch of Aquileia. They entered
mto this new alliance. No undertaking
of the republic had been more successful.
Carmagnola led on their armies, and in
about two years [A. D. 1426] Venice
acquired Brescia and Bergamo, and ex-
tended her boundary to the river Adda,
which she was destined never to pass.
Such conquests could only be made,
Change in hy a city so peculiarly mari-
the mUitary time as Venice, through the
system. |^g|p ^f mercenary troops. But
in employing them she merely con-
formed 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 milita-
ry service through most parts of Europe,
but especially in Italy. During the
twelfth and thj-teenth centuries, wheth-
er the Italian cities were engaged in
their contest with the emperors, or in
less arduous and general hostilities among
each o*her, they seem to )iave poured
out ahiiost their whole population, as an
armed nnd loosely organized militia A
single city, with its adjacent district
sometimes brought twenty or thirty thou-
sand men into the field. Every man,
according to the trade he practised, or
quarter of the city wherein he dwel ,
knew his own banner, and the captain he
was to obey.* In battle, the carroccio
formed one common rallying-point, the
pivot of every movement. This was a
chariot, or rather wagon, painted with
vermilion, and bearing the city standard
elevated upon it. That of Milan required
four pair of oxen to drag it forward. f
To defend this sacred emblem of his
country, which Muratori compares to tht
ark of the covenant among the Jews,
was the constant object, that, giving ?
sort of concentration and uniformity to
the army, supplied in some degree the
w^ant of more regular tactics. This mi-
litia was of course principally composed
of infantry. At the famous battle of the
Arbi, in 1260, the Guelf Florentines had
thirty thousand foot and three thousand
horse ■,% and the usual proportion was
five, six, or ten, to one. Gentlemen,
however, were always mounted ; and
the superiority of a heavy cavalry must
have been prodigiously great over an un
disciplined and ill-armed populace. In
the thirteenth and following centuries,
armies seem to have been considered as
formidable, nearly in proportion to the
number of men-at-arms, or lancers. A
charge of cavalry was irresistible ; bat-
tles 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 pro-
portion of cavalry was employed, and
armies, though better equipped and dis-
ciplined, 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 Empioymeni
force of men-at-arms. As few of foreign
Italian cities could muster a ""™''^
large body of cavalry from their own
population, the obvious resource was
* Muratori, Antiq. Ital., Diss. 20. Deninn,
Rivoiuzioni d'ltalia, I. xii., c. 4.
t The carroccio was invented by Eribert, a eel
ebratcd archbishop of Milan, about 1039. — Annali
di Mural., Antiq. Ital., Diss. 26. The carroccio of
Milan was taken by Frederick II., in 1237, and
sent to Rome. Parma and Cremona lost their
carroccios to each other, and exchanged theni
some years afterward with great exultation In
the fourteenth century this custom had gone m\4
disuse.— Id. ibid. Denina, 1. rii., c. 4.
t Villani, 1. vi., c. 79.
^ Sismondi, t. iii. p. 2C3, &c., has ■ome 'ud<
cious observatr "ns on this subject
ARt 11.1
ITALV
17D
-<> hire mercenary troops. This had
been practised in some instances much
earlier. The city of Genoa took the
Count of Savoy into pay with two hun-
dred horse in 1225.* Florence retained
five hundred French lances in 1282. f
But it became much more general in the
fourteenth century, chiefly after the ex-
pedition of the Emperor Henry VII., in
1310. Many German soldiers of fortune,
remaining in Italy upon this occasion,
engaged in the service of Milan, Flor-
ence, or some other state. The subse-
quent expeditions of Louis of Bavaria in
1326, and of John, king of Bohemia, in
1331, brought a fresh accession of adven-
turers from the same country. Others
again came from France, and some from
Hungary. All preferred to continue in
the richest country and finest climate of
Europe, where their services were anx-
iously solicited and abundantly repaid.
An unfortunate prejudice in favour 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 valour. The word Transalpine
(Oltramontani) is frequently applied to
hired cavalry by the two Villani, as an
epithet of excellence.
The experience of every fresh cam-
paign now told more and more against
the ordinary militia. It has been usual
for modern writers to lament the degen-
eracy of martial spirit among the Italians
of that age. But the contest was too un-
equal between an absolutely invulnerable
body of cuirassiers, and an infantrj^ of
peasants or citizens. The bravest men
have little appetite for receiving wounds
and death without the hope of inflicting
any in return. Tlie parochial militia of
France had proved equally unserviceable ;
though, as tlie life of a French peasant
was of much less account in the eyes of
his government than that of an Italian cit-
izen, they were still led forward like sheep
to tlie slaughter, against the disciplined
forces of Edward III. The cavalry had
*■ Muratori, Dissert. 2C.
j Ammirato, Istoria Fiorcnt., p. 159; the same
was done in 1279, p. 200. A lance, in the technical
laneruage of those ages, included the lighter caval-
ry attached to the man-at-arms, as well as himself.
(n France, the full complement of a lance (lance
fournie) was five or si.x horses; thus the 1500
lances, who composed the original companies of
ordonnaiice raised by Charles VII., amounted to
nine thousand cavalry. But m Italy, the number
was smaller. We read frequently of barbuti,
which are defined, lanze de due cavalli.— Corio, p.
^^''. Lances of three horses were introduced
tboii the middle ot the fourteenth century.— Id ,
p 46t
M 2
about this time laid aside the hauberk, oi
coat of mail, their ancient distinction
from the unprotected populace : which,
though incapable of being cut through by
the sabre, afforded no defence against the
pointed sword introduced in the thirteenth
century,* nor repelled the impulse of a
lance, or the crushing blow of a battle-
axe. Plate armour was substituted in its
place ; and the man-at-arms, cased in en-
tire steel, the several pieces firmly rivet-
ed, 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 secu
rity of success against enemies infe-
rior perhaps only in these adventitious
sources of courage to himself.f
Nor was the new system of conduct
ing hostilities less inconvenient citizens ex-
to the citizens than the tactics cused from
of a battle. Instead of rapid and ®"^"^®-
predatory invasions, terminated instantly
by a single action, and not extending
more than a few days' march from the
soldier's home, the more skilful combina
tions usual in the fourteenth century fre
qucntly protracted an indecisive contest
for a whole summer.^ As wealth and
civilization made evident the advantages
of agricultural and mercantile industry,
this loss of productive labour could na
longer be endured. Azzo Visconti, who
died in 1339, dispensed with the personal
service of his Milanese subjects. "An-
other of his laws," says Galvaneo Fiam-
ma, " was, that the people should not go
to war, but remain nt liome for their own
business. For they had hitherto been
kept with much danger and expense ev-
ery year, and especially in time of har-
vest and vintage, when princes are won
to go to war, in besieging cities, and in
curred numberless losses, and chiefly on
account of the long time that they were
so detained. "i^ This law of Azzo Vis-
conti, taken separately, might be ascribed
to the usual policy of an absolute govern
* Muratori, adann. 122G.
t The earliest plate armour, engraved in Montfac
con's .Monumcns de la Monarchic Franc-aise, t. ii.,
is of the reign of Philip the Long, about 1315; but
It does not appear generally till that of Philip o!
Valois, or even later. ISefore the complete harnesj'
of steel was adopted, plated caps were sometimes
worn on the knees arid elbows, and even greaves
on the legs. This is represented iti a statue of
Charles 1., Iving of Naples, who died in 1285. Pos-
sibly the statue may not be quite so ancient.—
Montfaucon, passim. Daniel, Hist, de la Milic*
Frani^oise, p. 395.
t This tedious warfare a la Fahius is called bj
Villani guerra guereggiata, 1. viii., c. 49 ; at leas
I can annex no other meaning to the express! in
^ Muratori, Antiquit. Ital., Dissert. 26
!80
EUROPE DURING TiIE MIDDLE AGES.
I.CMA1- m
ment. But we find a similar innovation
not long aftenvard at Florence. In the
vv^ar carried on by that republic against
Giovanni Visconti", in 1351, the younger
Villani informs us that " the useless and
mischievous personal service of the in-
habitants of the district was commuted
into a money payment."* This change
indeed was necessarily accompanied by
a vast increase of taxation. The Italian
states, republics as well as principalities,
levied very heavy contributions. Masti-
'10 della Scala had a revenue of 700,000
florins ; more, says John Villani, than the
king of any European country, except
France, possesses. f Yet this arose from
only nine cities of Lombardy. Consid-
ered with reference to economy, almost
any taxes must be a cheap commutation
for personal service. But economy may
be regarded too exclusively, and can nev-
er counterbalance that degradation of a
national character which proceeds from
intrusting the public defence to foreign-
ers.
It could hardly be expected that sti-
Oompanies pendiary troops, chiefly compo-
oiadven- scd of Germans, would conduct
■'^'"^- themselves without insolence
and contempt of the efl"eminacy which
courted their services. Indifterent to the
cause they supported, the highest pay
and the richest plunder were their con-
stant motives. As Italy was generally
the theatre of war in some of her numer-
ous states, a soldier of fortune, with his
lance and charger for his inheritance,
passed from one service to another with-
out regret, and without discredit. But if
peace happened to be pretty universal, he
might be thrown out of his only occupa-
tion, and reduced to a very inferior con-
dition in a country of which he was not
a native. It naturally occurred to men
of their feelings, that if money and hon-
our could only be had while they retain-
ed 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 a war with Florence. | A
* Matt. Villani, p. 135.
t L. xi., c. 45. I cannot imagine why M. Sis-
mondi asserts, t. iv., p. 432, that the lords of {ities
in Lombardy did not venture to augment the axes
imposed while they had been free. Compfainfs
of heavy taxation are certainly often made against
the Visconti and other tyrants in the fourteenth
century.
X Sismondi, t. v., p. 380. The dangerous aspect
which these German mercenaries might assume,
iiad appeared four years before, when Lodrisio, one
of the Visconti, having quarrelled v\'*.h the Lord of
partisan, whom the /talians call the Duke
Guarnieri, engaged .hese dissatisfied mer
cenaries to remain united under his com-
mand. His plan was to levy contribu-
tions on all countries which he entered
with his company, without aiming at any
conquests. No Italian army, he well
knew, could be raised to oppose him ;
and he trusted that other mercenaries
would not be ready to fight against men
who had devised a scheme so advantage-
ous to the profession. This was the first
of the companies of adventure, which
continued for many years to be the
scourge and disgrace of Italy. Guarnie-
ri, after some time, withdrew his troops,
saturated with plunder, into Germany ;
but he served in the invasion of Naples
by Louis, king of Hungary, in 1348, and,
forming a new company, ravaged the ec-
clesiastical state. A still more formida-
ble band of disciplined robbers appeared
in 1353, under the command of Fra Mo-
riale, and afterward of Conrad Lando
This was denominated the Great Com
pany, and consisted of several thousand
regular troops, besides a multitude of
half-armed ruffians, who aesisted as spies,
pioneers, and plunderers. The rich cit-
ies of Tuscany and Romagna paid .arge
sums, that the great company, which wa«
perpetually in motion, might not march
through their territory. Pic sence alone
magnanimously resolved i^iot .o ifl'er this
ignominious tribute. Upon two occa-
sions, once in 1358, and still more con-
spicuously the next year, she refused
either to give a passage to the company
or to redeem herself by money ; and in
each instance the German robbers were
compelled to retire. At this time they
consisted of five thousand cuirassiers, and
their whole body was not less than twen-
ty thousand men; a terrible proof of the
evils which an erroneous system had en-
tailed upon Italy. Nor were they re-
pulsed on this occasion by the actual ex-
ertions of Florence. The courage oi
that republic was in her councils, not in
her arms ; the resistance made to Lan-
do's demand was a burst of national feel-
ing, and rather against the advice of the
leading Florentines ;* but the army em
ployed was entirely composed of merce
nary troops, and probably, for the greater
part, of foreigners.
Milan, led a large body of troops who had i ast been
disbanded against the city. After some desperata
battles, the mercenaries were defeated, and Lodri-
sio taken, t. v., p. 278. In this instance, however,
they acted for another ; Guarnieri was the first who
taught them to preserve the impartiality of gener>
robbers.
♦ Matt. Villani, p. S"}".
I
PJhl 11 J
IT U.Y.
!81
None jf the foreign partisans, who en-
Bir John lered into the service of Italian
HawkwoQd. states, acquired such renown ii'
that career as an Englishman, whom con-
temporary writers call Aucud or Agu-
tus, but to whom we may restore his
national appellation of Sir John Hawk-
wood. This very eminent man had serv-
ed in the war of Edward III., and obtain-
ed his knighthood from that sovereign,
though originally, if we may trust com-
mon fame, bred to the trade of a tailor.
After the peace of Bretigni, France was
ravaged by the disbanded troops, whose
devastations Edward was accused, per-
haps 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 afterward em-
ployed by the Pisans against Florence ;
and, during this latter war, Hawkwood
appears as their commander. For thir-
ty 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 fidelity and steadiness
.han he had shown in his first campaigns.
The republic testified her gratitude by
a public funeral, and by a monument,
which, I believe, is still extant.
The name of Sir John Hawkw^ood is
Want of mil- Worthy to be remembered, as
itaiy science that of the first distinguished
time"^^ '"^ commander who had appear-
ed in Europe since the de-
struction of the Roman empire. 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 barbari-
an or feudal army ; untroubled perspica-
city in confusion, firm decision, rapid ex-
ecution, providence against attack, fertil-
ity of resource, and stratagem. These
are in quality as much required from the
chief of an Indian tribe as from the ac-
complished commander. But we do not
find them in any instance so consumma-
ted by habitual skill as to challenge the
name of gt neralship. No one at least
occurs to me previously to the middle of
the fourteenth century, to whom history
has unequivocally assigned that character.
It is very rarely that we find even the order
of battle specially noticed The monks,
indeed, our only chroniclers, were poor
judges of martial excellence ; yet, as war
is the main topic of all annals, we could
hardly remain ignorant of any distin-
guished skill in its operations. This
neglect of miUtary science certainly did
not proceed from any predilection fur thr
arts of peace. It arose out of the gener
al manners of society, and out of the na-
ture and composition of armies in the
middle ages. The >Jisubordinate spirit of
feudal tenants, and the emulous equality
of chivalry, were alike hostile to that gra-
dation of rank, that punctual observance
of irksome duties, that pnmpt obedience
to a supreme command, through which a
single soul is infused into the active mast^.
and the rays of indiv idual merit converge
to the head of the general.
In the fourteenth century we begin to
perceive something of a more scientific
character in military proceedings, and
historians for the first time discover thai
success does not entirely depend upoii
intrepidity and physical "rowess. The
victory of IMuhidorf over the Austrian
princes, in 1322, that decided a civil war
in the empire, is ascribed to the abiUty
of the Bavarian commander.* Many dis-
tinguished officers were formed in the
school of Edward III. Yet their excel
lences were perhaps rather those of ac-
tive partisans than of experienced gener-
als. Their successes are still due rather
to daring enthusiasm than to wary and
calculating combination. Like inexpert
chess-players, they surprise us by happy
sallies against rule, or display their tal-
ents in rescuing themselves from the
consequence of their own mistakes.
Thus the admirable arrangements of the
Black Prince at Poitiers hardly redeem
the temerity which placed him in a situ-
ation where the egregious folly of his
adversary alone could have permitted
him to triumph. Hawkwood therefore
appears to me the first real general ol
modern times ; the earliest master, how-
ever imperfect, in the science of Turenne
and Wellington. Every contemporary
Italian historian speaks with admiratio^
of his skilful tactics in battle, his strata-
gems, his well-conducted retreats. Praise
of this description, as I have observed, is
hardly bestowed, certainly not so contin
ualiy, on any former captain.
Hawkwood was not only the greatest,
but the last of the foreign con- gohooioi
dottierijOr captains of mercena- Italian gen
ry bands. While he was yet *''*^''-
living, a new military school had been
formed in Italy, which not only superse-
ded, but eclipsed all the strangers. Thi»
important reform was ascribed to Alberic
di Barbiano, lord of some petty teriitoriea
♦ Struvius, Corpus Historiae German., p. 585
Schweppernian, the Bavarian general, is called
by a cutempor '"v 'writer, clarus mil.t»ri sclontil
vir.
18i
EUROPi!: DURING THE MIDDLE A SES
I HAi- l(.
iii'ar Bo/ogiia. He formed a company
altoguther of Italians about the year 1379.
It IS not to be supposed that natives of
Italy had before been absolutely excluded
from service. We find several Itahans,
such as the Malatesta family, lords of
Rimini, and the Rossi of Parma, com-
manding the armies of Florence much
earlier. But this was the first trading
company, if I may borrow the analogy,
the first regular boly of Italian mercena-
ries, attached only to their commander,
without any consideration of party, like
the Germans and Enghsh of Lando and
Hawkwood. Albcric di Barbiano, though
nimself no doubt a man of miUtary tal-
ents, is principally distinguished by the
school of great generals which the com-
pany of St. George under his command
produced, and which may be deduced, by
regular succession, to the sixteenth cen-
tury. The first in order of time, and
immediate contemporaries of Barbiano,
were Jacopo Verme, Facino Cane, and
Ottobon Terzo. Among an intelligent
and educated people, little inclined to
servile imitation, the military art made
great progress. The most eminent con-
dottieri being divided, in general, between
behigerants, each of them had his genius
excited and kept in tension by that of a
rival in glory. Every resource of science
as well as experience, every improve-
ment in tactical arrangements and the
use of arms, was required to obtain an
advantage over such equal enemies. In
the first year of the fifteenth centur}',the
ItHiians brought their newly-acquired su-
oenority to a test. The Emperor Rob-
ert, in alliance with Florence, invaded
Gian Galeazzo's dominions with a con-
siderable army. From old reputation,
which so frequently survives the intrinsic
qualities upon which it was founded,
an impression appears to have been ex-
cited in Italy that the native troops were
still unequal to meet the charge of Ger-
man cuirassiers. The Duke of Milan
gave orders to his general, iacopo Verme,
to avoid a combat. But that able leader
was aware of a great relative change in
the two armies. The Germans had neg-
lected to improve their discipline; their
arms were less easily wielded, their
horses less obedient to the bit. A single
skirmish was enough to open their eyes ;
they found themselves decidedly inferior;
and, having engaged in the war with the
expectation of easy success, were readily
disheartened.* This victory, or rather
this decisive proof that victory might be
• Sismondi, t. vii., p. 439.
achieved, set Italy at ir. st for almost t
century from any apprehensions on thi;
side of her ancient masters.
Whatever evils might be derived, and
they were not trifling, from the employ,
ment of foreign or native mercenaries, it
was impossible to discontinue the systera
without general consent ; and too many
states found their own advantage in it
for such an agreement. The conduttieri
were indeed all notorious for contempt of
engagements. Their rapacity was equa*
to their bad faith. Besides an enormous
pay, for every private cuirassier receivej
much more in value than a subaltern of-
ficer at present, they exacted gratifica-
tions 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 paymasters, were best served by
those they employed. The Visconti mighs
perhaps have extended their conquest
over Lombardy with the militia of Milan;
but without a Jacopo del Verme or a Car-
magnola, the banner of St. Mark would
never have floated at Verona and Bar
gamo.
The Italian armies of the fifteenth cen-
tury have been remarked for one DefensW
striking peculiarity. War has arms of
never been conducted at so little "'*' ^s*
personal hazard to the soldier. Combats
frequently occur in the annals of that age,
wherein success, though warmly con-
tested, cost very few lives even to the
vanquished.! This innocence of blood,
* Paga doppia, e mese compiuto, of which we
frequently read, sometimes granted improvidently.
and more often demanded unreasonably. The first
speaks for itself; the second was the reckoning a
month's service as completed when it was begun,
in calculating their pay. — Matt. Viilani, p. 62. Sis
mondi, t. v., p. 412.
Gian Galeazzo Visconti promised constant half
pay to the condottieri whom he disbanded in 1396.
This perhaps is the first irjstance of half-pay. — Sis-
mondi, t. vii., p. 397.
t Instances of this are very frequent. Thus, at
the action of Zagonara, in 1423, but thret; persons,
according to Machiavel, lost their lives, and those
by suffocation in the mud. — 1st. Fiorent., I. iv At
that of Molinella, in 1467, he says that no one wa«
killed, 1. vii. Ammirato reproves him lor this, ai
all the authors of the time represent it to have been
sanguinary (t. li., p. 102), and insiruates that Ma
chiavel ridicules theinoffensiveness of those aimies
more than it deserves, scherneiido, come egli buoI
far, o'lella milizia. Certainly some few battle^* o/
the fifteenth century were not only obstinately . oa
PlHtll]
ita:.y.
IRS
which some historians turn into ridicule, I of the other principal nations adojilcJ it
was no doubt o\vina[ in a great degree to
the rapacity of the companies of adven-
ture, who, in expectation of enriching
themselves by the ransom of prisoners,
were anxious to save their lives. Much
of the humanity of modern warfare was
originally due to this motive. 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
defence had outstripped that of destruc-
tion. In a charge of lancers many fell,
unhorsed by the shock, and might be suf-
focated or bruised to death by the pres-
sure of their own armour; but the lance's
point could not penetrate the breastplate,
the sword fell harmless upon the helmet,
the conqueror, in the first impulse of pas-
sion, could not assail any vital part of a
prostrate but not exposed enemy. Still
less was to be dreaded from the archers
or crossbowmen, 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 in-
vention of gunpowder. That ancient
weapon, though not perhaps common
among the Northern nations, nor for sev-
eral centuries after their settlement, \vas
occasionally in use before the crusades.
William employed archers in the battle
of Hastings.* Intercourse with the east,
its natural soil, during the twelfth and
thirteenth ages, rendered the bow better
known. But the Europeans improved on
the eastern method of confining its use
to cavalry. By employing infantry as
archers, they gained increased size, more
steady position, and surer aim for the
bow. Much, however, depended on the
strength and skill of the archer. It was
a peculiarly English weapon, and none
tested, but attended with considerable loss. — Sis-
mondi. t. x., p. 126, 137. But. in general, the
slaughter must appear very trifling. Ammirato
himself says, that in an action between the Neapol-
itan and papal troops in 1486, which lasted all day,
not only no one was killed, but it is not recorded
that any one was wounded. — Roscoe's Lorenzo de'
Medici, vol. ii., p. 37. Guicciardini's general testi-
mony to the character of these combats is unequiv-
ocal. He speaks of the battle of fornova, between
the confederates of Lombardy and the army of
Charles VIII. returning from Naples m 1495, as
very remarkable on account of the slaughter, which
amounted on the Italian side to 3000 men perch^
♦^•1 la prima, the da lunghissimo tempo in qua si
combattesse con uccisione e con sangue in Italia,
perchft innai.zi a questa morivano pochissimi uomi-
Ki in un fatto d'arine, I. ii., p. 175.
* Pedites in fronte locavit, sagittis armatos ef
balistis, item pedites in ordine secundo tirmiores
eX loticatos, ultimo turmas oquitum. — Gul. Pictavi-
ensis (in Du Chesne), p. 201. Several archers are
repiesented in the tapestry of Bavtux.
so generally or so successfully. The
crossbow, which brought the strong and
weak to a level, was more in favour upor.
the continent. Tliis instrument is said
by some writers to have been introduced
after the first crusade, in the reign of
Louis the Fat.*. But, if we may trust
Wilham of Poitou, it was employed, as
well as the long bow, at the battle of
Hastings. Several of the popes prohib-
ited it as a treacherous weapon ; and the
restriction was so far regarded that, in
the time of Philip Augustus, its use is
said to have been unknown in France, f
By degrees it became more general; and
crossbowmen were considered as a very
necessary part of a well-organized army.
But both the arrow and the quarrel glan-
ced away from plate-armour, such as it
became in the fifteenth century, imper-
vious in every point, except when the
vi.sor was raised from the face, or some
part of the body accidentally exposed
The horse indeed was less completely
protected.
Many disadvantages attended the secu-
rity against wounds for which this ar-
mour had been devised. The enormous
weight exhausted the force and crippled
the limbs. It rendered the heat of a
southern climate insupportable. In some
circumstances it increased the danger of
death, as in the passage of a river or
morass. It was impossible to compel an
enemy to fight, because the least iu-
trenchment or UAtural obstacle could stop
such unwieldy assailants. The troops
miglit be kept in constant alarm at night,
and eitlicr compelled to sleep under arms,
or run the risk of being surprised before
they could rivet their plates of steel. J
Neither the Italians, however, nor the
Transalpines, would surrender a mode
of defence which they ought to have
deemed inglorious. But, in order to ob-
viate some of its military inconveniences,
as well as to give a concentration in at-
tack, which lancers impetuously charging
in a single line, according to tlie practice
at least of France in the middle ages,
did not preserve, it became usual -usiom of
for the cavalry to dismount, and avairydi*
leavmg their horses at some dis- "°""""S-
tance, to combat on foot with the lance
'J'his practice, wliich must have been
singularly embarrassing with the plate,
armour of the fifteenth century, was in-
.troduced before it became so ponderous.
* Le Grand, Vie privee des Fran(;ais, t. i , p. 349
+ Du Cange, v. Balista. Muratori, I)is» 26, t
i., p. 462. (Ital.)
i Sismondi, t. ii., p. 158.
•84
EIUIOPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
iChap. iij
It is inentioued by historians of the
twelfth century both as a German and
an Enghsh custom.* We find it in the
wars of Edward III. Hawkwood, the
disciple of that school, introduced it sntv
Italy. t And it was practised by the Eng-
lish in their second wars with France,
especially at the battles of Crevant and
Verneuil.J
Meanwhile, a discovery accidentally
made, perhaps in some remote age and
Jistant region, and whose importance
was but slowly perceived by Europe,
had prepared the way not only for a
change in her military system, but for
iiiveiirionoi political effects still more ex-
gunpowiier teusivc. If we consider gun-
powder as an instrument of human de-
struction, incalculably more powerful
than any that skill had devised or acci-
dent presented before, acquiring, as ex-
perience shows us, a more sanguinary
dominion in every succeeding age, and
borrowing all the progressive resources
of science and civilization for the exter-
mination of mankind, we shall be appall-
ed at the future prospects of the species,
and feel perhaps in no other instance so
much difficulty in reconciling the myste-
rious dispensation with the benevolent
order of Providence. As the great se-
curity for established governments, the
surest preservation against popular tu-
mult, it assumes a more equivocal char-
acter, depending upon the solution of
a doubtful problem, whether the sum
of general happiness has lost more in
the last three centuries through arbi-
trary power, than it has gained through
regular police and suppression of dis-
order.
T here 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
* The Emperor Conrad's cavalry in the second
crusade are said by William of Tyre to have dis-
mounted on one occasion, and fought on foot, de
equis descendentes, et facti pedites ; sicnt mos est
Teutonicis in summisnecessitatibusbellica tractare
negotia, 1. xvii , c. 4. And the same was done by
*he English in their engagement with the Scotch
neai North AUerton, commonly called the baUle of
the Standard, in 1138. — Twysden, Decem Script.,
p. 342.
t Sismondi, t. vi., p. 429. Azarius, in Script.
Rer. Ital., t. xvi. Matt. ViUani.
X Mon.strelet, t. ii., fol. 7, 14, 76. Villaret. t.
Kvii , p. 89. It was a Burgundian as well as Eng-
hsh fashion. Entrs les Bourguignons, says Co-
mines, lors estoient les plus honorez ceux qur
lesccniloient avec les archers, 1 i., c. 3.
about the year 1249.* It was known nol
long afterward to our philosopher, Roger
Bacon, though he concealed in some de-
gree 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. Ed-
ward III. employed some pieces of artil-
lery with considerable effect at Crecy.f
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 consid-
erable elevation ; and especially the diffi-
culty 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 em-
ployed.|^ Gradually, however, the new
* Casiri, Bibl. Arab. Hispan., t. ii., p. 7, thus
renders the original description of certain missile;
used by the Moors. Serpunt, susurrantque scor[ i
oneo circurnligati ac pulvere nitrato incensi, unde
e.xplosi fulgurant ac incendunt. Jam videre era*,
nianganum excussum veliiti nubem per aera ex
tendi ac tonitrus instar horrendum edere fragorem
ignemque undequaque vomens, omnia dirumper\
incendere, in cineres redigere. The Arabic pas
sage is at the bottom of the pige ; and one wouki
be glad to know whether pulvis nitraUm is a fail
translation. But I think there can on the wliole be
no doubt that gunpowder is meant. Ano'oher Ara"
bian writer seems to describe the use rf cannon in
the years 1312 and 1323— Id. ibid. And the chron-
icle of Alphonso XI., king of Castile, distinctly
mentions them at the siege of Algeziras in 1342.
But, before this, they were sufficiently known iii
France. Gunpowder and carnun are both men
tioned in registers of accounts under 1338 (Dv
Cange, Bombarda), and in another document of
1345.— Hist, du Languedoc, t. iv., p. 204. But the
strongest evidence is a passage of Petrarch, writ
ten before 1344, and quoted in jMuratori, Antich.
Ital., Dissert. 26, p. 456, where he speaks of the
art, nnper rara, nunc communis.
t G. Villani, I. xii., c. 67. Gibbon has thrown
out a sort of objection to the certainty of this fact,
on account of Froissart's silence. But the posi
tive testimony of Villani, vf ho died within two years
afterward, and had manifestly obtained much in-
formation as to the great events passing in France;
cannot be rejected. He ascribes a material effect
to the cannon of Edward, colpi delle bombarde,
which I suspect, from his strong expressions, had
not been employed before, except against stone
walls. It seemed, he says, as if God thundered
con grande uccisione di genti, e sfondamento ' i
cavalli.
t Gattaro, 1st Padovana, in Script. Rcr. Itai..
xvii., p. 300. Several proofs of the einploymen
of artillery in French sieges during the reign o.
Charles V. occur in ViKaret. See the word Artil
lene in the index.
Gian Galeazzo had, according to Coria, thirty
four pieces or cannon, small and grea', in the Mil*
nes' army, ab)ut 131'
pAiir 11.1
ITALY
18i
artifice of ivil ga-ined ground. The
French made tlie principal improve-
ments. Thej" cast their cannon smaller,
placed them on lighter carriages, and
used balls of iron.* They invented port-
able arms for a single soldier, which,
hough clumsy in comparison with their
present state, gave an augury of a pro-
digious revolution in the military art.
John, duke of Burgundy, in 1411, had
tOOO hand-cannons, as Ihoy were called,
in lis army.f They are found under
different names, and modifications of
form, for which I refer the reader to pro-
fessed writers on tactics, in most of the
wars that historians of the fifteenth cen-
tury 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. J: But these muskets,
supported on a rest, and charged with
great delay, did less execution than our
sanguinary science would require ; and,
uncombined with the admirable invention
of the bayonet, could not in any degree
resist a charge of cavalry. The pike had
a greater tendency to subvert the military
system of the middle ages, and to de-
monstrate the efficiency of disciplined
infantry. Two free nations had already
discomfited, by the help of such infantry,
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
XI. took a body of mercenaries from the
United Cantons into pay. Maximilian had
recourse to the same assistance.*^ And
though the importance of infantry was
not perhaps decidedly established till the
Milanese wars of Louis XIL and Francis
1. in the sixteenth century, yet the last
years of the middle uges, according to
♦ Guieciardini, 1. i., p. 75, has a remarkable pas-
sage 0-1 the superiority of the French over the Ital-
ian a.villery, in consequence of these improve-
ment?.
t Villaret, t. xiii., p. 176, 310.
i Sisinondi, t. ix., p. 341. He says that it re-
quired a quarter of an hour to charge and fire a
musket. I must confess that I very much doubt
the fact of so many muskets having been collected.
In 1433, that arm was seen for the first time in
Tuscany. — Muratori, Dissert. 20. p. 457.
^ See Guicciardini's character of the Swiss
troops, p. 192. The French, he says, had no native
infantry ; il regno di- Francia era debolissimo di
fanteria propria, t \e nobility monopolizing ail war-
ikc occupation.^ - -Ibid
our division, indicated the commence-
ment of that military revolution in the
general employment of pikemen and
musketeers.
Soon after the beginning of the fifteenlh
century, to return from this di- nivairy of
gression, two illustrious cap- storzu and
tains, educated under Alberic di ""ccic
Barbiano, turned upon themselves th«
eyes of Italy. These were Braccio di
Montone, a noble Perugian, and Sforza
Attendolo, originally a peasant in the vil-
lage of Cotignuola. Nearly equal in rep-
utation, 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 thedistinguislied leaders
of Italy. The distractions of Naples, and
the anarchy of the ecclesiastical state,
gave scope not only to their military, but
political ambition. Sforza was invested
with extensive fiefs in the kingdom of
Naples, and with the office of Great Con-
stable. Braccio aimed at independent
acquisitions, and formed a sort of prmci-
pality 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 Francesco
Sforza, and by Nicolas Piccini- ssiorza.
no, who for more than twenty years
fought, with few exceptions, under oppo-
site banners. Piccinino was constantly
in the service of Milan. Sforza, whose
political talents fully equalled his iriilita-
ry skill, never lost sight of the splendid
prospects that opened to his ambition.
From Eugenius IV. he obtained the-
March of Ancona, as a fief of the Komah
see. Thus rendered more independent
than the ordinary condottieri, he mingled
as a sovereign prince in the politics of It-
aly. He was generally in alliance with
Venice and Florence, throwing his weight
into their scale to preserve the balance of
power against Milan and Naples. But
ins ultimate designs rested upon Milan.
Filippo Maria, duke of that cit}'^, the last
of his family, had only a natural daugh-
ter, whose hand he sometimes olfered and
sometimes withheld from Sforza. Even
after he had consented to their union, his
suspicious temper was incapable of ad-
mitting such a son-in-law into ho acqnirf-i
confidence, and he joined in a iin>ituiehy
confederacy with the pope and *" '^'''*"
King of Naples to strip Sforza of the
!\Iarch. At the death of Filippo Maria,
in 1447, that general had nothing left but
his glory, and a very dis[utable claim tc
the Milanese su''.t«'"ion TJ iS howcv
!86
EUROPE DURING THF, MlDDLt. AGES.
[Chap, m
cr, was set aside by the citizens, who re-
vived their republican government. A
republic in that part of Lombardy might,
with the help of Venice and Florence,
have withstood any domestic or foreign
usurpation. But Venice was hostile, and
Florence indifferent. Sforza became the
general of this new state, aware that such
'vould be the probable means of becom-
.ngits master. No politician of that age
icrupled any breach of faith for his in-
terest. Nothing, says Machiavel, was
thought shameful but to fail. Sforza
with his army deserted to the Venetians ;
and the republic of Milan, being both in-
capable of defending itself, and distracted
by civil dissensions, soon fell a prey to
his ambition. In 1450 he was proclaim-
ed duke, rather by right of election or of
iMonquest than in virtue of his marriage
with Bianca, whose sex, as well as illegit-
imacy, seemed to preclude her from in-
lieriting.
I have not alluded for some time to the
AiVairs of domestic history -of a kingdom,
Naples, which borc a considerable part
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centu-
ries in the general combinations of Ital-
ian policy, not wishing to interrupt the
reader's attention by too frequent tran-
sitions. We must return again to a more
remote age in order to take up the histo-
ry of Naples. [A. D. 1272.] Charles of
Anjou, after the deaths of Manfred and
Conradin had left him without a compet-
itor, might be ranked in the first class of
European sovereigns-. Master of Pro-
vence and Naples, and at the head of the
Guelf faction in Italy, he had already
prepared a formidable attack on the
Greek empire, when a memorable revo-
lution in Sicily brought humiliation on
Rebellion of his latter years. John of Pro-
siciiy from cida, a Neapolitan, whose patri-
V'nfo,','''^ "^ mony had been confiscated for
Anjou. 1-1,
his adherence to the party of
Manfred, retained, 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 fa-
vourable prospects ; the Ghibelin party
had been entirely subdued, and the prin-
cipal barons were of French extraction
c-r 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 party of
French soldiers garrisoned the fortified
towns, and the systematic oppression
was aggravated by those insults upon
won en, which have always been cliarac
teristic of that people, and are most m»
tolerable to an Italian temperament.
John of Procida, travelling in disguise
through the island, animated the barona
with a hope of deliverance. In like dis
guise he repaired to the pope, Nicolaa
111., who was jealous of the new Neapol-
itan destiny, and obtained his sanction to
the projected insurrection ; to the court
of Constantinople, from which he readi-
ly obtained money ; and to the King of
Aragon, who employed that money in
fitting out an armament, that hovered
upon the coast of Africa, under pretext
of attacking the Moors. It is, however,
difficult at this time to distingaish the
effects of preconcerted conspiracy from
those of casual resentment. Before the
intrigues so skilfully conducted had taken
effect, yet after they were ripe for de-
velopment, an outrage, committed upon
a lady at Palermo during a procession on
the vigil of Easter, provoked the people
to that terrible massacre of all the French
in their island, which has obtained Sicilian
the name of Sicihan Vespers. [A. Vespers
D. 1283.] Unpremeditated as such an eb-
ullition of popular fury must appear, it
fell in, by the happiest coincidence, with
the previous conspiracy. The King ol
Aragon's fleet was at hand ; the Sicilians
soon called in his assistance ; he sailed
to Palermo, and accepted the crown.
John of Procida is a remarkable witness
to a truth which the pride of governments
will seldom permit them to acknowledge
that an individual, obscure and apparent-
ly insignificant, may sometimes, by per-
severance and energy, shake the founda-
tions of established states : while the
perfect concealment of his intrigues
proves also, against a popular maxim,
that a political secret may be preserved
by a number of persons during a consid
erable length of time.*
» Giannone, though he has well described the
schemes of John of Procida, yet, as is too often his
custom, or rather that of Co.stanzo, whom he im-
plicitly follows, drops or slides over leading facts ,
and thus, omitting entirely, or misrepresenting the
circumstances of the Sicilian Vespers, treats the
whole insurrection as the resultof a deliberate con-
spiracy. On the other hand, Nicolas Specialis, a
contemporary writer, in the seventh volume ol
Muratori's collection, represents the Sicilian V^es
pers as proceeding entirely from the casual out/age
in the streets of Palermo. The thought of calling
in Peter, he asserts, did not occur to the Sicilians
till Charles had actually commenced the siege of
Messina. But this is equally removed from the
truth. Gibbon has made more errors than are usu-
al with so accurate -aCi historian in his account ol
this revolution, such as calling Constance, the
queen of Peter, siA^er instead of daushtcr o^ Manhe:i
flRI II,
ITALY.
is:
War in con-
sequence
oetween
France and
Aragon.
The long war that ensued upon this rev- j
olution involved or interested
the greater part of civilized Eu-
rope. Phihp III. of France ad-
hered to his uncle, and the King
of Aragon was compelled to
fight for Sicily within his native domin-
ions. This indeed was the more vulnera-
ble point of attack. Upon the sea he was
lord of the ascendant. His Catalans, the
most intrepid of Mediterranean sai'^ors,
were led to victory by a Calabrian refu-
gee, Roger di Loria, the most illustrious
and successful admiral wliom Europe
produced till the age of Blake and De
Ruyter. In one of Loria's battles, the
eldest son of the King of Naples was
made prisoner, and the first years of his
own reign were spent in confinement.
But notwithstanding these advantages, it
v/as found impracticable for Aragon to
contend against the arms of France, and
latterly of Castile, sustained by the roll-
ing thimders of the Vatican. Peter 111.
had bequeathed Sicily to his second son
James; Alfonso, the eldest, king of Ara-
gon, could nol fairly be expected to ruin
his inheritance for liis brother's cause;
nor were the barons of that free country
disposed to carry on a war without na-
tional objects, ile made peace accord-
ingly 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 tlie renunciation
of Sicily. But the natives of that island
had received too deeply the spirit of in-
dependence to be thus assigned over by
the letter of a treaty. After solemnly
abjuring, by their ambassadors, their alle-
giance to the King of Aragon, they placed
the crown upon the head of his brother
Frederick. They maintained the war
against Charles 11. of Naples, against
James of Aragon, their former king, who
had bound himself to enforce their sub-
mission, and even against the great Ro-
ger di Loria, who, 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 retain du-
ring his life the kingdom, which was af-
terward to revert to the crown of Naples ;
a condition not likely to be fulfilled.
Upon the death of Charles II. king of
Naples, in i305, a question arose as to
the succession. His eldest son, Charles
Martel, had been called by maternal inher-
itance to the throne of Hungary, and had
A good narrative of the Sicilian Vespers may be
' ofl ;n Vcll>'s History of France, t. vi.
left at his decease a .-'.on, Carobert th<
reigning sovereign of that count-y. Ac-
cording to the laws of representative suc-
cession, which were at this time tolerabl)
settled in private inheritance, the ciowC
of Naples ought to have regularly devolv-
ed upon that prince. But it was contest-
ed by Ins uncle Robert, the eld- Robert, kins
est living son of Charles II., oriNapies.
and the cause was pleaded by civilians
before Pope Clement V. at Avignon, the
feudal superior of the Neapolitan king-
dom. Reasons of public utility, rather
than of legal analogy, seem to have pre-
vailed in the decision which was made in
favour of Robert.* The course of his
reign evinced the wisdom of this deter-
mination. Robert, a wise and active,
though not personally a martial prince,
maintained the ascendency of the Guelf
faction, and the papal influence connect-
ed with it, against the formidable combi-
nation of Ghibelin usurpers in Lombardy,
and the two emperors Henry VII. and
Louis of Bavaria. No male issue survi-
ved Robert, whose crown descended to
his grand-daughter Joanna. Shfe had
been espoused, wlule a child, to her cou-
sin Andrew, son of Carobert, king of
Hungary, who was educated with her ii?
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 wai
and calamity for a hundred and lifty 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 Hun-
garians, who taught him to believe that a
matrimonial crown and derivative royalty
were derogatory to a prince who claimed
by a paramount hereditary right. [A. D.
1313.] In fact, he was pressing the court
of Avignon to permit his own corona-
tion, Avhich would have placed in a very
hazardous condition the rights of the
queen, with whom he was living on i)<
terms, when one night he was .,„n„na.
seized, strangled, and thrown jiunierof
out of a window. Public ru- ^'^^^j;,",^''"''
mour, in the absence of notori-
ous proof, imputed the guilt of this_ mys-
terious apsassination to Joanna. Wheth-
er historians are authorized to assume
her participation in it so confiaently as
they have generally done, may perhaps
be doubted ; though I cannot venture pos-
itively to rescind their sentence. The
circumstances of Andrew's death were
♦ Giannone, 1. xxii. Summonte, t. ii., p. 370
Some of the civilians of that age, however, ap^JO
L ved tt-c decision
188
l!.UKuPE DURING TJiE MIDDLE AGES.
ICH'P III
undoubtedly pregnant with strong suspi-
cion.* Louis, king of Hungary, his broth-
er, a just and stern pruice, invaded Na-
ples, partly as an avenger, partly as a
conqueror. The queen, and her second
husband, Louis of Tarento, fled to Pro-
vence, -where her acquittal, after a sol-
emn, if not an impartial, investigation,
was pronounced by Clement VL Louis
meanwhile found it more difficult to re-
tain 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 intermeddling, like her progeni-
tors, in the general concerns of Italy.
Childless by four husbands, the succes-
sion of Joanna began to excite ambitious
speculations. Of all the male descend-
ants of Charles I., 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
piosumptive heir to the crown. But, of-
fended by her marriage with Otho of
Brunswick, he procured the assistance of
an Hungarian army to invade the king-
dom, and, getting the queen into his pow-
er, took possession of the throne. In
this enterprise he was seconded by Ur-
ban VI. , against whom Joanna had unfor-
tunately declared in the great schism of
* The Chronicle of Dominic di Gravina (Script.
Rer. Ital., t. xii.) seems to be our best testimony
for the circumstances connected with Andrew's
death ; and, after reading his narrative more than
once, I find myself undecided as to this perplexed
and mysterious story. Gravina's opinion, it should
je observed, is e.xtremely hostile to the queen.
Nevertheless, there are not wanting presumptions,
that Charles, first djke of Durazzo, who had mar-
ried his sister, was concerned in the murder of An-
drew, for which in fact he was afterward put to
death by the King of Hungary. But, if the Duke
of Durazzo was guilty, it is unlikely that Joanna
should be .so loo; bet ause she was on very bad
terms with him, and inc °.ed the chief proofs against
her are founded on the investigation which Duraz-
zo himself professed to institute'. Confessions ob-
tained through torture are as Uttle credible iri his-
tory as they ought to be in judicature ; even if we
could be positively sure, which is not the case in
this 'instance, that such confessions were ever
made. However, I do not pretend to acquit Joan-
na, but merely to notice the uncertainty that rests
over her story, on account of the positiveness with
which all historians, except those of Naples and
tb'» Abbe de Sade, whose vindication (Vie de Pe-
crarque, t. ii., notes) does l.er more harm than good,
nave assumed the murder of Andrew to have been
her own act, as if she hail ordered his execution in
open day.
Those who believe in the mnocence of Mary,
queen of Scots, mav, besides the obvious resem-
blance in their stories, which has been often no-
ticed, find a more particular parallel between this
Duko of Durazzo and the Earl t f Murray.
the church. She was smothereu with h
pillow, in prison, by the order of Charles.
[A. D. 1378.] The name of Joan of Na
pies has suffered by the lax repetition Oi
calumnies. Whatever share she may
have had in her husband's death, and cer-
tainly under circumstances of extenua-
tion, her subsequent life was not open to
any flagrant reproach. The charge of
dissolute manners, so frequently made,
is not warranted by any specific proof or
contemporary testimony.
In the extremity of Joanna's distress,
she had sought assistance from a iiouse oi
quarter too remote to alford it in ahjou.
time for her rehef. She adopted Louis,
duke of Anjou, eldest uncle of the young
king of France, Charles YL, as her heir
in the kingdom of Naples and county o'
Provence. This bequest took etfec
without difficulty in the latter country.
Naples was entirely in the possession o(
Charles of Durazzo. Louis, however,
entered Italy with a very large army,
consisting at least of 30,000 cava ry, and,
according to some writers, more than
double that number.* He w-as joined by
many Neapolitan barons attached to the
late queen. But, by a fate not unusual in
so imperfect a state of military science,
this armament produced no adequate ef-
fect, and mouldered away through dis-
ease and want of provisions. Louis him-
self dying not long afterward, the gov-
ernment of Charles ITT. appeared secure,
and he was tempted to accept an offei
of the crown of Hungary. This enter-
prise, equally unjust and injudicious, ter-
minated in his assassination. Ladislaus,
his son, a child ten years old, succeeded
to the throne of Naples, under the guar-
dianship of his mother Margaret ; whose
exactions of money producing discontent,
the party which had supported the late
Duke of Anjou became powerful enough
to call in his son. Louis II., as he was
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 sub-
dued his adversarJ^ But his character
was not very energetic ; and Ladislau?,
as he advanced to manhood, displacing
much superior qualities, gained ground
by degrees, till the Angevin barons, per-
ceiving the turn of the tide, came over to
his banner, and he recovered his whole
dominions.
* Muratori. Summonte. Costanzo
k'ARl ll.J
ITALY.
1H9
The kingdom of Naples, at the close
of the fourteenth century, was
Ladisiaus. ^^-^ altogether a feudal gov-
ernment. This had been introduced by
he first Norman kings, and the system
had rafher been strengtfiened than im-
paired under the Angevin line. Tlie
princes of the blood, who were at one
time numerous, obtained extensive do-
mains by way of appanage. The prin-
(•ipality of Tarento was a large portion
of the kingdom.* The rest was occu-
pied by some great families, wiiose
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 II., in 1390, the San-
severini appeared with 1800 cavalry com-
pletely equipped. t This illustrious house,
which had filled all the high offices of
state, and changed kings at its pleasure,
was crushed by Ladisiaus, 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 powerful resources
towards foreign conquests. The eccle-
siastical territories had never been se-
cure from rebellion or usurpation; but
legitimate sovereigns had hitherto re-
spected t)ie patrimony of the head of the
church. Jt was reserved for Ladisiaus,
a feudal vassal of the Holy See, to seize
upon Rome itself as his spoil. For sev-
eral years, while the disordered state of
the church, in consequence of the schism
and the means taken to extinguish it,
gave hi'n an opportunity, the King of
Naples occupied great part of the papal
territories. He was disposed to have
carried his arms farther north, and at-
tacked the republic of Florence, if not
the states of Lombardy, when his death
relieved Italy from the danger of this
new tyranny.
An elder sister, .Joanna II., reigned
„ at Naples after Ladisiaus. Un-
der this queen, destitute of cour-
age and understanding, and the slave of
appetites which her age rendered doubly
disgraceful, the kingdom relapsed into
that state of anarcliy from which its late
sovereign had rescued it. I shall only
• It comprehended the provinces now called
Terra d'Otranto and Terra di Bari, besides part
of those adjoining. — Summonte, Istoria di Napoli,
t. iii., p. 537. Orsini, prince of Tarento, who died
in 1463, had 4000 troops in arms, and the value of
l,O0O,OC<J florins in moveables — Sismondi, t. x.,
p. 151
t Suamonte, t. iii., p. ill. Giannone I. xxiv.,
refer the reader to n.ore enlargi-i histo-
ries for the first years of Joanna's reign,
In 14:21 the two most powerful individ-
uals were Sforza Attendolo, great con-
stable, and Sir dianni Caraccioh, the
queen's minion, who governed the pai
ace with unlimited sway. Sforza. aware
that the favo'irite was contriviug his ruin,
and remembering the prison in which he
had lain more than once since the Eccefv-
sion of Joanna, determined to anlu.ipale
his enemies by calling a pretender to
the crown, another Louis of*Aiijou, third
in descent of that unsuccessful dynasty.
The Angevin party, though proscribed
and oppressed, was not extinct ; and the
populace of Naples, in particular, had
always been on that side. Caraccioli's
influence and the queen's dishonourable
weakness rendered the nobility disaffect-
ed. Louis III. therefore had no remote
prospect of success. But Caraccioli was
more prudent than favourites, selected
from such motives, have usually proved
Joanna was old and childless ; the rever-
sion to her dominions was a valuable
object to any prince in Europe. None
was so competent to assist her, Adoptimoi
or so likely to be influenced by .'\i:bnsoof
the hope of succession, as Al- •'^'■''^■""■
fonso, king of Aragon and Sicily. That
island, after the reign of its de- Affiirsc'
liverer, Frederick I., had unfor- *""■'>■
tunately devolved upon weak or infant
princes. One great family, the Cliiara
monti, had possessed itself of half Sicily :
not by a feudal title, as in otlicr king-
doms, but as a kind of countcr-soverei^gn-
ty, in opposition to the crown, though
aft'ecting rather to bear arms against the
advisers of their kings than against t]:;Mn-
selves. The marriage of INlaria, queen
of Sicily, W'ith Martin, son of the King
of Aragon, put an end to the national
independence of her country. 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 IMar-
tin, in 1109, his father, also named Mar-
tin, king of Aragon, took possession, as
heir to his son, without any election by
the Sicilian parliament. The Chiara-
monti had been destroyed by the younger
Martin, and no party remained to make
opposition. Thus was Sicily united to
the crown of Aragon. Alfonso, who
now enjoyed those two crowns, gladly
embraced the proposals of the Queen of
Naples. They were founded indeed on
the most subst;mtial basis, mutual inter-
est. She adopted Alfonso as her son
and successor, while he bound himsol
do
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGKS.
Chap. IIJ
i > employ liis forces in delivering a king-
dom that was to become his own. Louis
cf Anjou, though acknowledged in sever-
al provinces, was chiefly to depend upon
the army of Sforza; and an army of Ital-
ian mercenaries could only be kept by
means which he was not able to apply.
The King of Aragon, therefore, had far
the beUer prospects in the war, when
one of the many revolutions of this
reign defeated his immediate expecta-
tions. Whether it was that Alfonso's no-
ble and affatfle nature afforded a contrast
which Joanna was afraid of exhibiting to
the people, or that he had really formed a
plan to anticipate his succession to the
throne, she became more and more dis-
trustful of her adopted son; till, an open
rupture having taken place, she entered
mto a treaty with her hereditary- competi-
lor, Louis of Anjou, and, revoking the
adoption of Alfonso, substituted
'Jn/'in'l-r the French prince in his room.
IlOM 111 Id- . /. 1 J ■
four of The King of Aragon was rtis-
Louisof appointed by this unforeseen
'^"•'''"' stroke, which, uniting the Ange-
vin faction with that of the reigning fami-
ly, made it impracticable for him to main-
tain his ground for any length of time in
the kingdom. Joanna reigned for more
than ten years without experiencing any
inquietude from the pacific spirit of Louis,
who, content with his reversionary hopes,
lived as a sort of exile in Calabria.*
Upon his death, the queen, who did not
long survive him, settled the kingdom on
his brother Regnier. The Neapolitans
were generally disposed to execute this
Gcquest. But Regnier was unluckily at
that time a prisoner to the Duke of Bur-
giuidy ; and though his wife maintained
the cause with great spirit, it was diffi-
cult for her, or even for himself, to con-
» Joanna's great favourite, Caraccioli, fell a vic-
■,im some time before his mistress's death to an in-
trigue of the palace ; the Dutchess of Sessia, a new
favourite, having prevailed on the feeble old queen
to permit him to be assassinated. About this time
Alfonso had every reason to hope for the renewal
of the settlement in his favour. Caraccioli had
himself opened a negotiation with the King of Ar-
agon ; and, after his death, the Dutchess of Sessia
embarked in the same cause. Joan even revoked
secretly the adoption of the Duke of Anjou. This
circumstance might appear doubtful ; but the his-
torian to whom I refer has published the act of
revocation itself, which bears date April 11th, 1433.
Zurita (Anales de Aragon, t. iv., p. 217) admits
that no other writer, either contemporary or sub-
oe<^'jent, has mentioned any part of the transaction,
whii:h must have been kept very secret ; but his
BUtuorlty is so respectable, that I thought it worth
notice, however uninteresting these remote in-
tr'.gues may appear to most rer>;'ier» Joanna soon
chang*id her mind again, an' f "ort steps
in favour 1''' \lf("''o
tend against the King of Aiagon, whc
immediately laid claim to the kingdom.
After a contest of several years, Reg-
nier, having experienced the treacherous
and selfish abandonment oi his friends,
yielded the game to his adversary; and
Alfonso founded the Aragonese line oi
sovereigns at Naples, deriving preten
sions more splendid than just from Man>
fred, from the house of Swabia, and from
Roger Guiscard.*
In the first year of Alfonso's Neapoli-
tan war, he was defeated and Aironso
taken prisoner by a fleet of the ^^sof
Genoese, who, as constant ene- ^"p'*^--
mies of the Catalans in all the naval war-
fare of the Mediterranean, had willingly
lent their aid to the Angevin party Ge-
noa was at this time subject to l''ilippo
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 Alfonso were firni.y
united in their Italian politics, and formed
one weight of the balance, which the re-
publics of Venice and Florence kept in
equipoise. After the succession of Sfor-
za to the dutcliy of ]\Iilan, the Hisconnex
same alliance was generally pre- ion wuu
served. Sforza had still more ^''*'"'
powerful reasons than his predecessor
for excluding 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 Visconti. But the two re-
publics were no longer disposed towards
war. P'lorence had spent a great deal
without any advantage in her contest
with P'ilippo Maria ;t and the new Duke
* According to a treaty between Frederick 1(1.,
king of Sicily, ind Joanna I., of Naples, in 13G3.
the former monarch was to assume the title of
King of Trinacna, leaving the original style to the
Neapolitan line. But neither he, nor his succes-
sors in the island, ever complied with this condi
tion, or entitled themselves otherwise than kings
of Sicily ultr^Pharum, in contradistinction to the
other kingdom, which they denominated, Sicily
citra Pharum. Alfonso of Aragon, when he uni-
ted both these, was the first who took the title
King of the two Sicilies, which his successors ha
retamed ever tiin^e. — Giannone, t. iii., p. 234.
The ''^ ding with the peace of Ferrai»
^-^KT IJ]
ITALY.
191
of Milan had been the constant personal
friend of Cosmo de' Medici, who alto-
gether influenced that repubhc. At Ven-
ice, indeed, he had been regarded with
very different sentiments ; the senate
had prolonged their war against Milan
with redoubled animosity after his eleva-
tion, deeming him a not less ambitious
and more formidable neighbour than the
Visnonti. 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 Lom-
bardy. No one better knew than Sforza
the faithless temper and destructive pol-
itics of the condottieri, whose interest
was placed in the oscillations of intermi-
nable war, and whose defection might
shake the stability of any government.
Without peace it was impossible to break
that ruinous system, and accustom states
to rely upon their natural resources.
Venice ha<l little reason to expect further
conquests in Lombardy : and if her am-
bition had inspired the hope of them, she
was summoned by a stronger call, that
of self-preservation, to defend her nu-
merous and dispersed possessions in the
Levant, against the arms of IMahomet II.
All Italy indeed felt the peril that im-
Quadrupie pended from that side : and these
eague of various motions occasioned a
S455. quadruple league in 1455, be-
tween the King of Naples, the Duke
of Milan, and the two republics, for the
preservation of peace in Italy. One ob-
ject of this alliance, and the prevailing
object with Alfonso, was the implied
guarantee of his succession in the king-
dom of Naples to his illegitimate son,
Ferdinand. He had no lawful issue;
and there seemed no reason why an ac-
quisition of his own valour should pass
against his will to collateral heirs. The
pope, as feudal superior of the kingdom,
and the Neapolitan parliament, the sole
competent tribunal, confirmed the inherit-
ance of Ferdinand.* Whatever may be
thought of the claims subsisting in the
house of Anjou, there can be no question
that the reigning family of Aragon were
legitimately excluded from that throne,
though force and treachery enabled them
ultimately to obtain it.
Alfonso, surnamed the Magnanimous,
Character was by far the most accomplish-
of Aiionso ed sovereign whom the fifteenth
century produced. The virtues of cliiv-
m 1428, is snid to have cost the rep'iblic of Flor-
ence 3,500,000 florins.— Aminirato, p 1013.
♦ Giarinone, 1. xxvi., c. 2.
airy wore combined in sim with the pat-
ronage of letters, and with more than
their patronage, a real enthusi;isni for
learning, seldom found in a king sna
especially in one so active and ambi-
tious.* This devotion to literature was,
among the Italians of that age, almost zj
sure a passport to general admiration as
his more chivalrous perfection. Magnif-
icence in architecture, and the pageantry
of a splendid court, gave fresh lustre to
his reign. The Neapolitans perceived
with grateful pride that he lived almost
entirely among them, in preference to his
patrimonial kingdom ; and forgave the
heavy taxes, which faults nearly allied to
his virtues, profuseness and ambition,
compelled him to impose. f But they re-
marked a very different character in his
son. Ferdinand was as dark and pgrjinan^.
vindictive as his father was af-
fable and generous. The barons, who
had many opportunities of ascertaining
his disposition, began, immediately upon
Alfonso's death, to cabal against his suc-
cession, turning their eyes first to the le-
gitimate branch of the family [A. D.
1461], and, on finding that prospect not
favourable, to John, titular duke of Cala-
bria, son of Regnier of Anjou, who survi-
ved to protest against the revolution thai
had dethroned him. John was easily
prevailed upon to undertake an invasion
of Naples. Notwithstanding the treaty
concluded in 1455, Florence assisted him
with money, and Venice at least with hei
wishes ; but Sforza remained unshaken
in that alliance with Ferdinand, which his
clear-sighted policy discerned to be th«-;
best safeguard for his own dynasty. A
large proportion of the Neapolitan nobil
ity, including Orsini, prince of Tarento,
the most powerful vassal of the crown,
raised the banner of Anjou, wliich was
sustained also by the youngest Piccinino,
the last of the great condottieri, under
whose command the veterans of former
warfare rejoiced to serve. But John un-
derwent the fate that had always attend-
ed his family in their long competition
for that throne. After some brilliant suc-
cesses, his w'ant of resources, aggravated
by the defection of Genoa, on whose an
cient enmity to the house of Aragon he
had relied, was perceived by the barona
of his party, who, according to the prac-
tice of their ancestors, returned one by
* A stot/ is told, true or false, that his delight ic
hearing Quintus Curtius read, without a:iy orher
medicine, cured the king of an iUness. See olhef
proofs of his love of letters in Tiraboschi, t, v^,
p. 40.
t Giannone. 1. xxvi
IU2
rUROPE DURING THK MIDDLE AGES.
tCHAT. Iii
on€ to the al.egiance of Ferdinand. [A.
D. 1464.]
The peace of Italy was little disturbed,
except by a few domestic revolutions, for
State of several years after this Neapol-
iiaiyinihe itan war.* Even the most short-
oHhem-" sighted politicians were some-
teeniu cer. times withdrawn from selfish
""■y objects by the appalling prog-
I'eiy,? ol \he Turks, though there was not
enei^' enough in their councils to form
any concerted plans for theti- own secu-
^it3^ Venice maintained a long, but ulti-
mately an unsuccessful contest with Ma-
homet II. for her maritime acquisitions
in Greece and Albania ; and it was not
* The following distribution of a tax of 458,000
florins, imposed, or rather proposed, in 1464, to de-
fray the expci.:;e of a general war against the
Turks, will give a notion of the relative wealth and
resources of the Italian powers ; but it is probable
that the pope rated himself above his fair contin-
gent. He was to pay 100,000 florins ; the Vene-
tia.iS 100,000 ; Ferdinand of Naples 80,000 ; the
Duke of Milan 70,000; Florence 50,000 ; the Duke
of Modena 20,000; Siena 15,000; the Marquis of
Mantua 10,000; Lucca 8000; the Marquis of Mont-
ferrat5000. — Sismondi, t. x., p. 229. A similar as-
sessment occurs, p. 307, where the proportions are
not quite the same.
Pel haps it may be worth while to extract an
estimate of the force of all Christian powers, writ-
ten about 1454, from Saniito's Lives of the Doges
of Venice, p. 963. Some parts, however, appear
very questionable. The King of France, it is said,
caif. Tdise 30,000 men-at-arms ; but for any foreign
enterprise, only 15,000. The King of England can
do the same. These powers are exactly equal ;
otherwise one of the two would be destroyed. The
King of Scotland, "eh'e signore di grandi paesi e
popoli con grande poverta," can raise 10,000 men-
iit-arms: The King of Norway the same- The
K-ng of Spain (Castile) 30,000 : The King of Por-
tugal 6000 : The Duke of Savoy 8000 : The Duke
of Milan 10,000. The republic of Venice can pay
from her revenues 10,000 : That of Florence 4000 ;
The pope 6000. The emperor and empire can
raise 60,000 : The King of Hungary 80,000 (not
men-at-arms, certainly).
The King of France, in 1414, had 2,000,000 du-
cats of revenue ; but now only half. The King of
England had then as much; now only 700,000.
The King of Spain's revenue also is reduced by
the wars from 3,000,000 to 800,000. The Duke of
Burgundy had 3,000,000 ; now 900,000. The Duke
of Milan has sunk from 1,000,000 to 500,000 ; Ven-
ice from 1,100,000, which she possessed in 1423,
to 800,000 : Florence from 400,000 to 200,000.
These statistical calculations are chiefly remark-
ib!e, as they manifest that comprehensive spirit of
treating all the powers of Europe as parts of a com-
mon system, which began to actuate the Italians
of the fifteenth century. Of these enlarged views
of policy the writings of .^neas Sylvius afford an
eminent instance. Besides the more general and
insensible causes, the increase of navigation and
revival of literature, this may be ascribed to the
continual danger from the progress of the Ottoman
%rms, which led the politicians of that part of Eu-
ffpe most exposed to them into more extensive
vtews as to the resources and dispositions of Chris-
tian states.
till after his death relieved Italy from its
immediate terror that the ambitious re-
public endeavoured to extend its terri-
tories by encroaching on the house of
Este. [A. D. 1482.] Nor had Milan
shown much disposition towards ag-
grandizement. Francesco Sforza had
been succeeded, such is the condition of
despotic governments, by his son Galeaz-
zo, a tyrant more execrable than tic
worst of the Visconti. His extreme ciu-
ellies, and the insolence of a debauch-
ery that gloried in the public dishonour
of families, e.xcited a few daring spirits to
assassinate him. [A. D. 1476.] The Mi-
lanese profited by a tyrannicide, the per-
petrators 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. [A. D. 1480.]
But it was overthrown in a few years by
Ludovico Sforza, surnamcd the Moor, her
husband's brother; who, while he pro-
claiined his nephew's majority, and affect
ed to treat him as a sovereign, hardly dis
guised 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 ^^-airg „,
to us, during the fifteenth as well Genoa ^n
as the preceding century, an un- "'"' ^se>
ceasing series of revolutions, the shortest
enumeration of which would occupy sev-
eral pages. Torn by the factions of
Adorni and Fregosi, equal and eternal ri
vals, to Avhom the old patrician families
of Doria and Fieschi were content to be-
come secondary, sometimes sinking from
weariness of civil tumult into the grasp
of Milan or France, and again, from im-
patience of foreign subjection, starting
back from servitude to anarchy, the Ge-
noa of those ages exhibits a singular con-
trast to the calm and regular aristocracy
of the last three centuries. The latest
revolution within the compass of this
work was in 1488, when the Duke of Mi-
lan became sovereign, an Adorno holding
the office of doge as his lieutenant.
Florence, the most illustrious and for-
tunate of ItaUan republics, was and of Fit-
now rapidly descending from '■""^^•
her rank among free commonwealths,
though surrounded with more than usual
lustre in the eyes ol Europe. We must
take up the story of that city from the
revolution of 1382, which restored tho
ancient Guelf aristocracy, or party of the
Albizi, to the ascendency of which a
popular insurrection had stripped them.
Fifty years elapsed during which thia
04KT II. 1
ITALV.
I'JH
party retained the government in its own
nands with few attempts at disturbance.
Their principal adversaries had been ex-
iled, according to the invariable and per-
haps necessary custom of a republic ;
the populace and inferior artisans were
dispirited by their ill success. Compared
with the leaders of other factions, Maso
degl' Albizi and Nicola di Uzzano, who
succeeded him in the management of his
party, were attached to a constitutional
liberty. Yet so difficult is it for any
government, which does not rest on a
broad basis of public consent, to avoid
injustice, that they twice deemed it ne-
cessary to violate the ancient constitu-
tion. In 1393, after a partial movement
in behalf of the vanquished faction, they
assembled a parliament, and established
what was technically called at Florence
a Balia.* This was a temporary delega-
tion of sovereignty to a number, gener-
ally a considerable number, of citizens,
who, during the period of their dictator-
ship, named the magistrates, instead of
arawing them by lot, and banished sus-
pected individuals. A precedent so dan-
gerous was eventually fatal to themselves,
and to the freedom of their country. Be-
sides this temporary balia, the regular
ecjTUtinies periodically made in order to
replenish the bags, out of which the
nantjes of all magistrates were drwan by
lot, according to the constitution estab-
lished in 1328, were so managed as to ex-
clude all persons disaffected to the domi-
nant faction. But, for still greater secu-
rity, a council of two hundred was form-
■ed, in 1411, out of those alone who had
tnjoyed some of the higher offices with-
in the last thirty years, the period of the
aristocratical ascendency, through which
every proposition was to pass before it
could be submitted to the two legislative
councils.! These precautions indicate a
government conscious of public enmity ;
imd if the Albizi had continued to sway
the republic of Florence, tlieir jealousy
of the people would have suggested still
more innovations, till the constitution
had acquired, in legal form as well as
substance, an absolutely aristocratical
character.
But, while crushing with deliberate se-
verity their avowed adversaries, the ru-
ling party had left one family, whose
Rise of the prudcncc gave no reasonable
Medici. excuse for persecuting them ;
and whose popularity, as well as wealth,
rendered the experiment hazardous. The
Medici wtre among the most considera-
• Ammirato, p. 810
N
t Id., p. 9G1.
ble of the new, o/ plebeian nobility
Fro.n the first yeurs of the fourteenth
century, their name not very unfre-
quently occurs in the domestic and mili-
taiy^ annals of Florence.* Salvestro do'
Medici, who had been partially implicated
in the democratical revolution that lasted
from 1378 to 1382, escaped proscription
on the revival of the Guelf party, thou^ U
some of his family were afterward ban-
ished. Throughout tlie long depression
of the popular facUon, the house of Med-
ici was always regarded as their conso-
lation and their hope. That house was
now represented by Giovanni,! whose
immense wealth, honourably ac(]uired by
commercial dealings, which had already
rendered the name celebrated in Europe,
was expended with liberality and mag-
nificence. Of a mild temper, and averse
to cabals, Giovanni de' IMedici did not at-
tempt to set up a party, and contented
himself with repressing some fresh en-
croachments on the popular part of the
constitution, which the Albizi were dis-
posed to make. J They, in their turn,
freely a-dmitted him to that share in pub-
lic 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 hiinsell
of the popularity belonging to his name.
By extensive connexions with the most
eminent men in Italy, especially with
Sforza, he came to be considered as the
first citizen of Florence. The oligarchy
were more than ever unpopular. Their
administration, since 1382, had indeed
been in general eminently successful ;
the acquisition of Pisa, and of other Tus-
can 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.^
* The Medici are enumerated by Villani amona
the chiefs of the Black faction in 1.304. 1. viii., c.
71. One of that family was bcheaileil by order ol
the Duke of Athens in 1313, !. .\ii., c. 2. Il is sin-
gular that Mr. Roscoe should refer their hrst ap-
pearance il. history, as he seer.is to do, to the sieg*
of Scarpcri, in 1.351.
t Giovanni was not nearly related to Sal vest r;
de' Medici. Tlieir families are said per luiigo tiai
to allontanarsi.— Ammirato, p. 092. Nevp"■l|leles^
his being drawn gonfalonier, in M21,creatircla fjrtai
sensation in the city, and prepared the way to the
subsequent revolution. — Ibid Blachiavelli, 1. iv.
t Machiavelli, Istoria Fiorent., 1. iv.
ij The Florentines sent their iiy^[ r.irrrbant ship
to Alexandria in 1122, with great and anxioui
hopes. Prs.vers were ort'ered lor the success oi
1 94
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. Ill
But an unprosperous war with Lucca di-
minished a reputation which was never
sustained by pubhc affection. Cosmo
and his friends aggravated the errors of
Ihe government, which, having lost its
wise and temperate leader, Nicola di
IJzzano, had fallen into I he rasher hands
i>( Rinaldo degi' Albizi. He incurred the
■'•lame of being the first a:?j;^ressor in a
struggle which had becoii^e inevitable.
{A. D. 1433.] Cosmo Avas arrested by
command of a gonfalonier devoted to
the Albizi, and condemned to banish-
ment. But the oligarcliy hid done too
mucli or too little. The city was full of
his friends ; the honours conferred upon
l.im in his exile attested the sentiments
of Italy. Next year he was recalled in
triumph to Florence, and the A Ibizi were
completely overthrown.
It is vain to expect, tliat a victorious
faction will scruple to rctahate upon its
enemies a still greater measure of injus-
tice than it experienced at their hands.
The vanquished have no rights in the
eyes of a conqueror. The sword of re-
turning exiles, flushed by victory, and in-
censed by suffering, falls successively
upon their enemies, upon those whom
they suspect of being enemies, upon
those who may hereafter become such.
The Albizi had in general respected the
.egal forms of their free republic, which
good citizens, and perhaps themselves,
might hope one day to see more effect-
ive. The Medici made all their govern-
ment conducive to hereditary monarchy.
A multitude of noble citizens were driv-
en from tlieir country ; some were even
put to death. A balia was appointed for
ten years, to exclude all the Albizi from
magistracy, and for the sake of this secu-
rity to the ruling faction, to supersede
the legitimate institutions of the republic.
After the expiration of this period, the
dictatorial power was renewed on pre-
tence of fresh danger, and this was re-
peated six times in twenty-one years.*
In 1455 the constitutional mode of draw-
Iho republic by sea ; and an embassy despatched
wi:h presents to conciliate the sultan of Babylon,
that is, of Grand Cairo. — Ammirato, p. 997. P^lo-
rer.ce had never before been so wealthy. The
circulating money was reckoned (perhaps extrava-
gantly) at 4,000,000 florins. The manufactures of
silk ar.'d cloth of gold had never flourished so much.
Architecture revived under Brunelleschi ; litera-
ture under Leonard Aretin and Filelfo, p. 977.
There is some truth in M. Sismondi's remark,
that the Medici have derived part of their glory
from their predecessors in government, whom
they subverted, and whom they ha\e rendered ob-
scure. But the Milanese war, breaking out in
1423 tended a good deal to empov^rish the city.
• .Mac.'iiavelh, 1. v. Ammirata
ing magistrates was permitted to revive
against the wishes of some of the leading
party. They had good reason to be jeal-
ous of a liberty which was incompatible
with their usurpation. The gonfaloniers,
drawn at random from among respecta-
ble citizens, began to act with an inde-
pendence to which the new oligarchy
was little accustomed. Cosmo, indeed,
the acknowledged chief of the party, per-
ceiving that some who had acted in insub-
ordination to him were looking forward
to the opportunity of becoming them
selves its leaders, was not unwilling to
throw upon them the unpopularity attach
ed to a usurpation by which he had main
tained his influence. Without his appa
rent participation, though not against his
will, the free constitution was again sus
pended by a balia appointed for the nomin
ation of magistrates; and the regular draw-
ing of names by lot was never, I believe,
restored.* 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 affairs. At least
he could only be chosen by a sort of he
reditary title, which the party above men-
tioned, some from patriotic, more fron
selfish motives, were reluctant to admit
A strong opposition was raised to th<
family pretensions of the IMedici. Like
all Florentine factions, it trusted to vio-
lence ; and the chance of arms was not
in its favour. There is little to regret ir
the downfall of that oligarchy, whiclt
had all the disregard of popular rights
without the generous virtues of the Me-
dici.f From this revolution in 1466, when
some of the most considerable citizens
were banished, we may date an ackno.vl-
edged supremacy in the house of Medici,
the chief of which nominated the regular
magistrates, and drew to himself tho
whole conduct of the republic.
•The two sons of Piero, Lorenzo and
Julian, especially the former, Lorpn/o <io
though young at their father's Med'c-
death [A. D. 14G9], assumed, by the re-
quest of their friends, the reins of gov-
ernment. 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 ; and perhaps their want
* Ammirato, t. ii., p. 82-87.
t Ammirato, p. 93. Roscoc's Loienzo de Me-
dici, ch. 2. Machiavelli. Sismondi The tw«
latter are perpetual references inthisp^'t uf histo
ry, where no other is made.
Pari II.J
ITALV
19;
of any positive authority heightened the
appearance of usurpation in their influ-
ence. 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
ory of Palle, Paile (their armorial distinc-
uon), would at any time rouse the Flor-
entines to defend the chosen patrons of
the republic. If their substantial influ-
ence could before be questioned, the con-
spiracy of the Pazzi, wherein Julian per-
ished, excited an enthusiasm for the sur-
viving brother that never ceased during
Ills life. Nor was this any thing unnatu-
ral, 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
iSiena 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 degradation to fear in
surrendering herself to Lorenzo de' Me-
dici. I need not in this place expatiate
upon what the name 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,
always 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 unscrupu-
lous adversaries, Sixtus IV. and Ferdi-
nand 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. lie com-
pleted that subversion of the Florentine
republic which his two immediate ances-
tors had so well prepared. The two
councils, her regular legislature, he su-
perseded by a permanent senate of sev-
enty persons ;* while the gonfalonier and
* Ammirato, p. 145. Machiavel says, 1. vili., that
this was (lone ristringere il govenio, e die le de-
iiberazioni importanti si riducessero in minore nu-
mero. Mr. Koscoe, vol. ii., p. 53, is puzzled how
to explain this decided breach of the people's rights
Dy his hero. But though it rather appears from
Ammirato's e.'cpressions that the two councils were
now abolished, yet from M. Sismondi, t. xi., p. 186,
«li ) quoti's an author I have not seen, and from
N 9.
' priors, become a mocK-iry and pageant to
keep up the illusion of l.berty, were taught
that, in exercising a legitimate authority
without the sanction of their prihce, a
name now first heard at Florence, they in-
curred the risk of punishment for their au
dacity.* Even the total dilapidation of his
commercial wealth was repaired at the
.cost of the state ; and the republic dis-
gracefully screened the bankruptcy of the
Kledici by her own.f But, compared with
the statesmen of his age, we can re-
proach Lorenzo with no heinous crime
He had many enemies ; his descendants-
had many more ; but no uneqwivoca
charge of treachery or assassination has
been substantiated against his memory.
By the side of Galeazzo or Ludovico
Sforza, of Ferdinand or his son Alfonso
of Naples, of the pope Sixtus IV., he
shines with unspotted lustre. [A. D
1492.] So much was Lorenzo esteemet
by his contemporaries, that his premature
death has frequently been considered as
Nardi, p. 7, I should infer that they still formally
subsisted.
* Cambi, a gonfalonier of justice, had, in concert
with the priors, admonished some public officers
for a breach of duty. Fu giudicato questo atto
molto superbo, says Ammirato, che senza parties-
pazione di Lorenzo de' Medici, principe del gover
no, fosse seguito, che in Pisa in quel tempo si ri-
trovava, p. 184. The gonfalonier was fineil for e.\-
ecuting his constitutional functions. This was a
downright confesrion that the republic was at an
end; and all it piovokes M. Sismondi to say is
not too much, t. xi., p. 345.
t Since the Medici took on themselves the char-
acter of princes, they liad forgotten how to be mer-
chants. But, imprudently enough, they had not
discontinued their commerce, which was of course
mismanaged by agents, whom they did not overlook
The consequence was the complete dilapidation
of their vast fortune. The public revenues had
been for some years applied to make up its deli
ciencies. But irom the measures adopted by the
republic, if we may still use that name, she shoula
ap[)ear to have considered herself, rather than Lo
renzo, as the debtor. The interest of the public
debt was diminished one half. Many charitable foun
(latiuns were suppressed. The circulating specie
was taken at one fifth below its nominal value ir
payment of taxes, while the government continnec
to issue it at its former rate. Thus was Lorenzo re-
imbursed a part of his loss at the expense of all his
lellow-citizens. — .Sismondi, t. xi., p. 347. It is
slightly alluded to by Machiavel.
The vast expenditure of the Medici for the sake
of political inrtucnce would of itself hive absorbed
all their profits. Cosmo is said by Guicciardi'ii lo
have spent 400,000 ducats in building chunhes
monasteries, and other public works, .. i., p. 01
Tlie expenses of the family between 1434 and 1471
in buildings, charities, and taxes alone, amounted
to 663.755 florins ; equal in value, according to Sis-
mondi, to 32,000,000 francs at piesent. — Hist, des
Republ., t. x.,p. 173. They seem to have ad van
ced moneys imprudently, through their agents, U
Kdvvard 1 V'., who was not the best of debtors.—
Cotnines, Mem. de Charles VIIL 1. vii. .c. 6.
196
EUROPE DUKLNG THE MIDDLK AGES.
.L/IlAl'. Ill
the cause of those unhappy revolutions
that speedily ensued, and which his fore-
sight would, it was imagined, have been
able fo prevent ; an opini()n which, wheth-
er founded in probability or otherwise,
attests the common sentiment about his
character.
If indeed Lorenzo de' Medici could not
Pretensions of havc changed the destinies of
France upon Italy, however premature his
Naples. death may appear, if we con-
sider the ordinary duration of human ex-
i.stence, 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 down-
fall of his family was to be reckoned.
The long-contested succession of Naples
was again to involve Italy in war. The
ambition of strangers was once more to
desolate her plains. Ferdinand, king of
Naples, had reigned for thirty years after
the discomfiture of his competitor with
success and ability ; but with a degree of
ill faith as well as tyranny towards his
subjects that rendered his government
deservedly odious. His son Alfonso,
whose succession seemed now near at
hand, was still more marked by these
vices than himself.* Meanwhile, the
pretensions of the house of Anjou had
legally descended, after the death of old
flegnier, to Regnier, duke of Lorraine,
his grandson by a daughter ; whose mar-
riage into the house of Lorraine had,
however, so displeased her father, that
he bequeathed his Neapolitan title, along
with his real patrimony, the county of
Provence, to a count cf Maine ; by whose
testament they became vested in tlie
crown of France. Louis XL, while he
took possession of Provence, gave him-
self no trouble about Naples. But Charles
VIII., inheriting his father's ambition
without that cool sagacity which restrain-
ed it in general from impracticable at-
tempts, and far better circumstanced at
home than Louis had ever been, was
ripe for an expedition to vindicate his
pretensions upon Naples, or even for
more extensive projects. It was now
two centuries since the kings of France
had aimed, by intervals, at conquests in
Italy. Philip the Fair and his succes-
sors were anxious to keep up a connex-
ion with the Guelf party, and to be con-
♦ Comines who speaks sufficiently ill of the
father, sums up the son's character very concisely :
Nul homiae n'a este plus cruel que lui, ne plus
mauvais, ue plus vicieux et plus infect, ns p'us
fourmand que lui, 1. vii., c. 13.
sidered its natural lieads, as the German
emperors were of the Ghibehns. The long
English wars changed all views of the
court of France to self-defence. Bui. in
the fifteenth century, its plans of aggran-
dizement beyond the Alps began to re-
vive. Several times, as I have mention-
ed, the republic of Genoa put itself under
the dominion of France. The dukes ol
Savoy, possessing most part of Pied-
mont, and masters of the mountain-pass-
es, were, by birth, intermarriage, and
habitual poUcy, completely dedicated to
the French interests.* In the former wars
of Ferdinand against the house of Anjou,
Pope Pius II., a very enlightened states
man, foresaw the danger of Italy from
the prevailing influence of France, and
deprecated the introduction of her ar
mies.f But at that time the central parts
of Lombardy were held by a man equally
renowned as a soldier and a politician,
Francesco Sforza. Conscious that a
claim upon his own dominions subsisted
in the house of Orleans, he maintained a
strict alliance with the Aragonese dynas-
ty at Naples, as having a common interest
against France. But after his death the
connexion between Milan and Naples
came to be weakened. In the new sys
tem of alliances, Milan and Florence^
sometimes including Venice, were com
bined against Ferdinand and Sixtus IV.,
an unprincipled and restless pontiff. Lu-
dovico Sforza, who had usurped the
guardianship of his nephew, the Duke
of Milan, found, as that young man ad
vanced to maturity, that one crime requir
ed to be completed by another. To
* Denina, Storia dell' Italia Occidentale, t. ii.,
passim. Louis XI. treated Savoy as a fief of
France ; interfering in all its affairs, and even
taking on himself the regency after the death of
Philit)ert I., under pretence of preventing disor-
ders, p. 185. Tke Marquis of Saluzzo, who pos-
sessed considerable territories in the south of Pied
mont, had done homage to France ever since 1353
(p. 40), though to the injury of his real superior,
the Duke of Savoy. This gave France another
pretext for interference in Italy, p. 187.
t Cosmo de' Medici, in a conference with Pius
II. at Florence, having expressed his surprise
that the pope should support Ferdmand : Pontifej
haud I'erendum fuisse ait, regem a se constitutum,
armis ejici, neque id Italiae libertati corducere;
Gallos, si regnum obtinuissent, Senas haaddubii
subacturos ; Florentines adversus lilia nihil actu-
ros ; Borsium Mutinae ducem Gallis galliore:D
videri ; Flaminiae regulos ad Francos inclinare
Genuam Francis subesse, et civitatem Astensem;
si ponlifex Romanus aliquando Francorum amicus
assumatur, nihil reliqui in Italia remanere quod
non transeat in Gallorumnomen ; tuerise Italiam,
dum Ferdinandum tueretur. — Commentar. Pii Se-
cundi, 1. iv., p. 96. Spondanus, who led me to thii
passage, is very angry ; but the year 1494 ptivei'
Pius II. Id oe a wary stntcsman.
Chap 'V]
SPAIN
19")
depose and murder his ward v.as how-
ever a scheme that prudence, though not
conscience, bade him hesitate to execute.
He had rendered Ferdinand of Naples,
and Piero de' Medici, Lorenzo's heir, his
decided enemies. A revolution at JMilan
would be the probable result of his con-
tinuing ii usurpation. [A. D. 1439.] In
thts-^i circumstances, Ludovico Sforza
excited the King of France to undertake
the conquest of Naples.*
So long as the three great nations of
Curope were unable to put forth their
natural strength through internal separa-
tion or foreign war, the Italians had so
little to dread for their independence,
that their policy was altogether directed
to regulating the domestic balance of
power among themselves. In the latter
part of the fifteenth century, a more en-
larged view of Europe would have mani-
fested the necessity of reconciling petty
animosities, and sacrificing petty ambi-
fion, in order to preserve tlie nationality
of their governments ; not by attempting
to melt down Lombards and Neapolitans,
principaiuies and republics, into a single
monarchy, but by the more just and ra-
tional scheme of a common federation.
The politicians of Italy were abundantly
competent, as far as cool and clear un-
derstandings could lender them, to per-
ceive the interests of their country. But
it is the will of Providence, that tlie high-
est and surest wisdom, even in matters
of pohcy, should never be unconnected
with virtue. In relieving himself from aii
immediate danger, Ludovico Sforza over-
looked the consideration that the pre
sumptive heir of the King of Francis
claimed by an ancient litle that principal-
ity of Milan, which he was compassing
by usurpation and murder. But neither
Milan nor Naples was free from other
claimants than France, nor was she re-
served 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
Ferdinajid, the rash and lively Maximil-
ian, are preparing 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 be-
tween the houses of France and Austria
But here, while Italy is still untouchod
and before as yet the first lances of
France gleam along the defiles of the
Alps, we close the history of the Middlt
Ages.
CHAPTER IV.
THE HISTORY OF SPAIN TO THE CONQUEST OF GRANADA.
Mngdom of the Visigoths.— Conquest of Spain by
the Moors. — Gradual Revival of the Spanish
Nation. — Kingdoms of Leon, Aragon, Navarre,
and Castile, s\iccessively formed. — Chartered
Towns of Castde. — Military Orders. — Conquest
of Ferdinand 111. and James of Aragon. — Causes
of the delay in expelling the Moors. — History of
Castile continued. — Character of the government.
— Peter the Cruel. — House of Trastamare. —
•John II. --Henry IV. — Constitution of Castile. —
National Assemblies or Cortes. — Their constitu-
ent parts. — Right of Taxation. — Legislation. —
Privy Council of Castile. — Laws for the protec-
tion of Liberty.— Imperfections of the Constitu-
tion.—Aragon. — Its history in the fourteenth and
ftfteenth centuries. — Disputed succession. — Con-
stitution of Aragon. — Free spirit of its Aristoc-
racy.— Privilege of Union. — Powers of the Jus-
tiza. — Legal Securities. — Illustrations. — Other
Constitutional Laws. — Valencia and Catalonia.
— Union of two Crowns by the Marriage of Fer-
dinand and Isabe .a. — Conquest of Granada.
The history of Spain during the mid-
'^lo ages ought to commence wi"h the
♦ Guit ciardini, 1 i
j dynasty of the Visigoths ; a na- Kingiiom of
' tion among the first that assault- yisigotiis m
] ed and overthrew the Roman ^P'-'-"-
Empire, and whose estabhshment prece-
ded by nearly half a century the invasion
of Clovis. Vanquished by that conquer-
or in the battle of Poitiers, the Gothic
monarchs lost their extensive dominions
in Gaul, and transferred their residence
from Toulouse to Toledo. But I hold
the annals of barbarians so unworthy of
remembrance, that I will not detain th.e
reader by naming one sovereign of that
obscure race. The Merovingian kings oi
France were perhaps as deeply stained
by atrocious crimes, but their history,
slightly as I have noticed it, is the nece«
sary foundation of that of Charlemagne
and illustrates the feudal system and
constitutional antiquities of France. If
those of Castile had been equally inter-
esting to the historical student, I should
have taken the same pains to trace .heii
198
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
IChj
origma". in the Gothic monarchy. For
that is at least as much the primary
source of the old Castihan constitution,
as the Anglo-Saxon poUty of our own.
It Jnay, however, sufhce to mention, that
it differed 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 tem-
poral 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 lim-
ited by an aristocratical council than in
France, but it never yielded to the dan-
gerous 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.
Spain, after remaining for nearly three
CoiKiuest centuries in the possession of the
by the Visigoths, fell under the yoke of
Saracens, jj^g Saracens in 712. The fer-
\ id and irresistible enthusiasm which dis-
tinguished the youthful period of Ma-
hometanism, might sufficiently account
for this conquest ; even if we could not
assign additional causes, — the factions
which divided the Goths, the resentment
of disappointed pretenders to the throne,
the provocations of Count Julian, and the
temerity that risked the fate of an em-
pire on the chances of a single battle.
It is more surprising, 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 successful,
and generally an off'ensive warfare against
the conquerors, till the balance was com-
pletely turned in its favour, and the
Moors were compelled to maintain almost
as obstinate and protracted a contest for
^ a small portion of the peninsula. But the
I Arabian monarchs of Cordova found in
\ their success and imagined security a pre-
\ text for indolence ; even in the cultivation
■ of science, and contemplation of tlie mag-
nifcent 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 gen-
eration were lost in the follies and ef-
- feminacy of the next. Their kingdom
was dismembered by successful rebels,
j who formed the states of Toledo, Hues-
l^. ca, Saragosa, and otliers less eminent ;
and these, in their own mutual contests.
not only relaxed theii natural enmitv to
wards the Christian princes, but some
times sought their alhance.*
The last attack, which seemed to ei'
danger the reviving monarchy of Kingdoni
Spain, was that of Almanzor, the "'■ ^<^o"-
illustrious vizier of Haccham II., towarda
the end of the tenth century, wherein the
city of Leon, and even the shrine of Com
postella, were burnt to the ground. Foi
some ages before this transient reflux
gradual encroachments had been made
upon the Saracens ; and the kingdoni,
originally styled of Oviedo, the seat oi
which was removed to Leon in 914, had
extended its boundary to the Duero, and
even to the mountainous chain of the
Guadarrama. The province of old Cas-
tile, thus denominated, as is generally
supposed, from the castles erected, while
it remained a march or frontier against
the Moors, was governed by hereditary
counts, elected originally by the provin-
cial aristocracy, and virtually independ-
ent, it seems probable, of the kings of
Leon, though commonly serving them in
war, as brethren of the same faith and
nation. f
pied in recovering the western p«-ovinces,
another race of Christian princes grew up
silently under the shadow of the Pyrene"-
an mountains. Nothing can be Kins^oms oi
more obscure than the begin- Navarre iwi
nings of those little states, ^'^^°''-
which were formed in Navarre and the
country of Soprarbe. They might per-
haps be almost contemporaneous with the
Moorish conquests. On both sides of the
Pyrenees dwelt an aboriginal people ; the
last to undergo the yoke, and who had nev-
er acquired the language, of Rome. "We
know httle of these intrepid mountain-
eers in the dark period which elapsed
under the Gothic and Frank dynasties,
till Ave find them cutting off the rear
guard of Charlemagne in Roncesvalles,
*• Cardonne, Hist, de I'Afrique et de I'Espagnc.
t According to Roderic of Toledo, one of the
earliest Spanish historians, though not older than
the beginning of the thirteenth centur>', the nobles
of Castile, in the reign of Froila, about the year
924, sibi et posteris providerunt, et duos milites non
de potentioribus, sed de prudentioribus elegerunt,
quod et judices statuerunt, ut dissensiores patri»
et querelantium causae sue judicio sopirentur, 1. v.,
c. 1. Several other passages in the same writes
prove that the counts of Castile were nearly inde^
pendent of Leon, at least from the time of Ferdi-
nand Gonsalvo about the middle of the tenth centu
ry. Ex quo iste suscepit suaj patriae coinuavum
cessaverunt reges Astunarnm insolescere in Cas
tellam, et a flumine Pisoricii nihil amplius vindica
runt, 1. v., c. 2. Marina, in his Ensa>o Hittorici
Critico, is disposed to controvert thi.'i Idct.
CBAl IV J
SPAI\
19«
and maintaining it joast their indcpciid-
encft, though seldom, 'ike thr kings of
Aslunas, vvaging ollensive war against
the Saracens. The town of Jaca, situa-
ted among long narrow valleys that in-
.ersect the southern ridges of the Pyre-
aees, was the capital of a little free state,
which afterward expanded into the mon-
Archy of Aragon.* A territory rather
more extensive belonged to Navarre, the
Kings of which fixed their seat at Pam-
pelona. Biscay seems to have been di-
vided between this kingdom and that of
Leon. The connexion of Aragon or So-
prarbe and Navarre was very intimate,
and they were often united under a single
^hief.
At the beginning of the eleventh centu-
Kingiiomof ry, Sanclio the Great, king of
Castile. Navarre and Aragon, was ena-
bled to render his second son, Ferdinand,
count, or, as he assumed the title. King
of Castile. This effectually dismember-
ed that province from the kingdom of
Leon ; but their union soon became more
complete than ever, though with a re-
•-..^fcrsed supremacy. Bermudo IIL,kingof
Leon, fell in a battle with the new king
of Castile, who had married his sister;
and Ferdinand, in her right or in that of
conquest, became master of the united
monarchy. This cessation of hostilities
between the Christian states enabled
them to direct a more unremitting ener-
gy against their ancient enemies, who
j were now sensibly weakened by the va-
I rious causes of decline to which I have
! already alluded. During the eleventh
"-*" century, the Spaniards were almost al-
vays superior in the field ; the towns,
* The Fueros, or written laws of Jaca, were
perhaps more ancient than any local customary in
Europe. Alfonso Ill.contirins them by name of the
ancient usages of Jaca. They prescribe the de-
scent of lands and moveables, as well as the elec-
tion of municipal magistrates. The following law,
which enjoins the rising in arms on a sudden emer-
gency, illustrates, with a sort of romantic wildness,
the manners of a pastoral but warlike people, and
reminds us of a well-known passage in the Lady of
ohe Lake. De appeliiiis ita statuimus. Cum hom-
ines de villis, vel qui slant in montaniscum suis
ganatis [gregibus], audiennt appellitum; omnes
capiant arrna, et dunissis ganatis, et omnibus aliis
6U1S faziendis [negoiiis] sequantur appellitum. Et
31 illi qui fuerint magis remoti, invenerint m villa
migis proxima appellilo [deest aliquid ?] omnes
qt.i nonduin fuerint egressi tunc villam lUam, qu33
ta:dius secuta est appellitum, pecent [solvant]
ut.am b.iccam [vaccam] ; et unusquisque homo ex
litis qui tardnis sccutus est appellitum, ct quern
magis remi^li praecesserint, pectjt tres solidos, quo-
modo nobis videbitur, partiendos. Tamen in Jaca
et in aliis villis, sint aliqui nominati et cerii, quos
elegerint consules, qui remaneant ad villas custo-
iiendas et defendeadas.--Bianca3 Coininentaria in
Sr.notti Hispania lUustra' i, p. 595.
which they oegan by pillaging, they gradu-
ally {iossessed; their valour was height-
ened by the customs of chivalry, an<J
inspired by the example of the Cid; and.
before the end of this age, Alonso VL re-
covered the ancient metropolis of the mon-
archy, the city of Toledo. This capture r^
was the severest blow wiiichthe Toledo,
Moors had endured, and an unequivocal
symptom of that change in tlieir relative
strength which, from being so gradual,
was the more irretrievable. Calamitit-s
scarcely inferior fell upon them in a dif-
ferent quarter. The kmgs of Aragon [n
title belonging originally to a little dis-
trict upon the river of that name) had
been cooped up almost in the mountains
by the small INloorish states north of the
Ebro, especially that of Huesca. About
the middle of the eleventh century, they
began to attack their neighbours with
success; the Moors lost one town after
another, till, in 1118, exposed and weak-
ened by the reduction of all these places
the city of Saragosa, in which a And Sara-
line of Mahometan princes had g"*^-
flourished for several ages, became the
prize of Alfonso L, and the capital of his
kingdom. The southern parts of what
is now the province of Aragon were suc-
cessively reduced during the twelfth cen-
tury ; while all new CastUe and Estre-
madura became annexed in the same
gradual manner to the dominion of tho
descendants of Alfonso VL
Although the feudal system cannot
be said to have obtained in the ,M,„ie or set-
kingdoms of Leon and Castile, nmgiiie
their peculiar situation gave the '"^w-"""
' 1 1 !• .1 quests.
aristocracy a great deal oi the
same power and independence whicii
resulted in France and Germany from
that institution. The territory succes-
sively recovered from the INIoors, like
waste lands reclaimed, could have no
proprietor but llie conquerors ; and the
prospect of i?uch acquisitions was a con-
stant incitement to the nobility of Spain,
especially to those who had settled them-
selves on the Castilian frontier. In their
ntw conquests, they built towns and
invited Christian settlers, the Saracen
inhabitants being commonly expelled,
or voluntarily retreating to the safer
provinces of tlie south. Thus Burgos was
settled by a count of Castile about HSO : an-
other fixed his scat at Osma ; a third
at Sepulveda; a fourth at Salamanca.
These cities were not free from iiices.
sant peril of a sudden attack till the union
of the two kingdoms under Ferdinand L,
and, consequently, the necessity of keep-
ing in exercise a numerous aivi armed
zoo
:;'KOh'E DUIUNG Tilt: iMlUDLK ACjP:s
^ChaI' i\
population jjave a character of personal
freedom and privilege to the inferior
classes, which they hardly possessed at
so early a period in any other monarchy.
Viilanage seems never to have been
established in the Hispano-Gothic king-
doms Leon and Castile ; though I confess
it was fnr from being unknown in that
t»f Arag?n, which had formed its institu-
tions on a feudal pattern. Since nothing
iiiakes 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 Asturi-
as was invested with a personal dignity,
uhich gave him value in his own eyes
and those of his country. It is probably
this sentiment, transmitted to posterity,
and gradually fixing the national charac-
ter, that has produced ihe elevation of
manner remarked by travellem in the
Castilian peasant. But while these ac-
quisitions of the nobility promoted the
grand object of winning back the penin-
sula from its invaders, they by no means
invigorated ihe government, or tended to
domestic tranquillity.
A. more interesting method of securing
Chartered ^lic public defence was by the
lowns or institution of chartered towns
communities, ^j. communities. 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 protecting their country.
The earliest instance of the erection of a
community is in 1020, when Alfonso V.,
in the cortes at Leon, established the priv-
ileges of that city Avith a regular code of
laws, by which its magistrates should
be governed. The citizens of Carrion,
Llanes, and other towns, were incorpo-
rated by the same prince. Sancho the
Great gave a similar constitution to Nax-
ara. Sepulveda iiad its code of laws in
1076 from Alfonso VI.; in the same reign
Logrono andSahagun acquired their priv-
ileges, and Salamanca not long after-
ward. 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
J'nt jurgesses, with various privileges,
and especially that of choosing magis-
trates and a common council, who were
bound to conform themselves to the law »
aresciibed by the founder. These la\v.$^
I civil as well as criminal, though essen
tially derived from the ancient code ol
the Visigoths, which continued to be the
common law of Castile ill 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 con-
firmation. The territory held by char-
tered towns was frequently very exten-
sive, far beyond any comparison with
corporations in our own country or in
France ; including the estates of privatt;
landholders, 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 Avithin the
district; but the administration of justice
was exclusively reserved to the inhabi-
tants and their elected judges. Even the
executive power of the royal oflUcer was
regarded with jealousy ; he was forbid-
den to use violence towards any one
without legal process ; and, by the fuero
of Logrono, if he attempted to enter for-
cibly into a private house, he might be
killed with impunity. These democrat-
ical customs were altered in the four
teenth century by Alfonso XL, who
vested the municipal administration in a
small number of jurats or regidors. A
pretext for this was found in some disor-
ders to which popular elections had led ;
but the real motive, of course, must have
been to secure a greater influence for the
crown, as in similar innovations of some
English kings.
In recompense for such liberal conces
sions, the incorporated towns were bound
to certain money payments and to mili-
tary service. This was absolutely due
from every inhabitant, without dispensa-
tion or substitution, unless in case of in-
firmity. The royal governor and the ma-
gistrates, as in the simple times of prim-
itive Rome, raised and commanded the
militia ; who, in a service always short,
and for the most part necessary, pre-
served that delightful consciousness of
freedom, under the standard of their fel-
low-citizens and chosen leaders, which
no mere soldier cpn enjoy. Every man
of a certain property was bound to serve
on horseback, and was exempted in re-
turn from the payment of taxes. This
produced a distinction between the cabal-
Icros, or noble class, and the -pccheros, or
payers of tribute. But the distinctioi:
appears to hve been founded only UDor
Chap. H |
SPAIN.
ZC
r,
wealtli, as in the Roman equites, and not
upon hereditary 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 ;
md tlieir honour was protected by laws
vhich rendered it highly penal to insult
IT molost them. But the civil rights of
.•ich and poor in courts of justice were as
eijual as in England.*
The progress of the Christian arm? in
Military Spain may in part be ascribed to
orders, 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 j^ears after the first institution
of the Knights Templars, they were en-
dowed with great estates, or rather dis-
tricts, won from the Moors, on condition
of defending 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 power-
ful the conviction that the hope of Chris-
tendom rested upon their valour, that Al-
fonso the First, king of Aragon, dying
childless, bequeathed to them his whole
kingdom ; an example of liberality, says
Mariana, to surprise future times, and dis-
p.ease his own. J The states of Aragon
annulled, as may be supposed, this strange
testament ; but the successor of Alfonso
was obliged to pacify the ambitious
knights by immense concessions of mo-
ney and territory ; stipulating even not to
make peace with the Moors against their
will.^ In imitation of these great mili-
tary orders, common to all Christendom,
there arose three Spanish institutions of
a similar kind, the orders of Calatrava,
Santiago, and Alcantara. The first of
these was established in 1158; the sec-
ond and most famous had its charter
from the pope in 1175, though it seems
to have existed previously ; the third
* I am indebted for this account of municipal
towns in Castile to a book published at Madrid in
180S, immediately aft :r tlie revolution, by the
Doctor Marina, a car.oti of the church of St. Isidor,
entitled, E.isayo H.storico-Critico sobre la antigua
legislacion yprincipales cuerpos legates de los rey-
aot' de Lyoij y Castilla, especialment sobre el co-
digode D. Alonso el Sabio, conocido con el nombre
de las ?iete Partidas. This work is perha|)s not
easily to ce procured in England : but an article in
the Edinburgh Review, No. XLIII., will coi.vey a
sudicient notion of its contents.
t Mariana, Hist. Hispan., 1. x., e. 10.
I L. I., c. ]= (j L. X., c. ]8
branched off from that of Calairava at a
subsequent time.* These were military
colleges, having their walled towns in
difierent parts of Castile, and governed
by an elective grand master, whose influ-
ence in the slate was at least equal to
that of any of the nobility. In the civil
dissensions of the fourteenth and lifteenth
centuries, the chiefs of these incorpo-
rated knights were often very prominent.
The kingdoms of Leon and Castile
were unwisely divided anew by Final union
Alfonso VII., "between his sons oiLeonanii
Sancho and Ferdinand, and this ^asi'ie-
produced not only a separation, but a re
vival of the ancient jealousy, with fre-
quent wars, for near a century. At
length, in 1238, Ferdinand III., king of
Castile, reunited for ever the two branches
of the Gothic monarchy. He employee
their joint strength against the Moors
whose dominion, though it still embraceci
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 Bay-
len, in 1210.t Ferdinand, bursting into
Andalusia, took its great capi- conquest oi
tal, the city of Cordova [A. D. Anddiusia,
1236], not less ennobled by the cultivation
of Arabian science, and by the names of
Avicenna and Averroes, tlian by the
splendid works of a rich and munificent
dynasty. I In a few years more, Seville
was added to his conquests, and the
Moors lost their favourite regions on
the banks of the Guadalquivir. And Valencia
James I. of Aragon, the victories of
whose long reign gave him the surname
of Conqueror, reduced the city and king-
dom of Valencia, the Balearic Is'es, and
the kingdom of Murcia ; but the last was
* L. xi., c. 6, 13 ; 1. xii., c. 3.
t A letterof Alfonso IX., who gained this victory,
to Pope Innocent III., puts the loss of the Moors
at 180,000 men. The Arabian historians, though
without specifying numbers, seem to confirm this
immense slaughter, which nevertheless it is diffi
cult to conceive before the invention of gunpow
der, or indeed since. — Cardonne, t. ii., p. 387.
t If we can rely on a Moorish author, quoted b
Cardonne (t. i., p. 337), the city of Cordova con
tained, I know not exactly in what century
200,000 houses, COO mosques, and 000 jiublic hatha
There were 12,000 towns and villages on ihebatikj
of the Guadalquivir. The mineo of gold and silvei
were very productive. And the revenues of the
khalifs of Cordova are said to have an ounted to
130,000,000 of French money ; besides large con
tributions that, according to the practice of orien-
tal governments, were paid in the fruits of the
earth. Other proofs of tiie extraordinary opulence
and splendour of this monarchy are dispersed in
Cardonne's work, from which they have been
chiefly borrowed by later writers. The s()lendid
engra-'ings in .^'airphy's Moorish antioiiities <'■*
Spain iiiustrate this subject.
202
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Vn/Lt i\
•iiinexcd, according to compact, to the
crown if Castile.
It could luirdly have been expected
Expulsion of about the middle of the thir-
iie Moors tccnth ccutury, when the splen-
long delayed, ^jj j conqucsts of Ferdinand and
) imcs had planted the Christian banner
on the three principal Moorish cities, that
two hundred and fifty years were yet to
elapse before the rescue of Spain from
Aeir yoke should be completed. Ambi-
tion, rehgious zeal, national enmity, could
not be supposed to pause in a career
which now seemed to be obstructed by
such moderate difficulties ; but we find,
on the contrary, the exertions of the
.Spaniards begin from this time to relax,
and their acquisitions of territory to be-
come more slow. One of the causes,
undoubtedly, that produced this unex-
pected 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 com-
pressible, in a single province. It had
been mingled, in the northern and central
parts, with the Mozarabic Christians,
their subjects and tributaries, not perhaps
treated with much injustice, yet naturally
and irremediably their enemies. Toledo
and Saragosa, when they fell under a
Christian sovereign, were full of these
inferior Christians, whose long inter-
course with their masters has infused the
tones and dialect of Arabia into the lan-
guage of Castile.* But in the twelfth
century, the Moors, exasperated by de-
feat, and jealous of secret disaffection,
began to persecute their Christian sub-
jects, till they renounced or fled for their
religion; so that, in the southern prov-
inces, scarcely any professors of Chris-
tianity w^ere left at the time of Ferdi-
nand's invasion. An equally severe pol-
icy was adopted on the other side. The
Moors had been permitted to dwell in Sa-
ragosa, as the Christians had dwelt be-
fore, subjects, not slaves ; but, on the cap-
ture of Seville, they were entirely ex-
pelled, and new settlers invited from
every part of Spain. The strong fortified
towns of Andalusia, such as Gibraltar,
Algeziras, Tariffa, maintained also a more
formidable resistance than had been ex-
perienced in Castile ; they cost tedious
sieges, were sometimes recovered by the
enemy, and were always liable to his at-
tack.*. But the great protection of the
Spanish Mahometans was found in the
* Mariana, xi , c. 1. Gibbon, c. 51.
alliance and ready aid of their Kindred
beyond the Straits. Accustomed to hea:
of the African Moors only as pirates, we
cannot easily conceive the powerful dy-
nasties, the warlike chiefs, the vast ar-
mies, which for seven or eight centuries
illustrate the annals of that people. Their
assistance was always aiforded to the
true believers in Spain, though their am
bition was generally dreaded by those
who stood in need of their valour.*
Probably, however, the kings of Gra-
nada were most indebted to the indolence
which gradually became characteristic of
their enemies. By the cession of Murcia
to Castile, the kingdom of Aragon shut
itself out from the possibility of extend-
ing those conquests which had ennobled
her earlier sovereigns ; and their succes-
sors, not less ambitious and enterprising,
diverted their attention towards objects
beyond the peninsula. The Castihau,
patient and undesponding in bad suci ess,
loses his energy as the pressure becomes
less heavy, and puts no ordinary evil in
comparison with the exertions 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 labour
of making his triumph complete.
[A. D. 1252.] If a similar spirit of
insubordination had not been ,
found compatible in earlier ages
with the aggrandizement of the Castilian
monarchy, we might ascribe its want of
splendid successes against the iNIoors to
the continued 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 profi-
ciency in learning, and especially in as-
tronomical science ; if these attainments
deserved praise in a king, who was inca-
pable of preserving his subjects in their
duty. As a legislator, Alfonso, by his
code of the Siete Partidas, sacrificed the
ecclesiastical rights of his crown to the
usurpation of Rome ;t and his philosophy
sunk below the level of ordinary pru-
dence, when he permitted the phantom
of an imperial crown in Germany to se-
duce his hopes for almost twenty years.
For the sake of such an illusion he would
even have withdrawn himself from Cas-
tile, if the states had not remonstrated
against an expedition that wonld proba-
bly have cost him the kingdom. In the
latter years of his turbulent reign, Al
* Cardonne, t. ii. and iii., passim.
t Ma.rina, Ensayo Historico-Criticf, p. 27i
1
r,BA> rv.]
8F \.IN.
20!'
•?nso had to conlend again st, his son.
The right of representation was hitherto
unknown in Castile, which had borrowed
httle from the customs of feudal nations.
IJy the received law of succession, the
nearer was always preferred to the more
remote, the son to the grandson. Al-
fonso X. had established the diflerent
maxim of representation by his code of
the Siete Partidas, the authority of
which, however, was not universally ac-
knowledged. The question soon came
to an issue, on the death of his elder son
Ferdinand, leaving two male children.
Sancho, their uncle, 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,
notwithstanding the king's reluctance,
by the courage of Sancho. But the de-
scendants of Ferdinand, generally called
the infants of La Cerda, by the protection
of France, to Avhose royal family they
were closely allied, and of Aragon, always,
prompt to inti: fere in the disputes of a
rival people, continued to assert their
pretensions for more than half a century,
and, though they were not very success-
ful, did not fail to aggravate the troubles
of their country.
The annals of Sancho IV. and his
Civil dis- t^^'O immediate successors, Fer-
tiirbances dinand IV. and Alfonso XL, pre-
ofCastiie. ggj^t a series of unhappy and
dishonourable civil dissensions with too
Sancho IV. much rapidity to be remem- 1
'-'^^- bered or even understood. Al-
iv.^i'ays" though the Castilian nobility
Alfonso XI. had no pretence to the original i
'^'^ independence of the French I
peers, or to the liberties of feudal tenure, \
they assumed the same privilege of re- 1
belling upon any provocation from their j
s,")vereign. When such occurred, they
seem to have been permitted, 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, alternately the favourites
and ministers of the prince, or in arms
against him. If unable to protect them-
selves in their walled towns, and by the
aid of their faction, these C'nristian pa-
triots retired to Aragon or Granada, and
excited a hostile power against their
country and perhaps their religion. Noth-
ing is more common in the Castilian Jiis-
toiy than instances of such dcfeciioa
Mariana remarks coolly of the family ol
Castro, that they were much in the habil
of revolting to the Moors.* This house
and that of Lara were at one time the
great rivals for power; but from the
time of Alfonso X. tlie former seems to
have declined, and the sole family that
came in competition with the Laras du
ring the tempestuous penod that followe .
was that of Haro, which possessed tlr
lordship of Biscay by an hereditary title
The evils of a weak government were
aggravated by the unfortunate circum-
stances in which Ferdinand IV. and Al-
fonso XL ascended the throne; both
minors, with a disputed regency, and thr
interval too short to give ambitious spir-
its leisure to subside. There is, indeed,
some apology for the conduct of the
Laras and Haros in the character of their
sovereigns, wlio had but one favourite
method of avenging a dissembled inju-
ry, or anticipating a suspected treason.
Sancho IV. assassinates Don Lope Haro
in his palace at Valladolid. Alfonso XL
invites to court the infant Don Juan his
first cousin, and commits a similar vio-
lence. Such crimes may be fount ii;
the history of other countries, but they
were nowhere so usual as in Span,
which was far behind France, England,
and even Germany, in civilization.
[A. D. 1350.] But whatever violence
and arbitrai-y spirit might be im- reterthc
puted to Sancho and Alfonso, ^'i'"'^'-
was forgotten in the unexampled tyranny
of Peter the Cruel. A suspicion is fre-
quently intimated by ]\Lariana, which
seems in more modern times to have
gained credit, that party malevolence has
at least grossly exaggerated the enormi-
ties of this prince. t It is difficult, how-
» Mariana, 1. xiii.. c. 1 1.
* Alvarus Castrius patriA aliquanto antca, uti
mons erat, renunciata.— Castria gens per hnc
ternpora ad Mauros sa^pe defecisse visa est, 1. xii..
c. 12. See also chapters l^ and 19.
+ There is in general room enough for skepti
cism as to the characters of men who are only
known to us through their enemies. History is
full of calumnies, and of calumnies that can neici
be effaced. But I really see no ground for thinking
charitably of Peter the Cruel.— Froissart, part i.,
c. 230, and Matteo Villani (in Script. Keru:r
Italic, t. xiv., p. 43), the latter of whom died he
fore the rebellion of Henry of Trastamare, Sfcafc
of him much in the same terms as the Spaii..*';
historians. And why should Ayala be doubled,
when he gives a long list of murders committed ir:
the face of day, within the recollection o( many
persons living when he wrote? There may be 5
question whether Richard III. smothered hisneph
ews in the tower; but nobody can dispute thai
Henry VIII. cut off Anna Bullen's head.
The passage from Matteo Villani above men
tioned is as follows — Comincio asprameote a
204
EUKOPE DURING THE MIDDLE AG£a»
[Chap. IV
s'\er. to believe that a number of atro-
cious acts, unconnected with each other,
ind generally notorious enough in their
circumstances, have been ascribed to any
innocent man. The history of his reign,
chiefly derived, it is admitted, from the
pen of an inveterate enemy, Lope de
Ayala, charges him with the murder of
his wife, Blanche of Bourbon, most of his
brothers and sisters, with Eleanor Gas-
man their mother, many Castilian nobles,
and multitudes of the commonalty ; be-
Mdes continual outrages of licentious-
lles^, and especially a pretended mar-
riage with a noble lady of the Castrian
family. At length a rebellion was head-
ed by his illegitimate brother, Henry,
count of Trastamare, with the assistance
of Aragon and Portugal. This, however,
vould probably have failed of dethroning
Peter, a resolute prince, and certainly
.lot destitute of many faithful supporters,
if Henry had not invoked the more pow^-
n-ful succour of Bertrand du Gueschn,
and the companies of adventure, who,
after the pacification between France and
England, had lost the occupation of war,
and retained only that of plunder. With
mercenaries so disciplined it was in vain
for Peter to contend ; but, abandoning
Spain for a moment, he had recourse
to a more powerful weapon from the
same armory. Edward the Black Prince,
then resident at Bourdeaux, was induced,
by the promise of Biscay, to enter Spain
as the ally of Castile [A. D. 1367] ; and
at the great battle of 5savarette he con-
tmued lord of the ascendant over those
who had so often already been foiled by
his prowess. Du Guesclin was made
prisoner, Henry fled to Aragon, and Peter
remounted the throne. But a second
revolution was at hand : the Black Prince,
whom he had ungratefully offended, with-
drew into Guienne ; and he lost his king-
dom and life in a second short contest
vvivh his brother.
A more fortunate period began v.'ith
iiousfl of ^^^ accession of Henry. His
Trasiainare. owu reign was hardly disturbed
^'^'isfis' ^y '^"y rebellion ; and though
John I. his successors, John I. and
•379. Henry- HI., were not altogether
^"im ' so unmolested, especially the
latter, who ascended the throne
m his minority ; yet the troubles of their
time were slight in comparison with those
formerly excited by the houses of Lara
far ubbidire, perchfe temendo de' suoi baroni, trovo
mod.'' di far infamare I'uno I'altro, e prendendo ca-
gioiie, gli comincio ad uccidere con le sue mani.
E in brieve tempo ne fece morire 25, e tre suoi
(rateUi feee moriro, &c.
and Haro, both of which were now hap
pily extinct. Though Henry H.'s illegit-
imacy left him no title but popular choice,
his queen was sole representative of the
Cerdas, the offspring, as has been men-
tioned above, of Sancho IV. 's elder broth-
er, and by the extinction of the younger
branch, unquestioned heiress of the royal
line. Some years afterward, by the
marriage of Henry HL with Catharine,
daughter of John of Gaunt and of Con-
stance, an illegitimate child of Peter the
Cruel, her pretensions, such as they were,
became merged in the crown.
[A. D. 1406.] No kingdom could be
worse prepared to meet the disorders of
a minority than Castile, and in none did
the circumstance so frequently recur.
John H. was but fourteen months old at
his accession ; and, but for the disinter-
estedness of his uncle Ferdinand, the no-
biUty 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 them-
selves more strictly than their predeces-
sors to the constitutional laws of Castile,
which were never so well established as
during this period. In external affairs
their reigns were not what is considered
as glorious. [A. D. 1385.] They were
generally at peace with Aragon and Gra-
nada, but one memorable defeat by the
Portuguese at Aljubarrota disgraces the
annals of John I., whose cause was as
unjust as his arms were unsuccessful.
This comparatively golden period ceases
at the majority of John II. His reign
was filled up by a series of conspiracies
and civil wars, headed by his cousins,
John and Henry, the infants of Aragon,
who enjoyed very extensive terniories 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 ueighboui
ing sovereign, and as a member of the
native oligarchy. These con- Po^er aw
spiracles were all ostensibly di fail ofAi
reeled against the favourite of ]^^°^''
John II., Alvaro de Luna who
» a.f. .t .]
SPAIN
2oa
regained for five-and-thirty years an abso-
lute control over his feeble master. The
adverse faction naturally ascribed to this
powerful minister every criminal inten-
tion and all pubhc mischiefs. He was
certainly not more scrupulous than the
generality of statesmen, and appears to
have been rapacious iu accumulating
wealth. But there was an energy and
courage about Alvaro de Luna which dis-
tinguish him from the cowardly syco-
phants who usually rise by the favour of
weak princes; and Castile probably would
not have been happier under the admin-
istration of his enemies. His fate is
among the memorable lessons of history.
After a life of troubles endured for the
sake of this favourite, sometimes a fugi-
tive, sometimes a prisoner, his son head-
ing rebellions against him, John H. sud-
denly yielded to an intrigue of the palace,
and adopted sentiments of dislike towards
the man he had so long beloved. 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 af-
fection was, most probably, the insupport-
able restraint which the weak are apt to
find in that spell of a commanding un-
derstanding which they dare not break ;
the torment of living subject to the as-
cendant of an inferior, which has produ-
ced so many examples of fickleness in
sovereigns. That of John H. is not the
least conspicuous. Alvaro de Luna was
brought to a summary trial and behead-
ed ; his estates were confiscated. He
met his death with the intrepidity of
Strafford, to whom he seems to have
borne some resemblance in character.
John n. did not long survive his min-
ister, dying in 1454, after a reign
^""^^ ■ that may be considered as inglo-
rious, compared with any except that of
his successor. If tlic father was not re-
spected, the son fell completely into con-
Jempt. He had been governed by Pa-
checo, marquis of Villena, as implicitly as
John by Alvaro de Luna. This influence
lasted for some time afterward. But the
king inclining to transfer his confidence
to the queen, Joanna of Portugal, and to
one Bertrand de Gueva, upon whom com-
mon fame had fixed as her paramour, a
powerfi;! confederacy of disafli'ected no-
bles was formed against the royal author-
ity. Li what degree Henry IV. 's gov-
ernment had been improvident or oppres-
isive towards the people, it is hard to de-
termine. Tlie chiefs of that rebellion,
Oarillo, archbishop of Toledo, the Admi-
ral of Castile, a veteran leader of f&\. lion
and the Marquis of Villena, so lately tht
king's favourite, were undoubtedly actua-
ted only by selfish ambition and revenge-
[A. D. 1465.] They deposed Htnry in ar
assembly of their faction at Avila, with a
sort of theatrical pageantry wliicli has
often been described. But modern his-
torians, struck by the appearance of judi-
cial solemnity in this proceeding, are
sometimes apt to speak of it as a nation
al act ; while, on the contrary, it seems
to have been reprobated by the majority
of the Castilians as an audacious outrage
upon a sovereign, who, with many de-
fects, had not been guilty of any cxces
sive tyranny. The confederates set up
Alfonso, the king's brother, and a civil
war of some duration ensued, in which
they had the support of Aragon. The
Queen of Castile had at this time borne a
daughter, whom the enemies of Henry
IV., and indeed no small part of his ad
herents, were determined to treat as spu-
rious. Accordingly, after the death of
Alfonso, his sister Isabel was considered
as heiress of the kingdom. She might
have aspired, with the assistance of the
confederates,toits immediate possession-
but, avoiding the odium of a content with
her brother, Isabel agreed to a treaty, b)
which the succession was absolutely set
tied upon her. [A. D. 1469.] This ar
ransement was not long afterward fol
lowed by the union of that princess witt
Ferdinand, son of the King of Aragon
This marriage was by no means accept
able to a part of the Castili.in oligarchy
who had preferred a connp xion with Por
tugal. And as Henry had never lost
sight of the interests of one who!-;i h«
considered, or pretended to considei, as
his daughter, he took the first opportuni-
ty of revoking his forced disposition ol
the crown, and restoring the din.ct lint
of succession in favour of the Pmiecss
Joanna. Upon his death, in 1474, the
right was to be decided by arms. Joan
na had on her side the common presump-
tions of law, the testamentary dispositioi.
of the late king, the support of Alfonso,
king of Portugal, to whom she was be
frothed, and of several considerable lead-
ers among the nobility, as the younj
Marquis of Villena, the family of Mend >
za, and the Archbishop of Toledo, who,
charging Ferdinand with ingratitude, had
quitted a party which he had above ali
men contributed to strengthen. For Isa-
bella were the general belief ot Joanna's
illegitimacy, the assistance of Aragon,
the adherence of a majority botli among
ther.nbles and people, and, more than all
\m
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Ca.
IV
the r( putation of i bility which both she
and her husband had deservedly acquired,
'rh" scale, however, was pretty equally
oaianced, till the King of Portugal having
been defeated at Toro, in 1476, Joanna's
party discovered their inability to prose-
cute the war by themselves, and succes-
sively made their submission to Ferdi-
nand and Isabella.
The Castilians always considered
fonstitu- themselves as subject to a legal
t.oii of and limited monarchy. For sev-
Buccession eral ages the crown was elect-
or the ive, as in most nations of Ger-
crowii. j^r^j^ 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; til!, about the eleventh century,
a right of hereditary succession was
clearly estabUshed. But the form of
recognising the heir-apparent's title in
an assembly of the cortes has subsisted
until our own time.f
In the original Gothic monarchy of
National Spain, civil as well as ecclesias-
counciis. tjgg^i affairs were decided in na-
tional councils, the acts of many of which
are still extant, and have been published
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
consent in the first ages of the new king-
doms of Leon and Castile. The prelates
and nobility, or rather sonie of the more
distinguished nobility, appear to have
concurred in all general measures of le-
gislation, as we infer from the preamble
of their statutes. It would be against
analogy, as well as without evidence, to
suppose thr.t any representation of the
commons had been formed in the earlier
* Defuncto in pace principe, primates totius reg-
ni una cum sacerdotibus successorem ref^ni con-
cilio communi constituant. — Concil. Toletan. IV.,
c. 75, apud Marina, Teoria de las Cortes, t. ii., p.
2. This important work, by the author of the Eii-
sayo Historico-Critico, quoted above, contains an
ample digest of the parhamentary law of Castile,
drawn from original, and, in a great degree, un-
published records. I have been favoured with the
use of a copy, from which I am the more disposed
to make extracts, as the book is likely, through its
liberal principles, to become almost as scarce in
Spain as in England. Marina's former work (the
Ensayo Hist. Crit.) furnishes a series of testimo-
)Mes (c. CG) to the elective character of the monar-
rhy from Pelayo downwards to the twelfth cen-
tury.
t 'f enria de 'as Cortes, t. ii , p. 7.
period of the monarchy. In the pr:;am
ble of laws passed in 1020, and at severa
subsequent times during that and the en-
suing century, we find only he bishops
and magnats recited as pres- Aiim-ssion
ent. According to the General ofdepwues
Chronicle of Spain, deputies '"™"""^'"«
from the Castilian towns formed a part
of cortes in 1 169 ; a date not to be reject-
ed as incompatible with their abserxe in
1178. However, in 1188, the first year
of the reign of Alfonso IX., they are ex-
pressly mentioned; and from that era
were constant and necessary parts of
those general assemblies.* It has been
seen already that the corporate towns,
or districts of Castile, had early acquired
considerable importance; arising less
from commercial wealth, to which the
towns of other kingdoms were indebted
for their liberties, than from their utility
in keeping up a military organization
among the people. To this they ornb-
ably owe their early reception into the
cortes as integrant portions of the legis-
lature, since we do not read that taxes
were frequently demanded till the extrav-
agance of later kings, and their aliena
tion of the domain, compelled them tc
have recourse to the national represent-
atives.
Every chief town of a concejo or cor-
poration ought, perhaps, by the constitu-
tion of Castile, to have received its regu
lar writ for the election of deputies to
cortes. t But there does not appear to
have been, in the best times, any uniform
practice in tliis respect. At the cortes
of Burgos, in 1315, we find one hun-
dred and ninety-two representatives from
more than ninety towns ; at those of
Madrid, in 1391, one hundred and twenty-
si.x were sent from fifty towns; and the
latter list contains names of several pla-
ces which do not appear in tlie former.J
No deputies were present from the king-
dom of Leon in the cortes of Alcala in
1348, where, among many important en
actments, the code of the Siete Partidas
first obtained a legislative recognition.^
* Ensayo Hist. Crit., p. 77. Teoria de las Cor-
tes, t. i.. p. 66. Marina seems to have somewhat
changed his opinion since the publication of the
former work, where he inclines to assert, that Ihe
commons were from the earliest times admitted
into the legislature. In 1188, the first year of the
reign of Alf(jnso IX., we find positive mention of
la muchedumbre de las cibdades h embiados da
cada cibdat.
i Teoria de las Cortes, p. 139.
i Idem, p. 148. Geddes gives a list of oneurjn
dred and twenty-seven deputies from forty-eigh<
towns to the cortes at Madrid in 1390. — Misrella
neous Tracts, vol. iii.
(J Idem .). 154
SPAIIJ
2«I7
We find, in sliort, i good deal more irrcg- 1
iilarity than during the same period in |
England, where the number of electing '
boroughs varied pretty considerably at
every parliament. Yet the cones of
Castile did not cease to be a numerous
oody and a fair representation of the peo- 1
pic till the reign of John II. The first [
princes of the h(;mse of Trastamare had [
acted in all points with the advice of their
cortes. But John II., and still more h.s
son, Henrj'^ IV., being conscious of their
own unpopularity, did not venture to meet
A full assembly of the nation. Their
M rits were directed only to certain
towns ; an abuse for which the looseness
of preceding usage had given a pretence.*
It must be owned that the people bore it
;n general very patiently. Many of the
corporate towns, empoverished by civil
warfare and other causes, Avere glad to
save the cost of defraying their deputies'
expenses. Thus, by the year 1480, only
seventeen cities had retained privilege of
representation. A vote was afterward
added for Granada, and three more in
later times for Palencia, and the prov-
inces of Estremadura and Galicia.f It
might have been easy, perhaps, to redress
this grievance, while the exclusion was
j'et fresh and recent. But the privileged
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 elective franchises to their
fellow-citizens. The cortes of 1506 as-
sert, with one of those bold falsifications
upon which a popular body sometimes
ventures, tliat " it is established by some
hiws and by immemorial usage that eigh-
teen cities of these kingdoms have the
right of sending deputies to cortes, and
no more ;" remonstrating against the at-
tempts made by some other towns to ob-
* Sepades (says John II. in 1442), que en el
ayiuUamicnto que yo fice en la noble villa de V'al-
ladolid los procuradores de ciertas cibdados
h villas de n\is rcynos que por mi nnandado fueron
llamados. This language is repeated as to subse-
quent ineetings, p. 156.
t The cities wiiich retain their representation in
cortes, if the present tense may still be used even
for these ghosts of ancient liberty in Spain, are
Burgos, Toledo (there was a constant dispute for
precedence between these two), Leon, Granada,
Cordova, Murcia, Jaen, Zamora, Toro, Soria, Va'-
ladolid, Salamanca, Sftgovia, Avila, I^Iadrid, Gu(.-
daiaxara, and Cuenc?.. The representatives of
these wera supposed to vote not only for their im-
mediate constituents, but for other adjarent towns.
Thus Toro voted for Palencia and the kingdom of
Galicia before they obtained separate votes ; Sala-
manca for most of Estremadura ; Guadalaxara
for Siguenza and four hundred other towns. — Teo
ria de las Cortes p. 160, 263
tain the same privilege, wnich they re-
quest may r.ot be conceded. This re-
monslrar:ce is repeated in 1512,*
From the -eign of Alfonso XL, who
restrained the government of corporations
to an oligaichy'of magistrates, the right
of electing members of cortes was, con-
fined to tiie ruling body, the bailiffs or
regidores, whose number seldom ex-
ceeded twenty- four, and whose succes-
sion was kept up by close election
among themselves. f The people, there-
fore, 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 cor-
rupt influence and to intimidation. John
II. and Henry IV. often invaded the free-
dom of election ; the latter even named
some of the deputies. J Several energet-
ic remonstrances were made in cortes
against this flagrant grievance. Laws
were enacted, and other precautions de-
vised, to secure the due return of depu-
ties. In the sixteenth century, the evil
of course was aggravated. Charles and
Philip corrupted the members by bri-
bery.i§i Even in 1573 the cortes are bold
enough to complain, that creatures of
government were sent thither, " who are
always held for suspected by the other
deputies, and cause disagreement among
tliem."||
There seems to be a considerable ob-
scurity about the constitution „ . ., ,
i- .1 * c 1 » Spiritual
of the cortos, so far as relates ami iem^>-
to the two higher estates, the rai nobiiitj
spiritual and temporal nobil- ""="'■"^^•
ity. It is admitted, that down to the lat-
ter part of the thirteenth century, and
especially before the introduction of
representatives from the commons, they
were summoned in considerable num-
bers. But the writer to whom I must
almost exclusively refer for the coiisti-
tuli<inal history of Castile contends, that,
from the reign of Sancho IV., they took
much less share, and retained much less
influence, in the deliberations of cortes. Tj
There is a remarkable protest of the
Archbishop of Toledo in 1'395 against the
acts done in cortes, because neither he
nor the other prelates had been admitted
to their discussions, nor given any con
sent to their resolutions, although such
* Teoria de las Cortes, p. 161.
t Idem, p. 80, 197. t I<3<m. P tOW
() Idem, p. 21.3. H Idem i 2<>V
m l.f.-n D. C7
*J»
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGLs.
lyH*P. I"
consent was falsely recited in the laws
enacted therein.* This protestation is
at least a testimony to the constitutional
rights of the prelacy, which indeed all
the early hi story of Castile, as well as
the analogy of other governments, con-
spires to demonstrate. In the fourteenth
md fifteenth centuries, however, they
were more and more excluded. None
of the prelates were summoned to the
cortes of 1299 and 1301 ; none either of
the prelates or nobles to those of 1370
and 1373, of 1480 and 1505. In all the
latter cases, indeed, such members of
both orders as happened to be present in
the court attended the cortes ; a fact
which seems to be established by the
language of the statutes. f Other instan-
ces of a similar kind may be adduced.
Nevertheless, the more usual expression
in the preamble of laws reciting those
summoned to, and present at, the cortes,
though subject to considerable variation,
seems to imply that all tlie three estates
were, at least nominally and according to
legitimate forms, constituent members
of the national assembly. And a chron-
icle mentions, under the year llOG, the
nobility and clergy as deliberating separ-
ately, and with some difference of judg-
ment, from the deputies of the com-
mons.{ A theory, indeed, which should
* Protestamos que desde aqui venimos non fue-
mos llamados a consejo, ni a los tratados sobre
los fechos del reyno, ni sobre las otras cosas que
hi fueren tractadas et fechas, et sennaladamente
sobre los fechos de los concejos de las herinanda-
des, et de las peticiones que fueron fechas de su
parte, et sobre los otorgatnentos que les ficieron, et
sobre los previlegios que por esta nazon les fueron
otorgados ; mas ante fuemos ende apartados et es-
trannados et secados e.xpresamente nos et los otros
perlados et ricos homes et los fijosdalgo ; et non
(ue hf cosa fecha con nuestro consejo. Otrosi pro-
testamos por razon de aquello que dice en los pre-
vilegios que les otorgaron, que fueren los perlados
llamados, et que eran otorgados de conscntmiiento
et de voluntad dellos, que non fuemos hi presentes
ni llamados nin fue fecho con nuestra voluntad, niii
conseniiemos, nin consentimos en ellos, &c., p. 72.
t Teoria de las Cortes, p. 74.
i T. ii., p. 234. Marina is influenced by a preju-
dice in favour of the abortive Spanish constitution
of 1812, which excluded the temporal and spirit-
ual aristocracy from a place in the legislature, to
imagine a similar form of government in ancient
times. But his own work furnishes abundant rea-
sons, if I am not mistaken, to modify this opinion
very essentially. A few out of many instances may
be .idduced from the enacting words of statutes,
which we consider in England as good evidences
:o establish a constitutional theory. Sepades que
yo hobe mio acuerdo e mio consejo con mios her-
manos e los arzobispos, e los opisbos, e con los ri-
cos homes de Castella, e de Leon, e con homes
iiuenos de las villas de Castella, e de Leon, que
fueron cnnmigo en Valladolit, sobre muchas cosas,
^•c. (Alfonso X. in 1258.) Mandamos enviar lia-
•jiar pel cartas del rei e nuestras a los infantes e
exclude the great territorial a, stocracy
from their place in cortes, wou-i expose
the dignity and legislative rights of that
body to unfavourable inferences. But it
is manifest, that the king exercised very
freely a prerogative of caUing or omitting
persons of both the higher orders at hi.«
discretion. The bishops were numerous,
and many of their sees not rich ; while
the same objections of inconvenience
applied perhaps to the ricos hombres, but
far more forcibly to the lower nobility,
the hijosdalgo or caballeros. Castile
never adopted the institution of deputies
from this order, as in the States General
of France and some otlier countries :
much less that liberal system of landed
representation, which forms one of the
most admirable peculiarities in our own
constitution. It will be seen hereafter,
that spiritual, 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 establishment of
any fixed usage in this and most other
points.
The primary and most essential char-
acteristic of a limited monarchy Uigiuof
is, that money can only be levied <a.\auoii.
upon the people through the consent of
their representatives. This principle was
thoroughly established in Qastile ; and the
statutes which enforce it, the remoi-
strances which protest against its viola •
tion, bear a lively analogy to correspond
perlados e ricos liomes e infanzones e caballeros e
homes buenos de las cibdades e de las villas de
los reynos de Castilia et de Toledo e de Leon e de
las Estramaduras, e de Gallicia e dp las Asturias e
del Andalusia. (Writ of summons to cortes ol
Burgos in 1315.) Con acuerdo de los perlados ede
los ricos homes e procuradores de las cibdades &
villas h logares de los nuestros reynos. (Ordinan-
ces of Toro in 1371). Estando hi con el el infante
Don Ferrando, &c., e otros perlados e condes e ri-
cos homes e otros del consejo del seiior rei, e
otros caballeros e escuderos, e los procuradores de
las cibdades e villas e logares de sus reynos. (Cortes
of 1391.) Los tres estados que de ben venir a las
cortes e ayuntamientossegunt se debe facer e esde
buena costuinbre antigua (Cortes of 1393.) This
last passage is apparently conclusive to prove, that
three estates, the superior clergy, the nobility, and
the commons, were essential members of the Le-
gislature in Castile, as they were in France and
England ; and one is astonished to read in Marina
that no faltaron a ninguna de las formalidades de
derecho los monarcas quo no tuvieron por oporru
no llamar h cortes para semejantes actos ni al c lerci
ni a la nobleza ni a las personas singulares Je unc
y otro estado, t. i., p. 69. That great citizer., .'oveU
lanos, appears to have had much wiser notions of
the ancient government of his country, as well as
of the sort of reformation which she A'anted, as
we may infer from passages in his Memoria ^ su»
compatriotas, Coruna, 1811 quoted by Marina f.H
the purpose of censure
I
ClIAl IV.J
SPAIN
20£
ng circumstances in the history of our
constitution. The lands of the nobiUty
and clergy were, I believe, always ex-
empted from direct taxation; an immu-
nity which perhaps rendered the attend-
ance of the members of those estates in
the cortes less regular. The corporate
districts or concejos, which, as I have ob-
served already, differed from the commu-
nities of France and England by possess-
ing a large extent of territory, subordinate
to the principal town, were bound by their
charter to a stipulated annual payment,
the price of their franchises, called mo-
neda forera.* Beyond this sum nothing
could be demanded without the consent
of the cortes. Alfonso VIII., in 1 177, ap-
plied for a subsidy towards carrying on
he siege of Cuenca. Demands of money
do not however seem to have been very
usual before the prodigal reign of Alfonso
X. That prince and his immediate succes-
sors were not much inclined to respect
the rights of their subjects ; but they en-
couniered a steady and insuperable re-
sistance. Ferdinand IV., in 1307, prom-
ises to raise no money beyond his legal
and customary dues. A more explicit
law was enacted by Alfonso XI. in 1328,
who bound himself not to exact from his
people, or cause them to pay any tax,
either partial or general, not hitherto es-
tablished by law, without the previous
grant of all the deputies convened to the
cortes. t This abolition of illegal impo-
sitions was several times confirmed by
the same prince. The cortes, in 1393,
having made a grant to Henry III., an-
nexed this condition, that " since they
had granted him enough for his present
necessities, and even to lay up a part for
a future exigency, he should swear be-
fore one of the archbishops not to take or
demand any money, service, or loan, or
any thing else of the cities and towns,
nor of individuals belonging to them, on
any pretence of necessity, until the three
estates of the kingdom should first be duly
summoned and assembled in cortes ac-
cording to ancient usage. And if any
such letters requiring money have been
written, that they shall be obeyed, and not
* Marina, Ensayo Hist. Crit., cap. 158. Teoria
■Jc las Cortes, t. ii., p. 387. This is expressed
m one of their fueros, or charters : Liberi et
ingenui semper maneatis, reddendo mihi et suc-
ressoribus meis in unoquoqiie anno in die Penle-
costcs dn unaquaque domo 12 denarios ; et, nisi
cum bon& voluntate vestr& feceritis, nullum alium
servitnim facialis.
t De los con echar nin mandar pagar pecho de-
•aforado ninguno, especial nin gieneral, en toda mi
tierra, sin ser llamailos primerainetite a cortes, h
(•torgado por todos los procjra lores que ni ve-
'Ueren , p. 388
o
complied u-ilh.'"* His SOU John II , hav-
ing violated this constitu ional privilege
on the allegation of a pressing necessity
the cortes, in 1420, presented a long re
monstrance, couched in very respectful
but equally firm language, wherein the>
assert, " the good custom founded in rea
son and in justice, that the cities ant
towns of your kingdoms shall not be com
pelled to pay taxes, or requisitions, oi oth
er new tribute, unless your highness ordei
it by advice and with the grant of the
said cities and towns, and of their depu-
ties for them." And they express theii
apprehension lest this right should be in-
fringed, because, as they say, " there re-
mains no other privilege or liberty which
can be profitable to subjects if this be
shaken. "t The king gave them as fuL
satisfaction as they desired, that his on
croachment should not be drawn intc
precedent. Some fresh abuses, during
the unfortunate reign of Henry IV., pro-
duced another declaration in equally ex-
plicit language ; forming part of the sen-
tence awarded by the arbitrators to whom
the differences between the king and his
people had been referred at Medina do
Campo in 1465'4 The Catholic kings, a>,
they are eminently called, Ferdinand ar d
Isabella, never violated this part of the
constitution; nor did even Charles I., al-
though sometimes refused money by the
cortes, attempt to exact it witliout their
consent.^ In the Recopilacion, or code
of CastiUan law, published by Philip II.
• Obedecidasenon cumplidas. This e.xpressioi
occurs frequently in provisions made against illega.
acts of the crown ; and is characteristic of the sin-
gular respect with which the Spaniards always
thought It right to treat their sovereign, while they
were resisting the abuses of nis authority.
t La buena costumbre i possession fundada en
razon h en justicia que las cibdades e villas de
vuestros retnos tenian de no ser mandado coger
monedas i pedidos nin otro tribute nuevo algunc
en los vuestros reinos sin que la vuestra senoria lo
faga e ordenede consejo e con otorgamiento de las
cibdades h villas de los vuestros reinos h de sus
procuradores en su nombre * * * » «■ no queda
otro previlegio ni libertad de que los subditos pue-
dan gozar ni aprovechar quebrantado el sobre
dicho, t. iii., p. 30.
t Declaramos ^ ordenamos, que el dicho seiior
rei nin los otros reyes que despues del fueren non
echan nin reparian nin pidan pedidos nin monedae
en sus reynos, salvo por gran necessidad, 6 seyeiuic
primero accordado con los perlados h grandes de
sus reynos, e con los otros que a la sazou residieren
en su consejo, e seyendo para ello llamados los
procuradores de las cibdades e vilhsde sus reynos.
que para las tales cosas se suelen h acostunibran
Uamar h seyendo per los dichos procuradores otor
gado el dicho pediinento 6 moneilas, I. ii., p. 391.
f) Marina has published two letters from Chailei
tc the city of Toledo, in 1542 and IJIS, rtquestuig
them to instruct their deputies to consent to a fui
tlier graMt of money, which thev ha i refused to d^
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
Cfl*r rv
nre read a positive declaration against ar-
bitrary imposition of taxes, which re-
mained unaltered on the face of the stat-
ute-book till the present age.* The law
was indeed frequently broken by Philip
II ; but the cortes, who retained through-
out the sixteenth century a degree of
ijt'adiness and courage truly admirable,
when M-8 consider their political weak-
ness, did not cease to remonstrate with
that suspicious tyrant, and recorded their
Hnavailing appeal to the law of Alfonso
XI., " so ancient and just, and which so
long time has been used and observed. "f
The free assent of the people by their
contro'.rf representatives to grants of
cortes O'er mouey was by no means a
expenditure, mere matter of form. It was
connected with other essential rights, in-
dispensable to its effectual exercise ;
those of exainining public ftccoun^s and
checking the expenditure. The cortes,
in the best times at least, were careful to
grant no money until they were assured
that what had been alrcsiy levied on
their constituents had L>e.'''.\ properly em-
ployed. J They refused a suK-nidy in 1390,
because they had already given so much,
and "not knowing how so great a sum
had been expended, it would be a great
dishonour and mischief to promise any
nici-e." In 1406 they stood out a long
iuiie, and at length gave only half of
what was demanded.^ Charles I. at-
tempted to obtain money, in 1527, from
the nobility as well as commons. But
the former protested, that " their obliga-
tion was to follow the king in war,
wherefore to contribute money was to-
without leave of their constituents. — Teoria de las
Corles. t. iii., p. 180. 187.
* Idem, t. li., p. 393.
t En las cortes de ano de TO y en las de "G pedi-
mos a V. m. fuese servide de no poner nuevos im-
puestos, rentas, pechos, ni derechos ni otros tribu-
tes particulares ni generales sin junta del reyno en
cortes, come esla dispuerto por lei del sefior rei Don
Alonso y se signified a v. m. el dano grande que
con las nuevas rentas habia rescibido el reino, su-
piicando a v. m. fuese servido de mandarle aliyiar y
iescargar, y que en lo de adelante se les hiciesse
merced deguardar las dichas leyes reales y que no
Be impnsiessen nuevas rentas sin su asistencia ;
pres podria v. m. estar satisfecho de que el reino
girve en las cosas necessarias con toda lealtad y
liasta aiiora no se ha proveido lo susodicho; y el
reino por la obligacion que tiene a pedir a v. m.
^larde la dicha lei, y que no solamenle han cessado
jae necegsidades de los subditos y naturales de
V. n. pero ante? crecen de cada dia : vuelve a su-
plicar a v. m. fca servido concederle lo susodicho,
V que las nuevas rentas, pechos y derecho.-i se
.juuen, y que de aqui adelante se guarde la dicha
lei del sef.or rei don Alonso, como tan antigua y
nista y que tanto tiempo se us6 y guard6, p. 395.
This pstilior. was in 1579.
t *Jaina. ii. p. 404, 406. ^ .bid., p. 409.
tally against their privilege, and for thai
reason they could not acquiesce in hi.s
majesty's request."* The commons also
refused upon this occasion. In 1538, on
a similar proposition, the superior and
lower nobility (los grandes y caballeros)
"begged with all humility that they
might never hear any more of that mat-
ter."t
The contributions granted by cortee
were assessed and collected by respect-
able individuals (hoinbres buenos) of the
several towns and villages. | This r( par-
tition, as the French call it, of direct tax-
es, is a matter of the highest importance
in those countries where they are impo-
sed 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 sub-
sidy for the war against Granada, on con-
dition " 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 remained unexpended ; Ferdinand
wished to apply it to his own object of
procuring the crown of Aragon ; trat the
queen first obtained not only a release
from her oath by the pope, but the con-
sent of the cortes. They continued to
insist upon this appropriation, though in-
eflectually, under the reign of Charles 1.^
The cortes did not consider it beyond
the line of theirduty, notwithstanding the
respectful manner in which they always
addressed the sovereign, to remonstrate
against profuse expenditure even in his
own household. They told Alfonso 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. 11 They remonstrated more for-
cibly against the prodigality of John II.
Even in 1559, they spoke with an un-
daunted Castilian spirit to Philip II. ;
" Sir, the expenses of your royal estab-
lishment ai-d household are much increas-
ed ; and we conceive it would much re-
dound to the good of these kingdoms,
that j'our majesty should direct them tc
* Peio que contribuir a la guerra con cierta*
sumas era totalmente opuesto a sus previlegios, i
asi que no podrian acomodarse a lo que s. m. de
seaba. p. 411.
t Marina, t. ii., p. '11 t Tbid., p. 398.
<! Ibid., p. 412 II Ibid., c 117
Chap. IV.]
SPAIN.
211
be lowered, both as a relief to your wants,
and that all the great men and other sub-
jects of your majesty may take example
therefrom, to restrain the great disorder
and excess they commit in that respect."*
The forms of a Castilian cortes were
rornis of analogous to those of an English
(iiecoiitfs. parliament in the fourteenth cen-
mry. They were summoned by a writ
almost exactly coincident in expression
>viih that in use among us.f The session
was opened by a speech from the chan-
cellor or other chief officer of the court.
The deputies were invited to consider
certain special business, and commonly
to grant money.| After the principal af-
fairs were despatched, they conferred to-
gether, and having examined the instruc-
tions of their respective constituents,
drew up a schedule of petitions. These
were duly answered one by one, and from
the petition and answer, if favourable,
laws were afterward drawn up, where the
matter required a new law, or promises
of redress were given, if the petition re-
lated to an abuse or grievance. In the
struggling condition of Spanish liberty
under Charles I., the crown began to neg-
lect answering the petitions of cortes, or
to use unsatisfactory generalities of ex-
pression. This gave rise to many remon-
strances. The deputies insisted, in 1523,
on having answers before they granted
money. They repeated the same conten-
\ion in 1525, and obtained a general law,
.nserted in the Recopilacion, enacting
that the king should answer all their pe-
titions before he dissolved the assembly.^
This, however, was disregarded as before;
but the cortes, whose intrepid honesty,
under Philip II. so often attracts our ad-
miration, continued, as late as 1586, to
appeal to the written statute, and lament
its violation.il
According to the ancient fundamental
Right of constitution of Castile, the king
•joriesin did not legislate for his subjects
legislation, .^vithout their consent. The code
of the Visigoths, called in Spain the Fuero
JusgOj was enacted in public councils, as
were also the laws of the early kings of
Leon,^ which appears by the reciting
* Senhor, los gastos de vuestfo real estado y
•nesa son mny crescidos, y entcndernos que con-
ierr.ia muclio al bien de estos reinos que v. m. los
.■nandasse mwlerar asi para algun remedio de sus
nccg^sidades conio para q\ie de v. m. toinen egetn-
plo totos los grandes y caballeros y otros subditos
de V. m. en la gran desorden y excesses que hacer
en las cos is sobredichas. — Marina, p. 437.
[ Ibid., t. i.. p. 175 ; t. iii., p. 103.
j Ibid., p. 278. () Ibid., p. 301.
II Ibid, p. ?.8e-304.
il Ibid, t. ii., p 202. The acts of the cortes
O 2
words of their preambles. This coii6 >.«
was originally given only by the higher
estates, who might be considered, m
large sense, as representing the nation,
though not chosen by it ; but from the
end of the twelfth century, by the elect-
ed deputies of the commons m cortes.
The laws of Alfonso X.,in 1258, those of
the same prince in 1274, and many oth-
ers in subsequent times, are declared to
be made with the consent Ccon acuerdo)
of the several orders of the kingdom.
More commonly, indeed, the preamble of
Castilian statutes only recites their ad-
vice (consejo) ; but I do not know that any
stress is to be laid on this circumstance.
The laws of the Siete Partidas, com-
piled by Alfonso X., did not obtain any
direct sanction till the famous cortes of
Alcala, in 1348, when they were confirm-
ed along with several others, forming al-
together the basis of the statute law of
Spain.* Whether they were in fact re-
ceived before that time, has been a mat-
ter controverted among Spanish antiqua-
ries ; and upon the question'of their legal
validity at the time of their promulgation,
depends an important point in Castilian
history, the disputed right of succession
between Sancho IV. and the infants of La
Cerda; the former claiming under the an-
cient customary law, the latter under the
new dispositions of the Siete Partida?
If the king could not legally change the
established laws without consent of his
cortes, as seems most probable, the right
of representative succession did not ex-
ist in favour of his grandchildren, and
Sancho IV. cannot be considered as an
usurper.
It appears upon the whole to have been
a constitutional principle, that laws could
neither be made nor annulled except in
cortes. In 1506, this is claimed by the
deputies as an established riglit.f John
of Leon in 1020 run thus : omnes pontifices ct ab
bates et optimates regni Hispaniae jussu ipsiue re-
gis talia decretadecrevimusqua; firmiter teneantut
fiitutis temporibus. So those of Salamanca in
1178: Fgo re.x Feriiandus inter coetera quEe cum
epl.-^copis et abbatibus regni nostri et quamplurimis
aliis religiosis, cum coinitibus terrarum et principi-
bus et rectoribus provniciarum, tc to posse tenenda
statuimus apud Salamancam.
* Ensayo Hist. Crit., p. 353. Teoriade las Cor-
tes, t. ii., p. 77. Marina seems to have changed his
opinion between the publication of these two works,
in the former of which he contends for the previo is
authority of the Siete Partidas, and in favour of
the infants of La Cerda.
t Los reyes establicieron que cuando habiesser
de hacer leyes, para que fuessen provechosas k
svis reynos y cada provincias fuesen proveidas, se
llainasen cortes y procuradore.« que entendiesen en
ellas y por esto se establecio ei <,ue no se hiciesea
212
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. l\
the First had long before admitted, that
what was done by cortes and general as-
semblies could not be undone by letters
missive, but by such cortes and assem-
blies alone.* For the kings of Castile
had adopted the English practice, of dis-
pensing with statutes by a non obstante
clause in their grants. But the cortes
remonstrated more steadily against this
abuse than our own parliament, who suf-
fered it to remain in a certain degree till
the revolution. It was several times en-
acted upon their petition, especially by
an explicit statute of Henry II., that
grants and letters patent dispensing with
statutes should not be obeyed. f Never-
theless John II., trusting to force or the
servility of the judges, had the assurance
to dispense explicitly with this very law. |
The cortes of Valladolid, in 1442, obtain-
ed fresh promises and enactments against
such an abuse. Philip I. and Charles I.
began to legislate without asking the
consent of cortes ; this grew much worse
under Philip II., and reached its height
under his successors, who entirely abol-
ished 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 government." But
oven in 1619, and still afterward, the pa-
triot representatives of Castile contin-
ued to lift an unavailing voice against il-
legal ordinances, though in the form of
very humble petition ; perhaps the latest
testimonies to the expiring liberties of
their country. |j The denial of exclusive
legislative authority to the crown must,
however, be understood to admit the le-
gality of particular ordinances, designed
to strengthen the king's executive gov-
ernment.Tf These, no doubt, like the roy-
al proclamations in England, extended
sometimes very far, and subjected the
people to a sort of arbitrary coercion
much beyond what our enlightened no-
tions of freedom would consider as rec-
oncileable to it. But in the middle ages,
such temporary commands and prohibi-
tions were not reckoned strictly legisla-
ni renovasen leyes sino en cortes. — Teoria de las
Cortes, t. ii., p. 218.
♦ Lo que es fecho por cortes h por ayuntamien-
tos que non se pueda disfacer por las tales cartas,
Balvo po_- ayuntamientos 6 cortes, p. 215.
t Idem, p. 215. J Idem, p. 216 ; t. hi., p. 40.
() Idem, t. ii., pi 218.
II Ha suplicado el reino a v. m. no se promulguen
cuevas leyes, ni en tolo ni en parte las antiguas se
elteren sin que sea por cortes . . . . y por ser de tan-
ta importaiicia vuelve el reino a suplicarlo humil-
mente k V. m., p. 220.
1 Idem, p 207
live, and passed, perhaps rightly, for in-
evitable consequent es of a scanty code
and short sessions of I'he national council.
The kings were oblijjed to swear to the
observance of laws enacted in cortes, be-
sides their general coronation oath to
keep the laws and preserve the liberaea
of their people. Of this we find several
instances from the middle of the thir
teenth century; and the practice contin
ued till the time of John II., who, in 1433
on being requested to swear to the laws
then enacted, answered, that he intended
to maintain them, and consequently no
oath was necessary ; an evasion, in which
the cortes seem unaccountably to have
acquiesced.* The guardians of Alfonso
XI. not only swore to observe all that
had been agreed on at Burgos in 1315,
but consented that, if any one of them
did not keep his oath, the people should
no longer be obliged to regard or obey
him as regent. f
It was customary to assemble the cor-
tes of Castile for many purposes, qj^^^
besides those of granting money rights
and concurring in legislation. They °^ "■*
were summoned m every reign to
acknowledge and confirm the successiou
of the heir apparent ; and, upon his acces-
sion, to swear allegiance. J These acts
were however little more than formal
and accordingly have been preserved for
the sake of parade, after all the real di;?-
nity of the cortes was annihilated. In the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, they
claimed and exercised far more ample
powers than our own parliament ever
enjoyed. 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 minorities of Castilian kings,
which were unfavourable enough to tran
quillity and subordination, served to con-
firm these parliamentary privileges. The
cortes were usually consulted upon all
material business. A law of Alfonso XI.,
in 1328, printed in the Recopilacion, or
code published by Philip II.. declares,
" Since, in the arduous affairs of our king-
dom, the counsel of our natural subjects
is necessary, especially of the deputies
from our cities and towns, therefore wo
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 oui
forefathers have been used to do."|| A
cortes of John II., in 1419, claimed thisr
* Teoria de las Cortes, t. i., p. 306.
^ Id., t. iii., p. 62. J Id., t. i., p. 33 ; t. ii., o. 84
^Id., p230. II Id., t. i., p 31.
Vhav IV.J
SPALN.
213
right of bei ig consulted i.i ail matters of
importance, with a wann remonstrance
against the alleged violation of so whole-
some a law by the reigning prince ; who
answered that, in weighty matters, he had
acted, and would continue to act, in con-
lormity to it.* What should be intended
by jreat and weighty affairs, might be
not ai all agreed upon by the two parties ;
to e'ach of whose interpretations these
words gave pretty full scope. However,
the current usage of the monarchy cer-
tainly permitted much authority in public
deliberations to the cortes. Among other
instances, which indeed will continually
be found in the common civil histories,
the cortes of Orcano,in 1469, remonstrate
with Henry IV. for allying himself with
England rather than France, and give, as
the first reason of complaint, that, " ac-
cording to the laws of your kingdom,
when the kings have any thing of great
importance in hand, they ought not to
undertake it without advice and knowl-
edge of the chief towns and cities of your
kingdom."! This privilege of general
interference was asserted, like other an-
cient rights, under Charles,. whom they
strongly urged, in 1548, not to permit his
son Philip to depart out of the realm.;}:
It is hardly necrssary to observe, that in
such times the} had little chance of be-
ing regarded.
The kings of Leon and Castile acted.
Council of during the interval of the cortes,
Castile. \jy [YiQ advice of a smaller coun-
cil, answering, as it seems, almost ex-
actly to the king's ordinary council in
England. In early ages, before the in-
troduction of the commons, it is some-
times difficult to distinguish this body
from the general council of the nation ;
being composed, 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 ordi-
nances which may appear rather of a le-
gislative nature, all grants and charters,
are declared to De with the assent of the
court (curia), or of the magnats of the
palac3, or of the chiefs or nobles.^ This
privy council was an essential part of all
* T.'oria de las Cortes, t. i., p. 34.
t Porque, segunt leyes de nuestros reynos, cu-
i:»do los reyes han de facer alguna cosa de gran
importancia, non lo deben facer sin consejo e sabi-
duria de las cibdades e villas principales devuestros
reynos. — Idem, t. ii., p. 241.
t Idem, t. iii., p. 183.
^ Cum assensu magnatum palatii : Cumconsilio
rjrioB meae : Cum consilio et beneplacito omnium
prmcipium meorum, nullo contradicente nee re-
clsiiiente p. 325
European monarchies, .^nd, though tht
sovereign might be considered as free tu
call in the advice of whomsoever he
pleased, yet, in fact, the princes of the
blood and most powerful nobility had an-
ciently 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 ne-
cessary to enumerate. It was justly
deemed an important member of the con-
stitution, and the cortes showed a lauda-
ble anxiety to procure its composition in
such a manner as to form a fuarantee
for the due execution of laws after their
own dissolution. Several times, espe-
cially in minorities, they even named its
members, or a part of them ; and in the
reigns of Henry III. and John II., they
obtained the privilege of adding a perma-
nent deputation, consisting of four per-
sons, elected out of their own body, an-
nexed, as it were, to the council, who
were to continue at the court during the
interval of cortes, and watch over the due
observance of the laws.* This deputation
continued, as an empty formality, in the
sixteenth century. In the council, the
king was bound to sit personally three
days in the week. Their business, which
included the whole executive govern-
ment, was distributed with considerable
accuracy into what might be despatched
by the council alone, under their own
seals and signatures, and what required
the royal seal.f The consent of this
body was necessary for almost every act
of the crown, for pensions or grants of
money, ecclesiastical and political pro-
motions, 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. J But the coun-
cil did not exercise any judicial authority,
if we may believe the well-mformed au-
thor from whom I have learned these
particulars ; unlike, in this, to the ordi-
nary council of the kings of England. It
was not until the days of Ferdinand and
Isabella that this, among other innova-
tions, was introduced.^
Civil and criminal justice was adminis-
tered, in the first instance, by the Adminie-
alcaldes, or municipal judges of tranon a,
towns; elected within themselves J"*'ice.
originally by the community at large, but
in subsequent times by the governing
* Teoria de las Cortes, t. ii., p. 346.
t Idem, p. 354. i Idem, p. 360, 362, 3^3
^ Idem, p. 375, 379.
214
EL ROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGESi.
IChai
body. In otner places, a lord possessed
{he right of junsdiciion by grant from the
crown, not, what we find in countries
where the feudal system was more thor-
oucrhly established, as incident to his
own territorial superiority. The kings,
liowever, began in the thirteenth centur}'
to appoint judges of their own, called cor-
regidores, a name which seems to express
concurrent jurisdiction with rcgidores, or
ordinary magistrates.* The cortes fre-
quently remonstrated against this en-
croachment. Alfonso XI. consented to
withdraw his judges from all corpora-
tions by which he had not been requested
lo appoint them.f Some attempts to in-
ierfere with the municipal authorities of
Toledo produced serious disturbances
under Henry III. and John II. J Even
wjiere the king appointed magistrates at
a city's request, he was bound to select
Ihem 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. 1| The latter, however,
could not take cognizance of any cause
depending before the ordinary judges ; a
contrast to the practice of Aragon, where
the justiciary's right of evocation (juris
firma) was considered as a principal safe-
guard of pubhc liberty. "[[ As a court of
appeal, the royal alcaldes had the su-
preme jurisdiction. The king could only
cause their sentence to be revised, but
neither alter nor revoke it.** They have
continued to the present day as a criminal
tribunal ; but civil appeals were trans-
ferred by the ordinances of Toro in 1371
to a new court, styled the king's audience,
which, though deprived under Ferdinand
and his successors of part of its jurisdic-
tion, still remains one of the principal ju-
dicatures in Castile. ft
No people in a half-civilized state of
„. , . society have a full practical se-
Violent a<- . •' . .' , ^ -
tioiis of cunty agamst particular acts ol
some kings arbitrary power. They were
ofCasiiie. j-jjQj.g common, perhaps, in Cas-
tile than in any other European monarchy
which professed to be free. Laws in-
deed were not wanting to protect men's
lives and liberties, as well as their prop-
erties. Ferdinand IV., in 1299, agreed to
a petition that "justice shall be executed
* Alfonso X. says : Ningun ome sea osado ;'uz-
gar pleytos, se nj (Mere alcalde puesto por el rey.
— T»iria de las Cortes, fol. 27. This seems an
encroachment on^he municipal magistrates.
t Troria de las Cortes, p. 251.
X Idem, p. 255. Manan.i, 1. xx., c. 13.
(j Idem, p. 255. || Idem, p. 266.
T Idem, p. 260. *• Idem, p. 287, 304.
t •• Idem, p. 292- 302.
impartially according to law and right
and that no one shall be put to death, o»
imprisoned, or deprived of his ^_jse».
sions without trial, and that this be bet
ter observed than heretofore."* He re-
newed the same law in 1307. Neverthe-
less, the most remarkable circumstance
of this monarch's history was a violation
of so sacred and apparently so well es-
tablished a law. Two gentlemen having
been accused of murder, Ferdinand, with-
out waiting for any process, ordered thera
to instant execution. They summoned
him with their last words to appear be-
fore the tribunal of God in thirty days ;
and his death within the time, which has
given him the surname of the Summon-
ed, might, we may hope, deter succeed-
ing sovereigns from iniquity so flagrant.
But from the practice of causing their
enemies to be assassinated, neither law
nor conscience could withhold them.
Alfonso XI. was more than once guilt}'
of this crime. Yet he too passed an or-
dinance, in 1325, that no warrant should
issue for putting any one to death, or
seizing his property, till he should be
duly tried by course of law. Henry II.
repeats the same law in very explicit
language.! But the civil history of Spain
displays several violations of it. An ex-
traordinaiy prerogative of committing
murder appears to have been admitted,
in early times, by several nations who
did not acknowledge unlimited power in
their sovereign. J Before any regular
police was established, a powerful crimi-
nal might have been secure from all pun-
ishment, but for a notion, as barbarous
as any which it served to counteract,
that he could be lawfully killed by the
personal mandate of the king. And the
frequent attendance of sovereigns in their
courts of judicature might lead men not
accustomed to consider the indispensable
necessity of legal forms, to confound an
* Que mandase facer la justicia en aquellos que la
merecen comunalmente con fuero e con derecho ;
e los homes que non sean muertos nin presos nin
tornados lo que han sin ser oidos por derecho 6 pd
fuero deaquel logardoacaesciere, e que sea guarda
do mejor que se guardi fasta aqui. — Marina, En
sayo Hist. Critico, p. 148.
t CJue non mandemos matar nin prender nin lisi
ar nin despechar nin tomar a alguno iiinguna cOFt
de lo suyo, sin ser ante Hamad o i oido e venciiis
por fuero e por derecho, porquerella nin por querel-
las que a nos fuesen dadas, segunt que esto esta or-
denado por el rei don Alonso nuestro padre. — Teo
ria de las Cortes, t. ii., p. 287.
t Si quis hominem per jussionf m regis vel ducis
sui occiderit, non requiralur ei, nee sit faldosus,
quia jussio domini sui fuit, et non potuit ccr.tradi
cere jnssionem. — Leges Bajuvariorum, tit. ii., it
Baluz. Capitularibus.
I
c^BaP. IV.J
SPAIN
215
ict of assassination with the execution
of Justice.
Though it is very improbable that the
Ctnfedera- nobility werc not considered as
sie3 of tiie essential members of the cprtes,
nobility. ^j^gy certainly attended in small-
er nuir.bers than we should expect to find
from the great legislative and deliberative
authority of that assembly. This arose
chiefly from the lawless spirit of that
martial aristocracy, which placed less
confidence in the constitutional methods
of resisting arbitrary encroachment than
'n its own armed combinations.* Sucli
confederacies to obtain redress of griev-
ances by force, of which there were five
or six remarkable instances, were called
Hermandad (brotherhood or union), and
though not so explicitly sanctioned as
•Jiey were by the celebrated Privilege
of Union in Aragon, found countenance
in a law of Alfonso X., which cannot be
deemed so much to have voluntarily em-
anated from that prince as to be a rec-
ord of original rights possessed by the
Castilian nobihty. " The duty of sub-
jects towards their king," he says, " en-
joins them not to permit him knowingly
to endanger his salvation, nor to incur
dishonour and inconvenience in his per-
son or family, nor to produce mischief to
his kingdom. And this may be fulfilled
;ai two ways ; one by good advice, show-
ing him the reason wherefore he ought not
£0 act thus ; the other by deeds, seeking
Tieans to prevent his going on to his
own ruin, and putting a stop to those
wiio give him ill counsel, forasmuch as
his errors are of worse consequence than
those of other men, it is the boundea
duty of subjects to prevent his commit-
ting thcm."t To this law the insurgents
appealed in their coalition against Alva-
ro de Luna ; and indeed we must confess,
that however just and admirable the prin-
ciples which it breathes, so general a
license of rebellion was not likely to pre-
serve the tranquillity of a kingdont. The
deputies of towns, in a cortes of 1 145, pe-
titioned the king to declare that no con-
struction should be put on this law in-
consistent with the obedience of subjects
towards tlieir sovereign ; a request to
whicli of course he willingly acceded.
Castile, it will be apparent, bore a
closer andogy to England in its form of
civil jjolity than France or even Aragon.
But th') frequent disorders of its govern-
ment, ana a barbarous state of manners,
rendered violations of law much more
continual and flagrant tlian they were in
* Teoria de las Cortes, t. ii.. f. ft50
+ Ensavo Hint. Crilico. p. 312.
England und( r the Pl.intagenel dynasty
And besides these practical mischiefs
there were two essential ocfects in tlie
constitution of Castile, through which
perhaps it was ultimately subverted. I;
wanted those two brilliants in the coro-
net of British liberty, the representation
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 in-
trepid, as we find them in bad times, to
an eminent degree, but too much limited
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 liberal form of government,
and was animated with a noble spirit fo-
ils defence. • Spain, in her late niemora
ble though short resuscitation, might wel
have gone back to her ancient institu
lions, and perfected a scheme of policv
which the great example of England
would have shown to be well adapted to
the security of freedom. What she did,
or rather attempted instead, I need not
recall. May her next eflbrt be more
wisely planned and more happily termi-
nated!*
Though the kingdom of Aragon was
very inferior in extent to that of Affairs or
Castile, yet the advantages of a Aragon.
better form of government and wiser
sovereigns, with those of industry and
commerce along a line of seacoast, ren-
dered it almost equal in importance. Cas-
tile rarely intermeddled in the civil dis-
sensions 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 revolutions which ended in es-
tablishing the liouse of Trastamare, Ara-
gon was not indeed at peace, nor alto-
gether well governed ; but her political
consequence rose in the eyes of Europe
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 wliich he stripped his relation, tht:
King of Majorca, of the Balearic Islands,
and the constant perfidiousness of his
cliaracler. I have mentioned in anotliet
place the Sicilian w^ar, prosecuted wit!i
so much eagerness for many years liv
Peter III. and his son Alfonso III. Al-
ter this object was relinquislied, James
II. undertook an enterprise less splen-
did, but not much less diflicult, the con-
♦ The first e(i''.ioo of this work was pib.ishno
in laia.
/16
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
iCHAP. IV
quest of Sardinia. That island, long ac-
customed to independence, cost an in-
credible expense of blood and treasure
10 the kings of Aragon during the whole
fourtecnih century. It was not fully
subdued till the commencement of the
next, under the reign of Martin.
\t the death of Maftin, king of Aragon,
Disputed in 1410, a memorable question
succession arosc as to the right of succes-
*eath'of sion. Tliough Petronilla, daugh-
Martin. ter of Ramiro II., had reigned
in her own 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. hiid excited a civil war by at-
tempting 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 decis-
ion of this question; but it was tacitly
understood that what is called the Salique-
law ought to prevail.* Accordingly, on
the death of John I., in 1395, his two
daughters were set aside in favour of his
brother Martin, though not without oppo-
sition on the part of the elder, whose
husband, the Count of Foix, invaded the
kingdom, and desisted from his preten-
sion only through want of force. Mar-
tin's son, the King of Sicily, dying in his
father's hfetime, the nation was anxious
that the king should fix upon his suc-
cessor, and would probably have acqui-
esced in h;s choice. But his dissolution
occurring more rapidly than was expect-
ed, the throne remained absolutely va-
cant. The Count of Urgel had obtained
a grant of the lieutet.ancy, which was tlit
right of the heir apparent. Thi? noble-
man possessed an extensive terncory in
Catalonia, bordering on the Pyrenees.
He was grandson of James, next brothei
to Peter IV., and, according to our rules
of inheritance, certainly stood in the first
place. The other claimants were ihc
Duke of Gandia, grandson of James jl.,
who, though descended from a more
distant ancestor, set up a claim founded
on proximity to the royal stock, which
in some countries was preferred to a rep-
resentative 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 son of the younger Martin, king
of Sicily, legitimated by the pope, but
with a reservation excluding him from
royal succession ; and finally, Ferdinand,
infant of Castile, son of the late king's
sister.f The Count of Urgel was fa-
voured in general by the Catalans, and
he seemed to have a powerful support in
Antonio de Luna, a baron of Aragon, so
rich that he might go through his owr.
estate from France to Castile. But this
apparent superiority frustrated his hopes.
The justiciary and other leading Arago
nese were determined not to suffer this
great constitutional question to be deci-
ded by an appeal to force, which might
sweep away their liberties in the strug-
gle. Urgel, confident of his right, and
surrounded by men of ruined fortunes,
was unwilling to submit his pretensions
to a civil inbunal. His adherent, Anto
nio de Luna, committed an extraordinary
* Zurita, t. ii., f. 188. It was pretended that women were excluded from the crown in England a«
well as France : and this analogy seems to have had some influence in determining the Aragonese to
adopt a Salique-law.
+ The subjoined pedigree will show more clearly the respective titles of the competitors :—
James II. died 1327.
Alfonso IV. d. 1336.
I
Peter IV. d. 1387.
James C. of Urge
D. of Gandib
r . q/ Oaruim
I
Eleanor Q. o. Oasti^e.
John I. d. 1395. Mirtim, Peter C. of Urgel
1 d. 1410. !
Henry III. Ferdinand
K. of Castile
j Joanna
Jonr '?. ■'Jountess of Foix.
\.0f7.y».-).
Martin,
i K. of Sicily, 1409,
Viol.THte I
Q. of Naples. \
IFredfrick
C. of Luna.
Lmus D. of
Calabria.
C ofUrgt.
/-'HAP. 1\ J
SPAI^.
21?
oairage, the assassinatfl i of the Arch-
hishop of Saragosa, 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
eround 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, tnree Catalans, and three
Valencians, who were to discuss the
pretensions of the several competitors,
and, by a plurality of six votes, to adjudge
Ihe crown. Nothing could be more
solemn, more peaceful, nor, in appear-
ance, more equitable, than the proceed-
ings of this tribunal. They summoned
the claimants before them, and heard
them by counsel. One of these, Fred-
erick of Luna, being ill defended, the
court took charge of his interests, and
named other advocates to maintain them.
A month was passed in hearing argu-
ments ; 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
ascende-f :;he throne. f
[A. D 1412.] In this decision it is im-
Decision ■! possible not to suspect that the
favour of" judges Were swayed rather by
Ferdinand politic considerations than a
of asii e. gjj.jgj. ggfise of hereditary right.
It was therefore by no means universally
popular, especially in Catalonia, of which
principality the Count of Urgel was a
native ; and perhaps the great rebellion
of the Catalans fifty years afterward may
* ThisDukeof Gandia died during the interreg-
num. His son, though not so objectionable on the
score of age, seemed to have a worse claun ; yet
he became a competitor.
+ Biancoe Commentaria, in Schotti Hispania II-
lustrata, t. ii. Zurita, t. iii. f. 1-74. Vmcent Fer-
rier was the most distinguished churchman of his
time in Spam. His influence, as one of the nine
judges, is said to have been very instrumental in
procuring the crown for Ferdinand. Five others
voted the s?,r.c way ; one for the Count of Urgel ;
one doubtfully between the Count of Urgel and
Duke of Gandia; the n nth declined to vote. —
Zurita, t. iii., f. 71. It is curious enough, that
John, king of Castile, was altogether disregarded ;
though his claim was at least as plausible as that
of his uncle Ferdinand. Indeed, upon the princi-
Eles of inherita.ice to which we are accustomed,
lOuis, duke of Calabria, had a prior right to Ferdi-
nand, admitting the rule which it was necessary
for both of them to establish ; namely, that a right
of succession might be transmitted through females,
which females could not personally enjoy. This,
ts is well known, had been advanced in the pre-
ceding age by Edward III. as the Imndation of his
slaiin to the crown of France.
be traced lu ine disaffection vvhuh this
breach, as they thought, of the lawful
succession had excited. Ferdinand how-
ever was well received in Aragon. The
cortes generously recommended the
Count of Urgel to his favour, on accouni
of the great expenses he had incurred in
prosecuting his claim. But Urgel did not
wait the effect of this recommendation-
Unwisely attempting a rebellion with
very inadequate means, he lost his es
tates, and was thrown for life into prison
FA. D. 1416.1 Ferdinand's sue- ^,^
•• ,■■. .,r -.r Alfonso V.
cessor was his son Alfonso v.,
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 by his arms : and,
enchanted by the delicious air of Naples,
intrusted the government of his patrimo-
nial territories to the care of a brother
and an heir. [A. D. 1458.] John jq[,„ j,
II., upon whom they devolved by
the death of Alfonso without legitimate
progeny, had been engaged during his
youth in the turbulent revolutions of Cas
tile, as the head of a strong party that op-
posed the domination of Alvaro de Luna.
[A. D. 1420.] By marriage with the heir
ess of Navarre, he was entitled, accord-
ing to the usage of those times, to assume
the title of king, and administration of
government during her life. But his am-
bitious retention of power still longei
produced events which are the chief
stain on his memory. Charles, prince of
Viana, was, by the constitution of Na
varre, entitled to succeed his mother. [A.
D. 1442.] She had requested him in her
testament not to assume the government
without his father's consent. That con-
sent was always withheld. The prince
raised what we ought not to call a rebell-
ion ; but was made prisoner, and remain-
ed for some time in captivity. John's ill
disposition towards his son was exasper-
ated by a stepmother, who scarcely dis-
guised her intention of placing her own
child on the throne of Aragon at the ex-
pense of the eldest-born. After a life of
perpetual oppression, chiefly passed in
exile or captivity, the Prince of Viana
died in Catalonia, at a moment when that
province was in open insurrection upon
his account. [A. D. 1461.] Though i'
hardly seems that the Catalans had any
more general provocations, they perse
vered for more than ten years with in
veterate obstinacy in their rebellion ; of
fering the sovereignly first to a prince o(
Portugal, and afterward to Regnicr, dukt
of Anjou, who was destined to pass hL'
j life in unsuccessful competiti )n for king
218
EUROPE Dl'RliNG THE MIDDLE AGES.
IChai. IV
doms. The King of Aragon behave i
with jifreat clemency towards these in-
surgents on their final submission.
It IS consonant to the principle of this
Constitution work, to pass lightly over the
if Aragon. common details of history, in
order to fix the reader's attention more
•■ully on subjects of philosophical inquiry.
Perhaps in no European monarchy, ex-
cept our own, was the form of govern-
ment more interesting than in Aragon, as
a fortunate temperament of law and jus-
tice with the royal authority. So far as
Originally a finy thing can be pronounced of
sort or regal its earlier period, before the
ansiocracy. capture of Saragosa 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
Priviie"cs ^'^^" ^^^^ chief of their confeder-
oitherlcos acy.* Thcsc were the ricos
hombres or hombres or baronc, the first or-
der of the state. Among these
ihe kings of Aragon, in subsequent times,
as they extended their donunions, shared
the conquered territory in grants of hon-
ours on a feudal tenure. i For this sys-
tem was fully established in the kingdom
of Aragon. A rico hombre, as we read
.n Yitahs, bishop of Huesca, about the
middle of the thirteenth century ,| must
hold of the king an honour or barony
capable of supporting more than three
kniglits ; and this he was bound to dis-
tribute among his va.5sa]s in military fiefs.
Once in the year he might be summoned
with his feudatai-i'js to serve the sover-
eign for two months (Zurita says three) ;
and he was to attend the royal court, or
general assv;nibly, as a counsellor, when-
♦ Alfonso III. complained that his barons want-
&.1 to bring back old times, qiiando havia en el
reyno tantos re>e'j como ricos hombres. — BiancEe
Commentaria, p. 787. The form of election sup-
:iosed to have been used by these bold barons is
^•ell known. " We, who are as good as you,
thoose you for out kmg and lord, provided that you *
observe our laws and privileges, and if not, not." '
But I do not much believe the authenticity of this '
form of v'ords. — See Robertson's Charles V., vol. i
i., note 3i. It is, however, sufficiently agreeable
to the spirit of the old government. '
t Los ricos hombres, por los feudos que tenian |
del rey, eran obligados de seguir al rey, si yva en
persona a la guerra, y residir en ella tres meses en ,
cadaun afio. — Zurita, torn, i., fol. 43. (Saragosa,
1610.) A fief was usually called in Aragon an hon-
our, que en Castilla llamavan tierra, y en el prin-
cipado de Catalufia feudo, fol. 46.
|: I do not know whether this work of Vitalis
has been printed ; but there are large extracts from
it in Blancas's history, and also in Du Cange, un-
der the words Infancia, Mesnadarius, &c. Several
illustrations of these military tenures may be found
in the Kuei j de Aragon, especially lib. 7
ever called upon, assistnig m its Judicial
as well as deliberative business. In the
towns and villages of his barony he might
appoint bailiffs to administer justice and
receive penalties ; but the higlicr crimi-
nal jurisdiction seems to have been re-
served to the crown. According to
Vitalis, the king could divest these ricos
hombres of their honours at pleasure, af-
ter which they fell into the class of mes-
nadaries, or mere tenant.s in chief. But
if this were constitutional in the reign of
James I., which Blancas denies, it was
not long permitted by that Liirli-spirited
aristocracy. By the General Privilege, or
Charter of Peter III., it is declared that
no barony can be taken away witliout a
just cause and legal sentence of the jus-
ticiary and council of barons.* And the
same protection was extended to the vas-
sals of the ricos hombres.
Below these superior nobles were the
mesnadaries, corresponding to Lower no-
our mere tenants in chief, hold- '^''''>-
ing 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 ren-
dered by gentlemen. These had con-
siderable privileges in that aristocratic
government they were exempted from
all taxes, they could only be tried by the
royal judges for any crime ; and offences
committed against them were punished
with additional severity. f The uuraesses
ignoble classes were, as in other and'pea.s-
countries, the burgesses of towns, '*""■^'•
and the villeins or peasantry. The peas-
antry seem to have been subject to ter-
ritorial servitude, as in France and Eng-
land. Vitahs says, that some villeins
were originally so unprotected, that, as
he expresses it, they might be divided
into pieces by the sword among the sons
of their masters : till they were provoked
to an insurrection, wliich ended in es-
tablishing certain stipulations, whence
they obtained the denomination of vil-
leins de parada, or of convention |
Though from the twelfth century the
principle of hereditary succes- j,ij,e,,iesot
sion to the throne superseded, the Aragon-
in Arag-on as well as Castile, eseking-
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 Aragon was entitled to assume that
name until he had taken a coronation
oath, administered by the justiciary at
Saragosa, to observe the laws and liber-
* Biancae Comm., p. 730.
t Idem, p. 732.
t Idem, I- 721
CMiP. I\.J
SPAIN.
219
:ies of the realm.* Alfonso III., in 1285,
being in France at the time of his father's
death, named himself king in addressing
the stales, who immediately remonstra-
ted on this premature assumption of his
thlo, and obtained an apology.f Tlius
too Martin, having been called to the
crown of Aragon by the cortes in 1395,
was specially required not to exercise
any authority before his coronation. :j:
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 bar-
renness 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. "Ǥ This high spirit of free-
dom had long animated the Aragonese.
After several contests with the crown in
the reign of James I., not to go back to
earlier times, they compelled Peter III ,
General J" ^-^•^' ^^ gra»t a law, called the
iviviiege General Privilege, the Magna
OI1283 Charta of Aragon, and perhaps a
more full and satisfactory basis of civil
liberty than our own. It contains a se-
ries of provisions against arbitrary talla-
ges, spoliations of property, secret pro-
cess after the manner of the Inquisition in
criminal charges, sentences of the justi-
ciary without assent of the cortes, ap-
pointuient of foreigners or Jews to judi-
cial offices, trials of accused persons in
places beyond the kingdom, the use of
torture, except in charges of falsifying
the coin, and the bribery of judges.
These arc claimed as the ancient liber-
ties of their country. "Absolute power
* Zurita, Anales de Aragon, t. i., fol. 101 ; t. iii.,
fol. 76.
t Biancae Comm.. p. 661. They acknowledged,
at th^ same time, that he was their natural lord,
and entitled to reign as lawful heir to his fatlier—
80 oddly were the hereditary and elective titles
jumbled together.— Zvirita, t. i., fol. 303.
t Zurita, t. ii., fol. 424.
(f .Siempre havemos oydo dezir antigament, h se
troba por csperiencia, que attendida la grand ste-
rilidad de aquesta tierra, 6 probreza de aqueste reg-
no, sinon fues por las lihertades de aquel, se ynar
ft bivir, y habilar las gentes a otros regncs, h lier-
ras mas frutieras, p. 571. Aragon was, in fact, a
poor country, barren and ill-peopled. The kings
were forced to go to Catalonia for money, and in-
deed were little able to maintain expensive con-
tests. The wars of Peter IV. in Sardinia, and of
Alfonso V. with Genoa and Naples, empoverished
thslr people. A hearth-tax havmg been imposed
in 1404, it was found that there were 43,083 houses
in Aragon, which, according to most calculations,
will not give much more than 200,000 inhabitants.
In 1429, a similar tax being laid on, it is said that
the number of houses was diminished in conse-
quence of war.— Zurita, t. iii., fol. 189. It contains
present between 600,000 and 700,00) i nhabitanls.
(mero imperio e mixto), ii is iv-chired
never was the constitution of xViagon, noi
of Valencia, nor yet of Ribagor^a, nor
shall there bo in time to come any inno-
vation made ; but only the law, custom,
and privilege which lias been anciently
used in the aforesaid kingdoms."*
The concessions extorted by our ances-
tors from John, Henry III., and priviiegot*'
Edward I., were secured by the I'-'io"-
only guarantee those times could aflbrd,
the determination of the barons to en-
force them by armed confederacies.
These, however, were formed according
to emergencies, and, except in the fa-
mous commission of twenty-five conser-
vators of Magna Charta, in the last year
of John, were certainly unwarranted by
law. But the Aragonese established a
positive right of maintaining their liber
ties by arras. This was contained in the
Privilege of Union granted by Alfonso
III. in 1287, after a violent conflict W'ith
his subjects; but Avhich was afterward
so completely abohshed, and even eradi
cated from the records of the kingdom,
that its precise words have never been
recovered.! According to Zurita, it con
sisted of two articles : first, that, in the
case of the king's proceeding forcibly
against any member of the union without
previous sentence of the justiciary, the
rest should be absolved from their allegi-
ance ; secondly, that he should h.ild cor-
tes every year in Saragosa.J During the
two subsequent reigns of James II. and
Alfonso IV., little pretence seems to have
been given for the exercise of this right.
But dissensions breaking out under Peter
IV. in 1317, rather on account of his at-
tempt to settle the crown uponliis daugh-
ter than of any specific public grievances,
the nobles had recourse to the union, that
last voice, says Blancas, of an al- Revolt
most expiring state, fidl of weight against^
and dignity, to chastise the pre- ^'^^'^i^'
sumption of kings. i^ They assembled ai
Saragosa, and used a remarkable seal foi
all their public instruments, an engraving
from which may be seen in the historian
» Fueros de Aragon, fol. 9. Zurita, t :'. folSC.
j Blancas says that he had discovercc s copy ol
the Privilege of Union in the archives of the see
of Tarragona, and would gladly have published it
but for his deference to the wisdom of former ages
which had studiously endeavoured to destroy al
recollection of that dangerous law. — Ibid., p. 6G2.
$ Ibid., t. i., f 323.
i) Priscani ilU ii Unionis, quasi moricntis reipu*
lica; extremam vocem, auctoritatis et gisvitatis pis
Kam, regum insolcntire aperlum vindicem exciti
runt, summa ac singulari bonorum omnium con:
sensioue, p. 609. It is remarkable thiit such strong
language shaild have been to'e'itcd under Phili;*
II.
'Z20
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
rCHAP l"V
I have just inoted. It represents the
king sitting on his throne, with the con-
lederates kneeling in a suppliant attitude
around, to denote their loyalty, and un-
willingness to offend. But in the back-
ground tents and lines of spears are dis-
covered, as a hint of their ability and res-
olution to defend themselves. The le-
gend is Sigillum Unionis Aragonum. This
respectful demeanour towards a sovereign
against whom they were waging war, re-
minds us of the language held out by our
Long Parliament before the Presbyteri-
an party was overthrown. And although
it has been lightly censured as inconsist-
ent and hypocritical, this tone is the safest
that men can adopt, who, deeming them-
selves under the necessity of withstand-
ing the reigning monarch, are anxious to
avoid a change of dynasty, or subversion
of their constitution. These confederates
were defeated by the king at Epila, in
1348.* But his prudence and the re-
maining strength of his opponents indu-
cing him to pursue a moderate course,
there ensued a more legitimate and per-
manent balance of the constitution from
Privilege this victory of the royalists. The
ofUnion Privilege of Union was abroga-
oiher pV ^^^f Peter himself cutting to
Tisions in- pieces with his sword the origi-
I'liuted. j^^j instrument. But, in return,
many excellent laws for the security of
the subject were enacted ;t and their pres-
ervation was intrusted to the greatest
officer of the kingdom, the justiciary,
whose authority and pre-eminence may
in a great degree be dated from thisperi-
od.;f That watchfulness over public lib-
erty, which originally belonged to the
aristocracy of ricos hombres, always apt
to thwart the crown, or to oppress the
people, and which was afterward main-
tained by the dangerous privilege of union,
became the duty of a civil magistrate,
accustomed to legal rules, and responsi-
^\e for his actions, whose office and func-
♦ Zurita observes that the battle of Epila was
the last fought in defence of public liberty, for
which it was held lawful of old to take tip arms,
and resist the king, by virtue of the Privileges of
Union. For the authority of the justiciary being
afterward established, the former contentions and
wars came to an end ; means being found to put
the weak on a level with the powerful, in which
consi3ts the peace and tranquillity of all states ; and
from thence the name of Union was, by common
consent, proscribed, t. ii., fol. 226. Blancas also
remarks, that nothing could have turned out more
edvanta^jeous to the Aragonese than their ill-for-
tune at Epila.
+ Fueros de Aragon. De lif.qus Domin' ? 'ex,
hA. 14, ot alibi passim.
t Biunc Ccmm.,p 671,811 Zant'. *■- ii., fol.
tions are the most pleasing feature in the
constitutional history of Aragon.
The justiza or justiciary of Aragon has
been treated by some writers as Office of
a sort of anomalous magistrate, Jus'^ca'y
created originally as an intermediate pow-
er between the k«ing and people, to watcli
over the exercise of royal authority. But
I do not perceive that his functions were
in any essential respect, different from
those of the chief justice of England, di-
vided, from the time of Edward I., among
the judges of the King's Bench. We
should undervalue our own constitution
by supposing that there did not reside in
that court as perfect an authority to re-
dress the subject's injuries, as was pos-
sessed by the Aragonese magistrate. In
the practical exercise, indeed, of this pow-
er, there was an abundant difference.
Our English judges, more timid and pli-
ant, left to the remonstrances of parlia-
ment that redress of grievances which
very frequently lay within the sphere cf
their jurisdiction. There is, I believe, no
recorded instance of a habeas corpus
granted in any case of illegal imprison-
ment by the crown or its officers during
the continuance of the Plantagenet dy-
nasty. We shall speedily take notice o(
a very different conduct in Aragon.
The office of justiciary, whatever con-
jectural antiquity some have assigned to
it, is not '.o be traced beyond the capture
of Saragosa in 1118, when the ."sciies of
magistrates commences.* But for a
great lengtn of tirnc Iney do not appear
to have been particularly important ; the
judicial authority residing in the council
of ricos hombres, whose suffrages the jus-
ticiary collected, in order to pronounce
their sentence rather than his own. A pas-
sage in Vitalis, bishop of Huesca, whom
I have already mentioned, shows this to
have been the practice during the reign
of James I.f Gradually, as notions of
liberty became more definite, and laws
more numerous, the reverence paid to
their permanent interpreter grew strong
er ; and there was fortunately a succes-
sion of prudent and just men in that higl:
office, through whom it acquired dignity
and stable influence. Soon after the ac
* Biancas Comment., p. 638.
t Id., p. 722. Zurita indeed refers the justicia
ry's preeminence to an earlier date ; namely, the
reign of Peter II., who look away a great part ot
the local jurisdictions of the ricos hombres. t. i., fol
102. But, if I do not misunderstand the meaning
of Vitalis, his testimony seems to be beyond dig
pute. By the General Privilege of 1283, the justi
ciary was to advise with the ricos hornbres m aL'
cases where the king was a party against any o
his subiects.— Zurita, C 281 See also f 190
Chap IV J
st'AIN.
Z2l
cession of James II., on some dissen-
sions arising between the king and his
barons, he called in the justiciary as a me-
diator, whose sentence, says Blancas,all
obeyed.* At a subsequent time in the
same reign, the mihtary orders, pretending
that some of their privileges were violated,
raised a confederacy or union against the
king. James offered to refer the dispute
to the justiciary, Ximenes Salanova, a
man of eminent legal knowledge. The
knights resisted his jurisdiction, alleging
the question to be of spiritual cognizance.
He decided it, however, against them in
full cortes at Saragosa, annulled their
league, and sentenced the leaders to pun-
ishment.f It was adjudged also that no
appeal could lie to the spiritual court
from a sentence of the justiciary passed
with assent of the cortes. James II. is
said to have frequently sued his subjects
in the justiciary's court, to show his re-
gard for legal measures ; and during the
reign of this good prince, its authority
became more established. | Yet it was
not perhaps looked upon as fully equal to
maintain public liberty against the crown,
till, in the cortes of 1348, after the Privi-
lege of Union was for ever abolished, such
laws were enacted, and such authority giv-
en to the justiciary, as proved eventually a
more adequate 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. In-
ferior courts were forbidden to proceed
in any business after his prohibition.^
Many other laws might be cited, corrob-
orating the authority of the great magis-
trate ; but there are two parts of his re-
medial jurisdiction which deserve special
notice.
These are the processes of jurisfirma, or
firma del derecho, and of manifestation.
♦ Bianc33 Comment., p. C63
t Zurita, t. i., f. 403 ; t. ii., f. 34. Bianc, p. 666.
The assent a( the cortes seems to render this in the
nature cf a legislative rather than a judicial pro-
ceedmg ; but it is difficult to pronounce about a
transaction so remote in time, and in a foreign
country, the .lative historians writing rather con-
cisely.
X Bianc, p. 663. James acquired the surname of
.lust, el Justiciero, by his fair dealings towards his
subjects. — Zurita, t. ii., fol. 82.
^ Fueros de Aragon : Quod in dobiis non crassis.
\. D. 1318.) Quod impetrans (1372), &c. Zurita,
ii.. fol 229. Bianc, p. 671 and 811.
The former bears some anal- Processes o
ogy to the writs of pone and ^,,^ mam-
certiorari in England, through fesiaiion.
which the court of King's Bench exer
cises its right of withdrawing a suit from
the jurisdiction of inferior tribunals. But
the Aragonese jurisfirma was of more
extensive operation. Its object was noi
only to bring a cause commenced in an in-
ferior court before the justiciary, but to
prevent or inhibit any process from issu-
ing against the person who applied for its
benefit, or any molestation from beiiu;
offered to him; so that, as Blanc^s ox-
presses it, when we have entered into t.
recognisance (firme et graviter asseverv>
mus) before the justiciary of Aragon to
abide the decision of law, our fortunes
shall be protected by the interposition of
his prohibition, from the intolerable ini-
quity of the royal judges.* The process
termed manifestation, afforded as ample
security for personal liberty as that of
jurisfirma did for properly. "To mani-
fest any one," says the writer so often
quoted, " is to wrest him from the hands
of the royal officers, that he may not suf-
fer any illegal violence ; not that he is
set 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, con-
cealed, and the charge against him la
investigated, not suddenly or w:th pis-
sion, but in calmness and according to
law, therefore this is called manifesta-
tion."t The power of this writ (if I may
* Bianc, p. 751. Fueros de Aragon, f. 137.
t Est apud nos manifestare, reum subitosumere, .
atque h regus manibus e.Ktorquere.ne qua ipsi con-
tra jus vis inferatur. Non quod tunc reus jinl.iio
liberetur ; nihiloininus tainen. ut loquiinur.uenicr-
ilis causse ad plenum cognoscitur. Sed quod dem-
ceps manifesto teneatur, quasi antea celalus extitis-
set ; necesseque deinde sit de ipsius culpa, non mi-
petu et cum furore, sed sedatis prorsusauiiiiis, el
juxtaconstitutas leges judicari. Ex eo auteni, quoi'
tiujusinodi judicuiin manifesto deprehensuin, omni-
bus jam patere dubeat, Manifestationis sibi nomen
arripuit, p. 675.
Ipsius Manifestationis potestas tarn solida est et
repentina, ut homini jam collum in laqueum inse-
renti subveniat. lllius enim praesidio, damnatus,
dum per leges licet, quasi experiendi juris gratia,
de manibus judicum confestim extorquetur,-et m
carcerem ducitur ad id a;diticatum, ibidemque as-
servatur tamdiu, quamdiu jurene, an injurii quiJ
in ea causa factum fuerit, judicatur. Propterea
career hie vulgari lingua, la carcjl de los inanifes
tados nuncupatur, p. 751.
Fueros de Aragon, fol. 60. De Manifestationi
bus personarum. Independently of this right oJ
manifestation by writ of the justiciary, there a.»
several statutes in the Fueros against illegal da-
tention, or unnecessary severity towards prisoners.
— (De Custodia reorum, f. 163.) No judge could
proceed secretly in a criminal process ; an indis-
pensable safeguard lo public liberty, and one of the
223
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. l\
apply our terra) was such, as he else-
where asserts, that it would rescue a
man whose neck was in the halter. A
particular prison was allotted to those
detained for trial under this process.
Several proofs that such admirable pro-
irjsiances of visions did not remain a dead
their appii letter in the law of Aragon,
ca:ii.n. appear in the two historians,
Blancas and Zurita, Avhose noble attach-
ment to liberties, of which they had
either witnessed, or might foretel the
most salutary, as well as most ancient, provisions
in our own constitution. (De judiciis.) Torture
was abolished, except in cases ol coining false mon-
ey, and then only in respect of vagabonds. — (Gen-
eral Privilege of 1283.)
Zurita has explained the two processes of juris-
firma and manifestation so perspicuously, that, as
the subject is very interesting, and rather out of
the common way, I shall both quote and translate
the passage. Con firmar de derecho, que es dar
caution a estata justicia, se conseden liteias inhib-
itorias por el justicia de Aragon, para que no pue-
dan ser presos, ni privados, ni despojados de su
possession, hasta que judicialmente se conozca, y
declare sobre la pretension, y justicia de las partes,
y parezca por processo legitime, que se deve revo-
car la tal inhibition. Esta fue la suprema y prin-
cipal autoriiiad del Justicia de Aragon desde que
este magistrado tuvo origen, y lo que llama mani-
festation; porque assi como la firma de derecho
por privilegio general del reyno impide, que no
L'Uede tunguno ser preso, o agraviado contra razon
f justicia, de la misma manera la manifestacion,
que es otro privilegio, y rernedia muy principal,
tiene fuerca, quando alguno es preso sin preceder
processo legitimo, o quando lo prenden de hecho
sin ordei. de justicis ; y en estos casos solo el Jus-
ticia de Aragon, quando se tiene recurso al el, se
interpone, manifestando il preso, que es tomarlo a
BU mano, de poder de qualquiera juez, aunque sea
el mas supremo ; y es obligado el Justicia de Ara-
gon, y sus lugartenientes de proveer la manifesta-
cion en el mismo instante, que les es pedida sin
preceder informacion ; y basta que se pida por
qualquiere persona que se diga procurador del que
quiere que lo tengan por manifesto, t. ii., fol. 386.
" Upon a firma de derecho, which is to give securi-
ty for abiding the decision of law, the Justiciary of
Aragon issues letters inhibiting all persons to ar-
rest the party, or deprive him of his possession,
until the matter shall be judicially inquired into,
and It shall appear that such inhibition ought to be
1 evoked. This process and that which is called
manifestation have been the chief powers of the
Justiciary ever since the commencement of that
magistracy. And as the firma de derecho, by the
general privilege of the realm, secures every man
from being arrested or molested against reason
and justice, so the manifestation, which is another
trincipal and remedial right, takes place when any
one is actually arrested without lawful process ;
lud in such cases only the Justiciary of Aragon,
when rctc'jrse is had to him, interposes by mani-
festing the person arrested, that is, by taking him
into hM own hands, out of the power of any judge,
however high in authority ; and this manifestation
me justiciary, or his deputies in his absence, are
!jound to issue at the same instant it is demanded,
without farther inquiry ; and it may be demanded
by any one as attorney of the party requi.nng to be
manifested."
extinction, continually displays itself. ]
cannot help illustrating this subject by
two remarkable instances. The heir ap-
parent 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 in
deed wore permanent, though the func-
tions must of course have been superse-
ded during the personal exercise of roy-
al authority. But as neither Catalonia
nor Valencia, w-hich often demanded the
king's presence, was considered as part
of the kingdom, there were pretty fre-
quent occasions for this anticipated 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, afterward John I., from
the lieutenancy of the kingdom. The
prince entered into a firma del derecho
before the justiciary, Dominic de Cerda,
who, pronouncing in his favour, enjoined
the king to replace his son in the li^euten-
ancy as the undoubted right of the eldest
born. Peter obeyed, not only in fact, to
which, as Blancas observes, the law com-
pelled him, but Avith apparent cheerful-
ness.* There are indeed no private per-
sons who have so strong an interest in
maintaining a free constitution and the
civil liberties of their countrymen, as the
members of royal families ; since none
arc so much exposed, in absolute govern-
ments, to the resentment and suspicion
of a reigning monarcli.
John I., Avho had experienced the pro-
tection of law in his weakness, had af-
terward occasion to find it interposed
against his power. This king had sent
some citizens of Saragosa to prison with-
out form of law. They applied to Juan
de Cerda, the justiciary, for a manifesta-
tion. He issued his writ accordingly;
nor, says Blancas, could he do otherwise,
without being subject to a heavy fine.
The king, pretending that the justiciary
was partial, named one of his own jndges,
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 sentence upon this in-
terlocutory point until he should receive
instructions in the council, to which he
was directed to repair. But he instantly
pronounced sentence in favour of his ex
* Zurita, ubi supra. Blancas, p 673
Chxi iV]
SPAIN.
2i3
elusive jurisdiction without a coadjutor.
He then repaired 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 expres-
sions of anger from the king, who began
to enter into an argument on the merits
of the question. But the justiciary an-
swered that, with all deference to his
majesty, he was bound to defend his con-
duct before the cortes, and not elsewhere.
On a subsequent day, the king having
drawn the justiciary to his country pal-
ace on pretence of hunting, renewed the
conversation with the assistance of his
ally the vice-chancellor ; but no impres-
sion was made on the venerable magis-
trate, whom John at length, though much
pressed by his advisers to violent cour-
ses, dismissed with civility. The king
was probably misled throughout this trans-
action, which 1 have thought fit to draw
from obscurity, not o-.uy in order to illus-
trate the privilege of manifestation, but
as exhibiting an instance of judicial firm-
ness and integrity, to which, in the four-
teenth century, no country perhaps in
Europe could offer a parallel.'*
Before the cortes of 1318, it seems as
Office of if the justiciary might have
jusiiciary been displaced at the king's
Leid for life, pleasure. From that time he
held his station for life. But, in order to
evade this law, the king sometimes ex-
acted a promise to resign upon request.
Ximenes Cerdan, the justiciary in 1120,
having refused to fulfil this engagement,
Alfonso V. gave notice to all his subjects
not to obc}' him, and notwithstanding the
alarm which this encroaclimcnt created,
eventually succeeded in compelling him
to quit his office. In 1439, Alfonso in-
sisted v/ilh still greater severity upon the
execution of a promise to resign made
by another justiciary, detaining him in
prison until his death. But the cortes of
1442 proposed a law, to which the king
reluctantly acceded, that the justiciary
should not be compellable to resign his
office on account of any previous en-
tjagcrnent he might have made.f
But lest tliese high powers, imparted
Reaponsibi '^"i" ^^^^ prevention of abuses,
utvofihis should themselves be abused,
magistrate, ^jjg justiciary was responsible,
in case of an unjust sentence, to the ex-
lent of the injury inflicted ;* and waa
also subjected, by a statute of 1390, to a
court of inquiry, composed of four per-
sons chosen by the king out of eigh;
named by Jie cortes ; whose office ap-
pears to have been that of examining
and reporting to the four estates in cortes,
by whom he was ultimately to be ac-
quitted or condemned. This superintend
ence of the cortes, however, being
thought dilatory and inconvenient, a
court of seventeen persons was appointed,
in 1461, to hear complaints against the
justiciar^^ Some alterations w ere after-
ward made in this tribunal. f The justi-
ciary was always a knight, chosen from
the second order of nobility, the barons
not being liable to personal punishment.
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.
No laws could be enacted or repealed,
nor any tax imposed, without Rj„i„sofie-
the consent of the estates duly gisiation and
assembled. J Even as early as 'axation.
the reign of Peter 11., in 1205, that prince
having attempted to impose a general tal-
lage, the nobility and commons united for
the preservation of their franchises ; and
the tax was afterward granted in part by
the cortes.^ It may easily be supposed
that the Aragonese were not behind other
nations in statutes to secure these priv-
ileges, which, upon the whole, appear to
have been more respected than in any
other monarchy. H The general privilegt
* BiancT Co.Timentar., ubi supra. Zurita relates
'•le story, but not so fully.
t Fueros de Aragon, fol. 23. Zurita, t. iii., fol.
,40. 35.=), "^72. Bianc. Commen: , p. 701.
* Fueros de Aragon, fol. 25.
t Blancas. Zurita, t. iii., f. 331 ; t. iv., f. 103
These regulations were very acceptalile to tlie na
lion. In fact, the justiza of Aragon had possessc-d
much more unlimited powers than ought to be in
trusted to any single magistrate. The court of
King's Bench in England, besides its consisting of
four co-ordinate judges, is checked tiy the appel-
lant jurisdictions of the Exchequer Chamber and
House of Lords, and, still more miportantly, by the
rights of juries.
X Majores nostri, quae de omnibus statuenda es
sent, noluerunt juberi, vetarive posse, nisi vocatts,
descriptisque ordinibus. ac cunctis eorum adlnbilis
siiffragiis, re ipsa cognita et promulgnta. Unde
perpetuum illud nobis comparatum est jus, ut com
muncs et publicoe leges neque toUi, ncque rogari
possint, nisi prius universus populus una voce co
mitiis institutis suum ea de re liberums uffragiuiii
ferat ; idque postea ipsius regis asscnsu coniprobo
tur. — Biancai, p. 761.
<^ Zurita, t. i., fol. 92.
II Fueros de Aragon: Quod sissre in Aragon.*
removeantur (A. D. 1372). De prohibilione sissa-
rum (1398). De conservatione patrimonii (M61)
I have only remarked two instances of arbitrary
taxation in Zurita's history, which is singularly, f jD
of information ; one, iu 1313,vvhen Peter JV. coJ
locted money fr mi various cities, though no'. '.'i '
out op'-osition ; and the other a remonslrir t*f •■
iU
EUROPE DURING THR MIDDLE AGES.
Lt-HAP. 11
of 12R3 formed a sort of ground-work for
this legislation, like the Great Charter in
England. By a clause in this law, cortes
WBK to be held every year at Saragosa.
Bu*. under James II., their time of meet-
ing was reduced to once in two years,
and the place was left to the king's dis-
cretion.* Nor were the cortes of Ara-
g)n less vigilant than those of Castile in
claiming a right to be consulted in all im-
portant deliberations of the executive
power, or in remonstrating against abuses
of government, or in superintending the
proper expenditure of public money. f A
variety of provisions, intended to secure
these parliamentary privileges and the
civil liberty of the subject, will be found
dispersed in the collection of Aragonese
lavvs,J which may be favourably com-
pared with those of our own statute-
book.
Four estates, or, as they were called,
Cortes of arms (brazos), formed the cortes
Aragon. of Aragon; the prelates,^ and com-
thc cortes in 1383 against heavy taxes ; and it is
not clear that this refers to general unauthorized
taxation.— Zurita, t. ii., f. 168 and 382. Blancas
mentions that Alfonso V. set a tallage upon his
towns for the marriage of his natural daughters,
which he might have done had they been legiti-
mate ; but they appealed to the justiciary's tribu-
:.aI, and the king receded from his demand, p. 701.
Some irjslances of tyrannical conduct in violation
of the constitutional laws occur, as will naturally
l-ft supposed, in the annals of Zurita. The execu-
'ion of Bernard Cabrera under Peter IV., t. ii., f.
;i36, and the severities inflicted on Queen Forcia
by her son-in-law John I., f. 391, are perhaps as
remarkable as any.
♦ Zurita, t. i., f. 426. In general the session
lasted from four to six months. One assembly
was prorogued from time to tune, and continued
six years, from 1446 to 1452, which was com-
plained of as a violation of the law for their bien-
nial renewal, t. iv., f. 6.
t The Sicilian war of Peter III. was very, un-
popular, because it had been undertaken without
consent of the barons, contrary to the practice of
the kingdom; porque ningun negocio arduo em-
prendian, sin acuerdo y consejo de sus ricos hom-
lires.— Zurita, t. i., fol. 264. The cortes, he tells
us, were usually divided into two parties, whigs
and lories ; estava ordinariamente dividida en dos
partes, la unaquepensava procurar el beiieficiodel
reyno, y la otra que el servicio del rey, t. iii., fol.
321
t Fueros y observancias del reyno de Aragon.
i vjIs. in fol., Saragosa, 1667. The most iinpor-
ant of these are collected by Blancas, p. 750.
() It is said by some writers that the ecclesiasti-
• al ann was not added to the cortes of Aragon till
ab ;t the year 1300. But I do not find mention in
Za'>'';a of any such constitutional change at that
lime ; and the prelates, as we might expect from
tlie analogy of other countries, appear as members
of the national council long before. Queen Petro-
nilla, in 1142, summoned a los perlados, ricos
hoinbres, y cavalleros, y procuradores de las ciu-
dades y villas, que le juntassen a 'lortes generales
en la ciudad de Huesca. — Zurita, t. i., fol. 71. So
in the cortes of 1275, and on othe>- jccasions.
manders of military orders, who passed
for ecclesiastics ; the barons, or ricos
hombres ; the equestrian order, or infan-
zones, and the deputies of royal towns.*
The two former had a right of appearing
by proxy. There was no representatioi;
of the infanzones, or lower nobility.
But it must be remembered that thev
were not numerous, nor was the kingdom
large. Thirty five are reckoned by Zu-
rita as present in the cortes of 1395, am]
thirty-three in those of 1412 ; and as
upon both occasions an oath of fealty to
a new monarch was to be taken, I pre-
sume that nearly all the nobility of the
kingdom were present. f The ricos hom-
bres do not seem to have exceeded twelve
or fourteen in number. The ecclesiasti-
cal 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 Sara-
gosa, and no town appears to have had
less than four representatives. During
the interval of the cortes a permanent
commission, var}-ing a good deal as to
numbers, but chosen out of the four es-
tates, was empowered to sit with very
considerable authority, receiving and
managing the public revenue, and pr(»-
tecting the justiciary in his functions.:^
The kingdom of Valencia and prim i
pality of Catalonia having been coyg^,,.
annexed to Aragon, the one by memofVa
conquest, the other by marriage, ^^"^'^ af"*
were always kept distinct from ^"^ °"''''
it in their laws and government. Each
had its cortes, composed of three estates,
for the division of the nobility into two
orders did not exist in either country.
The Catalans were tenacious of their
ancient usages, and averse to incorpora-
tion with any other people of Spain.
Their national character was high-spir-
ited and independent ; in no part of the
peninsula did the territorial aristocracy
retain, or at least pretend to such exten
sive privileges,^ and the citizens Avere
♦ Popular representation was more ancient in
Aragon than in any other monarchy. The depu-
ties of towns appear in the cortes of 1133, as Rob-
ertson has remarked from Zurita. — Hist, of Charles
v., note 32. And this cannot well be called in ques-
tion, or treated as an anomaly , for we find them
mentioned in 1142 (the passage cited in the last
note), and again in 1164, when Zurita enumerates
many of their names, fol. 74. The institution ol
concejos, or corporate districts under a presiding
town, prevailed in Aragon, as it did in Castile.
t Zurita, t. ii., (. 420 ; t. iii., f. 76.
t Biancas, p. 762. Zurita, t. iii., f. 76; f. 182, et
alibi.
() Zurita, t. ii., f. 360. The villanage of the peaa
antry 'n some parts of Catalonia was verv seTera
i
ClA? IV.
«PAl.N
22^
lustly proud of wealth acquired by iudus-
try, and of reaowa achieved by valour.
At the act;essioa of Ferdiaand I., which
they had not much desired, the Catalans
obliged hiai to swear three tiaies succes-
Bively to maintain iheir liberties, before
they would take the reciprocal oath of
allegiaace.* For Valencia it seems to
have been a pohtic design of James the
Conqueror to establish a constitution
nearly analogous to that of Aragon, but
with such linvtations as he should im-
pose, taking care that the nobles of the
two kiagdoKis should not acquire strength
by union. In the reigns of Peter III.
and Alfonso III., one of the principal ob-
jects contended for by the barons of Ar-
agon was the establishment of their own
laws in Valencia; to which the king
never acceded. f They permitted, how-
ever, the possessions of the natives of Ar-
agon in the latter kingdom to be govern-
ed by the law of Aragon.J These three
states, Aragon, Valencia, and Catalonia,
were perpetually united by a law of Al-
fonso III. ; and every king on his acces-
sion was bound to swear that he would
never separate them.^ Sometimes gen-
eral cortes of the kingdoms and princi-
pality were convened ; but the members
did not, even in this case, sit together,
and were no otherwise united, tlian as
they met in the same city.||
I do not mean to represent tlie actual
condition of society in Aragon as equally
excellent with the constitutional laws.
Relatively to other monarchies, as I
Slate of have already observed, there seem
pjiicc. to have been fewer excesses of
the royal prerogative in that kingdom.
Hut the licentious habits of a feudal aris-
tocracy prevailed very long. We lind in
history instances of private war between
the great families, so as to disturb the
peace of the whole nation, even near the
close of the fifteenth century. "[j The
right of avenging injuries by arms, and
the ceremony of diffidation, or solemn
defiance of an enemy, are preserved by
the laws. We even meet with the an-
cient barbarous usage of paying a compo-
sition to the kindred of a murdered man.**
The cit..zens of Saragosa were sometimes
;ven near the end of the fifteenth century, t. iv.,
• 2;J7.
* Zurita, t. iii., f. 81.
t Id., t. i., f. 281, 310, .133. There was originally
4 justiciary in the kingdom of Valencia, f. 281 ; but
this, I believe, did not long continue.
t Idem, t. n, f. 433 I) Idem, t. ii., f. 91.
II Biancae Cjmmenr., p. 760. Zurita, t. iii., fol.
239.
IT Zurita, '.iv., fol. 189.
*• f'ueiof de Aragon, f. 166, &c.
turbulent, and a refractory irjblenvan
sometimes defied the ministers of jus-
tice. But, owing to the remarkable co-
piousness of the principal Aragonese his-
torian, we find more frequent details of
this nature than in the scantier aanals of
some countries. The internal condition
of society was certainly far from peace-
able in other parts of Europe.
By the marriage of Ferdinand with
Isabella, and by the death of union „f
John II. in 1179, the two an- casnieanJ
cient and rival kingdoms of Cas- ^'"''S''"-
tile and Aragon were for ever consolida
ted in the monarchy of Spain. There
had been some difficulty in adjusting 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, ab much in sovereign-
ties as in private possessions. But the
Castilians were determined to maintain
the positive and distinct prerogatives of
their queen, to which they attached the
independence of their nation. A com-
promise 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 th«
royal scutcheon, the arms of Castilo
were preferred on account of the king-
dom's dignity. Isabella had the appoint-
ment of all civil offices in Castile ; the
nomination of spiritual benefices ran in
tlie name of b )tli. The government wa.^
to be conduo'x'd by the two conjointly
when they were together, or by either
siagly, ia the proviace where oae or otiier
might happen to reside.* This partition
was well preserved throughout the life
of Isabel without mutual encroachments
or jealousies. So rare a unanimity be-
tween persons thus circumstaaced must
be attributed to the superior qualities of
that princess, who, while she maintained
a constant good understanding with a
very ambitious husband, never relaxed
in the exercise of her patcrntd authority
over the kingdoms of her ancestors.
Ferdinand and Isabella had no sooner
quenched the fiaines of civil t-onquest or
discord in ('astile, than they (■'lanada.
determined to give an unequivocal proof
to Europe of the vigour wlich the Span-
ish monarchy was to display under theii
* Zurit.n, t. iv.. fol. 224. Ma'Ujia, \. xriv. r I
226
EUROPE DUilING THE M DOLE AGES
(CllAf. IV
government. For many years an armis-
tice with the Moors of Granada had been
nninterrupted. Neither John II. nor
Henry IV. had been at leisure to think of
aggressive hostilities ; and the Moors
themselves, a piey, like their Christian
enemies, to civil war, and the feuds of
their royal family, were content with the
unmolested enjoyment of the finest prov-
ince 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
rast populousness, that grandeur and
magnificence, which distinguished the
Mahometan kingdoms of Spain, without
ascribing some measure of wisdom and
beneficence to their governments. These
southern provinces have dwindled in later
times ; and, in fact, Spain itself is chiefly
mteresting to most travellers, for the
monuments which a foreign and odious
race of conquerors have left behind
them. Granada was however disturbed
by a series of revolutions about the time
of Ferdinand's accession, whieh natural-
ly encouraged his designs. The Moors,
contrary to what might have been ex-
pected from their relative strength, were
the aggressors by attacking a town in
A.ndalusia.* [A. D. 1481.] Predatoiy in-
roads of this nature had hitherto been
only retaliated by the Christians. But
Ferdinand was conscious that his resour-
ces extended to the conquest of Granada,
the consummation of a struggle protract-
ed through nearly eight centuries. Even
in the last stage of the Moorish dominion,
exposed on every side to invasion, en-
feebled by a civil dissension, that led one
party to abet the common enemy, Grana-
da was not subdued without ten years of
sanguinary and unremitting contest. Fer-
tile bej'ond all the rest of Spain, that
kingdom contained seventy walled towns ;
and the capital is said, almost two cen-
turies before, to have been peopled by
« Zmiti, t lY., fo) 314
200,000 inhabitants.* Its resistance to
such a force as that of Ferdinand is per-
haps the best justification of the apparen
negligence of eariier monarchs. But
Granada was ultimately compelled to un-
dergo the yoke. The city surrendered
on the second of January, 1492 ; an event
glorious not only to Spain, but to Chris
tendom ; and which, in the political com-
bat of the two religions, seemed almo-i
to counterbalance the loss of Constant}
nople. It raised the name of Ferdinand
and of the new monarchy which he gov
erned, to high estimation throughout Eu
rope. Spain appeared an equal compet
itor with France in the lists of ambition.
These great kingdoms had for some time
felt the jealousy natural to emulous neigh-
bours. The house of A.ragon loudly com-
plained of the treacherous policy of Louis
XI. He had fomented the troubles of
Castile, and given, not indeed an effectual
aid, but all promises of support, to the
Princess Joanna, the competitor of Isabel.
Rousillon, a province belonging to Ara-
gon, had been pledged to France by John
II. for a sum of money. It would be te-
dious to relate the subsequent events oi
to discuss their respective claims to ita
possession.! At the accession of Fer
dinand, Louis XL still held Rousillon, and
showed little intention to resign it. But
Charles VIII , eager to smooth every im-
pediment to his Italian expedition, resto-
red the province to Ferdinand in 1493.
Whether, by such a sacrifice, he was able
to lull the King of Aragon into acquies-
cence, 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 tlie
present work to inquire
* Zurita, t. iv., fol. 314.
t For these transactions, see Gamier, Hist. d«
France, or Gailiard, Rivalite de France et d'K«
pagne, t. iii. The latter is the most impart!',
French writer I have ever read, in matters v»b
his own country' is concerned.
:BAr. v.]
GERMa
12?
CHAPTER V
HISTORY Of GERMANY TO THE DIET OF WORMS IN l'j95.
Sketch oi German History under th« Emperors of
tae House of Saxony.— House of IVanconia.—
Henry iV.— House of Swabia.— Frederick Bar-
barossa.— Fall of Henry the Lion.— Frederick. II.
— Extinction of House of Swabia. — Changes in
the Germanic Constitution.— Electors.— Terri-
torial Sovereignty of the Princes.— Rodolph of
Hapsburg.— Stale of the Empire after his Time.
—Causes of Decline of Imperial Power. — House
of Luxemburg.— Charles IV.— Golden Bull.—
House of Austria.— Frederick III.— Imperial
Cities.— Provincial States.— Maximilian.— Diet
cf Worms.— Abolition of private Wars.— Im-
perial Chamber. — Aulic Council. — Bohemia. —
Hungary. — Switzerland.
After the deposition of Charles the
separation F^t, ill 888, which filially sev-
of Germany ered the coiiiiexion between
from France France and Germany,* Arnulf,
an illegitimate descendant of Charle-
magne, obtained the throne of the latter
coiiutry, in which he was succeeded by
his son Louis. t But upon the death of
tliis prince in 911, the German branch of
that dynasty became extinct. There re-
mained indeed Charles the Simple, ac-
knowledged as king in some parts of
France, but rejected in others, and pos-
sessing no personal claims to respect.
The Germans therefore wisely deter-
mined to choose a sovereign from among
themselvci3. They were at this time
divided into five nations, each under its
own duke, and distinguished by difference
of laws as v^ell as of origin ; the Franks,
whose territory, comprising Franconia
and the modern palatinate, was consid-
ered as the cradle of the empire, and
who seem to have arrogated some supe-
riority over the rest, the Swabians, the
Bavarians, the Saxons, under which name
the inhabitants of Lower Saxony alone
and Westphalia were included, and the
* There can be no question about this in a gen-
eral sense. But several German writers of the
lime assert, that both Eudes and Charles the Sim-
ple, rival kings of France, acknowledged the feudal
upenority of Arnulf. Charles, says Regino, reg-
num quod usurpaverat ex manu ejus percepit. —
Struvius, Corpus Hist. German., p. 202, 203.
t The German princes had some hesitation about
the choice of Louis : but their partiality to the
Carlovingian line prevailed, — Struvius, p. 208 :
quia reges Francorum semper ex uno genere pro-
cedebant, saya &n archbishop Hatto, in writing to
ihc pope.
P2
Lorrainers, who occupied the eft Itai.i
of the Rhine as far as its terminatior..
[A. D.911.] The choice of these Eieciiop.o;
nations in their general assem- tonrad.
bly fell upon Conrad, duke of Franco-
nia, according to some writers, or a*
least a man of high rank, and descended
through females from Charlemagne.*
Conrad dying without male issue, the
crown of Germany was bestowed iiouseof
upon Henry the Fowler, duke of sa.xony.
Saxony, ancestor of the three Othos, who
followed him in direct succes- Henry tiie
sion. To Henry, and to the Fowier,9i9
first Otho, Germany was more indebted
than to any sovereign since Charle-
magne. The conquest of Italy, and re-
covery of the imperial title, are otho i. 930.
indeed the most brilliant tro- oiiio n. 073.
phies of Otho the Great; but Othoiii.983.
he conferred far more unequi-'ocal bene
fits upon his own country by onmrviptii)'-
what his father had begun, her nDeral'
from the inroads of the Hungariai
Two marches, that of Misnia, erected L
Henry the Fowler, and that of Austria
by Otho, were added to the Germanic
territories by their victories. f
A lineal succession of four descents
without the least opposition, seems to
show that the Germans were disposed to
consider their monarchy as fixed in tlie
Saxon family. Otho H. and HI. had
been chosen each in his father's life-
time, and during 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 iu
* Schmidt, Hist, des Allemands, t. ii., p. 28b
Struvius, Corpus Historiae GermanicK, p. 210
The former of these writers does not coDSidei
Conrad as Duke of Franconia.
t Many towns in Germany, especially on the
Saxon frontier, were built by Henry I., wlx) i«
said to have compelled every ninth man to take up
his residence in them. This had a remarkable
tendency to promote the improvement of that tei
ritory, and, combined with the discovery of the
gold and silver mines of Goslar under Otho I., ren
dered it the richest and most important part of thf
empire. — Struvius, p. 225 and 251. Schmidt, t ii.,
p. 322. Putter, Historical Development of tte
• Jpnnan Constitution vol. i . p 1 1.1.
228
£LROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
.Chap V
the tenth century, the same may surely
he said of Germany ; since \vc find the
jineal succession fully as well observed
(1 the last as in tht former. But upon
iiie immature and unexpected decease of
Utlio III., a momentary opposition was
Henry II. offered to Henry, duke of Bava-
IUU2. ria^ a collateral branch of the
: eigning family He obtained the crown,
however, by what contemporary his-
torians call an hereditary title,* and it
rt\is not until his death, in 1024, that the
house of Saxony was deemed to be ex-
tinguished.
No person had now any pretensions
irouseof tl^^'' could interfere with the un-
(•Vuiiconia. biased suffrages of the nation ;
' *'io'>4' "' ^^^ accordingly a general as-
tieiiry'm. scmbly was determined by merit
lo^-^- ^ to elect Conrad, surnamed the
To56. " Salic, a nobleman of Franco-
lienry V. nia.f From this prince sprang
1 106. three successive emperors, Hen-
ry HI., IV., and V. Perhaps the impe-
rial prerogatives over that insubordinate
confederacy never reached so high a
point as in the reign of Henry III., the
►iecond emperor of the house of Franco-
nia. It had been, as Avas 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 authority suffi-
cient ti) control the leading vassals.
These were the dukes of the four nations
:>f Germany, Saxony, Bavaria, Swabia,
and Franconia, and the three archbishops
of the Rhenish cities, Mentz, Treves, and
Cologne. Originally, as has been moi'c
fully shown in another place, dutchies,
like counties, were temporary govern-
ments, bestowed at the pleasure of the
crown. From this first stage they ad-
vanced to hereditary offices, and finally
to patrimonial fiefs. But their progress
was much slower in Germany than in
France. Under the Saxon line of empe-
rors, it appears probable, that although
it was usual, and consonant to the pre-
vailing notions of equity, to confer a
dutchy upon the nearest heir, yet no pos-
tive rule enforced this upon the empe-
ror, and some instances of a contrary
proceeding occurred.^ But, if the royal
* A maximii multitudine vox una respondit;
Heiiricum, Christi adjutorio, et jure haereditario,
regnaturum. — Ditrnarapud Struvium, p.273. See
other passages quoted in the same place. — Schmidt,
t. ii., p. 410.
t Conrad was descended from a daughter of
Olho the Great, and also from Conrad I. His
tirst cousm was Uuke of Franconia. — St-uvius.
Schmidt. Pfeffel.
J Schmidt t. ii., p. 393, 403. Struvius, p. 214,
prerogative in this respect stood highei
than in France, there was a countervail
ing principle, that prohibited the empe-
ror from uniting a fief to his domain, o:
even retaining one which he had posses-
sed before his accession. Thus Otho the
Great granted away his dutchy of Saxony,
and Henry II. that of Bavaria. Otho the
Great endeavoured to counteract the ef-
fects of this custom, by conferring the
dutchies that fell into his hands upon
members of his own family This pol-
icy, though apparently well conceived,
proved of no advantage to Otho ; his son
and brother having mixed in several
rebellions against him. It was revived,
however, by Conrad II. and Henry III.
The latter was invested by his father
with the two dutchies of Swabia and
Bavaria. Upon his own accession, he
retained the former for six years, and
even the latter for a short time. The
dutchy of Franconia, which became va
cant, he did not regrant, but endeavoured
to set a precedent of uniting fiefs to the
domain. At another time, after sentence
of forfeiture against the Duke of Bavaria,
he bestowed that great province on his
wife, the Emperess Agnes.* He put an
end altogether to the form of popular
concurrence, which had been usual when
the investiture of a dutchy was conferred :
and even deposed dukes by the sentence
of a few princes, without the consent of
the diet.f If we combine with these
proofs of authority in the domestic ad
ministration of Henry HI., his almos
unlimited control over papal elections
or rather the right of nomination that he
acquired, we must consider him as the
most absolute monarch in the annals of
Germany.
These ambitious measures of Henry
III. prepared fifty years of ca- unfortunate
lamity for his son. It is easy reign of ^
to perceive that the misfortunes ^'^'"^ ^^■
of Henry IV. were primarily occasioned
by the jealousy with which repeated vio-
lations of their constitutional usages had
inspired the nobility. | The mere cir-
cumstance of Henry IV. 's minority, under
supposes the hereditary rights of dukes to have
commenced under Conrad 1. ; but Schmidt is per-
haps a belter authority ; and Struvius afterward
mentions the refusal of Otho I. to grant the dutchy
of Bavaria to the sons of the last duke, which,
however, excited a rebellion, p 235.
* Schmidt, t. iii., p. 25, 37.
+ Id., p. 207.
X In the very first year of Henry s leign, whils
he was but six years old, the princes of Saxony are
said by Lambert of Asehaffenburg tJ have formed
a conspiracy to depose him, out of resentment fu
the injuries they had sustained from his fathir •
Struvius, p. 306. St. Marc, t. lii , p. 248.
L'HiP. v.]
GERMANY.
229
wne guardianship of a woman, was enough
to dissipate whatever powers his father
had acquired. Hanno, archbishop of
Mentz, carried the young king away by
force from his mother, and governed
Germany in his name ; till another arch-
bishop, Adalbert of Bremen, obtained
greater influence over him. Through
the neglect of his education, Henry grew
up with a character not well fitted to re-
trieve the mischief of so unprotected a
minority ; brave indeed, well-natured, and
affable, but dissolute beyond measure, and
addicted to low and debauched company.
[A. D. 1073.] 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 Franco-
nia, who wore a crown that had belonged
to their own dukes, and indignant at
Henry's conduct in erecting fortresses
throughout their country.
In the progress of this war many of the
chief princes evinced an unwillingness to
support the emperor.* Notwithstanding
this, it would probably have terminated,
as other rebellions had done, with no per-
(nanent loss to either party. But, in the
middle of this contest, another far more
memorable broke out with the Roman
see, concerning ecclesiastical investi-
tures. The motives of this famous quar-
rel will be explained in a different chap-
ter of the present work. Its effect in
Germany was ruinous to Henry. [A. D.
1077.] A sentence, not only of excom-
munication, but of deposition, which Greg-
ory VII. pronounced against him, gave a
pretence to all his enemies, secret as well
as avowed, to withdraw their allegiance. f
At the head of these was Rodolph, duke
of Swabia, 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 kingdom should no longer be heredi-
tary, not conferred on the son of a reign-
* Stnivius. Srhmidt.
+ A party had \ t'cn already formed who were
meditating to depose Henry. His excommunica-
tion came just in time to confirm their resolutions.
tt appears clearly, upon a little consideration of
Henry IV.'s reign, that the ecclesiastical quarrel
was jnly secondary m the eyes of Germany. The
contest against him was a struggle of the aristoc-
racy, jealous of the imperial prerogatives whicii
Conrad H. and Henry 111. had strained to the ut-
most. Those who were in rebellion against Henry
were not pleased with Gregory VII. Bruno, au-
thor of a history of the Sa.tonwar, afu ious invec-
tive, manifests great dissatisfaction witfi the court
of Rome, which he reproaches with dissimulation
t\ H vpuahty
ing monarch, unless his merit ohould
challenge the popular approhatiott * 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 civi-
dissensions in Germany, to render Italy
more independent. Henry IV. however
displayed greater abilities in his adversity
than his early conduct had promised.
[A. D. 1080.] In the last of several deci-
sive 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 uncer-
tainty. The Germans were sufficiently
disposed to submit ; but Rome persevered
in her unrelenting hatred. At the close
of Henry's long reign, she excited agains'
him his eldest son, and after more than
thirty years of hostility, had the satisfac-
tion of wearing him down with misfortune,
and casting out his body, as excommuni-
cated, from its sepulchre.
In the reign of his son Henry V. ther '■
is no event worthy of much at- Extinction of
tention, except the termination 'he House oi
of the great contest about in- Franconia.
vestitures. At his death in 1 125, the male
line of the Franconian emperors was at
an end. [A. D. 1125.] Frederick, duke
of Swabia, grandson by his mother of
Henry IV., had inherited their patriino-
nial estates, and seemed to represent theii
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
Lothaire, didce of Saxony, was Election of
elevated to the throne, tliough Lothaire.
rather in a tumultuous and irregular man-
ner.f Lothaire, who had been engaged
in a revolt against Henry V. and the chief
* Hoc etiam ibi consensu communi comnroba-
turn, Romani pontificis auctoritate est corrobora-
tum, ut regia potcstas nuUi per htsreditatem, sicut
antca fuit consuetudo, cederet, sed lilius regis,
etiain.si valde dignus asset, per electionem sponta-
nea in. non per successionis lineam, re.'^ proveniret ;
si vcro non esset dignus regis filius, vcl si nolle;
eum populus, quern regem facere vellet, haberetin
potestate populus. — Bruno de Bello Saxonico, apud
Struvium, ]). .327.
t See an account of Lothaire's election by a con-
temporary writer, in Struvius, p. 357. See also
proofs of the dissatisfaction of the aristocracy at ths
Franconian government.— Schmidt, t. iii., p. 32S.
It was evidently their determination to render the
empire truly elective (Id., p. 335) ; and perhaps we
may date that fundamental principle of the Ger
manic constitution from the accession of Lothaire.
Previously to that era, birth seems to have given
not only a fair title to preference, but a sort of in
choate right, as in France, Spain, and England
Lothaire signed a capitulation at hiy Hccessino.
230
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
[Chap. V
of a nation that b )re an inveterate hatred
to the house of Franconia, was the natu-
ral enemy of the aew family that derived
Its importance and pretensions from that
stock. It was the object of his reign, ac-
cordingly, to oppress the two brothers,
Frederick and Conrad, of the Hohen-
stauffen or Swabian family. By this
means he expected to secure the succes-
sion of the empire for his son-in-law.
Henry, surnamed the Proud, who mar-
ried Lothaire's only child, was fourth in
descent from Welf, son of Azon, marquis
of Este, by Cunegonda, heiress of a dis-
laiguished family, the Welfs of Altorf in
Swabia. Her son was invested with the
dutchy of Bavaria in 1071. His descend-
ant, Henry the Proud, represented also,
through his mother, the ancient dukes
of Saxony, surnamed Billuii^, from whom
he derived the dutchy of Luneburg. The
wife of Lothaire transmitted to her daugh-
ter the patrimony of Henry the Fowler,
consisting of Hanover and Brunswick.
Besides this great dowry, Lothaire be-
stowed upon his son-in-law the dutchy of
Saxony, in addition to that of Bavaria.*
This amazing preponderance, however,
tended to alienate the princes of Ger-
many from Lothaire's views in favour of
Henry ; and the latter does not seem to
iiave possessed abilities adequate to liis
eminent station. On the death of Lo-
thaire in 1138, the partisans of the house
of Swabia made a hasty and irregular
election of Conrad, in which the Saxon
Hou'se of faction found itself obliged to
Swabia. acquiesce.f The new emperor
Conrad III. j^y^iled himself of the jealousy
which Henry the Proud's aggrandizement
had excited. [A. D. 1138.] Under pre-
tence that two dutchies could not legally
be held by the same person, Henry was
summoned to resign one of them ; and on
his refusal, the diet pronounced that he
had incurred a forfeiture of both. Henry
made but little resistance, and, before his
death, which happened soon afterward,
saw himself stripped of all his hereditary
is well as acquired possessions. Upon
Original of this occasioH, the famous names
Gueifsand of Guelf and Ghibelin were first
Ghibehns. i^gj-j-d^ which wcre destined to
Keep alive the flame of civil dissension in
far distant countries, and after their mean-
ing 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 liis family. The
* Pfeffel, Abr6ge Chronologiqiie de I'Histoire
d'Allemugne, t. i., p. 269 (Paris, 1777). Gibbon's
Antiquities of thf> House of Brunswick.
+ Schmidt.
word Ghibelin is derivtofroni Wibelung
a town in Franconia, whence the empe
rors of tliat line are said to have sprung.
The house of Swabia was considered in
Germany as representing that of Fran-
conia ; as the Guelfs may, without much
impropriety, be deemed to represent ihf.
Saxon line.*
Though Conrad HL left a son, the
choice of the electors fell, at Frederick
his own request, upon his neph- arbarossa
e\v, Frederick Barbarossa.f The most
conspicuous events of this great empe-
ror's life belong to the history of Italy
At home he was feared and respected ■
the imperial prerogatives stood as high
during his reign, as, after their previous
decline, it was possible for a single man
to carry them.| But the only circum-
stance which appears memorable enough
for the present sketch, is the second fall
of the Guelfs. [A. D. 1178.] Fail of Hen
Henry the Lion, son of Henry ""y '"e Lion,
the Proud, had been restored by Conrad
HI. to his father's dutchy of Saxony,
resigning his claim to that of Bavaua,
which had been conferred on the Mii*
grave of Austria. This renunciation,
which indeed was only made in his namo
during childliood, did not prevent hjm
from urging the Emperor Frederick to
restore the whole of his birthright ; and
Frederick, his first cousin, whose life he
had saved in a sedition at Rome, was in-
duced 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 gen
erosity beyond the limits of prudence
For many years their union was appa-
rently cordial. But, whether it was that
Henry took umbrage at part of Freder-
ick's conduct, i^* or that mere ambition ren-
dered him ungrateful, he certainly aban-
doned his sovereign in a moment of dis-
tress, refusing to give any assistance in
that expedition into Lombardy, which end-
ed in the unsuccessful battle of Legnano.
Frederick could not forgive this injury;
and taking advantage of complaints which
Menrj-'s power and haughtiness had pro-
duced, summoned him to answer charges
in a general diet. The duke refused to
appear, and being adjudged contumacious,
a sentence of confiscation, similar to that
v/hich ruined his father, fell upon his
head ; and the vast imperial fiefs that he
» Struvius, p. 370 and 378. f Ibid.
t Pfeffel, p. 341.
() Frederick had obtained thiisuccfcs; ion of Wet/
marquis of Tuscany, uncle of Henry vhcLion.wh
probably considered himself as entii'e I ;o expect iJ
— Schniidi, p 127.
Chap. V j
GERMANY.
231
possessed were shared among some po-
tent enemies.* He made an ineffectual
resistance ; like his father, he appears to
have owed more to fortune than to na-
ture ; and, after three years' exile, was
obliged to remain content with the res-
toration of his allodial estates in Saxony.
These, fifty yeaio afterward, were con-
verted into imperial fiefs, and became
vhe two dutchies of the house of Bruns-
wick, the hneal representatives of Henry
the Lion and inheritors of the name of
Guelf.t
Notwithstanding the prevailing spirit
of the German oligarchy, Frederick 13ar-
barossa had found no difficulty in procu-
ring the election of his son Henry, even
during infancy, as his successor. J [A. D.
1190.] The fall of Henry the
Henry VI. j^Jq^^ j^^^^ greatly weakened the
ducal authority in Saxony and Bavaria ;
the princes who acquired that title, es-
pecially in the former country, finding
ihat the secular and spiritual nobility of
zhe first class had taken the opportunity
■,o raise themselves into an immediate
iependance upon the empire. Henry VI.
came therefore to the crown with con-
siderable advantages in respect of pre-
rogative ; and these inspired him with a
3old scheme of declaring the empire he-
reditary. One is more surprised to find
that he had no contemptible prospect of
aiiccess in this attempt ; fifty-two princes,
and even what appears hardly credible,
the See of Rome, under Clement HI.,
havmg been induced to concur in it.
But the Saxons made so vigorous an op-
position, that Henry did not think it
advisable to persevere.^ He procured,
however, the election of his son Freder-
ick, 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. [A. D. 1197.]
Philip, duke of Swabia, the late king's
* Putter, in his Historical Development of the
Constitution of the German Emjiire, is inclined to
consider Henry the Lion as sacrificed to the empe-
ror's jealousy of the Guelfs, and as illegally pro-
ecribed by the diet. But the provocations he had
given Frederick are undeniable ; and, without pre-
tendi'.".? to decide on a question of German history,
I do not sec that there was any precipitancy or
manJest breach of justice in fhe course of pro-
ccvdmgs against him. Schmidt, Pfeflel.and Stru-
V) j» do not represent the condemnation of Henry
af ur jiist.
■^ Putter, p. 220. t Struvius, p. 418.
<f Struvius, p. 421. Impetravit a subditis, ut,
cessante prislina Palatinorum electione, imperium
in ipsius po.steritatem, distincta proximorum suc-
cessione, transiret, et sic in ipso terminus esset
eleclionis, principiumque successive digni'atis. —
Gerras. Tilburiens.. ibidem.
orother, unable o secure his nc- phiiip and
phe w's succession, brought about otho iv.
his own election by one party, while
another chose Otho of Brunswick, younc-
er son of Henry the Lion. This double
election renewed the rivalry between
the Guelfs and Ghibelins, and threw Gei
many into confusion for several years.
Philip, whose pretensions appear to bu
the more legitimate of the two, gained
ground upon his adversary, notwithstand-
ing the opposition of the pope, till he
was assassinated, in consequence of a
private resentment. [A. D. 1208.] Otho
IV. reaped the benefit of a crime in
which he did not participate ; and be-
came for some years undisputed sover-
eign. But, having offended the pope
by not entirely abandoning his imperial
rights over Italy, he had, in the latter
part of his reign, to contend against
Frederick, son of Henry VI., who, having
grown up to manhood, came into Germa-
ny as heir of the house of Swabia, and,
what was not very usual in his own his-
tory or that of his family, the favoured
candidate of the Holy See. Otho IV.
had been almost entirely deserted, ex-
cept by his natural subjects, when his
death, in 1218, removed every difficulty,
and left Frederick II. in the pe;iceable
possession of Germany.
The eventful life of Frederick II. was
chiefly passed in Italy. To p^^^^^j^^ n
preserve his hereditary domin-
ions, and chastise 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 ob-
jects of his own. Careless of preroga
tives which it seemed hardly worth an ef
fort to preserve, he sanctioned the inde-
pendence of the princes, whicli may be
properly dated from his reign. In returr.^
they readily elected his son Henry king
of the Romans ; and, on his being impli-
cated in a rebellion, deposed him with
equal readiness, and substituted his broth-
er Conrad at the emperor's request *
But in the latter part of Frederick's reign,
the deadly liatred of Rome penetrated be-
yond the Alps. After his sol- conse-
emn deposition in the council quences or
of Lyons, he was incapaiile, in o'J'',_j°"g'^''
ecclesiastical eyes, of holding
the imperial sceptre. [A. D. 1245.] In
nocent IV. found however some difficulty
in setting up a rival emperor. Henry
landgrave of Thuringia, made an indiffer
Sfruviis- p 4.^7.
232
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
I Chap.
ent figure la this character. [A. D. 1248.]
Upon his death, William, count of Hol-
land, was chosen by the party adverse to
Frederick and his son Conrad ; and, after
ifie emperor's death, he had some suc-
cess against the latter. It is hard indeed
to say tliat any one was actually sover-
eign for twenty-two years that followed
(he death of Frederick II. ; a period of
contested title and universal anarchy.
Grand in- which is usually denominated
lerregnum. the grand interregnum. [A. D.
1250-1272.] On the decease of William
of Holland, in 1256, a schism among the
electors produced the double choice of
Richard of Richard, earl of Cornwall, and
Cornwall. Alfon&o X., king of Castile. It
seems not easy to determine which of
these candidates had a legal majority of
votes,* but the subsequent recognition
of almost all Germany, and a sort of pos-
session evidenced by public acts, which
have been held valid, as well as the gener-
al 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 elec-
tors attained^their objects; to perpetuate
a state of confusion by which their own
independence was consolidated, and to
plunder without scruple a man, like Di-
dius a< Rome, rich and foolish enough to
purchase the first place upon earth.
That place, indeed, was now become a
sia-.e of the mockcry of greatness. For
Gerinaiiie morc than two ccnturies, not-
con-sutmion. withstanding the temporary in-
fluence 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 ab-
solute insignificance ; and the more pru-
dent German princes were slow to can-
vass for a dignity so little accompanied
* The election ought legally to have been made
at Frankfort. But the Elector of Treves, having
got possession of the town, shut out the archbish-
ops of Mentz and Cologne, and the count palatine,
on pretence of apprehending violence. They met
under the walls, and there elected Richard. After-
ward Alfonso was chosen by the votes of Treves,
Saxony, and Brandenburg. Historians differ about
the vote of Ottocar, king of Bohemia, which would
turn the scale. Some time after the election, it is
certain that he was on the side of Richard. Per-
haps we may collect from the opposite statement
.. Struvius, p. 504, that the proxies of C.'ttocar had
voted for Alfonso, and that he did not think tit to
recognise theii act.
There can be no doubt that Richard was de facto
sovereign of Germany ; and it is singular that
Struvius should assert the contrary, on the author-
ity of an instrument of Rodolph, which expressly
designates him king, per quondam Richardum re-
gem illnstrem— Stniv., p. 502.
by respect. The ;hang ss wrought in the
Germanic consti ution during the period
of the Swabian emperors chiefly consist
in the establishment of an oligarchy of
electors, and of the territorial sovereignty
of the princes.
1. At the extinction of the rranconian
line by the death of Henry V., it
was determined by the German ^'"'^^
nobility to make their empire practically
elective, admitting no right, or even nat
ural pretension, in the eldest son of a
reigning sovereign. Their choice upon
former occasions had been made by free
and general suff'rage. But it maybe pre-
sumed that each nation voted unanimous-
ly, and according to the disposition of its
duke. It is probable, too, that the lead-
ers, after discussing in previous delibera-
tions the merits of the several candidates,
submitted their own resolutions to the
assembly, which would generally concur
in them without hesitation. At the elec
tion of Lothaire, in 1124, we find an evi-
dent instance of this previous choice, or,
as it was called, prmtaxation, from which
the electoral college of Germany has
been derived. The princes, it is said,
trusted the choice of an emperor to ten
persons, in whose judgment they prom-
ised to acquiesce.* This precedent was.
in all likehhood, followed at all suhse-
quent elections. The proofs indeed are
not perfectly clear. But in the famous
privilege of Austria, granted by Frederick
I., in 1156, he bestows a rank upon the
newly created duke of that country, im-
mediateljr after the electing princes (post
principes electores) ;f a strong presump-
tion that the right of prcetaxation was not
only established, but limited to a few def-
inite persons. In a letter of Innocent
III. concerning the double election of
Philip and Otho, in 1198, he asserts the
latter to have had a majority in his favour
of those to whom the right of election
chiefly belongs (ad quos principaliter
special electio). J And a law of Otho, in
1208, if it be genuine, appears to fix the
exclusive privilege of the seven electors.^.
Nevertheless, so obscure is this important
part of the Germanic system, that we
find four ecclesiastical and two seculai
princes concurring with the regular elect-
ors in the act, as reported by a contem
porary writer, that creates Conrad, son
of Frederick II., king of the Romans.J
This, however, may have been an irregu-
* Struv., p. 357. Schmidt, t. iii., p. 331.
t Schmidt, t. iii., p. 390. t Pfeffel, f 360
() Schmidt, t. iv., p. 80.
II This is not mentioned in Struvius, or the o\\viA
German writers. But Denina (Rivoluz'oni d'lla
/HAP. v./
GERMANY.
23S
ar deviation from the principle already
established. But it is admitted, that all
the princes retained, at least during the
twelfth century, their consenting suf-
frage ; like the laity in an episcopal elec-
tion, whose approbation continued to be
necessary long after the real power of
choice had been withdrawn from them.*
It is rot easy to account for all the
sircunv^tances itiat gave to seven spirit-
ual and temporal princes this distinguish-
ed pre-eminence. The three archbish-
ops, Mentz, Treves, and Cologne, were
ilways indeed at the head of the German
ihurch. But the secular electors should
naturally have been the dukes of four
nations : Saxony, Franconia, Swabia, and
Bavaria. We find, hov/ever, 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 peculiarly connected with
the discharge of one of the great offices
in the imperial court. These were at-
tached, as early as the diet of Mentz, in
1184, to the four electors, who ever af-
terward possessed them : the Duke of
Saxony having then officiated as arch-
marshal, the Count Palatine of the Rhine
as arch-steward, the King of Bohemia as
arch-cup-bearer, and the Margrave of
Brandenburg as arch-chambcrlaiu of the
empire. t Bui it still continues a prob-
lem why the three latter offices, with the
electoral capacity as their incident, should
not rather have beeu granted to the dukes
of Franconia, Swabia, and Bavaria. I
have seen no adequate explanation of
this circumstance ; which may perhaps
lead us to presume that the right of pre-
election was not quite so soon confined
to the precise number of seven princes.
The final extinction of two great origi-
nal dutchies, Franconia and Swabia, in
the thirteenth century, left the electoral
rif.hts of the count palatine and the Mar-
grave of Brandenburg beyond dispute.
LJut the dukes of Bavaria continued to
claim a vote in opposition to the kings
jf Bohemia. At the election of Rodolph
n 1272, the two brothers of the house of
VVittelsbach voted separately, as count
palatine, and Duke of Lower Bavaria.
Ottocar was excluded upon this occasion ;
and it was not till 1290 that the suffrage
lia, 1. XI,, ^. 9) quotes the style of the act of elec-
tion from the Chronicle of Francis Pippin.
* This is manifest by the various passages rela-
ting to the elections of Philip anil Otho, quoted
by Struvins, p. 428, 430. See too Pfetfel, ub su-
pra Schmidt, t. iv., p. 79.
* Schmidt, t iv p 78.
of Bohemia was fuWy recognised. The
palatine and Bavarian branches, howev
er, continued to enjoy their family vote
conjointly , by a determination of Rodolph ;
upon which Louis of Bavaria shghtly in-
novated, by rendering the suffrage alter-
nate. But the o^olden bull of Charles IV.
put an end to all dotibts on the rights ol
electoral houses, and absolutely excluded
Bavaria from voting. The limitation to
seven electors, first perhaps fixed by ac-
cident, came to be invested with a sort
of mysterious importance, and certainly
was considered, until times comparative-
ly recent, as a fundamental law of the
empire.*
2. It might appear natural to expect
that an oligarchy of seven per- „ .
11 1 iu 1 J 1 1 rinces an
sons, who had thus excluded untitled m
their equals from all share in furiorncbii
the election of a sovereign, "^•
would assume still greater authority, aim
tiespass farther upon the less powerful
vassals of the empire. But while the
electors were establishing their peculiai
privilege, the class immediately inferioi
raised itself by important acquisitions oi
power. The German dukes, even aftei
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 Swabia refused to
follow their duke into the field against
the Emperor Conrad II. f Of this aristoc-
racy the superior class were denominated
princes ; an appellation which, after the
eleventh century, distinguislied tiiem
from tlie untitled nobility, most of whoip
were their vassals. They were constil
uent parts of all diets, and though grad
ually deprived of their original participa
tion in electing an emperor, possessed
in all other respects, the same rights as
the dukes or electors. Some of them
were fully equal to the electors, in birth
as well as extent of dominions ; such aa
the princely houses of Austria, Hesse
Brunswick, and Misnia. By the division
of Henry the Lioit's vast teriitories.J and
by the absolute extinction of tlic Swabian
family in the following century, a greal
many princes acquired additional weight
Of the ancient dutcliies only iSaxony and
Bavaria remained : the former of which
especially was so dismembered, that it
was vain to attempt any renewal of the
* Schmidt, t. iv., p. 78, 568. Pir.ter, p. 274.
Pfeftel, p. 435, 5C5. Slruvius, p. 51 1.
t Pfetfel, p. 209.
j See the arrangements made in consequencf
of Henry's forfeiture, which gave quite a new fa'«
to Germany, in Plclfe), p. 234. also n. 4.17
234
LUKojPE DUilING THE MIDDLE AGES.
I^Chai *
ducal jurisdiction. That of the emperor,
formerly exercised by tlie counts pala-
line, went almost equally into disuse du-
ring the contest between PhiUp and
Otho IV. The princes accordingly had
acted with sovereign independence with-
in 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, re-
lating to ecclesiastical, and the other in
1232, to secular princes. By these he
engaged neither to levy the customary
imperial dues, nor to permit the jurisdic-
;inn of the palatine judges, within the
Umits of a state of the empire ;* conces-
sions that amounted to little less than an
abdication of his own sovereignty. From
this epoch the territorial independence 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
liave lost at the same time their right of
voting in the diets.f In some parts of
Germany, chiefly in Franconia and upon
the Rhine, there always existed a very
nvrnerous body of lower nobihty; unti-
tiod, at least till modern times, but sub-
ject to no superior except the emperor.
These are supposed to have become irn-
r.ediaie, after the destruction of the house
of Swabia, within whose dutchies they
had been comprehended. J
[A. D. 1272.] A short interval elapsed
Election of ^^^^r the death of Richard of
Rodoiphof Cornwall, before the electors
Hapsburg. could be induced, by the deplo-
rable state of confusion into which Ger-
many 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
considerable possessions as well in Swis-
serland as upon each bank of the upper
Rhine, but not sufficiently powerful to
ilarm the electoral oligarchy. Rodolph
was brave, active, and just ; but his char-
acteristic quality appears to have been
good sense, and judgment of the circum-
stances in which he was placed. Of this
lie gave a signal proof in relinquishing
the favourite project of so many prece-
d ng emperors, and leaving Italy alto-
♦ Pfeffel, p. 394. Putter, p. 233.
+ In the instruments relating to the election of
Otho IV.. the princes sign their names, Ego N.
elegi et subscripsi. But the counts only as follows :
Ego N. consensi et subscripsi. — PfeflFel, p. 3G0.
t Pfeffe', p. 445. Putter, p. 254. Struvius. p
»1
gcther to itself. At hoi ae he r.ianifestea
a vigilant spirit in administering justice,
and is said to have destroyed seventy
strongholds of noble robbers in Thurip-
gia and other parts, bringing many of the
criminals to capital punishment.* But
he wisely avoided giving offence to the
more powerful princes ; and during his
reign there were hardly any rebeUiors
in Germany.
It was a very reasonable object o*
every emperor to aggrandize his investmen
family by investing his near ^',bertwhb
kindred with vacant fiefs ; but dmchy of
no one was so fortunate in his Austria
opportunities as Rodolph. At his acces-
sion, Austria, Styria, and Carniola were
in the hands of Ottocar, king of Bohe-
mia. These extensive and fertile coun-
tries had been formed into a march or
margraviate, after the victories of Otho
the Great over the Hungarians. Frederick
Barbarossa erected them into a dutchy
with many distinguished privileges, espe
cially that of female succession, nithertt?
unknown in the feudal principalities o''
Germany.! Upon the extinction of the
house of Bamberg, which had enjoyed
this dutchy, 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 ultimately
enabled Ottocar to gain possession of the
country. Against this King of Bohemia
Rodolph waged two successive wars, and
recovered the Austrian provinces, which,
as vacant fiefs, he conferred, with the
consent of the diet, upon his son Albert. :J
[A. D. 1283.]
* Struvius, p. 530. Co.te's Hist, of House ol
Austria, p. 57. This valuable work contains a full
and interesting account of Rodolph's reign.
t The privileges of Austria were granted to the
Margrave Henry in 1156, by way of indemnity for
his restitution of Bavaria to Henry the Lion. The
territory between the Inn and the Ems was sep-
arated from the latter province, and annexed to
Austria at this time. The Dukes of Austria are
declared equal in rank to the palatine archdukes
(archi-ducibus palatinis). This expression gave a
hint to the Duke Rodolph IV. to assume the title
of Archduke of Austria.— Schmidt, t. iii., p. 390.
Frederick II. even created the Duke of Austria
king: a very curious fact, though neither he nor
his successors ever assumed the tit]e.— Struvius,
p. 463. The instrument runs as follows : Duca
tus Austria} et Styriae, cum pertiner.tiis et termi
nis suis quot hactenus habuit, ad nome.i et honorem
regium transferentes, te hactenus ducatuum, pra
dictorum ducem,de potestatis nostra plenitudineet
magniticentia speciali promovemus in regem, p«i
libertates et jura prsdictum regnum tuum praesen
I tis epigrammatis auctoritate donantes, quae regiann
deceant dignitatem : uttamen ex honore quem tibf
libenter addimus, nihil honoris et jaris nostri dis
dematis aut imperii subtrahatur.
* Struvius, p. 525 Schmidt. Coxe
C«AP. v.]
JERMANY.
231
Notwithstanding the merit and popu-
ate of the larity of Rodolph, the electors
pire after refused to choose his son King
Bodoipb. Qf tj^g Romans in his Ufetime ;
and, after his death, determined to avoid
Adoiphus the appearance of hereditary
129'J. succession, put Adolphus of
^'faga'' Nassau upon the throne. There
Henry MI. is very httle to attract notice
, '3P8- in the domestic history of the
°i3f4. empire during the next two
Charles IV centuries. From Adolphus to
vve^Jesiaas Sigismund, every emperor had
1378. either to struggle against a
^°mo competitor, claiming the ma-
Sigismund jority of votes at his election,
i'41'i- or against a combination of
the electors to dethrone him. The impe-
rial authority became more and more in-
effective ; yet it was frequently made a
subject of reproach against the emperors,
that they did not maintain a sovereignty
to which no one was disposed to submit.
It may appear surprising, that the Ger-
manic confederacy, under the nominal
uupremacy of an emperor, should have
been preserved in circumstances appa-
rently so calculated to dissolve it. But,
besides the natural effect of prejudice
and a famous name, there were sufficient
reasons to induce the electors to pre-
serve a form of government in which
they bore so decided a sway. Accident
had in a considerable degree restricted
the electoral suffrages to seven princes.
Without the college, there were houses
more substantially powerful than any
within it. The dutchy 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
tlieir influence for a time through the per-
nicious custom of partition, the empire
seldom looked for its head to any other
house than one of these three.
While the dutchies and counties of Ger-
Castom of many retained their original char-
pariition. actcr of offices or governments,
they were of course, even though consid-
ered as hereditary, not subject to parti-
tion among children. When they ac-
quired the nature of fiefs, it was still con-
sonant to the principles of a feudal ten-
ure, that the eldest son should inherit ac-
cording to the law of primogeniture ; an
inferior provision, or appanage, at most,
being reserved for the younger children.
The law of England favour«'l the eldest
exclusively; that of Fiance gave him
great advantages. But in Germany jidiT-
I'erent rule began to prevail about tlie
thirteenth century.* An equal partition
of the inheritance, without the least re-
gard to priority of birth, was tlie general
law of its principalities. Sometimes t;.:%
was effected by undivided possession, or
tenancy in common, the brotliers resi-
ding together and reigning jointly. This
tended to preserve the integrity of domin
ion ; but as it was frequently incommo-
dious, a more usual practice was to di
vide the territory. P>om such partition*
are derived those numerous independent
principalities of the same house, many
of which still subsist in Germany. Ir
1589, there were eight reigning princes
of the palatine family; and fourteen, in
1675, of that of Saxony. f Originally
these partitions were in general absolute
and without reversion ; but, as their ef
feet in weakening families became evi
dent, a practice was introduced of ma
king compacts of reciprocal succession,
by which a fief was prevented from es-
cheating to the empire, until all the male
posterity of the first feudatary should be
extinct. Thus, while the German e-n-
pire survived, all the princes of Hesse or
of Saxony had reciprocal contingencies
of succession, or what our lawyers call
cross-remainders, to each other's domin-
ions. 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, be-
came incapable of partition, and was to
descend to the eldest son. In the fif-
teenth century, the present house of
Brandenburg set the first example ( { es-
tablishing primogeniture by law ; thf
principalities of Anspach and Bayreuth
were dismembered from it for the benefit
of younger branches ; but it was dec hired
that all tlie other dominions of the family
should for the future belong exclusively
to the reigning elector. This politic
measure was adopted in several other
families; but, even in the sixteenth cen-
tury, the prejudice was not removed, and
some German princes denounced cursea
on their posterity if they should introduce
the impious custom of primogeniture. 4
Weakened by these subdivisions, the
* Schmidt, t. iv., p. CG. Preffel, p. 289, main
tains that partitions were not introduced till the
latter end of the thirteenth century. This may
be true, as a general rule ; but I find the house ol
Baden divided into two branches, Baden and Hoch
berg, in 1190, with rights of mutual reversion.
t Pfeffel, lb. Putter, u. 189. Md., p.28(I
tm
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
L(/HAP. f
principalities of Germany in the four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries shrink to a
more and more diminutive size in the
icale of nations. Bu., one family, the
most illustrious of the forn.er age, was
less exposed to this enfeebling system.
House of Henry Vfl,, count of Luxem-
Luxemb:rg. burg, a man of much more per-
sonal merit than hereditary importance,
WHS elevated to the empire in 1308. Most
part of his short reign he passed in Italy ;
but he had a fortunate opportunity of ob-
taining the crown of Bohemia for his
son. John, king of Bohemia, did not
himself wear the imperial crown ; but
throe- of his descendants possessed it
with less interruption than could have
been expected. His son Charles IV.
succeeded Louis of Bavaria in 1347; not
indeed without opposition, for a double
election and a civil war were matters of
course in Germany. Charles IV. has
been treated with more derision by his
contemporaries, and consequently by
later writers, than almost any prince in
history ; yet he was remarkably success-
ful in the only objects that he seriously
pursued. Deficient in personal courage,
insensible of humiliation, bending with-
out shame to the pope, to the Italians, to
the electors, so poor and so little rever-
enced 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 respectable quahties.
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 al-
most seemed to render Germany a prov-
mce. Bohemia had been long consid-
ered 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
prerogative.* It was much more mate-
rial that, upon acquiring Brandenburg,
partly by conquest and partly by a com-
pact of succession in 1373, he not only
invested his sons with it, which was con-
formable to usage, but annexed that elec-
torate for ever to the kingdom of Bohe-
mia.f He constantly resided at Prague,
where he founded a celebrated university,
and embellished the city with buildings.
* Struvius, p. C41.
* Pfeffcl. D. 575. Schmidt, t. iv., p. 595.
This kingdom, augmented also during his
reign by the acquisition of Silesia, he be-
queathed 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 distinguish-
ed in the constitutional history of the
empire by his Golden Bull ; an in- coiden
strument which finally ascertained i^""-
the prerogatives of the electoral college.
[A. D. 1355.] The Golden Bull termina
ted the disputes which had arisen be
tween different members of the samt
house as to their right of suflfrage, which
was declared inherent in certain definite
territories. The number was absolutely
restrained 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 ancien
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 declared
equal to kings, and conspiracy against
their persons incurred the penalty of high
treason.! Many other privileges arc
granted to render them more completely
sovereign within their dominions. Il
seems extraordinary that Charles should
have voluntarily elevated an oligarchy,
from whose pretensions his predecessors
had frequently suffered injury. But he
had more to apprehend from the two
great families of Bavaria and Austria,
whom he relatively depressed by giving
such a preponderance to the seven elec-
tors, than from any members of the col-
lege. By this compact with Branden-
burg he had a fair prospect of adding a
second vote to his own ; and there was
more room for intrigue and management,
which Charles always preferred to arms,
with a small number, than with the whole
body of princes.
The next reign, nevertheless, evinced
the danger of investing the elec- Deposition
tors with such preponderating of vven-
authority. Wenceslaus, a su- '^'^^'^"s-
pine and voluptuous man, less respected,
and more negligent of Germany, if pos-
* Struvius, p. 637.
t PfeflTel, p. 565. Putter, p. 271. Schmidt, t.
iv., p. 566. The Golden Bull not only fixed tne
palatine vote, in absolute exclusion of" Bavaria, but
settled a controversy of long standing between the
two branches of the house of Saxoijy, Wittenber|
^rd Lauenberg in favour of the former
Chap. \ .}
GERMAN i.
2H'4
sible, than his laclier, vtan regularly de-
posed by a majority of the electoral col-
iCge in 1400. This right, if it is to be
considered as a riglit, 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 adhe-
rents, Robert has generally been counted
among the lawful emperors.* Upon his
death the empire returned to the house of
Luxemburg ; Wenceslaus himself waiv-
ing his right in favour of his brother Si-
gismund, king of Hungary.!
The house of Austria had hitherto giv-
liouseorcn but two emperors to Germa-
Austria. j^y^ Rodolph, its founder, and his
son Albert, whom a successful rebellion
elevated in the place of Adolphus. Upon
the death of Henry of Luxemburg, in
1313, Frederick, son of Albert, disputed
the election of Louis, duke of Bavaria,
alleging a majority of genuine votes.
This produced a civil war, in which the
Austrian party were entirely worsted.
Though they li'vanced no pretensions to
the imperial dignity during the rest of
the fourteentli century, the princes of
that line added to their possessions Ca-
rinthia, Istria, and the Tyrol. As a coun-
terbalance to these acquisitions, 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 domin-
ions were divided among tliree branches :
one reigning in Austria, a second in Styria
and the adjacent provinces, a third in the
Tyrol and Alsace. [A. D. 1438.]
Albert II. -phis had in a considerable degree
eclipsed the glory of the house of Haps-
burg. But it was now its destiny to re-
vive, and to enter upon a career of pros-
perity which has never since been per-
manently 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-
* Many of the cilies, besides some princes, con-
tinued to recognise Wenceslaus throughout the life
of Robert ; and the latter was so much considered
as a usurper by foreign states, that his ambassa-
dors were refused admittance at the council of Pisa.
— Struvius, p. 658.
t This election of Sigismund wasnotuncontest-
ea : Josse, or Jodocus, margrave of Moravia, hav-
ing been chosen, as far as appears, by a legal major-
ity. However, his death, within three months, re-
moved the difficulty ; and Josse, who was not crown-
ed at Frankfort, has never been reckoned among
the emperors, though modern critics agree that his
title was legitimate.— Slruv., p. 684. Pfeffcl, p.
(12.
law in 1437. He died in two years, leav
ing his wife pregnant with a son, Ladis-
laus Posthumus, who afterward reigned
in the two kingdoms just mentioned ; anJ
the choice of tlie electors fell upon Fred
erick, duke of Styria, second cousin ot
tlie last emperor, from whose posterity
it never departed, except in a single hi-
stance, upon the extinction of his mal*
line in 1740.
Frederick HL reigned fifty-ihree yean*
a longer period than any of his Reign of
predecessors ; and his person- I'^iierick ill
al character was more insignificant. [A.
D. 1440-1493.] With better fortune than
could be expected, considering both these
circumstances, he escaped any overt at-
tempt to depose him, though such a pro-
ject was sometimes in agitation. He
reigned during an interesting age, full o*
remarkable events, and big with otberi
of more leading importance. The de
struction of the Greek empire, and ap
pearance of the victorious crescent upoi
the Danube, gave an unhappy distinctior
to the earlier years of his reign, and dis
played his mean and pusillanimous char
acter in circumstances which demanded
a hero. At a later season he was drawn
into contentions with France and Bur
gundy, which ultimately produced a new
and more general combination of Europe-
an politics. Frederick, always poor, and
scarcely able to protect himself in Aus-
tria from the seditions of his subjects, or
the inroads of the King of Hungary, was
yet another founder of his family, and
left their fortunes incomparably more
prosperous than at his accession. The
marriage of his son INIaximilian with the
heiress of Burgundy began that aggran-
dizement of the house of Austria which
Frederick 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 tlie
Romans in his father's lifetime. The
Austrian provinces were reunited, either
under Frederick, or in the first years of
Maximilian ; so that, at the close of that
* The famous device of Austria, A. E. I. O. U.,
was first used by Frederick III., who adopted it or
his plate, books, and buildings. These initials
stand for Austria; Est ImperareOrbi Universe ; or,
in German, Alles Erdreich 1st Osterreich Unter
than : a bold assumption for a man who was not safe
in an inch of his dominions.— Struvius, p. 722. He
confirmed the arch-ducal title of his family, which
might seem implied in the original grant of Freder
ick I., and bestowed other high jjrivileges abovs
all princes of the empire. These are enumerate .
in Coxe's house of A.ustria, vol. i., p. 263
23fl
EUROPE DURING THE MrDKLE AGES
chl
[Chai. V
neriod whicli we denominate the Middle
Ages, the German empire, sustained by
the patrimonial dominions of its chief, be-
came again considerable in the scale of
nations, and capable of preserving a bal-
ance between the ambitious monarchies
of France and Spain,
The period between Rodolph and Fred-
Piosressof crick III. is distinguished by no
frcK^impe- circumstancc so interesting as
rial ciiics. {]^g prosperous stale of the free
imperial cities, which had attained their
maturity about the commencement of
that interval. We find the cities of Ger-
many, in the tenth century, divided into
such as depended imniediately 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.* Some of the former,
Jying principally upon the Rhine and in
Franconia, acquired a certain degree of
importance before the expiration of the
eleventh century. Worms and Cologne
manifested a zealous attachment to Hen-
ry IV., whom they supported in despite
of their bishops. f His son Henry V.
granted privileges of enfranchisement
t.0 the inferior townsmen or artisans,
who had hitherto been distinguished from
the upper class of freemen, and particu-
larly relieved them from oppressive usa-
ges, which either gave the whole of their
moveable goods to the lord upon their
decease, or at least enabled him to seize
the best chattel as his heriot.| He took
away the temporal authority of the bish-
op, at least in several instances, and re-
stored the cities to a more immediate de-
pendance upon the empire. The citizens
were classed in companies, according
to their several occupations ; an in-
stitution which was speedily adopted
in other commercial countries. It does
not appear that any German city had ob-
tained, under this emperor, those privile-
ges of choosing its own magistrates,
which were conceded about the same
time, in a few instances, to those of
France ^ Gradually, however, they be-
gan to elect councils of citizens as a sort
of senate and magistracy. This innova-
tion might perhaps take place as early as
* Pfeffel, p. 187. The Othos adopted the same
fcUcy in Germany which they had introduced in
taly, conferring the temporal government of cities
upon the bishops ; probably as a counterbalance to
the hy aristocracy.— Putter, p. 136. Struvius,
p. 252.
+ Schmidt, t. iii., p. 239.
i Schmidt, n. 242. Pfeffel, p. 293. Dumont,
Coips Diplomatique, t. i., p. 64
6 Schir.idt, p. 24.'.
the reign of FredericK I. ;* at least it was
fully established in that of his grandson.
They were at first only assistants to tha
imperial or episcopal bailiff, who proba-
bly continued to administer criminal jus-
tice. But, in the thirteenth century, the
citizens, grown richer and stronger ei-
ther purchased the jurisdiction, or usurp-
ed it through the lord's neglect, or drove
out the bailiff by force. f The great rev-
olution in Franconia and Swabia occa-
sioned by the fall of the Hohenstaiiffen
family, completed the victory of the cit-
ies. Those which had depended upon
mediate lords became immediately con-
nected Avith the empire ; and with the
empire in its state of feebleness, when an
occasional present of money would easi
ly 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 confed-
eracy. They were tacitly acknowledged
to be equally sovereign with the electors
and princes. No proof exists of any law
by which they were adopted into the
diet. We find it said that Rodolph of
Hapsburg, in 1291, renewed his oath
with the princes, lords, and cities. Under
the Emperor Henry VII. there is unequiv-
ocal mention of the three orders compo-
sing the diet ; electors, princes, and dep-
uties from cities. I And, in 1344, they ap-
pear as a third distinct college in the
diet of Frankfort.^
The inhabitants of these free cities al-
ways preserved their respect for the em-
peror, and gave him much less vexation
than his other subjects. He was indeed
their natural friend. But their nobility
and prelates were their natural enemies ;
and the western parts of Germany were
the scenes of irreconcilable warfare be-
tween the possessors of fortified castles-
and the inhabitants of fortified cities.
Each party was frequently the aggressor.
* In the charter granted by Frederick I. to Spire
in 1182, confirming and enlarging that of Henry
v., though no express mention is mate of any mum
cipal jurisdiction, yet it seems imp.ied in the fol-
lowing words : Causam in civitate jam lite con
testatam non episcopus aut alia potestas ext;-3 d'"-
itatem determinari compellet. — Dumont, p. 108
t Schmidt, t. iv., p. 96. Pfeffel, p. 441.
i Mansit ibi rex sex hebdomadibuscum prmc.pi
bus electoribus et aliis principibus et civitatum nun
tiis, de suo transitu et de prsstandis servitiis it
Italiam disponendo. — Auctor apud Schmidt, t. «
p. 31.
(J Pfeffel, :• 552
CjiP. v.]
GERMAN y.
2^4
The nobles were loo oftei. mere robbers,
who lived upon the plunder of travellers.
Uut the citizens were almost equally in-
attentive to the rights of others. It was
their policy to offer the privileges of
burghership to all strangers. The peas-
antry of feudal lords, flying to a neigh-
bouring town, found an asylum constant-
ly open. A multitude o'f aliens, thus
seeking as it were sanctuary, dwelt in
the suburbs or liberties, between Ihe city
w?.lls and the palisades which bounded
iho territory. Hence they were called
Pfahlburgher, or burgesses of the pali-
sades ; and this encroachment on the
rights of the nobility was positively,
but vainly prohibited by several imperial
edicts, especially the Golden Bull. An-
other class were the Ausburger, or out-
burghers, who had been admitted to priv-
ileges 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 re-
sisted so unreasonable a claim, he incur-
red the danger of bringing down upon
himself the vengeance of the citizens.
These outburghers are in general classed
under the general name of Pfahlburgher
by contemporary writers.*
As the towns were conscious of the
Leagues of hatred which the nobility bore
ie cities, towards them, it was their inter-
est to make a common c<iuse, and render
mutual assistance. From this necessity
of maintaining, by united exertions, their
general liberty, the German cities never
Buffered the petty jealousies which might,
no doubt, exist among them, to ripen into
Buch deadly feuds as sullied the glory,
and ultimately destroyed the freedom, of
Lombardy. They withstood the bishops
and barons by confederacies of their own,
framed expressly to secure their com-
merce against rapine or unjust exactions
of toll. More than sixty cities, with three
ecclesiastical electors at their head, form-
ed the league of the Rhine in 1255, to re-
pel the inferior nobility, who, having now
become immediate, abused that inde-
pendence by perpetual robberies. f The
Hanseatic llnion 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 more striking effects in Ger-
many. The cities of Swabia and the
• Schmidt, t. iv., p. 98 ; t. vi., p. 76. Pfeffel, p.
403. Du Cange, Gloss. V. Pfalburger. Fauxbourg
is derived from this word.
t Struvius, p. 498. Schmidt, t. iv., p 101. Pfef-
hl D. 410
Rliine united themselves in a strict con-
federacy against the princes, and espe-
cially the famihes of Wirtemburg and Ba
varia. It is said that the Emperor Wen
ceslaus secretly abetted their projects
The recent successes of the Swiss, who
had now almost establishfxi their repub
lie, inspired their neighbours in the empire
with expectations which the event did not
realize ; for they were defeated in this
war, and ultimately compelled to relin-
quish their league. Counter-associations
were formed by the nobles, styled socie-
ty of St. George, St. William *he Lion,
or the Panther.*
The spirit of political liberty was not
confined to the free immediate provincial
cities. In all the German prin- siatesottho
cipalities, a form of limited '"'P""^-
monarchy prevailed, reflecting, on a re
duced 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 own provincial states
composed of their feudal vassals, and of
their mediate towns within their territory.
No tax could be imposed without consent
of the states ; and, in some ci»untries. the
prince was obliged to account for the
proper disposition of the money granted.
In all matters of importance affecting the
principality, and especially in cases of
partition, it was necessary to consult
them ; and they sometimes decided be-
tween competitors in a disputed succes-
sion, though this indeed more strictly be-
longed to the emperor. The provincial
states concurred with the prince in ma-
king laws, except such as were enacted
by the general diet. The city of Wurti:-
burgh, in the fourteenth century, tells its
bishop, that if a lord would make any new
ordinance, the custom is that he musx
consult the citizens, who have alwayr
opposed his innovating upon the ancien-
laws without their consent, f
The ancient imperial domain, or pos
sessions which belonged to the Alienation c
chief of the empire as such, the imperia
had originally been very extcn- '^'"n*'"
sive. Besides large estates in ever}
province, the territory upon each bank
of the Rhine, afterward occupied by the
counts palatine and ecclesiaslical elec-
tors, was, until the thirteenth <.entury, ?.n
exclusive property of the emperor. This
imperial domain was deemed so adequate
to the support of his d:gmty, that it waj
usual, if not obligator/ for him to grar..
* Struvius, p. 619. PleftVl, p 580 Schmidt,
v., -3. 10 ; t. vi., p. 78. Putter, p. 293
•" Schmidt, t. VI., p. 8. Putle. o. 23G
uo
EL'ilOPE DURL\G THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. V
•4<vay his patrimonul domains upon his
election. But tiie necessities of Freder-
ick II., and the long confusion that en-
sued upon his death, caused the domain
to be ahnost entirely dissipated. Ro-
dolph 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 depri-
ved an emperor of hereditary posses-
sions. It was, however, some time be-
fore it took place. Even Albert I. con-
ferred tlie dutchy of Austria upon his
sons when he was chosen emperor. f
Louis of Bavaria was the first who re-
tained his hereditary dominions, and
made them his residence. | Charles IV.
and Wenceslaus lived almost wholly in
Bohemia ; Sigismund 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 connexion with
the general confederacy, gave them in-
trinsic 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.
[A. D. 1495.] The accession of Maxi-
milian nearly coincides with
Ma"imii.3n. the expedition of Charles VIII.
Diet of against Naples and I should
A'orms. \iQfQ close the German history
if the middle age, were it not for the
ireat epoch which is made by the diet of
Worms, in 1495. This assembly is cel-
ebrated for the establishment of a perpet-
ual public peace, and of a paramount
court of justice, the Imperial Chamber.
The same causes which produced
E t Wish- continual hostilities among the
liient of ' French nobility were not likely
public to operate less powerfully on
iwace. ^YiQ Germans, equally warlike
with their neighbours, and rather less
civilized. But wdiile the imperial gov-
ernment was still vigorous, they were
kept under some restraint. We find
Heniy III., the most powerful of the
Franconian emperors, forbidding all pri-
vate defiances, and establishing solemnly
* Pfeffel, p. 580.
t Idem, p. 494. Struvius, p. 546.
t Struvius, p. Gil. In the capitulation of Rob-
ert, it was e.\pressly provided ttiat he should re-
tain any escheated fief for the domain, instead of
granting it away; so completely was the fullic
policy 01 the empire reversed. — SchmicH t 7.,
p. 44.
a general peace.* After his time, the
natural tendency of manners overpower,
ered all attempts to coerce it, and private
war raged without limits in the empire.
Frederick I. endeavoured to repress it
by a regulation which admitted its legal-
ity. This was the law of defiance (jus
diffidationis), which required a solertm
declaration of war, and three days' no-
tice, before the commencement of hostile
measures. All persons contravening tins
provision were deemed robbers, and not
legitimate enemies. f Frederick II. car-
ried the restraint farther, and limited the
right of self-redress to cases where jus-
tice could not be obtained. Unfortunate-
ly there was, in later times, no sufficient
provision for rendering justice. The
German empire indeed had now assumed
so peculiar a character, and the mass of
states who composed it were in so many
respects sovereign within their own ter-
ritories, that wars, unless in themselves
unjust, could not be made a subject of
reproach against them, nor considered,
strictly speaking, as private. It was cer-
tainly most desirable to put an end to
them by common agreement, and by the
only means that could render war unne
cessary, the establishment of a supreme
jurisdiction. War indeed, legally under-
taken, was not the only, nor the severed
grievance. A very large proportion of
the rural nobflity lived by robbery ^
Their castles, as the ruins still bear '«vit-
ness, were erected upon inaccessible hills,
and in defiles that command the public
road. An archbishop of Cologne having
built a fortress of this kind, the governor
inquired how he was to maintain him-
self, no revenue having been assigned for
that purpose. The prelate only desired
him to remark that the castle was situa-
ted near the junction of four roads. ^ As
commerce increased, 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. Temporarj
» PfeflFel, p. 212.
t Schmidt, t. iv., p. 108, et infra. Ffeflel, p. 34C
Putter, p. 205.
t Germani atque Alemanni, quibus census pa'ri
monii ad victum suppelit, et hos qui procu! urbi
bus, aut qui castellis et oppidulis dominanit r, quo-
rum viauna pars latrocinio deditur, nobiles ctnsent
—Pet, de Andlo. apud Schmidt, t. v., p. 490.
(j Quem cum officiatus suus interrogans, de quo
castrum deberit retinere, cum annuis careret redi
tibus, dicitur respondis.se : Qmtuor via; sunt tram
custrum si'uat*.— Auctor apu'* Sch'nidt, p 492.
Ca^p. y.\
GERMANY.
241
cessations, during whicli all private hos
tility was illegal, were sometimes enact-
ed; and, if observed, which may well be
doubted, might contribute to accustom
men to habits of greater tranquillity.
The leagues of the cities were probably
^lore efficacious checks upon the d'sturb-
ws of order. In 1486 a ten years' peace
i^-as pioclaimed, and before the txpira-
uon of this period the perpetual abolition
of the right of defiance was happily ac-
fomphshed in the diet of Worms.*
These wars, incessantly waged by the
states of Gcj^many, seldom ended in con-
quest. Very few princely houses of the
middle ages were aggrandized by such
means. That small and independent no-
bility, the counts and knights of the em-
pire, whom the unprincipled rapacity of
our own nge has anniliilated, stood
through the storms of centuries with
little diminution of tjieir numbers. An
incursion into the enemy's territory, a
pitched battle, a siege, a treaty, are the
general circumstances of the minor wars
of the middle ages, as far as they appear
in history. Before the invention of ar-
tillery, a strongly fortified castle, or
walled city, was hardly reduced except
by famine, which a besieging army, wast-
ing improvidently its means of subsist-
ence, was full as likely to feel. That
invention altered the condition of society,
and introduced an inequality of forces,
that rendered war more inevitably ruin-<
uus to the inferior parly. Its first and
.Host beneficial effect was to bnng the
plundering class of the nobility into con-
trol ; their castles were more easily
taken, and it became ilieir interest to de-
serve the protection of law. A few of
these continued to follow their own pro-
fession after the diet of Worms ; but they
were soon overpowered by the more ef-
ficient police established under Maximil-
ian.
The next object of the diet was to pro-
.rnperiai vide an effectual remedy for pri-
Chamhur. yj^fQ wrougs wliich might super-
sede all pretence for taking up arms.
The adniinistiation of justice had always
)een a high pierogativc, as well as bound-
on duty, of the emperors. It was exer-
cised originally by themselves in person,
or by the count palatine, the judge who
uiwiys attended their court. In the prov-
inces of Germany, the dukes were in-
trusted with this duty: but, in order to
control their influence, Otho the Great
appointed provincial counts palatine,
whose jurisdiction was in some respects
* Schmidt, t. iv., p. 116; ,. v., p. 338, 3"! ; t. vi..
31. Putter, p. 292, 348.
Q
exclusive of that still possessed by the
dukes. As the la Iter became more inde-
pendent of the empire, the provincial
counts palatine lost the importance of
their office, though their name m? y be
traced to the twelfth and thirteenth cen-
turies.* The ordinary administrati* n of
justice by the emperors went into di »ust:
in cases where states of the empire,
were concerned, it appertained to th<'
diet, or to a special court of princes.
The first attempt to re-establish an iin
perial tribunal was made by Frederick IJ
in a diet held at Mentz in 1235. A judg*
of the court was appointed to sit daily,
with certain assessors, half nobles, half
lawyers, and with jurisdiction over all
gauses where princes of the empire
were not concerned. f Rodolph of Haps-
burg endeavoured to give efficacy to this
judicature ; but, after his reign, it under
went the fate of all those parts of the
Germanic constitution which maintained
the prerogatives of the emperors. Si-
gismund endeavoured to revive this tri-
bunal ; but, as he did not render it penna-
nent, nor fix the place of its sittings, it
produced little other good than as it ex-
cited an earnest anxiety for a regular sys-
tem. This system, delayed tlirougliout
the reign of Frederick III., was reserved
for the first diet of his son.|
The Imperial Chamber, such was tlia
name of the new tribunal, consisted, at
its original institution, of a chief judge,
who was lobe chosen among the prince*
or counts, and of sixteen assessors, part-
ly of noble or equestrian rank, partly p^"o-
fessors of law. They v/ere named by
the emperor with the approbation of xhe
diet. The functions of the Imperial
Chamber were chiefly the two following.
They exercised an appellant jurisdiction
over causes that had been decided by the
tribunals established in states of the em-
pire. But their jurisdiction in private
causes was merely appellant. A ccording
to the original law of German) , no man
could be sued except in the nation or
province to which he belonged. The
early emperors travelled from one part
of their dominions to another, in order to
render justice consistently witli this fun-
damental privilege. When the Luxem-
burg emperors fixed their resi'.ence in
Bohemia, the jurisdiction of the imperial
court in the first instance would havfl
ceased of itself by the operation of thit
ancient rule. It was not, however
strictly complied with ; and it is said thai
*Pfen'el, p. 180.
t Idem. p. 39C. Schmidt, t. iv., p. 56
t Pfeftel, t. ii., p. 6C
242
ELKOPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
fCUAP. V
the eaiperors l.ad a concurrent jurisdic-
tion with the provincial tribunals even in
private causes. They divested them-
.selves, nevertheless, of this right, by
granting privileges de non cvocando ; so
'.hat no subject of a state which enjoyed
sucli a privilege could be summoned into
ilie imperial court. All the electors pos-
sessed this exemption by the terms of the
iiolden Bull; and it was specially granted
0 the burgraves of Nuremberg, and some
>ther princes. This matter was finally
settled at the diet of Worms ; and the
Imperial Chamber was positively re-
stricted from taking cognizance of any
causes in the first instance, even where
a Slate of the empire was one of the par-
ties. It was enacted, to obviate the de-
nial of justice that appeared likely to re-
sult from the regulation in the latter case,
that every elector and prince should es-
tablish a tribunal in his own dominions,
where suits against himself might be en-
tertained.*
The second part of the chamber's ju-
risdiction related to disputes between
1 wo states of the empire. But these two
could only come before it by way of ap-
peal. During the period of anarchy which
[jreceded the establishment of its juris-
diction, a custom was introduced, in or-
der to prevent the constant recurrence
of hostilities, of referring the quarrels of
sl:ites to certain arbitrators, called Aus-
:regues, chosen among states of the same
rank. This conventional reference be-
came 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 invaria-
ble and universal law, that all disputes
between different states must, in the first
nistance, be submitted to the arbitration
of Austregues.f
The sentence of the chamber would
F.siabiisii- have been very idly pronounced,
ment of if mcaus had not been devised to
eirdes. q-^^ytj them iuto execution. In
earUer times the want of coercive pro-
cess had been more felt than that of ac-
tual jurisdiction. For a few years after
the establishment of the chamber, this de-
ficiency was not supplied. But in 1501
an institution, originally planned under
Wenceslaus, and attempted by Albert II.,
was carried into eftect. The empire,
v\ith tl'.e exception of the electorates and
the Austrian dominions, was divided into
sis' circles ; each of which had its coun-
cil of states, its director, whose province
» .Schmidt, t. v., p. 373. Putter, p. 372.
♦ P-.itter. p. 361. Pfpffel. p. 4.52.
it was to convoke them, and ito military
force to compel obedience. In 1512 four
more circles were added, comprehending
those states which had been excluded in
the first division. It was the business of
the police of the circles to enforce tlie
execution of sentences pronounced by
the Imperial Cliamber against refractory
states of the empire.*
As the judges of the Imperiil Chamber
were appointed with the consent auIIc
of the diet, and held theii sittings t-'"'!^'^"
in a free imperial city, its establishmt!''
seemed rather to encroach oij the ancient
prerogatives of the emperors. Maximil-
ian expressl)^ reserved these in consent-
ing to the new tribunal. And, in order tf:
revive them, he soon afterward instituted
an Aulic Council at Vienna, composed of
judges appointed by himself, and under
the political control of the Austrian gov
ernment. Though. some 'German patri-
ots regarded 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 multiplied privileges de nou
appellando, granted to the electoral and
superior princely houses, were gradually
reduced into moderate compass. f
The Germanic constitution may be
•reckoned complete, as to all its essentia^
characteristics, in the reign of Maximil-
ian. In later times, and especially by
the treaty of Westphalia, it underwent
several modifications. Whatever migh;
be its defects, and many of them seem Ic
have been susceptible of reformati(;u
without destroying the system of govern-
ment, it had one invaluable excellence :
it protected the rights of the weaker
against the stronger powers. The law of
nations was first \aught 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 natura'
principle of those who belonged to petty
states, and had nothing to tempt them in
ambition. No revolution of our own
eventful age, except the fall of the ancient
French system of government, has beer.
so extensive, or so likely to produce vm-
portant consequences, as the spontane-
ous dissolution of the German empire.
Whether tlie new confederacy that naa
been substituted for that venerablet'.m-
stitution will be equally favouraKt ta
Putter, p. 355. PfcT'-l t ii, d 100
Idem, p. 3£7. Pfcfte!. v 102
ftHAP v.]
Germany.
24a
peace, justice, and libf rty, is among the
most interesting and difficult problems
that can occupy a philosophical observer.*
At the accession of Conrad the First,
Limits of Germany had by no means
the empire, reached its present extent on
•he 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 northern
coast from the Elbe to the Vistula. These
were independent and formidable both
to the kings of Denmark and princes of
Germany, till, in the reign of Frederick
Barbarossa, two of the latter, Henry the
Lion, duke of Saxony, and Alberi the
Boar, margrave of Brandenburg, subdued
Mecklenburg and Pomerania, which af-
terward became dutchies cf the empire.
Bohemia was undoubtedly subject, in a
feudal sense, to Frederick I. and his suc-
cessors, though its connexion with Ger-
many was always slight. The emperors
sometimes assumed a sovereignty over
Denmark, Hungary, and Poland. But
what they gained upon this quarter was
compensated by the gradual separation of
the Netherlands from their dominion, and
by the still more complete loss of the king-
dom 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
A.lps were absolutely separated ; Swis-
serland has completely succeeded in es-
tablishing her own independence ; and
the kings of France no longer sought
even the ceremony of an imperial inves-
titure for Dauphine and Provence.
Bohemia, which received the Christian
Bohemia— faith in the tenth century, was
its consti- elevated to the rank of a kingdom
•""""• near the end of the twelfth. The
dukes and kings of Bohemia were feudal-
ly dependant 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, sep-
arated by a rampart of mountains, by a
difference of origin and language, and
perhaps by national prejudices, from Ger-
many, the Bohemians withdrew as far as
possible from the general politics of the
* The first edition o^ this work was published
eirly in 1818.
Q?
confederacy. The kings obtained dis-
pensations from attending the diets of the
empire, nor were they able to reinstate
themselves in the privilege thus abandon-
ed 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 resemblance to
that of Poland ; but the nobility were d»
vided 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 oi
servitude, or predial villanage. The roy-
al authority was restrained by a corona-
tion oath, by a permanent senate, and by
frequent assemblies of the diet, where a
numerous and armed nobility appeared to
secure their liberties by law or force. J
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 Bohemia ventured to boast
of it as his inheritance.^ This mixture
of elective and hereditary monarchy wa*
common, as we have seen, to most Eu
ropean kingdoms in their original consti
tution, though few continued so long to ad
mit the participation of popular sulfrages
The reigning dynasty having become
extinct, in 1306, by the death of iiouse oi
W^enceslaus, son of that Otto- Luxemburg
car, who, after extending his conquests
to the Baltic Sea, and almost to the Adri-
atic, had lost his life in an unsuccessful
contention with the Emperor Rodolph,
the Bohemians ohose John of Luxemburg,
son of Henry VIL LTnder 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 refine-
ment and science. II A university, erect-
ed by Charles at Prague, became one of
* Pfeffel, t. ii., p. 497.
t Bona ipsorum tola BohemiA pleraque omnia
hereditaria sunt sou allodialia, perpauca feudalia
— ytransky, Kesp. Boheinica, p. 392. Stransky
was a Bohemian Protestant, who fled to Holland
after the subversion of the civil and religious liber
lies of his country by the fatal battle of Prigue, in
1G21.
t Dubravius, the Bohemian historian, relatai
(lib. .xviii.) that the kingdom having no written law*
Wenceslaus, one of the kings, about the year 1300,
sent for an Italian lawyer to compile a code. Bm
the nobility refused to consent to this ; aware, prob-
ably, of the consequences of letting in the prercg
ative doctrines of the civilians. They opposed, at
tlie same time, the institution of a university !.»
Prague, which, however, took p. ace afterward un
der Charles IV.
^ Stransky, Kesp. Bohem. (>oxe's Ho'JSf a
Austria, p. 487.
I' Schmidt Coxe.
244
EUROPE DURING THE»MIDDLE AGES.
[iJnAP. V
the :nost celebiatid in Europe. [A. D.
1416.] John Huss, rector of the
^ *' "*^' university, who had distinguish-
ed himself by opposition to many abuses
then prevaiHng in the church, repaired to
the council of Constance, under a safe con-
duct from the Emperor Sigismund. In vi-
olation of this pledge, to the indelible in-
famy of that prince and of the council, he
was condemned to be burnt ; and his dis-
ciple, Jerome of Prague, underwent after-
riussitewar. '^"ard the same fate. His coun-
trymen, aroused by this atroci-
ty, flew to arms. They found at their
head one of those extraordinary men,
whose genius, created by nature and
called into action by fortuitous events,
appears to borrow no reflected light from
, K „. that of others. John Zisca had
John Zisca. , . , . , ,
not been tramed m any school
which could have initiated him in the
science of war; that, indeed, except in
Italy, was still rude, and nowhere more
so than in Bohemia. But, self-taught, he
became one of the greatest captains who
had appeared hitherto in Europe. It ren-
ders his exploits more marvellous, that
he was totally deprived of sight. Zisca
has been called the inventor of the mod-
ern art of fortification ; the famous moun-
tain near Prague, fanatically called Tabor,
became, by his skill, an impregnable in-
Irenchment. For his stratagems he has
been compared to Hannibal. In battle,
feeing destitute of cavalry, he disposed at
mtervals 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 ex-
plained, he gave his orders for the dispo-
sition of the army. Zisca was never de-
feated ; and his genius inspired the Hus-
sites with such enthusiastic aff"ection, that
«ome of those who had served under him
refused to obey any other genera], and
denominated themselves Orphans, in
commemoration of his loss. He was in-
deed a ferocious enemy, though some of
his cruelties might, perhaps, be extenua-
ted by the law of retaliation ; but to his
soldiers aflfable and generous, dividing
amon^- them all the spoil.*
[A. J*. 1424.] Even during the lifetime
Caiixiins '^^ Zisca, the Hussite sect was
disunited; the citizens of Prague
and many of the nobility contenting them-
selves with moderate demands, while the
Taborites, his peculiar followers, were
actuated by a most fanatical phrensy. The
* Lenfani, Hist, de la Guere des Hussi'es.
Schmirlt. Go.xe.
former took the name of Calixtins from
their retention of the sacramental cup, of
which the priests had latterly thought fil
to debar laymen ; an abuse indeed not
sufficient to justify a civil war, but so to-
tally without pretence or apology, that
nothing less than the determined obsiinacy
of the Romish church could have main-
tained it to this time. The Taborites,
though no longer led by Zisca, gained
some remarkable victories, but were at
last wholly defeated ; while the Catholic
and Calixtin parties came to an accom-
modation, by which Sigismund was ac-
knowledged 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 sacra-
mental cup, conceded to the moderate
Hussites. [A. D. 1433.] But this com-
pact, though concluded by the councilof
Basle, being ill observed through the per-
fidious bigotry of the See of Rome, the
reformers armed again to defend their re
ligious liberties, and ultimately elected a
nobleman of their own party [A D. 1458],
by name George Podiebrad, to the throne
of Bohemia, which he maintained during
his life with great vigour and prudence *
Upon his death they chose Uladislaui
[A. D. 1471], son of Casimir, king of Po-
land, who afterward obtained alsD the
kingdom of Hungary. [A. D. 1527.] Both
these crowns were conferred on his son
Louis, after whose death, in the unfortu-
nate battle of Mohacz, Ferdinand of Aus-
tria became sovereign of the two king-
doms.
The Hungarians, that terrible peopl<;
who laid waste the Italian and
German provinces of the empire ""S"'-'
in the tenth century, became proselytes
soon afterward to the religion of Europe,
and their sovereign, St. Stephen, was ad-
mitted by the pope into the list of Chris-
tian kings. Though the Hungarians were
of a race perfectly distinct from eiilicr
the Gothic or the Sclavonian tribes, iheir
system of government was in a great
measure analogous. None indeed could
be more natural to rude nations, \\ho had
but recently accustomed themselves to
settled possessions, than a territorial uris
tocracy, jealous of unlimited or even he
reditary power in their chieftain, and sub
jugating the inferior people to that sorvi-
tude, which, in such a state of society, i«
the unavoidable consequence of poverty.
The marriage of an Hungarian princess
with Charles II., king of Naples, event-
ually connected her country far more
* Lenfant. Schmidt. Coie
C.'UP. v.]
GERMANY
24i
than it had been with the affairs of Italy.
f have mentioned in a different place the
circumstances which led to the invasion
of Naples by Louis, king of Hungary, and
the wars of that powerful monarch with
, Venice. [A. D. 1392.] By mar-
Sigisncno. ^^.^g ^^^ ^j^^g^. (i^ugjiter of
Louis, Sigismund, afterward emperor, ac-
quired the crown of Hungary, which, upon
her death without issue, he retained in
his own right, and was even able to trans-
mit to the child of a second marriage, and
to her husband, Albert, duke of Austria.
From this commencement is deduced the
connexion between Hungary and Austria.
[A. D. 1437.] In two years, however, Al-
bv;rt, dying, left his widow pregnant ; but
the states of Hungary, jealous of Austrian
influence, and of the intrigues of a mi-
nority, without waiting for her delivery,
jisiaus bestowed the crown upon Ula-
dislaus, king of Poland. [A. D.
1410.] The birth of Albert's posthumous
son, Ladislaus, produced an opposition in
behalf of the infant's right ; but the Aus-
trian party turned out the weaker, and
Uladislaus, after a civil war of some du-
ration, became undisputed king. Mean-
while a more formidable enemy drew
near. The Turkish arms had subdued all
Servia, and excited a just alarm through-
out Cliristendom. Uladishius led a con-
Biderabh) force, to which the presence of
the Cardinal Julian gave the appearance
of a crusade, into Bulgaria, and after sev-
eral successes, concluded an honourable
treaty with Amurath II. [A. D. 1444.]
liatiie of But this he was unhappily per-
Wiirna. suaded to violate, at the instiga-
tion of the cardinal, who abhorred the
impiety of keeping faith with infidels.*
Heaven 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 Hun-
garians utterly routed. The crown was
now permitted to rest on the head of
young Ladislaus ; but tlic regency was
allotted by the states of Hungary to a na-
liunniades ^^^'^' ^v3->""or, John Huuniades.f
This hero stood in the breach
for twelve years against the Turkish
♦ iEneas Sylvius lays this perfidy on Pope Eu-
jtenius IV. Sciipsit Cardinali, nullum valeie
fedus, quod se inconsulto cum hostibus religionis
porcus8uin.esset, p. 397. The words in italics are
slipped in to give a slight pretext for breaking the
treaty.
•f Hunniadcs was a Wallachian, of a small fam-
ily. The Poles charged him with cowardice at
Warna. — (.(Kneas Sylvius, p. 398.) And the Greeks
impute the same to him, or at least desertion of his
Uoops, at Cossova, where he was defeated in 1418.
-'*nondanus, ad ann. 1448.) Prohabl y he was one
power, frequently defeated, but i.ncon-
quered in defeat. If the renown of Hun-
niades may seem exaggerated by the par-
tiality of writers who lived under the
reign of his son, it is confirraed 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 dis-
tinguished birth. He surrendered tc
young Ladislaus a trust that he had exer-
cised 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 service of
Hunniadcs, was the relief of Belgrade.
[A. D. 1456.] That strong city was Reiiei iw
besieged by Mahomet II., three iitU'ni.io
years after the fall of Constantinople :
its capture would have laid open all Hun-
gary. A tumultuary army, chiefly col-
lected by the preaching of a friar, was
intrusted to Hunniadcs ; he penetrated
into the city, and having repulsed the
Turks in a fortunate sally, wherein Ma-
homet was wounded, had the honour of
compelling him to raise the siege in con-
fusion. The relief of Belgrade was more
important in its effect than in its imme-
diate circumstances. It revived the spir-
its of Europe, which had been appalled
by the unceasing victories of the infidels
Mahomet himself seemed to acknowl
edge the importance of the blow, and sel
dom afterward attacked the Hungarians
Hunniadcs died soon after this achieve
ment, and was follow^ed by the King La-
dislaus.* The states of Hungary, al-
though the Emperor Frederick III. had
secured to himself, as he thought, the re-
of those prudently brave men, who, when victory
is out of their power, reserve themselves to fighl
another day ; which is the characteristic of ail par-
tisans accustomed to desultory warfare. This is
the apology made for him by jEnoas Sylvius: for
tasse rei militaris perito nulla in pugn& salus visa.
et salvare aliquos quam omnes perire nialuit. Po-
loni acceptam eo pra;lio cladem Huniadis vecordia
atque ignaviaj tradiderunt ; ipse sua consiliaspreta
conquestus est. I observe that all the writers
upon Hungarian atfairs have a party bias one way
or other. The best and most authentic account Oi
. Hunniades seems to be, still allowing for this par
tiality, in the chronicle of John_ Thwrocz, wh.i
lived under Matthias. Bonfinius, an Italian com
piler of the same age, has ainphtied this original au
thority in his three decads o(^ Hungarian history.
* Ladislaus died at Prague, at the age of twen
ty-two, with great suspicion of poison, which kh
chiefly on George Podiebrad and the Bohemian*
iEneas Sylvius was with him at the time, and ui
letter written immediately after, plainly hints mis,
and his manner carries with it more persuasion Ihar
if he had spoken out. — Kpist. 324. Mr. Coxe,
however, informs us that the Bohemian histririana
have fully disproved the charge.
41t^
£UROPK DLRING THE MIDDLE AGES.
i< HAP,
version, were justly averse to liis char-
acter, and to Austrian connexions. They
Matthias conferred their crown on Mat-
Corvinus. thias Corvinus, son of their great
Hunniades. [A. D. 1458.] This prince
reigned above thirty years with consid-
erable reputation, to which his patronage
of learned men, who repaid his munifi-
cence with very profuse eulogies, did not
a little contribute.* Hungary, at least in
his time, was undoubtedly formidable to
her neighbours, and held a respectable
rank as an independent power in the re-
public of Europe.
The kingdom of Burgundy or Aries com-
swisseriand prehcnded the whole mount-
— its early aiuous region which we now
history. ggjj Swisserland. It was ac-
cordingly reunited to the Germanic em-
pire by the bequest of Rodolph along
with the rest of his dominions. [A. D.
1032.] A numerous and ancient nobility,
vassals one to another, or to the empire,
divided the possession with ecclesiasti-
cal lords, hardly less powerful than them-
selves. Of the former we find the counts
of Zahringen, Kyburg, Hapsburg, and
Tokenburg most conspicuous ; of the lat-
ter, the Bishop of Coire, the Abbot of St.
Gall, and Abbess of Seckingen. Every
variety of feudal rights was early found
and long preserved in Helvetia ; nor is
there any country whose history better
illustrates that ambiguous relation, half
property and half dominion, in whicli the
territorial aristocracy, under the feudal
system, stood with respect to their de-
pendants. In the twelfth century, the
Swiss towns rise into some degree of
importance. Zuric was eminent for com-
mercial activity, and seems to have had
no lord but the emperor. Basle, though
subject to its bishop, possessed the usu-
al privileges of municipal government.
Berne and Friburg, founded only in that
i;entury, made a rapid progress, and the
•alter was raised, along with Zuric, by
Frederick II., in 1218, to the rank of a
free imperial city. Several changes in
the principal Helvetian families took
place in the thirteenth century, before
the end of which the house of Ilapsburg,
under the politic and enterprising Ro-
* SponeJanus frequently blames the Italians,
who received pensions from Matthias, or wrote at
his court, lor exaggerating his virtues or dissem-
bling his misfortunes. And this was probably the
case. However, Spondanus has rather contracted
a prejudice against the Corvini. A treatise of GaU
eotus Martius, an Italian litt^raleur, Dedictiset fac-
tis MathisB, though it often notices an ordinary say-
ing as jocose or facete dictum, gives a favourable
impression of Matthias's ability, and also of his
rtegrity.
dolph, and his son Albert, became po9
sessed, through various titles, of a grea..
ascendency in Swisserland.*
Of these titles none v/as more tempt-
ing to an ambitious chief than Albert oi
that of advocate to a convent. Austria.
That specious name conveyed with it a
kind of indefinite guardianship, and right
of interference, which frequently ended
in reversing the conditions of the eccle.
siastical 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 ^ugg^^- ,
obtained that of some convents
which had estates in the valleys ol
Schwitz and Underwald. These seques-
tered regions in the heart of the Alpa
had been for ages the habitation of ?
pastoral race, so happily forgotten, oi
so inaccessible in their fastnesses, as tc
have acquired a virtual independence, reg-
ulating their own affairs in their geneia!
assembly with a perfect equality, though
they acknowledged the sovereignty of
the empire. f The people of Schwitz
had made Rodolph their advocate. Thcj
distrusted Albert, whose succession tc
his father's inheritance spread alanr
through Helvetia. It soon appeared thai
their suspicions were well founded. Be-
sides the local rights which his ecclesi
astical advocates gave him over part of
the forest cantons, he preteiided, aftei
his election to the empire, to send impe
rial bailiffs into their valleys, as adminis-
trators of criminal justice. Their op-
pression of a people unused to control,
whom it was plainly the design of Albert
to reduce into servitude, excited those
generous emotions ot resentment w^hich
a brave and simple race have seldom
the discretion to repress. Three men,
StaufTacher of Schwitz, Furst of Uri,
IMelchthal of Underwalcl, each Their instir
with ten chosen associates, met reciion.
by night in a sequestered field, and
swore to assert the common cause of
their liberties, without bloodshed or in
jury to the rights of others. Theii
success was answerable to the justict
of their undertaking ; the three cantons
unanimously took up arms, and expellee
their oppressors without a contest. [A.
D. 1308.] Albert's assassination by hi
nephew, which followed soon aflerwarJ
fortunately gave them leisure to conso?
♦ Planta's History of the Helvetic Co^fedeia*
vol. i., chaps. 2-5.
+ Id., c. i.
r HAr. V.J
GERMANV
•^4t
idale their union.* He was succeeded burgliers (a privilege wliioli virtually iin
in the empire by Henry VII., jealous of
the Austrian family, and not at all dis-
pleased at proceedings wliich had been
accompanied with so little violence or
djsrespert for the empire. But Leopold,
duke of Austria, resolved to humble the
peasants Avho had rebelled against his
father, led a considerable force into their
country. The Swiss, commending them-
selves to Heaven, and determined rather
to perish than undergo that yoke a sec-
ond time, though ignorant of regular
discipline and unprovided with defensive
Hiiiiic or armour, utterly discomfited the
Morgarteii. assailants at Morgarten.f [A. D.
1315.]
This great victory, the Marathon of
Swisserland, confirmed the independence
., . of the three original cantons,
of Swiss After some years. Lucerne, con-
Confcde- liguous iu situation and alike in
''^'^■^' interests, was incorporated into
their confederacy. It was far more ma-
terially enlarged about the middle of
the fourteenth century, by the accession
of Zuric, 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 altogether republican. J I'hey
acquired, not independence, wliich 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 an-
cient cantons, and continued till the late
reformation of the Helvetic system to
possess several distinctive privileges,
and even rights of sovereignty over sub-
ject territories, in which the five cantons
of Friburg, Soleure, Basle, Schalfauscn,
and Appenzcl, did not participate. From
this time the united cantons, but espe-
cially those of Berne and Zuric, began
to extend their territories at the expense
of the rural nobility. The same contest
between these parties, with the same
termination, 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 Swisserland.^ Like the Lom-
bards too, the Helvetic cities acted with
policy and moderation towards the nobles
whom they overcame, admitting them to
Ihe franchises of their community, as co-
plied a defensive alliance against any
assailant), and uniformly respecting thti
legal -ighls of property. Many feudal
superiorities they obtained from the
owners in a more peaceable manner,
through purchase or mortgage. Thus
the house of Austria, to which the exten-
sive domains of the counts of Kyburi
had devolved, abandoning, after repeateo
defeats, its hopes of subduing the forest
cantons, alienated a great part of iis
possessions to Zuric and Berne.* Ami
the last remnant of their ancient Helve-
tic territories in Argovia was wrested in
1417 from Frederic]^, count of Tyrol, who,
imprudently supporting Pope John XXIIl.
against the council of Constance, had
been put to the ban of the empire. These
conquests Berne could not be induced tc
restore, and thus completed the inde-
pendence of the confederate republics.]
The other free cities, though not yet in-
corporated, and the few remaining nobles,
whether lay or spiritual, of whom the
abbot of St. Gall was the principal, entered
into separate leagues with ditlerent can-
tons. Swisserland became therefore, m
the first part of the fifteenth century, a
free countiy, acknowledged as sucli bj
neighbouring states, and subject to no
external control, though still compre-
hended within the nominal sovereignty
of the empire.
The affairs of Swisserland occupy a
very small space in the great chart of Eu
ropean history But in some respects they
arc more interesting than the revolutions
of mighty kingdoms. Nowhere besides
do we find so many titles to our sympa-
thy, or the union of so much virtue with
so complete success. In the Italian re-
publics, a more splendid temple may
seem to have been erected to liberty; but,
as we approach, the serpents of faction
hiss around her altar, and tiie form of
tyranny flits among the distant shadows
behind the shrine. Swisserland, not ab-
solutely blaiueless (for what republic has
been so !), but comparatively exempt from
turbulence, usurpation, and injustice, has
well deserved to employ the native pen
of an historian, accounted the most elo-
quent of the last age I Other nations
»
Pla
rta
c
G.
t
I.I.
c.
7.
T
lA.
cc
8.
9.
4
Id
c
10.
* Planta, c. 11. f Vol. ii., .-. 1.
t I am unacquainted with MuUer's histvjry iiitlie
original language ; but, presuming ihc (ir.-t voluun-
of Mr. Flanla's History of the Helvetic Confedera-
cy tc be a free translation or abridgment of it, I can
Well conceive that it deserves the oncoiniunis of
Madame de Stael, and other foreign critics. It ii
very rare to meet with such picturesque and livelj
delineation in a modprn historian of distant times
But I u»usl observe, .hat, if the authentic chroni
•■r4S>
fJUROPE DURING TH MIDDLE AGES.
\Cn>- Y
ais[ilayed an insuperable resolution in the
defence of walled towns ; but the steadi-
ness of the Swiss in the field of battle
was without a parallel, unless we recall
the memory of Laced<emon. It was even
establislied as a law, that whoever re-
turned from battle after a defeat should
forfeit his life by the hands of the exe-
cutioner. Sixteen hundred men, who had
ueen sent to oppose the predatory inva-
sion of the French in 1444, though they
miglit have retreated without loss, deter-
in ii jd rather to perish on the spot, and
fell amid a far greater heap of the hostile
slain.* At the famous battle of Sem-
pach, in 1385, the last, which Austria pre-
sumed to try against the forest cantons,
the enemy's knights, dismounted from
their horses, presented an impregnable
barrier of lances, which disconcerted the
Swiss ; till Winkelried, a gentleman of
Undervvald, commending his wife and
children to his countrymen, threw him-
self upon the opposite ranks, and collect-
ing as many lances as he could grasp,
forced a passage for his followers by bu-
rying them in his bosom. f
The burghers and peasants of Swisser-
Exceiience liind, ill provided with cavalry,
of tiie Swiss and better able to dispense with
troops. jj i\^^ij the natives of cham-
paign countries, may be deemed the prin-
cipal restorers of the Greek and Roman
tactics, which, place the strength of ar-
mies in a steady mass of infantry. Be-
sides their splendid victories over the
dukes of Austria and their own neigh-
bouring 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 king-
doms and free states yielded alike a pas-
sive submission. They gave the dauphin,
afterward Louis XI., who entered their
country, m 1444, with a similar body of
ruffians, called Armagnacs, the disbanded
mercenaries of the English war, sufficient
reason to desist from his invasion and to
respect their valour. That able prince
formed indeed so high a notion of the
Svviss, that he sedulously cultivated their
alliance during the rest of his life. He
cles of Svvisserland have enabled Muller tc embel-
lish his narration with so much circumstantial de-
tail, he has been remarkably lortunate ir. his au-
thorities. No man could write the anna s :f Eng-
land or France in the fourteenth century with such
particularity, if he was scrupulous not to fill up the
meager sketch of chroniclers from the stories of
his invention. The striking scenery of Svvisser-
land, and MuUer's exact acquaintance with it,
have given him another advantage as a. painter of
bistnry.
'<).. ir.. c 5 t Vol i.. c 10
was made abumlantly sensible of the wis-
dom of this policy, when he saw his-
greatest enemy, the Duke of Burgund'
routed at Granson and Morat, and his r '-
fairs irrecoverably ruined by these hajiy
republicans. The ensuing age is the
most conspicuous, though not the most
essentially glorious, in the history' of
Swisserland. 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 impeach-
ment of that sterling probity which had
distinguished their earlier efforts for in-
dependence. These events, however, 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 of their in-
the liberties of Helvetia, and riereiid-nce
had even been for many years '" '^™
its ally, the Emperor Maximil an, aware
of the important service he might derive
from the cantons in his projects upor.
Italy, as well as of the disadvantage h*.
sustained by their partiality to French in-
terest, endeavoured to revive the un-
extinguished supremacy of the empire
That supremacy had just been restored
in Germany by the estabhshment of the
Imperial Chamber, and of a regular pecu-
niary contribution for its support as wel?
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, exceedingly hostile to their
republican independence, and involving
consequences not less material in their
eyes, the abandonment of a line of pohcy
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 Swabian
league, a confederacy of cities in that
province lately formed under the empe-
ror's auspices, were principally engaged
against the Swiss. I3ut the success of
the latter was decisive ; and, after a .er
rible devastation of the frontiers pf Ger
many, peace was concluded upon terms
very honourable for Swisserland. The
cantons were declared free from the ju
risd.ction of the Imperial Chamber, an
fron" all contributions imposed by th
diet. Their right to enter into foreign
alliance, even hostile to the empire, if i.
Chap. VI.]
GREEKS AND SARACENS.
24U
was not expressly recognised, continued ' treaty of Westphalia, their real sover
unimpaired in practice ; nor am 1 aware eignty must be dated by an historian fron:
that they wer.^ at anytime afterward sup- the year when every prerogative which
posed to incur the crime of rebelUon by a government can exercise was linallj
such proceedings. Though, perhaps, in abandoned.*
the strictest letter of public law, the Swiss
cantons were not absolutely released from
'heir subjection to the empire until the
* Planta, vol. ii., c t.
CHAPTER VI.
HISTORY OF THE GREEKS ANL) SARACENS.
Rise ol Mahometanism. — Causes of its Success. — i
Progress of Saracen Arms. — Greek Empire. — [
Declme of the Ktialifs. — The Greeks recover I
part of their Losses. — The Turks. — The Cru- ]
Bades. — Capture of Constantinople by the Lat-
ins.— Its Recovery by the Greeks. — The Mo- |
guls. — The Ottomans. — Danger at Constantino-
ple.— Timur. — Capture of Constantinople by Ma- i
hornet II. — Alarm of Europe. |
The ditRculty which occurs to us in
endeavouring to fix a natural commence- 1
ment of modern history, even in the !
Western countries of Europe, is much ;
enhanced when we direct our attention j
\o the Eastern Empire. In tracing the
long series of the Byzantine annals, we j
never lose sight of antiquity ; the Greek
language, the Roman name, the titles,
he laws, all (he shadowy circumstance i
of ancient greatness, attend us throughout '
the progress from the first to the last of
the Constantines ; and it is only when j
we observe the external condition and
relations of their empire, that we per- 1
crive ourselves to be embarked in a new !
sea, and are compelled to deduce, from
points of bearing to the history of other
nations, a line of separation, which the
domestic revolutions of Constantinople
woi:ld not satisfactorily afford. The ap-
pearance of Mahomet, and the conquests
of his disciples, present 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,
whoso youtli was crowned with the last
victories over the successors of Arta-
xerxes, and whose age was clouded by
the first calamities Df IMahometan inva-
sion.
or all the revolutions which have had
a permanent influence upon the Appea.
civil history of mankind, none auceofMa
could so little be anticipated by '"""*^'-
human prudence as that eflected by th<
religion of Arabia. As the seeds of in
visible disease grow up sometimes in si-
lence to maturity, till they manifest them-
selves hopeless and irresistible, the grad-
ual propagation of a new faith in a bar-
barous country bej^ond the limits of the
empire was hardly known perhaps, and
certainly disregarded, in the court ol
Constantinople. Arabia, in the age ol
Mahomet, was divided into many small
states, most of which, however, seem to
have looked up to Mecca as the capital
of their nation and the chief seat of their
religious worship. The capture of that
city accordingly, and subjugation of its
powerful and numerous aristocracy, read-
ily drew after it the submission of the
minor tribes, who transferred to the con-
queror the reverence they were used to
show to those he had subdued. If we
consider Mahomet only as a military
usurper, there is nothing more explicable,
or more analogous, especially to the
course of Oriental history, than his suc-
cess. But as the author of a religious
imposture, upon which, though avowedly
unattested by miraculous powers, and
though originally discountenanced by
the civil magistrates, he had the boldness
to found a scheme of universal dominion
which his followers were half enabled to
realize, it is a curious speculation, by
what means he could inspire so sincere,
so ardent, so energetic, and so pcrma
nent a belief.
A full explanation of the causes which
contributed to the progress of faiises or
Mahometanism is not perhaps hissucce*?
at present attainable by those most con
versant with tliis department of litera
ture But we may point out several oi
iSO
EUROPE IjURING THE MIDDLE AGES
rOHAf. f\
leading importance :* in the first place,
those just and elevated notions of the di-
vine nature, and of moral duties, the gold
vT.:e that pervades the dross of the Koran,
« hich were fralculated to strike a serious
and jreflecti.ig people, already perhaps
disinclined, by intermixture with their
Jewish and Christian fellow-citizens, to
Ihe superstitions of their ancient idola-
try ;f- next, the artful incorporation of
lonets, usages, and traditions from the
various religions that existed in Arabia ;|
. and thirdly, the extensive application of
the precepts in the Koran, a book con-
fessedly written with inore elegance and
purity, to all legal transactions, and all
the business of life. It may be expected
that I should add to these, what is com-
* We are very destitute of satisfactory materials
for the history of Mahomet himself Abulfeda, the
most judicious of his biographers, lived in the four-
teenth century, when it must have been morally
impossible to discriminate the truth amid the tor-
rent of fabulous tradition. Al Jannabi, whom Gag-
nier translated, is a mere legend writer; it would
be as rational to quote the Acta Sanctorum as his
romance. It is therefore difficult to ascertain the
real character of the prophet, except as it is dedu-
ciblo from the Koran ; and some skeptical Orien-
lalists, if I am not mistaken, have called in qnes-
non the absolute genuineness even of that. Gib-
bon has hardly apprized the reader sufficiently of
tiie crumbling foundation upon which his narrative
:f Mahomet's life and actions depends.
t Tie very curious romance of Antar, written
nerhap» before the appearance of Mahomet, seems
to render it probable, that however idolatry, as we
are toM by Sale, might prevail in some parts of
Arabia, yet the genuine religion of the descendants
of Ishniael was a beUef in the unity of God as
strict a) is laid down in the Koran itself, and ac-
compai ied by the same antipathy, partly religious,
^jartly national, towards the Fire-worshippers,
•vhich Mahomet inculcated. This corroborates
Tvhat ] had said in the text before the publication
3f that work.
t I um very much disposed to believe, notwith-
standing what seems to be the general opinion,
hat Mahomet had never read any part of the New
Testament. His knowledge of Christianity ap-
pears to be wholly derived from the apocryphal
gospels, and similar works. He admitted the mi-
raculous conception and prophetic character of
Jesus, but not his divinity or preexistence. Hence
It is rather surprising to read, in a popular book of
sermons by a living prelate, that all the heresies of
the Christian church (I quote the substance from
roiemory) are to be found in the Koran, but espe-
cially that of Arianism. No one who knows what
Arianism is, and what Mahometanism is, could
Dossibly fall into so strange an error. The mis-
fortur.e has been, that the learned writer, while
accumulating a mass of reading upon this part of
h'3 subject, neglected what should have been the
nude^is of the whole, a perusal of the single book
which contains the doctrine of the Arabian impos-
tor. In this strange chimera about the Arianism
of Mahomet, he has been led away by a misplaced
trust m Whitaker; a writer almost invariably in
ihe wrong, and whose bad reasoning upon all the
points of historical criticism which he attempted
to ditcjss is quite noto'vous.
monlj'^ considered as a distinguishing
mark of Mahometanism, its indulgence to
voluptuousness. But tliis appears to be
greatly exaggerated. Although the char-
acter of its Ibunder may have been taint-
ed by sensuality as well as ferocioucness,
I do not think that he relied upon induce
ments of the former kind for the diffusion
of his system. We are not to Judge of
this by rules of Christian purity or of
European practice. If polygamy was a
prevailing usage in Arabia, as is not ques-
tioned, its permission gave no additional
license to the proselytes of Mahomet,
who will be found rather to have nar-
rowed the unbounded liberty of Onen-tal
manners in this respect ; while his deci-
ded condemnation of adultery, and of in
cestuous connexions, so frequent among
barbarous nations, does not argue a very
lax and accommodating morahty. A de-
vout Mussulman exhibits much more of
the Stoical than the Epicurean character.
Nor can any one read the Koran without
being sensible that it breathes an austere
and scrupulous spirit. And, in fact, the
founder of a new religion or sect is little
likely to obtain permanent success by in
dulging the vices and luxuries of mankind
1 should rather be disposed to reckon the
severity of Mahomet's discipline among
the causes of its influence. Precepts of
ritual observance, being always definite
and unequivocal, are less likely to be
neglected, after their obligation has been
acknowledged, than those of moral vir-
tue. Thus the long fasting, the pilgrim-
ages, the regular prayers and ablutions,
the constant almsgiving, the abstinence
from stimulating liquors, enjoined by the
Koran, created a vis^jle standard of prac-
tice among its followers, and preserved a
continual recollection of^ their law.
But the prevalence of Islam in the life-
time of its prophet, and during the first
ages of its existence, was chiefly owing
to the spirit of martial energy that he in-
fused into it. The religion of Mahomet
is as essentially a military system as the
institution of chivalry in the west of Eu-
rope. 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 desolate
the world, and a promise of all that their
glowing imaginations could anticipate of
Paradise annexed to all in which they
most delighted upon earth. It is dirficult
for us, in the calmness of our closets, to
conceive that feverish intensity of excite-
ment to which man may be wrought,
when the animal and intellectual ener-
:h.*p. vr.j
GREEKS AND SARACEiXS
251
gies of hi'j nature converge to a point,
and the buoyancy of strength and cour-
age reciprocates the influence of moral
sentiment or rehgious hope. The effect
of this union I have formerly remarked
in the crusades ; a phenomenon perfectly
analogous to the early history of the
Saracens. In each, one hardly knows
whether iliost to admire the prodigious
exertions of heroism, or to revolt from
the ferocious bigotry that attended them.
But the crusades were a temporary ef-
fort, not thoroughly congenial to the
spirit of Christendom, which, even in the
darkest and most superstitious ages, was
not susceptible of the solitary and over-
ruling fanaticism of the Moslems. They
needed no excitements from pontiffs and
preachers to achieve the work to which
they were called; the precept was in
their law, the principle was in their
hearts, the assurance of success was in
their swords. O prophet, exclaimed
Ali, when IMahomet, in the first years
of his mission, sought among the scanty
and hesitating assembly of his friends a
vizier and lieutenant in command, I am
the man ; whoever rises against thee, I
will dash out his teeth, tear out his eyes,
break his legs, rip up his belly. O proph-
et, I will be tliy vizier over them.*
These words of Mahomet's early and il-
lustrious disciple are, as it were, a text,
upon which the commentary expands
into the whole Saracenic history. They
contain the vital essence of his religion,
implicit faith, and ferocious energy.
Death, slavery, tribute to unbelievers,
were the glad tidings of the Arabian
[»rophet. To the idolaters indeed, or
:hose who acknowledged no special rev-
jlation, 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 per-
mitted to redeem their adherence to their
ancient law, by the payment of tribute,
and other marks of humiliation and ser-
vitude. But the limits which Mahomet-
an intolerance had prescribed to itself
were seldom trai^gressed, the word
pledged )o unbelievers was seldom for-
feited ; and, with all their insolence and
oppression, the Moslem conquerors were
mild and liberal in comparison with tliose
who obeyed the pontiffs of Rome or Con-
stantinople.
At the death of Mahomet in 632, his
First con- temporal and religious sover-
quesisofihe eiguty embraced, and was lim-
" ited by, the Arabian peninsula.
* Gihlioii, vol ix., p. 284
Baracena.
The Roman and Persian enipiics, enga-
ged 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 Mahom
et's immediate successor, Abubeker, eacl
of these mighty empires was invaded
The latter opposed but a short resistance
The crumbling fabric of eastern decpof
ism is never secure against rapid anc
total subversion; a few victories, a few
sieges, carried the Arabian arms fron'
the Tigris to the Oxus, and overthrew
with tiie Sassanian dynasty^ the an-
cient and famous religion they had
professed. Seven years of active and
unceasing warfare sufficed to subju
gate the rich province of Syria, thou^.j
defended by numerous armies and for-
tified cities [A. D. 632-639]; and the
Khahf Omar had scarcely returned thanks
for the accomplishment of this conquest,
when Amrou his lieutenant 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 [A. D. 647
-698], and a third province was irretriev-
ably torn from the Greek empire. These
western conquests introduced them to
fresh enemies, and ushered in more splen-
did successes ; encouraged by the disu-
nion of the Visigoths, and invited ly
treachery, IMusa, the general of a master
who sat beyond the opposite extremity of
the Mediterranean Sea [A. D. 710], pass-
ed over into Spain, and within about two
years the name of Mahomet was invoked
under the Pyrenees.*
These conquests, which astonish the
careless and superficial, are less state ofihe
perplexing to a calm inquirer than •^'T'^'^'^ em-
their cessation; the loss of half ''"^'■"'
the Roman empire, than the preservation
of the rest. A glance from Medina to
Constantinople, in the middle oi the sev
enth century, would probably have indu-
ced an indiff'erent spectator, if such a be-
ing may be imagined, to anticipate by
eight hundred years the establishment ol
* Ockley's History of the Saracens. Cardonnc,
R6volutions de TAfriqiie et de I'Espagne. The
foriner of these works i.'> well known, and y.vi y
admired for its simplicity and picturescue detail,?.
Scarcely any narrative has ever excelled in beauty
that of the death of Hossein. But these do not
tend to render it more deserving of confidence.
On the contrary, it may be laid down as a jretty
general rule, that ciraimstantialitj/, which enhances
the credibility of a witness, diminishes that of &i.
historian remote in time or situation. And I ob
serve that Reiske, in his prelaco to Abulfeda,
speaks of Wakidi, from whom Ockleys book ii
but a translation, as a mere fabul'st.
•0)2
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chj
i. Mahometan domini jn upon the shores
of the Hellespont. The fame of Herac-
lius had withered in the Syrian war; and
his successors appeared as incapable to
resist s.s fhey were unworthy to govern.
Their despotism, unchecked by law, was
often punished by successful rebellion ;
Lut not a whisper of civil liberty was
ever heard, and the vicissitudes of servi-
tude and anarchy consummated the mor-
al degeneracy of the nation. Less igno-
rant than the western barbarians, the
Greeks abused their ingenuity in theo-
ogical controversies, those especially
which related to the nature and incarna-
tion of our Saviour ; wherein the dispu-
tants, as is usual, became more positive
and rancorous as their creed receded
from tlie possibility of human apprehen-
sion. Nor were these confined to the
clergy, who had not, in the East, obtain-
ed the prerogative of guiding the national
faith; the sovereigns sided alternately
with opposing factions ; Herachus was
not too brave, nor Theodora too infamous,
lor discussions of theology ; and the dis-
senters from an imperial decision were
mvolved in the double proscription of
treason and heresy. But the persecu-
tors of their opponents at home pretend-
ed to cowardly scrupulousness in the
field ; nor v/as the Greek church ashamed
to require the lustration of a canonical
penance from the soldier who shed the
blood of his enemies in a national war.
But this depraved people were preserv-
Dedine of ^d from destruction by the vices
the Sara- of their enemies, still more than
cens. \yy some intrinsic resources which
they yet possessed. A rapid degenera-
cy enfeebled the victorious Moslems in
their career. That irresistible enthu-
siasm, that earnest and disinterested zeal
of the companions of Mahomet was in a
great measure lost, even before the first
generation had passed awa}'. In the
fruitful valleys of Damascus and Bassora,
the Arabs of the desert forgot their ab-
stemious habits. Rich from the tribute
of an enslaved people, the Mahometan
sovereigns knew no employment of rich-
es but in sensual luxury, and paid the
price of voluptuous indulgence in the re-
laxation of their strength and energy.
Under the reign of Moawiyah, the fifth
khalif, an hereditary succession w as sub-
stituted for the free choice of the faith-
ful, by which the first representatives
of the prophet had been elevated to pow-
er ; and this regulation, necessary as it
plainly was to avert in some degree the
dangers of schism and civil war, exposed
^le ki:\edom to the certainty of being
often governed by feeble tyrants. Bu, n«
regulation could be more than a lemt'O-
rary preservative against civil war. The
dissensions which still separate and ren-
der hostile the followers of Mahomet
may be traced to the first events that en
sued upon his death, to the rejection of
his son-in-law Ali by the electors of Me-
dina. Two reigns, those of'Abubekei
and Omar, passed in external glory and
domestic reverence ; but the old age of
Othnian was weak and imprudent, 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 war,
among competitors who appealed, in re-
ality, to no other decision than that of
the sword. The family of Omir.iyah suc-
ceeded at last in establishing an unresist-
ed, if not an undoubted title. But rebell-
ions were perpetually afterward breaking
out in that vast extent of dominion, till
one of these revolters acquired by suc-
cess a better name than rebel, and found-
ed the dynasty of the Abbassides.
[A. D. 750.] Damascus had been the
seat of empire under the Ommi- Khaiifs oi
ades ; it was removed by the sue- i^agdad.
ceeding family to their new city of Bag-
dad. There are not any names in the
long line of khaUfs, after the companions
of Mahomet, more renowned in history
than some of the earlier sovereigns who
reigned in this capital, Almansor, Haroun
Alraschid, and AlmamOn. Their splen-
did palaces, their numerous guards, then
treasures of gold and silver, the popu-
lousness and wealth of their cities, form-
ed a striking contrast to the rudeness and
poverty of the western nations in the
same age. In their court, learning, which
the first IMoslem had despised as unwar-
like, or rejected as profane, was held in
honour.* The Khalif Almamiin, especial
ly, was distinguished for his patronage
of letters ; the philosopliieal writings oi
Greece were eagerly sought and transla-
ted ; the stars were numbered, the course
of the planets was measured ; the Arabi-
ans improved upon the science theyboi-
rowed, and returned it with abundant in-
terest to Europe in the communication oi
numeral figures and the intellectual lan-
guage of algebra. t Yet the merit of the
* The Arabian writers date the origin of tht'ii
literature (except those works of fiction which had
always been popular) from the reign of Almansor,
A. D. 758.— Abulpharagius.p. IGO. Gibbon, c. 52.
t Several very recent publications contain in
teresting derails on Saracp !itp-at,u u Berinuton's
-Znjie. VI.]
GREEKS AND SARACENS.
2.'53
A.bbassiues has been exaggerated by adu-
lation or gratitude. After all the vague
praises ofhireiing poets, whichhave some-
times been repeated in Europe, it is very
rare to read the history of an eastern
sovereign unstained by atrocious crimes.
No Christian government, except perhaps
that of Constantinople, exhibits such a
series of tyrants as the khalifs of Bagdad,
if deeds of blood wrought through unbri-
dled passion, or jealous policy, may chal-
lenge the name of tyranny. These are
ill redeemed by ceremonious devotion,
and acts of trifling, perhaps ostentatious
humility; or even by the best attribute of
Mahometan princes, a rigorous justice in
chastising the offences of others. Anec-
dotes of this description give as imperfect
a sketch of an oriental sovereign as monk-
ish chroniclers sometimes draw of one
in Europe, who founded monasteries and
obeyed the clergy; though it must be
owned that the former are in much bet-
ter taste.
Though the Abbassides have acquired
more celebrity, they never attained the
real strength of their predecessors. Un-
der the last of the house of Oramiyah, one
command was obeyed almost along the
whole diameter of the known world, from
the banks of the Sihon to the utmost pro-
montory of Portugal. But the revolution
which changed the succession of khalifs
produced another not less important. A
fugitive of the vanquished family, by name
ibdalrahman, arrived in Spain; and the
Moslems of that country, not sharing in
the prejudices which had stirred up the
Penaans in favour of the line of Abbas,
and conscious thU their remote situa-
tion entitled them to independence, pro-
Separatiort claimed him Khalif of Cordova,
of Spain There could be little hope of re-
and Africa, (jycii^g §0 distant a dependancc ;
and the example was not unlikely to be
imitated. In the reign of Haroun Alras-
cliid, two principalities were formed in
Africa; of the Aglabites, who reigned
over Tunis and Tripoli ; and of the Edri-
sitcs, in the western parts of Barbary.
These yielded in about a century to the
Fatimites, a more powerful dynasty.
Literary History of the Middle Apes, Mill's Histo-
ry of Mahometaiiism, chap, vi.. Turner's History
)f England, vol. i. Harris's Philological Arrange-
ments is perhaps a book better known ; and though
it has sitxe beer, much e-xcelled, was one of the
first contributions, m our own language, to this de-
partment, in which a great deal yet remains for the
oriental scholars of Europe. Casiri's admirable
catalogue of Arabic MSS. in the Escurial ought
before this to have been followed up by a more ac-
curate examination of their contents than it was
possible for him to give. But sound literature and
the Esr.urial '- -wliat jarring iileas !
who afterward established an empire }i>
Egypt.*
The loss, however, of Spam and Africs
was the inevitable effect of that im-
mensely extended dominion, Decline o-;
which their separation alone "i« Kbaiji*
would not have enfeebled. But other
revolutions awaited it at home. In ;l.e
history of the Abbassides of Bagdad v.e
read over again the decline of European
monarchies, through their various symp-
toms of ruin; and find alternate analogie'S
to the insults of the barbarians towards
imperial Rome in the fifth century, to the
personal msignificance of the INIerovin-
gian kings, and to the feudal usurpations
that dismembered the inheritance ol
Charlemagne. 1. Beyond the northeast-
ern frontier of the Saracen empire dwelt
a warlike and powerful nation of the Tar-
tar family, who defended the independ-
ence of Turkestan from the Sea of Aral
to the great central chain of mountains.
In the wars which the khalifs or their
lieutenants waged against them, many oi
these Turks were led into captivity, and
dispersed over the empire. Their strength
and courage distinguished them among a
people grown effeminate by luxury ; and
that jealousy of disaflection among his
subjects, so natural to an eastern mon-
arch, might be an additional inotive with
the Khalif Motassem to form bodies of
guards out of these prisoners. But hi.s
policy was fatally erroneous. More rude,
and even more ferocious than tlie Arabs,
they contemned the feebleness of the
khalifate, while they grasped at its rich-
es. The son of Motassem, I\Iotawakkel,
was murdered in his palace by tlie barba-
rians 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 khalifs ; but, in the
East, the son leaps boldly on the throne
which the blood of his father has stained,
and the projtorian 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 Iladi, who died in 910, was
the last of these that ofticiated in the
mosque, that commanded the forces in
person, that addressed the people f:oin
the pulpit, that enjoyed the pomp and
splendour of royalty. f But he was .he
* For these revolutions, which it is not veTy ea»»
to fix in the memory, consult Cardonne, wno !ia»
made as much of them as the subject would bear.
, t Almlfeda, p. 2G1. Gibbon, 'c. 52 .Moderii
Z54
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
LCiiAP. V
Qrst who appointed, instead of a Mzier, 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 some-
times hereditary, and in eiTect irrevoca-
ble by the khalifs, whose names hardly
appear after this time in oriental annals.
3. During these revolutions of the pal-
ace, every province successively shook
off its allegiance; new principalities were
formed in vSyria and Mesopotamia, as
well as in Khorasan and Persia, till the
dominion of the Commander of the Faith-
ful 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 kha-
lifs, professed to respect his supremacy,
h-Y naming him in the public prayers and
upon the coin ; but these tokens of de-
pendance were gradually obliterated.*
Such is the outline of Saracenic his-
Revivai of torj^ for three centuries after
the Greek Mahomct ; ouc age of glorious
Empire, conquest; a second of stationary,
but rather precarious greatness ; a third
of rapid decline. The Greek empire
meanwhile survived, and almost recov-
ered from the shock it had sustained.
Besides the decline of its enemies, sev-
eral circumstances may be enumerated,
tending' to its preservation. The mari-
time px'ovince of Cilicia had been over-
run by the Mahometans ; but between
this and the lesser Asia, IMount Taurus
raises its massy buckler, spreading, as a
natural bulwark, from the seacoast of the
ancient Pamphylia to the hilly district of
Isauria, whence it extends in an easterly
direction, separating the Cappadocian and
Cilician plains, and, after throwing off
considerable ridges to tlie north and
south, connects itself with other chains
of mountains that penetrate far into the
Asiatic continent. Beyond this barrier
the Saracens formed no durable settle-
ment, though the armies of Alraschid
wasted the country as far as the Helles-
pont, and the city of Amorium in Phrj'--
gia was razed to the ground by Al ^lo-
tassem. The position of Constantinople,
chosen with a sagacity to which the
course of events almost gave the appear-
ance of prescience, secured her from any
Univ. Hist., vol. ii. Al Radi's command of the
army is only mentioned by the last.
* The decline of the Saracens is fully discussed
in the 52d chapter of Gibbon, which is, in itself, a
co!np'.«^te phil'jsophica! dissertation upon his part
>'' historv-
immediate danger on the side of Asia,
and rendered her as little accessible to
an enemy as any city which valour and
patriotism did not protect. Yet, in the
days of Arabian energ}'', she was twice
attacked by great naval armaments [A. D.
668] ; the first siege, or rather blockade,
continued for seven years [A. D. 716] ;
the second, though shorter, was more
terrible, and her walls, as well as her
port, were actually invested by the com-
bined forces of the Khalif Waled, under
his brother Moslema.* The final dis
comfiture of these assailants showed the
resisting force of the empire, or rather
of its capital ; but perhaps the abandon-
ment of such maritime enterprises by the
Saracens may be in some measure as-
cribed to the removal of their metropolis
from Damascus to Bagdad. But the
Greeks in their turn determined to dis-
pute the command of the sea. By pos-
sessing 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 de-
sirous of encountering the Moslems.
The science of tactics is studied by the
pusillanimous, like that of medicine by
the sick ; and the Byzantine emperors,
Leo and Constantine, have left written
treatises on the art of avoiding defeat, of
protracting contest, of resisting attack. -f
But this timid polic}'', and even the pur-
chase of armistices from the Saracens,
were not ill calculate! for the state of
both nations ; while Constantinople tem-
porized, Bagdad shook to her found."
tions ; and the heirs of the Roman name
might boast the immortality of their own
empire, when they contemplated the dis-
solution of that which had so rapidly
sprung up and perished. Amid all the
crimes and revolutions of the Byzantine
government, and its history is but a series
of crimes and revolutions, it was never
dismembered by intestine war ; a sedition
in the army, a tumult in the theatre, a
coaispiracy in the palace, precipitated a
monarch from the throne ; but the alle-
giance of Constantinople was instantly
transferred to his successor, and the prov-
inces implicitly obeyed the voice of the
capital. The custom too of partition, so
* Gibbon, c. 52.
t Idem, c. 53. Constantine Porphyrogenitvis. ir.
his advice to his son as to the admmistration of the
empire, betrays a mind not ashamed to confess
weakness and cowardice, and pleasing itself it
petty arts to eluf c the rapacity, or divide the powei
I of its enemies
CHAP. VI. J
GREEKS AND SARACENS.
25&
baneful to the Latin kingdoms, and which
was not altogether unknown to the Sara-
cens, never prevailed in the Greek em-
pire. It stood in the middle of the terth
century, as vicious indeed and cowardly,
but more wealthy, more enlightened, and
far more secure from its enemies, than
under the first successors of Herachus.
For about one hundred years preceding
there had been only partial wars with the
Mahometan potentates ; and in these the
emperors seem gradually to have gained
the advantage, and to have become more
frequently the aggressors. [A. D. 963-
d75.] 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. They carried the Roman
arms (one may use the term with less re-
luctance than usual) over Syria ; Antioch
and Aleppo were taken by storm, Damas-
rns submitted; even the cities of Meso-
potamia, beyond the ancient boundary of
the Euphrates, vv^ere added to the trophies
of Zimisces, who unwiUingly spared the
capital of the khalifate. From such dis-
tant conquests it was expedient, and in-
deed necessary, to withdraw ; but Ciiicia
and Antioch were permanently restored
to the empire. At the close of the tenth
centurj^ 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 Ottomans, the province of Anato-
Ua or Asia Minor, with some part of Syria
and Armenia.*
■ These successes of the Greek empire
T rk ■^'^'■^ certainly much rather due
to the weakness of its enemies,
than to any revival of national courage
and vigour ; yet they would probably
have been more durable, if the contest
liad been only with the khahfate, or the
kingdoms derived from it. But a new
actor was to appear on the stage of Asiat-
ic tragedy. The same Turkish nation,
tlie slaves and captives from which had
become arbiters of the sceptre of Bagdad,
passed their original limits of the laxartcs
or Sihon. The sultans of Gazna, a dy-
nasty 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 Kho-
.•asan. They covered that fertile prov-
♦ Gibbon, c. 52 and 53. The latter of these
chapters contains ^s luminous a sketch of the con-
(li;ion of Greece, as the former does of Saracenic
history. In each the facts are not grouped histor-
ically, according to the order of time, but pi ilosoph-
. ally, according to their relations.
ince with iheir pastoral tents, and beck
oned their compatriots to sliare the rich
es of the south. [A. D. 1038.] The Gaz-
nevides fell the earliest victims; Their con
but Persia, violated in turn by quest*.
every conqueror, was a tempting andun
resisting prey. Togrol Bek, the foundei
of the Seljukian dynasty of Turks, over-
threw the family of Bowides, who had
long reigned at Ispahan, respected the
pageant of Mahometan sovereignty in the
Khalif 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.
1071.] His nephew and successor, Alf,
Arslan, defeated and took prisoner the
Emperor Romanus Diogenes ; and the
conquest of Asia Minor was almost com-
pleted by princes of the same famih^ the
vSeljukians of Rum,* who were permitted
by Malek Shah, the third sultan of the
Turks, to form an independent kingdom.
Through their own exertion.s, and the
selfish impolicy of rival competitors for
the throne of Constantinople, who barter-
ed the strength of the empire for assist-
ance, the Turks became masters of the
Asiatic cities and fortified passes ; nor
did there seem any obstacle to the inva
sion of Europe.!
In this state of jeopardy, the Gree)
empire looked for aid to the na- The first
tions of the west, and received it CrusaJefr
in fuller measure than was expected, oi
perhaps desired. The deliverance of
Constantinople was indeed a very sec
ondary 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 eneinie?
that lay on their line of inarch. The
Turks were entirely defeated, their capi-
tal of Nice restored to the empire. As
the Franks passed onwards, the Emperor
Alexius Comnenus trod on their foot-
steps, and secured to himself the fruits
for which their enthusiasm disdained to
wait. He regained possession of the
strong places on the Mgemi shores, of
the defiles of Bithynia, and of the entire
coast of Asia Minor, both on the Euxine
and Mediterranean Seas, which the Turk-
ish armies, composed of cavalry and un-
used to regular warfare, could not recor-
er.| So much must undoubtedly be as-
* Rum, i. e., country of the Romans.
+ Gibbon, c. 57. De Guignes, Hist, des Huns,
t. ii., 1.2.
t It does not seem perfectly clear whether tht
seacoast, north fnd south, was rearmexed to th
empire during the reign of .Alexius, or ol his jra
256
EIJJIOPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
iChai-. VI
nribed to the first crusade. But I think
•-fiat tne general effect of these expedi-
tions has been overrated by those who
consider them as having permanently re-
Prosress of tarded the progress of the Turk-
the Greeks, jg]^ power. The ('hristians m
Palestine and Syria were hardly in con-
,act with the Seljukian kingdom of Rum,
.he only enemies of the empire ; and it is
,'10* easy to perceive that their small and
feeble principalities, engaged commonly
in defending themselves against the Ma-
lometan princes of Mesopotamia, or the
Fatimite khalifs of Egypt, could obstruct
the arms of a sovereign of Iconium upon
the INIaeander or the Halys. Other causes
are adequate to explain the equipoise in
which the balance of dominion in Ana-
tolia was kept during the twelfth century;
the valour and activity of the two Com-
neni, John and Manuel, especially the
former; and the frequent partitions and
internal feuds, through which the Selju-
kians of Iconium, like all other oriental
gove -nments, became incapable of for-
eign aggression.
But whatever obligation might be due
cijptiire of ^^ *he first cnisaders from the
Ccnstanti- eastern empire was cancelled ^y
the''/ aif 9 ^lisir descendants one hunJred
years afterward, when the f jurth
■n number of those expeditions was turn-
ed to the subjugation of Constantinople
taeU. One of those domestic revolu-
■.ions which occur perpetually in Byzan-
tine history, had placed a usurper on the
imperial throne. The lawful monarch
was condemned to blindness and a pris-
on ; but the lieir escaped to recount his
misfortunes to the fleet and army of cru-
saders, assembled in the Dalmatian port
of Zara. [A. D. 1202.] This armament
had been collected for the usual purposes,
and through the usual motives, temporal
and spiritual, of a crusade ; the military
force chiefly consisted of French nobles ;
the naval was supplied by the republic
of Venice, whose doge commanded per-
sonally in the expedition. It was not ap-
parently consistent with the primary ob-
ject of retrieving the Christian affairs in
Palestine, to interfere in the government
of a Christian empire ; but the tempta-
tion of punishing a faithless people, and
*he hope of assistance in their subsequent
operations, prevailed. They turned their
r>rows up tlie Archipelago; and notwith-
rtanding the vast population and defen
sible strength of Constantinople, compell
«d the usurper to fly, and the citizens to
ont son John Comnenii«
.y worth notiring.
But ihe doubt is hard-
surrender. But animosities springing
from religious schism and national jeal-
ousy were not likely to be allayed by
such remedies ; the Greeks, wounded in
their pride and bigotry, regarded the legit-
imate emperor as a creature of their ene-
mies, 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 anothei
usurper, in defiance of the crusadeis'armj
encamped without the walls. [A. D.
1204.] The siege instantly recommen-
ced ; and after three months the city of
Constantinople was taken by storm. The
tale of pillage and murder is always uni-
form ; but the calamities of ancient capi-
tals, like those of the great, impress us
more forcibly. Even now we sympa-
thize with the virgin majesty of Constan-
tinople, decked with the accumulated
wealth of ages, and resplendent with the
monuments of Roman empire and of Gre-
cian art. Her populousness is estimated
beyond credibility : ten, twenty, thirty-
fold that of London or Paris ; cestainly
fa? oeyond the united capitals of all Eu-
:jpean kingdoms in that age.* In mag-
nificence she excelled them more than
in numbers ; instead of the thatched
roofs, tlie mud Avails, the narrow streets
the pitiful buildings of those cities, sh .
had marble and gilded palaces, churoheJ
and monasteries, the works of skilful ar
chitects, through nme centuries, gradual
ly sliding from the severity of ancien
taste into the more various and brilliani
combinations of eastern fancy, f In the
libraries of Constantinople were collect
ed the remains of Grecian learning ; her
forum and hippodrome were decorated
with those of Grecian sculpture ; but nei
ther would be spared by undistinguishing
rapine ; nor were the chiefs of the cru-
saders more able to appreciate the loss
than their soldiery. Four horses, that
*■ Ville Hardouin reckons the inhabitants of Con
stantinople at quatre cens mil homines ou plus, by
which Gibbon understands him to mean men of a
military age. Le Beau allows a million lor the
whole population. — Gibbon, vol. xi., p. 213. We
should probably rate London, in 1204. too high at
40,000 sonls. Paris had been enlarged by Philip
Augustus, and stood on more ground than London.
— Delamare sur la Police, t. i., p. 76.
t 0 quanta civitas, exclaims Fulx of Chart res a
hundred years before, nobilis et decora ! quot mo-
nasteria quotque palatia sunt in ea, opera mero
fabrefacta! quot etiam in plateis vel in vicis opera
ad speclandum mirabilia! Taedium est quidem
magnum recitare, quanta sit ibi opulentia bonorum
omnium, auri et argenti, palliorum multiformium,
sacrarumque reliquiarum. Omni eliam tempore
navigin frequenti cuncta hominum riecessana illuc
afieruntur. — Du Chesne, Scrip Rcrnm Gdlir«
rum, t. iv.. p. 822
Chap. VI ]
GREEKS ASD SARACENS.
25'>
breathe in the brass of Lysippus, were
removed from Constantinople to the
square of St. Mark at Vcn'ce ; destined
again to become the trophies of war, and
to follow the alternate revolutions of con-
quest. But we learn from a contemporary
Greek to deplore the fate of many other
pieces of sculpture, which were destroy-
ed in wantonness, or even coined into
brass money.*
The lawful emperor and his son had
Partiiiori of perished in the rebellion that
ihe empire, g^vc occasion to this catas-
trnohe ; and there remained no right to
interfere witi Jiat of conquest. But the
Latins were a promiscuous multitude,
and what their independent valour had
earned was not to be transferred to a
single master. Though the name of em-
peror seemed necessary for the govern-
ment of Constantinople, the unity of de-
spotic power was very foreign to the
principles and the interests of the crusa-
ders. In their selfish schemes of ag-
grandizement they tore in pieces the
Greek empire. One fourth only was al-
lotted to the emperor, three eigliths were
the share of the republic of Venice, and
the remainder was divided among the
chiefs. Baldv.in, count of Flanders, ob-
tained the imperial title, with the feudal
sovereignty over the minor principalities.
A monarchy thus dismembered had little
prospect of honour or durability. The
Latin emperors of Constantinople were
more contemptible and unfortunate, not
so much from personal character as po-
litical weakness, than tlieir predecessors ;
their vassals rebelled against sovereigns
not more powerful than tliemselves ; the
Bulgarians, a nation who, after being
ong formidable, had been subdued by the
imperial arms, and only recovered inde-
pendence on the eve of tlie Latin con-
quest, insulted their capital ; the Greeks
Tn, r< 1 viewed them with silent hatred,
Tne Greeks , , • , , i i i i •
recover and haded the dawnmg dehver-
Constanti- am^e from the Asiatic coast.
"''''''^' On that side of the Bosphorus,
the Latin usurpation was scarcely for a
moment acknowledged ; Nice became
the seat of a Greek dynasty, who reigned
with honour as far as the Marauder ; and
crossing into Europe, after having estab-
lished tlieir dominion tliroughout Roma-
nia d,nd other provinces [A. D. 1261], ex-
pelled the last Latin emperors from Con-
stantinople in less than sixty years from
its capture.
During the reign of these Greeks at
^Jice, they had fortunately little to dread
♦ (ribbon, c. 60.
on the side of their f<>rmer enemies, and
were generally on terms of friendship
with the SclJLikians of Iconium. Tint
monarchy indeed had sufficient objects
of apprehension lor itself. Their own
example in changing the up- invasiocsor
land plains of Tartary for trie Asia by ihe
cultivated valleys of the south Kansm.ans
was imitated in the tliirteenth centuiy by
two successive hordes of northern bar-
barians. .The Karismians, 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, tlie king-
dom of Iconium. A more tremendous
storm ensued in the irruption ^nd Moguls
of Moguls under the sons of
Zingis Ivhan. 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 devasta-
tion. [A. D. 1218-1272.] 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 cf
khalif at Bagdad. They reduced into de-
pendance, and finally subverted, the Sel-
jukian dynasty of Persia, Syria, and Ico-
nium. The Turks of the latter kingdom
betook tliemselves to the mountainous
country, where they formed several petty
principalities, which subsisted by incur-
sions into the territory of the Moguls or
Greeks. The chief of one of these, na-
med Othman, at the end of the thirteenth
century [A. D. 1299], penetrated into the
province of Bithynia, from which his
posterity were never to withdraw.*
T'he empire of Constantinople had nev-
er recovered the blow it rcceiv- Dpp,j„jng
ed at the hands of the Latins, stale .rilie.
Most of the islands in the Archi- Greek em-
pelago, and the provinces of '"''^'
proper Greece from Thessaly southwatd,
were still possessed by those invader*.
The wealth and naval power of the em-
pire had passed into the hands of 'be
maritime republics ; Venice Genoa, P'-
sa, and Barcelona were enriched b) a
commerce which they carried on as -n-
dependent states within the precincts cf
Constantinople, scarcely deigning to so-
licit the permission or recognise the su-
premacy of its master. [A. 1). 1352.] In
a great battle fought under tlie walls of
* De Guignes, Hist, des Huns, i. ul , 1. i j. GiL«
bon, c. C4.
258
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
I Chap VI
the city between the Venetian and Gen-
oese fleets, the weight of the Roman em-
pire, in Gibbon's expression, was scarce-
ly felt in the balance of these opulent
and powerful republics. T^ight galleys
were the contribution of the Emperor
Cantacuzene to his Venetian allies; and
upon their defeat he submitted to the ig-
nominy of excluding them for ever from
trading in his dominions. Meantime the
remains of tlie empire in Asia were seiz-
ed by the independent Turkish dynasties.
The Quo- of which the most illustrious, that
f"*"^- of the Ottomans, occupied the
province of Bithynia. [A. D. 1341.] In-
vited by a Byzantine faction into Europe,
about the middle of the fourteenth cen-
ury, they fixed themselves in the neigh-
bourhood of the capital, and in the thirty
years' reign of Amurath I., subdued, with
little resistance, the province of Roma-
nia, and the small Christian kingdoms
that had been formed on the lower Dan-
ube. Bajazet, the successor of Amurath,
reduced the independent emirs of Anato-
lia to subjection, and, after long threaten-
ing 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
nf Christendom ; but the flower of French
cliivalry had been slain or taken in the
battle of Nicopolis in Bulgaria,* where
the King of Hungarj', notwithstanding
the heroism of these volunteers, was en-
tirely defeated by Bajazet. The Empe-
ror Manuel left his capital with a faint
hope of exciting the courts of Europe
to some decided efl'orts, by personal rep-
resentations of the danger ; and, during
his absence, Constantinople was saved,
not by a friend, indeed, but by a power
more formidable to her enemies than to
herself.
The loose masses of mankind, that
The Tartars without laws, agriculture, or
or Moguls of fixed dwellings, overspread the
limur. ^,^gj. cgj^(-j.;j regions of Asia,
have at various times been impelled, by
necessity of subsistence, or through the
* The Hungarians fled in this battle, and desert-
ed their allies, according to the Memoires de Bou-
cicaut, c. 25. But Froissart, who seems a fairer
authority, imputes the defeat to the rashness of the
French.— Part iv., ch. 79. The Count de Nevers
(Jeati Sans Peur, afterward Duke of Burgundy),
who commanded the French, was made prisoner
with others of the royal blood, and ransomed at a
very high price'. Many of eminent birth and merit
%'ere put to d'jath ; a fate from which Boucicaut
was saved by the interference of the Count de
TJevers, who might better himself have perished
Tvith honour on tt^t occasion, than survived to
plunge his cotntrj 'nto civil war and his name
ifit') iiiiatnv.
casual appearance of a commanding ge
nius, upon the domain of culture and civ
ilization. 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 acres?
the interval between the Bukharian moun-
tains and the Caspian into Persia. Foui
times at least within the period of authen-
tic history, the Scythian tribes have ta-
ken the former course, and poured them-
selves into Europe, but each wave was
less eflfeetual than the preceding. The
first of tliescwas in the fourth and fifth
centuries, for we may range those rhpid-
ly 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 Portu-
gal. The second wave came on with
the Hungarians in the tenth century,
whose ravages 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 overwhelmed Persia.
The Russian monarchy Avas destroyed in
this invasion, and for two hundred years
that great country lay prostrate under the
yoke of the Tartars. As they advanced,
Poland and Hungary gave little opposi-
tion; and the farthest nations of Europe
were appalled by the tempest. But Ger-
many 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 H.
[A. D. 1245], and the utmost points ol
their western invasion were the cities of
Lignitz, in Silesia, and Neustadt, in Aus-
tria. In the fourth and last aggression
of the Tartars, their progress in Europe
is hardly perceptible ; the Moguls of Ti-
mur's army could only boast the destruc-
tion of Azoph, and the pillage of some
Russian provinces. Timur, the sover-
eign of these Moguls, and founder 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, tlie doubtftd frontier of settled
and pastoral nations. His own energy
and the weakness of his neighbours are
sufficient to explain the revolution h<j
eflected. Like former conquerors, To-
grol Bek and Zingis, he chose the road
through Persia; and, meeting little re-
sistance from the disordered governments
of Asia, extended his empire on one side
ClKk?. VI.]
GREEKS AND SARACENS.
256
;o the Syrian coast, wliile by successes
still more renowned, though not belong-
ing to this place, it reached on me other
to the heart of Hindostan. In his old
age, the restlessness of ambition impelled
him against the Turks of Anatolia. Ba-
iazet hastened from the siege of Constan-
tinople to a more oerilous contest: his
Deivai of defeat and captivity, in the plains
ifajaiti of Angora [A. D. 140-3], clouded
for a time the Ottoman crescent, and
preserved the wreck of the Greek empire
for fifty years longer.
The Moguls did not improve their
Danger of victory ; in the western parts of
t'onstan- Asia, as in Hindostan, Timur was
liiiopic. i^yt a barbarian destroyer, though
at Samarcand a sovereign and a legisla-
tor. He gave up Anatolia to the sons of
Bajazet; but the unity of their power
was broken ; and the Ottoman kingdom,
like those which had preceded, experien-
ced the evils of partition and mutual ani-
mosity. For about twenty years an op-
portunity was given to the Greeks of re-
covering part of their losses ; but they
were incapable of making the best use of
this advantage, and though they regained
possession of part of Romania, did not ex-
tirpate a strong Turkish colony that held
the city of GallipoU in the Chersonesus.
[A. D. 1421.] When Amurath H., there-
fore, reunited under his vigorous scep-
tre the Ottoman monarchy, Constantino-
pVe was exposed to another siege and
to fresh losses. Her walls, however,
repelled the enemy ; and, during the
reign of Amurath, she had leisure to re-
peat those signals of distress which the
princes of Christendom refused to ob-
serve. The situation of Europe was in-
deed sufficiently inauspicious : France,
the original country of the crusades and of
chivalry, was involved in foreign and do-
mestic war; while a schism, apparently
interminable, rent the bosom of the Latin
church, and impaired the efficiency of the
only power that could unite and animate
its disciples in a religious war. Even
when the Roman pontilfs were best dis-
posed to rescue Constantinople from de-
struction, it was rather as masters than
as allies that they would interfere ; their
ungenerous bigotry, or rather pride, dic-
tated the submission of her church, and
the renunciation of her favourite article
of distinctive faith. The Greeks yielded
with reluctance and insincerity in the
council of Florence ; but soon rescinded
their treaty of union. Eugenius IV. pro-
cured a short diversion on the side of
Hungary ; but after the unfortunate bat-
,\e of Warna, the Hungarians were abun-
H 2
dantly employed in self-defeni e. [A. D
1444.]
The two monarchies which have sue
cessively held their seat in the city of
Consiantine, may be contrasted iu the
circumstances of their decline. In the
present day we anticipate, with an assu-
rance that none can deem extravagant,
the approaching subversion of the Otto-
man power ; but the signs of internal
weakness have not yet been confirmed
by the dismemberment of provinces ; and
the arch of dominion, that long since has
seemed nodding to its fall, and totters at
every blast of the north, still rests upon
the landmarks of ancient conquest, and
spans the ample regions from Bagdad to
Belgrade. Far different were the events
that preceded the dissolution of the Greek
empire. Every province was in turn sub-
dued ; every city opened her gates j^^ ^.^
to the conqueror ; the limbs were
lopped off one by 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 Ma-
homet II. planted his cannon against
them, he had completed every smaller
conquest, and deprived the expiring em-
pire of every hope of succour or delay.
It was necessary that Constantinople
should fall ; but the magnanimous resigna-
tion of her emperor bestows an honour
upon her fall which her prosperity sel-
dom earned. The long deferred but in
evitable moment arrived [A. D. 1453J,
and the last of the Cesars (I will not say
of the Palaeologi) folded jound him the
imperial mantle, and remembered the
name which he represented in the dignity
of heroic death. It is thus that the intel-
lectual principle, when enfeebled by dis-
ease or age, is said to rally its energies
in the presence of death, and to pour the
radiance of unclouded reason around the
last struggles of dissolution.
Though the fate of Constantinople had
been protracted beyond all rea- Alarm ex-
sonable expectation, the actual fifd ''}' 't
intelligence operated like that "i^""""!^-
of sudden calamity. A sentiment of
consternation, perhaps of self-reproach,
thrilled to the heart of Christendom.
There seemed no longer any thing to
divert the Ottoman armies from Hunga-
ry ; and, if Hungary should be subdued, it
was evident that both Italy and tlie Get-
man empire were exposed to invasion.*
* Sive vincitur Hungaria, sive coacta jungitur
Turcis, neque Italia neqiie Germania tuta ent,
neque satis Rhenus Gallos secures rccJdet. — ^ta-
Sylv., p. 078. This is part of a discourse pronoun
red by ^Enpas .Sylvius IJefore the diet of Fraukfort
260
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
[C:iAf. Vt
A geneial union of Christian powers was
required to withstand this common ene-
my. But the popes, who had so often
armed them against each other, wasted
their spiritual and political counsels in
attempting to restore unanmiity. War
was proclaimed against the Turks at the
diet of Frankfort, in 1454 ; but no eflforts
were made to carry the menace into ex-
ecution. No prince could have sat on
the imperial throne more unfitted for the
emergency than Frederick III. ; his mean
spirit and narrow capacity exposed him
to the contempt of mankind ; his avarice
and duplicity ensured the hatred of Aus-
tria and Hungary. During the papacy of
Pius II., whose heart was thoroughly en-
gaged 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.* Pius engaged
to head this armament in person; but
when he appeared next year at Ancona,
the appointed p>ace of embai'cation, the
print;es had failed in all their promises of
men and money ; and he found only a head-
long crowd of adventurers, destitute of
every necessary, and expecting to be fed
and paid at the pope's expense. It was
not by such a body that Mahomet could
be expelled from Constantinople. If the
Christian sovereigns had given a steady
and sincere co-operation, the contest
would slOl have been arduous and uncer-
instiiuiion of tain. In the early crusades,
Janizaries, j^y^g superiority of arms, of skill,
and even of discipline, had been uniform-
ly on the side of Europe. But tlie pres-
ent circumstances were far from similar.
An institution, begun by the first and per-
ffc/Cted by the second Amurath, had given
to the Turkish armies, what their enemies
still wanted, military subordination and
veteran experience. Aware, as it seems,
flrhich, though too declamatory, like most of his
.writings, is an interesting illustration of the state of
Euiope, and of the impression produced by that
calamity. Spondanus, ad an. 1454, has given large
extracts from this oration.
* Spondanus. Neither Charles VII., nor even
Philip of Burgundy, who had made the loudest
professions, and pledged himself in a fantastic pa-
geant at hiu court, soon after the cfipture of Con-
stantinople, to undertake this crusade, was sincere
m his promises. The former pretended apprehen-
sions of invasion from England, as an excuse for
sending no troops ; which, considering the situation
of England m 1459, was a bold attempt upon the
credulity of mankind
of the real superiority 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 formed
into a regular force with the name of Jan-
izaries. 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 lier-
self ; and the western nations must have
contended with troops of hereditary ro-
bustness and intrepidity, whose emulous
enthusiasm for the country that had adopt-
ed them was controlled by habitual obe-
dience 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 un-
important conquests, no real suspension m
progress had been made by the ottoman
the Ottomans. Mahomet II. '=""f«'«'s.
had been kept at bay by the Hungarians ;
he had been repulsed with some ignomi-
ny by the knights of St. John from the
Island of Rhodes. A petty chieftain de.
* In the long declamation of .Eneas Sylvius fyti'
fore the diet of Frankfort, in 1454, he has the follovr
ing contrast between the European and Turkish
militia ; a good specimen of the artifice with which
an ingenious orator can disguise the truth, while
he seems to be stating it most precisely. Confer-
amus nunc Turcos et vos invicem ; et quid speran
dum sit, si cum lilis pugnelis, e.Taminemus. \>js
nati ad anna, lili tracti. Vos armati, lUi inermes;
vos gladios versatis, illi cullris utuntur ; vos balis-
t?s tendilis, lUi arcus trahunt; vos loricae thora
cesque protegunt, iilos culcitra tegit ; vos equos re-
gitis, illi ab equis reguntur; vos nobiles in bellum
ducitis, illi servos aut artifices cogunt, &c. &c., p.
685. This, however, had little effect upon the
hearers, who were better judges of military affairs
than the secretary of Frederick III. Pius II., o.
iEneas Sylvius, was a lively writer and a skilful in-
triguer. Long experience had given him a consid-
erable insight into European politics ; and his
views are usually clear and sensible. Though not
so learned as some popes, he knew much better
what was going forward in his own time. But the
vanity of displaying his eloquence betrayed him into
a strar.ge foliy, when he addressed a very long let-
ter to Mahomet II., explaining the Catholic faith,
and urging him to be baptized; in which case, so
far from preaching a crusade against the Turks, ho
would gladly make use of their power to recovei
the rights of the church. Some of his induce:nent9
are curious, and must, if made public, have been
highly gratifying to his friend Frederick III. Quip
pe ut arbitramur, si Christianus fuisses, mortuo
Ladislao Ungariae et Bohemiae rege, nemo praoter
te sua regna fuisset adeptus. Sperassent Ungari
post diuturna bellorum mala sub tuo regimine pa
cem, et illos Bohemi secuti fuissent ; sed cuii
esses nostrae religi'^nis hostis, elegeri'.nt Ungari
&c.— Epist. 396
HXV VII.l
ECCLESIASTICAL POWER.
26
fied this mighty conqueror for twenty-
years in the mountains oi Epirus ; and
"he persevermg courage of his desulto-
ry warfare with such tritiing resources,
and so little prospect of ultimate success,
may justify the exaggerated admiration
with which his contemporaries honoured
the names of Scanderbeg. Once only
the crescent was displayed on the Cala-
Drian coast [A. D. 1480] ; but the city of
Olrcnto remained but a year in the pos-
session of Mahomet. On his death a d's
puted succession involved his children in
civil war. Bajazet, the eldest, obtained
the victory ; but his rival brother Zizim
fled to Rhodes, from whence he was re-
moved to France, and afterward 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.
CHAPTER VII.
HISTORY OF ECCLESIASTICAL POWER DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
Wealth of the Clergy— its Sources.— Encroach-
ments on Ecclesiastical Property— their Juris-
diction — arbitrative — coercive — their Political
Power. — Supremacy of the Crown. — Charle-
magne.—Change after his Death, and Encroach-
^ ments of the Church in the ninth Century.— Pn-
* macy of the See of Rome— its early Stage. —
Gregory I.— Council of Frankfort— false Decre-
tals.—Progress of Papal Authority. — Effects of
Excommunication. — Lothaire. — State of the
Church in the tenth Century. — Marriage of
Priests. — Simony. — Episcopal Elections. — Im-
perial Authority o%'er the Popes.— Disputes con-
cerning Investitures. — Gregory VII. and Henry
IV.— Concordat of Calixtus.— Election by Chap-
ters—general System of Gregory VII.— Progress
of Papal usurpations in the twelfth Century. —
Innocent III. — his Character and Schemes — con-
tinual Progress of the Papacy. — Canon Law. —
Mendicant Orders— dispensing Power. — Ta.\a-
tion of the Clergy by the Popes.— Encroachments
on Rights of Patronage.— Mandats, Reserves,
&c. — General Disaffection towards the See of
Rome in the thirteenth century.— Progress of
Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction. — Immunity of the
Clergy in Criminal Cases. — Restraints imposed
i.pon their Jurisdiction— upon their Acquisition
of Property.— Boniface VIII.— his Quarrel with
Philip the Fair— its Termination.— Gradual De-
cline of Papal Authority.— Louis of Bavaria-
Secession to Avignon and Return to Rome. —
Conduct of Avignon Popes — contested Election
of Urban and Clement produces the great Schism.
— Council of Pisa — Constance — Basle. — Meth-
ods adopted to restrain the Papal usurpations in
England, Germany, and France-. — Liberties of
the Gallican Church. — Decline of the Papal In-
fluence in Italy.
At the irruption of the northern inva-
ders into the Roman empire,
ihe*church they found the clergy already
ander the endowed with extensive posses-
emp.re. • gjQ,^g Besides the spontaneous
oblations upon which the ministers of the
Christian church had originally subsist-
ed, Ihey had obtained, even under the
pagan emperors, by concealment or con-
nivance, for the Roman law did not per-
mit a tenure of lands in mortmain, cer-
tain immoveable estates, the revenues ol
which were applicable to their own main
tenance and that of the poor.* These
indeed, were precarious, and liable to
confiscation in times of persecution. But
it was among the first elfects of the con-
version of Coastantine, to give not only
a security, but a legal sanction, to the ter-
ritorial acquisitions of the church. The
edict of Milan, in 313, recognises the
actual estates of ecclesiastical corpora-
tions.! Another, published in 321, grants
to all the subjects of the empire the pow-
er of bequeathing their property to the
churclr.J His own liberality and that of
his successors set an example which did
not want imitators. Passing rapidly
from a condition of distress and persecu-
tion to the summit of prosperity, the
church degenerated as rapidly from her
ancient purity, and forfeited the respect
of future ages in the same proportion as
she acquired the blind veneration of her
own. Covetousncss, especially, became
almost a characteristic vice. Valentini-
an I., in 370, prohibited the clergy from
receiving the bequest of women ; a modi-
fication more discreditable than any gen-
eral law could have been. And several
of the fathers severely reprobate the pre-
vailing avidity of their contemporaries.^
The devotion of the conquering na-
tions, as it was still less enlight- increased
ened than that of the subjects of ^<^" n»
the empire, so was it still more s"''^"^"'"
* Giannone, Istoria di Napoli, 1. ii., c 8. Gib
bon, c. 15 and c. 20. F. Paul's Treatise on Bene
tices, c. 4. The last writer does not wholly con
linn this position ; but a comparison of the tliie«
seems to justify my text.
t Giannone. Gibbon, ubi supra. F. Paul, :. &
t Idem, Ibid
^ G «nnone uhi supra. F. Paul, c. 6
i62
hUKOPE DURING THE MIDDLE AOES.
[Ch f. Vv
mun ficcnt. They left, indeed, the wor-
ship of Hesus and Taranis in their for-
ests; but they retained the elementary
[)rinciples of that, and of all barbarous
idolatry, a superstitious reverence for the
priesthood, a creduhty that seemed to in-
vite imposture, and a confidence in the
f fficacy of gifts to expiate offences. Of
this temper it is undeniable that the min-
isters of religion, influenced probably not
so much by personal covetousness as by
zeal for the interests of their order, took
advantage. Many of the' peculiar and
prominent characteristics in the faith and
discipline of those ages appear to have
been either introduced, or sedulously
promoted, for the purposes of sordid
fraud. To those purposes conspired the
veneration for relics, the worship of ima-
ges, the idolatry of saints and martyrs,
the ndigious inviolability of sanctuaries,
the consecration of cemeteries, but, above
all, the doctrine of purgatory, and masses
for the relief of the dead. A creed thus
contrived, operating upon the minds of
barbarians, lavish though rapacious, and
devout though dissolute, naturally caused
a torrent of opulence to pour in upon the
church. Donations of land were contin-
ually made to the bishops, and, in still
more ample proportion, to the monastic
foundations. These had not been very
numerous in the west till the begin-
ning of the sixth century, when Benedict
established his celebrated rule.* _A more
remarkable show of piety, a more abso-
lute seclusion from the world, forms
more impressive and edifying, prayers
and masses more constantly repeated,
gave to the professed in these institu-
tions a preference over the secular
clergy.
The ecclesiastical hierarchy never re-
ceived any territorial endowment bylaw,
either under the Roman empire or the
kingdoms erected upon its ruins. But
the voluntary munificence of princes, as
well as theic subjects, amply supplied the
place of a more universal provision.
Large private estates, or, as they were
termed, patrimonies, not only within their
own diocesses, but sometimes in distant
countries, sustained the dignity of the
principal sees, and especially that of
Rome.f The French monarchs of the
first dynasty, the Carlovingian family
and their great chief, the Saxon line of
emperors, the kings of England and
Leon, sel hardly any bounds to their lib-
♦ Giannoue, 1. iii.. c. 6; 1. iv., c. 12. Treatise
on Benefices, c. 8. Fleury, Huitifeme Discours sur
'Hist. Ecel^siastiqiie. Muratori, Dissert. 65.
1 St. Marc. t. i., p. 281. Giannone, 1. iv., c. 12
erality, as numerous charters still exlan;
in diplomatic collections attest. Many
churches possessed seven or eight thou-
sand mansi ; one with but two thousand
passed for only iiidifferently rich.* But
it must be remarked, that many of these
donations are of lands uncultivated and
unappropriated.! The monasteries ac-
quired legitimate riches by the culture
of these deserted tracts, and by the pni-
dent management of their revenues,
which were less exposed to the ordinary
means of dissipation than those of the
laity. Their wealth, continually accumu-
lated, enabled them to become the regular
purchasers of landed estates, especiallj-
in the time of the crusades, when the fiefs
of the nobility were constantly in the
market for sale or mortgage. J
If the possessions of ecclesiastical
communities had all been as Sometimes
fairly earned, we could find no- improperly
thing in them to reprehend, acquired.
But other sources of wealth w^ere 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 expect-
ed to make a donation of land on assu-
ming the cowl. Some gave their proper-
ty to the church before entering on milita-
ry expeditions ; gifts w^ere made by some
to take effect after their lives, and be-
quests by many in the terrors of dissolu-
tion. Even those legacies to charitable
purposes, which the clergy could with
more decency and speciousness recom-
mend, and of which the administration
was generally confined to them, were fre-
quently applied to their own benefit.ii
They failed not, above all, to inculcate
upon the wealthy sinner, that no atone-
ment could be so acceptable to Heaven
as liberal presents to its earthly dele-
gates. || To die without allotting a por
* Schmidt, t. ii., p. 205.
t Muratori, Dissert. 65. Du Cange, v. Eremui
X Heeren, Essai sur les Croisades, p. 166
Schmidt, t. lii., p. 293.
^ Primo sacris pastoribus data est facultas, ut
haereditatis portio m pauperes el egenos disperge-
retur; sed sensim ecclesis quoque in pauperum
censum venerunt, atque intestate gentis mens ere-
dita est proclivior in eas futura fuisse: qua ex re
pinguius lUarum patrimonium evasit. Immo epis-
copi ipsi in rem suam ejusmodi consuetudinem
mterdum convertebant : ac tributum evasit, quod
antea pii moris fuit.— Muratori, Antiquilates ['a
liae, t. v., Dissert. 67.
II Muratori, Dissert. 67 (Antiquit. Italite, t. -».,
p. 1055), has preserved a curious charter of an Ital
ian count, who declares, that, struck with reflec-
tions upon his iinful state, he had taken counr<(
with certain rehgious how he should atone for ] «
oflences. Accepto consilio ab iis excepto si i
lHJ.1 VU J
l^CCLESIASnCAL POWER.
26i
"on of wo'-L'.'/ -vealth to pious uses',
was accountf:d -''niost like suicide, or a
refusal of the lai-f sacrameals ; and hence
intestacy passed lor a sort of fraud upon
the church, wliich she punished by taking
the admiuistralior. of the deceased's ef-
fects into her own hands. This, howev-
er, was peculiar to England, and seems
to have been the case there only between
the reigns of Henry III. and Edward III.,
when the bishop took a portion of the in-
testate's personal estate, for the advan-
tage of the cliurch and poor, instead of dis-
tributing it among his next of kin.* The
canonical penances imposed upon repent-
ant offenders, extravagantly severe in
hemselves, were commuted for money
or for immoveable possessions ; a fertile,
though scandalous source of monastic
wealth, which the popes afterward di-
verted into their own coffers by the
usage of dispensations and indulgences.!
The church lands enjoyed an inununity
from taxes, though not in general from
military service, when of a feudal tenure.
But their tenure was frequently in what
was called frankalmoign, 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 pubhc burdens. And as
if all these means of accumulating what
they could not legitimately enjoy were
hisufficient, the monks prostituted their
knowledge of writing to the purpose of
forguig charters in their own favour,
which might easily impose upon an igno-
rant age, since it has required a pecuhar
science to detect them in modern times.
Such rapacity might seem incredible in
men cut off from the pursuits of life and
the hope of posterity, if we did not be-
hold every day the unreasonableness of
avarice, and the fervour of professional
attachment. I
nunciare saeculo possem, nullum esse melius inter
eleemosinarum virlutes, quam si de propriis meis
substanliis in inonnsienum concederem. Hoc
consilium ab iis libunter, et ardentissirao animo ego
accepi.
* Selden, vol. iii., p. 1676. Prynne's Constitu-
tions, vol. iii., p. 18. Blackstone, vol. ii., chap. 32.
In France, the lord of the fief seems to have taken
the whole spoil.— Dii Cange, v. Intestatus.
t Muratori, Dissert. 68.
X Muraton's Goth, 67th, and 68th Dissertations
on the anticjuilies of haly,have furnished the prin-
cipal materials of my text, with Father Paul's trea-
ise on Benefices, especially chaps. 19 and 29 ;
Giannone; loc. cit. and 1. iv., c. 12 ; 1. v., c. 6 ; 1. x.,
C. 12 Schmidt, Hist, des AUemands, t. i., p. 370 ;
t. ii., p. 203, 462 ; t. iv., p. 202. Fleury, III., Dis-
coars sur I'Hist. Eccles. Du Cange, voc. Pre-
catia.
As an additional souicv o levenuc,
and in imitation of the Jewish law, the
payment of tithes was recommended oi
enjoined. These, howc-ver, were not ap-
plicable at first to the inaintenar.ce of a
resident clergy. Parochial divis- rj.^^^^^
ions, as they now exist, did not
take place, at least in some countries, til.
several centuries after the establishmenl
of Christianity.* The rural churches,
erected successively as the necessities
of a congregation required, or the piety
of a landlord suggested, were in fact a
sort of chapels dependant on the cathe-
dral, and served by itinerant ministers at
the bishop's discretion. The bishop him-
self received the tithes, and apportioned
them as he thouglit fit. A capitulary of
Charlemagne, however, regulates their di-
vision into three parts ; one for the bish-
op and his clergy, a second for the poor,
and a third for the support of the fabric
of the church. t Some of tlie rural church-
es obtained by episcopal concessions the
privileges of baptism and burial, which
were accompanied with a fixed share of
tithes, and seem to imply the residence
of a minister. The same privileges were
gradually extended to the rest ; and thus
a complete parochial division was finally
established. But this was hardly tho
case in England till near the time of the
conquest.!
The slow and gradual manner in wiiich
parochial churchf-- oecame independent,
appears to be of it x;lf a sufficient answer
to those who ascribe a great antiquity to
the universal payment of tithes. Thero
are, however, more direct proofs that thi?
species of ecclesiastical property wai
acquired not only by degrees, but with
considerable opposition. We find th«
payment of tithes first enjoined by the
canons of a provincial council in Franc©
near the end of the sixth century. From
the ninth to the end of the twelfth, or
even later, it is continually enforced by
similar authority.^ Father Paul remarks,
that most of the sermons preached about
the eighth century inculcate this as a
duty, and even seem to place the summit
of Christian perfection in its perforra-
* Muratori, Dissert. 74, and Fleury, Institutiont
au Droit Ecclesiastique, t. i., p. 162. refer the ori-
gi.i of parishes to the fourth century ; but thi»
must be limited to the most populous parts of ihr
empire. «
t Schmidt, t. ii., p. 206. This seems to hav€
been founded on an ancient canon.— F. Pauj, c 7
X Collier's Ecclesiastical History, p. 229
I Selden's History of Tithes, vol. iii., p. 1108
edit. Wilkins. Tithes are said by Oiannone U
have been enforced by some papal decrees in th(
sixth century, 1. iii., c. 6.
j64
ErR<»PE DURING THE MIDDLl AGES
ICHAI VU
ance.* Tiiis reluctant submission of the
oeople to a general and permanent tribute
is perfectly coisistent with the eagerness
displayed by *.hem in accumulating vol-
untary donations upon the church. Char-
.emagne was the first who gave the con-
firmation of a civil statute to these ec-
clesiastical injunctions ; no one at least
has. so far as I know, adduced any ear-
lier law for the payment of tithes than
one of his capitularies. f But it would be
precipitate to infer, either that the prac-
tice had no', already gained ground to a
considerable extent, through the influ-
ence of ecclesiastical authority, or, on
the other hand, that it became universal
in consequence of the commands of Char-
lemagne.J In the subsequent ages, it
was very common to appropriate tithes,
which had originally been payable to the
bishop, either towards the support of par-
ticular churches, or, according to the prev-
alent superstition, to monastic founda-
tions.^ These arbitrary consecrations,
though the subject of complaint, lasted,
by a sort of prescriptive right of the land-
holder, till about the year 1200. It was
nearly at the same time that the obliga-
tion of paying tithes, which had been ori-
ginally 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
labour. II
Yet there were many hinderances that
Spoliation thwarted the clergy in their ac-
of churcii quisition of opulence, and a sort
proper.y. ^^ reflux, that set sometimes very
strongly against them. In times of bar-
barous violence, nothing can thoroughly
compensate for the inferiority of physi-
cal strength and prowess. The ecclesi-
astical history of the middle ages presents
one long contention of fraud against rob-
bery ; of acquisitions made by the church
* Treatise on Benefices, c. 11.
t Mably (Observations sur I'Hist. de France, t.
1., p. 238 et 438) has, with remarkable rashness,
attacked the current opinion, that Charlemagne
estabhshed the legal obligation of tithes, and de-
nied that any of his capitularies bear such an inter-
pretation. Those which he quotes have indeed a
different meaning ; but he has overlooked an ex-
press enactment in 789 (Baluzii Capitularia, t. i., p.
253), which admits of no question ; and I believe
that there are others in confirmation.
X The grant of Ethelwolf in 855 seem:i to be
the most probable origin of the right to tithes in
England. Whether this law, for such it was, met
with constant regard, is another question. It is
said by Marina, that tithes were not legally estab-
lished in Castile till the reign of .\lfonso X. — En-
wyo sobre las siete partidas, c. 359.
^ Selden, p. 1114, et seq. Coke, 2 Inst., p. 641.
II Selden 's History of Tithes. Treatise on Ben-
-lires, c. 21. Giannone, 1. x c. 12
through such means as I have described
and torn from her by lawless j)ower
Those very men who, in the hour o<
sickness and impending death, showered
the gifts of expiatory devotion upon her
altars, had passed the sunshine of tlioir
lives in sacrilegious plunder. Notwith
standing the frequent instances of ex-
treme reverence for religious institutions
among the nobility, we should be deceiv-
ed in supposing 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. In every coun
try, we find continual lamentation ovei
the plunder of ecclesiastical possessions.
Charles Martel is reproached with having
given the first notorious example of such
spoliation. It was not, however, com
monly practised by sovereigns. But the
evil w^as not the less universally felt.
The parochial tithes, especially, as the
hand of robbery falls heaviest upon the
weak, were exposed to unlawful seizure
In the tenth and eleventh centui.es noth
ing 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 nev-
er ceased in the church.* Several at
tempts w' ere made to restore these tithes ,
but even Gregory YII. did not venture to
proceed in it ;t and indeed it is highly
probable that they might be held in some
instances by a lawful title. | Sometimes
the property of monasteries was dilapida-
ted by corrupt abbots, Avhose acts, how-
ever clandestine and unlawful, it was not
easy to revoke. And both the bishops
and convents were obliged to invest pow-
erful lay protectors, under the name ol
advocates, with considerable fiefs, as the
price of their assistance against depreda-
tors. But these advocates became too
often themselves the spoilers, and oppres-
sed the helpless ecclesiastics for whose
defence they had been engaged.^
» Du Cange, voc. Abbas.
+ Schmidt, t. iv., p. 204. At an assembly held ai
St. Denis in 997, the bishops proposed to restore
the tithes to the secular clergy : but such a tumult
was excited by this attempt, that the meeting was
broken up. — Itecueil des Historiens, t. xi., pra;fat,
p. 212.
t Selden's Hist, of Tithes, p. 1136. The thirc
council of Lateran restrains laymen from transfer
ring their impropriated tithes to other laymen. —
Velly, Hist, de France, t. iii., p. 235. This seems
tacitly to admit that their possession was l.T.vful, at
least by prescription.
^ For the injuries sustained by ecclesiastical pi >
prietors, see Muratori, Dissert. 72. Du Cange, ▼
Advocatus. Schmidt, t. ii., p. 220, 470, .. iii., p
290 ; t. IV , p. 188, 202. Recueil des Historiens.
CHaP. Vll.j
ECCLESIASTICAL POWER
568
ff it had not been for these drawbacks,
the clergy must, one would imagine, have
almost acquired the exclusive property of
the soil, 'i'hey did enjoy nearly one half
of England, and, 1 beheve, a greater pro-
portion in some countries of Europe.*
They had reached, perhaps, their ze-
nith in respect of territorial property
about the conclusion of the twelfth cen-
tury.f After that time, the disposition
to enrich the clergy by pious donations
grew more languid, and was put under
certain legal restraints, to which I shall
hereafter advert ; but they became rather
more secure from forcible usurpations.
The acquisitions of wealth by the
Ecciesiasti- church werc hardly so remarka-
caijurisJic- ble, and scarcely contributed so
lioa. much to her greatness, as those
innovations upon the ordinary course of
justice, which fall under the head of
ecclesiastical jurisdiction and in.munity.
It is hardly, perhaps, necessary to cau-
tion the reader, that rights of territorial
justice, possessed by ecclesiastics in vir-
tue of their fiefs, are by no means in-
cluded in this description. Episcopal ju-
risdiction, properly so called, may be
considered as depending upon the choice
of litigant parties, upon their condition,
and upon the subject matter of their dif-
ferences.
1. The arbitrative authority of ecclesi-
Arbitra astical pastors, if not coeval with
'i''^- Christianity, grew up very early in
the elmrch, and was natural, or even ne-
cessary, 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 es-
tablishment of their religion. The arbi-
tration of their bishops still seemed a less
objectionable mode of settling differen-
xi., praefat., p. 184. Martenne, Thesaurus Anec-
(iotorum, t. i..p. 595. Vaissette, Hist, de Langue-
doc, t. ii., p. 109, and apperidi.x, passim.
*■ Turner's Hist, of England, vol. ii., p 413, from
Avesbury. According to a calculation founded on
a passage in Knychton, tiic revenue of the Eng-
lish church in 1337 amounted to 730,000 marks per
annum. — Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol.
.,p. 519. Histoire du Droit public Eccles. Fran-
cois, t. i., p. 214.
t The great ape of monasteries in England was
in the reigns of Henry I., Stephen, and Henry II.
— Lyttletor.'s Henry II., vol. ii., p. 329. David I. of
Scotland, contemporary with Henry II., was also a
noted fonnderof monasteries. —Dalrymple's Annals.
t 1 Corirth.c. iv. The won] l^ovOnvrjiiivovi, ren-
dered in our version "of no reputation." has been
interpreted by some to mean, persons destitute of
coercive authority, referees. The passage at least
t«nds to discourage suits before a secular judge.
ces. And this arl itrative jurisd ction was
powerfully supported by a law of Con
stantine, which directed the civil magis-
trate to enforce the execution of episco-
pal awards. Another edict, ascribed to
the same emperor, and annexed to tho
Theodosian code, extended the jurisdic-
tion of the bishops to all causes which
either party chose to refer to it, even
where they had already commenced in a
secular court, and declared the bishop's
sentence not subject to appeal. This
edict has clearly been proved to be a
forgery. It is evident, by a novel of Va-
lentinian III., about 450, that the church
had still no jurisdiction in questions O'
a temporal nature, except by means d'.
the joint reference of contending partiesL
Some expressions, indeed, used by the
emperor, seem intended to repress the
spirit of encroachment upon the civi
magistrates, which had probably beguu
to manifest itself. Charlemagne, how-
ever, deceived by the spurious constitu-
tion in the Theodosian code, repeats all
its absurd and enormous provisions in one
of his capitularies.* But it appears so
inconceivable, that an enlightened sov-
ereign should deliberately place in the
hierarchy this absolute control over hiss
own magistrates, that one might be jujti--
fied in suspecting some kind of fraud to
have been practised upon him, or, at
least, that he was not thoroughly aware of
the extent of his concession. Certain it
is, that we do not find the church, in her
most arrogant temper, asserting the full
privileges contained in this capitulary.f
2. If it was considered almost as a
general oWigation upon the prim- coercive
itive Christians to decide their over iiie
civil disputes by internal arbitra- ciorpin
tion, much more would this be in-
cumbent 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 seculai
magistrate This must, it should appear,
be confined to causes where the defend-
ant was a clerk, since the ecclesiastical
court had hitherto no coercive jurisdic-
tion over the laity. It was not so e;irty
to induce laymen, in their suits againsi
clerks, to prefer the episcopal tribunal.
The emperors were not at ad disposed tc.
favour this species of encroachment till
* Baluzii Capitularia, t. i., p. 985.
t Gibbnii,c. XX. Giannone, 1. ii.,c. 8 ; l.iii. r, 0
1. vi., c. 7 Schmidt, t. ii , p. 208. Fleury, ?■"
Discours, and Institutions au Droit Eccl^siastiquQ
t ii., p. 1. Mtmoires de rAcad6mie do3 Inicrv
t ons. t. xxs'"' p 5GG.
26G
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
.v.HAP. vn
ihe reign of Justinian, who ordered civil
suits against ecclesiastics to be carried
fMily before tlie bishops. Yet this was
accompanied by a provision, that a party
dissatisfied with the sentence might ap-
ply to the secular magistrate, not as an
appellant, but a co-ordinate jurisdiction;
tor, if different judgments were given in
the two courts, the process was ullimate-
y referred to the emperor.* But the
early Merovingian kings adopted the ex-
clusive jurisdiction of the bishop over
causes wherein clerks were interested,
without any of the checks which Justin-
ian had provided. Many laws enacted
during their reigns, and under Charle-
magne, strictly prohibit the temporal
magistrates from entertaining complaints
against the children of the church.
This jurisdiction over the civil causes
And crim- of clerks was not immediately
inai suits, attended with an equally exclu-
sive cognizance of criminal offences im-
puted to them, wherein the state is so
deeply interested, and the church could
inflict so inadequate a punishment. Jus-
tinian appears to have reserved such of-
fences for trial before the imperial ma-
gistrate, though with a material provision
*hat the sentence against a clerk should
not be executed without the consent of
the bishop, or the final decision of the
emperor. The bishop is not expressly
invested with this controlling power by
the lav/s of the Merovingians ; but they
enact that he must be present at the trial
of one of his clerks ; which probably was
intended to declare the necessity of his
concurrence in the judgment. The epis-
copal order was indeed absolutely ex-
empted from secular jurisdiction by Jus-
tinian ; a privilege which it had vainly
endeavoured to establish under the ear-
lier emperors. France permitted the
same immunity; Chilperic, one of the
most arbitrary of her kings, did not ven-
ture to charge some of his bishops with
treason, except before a council of their
brethren. Finally, Charlemagne seems
to have extended to tlie whole body of
the clergy an absolute exemption from
the judicial authority of the magistrate.!
« Thi? was also established about the same time
by Athalaric, king of the Ostrogoths, and of
eo>rse affected the popes, who were his subjects.
—St. Marc, t. i., p. 60. Fleury, Hist. Eccles., t.
vii., p. 292.
+ M^moires de rAcademie, ubi supra. Gian-
none, 1. ill,, c. 6. Schmidt, t. ii., p. 236. Fleury,
cbi supra.
Some of these writers do not state the law oi
Charlemagne so strongly. Nevertheless the words
of a capitulary in 789, U! c erici ecclesiastici ordi-
nis ei rulpam incurrerint, aj ud eo ;lesiasticos judi-
3. The character of a cause, as well
as of the parties engaged, might over panic
bring it within the limits of ec- uiar cause.,
clesiastical jurisdiction. In all questions
simply religious, the church had an ori-
ginal right of decision ; in those of a tem-
poral nature, the civil magistrate had, by
the imperial constitutions, as exclusive
an authority.* Later ages witnessed
strange innovations in this respect, when
the spiritual courts usurped, under so-
phistical pretences, almost the whole a4-
ministration of justice. But these en-
croachments 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.
In this sketch of the riches and juris-
diction of the hierarchy, I may poiiiioai
seem to have implied their politi- powerct
cal influence, which is naturally '^''^'■?>-
connected with the two former. They
possessed, however, more direct means
of acquiring temporal power. Even un-
der the Roman emperors they had found
their road into palaces ; they were some-
times ministers, more oftea secret coun-
sellors, always necessary, but formida-
ble allies, whose support v/as to be con-
ciliated, and interference to be respected.
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 gov
ernments, to a privilege unknown under
the imperial despotism, that of assisting
in the deliberative assemblies of the na-
tion. 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 discipline. But the nor-
thern nations did not so well pieserve
the distinction between secular and spir-
itual legislation. The laity seldom, per-
haps, gave their suffrage to the canons
of the church; but the church was not
so scrupulous as to trespassing upon the
province of the aity. Many provisions
are found in the canons of national and
centur, non apud saculares, are sufficiently gCi;-
eral (Baluz. Capitul., t. i., p. 227): and tlie same
is expressed still more forcibly in the collection
published by Ansepi^sus under Louis the Debonair.
—(Idem, pp. 904 a^d 1115.) See other proofs in
Fleury, Hist. Eccles., t. ix., p. 607.
♦ Quolies de religione agitur, episcopos opoitet
judicare ; alteras vero causas quse ad ordinarios
cognitores vel ad usurn publici juris pertinent, le-
gibus oportPt audiri. Lex Arcadii et Honorii.apud
Mem. de I'Academie, t. xxxii., p. 571
'H.vP vir.]
ECJLESIASTICAL POWER
26:
oven provincial councils, which relate to
the temporal constitution of the state.
Thus one held ixi Calcluith (an unknown
place in England), in 787, enacted that
nono but legitimate princes sliould be
raised to the throne, and not such as
weie 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 jMercia and Northum-
berland, with many of their nobles, con-
firmed the canons by their signature.
As for the councils held under the Visi-
goth kings of Spain during the seventh
century, it is not easy to determine
whether they are to be considered as ec-
clesiastical or temporal assemblies * No
kingdom was so thoroughly under the
bondage of the hierarchy as Spain. f The
first dynasty of France seem to have
kept their national convention, called
the Field of March, more distinct from
merely ecclesiastical councils.
The bishops acquired and retained a
great part of their ascendency by a very
respectable insirument of power, intel-
lectual superiorhy. As they alone were
acquainted with the art of writing, they
were naturally intrusted with political
correspondence, and Avith the framing
of t le laws. As they alone knew the
e.tments of a few sciences, the educa-
tion of royal famihes devolved upon them
as a necessary duty. In the fall of Rome,
their influence upon t!ie barbarians 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 Ro-
man conquerors, so Rome, in her own
turn of servitude, cast the fetters of a
moral captivity upon the fierce invaders
of the north. Chiefly througli the exer-
tions of the bishops, whose ambition may
be forgiven for its eflects, her religion,
her language, in part even her laws, were
transplanted into the courts of Paris and
Toledo, which became a degree less bar-
barous by imitation.;}:
Notwithstanding, however, the great
Supremacy authority and privileges of the
oithe stale, churcli, it was decidedly subject
to the supremacy of the crown, both
during the continuance of the western
empire, and after its subversion. The
emperors convoked, regulated, and dis-
solved universal councils ; tne kings of
* Marina, Teoria de las Cortes, t. i., p. 9.
f See instances of the temporal power of the
Spanish bishops in FJeury, Hist Ecclcs., t. viii., p.
S68, 397 ; t. is., p. G8, &c.
•• Schmidt, t. i.. p. 365. I
France and Spain exercised th& same
right over the synads of their nationaJ
churches.* Tlte Ostrogoth kings of Italy
fixed by their edicts the limits within
which matrimony was prohibited on ac-
count of consanguinity, and granted dis-
pensations from them.f Though the
Roman emperors left episcopal elections
to the clergy and people of the diocess,
in which they were followed by the
Ostrogoths and Lombards, yet they often
interfered so far as to 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, recom
mended their own candidate to the elec-
tors.
But the sovereign who maintained with
the greatest vigour his ecclesi- especially
astical supremacy was Cliarle- ofciiarie-
magne. Most of the capitul' ries magne.
of his reign relate to the discipline of the
church ; principally, indeed, taken from
the ancient canons, but not the less re
ceiving an additional 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 in-
fringements of spiritual independence ;
that no legend of doubtful authority
sliould be read in the churclies, but only
the canonical books, and that no ?.aint
should be honoured whom the wnole
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 churcli, 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 of prelates, and are so blended
with tliose of a secular nature, that the
two orders may appear to have equally
consented to the whole. His father
Pepin, indeed, left a remarkable prece-
dent in a council held in 744, where the
Nicene faith is declared to be established
* Ejicyclopedie, art. Concile. Schmidt, t. i.,
p. 384. be Marca, De ConcordantlA Sacerdotii el
Imperii, 1. ii., c. 9, II ; et 1. iv., passim.
'i'he last of these sometimes endeavours to tn
tenuate the royal supremacy, but his own ivo'-lk
furnishes abundant evidence of it ; especially .. vi.
c. 19, &c. For the ecclesiastical independence oS
Spain, down to the eleventh century, see Maiina,
Ensayo sobi p, las siete partidas, c. 322, &c. ; a: a
De Marca, 1 vi., c. 23.
t Giannone, 1. iii., c. 6.
t Raki/.ii Capitularia, passim. Schmidt i
D. 239 Ciaillard, Vie de Charleinjgne, t. iii
268
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[OIUP. ^'I»
and even a particular lieresy condemned,
with the consent of the bishops and no-
ble3. But whatever share we may ima-
gine the laity in general to have liad in
such matters, Charlemagne himself did
not consider even theological decisions
as beyond his province; and, in more
than one instance, manifested a deter-
miintion not to surrender his own judg-
ment, even in questions of that nature, to
any ecclesiastical authority.
'Ihis part of Charlemagne's conduct is
duly to be taken into the account, before
we censure his vast extension of ecclesi-
astical privileges. Nothing was more re-
mote from his character than the bigotry
of those weak princes who have suffered
the clergy to reign under their names.
He ac.ed upon a systematic plan of gov-
ernment, conceived by his own compre-
hensive genius, but requiring too continual
an application of similar talents for dura-
ble execution. It was the error of a
superior mina, zealous for religion and
learninff, to belitve that men, dedicated
to the functions of the one, and posses-
sing what remained of the other, might,
through strict rules of discipline, enforced
by the const vnt vigilance of the sovereign,
become fit nstruments to reform and
civilize a baibarous empire. It was the
error of a magnanimous spirit to judge too
favourably of human nature, and to pre-
Gume that great trusts would be fulfilled,
and great benefits remembered.
It is highly probable, indeed, that an
ambitious hierarchy did not endure with-
out reluctance this imperial supremacy
of Charlemagne, though it was not expe-
dient for them to resist a prince so for-
midable, and from whom they had so
much to expect. But their dis-
nfThe"ht"' satisfaction at a scheme of
rarchyin government incompatible with
iiionhnh ^i^gjj. Q^yj-j objects of perfect in-
'^"""^^' dependence, produced a violent
recoil under Louis the Debonair, wdio at-
tempted to act the censor of ecclesias-
tical abuses with as much earnestness
as his father, though with very inferior
qualifications for so delicate an under-
taking. The bishops, accordingly, were
among the chief instigators of those nu-
merous revolts of his children which
harassed this emperor. They set, upon
one occasion, the first example of a
usurpation which was to become very
dangerous to society, the deposition of
sovereigns by ecclesiastical authority.
Louis, a prisoner in the hands of his en-
emies, had been intimidated enough to
undergo a public penance ; and the bish-
ops pretended that, according to a oia-
on of the church, he was incapable of
returning afterward to a secular life, ox
preserving the character of sovereignty.*
Circumstances enabled him to retain the
empire, in defiance of this sentence : but
the church had tasted the pleasure of
trampling upon crowned heads, and was
eager to repeat the experiment. 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 mutual animosities, en-
couraged the pretensions of a common
enemy. Thus, Charles the Bald, and
Louis' of Bavaria, having driven their
brother Lothaire from his dominions,
held an assembly of some bishops, wht
adjudged him unworthy to reign, and
after exacting a promise from the two
allied brothers to govern better than he
had done, permitted and commanded
them to divide his territories.! After
concurring in this unprecedented en-
croachment, Charles the Bald had little
right to complain when, soine years af-
terward, an assembly of bishops declared
himself to have forfeited his crown, re-
leased 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 maintain. 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 degener
ate grandson of Charlemagne, " ought to
have degraded me from the throne to
which I was consecrated, until at least I
* Habitu ssEculi se exuens habitum ptEnitenti?
per impositionem manuum episcoporum suscepit
ut post tantam talemque poenitentiam nemo ulti
ad militiam sscularem redeat. Acta e.xauctoralio
nis Ludovici, apud Schmidt, t. ii., p. 68. Then
was a sort of precedent, though not, I think, verj
apposite, for this doctrine of impHed abdication, in
the case ofWamba, king of the Visigoths in Spain,
who, having been clothed with a monastic dress,
accordmg to a common superstition, during a dan-
gerous illness, was afterward adjudged by a council
incapable of resuming his crown, to which he vol-
untarily submiUed. The story, as told by an ori-
ginal writer, quoted n Baronius, ad A. D. 681, is
too obscure to warunt any positive inference ,
though I think we may justly suspect a fraudulent
contrivance between the bishops and Ervigius, the
successor of Wamba. The latter, besides his mo-
nastic attire, had received the last sacrament ; aftei
which he might be deemed civilly dead.— Fleury,
3'"^ Discours sur I'Hist. Ecclesiast.^puts this case
too strongly, when he tells us that the bishops de
posed Wamba ; it may have been a voluntary abdi-
cation, influe: ced by superstition, or, perhaps b>
disease.
t Schmidt t. ii., p. 77 Velly . u , p. 61 ; to
1 too p. 74.
Chap. VIl.j
ECCLESIASTICAL POWER.
2(ii
had been hoard and judged by the bishops,
thrruffh whose ministry I was consecra-
teii. who are called the thrones of God,
in which God sitteth, and by whom he
dispenses his judgments ; to whose pa-
ternal chastisement I was willing to sub-
art, and do still submit myself."*
These passages are very remarkable,
and afford a decisive proof that the pow-
er obtained by national churches, through
the superstitious prejudices then received,
and a train of favourable circumstances,
was as dangerous to civil government
as the subsequent usurpations of the Ro-
man pontiff, against which Protestant
writers are apt too exclusively to direct
their animadversions. Voltaire, I think,
has remarked, that the ninth century was
iho age of the bishops, as the eleventh
and twelfth were of the popes. It seem-
ed as if Europe was about to pass under
as absolute a domination of the hierar-
chy, as had been exercised by the priest-
hood of ancient Egypt, or the druids of
Gaul. There is extant a remarkable in-
.strument, recording the election of Boson,
king of Aries, by which the bishops alone
appear to have elevated him to the throne,
wilhout any concurrence of the nobility. f
But it is inconceivable that such could
have really been the case ; and if the
instrument is genuine, we must suppose
it to have been framed in order to counte-
nance future pretensions. For the cler-
gy, by their exclusive knowledge of Latin,
had it in their power to mould the lan-
guage of pubhc documents for their own
purposes ; a circumstance which should
be cautiously kept !n mind wlien we pe-
ruse instruments drawn up during the
dark ages.
It was with an equal defiance of noto-
rious truth, that the Bishop of Winches-
ter, presiding as papal legate at an assem-
bly of the clergy in 1111, during the civil
war of Stephen and Matilda, asserted the
right of electing a king of England to ap-
pertain principally to that order; and, by
virtue of this unprecedented claim, raised
Matilda to the throne. + England, indeed,
lias been obsequious, beyond most other
countries, to the arrogance of her hierar-
chy ; especially during the Anglo-Saxon
period, nhcii the nation was sunk in ig-
* Schmidt, t. ii., p. 217. Voltaire, Velly, Gail-
ard, &c.
t Recucil des Historiens, t. ix., p. 304.
t Veiitilata est causa, says the Legate, coram
.najori parte clcri Anglia;, aci cujus jus potissimiim
pectat principem cligcre, simukpie ordinare. lii-
vocata itaque primo m auxilium divinitate, filiam
pacifici regis, &c., in Anglia Normanniaeque domi-
nam cligimus, et ei fidem et niAnutencnientum pro- j
mittimus - Gu Malmsb. p. 188. \
norance and effeminate superstition. Ev
ery one knows the story of King Edwy
in some form or other, though I believa
it impossible to ascertain the real circum-
stances of that controverted anecdote.
But, upon the supposition least favoura
ble to the king, the behaviour of Arch-
bishop Odo and St. Dunstan was an in-
tolerable outrage of spiritual tyranny.*
But, while the prelates of these na-
tions, each within his respect- „
ive sphere, were prosecutmg p;,,,ai pow-
their system of encroachment ^^- 'isporr.
upon the laity, a new scheme ""^""™*"'
was secretly forming within the bosom
of the church, to inthral both that and
the temporal governments of the world
under an ecclesiastical 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 i ery
controverted subject. It is, however,
reduced by some moderate Catholics to
little more than a precedency 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
* Two living writers of the Roman Catholic
communion. Dr. Milner, in his History of Win
Chester, and Mr. Lingard, in his Antiquities of tha
Anglo-Saxon church, contend that Elgiva, whom
some Protestant historians are willing to represeut
as the queen of Edwy, was but his mistress ; and
seem inclined to justify the conduct of Odo and
Dunstan towards this unfortunate couple. They
are unquestionably so far right, that few, if any of
those writers, who have been quoted as authorities
in respect of this story, speak of the lady as a
queen or lawful wife. 1 must, therefore, sti. ngly
reprobate the conduct of Dr. Henry, who, calling
Elgiva queen, and asserting that she w.ts married,
refers, at the bottom of his page, to William of
Malmsbury, and other chroniclers, who give a to-
tally opposite account; especially as he does not
intimate, by a single expression, that the natury
of her connexion with the king was equivocal.
Such a practice, when it proceeds, as 1 fear it did
in this instance, not from oversight, but from pre-
judice, is a glaring violation of historical integrity,
and tends to render the use of references that
great improvement of modern history, a sort o(
fraud upon the reader. But the foct itself, one cer-
tainly of little importance, is, in my opinion, not
capable of being proved or disprorcd. The author
ities, as they are called, that is, the passages in
monkish writers which mention this transaction
are neither su/Jiciently circumstantial, nor co-)sist
en aor impartial, nor contemporaneous, to irtbnl
ground for rational belief; or, at least, there must
always remain a strong shade of uncertainty. And
it is plain, that different reports of the story pre-
vailed, so as to induce some to imagine that ther«
were two Elgivas, one queen, the other concubina
But the monkish chroniclers, experio credi'.e aie nol
entitled to so much cei-etr.'.nv.
270
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
Chap. W.
city.* .1 soil of general superintendence
was a .mitted as an attribute of this pri-
macy, so that the bishops of Rome were
entitled, and indeed bound, to remon-
strate, when any error or irregularity
came to their knowledge, especially in
the western chm-ches, a greater p-art of
(vhich had been planted by them, and
were connected, as it were by filiation,
with the common capital of the Roman
empire and of Christendom. f Various
causes had a tendency to prevent the
bishops of Rome from augmenting their
authority in the East, and even to dimin-
ish that which they had occasionally ex-
ercised ; the institution of patriarchs at
Antioch, Alexandria, and afterward at
Constantinople, with extensive rights of
jurisdiction ; the difference of rituals and
discipline ; but, above all, the many dis-
gusts taken by the Greeks, which ulti-
mately produced an irreparable schism
between the two churches in the ninth
century. But, within the pale of the Lat-
in church, every succeeding age enhan-
ced 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 ex-
arch or primate. The Bishop of Rome
presided, in the latter capacity, over the
Roman vicariate, comprehending south-
ern Italy, and the three chief Mediterra-
nean islands. But, as it happened, none
» These foundations of the Roman primacy are
indicated by Valentinian III., a gre.-\t favourer of
hat see, in a novel of the year 455 : Cum igitur se-
d's cpostohcaj primatum 13. Petri meritum, qui est
prii;'-eps sacerdotahs corona?, et Romana3 dignitas
•.ivitatis, sacra; etiam synodi firmavit auctoritas.
rhfc last words allude to the sixth canon of the
Niovne council, which establishes, or recognises,
he patriarchal supremacy, in their respective dis-
.rici.i, of the churches of Rome, Antioch, and
V.leKandria.— De Marca, de Concordantia Sacerdo-
lii et Imperil, 1. i., c. 8. At a much earlier period,
I ronasus rather vaguely, and Cyprian more posi-
liveiy, admit, or rather assert, the primacy of the
church of Rome, which the latter seems even to
ftave considered as a kind of centre of Catholic
unity, though he resisted every attempt of tliat
churcli to arrogate a controlling power. See lus
.realise De Unitate Ecclesiae.
t Dupm, Dc antiqua Ecclesiae Disciplina, p. 30G,
et seqq. Histoire du Droit public ecclesiastiqne
f rancjois, p. 149. The opinion of the Roman see's
supremacy, though apparently rather a vague and
general JiOtion, as it still continues in those Cath-
)lics who deny its infallibility, .seems to have pre-
vailed very much in the fourth century. Fleury
Drings remarkable proofs of tliis from the writings
■I* Socrates. Sozomen, Ainmianus Marcellinus,
Cid Optatus. -Hist Eccl6s., t. iii., p. 282 32C , 449 ;
iv . r 227.
of the ten provinces forming this division
had any metropolitan ; so that the popes
exercised all metropolitical funciiOiis
within them, such as the consecration of
bishops, the convocation of synods, the
ultimate decision of appeals, and many
other sorts of authority. These patri»r-
provinces are sometimes called the cnate oj
Roman patriarchate ; the bishops "°"'*-
of Rome having always been reckoned
one, generally indeed the first of the patri-
archs ; each of whom was at the head of
all the metropoHtans within his 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 mention-
ed, advantages in point of authority whicli
the others did not possess.*
I may perhaps appear to have noticed
circumstances interesting only to eccle-
siastical scholars. But it is important to
apprehend this distinction of the patri-
archate from the primacy of Rome, be-
cause it was by extending the boundaries
of the former, and by applying the max-
ims of her administration in the south of
Italy to all the western churches, that
she accomplished the first object of her
scheme of usurpation, in subverting the
provincial system of government under
the metropolitans. Their first encroach-
ment of this kind was in the province ol
Illyricum, which they annexed in a man-
ner to their owm patriarchate, by not per-
mitting any bishops to be consecrated
without their consent*! This was before
the end of the fourth century. Their sub-
sequent advances were, however, very
gradual. About the middle of the sixth
century, we find them confirming the
elections of archbishops of Milati. J They
came by degrees to exercise, though not
always successfully, a;id seldom withou*
opposition, an appellant jurisdiction ove-
the causes of bishops, deposed or cen
* Dupin, De antiqua Eccles. Disciplina, p. 35
&c. Giannone, 1st. di Napoli, 1. ii., c. 8 ; 1. iii., c
6. De Marca, 1. i., c. 7, et alibt There is some
disagreement among these writer? as to the exten'
of the Roman patriarchate, which some suppose to
have even at first comprehended all the western
churches, though they admit that, in a more par
ticular sense, it was confined to the vicariate of
Rome.
t Dupin, p. 6G. Fleury, Hist. Eccl6s., t. v., p.
373. The ecclesiastical province of Illyricum in-
cluded Macedonia. Siricius, the author of this ea
croachment, seems to have been one of the firs'
usurpers. In a letter to the Spanish bishops (A. D.
375), he exalts his own authori y very hieh.— ]>•
Marca, 1. i., c. 8.
i St. .Marc, t. i., p. 139, 153
•fl»F vn.]
ECCLESIASTICAL POWKR.
271
sured in provincial synods. This, in-
deed, had been granted, if we believe the
fact, by the canons of a very early coun-
cil, that of Sardica in 317, so far as to
permit the pope to order a revision of the
process, but not to annul the sentence.*
Valentinian III., influenced by Leo the
Great, one of the most ambitious of pon-
tifTs, had gone a great deal farther, and
established almost an absolute judicial
supremacy in the Holy See.f But the
metropoUtarts were not inchned to sur-
render their prerogatives ; and, upon the
>.vhole, the papal authority had made no
decisive progress in France, or perhaps
anywhere beyond Italy, till the pontifi-
cate of Gregory 1.
[A. D 590-604.] This celebrated person
fire-rory I ^^^^ "^'' ^listinguished by learn-
ing, which he affected to depre-
ciate, nor by his literary performances,
which the best critics consider as below
mediocrity, but by qualities more neces-
sary for his purpose, intrepid ambition and
unceasing activity. He maintained a
erpetual correspondence v/ith the em-
perors and their ministers, with the sov-
* Dupin, p. 109. De Marca, 1. vi., c'. 14. These
canons have been questioned, and Diipin does not
seem to lay much stress on their authority, though
I do nut perceive that either he or Fleury (Hist.
Keclcs , t. iii., p. 372) doubts their genuineness.
•Sardica was a city of Illyricum, which the transla-
tor of Mosheim has confounded with Siirdes.
Consultations or references to the Bishop of
!lo;ne, in difficult cases of faith or discipline, h.ad
been conr^mon in early ages, and were even made
'>y provincial and national councils. Hut these
vvere also made to other bishops, eminent for per-
sonal merit or the dignity of their sees. The
popes endeavoured to claim this as a matter of
right. Innocent I. asserts (A. D. 402) that he was
to be consulted, quoties fidei ratio veritilatur ; and
jelasius (A. D. 492) quantum ad religioneiu per-
tinet, non nisi apostolicaj sedi, juxta canones, de-
lejur sui.">ma judicii totius. As the oak is in the
icorn, so a;d these maxims contain the system of
Hcllarmin«.--J.)e Marca, 1. i., c. 10; and 1. vii., 12.
Dupin.
t SorT.e bishops belonginnf to the province of
Hilary, metropolitan of Aries, appealed from his
senterce to Leo, who not only entertaine<i their
apperl, but presumed to depose Hilary. This as-
sumption of power would have had little eflect, if
it I'ad not been seconded by the emperor in very
u^guarded language ; hoc perenni sanctione de-
'ernimus, ne quid tarn episcopis Gallicanis, quam
aliarntn provinciarum, contra consuetudinem vcte-
rem liceat sine auctoritate viri venerabilis papa;
irbis aeterria> tentare , sed illis o:nnibusq\ie pro lege
sit, quidquid saniit vel sanxerit apostclica; scdis
auctoritas.— De Marca, De Concordantia Sacer-
dotii ct Imperii, 1. i., c. 8. The samo emperor
enacted, that any bishop who refu.sed to attend the
tribunal of the pope when summoned, should be
compelled by the g-ivernor of his province ; ut
quisquis epi.scoporum ad judicium Romaiii epis-
copi evocatus venire neglexerit, per moderatorcm
ejusdemprovinciaeadessecogatur. — Id., 1. vii.,c. 13.
Uuoin, De Ant Discip'. p. 29 et 171.
ercigns of the western kingdoms wnc
all the hierarchy of the Catholic cliurch ,
employing, as occasion dictated, the Ian
guage of devotion, arrogance, or adula
tion.* Claims hitherto disputed, or hall
preferred, assumed under his hands s
more definite form ; and nations too ig-
norant to compare precedents or discrim-
inate principles, yielder'. to assertions con-
fidently made by the authority Avhich
they most respected. Gregory dwelt
more than his predecessors upon the pow>
er of the keys, exclusively or at least
principally committed to St. Peter, which
had been supposed in earlier times, as it
is no^v by the Gallican Catholics, to be
inherent in the general body of bishops
joint sharers of one indivisible episco-
pacy. And thus the patriarchal rights,
being manifestly of mere ecclesiastical
institution, were artfully confounded, or,
as it were, merged m the more para-
mount supremacy of the papal chair.
From the time of Gregory, the popes
appear in a great measure to have
thrown away that scafll'olding, and relied
in preference on the pious veneration of
the people, and on the opportunities
which might occur for enforcing their
dominion with the pretence of divine au-
thority, f
It cannot, I think, be said, that any
material acquisitions of ecclesiastical
power were obtained by the successors
of Gregory for nearly one hundred and
fifty years. J As none of them possessed
* The flattering style in which this pontifT ad-
dressed Brunehaut and Phocas, the most flagitious
monsters of his time, is mentioned in all civil and
ecclesiastical histories. Fleury quotes a remark-
able letter to the patriarchs of Antioch and Alex-
andria, wlicrein he says that St. Peter has one see,
divided into three. Home, .\ntioch, and Alexandria,
stooping to this absurdity, and inconsistence with
his real system, in order to conciliate their alliance
against his more immediate rival, the patriarch ot
Constantinople.— Hist. Ecclcs., t. viii., p. 124.
t Gregory seems to have estabhshed the appcl
lant jurisdiction of the see of Rome, which had
been long in suspense. Stephen, a Spanish bishopc
having been deposed, appealed to Rome. Gregory
sent a legate to Spain, with full powers to confirm
or rescind the sentence. He says in his letter cr.
this occasion ; a sede apostolica, qua; omnium ec
clesiarum caput est, causa ha;c audienda ac dirh
menda fuerat. — De Marca, 1. vii., c. 18. In wri
ting to the bishops of France, he enjoins them tt>
obey Viririlius, bishoj) of Aries, whom he has ap
pointed his legate in France, sectindiim antiquan:;
consuetudinem; so that if any contention should
arise in the church, he may appease it by his au
thority, as vicegerent of the apostolic see : auc
torilatis suK vigore, vicibus nempe apostolica
sedis functus, discreta moderatione compescat.—
Gregorii Opera, t. ii., p. 783 (edit. Benedict).
Dupin, p. 34. Pasquie-, Recherches de la France
1. iii., c. D.
i I 'il-'serve that some rnfxlern nublication» ir n
tli
EL ROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Cup. V.^
vigour aud reputation equal to his own,
U might even appear that the papal influ-
ence was jetrograde. But, in effect, the
principles which supported it were taking
deep root, and acquiring strength by oc-
casional, though not very frequent exer-
cise. Appeals to the pope were some-
C'jiisiderable importance to a supposed concession
uf the title of universal bishop, made by the Emperor
Phocas in 606 to Bonifac3 III., arid even appear to
date the papal supremacy from this epoch. Those
Riho have imbibed this notion may probably have
oeen misled by a loose expression in Mosheim's
Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii., p. 169 ; though
the general tenour of that passage by no means
gives countenance to their opinion. But there are
several strong objections to our considering this as
a leading fact, much less as marking an era in the
history of the papacy. 1. Its truth, as commonly
stated, appears more than questionable. The
Roman poiititfs, Gregory I. and Boniface HI., had
been vehemently opposing the assumption of this
;itle by the patriarch of Constantinople, not as due
to themselves, but as one to which no bishop could
legitimately pretend. There would be something
almost ridiculous in the emperor's immediately
conferring an appellation on themselves, which
they had just disclaimed; and though this objec-
tion would not stand against evidence, yet when
we find no better authority quoted for the fact
than Baronius, who is no authority at all, it retains
considerable weight. And indeed the want of
early testimony is so decisive an objection to any
glleged historical fact, that, but for the strange
prepossessions of some men, one might rest the
c%se here. Fleury takes no notice of this part of
me story, though he tells us that Phocas compelled
the patriarch of Constantinople to resign his title.
2, But if the strongest proof could be advanced for
the authenticity of this circumstance, we might well
deny its importance. The concession of Phocas
could have been of no validity in Lombardy,
France, and other western countries, where nev-
ertheless the papal supremacy was incomparably
more established than in the east. 3. f^ven within
the empire, it could have had no efficacy after the
violent death of that usurpe-r, which followed soon
afterward. 4. The title of universal bishop is
not very intelligible ; but, whatever it meant, the
patriarchs of Constantinople had borne it before,
and continued to bear it ever afterward.— (Dupin,
De antiqua Disciplina, p. .129.) 5. The preceding
popes, Pelagius II. and Gregory I., had constantly
disclaimed the appellation, though it had been
adopted by some towards Leo the Great in the
council of Chalcedon (Fleury, t. viii., p. 95) ; nor
does it appear to have been retained by the succes-
sors of Boniface, at least for some centuries. It is
even laid down in the decretum of Gratian, that
the pope is not styled universal: Nee etiain Ro-
.Tianus pontifex universalis appellatur (p. 303, edit.
1591); thoudi some refer its assumption to the
Lir.th century.— Nouveau Traite de Diplomatique,
t. v., p. 93. In fact, it has never been a usual title.
6. The popes had unquestionably exercised a spe-
cies of supremacy for more than two centuries be-
fore this time, which had lately reached a high
point of authority under Gregory I. The rescript
of Vfilentinian HI., in 455, quoted in a former Tiote,
wou]J certainly be more to the purpose than the
Icttc: of Phocas. 7. Lastly, there are no sensible
marks of this supremacy making a more rapid
progress fur a century and a half after the pretend-
ed grant if that emperor
times made by prelates dissatisfied with
a local sentence; but his judgment of
reversal was not always executed, ;;s «o
perceive by the instance of Bishop Wil-
frid.* National councils were stil con-
voked by princes, and canons enacted
under their authority by the bishops who
attended. Though the church of Lom-
bardy was under great subjection during
this period, yet those of France, and
even of England, planted as the latter
had been by Gregory, continued to pre-
serve a tolerable measure of independ-
ence.! The first striking infringement
of tliis was made through tlie influence
of an f^nglishman, Winfrid, better known
as St. Boniface, the apostle of
Germany. Having undertaken ^'- ^°""^^'^«-
the conversion of Thuringia, and other
still heathen countries, he applied to the
pope for a commission, and was conse-
crated bishop without any determinate
see. Upon this occasion he took an oath
of obedience, and became ever after-
ward a zealous upholder of the apostol-
ical chair. His success in the conver-
sion of Germany was great, his reputa-
tion eminent, which enabled him to ef-
fect a material revolution in ecclesiasti-
cal government. Pelagius II. had, about
580, sent a pallium, or vest peculiar to
metropolitans, to the Bishop of Aries,
perpetual vicar of the Roman see in
Gaul. J Gregory J. had made a similar
present to other metropolitans. But it
was never supposed that they were
obliged to wait for this favour before
they received consecration, until a synod
of the French and German bish- synod of
ops, held at Frankfort in 742 by Frankfort
Boniface, as legate of Pope Zachary. It
was here 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
* i refer to the English historians for the history
of Wilfnil, which neither altogether supports, nor
much impeaches the independence, of our Anglo-
Saxon church in 700; a matter hardly worth so
much contention as Usher and Stillingfleet seem to
have thought. The consecration of Theodore bj
Pope Vitaiian in 668 is a stronger fact, and can:iot
be got over by those injudicious Protestants, who
take the bull by the horns.
f Schmidt, t. i., p. 386, 394.
X Ut ad instar suum, in Galliarum partibus priini
sacerdotis! locum obtineat, et quidquid ad gubcr-
nationem vel dispensationem ecclesiastici statu?
gerendum est, servatis patrum regulis, et sedis
apostolic3 constitutis, faciat. Preferea, pallium
illi concedit, &c.— Dupin, p. 34. Gregory I. con
tirmed this vicariat to Virgilius, bishop of Arlea,
and gave him the power of convoking synods.— Di
Marca, 1. vi., c. 7.
i) Decrevimus sava Boniface, in nostra «ynod;\j
Chap. Vll
ECCLESIASTICAL POWER.
27a
construed by the popes to mean a prom-
ise of obedience before receiving the
pall, which was changed in after times
by Gregory VII. into an oath of fealty.*
This council of Frankfort claims a
leading place as an epoch in the history
of the papacy. Several events ensued,
chiefly of a political nature, which rapid-
ly elevated that usurpation almost to its
greatest height. Subjects of the throne
of Constantinople, the popes had not as
yet interfered, unless by mere admoni-
tion, with the temporal magistrate. The
first instance wherein the civil duties of
a nation and the rights of a crown appear
to have been submitted to his decision,
was in that famous reference as to the
deposition of Childeric. It is impossible
to consider this in any other light than as
a point of casuistry laid before the first
religious judge in the church. Certainly
the Franks, who raised the king of their
choice upon their shields, never dreamed
that a foreign priest had conferred upon
him the right of governing. Yet it was
easy for succeeding advocates of Rome
to construe this transaction very favour-
ably for its usurpation over the thrones
of ihe earth. f
I shall but just glance at the subsequent
political revolutions of that period : the
invasion of Italy by Pepin, his donation
of the exarchate to the Holy See, the
eonquest of Lombardy by Charlemagne,
Ihe patriarchate of Rome conferred upon
Doth these princes, and the revival of the
Western Empire in the person of the lat-
convenlu, et confessi suinus fidein catholicaiii, et
aiiilatein et subjectionein Romans eccles:8c line
tenus servare, S. Petro et vicaritl ejus velle suhjici,
metropolitaiios pallia ab ilia sede quairere, et, per
omnia, prascepta S. Petri canonic^ sequi.— De
Marca, 1. vi., c. 7. Schmidt, t. i., p. 424, 438, 440.
This writer justly remarks the obligation whif;h
Rome liad to St. Boniface, who anticipated the
system of Isidore. We have a letter from him to
the EngUsh clergy, with a copy of canons passed
in one of his synods, for the exaltation of the apos-
Jolic see, but tlie church of England was not then
nciined to acknowledge so great a supremacy in
Rome.— Collier's Eccles. History, p. 128.
In the eighth general council, that of Constanti-
aople ill 872, this prerogative of sending the pallium
to metropolitans was not only confirmed to the
pope, but extended to the other patriarchs, who had
Bvery disposition to become as great usurpers as
their more (brtiinate elder brother.
» De Marca, ubi supra, Schmidt, t. ii., p. 262.
According to the latter, this oath of fidelitiy was
exacted in the ninth century ; which is very prob-
able, since Gregory VH. himself did but till up the
sketch which Nicholas I. and John VIII. had de-
lineated. I have since found this conlirmcd by
Gratian, p. 305.
+ Eginhard says tliat Pepin was made king per
tuctoritatem Komani puulilicis ; an ambiguous word,
which may rise to command, or sink to advice, ac-
sorumg to the dispositi r of thn interpreter.
S
ter. These events had a natural tenden-
cy to exalt the papal supremacy, which
it is needless to indicate. But a circum
stance of a ve>ry different nature contrib-
uted to this in a still greater deyree.
About the conclusion of the eightn ceii
tury, there appeared, under the name oi
one Isidore, an unknown person, a col-
lection of ecclesiastical canons, now
commonly denominated the False False D*
Decretals.* These purported to 'reiais.
be rescripts or decrees of the early bish-
ops of Rome ; and their effect was to di-
minish the authority of metropolitans
over their suffragans, by establishing an
appellant jurisdiction of the Roman See
in all causes, and by forbidding national
councils to be holden without its consent.
Every bishop, according to the decretals
of Isidore, was amenable only to the im-
mediate tribunal of the pope ; by which
one of the most ancient rights of the pro
vincial synod w^as abrogated. Every ac-
cused person might not only appeal from
an inferior sentence, but remove an un-
finished process before the supreme pon-
tiff. And the latter, instead of directing
a revision of the proceedings by the ori-
ginal judges, might annul Ihem by his own
authority ; a strain of jurisdiction beyond
the canons of Sardica,but certainly war-
ranted by the more recent practice of
Rome. New sees were not to be erect-
ed, nor bishops translated from one seo
to another, nor their resignations accept-
ed, without the sanction of the pope.
They were still indeed to be consecrated
by the metropolitan, but in the pope's
name. It has been plausibly suspected
that these decretals were forged by some
bishop, in jealousy or resentment; and
their general reception may at least be
partly ascribed to such sentiments. The
archbishops were exceedingly powerful,
and might often abuse their superiority
over inferior prelates ; but the whole
* The era of the False Decretals has not been
precisely fixed ; they have seldom been suppo.«ed,
however, to have appeared much before 800. Hut
there is a genuine collection of canons publi.'^hed
by Adrian 1., in 785, which contain nearly the same
principles, and many of which are copied by Isi
dore, as well as Charlemagne in his capitularies
— Do Marca, 1. vii., c. 20. Giannone, 1. v., c. 6
Dupin, de AntiquA Disci[)Jina, p. 133. Fleury,
Hist. Eccles., t. ix., p. 500, seems to consider t))e iie-
cretals as older than this collection of .Adrian ; but
I have not observed tlie same opinion in any other
writer. The right of ai)peal from a sentence of the
metropolitan deposing a bishop to the Holy See is
positively recognised in the capitulaiies of Lo^ii*
the Debonair (Baluze, p. 1000), the three last
books of which, according to the collection of An-
segisus, are said to be apostolica aucioritate iO\>o-
rata, quia his cudendis maxiin^ apostolica interfuit
.legatio, p. 1132.
274
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Crap Vll
episcopal aristocracy had abundant rea.
son to lament their acquiescence in a
system of which the metropolitans were
but the earhest victims. Upon these
spurious decretals Avas built the great
"ibric of papal supremacy over the dif-
ferent national churches ; a fabric which
nas stood after its foundation crumbled
beneath it ; for no one has pretended
.0 deny, for the last two centuries, that
the imposture is too palpable for any but
the most ignorant ages to credit.*
The Gallican church made for some
time a spirited, though unavailing strug-
gle, against this rising despotism. Greg-
ory IV., having come into France to abet
.he children of Louis the Debonair in
Papal en- their rebellion, and threatened to
croacii- excommunicate the bishops who
ments on ,, , , ^
he hie- adhered to the emperor, was re-
archy. pelled with indignation by those
prelates. If he comes here to excommu-
nicate, said they, he shall depart hence
excommunicated. t In the subsequent
reign of Charles the Bald, a bold defend-
er of ecclesiastical independence was
fuund in Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims,
(he most distinguished statesman of his
age. Appeals to the pope, even by
ordinary clerks, had become common,
and the provincial councils, hitherto the
supreme spiritual tribunal as well as
legislature, were falling rapidly into de-
cay. The frame of church government,
whicn had lasted from the third or fourth
century, was nearly dissolved ; a refracto-
rybishop was sure to invoke the supreme
'ourt of appeal, and generally met there
A'ith a more favourable judicature. Hinc-
nar, a man equal in ambition, and almost
n public estimation, to any pontiff, some-
times came off successfully in his conten-
tions with Rome. J But time is fatal to
the unanimity of coalitions ; the French
* I have not seen any account of the decretals
!!u tlearand judicious as in Schmidt's History of
Germany, t. u., p. 249. Indeed, all the ecclesiasti-
cal part of that work is e.xecuted in a very superior
manner. See also De Marca, 1. iii., c. 5; 1. vii., c.20.
The latter writer, from whom I have derived much
mformation, is by no means a strenuous adversary of
ultramontane pretensions. In fact, it was his ob-
ject to please both in France and at Rome, to be-
come both an archbishop and a cardinal. He failed
nevertheless of the latter hope ; it being impossible
at that time (1650) to satisfy the papal court, with-
out sacrificing altogether the Gallican church and
«he crown.
+ De Marca, 1. iv., c. 11. Velly, &c.
t De Marca 1. iv., c. CS, &c. ; 1. vi., c. 14, 28 ; 1.
rii.,c. 21. Dupin, p. 133, &c. Hist, du Droit Ec-
clAs. Fra!!<;ois, p. 188, 224. Velly, &c. Hincmar,
however, was not consistent ; for, having obtained
the sec of Rheims in an equivocal manner, he had
applied for confirmation at Rome, and in other re-
spects impaired the Gallican rights. — Pasquier, Ke-
Uierches de la Trance, 1. iii., c. 12.
bishops were accessible to superstitious
prejudice, to corrupt influence, to n.utual
jealousy. Above all, they were con-
scious that a persuasion of the pope's
omnipotence had taken hold of the laitj\
Though they complained loudly, and in-
voked, like patriots of a dying state
names and principles of a freedom thai
was no more, they submitted almost in
every iitstance to the continual usurpa-
tions of the Holy See. One of those,
which most anncyed their aristocracy,
was the concession to monasteries of
exemption from episcopal authority.
These had been very uncommon till about
the eighth century, after which they
were studiously multiplied.* It was
naturally a favourite object with the ab-
bots ; and sovereigns, in those ages of
blind veneration for monastic establish-
ments, were pleased to see their own
foundations rendered, as it would seem,
more respectable by privileges of inde
pendence. The popes had a closer inter
est in granting exemptions, which ai
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 afterward.
The principles of ecclesiastical axi
premacy were readily applied by ^nd upon
the popes to support still more :ivii gov
insolent usurpations. Chiefs by emmesits
divine commission of the whole church,
every earthly sovereign must be
subject to their interference. The
bishops indeed had, with the common
* The earliest instance of a papal exemption is
in 455, which indeed is a respectable antiquity.
Others scarcely occur till the pontificate of Zacha
ry, in the middle of the eighth century, who granted
an exemption to Monte Casino, ita ut nullius juri
subjaceat, nisi solius Romani ponlificis. See this
discussion in Giannone, 1. v., c. 6. Precedents for
the exemption of monasteries from episcopal juris
diction occur in Marculfus's forms, compiled to-
wards the end of the seventh century, but these
were by royal authority. The kings of France
were supreme heads of their national church. —
Schmidt, t. i., p. 382. De Marca, 1. iii., c. 16.
Fleury, Institutions au Droit, t. i., p. 288. fthirato-
ri, Dissert. 70 (t. iii., p. 404, Italian), is of opiniop
that exemptions ^f monasteries from episcopal visi.
tation did not become frequent in Italy till thee^ET
enth century ; and that many charters of this kind
are forgeries. It is held also by some Enj..sh an
tiquaries, that no Anglo-Saxon monastery was ex-
empt, and that the first instance is that of Latlle Ab
bey under the Conqueror ; the charters of an earliei
date having been forged. — Hody on Convocations,
p. 20 and 170. It is remarkable that this grant it
rnade by William, and confirmed by Lanfranc—
Collier, p. 256. Exemptions became very usutl is
England afterward. — Henry, vol. \ , p .337
Jhap. VII ]
ECCLESIASTICAL POWER.
273
weapons of their order, kept their own
sovereigns in check; and it could not
seem any extraordinary stretch in their
supreme head to assert an equal preroga-
tive. Gregory IV., as I have mentioned,
became a party in the revolt against
Louis I. ; but he never carried his threats
of excommunication into effect. The
first instance where the Roman pontiffs
actually tried the force of their arms
against a sovereign, was the excommu-
nication of Lothaire, king of Lorraine, and
grandson of Louis the Debonair. This
prince had repudiated his wife upon un-
just pretexts, but with the approbation
of a national council, and had subse-
quently married his concubine. Nicho-
las L, the actual pope, despatched two le-
gates to investigate this business, and de-
cide according to the canons. They hold
a council at Metz, and confirm the divorce
and marriage. Enraged at this conduct
of his ambassadors, the pope summons
a council at Rome, annuls the sentence,
deposes the archbishops of Treves and
Cologne, and directs the king to discard
his mistress. After some shuffling on
the part of Lothaire, he is excommunica-
ted; and, in a short time, we find both
the king and his prelates, who had begun
•vith expressions of passionate contempt
vowards the pope, suing humbly for abso-
lution at the feet of Adrian IL, successor
of Nicholas, which was not granted with-
out difficulty. In all its most impudent
pretensions, the Holy See has attended
to the circumstances of the time. Lo-
thaire had powerful neighbours, the kings
of France and Germany, eager to invade
nis dominions on the first intimation from
Rome ; while the real scandalousness of
his behaviour must have intimidated his
conscience, and disgusted his subjects.
Excommunication, whatever opinions
Excommu- may be entertained as to its re-
iiications. Hgious cfficacy, Avas originally
nothing more in appearance than the ex-
ercise of a right which every society
claims, the expulsion of refractory mem-
bers from its body. No direct temporal
disadvantages attended this penalty for
several agef ; but, as it was the most se-
vere of spiritual censures, and tended to
exclude the object of it not only from a
participation in rehgious rites, but, in a
considerable degree, from the intercourse
of Christian society, it was used spa-
ringly, and upon the gravest occasions.
Gradually, as the church became more
powerful and more imperious, excommu-
nications were issued upon every provo-
cation, rather as i weapon of ecclesias-
tical warfare than with any regard to its
S 2
original intention. There was certainlY
some pretext for many of these censures,
as the only means of defence within the
reach of the clergy, when their posses
sions were lawlessly violated.* Others
were founded upon the necessity of enfor
cing their contentious jurisdiction, which
while it was rapidly extending itself over
almost all persons and causes, had no*
acquired any proper coercive process.
The spiritual courts in England, whose
jurisdiction is so multifarious, and, in
general, so little of a religious nature,
had till lately no means even of compel-
ling an appearance, much less of enfor-
cing a sentence, but by excommunica
tion.f Princes, who felt the inadequacy
of their own laws to secure obedience
called in the assistance of more formida
ble sanctions. Several capitularies of
Charlemagne denounce the penalty of
excommunication against incendiaries, or
deserters from the army. Charles the
Bald procured similar censures against
his revolted vassals. Thus the boundary
between temporal and spiritual offences
grew every day less distinct ; and the
clergy were encouraged to fresh en-
croachments, as they discovered the se-
cret of rendering them successful. J
The civil magistrate ought undoubted-
ly to protect the just rights and lav/ful
jurisdiction of the church. It is not so
evident that he should attach temporal
penalties to her censures. Excommu-
nication 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. Supier-
stition and tyranny, however, decided
otherwise. The support 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 ex-
communicated person is incapable of be-
ing a witness, or of bringing an action ,
and he may be detained in prison until
he obtains absolution. By the establish-
ments of St. Louis, his estate or person
might be attached by the magistrate.^
* Schmidt, t. iv., p. 217. Fleury, Institutions au
Droit, t. li., p. 192.
t By a recent statute, 5.3 G. III., c. 127, the wri:
De excommunicato cajiiendo, as a process in con-
tempt, was abolished in Englaixl, but retained is
Ireland.
X Mem. • e I'Acad. des Inscript , t. xxxix.,p. 59C
&.C.
() Ordonnances des Rois, t. i , p. 121. Rut ai
excommunicated person might sue in the lay
though not in the spiritual, court. No law seem
t7b
EUROPi: DURING THE .IWDLb. AGES.
[CiiAK \r
These actual penalties were attended by
marks of abhorrence and ignominy still
more calculated to make an impression
on ordinarj' minds. They were to be
shunned, like men infected with leprosy,
by their servants, their friends, and their
families. Two attendants only, if we
may trust a current history, remained
with Robert, king of France, who, on ac-
count 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 in-
tercourse with a proscribed person incur-
red what was called the lesser excom-
numication, or privation of the sacra-
ments, and required penitence and abso-
lution. In some places, a bier was set
before the door of an excommunicated
individual, and stones thrown at his win-
dows ; a singular method of compelling
his submission.! Everywhere the ex-
communicated were debarred of a regular
sepulture, which, though obviously a mat-
ter of police, has, through the supersti-
tion of consecrating burial-grounds, been
treated as belonging to ecclesiastical con-
trol. Their carcasses were supposed to
be incapable of corruption, which seems
to have been thought a privilege unfit for
those who iiad died in so irregular a man-
ner.J
Bu as excommunication, which at-
_^ lacked only one and perhaps a
hardened sinner, was not always
effif acious, the church had recourse to
a more comprehensive punishment. For
the offence of a nobleman, she put a
county, for that of a prince, his entire
kingdom, under an interdict, or suspen-
sion of religious offices. No stretch of
her tyranny was perhaps so outrageous
as this. During an interdict, the church-
es 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
offence ; and tlie offence was often but a
private dispute, in which the pride of a
pope or bishop had been wounded. In-
terdicts were so rare before the time of
to have been so severe in this respect 3s that of
England ; though it is not strictly accurate to say
with Dr. Cosens (Gibson's Codex, p. 1102), that
the writ De excommun. capiendo is a privilege pe-
culiar to the English church.
* V'elly, t. ii.
t Vaissette, Hist, de Languedoc, t. iii. Appendix,
p. 350. Du Cange, v. Excommunicatio,
J Du Cange, v. Imblocatus : where several au-
thors are referred to, for the constant opinion
among the members of the Greek church, that the
bodies of eicommunicated persons remain in sta-
tu quo.
Gregory VII., that some have leferred
them to him as their author; instances
may however be found of an earher date,
and especially that which accompanied
the abovementioned excommunication oi
Robert, king of France They were af
terward issued not unfrequently againsl
kingdoms ; but in particular districts they
continually occurred.*
This was the mainspring of the ma-
chinery that the clergy set in motion, the
lever by which they moved the world.
From the moment that these interdicts
and excommunications had been tried,
the powers of the earth might be said to
have existed only by sufferance. Nor
was the validity of such denuuciations
supposed to depend upon their justice.
The imposer indeed of an unjust excom-
munication was guilty of a sin ; but the
party subjected to it had no remedy but
submission. He who disregards such a
sentence, says Beaumanoir, renders his
good cause bad.f And indeed, without
annexing so much importance to the di-
rect consequences of an ungrounded cen
sure, it is evident that the received the-
ory of religion concerning the indispen-
sable 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 privation. One is rather sur-
prised 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 introduced, upon a
large scale, during the darkest ages of
superstition. In the eighth or ninth cen
tunes they would probably have met with
a more implicit obedience. But after
Gregory VII., as the spirit of ecclesi-
astical usurpation became more violent,
there grew up by slow degrees an op-
posite feeling in the laity, which ripened
into an alienation of sentiment from the
church, and a conviction of that sacred
truth, which superstition and sophistry
have endeavoured to eradicate from the
heart of man, that no tyrannical govern-
ment can be founded on a divine commis.
sion.
Excommunications had very ;e!dom, if
ever, been levelled at the head r.„.h«,
ot a sovereign before the m- usurpatiw
stance of Lothaire. His igno- "'''"e
millions submission, and the gen- ^°^*^'
* Gianncne, 1. vii , c. 1. Schmidt, t. iv., p. 220
Dupin, De antiqua Eccl. Disciplina, p. 288, St
Marc, t. it., p. 535. Fjeuiy, Institutions, t. ii.
200. t P. 201.
HiV. VII.J
ECCLESIASTICAL POWLH
27J
oral feebleness of the Carlovingian line,
produced a repetition of the menace at
'east, and in cases more evidently be-
yond the cognizance of a spiritual au-
thority. Upon the death of this Lothaire,
his uncle, Charles the Bald, havmg pos-
sessed himself of Lorraine, to which the
Emperor Louis IL had juster pretensions,
the pope, Adrian II., warned him to desist,
declaring that any attempt upon that
country wcTuld bring down the penalty of
excommunication. Sustained by the in-
trepidity of Hincmar, the king did not ex-
hibit his usual pusillanimity, and the pope
in this instance failed of success.* But
John VIII., the next occupier of the
chair of St. Peter, carried his pretensions
to a height which none of his predeces-
sors had reached. The Carlovingian
princes had formed an alliance against
Boson, the usurper of the kingdom of
Aries. The pope writes to Charles the
Fat : I have adopted the illustrious prince
Boson as my son ; be content therefore
with your own kingdom ; for I shall in-
Btantly excommunicate all Avho attempt
to injure my son.f In another letter to
the same king, who had taken some prop-
erty from a convent, he enjoins him to
restore it within sixty days, and to cer-
tify by an envoy that he had obeyed the
command; else an excommunication
would immediately ensue, to be fol-
lowed by stiil severer castigation, if the
king should not repent upon the first
punishment.! Thesje expressions seem
to intimate a sentence of deposition from
his throne, and thus anticipate by two
hundred years the famous era of Grego-
ry VII., at which we shall soon arrive.
In some respects, John VIII. even ad-
vanced pretensions beyond those of Greg-
ory. He asserts very plainly a right of
choosing the emperor, and may seem
indirectly to have exercised it in the
election of Charles the Bald, who had
not primogeniture in his favour.^ This
prince, whose restless ambition was uni-
ted with meanness as well as insincerity,
consented to sign a capitulation, on his
coronation at Rome, in favour of the
pope and church, a precedent which was
improved upon in subsequent ages.||
Rome was now prepared to rivet her fet-
ters upon sovereigns, and at no period
have the condition of society and the
fircunistancea of civil government been
* De Marca, 1. iv., c. U.
t Schmidt, t. ii., p. 260.
t Dunorihus deinceps scions teverberibus erudi-
tfnQ'itn. — Schmidt, p. 261.
(J Baluz. Capitularia, t ii., p. 25L Schmid . *.
a,p 107.
ma , p 190
so favourable for her ambition. But the
consummation was still sus- „,
J J J 1. Their de-
pended, and even her progress generacy m
arrested, for more than a hun- 'he tenth
dred and fifty years. This '-■"""'^•
dreary interval is filled up, in the annal;-
of the papacy, by a series of revolution?
and crimes. Six popes were deposed.
two murdered, and one mutilated. Fre-
quently two or even three competitors,
among whom it is not always possible by
any genuine criticism to distinguish the
true shepherd, drove each other alter-
nately 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 vi!*-
profit from the sale of episcopal confirm-
ations, or of exemptions to monaster
ies.* .
The corruption of the head extended
naturally to all other members corruption
of the church. All writers con- "'"'"orais.
cur in stigmatizing the dissoluteness and
neglect of decency that prevailed among
the clergy. Though several codes of
ecclesiastical disciphne had been compi-
led by particular prelates, yet neither
these nor the ancient canons were much
regarded. The bishops, indeed, who were
to enforce them, had most occasion to
dread their severity. They were obtru-
ded upon their sees, as the supreme pon-
tiffs were upon that of Rome, by force or
corruption. A child of five years old
was made archbisliop of Rheims. The
see of Narbonne was purchased for an-
other at the age of ten.f By this relax-
ation of morals the priesthood began to
lose its hold upon the prejudices of man-
kind. 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 ; wht.
have obviously so bad a lot in this life,
that men are induced to conclude that
they must have secured a better rever
sion in futurity. The regular clergy, ac-
cordingly, or monastic orders, who prac-
* Schmidt, t. ii., p. 414. Mosheim. St. .Marc
Mur.itori, Ann. d'ltalia, passim.
t Vaisselte, Hist, de Languedoc, t. ii., p. 252. It
was almost general in the church to have bishopi
under twenty years ol<l. — Idem, p. 149, Kven the
Pope Benedict IX. is said to have oecn onli
tweli 5, but this has been doubted.
278
EUROPE PURLMi Till MIDDLE AGEb
LChap \ Ii
Used, at leas apparently, the specious
impostures of self-mortification, retained
at all times a far greater portion of re-
spect than ordinary priests, though de-
generated themselves, as was admitted,
from their primitive strictness.
T\vo crimes, or at least violations of
Neglect of ecclesiastical law, had become
rules of almost universal in the eleventh
celibacy, century, and excited general in-
dignation; the marriage or concubinage
of priests, and the sale of benefices. By
an effect of those prejudices in favour of.
austerity to which I have just alluded,
celibacy had been, from very early times,
enjoined as an obhgation upon the cler-
gy. Some of the fathers permitted those
already married for the first time, and to
a virgin, to retain their wives after ordi-
nation, as a kind of indulgence, of which
it was more laudable not to take advan-
tage ; and this, after prevailing for a
length of time in the Greek church, was
sanctioned by the council of TruUo in
691,* and had ever since continued one
of the distinguishing features of its dis-
cipline. The Latin church, however, did
not receive these canons ; and has uni-
formly persevered in excluding the three
orders of priests, deacons, and subdea-
cons, not only from contracting matri-
mony, but from cohabiting with wives
espoused before their ordination. The
prohibition, however, during some ages,
existed only in the letter of her canons. f
In every country, the secular or parochial
clergy kept women in their houses, upon
more or less acknowledged terms of in-
tercourse, by a connivance of their eccle-
siastical superiors, which almost amount-
ed to a positive toleration. The sons of
priests were capable of inheriting by the
law of France and also of Castile.| Some
* This council was held at Constantinople in
the dome of the palace, called Trullus, by the Lat-
ins. The word Trullo, though solcecistical, is
used, I believe, by ecclesiastical writers in Eng-
lish.— St. Marc, t. i., p. 294. Art de verifier les
Dates, t. i., p. 157. Fleury, Hist. Eccles., t. ix., p.
110. Bishops are not within this permission, and
cannot retain their wives by the discipline of the
Greek church.
t This prohibition is sometimes repeated in
Charlemagne's capitularies; but I have not ob-
served that he notices its violation as a notorious
abuse. It is probable, therefore, that the open con-
cubinage or marriage of the clergy was not general
until a later period. And Fleury declares, that he
has found no instance of it before 893, in the case
of a parish priest at Chalons, who gave great scan-
dal by publicly marrying. — Hist. Eccles., t. xi., p.
594.
t Recueil dcs Historiens, t. xi., preface. Mari-
na, Ensayo so^re las siete partidas, c. 221, 223.
This was by virtue of the general indulgence
Buo-jrn by the customs of that country to concubi-
Ltge, or barragania ; the chi.lren of such a union
vigorous efforts had been made in England
by Dunstan, with the assistance of King
Edgar, to dispossess the married canons,
if not the parochial clergy, of their bene-
fices; but the abuse, if such it is to be
considered, made incessant progress, tiL
the middle of the eleventh century
There was certainly much reason for the
rulers of the church to restore this part
of their discipline, since it is by cutting
off her members from the charities of
domestic life that she secures their en
tire affectioir to her cause, and renders
them, like veteran soldiers, independent
of every feeling but that of fidehty to
their commander, and regard to the in-
terests of their body. Leo IX., accord-
ingly, one of the first pontiffs who retriev
ed the honour of the apostolic chair, aftei
its long period of ignominy, began in
good earnest the difficult work of enfor-
cing celibacy among the clergy.* His
successors never lost sight of this essen-
tial point of discipline. It w^as a struggle
against the natural rights and strongest
aflections of mankind, which lasted foi
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 dear
est connexions. In many parts of Ger-
many, no ministers were left to perform
divine services. f But perhaps there was
no country where the rules of celibacy
met with so little attention as in England.
It was acknowledged, in the reign of Hen-
ry I., that ihe greater and better part of
the clergy wore married ; and that prince
is said to have permitted them to retain
their wives. | But the hierarchy never
always inheriting in default of those born in sol
emn wedlock. — Ibid.
* St. Marc, t. iii., p. 152, 164, 219, 602, &c.
t Schmidt, t. iii., p. 279. Martenne, Thesaurus
Anecdotonim, t. i., p. 230. A Danish writer draws
a still darker picture of the tyranny exercised to-
wards the married clergy, which, if he does not ex-
aggerate, was severe indeed : alii membris trunca-
bantur, alii occidebantur, alii de patria expelleban-
tur, pauci sua retinuere. — Langebek, Script. Re-
rum Danicarum, t, i., p. 380. The prohibition was
repeated by Waldemar II. in 1222, so that there
seems to have been much difficulty found. — Idem,
p. 287 and p. 272.
t Wilkins, Concilia, p. 387. Chronicon Saxon
Collier, p. 248, 286, 294. Lyttleton, vol. iii., p
328. The third Lateran council, fifty years af^er
ward, speaks of the detestable custom of keeping
concubines, long used by the English clergy. Can
in Anglia prava et dctestabili consuetudine et lango
tempore fuerit obtentum, ut clerici in domibus «ui(
fornicarias habeant. — Labbe, Concilia, t. » , p.
1633. Eugenius IV. sent a legate tc impose .'cli
bacy on the Irish clergy.— Lyttleton's Herjv II..
vol. ii., p. 42.
CHAt. Vjl.]
ECCLESIASTICAL POWER.
273
relaxed in their efforts; and all the coun-
cils, general or provincial, of the twelfth
century, uUcr denunciations against con-
Hubinary pnests.* 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.
Siraony, or the corrupt purchase of
g. spiritual benefices, was the second
■ ■ characteristic reproach of the cler-
gy' in the eleventh century. The meas-
uies taken to repress it deserve particu-
lar consideration, as they produced effects
of the highest importance in the history
Episcopal of the middle ages. According
elections, ^q ^■^q primitive custom of the
church, an episcopal vacancy was filled
up by election of the clergy and people
belonging to the city or diocess. The
subject of their choice was, after the
establishment of the federate or provin-
cial system, to be approved or rejected
by the metropolitan and his suffragans ;
and, if approved, he was consecrated by
them.f It is probable that, in almost
every case, the clergy took a leading
part in the selection of their bishops ;
but the consent of the laity was abso-
lutely necessary to render it valid. |
They were, however, by degrees ex-
cluded 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 pre-
served their elective rights at Milan in
•he eleventh century ; and traces of their
concurrence maybe found both in France
md Germany in the next age.^
♦ Quidam sacerdotes Latini, says Innocent III.,
n domibus suis habent concubinas, et iionnuUi ali-
•juas sibi non rnetuunt desponsare. — Opera Inno-
cent III., p. 538. See also p. 300 and 407. The
latter cannot be supposed a very common case,
after so many prohibitions; the more usual prac-
tice was to keep a female in their houses, under
some pretence of relationship or servitude, as is
still said to be usual in Catholic countries. — Du
Cange, v. Focaria. A writer of respectable au-
thority asserts, that the clergy frequently obtained
a bishop's license to cohabit with a mate. — Har-
mer's [Wharton's] Observations on Burnet, p. 11.
I find a passage in Nicholas de Clemangis, about
IJOO, quoted in L'lwis's life of Fecock, p. 30. Fle-
risque in diocesihiis, rectores parochiarum ex certo
«t conducto cum his praelatis prelio, passim et pub-
,ici concubinas tenent. This, however, does not
linount to a direct license.
The marriages of English clergy are noticed and
londemned in some provincial constitutions of
1237. — Matt. Paris, p. 381. And there is, even so
late as 1404, a mandate by the Bishop of E.xeter
-gaiast mariied priests. — Wilkins, Concilia, t. lii.,
p. 277.
•f Marca, De Concordantia, &c., 1. vi., c. 2.
\ Father Paul on Benefices, c ' .
^ I)e Marca, ubi supra. Schmidt, t. iv • p. 173.
[ It does not appear that tl.e eaily Ohns
tian emperors interposed with the free-
dom of choice any farther than to make
their own confirmation necessary in the
great patriarchal sees, such as Rome and
Constantinople, which were frequently
the objects of violent competition, and tc
decide in controverted elections.* The
Gothic and Lombard kings of Italy fol-
lowed the same line of conduct. f JJut in
the French monarchy a more extensive
authority was assumed by the sovereign.
Though the practice was subject to some
variation, it may be said generally that
the Merovingian kings, the line of Char-
lemagne, and the German emperors of
the house of Saxony, conferred bishoprics
either by direct nomination, or, as was
more regular, by recommendatory letters
to the electors. J In England also, before
the conquest, bishops were appointed in
the wittenagemot ; and even in the reign
of William, it is said that Lanfranc was
raised to the see of Canterbury by con-
sent of parliament.*^ But, independent!;,"
of this prerogative, which length of tim
and the tacit sanction of the people have
rendered unquestionably legitimate, the
sovereign had other means of controlling
the election of a bishop. Those estates
and honours which compose the tempo-
ralities of the see, and without which the
naked spiritual privileges would not have
tempted an a-aricious generation, had
The form of elec.ion of a bishop of Puy, in 1053,
runs thus: clerus, populus, el militia elegimiis. —
Vaissette, Hist, de Languedoc, t. ii. Appendix, p.
220. Even Gratian seems to admit m one place
that the laity had a scrrt of sliare, though no deci
sive voice, in filling up an episcopal vacancy.
Electio clericoruin est, petitio plebis. — Denret., 1. i.,
(iistinctio C2. And other subsequent passages con
firm this.
* Gibbon, c. 20. St. Marc, Abrege Chronolo
gique. t. i., p. 7.
t Fra Paolo on Benefices, c. i.x. Giannone, 1.
iii., c. 6; I. iv., c. 12. St. Marc, t. i., p. 37.
X Schmidt, t. i., p. 38G; t. ii., p. 245, 487. This
interference of the kings was perhaps not quite
conformable to their own laws, which only reserved
to them the confirmation. Episcopo decedente,
says a constitution of Clotaire II. in 615, in loco
ipsius, qui a metropolitanoordinari debet, a provin-
cialibus, a clero et populo eligatur : et si persona
condigna fucrit, per ordinationem principis oidine
tur.— Bakiz. Capitul, t. i., p. 21. Charlemagne is
said to have adhered to this limitation, leaving
elections free, and only approving the person, ana
conferring investiture on him. — F. Paul, on Bene-
fices, c. XV. But a more direct intlueiice was re-
stored afterward. Ivon, bishop of Chartres, about
the year 1100. thus concisely expresses the several
parties concurring in the creation of a bishop: eli
gente clero, sutl'ragante jiopulo, dorw regis, pel
manum metropolitani, approbante Romano ponti-
fice. — Du Chesne, Script. RerumGallicarum, t.iv.,
p. 174.
^ Lyttleton's Hist, of Henry II., vol. iv. p 144
45SO
EUUuFE DURING THE MIDDLE AUE3.
[Ch.u. Vll
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 ; in-
tnvestitures. ^ (.gtiture by the lord, and an
oath of fealty by the tenant. Charle-
magne is said to have introduced tliis
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
afterward without exciting any scandal
or resistance.*
The church has undoubtedly surren-
dered part of her independence in return
for ample endowments and temporal
power; nor could any claim be more rea-
sonable than that of feudal superiors to
grant the investiture of dependant fiefs.
But the fairest right may be sullied by
abuse ; and the sovereigns, the lay-pa-
trons, the prelates of the tenth and elev-
enth centuries, made their powers of
nomination and investiture subservient
to .the grossest rapacity. j According to
the ancient canons, a benifice was avoid-
ed by any simoniacal payment or stipu-
lation. If these were to be enforced, the
church must almost be cleared of its min-
isters. Either through bribery in places
n'here elections still jirevailed, or through
corrupt agreements with princes, or, at
least, customary presents to their wives
and ministers, a large proportion of the
bishops had no valid tenure in their sees.
The case was perhaps v/orse with inferior
clerks ; in the church of Milan, which was
notorious for this corruption, not a single
ecclesiastic could stand the test, the arch-
bishop exacting a price for the collation
of every benefice. J
The bishops of Rome, like those of in-
. ferior sees, were regularly elected
confirm- by the citizens, laymen as well as
aiion of ecclcsiastics. But their conse-
f'opes. cration was deferred until the
popular choice had received the sov-
ereign's sanction. The Romans regu-
larly despatched letters to Constanti-
nople or to the exarchs of Ravenna,
» De Marca, p. 416. Giannone, 1. vi., c. 7.
Boniface, marquis of Tuscany, father of the
Lountess Matilda, and by far the greatest prince in
Italy, was flogged before the altar by an abbot for
selling benefices. — Muratori, ad ar.n. 1046. The
offence was much more comnn.or than the punish-
ment, but the two combined furnish a good speci-
men of the eleventh century.
t St. Marc, t. lii., p. 65, 188, 219, 296,230, 568.
Muratori, A. D. 958, 1057, &c. Fleury. Hist. Ec-
il6s., t. xiii., p. 73. The sum, .lowever, appears to
nave been very small rather like a fes than a
praying that their election of a pcp«
might be confirmed. Exceptions, if any.
are infrequent while Rome wa,s subject
to the eastern empire.* This, among
other imperial prerogatives, Charlemagne
might consider as his own. He posses-
sed the city, especially after his corona
tion as emperor, in full sovereignty ; and,
even before that event, had investigated,
as supreme chief, some accusations pre-
ferred against the Pope Leo III. No va-
cancy of the papacy took place after
Charlemagne became emperor; and it
must be confessed, that, in the first v.hich
happened under Louis the Debonair, Ste-
phen IV. was consecrated in haste without
that prince's approbation.! But Gregory
IV., his successor, waited till his elec-
tion had been confirmed ; and, upon
the whole, the Carlovingian emperors,
though less uniformly than their pred-
ecessors, retained that mark of sov-
ereignty.! But during the disorderly
state of Italy which fohowed 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 capnal
Otho the Great, in receiving the imperial
crown, took upon him the prerogatives
of Charlemagne. There is even extant a
decree of Leo VIII., 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 em
perors went to such a length as nomina
tion, except in one instance (that of
Gregory V. in 996) ; but they sometimes,
not uniformly, confirmed the election of
a pope, according to ancient custom.
An explicit right of nomination was how-
ever conceded to the Emperor Henry I If
in 1047, as the only means of rescuing
the Roman church from the disgrace and
depravity into which it had fallen. Henry
* Le Blanc, Dissertation sur rAutorite des Em
pereurs. This is subjoined to his Traite des
Monnoyes; ml not in all copies, which makes
those that want it less valuable. — St. Marc anrf
Muratori, passim.
t Muratori, A. D. 817. St. Marc.
J Le Blanc. Schmidt, t. li., p. 186. St. Marc, t
i., p. 387, 393. &c.
() St. Maro had defended the authenticity of Iht
instrument in a separate dissertation, t. iv., p. 116'
though admitting some interpolations. Fagi i<
Baronium, t. iv., p. 8, seemed to me to have urge
some weighty objections ; and Muratori, Annai
d'italia, A. D. 962, speaks of it as a gross impns
ture, in which he probably goes too far. It obtain
ed credil rather early, and is admitted int.i the de
cretum of Gratian, notwithstanding its obvjout
tRMrlPiicy. D SU. edit. 1591.
t,HAr t (1.1
ECCLESIAS riCAL PCWER.
28
appointed two or tliree very good popes ;
acting in this against the warnings of a
selfish poUcy, as fatal experience soon
proved to his family.*
Th's high prerogative was perhaps not
designed to extend beyond Henry him-
self. But, even if it had been transmis-
sible to his successors, the infancy of his
?on Henry IV., and the factions of that
minority, precluded the possibility of its
Ueerecof t-xcrcisc. Nicolas H., in 1039,
.Nicolas published a decree, which resto-
"■ red the right of election to the
Romans, but with a remarkable varia-
tion from the original form. The car-
dinal bishops (seven in number, holding
sees in the neighbourhood of Rome, and
consequently suflragans of the pope as
patriarch or metropolitan) were to choose
the supreme pontiff, with the concur-
rence first of the cardinal priests and
deacons (or ministers of the parish
churches of Rome), and afterward 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 suc-
cessors as should personally obtain that
privilege.! This decree is the founda-
tion of that celebrated mode of election
in a conclave of cardinals, which has ever
Buice determined the headship of the
churcli. It was intended not only lo ex-
clude the citizens, who had indeed justly
forfeited their primitive right, but as far
as possible to prepare the way for an ab-
solute emancipation of the papacy from
the imperial control ; reserving only a
precarious and personal concession to
the emperors, instead of their ancient
legal prerogative of confirmation.
The real author of this decree, and
(Jregory of all Other vigorous measures
VII. 1073. adopted by the popes of that
a|e, whether for the assertion of their
independence, or the restoration of dis-
cipline, was Hildebrand, archdeacon of
the church of Rome, by far the most
conspicuous person of the eleventh cen-
tury. Acquiring by his extraordinary
qualities an unbounded ascendency over
the Italian clergy, they regarded him as
their chosen leader, and the hope of their
common cause. He had been empower-
ed singly to nominate a pope', on the part
of the Romans, J after the death of Leo
IX , and compelled Henry III. to acqui-
■ St. Marc. Miratori. Schmidt. Struvius.
•f St. Marc, t. ii... p. 276. The first canon of the
thiid Lateran council makes the consent of two
thirds of the college necessary for a pope's elec-
tion.— Labb6, Concilia, t. x p 1508.
i St. Marc, n 9"
esce in his choice of iictor 1. No
man could proceed more fearless y to-
wards his object than Hildebrand, nor
with less attention to conscientious ira-
pediments. Though the decree of Nic-
olas H., his own work, had expressly
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
II. without wailing for any authority.*
During this pontificate he was considered
as something greater than the pope, who
acted entirely by his counsels. On Alex-
ander's decease, Hildebrand, long since
the real head of the church, was raised
with enthusiasm to its chief dignity, and
assumed the name of Gregory VII.
Notwithstanding the late precedent at
the election of Alexander II., it njg jifl-er-
appears that Gregory did not yet ences with
consider his plans sufficiently J^'^"'')' 'v.
mature to throw off the yoke altogether,
but declined to receive consecration un-
til he had obtained the consent of the
King of Germany.! This moderation
was not of long continuance. The situa-
tion of Germany speedily afforded him
an opportunity of displaying his ambitious
views. Henry IV., 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 avvure
than the king.J: He began by excommu-
nicating some of Henry's ministers or.
pretence of simony, and made it a ground
of remonstrance that they were not in-
stantly dismissed. 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 favourite ob-
ject 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 ; but even if a
less offensive symbol were ai^">ptcd in
investitures, the dignity of the church
was lowered, and her purity contamina-
ted, when her highest ministers were
compelled to solicit the patronage oi
the approbation of laymen. Though the
* St. Marc, p. 306.
+ Ibid., p. 552. He acted however as pope, ror
responding in that character with bishops of al
countries, from the day of his election, p. 554.
t Schmidt. St. Marc. These two are my prm
cip^l authorities for tie contest between thechurct
and the empire.
() St. .\farc. t. iii.. :.fi70.
262
El ROPE DURING THE MIDDLE Ai.ES.
[CHaP. v-#
estates of bishops might strictly be of
temporal riglit, yet, as they had been in-
separably annexed to their spiritual of-
fice, it became just that what was first in
dignity and importance should carry with
Lt those accessory parts. And this was
more necessary than in former times, on
account of the notorious traffic which
sovereigns made of their usurped nomi-
nation to benefices, so that scarcely any
prelate sat by their favour whose pos-
session was not invalidated by simony.
The contest about investitures, though
begun by Gregory VII., did not occupy a
very prominent place during his pontifi-
cate ; its interest being suspended by
other more (extraordinary and important
dissensions between the church and em-
pire. The pope, after tampering some
lime with the disaffected party in Ger-
many, 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 shcu'd no longer be obeyed as
lawful pope. But the time was past for
;hose arbitrary eiicroacninents, or at least
:iigh prerogatives of former emperors.
The relations of dependence between
church and state were now about to be
reversed. Gregory had no sooner re-
ceived accounts of the proceedings at
Worms, than he summoned a council in
'.he Lateran palace, and, by a solemn sen-
tence, not only excommunicated Henry,
but deprived him of the kingdoms of Ger-
many and Italy, releasing his subjects
from their allegiance, and forbidding them
to obey him as sovereign. Thus Grego-
ry VII. obtained the glory of leaving all
his predecessors behind, and astonishing
mankind by an act of audacity and ambi-
tion which the most emulous of his suc-
cessors could hardly surpass.*
* The sentence of Gregory Vlf. against the Em-
peror Henry was directed, we should always re-
tne:T)ber, to persons already well du-posed to reject
nis authority. Men are glad to be told that it is
theu duty to resist a sovereign agaii»>>t whom they
are m rebellion, and will not be veiy scrupulous in
examining conclusions which fall in with their in-
clinations and Interests. Allegiance- was in those
turbulent ages easily thrown off, an-* the right of
resistance was in continual exercise. To the Ger-
aians of the eleventh century, a pnnce unfit for
Christian communion would easily appear unfit to
'eign oPer them ; and though Henry had not given
much "-eal provocation to the pope, his vices and
tyraix f might seem to challenge any spiritual cen-
sure, or temporal chastisement. A nearly contem-
porary writer combines the two justifications of
the rebellious party. Nemo Romanorum [ontifi-
The first impulses of Henry's mind oc
hearing this denunciation were indigna-
tion and resentment. But, like other in-
experienced and misguided sovereigns,
he had formed an erroneous calculation
of his own resources. A conspiracy long
prepared, of which the dukes of Swabia
and Carinthia were the chiefs, began to
manifest itself; some were alienated by
his vices, and others jealous of his fami-
ly ; the rebellious Saxons took courage ;
the bishops, intimidated by excommuni-
cations, withdrew from his side ; and he
suddenly found himself almost insulated
in the midst of his dominions. In this
desertion he had recourse, through panic
to a miserable expedient. He crossed
the Alps with the avowed determination
of submitting, and seeking absolution from
the pope. Gregory was at Canossa, -a
fortress near Reggio, belonging to his
faithful adherent, the Countess Matilda.
[A. D. 1077.] It was in a winter of un-
usual severity. The emperor was ad-
mitted, without his guards, into an outer
court of the castle, ai:d three successive
days remained from morning till evening,
in a woollen shirt and with naked feet
while Gregory, shut up with the countess
refused to admit him to his presence
On the fourth day he obtained absolution ;
but only upon condition of appearing on
a certain day to learn the pope's decis-
ion, whether or no he should be restored
to his kingdom, until which time he
promised not to assume the ensigns of
royalty.
This base humiliation, instead of con-
ciliating Henry's adversaries, forfeited the
attachment of his friends. In his contest
with the pope, he had found a zealous
support in the principal Lombard cities,
among whom the married and simoniacal
clergy had great influence.* Indignant
cem reges a regno deponere posse denegabit, qui-
cunque decreta sanciissimi Papas Gregorii non
proscribenda judicabit. Ipse enim vir apostol'cus
.... Prceterea, liberi homines Henricum eo pacto
sibi praeposuerunt in regem, ut electores suos justd
judicare et regali providentia gubernare satageret,
quod pactum ille postea prasvaricari et contem-
nere non cessavit, &c. Ergo, et ab.?que sedis
apostolicaj judicio principes eum pro rege merito
refutare possent, cum pactum adiniplere contem-
serit, quod iis pro eleclione su& promiserac ; quo
non adimpleto; nee rex esse poterat. — Vita Greg
VII. in Muratori, Script. Rer. Ital., t. iii., p. 312.
Upon the other hand, the friends and supporters
of Henry, though ecclesiastics, protested against
this novel stretch of prerogative in the Roman see
Several pioofs of this are adduced by Schnvtdt, t.
iii., p. 315.
* There had been a kind of civil war at Milan
for about twenty years before this time, excited bj
the intemperate zeal of some partisan.? who ^n
deavourod to execute the paoal decrees aearst v
HAP. VII.J
ECCLESIASTICAL VVWER.
2Hi
It his submission lo Gregory, whom they
affected to consider as a usurper of the
papal chair, they now closed their gates
against the emperor, and spoke openly
of deposing him. In this singular posi-
tion between opposite dangers, Henry
retrod his late steps, and broke off his
treaty with the pope; preferring, if he
must lall, to fall as the defender rather
than the betrayer of his imperial rights.
The rebellious princes of Germany chose
another king, Rodolph, duke of Swabia,
m whom Gregory, after some delay, be-
stowed the crown, with a Latin verse,
unporling that it was given by virtue of
the orighaal 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 vigour, or rather so
little resistance, in Italy, that he was
crowned in Rome by the antipope Gui-
bcrt, whom he had raised in a council of
his partisans to the government of the
church instead of Gregory. The latter
found an asyium under the protection of
Roger Guiseard at Salerno, Avhere he
p- IP died an exile. His mantle, how-
abouiin- ever, descended upon his suc-
Yesiitures. cessors, especially Urban II. and
Paschal II., who strenuously persevered
in the great contest for ecclesiastical in-
dependence ; the former with a spirit and
policy worthy of Gregory VH., the latter
with steady but disinterested prejudice.!
res^ular clerks by force. The history of these feuds
has been written by two contemporaries, Ariuilf
and Landulf, pubhshed in the fourth volume of
Muratori's Scriptores Rerum Itahcarum ; suffi-
cient extracts from which will be found in St.
Marc, t. iii., p. 230, &,c., and in Muratori's Annals.
The Milanese clergy set up a pretence to retain
wives, under the authority of their great archbishop,
St. Ambrose, who; it seems, has spoken with more
indulgence of this practice than most of the fa-
thers. Both Arnuli and Landulf favour the mar-
rieu clerks ; and were perhaps themselves of that
description. — Muratori.
* Potra dedit Petro, Petrus diadema Rodolpho.
t Paschal II. was so conscientious in his abhor-
rence of ir.vestilures, that he actually signed an
agreement with Henry V., in 1110 whereby the
prelates were to resign all the lands and other
possessions which they held in fief of the em-
peror, on condition of the latter renouncing the
right of investiture which indeed, in such circum-
Etances, would fall of itself This extraordinary
concession, as may be imagined, was not very sat-
isfactory to the cardinals and bishops about Pas-
chal's court, more worldly-minded than himself,
nor to those of the emperor's party, whose joint
(amours soon put a stop to the treaty. — St. Marc,
t. iv., p. 976. A letter of Paschal to Anselm
Schmidt, t. iii., p. 304), seems to imply that he
bought it better for the church to be v.-ithout riches,
than to enjoy them on condition of doing homage
U> laymen.
They raised up enemies against TU'.nr>
IV. out of the bosom of his family, n?ti-
gating the ambition of two of his soni:
successively, Conrad and Henry, to min-
gle in the revolts of Germany. But
Rome, under whose auspices the lattei
had not scrupled to engage in an almost
parricidal rebellion, was soon disappoint-
ed by his unexpected tenaciousness of.
that obnoxious prerogative which had
occasioned so much of his father's mis-
ery. He steadily refused to part with
Ihe right of investiture ; and the empire
was still committed in open hostility with
the church for fifteen years of his reign.
But Henry V. being stronger in the sup-
port of his German vassals than his father
had been, none of the popes witli whom
he was engaged had the' boldness to re-
peat the measures of Gregory YII. [A
D. 1122.] At length, each party ^^^^^^^^
grown weary of this ruinous ,„ised by
contention, a treaty was agreed concorcikt
upon between the emperor and °' '** '"'"''
Calixtus II., which put an end by com
promise to the question of ecclesiastical
investitures. By this compact, the em-
peror resigned for ever all pretence to
invest bishops by the ring and crosier,
and recognised the liberty of '^lections.
But, in return, it was agreed that elec-
tions should be made in his presence or
that of his officers ; and that the now
bishop should receive his temporalities
from the emperor by the sceptre.* ^
Both parties in the concordat at Worms
receded from so much of their preten-
sions, that we might almost hesitate to
determine which is to be considered as
victorious. On the one hand, in resto-
ring tlie freedom of episcopal elections,
the emperors lost a prerogative of very
long standing, and almost 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 security against the election
of obnoxious persons. For the empe-
rors, detaining: this necessary part of the
pontificals until they should confer inves-
titure, prevented a hasty consecration of
the new bishop, after which, the vacancy
being legally filled, it would not be decent
for them to withhold the temporalities
But then, on the other hand they pre-
served by the concordat their feudal sov-
er«ignty over the estates of the church,
in defiance of the language which had
recently been held by its rulers. Greg
* St. Marc, t. iv., p. 1093. Schmidt, t. ii'. p
178. The latter quotes the Latin words
!84
EU.IOPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
[Chap. V(,
cry VII. had posil: k-ely declared, in the
Lateral! council of 1080, that a bishop or
abbot receiving investiture from a lay-
man should not be reckoned as a prelate.*
The same doctrine had been maintained
by all his successors, without any limita-
tion of their censures to the formality of
the ring and crosier. But Calixtus II.
himself liad gone much farther, and ab-
Bolu'eh^ prohibited the compelling eccle-
siastics to render any service to laymen
on account of their benefices.! It is evi-
dent, that such a general immunity from
feudal obligations for an order who pos-
sessed nearly half the lands in Europe,
struck at the root of those institutions
by which the fabric of society was prin-
cipally held together. This complete in-
dependence had been the aim of Grego-
ry's disciples ; and, by yielding to The
continuance of lay investitures in any
shape, Calixtus may, in this point of
view, appear to have relinquished the
principal object of contention. But as
there have been battles, in which though
immediate success may seem pretty
equally balanced, yet we learn from
subsequent effects to whom the intrinsic
advantages of victory belonged, so it is
manifest from the events that followed
the settlement of this great controversy
about investitures, that the see of Rome
had conquered.
The emperors were not the only sov-
ereigns whose practice of investiture ex-
cited 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 re-
markable, that it ended in a compromise
not unlike that adjusted at Worms ; the
king renouncing all sort of investitures,
while the pope consented that the bishop
should ''.0 homage for his temporalities.
This was exactly the custom of France,
where investiture by the ring and cro-
sier is said not to have prevailed ;|; and
t answered the main end of sovereigns
Dy keeping up the feudal dependance of
ecclesiastical estates. But the kings of
* St. Marc, t. iv., p. "74. A bishop of Placentia
xs^erts that prelates dishonoured their order by
putting their hands, which held the body and blood
of Christ, between tkose of impure laymen, p. 956.
The same expressioti3 are used by others, and are
levelled at the form ;f feudal homage, which, ac-
cording to the principl es of that age, ought to have
Dcen as obnoxious as investiture.
t Id., p. 1061, 1067.
t Hi.'toire du Droit public eccl6siastique Fran-
;ois, p. 261. I do not fully rely on this authority.
Castile were more fortunate fhxn th«
rest; discreetly yielding to the pride of
Rome, they obtained what was essential
to their own authority, and have always
possessed, by the concession of Urban
II., an absolute privilege of nomination
to bishoprics in their dominio:is * An
early evidence of that indifference of the
popes towards the real independence oi
national churches, to which subsequent
ages were to lend abundant confirmation.
When the emperors had surrendered
their pretensions to interfere in imrojuction
episcopal elections, the primi- of capHuiar
live mode of collecting the suf- «='^'="""'s-
frages of clergy and laity in conjunction,
or at least of the clergy with the laify"^
assent and ratification, ought naturally tt
have revived. But in the twelfth centu
ry, neither the people, nor even the gen
eral body of the diocesan clergy, were
considered as worthy to exercise tliie
function. It soon devolved altogether
upon the chapters of cathedra] churches. i
The original of these may be traced very
high. In the earliest ages, we find a
college of presbytery consisting of the
priests and deacons, assistants as a coun-
cil of advice, or even a kind of parliament
to their bishops. Parochial divisions,
and fixed ministers attached to them,
Avere not established till a later period
But the canons, or cathedral clergy, ac-
quired afterward a more distinct charac-
ter. They were subjected by degiees to
certain strict obser\'ances, little differing,
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 pecuhar
laws. But they were distinguislied from
monks by the right of possessing individ-
ual property, which was afterward ex-
tended to the enjoyment o^ separate preb-
* F. Paul on Benefices, c. 24. Zurita, Anales
de Aragon, t. iv., p. 305. Fleury says that the
kings of Spain nominate to bishoprics by virtue of
a particular indulgence, renewed by the pope for
the life of each prince. — Institutions au Droit, t. i.,
p. 106.
t Fra Paolo (Treatise on Benefices, c. 24) says,
that between 1122 and 1145, it became a rule al-
most everywhere established, that bishops should
be chosen by the chapter. Schmidt, however,
brings a few instances where the consent of the
nobility and other laics is expressed, though per-
haps little else than a matter of form. Innocent
II. seems to have been the first who declared, that
whoever had the majority of the chapter in his fa
vour should be deemed duly elected ; and this was
confirmed by Otho IV. in the capit jiation upon his
accession. — Hist, des Allemands t. iv., p. 175
Fleury thinks that chapters had not an exclusiiro
election till the end of the twelfth century. The
second Lateran council, in 1139, represses tbeir at-
tempts to engross it.— Institutions au Droit Ee-
cles., t. j., ]). UIO.
LUAP. Ml
ECCLL6IASTICAL POWLll.
•^Sl
«nds or benefices. These strict regula-
tions, chiefly imposed by Louis the De-
bonair, went into disuse through the re-
laxation of discipline ; nor were they ever
effectually restored. Meantime the chap-
ters became extremely rich ; and as they
monopolized the privilege of electing
bishops, it became an object of ambition
with noble families to obtain canonrie^
for their younger children, as the surest
road to ecclesiastical honours and opu-
lence. Contrary, therefore, to the gen-
eral policy of the church, persons of in-
ferior birth have been rigidly excluded
from these foundations.*
The object of Gregory VII., in attempt-
Geaerai con- i'^g ^o rcdrcss tliose more l!a-
diict oi' Gre- grant abuses which for two cen-
gory vn. turies had deformed the face of
tlie Latin church, is not incapable, per-
haps, of vindication, though no suflicient
apology can be offered for the means he
employed. But the disinterested love of
reformation, to which candour might as-
cribe the contention against investitures,
is belied by the general tenour of his con-
duct, exhibiting an arrogance without
parallel, and an ambition that grasped at
universal and unlimited monarchy. He
may be called the common enemy of aK
sovereigns, whose dignity as well as in-
dependence mortified his nifatuated 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 deposition. t Thus too he asserts, as
a known historical fact, that the kingdom
of Spain had formerly belonged, by spe-
cial 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.j A similar pre-
* Schmidt, t. ii., p. 221, 473 ; t. iii., p. 281. En-
cyclop6die, Art. Chanoine. F. Paul on Benefices,
c. 10. Fleury, 8"= Discours sur I'Hist. Eccles.
t St. Marc, t. iii., p. 623. Fleury, Hist. Eccles.,
t. xiii.,p. 281, 281.
t The language he employs is worth quoting, as
a specimen of his style : Noti latere vos credimus,
regnum Hispanioe ab antiquo juris sancti Petri
fuisEB, et adhuc licet diu a paganis sit occupatuin,
lege tamen justitiaa non evacuatfi, nuUi mortalium,
sed soli apostolicae sedi ex ajquo pertinere. Quod
enim auctore Deo semel in proprietates ecclesia-
rum ju§ti pervenerit, manenle Eo, ab usu quidem,
sed ab earum jure, oocasione transeuntis teinporis,
sine legitiinA concessione divelli non poterit. Ita-
que Comes Evalus de Roceio, cujus famatn apud
vos baud obocuram esse putamus, terram illam ad
honorem Sti. Petri ingredi, et a paganorum manibus
eripere cupiens, hanc concessionem ab apostolica
eede ohtinuit, ut partem illam, unde paganos suo
etudio et adjunoto sibi aliorum auxiJio e.xpellere
tension he makes to the kingdom of Hui-
gary, and bitterly reproaches its sovei-
eign Solomon, who had done homage to
the emperor, in derogatX)n of St. Peter,
his legitimate lord.* It was convenient
to treat this apostle as a great feudal si)
zerain, and the legal principles of that age
were dexterously applied to rivet more
forcibly the fetters of superstition.!
While temporal sovereigns were of -
posing so inadequate a resistance to u
system of usurpation contrary to all pre-
cedent, and to the common principles of
society, it was not to be expected that
national churches should persevere in
opposing pretensions for which several
ages had paved the way. Gregory VH
completed the destruction of their lib-
erties. The principles contained in t!ie
decretals of Isidore, hostile as they were
to ecclesiastical independence, were set
aside as insufficient to establish tlie ab-
solute monarchy of Rome. By a con-
stitution of Alexander II., during wliose
pontificate Hildebrand himself was deem-
ed the eflectual pope, no bishop in the
Catholic church was permitted to exer
cise his functions until he had reco /ed
the confirmation of the Holy See :| a pro
vision of vast importance, throi.gii wliich
beyond perhaps any other means, Romt
has sustained, and still sustains, her tern
poral influence, as well as her ecclesias
tical supremacy. The national churches
long abridged of their liberties by gradual
encroachments, now found themselves
subject to an undisguised and irresistible
despotism. Instead of affording protee
tion to bishops against their metropoli
tans, under an insidious pretence of which
the popes of the ninth century had sub-
verted the authority of the latter, it be-
came the favourite policy of tlieir succes-
sors to harass all prelates with citations to
Rome.^ Gregory obliged the metropoli-
tans to attend in person for the pallium. |
Bishops were summoned even from lOng
land and the northern kingdoms to receive
the commands of the spiritual monarch
William the Conqueror having made }
possit, sub conditione inter nos fact'E pactioiiis ei
parte Sti. Petri possideret. — Labbe, Concilia, t. x.
p. 10. Three instances occur in the Corps Diplo
matique of Dumont, wheio a duke of Dalinatia (t
i., p. 53), a count of Provence (p. 5£), and a counl
of Barcelona (ibid.), put themselves under the feu
dal superiority and protection of Gregory VLI
The motive was sufficiently obvious.
* St. Marc, t. iii., p C24, 074. Schmidt, p. 73.
t The claracter and policy of Giegory VII. a»i
well discussed by Schmidt, t. iii., p 307.
t St. Marc, p. 460.
I Schmidt, t. iii., p. 80, 328.
II Id., t. iv., p. 170
•288
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
i.CHAF n
difficulty about permitting 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
reprsssing the ebullitions of overbearing
pride,* complains of this as a persecution
unheard of among pagans. f The great
quarrel between Archbishop Anselm and
his tAvo sovereigns, William Rufus and
Henry I., was originally founded upon a
KimJar refusal to permit his departure
for Rtme.
This perpetual control exercised by
Auihoritv t^ popes over ecclesiastical, and,
oi papal' in some degree, over temporal
legates, affairs, was maintained by means
of their legates, at once the ambassa-
dors and the heutenants of the Holy See.
Previously to the latter part of the tenth
age, these had been sent not frequently
and upon special occasions. The lega-
tine or vicarial commission had generally
been intrusted to some eminent me-
tropolitan of the nation within which it
was to be exercised ; as the Archbishop
of Canterbury was perpetual legate in
England. But the special commission-
ers, or legates a latere, suspending the
pope's ordinary vicars, took upon them-
selves an unbounded authority over the
national churches, holding councils, pro-
mulgating canons, deposing bishops, and
issuing interdicts at their discretion.
They lived in splendour at the expense
of the bishops of the province. This
was the more galling to the hierarchy,
because simple deacons were often in-
vested with this dignity, which set them
above primates. As the sovereigns of
France and England acquired more cour-
age, thev considerably abridged this pre-
rogative'of the Holy See, and resisted the
entrance of any legates into their domin-
ions without their consent. J
From the time of Gregory VH., no pon-
tiff thought of awaiting the confirmation
of the emperor, as in earlier ages, before
he was installed in the throne of St. Pe-
ter. On the contrary, it was pretended
that the emperor was himself to be con-
firmed by the pope. This had indeed
been broached by John VHI. two hundred
years before Gregory.^ It was still a doc-
* St. Marc, p. 628, 781. Schmidt, t. iii., p. 82.
t Idem, t. iv.. p. 708. Collier, p. 252.
I De Marca, 1 vi., c. 28, 30, 31. Sctimidt, t. u.,
p 493 . ill., p. 312, 320. Hist, du Droit Public
Eccl. Francois, p. 250. Fleury, 4"= Discours sur
I'H-st. Eccles., c. 10.
^ Vide supra. It appears manifest, that the
Bcncme of temporal sovereignty was only suspend-
ed by the disorders of the Roman see in the tentii
enviirv. Peter Damian, a celebrated writer
trine not calculated for general reception
but the popes availed themselves of everj
opportunity which the temporizing 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., ^^^-^^ jy
who, in his turn, refused to give
him the usual kiss of peace ; nor was the
contest ended but by the emperor's ac-
quiescence, who was content to follow
the precedents of his predecessors. The
same Adrian, expostulating with Freder-
ick upon some slight grievance, remind-
ed him of the imperial crown which he
had conferred, and declared his Avilling-
ness to bestow, if possible, still greater
benefits. But the phrase employed (ma-
jora beneficia) suggested the idea of a
fief; and the general insolence which
pervaded Adrian's letter confirming this
interpretation, a ferment arose among
the German princes, in a congresu 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 pope ]" which
so irritated a prince of Wiltelsbach, that
he was with f'iflficulty prevented from
cleaving the priest's head with his sabre, j
Adrian IV. was the only Englishman that
ever sat in the papal chair. It might,
perhaps, pass for a favour bestowed on
his natural sovereign, when he granted
to Henry II. the kingdom of Ireland:
yet the language of this donation, where-
in he asserts all islands to be the exclu-
sive property of St. Peter, sl;ould not
have had a very pleasing sound to an in-
sular monarch.
I shall not wait to comment on the sup-
the age of Hildebrand, and his friend, puts these
words into the mouth of Jesus Christ, as addressed
to Pope Victor II. Ego claves totius universalis
ecclesiae mese tuis manibus tradidi, et super earn
te mihi vicarium posui, quam proprii sanguinis ef
fusione redemi. Et si pauca sunt ista, eliain mo-
narchias addidi: immo sublato rege de medio to
tius Romani imperii vacantis tibi jura permisi.—
Schmidt, t. iii., p. 73.
•« Rex venit ante fores, jurans prius urbis ho
nores:
Post homo fit paps, sutnit quo dante coronam,
Muraton, Annah, A. D. 1157.
There was a pretext for this artful line, ho-
thaire had received the estate of Matilda in fie.
from the pope, with a reversion to Henry the
Proud, his son-in-law. — Schmidt, p. 349.
uratori, ubi supra. Schmidt, t. iii., u. 393
Chap. VII.l
ECCLESIASTICAL POWER.
287
port given to Becket by Alex-
innocentlll. ^^^^^^ jjj ^^ jy 1194-1216],
which must be familiar to the EngUsh
reader, nor on his speedy canonization;
a reward which the church has always
held out to its most active friends, and
ivhich may be compared to titles of no-
bility granted by a temporal sovereign.*
But the epoch when the spirit of papal
usurpation was most strikingly displayed
was the pontificate of Innocent IIL In
each of the three leading objects which
Rome has pursued, independent sovereign-
t}% 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
pontificate, Constantinople was taken by
the Latins ; and, however he might seem
to regret a diversion of the crusaders,
w hich impeded the recovery of tli^ Hofy
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 Arme-
nia acknowledged the supremacy of In-
nocent, and permitted his interference
\\ ith their ecclesiastical institutions.
The maxims of Gregory VII. were now
iiisexiraor- matured by more than a hun-
(iinary pre- dred years, and the right ol
tensions. trampling upon the necks of
kings had been received, at least among
churchmen, as an inherent attribute of
the papacy. " As the sun and the moon
are placed in the firmament" (such is tlie
language 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 successful
ambition), he thought no quarrel of princes
beyond the sphere of his jurisdiction.
'Though I cannot judge of the right to a
* The first instance of a solemn papal canoniza-
tiDn is that of St. Udalric by John XVI., in m3.
However, the metropolitans continued to meddle
with this sort of apotheosis till the pontificate of
.\lexander III., who reserved it, as a choice prerog-
ative, to the Holy See.— Art de verifier les Dates,
t. i., p. 247 and 290.
\ Vita (nnocentii Tertii in Muraton, Scriptores
Renim Itat., t. iii., pars i., p. 488. This life is writ-
ten by a contemporary.— St. Marc, t v., p 325.
Srhiuidt. t iT.,p.227.
fief," said Innocent to the kings M Franc«
and England, " yet it is my province tc
judge where sin is committed, and my
duty to prevent all public scandals." Phil-
ip Augustus, who had at that time thf
worse in his war with Richard, acquies
ced in this sophism ; the latter was mor»
refractory, till the papal legate begap
to menace him with the rigour of lh«
church.* But the King of England, at
well as his adversary, condescended t3
obtain temporary ends by an impolitic
submission to Rome. We have a lettei
from Innocent to the King of Navarre,
directing him, on pain of spiritual censure,
to restore some castles which he detain-
ed from Richard. I A nd the latter appears
to have entertained hopes of recovering
his ransom paid to the emperor and Duke
of Austria, through the pope's interfe-
rence.I By such blind sacrifices of the
greater to the less, of the future to the
present, the sovereigns of Europe played
continually into the hands of their subtle
enemy.
Though I am not aware that any pope
before Innocent III. had thus announced
himself as the general arbiter of differen-
ces and conservator of the peace through-
out Christendom, yet the scheme had
been already formed, and the public mind
was in some degree prepared to admit it.
Gerohus, a writer who lived early in the
twelfth century, published a theory of
perpetual pacification, as feasible cer
tainly as some that have been planned in
later times. All disputes among princes
were to be referred to the pope. If either
party refused to obey the sentence ol
Rome, he was to be excommunicated
and deposed. Every Christian sovereign
was to attack the refractory delinquent,
under pain of a similar forfeiture."^
A project of this nature had not only a
magnificence flattering to tlie ambition
of the church, but was calculated to im-
pose upon benevolent minds, sickened
by the cupidity and oppression of princes.
* Philippus rex Franci;e in manu ejus data fide
promisit se ad mandatiim ipsius pacem vel treug^as
cum rege Angliaj initurum. Richardus autem les
Angliae se difficilem ostendebat. Scil cum idem
legatus ei ccpit rigorcm ecrlesiastirum intcntare, sanio
ri ductus consilio acquicvit. — Vita Innoccntii Te-
tii, t. iii., pars i., p. 503.
t Innoccntii Opera (Coloniae, 1574), p. 124.
X id., p. 134. Innocent actually wrote some let
ters for this purpose, but without any effect, noi
was he probably at all solicitous about it. — P. 13S
and 141 . Nor had he interfered to procure Ricb
ard's release from prison : though Eleanor wrot»
him a letter, in which she asks, " Has not God fiv
en you the power to govs n nations and kings '"-
Vellv, Hist, de France, t. iii., p. 382
9 iScboaidt, t iv.. o. 2^^2.
288
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
Chap. Vn.
No c» ntrol but that ol religion appeared
Bufiicient lo re'-traiu the abuses of society ;
while its salutary influence had already
be.?n displayed both in the Truce of God,
vv'hich put the first check on the custom
of private war, and more recently in the
protection aflbrded to crusaders against
all aggression duriug the continuance of
their engagement. But reasonings from
tiie excesses of liberty in favour of arbi-
trary government, or from the calamities
of national wars in favour of universal
monarchy, involve the tacit fallacy, that
perfect, or at least superior, wisdom and
virtue will be found in the restraining
power. The experience of Europe was
not such as to authorize so candid an ex-
pectation in behalf of the Roman see.
There were certainly some instances,
where the temporal supremacy of Inno-
cent III., however usurped, may appear
lo have been exerted beneficially. He di-
rects one of his legates to compel the ob-
servance of peace between the kings of
Castile and Portugal, if necessary, by ex-
communication and interdict.* He en-
joins the King of Aragon to restore his
coin which he had lately debased, and of
which great complaint had arisen in his
kingdom. t Nor do 1 question his sin-
cerity in these, or in many other cases
of interference with civil government.
A great mind, such as Innocent III. un-
doubtedly possessed, though prone to
sacrifice every other object to ambition,
can never be indifferent to the beauty of
social order, and the happiness of man-
kind. But, if we may judge by the cor-
respondence of this remarkable person,
his foremost gratification Avas the display
of unbounded power H;.s letters, espe-
cially to ecclesiastics, are full of unpro-
voked rudeness. As impetuous as Greg-
ory VII., he is unwilling to owe any
thing to favour; he seems to anticipate
denial, heats himself into anger as he
proceeds, and where he commences with
solicitation, seldom concludes without a
menace. I An extensive learning in ec-
clesiastical law, a close observation of
whatever was passing in the world, an
unwearied diligence, sustained his fear-
ess ambition.^ With such a temper, and
■« Innocent. Opera, p. 146. f P. 378.
t Idem, p. 31, 73, 76, &c. &c.
^ The fijUowing instance may illustrate the char-
tzter of this pope, and his spirit of governing the
A-hole world, as much as those of a more public
nature. He writes to the chapter of Pisa, that
one Rubeus, a citizen of that place, had complain-
ed to him, that having mortgaged a house and
garden for two hundred and fifty-two pounds, on
•ondition that he might redeem it before a fixed
ay, witlun which tiino he had been unavoidably
with such advantages, he was formidable
beyond all his predecessors, and perhaps
bejrond all his successors. On every
side the thunder of Rome broke over th*-
heads of princes. A certain Swero la
excommunicated for usurping the crowi
of Norway. A legate, in passing througl
Hungary, is detained by the king: Inno.
cent writes in tolerably mild terms tc
this potentate, but fails not tc intimate
that he might be compelled to prevent his
son's succession to the throne. The King
of Leon had married his cousin, a princess
of Castile. Innocent subjects the king-
dom to an interdict. When the clergj
of Leon petition him to remove it, be
cause, when they ceased to perform their
functions, the laity paid no tithes, ana
listened to heretical teachers when or-
thodox mouths were mute, he consented
that divine service with closed doors,
but not the rites of burial, might be per-
formed.* The king at length gave way
and sent back his wife. But a more il-
lustrious victory of the same kind was
obtained over Phihp Augustus, who, hav
ing repudiated Isemburga of Denmark
had contracted another marriage. The
conduct of the king, though not without
the usual excuse of those times, near-
ness of blood, was justly condemned
and Innocent did not hesitate to visit his
sins upon the people by a general in-
terdict. This, after a short demur from
some bishops, was enforced throughout
France ; the dead lay unburied, and tho
living were cut off from the offices of
religion, till Philip, thus subdued, took
back his divorced wife. The submission
of such a prince, not feebly supersti-
tious like his predecessor Robert, not
vexed with .^editions like the Emperor
Henry IV., but brave, firm, and victo-
rious, is perhaps the proudest trophy in
the scutcheon of Rome. Compared with
this, the subsequent triumph of Inno-
cent over our pusnlanimous John seems
cheaply gained, though the surrender of
a powerful kingdom into the vassalage
of the pope may strike us as a proof of
prevented from raising the money, the creditoi
had now refused to accept it ; and directs them to
inquire into the facts, and if they prove truly
stated, to compel the creditor by spiritual censures
to restore the premises, reckoning their rent during
the time of the mortgage as part of the debt, and lo
receive the remainder. — Id., t. ii., p. 17. It must
be admitted, that Innocent III. discouraged in gen
eral those vexatious and dilatory appeals from m
ferior ecclesiastical tribunals to the c jurt of Rome
which had gained ground before his time, and es
pecially m the pontificate of Alexander III.
* Innocent. Opera, t. ii., p. 411. Vita Iiiiia
cent 111.
Chap. "V 11.]
ECCLES?IASTICAL fuWER.
289
stupendous baseness on one side, and
iudacity on the other.* Yet, under this
very pontificate, it was not unparallel-
ed. Peter II., king of Aragon, received
at Rome the belt of knighthood and the
royal crown from the hands of Inno-
cent III. ; he took an oath of perpetual
fealty and obedience to him and his suc-
cessors; he surrendered his kingdom,
2nd accepted it again, to be held by an
annual tribute, in return for tlie protec-
tion of the apostolic see.f This strange
conversion of kingdoms into spiritual
fiefs was intended as the price of se-
curity from ambitious neighbours, and
may bo deemed analogous to the change
of allodial into feudal, or, more strictly,
to that of lay into ecclesiastical tenure,
which was frequent during the turbu-
lence of the darker ages.
I have mentioned already, that among
ihe new pi-etensions advanced by the Ro-
man see was that of confirming the
election of an emperor. It had, however,
been asserted rather incidentally than in
a peremptory manner. But the doubtful
elections of Philip and Otho, after the
death of Henry VI., gave Innocent III.
an opportunity of maintaining more pos-
Uively this pretended right. In a decre-
tal epistle addressed to the Duke of Zah-
ringen, the object of which is to direct
him to transfer his allegiance from Phil-
ip to the other competitor. Innocent, after
stating the mode in whicn a regular elec-
tion ought to be made, declares the
pope's immediate authority to examine,
confirm, anoint, crown, and consecrate
the elect emperor, provided he shall be
worthy ; or to reject him if rendered un-
fit by great crimes, such as sacrilege, her-
esy, perjury, or persecution of the church ;
in default of election, to supply the va-
cancy ; or, in the event of equal suffrages,
to bestow the empire upon any person at
his discretion. J The princes of Germany
* 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
beer. so. Henry HI. paid it occasionally, when he
had any object to attain, and even Edward I. for
»ome years : the latest payment on record is in the
seventeenth of his reign. After a long discontin
jance, it was demanded in the fortieth of Edward
ill. (A. D. 13GG), but the parliament unanimously
declared that John had no right. to subject the kmg-
ilom to a superior without their consent ; which
put an end for ever to the applications. — Prynne's
Constitutions, vol. lii.
t Zurita, Anales de Aragon, t. i., f. 91. This
was not forgotten towards the latter part of the
same century, when Peter III. was engaged in the
Sicilian war, and served as a pretence for the
pope's sentence of deprivation.
t Decretal., 1. i., tit. 6, c. 34, commonly cited
*'enerabilem. The rubric or synopsin ?f this epis-
were not much ' nfluenced by this haidy
assumption, which manifests the temj.>er
of Innocent III. and of his court rather
than their power. But Otho IV., at his
coronation by the pope, signed a capitula-
tion, which cut off several privileges en
joyed by the emperors, even since the
concordat of Calixtus, in respect of epis-
copal elections and investitures.*
The noonday of papal doininion ex
tends from the pontificate of
Innocent III. inclusively to ity','n the'tnu
that of Boniface VIII. ; or, teentii cen-
in other words, through the '"''^'
thirteenth century. Rome inspired du-
ring 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
conspicuous instances when her tempo
ral ambition displayed itself, both of
which are inseparable from the civil his-
tory of Italy. t In the first of these, her
long contention with the house of Swa-
bia, she finally triumphed. After his de-
position by the council of Lyons, the af-
fairs of Frederick II. went rapidly into
decay. With every allowance for the
enmity of the Lombards, and the jealous
ies of Germany, it must be confessed
that the proscription of Innocent IV. and
Alexander IV. was the main cause ot
the ruin of his family. There is, how-
ever, no other instance, to the best of my
judgment, where the pretended right « 1
deposing kings has been successfully ex
ercised. Martin IV. absolved the sub
jects of Peter of Aragon from their alle
giance, 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. Bu'
the pontiffs of that age, improving upoi
the system of Innocent III,, and san
guine with past success, aspired to ren-
tle asserts the pope's right electuni :mperatcrera
examinare, approbare, et inungere, c msec rare ef
coronare, si est dignus ; vel rejicere si eet in'^ignu*
ut quia sacrilegus, excommunicatus, tyrannus, h
tuus et ha;reticus, paganus, perjurus, vel ecclesi'e
persecutor. Et elecloribus nolentibus cligere, Pa-
pa supplet. Et data paritato vocum ehgentiunfj,
nee accedente majore concordia, Papa potest grati-
ficari cui vult. The epistle itself is, if possible
more strongly expressed.
* Schmidt, t. iv., p. US, 175
t See above, chapter ii'
2«U
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE 4GES
Chap. VIl
der every European kingdom formally
dependant upon the See of Rome. Thus
Boniface VIII. , at the instigation of some
emissaries from Scotland, claimed that
monarchy as paramount lord, and inter-
posed, though vainly, the sacred panoply
of ecclesiastical rights to rescue it from
*he arms of Edward I.*
This general supremacy effected by the
Roman church over mankind in
(.fnon law ,, ,^ , , , ■ ,,
the twelfth and thirteenth cen-
'u:ies, derived material support from the
promulgation of the canon law. The
foundation of this jurisprudence is laid
in the decrees of councils, and in the re-
fHJripts or decretal epistles of popes to
questions propounded upon emergent
doubts relative to matters of discipline
and ecclesiastical economy. As the ju-
risdiction of the spiritual tribunals in-
creased, and extended to a variety of per-
sons and causes, it became almost neces-
sary 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 digest-
ed into titles and chspters, in imitation of
the Pandects, which very little before had
begun to be studied again with great dili-
gence. This work of Gratian, though it
seems rather an extraordinary perform-
ance for the age when it appeared, has
been censured for notorious incorrect-
i.ess as well as inconsistency, and espe-
r;ially for the authority given in it to the
false decretals of Isidore, and conse-
quently to the papal supremacy. It fell,
however, short of what was required in
the progress of that usurpation. Greg-
ory IX. caused the five books of Decre-
tals to be published by Raimond de Pen-
nafort in 1234. These consist almost
entirely of rescripts issued by the later
popes, especially Alexander III., Inno-
cent III., Honorius III., and Gregory him-
self. Thejr form the most essential part
of the canon law, the Decretum of Gra-
tian being comparatively obsolete. In
these books we find a regular and co-
pious system of jurisprudence, derived
in a great measure from the civil law,
but with considerable deviation, and pos-
sibly improvement. Boniface VIII. adJ-
ed a sixth part, thence called the Sext,
Itself divided into five books, in the na-
ture of a supplement to the other five,
of which it follows the arrangement,
and composed of decisions promulgated
* Oalrymple's Annals o Scotland, vol. i.. r 267
since the pontificate of Gregory IX
New constitutions were subjoined by
Clement V. and John XXII., under the
name of Clementines and Extravagantcs
Joannis ; and a few more of later pontiffs
are included in the body of canon law,
arranged as a second supplement after
the manner of the Sext, and called E?
travagantes Communes.
The study of this code became of
course obligatory upon ecclesiastical
judges. It produced a new class of
legal practitioners, or canonists ; of
whom a great number added, like thei::
brethren the civilians, their illustrations
and commentaries, for Avhich the obscu-
rity and discordance of many passages,
more especially in the Decretum, gave
ample scope. From the general analogy
of the canon law to that of Justinian, the
two systems became, in a remarkable
manner, collateral and mutually inter-
twined, the tribunals governed by either
of them borrowing their rules of decision
from the other in cases where their pecu-
liar jurisprudence is silent or of dubious
mterpretation.* But the canon law was
almost entirely founded upon the legisla-
tive authority of the pope ; the decretals
are in fact but a new arrangement of the
bold epistles of the most usurping pon-
tiff's, and especially of Innocent III., with
titles or rubrics, comprehending the sub-
stance of each in the compiler's language.
The superiority of ecclesiastical to tem-
poral power, or at least the absolute in-
dependence of the former, may be con-
sidered as a sort of key-note which regu-
lates every passage in the canon law.f
It is expressly declared, that subjects
owe no allegiance to an excommunica-
ted lord, if after admonition he is not rec-
onciled to the church. t And the rubric
prefixed to the declaration of Frederick
II. 's deposition in the council of Lyon?
asserts that the pope may dethrone thft
emperor for lawful causes.^ These ru
* Duck, De Usu Juris Civilis, 1. i., c. 8.
t Constitutionea principum ecclesiasticis con
stitutionibns non praeeminent, sed obseijuuntur.—
Decretum, distinct. 10. Stat-jtum generale laico
rum ad ecclesias vel ad ecclesiasticaspersonas, vm
eorum bona in earum prasiudicium nonextenditur.—
Decretal., I. i., tit. 2, c. 10. Quacnnquea principi
bus in ordinibus vel in ecclesiasticis rebus decreU
inveniuntur, nuilius auctoritatis esse monstrantur.
— Decretum, distinct. 90.
X Domino excommunicato manente, subditi fidel
itatem non debent ; et si longo tempore in ea per
st'terint, et monitus non pareat eccJesiae, ^ ejus
debito absolvuntur. — Decretal., 1. v., tit. 3i, c. 13.
I must acknowledge, that the decretal epistle ol
Honorius III. scarcely warrants this general propo-
sition of the rubric, though it seems to lead '.o it
1^ Papa imperatorem deporere jiCest ex r%U5i$
legitimis, 1. ii., tit. 13. c. 2
eiiAP. VII.
ECCLESIASTICAL POWER.
29]
brics 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 her
new jurisprudence, Rome acquired in ev-
ery 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 authori-
ty gave sanction, t
Next to the canon law, I should reek-
Mendicant on the institution of the niendi-
orders. g-^j^j orders among those circum-
stances which principally contributed to
the aggrandizement of Rome. By the
acquisition, and in some respects th^;
enjoyment, or at least ostentation of
immense riches, the ancient monastic
orders had forfeited much of the public
esteem. J Austere principles as to the
obligation ( f evangelical poverty were
inculcated by the numerous sectaries of
that age, and eagerly received by the
people, already much alienated from an
established hierarchy. No means ap-
peared so efficacious to counteract this
effect, as the institution of religious so-
cieties, strictly debarred from the insidi-
ous temptations of wealth. Upon this
principle were founded the orders of
Mendicant 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. Dominic
and St. Francis of Assisa, and established
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
' If I understand a bull of Gregory XIH., pre-
hxed to his recension of the canon law, he con-
firms the rubrics or glosses along with the text ;
but I cannot speak with certainty as to his mean-
ing.
t For the canon law, I have consulted, besides
the Corpus Juris Canonici, Tiraboschi, Storia
della Litteratura, t. iv. and v. ; Giannone, 1. xiv.,
c. 3; 1. xix., c. 3; 1. xxii., c. 8. Flenry, Institu-
tions uJ Droi' Ecclesiastique, t. i., p. 10, and .')"«=
Discours sur ('Histoire Eccles. Duck, De Usu
Juris Civilis, 1. i., c. 8. Schmidt, t. iv., p. 39. F.
Paul, Treatise of Benefices, c. 31. I fear that my
few citations from the canon law are not made scien-
tifically ; the proper mode of reference is to the first
word ; but the book and title are rather more con-
venient; and there are not many readers n Eng-
land who will detect this impropriety.
t It would be easy to bring evidence from the
writings of every successive century to the general
viciousness of the regular clergy, whose memory
It is sometimes the fashion to treat with respect.
See partiru arly Muratoii, Dissert. 65, and Fleury,
S""^ Discov. '■». The latte observes that their great
wealth was the cause o- this relaxation in disci-
pline
r2
characters ; the one, active and ferocious
had taken apromment part in the crusade
against the unfortunate Albigeois, and
Avas 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
accessary to the intellectual than to the
moral degradation of his species. Vari-
ous other mendicant orders were insti-
tuted in the thirteenth century ; but most
of them were soon suppressed, and be-
sides the two principal, none remain but
the Augustin and the Carmelites.*
These new preachers were received
with astonishing approbation by the laity,
whose religious zeal usually depends a
good deal upon their opinion of sincerity
and disinterestedness in their pastors.
And the progress of the Dominican and
Franciscan friars in the thirteenth centu-
ry bears a remarkable analogy to that of
our English INIethodists. Not deviating
from the faith of the church, but profes-
sing rather to teach it in greater puri-
ty, and to observe her ordinances with
greater regularity, while they imputed
supineness and corruption to the secular
clergy, they drew round their sermons a
multitude of such listeners as iri all ages
are attracted by similar means. They
practised all the stratagems of itineranc)',
preaching in public streets, and adminis-
tering the communion on a portable al-
tar. Thirty years after their institution,
an historian complains that the parish
churches were deserted ; that none con-
fessed except to these friars; in short,
that the regular discipline was subverted.!
This uncontrolled privilege of performing
sacerdotal functions, which their modern
antitypes assume for themselves, wns
conceded to the mendicant orders by the
favour of Rome. Aware of the powerful
support they might receive in turn, the
pontiffs of the thirteenth century accu
mulated benefits upon the disciples of
Francis and Dominic. They were ex-
empted from episcopal authority ; they
were permitted to preach or hear confes-
sions without leave of the ordinary ,| to
accept of legacies, and to inter in their
churches. .Such privileges could not be
* Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History. Flenry.
S"' Discours. Crevier, Histoire de I'Universile dt
Paris, t. i., p. 318.
+ Matt. Pans, p. 607.
X Another reason for preferring the friars is givei
by Archbishop Peckham ; quoniam casus episco
pales reservati episcopis ab homine, vel a jure
communiter a Deum timentibus episcopis ipsis fra
tribus committuntur, et non presbyteris, mwrum tint
plicitas non sufficit aliis dirigendis. — Wilkina, Cwi
cilia, t. ii., p. 169.
292
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chaf til
granted without resistance from the other
ricrgy; the bishops remonstrated, the
university of Paris maintained a stren-
uous opposition ; but their reluctance
served only to protract the final decision.
Boniface VIII. appears to have peremp-
torily established the privileges and im-
munities of the mendicant orders in
1295.*
It was naturally to be expected that
the objects of such extensive favours
would repay their benefactors by a more
than usual obsequiousness and alacrity
in their service. Accordingly, the Do-
minicans and Franciscans vied with each
other m 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 opinions the
Dominicans especially treat as almost
infallible, went into the exaggerated prin-
ciples of his age in favour of the see of
Rome.f 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 argu-
ments by any direct reasoning. But this
partiality of tlie new monastic orders to
\]\e popes must chiefly be understood to
apply to the thirteenth century, circum-
sfmces occurring in the next which
w.ive in some degree a different complex-
ion to their dispositions in respect of the
Holy See.
We should not overlook, among the
Papal dis- causes that contributed to the
pensaiions dominion of the popes, their
of marriage, prerogative of dispensing witli
ecclesiastical ordinances. The most re-
markable exercise of this was as to the
canonical impediments of matrimony.
Such strictness as is prescribed by the
Christian religion with respect to divorce
was very unpalatable to the barbarous
nations. They, in fact, paid it little re-
gard ; under the Merovingian dynasty,
even private men put away their wivesj
* Crevier, Hist, de TUniversite de Paris, t. i. et
I. ii., passim. Fleury, ubi supra. Hist, du Droit
Ecciesiastique Fran(;ois, t. i., p. 391, 39f), 446.
Collier's Ecclesiastical History, vol. i., p. 437, 443
452. Wood's Antiquities of Oxford, vol. i., p. 376,
480 (Gutch's edition).
t It was maintained by the enemies of the men-
dicants, especially William St. Amour, that the
pope could not give them a privilege to preach or
perform the other duties of the parish priests.
Thomas Aquinas answered, that a bishop might
perform any spiritual functions within his diocess,
i>r commit the charge to another instead, anu thr\t
the pope being to the whole church what a bishop
is to his diocess, might do the same everywhere. —
Crevier, t. i., p. 474.
t Marculfi Formulae, 1. ii., c 30
at pleasure. In mam capitularies of
Charlemagne, we find evidence of the
prevailing license of repudiation and
even polygamy.* The principles whicn
the church inculcated were in appearance
the very reverse of this laxity ; yet they
led indirectly to the same effect. Mar-
riages were forbidden, not merely within
the limits which nature, or those inveter-
ate associations which we call nature,
have rendered sacred, but as far as the
seventh degree of collateral consanguin-
ity, 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 connex-
ion, called spiritual affinity, was invented,
in order to prohibit marriage between a
sponsor and godchild. A union, however
innocently contracted, between parties
thus circumstanced, might at anytime be
dissolved, and their subsequent cohabita-
tion forbidden; though their children, '
believe, in cases where there had beec
no knowledge of the impediment, were
not illegitimate. 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 is
so difficult to conceive, I do not say any
reasoning, but any honest superstition,
which could have produced those mon-
strous regulations, that I was at first in-
clined to suppose them designed to give
by a side wind, that facility of divorce
which a licentious people demanded, bu
* Although a man might not mary again when
his wife had taken the veil, he was permitted to do
so if she was infected with the leprosy. Compare
Capitularia Pippini, A. D. 752 and 7''5. If a worn
an conspired to murder her husbanO, he might re
marry. — Idem, A. D. 753. A large proportion ol
Pepin's laws relate to incestuous connexions anc
divorces. One of Charlemagne seems to implj
that polygamy was not unknown even among
priests. Si sacerdotes plures uxiris habuerint,
sacerdotio priventur; quia saeciilanLus deteriores
sunt.— Capitul., A. D. 769. This seims to imply
that their marriage with one was allowable, which
nevertheless is contradicted by other passages iu
the Capitularies.
t See the canonical computation f^xplained a
St. Marc, t. iii., p. 376. Also in Blackstone's Law
Tracts, Treatise on Consanguinity. In the elev
enth century, an opii.'on began to gavri ground in
Italy that third cousins might marry, being in the
seventh degree according to the civil law. Peter
Damian, a passionate abetter of Hildebrand and
his maxims, treats this with horror, and calls it a
heresy. — Fleury, t. xiii., p. 152. St. Marc, ubi su
pra. This opinion was supported by a reference
to the Institutes of Justinian ; a proof, among sev
eral others, how much earlier that book was knowt
than is vulgarly supposed.
-Bxr. VI 1.1
ECCLESIASTICAL POWER.
293
the church could not avowedly grant.
This refinement would however be un-
supported by facts. The prohibition is
very ancient, and was really derived from
the ascetic temper which introduced so
many other absurdities.* It was not un-
til the twelfth century that either this or
any other established rules of d'sciplinc
were supposed liable to arbitrary dispen-
sation; at least the stricter churchmen
had always denied that the pope could
aifringe canons, nor had he asserted any
right to do so.f But Innocent III. laid
down as a maxim, that out of the pleni-
tude of his power he might lawfully dis-
pense with the law ; and accordingly
granted, among other instances of this
prerogative, dispensations from impedi-
ments of marriage to the Emperor Otho
IV. I Similar indulgences were given by
his successors, though they did not be-
come usual for some ages. The fourth
Lateraa Council, in 1215, removed a great
part of the restraint, by permitting mar-
riages beyond the fourth degree, or what
we call third cousins ;i^ 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 another's
houses without transgressing the canon-
ical limits, to keep on good terms with
the court of Rome, which, in several in-
stances that have been mentioned, ful-
minated 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
tions* (Vom ^ temporal nature, particularly
promissory in the legitimation of children,
oaths. ^Qj. pm-posgg even of succession.
This Innocent III. claimed as an iitdirect
consequence of his right to remove the
canonical impediment which bastardy of-
* Gregory L pronounces matrimony to be un-
lawful as far as the seventh degree ; and even, if I
unders'and his meaning, as long as any relation-
»hip could be traced; wbicii seems to have been
the maxim of strict theologians, though not abso-
lutely enforced. —Du Cange, v. Generatio. Fleu-
ry, Hist. Eccles., t. ix., p. 211.
■f De Marca, 1. iii., cc. 7, 8, 14. Schmidt, t. iv.,
p. '.^35. Dispensations were originally granted only
aj to cancuical penances, but not prospectively to
authorire a breach of discipline. Gralian asserts
ihat the po[)e is not bound by the canons ; in
which, Fleury observes, he goes beyond the False
Decretals. — Septifeme Discours, p. 291.
t Secundum plenitudinem potestatis de jurepos-
suiius supra jus dispensare. — Schmidt, t. iv., p.
23!.
^ Fleu ry, Institutions au Droit Eccl^siastique, t.
I h. -296
fered to ordination ; since it wouLi be
monstrous, he says, that one Avho 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 promissory oaths. Two
principles are laid down in the decretals ,
that an oath disadvantageous to the
church is not binding ; and that one ex-
torted by force was of shght obligation,
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 exer-
cisedjj. so the second was equally con-
venient :o princes, weary of observing
engagements towards their subjects or
their neighbours. They reclaimed with
a bad grace against the absolution of their
people from allegiance by an authority to
which they did not scruple to repair in
order to bolster up their own perjiiries
* Decretal., 1. iv., tit. 17, c. 13.
t Juramentum contra utilitatem ecclesiasticarn
praestitum non tenet — Decretal., 1. ii., tit. 21,c. 27,
et Sext., 1. 1., tit. 11, c. 1. A juramento per metum
extorto ecclesia solet absolvere, et ejus transgrec.
sores ut peccantes mortaliter non punientur. — F.o-
dem lib. et tit., c. 15. The whole of this title m
the decretals upon oaths seems to have given the
first opening to the lax casuistry of succeeding
times.
X Take one instance out of many. Piccinino,
the famous condottiere of the fifteenth century,
had promised not to attack Francis Sforza, at that
time engaged against the pope. Eugenius lY. (the
same excellent person who had annulled the com-
pactata with the Hussites, releasing those who
had sworn to them, and who afterward made the
King of Hungary break his treaty with Amurath
II.), absolves him from this promise, on the express
ground that a treaty disadvantageous to the church
ought not to be kept. — Sisinondi, t. ix., p. 190. The
church, in that age, was synonymous with the p?
pal territories in Italy.
It was in conformity to this sweeping principle
of ecclesiastical utility, that Urban V'l. made the
following solemn and general declaration against
keeping faith with heretics. Attendentos quod hu-
jusmodi confoBderationes, colligationes, et ligae seu
conventiones factae cum hujusmodi hcereticis seu
schismaticis postquam tales effecti erant, sunt te-
meraris ; illicita?, et ipso jure nullas (etsi forte
ante ipsorum lapsum in schisma, seu hajre.sin ini-
tae, seu factse fuissent), etiam si forent juramento
vel fide datft firmata?, aut confirmatione apostolici
vel quacunque firmitate ali& roborata;, poslquain
tales, ut praemittitur, sunt efTecti. — Kymer, t. vii.,
p. 352.
It was of little consequence that all divines and
sound interpreters of canon law maintaiii that the
pope cannot dispense with the divine or moral law,
as De Marca tells us, 1. iii., c. 15, though he ad-
mits that others of less sound judgment assert lh«
contrary ; as w.is common enough, I believe,
among the .lesuits at the beginning of the seven
teenth century. His power of interpreting the law
was of itself a crivilege if iisoensing with it.
Ztf4
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AOa^S.
LOha.». V,
Thujj Edward I., the strenuous asserter
01 his temporal rights, and one of the first
who opposed a barrier to the encroach-
nients of the clergy, sought at the hands
of Clement V. a dispensation from his
oath to observe the great statute against
arbitrary taxation.
In all the earlier stages of papal domin-
ion, the supreme head of the church had
Encroach- been her guardian and protec-
ments of ^qj. . g^^id ihis beneficent charac-
popes on the , , . . -^
freedom of ter appeared to receive its con-
ciections, summation in the result of that
arduous struggle which restored the an-
cient practice of free election to ecclesi-
aotical 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 conformable indeed to the prevailing
system of spiritual independence. By
the concordat of Calixtus, it appears that
the decision of contested elections was
reserved to the emperor, assisted by the
metropolitans and suffragans. In a few
cases during the twelfth century, this im-
perial prerogative was exercised, though
not altogether undisputed.* But it was
consonant to the prejudices of that age
to deem the supreme pontiff a more nat-
ural judge, as in other cases of appeal.
The point was early settled in England,
where a doubtful election to the arch-
bishopric of York, under Stephen, was
referred to Rome, and there kept five
years in litigation. f Otho IV. surrender-
ed this among other rights of the empire
to Innocent III. by his capitulation ;| and
from that pontificate the papal jurisdic-
tion over such controversies became
thoroughly recognised. But the real aim
of Innocent, and perhaps of some of his
predecessors, was to dispose of bishop-
rics, under pretext of determining con-
tests, as a matter of patronage. So many
And on rules wcre estabhshed, so many
rights of pat- formalities required by their
ronage. constitutions, incorporated af-
terward into the canon law, that the court
of Rome might easily find means of annul-
* Schmidt, t. iii., p. 299 ; t. iv., p. 149. Accord-
ing to the concordat, elections ought to be made in
the presence of the emperor or his officers ; but
the chapters contrived to exclude them by degrees,
though not perhaps till the thirteenth century. —
Compare Schmidt, t. iii., p. 296 ; t. iv., p. 146.
t Henry's Hist, of England, vol. v., p. 324. Lyt-
tleton's Henry II., vol. i.. p. 356.
t Schmidt, t. iv., p. 149. One of these was the
tpolium, or moveable estate of a bishop, which the
emperor was used to seize upon his decease, p. 154.
r was certainly a very leonine prerogative ; but the
popes did not fail at a subsequent time to claim it
for themselves. — Fleury, Institutions au Droit, t. i.,
B 425 Leafaiit, Concile de Constance, t. ii., p. 130
ling what had been d(jie by the chapter
and bestowing the see on a favouritfl
candidate.* The popes soon assumed
not only a right of decision, hut of devo-
lution ; 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 in-
valid and compulsory manner, by the
order of Innocent III. ; as we may read
in onr English historians. And several
succeeding archbishops of Canterbury
equally owed their promotion to the pa-
pal prerogative. Some instances of the
same kind occurred in Germany, and it
became the constant practice in Naples. ;{
While the popes were thus artfully de-
priving the chapters of their right of elec-
tion to bishoprics, they interfered in a
more arbitrary manner with the
collation of inferior benefices. ^ ^^ ^'*
This began, though in so insensible a man-
ner as to deserve no notice but for its con-
sequences, with Adrian IV.,v."ho request-
ed some bishops to confer the next bene-
fice that should become vacant on a par-
ticular clerk. ^ Alexander III. used to
solicit similar favours. || These recom-
mendatory letters were called mandata
But though such requests grew more fre-
quent than was acceptable to patrons^
they were preferred in moderate lan-
guage, and could not decently be refused
to the apostolic chair. Even Innocent
III. seems in general to be aware that he
is not asserting a right ; though in one in-
stance I have observed his violent tem-
per break out against the chapter of Poi-
tiers, Avho had made some demur to the
appointment of his clerk, and whom he
threatens with excommunication and in-
terdict.^ But, as we find in the history
of all usui-ping governments, time changes
anomely into system, and injury into
right ; examples beget custom, and cus-
tom ripens into law ; and the doubtful pre-
cedent of one generation becomes the fun-
damental maxim of another. Honoriua
* F. Paul, c. 30. Schmidt, t. iv., p. 177, 247.
+ Thus we find it expressed, as captiously as
words could be devised, in the decretals, 1. i., tit.
6, c. 22. Electus a majori et saniori parte capituU,
si est, et erat idoneus tempore electionis, confirma
bitur : si autem erit indignus in ordinibus scientiA
vel aetate, et fuit scienter electus, tlectus a minori
parte, si est dignus, contirmabitur.
A person canonically disqualified when presented
to the pope for confirmation was s;vid to be postult
tus, not electus.
t Giannone, 1. xiv., c. 6 ; 1. six.. 5.
(J St. Marc, t. v., p. 41. Art de verifier les Dalet
t. i , p. 288. Encyqlopedie, Art. Manc^ats.
I! St-.hmidt, t. iv., p. 239.
V Innocent III., Ope a, p. 50?.
Chap. Vll.J
ECCLESIASTICAL POVVFR
29?
HI. requested that two prebends in eve-
ry church might be preserved for the
Holy See; but neit.ier the bishops of
Franco ncr England, to wliom lie pre-
ferred this petition, were induced to com-
ply with it.* Gregory IX. pretended to
act generously in limiting himself to a
single expectative, or letter directing a
particular clerk to be provided with a
benefice in every church. f But his prac-
tice went much farther. No country
was so intolerably treated by this pope
and his successors as England, through-
out the ignominious reign of Henry 111.
Her church seemed to have been so
richly endowed only as the free pasture
of Itahan priests, who were placed, by
the mandatory letters of Gregory IX. and
Innocent IV., in all the best benefices.
If we may trust a solemn remonstrance in
the name of the whole nation, tiiey drew
from England, in the middle of the thir-
teenth century, sixty or seventy thou-
sand marks every year ; a sum far ex-
ceeding the royal revenue. J This was
asserted by tlie 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 encroachments. There
was no defect of spirit in the nation to
oppose a more adequate resistance ; but
the individual upon the throne sacrificed
the public interest sometimes through
habitual timidity, sometimes through silly
ambition. If England, however, suffered
more remarkably, yet other countries
were far from being untouched. A Ger-
man writer, about the beginning of the
fourteenth century, mentions a cathedral
where, out of about thirty-five vacancies
of prebends that had occurred within
twenty years, the regular patron had
filled only two.^ The case was not very
different in France, where the continual
usurpations of the popes are said to have
produced the celebrated Pragmatic Sanc-
tion of St. Louis. This edict, which is
not of undisputed authority, contains
three important provisions ; namely, that
all prelates and other patrons shall enjoy
their full riglits 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, how-
* Matt. Paris, p. 267. De Marca, 1. iv c. 9.
■f F. Paul on Benefices, c. 30.
I M. Paris, p. 579, 740.
I Schmidt, t. vi., p. 104.
B frdonnances des Rois de France, t. i,. p. 97
ever, that the French gov<rninerit acted
up to the spirit of this ordinance, if it be
genuine ; and the Holy See continued to
invade the rights of collation witti less
ceremony than they had hitherto used.
Clement IV. published a bull in 1266,
which, after asserting an absolute pre-
rogative of the supreme pontiff to dispose
of all preferments, whether vacant or ir.
reversion, confines itself in the enacting
words to the reservation of such benefi-
ces as belong to persons dying at Rome
(vacantes in curi^).* 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 metro-
politans were compelled to seek their
pallium in person, and even by a recent
constitution, exempt abbots 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. Bon-
iface VIII. repeated this law of Clement
IV. in a still more positive tone ;| and
Clement V. laid down as a maxim, that
the pope might freely bestow, as univer-
sal patron, all ecclesiastical benefices.^
In order to render these tenable by their
Italian courtiers, the canons against plu-
ralities and nonresidence were dispensed
with; so that individuals w'cre said to
have accumulated fifty or sixty prefer-
ments.|| It was a consequence provisions,
from this extravagant princi- reserves, &c.
pie, that the pope might prevent the or-
dinary 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.
There are several material objections to the au
thpflticity of this edict, and in particular that we du
not tind the king to have had any previous differ-
ences with the see i f Rome ; on the contrary, he
was just indebted to Clement IV. for bestowing
the crown of Naples on his brother, the Count of
Provence. Velly has defended it, Hist, de France,
t. vi., p. 57, and in the opinion of the learned Ben
edictine editors of L'Art de verifier les Dates, t. i.,
p. 585, cleared up all difficulties as to its penuine-
ness. In fact, however, the Pragmatic Sanction
of St. Louis stands by itself, and can only be con-
sidered as a protestation against abuses whiuh it
was still impossible to suppress.
* Se.Kt. Decretal, 1. iii., t. iv., c. 2. F. Paul on
Benefices, c. 35. This writer thinks the privilege
of nominating benefices vacant in curia to have
been among the first claimed by the popes. eTen
before the usage of mandats, c. 30.
t Matt. Pans, p. 817.
i Sext. Decretal., 1. iii., t. iv., c. 3. He extend
ed the vacancy in curiA to all places within twt
days'Journey of the papal court.
() F. Paul, I. 35.
II Id., c. 33, 34, 35. Schmid' I. iv., p. 104
Z»G
EUFOPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
rCKAP. V]i
or reserve certiin benefices specifically
for his own nomination.
The persons as well as estat'=>s of eccle-
Papai taxa- siastics were secure from arbi-
iion of the traiy taxation in all the king-
<''ergy doms founded upon the ruins of
the empire, both by the common liberties
of freemen, and more particularly by their
own immunities and the horror of sacri-
lege.* Such at least was their legal secu-
rity, whatever violence might occasion-
ally be practised by tyrannical princes.
But this exemption was compensated by
annual donatives, probably to a large
amount, which the bishops and monaste-
ries were accustomed, and as it were
compelled, to make to their sovereigns.!
The)' were subject also, generally speak-
ing, to the feudal services and prestations.
Htiiry I. is said to have extorted a sum
of money from the English church. ;f
But the first eminent instance of a gen-
eral tax required from the clergy was
the famous Saladine tithe ; a tenth of all
moveable 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 de-
fray the expense of their intended cru-
sade. Yet even this contribution, though
called for by the imminent peril of the
H0I3' Land after the capture of Jerusa-
lem, was not paid without reluctance ; the
clergy doubtless anticipating the future
extension of such a precedent.^ Many
years had not elapsed when a new de-
mand was madf" noon them, but from
a different quariei. ' "'^ocent III. (the
name continually recurs when we trace
the commencement of a usurpation) im-
posed, in 1190, upon the whole church, a
tribute of one fortieth of moveable 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. II This crusade ended, as
is well known, in the capture of Con-
stantinople. But the word had lost much
of its original meaning; or rather that
meaning had been extended by ambition
and bigotry. Gregory IX. preached a
crusade against the Emperor Frederick,
in a quarrel which only concerned his
temporal principality ; and the church of
England was taxed by his authority to
carry on this holy war.^f After some op-
* Muratori Dissert. 70. Sctimidt, L iii., p. 211.
t Id., Ibid. Du Cange, v. Dona.
i Eadtner, p. 83.
6 Schmidt, t. iv.,p. 212. Lyttleton's Henry II.,
ol. iii., p. 472. Velly, t. iii., p. 316
II Innocent. Opera, p. 266.
1 M. Paris, p 4T0. It w<is hardly possible for
position the bishops subii.ittod ; and fronr
that time no bounds were set to the rapa^
city of papal exactions. The usurers ol
Cahors and Lombardy, residing in Lon-
don, 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
revenues of benefices, to have plundered
the kingdom of 950,000 marks ; a sum
equivalent, I think, to not less than fif-
teen miUions sterling at present. Inno-
cent IV., during whose pontificate the
tyranny of Rome, if we consider her tem-
poral and spiritual usurpations together,
reached perhaps its Zenith, hit upon the
device of ordering the English prelates
to furnish a certain number of men-at-
arms to defend the church at their ex-
pense. This would soon have been com-
muted into a standing escuage instead of
military service.* But the demand was
perhaps not complied with, and we do
not find it repeated. Henry III.'s pu-
sillanimity would not permit any elTect-
ual measure to be adopted ; and indeed he
sometimes shared in the booty, and was
indulged with the produce of taxes im-
posed 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 ecclesias-
tical revenues for one of his mock cru-
sades. King Alexander III., with the con-
currence of the church, stood up against
this encroachment, and refused the legate
permission to enter his dominions. J Tax-
the clergy to make any effective resistance to the
pope, without unravelling a tissue which they had
been assiduously weaving. One English prelate
distinguished himself in this reign by his strenu-
ous protestation against all abuses of the church
This was Robert Grosstete, bishop of liincoln, whc
died in 1253, the most learned Englishman of his
time, and the first who had any tincture of Greek
literature. Matthew Paris gives him a high char
acter, which he deserved for his learning and in
tegrity ; one of his commendations is for keeping
a good table. But Grosstete appears to have been
imbued in a great degree with the spirit of his ag«
as to ecclesiastical power, though unwilling to
yield it up to the pope : and it is a strange thing lu
reckon him among the precursors of the Reforma
tion.— M. Paris, p. 754. Berington's Literary His
tory of the Middle Ages, p. 378.
* M. Paris, p. 613. It would be endless to m'..
tiply proofs from Matthew Paris, which indcea
occur in almost every page. His laudable zeal
against papal tyranny, on which some Protet:tanl
writers have been so pleased to dwell, was i littl
stimulated by personal feelings for the abbey of St
Alban's ; and the same remark is probably applies
ble to his love of civil liberty.
t Rymer, t. i., p. 599, &c. The substance ot
English ecclesiastical history during the reign ot
Henry III. may be collected from Henry, and stil'
better from Collier.
t Dalrymple's Annals of Scotland, vol. i. 0 I7f
Chap VIJ.l
ECCLESIASTICAL POVVEK
V9"i
ation of the CiCrgy was not so outra-
geous in other countr as ; but the ~)pes
granted a tithe of benefices to St Louis
for eacli of his own crusades, and also
for the expedition of Charles of Anjou
against Manfred.* In the council of
Lyons, held by Gregory X. in 1274, a
genera., tax of the same proportion was
imposed on all the Latin church, for the
oretended purpose of carrying on a holy
vvar.f
These gross invasions of ecclesiastical
^. property, however submissively
lowards'the endured, produced a very gen-
court of eral disaffection towards the
^°"'^- court of Rome. The reproach
of venality and avarice was not indeed
cast for the first time upon the sovereign
pontiffs ; but it had been confined in ear-
lier ages to particular instances, not
affecting the bulk of the Catholic church.
But, pillaged upon every slight pretence,
without law and without redress, the
clergy came to regard their once pater-
nal monarch as an arbitrary oppressor.
All writers of the thirteenth and follow-
ing centuries complain in terms of un-
measured indignation, and seem almost
ready to reform the general abuses of
the church. They distinguished, how-
ever, clearly enough between 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
independence. The rich envied and
longed to plunder the estates of the su-
perior clergy ; the poor learned from the
Waldenses and other sectaries to deem
such opulence incompatible with the
character of evangelical ministers. The
itinerant minstrels invented tales to sat-
irise vicious priests, which a predis-
posed multitude eagerly swallowed, if
the thirteenth century was an age of
more extravagant ecclesiastical preten-
sions than any which had preceded, it
was certainly one in which the disposi-
tion to resist them acquired great con-
jiistence.
To "."jsist had indeed become strictly
necessary, if the temporal gov-
eccSaati*- crnments of Christendom would
cai jurisdV;- occupy any better station than
"""■ that of officers to the hierarchy.
I have traced already the first stage of
» Velly, t. iv p. 343 ; t. v., p. 343 ; t. vi., p. 47.
* Idem, t vi p .308. St. Marc, t. vi.. p. 31"
that ecclesiastical jurisdiction, vhich
through the partial indulgence of sever
eigns, especially Justinian and Cliarle
magne, had become nearly independent
of the civil magistrate. Several ages of
confusion and anarchy ensued, during
which the supreme regal authority was
literally suspended in France, and no
much respected in some other countries.
It is natural to suppose that ecclesiasti
cal jurisdiction, so far as even that was
regarded in such barbarous times, would
be esteemed the only substitute f(jr coer
cive law, and the best security against
wrong. But I am not aware that it ex-
tended itself beyond its former limits till
about the beginning of the twelfth cen-
tury. P'rom that time it rapidly en-
croached upon the secular tribunals, and
seemed to threaten the usurpation of an
exclusive supremacy 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, im
plying no spiritual ofilce, conferred the
privileges and immunities of the profes-
sion on all who wore an ecclesiastical
habit, and had only once been married.*
Orphans and widows, the stranger and
the poor, the pilgrim and the leper, under
the appellation of persons in distress
(miserabiles personam), came within thf
peculiar cognizance and protection of the
church ; nor could they be sued before
any lay tribunal. And the whole Jjody
of crusaders, or such as merely took the
vow of engaging 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 juris
diction in the nature of the dispute. Spir-
itual 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 chastise the commission of sin. By
this sweeping maxim, which we havf
* Clerici qui cum unicis et virginibus contraxe
runt, si tonsuram et vestes deferatit clericalea, privi
legium retineant prassenti declaTamns emcto,
hiijusmocii clencos conjugates pro coi.imisg'is ab iis
excessihus vel dellctis, traiii non posse criminalitei
aiit civiliter ad judicium saeculare. — Bonifacius
Octavus, in Sext. Decretal., 1. iii., tit. ii.. c. i. Piiilip
the Bold, however, had subjec'.ed these married
clerks to taxes, and later ordinances of the French
kings rendered them aineuable ;o ton^p-'iai juris
diction ; from which, in Niplcs. by 'a-i.^>iA • ovis
ions of the Angevin Iw^, ihety eU'^v^ .-ij^-, r>»»<.(}
free — Gianiione I. .\*x. c &
iim
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
[Cii.
V (
seen Innocent III. apply to vindicate his
control over national quarrels, the com-
mon differences of nidividuals, wliich gen-
erally involve some charge of wilful inju-
ry, fell into the hands of a religious judge.
bns is almost surprised to find that it did
not extend more universally, and might
praise the moderation of the church.
Rea. actions, or suits relating to the prop-
erty of land, were always the exclusive
province of the lay court, even where a
clerk was the defendant.* But the ec-
clesiastical tribunals took cognizance of
breaches of contract, at least where an
oath had been pledged, and of personal
trusts. t They had not only an exclusive
'urisdiction over questions immediately
matrimonial, but a concurrent one with
the civil magistrate in France, though
never in England, over matters incident
to the nuptial contract, as claims of mar-
riage portion and of dower.J They took
the execution of testaments into their
hands, on account of the legacies to pious
uses which testators were advised to be-
queath.^ In process of time, and under
favourable circumstances, they made still
greater strides. They pretended a right
to supply the defects, the doubts, or the
negligence of temporal judges ; and in-
vented a class of mixed causes, whereof
the lay or ecclesiastical jurisdiction took
possession according to priority. Besides
this extensive authority in civil disputes,
they judged of some offences, vrhich natu-
rally belong to the criminal law, as well as
of some others, which participate of a civ-
il and criminal nature. Such were perju-
ry, sacrilege, usury, incest, and adultery ;||
from the punishment of all which the sec-
ular magistrate refrained, at least in Eng-
land, after they had become the prov-
ince of a separate jurisdiction. Excom-
* Decretal., 1. ii., t. ii. Ordonnances des Rois, t.
1., p. 40 (A. D. 1189). In the council of Lambeth,
in 1261, the bishops claim a right to judge inter
clericos suos, vel inter laicos conquerentes et cler-
icos defendentes, in personalibus actionibus super
contractibus, aut delictis, aut quasi, i. e. quasi de-
.ictis. — Wilkins, Concilia, t. i., p. 747.
1 Ordonnances des Rois, p. 319 (A. D. 1290).
X Idem, p. 40, 121, 220, .119.
I Id., p. 319. Glanvil, 1. vii., c. 7. Sancho IV.
(rave the same jurisdiction to the clergy of Castile,
"^eoria de las Cortes, t. iii., p. 20 ; and in other re-
vpects followed the example of his father Alfonso
^. in favouring their encroachments. The church
of Scotland seems to have had nearly the same ju-
risdiction as that of England. — Pinkerton's Histo-
ry of Scotland, vol. i., p. 173.
II It was a maxim of the canon, as well as the
common law, that no person should be punished
twice for the same offence ; therefore, if a clerk had
been degraded, or a penance imposed on a lay-
man, it was supposed unjv?. to proceed against
him lira temporal court
munication still continued the only chas-
tisement which the church could directly
inflict. But th^ bishops acquired a right
of having their own prisons for lay of
fenders,* and the monasteries were th«
appropriate prisons of clerks. Their
sentences of excommunication were en-
forced by the temporal magistrate by
imprisonment or sequestration of ef-
fects; in some cases by confiscation or
death.f
The clergy did not forget to secure
along with this jurisdiction their And immu
own absolute exemption from "")'•
the criminal justice of the state. This,
as I have above mentioned, had been
conceded to them by Charlemagne ; but
how far the same privilege existed in
countries not subject to his empire, such
as England, or even in France and Ger-
many during the three centuries after his
reign, is what I am not able to assert.
The False Decretals contain some pas-
sages in favour of ecclesiastical immuni-
ty, which Gratian repeats in his collec-
tion.J About the middle of the twelfth
centuiy 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. jj These, by the
canon law, were invalid when they affect-
ed the rights and liberties of holy church. 1[
But the spiritual courts were charged
with scandalously neglecting to visit the
most atrocious offences of clerks with
* Charlemagne is said by Giannone to have per
mitted the bishops to have prisons of their own, 1.
vi., c. 7.
t Giannone, 1. xix., c. 5, t. iii. Schmidt, t. iv., p.
195 ; t. vi., p. 125. Fleury, """^ Discours, Mem. de
I'Acad. des Inscript., t. xxxix., p. 603. Ecclesiasti-
cal jurisdiction not having been uniform in differ
entages and countries, it is difficult, without much
attention, to distmguish its general and permanent
attributes from those less completely established.
Its description, as given in the Decretals, lib, ii., tit.
ii., De foro competent!, does not support the pre
tensions made by the canonists, nor come up to
the sweeping definition of ecclesiastical jurisdic-
tion by Boniface VIII. id the Sext., 1. iii„ tit. xxiii.,
c. 40, sive ambae partes hoc voluerint, sive una
super causis ecclesiasticis, sive qus ad forum ec-
clesiasticum ratione personarum, negotiorum, vel
rerum de jure vel de antiqua consueiudine perti-
nere noscuntur.
X Fleury, 7'"e Discours.
6 Idem. Institutions au Droit Eccles., t. n., p. 8.
II In cnminalibus caus.'s in nullo casu possui.'
clerici ab aliquo quim ab ecclesiastico judic con
demnari, etiamsi consuetude regia babea ut furei
a judicibussaicularibus judicentur.- Decretal, 1, i,
tit. 1;. c. 8,
V Dec-ef.. distinct. Qd.
k;fcAP.vii.]
tCCLESIAS-nCAL POWER.
aut
such punishment as they could inflict.
The church could always absolve from her
own censures ; and confinement in a mon-
astery, the usual sentence upon crimi-
nals, was frequently shght and temporaiy.
Several instances are mentioned of hei-
nous outrages that remained nearly un-
punished through the shield of ecclesias-
tical privilege.* And as the temporal
courts refused their assistance to a rival
jurisdiction, the clerg>' 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 excommunica-
tion, f
Such an incoherent medley of laws
EndenTours ^nd magistrates, upon the sym-
made to re- metrical arrangement ot which
press it lu yii social economy mainly de-
Engiand. ^^^^^^ ^.^uld iiot fail to produce
a violent collision. Every sovereign w; as
interested in vindicating the authority
of the constitutions 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 appeared openly against ecclesias-
tical tyranny, was our Henry II. The
Anglo-Saxon church, not so much con-
nected as some others with Rome, and
enjoying a sort of barbarian immunity
from the thraldom of canonical discipline,
though rich, and highly respected by a
devout nation, had never, perhaps, de-
sired the thorough independence upon
secular jurisdiction at which the con-
tinental hierarcliy aimed. WilUam the
Conqueror first separated the ecclesias-
tical from the civil tribunal, and forbade
the bishops to judge of spiritual causes
"n the hundred court. | His language is,
however, too indefinite to warrant any
* Collier, vol. i., p. 351. It is laid down in the
canon laws that a layman cannot be a witness in a
criminal case against a clerk.— Decretal., 1. ii., tit.
XX., c. 14.
t Lyttleton's Henry II., vol. iii., p. 332. This
must be restricted to that period of open hostility
between the church and state.
t Ut nullus episcopus vel archidiaconus de legi-
bus episcopalibus amplius in Hundret placita ten-
eant, nee causam qua; ad regimen animarum perti-
net, ad judicium sa;cularium hominuin adducant.
— Wilkins, Leges Anglo-Saxon., 230.
B3fore ths conquest, the bishop and earl *at to-
^ethei m the court of the county or hundred ; and,
as we may infer from the tcnourof this charter, ec-
clesiastical matters were deci<led loosely, and rather
oy the common law than according to the canons.
This practice had been already forbidden by some
canons enacted under Edgar, id., p. 83 ; but appa-
rently with little effect. The separation of the civil
and ecclesiastical tribunals was not made in Den-
mark till the reign of Nicolas, who ascended the
throne in I105.--Langebek, Script. Rer. Danic,
t. iv., p. 380 Others refer the law to St. Canut,
a»»yit 1080, t. ii., d. 209.
decisive proposition as to the natvire o^
such causes ; puobably they had not ye
been carried much beyond their legiti-
mate extent. Of clerical exemption from
the secular arm, we find no earUer i otice
than in the coronation oath of Stejihen ;
which, though vaguely expressed, may
be construed to include it.* But I am
not certain that the law of England had
unequivocally recognised that claim at
the time of the constitutions of Cla-
rendon. It was at least an innova-
tion, which the legislature might with-
out scruple or transgression of justice
abolish. Henry II., in that famous stat-
ute, attempted in three respects to limit
the jurisdiction assumed by the church;
asserting for his own judges the cogni-
zance of contracts, however confirmed
by oath, and of rights of advowson, and
also that of offences 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 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, whicli
an existing schism rendered dependant
upon the favour of those two monarchs,
might have receded in some measure
from her pretensions. But France im
plicitly giving way to the encroachments
of ecclesiastical power, it became impos-
sible for Henry completely to withstand
tliem.
The constitutions of Clarendon, how-
ever, produced some eff"ect, and, in the
reign of Henry III., more unremitted and
successful efforts began to be made to
maintain the independence of temporal
government. The judges of the king's
court had until tliat time been thefn-
selves principally ecclesiastics, and con-
sequently tender of spiritual privileges. J
But now, abstaining from the exercise of
temporal jurisdiction, 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
* Ecclesiasticarumpersonarum et omriium cleri
corum, et rerum eorum justitiam et patestatem, et
distributionem honorum ecclesiastico'um.iri manu
episcoporum esse perhibeo, et confirnio. — Wilkins.
Leges Anglo-Saxon., p. 310.
+ Wilkins, Leges Anglo-Saxon., p. 323. Lyttle
ton's Henry II., Collier, &c.
X Dugdale's Origines Juridicales, c. 8.
^ Decretal., 1. i., tit. xxjvu., c. L WilkiM.Coo
cilia, t. ii . p. 4.
100
EdROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
lChap Vii
assert the supremacy of their jurisdiction
by issuing writs of prohibition, when-
ever the ecclesiastical tribunals passed
the boundaries which approved use had
3stablished.* Little accustomed to such
control, the proud hierarchy chafed under
tlie bit ; several provincial synods re-
claim agains* the pretensions of laymen
to judge the anointed ministers, whom
they were boUnd to obey;t the cogni-
zance of rights of patronage and breaches
of contract is boldly asserted ■,X but firm
and cautious, favoured by the nobility,
tho^igh 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 ensuing reign of
Edward I., an archbishop acknowledges
the abstract right of the king's bench to
issue prohibitions ;|| and the statute en-
titled Circumspecte agatis, in the thir-
teenth year of that prince, while by its
mode of expression it seems designed to
gua-anty the actual privileges of spirit-
ual jurisdiction, had a tendency, espe-
rip.lly with the disposition of the judges,
10 preclude the assertion of some which
are not therein mentioned. Neither the
right of advowson nor any temporal con-
tract is specified in this act as pertain-
ing to the church ; and accordingly the
temporal courts have ever since main-
tained an undisputed jurisdiction over
them.*^ They succeeded also partially
■* Prynne has produced several extracts from the
pipe rolls of Henry II., where a person has been
fined quia placitavit de laico feodo in cuhk chris-
tianitatis. And a bishop of Durham is fined five
hundred marks quia tenuit placitum de advocatione
cujusdam ccclesice in curia christianitatis. — Epistle
dedicatory to Prynne's Records, vol. iii. Glanvil
gives the form of a writ of prohibition to the spirit-
ual court for inquiring de feodo laico; for it had
jurisdiction over lands in frankalmoign. This is
conformable to the constitutions of Clarendon, and
shows that they were still in force ; though Col-
lier has the assurance to say, that they were re-
pealed soon after Becket's death, supporting this
also b,y a false quotation from Glanvil. — Ecclesi-
ast. Hist., vol. i., p. 380. Lyttleton's Henry II.,
vol. iii., p. 97.
t Cum judicandi Christos domini nulla sit laicis
attributa potestas, apud quos manet necessitas ob-
aequendi. — Wilkins, Concilia, t. i., p. 747.
i Id. ibid. ; et t. ii., p. 90.
^ Vide Wilkins, Concilia, t. ii., passim.
11 Licet prohibitiones hujusmodi a curia chris-
tiani.'simi regis nostri just4 proculdubio, ut dixi-
mus, concedantur. — Idem, t. ii., p. 100, and p. 115.
Yet after such an acknowledgment by Archbishop
Peckham, in the height' of ecclesiastical power,
and after a practice deducible from the age of
Henry II , some Protestants, as Archbishop Ban-
croft (2 Inst., 609) ; Gibson (preface to Codex
Jul. Eccl.); Collier (Ecclesiast. Hist., vol. i., p.
&22), have complained that the court of king's
oench should put any limits to their claims of spir-
itual jurisdiction.
^ The etitutc Circumspect^ agatis, for it is ar-
in preventing the impunity of crime?
perpetrated by clerks. It was enacte(
by the statute of Westminster, in I27a,
or rather a construction was put upon
that act, which is obscurely worded, that
clerks endicted for felony should not he
delivered to their ordinary until an in-
quest had been taken of the matter of ae
cusation ; and if they were found guilty,
that their real and personal estate should
be forfeited to the crown In later times,
the clerical privilege was not allowed till
the party had pleaded to the endictment,
and been duly convict, as is the practice
at present.*
The civil magistrates of France did not
by any means exert themselves j^ess vig
so vigorously for their emancipa- orows iji
tion. The same, or rather worse i''"""*^^-
usurpations existed, and the same com-
plaints were made, under Philip Augus-
tus, St. Louis, and Philip the Bold ; but
the laws of those sovereigns tend much
more to confirm than to restrain eccle-
siastical encroachments.! Some limita-
tions were attempted by the secular
courts ; and an historian gives us the
terms of a confederacy among the French
nobles, in 1246, binding themselves by
oath not to permit the spiritual judges to
take cognizance of any matter, except
heresy, marriage, and usury. J Unfortu-
nately, Louis IX. was almost as little
disposed as Henry III. to shake off the
yoke of ecclesiastical dominion. But
other sovereigns in the same period, from
various motives, were equally submis-
sive. Frederick II. explicitly adopts the
exemption of clerks from criminal as
knowledged as a statute, though not drawn up in
the form of one, is founded upon an answer of Ed-
ward I. to the prelates who had petitioned for some
modification of prohibitions. Collier, alwaysprone
to exaggerate church authority, insinuates that the
jurisdiction of the spiritual court over breaches of
contract, even without oath, is preserved by this
statute ; but the express words of the king show
that none whatever was intended ; and the arch-
bishop complains bitterly of it afterward. — Wil-
kins. Concilia, t. ii., p. 118. Collier's Ecclesiast.
History, vol. i., p. 487. So far from having any
cognizance of civil contracts not confirmed by
oath, to which I am not certain that the church
ever pretended in any country, the spiritual couit
had no jurisdiction at all even where an oath had
intervened, unless there was a deficiency of proof
by writing or witnesses. — Glanvil, 1. x., c. 12.
Constitut. Clarendon., art. 15.
* 2 Inst., p. 163.
t It seems deducible from a law of Philip Au-
gustus, Ordonnances des Rois, t. i., p. 39, that a
clerk convicted of some heinous offences might be
capitally punished after degradation ; yet a subse
quent ordinance, p. 43, renders this doubtful ; ano
the theory of clerical immunity beenme afterwB»4
m'je fully established.
Matt. Paris, p. 6J )
r-HAi. VlJ.j
ECCLESIASTICAL FUWER
30
•veil as civil jurisdiction of seculars.*
And Alfonso X. introduced the same sys-
tem in Castile ; a kingdom where neither
the papal authority nor the independence
of the church had obtained any legal rec-
ognition until the promulgation of his
code, which teems with all the principles
of the canon law.f It is almost needless
to mention that all ecclesiastical powers
and privileges were mcorporated with
the jurisprudence of the kingdom of Na-
ples, which, especially after the acces-
sion of the Angevin line, stood in a pe-
culiar relation of dependance upon the
Holy See.J
The vast acquisitions of landed wealth
Restraints "^^^^ ^^^ "'^"^ ^S^S by bisliops,
mi ahetia- chapters, and monasteries, began
tions in 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 ac-
tive co-operation which the spirit of feu-
dal tenures required, and that the nation-
al arm was palsied by the diminution of
military nobles. Again, the reliefs upon
succession, and similar dues upon aliena-
tion, incidental to fiefs, were entirely lost
when they came into the hands of these
undying corporations, to the serious in-
jury of the feudal superior. Nor could
it escape reflecting men, during the con-
test about investitures, 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-defence, 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 Ro-
* Statuimus, ut nuUus ecclesiasticam personam,
in criminali quaestione vel civili, trahere ad judici-
um saeculare proEsuinat. — Ordonnances des Roisde
i*'rance, t. i., p. 611, where this edict is recited and
approved by Louis Hutin. Phdip the Bold had
obtained leave from the pope to arrest clcks ac-
cused of heinous crimes, on condition of remitting
them to the bishop's court for trial. — Ilist. du
Droit. Eccl. Frani;., t. i., p. 426. A council at
Hourges, held in 1276, had so absolutely condemned
all interference of the secular power with clerks,
that the king was obliged to solicit this moderate
favour, p. 421.
t Marina, Ensayo Historico-Critico sobre las
siete partidas, c. 320, &c. Hist, du Droit Eccles.
Franc;., t. i., p. 442.
X Giannone, 1. xix., c. v. ; 1. xx., c. 8. One provis-
ion of Robert, king of Naples, is remarkable : it ex-
tends the immunity of clerks to their concubines.
—Ibid.
Villani strongly censures a law made at Flor-
ence, in 1345, taking away the personal immunity
of clerks in criminal cases. Though the state could
make such <\ law, hn says, it had no right to do so
«gai:ist the libertns of holy church 1 xii., c. 43.
man emperors, to check the overgrown
wealth of the liierarchy.* The first at-
tempt at a limitation of this description
in modern times was made by Frederick
Barbarossa, who, in 1158, enacted tliat no
fief should be transferred either to the
church or otherwise, without the permis-
sion of the superior lord. Louis IX. in-
serted a provision of the same kind in his
estabhshments.f Castile'had also laws of
a similar tendency. | A license from ilie
crown is said to have been necessary in
England before the conquest for aliena-
tions in mortmain ; but, however that may
be, there seems no reasoii to imagine
that any restraint was put upon them by
the common law before IMagna Cliarta ,
a clause of which statute was construed
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 license,
which was not supposed to be effected by
the statute.^
It must appear, I think, to every care-
ful inquirer, that the papal author- lioni.^ct
ity, though manifesting outward- ^'"i-
ly 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 tlirone. The
clergy were rendered sullen by demand?
of money, invasions of the legal right of
patronage, and unreasonable partiality to
the mendicant orders ; a part of llie men-
dicants themselves had begun to do-
claim against the corruptions of tiie pa-
pal court ; while the laity, subjects ; like
and sovereigns, looked upon l)otli llie
head and the members of the hierarchy
with jealousy and dislike. Boniface, full
of inordinate arrogance and aniliilion,
and not sufficiently sensible of this grad-
ual change in human opinion, endeavour-
ed to strain to a higher pitch the despot-
ic pretensions of former pontiff's. As
Gregory VII. appears tlie most usurping
of mankind till we read the history of In-
nocent III., so Innocent III. is tlirown
into shade by the superior audacity of
Boniface \ III. But independently of the
less favourable dispositions of the public,
he wanted the most essential quality for
an ambitious pope, reputation for integri
* Giannone, 1. iii.
■f- Ordonnances des Rois, p. 213. See too p. 303
and aliti. Du Cange, v. Manus morta. Aiywrtis-
siment, m Denisart, and other French law-books
Fleury, Instit. au Droit., t. i., p. 350.
t Marina, PInsayo sobre las siete partidas, c "126
4 2 Inst., p 74. Rlackstone vol. ii.,c IS
ao2
EUKOPE D.JRING THE MIDDLE AGES.
.rCnAP VII
ty. He was suspected of having procu-
red through fraud the resignation of his
predecessor Celestine V., and liis harsh
treatment of that worthy man afterward
seems to justify the reproach. His ac-
tions, however, display the intoxication
of extreme self-confidence. If we may
tredit some historians, he appeai-ed at
he Jubilee in 1300, a festival successful-
ly instituted by himself to throw lustre
around his court and fill his treasury,*
dressed in imperial habits, with the two
swords borne before him, emblems of his
temporal as well as spiritual dominion
over the earth. f
It was not long after his elevation to
n\s disputes ^^^^ pontificate before Boniface
with the displayed his temper. The two
EiTniaud iTiost powerful sovereigns of
Europe, Philip the Fair and Ed-
ward the First, began at the same mo-
ment to attack in a very arbitrary man-
ner the revenues of the church. The Eng-
lish clergy had, by their own voluntary
grants, or at least those of the prelates
in their rame, paid frequent subsidies to
the crown, from the beginning of the
reign of Henry HI. They had nearly, in
effect, waived the ancient exemption, and
retained only the common privilege of
English freemen to tax themselves in a
CDustitutional manner. But Edward I.
came upon them with demands so fre-
quent and exorbitant, that they were com-
pelled to take advantage of a bull issued
by Boniface, forbidding them to pay any
uontributicn to the state. The king dis-
regarded every pretext, and, seizing their
goods into his hands, with other tyran-
nical proceedings, ultimately forced them
to acquiesce in his extortion. It is re-
markable, that the pope appears to have
been passive throughout this contest of
Edward I. with his clergy. But it was
And of far otherwise in Fi-ance. Philip
France, iy^q Yah had imposed a tax on the
* The .Jubilee was a centenary commemoration,
in h&noiir of St. Peter and St. Paul, established
by Boniface VIII. on the faith of an imaginary pre-
cedent a century before. The period was soon re-
duced to fifty years, and from thence to twenty-
five, as it still continues. The court of Rome, at
Jhe nextjubilee, will, however, read with a sigh the
description given of that in 1300. Papa innumera-
bilem pecuniam ab iisdem recepit, quia die et nocte
iao clerici stabant ad altare Sancti Pauli, tenentes
in eorum manibus rastellos, rastellantes pecuniam
infinitam. — Muratori. Plenary indulgences were
grar.ted by Boniface to all who should keep their
jubilse at Rome, and I suppose are still to be had
on the same terms. Rfattco Villani gives a curi-
•aus account of the throng at Rome in 1350.
t Giannone, I. x.^i., c. 3. Velly, t. vii.,*p. 149.
nave not observed any good autliority referred to
for this fact, which is however in '.he character of
Bonifaco.
ecclesiastical orderwithout thcxr consent,
a measure perhaps unprecedented, yet
not more odious than the similar exac-
tions of the King of England Irritated
by some previous differences, 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 gov-
ernment without his especial permission.
Though France was not particularly na-
med, the king understood hiinself to be
intended, and took his revenge by a pro
hibition to export money from the king
dom. This produced angry remonstran-
ces on the part of Boniface ; but the Gal-
ilean church adhered so faithfully to the
crown, and showed indeed so much wi!
lingness to be spoiled of their money, the I
he could not insist upon the most unrea
sonable propositions of his bull, and ulti-
mately allowed that the French clergy
might assist their sovereign by voluntary
contributions, though not by way of tax.
For a very few years after these cir-
cumstances, 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 pomift';" an
almost nugatory precaution against his
encroachment upon temporal authority.*
But a terrible slorm broke out in the first
year of the fourteenth century. A bish-
op of Pamiers, who had been sent as le-
gate from Boniface with some complaint,
displaj'^ed 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
a view to institute a criminal process.
Boniface, incensed beyond measure at
this violation of ecclesiastical and lega-
tine privileges, publishea several bulls
addressed to the king and clergy of
* Walt. Hemingford, p. 150. The awa.-" of
Boniface, which he expresses himself to make both
as pope and Benedict of Gaeta, is published in Ry-
mer, t. ii., p. 819, and is very equitable. Never-
theless, the French historians agree to charge him
with partiality towards Edward, and mention sev-
eral proofs of it, which do not appear in the bull it-
self. Previous to its publication, it was allowable
enough to follow common fame ; but Velly, a wri-
ter always careless and not always honest, has lo-
peated mere falsehoods from Mezeray nnd Baihet,
while he refers to the instrument itself ir. Rymer,
which disproves them. — Hist, de France, t. vii., p.
139. M. Gaillard, one of the most candid critics in
history that France ever produced, pointed out the
error of her common historians in the Mem. de
I'Academie des Inscriptions, t. xxxix., p. C42 ; and
the editors of L'Ar' le verifier les Dates have al««
rectified it
Cbai-. VIL]
ECCLESIASTICAL POWER.
30
France, cliarging the formw with a vari-
ety of offences, some 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 ex-
ception, 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
f^xplicitly 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 burnt at
Paris. Determined, however, to show
the real strength of his opposition, he
summoned representatives from the three
orders of his kingdom. This is common-
y reckoned the first assembly of the
States-General. The nobility and com-
mons disclaimed with firmness the tem-
poral authority of the pope, and conveyed
their sentiments to Rome through letters
addressed to the college of cardinals.
The clergy endeavoured to steer a mid-
dle course, and were reluctant to enter
mto an engagement not to obey the
pope's summons ; yet they did not hesi-
tate unequivocally to deny his temporal
jurisdiction.
The council, however, opened at Rome ;
md, notwithstanding the king's absolute
prohibition, many French prelates held
themselves bound to be present. In this
assembly Boniface promulgated his fa-
mous constitution, denominated Unam
Sanctam. The church is one body, he
therein declares, and has one head. Un-
der its command are two swords, the one
spiritual, and 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 spiritual authority. He
concludes by declaring the subjection of
every human being to the See of Rome
to be an article of necessary faith.* An-
other bull pronounces all persons of what-
ever rank obliged to appear when person-
ally cited before the audience or apostol-
ical tribunal of Rome ; " since such is our
pleasure, who, by divine permission, rule
* Uterque est in potestate ecclesiaj, spiritalis,
scilicet gladius et materialis. Sed is quidein pro
eccIesiS, ille vero ab ecclesiS exRrcendus : ille sa-
cerdotis, is manu recutn ac militnin, sed ad nutuin
et patientiam sacerdotis. Oportet aiilem gladiiiin
esse sub gladio, et temporalem auctoritatem spiii-
tali subjici potestati. Porro subosse Romano pon-
tifici omni humanae creaturae declaramus, dicimus,
definimus et pronunciamus omnino esse de neces-
•itate fidei — Ritravig'nt., 1. i., tit. viii., c. 1.
the world." Finally, as the -upture with
Philip grew more evidently irreconcila-
ble, and the measures pursued by that
monarch more hostile, he not only ex-
communicated him, but offered the crowr
of France to the EmperorAlbert I. This
arbitrary transference of kingdoms was,
like many other pretensions of that age,
an improvement upon the right of depo-
sing excommunicated sovereigns. Greg-
ory VII. would not have denied that a
nation, released by his authority from its
allegiance, must rj-enter upon its origi-
nal right of electing a new sovereign. But
Martin IV. had assigned the crown of Ar-
agon to Charles of Valois ; the first in-
stance, I think, of such a usurpation of
power, but which was defended by the
homage of Peter II., who had rendered
his kingdom feudally dependant, like Na-
ples, upon the Holy See.* Albert felt no
eagerness to realize the liberal promises
of Boniface ; who was on the point of is-
suing a bull, absolving the subjects of
Philip from their allegiance, and declaring
his forfeiture, when a very unexpected
circumstance interrupted all his projects.
It is not surprising, when we consider
how unaccustomed men were in those
ages to disentangle the artful sophisms,
and detect the falsehoods in point of fact^
whereon the papal supremacy had been
established, that the King of France
should not have altogether pursued the
course most becoming his dignity and the
goodness of his cause. He gave too
much the air of a personal quarrel with
Boniface to what should have been a res-
olute 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, imputing
to him various heresies, and ultimately
appealing to a general council and a law-
ful head of the church. These measures
were not very happily planned : and ex-
* Innocent IV. had, however, in 1215, appointed
one Bolon, brother to Sancho II., king of Portugal,
to be a sort of coadjutor in the government of
that kingdom, enjoiniijg the barons to honour him
as their sovereign, at the same time declaring that
he did not intend to deprive the king, or bis lawful
issue, if he should hare any, cf the kingdom. But
this was founded ;n the request of the Portuguese
nobility themselves, who were dissati.otied with
Sancho's administration. — Sext. Decretal., 1. i., til
viii., c. 2. Art de Verifier les Dates, t. i.,p. 778.
Boniface invested James II. of Aragon with tht
crown of Sardinia, over which, however, the See
of Rome had always pretended to a superiority bj
■\\- tue of the concession (prrbably spurious) of Lou
is the Debonair. He proir.iced Frederick, king of
Sicily, the empire of Constantinople, which, I sup
•^3se, was not a fief Df r'lie Holv Sec. — Giaunnno
yy , c. 3.
aoi
EUROPE DJRING THE MlDDLE AGES
1_L'h
penence had arways shown, that Europe
would no submit to change the common
chief of her religion for the purposes of
a single sovereign. But Philip succeed-
ed in an attempt apparently more bold
and singular. Nogaret, a minister who
had taken an active share in all the pro-
ceedings against Boniface, was secretly
despatched into Italy, and, joining with
some of the Colonna family, proscribed
as Ghibeiins, and rancorously persecuted
by the pope, arrested him at Anagnia, a
town HI the neighbourhood of Rome, to
which he had gone without guards. This
violent action was not, one would ima-
gine, calculated to place the king in an
advantageous light ; yet it led accidental-
ly to a favourable termination of his dis-
pute. Boniface was soon rescued by the
inhabitants of Anagnia ; but rage brought
on a fever, which ended in his death ; and
the first act of his successor, Benedict
XL, was to reconcile the King of France
to the Holy See.*
The sensible decline of the papacy is
to be dated from the pontificate of Bon-
iface VIII., who had strained its author-
ity to a higher pitch than any of his pre-
decessors. There is a spell wrought by
uninterrupted good fortune, which cap-
tivates men's understanding, and per-
suades them, against reasoning and anal-
ogy, that violent power is immortal and
irresistible. The spell is broken by the
first change of success. We have seen
the working and the dissipation of this
charm with a rapidity to which the events
of former times bear as remote a rela-
tion as the gradual processes of nature to
her deluges and her volcanoes. In tra-
cing the papal empire over mankind, we
have no such marked and definite crisis
of revolution. But slowly, like the re-
treat of waters, or the stealthy pace of
old age, that extraordinary power over
human opinion has been subsiding for
five centuries. I have already observed,
that the symptoms of internal decay may
be traced farther back. But as the re-
trocession of the Roman terminus under
Adrian gave the first overt proof of de-
cline in the ambitious energies of that
empire, so the tacit submission of the
successors of Boniface VIII. to the King
of France might have been hailed by
Europe as a token that their influence
was beginning to abate. Imprisoned, in-
sisted, deprived eventually of life by the
violence of Philip, a prince excommuni-
cated, and who had gone all lengths in
» Velly, Hist, de France, t. -ii., p. 109-258. Cre ,
■".•^r, Hist, de rUniversi:6 de Paris, t. ii., p. 170, ,
h.c. I
defying and despising the papal jurisdic-
tion, Boniface had every claim to bo
avenged by the inheritors of the same
spiritual dominion. When Benedict Xl
rescinded the bulls of his predecessor,
and admitted Philip the Fair to commu
nion without insisting on any concessioiiij,
he acted perhaps prudently, but gave a
fatal blow to the temporal authority oi
Rome.
[A. D. 1305.] Benedict XI. lived but a
few months, and his successor. Removal o-
Clement V., at the instigation, papal court
as is commonly supposed, of ^°-^^'g"on
the King of France, by Avhose influence
he had been elected, took the extraordi-
nary step of removing the papal chair to
Avignon. In this city it remained for
more than seventy years ; a period which
Petrarch and other writers of Italy com-
pare 1 3 that of the Babylonish captivity
The majority of the cardinals was always
French, and ihe popes were uniformly
of the same nation. Timidly dependant
upon the court of France, they neglected
the interests, and lost the affections of
Italy. Rome, forsaken by her sovereign,
nearly forgot her allegiance; what re-
mained of papal authority in the ecclesi-
astical territories was exercised by car-
dinal legates, little to the honour or ad-
vantage of the Holy See. Yet the series
of Avignon pontiffs were far from in-
sensible to Itahan politics. These occu-
pied, on the contrary, the greater part of
their attention. But engaging in them
from motives too manifestly selfish, and
being regarded as a sort of foreigners
from birth and residence, they aggra-
vated that unpopularity and bad reputa-
tion which from various other causes
attached itself to their court.
Though none of the supreme pontiffs
after Boniface VIII. ventured „
, 1- •. X- Contest of
upon such explicit assumptions popes with
of a general jurisdiction over i.ouisof
sovereigns by divine right as he ^^*^"*-
had made in his controversy with Philip,
they maintained one memorable struggle
for temporal power against the Emperoi
Louis of Bavaria. Maxims long boldly
repeated without contradiction, and in
grafted upon the canon law, passed al-
most for articles of faith among the
clergy, and those who trusted in them ;
and, in despite of all ancient authorities,
Clement V. laid it down, that the popes,
having transferred the Roman empire
from the Greeks to the Germans, and
delegated the right of nominating an
em.peror to certain electors, st.ll reserved
the prerogative of approving the choice
and of receiving from it.« subject UDon his
Chap Vll.J
ECCr.ESIASUCAL, POWER
SOS
coronation an oath of fealty and obedi-
ence.* This had a regard to Henry VII.,
wlio denied that his oath bore any such
interpretation, and whose measures, much
10 the alarm of the court of Avignon,
were directed towards the restoration of
his imperial rights in Italy. Among other
things, he conferred the rank of vicar of
the empire upon Matteo Visconti, lord
of Milan. The popes had for some time
pretended to possess that vicariate, du-
ring a vacancy of the empire ; and after
Henry's death, insisted upon Visconti's
surrender of the title. Several circum-
stances, for which I refer to the political
historians of Italy, produced a war be-
tween the pope's legate and the Visconti
family. The Emperor Louis sent assist-
ance to the latter, as heads of the Ghib-
elin or imperial party. This interference
cost him above twenty years of trouble.
John XXII., a man as passionate and
ambitious as Boniface himself, immedi-.
ately published a bull, in which he assert-
ed the right of administering the empire
during its vacancy (even in Germany, as
it seems from the generality of his ex-
pression), as well as of deciding in a
doubtful choice of the electors, to apper-
tain to the Holy See ; and commanded
Louis to lay do^n his pretended autlior-
.ty, until the supreme jurisdiction should
determine upon his election. Louis's
election had indeed been questionable ;
but that controversy was already settled
in the field of Muhldorf, 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 several years that Germany had
been internally distracted by the dispute.
TA. D. 1323.] The emperor, not yielding
CO this peremptory order, was excommu-
nicated ; his vassals were absolved from
their oath of fealty, and all treaties of
alliance between him and foreign princes
annulled. Germany, however, remained
firm ; and if Louis himself had manifest-
ed more decision of mind and uniformity
in his conduct, the court of Avignon must
have signally failed in a contest, from
* Romani princip-s, 6/i, Romano ponti-
fici, a quo approoationein persons ad imperialis
celsitudinis ?.-,,iceir. assutnenda;,necnonunctionem,
consecrationern et impeni coronam accipiunt, sua
•ubmitters capita non reputarunt indigjium, seque
iili et eidein ecclesiaj, quae a Graecis imperium tran-
stulit in Germancs, et a qua ad certos eorum prin-
cipes jus et potestas eligendi regem, in imperato-
rein postmodum ])romovendum, pertinet, adstrin-
gere vinculo juramenti, &.c. — Clement., 1. ii., tit. ix.
The terms of the oath, as recited in this constitu-
.ion, do not warrant the pope's interpretation, but
imply only that the emperor shall be the advTvate
cr defender of the church
II
which it did not in fact come out very
successful. But while at one time he
went intemperate lengths against Juhn
XXII., publishing scandalous accusations
in an assembly of the citizens of Rome,
and causing a Franciscan friar to be
chosen in his room,, after an irregula*
sentence of deposition, he was alwa^'>
anxious to negotiate terms of accomm'o
dation, to give up his own active parti
sans, and to make concessions the mos.
derogatory to his independence and dig
nity. From John, indeed, he had nothin»
to expect ; but Benedict XII. would gladly
have been reconciled, if he had not feared
the kings of France and Naples, pohtical
adversaries of the emperor, who kept
the Avignon popes in a sort of servitude
His successor, Clement VI., inherited the
implacable animosity of John XXII. to-
wards Louis, who died without obtaining
the absolution he had long abjectly soli-
cited.*
Though the want of firmness in this
emperor's character gave some- .... ,.
• ■ • ^ • 1 . Spirit of re-
times a momentaiy triumph to sisiance to
the popes, it is evident that their I'^i'^i usur
authority lost ground during the i''"'°"^
continuance of this struggle. Their rig. it
of confirming imperial elections was ex
pressly denied by a diet held at Frank-
fort, in 1338, which established as a fun
damental principle that the imperial dig-
nity depended upon God alone, and that
whoever shcfuld be chosen by a majority
of the electors became immediately both
king and emperor, witii all prerogatives*
of that station, and did not require the
approbation of the pope.f This law, con-
firmtid 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 con-
structing for more than two centuries
* Schmidt, Hist, des Allemands, t. iv., p. 446,
536, seems the best modern authority for this con-
test between the empire and papacy.— See also
Struvius, Corp. Hist. Gcrinan., p. 591.
t Quod imperialis dignitas et potestas immediate
ex solo Deo, et quod de jure et imperii consuetudi
ne antiquitus approbata postqiiam allqiiis eligitur
in imperatorem sive rcgem ab electonhus imperii
concorditer, vel majori parte eorundem, statiin ex
sola electione est rex verus et imperator Roman-
orum censendus et nominandus, et eidem debet ab
omnibus imperio subjectisobediri, et administrandi
jura imperii, et ca^tera facieiidi, qua ad imperato
rem verum pertinent, plenariam habet potestatem,
nee Papa; sive sedis apostolicaj an! a'inijv s alteri-
us approbatione, confirmatione, auctoiilatc indiget
vel consensu. — Schmidt, p. 513
noci
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap Vil
Several men of learning, among whom
Dante, Ockham, and Marsilius of Padua,
are the most conspicuous, investigated
the foundaiions of this superstructure,
and exposed their insufficiency.* Liter-
ature, 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 mankind to scrutinize what
liad been received with implicit respect,
and prepared the way for more philosoph-
ical discussions. About this time a new
class of enemies had unexpectedly risen
up against the rulers of the church.
These were a part of the Franciscan or-
der, who had seceded from the main
body on account of alleged deviations
from the rigour of their primitive rule.
Their schism was chiefly founded upon
a quibble about the right of property in
things consumable, which they maintain-
ed to be incompatible with the absolute
poverty prescribed to them. This friv-
olous sophistry was united with the wild-
est fanaticism ; and as John XXII. at-
tempted to repress their follies by a cruel
persecution, they proclaimed aloud the
corruption of the church, fixed the name
Df antichrist upon the papacy, and warm-
ly supported the Emperor Louis through-
out all his contention with the Holy See.j
Meanwhile the popes who sat at Avig-
Rapncity of ""^'^ continued to invade with
Avignon surprising rapaciousness the
popes. patronage and revenues of the
church. The mandats or letters directing
a particular clerk to be preferred seems
to have given place in a great degree to
the more effectual method of appropria-
ting benefices by reservation or provis-
ion, which was carried to an enormous
extent in the fourteenth century. John
XXIL, the most insatiate of pontiflfs, re-
* Giannone, 1. xxii., c. 8. Schmidt, t. vi., p. 152.
Dante was dead before these events, but his prin-
ciples were the same. Ockham had already ex-
erted his talents in the same cause by writing, in
belialf of Philip IV. against Boniface, a dialogue
betwet,-i a knight and a clerk on the temporal su-
premacy of the church. This is published among
other tracts of the same class m Gol iastus, Monar-
chia Imperii, p. 13. This dialogue is translated
entire in the Songe du Vergier, a more celebrated
performance, ascribed to Raoul de Presles under
Charles V.
t The schism of the rigid Franciscans or Fratri-
celli is one of the most singular parts of ecclesias-
tical history, and had a material tendency both to
depress the temporal authority of the papacy, and
to pave the way for the Reformation. It is fully
treated by MosVieim, cent. 13 and 14 ; arid by Cre-
vier. Hist de '; Universite de Paris ♦. ii., p. 233-
2f)l. \-( .
served to himself all the bishoprics in
Christendom.* Benedict XII. assumed
the privilege for his own life of disposinji
of all benefices vacant by cession, depri-
vation, or translation. Clement VI. nat
urally thought that his title was equal! v
good with his predecessor's, and contin-
ued the same right for his own tim*; ,
Avhich soon became a permanent rule ol
the Roman chancery. f Hence the ap-
pointment of a prelate to a rich bishopric
was generally but the first link in a chain
of translation, whicli the pope could reg-
ulate according to his Miterest. Another
capital innovation was made by John
XXII. in the establishment of the famous
tax called annates, 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 col-
lectors throughout Europe. | Various
other devices were invented to obtain
money, which these degenerate popes
abandoning the magnificent schemes of
their predecessors, were content to seek
as their principal object. John XXIL is
sail to have accumulated an almost in-
credible treasure, exaggerated perhaps
by the ill-will of his contemporaries ,§
but it may be doubted whether even his
avarice reflected greater dishonour on
the church than the licentious piofuse-
ness of Clement VI. ||
These exactions were too much en-
couraged by the kings of France, who
participated in the plunder, or at least re-
quired the mutual assistance of the popes
for their own imposts on the clergy.
John XXII. obtained leave of Charles
* Fleury, Institutions, &c., t. i., p. 368. F. Paul
on Benefices, c. 37.
t F. Paul, c. 38. Translations of bishops had
been made by the authority of the metropolitan,
till Innocent III. reserved this prerogative to the
Holy See. — De Marca, 1. vi., c. 8.
} F. Paul, c. 38. Fleury, p. 424. De Marca, 1.
vi., c. 10. Pasquier, 1. iii., c. 28. The popes h.jd
long been in the habit of receiving a pecuniary g/a
tuity when they granted the pallium to an arcnbish
op, though this was reprehended by strict men, and
even condemned by themselves. — De Marca, ibid.
It is noticed as a remarkable thing of Innocent IV.,
that he gave the pall to a German archbishop
without accepting any thing. — Schmidt, t. iv., p
172. The original and nature of atinates is cc
piously treated in Lenfant, Concile de Constance
t. ii., p. 133.
() G. Villani puts this at 25,000,000 of florina
which it is hardly possible to beiieve. The Ital
ians were credulous enough to liBlen to any report
against the popes of Avignon. — L xi. c 20. Gian-
none, 1. xxii., c. 8.
II For the corruption of mornls at .A jgnon '5"r!n|
the secession, see De Sade, Vie d Petiarciu«.
i., p 70, and seTP.ral other citsageii
Chap Vli.J
ECCLESIASTICAL POWER.
307
the Fair to le^y a tenth of ecclesiastical
revenues,* and Clement VI., in return,
granted two tenths to Philip of Valois
for the expenses of his war. A similar
tax was raised by the same authority
towards the ransom of John.f These
were contributions for national purposes
unconnected with religion, which the
popes had never before pretended to
impose, and which the king might prop-
erl}' have levied with the consent of his
clergy, according to the practice of Eng-
.and. But that consent miglit not always
be obtained with ease, and it seemed a
mure expeditious method to call in the
authority of the pope. 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 dubious and insu-
lated Pragmatic Sanction of St. Louis,
from which the practice of succeeding
ages in France entirely deviate. 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 in-
termeddling in tVe quarrel of Scotland. |
This letter, it is remarkable, is nearly
:;o-incident in point of time with that of
the French nobility ; and the two com-
bined may be considered as a joint pro-
testation of both kingdoms, and a testi-
mony to the general sentiment among
the superior ranks of the laity. A very
few years afterward, the parliament of
Carlisle wrote a strong remonstrance to
Clement V. against the system of pro-
visions and other extortions, including
that of first fruits, which it was rumour-
ed, 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 magnani-
mous son took a bolder line. After com-
* Conlinuator Gul. de Nanpis, in Spicilegio
d'Achery, t. iii., p. 8(5 (folio ed.), ita miserameccle-
siain, says this monk, iinus tondet, alter excoriat.
f Fleury, Institiit. au Droit eccl^siastique, t. ii.,
p. 245. Villaret, t. ix., p. 4.31. It became a regular
practice for the iting to obtain the pope's consent
,0 lay a tax on his clergy ; though he sometimes
applied first to themselves. — Gamier, t. xx., p. Ml.
X Rymer, t. ii., p. .373. Collier, vol. i., p. 725.
^ Rotuli Parliamenti, vol. i., p. 204. This pas-
sage, hastily read, has led Collier and otner English
writers, such as Henry and Blackstone, into the
supposition that annates were imposed by Clem-
2;it V. But the concurrent testimony of foreign
authors refers this tax to John XXII., as the canon
law also shows. — Extravagant. Communes, 1. iii.,
'.it ii., c. 11.
The statute called Articuli cleri, in 1316, was
ITO
plaining ineffcc ually to Clement VI. of
the enormous 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 suppo-
sed to have been made at the parliament
of Carlisle, which, however, does not ap-
pear,! ti"d complaining in strong language;
of the mischief sustamed through con
tinual reservations of benefices, enact.s
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, tlie king
should for that turn have the collation
of such benefice, if it be of ecclesiastical
election or patronage. J This devolution
to the crown, which seems a little arbi-
trary, was the only remedy that could be
effectual against the connivance and ti-
midity of chapters and spiritual patrons.
We cannot assert that a statute so nobly
planned was executed with equal stead-
iness. Sometimes by royal dispensa-
tion, sometimes by neglect or evasion
the papal bidls of provision were still
obeyed, though fresh laws were enacted
to the same effect as the former. It was
found on exammation in 1367, that some
clerks enjoyed more than twenty benefi-
ces by the pope's dispensation.^ And
the parliaments botli of this and of Rich-
ard II.'s reign invariably complain of the
disregard shown to the statutes of provi-
sors. This led to other measures, which
I shall presently mention.
The residence of the popes at Avignon
gave very general offence to Eu- Rp,urn o(
rope, and they conld not them- Popes to
selves avoid perceiving the dis- J^"""^-
advantage of absence from their proper
diocess, the city of St. Peter, the source
of all their claims to sovereign autliority.
But Rome, so long abandoned, oflered
but an inhospitable reception ; Urban V.
directed rather towards confirming than limiting
the clerical immunity in criminal cases.
* Collier, p. 546.
t It is singular that Sir E. Coke should asscii
that this act recites, and is founded upon the stat
ute 35 E. I., De asportatis religiosorum (2 Inst,,
580) ; whereas there is not the least resemblance
in the words, and very little, if any, in the sub-
stance. Blackstone, inconsequence, mistakes thf-
natiire of that act of Edward I., and supposes it
to have been made against papal provisions, to
which I do not perceive even an allusion. Whether
any such statute was really made in the Carlisle
parliament of 35 E. I., as is asserted both iu
25 E. III., and in tlie roll of another parliainen"
17 E. 111. (Rot. Pari,, t. ii., p. 144), is hard tode
cide ; and perhaps those who examine this poin
will have to choose betiveen wilful suppres
and v»i)ful interpolation.
t 25 E. HI., Stat. 6. ) Collier, p. 508.
SOS
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
[Ciiap VII.
returned to Avignon, after a short exper-
iment 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 XI.
His death, which happened soon after-
ward, prevented, it is said, a second
flight that he was preparing. This was
followed by the great schism, one of the
most remarkable events in ecclesiastical
history. It is a difficult and by no means
Contested an interesting question to deter-
fiectionof jnine the validity of that contest-
^nd cie- ed election which distracted the
ment \ii. Latin church for so many years.
[A. D. 1377.] All contemporary testimo-
nies are subject to the suspicion of partial-
ity in a cause where no one was permitted
to be neutral. In one fact, however, there
IS a common agreement, that the cardinals,
of whom the majority were French, hav-
ing assembled in conclave for the elec-
tion of a successor to Gregory XL, were
disturbed by a tumultuous populace, who
demanded with menaces a Roman, or, at
least, an Italian pope. This tumult ap-
pears to have been sufficiently violent to
excuse, and in fact did produce, a con-
siderable degree of intimidation. After
some time, the cardinals made choice of
the Archbishop of Bari, a Neapolitan, who
assumed the name of Urban VI. His
election satisfied the populace, and tran-
quillity was restored. The cardinals an-
nounced their choice to the absent mem-
bers of their college, and behaved to-
wards Urban as their pope for several
weeks. But his uncommon harslmess
of temper giving them offence, they
witlidrew to a neighbouring town, and
protesting 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. Constraint
is so destructive of the essence of elec-
tion, that suffrages given through actual
mtimidation ought, I think, to be held in-
valid, even without minutely inquiring
whether the degree of illegal force was
such as might reasonably overcome the
constancy of a firm mind. It is improb-
able that the free votes of the cardinals
would have been bestowed on the Arch-
bishop of Bari ; and I should not feel
much hesitation in pronouncing his elec-
tion to have been void. But the sacred
college unquestionably did not use the
earliest opportunity of protesting against
he violence thev had suffered ; and we
may infer almost with certeinty, thai if
Urban's conduct had been more accepta-
ble to that body, the world would have
heard little of the transient riot at hi.i
election. This however opens i. deh
cate question in jurisprudence ; namely
under what circumstance acts, not only
in'egular, but substantially invalid, are
capable of receiving a retro-active con-
firmation by the acquiescence and ac
knowledgment of parties concerned to
oppose them. And upon this, I con-
ceive, the great problem of legitimacy
between Urban and Clement will be
found to depend.*
Whatever posterity may have judged
about the pretensions of these The Great
competitors, they at that time Scbisrn.
shared the obedience of Europe in near
ly equal proportions. Urban remained at
Rome ; Clement resumed the station of
Avignon. To the former adhered Italy
the empire, England, and the nations 0/
the north ; the latter retained in his alle
giance France, Spain, Scotland, and Si-
cily. Fortunately for the church, no
question of religious faith intermixed it-
self with this schism ; nor did any other
impediment to reunion exist, than the
obstinacy and selfishness of the contend-
ing parties. As it was impossible to
come to any agreement on the original
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 honourable in her annals
The cardinals however of neither obedi
ence would recede so far from their par.
ty as to suspend the election of a succes-
sor upon a vacancy of the pontificate,
which would have at least removed one
half of the obstacle. The Roman con-
clave accordingly placed three pontiffs
successively, Boniface IX., Innocent VI.,
and Gregory XII., in the seat of Urban
VI. ; and the cardinals at Avignon, 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
* Lenfant has collected all the original testimo
nies on both sides in the first book of his Concilg
de Pise. No positive decision has ever been mad(
on the subject, but the Roman popes are numbere<i
in tlie commonly received list, and those of Avignop
are not. The modern . talian writers e.xpress n«
doubt about the legitimacy of Urban ; the French
at most intimate that Clement's pretensions wer«
\ not to le wholly rejected. But I am saying tot
! much on a question so ute ily unimportant.
Chap. VILl
ECCLESIASTICAL PUWER
doy
sacrifice his dignity for the sake of union.
But there was no subterfuge to which
this crafty pontiff had not recourse in or-
der to avoid compliance with his word,
though importuned, threatened, and even
besieged in his palace at Avignon. Fa-
tigued by his evasions, France withdrew
her obedience, and the Galilean church
continued for a few years without ac-
knowledging any supreme head. But this
step, which was rather the measure of
the university at Paris than of the nation.
It seemed advisable to retract ; and Ben-
edict was again obeyed, though France
continued to urge his resignation. A
second subtraction of obedience, or at
least declaration of neutrality, was re-
solved upon, as preparatory to the con-
vocation of a general council. On the
other hand, those who sat at Rome dis-
played not less insincerity. Gregory
XII. bound himself by oath on his acces-
sion to abdicate when it should appear
necessary. But while these rivals were
loading each other with the mutual re-
proach of schism, they drew on them-
selves the suspicion of at least a virtual
collusion in order to retain their respect-
ive stations. At length the cardinals of
both parties, wearied with so much dis-
simulation, deserted their masters, and
summoned a general council to meet at
Pisa.*
[A. D. 1409.] The council assembled at
Council Pisa deposed both Gregory and
of Pisa; Benedict, without deciding in any
respect as to their pretensions, and elect-
ed Alexander V. by its own supreme au-
thority. This authority, however, was
not universally recognised ; the schism,
instead of being healed, became more
desperate ; for, as Spain adhered firmly
to Benedict, and Gregory was not with-
out supporters, there were now three
contending pontiffs in the church. A
general council was still, however, the
favourite, and indeed the sole remedy ;
and John XXIII., successor of Alexander
of Con- v., was reluctantly prevailed upon,
stance; qj. perhaps trepanned into convo-
king one to meet at Constance. [A. D.
1414.] In this celebrated assembly he
was himstlf deposed; a sentence which
he incurred by that tenacious clinging to
his dignity, after repeated promises to
abdicate, which had already proved fatal
Co his competitors. The deposition of
John, confessedly a legitimate pope, may
Jtrike us as an extraordinary measure.
But, besides the opportunity it might af-
* Villaret. Lenfant, Concile de Pise. Crevier,
Hist, de I'Uuivcrsite de Par's, t. iii.
ford of restoring union, the council found
a pretext for this sentence in his enor-
mous vices, which indeed they seem to
have taken upon common fame without
any judicial process. The true motive,
however, of their proceedings against
him, was a desire to make a signal dis-
play of a new system, which had rapidly
gained ground, and wliich I may venture
to call the whig principles of the Catholic
church. A great question was at issue,
whether the polity of that establishment
should be an absolute, or an exceedingly
limited monarchy. The papal tyranny,
long endured and still increasing, had ex-
cited an active spirit of reformation which
the most distinguislied ecclesiastics of
France and other countries encouraged
They recurred, as far as their knowledge
allowed, to a more primitive discipline
than the canon law, and elevated the su-
premacy 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 assem-
blies. 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 nat-
urally accessible to the pride of sudden
elevation, which enabled them to con-
trol the strong, and humiliate the lol'ty.
In addition to this, the adversaries of the
court of Rome carried another not less
important innovation. The Italian bish-
ops, almost universally in the papal inter-
ests, were so numerous, that, if suffrages
had been taken by the head, their pre-
ponderance would have impeded any
measures of transalpine nations towards
reformation. It was determined, there-
fore, 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. f This
* Lenfant, Concile de Constance, t. i., p. ]07
(edit. 1727). Crevier, t. iii., p. 405. It was agreed
that the ambassadors could not vote upon articles
of faith, but only on questions relating to the set-
tlement of the church. But the second order of
ecclesiastics were allowed to vote generally.
t This separation of England, as a coequal litnt
of the council, gave great umbrage to the French,
who maintained that, like Denmark and Sweden,
it ought to have lieen reckoned along with Germa-
ny. The English deputies came down with a pro
fusion of authorities to prove the antiquity of thcir
monarchy, for which they did not fail to put in re
quisition the immeasurable pedigrees of Ireland.
Joseph of Arimalhea, f ho planted Chti^tianitv anA
316
EL ROPE DURING THE MIDDIE AGES.
LCa..- Vlj
revolulionary spirit was very unaccepta-
ble to the cardinals, who submitted re-
luctantly, and with a determination that
did not prove altogether unavailing, to
save their papal monarchy by a dexter-
ous 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 reformation of
the church both in its head and its mem-
bers ; 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 re-
spect to the p'iral authority which dis-
tinguished the Galilean church, and is
embraced, I presume, by almost all lay-
mer. and the major part of ecclesiastics
on this side of the Alps. They embar-
rass the more popish churchmen as the
Revolution does our English tories ;
some boldly impugn the authority of the
council of Constance, while others chi-
cane upon the interpretation of its de-
crees. Their practical importance is not,
indeed, direct; universal councils exist
only in possibility ; but the acknowledg-
ment of a possible authority paramount
to the see of Rome has contributed,
among other means, to check its usur-
pations.
The purpose for which these general
councils had been required, next to that of
healing the schism, was the reformation
of abuses. All the rapacious exactions,
all the scandalous venality of which Eu-
rope had complained, while unquestioned
pontiffs ruled at Avignon, appeared light
in comparison of the practices of both
rivals during the schism. Tenths repeat-
edly levied upon the clergy, annates rig-
orously exacted and enhanced by new
valuations, fees annexed to the complica-
ted formalities of the papal chancery,
were the means by which each half of
the church was compelled to reimburse
bis stick at Glastonbury, did his best to help the
cause. The recent victory of Azincourt, I am in-
chned to think, had more weight vviih the council.
— Lenfant, t. ii., p. 46.
At a time when a very different spirit prevailed,
the English bishops under Henry II. and Henry
III. had claimed as a right, that no more than four
of their number should be summoned to a general
council.— Hoveden, p. 320; Carte, vol. ii., p. 84.
This was like boroughs praying to be released from
sending members to parliament.
* Idem, p. 104. Crevier, t. iii.. p. 417.
its chief for the subtraction of the other's
obedience. Boniface IX., one of the Ro-
man line, whose fame is a little worse
than that of his antagonists, made a gross
traffic of his patronage ; selhnj; the privi-
leges of exemption from ordinarv juris-
diction, of holding benefices in cummen-
dam, and other dispensations invented foi
the benefit of the Holy See.* Nothing
had been attempted at Pisa towards ref-
ormation. At Constance the majority
were ardent and severe ; the representa-
tives of the French, German, and English
churches met with a determined and, as
we have seen, not always unsuccessful
resolution to assert their ecclesiastical
liberties. They appointed a committee
of reformation, whose recommendations,
if carried into eff'ect, would have annihi-
lated almost entirely liiat artfully con-
structed machinery by which Rome had
absorbed so much of the revenues and
patronage of the church. But men in-
terested in perpetuating these abuses, es-
pecially the cardinals, improved the ad-
vantages which a skilful government al-
ways enjoys in playing against a popular
assembly. They availed themselves of
the jealousies arising out of the division
of the council into nations, which exteri-
or political circumstances had enhanced.
France, then at war with England, whoso
pretensions to be counted as a fourth na-
tion she had warmly disputed, and not
well disposed towards the Emperor Si-
gismund, joined with the Italians against
the English and German members of the
council in a matter of the utmost impor-
tance, the immediate election of a pope
before the articles of reformation should
be finally concluded. These two nations,
in return, united with the Italians to
choose the Cardinal Colonna, against the
advice of the French divines, who object-
ed to any member of the sacred college.
The court of Rome were gainers in both
questions. Martin V., the new pope,
soon evinced his determinatiun to elude
any substantial reform. After publishing
a few constitutions tending to redress
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. •!
By one of the decrees passed at Con
stance, another general council was to be
* Lenfant, Hist, du Concile de Pisp, passim.
Crevier, ViUaret, Schmidt, Collier.
t Lenfant, Concile de Constance. The copious
ness as well as impartiality of this work justly ren
der it an almost exclusive authority. Crevie":
(Hist, de l'Universit6 de Paris, t. iii.) has given a
good abridgment ; and Schmidt (Hist, dea All»
inaids, .. V ' is worthy of attention.
Chap. VU.]
ECGLHSIASTJCAL I'OWER.
31
assembled in five jears, a second at the
end of seven more, and from that time a
similar representation of the church was
to meet every ten years. Martin V. ac-
cordingly convoked a council at Pavia,
which, on account of the plague, was
transferred to Siena ; but nothing of im-
portance was transacted by this assem-
orDasi. bly.* [A. D. 1433.] That which
he summoned seven years after-
ward to the city of Basle had vei-y differ-
ent results. 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
material in the contest between the
popes and reformers, as wliether a coun-
cil should sit in Italy or beyond the Alps.
The council of Basle began, as it pro-
ceeded, in open enmity to the court of
Rome. Eugenius, after several years
had elapsed in more or less hostile dis-
cussions, exerted his prerogative of remo-
ving the assembly to Ferrara, and from
thence to Florence. For this he had a
specious pretext in the negotiation, then
apparently tending to a prosperous issue,
for the reunion of the Greek church ; a
triumph, however transitory, of which his
council at Florence obtained the glory.
On the otlier hand, the assembly at Basle,
though much weakened by the defection
of those who adhered to Eugenius, enter-
ed into compacts with the Bohemian in-
surgents more essential to the interests
of the church than any union with tlic
Greeks, and completed tlie work begun
at Constance by abolishing the annates,
the reservations of benefices, and other
abuses of papal authority. In this it re-
ceived the approbation of most princes ;
but when, provoked by the endeavours of
the pope to frustrate its decrees, it pro-
ceeJed so far as to suspend and even to
depose liim, neither France nor Germany
concurred 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
♦ Lenfant, Guerre des Hussites, t. i., p. 223.
tThe council of Basle endeavoured to evade this
diffic'ilty by declaring Eugenius a relapsed lieretic.
— Lenfant, Guerre des Hussites, t. ii., p. 98. Rut
as the church could discover no heresy in his disa-
greement with that assembly, the sentence of de-
position gained little strength by this previous de ,
cision. The bishops were unwilling to take tl-is|
•ole it step against Eugenius ; but the minor theo- '
indeed of ecclesiastical public law s^nnls
to be still undecided. The fathers o Basic
acted however with greater intrepidity
than discretion, and not perhaps sensible
of the change that was taking place in
public opinion, raised Amadeus, a retired
duke of Savoy, to the pontifical dignity,
by the name of Felix V. They thus re-
newed the scliism, and divided the obe-
dience of the Catholic churcli for a few
years. The empire, however, as well as
France, observed a singular and not very
consistent neutrality respecting Eugeniu.-
as lawful pope, and tlie assembly at Basle
as a general coimcil. I'^ngland warmly
supported Eugenius, and even adhered
to his council at Florence ; Aragon and
some countries of smaller note acknowl-
edged Felix. But the partisans of Basle
became every year weaker; and Nicolas
v., the successor of Eugenius, found no
great difficulty in obtaining the cession of
Felix, and terminating this schism. This
victory of the court of Rome over the
council of Basle nearly counterbalanced
the disadvantageous events at Constance,
and put an end to the project of fi.xing
pernianent limitations upon the head of
the church by means of general coun-
cils. Though the decree that prescribed
the convocation of a council every ten
years was still unrepealed, no absolute
monarchs have ever more dreaded to
meet the representatives of their people,
than the Roman pontifls have abhorred
the name of those ecclesiastical synods
once alone, and that with the utmost re-
luctance, has the Catholic church been
convoked since the council of Basle ; but
the famous assembly to which I allude
does not fall within the scope of my pres-
ent undertaking.*
It is a natural subject of speculation,
what would have been the effects of these
universal councils, which were so popu
lar in the fifteenth century, if the decrec
passed at Constance for their periodical
asseiubly had been regularly observed]
Many Catholic writers, of the moderate
or cisalpine school, have lamented their
disuse, and ascribed to it that irreparable
logians, the democracy of the Catholic church,
whose light of suffrage seems rather an anomalous
infringement ofepiscojial authority, pressed it witb
much heat and rashness. See a curious passage
on this subject in a speech of the Cardinal of Aries
— Lenfant, t. ii., p. 225.
* Tliere is not, I believe, any sufTicient history r>«
the council of IJasle. Lenfant designed to wnte :(
from the original acts, but, finding his health de
dine, intermixed some rather imperfect notices ol
its transactions with his history of the Hussite 'var
which is commonly quoted under the titl- of His
tory of the Council of Basle. Schnudt Crc^icr
ViUaret, are still mv other autb )rities>.
312
EUROPE DURING THE MlDUi^t AGES.
[Chap. VII.
bread) which the Reformation has made
in the fabric of their church. But there
is ahnost an absurdity in conceiving theii
permanent existence. What chymistry
could have kept united such heterogene-
ous masses, furnished with every prin-
ciple of mutual repulsion ] Even in early
times, when councils, though nominally
general, were composed of the subjects
of the Roman empire, they had been
marked by violence and contradiction:
what tiien could have been expected
from the delegates of mdependent king-
doms, wiiose ecclesiastical polity, what-
ever may be said of the spiritual unity
of the church, had long been far too inti-
mately blended with that of the state, 1?o
admit of any general control without its
assent] Nor, beyond the zeal, unques-
tionably sincere, which animated their
members, especially at Basle, for the ab-
olition of papal abuses, is there any thing
to praise in their conduct, or to regret
in their cessation. The statesman, who
dreaded the encroachments of priests upon
the civil go'^ernment, 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 npon themselves the preten-
s'ons of the popes whom they attempt-
ed to supersede. By a decree of the fa-
thers at Constance, all persons, including
princes, who should oppose any obstacle
to a journey undertaken by the Emperor
Sigismund, in order to obtain the cession
of Benedict, are declared excommuni-
cated, 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 induced Sigismund to
commit on that occasion, are notorious.
But perhaps it is not equally so, that this
celebrated assembly recognised by a
solenm decree the flagitious principle
which it had practised, declaring that
Huss was unworthy, through his obs>ti-
nate adherence to heresy, of any privi-
lege ; nor ought any faith or promise to
be kept with him, by natural, divine, or
human law, to the prejudice of the Cath-
olic religion.! It will be easy to esti-
* Lonfant, t. i., p. 439.
t Nee aliqtia sibi fides aut promissio, de jure
aitur.xli, divino, et humano fuerit in prejudicium
Cathoiica; fidei observanda. — Lenfant, t. i., p. 491.
This proposition is the great disgrace of the
council in the affair of Huss. But the violation
of h;s safe-conduct being a famous event in eccle-
siast cal 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
imoartial simmary. 1. Huss came to Coristance
mate the claims of this congress of theo-
logians to our veneration, and to weigh the
retrenchment of a few abuses against the
formal sanction of an atrocious maxim.
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 integrity of their regular disci-
pline, at the hands of a general council.
Whatever difficulty there might be ii:
overturning the principles founded on the
decretals of Isidore, and sanctioned by the
prescription of many centuries, the more
flagrant encroachments of papal tyranny
were fresh innovations, some within the
actual generation, others easily to be
traced up, and continually disputed. The
principal European nations determined,
with difl'erent 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 pre-
venting, 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 nexl
reign, many other measures tending -.c
repress the interference of Rome were
adopted ; especially the great statute of
premunirc, which subjects all persons
bringing papal bulls for translation of
bishops and other enumerated purpose*
into the kingdom to the penalties of
with a safe-conduct of the emperor, very loosely
worded, and not directed 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 Huss. — Id., p. 73, 83. 3. It was ;iot
binding on the council, who possessed no tempo-
ral power, but had a right to decide upon the ques-
tion of heresy. 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 pro-
tection within the city of Constance. 5. Sigis-
mund 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 sanction of thS
council, who thus became accessary to the guil
of his treachery.
The great moral to be drawn from the stoiy of
John Huss's condemnation is, that no breach of
faith can be excused by our opinion of ill desert ii.
the party, or by a narrow inteipretation of our own
engagements. Every capituLtiin oughr to be con
strued favourably for the weaker side. In Huch
cases it is emphatically true, that if the l»!ttei
killeth, the spirit should give life.
Gerson, the most eminent theologian of his age,
and the coryphaeus of the party that opposed the
transalpine principles, was deeply concerrje<l is
this a •■ocious hu»' ess. — Crevicr. p. 4 12
Chip. Vll ,
LCULES. A.STICAL FOWE
sia
forfeiture and perpetual imprisonment.*
I'his act received, and probably was de-
signed to receive, a larger interpretation
than its language appears to warrant.
Combined with the statute of provisors,
it put a stop to the pope's usurpation of
patronage, which had empovcrished the
church and kingdom of England for nearl)
two centuries. Several attempts were
made to overthrow these enactments;
the first parliament of Henry IV. gave a
very large power to the king over the
statute of provisors, enabling him even
to annul it at his pleasure.! This, how-
ever, does not appear in the statute-book.
Henry, indeed, like his predecessors, ex-
ercised rather largely his prerogative of
dispensing with the law against papal
orovisions ; a prerogative which, as to
this point, was itself taken away by an
act of his own, and another of his son
Henry V.J But the statute 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 men-
tion of reservation of benefices, of anna-
tes, 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 restrain-
ed anotlier 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
■nfluence of acquainted witli the contempo-
iviciiffc's rary historians and the pro-
•enets. ceedings of parliament, that be-
sides partaking in the general resentment
Df Europe against the papal court, Eng-
and was under the influence of a pecu-
liar hostility to the clergy, arising from
the dissemination of the principles of
Wicliff'e.^ All ecclesiastical possessions
were marked for spoliation by the system
♦ IG Ric. H.. c. 5.
t Rot. Pari., vol. iii., p. 428.
t 7 11. IV., c. 8 ; 3 H. v., c. 4. Martin V. pub-
lished an angry bull against the " e.xecrable stat-
ute" of preinunire, enjoining Archbishop Chiche-
ley to prncure its repeal. — Collier, p. 653. Chi-
ciieley dul all in his power ; but the commons were
always inexorable on this head, p. C36 : and the
archbishop even mcurred Martin's resentment by
it.— Wilkins, Concilia, t. iii., p. 483.
^ Lenfar.t, t. u., p. 414. |1 6 H. IV., c. 1.
% See, among many other passages, tne articles
exhibited by the Lollards to parliament against the
clergy, in 1394. Collier gives the substance of
»hem, and they are noticed by Henry : but the;
arc at full length in Wilkins, t. iii p. 221.
of this reformer ; and the House of Com-
mons more than once endeavoured to
carry it into effect, pressing- Henry IV
to seize the temporalities of the church
for public exigences.* This recommend-
ation, 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 former-
ly by the judges of common law, who.,
through rather a strained construction of
the statute of premunire, extended its
penalties to the spiritual courts wjien
they transgressed their limits. f The
privilege of clergy in criminal cases still
remained ; but it was acknowledged not
to comprehend high treason. J
Germany, as well as England, was dis-
appointed of her hopes of gen- concordats
eral reformation by the Italian of Aschaf-
party at Constance ; but she did '"'^"''urg-
not supply the want of the council's de-
crees with sufficient decision. A con-
cordat with Martin V. left the pope in
possession of too great a part of his r<;
cent usiu'pations.^ This, however, was
repugnant to the spirit of Germany, which
called for a more thorough reform with
all the national roughness and honesty.
The diet of Mentz, during the continuancc-
* Walsingham, p.371,379. Rot. Pari., 11 H.IV.,
vol. iii., p. 615. The remarkable circumstances
detailed by Vi'alsingham in the former passage are
not corroborated by any thing in the records. B'.it
as it is unlikely that so particular a narrative
should have no foundation, Hume has plausibly
conjectured that the roll has been wilfully muiila
ted. As this suspicion occurs in other instances,
it would be desirable to ascertain, by e.xaininatioii
of the original rolls, whether they bear any exter-
nal marks of injury. The mutilators, however, if
such there were, have left a great deal. The rolls
of Henry IV. and V.'s parliaments are quite full of
petitions against the clergy.
t 3 Inst., p. 121. Collier, vol. i., p. 6G8.
X 2 Inst., p. 634, where several instances of priests
executed for coining and other treasons are addu-
ced. And this may also be inferred from 25 K. III.,
Stat. 3, c. 4 ; and from 4 H. IV., c. 3. Indeed, the
benefit of clergy has never been taken away by
statute from high treason. This renders it imprjl>-
able that Chief-justice Gascoyne should, as Carte
tells us, vol. ii., p. 664, have refused to try Arch
bishop Scrope for treason, on the ground that iiu
one could lawfully sit in judgment on a bishop fui
his life. Whether he might have declined to try
him as a peer, is another question The pope ex
communicated all who were concerned in Scrope".
death, and it co;* Henry a large sum to obtain ah
solution. But Boniface IX. was no arbiter of th»
English law. Edwanl IV. granted a strange chat
ter to the clergy, not only dispensing with the slat
utes of premunire, but absolutely exempting then
from temporal jurisdiction in canes of treason a-
well as felony. — Wilkir.s, Concilia, t. iii., p. 583
Collier, p. 678. This, however, oeing an illega
grant, took no efTe t, at least after his death
9 Lenfant, t. ii„ i 428. Schmidt, t. v . i 131
SI 4
ITJROPE DUR1^G THE MIDULc; AGES
[Ciiir. Vl\
of the counci] of Basle, adopted all those
regulations hostile to the papal interests
which occasioned the deadly quarrel be-
tween that assembly and the court of
Rome.* But the German empire was be-
trayed by Frederick III., and deceived
by an accomplished but profligate states-
man, his secretary, Ji^neas Sylvius. Fresh
concordats, settled at Aschaffenburg, in
141S, nearly upon the footing of those
concluded with Martin V., surrendered
great part of the independence for which
Germany had contended. The pope re-
tained his annates, or at least a sort of
tax in their place ; and instead of reserv-
ing benefices arbitrarily, he obtained the
positive right of collation during six al-
ternate months of every year. Episco-
pal elections were freely restored to the
chapters, except in case of translation,
when the pope still continued to nomi-
nate : as he did also, if any person, ca-
nonitallf/ unfit, were presented to him
fnr confirmation. t Such is the concordat
of Aschaffenburg, by which the Catholic
principalities of the empire have always
been governed, though reluctantly ac-
quiescing in its disadvantageous provis-
ions. Rome, for the remainder of the
fifteenth century, not satisfied with the
terms she had imposed, is said to have
continually *"ncroached upon the right of
election. I But she purchased too dearly
her triumph over the weakness of Fred-
erick III., and the hundred grievances of
Germany, presented to Adrian VI. by the
diet of Nuremberg, in 1522, manifested
the wo>:kings of a long-treasured resent-
ment, that had made straight the path
before the Saxon reformer.
I have already taken notice that the
Castilian church was in the first
(Toadi-"" ^g^s of that monarchy nearly in-
ineiits on dependent of Rome. But, after
Castile "^ J^i^^y gradual encroachments, the
code of laws promulgated by Al-
fonso X. had incorporated a great part
of the decretals, and thus given the papal
^ Schmidt, t. v., p. 221. Lenfant.
t Schmidt, t. v., p. 250; t. vi., p. 94, &c. He
observes that there is three times as much money
at present as in the fifteenth century ; if, therefore,
the annates are now felt as a burden, what must
they have been ? p. 113. To this Rome would an-
swer: if the annates were but sufficient for the
pope's maintenance at that time, what must they
he now ?
t Schmidt, p. 98. .iEneas Sylvius, Epist 369
and 371; and De Moribus Germanorum, p. 1041,
1061. Several little disputes with the pope mdi-
;ate the spirit that was fermentintr in Germany
hroughout the fifteenth century. But this is the
roper subject of a more detailed ecclesiastical his-
)ry, and should form an intr duction to that of
ne Reformation.
jurisprudence an authority which it no.
where else possessed in national tribu-
nals.* That richly-endowed hierarchy
was a tempting spoil. The popes filled
up its benefices by means of expectatives
and reserves with their own Italian de-
pendants. We find the cortes of Paleii
cia, in 1388, complainiujj that strangers
are beneficed in Castile, through which
the churches are ill supplied, and native
scholars cannot be provided, and re-
questing the king to take such measures
in relation to this as the kings of France,
Aragon, and Navarre, who do not permit
any but natives to hold benefices in their
kingdoms. The king answered to this
petition that he would use his endeavours
to that end.f And this is expressed with
greater warmth by a cortes of 1473, who
declare it to be the custom of all Chris-
tian nations that foreigners should not be
promoted to benefices, urging the dis-
couragement of native learning, the de-
cay of charity, the bad performance of re-
ligious rites, and other evils arising from
the nonresidence of beneficed priests,
and request the king to notify to the court
of Rome tliat no expectative or provis-
ion in favour of foreigners can be receiv-
ed in future. J This petition seems to
have passed into a law ; but I am ignorant
of the consequences. Spain certainly
took an active part in restraining tht
abuses of pontifical authority at the coun-
cils of Constance and Basle ; to which I
might add the name of Trent, if that as-
sembly were not beyond my province
France, dissatisfied with the abortive
termination of her exertions du- ^. ,
, , . . , , Checks on
ring the schism, rejected the con- jiapai au-
cordatoflTered by Martin v., which ''""■i'y '"
held out but a promise of im- '^*"''''
perfect reformation.^ She suflTered in
consequence the papal exactions for some
years, till the decrees of the council of
Basle prompted her to more vigorous ef-
forts 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 principle has remained fixed
as tlie basis of ecclesiastical liberties.
By the Pragmatic Sanction a general
council was declared superior to the pope
* Mirina, Ensayo Historico-Critico, c. 320, &c.
t Idem, Teoria de las Cortes, t. iii., p. 125.
i Idem. t. ii., p. 364. Mariana, Hist. Hispan,
1. xix., c. I.
() Villaret, t. xv., p. 126.
II Idem, p. 263. Hist, du Droit Public Ec ,68.
Fran(;ois, t. ii., p. 234. Fleury, Instit jtions au Dfoit
Crevier, t, iv., p. 100. Pasouier, Recherches de ii
F'ance. 1. :ii., c. 27
Ohap. VM J
ECCLESIASTICAL POWER.
313
elections of bishops were made free from
all control ; mandats or grants in ex-
pectancy, and reservations of benefices
were taken away ; first fruits were abol-
ished. This defalcation of wealth, which
had now become dearer than power,
could not be patiently borne at Home.
Pius II., the same jEneas Sylvius who
had sold himself to oppose the council
of Basle, in whose service he had been
originally distinguished, used every en-
deavour to procure the repeal of this or-
dinance. 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 fac-
tion in Naples, repealed the Pragmatic
Sanction.* Tnis may be added to other
proofs that Louis XL, even according to
the measures of woildly wisdom, was
not a wise politician. His people judged
from better feelings ; the parliament of
Paris constantly refused to enregister the
revocation of that favourite law, and it
continued in many respects to be acted
upon until the reign of Francis I.f At
the States-General of Tours, in 14G4, the
inferior clergy, seconded by the two o:her
orders, earnestly requested that the Prag-
matic 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. J This un-
settled state continued, the Pragmatic
Sanction neither quite enforced nor quite
repealed, till Francis I., having accom-
modated the differences of his predeces-
sor with Rome, agreed upon a final con-
cordat with Leo X., the treaty that sub-
sisted for almost three centuries between
the papacy and the kingdom of France.^
Instead of capitular election or papal pro-
vision, a new method was devised for
filling the vacancies 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 suprem-
acy. Annates were restored to the pope ;
ji concession of great importance. He
gave up his indefinite prerogative of re-
serving benefices, and received only a
small stipulated patronage. This con-
vention met with strenuous opposition in
France ; the parliament of Paris yielded
* Villaret find Gamier, t. xvi. Crevier, t. iv., p.
S56, 274.
+ Gamier, t. xvi., p. -132 ; t. xvii., p. 222, et alibi.
Crevier, t. iv., p. 318, et alibi.
t Gamier, t. xix., p. 216 and 32L
^ Idem, t. xxiii., p. 151. Hist, dii Droit Public
Eccles. Fr., t. ii., p. 213 Fleury, Institutions au
l)ro<t, t. ., p. 107
only to force ; the university hardly stop-
ped short of sedition ; the zealous (ialii»
cans have ever since deplored it JtS a
fatal wound to their liberties. Thare is
much exaggeration in this, as far as the
relation of the Galilean church to Rome
is concerned; but the royal nomination
to bishoprics impaired of course the in-
dependence of the hierarchy. Whethei
this prerogative of the crown were upon
the whole beneficial to Franco, is a prob-
lem that I cannot affect to solve ; in this
country there seems little doubt that
capitular elections, which the statute of
Henry VIII. had reduced to a name,
would long since have degenerated into
the corruption of close boroughs ; but
the circumstances of the Galilean estab-
lishment may not have been entirely sim-
ilar, and the question opens a variety of
considerations that do not belong to my
present subject.
From the principles established during
the schism, and in the Pragmatic libenien
Sanction of Bourges, arose the oniie
far-famed liberties of the Galilean ^,''"'^^"
church, which honourably distin-
guished her from other members of th;
Roman communion. These have l)eett
referred by French writers to a much ear-
lier era; but, except so far as that coun-
try participated in the ancient ecclesias-
tical independence of all Europe, before
the papal encroachments had subverted
it, I do not see that they can be properly
traced above the fifteenth century. Noi
had they acquired, even at the expiration
of that age, the precision and consistency
which was given in later times by the
constant spirit of the parliaments and
universities, as well as by the best ec-
clesiastical authors, with little assistance
from the crown, which, except in a few
periods of disagreement with Rome, has
rather been disposed to restrain the more
zealous Galileans. These liberties, there-
fore, do not strictly fall within my limits ;
and it will be sufficient 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 parta
of the canon law as are received by the
kingdom of France. Hence tbe Galilean
church rejected a great part ci -he Sex;
and Clementines, and paid little regard t(j
modern papal bulls, which in fact obtain
ed validity only by the king's approba-
tion.*
* Fleury, Institutions au Droit, t. ii.,p. 226, &.C.,
and Discours sur les Liberies de I'Eglise Galli
cane. The last editors of this dissertation no fai
316
EUROPE DURING THE M11>DL£ AGES.
[CH«r. \I
The pontifical usurpations which were
Ecclesiastical '^hus restrained, affected, at
lurisd.ciior .east in their direct operation,
restrained rather the church than the
stale, anl temporal governments would
only ha^e been half emancipated, if their
lati^nal liierarchies had preserved their
enormous jurisdiction.* England, in this
also, began the work, and had made a
considerable progress, while the mistaken
piety or policy of Louis IX. and his suc-
cessors had laid France open to vast en-
croachments. The first method adopted
m order to check them was rude enough ;
by seizing the bishop's effects when he
exceeded his jurisdiction.! This jurisdic-
tion, according to the construction of
churchmen, became perpetually larger:
even the reforming council of Constance
give an enumeration of ecclesiastical
causes far beyond the limits acknowledg-
ed in England, or perhaps in France. J
But the parliament of Paris, instituted m
1304, gradually established a paramount
authorit)^ over ecclesiastical as well as
civil tribunals. Their progress was in-
deed very slow. At a famous assembly
m 1329 before Philip of Valois, his advo-
cate-general, Peter de Cugnieres, pro-
nounced a long harangue against the ex-
cesses of spiritual jurisdiction. This is a
curious illustration of that branch of legal
and ecclesiastical history. It was an-
bcyond Fieury, and perhaps reach the utmost, point
n hmiting the pajial authority which a sincere
member of that communion can attain.— See notes,
p. 417 and 445.
* It ought always to be remembered, that ecclesi-
asticnl, and not merely papal, encroachments are
what civil governments and the laity m general
have had to resist ; a point which some very zeal-
ous opposers of Rome have been willing to keep
ou. d sight. The latter arose out of the former,
and, perhaps, were in some respects less objection-
able. But the true enemy is what are called High-
church principles ; be they maintained by a pope,
bishop, or a presbyter. Thus Archbishop Strat-
ford writes to Edward III. : Duo sunt, quibus priri-
cipaliterregitur mundus, sacra pontificalis auctori-
tas, et regalis ordinata potestas : in quibus est pon-
dus tanto graviiis et sublimius sacerdotum, quanto
et de regibus illi in divino reddituri sunt examine
rationem : et ideo scire debet regia celsitudo e.K il-
lori:m vos dependere judicio, non illos ad vestram
diiigi posse voluntatem. — Wilkins, Concilia, t. ii.,
p. 663. This amazing impudence towards such a
jiiince as Edward did not succeed; but it is in-
teresting to follow the track of the star which was
now rather receding, though still fierce.
•f De Marca, De Concordantia, 1. iv., c. 18.
X Id., c. 15. Lenfant, Cone, de Constance,!, ii.,
p. 331. De Marca, 1. iv., c. 15, gives us passages
from one Durandus, about 1309, complaining that
the lay judges invaded ecclesiastical jurisdiction,
and reckoning the cases subject to the latter, un-
der which he includes feudal and criminal causes
in some ciicjmstances, and also those in which
the temporal judges are in doubt si quid ambigu-
iim inter "jdice? sai'^ulares oriatui
swered at large by some bishops, and the
king did not venture to take any active
measures at that time.* Several regula-
tions were however made in the four-
teenth century, which took away the ec-
clesiastical cognizance of adultery, of the
execution of testaments, and other causes
which had been claimed by the clergy.-}
Their immunity in criminal matters was
straitened by the introduction of privileged
cases, to which it did not extend ; such
as treason, murder, robbery, and other
heinous oflcnces.| The parliament began
to exercise a judicial control over episco-
pal courts. It wa§ not, however, till the
beginning of the sixteenth century, ac-
cording to the best writers, that it devised
its famous form of procedure, the appeaj
because of abuse. i^ This, in the course
of time, and through the decline of eccle-
siastical power, not only proved an ef-
fectual 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 different cog-
nizance. Thus testamentary, and ever ■
in a great degree matrimonial causes
were decided by the parliament ; and ir
many other matters, tliat body, being thf
judge of its own competence, narrowed
by means of the appeal because of abuse,
the boundaries of the opposite jurisdic-
tion.|| This remedial process appears to
have been more extensively applied than
our English writ of prohibition. The latter
merely restrains the interference of tho
ecclesiastical courts in matters which the
law has not committed to them. But the
parliament of Paris considered itself, 1
apprehend, as conservator of the liberties
and discipline of the Gallican church ; and
interposed the appeal necause of abuse,
whenever the spiritual court, even in its
proper province, transgressed the canoni-
cal rules by which it ought to be govern
ed^t
♦ Velly, t. viii., p. 234. Fieury, Institutions, t.
ii., p. 12. Hist, du Droit Eccles. FranQ., t. ii., p. 86
t Villaret, t. xi., p. 182.
j Fieury, Institutions au Droit, t. ii., p. 138. Ir
the famous case of Balue, a bishop and ci.rdinal
whom Louis XI. detected in a treasonable intrigue
it was contended by the king that he had a right to
punish him capitally.— Du Clos, Vie de Louis XI.,
t. i., p. 422. Gamier, Hist, de France, t. xvii., )..
330. Balue was confined for many years in a small
iron cage, which till lately was shown in thf. castle
of Loches.
() Pasquier, 1. iii., c. 33. Hist, du Droit Eccles.
Francois, t. ii., p. 119. Fieury, Institutions au
Droit Ecclos. Frangois, t. li., p. 221. De Marca,
De Concordantio Sacerdotii et Ircperii, 1. iv., c. 19.
The last author seems to carry it rather higher.
II Fieury, Institutions, t. li.. p, 42, &c.
I IT De Marca, Pe Concordant'fi. 1. iv., c. 9 Fleu
Chap VIl]
ECUbKSIASTICAL TOWER.
311
While the bishops of Rome were losing
iheir general influence over Eu-
Papa'nnflu- rope, they did not gain more es-
enre in ita- tiniation in Italy. It is indeed
^' a problem of some difficulty,
whether they derived any substantial
advantag3 from their temporal principali-
y. For the last three centuries, it has
certainly been conducive to the mainte-
nance of their spiritual supremacy, which,
in the complicated relations of policy,
'night have been endangered by their be-
;oming the subjects of any particular
sovereign. But I doubt whether their
real authority over Christendom in the
middle ages was not better preserved by
a state of nominal dependance upon the
empire, without much effective control
on one side, or many temptations to
worldly ambition on the other. That
covetousness of temporal sway which,
having long prompted their measures of
usurpation and forgery, seemed, from the
time of Innocent III. and Nicolas III.,
to reap its gratification, impaired the
more essential parts of the papal author-
ity. In the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
turies, the popes degraded their character
by too much anxiety about the politics of
Italy. The veil woven by religious awe
was rent asundei', and the features of or-
dinary ambition appeared without dis-
guise. For it was no longer that magnif-
icent and original system of spiritual
power, which made Gregory VII., even
ill exile, a rival of the emperor, which
held forth redress where the law could
not protect, and punishment where it
could not chastise, which fell in some-
times with sujidstitious feeling, and
.sometimes witli political interest. Many
might believe that the pope could depose
u schismatic prince, who were disgusted
at his attacking an unoffending neighbour.
As the cupidity of the clergy in regard to
worldly estate had lowered their charac-
ter everywhere, so the similar conduct
of their head undermined the respect felt
for him in Italy. The censures of the
churcli, those excommunications and in-
terdicts which had made Europe trem-
ble, became gradually despicable as well
as odious, when they were lavished in
every squabble for territory which the
pope was pleased to make his own.*
ry, t. ii., p. 224. In Spain, even now, says De Mar-
ca, bishops or clerks not obeying royal mandates
that inhibit the e.vcesses of ecclesiastical courts,
are expelled from the kingdom and deprived of the
rights of denizenship.
* In 1290, Pisa was put under an interdict for
having conferred the signiory on the Count of
Montefeltro, and he vva^ ordered, on pain of excom-
ic.Ttion, to lav down the government within » \
Even the crusades, which had already
been tried against the heretics of Lan-
guedoc, were now preached against all
who espoused a diflerent party from the
Roman see in the quarrels of Italy. Such
were those directed at Frederick II , „:
Manfred, and at Matteo Visconli. accom-
panied by the usual bribery, indui/jonces
and remission of sins. The papal inter-
dicts of the fourteenth century wore a
diflerent complexion from those of for-
mer times. Though tremendous to the
imagination, they had hitherto been con-
fined to spiritual efll'ects, or to such as
were connected with religion, as the pro-
hibition of marriage and sepulture. L'ut
Clement V., on account of an attack
made by the A^enetians upon Ferrara, m
1309, proclaimed the whole people infa-
mous, and incapable for three gcner;i-
tions of any office ; their goods, in everj
part of the world, subject to confiscation,
and every Venetian, wherever he might
be found, liable to be reduced into shive-
ry.* A bull in the same terms was pub-
lished by Gregory XI., in 137G, against
the Florentines.
From the termination of the schisn-',
as the popes found their ambition tlnvar -
ed beyond the Alps, it was diverted moi'?
and more towards schemes of leniponj
sovereignty. In these we do not j ei-
ceive that consistent pohcy, whicli re
markably actuated their conduct as su
preme heads of the church. Men geiiei
ally advanced in years, and born of no
ble Italian families, made the papacy
subservient to the elevation of their kin
dred, or to the interests of a local fac-
tion. . For such ends they mingled in the
dark conspiracies of that bad age, distin-
guished only by the more scandalous iiir
pitude of their vices from the petty ty
rants and intriguers with whom Ihey
were engaged. In the latter part of the
fifteenth century, when all favourable
prejudices were worn away, those who
occupied the most conspicuous station in
Europe disgraced their name by more no-
torious profligacy than could be parallel-
ed in the darkest age that had preceded ,
and at the moment beyond which this
work is not carried, the invasion of Italy
by Charles VIII., I must leave the pon-
tifical throne in the possession of A lex
andcr VI.
It has been my object in the present
month. — Muratori ad ann. A curious style for tli«
pope to adopt towards a free city! Six ynars tie-
fore the Venetians had been interdicted, be( iius«
they would not allow their galleys to b»^ hiri"'d by
the King of Naples. But it would be almost Mid
less to quote every instance.
* Muratori.
318
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGLb.
[CHip. vrr
chapter to bring within the compass of
a few hours' perusal the substance of a
great and interesting branch of history ;
not certainly with such extensive reach
of learning as the subject might require,
but from sources of unquestioned credi-
bility. Unconscious of any partialities
that could give an oblique bias to my
mind, I have not been very solicitous to
avoid offence where offence is so easily
taken. Yet there is one misinterpreta-
tion of my meaning which I would gladly
obviate. I have not designed, in exhibit-
ing without disguise the usurpations of
Rome during the middle ages, to furnish
materials for unjust prejudice or unfound-
ed distrust. It is an advantageous cir-
cumstance for the philosophical inquirer
into the history of ecclesiastical domin-
ion that, as it spreads itself over the
vas. extent of fifteen centuries, the de-
pendance of events upon general causes,
rather than on transitory combinations
or the character of individuals, is made
more evident, and the future more prob-
ably foretold from a consideration of the
past, than we are apt to find in political
history. Five centuries have now elap-
sed, during every one of which the au-
thority of the Roman see has succes-
sively declined. Slowly and si'ently re-
ceding from their claims to temporal
power, the pontiffs hardly protect their
dilapidated citadel from the revolution-
ary concussions of modern times, the ra-
pacity of governments, and the grow
ing averseness to ecclesiastical influence.
But, if thus bearded by unmannerly and
threatening innovation, they should occa-
sionally forget that cautious policy which
necessity has prescribed, if they should
attempt, an unavailing expedient ! to re-
vive institutions which can be no longer
operative, or principles that have died
away, their defensive efforts will not be
unnatural, nor ought to excite either
indignation or alarm. A calm, compre-
hensive study of ecclesiastical history,
not in such scraps and fragments as the
ordinary partisans of our ephemeral lit-
erature obtrude upon us, is perhaps the
best antidote to extravagant apprehen-
sions. Those who know what Rome has
once been are best able to appreciate
what she is ; those who have seen the
thunderbolt in the hands of the Gregories
and the Innocents, will hardly be intimi-
dated at the saUies of decrepitude, the
impotent dart of Priam amid the crack
ling ruins of Troy.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
PART I.
The Anglo-Saxon Constitution. — Sketch of An-
glo-Saxon History. — Succession to the Crown.
—Orders of Men. — Thanes and Ceorls. — Wit-
tenagemot. — Judicial System. — Division into
Hundreds. — County-Court. — Trial by Jury — its
Antiquity investigated. — Law of Frank-pledge —
its several Stages. — Question of Feudal Ten-
ures before the Conquest.
No unbiased observer, who derives
pleasure from the welfare of his species,
can fail to consider the long and uninter-
ruptedly increasing prosperity of England
as the most beautiful phenomenon in the
historj' of mankind. Climates more pro-
pitious may impart more largely the
mere enjoyments of existence ; but in no
other region have the benefits that polit-
ical institutions can confer been diffused
over so extended a population ; nor have
any people so well reconciled the dis-
'•ordant elements of wealth,- order, and
liberty. These idvantaces are surely
not owing to the soil of this island, no
to the latitude in which it is placed ; but
to the spirit of its laws, from which,
through various means, the characteristic
independence and industriousness of our
nation have been derived. The consti-
tution, therefore, of England must be to
inquisitive men of all countries, far more
to ourselves, an object of superior inter-
est; distinguished especially, as it is
from all free governments of powerful
nations which history has recorded, by
its manifesting, after the lapse of several
centuries, not merely no symptom of ir-
retrievable decay, but a more expansive
energy. Comparing long periods of
time, it may be justly asserted that the
administration of government has pro-
gressively become more equitable, and
the privileges of the subject more secure ;
and, though it would be both presumptu-
ous and unwise to express an unlimited
confidence as to the durability of hber-
Hast 1.
ENGLISH CONSTITUnOiN
31^
les which owe their greatest security to
he constant suspicion of the people, yet,
if we cahnly reflect on the present as-
pect of this country, it Avill probably ap-
pear, that whatever perils may threaten
our constitution are rather from circum-
stances altogether unconnected with it
than from any intrinsic defects of its own.
It will be the object of the ensuing chap-
ter to trace the gradual formation of this
system of govei-nment. Such an inves-
tigation, impartially conducted, will de-
tect errors diametrically opposite ; those
intended to impose on the populace,
which, on account of their palpable ab-
surdity and the ill faith with which they
are usually proposed, 1 have seldom
thought it v/orth while directly to re-
pel ; and those which better informed
persons are apt to entertain, caught from
transient reading and the misrepresenta-
tions of late historians, but easily refuted
by the genuine testimony of ancient times.
The seven very unequal kingdoms of
Sketc- of ^^^ Saxon Heptarchy, formed
Anglo- successively out of the countries
Sax'on wrested from the Britons, were
history, originally independent of each
other. Several times, however, a power-
ful sovereign acquired a preponderating
influence over his neighbours, marked
perhaps by the payment of tribute. Sev-
en are enumerated by Bede as having
llius reigned over the whole of Britain ;
an expression which must be very loose-
ly interpreted. Three kingdoms became
at length predominant ; those of Wessex,
-Mercia, and Northumberland. The first
rendered tributary the small estates of
the Southeast, and the second that of the
I'iastern Angles. But Egbert, king of
Wessex, not only incorporated with his
own monarchy the dependant kingdoms
jf Kent and Essex, but obtained an ac-
knowledgment of his superiority from
Mercia and Northumberland ; the latter
of which, though the most extensive of
.iny Anglo-Saxon state, was too much
weakened by its internal divisions to of-
fer any resistance.* Still, however, the
kingdoms of Mercia, East Anglia, and
-Vorthumberland remained under their
ancient line of sovereigns ; nor did either
l']gbert or his five immediate successors
assume the title of any other crown than
Wessex. t
« Chronicon Sa-onicum, p. 70.
+ Alfred denominates himself in his will, Occi-
rfentalium Saxorum rex ; and Asseriiis never gives
hnn any other name. But his son Edward t\ie El-
der takes the title of Rex Anglorum on his coins. —
Vid. Numismata Anglo-Saxon, in Ilickes's The-
<aiin!s, vol ii.
The destruction c f those minor states
was reserAcd for a dilTerent enemy
About the end of the eighth century thp
northern pirates began to ravage the
coast of England. Scandinavia exhibited
in that age a very smgular condition of
society. Her population, continually re-
dundant in those barren regions whicli
gave it birth, was cast out in search of
plunder upon the ocean. Those who
loved riot rather than famine embarked
in large armaments under chiefs of legit-
imate authority, as well as approved val-
our. Such were the sea-kings, reiiown-
ed in the stories of the North ; the young-
er branches commonly of royal families,
who inherited, as it were, the sea foi
their patrimony. Without any territory
but on the bosom of the waves, without
any dwelling but their ships, these prince-
ly pirates were obeyed by numerous sub-
jects, and intimidated mighty nations.*
Their invasions of England became con-
tinually more formidable ; and, as their
confidence increased, they began first to
winter, and ultimately 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 a?
Britain ; the Saxons, after a brave resist-
ance, gradually gave way, and were oe
the brink of the same servitude or exter-
mination which their own arms had al
ready brought upon the ancient posses
sors.
From this imminent peril, after the
three dependant kingdoms, Mercia, Nor-
thumberland, and East Anglia, had been
overwhelmed, it was the glory of Alfred
to rescue the Anglo-Saxon monarchy.
Nothing less than the appearance of a
hero so undesponding, so enterprising,
and so just, could have prevented the en-
tire conquest of England. Yet he never
subdued the Danes, nor became master
of the wliole kingdom. The Thames,
the Lea, the Ouse, and the Roman road
called Watling-street, determined the lim-
its of Alfred's dominion. f To the north-
east of this boundary were spread the in-
vaders, still denominated the armies of
East Anglia and Northumberland ;J a
name terribly expressive of foreign con
querors, who retained their warlike con
federacy without melting into the mass
♦ For these Vikingr, or sea-kings, a new and in
teresting subject, I would refer to Mr. Turner'i
History of the Anglo-Saxons, in which valuable
work almost every jiarticular that can I'lustrati
our early annals will be found.
t Wilkins, Leges Anglo-Saxon., p. 47 CSron
Saxon., p. 99.
1 Chronicon Saxon., passim.
i20
iiUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[CuiP. Viii.
of their suljjcct population. Three able
and active sovereigns, Edward, Athel-
stan, and Edmund, the successors of Al-
fred, pursued the course of victory, and
finally rendered the English monarchy
coextensive with the present limits of
England. 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
hm the surname of Peaceable, the king-
dom appears to have reached its zenith
ol prosperity. But his premature death
changed the scene. The minority and
feeble character of Ethelred 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 in-
trusted, overthrew the Saxon line, and
established Canute of Denmark upon the
throne.
The character of the Scandinavian na-
tions was in some measure changed from
what it had been during their first inva-
sions. They had embraced the Christian
faith; they were consolidated into great
kingdoms ; they had lost some of that
predatory and ferocious spirit which a re-
I'gion, invented, as it seemed, for pirates,
had stimulated. Those too who had
long been settled in England became
gradually more assimilated to the na-
tives, wliose laws and language were not
radically different from their own. Hence
t*ie accession of a Danish line of kings
poduced neither any evil nor any sen-
wble change of polity. But the English
htill outnumbered their conquerors, and
t-agerly returned, when an opportunity
arrived, to the ancient stock. Edward
the Confessor, notwithstanding his Nor-
man favourites, was endeared by the mild-
ness of his character to the English na-
tion; and subsequent miseries gave a
kind of posthumous credit to a reign not
eminent either for good fortune or wise
governraent.
In a stage of civilization so little ad-
Succession vauced as tliat of the Anglo- Sax-
totiic ons, and under circumstances
erown. ^f g^^h incessant peril, the for-
tunes of a nation chiefly depend upon the
wisdom and valour of its sovereigns.
♦ Wilkirs, Leges Anglo-Saxon., p. 83. In lOCl,
lifter a revolt of the Northumbrians, Edward the
Confessor renewed the laws of Canute.— Chronic.
Saxon. It seems now to be ascertained by the
comparison of dialects, that the iiihabitatits from
the Humber, or at least the Tyne, to the Firth of
{•'orth. were chieflv Danes
No free people, therefore, would mtnist
their safety to blind chance, and permit
a uniform observance of hereditary suc-
cession to prevail against strong public
expediency. Accorclingly the Saxons,
like most other European nations, while
they limited the inheritance of the crown
exclusively to one royal family, were
not very scrupulous about its devolution
upon the nearest heir. It is an unwar-
ranted assertion of Carte, that the rule
of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy vvas "lin-
eal agnauc succession, the blood of the
second son having no right until the ex-
tinction of that of the eldest."* Unques-
tionably the eldest son of tlie last king,
being of full age, and not manifestly in-
competent, was his natural and probable
successor; nor is it perhaps certain that
he always waited for an election 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 se-
curity in those times was thought incom-
patible with a minor king; and the arti-
ficial substitution of a regency, which
stricter notions of hereditary right have
introduced, had never occurred to ."^o
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. t Alfred, in his testament,
dilates upon his own title, which he biiikls
upon a triple foundation, the will of his
father, the compact of his brother Ethel-
red, and the consent of the West Saxon
nobility. t A similar objection to the
government of an infant seems to have
rendered Athelstan, notwithstanding his
reputed illegitimacy, the public choice
upon the death of Edward the Elder.
Thus, too, the sons of Edmund I. were
postponed to their uncle Edred, and
again preferred to his issue. And happy
might it liave been for England if this
exclusion of infants had always obtained.
But upon the death of Edgar, the royal
family wanted some prince of mature
years to prevent the crown from resting
upon the head of u child ;^ and hence the
* Vol. !., p. 365. Blackstone has laboired to
prove the same proposition ; but his knowl'.dge of
English history was rather superficial.
I Chronicon Saxon., p. 99. Hume says tha
Ethelwald, who attempted to raise an insurrection
against Edward the Elder, was son of Ethelbert.
The Saxon Chronicle only calls him the king's
cousin ; which he would be as the son of Ethelred
X Spelman, Vita Alfredi, Appendix.
ij According to the historian of Ramsey, a sorl
of interregnum took place jn Fjgar"? Icaih ; hi!>
Part 1 ]
ENGLISH CONSTlTUTia-N.
i2I
minorities of Edward II and Ethelrcd II.,
led to misfortunes which overwhelmed
for a time both the house of Cerdic and
the English nation.
The Anglo-Saxon monarchy, during its
Jnriueiueof earlier period, seems to have
provincial suffered but little from that in-
(torerriors. subordination among the supe-
lior nobility, which ended in dismember-
mg the ei:ipire of Charlemagne. Such
kings as Alfred and Athelstan were not
ikely to permit it. And the English
counties, each under its own alderman,
were not of a size to encourage the usur-
pations of their governors. But when
the whole kingdom was subdued, there
arose unfortunately a fashion of intrust-
ing 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 differ-
ence of laws, though probably but slight,
kept up this separation. Alfred govern-
ed 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 niascuhne energy
till her own, when lier brother Edward
took the province into his immediate
command.* But from the era of Edward
II. 's accession, the provincial governors
began to overpower the royal autliority,
as they had done upon the continent.
England, under this prince, was not far
removed from the condition of France
iinder Charles the Bald. In the time of
lOdward the Confessor, the whole king-
dom seems to have been divided among
five earls,f three of whom were Godwin
and his sons Harold and Tostig. It can-
not be wondered at that tlie royal line
was soon supplanted by the most power-
ful and popular of these leaders, a prince
well worthy to have founded a new dy-
nasty, if his eminent qualities had not
yielded to those of a still more illustrious
enemy.
There were but two denominations of
Disiribiition Persons above the class of scr-
intoTiiunes vitude, Tlianes and Ceorls ; the
owners and the cultivators of
and Ceurls.
son's birth not being thought sufficient to give him
a c'ear right during infancy. — 3 Gale, xv. Script.,
p. 413.
• Chronicon Saxon.
t The word earl (eorl) meant originally a man
of noble birth, as opposed to the ceorl. It was not
a title of office till the eleventh century, when it
was used as synonymous to alderman, for a gov-
ernor of a county or province. After the conquo.st,
it superseded altogether the ancient title. — Seidcn's
Titles of Honour, vol. iii., p. 638 (edit. Wilkins),
ind Anjlo-Saxou writings passim.
land, or rather, perhaps, as a more accu
rate distinction, the gentry and the infe-
rior people. Among all the northern na
tions, as is well known, the weregild, or
compensation for murder, was the stand
ard measure of the gradations of society.
In the Anglo-Saxon laws we find two
ranks of freeliolders ; the first, called
king's thanes, whose lives were valued
at 1200 shillings; the second, of inferici
degree, whose composition was half thai
sum.* That of a ceorl was 200 slulhngs
The nature of this distinction between
royal and lesser thanes is very obscure .
and I shall have something more to say
of it presently. However, the thanes in
general, or Anglo-Saxon gentry, must
have been very numerous. A law of Eth-
elred directs the sherifl' to take twelve of
the chief thanes in every hundred as his
assessors on the bencli of justice. f And
from Domesday Book we may collect
that they had formed a pretty large class,
at least in some counties, under Edward
the Confessor.^
Tiie composition for the life of a ceorl
was, as lias been said, 200 shil- condition oj
lings. If this proportion to the "'« '"'^''■is
value of a thane points out the subordina-
tion of ranks, it certainly does not exhib-
it the lower freemen in a state of com-
plete abasement. The ceorl was not
bound, as far as appears, 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 liis
land •,'^ he was capable of property, and
of the privileges wliich it conferred. ]f
he came to possess five hydes of land
(or about 600 acres), with a church and
man.sion of liis own, lie was entitled to
tlic name and rights of a tliaiie.** I am,
however, inclined to suspect, that the
ceorl were sliding more and more towarda
a state of servitude before tlie conquest. ft
Tiie natural tendency of such times of
* Wilkins, p. 40, 43, 61, 72, 101.
t Idem, p. 117.
t Domesday Book having been compiled by dif-
ferent sets of commissioners, their language has
sometimes varied in describing tl.e same class of
persons. The libcri homines, of wl oin we fmd con-
tinual mention in some counties, wire perhaps not
ditTerent from the thaini, who occu. m other places.
But this subject is very ob:-cure ; aiiil a clear "p-
prehension of the classes cf society mentiono I in
Domesday seems at present unattainable.
(J Leges Alfiedi, c. 33, in Wilkins. This text is
not unequivocal; and I confess that a w of Ina
(c. 39) has ralher a contrary ajpearar ce
II Leges Ino9, c. 51, ibid.
IT Leges Alfredi, c. 31, 3.5.
** Leges Athelstani, ibid., p. 70, 71.
+f If the laws that bear the name of Wi.liam aio
as is i^eneraily supposed those of Li* predecesao
32a
EUROPE DUllIMG THE MIDDLE AGES.
fCHAP. Vlll
rapine, with the analogy of a similar
change in France, leads to this conjec-
ture. And as it was part of those singn-
lar regulations which were devised for
the preservation of internal peace, that
every man should be enrolled in some
tithing, and be dependant upon some
lord, It was not very easy for the ceorl
to exercise the privilege (if he possessed
it) of quitting the soil upon which he
lived.
Notwithstanding this, I doubt whether
it c^n be proved by any authority earlier
than that of Glanvil, Whose treatise was
written about 1180, that the peasantry of
England were reduced to that extreme
debasement which our law-books call
villanage, a condition which left them no
civil rights with respect to their lord.
For, by the laws of William the Conquer-
or, there was still a composition fixed
for the murder of a villein or ceorl, the
strongest proof of his being, as it was
called, law-worthy, and possessing a
rank, however subordinate, in political
society. And this composition was due
to his kindred, not to the lord.* Indeed,
it seems positively declared in another
passage, that the cultivators, though
bound to remain upon the land, were
only subject to certain services.! Again,
tlie treatise denominated the Laws of
Henry I., which, though not deserving
that appellation, must be considered as
a contemporary document, expressly
mentions the twyhinder or villein as a
freeman. I Nobody can doubt that the
villani a!ul bordarii of Domesday Book,
who are always distinguished from the
serfs of the demesne, were the ceorls of
Anglo-Saxon law.^^ And I presume that
the socmen, who so frequently occur in
that record, though far more in some
counlies than in others, were ceorls more
fortunate than the rest, who by purchase
had acquired freeholds, or by prescrip-
tion and the indulgence of their lords liad
obtained such a property in the outlands
allotted to them that they could not be
removed, and in msny instances miglit
dispose of them at pleasure. They are
the root of a noble plant, the free soccage
tenants, or I'higlish yeomanry, whose in-
dependence has stamped with peculiar
features both our constitution and our na-
tional character.
Beneath the ceorls in political estima-
tion were the conquered natives of Brit-
Edward, they were already annexe 1 to the soil, p.
B25
* Wilkins, p. 221. t bid., p. 225.
1 Lp?es Hcnr. I., c. 70 and 76, in Wiikins.
0 Soiiinf r on <Tavelkind, p. 74.
ain. In a war so long and so ob- British
stinately maintained as that of the nauyea
Britons against their invaders, it is natu-
ral to conclude, that in a great part of tho
country the original inhabitants were al-
most extirpated, and that the remaindei
were reduced into servitude. This, till
lately, has been the concurrent opinion
of our antiquaries ; and with some quali-
fication, I do not see why it should not
still be received. In every kingdom of
the continent, which was formed by the
northern nations of the Roman empire,
the Latin language preserved its superi-
ority, and has much more been corrupted
through ignorance and want of a stand-
ard, than intermingled with their original
idiom. But our own language is, and
has been from the earliest times after
the Saxon conquest, essentially Teuton
ic, and of the most obvious affinity to
those dialects which are spoken in Pen
mark and Lower Saxony. With such as
are extravagant enough to controvert so
evident a truth, it is idle to contend ; and
those who beheve great part of our lan-
guage to be borrowed from the W>lsh
may doubtless infer that great part of
our population is derived from the same
source. If we look through the subsist-
ing 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 hydes, 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 g,a^gg
frequently the objects of legisla-
tion, rather for the purpose of ascertain-
ing 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, or the tyranny of others, might
possibly reduce a Saxon ceorl to this con-
dition,! it is inconceivable that the low-
est of those who won England with their
swords sliould in the establishment of the
new kingdoms have been left destitute
of personal Jberty.
The great cuu;~'Cil by which an Anglo
Saxon king was guided in all TheWiitea
the main acts of government agemot.
bore the appellation of Wittenagcmot, oj
the assembly of the wise men. All theL
laws express the assent ii this council
* Leges Inae, p. 18. Le;
t Leges I' B. c. 24.
Atheist, p 71
Part l.j
ENGMSH CONSTITUTION.
323
and there are .nstances where grants
made Avithout its concurrence have been
revoked. It was composed of prelates
and abbots, of the aldermen of shires,
and, as it is generally expressed, of the
noble and wise men of the kingdom.*
Whether the lesser thanes, or inferior
proprietors of lands, were entitled to a
place in the national council, as they cer-
tainly were in the shiregemot, or county-
court, is not easily to be decided. Many
writers have concluded from a passage
m the History of Ely, that no one, how-
ever nobly born, could sit in the witten-
a^emot, so late at least as tlie reign of
Edward the Confessor, unless he pos-
sessed forty hydes of land, or about five
tlousand acres. f But the passage in
question does not unequivocally relate
to the wittenagemot ; and being vaguely
worded by an ignorant monk, who per-
ftaps had never gone beyond his fens,
ought not to be assumed as an incontro-
v^ertible testimony. Certainly so very
high a qualification cannot be supposed
lo have been requisite in the kingdoms
of the Heptarchy ; nor do we find any
collateral evidence to confirm the hypoth-
&sis. If, however, all the body of thanes
or freeholders were admissible to the
t\'ittenagemot, it is unlikely that the priv-
lege should have been fully exercised.
S''ery few, I believe, at present, imagine
that there was any representative system
m that age ; much less that the ceorls or
inferior freemen had the smallest share
in the deliberations of thD national as-
sembly. Every argument which a spirit
of controversy once pressed into this
service, has long since been victoriously
refuted.
It has been justly remarked by Hume,
Jmiiciai that among a people who lived in
power, so simple a manner as these An-
glo-Saxons, the judicial power is always
of more consequence than the legislative.
The liberties of these Anglo-Saxon tlianes
were chiefly secured, next to their swords
and their free spirits, by the inestimable
right of deciding civil and criminal suits
in their own 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 aris-
tocracy, deserves attention in following
the history of the British constitution.
The division of the kingdom into coun-
* Leges Anglo-Saxon., in Wilkins, passim.
t Quoniam lUe quadraginta hydaram terrre do-
uunium minimi obtineret, licet nobilis esset, inter
proceres tunc imnicran non poluit. — 3 Gale, Scrip-
^tme, p. 513.
> »
ties, and of these into hundreds Division
and decennaries, for the purpose '/"" «>""
-J..,. '. . rr ties. hUM
of admmistermg justice, was not jreds, and
peculiar to England. In the early laiungs
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 Ingulfus, a writer contem-
porary with the Conquest. But neither
the biographer of Alfred, Asserius, r^or
the existing laws of that prince, bear tes-
timony to the fact. With respect indeed
to the division of counties, and their gov-
ernment by aldermen and sheriff's, it is
certain that both existed long before his
time ;* and the utmost that can be sup-
posed is that he might in some instances
have ascertained an unsettled boundary.
There does not seem to be equal evi-
dence as to the antiquity of the minor
divisions. Hundreds, I think, are first
mentioned in a law of Edgar, and ti-
things in one of Canute. f But as Alfred,
it must be remembered, was never mas-
ter of more than half the kingdom, the
complete distribution of England into
these districts cannot, upon any supposi-
tion, be referred to him.
There is, indeed, a circumstance ob-
servable in this division which seems to
indicate that it could not have taken place
at one time, nor upon one system ; 1
mean, the extreme inequality of hundreds
in different parts of England. Whether
the name be conceived to refer to the
number of free families, or of landhold-
ers, or of petty vills, fortuing so many
associations of mutual assurance or frank-
pledge, one can hardly doubt tliat, Avhen
the term was first applied, a hundred of
one or other of these were comprised, at
an average reckoning, within tlic district.
But it is impossible to reconcile the vary-
ing size of hundreds to any single hypoth-
esis. The county of Sussex contains
sixlj^-five ; that of Dorset forty-three ,
while Yorkshire has only twenty-six;'
and Lancashire but six. No (lifi'crence of
population, tliough tlic soutii of England
was undoubtedly far the best peopled,
can be conceived to account for so pro-
digious a disparity. I know of no b< Iter
solution than tliat the divisions of the
* Counties, as well as the alderman tvho pre-
sided over them, are mentioned in the laws ol Ina,
c. 3G.
t Wilkins, p. 87, 136. The firmer, nowevei
refers to them as an ancient instil ution : quKratai
centuriae conventus, e vcut antea institutum erat
324
EUROPE DURING THE M[DULE AGES.
[Chap. ii
north, properly called wapentakes,* were
planned upon a different system, and ob-
tained the denomination of hundreds in-
correctly, after the union of all England
under a single sovereign.
\ssuming, therefore, the name and par-
lion of hundreds to have originated in
the southern counties, it will rather, I
'.hink, appear probable, that they contain-
ed only a hundred free families, inclu-
ding the ceorls as well as their landlords.
If we suppose none but the latter to have
Deen numbered, we should find six thou-
sand thanes in Kent, and six thousand
five hundred in Sussex; a reckoning to-
tally inconsistent with any probable esti-
nate.f But though we have little direct
estimony as to the population of those
times, there is one passage which falls in
very sufficiently with the former suppo-
sition. Bede says that the king'dom of
the South Saxons, comprehending Sur-
rey as well as Sussex, contained seven
thousand famiUes. The county of Sus-
sex alone is divided into sixty-five hun-
dreds, which comes at least close enough
to prove that free families, ratlier than
proprietors, were the subject of that nu-
meration. And this is the interpretation
of Du Cange yud Muratori, as to the Cen-
icnffi and Dec-niiae of their own ancient
iav/s.
I cannot but feel some doubt, notwith-
standing a passage in the laws ascribed
to Edward the Confessor,t whether the
tithing-man ever possessed any judicial
magistracy over his small district. He
was, more probably, little different from a
petty constable, as is now the case, I be-
lieve, wherever that denomination of of-
fice is preserved. The court of the hun-
dred, not held, as on the continent, by its
own centenarius,but by the sheriff' of the
county, is frequently mentioned in the
CoHiny- later Anglo-Saxon laws. It was,
court, however, to the county- court that
an English freeman chiefly looked for the
maintenance of his civil rights. In this
assembly, held monthly, or at least more
than once in the year (for there seems
some ambiguity or perhaps fluctuation as
to this point), by the bishop and the earl,
or, in his absence, the sheriff', the oath of
allegiance was administered to all free-
men, breaches of the peac«' were inquired
* Leges Edwardi Confess., c. 33.
t It would be easy to mention particular hun-
dreds in these counties, so small as to leixler this
supposition quite ridiculous.
t Leges Edwardi Confess., p. 203. Nothing, as
far as I know, confirms thif; passage, which hardly
allies with what the genuine Anglo-Saxon docu-
ments contain as to the judicial arrangements of
•hat oeriod.
into, crimes were investigated, and claim*
were determined. I assign all these func-
tions to the county-court upon the sup-
position that no other subsisted during tho
Saxon times, and that the separation of
the sheriff^s tourn for criminal jurisdic-
tion had not yet taken place, which, how-
ever, I cannot pretend to determine.*
A very ancient Saxon instrument, re-
cording a suit in the county-court suit in thp
under the reign of Canute, has county
been published by Hickes, and '^'"^^'■
may be deemed worthy of a literal transia
tion in this place. " It is made known by
this writing, that in the shiregemot (coun-
ty-court) held at Agelnothes-stane fAyls-
ton in Herefordshire), in the reign of Ca-
nute, there sat Athelstan the bishop, and
Ranig the alderman, and Edwin his son,
and Leofwin Wulfig's son ; and Thurkil
the White and Tofig came there on the
king's business ; and there were Brynin/;
the sheriff, and Athelweard of Fronie, and
Leofwin of Frome, and Goodric of Stoke,
and all the thanes of Herefordshire.
Then came to the mote Edwin son of
Enneawne, and sued his mother for some
lands, called Weolintun and Cyrdeslea,
Then the bishop asked, who would an-
swer for his mother. Then answered
Thurkil the White, and said that he
would, if he knew the facts, which he
did not. Then were seen in the mote
three thanes, that belonged to Feligly
(Fawley, five miles from Aylston), Leof-
win of Frome, JDgelwig the Red, and
Thinsig Staegthman ; and thej'' went to
her, and inquired what she had to say
about the lands which her son claimed.
She said that she had no land which be-
longed to him, and fell into a noble pas-
sion against her son, and calling for Le
ofleda her kinswoman, the wife of Thur-
kil, thus spake to her before them : — ' This
is Leofleda my kinswoman, to whom I
gi^-e my lands, money, clothes, and what-
ever I possess after my life :' and this
said, she thus spake to the thanes : ' Be-
have like thanes, and declare my mes-
sage to all the good men in the mote, and
tell them to whom I have given my lands,
and all my possessions, and nothing to
my son ;' and bade them be witnesses to
this. And thus they did, rode to the
mote, and told all the good men what she
had enjoined them. Then Thurkil the
White addressed the mote, and requested
all the thanes to let his wife have the
lands which her kinswoman had given
he ; and thus they did, and Thurkil
This point is obscure ; but I do not perceive
.iiat the Anglo-Saxon laws di.stinguish the cir'
I'rom the criminal tribunal
t*AR7
i^NGLlSH CONSTITUTIUIN
32a
rode to tne cluirch of St. Ethelbert, with
the leave and witness of all the people,
and had this inserted in a book in the
church."*
It may be presumed from the appeal
made to the thanes present at the county-
court, and is confirmed by other ancient
authorities,! that ail of them, and they
alone, to the exclusion of inferior free-
men, were the judges of civil controver-
ces. The latter indeed were called upon
o attend its meetings, or, in the language
vf our present law, were suiters to the
court, and it was penal to be absent.
fiut this was on account of other duties,
the oath of allegiance which they were
to take, or the frank-pledges into which
they were to enter, not in order to exer-
cise any judicial power ; unless we con-
ceive that the disputes of the ceorls were
decided by judges of their own rank. It
is more important to remark the crude
state of legal process and inquiry which
this instrument denotes. Without any
regular method of instituting or conduct-
ing causes, the county-court seems to
have had nothing to' recommend it but,
what indeed is no trifling matter, its se-
curity from corruption and tyranny ; and
in the practical jurisprudence of our
Saxon ancestors, even at the beginning
of the eleventh century, we perceive no
advance of civility and skill from the
state of their own savage progenitors on
the banks of the Elbe. No appeal could
be made to the royal tribunal, unless jus-
tice Avas denied in the county- court. J
This was the great constitutional judica-
ture in all questions of civil right. In
another instrument, published by Hickes,
of the age of Ethelred II., the tenant of
lands which were claimed in the king's
court refused to submit to the decree of
that tribunal, without a regular tr'al in
the county; which was accordingly grant-
ed.^ There were, however, royaljudges,
* Hickes, Disserlatio Fpistolaris, p. 4, in The-
saurus Antiquitatum Septentiion, vol. iii. Before
the conquest, says Gurdon (on Courts- l?aron, p.
589), grants W2re enrolled in the shire-book m pub-
lic slure mate, after proclamation made for any to
come in that could claim the lands conveyed ; and
this was as irreversible as the moderti tine with
proclamations or recovery. This may be so ; but
ihe county-court has at least long r >ased to be
a court of record ; and one would a^k for proof
of the assertion. The book kept m the church of
St. Ethelbert, wherein Thurkil is said to have in-
»e;ted the y. icecdings of the coutity-court, may or
may not have been a public record.
t Id., pi 3. Leges Henr. Primi, c. 29.
j Leges Eadgari, p. 77 ; Canuti, p. 130 ; Henrici
Piimi, c. 34. I quote the latter freely as Anglo-
6axou, though posterior to the conquest ; their
pirit being perfectly of the former period.
t l>i8?ertatio Epistolaris, p. 5.
who, either by way of appeal from the
lower courts, or in excepted cases, form-
ed a paramount judicature ; but how theii
court was composed under the Anglo-
Saxon sovereigns I do not pretend lo
assert.*
It had been a prevailing opinion, thai
trial by jury may be referred to the Trial by
Anglo-Saxon age, and common •""■>•
tradition has ascribed it to the wisdom
of Alfred. In .such an historical deduc-
tion of the English government as 1 have
attempted, an institution so pectiliarly
characteristic deserves every attention
to its origin; and I shall therefore pro-
duce the evidence Which has been sup-
posed to bear upon this most eminent
part of our judicial system. The first
text of the Saxon laws which may ap-
pear to have such a meaning is in those
of Alfred. " If any one accuse a kiiig"s
thane of homicide, if he dare to purge
himself (ladian), let him do it along with
twelve king's thanes. If any one accuse
a thane of less rank (la3ssa maga) than a
king's thane, let him purge himself along
with eleven of his equals, and one king'?
thane. "t This law, which Nicholso:-.
contends can mean nothing but trial b}
jury, has been referred by Hickes to tha
ancient usage of compurgation, 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. J
In the canons of t!ie Northumbrian
clergy, we read as follows : " If a king's
thane deny this (the practice of heathen
aiperstitions), let twelve be appointed
for him, and let him take twelve of his
kindred (or equals, maga) and twelve
British strangers ; and if he fail, then lei
him pay for his breach of law twelve half
marcs : If a landholder (or lesser thane )
deny the charge, let as many of his equals
and as many strangers be taken as for a
royal thtine ; and if he fail let him pay
six half-marcs : If a ceorl deny it, let as
many of his equals and as many stran-
gers" be taken for him as for the others ;
* Mado.x, History of the Exchequer, p. 65, will
not admit the existence of any court analogous to
the Curia Regis before the conquest ; all pleas be-
mg determined in the county. There are, how
ever, several instances of decisions before the king,
and in some cases it seems that the witter.agemot
had a judicial authority.— Leges Cani/ti, p. 135.
136. Hist. Eliensis, ' 469. Chron. Sax., pJ69
In the Leges Henr. I , c. 10, the limits of the^yai
and local jurisdictions are defined as to criminal
m;itters, and seem to have been little changed sine*
the reign of Canute, p. 135.
t Leges Alfredi, p. 47.
t Nicholson, Prefalio ad Legos Anglo-Saxou
Wilkinsii, p. 10. Hickes, Dissertatio Ei'Utolars
526
EUROPE DUKI.NG THE ..IIDDLG AGES
LC hvp. \{1,
and if he fail, let him pay twelve orae for
his breach of law."* It is difficult at first
sight to imagine that these thirty-six so
selected were merely or mpurgators, since
it seems ahsurd that ihe judge should
name indifferent persons, who, without
inquiry, were to make oath of a party's
innocence. Some have therefore con-
ceived, that in this and other instances
where compurgators are mentioned, the)-
were virtually jurors, who, before attest-
ing the facts, were to inform their con-
sciences by investigating them. There
are, however, passages in the Saxon
laws nearly parallel to that just quoted,
which seem inconipatible with this iu-
lerpretation. Thus, by a law of Athel-
htan, if any one claimed a stray ox as his
own, five of his neighbours were to be
assigned, of whom one was to maintain
the claimant's oath.f Perhaps the prin-
ciple of these regulations, and indeed of
the whole law of compurgation, is to be
found in that stress laid upon general
character which pervades the Anglo-
Saxon jurisprudence. A man of ill rep-
utation was compelled to undergo a triple
ordeal, in cases where a single one suffi-
ced for persons of credit ; a provision
rather inconsistent with the trust in a
miraculous interposition of Providence
which was the basis of that superstition.
And the law of frank-pledge proceeded
upon the maxim that the best guarantee
of every man's obedience to the govern-
ment was to be sought lu the confidence
of his naighbours. Hence, while some
compurgators were to be chosen by the
sheriff, to avoid partiality and collusion,
it was still intended that they should be
residents of the vicinage, witnesses of
the defendant's previous life, and compe-
tent to estimate the probability of his ex-
culpatory oath. For the British stran-
gers, in the canon quoted above, were
certainly the original natives, more inter-
mingled with their conquerors, probably,
m the provinces north of the Humber
than elsewhere, and still denominated
strangers, as the distinction of races was
not done away.
If in this instance we do not feel our-
selves warranted to infer the existence
of trial by jury, still less shall we find
even an analogy to it in an article of tlie
treaty between England and Wales du-
riti^ the reign of Ethelred II. " Twelve
pewons skilled in the law (lahmen), six
English and six Welsh, shall iiTstruct
Ihe natives of each country, on pain of
* Wilkins, p. 100,
+ Lppes Athe! stani, p. 58.
forfeiting iheir possessions, if excep
through ignorance, they give falr*^, infor-
mation."* This is obviously but a regu-
lation iniended to settle disput\;s among
the Welsh and English, to which theii
ignorance of each other's customs might
give rise.
By a law of the same prince, a court
was to be held in every wapentake,
where the sheriff and twelve principiu
thanes should swear that they would nei-
ther acquit any criminal, nor onnvict any
innocent person. f It seems more prob-
able that these thanes were permanent
assessors to the sheriff", like the scabini
^.0 frequently mentioned in the early
laws of France and Italy, than jurors in
discriminateiy selected. This passage,
however, is stronger than those which
have been already adduced ; and it may
be thought, perhaps with justice, that at
least the seeds of our present form of
trial are discoverable in it. In the his-
tory of Ely, we twice read of pleas held
before twenty-four judges in the court of
Cambridge ; v/hich seems to have been
formed out of several neighbouring hun-
dreds.J
But the nearest approach to a regular
jury which has been preserved in our
scanty memorials of the Anglo-Saxon
age, occurs in the history of the monas-
tery of Ramsey. A controversy relating
to lands between that society and a cer-
tain nobleman was brought into the coun
ty-court ; when each party was heard
in his own behalf. After this commence-
ment, on account probably of the length
and difficulty of the investigation, it was
referred by the court to thirty-six thanes,
equally chosen by both sides. ^ And here
we begin to perceive the manner in
which those tumultuous assemblies, the
mixed body of freeholders in their coun-
ty-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 pro-
ceeding very similar to the case of Ram-
sey, in which the suit has been commen-
ced in the county-court, before it was
found expedient to remit it to a select
body of freeholders. 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 was introduced, Hickes
has discovered other instances oj the ori-
ginal usage. II The language of Domes-
* Leges Ethelredi, p. 125. t P- 1 17.
t Hist. Eliensis, in Gale's Scriptores, t. iii., j
471 and 478.
(j Hist. Ramsey, id., p. 415.
I' Hickesii Dissertatio Epiatolaris, p. H3 30.
Pakt l.j
ENGLISH CONSTITUTIO.T
'S'i-'
day Book lends some coi.firmation to
' its existence at the time of that survey ;
and even our common legal expression
of trial by the country seems to be deri-
ved from a period when the form was lit-
erally popular.
In comparing the various passages
which 1 have quoted, it is impossible not
to be struck with the preference given to
twelve, or some multiplf of it, in fixing
the number either of jui fes or compur-
gators. This was not peculiar to Eng-
land. Spelman has produced several in-
stances of it in the early German laws.
And that number seems to have been re-
garded with equal veneration in Scandi-
navia.* 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 cannot rely for a moment
upon any analogy which the mere num-
ber affords. I am induced to make this
observation, because some of the pas-
sages which have been alleged by emi-
nent men for' the purpose of establishing
the existence of that institution before
the conquest, seem to have little else to
support them.
There is certainly no part of tlie Anglo-
lj,,^or Saxon polity which has attracted
ft-ank- so much the notice of modern
pledge, tii^gg as the law of frank-pledge,
or mutual responsibiUty of tlie members
of a tithing for each other's abiding the
course of justice. This, like the distribu-
tion of hundreds and tithings themselves,
and like trial by jury, has been generally
attributed to Alfred ; and of this, I sus-
pect, wc must also deprive him. It is
not surprising that the great services of
Alfred to his people in peace and in war
should have led posterity to ascribe every
institution, of which the beginning was
obscure, to his contrivance, till his fame
has become almost as fabulous in legisla-
tion as that of Arthur in arms. Tlie Eng-
Ush nation redeemed from servitude, and
their name from extinction ; the lamp of
'earning refreshed, when scarce a glim-
mer was visible ; the w^atchful observance
of justice and public order; these are the
genuine praises of Alfred, and entitle him
to the rank he has always held in men's
esteem, as the best and greatest of Eng-
lish kings. But of his legislation there is
little that can be asserted with sufficient
evidence ; the laws of his time th'at re-
main are neither numerous nor particu-
larly interesting; and a loose report of
♦ Spelinan's Glossary, voc. Jurata. D.i Cantre,
«oc. Nembda. Edinb. Review, vol. xxx , p. 115:
» most learned and elaborate essay
late writers is not su'iFicieut to prove th^i
he compiled a dom-boc, or general cod*i
for the government o.*" his kingdom.
An ingenious and philosophical write-
has endeavoured to found the law o(
frank-pledge upon one of those genera,
principles to which he always loves t.;
recur. " If we look upon a tithing," he
says, " as regularly composed of ten fam-
ilies, this branch of its police will appe:;i
in the highest degree artificial and sir-
gular ; but if we consider that scciety a^
of the same extent with a town or vil-
lage, we shall find that such a regulation
is conformable to the general usage of
barbarous nations, and is founded upon
their common notions of justice."* A
variety of instances are then brought for
ward, drawn from the customs of almost
every part of the world, wiierein the in
habitants of a district have been made
answerable for crimes and injuries impu
ted to one of them. But none; of these,
fully resemble the Saxon institution of
which we are treating. They relate ei
ther to the right of reprisals, exercised
with respect to the subjects of foreign
countries, or to the indemnification ex-
acted from the district, as in our modern
statutes, which give an action in certain
cases of felony against the hundred, for
crimes which its internal police was sup-
posed capable of preventing. In the Irish
custom, indeed, which bound tlie head of
a sept to bring forward* every one of hia
kindred who should be charged with any
heinous crime, we certainly perceive a
strong analogy to the Saxon law, not as
it latterly subsisted, but under one of its
prior modifications. For I think that
something of a gradual progression may
be traced to the history of tlijs famous
police, by following the indications af-
forded by those laws through whicli alone
wc become acquainted with its exist
once.
The Saxons brought with them from
their original forests at least as much
roughness as any of the nations which
overturned the Koman empire ; and their
long struggle with the Britons could not
contiibutelo polish their manners. The
royal authority was weak; and little had
been learned "of that regular system of
government wliich the Franks and Lom-
bards acquired from the provincial Ro
mans, among whom they were niingleil
No people were so much addicted to rol>-
bery, to riotous frays, and to feuds ari-
sing out of family revenge, as the Anglo
♦ Millar on the English Government, vol i.
, 189.
32n
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. VIU
Saxons. Tlieii statutes are filled with
comp^aillls thac the public peace was
openly violated, and with penalties which
seem, by their repetition, to have been
disregarded. The vengeance taken by
the kindred of a murdered man was a sa-
cred right which no law ventured to for-
Did, tliough it was limited by those which
established a composition, and by those
which protected the family of the mur-
derer from their resentment. Even the
author of the laws ascribed to the Con-
fessor speaks of this family warfare,
where the composition had not been paid,
as perfectly lawful.* But the law of com-
position tended probably to increase the
number of crimes. Though the sums
imposed were sometimes heavy, men
paid then, with the help of theii relations,
or entered into voluntary associations,
the purposes whereof might often be
laudable, but which were certainly sus-
ceptible of this kind of abuse. And many
led a life of rapine, forming large parties
of ruffians, who conmiitted murder and
robbery with little dread of punishment.
Against this disorderly condition of so-
ciety, the wisdom of our English kings,
with the assistance of their great coun-
cils, was employed in devising remedies,
which ultimately grew up into a peculiar
system. No man could leave the shire
to which he belonged without the per-
mission of its alderman. f No man could
be without a lord, on whom he depended ;
though he might quit his present patron,
it was under the condition of engaging
himself to another. If he failed in this,
his kindred were bound to present him in
the county-court, and to name a lord for
him themselves. Unless this were done,
he might be seized by any one who met
him as a robber.| Hence, notwithstand-
ing the personal liberty of the peasants,
it was not very practicable for one of
them to quit his place of residence. A
stranger guest could not be received
more than two nights as such ; on the
third the host became responsible for his
'nmatc's conduct.^
The peculiar system of frank-pledges
seems to have passed through the follow-
ing very gradual stages. At first an ac-
cused person was obliged to find bail]! for
* Parentihus occisi fiat emendatio, vel giicrra
e >rum portetur. — Wilkins, p. 1 99. This, like many
Oi her parts of that spurious treatise, appears to
have t)eer. . aken from some older laws, or at least
traditions. I do not conceive that this private re-
venge was tolerated by law after the conquest.
■f Leges Alfredi, c. 33.
% Leges Alhelstani, p. 56.
6 Leges Edwardi Confess., p. 202.
U Leges Lntharii f -egis Can'ii] p. 8.
standing his trial. At a 5ubsequent pe-
riod his relations were called upon to
become sureties for payment of the com-
position and other fines to which he was
liable.* They were even subject to be
imprisoned until payment was made, and
this imprisonment was commutablc for a
certain sum of money. The next stage
was to make persons already convicted,
or of suspicious repute, give sureties for
their future behaviour.f It is not till the
reign of Edgar that we find the first gen-
eral 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 perpetu-
ally repeated and enforced in later stat-
utes, during his reign and that of Ethelred.
Finally, the laws of Canute declare the
necessity of belonging to some hundred
and tithing, as well as of providing sure-
ties ;^ and it may, perhaps, be inferred,
that the custom of rendering every mem-
ber of a tithing answerable for the ap-
pearance of all the rest, as it existed
after the conquest, is as old as the reign
of this Danish monarch.
It is by no means an accurate notion
which the writer to whom I have already
adverted has conceived, that " the mem-
bers of every tithing were responsiblf
for the conduct of one another ; and tha*
the society, or their leader, might be
prosecuted and compelled to make repa
ration for an injury committed by any in
dividual." Upon this false apprehensioi
of the nature of frank-pledges the whole
of his analogical reasoning is founded.
It is indeed an error very current in pop-
ular treatises, and which might plead
the authority of some whose professional
learning should have saved them from so
obvious a misstatement. But, in fact, the
members of a tithing were no more than
perpetual bai'l for each other. " The
greatest security of the public order (says
the laws ascribed to the Confessor), is
that every man must bind himself to one
of those societies which the English ir.
general call freeborgs, and the people of
Yorkshire ten men's tale.'^H This con
sisted in the responsibility of ten men.
each for the other, throughout every vil
lage in the kingdom ; so that if one of
the ten conmitted any fault, the nin<
should produce him in justice ; where h4
should make reparation by his own prop
* Leges Edwardi Senioris, p. 53
t Leges Athelstani, p. 57, c. 6, 7 8.
t Leges Eadgari, p. 78.
c Leges Canuti, p. 137.
j ^vPges Edwardi, in Wilkins, p 2fl.
t'ART 1]
ENGLISH CONSTITl :iUN.
3'i$
erty or by persona punishment. If he
fled from justice, a mode was provided,
According to whic i the tithing might
jlear themselves Jrom 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 equal-
ly manliest from every other passage in
which mention is made of this ancient in-
stitution, that the obligation of the tithing
was merely that of permanent bail, re-
sponsible only indirectly for the good be-
haviour of th«ir members.
Every freeman above the age of twelve
years was required to be enrolled in
some tithing.* In order to enforce this
essential 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 tliese,
whose duty it was to inquire into the
state of tithings, whence they were call-
ed the view of frank-pledge, are regula-
ted in Magna Charta. But this custom,
which seems to have been in full vigour
when Bracton wrote, and is enforced by
a statute of Edward II., gradually died
away in succeeding times.f According
to the laws ascribed to the Confessor,
which are perhaps of insufficient author-
ity to fix the existence of any usage be-
fore the conquest, lords, who possessed
a bdronial jurisdiction, were permitted to
keep tlicir military tenants and the ser-
vants of their household under their own
peculiar frank-pledge. J Nor was any
freeholder, in the age of Bracton, bound
to be enrolled in a tithing.
It remains only, before we conclude
„ ^, this sketch of the Anglo-Saxon
nures wiiuth- System, to consider the once
tr known bu- famous question respecting
fueV.'"' '■'""' ^he establishment of feudal te-
nures in England before the
conquest. The position asserted by Sir
Henry Spelman in his Glossary, that
lands were not held feudally before tiiat
period, having been denied by the Irish
judges in the great case of tenures, he
was compelled to draw up his treatise on
feuds, in which it is more fully maintain-
ed. Several other writers, (^specially
* Leges Caniiti, p. 136.
j 8tat. 18 E. 11. Traces of the actvial view of
frankpledge appear in Cornwall as late as Ihe 10th
of Henry VI., Rot. Farliam., vol. iv., p. 403. And
ind«»ed Selden tells us (Janus Anglorum, t. ii., p.
993 , that it was not quite obsolete in his time.
The form may, for aught I know, be kept up in
some parts of England at this day. For some rea-
son which I cannot explain, the distribution bt
lens was changed into one 1 y do2 3ni. — Hrition, c.
'», and Stat. 18E. H. t P. 202.
Hickes, Madox, and Sir MarfiU Wright
have taken the same side. But namei
equally respectable might be thrown inl<
the opposite scale ; and I thmk the pre
vailing bias of modern antiquaries is ii
favour of at least a modified aflirmalivf
as to this question.
Lands are commonly supposed to hav«
been divided among the Anglo-Saxon>
into bocland and folkland. The formei
was held in full propriety, and might be
conveyed by boc or written grant; the
latter was occupied by the common peo-
ple, yielding rent or other service, and
perhaps without any estate in the land,
but at the pleasure of the owner. These
two species of tenure might be compared
to freehold and copyhold, if the latter had
retained its original dependance upon the
will of the lord.* Bocland was devisable
by will ; it was equally shared among the
children ; it was capable of being entailed
by the person under whose grant it was
originally taken ; and, in case of a treach-
erous or cowardly desertion from the
army, it was forfeited to the crown. f
It is an improbable, and even extrava-
gant supposition, that all these hereditary
estates of the Anglo-Saxon freeholders
were originally parcels of the royal de-
mesne, and consequently that the king
was once the sole proprietor in his king-
dom. Whatever partitions wore made
upon the conquest of a British province,
we may be sure that the shares of the
army were coeval with those of the gen-
eral. The great mass of Saxon property
could not have been held by actual bene-
ficiary grants from the crown. However,
tiie royal demesnes were undoubtedly
very extensive. They continued to be
so even in the time of the Confessor,
after the donations of his predecessors.
And several instruments granting lands
to individuals, besides those in favour of
the church, are extant. These are gen-
erally couched in that style of full and
unconditional conveyance, which is ob-
servable in all such charters of the same
* This supposition may plead the great authori
ties of Somner and Lye, the Anglo S:..\on loxicog
raphers, and appears to me far mo-e probal)le thar
the theory of Sir John Dalrymple, in his Essav on
Feudal Property, or "hat of the author of a dis
course on the Boclan . and Folkland of the Savons
1775, whose name, I think, was Ihbetson. The
first of these supposes bocland to have been feudal
and folkland allodial; the second most strangel;(
takes folkland for feudal. I cannot satisfy mvself
whether thainland and reveland, which occur
sometimes in Domesday Book, merely correspoiy.i
with the other two denominations.
t Wilkins, p. 43, 115. The latter law ih copwd
from one of Charlemagne's Capitularion — BaV.iM
i> 767.
330
EUROPE DUR.NG VHE MIDDLE AGES.
[OHAP. VIll
age upon the coutiiKMit. Some excep-
tions, however, occur; the lands be-
queathed by Alfred to certain of his no-
bles Avere to return to his family in de-
fault of male heirs; and llickes is of
opinion that the royal consent, Avhich
seems to have been required for the tes-
tamerii'.ary disposition of some estates,
was necessary on account of their bene-
ficiary tenure.*
All' the freehold lands of England, ex-
cept some of those belonging to the
church, were subject to tliree great public
burdens; military service in the king's
expeditions, or at least in defensive war,t
the repair of bridges, and that of royal
fortresses. These obhgations, and espe-
cially the first, have been sometimes
thought to denote 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 defence. The usage of all
nations agrees with common reason in
establishing this great principle. There
is nothing, therefore, peculiarly feudal irx
this military service of landholders; ^t
was due from the allodial proprietors
upon the continent ; it was derived from
.heir German ancestors ; it had been fixed,
probably, by the legislatures of the Hep-
tarchy upon the first settlement in Brit-
ain.
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 pro-
prietors on the continent. We even find
in the earliest Saxon laws, that the sith-
cundman, who seems to have correspond-
ed to the inferior thane of later times, for-
feited his land by neglect of attendance
in war ; for which an allodialist in France
would only have paid his heribannum, or
penalty. J Nevertheless, as the policy of
diftereiit states may enforce the duties
of subjects by more or less severe sanc-
tions, I do not know that a law of for-
feiture in such cases is to be considered
as positively implying a feudal tenure.
But a much stronger presumption is
afforded by passages that indicate a mu-
■« Dissertatio Epistolaris, p. 60.
\ This duty is by some expressed ata expedi-
tio ; by others, hostis propulsio, whic h seems to
make no small difference. But, unfortunately,
most of the military service which an Anglo-Saxon
freeholder had to render was of the latter kind.
X Leges InsB, p. 23. Du Cange, voc. Heribannum
By the laws of Canute, p 135, a fine only was im
posed for this ofTencft
tual relation of lord and vassal among the
free proprietors. The most powerful sub-
jects have not a natural wght to the ser
vice of other freemen. But in the laws
enacted during the Heptarchy, we find
it hinted that the sithcundman, or petty
gentleman, might be dependant on a su-
perior lord.* This is more distinctly ex-
pressed in some ecclesiastical canons,
apparently of the tenth century, which
distinguish the king's thane from the
landholder, who depended upon a lord.f
Other proofs of this might be brought
from the Anglo-Saxon laws.t It is not,
however, suflicient to prove a mutual re-
lation between the higher and lower or-
der of gentry, in order to estabUsh the
existence of feudal tenures. For this re-
lation was often personal, as I have men-
tioned more fully in another place, and
bore the name of commendation. And
no nation was so rigorous as the English
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 gra-
dation of dependance ; feudal vassalage,
the object of our inquiry, being of a real,
not apcrsmialmture, and resulting entire-
ly from the tenure of particular lands. But
it is not unlikely that the personal rela-
tion of client, if I may use that word,
might in a multitude of cases be clianged
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 obtain the
protection of some potent lord.
The word thane corresponds in its de-
rivation to vassal ; and the latter term is
used by AsserJus, the contemporary bi-
ographer cf Alfred, in speaking of the
nobles of that prince.^ In their attend-
ance, too, upon the royal court, and the
fidelity which was expected from them,
the king's thanes seem exactly to have
resembled that class of followers who,
under ditferent appellations, were the
guards as well as courtiers of tlie Frank
and Lombard sovereigns. But I have
remarked that the word thane is not ap-
* Leges Ins, p. 10, 23. t Wilkins, p. 101
i p. 71,144, 145.
() Alfredus cum paucis suis nobilibus, et eliani
cum quibusdam militibus et Vassallis, p. ICG. No-
biles Vassalli Sumertunensis pagi, p. 167. Yel
Hickes objects to the authenticity of a charter as-
cribed to Edgar, because it contains the word Vas
salliis, "quam a Nortmannis Angh habuoruut "—
Dissertatio EpistoL, p. 7.
Pari I.]
ENGL55H COJVSTITUTIOiN
6'3i
plied to the uiioie body of gentry m the
more ancient Itiws, where the word eorl
is opposed to the ceorl or roturier, and
that of sithcundman* to the royal thane.
It would be too much to infer from the
extension of this latter word to a large
Jass of persons, that we should interpret
it with a close attention to etymology, a
veiy uncertain guide in almost all inves-
tigations.
For the age immediately preceding the
Norman invasion, we cannot have re-
course to a better authority than Domes-
day Book. That incomparable record
contains the names of every tenant, and
the conditions of his tenure, under the
Confessor, as well as the time of its com-
pilation; and seems to give httle coun-
tenance to the notion that a radical
change in the system of our laws had
been eflected during the interval. In al-
most every page, we meet with tenants
either of the crown, or of other lords,
denominated thanes, freeholders (liberi
homines) or soccagers (socmanni). Some
of these, it is stated, might sell their
lands to whom iliey pleased ; others were
restricted from aUenalion. - Some, as it is
expressed, might go with their lands
whither they would; by which 1 under-
stand the right of commending themselves
to any patron of their choice. These,
of course, could not be feudal tenants in
at.y 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 so
long as they retained it, the seigniory of
the superior could not be defeated. f But
♦ Wilkins, p. 3, 7, 23, &c. This is an obscure
word, occurring only, I believe, durina; the flep-
tarchy. Wilkins translates it, praepositus paganus,
which gives a wrong idea. But gesiih, which is
plainly the same word, is used in Alfred's transla-
tion of Bede for a gentleman or nobleman. Where
Bede uses comes, the Saxon is always gesith or
gesithman ; where princeps or dux occurs, tlie ver-
sion is ealdorman. — Selden's Titles of Honour, p.
643.
t It sometimes weakens a proposition which is
capable ol imumerable proofs to take a very few
at random : yet the following casual specimens will
illustrate the common language of Domesday Book.
Haec tria maneria tenuit Ulvcva tempore regis
Edwardi et potuit ire cum terri quo volebat, p. 85.
Toti emit eam T. R. E. (temp, regis Edwardi)
de ecclesia Malnisburiensi ad SBtatem trium homi-
num ; et infra hunc terminum poterat ire cum ea
ad quern vellet dominum, p. 72.
Tres Angli tenuerunt Darneford T. R. E. et non
polerant ab ecclesia separari. Duo ox iis redde-
bant V solidos, et tertius serviobat sicut Thainus,
p. 68.
Has terras qui tenuerunt T. R. E. quo voluerunt
ire poterunt, prater unum Seric vocatum, qui in
Ragendal tenuit iii carucatas terras ; sed non poterat
sum eA alicubi rccederc, p. 235.
I am not aware that military service is
specified in any instance to bo due froir
one of these tenants ; though ii is difficul
to speak as to a negative proposition ol
this kind with any confidence.
No direct evidence appears as to the
ceremony of homage or the oath oi feal-
ty 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 were no parts of the great
feudal system, but introduced, and per-
haps invented, by our rapacious Norman
tyrants. The English lawyers, through
an imperfect acquaintance with the his-
tory of feuds upon the continent, have
treated these unjust innovations as if they
had formed essential parts of the system,
and sprung naturally from tlie relation
between lord and vassal. And, with ref
erence to the present question. Sir Hen-
ry Spelman has certainly laid too much
stress upon them in concluding that feu-
dal tenures did not exist among the An-
glo-Saxons, because their lands were not
in ward, nor their persons sold in mar-
riage. But I cannot equally concur with
this eminent person in derying the ex-
istence of reliefs during the twme period.
If the heriot, which js first mentioned in
the time of Edgar* (though it may prob-
ably have been an established custom
long before), were not identical with
the relief, it bore at least a very strong
analogy to it. A charter of Elhelred's
interprets one word by the other.f In
the laws of William, which re-enact
those of Canute concerning heriots, the
term relief is employed as synonymous. |
Though the heriot was in later times
paid in chattels, the relief in money, it is
equally true that originally the law fixed
a sum of money in certain cases for the
heriot, and a chattel for the relief. And
the most plausible distinction alleged by
Spelman, that the heriot is by law due
from the personal estate, but the relief
from the heir, seems hardly applicable to
that remote age, when the law of succes-
sion as to real and personal estate was
not different.
It has been shown, in another place,,
how the right of territorial jurisdiction
was generally, and at last inseparably
connected with feudal tenure. Of thia
right we meet frequent instances in the
laws and records of the Anglo-Saxons
though not in those of an early date. A
charter of Edred grants to the monastery
* Selden's Works, vol. ii., p. 1620.
t Hist. Kamseyens, p. 430.
t T.ooes Canuti, p. 144. Leges Gulielnii, p. 2J3
932
ELUOPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
Chap. VIO
of CroylLnd soc sac, toll, team, and in-
fangthef; words which generally went
together in the description of these privi-
leges, and signify the right of holding a
tourt to which all freemen of the terri-
tory should repair, of deciding pleas
therein, as well as ■ f imposing amerce-
ments according to law, of taking tolls
upon the sale of goods, and of punishing
capitally a thief taken in the fact within
the limits of the manor.* Another char-
ter from tlie confessor grants to tlie ab-
bey of Ramsey similar rights over all
ivho were suiters to the sheriff's court,
subject to military service, and capable
of landed possessions ; that is, as I con-
ceive, all who were not in servitude. f By
a law of Ethelred, none but the king could
have jurisdiction over a royal thane. J
x\nd Domesday Book is full of decisive
proofs, that the English lords had their
courts wherein they rendered justice to
their suiters, like the continental nobility ;
privileges which are noticed with great
precision in that record, as part of the
statistical survey. For the right of juris-
diction at a time when punishments v/ere
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. Per-
haps any attempt to decide it positively
would end in a verbal dispute. In tracing
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
former, or the peculiar ceremonies and
incidents of a regular fief, there is some,
though not much appearance. But those
who reflect upon the dependance in which
free and even noble tenants held their
estates of other subjects, and upon the
* Ingulfus, p 35. I do not pretend to aasert the
t.uthenticity of these charters, which at all events
are nearly as old as the conquest. Hickes calls
most of them in question. — Dissert. Epist., p. 6G :
but some latei antiquaries seem to have been more
favourable. — Archasolog-.a, vol. xviii., p. 49. Nou-
veau Traite de Diploma'.ique, t. i., p. 348.
+ Hist. Ramsey, p. 454.
t P 118. This is the earliest allusion, if I am
not mistaken, to territorial jurisdiction in tne Sax-
on laws. Probably it was not frequent till near the
end of the tenth century.
^ Feodum twice occurs in the testament of Al-
fred ; but it does not appear to be used in its proper
sense, nor do I apprehend that instrument to have
been originally written in Latin. It was much
more consonant to Alfred's practice to employ his
3WT\ I viguage.
privileg(^s of territorial jurisdiction, will,
I think, perceive much of the intrinsi<
character of the feudal relation, though
in a ess mature and systematic shap«
than It assumed after the Norman con
quest.
PART IL
THE ANGLO-NORMAN CONSTITUTION.
The Anglo-Norman Constitution. — Causes of the
Conquest. — Policy and character of William —
his Tyranny. — Introduction of Feudal Services.
^Dilference between the Feudal Governments
of France and England. — Causes of the great
Power of the first Norman Kings.— Arbitrary
Character of their Government. — Great Council.
— Resistance of the Barons to John. — Magna
Charta — its principal Articles. — Reign of Henry
III. — The Constitution acquires a more liberal
Character. — .Judicial System of the Anglo-Nor-
mans.— Curia Regis, Exchequer, &c. — Estab-
lishment of the Common Law— its effect in
fi.xing the Constitution. — Remarks on the Lim
iiation of Aristocratical Privileges in England
It is deemed by William of Malmsbury
an extraordinary work of Prov- con(>uestoi
idence, that the English should England bv
have given up all for lost after ^^"'"'^'n-
the battle of Hastings, where only a
small though brave army had perished.*
It was indeed the conquest of a great
kingdom by the prince of a single prov-
ince, an event not easily paralleled, where
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 ad-
vantageously situated, that his success
seems neither unaccountable nor any
matter of discredit to the Englir.h nation.
The heir of the house of Cerdic had been
already set aside at the election of Hj-
rold ; and his youth, joined to a medioc
rity of understanding which excited nei-
ther esteem nor fear,t gave no encour-
agement to the scheme of placing him
upon the throne in those moments of
imminent peril which followed the battle
of Hastings. England was peculiarly des-
titute of great men. The weak reigns
* Malmsb., p. 53. And Henry of Huntingdon
says emphatically : Millesimo et sexagesimo sexto
anno gratis, perfecit dominator Deus de gente An-
glorumquod diu cogitaverat. — Genti namque Nor
mannorum aspers et callidas tradidit eos ad cxtei
minandum, p. 210.
t Edgar, after one or two ineffectual attempt*
to recover the kingdom, was treated by William
with a kindness which could only have proceeded
from contempt of his understanding ; for he W8«
not wanting in courage. He became the ir;timate
friend of Robert, duke of Normandy, whose lor
tunes, as well as character, much rcoembled b'«
own.
Part Il.j
t.NOLlhH CONSTITUTION.
3S?
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 con-
current testimony of historians does not
exaggerate his forces, it may be doubted
whether England possessed military re-
souices sufficient to have resisted so nu-
merous and well-appointed an army.
'I'liis forlorn state of the country indu-
ced, if it did not justify, the measure of
tendering the crown to William, whicli
he had a pretext or title to claim, arising
from the intentions, perhaps the promise,
perhaps even the testament of Edward,
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, Eng-
lish as well as Normans, on the day of
his coronation, gave as much appearance
of a regular succession as the circum-
stances of the times would permit. Those
who yielded to such circumstances could
not foresee, and were unwilling to antici-
pate, the bitterness of that servitude which
William and his Norman followers were
to bring upon their country.
The commencement of his adminis-
His conduct tration was tolerably equita-
ai first mod- ble. Though many conHsca-
"'"'*"'■ tions took place, in order to
gratify the Norman army, yet the mass
of property was left in the hands of its
former possessors. Offices of high trust
were bestowed upon Englishmen, even
upon those whose family renown miglit
have raised the most aspiring thoughts.*
It becomes But partly through the inso-
more tyran- lence and injustice of William's
meat Norman vassals, partly through
the suspiciousness natural to a man con-
scious of having overturned the national
government, his yoke soon became more
heavy. The English were oppressed;
they rebelled, were subdued, and op-
pressed again. All their risings were
without concert, and desperate ; they
wanted men fit to head them, and for-
li esses to sustain their revolt. f After a
• Ordericus Vitalis, p. 520 (in Du Chesiie, Hist.
Norm. Script.).
t Ordericus notices the want of castles in Eng-
land, as one reason why rebellions were easily
quelled, p. 511. Failins? in their attempts at a gen-
erous resistance, the English endeavoured to get
rid of their enemies by assassination, to which
many Normans became victims. William there-
tare enacted, that in eveiy ca«'? ol murder, which
very few }'ears they sank in despair, ana
yielded for a centiirj'' to the indignities of
a comparatively sma)' body of strangers
without a single tumult. So possible is
it for a nation to be kept in permanent
servitude, even without losing its reputa-
tion for individual courage, oi its desire
of freedom !
The tyranny of William displayed lessr
of passion en- insoience than ol that in-
difference about human suffernig which
distinguishes a cold and far-sighted states-
man. Impressed by the frequent rising
of the English at the commencement o.
his reign, and by the recollection, as one.
historian observes, that the mild govern
ment of Canute had only ended in the
expulsion of the Danish line,* he formed
the scheme of riveting such fetters upon
the conquered nation that all resistance
should become impracticable. Those
who had obtained honourable offices w^^ve
successively deprived of them; even the
bishops and abbots of English birth were
deposed;! a stretch of power very sin-
gular in that age, and which marks how
much the great talents of William made
him feared by the church, in the moment
of her highest pretensions, for Gregory
VII. was in the papal chair. Morcar,
one of the most illustrious English, suf-
fered perpetual imprisonment. Walthc-
off, a man of equally conspicuous birth,
lost his head upon a scaffold by a very
harsh, if not iniquitous sentence. It wa?
so rare in those times to inflict judicially
any capital punishment upon persons of
such rank, that his death sorms to have
produced more indignation and despair in
England than any single circimstance.
The name of Englisliman was turned into
a reproach. None of that race fo» a hun-
dred years were raised to any dig'Mty in
the stale or church. J Their lang '^>ge,
and the characters in which it was ^"rit-
ten, were rejected as barbarous; in all
schools, children were taught French,
strictly meant the killmg of any one by an iii\
known hand, the hundred should be liable in a line
unless they could prove the person murdered to be
an Englishman. This was tried by an mquest
upon what was called a presentment of Englishry.
But from the reign of Henry H., the two nations
having been very much intermingled, this inquiry,
as we learn from the Dialogue de Scaccario, p. 26.
ceased, and in every ca'-e of a freeman murdered
by persons unknown, the hundred was lined. — Sefl
however Bracton, 1. iii., c. 15.
* Malmsbury, p. IW. + Hovcden, p. 453.
■f Becket is said to have been the first English
man who reached any considerable dignity. — Lord
Lyttleton's Hist, of Henry II., vol. ii., p. 22. And
Eadmer declares that Henry I. would not place a
single Englishman at the head of a monastery. Si
Anglus erat, nulla virtus, ut honore ahquo diguu.
jud'caretur, eum poterat adjuvare, p. 110
334
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
LChai. \'1
and the laws were administered in no
other tongue * It is well known that
this use of T'rench in all legal proceed-
ings lasted till the reign of Edward 111.
Tlvis exclusion of the English from po-
conffsca.ion litical privileges was accom-
of Eiigiisii panied with such a confiscation
proiierty. ^f property as never perhaps
has proceeded from any government not
avowedly founding its title upon the
sword. In twenty years from the acces-
sion of William, almost the whole soil
of England had been divided among for-
eigners. Of the native proprietors many
/lud perished in the scenes of rapine and
tyranny which attended this convulsion ;
liiany were fallen into the utmost pover-
ty ; and not a few, certainly, still held
their lands as vassals of Norman lords.
S(;veral English nobles, desperate of the
fortunes of their country, sought refuge
in the court of Constantinople, and ap-
proved their valour in the wars of Alex-
ius against another Norman conqueror
scarcely less celebrated than their own,
Robert" Guiscard. Under the name of
Varangians, those true and faithful sup-
porters of the Byzantine empire preserv-
ed to its dissolution their ancient Saxon
idiom, t
The extent of this spoliation of prop-
erty is not to be gathered merely from
historians, whose language might be ac-
cused of vagueness and amplification. In
the great national survey of Domesday
Book, w^e have an indisputable record of
this vast territorial revolution during the
reign of the Conqueror. I am indeed sur-
prised at Brady's position, that the Eng-
lish had suffered an indiscriminate depri-
vation of their lands. 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
cro.vn, and were denominated, as in for-
* Ingulfus, p. 61. Tantum tunc Anglicos abo-
ininati sunt, ut quantocunque merito pollerent, de
dignitatibus repellebantur ; et multo minus habiles
alienigens de quacunque aliA natione, quaj sub
roelo est, cxtitissent, gratanter assumerentur. Ip-
siiin etiam idioma tantum abhorrebant, quod leges
terrae, s' atutaque Anglicorum regum lir,gu& Gal-
lica tractarentur ; et pueris etiam in sciiolis prin-
cipia literarum grammatica Gallici, ac non Angli-
ch traderentur; modus etiam scribendi Anglicus
omitteretur, et modus Gallicus in chartis et in li-
bris omnibus admitteretur.
+ Gibbon, vol. x., p. 223. No writer, except per-
hape the Saxon Chronicler, is so full of William's
tyranny as Ordericus Vitalis. — See particularly pp.
507, 512, 514, 521,. 523, in Du Chesne, Hist. Norm.
Script. Ordericus was an Englishman, but pass-
ed at ten years old, A. D. 1084, into Normandy,
'vhere he became piofessed in the monastery of
Eu. ibid., D 924
mer times, the king's thanes.* Cospa>
trie, son perhaps of one of that nanu
who had possessed the earldom of Nor-
thumberland, held forty-one manors in
Yorkshire, though many of them are sta
ted in Domesday to be waste. Inferior
freeholders were probably much less dis-
turbed in their estates than the higher
class. Though few of English birth con-
tinued to enjoy entire manors, even by a
mesne tenure, it is reasonable to suppose
that the greater part of those who ap-
pear, under various denominations, to
have possessed small freeholds and par-
cels of manors, were no other than tlu;
original natives.
Besides the severities exercised upon
the English after every insur- Devastation
rection, two instances of Will- of Yorkshire
iam's unsparing cruelty are porg^t^^^
well known, the devastation of
Yorkshire and of the New Forest. In the
former, which had the tyrant's plea, ne-
cessity, 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
afterward there was not an inhabited vil-
lage, and hardly an inhabitant left ; the
wasting ofthis district having been follow-
ed by a famine, which swept away th(
whole population.! That of the New Vox-
est, though undoubtedly less calamitous i u
its effects, seems even more monstrous,
from the frivolousness of the cause.! He
afforested several other tracts. And these
favourite demesnes of the Norman kings
were protected by a system of iniquitous
and cruel regulations, called the Forest
Laws, which it became afterward a great
object with the assertors of liberty to
correct. The penalty for killing a stag
or a boar was loss of eyes : for William
loved the great game, says tlie Saxon
Chronicle, as if he had been their father.^
A more general proof of the ruinous
* Brady, whose unfairness always keeps pare
with his ability, pretends that all these were me
nial officers of the king's household. But notwith
standing the difficulty of disproving these gratui-
tous suppositions, it is pretty certain that many
of the English proprietors in Domesday could not
have been of this descnption. — See ^/. 99, 153, 219,
219, and other places. The question, however,
was not worth a battle, though it makes a figure ir.
the controversy of Normans and Anti-NorrnanS;
between Dugdale and Brady on the one side, and
Tyrrell, Petyt, and Atwood on the other.
+ Malmsbury, p. 103. Hoveden, p. 451. Orde-
ric. Vitalis, p. 514. The desolation of Yorkshire
continued in Malmsbury's time; sixty or seventj
years afterward ; nudum omniur.T solum usque \i
hoc etiann tempus.
X Malmsbury, p. 111.
(J Chron. Saxon.- r. 191.
Part 11.
ENGLISH CONSTITUVION.
33«
Proofs of oppression of William the Con-
deiwpuia- queror may be deduced from the
tioii from ^ , • •' ,. . r .u
Domesday companitive condition of the
Book. English towns in the reign of
Edward the Confessor, and at the compi-
lation of Domesday. 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
843 ; of 172 houses in Dorchester, 100
were destroyed ; of 243 in Derby, 103 ;
of 4S7 in Chester, 205. Some other
towns had suffered less, but scarcely any
one fails to exhibit marks of a decayed
population. As to the relative numbers
of the peasantry and value of lands at
these two periods, it would not be easy
to assert any thing without a laborious
examination of Domesday Book.
The demesne lands of the crown, ex-
Domains of tensive and scattered over every
the crown, couuty, wcrc abundantly suffi-
cient to support its dignity and magnifi-
cence ;* 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 cultiva-
tors were racked by his tenants. f Yet
his exactions, both feudal and in the way
of tallage from his burgesses and the ten-
ants of his vassals, were almost as vio-
lent as his confiscations. No source of
income was neglected by him, or indeed
by his successors, however trilling, un-
just, or unreasonable. His revenues, if
Uiches of ■^vf^ could trust Ordcricus Yitalis,
lie Con- amounted to jC1060 a day. This,
queror. j^ mere weight of silver, would
be equal to nearly jCl ,200,000 a year at
present. But the arithmetical statements
of these writers are not implicitly to be
relied upon. He left at his deatli a treas-
ure of X'60,000, which, in conformity to
ills dying request, his successor distrib-
.ited among the church and poor of the
kingdom, as a feeble expiation of the
crimes by which it had been accumula-
ted ;t an act of aisinterestedness, which
seems to prove that Rufus, amid all his
vices, was not destitute of better feelings
than historians have ascribed to him. It
might appear that William had little use
for his extorted wealth. ]]y the feudal
constitution, as established during his
reign, he commanded the service of a
vast army at its own expense, eitiier for
* They consisted of M22 manors. — Lyttlccon's
Henry 11.. vol. li., p. 288.
t Chron. Saxon., p. 188.
X Huntingdon, p. 371. Ordericus Vitalis puts a
.ong penitential speech into William's month on
his death-bed, p. COG. Though this may be his in-
femior., yet facts seem to show the compunctions
of ib<» tvr«nt'8 conscience.
domestic or cont/.iental warfare. But
this was not sufficient for his nis merce-
purpose . like other tyrants, he "ary troop*,
put greater trus in mercenary obedience.
Some of his predecessors had kept bodies
of Danish troops in pay ; partly to be se-
cure against their hostility, partly from
the convenience of a regular army, ant.'
fhe love which princes bear to it. Bui
William carried this to a much greater
length. He had always stipendiaiy sol-
diers at his command. Indeed, his army
at the conquest could not have been
swelled to such numbers by any other
means. They were drawn, by the allure-
ment of high pay, not from France and
Britany alone, but Flanders, Germany,
and even Spain. When Canute of Den-
mark threatened an invasion in 1085,
William, too conscious of his own tyran-
ny to use the arms of his English sub-
jects, collected a mercenary force so
vast, that men wondered, says the Saxon
Chronicler, how the country could main-
tain it. This he quartered upon the peo-
ple, according to the proportion of theii
estates.*
Whatever may be thought of the Anglo-
Saxon tenures, it is certain that reudarsys
those of the feudal system were um e.s"tab-
thoroughly established in Eng- ''^'''^'^
land under the Conqueror. It has been
observed in another part of this work,
that the rights, or feudal incidents of
wardship and marriage, were nearly pe~
culiar to England and Normandy. They
certainly did not exist in the former be-
fore the conquest ; but whether they were
ancient customs of the latter cannot be
ascertained, unless we had more incon-
testable records of its early jurisprudence.
For the Great Customary of Normandy
is a compilation as late as the reign of
Richard Cccur de Lion, when the laws of
England miglit have passed into a country
so long and intimately connected with it
But there appears reason to think thai
the seizure of the lands in wardsliip, the
selling of the heiress in marriage, were
originally deemed rather acts of violence
than conformable to law. For Henry
I.'s charter expressly promises that the
mother, or next of kin, shall have the
custody of the lands as well as person oJ
the heir.f And as the charter of Henry
II. refers to and confirms that of hia
grandfather, it seems to follow that what
* Chron. Saxon., p. 185. Ingulfus, p. 79.
t Tena» et liberorum custos erit sive uxor, sivc
alius propinquorum, qui Justus esse dobebit ; et prap
cipio ut barones mei snnilit«"r se contmenn* nifi
filios vel filias vel uxores hominurn meoni-ii I r
ges Anglo-Saxonica:, p. '-i'*<
i'dti
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGtS.
[Chap. Tlli
is called guardianship in chivalry had not
yet been established. At least it is n?'
till the assize of Clarendon, confirmei at
Nonluimpton in 1176,* that the custody
of the heir "s clearly reserved to the lord.
Wi*h respect to tlie right of consenting
to the marriage of a female vassal, it
seems to have been, as I have elsewhere
observed, pretty general in feudal teimres.
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 pernaps
fully authorized as such till the statute of
Merton in 1236.
One innovation made by William upon
the feudal law is very deserving of atten-
tion. By the leading principle of feuds,
an oath of fealty was due from the vas-
sal to the lord of whom he immediately
held his land, and to no other. The King
of France, long after this period, had no
ferdal and scarcely any royal authority
over the tenants of his own vassals. But
William received at Salisbury, in 1085,
the fealty of all landholders in England,
both those who held in chief and their
tenants ;t thus breaking in upon the feudal
compact in its most essential attribute,
the exclusive dependance of a vassal
>pon his lord. And this may be reckon-
ed among the several causes which pre-
vented the continental notions of inde-
pendence upon the crown from ever
taking root among the English aristoc-
racy.
The best measure of William was the
Preservation of establishment of public peace,
public jeace. j-j^ permitted no rapine but
his own. The feuds of private revenge,
the lawlessness of robbery, were re-
pressed. A girl loaded with gold, if we
believe some ancient writers, might have
passed safely through the kingdom. J But
this was the tranquillity of an imperious
and vigilant despotism, the degree of
which may be measured l)y these effects,
in which no improvement of civilization
had any share. There is assuredly noth-
ing to wonder at in the detestation with
which the English long regarded the
memory of this tyrant."^ Some advantages
* Leges Anglo-Saxonicae, p. 330.
t Chron. Saxon., p. 187.
i Chron. Saxon., p. 190. M. Paris, p. 10. 1 will
cot omit one other circumstance, apparently praise-
worthy, which Ordencns mentions of William, that
he tried to learn English, in order to render justice
by understarding every man's complaint, but failed
oti account of his advanced age, p. 520. This was
in the early part of his reign, before the relnctatice
o\ the Ei.glish to submit had exasperated 1 is o' v
position.
0 ^' Malmsb., Pra^ '^. 1. in.
undoubtedly, in the course of human af-
fairs, otcntually sprang from the Norman
conquest. The invaders, though without
perhaps any intrinsic superiority in social
virtues over the native English, degraded
and barbarous as these are represented
to us, had at least that exterior polish of
courteous and ch" /alric manners, and tha,l
taste for refinement and magiiificenc ;,
which serve to elevate a people from
mere savage rudeness. Their buildings,
sacred as well as domestic, became more
substantial and elegant. The learning of
the clergy, the only class to whom thai
word could at all be applicable, became
infinitely more respectable in a short time
after the conquest. And though this may
by some be ascribed to the general im-
provements of Europe in that point during
the twelfth century, yet I think it was
partly owing to the more free intercourse
with France and the closer dependance
upon Rome which that revolution pro-
duced. This circumstance v/as, how-
ever, of no great moment to the Elnglish
of those times, whose happiness could
hardly be affected by the theological rep
utation of Lanfranc and Anselm. Per-
haps the chief benefit which the natives
of that generation derived from the gov
ernmenl of William and his successors,
next to that of a more vigilant police, was
the security they found from invasion on
the side of Denmark and Norway. The
high reputation of the conqueror and liis*
sons, with the regular organization of a
feudal militia, deterred those predatory
armies which had brought such repeated
calamity on England in former times.
The system of feudal policy, though de-
rived to England from a French Difference
source, bore a very diff'erent ap- between tfco
' . , •' . ^ feiidal policy
pearance in the two countries, in England
France, for about two centu- and France,
ries after the house of Capet had usurped
the throne of Charlemagne's posterity,
could hardly be deemed a regular con
federacy, much less an entire monarchy.
But in England, a government, feudal in-
deed in its form, but arbitrary in its exer-
cise, not only maintained subordination,
but almost extinguished liberty. Several
causes seem to have conspired towards
this radical difference. In the first place,
a kingdom, comparatively small, is much
more easily kept under control than one
of vast extent. And the fiefs of Anglo-
Norman barons after the comjuest wer«
far less considerable, even relatively to
the size of the two countries, than those
of France. The Earl of Chester held,
indeed, almost all that county ;* the
* This was, upon tlie whole, rnore like « greal
AST 11]
EN3LISH CONSTITUTION.
337
Earl of Shrewsbury nearly the whole of
Salop. But these domains bore no com-
jiarison with the dukedom of Guienne or
he county of Touloues. In general, the
ordships of William's barons, whether
this were ov,'ing to pohcy or accident,
were exceedingly dispersed. Robert,
earl of Moreton, for example, the most
richly-endowed of his followers, enjoyed
848 manors in Cornwall, 54 in Sussex,
196 in Yorkshire, 99 in Northampton-
8hire, besides many in other counties.*
Estates 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 vari-
ous 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 sub-
mitted to his nominal sovereignty. They
uever intended to yield the feudal tributes
of relief and aid, nor did some of them
even acknowledge the sufiremacy of his
royal jurisdiction. But the conqueror
and his successors imposed what condi-
tions they would upon a set of barons who
Dwed all to their grants; and as man-
kind's notions of right are generally
founded upon prescription, these peers
grew accustomed to endure many bur-
dens, veluctantly indeed, but without that
feeling of injury which would have re-
sisted an attempt to impose them upon
Ihe vassals 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 measures wliich were
there resolved upon, a compactness and
unity of interest was given to the monar-
chy which was entirely wanting in that
of France. But above all, tlie paramount
authority of the king's court, and those
excellent Saxon tribunals of tlie county
and hundred, kept within very narrow
'imits that great support of the feudal
French fief than any English earklom. Hugh de
Abrincis, nephew of William I., had barons of his
own, one of whom held forty-six and another thirty
manors. Chester was lirst called a county-palatine
nnder Henry II.; but it previously possesse<l all
regalian rights of jurisdiction. After the forfeit-
ares of the hi)\ise of Montgomery, it acquired all
the country between the Mersey and Ribble. Sev-
eral eminent men inherited the earldom ; but upon
the dsalh of the most distinguished, Ranulf, in
1232 it I'ell into a female line, arui soon escheated
o the crown.— Dugdale's Baronage, p. 45. Lyttle-
lon'e Henrv 11., vol. ii., p. 218.
* Dugd-de's Baronage, d. 25.
y
aristocracy, the right ot territorial juris-
diction. Except in the counties pi atine.
the feudal courts possessed a very tri-
lling degree of jurisdiction over civil, and
no i very extensive one over criminal
causes.
We may add to the circumstances that
rendered the crown powerful du- Hatred of
ring the first century after tlie Engiistita
conquest, an extreme antipathy ^'''''^''n^-
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
promises to the English after attaining
their object.* A fact, mentioned by Or-
dericus Vitalis, illustrates the advantage
which the government found in this na-
tional 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 I., in 1102, the rest of the nobility
deliberated together, 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 endeavoured, therefore, to bring
about a treaty; but the English part of
Henry's army, hating Robert de Belcsmo
as a Norman, urged the king to proceed
with the siegt) ; which he did, and took
the castle. t
Unrestrained, therefore, comparative-
ly speaking, by the aristocrat- Tyranny of
ic principles which influenced the Normac
other feudal countries, the ad- «o^'«>-n™'"
ministration acquired a tone of rigour
and arbitrariness under William the Con-
queror, which, though sometimes per-
haps a little mitigated, did not cease du-
ring 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 govern-
ment. The intolerable exactions of trib-
ute, the rapine of purveyance, the iniqui
ty of royal courts, are continually in their
mouths. " God sees the wretched peo-
ple," says the Saxon Chronicler, " most
unjustly oppressed ; first they are de-
spoiled of their possessions, then butch-
ered. This was a grievous year (1124).
Whoever had any property, lost it by
heavy taxes and unjust decrees. "J The
» \V. Malmsbury, p. 120 et 156. K. Hovedeo,
p. 461. Chron. Saxon., p. 194.
t Du Chesne, Script. Norman., p. 80".
t Chron. Sa.\on.. p. 22S. Non facile potest nar
rari miseria, says Roger de Hc-^ednn. quara susti
338
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
fC^AP. Vll\
8 line ancient chronicle, which appears
to have been continued from time to time
ui the abbey of Peterborough, frequently
utters similar notes of lamentation.
From the reign of Stephen, the miser-
its exac- ies of which are not to my im-
iions. mediate purpose, so far as they
[jroceeded from anarchy and intestine
war,* we are able to trace the character
of government by existing records. f
These, digested by the industrious Ma-
dox 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 sanguinarj' despotism.
Henry II. w^as a prince of remarkable
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 find among eastern slaves, than that
high-spirited race of Normandy, whose
renown then filled Europe and Asia. The
right of wardship was abused by selling
the heir and his land to tlie highest bid-
der. That of marriage was carried to a
si ill grosser excess. The kings of France
yiideed claimed the prerogative of forbid-
ding the marriage of their vassals' daugh-
ters to such persons as they thought
unfriendly or dangerous to themselves ;
but I am not aware that they ever com-
pelled 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 ten-
ants in chief, and not as wards, fined to
tlie crown for leave to marry whom they
would, or not to be compelled to marry
any other.J Towns not only fined for
original grants of franchises, but for re-
nuit illo tempore [circ. arm. 1103], terra Anglorum
propter regias exactiones, p. 470.
* The following simple picture of that reign from
the Saxon Chronicle may be worth inserting.
'The nobles and bishops built castles, and lilled
them with devilish and wicked men, and oppressed
the people, cruelly torturing men for their money.
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 sutler greater evils. If two
or tiiree men were seen riding up to a town, all its
mhabitants left it, taking them for plunderers. And
v.iis lasted, growing worse and worse, throughout
Stephen's reign. Men said openly that Christ and
his saints were asleep," p. S30.
t The earliest record in the Pipe-office is that
which Madox, in conformity to the usage of others,
cites by the name of Magnum Rotulum quinto
Stephani. But in a particular dissertation subjoin-
ed to his History of the Exchequer, he incl'nes,
thoigh not decisively, tit refer this record to the
reign of Henry I. J MadoT. c. 10.
peated confirmations. TiiC Jews paid
exorbitant sums for every common righl
of mankind, for protection, for justice.
In return, they were sustained agains";
their Christian debtors in demands of
usury, which superstition and tyranny
rendered enormous.* Men fined far iht
king's good-will ; or that he would remit
his anger ; or to have his mediation with
their adversaries. Many fines seem au
it were imposed in sport, if we look to
the cause ; though their extent, and ht,
solemnity with whicli they were record-
ed, prove the humour to have been dif
ferently reUshed by the two parties
Thus the Bishop of Winchester paid a
tun of good w"ine for not reminding the
king (John) to give a girdle to the Count-
ess of Albemarle ; and Robert de Vaux
five best palfreys, that the same king
might hold his peace about Henry Pinel's
wife. Another paid four marks for leave
to eat (pre licentia comedendi). But of
all tht; abuses which deformed the Anglo-
Norman government, none was so flagi-
tious 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 emplead a certain
person ; to have restitdtion of land which
they liad recovered at law.f From the
sale of that justice which every citizen
has a right to demand, it was an easy
transition to withhold or deny it. Fines
were received for the king's help against
the adverse suiter ; that is, for perversion
of justice, or for delay. Sometimes they
were paid by opposite parties, and, of
course, for opposite ends. These were
called counter-fines ; but the money was
sometimes, or, as Lord Lyttleton thinks,
invariablj, returned to the unsuccessful
suiter.J
Among a people imperfectly civilized,
the most outrageous injustice to- General
wards individuals may pass with- ''^"^'^
out tlie sHghtest notice, while in matters
afl'ecting the community, the powers of
government are exceedingly controlled
It becomes therefore an important ques-
lion, 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 vassals in certain cases. Thesw
* Mado.T, c. 7. I Id., c. 12 and 13.
X The most opposite instances of these exactiojii*
are well selected from Madox by Hume, Appendu
1 II. : upon which account I nave gone less into d*
I tail than would otherwise .;ave aeer 'jecessarr.
KT It.]
KNGLI«H C(, INSTITUTION.
339
v# jre, m England, to make his eldest son
A knight, to marry his eldest daughter,
and to ransom himself from captivity.
According-J*' when such circumstances
jccurred, aias 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 pre-
icribed cases, were taken without requi-
ring the consent of parliament. Escu-
age, 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 king.f It
was not till the charter of John that es-
cuage became a parliamentary assess-
ment ; the custom of commuting service
having then grown general, and the rate
of commutation being variable.
None but military tenants could be lia-
ble for escuage ;| but the inferior sub-
jects of the crown were oppressed by
tallages. The demesne lands of the
king and all royal towns were liable to
tallage ; an imposition far more rigorous
and irregular than those which fell upon
the gentry. Tallages were continually
raised upon different towns during all the
Norman reigns, without the consent of
parliament, which neither represented
them nor eared for their interests. The
itinerant justices in their circuit usually
set this tax. Sometimes the tallage was
assessed in gross upon a town, and col-
lected by the burgesses : sometimes indi-
vidually, at the judgment of the justices.
There was an appeal from an excessive
assessment to the barons of the ex-
chequer. Inferior lords might tallage
their own tenants and demesne towns,
though not, it seems, without the king's
permission.*^ Customs upon the import
* The rensonahle aid was fixed by the statute of
Westminster I., 3 Edw. I.,c.3C, at twenty shillings
for every knight's fee, and as much for every 20/.
value of land lield by soccage. The aid pour fairc
fitz chevalier might bo raiso<I, when he entered
into his fifteenth year ; pour fiile marier, when she
reached the age of seven.
t Fit interdum, lit iinminente vel insurgente in
regnum hostium machinatione, decernat rex de
cingulis feodis militum summain aliquam solvi,
jnarcam scilicet, vel librarn unam; iinde militibus
ttipendia vel donativa succedant. Mavult enim
princeps stipendiarios quam domesticos bellicis
exponere casibus. Haic itaque summa, quia
nomine scutorum solvitur, scutagium nominatur.
— Dialogus de Scaccario, ad finein. Madox, Hist.
Exchequer, p. 25 (edit, in folio).
X The tenant in capite was entitled to be reim-
bursed what would have been his escuage by his
Tassals even if he performed personal service. —
Madox, c. 16.
(j Forlhe important subject of tal ages, see Ma-
in-r c. P.
and export of merchandise, of whicii
the prisage of wine, that is, a right oi
taking two caska out of each vessel,
seems the most material, were immemo-
rially exacted by the crown. There is
no appearance that these originated with
parliament.* Another tax, extending tc
all the lands of the kingdom, was Dane-
geld, 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 afterward applied to a
permanent contribution for the public
defence against the same enemies. But
after the conquest this tax is said to have
been only occasionally required ; and the
latest instance on record of its payment
is in the 20th of Henry II. Its imposi-
tion appears to have been at the king's
discretion.f
The right of general legislation was
undoubtedly placed in the king. Right of le
conjointly with his great coun- gis'aiion
cil,i or, if the expression be thought more
proper, with their advice. So little op-
position 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 consult-
ii>.g them in every important business.
But the limits of legislative power were
extremely indefinite. New laws, like
new taxes, affecting the community, re-
quired the sanction of that assembly
which was supposed to represent it ; but
there was no security for individuals
against acts of prerogative, which we
should justly consider as most tyranni-
cal. Henry II., the best of these mon-
archs, banished from England the rela-
tions and friends of Becket, to the num-
ber of four hundred. At another time,
he sent over from Normandy an injunc-
tion, that all the kindred of those who
obeyed a papal interdict should be ban-
ished, and their estates confiscated.^
* Madox, c. 18. Hale's Treatise on the Cus-
toms in Hargrave's Tracts, vol. i., p. 116.
t Henr. Huntingdon, 1. v., p. 205. Dialogus de
Scaccario, c. 11. Madox, c. 17. Lyttleton's
Henry II., vol. li., p. 170.
X Glanvil, Prologus ad TractatnmdeConsuetnd
() Hoveden, p. 40G. Lyttleton, vol. ii., p. 530.
The latter says that this edict must have beer;
• ramed by the king with the advice and assent of
his councd. But if he means his great council, 1
cannot suppose that all the barons and tenant!"
in capite covdd have been duly summoned to a
council held beyond seas. Some English barons
might doubtless have been with the king, as a)
Verneuil in 117C, where a mixed assembly of Eng-
lish and French enacted laws for both countries
Benedict. Abbas apud Hume. Soat Ncithampion
in 1165, several Norman barons voted , nor i» any
S40
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
(hap Mli
The statutes of those reigns do not ex- / ward.* Henry II. is silen about tliese,
although he repeals the ccnfirmation of
his grandfather's chaiter.f The people,
however, had begun to look back to
Laws and char- hibit to US many provisions
ters of Norman calculated to maintain pubhc
kings. liberty on a broad and gen-
eral foundation. And although the laws
then enacted have not all been preserved,
yet it is unlikely that any of an exten-
.sive\y remedial nature should have left
no trace of their existence. We find,
however, what has sometimes been call-
ed the Magna Charta of William the
Conqueror, preserved in Roger de Hove-
den's collection of his laws. 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 noth-
ing but their service lawfully due to us
shall be demanded at their hands.* The
laws of the Conqueror, found in Hove-
den, are wholly different from those in
Ingulfus, and are suspected not to have
escaped considerable interpolation.! It
is remarkable that no reference is made
to this concession of William the Con-
queror in any subsequent charter. How-
ever, it seems to comprehend only the
feudal tenants of the crown. Nor does
the charter of Henry I., though so much
celebrated, contain any thing specially
expressed but a remission of unreasona-
> le reliefs, wardships, and other feudal
burdens. J It proceeds, however, to de-
clare 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 confirm.s that of his
predecessor, but adds, in fuller terms
than Henry had used, an express conces-
sion of the laws and customs of Ed-
notice taken of this as irregular. — Fitz Stephen,
ibid. So unfixed, or rather unformed, were all
constitutional principles.
* V'olumus etiam, ac firmiler prtecipimus et
concedimus, ut omnes liben homines tolius mon-
archioe praedicti regni nostri habeantet teneant ter-
ras suas et possessiones suas beni, et in pace, li-
berfe ab omni exactioneinjusti, et ab omni tallagio,
ita quod nihil ab iis eiigatur vel capiatur, nisi ser-
vitiuin suum liberum, quod de jure nobis fRcere
debent, et facere tenenlur; et prout statutuin est
iis, et illis a nobis datum et concessum jure h^red-
itario in perpeluum per commune concilium totius
regni nostri praedicti.
t Selden, ad Eadmerum. Hody (Treatise on
Convocations, p. 249), infers from the words of
Hoveden, that they were altered from the French
original by Glanvil.
J: Wilkins, p. 234.
^ A great impression is said to have been made
on the barons confederated against John by the
production of Henry I. 's charter, whereof they had
been ignorant.— Matt. Paris., p. 212. But this
could hardly have been the existing charter, for
reasons alleged by Blackstone. — Introduction to
Magna Charta, p G
more ancient standard of law. The
Norman conquest, and all that ensued
upon it, had endeared the memory of
their Saxon government. Its disorders
were forgotten, or rather were less odi-
ous to a rude nation, than the coercive
justice by which they were afterward
restrained. I Hence it became the fa-
vourite cry to demand the laws of Ed
ward the Confessor ; and the Normana
themselves, as they grew dissatisfied
with the royal administration, fell into
these English sentiments.^ But what
these laws were, or more properly, per-
haps, these customs, subsisting in the
Confessor's age, was not very distinctly
understood |1 So far, however, was clear,
that the vigorous feudal servitudes, the
weighty tributes upon poorer freemen,
had never prevailed before the conquest.
In claiming the laws of Edward the Con
fessor, our ancestors meant but the re
dress of grievances which tradition told
them had not always existed.
li is highly probable, independently of
the evidence supplied by the Ri(.}.nrd i.-*
charters of Henry I. and his chanteiior'
two successors, that a sense of deposed by
oppression had long been stim-
* Wilkins, Leges Anglo-Saxon., p. 310.
t Id., p. 318.
J The Saxon Chronicler complains of a wuten
agemot, as he calls it, or assizes, held at Leices
ter in 1 124, where forty-four thieves were hanged
a greater number than was ever before known ; it
was said that many suffered unjustly, p. 228.
1^ The distinction between the two nations wa?
pretty well obliterated at the end of Henry Il.'a
reign, as we learn from the Dialogue on the Ex
chequer, then written ; jam cohabitantibus Angli
cis et Normannis, et alterutrum uxores ducenti
bus vel nubentibus, sic permixtse sunt naliones, ut
vix discerni possit hodie, de liberis loquor, quia
Anglicus, quis Normannus sit genere ; exceptis
duntaxat ascriptitiis qui villani dicuntur, quibus
non est liberum obstaniibus domini- suis a sui sta-
tus conditione discedere. Eapropter pene qui
cunque sic hodie occt'sus reperitur, ut murdruiD
punitur, exceptis his quibus certa sunt ut diximus
servilis conditionis indicia, p. 26.
II Non quas tulit, sed quas ob&orvaverit, says
William of Malmsbury, concerning the Confes-
sor's laws. Those bearing his name in Lambard
and Wilkins are evidently spurious, though it may
not be easy to fix upon the time when they were
forged. Those found in Ingulfus, in the French
language, are genuine, and were confirmed by
William the Conqueror. Neither of these coUec
tions, however, can be thought to have any rela
tion to the civil liberty of the sibject. It has been
deemed more rational to suppose, that these lor.g
ings for Edward's laws were rather meant for a
mild administration of government, free from uc
just Norman innova'.ions, than any written *ai
definitive system.
•xitT Il.l
ENGLISH CONSTiTLTlON.
if 4 1
dating the subjects of so arbitrary a gov-
ernm ;nt, before they gave any demon-
strations of it sufficiently palpable to find
a place in history. But there are cer-
tainly 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 II., 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 be-
gan to show itself. For the king having
left his chancellor, William Longchamp,
joint regent and justiciary with the Bish-
op of Durham during his crusade, the
foolish insolence of the former, who ex-
cluded his coadjutor from any share in
he 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 unpleasing to the king,
who was already apprized how much
Longchamp had abused his trust, it was
a remarkable assumption of power by
that assembly, and the earliest authority
for a leading principle of our constitu-
tion, the responsibility of ministers to
parliament.
In the succeeding reign of John, all the
Magrm rapapious exactions usual to these
Charia. Norman kings were not only re-
doubled, but mingled with other outrages
of tyranny still more intolerable.* These
•oo were to be endured at the hands of a
prince utterly contemptible for his fully
and cowardice. One is surprised at the
forbearance displayed by the barons, till
they took arms at length in that confed-
eracy which ended in establishing the
Great Charter of Liberties. As this was
the first effort towards a legal govern-
ment, so is it beyond comparison the
most important event in our history, ex-
cept that revolution without which its
benefits would rapidly have been annihi-
lated. The constitution of England has
mdecd no single date from which its du-
ration is to be reckoned. The institu-
tiouj of positive law, the far more impor-
tant changes which time has wrought in
* In 1207, John took a seventh of the moveables
of lay and spiritual persons, cunctis murmurantibus,
s«?d cotitradicere non audentibus. — Matt. Paris, p.
166, ed. IGBd. But his insu'.ls upon the nobility in
debauching their wives and daughters were, as usu-
»Uv happe.ie. the i.i ■Jt exasperating provocation
the order of society during six hundred
years subsequent to the Great Chariet,
have undoubtedly lessened its direct ap-
plication to our present circumstances.
But it is still the keystone of English
liberty. All that has since been obtained
is little more than as confirmation or
commentary ; and if every subsequem
law were to be swept away, there woulQ
still remain the bold features tliat distin-
guish a free from a despotic monarchy.
It has been lately the fashion to depreci-
ate 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 what motives those who
obtained it were guided. The real char-
acters 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 distril.'Uion of
civil rights to all classes of '-eemen
forms the peculiar beauty of the ci^^ner.
In this just solicitude for the people, i^-^
in the moderation which infringed upoi
no essential prerogative of the monarchy
we may perceive a liberality and patri-
otism very mlike the selfishness which
is sometimes rashly imputed to those
ancient 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 glory of this monument ; Ste
phen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury,
and WiUiam, earl of Pembroke. To
their temperate zeal for a legal govern
mcnt, England was indebted during that
critical period for the two greatest bles-
sings tliat patriotic statesmen could con-
fer; the establishment of civil liberty
upon an immoveable basis, and the pres-
ervation of national independence under
the ancient line of sovereigns, which
rasher men were about to exchange for
the dominion of France.
By the Magna Charta of John, reliefs
were limited to a certain sum, according
to the rank of tiie tenant, the waste com
mitted by guardians in chivalry restrain-
ed, the disparagement in matrimony of
female wards forbidden, and widows se-
cured from compulsory marriage. These
regulations, extending to the sub-vassah
of the crown, redressed the worst griev.
anccs of every military tenant in Eng-
land. The franchises of the city of Lon-
don and of all towns and boroughs wera
declared inviolable. The freedom ol
commerce was guarantied to alien mr r
34 ->
EUROPE DIKING THE MIDDLE AGFS.
[OlIAl Vll\
chants. The Court of Common Pleas,
instead of following the king s person,
was fixsd at Westminster. The tyranny
exercised in the neighbourhood of royal
forests met with some check, which was
further enforced by the Charter of For-
ests under Henry III.
But the essential clauses of Magna
Charta are those which protect the per-
sonal liberty and property of all freemen,
by giving security from arbitrary impris-
onment and arbitrary spoliation. "No
freeman (says the 29th chapter of Henry
in.'s charter, which, as the existing law,
1 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 other-
wise 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 wall sell to no man, we will
not deny, or delay to any man justice or
riglil." It is obvious that these words, in-
terpreted by any honest court of law, con-
vey 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 consti-
tution, that no man can be detained in
prison without trial. Whether courts of
justice framed the writ of habeas corpus
m conformity to the spirit of this clause,
or found it already in their register, it be-
came from that era the right of every sub-
iect to demand it. That writ, rendered
more actively remedial by the statute of
Charles H., but founded upon the broad
oasis of Magna Charta, is the principal bul-
wark of English hberty ; and if ever tem-
porary circumstances, or the doubtful plea
of poUtical necessity, shall lead men to
look on its denial with apathy, the most
* Nisi per legale judicium parium suorum, ijeZ
per legem terra;. Several explanations have been
offered of the alternative clause, which some
have referred to judgment by default or demurrer,
others to the process of attachment for contempt.
Certainly there are many legal procedures besides
trial by jury, through which a party's goods or per-
son may be taken. But one may doubt whether
these were in contemplation of the framers of
Magna Charta. In an entry of the charter of 1217
by a contemporary hand, presei ved in a book in the
town-clerk's office in London, called Liber Cus-
tuniarum et Regum antiquorum, a various reading,
tt per legem terra?, occurs.— Blackstone's Char-
ters, p. •12. 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 mean-
ing will be, that no person shall be disseized, &c.
except upon a lawful cause of action or endictment,
found by the verdict of a jury. This really seems
•8 good as any of the disjunctive interpretations ;
but I do not otTer it with much confidencp
distinguishing characteristic of our con
stitution 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 offence, by the 14th
clause of Henry HI.'s charter, must be
the measure of his fine, and in eveiy
case the contenement (a word expressive
of chattels necessary to each man's sta-
tion, as the arms of a gentleman, the
merchandise of a trader, the plough and
wagons of a peasant) was exempted from
seizure. A provision was made in the
charter of John, that no aid or etcuage
should be imposed, except in the three
feudal cases of aid, without consent of
parliament. And this was extended to
aids paid by the city of London. But
the clause was omitted in the three char-
ters granted by Henry HI., though par
liament 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 taxation was
explicitly and absolutely recognised.
A law which enacts that justice shall
neither be sold, denied, nor delayed,
stamps with infamy that government un-
der which it had become necessary. But
from the time of the charter, accordin|
to Madox, the disgraceful perversions of
right, which are upon record in the rolls
of the exchequer, became less frequent.*
From this era a new soul was infused
into the people of England. g(a,eof,^(.
Her liberties, at the best long cnnsiiiu-
in abeyance, became a tangible j'j''J[,""Jf[
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 whethe.
the victorious 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 in-
deed, and 'njustice, will, by all historjans
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 na-
tional rights which distinguishes those
* ffist if Exchequer, c. 12
piRT II.]
ENGLISH CONSTITJTfON.
341
nl the next age, and particularly the
monk of St. Alban's. From his prolix
history we may collect three material
propositions as to the state of the Eng-
lish 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 insmcere, ill-judging,
and pusillanimous. The intervention of
such a reign was a very fortunate circum-
stance for public liberty; which might
possibly have been crushed in its infancy,
if an Edward had immediately succeeded
to the throne of John.
1. The Great Charter Avas always con-
sidered as a fundamental law. But yet
it was supposed to acquire additional se-
curity 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 pur-
chased by the grant of a subsidy.* This
prudent accommodation of parliament to
the circumstances of their age not only
made the law itself appear more inviola-
ble, but established that correspondence
between supply and redress, which for
some centuries was the balance-spring
of our constitution. The charter indeed
was often grossly violated by their ad-
ministration. Even Hubert de Burgh,
of whom history speaks more favour-
ably than of Henry's later favourites,
though a faithful servant of the crown,
seems, as is too often the case with
such men, to have thought the king's
honour and interest concerned in main-
taining an unlimited prerogative.! The
government was however much worse
administered after his fall. From the
great difficulty of compelling the king
to observe 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 bind-
ing his conscience, and terrifying his
imagination by religiuus sanctions. The
solemn excommuni tion, accompanied
with the most awful ^nrcats, pronounced
against the violators of Magna Cliarta, is
well known frrtn 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.
♦ M itt. Pari?, j 272.
t I'!., I). 'Jbl.
had his own notions as to the validity oj
an oath tliat aflected hip power, and in-
deed passed his life in a series of perju-
ries. According to the creed of tha!
age, a papal dispensation might annul any
prior engagement ; and he was generally
on sufficiently good terms with Rome to
obtain such an indulgence.
2. Though the prohibition of levying
aids or escuages without consent of par-
liament had been omitted in all Henry'.-?
charters, an omission for wliich we can
not assign any other motive than the dis-
position of his ministers to get rid of that
restriction, yet neitlier one nor the other
seem 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 impos-
sible for the kmg, however frugal, strip-
ped as he was of so many lucrative
though oppressive prerogatives by the
Great Charter, to support the expenditure
of government from his own resources.
Tallages on his demesnes, and especially
on the rich and ill-afl"ected city of Lon-
don, 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
clause 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 tlieir 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 little
more than a nominal privilege. But in
this reign the English parliament exer
cised 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 alle
ging that he had expended a great deal of
money on his sister's marriage with the
emperor, and also upon his own, the bar-
ons answered, that he had not taken tlicii
advice in those aflairs, nor ought tliey k;
share the punishment of acts of impru-
dence they had not committed.! In
1241, a subsidy having been demanded
* M. Paris, p. 650.
+ Quod liffic omnia sine consilio fidelinin sv.o
iviin faccrat, nrc (iebuerant esse poena; participp*
Qui fiicrant a culpa immunes, p. 36''.
it^
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLL AGES
ttfcvP. Vlli
for the wi. y. Poitou, the barons drew
up a reinonstrat.ee, enumerat'ng all the
grants they had made on former occa-
vsions, but alw ays on condition that the
imposition should not oe turned into pre-
cede nt. Their last subsidy, it appears,
had been paid into the hands of four bar-
ons, who were to expend it at their dis-
cretion for the benetit of th? king and
kingdom ;* an early instance of parlia-
mentary control over public expendi-
ture. On a similar demand in 1244, the
king was answered by complaints against
•he violation of the charter, the waste of
lo.'>'"r subsidies, and the maleadministra-
tion o. '"^'s servants.! Finally, the bar-
ons posiiivc^v refused any money ; and
he extorted 1500 marks from the city of
London. Some years afterward they
declared their readiness to burden tliem-
selves more than ever, if they could se-
cure the observance of the charter; and
requested that the justiciary, chancellor,
and treasurer might be appointed with
consent of parliament, according, as they
asserted, to ancient custom, and might
hold their offices during good behaviour.|
Forty yeai's 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 antried
to raise up a competitor for the crown
of Naples, which Manfred had occupied.
Richard, earl of Cornwall, having been
prudent enough to decline this specula-
tion, the pope offered to support Henry's
second son, Prince Edmund. Tempted
* Matt. Paris, p. 515.
t Id., p. 563,572. Matthew Paris's language is
particularly uncourtly : rex cum instaiitissiini, ne
dicam impudentissimS, au.Kiliuni pecuniare ab iis
iterurn postularet, toties laesi et illusi, contradix-
erunt ei uiianiniiter et uno ore in facie.
X De communi consilio regni, sicut ab antique
consuetum et justum, p. 778. This was not so
great an encroachment as it may appear. Ralph
de Neville, bishop of Chichester, had been made
chancellor in 1223, assensu totius regni ; it.ique
scilicet ut non deponeretur ab ejus sigilli custodii
nisi totius regni ordinante consensu et consilio, j).
266. Accordingly, the king demanding the great
eeai from him in 1236, he refused to give it up, alle-
ging that, having received it in the general council
of the kingdom, he could not resign it without the
same authority, p. 363. And the parliamen-; of
1248 complained that the king had not followed
the steps of his predecessors in appointing t.iese
three great officers by their consent, p. 646. What
hacj been in fact the practice of former kings, I do
not know ; but it is not likely to have been such
SB they represent. Henry, however, had named
the Archbishop of York to the regency of the king-
dom during his absence beyond sea in 1242, de
consilio omnium comitum et baronum nostrorum et
•ninium fidelium nostrorum — Rymer, *. i., p. 400.
by such a prospect, the s'lly king involv
ed himself in irretrievable embarrass
ments by prosecuting an enterprise which
could not possibly be advantageous fn
England, and upon which he entered
without the advice of his parliament.
Destitute himself of money, he wao com-
pelled to throw the expense of this new
crusade upon the pope ; but the assist-
ance of Rome was 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
Edmund as King of Sicily, that they Avere
bound for the repayment 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.f Such
a concession drew upon the king the im-
placable resentment of his clergy, already
complaining of the cowardice or conni
vance that had during all his reign ex-
posed them to the shameless exactions
of Rome. Henry had now indeed cause
to regret his precipitancy. 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 iin
mediately repaid,| and a Roman agent
explained the demand to a parliament
assembled at London. The sum requiret'
was so enormous, we are told, that il
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 be-
yond the ordinary course of the corjsti-
tution were necessary to control so p:od-
igal and injudicious a sovereign? Ac-
cordingly, the barons insisted that twen-
ty-four persons should be nominated, half
by the king and half by themselves, to
reform the state of the kingdom. These
were appointed on the meeting of the
parliament at Oxford, after a prorogation.
* Rymer, t. i., p. 771. t P. 813.
t Idem, p. 632. This inauspicious negotiatior
for Sicily, which is not altogether unlike that of
•Fames I. about the Spanish match, in its folly, bar
success, and the dissatisfaction it occasioned a
home, receives a good deal of illustration from dec
uments in Rymer's collection.
() Quantitas pecuniae ad tantam ascendit sum
mam, ut stuporem simul et horrorem in auribw
generaret audientium. Doluit igitur nnbilitas reg
ni, se unius homin's ita confundi supina simrbc
tate.— .M. Pans, p. 827.
Pahi it.i
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
345
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, di-
vested of prerogatives by his people, soon
appears even to themselves an injured
party. Ar.d as the baronial olij irchy
acted with that arbitrary temper which
IS never pardoned in a government that
Has an air of usurpation about it, the
royalists be /an to gain ground, chiefly
through the defection of some who had
Joined in the original limitations imposed
on the crown, usually called the provis-
ions of Oxford. An ambitious man, con-
fident in his talents and popularity, ven-
tured to display loo marked a superiority
above his fellows in the same cause.
But neither his character, nor the battles
of Lewes and Evesham, fall strictly with-
in the limits of a constitutional history.
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 Eng-
lish nobility, who had, generally speaking,
concurred in the former measures against
his government, and whose opposition to
the Earl of Leicester's usurpation was
compatible wiUi a steady attachment to
ccr.siitutional liberty.f
The opinions of eminent lawyers are
Limitations undoubtedly, where legislative
''^'atlve''" ^"^ judicial authorities fail, the
proved from best evidence that can be ad-
Bractoii. duced in constitutional history.
It will therefore be satisfactory to select
a few passages from Bracton, himself a
judge at the end of Henry IH.'s reign, by
which the limitation 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 minister of God, but
what he can do by law; nor is what is
said (in the Pandects) any objection, that
* Tlie best account of the provisions of Oxford
in 1260, and the circumstances connected with
them, is found in the Burton Annals. — 2 Gale. xv.
Scriptcres., p. 407. Many of these provisions were
afterward enacted in the statute of Marlebndge.
t The Earl of Glocester, whose personal quarrel
with Mc.itfort had overthrown the baronial oligar-
chy wrote to the king in 1207, ut provisiones Oxo-
nie teneri facial per rcgnuin suuin, et ut proinissa
•ibi apud Evesham de fa^to conpleret.— Matt.
Paris, p. 850. t L . i., c. 8.
whatever the prince pleases shall be law;
because, by the words that lyllovv in that
text, it appears to design not any mere
will of the prince, but that which is es-
tablished by the advice of his counsel-
lors, the kmg giving his authority, and
deliberation being had upon it."* This
passage is undoubtedly a misrepresenta-
tion of the famous lex regia, which has
ever been interpreted to convey the un-
limited power of the people to their em-
perors.f But the very circuinstance of
so perverted a gloss put upon this text is
a proof that no other doctrine could be
admitted in the law of England. In an-
other passage, Bracton reckons as supe-
rior to the king, " not oidy God and the
law, by which he is made king, but his
court of earls and barons ; for the former
(comitcs) are so styled as associates of
the king, and whoever has an associate,
has a master ;J so that if the king were
without a bridle, that is, the law, they
ought to put a bridle upon him."'^! Sev-
eral other passages in Bracton might be
produced to the same import ; but these
are sufficient to demonstrate the impor-
tant fact, that however extensive or even
indefinite might be the royal prerogative
in the days of Henry HI., the law was
already its superior, itself but made pari
of the law, and was incompetent to over-
throw it. It is true, that in this \er*
reign the practice of dispensing \>ith stat-
utes by a non-obstante was introduced
in imitation of the papal dispensations. jj
But this prerogative could only be ex-
erted within 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.
In conformity with the system of
France and other feudal countries, there
was one standing council, which assist
ed the kings of England in the tik- king's
collection and management of '•■''"'■'•
their revenue, the adnunistration of jus-
tice to suiters, and the despatch of all
public business. This was styled the
king's court, and held in his palace, oi
wherever he was personally present. It
was composed of the great oflicers ; the
chief justciary ;^ the chancellor, the con-
* L. iii., c. 9. These words are nearly copiet'
from Glanvil's introduction to hio treatise.
t See Selden ad Hetam p. 1046.
t This means, I suppose, that he who acta with
the consent of others, must be in some degit* r»
strained by them ; but it ie ill expressed.
(, L. ii., c. 16.
II M. Fans, p. 701.
IT The chief justiciary was the greatest subjeoi'
in Engla.icl. iJesiJes presiding in the king's co»«f
S46
EUROPE DURING TJIE VIl])DLt, AGhS.
[CiiAi vin
stable, marshal, chamberlain, steward,
and treasurer, with any others whom tie
king miglit appoint. Of this great court
there was, as it seems, from the begin-
ning, a particular branch, in which all
matters relating to the revenue were
exclusively transacted. This, though
composed of the same persons, yet be-
nie conn i"o hf'l'i '11 ^ different part of the
of ex3he- palace, and for diffei-ent business,
quer. ^y^^g distinguished from the king's
court by the name of the exchequer ; a
separation which became complete when
civil pleas were decided and judgments
recorded in this second court.*
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 be-
came more famiUar ; and as it seemed
iess liable to partiality or intimidation
and in the exchequer, he was originally, by virtue
of his office, the regent of the kingdom daring the
absence of the sovereign ; which, till the loss of
Normandy, occurred very frequently. Writs, at
Bucli times, ran in his name, and were teste'd by
him. — Madox, Hist, of Excheq.,p. 16. His appoint-
ment upon these temporary occasions was express-
ed, ad custodiendum loco nostro terram nostram
\ngliae et pacem regni nostri ; and all persons
were enjoined to obey him tanquam justitiario nos-
tro.— Rymer, t. i., p. 181. Sometimes, however,
the king issued his own writ de ultra mare. The
first time when the dignity of this office was im-
paired was at the death of John, when the justicia-
ry, Hubert de Burgh, being besieged in Dover cas-
tie, those who proclaimed Henry HI. at Glocester,
constituted the Earl of Pembroke governor of the
king and kingdom, Hubert still retaining his of-
fice. This is erroneously stated by Matthew Par-
is, who has misled Spelman in his Glossary; but
the truth appears from Hubert's answer to the ar-
ticles of charge against him, and from a record in
Madox's Hist, of Excheq., c. 21, note A, wherein
the Earl of Pembroke is named rector regis et reg-
ni, and Hubert de Burgh justiciary. In 1241, the
Archbishop of York was appointed to the regency
during Henry's absence in Poitou, without the title
of justiciary. — Rymer, t. i., p. 410. Still the oflice
was so considerable, tliat the baronn who met in the
Oxford parliament of 1258 insisted that the justi-
ciary should be annually chosen with their appro-
bation. But the subsequent successes of Henry
prevented this being established ; and Edward I.
<iisconthiued the office altoge; uer.
* For every thing that can be known about the
riuria Regs, and especially t.iis branch of it, Jie
student of our constitutional history should have
Tccouro3 to Madox's History of the Exchequer,
and to the Dialogus de Scaccario, written in the
time of Henry J I. by Richard, bishop of Ely,
though commonly ascribed to Gervase of Tilbury.
This treatise he will find subjoined to Madox's
work.
t Orrciis causa terminetu comitatu, vel hundre-
do, Tel halimoto socam habentium. — Leges Henr.
r. c 9.
than the provincia courts, suiters grew
willing to submit to its expensivejies*
and inconvenience. It was obviously the
interest of the king's court tp. give such
equity and steadiness to its decisions aa
might encourage this disposition. Noth-
ing could be more advantageous to the
king's authority, nor, what perhaps waa
more immediately regarded, to his reve-
nue ; since a fine was always paid for
leave to plead in his court, or to remove
thither a cause commenced below. But
because few, comparatively speaking,
could have recourse to so distant a tribu-
nal as that of the king's court, and per-
haps also on account of the attachment
which the English felt to their ancient
right of trial by the neighbouring free-
holders, Henry II. established institution
itinerant justices, to decide civil cf justices
and criminal pleas within each °^ ass'^e.
county.* This excellent institution is
referred by some to the twenty-second
year of that prince ; but Madox traces it
several years higher.f We have owed
to it the uniformity of our common law,
which would otherwise have been split,
like tliat 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 in-
corrupt and acute understanding, upon
which the decision of the highest ques-
tions is reposed. 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 revenue,
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 disseisin, or
mort d'ancestor, should be taken except
in the shire where the lands in contro-
versy lay. Hence this clause stood op
posed on the one hand to the encroach
ments of the king's court, which might
otherwise, by drawing pleas of land to it-
self, have defeated the suiter's right to a
jury from the vicinage ; and on tlie other,
to those of the feudal aristocracy, who
hated any interference of the crown to
chastise their violations of law or control
their own jurisdiction. Accordingly,
while the confederacy of barons against
* Dialogus de Scaccario, p. 38.
t Hist, of Exchequer, c. iii. Lord Lyttleton
thinks that this institution may have been adopted
in imitation of Louis VI., who half a century befoit
had introduced a similar regulation in his domin
ione. — Hist, of Henry II., vcl. iii., p. 20C.
Part it..
EWGLISH CONSTITUTION.
84'!
Henry III. was in its full power, an at-
♦empt was made to prevent the regular
circuits of the judges.*
Long after the separation of the ex-
The court of diequcr from the king's court,
Common another branch was detached
Pleas. fpj. ^i^g decision of private suits.
This had its beginning, in Madox's opin-
ion, as early as the reign of Richard l.f
But it was completely established 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 mat-
ter savouring of a criminal nature, v/as
concerned. For of such disputes neither
the court of king's bench nor that of ex-
chequer 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.
The principal officers of state, who had
Origin of origin.illy been eflective mem-
theCom- bcrs ol' the king's court, began
monLaw. ^^ withdraw from it after this
separation into three courts of justice,
and left their places to regular lawyers;
though the treasurer and chancellor of
Ihe exchequer have still seats on the
equity side of that court, a vestige of its
ancient constitution. It would indeed
have been difficult for men bred in camps
or palaces to fulfil the ordinary functions
of judicature, under such a system of
law as had grown up in England. Tlie
rules of legal decision among a rude peo-
ple 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 subtler intellect or
deeper learning than the earl or slieriif
at the head of his county-court might be
expected to possess. But a great change
* Justiciarii regi.s Anglis, qui dicuntur itineris,
missi Herfordiam, pro suo exequetido officio repei-
liintur, allegantibus his qui regi adversabantur, ip-
js contri lormain provisinnuin Oxonis nuperfac-
taruni venisse.— Chron. Nic. Trivet, A. D. 1200.
I forget where I found this quotation.
t Hist, of Exchequer, c. 19. Justices of the
bench are mentioned several years before Magna
Charta. But Madox thinks the chief justiciary of
England might preside in the two courts, as well
as m the e.xchequer. 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 ubicunque fuerit. And thus
the court of king's bench was formed out of the re-
mains of the ancient curia regis.
was wrought ii &bout a century after the
conquest. Oui English lawyers, prone
to magnify the antiquity, like the othei
merits of their system, are apt to carry
up the date of the common law, till, like
the pedigree of an illustrious family, i'
loses itself in tlie obscurity of ancieii;
time. Even Sir Matthew Hale does no!
hesitate to say, that its origin is as undia-
coverable as that of Nile. But though
some features of the common law may
be distinguishable in Saxon times, while
our limited knowledge prevents us from
assigning many of its peculiarities to any
determinable period, yet the general char-
acter and most essential parts of the sys-
tem were of much later growth. The
laws of the Anglo-Saxon kings, Madox
truly observes, are as diflercnt from those
collected by Glanvil as the laws of two
different nations. The pecuniary com-
positions for crimes, especially for hom-
icide, 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 rob-
bery. Though the investigation by means
of ordeal was not disused in his time,t
yet trial by combat, of which we find no
instance before the conquest, was evi-
dently preferred. Under the Saxon gov-
ernment, suits appear to have commen-
ced, even before the king, by verbal or
written complaint ; at least, no trace re-
mains of tlie original writ, tlie foundation
of our civil procedure.]: The descent of
lands before the conquest was according
to the custom of gavelkind, or equal par-
tition 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 soccagc lands
depended on the particular custom of the
estate. By the Saxon laws, upon the
death of the son without issue, the lather
inherited ;"T[ by our common law, he is
absolutely, and in every ease, excluded.
Lands were, in general, devisable by tes-
tament before the conquest ; but not in
* C. 70^
+ A citizen of London, suspecteti of murder, hav-
ing failed in the ordeal of cold water, was hanged
by order of Henry II., though he offered 500 marks
to save his life. — Hoveden, p. 500. It apjiears a«
if the ordeal were permitted to persons already con-
victed by the verdict of a jury. If they escaped in
this jjurgalion, yet, in cases of murder, they wer«
banished the realm. — VVilkins, Leges Anglo-Sax
on., p. 330. Ordeals were abolished alx>'it the m
ginning of Henry III.'s reign.
X Hickes, Dissert. Epistol., p. 8.
^ Leges tlulielmi, p. 225.
II Leges Honr. ■ c. 70.
340
EITROPE DL'KLNG THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. VIR
vhe time of Henry II., except by particu-
lar custom. These are sufficient samples
of the differences between our Saxon
and Norman jurisprudence ; but the dis-
tinct character of the two will strike
more forcibly every one who peruses
successively the laws published by Wil-
kins, and the treatise ascribed to Glanvil.
The former resemble the barbaric codes
of the continent, and the capitularies of
Charlemagne and his family; minute to
an excess in apportioning punishments,
but sparing and indefinite in treating of
civil rights ; while the other, copious,
discriminating, and technical, displays the
characteristics as well as unfolds the prin-
i-iples of English law. It is difficult to
assert any thing decisively as to the pe-
riod between the conquest and the reign
of Henry II., which presents fewer mate-
rials for legal history than the preceding
age ; but the treatise denominated the
Laws of Henry I., compiled at the soonest
about the end of vStephen's reign,* bears
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 ca-
pable of any date, not much antecedent to
the publication of Glanvil. f At the same
time, since no kind of eviaence attests
any sudden and radical change in the ju-
risprudence of England, the question must
be considered as left in great obscurity.
Perhaps it might be reasonable to con-
jecture that the treatise called Leges
Ilenrici Primi contains the ancient usa-
ges still prevailing in the inferior juris-
dictions, and that of Glanvil the rules
established by the Norman lawyers of the
king's court, which would of course ac-
quire a general recognition and efficacy,
in consequence of the institution of jus-
tices holding their assizes periodically
throughout the country.
The capacity of deciding legal contro-
Character versies was now only to be
and defects fouud in men who had devo-
ofiheEiig tej themselves to that peculiar
Iisli law. ^ J , r 1
study ; and a race of such men
arose, whose eagerness and even enthu-
siasm in the profession of the law were
stimulated by the self-complacency of in-
tellectual dexterity in thridding its intri-
cate and thorny mazes. The Normans
are noted in their own country for a
shrewd and litigious temper, which may
have given a character to our courts of
* The decretum of Gratian is quoted in this trea-
tise, which was not pubUshed in Italy till 1151.
t Mados, Hist, of Exch., p. 122, edit. 1711.
Lord Lyttleton, vol. li., p. 267, has given reasons
for supposing that Glanvil was not the a.ithor of
th'* treatise, but sosne clerk under his dire "tion.
justice in early times. Something to4
of that excessive subtlety, and that pref
erence of technical to rational principles,
which runs through our system, may be
imputed to tne scholastic philosophy
which was in vogue during the same
period, and is marked by the same fea-
tures. But we have just reason to boas;
of the leading causes of these defects ;
an adherence to fixed rules, and a jeal-
ousy 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
unreasonable 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 impalpable distinctions what they did
not venture to overturn. In some in-
stances, this evasive skill has been ap-
phed 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 sys-
tem Avhich 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 char-
acter. But much of the same spirit per
vades every part of the law. No tri-
bunal of a civilized people ever borrowed
so little, even of illustration, from the
writings of philosophers, or from the in-
stitutions of other countries. Hence law
has been studied, in general, rather as an
art than a science, with more solicitude
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. Nor is there any
reading more jejune and unprofitable to a
philosophical mind than that of our an-
cient law-books. Later times have in-
troduced other inconveniences, till the
vast extent and multiplicity of our laws
have become a practical evil of serious
importance, and an evil which, between
the timidity of the legislature on the on«
hand, and the selfish views of practition
ers on the other, is likely to reach, in no
long period, an intolerable excess. De-
terred by an interested clamour againsi
innovation from abrogating what .^s use-
\ less, simplifying what is complex or d«»
Part il
RNGLISH CONSTITUTION
d4l
tcrmining what iS doubU'iil, and always
more inclined to stave olY an immediate
difficulty by some patchwork scheme of
modifications and suspensions, than to
consult for posterity in the comprehen-
sive spirit of legal philosophy, we accu-
mulate statute upon statute, and prece-
dent upon precedent, till no industry can
acquire, nor an) intellect digest the mass
of learning that grows upon the panting
student ; and our jurisprudence seems
not unlikely to be simplified in the worst
and least honourable manner, a tacit
agreement of ignorance among its pro-
fessors. Much indeed has already gone
into desuetude within the last centu-
ry, and is known only as an occult
science by a small number of adepts
We are thus gradually approaching the
crisis of a necessary reformation, when
our laws, like those of Rome, must be
cast into the crucible. It would be a dis-
grace to the nineteenth century, if Eng-
land could not find her Tribonian.*
This establishment of a legal system,
which must be considered as complete at
the end of Henry III.'s reign, when the
unwritten usages of the common law, as
well as the forms and pre-cedents of the
courts, were digested into the great work
of Bracton, might, in some respects, con-
duce to the security of puliic freedom.
For, however highly the prerogative
might be strained, it was incorporated
with the law, and treated with the same
♦ Whitelocke, just after the restoration, com-
plains that " Now the volume of our statutes is
grown or swelled to a great bigness." The vol-
ume! What would he have said to the monstrous
birth of a volume Iriennially, tilled with laws pro-
fessing to be the deliberate work of the legislature,
which every subject is supposed to read, reinern-
ler, and understand ! The excellent sense of the
Jbllowing sentences from the same passage may
•veil excuse me from quoting them, and, perhaps,
in this age of bigoted averseness to innovatioDj 1
have need of some apology for what 1 have ven-
tured to say in the text. " I remember the opin-
ion of a wise and learned statesman and lawyer
(the Chancellor Oxcnstiern) that multiiilicity of
written laws do but distract the judges., and render
the law less certain ; that where the law sets due
and clear bounds between the prerogative royal
and the rights of the people, and gives remedy in
private causes, there needs no more laws to be in-
creased, for thereby litigation will be increased like-
wise. It were a work worthy of a parliament, and
cpniiot be done otherwise, to cause a review of al
our statutes, to repeal such as they shall judge
inconvenient to remain in force ; to confirm those
which they shall think fit to stand, and those sev-
eral statutes which are confused, some repugnant
to others, many touching the same matlers, to be
reduced into certainty, all of one subject into one
statute, that perspicuity and clearness may appear
in cur written laws, which at this day few students
or eages can find in them." — Whitelocke's Com-
mertary on Parliamentary Writ. vol. i., p. 400.
distinguishing and argumenlativc subi
lety as every other part of it What-
ever things, therefore, it was asserted,
that the king might do, it was a neces-
sary implication that there were other
things which he could not do ; else it
were vain to specify the former, [t is
not meant to press this too far ; since un-
doubtedly the bias of laA'yers towards
the prerogative was sometimes too dis-
cernible. But the sweeping maxims of
absolute power, which servile judges and
churchmen taught the Tudor and Stuart
princes, seem to have made no progress
under the Plantagenet line.
Whatever may be thought of the ef-
fect which the study of the law
had upon the rights of the sub- ri^tit'on'i^e
ject, it conduced materially to irown es-
Ihe security of good order by "*>'''*'''e''-
ascertaining 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 en-
countered any serious opposition upon
that ground; and with respect to him, it
must be remembered, that all the barons
himself included, had solemnly sworn tv
maintain the succession of Matildu Hen-
ry H. procured a parliamentary settle-
ment of the crown upon his eldest and
second sons; a strong presumption tha
their hereditary right was not absnlutel)
secure.* A mixed notion of right and
choice in fact prevailed as to the suc-
cession of every European monarchy
The coronation oath and the form o(
popular consent then required were con
sidered as more material, at least to per
feet a title, than we deem them at prcs«>nt
They gave seisin, as it were, of th«
crown, and, in cases of disputed preten
sions, had a sort of judicial efficacy
The Chronicle of Dnnstaple says, con
cerning Richard I., that he was "ele
vatcd to the throne by hereditary right
after a solemn election by the clergy anr'
people :"f words that indicate the curren'
principles of that age. It i? to be observ-
ed, however, that Richard took upon him
the exercise of royal prerogatives, with-
out waiting for his coronation. "f The
succession of John has certainly passed
in modern times for a usurpation. I do
not find that it was considered as such
by his own contemporaries on this s'de
of the cliaimel. The question of inher-
itance between an uncle and the son of
* Lyttleton, vol. ii., Pt14.
t Id'en,, p. 42. HEreditario jure promovendus il
regnum, post cleri et popuh solennem electicneofc
t Gul Neuhrigensis, 1. IV., c. 1.
H50
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
'Chai- VIIJ
his deceased elder brother was yet unset-
tled, as we learn from Glanvil, even in
private succession.* In the case of sov-
ereignties, which were sometimes con-
tended to require different rules from or-
dinary patrimonies, it was, and continued
long to be, the most uncertain point in
public law. John's pretensions to the
crown might therefore be such as the
English were justified in admitting, espe-
cially as his reversionary title seems to
have been acknowledged in the reign of
his brother Richard. f If indeed we may
place reliance on Matthew Paris, Arch-
bishop Hubert, on this occasion, declared
in the most explicit terms tha* the crown
was elective, giving even to the blood
royal no other preference than their merit
might challenge. t Carte rejects this as
a fiction of the historian ; and it is cer-
tainly a strain far beyond the constitu-
tion, which, both before and after the
conquest, had invariably limited the
throne to one royal stock, though not
strictly to its nearest branch. In a char-
ter of the first year of his reign, John
calls himself king "by hereditary right,
and through the consent and favour of
the church and people."^
It is deserving of remark, that during
the rebellions against this prince and his
Bon Henry III., not a syllable was breathed
in favour of Eleanor, Arthur's sister, who,
if the present rules of succession had
been established, was the undoubted heir-
ess of his right. The barons chose rather
to call in the aid of Louis, with scarcely
a shade of title, though with much bet-
ter means of maintaining himself. One
should think that men whose fathers had
been in the field for Matilda could make no
difficulty about female succession. But I
doubt whether, notwithstanding that pre-
cedent, the crown of England was uni-
versally acknowledged to be capable of de-
scending to a female heir. Great averse-
ness had been shown by the nobility of
Henry I. to his proposal of settling the
kingdom on his daughter. |1 And from a
remarkable passage which I shall produce
in a note, it appears that even in the reign
of Edward III. the succession was sup-
Dosed to be confined to the male line."^
* Glanvil, 1. vii., c. 3. t Hoveden, p. 702.
I Hoveden, p. 165.
9 Jure haereditario, et mHiante tain cleri et pop-
uli consensu et favore.— Gurdon on Parliaments,
'J. 139.
II Lvttleton, vol. i., p. 162.
% Tfhis 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
thereit. promises, that if his son sheuld die before
um leaving male issua he will pfs'ure the con-
At length, about the middle of the th\r
teenth century, the lawyers applied t<
the crown the same strict principles of
descent which regulate a private inherit
ance. Edward I. was proclaimed imme-
diately 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 devolv-
ed upon him by hereditary succession
and the will of his nobles."* These last
words were omitted in the proclama-
tion of Edward II. ;t 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.
I cannot conclude the present chap-
ter without observing one most English
prominent and characteristic gentry des
distmction between the consti- elusive pnv
tution of England and that of Weges.
every other country in Europe ; I mean
its refusal of civil privileges to the lower
nobility, or those whom we denominate
the gentry. In France, in Spain, in Ger-
many, wherever, in short, we look, the
appellations of nobleman and gentleman
have been strictly synonymous. Those
entitled to bear them by descent, by ten-
ure of land, by ofiice or royal creation,
have formed a class distinguished by
privileges inherent in their blood from
ordinaiy freemen. Marriage with noble
sent of his barons, nobles, and cities (that is, ol
parliament ; nobles here meaning knights, if the
word nas any distinct sense) for such issue to in
herit the kingdom ; and if he die leaving a daugh
1st only, Edward or his heir shall make such pro
vision 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 Salique-law was to regulate
the succession of the English crown. This law,
it must be remembered, he was compelled to a.lmit
in his claim on the kingdom of France, tho.igh
with a certain modification, which gave a pretext
of title to himself.
* Ad nos regni gubernaculum successione ha
reditaria, ac procerum regni voluntate, et fidelitate
nobis prajstita sit devolutum. — Brady (History of
England, vol. ii., Appendix, p. I) expounds proce-
rum voluntate to mean willingness, not v/ill ; as
much as to say, they acted readily and without
command. But in all probability it was intended
to save the usual form of consent.
t Rymer, t. iii., p. 1. VValsmgham, however,
asserts that Edward II. ascended the throne non
tam jure haereditario quain unanimi assen?u proce-
rum et magnatum, p. 95. Perhaps we should omit
the word non, and he might intend to say, that the
king had not only his hrreditary title, but the free
consent of his barons.
I
ART II.]
ENtJLISH CONSTITUTION.
361
families, or tlie 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 gen-
tlemen.* From the reign of Henry III.
at, least, the legal equality of all ranks
below the peerage was, to every essen-
tial purpose, as complete as at present.
Compare two writers nearly contempo-
rary, Bracton with Beaumanoir, and mark
how the customs of England are distin-
guishable in this respect. The French-
man ranges the people under three divis-
ions, the noble, the free, and the servile ;
our countryman has no generic class
but freedom and villanage.f 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 vvith a commoner. The
purchase of lands held by knight-service
was always open to all freemen. A few
privileges indeed were confined to those
who had received knighthood. J But,
upon the whole, there was a virtual
equality of rights among all the com-
moners of England. What is most par-
ticular is, that the peerage itself imparts
no privilege except to its actual possessor.
in every other country, the descendants
of nobles cannot but themselves be noble,
because their nobihty 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 tlian lawyers; since in truth
nothing confers nobility but the actual
descent of a peerage. The sons of peers,
* It is hardly worth while, even for the sake of
obviating cavils, to notice as an exception the stat-
ute of 23 H. VI., c. 14, prohibiting the election of
any who were not born gentlemen for knights of
the shire. Much less should I have thought of
noticing, if it had not been suggested as an objec-
tion, the provision of the statute of Merton, that
.juardians in chivalry shall not marry their wards
o villeins or burgesses, to their rlisparagement.
iVherever the distinctions of rank and property
ire felt in the customs of society, such marriages
Will be deemed unequal ; and it was to obviate the
tyranny of feudal superiors, who compelled their
wards to accept a mean alliance, or to forfeit its
price, that this provision of the statute was made.
Hut this does not attect the proposition I had main-
tained as to the lf!;al equality of commoners, any
more than a report of a master in chancery at the
present day, that a proposed marriage for a ward
of the court was unequal to what her station iii
focioty appeared to claim, would invalidate the
■«amo proposition.
t Ueaumanoir, c. 45. Bracton, 1. i., c. 6.
X See for these, Selden's Titles of Honour, vol
iii , p. 800.
as we well know, are commoners, and
totally destitute of any legal right beyond
a barren precedence.
There is no part, perhaps, of our con-
stitution so admirable as this equality o"
civil rights ; this isonomia, which the phi-
losophers of ancient Greece only hoped
to find in democratical governments *
From the beginning our law has been no
respecter of persons. It screens not the
gentleman of ancient lineage from thf*
judgment of an ordinary jury, nor fronr
ignominious punishment. It confers not
it never did confer, those unjust immuni
ties from public burdens which the supe-
rior orders arrogated to themselves upon
the continent. Thus, while the privileges
of our peers, as hereditary legislators of
a free people, are incomparably more val-
uable and dignified in their nature, they
are far less invidious in their exercise
than those of any other nobility in Eu-
rope. It is, I am firmly persuaded, to
this peculiarly democratical character of
the English monarchy that we are in-
debted for its long permanence, its regu-
lar improvement, and its present vigour.
It is a singular, a providential circum
stance, that in an age when the gradual
march of civilization and commerce wa »
so little foreseen, our ancestors, devia-
ting from the usages of neighbouring
countries, should, as if deliberately, have
guarded against that expansive force
which, in bursting through obstacles im-
providently opposed, has scattered havoc
over Europe.
This tendency to civil equality in the
English law may, I think, be causes of
ascribed to several concurrent ""-" '■nu&iity
T 1 z' . 1 xi among frcc-
causes. In the first place, the ,„en m Eng
feudal institiuions were far less 'and.
military in England than upon the conti-
nent. From the time of Henry II., the
escuage, or pecuniary commutation for
personal service, became almost univer-
sal. The armies of our kings were com-
posed of hired troops, great part of whom
certainly were knights and gentleiuen,
but who, serving for pay, and not by vir-
tue of their birth or tenure, preserved
nothing of the feudal character. It was
not, however, so much for the ends of na
tional as of private warfare, that the re
lation of lord and vassal was cofitrived.
The righi which every baron in France
possessed of redressing his own wrongs
* l\\rjOos npy^ov, irpdrov fitv nvafja (caXXi^ov f)^u
laovofiiav, savs the advocate of democracy in thj
discussion of^ forms of government which Ilerodo
tus (Thalia, c. 80) has put into the moiuiis oj
three Persian satraps, after the murder of Sinn:lu;
a scene conceived in 'he spirit i>f f loriieillf
352
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
I Chap. VUl
•ind those of his tenants by arms, render-
ed their connexion strictly miUtary, But
we read very httle of private wars in
England. Notwithstanding some passa-
ges in Glanvil, which certainly appear to
admit their legality, it is not easy to rec-
oncile this with the general tenure of
our laws.* They must always have been
■« breach of the king's peace, which our
Saxon lawgivers were perpetually stri-
ving to preserve, and which the conquer-
or and his sons more effectually main-
tained.! Nor can we trace many in-
stances (some we perhaps may) of actual
hostilities among the nobility of England
after the conquest, except during such an
anarchy as the reign of Stephen or the
minority of Henry III. Acts of outrage
and spoUation were indeed very frequent.
The statute of Marlebridge, soon after the
baronial wars of Henry HI., speaks of the
Jisseisins that had taken place during the
.ate disturbances ;t and thirty-five ver-
dicts are said to have been given at one
court of assize against Foulkes de
Breaute, a notorious partisan, who com-
manded some foreign mercenaries at the
beginning of the same reign :^ but these
ere faint resemblances of that wide-
spreading devastation which the nobles
of France and Germany were entitled to
carry among their neighbours. The most
prominent instance, perhaps, of what may
b*" deemed a private war, arose out of a
contention between the earls of Gloces-
tcr and Hereford, in the reign of Edward
I., during which acts of extraordinary
■•iolence were perpetrated ; but, far from
its having passed for lawful, these pow-
erful nobles were both committed to pris-
on, and paid heavy fines. || Thus the
tenure of knight-service was not in effect
m';.chmore peculiarly connected with the
* I have modified tliis passage, in consequence
)f the just animadversion of a periodical critic. In
.he former edilion I had slated too strongly the dif-
ference which I still believe to have e.xisted be-
tween the customs of England and other feudal
countries, in respect of private warfare.
t The penalties imposed on breaches of the
rsace in Wilkins's Anglo-Sa.xon laws are too nu-
merous to be particularly inserted. One remarka-
ble passage in Domesday appears, by mentioning a
iegal custom of private feuds in an hidividual man-
or, and there only among Welshmen, to afford an in-
ference that it was an anomaly. In the royal manor
of Archenfeld in Herefordshire, if one Welshman
kills another, it was a custom for the relations of
the slain to assemble and plunder the murderer and
his kindred, and burn their nouses until the cor])se
should be interred, which was tc take place by
noon on the morrow of his death. Of this plunder
the king had a third part, and the i rst they kept for
themselves, p. 179.
t Stat. 52 H. III. ^ Matt. Paris, p 271.
H Rot, Pari., vol. i., p. 70.
profession ol arms than that of soccage.
There was nothing in the former ?,ondi
tion to generate that high self-es .matioy,
which military habits inspire. On the
contrary, the burdensome incidents of
tenure in chivalry rendered soccage the
more advantageous, though less honoura
ble of the two.
In the next place, we must ascribe a
sood deal of eihcacy to the old Saxoii
principles that survived the conquest of
William, and infused themselves into out
common law. A respectable class o*"
free soccagers, having, in general, fuL
rights of alienating their lands, and hold-
ing them probably at a small certain rent
from the lord of the manor, frequent-
ly occur in Domesday Book. Though,
as I have already observed, these were
derived from the superior and more for-
tunate Anglo-Saxon ceorls, they were
perfectly exempt from all marks of vil-
lanage both as to their persons and es-
tates. Some have derived their name
from the Saxon soc, which signifies a
franchise, especially one of jurisdiction
And whatever may come of this etymol-
ogy, which is not perhaps so well estab-
lished as that from the French word soc,
a ploughshare,* they undoubtedly wers
suiters to the court-baron of the lord, to
whose soc, or right of justice, they bo-
longed. They were consequently Judges
in civil causes, determined before the
manorial tribunal.! Such privileges set
* It is not easy to decide between these two
derivations of the words soccage and socman.
On the one hand, the frequent recurience in
Domesday Book of the expression, socmnnni de
soca Algan, &c., seems to lead us to infer that
these words, so near in sound, were related to
each other. Sommer (on Gavelkind, p. 13) ia
clearly for this derivation. But Bracton, 1. ii., c.
35, derives soccage from the French soc, and this
etymology is curiously illustrated by a passage
in Blomefield's Hist, of Norfolk, vol. iii., p. 538
(folio). In the manor of Cawston, a mace with a
brazen hand holding a ploughshare was carried
before the steward, as a sign that it was held by
soccage of the dutchy of Lancaster. Perhaps,
however, this custom may be thought not suffi-
ciently ancient to confirm Bracton's derivation.
t Territorial jurisdiction, the commencement
of which we have seen before the conquest, was
never so extensive as in governments of a more
aristocratical character, either in criminal or civil
cases. 1. In the laws ascribed to Henry I., it ia
said that all great offences could only be tried in
the king's court, or by his commission, c. 10.
Glanvil distinguishes the criminal pleas, which
could only be determined before the king's judges,
' from those which belong to the sheriff. Treason,
I murder, robbery, and rape were of the formei
class ; theft of the latter, 1. xiv. The criminal jn
risdiction of the sheriff is entirely taken away by
Magna Charta, c. 17. Sir E. Coke says, the ter
ntorial franchises of infangthef and outfangthcf
"had some continuance afterward, but either bj
this act, or p*^- < c?- studinem, for inconveniepce
Pa»t 111.]
EMGLISH CONSTITUTION
d53
them rreatly above tlie roturiers, or cen-
siers of France. They w.re all Eng-
.ishmcu. and their tenure strictly Eng-
■ish; which seems to have given it
oredit in the eyes of our lawyers, when
'.he name of Englishman was affected
wen by fhose of Norman descent, and
ho laws of Edward the Confessor be-
ame the universal demand. Certainly
llanvil, and still more Braclon, treat
he tenure in free soccage with great re-
spect. And we have reason to think
that this class of freeholders was very
lumerous, even before the reign of Ed-
ward 1.
Uut, lastly, flie change which took
I
these franchises within manors are antiquated avA
gone."— 5< Inst., p. 31. The statute hardly seems
to reach them ; and they were certainly both claim-
ed and e.\erciscd as late as the reign of Edward
1. Blomefield mentions two instances, both in
1285, where executions for felony took place by
the sentence of a court-baron. In these cases the
lord's privilege was called in question at the as-
sizes, by which means we learn the transaction ;
it IS very probable that similar executions occurred
in manors where the jurisdiction was not dispu-
ted.—(Hist, of Norfolk, vol. i., p. 313; vol. iii., p.
50.) Felonies are now cognizable in the greater
part of boroughs ; though it is usual, except m the
most considerable places, to remit such as are not
within benefit of clergy to the justices of jail de-
/ivery on iheir circuit. This jurisdiction, however,
's given, or presumed to be given, by special char-
ter, and perfectly distinct from that which was
feudal and territorial. Of the latter some vestiges
appear to remain in particular liberties, as for ex-
imple the Soke of Peterborough ; but most, if not
all, of these local franchises have fallen, by right
or custom, into the hands of justices of the peace.
A territorial privilege somewhat analogous to
criminal jurisdiction, but considerably more o[)-
pressive, was that of private jails. At the parlia-
ment of Merton, 1237, the loras requested to have
their own prison for trespasses upon their parks
and ponds, which the king refused. — Stat. Merton,
2. 11. But several lords enjoyed this as a particu-
.ar franchise ; which is saved by the statute 5 H.
IV., c. 10, directing justices of the pesce to im-
jrison no man, except in the common J2il. 2.
'The civil jurisdiction of tlie court-baron was ren-
dered insignificant not only by its limitation, iu
personal suits, to debts or damages not exceeding
forty shillings, but by the writs of tolt and pone,
winch at once removed a suit for lands, in any
stage of its progress before judgment, into the
county court or that of the king. The statute of
Marlebridge took away all appellant jurisdiction
if the superior lord, for false judgment in the
manorial court of his tenant, and thus aimed an-
other blow at the feudal connexion. — 52 H. II[.,c.
39. 3. The lords of the counties palatine of Ches-
ter and Durham, and the royal franchise of Ely,
had not only a capital jurisdiction ii, criminal
cases, but an exclusive cognizance of civil suits;
»he former still is retained by the bishops of Dur-
ham and p;iy, though much shorn of its ancient
extent by an act of Henry VIII. (27 H. VIII., c.
24), and administered by the king'i justices of as-
Jize; the bishops or their deputies .-leing put only
»ii me looting of ordmary justices of the peace -
ti., 8. 20
place in tht constitution of pariiamcm
consummatod the degradation, if we
must use the \i'ord, of the lower nobili-
ty: I mean, not so much their attend-
ance by reprcsentatian insti;ad of per-
sonal s'ummons, as their election by the
whole body of freeholders, and their sep-
aration, along with citizens and bur-
gesses, from the house of peers These
changes will fall under consideration i*^
the following chapter. • ■
PART III.
THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTIU.N.
Reign of Edward I. — Confirmatio Chartarum.
Constitution of Parliament— the Prelates— the
Temporal Peers. — Tenure by Barony — its
Changes.— Difficulty of the Subject.— Origin of
Representation of the Commons.— Knights of
Shires — their Existence doubtfully traced
through the Reign of Henry III. — Question
whether Representation was conlincd to Ten-
ants in capite discussed.— Srale of English
Towns at the Conquest and , iltervvard— their
Progress. — Representatives from them summon
ed to Parliament by Earl of Leicester.— Im
probability of an earlier Origin.— Cases of St. AI
ban's and Barnstaple considered —Parliam<nts
under Edward I.— Separation of Knights and
Burgesses from the Peers.— Edward 11.— ^rad
ual progress of the Authority of Pa'liamen
traced through the Reigns of Edward 111. an«
his successors down to Henry VI.— Privilege oj
Parliament— the early instances of it not iced.- -
Nature of Borough Representation.— Rights ■.»
Election— other particulars relative to Kle-;-
tions.— House of Lords.— Baronies by Te.i'.fa
—by Writ.— Nature of the latter discussed. —
Creation of Peers by Act of Parliament and by
Patent.— Summons of Clergy to Parliament.—
King's Ordinary Council— its Judicial and other
Povver.— Character of the Plantagenel Govern-
ment.— Prerogative— its Excesses — erroneous
Views corrected.— Testimony of Sir John For
tescue to the Freedom of the Constitution.—
• Causes of the superior Liberty of England con
sideied.— State of Society in England.— Want
of Police.— Villanage— its gradual extinction-
latter years of Henry VI.— Regencies.— Instan-
ces of them enumerated.— Pretensions of the
House of York, and War of the Roses.— Ed
ward IV. — Conclusion.
Though the undisputed accession of i
prince like Edward the First Accession d
to the throne of his father, Edward i.
does not seem so convenient a resting-
place in history as one of those revolu-
tions whiclt interrupt the natural chain
of events, yet the changes wroiu^'lit du-
ring his reign make it properly an epoch
in the progress of these inquiries. And,
indeed, as ours is emphatically styled a
government by king, lords, and com-
mons, we cannot perhaps in strictness
carry it fartlier back than tlie admission
of the latter into parliament ; .so that, if
the constant representation of t'Hi com
354
EUROPE DURING THE Ml DDL K AGES.
[Chap. VIU
mons is to be referred to the age of Ed-
ward the First, it will be nearer the truth
to date the English constitution from that
than from any earlier era.
The various statutes affecting the law
of property and administration of justice
which have caused Edward I. to be
named, rather hyperbolically, the Eng-
lish Justinian, bear no immediate relation
ti) our present inquiries. In a constitu-
tional point of view, the principal object
t'onfirma- is that Statute entitled the Con-
cioMoftiie firmationof the Charters, which
charters, ^^^g ^^^ reluctantly conceded
by the king in the twenty-fifth year
of his reign. I do not know that Eng-
land has ever produced any patriots to
whose memory she owes more gratitude
than Humphrey Bohun, earl of Here-
ford 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 far-
ther upon an abject tyrant. But to
withstand the measures of Edward, a
prince unequalled by any who had reign-
ed in England since the Conqueror for
prudence, valour, a.id success, required
a far more intrepid patriotism. Their
provocations, if less outrageous than
those received from John, were such as
evidently manifested a disposition in Ed-
ward 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 impo.sitions, especially one on the
export of wool, and other unwarranta-
ble demands. He had acted with such
unmeasured 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 en-
croachments made resistance justifiable,
and the circumstances of Edward made
it prudent. His ambition, luckily for the
people, had involved him in foreign war-
fare, from which he could not recede
without disappointment and dishonour.
Thus was wrested from him that famous
■Statute, inadequately denominated the
* The fullest account we possess of tliese do-
mestic transactions from 1294 to 1298 is in Walter
Heniingford, one of the historians edited by
Hearne, p. 52—168. They have been vilely per-
verted by Carte, but extremely well told by Hume,
the first writer who had the merit of exposing the
chararu-r <f Edward I. See too Knyghton, n
TwvKden's Decern Scriatores. col. 2192.
Confirmation of the Charters, because it
added another pillar U jur constitution
not less important tha.i the Great Char
ter itself.*
It was enacted by the 25 E. I., that the
charter of liberties, and that of the for
est, besides being exphcitly 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, accom-
panied by a solemn sentence of excom-
munication against all who should in-
fringe them; that any judgment given
contrary to these charters should be in
valid, and holden for naught. This au-
thentic promulgation, these awful sanc-
tions of the Great Charter, would alone
render the statute of which we are speak-
ing illustrious. But it went a great deal
farther. Hitherto the king's prerogative
of levying money, b)' name of tallage or
prise, from his towns and tenants in de
mesne, had passed unquestioned. Some
impositions, that especially on the ex-
port of wool, affected all his subjects.
It was now the moment to enfranchise
the people, and give that security to pri-
vate property which Magna Charta had
given to personal liberty. By the 5th
and 6th sections of this statute, " the aids,
tasks, and prises" before taken are re-
nounced as precedents ; and the king
" grants for him and his heirs, as weil to
archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and
other folk of holy church, as also to earls,
barons, and to all commonalty of thr
land, that for no business from hence
forth we shall take such manner of aids
tasks, nor prises, but by the common as-
sent of the realm, and for the common
profit thereof, saving the ancient aids and
prises due and accustomed." The toll
upon wool, so far as levied by the king's
mere prerogative, is expressly released
by the seventh section. {
* Walsingham, in Camden's Scriptores Rer.
Angiicarum, p. 71 — 73.
t Edward would not confirm the charteif>, not-
withstanding his promise, without the words sal-
vo jure coronffi nostrae; on winch the two eari»
retired from court. When the confirmation wag
reatl to the people at St. Paul's, says Hemingford,
they blessed the king on seeing the charters with
the great seal affixed : but when they heard the
captious conclusion, they cursed him irstead. At
the next meeting of parliament, the king agreaci to
omit these insidious words, p. 168.
t The supposed statute, DeTallagio non conce-
dendo, is considered by Blackstone (Introduction
to Charters, p. 67) as merely an abstract of the
Conlirmatio Chartariiiii. By that entitled ArticuL'
siip.!r Chartas, 28 Edw. I., a court was erectea i»
Fart HI]
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
35*
We come now to a part of our subject
Constitu- exceedingly important, but more
lion of par- intricate and controverted than
liament. ^^^y oti^er, the constitutijn of
parliament. I have taken no notice of
this in the last section, in order to pre-
sent uninterruptedly to the reader the
gradual progress of our legislature down
to its complete establishment under the
^Edwards. No excuse need be made for
the dry and critical disquisition of the fol-
lowing pages ; but among such obscure
inquiries, I cannot feel myself as secure
from error as I certainly do from par-
tiality.
One constituent branch of the great
The spirit- councils, held by William the
uai peers. Couqucror and all his succes-
sors, was composed of the bishops, and
the heads of religious houses holding
their temporalities immediately of the
crown. It has been frequently maintain-
ed, that these spiritual lords sat in par-
liament only by virtue of their baronial
tenure. And certainly they did all hold
baronies, which, according 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 legislation or national importance was
essential to all the northern 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
begun to prevail, but chiefly as represent-
atives of the church and of religion itself;
next, as more learned and enlightened
counsellors than the lay nobility ; and in
some degree, no doubt, as rich proprie-
tors of land. It will be remembered
also that ecclesiastical and temporal af-
fairs were originally decided in the same
assemblies, both upon the continent and
in England. The Norman conquest,
which destroyed the Anglo-Saxon nobil-
ity, and substituted a new race in their
Btead, could not alTcct the immortality
of church possessions. The bishops of
William's age were entitled to sit in his
councils by the general custom of Eu-
rope, and by the common law of England,*
I
every county, of three knights or others, to be
elected by the commons of the shire, whose sole
province was to determine offences against the two
charters, with power of punishing by fine and im-
piisonment ; biit not to extend to any case where-
U> the remedy by writ was already provided.
* H 3dy (Treatise on Convocations, p. 26) states
Z 3
which the conquest diJ not overturn.
Some smaller arguments might be urged
against the supposition that their legis-
lative rights are merely baronial ; such
as that the guardian of the spiritualities
was commonly summoned to parliament
during the vacancy of a bishopric, and
that the five sees created by Henry VIII.
have no baronies annexed to them ;* but
the former reasoning appears less tech-
nical and confined. t
the matter thus : in the Saxon times all bishops
and abbots sai and voted in the state councils or
parliament as such, and not on account of their
tenures. After the conquest, the abbots sat there
not as such, but by virtue of their tenures as bar
ons ; and the bishops sat in a double capacity, as
bishops and as barons.
* Hody, p. 128.
t It is rather a curious speculative question, and
such only, we may presume, it will long continue,
whether bishops are entitled, on charges of treason
or felony, to a trial by the peers. If this question
be considered either theoretically or according to
ancient authority, I think the affirmative proposi-
tion is beyond dispute. Bishops were at all times
members of the great national council, and fully
equal to lay lords in temporal power as well as dig
nity. Since the conquest, they have held their tern
poralities of the crown by a baronial tenure, which,
if there be any consistency in law, must unequivo
cally distinguish them from commoners ; since
any one holding by barony might be challenged
on a jury, as not being the peer of the party whom
he was to try. It is true that they take no share
in the judicial power of the house of lords in cases
of treason or felony ; but this is merely in conform-
ity to those ecclesiastical canons which prohibited
the clergy from partaking in capital judgment, and
they have always withdrawn from the house on
such occasions under a protestation of their right
to remain. Had it not been for this particular ty,
arising wholly out of their own discipline, the
question of their peerage could never have come
into dispute. As for the common argument, that
they are not tried as peers because they have no
inheritable nobility, I consider it as very frivolous ;
since it takes for granted the precise matter in
controversy, that an inheritable nobility is neces
sary to the definition of peerage, or to its incident
al privileges.
If we come to constitutional precedents, by
which, when sufficiently numerous and unexcep-
tionable, all questions of this kind are ultimately
to be determined, the weight of ancient authority
seems to be in favour of the prelates. In the fif-
teenth year of Edward III. (1310), the king brought
several charges against Archbishop Stratford. He
came to parliament with a declared intention of
defending himself before his peers. The king in-
sisted upon his answering in the court of exche-
quer. Stratford, however, persevered ; and the
house of lords, i)y the king's consent, appointed
twelve of their number, bishops, earls, and baruiis,
to report whether [)eers ought to answer criminal
charges in parliament and not elsewhere This
committee reported to the king in full parliament
that the peers of the land ought not to be arraign-
ed nor put on trial, except in parliament and by
their peers. The archbishop upon this prayed the
king, that inasmuch as he had been notoriously da
famed, he might be a-raigned in full parliam*«u'
before the peers and li.ere make answer ; wiuek
35(J
EUROPE DURLNG THE MIDDLE AGES.
[L.rAP. m
Nex to tLese spiritual lords are the
earls and barons, or lay peerage of Eng-
land The former dignity was perhaps
not so merely ofRcial as in the Saxon
times, although the earl was entitled to
the third penny of all emoluments ari-
sing from the administration of justice in
'I'quest the king granted. — Rot. Pari., vol. ii., p.
i"J7. Collier's Eccles. Hist., vol. i., p. 543. Tl.e
proceedings against Stratford went no farther, but
i think it impossible not to admit that his right tj
trial as a peer was fully recognised both by thi«
king and lords.
This is however the latest, and perhaps the
only instance of a prelate's obtaining so high a priv-
ilege. In the preceding reign of Edward II., if
we can rely on the account of Walsinghain (p.
.19), Adam Orlelon, the factious bishop of Here-
tbrd, had first been arraigned before the house
■;)f lords, and subsequently convicted by a com-
mon jury ; but the transaction was of a singular
nature, and the king might probably be influenced
by the difficulty of obtaining a conviction from the
temporal peers, of whom many were disaflected to
him, in a case where privilege of clergy was vehe-
inenily claimed. But about 1357, a bishop of Ely,
being accused of harbouring one guilty of murder,
though he demanded a trial by the peers, was com-
pelled to abide the verdict of a jury. — Collier, p.
557. In the 31st of Edward III. (1358), the abbot
of Missenden was hanged for coining.— 2 Inst., p.
635. The abbot of this monastery appears trom
Dugdale to have been summoned by writ, in the
19th of Henry III. If he actually held by barony,
! do not perceive any strong distinction between
his case and that of a bishop. The leading prece-
dent, however, and that upon which lawyers prin-
cipally found their denial of this privilege to the
bishops, is the case of Fisher, who was certainly
tried before an ordinary jury ; nor am I aware that
any remonstrance was made by himself, or com-
pla - by his friends, upon this ground. Cranmer
was .*ated in the same manner ; and from these
tW(.. being the most recent precedents, though
t <'ither of them in the best of times, the great plu-
lality of law-books have drawn a conclusion that
bishops are not entitled to trial by the temporal
peers. Nor can there be much doubt that, when-
ever the occasion shall occur, this will be the de-
cision of the house of lords.
There are two peculiarities, as it may naturally
appear, in the abovementioned resolutions of the
lords in Stratford's case. The first is, that they
claim to be tried, not only before their peers, but
in parliament. And in the case of the Bishop of
Ely, It IS said to have been objected to his claim of
[rial by his peers, that parliament was not then sit-
tmg (Collier, ubi sup.). It is most probable, there-
fore, that the court of the lord high steward, for the
special purpose of trying a peer, was of more re-
cent institution ; as appears also from Sir E. Coke's
expressions. — 4 Inst., p. 58. The second circum-
stance that may strike a reader is, that the lords
aasert their privilege in all criminal cases, not dis-
tinguishing misdemeanors from treasons and felo-
nies. But in this they were undoubtedly we.rrant-
id by the clear language pf Magna Charta, which
makes no distinction of the kind. The practice of
trj'ing a peer for misdemeanors by a jury of com-
moners, concerning the origin of which I can say
lOthing, is one of those anomalies which too often
render our laws capricious and unreasonable in the
eyes of impartial men.
Sirce writing the above note I have read StiJ
the county-courts, ana might, perhap;^
command the militia of his county when
it was called forth.* Every earl was alsc
a baron, and held an honour or barony of
the crown, for which he paid a higher re-
lief than an ordinary baron, probably on
account of the profits of his e* rldom. I
lingfleet's treatise on the judicial power of the bish
ops in capital cases ; a right which though now, I
think, abrogated by non-claim and a course of contra
ry precedents, he proves beyond dispute to have ex
isted by the common law and constitutions of Cla-
rendon, to have been occasionally exercised, and tc
have been only suspended by their voluntary act Ir
the course of this argument he treats of the peeragf
of the bishops, and produces abundant evidenct
from the records of parliament that they were sty
led peers, for which, though convinced from gen
eral recollection, I had not leisure or disposition to
search. But if any doubt should remain, the statute
25 E. III., c. 6, contains a legislative declaration
of the peerage of bishops. The whole subject is
discussed with much perspicuity and force by Slil
lingfleet, who seems however not to press very
greatly the right of trial by peers, aware no doubt
of the weight of opposite precedents. — (Stilling
fleet's Works, vol. iii., p. 820.) In one distinction,
that the bishops vote in their judicial functions as
barons, but in legislation as magnates, which War
burton has brought forward as his own in the Alii
ance of Church and State, Stillingfleet has per
haps not taken the strongest ground, nor sufficient
iy accounted for their right of sitting in judgment
on the unpeachment of a commoner. Parliament
ary impeachment, upon charges of high public
crimes, seems to be the exercise of a right inherent
in the great council of the nation, some traces of
which appear even before the conquest (Chron.
Sax., p. 164, 109) ; independent of and superseding
that of trial by peers, which, if the 29th section of
Magna Charta be strictly construed, is only requi
red upon endictments at the king's suit. And thia
consideration is of great weight in the question
still unsettled, whether a commoner can be trieu
by the lords upon an impeachment for treason.
The treatise of Stillingfleet was written on oc
casion of the objection raised by the commons to
the bishops voting on the question of Lord Danby's
pardon, which he pleadecl in bar of his impeach
ment. Burnet seems to suppose that their right of
final judgment had never been defended, and con
founds judgment with sentence. Mr. Hargrave,
strange to say, has made a .T.'jch greater blunder,
and imagined that the question related to their
right of voting on a bill of attainder, which no one,
I believe, ever disputed. — Notes on Co. Litt.,
13? b.
■* Madox, Baronia Anglica, p. 138. Dialogus de
Scaccario, 1. i., c. 17. Lyttleton's Henry II., voL
ii., p. 217. The last of t;1ese writers supposes, con-
trary to Selden, that the earls continued to be gov-
ernors of their counties under Henry II. Stephen
created a few titular ear's, with grants of crown
lands to support them ; but his successor resumed
the grants, and deprived them of their earldoms.
In Rymer's Fosdera, vol. i., p. 3, we find a grani
of Matilda, creating Milo of Glocester earl of Here-
ford, with the moat and castle of that city in fee
to him and his heirs, the third penny of the rent
of the city, and of the pleas in the county, three
manors and a forest, and the service of three ten
ants in chief, with all their fiefs, to be held witk
."ill privileges and liberties as fully as ever any eui
in England ha4 possessed them.
P^Ef HI.]
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
do?
•yill not pietend to say whetlier titular
earldoms, absolutely distinct from the
lieutenancy of a county, were as ancient
as the conquest, which Madox seems to
think, or were considered as irregular, so
late as Henry II., according to Lord Lyt-
tletori. In Dugdale's Baronage, I find
none of this description in the first Nor-
man reigns, for even that of Clare was
conLccted with the local earldom of Hert-
ford
It is universally agreed, that the only
rt . baronies known for two centu-
Queslion as . _ , , .
10 the na- nes aftcr the conquest were na-
ture of t^iir- cident to the tenure of land held
°"'^^' immediately from the crown.
There are, however, material difficulties
in the way of riglitly understanding their
nature, which ought not to be passed
over, because the consideration of baro-
nial tenures will best develop the forma-
tion of our parliamentary system. Two
of our most eminent legal antiquaries,
Selden and Madox, have entertained dif-
ferent opinions as to the characteristics
and attributes of this tenure.
According to the first, every tenant in
Theory of chief by knight-service was an
Selden ; honorary or parliamentar)' baron
by reason of his tenure. All these were
summoned to the king's councils, and
were peers of his court. Their baronies,
or honours, as they were frequently call-
ed, consisted of a number of knight's
fees, that is, of estates, from each of
which the feudal service of a knight was
due ; not fixed to thirteen fees and a
third, as has been erroneously conceived,
but varying according to the extent of the
barony, and the reservation of service at
the time of its creation. Were they
more or fewer, however, their owner was
equally a baron, and summoned to serve
the king in parliament v/ith his advice and
judgment, as appears by many records
and passages in history.
But about the latter end of John's reign,
some only of the most eminent tenants
in chief were summoned by particular
writs ; the rest by one general summons
through the sheriffs of their several coun-
ties. This is declared in the Great Char-
ter of that prince, wlierein he promises
that whenever an aid or scutage shall be
required, faciemus summoneri archiepis-
copos, episcopos, abbates, comites et ma-
jores baroues regni sigillatim per literas
nostras. Et praiterea faciemus summon-
eri in generaii pei vicecomites et ballivos
nostros omnes alios qui in capite tenent de
nobis. Thus tlie barons are distinguished
from other tenants in chief, as if the for-
mer name were only applicable to a par-
ticular number of the king's immediate
vassals. But it is reasonable to thmn.,
that before this charter was made, it had
been settled by the law of some other par-
liament, how these greater barons should
be distinguished from the lesser tenants in
chief; else what certainty could there be
in an expression so general and indefi-
nite ? And tills is likely to have pro-
ceeded from the pride with which the
ancient and wealthy barons of the realui
would regard those newly created bj-
grants of escheated honours, or those
decayed in estate, who yet were by their
tenures on an equality with themselves.
They procured, therefore, two innova-
tions in their condition ; first, that these
inferior barons should be summoned gen-
erally by the sheriff, instead of receiving
their particular writs, which made an
honorary distinction ; and next, that they
should pay relief, not as for an entire
barony, one hundred marks ; but at the
rate of five pounds for each knight's fee
which they held of the crow^r. This
changed their tenure to one by mere
knight-service, and their denomination to
tenants in chief. It was not difficult
afterward for the greater barons to ex-
clude any from coming to parliament as
such, without particular writs directed to
them, for which purpose some law was
probably enacted in the reign of Henry
III. If indeed we could place reliance
on a nameless author whom Camden iias
quoted, this limitation of tlie peerage to
such as were expressly summoned de-
pended upon a statute made soon after
the battle of Evesham. But no one has
ever been able to discover Camden's au-
thority, and the change was probably of
a much earlier date.*
vSuch is the theory of Selden, which, if
it rested less upon conjectural ,.„ ,
alterations m the law, would un-
doubtedly solve some material difliculties
that occur in the opposite view of the
subject. According to Madox, tenure by
knight's-service in chief was always dis-
tinct from that by barony. It is and obser-
not easy, however, to point out vations up
the characteristic differences of °" '""''•
the two ; nor has that eminent antiquary,
in his large work, the Baronia Anglfca,
laid down any definition, or attempted to
exi)lain the real nature •)(■ a ba'rony. The
distinction could not consist in the num-
ber of knight's fees ; for the barony o(
Hwayton consisted of only three ;f while
John de Baliol held thirty fees by mere
* Seklen's Works, vol. iii., p. 71? -743
+ Lvttlelon's Henry II.. vol. ii., p 21^
m
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AUEiJ.
fCHir, * 111
kiiij^lit-service. Nor does it seem to
have consisted in the privilege or ser-
vice of attending parliament, since all
'.enants in chief were usually summoned.
But whatever may have been the line
IxUween these modes of tenure, there
seems complete proof of their separation
long before the reign of John. Tenants
in chief are enumerated distinctly from
earls and barons in the charter of Henry I.
Knights, as well as barons, are named as
present in the parliament of Northamp-
ton in 1165, in that held at the same tov.'ii
in 1176, and upon other occasions.* Sev-
eral persons appear in the Liber Niger
Scoccarii, a roll of military tenants made
m tlie age of Henry H., who held single
knight's fees of the crown. It is, how-
ever, highly probable, that in a lax sense
of the word, these knights may some-
limes have been termed barons. The
author of the Dialogus de Scaccario
speaks of those holding greater or lesser
baronies, including, as appears by the
context, all tenants in chief.f The for-
mer of these seem to be the majores bar-
ones of King John's Charter. And the
secunda; dignitatis barones, said by a con-
temporary historian to have been present
in the parliament of Northampton, were
in all probability no other than the
knightly tenants of the crown. J For the
wind baro, originally meaning only a
man, was of very large significance, and
is not unfrequently applied to common
freeholders, as in the phrase of court-
baron. It was used too for the magis-
trates or chief men of cities, as it is still
for the judges of the exchequer, and the
representatives of the Cinque-Ports.
The passage, however, before cited
from the Great Charter of John aflfords'
one spot of firm footing in the course of
our progress. Then, at least, it is evi-
dent that all tenants in chief were entitled
to their summons ; the greater barons
by particular writs, the rest through one
directed to their sheriff. The epoch when
all, who, though tenants in chief, had not
been actually summoned, were deprived
of their right of attendance in parliament,
!S again involved in uncertainty and con-
* Hodv on Convocations, p. 222, 234.
t Lib.'ii., c. 9.
t Hody and Lord Lyttleton maintain these
" barons of the second rank" to have been the sub-
vassals of the crown ; tenants of the great barons,
to whom the name was sometimes improperly ap-
phed. This was very consistent with their opin-
ion, that the commons were apart of parliament at
ihat time. But Hume, assuming at once the truth
of their interpretation in this mstance, and the
fnlsehood of their system, treats it as a deviation
from the established rule, and a proof of the unset-
ed state of the c -institution
jecture. The unknown writer quoted by
Camden seems not sufficient autlicrity
to establish his assertion, that they were
excluded by a statute made after the
battle of Evesham. The principle waa
most likely acknowledged at an earlier
time. Simon de Montfort summoned
only twenty-three temporal peers to his
famous parliament, In the year 1255,
the barons complained that n^ny of their
number had not received their writs, ac-
cording to the tenour of the charter, and
refused to grant an aid to the king till
they were issued.*
But it would have been easy to disap-
point this mode of packing a parliament,
if an unsummoned baron could have sat
by mere right of his tenure. The opin-
ion of Selden, that a law of exclusion
was enacted towards the beginning of
Henry's reign, is not liable to so much
objection. But perhaps it is unnecessary
to frame an hypothesis of this nature.
Writs of summons might probably be
older than the time of John ;f and when
this had become the customary and reg-
ular preliminary of a baron's coming to
parliament; it was a natural transition to
look upon it as an indispensable condi-
tion ; in times when the prerogative
was high, the law unsettled, and the
service in parliament deemed by many
still more burdensome than honctirable.
Some omissions in summoning the king's
tenants to former parliaments may per-
haps have produced the abovementioncd
provision of the Great Charter, which
had a relation to the imposition of taxes,
wherein it was deemed essential to ob-
tain a more universal consent than wa:s
required in councils held for state, or
even for advice. J
It is not easy to determine how long
the inferior tenants in chief con- Y^r,,g„,gj
tinued to sit personally in par- mereten-
liament. In the charters of ants in
Henry III., the clause which ^ended''pa»
we have been considering is liamem un
omitted : and I think there is no ^,Y "^"'^
express proof remaining, that
the sheriff was ever directed to summon
the king's military tenants within hia
county in the manner which the charter
* M. Paris, p. 785. The barons even tell the
king that this was <ontrary to his charter, in
which neverthe.'ess tise clause to that effect, con-
tained in his father's charter, had been omitted
t Henry II., in 1175, forbade any of those whc
had been concerned in the late rebellion to coma
to his court without a particular summons. — Carter
vol. ii., p. 249.
j Upon the subject of tenure by barony, beside
the writers already quoted, see West's Inauiryii'to
the Method of creating Peers, and Carte'c HistotT
of England, vol. ii., p. 247.
I
fART 111. J
ENGLISH CONS iTUTlON.
359
of John required. It appears, however,
that they were in fact members of par-
liament on many occasions during Hen-
ry's reign, which shows that they were
smnmoned either by particular writs or
through the sheriff; and the latter is the
more plausible conjecture. There is in-
deed great obscurity as to the constitu-
tion of parliament in this reign ; and the
passages which I am about to produce
may lead some to conceive that tlie free-
holders were represented even from its
beginning. I rather incline to a different
opinion.
In the IMagna Charta of 1 Henry HI.,
it is said : Pro h^c donatione et conces-
sione .... archiepiscopi, episcopi, com-
ites, barones, niilites, et libere tenentes,
et omnes de regno nostro dederunt no-
bis quintam decimam partem omnium
bonorum suorum mobihum.* So in a
record of IS Henry III. : Comites, et
barones, ci omnes alii de toto regno nos-
tro Anglias, spontanea voluntate sui con-
cesserunt nobis efficax auxilium.f The
largeness of these words is, however,
controlled by a subsequent passage,
which declares the tax to be imposed ad
mandatum omnium comitum et baronum
et omnium aliorum qui de nobis icnent in
capita. And it seems to have been a gen-
eral practice to assume the common
consent of all ranks to that which had
actually been agreed by the higher. In
a similar writ, 21 Henry III., the ranks
of men are enumerated specifically ; ar-
chiepiscopi, episcopi, abbates, priores, et
clerici terras habentes qua; ad ecclesias
suas non pertinent, comites, barones, nii-
lites, et liberi homines, pro se et suis vil-
lains, nobis concesserunt in auxilium tri-
cesimam partem omnium mobilium.J
In the close roll of the same year, we
have a writ directed to the archbish-
ops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons,
knights, and freeholders (liberi homines)
of Ireland, in which an aid is desired of
them ; and it is urged, that one had been
granted by his fideles Angha;.^
But this attendance in parliament of
inferior tenants in chief, some of them
too poor to have received knighthood,
grew insupportably vexatious to them-
selves, and was not weU liked by the
king. He knew them to be dependant
upon the barons, and dreaded the conflu-
ence of a multitude who assumed the
*■ Hody CT\ Convocations, p. 293.
+ Brady, Introduction to History of England,
Appendix, p. 43.
t Brady's Histoiy of England, vol. i., Appendix,
p. 182.
^ Brad>'s Introd action, p. 94-
privilege of coming in arms to the ap
pointed place. So inconvenient and mis-
chievous a scheme could not long subsist
among an advancing people, and fortu-
nately the tuie remedy was discovered
with little difliculty.
The principle of representation, in its
widest sense, can hardly be un- origin and
known to any government not progress cf
purely democratical. In almost L'ry ^r^Tv-
every country the sense of tJie sciiiaUon.
whole is understood to be spoken by a
part, and the decisions of a part are bind-
ing upon the whole. Among our ances
tors, the lord stood in the place of his
vassals, and, still more unquestionably,
the abbot in that of his monks. The
system indeed of ecclesiastical coun-
cils, considered as organs of the cluirch,
rested upon the principle of a virtual or
an express representation, and had a ten-
dency to render its application to nation
al assemblies more familiar.
The first instance of actual ropresenta
tion which occurs in our history is only
four years after the conquest : when Will-
iam, if we may rely on Hoveden, caused
twelve persons skilled in the customs of
England to be chosen from each county
who were sworn to inform him rightly
of their laws ; and these, so ascertained,
were ratified by the consent of the great
council. This Sir Matthew Hale asserts
to be " as sufficient and effectual a par-
liament as ever was held in England.''*
But there is no appearance that the.se
twelve deputies of each county were in-
vested with any higher authority than
that of declaring their ancient usages.
No stress can be laid, at least, on this in-
sulated and anomalous assembly, the ex-
istence of which is only learned from an
historian of a century later.
We find nothing that can arrest our
attention, in searching out the origin of
county representation, till we come to a
writ in the fifteenth year of John, direct-
ed to all the sheriffs in the following
terms: Rex Vicecomiti N., sahitem.
Praecipimus tibi quod omnes niilites bal-
liva3 tua} qui summoniti fucrunt esse
apud Oxoniam ad Nos a die Omnium
Sanctorum in quindecim dies venire fa
cias cum armis suis : corpora vero bar-
onum sine armis singulariter, et qualuor
discretes mililes de comitatu tiio, illuc ve-
nire facias ad cvmdem tcrminum, ; d lo-
quendum nobiscum de negotiis legni
nostri. For the explanation of this ob-
scure writ, I must refer to what Prynne'
♦ Hi.st. of Common Law, vol. i , p. 202.
■f 2 Prynne's Register, p. 16.
360
EIROPE DURliNG THE MIDDLE AGES
[Chap. VII j
ftas said ; but. it remains problematical,
whether these four knights (the only
clause wliich concerns our purpose) were
to be elected by the county, or return-
ed, in the nature of a jury, at the discre-
tion of the sheriff. Since there is no
sufficient proof whereon to decide, we
can only say with hesitation, that there
may have been an instance of county
representation in the fifteenth year of
John.
AVe may next advert to a practice, of
which there is very clear proof in the
reign of Henry III. Subsidies granted in
j)arliameut were assessed, not as in for-
mer times, by the justices upon their cir-
cuits, but by ls.niglits freely chosen in the
county-court. This appears by two writs,
one of the fourth and one of the ninth
year of Henry III.* At a subsequent pe-
riod, by a provision of the Oxford parlia-
ment, 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 repre-
sentation is in the thirty-eighth of Hen-
ry 111. This, after reciting that the earls,
barons, and other great men (cateri mag-
nates) were to meet at London three
weeks after Easter, with horses and arms,
for the purpose of saiUng 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 consider, along
with the knights and other counties, what
aid they will grant the king in such an
emergency. I In the principle of elec-
tion, and in the object of the assembly,
which was to grant money, this certain-
ly resembles a summons to parliament.
There are indeed anomalies, sufficiently
remarkable upon the face of the writ,
'vhich distinguish this meeting from a reg-
ular parliamea. But when the scheme
of obtaining money from the commons
of shires through the consent of their
representatives had once been entertain-
ed, it was easily applicable to more for-
mal councils of the nation.
A few years later there appears anoth-
• Brady's tntroduction, Appendix, pp. 41 and 41.
t Brady's I'iot, of England, vol. i., Appendix, p.
227 t 2 Prynne, p. 2.-}.
er writ analogous ,d a summons. Du-
ring the contest between Henry HI. and
the confederate barons in 1261, they pre-
sumed to call a sort of parliament, sum
moning three knights out of every coun
ty, secum tractaturos super communibu?
negotiis regni. This we learn only by
an opposite writ, issued by the king, di-
recting the sheriff to enjoin these knights
who had been convened by the earls of
Leicester and Glocester to their meeting
at St. Alban's, that tliey should repair in-
stead to the king at Windsor, and to no
other place, nobiscum super prajmissif
colloquium habituros * It is not abso-
lutely 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 parhamen'
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 cap-
tive in the hands of Simon de Montfort,
writs were issued in his name to all the
sheriffs, directing tiiem to return two
knights for the bodj of their count ^
with two citizens or burgesses for eveiy
city and borough contained within il.
This therefore is the epoch at which the
representation of the rommons becorr.ES
indisputably manifest, even should wt
reject altogether the more equivocal in-
stances of it which have just been enu
merated.
If, indeed, the knights were sun eleeu
ed by none but the king's mill- „„ ^
tary tenants, if the mode of rep- |ii,jj,|ns were
resentation was merely adopt- eieiieti by
frueliolders
in general.
ed to spare them the inconve- '''■'-''^'"'''''-''■'*
nience of personal attendance,
the immediate innovation in our polity
was not very extensive. This is an in-
teresting, but very obscure topic of in-
quiry. Spelman and Brady, with other
writers, have restrained the original right
of election to tenants in chief, among
whom, in process of time, those holding
under mesne lords, not being readily dis-
tinguishable in the hurry of an election,
contrived to slide in, till at length their
encroachments were rendered legitimate
by the statute 7 H. IV., c. 15, which put
all suiters to the county-court on an
equal footing as to the elective franchise.
The argument oh this side might be plau-
sibly urged with the following reasoning.
The spirit of a feudal monarclsy, which
compelled every lord to act by the advice
and assent of his immediate vassals, es-
tablished no relation between hi)n i^nd
those who held nothing at his hands
* ? Prvnne. p. *J'
I
i»ART in.]
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION
36]
They were included, so far as he was
concerned, in their superiors ; and the
feudal incidents were due to him from
the whole of nis vassal's fief, whatever
tenants might possess it by sub-infeuda-
tion. In England, the tenants in chief
alone were called to the great councils
before representation was thought of, as
is evident both by the charter of John
and by the language of many records;
nor were any others concerned in levying
aids or cscuages, which were only due
by virtue of their tenure. These mili-
tary tenants were become in the reign
of Henry III. far more numerous than
they had been under the Conqueror. If
we include those who held of the king
ut de honore, that is, the tenants of baro-
nies escheated or in ward, who may
probably have enjoyed the same privile-
ges, being subject, in general, to the same
burdens, their number will be greatly
augmented, and form no inconsiderable
portion of the freeholders of the kingdom.
After the statute commonly called Quia
emptores in the eighteenth of Edward I.,
they were likely to increase much more,
as every licensed alienation of any por-
tion of a fief by a tenant in chief would
create a new freehold immediately de-
oending upon the crown. Many of these
,'enants in capite held very small fractions
af knight's fees, and were consequently
not called upon to receive knighthood.
They were plain freeholders, holding in
chief, and the liberi homines or libere
tenentcs of those writs which have been
already quoted. The common form in-
deed of writs to the sheriff directs the
knights to be chosen de coinmunitate
comitates. But the word communitas,
as in boroughs, denotes only tlie superior
part : it is not unusual to find mention
in records of communitas populi or omnes
de regno, where none arc intended but
the barons, or, at most, the tenants in
chief. If we look attentively at the ear-
liest instance of summoning knights of
shires to parliament, that in 38 11. III.,
which has been noticed above, it will
appear tliat they could only have been
chosen by military tenants in chief. The
object of calling this parliament, if par-
liament it were, was to obtain an aid from
the military tenants, who, holding less
than a knight's fee, were not required to
do personal service. None then, surely
but the tenants in chief could be elector^
upon this occasion, which merely re-
spected their feudal duties. Again, to
come much lower down, we find a series
of petitions in the reigns of p^dward III.
und Richard II., which seem to lead us
to a conclusio that on.y tenants in cnic'
were represented by the knights of shires
The writ for wages directed the sheriff
to levy them on the commons of the
county, both within franchises and with
out (tam intra libertates quam extra)
But the tenants of lords holding by bai
ony endeavoured to exempt themselves
from this burden, in which they seera
to have been countenanced by the king
This led to frequent remonstrances from
the commons, who finally procured a
statute, that all lands, not discharged b}
prescriptio!i, should contribute to the
payment of wages.* But, if these mesne
tenants had possessed equal rights of
voting with tenants in chief, it is impos-
sible to conceive that they would have
thought of claiming so unreasonable an
exemption. Yet, as it would appear harsh
to make any distinction between the
rights of those who sustained an equal
burden, we may perceive how the free
holders, holding of mesne lords might on
that account obtain after the statute a
participation in the privilege of tenants
in chief. And without supposing any
partiality or connivance, it is easy to
comprehend, that while the nature of
tenures and services was so obscure as
to give rise to continual disputes, of
which the ancient records of the King'*
Bench are full, no sheriff could be very
accurate in rejecting the votes of com-
mon freeholders, repairing to the county-
court, and undistinguishable, as must be
allowed, from tenants in capite upon
other occasions, fiuch as serving on ju
ries, or voting on the election of coro
ners. To all this it yields some corrob-
oration, that a neighbouring though long
hostile kingdom, who borrowed much of
her law from our own, has never admitted
any freeholders, except tenants in chief
of the crown, to a suffrage in county
elections. These attended the parUa-
ment of Scotland in person till 14'28, when
a law of James I. permitted them to send
representatives.!
Such is, I think, a fair statement of
the arguments that might be alleged by
those who would restrain the right of
election to tenants of the crown. It may
be urged on the other side, that the genius
of the feudal system was never com-
pletely displayed in England ; much less
can we make use of that policy to ex-
plain institutions tliat prevailed under
P^dward I. Instead of aids and scutages
* 12 Ric. II.. c. 12. Prynne's 4th Register.
t Pinkertoii's Hist, of Scotland, vol. i., p. lU)
357. But this J.Tvv was not repulu'^'v 8cte<i ut^i
till 1587, p. 36e.
A6!2
EUROPE DUiviWG THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. Vlli
ievj*!d upon the king's m'litary tenants,
the crjwn found ample resources in sub-
sidies upon moveables, from which no
c.ass of men was exempted. But the stat-
«ne that abolished all unparliamentary-
taxation led, at least in theoretical princi-
ple, 10 extend the elective franchise to as
arge a mass of the people as could con-
veniently exercise it. It was even in the
mouth of our kings, that what concerned
all should be approved by all. Nor is
the language of all extant writs less ad-
vertje to the supposition, that the right
of suffrage in county elections was lim-
ited to tenants in chief. It seems extraor-
dinary, that such a restriction, if it existed,
should never be deducible from these in •
•struments ; that their terms should inva-
riably be large enough to comprise all
freeholders. Yet no more is ever re-
quired of the sheriff than to return two
knights, chosen by the body of the coun-
ty. For they are not only said to be re-
turned pro communitate, but " per com-
munitatem," and " de assensu totius com-
munitatis." Nor is it satisfactory to al-
lege, without any proof, that this word
should be restricted to the tenants in
chief, contrary to what must appear to
be its obvious meaning.* Certainly if
these tenants of the crown had found in-
ferior freeholds usurping a right of suf-
frage, we might expect to find it the sub-
ject of some legislative provision, or at
least of some petition and complaint.
And, on the other hand, it would have
been considered as unreasonable to levy
the wages due to knights of the shire for
their service in parliament on those who
had no share in their election. But it
appears by writs at the very beginning
of Edward II. 's reign, that wages were
levied " de communitate comitatus."f It
will scarcely be contended that no one
was to contribute under this writ but
* What can one who adopts this opinion of Dr.
Brady say to the following record? Rex militi-
bus, liberis hominibus, et toti communitati comita-
tus Wygornis tarn intra libertates quam extra,
salutem. Cum comites, barones, milites, liberi
homines et communitates comitatuumregni nostri
vicesimam omnmm bonorum suorum mobilium,
civesque et burgenses et communitates omnmm
civitatum et burgorum ejusdem regni, necnon te-
nentes de antiquis domiiiicis coronse iiostrs quin-
lecimam bonorum suorum mobilium nobis conces-
Berunt.— Pat. Rot., 1 E. II., in Rot. Pari., vol. i.,p.
442. Seealsop. 241 and p. 269. If the word com-
munitas is here used in any precise sense, which,
when possible, wrf are to suppose in construing a
legal instrument, it must designate, not the tenants
in chief, but the inferior class, who, though neither
freeholders nor free burgesses, were yet contribu-
Uble to the subsidy on their goods.
* Madox. Firma Burgi. t>. 99 and -. 102, note Z
tenants in chief; and yet the word com
munitas can hardly be applied to differ-
ent persons, when it occurs in the same
instrument and upon the same matter.
The series of petitions above mentioned
relative to the payment of wages rather
tends to support a conclusion, that all
mesne tenants had the right of suffrage,
if they thought fit to exercise it, since it
was earnestly contended that they were
liable to contribute towards that expense.
Nor does there appear any reason to
doubt that all freeholders, except those
within particular franchises, were suiters
to the county-court ; an institution of no
feudal nature, and in which elections
were to be made by those present. As
to the meeting to which knights of shires
were summoned in 38 H. III., it ought
not to be reckoned a parliament, but rath-
er one of those anomalous conventions
which sometimes occurred in the unfix-
ed state of government. It is at least
the earliest known instance of represent
ation, and leads us to no conclusion in
respect to later times, when the com-
mons had become an essential part of
the legislature, and their consent was
required to all public burdens.
This question, upon the whole, is cer-
tainly not free from considerable difficul-
ty. The legal antiquaries are divided.
Prynne does not seem to have doubted
but that the knights were " elected in the
full county, by and for the whole coun-
ty," without respect to the tenure of the
freeholders.* But Brady and Carte are
of a different opinion. f Yet their dispo-
sition to narrow the basis of the constitu-
tion 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 i.a
believe, that even from the reign of Hen-
ry I., the election of knights by all free-
holders in the county-court, without re-
gard to tenure, was little, if at all, differ-
ent from what it is at present. J
The progress of towns in several con-
tinental countries from a condi- Progress o'
tion bordering upon servitude to ">wns.
wealth and liberty has more than once
attracted our attention in other parts of
the present work. Their growth in Eng
land, both from general causes and imi-
tative policy, was very similar and near-
ly coincident. Under the Anglo-Saxon
line of sovereigns, we scarcely can dit*
* Prynne B 2d Register, p. 50.
+ Carte's Hist, of England, vol. ii , p. 250.
+ The present question h.-^s been discussed witk
much ability in t^** Edinburgh Review, vcl u i,
'p 341
fART 111]
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
3G3
cover in our scanty records the ^jondition
of their iuhabitants ; except retrospect-
ively fr:m the great survey of Domesday
Book, which displays the state of Eng-
land under Edward the Confessor. Some
attention to commerce had been shown
by Alfred and Athelstan ; snd a merchant
who had made three voyages beyond sea
was raised by a law of the latter monarch
to the dignity of a thane.* This privilege
was not perhaps often claimed ; but the
burgesses of towns were already a dis-
tinct class from the ceorls or rustics, and,
though hardly free according to our esti-
mation, seem to have laid the foundation
of more extensive immunities. It is
probable, at least, that the English towns
had made full as great advances towards
emancipation as those of France. At
the conquest, we find the burgesses or
inhabitants of towns living under the su-
periority or protection of the king, or of
some other lord to whom they paid an-
nual rents, and determinate dues or cus-
toms. Sometimes they belonged to dif-
ferent lords ; and sometimes the same
burgesses paid customs to one master,
while he was under the jurisdiction of an-
other. They frequently enjoyed special
privileges as to inheritance ; and in two or
three instances they seem to have possess-
ed common property, belonging to a sort
of guild or corporation ; but never, as far
as appears by any evidence, had they a
municipal administration by magistrates
of their own choice. t Besides the regu-
* Wilkins, p. 71.
t Burgenses Kxonise urbis habent extra civita-
tem terrarn duodecim carucatarum: quM nullam
consuetudineiii reddunt nisi ad ipsam civitatem. —
Doinesday, p. 100. At Canterbury the burgesses
had forty-five houses without the city, de quibus
ipsi habebant gabium et consuetudinem, rex autem
ocam et sacain ; ipsi quoque burgenses habebant
de rege triginta tres acras prati in gildam suam, p.
2. In Lincoln and Stamford some resident propri-
etors, called Lagemanni, had jurisdiction (socam
et sacam) over their tenants. But nowhere have
I been able to discover any trace of internal self-
government ; unless Chester may be deemed an
e.'cception, where we read of twelve judices civita-
tis ; but by whom constituted does not appear.
The word lageman seems equivalent to judex.
The guild mentioned above at Canterbury was, in
all probability, a voluntary association : so at Do-
ver we find the burgesses' guildhall, gihalla bur-
gensium, p. 1.
Many of the passages in Domesday relative to
the state of burgesses are collected in Brady's His-
tory of Boroughs ; a work which, if read with due
suspicion of the author' s honesty, will convey a
gieat deal of knowledge.
Since the former part of this note was w-itten,
f have met with a charter granted by Henry II. to
Lincoln, whicli seems to refer, more explicitly than
any similar instrument, to municipal privileges of
juiisdiction erjoyed by the citizens under Edward
iha Confessor. These charters, it is well known,
lar payments, which were in general na
heavy, they were liable to tallaties at the
discretion of their lords. This burdep
continued for two centuries with no lim-
itation, except that the barons were lat-
terly forced to ask permission of the
king before they set a tallage on their
tenants, which was commonly done
when he imposed one upon his own.*
Still the towns became considerably rich-
er ; for the profits of their traffic were
undiminished by competition ; and the
consciousness that they could not be in-,
dividually despoiled of their possessions
like the villeins of the country around^
inspired an industry and perseverance
which all the rapacity of Norman kings
and barons was unable to daunt or over-
come.
One of the earliest and most important
changes in the condition of tlie lowns let in
burgesses was the conversion fee-farm.
of their individual tributes into a perpet-
ual rent from the whole borough. The
town was then said to be aflermed, or
let in fee-farm to the burgesses and their
successors for ever.f Previously to such
a grant, the lord held the town in his de-
mesne, 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 pos
do not always recite what is true ; yet it is possi
ble that the citizens of Lincoln, which had been
one of the five Danish towns, sometimes mentioned
with a sort of distinction by writers before the con-
quest, might be in a more advantageous sitviation
than the generality of burgesses. Sciatis me
concessisse civibus meis Lincoln, omnes libertates
et consuetudines et leges suas, quas habuerunt
tempore Edwardi et Will, et Henr. regum Angliae,
el gildam suam mercatoriam de hominibus civita-
tis et de aliis mercatoribus comitatus, sicut illam
habuerunt tempore predictorum antecessorum nos-
trorum, regum Angliae, melius et liberius. Et om-
nes homines qui infra quatuor divisas civitates ma-
nent et mercatum deducunt, sint ad gildas, et con
suetudines et assisas civitatis, sicut melius fue-
runt temp. Edw. et Will, et Henr. regum Anglise.—
Rymer, t. i., p 40 (edit. 1816).
I am indebted to the friendly rjmarks of the pe
riodical critic whom I have before mentioned, foi
reminding me of oloeir charters of the same age,
expressed in a similar manner, wUitL in my haste
I had overlooked, though printed in common books.
But whether these general words ought to out
weigh the silence of Domesday Book, I em not
prepared to decide. I have admitted below, that the
possession of corporate propf.rty implies an elect
ive government for its administration, and I think
it perfectly clear that the guilds made by-laws for
the regulation of their members. Vet this 'i
something different from municipal jurisdictic*
over all the inhabitants of a town.
* Madox, Hist, of Exchequer, c. 17.
t Madox, Firma Burgi, p. 1. There is one in
stance, I know not if any more could be found, of
a firma burgi before the conquest. It was at Hun
tingdon. — Domesday, p. 203.
?64
ELROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AJES.
[Chai- MU
sessions But of a town in fee-farm he
only kept the superiority, and the in-
heritance of the aunual rent, which he
imglU recover by distress.* The burgess-
es held their lands by burgage-tenure,
nearly analogous to, or rather a species
of, free soccage.f Perhaps before the
grant tliey 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, di-
vested himself of his property, or lucra-
tive dominion over the soil, in return for
the perpetual rent ; so that tallages sub-
sequently set at his own discretion upon
the inhabitants, however common, can
hardly be considered as a just exercise
of the rights of proprietorship.
Under such a system of arbitrary tax-
rharters of ation, hovvever, it was evident to
.;i"corpora- the most sclfish 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 en-
tourage them by privileges. From the
time of William Rufus, there was no
reign in which charters were not granted
to different towns, of exemption from
tolls on rivers and at markets, those
lighter manacles of feudal tyranny; or
of commercial franchises ; or of immuni-
ty from the ordinary jurisdictions ; or,
lastly, of internal self-regulation. Thus
the "original charter of Henry I. to the
city of Londont concedes to the citizens,
in addition to valuable commercial and
fiscal immunities, the right of choosing
their own sheriff and justice, to the ex-
clusion of every foreign jurisdiction.^
These grants, however, were not in gen-
eral so extensive till the reign of John.||
* Madox, p. 12, 13. tld., p. 21.
t I have read somewhere that this charter was
rrrMiited in 1101. But the instrument it?elf, which
is only preserved by an Inspeximus of Edvyard IV.,
does not contam any date. — Kymer, t. i., p. 11
(edit. 1816). Could it be traced so high, the cir-
cumstance would be remarkable, as the earliest
charters granted by Louis VI., supposed to be the
father o; these institutions, are several years later.
() This did not, however, save the citizens from
Snin? in one hundred marks to the king for this
privilege —Mag. Rot..5 Sieph., apud Madox, Hist.
Exchequer, t. xi. 1 do not know that the charter
of Htnry I. can be su-spected ; but Brady, in his
tieatise of Boroughs (p. 38, edit. 1777), does not
think proper once to mention it ; and indeed uses
mary expressions incompatible with its existence.
II Blometield, Hist, of Norfolk, vol. ii., p. 16, says
that Henry I. granted the same privileges by char-
ter to Norwich in 1122, which London possessed.
Yet it appears that the king named the port-reeve
or Drovost ; but Blomefield suggests that he was
probably r-jcommrn^ed by the citizens, the ofTice
Df in0 «iini ^1.
Before that time, the interior arrange-
ment of towns had received a new organ-
ization. In the Saxon period we find vol-
untary associations, sometimes religious
sometimes secular; in some cases foi
mutual defence against injury, in others
for mutual relief in poverty. These
were called guilds, from the Saxon verb
gildan, to pay or contribute, and exhibit-
ed the natural, if not the legal character
of corporations.* At the time of the con-
quest, as has been mentioned above, such
voluntary incorporations of the burgess-
es possessed in some towns either landed
property of their own, or rights of supe-
riority over that of others. An interna,
elective government seems to have been
required for the administration of a com-
mon revenue, and of other business in-
cident to their association.! They be-
* Madox, Firma Burgi, p. 23. Hicks has given
us a bond of fellowship among the thanes of Cam-
bridgeshire, containing several curious particular*.
A composition of eight pounds, exclusive, i con-
ceive, of the usual weregild, was to be enforced
from the slayer of any fellow. If a fellow (gildi'
killed a man of 1200 shillings v/eregild, each of the
society was to contribute half a marc ; for a ceorl,
two oraa (perhaps ten shillings) ; for a Welshman,
one. If, however, this act was committed wan
tonly, the fellow had no right to call on the Aocie
ty for contribution. If one lellow killed another,
he was to pay the legal weregild to his kindred,
and also eight pounds to the society. Harsh words
used by one fellow towards another, or even to-
wards a stranger, incurred a fine. No one was to
eat or drink in the company of one who had killed
his brother fellow, unless in the presence of tho
king, bishop, or alderman —Dissertatio Epistola
ris, p. 21.
We find in Wilkins's Anglo-Saxon laws, p. 65, a
number of ordinances, sworn to by persons both of
noble and ignoble rank (ge eorlisce ge ceorlisce),
and confirmed by King Athelstan. These are in
the nature of by-laws for the regulation of certain
societies that had been formed for the preservation
of public order. Their remedy was rather violent :
to kill and seize the effects of all who should roh
any member of the association. This property,
after deducting the value of the thing stolen, was
to be divided into two parts ; one given to the crim
inal's wife if not an accomplice, the other shared
between the king and the society.
In another fraternity among the clergy and laiiy
of Exeter, every fellow was entitled t ) a contribu-
tion in case of taking a journey, or -f his house
was burnt. Thus they resembled in some de-
gree our friendly societies; and display an inter-
esting picture of manners, which has induced me
to insert this note, though not greatly to the pres-
ent purpose. See more of the Anglo-Saxon guildy
in Turner's History, vol. ii., p. 102. Societies of
the same kind, for'purposes of religion, charity, «•
mutual assistance, rather than trade, may be fouii-i
afterward.— Blomefield 's Hist, of Norfolk, vol. iii.,
p. 494.
f See a grant fromTurstin, archbishop of York
in the reign of Henry I., to the burgesses of Beyer
ley, that they may have their hanshus (i. e. guild
ha-1) like those of York, et ibi sua statuta pertrac
tent ad hororem Dei, &c.— Rymer, 1. 1,, p. '0. edit
,1816.
r^BT 111.]
ENGLISH C0NSTITUT1U^.
363
came more numei aus, and more peculiar-
ly commercial after that era, as well from
the increase of trade as through imita-
tion of similar fraternities existing in
many towns of France. The spirit of
iQonopoly gave strength to those institu-
uons, each class of traders forming itself
into a body, in order to exclude compe-
tition. Thus were established the com-
panies in corporate towns, that of the
Weavers in London being perhaps the
earliest;* and these were successively
consohdated 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 incor-
porating charters. The management of
their internal concerns, previously to any
incorporation, fell naturally enough into a
sort of oligarchy, which the tenourof the
charter generally preserved. Though
the immunities might be very extensive,
the powers were more or less restrained
to a small number. Except in a few
places, the right of choosing magistrates
was first given by King John ; and cer-
tainly must rather be ascribed to his pov-
erty than to any enlarged policy, of
which he was utterly incapable. f
From the middle of the twelfth century
Prosperity ^0 that of the thirteenth, the tra-
of English ders of England became more and
•owns. more prosperous. The towns on
the southern coast exported tin and oth-
er metals in exchange for the wines of
France ; those on the eastern sent corn
to Norway; the Cinque-ports bartered
wool against the stuffs of Flanders.J
Though bearing no comparison with the
cities of Italy or the empire, they increas-
ed sufficiently to acquire importance at
home. That vigorous prerogative of the
Norman monarchs, which kept down the
feudal aristocracy, compensated for what-
ever inferiority there might be in the
population and defensible strength of the
English towns, compared with those on
the continent. They had to fear no pet-
ty oppressors, no local hostility ; and if
they could satisfy the rapacity of the
crown, were secure from all other griev-
ances. London, far above the
or. ^^^^^ ^^^ ancient and noble capital,
might, even in those early times, be just-
ly termed a member of the political sys-
♦ Madox, Firrna Burgi, p. 189.
t Idem, passim. A few of an earlier date may
'« found in the new edition of Rymer.
t LyV.leton's Hist, of Henry II., vol. ii., p. 170.
Maciihcrson's Annals of Commerce, vol. i., p. 331.
tem. This great ?ity, so admirah y situa-
ted, was rich and populous lon^' before
the conquest. Bede, at the beginning of
the eighth century, speaks of London as.
a great market, which traders frequented
by land :md sea.* It paid £15,000 oui
of jC82,000, raised by Canute upon the
kingdom.! If we believe Roger llove-
den, the citizens of London, on the deelh
of Ethelred II., joined with part of -.he
nobility in raising Edmund Ironside to
the throne. I Harold I., according to tet-
ter authority, the Saxon Chronicle, and
William of Malmsbury, Avas elected bv
their concurrence.^ Descending to later
history, we find them active in the civil
war o'f Stephen and Matilda. The fa
mous Bishopof Winchester tells the Lon-
doners 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 re-
ceived. || Indeed the citizens themselves,
or at least the principal of them, were
called barons. It was certainly by fat
the greatest city in England. There havn
been different estimates of its population,
some of which are extravagant ; but ]
think it could hardly have contained less
than thirty or forty thousand souls with-
in its walls ; and the suburbs were very
populous. ■![ These numbers, the enjoy-
* Macpherson, p. 215. + Id., p. ?.'12
t Gives Lundinenses, et pars nobilmm, '^oi eu
tempore consistebant Lundoniaj, Clitone.^fi Ead
mundum unaniini consensu in .egem "je.avere, p
249.
^ Chron. Sa.xon., p. 154. Malmsbury, p. 76
He says the people o( London were become al
most barbarians through their intercourse with the
Danes ; jjroptcr frequentem convictum.
II Londinenses, qui sunt quasi optim<itP« pro
magnitudlne civitatis in Anglii— Mahnsb., p. 1^9.
Thus too Matthew Pans : cives Londinenses, quo*
propter civitatis dignitatem et civium aniiquam
libertatem Barones consuevimijb appellare, p. 744;
and in another place : totius civitatis cives, quos
barones vocant, p. 835. Spelman says tliat the
magistrates of several other towns were called bar
ons. — Glossary, Barones de London.
% Drake, the historian of York, maintains tliat
London was less populous about the time of the
conquest than that city ; and quotes Hardynge, a
writer of Henry V.'s age, to prove that the mieri
or part of the former was not closely built. — Kbo-
racum, p. 91. York however does not appear to
have contained more than 10,000 inhabitant! a:
the accession of the Conqueror ; nd the very ex-
aggerations as to the populoiiM -s of London
prove that it must have far excccik-d that number.
Fitz-Stephen, the contemporary biographer ct
Thomas Becket, tells us of 80,000 men capab.t
of bearing arms within its precincts ; where how-
ever his translator, Pegge, suspects a mistake cf
the MS. in the numerals. And this, with simi-
lar hyperboles, so imposed on the judicious mind
of Lord Lyttleton, that, finding in Peter ot Bloie
the inhabitants of London reckoned at quadragin
ta millia he has actually pr'»'.osed to read qnad i«
»6d
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
f(.HAP. VIU
ment of privileges, and the consciousness
of strength, infused a free and even mu-
tinous spirit into their conduct.* The
Londoners were always on the barons'
side in their contests with the crown.
The)' bore a part in deposing Winiam
Longchamp, the chancellor and justici-
aiy of Richard I.j They were distin-
guished in the great struggle for Magna
Chai-ta ; the privileges of their city are
expressly 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 subse-
quent reign, the citizens of London were
regarded with much dislike and jealousy
by the court, and sometimes suff"ered
pretty severely by its hands, especially
after the battle of Evesham. t
Notwithstanding the influence of Lon-
don in these seasons of disturbance, we
do not perceive that it was distinguish-
ed from the most insignificant town by
greater participation in national councils.
Rich, powerful, honourable, and high-
spirited as its citizens had become, it was
verj' long before they found a regular
place in parliament. The prerogative of
imposing tallages at pleasure, unsparing-
ly exercised by Henry IIL even over
London,^ left the crown no inducement
gunta.— Hist. Henry II., vol. iv., ad finem. It is
nardly necessary to observe, that the condition of
agriculture and internal communication would not
have allowed half that number to subsist.
The subsidy-roll of 1377, published in the
ArchKologia, vol. vii., would lead to a conclusion
that all the inhabitants of London did not even
then exceed 35,000. If this be true, they could
not have amounted probably to so great a num-
ber two or three centuries earlier.
* This seditious, or at least refractory character
of the Londoners, was displayed in the tumult
headed by V^'illiam Longbeard in the time of Rich-
ard I., and that under Constantine in 1222, the pa-
triarchs of a long line of city demagogues.— Hove-
den, p. 765. M. Paris, p. 154.
t Hoveden's expressions are very precise, and
show that the share taken by the citizens of Lon-
don (probably the mayor and aldermen) in this
measure was no tumultuary acclamation, but a de-
liberate concurrence with the nobility. Comes
Johannes, et fere omnes episcopi, et comites An-
glis eademdie intraverunt Londonias ; et in cras-
tino prredictus Johannes frater regis, et archiepis-
copus Rothomagensis, et omnes episcopi, et comi-
tes, et barones, et cives Londonienses cum iliis
ronvenerunt in atrio ecclesiae S. Pauli. . . . Pla-
cuil ergo Johanni fratri regis, et omnibus episco-
pis, et comitibus, et baronibus regni, et civibus
Loiidonianim, quod cancellarius itle deponeretur,
e. dsposuerunt eum, &c., p. 701.
t The reader may consult, for a more full ac-
count of the English towns before the middle of
the thirteenth century Lyttleton's History of Hen-
ry 11., vol. ii., p. 174; a.id Macpherson's Annals
of Commerce.
ij Frp<juent proofs of this may be fori;d in Ma-
■-OX. Hist, of Exchequet c. 17, as weL' as in Matt.
to summon the inhabitants of cities and
boroughs. As these indeed were daily
growing more considerable, they were
certain, in a monarchy so limited as that
of England became in tne. thirteenth cen-
tury, of attaining sooner or later this
eminent privilege. Although, therefore,
the object of Simon de Montfort in call-
ing them to his parliament after the bat-
tle of Lewes was merely to strengthen
his /Own faction, which prevailed among
the commonalty, yet their permanent
admission into the legislature may be as-
cribed to a more general cause. For
otherwise it is not easy to see why the
innovation of a usurper should have
been drawn into precedt^nt, though it
might perhaps accelerate \^ hat the course
of affairs was gradually preparing.
It is well known that the earliest writs
of summons to cities and l»or- First sum
oughs of which we can prove the ™^"^"^, °'
existence, are those of Simon parliament,
de Montfort, earl of Leicester, in 49 n. ni
bearing date the 12th of December, 1264.,
in the forty-ninth year of Henry III.*
After a long controversy, almost all
judicious inquirers seem to have acqui-
esced in admitting this origin of popular
representation.! The argument may be
very concisely stated. We find from in-
numerable records that the king imposed
tallages upon his demesne towns at dis
cretion.| No public instrument previous
Paris, who laments it with indignation. Cives
Londinenses, contra consuetudinem et libertatem
civitatis, quasi servi ultimas conditionis, non sub
nomine aut titulo liberi adjiitorii, sed tallagii, quod
multum eos angebat, regi, licet inviti et renitentes,
numerare sunt coacti, ]i. 492. Heu ubi est Londi-
nensis, toties empta, toties concessa, toties scripta,
toties jurata libertas ! &c. p. 657. The king some-
times suspended their market, that is, I suppose,
their right of toll, till his demands were paid.
* These writs are not extant, havmg perhaps
never been returned ; and consequently we cannot
tell to what particular places they were addressed.
It appears, however, that the assembly was intend-
ed to be numerous, for the entry runs : scribitur
civibus Ebor, civibus Lincoln, et cateris burgis
Angliae. It is singular that no mention is made of
London, which must have had some special sum-
mons.—Rymer, t. i., p. 803. Dugdale, Summoni
tiones ad Parliamentum, p. 1.
t It would ill repay any reader's diligence to
wade through the vapid and diluted pages of Tyr
rell ; but whoever would know what can be best
pleaded for a higher antiquity of our present par-
liamentary constitution, may have recourse to Hody
on Convocations, and Lord Lyttleton's History of
Henry II., vol. li., p. 276, and vol. iv., p. 79—106.
I do not conceive it possible to argue the question
more ingeniously than has been done by the nobl«
writer last quoted. Whitelocke, in his commentart
on the parliamentary writ, has treated it ver
much at length, but with no critical discrirvina
tion.
t Madox, Hist, of Excheqaer, c. P
I
Part hi*
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
36^
to the forty-nintli of Henry III. names
the citizens and burgesses as constitu-
ent parts of parUament; though prelates,
barons, knights, and sometimes freehold-
ers, are enumerated ;* while, since the
undoubted admission of the commons,
they are almost invariably mentioned.
No historian speaks of representatives
appearing for the people, or uses the
word citizen or burgess in describing
tiiose present in parliament. Such con-
vincing, though negative evidence is not
to be invalidated by some general and
ambiguous phrases, whether in writs and
records or in historians.! Those monk-
ish annalists are poor authorities upon
any point where their language is to be
delicately measured. But it is hardly
possible, that writing circumstantially, as
Roger de Hoveden and Matthew Paris
sometimes did, concerning proceedings in
parliament, they could have failed to men-
tion the commons in unequivocal expres-
sions, if any representatives from that
order had actually formed a part of the
assembly.
Two authorities, however, which had
,ho iiies ^^^^^ supposed to prove a
.n"iavou'/of greater antiquity than we have
an earlier assigned to the representation
''*'*■ of the commons, are deserving
of particular consideration ; the cases of
St Albans and Barnstaple. The burgess-
•=t Albans ^^ ^^ ^''" -^lt)ans complained to
the council, in the eighth year
of Edward II., that, although they held
tf the king in capite, and ought to at-
tend his parliaments whenever they are
summoned, by two of their number, in-
stead of all other services, as had been
their custom in all past times, which ser-
vices the said burgesses and their prede-
cessors had performed as well in the
time of the late King Edward and his an-
cestors, as in that of the present king
until the parliament now sitting, the
names of their deputies having been con-
stantly enrolled in chancery, yet the
sherifl'of Hertfordshire, at the instigation
* The only apparent exception to this is in the
letter addressed to the pope by the parliament of
1246, the salutation of which runs thus : Barones,
proceres, el magnates, ac nobitea portuum maris hab-
itatores, necnon et clerus et populus universus, sa-
lutem.— Matt. Paris, p. 696. It is plain, I think,
from these words, that some of the chief inhabi-
tants of the Cinque-ports, at that time very flourish-
ing towns, were present in this parliament. But
'Thcther they sat as representatives, or by a pecu-
l ar writ of summons is not so evident ; and the
latter may be the more probable hypothesis of the
two.
t Thus Matthew Paris tells us, that in 1247, the
vhole kingdom, regni totius universitas, repaired
a oarl'ament of Henry HI., p. 367.
of the abbot of St. Albans, had neglected
to cause an election and return? to be
made ; and prayed remedy. To this pe-
tition it was answered, " Let the rolls c4
chancery be examined, that it may ap
pear whether the said burgesses were ac-
customed to come to parhament or not,
in the time of the king's ancestors; and
let right be done to them, vocatis evocan-
dis, si necesse fuerit." I do not trans-
late these words, concerning the sense
of which there has been some dispute,
though not apparently very material to
the principal subject.*
This is, in my opinion, by far ttie most
plausible testimony for the early repre-
sentation of boroughs. The burgesses
of St. Albans claim a prescriptive right
froin the usage of all past times, and
more especially those of the late Edward
and his ancestors. Could this be alle-
ged, it has been said, of a privilege at the
utmost of fifty years' standing, once
granted by a usurper, in the days of the
late king's father, and afterward discon-
tinued till about twenty years before the
date of their petition, according to those
who refer the regular appearance of the
commons in parliament to the twenty-
third of Edward 1. 1 Brady, who obvi-
ously felt the strength of this authority,
has shown little of his usual ardour and
acuteness in repelling it. It was observ-
ed, however, by Madox, that the petition
of St. Albans contains two very singular
allegations : it asserts that the town was
part of the king's demesne, whereas it
had invariably belonged to the adjoining
abbey ; and that its burgesses held by
the tenure of attending parliament, in-
stead of all other services, contrary to
all analogy, and without parallel in the
condition of any tenant in capite through-
out the kingdom. " It is no wonder,
therefore," says Hume, " that a petition
which advances two falsehoods shotild
contain one historical mistake, which in-
deed amounts only to an inaccurate ex-
pression," But it must be confessed,
that we cannot so easily set aside the
whole authority of this record. For
whatever assurance the people of St.
Albans might show in asserting what was
untrue, the king's council must have
been aware how recently the deputies
of any towns had been admitted into
parliament. If the lawful birth of the
House of Commons were in 1295, as is
maintained by Brady and his disciples, is
it conceivable that, in 1315, the council
would have received a petition, claimine
the elective franchise by prescription
♦ Brady's Ir.trnd. to Hist of England n. .W
S68
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
(Chap Vjti
aiid hav« '*'"erred to the rolls o( chance-
ry to inq'iire whether this had been used
in tlie days of the king's .',rogenitors '.- I
confess that I see no answer which can
easily be given to this objection by such
PS adopt tl'.i.- latest epoch of borough rep-
: jsentation, namely, the parliament of
i3 PI I. But they are by no means
equally conclusive against the supposi-
tion, that the communities of cities and
towns, having been first introduced into
the legislature during Leicester's usurpa-
tion, in the forty-ninth year of Henry
III., were summoned, not perhaps uni-
formly, but without any long intermis-
sion, to succeeding parliaments. There
is a strong presumption, from the lan-
guage of a contemporary historian, that
f;iey sat in the parliament of 1-269, four
years after that convened by Leicester.*
It IS more unequivocally stated by anoth-
er annalist, that they were present in the
first parliament of Edward L, held in
1271. f Nor does a similar inference
want some degree of support from the
preambles of the statute of Marlebridge
in 51 H. III., of Westminster I., in the
third, and of Glocester, in the sixth
year of Edward I.| And the writs are
lixtant which summon every city, bor-
ough, and market town to send two dep-
uties to a council in the eleventh year of
his reign. I call this a council, for it
undoubtedly was not a parliament. The
sheriff's were directed to summon per-
flonally all who held more than twenty
pounds a year of the crown, as well as
four knights for each county invested
wi'.h full powers to act for the commons
thereof. The knights and burgesses
thus chosen, as well as the clergy within
the province of Canterbury, met at
Northampton ; those within the province
of York, at that city. And neither as-
* Convocatis universis Anglias prelatis et mag-
Malibus, necnoii cunctarum regni sui civitatum et
burgoruTfi potentioribus. — Wjkes, in Gale, xv.
ycriptores, t. ii , p. 83. I am indebted to Hody on
Convocations for this reference, which seems to
have escaped most of our constitutional writers.
t Hoc anno .... convenerunt archiepiscopi,
episcopi, comites et barones, abbates et priores,
et de quolibet comilatu quatuor milites, et de
qu&libet civitate quatuor. — Annales Waverleien-
yes in Gale, t. ii., p. 237. I was led to this pas-
•age by Atterbury.- Rights of Convocations, p.
310, where some other authorities, less unques-
tionable, are adduced for the same purpose. Bo:h
this assembly, and that mentioned by Wikes in
1269, were certainly parliaments, and acted as
such, particularly the former, though summoned
for purposes not strictly parliamentary.
t The statute of Marlebridge is said to be madt
ccnvocatis discretioribus, tarn majoribusquam mi
rjoribus ; that of Westminster primer, par sor.
conseil et oar I'essentements des archievesqut s.
sembly was opened by the king.* This
anomalous convention was nevertheleis
one means of establishing the represent
ative system, and, to an inquirer free
from technical prejudice, is little less
important than a regular parliament.
Nor have we long to look even for this.
In the same year, about eiglit monihs
after the councils at Northampton and
York, writs were issued summoning to a
parliament at Shrewsbury two citizens
from London, and as many from each of
twenty other considerable towns. f It ia
a slight cavil to object that these were
not directed as usual to the sheriff of
each county, but to the magistrates of
each place. Though a very imperfect,
this was a regular and unequivocal rep-
resentation of the commons in parlia-
ment. But their attendance seems to
have intermitted from this time to the
twenty-third year of Edward's reign.
Those to v.hom the petition of St. Al-
bans is not satisfactory, will Barnstaple
hardly yield their conviction to
that of Barnstaple. This town set forth
in the eighteenth of Edward III., that,
among other franchises granted to them
by a ch-arter of Athelstan, they had ever
since exercised the right of sending two
burgesses to parliament. The said char-
ter indeed v/as unfortunately mislaid,
and the prayer of their petition was to
obtain one of the like import in its stead.
Barnstaple, it must be observed, was a
town belonging to Lord Audley, and had
actually returned members ever since
the twenty-third of Edward I. Upon an
inquisition directed by the king to be
made into the truth of these allegations,
it was found that " the burgesses of the
said town were wont to send two bur-
gesses to parliament for the commonal-
evesques, abbes, prior.s, countes, barons, et tout le
comminalty de la terre illonques summones. The
statute of Glocester runs, appelles les plus dis
cretes de son royaume, auxibien des grandes come
des meinders. These preambles seem to have
satisried Mr. Prynne that the commons were then
represented, though the writs are wanting; and
certainly no one could be less disposed to exag-
gerate their antiquity. — 2d Register, p. 30.
* Brady's Hist, of England, vol. ii., iippendix
Carte, vol. ii., p. 257.
t This is commonly denominated the parlia-
ment of Acton Burnell; the clergy and commons
having sat in that town, while the barons passed
judgment upon David, prince of Wales, at
Shrewsbury. The towns which were honoutod
with the privilege of representation, rnd may con
sequently be supposed to have been at that tima
•the most considerable in England, were Yom,
Carlisle, Scarborough, Nottingham, Grimsby, Liti
coin, Northampton, Lynn, Yarmouth, Colchester,
Norwich, Chester, Shrewsbury, Worcester, 'fere-
ford, Bristol, Canterbury, Winchestc", and F.xe
tcr. — Rymer, t. li., p. 247.
i.«T 111]
E.NGL.SH CON>nTUTION.
369
iy of the borough ;" but nothing appeared
as to the pretended charter of Athelstan,
or the liberties which it was alleged to
contain. The burgesses, dissatisfied with
thisinqu.ist., prevailed that another should
DC taken, which certainly answered bet-
ter their wishes. The second jury found
Miat Barnstaple was a free borough from
lime immemorial ; that the burgesses had
enjoyed under a charter of Athelstan,
which had been casually lost, certain
franchises by them enumerated, and par-
ticularly that they should send two bur-
gesses to parhament ; and that it would
not be to the king's prejudice, if he
should grant them a fresh charter in
terms equally ample with 'that of his
predecessor Athelstan. But the follow-
ing year we have another writ and an-
other inquest, the former reciting that
the second return had been unduly and
fraudulently made ; and the latter ex-
pressly contradicting the previous in-
quest in many points, and especially find-
ing no proof of Athelstan's supposed
''barter. Comparing the various parts
of tnis business, we shall probably be in-
duced to agree with Willis, that it was
but an attempt of the inhabitants of
Barnstaple to withdraw themselves from
the jurisdiction of their lord. For the
right of returning burgesses, though it is
the main point of our inquiries, w'as by
no means the most prominent part of
.heir petition, which rather went to es-
lablish some civil privileges of devising
their tenements and electing their own
mayor. Tlie first and fairest return finds
only that they were accustomed to send
members to parliament, which a usage
of fifty years (from 23 E. I. to 18 E. III.)
was fully suflicient to establish, without
searching into more remote antiquity.*
It has, however, probably occurred to
the reader of these two cases, St. /Vlbans
and Barnstaple, that the representation
of the commons in parliament was not
treated as a nove.Hy, even in times little
posterior to those in which we have been
supposing it to have originated. In this
■.'onsists, I think, the sole strength of the
opposite argument. An act in the fifth
year of Richard II. declares, that if any
sheriff shall leave out of his returns any
•itics or boroughs which be bound, and
:>f old time were wont to come to the
parliament, he shall be punished as was
accustomed to be done in the like case
in time past.f In the memorable asser-
tion of legislative right by the commons
• Willis, Notitia PTrliamentaria, vol. ii., p. 312.
Lyttleton's Hist, of Hen. II., vol. iv. p. 80.
f 5 Ric. II., Stat. 2. c. iv.
A a
in the second of Henry V., which will be
quoted hereafter, they affirm that " the
commune of the land is, and ever has
been, a member of parliament."* And
the consenting suflfrage of our older law-
books must be placed in the same scale
The first gainsayers, I think, w^ere Cam-
den and Sir Henry Spelman, who, upou
probing the antiquities of our constitu-
tion somewhat more exactly than their
predecessors, declared that they could
find no signs of the commons in parha-
ment till the forty-ninth of Henry HI.
Prynne, some years afterward, with
much vigour and learning, maintained
the same argument, and Brady completed
the victory. But the current doctrine of
Westminster Hall, and still more of the
tw^o chambers of parliament, uas cer-
tainly much against these antiquaries ;
and it passed at one time for a surrender
of popular principles, and almost a breach
of privilege, to dispute the lineal descent
of the house of commons from tlie wit-
tenagemot.f
The true ground of these pretensions
to antiquity was a very well fouiulcc] per-
suasion, that no other argument would
be so conclusive to ordinary minds, or cut
short so effectually all encroaclini-nts of
the prerogative. The populace of every
country, but none so much as the Eng-
lish, easily grasp the notion of right,
meaning thereby something positive ani
definite ; w^hile the maxims of expediency
or theoretical reasoning pass slightly
* Rot. Pari., vol. iv., p. 22.
t Though such an argument would not be con
elusive, it might afford some ground for henitatioi
if the royal burghs of Scotland were actually rep
resented in their parliament more than half a cen
tury before the date assigned to the first reprosen
tation of English towns. Lord H.ailes concludes
from a passage in Fordun, "that, as early a? 1211,
burgesses gave suit and presence in the greol
council of the king's vassals ; though the contrary
has been asserted wilh much confidence by various
authors." — Annals of Scotland, vol. i., p. 139. For-
dun's words, however, so far from importing that
they formed a member of the legislature, which
perhaps Lord Hailes did not mean by the quaint
expression " gave suit and presence," do not ap-
pear to me conclusive to prove that they were ac-
tually present. Hoc anno Rex Scotia; Willelmus
magnum tenuit consilium. Ubi, petito ab opti-
matibus auxilio, promiserunt se daturos decern
mille marcas; prxter burgenses regni.qui sex mil-
lia promiserunt. Those who know llie brief and
incorrect style of chronicles will not think it un
likely that the offer of GOOO marks by the burgesse»
was not made in parliament, but in consequence
of separate requisitions from the crown. Pink-
erton is of opinion, that the magistrates of royal
burghs might upon this, and perhaps other occa
sions, have attended at the bar of parliament with
their ofiers of monej But the de;n:l:os o! towiw
do not appear as a part of parliament '11 132fi —
Hist, of Scotland, vol i., p. 2h2, XfX
37C
EUROPE DJRING THE MIDDLE AGES
[Chap Vin
over their minds. Happy indeed for
England that it is so ! But we have here
to do with the fact alone. And it may
06 observed, that several pious frauds
were practised, to exalt the antiquity of
our constitutional liberties. These be-
gan, perhaps, very early, when the ima-
ginary laws of Edward the Confessor
were' so earnestly demanded. They
A'ere carried farther under Edward I. and
his successors, when the fable of privi-
leges granted by the Conqueror to the
men of Kent was devised ; when Andrew
Horn filled his Mirror of Justices with
fictitious tales of Alfred ; and, above all,
when the " method of holding parlia-
ments in the time of Ethelred" was fab-
ricated, about the end of Richard U.'s
eign ; an imposture which was not too
gross to deceive Sir Edward Coke.
There is no great difficulty in answer-
, iuff the question, why the dep-
Causes of P .\ , ' -' ^ li
siitiimoiiing nties of boroughs were finally
epuiies jmd permanently ingrafted upon
oZ^s°' -oarliament by Edward I.* The
government was becoming con-
stantly more attentive to the wealth that
commerce brought into the kingdom, and
the towns were becoming more flourish-
ing and more independent. But, chiefly,
there was a much stronger spirit of gen-
eral 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 infringements of the subject's right.
.Among these tne custom of setting tal-
lages at discretion would naturally ap-
pear the most intolerable ; and men were
unwillinf- 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
>he charters had rendered arbitrary impo-
Mtions absolutely unconstitutional, they
might perhaps excite louder murmurs
* Thfisp ctprfissions cannot appear too strong.
But It is very remarkable, that to the parliament
of 18 Edward lU., tJie writs appear to have sum-
moned none of the towns, but oi;ly the counties.—
Willis. Nofit. Parliament., vol. i., Preface, p. 13.
Prywne's Register, 3d part, p. 144. Yet the citi-
lens and hurgesses are once, but only once, named
as present in the parliameptary roll; and there is,
in general, a chasm in place of their names, where
the diflerent ranks piesent are etmmerated. — Rot.
Pari., vol. ii., p. 146. A subsidy was granted at
this parliament ; so that, if the citizens and bur-
gessfis were really not summoned, it is by far the
most SMjolent stretch of power during the reign of
Bdward II L But I know of no collateral evidence
■^ iilii£trale or dii;prove it.
than a discreet administration would
risk. Though the necessities of the king
therefore, and his imperious temper, often
led him to this course,* it was a more
prudent counsel to try the willingnes.i
of his people before he forced their re
luctance. And the success of his in-
novation rendered it worth repetition.
Whether it were from the complacency
of the commons 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 inabil-
ity to withstand the plausible reasons of
his ministers, or from the private influ-
ence to which the leaders of every pop-
ular 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 burgesses might still have
sat at home, and obeyed the laws which
a council of prelates and barons enacted
for their government. But it is a difficult
question, whether the king and the peerr^
designed to make room for them, as it
were, in legislation ; and whether the
power of the purse drew after it immedi
ately, or only by degrees, those indispen-
sable rights of consenting to laws which
they now possess. There are no suffi-
cient means of solving this doubt during
the reign of Edward I. The writ in 22 E.
I. directs two knights to be chosen cunj
plena potestate pro se et tota communi-
tate comitatus prscdicti, ad consulendum
et consentiendum pro se et communitatft
ilia, his qua3 comites.barones, et procerc.*?
prajdicti concorditer ordinaverint in prae
missis. That of the next year runs, ad
faciendum tunc quod de communi con
silio ordinabitur in pra?missis. The same
words are inserted in the writ of 26 E, 1.
In that of 28 E. I. the knights are directed
to be sent cum plenS potestate audiendi
et faciendi qua) ibidem ordinari conti-
gerint pro communi conimodo. Several
others of the same reign have the words
ad faciendum. The difficulty is to pro-
nounce whether this term is to be inter-
preted in the sense of performing or of
enacting; whether the representatives of
* Tallages were imposed without consent fil
parliament in 17 E. I., Wykes, p. 117; and in 3S
E. I., Brady's Hist, of Eng , vol. ii. In the lattei
instance the king also gave leave to Ine lay and
spiritual nobility lo set a tallage on their own ten
ants. This was subsequent to the Cuni'irniiiti
Chartarum, and unques lonably illegal.
PABf ill.]
i^NGLISH CONSTirijTlON.
37 i
the commons were merely to learn from
the lords; what was to be done, or to bear
their part in advising upon it. The ear-
liest writ, that of 22 E. I., certainly im-
plies the latter ; and I do not know that
anv of the rest are conclusive to the con-
trary. In the reign of Edward II., the
words ad consentiendum alone, or ad
facienduir et consentiendum, begin ; and
from that of f]dvvard III. this form has
been constantly used.* It must still
however be highly questionable, whether
the commons, who had so recently taken
their place in parliament, gave any thing
more than a constructive assent to the
laws enacted during this reign. They
are not even named in the preamble of
tuy 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 parlia-
ment, unless prevented by death or in-
firm ity.f
It has been a very prevailing opinion,
At what that parliament was not divided
n?nt was'*' "^^^ ^^^" houses at the first ad-
iivided into missiou of the commons. If
two houses, by this is only meant that the
commons did not occupy a separate cham-
'jet till some time in the reign of Edward
III., the proposition, true or false, will
be of little importance. They may have
•al at the bottom of Westminster Hall,
while the lords occupied the upper end.
But that they were ever intermingled in
voting apjears mconsistent with hkeli-
hood 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 the
23 E 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 the grant of the barons and
knights, and of the clergy, a twentieth of
the cities and towns : in the first of Ed-
ward II., the counties paid a twentieth,
the towns a fifteenth ; m the sixth of
Edward III., the rates were a fifteenth
• Prynne's 2d Register. It may be remarked,
•.hat writs of summons to great councils never ran
ad f.iciendiim, but ad tractandum, consulendum et
consentiendum ; from which some would infer that
faciendum had the sense of enacting; since stat-
utes could not be passed in such assembhes. — Id.,
p.iTi.
t 28 E. I., in Prynne's 4th Register, p. 12; 9 E.
U. (a great council), p. 48.
A a 2
and a tenth.* These distinct grants mi-
ply 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, how-
ever, there is abundant proof of their
separate existence long before the seven-
teenth of P^dward III., which is the epocn
assigned by Carte,t or even the sixth of
that king, which has been chosen by
some other writers. Thus the commons
sat at Acion Burnell in the eleventh ol
Edward I., while the upper house was at
Shrewsbury. In the eighth of P^dward
II., " the commons of England complain
to the king and his council," «fcc. J These
must surely have been the commons as-
sembled in parliament, for who else could
thus have entitled themselves 1 In the
nineteenth of the same king, we find
several petitions, evidently proceeding
from the body of the commons in parlia-
ment, and complaining of public griev-
ances.^ The roll of 1 E. III., though
mutilated, is conclusive to show that
separate petitions were then presented
by the commons, according to the regu-
lar usage of subsequent times. || And,
indeed, the preamble of 1 E. III., stat. 2,
is apparently capable of no other infer-
ence.
As the knights of shires coiTespond to
the lower nobility of other feudal coun-
tries, we have less cause to be surprised
that they belonged originally to the same
branch of parliament as the barons, thr.ii
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 ot time when this dis-
tribution was settled ; but I thmk it may
be inferred from the rolls of parliament,
that the houses were divided, as they are
at present, in the eighth, ninth, and nine-
teenth years of Edward II. T[ This ap-
pears, 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. ft
The proper business of the house ol
commons was to petition for redress of
grievances, as much as to provide foi
the necessities of the crown. In ihfe
p. 40. J'ar
Rot. Pallia
lia
men
* Brady's Hist, of England, vol. ii.,
imentary History, vol. i., p. 'JOG.
ent, t. ii., p. 60.
ment, t. ii., p. 60.
t Carte, vol. ii., p. 451. Parliamentar) His
vol. i., p. 23i.
01. 1., p. •.^.J'l.
t Rot. Pari., V. i., p.
II Id., vol. ii,, p. 7-
•* Id. p. 5.
itorj
2S9. () Id, p. 430.
IT Id., p. 289, 351, t30
+t '-^ . p. 9fi.
372
EUROPE DCRLNG THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap \ Hi
prudent fict'on of English law, no wrong
»s supposed to proceed from the source
of right. The throne is fixed upon a
pinnacle, which perpetual beams of truth
and justice irradiate, though corruption
and partiality may occupy the middle
region, and cast their chill shade upon
all below. In his high court of parlia-
ment, a king of England was to learn
where injustice had been unpunished,
and where right had been delayed. The
common courts of law, if they were suf-
ficiently honest, were "not sufficiently
strong to redress the subject's injuries,
where the oflficers of the crown or the
nobles interfered. To parliament he
looked as the great remedial court for
relief of private as well as public griev-
ances. 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,
rtiay be brought to a close."* And a
short act of 4 Edward III., which was
not very strictly regarded, provides that
;a parliament shall be held " every year,
of oftener, if need be."t By what per-
sons, and under what limitations, this
jurisdiction in parliament was exercised,
will come under our future consideration.
The efficacy of a king's personal char-
acter, in so imperfect a state of govern-
ment, \vas never more strongly exempli-
fied than in the two first Edwards. The
father, a little before his death, had hum-
bled his boldest opponents among the no-
bility ; and as for the commons, so far
from claiming a right of remonstrating,
we have seen cause to doubt whether they
Edward II. Were accouuted effectual mem-
Petitionsof jjg^g Qf ^Y]e legislature for any
parliament u ^ r x- -n ^ •
during his purposes but taxation. Eut in
f»ign- the very second year of the
son's reign, they granted the twenty-fifth
penny of their goods, " upon this condi-
tion, that the king should take advice
a.nd 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 worth while to extract
part of this record, that we may see
♦ Rot. Pari., vol. i , p. 285.
t 4 E. III., c. 14. Annual sessions of parlia-
ment seem fully to satisfy the words, and still
more the spirit of this act, and of 36 E. III., c. 10 ;
which, however, are repealed by implication from
the provisions of 6 W. HI., c. 2. But it was very
rare under the Plantagenet dynasty for a parlia-
DttCD* to continue more than a vear
what were the complaints of the conv
mons of England, and their notions of
right, in 1309. I have chosen, on this- aa
on other occasions, to translate very .'it-
erally, at the expense of some stiflhcss,
and perhaps obscurity in language.
" The good people of the kingdom who
are come hither to parliament, pray oui:
lord the king that he will, if it please
him, have regard to his poor subjects,
who are much aggrieved by reason thai
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 aggrieved his people, and still does
so from day to day, on the part of those
who call themselves his office.rs, 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 customs aie set
on wine, cloth, and other imports; 3. That
the current coin is not so good a .3 for
merly ;* 4, 5. That the steward and mar
shal enlarge their jurisdiction beyond
measure to the oppression of the people ;
6. That the commons find none to re-
ceive petitions addressed to the council;
7. 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 wiitsof
protection ; 9. That felons escape pun-
ishment by procuring charters- of par-
don ; 10. That the constables of the
king's castles take cognizance of com-
mon pleas; 11. That the king's escheat-
ors oust men of lands held by good title,
under pretence of an inquest of office. f
These articles display in a short com
pass 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 ejid to them all ; except in
one instance, the augmented customs on
imports, to which he answered rather
evasively, that he would take them off
till lie should perceive whether himself
and his people derived advantage from
so doing, and act thereupon as he siiould
* This article is so expressed as lo make it ap
pear that the grievance was the high price of com
inodities. But as this was the natural effect of 8
degraded currency, and the whole tenour of theee
articles relates to abuses of government, I think if
must have meant what I have said in the tf if
•f Prvnne's 2d Register, o 68.
f'ART ni]
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
373
be advised. Accordingly, the next year,
be issued writs to collect these new
customs again. But the Lords Ord|iiners
superseded the writs, having entirely ab-
rogated all illegal impositions.* It does
not appear, however, that, regard had to
-he times, there was any thing very ty-
rannical in Edward's government. He
set tallages sometimes, like his father,
on his demesne towns without assent of
parliament. t In the nineteenth year
9f his reign, the commons show, that
' whereas we and our ancestors have
given many tallages to the king's ances-
tors to obtain the charter of the forest,
which charter we have had confirmed
by the present king, paying him large-
ly 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 prom-
ise of redress ; and they complete the
■catalogue of customary grievances in this
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 tw^o re-
markable and revolutionary proceedings,
the appointment of the Lords Ordaincrs
in 13 12,^ and that of Prince Edward as
guardian of the realm in the rebellion
which ended in the king's dethronement.
In the former case, it indicates that the
aristocratic 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. || In the lat-
ter case, the deposition of Edward II., I
am satisfied, that the commons assent
was pretended in order to give more
speciousuess to the transaction. T[ But as
* Prynne's 2d Register, p. 75.
+ Mailox, Firrna Burgi, p. 6. Rot. Pari, vol. i.,
y 449.
i Uot Pari., vol. i., p. 430. ^ Id., p. 281.
II Walsingham, p. 97.
1 A record, which may be read in Br.idy's Ilis-
ory of England, vol. ii., Append., p. CO, and in
iiyiner, t. iv., p. 1237, relative to the proceedmgs
on Edward II. 's flight into Wales and subsequent
detention, recites " that the king, having left his
kingdom without government, and gone away with
notorious enemies of the queen, prince, qnd realm ;
divers prelates, earls, barons, and knights then be-
ing at Bristol, in the presence of the said queen
•nd duke f Prince Edward, d'ike of Cornwall), bv
this proceeding, however violent, bears
evident marks of having been conducted
by persons conversant in law, the men-
tion of the commons may be deemed a
testimony to their constitutional righi
of participation with the peers in making
provision for a temporary defect of what-
ever nature in the executive government.
During the long and prosperous reign
of Edward III., the efforts of Edward in
parliament in behalf of their Thecom-
'^ . 3 J • 1 moiis esiab-
country were rewarded with usii several
success, in establishing upon a rights.
firm footing three essential principles of
our government ; the illegality of raising
money without consent ; the necessity
that the 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 rec
ords, I shall be able to substantiate the
progressive improvement of our free
constitution, which was principally con-
solidated during the reigns of Edward III.
and- his two next successors. Brady in-
deed. Carte, and the authors of the Par-
liamentary History, have trod already
over this ground ; but none of the three
can be considered as familiar to the gen-
erality of readers, and I may at least
take credit for a sincerer love of liberty
than any of their writings display.
In the sixth year of Edward HI. a par-
liament was called to provide for the
emergency of an Irish rebell- Rcmonsiran-
ion ; wiierein, " because the =es sgamst
king could not send troops and money^vuh
money to Ireland without the outconser.-.
aid of his people, the prelates, earls,
barons, and other great men, and the
knights of shires, and all the commons.
the assent of the whole coTmnonalty of the realm there
being, unanimously elected the said duke to be
guardian of the said kingdom ; so that the said
duke and guardian should rule and govern the
said realm, in the name and by the authority of the
king his father, he being thus absent." But the
king being taken and brought back into England,
the power thus delegated to the guardian ceased
of course ; whereupon the Bishop of Hereford was
sent to press the king to permit that the great seal,
which he had with him, the prince having only
used his private seal, should be used in all tliing«
that required it. Accordingly th^ king simU the
great seal to the queen and prince. The lii^hcp is
said to have been thus commissioned to fetch the
seal by the prince and queen, and by the said pre
lates and peers, with the assent of the said common-
alty then. being at Hereford. It is plain that lhes«
were mere words of course ; for no parliament
had been convoked, and no proper representative*
could have been either at Bristol or Hereford.
However, this is a very curious record, ina»mucb
as it proves the importance attached to tie fcrm»
of the constitution at this crriod
374
£CROPE DURING THE M DDLE AGES.
iCHAP. VHi
»f their free-will, for the said purpose,
and also in order that the king might
live of his own, and not vex his people
by excessive prises, nor in other man-
ner, grant to him the fifteenth penny, to
levy of <he commons,* and the tenth
from the cities, towns, and royal de-
mesnes. Ai\d 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 through-
cut England, shall be immediately repeal-
ed ; 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 as he may reasonably do."t
These concluding words are of danger-
ous 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 prerog-
ative, which, however illegally since the
Confirmatio Chartarum, had been exer-
cised by them all. But the parhament
took no notice of this reservation, and
continued with unshaken perseverance to
insist on this incontestable and funda-
mental right, which he was prone enough
to violate.
In the thirteenth year of this reign, the
lords gave their answer to commission-
ers sent to open the parliament, and to
treat with them on the king's part, in a
sealed roll. This contained a grant of
the tenth sheaf, fleece, and lamb. But,
bef.^re they gave it, they took care to
have letters patent showed them, by
which the commissioners had power " to
grant some graces to the great and
small of the kingdom." — " And the said
lords," the roll proceeds to say, " will,
that the imposition (maletoste) which
now again has been levied upon wool be
entirely abolished, that the old customa-
ry duty be kept, and that they may have
it by charter, and by enrolment in par-
liament, that such custom be never
more levied, and that this grant now
made to the-^king, or any other made in
lime past, shall not turn hereafter to their
charge nor be drawn into precedent."
The commons, who gave their answers
In a separate roll, declared that they
could granti.no subsidy without consult-
iiif their constituents ; and therefore
begged that another parliament might be
summoned, and in the meantime they
would endeavour, by using persuasion
* " La commonaltee" seems in this place to
nieau the tenants of land, or commons of the
counties, in contradistinciion to citizens and bur-
gesses t Rot Pari, V. ii., p. 6fi.
with the people of their respective coun
ties, to procure the grant of a reasonable
aid in the next parliament.* They do
manded also that the imposition on wool
and lead should be taken as it used to be
in former times, "inasmuch as it is el-
hanced without assent of .he commons,,
or of the lords, as we understand ; and
if it be otherwise demanded, that any
one of the commons may refuse it (le
puisse arester), without being troubled on
that account (saunz estre chalange").t
Wool, however, the staple export of
that age, was too easy arid tempting a
prey to be relinquished by a prince en
gaged in an empoverishing war. Seven
years afterward, in 20 E. III., we find the
commons praying that the great subsidy
of forty shillings upon the sack of wool
be taken oft"; and the old custom paid as
heretofore was assented to and granted
The 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 king-
dom of England, consented, with the
concurrence of the merchants, that he
should have, in aid of his said war, and in
defence of his said kingdom, forty shil-
lings 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 ad-
vances 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 counsel-
lors wished to establish a distinction, long
afterward revived by those of James I.,
between customs levied en merchandise
at the ports and internal taxes. The
statute entitled Confirmatio Chartarum
had manifestly taken away the preroga-
tive of imposing the latter, which indeed
had never extended beyond the tenants
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 legis-
lature was to abrogate every species of
imposition unauthorized by parliament.
The thirtieth section of Magna Charta
had provided 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 enactment. Yel
♦ Rot. Parl.,vo . ii., p. 104.
+ la ihid. i Id., p. 161
jAX/ill]
EN'GLISH CONSTl'I JTiON.
375
owing to the ambigaous and elliptical
style so frequent iti 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 stran-
gers. This imposition was noticed as a
grievance in the third year of his succes-
Bor, and repealed by the lords ordainers.
It was revived however by Edward III.,
and continued to be levied ever after-
ward.*
Edward was led by the necessities of
his unjust and expensive war into anoth-
er arbitrary encroachment, of which we
find as many complaints as of his pecuni-
ary extortions. The commons pray, in
the same parliament of 20 E. III., that
commissions should not issue for tlie fu-
ture out of'chancery, to charge the peo-
ple with providing men-at-arms, hobelers
(or light cavalry), archers, victuals, or in
any other manner, without consent of
parliament. It is replied to this petition,
that " it is notorious how in many parlia-
ments the lords and coinmons had prom-
ised to aid the king in his quarrel Avith
their bodies and goods as far as was in
Iheir power ; wherefore the said lords,
seeing the necessity in which the king
stood of having aid of men-at-arms, hobe-
lers, and archers, before his passage to
recover his rights beyond sea, and to de-
fend his realm of England, ordained, that
such as had five pounds a year or more
in land on this side of Trent, should fur-
nish men-a(,-arms, hobelers, and archers,
according to the proportion of the land
they held, to attend the king at his cost;
and some who would neither go them-
selves nor find others in tlieir stead, were
willing to give the king wherewithal
ne miglit provide himself with some in
their place. And thus the thing has been
done, and no otherwise. And the king
wills, that henceforth what has been thus
done in this necessity be not drawn into
consequence or example. "f
The commons were not abashed by
these arbitrary pretensions ; they knew
that by incessant remonstrances they
should gain at least one essential point.
• Case of impositions in Howell's State Trials,
»ol. ii , p. 371 — 519 ; particularly the arg\iment of
Mr. HakevviU. Hale's Treatise on the Customs,
in Hargrave's Tracts, vol. i.
Edward HI. imposed another duty on cloth ex-
ported, on the pretence thjit as the wool must have
paid a tax, he had a right to place the wrought and
unwroug\;" article on an equality. The commons
remonstrated against this ; but it was not repealed.
This took place about 2i E. III.— Hale's T.eatise,
|« 175 t Rot. Pari., p. IGO.
that of preventmg the crown from claim-
ing these usurpations as umontested pre-
rogatives. The roll ot parltiment in the
next two years, the 21st and 22d of Ed-
ward 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 condi
tion that no illegal levying of money
should take place, v/ith several othci
remedial provisions ; " and that these
conditions should be entered on the roll
of parliainent, as a matter of record, by
which they may have remedy, if an}'
thing should be attempted to the con-
trary in time to come." FToni this year
the complaints of extortion become ra-
ther less frequent ; and soon afterward a
statute was passed, "That no man should
be constrained to find men-at-arms, hobe-
lers, nor archers, other than those which
hold by such services, if it be not by
common assent and grant made in parlia-
ment."t Yet even in the last year of
Edward's reign, when the boundaries of
prerogative and the rights of parliament
were better ascertained, the king lays a
sort of claim to impose charges upon his
subjects in cases of great necessity and
for the defence of his kingdom. J But this
more huinble language indicates a cliange
in the spirit of government, which, aftei
long fretting impatiently at the curb, be
gan at length to acknowledge the con-
trolling hand of law.
These are the chief instances of a
struggle between the crown and com-
mons as to arbitrary taxation ; but there
are two rsMnarkalile proceedings in the
45th and 4Gth of Edward, which, though
they would not have been endured in
later times, are rather anomalies arising
out of the unsettled state of the constitu-
tion and the recency of parliamentary
rights, than mere encroachments of tlie
prerogative. In the former year, parlia-
ment had granted a subsidy of fifty thou-
sand pounds, to be collected by an assess-
ment of twenty-two shillings and three-
pence upon every parish, on a presump-
tion that the parishes in England amount-
ed to forty-five thousand, whereas they
were hardly a fifth of that number. This
amazing mistake was not discovered till
the parliament had been dissolved. Upon
its detection, the king summoned a griM*
council,^ consisting of one kmglit, citizen
and burgess, named by himself out of
two that had been returned to the las!
» Rot. Pari, p. ICl, 166,201
t 25 K. ill., strt.. v., c. 8.
t Rot. Pari., voi. li., p. 366.
^ Prvpnp's 4th Register n. 280
370
EUix.ot'E DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[ClliH. Vlll
parliament To this assembly the chan-
ellor set forth tlie deficiency of the last
subsidy, and proved by the certificates of
ull the hisliops in England how strangely
the parliament had miscalculated the
mimber of parishes ; whereupon they
increased the parochial assessment by
their o'A'u authority to one hundred and
sixteen shillings.* It is obvious that the
main intention of parliament was carried
into eflect by this irregularity, which
seems to have been the subject of no
complaint. In the next parliament, a
still more objectionable measure was re-
sorted to ; after the petitions of the com-
mons had been answered, and the knights
dismissed, the citizens and burgesses
were convened before the Prince of
Wales and the lords in a room near the
white chamber, and solicited to renew
their subsidy of forty shillings upon the
tun of wine, and sixpence in the pound
upon other imports, for safe convoy of
shipping, during one year more ; to which
ihey assented ; " and so departed." f
Til-; second constitutional principle es-
The coi. tablished in the reign of Ed-
curreiice of ward III. was, that the king and
in"^>''isi!i*-''^ two houses of parliament in
tion neces- conjunction possessed exclu-
sary. sively 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 pre-
lates. 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
parliament, that statutes were almost
always founded upon their petition. J
* Rot. Pari., p. 304.
t Idem, p. 310. In the mode of levying sub-
sidies, a remarkable improvement took place ear-
ly in the reign of Edward III. Originally two
chief taxers were appointed by the king for each
county, who named twelve persons in every hun-
dred to assess the moveable estate of all inhabi-
tants accordmglo Us real value. But in 8 E. III.,
on complamt of parliament, that these ta.xers were
partial, commissioners were sent round to com-
pound with every town and parish for a gross sum,
which was from thenceforth the fixed quota of sub-
sidy, and raised by the inhabitants themselves. —
Brady on Boroughs, p. 81.
X Laws appear to have been drawn up and pro-
posed to the two houses by the king, down to the
time of Edward I. — Hale's Hist, of Common Law,
p. 16.
Sometimes the representatives of particular
places address separate petitions to the king and
council ; as the citizens of London, the commons
of Devonshire, &c. These are intermingled with
the eeceral petitions, and beth together are for the
These petitions, with the respective an
swers made to theni in the king's name
were drawn up after the end o.'" the ses
sion in the form of laws, and entered
upon the statute-roll. But here it must
be remarked, that the petitions were
often extremely qualified and altered by
the answer, insomuch that many statute?
of this and some later reigns by no
means express the true sense of the com-
mons. Sometimes they contented them-
se-lves with showing their grievance 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 counties adjudge per-
sons endicted before them to be traitors
for sundry matters not known by the
commons to be treason, it v^ould please
the king by his council, and by the great
and wise men of the land, to declare
what are treasons in this present parlia-
ment." The answer to this petition con-
tains the existing statute, as a declara-
tion on the king's part.* But there is no
appearance that it received the direct as-
sent of the lower house. In the next
reigns we shall find more remarkable in-
stances of assuming a consent which wa?
never positively given.
The statute of treasons, however, was
supposed to be declaratory of the ancient
law ; in permanent and material innova-
tions, a more direct concurrence of al?
the estates was probably required. J.
new statute, to be perpetually inoorpc-
rated with the law of England, was re-
garded as no light matter. It was a very
common answer to a petition of the com-
mons, in the early part of this reign, that
It could not be granted without making a
new law. After the parliament of 14 E.
III., a certain number of prelates, barons,
and counsellors, with twelve knights and
six burgesses, were appointed to sit from
day to day, in order to turn such petitions
and answers as were fit to be perpetual
into a statute ; but for such as were of a
temporary nature, the king issued his let-
ters patent. t This reluctance to inno-
vate without, necessity, and to swell the
number of laws which all were bound to
know and obey with an accumulation of
transitory enactments, led apparently tc
the distinction between statutes stat\3\c» di»
and ordinances. The latter are tmguisiied
indeed defined by some law- '""■"'"ord.
yers to be regulations proceed-
most part very numerous. In the roll of 50 Eow
III. they amount to HO.
* Rot. Path, p. 239 t Idem, r 113.
Pakt iir.]
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
S77
nig from tlic king and lords, without con-
currence of the commons. But if this
be applicable to some ordinances, it is
certain that the word, even when op-
posed to statute, with which it is often
synonymous, sometimes denotes an act
of the whole legislature. In the 37th of
Edward III., when divers sumptuary reg-
ulations against excess of apparel were
made in full parliament, " it was demand-
fid of tho lords and commons, inasmuch
as the matter of their petitions was novel
and unheard of before, 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 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 temporary operation,
could not well be distinguished from
laws,t were often established in great
councils. These assemblies, which fre-
quently occurred in Edward's reign, were
hardly distinguishable, except in name,
from parliaments, being constituted not
only of those who were regularly sum-
moned to the house of lords, but of dep-
uties from counties, cities, and boroughs.
Several places that never returned bur-
gesses to parliament have sent deputies
to some of these councils. |. The most
remarkable of these was that held in the
27th of Edward III., consisting of one
knight for each county, and of deputies
from all the cities and boroughs, wherein
the ordinances of the staple were estab-
lished. 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 coun-
cil, 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, pro-
hibit English merchants from exporting
♦ Rot. Pari., p. 280.
+ " If there bo any difference between an ordi-
nance and a stat\ite, as some have collected, it is
but only this, that an ordinance is but temporary
till confirmed and made perpetual ; but a statute is
perpetual atlirst, and so have some ordinances also
been." — Whitelocke on Parliamentary Writ, vol.
ii., p. 297. See Rot. Pari., vol. iii., p. 17 ; vol. iv.,
p. 35.
t These may be found in Willis's Notitia Parlia-
mertaria. In 28 E. I., the universities were sum-
mor ed to send members to a great council, in or-
der io defend the king's rig't to the kingdoir of
Scotland.- -1 Prvnne.
that article under pain of death, inflict
sundry other penalties, create jurisdic-
tions, and, in short, have the effect of
a new and important law. After they
were passed, the deputies of the com-
mons granted a subsidy for three years,
complained of grievances, and received
answers, as if in a regular parliament.
But they were aware that these proceed-
ings partook of some irregularity, and
endeavoured, as was their constant meth-
od, to keep up the legal forms of the
constitution. In the last petition of this
council, the commons pray, '• because
many articles 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 articles may be re-
cited at the next parliament, and entered
upon the roll ; for this cause, that ordi-
nances 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 par
liament, when these ordinances were ex-
pressly confirmed, and directed to be
" holden for a statute to endure al
ways."*
It must be confessed, that the distinc-
tion between ordinances and statutes is
very obscure, and perhaps no precise
and uniform principle can be laid down
about it. But it suthciently appears that
whatever provisions altered the common
law or any former statute, and w-ere en-
tered* upon the statute-roll, transmitted
to the sheriffs, and promulgated to the
people as general obligatory enacitnonts.
were holden to require the positive as-
sent of both houses of parhament, duly
and formally suinmoned. .
Before we leave this subject, it w'ill be
proper to take notice of a remarkable
stretch of prerogative, which, if drawn
into precedent, would have efiectually
subverted this principle of parliamentar}'
consent in legislation. In tlic 15th of
Edward III., petitions were presented of
a bolder and more innovating cast than
was acceptable to the court; tliat no peer
should be put to answer for any trespass,
except before his peers ; that commis-
sione/s should be assigned to examine
the accounts of such as had nneived
public moneys ; that the judges and min-
isters should be sworn to observe the
Great Charter and other laws ; and that
they should be appointed in parliament.
The last of these \^as probably the most
obnoxious ; but the king, unwilling to de-
fer a supply which was granted merely
• Rot. Pari., p. 253. 9.M
37^
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
rciup. Vlll
iiDon condition lliat these petitions should
prevail, suffered them to pass into a stat-
(iie. with an alteration which did not take
lifT much from their efficacy; namely,
llirit these officers should indeed be ap-
pointed by the king, with the advice of
liis council, but should surrender their
•jharges at the next parliament, and be
there responsible to any who should have
cause of complaint against them. The
L-hancellor. treasurer, and judges entered
\heir protestation that they had not as-
sented 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 complete success. Ed-
ward's ministers plainly saw that it left
them at ihe mercy of future parliaments,
who would readily learn the wholesome
and constitutional principle of sparing the
sovereign while they punished his advi-
sers. They had recourse, therefore, to a
violent measure, but which was likely in
those times to be endured. By a procla-
mation addressed to all the sheriffs, the
king revokes and annuls the statute, as
contrary to the laws and customs of
England, and to his own just rights and
prerogatives, which he had sworn to pre-
serve ; declaring that he had never con-
sented to its passing, but having previous-
ly protested that he would revoke it, lest
the parliament should have been separa-
ted 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
kmgdom, with whom he had consulted,
hat as the said statute had not proceed-
ed from his own good-will, it was null,
md could not have the name or force of
law.J This revocation of a statute, as
the price of which a subsidy had been
granted, was a gross infringement of law,
and undoubtedly passed for such at that
time ; for the right was already clear,
though the remedy was not always at-
tainable. Two years afterward Ed-
ward met his parliament, when that ob-
noxious statute was formally repealed.
Notwithstanding the king's unwilling-
♦ Rot. Pari., p. 131. f Id., p. 128.
X Rymer, t. v., p. 282. This instrument betrays
in its language Edward's consciousness of the vio-
'ent slep he was taking, and his wish to excuse it
tf m'i;h as possible.
ness to permit this control of Advice of
parliament over his administra- parliament
tion, he suffered, or rather soli- [.^atiei-s^o?
cited, their interference in mat- war and
ters which have since been P**"^"
reckoned the exclusive province of the
crown. This was an unfair trick of hia
policy. He w^as 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 underta-
ken against his adversary of France, by
common assent of all the lords and com-
mons of his realm in divers parlia-
ments."* And he several times referred
it to them to advise upon the subject of
peace. But the commons showed their
humility or discretion by treating this as
an invitation which it would show good
manners to decline, though in the 18th 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 suita-
ble peace. f " Most dreaded lord," they
say upon one occasion, " as to your war^
and the equipment necessaiy for n, we
are so ignorant and simple that we know
not how, nor have the power to devise :
wherefore we pray your grace to excuse
us in this matter, and that it please you,
with advice of the great and wise persona
of your council, to ordain what seems
best to you for the honour and profit ol
yourself and your kingdom ; and Avhat-
ever shall be thus ordained by assent and
agreement for you and your lords, we
readily assent to, and will hold it firmly
estabhshed."! At another time, after
their petitions had been answered, " it
was showed to the lords and commons
by Bartholomew de Burghersh, the king's
chamberlain, how a treaty had been set
on foot between the king and his adver-
sary of France ; and how he had good
hope of a final and agreeable issue with
God's help ; to which he would not come
without assent of the lords and commons.
Wherefore the said chamberlain inquired
on the king's part of the said lords and
commons whether they would assent and
agree to the peace, in case it might be
had by treaty between the parties. To
which the said commons with one voice
replied, that whatever end it should
please the king and lords to make of the
treaty, would be agreeable to them. On
which answer the chamberlain said to
» Rymer, t. v., p. 165.
t 21 E. III., p. 165.
t Id., p. 148.
Fart lH.j
ENGLISH CONSTlTUnON.
'ill'
.he commons, then you will assent to a
perpetual treaty of peace if it can be h^d.
And the said commons answered at once
and unanimously, yes, yes."* The lords
were not so diffident. Their great sta-
tion as hereditary counsellors gave them
weight in all deliberations of govern-
ment ; and they seem to have pretended
to a negative voice in the question of
peace. At least they answer, upon the
proposals made by David, king of Scots,
in 1368, which were submitted to them
in parliament, that, " saving to the said
David and his heirs the articles contained
therein, they saw no way of making a
treaty which would not openly turn to
the disherison of the king and his heirs,
to which they would on no account as-
sent; and so departed for that day."t A
fe'w years before they had made a sim-
ilar answei to some other propositions
from Scotland.:^ It is not improbable,
that in both these cases they acted with
the concurrence and at the instigation of
the king ; but the precedents might have
been remembered in other circumstances.
A third important acquisition of the
house of commons during this
fommons'w reign was tlie establishment of
imiuire into their right to investigate and
public abu chastise the abuses of adminis-
**"■ tration. In the fourteenth of
Edward III., a committee of the lords'
house had been appointed to examine the
accounts of persons responsible for the
receipt of the last subsidy ; but it does
not appear that the commons were con-
cerned in this.^ The unfortunate statute
of the next year contained a similar pro-
vision, which was annulled with the rest.
Mahy years elapsed before the commons
tried the force of their vindictive arm.
We must pass onward an entire generation
of man, and look at the parliament as-
sembled in the fiflicth of Edward III.
Nothing memorable as to the interfe-
rence of the commons in government
occurs before, unless it be their request,
ni the forty-fifth of the king, that no
clergyman should be made ch^.ncelior,
treasurer, or other great officer ; to which
the king answered, that he would do
what best pleased his council. 1|
It will be remembered by every one
Parliament who has rtad our history, that
of 50 K. ui. j,i the latter years of Edward's
life, his fame was tarnished by the as-
*28 E. III., p. 261.
t Id., p. 295. Carte says, "the lords and com-
mons giving this advice separately, declared," &c.
— Hist, of England, vol. li., p. 518. I can find no
mention of the commons doing this in the roll of
parliament. I Rymer, t. v., p. '/69.
6Id.. p. r.i. !: Id., p. 304.
cendency of the Duke of Lancaster ann
Alice Ferrers. The former, a man or
more ambition than his capacity seems
to have warranted, even incurred the sus-
picion of meditating to set aside the heir
of the crown, when the Black Prince
should have sunk into the grave. Wheth-
er he was wronged or not by these con
jectures, they certainly appear o have
operated on those most concerned to
take alarm at them. A parliament met
in April, 1.376, wherein the general un-
popularity of the king's administration,
or the influence of the Prince of Wales,
led to very remarkable consequences.*
After granting a subsidy, the commons.
" considering the evils of the country,
through so many wars and other causes,
and that the officers now in the king's
service are insufficient without further as-
sistance for so great a charge, pray that
the council be strengthened by the addi-
tion of ten or twelve bishops, lords, and
others, to be constantly at hand, so that
no business of weight should be despatcli-
ed without the consent of all ; nor small-
er matters without that of four or 5ix.'"i
The king pretended to come with alacrity
into this measure, which was followed
by a strict restraint on them and all other
officers from taking presents in the course
of their duty. After this, " the said com
nions appeared in parliament, protesting
that they had the same good-will as ever
to assist the king with their lives and for-
tunes ; but that it seemed to them, i/
their said liege lord had always possessed
about him faithful counsellors and good
officers, he would have been so rich that
he would have had no need of charging
his commons with subsidy or tallage,
considering the great ransoms of the
French and Scotch kings, and of so
many other prisoners ; and that it ap-
peared to be for the private advantage
of some near the king, and of others by
their collusion, that the king and kingdom
are so empoverished, and the commons
so ruined. And they promised the king
that if he would do speedy justice on
such as should be found guilty, and take
from them what law and reason permit.
♦ Most of our general historians have slurred
over this important session. The r«>st view, per
haps, of its secret history will be found m Lowtb"?
Life of Wykoham ; an instructive and elegant
work, only to be blamed for marks of that aca-
demical point of honour, which makes a fellow of
a college too indiscriminate an encomiast of its
founder. Another modern book may be named
wi'.n some commendation, though very inferior in
its execution, Godwin's Life of Chaucer, of which
the Duke of Lancaster is the political hero.
t Rymer, t. v. c 522.
380
EHKOl'E DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. Vlll
with wlial had been already granted in
parhanient, they will engage that he
-hould be rich enough to maintain his
A^ars for a long time, without much
tliarging his people in any manner."
They next, proceeded to allege three
particular grievances , the removal of the
staple from Calais, where it had been fixed
by parliament, through the procurement
and advice of the said private counsellors
about the king; the participation of the
same persons in lending money to the
king at exorbitant usury ; and their pur-
chasing at a low rate for. their own ben-
efit old debts from the crown, the whole
of which they had afterward 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 mer-
chants, Lyons, Elhs, Peachey, and Bury.*
Latimer had been chamberlain, and Nevil
held another office. The former was the
friend and creature of the Duke of Lan-
caster. Nor was this pailiament 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 "ustice by way of maintenance, and to
get profit thereby, which is displeasing to
the king, he forbids any woman hence-
forward, and especially Alice Ferrers, to
do so, on pain of the said Alice forfeiting
all her goods, and suffering banishment
from the kingdom."!
The part which the Prince of Wales,
who had ever been distinguished for his
respectful demeanour towards Edward,
bore in this unprecedented opposition, is
strong evidence of the jealousy with
which he regarded the Duke of Lancas-
ter ; and it was led in the house of com-
mons 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
nrince Richard in lineal succession to
the crown. The proceedings of this ses-
sion were indeed highly popular. But no
houseof commons would have gone such
lengths on the mere support of popular
opinions, unless instigated and encoura-
ged by higher authority. Without this,
their petitions m.ight perhaps have ob-
tained, for the sake of subsidy, an im-
mediate consent ; but those who took
the lead in preparing them must have re-
mained unsheltered after a dissolution,
to abide the vengeance of the crown,
ivith no assurance that another parlia-
• Rvmor t. v.. p. 3.3^
t Id., p. 329
ment would espouse their cau&e a.s its
own. Such indeed was their fate in the
present instance. Soon after the disso-
lution of parliament, the Prince of Wales,
who, long smking by fatal decay, had
rallied his expiring energies for this do-
mestic combat, left his inheritance to
child ten years old, Richard of Bordeaux.
Immediately after this event, Lancaster
recovered his influence ; and the formei
favourites returned to court. Peter de la
Mare was confined at Nottingham, Avhere
he remained two years. The citizens
indeed attempted an insurrection, and
threatened to burn the Savoy, Lancaster's
residence, if De la Mare was not released ;
but the Bishop of London succeeded in
appeasing them.* A parliament met next
year, which overthrew the work of its
predecessor, restored those who had beSr
impeached, and repealed the ordinance
against Alice Perrers.t So little secu-
rity will popular assemblies ever afford
against arbitrary power, when deprived
of regular leaders 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 sen-
sible 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. Fifty years of authority
better respected, of law better enforced,
had rendered these more perilous, and of
a more violent appearance than formerly.
A surer resource presented itself in the
increased weight of the lower house in
parliament. And this indirect aristocrat-
ical influence gave a surprising impulse
to that assembly, and particularly tended
to establish beyond question its control
over public abuses. It is less just to re-
mark, that it also tended to preserve the
relation and harmony between earh 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, ex-
cept in cases of little moment, between
our two houses of parliament ?
* Anonvm. Hist. Kdvv. III., ad calcem Hemiag-
ford, pp. 444, 448. Walsingham gives a diflferent
reason, p. 192.
t Rot. Pari., p. 37-t. Not more than six or seven
of the knights who had sat in the last pprliament
were returned to this, as appears by the writs in
Prynne's 4th Register, d. 302, 311
r 111. J
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
<IB1
The commons had sustained with equal
firmness and discretion a defen-
Greatln"' si^^ ^ar against arbitrary pow-
rreaseofihe er Under Edward III.: they
poweiofthe advanced with very different
Steps towards his successor.
Upon the king's death, though Richard's
coronation took place without delay, and
uo proper regency was constituted, yet
,1 council of twelve, whom the great offi-
cers of state were to obey, supplied its
place to every effectual intent. Among
these the Duke of Lancaster was not
numbered ; 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 im-
peached the Lancasterian party were re-
turned.* Peter de la Mare, now releas-
ed from prison, was elected speaker ; a
dignity which, according to some, he had
filled in the Good Parliament, as that of
the fiftieth of Edward III. was popular-
ly styled ; though the rolls do not men-
tion either him or any other as bearing
that honourable name before Sir Thomas
Hungerford in the parliament of the fol-
lowing year.f The prosecution against
Alice Perrers was now revived ; not, as
far as appears, by direct impeachment of
the commons ; but articles were exhibit-
ed against her m the house of lords on
the king's part, for breaking the ordi-
nance made against her intermeddling at
court; upon which she received judg-
ment of banishment and forfeiture. | At
the request of the lower house, the lords
in the king's name appointed nine per-
sons of different ranks ; three bishops,
two earls, two bannerets, and two bache-
lors, to be a permanent council about tlie
king, so that no business of importance
should be transacted without their unani-
mous consent. The king was even com-
pelled to consent that, during his minor-
ity, the chancellor, treasurer, judges, and
other chief officers sliould be made in
parliament ; by which provision, combi-
ned witli that of the parliamentary coun-
cil, the whole executive government was
transferred to the two houses. A peti-
tion that none miglit be employed in the
king's service, nor belong to his council,
who had been formerly accused upon
good grounds, struck at Lord Latimer,
who had retained some degree of power
» Walsingham, p. 200, says pene omnes ; but the
lut published in Prynne's 4th Uegister induces me
to qualify this loose expression. A lice Perrers had
bribed, he tells us, many of the lords, and all the
lawyers of England; yet by the perseverance of
these knights she was convicted.
t Rot. Pari., vol. li., p. 374.
t " vol iji., p. 12
in the new establishment, iinother, Tusr-
gesting that Gascony, Ireland, Artois, ana
the Scottish marches were in danger of be-
ing lost for want of good officers, though
it were so generally worded as to leave
the means of remedy to the king's pleas-
ure, yet shows a growing energy and
self-confidence in that assembly, which
not many years before had thought the
question of peace or war too high for
their deliberation. Their subsidy was
sufficiently liberal ; but they took care ta
pray the king that fit persons might be
assigifed for its receipt and disburse-
ment, lest it should any way be diverted
from the purposes of the war. Accord-
ingly Walworth and Philpot, two eminent
citizens of London, were appointed to
this office and sworn in parliament to i!s
execution.*
But whether through the wastefulness
of government, or rather because Ed-
ward's legacy, the French war, like a
ruinous and interminable lawsu'.t ex-
hausted all public contributions, there
was an equally craving demand for sub-
sidy at the next meeting of parliament.
The commons now made a more serious
stand. The speaker. Sir .fames Picker-
ing, after the protestation against giving
oflence, which has since become more
matter of form than perhaps it was then
considered, reminded the lords of the
council of a promise made to the last
parliament, that, if they would help the
king for once with a large subsidy so as
to enable him to undertake an expedition
against the enemy, he trusted not to call
on them again, but to support the war
from liis own revenues ; in faith of which
.promise there had been granted the lar-
gest sum that any king of England had
ever been suflered to levy within so short
a time, to the utmost loss and inconve-
nience of the commons; part of which
ought still to remain in the treasury, and
render it unnecessary to burden anew
the exhausted people. To this Scrope,
lord-steward of the household, protesting
that he knew not of any such promise,
made answer by order of the king, that,
" saving the honour and reverence of our
lord the king and tlic lords there pres-
ent, the commons did not speak truth in
asserting that part of the last subsidy
should be still in the treasury ; it being
notorious that every penny 1 ; d gone into
the hands of Walworth aiid Philpot, ap-
pointed and sworn treasurtrs in the last
parliament, to receive and expend it upon
the purposes of the war, for which they
* Rot. Pari., vol. m., p. 12.
382
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
iChap. vin
had in effect disbursed the whole." Not
satisfied with this general justification, the
commons pressed for an account of the
expenditure. Scrope was again commis-
sioned to answer, that " though it had nev-
er been seen, that of a subsidy or other
grant made to the king in parliament or
out of parliament by the commons, any
account had afterward been rendered to
the commons, or to any other except the
king and his oflficers, yet the king, to grat-
ify them, of his own accord, without do-
ing it by way of right, would have Wal-
worth, along with certain persons of the
council, exhibit to them in writing a clear
account of the receipt and expenditure,
jpon condition that this should never be
used as a precedent, nor inferred to be
done otherwise than by the king's spon-
taneous command." The commons were
again urged to provide for the public de-
fence, being their own concern as much
as that of the king. But they merely
shifted their ground and had recourse to
other pretences. They requested that
five or six peers might come to them, in
order to discuss this question of subsidy.
The lords entirely rejected this proposal,
and affirmed that such a proceeding had
never been known except in the three
last parliaments ; but allowed that it had
been the course to elect a committee of
eigh' or ten from each house, to confer
easily and without noise together. The
commons acceded to this, and a commit-
tee^of conference was appointed, though
no result of their discussion appears upon
the roll.
Upon examining the accounts submit-
ted to them, these sturdy commoners
raised a new objection. It appeared that
large sums had been expended upon gar-
risons in France and Ireland, and other
places beyond the kingdom, of which
they protested themselves not ^^able to
bear the charge. It was answered that
Gascony and the king's other dominions
beyond sea were the outworks of Eng-
land, nor could the people ever be secure
from war at their thresholds unless these
were maintained. They lastly insisted
that the king ought to be rich through the
wealth that had devolved on him from
his grandfather. But this was affirmed,
In reply, to be mere'y sufficient for the
payment of Edward's creditors. Thus
driven from all their arguments, the com-
mons finally consented to a moderate ad-
ditional imposition upon the export of
wool and leather,* which were already
subject to considerable duties, apologi-
Rot. Pari, f. ''S— 33
zing on account of their poverty for the
slenderness of their grant.
The necessities of government, how-
ever, let their cause be what it might,
were by no means feigned ; and a new
parliament was assembled about seven
months after the last, wherein the king,
without waiting for a petition, informed
the commons that the treasurers were
ready to exhibit their accounts before
them. This was a signal victory after
the reluctant and ungracious concession
made to the last parliament. Nine per-
sons of different ranks were appointed at
the request of the commons to investi-
gate the state of the revenue, and the dis-
position which had been made of the late
king's personal estate. They ended by
granting a poll-tax, which they pretended
to think adequate to the supply required.*
But in those times no one possessed any
statistical knowledge, and every calcula-
tion which required it was subject to
enormous error, of which we have al-
ready seen an eminent example. f In
the next parliament (3 Ric. II.) it was set
forth that only jC22,000 had been collect-
ed by the poll-tax, while the pay of the
king's troops hired for the expedition to
Britany, the pretext of the grant, had
amoun*,ed for but half a year to £50,000.
The king, in short, was more straitened
than ever. His distresses gave no small
advantage to the commons. Their speak-
er was instructed to declare that, as it
appeared to them, if the affairs of their
liege lord had been properly conducted
at home and abroad, he could not have
wanted aid of 1 is commons, who are now
poorer than before. They pray that, as
the king was so much advanced in age
and discretion, his perpetual council (ap-
pointed in his first parliament) might be
discharged of tlieir labours ; and that, in
stead of them, the five chief officers of
state, to wit, the chancellor, treasurer,
keeper of the privy seal, chamberlain,
and steward of the household, might be
named in parliament, and declared to the
commons as the king's sole counsellors,
not removable before the next parlia-
ment. They required also a general
commission to be made out, similar to
that in the last session, giving powers to
a certain number of peers and other dis-
tinguished persons, to inquire into the
state of the household, as well as into all
receipts and expenses since the king's
accession. The former petition seems
to have been passed over ;J but a com-
* Rot. Pari., p. 57. t See ante, p. 375.
X Nevertheless, the commotis repeated it in tnett
I'chedulp of petitions ; and received an evasivo
I
Pakt IP
t^NGLISH CONS'I rrUTION.
38i
mission as reqiested was made out to
three prelates, three earls, three banner-
ets, three knights, and three citizens.*
After guarding thus, as they conceived,
against malversation, but in effect rath-
er protecting their posterity than them-
selves, the commons prolonged the last
imposition on wool and leather for an-
other year.
It would be but repetition to make ex-
.racts from the rolls of the two next
years ; we have still the same tale ; de-
mand of subsidy on one side, remon-
strance and endeavours at reformation on
the other. After the tremendous insur-
rection of the villeins, in 1382, a parlia-
ment was convened to advise about re-
pealing the charters of general manumis-
sion, extorted from the king by the pres-
sure of circumstances. In this measure
all concurred ; but the commons were not
afraid to say that the late risings had been
provoked by the burdens which a prodi-
gal court had called for in the preceding
session. Their language is unusually
bold. " It seemed to them, after full de-
liberation," they said, "that unless the
administration of the kingdom were
r-peedily reformed, the kingdom itself
would be utterly lost and ruined for ever,
r.nd therein their lord the king, with all
Ihe peers and commons, which God for-
bid. For true it is that there are such
defects ir. the said administration, as well
about the king's person and his house-
hold, as in his courts of justice: and
ny grievous oppressions in the country
through maintainers of suits, who are, as
it were, kings in the country, that right
and law are come to nothing, and the poor
commons are from time to time so pil-
laged and ruined, partly by the king's pur-
vej'^ors of the household, and others who
pay nothing for what they take, partly by
the subsidies and tallages raised upon
them, and besides by the oppressive be-
haviour of the servants of the king and
other lords, and especially of the afore-
said maintainers of suits, that they are
reduced to greater poverty and discom-
fort than ever they were before. And
moreover, though great sums have been
continually granted by and levied upon
them for the defence of the kingdom,
yet they are not the better defended
against their enemies, but every year are
gwer, referring to an ordinance made in the first
parliament of the king, the application of which is
indefinite, p. 379.
* See ante, p. 377. In Rymer, t. viii,, p. 250, the
A.rchbishop of York's name appears among these
commissioners, which makes their number sixteen.
But it is plain by the instrument that only fifteen
^ere mrai/t to bo appointed.
plundered and wasted by sea and lana,
without any relief. Which calamities
the said poor commons, who lately used
to live in honour and prosperity, can no
longer endure, ^nd to speak the real
truth, these injuries lately done to the
poorer commons more than they ever
suffered before, caused them to rise, and
to commit the mischief done in their late
riot ; and there is still cause to fear
greater evil*, if sufficient remedy be not
timely :>r'jvided against the outrages and
oppressions aforesaid. Wherefore may
it please our lord the king, and the noble
peers of the realm now assembled in this
parliament, to provide such remedy and
amendment as to the said administration,
that the state and dignity of the king m
the first place, and of the lords may be
preserved, as the commons have always
desired, and the commons may be put in
peace ; removing, as soon as they can be
detected, evil ministers and counsellors,
and putting in their stead the best and
most sufficient, and taking away all the
bad practices which have led to the last
rising, or else none can imagine that
this kingdom can longer subsist without
greater misfortunes than it ever endured.
And for God's sake let it not be forgot-
ten, that there be put about the king and
of his council the best lords and knights
that can be found in the kingdom.
" And be it known (the entry proceeds)
that after the king our lord, with the
peers of the realm and his council, had
taken advice upon these requests made
to him for his good and his kingdom's
as it really appeared to him, willed and
granted, that certain bishops, lords, and
others should be appointed to survey,
and examine in privy council bolli the
government of the king's person and of
his household, and to suggest proper
remedies wherever necessary, and re-
port them to the king. And it was said
by the peers in parliament, that as it
seemed to them, if reform of government
were to take place throughout the king-
dom,it should begin by the chief member,
which is the king himself, and so from
person to person, as well churchmen as
others, and place to place, from higher to
lower, without sparing any degree."* A
considerable number of commissioners
were accordingly appointed, whether by
the king alone or in parliament does not
appear ; the latter, howevf r, is more
probable. They seem to nave made
some progress in the work of r< /"orma-
} lion, for we find that the officers of th«
household were sworn to obsent ih».c
* Knt, Pari., .'i U H
584
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
fCMiP VW
regulations. But in all likelihood these
were soon neglected.
It is not wonderful, that with such feel-
ings of resentment towards the crown,
the commons were backward jn granting
subsidies. Perhaps the king would not
have obtained one at all if lie had not
withheld his charter of pardon for all of-
onces committed during the insurrec-
tion. This was absolutely necessary to
restore quiet among the people ; and
though the members of the commons had
certainly not been insurgents, yet inevi-
table irregularities had occurred in quel-
ling the tumults, which would have put
them too much in the power of those un-
wortViy men who filled the benches of
just'ce under Richard. The king de-
clared that it was unusual to grant a par-
don, without a subsidy ; the commons
stiU answered that they would consider
about the matter; and the king instantly
t(!Joined that he would consider about
his pardon (s'aviseroit de sa dite grace)
lill they had done what they ought.
They renewed at length Uie usual tax on
wool and leather.*
This extraordinary assumption of pow-
er by the commons was not merely ow-
ing to the king's poverty. It was en-
couraged by the natural feebleness of a
disunited government. The high rank
and ambitious spirit of Lancaster gave
him no little influence, though contending
with many enemies at court, as well as
the ill-will of the people. Thomas of
Woodstock, the king's youngest uncle,
more able and turbulent than Lancaster,
became, as he grew older, an eager
competitor for power, which he sought
through the channel of popularity. The
earls of March, Arundel, and Warwick
bore a considerable part, and were the
favourites of parliament. Even Lancas-
ter, after a few years, seems to have fal-
len into popular courses, and recovered
some sliare of public esteem. He was
at the head of the reforming commission
m the fifth of Richard II., though he
had been studiously excluded from those
Breceding. We cannot hope to disentan-
gle the intrigues of this remote age, as
.0 which our records are of no service,
and the chroniclers are very slightly in-
formed. So far as we may conjecture,
Lancaster, finding his situation insecure
at court, began to solicit the favour of the
commons, whose hatred of the admin-
istration abated their former hostihty to-
wards him.f
* Rot. Pari., 5 R. II, p. 104.
+ The commons granted a subsidy, 7 R II., to
•upport Lancaster's war m Castile. — R P., 3. iSl.
The character of Richard II. was nov»
developing itself, and the hopes Character <»
excited by his remarkable pres- ''"^hard.
ence of mind in confronting the rioters on
Blackheath were rapidly destroyed. Not
that he was wanting in capacity, as has
been sometimes imagined. For if we
measure intellectual power by the great
est exertion it ever displays, rather than
by its average results, Richard II. was a
man of considerable talents. He pos-
sessed, along with much dissimulation, a
decisive promptitude in seizing the criti-
cal moment for action. Of this quality,
besides his celebrated behaviour towards
the insurgents, he gave striking evidence
in several circumstances which we shall
have shortly to notice. But his ordinary
conduct belied the abilities which on
these rare occasions shone forth, and
rendered them ineffectual for his securi'
ty. Extreme pride and violence, with an
inordinate partiality for the most worth-
less favourites, were his predominant
characteristics. In the latter quality,
and in the events of his reign, he forms
a pretty exact parallel to Edward IJ
Scropc, Iprd chancellor, who had been
appointed in parliament, and was under-
stood to be irremoveable without its con
currence, lost the great seal for refusing
to set it to some prodigal grants. Upon
a slight quarrel with Archbishop Court-
ney, the king ordered his temporalities to
be seized, the execution of which Mi-
chael de la Pole, his new chancellor, and
a favourite of his own, could hardly pre-
vent. This was accompanied with inde-
cent and outrageous expressions of an-
ger, unworthy of his station and of thos«
whom he insulted.*
Though no king could be less respect-
able than Richard, yet the con- jjg acq„ire8
stitution invested a sovereign more power
with such ample prerogative, fiiiisina
that it was far less easy to re- •'°" •'
sist his personal exercise of power than
the unsettled councils of a minority. In
the parliament 6 R. II., sess. 2, the com-
mons pray certain lords whom they
name, to be assigned as their advisers.
This had been permitted in the two last
sessions without exception. f But th«
king, in granting their request, reser\'eu
Whether the populace changed their opmion o)
him, I know not.' He was still disliked by them
two years before. The insurgents of 1382 are said
to have compelled men to swear that they would
obey King Richard and the commons, and that Ihey
would aci-ept no king named John.— Walsingham.
p. 2t8.
* Walsingham, pp. 290, 315, 317.
* Rot. Pari., 5 R. II., p. 100. 6 R II., sew i
0. 134.
fABT III]
ENGLISji CONSTITUTIO.N.
385
his right of naming any others.* The ugh
the commons did not relax in their im-
portunities for the redress of general
griev3'\ces, they did not venture to inler-
meddJ'} as before with tlie conduct of ad-
ministration. They did not even object
lo tho grant of the marquisate of Dublin,
with almost a princely dominion over
Ireland; which enormous donation was
confirmed, by act of parliament to Vere,
a favourite o'f the king.f A petition that
the officers of state should annually visit
and inquire into his household, was an-
swered, that the king would do what he
pleased. I Yet this was little in compar-
ison with their former proceedings.
There is nothing, however, more de-
Proceedings ccitful to a monarch, unsupport-
of pariia- g(j by aj^ armed force, and des-
Sor"'' titule of wary advisers, than
RicharJ. this Submission of his people.
\ single effort was enough to overturn
his government. Parliament met in the
tenth year of his reign, steadily deter-
mined to reform the administration, and
especially to punish its chief leader, Mi-
chael de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, and lord
chancellor. According to the remarka-
ble narration of a contemporary histori-
an,^ too circumstantial to be rejected, but
rendered somewhat doubtful by the si-
lence of all other writers and of the par-
liamentary roll, the king was loitering at
his palace at Eltham when he received
a message from the two houses request-
ing the dismissal of Suffolk, since they
had matter to allege against him that
they could not move while he kept the
office of chancellor. Richard, with his
usual intemperance, answered that he
would not for tlieir request remove the
meanest scullion from his kitclicn. They
returned a positive refusal to proceed on
any public business until the king should
appear personally in parliament, and dis-
place the chancellor. The king required
forty knights to be deputed from the rest,
to inform him clearly of tlieir wishes.
But the commons declined a proposal, in
which they feared, or affected to fear,
some treachery. At length the Duke of
Glocester, and Arundel, bishop of Ely,
were commissioned to speak the sen^e
of parliament, and they delivered it, if
we may still believe what we read, in
* Rot. Pari., 9 R. II., p. 145. f Id., p. 20S.
I Id., p. 213. It is however asserted in the arti-
c.«8of impeachiiiBnt against Suffolk, and admitted
Dy his defence, that nine lords had been appointed
in the last parliament, viz., 9 R. II., to inquire
into the state of tlie household, and reform what-
ever was amiss. But nothing of this appears in
the roll.
6 Knyghton, in Twysden, x. Script., col. 2680.
Bb
very extraordinary language, asserting
that there was an ancient statute, accord-
ing to which, if the king absented him-
self from parliament without just cause
during forty days, which he had now ex-
ceeded, every man might return without
permission to his own country ; and
moreover there was another statute and
(as they might more truly say) a precc
dent of no remote date, that if a king, by
bad counsel, or his own folly and obsti-
nacy, alienated himself from his people,
and would not govern according to the
laws of the land and the advice of the
peers, but madly and wantonly followed
his own single will, it should be lawful
for them, with the common assent of the
people, to expel him from his throne, and
elevate to it some near kinsman of the
royal blood. By this discourse the king
was induced to meet his parliament,
where Suffolk was removed from his of-
fice, and the impeachment against hira
commenced.*
The charges against this minister,
without being wholly frivolous, impeach-
were not so weighty as the clam- niem of
our of the commons might have *"'^"'*'-
led us to expect. Besides forfeiting all
his grants from the crown, he A\as com-
mitted to prison, there to remain till he
should have paid such fine as the king
might impose ; a sentence that would
have been outrageously severe in many
cases, though little more than nugatory in
the present.!
This was the second precedent of thai
grand constitutional resource, commission
parliamentary impeachment : "i reiorm.
and more remarkable, from the emi
nence of the person attacked, than that
of Lord Latimer, in the fiftieth year of
* Upon full consideration, I am much inclined
to give credit to this passage of Knyghton as to
the main facts ; and, perhaps, even the speech of
Glocester and the Bishop of Ely is more likely to
have been made public by them, than invented by
so jejune an historian. Walsingham indeeii says
nothing of the matter ; but he is so unequally in-
formed, and so frequently defective, that we can
draw no strong inference from his silence. What
most weiglis with me is that pailiamont met on
Oct. 1, 13a7, and was not dissolved till Nov. 28 ; a
longer period than the business done in it seems to
have required ; and also that Suffolk, who opened
the session as chancellor, is styled " darrein chan-
cellor" in the articles of impeachment against him;
fo that he must have been removed mlhc interval,
\hich tallies with Knyghton's story. Besides, it
is plain, from the famous question subsequentlj
put by the king to his judges at Nottingham, thai
both the right of retiring without a regular dissolu-
tion and tlie precedent of Edward II. h:id been dis-
cussed in parliament, whicdi does not appear any
where else than in Knyghton.
1 Rot. Pari., vol. iii. p. 219
386
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
tUHAP. VIU
Edward III.* The commons were con-
.ent to waive the prosecution of any oth-
er ministers ; but they rather chose a
scheme of reforming the administration,
which should avert both the necessity of
punishment, and the malversations which
provoked it. They petitioned the king
to ordain in parliament certain chief offi-
cers of his household, and other lords of
his council, with power to reform those
abuses, by which his crown was so much
blemished, tliat the laws were not kept,
and his revenues were dilapidated, con-
firming by a statute a commission for a
year, and forbidding, under heavy penal-
ties, any one from opposing, in private
or openly, what they should advise. f
With this" the king complied, and a com-
mission founded upon the prayer of par-
liament was estabUshed by statute. It
comprehended fourteen persons of the
highest eminence for raiik and general
estimation; princes of the blood and an-
cient servants of the crown, by whom its
prerogatives were not likely to be unne-
cessarily impaired. In fact, the principle
of this" commission, without looking
back at the precedents in the reign of
Jolm, Henry III., and Edward II., which
yet were not without their weight as
constitutional analogies, was merely that
which the commons had repeatedly main-
tained during the minority of the present
kuig, and which had produced the former
commissions of reform in the third and
fifth years of his reign. These were
upon "the whole nearly the same in their
operation. It must be owned there was
a more extensive sway virtually given to
the lords now appointed, by the penal-
ties imposed on any who should endeav-
our to obstruct what they might advise ;
the design as well as tendency of which
was no doubt to throw the whole admin-
istration into their hands during the peri-
od of this conmiission.
Those who have written our history
with more or less of a tory bias exclaim
against this parliamentary commission
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 constitution. But it
would be unfair to blame either those
* Articles had been exhibited by the chancellor
before ths peers, in the seventh of the king, against
Spencer, bishop of Norwich, who had led a con-
Biderable army into a disastrous expedition against
the Flemings, adherents to the antipope Clement,
in the schism. This crusade had been exceedmg-
ly popular, but its ill success had the usual elTect.
The commons were not parties in this proceeding.
•Rot. Pari, p 15.-? * Id., p. 221
concerned in this c»; nmission, 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 grat-
itude, unless we could distinctly pro-
nounce by what gentler means they could
restrain the excesses of government.
Thirteen parliaments had already me'
since the accession of Richard ; in all the
same remonstrances had been repeated,
and the same promises renewed. Subsi-
dies, more frequent than in any former
reign, had been granted for the supposed
exigences of the war ; but this was no
longer illuminated by those dazzling vic-
tories, which give to fortune the mien
of wisdom ; the coasts of England wert
perpetually ravaged, and her trade de
stroyed ; while the administration incur
red the suspicion of diverting to privat*
uses that treasure which they so feebly
and unsuccessfully applied to the public
service. No voice of his people, until i<
spoke in thunder, would stop an intoxi
cated boy in the wasteful career of dissi
pation. He loved festivals and pageanlt
the prevailing folly of his time, with unu
sual frivolity ; and his ordinary living in
represented as beyond comparison moif
showy and sumptuous than even that ot
his magnificent and chivalrous predecee
sor. Acts of parliament were no ade
quate barriers to his misgovernment
" Of what avail are statutes," says Wal
singham, " since the king with his privy
council is wont to abolish what par-
liament has just enacted]"* The con-
stant prayer of the commons in every
session, that former statutes might be
kept in force, is no slight presumption
that they were not secure of being re-
garded. It may be true, that Edward
III.'s government had been full as arbi-
trary, though not so unwise, as his grand-
son's ; but this is the strongest argu-
ment, that nothing less than an extraor-
dinary remedy could preserve the still
unstable liberties of England.
The best plea that coidd be made for
Richard was his inexperience, and the mis-
guided suggestions of favourites. This,
however, made it more necessary to re-
move those false advisers, and to supply
that inexperience. Unquestionably the
choice of ministers is reposed in the sov-
ereign ; a trust, like every other attribute
of legitimate power, for the pubhcgood;
not, what no legitimate power can evei
be, the instrument of selfishness or ca-
* Rot Pari., p. 281
fART III.]
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
3P7
price. There is something more sacred
than the prerogative, or even than the
constitution ; the public weal, for which
all powers are granted, and to which they
must all be referred. For this public
weal it is confessed to be sometimes ne-
cessary to shake the possessor of the
throne" out of his seat ; could it never be
permitted to suspend, though but indi-
rectly and for a time, the positive exer-
cise of misapplied prerogatives '! He has
learned in a very different school from
myself, who denies to parliament at the
[)resent day a preventive as well as vin-
dictive control over the administration
of affairs ; a right of resisting, by those
means Avhich lie within its sphere, the
appointment of unfit ministers. These
means are now indirect ; they need not
to be the less effectual, and they are
certainly more salutary on that account.
But we must not make our notions of the
constitution, in its perfect symmetry of
manhood, the measure of its infantine pro-
portions, nor expect from a parliament
just struggling into hfe, and " pawing to
get free its hinder parts," the regularity
of definite and habitual power.
It is assumed rather too lightly by
some of those historians to whom I have
alluded, that these commissioners, though
but appointed for a twelvemonth, design-
ed to retain longer, or would not in fact
have surrendered their authority. There
is certainly a danger in these delegations
of pre-eminent trust ; but I think it more
formidable in a republican form than
under such a government as our own.
The spirit of the people, the letter of the
law, were Voth so decidedly monarchical,
that no glanng attempt of the conmiis-
Bioners to keep the helm continually in
their hands, though it had been in the
king's name, would have had a fair prob-
ability of success. And an oligarchy
of fourteen persons, different in rank
and profession, even if we should impute
criminal designs to all of them, was ill
calculated for permanent union. Indeed,
the facility with which Richard reassu-
med his full powers two years afterward,
when misconduct had rendered his cir-
cumstances far more unfavourable, gives
the corroboration of experience to this
reasoning. By yielding to the will of
his parliament, and to a temporary sus-
pension of prerogative, this 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 verbal protestation, that
Bb2
nothing done therein should be Answers oi
in prejudice of his rights ; a re- the judges
servation not unusual when '°u'g\'j|j^y^'*
any remarkable 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 Suffolk
from prison and restored him to his fa
vour, procured from the judges whom he
had summaned to Nottingham a most
convenient set of answers to questions
concerning the late proceedings in par-
liament. Tresilian and Belknap, chief
justices of the King's Bench and Com-
mon 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 compell-
ed the king to consent to it, were guilty
of treason ; that the king^Js business must
be proceeded upon before any other in
parliament; that he may put an end to
the session at his pleasure ; that his min-
isters cannot be impeached without his
consent ; that any members of parlia-
ment contravening the three last articles
incur the penalties of treason, and espe-
cially 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 ex- subsequent
cept Tresilian protested before revolution,
the next parliament, were for the most
part servile and unconstitutional. The
indignation which they excited, and the
measures successfully taken to willistand
the king's designs, belong to general his-
tory ; 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, (ilocester, Derby, Not-
tingham, 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 account
of the interested motives by which its
ostensible advocates have frequently been
actuated. Tlie parliament, who had the
country thoroughly with them, acted no
doubt honestly, 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 exempt. Whether
all with whom thev dealt severely, soma
383
ti'ROPE DURIIVU THE MIUIJLK AGES.
[Chap. VIH
af them apparently of good previous rep-
utation, merited sucli punishment, is more
than, upon uncertain evidence, a modern
writer can profess to decide.*
Notwithstanding the death or exile of
all Richard's favourites, and the oath
taken not only by parliament, but by
every class of the people, to stand by
the lords appellants, we find him, af-
ter about a year, suddenly annihilating
their pretensions, and snatching the reins
again vv^ithout 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
tmies in the course of his imprudent life ;
but we may conjecture that he had the
advantage of disunion among his ene-
mies. For some years after this, the
king's administration was prudent. The
great seal, which he took away from
Archbishop Arundel, he gave to Wyke-
ham, bishop of Winchester, another
member of the reforming commission,
but a man of great moderation and polit-
ical experience. Some time after he re-
stored the seal to Arundel, and reinstated
the Duke of Glocester 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
favour.
There was now a more apparent har-
mony betv/een the court and
monVbe-'*'^' ^^c parliament. It seems to
tween tiie have been tacitly agreed that
«J,1f,J'.lI«n. they should not interfere with
the kmg s household expenses;
and they gratified him in a point where
his honour had been most wounded, de-
claring his prerogative to be as high and
unimpaired as tliat of his predecessors,
and repealing the pretended statute by
virtue of which Edward II. was said to
have been deposed, f They were provi-
dent enough, however, to grant condi-
tional subsidies, to be levied only in case
of a royal expedition against tlie enemy ;
and several were accordingly remitted
by proclamation, this condition not being
fulfilled. Richard never ventured to re-
call his favourites, though he testified his
unabated affection for Vere by a pompous
* The judgment against Simon de Burley, one
of those who were executed on this occasion, upon
impeachment of the commons, was reversed under
lienrv l^^ ; a fair presumption of its injustice. —
Rot. Pari, vol in., p. 404.
+ Rot Pari., 14 R. II., p 279 15 K. II.. d '-8il
funeral. Few complaints, unequivocajly
affecting the ministry, were presented by
the commons. In one parliament, the
chancellor, treasurer, and council resign-
ed their offices, submitting themselves to
its judgment, in case any matter of ac-
cusation should be alleged against Ihera.
The commons, after a day's deliberation
probably to make their approbation ap-
pear more solemn, declared in full par-
liament that nothing amiss had been
found in the conduct of these ministers,
and that they held them to have faithful-
ly discharged their duties. The king re-
instated them accordingly ; with a prot-
estation 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
for ever. Richard had but dis-
sembled with those concerned among°somf
in the transactions of 1388, leading
none of whom he could ever P*^"^"
forgive. These lords in lapse of time
were divided among each other. The
earls of Derby and Nottingham were
brought into the king's interest. The
Earl of Arundel came to an open breach
with the Duke of Lancaster, whose par-
don he was compelled to ask for an un-
founded accusation in parliament.! Glo-
cester's ungoverned ambition, elated oy
popularity, could not brook the ascend
ency of his brother Lancaster, who was
much less odious to the king. He had
constantly urged and defended the con-
cession of Guienne to this prince, to be
held for life, reserving only his liege hom
age to Richard as king of France ;t a
grant as unpopular among the natives
of that country as it was derogatory to
the crown ; but Lancaster was not much
indebted to his brother for assistance,
which was only given in order to dimin-
ish his influence in England. The truce
with France, and the king's French mar-
riage, which Lancaster supported, were
passionately opposed by Glocester. And
the latter had given keener provocation,
by speaking contemptuously of that mis-
alliance with Katherine Swineford, which
contaminated the blood of Plantagenet.
To the parliament summoned in the 201 h
of Richard, one object of which was to
legitimate the Duke of Lancaster's ante-
nuptial children by this lady, neither Glo-
cester nor Arundel would repair. There
passed in this assembly something re-
markable, as it exhibits not only the ar-
bitrary temper of the king, a point by no
* Rot. Pari., 13 R. If., p. 258
j Id., 17 R. II., p. 313.
t Rvmer, t. vii., p. £83, 659.
P»RT III]
ENGLFSII CONSTITUTION.
389
means doubtful, but the inefficiency of
the connmons to resist it, witliout support
from political confederacies of th/^. nobil-
ity. The circumstances are thus related
m the record.
During the session, the king sent for
Rjthard's the lords into parliament one
prosecution afternoon, and told them how
of Haxey. ^le had heard of certain articles
of complaint made by the commons in
conference with them a few days before,
some of Avhich appeared to the king
agfdnst his royalty, estate, and liberty,
and commanded the chancellor to inform
him fully as to this. The chancellor
accordingly related the whole matter,
which consisted of four alleged grievan-
ces; namely, that sheriffs andescheators,
notwithstanding a statute, are continued
m their otlices beyond a year ;* that the
Scottish marches were not well kept;
that the statute against wearing great
men's liveries was disregarded ; and, last-
ly, 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 maintained at his
cost.
Upon this information the king de-
clared to the lords, that through God's
gift he is by lineal right of inlieritance
king of England, and will have the royal-
ty and freedom of his crown, from which
some of these articles derogate. The
first petition, that sheriffs should never
remain in office beyond a year, he re-
jected; but, passing lightly over the rest,
took most offence, that the commons,
who are his lieges, sliould take on them-
selves to make any ordinance respecting
his royal person or household, or those
whom he miglit please to have about him.
He enjoined, therefore, the lord, to de-
clare plainly to the commons his pleas-
ure in this matter; and especially direct-
ed the Duke of Lancaster to make the
speaker give up the name of the person
who presented a bill for this last article
III the lower house.
The commons were in no state to re-
sist this unexpected promptitude of ac-
tion in the king. They surrendered the
obnoxious bill, with its proposer, one
Thomas Haxey, and with great humility
made excuse, that they never designed tv
give offence to his majesty, nor to inter-
fere with his household 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 sup-
pliants ; but Haxey was adjudged in par-
liament to suffer death as a traitor. As,
however, he was a clerk,* the Archbishop
of Canterbury, at the head of the pre-
lates, obtained of the king that his life
might be spared, and that they migiit
have the custody of his person ; protest-
ing that this was not claimed by way of
right, but merely of the king's grace.f
This was an open defiance of parlia
ment, and a declaration of arbitrary pow-
er. For it would be impossible to con
tend, that after the repeated instances of
control over public expenditure by the
commons since the 50th of Edward HI.,
this principle was novel and unauthorized
by the constitution; or that the right of
free speech demanded by them in every
parliament was not a real and indisjjuta
ble privilege. The king, however, was
completely successful, and hav- Arbitrary
ing proved the feebleness of measures o'
the commons, fell next upon "'" '""^'
those he more dreaded. By a skilful
piece of treachery he seized the Duke
of Glocester, 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 efface their former transgressions. |
* Hnrne has represented this as if the commons
had pelilioneii for the continuance of sheriffs be-
yond a year, and grounds upon tliis mistake part
of his defence o( Richard 11. (note to vol. ii., p. 270,
4to. edit.) For this he refers to Cotton's Abridg-
ment; whether rightly or not 1 cannot say, being
little acquainted with that inaccurate book, upon
wiiich it is unfortunate that Hume relied so much.
The passage from Walsingham in the same note
is also wholly perverted, as the reader will discov-
er without further observation. An historian must
be strangely warped, who quotes a passage expli-
citly complaining of illegal ac .3 in order tu infer
that t'nnse >ery acts were lega .
* The church would perhaps have interfered in
behalf of Haxey, if lie had only received the ton-
sure. Hut it seems that he was actually in orders ;
for the record calls him Sir Thomas Ha.xey, a title
at that time regularly given to the parson of a par-
ish. If this be so, it is a remarkable authority for
the clergy's capacity of sitting in parliament.
t Rot. Pari., 20 R. II., p. 339. In Henry IV.'b
first parliament, the commons petitioneii for Hax-
ey's restoration, and truly say, that his sentence
was en aneantissement des custumes de la com-
mune, p. 434. His judgment was reversed by both
houses, as having past do volonte du Roy Richard
en contre droit, et la course quel avoit este devant
en parlement, p. 480. There can be no doul)t with
any man who looks attentively at the passages
relative to Ha.xey, that he was a member of par-
liament ; though this was questioned a few years
ago by the committee of the house of commons
who made a report on the right of the clergy to he
elected ; a right which, I am inclined to believe,
did exist down to the Reformation, as the grounds
alleged lor Nowell's ccpulsion in the first of Mary
besides this instance of Haxey, conspire to provts,
though It has since been lost by disuse.
J This assembly, if we n\i\y trust t'>o jiru'-ny
,i^0
LUliOyE DURING THE MIDDLE AGEb
\^C,i..p ViC!
(Jlocostcr, wlio had been murdered at
Calais, was attainted after liis death;
Arundel was beheaded, his brother the
Archbishop of Canterbury deposed and
banished, Warwick and Cobham sent be-
yond sea. The commission of the tenth,
the proceedings in parliament of the
eleventh year of the king, were annulled.
The answers of the judges to me ques-
tions put at Nottingham, which had been
punished with death and exile, were pro-
nounced by parliament to be just and le-
gal. It was declared high treason to pro-
cure 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 pre-
cedent they were then overturning had
not shielded itself with the same sanc-
iiun, were sworn to by parliament upon
the cross of Canterbury, and confirmed
by a national oath, with the penalty of
excommunication denounced against its
infringers. Of those recorded to have
bound themselves by this adjuration to
Richard, far the greater part had touched
the same relics for Glocester and Arun-
d<)l ten years before, and two years after-
w .ird swore allegiance to Henry of Lan-
caster.*
In the fervour of prosecution this par-
liament could hardly go beyond that
whose acts they were annulling; and
each is alike unworthy to be remembered
in the way of precedent. But the leaders
of the former, though vindictive and tur-
bulent, had a concern for the public in-
terest; and after punishing their ene-
mies, left the government upon its right
foundation. 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 This
remarkable act of severity was accompa-
nied by another, less unexampled, but,
as it proved, of more ruinous tendency.
The petitions of the commons not having
been answered during the session, which
they were always anxious to conclude, a
commission was granted for tw^elve peers
and six commoners to sit after the dissolu-
tion, and " examine, answer, and fully
determine as well all the said petitions,
and tlie matters therein comprised, as all
other matters and things moved in the
king's presence, and all things incident
thereto not yet determined, aa shall seem
best to them."t The " other matters"
moiis author of the Hfe of Richard II., published
by Hearne, was surrounded by the king's troops,
p. 133.
♦ Rot. Pari., 21 R. II.. p. 347. t Id., d. 369.
mentioned above were, 1 suppose, pri-
vate petitions to the king's council in par-
liament, which had been frequently de-
spatched after a dissolution. For in the
statute which establishes this commis-
sion, 21 R. II., c. 16, no powers are com
mitted but those of examining petitions
which, if it does not confirm the charge
afterward alleged against Richard of fal-
sifying 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 peace
ful 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 commisrioners, 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 business al-
ready commenced.! They imposed a
perpetual oath on prelates and lords foi
all time to come, to be taken befoi-e ob
taining livery of their lands, that they
would maintain the statutes and ordi-
nances made by this parliament, or " af-
terward by the lords and knights having
power committed to them by the same."
They declared it high treason to disobey
their ordinances. They annulled the pa-
tents of the dukes of Hereford and INor-
folk, and adjudged Henry Bowet, the for-
mer's chaplain, who had advised him to
petition for his inheritance, to the penal-
ties of treason. I And thus, having ob-
* Rot. Pari., 13 R. II., p. r56.
t This proceeding was made one of the articles
of charge igainst Richard in the following terms :
Item, in ^jarhamento ultimo celebrato apud Salo-
piam, i em Res. proponens opprimere populum
suum ^rocuravit subtiliter et fecit concedi, quod
potestas parliamenti de consensu omnium slatuum
regni sui reinaneret apnd quaidam certas personas
ad terminandum, dissoluto parliamento, certas pe-
titiones in eodem parliamento porrectas protunc
minimi e.xpeditas. Cujus concessionis colore per-
sonae sic deputatE processerunt ad alia generaliter
pai-liamentum illud tangefttia : et hoc de voluntate
re^'is ; in derogationem status parliamenti, et in
inf gnum incommodum totius regni et perniciosum
exemplum. Et ut super factio eorum hujusmodi
aliquem colorem et auctoritatem viderentur habere,
re.x fecit rotulos parliamenti provoto suo mutari et
deleri, contra affectum conse."'6ionis praedicta;. —
Rot. Pari., 1 H. IV., vol. iii., p. 18. Whether the
last accusation, of altering the parliamentary roll,
be true or not. there is enough left in it to prove
every thing I have asserted in the text. From this
it is sufliciently manliest how unfairly Carte and
Hume have drawn a parallel between this self
deputed legislative commission, and that appc'nted
by parliament to reform the adm Qistiation c'evn
years before.
t Rot. Pari.. 1 H. IV., vol. lii., - ? \ "^HS
PaKT IIJ]
ENGLISH CONSTirtlTION.
ayi
ained a revcivie for life, and the power
of parliiment being notoriously usurped
by a knot of his creatures, the king was
liltle likely to meet his people again, and
Decame as truly absolute as his ambition
could require.
It had been necessary for this purpose
«ktnTTe to subjugate the ancient nobility.
of the For the English constitution gave
H"e''refor'd them such paramount rights, that
iiid Nor it was impossible either to make
'°"'- them surrender their country's
freedom, or to destroy it witliout their
consent. But several of the chief men
had fallen, or were involved, with the
party of Glocester. Two who, having
once belonged to it, had lately plunged
into the depths of infamy to ruin their
former friends, were still perfectly ob-
noxious to the king, who never forgave
their original sin. These two, Henry of
Bolingbroke, earl of Derby, and Mow-
bray, earl of Nottingham, now dukes of
Hereford and Norfolk, the most power-
ful of the remaining nobility, were, by a
singular conjunctui-e, thrown, as it were,
at the king's feet. Of the political mys-
teries which this reign affords, none is
more inexplicable than the quarrel of
these peers. In the parliament at Shrews-
bury in 1398, Hereford was called upon
by the king to relate what had passed
between the Duke of Norfolk and him-
self in slander of his majesty. He de-
tailed a pretty long and not improbable
conversation, in which Norfolk had as-
serted the king's intention of destroying
them both, for their old offence in im-
peaching his ministers. Norfolk 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 com-
bat 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 treated both as guilty where only
one could be so, seems to admit no other
solution than the king's desire to rid
himself of two peers whom he feared
and hated at a blow. But it is difficult
•o understand by wha. means he drew
the crafty Bolingbroke into his snare.*
* Besides the contemporary historians, we may
M'l a full narrative of these proceedings in the
rolls of parliament, vol. iii., p. 382. It appears that
Mowbray was the most offending party ; since, in-
dependently of Hereford's accusation, he is char-
ged with openly maiiitainrng the appeals made in
the fals'i parliamen of the eleventh of the king.
8ut the banisbiner /f his accuser WiS wliollv nii-
However this misrht have been, he now
threw away all appearance of moderate
government. The indignities he had suf-
fered in the eleventh year of his reigr:
were still at his heart, a desire to re-
venge which seems to have been the
main spring of his conduct. Though a
geneial pardon of those proceedings had
been granted, not only at the time, bill
in his own last parliament, he made use
of them as a pretence 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 trea-
son, and to give blank obligations, which
his officers filled up with large sums.*
Upon the death of the Duke of Lancas-
ter, who had passively complied through-
out all these transactions, Richard re-
fused livery of his inheritance to Here-
ford, whose exile implied no crime, and
who had letters patent enabling him to
make his attorney for that purpose du-
ring its continuance. In short, his gov-
ernment for nearly two years was Necessity
altogether tyrannical ; and, upon for depo-
the same principles that cost *'"s iiim.
James 11. his throne, it was unquestion-
ably far more necessary, unless our fa-
thers would have abandoned 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
or in any way to extol either his succes
sor or the chief men of that time, mos
of whom were aml)itious and faithless ;
but after such long experience of the
king's arbitrary, dissembling, and revenge-
ful 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 consti-
tutional light, the inos-t interesting part
of our earlier history, and it has been
the most imperfectly written. Some
have misrepresented the truth through
prejudice, and others through careless-
ness. It is only to be understood, and
indeed there are great difficulties in the
way of understanding it at all, by a peru-
sal of the rolls of parliament, with some
assistance from the contemporary histo-
justifiable by any motives that we can discover.
It is strange that Carte should express surprise at
the sentence upon the Iluke of Norfolk, while he
seems to consider that upon Hen.'ford as very
equitable. But he viewed the whole of this reign,
and of those that at sued, with the jaundiced ey«^
of Jacobitism.
* Rot. Par'.., 1 H. IV., p. 420, 426 Walsing
ham, p. 353, J57. Otierburn, p. 199 Vita Ric
JI.. o >\-
^y:'.
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[l. HAP. ^ al
rians, Walsingham, Knyghton, the anony-
mous biographer published by Hearne,
and Froissart. Tliese, 1 must remark,
except occasionally the last, are ex-
tremely hostile to Richard ; and although
n-e are far from being bound to acqui-
esce m their opinions, it is at least un-
warrantable in modern writers to sprinkle
their margins with referem.es to such
authority in support of positions deci-
dedly opposite.*
The revolution which elevated Henry
uircum.stan- IV. to the throne was certainly
ces attend- gg far accomplished by force,
iv%"acces- 'l^h^t the king was in captivity,
sion. and those who might still ad-
here to him in no condition to support
his authority. But the sincere concur-
rence 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 un-
provided with foreign support as Henry,
proves this revolution to have been, if
not an indispensable, yet a national act,
and should prevent 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, a.;-,: "ne equally unwar-
rantable by conquest, 'ine 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, founded upon specific charges
of misgovernment. Again, as the 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 the Duke of Lancas-
ter's wishes, who was not contented
with OAving a crown to election, nor
seemed altogether to account for the ex-
clusion of the house of INIarch, he devi-
sed this claim, which was preferred in
the vacancy of the throne, Richard's ces-
sion having been read and approved in
parliament, and the sentence of depo-
sition, " out of abundant caution, and to
♦ It IS fair to observe, that Froissart's testimony
makes most in favour 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 dift'er-
ent character of the Duke of Glo( ester, in gen-
eral, this writer is ill informed of English aflaif?,
aco M.ideserving to be quoted as an authority.
remove all scruple,'- solemnly jtassed oy
seven commissioners appointed out of
the several estates. " After which chal-
lenge and claim," says the record, "the
lords spiritual and temporal, and all the
estates there present, being asked sef>-
arately and together what they thought
of the said challenge and claim, the said
estates, with the whole people, without
any difliculty 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 thai,
in such cases of extreme 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 settlement it will commonly be pru-
dent, as well as equitable, to treat them
with some regard. Were this otherwise,
it would be hard to say why William
HL reigned to the exclusion of Anne, or
even of the Pretender, who had surely
committed no offence at that time; or
why (if such indeed be the true con-
struction of the Act of Settlement) the
more distant branches of the royal stock,
descendants of Henry VH. and eariier
kings, have been cut off 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 attention shown to the for-
malities of the constitution, allowance
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 es-
tates of the realm. But as it would have
been a violation of constitutional princi-
ples to assume a parliamentary character
without the king's commission, thougk
summoned by his writ, so it was still
more essential to limit their exercise of
power to the necessity of circumstances.
Upon the cession of the king, as upon his
death, the parliament was no more : its
existence, as the coimcjl of the sover-
eign, being dependant up -n his will. Tho
actual convention summoned by the writs
of Richard could not legally become th
parliament of Henry ; and the validity of
a statute declaring it to be such wouU
♦ Rot. Pari, n. 423
Part III
ENGLISH CONSTITUTIOM.
393
probably Lave been questionable in tliat
age, when the power of statutes to alter
the original principles of tlie common
law was by no means so thoroughly rec-
ognised a3 at the Restoration and lievo-
lulion. ^'ct Henry was too well pleased
with his friends to part with them so
readily ; and he had much to efl'ect be-
fore the fervour of their spirits should
abate. Hence an expedient was devised
of issuing writs for a new parliament, re-
turnable in six days. These neither were
nor could be complied 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.
If, we look back from the accession of
Retrospect Henry IV. to that of his prede-
of the prog- cessor, the constitutional au-
coiisiuuuon thority of the house of com-
uniier Rail- nious will be pcrccived to have
"■"^ "■ made surprising progress du-
ring 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 adminis-
tration of government was subject to
their inspection and control, the first was
absolutely decided in their favour, the
second was at least perfectly admitted in
principle, and the last was confirmed by
frequent exercise. The commons had
acquired two additional engines of im-
mense efficiency ; one, the right of di-
recting the application of subsidies, and
calling accountants before them ; the
other, that of impeaching the king's min-
isters for misconduct. All these vigor-
ous shoots of liberty throve more and
Itsadvannes "^o^^ under the three kings of
under the the house of Lancaster, and
nouse of drew such strength and nour-
Lancaster. . , ^ - °,
ishment 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 off, nor the mildew of
servile opinion cause them to wither. I
shall trace the progress of parliament till
the civil wars of York and Lancaster; 1,
in maintaining the exclusive right of tax-
ation ; 2, in directing and checking the
public expenditure ; 3, in making sup-
* If proof could be required of any thing so self-
evident as that these assemblies consisted of ex-
actly the same persons, it may be found in their
writs of expenses, as published by Pryniie, Ith
Register, d. 450.
plies depend on the redress of grievan-
ces; 4, in securing the people against il-
legal ordinances and interpdlalions of tlie
statutes ; 5, in controlling the royal ad
ministration; C, in punishing bad minis-
ters ; and lastly, in establishing their owji
immunities and privileges.
I. The pretence of levying money
without consent of parliament expired
with Edward HI., who had asserted it, as
we have seen, in the very last year of
his reign. A great council of lords and
prelates, sunmioned in the second year
of his successor, declared that they could
advise no remedy for the king's necessi-
ties, 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, unless we
may conjecture that this charge is im-
plied in an act (11 R. II., c. 9), which an-
nuls all impositions on wool and leather,
without consent of parliament, if any
there he.\ Doubtless his innocence in this
respect was the effect of weakness ; and
if the revolution of 1399 had not put an
end to his 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
arbitrary sovereigns in later times, aro
first complained of in an early parliament
of Richard II. ; and a petition is granted
that no man shall be compelled to lend the
king money. I But how little this was
regarded we may infer from a writ di-
rected in 138G to some pcisons in Boston,
enjoining them to assess every person
who had goods and chaUels to the amount
of twenty pounds, in his proportion of
two Imndred pounds, which tlie 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. Among other extraordinary
jiarts of this letter is a menace of forfeit-
ing life, limbs, and property, held out
against such as should not obey these
commissioners.!^ After his triumph over
* 2 R. II., p. 56.
t It is positively laid down by the asscrtors of
civil liberty in the great case of impositions
(Howell's State Trials, vol. ii., p. 413, 507), thai
no precedents for arbitrary taxation of exports or
imports occur from the accession of Richard II. tc
the reign of Mary.
X 2 R. H.. p. 62. T his did lot "ind iU way to th«'
statute book.
i) Ryme-; i. vii., p. 54i:
394
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
i^CyjAP. Vi.*
Lhe popular party towards the end of his
reign, he obtained large sums in this
way.
Under the Lancastrian kings, there is
much less a])pearance of raising money
in an unparhamentary course. Henry
IV. obtained an aid from a great council
in the year 1400 ; but they did not pre-
tend to charge any besides themselves ;
though it seems that some towns after-
ward gave the king a contribution.* A
few years afterward, he directs the sher-
iffs to call on the richest men in their
counties to advance the money voted by
parliament. This, if any compulsion was
threatened, is an instance of overstrained
prerogative, though consonant to the
practice of the late reign. f There is,
however, an instance of very arbitrary
conduct with respect to a grant of money
in the minority of Henry VI. A subsidy
had been granted by parliament upon
goods imported, under certain restrictions
in favour of the merchants, with a provi-
sion, that if these conditions be not ob-
served on the king's part, then the grant
should be void and of no effect.^ But
an entry is made on the roll of the next
parliament, that "whereas some disputes
have arisen about the grant of the last
subsidy ; it is declared by the Duke of
Bedford and other lords in parliament,
with advice of the judges and others learn-
ed in the law, that the said subsidy was at
all events to be collected and levied for
the king's use ; notwithstanding any con-
ditions in the grant of the said subsidy
contained. "i^i The commons, however,
in making the grant of a fresh subsidy in
this parliament, renewed their former
conditions, with the addition of another,
that " it ne no part thereof be beset ne
dispensed to no other use, but only in
and for the defense of the said roialme."||
2. The right of granting supplies would
Appropri- have been very incomplete, had
ationof it not been accompanied with
supplies, ^i^^j, ^|. (jirecting their application.
This principle of appropriatmg public
moneys began, as we have seen, in the
minority of Richard: and was among
the best fruits of that period. It was
steadily maintained under the new dy-
nasty, The parliament of 6 H. IV.
granted two fifteenths and two tenths,
with a tax on skins and wool, on con-
* Cartp, vol. ii., p. 640. Sir M. Hale observes
that he finds no complaints of illegal impositions
under the kings of the house of Lancaster —Har-
grave's Tracts, vol. i., p. 184.
t Rymer, t. v.ii., p. 412, 488.
t Rot. Pari. -ol. iv., p. 216.
(j Id., p. 30 II Id., p. 302
dition that ii snoi Id be expended in
the defence of the kingdom, and not
otherwise, as Thomas Lord Furniva]
and Sir John Pelham, ordained treasurers
of war for this parliament, to receive
the said subsidies, shall account and an-
swer to the commons at the next parlia-
ment. These treasurers were sworn in
parliament to execute their trust.* A
similar precaution was adopted in the
next session.!
3. The commons made a bold attempt
in the second year of Henry Attempt to
IV. to give the strongest securi- make sup-
ty to their claims of redress, ^^^^ZZt
by inverting the usual course of §riev
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 request-
ed 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 concession which would virtual-
ly have removed the chief impediment
to the ascendency of parliament. He
first said that he would consult with the
lords, and answer according to their ad-
vice. On the last day of the session
the commons were informed, that " it had
never been known, in the time of his an-
cestors, that they should have their peti-
tions answered before they had done all
their business in parliament, whether of
granting money or any other concern ;
wherefore the king will not alter the
good customs and usages of ancient
times. "J
Notwithstanding the just views these
parliaments appear generally to have en
tertained of their power over the public
purse, that of the third of Henry V. fol-
lowed a precedent from the worst times
of Richard II., by granting the king a
subsidy on wool and leather during his
life.^ This, an historian tells us, Henry
IV. had vainly laboured to obtain ;|| but
the taking of Harfleur intoxicated the
English with new dreams of conquest in
France, wliich their good sense and con-
stitutional jealousy were not firm enough
to resist. The continued expenses of tho
war, however, prevented this grant froni
becoming so dangerous as it might have
been in a season of tranquillity. Henry
* Rot. Pari., vol. iii., p. 546.
+ Id., p. 568. t Id., p. 453.
^ Id., vcl. iv., p. 63. ll Walsingharn, p 379
P,»T lll.j
ENGLISH CONSTITUTIOM.
395
v., like his father, convoked pariiament
almost in every year of his reign.
4. It had long been out of all question,
Legislative that the legislature consisted of
rigtitsof jjjg Icing, lords, and commons ;
the com- .1 4.\ ,. ^\
aions es- or, ui Stricter language, that the
tabiished. kuig could not make or repeal
statutes without the consent of parlia-
ment. I3ut this fundamental maxim was
still frequently defeated by various acts
of evasion or violence ; which, though
protested against as illegal, it was a diffi-
cult task to prevent. The king some-
times e.xerted a power of suspending the
observance of statutes ; as in the ninth
of Richard II., when a petition 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 parlia-
ment."* The apprehension of this dis-
pensmg prerog itive and sense of its ille-
gality are maiii lasted by the wary terms
wherein the commons, in one of Rich-
ard's parliaments, " assent that the king
made such sufferance respecting the
statute of provisors as shall seem rea-
sonable to him, so that the said statute
be not repealed ; and moreover that the
commons may disagree thereto at the
next parliament, and resort to the stat-
ute ;" with a protestation tliat this as-
sent, which is a novelty, a:id never done
before, shall not be drawn into prece-
dent ; praying the king that this pro-
testation may be entered on the roll of
parliament.! -^ petition in one of Henry
IV. 's parliaments, to limit the number
of attorneys, and forbid filazers and pro-
thonotaries f^rom practising, having been
answered favourably as to the first point,
we find a marginal entry in the roll that
the prince and council had respited the
execution of this act. J
The dispensing power, as exercised in
Dispensing favour of individuals, is quite
power of of a different character from
the crown j^j^jg general suspension of stat-
utes, but indirectly weakens the sov-
ereignty of the legislature. This pow-
er was e.xerted, and even recognised,
throughout all the reigns of the Planta-
genets. In the first of Henry Y. the cora-
* WalsitiEthain, p. 210. Rutl'head observes in
the margin upon this statute 8 11. II., c. 3, that it
is repealed, but does not take notice what sort of
repeal it had.
t 15 R. II., p. 285. See too 16 R. If., p. 301,
where the same p^iwer is renewed in H. IV. 's
»arliiments. t 13 H. IV., p. C13.
mons pray, that the sta ute for driving
aliens out of the kingdom be executea
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 neve:
otherwise, nor, by God's help, evei
should be. At the same time one Rees
ap Thomas petitions the king to modify
or dispense with the statute prohibiting
Welshmen from purchasing lands in
England, or the English towns in Wales,
which the king grants. In the same par-
liament the commons pray that no grant
or protection be made to any one in con-
travention of the statute of provisors,
saving the king's prerogative. He mere-
ly answers, " Let the statutes be observ-
ed :" evading any allusion to his dispen-
sing power.*
It has been observed under the reign
of Edward III., that the practice of leav-
ing statutes to be drawn up by the
judges, from the petition and answer
jointly, after a dissolution of parliament,
presented an opportunity of falsifying
the intention of the legislature, whereof
advantage was often taken. Some very
remarkable instances of this fraud oc
curred in the succeeding reigns.
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 abetters,
and detain them in prison until 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 parliament, the connnons, reci-
ting this ordinance, declare that it was
never assented to or granted by them,
but what had been proposed in this mat-
ter was without their concurrence (that
is, as I conceive, had been rejected by
them), and pray that this statute be an-
nulled, 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 pe-
tition. Nevertheless the pretended stat-
ute was untouched, and remains still
among our laws :f unrepealed, except
* Rot. Pari., V. 4 H. V., p. 6, 9.
t 5 R. II., Stat. 2, c. 5 ; Rot. Pari., 6 R. 11., p.
Ml. Some other instances of the commons at-
tempting to prevent these unfair practices are ad-
duced by Rutf head in his preface to the Statutc-s,
and in Prynnc's preface to Cotton's Abridgment
of the Records. The act 13 R. II., st£:t. 1, c. 15,
that the kini^'s castles and jails which had been
separated from the body of the adjoining counties
should be reunited to them, is not four.ded upjr
396
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGi5S.
[CHir. VIK.
by desuetude, and by inference from the
acts of much later times.
This commendable reluctance of tlie
commons to let the clergy forge chains
for them produced, as there is much ap-
pearance, a similar violation of their le-
gislative rights in the next reign. The
statute against heresy m the second of
Heiuy IV. is not grounded upon any pe-
tition of the commons, but only upon one
of the clergy. It is said to be enacted
by consent of the lords, but no notice is
taken of the lower house in the parlia-
ment roll, though the statute reciting the
petition asserts the commons to have
joined in it.* The petition and the stat-
ute are both in Latin, which is unusual
in the laws of this time. In a subse-
quent petition of the commons, this act
is styled " the statute made in the second
vear of your majesty's reign, at the re-
quest of the prelates and clergy of your
kingdom ;" which affords a presumption
that it had no regular assent of parlia-
ment.! And the spirit of th*5 commons
during this whole reign being remark-
ably hostile to the church, it would have
been hardly possible to obtain their con-
sent to so penal a law against heresy.
Several of their petitions seem designed
indirectly to weaken its efficacy. |
These infringements of their most es-
sential right were resisted by the com-
mons in various ways, according to the
measure of their power. In the fifth of
Richard II., they request the lords to let
them see a certain ordinance before it is
engrossed. i^* At another time they pro-
cured some of their own members, as
well as peers, to be present at engrossing
the roll. At length they spoke out une-
quivocally in a memorable petition, which,
besides its intrinsic importance, is de-
serving of notice as the earliest instance
i.i which the house of commons adopted
an}- petition that appears on the roll ; and probably
by making search other instances equally flagrant
might be discovered.
* There had been, however, a petition of the
commons on the same subject, expressed in very
general terms, on which this terrible superstruc-
tur>2 might artfully be raised, p. 474.
■t P. C26.
X We find a remarkable petition in 8 H. l\ .,
piofecsedly aimed against the Lollards, but in-
tended, as I strongly suspect, in their favour. It
condemns persons preaching against the Catholic
faith or sacraments to imprisonment till the next
parliament, where they were to abide such judg-
ment as should be rendered by the kins and peers of
the realm. This seems to supersede the burning
statute of 2 H. IV., and the spiritual cognizance
of heresy.— Rot. Pari, p. 583. See too p. G2C.
The petition was expressly granted ; but the cler-
fV, I supfjose, pitvented its appearing on the stat-
ale-rol „ ' 6 Rot. Pari., vol. iii., p. 102.
the English language. I shall present it?
venerable orthography without change.
" Oure soverain lord, youre humble and
trewe lieges that ben come for the co
mune of youre lend byscchyn onto youre
rizt riztwesnesse, That so as hit hath
ever be thair libte and fredom, that thar
sholde no statut no lawe be made offlasse
than they yaf therto their assent : con-
sideringe that the comune of youre loud,
the whiche that is, and ever hath be, a
membre of youre parlemente, ben as well
assenters as peticioners, that fro this
tyme foreward, by compleynte of the
comune of any myschief axknyge reme-
die by mouthe of their speker for the co-
mune, other ellys by petition writen, that
ther never be no lawe made theruppon,
and engrossed as statut and lawe, nother
by addicions, nother by diminucions, by
no manner of terme ne termes, the whiche
that sholde chaunge the sentence, and the
entente axked by the speker mouthe, or
the petitions beforesaid yeven up yn wri-
tyng by the manere forsaid, withoute as-
sent of the forsaid comune. Consider-
inge oure soverain lord, that it is not in
no wyse the entente of youre comunes,
zif yet be so that they axke you by spek-
yng, or by writyng, two thynges or three,
or as manye as theym lust : But that ever
it stande in the fredom of youre hie re-
galie, to graunte whiche of thoo that you
lust, and to werune the remanent.
" The kyng of his grace especial graunt-
eth that fro hensforth nothyng be enacted
to the peticions of his comune, that be
contrarie of hir askyng, wharby they
shuld be bounde withoute their assent.
Savyng alwey to our liege lord his real
prerogatif, to graunte and denye what
him lust of their petitions and askynges
aforesaide."*
Notwithstanding the fidness of this as-
sent to so important a petition, \\<! find
no vestige of either among the statutes,
and the whole transaction is unnoticed
by those historians who have not looked
into our original records. If the com-
pilers of the statute-roll were able to keep
out of it the very provision that was in
tended to check their fraudulent machi-
nations, it was in vain to hope for redress
without altering the established practice
in this respect; and, indeed, where there
was no design to falsify the roll, it was
* Rot. Pari., vol. iv., p. 22. It is curious that the
authors of the Parliamentary history say that the
roll of this parliament is lost, and consequently
suppress altogether this important petition. Instead
of which they give.a^ their fashion is, impertinent
speeches out of Holirgshed, which are certainly
not genuine, and woul be of no value if they wer#
so.
Palt 111. J
ENOLtSH CONSTITUTION.
3»;
impossible to draw up statutes which
should be in truth the acts of the whole
legislature, so long as the king contin-
ued to grant petitions in part, and to
nigraft new matter upon tliem. Such
was still the case, till t!ie commons hit
upon an effectual expedient for screen-
ing themselves against these encroach-
ments, which has lasted without altera-
tion to the present day. This was the
introduction of complete statutes, under
the name of bills, instead of the old pe-
titions ; 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 qualitication.
This alteration, which wrought an ex-
traordinary efiect on the character of
our constitution, was gradually introdu-
ced m Henry VI. 's reign. f
From the first years of Henry V.,
though not, I think, earlier, the com-
mons began to concern themselves with
the petitibns of individuals to the lords
or council. The nature of the jurisdic-
tion exercised by the latter will be treat-
ed more fully hereafter. It is only ne-
cessary to mention in this place, that
many of the requests preferred to them
were such as could not be granted with-
out transcending the boundaries of law.
A just inquietude as to the encroach-
ments of the king's council had long been
manifested by the commons ; and, find-
* Henry VI. and Edward IV. in some cases pass-
ed bills with sundry provisions annexed by them-
selves. Thus the act for resumption of grants, 4
E. IV., was encnmlipred with 289 clauses in fa-
vour of so many porsc.n.s whom the king meant to
exempt from its operation ; and the same; was done
in other acts of the same description. — Rot. Pari.,
vol. v., p. 517.
t The variations of each statute, as now printed,
from the parliamentary roll, whether m form or
substance, are noticed in Cotton's Abridgment. It
may be worth while to consult the preface to Kuff-
head's edition of the Statutes, where this subject
is treated at some lengtli.
Perhaps the triple division of our legislature may
be dated from this innovation. I'"or as it is impos-
sible to deny that, while the king promulgated a
statute founded upon a mere petition, he was him-
self the real legislator, so I think it is equally fair
to assert, notwithstanding the formal preamlile of
our statutes, that laws brought into cither house
of parliament in a perfect shape, and receiving first
the asserit of lords and commons, and finally that
of the king, who has no power to modify them,
must be deemed to proceed, and derive their effica-
cy, from the joint concurrence of all the three. It
is said indeed at a much earlier time, that le ley de
la terre est fait en parlcment par le roi, et les seig-
neurs espirituels et tcnijiorels, et tout la commu-
naute du royaume. — Rot. Pari,, vol. iii., p. 293.
But this I must allow was in t!ie violent session
of 11 Ric ir., the constitutional authority of which
M not to ce hijjhly prizer"
ing remonstrances 'ne/Tectual, they tooi
measures for preventing such usurpatioiii
of legislative power, by introducing tlieii
own consent to private petitions. These
v/ere now presented by the hands of tlic
commons, and in very many instances
passed in the form of statutes witli the
express assent of all parts of the legisla-
ture. Such was the origin ol ru-ivate
bills, which occupy the greater part of
the rolls in Henry V. and VI. 's parlia-
ment. The commons once made an in-
effectual endeavour to have their consent
to all petitions presented to the council
in parliament rendered necessary by law ;
if I rightly apprehend the meaning of Ihe
roll in this place, which seems obscure
or corrupt.*
5. If the strength of the commons had
lain merely in the weakness imcrrorcnte
of the crown, it might be in- "f parliament
ferrcd that such harassing in- aVexi'end'i-^
terfercnce Avith the adminis- ture.
tration of aflairs, as the youthful and friv-
olous Richard was compelled to endure,
would have been sternly repelled by liia
experienced successor. But, on the con-
trary, the spirit of Richard might hav3
rejoiced to see that his mortal enemy
suffered as hard usage at the hands oi
parliament as himself. After a few years,
the government of Henry became eX'
tremely unpopular. Perhaps his dissen-
sion with the great family of Percy, which
had placed him on the throne, and was
regarded with partiality by the people,!
chiefly contributed to this' alienation of
their attachment. The commons re
quested, in the fifth of his reign, that cer
tain persons might be removed from ihft
court; the lords concurred in displacing
four of these, one being the king's lou"-
fessor. Henry came down to parliament
and excused these four persons, as know-
ing no special cause why they should be
removed; yet, Avell understanding that
what the lords and comtnons should or-
dain would be for his and his kingdom's
interest, and therefore anxious to cm-
form himself to their wishes, consented
to the said ordinance, and charged the
persons 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 afiection of
his people. J It was in the same session
that the Archbishop of Canterbury was
commanded to declare before the lords
* 8 H. v., vol. iv., p. 127.
j The house of commons thanked the king foi
pardoning Northumberland, whom, as it proved,
he had just cause to suspec'.— 5 H. IV., p. .WS
t5H IV., p. 595.
398
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chjp. VIli
the king's intentions respecting his ad-
ministration ; allowing that some things
had been done amiss in his court and
household ; and, therefore, wishing to
conform to the will of God and laws of
the land, protested that he Avould let in fu-
ture no letters of signet or privy seal go in
disturbance of law, beseeched the lords to
pi»: his household in order, so that every
one might be paid, and declared that the
money granted by the commons for the
war should be received by treasurers ap-
pointed in pirliament, and disbursed by
them for no other purpose, unless in case
ol rebellion. At the request of the com-
mons, he named the members of his pri-
vy council ; and did the same, with some
variation of persons, two 3'ears afterward.
These, though not nominated with the
express consent, seem to have had the
approbation of the commons ; for a sub-
sidy is granted in 7 H. IV., among other
causes, for " the great trust that the
commons have in the lords lately chosen,
and ordained to be of the king's continual
council, that there shall be better man-
agement than heretofore."*
In the sixth year of Henr\', the parlia-
ment, which Sir E. Coke derides as un-
learned, because lawj-ers were excluded
from it, proceeded to a resumption of
grants, and a prohibition of alienating the
ancient inheritance of the crown without
consent of parliament ; in order to ease
the commons of taxes, and that the king
might live on his own.f This was a fa-
vourite, though rather chimerical project.
In a later parliament, it was requested
that the king would take his council's ad-
vice how to keep within his own revenue.
He answered that he would willinglj^ com-
ply, as soon as it should be in his power.|
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 arti-
cles, 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 misde-
meanor. The chancellor and privy seal
to pass no grants or other matter, contra-
rj' 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 household and the
payment of his debts ; no grant of ward-
* Rot. Pari., V. iii., p. 5S9. 568, 573.
t Td. p 517 1 13 H. IV.. p 021.
ship or other profit to be made thereout
nor any forfeiture to be pardoned. Thi
king, " considering the wise governmen
of other Christian princes, and conform-
ing himself thereto," was to assign two
daj's in the week for petitions, " it being
an honourable 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 sitting. The coun-
cil to determine nothing cognizable at
common law, unless for a reasonable
cause and with consent of the judges
The statutes regulating purve3'ance were
affirmed ; abuses of various kinds in the
council and in courts of justice enumera-
ted 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 stat-
utes, those especially just enacted.*
It must strike every reader that these
provisions were of themselves a noble
fabric of constitutional liberty, and hardly
perhaps inferior to the petition of right
under Charles I. We cannot account for
the submission of Henry to conditions
far more derogatory than ever were im-
posed on Richard, because the secret
politics of his reign are very imperfectly
understood. Towards its close he man-
ifested more vigour. The speaker. Six
Thomas Chaucer, having made the usual
petition for liberty of speech, the king
answered that he might speak as others
had done in the time of his (Henry's) an-
cestors and his own, but not otherwise ;
for he would by no means have any in-
novation, but be as much at his liberty
as any of his ancestors had ever been.
Some time after he sent a message to
the commons, complaining of a law pass-
ed at the last parliament, infringing his
liberty and prerogative, which he re-
quested their consent to repeal. To this
the commons agreed, and received the
king's thanks, who declared at the same
time that he would keep as much free-
dom and prerogative as any of his an-
cestors. It does not appear what was
the particular subject of complaint ; but
there had been much of the same re-
monstrating spirit in the last parliament,
that was manifested on preceding occa-
sions. The commons, however, for rea-
sons we cannot explain, Avere rather dis-
mayed. Before their dissolution thoy
petition the king, that, whereas he was
♦^tTPari., 8 H. IV.. p 535
fkVT Ill.J
KNGLISH CONSTITUTION.
2ifi
reported to be offended at some of his
subjects in this and in the preceding par-
liament, he would openly declare that he
held them all for loyal subjects. Henry
granted this " of his special grace ;" and
thus concluded his reign more trium-
phantly with respect to his domestic bat-
tles than he had gone through it.*
Power deemed to be ill gotten is natu-
ilenry V. rally precarious ; and the instance
his popu- of Henry IV. has been well quoted
lanty. ^^ prove that public liberty flour-
ishes with a bad title in the sovereign.
None of our kings seem to have been
less beloved; 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 fa-
ther ;t 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 dangerous insurrection of
Glendour, and who, in the latter time of
his father's reign, presided at the council,
v.'as so lost in a cloud of low debauchery
as common fame represents. J Loved
he certainly was throughout his life, as
60 intrepid, affable, and generous a tem-
per well deserved; and this sentiment
was heightened to admiration by suc-
cesses still more rapid and dazzling than
those of Kdward HI. During his reign
there scarcely appears any vestige of
dissatisfaction in parliament ; a circum-
stance very honourable, whether wc as-
cribe it to the justice of his administra-
tion, or to the affection of his people.
Perhaps two exceptions, though they are
rather one in spirit, might be made : the
first, a petition to the Duke of Gloccster,
then holding parliament as guardian of
England, that he would move the king
and queen to return, as speedily as might
please them, in relief and comfort of the
commons;'^ the second, a request that
their petitions might not be sent to the
king beyond sea, but altogether deter-
mined " within this kingdom of England
during this parliament ;" and that tliis
ordinance might bo of force in all future
parliaments to be held in England. || This
♦ 13 K. IV., p. 648, 658.
t Rot. Pari., vol. iii., p. 519, 568, 574, 611.
t This passage was written before I was aware
that the same opinion had been elaborately main-
tained by Mr. Luders, in one of his valuable essays
ipon points of constitutional history.
6 8 H. v., vol. iv., p. 125. H Id. ibid., p 128.
prayer, to which the guardian declined to
accede, evidently sprang from the appre-
hensions, excited in their minds by the
treaty of Troves, that England might be-
come a province of the French crown,
wiiich led them to obtain a renewal of
the statute of Edward HI., declaring the
independence of this kingdom.*
It has been seen alread)% that even
Edward III. consulted his par- „„,,„„„„,
,. , ,. '^ Parliament
liament upon the expediency consulted
of negotiations for peace; on aii puiiUt
though at that time the com- " '^'^^'
mons had not acquired boldness enough
to tender their advice. In Kicliard H.'s
reign they answered to a similar propo
sition with a little more confidence, that
the dangers each way were so considera-
ble they dared not decide, though an hon-
ourable peace would be the greatest com-
fort they could have ; and concluded by
hoping that the king would not engage to
do homage for Calais or tlie conquered
country.! T'l^ parliament of the tenth
of his reign was expressly summoned in
order to advise concerning the king's
intended expedition beyond sea; a great
council, which had previously been as
sembled at Oxford, having declared theii
incompetence to. consent to this measure
without the advice of parliament. J Ye
a few years afterward, on a similir rof
erence, the commons rather declined to
give any opinion. i^ They confirmed the
league of Henry V. with the Emperor
Sigismund-ll 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 minority of Henry VI., to fling an
increase of influence into the scale of
the commons, they made their concur-
rence necessary 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 dutchesscs of Bedford and Glo-
cester were made denizens, and mediators
were appointed to reconcile the dukes of
Gloccster and Burgundy, by authority
of the three estates assembled m parlia-
ment.** Leave was given to tlie dukea
of Bedford and Gloccster, and others in
the king's behalf, to treat of peace with
France, by both houses of parliament, is
» 3 H. v., vol. iv.. p. 130.
t 7 K. II., vol. ill., p. 170. t Id. ibid., p. 215
(j 17 R. II., p. 315.
II 4 II. v., vol. )v.. p. 98. ^ Id. ibid., p. 135
'* Rot. Pari , vol. iv., p. 211, 242. 277.
«00
EUROPE DURING THc: MIDDLE AGES
[Chap. MH
pursuance of an article 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 alterward repealed. f
Some complaints are made by the
commons, even during the iirst years of
Henry's minority, that the king's subjects
underwent arbitrary imprisonment, and
were vexed by summonses before the
council, and by the newly-invented writ
of subpcena out of chancery. | But these
are not so common as formerly ; and, so
far as the rolls lead us to any inference,
there was less injustice committed by the
government under Henry VI. and his
father than at any former period. Waste-
fulness indeed might justly be imputed to
the regency, who had scandalously lav-
ished the king's revenue. i^ This ulti-
mately led to an act for resuming all
grants since Lis accession, founded upon
a public declaration of the great officers
of the crown, that his debts amounted to
£372,000, and the annual expense of the
household to £24,000, while the ordinary
revenue was not more than jC5000.||
6. But before this time the sky had be-
gun to darken, and discontent with the
actual administration pervaded every
rank. The causes of this are familiar;
[mpeachments the unpopularity of the king's
Df ministers, marriage with Margaret of
Anjou, and her impolitic violence in the
conduct of affairs, particularly the impu-
ted murder of the people's favourite, the
Duke of Glocester. 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. ; when the com-
mons, though not preferring formal arti-
cles of accusation, had petitioned the
king that Justice Rickhill, who had been
employed to take the Duke of Gloces-
ters confession at Calais, and the lords
appellants of Richard XL's last parlia-
ment, should be put on their defence be-
♦ Rot. Pari , vol. iv., o. 371.
h 23 H. VI., vol. v., p. 102. There is rather a
curious instance in 3 U. VI., of the jealousy with
which the commons regarded atiy proceedings in
parliament, where they were not concerned. A
controversy arose between the earls marshal and
of Warwick respecting their precedence ; founded
upon the royal blood of the first, and long posses-
sion of the second. In this the commons could
not affect to mterfere judicially ; but they found a
sinfrular way of meddling, by petitioning the king
»o confer the dukedom of' Norfolk on the earl
marshal, vol. iv., p. 273.
t Rot. Pari.. 1 H. VI , p. 189. 3 H VI. p. 292.
iH. VI., p. 343.
6 Id., vol. v., 18 H. VI., p. 17
II H. ibid., 28 :•!. VJ., p. 1S5
fore the lords.* 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 t»e
the act of the whole legislature. For
they delivered a bill containing articles
against him to the lords, with a request
that they would pray the king's majesty
to enact that bill in parliament, and thai
the said duke might be proceeded against
upon the said articles in parliament ac-
cording to the law and custom of Eng-
land. These articles contained charges
of high treason; chiefly relating to his
conduct in France, which, whether trea-
sonable or not, seems to have been gross-
ly against the honour and advantage of
the crown. At a later day, the commons
presented many other articles of misde-
meanor. To the former he made a de-
fence, in presence of the 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 judo^ment. But, from ap-
prehension, as it is said, that Suffolk
could not escape conviction upon at least
some part of these charges, Henry anti-
cipated with no slight irregularity the
course of legal trial ; and summoning the
peers into a private chamber, informed
the Duke of Suffolk, by mouth of his
chancellor, that, inasmuch as he had not
put himself upon his peerage, but submit-
ted wholly to the royal pleasure, the king,
acquitting him of the first articles contain-
ing matter of treason, by his own advice,
and not that of the lords, nor by way ol
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 protect appear on record, thai
neither they nor their posterity might
lose their righ'.s of peerage by this prece-
dent. It was justly considered as an ar-
bitrary stretch of prerogative, in order to
defeat the privileges of parliament, and
screen a favourite minister from punish-
ment. But the course of proceeding by
bill of attainder, instead of regular im-
peachment, was not judiciously chosen
by the commons. f
7. Privilege of parliament, an extensive
and singular branch of our con- Privilege oi
stitutional law, begins to attract Parliament,
attention under the Lancastri m princes.
It is true iideed, that we can trace long
before 1} records, and may infer with
» Rot. Pari., vol. iii., p. 430, 449
t 29 H. VI., vol. v., p. 176.
fiRT JH.J
encjlish constitution.
40
probability as to times whose records
have not survived, one considerable im-
munity, a freedom from arrest for persons
transacting the king's business in his na-
tional council.* Several authorities may
bti found in Mr. Hatsell's precedents ; of
which one, in the 9th of Edward II., is
conclusive. t But in those rude times,
members of parliament were not always
respected by the officers executing legal
process, and still less by the violators of
law. After several remonstrances, which
the crown had evaded,^ the commons ob-
tained the statute 11 H. VI., c. 11, for
the punishment of such as assault any on
their way to the parliament, giving double
damages to the party. ^ They had more
difficulty in establishing, notwithstanding
the old precedents in their favour, an im-
munity from all criminal process, except
in charges of treason, felony, and breach
of the peace, which is their present
measure of privilege. The truth was,
that with a right pretty clearly recog-
nised, as is admitted by the judges in
Thorp's case, the house of commons had
no regular compulsory process at their
command. In the cases of Lark, servant
of a member, in the 8th of Henry VI.,||
and of Gierke, himself a burgess, in the
39th of the same king,^ it was thought
necessary to effect their release from a
civil execution by special acts of parlia-
ment. The commons, in a former in-
stance, endeavoured to make the law
general, that no members nor their ser-
vants might be taken, except for treason,
felony, and breach of peace ; but the king
put a negative upon this part of their pe-
. tition.
^ The most celebrated, however, of these
early cases of privilege is that of Thomas
Thorp, speaker of the commons in 31 H.
VI. This person, who was moreover a
baron of the exchequer, had been impris-
oned on an execution at suit of the Duke
of York. The commons sent some of
their members to complain of a violation
of privilege to the king and lords in par-
* If tliis were to rest upon antiquity of prece-
dent, one might be produced that would challenge
all competition, in the laws of Ethelbert, the first
• Christi:An king of Kent, at the end of the si.xth cen-
tury, we find this provision: " If the king call his
people to him (i. (>. in the wittenageinol), and any
one does an injury to one of them, let him pay a
nne."— Wilkins, Leges Anglo-Saxon., p. 2.
+ Hatsell, vol. i., p. 12.
t Rot. Pari. 5 H. IV., p. 541.
^ The clergy had got a little precedence in this.
.An art passed 8 H. VI , c. l.crantinir privilecre
Toin arrest for themselves and serv^jits on their
way to convocation.
I! Rot. Pari., vol. iv , p. 357.
*i Id vol. v.. p .174.
liament, ind to demand Thorp's release
It was alleged by the Duke of York's
council, that the trespass done by Thorp
was since the beginning of the parlia-
ment, and the judgment thereon given in
time of vacation, and not during the sit-
ting. 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 afore-
tyme, that the judges should in any wise
determine the privilege of this high court
of parhameut ; for it is so high and so
mighty in his nature, that it may make
law, and that that is law it may make no
law ; and the determination and knowl-
edge of that privilege belongcth to the
lords of the parliament, and not to the
justices." They went on, however, after
observing that a general writ of superse-
deas of all processes upon ground of
privilege had not been known, to say,
that, "if any person that is a member of
this high court of parliament be arrested
in such cases as be not for treason nr ff 1
ony, or surety of the peace, or for a con
demnation had before the parliament, it
is used that all such persons should be
released of such arrests and make an at
torney, so that they may have their free-
dom and liDcriy, freely to intend upon the
parliament."
Notwithstanding this answer of the
judges, it was concluded 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 spe^d" to the election of a new
speaker. It is curious to observe, that
the commons, forgetting their grievances,
or content to drop them, made such haste
and speed according to this command,
that they presented a new speaker for ap-
probation 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 afterward distin-
guished 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 determina-
tion. 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
particular act of parliament to obtain a
writ of supersedeas in favour of one At-
well, a member, who had been sued
* Rot. Pari., '-ol. v., p. 239. Hatseirs Prec«
dents, p 29.
403
t-CROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
[Chap, rili
The present law of privilege seems not
10 have been fully established, or at least
effectually maintained, before the reign
of Henry VIII.*
No privilege of the commons can be
so fundamental as liberty of speech.
This is claimed at the opening of every
parhament by their speaker, and could
never be infringed without shaking the
ramparts of the constitution. Richard
II. 's attack upon Haxey has been already
mentioned as a flagrant evidence of his
despotic intentions. No other case oc-
curs imtil the 33d year of Henry VI.,
when Thomas Young, member for Bris-
tol, complained to the commons, that,
" for matters by him shewed in the house
accustomed for the commons in the said
parliaments, he was therefore taken, ar-
rested, and rigorously in open wise led
to the Tower of London, and there griev-
ously in great duress long time impris-
oned against the said freedom and liber-
ty," with much more to the like effect.
The commons transmitted this petition
to the lords, and the king " willed that
the lords of his council do and provide
for the said suppliant, as in their discre-
tion shall be thought convenient and rea-
sonable." This imprisonment of Young,
however, had happened six years before,
m consequence of a motion made by him,
that the king then having no issue, the
Duke of York might be declared heir-ap-
parent to the crown. In the present ses-
sion, 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 IV., and perhaps the earliest
authority for two eminent maxims of par-
liamentary law ; that the com.mons pos-
sess an exclusive right of originating
money bills, and that the king ought not
to take notice of matters pending in par-
liament. A quarrel broke out between
the two houaes upon this ground ; and as
we have not before seen the commons
venture to clash openly with their supe-
riors, tlie circumstance is for this addi-
tional reason worthy of attention. As it
has been little noticed, I shall translate
the whole record.
" Friday, the' second day of December,
which was the last day of the parliament,
the commons came before the king and
the lords in parliament, and there, by
* Upon this subject the reader should have re-
CHirse to Hatsell's Precedents, vol. i., chap. 1.
t l^^t. Pari, v'J v., p. 337. W. Worcester, p.
475. Mr. HatseL seems to have overlooked this
case, for he mentions that of Strickland, in 1.571, as
he earliest instance of the crown's interference
with freedom of speech in parliament, vol. i., p 85.
command of the k g, a schedule of in^
demnity touching a certain altercation
moved between the lords and commons
was read ; and on this it was command-
ed by our said lord the king, that tho
said schedule should be entered of record
in the roll of parliament ; of which sched-
ule the tenour is as follows : be it remem-^
berod, that on Monday, the 21st day of
November, the king our sovereign lord
being in the council-chamber in the ab-
bey of Glocester,* the lords spiritual and
temporal for this present parliament as-
sembled being then in his presence, a
debate took place among them about the
state of the kingdom, and its defence 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, un-
less, for the safeguard and defence 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 cir-
cumstances ] 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 suffi-
cient than one tenth and a half from
cities and towns, and one fifteenth and a
half from all other lay persons ; and be-
sides, to grant a continuance of the sub-
sidy on wool, woolfells, and leather, and
of three shillings on the tun (of wine),
and twelve pence on the pound (of other
merchandise), from Michaelmas next en-
suing for two years thenceforth. Where-
upon, by command of our said lord the
king, a message was sent to the com-
mons of this parliament, to cause a cer-
tain number of their body to come before
our said lord the king and the lords, in
order to hear and report to their com-
panions what they should be commanded
by our said lord the king. And upon this
Ihe said commons sent into the presence
of our said lord the king and the said
lords twelve of their companions ; to
v\hom, by command of our said lord the
king, the said question was declared,
with the answer by the said lords sever-
ally given to it. Which answer it was
the pleasure of our said lord the king,
that they should report to the rest of
their fellows, to the end that they might
take the shortest course to comply witt
the intention of the said lords. Whict
* This parliament sat at Glocester.
Part III."
KNGLtSH CONSTITUTION'.
4113
report being ihus made to the said com-
mons, they were greatly disturbed at it,
saying and asserting it to be much to the
prejudice and derogation of their liber-
ties. 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
aijainst 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 ad-
vice and consent of the said lords, as fol-
lows ; 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, con-
cerning 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 to-
gether concerning the said condition and
remedies. Provided always, that neither
the lords on their part, nor the commons
on theirs, do make any report to our said
lord the king of any grant granted iiy the
commons, and agreed to by the lords, nor
of the communications 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 ac-
customed, 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
derogation of the liberty of the estate, for
which the said commons arc 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 tliey
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."*
Every attentive reader will discover
this remarkable passage to illustrate sev-
eral points of constitutional law. For
hence it may be perceived : first, that
the King was used in those times to he
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, 1 conceive, is not abolished by the
king's present declaration, save as to
grants of money, which ought to be of
the free-will of parliament, and without
that fear or influence which the pres-
ence of so high a person might create :
secondly, that it was already the estab-
lished law of parliament, 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 ex-
pressly that grants are made by the com-
mons," and agreed 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 repre-
sentative of the commons of England ;
who, being the third estate, with the no-
bility and clergy, make up and constitute
the people of this kingdom and liege sub-
jects of the crown.*
* Rot. Pari., V. iii., p. 611
* A notion is entertained by many people, anf"
not without the authority of some very respecta
ble 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 ir
parliament do the third. This is contradicted by
the general tenour of our ancient records and law-
books ; and indeed the analogy of other govern-
ments 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 no
bility, clergy, and commons, or at least their rep
resentatives in parliament, are too numerous for
insertion. This land standeth, says the Chancel-
lor Stillington, in 7th Edward IV., by three states,
and above that one principal, that is, to wit, lords
spiritual, lords tcm])oral, and commons, and over
that, state royal, as our sovereign lord the king. —
Rot. Pari., vol. v., p. 022. Thus loo it is declared
that the treaty of Staples in 1492 was to be con-
firmed per tres status regni Anglias ritfe et debite
convocatos, videlicet per prelatos et clerum, nobi-
les et communitates e'usdem regni. — Rymer, t.
.\ii., p. 508.
I win not, hovveve', suppress one passage, and
the only instance that nas occurred in my reading,
where the kiog does appear to have been reckoned
among the three estates. The commons say, in
the 2d of Henry IV., that the stales of the realm
may be compared to * trinity, that is, the king, the
lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons. —
Rot. Pari., vol. lii., p. 459. In this e.xpression,
however, the sense shows, that by estates of the
realm they meant members, or necessary partrf of
the parliament.
Whitelocke, on the Parliamentary Writ, vol. ii.,
p. 43, argues at length, that the three estates are
king, lords, and commons, which seems to have
been a current doctrine among the popular lawyer*
of the seventeenth century. His reasoning is
chiefly grounded on the baronial tenure of bishops,
the validity of acts passed against thoir consent
104
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
ICiui' V'li
At the next meeting of parliament, in
allusion probnbly to this disagreement
between me houses, the king told them,
ihat the states of parliament were come
together for the common profit of the
king and kingdom, and for unanimity's
sake and general consent ; and therefore
he was sure the commons would not at-
tempt nor say any thing but what should
be fitting and conducive to unanimity ;
commandmg them to meet together, and
communicate for the public service.*
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 commencement at least
of Edward Ill.'s reign, was that the
commons presented petitions, which the
lords by themselves, or with the assist-
ance of the council, having duly consid-
ered, the sanction of the king was noti-
fied or withheld. This was so much ac-
cording to usage, that, on one occasion,
when the commons requested the advice
of the other house on a matter before
them, it was answered, that the ancient
custom and form of parliament had e\'er
been for the commons to report tlieir
owii opinion to the king and lords, and
not to the contrary ; and the king would
)\ave the ancient and laudable usages of
parliament maintained. f It is singular
that, in the terror of innovation, the lords
did not discover how materially this
usage of parliament took off from their
own legislative influence. The rule,
and other arguments of the same kind ; which
miglit go to prove that there are only at present
two estates, but can never turn the king into
one.
The source of this error is an inattention to the
]>rimary sense of the word estate (status), which
means an order or condition into which men are
classed by the institutions of society. It is only in
a secondary, or rather an elliptical application, that
it can be referred to their representatives in parlia-
ment or national councds. The lords temporal,
indeed, of England are identical with the estate
of the nobility ; but the house of commons is not,
strictly speaking, the estate of commonalty, to
which its members belong, and from which they
are deputed. So the whole body of the clergy are
properly speaking one of the estates, and are de-
trribed as such in the older authorities, 21 Kic.
11., Rot. Pari., v. lii., p. 318, though latterly the
lords spiritual in parliament acquired, with less
correctness, that appellation — Hody on Convoca-
tions, p. 426. The bishops, indeed, may be said
constructively to represent the whole of the cler-
gv, with whose grievances they are supposed to be
best acquainted, and whose rights it is their pecu-
liar duty to defend. And I do not find that the in-
ferior clergy had any other representation in the
cortes of Castile and Aragon, where the ecclesi-
astical order was always counted among the es-
tates of the realm.
♦ P (\-7X t Rot. Pari., 5 R. II., p. 100.
however, was not observed in succeed-
ing times ; bills originated indiscrimi.
nately in either house ; and indeed some
acts of Henry V., which do not appear
to be grounded on any petition, may b»
suspected, from the manner of iln^r in-
sertion in the rolls of parliament, to have
been proposed on the king's part to the
commons.* But tliere is one manifest
instance in the I8th of Henry VI., where
the king requested the commons to give
their authority to such regulations! aa
his council might have provided for re-
dressing the abuse of purveyance ; to
which they assented.
If we are to choose constitutional pre
cedents from seasons of tranquillity rath-
er than disturbance, which surely is the
only means of preserving justice or con-
■^ Stat. 2 H. v., c. 6, 7, 8, 9. 4 H. VI., c. 7.
t Kot. Pari, vol. v., p. 7. It appears by a caa?
in the year-book of the thirty-third of Henry VI, ^
that, where the lords made only some minor nltei •
ations ill a bill sent up to them from the commons
even if it related to a grant of money, the custom
was not to remand it for their assent to the amend-
ment.— Brooke's Abridgment: Parliament. 4.
The passage is worth extracting, in order to illcs-
trate the course of proceeding in parliament at
that time. Case fuit que Sir J. P. iuit attaint de
certeyn trespas par acte de parliament, dont le«
commons furent assentus, quesil ne vient eins pci
tiel jour que il forfeytera tiel sum me, et les seign
eurs done plus longe jour, et lebil nient rebaile a]
commons arrere ; et per Kirby, clerk des roles del
parliament, I'use del parliament est, que si oil
vient primes a les commons, et ils passent ceo, il
est use d'endorser ceo en tiel forme ; Soil bayle as
seigniors ; et si les seigniors ne le roy ne alteront le
bil, donques est use a iiverer ceo al clerkedel par-
liament destre enrol saunz endorser ceo . . . Et si
les seigniors volent alter un bil in ceo que poet es-
toye orQ le bil, ils poyent saunz remandre ceo al
commons, come si les commons graunte poundage
pur quatuorans, et les grantent nisi par deu.x ar.s,
ceo ne serra lebavle al commons ; mes si les com-
mons grauntent nisi pur deux ans, et les seigneurs
pur quatre ans, la ceo serra reliver al commons, et
en cest case les seigniors doyent faire un sedule de
lour intent, ou d'endorser le bil en ceste forme,
Les seigneurs ceo assentent pur durer par quatuor
ans ; et quant les commons ount le bil arrere, et ne
volent assenter a ceo, ceo ne poet estre un actre,
mes si les commons volent assenter, donques ils
indorse leur respons sur le mergent ne basse deina
le bil en tiel forme, Les commons sont assentansal
sedul des seigniors, a mesme cesty bil annexe, et
donques sera bayle ad clerke del parliament, ut
supra. Et si un bil soit primes liver al seigniors,
et le bil passe cux, ils ne usontde fayre ascun en-
dorsement, mess de mitter le bil as commons, et
donques si le bil passe les commons, il est use
desire issint endorce, Les commons sont assent
ants, et ceo prove que il ad passe les seigniors de-
vant, et lour assent est a cest passer del seigniors ;
et ideo cest acte supra nest bon, pur ceo que ne
fuit rebaile as commons.
A singular assertion is made in the year-book 2)
E. IV., p. 48 (Maynaid's edit.), that a subsidy
granted by the commons without assent <■! the
peers is good enough. This cannct sure'.} have
been law at that time.
J
P^RT HI.]
ENGLISH C NSTITUTION.
4U?
sistency, but little intrinsic authority cau j
be given to the following declaration of |
parliamentary law in the 11th nf Richard \
II. " In this parliament (the roll says) \
hU the lords as well spiritual and tern- '
poral there present, claimed as their lib-
erty and privilege, that the great matters
moved ia this parliament, and to be moved
in other parliaments for time to come,
touching the peers of the land, should be
treated, adjudged, and debated according
to the course of parliament, and not by
the civil law, nor the common law of the
land, used in the other lower courts of
the kingdom ; wliich claim, liberty, and
privileges, the king ijraciously allowed
and granted them in full parliament."*
It should be remembered that this asser-
tion of paramount privilege was made in
very irregular times, when the king was
at the mercy of the Duke of Glocester
and his associates, ai;d that it had a view
to the immediate object of justifying their
violent proceedings ag;iinst the opposite
party, and taking away the restraint of
the common lav/. It stands as a danger-
ous rock to be avoided, not a hghthouse
to guide us along the chamiel. The law
of parliament, as determined by regular
custom, is incorporated into our constitu-
tion ; but not so as to warrant an indef-
inite, uncontrollable assumption of pow-
er in any case, least of all in judicial pro-
cedure, where the form and the essence
of justice are inseparable from each oth-
er. And, in fact, this claim of the lords,
whatever gloss Sir K. Coke may put upon
it, was never intended to bear any rela-
tion to the privileges of the lower house.
I should not perhaps have noticed this
passage so strongly if it had not been
made the basis of extravagant assertions
as to the privileges of parliament;! the
spirit of which exaggerations might not
be ill adapted to the times wlicrein Sir E.
Coke lived, though I think they produced
at several later periods no slight mis-
chief, some consequences of which we
may still have to experience.
The want of all judicial authority, ei-
Contesied '■''^'" ^^ '^'^^^ process Or to cxam-
fiettions ine witnesses, together with the
now (le- visual shortness of sessions, de-
prived the house of commons ot
what is now considered one of its most
fundamental privileges, the cognizance
of disputed elections. Upon a false re-
turn by the slieriff, there was no remedy
but through the king or his coimcil. Six
instances only, I believe, occur during the
reigns of the Plantagenet family, where-
in the misconduct or mistake of the sher-
iff is recorded to have called for a spe-
cific animadversion, though it was fre-
quently the ground of general complaint,
and even of some statutes. The first is
in the 12th of Edward II., when a petition
was presented to the council against a
false return for the county of Devon, the
petitioner having been duly elected. It
was referred to the court of exchequei
to summon the sheriff before them.* The
next occurs in the 36th of E. III., when
a writ was directed to the sheriff of Lan-
cashire, after the dissolution of parlia-
ment, to inquire at the county-court into
the validity of the election ; and upon his
neglect, a second writ issued to the jus-
tices of the peace to satisfy themselves
about this in the best manner they could,
and report the truth into chancery. This
inquiry after the dissolution was on ac-
count of the wages for attendance, to
which the knights unduly returned could
have no pretence. f We find a third case
in the 7th of Richard II., when the king
took notice that Thomas de Camoys,
who was summoned by writ to the house
of peers, had been elected kniglit for
Surry, and directed the sheriff to return
another.^ In the same year, the town of
Shaftsbury petitioned the king, lords, and
commons" against a false return of *he
sheriff" of Dorset, and prayed them to or-
der remedy. Nothing further appears re-
specting this petition. i^i This is the first
instance of the commons being noticed
in matters of election. But the next
case is more material : in the 5lh of Hen-
ry IV., the commons prayed the king and
lords in parliament, that because the writ
of sumuions to parliament was not suffi-
ciently returned by the sheriff of Rut-
land, this matter might be examined in
parliament, and in case of default found
therein, an exemplary punishment might
be inllicted ; whereupon the lords sent
for the sheriff and Oneby, the knight re-
turned, as well as for Thorp, who had been
duly elected, and having examined into
the facts of the case, directed the return to
be amended, by the insertion of Thorp's
name, and conmiitted the sheriff to the
Fleet, till he should pay a fine at the
king's pleasure. II The last passage that
I can produce is from the roll of 18 H
VI., w here " it is considered by the king
witli the advice and assent of the lords
♦ Rot. Pari. vol. ivi., p. 244.
V Ooke's 4th Institute, p. 15.
* Glanvil's Report* of Elections, edit. 1774. In
trodnction. p, 12. + 4 Prynne, p. 2(il
t Glanvil's Reports, ibid., fiom Prynne
() Id. ibid.
II Ibid., and Rot. Pari., vol. iii.. p. .'i.lO.
i()6
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. Vii,
spiritual and temporal," that whereas no
knights have been returned for Cam-
bridgeshire, the sheriff shall be directed,
by another writ, to hold a court and to
proceed to an election, proclaiming that
no person shall come armed, nor any tu-
multuous proceeding take place ; some-
thing of which sort appears to have ob-
structed the execution of the first writ.
It is to be noticed that the commons are
not so much as named in this entry.*
But several provisions were made by stat-
ute under the Lancastrian kings, when
seats in parliament became much more
an object of competition than before, to
check the partiality of the sheriffs in ma-
king undue returns. One act (11 H. IV.,
c. 1) gives the justices of assize power
to inquire into this matter, and inflicts a
penalty of one hundred pounds on the
sheriff. Another (6 H. VI., c. 4) miti-
gates the rigour of the former, so far as
to permit the sheriff or the knights re-
turned by him to traverse the inquests
before the justices ; that is, to be heard
in their own defence, which, it seems,
had not been permitted to them. An-
other (23 H. VI., c. lA) gives an addi-
tional penalty upon false returns to the
party aggrieved. These statutes con-
spire with many other testimonies to
manifest the rising importance of the
house of commons, and the eagerness
with which gentlemen of landed estates
(whatever might be the case in petty
Doroughs) sought for a share in the na-
tional representation.
Whoever may have been the original
In whom votcrs for county representa-
lonn^for"'^ tives, the first statute that regu-
knigius re- lates their election, so far from
sided. limiting the privilege to tenants
in capite, 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 H.
IV., c. 15, "all who are there present, as
well suiters duly summoned for that
cause as others."! And this acquires
* Rot. Pari., vol. v., p. 7.
+ 3 Prynne's Register, p. 187. This hypothesis,
though embraced by Prynne, is, I confess, much
opposed to general opinion ; and a very respectable
living writer treats such an interpretation of the
statute 7 H. IV. as chimerical. The words cited
m the text " as others," mean only, according to
him, suiters not duly summoned. — HeyA-ood on
Elections, vol. i., p. 20. But, as I presume, the
•umnions to freeholJers was by general proclama-
some degree of confirmation from the
later statute, 8 H. VI., c. 7, which, re-
citing that " elections of knights of shires
have now of late been made by very
great, outrageous, and excessive number
of people dwelling within the same coun-
ties, of the which most part was people
of small substance and of no value," con-
fines the elective franchise to freeholder?
of lands or tenements to the value of
forty shillings.
The representation of towns in parlia-
ment was founded upon two Elections ol
principles ; of consent to public Burgesses.
burdens and of advice in public meas-
ures, especially such as related to trade
and shipping. Upon both these ac(^ounts
it was natural for the kings who first
summoned them to parliament, little fore-
seeing that such half-emancipated burgh-
ers would ever clip the loftiest plumes
of their prerogative, to make these as-
sembhes numerous, and summon mem-
bers from every town of consideration
in the kingdom. Thus the writ of 23 E.
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 subsequent writs, yet their spirit was
preserved ; many towns having constant
ly returned members to paiUament by
regular summonses from the sheriffs,
which were no chartered boroughs, nor
had apparently any other claim than their
popnlousness or commerce. These are
now called boroughs by prescription.*
tion ; so that it is not easy to perceive what differ
ence there could be between summoned and un
summoned suiters. And if the words are supposed
to glance at the private summonses to a few friends,
by means of which the sheriffs were accustomed
to procure a clandestine election, one can hardly
imagine that such persons would be styled "duly
summoned." It is not unlikely, however, that
these large expressions were inadvertently used,
and that they led to that inundation of voters with
out property, which rendered the subsequent ac
of Henry VI. necessary. That of Henry IV. hz;.
itself been occasioned by an opposite evil, the cloh«
election of knights by a few persons in the name
of the county.
Yet the consequence of the statute of Henry IV
was not to let in too many voters, or to render elec
tions tumultuous, in the largest of English coun
ties, whatever it might be in others. Prynne hag
published some singular sheriflfs' indentures foi the
county of York, all during the interval between the
acts of Henry 1 V. and Henry VI., which are sealed
by a few persons calling themselves the attorneys
of some peers and ladies, who, as far as appears,
had solely returned the knights of that shire.— 3
Prynne, p. 152. What degree tf weight these
anomalous returns ought to possess, I leave lo the
reader.
* The majority of prescriptive lioronclis have
prescriptive corporations, which carry the lei?<«l
which s not always th" moral proiumijtio
rAiiT III. I
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
40?
Besides these respectable towns, there
were some of a less eminent figure,
whicii had writs directed to them as an-
cient demesnes of the crown. During
times ol arbitrary taxation, the crown
had set tallages alike upon its chartered
boroughs and upon its tenants in de-
mesne. When parliamentary consent
became indispensable, the free tenants in
ancient demesne, or rather such of them
as inhabited some particular vills, were
called to parliament among the other
representatives of the commons. They
are usually specified distinctly from the
other classes of representatives in grants
of subsidies throughout the parliaments
of the two first Edwards, till, about the
beginning of the Third's reign, they
were confounded with ordinary burges-
ses.* This is the foundation of tliat par-
ticular species of elective franchise inci-
dent to what we denominate burgage
tenure ; which, however, is not confined
to the ancient demesne of the crown. f
The proper constituents therefore of
the citizens and burgesses 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 ■,X 2.
.Vll towns which were the ancient or the
dctual demesne of the crown ; 3. All
'jonsiderable places, though unincorpo-
rated, which could aftord to defray the
expenses of their representatives, and
had a notable interest in the public wel-
fare. But no parliament ever perfectly
corresponaed with this theory. The
original charter. But " many boroughs and towns
ir. England have burgesses by prescription, that
never were incorporated." — Ch. J. Hobart in Dnii-
gannon Case, Hobart's Reports, p. 15. And Mr.
Luders tliinks, I know not how justly, that in the
age of Edward I., which is most to our immediate
purpose, " there were not perhaps thirty corpora-
tions in the kingdom." — Reports of Elections, vol.
I., p. 98. But I must allow that, in the ojiitiion of
many sound lawyers,*the representation of unchar-
tered, or at least unincorporated boroughs, was rath-
er a real privilege, and founded upon tenure, than
onearisingout of their share m public contiibutions.
— CU. .T. Holt in Ashby v. White, 2 Ld. Raymond,
^5\. Heywood on Horough Elections, p. 1 1. This
.fiquiry is very obscure ; and perhaps the more so,
because the learning directed towards it has more
frequently been that of advocates pleadnig for their
clients th.-;n of unbiased antiquaries. If this be
kept in view, the lover of constitutional history
will find much information in several of the re-
fiorted cases on ccmtroverted elections; particu-
arly those of Tewksbury and Liskeard in Peck-
well's Reports, vol. i.
* Brady on Boroughs, p. 75, SO, and 163. Case
f Tewksbury, in Peckwell'? -eports, vol. i., p.
178.
t Littleton, a. 162, 163. Brady, p. 97.
writ was addressed in gen^fal .. g^^,
terms to the sheriff, requiring thesherie
him to cause two knights to be 1°^°"^''^^
elected out of the body of the ^ *
county, two citizens from every ciiy, and
two burgesses from every borough. Ii
rested altogether upon him to determinr
what towns sliould exercise this fran
chise ; and it is really incredible, with all
the carelessness and ignorance of those
times, what frauds the sheriffs ventured
to cominit in executing this trust. Thougli
parliaments met almost every year, and
there could be no mistake in so notori-
ous a fact, it was the continual practice
of sheriffs to omit boroughs that had
been in recent habit of electing mem-
bers, and to return upon the writ that
there were no more within their county
Thus, in the 12th of Edward III., the sher-
iff of Wiltshire, after returning two citi-
zens for Salisbury, and burgesses for two
boroughs, concludes with these words;
" There are no other cities or borougha
within my bailiwick." Yet in fact eight
other towns had sent members to pre
ceding parliaments. So in the 6th of
Edward II., the sheriff of Bucks declared
that he had no borough within his county
except Wycomb ; though Wendover, Ag-
mondesham, and Marlow had twice made
returns since that king's accession.* And
from this cause alone it has happened
that inany towns called boroughs, and
having a charter and constitution as such,
have never returned members to parlia-
ment ; some of which are now among
the most considerable in England, as
Leeds, Birmingham, and Macclesfield. f
It has been suggested, indeed, by Bra
dy,|that these returns may not appear so
false and collusive if we suppose the sher-
iff to mean only that there were no res-
ident burgesses within these boroughs fit
to be returned, or that the expense of
their wages would be too heavy for the
place to support. And no doubt the lat-
ter plea, whether implied or not in the re-
turn, was very frequently an inducemem
to the sheriffs to spare the smaller bor-
* Brady on Boroughs, p. 110. 3 Prynne, p.231
The latter even argues that this power of omitting
ancient boroughs was legally vested in the sheriflf
before the 5th of Ricnard il., and though the Ian
gnace of that act iiT«?!ies the contrary of this posi-
tion, yet it is more than probable that most of oui
parliamentary boroughs by prescription, especially
such as were then unincorjiorated, are indebted
for their privileges to the e.xercise-of the sherift'*
discretion ; not founded on partiality, which would
rather have led him to omit them, but on the broad
principle that they were sufficiently opulent and
important to send representatives to parliament.
+ Willis, Nctitia Parliamentaria, vol. i., preface
p. 3.'.. tP. in
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGEb.
[ubap. vin
The wages of knights were four
siumiigS a day, levied on all freeholders,
or at least on all holding by knight-ser-
vice, within the county.* Those of bur-
gesses were half that sum ;t but even this
pittance was raised with reluctance and
difficulty from miserable burghers, little
solicitous about political franchises. Pov-
erty, indeed, seems to have been accepted
as a legal excuse. In the 6th of E. II.,
the sheritT of Northumberland returns to
the writ of summons, that all his knights
are not sufficient to p-Totect the county ;
and in the 1st of E. III., that they were
too much ravaged by their enemies to
send any members to parliament. | The
sherifTs of Lancashire, after several re-
* It is a perplexing question, whether freehold-
ers in soccage were liable to contribute towards
the wages of knights ; and authorities might be
produced on both sides. The more probaWe sup-
position is that they were not exempted. See the
various petitions relating to the payment of wages
in Prynne's fourth Register. This is not uncon-
nected with the question as to their right of suf-
frage. See ante, p. 3G0. Freeholders within fran-
chises made repeated endeavours to exempt them-
selves from payment of wages. Thus in 9 H. IV.
it was settled by parliament, that, to put an end to
the disputes on this subject between the people of
Cambridgeshire and those of the Isle of Ely, the
latter should pay 200/. and be quit in future of all
charges on that account. — Rot. Pari., vol. iv., p.
383. By this means the inhabitants of that fran-
chise seem to have purchased the right of suffrage,
which they still enjoy, though not, 1 .suppose, suit-
ers to the county-court. In most other franchises,
and in many cit'es erected into distinct counties,
the same privilege of voting for knights of the
shire is practically exercised ; but whether this
has not proceeded as much from the tendency of
returning officers and of parliament to favour the
right of election in doubtful cases, as from the
merits of their pretensions, may be a question.
+ The wages of knights and burgesses were first
reduced to this certain sum by the writs De levan-
dis expensis, 16 E. 11.— Prynne's fourth Register,
p. 53. These were issued at the request of those
who had served after the dissolution of parliament,
and included a certain number of daya, according
to the distance of the county whence they came,
for going and returning. It appears by these thrit
thirty-five or forty miles were reckoned a day's
journey ; which may correct the e.xaggerated no-
tions of bad roads and tardy locomotions that are
sometimes entertained. —See Prynne's fourth part,
and Willis's Notitia Parliamentaria, passim.
The latest entries of writs for expenses in the
cose rolls are of 2 H. V. ; but they may be proved to
have issued much longer ; and Prynne traces them
to the end of Henry Vlll.'s reign, p. 495. With-
out the formality of this writ, a very few instances
of towns remunerating their burgesses for attend-
ance in parliament are known to have occurred in
later times. Andrew Marvel is commonly .said to
have been the last who received this honourable
salary. A modern book asserts that weges were
,)aid in some Cornish boroughs as late es the
oighteenth century.— Lyson's Cornwall, preface, p.
xxxii. ; but the passage quoted :n proof of tlv.s is
nt precise enough ta s .pport a unlikely a fact,
t 3 Prynne, p. 105.
turn.s that they had no boroughs withru
their county, though Wigan, Liverpool,
and Preston were such, alleged at lengtn
that none ought to be called upon on ac-
count of their poverty. This return was
constantly made, from 36 E. III. to tho
reign of Henry VI.*
The elective fianchise was deemed by
the boroughs no privilege or r„„,,,„^
blessing, but rather, durmg the or boroughs
chief part of this period, an in- i" sei;d
tolerable 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 in
significance. The town of Torrington,
in Devonshire, went farther, and obtained
a charter of exemption from sending bur-
gesses, grounded upon what the charter
asserts to appear on the rolls of chance-
ry, that it had never been represented
before the 21st of E. III. This is abso-
lutely false, and is a proof how little we
can rely upon the veracity of records
Torrington having made not less than
twenty-two returns before that time. I
is curious, that in spite of this char'er, lh<
town sent members to the two ensuing
parliaments, and then ceased for ever.'f
Richard II. gave the inhabitants of Col-
chester a dispensation from returning bur-
gesses for five years, in consideration of
the expenses they had incurred in forti-
fying the town. I But this immunity,
from whatever reason, was not regarded,
Colchester having continued to make re-
turns as before.
The partiality of sheriffs in leaving out
boroughs which were accustomed in old
time to come to the parliament, was re-
pressed, as far as law could repress it, by
a statute of Richard 11., which imposed a
fine on them for such neglect, and upon
any member of parliaiiient who should
absent himself from his duty. § But it is,
I think, highly probable, that a great part
of those who were elected from the bor-
oughs did not trouble themselves with at-
tendance in parliament. The sheriff even
found it necessary to take sureties for
their execution of so burdensome a du'.y
whose names it was usual, down to tlifc
end of the fifteenth century, to endorse
upon the writ along with those of the
elected. II This expedient is not likely to
♦ 4 Prynne, p. 31" + IfU p. 320.
t 3 Pryni^e, p. 241. <i 5 K. II., st&t. n., c. 4
r, Luders's Reports, 'ol. i., d. 15. Soni^nimcs
nn elected b» -gess ibsiiluifely refused to gi, to pa/
Part III.]
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
4oy
have been very successful ; and tlie small
number, comparatively speaking, of writs
for expenses of members for boroughs,
which have been publislied by Prynne,
while those for the knights of shires are
almost complete, leads to a strong pre-
sumption that their attendance was very
defective. This statute of Richard II.
produced no sensible effect.
By what person the election of bur-
•mru ., et-'sses was usually made is a
Who the = ^. . i \ -^
eiertors in qucstiou of great obscurity,
boroughs which is still occasionally deba-
^"^' ted before committees of parlia-
ment. It appears to have been the com-
mon practice for a very few of the prin-
cipal 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 cannot surely be warranted by
this to infer that they acted in any other
capacity than as deputies of the whole
body, and indeed it is frequently ex-
pressed that they chose such and such
persons by the assent of the communi-
ty ;f by which word, in an ancient cor-
porate borough, it seems natural to un-
derstand the freemen participating in its
general franchises, rather than the ruling
body, which, in many instances at pres-
ent, and always perhaps in the earliest
Hgc of corporations, derived its authority
by delegation from the rest. The con-
Rent, however, of the inferior freemen
we may easily believe to have been
merely nominal ; and from being nomi-
nal, it would in many places come by de-
grees not to be required at all ; the cor-
poration, specially so denominated, or
municipal government, acquiring by
length of usage an exclusive privilege in
election of members 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
o'.her capital burgesses. J
The members of the house of corn-
Members of nions, from this occasional dis-
lUe House use of ancient boroughs, as
ofCorowoiis. ^^,(311 ^s fro,^ ti^e creation of
new ones, underwent some fluctuation
during the period subject to our review.
Two hundred citizens and burgesses sat
in the parliament lield by Edward I. in
liainen;, and drove his constituents ta a fresh
choice —3 Prynne, p. 277.
» 3 Prynne, p. 252.
t Idem, p. 257, de assensu totius coinmunita-
ti8 predictaB elegerunt R. W., so in several other
jrialnnces quoted in the ensuing pages.
« Bradv on Boroug'^s p. 132, &c.
his twenty-third yeai 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 tliat we
may reckon this part of the commons a',
one hundred and eighty.* These, if reg
ular in their duties, might appear an over-
balance for the seventy-four knights who
sat with them. But the dignity of an
cicnt lineage, territorial wealth, and mil
itary character, in times when the feudal
spirit was hardly extinct, and that of
chivalry at its height, made these burgh-
ers veil their headS to the landed aris<
tocnicy. It is pretty manifest that the
knights, though doubtless with some sup-
port from the representatives of towns,
sustained the chief brunt of battle against
the crown. The rule and intention of
our old constitution was, tliat each coun-
ty, cit}^, 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 sv/erved from this
strictness. But I have not been able to
trace many steps of the transition. The
number of practising lawyers wlio sat in
parliament, of which there are several
complaints, seems to afford an inference
that it had begun in the reign of Edward
III. Besides several petitions of the
commons, that none but knights or repu-
table squires should be returned foi
shires, an ordinance was made in the
forty-sixth of his reign that no lawyer
practising in the king's court, nor sherilT
during his shrievalty, be returned knight
for a county ; because these lawyers put
forward many petitions in the name of
the commons, wliich only concerned their
clients.;}: This probably was truly al-
leged, as we may guess from the vast
number of proposals for changing the
course of legal process which fill the
♦ WiUis, Notitia Parliamentaria, w iii., p. 96,
&c. 3 Prynne, ].. 22t, &c.
t In 4 Kdw. II., the slieriffof Rntlnni' inadetliij
return : Eligi feci in pleno comilafii, lo( i dnoruiii
militum, eo quod mdites non sunt in hoc comilatv
cominorantes, duos homines de cotnitalu Rutland,
de discretioribus et ad laborandum pole iliorihuw.
&c. — 3 Prynne, p. 170. But this def'ciei cy of an
tual knights soon became ■vexy common. In 19 K
II. there were twenty-eight members -pturneri
from shires who were not knights, nnti b\it twen
ty-seven who were such. The former had at this
time only two shillings or three shiilir.gs a day fo-
theii wages, while the real knights had four snil-
lings. — 4 Prynne, p. 53, 74. But in the next reigr
their wages were put on a level.
\ Rot. Pad., vol. ii., p. 310.
410
EUROPE DLRING THE MIDDLE AGES
LChap. VH
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, citi-
zens, or burgesses, who are not resident
within the place for which they are re-
turned on the day of the date of the
writ * This statute apparently indicate i
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 unt\voidable irregulari-
ty. It proceeded, however, from great
and general causes, which new laws, in
this instance, very fortunately, are utter-
ly incompetent to withstand. There can-
not be a more oppos.te proof of the inef-
ficacy of human institutions to struggle
against the steady course of events, than
this unlucky statute of Henry V., which
is almost a solitary instance in the law
of England, wherein the principle of de-
suetude has been avowedly set up against
an unrepealed enactment. I am not
aware, at least, of any other, which not
only the house of commons, but the court
of king's bench has deemed itself at lib-
erty to declare unfit to be observed. f
Even at the time when it was enacted,
the law had probably, as such, very little
'offset. But still the plurality of elections
were made, according to ancient usage
as well as statute, out of the constituent
body. The contrary instances were ex-
ceptions to the rule ; but exceptions in-
creasing continually, till they subverted
the rule itself. Prynne has remarked,
that we chiefly find Cornish surnames
among the representatives of Cornwall,
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 an-
cient families, while those of the latter
have a more plebeian cast. J In the reign
of Edward IV., and not before, a very few
of the burgesses bear the addition of es-
quire in the returns ; which became uni-
versal in the middle of the succeeding
ceiiturj'.^
♦ I H. v., c. 1.
+ See the case of Publin university, in the first
volume of Peckwell's Reports of contested elec-
tions. Note D., p. 53. The statute itseh" was re-
pealed by 14 G. III., c. 58.
i By 23 H. VI., c. 15, none but gentlemen bom,
7e."'.erosi a nativitate, are capable of sitting in par-
uament as knights of counties ; ar election was
set aside 39 H. VI., because the person returned
was not of gentle birth. — Prynne's id Reg., p. 16).
<j Wi'.lis. .\otitia Parliamentaria Prsnne's 4th
Even county elections seem in gener
al, at least in the fourteenth cen- irregularity
tury, to have been ill attend- of elections,
ed, and left to the influence of a few
powerful and active persons. A petition-
er 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 later date, a few per
sons only seem to have been concerned
in the election, though the assent of the
community be expressed.! These ir-
regularities, v/hich it would be exceed-
ingly erroneous to convert, Avith Hume,
into lawful customs, 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 al-
most sure to escape with impu- influence oi
nity. They were sometimes the crown
also countenanced, or rather in- "p°" ""^'"•
stigated by the crown, which, having re-
covered in Edward II. 's reign the prerog-
ative of naming the sheriffs, surrendered
by an act of his father,| filled that office
with its creatures, and constantly disre-
garded the statute forbidding their con-
tinuance beyond a year. Without search-
ing for every passage that might illus-
trate the interference of the crown in elec-
tions, I will mention two or three leading
instances. W'hen Richard II. was medi-
tating to overturn the famous commis-
sion of reform, he sent for some of the
sheriff's, 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 main-
tain their ancient privilege of electing
Register, p. 1184. A letter in that authentic and
interesting accession to our knowledge of ancient
times, the Paston collection, shows that eagei
canvass was sometimes made by country gentle
men in Edward IV. 's reign to represent boroughs.
T.Uis letter throw.s light at the same time on the
creation or revival of boroughs. The writer tells
Sir John Paston : " If ye miss to be burgess of
Maiden, and my lord chamberlain will, ye may be
in another place ; there be a dozen towns in Eng
land that chonse no burgess which ought to do it ;
ye may be set in for one of those towns an' ye be
friended." This was in 1472, vol. ii., p. 107.
* Glanvil's Reports of Elections, edit. 1774. In
'roduction, p. xii.
t Prynne's 3d Register, p. 171.
t 28 E. I., c. 8. 9 E. II. It is said that th<.
sheriff was elected by the people of his county ir.
the Anglo-Saxon period ; no instance of this, how
ever, accoidmg to Lord Lyttleton, occurs after the
conquest. Shrievalties were commonly sold bj
the Norman kings.— Hist of Henry II., vol ii , p
921.
PiRTllI J
ENGLISH CCNSTlTUTIOxN.
41i
their own repre»entatives.* The parlia-
ment of 1397, which attainted his ene-
mies, and left the constitution at his mer-
cy, was chosen, as we are told, by dint
of intimidation and influence. f Thus
also that of Henry VI., held at Coventry
ui 1460, wherein the Duke of York and
his party were attainted, is said to have
been unduly returned by the like means.
This is rendered probable by a petition
presented to it by the sheriffs, praying
indemnity for all wiiich they had done in
relation thereto contrary to law.:{: An
act passed according to their prayer, and
in conflrmation of elections. A few
years before, in 1455, a singular letter
under the king's signet is addressed to
the sheriffs, reciting that " we be enfourm-
ed there is busy labour made in sondry
wises by certaine persons for the che-
syng of the said knights, of which
labour we marvaille greatly, insomuche
as it is nothing to the honour of the la-
borers, but ayenst their worship ; it is
also ayenst the lawes of the lande," with
more to that effect; and enjoining the
sheriffs to let elections be free and the
peace kcpt.^ There was certainly no
reason to wonder that a parliament,
which was to shift the virtual sovereign-
ty of the kingdom into the hands of one
whose claims were known to extend
much farther, should be the object of tol-
erably warm contests. Tnus in the Pas-
ton letters, we find several proofs of the
importance attached to parliamentary
elections by the highest nobility. ||
Tlie house of lords, as we left it in the
consiitii- reign of Henry HI., was entirely
tionorihe composed of such persons hold-
iiou.se of ji^or lands by barony as were sum-
moned by particular writ of par-
liament."If 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 conquest ; the
* Vila Ricanii II., p. 85.
•f Olterbourne, p. 191. He says of tlie knights
returned on this occasion, tiiat they were not elect-
ed per communitatem ut nios exigit, sed per regi-
ain voliintatern.
X Prynne's 2d Keg., p. Ml. Rot. Pari., vol. v.,
p 367. (J Id., p. 450.
II Vol. i., p. 90, 98; vol. ii., p. 99. 105; vol. ii.,
p. 543.
■ % Upon this dry and obscure subject of inquiry,
the nature and constitution of the house of lords
during: this period, I have been much indebted to
the first jiart of Prynne's Register, and to West's
Inquiry into the manner of creating peers ; which,
though written with a party motive, to serve the
ministry of 1719 in the peerage bill, deserves, for
the perspiiuiity of the method and style, to be reck-
oned among the best of our constif'ional disserta-
Liaus
second by some regulation or usage ol
doubtful origin, which was thoroughlv
established before the conclusion of Heii
ry III.'s reign. This produced, of course,
a very marked difference between the
greater and the lesser, or unparliament-
ary barons. The tenure of the latter
however, still subsisted, and though toe
inconsiderable to be members of the le-
gislature, they paid relief as barons, thev
might be challenged on juries, and, as I
presume, by parity of reasoning, were
entitled to trial by their peerage. These
lower barons, or, more commonly, ten-
ants by parcels of baronies,* may be
dimly traced to the latter years of Ed-
ward Ill.f But many of them were sue
cessively summoned to parliament, and
thus recovered the foi'mer lustre of their
rank ; while the rest fell gradually into
the station of commoners, as teiuiats by
simple knight-service.
As tenure without summons did not
entitle any one to the privileges Uaroniai
of a lord of parliament, so no \*''^^^/l p'
spiritual person at least ought to lo^'uspir-
have been summoned without ''"■'!■
baronial tenure. The prior of St. James
at Northampton, having been summoned
in the twelfth of Edward II., was dis-
charged upon his petition, because he
held nothing of the king by barony, bm
only in frankalmoign. The prior of Brid-
lington, after frequent summonses, was
finally left out, with an entry made in the
roll that he held nothing of the king.
The abbot of Leicester had been called
to fifty parliaments : yet, in the 25th of
1 ;
* Baronies were often divided by descent among
females into many parts, each retaining its charac-
ter as a fractional member of a barony. The ten-
ants in such case wore said to hold of the king by
the third, fourth, or twentieth part of a barony, and
did service or paid relief in such iiroportion.
t Madox, Baronia Anglica, p. I'Jand 58. West's
Inquiry, p. 28, 33. That a baron could only be
tried by his fellow-barons, was probably a rule as
old as the trial per pais of a commoner. In 4 E.
III., Sir Simon Bereford having been accused be-
fore the lords in parliament of aiding and advising
Mortimer in his treasons, they declared with one
voice that he was not their peer ; wherefore they
were not bound to judge him as a peerol the land;
but inasmucli as it was notorious that he had been
concerned in usurpation of royal power.s and inur
der of the liege lord (as they styled Edward H./
the lord.s, as ji:dges of parliament, by assent of thft
king in parliament, awarded and adjudged him to
be hanged. A like sentence, with a like protesta
tion, was passed on Mautravers and Gournay
There is a very remarkable anomaly in the case ol
Lord Berkley, who, though untloufitedly a baron
his ancestors having been summoned from the car
liest date of writs, put himself on his trial in par
liament by twelve knights of the county of Glo
cester.— Rot Par]., vol. ii., p. 53. Rvmer, t. iv
p *31
4I<!
EUROPE DlJKi.\G THE MIDDLE AGES.
IChap. VIJ«
Edward III., he obtained a charter of per-
petual exemption, reciting that he held
no lands or tenements of the crown by
barony, or any such service as bound him
to attend parliaments or councils.* But
gieat 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 wilful perA^ersion : so that
many abbots and priors, who like these
had no baronial tenure, were summoned
at times and subsequent!}-- omitted, of
whose actual exemption we have no
record. Out of one hundred and twen-
ty-two abbots and forty-one 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 thirtj^-six others not more than
five times. f Their want of baronial te-
aure, in all probability, prevented the rep-
etition of writs which accident or occa-
sion had caused to issue. |
The ancient temporal peers are sup-
Barons posed to have been intermingled
called by with persous who held nothing of
'*'"'• the crown by barony, but attended
m 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 three
first Edwards, there were some of this
description in parliament. But after all
the labours of Dugdale and others in
iracing the genealogies of our ancient
* Prynne, p. 142, &c. West's Inquiry.
t Pryane, p. 141.
t It is worthy of observation, that the spiritual
peers summoned to parliament were in general
considerably more numerous than the temporal. —
Prynne, p. 114. This appears, among other causes,
to have saved the church from that sweeping ref-
ormation of its wealth, and perhaps of its doc-
trines, which the commons were thoroughly in-
clined to make under Richard I[. and Henry IV.
Thus the reduction of the spiritual lords by the
dissolution of monasteries was indispensably re-
quired to brmg the ecclesiastical order into due
«ubjection to the state.
<J Perhaps it can hardly be said that the king's
prerogative compelled the party summoned, not
being a tenant by barony, to take his seat. But
though several spiritual persons appear to have
been discharged from attendance on account of
their holding nothing by barony, as has been justly
observed, yet there is, I believe, no istance of any
layman's making such an application. The terms
ol the ancient writ of summons, however, in fide et
hmuagio quibus nobis tenemini, aflford a presump-
tioi' that a feudal tenure was, in construction of
law, the basis of every lord's attendance in parlia-
ment. This form was not finally changed to the
present, in fide et ligentia, till the 46th of Edw. III.
— Prynne's Jst Register, p. 206.
aristocracy, it is a problem of much diffi
culty to distinguish these from the terri-
torial barons. As the latter honours de-
scended to female heirs, they passed into
new families and new names, so that wb
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 baronial heiresses
were almost invariably summoned in
their wives' right, though frequently by
their own names. They even sat after
the death of their wives, as tenants by
the courtesy.* Again, as lands, though
not the subject of frequent transfer, were,
especially before the statute de donis,
not inalienable, we cannot positively as-
sume that all the right heirs of original
barons had preserved those estates upon
w^hich their barony had depended.! If
we judge, however, by the lists of those
summoned, according to the best means
in our power, it will appear that the n.-g-
ular 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, except peers created by
patent, were summoned to parliament,
who did not hold territorial baronies. J
With respect to those who were in-
debted for their seats among the lords
* CoUins's Proceedings on Claims of Baronies,
p. 24 and 73.
t Prynne speaks of " the alienation of baronies
tiy sale, gift, or marriage, after which the new pur
chasers were summoned instead," as if it frequently
happened. — 1st Register, p. 239. And several in-
stances are mentioned in the Bergavenny case
(CoUins's Proceedings, p. 113), where land-baro-
nies having been entailed by the owners on their
heirs male, the heirs general have been excluded
from inheriting the dignity.
It is well known, notwithstanding these ancient
precedents, that the modem doctrine does not ad
mit any right in the purchaser of a territorial peei-
age, such as Arundel, to a writ of summons, or
consequently to any privilege as a lord of parlia-
ment. But it might be a speculative question,
whether such a purchaser could not become a real
though unparliamentary baron, and entitled as such
to a trial tjy the peers. For though the king, as-
sisted, if he please, by the advice of the house of
lords, is finally and exclusively to decide upon
claims to parliamentary privileges, yet the dignity
of peerage, whether derived under ancient, tenure
or a royal patent, is vested in the possessor by act
of law, whereof the ordinary courts of justice niaj
incidentally take cognizance. See the case of R
v. Knovvles, Salkeld's Reports, p. 509, the princi-
ples of which will never be controverted by any
one acquainted with the original constitution of
this country.
t Prynne's 1st Register, p. 237. This must be
understood to mean that no new fa.Tiilies were
summoned ; for the descendants of some who arc
not supposed to have held land 'T^'or-i'^s w*- >s^
stantly be found in later lists.
Part ill.J
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
4i:
to tha king's writ, there are two materi-
al 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
wTit of summons conferred an estate of
inheritance, it must have done so either by
virtue of its terms, or by established con-
struction and precedent. But the writ
contains no words by which such an es-
tate can in law be limited ; it summons
the person addressed to attend in parlia-
ment 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. The strongest expression is
" vobiscum ct cateris pnelatis, magnati-
bus et proceribus," which appears to
place the party on a sort of level with
the peers. But the word magnates and
proceres are used very largely in ancient
language, and, down to tlie tune of Ed-
ward III., comprehend the king's ordina-
ry council as well as his barons. Nor
can these, at any rate, be construed to
pass an inheritance, which, in the grant
of a private person, much more of the
king, would require express w^ords of
limitation. In a single instance, the
writ of summons to Sir Henry de Brom-
flete (27 H. VI.), we find these remarka-
ble words : Volumus enim vos et ha?re-
des vestros masculos de corpore vestro
legitime exeuntes barones de Vescy ex-
istere. But this Sir Henry de Bromllete
wa.> the lineal heir of tlie ancient barony
do V'esci.* And if it were true that the
writ of summons conveyed a barony of
itself, there seems no occasion to have
introduced these extraordinary words of
creation or revival. Indeed there is less
necessity to urge these arguments from
the nature of the writ, because the mod-
ern doctrine, which is entirely opposite
to what has here been suggested, asserts
that no one is ennobled l)y the mere
summons, unless he has rendered it op-
erative by taking his seat in parliament ;
distinguishing it m this from a patent of
peerage, t which requires no act of tlie
* West's Inquiry. Prynne, who takes rather
lower groviiul than West, and was not awaro of
Sir Hoiiry de liromflete's descent, admits that a
writ of summons to any one, naming him baron, or
dominus, as Baroni de Greystoke, Domino de
Furnival, did give an inheritable peerage ; not so a
writ generally worded, naming the party knight
Dr esquire, unless he held by barony.
t Ij'ird Abergavenny's case, 12 Coke's Reports ;
*nd Cullins's Proceedings on claims of baronies by
writ, p. 61.
party for its completion. Bui this dis-
tinction could be supported by notliiijg
except long usage. If, however, we re-
cur to the practice of former times, W6
shall find that no less than ninety-eight
laymen were summoned once only to
parliament, none of their names occur-
ring afterward ; and fifty others two,
three, or four times. Some were con-
stantly summoned during their lives,
none of whose posterity ever attained
that honour.* The course of proceed-
ing, therefore, previous to the accession
of Henry YII., by no means warrants
the doctrine w^hich was held in the lat-
ter end of Elizabeth's reign,t and has
since been too fully estabhshcd by re-
peated precedents to be shaken by any
reasoning. The foregoing observations
relate to the more ancient history of our
constitution, and to the plain matter of
fact as to those limes, without consider-
ing what political cause there might be
to prevent the crown from introducing
occasional cotinsellors into the house of
lords.
It is manifest by many passr^ges in
these records, that bannerets Bannerets
were frequently summoned to summon
the upper house of parliament, house of
constituting a distinct class in- lonis.
ferior to barons, though generally named
together, and ultimately confounded with
them. I Barons are distinguislied by the
appellation of Sire, bannerets have oiil>
that of Monsieur, as le Sire de Berkeley
le Sire de Fitzwalter, Monsieur Richard
Scrop, Monsieur Richard StalTord. Iii
the 7th of Richard II., Thomas Camoys
having been elected knight of the shire
for Surrey, the king addresses a writ to
the sheri'tf, directing him to proceed to
a new election, cum hujusmodi banne-
retti ante ha^c tempera m militcs comita-
tus ratione alicujus parliamcnti eligi min-
ime consueverunt. Camoys was sum-
moned by writ to the same parliament.
It has been inferred from hence by Sel-
den that he was a baron, and that the
word banneret is merely synonymous.^
* Prynne's 1st Register, p. 232. Elsynge, who
strenuously contends against the writ of sumtnop.s
conferring an hereditary nobility, is of opinion thai
the party summoned was never omitted in subse-
quent parliaments, and consequently was a peei
lor life, p. 43. liut more regard is due to Prynne"i
latter inquiries.
t Case of Willoughby, Collins, p. 0 : of Dacres
p. 11 : of Abergavenny, p. 119. But see the case
of Grey de Rutbyn, p. 222 and 2.30, where theco.i
trary position is stated by Selden upon bettei
grounds.
t Rot. Pari., vol. ii., p. 147, 309 ; vol. iii., n. 100
386, 424 ; vol. iv., p. 374. Kyiner, t. vii., p. 161.
i> Selden's Works, vol. iii., p. ?64. Selden
lU
EUROPE DURING THE UIVDLK AGES
[Chap. Vlli
But this is contradicted by too many-
passages. Bannerets had so far been
considered as commoners some years be-
fore, that they could not be challenged
on juries.* But they seem to have
boon more highly estimated at the date
ol this writ.
The distinction however between bar-
ans and bannerets died away by degrees,
in the 2d of Henry VI.. f 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 after-
ward by that appellation as members of
the upper house. Bannerets, or, as they
are called, banrents, 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 enacted ; and
a moderate historian justly calls them
an intermediate order between the peers
and lairds. I Perhaps a consideration of
these facts, which have frequently been
overlooked, may tend in some measure
to explain the occasional discontinuance,
or sometimes the entire cessation, of
writs of summons to an individual or his
descendants ; since w^e may conceive
that bannerets, being of a dignity much
mferior to that of barons, had no such
inheritable nobility in their blood as ren-
dered their parliamentary privileges a
matter of right. But whether all those
who, without any baronial tenure, receiv-
ed their writs of summons to parliament
belonged to the order of bannerets, I
cannot 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 possessed 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 impaired by
numbering the votes of such as the king
might please to send among them, how-
opinion that bannerets in the lords' house were the
sqme as barons, may seem to call on me for some
"■ontrary authorities, in order to support my own
Hssertion, besides the passages above quoted from
the rollc, of which he would naturally be sup-
posed a more competent judge. I refer therefore
to tjpelman's Glossary, p. 74 ; Whitelocke on Par-
liamentary Writ, vol. 1., p. 313 ; and Elsynge's
Alsthod of holding parliaments, p. 65.
* Puis un fut chalenge puree qu'il fut a ban-
lierc, et non allocatur, car s'll soit a banniere, et
ne tient pas par baronie, il sera en I'assise. — Year-
book, 22 Edw III., fol. 18, a. apud West's hiquiry,
p. 22.
t Rot. Pari., vol.iv., p. 201
t Pinkerton's Hift. of Scotland, vol. i., p. 35"'
»nd 365.
ever they might allow them to assist in
their debates. But I am much more in-
clined to suppose that they were in aU
respects on an equality with other peers
during their actual attendance in parlia-
ment. For, 1. They are summoned by
the same writ as the rest, and their namea
are confused among them in the lists ;
whereas the judges and ordinary coun
sellors are called by a separate writ, vo
bifcum et ceteris de consilio nostro, and
their names are entered after those oi
the peers.* 2. Some, who do not appear
to have held land-baronies, were con-
stantly summoned from father to son
and thus became hereditary lords of par
liament, through a sort of prescriptive
right, which probably was the foundation
of extending the same privilege after-
ward to the descendants of all who had
once been summoned. There is no evi-
dence that the family of Scrope, for ex-
ample,-which was eminent under Edward
III. and subsequent kings, and gave rise
to two branches, the lords of Bolton and
Masham, inherited any territorial hon-
our.f 3. It is very difficult to obtain any
direct proof as to the right of voting, be-
cause the rolls of parliament do not take
notice of any debates ; but there happens
* West, whose business it was to represent the
barons by writ a? mere assistants without suffrage,
cites the writ to them rather disingenuously, as if
it ran vobiscum et ciun prelatis, magnatibus ac
proceribus, om:itmgthe important word casteris, p.
35. Frynne, however, from whom West has bor-
rowed a great pari of his arguments, does not seem
to go the length of denying the right of suffrage
to persons so summoned. — 1st Register, p. 237.
t These descended from two persons, each na-
med Geoffrey le Scrope, chief-justices of K. B. and
C. B. at the beginning of Edward lll.'s reign. The
name of one of them is unce fonnd among ihe bar
ons, but I presume this to have been an accident
or mistake in the roll, as he is frequently mentioned
afterward among the judges, sicrope, chief-jus-
tice of K. B., was made a bannerrt in 14 E. III.
He was the father of Henry Scrojie of Masham, a
considerable person in Edward III. and Richard
II. 's gDvernment, whose grandson. Lord Scrope of
Masham, was beheaded for a conspiracy against
Henry V. There was a family of Scrupe as old
as the reign of Henry II. ; but it is not clear, not
withstanding Dugdale's assertion, that the Scropes
descended from them, or at least that they held
the same lands : nor were the Scrapes barons, as
appears by their paying a relief of only sixty marks
for three knights' fees.— Dugdale's Baronage, p
C54.
The want of consistency in old records throws
much additional difficulty over this intricate sub-
ject. Thus Scrope of Masham, though certainly
a baron, and tried ne.xt year by the peers, is called
Chevalier in an instrument of 1 H. V. — Rymer. t
ii., p. 1.3. So, in the endiclment against Sir John
Oldcastle, he is constantly styled knight, thoucii
he bad been summoned several times as Lord Cot>
h? X, in right of his wife, who inherited that bar
V .—Rot. Pari., vol. iv., p. 107
fkRT ri[.i
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
4 S
lO exist one remarkable passage, in whiich
the suffrages of the lords are individual-
ly specified. In the first parliament of
Henry IV., they were requested by the
Earl of Northumberland to declare what
should be done with the late King Rich-
ard. The lords then present agreed that
he should be detained ni safe custody ;
and on account of the importance of this
matter, it seems to have been thought ne-
cessary 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 Ru-
thyn. Thus far the entry has nothing
singular; but then follow these nme
names : Monsieur Henry Percy, Mon-
sieur Richard Scrop, le Sire Fitz-liugh, le
Sire de Bergeveny, le Sire de Loniley, le
Baron de Greystock, le Baron de Hilton,
Monsieur Thomas Erpyngham, Chamber-
layn. Monsieur Mayhewe Gournay. Of
these nine, five were undoubtedly bar-
ons, 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 liave been
summoned, their writs probably being
lost. One of them. Sir Thomas Erpyng-
ham, a statesman well known in the his-
tory of those times, is said to have been
a banneret ;* certajnly he was not a bar-
on. It is not unlikely that the two oth-
ers, Henry Percy (Hotspur), and Gour-
nay, an officer of the household, were
also bannerets ; they cannot at least be
supposed to be barons, neither were tliey
ever summoned to any subsequent par-
liament. Yet in the only record we pos-
sess of votes actually given in the house
of lords, they appear to have been reck-
oned among the rest.f
The next method of conferring an hon-
Creaiinnof "ur of peerage was by creation
peers by in parliament. This was adopt-
Btatute. pj ^,y Edward HI. in several in-
stances, though always, 1 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
♦ BlomefieH's Hist, of Norfolk, vol. iii. p. 645
'folio edit.). ^ Rot. Pari., v. lii , p 127.
proceeded from the whole legisiHihre
As a question of fact, indeed, it might bt
doubted whether, in many proceedings
! where this expression is used, and espe-
cially in the creation of peers, the assen'
'' of the commons was specifically and de-
liberately given. It seems hardly coii;
I sonant to the circumstances of their or-
[ der under Edward III. to suppose then
j sanction necessary, in what seemed fo
little to concern their interest. Yet theie
is an instance, in the fortieth year of thai
prince, where the Jords individually, and
the commons with one voice, are decla-
red to have consented, at the king's re-
quest, that the Lord de Coucy, who had
married his daughter, and was already
possessed of estates in England, might be
raised to the dignity of an earl, whenev-
er the king should determine what earl-
dom 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 authority over
Ireland. t In the same reign Lancaster
was made Duke of Guienne, and the
Duke of York's son created Earl of Rut-
land, 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 J
Henry V. created his brothers dukes of
Bedford and Glocester, by request of the
lords and commons.^ But the patent of
Sir John Cornwall, in the 10th of Henr)-
VI., declares liim to be made Lord Fan
hope, " by consent of the lords, in the
presence of the three estates of parlia-
ment ;" as if it were designed to show
that the commons had not a legislative
voice in the creation of peers. ||
The mention I have made of creating
peers by act of parliament has .\n(i by
partly anticipated the modern form patent,
of letters patent, with which the other
was nearly allied. The first instance of
a barony conferred by patent was in the
tenth year of Richard II., when Sir John
Holt, a judge of the Connnon Picas, v.as
created Lord Beauchamp of Kiddermin-
ster. Holt's patent, however, ])a.'<scd
while Richard was endeavouring to act
in an arbitrary manner; and in fact he
never sat in parliament, having been at-
tainted in that of the next year by the
name of Sir John Holt. In a number of
subsequent patents down to the reign o(
Henry VIL, the assent of parliament i?
» Rot. Pari., vol. ii.. p. 290.
t Id., vol. lii., p. 209. t Id., p. 2C3, 264.
6 Id , vol. iv., p. 17. il Id., p. 401
416
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
lchap. vm.
exprcssjod, though it frequently happens
that no mention of it occurs in the par-
liamentary roll. And, in some instances,
the roll speaks to the consent of parlia-
ment, where the patent itself is silent.*
It is now perhaps scarcely known by
Clergy sum- ^^^^W persons uot uiiversed in
woncd to the constitution of their coun-
iwiwit'"" ^""y' *^^^' ti^si'^''^ ^1^^ bishops
and baronial abbots, the infe-
rior clergy were regularly summoned at
'ivtry parliament. In the writ of sum-
i.nons to a bishop, he is still directed to
cause the dean of his cathedral church,
the archdeacon of his diocess, 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 meeting.
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 mtide to assemble on the same
day. But it may easily be distinguish-
ed by this difference ; that the convoca-
tion is provincial, and summoned by the
metropolitans of Canterbury and York ;
whereas the clause commonly denomi-
nated praemunientes (from i's first word),
hi the writ to each bishop, proceeds from
the crown, and enjoins the rvtr.eudance
of the clergy at the national council of
parliament.!
The first unequivocal instance of rep-
r2sentatives appearing for the lower
clergy is in the year 1255, when they are
expressly named by the author of the An-
nals of Burton. I They preceded, there-
fore, 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 moncy,^ but
* West's Inquiry, p. 65. This writer does not
allow that the king possessed the prerogative of
creating new peers without consent of parliament.
But Prynne (1st Register, p. 225), who generally
ailopts the same theory of peerage as West, strong-
ly asserts the contrary ; and the party views of the
latter's treatise, which \ mentioned above, should
bn kept in sight. It was his object to prove, that
:he pending bill to limit the members of the peer-
age was conformable to the original constitution.
t Hody's History of Convocations, p. 12. Dis-
sortatio de antiqua et moderna Synodi Anglican!
conslitutione, prefixed to Wilkins's Concilia, t. i.
t 2 Gale, Scriptores Rer. Anglic, t. ii., p. 355.
Hudy, p- 345. Alterbury (Rights of Convocations,
p. 205, 315) endeavours to show that the clergy had
been represented in parliament from the conquest,
Bs well as before it. Many of the passages he
quotes are very inconclusive ; but possibly there
may be some weight in one from Matthew Paris,
id ann. 1247, and two or three writs of the reign
Jt Henry 111.
(; Hody, p. 381. .\tterburT's Rights of Convo-
ations. p. 221.
dared not take it without their consent.
In the double parliament, if so we may
call it, summoned in the eleventh of Ed-
ward I. to meet at Northan.pton and
York, and divided according 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 ab-
sence of any deputies from the lower
clergy, these assemblies refused to grant
a subsidy. The proctors of both descrip-
tions appear to have been summoned by
the pra?munientes clause in the 22d, 23d,
24th, 28th, and 35th years of the same
king; but in some other parliaments of
his reign the prffimunientes clause is
omitted.* The same irregularity contin-
ued under his successor ; and the con-
stant usage of inserting this clause in the
bishop's writ is dated from the twenty-
eighth of Edward Ill.f
It is highly probable that Edward I.,
whose legislative mind was engaged in
modelling the constitution on a compre-
hensive scheme, designed to render the
clergy an effective branch of parliament,
however their continual resistance may
have defeated the accomplishment of this
intention. I We find an entry upon the
roll of his parliament at Carlisle, con
taining a list of all the proctors deputed
to it by the several diocesses of the king
dom. This may be reckoned a clear
proof of their parliamentary attendance
during his reign under the praemunientes
clause ; since the province of Canterbury
could not have been present in convoca-
tion at a city beyond its limits.!^ And
indeed if we were to found our judgment
merely 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 member of the legisla-
ture b^ their representatives as the com-
mons. || They are summoned in the ear
» Hody, p. a86. Atterbury, p. 222.
t Hody, p. 391.
X GilbertV Hivt. of Exchequer, p. 47.
() Rot. Pari., vol. i., p. 189. Atterbury, p. 229.
Ii The lower hoise of convocation, in 1547, ter
rifled at the progress of reformation, petitioned
that, " according to the tenour of the king's writ and
the ancient customs o/the realm, they might have
room and place, and be associated with the com-
mons in the nether house of this present parlia-
ment, as members of the commonwealth and the
king's most humble subjects." — Burnet's Hist, of
Reformation, vol. ii., Appendix, No. 17. This as-
sertion that the clergy had ever been associated aa
one body with the coininoi;s is not borne out b}
any thing that appears on our iecords, and is cot
t-adict«^d by many passages. Dut it is said tbV
'x% lll.j
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION^.
4i
.lestyear extant (23 E. I.), ad tractandum,
ordinandum et faciendum nobiscum, et
cum cajteris prslatis, proceribiis, ac aliis
■ncolis regni nostri ; in that of the next
year, ad ordinandum de quantitate et
modo suhsidii; in that of the twenty-
eighth, ail faciendum et consentiendum
his, qua? tunc de communi consilio ordi-
nari contigerit. In later times, it ran
sometimes ad faciendum et consentien-
dum, sometimes only ad consentiendum ;
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 fol-
low that the clergy were invested, as a
branch of the parliament, with rights no
less extensive. It is to be considered
how we can reconcile these apparent at-
tributes of political power with the un-
questionable 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 compl}'^ with the writ.f
The solution of this difficulty can onlj^
be found in that estrangement from the
common law and the temporal court;;,
which the clergy througliout Europe
were disposed to affect. In this coun-
try, their ambition defeated its own ends;
and wiiile they endeavoured by privileges
and iniminiities to separate themselves
from the people, they did not perceive
that the line of demarcation thus strongly
traced would cut them off from the sym-
pathy 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
the clergy were actually so united with the coni-
mons in the Irish parliament till the reformation. —
Gilbert's Hist, of the Exchequer, p. 57.
♦ Hody, p. 392.'
f The prajinunientes clause in a bishop's writ of
summons was so far regarded down to the Reform-
ation, that proctors were elected, and their names
eturned upon the writ ; though the clergy never
^tended from the beginning of the fifteenth cen-
tury, and gave their money only in convocation.
Since the Kefornuition, the clause has been pre-
served for form merely in the writ. — Wilkins, Dis-
'jrtrtatio ubi supra.
Dd
sceptre of judicial sovereignty, they sooii
began to control the spiritual jurisdic-
tion, and to establish the inherent su-
premacy of the common law. From this
time an inveterate animosity subsisted
between the two courts, the vestiges of
which have only been elTaced by the lib
eral wisdom of modern age." The gei\-
eral love of the common law, however,
with the great weight of its professors m
the king's council and in parliament, kept
the clergy in surprising subjection. None
of our kings after Henry III. were big-
ots ; and the constant tone of the com-
mons serves to show, that the English
nation was thoroughly averse to ecclesi-
astical influence, whether of their own
church or the see of Rome.
It was natural therefore to '.Vithstand
the interference of the clergy summoned
to parliament in legislation, as much as
that of the spiritual court in temporal ju-
risdiction. With the ordinary subjects,
indeed, of legislation they had little con-
cern. The oppressions of tlie king's
purveyors, or escheators, or officers of
the forests, the abuses or defects of the
common law, the regulations necessary
for trading towns and seaports, were
matters that touched them not, and tc
which their consent was never required.
And, as they well knew there was no de-
sign in summoning their attendance but
to obtain money, it was witli great re-
luctance that they obeyed the royal writ,
which was generally obliged to be en-
forced by an archiepiscopal mandates*
Thus, instead of an assembly of deputies
from an estate of the realm, they became
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 peti-
tions, or are otherwise mentioned as a
deliberative body, we should suppose the
convocation alone of the province of
Canterbury to be intended.! For that of
York seems to have been always consid-
ered as inferior, and even ancillary to
» Hody, p. 396, 403, &c. In 13M, the clergy
protest even aKanist the recital of the king's writ
to the archbishop, directing him to summon the
clergy of his province, in his letters mandatory, de
claringthat the English clergy had not been ac-
customed, nor ought by right, to be convoked by
the kijig's authority. — .\tterbury, p. 230.
t Hody, p. 42.5. Attertmry, p. 42, 233. The
latter seems to think that the clergy of lioth prov-
inces never actually met in a national council oi
house of parliament, under the praeniunienteswrit,
after the reign of Edward IK, though the proctois
were duly returned. I3ut Hody ''o'^s not go quite
so far, and Atterliury bad a particular motive tn
enhance the influence of the convocation for Can
terburv
118
EUROPE DURliG THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. Vj£l
the greater province, voting subsidies,
and even assenting to canons, without
deliberation, in compliance with the ex-
ample of Canterbury ;* the convocation
of which province consequently assumed
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
intimately connected with it, whether
sitting by virtue of the prajmunientes
clause or otherwise, deserve some notice
in a constitutional history.
In the sixth year of Edward III., the
pioctors of the clergy are specially men-
tioned as present at the speech pro-
nounced by the king's commissioner, and
retired, along with the prelates, to con-
sult together upon the business submitted
to their deliberation. They proposed
accordingly a sentence of excommunica-
tion against disturbers of the peace, which
was assented to by the lords and com-
mons. The clergy are said afterward to
have had leave, as well as the knights,
citizens, and burgesses, to return to their
homes ; the prelates and peers continu-
ing with the king.f This appearance of
the clergy in full parliament is not per-
haps 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 re-
spects are still part of our law.J To
the.se it seems highly probable that the
commons gave no assent ; and they may
be reckoned among the other infringe-
ments of their legislative rights. It is
remarkable that in the same parliament
the commons, as if apprehensive 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.^
A series of petitions from the clergy,
in the twenty-fifth of Edward III., had
not probably any peal assent of the com-
mons, though it is once mentioned in the
enacting words, when they were drawn
into a statute. II Indeed, the petitions cor-
respond so little with the general senti-
ment of hostility towards ecclesiastical
* AUerbury, p. 46.
f Rot, Pari., vol. ii., p. 04, 65.
t 18 K. III., Stat. 3. Rot. Pari., vol. ii., p. 151.
This is the parliament in which it is very doubtful
whether any deputies from cities and boroughs
had a place. The pretended statutes were there-
fore every way imll ; bemg falsely imputed to an
Wicomplefe parliament.
t ii> 'I i; 25 E. III., etat. 3.
privileges manifested by the lower house
of parliament, that they would not easily
have obtained its acquiescence. The
convocation of the province of Canterbu-
ry presented several petitions in the fif-
tieth year of the same king, to which they
received an assenting answer ; but they
are not found in the statute-book. This
however produced the following remon
strance from the commons at the nex
parliament : " Also the said commons be
seech their lord the king, that no statute
nor ordinance be made at the petition ol
the clergy, unless by assent of your com-
mons ; and that your commons be not
bound by any constitutions which they
make for their own profit without the
commons' assent. For they will not be
bound by any of your statutes or ordi-
nances made without their assent."* The
king evaded a direct answer to this peti
tion. But the province of Canterbury
did not the less present their own griev-
ances to the king in that parliament, and
two among the statutes of the year seem
to be founded upon no other authority.!
In the first session of Richard II., the
prelates and clergy of both provinces are
said to have presented their schedule of
petitions, which appear upon the roll, and
three of which are the foundation of stat-
utes unassented to in all probability by the
commons. J If the clergy of both prov-
inces were actually present, as is here
asserted, it must of course have been as
a house of parliament, and not of convo-
cation. It rather seems, so far as we
can trust to the phraseology of records,
that the clergy sat also in a national as-
sembly under the king's writ in the sec-
ond year of the same king.^ Upon other
occasions during the same reign, where
the representatives of the clergy are al-
luded to as a deliberative body, sitting at
the same time with the parliament, it is
impossible to ascertain its constitution ;
and indeed, even from those already cited,
we cannot draw any positive inference. ||
* P. 368. The word thei/ is ambiguous ; White
locke (on Parliamentary Writ, vol. ii., p. 340) in
terprets it of the commons: I should rather sup
pose it to mean the clergy.
t 50 E. III., c. 4 and 5.
t Rot. Pari., vol. iii., p. 25. A nostre tres ex
oellent seigneur le roy supplifmt hiimblemcnt ses
devotes oratours, les prelats et la clergie do la
province de Canterbirs et d'Evervvyk, stat. 1 R. II.
c. 13, 14, 15. But see Hody, p. 425 : Atterbury,
p. 329. (J Rot. Pari., vol. iii., p. 37.
!l It might be argued, from a passage in the par
liament-roll of 21 R. II., that the clergy of both
provinces were not only present, but that they were
accountel an essential jart of parliament in tern
poral matters, which is contrary to the whole ten-
our of our l.tws. The commons are there said
to have prayed, that " whereas many iudgment*
Part III.]
ENGLISH CONSTITUTJOM.
419
But whether in convocatijii or in parha-
ment, ihey certainly formed a legislative
council in ecclesiastical matters, by the
advice and consent of which alone, with-
out that of the commons (I can say noth-
ing as to the loids), Edward III., and
even Richard II., enacted laws to bind the
laity. I have mentioned in a different
place a still more conspicuous instance
nf this assumed prerogative ; namely, the
memorable statute against heresy in the
second of Henry IV. ; which can hardly
oe deemed any thing else than an in-
fringement of the rights of parliament,
vnore clearly established at that time than
at the accession of Richard II. Petitions
of the commons relative to spiritual mat-
ters, however frequently proposed, in few
or no instances obtained the king's assent
so as to pass into statutes, unless ap-
proved by the convocation.* But, on the
other 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 parlia-
ment held in the 11th of Richard II. is
annulled by that in the twenty-first of his
reign, '■ with the assent of the lords spir-
itual and temporal, and the proctors of the
clergy, and the commons ;"t and the
statute entailing the crown on the chil-
ond ordinances formerly made in parliament had
been annulled, because the estate of clergy had not
been present thereat, the prelates and clergy might
make a proxy with sufficient power to consent in
their name to all things done in this parliament.
Whereupon the spiritual lords agreed to intrust
their powers to Sir Thomas Percy, and gave him
a procuration, commencing in the following words ;
' Nos Thomas Cantuar' et Robertus Ebor' archi-
episcopi, ac praelati et clerus utrhisque provincicB Ca7i-
tuar' et Ebor' jure ecclesiarum nostrarum et temporali-
um earundcm habentes jus interessendi in singulis par-
liamentis domini nostri regis et regni Anglias pro
tempore celebrandis,necnon tractandi et expediendi
in eisdem quantum ad singula in instanti parlia-
mento pro statu et honore domini nostri regis, nec-
non regaliae suie, ac quiete, pace, et Iranquillitate
regni judicialiter justificandis, venerabili viro do-
mino Thomae de Percy militi, nostram plenarie
commitlimus potestatem.' " .""t may he perceived
by these expressions, and more unequivocally by
the nature of the case, that it was the judicial
power of parliament which the spiritual lords del-
egated to their proxy. Many impeachments for
capital ofTences were coming on, at which, by
their canons, the bishops could not assist. But it
can never be conceived that the inferior clergy
had any share in this high judicature. And, upon
looking attentively at the words above printed in
Italics, it will be evident that the spiritual lords
holding by barony are the only persons designated;
whatever may have been meant by the singular
phrase, as applied to them, clerus utriusque pro-
vinciae. — Rot. Pari., vol. iii., p. 348.
* Atlerbury, p. 346.
t 21 Rich. II., c. 12. Burnet's Hist, of Refor-
mation (vol. ii., p. 47) led me to \h\3 act which I
lad overlooked.
Dda
dren of Henry IV. is said to be enacted
on the petition 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 questioned in suc-
ceeding times.
The supreme judicature, which had
been exercised by the king's j^,-^,^^^,^,^
court, was diverted, about the onheking-*
reign of John, into three chan- cui'l'I-
nels ; the tribunals of King's Bench,
Common Pleas, and the Exchequer.!
These became the regular fountains of
justice, which soon almost absorbed the
provincial jurisdictions of the sheriff and
lord of manor. But the original institu-
tion, having been designed for ends of
state, pohce, and revenue, full 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 com-
posed of the same persons, and having
in a principal degree, the same subject--
of deliberation. It consisted of the chit
ministers ; as the chancellor, treasin'?r
lord steward, lord admiral, lord marshal
the keeper of the privy seal, the cham
berlain, treasurer and comptroller of tht
houseliold, the chancellor of the exche-
quer, the master of the wardrobe ; and
of the judges, king's sergeant and attor-
ney-general, tlie 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 togeth
er, it was a full council; but where the
business Avas of a more contracted nature,
those only who were fittest to advise
were summoned ; the chancellor and
judges, for matters of law ; the officers
of state for what concerned the revenue
or household.
The business of this council, out of
parliament, may be reduced to two heads
its deliberative office, as a council of ad-
vice, and its decisive power of jurisdic-
tion. With respect to the first, it obvi-
ously comprehended all subjects of polit-
ical deliberation, which were usually re-
ferred to it by the king : this being in fad
the administration or governing council of
state, the distinction of a cabinet being in-
* Rot. Pari., vol. iii., p. 582. Atterbury, p. 61.
t The ensuing sketch of the jurisdiction exer
cised by the king's council has been chiefly derived
from Sir Matthew Hale's Treatise of the Juri»
diction of the Lords' House in Parliament, publiik
ed by M '. Har^rave.
120
V.VROPL DURING THE MIL OLE AGES.
l^Ciiti'. Vjii
troduced in comparatively modern times.
But there were likewise a vast number
01 petitions continually presented to the
council, upon which they proceeded no
Ciirther than to sort, as it were, and for-
ward them by endorsement to the proper
courts, or advise the suiter what remedy
he had to seek. Thus some petitions
are answered, " this cannot be done
without a new law ;" some were turned
over to the regular court, as the chancery
or king's bench ; some of greater mo-
ment were endorsed to be heard " before
the great council;" some, concerning
the king's interest, were referred to the
chancery, or select persons of the coun-
cil.
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 ordinances were made in
council ; sometimes upon request of the
commons in parliament, who felt them-
selves better qualified to state a griev-
ance than a remedy; sometimes without
any pretence, unless the usage of govern-
ment, in the infancy of our constitution,
maybe thought to afford one. These were
always of a temporary or partial nature,
and were considered as regulations not
sutBciently important to demand a new
statute. Thus, in the second year of Rich-
ard II., the council, after hearing read the
statute-roll of an act recently passed,
conferring a criminal jurisdiction in cer-
tain cases upon justices of the peace, de-
clared that the intention of parliament,
though not clearly expressed therein, had
been to extend that jurisdiction to certain
other cases omitted, which accordingly
they caused to be inserted in the commis-
sions made to these justices under the
great seal.* But they frequently so
much exceeded what the growing spirit
of public liberty would permit, that it
gave rise to complaint in parliament.
The commons petition, in 13 R. II., that
" neither the chancellor nor the king's
council, after the close of parliament,
may make any ordinance 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 ren-
dered without due legal process." The
king answers, " Let it be done as has
been usual heretofore, saving the prerog-
ative ; and if any one is aggrieved, let
lum show it specially, and right shall be
done him."t This unsatisfactory an-
* Kot. Pari., vol. iii., p 64.
Id., D. 266
swer proves the arbitrary spirit m whi^s-h
Richard was determined to govern.
The judicial pou er of the council was in
some instances founded upon particular
acts of parliament, giving it power to hear
and determine certain causes. Many pe-
titions likewise were referred to it from
parliament, especially where they were
left unanswered by reason of a dissolu-
tion. But, independently of this dele-
gated authority, it is certain that the
king's coimcil did anciently exercise, as
well out of parliament as in it, a very
great jurisdiction, both in causes crimi-
nal and civil. Some, however, have con-
tended, that whatever they did in this
respect was illegal, and an encroachment
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 essen-
tial article, to drag men in questions of
their freehold or liberty before a tribu-
nal which neither granted them a trial
by their peers, nor always respected the
law of the land. Against this usurpation
the patriots of iho.^e times never ceased
to lift their voices A statute of the fifth
year of Edward 11'. provides that no
man shall be attached, nor his property
seized into the king's hands af;ainst the
form of the great charter and the law of
the land. In the twenty-fifth of the samo
king, it was enacted, that " none shall be
taken by petition or suggestion to the
king or his council, unless it be by en-
dictment or presentment, or by writ ori
ginal at the common law, nor shall be put
out of his franchise or freehold, unless
he be duly put to answer, and forejudged
of the same by due course of law."*
This was repeated in a short act of the
twenty-eighth of his reign ;t but both, in
all probability, were treated with neglect;
for another was passed some years after-
w-ard, providing that no man shall be put
to answer without presentment before
justices, or matter of record, or by due
process and writ original according to the
old law of the land. The answer to the
petition whereon this statute is grounded,
* 25 E. III., Stat. 5, c. 4. See the petition Rot.
Pari., vol. ii., p. 228, which extends farther than
the kind's answer or the statute. Probably this
fifth statute of the 25th of Edward III. is the most
extensively beneficial act in the whole body ol oiu
laws. It established certainty in treasons, regu-
lated purveyance, prohibited arbitrary imprison-
ment, and the determination of pleas of freehold
before the council, took away the compulsory find
ing of men-at-arms and other roops, confirmed the
reasonable aid of the king's .enants fixe-i by 3 E.
I., and provided that the king's protecti«'Ji should
not hinder civil process or execution.
t 28 E. III., c. 3.
Part III.]
ENGLISH CONSTrHTION.
42
in the parliarneiit-roll, expressly declares
this to be an article of the great charter.*
Nothing, however, would prevail on the
council to surrender so eminent a powe-,
und, though usurped, yet of so long a
continuance. Cases of arbitrary impris-
onment frequently occurred, and were
remonstr?*.ed against by the commons.
The right of every freeman in that car-
dinal point was as indubitable, legally
speaking, as at this day ; but the courts
of law were afraid to exercise their re-
medial functions in defiance of so power-
ful a tribunal. After the accession of
the Lancastrian family, these, like other
grievances, became rather less frequent ;
but the commons remonstrate several
times, even in the minority of Henry VI.,
against the councirs interference in mat-
ters cognizable at common law.f In
these later times, the civil jurisdiction
of the council was principally exercised
in conjunction with the chancery, and
accordingly they are generally named
together in the complaint. The chan-
cellor having the great seal in his custody,
the council usually borrowed its process
from his court. This was returnable into
chancery even wiiere the business was
depending before the council. Nor were
the two jurisdictions less int i mately allied
in their character ; each being of an equi-
table nature ; and equity, as then prac-
tised, being little less than innovation and
encroachment on the course of law.
This part, long since the most important,
of the chancellor's judicial function, can-
not be traced beyond the time of Richard
II., when the practice of feoffments to
uses having been introduced, without
Any legal remedy to secure the cestui
» 42 E. III., c. 3, and Rot. Pari., vol. ii., p. 295.
It is not surprising that the king's council should
have persisted in these transgressions of their law-
ful authority, when we find a sunilar jurisdiction
usurped by the officers of inferior persons. Com-
plaint is made in the 18th of Richard II., that men
were compelled to answer before the council of di-
vers lords and ladies, for their freeholds and other
matters cognizable at common law, and a remedy
for this abuse is given by petition in chancery, stat.
15 R. II., c. 12. This act is confirmed with a pen-
alty on its contraveners the ne.Kt year. — 16 R. II.,
c. 2. The private jails which some lords were per-
mitted by law to possess, and for which there was
nlways a provision in their castles, enabled them to
render this oppressive jurisdiction effectual.
t Rot. Pari., 17 K. II., vol. lii., p. 319; 4 H. IV.,
p. 507 ; 1 H. VI., vol. iv., p. 189 ; 3 H. VI., p. 292 ;
8 H. VI. p. 343 ; 10 H. VI., p. 403 ; 15 H. VI., p.
501. T; one of these (10 H. VI.), "that none
should be put to answer for his freehold in parlia-
ment, nor beloie any court or council where such
things are not cognizable by the law of the land,"
the king gave a denial. As it was less usual to
rftfuse promises of this kind than to forget them
ttfirward. 1 do not undcstaud the motive of this.
que use, or usufructuary, against his fe
oflees, the court of chancery undertook
to enforce this species of contract by
process of its own.*
Such was tlie nature of the king's ordi
nary council in itself, as the organ of hia
executive sovereignty ; and such the ju-
risdiction which it habitually exercised.
But it is also to be considered in its reiu-
tion to the parliament, dur.ng whose ses-
sion, either singly, or in conjunction with
the lords' house, it was particularly con
spicuous. The great officers of state,
whether peers or not, the judges, the
king's sergeant, and attorney-general,
were, 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 tractan-
dum noinscum et cum casteris pra?latis,
magnatibus et proceribus ; that directed
to one of the judges is only, ad tractan-
dum nobiscum et cum ca^tcris de consilio
nostro ; and the seats of the latter are
upon the woolsacks 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 as-
sented. The preambles of most statutes
during this jDeriod express their concur-
rence. Thus, the statute Westm. I. is
said to be the act of the king, by his
council, and by the assent of archbishops
bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, anci
all the commonalty of the realm being
hither summoned. The statute of es-
cheators, 29 E. I., is said to be agreed by
the council, enumerating their names, all
whom appear to be judges or public offi-
cers. Still more striking conclusions are
to be drawn from the petitions addressed
to the council by both houses of parlia-
ment. In the 8th of Edward II. there
are four petitions from the commons to
tlie king and his council, one from the
* Hale's Jurisdiction Df Lords' House, p. 46.
Coke, 2 Inst., p. 553. The last author places this
a little later. There is a petition of the commons,
in the roll of the 4th of Henry IV., p. 511, that
whereas many grantees and feoffees in trust loi
their grantors and feofifers, alienate or charge the
tenements granted, in which case there is no remedy,
unless one is ordered by parliament, that the king
and lords would provide a remedy. This petitiou
IS referred to the king's council to advise of a rem-
edy against the ensuing parliament. It m.iy per
haps bo inferred from hence, that the writ of sub
poena out of chancery had not yet been applied to
protect the cestui que use. But it is equally pot-
sible that the commons, being disinclined to what
they would deem an illegal innovation, were en-
deavouring to reduce these fiduciary estates withii
the pale of the common law, as wis afterwarj
done by thf statute of uses.
VZ'4
EUROPE DtRIXG THE MIDDLE AGE:
[Chap. Via
ords alone, and one in whicn Doth appear
to have joined. Later parliaments of the
same reign present us with several more
instances of the like nature. Thus, in 18
E. II., a petition begins : " To our lord
the king, and to his council, the arch-
bishops, bishops, prelates, earls, barons,
and others of the commonalty of Eng-
land, show," &;c.*
But from the beginning of Edward
lll.'s reign, it seems that the council and
the lords' house in parliament were often
blended together into one assembly.
This was denominated the great council,
being the lords spiritual and temporal,
with the kmg's ordinary council annexed
to them, as a council within a council.
And even in much earlier times, the
lords, as hereditary counsellors, were,
either whenever they thought fit to at-
tend, 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 capa-
city 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 par-
liament as much as to the ordinary coun-
cil. The parliament Avas 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 de-
lay of justice, and their annual meeting
is demanded upon that ground. " The
king," says Fleta, " has his court in his
council, in his parliaments, in the pres-
ence of bishops, earls, barons, lords, and
other wise men, where the doubtful cases
of judgments are resolved, and new rem-
edies are provided against new injuries,
and justice is rendered to every man ac-
cording to his deseri."t In the third year
of Edward II., receivers of petitions
began to be appointed at the opening of
every parliament, who usually transmit-
ted them to the ordinary, but in some in-
stances to the great council. These re-
ceivers were commonly three for Eng-
land, and three for Ireland, Wales, Gas-
cony, and other foreign dominions.
There were likewise two corresponding
classes of auditors, or triers of petitions.
These consisted partly of bishops or
peers, partly of judges and other mem-
bers of the council ; and they seem to
» Uot. Pari.. V. i., p. 416. t Id., 1. ii., c. 2.
have been instituted m order to disbur
den the council, by giving answers tc
some petitions. But about the middle of
Edward III.'s time they ceased to ac
juridically in this respect, and confined
themselves to transmitting petitions to
the lords of the council.
The great council, according to the def-
inition we have given, consisted of the
lords spiritual and temporal, in conjunc-
tion with the ordinary council, or, in oth-
er words, of all who were severally sum-
moned to parliament, exercised a consid-
erable jurisdiction, as well civil as crim-
inal. In this jurisdiction, it is the opui-
ion of Sir M. Hale that the council,
though not peers, had right of suffrage ;
an opinion very probable, when we rec-
ollect 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 sovereignty
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 HI. or Richard H.,
the lords, by their ascendenc)-, threw the
judges and rest of the council into shade,
and took the decisive jurisdiction entirely
to themselves, making use of their for-
mer colleagues but as assistants and ad-
visers, 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 ni
parliament, though we do not frequently
meet with complaints of the encroach-
ments made by that assembly. There was,
however, one class of cases tacitly ex-
cluded from the operation of those acts,
in which the coercive jurisdiction of this
high tribunal had great convenience ;
namely, where the ordinary course of
justice was so much obstructed by the
defending party, through riots, combina
tions of maintenance, or overawing influ-
ence, that no inferior court would find its
process obeyed. Those ages, disfigured
in their quietest season by rapine and
oppression, afforded no small number of
cases that called for tliis interposition of
a paramount authority.* They do not
* This is remarkably expressed in one of the
articles ae;reed in parliament 8 H. VI., for the reg
ulation of the council. " Item, that alle the billei
that comprehend matters terminable atte the com
nion lawe, shall be remitted ther to be determin
ed ; but if so be that the discresion of the cou».
Part /ll.J
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
i'Z-i
occur so frequently, however, in the rolls
of parliament after the reign of Henry
IV.; whether this be attributed to the
eradual course of civilizatio», and to
the comparative prosperity which Eng-
land enjoyed under the line of Lancaster,
or rather to the discontinuance of the
lords' jurisdiction. Another indubitable
branch of this jurisdiction was in writs
of error : but it may be observed, that
their determination was very frequently
left to a select committee of peers and
counsellors. These, too, cease almost
entirely with Henry IV. ; and were
scarcely revived till the accession of
James 1.
Some instances occur in the reign of
Edward HI., where records have been
brought into parliament, and annulled
with assent of the commons as well as
the rest of the legislature.* But these
were attainders of treason, Avhich it
seemed gracious and solemn to reverse
in the most authentic manner. Certainly
the commons had neither by the nature
of our constitution, nor the practice of
parliament, any right of intermeddling in
judicature ; save where something was
required beyond the existing law, or
where, as in the statute of treasons, an
authority of that kind was particularly
reserved to both houses. This is fully
acknowledged by themselves in the first
year of Heniy IV. f But their influence
upon the balance of government became
so commanding in a few years afterward,
that they contrived, as has been men-
tioned already, to have petitions directed
to tliem rather than to the lords or coun-
cil, and to transmit them either with a
tacit approbation, or in the form of acts,
to the upper house. Perhaps this en-
croachment of the commons may have
contributed to the disuse of the lords' ju-
risdiction, who would rather relinquish
their ancient and honourable, but labori-
ous function, than share it with such bold
us'irners.
seill fele to g'cte myght on that o syde, and un-
myght on tha other, or elles other cause resona-
ble yat shai move him." — Hot. Pari., vol. iv.,
p. 343.
* The judgrnent against Mortimer was reversed
a. the suit of his son, 28 E. III., because he had
not been put on his trial. The peers had adjudged
him to death in his absence, upon common notori-
ety of his guilt.— 4 E. III., p. 53. In the same
session of 28 E. Ill , the Earl of Arundel's attain-
der was also reversed, which had passed in 1 E.
HI., when Mortimer was at the height of his pow-
er. These precedents taken together, seem to
%ave resulted from no partiality, but a true sense
jf justice in respect of treasons, animated by the
ecent statute. — Rot. Pari., vol. ii., p. 256.
f Kot Pari . vol. iii., p. 427.
Although the restra.ning hanc of par
liamentwas continually grow- Genera, chai
ing more eflectual, and the acieroime
notions of legal right acqui- ,„ ,i,eBe
ring more precision from the ages.
time of Magna Charta to the civil wars
under Henry VI., we may justly say, that
the general tone of administration was
not a little arbitrary. The whole fabnc
of English liberty rose step by step,
through much toil and many sacrifices ;
each generation adding some new secu-
rity to the work, and trusting that pos
terity would perfect the labour as well
as enjoy the reward. A time perhaps
was even then foreseen, in the visions
of generous hope, by the brave knights
of parliament, and by the sober sages
of justice, when the proudest ministers
of the crown should recoil from those
barriers which were then daily pushed
aside with impunity.
There is a material distinction to be ta-
ken between the exercise of the king's
undeniable prerogative, however repug-
nant to our improved principles of free-
dom, and the abuse or extension of it to
oppressive purposes. For we cannot
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. Doubtless the continual acqui-
escence of a nation in arbitrary govern-
ment may ultimately destroy all privi-
leges of positive institution, and leave
them to recover, by such means as op-
portunity shall offer, the natural and im-
prescriptible rigtits for which human so-
cieties were established. And this may
perhaps be the case at present with many
European kingdoms. But it would be
necessary to shut our eyes with deliber-
ate prejudice against the whole tenour
of the most unquestionable authorities,
against the petitions of the commons, the
acts of the legislature, the testimony of
historians and lavvycrs, before we could
assert that England acquiesced in those
abuses and oppressions, which it must be
owned 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 cnnnot define it by any
theory of executive functions. All these
may be comprehended in it, but also a
gioat deal more. It is best perhaps to be
understood by its derivation ; a:.id has
been said to be that law in case of the
king* which is law in no case of the sub-
♦ P.lpckstone's Com. fDin Finch, vol. i , c. 7.
VZ4
EUROPE DURING Tllii MIDDLii AGES.
IChai- Vl/l
ject. Of the higher and more sovereign
prerogatives 1 sliall here say nothing :
ihey result from the nature of a mon-
archy, and liave nothing very pccuhar in
their character. But the smaller rights
of tlie crown show better the origuial
lineaments of our constitution. It is
said commonly enough, that all preroga-
tives are given for the subject's good. I
must confess that no part of this asser-
tion corresponds with my view of the
subject. It neither appears to me that
these prerogatives were ever given, nor
that they necessarily redound to the
subject's good. Prerogative, in its old
sense, might be defined an advantage ob-
tained by the crown over the subject,
in cases where their interests came into
competition, by reason of its greater
strength. This sprang from the nature
of the Norman government, which rath-
er resembled 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 prerogatives has been
by the more liberal tone which now per-
vades our course of government, who-
ever attends to the common practice of
courts of justice, and, still more, whoev-
er consults the law-books, will not only
be astonished at their extent and multi-
plicity, but very frequently at their in-
justice and severity.
The real prerog"atives that might for-
I'urvej-- merly be exerted were sometimes
»nce. of so iiijurious a nature, that we
can hardly separate them from their
abuse : a striking instance is that of pur-
veyance, which will at once illustrate the
definition above given of a prerogative,
the limits within which it was to be ex-
ercised, and its tendency to transgress
them. This was a right of purchasing
whatever was necessary for the king's
household, at a fair price, in preference
to every competitor, and without the con-
sent of the owner. By the same pre-
rogative, carriages and horses were im-
pressed for the king's journeys, and
lodgings provided for his attendants.
This was defended on a pretext of neces-
sity, or at least of great convenience
to the sovereign, and was both of high
antiquity and universal practice through-
out Europe But the royal purveyors
had the utmost temptation, and doubt-
less no small store of precedents, to
stretch this power bevund 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 talU^.s whch were carried in vain
to an empty exchequer * This gave
rise .,0 a number of petitions from th«»
commons, upon Avliich statutes were
often framed ; but the evil was almost
incurable in its nature, and never ceased
till that prerogative was itself abolished.
Purveyance, as 1 have already said, may
serve "to distinguish the defects from the
abuses of our constitution. It was are
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 king was extended by
a sort of analogy to their labour. Thus
Edward III. announces to all sheriffs, tha..
William of Walsingham had a commis-
sion to collect as many painters as migh.
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 should
refuse or be refractory; and enjoins them
to lend their assistance.! Windsor Cas-
tle owes its massive magnificence to la
bourers impressed from every part of the
kingdom. There is even a commission
from Edward IV. to take as many work-
men in gold as were wanting, and em
ploy them at the king's cost upon the
trappings of himself and his household. |
Another class of abuses intimately
connected with unquestionable. Abuses oi
though oppressive, rights of the feudal
crown, originated in the feudal ■"'='"»•
tenure which bound all the lands of the
kingdom. The king had indisputably a
right to the wa'-dship of his tenants \r\
chivalry, and to the escheats or forfeit-
ures of persons dying without heirs oi
attainted for treason. But his officers, un-
der pretence of wardship, took posses-
sion of lands nothelii immediately of the
»■ Letters are directed %'* all the sheriffs, S
Edvv. I., enjoining them to sernJ up « certain num-
ber of beeves, sheep, capons, 6cc. for the king's
coronation.— Rymer, vol. ii.,p ^l. By the statute
21 Edw. III., c. 12, goods taker, by "he purveyors
were to be paid for on the spcu. if ^flder twenty
shillings value, or within thret months time if
above that value. But it is not f" be imagine*'
that this law was or could be observed.
Edward III., impelled by the exigcnce.s of hi*
French war, went still greater lengths, ind seized
large quantities of wool, which he soM beyond
sea, as well as provisions for the supply c*' his ar-
my. In both cases the proprietors had talhes, o»
other securities; but their despair of obtaining
payment gave rise, in 1338, to an insurrecMon.
There is a singular apologeiical letter of Edward
to the archbishops on this occasion.— Rymer. t. >
p 10 See also p. 73, and Knyghton, col. 2570.
t Rymer, t. vi., p. 417. t W., t. ii., r. 852
Part Iir.1
ENGL. SH CONSTITUTK N.
42S
crown, claimed escheats where a right
neir existed, and seized estates as forfeit-
ed which were jjrotected by the statute
of entails. The real owner had no rem-
edy against this dispossession, 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 favour. Even where
justice was finally rendered to him, he
had no recompense for his damages ; and
the escheators were not less likely to re-
peat an iniquity by which they could not
personally suffer.
The charter of the forests, granted by
Forest lawa ^^^'^^7 ^^^- ^long with Magna
Charta,* had been designed to
crash the flagitious system of oppres-
sion, which prevailed in those favourite
haunts of the Norman kings. They had
still, however, their peculiar jurisdiction,
though, from the time at least of Edward
III., subject in some measure to the con-
trol of the King's Bench. f The forest-
ers, 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 neighbouring cul-
tivators frequently suffered from the
kmg's officers, who attempted to recover
those adjacent lands, or, as they were
called, purlieus, which had been disaf-
forested by the charter, and protected
by frequent perambulations. Many peti-
tions of the commons relate to this griev-
ance.
The constable and marshal of Eng-
Jurisdiciinn ^^nd possessed a jurisdiction,
of Constable the proper limits whcrcof wcrc
and Marshal, sufficiently narrow, as it seems
to have extended only to appeals of trea-
son committed beyond sea, which were
determined by combat, and to military
offences within the realm. But these
high officers frequently took upon them
to inquire of treasons and felonies cog-
nizable at common law, and even of civil
♦ Matthew Paris asserts that John granted a
separate forest-charter, and supports his position
by inserlintr that of Henry IH. at full length. In
fact, the clauses relating to the forest were incor-
porated with the great charter of John. Such an
error as this shows the precariousness of histor-
ical testimony, even where it seems to be best
(frounded.
t Coke, 4th Inst., p 294. The forest domain of
the king, says the author of the Dialogue on the
Exchequer under Henry II., is governed by its own
.aws, not founded on the common law of the land,
but the voluntary enactment of princes; so that
whatever is done by that law is reckoned ii Jt legal
in itself, but legal according to forest law, p. 29,
non justum absolute, sed justum secundum legem
forestae dicatur. I believe my translation o{ justum
*«! "ight ; fnr he is not writiig satirically
contracts or trespasses. This is no bai
illustration of the state in which our con
stitution stood under the Plantagenets.
No colour of right or of supreme prerog-
ative was set up to justify a procedure
so manifestly repugnant to the great char-
ter. For all remonstrances against thes<<
encroachments, the king gave promise?
in return; and a statute was 'enacted, in
the 13th of Richard II., declaring the
bounds of the constable and marshars
jurisdiction.* It could not be denied,
therefore, that all infringements of these
acknowledged limits were illegal, even
if they had a hundred fold more actual
precedents in their favour than can be
supposed. But the abuse by no means
ceased after the passing of this statute,
as several subsequent petitions, that it
might be better regarded, will evince.
One, as it contains a special instance, I
shall insert. It is of the fifth year of
Henry IV. " On several suppfications
and petitions made by the commons in
parliament to our lord the king for Ben-
net Wilman, who is accused by certain
of his ill wishers, and detained in prison,
and put to answer before tlie constable
and marshal-, against the statutes and the
common law of England, our said lord the
king, by the advice and assent of the lords
in parliament, granted that the said Ben-
net should be treated according to tho
statutes and common law of England,
notwithstanding any commission to the
contrary, or accusation against liim made
before the constable and marshal." And
a writ was sent to the justices of the
king's bench, with a copy of this article
from the roll of parliament, directing them
to proceed as they shall see fit according
to the laws and customs of England. f
It must appear remarkable, that, in a
case so manifestly Avithin their coinpe-
tence, the court of king's bench should
not have issued a writ of habeas corpus,
without waiting for what may be consid-
ered as a particular act of parliament.
But it is a natural effect of an arbitrary
administration of government, to intimi-
date courts of justice. J A negative ar-
♦ 13 R. II., c. 2. + Rot. Pari., vol. iii., p. MO.
t The apprehension of this compliant spir>, in
the ministers of justice led to an e.xcellent act in
2 E. HI., c. 8, that the judges shall not omit to do
right for any coinmarKl under the great or privy-
seal. And the conduct of Richard II., who sought
absolute power by corrupting or mtimidating them,
produced another statute in the eleventh year of
his reign (c. 10), providing that neither letters of the
king's signet nor of the privy seal should fronr.
thenceforth be sent in disturbance of the law. An
ordinance of ('harles V., king of France, in 1369
directs the parliament of Paris to pay no regarc to
a: A' letters under Ins seal suspending the ciurseo
120
EUROPE bURlNG THE MIDDLE AGES.
jChap. Vlll
gumeiit, founded upon the want of legal
precedent, is certainly not conclusive,
when it relates to a distant period, of
which all the precedents have not beeu
noted ; yet it must strike us, that in the
learned and zealous arguments of Sir
Robert Cotton, Mr. Selden, and others,
against arbitrary imprisonment, in the
great case 'of the habeas corpus, though
the statute law is full of authorities in
their favour, we find no instance addu-
ced, earlier than the reign of Henry VII.,
where the king's bench has released, or
even bailed, persons committed by the
council, or the constable, though it is un-
questionable that such committals were
both frequent and illegal.*
If I have faithfully represented thus
far the history of our constitution, its es-
sential character will appear to be a mon-
archy greatly limited by law, though re-
taining much power that was ill calcu-
lated to promote the public good, and
swerving continually into an irregular
course, which there was no restraint ad-
equate to correct. But of all the notions
that have been advanced as to the theory
of this constitution, the least consonant
to law and history is that which repre-
sents the king as merely an hereditary
executiTC magistrate, the first officer of
the state What advantages might re-
sult from =iuch a form of government, this
is not the place to discuss. But it cer-
tainly was not the ancient constitution of
England. There was nothing in this, ab-
solutely nothing, of a republican appear-
legal procedure, but to consider them as surrepti-
tiously obtained. — Villaret, t. x., p. 175. This or-
dinance, which was sedulously observed, tended
very much to confirm the independence and integ-
rity of that tribunal.
* Cotton's Posthuma, p. 221. Howell's State
Trials, vol. lii., p. 1. Hume quotes a grant of the
office of constable to the Earl of Rivers in 7 Edw.
IV., and infers, unwarrantably enough, that "its
authority was in direct contradiction to Magna
Charta; and it is evident that no regular liberty
could subsist with it. It involved a full dictatorial
power, continually subsisting in the state." — Hist.
of England, c. 22. But by the very words of this
patent tlie jurisdiction given was only over such
causes quae in curia constabularii Angliae ab anti-
quo, viz., tempore dicti Gulielmi conqusestoris, seu
ahquo tempore citra, tractari, audiri, examinari,
aut decidi consueverunt aut jure debucrant mtt de-
bent. These are expressed, though not very per-
Epicuously, in the statute 13 Ric. ll., c. 2, that de-
clares the constable's jurisdiction. And the chief
criminal matter reserved by law to the court of this
officer was treason committed out of the kingdom,
'n violent and revolutionary seasons, such as the
commencement of Edward IV. 's reign, some per-
sona were tried by martial law before the constable.
But in general, the exercise of criminal justice by
this tribunal, though one of the abuses of the
times, cannot be said to wan ant the strong lan-
guage adopted ly Hume.
ance. All seemed to grow out of the
monarchy, and was referred to its advan-
tage and honour. The voice of supplica
tion, even in the stoutest disposition of
the commons, was always humble ; the
prerogative was always named in large
and pompous expressions. Still more
naturally may we expect to find in the
law-books even an obsequious deference
to power ; from judges who scarcely ven-
tured to consider it as their duty to de-
fend the subject's freedom, and who be-
held the gigantic image of prerogative, in
the full play of its hundred arms, con-
stantly before their eyes. Through this
monarchical tone, which certainly per-
vades all our legal authorities, a writer
like Hume, accustomed to philosophical
liberality as to the principles of govern-
ment, and to the democratical language
which the modern aspect of the constitu-
tion and the liberty of printing have pro-
duced, fell hastily into the error of be-
lieving that all limitations of royal power
during the fourteenth and fifteenth cen-
turies were as much unsettled in law and
in public opinion, as they were liable to
be violated by force. Though a contrary
position has been sufficiently demonstra-
ted, I conceive, by the series of parlia-
mentary proceedings which I have al-
ready produced, yet there is a passage in
Sir John Fortescue's treatise De Laudibus
Legum Angliaj, so exphcit and weighty,
that no writer on the English constitution
can be excused from inserting it. This
eminent person, having been chief jus-
tice 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 treatise purposely composed for
the instruction of one who hoped to reign
over England, the limitations of govern-
ment are enforced as strenuously by
Fortescue, as some succeeding lawyers
have inculcated the doctrines of arbitrary
prerogative.
" a" king of England cannot at his
pleasure make any alterations sir John
in the laws of the land, for the Fonescue's
I. ,. ■ • 4 doctrine as
nature of his governrnent is not {„ ,^6 Eng
only regal, but political. Had Usu Con- "
it been merely regal, he would stnution.
have a power to make what innovationa
and alterations he pleased in the laws of
the kingdom, impose tallages and other
hardships upon the people, whether they
would or no, without their consent, which
sort of government the civil laws point
out when they declare, Quod principi pla-
cuit, legis habet vigorem. But it is much
«,«eT Ul.J
ENGLISH CONSTl 1 LTION
421
otherwise with a king whose government
•s political, because he can neither make
any alteration or change in the laws of
the realm without the consent of the sub-
jects, nor burden them against their wills
with strange impositions, so that a peo-
ple governed by such laws as are made
by their own consent and approbation
enjoy their properties securely, and with-
out the hazard of being deprived of them,
either by the king or any other. The
same things may be effected under an ab-
solute prince, provided he do not degen-
erate into the tyrant. 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
because 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 Regi-
mine Principum, wishes, that a kingdom
could be so instituted as that the king
might not be at liberty to tyrannise over
his people ; which only comes to pass
in the present case; that is, when the
sovereign pow(^T is restrained by polit-
ical laws. Rejoice, therefore, my good
prince, that such is the law of the king-
dom to which you are to inherit, because
it will afford, both to yourself and sub-
jects, the greatest security and satisfac-
tion."*
The two great divisions of civil rule,
the absolute, or regal, as he calls it, and
the political, Fortescue proceeds to de-
duce from the several originals of con-
quest and compact. Concerning the lat-
ter, he declares emphatically, a truth not
always palatable to princes, that such
governments were instituted by the peo-
ple and for the people's good ; quoting
St. Augustine for a similar definition of a
political society. " As the head of a
oody natural cannot change its nerves
and sinews, cannot deny to the several
parts their proper energy, their due pro-
portion and aliment of blood, neither can
a king, who is the head of a body politic,
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 king-
dom, 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 delega-
tion of power from the people, and he has
no just claim to any other power but
• Fcalescuo, De Laudibiis Leguni Anglioe, c. 9.
ihiJ. Wherefore, to give a brief answei
to that question of yours concerning thfl
different powers which kings claim ovei
their subjects, I am firmly of opinion that
it arises solely from the different naturea
of their original institution, as you may
easily collect from what has been said.
So the kingdom of England had its origi-
nal from Brute and the Trojans, who at-
tended him from Italy and Greece, and
became a mixed kind of government,
compounded of the regal and political."*
It would occupy too much space to
quote every other passage of Erroneous
the same nature in this treatise mcws taken
of Fortescue, and in that enti- ^^ """'^•
tied. Of the Difference between an Abso-
lute and Limited Monarchy, which, so far
as these points are concerned, is nearlj'
a translation from the former.f But
these, corroborated as they are by the
statute-book and by the rolls of parlia-
ment, are surely conclusive against the
notions which pervade Mr. Hume's His-
tory. 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 perfection, conspired with
certain prepossessions of his own to lead
this eminent historian into an equally er-
roneous system on the opposite side.
And as he traced the stream backwards,
and came last to the times of the Plan-
tagenet 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 exagger-
ate every circumstance that indicated
immature civilization, and law perverted
or infringed. J To this his ignorance of
* Fortescue, De Laudibus Legum Anglise, c. 13.
t The latter treatise having been written under
Edward IV., whom Fortescue, as a restored Lan-
castrian, 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 prin-
ciples of limited monarchy were as fully recognised
in his reign, whatever particular acts of violence
might occur, as they had been under the Lancasc
trian princes.
X The following is one example of these preju
dices : In the 9th of Richard II. a tax on woo!,
granted till the ensuing feast of St. John Baptis*.,
was to be intermitted from thence to that of St
Peter, and then to recommence ; that it might not
be claimed as a right. — Rot. Pari., vol. lii., p. 214
Mr. Hume has noticed this provision, as " showing
an accuracy beyond what was to be expected in
those rude times." In this epithet we see the
foundation of his mistakes. The age of Richard
II. might perhaps be called rude in some respects.
But assuredly, in prudent and circumspect percep-
tion of c(insequenccs, and an accurate use of Ian
guage, 'tore could be :..o reason why it should be
VJ8
EL ROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[CrAP. VIH
Knglish jurisprudence, which certainly
in some measure disquahfied him from
writing our history, did not a Uttle con-
tribute ; misrepresentations frequently
occurring in his work, which a moderate
acquaintance with the law of the land
A-ould have prevented.
It is an honourable circumstance to
Instances of England, that the history of no
illegal con- Other country presents so few
fkninaiion instances of illegal condem-
nations upon political charges.
The judicial torture was hardly known,
and never recognised by law.* The
sentence in capital crimes, fixed un-
alterably by custom, allowed nothing to
vindictiveness and indignation. There
hardly occurs an example of any one
being notoriously put to death without
form of trial, except in moments of fla-
grant civil war. If the right of juries
were sometimes evaded by irregular ju-
risdictions, they were at least held sacred
by the courts of law : and through all
ihe vicissitudes of civil liberty, no one
ever questioned the primary right of
everj'' freeman, handed down from his
Saxon forefathers, to the trial by his
peers. A just regard for public safety
prescribes the necessity of severe penal-
ties against rebellion and conspiracy ;
but the interpretation of these offences,
when intrusted to sovereigns and their
counsellors, has been the most tremen-
dous 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 na-
ture of treason appears to have been
subject to much uncertainty in England
before the statute of Edward III. If
deemed inferior to our cvn. If Mr. Hume had
ever deigned to glance at the legal decisions re-
ported in the Year-books of those times, he would
have been surprised, not only at the utmost accxi-
Tocy, but at a subtle refinement in verbal logic,
which none of his own metaphysical treatises
could surpass.
* Daring the famous process against the knights
templars m the reign of Edward II., the Archbish-
op of York, having taken the examination of cer-
tain templars in his province, felt some doubts,
wnich he propounded to several monasteries and
divines. Most of these relate to the main subject.
But one question, fitter indeed for lawyers than
Jif ologians, was, whereas many would not confess
vithout torture, whether he might make use of
^his means, licet hoc. in regno AnsHa nunquam visuyn
/uerit vd auditum ? Et si torquendi sunt, utrum
i)er cleric'js vel laicos? Et dato, quod nullus om-
%in6 toTlar inveniri raleat in Anglla, Utrum pro tor-
toribus inittendum sit ad partes transmarinas ? —
Walt. Htminsfoi 1. p. 356.
that memorable law did not give all pos-
sible precision to the offence, which we
must certainly allow, it prevented at
least those stretches of vindictive tyran-
ny which disgrace the annals of other
countries. The praise, however, must be
understood as comparative. 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 Scrop, in 1415, if it be true, accord-
ing to Carte and Hume, that they were
not heard in their defence. But whether
this is to be absolutely inferred from the
record,* is perhaps open to (jiiestion.
There seems at least to have been no
sufficient motive for such an irregularity ;
their participation in a treasonable con-
spiracy being manifest from their own
confession. The proceedings against
Sir John Mortimer in the 2d of Henry
VI. f are called by Hume highly irregular
and illegal. They were, however, by act
of attainder, which cannot well be styled
illegal. Nor are they to be considered as
severe. Mortimer hud broken out of
the Tower, where he was confined on a
charge of treason. This was a capital
felony at common law ; and the chief ir-
regularity seems to have consisted in
having recourse to parliament in order to
attaint him of treason, when he had al-
ready forfeited his life by another crime.
I would not willingly attribute t^ the
prevalence of tory dispositions what
may be explained otherwise, the prog-
ress which Mr. Hume's historical theory
as to our constitution has been gradually
making since its publication. The tide
of opinion, which, since the Revolution,
and indeed since the reign of James I..
had been flowing so strongly in favour of
the aiUiquity of our liberties, now seems,
among the higher and more literary
classes, to set pretty decidedly the other
way. Though we may still sometimes
hear a demagogue chattering about the
wittenagemot, it is far more usual to find
sensible and liberal 'men who look on
Magna Charta itself as the result of an
uninteresting squabble between the king
and his barons. j\cts of force and in-
justice, which strike the cursory inquirer,
especially if he derives his knowledge
from modern compilations more than
tlie average tenour of events, are selected
and displayed as fair samples of the law
» Rot, Pari, vol. iv„ p. 65.
\ id., p. 202
Part III.]
ENGLISH COx\STITUTIO>-.
429
and of its adminislration. We are de-
ceived by the comparatively perfect
state of our present liberties, and forget
that our superior security is lar less ow-
ing to positive law than to the control
which is exercised over government by
public opinion through the general use of
printing, and to the diffusion of liberal
principles in policy through the same
means. Thus, disgusted at a contrast
which it was hardly candid to institute,
we turn away from the records that at-
test the real, though imperfect, freedom
of our ancestors ; and are willing to be
persuaded that the whole scheme of Eng-
lish polity, till the commons took on
themselves to assert their natural rights
against James I., was at best but a mock-
ery of popular privileges, hardly recog-
nised in theory, and never regarded in
effect.
This system, when stripped of those
slavish inferences that Brady and Carte
attempted to build upon it, admits per-
haps of no essential objection but its
want of historical truth. God forbid that
our rights to just and free government
should be tried by a jury of antiquaries !
Yet it is a generous pride that inter-
tv/ines the consciousness of hereditary
freedom with the memory of our ances-
tors ; and no trifling argument against
those who seem indifferent in its cause,
that the character of the bravest and
most virtuous among nations has not de-
pended upon the accidents of race or
olimate, but been gradually wrought by
the plastic influence of civil rights,
transmitted as a prescriptive inheritance
through a long course of generations.
By what means the English acquired
Causes tend- ^"^^ preserved this political lib-
ing 10 form erty, which, even in the flf-
the constitu- teenth century, was the admi-
ration of judicious foreigners,*
IS a very rational and interesting inquiry.
Their own serious and steady attachment
to the laws must always be reckoned
among the principal causes of this bles-
sing. The civil equality of all freemen
below the rank of peerage, and the sub-
jection of peers themselves to the impar-
tial arm of justice, and to a just share in
contribution to public burdens, advan-
tages unknown to other countries, tended
to identify the interests and to assimilate
the feeUngs of the aristocracy with those
of the people ; classes whoso dissension
and jealousy have been in many instances
* Phiiip de Comines takes several opportunities
of testifying his esteem lor the Knglish goverii-
meivt See particularly 1. iv., c. i, and !. v., c.
li/
the surest hope of sovereigns aiinmg at
arbitrary power. This freedom from the
oppressive superiority of a privileged or-
der was peculiar to England. In many
kingdoms the royal prerogative was at
least equally limited The statutes of
Aragon are more full of remedial provis-
ions. The righ of oi)posing a tyraniii
cal government by arms was more fre-
quently asserted in Castile. But n.»-
where else did the people possess jy
law, and I think, upon the whole, in ef-
fect, 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. For-
tescue, " in which you may not find a
knight, an esquire, or some substantial
householder (paterfamilias), commonly
called a frankleyn,* possessed of consid-
erable estate; besides others who are
called freeholders, and many yeomen of
estates sufficient to make a substantial
jury." I would, however, point out
more particularly two causes which had
a veiy leading elflcacy in tlie gradual de-
velopment of our constitution; lirst, the
schemes of continental ambition in which
our government was long engaged : sec-
ondly, the manner in which feudal prin-
ciples 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, liardly
any other power was possessed by the
King of France than what he inlierited
from the great fiefs of the Capetian fam-
ily. War With such a potentate wa- not
exceedingly to be dreaded, and William,
besides his immense revenue, could em-
ploy the feudal services of his vassals,
which were extended by him to conti-
nental expeditions. These circumstan-
ces were not essentially changt'd till
after the loss of Normandy ; for the ac-
quisitions of Henry II. kept him fully on
an equality with the French crown, and
the dilapidation which had taken place in
* By a frankleyn in this place we are to under
stand what we call a country squire, like th«*
frankleyn of Chaucer; fur the word tsquire in
Fortescue's time was only used ni its limited
sense, for the sons of peers and kn'ghts, cr such as
had obtained the title by creatioij or tome other
legal means.
The mentirn of Chaucer leads me to add, that
the prologue to his Canterbury Talcs is of itself a
continual testimony to the plenteous and comfort-
able situation of the middle ranks in England, as
well as to that fearless independence ar.d frequent
originality of character among them, which libcrj
and competence have conspired to produce.
430
EURO E DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
rCHAP. Vll
the roj'al demesnes was compensated
by several arbitrary resources that filled
the exchequer of these monarchs. But
in the reigns of John and Henry III., the
position of England, or rather of its sov-
ereign, with respect to France, under-
went a very disadvantageous change.
The loss of Normandy severed the con-
nexion between the English nobility and
\he continent ; they had no longer es-
tates ta defend, and took not sufficient
.nterest in the concerns of Guienne to
Jight for that province at their own cost.
Their feudal service was nov/ 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 oppres-
sion were tried in vain to replenish the
treasury, which the defence of Eleanor's
inheritance against the increased energy
of France was constantly exhausting.
Even ill the most arbitrary reigns, a gen-
eral tax upon landholders, 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 com-
plaints, and, if he could not elude, to ac-
quiesce in their petitions. These neces-
sities came still more urgently upon Ed-
ward I., whose ambitious spirit could not
patiently endure the encroachments of
Philip the Fair, a rival not less ambitious,
but certainly less distinguished by per-
sonal prowess than himself. What ad-
vantage the friends of liberty reaped
from this ardour for continental warfare,
is strongly seen in the circumstances at-
tending" the Confirmation of the Char-
ters.
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 pre-
serve the courtly magnificence which
that age of chivalry affected, without
perpetual recurrence to the house of
commons. Edward HI. very little con-
sulted 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 condition-
al supply ; and though, in the meridian
of Edward's age and vigour, the}' 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 pub-
lic 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 privi-
leges, the riglit of refusing supply was
the keystone. But for the long wars in
which our kings were involved, at first
tiy their possession of Guienne, and after-
ward by their pretensions upon the crown
of France, it would have been easy
to suppress remonstrances by avoiding
to assemble parliament. For it must be
confessed, that an authority was given to
the king's proclamations, and to ordinan-
ces of the council, which differed but
little from legislative power, and would
very soon have been interpreted by com-
plaisant 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, in-
cluding Magna Charta itself, as it now
stands confirmed by Henry HI., were, in
the most literal sense, obtained by a pe-
cuniary bargain with the crown. In
many parliaments of Edward HI. and
Richard II. this sale of redress is chaf-
fered for as distinctly, and with as little
apparent sense of disgrace, as the most
legitimate business between two mer-
chants would be transacted. So little
was there of voluntary benevolence in
what the loyal courtesy of our constitu-
tion styles concessions from the throne ;
and so little title have these sovereigns,
though we cannot, refuse our admiration
to the generous virtues of Edward HI.
and Henry V., to claim the gratitude of
posterity as the benefactors 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 extend-
i»ART in.]
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
43i
ed as much to the sovereign as to inferi-
or lords ; the authority of the former in
France, where the system most flour-
ished, being for several ages rather feu-
dal than political. If a vassal was ag-
grieved, and if justice was 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 po-
tentates, and was terminated by treaty,
advantageous or otherwise, according to
the fortune of war. This privilege,
suited enough to the situation of France,
the great peers of which did not origi-
nally intend to admit more than a nomi-
nal supremacy in the house of Capet,
was evidently less compatible with the
••egular monarchy of England. The
stern natures of William the Conqueror
and his successors kept in control the
mutinous spirit of their nobles, and reap-
ed 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 influ-
ence and riches, with habitual activity,
I'igilance, and severity. Still, however,
there remained the original principle,
-hat allegiance depended conditionally
ipon good treatment, and that an appeal
might be lawfully made to arms against
an oppressive .government. Nor was
ihis, we may be sure, left for extreme
necessity, or thought to require a long
enduring forbearance. In modern times,
1 king compelled by his subjects' swords
-o abandon any pretension would be sup-
posed 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 senti-
ments. 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 re-
sisted in defence of public freedom.
The Great Charter of .Tohn was secured
by the election of twenty-five barons, as
consefv'ators of the compact. If the king,
or the justiciary in his absence, should
transgress any article, any four might de-
mand reparation, and on denial carry
their complaint to the rest of their body.
" And those barons, with all the com-
mons of the land, shall distrain and an-
noy us by every means in their power ;
ihat is, by seizi'ig our castles, lands, and
possessions, and every other mode, til.
the wrong shall be repaired to their sat-
isfaction ; saving our person, md oui
queen and children. And when :t shall
be repaired they shall obey us as be-
fore."* It is amusing to see the com-
mon law of distress introduced upon this
gigantic scale ; and the capture of the
king's castles treated as analogous to im-
pounding a neighbour's horse for break-
ing fences.
A very curious illustration of this feu-
dal principle is found in the conduct of
William, earl of Pembroke, one of the
greatest names in our ancient histor5%
towards Henry III. The king had defied
him, which was tantamount to a declara-
tion of war ; alleging that he had made
an inroad upon the royal domains. Pem-
broke maintained that he was not the ag-
gressor, that the king had denied him
justice, and been the first to invade his
territory ; on which account he had
thought himself absolved from his hom-
age, and at liberty to use force against
the malignity of the royal advisers.
" Nor would it be for the king's honour,"
the earl adds, " that I should submit to
his Avill against reason, whereby I should
rather do wrong to him and to that jus-
tice which he is bound to administer to
wards his people : and I should give an
ill example to all men in deserting justice
and right in compliance with his mistaken
will. For this would show that I loved
my worldly wealth better than justice."
These words, with whatever dignity ex-
pressed, it may be objected, prove only
the disposition of an angry and revolted
earl. But even Henry fully admitted the
right of taking arms against himself, if
he had meditated his vassal's destruction,
and disputed only the application of this
maxim to the Karl of Pembroke. f
These feudal notions, which placed the
moral obligation of allegiance very low,
acting under a weighty pressure from the
real strength of the crown, were favour-
able to constitutional 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 mterest
against the crown. But in England, as
there was no prospect of throwmg off
subjection, the barons endeavoured only
to hghtcn its burden, fixing limits to pre-
rogative by law, and securing their ob-
servation by parliamentary remonstran-
ces or bv dint of arms. Hence, as all
* Brady's Hist., vol. i., ApijcndLt, p. 149.
f Matt.'Paris, p. 330 Lvttleton'a Hi.st. of Hoi
ry II., vol. iv., n. 41.
432
EUROFf DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
CtHAP. Vlli
rebellions in England were directed only
to coerce the government, or, at the ut-
most, to change the succession of the
crown, without the smallest tendency to
separation, they did not impair the na-
tional strength, nor destroy the charac-
ter of the constitution, in all these con-
tentions, it is remarkable that the people
and clergy sided with the nobles against
the throne. No individuals are so pop-
ular with the monkish annalists, who
speak the language of the populace, as
Simon, earl of Leicester, Thomas, earl
of Lancaster, and Thomas, duke of
Glocester, all turbulent opposers of the
royal authority, and probably little de-
serving of their panegyrics. Very few
English historians of the middle ages are
advocates of prerogative. This may be
ascribed both to the equality of our laws,
and to the interest which the aristocracy
found in courting popular favour when
committed against so formidable an ad-
versary as the king. And even now,
when the stream that once was hurried
along gullies, and dashed dov.'n precipices,
hardly betrays, upon its broad and tran-
quil Dosom, the motion that actuates it,
it must still be accounted a singular hap-
piness of our constitution, that all ranks
graduating harmoniously into one anoth-
er, the interests of peers and common-
ers are radically interwoven; each in a
certain sense distinguishable, but not bal-
anced like opposite weights, not separa-
ted like discordant fluids, not to be se-
cured by insolence or jealousy, but by
mutual "adherence and reciprocal influ-
ences.
From the time of Edward L, the feudal
fnfluence system and all the feelings con-
whichihe nectcd with it declined very rap-
siaie of j^j j3 J ^^^i ^l-jg nobility lost
manners . V, , /• i, • r, ,
gave the ui the number of their militaiy
nobility, tenants was in some degree com-
pensated by the state of manners. The
higher class of them, who took the chief
share in public afl'airs, were exceedingly
opulent; and their mode of life gave
wealth an incredibly greater efiicacy than
it possesses at present. Gentlemen of
large estates and good families, 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
using, 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
\o carry their pikes and staves into the
field of battle. Many devices wer'> used
to preserve this aristocratic influence
which riches and ancestry of tliemselves
rendered so formidable. Such was the
maintenance of suits, or confederacies
for the purpose of supporting each othf^r'R
claims in litigation, which was the sub-
ject of frequent complaints in parliament,
and gave rise to several prohibitory siat-
utes. By help of such confederacies
parties were enabled to make violent en
tries upon the lands ihey claimed, wliich
the law itself could hardly be said to dis-
courage.* Even proceedings in courts
of justice were often liable to intimida-
tion and influence.! A practice much
allied to confederacies of maintenance,
though ostensibly more harmless, was
that of giving liv(;ries to all retainers of
a noble family ; but it had an obvious
tendency to preserve that spirit of fac-
tious attachments and animosities, which
it is the general policy of a wise govern-
ment to dissipate. From the first year
of Richard IL we find continual mention
of this custom, with many legal provis-
ions against it, but it was never abol-
ished till the reign of Henry VIl.J
* If a man was disseized of his land, he nnighl
enter upon the disseisor and reinstate himself with-
out course of law. In what case this right of en
try was taken away, or tolled, as it was expresse<l,
by the death or alienation of the disseisor, is a sub-
ject extensive enough to occupy two chapters ol
Lyttleton. What pertains to our inquiry is, that bj
an entry, in the old law books, we must understand
an actual repossession of the disseisee, not a suit
in ejectment, as it is now interpreted, but which ii
a comparatively modern proceeding. The first
remedy, says Britton, of the disseisee is to collect a
body of his friends (recoiller amys et force), aid
without delay to cast out the disseisors, or at least
to maintain himself in possession along with them,
c. 44. Tins entry ought indeed, by 5 Rich. II.,
slat, i., c. 8, to be made peaceably ; and the jus
tices might assemble the posse comitatus, to im-
prison persons entering on lands by violence (15
Ric. II., c. 2), but these laws imply the facts that
made them necessary.
t No lord or other person, by 20 Ric. II., c. 3,
was permitterl to sit on the bench with the justices
of assize. Trials were sometimes overawed by
armed parties, who endeavoured to prevent their
adversaries from appearing. — Paston Letters, vol
ill., p, 119.
% From a passage in the Paston Letters (vol. li.
p. 23), it appears that, far from these acts being re
garded, it was considered as a mark of respect to
the king, when he came into a county, for the no-
blemen and gentry to meet him with as many at-
tendants in livery as they could muster. Sir John
Paston was to provide twenty men in their livery
gowns, and the Duke of Norfolk two hundred
This illustrates the well-known story of Henry
VII. and the Earl of Oxford, and shows the mean
and oppressive conduct of the king in that affair
which Hume has pretended to justify.
' In the first of Edward IV. it is said m the roll <V
I parliament (vol. v.. p. 407). that " by yevmg of hj
1 eries and signes, contrary to the statutes and oral
i nances made aforetyme, mainienaunce of quaneU
Paet III.]
ENGLISH COiNSTlTL TION
•133
These associations under powerful
Prevalent chiefs werc oiily incidentally
iabiis of beneficial as they tended to with-
rapine. ^jtand the abuses of prerogative.
In their more usual course, they were
designed to thwart the legitimate exer-
cise of the king's government in the ad- 1
ministration 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 re-
cover the local annals of every country,
such an accumulation of petty rapine and
tumult, as would almost alienate us from
the liberty which served to engender it.
This was the common tcnour of manners,
sometimes so much aggravated as to find
a place in general history,* more often
attested by records, during the three cen-
turies that the house of Plantagenet sat
on the throne. Disseisin, or forcible dis-
possession of freeholds, makes one of
the most considerable articles in our
law-books. t Highway robbery was from
extortions, robberies, murders been multiplied and
continued wiihin this reame, to the grete disturb-
aunce and inquietation of the same."
* Thus, to select one passage out of many ;
Eodem anno (1332) quidam maiigni, fulti quorun-
dam magnatum praesidio, regis adolescentiam sper-
nentes, et regnum perturbare intendentes, in tan-
tam turbam creveruijt, nemora et saltus occupave-
runt, ila quod toti regno terror! essent. — Walsing-
liam, p. 132.
t I am aware that in many, probably a great
majority ol reported cases, this word was techni-
I'allv used, where some unwarranted conveyance,
s.ich as a feoffment by the tenant for life, was held
to have wrought a disseisin ; or where the plain-
'.iff was allowed, for the purpose of a more con-
• enienl remedy, to feign hwnsclf disseized, which
was called disseisin by election. But several
proofs migiit be tjrougiit from the parliamentary
petitions, and I doubt not, if nearly looked at, from
the year-books, that in other ca.ses there was an
actual and violent expulsion. And the definition
of disseisin in all the old writers, such as Britton
and Littleton, is obviously framed upon its primary
meaning of violent dispossession, which the word
had probal)ly acquired long before the more peacea-
ble (lisseisins, if I may use the e.\pression, became
the subject of the remedy by assize.
I would speak with deference of Lord Mansfield's
elaborate judgment in Taylor dem. Atkins v.
Horde, I liurrow, 107, &c. ; but some positions in
it appear to mc rather too strongly stated ; and
particularly, tliat the acceptance of the disseisor as
tenant by the lord was necessary to render the dis-
seisin complete ; a condition wliich I have not
found hinted in any law-book. — See Butler's note
on Co. Litt., p. 330 ; where that eminent lawyer
expresses similar doubts as to Lord Mansfield's
•easoning. It may however be remarked, that
constructive or elective disseisins, being of a tech-
nical nature, were more likely to produce cases in
he year-books, than those accompanied with ac-
luil violence, which would commonly turn only
vn -fiHlters of fact, an^ be determined by a jury.
E e
the earliest limes a sort of national en me.
Capital punishments, though very fre-
quent, made little impression on a bold
and licentious crew, who had at least the
sympathy of those who had nothing to
lose on their side, and flattering jjros-
pects of impunity. We know how long
the outlaws of Sherwood lived in tradi-
tion ; men who, like some of their bet-
ters, have been permitted to redeem by
a few acts of generosity the just igi.")-
miny of extensive crimes. These, in-
deed, were the heroes of vulgar applause ;
but when such a judge as Sir .lohn For-
tescue could exult that more Englishmen
were hanged for robbery in une year
than French in seven, and that " if an
Englishm.an 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 thorough-
ly these sentiments had pervaded the
public mind.
Such robbers, I have said, had flatter
ing prospects of impunity. 13( iiderj the
general want of communication, which
made Oi)e who had fled from his own
neighbourhood tolerably secure, they had
the advantage of extensive forests to fa-
cilitate their depredations, and prevent
detection. When outlawed, or brought
to trial, the worst off'enders could fre-
quently purchase charters of pardon,
which defeated justice in the inonicut
of her blow.f Nor were the nobility
A remarkable instance of violent disseisin
amounting in effect to a private war, may be foun<l
in the Paston Letters, occupying m.ost of the fourth
volume. One of the Paston family, claiming :v
right to Caister Castle, kept possession against the
Uiike of Norfolk, who brought a large force, and
laid a regular siege to the place, till it surrendered
for want of provisions. Two of the besiegers were
killed. It does not appear tiiat any legal measures
were taken to prevent or punish this outrage.
* Difference between an Absolute and Limited
Monarchy, p. 99.
■f The manner in which these were obtained, in
spite of law, may be noticed among the violent
courses of prerogative. By statute 2 E. HI., c. 2,
confirmed by 10 K. III., c. 2, the king's power of
granting pardons was taken away, e.xxept m c.ises of
homicide per inlortunium. Another act, 14 E. HI.,
c. 15, reciting that the former laws in tiiis icspec
have not been kept, declares that all pardons con
trary to them shall be boldcn as null. This, how
ever, was disregarded like the rest; and the com
mons began tacitly to recede from them, and en
deavoured to compromise the question with the
crown. By 27 E. Hi., stat. 1, c.2, without advert
ing to the existing provisions, which may therefore
seem to be repealed by implication, it is enacted that
in every charier of pardon, granted at any one's
suggestion, the suggestor's name and the grounds
of his suggestion shall be expressed, that if the
same fte found untrue, jt may be disallowrd. And
in 13 R. II., Stat. 2, c. 1, we are surprised to find
'.he commons requesting that pardons nught no"
434
EUROPL during the middle 4GES.
[Chap. Vlll
ashamed to patronise men guilty of eve-
iy crime. Several proofs of this occur
in the rolls. Thus, for example, in the
22d of Edward III., the commons pray,
that ' whereas it is notorious how rob-
bers and malefactors infest the country,
the king would charge the great men of
the land that none such be maintained
by them, privily or openly, but that they
lend assistance to arrest and take such
ill doers."*
It is perhaps the most meritorious part
of Edward I.'s government, that he bent
all his power to restrain these breaches
of tranquillity. One of his salutary pro-
visions is still in constant use, the statute
of coroners. Another more extensive,
and, though partly obsolete, the founda-
tion of modern laws, is the statute of
Winton, which, reciting that, "from day
to day robberies, murders, burnings, and
theft be more often used than they have
been heretofore, and felons cannot be at-
be granted, as if the subject were wholly unknown
to the law ; the king protesting in reply that he
will save his liberty and regality, as his progenitors
had done before, but conceding some regulations,
far less remedial than what were provided already
by the 27th of Edward II. Pardons make a pretty
la'rge head m Brooke's Abridgment, and were un-
doubtedly .granted without scruple by every one
ofour kings. A pardon obtained in a case of pecu-
liar atrocity is the subject of a specific remonstrance
in 23 H. VI., Rot. Pari, vol. v., p. HI.
* Rot. Pari., vol. ii., p. 201. 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 injurious
to the adjacent countries. Upon the credit of their
immunity from the jurisdiction of the king's courts,
the people of Cheshire broke with armed bands into
the neighbouring counties, and perpetrated all the
crimes in their power.— Rot. Pari., vol. iii., p. 81,
201, 440. Stat. 1 H. IV., c. 18. As to the Welsh
frontier, it was constantly almost in a state of war,
which a very little good sense and benevolence in
any 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.— Stat. 2 H. IV., c. 16. Welshmen
were absolutely excluded from bearing office in
Wales. The English living in the English towns
of Wales earnestly petition, 23 H. 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 Edw. IV.,
vol. vi., p. 8.
It is curious that, so early as 15 Edw. II., a writ
was addressed to the Earl of Arundel, justiciary of
Wales, directing him to cause twenty four discreet
persons to be chosen from the north, and as many
from the south of that principality, to serve in par-
liament.—Rot. Pari, vol. i , p. 456. And we find
a similar writ in the 20th of the same king.—
Prynne's Reg.,4t.h part, p. 60. Willis says, that
he has seen a return to one of these precepte, much
obliterated, but from which it appears that Con-
way, Ileaumaris, and Carnarvon returned mem-
serd -N >titiaParli?'ne:ilaria,vol.\ .preface, p. !5.
tainted by the oath of jurors, which hatl
rather suffer robberies on strangers tr
pass without punishment, than indite the
offenders, of whom great part be people
of the same country, or at least, if the
offenders be of another country, the re-
ceivers be of places near," enacts that
hue and cry shall be made upon the ccni
mission of a robbery, and that the him
dred 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 retained 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 answera-
ble for his guest ; the highways to be
cleared of trees and underwood for two
hundred feet on each side ; and every
man to keep arms, according to his sub-
stance, in readiness to follow the sheriff
on hue and cry raised after felons.*
The last provision indicates that the rob-
bers plundered the country in formidable
bands. One of these, in a subsequent
part of Edward's reign, burnt the town
of Boston during a fair, and obtained a
vast booty, though their leader had th«
ill fortune not to escape the gallows.
The preservation of order throughou'
the country was originally intrusted, no\
only to the sheriff, coroner, and consta
bles, but to certain magistrates, called
conservators of the peace. These, in
conformity to the democratic charactei
of our Saxon government, were elected
by the freeholders in their county-court.f
But Edward I. issued commissions to
carry into effect the statute of Winton;
and from the beginning of Edward III.'s
reign, the appointment of conservators
was vested in the crown, their authority
gradually enlarged by a series of stat-
utes, and their title changed to that of
justices. They were empowered to im-
prison and punish all rioters and other of-
fenders, and such as they should find by
endictment, or suspicion, to be reputed
thieves or vagabonds ; and to take sure-
ties for good behaviour from persons o/
evil fame. I Such a jurisdiction was hard-
' The statute of Winton was confirmed, vtid
proclaimed afresh by the sheriffs, 7 R. II., c. 6, af
ter an era of great disorder.
t Blackstone, vol. i.. c. 9. Carte, vol. ii., p. 203.
t 1 E. III.. Stat, ii., c. 16 ; 4 E. ill., c. 2 , 34 E.
III., c. I ; 7 R. II., c. 5. The institution cjcitad a
good deal of ill-will, even before theee strong acU
were passed. Many petitions of the cr-riM^as m
the 28th E. III., and other years, co:n;-/MH of it.—
Rot. Pari., vol. ii.
Part III.l
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
43^
ly more arbitrary char., in a free and civ-
ilized 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 exemption from re-
straint, rather than any political theory.
A.n act having been passed (2 R. II., st. 2,
z. 6) in consequence of unusual riots and
jutrages, enabling magistrates to commit
.he ringleaders of tumultuary assemblies
ivithout waiting for legal process till the
oext arrival of justices of jail delivery,
Uie commons petitioned the next year
against this " horrible grievous ordi-
nance," by which " every freeman in the
kingdom would be in bondage to these
justices," contrary to the great charter
and to many statutes, which forbid any
man to be taken without due course of
law.* So sensitive was their jealousy
of arbitrary imprisonment, that they pre-
ferred enduring riot and robbery to chas-
tising them by any means that might af-
ford a precedent to oppression, or weak-
en men's reverence for Magna Charta.
There are two subjects remaining, to
which this retrospect of the state of man-
ners naturally leads us, and which I
would not pass imnoticed, though not
perhaps absolutely essential to a consti-
tutional history ; because they tend in a
very material degree to illustrate the
progress of society, with which civil lib-
erty and regular government are closely
connected. These are, first, the servi-
tude or villanage 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.
In a former passage I have remarked
Villanage of of the Anglo-Saxon ceorls, that
the peas- neither their situation nor that
its^fature of "^hcir descendants for the ear-
and gradual lier rcigns after the conquest
extinction, appears to have been mere ser-
vitude. But from the time of Henry II.,
as we learn from Glanvil, the viUein so
called was absolutely dependant upon his
lord's will, compelled to unlimited servi-
ces, and destitute of property, not only
in the land he held for his maintenance,
but in his own acquisitions.! If a villein
* Rot. Pail., vol. iii., p. 65. It may be observed
that this act, 2 E. II., c. 16, was not founded on a
petition, but on the king's answer ; so that the
commons weie not real parties to it, and according-
ly call it an ordinance in their present petition.
This naturally increased their animosity in ti eating
;t as an infringement of the sLtject's right
♦ filanvil, 1 V , c. 5
K e 2
purchased or inherited land, the lord
might seize it; if he accunmlated stock,
its possession was equally precarious.
Against his lord he had no right of ac-
tion ; because his indemnity in damages,
if he could have recovered 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 re-
covered his fugitive by law. His chil-
dren were born to the same sta'e of ser-
vitude; and, contrary to the rule of the
civil law, where one parent was free and
the other in villanage, the offspring fol-
lowed their father's condition.*
This was certainly a severe lot ; yet
there are circumstances which materially
distinguish it from slavery. The condi-
tion of villanage, at least in later times,
was perfectly relative ; it formed no dis-
tinct order in the political economy. 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, dis-
pose of, or sue for property without im-
pediment. Hence, Sir E. Coke argues,
that villeins are included in the 29th arti-
cle of Magna Charta: — "No freeman
shall be disseized nor imprisoned."! Foi
* According to Bracton, the bastard of a nief, oi
female villein, was born in servitude ; and where
the parents lived on a villein tenement, the children
of a nief, even though married to a freeman, wers
villeins, 1. iv., c. 21, and see Beame's translation
of Glanvil, p. 109. But Littleton lays down an op
posite doctrine, that a bastard was necessarily free ,
because, being the child of no father in the con
templation of law, he could not be presumed to in
herit servitude from any one ; and makes no dis-
tinction as to the parent's residence.— Sect. 188. I
merely take notice of this change in the law be-
tween the reigns of Henry III. and Edward IV. as
an instance of the bias which the judges showed in
favour of personal freedom. Another, if we can
rely upon it, is more important. In the reign of
Henry II., a freeman marrying a nief and settling
on a villein tenement, lost the privileges of free-
dom during the time of his occupation ; legem ter-
ras quasi nativus amitlit. — Glanvil, 1. v., c. 6. This
was consonant to the customs of some other coun-
tries, some of which went farther, and treated
such a person for ever as a villein. But, on the
contrary, we fnul in Bnlton a century later, that
the nief herself by such a marriage became free du
ring the coverture, c. 31.
t I must confess that I have some doubts how
far this was law at the epoch of Magna Charta.
Glanvil and Bracton both speak of the status ville-
nngii as opposed to that of liberty, and seem to con-
sider it as a civil condition, not a merely personal
relation. The civil law and the French treatise of
Beaumanoir hold the same language. And Sii
Robert Cotton maintains without hesita. ion, that
villeins are not withm the 29ih section of Magna
Charta, " being excluded by the word liber."— Cot-
ton's Posthuma, p. 223. Brilton, however, a little
after Bracton, says that in an action the villein is
answerable to all men, and all men to him, p. 79.
And later judges, in favorem libertalis, gave tbJf
436
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[UHv^ HI
murj.er, rape, or mutilation of his villein,
the lord was endictable at the king's suit ;
though not for assault or imprisonment,
which were within the sphere of his
signorial authority.*
This class was distinguished into vil-
lenis regardant, who had been attached
from time immemorial to a certain ma-
nor, and villeins in gross, where such ter-
ritorial prescription had never existed or
had been broken. In the condition of
these, whatever has been said by some
writers, 1 can find no manner of differ-
ence ; the distinction was merely tech-
nical, and affected only the mode of
pleading.! The term, in gross, is appro-
priated in our legal language to property
held absolutely, and without reference to
any other. Thus it is applied to rights
of advowson 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, some-
times inaccurately confounded with vil-
leins, whom it is more important to sep-
arate. Villanage had a double sense, as
it related to persons or to lands. As all
men were free or villeins, so all lands
Construction to the villein's situation, which must
therefore be considered as the clear law of Eng-
land in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
* Littleton, sect. 189, 190, speaks only of an ap-
peal in the two former cases ; but an endictment is
a fortiori ; and he says, sect. 194, that an endict-
ment, though not an appeal, lies against the lord
for maiming his villein.
t Gurdon on Courts Baron, p. 592, supposes the
villein in gross to have been the Lazzus or Servus
of early times, a domestic serf, and of an inferior
species to the cultivator or villein regardant. Un-
luckily, Bracton and Littleton do not confirm this
notion, which would be convenient enough ; for in
Domesday Book there is a marked distinction be-
tween the Servi and Villani. Blackstone e.xpress-
es himself inaccurately when he says the villein
in gross was annexed to the person of the lord, and
transferable by deed from one owner to another.
By this means indeed, a villein regardant would be-
come a villein in gross, but all villeins were alike
liable to be sold by their owners. — Littleton, sect.
181. Blomefield's Norfolk, vol. iii., p. 8C0. Mr.
Hargrave supposes that villeins in gross were nev-
er numerous (Case of Somerset, Howell's State
Trials, vol. xx., p. 42) ; drawing this inference from
the lew cases relative to them that occur in the
Year-books. And certainly the form of a writ de
nativitate probanda, and the peculiar evidence it
required, which may be found in Fitzherbert's Na-
(ura Brevium, or in Mr. H.'s argument, are only
applicable to the other fpf'' ^ylt is a doubtful
point, whether a freei^|'^20ih of 'Contemplation of
law, become qy.' 4'th part p '==' > though his con-
fession in a cr^g^yfijjQo'pij, upon a suit already
commenced (f|y(^ j-^^jj^ .^..s requisite), would estop
him from claiiiaf,g gpiiberty ; and hence Bracton
speaks of this^ p.>'.Beding as a mode by wliich a
freeman might utll into serviluHe
were held by a free or villein tenure
This great division of 'ienures was prob
ably derived from the bockland and folk
land of Saxon times. As a villein might
be enfeoffed of freeholds, though they lay
at the mercy of his lord, so a freeman
might hold tenements in villanage. In
this case, his personal liberty subsisted
along with the burdens of territorial ser
vitude. He was bound to arbitrary ser-
vice at the will of the lord, and he might
by the same will be at any moment dis
possessed ; for such was the condition of
his tenure. But his chattels were se
cure from seizure, his person from inju-
ry, and he might leave the land whenev-
er he pleased.*
From so disadvantageous a condition
as this of villanage, it may cause some
surprise that the peasantry of England
should have ever emerged. The law
incapacitating a villein 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 Glan-
vil, that a villein could not buy his free-
dom, because the price he tendered
would already belong to his lord.f And
even in the case of free tenants in villan-
age, it is not easy to comprehend how
their uncertain and unbounded services
could ever pass into slight pecuniary com-
mutations ; much less hoAV 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 in-
quiry. We can trace the pedigree of
princes, fill up the catalogue of towns
besieged and provinces desolated, de-
scribe even the whole pageantry of cor-
onations and festivals, but we cannot re-
cover the genuine history of mankind.
It has passed away with slight and par-
tial notice by contemporary writers ; and
our most patient industry can hardly at
present put together enougli of the frag-
ments to suggest a tolerably clear repre-
sentation of ancient manners and social
life. I cannot profess to undertake what
would require a command of books as
well as leisure beyond my reach ; but
the following observations may tend ?.
little to illustrate our immediate subjec;,
the gradual extinction of villanage.
If we take what may be considered as
the simplest case, that of a manor divided
into demesne lands of the lord's occupa-
♦ Bracton, 1. ii., c. 8 ; . v.,c.28. Littleton, sect
172. t Glamil, 1. It. r .5
r»Ri III]
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
4a7
tion and those in the tenure of his vil-
tjms, performing all the services of agri-
culture for him, it is obvious that his in-
terest was to maintuin just so many of
these as his estate required for its cuhi-
vation. Land, the cheapest of articles,
was the price of their labour ; and though
the law did not compel him to pay this
or any other price, yet necessity, repaii--
ing in some degree the law's injustice,
made those pretty secure of food and
dwellings who were to give the strength
of their arms for his advantage. But in
course of tune, as alienations of small
parcels of manors to free tenants came
to prevail, the proprietors of land were
placed in a new situation relatively to its
cultivators. The tenements in villanage,
whether by law or usage, were never
separated from the lordship, while its do-
main was reduced to a smaller extent,
through sub-iufeudations, sales, or de-
mises for valuable rent. The purchasers
under these alienations had occasion for
labourers ; and these would be free ser-
vants in respect of such employers,
though in villanage to their original lord.
As he demanded less of their labour
Ihrough the diminution of his domain,
they had more to spare for other mas-
ters ; and retaining the character of vil-
leins and the lands they held by that ten-
ure, became hired labourers in husbandry
for the greater part of tlie year. It is
true that all their earnings were at the
lord's disposal, and that he might have
made a profit of their labour when he
ceased to require it for his own land.
But this, which the rapacity of more com-
mercial times would have instantly sug-
gested, might escape a feudal superior,
who, wealthy beyond his wants, and
guarded by the haughtiness of ancestry
against the love of such pitiful gains, was
better pleased to win the affection of his
dependants than to improve his fortune
at their expense.
The services of villanage were grad-
ually rendered less onerous and uncer-
tain. Those of husbandry indeed are
naturally uniform, and might be antici-
pated with no small exactness. Lords of
generous tempers granted indulgences,
which were either intended to be, or
readily became perpetual. And thus, in
the time of Edward L, we find the ten-
ants in some manors bound only to stated
services, as recorded in the lord's book.*
* Dugdale's Warwickshire apud Eden's State
pf the Poor, vol. i., p. 13. A passage in another
local history rather seems to indicate, that some
kind of delinquency was usually alleged, and some
teremonv employed before the lord entered on the
Some of these perhaps miglit be villeins
by blood ; but free tenants in villanag?
were still more likely to obtain this pre
cision in their services ; and from claim
ing a customary rigiit to be entered in the
court-roll upon the same terms as their
predecessors, prevailed at length to get
copies of it for their security.* Proofs
of this remarkable transformation from
tenants in villanage to copyholders are
found in the reign of Henry 111. I do
not know, however, that they were pro-
tected, at so early an epoch, in the pos-
session of their estates. But it is said in
the year-book of the 42d of Edward III.,
to be " admitted for clear law, that if the
customary tenant or copyholder does not
perform his services, the lord may seize
his land as forfeited."! It seems implied
herein, that so long as the copyholder did
continue to perform the regular stipula-
tions of his tenure, the lord was not at
liberty to divest him of his estate ; and
this is said to be confirmed by a passage
in Britlon, which has escaped my search ;
though Littleton intimates that copy-
holders could have no remedy against
their lord. J However, in the reign of
Edward IV., this was put out of doubt b\
the judges, who permitted the copyholiler
to bring his action of trespass against lh<
lord for dispossession.
While some of the more fortunate vil-
leins crept up into property as well aa
freedom under the name of copyholders,
the greater part enfranchised themselves
in a different manner. The law, which
treated them so harshly, did not take
villein's land. In Gissing manor, 39 E. III., the
jury present, that W. G., a villein by blood, was a
rel)eland ungrateful towards his lord, for which all
his tenements were seized. His offence was the
having said ihat the lord kept four stolen sheep in
his field. — Blomcfield's Norfolk, vol. i., p. 111.
* Gurdon on Courts Baron, p. 574.
t Brooke's Abridgm. Tenant par copie, 1. By
the extent-roll of the manor of Brismgham in
Norfolk m 1254, it aypears that there were then
ninety-four copyholders and six cottagers in vil-
lanage ; the former performing many, but deter-
minate services of labour for the lord. — Blome-
fibld's Norfolk, vol. i., p. 34.
X Littl., sect. 77. A copyholder without legal
remedy may seem little better than a tenant in
mere villanage, except in name. But though from
the relation between the lord and copyholder the
latter might not he permitted to sue his superior,
yet it does not follow that he might not bring hi8
action against any person acting under the lord's
direction, in which the defendant could not set uf
an illegal authority ; just as, although no writ runs
against the king, his ministers or officers j.re not
justified in acting under his command contra ly to
law. I wish this note to be considered as tcrrect-
ing one on p. 88 of this work, where I have saic
thal a similar law in France rendered the distinc
tion between a serf and an homm*) <Je poote littl*
more than theoretical.
438
ELROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[C'llAP
nway the means of escape, nor was this
a matter of difficulty in such a country
as England. To this indeed the unequal
progression of agriculture and population
in different counties would have nat-
•jrally contributed. Men emigrated, as
(hey always must, in search of cheap-
ness or employment, according to the
tide of human necessities. But the vil-
lein, 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 labour to
a distant master. The lord had indeed
an action against him ; but there was so
little communication between remote
parts of the country, that it might be
deemed his fault or singular ill-fortune if
he were compelled to defend himself.
Even in that case, the law inclined to
favour him ; and so many obstacles were
thrown in the way of these suits to re-
claim 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 borough, the villein became free, and
the lord was absolutely barred of his
remedy. This provision is contained
even in the laws of William the Conquer-
or, as contained in Hoveden, and if it be
not an interpolation, may be supposed to
have had a view to strengthen the popu-
lation of those places which were de-
signed for garrisons. This law, whether
of William or not, is unequivocally men-
tioned by Glanvil.f Nor was it a mere
letter. According to a record in the 6th
of Edward II., Sir John Clavering sued
eighteen villeins of his manor of Cossey,
for withdrawing themselves therefrom
with their chattels; whereupon a writ
was directed to them ; but six of the
number claimed to be freemen, alleging
the Conqueror's charter, and offering to
prove that they had lived in Norwich,
paying scot and lot, about thirty years ;
which claim was admitted. |
By such means a large proportion of
the peasantry, before the middle of the
fourteenth century, had become hired
labourers instead of villeins. We first
* See tt ^ rules of pleading and evidence in
questions of villanage fully stated in Mr. Har-
grave's argument in the case of Somerset. — How-
ell's State Trials, vol. xx., p. 33.
t L. v.,c. 5.
i Blomefield's Norfolk, vol. i., p. 657. I know
not how far this privilege was supposed to be im-
paired by the statute 34 E. HI., c. 11 ; which how-
ever might, I shoulu conceive, very well stand
iloiig whh it.
hear of them on a grani scale in an or-
dinance made by Edward III., in the
twenty-third year of his reign. This was
just after the dreadful pestilence of 1348,
and it recites that the number of Avork-
men and servants having been greatly
reduced by that calamity, the remainder
demanded excessive wages from their
employers. Such an enhancement in
the price of labour, though founded ex-
actly 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 progress of population, or oth-
er analogous circumstances, will, without
any interference, very rapidly take away.
This ordinance therefore enacts that
every man in England, of whatever con-
dition, bond or free, of able body, and
within sixty years of age, not living of
his own nor by any trade, shall be obli-
ged, 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 lime preceding ; provided
that the lords of villeins or tenants in vil-
lanage shall have the preference of their
labour, so that they retain no more thau
shall be necessary for them. More than
these old wages is strictly forbidden to
be offered, as well as demanded. No
one is permitted, under colour 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 practicable as the rest,
for the sale of provisions at reasonable
prices.*
This ordinance met with so little re-
gard, that a statute was made in parlia-
ment two years after, fixing the wages
of all artificers and husbandmen, witn re-
gard to the nature and season of their la-
bour. From this time it became a fre-
quent complaint of the commons, that the
statute of labourers was not kept. The
king had in this case, probably, no other
reason for leaving their grievance unre-
dressed, than his inability to change the
order of Providence. A silent alteration
had been wrought in the condition and
character of the lower classes during the
reign of Edward III. This was the ef-
fect of increased knowledge and refine-
ment, which had been making a consid-
erable progress for full half a century,
though they did not readily permeate the
cold region of poverty and ignorance. It
was natural that the country people, oi
outlandish folk, as they were called
♦ Stat. 23 E. UI.
►»ART IIJ.J
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION
431
should repine at the exclusion from that
enjoyment of competence, and security
for the fruits of their labour, 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 the Jac-
querie in France, about the year 1358, had
the same character, and resulted in a
great measure from the same causes, as
that of the English peasants in 1382.
A.nd we may account in a similar man-
ner for the democratical tone of the
French and Flemish cities, and for Ihe
prevalence of a spirit of liberty in Ger-
many and Swisserland.
I do not know whether we should at-
tribute part of this revolutionary con-
cussion to the preaching of Wicliffe's
disciples, or look upon both one and
the other as phenomena belonging to
that particular epoch in the progress
of society. New principles, both as to
civil rule and religion, broke suddenly
upon the uneducated mind, to render it
bold, presumptuous, and turbulent. But
at least 1 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 intol-
erance of political subjection. Both
were nourished by the same teachers,
the lower secular clergy ; and however
distinct we may think a religious ref-
ormation 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 scrip-
tural moralities which were then exhibit-
ed, and which became the foundation of
our theatre, afforded fuel to the spirit of
sedition. The common original, and
common destination of mankind, with
every other lesson of equality which rc-
Ugion supplies to humble or to console,
were displayed with coarse and glaring
features in these representations. The
familiarity of such ideas has deadened
their effect upon our minds ; but wlien
a rude peasant, surprisingly destitute of
religious instruction during that corrupt
age of the church, was led at once to
►hesc impressive truths, we cannot be
astonished at the intoxication of mind
they produced*
♦ I have been more influenced by natural proba-
bilities than testimony, in ascrioisicr this elTect to
Wicliffe's innovalions, because the historians are
prejudiced tvitnesses against him. Several of
them dcp.40 t3 the connexion between his : pin-
ions anf", un cbellion of 1382 ; e.speriilly W?.l-
Though I believe that compirod at
least with the aristocracy of other coun-
tries, the English lords were guilty of
very little cruelty or injustice, yet there
were circumstances belonging to tlial
period which might tempt them to deal
more hardly than before with their peas-
antry. The fourteentli century was a:;
age of greater magnificence than those
which had preceded, in dress, in ceremo-
nies, in buildings ; foreign luxuries were
known enougli to excite an eager de-
mand among the higher ranks, and yet
so scarce as to yield inordinate prices ;
while the landholders were on the other
hand empoverished by heavy and un
ceasing taxation. Hence it is probable
that avarice, as commonly happens, had
given birth to oppression ; and if tlie
gentry, as I am inclined to believe, had
become more attentive to agricultural
improvements, it is reasonable to conjec-
ture that those whose tenure obliged
them to unlimited services of husband
ry were more harassed than under theii
wealthy and indolent masters in prece
ding times.
The storm that almost swept away all
bulwarks of civilized and regular society
seems to have been long in collecting it-
self. Perhaps a more sagacious legisla-
ture might have contrived to disperse it :
but the commons only presented com-
plaints of the refractoriness with wliich
villeins and tenants in villanage received
their due services;* and the exigences
of government led to the fatal poll-tax
of a groat, which was the proximate
cause of the insurrection. By the de-
mands of these rioters, we perceive that
territorial servitude was far from ex-
tinct : but it should not be hastily conclu-
ded that they were all personal villeins,
for a large proportion were Kentish-
men, to whom that condition could not
have applied ; it being a good bar to a
writ de nativitate probanda, that the par-
ty's father was born in the county of
Kent.f
singham, p. 288. This implies no reflection upon
WiclifTe, any more than the crimes of the anabap-
tists in Munslor do upon Luther. Every one
knows the distich of John Ball, which compre-
hends the essence of religious democracy : —
" When Adam delved and Eve span,
Where was then the gentleman ?"
The sermon of this priest, as related by Walsii.g
ham, p. 275, derives its argument for ripiality fn-rn
the common origin of the species. He is said to
have been a disciple of Wiclifle. — Timer's Hist
of Ensjland, vol. ii., p. 420.
* Sut. 1 R. 11., c. C ; Rot. Pari., vol. iii , p. 21.
t 30 E. I., in Fitzherbert. A'illanage. apu^*
Lambard's Perambulation of Ker.l, p. 632. Sun
nei on Gavelkind, p. 72.
440
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
iCiup. VIII
Af.er this Ireniendous 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 inunediate calamities that attend
them, tlian from the fear and hatred of
the people which they generate in the
elevated classes. The general charter
of manumission extorted from the king
by the rioters at Blackheath was ainud-
led by proclamation to the sheritfs;* and
this revocation approved by the lords
and commons in parliament, who added,
as was verj true, that such enfranchise-
ment could not be made without their
consent ; " which they would never give
to save themselves from perishing alto-
gether in one day."t Riots were turn-
ed into treason by a law of the same
parliament. J By a very harsh statute in
the leth of Richard II., no servant or la-
bourer could depart, even at the expira-
tion of his service, from the hundred in
which he lived, without permission under
the king's seal ; nor might any who
had been bred to husbandry till twelve
years old exercise any other calling.^ A
few vcars afterward, "the commons peti-
tioned that villeins might not put their
children to school, in order to advance
them by the church ; " and this for the
nonourof all the freemen of the king-
dom." In the same parUament they
complained that villeins fly to cities and
boroughs, whence their masters cannot
recover them ; and, if they attempt it,
are hindered by the people : and prayed
that the lords might seize their villens in
such places, without regard to the fran-
chises thereof. But \ n both these peti-
tions the king put in a negative. j|
From henceforward we find little no-
tice taken of villanage in parliamentary
* Rytr.er, t. vii., p. 316, &c. The king holds
this bitter language to the villeins of Essex, after
the death of Tyler and execution of the other
leaders had disconcerted them ; Rustic! quidem
fuistis et estis, m bondagio permanebitis, non ut
hactenus, sed incomparabiliter viliori, &c. — Wal-
Bingham, p. 269.
t Rot. Pari., vol. iii., p. 100.
j 5 R. II., c. 7. The words are, riot et rumour
n'outrcs semblables ; rather a general way of crea-
ting a new treason : but panic puts an end to
•ealousv.
6 12 k. II . c. 3.
\\ Rot. Pari., 15 R. II.. vol. Iii., p. 294, 296.
the statute 7 H. IV., c. 17, enacts that no one
shall put his son or daughter apprentice to any
trade in a borough, unless he have land or rent to
the value of twenty shilhngs a year, but that any
one may put his children to school. The reason
assigned is tne scarcity of labourers in husbandry.
in consequence of people living in Vpland appren-
.»ring their children.
records, and there seems to have been ?
rapid tendency to its entire abolition.
But the fifteenth century is barren of ma-
terials ; and we can only infer, that as the
same causes which in Edward III.'s time
had converted a large portion of the peas-
antry into free labourers, still continued
to operate, they must silently have ex-
tinguished the whole system of person^
and territorial servitude. The latter in
deed was essentially changed by the es
tablishmenl of the law of copyhold.
I cannot presume to conjecture in what
degree vohintary manumission is to be
reckoned among the means that contrib-
uted to the abolition of villanage. Char-
ters of enfranchisement were very com-
mon upon the continent. They may
perhaps have been less so in England.
Indeed, the statute de donis must have
operated very injuriously to prevent the
enfranchisement of villeins regardant,
who were entailed along with the land.
Instances, however, occur from time to
time ; and we cannot expect to discover
many. One appears as early as the 15th
year of Henry III., who grants to all
persons born or to be born within his vil-
lage of Contishall, that they shall be free
from all villanage in body and blood, pay-
ing an aid of twenty shillings to knight
the king's eldest son, and six shillings a
year as a quit rent.* So, in the 12th
of Edward III., certain of the king's vil-
leins are enfranchised on payment of a
fine.f In strictness of law, a fine from
the villein for the sake of enfranchise-
ment was nugatory, since all he could
possess was already at his lord's disposal.
But custom and equity might easily in-
troduce diflerent 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 exertions of their industry
by availing himself of an extreme right.
Deeds of enfranchisement occur in the
reigns of Mary and Elizabeth \X and per-
haps a commission of the latter princess
in 1574, directing the enfranchisement
of her bondmen and bondwomen on cer-
tain manors upon payment of a fine, is
* Blomefield's Norfolk, vol. iii. p. 571.
t Rymer, t. v., p. 44.
X Gurdon on Courts Baron, p. 596. Midox
Formulate Anglicanuin, p. 420. Barrington on
Ancient Statutes, p. 2Y8. It is said in a modern
book, that villanage was very rare in Scotland, and
even that no instance exists in records, of an es-
tate sold with the labourers and their families at-
tached to the soil.— Pinkerton's Hist, of Scotland,
vol. i., p. 147. But Mr. Chalmers, in his .Caledo-
nia, has brought several proofs tha' thi? assertjoe
IS loo general.
Part i:rj
LJNULISH CONSTITUTION
4i]
the last unequivocal testimony to the ex-
istence of villanage ;* though it is highly
probable that it existed in remote parts
of the country some time longer. f
From this general view of the English
Reign oc constitution, as it stood about the
Henry VI. [i,-j^g of Henry VI., we must turn
our eyes to the political revolutions which
clouded the latter years of his reign. The
:ninority of this prince, notwithstanding
the vices and dissensions of his court, and
the inglorious discomfiture of our arms
in France, was not perhaps a calamitous
period. The country grew more wealthy :
the law was, on the whole, better ob-
served ; the power of parliament more
complete and effectual than in preceding
times. But Henry's weakness of under-
standing becoming evident as he reached
manhood, rendered his reign a perpetual
minority. His marriage with a princess
of strong mind, but ambitious ?.nd vindic-
tive, rattier tended to weaken ihe gov-
ernment and to accelerate his downfall ;
a certain reverence that had been paid to
the gentleness of the king's disposition
beiag overcome by her unpopularity. By
degrees Henry's natural feebleness de-
generated almost into fatuity ; and this
unhappy condition seems to have over-
taken him nearly about the time when it
became an arduous task to withstand the
assault in preparation against his govern-
ment. This may properly introduce a
great constitutional subject, to which
some peculiar circumstances of our own
age have imperiously directed the con-
sideration of parliament. Though the
proceedings of 1788 and 1810 are un-
doubtedly precedents of far more author-
ity 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 alto-
gether beyond the possibility of future
discussion; and at least it cannot be un-
interesting to look back on those parallel
or analogous cases, by which the deliber-
ations of parliament upon the question
of regency were guided.
While the kings of England retained
* Barrinaiton, ubi supra, from Rymer.
t There are several later cases reported, wherein
lillanai^e was pleaded, and one of them as late as
the 15th of James I. — (Noy, p. 27.) See Hargrave's
argument, State Trials, vol. xx., p. 41. But these
are so briefly stated, that it is difficult in general to
understand them. It is obvious, however, that
judgment was in no case given in favour of the
plea ; so that we can infer nothing as to the actual
continuance of villanage.
It is remarkable, and may be deemed by some
personsaproof of legal pedantry, that Sir E.Coke,
while he dilates on the law of villanage, never in-
UmBtes that it was beome antiquated.
their continental dominions, and Hisioncai
were engaged in the wars to msiancesoj
which those gave birth, they re::eacios:
were of course frequently absent from
this country. Upon such occasions the
administration seems at first to have de-
volved officially on the justiciary, as chief
servant of the crown. But Henry III. be-
gan the practice of appointing lieutenants,
or guardians of the realm (custodcsregni)
as they were more usually jy^in'the
termed, by way of tetnporary abspnceor
substitutes. They were usu- our kings in
ally nominated by the king ™""^''
without consent of parliament ; and their
office carried with it the right of exerci-
sing all the prerogatives of the crown. It
was of course determined by the king's
return ; and a distinct statute was neces-
sary, in the reign of Henry V., to provide
that a parliament called by the guardian
of the realm during the king's absence
should not be dissolved by that event.*
The most remarkable circumstance at
tending those lieutenancies was. that thej
were sometimes conferred on the heii
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 ;t and Richard liis
son, when still younger, in 1372, during
Edward Ill.'s last expedition into France.^
These do not however bear a very close
analogy to regencies in the strictest
sense, or substitutions during the natural
incapacity of the sovereign. Of such
there had been several instances, before
it became necessary to supply the defi
ciency arising from Henry's derange
ment. 1. At the death of John, Atiheac
William, earl of Pembroke as- cession or
sumed the title of rector regis "'""'y "'•>
et regni, with the consent of the loyal
barons who had just proclaimed the young
king, and probably conducted the gov-
ernment in a great measure by their ad-
vice.^ But the circumstances were too
critical, and the time is too remote, to
give this precedent any material weight.
*2. f^uward I. being in Sicily at of Edward
his father's death, the nobility '•;
met at the Temple church, as we are in-
formed by a contemporary writer, and,
after making a new great seal, appointed
the Archbishop of York, Edward, earl oi
Cornwall, and the F^arl of Glocester, In
be ministers and guardians of the realm ;
who accordingly conducted the adminis-
* 8H. v., c. 1.
t This prince having been sent to Antwerp, su
commissioners were appointed to 0[)en parliament,
— Rot. Pari., 13 E. III., vol. ii.. p. 107.
t Uyiner, t. vi., p. 748. () Ma't P?ris, p. 21?
♦ 12
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
fCuAf. YIU
trationinthe king s name until his return.*
Tt is here observable, that the Earl of
Cornwall, though nearest prince of the
blood, was not supposed to enjoy any su-
oerior title to the regency, wherein he
was associated with two other nobles.
But while the crown itself was haraiy
acknowledged to be unquestionably he-
reditary, it would be strange if any no-
tion of such a right to the regency had
been entertained. 3.. At the accession
of Edward of Edward III., then fourteen
m- ; 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
article in the charge of treason, or, as it
w^as then styled, of accroaching royal
power, against Mortimer, that he inter-
meddled in the king's household without
the assent of this council. f They may
be deemed therefore a sort of parliament-
ary regency, though the duration of their
functions does not seem to be defined.
•>f Richard 4. The proceedings at the com-
5'- ; mencement of the next reign
ire more worthy of attention. Edward
HI. dying June 21, 1377, the keepers of
Ihe great seal next day, in absence of the
chancellor beyond sea, gave it into the
young king's hands before his council.
He immediately delivered it to the Duke
of Lancaster, and vhe duke to Sir Nicho-
las Bonde for safe custody. Four days
afterward, the king in council delivered
'he seal to the bishop of St. Davids, who
affixed it the same day to divers letters
oatent.J Richard was at this time ten
years and six months old ; an age cer-
tainly very unfit for the personal execu-
tion of sovereign authority. Yet he was
supposed capable of reigning without the
aid of a regency. This might be in vir-
tue of a sort of magic ascribed by law-
yers to the great seal, the possession of
which bars all further inquiry, and ren-
ders any govefnment legal. The prac-
tice of modern times, requiring the con-
stant 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 of-
fice of regent, a council of twelve was
named by the prelates and peers at the
♦ Matt. Westmonast. ap. Brady's History of
England, vol. a., p. 1.
t Rot. Pari. vol. ii., p. 52.
t Rymer, t. vii., p. 171
king's coronation. July 16, 1377, without
whose concurrence no public measure
was to be carried into eflect. I have
mentioned in another place the modifica-
tions introduced from time to time by
parliament, which might itself be deemed
a great council of regency during the
first years of Richard.
5. The next instance is at the acces
sion of Henry VI. This prince of Henry
was but nine months old at his v'-
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 con-
stitutional principles in the forty years
elapsed since the latter's accession, fa-
more regularity and deliberation were
shown in supplying the defect in the ex
ecutive authority. Upon the news ar
riving that Henry V. was dead, severa
lords spiritual and temporal assembled,
on account of the imminent necessity, in
order to preserve peace, and provide for
the exercise of officers appertaining to
the king. These peers accordingly is-
sued commissions to judges, sheriffs, es-
cheators,and others, for various purposes,
and writs for a new parliament. This
was opened by commission under the
great seal directed to the Duke of Gloces-
ter, in tlie usual form, and with the king's
test.* Some ordinances were made in
this parliament by the Duke of Gloces-
ter as commissioner, and some in the
king's name. The acts of the peers, who
had taken on themselves the administra
tion, and summoned parliament, were
confirmed. On the twenty-seventh day
of its session, it is entered upon the roll,
that the king, " considering his tendei
age, and inability to direct in person the
concerns of his realm, by assent of lords
and commons, appoints the Duke of Bed
ford, or, in his absence beyond sea, the
Duke of Glocester, to be protector and
defender of the kingdom and English
church, and the king's chief counsellor."
Letters patent were made out to this ef-
fect : the appointment being however ex-
pressly during the king's pleasure. Six-
teen counsellors were named in parlia
ment to assist the protector in his admin
istration; and their concurrence was
made necessary to the removal and ap
pointment of officers, except some infe-
rior patronage specifically reserved tn
the protector. In all important businesf
that should pass by order of council, th^*
whole or major part were to be present ;
" but if it were such matter that the kiny
* Rot. Pari. vol. iv., p. 169.
f ART IJI.]
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
44;-
hath been accustomed to be counselled
of, that then the sa.d lords proceed not
therein without the advice of my lords
of Bedford or Glocester."* A few more
counsellors were added by the next par-
liament, and divers regulations estab-
lished for their observance.!
This arrangement was in contraven-
tion of the late king's testament, which
had conferred the regency on the Duke
of Glocester, in exclusion of his elder
brother. But the nature and spirit of
these proceedings will be better under-
stood by a remarkable passage in a roll
of a iater parliament ; where the house
of lords, in answer to a request of Glo-
cester, that he might know what authori-
ty he possessed as protector, remind him
that in the first parliament of the king,J
"ye desired to have had ye governaunce
of yis land ; aflermyng yat hit belonged
unto you of rygzt, as well by ye mene of
your birth, as by ye laste wylle of ye
icyng yat was your broyer, whome God
assoile ; alleggyng for you such groundes
and motyves as it was y ought to your dis-
cretion 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 Warwick, and other in great number
that now live, had great and long delib-
eration 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 infor-
mation 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 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
freedome of the estates of the same
» Rot, Pari., vol. iv., p. 174, 17C. + Id., p. 201.
X I follow the orthography of the roll, which I
hope will not he inconvenient to the reader. Why
this orthography, from ohsolete and difficult, so
frequently becomes almost modern, as will appear
in the course of these extracts, 1 cannot conjec-
ture. The usual irregularity of ancient spoiling is
hardly sufficient to account for such variations ;
but if there be any error, it belongs to the super-
intendents of that publication, and is not mine.
land. Howe were it, that it be no
thought, that anj- such thing wittingly
proceeded of your intent ; and neverthe-
less to keep peace and tranquillity, and
to the intent to ease and appease you, it
was advised and appointed by authority
of the king, asseiuing the three estates
of this land, that ye in absence of my
lord your brother of Bedford, should be
chief of the king's council, and devised
unto you a name different from other
counsellors, not the name of tutor, lieu-
tenant, governor, nor of regent, nor no
name that should import authority ol
governance of the land, but the name of
protector and defensor, which importeth
a personal duty of attendance to the ac-
tual defence of the land, as well against
enemies outward, if case required, as
against rebels inward, if any were, that
God forbid ; granting you therewith cer-
tain power, the which is specified and
contained in an act of the said parlia-
ment, to endure as long as it liked the
king. In tlie which if the intent of the
said estates had been, that ye more pow-
er 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 per-
son, 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 tliat he
would pretend or claim in tlie gov-
ernance of this land, and as toward any
pre-eminence that you might have or be-
long unto you as chief of council, it is
plainly declared in the said act and arti-
cles, subscribed by my said Lord of Bed-
ford, 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 otlier
lords be, and not otherwise, 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 mest discretion : We marvail-
ing with all our hearts that considering
the open declaration of the authority and
power belonging to my Lord of Bedford,
and to you in his absence, and also tc
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 other:
Namely considering that the king, bles-
sed be our lord, is sith the time of the
said power granted unto you, far gon(
and grown in person, in wit. and under
4i4
EUROPE DURING TPIE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. v'IU
stand .ng, and like with the grace of
God to occupy his own royal power
within few years : and forasmuch con-
sidering the things and causes abovesaid,
and other many that long were to write,
We lords aforesaid pray, exhort, and re-
quire you. to content you with the power
above said and declared, of the which my
*ord 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 commandment,
contained in his writ sent unto you in
that behalf, come to this his ;nT«ent par-
liament, and intend to tiir ^ood effect
and speed of matters to be demesned and
treted in the same, like as of right ye
owe to do."*
It is evident that this plain, or rather
rude address to the Duke of Glocester,
was dictated by the prevalence of Cardi-
nal Beaufort's party in council and par-
liament. But the transactions in the for-
mer parliament are not unfairly repre-
sented; and comparing them with the
nassage extracted above, we may per-
haps be entitled to infer: 1. That the
king does not possess any constitutional
prerogative of appointing 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 limita-
flons under which, the executive govern-
ment shall be conducted in the king's
name and behalf, devolving upon the
great council of parliament.
The expression used in the lords' ad-
dress to the Duke of Glocester relative
to the young king, that he was far gone
and grown in person, wit, and understand-
ing, was not thrown out in mere flattery.
In two years the party hostile to Gloces-
ter's influence had gained ground enough
to abrogate his office of protector, leav-
ing only the honorary title of chief coun-
sellor.! For this the king's coronation,
at eight years of age, was thought a fair
pretence'; and undoubtedly the loss of
* Rot. Pari. 6 H. VI., vol. iv., p. 326.
t Id. <3 H. VI.. p. 336.
that exceedingly limited authority which
had been delegated to the protector could
not have impaired the strength of govern-
ment. This 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 mon-
archy.
In the year 1454, the thirty-second a*
Henry's reign, his unhappy mal- Henry's
ady, transmitted perhaps from mental de-
his maternal grandfather, assu- ""gemeu
med so decided a character of derange-
ment or imbecihty, that parliament could
no longer conceal from itself the neces
sity of a more efficient ruler. This as
sembly, which had been continued by
successive prorogations for nearly a year,
met at Westminster on the 14th of Feb-
ruary, when the session was opened by
the Duke of York as king's commission-
er. Kemp, archbishop of Canterbury and
chancellor of England, dying soon after-
ward, it was judged proper to acquaint
the king at Windsor by a deputation of
twelve lords with this and other subjects
concerning his government. In fact, per-
haps this was a pretext chosen in order
to ascertain his real condition. These
peers reported to the lords' house two
days afterward, that they had opened to
his majesty the several articles of their
message, but " could get no answer ne
sign for no prayer ne desire," though they
repeated their "endeavours at three differ-
ent interviews. This report, with the in-
struction on which it was founded, was,
at their prayer, entered of record in par-
hament. Upon so authentic a puKeof
testimony of their sovereign's vork made
infirmity,' the peers, adjourning pro'e^o""-
two davs for solemnity or deliberation,
"elected and nominated Richard, duke
of York, to be protector and defender of
the realm of England during the king's
pleasure." The duke, protesting his in-
sufficiency, requested, " that in this pres
ent parliament, and by authority thereof,
it be enacted, that of yourself and of your
ful and mere disposition, ye desire, name,
and call me to the said name and charge
and that of any presumption of myself, I
take them not upon me, but only of the
due and humble obeisance that I owe to
do unto the king, our most dread and sov-
ereign lord, and to you the peerage of this
land, in whom, by the occasion of the in-
firmity of our said sovereign lord, resteth
the exercise of his authority, whose no
ble commandments I am as ready to per
form and obey as any of his 'liegeman
I' ART llJ.]
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
44^
alive, and that at sucli lime as it shall
please our blessed Creator to restore his
most noble person to healthful disposi-
tion, it shall like you so to declare and
notify to his good grace " To this prot-
estation the lords answered, that for his
and their discharge an act of parliament
sliould be made, conformably to that en-
acted in the king's infancy, since they
were compelled by an equal necessity
again to choose and name a protector
and defender. And to the Duke of York's
request to be informed how far the pow-
er and authority of his charge should
CAvend, they replied, that he should be
chief of the king's council, and "devised
therefore to the said duke a name differ-
ent from other counsellors, not the name
of tutor, lieutenant, governor, nor of re-
gent, nor no name that shall import au-
thority of governance of the land ; but the
said name of protector and defensor;"
and so forth, according to the language
of their former address to the Duke of
Glocester. An act was passed accord-
ingly, constituting the Duke of York pro-
tector of the church and kingdom, and
chief counsellor of the king during the
'atter's pleasure ; or until the Prince of
Wales should attain years of discretion,
on whom the said dignity was immedi-
ately to devolve. The patronage of cer-
tain spiritual benefices was reserved to
the protector, according to the precedent
of the king's minority, which parliament
was resolved to follow in every partic-
ular.*
It may be conjectured, by the provision
made m favour 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. t The succeed-
ing transactions are matter of familiar,
though not, perhaps, very perspicuous
history. The king was a prisoner in his
enemies' hands after the affair at St. Al-
ba is,! when parliament met in July, 1455.
♦ Rot. Pari., vol. v., p. 241.
t Paston Letters, vol. i., p. 81. The proofs of
sound mind given in this letter are not very deci-
sive, but the wits of sovereigns are never weighed
in golden scales.
t This may seem an improper appellation for
what is usually termed a battle, wherein 5000 men
are said to have fallen. But I rely here upon my
faithful guide, the Paston Letters, p. 100, one of
which, written immediately alter the engagement,
says that only si.x score were killed. Surely this
testimony outweighs a thousand ordinary chroni-
clers. A.nd the nature of the action, which was a
sudden attack on the town of St. Albans, without
aiiv pitched combat, renders the larger number im-
In this session little was done exrejit re-
newing the strongest oaths ol allegiance
to Henry and his family. But the two
houses meetmg again after a prorogation
to November 1-2, during which lime the
Duke of York had strengthened his par-
ty, and was appointed by commission the
king's lieutenant to open the parliament
a proposition was made by the commons,
that " whereas the king had deputed ths
Duke of York as his commissioner to
proceed in this parliament, it was thoughi
by the commons, that if the king hereaf-
ter could not attend to the protection of
the country, an able person should be ap-
pointed protector, to whom they mighl
have recourse for redress of injuries,
especially as great disturbances had late-
ly arisen in the west througli the feuds
of the Earl of Devonshire and Lord Bon-
vile."* The Archbishop of Canterbury
answered fur tlie lords, that they would
take into consideration what the c<»m-
mons had suggested. Two days after-
ward, the latter appeared again w ilh a re
quest conveyed nearly in the same terms.
Upon their leaving the chamber, the
archbishop, who was also chancellor, mo-
ved the peers to answer what should be
done in respect of the request of tlie com-
mons ; adding that, " it is imderstood
that they will not further proceed in mat-
ters of parliament to the time that they
have answer to their desire and request."
This naturally ended in the reappoint-
ment of the Duke of York to his charge
of protector. The commons indeed were
determined to bear no delay. As if ig-
norant of what had been resolved in con-
sequence of their second request, they
urged it a third time on the next day of
meeting ; and received for answer ilial
"the king our said sovereign lord, by the
advice and assent of his lords spiritual
and temporal being in this present parlia-
ment, had named and desired the Duke
of York to be protector and defensor of
this land." It is worthy of notice, that
in these words, and indeed in effect, as
appears by the whole transaction, the
house of peers assumed an exclusive
right of choosing the protector, though h:
the act passed to ratify their election, tlie
commons' assent, as a matter of course,
is introduced. The last year's precedent
was followed in the present instance, ex-
cepting a remarkable deviation; instead
of the words " during the king's pleas-
probable. Whethamstede, himself abbot of St. At
bans at the time, makes the Duke of York's armj
but 3000 fighting men, p. 352.
* See some account of these in Pastcn LetterSi
vol. i., p. 114.
#46
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. Vlll
are," the duke was to hold his office " un-
til he should be discharged of it by the
lords in parliament."* %
This extraordinary clause, and the
slight allegations on which it was thought
fit to substitute a vicegerent for the
reigning monarch, are sufficient to prove,
even if the common historians were si-
lent, that whatever passed as to this sec-
ond protectorate of the Duke of York
was altogether of a revolutionary com-
plexion. 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 as-
sembly 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 labouring, so far as we
know, under any more notorious infir-
mity than before. It then originated in
the commons, and seems to have receiv-
ed but an unwilling consent from the
upper house. Even in constituting the
Duke of York protector over the head
of Henry, Avhom all men despaired of
ever seeing in a state to face the dangers
of such a season, the lords did not forget
ihe rights of his son. By this latter in-
strument, as well as by that of the pre-
ceding year, the duke's office was to
cease upon the Prince of Wales arriving
at the age of discretion.
But what had been long propagated in
r, , e secret, soon became familiar to
Duke of , ', ,. ,, , ^i T-^ 1
I'ork's the public ear; that the Duke
;iairn to the of York laid claim to the throne,
crown. jj^ ^^g unquestionably heir
general of the royal line, through his
mother, Anne, daughter of Roger Morti-
mer, earl of March, son of Philippa,
daughter of Lionel, duke of Clarence,
third son of Edward III. Roger Morti-
mer's eldest son, Edmund, had been de-
I'.lared heir presumptive by Richard II. ;
but his infancy during the revolution that
placed Henry IV. on the throne had
caused his pretensions to be passed over
in silence. The new king, however, was
induced, by a jealousy natural to his situ-
ation, to detain the Earl of March in cus-
tody. Henry V. restored his liberty ;
and though he had certainly connived for
Rot Pari . vol. v.. p. 284—290.
a while at the conspiracy planned bj'' hit
brother-in-law the Earl of Cambridge and
Lord Scrop of Masham to place the crown
on his head, that magnanimous prince
gave him a free pardon, and never testi
fied any displeasure. The present Duke
of York was honoured by Henry VI. with
the highest trusts in France and Ireland ;
such as Beaufort and Glocester 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 per-
petrated by Margaret and her counsellors
in the death of the Duke of Glocester was
the destruction of the house of Lancas-
ter.* From this time the Duke of York,
next heir in presumption while the king
was childless, might innocently contem-
plate the prospect of royalty ; and when
such ideas had long been passing through
his mind, we may judge how reluctantly
the birth of Prince Edward, nine years
after Henry's marriage, would be admitted
to disturb them. The queen's administra-
tion unpopular, careless of national inter-
ests, and partial to his inveterate enemy,
the Duke of Somerset ;t the king incapa-
ble of exciting fear or respect; himsell
conscious of powerful alliances and uni-
versal favour ; all these circumstances
combined could hardly fail to nourish
these opinions of hereditary right, which
he must have imbibed from his infancy.
The Duke of York preserved through
the critical season of rebellion such mod-
eration and humanity, that we may par
don him that bias in favour of his own
pretensions to which lie became himself
a victim. Margaret perhaps, by her san-
guinary violence in the Coventry ptirlia-
ment of 1460, where the duke and all his
adherents were attainted, left liim not the
choice of remaining a subject with impu-
nity. But with us, who are to weigh
these ancient factions in the balance oJ
wisdom and justice, there should be no
hesitation in deciding that the house of
Lancaster were lawful sovereigns of
England. I am indeed astonished, that
not only such historians as Carte, who
wrote undisguisedly upon a Jacobite sj-s-
tem, but even men of juster principles,
have been inadvertent 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 parhament, if oaths of allegiance from
* Hall, p. 210.
+ The iil-will of York and the queen began le
early as 1449, as we learn from an unequivocal tes-
timony, a letter of thai date in the Piston collec
tion, vol t., p. 26.
Pakt Hi ]
ENGLISH COiNSTITUTION.
44:
the \» hole kingdom, and more particularly
from those who now advanced a contiary
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 ] Sceptres
.vere committed, and governments were
mstiluted, for public protection and pub-
lic happiness, not certainly for the benefit
i)f rulers or for the security of particular
dynasties. No prejudice has less in its
favour, and none has been more fatal to
the peace of mankind, than that which
regards a nation of subjects as a family's
private inheritance. For, as this opinion
induces reigning princes and their cour-
tiers to look on the people as made only
to obey them, so when the tide of events
has swept them from their thrones, it be-
gets a fond hope of restoration, a sense
of injury and of imprescriptible rights,
which give the show of justice to fresh
disturbances of public ordei and rebell-
ions against estabhshed authority. Even
in cases of unjust conquest, v^hich are far
stronger than any domestic revolution,
time heals the injury of wounded inde-
pendence, the forced submission to a vic-
torious enemy is changed into spontane-
ous allegiance to a sovereign, and the
laws of God and nature enjoin the obe-
dience that is challenged by reciprocal
benefits. But far more does every na-
tional government, however violent in
its origin, become legitimate, when uni-
versally obeyed and justly exercised,
the possession drawing after it the right;
not certainly that success can alter the
moral character of actions, or privilege
usurpation before the tribunal of human
opinion, or in the pages of history, but
that the recognition of a government
by the people is the binding pledge of
their allegiance so long as its corre-
sponding duties are fulfilled.* And thus
the law of England lias been held to
annex the subject's fidelity to the reign-
ing monarch, by whatever title he may
have ascended the throne, and whoever
else may be its claimant.! l^ut the stat-
ute of nth of Henry Vil., c. 1, has fur-
nished an unequivocal commentary upon
Uiis principle ; when, alluding to the con-
* Upon this great question the fovirth discourse
in Sir Michael Foster's Reports ought particularly
lo be reaJ Strange doctrines have been revived
.ately, and though not exactly referred lo the con-
stitution of this country, yet, as general principles,
easily applicable to it ; which, a century since,
would have tended to shake the present family in
the throne.
+ Hals'* Pleas of the Ci iwn. vol. i., p. CI, 101
'edit 1736)
demna^vons and forfeitures by whict
those alienate successes of the white
and red rosts had almost exhau.sted the
noble blood of England, it enacts that
"no man for doing truth and faithful ser-
vice to the king for the time being, be
convict, or attaint of high treason, nor of
other offences, by act of parhament 01
otherwise."
Though all classes of men and all parti
of England were divided into ^var 01 thi
factions by this unhappy con- LanL-as-
test, yet the strength of the tnansard
Yorkists lay in London and the ^"'■'"*'^-
neighbouring counties, and generally
among the middhng and lower people.
And this is what might naturally be ex-
pected. For notions of hereditary righ<
take easy hold of the populace, wiio 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 deserting their al-
legiance. Notwithstanding the wide
spreading influence of the Nevils, most
of the nobihty were well affected to th«
reigning dynasty. We have seen how
reluctantly they acquiesced in the secona
protectorate of the Duke of York, aftei
the battle of St. Albans. Thirty-twc
temporal peers toek 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 person-
ally made in parliament, it seems mani-
fest that the lords complied not only
with hesitation, but unwillingness ; and in
fact testified their respect and duty foi
Henry by confirming the crown to him
during his life.f The rose of Lancaster
blusiied upon the banners of the Staf
fords, the Percies, the Veres, the Hoi
lands, and the Courtneys. All these il-
lustrious families lay crushed for a time
under the ruins of their party. But the
course of fortune, whicli has too great a
mastery over crowns and sceptres to be
controlled by men's affections, invested
* Rot. Pari., vol. v., p. 351.
t Rot. Pari., p. 375. This entry in the roll i«
highly interesting and important. It ought to be
read ir. preference to any of our historians. Hume,
who drew from inferior sources, is not altogether
accurate, "i'et one remarkable circumstance, told
by Hall and other chroniclers, that the Duke of
York stood by the throne, as if to claim it, tluougb
omitted entirely in the roll, is confirmed by Wbeth
atnstede, abbot of St. Albans, who was probabl}
then present (p. 484, edit. Hearne). This showi
that we should only doubt and not reject, unle*'.
upon real grounds of suspicion, the assertions jl
secondary writers.
448
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
fCllAi'. VII'
Edward IV. with a possession, which the
general consent of the nation both sanc-
tioned and secured, Tliis was efTected
in no shght degree by the furious spirit
of Margaret, who began a system of ox-
termiaation by acts of attainder, and ex-
ecution of prisoners, that created abhor-
rence, though it did not prevent imitation.
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 just-
ly convince reflecting men, that it were
better to risk the chances of a new dy-
nasty, than trust the kingdom to an ex-
asperated faction.
A period of obscurity and confusion
„ . , .,, ensues, during w'hich we have
Edward IV. ' .= .
as little insight into constitu-
tional as general history. There are no
contemporary chroniclers of any value,
and the rolls of parliament, by whose
light we have hitherto steered, become
mere registers of private bills, or of peti-
tions relating to commerce. The reign
of Edward IV. is the first during which
no statute w'as passed for the redress of
grievances or maintenance of the sub-
ject's liberty. Nor is there, if I am cor-
rect, a single petition of this nature upon
the roll. Whether it were that the com-
mons had lost too much of their ancient
courage to present any remonstrances,
or that a wilful omission has vitiated the
record, is hard to determine ; but we cer-
tainly must not imagine, that a govern-
ment cemented with blood poured on the
scaffold as well as in the field, under a
passionate and unprincipled sovereign,
would afford no scope for the just ani-
madversion of parliament.! '^^'^^ reign
of Edward IV. was a reign of terror.
One half of the noble families had been
thinned by proscription ; and though gen-
erally restored in blood by the reversal
of their attainders, a measure certainly
deserving of much approbation, were
still under the eyes of vigilant and invet-
erate enemies. The opposite faction
* The abbey of St. Albans was stripped by tuc.
queen and her artny after the second battle fougni
at that place, Feb. 17, 1461 ; which changed Wheth-
amstede, the abbot and historiographer, from a vio-
ent Lancastrian into a Yorkist. His change of
party is quite sudden, and amusing enough. See
too the Paston Letters, vol. i., p. 206. Yet the
Paslon family were originally Lancastrian, and re-
turr.sd to that side in 1470.
t There are several instances of violence and
oppressiyn apparent on the rolls during this reign,
but not proceeding from the crown. One of a re-
markable nature, vol. v., p. 173, was brought for-
ward to throw an odium on the Duke of Clarence,
who had been concerned in it. Several passages
ittdicate the charactei of the Dui e of G rester.
would be cautious how they resisted c
king of their own creation, while the
hopes of their adversaries were only dor-
mant. And indeed, without relying on
this supposition, it is commonly seen,
that when temporary circumstances have
given a king the means of acting in dis-
regard of his subjects' privileges, it is a
very difficult undertaking for them to re-
cover a liberty which has no security so
efllectual as habitual possession.
Besides the several proceedings against
the Lancastrian party, which might be
extenuated by the common pretences, re-
taliation of similar proscriptions, security
for the actual government, or just pun-
ishment of rebellion against a legitimate
heir, there are several reputed instances
of violence and barbarity in the reign of
Edward IV., which have not such plau-
sible 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 re-
ported. But certainly the accusation
against Burdett, however iniquitous, was
not confined to these frivolous words ,
which indeed do not appear in his en-
dictment,* or in a passage relative to his
conviction in the roll of parliament.
Burdett was a servant and friend of the
Duke of Clarence, and sacrificed as a
preliminary victim. It was an article
of charge against Clarence that he had
attempted to persuade the people that
"Thomas Burdett 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 than
this attainder of the Duke of Clarence,
an act for which a brother could not be
pardoned liad he been guilty ; and which
deepens the shadow of a tyrannical age,
if, as it seems, his offence towards Ed-
ward was but levity and rashness.
♦ See in Cro. Car. 120, the endictment agains
Burdett for compassing the king's death and fo,
that purpose conspiring with Stacie and Blake to
calculate his nativity and his son's, ad sciendum
quando iidem rex et Edwardus ejus films morion-
tur : Also for the same end dispersing divers rhymes
and ballads de murmurationibus, sediticnibus et
proditonis e.xcitationibus, factas et fabricatas apud
Holbourn, to the intent that the people inighl
withdraw their love from the king and desert hiin
ac erga ipsum regem levarent, ad finalem deslruc
tionem ipsorum regis ac domini principis, &c.
t Rot. Pari., vol. i.. p. 11)3.
4ET III.]
ENGLISH CONSTITUTION.
Ai^
But whatever acts of injustice we may
attribute, from authority or conjecture, to
Edward's government, it was very far
from being unpopular. His love c f pleas-
ure, his aflabiUty, 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 Warwick, and
compelled Henry VH. to treat his mem-
ory with 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. His de-
mands of subsidy were therefore moder-
ate, and easily defrayed by a nation who
were making rapid advances towards op-
* The rolls of Henry Vil.'s first parliament are
full of an absurd confusion in thought and language,
which is rendered odious by the purposes to which
it is applied. Both Henry VI. and Edward IV. are
considered as lawful kings ; e.xcept in one instance,
where .\lan Cotlereil, petitioning for the reversal
of his attainder, speaks of Edward '' late called
Edward IV."(vol. vi., p. 290). But this is only the
language of a private Lancastrian. And Henry
VI. passes for having been king during his short
restoration in M70, when Edward had been nine
years upon the throne. For the Earl of Oxford is
said to have be?n attainted " for the true allegiance
and service he owed and did to Henry VI., at
Barnet field and otherwise" (p. 281). This might
be reasonable enough on the true principle that
allegiance is due to a king de facto ; if indeed we
could determine who was the king (ie facto on the
morning of the battle of Barnet. But this princi-
ple was not fairly recognised. Richard III. is al-
ways called, "in deed and not in right. King of
England." Nor was this merely founded on his
usurpation as against his nep!;tvv. For tluit un-
fortunate boy is little better treated, and in the act
of resumption, 1 H. VII., while Edward IV. is
styled " late king," appears only with the denomi-
nation of " Edward his son, late called Edward
v.," p. 336. Who then was king after the death
of Edward IV.? And was his son really illegiti-
mate, as a usurping uncle pretended ? Or did
the crime of Richard, though punished in him,
enure to the benefit of Henry '. These were points
which, like the fate of the young princes in the
Tower, he chose to wrap in di.screet silence. But
the first question he seems to have answered in
his own favour. For Richard himself, Howard,
duke of Norfolk, Lord Lovel, and scne others, are
attainted (p. 270), for ' traitorously intending, com-
passing, and imagining' the death of Henry ; of
course before or at the battle of Bosworth ; and
while his right, unsupported by possession, could
have rested only on an hereditary title, which it
was an insult to the nation to prefer. These mon-
strous proceedings explain the necessity of that
conservative statute to which I have already allu-
ded, which passed in the eleventh year of his reign,
and afforded as much security for men following
the plain line of rallying round tlie standard of their
country .is mere law can offer. There is some ex-
traordinary reasoning upon this act in Carte's His-
tory, vol. 11., p. 811, for the purpose of proving that
the adherents of George 11. would not be protected
')\ it on the restoration of the true blood.
F f
ulence. According to Sir John ^trtcs
cue, nearly one fifth of the whole king
doin had come to the king's hand by for-
feiture, at some time or other since the
commencement of his reign.* Many in-
deed of these lands had been restored,
and others lavished away in grants, but
the surplus revenue must still have been
considerable.
Edward IV'. was the first who practised
a new method of taking his subjects'
money without consent of parliament,
under the plausible name of benevolen-
ces. These came in place of the still
more plausible loans of former monarchs,
and were principally levied on llie weal-
thy traders. Though no complaint ap-
pears in the parliamentary records of his
reign, which, as has been observed, com-
plain of nothing, the illegality was un-
doubtedly felt and resented. In the re-
markable address to Richard by that
tumultuary meeting which invited him
to assume the crown, we find, among
general assertions of the state's decay
through misgovernment, the following
strong passage : " For certainly we be
determined rather to aventure and com-
mitte us to the perill of owre lyfs and
jopardie of deth, than to lyve in such
thraldome and bondage as we have lyvr;d
long tyme heretofore oppressed and in-
jured by extortions and newe impositions,
ayenstthe lawes of God and man, and the
libertie, old policie, and laws of this
realme, whereyn every Englishman is in-
herited."! Accordingly, in IJichard lll.'s
only parliament, an act was passed,
which, after reciting in the strongest
terms the grievances lately endured,
abrogates and annuls for ever all exac-
tions under the name of benevolence. J
The liberties of this country were at
least not directly impaired by the usur-
pation of Richard. But from an act so
deeply tainted with moral guilt, as v/ell
as so violent in all its circumstances, no
substantial benefit was likely to spring.
Whatever difiiculty there may bo, and 1
confess it is not easy to be surmounted,
in deciding upon the fate of Richard's
nephews after they were immured in
the Tower, the more public parts of the
transaction bear unequivocal testimony
to ins ambitious usurpation. It wouiJ
therefore be foreign to the purpose c"
this chapter to dwell upon his assumption
of the regency, or upon the sort of elec-
tion, however curious and remarkable,
which gave a pretended authority to hia
usurpation of the throne. Neither of
* Diff. of Aljsolute and Limited Monarchy, p. 83
t Rot. Pari., vol. vi., p. 241. i I R. MI., n. 2
ft50
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGF-S
tCuAP. IX
these lias ever been alleged by any-
party in the ivay of constitutional prece-
dent.
At lliis epojh I terminate these inqui-
„ , . ries nito the English constitu-
tion ; a sketch very imperlect 1
fear and unsatisfactory, but which may
at least answer ihe purpose of fixing the
reader's attention on the principal ob-
jects, and of guiding him to the purest
fountains of constitutional knovvledge.
From the accession of the house of Tu-
dor a new period is to be dated in our
history ; far more prosperous in the dif-
fusion of opulence and the preservation
of general order than the preceding, but
less distinguished by the spirit of free-
dom and jealousy of tyrannical power.
We have seen, through the twihght of
our Anglo-Saxon records, a form of civil
policy established by our ancestors,
marked, like the kindred governments
of the continent, with aboriginal Teu-
tonic features ; barbarous indeed, and in-
sufficient for the great ends of society,
but capable and worthy of the improve-
ment it has received, because actuated by
a sound and vital spirit, the love of free-
dom and of justice. From these princi-
ples 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
olhei nations, but which, more widely
extended, more strictly retained, and bet-
ter modified among ourselves, has be-
come perhaps the first, certainly among
the first, of our securities against arbitra-
ry government. We have seen a foreign
conqueror and his descendants trample
almost alike upon the prostrate nation,
and upon those who had been compan-
ions of their victory, introduce the ser-
vitudes of feudal law with more than
their usual rigour, and es .Ablish a large
revenue by continual precedents upon a
system of universal and prescriptive ex-
tortion. Eut 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. Privile-
ges, 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, du-
ring the long reign of Henry III. With
greater ambition and greater 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 impor-
tant limitations. The great council of
the nation is opened to the representa-
tives 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 offi-
cers of the crown. A number of reme-
dial provisions are added to the statutes ;
every Englishman learns to remember
that he is the citizen of a free state, and
to claim the common law as his birth-
right, even though the violence of power
should interrupt its enjoyment. It were
a strange misrepresentation of history to
assert that the constitution had attained
any thing like a perfect state in the fif-
teenth century ; but I know not whether
there are any essential privileges of our
countrymen, any fundamental securities
against arbArary 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.
CHAPTER IX.
ON THE STATE OF SOCIETY IN EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
PART I.
introduction. — Decline of Literature in the latter
period of the Roman Empire. — Its Causes. —
Corruption of the Latm Language. — Means by
'vhich It was effected. — Formation of new Lan-
guages.— General Ignorance of the Dark Ages. —
Scarcity of Books. — Causes that prevented the
total E.xtinclion of Learning. — Prevalence of
Superstition and Fanaticism. — General Corrup-
tion of Religion.— Monasteries — their Effects. —
Pilznmages --T.ove of Field Sports. — Stale of
Agriculture — of Internal and Foreign Trad*
down to the End of the Eleventh Century. — Im
provement of Europe dated from that Age. •
It has been the object of ever/ prece-
ding chapter of this work either to trace
the civil revolutions of states during thti
period of the middle ages, or to investi-
gate, with rather more minute attention,
their political institutions. There re-
mains, a larfifo tract to be explored, if we
flRT I]
statl; of society.
451
would coinpletj the circle of historical
information, and give to our knowledge
ihat copiousness and clear perception
which arise from comprehending a sub-
ject under numerous relations. The
philosophy of history embraces far more
than the wars and treaties, the factions
and cabals of common political nar-
lation ; it extends to whatever illustrates
the character of the human species in a
particular period, to their reasonings and
sentiments, their arts and industry. Nor
is this comprehensive survey merely in-
teresting to the speculative philosopher ;
without it, the statesman would form
very erroneous estunates of events, and
find himself constantly misled in any an-
alogical application of them to present
circumstances. Nor is it an uncommon
source of error to neglect the general
signs of the times, and to deduce a prog-
nostic from some partial coincidence
with past events, where a more enlarged
comparison of all the facts that ouglit to
enter into the combination would destroy
the whole parallel. The philosophical
student, however, will not follow the
antiquary into his minute details ; and
though it is hard to say what may not
supply matter for a reflecting mind, there
is always some danger of losing sight of
grand objects in historical disquisition,
by too laborious a research into trifles.
I may possibly be thought to furnish, in
some instances, an example of the error
I condemn. But in the choice and dis-
position of topics to which the present
chapter relates, some have been omitted
on account of their comparative insignif-
icance, and others on account of their
want of connexion with the leading sub-
ject. Even of those treated I can only
undertake to give a transient view ; and
must bespeak the reader's candour to re-
member, that passages which, separately
taken, may often appear superficial, are
but parts of the context of a single chap-
ter, as the chapter itself is of an entire
work.
The Middle Ages, according to the di-
vision I have adopted, comprise about
one thousand years, fi;om the invasion of
France by Clovis to that of Naples by
Charles VIII. This period, considered
as to the state of society, has been es-
teemed dark through ignorance, and bar-
barous through poverty and want of re-
finement. And although this character
is much less applicable to the two last
centuries of the period than to those
which preceded its commencement, yd
sve cannot expect to feel, in respect of
iges at best imperfectly civilized and
O f Q
slowly progressive, t't.at ii/terest which
attends a more perfect. development of
human capacities, and more brilliant ad-
vances in improvement. The first moi-
ety indeed of these ten ages is almost
absolutely barren, and presents little but
a catalogue of evils. The subversion of
the Roman empire, and devastation of its
provinces by barbarous nations, either
immediately preceded, or were coinci-
dent with the commencement of the
middle period. We begin in darkness
and calamit}^ ; and though the shadows
grow fainter as we advance, yet we are
to break off our pursuit as the morning
breathes upon us, and the twilight red
dens into the lustre of day.
No circumstance is so promnient on
the first survey of society du- ,, ,.
,, ,. ■' . . v. I.- Decline of
rmg the earlier centuries of this learnin;,' in
period as the depth of ignorance ifom.-m cm
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 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
irretrievable a decay, had long befor<"
spread over all liberal studies, that it is
impossible to pronounce whether tliey
would not have been almost equally ex-
tinguished if the august throne of the
Cesars had been left to moulder by its
intrinsic weakness. Under the paternal
sovereignty of Marcus Aurclius, tlie ap-
proaching declension of learning might
be scarcely perceptible to an incurious
observer. There was much indeed to
distinguish his times from those of Au-
gustus ; much lost in originality of ge-
nius, in correctness of taste, in the mas-
terly conception and consummate finish
of art, in purity of the Latin, and even
of tlie Greek language. But there were
men who made the age famous, grave
lawyers, judicious historians, wise phi-
losophers ; the name of learning was
honourable, its professors were encour-
aged ; and along tlie vast surface of the
Roman empire there was perhaps a trreat-
er number, whose minds were cultivated
by intellectual discipline, than under the
more brilliant reign of the first emperor.
It is not, I think, very easy to give a
perfectly satisfactory solution of ,
Ii ■■ 7 ) r II r v. . Il.s causes
the rapid downfall of literature
between the ages of Antonine and of
Diocletian. Perhaps the prosperous con
dition of the empire from Trajan to Maf
i:j2
I-JUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE ACES.
[Chap. IX
cus Aui-elius, 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 un-
dermine their vigour. Perhaps the in-
tellectual energies of mankind can never
remain stationary; and a nation 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 in-
different writers have been recovered by
the diligence of modern inquiry.* Law
neglected, philosophy perverted till it be-
came contemptible, history nearly silent,
the Latin tongue growing rapidly barba-
rous, poetry rarely and feebly attempted,
art more and more vitiated; such were
the symptoms by which the age previous
to Constantine announced the decline
of luimau intellect. If we cannot fully
account for this unhappy change, as I
have observed, we must, however, assign
much weight to the degradation of Rome
and Italy in the system of Severus and
his successors, to the admission of bar-
barians into the military and even civil
dignities of the empire, to the discour-
aging influence of provincial and illiterate
sovereigns, and to the calamities wiiich
followed for half a century the first inva-
sion of the Goths and the defeat of De-
cius. To this sickly condition of litera-
ture the fourth century supplied no per-
manent remedy. If under the house
of Constantine the Roman world suf-
fered rather less from civil warfare or
barbarous invasions than in the prece-
ding age, yet every other cause of de-
cline just enumerated prevailed with ag-
gravated force ; and the fourth century
set in storms, sufficiently destructive in
themselves, and ominous of those calam-
ities which humbled the majesty of Rome
at the commencement of the ensuing pe-
riod, and overwhelmed the Western Em-
pire in absolute and final ruin before its
termination.
The diffusion of literature is perfectly
distinguishable from its advancement, and
whatever obscurity we may find in ex-
plaining the variations of the one, there
are a few simple causes which seem to
♦ The authors of Histoire Litteraire de la
France, t. i., can only find three writers of Gaul,
QO inconsiderable part of the Roman empire, men-
tioned upon any authority : two of whom are now
lost. In the preceding centurj' the numbei was
considerably greater
account for the other. Knowledge wil]
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 ht-
erary attainments are found to produce,
and still more to the reward which they
meet in the general respect and applause
of society. This cheering incitement,
the genial sunshine of approbation, 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, w'e
should naturally expect that they must
have become scanty or dry when learn-
ing languishes or expires. Accordingly,
in the later ages of the Roman empire, a
general indifference towards the cultiva-
tion of letters became the characteristic
of its inhabitants. Laws were indeed
enacted by Constantine, Julian, Theodo-
sius, and other emperors, for the encour-
agement of learned men and the promo-
tion of liberal education. But these
laws, which would not perhaps have
been thought necessary in better times,
were unavailing to counteract the leth-
argy of ignorance in which even the na-
tive citizens of the empire were content-
ed to repose. This alienation of men
from their national literature may doubt-
less be imputed, in some measure, to its
own demerits. A jargon of mystical phi-
losophy, half fanaticism and half impos-
ture, a barren and inflated eloquence, a
frivolous philology, were not among
those charms of wisdom by which man
is to be diverted from pleasure or arous-
ed from indolence.
In this temper of the public mind, there
was little probability that new composi-
tions of excellence would be produced,
and much doubt whether the old would
be preserved. Since the invention of
printing, the absolute extinction of any
considerable work seems a danger too
improbable for apprehension. The press
pours forth in a few days a thousand vol-
umes, which scattered, hke seed in the
air, over the republic of Europe, could
hardl)- be destroyed' without the extirpa-
tion of its inhabitants. But in the times
of antiquity, manuscripts were copied
with cost, labour, 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 com-
parison with the three last centuries.
The destruction of a few libraries by ac-
cidental fire, the desolation of a few prov.
STATE OF SOCIETY
453
inces by unsparing and illiterate barba-
rians, might annihilate every vestige of
an author, or leave a few scattered
copies, which, from the public indifTer-
encc, there was no inducement to multi-
ply, exposed to similar casualties in suc-
ceeding times.
We are warranted by good authorities
to assign, as a collateral cause of this ir-
retrievable revolution, the neglect of hea-
then Uterature 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 gen-
eral among Christians. Many of the fa-
thers undoubtedly were accomplished in
liberal studies, and we are indebted to
them for valuable fragments of authors
whom we have lost. But the literary
character of the church is not to be meas-
ured by that of its more illustrious lead-
ers. 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 pro-
fession. Their prejudices, however, sur-
vived the establishment of Christianity.
iThe fourth council 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
I in avowed contempt, as inconsistent with
■ revealed truths. Nor do there appear to
have been any canons made in favour of
learning, or any restriction on the ordi-
nation of persons absolutely illiterate.*
There was, indeed, abundance of what is
called theological learning displayed in
the controversies of the fourth and fifili
centuries. And those who admire such
disputations may consider the principal
champions in them as contributing to the
glory, or at least retarding 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
* Moshcim, Cent. 4. Tiraboschi endeavours to
elevate higher the learning of the early Christians,
t. ii., p. 3;i8. Jortin, however, asserts that many
of the bishops in the general councils of Ephcsus
and Chalcedon could not write their names. — Re-
mark j on Ecclesiist. Hist., vol- ii., p. 417.
their neighbours, than the clear and calm
discrimination of philosophy. However
this may be, it cannot be doubted thai
the controversies agitated in the church
during these two centuries must have di-
verted studious minds from profane liter-
ature, and narrowed more and more the
circle of that knowledge which they were
desirous to attain.
The torient of irrational superstitions,
which carried all before it in the fifth
century, and the progress of ascetic en-
thusiasm, had an influence still more de-
cidedly inimical to learning. I cannot
indeed conceive any state of society
more adverse to the intellectual improve
ment of mankind, than one which admit
ted of no middle line between gross dis
solutencss and fanatical mortification.
An equable tone of public morals, social
and humane, verging neither to voluptu-
ousness nor austerity, seems the most
adapted to genius, or at least l,o letters,
as it is to individual comfort and national
prosperity. After the introduction of
monkery" and its unsocial theory of du-
ties, the serious and reflecting part of
mankind, on whom science most relies,
were turned to habits which, in the most
favourable view, could not quicken the
intellectual energies; and it might be a
difficult question, whether the cultivators
and admirers of useful literature were
less likely to be found among the profli-
gate citizens of Rome and their barbarian
conquerors, or the melancholy recluses
of the wilderness.
Such therefore was the state of learn-
ing before the subversion 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 subsequent ages; where, al-
though there was some attention shown
to preserve the best monuments of anti
quity, and diligence in compiling fron.
them, yet no one original writer of ai.j
superior merit arose, and learning, though
plunged but for a short period into mere
darkness, may be said to have languished
in a middle region of twilight for the
greater part of a thousand years.
But not to delay ourselves in this spec-
ulation, the final settlement of barbarous
nations in Gaul, Spain, and Italy consum
mated the ruin of literature. 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 it.s sriginal rudeness
i^i
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
(( lUf. I A
diul viewed with no unreasonable disdain
arts which had neither preserved their
euUivators 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 min-
ister Cassiodorus, endeavoured to re-
vive the studies of his Italian subjects.
Scarcely one of the barbarians, so long
as they continued unconfused vyith the
native inhabitants, acquired the slightest
tincture of letters; and the praise of
equal ignorance was soon aspired to and
attained by the entire 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 which books
were written had not ceased to be their
natural dialect. This remarkable change
in tlie 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 the subject, to deserve some dis-
f-ussion.
It is obvious, on the most cursory
Corruption of view of the French and Span-
the Latin laii- ish languages, that they, as
guage. ^^,gjj g^g ^Yie Italian, are derived
from one common source, the Latin.
That must therefore have been at some
period, and certainly not since the estab-
lishment of the barbarous nations in
Spain and Gaul, substituted in ordinary
use for the original dialects of those
countries, which are generally supposed
to liave been Celtic, not essentially dif-
fering from that which is spoken in
Wales and Ireland. Rome, says Augus-
tin, imposed not only her yoke, but her
language, upon conquered nations. The
success of such an attempt is indeed
very remarkable. Though it is the natu-
ral effect of conquest, or even of com-
mercial intercourse, 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 Britany, the people
speak a language which has perhaps
sustained no essential alteration from
the revolution ot two thousand years ;
and we know how steadily another Cel-
tic dialect has kept its ground in Wales,
notwithstanding English laws and gov-
ernment, and the long line of contiguous
frontier, which brjngs the natives of thai
principality into contact with English-
men. Nor did the Romans ever estab-
lish their language, I know not whethei
they wished to do so, in this island, as
we perceive by that stubborn British
tongue which has survived two ecu-
quests.*
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, as the Benedictine authors of
the Histoire Litteraire de la Fiance
seem to imagine, by a sudden and arbi •
trary innovation.! This is neither pos-
sible in itself, nor agreeable to the testi-
mony of Irena3us, bishop of Lyons, at
the end of the second century, who la-
ments the necessity of learning Celtic. J
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 origi-
nal Celtic could perhaps be discovered in
their common speech, it does not follow
that they spoke with the pure pronuncia-
tion of Italians, far less with that confor-
mity to the written sounds, which we as-
sume to be essential to the eipression
of Latin words.
It appears to be taken for granted tha"
the Romans pronomiced their Ancient Lai
language as we do at present, i" pronunci
so far at least as the enuncia- ^"°"-
tion of all the consonants, however we
may admit our deviations from the clas
sical standard in propriety of sounds
and in measure of time. Yet the exam-
pie of our own language and of the French
might show us that orthography may be-
come a very inadequate representative
* Gibbon roundly asserts, "that the language
of Virgil and Cicero, though with some inevita-
ble mixture of" corruption, was so universally
adopted in Africa, Spain, Gaul, Great Britain, and
Pannonia, that the faint traces of the Punic or Cel-
tic idioms were preserved only in the mountains
or among the peasants."— Decline and Fall, vol. i.,
p. CO (8vo. edit.). For Britain he quotes Tacitus's
Life of Agricola as his voucher. But the only
passage in this work that gives the least colour to
Gibbon's assertion, is one in which Agricola is said
to have encouraged the children of British chief-
tains to acquire a taste for liberal studies, and to
have succeeded so much by judicious commenda
tion of their abilities, ut qui mode linguam Re
manam abnuebant, eloqiientiain concupiscerent (c.
21). This, It is sutliciently obvious, is very differ-
ent from the national adoption of Latin £S a nnoth
er-tongue.
t T. vii., preface.
i It ippears by a passage quoted froni the digest
by M. Bonamy, M6m. de I'Acad. des Inscriptions,
t. xxi>., p. 589, that Celtic was spoken in Gaul, o,
at least parts of it, as well as Punic in Africa.
Part I]
STATE Oh SOCIETY.
455
jf pronunciation. It is indeed capable
of proof, that in the purest ages of Latin-
ity, some variation existed between these
two. Tliose numerous changes in si)ell-
ing which distinguish the same words
in the poetry of Ennius and of Virgil are
best explained by the supposition of
their being accommodated to the current
pronunciation. Harsh combinations of
letters, softened down through delicacy
of ear or rapidity of utterance, gradual-
ly lost their place in the written lan-
guage. Thus exfregit and adrogavit as-
sumed a form representing their more
liquid sound ; and auctor was latterly
spelled autor^ which has been followed in
French and Italian. Autor was probably
80 pronounced at all times ; and the or-
thography was afterward corrected or
corrupted, which ever we please to say,
according to the sound. We have the
best authority to assert, that the linal m
was very faintly pronounced, rather, it
seems, fts a rest and short interval between
two syllables, than an articulate letter;
nor indeed can we conceive \\\)on Avliat
other ground it was subject to elision be-
fore a vowel in verse; since we cannot
suppose that the nice ears of Eome
would have submitted to a capricious
rule of poetry, for which Greece pre-
tented no analogy.*
A decisive proof, in my opinion, of the
ieviation which took place, through the
rapidity of ordinary elocution, from the
itrict laws of enunciation, may be found
iji the metre of Terence. liis verses,
which are absolutely refractory to the
common lav/s of prosody, may be readi-
ly scanned by tlie application of this
principle. Thus, in tlie lirst act of the
Ileautontimorumenos, a part selected at
random, I have found, I. Vowels con-
tracted or drojyped, so as to shorten the
word by a syllable ; in rei, ©id, diutius,
ei, solius, earn, unius^ suam, dicilias, sencx,
voluvtatem, illius, semel ; 11. Tiie ])ro-
celcUs/iiatio foot, or four short syllables,
instead of the dactyl ; seen, i., v. 59, 73,
76, 88, 109; seen, ii., v. 36; III. The
elision of s in words ending with its^ or
is short, and sometimes even of the
whole syllable, before the next word be-
ginning with a vowel; in seen, i., v. 30,
81, 98, 101, 116, 119 ; seen, ii., v. 28. IV.
* Atqiic sadera ilia litcra, quoties ultima est, ct
vocalem verbi sequentis ita continjifit, nt in cam
transire possit, etiuin si scribitur, tainen panim
exprimitur, ut MuUuni ille, et Quantiiin erat ;
adeoutpenecujasdamnovsBliteraG solium roddat.
Nequo enim cxiinitiir, sed obscuratur, cttantum
aliqua inter duos vocaies vchit iiota est, iie ipsa;
«oeant. — (iiiiiitiliau, Inslitut., 1. ix., c. 4, p. .5S.'>,
edit. Capperoaier.
The first syllable of ille is re])eatedl};
shortened, and indeed nothing is more
usual in Terence than this license ;
whence we may collect how ready this
word was for abbreviation into the
French and Italian articles. V. The last
letter of apud is cut off, seen, i., v. 120,
and seen, ii., v. 8. VI. Hodie is used as
a pyrrhichius, in seen, ii., v. 11. VII.
Lastly, tliere is a clear instance of a
short syllable, the antepenultimate ol
impvlerim, lengthened on account of tlit
accent, at the 113th verse of the firs*
scene.
These licenses are in all ])robabilitj
chiefly colloquial, and would not J^^ ^.^^^^p
have been adopted in ])ubric bar- tion i)y tii<
angues, to which tlie precepts populace,
of rhetorical writers commonly relate.
But if the more elegant language of tlie
Romans, since such we must suppose to
have been copied by Terence for his
higher characters, differed so much in or-
dinary discourse from their orthography,
it is probable that the vulgar went into
much greater deviations. The popular
pronunciation errs generally, we might
say perhaps invariably, by abbreviation
of words, and by liquefying consonants,
as is natural to the rapidity of cclkxiuial
speech.* It is by their knowledge of or-
thography and etymology that the more
educated part of the community are [ire-
served from these corrupt modes of ]iro-
nunciation. There is always, theretbro, a
standard by which common speech may
be rectified ; and in proportion to tlie dif
fusion of knowledge ainl jioliteness, tlio
deviations from it will be more sliglit and
gradual. But in distant prov- ^,\ the pro-
inces, and especially where tlie vindsls.
language itself is but of recent introduc-
tion, many more changes may be ex-
pected to occur. Even in Fi-ance and
England, there are jirovincial 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
* The followinif passage of Qniutilian is an ev
idence botli of the omisaion of harsh or superilu-
ous letters by the best speakers, and of tlie cor-
rupt abbreviation usual with tife worst. Dilneida
vero erit pronnneiatio primnm, si verba tota exc-
gerit, quorum pars dovorari, pars destiiui solet,
plerisquc extrtinas syllabas non profereiilibus.
diim priorum sono iiiduli,'eiit. (Jt est aiilcui
neccssaria vcrboruin explanatio, ita oiiiiies oom-
putarc et velut atlmimcrarc litcras, molcstum et
odiosum. — Nam et vocaies frequentissime eoe-
unt, ct consonautiuin quajdam insequente vocali
dissiinulantur ; utriusque cxemplum posuiinus ;
Multum ille et terri^. Vitatiir otiam durion-iD
inter so congrossus, undo pellexU et colUgit, c*
(I nil) alio loco Ilcta sunt, 1. li., c. 3, p. 6y6.
ibC
europp: durlng the middle ajes.
,UH^H IX
Known, the varieties of dialect are still
more striking. Now in an advancing
state of society, and especially with
such a vigorous political circulation as
we experience in England, language will
constantly approximate to uniformitj^, as
provincial expressions are more and
more rejected for incorrectness or inele-
Sfance. 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 desire to con-
form 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 sanctioiiod by
usage, wliich, among a civilizea | i-ople,
would have been proscribed at their ap-
pearance.
Such appears to have been the prog-
ress 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 it-
self have destroyed the character of that
language, though it sullied its purity. The
worst 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 write
whole pages of Italian, wherein every
word shall be of unequivocal Latin deri-
vation, though the character and person-
ality, if I may so say, of the language be
entirely dissimilar. But, as I conceive,
the loss of literature took away the only
check upon arbitrary pronunciation and
upon erroneous grammar. Each people
innovated through caprice, imitation of
their neiglibours, or some of those inde-
scribable causes which dispose the or-
gans of different nations to different
sounds. The French melted down the
middle consonants ; the Italians omitted
the final. Corruptions arising out of ig-
norance were mingled with those of pro-
nunciation. It would have been marvel-
lous if illiterate ^and semi-barbarous pro-
vincials had preserved that delicate pre-
cision in using the inflections of tenses,
which our best scholars do not clearly
attain. Tlie common speech of any peo-
ple whose language is highly complicated
will be full of solecisms. The French
inflections j re not comparable in number
or delicacy to the Latin, and yet the vul-
ga* confuse their most ordinary forms.
Rut, in all probabilitv, the variation of
these derivative languages from populai
Latin has been considerably less than it
appears. In the purest ages of Latinity,
the citizens of Rome itself mado use of
many terms which we deem barbarous,
and of many idioms which we should re-
ject as modern. Tliat highly complica-
ted grammar, which the best writers em-
ployed, was too elliptical and obscure, too
deficient in the connecting parts ot
speech, for general use. We cannot in-
deed 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 modern Italian was spoken at Rome
under Augustus.* But I believe it may
be asserted, not only that much the
greater part of those words in the pres-
ent 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 ver)' manj
phrases which oflfended nicer ears pre-
vailed in the same vernacular speech,
and have passed from thence into the
modern French and Italian. Such, foi
example, was the frequent use of prepo-
sitions, 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 riglit
discrimination of tense seems to have
proceeded the active auxiliary verb. It
is possible that this was borrowed from
the Teutonic languages 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 ir
that mood, and has not been altogethei
dispensed with even in Greek, while in
Latin it is used much more frequently
It is not quite so easy to perceive the
propriety of the active habeo or teneo,
one or both of which all modern Ian
guages have adopted as their auxiliaries
* Tifaboschi (Storia dell. LeU. Ital., t. iii., pref-
ace, p. V.) imputes this paradox to Bembo and
Quadrio ; but I can hardly believe that either ol
them could maintain it in a literal sense.
t At. Bonamy, in an essay printed in Mem. de
TAcademie des Inscriptions, t. xxiv., has produced
several proofs of this from the classical writers on
agriculture and other arts, though some of his in-
stances are not in point, as any schoolboy woulj
have told him. This essay, which, by some acci
dent, had escaped my notice till I had nearly fin
ished the observations in my text, contains, I think,
the best view that I have seen of the process o|
transition by which Latin was changed into French
and Italian. Add, however, the preface to Tira
hoschi's third volume, and the tliii-tysecond disse*
taiioii of Muratori.
Part I]
STATE OF SOCIETY
457
in conjugating the verl.. 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 a rude analogy
to cases where it ought not strictly to
have been employed.*
Next to the changes founded on pro-
nunciation, and to the substitution of
auxiliary verbs for inflections, the usage
of the definite and indefinite articles in
nouns appears the most considerable step
in the transmutation of Latin into its de-
rivative languages. None but Latin, I
believe, has ever wanted this part of
speech; and the defect to which custom
reconciled the Romans, would be an in-
superable stumbling-block to nations who
were to translate their original idiom into
that language. A coarse expedient of
applying vnus ipse or ille to the purposes
of an article might perhaps be no unfre-
qnent vultrarism of the provincials ; and
after the Teutonic tribes brought in their
own grammar, it was natural that a cor-
ruption should become universal, which
in fact supplied a real and essential defi-
ciency.
That tlie quantity of Latin syllables is
neglected, or rather lost in mod-
UonTo"'^"* trn pronunciation, seems to be
longer rcgii- generally admitted. Whether
l!!!^!!.'.',^. indeed the ancient Romans, in
their ordmary speakmg, distni-
giiishcd the measure of syllables with
such uniform musical accuracy as we
imagine, giving a certain time to those
termed long, and exactly half that dura-
tion to the short, might perhaps be ques-
lioned ; 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 ac-
centual pronunciation came to predomi-
nate, before Latin had ceased to be a liv-
ing 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 Con-
stantino, has left us a philological curios-
ity, in a series of attacks on the pagan
superstitions, composed in wiiat are
meant to bo verses, regulated by accent
instead of quantity, exactly as we read
Virgil at present. f
* See Lanzi, ■'^aggio dcUa Lingua Ktrusca, t. i.,
c. 431 ; Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscrip., t. xxiv., p.
632.
t No description can give so adequate a notion
t{ thi§ extraordinary performance as a .'short spcci-
/Tien. Take the introductory lines ; which roally,
prejudices of education af^rt, are by no means in-
Barmonioui •-'
It is not improbable that Commod;anns
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 nearly
the same arms that Commodianus had
wielded against heathenism. But as thf
refined and various music of hexameters
was unlikely to be relished by the vulgar,
he prudently adopted a diflcreut meas-
ure.* All the nations of Europe seem to
love the trochaic verse ; it was frequent
on the Greek and Roman stage; it is
more common than any other in the pop-
ular poetry of modern languages. Thi?
proceeds from its simplicity, its liveli-
ness, and its ready accommodation to
dancing and music. In St. Austin'^
poem, he v.aited to a trochaic measure
the novel attraction of rhyme.
As Africa must have lost all regard to
the rules of measure in the fourth centu-
ry, so it appears that Gaul was not more
correct in the two next ages. A t)oem
addressed by Auspicius, bishop of Toul,
to Count Arbogastes, of earlier date
probably than the invasion of Clovis,
Prfifatio nostra viam erranti demonstrat,
Respectumque bonum.ctiin venerit saeculiinota
.(Eternum lieii, quod discrediint inscia corda.
Ego similiter erravi tempore mullo,
Funa prosequendo, parentibus insciis ipsis
Abstuli me tandem inde, iegeiido de lege.
Testificor Dominum, doleo, proh ! civica turba
Inscia quod perdit, pmgens deos qua^rere vanos
Ob ea perdoclus iguuros instruo verum.
Commodianus however did not keep up to this ex
cellence in every part. Some of his Unt-s are no
reducible lo any p:onunciation, without the sum
mary rules of Procrustes ; as for instance —
Paratus ad ep'das, et refugiscere praecepta ; or
Capillos inficitis oculos tuhgine reliiulis.
it must be ov^ned that his test is cxceedinglj
corrupt, and I should not despair of seeing a trulj
critical editor improve his lines into unblemished
he.xameters. Till this time arrives, however, we
must consider him either as utterly ignorant o1
metrical distinctions, or at least as aware that the
populace whom he addressed did not observe them
in speaking. Commodianus is published by Dawes
at the end of his edition of Minucius Felix. Some
specimens are quoted in Hirris's Philological In
quiries.
* Archaeologia, vol. xiv.. p. 188. The followinft
are the first lines: —
Abundantia peccatorum solet fratres conturbarc ;
Propter hoc Uominus noster voluit nos prajinonere
Comparans regnum ca'lorum reticulo misso in
mare,
Congreganti multos pisces, omne genus hinc et
inde,
Quos cum traxissent ad littus, tunc coeperunt sep
arare,
Bonos in vasa miserunt re'iquos malos in mare.
This trash seems bolow 'he level of Augustin
but It could no', have jeen much later than hi.
age
-4 58
EUROPE DURING THE MlDDl E ACES.
[C1.4P. IX
is written wuh no regard to quantity.*
The bishop by whom this was composed
IS mentioned by his contemporaries as a
man cf learning. Probably he did not
chooa*:? to perplex the barbarian to whom
he was writing (for Arbogastes is plainly
a barbarous name) by legitimate Roman
metre. In the next century, Gregory of
Tours informs us that Chilperic attempt-
ed 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 litera-
ture. If Chilperic therefore was not
master of these distinctions, we may con-
clude that the bishops and other Romans
with whom he conversed did not observe
them ; and that his blunders in versifica-
tion 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 frequency 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. Avi-
tus tells us, even at the beginning of the
same age, that few preserved the proper
measure of syllables in singing. Yet he
was Bishop of Vienne, where a purer
oronunciation might be expected than in
the remoter parts of Gaul. f
Defective, however, as it had become
Change of in respect of pronunciation, Lat-
Latin into in was still spoken in France
Romance, jjm-ipg the sixth and seventh cen-
turies. We have compositions of that
time, intended for the people, in gram-
matical language. A song is still extant,
in rhyme and loose accentual measure,
written upon a victory of Clotaire II.
over the Saxons in 622, and obviously in-
tended for circulation among the people.^
♦ Recueil des Historiens, t. i., p. 815 ; it begins
i\ the following manner : —
Praecelso expectabili bis Arbogasto comiti
Auspicius, qui diligo, salutem dico plurimam.
Magnas coelesti Domino rependo corde gratias
Quod te TuUensi proxime magnum in urbe vidi-
mus.
Multis me tuis artibus lajtificabas antea,
Sed nunc fecisti maximo me exultare gaudio.
t Cliilpericus rex .... confecit duos libros, quo-
ram versiculi debiles nullis pedibus subsistere
possunt : in quibus, dum non intelligebat, pro lon-
gis syllabas breves posuit, et pro brevibus longas
Btatuebat, 1. vi., e. 46.
t Mem. de 1 Acad6mie des Inscriptions, t. xvii.
Hist. Lilteraire de la France, t. ii., p. 28.
1^ One stanza of this song will suffice to show
Ibat the Latin language was yet -inchanged. —
Fortunatus says, m' his life of St. Aubin
of Angers, that he should lake care not
to use any expression unintelligible to
the people.* Baudemind, in the middle
of the seventh century, declares, in his
life of St. Amand, that he writes in a rus-
tic and vulgar style, that the reader may
be excited to imitation. f 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 there-
fore say that Latin had not ceased to be
a living language m Gaul during the sev-
enth century. Faults indeed against the
rules of grannnar, 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 fartlier from purity.J
The corrupt provincial idiom became
gradually more and more dissimilar to
grammatical Latin ; and the lingua Ro-
mana rustica, as the vulgar palois (to
borrow a word that I cannot well trans-
late) 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
find lui, for iUius, 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 pour-
ed in, that all the characteristics of Lat-
in were eff'aced in writing as well as
speaking, and the existence of a new
language became undeniable. In a coun-
cil held at Tours in 813, the bishops are
ordered to have certain homilies of the
De Clotario est canere rege Francorum,
Qui ivi pugnare cum gente Saxonum,
Quam graviter provenisset missis Saxonum,
Si non fuisset inclitus Faro de gente Burgundi-
onum.
* Proecavendum est, ne ad aures populi minu»
aliqiiid intelligibile proferatur. — Mem. de I'Acad., t.
xvii., p. 712.
t Rustico et plebeio sermone propter exempluni
et imitationem, id. ibid.
t Hist. Litteraire de la France, t. lii., p. 5 M6in.
de I'Acadenne, t. xxiv., p. 617 Nouveau Traite
de Diplomatique, t. iv.. p. 485.
() Hist. Litteraire de la France, t. vii., p. 12.
The editors say that it is mentioned by name evec
in the seventh centurv, which is very natural, a»
the corruption of Latiti had then become striking.
AKT I ]
STATE OF SOCIETY.
451
lathers liaiislaled into the rustic Roman,
as well as the German tongue.* After
this it is unnecessary to multiply proofs
of the change which Latin had under-
gone.
In Italy, the progressive corruptions of
■.scorrup- ^^^^ Latin language were anal-
lion ill ogous to tliose wliich occurred
liaiy. j,i France, though we do not find
m writings any unequivocal specimens
of a new formation at so early a period.
IJut the old inscriptions, even of the
fourth and fifth centuries, are full of sol-
ecisms and corrupt orthography. In le-
gal instruments under the Lombard kings,
the Latin inflections are indeed used, but
with so little regard to oropriety that it is
obvious the writers had not the slightest
tincture of grammatical knowledge. This
observation extends to a very large pro-
portion of such documents down to the
twelfth century, and is as applicable to
France and Spain as it is to Italy. In
these charters the peculiar characteris-
tics of Italian orthography and grammar
frequently appear. Thus we find, in the
eiglith century, diveatis for debeatis, da
for de in the ablative, avendi for habendi,
dava for dabat, cedo a deo, and ad eccle-
sia, among many similar corruptions.!
Latin was so changed, it is said by a
writer of Charlemagne's age, that scarce-
ly any part of it was popularly k^nown.
Italy indeed had suffered more than
France itself by invasion, and was re-
duced to a lower state of barbarism,
/hough probably from the greater dis-
tinctness of pronunciation habitual to the
Italians, they lost less of their original
language than the French. I do not
rind, 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 vulgar,
and the Latin. :{:
When Latin had thus ceased to be a
living language, the whole treas-
ury of knowledge was locked up
from the eyes of the people.
The few who might have im-
bibed a taste for literature, if
Ignorance
conse-
quent on
Iho dis-
use of
Latin.
* Mem. de TAcacl. des Insc, t. xvii. See two
Memiirs in this volaine by Du Clos and Le Boeuf,
especially the latter, as well as that already men-
tioned in t. xxiv,, p. 582, by M. Bonamy.
t Muratori, Dissert, i. and xiiii.
t Usus Francisca, vulgari, et voce Latina
Instituit populos eloquio triplici.
Fontanini dell' Eloquenza Italiana, p. 15. Mu-
Mtori, Dissert, xxxii.
books had ieeu accessible to them, were
reduced to abandon pursuits that could
only be cultivated through a kind of ed
ucation not easily within their reacn
Schools, confined to cathedrals and mon-
asteries, and exclusively designed for the
purposes of religion, afforded no encour-
agement or opportunities to the laity.*
The worst etfect was, that, as the newly-
formed languages were hardly made use
of in writing, Latin benig »till preserved
in all legal instruments and public corre-
spondence, 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.f Their charters, 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 com-
mendation of a monkish biographer (with
whom a knowledge of churcli-music
would pass for literature),^ we could
make out a very short list of scholars.
None certainly were more distinguished
as such than Charlemagne and Alfred.
But the former, unless we reject a very
plain testimony, was incapable of wri
ting ;^ and Alfred found difficulty in ma
king a translation from the pastoral in
struction of St. Gregory, on account of
his imperfect knowledge of Latin. ||
Whatever mention, therefore, we find
of learning and the learned during these
♦ Histoire Litteraire de la France, t. vi., p. 20
Muratori, Dissert, xliii.
t Nouveau Traite de Diplomatique, t. ii., p. 419.
This became, the editors say, much less unusual
about the end of the thirteenth century ; a pretty
late period ! A few signatures to deeds appear in
the fourteenth centtiry ; in the ne.xt they are more
frequent. — Ibid. The emperor Frederick Barba-
rossa coidd not read (Struvius, Corpus Hist. Ger-
man., t. i., p. 377), nor John, king of Bohemia, in the
middle of the fourteenth century (Sismondi, t. v.,
p. 205), nor Philip the Hardy, king of France, al
though the son of St. Louis.— (Velly, t. vi., p
426.)
X Louis IV., king of France, laughing at Fulk,
count of Anjou, who sang anthems among the
choristers at Tours, received the followmg pithy
epistle from his learned vassal : Novenlis, domine,
qiiod rex illiteratus est asinus coronatus. Gesta
Coinituin Andegavensium. In the same book.
Geoffrey, father of our Henry II., is said to be op
time literatus; which perhaps nnports little mon*
learning than his ancestor Fulk possessed.
() The passage in Eginhard which has occa
sioned so much dispute speaks for. itself : Tenta
bat et scribere, tabulasque et codicillos ad hoc in
lecticula sub cervicalibus circumferre solebat, ut,
cum vacuum tempus esset, manurn efligiandis lit
eris assuefaceret ; sed parum prospere successi'
labor pryposterus ac sero mchoatus.
II Spelman, Vit. Alfred., Append.
tfiO
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
tCH.vr lA
tlavk ages, must be understood to relate
only to such as were within the pale of
clergy, which indeed was pretty ex-
tensive, and comprehended many who
(lid not exercise the offices of religious
ministry. But even the clergy were,
for a long period, not very materially su-
perior, as a body, to the uninstructed la-
ty. An inconceivable cloud of igno-
rance overspread the whole face of the
church, hardly broken by a few glimmer-
ing lights, who owe almost the whole of
their distinction to the surrounding dark-
ness, in the sixth century, the best wri-
ters in Latin were scarcely read ;* and
perhaps from the middle of this age to
the eleventh, there was, in a general
view of literature, little difTerence to be
discerned. If we look more accurately,
there will appear certain gradual shades
of twilight on each side of the greatest
obscurity. France reached her lowest
point at the beginning of the eighth cen-
tury ; 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
thcin the state of letters in Italj' and in
England during the succeeding century ;
Out France seems to have been uniform-
iy, though very slovily, progressive from
the time of Charlemagne. f
Of this prevailing ignorance it is easy
lo produce abundant testimony. Con-
tracts were made verbally, for want of
notaries capable of drawing np charters ;
and these, when written, were frequently
barbarous and ungrammatical to an in-
credible degree. For some considerable
intervals scarcely any monument of lit-
erature has been preserved, except a few
jejune chronicles, the vilest legends of
saints, or verses equally 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. J Not one priest
* Hist. Litteraire de la France, t. iii.,p.5.
Tliese four dark centuries, the eighth, ninth,
tenth, and eleventh, occupy five large quarto vol-
umes of the Literal y History of France, by the
fathers of St. Maur. But the most useful part
will be found in liie general view at the com-
mencement of each volume ; the remainder is ta-
ken up with biographies, into which the reader
may dive at random, and sometimes bring up a cu-
rious fact.
Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura, t. iii., and
Muraton's forty-third Dissertation, are good au-
thorities for the condition of letters in Italy; but I
cannot easily give references to al. '.he books
whicli I have consulted.
; Ti'-.-iboschi. t. iii . p 108,
of a thousand in Spain, about the age ol
Charlemagne, could address a commor
letter of salutation to another.* In Eng
land, Alfred declares that he could nol
recollect a single priest south of the
Thames (the most civilized part of Eng
land), at the time of his accession, who
understood the ordinary prayers, or could
translate Latin into his mother tongue. -f
Nor was this better in the time of Uun-
stan, when, it is said, none of the clergy
knew hovj to write or translate a Latin
letter. I The homilies which they preach-
ed 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 render-
ed imavoidable, among other Scarcity oi
causes, by the scarcity of books, ^°o^^-
which could only be procured at an im-
mense price. P'rom the conquest of Al
exandria by the Saracens at the begin-
ning of the seventh century, when the
Egyptian papyrus almost ceased to be
imported into Europe, to the close of the
tenth, about which time the art of ma-
king paper from cotton rags seems to have
been introduced, there were no materials
for writing except parchment, a sub-
stance too expensive to be readily spared
for mere purposes of literature.^ Hence
* Mabillon, De Re Diplomalica, p. 55.
t Spelman, Vit. Alfred., Append. The whole
drift of Alfred's preface to this translation is to de-
fend the expediency of rendering books into Eng
lish, on account of the general ignorance of Latin.
The zeal which this excellent prince shows for lit-
erature is delightful. Let us endeavour, he says,
that all the English youth, especially the children
of those who are freeborn, and can educate them
may learn to read English before they take to any
employment. Afterward, such as please may be
instructed in Latin. Before the Danish invasion
indeed, he tells us, churches were well furnished
with books ; but the priests got little good from
them, being written in a foreign language which
they could not understand.
J Mabillon, De Re Diplomatica, p. 55. Ordeii-
cus Vitalis, a more candid judge of our unfortu-
nate ancestors than other contemporary annalists,
says, that the English were, at the conquest, rude
and almost illiterate, which he ascribes to the
Danish invasion. — Du Chesne, Hist. Norm. Script.;
p. 518. However, Ingulfus tells us, that the libra-
ry of Croyland contained above three hundred vol-
umes, till the unfortunate fire that destroyed that
abbey in 1091. — Gale, xv. Scriptores, t. i., 93.
Such a library was very extraordinary in the elev-
enth century, and could not have been equalled for
some ages afterward. Ingulfus mentions at the
same time a nadir, as he calls it, or planetarium,
executed in various metals. This had beer> pre-
sented to Abbot Turketul in the tenth century by a
king of France, and was, I make no doubt, of Ara-
bian, or perhaps Greek manufacture.
() Parchment was so scarce that none could he
procured about 1120 for an illuminated copy of the
Bible. — Warton's Hist, of English Poetry, Dissert
II. I suppose the deficiency was of skins be^utitu
PvRT I]
STATE OF SOCIETV
40
an unfortunate practice gained ground,
of erasing a manuscript in order to sub-
stitute another on the same skin. Tliis
occasioned tlie loss of many ancient au-
thors, who have made way for tlie le-
gends of saints or other ecclesiastical
rubbish.
If we would listen to some literary
w , ^f historians, we should believe
Want of ' .
trninent that the darkest ages contained
men in lit- many individuals, not only dis-
tinguished among their contem-
poraries, but positively eminent for abil-
ities and knowledge. A proneness to
extol every monk, of whose production
a few letters or a devotional treatise sur-
vives, every bishop, of whom it is related
that he composed homilies, runs through
the laborious work of tlie Benedictins of
St. Maur, the Literary History of France,
and, in a less degree, is observable even
in Tiraboschi, and in most books of this
class. Bede, Alcuin, Hincmar, 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 tliey are uni-
formly deficient is original argument or
expression. Almost every one is a com-
piler of scraps from the fatliers, or from
such semi-classical authors as Boethius,
Cassiodorus, or Martianus Capella.* In-
deed I am not aware that there appeared
more than two really considerable men
enough for this purpose ; it cannot be meant that
there was no parclimenL for legal instruments.
Manuscripts wrjtten on papyrus, as may be sup-
posed from the fragility of the material, as woll as
the difficulty of procuring it, are of extreme rarity.
That in the British Museum, being a charter to a
church at Ravenna in 572, is in every respect the
most curious ; and indeed both Mabillon and Mu-
ratori seem never to have seen any thing written
on papyrus ; though they trace its occasional use
down to the eleventh or twelfth centuries. — Mabil-
lon, De I?e Diplomatica, 1. ii. Muratori, Antichita
Italiane, Dissert, xlni., p. GO'3. I3ut the authors of
the Nouveau Traitti de Diplomatique speak of sev-
ers, manuscripts on this material as extant in
France and Italy. — T. i., p. 493.
As to the general scarcity and high price of books
in the middle ages, Robertson (Introduction to Hist.
Charles V.,note x.) and Warton, in the above cited
dissertation, not to quote authors less accessible,
have collected some of tlie leading facts ; to whom
I refer the reader.
* Lest I should seem to have spoken too per-
emptorily, I wish it to be understood that 1 pre-
tend to hardly any direct acquaintance with these
writsrs, and found my censure on tbe authority of
others, chiefly indeed on the admissions of those
who are too disposed to fall into a strain of pane-
gyric — See flistoire Litt6raire de la France, t. iv
p 281 et alibi.
in the republic of letters, from ihe sixll
to the middle of the eleventh century
John, surnained Scotus or Erigeiia, a na-
tive of Ireland ; and Gerbcrt, wlio be-
came pope t»y the name of Silvester H. ;
the first endowed with a bold and acute
metaphysical genius : the second excel-
lent, for tlie time when he lived, in math
ematical science and mechanical inven-
tions.*
If it be demanded by what cause it hap-
pened that a few sparks of an-
cient learning survived througli- ihTpreser-
out this long winter, we can only vanon of
ascribe their preservation to the rt^^-'JIf
establishment of Christianity.
Religion alone made a bridge, as it were. ■
across the chaos, and has linked tlie two
periods of ancient and modern civiliza
tion. Without this connecting principle
Europe might indeed have awakened to
intellectual pursuits, and the genius of re-
cent 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 nation?
might have excited, on the return of civ-
ilization, that vague sentiment of specu-
lation and wonder with wliich men now
contemplate Pcrsepolis 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 recipro
cation of good and evil in the dispensa-
tions 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 Chrislian-
ity has been preserved by means of its
corruptions. The sole hope for literature
depended on the Latin language ; and I
do not see why that should not have
been lost, if three circumstances in the
prevailing religious system, all of which
we are justly accustomed to disapprove,
had not conspired to maintain it ; the
papal supremacy, the monastic institu-
tions, and the use of a Latin liturgy. 1
A continual intercourse was kept up in
consequence of the first, between Rome
and tlie several nations of Europe ; her
laws were received by the bishops, her
legiites presided in councils ; so that a
* John Scotus, who, it is almost needless to say
must not be confounded with the still more famous
metaphysician Duns Scotus, lived under Cbarles
the Bald, in the middle of the ninth century. Sil
vester II. dieii in 1003. Whether he first brought
the Arabic numeration into Europe, as has i)een
commonly said, seems uncertain; it was at least
not much practised for some centuries :^ftcr his
death.
162
EUROi-E DURING THE MJDDLE AGES
[UUAP. IX
common 1-mgiiage was as necessary in
'he church as it is at present in the diplo-
matic relations of kingdoms. 2. Through-
out the whole course of the middle ages,
there was no learning, and very little reg-
ularity of manners, among the parochial
clergy. Almost every distinguished man
was either the member of a chapter or
of a convent. The monasteries were
subjected to strict rules of discipline, and
held out, at the worst, more opportuni-
ties for study than the secular clergy pos-
sessed, and fewer for worldly dissipa-
tions. 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 royal or private
libraries existed. 3. Monasteries, how-
ever, \vould 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 wor-
ship called for such a change ; but it
would have been made at the expense of
posterity. One might presume, if such
refined conjectures were consistent with
historical .caution, that the more learn-
ed and sagacious ecclesiastics of those
times, deploring the gradual corruption
of the Latin tongue, and the danger of its
absolute extinction, were induced to main-
tain it as a sacred language, and the de-
positary, as it were, of that truth and that
science which would be lost in the bar-
barous dialects of the vulgar. But a sim-
pler explanation is found in the radical
dislike of innovation which is natural to
an established clergy. Nor did they want
as good pretexts, on the ground of conve-
nience, as are commonly alleged by the
opponents of reform. They were habit-
uated to the Latin words of the church-
service, which had become, by this as-
sociation, the readiest instruments of de-
votion, and with the majesty of which
the Romance jargon could bear no com-
parison. Their musical chants were
adapted to these sounds, and their hymns
depended for metrical effect on tlie
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 gen-
eral consent of the church. These are
certainly no adequate excuses for keep-
ing the • °.ople '■ .^nc'ance; and the
gross corruption of the middle ages is )(
a great degree assignable to this policy.
But learning, and consequently religion,
have eventually derived from it the ut-
most advantage.
In the shadows of this universal igno-
rance, a thousand superstitions, supersii-
like foul animals of night, were ''""s-
propagated and nourished. It would be
very unsatisfactory to exhibit a few spe-
cimens of this odious brood, when the
real character of those times is only to
be judged by their accumulated multi-
tude. In every age, it would be easy to
select proofs of irrational superstition,
which, separately con>.Tdered, seem to
degrade mankind from ils level in the
creation ; and perhaps ti^e contempora-
ries of Swedenborg and Soulhcote have
no right to look very cojitemptuously
upon the fanaticism of their ancestors.
There are many books from which a suf-
ficient number of instances may be col-
lected to show the absurdity and igno-
rance 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 cen-
tury, an opinion prevailed eveiywhere
that the end of the world was approach-
ing. Many charters begin with these
words : " As the world is now drawing to
its close." An army marching under the
Emperor Otho I. was so terrified by an
eclipse of the sun, Avhich it conceived to
announce this consummation, as to dis-
perse hastily on all sides. As this notion
seems to have been founded on somft
confused theory of the millennium, it nat-
urally died away when the seasons pro-
ceeded in the eleventh century with their
usual regularity.* A far more remarka-
ble and permanent superstition was the
appeal to heaven m judicial controver-
sies, 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 re-
ligion; 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
primar}'^ character of judicial combat, and
ultimately changed it into the modern
duel, in which assuredly there is no mix-
ture of superstition.! But, in the various
* Robertson, Introduction to Hisl. Charles V.
note 13. Schmidt, Hist, des Allemands, t. li., p
380. Hist. Litteraire de la France, t. vi.
t Duelling, in the modern sense of the word, ex
elusive of casual frays and single combat during
war, was unknown before the sixteenth century
J
Part i.j
STATE OF SOCIETY.
463
tests of innocence which were called or-
deals, this stood undisguised and unqual-
ified. It; is not necessary to describe
what is so well known ; the ceremonies
of trial by handling hot iron, by plunging
he arm into boihng fluids, by floating or
sinking in cold water, or by swallowing
a piece of consecrated bread. It is ob-
servable that, as the interference of
Heaven was relied upon as a matter of
course, it seems to have been reckoned
nearly indifferent, whether such a test was
adopted as must, humanly considered, ab-
solve all the guilty, or one that must con-
vict all the innocent. The ordeals of hot
iron or water were, however, more com-
monly used ; and it has been a perplex-
ing question, by what dexterity these tre-
mendous 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 sat-
isfying the spectators that an accused
person had held a mass of burning iron
with impunity. For several centuries this
mode of investigation was in great re-
pute, though not Avithout opposition from
some eminent bishops. It does discredit
to the memory of Charlemagne that he
was one of its warmest advocates.* But
the judicial combat, which indeed might
be reckoned one species of ordeal, grad-
ually put an end to the rest; and as the
church acquired better notions of law,
iind a code of her own, she strenuously
exerted herself against all these barba-
rous superstitions.!
But we fiiul one anecdote, which seems to illus-
trate its derivation from the judicial combat. The
diikes of Lancaster and Brunswictc, having some
differences, agreed to decide them by duel before
lohn, king of France. The lists were prepared
with the solemnity of a real trial by battle ; but
the king interfered to prevent the engagement. —
Villaret, t. ix., p. 71. The barbarous 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 fif-
teenth century. I can only Iind one print in
Montfaucon's Monuments o( 'he French monar-
chy where a sword is worn witho\it armour before
the reign of Charles VIII. : though a few, as early
as the reign of Charles VI., have short daggers in
their girdles. The e.xception is a figure of Charles
VII., t. iii., pi. 47.
* Baluzii Cajjitularia, p. 444. It was abolished
by Louis the Debonair, a man, as I have noticed in
another place, not mferior, as a legislator, to his
father, ibid , p. 668.
t Ordeals were not actually abolished in France,
notwithstanding the law of Louis above mention-
ed, so late as the eleventh century. — Bouquet, t.
si., p. 4.30; nor in England till the reign of Hen-
ry III. Some of the stones we road, wherein ac-
cused persons have passed triumphantly through
t.ese seve-re proofs, are perple.ting enough: and
perhaps it it sifer, as \ne¥ as easier to "lenv than
But the religious ignoia.ice of the mid-
dle ages sometimes burst out in Emhusias-
ebullitions of epidemical enthu- •"= risings
siasm, more remarkable than tliese su
perstitious usages, though proceeding i,
fact from similar causes. For enthusi-
asm is little else than superstition put in
motion, and is equally founded. on a strong
conviction of supernatural agency with-
out any just conception of its nature.
Nor has any denomination of Christiana
produced, or even sanctioned, more fa-
naticism than the church of Rome.*
These epidemical phrensies, however,
to which I am alluding, were merely tu-
multuous, though certainly fostered by
the creed of perpetual miracles, which
the clergy inculcated, and drawing a
legitimate precedent for religious insur-
rection from the crusades. For these,
among their other evil consequences,
seem to have principally excited a wild
fanaticism that did not sleep for several
centuries. f
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 II.,
committed the greatest outrages in the
south of France. One Durand, a carpen-
ter, deluded, it is said, by a contrived ap-
pearance of the Virgin, put himself at the
head of an army of the populace, in or-
der to destroy these marauders. His
to explain them. For example, a writer in the Ar
cha^ologia, vol. xv., p. 172, has shown that Emma,
queen of Edward the Confessor, did not perform
her trial by stepping between, as Blackstone ima
gines, but upon mne redhot ploughshares. But
he seems not aware that the whole story is unsup-
ported by any contemporary or even respectable
testimony. A similar anecdote is related of Cune-
gunda, wife of the Emperor Henry II., which prob-
aljly gave rise to that of Emma. There are, how
ever, medicaments, as is well known, that protect
the skin to a certain degree against the effect of
fire. This phenomenon would pass for miracu-
lous, and form the basis of those exaggerated sto
ries in monkish books.
* Besides tlie original lives of popish saints, and
especially that of St. Francis in Wadding's Annalea
Minorum, (he reader will find amusement in Bishop
Lavington's Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists
compared.
t The most singular effect of this crusading
spirit was witnessed in 1211, when a multitud?,
amounting, as some say, to 00,000, chiefly com
posed of children, and commanded by a child, set
out for the purpose of recovering the Holy Land
They ca;ne for the most part from Germany, and
reached Genoa without harm. But finding there
an obstacle which their imperfect knowledge ol
geography had not anticipated, they soon disrersed
in various directions. Thirty thousatul arrived at
Marseilles, where part were murdered, [lart probe
bly starved, and the rest sold to the Saracens. —
Annali di Muratori, A D. 1211. Velly, Ifist. d*
France, t. iv., p. 206
«S4
EURUfE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. IX
'"oUowers were styled Brethren of the
White Caps, from the linen coverings of
Axetr heads. They bound themselves not
to play at dice, nor frequent taverns ; to
wear no affected clothing, to f.void per-
jury and vain swearing. After some
successes over the plunderers^, they went
so far as to forbid the lords to take any
lues from their vassals, on pain of incur-
ring the indignation of the brotherhood.
It may easily be imagined that they were
»oon 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 extensive and terrible fer-
ment broke out in Flanders, and spread
?rom thence over great part of France.
An impostor declared himself commis-
sioned by the Virgin to preach a crusade,
not to the rich and noble, who, for their
pride, had been rejected of God, but the
poor. His disciples were called Pastou-
reaux, the simplicity of shepherds having
exposed them more readily to this delu-
sion. In a short time they were swelled
oy the confluence of abundant streams to
a moving mass of a hundred thousand
men, divided into companies, with ban-
ners bearing a cross and a lamb, and
commanded by the impostor's lieuten-
ants. He assumed a priestly character,
preaching, absolving, annulling marriages.
At Amiens, Bourges, Orleans, and Paris
itself, he v.-as received as a divine prophet.
Kven 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 uttering similar strains of
complaint. In some towns his followers
massacred the priests and plundered the
monasteries. The government at length
began to exert itself; and the public sen-
timent turning against the authors of so
much confusion, this rabble was put to the
sword or dissipated. f Seventy years af-
terward, an insurrection almost exactly
parallel to this burst out under the same
pretence of a crusade. These insurgents
loo bore the name of Pastourcaux, and
their short career was distinguished by a
general massacre of the Jevvs.|
But though the contagion of fanaticism
spreads much more rapidly among the
populace, and in modern times is almost
* Velly, t. iii., p, 295. Du Cangc, v. Capuciati.
t Id., Hist, de France, t. v., p. 7. Du Cange, v.
t-'as'.orielli.
X Id., t. viii., p. 99. The contiimator of Nangis
•ays, sicn* fumus subitoevamit lota ilia commotio.
SDicJlegium, t lii., d. 77
entirely confined to it, there were exam-
ples in the middle ages of an epidemical
religious lunacy, from which no clasf
was exempt. One of these occupied
about the year 1260, when a multitude
of every rank, age, and sex, marching twc
by two in procession along the streets
and public roads, mingled groans and
dolorous hymns with the soimd of leath-
ern scourges which they exercised upor;
their naked backs. From this mark of
penitence, which, as it bears at least all
the appearance of sincerity, is not un-
common 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 spon-
taneous fanaticism met with nd encour-
agement from the church, and Avas pru-
dently discountenanced by the civil ma-
gistrate, it died away in a very short
time.* But it is more surprising, that,
after almost a century and a half of
continual improvement and illumination,
another irruption of popular extravagance
burst out under circumstances exceeding-
ly similar.f In the month of August,
1399, says a contemporary historian,
there appeared all over Italy a descrip-
tion of persons called Bianchi, from the
white linen vestments that they wore.
They passed from province to province,
and from city to city, crying out Miseri-
cordia ! with their faces covered and
bent towards the ground, and bearing
before them a great crucifix. Their con-
slant song was, Stabat Mater dolorosa
This lasted three months ; and whoever
did not attend their procession was re-
puted a heretic. I Almost every Italian
writer of the time takes notice of these
Bianchi ; and Muratori ascribes a re-
markable reformation of manners (though
certainly a very transient one) to their
influence.^ Nor were they confined to
Italy, though no such meritorious exer-
tions are reputed to them in other coun-
tries. In France, their practice of cov-
* Velly, t. v., p. 279. Du Cange, Verberatio
j Something of a similar kkid is mentioned by
G. Villani, under the year 1310, 1. viii., c. 122.
t Annal. Mediolan. in Mvuat. Script. Her. Ital.,
t. xvi., p. 832. G. Stella, Ann. Genuens., t. xvii., p
1072. Chron. Foroliviense, t. xix., p. 874. Ann.
Bonincontri, t. xjci., p. 79.
^ Dissert. 75. Sudden transitions from profli-
gate to austere manners were so common among
in<5ividuals, that we cannot be surprised at then
sometimes becoming in a manner national. Aza
rius, a chronicler of Milan, after describing the al-
most incredible dissoluteness of Pavia, gives an ac-
count of an instantaneous reformation wrought b)
the preaching of a certain friar This was abow
)3C0 — Script Rer. Ital , t. xvi., p. S75
fUT II
STATE OF SOCIETY.
46&
ering ihi face gave such opportunity to
crime as to be prohibited by the govern-
ment ;* and we have an act on the rolls
of the first parliament of Henry IV., for-
bidding any one, " under pain of forfeit-
ing all his worth, to receive the new sect
in white clothes, pretending to great
sanctity," which had recently appeared
in foreign parts. f
The devotion of the multitude was
Pretended wrought to this feverish height
Biracies. j^y ^_j^g prevailing system of the
clergy. In that singular polytheism
which had been grafted on the language
rather than the principles of Christianity,
nothing was so conspicuous as the belief
of perpetual miracles; if indeed those
could properly be termed miracles, which,
by their constant recurrence, even upon
trifling occasions, might seem within the
ordinary dispensations of Providence.
These superstitions arose in what are call-
ed primitive times, and are certainly no
part of popery, if in that word we include
an)' especial reference to the Roman see.
But successive ages of ignorance swelled
the delusion to such an enormous pitch,
that it was as difficult to trace, we may
say without exaggeration, the real reli-
gion of the Gospel in the popular belief
of the laity, as the real history of Charle-
magne in the romance of Turpin. It
must not be supposed that these absurd-
ities were produced, as well as nour-
ished, 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 order to enrich the church-
es under his protection, by exaggerating
his virtues, his miracles, and consequent-
ly his power of serving those who paid
liberally for his patronage. J Many of
those saints were imaginary persons ;
sometimes a blundered inscription added
a name to the calendar; and sometimes,
it is said, a heathen god was surprised at
tin company to which he was introduced,
and the rites with which he was honour-
«d.^
It would not be consonant to the na-
Mischiefs ^"'■^ ^^ *^'^ present work, to
arising from dwell upou the erroncousncss
« Villaret, t. xii., p. 327.
•t Rot. Pari., V. ill., p. 428.
X This is confessed by the authors of Histoire
Litteraire de la France, t. ii., p. 4, and indeed by
many Catholic writers. I need not quote Mo-
eheim, who more than confirms every word of my
♦ext.
(J Middlelon's Letter from Rome. If some of
otir eloquent countrymen's positions should be dis-
puted, there are still abundant Catholic testimo-
nica, that imaginary saints have been canonized.
Off
of this religion; but its effect i pon ihis super
the moral and intellectual charac- s""""-
ter of mankind was so prominent, that no
one can take a philosophical view of the
middle ages without attending more than
is at present fashionable to their ecclesi-
astical history. That the exclusive wor-
ship of saints, under the guidance of an
artful though illiterate priesthood, de-
graded the understanding, and begot a
stupid credulity and fanaticism, is suffi-
ciently evident. But it was also so man-
aged as to loosen the bonds of religion,
and pervert the standard of morality. If
these inhabitants of heaven had been rep-
resented as stern avengers, accepting no
slight atonement for heavy offences, and
prompt to interpose their control over
natural events for the detection and pun
ishment of guilt, the creed, however im-
possible to be reconciled with experience,
might have proved a salutary check upon
a rude people, and would at least have
had the only palliation that can be off"er-
ed for a religious imposture, its political
expediency. In the legends of those
times, on the contrary, they appeared
only as perpetual intercessors, 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 consequence*.
For a little attention to the saints, and
especially to the Virgin, with due liberal-
ity to their servants, had saved, we would
be told, so many of the most atrocious
delinquents, that he might equitably pre-
sume upon similar luck in his own case.
This monstrous superstition grew to
its height in the twelfth century. Foi
the advance that learning then made was
by no means sufficient to counteract the
vast increase of monasteries, and the op-
portunities which the greater cultivation
of modern languages aff'orded for the dif-
fusion of legendary tales. It was now
too that the veneration paid to the Virgin,
in early times very great, rose to an al-
most exclusive idolatry. It is difficult to
conceive the stupid absurdity, and the
disgusting profaneness of those stories,
which were invented by the monks to do
her honour. A few examples have been
thrown into a note.*
* Le Gran<l d'Aussy has given us, in the fifth vol
ume of his Fabliaux, several of the religious talei
by which the monks endeavoured to withdraw the
people from romances of chivalry. The following
specimens will a. undanily confirm my assertions,
which may perhaps appear harsh and extravagant
to the reader.
There was a man whose occupation was high-
way robbery ; liut, whenever he set out on any such
expedition, he was careful to address a piayei tj
tt>6
EUROPE DrUING THL MlDDl F, AGES.
ICiup l\
Whether the superstition of these dark
ages had actually passed that
jether'ITn- poliit, wheii it becomes more
mixed with injurious to public morals and
*""''■ the welfare of society than the
entire absence of all religious notions, is
the Virgin. Taken at last, he was sentenced to
tie hanged. While the cord was round his neck,
he made his usual prayer, nor was it ineffectual.
'1 he Virgin supported his feet " with her white
hands," and thus kept hnn alive two days, to the
no small surprise of the executioner, who attempt-
ed to complete his work wilh strokes of a sword.
But the same invisible hand turned aside the wea-
pon, and the e.xecutioner was compelled to release
his victim, acknowledging the miracle. The thief
retired into a monastery, which is always the ter-
mination of these del'verances.
At the monastery o. St. Peter, near Cologne,
lived a monk perfectly dissolute and irreligious,
but very devout towards the Apostle, l^nluckily,
he died suddenly without confession. The tiends
came as usual to seize his soul. St. Peter, ve.ted
at losing so faithful a votary, besought God to ad-
mit the monk into Paradise. His prayer was re-
fused, and though the whole body of saints, apos-
tles, angels, and martyrs joined at his request to
make interest, it was of no avail. In this extremi-
ty he had recourse to the Mother of God. " Fair
lady," he said, " rny monk is lost if you do not in-
terfere for him ; but what is impossible for us will
bf but sport to you, if you please to assist us. Your
¥(..1, if you but speak a word, must yield, since it is
in your power to command him." The Queen
Mother assented, and, followed by all the virgins,
moved towards her Son. He who had himself
•;iveti the precept. Honour thy father and thy moth-
er, no sooner saw his own parent approach, than he
.ose to receive her; and, taking her by the hand,
inquired her wishes. The rest may be easily con-
jectured. Compare the gross stupidity, or rather
the atrocious impiety of this tale, with the pure the-
ism of the Arabian Nights, and judge whether the
Deity was better worshipped at Cologne or at Bag-
dad.
It is unnecessary to multiply mstances of this
kind- In one tale the Virgin takes the shape of a
nun, who had eloped from the convent, and per-
torms her duties ten years, till, tired of a liber-
tine life, she returns unsuspected. This was in
eonsKleration of her having never omitted to say
an Ave as she passed the Virgin's image. In an-
other, a gentleman, in love with a handsome wid-
ow, consents, at the instigation of a sorcerer, to
fenounce God and the saints, but cannot be per-
suaded to give up the Virgin, well knowing that,
if he kept her his friend, he should obtain pardon
through her means. Accordingly, she inspired his
mistress with so much passion, that he married
iwsr within a few days.
'I'hese tales, it may be said, were the production
of igniwatit men, and circulated among the popu-
lace. Certainly they would have excited contem])t
and indignation in the more enlightened clergy.
But I am concerned with the general character of
religious notions among the people: and for this
it IS better to take such popular compositions,
adapted to what the laity already believed, than
the writings of comparatively learned and reflect-
ing men. However, stories of the same cast are
frequert in the moiikish historians. Matthew Par-
is, one of the most respectable of that class, and
no friend to the covetousness or relaxed lives of
the priesthood, tells us of a knight who was on the
poi'U of being<lanined for frequenting tournamrr ts.
a very ccmplex question, upon which ]
would by no means pronounce an affirm-
ative decision. A salutary influence,
breathed from the spirit of a more gen
uine religion, often displayed itself among
the corruptions of a degenerate supersti-
tion. In the original principles of mo-
nastic orders, and the rules by which they
ought at least to have been governed)
there was a character of meekness, seif-
denial, and charity, that coidd not wholly
be cftaced. These virtues, rather thai,
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 asserted, that the
monks did not fall short of their profe"*
sion.* This eleemosynary spirit, indeed,
remarkably distinguishes both Christian-
ity and Mahometanism from the moral
systems of Greece and Rome, which
were very deficient in general humanity
and sympathy with suffering. Nor do we
find in any single instance during ancient
times, if t mistake not, those public in-
stitutions 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 char-
acter when they stood forward as pro-
tectors of the oppressed. By an estab-
lished law, founded on very ancient su-
perstition, the precincts of a church af-
forded sanctuary to accused person?.
Under a due administration of justice,
this privilege would have been simply
and constantly mischievous, as we prop-
erly 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 innocence as an immunity to crime.
We can hardly regret, in reflecting on the
desolating violence which prevailed, that
but saved by a donation he had formerly made to
I he Virgin, p. 290.
* I am inclined to acquiesce in this general
jpinion ; yet an account of expenses at Bolton
Abbey, about the reign of Edward II., jniblished in
Whitaker's History of Craven, p. 51, makes a very
scanty show of almsgiving in this opulent monas-
tery. Much, however, was no doubt given in ••"ict
uals. But It is a strange error to conceive that
F^iglish monasteries before the dissolution fed 'he
indigent part of the nation, and gave that gem.iti
relief which the poor-laws are intended to atfbra.
Pi'ers Plowman is indeed a satirist; but he
plainly charges the monks with want of charity.
Little had lordes to do to give landes from theii
heires.
To religious that have no ruthe 'hcugh it lain on
their aultres; «
In many places there the parsons be tbemself at
ease,
Of the poor they have no pitie. and that is lji«'
poor rhirii'«-
1
^Ah
STATE :f SOCIEiy.
467
theu should ha /c been some green spots
in th^ wilderness, where the feeble and
t)ie pt. rsecuted could find refuge. How
must this right have enhanced the ven-
eration for religious institutions ! How
gladly must the victims of internal war-
fare have turned their eyes from the
Daronial castle, the dread and scourge of
he neighbourhood, to those venerable
wall?, within which not even the clam-
our of arms could be heard, to disturb the
char/, of holy men. and the sacred service
of the altar ! The protection of the sanc-
tuary 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 privi-
leges. He had indeed previously ad-
dressed a letter to St. Martin, which was
laid on his tomb in the church, request-
ing permission to take away his son by
force ; but the honest saint returned no
answer.*
The virtues, indeed, or supposed vir-
Vicesofihe tues, which had induced a cred-
monksand ulous generation to enrich so
clergy. many of the monastic orders,
were not long preserved. We must re-
ject, in the excess of our candour, all
testimonies that the middle ages present,
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 extenu-
ate the general corruption of those insti-
tutions. In vain new rules of discipline
were devised, or tlie old corrected by re-
forms. Many of their worst vices grew
60 naturally out of their mode of life, that
a stricter discipline could have no ten-
dency to extirpate them. Such were the
frauds I have already noticed, and the
whole scheme of hypocritical austerities.
Their extreme licentiousness was some-
times hardly concealed by the cowl of
sanctity. I know not by what right we
should disbelieve the reports of the visit-
ation under Henry VHl., entering as they
do into a multitude of specific charges.
both probable in their nature and conso-
nant to tne unanimous opinion of the
world. t Doubtless there were many
communities, as well as individuals, to
whom none of these reproaches would
apply. In the very best view, however,
that can be taken of monasteries, their
existence is deeply injurious to the gen-
eral morals of a nation. They withdraw
men of pure conduct and conscientious
principles from the exercise of social du-
ties, and leave the common mass of iiu-
man vice more unmixed. Such men are
always inclined to form schemes of as-
cetic perfection, which can only be ful-
filled in retirement; but, in the strict
rules of monastic life, and under tlu in-
fluence of a grovelling superstition, their
virtue lost all its usefulness. They fell
implicitly into the snares of crafty priests,
who made submission to the church not
only the condition, but the measure of all
praise. He is a good Christian, says
Eligius, a saint of the seventh century,
who comes frequently to church ; who
presents an oblation that it may be of-
fered to God on the altar; who does not
taste the fruits of his land till he has con-
secrated a part of them to God ; who can
repeat the Creed or the Lord's Prayer.
Redeem your souls from punishment
while it is in your power ; ofler presents
and tithes to churches, light candles in
holy places as much as you can afTord,
come more frequently to church, implore
the protection of the saints ; for, if you
observe these things, you may come with
security at the day of judgment to say,
Give unto us. Lord, for we have given
unto thee.*
* Schmidt, Hist, des Allemards, t. i., p. 874.
t See t'ostirooke's British Rionachism, vol. i.,
p 127, and vol. ii.,p. 8, for a farrago of evidence
tjdiust the monks. Cleiiiangis '■'rench theolo-
Gg2
gian of considerable eminence at the beginning ot
the fifteenth century, speaks of nunneries in the
following terms : Quid aliud sunt hoc tempore
puellaruin monastena, nisi qua;dam non dico Uei
sanctuaria, sed Veneris e.\ecranda prostibula, sed
lascivorum et impudicorum juvenum ad libidnies
explendas receptacula .' ut idem sit hodie puellam
elare, quod et public^ ad scortandum e.vponere.—
William Prynne, from whose records, vol. ii., p.
229, 1 have taken this passage, quotes it on occa-
sion of a charter of King .lohn, banishing thirty
nuns of Ambresbury into diflerent convents, prop-
ter vit;e suae turpitudinem.
* -Mosheim, cent, vii., c. 3. Robertson has
quoted this passage, to whom perhaps I am imme-
diately indebted for it.— Hist. Charles V., vol. i.,
note 11.
I leave this passage as it stood in former edi-
tions. But It is due to justice that this extract
from Kligius should never be qtioted in future, as
the translator of Mosheim has induced Robert-^^on
and many others, as well as myself, tt do. Dr.
Lingard has pointed out that it is a very ini[)enpc;
representation of what Eligius has wriiten; for
though he has dwelled on these devotional prac
tices as parts of the definition of a good Christian
he certainly adds a great deal more to which no
one could object. Yet no one is in fact to blame
for this misrepresentation, which, being contained
in popular books, has gone forth so widely. Mo-
.sheiin, as will appear on referring to him, did nol
468
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. IX
With such a defiiii ,ion of the Christian
character, it is not surprising that any
fraud and injustice became honourable
when it contributed to the riches of the
clergy and glory of their order. Their
frauds, however, were less atrocious than
tJie savage bigotry with which they main-
tained their own system and infected the
laity. In Saxony, Poland, Lithuania, and
the countries on the Baltic Sea, a san-
guinary persecution extirpated the origi-
nal idolatry. The Jews were every-
where the objects of popular insult and
oppression, frequently of a general mas-
sacre, though protected, it must be con-
fessed, by the laws of the church, as well
as, in general, by temporal princes.* Of
the crusades it is only necessary to re-
peat, that they began in a tremendous
eruption of fanaticism, and ceased only
because that spirit could not be constant-
ly kept alive. A similar influence pro-
duced the devastation of Languedoc, the
stakes and scaffolds of the Inquisition,
and rooted in the religious theory of Eu-
Dpe those maxims of intolerance which
i. has so slowly, and still, perhaps, so im-
perfectly, renounced.
From no other cause are the dictates
of sound reason and the moral sense of
mankind more confused than by this nar-
row theological bigotry. For as it must
often happen that men, to whom the ar ■
rogance of a prevailing faction imputes
religious error, are exemplary for their
performance of moral duties, these vir-
tues gradually cease to make their
proper impression, and are depreciated
by the rigidly orthodox, as of little value
quote the passage as containing a complete defini'
tion of the Christian character. His translator,
Maclaine, mistook this, and wrote, in consequence,
the severe note which Robertson has copied. 1
have seen the whole passage in D'Achery"s Spici-
legium (vol. v., p. 213, 4to. edit.), and can testify
that Dr. Lingard is perfectly correct. Upon the
whole, this is a striking proof how dangerous it is
to take any authorities at second hand. — Note to
Fourth Edition.
* Mr. Turner has collected many curious facts
relative to the condition of the Jews, especially in
England.— Hist, of England, vol. ii., p. 95. Others
may be found dispersed in Velly's History of
France; and many in the Spanish writers, Mari-
ana and Zurita. The followmg are from Vais-
sette's History of Languedoc. It was the custom
at Toulouse to give a blow on the face to a Jew
every Easier; this was commuted in the twelfih
century for a tribute, t. ii., p. 151. At Beziers an-
other usage prevailed, that of attacking the Jews'
hou.'ies with stones from Palm Sunday to Easter.
No other weapon was to be used ; but it generally
produced bloodshed. The populace were regularly
instigated to the assault by a sermon from the
bishop. At length a prelate wiser than the rest
abolished this ancient practice, but not without re-
viving a good sum from the Jews, p 485.
m comparison with just opmions ic
speculative points. On the other hand
vices are forgiven to those who are zeal-
ous in the faith. I speak too gently, and
with a view to later times ; in treating
of the dark ages, it would be more cor*
rect to say that crimes were commend-
ed. Thus Gregory of Tours, a saint of
the church, after relating a most atro-
cious story of Clovis, the murder of a
prince whom he had previously instiga-
ted to parricide, continues the sentence;
" For God daily subdued his enemies to
his hand, and increased his kingdom ;
because he walked before him in upright-
ness, and did what was pleasing in his
eyps."*
It is a frequent complaint of ecclesias-
tical writers, that the rigorous commuta
penances, imposed by the prim- tion of
itive canons upon delinquents, i"="=»"'='=8-
were commuted in a laxer state of dis-
cipline for less severe atonements, and
ultimately indeed for money. f We must
not, however, regret that the clergy
should have lost the power of compelling
men to abstain fifteen years from mating
meat, or to stand exposed \o public de
risMon 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 instances of ecclesiasti-
cal interference with the rights of sov-
ereigns, namely, the deposition of Wam-
ba in Spain, and that of Louis the Debo-
nair, were founded upon this austere sys-
tem of penitence. But it is true that a
repentance redeemed by money, or per-
* Greg. Tur., 1. ii., c. 40. Of Theodehert,
grandson of Clovis, the same historian says, mag
num se etin omni bonitate praecipuum reddidit. In
the ne.xt paragraph we find a story of his having
two wives, and looking so tenderly on the daugh-
ter of one of them, that her mother tossed her over
a bridge into the river, 1. iii., c 25. This indeed in
a trifle to the passage in the text. There are con
tinual proofs of immorality in the monkish histori-
ans. In the history of Ramsey Abbey, one of our
best documents for Anglo-Saxon times, we have an
anecdote of a bishop who made a Danish nobleman
drunk that he might cheat him of an estate, which
IS told with much approbation. — Gale, Script. An-
glic, t. i.,p. 441. Walter de Heraingford recount*
with excessive delig' the well-ki^own story of tht
Jews who were persuaded by the captain of theit
vessel to walk on the sai;ds at low water, till the
rising tide drowned them ; and adds that the cap-
tain was both pardoned and rewarded for it by the
king, gratiam promcruit et prsmium. This is a
mistake, inasmuch as he was hanged ; but it ex-
hibits the cha.-acter of the historian. — Hemingford
p. 21.
t Fleury, Troisiimedircours sur I'Histoire Ec
•-lesiastique.
Part I.]
STATE OF SOCIETY.
4()9
formed by a substitute, could have no
salutary effect on the sinner ; and some
of the modes of atonement which the
church most approved were particularly
hostile to public morals. None was so
usual as pilgrimage, whether to Jerusa-
lem or Rome, which were the great ob-
jects of devotion ; or to the shrine of
some national saint, a James of Compos-
tella, a David, or a Thomas Becket.
This licensed vagiancy was naturally
productive of dissoluteness, especially
among the women. Our English ladies,
in their zeal to obtain the spiritual treas-
ures 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
considered the iron chain around their
necks an expiation of future as well as
past offences. t
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 ''irtuously at home ; but the confi-
denc" in their own merits, which the
principle of such expeditions inspired,
must have aggravated the ferocity and
dissoluteness of their ancient habits.
Several historians attest the depravation
of morals which existed both among the
crusaders and in the states formed out of
their conquests. J
While religion had thus lost almost
Want of every quality that renders it con-
law. ducive to the good order of soci-
ety, the control of human law was still
less efficacious. But this part of my
subject has been anticipated in other
passages of the present work ; and 1
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 conti-
nental nations. Such hostilities, con-
ducted, as they must usually have been,
with injustice and cruelty, could not fail
to produce a degree of rapacious feroci-
ty in the general disposition of a people.
* Henry. Hist, of England, vol. ii., c. 7.
■f Dii Cange, V. Peregrinatio. Non sinantur va-
gari isli nudi cum ftJiw. qui (iicunt se dalA poeni-
tentia ire vagantes. Melius videtur, ut si aliquod
inconsueturn et capitale crimen cornmiserint, in
uno loco pcrinaneaiit laborantes et servieiites et
posnitentiam agentes, secundum quod canonic^ lis
irnpositum sit.
t I. de V'itriaco, in Gesta Dei per Francos, t. i.
V'illan'. 1. vii , c. 144.
And this certainly was among the char-
acteristics of every nation for many
centuries.
It is easy to infer the degradation of
society during the dark ages from Degrada-
the state of religion and police. noiTof
Certainly there are a few great '"'"■"'*
landmarks of moral distinctions so deep-
ly fixed in human nature, that no degree
of rudeness can destroy, nor even any
superstition remove them. Wherever
an extreme corruption has, in any par
ticular society, defaced these sacred
archetypes that are given to guide* and
correct the sentiments of mankind, it ' i
in the course of Providence that tiie so-
ciety itself should perish by internal dis
cord or the sword of a conqueror. Ir
the worst ages of Europe there must
have existed the seeds of social virtues,
of fidelity, gratitude, and disinterested-
ness; sufficient at least to preserve the
public approbation of more elevated prin-
ciples than the public conduct displayed.
Without these imperishable elements,
there could have been no restoration of
the moral energies ; nothing upon which
reformed faith, revived knowledge, re-
newed law, could exercise their nourish-
ing influences. But history, which re-
flects only the more prominent features
of society, cannot exhibit the virtues that
were scarcely -able to struggle through
the general depravation. I am aware
that a tone of exaggerated declamation
is at all times usual with those who la
ment 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 infer-
ences as to the general condition of soci-
ety on single instances of crimes, how-
ever atrocious, especially when commit-
ted under the influence of violent pas-
sion. Such enormities are the fruit of
every age, and none is to be measured
by them. They make, however, a strong
impression 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 there-
fore abstain from producing any particu-
lar 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 sup-
port it, and shall content myself with o[>-
serving, that times to which men some-
times appeal, as to a golden period, were
far inferior in every moral comparison to
those in which we are thrown.* One
I ♦ Henry ha« taken pains in drawings pi^turii
»70
EUliOPE DL'KI^G THE MIDDLE AGEri.
[Chap )..».
Clime, as more iimversal and eliaracter-
istic than others, may be particularly no-
ticed. All writers agree in the preva-
lence of judicial perjury. It seems to
have almost invariably escaped human
punishment ; and the barriers of super-
stition were in this, as in every other in-
stance, too feeble to prevent the com-
mission of crimes. Many of the proofs
by ordeal were applied to witnesses as
well as those whom they accused ; and
undoubtedly trial by combat was pre-
c?erved, in a considerable degree, on ac-
eouitt of the difficulty experienced in se-
curing a just cause against the perjury
of witnesses. Robert, king of France,
perceiving how frequently men forswore
themselves upon the relics of saints, and
less shocked, apparently, at the crime
than at the sacrilege, caused an empty
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.*
The favourite diversions of the middle
Love of ages, in the intervals of war.
Held spjrts. were those of hunting and
hawking. The formf r must in all coun-
tries be a source of pleasure ; but it
seems to have been enjoyed in modera-
tion by the Greeks and the 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. Falconry, unknown as a di-
not very favourable, of Anglo-Saxon manners. —
Book II., chap. 7. This perhaps is the best chap-
ter, as the volume is the best volume, of his une-
qual work. His account of the Anglo-Saxons is
derived in a great degree from William of Malms-
bury, who does not spare them. Their civil histo-
ry, inleed, and their laws speak sufficiently against
the character of that people. But the Normans
had little more to boast of in respect of moral cor-
rectness. Their luxurious and dissolute habits are
, as much noticed as their insolence ; et peccati cu-
jusdam, ab hoc solo admodum alieni, flagrjsse in-
famiA testantur veteres. — Vid. Ordericus Vitalis,
p. 602. Johann. Sarisburiensis Policraticus, p.
194. Velly, Hist, de France, t. iii., p. 59. The
state of manners in France under the two first
races of kings, and in Italy both under the Lom-
bards and the subsequent dynasties, may be col-
lected from their histories, their laws, and those
miscellaneous facts which books of every descrip-
lion contain. Neither Velly, nor Muratori, Dis-
9(^rt. 23, is so satisfactory as we might desire.
* Velly, Hist, de France, t. ii., p. 335. It has
been observed, that Quid mores sine legibiis '! is as
|ust a question as that of Horace ; and that bad
'aws must produce bad morals. The strange prac-
tice of requiring numerous compurgators lo prove
the innocence of an accused person had ■\ most
obvious tendency to increase perjury.
version to the ancients, became from tin
fourth century an equally delightful occu
pation.* From the Salique and other bar
barous codes of the fifth century to tht
close of the period under our review
every age would furnish testimony to th»
ruling passion for these twc species oi
chase, or, as they were sometimes called
the mysteries of woods and rivers. .A
knight seldom stirred from his house with
out a falcon on his wrist or a greyhound
that followed him. Thus are Harold and
his attendants represented, in tiie famous-
tapestry of Bayeux. And in the monu
ments of those who died anywhere bu
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.f
It was impossible to repress the eager
ness with which the clergy, especially
after the barbarians were tempted by
rich bishoprics to take upon them the sa-
cred functions, rushed into these secular
amusements. Prohibitions of councils,
however frequently repeated, produced
little eff'ect. In some instances, a par-
ticular m.onastery obtained a dispensa
tion. Thus that of St. Denis, in 774, rep.
resented 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. | Rea-
sons 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. Alexander
III., by a letter to the clergy of Berk-
shire, dispenses with their keeping the
archdeacon in dogs and hawks during
his visitation.^ This season gave jovial
ecclesiastics an opportunity 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 himted with a
pack of hounds from parish to parish.]'
* Muratori, Dissert. 23, t. i., p. 306. (Italian.)
Beckman's Hist, of Inventions, vol. i., p. 319. Vif
privee des Francjais, t. ii., p. L
t Vie privee des Fran(;ais, t. i., p. 320 ; t. ii. p. ! 1
t Idem, t. i., p. 324. ^ Rymer, t. i., p. fil.
Il Whitaker's Hist, of Criven n 310, aud «
Whalley, p. ri.
••]
iSTATE OF SOCIETV.
^71
The third council ol Lnteran, in 1180,
had prohibited this amusement on such
journeys, and resUit-ted bishops to a tram
of forty or fifty horses.*
Though hunting had ceased to be a ne-
cessary means of procuring food, it was
a very convenient resource, on which the
wholesomeness and comfort, as well as
tlie luxury of the table depended. Be-
fore the natural pastures were improved,
a)id nCvv kinds of fodder for cattle dis-
covered, it was impossible to maintain
the summer stock during the cold sea-
son. Hence a portion of it was regularly
slaughtered and salted for winter provis-
ion. We may suppose, that when no al-
ternative was offered but these salted
meals, even the leanest venison was de-
voured with rehsh. There was some-
what more excuse, therefore, for the se-
verity with which the lords of forests
and manors preserved the beasts of
chase, tlian 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 odious
system of forest-laws which distinguish-
id the tyranny of our Norman kings.
Capital punishment for killing a stag or
wild boar was frequent, and perhaps war-
ranted by law. until the charter of John.f
The French code was less severe, but
even Henry IV. enacted the pain of death
against the repeated oftence of chasing
deer in the royal forests. The privilege
«)f hunting was reserved to the nobility
till the reign of Louis IX., who extended
it in some decree to persons of lower
birth.t
This excesMve passion for the sports
of the field produced those evils which
are apt to result from it ; a strenuous
idleness, which disdained all useful occu-
pations, and an oppressive spirit towards
the peasantry. The devastation com-
mitted under the pretence of destroying
wild animals, which had been already
pto^^ected in their depredations, is noticed
in serious authors, and has also been the
topi« of popular ballads.^ What eflTect this
■♦ Velly, Hist, de France, t. iii , p. 23G.
+ John of Salisbury inveighs against the game-
la a's of his age, with an odd transition from the
Goipel to the Pandects. Nee veriti sunthominem
pro una bestiola perdere, quern nnigenitus Dei Fi-
lius sanguine redemit suo. Quae ferae natnras
sunt, et dc jure occupantiutn fiunt, sibi audet hu-
mai.a temeritas vindicare, &c — Policraticiis, p. 18.
t Le Grand, Vie privee des F.-an(;ais,t i., p. 325.
^ For the injuries which this people sustained
fronti the seignorial rights of the chase in the elev- I
enth century, see the l^ecueil des Historiens, in the !
valuable preface to the eleventh volume, p. 181. \
Tli's t ontinued to be felt in France down to ihs i
[ must have lud on agriculture, it vs ca's)
to conjecture. The levelling of forests
the draining of morasses, and the extir-
pation of mischievous animals which in-
habit them, are the first objects of man's
labour in reclaiming the eaith to its ase ;
and these were forbidden by a landed
aristocracy, whose control over the prog-
ress of agricultural improvement was
unlimited, and who had not yet learned
to sacrifice their pleasures to tiieir ava
rice.
These habits of the rich, and the mis
erable servitude of those who Had state i>i
cultivated the land, rendered afncuiiure.
its fertility unavailing. Predial servitude
indeed, in some of its modifications, has
always been the great bar to improve-
ment. In the agricultural economy of
Rome, the labouring husbanchnan, a me-
nial slave of some wealthy senator, had
not even that qualified interest in the soil
which the tenure of villanage afibrded to
the peasant of feudal ages. Italy, there-
fore, a country presenting many natural
impediments, was but imperfectly re-
duced into cultivation before the irrup-
tion of the barbarians.* Tliat revolution
destroyed agriculture with every other
art, and succeediijg calamities during five
or six centuries, left the finest regions
of Europe unfruitful and desolate. There
are but two possible modes in which the
produce 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 manorial 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
revolution, to which it did not perhaps a little con-
tribute—(See ^'oung's Travels in France.) The
monstrous privilege of free-warren (monstrous, I
mean, when not originally founded upvn the prop-
erty of the soil) is recognised by our own laws,
though in this age it is i. ^t often that a court and
jury will sustain its e.xercje. Sir VValler Scott's
ballad of the Wild Huntsman, from a (lerman ori-
ginal, is well known ; and I believe there are sev
eral others in that country not dissimilar in subject
* Miiratori, Dissert. 21. This dissertation con
tains ample evidence of the wretched stale of cul-
ture in Italy, at least in the northern par's, no':h
before the irruption of the barbarians, and, in «
much greater degree, under the Lorabaid kings.
<72
KUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. IX
and Danube bj' l.he Romans. A house
with its stables and farm-buildhigs, sur-
rounded by a hedge or enclosure, was
called a court, or, as we find it in our
law-books, a curtilage ; the toft or home-
stead 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 com-
posed 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 wasbov.nd by custom to
feed Ills cattle. t
The condition even of internal trade
Of inter- v.'as hardly preferable to that of
nai trade, agriculture. There is not a ves-
tige perhaps to be discovered for several
centuries of any considerable manufac-
ture ; I mean of working up articles of
common utility to an extent beyond what
the necessities of an adjacent district re-
quired.| Rich men kept domestic arti-
sans among their servants ; even kings,
in the ninth century, had their clothes
made by the women upon their farms -.^
but the peasantry must have been suppli-
ed with garments and implements of la-
bour by purchase, and every town, it can-
not be doubted, had its weaver, its smith,
and its currier. But there were almost
insuperable impediments to any extended
* Schmidt, Hist, des Allem., t. i., p. 408. The
following passage seems to illustrate Schmidt's
account of German villages in the ninth century,
though relating to a different age' and country.
•• A toft," says Ur. Whitaker, " is a homestead in a
village, so called from the small tufts of maple,
elm, ash, and other wood, with which dwelling-
houses were anciently overhung. Even now it is
impossible to enter Craven without being struck
with the insulated homesteads, surrounded by their
little garths, and overhung with tufts of trees.
These are the genuine tofts and crofts of our an-
cestors, with the substitution only of stone to the
wooden crocks and thatched roofs of antiquity."
—Hist, of Craven, p. 380.
t It is laid down in the Speculum Saxonicum, a
collection of feudal customs which prevailed over
most of Germany, that no one might have a sep-
arate pasture for his cattle unless he possessed
three mansi.— Du Cange, Mansus. There seems
to have been a price paid, I suppose to the lord, for
agistment in the common pasture.
t 1 he only mention of a manufacture, as early
as the ninth or tenth centuries, that I remember tc
have met with, is in Schmidt, t. ii., p. 146, who
says, that cloths were exported from Friseland to
England and other parts. He quotes no authori-
ty, but I am satisfied that he lias not advanced the
fact gratuitously.
6 Schmidt, t.i., p. 4H ; t. ii. p. It6
traffic; the insecurity of mo\ cable wealth,
and difficulty of accumulating it; the ig-
norance of mutual wants ; the peril of
robbery in conveying merchandise, and
the certainty of extortion. In the do-
mains of every lord, a toll was to be paid
in passing his bridge, or along his high-
way, or at his market.* These customs,
equitable and necessary in their princi-
ple, became in practice oppressive, be-
cause they were arbitrary, and renewed
in every petty territory which the road
might intersect. Several of Charle-
magne's capitularies repeat complaints
of these exactions, and endeavour to
abolish such tolls as were not founded on
prescription.! One of them rather amu-
singly illustrates the modesty and mod-
eration of the landholders. It is enacted
that no one shall be compelled to go out
of his way in order to pay toll at a par-
ticular bridge, when he can <:ross the
river more conveniently at another
place. J These provisions, like most
others of that age, were unlikely to pro-
duce much amendment. It was only
the milder species, however, of feudal
lords who were content with the tribute
of merchants. The more ravenous de-
scended from their fortresses to pillage
the wealthy traveller, or shared i.n the
spoil of inferior plunderers, whom they
both protected and instigated. Proofs
occur, even in the later periods of the
middle ages, when government had re-
gained its energy, and civilization had
made considerable progress, of public
robberies systematically perpetrated by
men of noble rank. In the more savage
times, before the twelfth century, they
were probably 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 territo-
ry.'^ Germany appears to have been,
upon the whole, the country where down-
right robbery was most unscrupulously
practised by the great. Their castles,
erected on almost inaccessible heights
» Du Cange, Pedagium, Pontaticuin, Telou^
um, Mercatum, Stallagium, Lastagium, &c.
t I3aluz. Capit., p. 621, et alibi.
t T.'l nullus cogatur ad pontem ire ad flnvijiu
transeundum propter telonei causas quando ill»; in
alio loco compendiosius illud flumen transire po-
test, p. 764, et alibi.
(} Eadmer apud Recueil des Historiens drt
Gaules, t. xi., preface, p. 192. Pre rilu illius loci
a domino terras captiviiati addicitur.
f ART 1.1
STATE 01 SOCIETY
473
among tlie woods, became the secure re-
ceptacles of predatory bands, who spread
error over the country. From these
oarbarian lords of the dark ages, as from
i living model, the romancers are said to
nave drawn their giants and other disloy-
'il enemies of true chivalry. Robbery
indeed is the constant theme both of the
Capitularies and of the Anglo-Saxon
law.s ; one has more reason to wonder at
the intrepid thirst of lucre, which indu-
ced a very few merchants to exchange
the products of different regions, than to
ask why no general spirit of commer-
cial activity prevailed.
Under all these circumstances, it is
And of far- obvious that vcry little oriental
eign com- trade could have existed in these
nierce. western countries of Europe.
Destitute as they have been created,
speaking comparatively, of national pro-
ductions fit for exportation, their inven-
tion and industry are the great resources
from which they can supply the demands
of the east. Before any manufactures
were established in Europe, her com-
mercial intercourse with Egypt and Asia
must of necessity have been very trifling ;
because, whatever inclination she might
feel to enjoy the luxuries of those genial
regions, she wanted the means of obtain-
ing 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 ade-
quate cause ; and, in fact, what little traf-
fic remained was carried on with no ma-
terial Miconvenience through the channel
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 imported, besides natural
productions, the tine clothes of Constan-
tinople ; yet, as this traffic seems to have
been illicit, it was not probably exten-
sive.! Their exports were gold and sil-
♦ Heeren has frequently referred to a work pub-
lished in 1789, by Marini, entitled Storia civile e
politica del Commerzio de' Veneziani, which casts
a new light upon the early relations of Venice with
the east. Of this book I know nothing; but a
memoir by De Guignes, in the thirty-seventh vol-
ume of the Academy of Inscriptions, on the com-
merce of France with the cast before the crusades,
is aiiigularly unproductive; the fault of the sub-
ject, not of the author.
t There is an odd passage in Luitprand's relation
of his embassy from the Emperor Otho to Nice-
phorus Phocas. The Greeks making a display of
lh#ir dress, he cold them that in Lombardy the
common people wore as good clothes as they.
How, they said, can you procure them ? Through
the Venetian and Amaldtan dealers, he replied,
who gain their subsistence by selling them to us.
TLe foolish Greeks were very angrv, and declared
ver, by which, as none was like y to re
turn, the circulating money of Europe
was probably less in the eleventh cencu-
ry than at the subversion of the Roman
empire ; furs, which were obtained from
the Sc avonian countries; and arms, the
sale of which to pagans or Saracens was
vainly prohibited by Charlemagne and by
the Holy See.* A more scandalous traf-
fic, and one that still more fitly called foi
prohibitory laws, was carried on in slaves
It is an humiliating proof of the degra-
dation of Christendom, that the Vene-
tians were reduced to purchase the lux
uries of Asia by supplying the slave
market of the Saracens. f Their apology
would perhaps have been, that these
were purchased from their heathen neigh
hours ; but a slave-dealer was probably
not very inquisitive as to the faith or ori
gin 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, which put a
stop to the practice. J
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 de-
ihat any dealer presuming to export their fine
clothes should be flogged. — Luitprandi Opera, p
155, edit. Antwerp, 1640.
* Baluz. Capitul., p. 775. One cf .he main ad-
vantages which the Christian nations possessed
over the Saracens was the coat of mail, and other
defensive armour; so that this prohibition was
founded upon very good politica. reasons.
t Schmidt, Hist, des Allem., t. ii., p. MG. Hee-
ren, sur I'Intluence des Croisadcs, p. 316. In Ba-
luze we find a law of Carloman, brother to Charle-
magne ; Ut mancipia Christiana paganis non ven-
dantur.— Capitularia, t. i., p. 150, vide quoque, p.
361.
t William of Malmsbury accuses the Anglo-
Saxon nobility of selling their female servants,
even when pregnant by them, as slaves to foreign
ers, p. 102. I hope there were not many of these
Yaricoes ; and should not perhaps have given credit
to an historian, rather prejudiced against the Eng
lish, if 1 had not found too much authority for \he
general practice. In the canons of a council at
London, in 1102, we read : Let no one from hence
forth presume to carry on that wicked traffic, by
which men of England have hitherto been sold like
brute animals.— Wilkins's Concilia, t. i., p. 383.
And Giraldus Cambrensis says that the English
before the conouest were generally in the habit of
selling their children and other relations to be
slaves in Ireland, without having even the pretest
of distress or famine, till the irish, in a national
synod, agreed to emancipate all the English slaves
in the kingdom, id., p. 171. Thib- seems to havf
been designed to take away all p'-etext for the
threatened invasion of Henry I1.--I yUleton, vol
iii.. p 70
474
EUROPE DL RING T.-IE MIDDLE AGES.
Ciur
pendant upon conspicuous civil revolu-
tions thuii their decline, ai!brds one ol
liie 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 un-
necessary to observe, that the subject
does not admit of any thing approxima-
ting to chronological accuracy. It may
therefore be sometimes not improper to
distinguish the six first cf the ten centu-
ries, which the present work embraces,
\mder the appellation of the dark ages ;
an epithet wliich I do not extend to the
twelfth and three following. In tracing
the decline of society from the sub-
version of the Roman empire, we have
been led, not without connexion, from ig-
norance to superstition, from superstition
\o vice and lawlessness, and from thence
,0 general rudeness and poverty. I shall
pursue an inverted order in passing along
the ascending scale, and class the vari-
ous improvements which took place be-
tween the twelfth and fifteenth centuries
under three principal heads, as they re-
late to the wealth, the manners, or the
taste and learning of Europe. Different
arrangements might probably be suggest-
ed, equally natural and convenient ; but
m the disposition of topics that have not
always an unbroken connexion with each
other, no • method can be prescribed as
iibsolutely more scientific than the rest.
That which I have adopted appears to
me as philosophical and as little liable to
M-ansitions as any other
PART II.
Procuress of Commercial Improvement in Germany,
Flanders, and England.— In the Noith of Europe.
— Fn the Countries upon the Mediterranean Sea.
— Maritime Laws. — Usury. — Banking Compa-
nies. — Progress of Refinement in Manners. —
Domestic Architecture. — Ecclesiastical Archi-
tecture.— State of Agriculture in England. —
Value of Money.— Improvement of the Moral
Character of Society — its Causes. — Police. —
Changes in Religious Opinion.— Various Sects.
— Chivalry — its Progress, Character, and Influ-
ence.— Causes of the Intellectual Improvement
of European Society. — 1. The Study of Civil
Law. — 2. Institutionof Universities— their Cele-
brity.— Scholastic Philosophy.— 3. Cultivation
of Modern Languages. — Provencal Poets. —
Norman Poets. — Fiench Prose Writers. — Italian
-early Poets in that Language. — Dante. —
Petrarch. — English Language— i's Progress. —
Chaucer. — 4. Revival of Classical Learning.—
Latin writers of the Twelfth Cmtury. — Litera-
ture of the Fourteenth Ctntury. — G «ek Litera-
ture—its Restoration in Italy -Invention of
Printing.
The geographical position ol Europe
naturally divides its maritime European
commerce into two principal cominerca
regions ; one comprehending those coun
tries 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 lim-
ited. To the first region belonged the
Netherlands, the coasts of France, Ger-
many, and Scandinavia, and the maritime
districts of England, in the second we
may class the provinces of Valencia and
Catalonia, those of Provence and Lan-
guedoc, and the whole of Italy.
1. The former, or northern division,
was first animated by the wooiien
woollen manufacture of Flan- manufacture
ders. It is not easy either to ofFiander.s.
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 encouragement
from the personal character of its sover-
eigns, 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 earlier.* A wri-
ter of the thirteenth asserts that all the
world was clothed from English wool
wrought in Flanders. f This indeed is
an exaggerated vaunt ; but the Flemish
stuffs were probably sold wherever the
sea or a navigable river permitted them
to be carried. Cologne was the chief
trading city upon the Rhine; and its
merchants, who had been considerable
even under the Emperor Henry IV., es-
tablished a factory at London in 1220.
The woollen manufacture, notwithstand-
ing frequenf wars and the impolitic regu-
lations of magistrates,! continued to
* Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. i., p.
270. Meyer ascribes the origin of Flemish trade to
Baldwin, count of Flanders, in 958, who established
markets at Bruges and other cities. Exchange*
were in that age, he says, chiefly etlected by bar-
ter, little money circulating in Flanders.— Annales
Flandrici, fol. 18 (edit. 1501).
+ Matthew Westmonast. apud Macpherson's
Annals of Commerce, vol. i., p. 415.
X Such regulations scared away those Flemish
weavers who brought their art into England undei
Edward III.— Macpherson, p. 407, 494, 5-lC. Sev
eial years later, the magistrates c( Ghent are said
by Meyer (Annales Flandrici. fol. 150) to have im
posed a tax on every loom. Though the seditioiu
ART H]
STATE OF SOCIETY.
47;
flourish in ihe Netherlands (for Brabant
and Hainaiilt shared it in some degree
withPlanders), 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 his-
torian of the sixteenth century, lamented
the desperate war between 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 king-
doms had their settled domiciles at Bru-
ges, besides strangers from almost un-
known countries who repaired thither.*
During this war, and on all other occa-
sions, the weavers both of Ghent and
Bruges distinguished themselves by a
democratical spirit, the consequence no
doubt of their numbers and prosperity.f
Ghent was one of the largest cities in
Europe, and in the opinion of many the
best situated. t But Bruges, though in
circuit but half the former, was more
splendid in ils buildings, and the seat of
far more trade ; being the great staple
both of Mediterranean and northern mer-
chandise.^ 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
spirit of the weavers' company bad perhaps justly
provoked them, such a tax on their staple maini-
i'actiire was a piece of madness, when Enghsh
goods were just coming into competition.
* Terra marique tncrcatura, reiumqiie commer-
cia et quajstus peribant. ISon solum totius Europas
mercatores, veruin eliam ipsi Turcs alixque sepo-
sitaB nationes ob bellum istud FlandriiB magno
afficiebantur dolore. Erat neiiipe Flandria totius
prope orbis stabile mercaloribus emporium. Sep-
r.emdecim regnorum negotiatores turn Brugis sua
rerta habuere domicilia ac sedes, pra;ter compkires
incognitas pvene gentes quas undique coniiuebant.
-Meyer, fol. 205, ad ann. 1385.
t Meyer, Froissart, Comines.
+ It contained, according to Ludovico Giiicciar-
dini, 35,000 houses, and the circuit of its walls was
45,040 Roman feet.— Description des Pais Bas, p.
350, &c. (edit. 1C09). Part of this enclosure was
not built upon. The population of Ghent is reck-
oned by Guicciardini at 70,000, but in his time it
had greatly declined. It is certainly, however,
much exaggorattd by earlier historiai.s. And 1 en-
tertain some doubt as to Guicciardim's estimate of
the number of houses. If at least he was accurate,
more than half of the city must since have been
demolishc<l or become uninhabited, which its pres-
ent appearance does not indicate ; for Ghent, though
not very Nourishing, by no means presents the de-
cay and dilapidation of an Italian town.
4 Gaicciardini. p. 262. Mem. de Comines, 1. v ,
c 17. Meyer, fol. 354. Macpherson's Annals of
CJouunerce, vol i., p. 617, 651.
fifteenth century some share of tm-
woollen manufa( ture.
For the two first centuries after the
conquest, our English towns, as Export of
has been observed in a diiTerent wool froir
place, made some forward steps England,
towards improvement, il^ough still \cr}
inferior to those of the continent. 'Hieii
commerce was almost confined to thf
exportation of wool, tlic great slaplt
commodity of England, upon which, mnrt
than any other, in ils raw or manufac
tured state, our wealth has been founded
A woollen manufacture, however, indis
putably existed under Henry II. ;* it is
noticed in regulations of Richard I. ; and
by the importation of woad under John,
it may be inferred to have still flourished.
The disturbances of the next reign, per-
haps, or the rapid elevation of the Plem-
ish towns, retarded its growth ; though a
remarkable law was passed by the Ox-
ford parliament in 1261, prohibiting the
export of wool and the importation oi
cloth. This, while it shows the defer-
ence paid by the discontented barons,
who predominated in that parliament, to
their confederates the burghers, was evi-
dently too premature to be enforced.
We may infer from it, however, that
cloths were made at home, though not
sufficiently for the peoples' consump-
tion.!
Prohibitions of the same nature, though
with a diflerent object, were frequently
imposed on the trade between England
and Flanders by Edward I. and his son.
As their political connexions fluctuated,
these princes gave full liberty and settle-
ment to the Flemish merchants, or ban-
ished them at once from the country.^
Nothing could be more injurious to Eng-
land than this arbitrary vacillation. The
Flemings were in every respect our HUt-
ural allies ; but besides those connexions
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
people with Scotland, a trade too lucra-
* 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 im-
mortalized ils name by their manufacture. It soon
reached Norwich, though not conspicuous till the
reign of Edward I.— Hist, of Norfolk, vol. ii. Mac-
pherson speaks of it for the first time :ii 1327.
There were several gilds of weavers in the time o!
Henrv II.— Lyttleton, vol. ii., p. 171.
t Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. i., p.
412, from VV'Blter Hemingford. I am considerably
indebted to this laborious and useful publication
which has superseded that of Anderson.
t Kvmer, t. ii., p. 32, 50, 737, 040, 905- I. hi., o
533, 1 106. et alibi.
476
El'ROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. IX
Live to be resigned at llie King of Eng-
land's request." An early instance of
^hat conflicting selfishness of belligerants
and neutrals, which was destined to ag-
gravate the animosities and misfortunes
of our own time !f
A more prosperous era began with Ed-
Engiish ward III., the father, as he
woollen man- may almost be called, of Eng-
ufacture. |jgj^ commerce, a title not in-
deed 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 Eng-
land. The discontents alluded to re-
sulted from the monopolizing spirit of
their corporations, who oppressed all ar-
tisans 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 use-
fulness, and that what forwarded im-
provement during one part of its course,
may prove to it in time a most pernicious
obstacle. Corporations in England, we
may l)e sure, wanted nothing of their
usual character ; and it cost Edward no
little trouble to protect his colonists from
the selfishness, and from the blind na-
tionality of the vulgar.i^ The emigration
of Flemish weavers into England contin-
ued during this reign, and we find it men-
tioned at intervals for more than a cen-
tury.
Commerce now became, next to lib-
rncreaseof erty, the leading object of par-
Engiish liament. For the greater part
commerce. (,f q^j. statutes from the acces-
sion of Edward III. bear relation to this
subject ; not always well devised, or hb-
eral, or consistent, but by no means
wors^i in those respects than such as
have been enacted in subsequent ages.
* Rymer, t. iii., p. 759. A Flemish factory was
estahlUhed at Berwick about 1286.— Macpherson.
■» III 1295, Edward I. made masters of neutral
ships in English ports find security not to trade
with France. — Rymer, t. ii., p. 679.
t Rymer, t. iv., p. 591, &c. Fuller draws a no-
table picture of the inducements held out to the
Flemings. " Here they should feed on fat beef and
mutton, till nothing but their fulness should stint
their stomachs ; their beds should be good, and
their bedfellows belter, seeing the richest yeomen
in England would' not disdain to marry their
daughters unto them, and such the English beau-
ties that the mo.'Jt envious foreigners could not but
commendthem.'— Fuller's Church History, quoted
id Bloinefield's Hist, of Norfolk.
6 Rvmer, t. v . p. 137, 430, 640
The occupation of a merchant became
honourable ; and notwithstanding the nat-
ural jealousy of the two classes, he was
placed in some measure on a footing with
landed proprietors. By the statute ol
apparel, in 37 Edw. III., merchants and
artificers who had five hundred pounds
value in goods and chattels might u.se the
same dress as squires of one hundred
pounds a year. And those who were
worth more than this might dress like
men of double that estate. Wool was
still the principal article of export and
source of revenue. Subsidies granted
by every parliament upon this article
were, on account of the scarcity of
money, commonly taken in kind. To
prevent evasion of this duty seems to
liave been the principle of those multifa-
rious regulations, which fix the staple
or market for wool, in certain towns
either in England, or, more commonly, oB
the continent. To these all wool was ta
be carried, and the tax was there col-
lected. It is not easy, however, to com-
prehend the drift of all the provisions re-
lating to the staple, many of which tend
to benefit foreign at the expense of Eng-
lish merchants. By degrees, the expor-
tation of woollen cloihs increased so as
to diininish that of the raw material, but
the latter was not absolutely prohibited
during the period under review ;* al-
though some restrictions were imposed
upon it by Edward IV. For a much ear-
lier 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 almost immediate-
ly set it aside. f
* In 1409, woollen cloths formed great part of
our exports, and were e.ictensively used over Spain
and Italy. And in 1449, English cloths having
been prohibited by the Duke of Burgundy, it was
enacted, that, until he should repeal this ordinance,
no merchandise of his dominions should be admit
ted into England. — 27 H. VI., c. 1. The system '
of prohibiting the import of foreign wrought goods
was acted upon very extensively in Edward IV. 's
reign.
t Stat. 11 E. III., c. 1. Blackstone says that
transporting wool out of the kingdom', to the detri-
ment of our staple manufacture, was forbidden at
common law (vol. iv., c. 19), not recollecting that
we had no staple manufactures in the ages whe.-:
the common law was formed, and that tne export
of wool was almost the only means by which this
couii'ry procured silver, or any other article oJ
which it stood in need from the continent. In fact
the landholders were so far (:om neglecting this
source nf their wealth, that a minimum was fixed
upon it by a statute of 1343 (repealed ir.deed tht
next year, 18 E. HI., c. 3), below whici: price it
was not to be sold ; from a .audable apprehension,
as It seems, that foreigners were getting it loc
cheap. And this was revived in the 32d of H. VI
PART ll.J
STATE OF SOCIETY'.
47:
A manufacturing district, as we see in
our own country, sends out, as
lures'ol'^ it were, suckers into all its
Fr< lice and neighbourhood. Accordingly,
Geimiiiiy. ^jjg woollen manufacture spread
from Flanders along the banks of the
Rhine, and into the northern provinces of
France.* I am not, however, prepared
to trace its history in these regions. In
Germany, the privileges conceded by
Henry V. to the free cities, and especial-
ly to their artisans, gave a soul to indus-
try ; though the central parts of the em-
pire were, for many reasons, very ill cal-
culated for commercial enterprise during
the middle ages.f But the French towns
were never so much emancipated from
arbitrary power as those of Germany or
Flanders ; and the evils of exorbitant tax-
ation, with those produced by the Eng-
lish wars, conspired to retard the advance
of manufactures in France. That of
linen made some progress ; but this work
was still perhaps chiefly confined to the
labour of female servants. J
The manufactures of Flanders and
Uaitic England found a market not only
irade. j^ these adjacent countries, but in
a part of Europe which for many ages
Lhough Ihe act is not printed among the statutes.
—Rot. Pari., t. v., p. 275. The exportation of
sheep was prohibited in 13.38. — Rymer, t. v., p.
36 ; and by act of parliament in 1425.— 3 H. VI., c.
2. But this did not prevent our improving the
\«ool of a foreign country to our own loss. It is
worthy of notice, that English wool was superior
to any other for fineness during these ages. Henry
(I., in his patent to the Weavers' Company, directs
that if any weaver mingled Spanish wool with
English, it should be burnt by the lord mayor. —
Macpherson, p. 382. An Enghsh flock, transported
into Spain about 1348, is said to have been the
•ource of the fine Spanish wool, ibid., p. 539. 15ut
the superiority of English wool, even as late as
1438, IS proved by the laws of Barcelona, forbidding
its adulteration, p. 654. Another exportation of
English sheep to Spain took place about 1465, in
consequence of a commercial treaty. — Ryinor, t.
xi., p. 534, et alibi. In return, Spain supplied
England with horses, her breed of which was reck-
oned the best in Europe ; so that the exchange
was tolerably fair.— Macpherson, p. 596. The best
horses had been very dear in England, being im-
ported from Spain and Italy, ibid.
* Schmidt, t. iv., p. 18.
+ Considerable woollen manufactures appear to
have existed in Picardy about 1315. — Macpherson,
ad annum. Capmany, t. iii., part 2, p. 151.
+ The sheriffs of Wiltshire and Sussex are di-
.ected, in 1253, to purchase for the king 1000 ells of
fine Imen, linete teioe pulchr» et dclicatae. 'I'his
Macpherson supposes to be of domestic manufac-
ture, which, however, is not demonstrable. Linen
was made at lliat time in Flanders ; and as late as
1417, the fine linen used in England was imported
from France and the Low Countries. — Macpher-
son, from Rymer, t. ix., p. 334. VcUyV history is
defective in giving no account of the French com-
merce and manufactures, or at least none that is at
til satisfactory.
had only been known eri jugh to be dread
ed. In the middle of the eleventh cen
tury, a native of Bremen, and a writer
much superior to most otliers of his time,
was almost entirely ignorant of the ge
ography of the Baltic ; doubting whetliei
any one had reached Russia by thai
sea, and reckoning Esthonia and Cour-
land among its islands.* But in one
hundred years more, the maritime re-
gions of Mecklenburg and Pomerania,
inhabited by a tribe of heathen Sclavy
nians, were subdued by some German
princes ; and the Teutonic order sonio
time afterward, having conquered Prus-
sia, extended a line of at least compara-
tive civilization as far as the Gulf of Fin-
land. The first town erected on the
coasts of the Baltic was Lubec, which
owes its foundation to Adolphus, count
of Holstein, in 1110. After several vi-
cissitudes, it became independent of any
sovereign but the emperor in the thir-
teenth century. Hamburgh and Bremen,
upon the other side of tiie Cimbric pen-
insula, emulated the prosperity of Lubec ;
the former city purchased independence
of its bishop in 12'25. A colony from
Bremen founded Riga in Livonia, about
1162. The city of Dantzic grew into im-
portance about the end of the following
century. Koningsberg was founded by
Ottecar, 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 nearly referred in point
of time to the middle of the thirteenth
century,! and accounted for by the ne-
cessity of mutual defence, whicli piracy
by sea and pillage by land had taught the
merchants of Germany. The nobles en-
deavoured to obstruct the formation of
this league, which indeed was in great
measure designed to withstand tln.'ir ex-
actions. It powerfully maintained the
influence which the free imperial cities
were at this lime acquiring. Eiglity of
the most considerable places constituted
the Hanseatic confederacy, divided into
four colleges, whereof Lubec, Cologne,
Brunswick, and Dantzic were the leading
towns. Lubec held the chief rank, and
became, as it were, the patriarchal see
of the league ; whose province it was to
preside in all general discussions fof
♦ Adam Bremensis, de Situ Danix, p. 13. (El-
zevir edit.)
t Schmidt, t. iv., p. 8. Macpherson, p. 392.
The latter writer thinhs they were not known b»
the name of Hanse so early.
478
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. \X
mercantile, political or military purposes,
and to carry them into execution. The
league had lour principal factories in for-
eign parts, at London, Bruges, Bergen,
and Novogorod; endowed by the sover-
eigns of those cities with considerable
piivilcgcs, to which every merchant be-
ionging to a Hanseatic town was enti-
decf.* In England the German guildhall
or fact()ry was established by concession
of Henry III. ; and in later periods, the
Hanse traders were favoured above many
others in the capricious vacillations of
our mercantile policy. f The English had
also their factories on the Baltic coast as
far as Prussia, and in the dominions of
Denmark. J
This opening of a northern market
powerfully accelerated the growth of our
Rapid prog- own commercial opulence, es-
fe.ssofEng- pecially after the woollen man-
jsh trade, ufacture had begun to thrive.
From about the middle of the fourteenth
century, we find continual evidences of a
rapid increase in wealth. Thus, in 13G3,
Picard, who had been lord mayor some
years before, entertained Edward III
and the Black Prince, the kings of
France, Scotland, and Cyprus, with many
of the nobility, at his own house in the
Vintry, and presented tliem with hand-
some gifts. <^ Philpot, another em.inent
litizen in Richard II. 's time, when the
Made of England was considerably an-
noyed by privateers, hired 1000 armed
men. and" despatched them to sea, where
they took fifteen Spanish vessels with
their prizes. I| We find Richard obtaining
a great deal from private merchants and
trading towns. In 1379 he got jC5000
from London, 1000 marks from Bristol,
and in proportion from smaller places.
In 1386 London gave jClOOO more, and
10,000 marks in 1397.1" The latter sum
was obtained also for the coronation of
Henry VI.** Nor were the contributions
of individuals contemptible, considering
the high value of money. Hinde, a citi-
zen of London, lent to Henry IV. jGSOOO
in 1407, and Whittington one half of that
sum. The merchants of the staple ad-
vanced £4000 at the same time.ft Our
commerce continued to be regularly and
rapidly progressive during the fifteenth
century. The famous Canynges of Bris-
tol, under Henry VI. and Edward IV.,
* Pfetfel, t. i., p. 443. Schmidt, t. iv., p. 18; t.
r., p. 512. Macpherson's Annals, vol. i., p. 693.
t Macpherson, vol. i., passim.
t Rymer, t. viii,, p. 360.
() Macpherson (who quotes Stov), p. 415.
'' Walsingham, p. 21 1 .
' f Rviner, t. vii.. p. 210, 341 ; t viii., p. 9.
♦♦ lit t. X.. p. 461 +t Id t. vui., p. 48?
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 efllecl
on national prosperity. Some battles
were doubtless sanguinary ; but the loss
of lives in battle is soon i-epaired by a
flourishing nation ; and the devastation
occasioned by armies was both partial
and transitory.
A commercial intercourse between
these northern and southern iniercours-'
regions of Europe began about with the
tlie early part of the fourteenth ^^^^^^
centur)-, or, at most, a little
sooner. Until, indeed, the use of thf-
magnet was thoroughly understood, and
a competent skill in marine architecture,
as well as navigation, acquired, the Ital-
ian merchants were scarce likely to at-
tempt a voyage perilous in itself, and
rendered more formidable by the imagin-
ary difficulties which had been supposed
to attend an expedition beyond the straits
of Hercules. But the English, accus-
tomed to their own rough seas, were al-
ways more intrepid, and probably more
skilful navigators. Though it Avas ex-
tremely rare, even in the fifteenth cen-
tury, for an English trading vessel to ap-
pear in the Mediterranean,! yet a famous
* Macpherson, p. 667.
■f Richard IH., in 1485, appointed a Florentine
merchant to be J-lnglish consul at Pisa, on the
ground that some (if his subjects intended to trade
to Italy. — Macpherson, p. 705, from Rymer. Per-
haps we cannot positively prove the existence of a
Mediterranean trade at an earlier time ; and even
this instrument is not conclusive But a consid-
erable presumption arises from two documents in
Rymer, of the year 1412, which mf'orm us of a
great shipment of wool and otlier goods made by
some merchants of London for the Mediterranean
under supercargoes, whom, it being a new under
taking, the king expressly recommended to the
Genoese republic. But that people, impelled prob-
ably by commercial jealousy, seized the vessels
and their cargoes ; which induced the king to
grant the owners letters of reprisal against all Ge-
noese pro[)erty. — Rymer, t. viii., p. 717, 773.
Though it is-not perhaps evident that the vessels
were English, the circumstances render it highly
probable. The bad success, however, of this at-
tempt might prevent its imitation. A Greek au-
thor, about the beginning of the tiAeenth century,
reckons the lyyXfiroi among the nations whn
traded to a port in the Archipelago.— Gibbon, vol
xii., p. 52. But these enumerations are generally
swelled by vanity or the love of exaggeration ; and
a few English sailors on board a foreign vessel
would justify the assertion. Benjamin of Tudcla,
a Jewish traveller, pretends that the port of Alex
andria, about 1160, contained vessels not only from
England, but from Russia, and even Ciu-ow —
Harris's Voyages, vol. i., p 554.
•■'4itr it-l
STATE OF SOC.ETY
47£
military armament, that was 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 collec-
tion of Genoese ships trading to Flanders
and England. His son was very solicit-
ous to preserve the friendship of that op-
ulent republic ; and it is by his letters to
his senate, or by royal orders restoring
ships unjustly seized, that we come by a
knowledge of those facts which histori-
ans neglect to relate. Pisa shared a lit-
tle in this traffic, and Venice more consid-
erably ; but Genoa was beyond all com-
petition at the head of Italian commerce
in these seas during the fourteenth cen-
tury. In the next, her general decline
left it more open to her rival; but I
doubt whether Venice ever maintain-
ed so strong a connexion with England.
Through London, and Bruges, their chief
station in Flanders, the merchants of It-
aly and of Spain transported oriental
produce to the farthest parts of the north.
The inhabitants of the Baltic coast were
stimulated by the desire of precious lux-
uries which they had never known ; and
these wants, though selfisli and frivolous,
are the means by which nations acquire
civility, and the earth is rendered fruitful
of its produce. As the carriers of this
trade, the Hansealic merchants resident
m England and Flanders derived prof-
its through which eventually, of course,
those countries were enriched. It seems
that the Italian vessels unloaded at the
marts of London or Bruges, and that
such parts of their cargoes as Avere in-
tended for a more northern trade came
there into the hands of the German mer-
chants. In the reign of Henry VI., Eng-
land carried on a pretty considerable traf-
fic with the countries around the Medi-
terranean, for whose commodities her
wool and woollen clothes enabled her to
The commerce of Mie southern division.
Commerce though it did uot, I think, pro-
ui tiie Med- duce uiorc extensively ben_efi-
!-oumn?J.' ^^^1 eflfects upon the progress of
society, was both earlier and
• nore splendid than that of England and
the neighbouring countries. Besides
Veni;e, which has been mentioned al-
iHiain. ready, AmaKi kept up the commer-
cial intercourse of Ghristendom
with the Saracen countries before the
first crusade.* It was tlie singular fate
I of this city to have filled up the intcrva
j between two periods of civilization, in
neither of which she was destined to be
distinguished. Scarcely known before
I the end of the sixth century, Amalfi ran
a brilliant career, as a free and trading
republic, which was checked by the arms
of a conqueror in the middle of tlie
i twelfth. Since her subjugation by Roger,
: king of Sicily, the name of a people
1 who for a while connected Europe \vith
Asia has hardly been repeated, except
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 pjsa, Genoa,
by the constant elevation of Venice.
Pisa, Genoa, and Venice in the twelfth
and ensuing ages. The crusades led im-
mediately to this growing prosperity of
the commercial cities. Besides the profit
accruing from so many naval armaments
which they supplied, and 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. Thes^i
three Italian republics enjoyed inimun.-
ties in the Christian principalities of
Syria ; possessing 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 industrj^ have been slow, it
was uninterrupted ; and the settlements
in Palestine were becoming important as
factories, a use of which Godfrey and
Urban little dreamed, when they weie
lost through the guilt and imprudence of
their inhabitants.* Villani laments the
injury sustained by commerce in conse-
quence of the capture of Acre, " situated,
as it was, on the coast of the IMediterra-
nean, in the centre of Syria, and, as we
might say, of the habitable world, a haven
for all merchandise, both from the east
and the west, which all the nations of
the earth frequented for this trade. "f
* The Amallitans are thus described by VViUia i
of Apulia, apud Muralori, Dissert. 30.
I'rbs h.-pc (lives opum, populoque referta videtiir
Nulla inagi-s locuples argenlo, vestitus auro
Partibus innurncris nc phiriinus urbe moralur
Nauta, maris cosliqiio vias ape ire perilus.
Hue et Alexandri diversa f'erur.lur ab nihe,
Regis et Anliochi. Hsec [etiam?] freta plui.nui
transit.
Hie Arabes, Indi, Siciili noscnntur, et Afri.
Hwc gens est toliitn propo riol)iiitata per orbem,
Et mercanda fcrens, et amans mercata referre.
* The inhabitants of Acre were noted, in an ags
not very pure, for the e.xccss of their vices. In
1291 they plundered some of the subjects of i
neighbouring Mahometan prince, and refusing rep
aration, the city was besieged and taken by storiD
— Muratori, ad aim Gibbon, c. 53
t Villam. i »'i: . c. 141.
IHO
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
rCii.p. n
But the loss was soon retrieved, not per-
haps by Pisa and Genoa, but by Venice,
who formed connexions with the Saracen
governments, and maintained her com-
mercial 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 car-
ried on at that time. Their imports it is
easy to guess, and it appears that timber,
brass, tin, and lead, as well as the pre-
cious metals, were exported to Alexan-
dria, besides oil, saffron, and some of the
productions of Italy, and even wool and
woollen cloths.* The p]uropean side of
the account had therefore become re-
spectable.
The commercial cities enjoyed as great
privileges at Constantinople as in Syria,
and they bore an eminent part in the vi-
cissitudes of the eastern empire. After
the capture of Constantinople by the
latin crusaders, the Venetians, having
been concerned in that conquest, became
of course the favoured traders under the
new dynasty ; possessing their own dis-
trict in the city, with their magistrate or
podesta, appointed at Venice, and sub-
ject to the parent republic. When the
Greeks recovered the seat of their empire,
ihe Genoese, who from jealousy of their
rivals had contributed to that revolution,
obtained similar immunities. This pow-
erful and enterprising state, in the four-
teenth century, sometimes the enemy of
the Byzantine court, maintained its in-
dependent settlement at Pera. From
thence she spread her sails into the Eux-
ine, 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
have not yet been able to revive. f
* Macpherson, p. 490.
t Capmany, Memorias Historicas, t. iii., preface,
p. 11 ; and part 2, p. 131. His authority is Bal-
ducci Pegalotti, a Florentine writer upon com-
merce about 1340, whose work I have never seen.
h apppHrs from Bakiucci that the route to China
was from Azoph to Astrakan, and thence by a va-
riety of places which cannot be found in modern
maps, to Cambalu, probably Pekin, the capital city
of China, which he describes as being one hundred
miles in circumference. The journey was of rath-
er more than eight months, going and returning ;
and he assures us it was perfectly secure, not only
for caravans, but for a single traveller with a couple
of interpreters and a servant. The Venetians had
also a settlement in the Crimea, and appear, by a
passage in Petrarch's letters, to have possessed
eome of the trade through Tartary. In a letter
written from Venice, after extolling in too rhetor-
ical a manner the commerce of that republic, he
mentions a particular ship that h? I just sailed for
The French provinces which border oo
the Mediterranean Sea partook in the
advantages which it offered. Not only
Marseilles, whose trade had continued in
a certain degree throughout the worst
ages, but Narbonne, Nismes, and especi-
ally Montpelier, were distinguished f.;r
commercial prosperity.* A still greatei
activity prevailed in Catalonia. From
the middle of the thirteenth century (for
we need not trace the rudiments of its
history) Barcelona began to emulate the
Italian cities in both the branches of na-
val energy, war and commerce. En-
gaged in frequent and severe hostilities
with Genoa, and sometimes with Con
stantinople, while their vessels traded to
every part of the Mediterranean, and
even of the English channel, the Catalans
might justly be reckcmed among the first
of maritime nations. The commerce of
Barcelona has never since attained so
great a height as in the fifteenth cen-
tury.f
The introduction of a silk manufacture
at Palermo, by Roger Guiscard, Their man
in 1148, gave perhaps the ear- "'aciures.
liest 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 mulber-
ries was enforced by their laws. J Wool-
len stuffs, though the trade was perhaps
less conspicuous than that of Flanders,
and though many of the coarser 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 mid-
the Black Sea. Et ipsa quidem Tanaim it visura,
nostri enim maris navigatio non ultra tenditur,
eorum vero aliqui, quos hsec fert, illic iter [institu-
ent] earn egressuri, nee antea substituri, qnjiin
Gauge et Caucaso superato, ad Indos atque ex-
tremes Seres etOrientalem perveniatur Oceanum
En quo ardens et inexplebilis habendi sitis homj
num mentes rapit ! — Petrarca; Opera, Senil., 1. ii.
ep. 3, p. 760, edit. 1581.
* Hist, de Languedoc, t. iii., p. 531 ; t. iv., p
517. Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscriptions, t. xxxvii.
t Capmany, Memorias Historicas de Barcelona,
t. i., part 2. See particularly p. 36.
t Muratori, Dissert. 30. Denina, Rivoluziont
d'ltalia, 1. xiv., c. 11. The latter writer is of opin
ion that mulberries were not cultivated as an im
portant object till after 1300, nor even to any great
extent till after 1500; the Italian manufacturers
buying most of their silk from Spain or the Levant
^ The history of Italian states, and especially
Florence, will speak for the first country. Cap
many attests the woollen manufacture of the sec-
ond.—Mem. Hist, de Barcel., t. i., part 3, p. 7, &c. ;
and Vaissette that of Carcasonne and its vicinitr
—Hist, de Lang., t. iv., p. 517.
I
Paut 11.
STATE OF SOCIETY.
481
dling ranks were distributed, those con-
cerned in silk and woollens were most
numerous and honourable.*
A property of a natural substance, long
Invention Overlooked even though it at-
ofihennar- traded observation by a dilTer-
iner'scom- g[^^ pecuharity, has influenced
^^^' by its accidental discovery the
fortunes of mankind, more than all the
tjeductions of philosophy. It is perhaps
impossible to ascertain the epoch when
the polarity of the magnet was first
known in Europe. The common opin-
ion, which ascribes its discovery to a cit-
izen of Amalfi in the fourteenth centu-
ry, is undoubtedly erroneous. Guiot de
Provins, a French poet, wlio 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 fi-om
their intercourse with the Saracens, is
not easily to be ascertained.! For some
* None were admitted to the rank of burgesses
in the towns of Aragon who used any manual
trade, with the exception of dealers in fine cloths.
The woollen manufacture of Spain did not at any
time become a considerable article of export, nor
even supply the internal consumption, as Capmany
has well shown. — Memorias Historicas, t. iii., p.
325, et seqq., and Edinburgh Review, vol. x.
t Boucher, the French translator of 11 Consolato I
del Mare, says, that Edrissi, a Saracen geographer, '
who lived about 1100, gives an account, though in '
a confused manner, of the polarity of the magnet, i
t. ii., p. 280. However, the lines of Guiot de Pro- I
»ins are decisive. These are quoted in Hist. Lit- :
t^raire de la France, t. ix., p. 190 ; Mem. de I'Acad.
des Inscript., t. xxi., p. 102, and several other j
works. Gumizzelli has the following passage, in a (
canzone quoted by Giiiguene, Hist. Litteraire de I
I'ltalie, t.i., p. 413. |
" In quelle parti sotto tramontana, |
Sono ii inonti della calainita,
Che dan virtute all' acre
Di trarre il ferro; ma perchS lontana,
Vole di siinil pietra aver aita,
A far la adoperare,
E dirizzar lo ago in ver la Stella."
V\'e cannot be diverted by the nonsensical theory
these lines contain, from perceiving the positive
testimony of tiie last verse to the poet's knowledge
of the polarity of the magnet. But, if any doubt
could remain, Tiraboschi, t. iv., p. 171, has fully
established, from a series of passages, that this
phenomenon was well known in the thirteenth
century , and puts an end altogether to the preten-
sions of Flavio Gioja, if such a person ever existed.
See also Macpherson's Annals, p. 304 and 416. It
is provoking to find an historian like Robertson as.
serting without hesitation, that this citizen of Amalfi
viras the inventor of the compass, and thus accred-
icing an error which f.ad long before been detected.
H h
time, perhaps, even this wonderful im
provement in the art of navigation migh
not be universally adopted by vesseh
sailing within the Mediterranean, and ac-
customed to their old system of observa
tions. But when it became more estab
lished, it naturally inspired a more fear-
less spirit of adventure. It was not, as
has been mentioned, till the beginning of
the fourteenth century, 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 enlivened
their trade with the I^evant by the ex-
change of productions whicli Spain and
Italy do not supply, and enriched the mer-
chants by means of whose'capital the ex-
ports of London and of Alexandria were
conveyed into each others harbours.
The usual risks of navigation, and those
incident to commercial adven- Maritime
ture, produce a variety of ques- '''^^s.
tions in every system of jurisprudence,
which, though always to be determined,
as far as possible, by principles of natu-
ral justice, must in many cases depend
upon established customs. These cus-
toms of maritime law were anciently re-
duced into a code by the Rhodians, and
the Roman emperors preserved or re-
formed the constitutions of that republic.
It would be hard to say how far tlie tra-
dition of this early jurisprudence survived
the decline of commerce in the darker
ages ; but after it began to recover it
self, necessity susMsted, or recollection
prompted, a scheme of regulations re-
sembling in some degree, but much more
enlarged than those of antiquity. This
was formed into a written code, II Con-
solato del Mare, not much earlier, proba-
bly, than the middle of the thirteenth
century; and its promulgation seems
rather to have proceeded from the citi-
zens of Barcelona than from those of
Pisa or Venice, who have also claimed
to be the first legislators of the sea.*
It is a singular circumstance, and only to be ex-
plained by the obstinacy with which men are apt
to reject improvement, that the magnetic needle
was not generally adopted in navigation till very
long after the ih.scovery of its properties ; and evcic
after their peculiar im[)ortance had been perce;'-
ed. The writers of the thirteenth century wtic
mention the polarity of the needle, mention also its
use in navigation ; yet Capmany has found no dis-
tinct proof of its employment till 1403, and does not
believe that it was frequently on boanl Mediterra-
nean ships at the, latter part of the preceding age.
— Memorias Historicas, t. iii., p. 70. Perhap»
however he has inferred too much from his nega
tive prrof ; and this subject seeuia open lo further
inquiry.
♦ Boucher supposes it tc iiave t'?en conaj»Uod at
ft82
EUKOFE DURING THE MIDDLE AOES.
[L UaP. iJt
Besides regulations simply mercantile,
this system has defined the mutual rights
of neutral and belligerant vessels, and
thus laid the basis of the positive law
of nations in its most important and dis-
puted cases. The King of France and
Count of Provence solemnly acceded to
this maritime code, which hence acqui-
red a binding force within the Mediterra-
nean Sea ; and in most respects, the law
merchant of Europe is at present con-
formable to Its provisions. A set of reg-
ulations, chiefly borrowed from the Con-
solato, was compiled in France under
the reign of Louis IX., and prevailed in
their own country. These have been de-
nominated the laws of Oleron, from an
idle story that they were enacted by
Richard I., while his expedition to the
Holy Land lay at anchor in that island.*
Nor was the north without its peculiar
code of maritime jurisprudence ; name-
ly, the ordinances of Wisbuy, a town in
the isle of Gothland, principally compiled
from those of Oleron, before the year
MOO, by which the Baltic traders were
governed.!
There was abundant reason for estab-
Fre(iueiicy lishiug amoug maritime nations
oi i>iracy. gouie thcory of mutual rights,
and for securing the redress of injuries,
as far as possible, by means of acknowl-
edged tribunals. In that state of barba-
B^rcelona about 900 ; but his reasonings are in-
conclusive, t. i., p. 72 ; and indeed Barcelona at that
titnewas Intle, if at all, belter than a fishing-town.
Some arguments might be drawn in favour of Pisa
'roin the expressions of Henry IV. "s charter grant-
ed to that city in 1081. Consuetudines, quas ha-
bent de mari, sic iis observabimu.s sicut illorum est
consuctudo.— Muratori, Dissert. 45. Giannone
eeeins to think the collection was compiled about
the reign of Louis IX., 1. xi., c. 6. Capmany, the
last Spanish editor, whose authority ought perhaps
to outweigh every other, asserts, and seems to
prave them to have been enacted by the mercantile
magistrates of Barcelona, under the reign of James
the Conqueror, which is much the same period. —
'Codigo de las Costrumbres mantmias de Barcelo-
na, Madrid, ]791,) But, by whatever nation they
were reduced into their present form, these lavys
were certainly tlie ancient and established usages
of the Mediterranean states; and Pisa may very
probably have taken a great share in first practi
sing what a century or two afterward was render-
ed more precise at Barcelona,
* Macpherson, p. 358. Boucher suppo.ses them
to be registers of actual decisions.
t 1 have only the authority of Boucher for re-
ferring the Ordinances of Wisbuy to the year
1400. Beokman imagines them to be older than
those of Oleron. But Wisbuy was not enclosed by
a wall till 1288, a proof that it could not have been
previously a town of much importance. It flour-
ished chiefly in the first part of the fourteenth cen-
tury, and was at that time an independent repub-
lic ; but fell under the y^jke of DenmarJi before
the eiv^ of the same age.
rous anarchy which so long resisted the
coercive authority of civil magistrates,
the sea held out even more temptation
and more impunity than ihe land ; and
when the laws had regained their sover-
eignty, and neither robbery nor private
warfare was any longer tolerated, there
remained that great common of mankind,
unclaimed by any king, and the liberty
of the sea was another name for the se-
curity of plunderers. A pirate, in a well-
armed, quick-sailing vessel, must feel, I
suppose, the enjoyments of his exemp-
tion from control more exquisitely than
any other freebooter ; and darting along
the bosom of the ocean, under the
impartial radiance of the heavens, maj'
deride the dark concealments and hur-
ried 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 centuries, a
rich vessel was never secure from at-
tack ; and neither restitution nor punish-
ment of the criminals was to be obtained
from governments who sometimes fear-
ed the plunderer and sometimes con-
nived at the oflTence.* Mere piracy,
however, was not the only danger. The
maritime towns of Flanders, France, and
England, like the free republics of Italy,
prosecuted their own quarrels by arms,
without asking the leave of their respect-
ive sovereigns. This practice. Law of
exactly analogous to that of pri- '''•P"s»'3-
vate 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 regu-
lar law of nations, under the name of re-
prisals. Whoever was plundered or in-
jured by the inhabitants of another town
obtained authority from his own magis-
trates to seize the property of any other
person belonging to it, until his loss
should be compensated. This law of
* Hugh Despenser seized a Genoese vessel val
ued at 14,300 marks, for which no restitution wan
ever made. — Rymer, t. iv., p. 701. Macpherson,
A. D. 1336.
t The Cinque Ports and other trading towns ol
England were in a state of constant hostility with
their opposite neighbours during the reigns of Eii-
ward I. and II. One might quote almost half the
instruments in Rymer in proof cf these conflicts,
and of those with the mariners of Norway and Den
mark. Sometimes mutual envy produced frayi
between different English towns. Thus, in 125i,
the Winchelsea mariners attacked a Yarmouth
galley, and killed some of taer men.— Mf tt VzzU
apud Macpherson
Part JI.]
S I'ATE OF SOCIETY.
483
reprisal was not confined to maritime
places. It prevailed in Lombardy, and
I)robably in the German cities. Thus, if
a citizen of Modena was robbed by a Bo-
lognese, he complained to the magis-
trates of the former city, who represent-
ed the case to those of Bologna, demand-
ing redress. If this were not immedi-
ately granted, letters of reprisals were
issued, to plunder the territory of Bo-
iognatill the injured party should be re-
imbursed by sale of the spoil.* In the
laws of Marseilles it is declared, " If a
foreigner take any thing from a citizen
of Marseilles, and he who has jurisdic-
tion over the said debtor or unj\ist taker
does not cause right to be done in the
same, the rector or consuls, at the peti-
tion of the said citizen, shall grant him
r>eprisals upon all the goods of the said
debtor or unjust taker, and also upon the
goods of others, who are under the juris-
diction of him who ought to do justice,
and would not, to the said citizen of Mar-
seilles."! Edward III. remonstrates, in
an instrument published by Rymer,
against letters of marque granted by the
King of Aragon to one Berenger de la
Tone, who had been robbed by an Eng-
lish pirate of jG2000 ; alleging that, inas-
much 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.J This passage is so
far curious, as it asserts the existence of
a customary law of nations, the knowl-
edge of which was already a sort of
learning. Sir E. Coke speaks of this
right of private reprisals as if it still ex-
isted ;^ and, in fact, there are instances
of granting such letters as late as the
reign of Charles the First.
A practice founded on the same prin-
Liabiiity of ciples as reprisal, though rather
aliens for less violent, was that of attach-
debi's"'''*^'^^ ing the goods or persons of res-
ident foreigners for the debts of
their countrymen. This indeed, in Eng-
land, was not confined to foreigners 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
* MuratOfi, Dissert. 53.
+ Du Cange, voc. Lauduin.
t Rymer, t. iv., p. 570. Videtur sapientibus et
peritis; quod causa, de jure, non suhfuit marcham
seu repnsaliam in nostris, seu subditoruin nostro-
rum, bonis concedeiidi. See too a case of neutral
goods on board an enemy's vessel claimed by the
'jwners, and a legal distinction taken in favour of
'be captors, t. vi., p. 14.
() 27 F.. III., Stat, ii., c. 17. 2 Ins'.., p. 205.
Hha
principal nor surety." Henry III. had
previously granted a charter to the bur-
gesses of Lubec, that they should not be
arrested for the debt of any of their coun-
trymen, unless the magistrates of Lubec
neglected to compel payment.* But by
a variety of grants from Edward II., the
privileges of English subjects under the
statute of AVestminster were extended to
most foreign nations. f This unjust re-
sponsibility had not been confined to civil
cases. One of a company of Italian mer-
chants, the Spini, having killed a man
the officers of justice seized the bodies
and effects of all the rest.|
If, under all these obstacles, whether
created by barbarous manners, Great prof-
by national prejudice, or by the "s of trade,
fraudulent and arbitrary measures of prin-
ces, the merchants of different countries
became so opulent as almost to rival the
ancient nobility, it must be ascribed to
the greatness of their commercial profits.
The trading companies possessed either
a positive or a virtual monopoly, and held
the keys of those eastern regions, for the
luxuries of which the progressive refine-
ment 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 exceed- ^„j |,|^
ingly high throughout the middle rate of
ages. At Verona, in 1228, it was ""erest.
fixed by law at twelve and a half per
cent. ; at Modena, in 1270, it seems to
have been as high as twenty. || The re-
public of Genoa, towards the end of the
fourteenth century, when Italy had grown
wealthy, paid only from seven to ten pei
cent, to her creditors.^ But in France
and England the rate was far more op-
pressive. An ordinance of Philip the
Fair, in 1311, allows twenty per cent, af-
ter 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
» Rymer, t. i., p. 8.39.
t Idem, t. iii., p. 458, 047, 078, et inl .i. See too
the ordinances of the staple, in 27 Edw. III., which
confirm this among other privileges, and contain
manifold evidence of the regard paid to commerce
in that reign.
I Rymer, t. ii., p. 891. Madox, Hist. Exehc
quer, c. xxn., s. 7.
{) In the remarkable speech of the Doge Mocen;
go, quoted in another place, p. 177, the annual
profit made by Venice on her mercantile cajiiial u
reckoned at forty per cent.
II Muratori, Dissert. 16.
1[ Hizarn Hist. Genuens, p. 797. The rate of dis
count on bills, which may not have exactly cor-
responded to the average annual interest of mmey
was ten per cent, at Barcelona in 1435.— Cap
many, t. i., p. 209.
** Du Cange, v. Usura. ft Muratori, Diss. 16
«84
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
I.Chap. IX
US a general practice. Tliis was not
merely owing to scarcity of money, but
to the discouragement which a strange
prejudice opposed to one of the most use-
ful and legitimate branches of commerce.
Usury, or lending money for profit, was
treated as a crime by the theologians of
the middle ages ; and though the super-
stition has been eradicated, some part of
the prejudice remains in our legislation.
Mon-y This trade in money, and indeed
dealings of a great part of inland trade in
iheJews. general, had originally fallen to
the Jews, who were noted for their usury
so early as the sixth century.* For sev-
eral subsequent ages they continued to
employ their capital and industry to the
same advantage, with little molestation
from the clergy, who always tolerated
their avowed and national infidelity, and
often with some encouragement from
princes. In the twelfth century we find
them not only possessed of landed prop-
erty in Languedoc, and cultivating the
studies of medicine and Rabbinical liter-
ature in their own academy at Montpe-
lier, under the protection of the Count of
Toulouse, but invested with civil offices. f
Raymond Roger, viscount of Carcas-
sonne, directs a writ " to his bailiffs
Christian and Jewish. "| It was one of
the conditions imposed by the church on
the Count of Toulouse, that he should al-
low no Jews to possess magistracy in his
dominions.^ In Spain they were placed
by some of the municjpal 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 dili-
gence and expertness of this people in all
pecuniary dealings recommended them
to princes who were solicitous about the
improvement of their revenue. We find
an article in the general charter of priv-
ileges granted by Peter III. of Aragon, in
1283, that no Jew should hold the oflice
of a bayle or judge. And two kings of
Castile, Alonzo XI. and Peter the Cruel,
incurred much odium by employing Jew-
ish 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 fanatical
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
* Greg. Turon., 1. iv.
t Hisi. de Languedoc, t. ii, p. 517; t. ill., p. 531 '
Tid., t. iii., p. 121. (5» Id., p. 163 |
d Marina, Ensayo Historico-Critico, p 143 j
debts due to the children of Israel, ex-
cept a part which ihey letained 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 Chris-
tians a third part of what was owing
by thom to Jews."* Not content with
such edicts, the kings of France some-
times banished the whole nation from
their dominions, seizing their eff'ects at
the same time ; and a season of alterna-
tive severity and toleration continued till
under Charles VI. they v/ere finally ex
pelled from the kingdom, where they
never afterward possessed any legal set •
tlemeiit.f In England they were not so
harshly treated; but they became less
remarkable for riches after the thirteenth
century. 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 mer-
chants of Lombardy and of the south of
France! took up the business of remit-
ting 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 in an easy
manner drew the income of their trans-
alpine 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 thej.r
reception. A distinction was made be-
tween moderate and exorbitant interest,-
and though the casuists did not acquiesce
* Marteniie, Thesaurus Anecdotorum, t. i., p.
984.
t Velly, t. iv., p, 136.
j The city of Cahors, in Quercy, the roodern
department of the Lot, produced a tribe ol money-
dealers. The Caursini are ahnost as often noticed
as the Lombards. — See the article in Du Cange.
In Lombardy, Asti, a city of no great note in othei
respects, was famous for the same department of
commerce.
^ There were three species of paper credit in
the dealmgs of merchants : 1. General letters of
credit, not directed to any one, which are not un
common in the Levant ; 2. Orders to pay money
to a particular person ; 3. Bills of exchange regu
larly negotiable. — Boucher, t.ii., p. 621. Instances
of the first are mentioned by Macpherson about
1200, p. 367. The second species was introduced
by the Jews about 1183 (Capmany, t. i., p. 2D7),
but it may be doubtful whether the last stage ol
the progress was reached nearly so soon. An in-
strument in Rymer, however, of the year 1364 (t.
vi., p. 495), mentions litcrae cambitoriae, which seem
to have been negotiable bills; and by 1400 they
were drawn in setS; and worded exactly as a
present.— Macpherson, p. 614, and BeckmaD, His-
tory of Inventions, vol. lii., p. 430, give from Cap
many an actual precedent of a bill dated in 1104.
F.ET 11.
STATE OF SOCIETY.
4b
111 this legal regulation, yet it satisfied,
even in superstitious times, the conscien-
ces 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.f 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 Pe-
ruzzi, 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 Flor-
entine citizens, and was a heavy misfor-
tune to the state. J
The earliest bank of deposite, institu-
Danks of ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ accommodation of pri-
Genoa and vate merchants, is said to have
others. ijeen that of Barcelona, in 1401. *5>
The banks of Venice and Genoa were
of a diff"erent 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 impor-
tance so remarkable, however similar
might be its origin. || During the wars
of Genoa in the fourteenth century, she
had borrowed large sums of private citi-
* Usury was looked upon with horror by our
Enghsli divines long after the reforinntion. Fleury,
in his Institutions au Droit Ecclesiastiqne, t. ii., p.
129, has shown the subterfuges to which men had
recourse in order to evade this prohibition. It is
an unhappy truth, that great part of the attention
devoted to the best of sciences, ethics and juris-
prudence, has been employed to weaken principles
that ought never to have been acknowledged.
One species of usury, and that of the highest im-
portance to commerce, was always permitted, on
account of the risk that atteaded it. This was
marine ensurance, which could not have existed
until money was considered in itself as a source
of profit. The earliest regulations on the subject
of ensurance are those of Barcelona in 1433 ; but
the practice was, of course, earlier than these,
thi/Ugh not of great antiquity. It is not mentiotied
in the Consolato del Mare, nor in any of the Han-
Bcatic laws of the fourteenth century. — Beckinan,
vol. i., p. 38S. This author, not being aware of the
Barcelonese laws on this subject published by
Capinany, supposes the first provisions regulating
marine assurance to have been made at Florence
fli 1523.
* Macpherson, p. 487, et alibi. They had prob-
ably excellent bargains : in 1320 the Bardi farmed
»U the customs in England for 20/. a day. But,
in 1282, the customs had produced 8UH., and half
A century of great improvement had elapsed.
X Villani, 1. xii., c. 55, 87. He calls these two
banking-houses the pillars which sustained gr^at
fart of the commerce of Christendom.
() Capmany, t. i., p. 213.
II Macpherson, p. 341, from Sanuto. The bank
of Venice is referred to ll"l.
zens, to whom the revenues were pledged
for repayment. The republic of Florence
had set a recent, though not a very en-
couraging example of a public loan, to
defray the expense of her war agamsi
Mastino della Scala, in 1336. The chief
mercantile firms, as well as individua'
citizens, furnished money on an assign
ment of the taxes, receiving fifteen pe.
cent, interest ; which appears to h'^ve
been above the rate of private usury.*
The slate was not unreasonably consid-
ered a worse debtor than some ol hei
citizens ; for in a few years these loans
were consolidated into a general fund, or
monle, with some deduction froin the cap-
ital, and a great diminution of interest;
so that an original debt of one hundred
florins sold only for twenty-five. f But
I have not found that these creditors
formed at Florence a corporate body, or
took any part, as such, in the afl'airs of
the republic. The case was diflerent at
Genoa. As a security at least for their
interest, the subscribers to public 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 thes<»
subscribers becoming at length inconve-
nient, 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 soor.
became almost independent of the state.
Every senator, on his admission, swore
to maintain the privileges of the bank,
which were confirmed by the pope, and
even by the emperor. The bank inter-
posed its advice in every measure of
government, and generally, as is admit-
ted, to the public'advantage. It equip-
ped 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 sub-
ject to a company of merchants, without
any interference of the motlicr country.|
The increasing wealth of Europe,
whether derived from internal increase of
improvement or foreign c-om- tiomesiic ex-
merce, displayed itself in more P«'»i""'-«-
expensive consumption, and greater re
finements of domestic life. But these
efl"ects were for a long time very grad-
ual, each generation making a few steps
* G. Villani, 1. xi., c. 4!'
t Matt. Villani, p. 227 (in Muratori, Script. Rei
Ital., t. xiv.).
t Bizarri Hist. Genuens.. p. 797 (Antwerp. 15*9,
Machiavelli, Storia Fiorentma, 1. vi'i.
486
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap I:X
in llic progress, which are hardly discern-
ible except by an attentive inquirer. It
is not till the latter half of the thirteenth
century that an accelerated impulse ap-
pears to be given to society. The just
government and suppression of disorder
under St. Louis, and the peaceful temper
of his brother Alfonzo, count of Toulouse
and Poitou, gave France leisure to avail
herself of her admirable fertility. Eng-
land, that to a soil not perhaps inferior
to that of France, united the inestimable
advantage of an insular position, and was
invigorated, above all, by her free consti-
lution, and the steady industriousness of
her people, rose Avith a pretty uniform
motion from the time of Edward I. It-
aly, though the better days of freedom
had passed away in most of her repub-
lics, made a rapid transition from simpli-
city to refinement. "In those times,"
says a writer about the year 1300, speak-
ing of the age of Frederick II., "the
manners of the Italians were rude. A
man and his wife ate off the same plate.
There was no wooden-handled knives,
nor more than one or two drinking-cups
in the house. Candles of wax or tallow
were unknown: a servant held a torch
during supper. The clothes of men
were of leather unlined : 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
sumptuousness ; 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,"* &c. This pas-
sage is supported by other testimonies
nearly of the same time. The conquest
of Naples by Charles of Anjou, in 1266,
* Ricobaldus Ferrarensis, apud Murat., Dissert.
23. Francisc. Pippinus, ibidem. Muratori en-
deavours to extenuate the authority of this passage,
on account of some more ancient writers who com-
plain of the luxury of their times, and of some par-
ticular instances of magnificence and expense. But
Ricobaldi alludes, as Muratori himself admits, to the
mode of living in the middle ranks, and not to that
of courts, which in all ages might occasionally dis-
play considerable splendour. I see nothing to
weaken so explicit a testimony of a contemporary,
which in fact is confirmed by many writers of the
next age, who, according to the jiractice of Italian
chroniclers, have copied it as their own
seems to have been the epoch of increas-
ing luxury throughout Italy. His Pro-
ven(;.al knights with their plumed helmet*
and golden collars, the chariot of his
queen covered with blue velvet, and
sprinkled with lilies of gold, astonshed
the citizens of Naples.* Provence had
enjoyed a long tranquiUity, the natural
source of luxurious magnificence ; and
Italy, now liberated from the yoke of the
empire, soon reaped the same fruit of a
condition more easy and peaceful than
had been her lot for several ages. Dante
speaks of the change of manners at Flor-
ence, from simplicity and virtue to re-
finement and dissoluteness, in terms very
nearly similar to those quoted above. f
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 sus-
pended 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 circumstances. J Modes oj
dress hardly perhaps deserve our notice
on their own account ; yet, so far as their
universal prevalence was a symptom of
diffused wealth, we should not overlook
either the invectives bestowed by the
clergy on the fantastic extravagances ol
fashion, or the sumptuary laws by which
it was endeavoured to restrain them.
The principle of sumptuary laws was
partly derived from the small sumptuary
republics of antiquity, which '»"'s-
might perhaps require that security for
public spirit and equal rights ; partly
from the austere and injudicious theory
* Murat., Dissert. 23.
t Bellinciou Berti vid' io andar cinto
Di cuojo e d'osso, e venir dalle specchio
La donna sua senza '1 viso dipinto.
E vidi quel di Nerli, e quel del Vecchio
Esser contenti alia pelle scoverta,
E sue donne al fuse ed al pennechio.
Paradis., canto xv.
See too the rest cf this canto. But this is pu'.
in the mouth of Cacciagiiida, the poet's ancestor,
who lived in the former half of the twelfth century.
The change, however, was probably subsequent to
1250, when the times of wealth and turbulence be-
gan at Florence.
I Velly, t. viii., p. 352. The second continuatoj
of Nangis vehemently inveighs against the long
beards and short breeches of his age ; after the in-
troduction of which novelties, he judiciously ob-
serves, the French were much more disposed to rue
away from their enemies than before. — Spicilo
gium, t. iii., p. 105.
Fast II-l
STATE OF SOriETV
481
of religion disseniinaled by the clergy.
These prejudices united to render all in-
crease 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 restrictive
code in the laws of Europe. Some of
these regulations are more ancient ; but
tho chief part were enacted, both in
France and England, during the four-
teenth century ; extending to expenses
of the table as well as apparel. The
first statute of this description in our own
country was, how ever, repealed the next
year ;* and subsequent provisions were
entirely disregarded by a nation which
valued liberty and commerce too much
to obey laws conceived in a spirit hostile
to both. Laws indeed designed by those
governments to restrain the extravagance
of their subjects, may well justify the se-
vere indignation which Adam Smith has
poured upon all such interference with
private expenditure. The kings of France
and England were undoubtedly more
egregious spendthrifts than any others
in their dominions ; and contributed far
more by their love of pageantry to excite
a taste' for dissipation in their people,
than b)- the.ir ordinances to repress it.
Mussus, an historian of Placentia, has
Domusiic left a pretty copious account of
manners the prevaihug manners among
of Italy, j^jg countrymen about 1388, and
expressly contrasts their more luxurious
living with the style of their ancestors
seventy years before ; when, as we have
seen, they had already made considera-
ble steps towards refinement. This pas-
sage is highly interesting; because it
shows the regular tenour of domestic
economy in an Italian city, rather than
a mere display of individual magnifi-
cence, as in most of the facts collected
by our own and the French antiquaries.
But it is much too long for insertion in
this place. t No other country, perhaps,
could exhibit so fair a picture of middle
life : in France, the burghers and even
the inferior gentry were for the most part
♦ 37 E. III. Rep. 38 E. 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 Phdip the Fair. — Velly, t.
vit., p. C4 ; t. xi., p. 190. These attempts to re-
strain what cannot be restrained continued even
down to 1700.— De la Mare, Traile de la Police, t.
i., 1. iii.
t Muratori, Antirtita Italiane, Dissert. 23, t. i.,
0 .^125.
in a state of poverty at this period, which
they concealed by an aflfectation of orna-
ment ; while our English yeomanry and
tradesmen were more anxious to invigo-
rate their bodies by a generous diet, thar.
to dwell in well-furnished houses, or to
find comfort in cleanliness and elegance.*
The German cities, however, had acqui-
red with liberty the spirit of improvement
and industry From the time that Henry
V. admitted their artisans to the privi-
leges of free burghers, they became more
and more prosperous ;t while the steadi-
ness and frugality of the German char-
acter compensated for some disadvanta-
ges arising out of their inland situation.
Spire, Nuremberg, Ratisbon, and Augs-
burg, were not indeed like the rich mar-
kets of London and Bruges, nor could
their burghers rival the princely mer-
chants of Italy; but they enjoyed the
blessings of competence diffused over a
large class of industrious freemen; and
in the fifteenth century, one of the poli-
test Italians could extol their splendid
and well-furnished dwellings, their rich
apparel, their easy and affluent mode of
living, the security of their rights, and just
equality of their laws. J
* These English, said the Spaniards who came
over with Philip II., have their houses made of
sticks and dirt, but they fare commonly so well as
the king.— Harrison's Description of Britain, pre-
fixed to Holingshed, vol. i., p. 313 (edit. 1807).
t Pfeffel, t. 1., p. 293.
+ .(Eneas Sylvius, de Moribus Germanorum
This treatise is an amplified panegyric upon Ger
many, and contains several curious passages : they
must be taken perhaps with some allowance ; for
the drift of the whole is to persuade the Germans
that so rich and noble a country could atlbrd a lit
tie money for the poor pope. Civitates qiias vocant
liberas, cum, Im()eratori solum subjiciuntur, c\ijus
jugum est instar libertatis ; nee profecto usquam
gentium tanta libertas est, quanta fruuntur hujus-
cemodi civitates. Nam populi quos Itali vocant
liberos, hi potissimiim serviunt, sive Venetias in-
spectes, sive Florentiam aut Cjenas, in quibus ci-
ves, prajter paucos qui reliquos ducunt, loco mail
cipiorum habentur. Cum nee rebus suis uti, utli-
bet, vel fari qua; velint, et gravissimis opprimuntur
pecuniarum exactionibus. Apud Germanos omnia
Iffita sunt, omnia jucunda ; nemo suis privatur
bonis. Salva cuiq\ie sua hjereditas est, nuUi nisi
nocenti magistratus nocent. Nee apud eos factio-
nes sicut apud Italas urbes grassantur. Sunt au-
tem supra centum civitates hac iibertate fruentes,
p. 1058.
In another part of his work p. 719, he gives a
specious account of Vienna. The houses, he says,
had glass windows and iron doors. Fenestra? un-
dique vitreoE perlucent, et oslia plerumque ferrea.
in domibus multa et munda supellex. Alta; domus
magnifica>que visuntur. Unum id dedecori est,
quod tecta plerumque tigno contegunt, pauca la
tere. Cffitera a'dihcia muro lapideo consistunt.
Pictae domus et exierius et interius splendent. Ci
vitatis populus 50,000 communicantium creditur. I
suppose this gives at least double for the total pop-
ulation. He I'oreeds to represent the manners o/
It
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLL A JES.
[CHaP. iX
Is> cliaptor in the history of national
tnaniiors would illustrate so well, if duly
executed, the progress of social life, as
Civil aichi- that dedicated to domestic archi-
tecture, lecture. The fashions of dress
and of amusements are generally capri-
cious and irreducible to rule ; but every
change in the dwellings of mankind, from
me rudest wooden cabin to the stately
mansion, has been dictated by some prin-
ciple of convenience, neatness, comfort,
or magnificence. Yet this most interest-
ing field of research has been less beaten
by our antiquaries than others compar-
atively barren. I do not pretend to a
complete knowledge of what has been
written by these learned inquirers ; but I
can only name one book in which the
civil architecture of our ancestors had
been sketched, loosely indeed, but with
a superior hand ; and another in which it
is partially noticed. I mean by the first,
a chapter in the Appendix to Dr. Whit-
aker's History of Whalley; and by the
second, Mr. King's Essays on ancient
Castles in the ArchcTcologia.* Of these
I shall make free use in the following
paragraphs.
The most ancient buildings which we
can trace in this island, after the depar-
ture of the Romans, were circular tow-
ers of no great size, whereof many re-
main in Scotland; erected either on a
natural eminence, or on an artificial
mound of earth. Such are Conisborough
Castle in Yorkshire, and Castleton in
Derbyshire, built perhaps before the con-
quest.f To the lower chambers of those
gloomy keeps there was no admission of
light or air, except through long narrow
loopholes and an aperture in the roof.
Regular windows were made in the upper
the cr y in a less favourable point of view, charging
the citizens with gluttony and libertinism, the no-
bility with oppression, the judges with corruption,
&c. Vienna probably had the vices of a flourishing
city ; but the love of amplitication in so rhetorical
a writer as iEneas Sylvius weakens the value ol
his testimony, on whichever side it is given.
* Vols. iv. and vi.
t Mr. LysDns refers L'astleton totlie age of Will-
iam the Conqueror, but without giving any reasons.
— Lysons's Derbyshire, p. ccxxxvi. Mr. King had
satisfied himself that it was built during the Hep-
tarchy, and even before the conversion of the Sax-
ons to Christianity; but in this he gave the reins,
as usual, to his imagination, wiiich as much ex-
ceeded h's learning as the latter did his judgment.
Conisborough should seem, by the name, to have
been a royal residence, which it certainly never
was after the conquest. But if the engravings of
the decorative parts in Archsologia, vol. vi., p. 244,
are not remarkably inaccurate, the architecture is
too elegant for the Danes, much more for the un-
converted Saxons. Both these castles are enclo-
sed by a court orballium, with a fortified entrance,
like those e.rpx ^ed bv the Normans.
apartments. Were it not foi the vas
thickness of he walls, and some mark
of attention both to convenience and dec
oration in these structures, we might b«
induced to consider them as rather in
tended for security during the transier
inroad of an enemy, than lor a chieftain ;
usual residence. They bear a close re-
semblance, except by their circular fonn
and more insulated situation, to the peels,
or square towers of three or four sto-
ries, which are still found contiguous to
ancient mansion-houses, themselves far
more ancient, in the northern counties,*
and seem to have been designed for
places of refuge.
In course of time, the barons who
owned these castles began to covet a
more comfortable dwelling. The keep
was either much enlarged, or altogether
relinquished as a place of residence, ex
cept in time of siege ; while more conve-
nient apartments were sometimes erect-
ed in the tower of entrance, over the
great gateway, which led to the inner
ballium or courtyard. Thus at Tun-
bridge Castle, this part of which is refer-
red by Mr. King to the beginning of the
thirteenth centurj^ there was a room
twenty-eight feet by sixteen on each
side of the gateway ; another above, of
the same dimensions, with an interme-
diate room over the entrance ; and one
large apartment on a second floor occu-
pying tlie whole space, and intended for
state. The windows in this class of cas-
tles were still little better than loopholes
on the basement story, but in the upper
rooms often large and beautifully orna-
mented, tliough always looking inwards
to the court. Edward I. introduced a
more splendid and convenient style of
castles, containing many habitable tow-
ers, with communicating apartinents.
Conway and Carnarvon will be familiar
examples. The next innovation was the
castle-palace ; of which Windsor, if not
quite the earliest, is the most magnificent
instance. Alnwick, Naworth, Harewood,
Spofforlh, Kenilworth, and Warwick,
were all built upon this scheme during
the fourteenth century, but subsequent
enlargements have rendered caution ne-
cessary to distinguish their original re-
mains. "The odd mixture," says Mr.
King, " of convenience and magnificence
with cautious designs for protection and
' defence, and with the inconveniences qf
the form '.r onfined plan of a close for-
tress, is very striking." The provisions
for defence became now, however, little
* VVintaker'sHist. of Whalley. Lysons's Cum
rerland p. ccvi.
P*u^ I1..1
STATE OI" SOCiEl Y.
189
more than nugatory; large arched win-
dows, like those of cathedra.s, were in-
troduced into halls, and this change in ar-
chitecture manifestly bears witness to
the cessation of h-aronial wars, and the
increasing love of splendour in the reign
of Edward III.
To '.hese succeeded the castellated
houses of the fifteenth century ; such as
Herstmonceux in Sussex, Haddon Hall
in Derbyshire, and the older part of
Kuowle in Kent.* They resembled for-
tified castles in their strong gateways,
their turrets and battlements, to erect
which a royal license was necessary, but
their defensive strength could only have
availed against a sudden afiray or attempt
at forcible dispossession. They were al-
ways built round one or two courtyards,
the circumference of the first, when there
were two, being occupied by the offices
and servants' rooms, that of the second
by the state-apartments. Regular quad-
rangular houses, not castellated, were
sometimes built during the same age, and
under Henry VH. became universal in
the superior style of domestic architec-
ture.! The quadrangular form, as well
from security and convenience as from
imitation of conventual houses, which
were always constructed upon that mod-
el, was generally preferred ; even where
the dwelling-house, as indeed was usual,
only took up one side of the enclosure,
and the remaining three contained the
offices, stables, and farm-buildings, with
walls of communication. Several very old
parsonages appear to have been built in
thfs manner.^ It is, however, very diffi-
cult to discover any fragmeyts of houses
inhabited by the gentry before the reign,
at soonest, of Edward HI., or even to
trace them by engravings in the older to-
pographical works ; not only from the di-
lapidations of time, but because very fev/
considerable mansions had been erected
by that class. A great part of England
affords no stone fit for building ; and the
vast, though unfortunately not inexhaust-
ible resources of her oak forests, were
easily applied to less durable and magnif-
icent structures. A frame of massive
limber, independent of walls, and resem-
bling the inverted hull of a large ship,
formed the skeleton, as it were, of an an-
cient hall; the principal beams springing
from the ground naturally curved, and
♦ The ruins of Herslmoncenx are, I believe,
tolerably authentic remains of Henry VI. 's age,
but a modern antiquary asserts that only one of
the courts at Hacidon Hall is ol" he fiftenth cen-
tury — Lysons's Derbyshire.
t Ar'^.haeologia, vol. vi.
t Blomefield's Norfolk, vol. iii p 242
forming a Gothic arch overhead. The
intervals of these were filled up with hor
izontal planks; but in the eailier build-
ings, at least in some districts, no part
of the walls was of stone.* Stone
houses are however mentioned as be-
longing to citizens of London, even in
the reign of Henry U. ;t and, though not
often perhaps regularly hewn stones, yet
those scattered over tlie soil, or dug
from flint quarries, bound together with
a very strong and durable cement, were
employed in the construction of manorial
houses, especially in the western coun-
ties, and other parts where that material
is easily procured. :j: Gradually, even in
timber buildings, the intervals of the
main beams, which now became perpAi-
dicular, 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, intersected by horizontal or
diagonal beams, grooved into the princi-
pal piers. 1^ This mode of building con-
tinued for a long time, and is still famil-
iar to our eyes in the older streets of the
metropolis and other towns, and in many
parts of the country. || Early in the four-
teenth century, the art of building with
brick, which had been lost since the Ro-
man dominion, was introduced, probably
from Flanders. Though several edifices
of that age are constructed witii this ma-
terial, it did not "come into general use
till the reign of Henry VI. ^ Many con
siderable houses as well as public build-
ings were erected with bricks during his
reign and that of Edward IV., chiefly in
the eastern counties, where the deficien-
cy of stone was most experienced. Few,
if any, brick mansion-houses of the fif-
teenth century exist, except in a dilapi-
dated state ; but Queen's College and
(^lare Hall at Cambridge, and part of
Eton College, are subsisting witnesses to
the durability of the material as it wa.s
then employed.
It is an error to suppose Meanness of
that the English gentry were iininiary man
lodged ill stately or even in sion-housea.
* Whitaker's Hist, of Whalley.
t Lyttieton, t. iv., p. 130.
J Harrison says that few of the houses of tli-i
commonalty, except here and there in the west'
country towns, were made of stone, p. 311. Thi»
was about 1570. <^ Hist, of Whallej.
!l The ancient manours and .louses of oui gen
tlcmen. says Harrison, are yet, and for the most
part, of strong timber, in (rammg whereof our car
penters have been and are worthily preferred be
fore those of like science among all utner nations.
Howbeit such as are lately builded are either oi
bick or hard stone, or both, p. .')lf>.
% Archaef logia, vol i., p. 143 : vol. iv., p. 91,
i90
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
ILkaF. II
well-Sized houses. Generally speaking,
their dwellings were almost as inferi-
or to those of their descendants in
capacity as they were in convenience.
The usual arrangement consisted of an
entrance-passage running through the
house, with a hall on one side, a parlour
oeyond, and one or two chambers above,
and on the opposite side a kitchen, pan-
try, and other offices.* Such was the
ordinary manor-house of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, as appears not
only from the documents and engravings,
but, as to the latter period, from the build-
ings themselves, sometimes, though not
very frequently, occupied by families
of consideration, more often converted
into farmhouses or distinct tenements.
Larger structures were erected by men
of great estates during the reigns of
Henry VI. and Edward IV. ; but very
few can be traced higher ; and such has
been the effect of time, still more through
the advance or dechne of families, and
the progress of architectural improve-
ment, than the natural decay of these
buildings, that I should conceive it diffi-
cult to name a house in England, still in-
habited by a gentleman, and not belong-
ing to the order of castles, the principal
apartments of which are older than the
reign of Henry VII. The instances at
least must be extremely few.f
France by no means appears to have
made a greater progress than our own
country in domestic architecture. Except
fortified castles, I do not find in the work
of a very miscellaneous, but apparently
♦ Hist, of Whalley. In Strult's View of Man-
ners we have an inventory of furniture in the
house of Mr. Richard Fermor, ancestor of the Earl
of Pomfret, at Easton, in Northamptonshire, and
another in that of Sir Adrian Foskewe. Both
these houses appear to have been of the dimen-
sions and arrangement mentioned. And even in
houses of a more ample extent, the bisection of
the ground-plot by an entrance-passage was, I be-
lieve, universal, and is a proof of antiquity. Had-
don Hall and Penshurst still display this ancient
arrangement, which has been altered in some old
houses. About the reign of James I., or perhaps a
little sooner, architects began to perceive the ad-
ditional grandeur of entering the great hall at
once.
i Single rooms, windows, doorways, &c., of an
earlier date may perhaps not unfrequently be
found ; hut such instances are always to be verified
by their intrinsic evidence, not by the tradition of
the place. The most remarkable fragment of earlv
building which I have anywhere found mentioned
!9 at a house in Berkshire, called Appleton, where
there exists a sort of prodigy, an entrance-passage
with circular arches iu the Saxon siyle, which
must probably be as old as the reign of Henry II.
No other private house in England, as I conceive,
can boast of such a monument of antic »i y. — Ly-
wus's Beikshire p. 212 234.
diligent writer,* any c jnsiderable dwell-
ings mentioned before the r<;ign of
Charles VII., and very few of so early a
date.f Jacques Cceur, a famous mer-
chant, unjustly persecuted by that prince,
had a handsome house at Paris, as well
as another at Beaumont-sur-Oise.J It ia
obvious that the long calamities which
France endured before the expulsion of
the English must have retarded this
eminent branch of national improve-
ment.
Even in Italy, where, from the size of
her cities and social refinements of her
inhabitants, greater elegance and splen-
dour in building were justly to be expect-
ed, the domestic architecture of the mid-
dle ages did not attain any perfection.
In several towns the houses were cover-
ed with thatch, and suffered consequent-
ly from destructive fires. Costanzo, a
Neapolitan historian near the end of the
sixteenth century, remarks the change
of manners that had occurred since the
reign of Joanna II., one hundred and
fifty years before. The great families
under the queen expended all their wealth
on their retainers, and placed their chief
pride in bringing them into the field.
They were ill lodged, not sumptuously
clothed, nor luxurious in their tables.
The house of Caracciola, high steward
of that princess, one of the most power-
ful subjects that ever existed, having
fallen into the hands of persons incom-
parably below his station, had been en-
larged by them, as insufficient for their
accommodation.^ If such were the case
in the city of Naples so late as the begin-
ning of the .fifteenth century, we may
* Melanges tires d'une grande bibliotheque, par
M. de Paulmy, t. iii., et xxxi. It is to be regretted
that Le Grand d'Aussy never completed that part
of his Vie privee des Frani^ais which was to have
comprehended the history of civil architecture.
Villaret has slightly noticed its state about 1380,
t. ii., p. 141.
t Chenonceaux in Tourainc was built by a
nephew of Chancellor Duprat ; Gaillon in the de-
partment of Eure by Cardinal Amboise ; both at
the beginning of the sixteenth century. These
are now considered, in their ruins, as among the
most ancient houses in France. A work by Dm-
cerceaii (Les plus excellens Batimens de France,
1607) gives accurate engravings of thirty houses ;
but, with one or two exceptions, they seem all to
have been built in the sixteenth century. Even in
that age, defence was naturally an object in con-
structing a French mansion-house ; and where de-
fence is to be regarded, splendour and convenience
must give way. The name of chateau was not
retained without mepning.
t Melanges tires, &c,, t. iii. For the prospentj
and downfall of Jacques Coeur, see Villaret, t. xvi.
p. 1 1 ; but more especially M6m. de I'Acad. d s Ij
script., t. XX., p. 509.
6 Giannoue, 1st. di Napoli, r. iii., p. 280
f 4Rr il.J
STATE OF SOCIETY
49.
guess how mean were the habitations in
less polished parts of Europe.
The two most essential improvements
Invention of "^ architecture during this pe-
c"Imneys° riod, ouc of which had been
an-i glass ^hiissed by the sagacity of
windows. Qreece and Rome, were chim-
neys and glass windows. Nothing ap-
parently 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 Viiruvius had
not a glimpse, was made perhaps in this
country, by some forgotten semi-barbari-
an. About the middle of the fourteenth
century the use of chimneys 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 pre-
served in France, whence artificers were
brought into England to furnish the win-
dows in some ne\y churches during the
seventh century. f It is s^d that in the
reign of Henry ill., 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 paint-
ed ;^ and I presume that other churches
of the same class, both in France and
England, especially after the lancet-
shaped window had yielded to one of
* Muratori, Antich. Ital, Dissert. 25, p. 390.
Beckman, in his History of Inventions, vol. i., a
work of very great research, cannot trace any ex-
plicit mention of chimneys beyond the writings of
John Villani, wherein however they are not noticed
as a new invention. Piers Plowman, a few years
later than Villani, speaks of a " chambre with a
chimney" in which rich men usually dined. But
in the account-book of Bolton Abbey, under the
year 1311, there is a charge pro faciendocamino in
the rectory-house of Gargrave. — Whilaker's Hist,
of Craven, p. 331. This may, I think, have been
c'nly an iron stove or firepan ; though Dr. W.,
without hesitation, translates it a chimney. How-
ever, Mr. King, in his observations on ancient cas-
tles, ArchaBol.,vol. vi.,and Mr. Strutt, in his View
of Manners, vol. i., describes chimneys in castles
of a very old construction. That at Conisborough
in Yorkshire is peculiarly worthy of attention, and
carries back this important invention to a remote
antitjuity. Chimneys are still more modern in
France ; and seem, according to Paulmy, to have
come into common use since the middle of the
seventeenth century. Jadis nos p^res n'avoient
qu'un unique chaufl'oir, qui eioit commun a toute
une famiUe, et quelquefois a plusieurs, t. lii., p.
133. In another place, however, he says ; II parait
que les tuyaux de cheminees etaient deja tris en
usage en France, t. xx.x., p. 232.
t Du Cange,v. Vitrese. Bentham's History of
Kly p 22.
t 'Matt. Paris. Vitis Abbatum St. Alb. 122.
4 Recueildes Hist., t. xii., p. 101.
ampler dimensions, were generally dec
orated in a similar manner. Yet glass is
said not to have been employed in the
domestic architecture of France before
the fourteenth century;* and its intro-
duction into England was probably by no
means earlier. Nor indeed did it come
into general use during the period of the
middle ages. Glazed windows were con-
sidered as moveable furniture, and prob
ably bore a high price. V\hen the earls
of Northumberland, as late as the reign
of Elizabeth, left Alnwick Castle, the
windows were taken out of their frames
and carefully laid by.f
But if the domestic buildings of the
fifteenth century would not seem Furniture
very spacious or convenient at "i" houses
present, far less would this lu.xurious
generation be content with their internal
accommodations. A gentleman's house
containing three or four beds was extra-
ordinarily well provided; few probably
had more than two. The walls were
commonly bare, without wainscot or ever
plaster ; except that some great house?
were furnished with hangings, and thai
perhaps hardly so soon as the reign of
Edward IV. It is unnecessary to add,
that neither libraries of books nor pictures
could have found a place among furni-
ture. Silver plate was very rare, and
hardly used for the table, a" few inven-
tories of furniture that still remain ex
hibit a miserable deficiency. J And this
was incomparably greater in private gen-
tlemen's houses than among citizens, and
especially foreign merchants. We have
an inventory of the goods belonging to
Contarini, a rich Venetian trader, at his
house in St. Botolph's Lane, A. D. MSI.
There appear to have been no less than
ten beds, and glass windows are especi-
ally noticed as moveable furniture. No
mention however is made of chairs or
looking-glasses,^ If. we compare this
♦ Paulmy, t. iii., p. 132. Villaret, I. xi., p. 141
Macpherson, p. 679.
t Northumberland Household Book, preface,
p. IG. Bishop Percy says, on the authority ot Har
rison, that glass was not commonly used in the
reign of Henry VIII.
t See some curious valuations of furniture and
stock in trade at Colchester in 129C and 1301.
Eden's Introduct. to Slate of the Poor, p. 20 and
25, from the rolls of parliament. A carpenter's
stock was valued at a shilling, and consisted of five
tools. Other tradesmen were almost as poor ; but
a tanner's stock, if there is no mistake, was worth
9/. 7i-. lOd., more than ten times any other. Tanners
were principal tradesmen, the chief par* of dress
being made of leather. A few silver :nps and
spoons are the only articles of plate ; and as the
former are valued but at one or two shdlings, they
had, I suppose, but a little silver on the rim.
(j Nicholl'8 Illus lations, p. 119. In this work
432
El'ROPE DURING TnE MIDDLE AGES.
Chap. IX
account, however trifling in our estima-
lion, with a similar inventory of furniture
in Skipton Castle, the great honour of the
earls of Cumberland, and among the most
splendid mansions of the north, not ai
the same period, ifjr I have not found any
iuventory of a nouleman's furniture so
ancient, but in 1572, after almost a cen-
tury of continual improvement, we shall
be astonished 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 cham-
bers either chairs, glasses, or carpets.*
It is in this sense, probably, that we must
understand ^Eneas Sylvius, if he meant
any thing more than to express a travel-
ler's discontent, when he declares that
the kings of Scotland would rejoice to be
as well lodged as the second class of cit-
izens at Nuremberg.f Few burghers of
that town had mansions, I preaume, equal
to the palaces of Dumferlin or Stirling,
but it is not unlikely that they were bet-
ter furnished.
In the construction of farmhouses and
among several interesting facts of the same class,
we have another inventory of the goodj of " John
Port, late the king's servant," who iied about
1524 ; he seems to have been a man of some con-
sideration, and probably a merchant. The house
consisted of a hall, parlour, buttery, and kitchen,
with two chambers, and one smaller, on the floor
ibove ; a napery, or linen room, and three garrets,
besides a shop, which was probably detached.
There were five bedsteads in the house, and on the
whole a great deal of furniture for those times ;
much more than I have seen in any other inven-
tory. His plate is valued at 941. ; his jewels at
23/. ; his funeral expenses come to 73/. 6s. 8d.,
p. 119.
* Whitaker's Hist, of Craven, p. 289. A better
notion of the accommodations usual in the rank
immediately below may be collected from two
inventories published by Strutt, one of Mr. Fer-
mor's house at Easton, the other Sir Adrian
Foskewe's — I have mentioned the size of these
gentlemen's houses already. In the former, the
parlour had wainscot, a table, and a few chairs;
the chambers above had two best beds, and there
was one servant's bed ; but the inferior servants
had only mattresses on the floor. The best cham-
bers had window-shutters and curtains. Mr. Fer-
mor, being a merchant, was probably better sup-
plied than the neighbouring gentry. His plate,
however, consisted only of sixteen spoons, and a
few goblets and atepots. Sir Adrian Foskewe's
opulence appears to have been greater; he had a
service of silver plate, and his parlour was fur-
nished with hangings. This was in 1539 ; it is not
to be imagined that a knight of the shire a hundred
years before would have rivalled even this scanty
orovision of moveables.— Strutt's View of Man-
tiers, vol. iii., p. 63. These details, trifling as they
may rppear, are absolutely necessary in order to
give an idea with some precision of a state of na-
tional wealth so totally different from the present,
■t Cuperent tarn egregie Scotorum reges quJiir.
mediocresNurembergK civeshabitare.— .(En. Sylv.
«DU \ Schmidt His' des Allem., t. v.. p. 610.
cottiges, especially the latter, Farm-
there have probably been fewer iiouses am
changes ; and those it would be '""""ge^-
more difficult to follow. No building of
this class can be supposed to exist of the
antiquity to M'hich the present work is
confined ; and I do not know that we
have any document as to the inferior
architecture of England, so valuable as
one which M. de Paulmy has quoted for
that of P'rance, though perhaps more
strictly applicable to Italy, an illuminated
manuscript of the fourteenth century,
being a translation of Crescentio's work
on agriculture, illustrating the customs,
and, among other things, the habitations
of the agricultural class. According to
Paulmy, there is no other difference be-
tween 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 com-
posed this treatise on rural affairs about
the year 1300, an Italian farmhouse,
when built at least according to his plan,
appears to have been commodious both
in size and arrangement.! Cottages in
England seem to have generally consist-
ed of a single room, without division of
stories. Chimneys were unknown in
such dwellings till the early part of Eliz-
abeth's reign, when a very rapid and sen-
sible improvement took place in the com-
forts of our yeomanry and cottagers. J
It must be remembered, that I have in-
troduced this disadvantageous Ecciesias-
representation of civil architec- ticaiarchi-
ture as a proof of general pov- '«'^'"''^-
erty and backwardness in the refine-
ments 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 at-
tention to durability. The castellated
style displays these qualities in greater
perfection ; the means are well adapted
to their objects, and its imposing gran-
deur, though chiefly resulting no doub/
from massiveness and historical associa-
tion, sometimes indicates a degree of
♦ JEn. Sylv. apud Schmidt, Hist, des Allem., t.
iii., p. 127.
t Crescentius in Commodum Rurahum. (Lo
vanioe, absque anno.) This old edition contains
many coarse wooden cuts, possibly taken from the
illuminations which Paulmy found in his manu-
script.
t Harrison's account of England, prehxed tc
Hollingshed's Chronicles. Chimneys were not
used in the farmhouses of Cheshire till withit
forty years of the publication of King's Vale-roya.
(1656); the fire w'as in the midst of the house
against a hob of clay, and the oxen Aved undet the
same roof.— Whitaker's Craven, c "1.34
Part Ii.]
STATE OF SOCIETY.
491
architectural genuis in the conception.
But the most remarkable works of this
art are the rehgious edifices erected in
the twelfth and three following centuries.
These structures, uniting sublimity in
general composition with the beauties of
variety and form, intricacy of parts, skil-
ful or at least fortunate effects of shadow
and light, and in some instances with ex-
traordinary mechanical science, are nat-
urally 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
the picture. It was the favourite and
most honourable employment of eccle-
siastical wealth, to erect, to enlarge, to
repair, to decorate cathedral and con-
ventual churches. An immense capital
must have been expended upon these
buildings in England between the con-
quest 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 to
the first sunshine of encouragement. In
the darkest period of the middle ages,
especially after the Scandinavian incur-
sions into France and England, ecclesi-
astical architecture, though always far
more advanced than any other art, be-
spoke the rudeness and poverty of the
times It began towards the latter part
of the eleventh century, when tranquilli-
ty, at least as to former enemies, was re-
stored, and some degree of learning re-
appeared, to assume a more noble ap-
pearance. The Anglo-Norman cathe-
drals were perhaps as much distinguished
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 architec-
ture, or perhaps more immediately of the
Saracenic buildings in Spain, and those
of the lower Greek empire.* But about
♦ The Saracenic architecuire was once con-
ceived to have been the parent of the Gothic. But
•iie pointed arch does not occur, 1 believe, in any
Moorish buildings ; while the great mosque of Cor-
dova, built in the eighth century, resembles, e.x-
cept by its superior beauty and magnificence, one
of our oldest cathedrals ; the nave of (ilocester for
example, or Durham. Even the vaulting is simi-
lar, and seems to indicate some imitation, though
perhaps of a common model. Compare Archaeo-
logia, vol. xvii ., plate 1 and 2, with Murphy's Ara-
bian Antiquities, plate 5. The pillars indeed at
Cordova are of the Corinthian order, perfectly ex-
eruterl. if we may trust the engraving, and the
work I presume, of Christian architects; while
the middle of the twelfth century, this
manner began to g.ve place to what i."
improperly denominated the Gothic ai-
chitecture ;* of which the po'nted arcn,
formed by the segments of two inter-
secting semicircles, struck from points
equidistant from the centre of a common
diameter, has been deemed the essential
characteristic. We are not concerned at
present to inquire whether this style ori
ginated in France or Germany, Italy or
England, since it was certainly almost
simultaneous in all these countries ;t nor
those of our Anglo-Norman cathedrals are gener-
ally an imitation of the Tuscan shaft, the builders
not venturing to trust their roofs to a more slender
support, though Corinthian foliage is common in
the capitals, especially those of smaller ornamen-
tal columns. In fact, the Roman architeciure is
universally acknowledged to have produced what
we call the Sa.xon or Norman ; but it is remarka-
ble that it should have been adopted, with i!0 varia-
tion but that of the singular horseshoe arch, by the
Moors of Spain.
The Gothic, or pointed arch, though very uncom-
mon in the genuine Saracenic of Spain and the
Levant, may be found in some prints from eastern
buildings ; and is particularly striking in the facjade
of the great mosque at Lucknow, in Salt's dcsigr.a
for Lord V'alentia's Travels. The pointed arch
buildings in the Holy Land have all been traced to
the age of the crusades. Some arches, if thay
deserve the name, that have been referred to
this class, are not pointed by their constr-jctiCn,
but rendered such by cutting off and hollowing the
projections of horizontal stones.
* Gibbon has asserted, what might justify this
appellation, that " the image of Theodoric's palace
at Verona, still extant on a c(jin, represents the
oldest and most authentic model of Gotiuc architec-
ture," vol. vii., p. 33. For this he refers to .Maffei,
Verona Illustrata, p. 31, where we fiiul an engra
ving, not indeed of a coin, but of a seal; the build
ing represented on which is in a totally dissimilar
style. The following passages in Cassiodorus, for
which ! am indebted to M. Ginguene, Hist. 1 itter.
de ritalie, t. i., p. 55, would be more to the pur-
pose ; Quid dicamus columnaruin junceam proce-
ritatem? moles illassublimissimaslabricaruin qua
SI quibusdam erectis hastilibus contineri. These
columns of reedy slenderness, so well descrilied by
juncea proceritas, are said to be found in tin; cathe-
dral of Montreale in Sicily, built in the eiglilh cen-
tury.—Knight's Principles of Taste, p. 1G2. Tiiey
are not however suflicient to justify the denom-
ination of Gothic, which is usually confined to the
pointed arch style.
t The famous abbot Snger, minister of Louie
VI., rebuilt St. Denis about 1140. The cathedral
of Laon is said to have 'oeen dedicated in 1114. —
Hist. Litteraire de la France, t. ix., p. 220. I do
not know in what style the latter of these churchei
is built, but the former is, or rather was. Gothic.
Notre Dame at Paris was begun soon after the mid-
dle of the twelfth century, and completed under
St. Louis. Melanges tires d'une grande biblicthi-
que, t. xxxi., p. 108. In England the earliest, spe-
cimen I have seen of pointed arches is ip. a print of
St. Botolph's priory at Colchester, said by StrutI
to have been built in 1110.— View of Manners, voL
i., plate 30. These are apertures formed by exca
vatins the space contained by the inlerseciioti of
semicircular or Saxon arches ; ^hich are iierpet
494
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. IX
from what source it was derived ; a ques-
tion 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 continental than English
churches. Amiens is in a far more florid
style than Salisbury, though a contem-
porary structure. The Gothic species of
architecture is thought by some to liave
reached its perfection, considered as an
object of taste, by the middle of the four-
teenth century, or at least to have lost
something of its excellence by the cor-
responding 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. Yet this
seems, if true at all, only applicable to
England; since the cathedrals of Co-
logne and Milan, perhaps the most distin-
guished monuments of this architecture,
are both of the fifteenth century. The
mechanical execution, at least, continued
to improve, and is so far beyond the ap-
parent intellectual powers of those times,
that some have ascribed the principal ec-
clesiastical structures to the fraternity of
freemasons, depositaries of a concealed
and traditionary science. There is proba-
bly some ground for this opinion; and
the earlier archives of that mysterious
association, if they existed, might illus-
trate the progress of Gothic architecture,
and perhaps reveal its origin. The re-
markable change into this new style, that
was almost contemporaneous in every
part of Europe,* cannot be explained by
iially disposed, by way of ornament, on the outer
as well as inner surface of old churches, so as to
cut each other, and consequently to produce the
figure of a Gothic arch ; and if there is no mistake
in the date, they are probably among the most an-
cient of that style m Europe. Those at the church
of St. Cross near Winchester are of the reign of
Stephen ; and, generally speaking, the pomted
Btyle, especially in vaulting, the most important
object in the construction of a buildmg, is not con-
sidered as older than Henry II. The nave of Can-
terbury cathedral, of the erection of which by a
French architect about 1176 we have a ful. ac-
count in Gervase (Twysden, Decern Scriptores,
lol. 1289), and the Temple church, dedicated in
1183, are the most ancient English buildings alto-
gether in the Gothic manner.
* The cur'ous subject of Ireemasonrv has un-
any local circumstances, or the capri
cious taste of a single nation.
It would be a pleasing tisk to trace
with satisfactory exactness the Agricuiturt
slow, and almost perhaps insen- in"some de-
sible progress of agriculture and |rg|^™j
internal improvement during the
latter period of the middle ages. But no
diligence could recover the unrecorded
history of a single village ; though consid-
erable attention has of late been paid to
this interesting subject by those antiqua-
ries who, though sometimes affecting to
despise the lights of modern philosophy,
are unconsciously guided by their efful
gence. I have already adverted to the
wretched condition of agriculture during
the prevalence of feudal tenures, as well
as before their general estabhshment.*
Yet, even in the least civilized ages, there
w'ere not wanting partial encouragements
fortunately been treated only by panegyrists or ca-
lumniators, both equally mendacious. I do not
wish to pry into the mysteries of the craft ; but it
would be interesting to know more of their history
during the period when they were literally archi
tects. They are charged by an act of parliament,
3 H. VI., c. 1, with fixing the price of their labour
in their annual chapters, contrary to the statute of
labourers, and such chapters are consequently pro-
hibited. This is their first persecution ; they have
since undergone others, and are perhaps reserved
for still more. It is remarkable that masons were
never legally incorporated, like other traders ; their
bond of union being stronger than any charter.
The article Masonry, in the Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica, is worth reading.
* I cannot resist the pleasure of transcribing a
lively and eloquent passage from Dr. Whitaker.
" Could a curious observer of the present day carry
himself nine or ten centuries back, and, ranging the
summit of Pendle. survey the forked vale of Cal-
der on one side, and the bolder margins of Ribble and
Madder on the other, instead of populous towns
and villages, the castle, the old tower-built house,
the elegant modern mansion, the artificial planta-
tion, the enclosed park and pleasure-ground: in-
stead of uninterrupted enclosures, which have driv-
en sterility almost to the summit of the fells, how
great must then have been the contrast, when.
ranging either at a distance or immediately be
neath, his eye must have caught vast tracts of for
est-ground, stagnating with bog or darkened by na
tive woods, where the wild ox, the roe, the stag,
and the wolf, had scarcely learned the supremacy
of man, when, directing his view to the intermedi-
ate spaces, to the windings of the valleys, or the
expanse of plains beneath, he could only have dis-
tinguished a few insulated patchesof culture, each
encircling a village of wretched cabins, among
which would still be remarked one rude mansion
of wood, scarcely equal in comfort to a modern
cottage, yet then rising proudly eminent abave the
rest, where the Saxon lord, surrounded by hi«
faithful cotarii, enjoyed a rude and solitary inde-
pendence, owning no superior but his sovereign." —
Hist, of Whalley, p. 133. About a fourteenth part
of this parish of Whalley was cultivated at the
time of Domesday. This proportion, however,
would bf no means hold in the counties south of
Trent.
p4RT ll.j
STATE OF SDCIETY.
496
to cultivation, and the ameliorating prin-
ciple of human industry struggled against
destructive revolutions and barbarous dis-
order. 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 valuable
and permanent. Many of tlie grants to
monasteries, which strike us as enor-
mous, w^ere of districts absolutely wast-
ed, which would probably have been re-
claimed 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 re-
gions, which they cultivated with the
labour of their hands.* Several char-
ters are extant, granted to convents,
and sometimes to laymen, of lands which
•they had recovered from a desert condi-
tion, after the ravages of the Saracens.f
Some districts were allotted to a body of
Spanish colonists, who emigrated, in the
reign of Louis the Debonair, in search of
a Christian sovereign. J Nor is this the
only instance of agricultural colonies.
Charlemagne transplanted part of his
conquered Saxons into Flanders, a coun-
try at that time almost unpeopled ; and,
at a much later period, there was a re-
markable reflux from the same country,
or rather from Holland, to the coasts of
the Baltic Sea. In the twelfth century,
great numbers of Dutch colonists settled
along the whole line between the Ems
and the Vistula. They obtained grants
of uncultivated land on condition of fixed
rents, and w'cre governed by their own
laws under magistrates of their own elec-
tion. ^
« "Of the Anglo-Saxon husbandry we may re-
mark," says Mr. Turner, " that Domesday Survey
gives ps some indication that the cultivation of the
church lands was much superior to that of any
other order of society. They have much less wood
upon them, and less common of pasture ; and what
they had appears often in smaller and more irregu-
lar pieces ; while their meadow was more abun-
dant, and in more numerous distributions." — Hist,
of Anglo-Saxons, vol. ii., p. 167.
+ Thus, in Marca Hispanica, Appendix, p. 770,
we have a grant from Lothaire I. in 834, to a per-
son and his brother, of lands which their father, ab
eremo in Septimani& trahens, had possessed by a
chatter of Charlemagne. See too p. 773, and
other places. Du Cange, v. Eremus, gives also a
few instances.
t Du Cange, v. Aprisio. Baluze, Capitularia, t.
.. p. 549. They were permitted to decide petty
jits among themselves, but for more important
natters were to rep»ir to the county-court. A lib-
eral policy runs through the whole charter. Sec
more on the same subject, id., p. 569.
^ I owe this fact to M. Heeren, Essai sur I'lnflu-
encedes Croisades, p. 226. An inundation in their
own country is supposed to have immediately pro-
duced this e-nicration Viut it was probably sue-
There cannot be a more striking prool
of the low condition of English agricul
ture in the eleventh century, than is ex-
hibited by Domesday book. Thougli al-
most all England had been partially cul
tivated, and we find nearly tlie same ma-
nors, except in the north, which exist al
present, yet the value and extent of cul-
tivated ground are inconceivably small.
With every allowance for the inaccura-
cies and partiahties ot those by whom
that famous survey was completed,* we
are lost in amazement at the constant
recurrence of two or three carucat<;s
in demesne, with folklands occupied by
ten or a dozen villeins, valued altogether
at forty shillings, as the return of a manor,
which now would yield a competent in-
come to a gentleman. If Domesday book
can be considered as even approaching to
accuracy in respect of these estimates, ag
riculture must certainly have made a very
material progress in the four succeeding
centuries. This, however, is rendered
probable by other documents. Ingulfus,
abbot of Croyland under the Conqueror,
supplies an early and interesting evidence
of improvement. Richard de Rules, lord
of Deeping, he tells us, being fond of ag-
riculture, obtained permission from the
abbey to enclose a large portion of marst
for the purpose of separate pasture, ex-
cluding the Welland by a strong dike,
upon which he erected a town, and ren-
dering those stagnant fens a garden of
Eden.f In imitation of this spirited cul-
tivator, the inhabitants of Spalding and
some neighbouring villages, by a com-
njon resolution, divided their marshe?
among them ; when some converting
them to tillage, some reserving tliem foi
meadow, others leaving them in pasture
found a rich soil for every purpose. The
cessive, and connected with political as well as
physical causes of greater permanence. The first
instrument in which they are mentioned is a grant
from the Bishop of Hamburgh in 1106. This colo-
ny has afifected ttie local usages, as well as the de-
nominations of things and places along the north-
ern coast of Germany. It must be presumed that
a large proportion of the emigrants were diverted
from agriculture to people the commercial cities
which grew up in the twelfth century upon that
coast.
* Ingulfus tells us that the commissioners were
pious enough to favour Croyland, returning it!
possessions inaccurately, both as tc measurement
and value ; non ad veruin pretium, nee ad vcrum
spatium nostrum monasterium librabant miseri-
cordiler, praecaventes in futurum regis e.xactioni-
bus, p. 79. I may just observe, by-the-way, that
Ingulfus gives the plain meaning of the word
Domesday, which has been disputed. The boo4
was so called, he says, pro sua generalitate omr.ij
tenementa totuis terra; integrft continente ; that is.
it was as general and conclusive as the list judg
ment will r/i t 1 Gale xv. Scij' . p 7'-
i9G
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
[Cll*!-. IX
abbey of Croyland and villages in that
neighboui-nood loUowed this example.*
This early nibtance of parochial enclosure
is not to be overlooked in the history of
social progress. By the statute cf Mer-
ton, in the •20th of Henry III., the lord is
permitted to approve, that is, to enclose,
the waste lands of his manor, provided
he i3ave sufficient common or pasture for
the freeholders. Higden, a writer who
.ived about the time of Richard II. , says,
in reference to the number of hydes and
vills of England at the conquest, that by
clearing of woods and ploughing up
wastes, there were many more of each
in his age than formerly.! And it might
be easily presumed, independently 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
manorial surveys indeed, and similar in-
struments, it appears that in some places
there was nearly as much ground culti-
vated in the reign of Edward III. as at
the present day.. The condition of dif-
ferent counties, however, was very far
from being alike, and in general the nor-
thern and western parts of England were
the most back ward. J
The culture of arable land was very
imperfect. Fleta remarks, in the reign
of Edward I. or II., that unless an acre
yielded more than six bushels of corn,
the farmer would be a loser and the land
?'ield no rent.^ And Sir John CuUuni,
rom very minute accounts, has calcula-
ted 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 im-
perfect cultivation. In Hawsted, for ex-
ample, under Edward 1., there were thir-
teen or fourteen hundred acres of arable,
and only forty-five of meadow ground.
A similar disproportion occurs almost in-
variably in every account we possess.]]
This seems inconsistent with the low
price of cattle. But we must recollect
that the common pasture, often the most
* Communi plebiscilo viiitim inter se divisemnt,
et quidam suas portiones agricolanles, quidam ad
fcnum conservantes, quidam ut pnus ad pasturam
8uorurn animalium separaliter jaccre permittentes,
terram pinguem et uberem repererunt, p. 94.
t 1 Gale, XV. Script., p. 201.
t A good deal of information upon the former
§tate of agriculture will be found in CuUum's His-
tory of Hawsted. Blometield's Norfolk is in this
respect among the most valuable of our local his-
tories. Sir Frederick Eden, in the first part of his
excellent work on the poor, has collected several
•/iresting facts. 6 L. ii., c. 8.
11 CuUum, p IOC. 220. Eden's State of Poor,
fee, p 48. NVnitak.T's l Ttven, p 45, 3^6.
extensive part of f. manor, is not incliy
ded, at least by any specific measure
ment, in these surveys The rent of land
differed of course materially ; sixpence
en acre seems to have been about tlie
average for arable land in the thirteenth
century,* though meadow was at double
or treble that sum. But the landlords
were naturally solicitous to augment a
revenue that became more and more in-
adequate to their luxuries. They grev.'
attentive to agricultural concerns, and
perceived that a high rate of produce,
against which their less enlightened an-
cestors had been used to clamour, would
bring much more into their coff'ers than
it took away. The exportation of corn
had been absolutely prohibited. But the
statute of the 15th Henry YL, c. 2, reci-
ting that " on this account farmers, and
others who use husbandry, cannot 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 65. 8d. in value, or that of barley
3s. The price of wool was fixed in tho
thirty-second year of the same reign at a
minimum, below which no person wa»
suffered to buy it, though he might give
more ;t a provision neither wise nor equi-
table, but obviously suggested by the
same motive. Wliether 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 VIII., or rather afterward. | The
usual price of land under Edward IV.
seems to have been ten years purchase.^
It may easily be presumed that an Eng-
lish writer can furnish very lit- us conditioi
tie information as to the state in i ranee
of agriculture in foreign coun- ^""^ "^'>'-
tries, in such works relating to France
as have fallen within my reach, I have
found nothing satisfactory, and cannot
pretend to determine whether the natu-
ral tendency of mankind to ameliorate
their condition had a greater influence in
promoting agriculture, or the vices inhe-
rent in the actual order of society, and
* I infer this from a number of passages in
Bloniefield, Cullum, and other writers. Hearne
says that an acre was often called Solidata terroc ;
because the yearly rent of one on the best laiid w.-is
a shilling. — Lib. Nig. Scacc, p. 31.
t Rot. Pari, vol. v., p. 275.
j A passage in Bishop Latimer's sermons, too
often quoted to require repetition, shows that land
was much underlet about the end of the fifteenth
century. His father, he says, kept half a dozen
nusbandmen, and milked thirty cows, on a farm of
three or four pounds a year. It is not sur[ rismg
that he lived as plentifully as hi« son describes
^ Rymer, t xii., p. 204.
i
fAKT 11.
STATE OK SOCIETV
4U7
those public misfortunes to which that
Kingdom was exposed, in retarding it.*
The state of Italy was far different ; the
rich Lombard plains, still more fertili-
zed by irrigation, became a garden, and
agriculture seems to have reached the
excellence which it still retains. The
constant warfare indeed of neighbouring
cities is not very favourable to industry ;
and upon this account we might inchne
to place the greatest territorial improve-
ment of Lombardyat an era rather poste-
rior to that of her republican government ;
but from this it primarily sprung; and
without the subjugation of the feudal ar-
istocracy, and that perpetual demand
upon the fertility of the earth which an
increasing population of citizens produ-
ced, the valley of the Po would not have
yielded more to human labour than it had
done for several preceding centuries. f
Though Lombardy was extremely popu-
lous in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen-
turies, she exported large quantities of
corn. J The very curious treatise of Cres-
centius exhibits the full details of Italian
husbandry about 1300, and might afford
an mieresting comparison to those who
are acquainted with its present state.
That state, indeed, in many parts of Italy,
displays no symptoms of decline. But
whatever mysterious influence of soil or
climate has scattered the seeds of death
on the western regions of Tuscany, had
not manifested itself in the middle ages.
Among uninhabitable plains, the travel-
ler 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 man-
kind. Volterra, whose deserted walls
look down upon that tainted solitude,
was once a small but free republic ; Sie-
na, round whom, though less depopula-
ted, the malignant influence hovers, was
once almost the rival of Florence. So
melancholy and apparently irresistible a
decline of culture and population through
physical causes, as seems to have grad-
ually overspread a large portion 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 atten-
tion to an art, of which, both as
related to cultivation and to architecture,
our own forefathers were almost entirely
* Velley and Villaret scarcely mention the sub-
ject •, and Le Grand merely tells us that it was en-
tirely neglected ; but the detail'3 of such an art
«ven in its state of neglect might be interesting.
♦ Muratori, Dissert. 21. t Denina, 1. xi., c. 7.
ignoiiut. Crescentius dilates upon hor
ticulture, and gives a pretty long list oi
herbs both esculent and medicinal.* His
notions about the ornamental department
are rather beyond what we should ex-
pect, and I do not know that hi? scheme
of a flower-garden could be much amend-
ed. His general arrangements, which
are minutely detailed with evident fond-
ness for the subject, would of course ap-
pear 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 no*
seem to run into its extravagance. Reg
ular gardens, according to Paulmy, were
not made in France till the sixteenth or
even seventeenth century ;t yet one is
said to have existed at the Louvre, of
much older construction. J England, 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 at
tention.i^ The esculent vegetables now
most in use w ere introduced in the reign
of Elizabeth, and some sorts a great deal
later.
I should leave this slight survej^ of eco-
nomical history still more im- changes in
perfect, were I to make no ob- vaiueV
servation on the relative values "'°"^y-
of money. Without something like pre-
cision in our notions upon this subject, ev-
ery statistical inquiry becomes a source
of confusion and error. But consider-
able difficulties attend the discussion.
These arise principally fi cm two causes ;
the inaccuracy or partial representations
of historical writers, on whom we are
accustomed too implicitly to rely, and
the change of manners, which renders a
certain command over articles of pur-
chase less adequate to our wants than it
was in former ages.
The first of these diflficulties is capable
of being removed by a circumspf^ct use
of authorities. When this part of statis-
ticcl history began to excite attention,
which was hardly perhaps before the pub-
lication of Bishop Fleetwood's Chronicon
Preciosum, so few authentic documents
had been published with respect to prices,
that inquirers were glad to have recourse
* Denina, 1. vi.
t Idem, t. ni., p. 145 ; t. x.\xi., p. 258.
t De la Mare, Traite de la Police, t. ill., p. 380
i} Eden's State A Poor, vol. ■ p. ."iJ
498
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap, l^
to historiar.s, even when not contempo-
rary, for such facts as they had thought
nt to record. But these historians were
sometimes too distant from the times
concerning which they wrote, and too
careless in thtir general character, to
merit much regard ; and even when con-
temporary, were often credulous, remote
from the concerns of the world, and, at
the best, more apt to register some ex-
traordinary phenomenon of scarcity or
cheapness", than the average rate of pe-
cuniary dealings. The one ought, in my
opinion, to be absolutely rejected as tes-
timonies, the other to be sparingly and
diffidently admitted.* For it is no longer
necessary to lean upon such micertain
witnesses. During the last century a
very laudable industry has been shown
by antiquaries in the publication of ac-
count-books belonging to private persons,
registers of expenses in convents, returns
of markets, valuations of goods, tavern-
bills, and, in short, every document, how-
ever trifling in itself, by which this im-
portant subject can be illustrated. A suf-
ficient number of such authorities, pro-
Ting the ordinary tenour of prices, rather
than any remarkable deviations from it,
ftre the true basis of a table, by which all
changes in the value of money should be
measured. I have little doubt but that
such a table might be constructed from
the data we possess, with tolerable ex-
actness, sufficient at least to supersede
one often quoted by political economists,
but which appears to be founded upon
♦ Sir F. Eden, whose table of prices, though
capable of some improvement, is per'..-^s the best
that has appeared, would, I think, hav*- acted bet-
ter, by omitting all references to mer^ historians,
and relying entirely on regular docuniep.ts. I do
not, however, include local histories, snch as the
Aimals of Dunstaple, when they record the mar-
ket-prices of their neighbourhood, in respect of
which the book last mentioned is almost in the na-
ture of a register. Dr. Whitaker remarks the in-
exactness of Stowe, who says that wheat sold in
London, A. D. 1514, at 20*-. a quarter ; whereas it
appears to have been at 9.?. in Lancashire, where it
was always dearer than in the metropolis. — Hist,
of Whalley, p. 97. It is an odd mistake, into which
Sir F. Eden has fallen, when he asserts and argues
on the supposition, that the price of wheat fluctua-
ted, in the thirteenth century, from Is. to 6/. 8s. a
qjartcr, vol. i., p. 18. Certainly, if any chronicler
nad mentioned such a price as the latter, equiva-
lent to 150/. at present, we should either suppose
tV.at his text was corrupt, or reject it as an absurd
exaggeration. But, in fact, the author has, through
haate, mistaken 6s. Sd. for 6/. 8s., as will appear by
referring to his own table of prices, where it is set
down rightly. It is observed by Mr. Macpherson,
a very competent judge, that the arithmetical state-
ments of th.=! best historians of the middle ages are
seldom correct, owing partly to their neglect of ex-
amin:iiion,and partly to blunders nf transcribers.- -
Annals of Commerce, vol. i , p. 423
very superficial and erroneous inqui-
ries.*
1, is by no means required that I
sh rjld here oflfer such a table of values,
which, as to every country except Eng-
land, I have no means of constructing
and which, even as to England, would be
subject to many difficulties. But a read-
er unaccustomed to these investigations
ought to have some assistance in com-
paring the prices of ancient times with
those of his own. I will therefore, with-
out attempting to ascend very high, for
we have really no sufficient data as to
the period immediately subsequent to the
conquest, much less that which prece-
ded, endeavour at a sort of approxima-
tion for the thirteenth and fifteenth cen-
turies. In the reigns of Henry 111. and
Edward 1., previously to the first debasf"
ment of the coin by the latter in 1301,
the ordinary price of a quarter of wheat
appears to have been about four shillings,
and 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. f The value of cattle is of
course dependant 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 com-
parative dearness of cloth against the
cheapness of fuel and many other arti-
cles, we may perhaps consider any
given sum under Henry HI. and Edward
I. as equivalent in general command
« The table of comparative values by Sir George
Shuckburgh (Philosoph. Transact, for 1798, p.
196) is strangely incompatible with every result to
which my own reading has led me. It is the hasty
attempt of a man accustomed to different studies ;
and one can neither pardon the presumption of ob-
truding such a slovenly performance on a subjec*.
where the utmost diligence was required, nor the
affectation with which he apologizes for "descend-
ing from the dignity of philosophy."'
t Blomefield's History of Norfolk, and Sir J. Cui-
lum's of Hawsted, furnish several pieces even al
this early period. Most of them are collected by
Sir F. Eden. Fleta reckons four shillings the
average price of a quarter of wheat in his time, I.
ii., c. 8't. This writer has a digression on agiic.il-
ture, whence, however, less is to be coliectod than
we should expect.
X The fluctuations of price have unfortunately
been so great of late years, that it is almost as dif-
ficult to determine one side of our equation as the
other. Any reader, however, has it in his powei
to correct my proportions, and adopt a greater oi
less multiple, according to his own estimate of
current prices, or the changes that may take plaC\
from the time wh«!n this is wi'tteii 118161.
f/iKT ll.l
STATE OF SOCIETY.
4911
over coii.modit'es 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 per-
ceive, there had been no diminution in
le 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 splendour of
courts, might fully absorb the usual
produce. By the statute 15 H. VI., c. 2,
the price up to which wheat might be
exported is fixed at Cs. 8d., a point no
doubt above the average ; and the private
documents of that period, which are suf-
ficiently numerous, lead to a similar re-
sult.f Sixteen will be a proper multiple,
* I have sometimes been surprised at the facility
with which prices adjusted tneinselves to the
quantity of silver contained in the current coin, in
ages which appear too ignorant and too little com-
mercial for the application of this mercantile prin-
ciple. But the extensive dealings of the Jewish
and Lombard usurers, who had many debtors in
almost all parts of the country, would of itself in-
troduce a iinowledge, that silver, not its stamp,
was the measure of value. I have mentioned in
another place (vol. i.,p. 185) the heavy discontents
excited by this debasement of the coin in France ;
but the more gradual enhancement of nominal prices
in England seems to have prevented any strong
manifestations of a similar spirit at the succes-
sive reductions in value which the coin experienced
from the year 1300. The connexion however be-
tween commodities and silver was well understood.
Wykes, an annalist of Edward I.'s age, tells us
that the Jews clipped our coin till it retained
hardly half its due weight, the efl'ect of which was
a general enhancement of prices and decline of
foreign trade ; Mercalores transmarini cum merci-
moniis suis regnuin Anglije minus solito frequenta-
bant ; necnon quod omnimoda venalium genera m-
comparabililer solito fuerunt cariora. — 2 Gale, xv.
Script., p, 107. Another chronicler of the same
age complains of bad foreign money, alloyed with
copper ; nee erat in quatuor aut quinque ex lis
pondus unius denarii argenti Eratque pessi
mum sa;culurn pro tali moneta, et fiebant commu
taliones pluriinae in emptione et venditione reruiii.
Edward, as the historian informs us, bought in tins
bad money at a rate below its value, in order to
make a profit ; and fined some persons who inter-
fered with his traflic. — W. Hemingford, ad ami.
1299.
t 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 C.?.— barley from
3s. 2(1. to 4s. lOd.— oats from Is. tid. to 2s, id.—
oxen from 12s. to 16s.— sheep from Is. 2d. to Is.
4(i.— butter Id. per lb. — eggs twenty-five for Id. —
cheese ^d. per lb. — Lansdowne MSS., vol. i.,Nos.
28 and 29. These prices do not always agiee with
those given in other documents of equal authority
m the same period ; but the value of provisions
varied in diflercnt countries, and still more so in
lifferen.* seasons of the year
I i 2
when we would bring the general value
of money in this reign to our present
standard.*
But after ascertaining the proportional
values of money at different periods by a
comparison of the prices in several of
the chief articles oi expenditure, which
is the only fair process, we shall some-
times be surprised at incidental facts of
this class which seem irreducible to any
rule. These difficulties arise not so
much froin the relative scarcity of partic-
ular commodities, which it is for the
most part easy to explain, 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
frugality 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 fes
tivals and tournaments, and sometimes
inattentive enough to transfer the man-
ners of the seventeenth to the fourteenth
century, we are not at all aware of the
usual simplicity with which 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 for husband-
ry ; their horses, as we may guess by
the price, were indifl'erent ; they seldom
travelled beyond tiieir county. And
even their hospitality must have been
greatly limited, if tlie value of manors
were really no greater than we find it in
many surveys. Twenty-four seems a
sufficient multiple when we would raise
* I insert the following comparative table of
P'nglish money from Sir Frederick Eden. The
unit, or present value, refers of course to that oi
the shilling before the last coinage, which redu
ced it.
Value of pound
slorlmg present Proportion,
money.
Conquest,
28 E. I.,
18 E. III.,
20 E. III.,
27 E. III.,
1.3 H. IV.,
4 E. IV.,
18 H.VIII.,
34 H.VIII.,
36 H.VIII.,
37 H.VIII.,
5 E. VI.,
C E. VI.,
1 Mary,
2 Eliz.,
43 Eliz.,
1066
1.300
134t
1346
1353
1412
1464
1527
1543
1545
1546
1551
1652
1553
1560
1601
u
5
5i
8
6
9
0
63
3i
Hi
3J
li
6i
H
8
0
2.906
2.871
2.622
2.583
2.325
1 937
1 55
1 378
1.163
J.698
0.466
0.232
1.028
1 .024
1.033
J.OOQ
500
Europe diking the middle ages.
i^CHAP lA
a sum mentioned by a writer imder Ed-
ward 1. to the same real value expressed
ill our present money, but an income of
£10 or jC20 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
JEJ150 per annum passed for extremely
rich.* Yet this was not equal in com-
nand over commodities to jG4000 at
present. But this income was compara-
tively free from taxation, and its expendi-
ture lightened by the services of his vil-
tcins. 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 im-
portance.! So, when Sir William Dru-
ry, one of the richest men in Suffolk, be-
queathed 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
mor.sy, which induced country gentle-
men lo leave their younger children in
poverty.^ Or, if we read that the ex-
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 indispensable, but consider
how much could be afforded for about
sixty pounds, which will be not far from
Ihe proportion. And what would a
modern lawyer say to the following en-
try in the churchwarden's accounts of St.
Margaret, Westminster, for 1476 : " Also
paid to Roger Fylpott, learned in the
law, for his counsel giving, 3^. 8c?., with
fourpencc for his dinner V^^ Though
fifteen times the fee might not seem alto-
gether inadequate at present, five shillings
would hardly furnish the table of a bar-
rister, even if the fastidiousness of our
♦ Macpherson's Annals, p. 424, from Matt.
Paris.
t Difference of Limited and A'osolute Monarchy,
p. 133.
X Hist, of Hawsted, p. 141
<) NichoUs's Illustrations, p. 2. One fact of this
.•las'* (lid, I own, stagger me. The great Earl of
Warwick writes to a private gentleman. Sir
Thomas Tudenham, begging the loan of ten or
twenty pounds to make up a sum he had to pay.
— Paston Letters, vol. i., p. 84. What way shall
we make this commensurate to the present value
of money ' But an ingenious friend suggested,
what I do not question is the case, that this was
one of many letters addressed to the adherents of
Warwick, in order to raise by their contributions a
considerable sum. It is curious, in this light, a.s
an illustration of manners.
manners would admit of his acceptma
such a dole. But this fastidiousness,
which considers certain kinds of remu-
neration degrading to a man of liberai
condition, did not prevail in those sim-
ple 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 fif-
teenth and even sixteenth centuries, aa
we perceive by the Paston Letters, and
even later authorities.*
There is one very unpleasing remark
which every one who attends to , ^
, , . •' - . -1, , • Labourers
the subject of prices will be in- better paid
duced to make, that the labour- 'i^a" ai P^e
ing classes, especially those en- ^*"''
gaged in agriculture, were better provided
with the means of subsistence in the reign
of Edward III. or of Henry VI. than they
are at present. In the fourteenth cen-
tury. Sir John Cullum observes, a harvest
man had fourpence a day, which enabled
him in a w^eek to buy a comb of wheat ;
but to buy a comb of wheat, a man must
now (1784) work ten or twelve days.j
So, under Henry YL, if meat was at a
farthing and a half the pound, which 1
suppose was about the truth, a labourer
earning threepence a day, or eighteen
pence in the week, could buy a bushel of
wheat at six shillings the quarter, and
twenty-four pounds of meat for his fam-
ily. A labourer at present, earning twelve
shillings a week, can only buy half a
bushel of wheat at eighty shillings the
quarter, and twelve pounds of meat at
sevenpence. Several acts of paihament
regulate the wages that might be paid to
labourers of different kinds. Thus the
statute of labourers, in 1350, fixed the
wages of reapers during harvest at three-
pence a day without diet, equal to five shil-
lings at present; that of 23 H. VI., c. 12,
in 1444, fixed the reapers' wages at five-
pence, and those of common workmen
in building at 3ic?., equal to 6^. Sd. and
As. M. ; that of 11 H. VII., c. 22, in 1496,
leaves the wagp« of labourers 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 £\. 45., equivalent to about
£20 ; those of a common servant in hus-
bandry, 185. Ad., with meat and drink:
they were somewhat augmented by the
statute of 1496. 1 Yet, although these
* Paston Letters, vol. i., p. 244. Cullum §
Hawsted, p. 182.
t Hist, of Hawsted, p. 228.
X See these rates more at length in Eden's Stam
■)f the Poor, ol. i., p. .'(2, &;c.
Pakt II.]
STATE OF SOCIETY.
50
wages are regulated as a maximum, by
acts of parliament, which may naturally
be supposed to have had a view rather
towards diminishing than enhancing the
current rate, 1 am not fully convinced
that they were not rather beyond it ; pri-
vate accounts at least do not always cor-
respond 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 labourers' means of
subsistence. Extreme dearth, not more
owing to adverse seasons than to improv-
ident consumption, was frequently en-
dured.f But, after every allowance of
this kind, I should find it difficult to resist
the conclusion, that however the labourer
has derived benefit from the cheapness
of manufactured commodities, and from
many inventions of common utility, he is
much inferior in ability to support a fam-
ily to his ancestors three or four centu-
ries ago. I know not why some have
supposed that meat was a luxury seldom
obtained by the labourer. Doubtless he
could not have procured as much as he
pleased, ^ut, from the greater cheap-
ness of cattle, as compared with corn, it
seems to follow, that a more considera-
:le portion of his ordinary diet consisted
of animal food than at present. It was
remarked by Sir John Fortescue, that the
English lived far more upon animal diet
than their rivals the French ; and it M^as
natural to ascribe their superior strength
and courage to this cause. J I should
feel much satisfaction in being convinced
that no deterioration in the state of the
labouring classes has really taken place ;
yet it cannot, I think, appear extraordi-
nary to those who reflect, that the whole
population of England, in the year 1377,
* In the Archajologia, vol. xviii., p. 281, we have
a bailiff's account of expenses in 1387, where it ap-
pears that a ploughman had si.xpence a week, and
five shillings a year, with an allowance of diet ;
whicli seems to have been only pottage. These
wages are certainly not more than fifteen shillmgs
a week in present value ; which, though materially
above (he average rate of agricultural labour, is
less so than some of the statutes would lead us to
expect. O'.her facts may be found of a similar
nature.
+ See that singular book, Piers Plowman's Vis-
on, p. 145 (Whitaker's edition), for the different
nodes of living before and after harvest. The
passage may be found in Ellis's Specimens, vol. i.,
}. 151.
X Fortescue's Difference between Abs. and Lim.
Monarchy, p. 19- The passages in Fortescue
which bear on his favourite theme, the liberty and
consequent happiness of the English, are very im-
Dortant, and triumphantly refute those superficial
writers who would make us believe that they were
set of beggarly slaves
did not much exceed 2.300,0(X) souls
about one fifth of the results u[jon the last
enumeration, an increase with which that
of the fruits of the earth cannot be sup-
posed to have kept an even pace.*
The second head to which I refened
the improvements of European improvc-
society in the latter period of the ,"'o"],'"t,!f,*
middle ages, comprehends sev- acter of
eral changes, not always con- Europe,
nected with each other, which contributed
to inspire a more elevated tone of moral
sentiment, or at least to restrain the com-
mission of crimes. But the general ef-
fect of these upon the human character
is neither so distinctly to be traced, nor
can it be arranged with so much attention
to chronology as the progress of com-
mercial wealth, or of the arts tnat depend
upon it. We cannot, from any past ex-
perience, indulge the pleasing vision of a
constant and parallel relation between
the moral and intellectual energies, the
virtues and the civilization of mankind.
Nor is any problem connected with phi-
losophicaf history more difficult than to
compare the relative characters of differ-
ent generations, especially if we include
a large geographical surface in our esti-
mate. Refinement has its evils as well
as barbarism ; the virtues that elevate a
nation in one century pass in the next to
a different region ; vice changes its form
without losing its essence ; the marked
features of individual character stand out
in relief from the surface of history, and
mislead our judgment as to the general
course of manners ; while political revo-
lutions and a bad constitution of govern-
ment may always undermine or subvert
the improvements to which more favour-
able circumstances have contributed. In
comparing, therefore, the fifteenth with
the twelfth century, no one would deny
the vast increase of navigation and man-
ufactures, the superior refinement of
manners, the greater diffusion of litera-
ture. But should I assert that man had
raised himself in the latter period above
the moral degradation of a more barbar-
ous age, I might be met by the question
whether histoiy bears witness to any
greater excesses of rapine and inhuman-
ity than in the wars of France and Eng-
land under Charles VII., or whether the
rough patriotism and fervid passions of
the Lombards in the twelfth centui-y
* Besides the bonks to which I have occasion
ally referred, Mr. Ellis's Specimens of Englisli
Poetry, vol. i., chap. 1.1, contain a short digression
but from well-selected materials, on the private lif
of the English in the middling and lower lank
about the fifteenth century
502
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[CilAP. IX.
■jv-ere nol better than the systematic
.Teachery of their servile descendants
three hundred years afterward. The
proposition must therel'ore be greatly
limited ; yet we can scarcely hesitate to
admit, upon a comprehensive view, that
there were several changes during the
four last of the middle ages, which must
naturally have tended to produce, and
some of which did unequivocally produce,
a meliorating effect, within the sphere of
their operation, upon Ihe moral character
of society.
The first, and perhaps the most impor-
Eievation of taut of these, was the gradual
the lower elevatioii of those whom unjust
ranks. systems of polity had long de-
pressed ; of the people itself, as opposed
to the small number of rich and noble, by
the abolition or desuetude of domestic
and predial servitude, and by the privi-
leges extended to corporate towns. The
condition of slavery is indeed perfectly'
consistent with the observance of moral
obligations ; yet reason and experience
will justify the sentence of Homer, that
he who loses his liberty 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
fihal obedience ; those who have much
to gain by the good- will of their fellow-
citizens are most interested in the pres-
ervation of an honourable character. 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 unne-
cessary to dwell upon them ; especially
as this efficacy is indeterminate, though,
I think, unquestionable, and rather to be
inferred from general reflections, than
capable of much illustration by specific
facts.
We may reckon, in the next place,
„ ,. among the causes of moral im-
Police. => 11-
provement, a more regular admin-
istration of justice according to fixed
laws, and a more effectual police. Wheth-
er the courts of judicature were guided
by the feudal customs or the Roman law,
it was necessary for them to resolve liti-
gated questions with precison and uni-
formity. Hence a more distinct theory
of justice and good faith was gra-dually
apprehended ; and the moral sentiments
of mankind were corrected, as on such
subjects they often require to be, by
clearer and better grounded inferences
of reasoning. Again, though it cannot
be said that lawless rapine was perfectly
restrained even at the end of the fifteenth
century, a sensible amendment had been
everywhere experienced. Private war-
fare, the licensed robbery of feudal man-
ners, had been subjected to so many mor-
tifications by the kings of France, and es-
pecially by St. Louis, that it can hardly
be traced beyond the fourteenth century.
In Germany and Spain it lasted longer;
but the various associations for maintain-
ing tranquillity in the former country had
considerably diminished its violence be-
fore the great national measure of public
peace adopted under Maximilian.* Acis
of outrage committed by powerful men
became less frequent as the ex'^cutive
government acquired more stri^ngth to
chastise 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 liis territory
between sunrise and sunset. For, by the
customary law, though in general ill ob-
served, the lord was bound to keep the
roads free from depredators in the day-
time, in consideration of the toll he receiv-
ed from passengers.! The same prince
was with difficulty prevented from passing
a capital sentence on Enguerrand de Cou-
cy, a baron of France, for a murder.J
Charles the Fair actually put to death a
nobleman of Languedoc for a series of
robberies, notwithstanding the interces-
sion of the provincial nobility.^ The
towns established a police of their own
for internal security, and rendered them-
selves formidable to neighbouring plun-
* Besides the German historians, see Du Cange
V. Ganerbium, for the confederacies in the empire,
and Hermandatum for those in Castile, 'fhesj
appear to have been merely voluntary associations,
and perhaps directed as much towards the preven
tion of robbery as of what is strictly called pri
vate war. But no rnan can easily distinguish of
fensive war from robbery except by its scale ; and
where this was so considerably reduced, the two
modes of injury almost comcide. In Aragon there
was a distinct institution for the maintenance of
peace, the kingdom being divided into unions oi
juntas, with a chief officer, called Suprajunctari-
us, at their head. — Du Cange, v. Juncta.
t Henault, Abrege Chronol. a I'an 1255. The in
stitutions of Louis IX. and his successors relating
to police, form a part, though rather a smaller pa*t
than we should expect from the title, of an im
mense work, replete with miscellaneous informa
tion, by Delamare, Trai'e de la Police, 4 vols, in
folio. A sketch of them may be found in Velly, t.
v , p. 3t9 ; t. xviii.. p. 4.'37.
J Velly, t. v., p; 162, w here this incident is told in
ar. interesting manner from William de Nangia.
Boulainvilliers has taken an extraordinary view ot
the king's behaviour. — Hist, de TAncienl Gouvern«
ment, t. ji., p. 26. In his eyes princes and plene
ians were made to be the slaves of a feudal aristoc
racy. ^ Velly, t. viii., p. 132.
fitil \\.\
STATE OI' SOCIETY.
oU&
der<;rs. Fina.ly though not before the
reign of Louis XI., an armed force was
estabhshed for the preservation of po-
lice.* Various means were adopted in
Phigland to prevent robberies, which in-
deed were not so frequently perpetrated
as they were on the continent, by men
of high condition. None of these, per-
haps, had so much efiicacy as the fre-
quent sessions of jud^res under commis-
sions of jail delivery. But the spirit of
this country has never brooked that co-
ercive police which cannot exist without
breaking in upon personal liberty by irk-
some regulations and discretionary exer-
cise of power; the sure instrument of
tyranny, which renders civil privileges
at once nugatory and insecure, and by
which we should dearly purchase some
real benefits connected with its slavish
discipline.
I have some difficulty in adverting to
Religious another source of moral im-
seuts. provement during tliis period, the
growth of religious opinions adverse to
thosc! of the established church, both on
account of its great obscurity, and be-
cause many of these heresies were mixed
up with an excessive fanaticism. But
they fixed themselves so deeply in the
hearts of the inferior and more numer-
ous 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 arose out of them in the
sixteenth century, that I must reckon
these among the most interesting phe-
nomena in the progress of European so-
ciety.
Many ages elapsed, during which no
remarkable instance occurs of a popular
deviation from the prescribed line of be-
lief; and pious Catholics console them-
selves by reflecting that their forefathers,
in those times of ignorance, slept at least
the sleep of orthodoxy, and that their
darkness was interrupted by no false
lights of human reasoning.! But from
the twelfth century this can no longer be
their boast. An inundation cf heresy
broke in that age upon the church,
which no persecution was able thor-
oughly to repress, till it finally over-
spread half the surface of Europe. Of
this religious innovation we must seek the
commencement in a difl'erent part of the
globe. The Manicheans afford an emi-
nent example of that durable attachment
to a traditional creed, which >o many
indent sects, especially in the East, have
» Velly, t. xviii., p. 437.
Fleury, 3'"" Tisoours snr I'Hist. Ecck>s.
cherished through the vicissitudes of
ages, in spite of persecution and con-
tempt. 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 obscu-
rity, the Manichean theory revived with
some modification in the western parts
of Armenia, and was propagated in the
eighth and ninth centuries by a sect de-
nominated PaulJcians. Their tenets are
not to be collected with absolute cer-
tainty from the mouths of their adversa-
ries, and no apology of their own sur-
vives. There seems, however, to be
sufficient evidence that the Paulicians,
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 Testa-
ment. Believing, with the ancient Gnos
tics, that our Saviour was clothed on
earth with an impassive celestial body,*
they denied the reality of his death
* The most authentic account of the Paulicians
is found in a little treatise of Petrus Siculus, who
hved about 870, under Basd the Macedonian. He
had been employed on an embassy to Tephrico,
the principal town of these heretics, so that ne
might easily be well mformed ; and, though he it
sufficiently bigoted, I do not see any reason to ques-
tion the general truth of his testimony, especially
as it tallies so well with what we learn of the pre-
decessors and successors of the Paulicians. They
had rejected several of the .Manichean doctrines,
those, I believe, which were borrowed from the
Oriental, Gnostic, and Cabbalistic philosophy of
emanation; and therefore readily condemned Ma
nes, 7r/io9ufiu){ aiuOt//aTi(J(«ji Mav/)ra. But they re-
tained his capital errors, so far as regarded the
principle of dualism, which he had taken from
Zerdusht's religion, and the consequences he had
derived from it. Petrus Siculus enumerates six
Paulician heresies. 1. They maintained the exist-
■snce of two deities ; the one evil, and the creator
of this world, the other good, called ttut^jp tn-Bpai'ios,
the author of that which is to come. 2. They re
fused 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 mistakes, wei«
endowed with sincere and zealous pitty, and stu-
dious of the Scriptures. A Paulician woman a.-^ked
a young man if he had reaii the Gospels ; he replieil.
that laymen were not permitted to do so, but only
the clergy : vk d,t^iv I'liiiv roij KooftiKoi; vat rovra
aiayiMiiaKCiv, C( firi Toti upcvat fiovoif, p. 57. A CUriOUS
proof that the Scriptures were already forbidden in
the Greek church, which, I am inclined to believe,
notwithstanding the leniency with which Protest
ant writers have treated it, was always more coi
ruptand more intolerant than the Latin
604
EUROPE DURING THfc. MIDDLE AGES
rCHvi IX
and resurrection These errors exposed
ihem to a long and cruel persecution,
auring 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 Chris-
tendom. A large part of the commerce
of those countries with Constantinople
was carried on for several centuries by
the channel of the Danube. This opened
an immediate intercourse with the Pau-
"icians, who may be traced up that river
ttirough Hungary and Bavaria, some-
times taking the route of Lombardy into
•Swisserland and France. f In the last
* Gibbon, c. 54. This chapter of the historian
of the Decline and Fall upon the Paulicians ap-
pears to be accurate, as well as luminous, and is at
least far superior to any modern work, on the sub-
ject.
+ It is generally agreed that the Manicheans
from Bulgaria did not penetrate into the west of
Europe before the year 1000 ; and they seem to
have been in small numbers till about 1140. We
find them, however, early in the eleventh century.
Under the reign of Robert, in 1007, several heretics
were burnt at Orleans for tenets which are repre-
sented as Manichean. — Velly, t. ii., p. 307. These
are said to have been imported from Italy ; and the
heresy began to strike root in that country about
the sams time. — Muratori, Dissert. 60. — (Antichita
italiane, t. iii., p. 304.) The Italian IManicheans
were generally called Paterini, the meaning of
which word has never been explained. We find
few traces of them in France at this time ; but
about the beginning of the twelfth century, Gui-
bert, bishop of Soissons, describes the heretics of
that city, who denied the reality of the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, and rejected the sacra-
ments.— Hist. Litteraire de la France, t. x., p. 451.
Before the middle of that age, the Cathari, Henri-
cians, Petrobussiaiis, and others appear, and the
new opinions attracted universal notice. Some ol
these sectaries, however, were not Manicheans. —
Mosheiin, vol. lii., p. 116.
The acts of the inquisition of Toulouse, pub-
lished by Limborch, from an ancient manuscript
(stolen, as I presume, though certainly not by him-
self, out of the archives of that city), contain many
additional proofs that the Albigenses held the
Manichean doctrine. Limborch himself will guide
the reader to the principal passages, p. 30. In
fact, the proof of Manichcism among the heretics
of the twelfth century is so strong (for I have con-
fined myself to those of Languedoc, and could
easily have brought other testimony as to the
Cathari), that I should never have thought of ar-
guing the point, but for the confidence of some
modern ecclesiastical writers. What can we think
of one who says, " It was not unusual to stigmatize
new sects with the odious name of Manichees,
though / knoiv no evidence that there were any real
remaijis of that ancient sect in the twelfth cen-
tury."— Milner's History of the Church, vol. iii., p.
3S0. Though this writer was by no means learn-
ed enough for the task he undertook, he could not
be ignorant of facts related by Mosheim and other
common historians.
I will only add, in order to obviate cavilling,
that I use the word Albigenses for the Manichean
sect's, without uretendine to assert that their doc-
country, and especially '. its southerr
and eastern provinces , they became
conspicuous under a variety of names
such as Catharists, Picards, Paterins,but
above all, Albigenses. It is beyond a
doubt that many of these sectaries owed
their origin to the Paulicians , the appel-
lation of Bulgarians was distinctively be-
stowed upon them ; and, according to
some writers, they acknowledged a pii-
mate or patriarch resident in that coun-
try.* The tenets ascribed to them by all
contemporary authorities coincide so re-
markably with those held by the Pauli-
cians, and in earlier times by the Mani-
cheans, that I do not see how we can
reasonably deny what is confirmed by
separate and uncontradictory testimo-
nies, and contains no intrinsic want of
probability.!
trines prevailed more in the neighbourhood of Albi
than elsewhere. The main position is, that a large
part of the Languedocian heretics against whom
the crus.ide was directed had imbibed the Pauli-
cian opinions. If any one chooses rather to call
them Catharists, it will not be material.
* Mat. Paris, p. 267. (A. D. 1223.) Circa dies
istos, haeretici Albigenses constituerunt sibi An-
tipapam in finibus Bulgarorum, Croatiae et Dal
matiae, nomine Bartholomasum, &c. We are as-
sured by good authorities that Bosnia was full of
Manicheans and Arians as late as the nuiddle of the
fifteenth century. — ^neas Sylvius, p. t07. Spon
danus, ad ann. 1460. Mosheim.
t There has been so prevalent a disposition
among English divines to vindicate not only the
morals and sincerity, but the orthodoxy of these
Albigenses, that I deem it necessary to confirm
what I have said in the text by .some authorities,
especially as few readers have it in their power to
examine this very obscure subject. Petrus Mo-
nachus, a Cistercian monk, who wrote a history of
the crusades against the Albigenses, gives an ac-
count of the tenets maintained by the different
heretical sects. Many of them asserted two prin-
ciples or creative beings ; a good one for things
invisible, an evil one for things visible ; the former
author of the New Testament, the latter of the
Old. Novum Testamentum benigno deo, vetus
vero maligno attribuebant ; et illud omnino repu
diabant, prster quasdam auctoritates, quas de Ve
teri Testamento, Novo sunt inserts, quas ob Novi
tevr entiam Testamenti, recipere dignum aestima
bant. A vast number of strange errors are imputed
to them, most of which are not mentioned by Ala-
nus, a more dispassionate writer. — Du Chesne,
Scriptores Francorum, t. v., p. 556. This Alanus
de Insulis, whose treatise against heretics, written
about 1200, was published by Masson at Lyons in
1612, has left, I think, conclusive eviJence of the
Manicheism of the Albigenses. He states theirar
gument upon every disputed point as fairly as pos
sible, though his refutation is of course mote al
length. It appears that great discrepances of
opinion existed among these heretics, but Ihe gen
eral tenour of their doctrines is evidently Mam
chean. Aiunt haeretici temporis nostri quod due
sunt principia rerum, principium lucis et principium
tenehrarum, &c. This opinion, strange as we may
think it, was supported by Scriptural texts, so in
sufficient is a mere acquaintance with the sacred
writings to secure imlearned and prejudiced mi.id*
Part Ii'
S TATE OF SOCIETY.
GOi
But though the derivation of these her-
etics called Albigenses from Bulgaria is
sufficiently proved, it is by no means to
be concluded that all who incurred the
same imputation either derived their faith
from the same country, or had adopted
he Manichean theory of the Paulicians.
From the very invectives of their ene-
mies, and the acts of the inquisition, it is
manifest that almost every shade of het-
erodoxy was found among these dissi-
dents, till it vanished in a single protest-
ation against the wealth and tyranny of
the clergy. Those who were absolutely
free from any taint of Manicheism are
properly called Waldenses ; a name per-
petually confounded in later times with
that of Albigenses, but distinguishing a
sect probably of separate origin, and at
least of different tenets. These, according
Waldenses ^^ ^^^^ majority of writers, took
their appellation from Peter
Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, the parent,
about the year 1160, of a congregation of
seceders from the church, who spread
very rapidly over France and Germany.*
from the wildest perversions of their meaning!
Some denied the reality of Christ's body; others
his being the Son of God ; many the resurrection
of the body ; some even of a future stale. They
asserted in general the Mosaic law to have pro-
ceeded from the devil, p>:ovmg this by the crimes
committed during its dispensation, and by the words
of St. Paul, "the law entered that sin might
abound." They rejected infant baptism, but were
divided as to the reason ; some saying that infants
could not sin, and did not need baptism ; others,
that they could not be saved without faith, and
consequently that it was useless. They held sin
after bapti.sm to be irremissible. It does not appear
that they rejected either of the sacraments. ^I'hey
laid great stress upon the imposition of hands,
which seems to have been their distinctive rite.
One circumstance, which both Alanus and Rob-
ertus Monachus mention, and which other author-
ities confirm, is their division into two classes ; the
Perfect, and the Credentes, or Consolati, both of
which appellations are used. The former abstain-
ed from animal food and from marriage, and led in
every respect an austere life. The latter were a
kind of lay brethren, living in a secular manner.
This distinction is thoroughly Manichean, and
leaves no doubt as to the origin of the Albigenses.
See Bcausobrc, Hist, du Manicheisme, t. ii., p.
762 and 777. 'I'his candid writer represents the
early Manicheans as a harmless and austere set
of enthusiasts, exactly what the Paulicians and
Albigenses appear to have been in succeeding ages.
As many calumnies were vented against one as the
other.
» The contemporary writers seem uniformly to
represent Waldo as the founder of the Waldenses ;
and I am fot aware that they refer the locality of
that sect to the valleys of Piedmont, between Ex-
iles and Pignerol (see Leger's map), which have
so long been distinguished as the native country of
the Vaudois. In the acts of the inquisition, we
find Waldenses, sive pauperes de Lugduno, usei
Es equivalon t terms ; and it can hardly be doubted
that Ibfc )ioor men of Lyons were the disciples of
Waldo. Alanus. the second book of whose treitisp
According to others, the original Wa,
denses were a race of uncornipted shep
herds, 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 ascend-
ency. I am not certain A\hether their
existence can be distinctly traced beyond
the preaching of Waldo, but it is well
known that the proper seat o/ the Wal-
denses or Vaudois has long continued to
be in certain valleys of Piedmont. These
pious and innocent sectaries, of whom
the very monkish historians speak well,
appear to have nearly resembled the
modern Moravians. They had ministers
of their own appointment, and denied
the lawfulness of oaths and of capital
against heretics is an attack upon the Waldenses,
expressly derives them from Waldo. Petrus Mo
nachus does the same. 'I'hese seem strong author
ities, as it is not easy to perceive what advantage
they could derive from misrepresentation. It ha?
been, however, a position zealously maintained by
some modern writers of respectable name, that the
people of the valleys had preserved a pure faith
for several ages before the appearance of Waldo.
I have read what is advanced on this head by Le-
ger (Histoire des Eglises Vaudoises), and by Allix
(Remarks on the Ecclesiastical History of the
Churches of Piedmont), but without finding any
sufficient proof for this supposition, which, never-
theless, is not to be rejected as absolutely improb-
able. Their best argument is deduced from an an-
cient poem called La Noble Loi(,on, an original
manuscript of which is in the public library of
Cambridge. This poem is alleged to bear date in
1100, more than half a century jefore the appear-
ance of Waldo. But the line* that contain the
date are loosely expressed, and may very well suit
with any epoch before the termination of the
twelfth century.
Ben ha mil et cent ans compli entierament
Che fu scritta loro que sen al derier temp
Eleven hundred years are now gone and past,
Since thus it was written ; these times are the last.
I have found, however, a passage in a late work,
which remarkably illustrates the antiquity of Al
pine protestantism, if we may depend on the date
it assigns to the quotation. Mr. Planta's History
of Swisserland, p. 93, 4to edit., contains the follow-
ing note. " A curious passage, singularly descrip
tive ot the character of the Swiss, has lately been
discovered in a MS. chronicle of the abbey of Cor-
vey, which appears to have been written about the
beginning of the twelfth century. Keligionem nos
tram, et omnium Latinas ecclesiaj Christianorum
fldem, laici ex SuavjA, Suicia, et Havaria humiliare
voluerunt ; homines seilucti ah antujiia progenit
simplicium hominum, qui Alpes et vicmiam habi
tant, et semper amant antiqua. In Suaviam, Ba
variam et Italiam boreaiem sspe intrant illoruir
(ex Suicia) mercatores, <jui biblia cdiscunt memo
riter. et ritus ecclesias av« rsantur, quos credunt ess»
novos. Nohint imagines venerari, reliquias sane
toruin aversantur, olera comedimt, ran') mastican
tes carnem, alii nunquam. Appellamus eos idcir
Co Manichffios. Horum quidain ab Ilungaria ad
eos corvenerunt," &c. It is a pity that the quota-
tion has been broken off, as it might have ilius
trated thi connejion of tl e Bulgarians with ihew
sectaries
506
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLB A.GES.
iChap. LS
puniolmient. In other respects Iheir
opinions probably were not far removed
from those usually called Protestant.
A simplicity of dress, and especially
the use of wooden sandals, was affect-
ed by this people.*
I have already had occasion to relate
the severe persecution which nearly ex-
terminated 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 sus-
tained a similar trial. Their belief was
certainly a compound of strange errors
(vith truth ; but it was attended by quah-
ties of a far superior lustre to orthodoxy,
by a sincerity, ^ piety, and a self-devo-
tion, that almost purified the age in which
they lived. t It is always important to
* The Waldenses were always considered as
much less erroneous in their tenets than the Albi-
eenses or Manicheans. Erant praterea alii haere-
tici, says Robert Monachus in the passage above
quoteii, qui Waldenses dicebantur, a quodam Wal-
dio nomine Lugdunensi. Hi qiiidem mall erant,
sed comparatione aliorum haereticorum longe mi-
nus perversi; in multis enim nobiscum convenie-
bant, in quibusdam d^ssentiebant. The only faults
he seems to impute to them are the denial of the
lawfulness of oaths and capital punishment, and
the wearing wooden shoes. By this peculiarity of
wooden sandals (sabots) they got the name of
Sabbalati or Insabbatati. — (Du Cange.) William
du Puy, another historian of the same time, makes
a similar distinction. Erant quidam Ariani, qui-
:1am Manichaei, quidam etiam Waldenses sive Lug-
dunenses, qui hcet inter se dissides, omnes tamen
in animarum pcrniciem contra fidem Cathohcam
conspirabant ; et illi quidem Waldenses contra ali-
os acutissime disputant. — Du Chesne, t. v., p. CG6.
Alanus, in his second book, where he treats of the
Waldenses, charges them principally with disre-
garding the authority of the church and preaching
without a regular mission. It is evident, however,
from the acts of the Inquisition, that they denied
the existence of jjurgatory ; and I should suppose
that, even at that time, they had thrown off most
of the popish system of doctrine, which is so near-
ly connected with clerical wealth and power. The
difference made in these records between the Wal-
denses and the IManichean sects, shows that the
imputations cast upon the latter were not indiscrim-
inate cahimnies. See Limborch, p. 201 and 228.
The History of Languedoc, by Vaissette and
Vich, contains a very good account of the secta-
ries in that country ; but I have not immediate ac-
cess to the book. I believe that proof will be
found of the distinction between the Waldenses
and Albigenses in t. iii , p. 466. But I am satisfied
that no one who has looked at the original author-
itie." will dispute the proposition. These Benedic-
tin historians represent the Henricians, an early
sect of reformers, condemned by the council of
Lombez, in 1165, as Manichees. Mosheim consid-
ers them as of the Vaudois school. They appeared
some lime oefore Waldo.
t The general testimony of their enemies to the
purity of morals among the Languedocian and
Ly ne»e sectaries is abundantly sufficient. One
perceive that these high moral oxcellen
ces have no necessary connexion witi
speculative truths ; and upon this account
I have been more disposed to state ex-
plicitly the real Manicheism of the Albi-
genses : especially as Protestant writers
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
would have yielded, if the inquisitors had
admitted the experiment, to a more ac-
curate study of the Scriptures, and to the
knowledge which they would have im-
bibed 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.
^Ye are in general deprived of explicit
testimonies in tracing the revolutions of
popular opinion. Much must therefore
be left to conjecture ; but I am inclined
to attribute a very extensive eflect to the
preaching of these heretics. They ap-
pear in various countries nearly during
the same period, in Spain. Lombardy,
Germany, Flanders, and England, as well
as France. Thirty unhappy persons con-
victed of denying the sacraments, are
said to have perished at Oxford by cold
Regnier, who had lived among them, and became
afterward an inquisitor, does them justice in thij
respect. — See Turner's History of England for sev-
eral other proofs of this. It must be confessed,
that the Catharists are not free from the imputa
tion of promiscuous licentiousness. But whethei
this was a mere calumny, or partly founded upon
truth, I cannot determine. Their prototypes, the
ancient Gnostics, are said to have been divided
into two parties, the austere and the relaxed ; both
condemning marriage for opposite reasons. Ala-
nus, in the book above quoted, seems to have
taken up several vulgar prejudices against the
Cathari. He gives an etymology of their name
& catta; quia osculantur posteriora catti; in cujus
specie, ut aiunt,appareret lis Lucifer, p. 146. This
notable charge was brought afterward against the
Templars.
As to the Waldenses, their innocence is out of
all doubt. No book can be written in a more edi-
fying manner than La Noble Loitjon, of which large
extracts are given by Leger, in his Histoire des
Eglises Vaudoises. Four lines are quoted by Vol-
taire (Hist. Universelle, c. 69) as a specimen of
the Provengal language, though they belong rathe;
to the patois of the valleys. But as he has not
copied them rightly, and as they illn.strate the sub
ject of this note, I shall repeat tliein here froD'
Leger, p. 28.
Que sel se troba alcnn bon que vollia amar DiC
e teiner Jeshu Xrist,
Que non vollia maudire, ni jura, ni mentir,
Ni avoutrar, ni aucire, ni penre de I'autniy,
Ni venjar se de li sio ennemie,
Iir dison quel es Vaudes e degne de murir
f.K.'H.i
STATE OF SOCIETY.
6o:
mil famine in the reign of Henry 11.
In every country the new sects appear
to have spread chiefly among the lower
people, which, while it accounts for the
imperfect notice of historians, indicates
a more substantial influence upon the
moral condition of society than the con-
version of a few nobles or ecclesiastics.*
But even where men did not absolutely
enlist under the banners of any new sect,
they were stimulated by the temper of
their age to a more zealous and inde-
* It would be difficult to specify all the dispersed
authorities which attest the existence of the sects
derived from the Waldenses and Paulicians in the
twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. Be-
sides Mosheim, who has paid considerable atten-
tion to the suDJect, I would mention some articles
in Du Cange which supply gleanings; namely,
Beghardi, Bulgari, LoUardi, Paterini, Picardi, Pilii,
Populicani.
Upon the subject of the Waldenses and Albi-
genses generally, I have borrowed some light from
Sir. Turner's History of England, vol. ii., p. 377,
393. This learned writer has seen some books that
have not fallen into my way ; and I am indebted to
him for a knowledije of Alanus's treatise, which I
have since read. .\ t the same time I must observe,
that Mr. Turner lus not perceived the essential
distinction betwt/en the two leading sects.
The name of Albigenses does not frequently
occur after the middle of the thirteenth century;
but the Waldenses, or sects bearing that denomi-
riation, were dispersed over Europe. As a term
of different reproach was derived from the word
Bulgarian, so vauderie, or the profession of the
Vaudois, was sometimes applied to witchcraft.
Thus, in the proceedings of theChambre Bnilante
at Arras, in 1459, against persons accused of sor-
cery, their crime is denominated vauderie. The
fullest account of this remarkable story is found in
the Memoirs of Du Clercq, lirst published in the
general collection of Historical Memoirs, t. i.\., p.
430, 471. It exhibits a complete parallel to the
events that happened in 1082 at Salem, in New-
England. A few obscure persons were accused of
vauderie, or witchcraft. After their condemnation,
which was founded on confessions obtained by tor-
ture, and afterward retracted, an epidemical conta-
gion of superstitions dread was ditiused all around.
Numbers were arrested, burnt alive by order of a
tribunal instituted for the detection of this oflence,
or detained in prison ; so that no person in Arras
thought himself safe. It was believed that many
were accused for the sake of their possessions,
which were confiscated to the use of the church.
At length the Duke of Burgundy interfered, and
put a stop to the persecutions. The whole narra-
tive in Du Clercq is interesting, as a curious docu-
ment of the tyranny of bigots, and of the facility
with which it is turned to private ends.
To return to the Wa! ienses : the principal course
of their emigration is said to have been into Bohe-
mia, where, in the fifteenth century, the name was
porne l)y one of the seceding sects. By their pro-
fession of faith, presented to Ladislaus Posihiimus,
it appears that they acknowledged the corporal pres-
ence in the eucharist, but rejected purgatory and
other Romish doctrines. See it in the Fasciculus
Rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum, a collection
of treatises illustrating the origin of the Reforma-
tion, originally pul)lished at Cologne in 1535, and
/ep'-mted at London in 1690.
pendent discussion of their reliorioui sys-
tem. A curious illustration of this is
furnished by one of the letters oi Inno-
cent III. He had been informed by the
Bishop of Mctz, as he states to the clergy
of the diocess, that no small multitude of
laymen and women having procured a
translation of the gospels, epistles of St.
Paul, the psalter. Job, and other books
of Scripture, to be made for tiiem into
French, meet in secret conventicles to
hear them read, and preach to each other,
avoiding tlie company 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 can
learn from the pulpit, and that tlicy can
express it better. Although the desire
of reading the Scriptures, Innocent pro-
ceeds, is rather praisewortliy than rep-
rehensible, yet they are to be blamed for
frequenting secret assemblies, for usurp-
ing the office of preaching, deriding their
own ministers, and scorning the company
of such as do not concur in their novel-
ties. He presses the bisliop and chap-
ter 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 wlio used it possessed. This let-
ter of Innocent HI., however, consider-
ing the nature of the man, is sufficiently
temperate and conciliatory. It seems
not to have answered its end; for in
another letter he complains that some
members of this little association con-
tinued refractory, and refused to obey
either the bishop or the pope.*
In tlie eighth and ninth centuries,
when the Vulgate had ceased to be gen-
erally intelligible, there is no reason to
suspect any intention in the church to
deprive the laity of the Scriptures.
Translations were freely made into the
vernacular languages, and perliaps read
in churclies, although tlie acts of saints
were generally deemed more instructive.
Louis the Debonair is said to have
caused a German version of the New
Testament to be made. Otfrid, h\ the
same century, rendered the gospels, oi
* Opera Innocent. III., p. 468, 537. A transla
tion of the Bible had been m.ide by direction cr
Peter Waldo; but whether this use^l in Lorrau
was the same, does not appear. Metz was full o'
the Vaudois, as we find by other authorities.
508
EUROPE Dl IIING THE MIDDLE AGES.
\ '.AP. iJk
rather abridged them, into German verse.
This work is still extant, and is in sev-
eral respects an object of curiosity.* In
the eleventh or twelftli century, we find
translations of the Psalms, Job, and the
Maccabees into French. f But after the
diffusion of heretical opinions, or, what
was much the same thing, of free inquiry,
it became expedient to secure the ortho-
dox faith from lawless interpretation.
Accordingly the council of Toulouse, in
1229, prohibited the laity from posses-
sing the Scriptures ; and this precaution
v/as frequently repeated upon subsequent
occasions.
The ecclesiastical history of the thir-
teenth or fourteenth centuries teems
with new sectaries and schismatics, va-
rious in their aberrations of opinion, but
all concurring in detestation of the estab-
lished church. I They endured severe
persecutions with a sincerity and firm-
ness which in any cause ought to com-
mand 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 Fran-
ciscan seceders, who quibbled about the
property of things consumed by use, or
from the mystical visionaries of different
appellations, whose moral practice was
sometimes more than equivocal. Those
who feel any curiosity about such sub-
jects, which"^are by no means unimpor-
tant, as they illustrate the history of the
human mind, will find them treated very
fully by Mosheim. But the original
SQu'rces of information are not always
accessible in this country, and the re-
search wotild perhaps be more fatiguing
than profitable.
I shall, for an opposite reason, pass
Lollards of lightly over the great revolution
England, jn rcligious opinion wrought in
England by Wicliffe, which will gen-
erally be familiar to the reader from our
common historians. Nor am I concern-
ed to treat of theological inquiries, or to
.vrite a history of the church. Consid-
ered in its eflect upon manners, the sole
point which these pages have in view,
the preaching of this new sect certainly
* Schilteri Thesaurus Antiq. Teutonicorum,
t. ii.
t Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscript., t. xvii., p. 720.
t The apphcalion of the visions of the Apoca-
lypse to the corruptions of Rome has commonly
been said to have been first made by the Francis-
can seceders. But it may be traced higher, and is
remarkably pointed out by Dante.
Di voi pastor s' accorse '1 Vangelista,
Quando colei, chi siede sovra 1' acque.
Puttaneggiar co' regi a lui lii vista.
Inferno, cant. xix.
produced an extensive reformation. Bu'
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 uncharitable malignity
that made no distinction in condemning
the established clergy, and" a narrow pre-
judice that applied the rules of the Jew-
ish law to modern institutions.* Some
of their principles were far more danger-
ous to the good order of society, and
cannot justly be ascribed to the Puritans,
though they grew afterward out of the
same soil. Such was the notion, which
is imputed also to the Albigenses, that
civil magistrates lose their right to gov-
ern by committing sin, or, as it was quaint-
ly expressed in the seventeenth century,
that dominion is founded in grace. These
extravagances, however, do not belong
to the learned and politic Wicliffe, how-
ever they might be adopted by some of
his enthusiastic disciples. f Fostered by
the general ill-will towards the church
his principles made vast progress in
England, and, unlike those of earher
sectaries, were embraced by men of
rank and civil influence. Notwithstand-
ing the check they sustained by the san-
guinary law of Henry IV., it is highly
probable that multitudes secretly cherish-
ed them down to the era of the Reform-
ation.
From England the spirit of religious
innovation was propagated into iiussitesoi
Bohemia ; for though John Huss Bohemia,
was very far from embracing all the doc-
trinal systems of Wicliffe, it is manifest
that his zeal had been quickened by the
* Walsingham, p. 238. Lewis's Life of Pea
cock, p. 65. Bishop Peacock's answer to the Lol
lards of his time contains passages well worthy of
Hooker, both for weight of matter and dignity of
style, setting forth the necessity and importance of
"the moral law of kinde, or moral philosophie," in
opposition to those who derive all morality fron:
revelation.
This great man fell afterward under the dis
pleasure of the church for propositions, not indeec
heretical, but repugnant to her scheme of spiritual
power. He asserted indirectly the right of pri-
vate judgment, and wrote on theological subjects
in English, which gave much offence. In fact,
Peacock seems to have hoped that his acute rea-
soning would convince the people, without requi-
ring an implicit faith. But he greatly misunder-
stood the principle of an infallible church. Lew-
is's Life of Peacock does justice to his character
which, I need not say, is unfairly represented b>
such historians as Collier, and such antiquaries at
Thomas Hearne.
+ Lewis's Life of Wicliffe, p. 115. Lenlart
Hist du Concilede Constance, t. i., p. 2i »
Part II. 1
STATE OF SOCIETY
5U9
writings of that reformer.* Inferior to
the EngUshman in abiUty, but exciting
greater attention by his constancy and
sufferings, as well as by the memorable
war which his ashes kindled, the Bohe-
mian martyr was even more eminently
the precursor of the Reformation. But
still regarding these dissensions merely in
a temporal light, I cannot assign any ben-
eficial eflect to the schism of the Hussites,
at least m its immediate results, and in
the country where it appeared. Though
some degree of sympathy with their
cause is mspired by resentment at the ill
faith of their adversaries, and by the as-
sociations of civil and religious liberty,
we cannot estimate the Taborites and
other sectaries of that description but as
ferocious and desperate fanatics. f Per-
haps beyond the confines of Bohemia,
more substantial good may have been
produced by the influence of its reforma-
tion, and a better tone of morals 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 be-
fore the Reformation appear to have gen-
erally 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 prose-
cute this inquiry will assign their charac-
ter according to the result of his own
investigations.
But the best school of moral discipline
rftstiiution which the middle ages afforded
of chivalry, -was the institution of chivalry.
Ther« is something perhaps to allow for
the partiality of modern writers upon this
interesting subject ; yet our most skepti-
cal criticism must assign a decisive influ-
ence to this great source of human im-
provement. The more deeply it is con-
sidered, the more we shall become sensi-
ble of Its importance.
There are, if I may so say, three pow-
* Huss does not appear to have rejected any of
trie peculiar tenets of popery. — Lenfant, p. 414. He
embraced, like Wiclitfe, the predestinarian system
of Auguslin, without pausing at any of those infer-
ences, apparently deducible from it, which, in the
heads of enthusiasts, may produce such extensive
mischief. These were maintained by Huss (id., p.
328), though not. perhaps so crudely as by Luther.
Every thmg relative to the history and doctrine of
Huss and his followers will be found in Lenfant's
three works, on the councils of Pisa, Constance,
and Basle.
+ Lenfant, Hist, de la Guerre des Hussites et du
Coi.cile le Bas:e. — Schmitlt, Hist, des Allemands,
erful spirits, wnieh have from time to
time moved over the face of tlie water-,
and given a predominant impulse to the
moral sentiments and energies of man-
kind. These are the spirits of liberty, ol
religion, and of honour. It was the prin-
cipal business of chivalry to animate and
cherish the last of these three. And
w^hatever high magnanimous energy th«
love of liberty or religious zeal has ever
imparted, was equalled by the exquisite
sense of honour which this institution
preserved.
It appears probable, that the custom oi •
receiving arms at the age of ii^ j,rjgj„
manhood with some solemnity,
was of immemorial antiquity among ihf
nations that overthrew the Roman em
pire. For it is mentioned by Tacitus tc
have prevailed among their German an
cestors ; and his expressions might hav(
been used with no great variation to de
scribe the actual ceremonies of knight
hood.* There was even in that renioti
age a sort of public trial as to the fitnesi
of the candidate, which, though perhapt
confined to his bodily strength and a'-tivi
ty, might be the germe of that refined in
vestigation which was thought necessary
in the perfect stage of chivalry. Proofa
though rare and incidental, might be ad
duced to show, that in the time of Cliarlc
magne, and even earlier, the sons oj
monarchs at least did not assume manlj
arms without a regular investiture. Ant
in the eleventh century, it is evident tha*
this was a general practice. f
This ceremony, however, would per-
haps of itself have done little toward.s
forn)ing that intrinsic principle which
characterized the genuine chivalry. Bui
in the reign of Charlemagne we find i
military distinction, that appears, in fact
as well as in name, to have given birth to
that institution. Certain 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 which the
word chevaliers is an obvious corrup-
* Nihil neque publico neque private rei nisi ar
mati agunt. Sed anna sumere non ante cniquam
moris, qukm civitas sutfccturum probavcrit. Turn
in ipso conciJio, vel principum aliquis, vel pater,
vel propinquus sciito frainejque juvenem ornant ;
haec apud eos toga, hie primus juventaj honos ; ante
hoc domus pars videntur, mox reipublicae. — De
Moribus German., c. 13.
■f William of Malmsbury says that Alfred ccrv
ferred knighthood on Athelstan, donatijm chla
myde coccinen, gcmmato balteo, ense Saxonico
cumvaginfiaurea, I. ii., c. 6. St. Palaye^Mcmcirei
sur la Chevaleris, p. 2) mentions other instances
which may also be found in Du Cango's Glossary
V. Arma, and in his 22d ditierlation m Joiiiville.
&10
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. IX
tion.* But he who fouglit on horseback,
and had been invested with peculiar arms
in a solemn manner, wanted nothing
more to render him a knight. Chivalry
therefore may, in a general sense, be re-
ferred 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 valour 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 extraordinary nature,
and to which more glory is attached.
The reputation of superior personal
prowess, so difficult to be attained in ihe
course of modern warfare, and so liable
to erroneous representations, was al-
ways within the reach of the stoutest
knight, and was founded on claims
which could be measured with much ac-
curacy. Such is the subordination and
mutual dependance 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 individual honour, coveted in so en-
tire and absolute a perfection, that it
must not be shared with an army or a
nat'on. 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 ab-
stract sense of justice, rather than from
any solicitude to promote the happiness
of mankind. If these springs of action
are less generally beneficial, they are,
however, more connected with elevation
of character than the systematic pru-
dence of men accustomed to social life.
This solitary and independent spirit of
chivalry, dwelling, as it were, upon a
rock, and disdaining injustice or false- '
hood from the consciousness of internal ,
dignity, without any calculation of their
consequences, is not unlike what we '
sometimes read of Arabian chiefs or the
North American Indians. f These na- '
* Comites et vassalli nostri qui beneficia habere
noscuntur, et caballarii omnes ad placitum nostrum
veniant bene preparati. — Capitularia, A. D. 807,
ji Baluze, t. i., p. 460.
r We must take for this the more favourable
represjntations of the Indian nations. A deteri-
orating intercourse with Europeans, or a race of
European e.xtraclion, has tended to efface those
L;.ns, so widely remote from each other,
seem to partake of that moral energy,
which, among European nations, far re-
mote from both of them, was excited by
the spirit of chivalry. But the most
beautiful picture that was ever portrayed
of this character is the Achilles of Ho-
mer, the representative of chivalry in its
most general form, with all its sincerity
and unyielding rectitude, all its courte-
sies and munificence. Calmly indiffer-
ent to the cause in which he is engaged,
and contemplating with a serious and
unshaken look the premature death that
awaits him, his heart only beats for glory
and friendship. To this sublime charac-
ter, bating that imaginary completion by
which the creations of the poet, like
those of the sculptor, transcend all single
works of nature, there were probably
many parallels in the ages of chivalry .
especially before a set education and the
refinements of society had altered a little
the natural unadulterated warrior of a ru
der period. One illustrious example from
this earlier age is the Cid Ruy Diaz,
whose history has fortunately been pre
served much at length in several chrsni
clesof ancient date, and in one valuable
poem ; and though I will not say that the
Spanish hero is altogether a counterpart
of Achilles in gracefulness and urbanity,
yet was he inferior to none that ever
lived in frankness, honour, and magna-
nimity.*
virtues, which possibly were rather exaggerated oy
earlier writers.
* Since this passage was written, I have found
a parallel drawn by Mr. Sharon Turner, in his valr
uable History of England, between Achilles and
Richard CcEur de Lion; the superior justness of
which I readily acknowledge. The real hero does
not indeed excite so much interest in me as the
poetical; but the marks of resemblance are very
striking, whether we consider their passions, their
talents, their virtues, their vices, or the waste ol
their heroism.
The two principal persons in the Iliad, if I may
digress into the observation, appear to me repre
sentatives of the heroic character in its two lea.^-
ing varieties ; of the energy which has its sole
principle of action within itself, and of that which
borrows its impulse from external relations ; of the
spirit of honour, in short, and of patriotism. As
every sentiment of Achilles is independent and
self-supported, so those of Hector all bear refer-
ence to his kindred and his country. The ardour
of the one might have been extinguished for wan*,
of nourishment in Thessaly ; but that of the other
might, we fancy, have never been kindled but for
the dangers of Troy. Peace could have brought
no delight 'o the one but from the memory of war ;
war had no alleviation to the other but from the
images of peace. Compare, for example, the two
speeches, beginning II. Z., 441, and II. n., 49; or
rather compare the two characters throughout the
Iliad. So wonderfully were those two great spring*
of human sympathy, va'-'^nslv interest ng accord
1
"Hi 11 J
STATE OF SOCIETY.
51
In the first s.ale of chivalry, it was
it..<.nnn.v closelv connected with the mil-
ion witii itary service ol nets. 1 he La-
feudai ser- ballarii in the Capitularies, the
MiUtes of the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, were landholders who
followed their lord or sovereign into the
field. A certain value of land was terni-
Kd in England a knight's fee, or, in Nor-
mandy, feudum lorica;, fief de haubert,
from the coat of mail which it entitled
and required the tenant to wear; a mil-
itary tenure was said to be by service in
chivalry. To serve as knights, mounted
and equii)ped, was the common duty of
vassals ; it implied no personal merit, it
gave of itself a claim to no civil privi-
leges. But this knight-service, founded
upon a feudal obligation, is to be careful-
ly distinguished from that superior chiv-
alry, in which all was independent and
voluntary. The latter, in fact, could
hardly flourish in its full perfection till
This con- the military service of feudal ten-
nexion virc bogau to decline ; namely, in
broken, ^j^^ thirteenth century. The or-
igin of this personal chivalry I should
incline to refer to the ancient usage of
voluniaiy commendation, which 1 have
mentioned in a former chapter. Men
commended themselves, that is, did
homage and professed attachment to a
prince or lord; generally indeed for pro-
tection or the hope of reward, but some-
Miies probably for the sake of distin-
guishing themselves in his quarrels.
When they received pay, which must
have been the usual case, they were lit-
erally his soldiers or stipendiary troops.
Those who could aflbrd to exert their
valour 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 nobil-
ty, arising from the subdivision of fiefs,
and the politic generosity of rich lords,
made this connexion as strong as that
of territorial dependance. A younger
brother, leaving the paternal estate, in
which he took a slender share, might
look to wealth and dignity in the service
(«f a povverfid count. Knighthood, which
he could not claim as his legal right, be-
came the object of his cliief ambition,
(t raised him in the scale of society,
equalling him in dress, in arms, and in
title, to the rich landholders. As it was
due to his merit, it did much more than
ing to the diversity of our tempers, first touched
Tiy that ancient patriarch,
k quo.ceu fonte perenni,
Vatura Pieriis ora rLgantui aquis.
equal him to those who had no preten
sions but from wealth ; and the territo
rial knights became by degrees ashamed
of assuming the title till they could cJial-
lenge it by real desert.
This class of noble and gallant cava-
hers, serving commonly for Effect oi ih«
pay, but on the most honoura- crusades on
ble footing, became far more '^'"^^'■■y
numerous through the crusades ; a greal
epoch in the history of European socie-
ty. In these wars, as all feudal service
was out of the question, it was necessa-
ry 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 M-'ith
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 insti-
tution of chivalry acquire its full vigour
as an order of personal nobility ; and
its original connexion with feudal ten-
ure, if not altogether etTaced, became
in a great measure forgotten in the
splendour and dignity of the new form
which it wore.
The crusaders, however, changed in
more than one respect the char- .^
acter of chivalry. Before that collnecud
epoch it appears to have had no "iiii reu
particular reference to religion. ^'°"'
Ingulfus indeed tells us that the Anglo-
Saxons preceded the ceremony of inves-
titure by a confession of their sins, ami
other pious rites, and they received the
order at the hands of a priest instead of
a knight. But this Avas derided by the
Normans as effeminacy, and seems to
have proceeded from the extrcrne devo-
tion of the English before the conquest.*
We can hardly perceive, indeed, why the
assumption of arms to be used In butch-
ering mankind should be treated as a
religious ceremony. The clergy, to do
them justice, constantly opposed the
private wars in which the courage of
those ages wasted itself; and all blood-
shed was subje t in strictness to a ca-
nonical 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 centu-
ries, the recovery of the Holy Land was
constantly at the heart of a brave and
superstitious nobility; and every knijhl
* Ingulfus in Gale, xv. Scriptores, t. '., ,>. ',X^
William Kufus, however, was kniijhte?' r, / rjl;
bishop Lanfranc, which lf<ks as if the '■ ;- .ir a-
was not absolutely repugnant to the Nth ir ^•.■'
tice.
512
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
Chap. IX
was supposed a. his creation to pledge
himself, as occaaon should arise, to that
cause. Meanwhile, the defence of God's
law against infidels was his primary and
standing duty. A knight, whenever pres-
ent at mass, Iield the point of his sword
before him while the gospel was read,
to signify his readiness to support it.
Writers of the middle ages compare the
knightly to the priestly character in an
elaborate parallel, and the investiture of
the one was supposed analogous to the
ordination of the other. The ceremonies
upon this occasion were almost wholly
religious. The candidate passed nights
in prayer among priests m a church ; he
received the sacraments ; he entered into
a bath, and was clad with a white robe,
in allusion to the presumed purification
of his life ; his sword was solemnly
blessed ; every thing, in short, was con-
trived to identify his new condition with
the defence of religion, or at least of the
church.*
To this strong tincture of religion.
And with which entered into the composi-
gaiiantry. tiou of chivalry from the twelfth
century, was added another ingredient
equally distinguishing. A great respect
for the female sex had always been a re-
Tiarkable characteristic of the Northern
nations. The German women were high
spirited and virtuous; qualities which
might be causes or consequences of
the ven_eration with which they were
regarded. I am not sure that we could
trace very minutely the condition of
women for the period between the sub-
version 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, however, to
have been more roughness in the social
intercourse between the sexes than we
find in later periods. The spirit of gal-
lantry, which became so animating a
principle of chivalry, must be ascribed to
the progressive refinement of society du-
ring the tw'elfth and two succeeding cen-
turies. In a rude state of manners, as
among the lower people in all ages,
woman has not full scope to display
* Du Caijre, v. Miles, and 22d Dissertation on
JDinville. Si. Palaye, Mem sur la Chevalerie, part
ii. A curious original illustration of this, as well
as of other chivalrous principles, will be found in
fOrdene de Chevalerie, ? long inetr'.cal romance
puDUstied in Barbazan's }• doliaux, t. i., p. 59 (edit
those fascinating graces, by which na-
ture has designed to counterbalance the
strength and energy of mankind. Even
where those jealous customs that degrade
alike the two sexes have not prevailed,
her lot is domestic seclusion ; nor is she
fit to share in the boisterous pastimes of
drunken merriment, to which the inter
course of an unpolished people is confi-
ned. But as a taste for the more elegant
enjoyments of wealth arises, a tastf
which it is. always her policy and her de-
light to nourish, she obtains an ascend-
ency at first in the lighter hour, and from
thence in the serious 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 propi-
tious to her ambition. The love of be-
coming ornament is not perhaps to be re
garded 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 defence ; and when com
merce began to minister more eflectualiy
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
ineffable grace over beauty which the
choice and arrangement of dress are cal-
culated to bestow. Courtesy had al way i
been the proper attribute of knighthood
protection of the weak its legitimate duty
but these were heightened to a pitch ol
enthusiasm when woman became theii
object. There was little jealousy showr
in the treatment of that sex, at least ir
France, the fountain of chivalry; thej
were present at festivals, at tournaments
and sat promiscuously in the halls of theii
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 devo-
tion, stood gallantry among the princi-
ples of knighthood. But all comparison
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 mis-
* Y eut huit cens chevaliers seant t table ; et si
n'y eust celui qui n'eust une dame ou une puccl'a
a son ecuelle. In Lancelot du Lac, a laay whs
was troubled with a jealous husband complatni
that it was a long time since a knigbt baJ eateu oti
her plate. — Le Grand, t. i.,p. '24.
flRT 11.
STAlb (JF SOCIETY.
513
tress was held sure of salvation in the
theology of castles, though not of clois-
ters.* Froissart announces that he had
under>,aken a collection of amorous poe-
try with the help of God and of love;
and Boccace returns thanks to each for
their assistance in the Decameron. The
»a\vs sometimes united in this general
fiomage to the fair. We will, says
James II. of Aragon, that every man,
whether knight or no, who shall be in
company with a lady, pass safe and un-
molested, unless he be guilty of murder.f
Louis II. duke of Bourbon, instituting the
order of the Golden Shield, enjoins his
knights to honour above all the ladies,
and not to pemnt any one to slander
them, " because from them, after God,
comes all the honour that men can ac-
quire.'J
The gallantry of hose ages, which
was very often adulterous, had certainly
no right to profane the name of religion ;
but its union with valour was at least
more natural, and became so intimate,
that the same word has served to express
both qualities. In the French and Eng-
lish wars especially, the knights of each
comitry brought to that serious conflict
the spirit of romantic attachment which
had been cherished in the hours of peace.
They fought at Poitiers or Verneuil as
they had fought at tournaments, bearing
over their armour scarves and devices,
as the livery of their mistresses, and as-
sertuig the paramount beauty of her they
served, in vaunting challenges towards
the enemy. Thus, in the middle of a
keen skirmish at Cherbourg, the squad-
rons remained motionless, while one
kniglit challenged to a single combat the
most amorous of the adversaries. Sucli
a defiance was soon accepted; and the
battle oidy recommenced when one of
the champions had lost iiis life for his
love.^ In the first campaign of Edward's
war, some young English knights wore a
covering over one eye, vowing, for the
sake of their ladies, never to see with
both till they sliould have signalized
their prowess in the field. || These ex-
travagances of chivalry are so common
that they form part of its general charac-
.er, and prove how far a course of action
♦ LeGrand,Fabliaux, t. iii., p. 438. St. Palaye,
l. i., p. 4). I quote St. Palaye's Memoirs from the
liist edition in 1759, which is not the best.
t Statuimus, q\iod oinnis liomo, sive miles sive
alius, qui iverit cum domina generosi, salvus sit
»tque securus, nisi fuerit hoinicida. — De Marca,
>larca Hispamca, p. 1428.
X Le Grand, 1. 1., p. 120. St. Palaye, t. i., p. 13,
S4, 221. Fabliaux, Romances, &c., passim.
<) St. Palaye, p 2..'2 |1 Froissart, p. 33.
K k
which depends upon the imp.iises of sen
timent may come to deviate from com-
mon sense.
It cannot be presumed that this enthu-
siastic veneration, this devotedness in
life and death, were wasted i^on ungrate
ful natures. Tlie goddesses of that idol-
atry knew too well the value of their
worshippers. There has seldom beer,
such adamant about the female heart a.«
can resist the highest renown for valoui
and courtesy, united with the steadiest
fidelity. " He loved (says Froissart of
Eustace d'Auberthicourt), and afterward
married Lady Isabel, daughter of the
Count of Juliers. This lady, too, loved
Lord Eustace for the great exploits in
arms which she heard told of him, and
she sent him horses and loving letters,
which made the said Lord Eustace more
bold than before, and he wrouglit such
feats of chivalry that all in his company
were gainers."* It were to be wished
that the sympathy of love and valour had
always been as honourable. But the
morals of cliivalry, we cannot deny, were
not pure. In the amusing fictions which
seem to have been the only popular read-
ing of the middle ages, there reigns a li-
centious spirit, not of that sligliter kind
which is usual in such compositions, but
indicating a general dissoluteness in the
intercourse of the sexes. This has often
been noticed of Boccaccio and tlie 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. f 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 pre-
rogatives, by general consent of opinion,
as were claimed by the brilliant courtiers
of Louis XV.
But neither that emulous valour which
chivalry excited, nor the religion and
gallantry which were its animating prin-
ciples, alloyed as the latter were by the
corruption of those ages, could have ren-
dered its institution materially conducive
to the moral improvement of society.
There were, however, excellences of a
very high class which it equally encour-
aged. In the books professedly written
to lay down the duties of knightlio h1, they
appear to spread over the whole compass
* St. I'^alaye, p. 268.
t The romances will speak for themseives ; and
the chararter of the Proven(;.il mor.ility may ue
collected from MiUol, Hist, des 'I'roubadours, pas-
sim ; and from Sismondi, Litt6rature du Midi, t. i.
p. 179, &c. See too St. Polave, t. ii., p. C2 and 6.S
514
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
tUHAP. IK
Loyalty.
of human obligations. But these, like
other books of morality, strain their
schemes of perfection far beyond the
actual practice of mankind. A juster es-
timate of chivalrous manners is to be de-
duced from romances. Yet in these, as
111 all similar fictions, there must be a few
(deal touches beyond the simple truth of
character; and the picture can only be
ii.teresting when it ceases to present im-
ages of mediocrity or striking imperfec-
tion. But tliey referred their models of
fictitious heroism to the existing standard
of moral approbation ; a rule which, if
it generally falls short of what reason
and religion prescribe, is alwaj^s beyond
the average tenour of human conduct.
From these and from history itself we
may infer the tendency of chivalry to el-
evate and purify the moral feelings.
Three virtues may particularly be no-
ticed, as essential, in the estima-
Virtu6s
deemed es- tiou of mankind, to the charac-
sentiai to tcr of a knight ; loj'alt}^, courte-
.'hivairj. gy.^ g^j^^ munificence.
The first of these, in its original sense,
may be defined, fidelity to engage-
ments ; whether actual promises,
or such tacit obligations as bound a vas-
sal to his lord, and a subject to his prince.
U was applied also, and in the utmost
strictness, to the fidelity of a lover to-
wards the lady he served. Breach of
faith, and especially of an express prom-
ise, was held a disgrace that no valour
could redeem. False, perjured, disloyal,
recreant, were the epithets Avhich 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. Treachery, the usual vice of
savage as well as corrupt nations, be-
came infamous during the vigour of that
discipline. As personal rather than na-
tional feelings actuated its heroes, they
never felt that hatred, much less that
fear of their enemies, which blind men
to the heinousness of ill faith. In the
wars of Edward III., originating in no
real animosity, the spirit of honourable
as well as courteous behaviour towards
the foe seems to have arrived at its high-
est 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 honour, in order to pro-
cure the stipulated sum, an indulgence
never refused, could only be founded on
expe-iienced confidence in the principles
af chivalry.*
♦ St. Palaye, part ii.
A knight was unfit to remain a membe
of the order if he violated his
faith ; he wafe ill acquainted with •^'""■'"-■^^
its duties if he proved wanting in cour
tesy. This word expressed the mosv'
highly refined good-breeding, founded
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 beautiful
virtue threw over the habits of social
life, it softened down the natural rough-
ness of war, and gradually introduced
that indulgent treatment of prisoners
which was almost unknown to antiquity
Instances of this kind are continual in the
later period of the middle ages. An Ital -
ian writer blames the soldier who wound-
ed Eccelin, the famous tyrant of Padua,
after he was taken. He deserved, says
he, no praise, but rather the greatest in-
famy for his laaseness ; since, it is as vile
an act to wound a prisoner, whether no-
ble or otherwise, as to strike a dead
body.* Considering the crimes of Ecce-
lin, this sentiment is a remarkable proof
of generosity. The behaviour of Ed-
ward III. to Eustace de Ribaumont, aftei
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 imagined to have
soared far above the ordinary track of
mankind. But, in truth, the knights who
surrounded them and imitated their ex-
cellences were only inferior in opportu-
nities of displaying the same virtue.
After the battle of Poitiers, " the English
and Gascon knights." says Froissart,
" having entertained their priso/iers, went
home each of them with the knights or
squires he had taken, whorn he then ques-
tioned upon their honour, what ransom
they could pay without inconvenience,
and easily gave them credit; and it was
common for men to say that they would
not straighten any knight or squire, so
that he should not live well and kec;: up
his honour."! Liberality indeed, and
* Non landem meruit, sed summae potius oppro
briiim vilitatis ; nam idem facinus est putandunc
capttmi nobilem vel ignobilem offendere, vel ferire,
qu&m gladio csdere cadaver.— Rolandinus in
Script. Rer. Ital, t. viii., p. 351.
t Froissart, 1. i., c. 161. He remarks in anothc
place, that all English and French gentlcmec
treat their prisoners well ; not so the Germans, whc
put ihem in fetters, in order to e.ttort more moan
C 136
Part II. J
STATE OF SOC.ETl.
5i5
Lbe iiii ■ •iis'i^'n of money, might be reck-
' ^'^'' ' ^' oned, as I have said, among the
essential virtues of chivalry. All the ro-
manjes inculcate the duty of scattering
their wealth with profusion, especially
towards minstrels, pilgrims, and the poor-
er members of their own order. The
last, who were pretty numerous, had a
constant right to succour from the opu-
lent ; the castle of every lord, who re-
spected the ties of knighthood, was open
with more than usual hospitality to the
traveller whose armour announced his
dignity, though it might also conceal his
poverty.*
Valour, loyalty, courtesy, munificence,
formed collectively the character
of an accomplished knight, so far
as was displayed in the ordinary tenour
of his hfe, reflecting these virtues as an
unsullied mirror. Yet something more
was required for the perfect idea of chiv-
alry, and enjoined by its principles ; an
active sense of justice, an ardent indig-
nation 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
right as they conduce to general good,
became the means of general oppression.
The real condition of society, it has
sometimes been thought, might suggest
stories of knight-errantry, which were
wrought 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 neighbourhood,
and confine travellers in his dungeon,
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,
cannot rationally be conceived to liave
had any existence beyond the precincts
of romance. Yet there seems no im-
probability in supposing tliat a kniglit,
journeying througli 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
* St. Palayc, part iv., p. 312, 3C7, &c. Le
Graml, Fabliaux, t. i., p. 11.5, 167. It was the cus-
tom in Great Britain (says the romance of Perce-
forest, speaking of course in an imaginary history),
that noblemen and ladies placed a helmet on the
highest point of their ca.stles, as a sign that all per-
sons of such rank travelling that road might boldly
enter their houses like their own.— St. Palaye,
D. 367.
i: k2
dissimilar- to those which are the theme
of romance. We cannot indeed expect
to find any historical evidence of suet
incidents.
The characteristic virtues of chivalry
bear so much resemblance to Resem-
those which eastern writers of bianceof
,1 • I 1. 1 .1 ^ T cnivalrou»
the same period extol, that I am to eastern
a little disposed to suspect Eu- manners.
rope of having derived some improve-
ment from imitation of Asia. Though
the crusades began in abhorrence of in
fidels, this sentiment wore off" in some
degree before tlieir cessation ; and the
regular intercourse of commerce, some
times of alliance, between the Christians
of Palestine and the Saracens, must have
removed part of the prejudice, while ex-
perience of their enemy's courage and
generosity in war would with those
gallant knights serve to lighten the re-
mainder. The romancers expatiate with
pleasure on the merits of Saladin, who
actually received the honour of knight-
hood from Hugh of Tabaria his prisoner.
An ancient poem, entitled the Order of
Chivalry, is founded upon this story, and
contams a circumstantial account of the
ceremonies, as well 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
kniglit was held among the eastern na-
tions. And certainly, excepting tliat ro-
mantic gallantry towards women, which
their customs would not admit, the Ma-
hometan chieftains were for the most part
abundantly qualified to fulfil the duties
of European chivalry. Tlieir manners
had been polislied and courteous, while
the western kingdoms were compara-
tively barbarous.
The principles of chivahy were not, I
tliink, naturally productive of evji.s produced
many evils. For it is unjust by iiie spirit o(
to class those acts of oppres- '^'"^•''o-
sion or disorder among the abuses of
kin'glithood, which were committed in
spite of its regulations, and were only
prevented by them from becoming more
extensive. The license of times so im-
perfectly civilized could not be expected
to yield to institutions which, like those
of religion, fell prodigiously sliort in tlieir
practical result of the reformation which
they were designed to work. Mans
guilt and frailty have never admitted
more than a partial corrective. But some
bad consequences may be more fairly
ascribed to tlie very nature of chivalry.
I have already mentioned the dissolute-
♦ Fabliaux de Barhnsan. t
»16
tJUKOPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Cba.-. l\
ne?s which Ahnost unavoidably resulted
from the prevailing tone of gallantry.
And yet we sometimes find, in the wri-
tings of those times, a spirit of pure but
exaggerated sentiment ; and the most
fanciful refinements of passion are min-
gled by the same poets with the coarsest
immorality. An undue thirst for mili-
tary renown was another fault that chiv-
alry must have nourished ; and the love
of war, sufficiently pernicious in any
shape, was more founded, as I have ob-
served, on personal feehngs of honour,
and less on public spirit, than in the citi-
zens of free states. A third reproach
may be made to the character of knight-
hood, that it widened the separation be-
tween the different classes of society,
and confirmed that aristocratical spirit
of high birth, by which the large mass of
mankind were kept in unjust degradation.
Compare the generosity of Edward III.
towards Eustace de Ribaumont at the
siege of Calais, with the harshness of
his conduct towards the citizens. This
may be illustrated by a story from Join-
ville, who was himself imbued with the
full spirit of chivalry, and felt like the
best and bravest of his age. He is
speaking of Henry, count of Champagne,
who acquired, says he, very deservedly,
the surname of Liberal, and adduces the
following proof of it. A poor knight im-
plored of him on his knees one day as
much money as would serve to marry his
two daughters. One Arthault de Nogent,
a rich burgess, willing to rid the count of
this importunity, but ratlier awkward, we
must own, in the turn of his argument,
said to the petitioner. My lord has al-
ready given away so much that he has
nothing left. Sir Villain, replied Henry,
turning round to him, you do not speak
trulli in saying that I have nothing left
to give when I have got yourself. Here,
Sir Knight, I give you this man, and war-
rant your possession of him. Then, says
Joinville, the poor knight was not at all
confounded, but seized hold of the bur-
gess fast by the collar, and told him he
should not go till he had ransomed him-
self. And in the end he was forced to
pay a ransom of five hundred pounds.
The simple-minded writer who brings
this evidence of the Count of Cham-
pagne's liberality is not at all struck
with the facility of a virtue that is exer-
cised at the cost of others.*
There is perhaps enough in the nature
Circumsian- ^^ ''^'^ institution, and its con-
cestendino; geniality to the habits of a
to promote It. warlike generation, to account
* loinvil.e in Collection des Memoires, t. i , p. 43.
for the respect in which it was lield
throughout Europe. But several collat-
eral circumstances served to invigorate
its spirit. Besides the poweiful efficacy
with which the poetry and romance o?
the middle ages stimulated those sus-
ceptible minds which were alive to no
other literature, we may enumerate four
distinct causes tending to the promotion
of chivalry.
The first of these was the regulai
scheme of education, according Regular ed
to which the sons of gentlemen, uca'tion for
from the age of seven years, '^"'gi'i'iood
were brought up in the castles of supe-
rior lords, where they at once learned the
whole discipline of their future profes-
sion, and imbibed its emulous and enthu-
siastic spirit. This was an inestimable ad-
vantage to the poorer nobility, who could
hardly otherwise have given their chil-
dren the accomplishments of their sta-
tion. From seven to fourteen these
boys were called pages or varlets ; at
fourteen they bore the name of esquire.
They were instructed in the manage-
ment of arms, in the art of horsemanship
in exercises of strength and activity.
They became accustomed to obedience
and courteous demeanour, serving their
lord or lady in offices which had not yet
become derogatory to honourable* birth,
and striving to please visiters, and espe-
cially ladies, at the ball or banquet.
Thus placed in the centre of all that
could awaken their imaginations, the
creed of chivalrous gallantry, supersti-
tion, or honour, must have made indeli-
ble impressions. Panting for the glory
which neither their strength nor the es
tablished rules permitted them to antici
pate, the young scions of chivalry attend
ed their masters to the tournament, and
even to the battle, and riveted with a
sigh the armour they were forbidden tc
wear.*
It was the constant policy of sover
eigns to encourage this institu- Encourage
tion, which furnished them with *"?"' "''
faithful supports, and counter- Tourna-
acted the independent spirit of menis.
feudal tenure. Hence they displayed ;
lavish magnificence in festivals and tour
naments, which may be reckoned a sec-
ond 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 ihe
masque of chivalry, if I may use the ^;x-
pression, was acted in pageants and cor-
* St. Palaye, pari i.
IKT Il.J
STATE OF SOCIETY.
51T
emonies, fantastical enough in our ap-
prehension, but well cal'^.ulated for those
heated understandings. Here the pea-
cook and the pheasant birds of high
fame in romance, receivid the homage
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 introduced, representing the calami-
tous state of religion in consequence 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 cru-
sade, in the following very characteristic
preamble : I swear before God my crea-
tor in the first place, and the glorious
Virgin his mother, and next before the
ladies and the pheasant. f Tournaments
were a' still more powerfnl incentive to
emulation. These may be considered
to have arisen about the middle of the
eleventh century ; for though every mar-
tial people have found diversion in repre-
senting the image of war, yet the name
of tournaments, and the laws that regu-
lated them, cannot be traced any higher.J
Every scenic performance of modern
times must be tame in comparison of
these animating combats. At a tourna-
ment, the space enclosed within the lists
was surrounded by sovereign princes and
their noblest barons, by knights of estab-
lished 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 favours of their mistresses, a still
prouder bearing, the combatants rushed
forwTird to a strife without enmity, but
not without danger. Though their weap-
ons were pointless, and sometimes only
of wood, though they were bound by
the laws of tournaments to strike only
upon the strong armour of the trunk, or,
as it was called, between the four limbs,
those impetuous conflicts often termina-
ted in wounds and death. The church
utteroi her excommunications in vain
against so wanton an exposure to peril ;
but it was more easy for her to excite
than to restrain that martial enthusiasm.
* l)u Cange, 5"" Dissertation surJoinville. St.
Palaye, t. i.. p. 87, 118. Le Grand, 1. 1., p. 11.
+ St. Palaye, t. i., p. 191.
X Godfrey de Freudly, a French knight, is said
by several contemporary writers to have invented
tournaments ; which must of course be understood
in a limited sense. The Germans ascribe them to
Henry the Fowler; but this, according to Du
IJange, is on no authority. — G="<= Dissertation sur
Joinvire.
Victory in a tournament was litt.e lesE
glorious, and perhaps at the momen.
more exquisitely felt, than in the field;
since no battle could assemble such wit
nesses of valour. " Honour to the son?
of the brave" resounded amid the din of
martial music from the lips of the min-
strels, as the conqueror advanced to re-
ceive the prize from his queen or hia
mistress ; while the surrounding multi-
tude acknowledged in his prowess of that
day an augury of triuiuplis that might in
more serious contests be blended with
those of his country.*
Both honorary and substantial privi-
leges belonged to the condition privileges
of kniglithood, and had of course of knight-
a material tendency to preserve '''*°' '
its credit, A knight .wa.'* dist.i_!i.gv.:3heJ
auroaa oy nis cresiea ncimei, Ins weighty
armour whether of mail or plate, bear-
ing his heraldic coat, by his gilded spurs,
his horse barded with iron or clothed in
housing of gold ; at home by richer silks
and more cosily furs than were permit-
ted to squires, and by the appropriated
colour of scarlet. He was addressed by
titles of more respect. f Many civil of-
fices, by rule of usage, were confined to
his order. But perhaps its chief privi-
lege was to form one distinct class of
nobility, extending itself throughout greai
part of Europe, and almost independent,
as to its rights and dignities, of any par-
ticular sovereign. Whoever had been
legitimately dubbed a knight in one
country, became, as it were, a citizen of
miiversal chivalry, and might assume
most of its privileges in any other. Nor
did he require the act of a sovereign to
be thus distinguisiied. It was a funda-
mental 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 confounded if
this right had been \vithout liinit, it was
an equally fundamental rule, that it
could only be exercised in favour of
gentlemen.^
* St. Palaye, part ii. and part iii. au ccmmence
inent. Du Cange, Dissert. 6 and 7 : and Glossa
ry, V. Torneamentum. Le Grand, Fabliau.x, t. i.,
p. 184.
f St. Palaye, part iv. Selden's Titles of Kon-
our, p. 806. There was not, however, so much
distinction in England as in France.
t St. Palaye, vol. i., p. 70, has forgotten to make
this distinction. It is, however, capable of abun-
dant proof. Gunther, in his poem called Ligurin
us, observes of the Milanese republic:
Quoslibet e.x humili vulgo, quod Gallia fcedum
.ludicat, accingi gladio concedit equcstri.
Otho of Frisingen expresses the same in prose. I"
is -aid. in the Esisbhshmenls of St. Louis, that i.
518
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[CiiAi-. lA
'I'lie p»i\ileges annexed to chivalry
wf>re of peculiar advantage to the vavas-
sors, or 'inferior gentry, as they tended
to counterbalance the influence which
territorial wealth tlirew 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 lower
nobility saved themselves, notwithstand-
ing their poverty, from being confounded
with the common people.
Lastly, the customs of chivalry were
maintained by their connexion with mil-
any one not being a gentleman on the father's side
was knighted, the king or baron in whose territory
he resides may hack off his spurs on a dunghill,
c. 130. The Count de Nevers, having knighted a
person who was not noble ex parte paterna, was
tined in the king's court. The king, however
(Philip III.), confirmed the knighthood.— Daniel,
Plist. de la Milice Fran(;oise, p. 98. Fuit proposi-
tuni (says a passage quoted by Daniel) contra corn-
item Flandnensem, quod non poterat, nee debebat
facere de villano militem, sine auctoritate regis,
ibid. Statuimus, says James I. of Aragon, in 1234,
ut nullusfaciat militem nisi filium militis. — Marca
Hispanica, p. 1428. Selden, Titles of Honour, p.
592, produces other evidence to the same effect.
And the Emperor Sigismund, having conferred
knighthood, during his stay at Paris in 1415, on a
person incompetent to receive it for want of nobili-
ty, the French were indignant at his conduct, as an
assumption of sovereignty. — ViUaret, t. xiii., p.
397. We are told, however, by Giannone, 1. xx.,
c. 3, that nobility was not in fact required for re-
ceiving chivalry at Naples, though it was in
France.
The privilege of every knight to associate
qualified persons to the order at his pleasure, last-
ed very long in France ; certainly down to the
English wars of Charles VII. (Monstrelet, part
ii., folio 50), and, if I am not mistaken, down to the
time of Francis I. But in England, where the
spirit of independence did not prevail so much
among the nobility, it soon ceased. Selden men-
tions one remarkable instance in a writ of the 29th
year of Henry III, summoning tenants in capite ts
come and receive knighthood from the king, ad re-
cipiendum a nobis arma mililaria, and tenants of
mesne lords to be knighted by whomsoever they
pleased, ad recipiendum arma de quibuscunque
voluerint.— Titles of Honour, p. 792. But soon
after this time it became an established principle
of our law, that no subject can confer knighthood
except by the king's authority. Thus Edward
HI. grants to a burgess of Lyndia in Guienne (I
know not what place this is) the privilege of le-
ceiving that rank at the hands of any knight, his
want of noble birth notwithstanding.— Rymer, t.
v.. p. 623. It seems, however, that a different law
obtained in some places. Twenty-three of the
chief inhabitants of Beaucaire, partly knights,
paitly burgesses, certified, in 1298, that the im-
memorial usage of Beaucaire and of Provence had
been, for burgesses to receive knighthood at the
hands of noblemen, without the prince's permis-
sion.— V'^aissette, Hist, de Languedoc, t. iii., p. 530.
Burgesses in the great commercial towns were
considered as of a superior class to the roturiers,
and possessed a kind of demi-nobility. Charles
V. appears to have conceded a similar indulgence
Xo the citizens of Paris.— Villaret, t. x., p. 218.
itary service. After armit^s connexion
which we may call compara- with m;::-
tively regular, had superseded ^^^^^^^l'^
in a great degree the feudal mi- ** "^ '** ^^
litia, princes were anxious to bid high foi
the service of knights, the best equipped
and bravest warriors of the time, or,
whose prowess the fate of battkis was
for a long period justly supposed to de-
pend. War brought into relief the gen-
erous 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 considered to belong. In the
wars of France and England, by far the
most splendid period of this institution, a
promotion of knights followed every suc-
cess, besides the innumerable cases
where the same honour rewarded indi-
vidual bravery.* It may here be men-
tioned, that an honorary distinction was
made between knights-bannerets and
bachelors.! The former were the rich-
est and best accompanied. No Knights-
man could properly be a ban- bannerets
neret unless he possessed a fJl.g''*'^''*
certain estate, and 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 gen-
eral cut off this pendant to render it
square. § But this distinction, however it
* St. Palaye, part iii., passim.
f The word bachelor has been commonly de
rived from bas chevalier, in opposition to banneret.
But this, however plausible, is unhkely to be right
We do not find any authority for the expression
bas chevalier, nor any equivalent in Latin, bacca-
laureus certainly not suggesting that sense; and it
is strange that the corruption should obliterate ev-
ery trace of the original term. Bachelor is a very-
old word, and is used in early French poetry for a
young man, as bachelette is for a girl. So al«) in
Chaucer,
" A yonge squire,
A lover, and a lusty bachelor."
X Du Cange, Dissertation 9"i« sur JoinviJle. The
number of men-at-arms whom a banneret ought to
command was properly fifty. But Olivier de la
Marche speaks of twenty-five as sufficient; and it
appears thai, in fact, knights-banneret oftendid nol
bring so many.
(^ Ibid. Olivier de la Marche (Collection de*
Memoires, t. viii., p. 337) gives a particular exam
pie of this ; and makes a distmciion between the
bachelor, created a banneret on account of his es-
tate, and the hereditary banneret, who took a pub-
lic opportunity of requesting the sovereign to un-
fold his family banner, which he had before borne
wound round his lance. The first was said relevei
banniere; the second, entrer en banniere. Thif
difference is more fully explained by Dan:el, Hist
i ABT II. j
STATE OF SOClF't Y
5Ifc
elevated tlie banneret, gave him no claim
to military command, except over liis own
dependants or men-at-arms. Cliandos
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
illustiate the manners of chivalry, and
the character of that admirable hero, the
conqueror of Du Guesclin and pride of
English chivalry, whose fame with pos-
terity has been a Uttle overshadowed by
his master's laurels.* 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 knight-
hood led them sometimes to defer it for
great part of their hves, in hope of signal-
izing their investitm-e by some eminent
exploit.
These appear to have been the chief
Decline of means of nourishing the princi-
ciuvairy. pies of chivalry among tlic nobil-
ity of Europe. But, notwithstanding all
encouragement, it underwent the usual
destiny of human institutions. St. Palaye,
to whom we are indebted for so vivid a pic-
ture of ancient manners, ascribes the de-
cline of chivalry in France to the profu-
sion with which the order was lavished
under Charles VI., the establishment of
the companies of ordonnance by Charles
V!I., and to the extension of knightly
honours to lawyers and other men of
civil occupation by Francis I.f 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 gunpowder that
eventually overthrew chivalry. From
the time when the use of fire-arms be-
came tolerably perfect, the weapons of
former warfare lost their efficacy, and
physical i'orce was reduced to a very
subordinate place in the accomplishments
of a soldier. The advantages of a disci-
plined infantry became more sensible ;
and the lancers, who continued till almost
the end of the sixteenth century to
charge in a long line, felt the punishment
of their presumption and indiscipline.
Even in tlie wars of Edward III., the dis-
advantageous tactics of chivalry must
de la Milice Frangoise, p. 116. Chandos's banner
was unfolded, not cut, at Navarette. We read
sometimes of esquire-bannerets, that is 7f banner
Bt3 by descent, not yet knigh'ed.
* Froissart, part i., c. 211.
+ M6m. sur la Chevali '- 'i»rt v.
have been perceptible ; but the mihta-
ry art had not been sufficiently studied to
overcome the prejudices of men eager foi
individual distmction. Tournaments be-
came less frequent ; and, after the fatal
accident of Henry II., were' entirely dis-
continued 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
honours of chivalry, forgot their natural
connexion witli military prowess. This
is far more applicable to England, where,
exeept 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 eircum
stances, immediately affecting the milita
ry 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 ro-
mance to a ridicule which they were
very ill calculated to endure.
The spirit of chivalry left behind it a
more valuable successor. The character
of knight gradually subsided in that of
gentleman ; and the one distinguishe
European society in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, as much as the
other did in the preceding ages. A jeal
ous sense of honour, less romantic, bu\
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 tlie dignity it gave, a sympathy
for martial honour, though more subdued
* The prerogative eicercised by the kings of
England of compelling men sufficiently qualified
in point of estate to take on them the honour of
knighthood, was inconsistent with the true spiri'
of chivalry. This began, according to Lord Lyl-
ileton, under Henry III. — Hist, of Henry II., voL
ii., p. 238. Inde[)endently of this, several causes
tended to render England less under the influence
of chivalrous principles than France or Germany;
such as her comparatively peaceful slate, thtt
smaller share she took in the crusades, her inferi-
ority in romances of knight-errantry, but, above all,
the democratical character of her laws and govern-
ment. Still this is only to be understood relatively
to the two other countries above named ; for chiv-
alry was always in high lepute among us, nor • '■ I
any nation produce more admirable specimens of
Its excellences.
I am not minutely acquainted with the state of
chivalry in Spam, where it seems to ha\ e flourished
considerably. Italy. e.\re|)t in Naples, and [>erhaps
Piedmont, displayed little of its spirit ; which
neither suited the free republics of the twelfth and
thirteenth, nor the jealous tyrannies of the follow
ing centuries. Yet even here we find enough ic
furnish Muratori with materials for his 53d disssr
tation.
J20
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
Chat IX
by civil liabiu?, are the lineaments which
prove an indisputable descent. The cav-
aliers of Charles I. were genuine suc-
cessors of Edward's knights ; and the
resemblance is much more striking if
we ascend to the civil wars of the League.
'I'imc has effaced much also of this gen-
tlemanly, as it did before of the cluval-
rous character. From the latter part of
the seventeenth century, its vigour and
purify have undergone a tacit decay, and
yielded, perhaps in every country, to in-
creasing commercial wealth, more dif-
fused instruction, the spirit of general
liberty in some, and of servile obsequi-
ousness in others, the modes of life in
great cities, and the levelling customs of
social intercourse.*
It is now time to pass to a very differ-
ent subject. The third head
Literature. ^^^^^^^ ^^j^,^ j ^.^.^^^^^ tjie im-
provements of society during the four
last centuries of the middle ages, was
that of literature. But I must apprize
-he 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,
^ut foreign, in many of its details, to the
purposes of this chapter, which, attempt-
ing to develop the circumstances that
gave a new complexion to society, con-
siders literature only so far as it exer-
cised a general and powerful influence.
The private researches, therefore, of a
smgle scholar, unproductive of any ma-
terial effect in his generation, ought not
10 arrest us, nor indeed would a series
of biographical notices, into which liter-
ary hist(H-y is apt to fall, be very instruc-
tive to a philosophical inquirer. But 1
have still a more decisive reason against
taking a large range of literary history
into the compass of this work, founded
on the many contributions which have
been made within the last forty years to
that department, some of them even
since the commencement of my own
• The well-known Memoirs of St. Palaye are
Ihe best repository of interesting and illustrative
facts respecting chivalry. Possibly he may have
relied a little too much on romances, whose pic-
tures will naturally be overcharged. Froissart
himself has somewhat of this partial tendency, and
the manners of chivalrous times do not make so
fair an appearance in Monstrclet. In the Memoirs
of la Tremouille (Collect, des Mem., t. xiv., p.
1C9), we h^ive perhaps the earliest delineation from
the life of those severe and stately virtues in high-
born ladies, of which our own country furnishes
so many examples in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, and which were derived from the influ-
ence of chivalrous principles. And those of Bayard
in the same collection (t. xiv. and xv.) are a beau-
tiiFul exhibit.on "f the best effect? of that discipline.
labour.* These have diffu set! so genera
an acquaintance with the literature of
the middle ages, iha'. 1 must, in treating
the subject, either co npile secondary in-
formation from well-known books, oi
enter upon a vast field of reading, with
little hope of improving upon what has
been already said, or even acquiring credit
for original research. I shall therefore
confine myself to four points : the study
of civil law; the institution of universi-
ties ; the application of modern languages
to literature, and especially to poetry;
and the revival of ancient learning.
The Roman law had been nominally
preserved ever since the de- ^,.^,.^ j^^^,
struction of the empire ; and a
great portion of the inhabitants of France
and Spain, as well as Italy, were govern-
ed by its provisions. But this was a
mere compilation from the Theodosian
code ; which itself contained only the
more recent laws promulgated 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 Theodo-
sian code by writers of the dark ages.f
The code of Justinian, reduced into sys-
tem after the separation of the two for-
mer countries from the Greek empire,
never obtained any authority in them ;
nor was it received in the part of Italy
subject to the Lombards. But that this
body of laws was absolutely unknown in
the West during any period seems to
have been too hastily supposed. Some
of the more eminent ecclesiastics, as
Hincmar and Ivon of Chartres, occasion-
ally refer to it, and bear witness to the
regard which the Roman church had
uniformly paid to its decisions. J
The revival of the study of jurispru-
dence, as derived from the laws of Jus-
tinian, has generally been ascribed to the
discovery made of a copy of the Pan
dects at Amalfi, in 1135, when that city
was taken by the Pisans. This fact,
though not improbable, seems not to
* Four very recent publications (not to menticn
that of Buhle on modern philosophy) enter much
at large into the middle literature; those of M.
Ginguene and M. Sismondi, the History of Eng
land by Mr. Sharon Turner, and tlie Literarj
History of the Middle Ages by Mr. Berington. Ah
of these contain more or less useful information
and judicious remarks ; but that of Ginguene is
among the most learned and important works of
this century. I have no hesitation to prefer it, ai
far as its subjects extend, to Tiraboschi.
t Heineccius, Hist. Juris German., c. !., s. 15.
t Giannone, 1. iv., c. 6 Selden, ad Fletau"
p. 1 )71.
jfAKi n.i
STATE OF SOCIETY
5S51
rest upon sufficient evidence* But its i
truth is the less n- aterial, as it appears '
to be unequivocally proved that the study
of Justinian's system had recommenced
before that era. Early in the twelfth
century, a professor named Irneriusf
opened a school of civil law at Bologna,
where lie commented, if not on the Pan-
dects, yet on the other books, the Insti-
tutes and Code, which were sufficient to
teach the principles and inspire the love
of that comprehensive jurisprudence
The study of law, having thus revived,
made a surprising progress ; within fifty
years Lombardy was full of lawyers, on
whom Frederick Barbarossa and Alex-
ander in., so hostile in every other re-
spect, conspired to shower honours and
privileges. The schools of Bologna were
pre-eminent throughout this century for
legal learning. There seem also to have
been seminaries 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 conspicuous, and
universities arose at Naples, Padua, and
other places, where the Roman law was
*he object of peculiar regard.]:
There is apparently great justice in
the opinion of Tiraboschi, that by'acqui-
ring internal freedom and the right of de-
termining controversies by magistrates
of their own election, the Italian cities
were led to require a more extensive and
accurate code of written laws than they
had hitherto possessed. These munici-
pal judges were chosen from among the
citizens, and the succession to offices
was usually so rapid, -that almost every
freeman might expect in his turn to par-
take in the public government, and con-
sequently in the administration of jus-
tice. The latter had always indeed been
exercised in the sight of the people by
the count and his assessors under the
'jombard and Carlovingian sovereigns;
lut the laws were rude, the proceedings
tumultuary, and the decisions perverted
by violence. The spirit of liberty begot
a stronger sense of right ; and right, it
was soon perceived, could only be se-
cured by a common standard. Magis-
trates holding temporary offices, and
little elevated, in those simple times,
above the citizens among whom they
» rirahoschi, t. iii., p. 359. Gingueiie, Hist.
Ijtt. del'ltalie,! i., p. 155.
t Irnerius is sometimes called (fuarnenus,
sometimes VVarnornis ; the German W is changed
into Gu by tlie- Kalians, and occasionally omitted,
especially in latinizing, for the sake of euphony o;
purity.
i Tirabo.schi, t. iv., p. 38, t. v., p. .W,
were to return, could only satisfy the
suiters, and those who surrounded their
tribunal, by proving the conformity of
their sentences to acknowledged authori.
ties. And the practice of alleging rea-
sons in giving judgment would of itsel'
introduce some uniformity of decision
and some adherence to great rules ol
justice in the most arbitrary tribunals ;
while, on the other hand, those of a free
country lose part of their title to respect,
and of their tendency to maintain right,
whenever, either in civil or criminal
questions, the mere sentence of a judge
is pronounced without explanation of its
motives.
The fame of this renovated jurispru-
dence spread very rapidly from Italy
over other parts of Europe. Students
flocked from all parts of Bologna; and
some eminent masters of that school re-
peated its lessons in distant countries.
One of these, Placentinus, explained the
digest at Monlpelier before the end 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 flour-
ish in the universities of both these cit-
ies ; and hence the Roman law, as it is
exhibited in the system of Justinian, be-
came the rule of all tribunals in the
southern provinces of France. Its au-
thority in Spain is equally great, or at
least is only disputed by that of the can-
onists :t and it forms the acknowledged
basis of decision in all the Germanic tri-
bunals, sparingly modified by the ancient
feudal customaries, which the jurists of
the empire reduce 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 constantly cited in
pleadings before the parliament of Paris,
either as obligatory by way of authority,
or at least as written wisdom, to which
great deference was shown. ^ Yet its
♦ Tiraboschi, t. v. Vaissette, Hist, de Lingti*"
doc, t. li., p. 517 ; t. iii., p. 527 ; t. iv., p. 50-1.
+ Duck, De Usu Juris civilis, 1. ii., c. 6
X I<icm,l. ii., C.2.
^ Idem, 1. ii., c. 5, s. 30,31. Fleury, Hist, di
Droit Fran(;ois, p. 71 (prefixed to Argou, Institu
tions an Droit Fraii(;oi.s, edit. 1787) says that it was
a great question among lawyers, and still undeci
ded (i. e., in 1C74), wiielhcr the Roman law was
the common law in the pays coutumiers, as tc
those points wherein their local customs were si
lent. And, if I understand Denisart ( Dictionnair*
dps Decisions, art. Droit-^crit), the atTirmative pir
vailed. It is plain, at leasi by the Causes Cel^bres
that appeal was contmually made to llie principle*
5*^a
EUROPE DURir.G THE MIDDLE AGES.
[C»AP U
study -VA as long prohibited in the univer-
sity of Paris, fiom a disposition of the
popes to establish exclusively their de-
cretals, though the prohibition was si-
lently disregarded.*
As early as the reign of Stephen, Vaca-
rts i'ltro- ^>"^' ^ lawyer of Bologna, taught
auction at Oxford with great success; but
into Eng- {[^q studcuts of scholastic theol-
*" ■ ogy opposed themselves, from
some unexplained reason, to this new
jurisprudence, and his lectures were in-
terdicted.] About the time of Henry III.
and Edward I., the civil law acquired
some credit in England ; but a system
entirely incompatible with it had estab-
lished itself in our courts of justice ; and
the Roman jurisprudence was not only
soon rejected, but became obnoxious.^
Everywhere, however, the clergy com-
bined its study with that of their own
canons ; it was a maxim that every can-
onist must be a civilian, and that no one
could be a good civilian unless he were
aiso a canonist. In all universities, de-
grees are granted in both laws conjoint-
ly ; and in all courts of ecclesiastical ju-
risdiction, the authority of Justinian is
cited, when that of Gregory or Clement
is wanting.^
I should earn little gratitude for my ob-
„ scure diligence, were 1 to dwell
eiviiians 01^ the forgotten teachers of a
little re- science that is likely soon to be
garded. forgotten. These elder profes-
sors of Roman jurisprudence are infect-
ed, as we are told, with the faults and ig-
norance of their time ; failing in the ex-
position of ancient law through incorrect-
ness of manuscripts and want of subsid-
iary learning, or perverting their sense
through the verbal subtleties of scholas-
tic philosophy. It appears that, even a
hundred years since, neither Azzo and
of the civil law in the factums of Parisian advo-
cates.
* Crevier, Hist, de I'Universit^ de Paris, t. i.,p.
316 ; t. ii.. p. 275.
t Johan. Salisburiensis, apud Selden ad Fletam,
p. 1082.
X Selden, iibi supra, p. 1095—1104. This pas-
sage is worthy of attention. Yet, notwithstanding
Selden's authority, I am not satisfied that he has
cot e.xteiiuated the effeot of Bracton's predilection
for the maxims of Roman jurisprudence. No early
lawyer has contributed so much to form our own
gyatern as Bracton ; and if his definitions and rules
ere sometimes borrowed from the civilians, as all
admit, our common law may have indirectly e-
ceived greater modification from that influence
than its professors were ready to acknowledge, or
even than they knew. A full view of this subject
ie still, I think, a desideratum in the history of
English law, which it would illustrate in a very in-
teresting manner.
§ Duck De Usu Juris civiKs, I. i., c 87.
Accursius, the principal civilians of the
ihirteenth century, nor Bartolus and
Baldus, the more conspicuous luminaries
of the next age, nor the later writings of
Accolti, Fulgosius, and Panormitanus,
were greatly regarded as authorities ; un-
less it were in Spain, where improvemeni
is always odious, and the name of Bar-
tolus inspired absolute deference.* In
the sixteenth century, Alciatus, and the
greater Cujacius, became as it were the
founders of a new and more enlightejied
academy of civil law, from which the la-
ter jurists derived their lessons. ^^^ j,^g
But their names, or at least their science it-
writings, are rapidly passing to ^'^'.'..°" ^^'^
the gulf that absorbed their pre-
decessors. The stream of literature,
that has so remarkably altered its chan-
nel within the last century, has left no
region more deserted than those of the
civil and canon law. Except among the
immediate disciples of the papal court,
or perhaps in Spain, no man, I suppose,
throughout Europe, will ever again un-
dertake the study of the one ; and the
new legal systems which the moral and
political revolutions of this age have pro-
duced and are likely to diffuse, will leave
little influence or importance to the oth-
er. Yet, as their character, so their fate
will not be altogether similar. The can
on law, fabricated only for a usurpatioi
that can never be restored, will becom,.
absolutely useless, as if it had never ex-
isted ; like a spacious city in the w ilder-
ness, though not so splendid and interest-
ing as Palmyra. But the code of Jus-
tinian, stripped of its impurer alloy, and
of the tedious glosses of its commenta-
tors, will form the basis of other systems,
and mingling, as we may hope, with the
new institutions of philosophical legisla-
tors, continue to influence the social rela-
tions of mankind, long after its direct au-
thority shall have been abrogated. The
ruins of ancient Rome supphed the mate-
rials of a new city ; and the fragments
of her law, which have already been
wrought into the recent codes of France
and Prussia, will probably, under other
names, guide far distant generations by
the sagacity of Modestinus and Ulpian.j
* Gravina, Origines Juris civilis, p. 196.
+ Those, if any such there be, who feel some cu
riosity about the civilians of the middle ages, wiW
find a concise and elegant account in Gravina, Da
Origine Juris civilis, p. 106— 206.— (Lips., 1708.)
Tiraboschi contains perhaps more information ; but
his prolixity, on a theme so unimportant, is very
wearisome. Of what use could he think it to dis-
cuss the dates of all transactions in the lives of
Bartolus and Baldus (to say nothing of obscurei
names) when nobody was left to care whi.- Ijaldu*
Part ll.l
STATE OF SOCIETY.
523
The ejitulil ishment of public schools
Public in France is owing to Charle-
**''"bi'^h d "^^gne. At his accession, we
by Charie- are assured that no means of
magne education existed in his domin-
ions ;* and, in order to restore in some
degree the spirit of letters, he was com-
pelled to invite strangers from countries
where learning was not so thoroughly
extinguished. Alcuin of England, Cle-
ment of Ireland, Theodulf of Gernany,
were the true Paladins who repa-red to
his court. With the help of these he re-
vived a few sparks of diligence, and estab-
lished 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. f His two next suc-
cessors, Louis the Debonair and Charles
the Bald, were also encouragers of let-
ters ; and the schools of Lyons, Fulda,
Corvey, Rheims, and some other cities,
might be said to flourish in the ninth cen-
tury.J In these were taught the trivium
and quadrivium, a long established divis-
ion of sciences ; the first comprehending
grammar, or what we now call philology,
logic, and rhetoric ; the second music,
arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. §i
But in those ages scarcely anybody mas-
tered the latter four; and to be perfect
in the three former was exceedingly
rare. All those studies, however, were
referred to theology, and that in the nar-
rowest manner ; music, for example, be-
ing reduced to church chanting, and as-
tronomy to the calculation of Easter. (|
Alcuin forbade the Latin poets to be
read ;^ and this discouragement of secu-
lar learning was very general ; though
some, as for instance Raban, permitted a
slight tincture of it, as subsidiary to reli
gious instruction.**
Abt'Iard.
and Bartolus were ? Besides this fault, it is evi-
dent that Tiraboschi knew very little of law, and
had not read tlie civilians of whom he treats ;
whereas Gravina discusses their merits not only
with legal knowledge, but with an acuteness oi'
criticism, which, to say the truth, Tiraboschi never
shows except on a date or a name.
♦■ Ante ipsum dominum Carolum regem in Gal-
lia nullum fuit sludium liberalium artium. Mona-
chus Engolismf nsis, apud Launoy, I)e Scholis per
occidentem instauratis, p. 5. See too llistoire Lit-
teraire de la France, t. iv., p. 1.
t Idem, ibid. There was a sort of literary club
imong them, where the members assumed ancient
names. Charlemagne was called David ; Alcuin,
Horace , another, Demefas, &c.
t Hist. Litternire, p. 217, &c.
iji This division of the sciences is ascribed to St.
Augustin ; and was certainly established early in
',he sixth centurv — Brucker, Histona Critica Phi-
osopliiae, t. iii., p. 597
II Schmidt, Hist, des Allemands, t. ii., p. 12C.
% Crevier, Hist, de I'Univ. de Paris, t. i., p. 28.
** Brucker, t. iii , p. 612. Raban Maurus was
About the latter part of the ek tenth
century, a greater ardour for in- unversitj
tellectual pursuits began to show of ' arie.
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 phi-
losophy. None of these grew so early
into reputation as that of Paris. This
cannot, indeed, as has been vainly pre-
tended, trace its pedigree to Charle-
magne. 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 dependance and connexion
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 preceptor was eclipsed by his disci-
ple, afterward 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 in-
tellectual excellence. His bold theories^
not the less attractive perhaps for tread-
ing upon the bounds of heresy, his im
prudent vanity, that scorned the regu-
larly acquired reputation of older men,
allured a multitude of disciples, who
would never have listened to an ordinary
teacher. It is said, that twenty cardi-
nals and fifty bishops had been among
his hearers. t Even in the wilderness,
where he had erected the monastery of
Paraclete, he was surrounded by enthu-
siastic admirers, relinquishing the luxu-
ries, if so they might be called, of Paris,
for the coarse living and imperfect ac-
commodation which thatf^tiremcnt could
afltbrd.J But the whole of Abelard's life
was the shipwreck of genius ; and of
genius both the source of his own ca-
lamities and unserviceable to posterity.
There are few lives of literary men more
interesting, or more diversified by suc-
cess and adversity, by glory and humili-
ation, by the admiration of mankind and
the persecution of enemies ; nor from
which, I may add, more impressive les-
sons of moral prudence may be derived.
One of Abelard's pupils was Peter Lom-
bard, afterward archbishop of Paris, and
chief of the cathedral school at Fulda, in the ninth
certury. * Crevier, p. G6.
•f Crevier, p. 171. Brucker, p. C77 Tirabr*
chi. t. iii., p. 275. X Brucker, p. 750.
5>4
EUROPE DUHLNG THE MIDDLE AGES.
[L'hap. JX
author of a work called the Book of Sen-
tences, uhich obtained the highest au-
thority among the scholastic disputants.
The resort of students to Paris became
continually greater ; they appear, before
the year 1169, to have been divided into
nations ;* and probably they had an elect-
ed rector and voluntary rules of disci-
pline about the same time. This, how-
ever, is not decisively proved ; but in
the last year of the twelfth century, they
obtained their earliest charter from Philip
A'lgustus.f
The opinion which ascribes the found-
Lniversity atiou of the University of Ox-
of Oxford, foj.^ to Alfred, if it cannot be
maintained as a truth, contains no intrin-
sic marks of error. Ingulfus, abbot of
Croyland, in the earliest authentic pas-
sage that can be adduced to this point,J
declares that he was sent from Westmin-
ster to the school at Oxford, where he
learned Aristotle, and the two first
aooks of Tully's rhetoric.^ Since a
school for dialectics and rhetoric subsist-
ed at Oxford, a town of but middling
size, and not the seat of a bishop, we are
naturally led to refer its foundation to
one of our kings ; and none who had
reigned after Alfred appears likely to
have manifested such zeal for learning.
However, it is evident that the school
of Oxford was frequented under Edward
* 1 he faculty of arts in the university of Paris
ivas 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 medi-
cine. In 1169, Henry II. of England offers to re-
fer his dispute with Becket to the provinces of the
school of Paris.
+ Crevier, t. i., p. 279. The first statute regula-
ting the discipline of the university was given by
Robert de Courqon, legate of Honorius III., in
1215, id., p. 296.
t No one probably would choose to rely on a
passage fnund in one manuscript of Asserius,
which has all appearance of an interpolation. It
is evident, from an anecdote in Wood's History of
Oxford, vol. i., p. 2.3 (Gutch's edition), that Cam-
den did not believe in the authenticity of this pas-
gage, though he thought proper to insert it in the
Britannia.
(J The mention of Aristotle at so early a period
might seem to throw some suspicion on this pas-
sage. But it is impossible to detach it from the
CorXext ; and the works of Aristotle intenrled by
Ingalfus were translations of parts of his logic by
Boethius and Victorin.— Bnicker, p. 678. A pas-
sage indeed in Peter of Blois's continuation of In-
gulfus, where the utudy of Averroes is said to
na''e taken place at Cambridge some years before
he was born, is of a different comple.^ion, and
must of course be rejected as spurious. In the
Gesta Comitum Andegavensium, Fnlk, count of
Aniou, who lived about 920, is said to have been
xilled A ristotelicis et C'ceronianis ratiocination-
Dllfi.
the Confessor. There follows an inter-
val of above a century, during which we
have, I believe, no contemporary evi-
dence of its continuance. But in the
reign of Stephen, Vacarius read lectures
there upon civil law ; and it is reasona-
ble to suppose that a foreigner would
not have chosen that city if he had not
found a seminary of learning already
established. It was probably inconsid-
erable, and might have been interrupted
during some part of the preceding centu-
ry.* In the reign of Henry II., or at
least of Richard I., Oxford became a
very flourishing university, and in 1201,
according to Wood, contained 3000
scholars.! The earliest charters were
granted by John.
If it were necessary to construe the
word universitjr in the strict Universiiy
sense of a legal incorporation, oruuiogna
Bologna might lay claim to a highei
antiquity than either Paris or Oxford.
There are a few vestiges of studies pur
sued in that city even in the eleventh
century ;| but early in the next, the revi-
val of the Roman jurisprudence as has
been already noticed, brought a ihroiig
of scholars round the chairs of its profes-
sors. Frederick Barbarossa, in 1158, by
his authentic or rescript entitled Habita,
took these under his protection, and per-
mitted 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 covet-
ed by other academies; it was granted
to the university of Paris by its earliest
charter from Philip Augustus, Encoura..6.
and to Oxford by John. From ment given
this time the golden age of uni- '^ imiversi-
versities commenced ; and it is '*^'
hard to say whether they were favoured
most by their sovereigns or by the see
of Rome. Their history indeed is full
of struggles with the municipal authori-
ties, and with the bishops of their several
cities, wherein they were sometimes the
aggressors, and generally the conquerors
From all parts of Europe students resort-
ed to these renowned seats of learning
* It may be remarked, that John of Salisbury,
who wrote in the first years of Henry II. f reign,
since his Policraticus is dedicated to Becket, be-
foie he became archbishop, makes no mencion of
O.xford, which he would probably have done if i'
had been an eminent sent of learning at that time.
I Wood's Hist, and Antiquities of Oxford, )).
177. The Benedictins of St. Maursay that there
was an eminent school of canon law at Oxford
about the end of the twelfth centurv, to which
many students repaired from Paris. — Hist. Lilt, de
la France, t. ix., p. 216.
t Tiraboschi, t. iii., p. 259, et alibi Muratori,
Disseit. 43
Part II.J
STATE OF SOCIETY.
b2t
with an eagerness for instruction which
may astonish those who reflect how little
of what we now deem useful could he
imparled. 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 respectable contemporary writer as-
serts that- there were full 10,000 at Bo-
logna about the same time.f I have not
observed 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 contained 25,000 stu-
dents.j In the thirteenth century, other
universities sprang up in diff'erent coun-
tries : Padua and Naples, under the pat-
ronage of Frederick II., a zealous and
useful friend to letters,'^ Toulouse and
Montpelier, Cambridge and Salamanca. ||
Orleans, which had long been distin-
guished as a school of civil law, received
the privileges of incorporation early in
the fourteenth century ; and Angers be-
fore the expiration of the same age.^TJ
Prague, the earUest and most eminent
of German universities, was founded in
1350; a secession from thence of Saxou
* " But among these," says Anthony Wood, " a
company of varlets, who pretended to he scholars,
shuffled themselves in, and did act much villany in
the university by thieving, whoring, quarrelling,
&c. They lived under no discipline, neither had
they tutors; but only, for fashion sake, would some-
times thrust themselves into the schools at ordi-
nary Itxtures, and when they went to perform any
mischief, then would they be accounted scholars,
that so they might free themselves from the juris-
il'ction of the burghers," p. 20G. If we allow three
varlets to one scholar, ihe university will still have
been very fully frequented by the latter.
t Tiraboschi, t. iv., p. 47. Azarius, about the
middle of the fourteenth century, says, the number
was about 13,000 in his time.— Muratori, Script.
Rer. Ital , t. xvi., p. 325.
t Villaret, Hist, de France, t. xvi., p. 3-41. This
may perhaps require to be taken with allowance.
Bui. Paris owes a great part of its buildings on the
southern bank of the Seine to the university. The
students are said to have been about 12,000 before
1480— Crevier, t. iv., p. 410.
(^ Tiraboschi, t. iv., p. 43 and 46.
II The earliest authentic mention of Cambridge
as a place of learning, if I mistake not, is in Mat-
thew Paris, who informs us, that in 1209, John
having caused three clerks of Oxford to be hanged
on suspicion of murder, the whole body of scholars
left that city, an i emigrated, some to Cambridge,
some to Reading, in order to carry on their studies
(p. 191, edit. Iti84). But it may be conjectured,
with sonje probatiility, that they were led to a
town so distant as Cambridge by the previous es-
tablishment of academical instruction in that place.
The incorporationof Cambridge is in 1231 (15 Hen.
III.), so that there is no great difl'erence in the legal
antiquity of our two universities.
5 Crevier, Hist, de I'Univeisite de Paris, t. ii., p.
116 t. iii., p. ]AC
students, in consequence of tlie iiaiion-
ality 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, were drawn by the
love of science from foreign countries.
The chief universities had their own par-
ticular departments of excellence. Paris
was unrivalled for scholastic theology ;
Bologna and Orleans, and afterward
Bourges, for jurisprudence ; INIontpelier
for medicine. Though national prejudi-
ces, as in the case of Prague, sometimes
interfered with this free resort of for-
eigners to places of education, it was in
general a wise policy of government, as
well as of the universities themselves, to
encourage it. The thirty-fifth article of
the peace of Bretigni provides for the
restoration of former privileges to stu-
dents respectively in the French and Eng-
lish universities.! Various letters pat-
ent will be found in Rymer's collection,
securing to Scottish as well as French
natives a safe passage to their place of
education. The English nation, including
however the Flemings and Cernians,J
had a separate vote in the faculty of arts
at Paris. But foreign hludents 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 three
last of the middle ages. Crevier enumer-
ates fifteen colleges, founded in the uni-
versity of Paris during the thirteenth cen-
tury, besides one or two of a still c.'.clier
date. Two only, or at most three, ex-
isted in that age at Oxford, and but one
at Cambridge. In the next two centu-
ries, these universities could bo.nst, as
every one knows, of many si'lendid
foundations ; though mucli exceeded in
number by those of Paris. Considered
as ecclesiastical institutions, it is not
surprising that tlie universities obtained,
according to the spirit of tlieir age, an
exclusive cognizance of civil or criminal
suits afl'ecting their members. Thi?
jurisdiction was, however, local as weli
as personal, and in reality encroach-
ed on the regular police of tiicir c.ties.
At Paris the privilege turned to a flagrant
abuse, and gave rise to many .scandalous
contentions.^ Still more valuable ad-
* Pfeffel, Abri'ge Chronologique de I'Hist de
I'Allemagne, p. 550, 007. ,
t Kymer, t. vi.. p. 292. t Crevier, t n., p. 398
(j Cievierand Villaret, passim. ^
52P
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDl f AGES.
^Cmap. iX
I'antages were those relating to ecclesi-
astical prelerments, of which a large
proportion was reserved in France to
academical graduates. Something of
>ne same sort, though less extensive,
may still be placed in the rules respect-
mg plurality of benefices in our English
church.
This remarkable and almost sudden
Causes of transition from a total indiffer-
iheir celeb- ence to all intellectual pursuits
■■"y- cannot be ascribed perhaps to
any general causes. The restoration of
the civil, and the formation of the canon
law, were indeed eminently conducive to
it, and a large proportion of scholars in
most universities confined themselves
o jurisprudence. But the chief attrac-
Sciioiasiic tion to the studious was the
philosophy, new scholastic philosophy. The
.ove of contention, especially with such
arms as the art of dialectics supplies to
an acute understanding, is natural
enough to mankind. That of specula-
ting upon the mysterious questions of
metaphysics and theology is not less so.
These disputes and speculations, howev-
er, appear to have excited little interest,
till, after the middle of the eleventh cen-
tury, Roscelin, a professor of logic, re-
vived 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, successively arch-
bishops of Canterbury, kept alive ; and
in the next century, Abelard and Peter
Lombard, especially the latter, 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 intro-
duced through translations from the Ara-
bic, and perhaps also from the Greek,
early in the ensuing century.f This
* Brucker, Hist. Grit. Philosophiae, t. iii., p. 678.
t Id., ibid. Tiraboschi conceives that the trans-
lations of Aristotle made by command of Frederick
U. were directly from the Greek, t. iv., p. 145 ; and
censures tirucker for the contrary opinion. Buhle,
however (Hist, de la Philosophic Moderne, t. i., p.
696), appears to agree with Brucker. It is almost
certair. that versions were made from the Arabic
Arist-:;;le : which itself was not immediately taken
from the Greek, but from a Syriac medium. — Gin-
guen^. Hist. Litt. de I'ltalie, t. i., p. 212 (on the
authority of M. Langles).
It was not only a knowledge of Aristotle that
,be scholastics of Europe derived from the Arabic
.anguags. His writings had produced in the flour-
8^1 r ? Mahometan kingdoms avast r;iniber of
work, condemned at first by the decreef
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, establish-
ed throughout Europe in the thirteenth
century, greatly contributed to promote
the Aristotelian philosophy ; and its fina.
reception into the orthodox system of
the chlirch may chiefly be ascribed to
Thomas Aquinas, the boast of the Do-
minican order, and certainly the most
distinguished metaphysician of the mid-
dle ages. His authority silenced all scru-
ples as to that of Aristotle, and the two
philosophers were treated with equally
implicit deference 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, hke that of empire, is full of revo-
lutions. Our public libraries are ceme-
teries of departed reputation ; and the
dust accumulating upon their untouched
volumes speaks as forcibly as the grass
that waves over the ruins of Babylon.
Few, very few, for a hundred years past,
have broken the repose of the immense
works of the schoolmen. None perhaps
in our own country have acquainted them-
selves particularly with their contents.
Leibnitz, however, expressed a wish tliat
some one conversant with modern phi-
losophy would undertake to extract the
comment? tors, and of metaphysicians trained in
the same school. Of these, Averroes, a native of
Cordova, who died early in the thirteenth century,
was the most eminent. It would be curious to
examine more minutely than has hitherto been
done the original writings of these famous men,
which no doubt have suffered in translation. A
passage in Al Gazel, which Mr. Tinner has ren
dered from the Latin, with all the disadvantage o*'
a double remove from the author's words, appears
to state the argument in favour of that class o:
nomitialists, called conceptualists (the only realists
who remain in the present age), with more clear
nessand precision than any thing I have seen from
the schoolmen. Al Gazel died in 1126, and conse-
quently might have suggested this theory to Abe-
lard, which however is not probable. — Turner's
Hist, of England, vol. i., p. 513.
* Brucker, Hist. Grit. Philosophic, t. iii. I
have found no better guide than Brucker. But he
confesses himself not to have read the original
writings of the scholastics; an admission vvhick
every reader will perceive to be quite necessary
Consequently, he gives us rather a verbose decia
mation against their philosophy, than any clear
view of its character. Of the valuable works late-
ly published in Germany on the history of Philoso.
phy, I have only seen that of Buhle, which did not
fall into my hands till I had nearly written the?a
pages. Tiedeman and Tenneman are, 1 bcliere,
still untranslated.
Pabt II]
STATE OF SOCIETV
scattered particles of gold which may be
hidden in their abandoned mines. This
wish has been at length partially fulfilled
by three or four of those industrious stu-
dents and keen metaphysicians, who do
honour to modern Germany. But most
of their works are unknown to me except
by repute ; and as they all appear to be
formed on a very extensive plan, I doubt
whether even those laborious men could
afford adequate time for this ungrateful
research. Yet we cannot pretend to
deny, that lloscelin, Anselm, Abelard,
Peter Lombard, Albertus Magnus, Thom-
as 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 metaphys-
ical genius which this age ought not
to despise. Thus, in the works of An-
selm 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 schoolmen had in view was
to establish the principles of natural the-
ology by abstract reasoning. This rea-
soning was doubtless liable to great diffi-
culties. But a modern writer, who
seems tolcrablj'' acquainted with the sub-
ject, assures us that it would be difiicult
to mention any theoretical argument to
prove the divine attributes, or any objec-
tion capable of being raised against the
proof, wliich wc do not find in some of
the scholastic philosophers.* The most
celebrated subjects of discussion, and
those on which this class of reasoners
were most divided, were the reality of
universal ideas, considered as extrinsic
to the human mind, and the freedom of
will. These have not ceased to occupy
the thoughts of metaphysicians ; but it
will generally be allowed that the preva-
lence of the Realists in the former ques-
tion does not give a favourable impres-
sion of the scholastic system. f
* Biihle, Hist, de la Philos. Motlerne, t. i., p.
?23. This author raises, upon the whole, a favoiir-
\ble notion of Anselm and Aquinas ; but he hard-
ly notices any other.
|- Mr. Turner has, with his characteristic spirit of
enterprise, examined some of the writings of our
chief Enghsh schoohnen, Duns Scotus and Ock-
ham (Hist, of Kng.vol. i.), and even given us some
eisracts from t'.iem. They seem to me very friv-
olous, so far as I can collect their meaning. Ock-
,iam, in particular, falls very short of what I had ex-
pected ; and his nominalism is strangely different
Crom that of Btirkeley. We can hardly reckon a
man in tne right, who is so by accident, and thro ,gh
Mphiatical reasoning. However, a well-known
But all diicovery of t;uth by means of
these controversies was rendered hope-
less by two insurmountable obstacles :
the authority of Aristotle, and that of the
church. Wherever obsequious re\er-
ence is substituted for bold inquiry, truth
if she is not already at hand, will nevei
be attained. The scholastics did not un-
derstand Aristotle, whose original wri-
tings they could not read ;* but his nainb
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 tlieir met
aphysics were injurious to their theology.
But I must observe in return, tliat their
theology was equally injurious to their
metaphys'cs. Their disputes continually
turned upon questions either involving
absurdity and contradiction, or at best
inscrutable by hum'aii comprehension.
Those who assert the greatest antiquity
of the Roman Catholic doctrine as to the
real presence, allow that both the word
and the definition of transubstantiation
are owing to the scholastic writers. Their
subtleties were not always so well re-
ceived. They reasoned at imminent
peril of being charged with heresy, which
Roscelin, Abelard, Lombard, and Ock
ham, did not escape. In the virulent
factions that arose out of their metaphys-
ical quarrels, either party was eager to
expose its adversary to detraction and
persecution. The nominalists were ac-
cused, one hardly sees why, with redu
cing, like Sabellius, the persons of the
Trinity to modal distinctions. The Real-
article in the Edinburgh Review, No. LIII., p
201, gives, from Tenneman, a more favourable ac-
count of Ockham.
Perhaps I may have imagined the scholastics tc
be more forgotten than they really are. Within a
short time, I have met with Coih- living English
writers who have read parts of Thomas Aquinas :
Mr. Turner, Mr. Berington, Mr. Coleridge, and
the Edinburgh Reviewer. Still I cannot bring my
self to think that there are four more in this coun
try who could say the same. Certain portions
however, of his writings are still read in the course
of instruction of some Catholic universities.
* Roger Bacon, by far the truest philosopher ot
the middle ages, complains of the ignorance ol
Aristotle's translators. Every translator, he ob
serves, ought to understand his author's subject,
and the two languages from which and into wliich
he is to render the work. But none hitherto, ex
cept Boethius, have sufficiently known the Ian
guages; nor has one, except Robert Gr )stete (tha
famous bishop of Lincoln), had a competent ac-
quaintance with science. The rest make egi-egi-
ous errors in both respects. Awl there is so much
misapprehension and obscurity in the Aristoteliu:
writings as thus translated, that no on'-, uiidor
stands them.— Opua Mams, p '15.
^'^8
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Chap. IX
ists, with more pretence, incurred the
Jiiipulation of holding a language that sa-
•^oured of atheism.* In the controversy
which the Dominicans and Franciscans,
disc'ples respectively of Thomas Aqui-
nas and Dans Scotus, maintained about
prace and free-will, it was of course still
more easy to deal in mutual reproaches
of heterodoxy. But the schoolmen 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
threatened no serious mischief, as it did
not proceed from any independent spirit
of research. Yet, whh all their apparent
conformity to the received creed, there
was, as might be expected from the cir-
cumstances, a great deal of real deviation
from ortliodoxy, and even of infidelity.
The scholastic mode of dispute, admit-
ting of no termination, and producing no
conviction, was the sure cause of skep-
ticism ; and the system of Aristotle,
especially with the commentaries of
Averroes, bore an aspect very unfavour-
able to natural religion. f The Aristote-
lian philosophy, even in the hands of the
master, was like a barren tree, that con-
ceal», its want of fruit by profusion of
loaves. But the scholastic ontology was
much worse. What could be more tri-
fling than disquisitions about the nature
of angels, their modes of operation, their
means of conversing, or (for these were
distingjis'ied) the morning and evening
state ol thtir understcurdings 1% Into such
follies the schoolmen 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 hu-
man mind, as merely a part of physics ;
and in no small degree through a spirit
of mystical fanaticism, derived from the
oriental pliilosophy, and the latter Pla-
tonists, which blended itself with the
cold-blooded technicalities of the Aristo-
• Brucker, p. 733, 912. Mr. Turner has fallen
into some confusion as to this point, and supposes
the nominalist system to have had a pantheistical
tendency, not clearly apprehending its characteris-
tics, p. 512.
t Petrarch gives a curious account of the irreli-
gion that prevailed among the learned at Venice
and Padua, in consequence of their unbounded ad-
miration for Aristotle and Averroes. One of this
school, conversing with him, after expressing much
contempt forthe Apostks and Fathers, exclaimed:
Utinam tu Averroim pati posses, ut viiieres quanto
lUe tuis his nugatoribus major sit ! — Mem. de Pe-
tratque, t. iii., p. 759. T iraboschi, t. v., p. 162.
t Bt\ir((.-r, V 898.
telian school.* But this unproductive
waste of the faculties could not last foi
ever. Men discovered that thej dad giv
er. their time for the promise of wisdom,
and been cheated in the bargain. What
John of Salisbury observes of the Paris
ian dialectitians in his own time, that af.
ter several years absence he found then
not a step advanced, and still employe]
in urging and parrying the same argi--
ments, was equally apphcable to the p(.
riod of centuries. After three or foui
hundred years, the scholastics had nc>
untied a single knot, nor added one une
quivocal truth to the domain of philos
ophy. As this became more evident, thi.
enthusiasm for that kind of learning de-
clined ; after the middle of the fourteenth
century, few distinguished teachers aroso
among the schoolmen; and at the revival
of letters, their pretended science had
no advocates left but among the prejudi
ced or ignorant adherents of established
systems. How differen* is the state of
genuine philosophy, the zeal for which
will never wear out by length of time oi
* This mystical philosophy appears to have 1 eer
introduced into Europe by John Scotus, wliorr
Buhle treats as the founder of the scholastic phi-
losophy; though, as it made no sensible progresj
for two centuries after his time, it seems more i Ai
ural to give that credit to Roscelin and Anselm
Scotus, or Erigena, as he is perhaps more frequent
ly called, took up, through the medium of a spuri
ous work, ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagito
that remarkable system, which has from time im
memorial prevailed in some schools of the East,
wherein all external phenomena, as well as all
subordinate intellects, are considered as emanating
from the Supreme Being, into whose essence they
are hereafter to be absorbed. This system, repro-
duced under various moditications, and combined
with various theories of philosophy and religion,
is perhaps the most congenial to the spirit of soli-
tary speculation, and consequently the most ex-
tensively ditTused of any which those high themee
have engendered. It originated, no doubt, in sub-
lime conceptions of Divine omnipotence and ubi
quity. But clearness of expression, or indeed of
ideas, being not easily connected with mysticism
the language of philosophers adopting the theor)
of emanation is often hardly distinguishable from
that of the pantheists. Brucker, very unjustly, a.s
I imagine from the passages he quotes, accuses
John Erigena of pantheism. — (Hist. Crit. Philos.,
p. C20.) The charge would, however, be i,etter
grounded against some whose style might deceive
an unaccustomed reader. In fact, the philosophy
of emanation leads very nearly to the doctrine of
a universal substance, which hegot the atheistic
system of Spinoza, and which appears to have re-
vived with similar consequences among the meta-
physicians of (Jermany. How very closely the
language of this oriental philosophy, or even of
that which regards the Deity as the soul of tha
world, may verge upon pantheism, will be per
ceived (wiihout the trouble of reading the iirsi
book of Cudworth) from two famous passages o'
Virgil and Lucan.— Georg.,1. iv., v. 219- ai;d Phai
Falia, 1. ■viii., v. 578.
H
PiRT Uj
STATE OF SOCIETl.
529
change of fashion, bi cause the inquirer,
unrestrained by authority, is perpetually
cheered by the discovery of truth in re-
searches which the boundless riches of
nature seem to render indefinitely pro-
gressive !
Yet, upon a general consideration, the
attention paid in the universities to
scholastic philosophy may be deemed a
source of improvement in the intellectu-
al character, when we compare it with
the perfect ignorance of some preceding
ages. Whether the same industry would
not have been more profitably directed,
if the love of metaphysics had not in-
tervened, is another question. Philolo-
gy, or the principles of good taste, de-
generated 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 northern side of the Alps.
I do not, however, conceive that any
real correctness of taste or general ele-
gance of style was likely to subsist in
so imperfect a condition of society.
These qualities seem to require a certain
harmonious correspondence in the tone
of manners, before they can establish a
prevalent influence over literature. A
more real evil was the diverting studious
men from mathematical science. Early
m the twelfth century, several persons,
chiefly English, had brought into Europe
some of the Arabian writings on geome-
try and physics. In the thirteenth the
vvorks of lOuclid were commented upon
by Campano ;* and Roger liacon was
fully acquainted with them.f Algebra,
* Tiraboschi, t. iv., p. 150.
t There is a very copious and sensible account
of Roger Bacon iti Wood's History of Oxford, vol.
i., p. 332 (Gutch's edition). 1 am a little surjiriscd
that Antony should have found out Bacon's merit.
It is like an oyster judging of a line-of-battle ship.
But I ought not to gibe at the poor antiquary when
he shows good sense.
The resemblance between Roger Bacon and his
greater namesake is very remarkable. Whether
Lord Bacon ever read the Opus Majus, I know not,
but it is smgular that his favourite quaint expres-
sion, prrcrofiativtR scientiarum, should be found in
that worlc, 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 san-
guine and sometunes rash confidence in the effect
oi physical discoveries, the same fondness for ex-
periment, the same preference of inductive to ab-
stract reasoning, pervade both works. Roger Ba-
con's philosophical spirit may be illustrated by the
following passage: Duo sunt modi cognoscendi;
scilicet per aigumentnm et expenmentum. Ar-
gumentum concludit et facit nos concludere ques-
tionem ; sed non certificat neque removet dubita-
tionem ut quiescat animus in intuitu veritatis, nisi
as fir as the Arabians knew ii extending
to quadratic equations, was actually in
the hands of seme Italians at the com-
mencement of the same age, and pre
served for almost three hundred years as
a secret, though without any conception
of its importance. As abstract mathe-
matics require no collateral aid, thev
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 La Place, instead of an Aquinas or
an Ockham. The knowledge displayed
by Roger Bacon and by Albertus Mag-
nus, even in the mixed matliematics,
under every disadvantage from the im-
perfection of instruments and tlie want
of recorded experience, are sufficif.nt tc
inspire us with regret that their cotitem
poraries were more inclined to astonish
ment than to emulation. These inqui
ries indeed were subject to the ordeal
of fire, the great purifier of books and
men ; for if the metaphysician stood a
chance of being burnt as a heretic,
the natural philosopher was in not les?
jeopardy as a magician.*
A far more substantial cause of iutel
lectual improvement was the cultivation
development of those new Ian- oi' nie new
guages that sprang out of the ''^''suaK-s.
corruption of Latin. For three or foui
centuries after what was called the ro-
mance tongue was spoken in France,
there remain but few vestiges of its em
ployment in writing; though we cannot
draw an absolute inference from our
want of proof, and a critic of much au-
thority supposes translations to have
been made into it for rehgious purposes
from the time of Charlemagne. t r> • • ^
Division o»
During tliis period the Ian- me romance
guage was split into two very tongue imo
separate dialects, the regions '"" '''='''"'''^-
of which may be considered, though by
no means strictly, as divided by the
earn inveniat via experientia; ; quia niulti habent
argumenta ad scibilia, sed (juia non habent experi-
entiam, negligunt ea, neque vitant nociva nee
persequuntur bona. Sienim aliquishomo. qui nun-
quam vidit ignem, probavit per argumenta sull'icien
tia quod ignis comluritet la:dit res etdestruit, r. un
quam propter hoc cLiesceret animus audientij nei.
ignem vitaret antequam poneret manum \el rem
combustibilem ad ignem, ut per expcrientiam pro-
baret qnodargumentum edocebat ; sed iissuuiti e»
poricntia combustionis certilicatur animus et qui
escit in fulgore veritatis, quo argumentiim non sui
ficit, sed experientia. p. 446.
* See the fate of (lecco d' Ascoli in Tiraboschi
t. v., p. 174.
t Le Bceuf Miii. de I'Acad. des u:«cnpl t
xvii,, p. 711.
530
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
iChap. .X
TiOire. These were called the Langue
d'Oil and the I.angue d'Oc ; or, in more
modern lerins, the French and Proven(;'al
dialects. In the latter of these I know
of nothing vhich can even by name be
(ra:ed beyond the year 1100. About
that time, Gregory de Bechada, a gentle-
man of Limousin, recorded the memo-
rable events of the first crusade, then re-
cent, in a metrical history of great
length.* This poem has altogether per-
ished ; which, considering the populari-
ty of its subject, as M. Sismondi justly
remarks, would probably not have been
the case if it had possessed any merit.
But very soon afterward, a multitude of
poets, like a swarm of summer insects,
appeared in the southern provinces of
Troubadours France. These were the cel-
of Provence, ebratcd Troubadours, whose
fame depends far less on their positive
excellence than on the darkness of pre-
ceding ages, on the temporary sensation
•iiey excited, and their permanent influ-
etcf- on the state of European poetry.
From William, count of Poitou, the ear-
host troubadour on record, who died in
1 126, to their extinction about the end
of the next century, there were probably
several hundred of these versifiers in the
language of Provence, though not al-
«;iys natives of France. Millot has
published the lives of one hundred and
forty-two, besides the names of many
more whose history is unknown ; and a
still greater number, it cannot be doubt-
ed, are unknown by name. Among
those poets are reckoned a king of Eng-
land (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 hard-
ly 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 universities. It was en-
couraged by the prosperity of Langue-
doc and Provence, undisturbed, compara-
tively with other countries, by internal
* Gresonus, co^nomento BechaHa, de Castro
de Turnbus, professione miles, subtilissimi ingenii
vir, aliquantulum imbutus Uteris, lioruin gesta
proeliorum inaterna lingua rythmo vulgari, ut pop-
ulus pleniter intelligeret, ingens volumen decenter
oomposuit, et ut vera et faceta verba proferret, duo-
decim annorum spatlum super hoc opus operam de-
di'.. Ne verovilesceret propter verbumvulg.ire, non
sine praecepto episcopi Eustorgii, et consilio Gau-
berti Norrnanni hoc opus aggressus est. I tran-
scribe this from M. Heeren's Essai sur les Croi-
•ade--, p. 417 ; whose reference is to Lab")6, Biblio-
theca nova MSS , t. ii , p. 29G.
warfare, and disposed by the temper of
their inhabituits to feel with voluptuous
sensibility the charm of music and am-
orous poetry. But the tremendous storm
that fell upon Languedoc in the crusade
against the Albigeois shook off the fl'.w-
ers of ProveiK^al verse ; and the final tx-
tinction of the fief of Toulouse, with tht
removal of the counts of Provence to
Naples, deprived the troubadours of theii
most eminent patrons. An attempt was
made in the next century to revive them,
by distributing prizes for the best compo-
sition in the Floral Games of Toulouse,
which have sometimes been erroneous-
ly referred to a higher antiquity.* This
institution perhaps still remains ; but.
even in its earliest period, it did not es-
tablish the name of any Provencal poet
Nor can we deem those fantastical so-
lemnities, styled Courts of Love, where
ridiculous questions of metaphysical gal-
lantry were debated by poetical advo-
cates, under the presidency and arbitra-
tion of certain ladies, much calculated
to bring forward any genuine excellence.
They illustrate, however, what is more
immediately my own object, the general
ardour for poetry, and the manners of
those chivalrous ages.f
The great reputation acquired by tl.e
troubadours, and panegyrics Their poeti-
lavished on some of them by «ai character
Dante and Petrarch, excited a curios
ity among literary men which has beer
a good deal disappointed by further ac
quaintance. An excellent French anti
quarian of the last age. La Curne de St
Palaye, spent great part of his life ivi
accumulating manuscripts of Provencal
poetry, very little of which had ever betii
printed. Translations from part of this
collection, with memorials of the writers
were published by Millot; and we cer-
tainly do not often meet with passages
in his three volumes which give us any
poetical pleasure. J Some of the original
poems have since been published, and
the extracts made from them by the re-
cent historians of southern literature are
* De Sade, Vie de Pctrarque, t. i., p. 155. Sis
mondi, Lilt, du Midi,t. i., p. 228.
t For the Courts of Love, see De Sade, Vie d«
Petrarque, t. li., note 19. Le Grand, Fabliaux, t.
i., p. 270. Roquefort, Etat de la Poesie Fran(;oi8e
p. 94. I have never had patience to look at th#
older writers who ti?ve treated this tiresome sub
ject It is a satisfactLin to reflect, that the coun
try which has prodi ced nwro eminent and origi
nal poets than any other has never been infected
by the fopperiej of academies and their prizes.
Such an institution as the Society de^u Arcadi
could at no time have endured puSlu i."'liv;ule in
England for a fortnight.
t H stoire Litt. des Troubadours. Faru> iTli
Hart II.J
STATE Ob SOCIETY.
53:
rather superior. The troubadours chiefly
confined themselves to subjects of love,
or rather gallantry, and to satires (sir-
ventes) which are sometimes keen and
spirited. No romances of chivalry, and
hardly any tales, are found among their
works. There seems a general defi-
ciency of imag-nation, and especially of
that vivid description which distinguishes
works of genius in the rudest period of
society. In the poetry of sentiment,
their favourite province, they seldom at-
tain any natural expression, and conse-
quently produce no interest. I speak, of
course, on the presumption that the best
specimens have been exhibited by those
who have undertaken the task. It must
be allowed, however, that we cannot
judge of the troubadours at a greater dis-
advantage than through the prose trans-
lations of Millot. Their poetry was en-
tir«;ly of that class which is allied to
music, and excites the fancy or feelings
rather by the power of sound than any
Btimulancy of imagery and passion. Pos-
sessing a flexible and harmonious lan-
guage, they invented a variety of metri-
cal arrangements, perfectly new to the
nations of Europe. The Latin hymns
were striking, but monotonous, the metre
of the northern French unvaried ; but in
Provcnc^al 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 bor-
rowed from his treasury. With such a
command of poetical sounds, it was natu-
ral that he should inspire delight into
ears not yet rendered familiar to the arti-
fices of verse ; and even now the frag-
ments of these ancient lays, quoted by
M. Sismondi and M. Ginguene, seem to
possess a sort of charm that has evapo-
rated in translation. Upon this harmony,
and upon the facility with which mankind
are apt to be deluded into an admiration
of exaggerated sentiment in poetry, they
depended for their influence. And, how-
ever vapid I'.ic songs of Provence may
seem to our apprehensions, they were
undoubtedly the source from which poe-
try for many centuries derived a great
portion of its habitual language.*
* Two very modern French writers, M. Gin-
guen6 (Histoire Litteraired'ltalie, Paris, 1811) and
M. Sismondi (Littoratiire da Midi de I'Europe,
Paris, 1813) have revived the poetical history of the
troubadours. To them, still more than to Mdlot
and Tiraboschi, I would acknowledge my obliga-
tions for the little I have learned in respect of
this forgotten school of poetry. Notwithstanding,
bc"v»evcr, the heaviness of Millet's work, a fault
LI 2
It has been maintained by some anti
quaries that the northern ro- ^, ,,
^ , 1 ,, Northern
mance, or what we properly call French
French, was not formed until the pot^'O' and
tenth century, the common dia- '"^"^^'
lect of all France having previously re
sembled that of Languedoc. This hy-
pothesis may not be indisputable ; but
the question is not likely to be settled,
as scarcely any written specimens of
romance, even of that age, have sur-
vived.* In the eleventh century, among
other more obscure productions both in
prose and metre, there appears what, if
unquestioned as to authenticity, would be
a valuable monument of this language ;
the laws of William the Conqueror
These are preserved in a manuscript of
Ingulfus's History of Croyland, a blank
being left in other copies where they
should be inserted.! They are written
in an idiom so far removed from the
Provencal, that one would be disposed
to think the separation between these
two species of romance of older standing
than is commonly allowed. But it has
been thought probable that these laws,
which in fact were a mere repetition of
those of Edward the Confessor, were
originally published in Anglo-Saxon, the
only language inteUigible to the people,
and translated, at a subsequent period
by some Norman monk into French. |
This, indeed, is not quite satisfactory, as
it would have been more natural for such
a transcriber to have rendered them into
Latin ; and neither William nor his suc-
cessors were accustomed to promulgate
any of their ordinances in the vernacular
language of England.
not imputable to himself, though Ritson, as I re-
member, calls him, m his own polite style, "a
blockhead," it will always be useful to the inquirer
into the manners and opinions of the middle ages,
from the numerous illustrations it contains of two
general facts ; the extreme dissoluteness of morals
among the higher ranks, and the prevailing ani-
mosity of all classes against the clergy.
* Hist. Litt. de la France, t. vii., p. 58. Le
Hnpuf, according to these Benedictins, has pub-
lished some poetical fragments of the tenth centu-
ry ; and they quote part of a charter as old as 940
in romance, p. 59. But that antiquary, in a me-
moir printed in the seventeenth volume of the
Academy of Inscriptions, which throws more light
on the infancy of the French language than any
thing within my knowledge, says only that the
earliest specimens of verse in the royal library are
of the eleventh century au plus tard, p. 717. M
de la Kue is said to have found some poems of the
eleventh century in the British Museum. — Roque
fort, Etat do la Poesie Fran<;oise, p. 206. Le
Bceuf 's fragment may be found in this work, p. 379 •
it seems nearer to the P'oventjal than the French
dialect.
t Oale, XV, Script., t. i., p. 88.
t Ritson's Dissertation on Romance, p, 66
532
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE &GES
[Ohap. IX
The use of a popular language be-
came more common after the year 1100.
Translations of some books of Scripture
and acts of saints were made about that
time, 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.f Metrical
compositions are in general the first
literature of a nation, and even if no dis-
tinct proof could be adduced, we might
assume their existence before the twelfth
century. There is, however, evidence,
lot to mention the fragments printed by
Le Bceuf, of certain lives of saints trans-
ated into French verse by Thibault de
Vernon, a canon of Rouen, before the
middle of the preceding age. And we
are told that Taillefer, a Norman min-
strel, recited a song 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 reach-
ed us, unless we admit a French transla-
tion 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 tlieme for
inspiration, without doubt ! Another per-
formance of the same author is a trea-
tise on birds and beasts, dedicated to Ad-
elaide, queen of Henry I.^ But a more
famous votary of the muses was Wace,
a native of Jersey, who, about the begin-
ning of Henry II. 's reign, turned Geof-
frey of Monmouth's history into French
metre. Besides this poem, called Le
Brut d'Angleterre, he composed a series
of metrical histories, containing the tran-
sactions of the dukes of Normandy, from
RoUo, their great progenitor, who gave
names to the Roman de Ron, down to
his own age. Other productions are as-
* Hist. Litt., t. ix., p. 149. Fabliaux par Barba-
Han, vol. i., p. 9, edit. 1808. Mem. de I'Acadeinie
des Inscr., t. xv. and xvii., p. 714, &c.
t Mabillon speaks of this as the oldest French
instrument he had seen. But the Benediclins
quote some of the eleventh century. — Hist. Litt.,t.
vii., p. 59. This charier is supposed by ihe au-
thors of Nouveaii Traite de Diplomatique to be
translated from the Latm, t. iv., p. 519. French
charters, they say, are not common before the age
of Louis IX. ; and this is confirmed by those pub-
lished in Martenne's Thesaurus Anecdotorum,
which are very commonly in French from his
reign, but hardly ever before.
X Ravalifere Revol. de la Langue Fran<,oise, p.
U6, doubts the age of this translation.
^ Archaeologia, vols xii. and xiii
cribed to Wace, who was at least a pro-
lific versifier, and, if he seem to deserve
no higher title at present, has a claim to
indulgence, and even to esteem, as hav-
ing far excelled his contemporaries, with-
out any superior advantages of knowl.
edge In emulation, however, of hia
fame, several Norman writers addicted
themselves to composing chronicles, or
devotional treatises in metre. 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 trouba
dours. Henry I. was fond enough of
literature to obtain the surname of Beau-
clerc ; Henry II. was more indisputably
an encourager of poetry ; and Richard 1.
has left compositions of his own in one
or other (for the point is doubtful) of the
two dialects spoken in France.*
If the poets of Normandy had never
gone beyond historical and reli- Norman ro
gioUS subjects, they would prob- niance-sand
ably have had less claim to our "'''^'''
attention than their brethren of Provence.
But a different and far more interesting
species of composition began to be culti-
vated 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 Brit-
any, it is manifest that the actual stories
upon which one early and numerous
class of romances was founded are rela-
ted 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 person-
age, his story seems chiefly the creation
of Celtic vanity. Traditions current in
Britany, though probably derived from
this island, became the basis of Geoffrey
of Monmouth's Latin prose, which, as
has been seen, was transfused into French
metre by Wace.f The vicinity of Nor-
mandy enabled its poets to enrich their
narratives with other Armorican fictions,
all relating to the heroes who had sur-
rounded the table of the son of Uther. An
* Millot says that Richard's sinentes (satirical
songs) have appeared in F'rench, as well as Pro
veni;al, but that the former is probably a ; ranslation.
— Hist, des Troubadours, vol. i., p. 54. Vet I have
met with no writer who quotes them in the lattei
language, and M. Ginguene, as well as Le Grand
d'Aussy, consider Richard as a trouveur.
t This derivation of the romantic stories of Ar-
thur, which Le Grand d'Aussy ridiculously attrib-
utes to the jealousy entertained by the Eiiglish ot
the renown of Charlemagne, is stated in a very
perspicuous and satisfactory manner by Mr. EUii
in his. Specimens of Farly English Mi <rical Ro
' inanc«8
Part Jl
STATE- OF SOClF/n
^33
equally imaginv • y history of Charlemagne
gave rise to a Kiw family of romances.
The authors ol these fictions were call-
ed Trouveurz, a name obviously identical
with that of Troubadours. But, except
in name, there was no resemblance be-
tween the minstrels of the northern and
southern dialects. The invention of one
class was turned to desaription, that of
the other to sentiment; the first were
epic in their form and style, the latter
almost always lyric We cannot per-
haps give a better notion of their dissim-
ilitude, than by saying that one school
produced Chaucer, and the other Pe-
trarch. Besides these romances of chiv-
alry, the trouveurs displayed their pow-
ers of lively narration in comic tales or
fabliaux (a name sometimes extended to
the higher romance), which have aided
the imagination of Boccace and La Fon-
taine. These compositions are certainly
more entertaining than those of the trou-
badours ; but, contrary to what I have
said of the latter, they often gain by ap-
pearing in a modern dress. Their
versification, which doubtless had its
charm, when listened to around the
hearth of an ancient castle, is very lan-
guid and prosaic, and suitable enough to
the tedious prolixity into which the nar-
rative is apt to fall ; and though we find
many sallies of that arch and sprightly
simplicity which characterizes the old
language of France as well as England,
it requires, upon the whole, a factitious
taste to relish these Norman tales, con-
sidered as poetry in the higher sense of
the word, distinguished from metrical fic-
tion.
A manner very different from that of
Roman de the fabliaux was adopted in the
la Rose. Roman de la Rose, begun by
WiUiam de Loris about 1250, and com-
pleted by John de Meun half a century
later. This poem, which contains about
16,000 linos in the usual octo-syllable
verse, from which the early French wri-
ters seldom deviated, is an allegorical
vision, wherein love, and the other pas-
sions or qualities connected with it, pass
over the stage, without the intervention,
I believe, of any less abstract personages.
Though similar allegories were not un-
known to the ancients, and, which is more
to the purpose, may be found in other
productions of the thirteenth century,
none had been constructed so elaborate-
ly as that of the Roman de la Rose. Cold
and tedious as we now consider this spe-
cies of poetry, it originated in the crea-
tive power of imagination, and c^ppcaled
to more refined feeling than ^Iie roramo-i
metrical narratives could excite. Thia
poem was highly popular in the middle
ages, and became the source of those
numerous allegories which had not ceas-
ed in the seventeenth century.
The French language was employed in
prose as well as in metre. In- works io
deed, it seems to have had almost French,
an exclusive privilege in this re- p™**^-
spect. The language of Oil, says Dante,
in his treatise on vulgar speech, prefers
its claim to be ranked above those of Oc
and Si (Provencal and Italian), on the
ground that all translations or composi
tions in prose have been written therein,
from its greater facility and grace : such
as the books compiled from the Trojan
and Roman stories, the delightful 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 original-
ly compiled in French. f Besides some
charters, there are said to have been
prose romances before the year 1200. |
Early in the next age, Ville Hordouin,
seneschal of Champagne, recorded tlie
capture of Constantinople in the fourth
crusade, an expedition, the glory and re-
ward of which he had personally shared,
and, as every original work of prior date
has either perished, or is of small im-
portance, may be deemed the father of
French prose. The establishments of
St. Louis, and the law treatise of Beau-
* Prose e Rime di Dante, Venez, 1758, t. iv., p.
261. Dante's words, hiblia cum Trojanorum Ko
manonimque gestibus compilata, seem to bear no
other meaning than what I liave given. But there
may be a doubt whether biblia is ever used except
for the Scriptures; and the Italian translator ren
ders It, cio^ la bibbia, i fatti de i Trojani, e de i Ro-
man!. In this case something is wrong in the ori-
ginal Latin, and Dante will have alluded to the
translations of parts of Scripture made into F'rench,
as mentioned in the text.
t The Assises de Jerusalem have undergone two
revisions; one in 1250, by order of John d'Ibelin,
count of Jaf!"a, and a second in 1309, by sixteen
commissioners chosen by the states of the kingdom
of Cyprus. Their language seems to be such as
might be expected fiom the time of the former re
vision.
t Se.eral prose rcmanceswere written or trans
lated tiom tht Latin about 1170, and afterward.
Mr. Ellis seems mcuned to dispute their antiquity.
But, hesules the autnorit es of La Ravali^re and
T'-pssan. the latter o: wnun is not worth much, a
la'e '-erv extensiveiv intcrined writer seems to
ha\p ouUhis mattei oi.i o dpubt.— Roquefort Fla
mericourf. FXa* fie la Poesie FTan(;aise daiis le«
',;■"" e: ' .^"^e sidr.lM Pans. ,8'.^ p. 147
534
EUROPE DURING THE>I.DDLE AGES.
[Ci'ip. IX
inaiioir, fill up the interval of the thir-
teenth 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 farther 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 Cesar, Suetonius, Ovid, and parts
of Cicero, which are due to his successor
Charles V.*
I confess myself wholly uninformed as
Spanish to the Original formation of the
language. Spanish language, and as to the
epoch of its separation into the two prin-
cipal dialects of Castile and Portugal or
Gallicia ;t nor should 1 perhaps have al-
luded to the literature of that peninsula,
were it not for a remarkable poem which
shines out among the minor lights of
those times. This is a metrical life of
the Cid Ruy Diaz, written in a barba-
rous style and with the rudest inequality
of measure, but with a truly Homeric
warmth and vivacity of delineation. It
IS much to be regretted that the author's
name has perished, but its date seems to
be not later than 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 Provencal
troubadours, whose extremely different
manner would, if it did not pervert the
poet's genius, at least have impeded his
popularity. A very competent judge has
* Villaret, Hist, de France, t. xi., p. 121. De
Sade, Vie de Petrarque, t. iii., p. 548. Charles V.
had more learning than most princes of his time.
Christine de Pisan, a lady who has written me-
moirs, or rather a eulogy of him, says that his fa-
ther le fist mtrodire en lettres moult suffisamment,
et tant que competemment entendoit son Latin, et
souffisamment scavoit les regies de grammaire ; la
quelle chose pleust a dieu qu' amsi fust accoutu-
mee entre les princes. — ColJcct. de Mem., t. v., p.
103, 190, &c.
t The earliest Spanish that I remember to have
seen is an instrument in Martenne, Thesaurus
Anecdotorum, t. i., p. 263 ; the date of which is
1095. Persons more conversant with the antiqui-
ties of that country may possibly go farther back.
Another of 1101 is published in Marina's Teoria de
las Cortes, t. iii., p. 1. It is in a Vidimus by Peter
the Cruel, and cannot, I presume, have been a
translation from the Latin. Yet the editors of
Nouveau Tr. de Diplom. mention a charter of
1243 as the earliest they are acquainted with in
the Spanish language, t. iv., p. 525.
Charters in the German language, according to
the same work, first appear in the time of the Em-
peror Rodolph, after 1272 and became usual in the
next century, p. 523. But Struvius mentions an
instrument of 1235 as the earliest in German. —
Coip. Hist. Germ., p 4.i~
pronounced the poem of the Cid to he
" 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.*
A strange obscurity envelops the in-
fancy of the Italian language. Early wri
Though it is certain that gram- ters in tha
matical Latin had ceased to be ^'^''^n-
employed in ordinary discourse, at least
from the time of Charlemagne, we have
not a single passage of undisputed au-
thenticity, in the current idiom, for near
ly four centuries afterward. Though Ital-
ian phrases are mixed up in the barba-
rous jargon of some charters, not an in-
strument is extant in that language be-
fore the year 1200 ; unless Ave may reck-
on one in the Sardinian dialect (which, I
believe, was rather Provencal than Ital-
ian), noticed by Muratori.f Nor is there
a vestige of Italian poetry older than a
few fragments of CiuUo d'Alcamo, a Si-
cilian, who must have written Jaefore
1193, since he mentions Saladin as then
living.J This may strike us as the more
remarkable, when we consider the 'jolit-
ical circumstances of Italy in the elev-
enth and twelfth centuries. From the
struggles of her spirited republics against
the emperors, and their internal factions,
we might, upon all general reasoning, an-
ticipate the early use and vigorous culti-
vation 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 for-
tunes of his country. But, on the con-
trary, the poets of Lombardy became
troubadours, and wasted their genius in
Proven(;al love-strains at the courts of
princes. The Milanese and other Lom-
bard dialects were indeed exceedingly
rude, but this rudeness separated them
more decidedly from Latin ; nor is it pos
sible that the Lombards could have em-
ployed that language intelligibly for any
public or domestic ptirpose. And indeed,
in the earliest Italian compositions thai
* An extract from this poem was published ir.
1808, by Mr. Southey, at the end of his " Chroni
cle of the Cid," the materials of which it partly
supplied, accompanied by an excellent version b^
a gentleman, who is distinguished, among many
other talents, for an unrivalled felicity in expres-
sing the peculiar manner of authors whom he
translates or imitates. M. Sismondi has given
other passages, in the third volume of his essay on
Southern Literature. This popular and elegint
work contains some interesting and not very com
mon information as to the early Spanish poets in
the Provencal dialect, as well as those who wrote
in Castilian.
* Dissert. 32. t Tiraboschi, t. iv., p. 340
Pakt II.l
STATE OF SOCHI ».
5li:
have been published, the new language is
so thoroughly formed, thai it is easy to
infer a very long disuse of that from
which it was derived. The Sicilians
claim the glory of having first adapted
iheir own harmonious dialect to poetry.
Frederick II. both encouraged their art
and cultivated it; among the very first
essays of Italian verse we find his pro-
ductions and those of his chancellor,
Piero delle Vigne. Thus Italy was des-
tined to owe the beginnings .of her na-
tional literature to a foreigner and an
enemy. These poems are very short and
very few ; those ascribed to St. Francis
about the same time are hardly distin-
guishable from prose ; but after the mid-
dle of the thirteenth century, the Tuscan
poets awoke to a sense of the beauties
which their native language, refined from
he impurities of vulgar speech,* could
display ; and the genius of Italian litera-
ture was rocked upon the restless waves
of the Florentine democracy. Ricordano
Malespini, the first historian, and nearly
the first prose writer in Italian, left me-
morials 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 pu-
rity of style to the best Tuscan authors ;
for it is the singular fate of that language
to have spared itself all intermediate
stages of refinement, and starting the last
in the race, to have arrived almost in-
stantaneously at the goal. There is an
interval of not much more than half a
century between the short fragment of
CiuUo 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. f
* Dante, in his treatise De vulgari Eloquentia,
reckons fourteen or fifteen dialects, spoken in dif-
ferent parts of Italy, all of which were debased by
impure modes of expression. But the " noble, prin-
cipal, and courtly Italian idiom," was that which
belonged to every city, and seemed to belong to
none, and which, if Italy had a court, would be the
language of that court, p. 271, 277.
Allowing for the metaphysical obscurity in
which Dar.te chooses to envelop the subject, this
might perhaps be said at present. The Florentine
dialect has its peculiarities, which distinguish it
frim the general Italian language, though these are
seldom discerned by foreigners, nor always by na-
tives, with whom Tuscan is the proper denomina-
tion of their national tongue.
t Tiralioschi, t. iv., p. 309— 377. Ginguenfe, vol.
1., c. 6. 'I'he style of the Vita Nuova of Dante,
written soon after the death of his Beatrice, which
Aappened in 1290, is hardly distinguishable by a
foreigner from that of Machiavel or Castiglione.
Yet so recent was the adoption of this language,
that the celebrated master of Dante, Brunetto La-
tini, had written his Texoro in French : am', gives
But at the beginning of the next agfi
arose a much greater genius, the ^^^^^
true fcither of Italian poetry, and
the first name in the literature of the
middle ages. This was Dante, or Du-
rante Alighieri, born in 12G5, of a re-
spectaljle family at Florence. Attached
to the Guelf party, which had then ob-
tained a final ascendency over its rival,
he might justly promise himself the nat
ural reward of talents under a free gov-
ernment, public trust, and the esteem of
his compatriots. But the Guelfs unhap-
pily were split into two factions, the Bi-
anchi and the Neri, with the former ol
whom, and, as it proved, the unsuccess-
ful side, Dante was connected. In 1300
he filled the office of one of the Priori, or
chief magistrates at Florence ; and hav-
ing manifested in this, as was alleged,
some partiality towards the Bianchi, a
sentence of proscription passed against
him about two years afterward, when it
became the turn of the opposite faction
to triumph. Banished from his country,
and baffled in several eff"orts of his
friends to restore their fortunes, he had
no resource but at the courts of the Sea-
las at Verona, and other Italian princes,
attaching himself in adversity to the Im-
perial interests, and tasting in his own
language the bitterness of another's
bread.* In this state of exile he finish-
ed, if he did not commence, his great
poem, the Divine Comedy; a representa-
tion of the three kingdoms of futurity,
Ilell, Purgatory, and Paradise, divided
into one hundred cantos, and containing
about 14,000 lines. lie died at Ravenna
in 1321.
Dante is among the very lew who
have created the national poetry of their
country. For notwithstanding the pol-
ished elegance of some earlier Italian
verse, it had been confined to amorous
sentiments ; and it was yet to be seen
that the language could sustain for a
as a reason for it, that it was a more agreeable and
usual language than his own. Et se aucuns de-
mandoit pourquoi chis livre est ecris en romans,
selon la raison de France, pour chose que nous
sommes ytalien, je diroie que ch'est pour chose
que nous sommes en France : I'autre pour chose
que la parleure en est plus deliiable et ■plus cmnmune a
toutes gens. There is said to be a manuscript his-
tory of Venice d( wn to 1275, in the Florentine li
brary, written in •'rench by Martin de Canale, who
says that he has chosen that language, parcequa
la langue franceise cort parmi le monde, et est la
plus delitable a lire et a oir que nulle autre.— Gii.
guenn, vol. i., p. 384.
* Tu proverai ci (says Cacciaguida to h m.
come sJl di sale
II pane altrui, e come h duro calle
11 scendere e 1 ?alir per altrui scale.
Paradit.. <ant. 16.
536
EUROPE DL'Kl.NG THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Uhav. IX
greater length than any existing poem
except the Iliad, the varied style of nar-
ration, reasoning, and ornament. Of all
writers he is the most unquestionably
original. Virgil was indeed his inspiring
genius, as he declares himself, and as
may sometimes be perceived in'his dic-
tion ; but his tone is so peculiar and char-
acteristic, that few readers would be wil-
ling at first to acknowledge any resem-
blance. He possessed, in an extraordi-
nary 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 would the sto-
ries of Francesca or of Ugolino have be-
come in the hands of Ariosto, or of Tas-
so, or of Ovid, or of Spenser ! This ex-
cellence 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 ima-
ges of hope or beatitude, and the Para-
dise is a continual accumulation of de-
scriptions, separately beautiful, but uni-
form and tedious. Though images deri-
ved from light and music are the most
pleasing, and can be borne longer in poe-
try than any others, their sweetness palls
upon the sense by frequent repetition,
and we require the intermixture of sharp-
er flavours. Yet there are detached pas-
sages of great excellence in this third
part of Dante's poem ; and even in the
long theological discussions which occu-
py the greater proportion of its thirty-
three cantos, it is impossible not to ad-
mire the enunciation of abstract positions
with remarkable energy, conciseness, and
sometimes perspicuity. The twelve first
cantos of the Purgatory are an almost
continual flow of soft and briUiant poe-
try. The seven last are also very splen-
did, but there is some heaviness in the
intermediate parts. Fame has justly
given the preference to the Inferno,
which displays throughout a more vigor-
ous and masterly conception ; but the
mind of Dante cannot be thoroughly ap-
preciated without a perusal of his entire
poem.
The most forced and unnatural turns,
the most barbarous licenses of idiom, are
found in this poet, whose power of ex-
pression 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 toe remote for
a word which he finds convenient for hi«
measure or his rhyme. It seems indeed
as if he never altered a line on account
of the necessity of rhyme, but forced an-
other or perhaps a third into company '
with it. For many of his faults no suffi-
cient excuse can be made. But it is can
did to remember, that Dante, writing al
most 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 copious-
ness, the phrases which now appear bar-
barous, and are at least obsolete, might
have been fixed by use in poetical lan-
guage.
The great characteristic excellence of
Dante is elevation of sentiment, to which
his compressed diction and the emphatic
cadences of his measure admirably cor-
respond. We read him, not as an amu-
sing poet, but as a master of moral wis-
dom, with reverence and awe. Fresh
from the deep and serious, though some-
what barren studies of philosophy, and
schooled in the severer discipline of ex
perience, he has made of his poem a mir-
ror of his mind and life, the register of
his solicitudes and sorrows, and of the
speculations in which he sought to es-
cape their recollection. The banished
magistrate of Florence, the disciple of
Brunetto Latini, the statesman accus
tomed to trace the varying fluctuations
of Italian faction, is for ever before our
eyes. For this reason, even the prodi-
gal display of erudition, which in an epic
poem would be entirely misplaced, in-
creases the respect we feel for the poet,
though it does not tend to the reader'a
gratification. Except Milton, he is much
the most learned of all the great poets,
and, relatively to his age, far more learn-
ed than Milton. In one so highly en-
dowed by nature, and so consummate by
instruction, we may well sympathize
with a resentment which exile and pov-
erty rendered perpetually fresh. The
heart of Dante was naturally sensible, and
even tender ; his poetry is full of simple
comparisons from rural life ; and the sin-
cerity of his early passion for Beatrice
pierces through the vale of allegory
which surrounds her. But the memory
of his injurief-: pursues him into the im
mensity of eternal hght ;* and, in the com
♦ Paradiso. cant. 10.
Part M.
STATh OF SOCIETY.
331
pany of saints and angels, his unforgiving
spirit darkens at the name of Florence.
This great poem was received in Italy
with that enthusiastic admiration which
attaches itself to works of genius only in
ages too rude to listen to the envy of
competitors or the fastidiousness of crit-
ics. Almost every library in that coun-
tiy contains manuscript copies of the Di-
vine 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 1373, with a magna-
nimity which almost redeems her origi-
nal injustice, appointed a pubUc professor
to read lectures upon Dante ; and it was
hardly less honourable to the poet's mem-
ory, that the first person selected for this
office was Boccaccio. The universities
of Pisa and Piacenza imitated this exam-
ple ; but it is probable that Dante's ab-
struse philosophy was often more re-
garded in their chairs than his higher ex-
cellences.* Italy indeed, and all Europe,
had reason to be proud of such a master.
Since Claudian, there had been seen for
nine hundred years no considerable body
of poetry, except the Spanish poem of
the Cid, of which no one had heard be-
5'ond 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 ita-
tions, and banished the discouraging sus-
picion which long ages of lethargy tend-
ed 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 c^sts, which
tradition had ascribed to the demigods.
But the admiration of Danto, though it
gave a general impulse to the human
mind, did not produce imitators. I am
unaware at least of any writer, in what-
ever language, who can be said to have
followed the steps of Dante ; I mean not
50 much in his subject as in the charac-
ter 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. t
♦ Velli, Vita di Dante. Tiraboschi.
t The source from which Dante derived the
scheme and general idea of his poem has been a
subject of inquiry in Italy. To his original mind
one might ha\ ', thought the sixth Mne\A would
have eulficot . But besides several legendary vis.
In the same year that Danto was ex
pelled from Florence, a notary,
by name Petracco, was involved "''^'■'^^
in a simihar banishment. Retired tc
Arezzo, he there became the father of
Francis Petrarch. This great man shared
of course, during his early years, in th«
adverse fortune of his family, which he
was invincibly reluctant to restore, ac-
cording to his father's wish, by the pro-
fession 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 acquisitions
At the city of Avignon, where his parents
had latterly resided, his graceful appear-
ance and the reputation of his talents at-
tracted one of the Colonna family, then
bishop of Lombes in Gascony. In him,
and in other members of that great
house, never so illustrious as in the four-
teenth century, he experienced the union
of patronage and friendship. This, how-
ever, Avas not confined to the Colonnas,
Unlike Dante, no poet was ever so liber-
ally and sincerely encouraged 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 sus-
ceptible of offence, and there must have
been much to tolerate in that restlessness
and jealousy of reputation, which is per-
haps the inevitable faihng of a poet.*
ions of the 12th and 1.3th centuries, it seems prob-
able that he derived hints from the i'esoretto of his
master in philosophical studies, Brunetlo Latini. —
Ginguene, t. ii., p. 8.
* There is an unpleasing proof of this quality in
a letter to Boccaccio on Dante, whose merit he
rather disingenuously extenuates ; and whose pop-
ularity evidently stung him to the quick. — I)e Sade,
t. iii., p. 512. Yet we judge soillof our.-^elves, that
Peirarch chose envy as the vice from winch of all
others he was most free. In his diidoRue with St.
AugU!5tin,hesays; Quicquidiibuerit.dicito; modo
me i!on accuses invidiaj. Aug. Uiinam non tibi
magis superbia quam invidia nocuisset : nam hoc
criinine, n;e judice, liber es. — De Contemplu Muii-
di, edit. 1581, p. 342.
I have read in some modern book, but know -c*.
where to se?k the passage, that Pet.-arrh did ;,ot
intend to ailude lo Dante in the letter to B'>ccai,cio
mentioned above, but rather to Zanobi Strata, a
contemporary Florentine poet, whom, however for
gotten at present, the bad taste of a party in criti
cism preferred to himself. — Matteo Villani men
tior.s them together as the two great ornaments of
his age. This conjecture seems probable, forsom*
e.xpressions are not in the least applicable lo Dante
But, whichever was int«in.1evl, the letter eqval.'y
shows the irritab'^ humour of I^et.-arch.
53S
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
Chaf. X
But every thing Mas forgiven to a man
«vho M"as the acknow:edged boast of his
age and country. Clement VI. conferred
one or two sinecure benefices upon Pe-
trarch, 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
Deing a sufficient qualification for holding
canonries. The same pope even afforded
him the post of apostolical secretary, and
this was repeated by Innocent A"I. I
know not whether we should ascribe to
magnanimity, or to a politic motive, the
behaviour of Clement VI. towards Pe-
trarch, who had pursued a course as vex-
atious as possible to the Holy See. For
not only he made the residence of the
supreme pontiffs at Avignon, and the
vices of their court, the topic of invec-
tives, too well founded to be despised,
but he had ostentatiously put himself for-
ward as the supporter of Nicola di Rien-
zi in a project which could evidently have
no other aim than to wrest 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 Rob-
ert, king of Naples, by the Visconti, 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. Sto-
ries 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 pub-
lic esteem was bestowed by the city of
Rome, in his solemn coronation as lau-
reate 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
honour.
The moral character of Petrarch was
formed of dispositions peculiarly calcula-
ted for a poet. An enthusiast in the
emotioirt of love and friendship, of glo-
♦ A goldsmith of Bergamo, by name Henry Ca-
pra, smitten with an enthusiastic love of letters
ind of Petrarch, earnestly requested the honour of
A visit from the poet. Tlie house of this good
tradesman was full of represBntations of his person,
«nd of mscriptions with his name and arms. No
e.»pense had been spared in copying all his works
as t'.iey appeared. He was received by Capra with
a princely magnificence , lodged in a chamber
hung with purple, acd a splendid bed on which no
one before or after him was permitted to sleep,
fjoldsmiths, as we may judge by this instance,
^ere epulent persons ; yet the friends of Petrarch
■' \suaded him from this visit, as derogatory to his
■n elevated statiou — De Sado, t. iii., p. 496.
ry, 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 greatest celebrity to his name,
is his passion for Laura. Twenty years
of unrequited and almost unaspiring love
were lightened by song; and the attach-
ment, which, having long survived 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 adora
tion, by her death. Laura, before the
time of Petrarch's first accidental meet-
ing with her, was united in marriage with
another; a fact which, besides some
more particular evidence, appears to me
deducible from the whole tenour of his
poetry. t Such a passion is undoubtedly
not capable of a moral defence ; nor
* See the beautiful sonnet, Erano i capei d' ore
air aura sparsi. In a famous passage of his Con-
fessions, he says ; Corpus illud egregium morbis et
crebris partubns e.xhaustum, multum pristmi vigo
ris amisit. Those who mamtain the virginity of
Laura are forced to read perturbationibus instead of
partubus. Two manuscripts in the royal library at
Paris have the contraction ptbus, which leaves the
matter open to controversy. De Sade contend
that " crebris" is less applicable to "perlurbationi
bus" than to " partubus." I do not know tha.
there is much in this; but I am clear that corpus
exhaustum partubus is much the more elegant
Latin expression of the two.
t The Abbe de Sade, in those copious memoirs
of the life of Petrarch, which illustrate in an agree-
able though rather prolix manner the civil and lite
rary history of Provence and Italy in the fourteenth
century, endeavoured to establish his own descenf
from Laura, as the wife of Hugnes de Sade, and
born in the family de Noves. This hypothesis has
since been received with general acquiescence by
literary men ; and Tiraboschi in particular, whose
talent lay in these petty biographical researches,
and who had a prejudice against every thing that
came from France, seems to consider it as deci-
sively proved. But it has been called in question
in a modern publication by the late Lord Wood-
houselee. — (Essay on the Life and Character 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 VV.'s essay,
that Laura was an unmarried woman, and the ob-
ject of an honourable attachment in her lovei,
seems irreconcilable with the evidence that nis
writings supply. 1. There is no passage in Pe
trarch, whether of poetry or prose, that alludes to
the virgin character of Laura, or gives her the usu-
al appellations of unmarried women, puella in
Latin, or donzella in Italian ; even in the Trionfo
deila Castita, where so obvious an opportunity oc-
curred. Yet this was naturally to be expected
from so ethereal an imagination as that of Petrarch,
always inclined to invest her with the halo of ce-
lestial purity. We know how Milton took hold
of the mystical notions of virginity ; notioris
more congenial to the religion of Petrarch than hi
own;
"iRT \i ]
STATE OF SOCIETY
Odl
would I seek its palliation so much in the
orevalent 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
[ustify the emotions of his heart. The
lady too, whose virtue and prudence we
are not to question, seems to have tem-
pered the light and shadow of her coun-
tenance so as to preserve her admirer
from despair, and consequently to pro-
long his sufl"erings 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 wri-
ters, his exquisite elegance of diction,
improved by the perpetual study of Vir-
gil ; but, far above all, that tone of pure
and melancholy sentiment, which has
something in it unearthly, and forms a
strong contrast to the amatory poems of
antiquity. Most of these are either li-
centious or uninteresting ; and those of
Catullus, a man endowed by nature with
deep and serious sensibility, and a poet,
m my opinion, of greater and more va-
Quod tibi perpetuus pudor, et sine labe juventas
Pura fuit, quod nulla tori libata voluptas,
En etiam tibi virginei servant nr honores.
Epitaphium Damonis.
2. The coldness of Laura towards so passionate
and deserving a lover, if no insurmountable obsta-
cle intervened during his twenty years of devotion,
would be at least a mark that his attachment was
misplaced, and show him in rat'ier a ridiculous
light. It is not surprising, that persons believing
Laura to be unmarried, as seems to have been the
case with the Italian commentators, should have
thought his passion affected and little more than
poetical. But, upon the contrary supposition, a
thread runs through the whule of his poetry, and
gives it consistencj A love on the one side, in-
etantaneously concei ed, and retained by the sus-
ceptibility of a tender heart and ardent fancy ;
nourished by slight encouragement, and seldom
presuming to hope for more ; a mixture of prudence
and coquetry on the other, kept within bounds ei-
ther by virtue or by the want of mutual attachment,
yet not dissatisfied with fame more brilliant and
flattery more refined than had ever before been the
lot of woman — these are surely pretty natural cir-
cumstance.*, and such as do not render the story
less intelligible. Unquestionably, such a passion is
not innocent. But Lord VVootlhouselee, 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, <»i.d where the moral
barometer stands at a very diflerent altitude. In
ne passage, p. 188, he carries his strictness to an
excess of prudery. From all we know of the age
of Petrarch, the only matter of astonishment is the
persevering virtue of Laura. The troubadours
boasl of much better success with Proven(;al ladies.
3. But the following passage from Petrarch's dia-
ogues with St. Augustin, the work, as is well
ried genius than Petrarch, are contami
nated, above all the rest, with the mos.
degrading grossness. Of this there is
not a single instance in the poet of Vau-
cluse ; and his strains, diffused and ad-
mired as they have been, may have con
ferred a benefit that criticism cannot ^es
timate, in giving elevation and refinement
to the imaginations of youth, 'i'he great
defect of Petrarch was his want of strong
original conception, which prevented him
from throwing off the affected and over-
strained manner of the ProvenQal trouba-
dours, and of the earlier Italian poets.
Among his poems, the Triumphs are per-
haps superior to the Odes, as the latter
are to the Sonnets ; and of the latter,
those written subsequently to the death
of Laura are in general the best. But
that constrained and laborious measure
cannot equal the graceful flow of the can-
zone, or the vigorous compression of the
terza rima. I'he Triumphs have also a
claim to superiority, as the only poetical
composition of Petrarch that extends to
any considerable length. They are in
some degree, perhaps, an imitation of the
dramatic Mysteries, and form at least the
earliest specimens of a kind of poetry
not uncommon in later times, wherein
known, where he most unbosoms himself, will
leave no doubt, I think, that his passion could not
have been gratified consistently with honuiir. At
mulier ista Celebris, quam tibi certissimam ducem
fingis, ad superoscur non haisitantem trepidumque
direxerit, et quod cscis fieri solet, manu apprehen-
sum non tenuit, quo et gradiendum foret admonu-
it I — Petr. Fecit hoc ilia quantum potuit. Quid
enim aliud egit, cum nuUis mota precibjs, nullis
victa blanditiis, muliebrem tenuit decorem, et ad
versus suam semel et meam astatem, adversus
multa et varia, quas flectere adamantium spintum
debuissent, inexpugnabilis et firma permansit?
Profectci animus iste foemineus quid viruin decuit
admonebat, prastabatque ne in sectando pudicilia)
studio, ut verbis utar SenecK, aut exemplum aut
convitium deesset ; postremo cum lorifragum ac
praccipitem videret, deserere maluit potius qu&m
sequi. — August. Turpe igilur aliquid interduiu
voluisti, quod supra negaveras. At iste vulgalus
amantium, vel, ut dicam verius, amentium furor
est, ut omnibus merito dici possit : volo nolo, nolo
volo. Vobis ipsis quid velitis, aut nohtis, ignotum
est. — Pet. Invitusinlaqueum ofl'endi. Si quid ta-
men olim aliter forte voluissem, amor a^tasque coe'-
gerunt ; nunc quid velim etcupiam scio, firmavique
jam tandem animum labentem ; contra autem ilia
propositi tenax et semper una permansit, quare
constantiam fcemineam quo magis intelligo, magis
admiror : idque sibi consilium fuisse, si unquam
debuit, gaudeo nunc et gralias ago. — Aug. Semel
falienti, non facile rursus fides habenda est : to
prius mores atque habitum, vitamque mutavisti.
quam animum mutnssopersuadeas; mitigatur forte
SI tuus leniturque ignis, extinctus non est. Tu
vero qui tantum dilectioni tribuis, non animadvertis,
illam absolvendo, quantum te ijee condemnas
illam fateri libet fuisse sanctissimam, dum '.e insa.
num scelestumque fateare. — De Contemptu Mundi
Dialog. 3, p. 3Ci, edit. 1581.
^0
i-L'ROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
[Ch.u'. iX
real and allegorical personages are in-
termingled in a masque or scenic repre-
sentation.
None of the principal modern lan-
Ensiish gnages was so late in its forma-
language. tion, or in its application to the
purposes of literature, as the English.
This arose, as is well known, out of the
Saxon branch of the great Teutonic
stock, spoken in England till after the
conquest. From this mother dialect, our
English differs less in respect of etymolo-
gy, 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 cannot 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 Henry
II., aversion of Wace's poem of Brut, by
one Layamon, a priest of Ernly upon
Severn, exhibits, as it were, the chrysalis
of the English language, in which he
can as little be said to have written, as
Early in Anglo-Saxon.* Very soon af-
writers. terward, the new formation was
better developed; and some metrical
pieces, referred by critics to the earlier
part of the thirteenth century, differ but
little from our legitimate grammar.f
About the beginning of Edward I.'s
reign, Robert, a monk of Glocester, com-
posed a metrical chronicle from the his-
tory of Geoffrey of Monmouth, which he
continued to his own time. This work,
with a similar chronicle of Robert Man-
ning, a monk of Brunne (Bourne) in Lin-
col" ishire, nearly thirty years later, stairtl
at the head of our English poetry. The
romance of Sir Tristrem, ascribed to
Thomas of Erceldoune, surnamed the
Rhymer, a Scottish minstrel, has recent-
ly laid claim to somewhat higher antiqui-
ty. In the fourteenth century, a great
number of metrical romances were trans-
lated from the French. It requires no
small portion of indulgence to speak fa-
vourably of any of these early English
productions. A poetical line may no
doubt occasionally be found ; but in gen-
eral the narration is as heavy and pro-
lix as the versification is unmusical. J
* A sufficient extract from this work of Layamon
has been published by Mr. Elhs, in his specimens
of early English poetry, vol. i., p. 61. It contains,
he observes, no word which we are under the ne-
cessity of ascribing to a French origin.
t Warton's Hist, of English Poetry. Ellis's
Specimens.
t Warton printed copious extracts from some of
these. Ritson gave several of them entire to the
piess. And Mr. Ellis has adopted the only plan
which could render them palatable, by intermin-
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 ind opinions of
his time.
The very slow progress of the Eng
lish language, as an instrument cause or
of literature, is chiefly to be its slow
ascribed to the effects of the p~s^"s.
Norman conquest, in degrading the na
tive inhabitants, and transferring all
power and riches to foreigners. The
barons, without perhaps one exception,
and a large proportion of the gentry,
were of French descent, and preserved
among themselves the speech of their
fathers. This continued much longer
than we should naturally have expected ;
even after the loss of Normandy had
snapped the thread of French connex-
ions, and they began to pride themselves
in the name of Englishmen, and in the
inheritance of traditionary English priv-
ileges. Robert of Glocester has a re-
markable passage, Avhicii proves that, in
his time, somewhere about 1270, the su-
perior ranks continued to use the French
language.* Ralph Higden, about the
early part of Edward III.'s reign, though
his expressions do not go the same
length, asserts, that "gentlemen's chil-
dren 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, 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 highei
class, I do not think that some modert
critics are warranted in concluding that
they were in general ignorant of the
English tongue. Men living upori their
estates among their tenantry, whom they
welcomed in their halls, and whose as-
sistance they were perpetually needing
in war and civil fray's, would hardly have
permitted such a barrier to obstruct
their intercourse. For we cannot, at
gling short passages, where the original is rather
above its usual mediocrity, with his own lively
analysis.
* The evidences of this general employment
and gradual disuse of French in conversation and
writmg are collected by Tyrwhitt, in a dissertation
on the ancient English language, prefixed to the
fourth volume of his edition of Chaucer's Caniei
bury Tales ; and by Ritson, in the preface to hit
-Met.'ical Romances, vol i., p. 70.
;rt II.]
STATE OF SOCIETV.
541
ihe utmobt, presume thdt French was so
well known to the English commonarty
ill 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 institution of
trial by jury must have rendered a
knowledge of English almost indispen-
sable to those who administered justice.
There is a proclamation of Edward I.
m Ryiner, where he endeavours to ex-
cite his subjects against the King of
France by imputing to him the intention
of conquering the country, and abolish-
ing the English language (linguam de-
lere anglicanam), and this is frequently
repeated in the proclamations 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 met-
rical romances, which are chiefly refer-
red to his reign. An important change
was cfl"ected in 1362, by a statute, which
enacts that all pleas in courts of justice
shall be pleaded, debated, and judged in
English. But Latin was, by this act, to
be employed in drawing the record ; for
there seems to have still continued a
sort of prejudice against the use of Eng-
lish as a written language. The earliest
English instrument known to exist is
said to bear the date of 1343.f And
there are not more than three or four
entries in our own tongue upon the rolls
of parliament before the reign of Henry
VI., after whose accession its use be-
comes very common. vSir John IMande-
vile, about 1350, may pass for the father
of English prose, no original work being
so ancient as his travels. But the trans-
lation of the Bible and other writings by
Wicliffe nearly thirty years afterward,
taught us the copiousness and energy of
which our native dialect was capable ;
and it was employed in the fifteenth cen-
tury by two writers of distinguished
merit, Bishop Peacock and Sir John
Fortescue.
But the principal ornament of our Eng-
lish literature was Geoffrey Chau-
cer, who, with Dante and Pe-
trarch, fills up the triumvirate of great
poets in the middle ages. Chaucer was
born m 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 ge-
nius as warmly as the compatriots of Pe-
• T. v., p. 490 ; t. vi., p. 642, et alibi,
t Ritson, p 80 There is one in Ryiner of the
rear 1395.
trarch ; but he enjoyed the favour of Ed
ward 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 rep-
utation was established beyond competi
tion in his lifetime, from which no sue
ceeding generation has withheld its sanc-
tion. 1 cannot, in my own taste, gc
completely along with the eulogies thai
some have bestowed upon Chaucer, who
seems to me to have wanted grandeur,
where he is original, both in conception
and in language. But in vivacity of im-
agination and ease of expression, he is
above all poets of the middle time, and
comparable perhaps to tlie greatest of
those who have followed. He invented,
or rather introduced from France, a.nd
employed with facility the regular iambic
couplet ; and though it was not to be ex-
pected that he should perceive the capa
cities latent in that measure, his versifi-
cation, to whi(;h he accommodated a very
licentious and arbitrary pronunciation, is
uniform and harmonious.* It is chiefly
indeed, as a comic poet, and a minute
observer of manners and circumstances,
that Chaucer excels. In serious and
moral poetry he is frequently languiil and
difl'use; but he springs like Antaeus from
the earth, when his subject clianges to
coarse satire or merry narrative. Among
his more elevated compositions, the
Knight's Tale is abundantly suflicicnt to
immortalize Chaucer, since it would be
diflicult to find anywhere a story better
conducted, or told with more animation
and strength of fancy. The second place
may be given to his Troilus and Cres-
eide, a beautiful and interesting poem
though enfeebled by expansion. But
perhaps the most eminent, or at any rate
the most characteristic, testimony to his
genius will be found in the prologue tc
his Canterbury Tales ; a work entirely
and exclusively his own, which can sel
dom be said ot his poetry, and the vivid
delineations of which perhaps very few
writers but Shakspeare could have equal-
led. As the first original English poet,
if v/e except Langland, as the inventoi
of our most approved measure, as an im-
prover, tliougli with too nuicli innovation,
of our language, and as a faithful witness
to the manners of his age, Chaucei would
deserve our reverence, if he had not also
* See Tyrwhitt s essay on the language and ver
sification of Chaucer, in the fourth volume of his
edition of the Car terbury Tales. The opinion of
this eminent critic has lately been controverted by
Dr. Nolt, who maintains the versification of Chau-
cer to have been wholly founded on accentual ainl
not syllabic regularity.
EURui'E DURliNG THE MIDDLE AGES.
542
intrinsic claims for excellences which
do not depend upon any collateral con-
siderations.
The last circumstance which I shall
Revival of mention as having contributed to
ancient restore society from the intellect-
karning ^^^ degradation into which it had
fallen during the dark ages, is the revival
of classical learning. The Latin Unguage
indeed, in which all legal instruments
were drawn up, and of which all ecclesi-
astics availed themselves in their episto-
lary intercourse, as well as in their more
solemn proceedings, had never ceased to
bo familiar. Though many solecisms
and barbarous words occur in the wri-
tings of what were called learned men,
they possessed a fluency of expression
m Latin which does not often occur at
present. During the dark ages, howev-
er, properly so called, or the period from
the sixth to the eleventh century, it is
unusual to meet with quotations, except
from the Vulgate or from theological
writers. The study of Rome's greatest
authors, especially her poets, was almost
forbidden. But a change took place in
in the the course of the twelfth cen-
twreiftb cen- tury. The polite literature, as
tury. ^ygjj g^g ^^Q abstruser science of
antiquity, became the subjecr of cultiva-
tion. Several writers of that age, in dif-
ferent parts of Europe, are distinguished
more or less for elegance, though not ab-
solute purity, of Latin style ; and for
their acquaintance with those ancients
who are its principal models. Such
were John of Salisbury, the acute and
learned author of the Policraticus, Will-
iam of Malmsbury, Giraldus Cambrensis,
Roger Hoveden, in England ; and in for-
eign countries, Otho of Frisingen, Saxo
Grammaticus, and the best perhaps of all
I have named as to style, Falcandus, the
historian of Sicily. In these we meet
with frequent quotations from Livy, Ci-
cero, Pliny, and other considerable wri-
ters of antiquity. The poets were now
admired, and even imitated. All metri-
cal Latin before the latter part of the
twelfth century, so far as I have seen, is
extremely bad ; but at this time, and ear-
ly in the succeeding age, there appeared
several versifiers, who aspired to the re-
nown of following the steps of Virgil and
Statius in epic poetry. Joseph Iscanus,
an Englishman, seems to have been the
earliest of these ; his poem on the Tro-
ian war, containing an addres to Henry
tl. He wrote another, entitled Antiochus,
on the tliird crusade, most of which has
perished. The wars of Frederick Barba-
rossa were celebrited bvGunther in his
tCHAP. IS
Ligurinus ; and not long afterward, Guil-
lelmus Brito wrote the Philippis, in hon
our of Philip Augustus, and Walter de
Chatillon the Alexandras, taken from
the popular romance of Alexander. None
of these poems, I believe, have much in-
trinsic merit; but their existence is a
proof of taste that could relish, though
not of genius that could emulate antiqui-
ty.*
Li the thirteenth century there seems
to have been some decline of classical
literature, in consequence prob- much more
ably of the scholastic philoso- f^^ll^^^^°'"''
phy, which was then in its great-
est vigour; at least we do not find so
many good writers as in the preceding
age. But about the middle of the four-
teenth, or perhaps a little sooner, an ar-
dent zeal for the restoration of ancient
learning began to display itself. The
copying of books, for some ages slowly
and" sparingly performed in monasteries,
had already become a branch of trade ;-t
and their price was consequently invemiou
reduced. Tiraboschi denies that or linen
the invention of making paper p^''^""'
from linen rags is older than the middle
* Warton's Hist, of English Poetry, vol. i., Dis
sertation 11. Roquefort, Etat de la Poesie Fran-
(;aise du douzieme Si^cle, p. 18. The following
lines from the beginning of the eighth book of the
Philippis seem a fair, or rather a favourable speci-
men of these epics. But I am very superliciallv
acquainted with any of them.
Solverat interea zephyris melioribus annum
Frigore depulso veris tepor, et renovari
Coeperat et viridi gremio juvenescere tellus ;
Cum Rea laeta Jovis rideret ad oscula mater
Cum jam post tergum Piiryxi vectore relicto
Solis Agenorei jnemeret rota terga juvenci.
The tragedy of Eccerinus (Eccelin da Romano;,
by Albertmus Mussatus, a Paduan, and author of
a respectable history, deserves some attention, as
the first attempt to revive the regular tragedy. It
was written soon after 1300. The language by no
means wants animation, notwithstanding an un-
skilful conduct of the fable. The fc;ccerinus is
printed in the tenth volume of Muratori's collection.
j Booksellers appear in the latter part of the
twelfth century. Peter of Blois mentions a law-
book which he had procured a quodam publico
mangone librorum. — Hist. Lilteraire de la France,
t. ix., p. 84. In the thirteenth century there were
many copyists by occupation in the Italian univer
sities,— Tiraboschi, t. iv., p. 72. The number ol
these at Milan before the end of that age is said to
have been fifty, ibid. But a very small proportion
of their labour could have been devoted to purpo-
ses merely literary. By a variety of ordinances,
the first of which'bears date in 1275, the booksel.
lers of Paris were subjected to the control of the
university.— Crevier, t. ii., p. C7, 286. The pretext
of this was, lest erroneous copies should obtain cir-
culation. And this appears to have been the origi-
nal of those restraints upon the freedom of publi-
cation, which, since the invention of printing, have
so much retarded the diffusion of truth by meana
of that great instrument.
•'art il.
STATE OF SOCIETY.
543
of that century ; and although doubts may-
he justly entertained as to the accuracy
of this position, yet the confidence with
which so eminent a scholar advances it
is at least a proof that paper manuscripts
of an earlier date are very rare.* Prin-
ces becane far more attentive to litera-
ture when it was no longer confined to
metaphysical theology and canon law.
I have already mentioned the translations
from classical authors, made by command
of John and Charles V. of France. These
French translations diftused some ac-
quaintance with ancient histor}'^ and learn-
n\g among our own countrymen. f The
public libraries assumed a more
ibranes. ^ggpegtable appearance. Louis
[X. had formed one at Paris, in which it
dees not appear that any work, of elegant
literature was found. J At the beginning
jf the fourteenth century, only four clas-
sical manuscripts existed in this collec-
tion ; of Cicero, Ovid, Lucan, and Boe-
thius.i^i The academical library of Ox-
ford, in 1300, consisted of a few tracts
kept in chests under St. Mary's church.
That of Glastonbury Abbey, in 1240, con-
* Tiraboschi, t. v., p. 85. On the contrary side
are Montfaucon, MabiUon, and Muralori ; the lat-
ter of whom carries up the invention of our ordi-
nary paper to the year 1000. But Tiraboschi con-
lends that the paper used in manuscripts of so
early an age was made from cotton rags, and, ap-
parently, from the inferior durability of that mate-
rial, not frequently employed. The editors of Nou-
veau Traite de Diplomatique are of the same opin-
ion, and doubt the use of linen paper before the
year 1300, t. i.,p.517, 521. Meerman,well known
as a writer upon the antiquities of printing, offered
a reward for the earliest manuscript upon linen
paper, and, in a treatise upon the subject, fixed
the date of its invention between 1270 and 1300.
IJiit M. Schwandner, of Vienna, is said to have
found in the imperial library a small charter bear-
ing the date of 1213 on such paper. — Macpherson's
Annals of Commerce, vol. i., p. 391. Tiraboschi,
if he had known this, would probably have main-
tained the paper to be made of cotton, which he
iays it is difficult to distinguish. He assigns the
invention of linen paper to Pace da Fabiano of
Treviso. But more than one Arabian writer as-
serts the manufacture of linen paper to have been
carried on at Samarcand early in the eighth cen-
tury, having been brought thither from China.
And, what is more conalusive, Casiri positively de-
clares many manuscripts in the Escurial of the
rileventh and twelfth centuries to be written on
!hat substance. — Bibliotheca Arabico-Iiispanica, t.
li., p 9. This authority appears much to outweigh
•.he opinion of Tiraboschi in favour of Pace da Fa-
oiano, who must perhaps take his place at the ta-
ble of fabulous heroes with Bartholomew Schwartz
and Flavio Gioja. But the material point, that
paper was very little known in Europe till the !at-
•er part of the fourteenth century, remains as be-
fore.
t Warton's Hist, of English Poetry, vol ii ,
3. 122.
t Velly, t. V , p. 202. Crevier, t. ii., p. 36.
0 Warton, vol. i., Disjert. II
tained four hundred volumes, among
which were Livy, Sallust, Lucan, Virgil,
Claudian, and other ancient writers.*
But no other, probably, of that age was
so numerous or so valuable. Richard of
Bury, the chancellor of England, and Ed-
ward IIL, spared no expense in collect
ing a library, the first perhaps that any
private man had formed. But the scar-
city of valuable books was still so great,
tliat he gave the abbot of St. Alban's fifty
pounds weight of silver for between
thirty and forty vohmies.f Charles V.
increased the royal library at Paris to
nine hundred volumes, which the Duke
of Bedford purchased and transported to
London. J His brother Humphrey, duke
of Glocester, presented the university 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 com
paratively little progress in learning.
Germany, however, was probably still
less advanced. Louis, Elector Palatine,
bequeathed in 1421 his library to tlie uni-
versity of Heidelberg, consisting of one
hundred and fifty-two volumes. Eighty-
nine of these related to theology, twelve
* Warton, vol. i.. Dissert. II.
i Ibid. Fifty-eight books were transcribed In
this abbey under one abbot, about the year 1300
Every considerable monastery had a room, called
Scriptorium, where this work was performed.
More than eighty were transcribed at St. Albans
under Wbethamstede, in the time of Henry VI.,
ibid. See also Du Cange, v. Scriptorcs. Never
theless we must remember, first, that the far
greater part of these books were mere monastic
trash, or at least useless in our modern apprehen-
sion ; secondly, that it depended upon the charac-
ter of the abbot whether the scriptorium should be
occupied or not. Every head of a monastery was
not a Whethamstede. Ignorance and jollity, such
as wc find in Bolton Abbey, were their more usual
characteristics. By the account-books of this
rich monastery, about the beginning of the four
teenth century, three books only appear to have
been purchased in forty years. One of those was
the Liber Sententiarum of Peter Lombard, which
cost thirty shillings, equivalent to near forty
pounds at present.— Whitaker's Hist, of Craven
p. 330.
t Ibid. Villaret, t. xl., p. 117.
<) Niccolo Niccoli, a private scholar, who con
tributed essentially to the restoration of ancient
learning, bequeathed a library of eight hundred vol-
umes to the republic of Florence. This Niccoli
hardly published any thing of his own ; but earned
a weli-merited reputation by copying and correcting
manuscripts. — Tiraboschi, t. vi., p. 114. SLep
herd's Poggio, p. 319. In the preceding cent':Lry
Cclhiccio Salutat ) had procured as many as eigh
hundred volumeS;*ibid. p. 32. Roscoe's Lorerti
de' Medici p. 5r>
5^4
EL'ROPK DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
1.UHAP. lA
to canon and civil law, forty five to med-
icine, and six to philosophy.*
Those who first undertook to lay open
Transcrip- the Stores of ancient learning
iioii of man- found incredible difficulties from
uscnpts. the scarcity of manuscripts. So
groes and supine was the ignorance of
.he monks, within whose walls these
ti'easures were concealed, that it was
mipossible to ascertain, except by inde-
fatigable researches, the extent of what
had been saved out of the great ship-
wreck of antiquity. To this inquiry Pe-
trarch devoted continual attention. He
spared no pains to preserve the remains
of authors, who were perishing from
neglect and time. This danger was by
no means past in the fourteenth centu-
ry. A treatise of Cicero upon Glory,
which had been in his possession, was
afterward irretrievably lost.f He de-
clares that he. had seen in his youth the
works of Varro ; but all his endeavours
to recover these and the second Decad
of Livy were fruitless. He found, how-
ever, Quintilian, in 1350, of which there
was no copy in Italy. | Boccaccio, and
a man of less general fame, Colluccio
Salutato, were distinguished in the same
honourable 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 con-
tinual 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 labourers in this
vineyard for a hundred years before the
invention of printing.
What Petrarch began in the fourteenth
in^„c„^,^r century was carried on by a
induslry of -' . ... , ■'.
the fifteenth ucw generation with unabating
century. industry. The whole lives of
Italian scholars "in the fifteenth century
were devoted to the recovery of manu-
scripts and the revival of philology. For
this they sacrificed their native language,
which had made such surprising shoots
in the preceding age, and were content
to trace, in humble reverence, the foot-
stejis 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.
* Schmidt, Hist, des Allemands, t. v., p. 520.
t He had lent it to a needy man of letters, who
pawned the book, which was never recovered. — De
Sade, t. i., p. 57.
i Tirahoschi, p. 89.
^ W.^m, t. •.. p 83. De Sade, t. i.. p. 88.
No writer perhaps of the fifteenth cen
tury, except Politian, can aspire at pres-
ent even to the second class, in a just
marshalling of literary reputation. But
we owe them our respect and gratitudfc
for their taste and diligence. The dis^
covery of an unknown manuscript, say:<
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 col-
lected in public libraries.* This is sub-
ject to some exception when fairly con-
sidered ; several ancient authors wera
never lost, and therefore cannot be said
to have been discovered; and we know
that Italy did not always anticipate other
countries in classical printing. But her
superior merit is incontestable. Poggio
Bracciolini, who stands perhaps at po^gj^
the head of the restorers of learn-
ing 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 crim-
inals, as he describes it, an entire copy
of Quintilian, and part of Valerius Flac-
cus. This was in 1414; and soon after-
ward he rescued the poem of Silius Ital-
icus, and twelve comedies of Plautus, in
addition to eight that were previously
known ; besides Lucretius, Columella
Tertullian, Aminianus IMarcellinus, ano
other writers of inferior note.f A bishop
of Lodi brought to light the rhetorical
treatises of Cicero. Not that we must
suppose these books to have been univer-
sally unknown before ; Quintilian, at
least, is quoted by English writers much
earlier. But so little intercourse pre-
vailed 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 oth-
ers, distinguished in this memorabie res-
urrection of ancient literature, and united,
not always indeed by friendship, for their
bitter animosities disgrace their profes-
sion, but by a sort of common sympathy
in the cause of learning ; Filelfo, Lauren-
tius Valla, Niccolo Niccoli, Ambrogio
Traversari, more commonly called II
Camaldolense, and Leonardo Aretino.
From the subversion of the Western
* Tiraboschi. p. 101.
t Idem, t. vi., p. lOi; and Shepherd's Life ol
Poggio, p. 106, 110. Roscoe's Lsrerizo de' Mecl
ici, p. 38.
r.RT II ]
STATE OF SOCIETY.
545
ek Ian Empire, or at least from the
guage mi" time when Rome ceased to pay
fcnown in obedience to the exarchs of Ra-
the webt. ygj^j^a^ jjje Greek language and
fitorature had been almost entirely for-
gotten withm the pale of the Latin church.
A very few exceptions might be found,
especially in the earlier period of the
niiddle ages, while the Eastern emperors
-etained their dominion over part of
Italy * Thus Charlemagne is said to
iiave established a school for Greek at
Osnaburg.f John Scotus seems to have
been well acquainted with the language.
And Greek characters may occasionally,
though very seldom, be found in the wri-
fuigs of learned men ; such as Lanfranc
or William of Malmsbury.J It is said
that Roger Bacon understood Greek ; and
hi5 eminent contemporary, Robert Gros-
♦ete, bishop of Lincoln, had a sufficient
* Schmidt, Hist, des Allemands, t. ii., p. 374.
Tiraboschi, t. iii., p. 124, et alibi. Bede e.xtols
Theodoie, primate of Canterbury, and Tobias, bish-
op of Rochester, for their knowledge of Greek. —
Hist. Eccles., c. 9 and 24. But the former of these
prelates, if not the latter, was a native of Greece.
t Hist. Litteraire de la France, t. iv., p. 12.
X Greek characters are found in a charter of 943,
p'.'blished in Martenne, Thesaurus Anecdot., t. i.,
p. 74. The title of a treatise, ntpi <pvacuv utpiofiu,,
and the word dcoraxa;, occur in William of Malms-
bury, and one or two others in Lanfranc's Constitu-
liona It is said that a Greek psalter was written
in an abbey at Tournay about 1105. — Hist. Litt.de
!a France, t. ix., p. 102. This was, I should think,
a very rare instance of a Greek manuscript, sacred
or profane, copied m the western parts of Europe
before the fifteenth century. But a Greek psalter,
written in Latin characters at Milan in the ninth
century, was sold some years ago in London. John
of Salisbury is said by Crevier to have known a lit-
tle Greek, and he several times uses technical
words in that language. Yet he could not have
been much more learned than his neighbours ;
since having found the word una in St. Ambrose, he
was forced to ask the meaning of one John Sara-
sm. an Englishman, because, says he, none of our
masters here (at Paris) understand Greek. Paris,
indeed, Crevier thinks, could not furnish any Greek
scholar in that age except Abelard and Heloise,
and probably neither of them knew much. — Hist,
de rUnivers. de Paris, t. i., p. 259.
The ecclesiastical language, it maybe observed,
vras full of Greek words Latinized. But this pro-
cess had taken place before the fifth century ; and
inost of them will be found in the Latin dictiona-
ries. A Greek word was now and then borrowed,
as more imposing than the correspondent Latin.
Thus the English and other kings sometimes called
themselves Basileus instead of Rex.
It will not be supposed tnat I have professed to
«numerate all the persons of whose acquaintance
with the Greek tongue some evidence may be
found ; nor have I ever directed my attention to the
subject with that view. Doubtless the list might
be more than doubled. But, if ten times the num-
ner could be found, we should still be entitled to say
that the language was almost unknown, and that
t could have had no influence n the condition of
literature.
M in
intimacy with it to write animadversions
upon Suidas. Since Greek was spiiken
with considerable purity by the noble
and well educated natives of Constanti
nople, we may wonder that, even as a
living language, it was not better known
by the western nations, and especially in
so neighbouring a nation as Italy. Yet
here the ignorance was perhaps even
more complete than in France or Kng
land. In some parts indeed of Calabria^
which had been subject to 1h(; eastern
empire till near the year 1100, ine liturgy
was still performed in Greek ; and a con-
siderable acquaintance with tlie language
was of course preserved. But for the
scholars of Italy, Boccaccio 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 ji^ gt^jy ^g.
were the same men who had vivcs in tue
revived the kindred muses of '^""'ju^y '*'
Latium, Petrarca and Boccac-
cio. Barlaam, a Calabrian by birth, during
an embassy from the court of Constantino-
ple in 1335, was persuaded to become .the
preceptor of the former, with whom he
read the works of Plato. f Leontius Pi-
latus, a native of Thessalonica, was en-
couraged some years afterward by Boc-
caccio to give public lectures upon
Homer at Florence. J Whatever might
be the share of general attention that he
excited, he had the honour of instructing
both these great Italians in his native
language. Neither of them perhaps
reached an advanced degree of profi-
ciency ; but they bathed their lips in the
fountain, and enjoyed the pride of being
the first who paid the homage of a new
posterity to the fatlier of poetry. For
some time little fruit apparently resulted
from their example ; but Italy had im-
bibed the desire of acquisitions in a
new sphere of knov.-ledge, which, after
some interval, slie was abundantly en
abled to realize. A few years before
the termination of the fourteenth century,
♦ Nemo est qui Grascas literas norif ; at ego ir
hoc Latinitati compatior, quse sic omnino Graeca ab-
jecit studia, ut ctiam non noscamus charactercs
lilerarum. — Genealogiae Deorum, apud llodium lie
Grscis lllustribns, p. 3.
t Mem. de P^trarque, t. i., p. 407.
X Idem. t. i., p. 447; t. iii.. p. 634. Ho<ly, de
Graecis Ulust., p. 2. Poccace speaks modestly
of his own attainments in Greek ; etsi non satie
plene perceperim, percepi tamen quantum potui
nee dubium, si permansisset homo ille vagus <'iu
tiu« pfies nos. quin plenius oercsoissem. id. p 4
fi46
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
IChaf. I a.
Emanuel Chrysoloras, whom the Empe-
ror John Palaeologus had previously sent
into Italy, and even as far as England,
upon one of those unavailing embassies
by wliich the Byzantine court strove to
obtain sympathy and succour from Eu-
rope, returned to Florence as a public
teacher of Grecian literature. * His school
ivas afterward removed successively to
Pavia, Venice, and Rome ; and during
iiearly twenty years that he taught in
Italy, most of those eminent scholars
whom I have already named, and who
distinguish the first half of that century,
derived from his instruction their knowl-
edge of the Greek tongue. Some, not
content with being the disciples of Chry-
soloras, betook themselves to the source
of that literature at Constantinople ; and
returned to Italy not only with a more
accurate insight into the Greek idiom
than they could have attained at home,
^'2. with copious treasures of manuscripts,
few, if any, of which probably existed
previously in Italy, where none had abil-
ity to read or value them ; so that the
principal authors of Grecian antiquity
may be considered as brought to light by
these inquiries, the most celebrated of
whpm are Guarino of Verona, Aurispa,
and Filelfo. The second of these brought
home to Venice in 1423 not less than two
hundred and thirty-eight volumes. f
The fall of that eastern empire, which
State of had so long outlived all other
learning in pretensions to respect that it
^'■^*''^- scarcely retained that founded
upon its antiquity, seeins to have been
providentially delayed till Italy was ripe
to nourish the scattered seeds of litera-
ture that would have perished a few ages
earlier in the common catastrophe. From
the commencement of the fifteenth cen-
tury, even the national pride of Greece
could not blind her to the signs of ap-
proaching ruin. It was no longer possi-
ble to inspire the European republic, dis-
tracted by wars and restrained by calcu-
lating policy, with the generous fanati-
cism of the crusades ; and at the council
of Florence, in 1439, the court and church
of Constantinople had the mortification
of sacrificing tlieir long-cherished faith,
without experiencing any sensible return
of protection or security. The learned
Greeks were perhaps the first to antici-
pate, and certainly not the last to avoid.
♦ Hody places the commencement of Chrysolo-
ras's teaching as early as 1391, p. 3. But Tirabos-
(Ai, whose research was more precise, fixes it at
the end of 1.396 or beginning of 1397, t. vii., p. 126.
+ Tiraboschi, t. vi., p. 10?. Roscot's Lorenzo
Ib' Merlici. vol i.. d. 43
their country's destruction. The counci
of Florence brought many of them into
Italian connexions, and held out at least
a temporary accommodation of their con-
flicting opinions. Though the Roman
pontiffs did nothing, and probably could
have done nothing effectual, for the em-
pire of Constantinople, they were very
ready to protect and reward the learning
of individuals. To Eugenius I\., to
Nicolas v., to Pius II., and some other
popes of this age, the Greek exiles were
indebted for a patronage which they re-
paid by splendid services in the restora-
tion of their native literature throughout
Italy. Bessarion, a disputant on the
Greek side in the council of Florence,
was well content to renounce the doc-
trine of single procession for a cardinal's
hat ; a dignity which he deserved for his
learning, if not for his pliancy. Theo-
dore Gaza, George of Trebizond, and Ge-
mistus Pletho, might equal Bessarion in
merit, though not in honours. They all,
however, experienced the patronage of
those admirable protectors of letters, Nic-
olas v., Cosmo de' Medici, or Alfonso
king of Naples. These men emigrated
before the final destruction of the Greek
empire ; Lascaris and Musuras, whose
arrival in Italy was posterior to that
event, may be deemed perhaps still moro
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 course of the middle ages, their share
of ancient learning with more fidelity
and attention than was shown in the
west of Europe. Genius indeed, or any
original excellence, could not well exist
along with their cowardly despotism and
their contemptible theology, more cor-
rupted by frivolous subtleties than that
of the Latin church. The spirit of per-
secution, naturally allied to despotism
and bigotry, had nearly, during one period,
extinguished the lamp, or at least reduced
the Greeks to a level with the most igno-
rant 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 haa
reached a much lower point of degrada«
tion ; and for two centuries, especially
while tlie worshippers of images were
persecuted with unrelenting intolerance,
there is almost a blank in the annals of
Grecian literature.* But about the mid-
♦ The authors most conversant with Byzantine
learning agree in this. Nevertheless, there la on«
manifest difference between the Greek wrilers
Tart II.]
STATE OF SOCIETY.
547
die of the ninth century it revived pretty
suddenly, and with considerable success.*
Though, as I have observed, we find in
very few instances any original talent,
yet it was hardly less important to have
had compilers of such erudition as Pho-
tius, 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 cannot precisely appre-
ciate, many of those poets, historians,
and orators of ancient Greece, whose
loss we have long regretted, and 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 de-
cline is to be traced in the literature of
he eastern empire. Solecisms and bar-
barous terms, which sometimes occur in
she old Byzantine writers, are said to de-
form the style of the fourteenth and fif-
teenth centuries.! The Turkish ravages
the worst period, such as the eighth century, and
those who correspond to them in the west. Syn-
cellus, for example, is of great use in chronology,
oecause he was acquainted with many ancient his-
tories now no more. But Bede possessed nothing
which we have lost ; and his compilations are con-
sequently altogether unprofitable. The eighth cen-
tury, the sfficulum iconoclasticum of Cave, low as
it was in all polite literature, produced one man,
St. John Damascenus, who has been deemed the
founder of scholastic theology, and who at least set
the example of that style of reasoning m the East.
This person, and Michael Psellus, a philosopher
of the eleventh century, are the only considerable
men as original writers in the annals of Byzantine
literature.
* The honour of restoring ancient or heathen lit-
erature IS due to the Cesar Bardas, uncle and min-
ister of Michael II. Cedrenus speaks of it in the
following terms : tT:e^i\n5>] ie Kai rrn e^u) ffo^iaf (77V
yap tK TTO/XXou vfiovov Tipapjiveiaa, Kat vpos to iitjicv
oAuj ^(opriaaaa tt] tcuv Kparouvriav afiy'? '^<" aftuQta),
itarpiSai iKaarri rwv fKidTi'lyiijiv a<j)Opiaai, Tu)v //tv uXXitfv
iirt) TTtp CTv^c, rijj 6' cm vuaojv ciro-^ov (pi\oao(piai Kar'
avra ra (jaciKua ev rri yiayvavpif' Kai ovtij) tj tKcivov
avrjUaaKCtv at cirioTrj^ai. rjp^avTO, K. T. A. — Hist. By-
zant. Script. (Lutet.), t. x., p. 547. Bardas found
out and promoted Photius, afterward patriarch of
Constantinople, and eciually famous in the annals
of the church and of learning. (Jibbon passes per-
haps too rapidly over the Byzantine literature,
chap. 53. In this, as in many other places, the
;nasterly boldness and precision of his outline,
which astonish those who have trodden parts of
the same field, are apt to escape an uninformed
reader.
t Du Cange, Prajfatio ad Glossar. Graecitatis
.Medii .^Evi. Anna Comnena quotes some popular
lines, which seem to be the earliest specimen ex-
tant of the Romaic dialnct, or somethmg approach-
ing it, as they observe no grammatical inliection,
and bear about the same resemblance to ancient
Greek that the worst law charters of the ninth and
tenth centuries do to pure Latin. In fact, the
''reek language seems to have declined much in
the same manner js the Latin did, and almost at
IS early 1 period. In the sixth century, Damas-
Mm2
and destruction of monasteries ensued;
and in the cheerless intervals of immedi
ate terror, there was no longer any en
couragement to preserve the monuments
of an expiring language, and of a name
that was to lose its place among nations.*
That ardour for the restoration of clas-
sical hterature which animated Italy in
cius, a Platonic philosopher, mentions the old Ian
guage as distinct from that which was vernacular,
Tt]V ap)(aiav yXcurrav {jTttp Tr)v iiiii>Ti]V ftt\cTOvai. — Du
Cange, ibid., p. 11. It is well known that the pop-
ular, or political verses of Tzetzes, a writer of the
twelfth century, are accentual ; that is, are to he
read, as the modern Greeks do, by treating every
acute or circumflex syllable as long, without re-
gard to its original quantity. This innovation,
which must have produced still greater confusion
of metrical rules than it did in Latin, is much older
than the age of Tzetzes ; if, at least, the editor of
some notes subjoined to Meursius's edition of the
Themata of Constantine Porphyrogenitus (Lug-
duni, 1017) is right in ascribing certain political
verses to that emperor, who died in 959. These
verses are regular accentual trochaics. But I be-
lieve they have since been given to Constantme
Manasses, a writer of the eleventh century.
According to the opinion of a modern traveller
(Hobhouse's Travels in Albania, letter 33), the
chief corruptions which distinguish the Romaic
from its parent stock, especially the auxiliary verbs,
are not older than the capture of Constantinople by
Mahomet II. But it seems difficult to obtain any
satisfactory proof of this ; and the auxiliary verb it
so natural and convenient, that the ancient Greek*
may probably, in some of their local idioms, have
fallen into the use of it; as Mr. H. admits they did
with respect to the future auxiliary &e\u. See
some instances of this in Lesbonax vcpt ap^niiaruv,
ad finein Ammonii, cur& Valckenaei.
* Photius (I write on the authority of M. Heeren)
quotes Theopompus, Arrian's history of Alexan-
der's Successors, and of Parthia, Ctesias, Agathar-
cides, the whole of Diodorus Siculus, Polybius,
and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, twenty lost ora-
tions of Demosthenes, almost two hundred of Lys-
ias, sixty-four of Isoeus, about fifty of Hyperides.
Heeren ascribes the loss of these works rUogether
to the Latin capture of Constantinople, no writer
subsequent to that time having quoted them. —
Essaisurles Croisades, p. 413. It is difficult, how-
ever, not to suppose that some part of the destruc-
tion was left for the Ottomans to perform. .(Eneas
Sylvius bemoans, in his speech before the diet of
Frankfort, the vast losses of literature by the re-
cent subversion of the Greek empire. Quia ae li-
bris dicam, qui illic erant innumerabiles, nondum
Latinis cogniti ! Nunc ergo, et Homero et
Pindaro et Menandru et omnibus lUustrioribus poe-
tis, secunda mors erit. But nothing can be infer-
red from this declamation, except, perhaps, that he
did ivot know whether Menander still existed or
not.— .lEn. Syl., Opera, p. 715; also p. 881. Har-
ris's Philological Inquiries, part iii., c. 4. It is a
remarkable proof, however, of the turn which P^u-
rope, and especially Italy, was taking, that a pope'i
Irrrate should, on a solemn occasion, descant so se-
riously on the injury sustained by profane literature,
A useful summary of the lower Greek literature,
taken chiefly from the Bibliotheca Graeca of Fabri-
cius, will be found in Berington's Literary History
of the Midille Ages, Appendix I. ; and one rathei
more copious in Schoell, Abrege de la Litteiatun
Grecque (Paris, 1812).
A48
EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
Chap. IX
Literature the first part of the fifteenth
not much . "^ u
improved century, was by no means com-
beyond mon to the rest of Europe. Nei-
'"*^'" ther England, nor France, nor
Germany seemed aware of the approach-
ing change. We are told that learn-
ing, by which 1 believe is only meant
the scholastic ontology, had begun to
decline at Oxford from the time of
Edward III.* And the fifteenth centu-
ry, from whatever cause, is particularly
barren of writers in the Latin language.
The study of Greek was only introduced
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 classical work
proceed from the respectable press of
Caxton. France, at the beginning of the
fifteenth age, had several eminent theo-
logians ; but the reigns of Charles VII.
and Louis XI. contributed far more to
her political than her literary renown.
A Greek professor was first appointed at
Paris in 1458, before which time the lan-
guage had not been publicly taught, and
was little understood. J Much less had
Germany thrown off her ancient rude-
n»!ss. jEneas Sylvius indeed, a deliber-
ate flatterer, extols eveiy 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
earning, 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 universi-
ties during the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. Nor can I pass over institu-
* Wood's Antiquities of Oxford, vol. i., p. 537.
t Roper's Vita Mori, ed. Hearne, p. 75.
j Crevier, t. iv., p. 243 ; see too p. 46.
<j Incredibilis ingeniorum barbaries est ; rarissimi
literas Borunt, nuUi elegantiatn.— Papiensis Epis-
tol», p. 377. Campano's notion of elegance was
ridicjioiis enough. Nobody ever carried farther
the pedantic affectation of avoiding modern terms
jnliis latinity. Thus, in the lifeof Braccioda Mon-
otone, he renders his meaning almost unintelligible
iby excess of classical purity. Braccio boasts se
i-fiUOiijiiam deorum immortalium templa violasse.
'Trcops committing outrages in a city are accused
vifgiues vestales incestasse. In the terms of
treabits, he employs the old Roman forms ; exerci-
tum ttijicito — oppida pontificis sunto, &c. And
with a most absurd pedantry, the ecclesiastical
«tatp, is called Romanum imperium. — Campani
Viti Hra<fiAi. in Muratori, Script. Rer. Ital., t. xix.
tions that have so eminently contributed
to the literary reputation of this country,
and that still continue to exercise so con-
spicuous an influence over her taste and
knowledge, as the two great schools of
grammatical learning, Winchester and
Eton ; the one founded by W^illiam of
Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, in 1373,
the other, in 1432, by King Henry the
Sixth.*
But while the learned of Italy were ea
gerly exploring their recent ac- invention
quisitions of manuscripts, deci- of printing
phered with difficulty, and slowly circula-
ted from hand to hand, a few obscure Ger-
mans had gradually perfected the most im-
portant discovery recorded in the annals
of mankind. The invention of printing, so
far from being the result of philosophical
sagacity, does not appear to have been
suggested by any regard 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 Avhich we call accident.
Two or three centuries earlier, we cannot
but acknowledge the discovery would
have been almost 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 beei^
traced far back in the fourteenth century
gave the first notion of taking off impres
sions from engraved figures upon wood
The second stage, or rather second appi;
cation of this art, was the representatio*.
of saints and other religious devices, sev ■
eral 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 Fust, Schceffer, and Guttenburg, yet it
probably led to the consideration of
means whereby it might be rendered less
operose and inconvenient. Whether
moveable wooden characters "were ever
employed in any entire work is very ques-
tionable ; the opinion that referred their
use to Laurence Coster of Haarlem not
* A letter from Master William Paston at Etot.
(Paston Letters, vol. i., p. 299) proves that Latin
versification was taught there as early as the be
ginning of Edward IV. 's reign. It is true that the
specimen he rather proudly exhibits does not much
differ from what we denommate nonsense verses
But a more material ob.servation is, that the soni
of country gentlemen living at a considerable dii
tancewere already sent to public schoola for gram
Tiatical education.
P^Rr II
STATE OF SOCIETY.
54^
having stood the test of more accurate
investigation. They appear, however,
in the capital letters of some early print-
fcd books. But no expedient of this kind
could have fulfilled the great purposes
of this invention, untd 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 Fust and his associates at
Mentz was an edition of the Vulgate,
commonly called the Mazarine Bible, a
copy having been discovered in the li-
brary that owes its name to Cardinal
Mazarin at Paris. This is supposed to
have been printed between the years
1450 and 1455.* In 1457 an edition of
the Psalter appeared, and in this the in-
vention was announced to the world in a
boasting colophon, though certainly not
unreasonably bold.f Another edition of
the Psalter, one of an ecclesiastical book,
Durand's account of liturgical offices, one
of the Constitutions of Pope Clement V.,
and one of a popular treatise on general
science, called the Catholicon, fill up the
mterval till 1462, when the second Mentz
Bible proceeded from the same printers. J
This, in the opinion of some, is the ear-
liest book in which cast types were em-
ployed ; those of the Mazarine Bible hav-
ing been cut with the hand. But this is
a controverted point. In 1465, Fust and
Schoeffer published an edition of Cicero's
Offices, the first tribute of the new art to
polite literature. Two pupils of their
school, Sweynheim and Pannartz, mi-
grated the same year into Italy, and
printed Donatus's grammar, and the works
of Lactantius, at the monastery of Subi-
aco in the neighbourhood of Rome.^
* De Bure, t. i., p. 30. Several copies of this
book have come to light since its discovery.
t Idem, t. i., p. 71.
i Mem. de I'Acad. des Inscriptions, t. xiv., p.
365. Another edition of the Bible is supposed to
aav« been printed by Pfister at Bamberg in 1459.
0 Tiraboschi, t. vi., p. 140.
Venice had the hoioui of extending her
patronage to Jonn of Spira, the first who
applied the art on an extensive scale to
the publication of classical writers.*
Several Latin authors came forth frorr
his press in 1470 ; and durmg the next
ten years, a multitude 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 imprcs
sions, yet, contrasted with the dilatory
process of copying manuscripts, they
were like a new mechanical power in
machinery, and gave a wonderfully ac-
celerated impulse to the intellectual cul-
tivation 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 circum-
stanced did not immediately catch his
beams ; and the restoration of ancient
learning in France and England cannot
be considered as by any means eff'ectua]
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 ter-
mination in treating of political history
might well invite me by their brilliancj
to dwell upon that golden morning of
Itahan literature. But, in the history of
letters, they rather appertain to the mod-
ern than the middle period ; nor would it
become me to trespass upon the ex-
hausted patience of my readers by re-
peating what has been so often and so re-
cently told, thq story of art and learning
that has employed the comprehensive re-
search of a Tiraboschi, a Ginguene, and
a Roscoe.
* Sanuto mentions an order of the senate \i>
1469, that John of Spira sh(^ld print the epi?tle«
of Tully and Pliny for five years, and that no on*
else should do so.— Script. Rerum Italic, t. xxiL.
p. 1189.
I N D K X
4BBiisoiDB8, khiliffs of the dynasty of, 153; de-
cline of their power, ib.
ibelard (Peter), biographical notice of, 5'<!3.
Acre, commercial prosperity of, 479, and note.
Acts of parliament, an ill-digested mass of legisla-
tive enactments, 348, 349 ; consent of both houses
of parliament necessary to pass them, 376.
Adrian IV. (pope), insolent conduct of, 286; the
only Englishman that ever sat in the papal chair,
ib.
Adventurers (military), companies of, formed, 180;
and organized by Guarnieri, ib. ; ravages of the
great company, ib. ; account of the company of
St. George, 182.
Advocates of the church, their office, 88; to con-
vents, their powers and functions, ib.
Agnes Sorel (mistress of Charles VII.), not such
probably at the siege of Orleans, 54, note.
Agriculture, wretched state of, in the dark ages,
471 ; particularly in England, 495, 496 ; in some
degree, however, progressive, 494, 495 ; its con-
dition in France and Italy, 496, 497.
Aids (feudal), m what cases due, 80; when due
and how levied in England, under the Norman
kings, 338, 339 ; not to be imposed without the
consent of parliament, 342.
Albans (St.), when first represented in parliament,
367, 368
Al'ooc',, archduke of Austria, oppresses the Swiss,
246; his death, ib.
Albert II. (emperor of Germany), reign of, 237.
Albigeois, crusade against, 29 ; their tenets, 504,
505, and notes.
Alfonso of Aragon, adopted by Joanna IF., queen of
Naples, 189 ; ascends the throne, 190; forms an
alliance with Milan, ib. ; joms the quadruple
league of 1455, 191 ; his death and character, ib.
Ilfred the Great, extent of his dominions, 319;
was not the inventor of trial by jury, 325—327 ;
nor of the law of frankpledge, 327, 328.
Alice Ferrers (mistress of Edward III.), parliament-
ary proceedmgs against, 380; repealed, ib. ; again
impeached, 381.
Alienation of lands, fines on, 78, 79.
Alienations in mortmain, restrained in various parts
of Europe, 301.
Aliens, liable f jr each other's debts, 483.
A.lodial lands, nature of, 65; when changed into
feudal tenures, 72.
Alvaro de Luna, power and fall of, 205.
Amalfi (republic of), notice of, 479 ; the mariner's
compass not invented there, 481 ; the Pandects,
whether discovered there, 520.
Anglo-Norman government of England, tyranny of,
337 ; its exactions, 338 ; general taxes, ib. ; rights
of legislation, 339 ; laws and charters of the An-
glo-Norman kings, 340 ; state of the constitution
under Henry III., 342; courts of justice, 345 —
347.
Anglo-Saxons, historical sketch of, 319, 320 ; influ-
ence a" provincial governors, 321 • distribution
of the people into thanes and ceorli, ib. ; thei*
wittenagemot, 322, 323 ; judicial power, 323 ; di-
vision into counties, hundreds, and cithings, ib. ;
their county court, and Ejits therein, 324, 325;
trial by jury, 325 ; law of frankpledge, 327 ■
whether the system of feudal tenures was known
to the Anglo-Saxons, 329—332.
Andrew (king of Naples), murder of, 187.
Anjou. See Charles (count of Anjou). Ann*
(dutchess of Britany) married by Charles VIII.
of France, 63.
Antrustions, leudes, or fideles, of the Frank empire,
rank and dignity of, 68 ; were considered as no-
ble, 70.
Appanages, nature of, 57.
Appeals for denial of justice in France, account oJ,
110; the true date of, ib., note.
Appeals to the Roman see, when established, 271,
272.
Arabia, state of, at the appearance of Mahomet, 249.
Aragon (kingdom of), when founded, 198 ; its pop-
ulation, 219, note; its constitution, 218; origi-
nally a sort of regal aristocracy, ib. ; privilege*
of the ricos hombres or barons, ib. ; of the lowe»
nobility, ib. ; of the burgesses and peasantry, ib ,
liberties of the Aragonese kingdom, ib. ; general
privilege of 1283, 219; privilege of union, ib. ;
when abolished, 229 ; oflice of justiciary, when
established, ib. ; office and power of the justicia-
ry, 220, 221, 223; rights of legislation and th'a
tion, lb. ; cortes of Aragon, 224; popular repic-
sentation more ancient in Aragon than in anj
other monarchy, ib., note; police, 225; union oJ
this kingdom witn Castile, ib.
Arbitration, determination of suits by, prevalent it
the church, 265, 266.
Archenfeld (manor of), private feuds, allowed in by
custom, 352, note.
Archers (English), superiority of, 41, 42 ; theirpay.
52 ; were employed by William the Conqueror,
183.
Architecture (civil), state of, in England, 488—490
in France, 490 ; in Italy, ib.
Architecture (ecclesiastical), state of, 492—494.
Ardoin, marquis of Ivrea, elected king of Italy, 127.
Aristotle, writings of, first known in Europe
through the Spanish Arabs, 526, note ; his wri-
tings ill understood and worse translated by the
schoolmen, 527; irreligion the consequence of
the unbounded admiration of his writings, 528,
and note.
Armagnacs, faction of, 49 ; th-'ir proceedings, 49, 50,
Armorial bearings, origin of, 85, 86.
Armorican republic, existence of, questionable, 17,
and notes.
•Arms (defensive), of the fifteenth century, 182, 183.
Army (English), pay of, in the fourteenth century,
52, 122, note.
Army (French).— A standing army first establishefl
by Charles VII.. 122. 123.
Asia, invasion of, by the Karismians and Mogul*
257.
Assemblies See Legislative AssembUM.
652
INDEX.
Assize, Justices of, when instituted 346; their
functions and powers, 346, 347.
Augustine (St.), specimen of the barbarous poetry
of, 457, note.
A.ulic council, powers and jurisdiction of; 242.
Auspicius (bishop of Toul), specimen of the Latin
poetry of, 458, note.
Auxiliary verb (active), probable cause of, 456, 457.
Avignon, Roman see removed to, 304 ; rapacity of
the Avignon popes, 306, 307.
Azincourt, battle of, 51, and note.
B.
Bacon (Roger), singular resemblance between him
and Lord Bacon, 529, note , specimen of his phi-
losophical spirit, ib.
Baltic trade, state of, 477 ; origin and progress of
the Ha.iseatic league, 477, 478.
Banking, origin of, 484 ; account of various Italian
banks, 485.
Bagdad, khalifs of, account of, 252, 253.
Barbarians, inroads of, one cause of the decline of
literature in the latter periods of the Roman em-
pire, 453, 454.
Bardas (Cesar), efforts of, to revive classical liter-
ature in Greece 547, note.
Barnstaple (borough of), when first represented /n
parliament, 368, 369.
Baronies (English), inquiry into the nature of, 357 ;
theory of Selden, that tenants in chief by knight-
service were parliamentary barons by reason of
their tenure, ib. ; theory of Madox, that they were
distinct, ib. ; observations on both, 357, 358 ;
whether mere tenants in chief attended parlia-
ment under Henry JII., 358, 359.
Barons (Aragonese), privileges of, 218.
Barons of France, right of private war exercised
by them, 94 ; legislative assemblies occasionally
held by them, 99; account of their courts of
justice, 108, 109 ; trial by combat allowed in cer-
tain cases, 109, 110.
Barrister, moderate fees of, in the fifteenth centu-
ry, 500.
Basle, proceedings of the council of, 311.
Bedford (duke of), regent of France during the mi-
nority of Henry VI., 52 ; his character, ib. ; causes
of his success, ib. ; his progress arrested by the
siege of Orleans, 53.
Belgrade, siege of, 245.
Benedict XIII. (pope), contested election of, 308,
309 ; deposed at the council of Pisa, 309.
Benefices, grants of land so called, 70 ; their ex-
tent, 70—72.
Benefices (ecclesiastical), gross sale of in the elev-
enth century, 279 ; Boniface, marquis of Tusca-
ny, flogged by an abbot for selling benefices, 280,
note ; presentation to them in all cases claimed
by the popes, 295.
Benevolences, when first taken in England, 449.
Bernard, king of Italy, put to death by Louis the
Debonair, 23.
Bianchi, a set of enthusiasts, notice of, 464.
Bills in parliament, pjwer of originating claimed by
the house of commons, 402 — 404.
Mishops, ecclesiastic il jurisdiction of, 265; their
political power, 206; their pretensions in the
nintn century, 208, 269 ; remarks on the suppo-
sed concession of the title of universal bishop to
the bishops of Rome, 271, 272, notes ; encroach-
ments of the popes on the bishops, 274; how
elected in the early ages, 279 ; were nominated
by the Merovingian French kings, and by the
emperors of Germany of the house of Saxony, ib.,
and note ; in England were appointed in the wit-
tenagemot before the conquest, anl afterward by
onsent of parliament, ib ; in France received
mvestiX 2:e from the Emperor Charlemagne, 280
bishops of Rome elected by the citizens and con
firmed by the emperors, ib. ; not allowed to ex
ercise their functions until confirmed by the
popes, 285 ; papal encroachments on the freedom
of episcopal elections, 294 ; right of to a seat in
parliament considered, 355; have a right lo b*
tried by the peers, ib., note ; had a right to vote
in capital cases, though that right is now abro-
gated by non-claim and contrary precedents, 356,
note.
Boccanegra (Simon), elected the first doge of G«
noa, 171.
Bocland, nature of, 329 ; analogy between it and
freehold land, ib. ; to what burdens subject, 330.
Bohemia, account of the constitution of, 243 ; no-
tice of the kings of the house of Luxembourg,
ib. ; war with the Hussites in that country, 244.
Bologna university, account of, 524.
Bond of fellowship, abstract of a curious one, 36J,
note.
Boniface (St.), the apostle of Germany, devotion of
to the see of Rome, 272.
Boniface VIII. (pope), character of, 301 ; his dis-
putes with Edward I., king of England, 30- ; and
with Philip the Fair, king of France, ib. ; is ar-
rested by him, 304 ; his death, ib. ; the papal
power declines after his decease, ib.
Books, scarcity of, in the dark ages, 460 ; account
of the principal collections of, 543 ; notices o'
early printed books, 549.
Booksellers, condition of, during the middle ages,
542, note.
Boroughs, cause of summoning deputies from, 370 ;
nature of prescriptive boroughs, 406, 407 ; power
of the sheriff to omit boroughs, 407, 408 ; reluc-
tance of boroughs to send members, 408 ; who
the electors in boroughs were, 409.
Bourgeoisies, how distinguished from communities
117, note.
Braccio di Montone, rivalry of, with Sforza, 185.
Brethren of the White Caps, insurrection of, 464.
Bretigni, peace of, 43 ; rupture of it, 45.
Britany (dutchy of), state of, at the accession cf
Charles VIII. to the throne of France, 62 ; Anne
dutchess of Bntany, married by Charles VIII. of
France, 63.
Britons (native), reduced to slavery by the Saxons
322.
Bruges, state of, in the fourteenth century, 475.
Burgesses, state of, in Aragon, 218; in England,
363 ; charters of incorporation granted to them,
364, 365 ; were first summoned to parliament in
the 49th of Henry III., 366; whether St. Albans
sent representatives before that time, 367; or
Barnstaple, 368; causes of summoning burgess
es, 370 ; rates of their wages, and how paid, 408.
Burgesses, why and when chosen to serve in par
liament, 406, 407.
Burgundy and Orleans, factions of, 49; the Duk«
of Orleans murdered by the faction of Burgun^
dy, ib. ; civil wars between the parties, ib. ; as
sassination of the Duke of Burgundy, 50.
Burgundy (house of), its vast acquisitions, 58
character and designs of Charles, duke of Bur
gundy, 59; insubordination of the Flemish citie«
part of his territory, ib.
C.
Calais (citizens of), their wretchedness, 43, note
treaty of, ib.
Calixtines, account of, and of their tenets, 244.
Calixtus II. (pope), concordat of, respecting inves
titures, 283.
Canon law, origin and progress of, 290.
Capet (Hugh), ascends the throne of France 24
INDEX
55.1
anlitjufLy ot this family, ib., note; state of the
country at ,hat time, ib. ; extent of his dominion
and power, 26, 27.
Capitular elections, when introduced, 284.
Caraccioli, the favourite of Joanna, queen of Na-
ples, 189; assassinated, 190, note.
Carlovmgian dynasty, accession of, to the throne
ot France, 17 ; decline of this family, 24.
Castile (kingdom of), when founded, 199; finally
united with the kingdom of Leon, 201 ; civil dis-
turbances of Castile, 203; reign of Peter the
Cruel, 203, 204; of the house of Trastamare,
204; reign of John II., ib. ; of Henry IV., 205 ;
constitution of Castile, 206 ; succession to the
crown, ib. ; national councils, ib. ; admission of
deputies from towns, ib. ; spiritual and temporal
nobility in cortes, 207; right of taxation, 208;
control of the cortes over the expenditure, 210 ;
forms of the cortes, 211 ; their rights in legisla-
tion, ib. ; other rights of the cortes, 212 ; council
of Castile, 213 ; administration of justice, ib. ;
violent actions of some of the kings of Castile,
214; confederacies of the nobility, 215; union
of Castile with Aragon, 225; papal encroach-
ments restrained in that kingdom, 314.
Castles, Roman, traces of in Britain, 488; descrip-
tion of the baronial castles, ib. ; successive im-
provements in them, ib. ; account of castellated
mansions, 489.
Castruccio Castracani, notice of, 151.
Catalonia (principality), government of, 224, 225;
slate of its commerce and manufactures, 480.
Catharists, tenets mid practices of, 506.
Caursini, a tribe ol money dealers, notice of, 484,
note.
Cavalry, practice of, to dismount in action, 183.
Centenanus, or hundredary, functions of, 107.
{'eorls, condition of, under the Anglo-Saxons, 321 ;
identity of them with the villani and bordarii of
Domesday Book, 322.
Cerda (Dominic de), justiciary of Aragon, intrepid
conduct of, 222 ; and of Juan de Cerda, 222, 223.
</harlemagne (king of France), conquers Lombar-
dy, 20; part of Spain, ib. ; and Saxony, 21 ; ex-
tent of his dominions, ib. ; his coronation as em-
peror, ib. ; character, 22; legislative assemblies
held by him, 97 ; account of the scheme of juris-
diction established by him, 107 ; established pay-
ment of tithes in France, 263 ; vigorously main-
tained the supremacy of the state over the church,
267 ; could not write, 459, and note ; established
public schools, 523.
I'harles IV. (king of France), 39.
Charles the Fat (king of France), insolent treat-
men;, of, by Pope John VIII., 277.
Charles V. (king of France), restores that country
from her losses, 46; expels the English thence,
ib.
Charles VI., accession of, to the throne of France,
46 ; state of the country during his minority, 47 ;
gross misapplication of the revenue, 48 ; reme-
dial ordinance of, 105 ; assumes the full power,
48 ; his derangement, ib. ; factions and civil wars,
49; calamitous state of France during the re-
mainder of his reign, 50, 51 ; his death, 52.
Charles VII., accession of, to the throne of France,
52; character of, 53 ; engages Scottish auxilia-
ries at a high rate, 52, 53 ; retrieves his affairs,
54 ; is reconciled to the Duke of Burgundy, ib. ;
stale of France during the latter part of his reign,
55 ; subsequent events of his reign, 55, 56 ; states-
general convoked by him, 105; his pretensions
upon Italy, 196.
Charles VIII. ascends the throne of France, 62 ;
marries tin Dutchess of Britany, 63; and con-
solidates France into one great kingdom, ib. ; his
pretensions to the kingdom of Naples, 196, 197.
Charles the Bad (king of Navarre) unprincifleC
character and conduct of, 42.
Charles (count of Anjou), conquers Naples anc
Sicily, 149 ; aspires to the kingdom of Italy, ib.
rebellion of Sicily against him, 186, wpr in con
sequence, 187.
Charles IV. (emperor of Germany), reign of, 236 •
account of the golden bull issued by him, ib.
Charles (duke of Burgundy), character of, 59; in
subordination of his Flemish subjects, ib. ; hii
ambitious projects, 60 ; invades Swisserland, and
is twice defeated, ib. ; his death, ib. ; his dutchy
of Burgundy claimed by Louis XL, ib.
Chartered towns, when first incorporated in France
116; their privileges, 116, 117, notes; causes of
their incorporation, 117; circumstances attend
ing the charter of Laon, ib. ; extent of their priv
ileges, 118; their connexion with the King ol
France, ib. ; independence of the maritime towns
119; account of the chartered towns or commu
nities in Spain, 200 ; progress of them in Eng
land, 362—365 ; particularly London, 365, 366.
Charters of the Norman kings, account of, 340 •
abstract of Magna Charta, 341, 342; confirma
tion of charters by Edward I., 354.
Chatela..ls, rank of, 87.
Chaucer, account of, 541 ; character of his poetry,
ib.
Chief justiciary of England, power and functionj
of, 345, note.
Children, crusade of, 463, note.
Childeric III., king of France, deposed by Pepin,
and confined in a convent, 20.
Chimneys, when invented, 491.
Chilperic (king of the Franks), literature of, 458
Chivalry, origin of, 509; its connexion with feudai
services, 511 ; that connexion broken, ib. ; effects
of the crusades on chivalry, ib. ; connexion of
chivalry with religion, ib. ; and with gallantry,
512 ; the morals of chivalry not always the mos',
pure, 513 ; virtues deemed essential to chivalry
514; resemblance between chivalrous and east
em manners, 515; evils produced by the spir •
of chivalry, ib. ; circumstances tending to pro-
mote it, 516 ; regular education, ib. ; encourage-
ment of princes, ib. ; tournaments, 516, 517;
privileges of knighthood, 517 ; connexion of
chivalry with military services, 518 ; decline of
chivalry, 519.
Christianity, embraced by the Saxons, 21.
Chroniclers (old English), notice of, 540.
Church, wealth of, under the Roman empire, 261 .
increased after its subversion, 261, 262; some
times improperly acquired, 262 ; when endowed
with tithes, 263, 264 ; spoliation of church prop-
erty, 264 ; pretensions of the hierarchy in the
ninth century, 208.
Church lands, exempted from ordinary jurisdic-
tion, 108.
Cinque Ports, represented in parliament in 1246
367, note.
C Ircles instituted in Germany, and why, 242.
Civil law, revival if, 520; cultivated thrcughout
Europe, 521 ; its nHuence on the laws of Franco
and Germany, ib. ; its introduction into England,
522; the elder civilians liitle regarded, ib. ; the
science itself on the decline, ib.
Civil wars of the Lancastrians and Yorkists, 447 ;
did not materially affect national prosperity, 478.
Classic authors neglected by the church during the
dark ages. 453, 542; account of the revival of
classical literature, 542; causes that contributed
to its diffusion, 542—544 ; efforts of Cesar Bar-
das in reviving classical Iteraturein Greece, 547,
note.
Clement V. (pope), removes the papal couit to
Avignon, 304.
554
INDEX.
Cleineiit VII. (pope), contested election of, 308.
l^ ergy, state of, under the feudal system, 68 ; their
A-ealth under the Roman empire, 261 ; increased
after its subversion, 2C1, 262; sometimes improp-
erly acquired, 262 ; sources of their wealth, 263 ;
spoliation of church property, 264 ; extent of
their jurisdiction, 265 ; their political power, 266 ;
were subject to the supre.iiacy of the state, espe-
cially of Charlemagne, 2')7; pretensions of the
hierarchy in the ninth century, 268 ; corruption
of their morals in the tenth century, 277 ; neglect
of celibacy, 278; their simony in the eleventh
century, 282 ; taxation of them by the popes, 296 ;
state of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the twelfth
century, 297; immunities claimed by the clergy,
298 ; endeavours made to repress ecclesiastical
tyranny in England, 299; were less vigorous in
France, 300 ; restraints on alienations m mort-
main, 301 ; ecclesiastical jurisdiction restrained,
316 ; originally had a right to sit in the house of
commons, 389, note ; ignorance of the clergy du-
ring the dark ages, 460 ; their vices, 467, 468.
See also Bishops, Popes.
C'lovis, king of the Franks, invades and conquers
Gaul, 17 ; embraces Christianity, 18 ; his victo-
ries, ib. ; his descendants, ib. ; their degeneracy,
J9 ; they are deposed by Pepin, 20 ; provincial
government of the French empire during the
reign of Clovis, 67 ; his limited authority, 68.
Coin, changes in the value of, 497 — 500.
Coining of money, a privilege of the vassals of
France, 93 ; regulations of various sovereigns
concerning this right, ib.
Combat (trial by), in what cases allowed, 109 ; how
fought, 110 ; decline of this practice. 111, 112.
Comines (Philip de), his character of Louis XI., 62.
Commendation (personal), origin and nature of, 74 ;
distinguished from feudal tenure, ib.
Commerce, progress of, in Germany. 474 ; of Flan-
ders, ib ; of England, 475, 476—478 ; the Baltic
trade, 477 ; commerce of the Mediterranean Sea,
479.
Commerce (foreign), state of, in the dark ages, 473.
Commission of reform, in the reign of Richard II.,
proceedings of, 385 — 387.
Commodian, a Christian writer of the third centu-
ry, specimens of the versification of, 457, note.
Common law (English), origin of, 347, 348.
Common Pleas, court of, when instituted, 347.
Commons. See House of Commons.
Communities, when first incorporated in France,
il6; their progress, 116, 117; in Spain, 116, 117,
note, 200 ; in England, 364, 365, and notes.
Commutation of penances, 468, 469.
Companies of ordonnance, instituted by Charles
VII., 56, 122, 123 ; their design, 56.
Compass. See Mariner's Compass.
Compositions for mutu,>r, antiquity of, 94, note;
prevailed under the feudal system, 66.
Concordats of Aschaffenburg, account of, 313, 314.
Condemnation (illegal), instances of, rare in Eng-
land, 428, 429.
Condottieri or military adventurers in Italy, notice
of, 161, 182.
Conrad I., emperor of Germany, 227.
Conrad II., surnamed the Salic, elected emperor,
128, 228 ; edict of, 74.
Conrad III. elected emperor, 230.
Conrad IV., accession of, to the imperial throne,
143; his death, ib.
Conradin (son of Conrad IV., kingof Naples), cru-
elly put to death by Charles, count of Anjoii, 149.
Conscription (military), oppressive under Charle-
magne 24.
Consolato del Mare, a code of maritime laws, ori-
JT" and date of, 481, 482, note
C jnstable of England, iurisdictior. of 225, 226
Constance (council at), proceedings o., 309— 31»
Constantinople, situation and state of, m the se\
enth century, 254 ; captured by the Latins, 256
recovered by the Greeks, 257 ; its danger froa
the Turks, 259 ; its fall, ib. ; alarm excited by i
in Europe, 259, 260.
Constitution of France, 97, 114; of Castile, 206
215; of Aragon, 218, 219; of Germany, 235, 236
240, 243 ; of Bohemia. 243 ; of Hungary, 245
of Switzerland, 247—249 ; of England, during th
Anglo Saxon government, 318— 332 ; Anglo-Nor
man constitution of England, 332—346; on th<
present constitution of England, 354 — 450.
Continental wars of English sovereigns, effect? of
on the English constitution, 429, 430.
Copyholders, origin of, 437.
Corruption of morals in the clergy in the tenth cet-
tury, 277.
Corruption of the Latin language, observations on,
454, 455.
Cortes of Aragon powers of, 224.
Cortes of Castile, constitution of, 206 ; deputies
when admitted from towns, ib. ; spiritual and
temporal nobility in cortes, 207; their control
over e.'ipenditure, 210; forms of the Castilian
cortes, 211 ; their rights in legislation, ib. ; other
rights of the cortes, 212.
Corvinus. See Mathias Corvinus.
Councils (ecclesiastical), of Lyons, 142, 231 ; of
Frankfort, 272 ; of Pisa, 309 ; of Constance, 309
—311 ; of Basle, 311, 312; considerations or the
probable effects of holdii-g periodical ecclesiasti
cal councils, 312.
Councils (national and political):— powers of the
royal council of the third race of French kings,
98,112; of Castile,207— 213 ; jurisdiction of the
ordinary council of the kings of England, 419 —
422.
Con nsellors of parliament, how appointed in F ranee.
114.
Counts Palatine, jurisdiction of, 108 ; their juris
diction in England, 352. 353, notr
Counts of Paris, power of 24 ; rank and power of
the provincial counts, 67 ; this office originally
temporary, ib., 7iote ; their usurpations, 72.
Counties, division of (in England), its antiquity,
323; jurisdiction of county courts, 324 ; process
of a suit in a county court, ib. ; importance of
these courts, 325 ; representatives of counties, by
whom chosen, 406; county elections badly at-
tended, 410; the influence of the crown upon
them, 410, 411.
Cours pleniferes, or parliaments, when held in
France, 99 ; business transacted in them, ib.
Court-baron, jurisdiction of, 352, 7iote.
Court of peers, when established in France, 112.
Courts of justice in England, under the Norman
kings :— the king's court, 345; the exchequer,
346 ; of justices of assize, ib. ; the court of com-
mon pleas, 347.
Cross-bow, when introduced, 183.
Crown, succession to, in Castile, 206; of Aragon,
218; among the Anglo-Saxons, 320 ; hereditary
right to, when established in England, 349 ; cases
of dispensing power, claimed and executed by
the English kings, 395 ; influence of, on county
elections, 410, 411.
Crusade against the Albigeois, 29 ; the first crusade
against the Saracens, or Turks, 31, 255; means
resorted to to promote it, 32 ; its result, 33 ; the
second crusade, 34 ; the third crusade, 35 ; the
two crusades of St. Louis, ib. ; another attempJ
ed by Pope Pius, 260 ; crusade of children io
1211, 463, note ; immorality of the crusaders, 469;
their effects on chivalry, 511.
Curia Regis and Curia Parium, not different fro«
the Concilium Regium, 98 nott
INDEX
55i
D.
Damascus, acfOcnt of tlie khalifs of, 252
Dante, sketch of the life of, 535 ; review of his po-
etical character, 535, 536 ; popularity of his Di-
vine Comedy, 537 ; its probable source, ib., note.
Dauphine (province of), historical notice of, 63, note.
Decanus, functions of, 107.
Decretals forged in the name of Isidore, 273, 274,
and note.
Decretum of Gratian, notice of, 290.
Degeneracy of the popes in the ninth century, 277.
Degradation of morals in the dark ages, 502, 503.
Deiiina's Rivoluzioni d'ltalia, observations on, 125,
note.
Depopulation of England by William the Con-
queror, 354.
Diet of Roncagiia, 133 ; proceedings of the diet of
Worms, 240, 241 ; remarks thereon, 283 ; diet of
Frankfort, established the independence of the
German empire, 305.
Dispensations of marriage, a source of papal power,
292, 293 ; dispensations granted by the popes from
the observance of promissory oaths, 293, 294.
Dispensing power of the crown, instances of, 395.
Disseisin, forcible remedy for, 432, note.
Dissensions, sanguinary, in the cities of Lombardy,
146, 147.
Divorce practised in France at pleasure, 292.
Domain, the term explamed, 115, note.
Dominican order, origin and progress of, 291, 292.
Duelling, origin of, 402, 463, note.
Dukes of provinces in France, their rank and power,
67; their office originally temporary, ib., note;
their usurpations, 72; their progress slower in
Germany than in France 228 ; partitioned their
dutchies in Germany, ib.
E.
EaiV. original meaning of, 321. note.
Earl marshal of F.ngland, jurisdiction of, 425.
Eccelin da Romano, tyranny and cruelty of, 141,
note.
Ecclesiastical power, history of, during the middle
ages. See Clergy, Popes.
Edessa, principality of, its extent, 33, note.
Edicts (royal), when registered in the parliament
of Paris, 113.
Edward the Confessor, laws of, 340.
Edward I. (king of England), accession of, 353 ;
disputes of, with Pope Boniface Vlll., 301 ; con-
firms the charters, 354.
Edward III. (king of England), unjust claim of, to
the crown of France, 39 ; prosecutes his claim
by arms, 40 ; causes of his success, ib. ; charac-
ter of him, and of his son, ib. ; his resources, 41 ;
and victories, 41, 42; concludes the peace of
Bretigni, 43 ; and the treaty of Calais, 44 ; re-
marks on his conduct, 44, 45 ; renews the wars
with France, 46 ; his death, ib. ; dissuaded by
Pope Benedict XII. from taking the title and
arms of France, 40, note ; memorable proceedings
of parliament in the 50th year of his reign, 379,
380; by his wise measures promoted the com-
merce and manufactures of England, 476, 477.
Edward IV. invades France, 58 ; but is persuaded
to return, ib. ; character of his reign, 448, 449 ;
the first monarch who levied benevolences, 449.
Elections (episcopal), freedom of, papal encroach-
•nents on, 294.
' Kctions of members of parliament, contested,
bow determined, 405 ; right of electing knights,
til whom vesta !, 406 ; elections of burgesses,
^ow anciently conducted, ib. ; irregularity of
county elections, 410; influence of the crown
aponthem, 410 411.
Electors (seven) of the Geiman empire, their priv
ileges, 232, 233; their privileges augmented h\
the Golden Bull, 236
Elgiva, queen or mistress of King Edwy, case oi,
considered, 269, note.
Emanation, system of, 528, note.
Finperors of Germany. See Germany.
Enfranchisement. See Manumission.
England, effects of the feudal system in, 123 , ir o
gant tyranny of the hierarchy there, in the ninth
century, 269 ; attempts made to depress it, 209,
300.
constitution of, during the Ango-Saxon
government, 318; sketch of the Anglo Saxon
history of England, 318—320; influence of pro-
vincial governors, 321 ; distribution into thanee
and ceorls, 321,322; British natives, 322; slaves,
ib. ; the wittenagemot, 322, 323 ; judicial power,
323; division into counties, hundreds, and tith
ings, ib. ; county court, and suits therein, 324
trial by jury, 325 ; law of frankpledge, 327 ; feu
dal tenures, whether known in England before
the conquest, 329—332.
constitution of, during the Anglo-Norman
government, 332 ; conquest of England by Will-
iam, duke of Normandy, ib. ; his conduct at firsi
moderate, 333 ; afterward more tyrannical, ib.
degraded condition of the English, ib. ; confisca
tion of their property, 334; devastation and de
population of their country, 334, 335 ; riches of
the conqueror, 335 ; his mercenary troops, ib. •
feudal system established in England, ib. ; differ
ence between it and the feudal policy in France,
336 ; hatred of the Normans by the English, 337 .
tyranny of the Norman govirr.ment, ih. ; exac-
tions, 338 ; general taxes, ib. ; right of Jegislation,
339 ; laws and charters of Norman Kings, 340 ;
Magna Charta, 341 ; state of the coi.stitution un-
der Kenry III., 342 ; the king's ccjrt, 345 ; the
court of exchequer, 346; institution of iusticet
of assize, ib. ; the court of common pleas, 347,
origin of the common law, ib.; cnaracter and
defects of the English law, 348 ; hereditary right
of the crown established, 349 ; English gentry
destitute of exclusive privileges, 350 ; causes of
the equality among freemen in England, '351.
on the present constitution of England
353; accesision of Edward I., ib. ; confinnatioc
of the charters, 354; the constitution of parlia
ment, 355 ; the spiritual peers, ib. ; the lay peers
earls, and barons, 356 ; whether tenants in chief
attended parliament under Henry III., 35b; ori
gin and progress of parliamentary representation
359; whether the knights were elected by free
holders in general, 360 ; progress of towns, 362
towns let in fee-farm, 363 ; charters of incorpo
ration, 364 ; prosperity of English towns, partic-
ularly London, 365 ; towns, when first summon
ed to parliament, 306; cause of summoning dep-
uties from boroughs, 370; parliament, when cii
vided into two houses, 371 ; petitions of parlia
ment during the reign of Edward 11 , 372; sev
eral rights established by the commons in the
reign of Edward III., 373 ; remonstrances against
levying money without consent, 373, 374 ; the
concurrence of both houses in legislation neces
gary, 376 ; statutes distinguished from ordinances,
ib. ; advice of parliament required on matters of
war and peace, 378; right of the commons to
inquire into public abuses, 379; proceedings of
the parliament in the 50th year of Eilward III.
379, 380 ; great increase of tne power of the
commons in the reign of Richard II., 381 ; his
character, 384 ; proceedings of parliament in the
10th year of Richard 11., 385 ; commission of re
form, 385, 386 ; answers of the judges to Rid,
ard's Questions, 38~; suusequent revoljtion, ib ,
i56
INDEX
greater harmony between the king and parlia-
ment, 388 ; disunion among some leading peer,?,
ib. ; arbitrary measures of the king, 389, 390 ;
tjranny of Richard, 391 ; he is deposed and suc-
ceeded by Henry IV., ib. ; retrospect of the pro-
gress of the constitution under Richard II., 393 ;
:ts advances under the house of Lancaster, ib. ;
uppropriation of supplies, 394 ; attempt to make
supply depend on redress of grievances, ib. ; le-
gislative rights of the commons established, 395 ;
dispensing power of the crown, ib. ; interference
of parliament with the royal expenditure, 397 ;
parliament consulted on all public affairs by the
kings of England, 399; impeachment of minis-
ters, 400 ; privilege of parliament, 400, 401 ; con-
tested elections how determined, 405 ; in whom
the right of voting for knights vested, 406 ; elec-
tion of burgesses, ib. ; power of the sheriff to
omit boroughs, 407; reluctance of boroughs to
8end members, 408 ; who the electors in bor-
oughs were, 409 ; number of members fluctua-
ting, ib.; irregularity of elections, 410 ; influence
of the crown upon them, 410, 411 ; constitution
of the house of lords, 411 ; baronial tenure fe-
quired for lords spiritual, 411,412 ; barons called
by writ, 412 ; bannerets summoned to the house
of lords, 413 ; creation of peers by statute, 415 ;
and by patent, ib. ; clergy summoned to parlia-
ment, 416 ; jurisdiction of the king's ordinary
council, 419 ; character of the Plantagenet gov-
ernment, 423 ; prerogative, 423, 424 : its excesses,
424, 425 ; Sir John Fortescue's doctrine as to the
English constitution, 426, 427 ; erroneous views
of Hume respecting the English constitution,
427 ; instances of illegal condemnation rare, 428 ;
lauses tending to form the constitution, 429 ; its
^aie about the time of Henry VI. 's reign, 441 ;
iistorical instances of regencies, 441 — 444 ; men-
al derangement of Henry IF., 444; Duke of York
nade protector, ib. ; his claim to the crown, 446;
*ar of the Lancastrians and Yorkists, 447 ; reign
if Edward IV., 448 ; general review of the Eng-
lish constitution, 450.
<'.ngland. — State of the commerce and manufac-
tures of Eiit.'nnd, 475, 476 ; singularly flourishing
state of its -oi, merce in the reigns of Edward II.,
Richard II., l.'t, ry IV. and VI., and Edward IV.,
478.
'- , increase of t-'^mestic expenditure in, du-
ring the fourteenth ct.itury, 486 ; inefficacy of
sumptuary laws, 486, ^8■^ .- state of civil architec-
ture from the time of the S&xons, 488, 491, 492 ;
furniture of houses, 491, 4^ ; :'tate of ecclesias-
tical architecture, 492 — 494 ; -Vk Hched state of
agriculture, 495 — 497; civil law. >\Sen introdu-
ced into England, 522 ; state of Ltt^»ture, 540,
541.
English language, slow progress of, accounvoii for,
540.
Enthusiasts, risings of, in various parts of Emopo
during the dark ages, 463, 464.
Equality of civil rights in England, causes of, 3iJl,
352.
Erigena, a celebrated schoolman, no pantheist, 528,
note.
Escheats, nature of, in the feudal system, 80.
Escuage, nature of, and when introduced, 120 ; not
to be levied without the consent of parliament,
342 ; when it became a parliamentary assessment
in England, 338, 339.
Esquires, education of, 516.
Establishments of St. Louis, account of, 110, HI.
Estates of the realm, number of, determined, 403,
404, note.
Gthelwolf established payment of tithes in Eng-
land, 264, note.
Europe, state cf society in, during the middle ages,
450 et sea.
Exactions of the Norman kings ■>! England Xtt
339.
Exchequer, court of, when instituted, 346 : "te pow
ers and jurisdiction, ib.
Excommunication, original nature of, 275 ; punieh
ments and disabilities of excommunicated per
sons, ib., and note, 276, note ; greater and lessei
excommunications, 276 ; burial denied to the ex
communicated, ib.
Expenditure (royal) controlled by the English par-
liament, 397.
Expenditure (domestic'), increase of, in Italy, du
ring the fourteenth century, 485, 486; and IE
England, 486.
Falconry, prevalence of, 470.
False decretals of Isidore, 273, 274.
Fealty, nature of, in conferring fiefs, 76.
Ferdinand (king of Naples), turbulent reign of, 191.
Ferdinand (king of Aragon) marries Isabella ot
Castile, and unites the two kingdoms, 225 ; con-
quers Granada, 225, 226 ; subsequent events of
his reign, 226.
Feuds, divided into proper and improper, 81, 82
Feudal system, history of, especially in France, 64 ,
gradual establishment of feudal tenures, 70 — 72 ;
change of allodial into feudal tenures, 73 ; cus-
tom of personal commendation, 73, 74 ; the prin-
ciples of a feudal relation investigated, 75 ; cere-
monies of homage, fealty, and investiture, 76 ;
account of feudal incidents, viz. : — reliefs, 77 ;
fines on the alienation of lands, 78; escheats and
forfeiture, 80 ; aids, ib. ; wardship, ib. ; marriage,
81 ; analogies to the feudal system, 83, 84 ; it*
local extent, 84 ; view of the different ordeis of
society during the feudal ages, 85 — 92 ; privileges
of the French vassals, 93; suspension of legis-
lative authority during the prevalence of the feu
dal system, 96; feudal courts of justice, 109
trial by combat, ib. ; causes of the decline of tk€
feudal system, 113; especially in France, 115
the acquisition of power by the crown, ib. , aug
mentation of the royal domain, ib. ; the institu
tion of free and chartered towns, 116; the con
nexion of free towns with the king, 118 ; the in
dependence of maritime towns, ib. ; the commu
tation of military feudal service for money, 120 ;
the employment of mercenary troops, 121; and
the establishment of a regular standing army
122 ; general view of the advantages and disad
vantages of the feudal system, 123, 124 ; inquiry
whether feudal tenures were known in Englanc
before the conquest, 329 — 332 ; this system e»-
tablished in England by the Anglo-Norman kings,
335; difference between the feudal policy in Eng
land and in France, 336, 337 ; influence of the
manner in which feudal principles of insubordi
nation and resistance were modified by the pre-
rogatives of the early Norman kings on the Eng-
.''sh constitution, 430 — 432 ; instances of the abu-
'M of feudal rights in England, 424, 425; con
nexion of the feudal services with chivalry, 511
iiiat connexion broken, ib.
Fi«f, essential principles of, 75; ceremonies used
in conferring a fief, 76 ; nature of fiefs of office, 82.
Field-sports, passion for, in the dark ages, 470, 471.
Fines payable on the alienation of lands under the
feudal system.. 78, ''^.
Firearms, when inveu.sd, 184; improvements in
185.
Firma del derecho, nature of the process of, in the
law of Aragon, 221, and note.
Fiscal lands, nature of, 70.
Flagellants, superstitious practices of, 464.
Flemings, rebellion of, against their sovereign, 47
ita ranse.s. ib.. nntf • t.hnir iasohordinxtion to th»
INDEX.
bb:
house of Burgundy, 59 ; paid no taxes without
the consent of the three estates, ib. ; their inde-
pendent spirit, ib., nnte ; flourishing state of their
commerce and manufactures, 474; especially at
Bruges and Ghent, 475; inducements held out
to them to settle in England. 476, note.
Florence (republic of), reluctantly acknowledges
the sovereignty of the emperors of Germany, 153,
note; revolution there in the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries, 156; its government, ib. ; the
commercial citizens divided into companies, or
arts, ib. ; civil and criminal justice, how admin-
istered in the thirteenth century, ib. ; change in
Its constitution in the fourteenth century, 157,
the gonfaloniers of justice when introduced, 158 ;
rise of the plebeian nobles, 159 ; Walter de Bri-
enne, duke of Athens, appointed signior of Flor-
ence, ib.; his tyranny, 160; he abdicates his
signiory, ib. ; subsequent revolution in that city,
160, I'il ; feuds of the Guelfsand Ghibelins. 161,
162; the tyranny of the Guelfs subverted by a
sedition of the ciompi or populace, 162, 163; Mi-
chel de Lando elected signior, 163 ; his wise
government, ib. ; revolution affected by Albert!
Strozzi and Scala, 164; acquisitions of territory
by Florence, 165 ; revenues of the republic, ib. ;
population, 166, note; conquers Pisa, ib. ; state
of Florence in the fifteenth century, 192, 193 ;
rise of the family of Medici, 193.
Folkland, nature of, 329.
Forest laws, sanguinary, of William the Conqueror,
_ 334, 335 ; jurisdiction of, 425.
Kortescue (Sir John), doctrine of, concerning the
constitution of England, 426, 427.
France, invaded by Clovis, 17 ; his victories, 18 ;
partitions his dominions, ib. ; sketch of the reigns
of hisdescendau's, 18, 19; their degeneracy, 19 ;
are held in suhjectior. by the mayors of the pal-
ace, 19, 69; change in the Merovingian dynasty,
20; accession of Pepin, ib. ; his victories, ib. ;
reign and exploits of Charlemagne, 20, 21 ; ex-
tent of his dominions, 21 ; his coronation as em-
peror, ib. ; his character, 22 ; reign and misfor-
tunes of Louis the Debonair, 23, 24; decline of
the Carlovingian family, 24 ; dismemberment of
the empire, and accession of Hugh Capet, ib. ;
state of the people at that time, 24, 25 ; his im-
mediate successors, 27 ; reigns of Louis VI., ib. ;
of Louis VIF., 28; of Philip Augustus, 28,29;
of Louis VIII., 29, 30; of Louis IX., 30, 31, 35,
36; of Philip the Bold, 36; of Philip the Fair,
ib. ; aggrandizement of the French monarchy
under his reign, 36, 37; of Louis X., 37; and
Philip v., ib. ; of Charles IV. and Philip of Va-
lois, 39; -unjust pretensions of Edward III. to
the throne of France, ib. ; causes of his success
in war against France, 40; characters of the
kings Philip VI. and John, 40, 41 ; wretched
condition of France after the battle of Poitiers,
42, 43 ; the English lose all their conquests, 46;
state of France during the minority of Charles
VI., 47 , his assumption of full regal power, 48 ;
factions and civil wars, 48—50; calamitous state
of France during the remainder of his reign, 50,
51 ; invaded by Henry V., 51 ; reign of Charles
VII., 52—54; the English lose all their conque.sts,
55; state of France during the second English
wars, 55, 56; reign of Louis XI., 56—62; of
Charles VIII., 62—64.
— , constitution of the ancient Frank mon-
archy, 67; limited power of the king, 68 ; grad-
ual increase of the regal power, ib. ; different
classes of subjects, ib. ; degeneracy of the royal
family, 69 ; power of the mayors of the paSce,
19, 69; origin of nobility in France, 69; and of
8ub-infeudation, 72; usurpation of the provincial
Kovernors, ib. ; comparative state if France and
Germany at the division of Charlemagne's enri-
pire, 92 ; privileges of the French vassals, 93, et
seq. ; legislative assemblies, 96 ; privileges of the
subjects, 98 : royal council of the third race, ib. •
occasional assemblies of barons, 99; cours pleni
eres, ib. ; limitations of the royal power in legis
lation, ib. ; first measures of general legislation
100; legislative power of the crown increases,
ib. ; convocation of the states-general by Philip
the Fair, 101 ; their rights, 102 ; states-general
of 1355 and 1356, 103; states-general unde)
Charles VII., 105; provincial states, 106, 107-
successive changes in the judicial polity of
France, 107 — 114; papal authority restrained in
that country, 314, 315 ; liberties of the French
church, 315.
France, state of civil architecture there during the
middle ages, 490; account of the literature of
France, 531 — 534 ; French language why prefer-
red by the early Italian historians, 535, mte.
Franciscan order, origin and progress of, 291 ;
schism in, 30C, and yioie.
Franconia, emperors of the house of, viz., Conrad
II., 127, 228; Henry III., 228; Henry IV., ib. ;
Henry V., 229 ; extinction of the house of Fran
conia, ib.
Frankleyn, condition of, in England, 429, and note.
Frankfort, council of, 272 ; remarks on its proceed
ings, 273.
Franks invade Gaul, 17; effects of this invasion,
65 ; succession of the Frank monarchy, 67.
Frank-pledge (law of) not invented by Alfred the
Great, 327; origin and progress of, 328, 329.
Frederick Barbarossa ascends the throne of Get
many, 132, 230 ; ruins Henry the Lion, duke o'
Saxony, 230; invades Lombardy, 132, 133; coq
quers Milan, 133; violates the capitulation h«
had granted the Milanese, ib. ; defeats them again
and destroys their city, 134 ; the league of Lom
bardy formed against him, ib. ; is himself defeat
ed at the battle of Legnano, 135 ; and compelleii
to acknowledge the independence of the Lom
bard republics, ib.
Frederick II. (emperor), turbulent reign of, 139—
142; he is formally deposed at the council of
Lyons, 143, 231; consequences of that council
231.
Frederick III. (emperor), reign of, 237 ; his singula!
device, ib., note.
Free cities of Germany, origin and progress of, 238 ,
their leagues, 239.
Freeholders, different classes of, among the Anglo
Saxons, 321,322; whether the English freehold
ers in general elected knights to serve in parlia
ment, 360 — 362 ; the elective franchise when re
stricted to freeholders of forty shillings per an
i;"jm, 406; freeholders in soccage, whether liabJ*
to contribute towards the wages of knights ol
counties, 408, 7iote.
Freemen, rank and privileges of, in the feudal sys-
tem, 88; more numerous in Provence than ii.
any other part of France, 110, note ; their privi
leges in England under Magna Cliirta, 342.
causes of the equality among freemen in Eng
land, 351.
Free towns, institution of, in France, 116; origir
ofthern, 117; circumstances alteiuling the char
ter of Laon, ib. ; extent of their privileges, 118;
their connexion with the king, ib. ; the maritime
towns particularly independent, 119 ; could con
fer freedom on runaway serfs, ib., iwte.
French language, long fjrevalence of, in England,
540, 541 ; why preferred by the eariy Italian hi»-
torians, 535, note.
Frerage, nature ( f, 79. 80.
Friendly societv account \ one ai htrKcT, 3§4
note
558
INDEX.
Fulk, caunt of Anjou, saucy reproof cf his sover-
eign by, 459, note.
Furnituie of houses in the fifteenth century, curi-
ous inventories of 491, 492, and twUs.
Galilean church, liberties of, 315.
Gardening, state of, in the fourteenth century, 497
Gamier (the historian of France), character of, 63,
64, note.
Gaul invaded by Clovis, 17; effects of its conquest
by the Franks, 65; condition of the Roman na-
tives of Gaul, 65, 66.
Genoa (republic), commercial prosperity of, 167,
479; war with Venice, 167. 16S ; decline of her
power, 169 ; government of Genoa, 170 ; election
of the first doge, ib. ; subsequent revolutions,
171; state of, in the fifteenth century, 192; ac-
count of the bank of St. George there, 485.
Gentlemen, rank of, in the feudal system, 85 ; gen-
tility of blood, how ascertained, ib. ; character
of, succeeded that of knights, 519, 520.
Gentry (English) destitute of exclusive privileges
under the Anglo-Norman kings, 350, 351.
Germany (ancient), political state of, 64; lands
how partitioned by the Germans in conquered
provinces, ib. ; fiefs not inheritable by women,
82, note ; comparative state of France and Ger-
many at the division of Charlemagne's empire, 92.
Germany, when separated from France, 227 ; the
sovereignty of its emperors recognised by the
cities of Lombardy, 132; election of Conrad I.,
227 ; election of the house of Saxonv, ib. ; of
Otho I., or the Great, 126, 227; of Henry II.,
127, 228 ; the house of Franconia : — election of
Conrad II., 128, 228; power of Henry III., 228 ;
unfortunate reign of Henry IV., 228, 229; he is
excommunicated by Pope Gregory VII., 229 ; and
deposed, ib. ; reign of Henry VI., 231 ; extinction
of the house of Franconia, and election of Lo-
thaire, 229 ; house of Swabia :— election of Con-
rad III., 230 ; and of Frederick Barbarossa, ib. ;
he ruins Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, ib. ;
defeats the Milanese, 132, 133 ; violates the ca-
pitulation, 133 ; is defeated by the confederated
cities of Lombardy, 135; reign of Philip, 231,
and of Otho IV., 139, 231 ; turbulent reign of
Frederick II., 139—142; he is formally deposed
at the council of Lyons, 142,231 ; consequences
of that council, 231 ; accession and death of
Conrad IV., 143; relation of the emperors with
Italy, 172, 173; grand interregnum, 232 ; Rich-
ard, earl of Cornwall, chosen emperor, ib. ; his
character, ib. ; state of the Germanic constitution
at this time, 232—234 ; election of Rodolph,
count of Hapsburg, 234 ; his character, ib. ; he
invests his son Albert with the dutchy of Austria,
ib. ; state of the empire after the death of Ru-
dolph, 235 ; reigns of the emperors of the house
of Lu.xembourg, Henry VII. and Charles IV.,
236; golden bull of Charles IV.. ib. ; deposition
of Wenceslaus, 236, 237 ; accession of the house
of Austria, 237 ; reign of Albert II., ib. ; of Fred-
erick HI., ib. ; progress of free imperial cities,
238; their leagues, 239 ; provincial states of the
empire, ib ; alienation of the imperial domain,
239, 240 ; accession of Maximilian, and the diet
of Worms, 240 ; establishment of public peace,
ib. ; institution and functions of the imperial
chamber, 241,242; establishment of circles, 242 ;
of the aulic council, ib. ; limits of the empire,
243; account of the constitution of Bohemia,
ib. ; of the kingdom of Hungary, 244, 245 ; of
Swisserland and its confederacy, 246—249 ; em-
perors of Germany anciently confirmed the elec-
tion of popes, 280; their election afterward claim-
ed to be confirmed by the popes, 296, 289 ; mdo
pendence of the empire established at the diet <u
Frankfort, 305.
Ghent, state of, in the fourteenth century, 475 ; iu
population, ib., note.
Ghibelins (faction of), origin of, 230 ; formed tc
support the imperial claims against the popes,
138, 139 ; duration of this faction, 139, note ; theii
decline, 149, 150; and temporary revival 151.
Giano della Bella, change effected by, in the giv-
ernment of Florence, 158.
Giovanni di Vicenza, character and fate of, 148.
Glass windows, when first used, 491.
Godfrey of Boulogne, king of Jerusalem, notice of,
33, 34, and note.
Gold passed chiefly by weight in the first ages ol
the French monarchy, 93.
Golden Bull, account of the enactments of, 236.
Gothic architecture, origin of, 493, 494, and notes.
Grand sergeantry, tenure by, explained, 82, note.
Gratian's Decretum, account of, 290.
Greece, state of literature in, during the fifteenth
century, 546, 547.
Greek language unknown in the west of Europe
during the dark ages, with a few exceptions, 545 ;
its study revived in the fourteenth century, 545,
546.
Greek provinces of southern Italy, state of, in the
ninth and tenth centuries, 128.
Greek empire, state of, at the rise of Mahometan-
ism, 251, 252 ; its revival in the seventh century,
254 ; crusades in its behalf against the Turks.
255 ; progress of the Greeks, 250 ; conquest of
ConstaJitinople by the Latins, ib. ; partition of
the Greek empire, 257 ; the Greeks recover Con-
stantinople, ib. ; declining state of the Greek
empire, 257, 258 ; danger of Cons-ar.tijiople from
the Turks, 259 ; its fall, ib. ; alaiin excited by U
in Europe, 259, 260.
Gregory of Tours (St.), pious falsehoods cf, 46??,
and note.
Gregory I. (pope), manoeuvres of, to gain powei,
271 ; established the appellant jurisdiction ol the
see of Rome, ib., and note.
Gregory VII. (Hildebrand), pope, differences of,
with the emperor, Henry IV., 281 ; e.xcommuni
' cates and deposes him, 229, 282 ; his humiliating
treatment of the emperor, 2S2 ; driven from Rome
by Henry IV., 283 ; and dies in exile, ib. ; his
general conduct considered, 2S5, 286.
Gregory XII. (pope), contested election of, 308,
309 ; deposed at the council of Pisa, 309.
Guardianship in chivalry, nature of, 80.
Guelfs, faction of, origin of the name, 230 ; support
of the claims of the papal see, 138, 139 See
Ghibelins.
Guesclin (Bernard du), character of, 46.
Guiennc, insurrection in, 56; its cause, ib., note.
Guilds or fraternities, under the Anglo-Norman
government, account of, 364, and note.
Guiscard (Robert), conquests of, in Italy, 129.
Guiscard (Roger) conquers Sicily, 129; is created
bv Pope Innocent II. king of Sicily, ib.
Gunpowder, when and by whom invented. 184 airii
note.
H.
Hanseatic union, origin of, 239, 477; its piogics*
478.
Hapsburg, emperors of the house of:— Rodolph
234 ; his successors, 235 ; Albert II., 237; Fred
erick III., ib.
Hastings (lord), a pensioner of France, 58.
Hawkwood (Sir John), an English military adven
tu:er, account of, 181 ; military tactics improved
by him, ib
IINDEX.
559
Haxey (Thomas), prosecuted by Richaid II. for
proposing an obnoxious bill in parliament, 389 ;
and condemned for high treason, ib. ; his life why
spared, ib., and note ; his judgment afterward re-
versed, ib., note.
Henry II. elected emperor of Germany, 127, 228.
Henry HI. (emperor of Germany), power of, 228.
Henry IV. (emperor of Germany), unfortunate reign
of, 228, 229; differences of, with Pope Gregory
VII., 281 ; he is excommunicated and deposed,
229, 282 ; his deep humiliation, 282 ; drives the
pope into exile, 283.
Henry V. (emperor of Germany), reign of, 229 ;
compromises the question of ecclesiastical inves-
titures with Calixtus, 283.
Henry VII. (emperor of Germany), reign of, 236.
Henry I. (king of England), laws of, not compiled
till the reign of Stephen, 348.
Henry III. (king of England), state of the constitu-
tion during his reign, 342—344 ; imprudently ac-
cepts the throne of Sicily for his son Edmund,
344 ; subsequent misery of his kingdom, ib. ; the
royal prerogative limited during his reign, 345 ;
the commons first summoned to parliament in his
reign, 366—369.
Henry (duke of Hereford), quarrel of, with the
Duke of Norfolk, 391 ; banished for ten years, ib. ;
deposes Richard II., ib. ; and ascends the throne
of England by the title of
Henry I V., 392 ; claims the throne by right of con-
quest, ib. ; reflections on his conduct, 392, 393 ;
memorable petition of the house of commons to
him, 396 ; his reply, ib. ; his expenditure con-
trolled by the house of commons, 397, 398.
Henry V., character of, at his accession to the Eng-
lish throne, 399 ; invades France, 51 ; gains the
battle of Azincourt, ib., and notes; his further
progress, ib. ; treaty of Troyes, ib.
henry VI., accession of, to the English throne, 52 ;
causes of the success of the English, ib. ; disas-
trous events of his reign, 441; his mental de-
rangement, 444 ; Duke of York made protector,
ib. ; deposed, 447.
Henry the Lion (duke of Saxony), fall of, 230.
Henry, count of Trastamare (king of Castile), reign
of, 204.
Henry IV. (king of Castile), reign of, 205.
Heptarchy (Saxon), notice of, 319.
Heraldic devices, origin of, 85, 86, and note.
Heresy, statute against, in the fifth of Richard II.,
not passed by the house of commons, 395.
Heriots of the Anglo-Saxons, equivalent with the
feudal reliefs, 331.
Hierarchy, papal encroachments on, 274.
Hilary (bishop of Aries) deposed by Pope Leo, 271,
note.
Hildebrand, archdeacon of Rome, character of, 281 ;
elected pope, ib. See Gregory VII.
Homage, ceremony of, 76 ; difference between
homage per peragium and liege homage, ib. note ;
and between liege homage and simple homage, ib.
Homme de pooste, synonymous to villein, 88, 89,
and note.
House of Commons, when constituted a separate
house, 371 ; knights of the shire, when first cho-
sen for, 358—360 ; and by whom, 360—362 ; bur-
gesses, when summoned, 366-369 ; how elect-
ed, 406 ; causes of their being summoned, 370,
371 ; proper business of the house, 371, 372 ; pe-
tition for redress of grievances in the reign of
Edward II., 372 ; their assent pretended to the
deposition of Edward II., 373; establish several
rights during the reign of Edward III., ib. ; re-
monstrate against levying money without con-
sent, 373, 376 ; their consent necessary in legis-
lation, 376; their advice required in matters of
var and peace, 378, 379 ; their right to inquire
into public aouses, 379 ; great increase of then
power during the minority of Richard 11., 38! :
account of their remonstrances, 381 — 383; ro
flections on their assumption of power during hia
reign, 384 ; request the king to appoint a com
mission of reform, 385, 386 , remarks on this pro
ceeding, 386, 387 ; claim the right of granting
and appropriating supplies, 394 ; attempt to make
supply depend on redress of grievances, it. ; le
gislative rights of this house established, 395 ■
resist infringements of that right, 395, 396 ; bo-
gan to concern themselves with petitions to the
lords or to the council in the reign of Henry V.,
397; interfere with the royal expenditure, ib. ,
consulted on all public affairs, 399 ; impeach the
king's ministers for malfeasance, 400 ; establish
the privilege of parliament, 400, 101 ; and the
right of determining contested elections, 405, 406 ;
fluctuations in the number of its members, 409.
House of Lords, constituent members of: — spirit
ual peers, 355 ; lay peers, earls, and barons, 356,
357; when formed into a separate house, .371:
their consent necessary in legislation, 375 ; theii
advice required in questions of war and peace,
378, 379 ; claimed a negative voice in questions
of peace, 379 ; declared ihat no money can be
levied without the consent of parliament, 393.
Houses (English) chiefly built with timber, 489:
when built with bricks, ib. ; meanness of the or-
dinary mansion-houses, 489, 490; how built in
France and Italy, 490.
Hume (Mr.), mistakes of, concerning the English
constitution, corrected, 427, 428, and note, 429.
Hundreds, division of, 323, 324 ; whether they com-
prised free families rather than free proprietors,
324.
Hungarians, ravages of, in France and Germai.y, 25
Hungary, sketch of the history of, 244, 245 ; reigna
of Sigismund and Uladislaus, 245 ; of Ladislaua
and the regency of Hunniades, ib. ; of Matthias
Corvinus, 246.
Hungerford (Sir Thomas), .speaker of the house of
commons. 381.
Hunniades (John), regent of Hungary, account of,
245, note ; and of his administration, ib. ; his
death, ib.
Huss (John), remarks on tne violation of his safe
conduct, 312, note.
Hussite war in Bohemia, account of, 244.
Hussites of Bohemia, tenets of, 5^8, 509.
I.
Ignorance prevalent in Europe in consequence oJ
the disuse of Latin, 439, 460.
Imilda de' Lambertazzi, melancholy fate of, 147.
Immunities claimed by the clergy, 298; attempt i
to repress them in England, 299, 300 ; less viy
orous in France, 300, 301.
Imperial chamber, oiigir,, powers, and jurisdictio*.
of, 241,242.
Impeachment (parliamentary), first instance of, it.
Lord Latimer, 385 ; of the Earl of Suffolk, ib.
of ministers, when fully established, 400.
Imperial cities of Germany, origin and progress ol
238, 239 ; account of the leagues formed by them
239.
Imperial domains, alienation of, 239, 240.
Incidents (feudal). See Aids, Escheats, Fin«»
Marriages, Reliefs, Wardships.
Innocent III. (pope), character of, 137; conquem
the ecclesiastical state, 138; the leagac of Tua
cany formed to support the claims of the see of
Rome, ib. ; success of, 287; his extraordinary
pretensions, ib. ; sometimes exerted his inlluencfl
beneflciallv, 288 instances of hir, tyrarjr.y, 288;
289.
GO
INDEX.
insurance (niarine\ «?^lV permitted, 485, note.
Interdicts (papsl), \)"!gin and effects of, 276.
Interesi. oi money, k.igti rates of, 483, 484.
'nvcstitures, different kinds of, 76 ; nature of eccle-
siastical investitures, 280 ; contests respecting
such investitures between the popes and empe-
rors of Germany, 281, 282; these disputes com-
f)romised by the concordat of Calixtus, 283 ; simi-
ar termination oi" these disputes in England, 284.
Isidore, false decretals of, 273, 274, and notes.
taly, northern part of, invaded by the Lombards,
20; history of Italy from the extmction of the
Carlovingian emperors to the mvasion of Naples
by Charles VIII., 125 ; state of that country after
the death of Charles the Fat. at the c ose of the
ninth century and the former part &.' the tenth,
125, 126; coronation of Otho the Great, 126; in-
ternal state of Rome, ib. ; Henry II. and Ardoin,
127; election of Conrad II., 128; Greek provin-
ces of Southern Italy, ib. ; settlement of the Nor-
mans at Aversa, ib. ; conquests of Robert Guis-
card, 129 ; papal investitures of Naples, ib. ; prog-
ress of the Lombard cities, ib. ; their acquisi-
tions of territory, 131 ; their mutual animosities,
132; sovereignty of the emperors, ib. ; Frederick
Barbarossa, ib. ; diet of Roncaglia, 133 ; capture
and destruction of Milan, 134 ; league of Lom-
barJy against Frederick, ib. ; battle of Legnano,
135; peace of Constance, ib. ; affairs of Sicily,
136 ; Innocent III., 137 ; bequest of the Countess
Matilda, ib. ; ecclesiastical state reduced by In-
nocent III., 137, 138 ; league of Tuscany, 138 ;
factions of the Guelfs and Ghibelins, ib. ; reign
of Otho IV., 139; of Frederick II., ib. ; his wrars
with the Lombards, 140, 141 ; arrangement of
the Lombard cities, 141 ; council of Lyons, 142 ;
accession of Conrad IV., 143; causes of the suc-
cess of the Lombard cities, ib. ; their internal
governments, 144; and dissensions, 146; notice
of Giovanni di Vicenza, 148 ; state of Italy after
the extinction of the house of Swabia, 149 ; con-
quest of Naples by Charles, count of Anjou, ib. ;
decline of the Ghibelin party, 149, 150 ; the Lom-
bard cities become severally subject to princes or
usurpers, 150, 151 : the kings of Naples aim at
the command of Italy, 151 ; relations of the em-
pire with Italy, 152; cession of Romagna to the
popes, 153; internal state of Rome, 153 — 155;
state of the cities of Tuscany, especially of Flor-
ence, 156—166; and of Pisa, 166; state of Ge-
noa, 167; and of Venice, 167 — 177; state of
Lombardy at the beginning of the fifteenth cen-
tury, 177, 178 ; wars of Milan and Venice, 178 ;
change in the military system of Italy, ib. ; mer-
cenary soldiers and military adventurers employ-
ed, 178—181; schoolof Italian generals, 181, 182;
defensive arms of the Italian armies in the fif-
teenth century, 182 — 184; change in the mili-
tary system of Europe by the invention of gun-
powder, 184; rivalry of Sforza and Braccio, 185,
186; affairs of Naples^ 186; rebellion of Sicily
against Charles of Anjou, ib. ; Robert, king of
Naples, 187 ; disputed succession to the throne,
and the civil wars in consequence, 187, 188 ; state
of Italy in the latter part of the fifteenth century,
192: rise of the family of Medici, 193; Lorenzo
de' Medici, 194 ; pretensions of France upon Na-
ples, 196 ; decline of the papal influence m Italy,
317,318; increase of domestic expendituie du-
ring the fourteenth century, 485,480; state of
domestic manners during the same period, 487 ;
itate of agriculture, 496, 497 ; and gardening,
197; state of Italij.a literature, 534—539.
J.
/n^querie (or peasantry), insurrection of, 43.
Janizaries, account of the institution of, 26(j.
Jerusalem, kingdom of, military force of, 34 .; sub
verted by Saladin, 34, 35 ; singular custom there
relative to the marriage of vassals, 81.
Jews, exactions from, by the kings of France, 95 •
their usury, ib. ; ordinance against them, 100
expelled from France, 95 ; persecutions of thein
in the dark ages, 468, 484 ; account of their money
dealings, 484, 485 ; causes of their decline, 484.
Joanna (queen of Naples) suspected of murdering
her husband Andrew, 187; her unhappy reign.
188 ; deposed and put to death, ib.
Joanna II. (queen of Naples), 189; adopts Alfonsc
of Aragon for her successor, ib. ; revokes the
adoption in favour of Louis of Anjou, 190 ; her
death, ib.
John (king of England) loses Normandy, 28, 29 ;
his exactions and tyranny, 341, and note; th?
great charter of liberties extorted from him, ib.
abstract of its provisions, 341, 342.
John (king of France), character of, 40, 41 ; con
eludes the treaty of Calais, 43, 44.
John II. (king of Ca&tile), reign of, 204.
John of Luxembourg, cruelty of, 55.
John of Procida successfully plots the rebellion of
Sicily from Charles of Anjou, 186.
John VIII. (pope), insolent conduct of, to Charles
the Fat, king of France, 277 ; pretends a right
of choosing the emperor, ib.
Jubilee, when first celebrated at Rome, 302 ; its
origin and nature, ib., note.
Judges, answers of, to certain questions proposed
by Richard II., 387; punished for the same by
parliament, ib. ; their answers pronounced to be
just and legal by a subsequent parliament, 390.
Judicial polity of France, successive changes of,
107 ; original scheme of jurisdiction in the time
of Charlemagne, ib. ; this supplanted by the feu
dal territorial jurisdiction, 108 ; its divisions and
administration, 109 ; trial by combat, ib. ; eslab
lishments of St. Louis, 110; royal tribunals, and
progress of their jurisdiction, 111 ; royal council
or court of peers, 112; parliament of Paris, 112-
114.
Jurisdiction (ecclesiastical), progress of, 265 ; arbi
trative, ib. ; coercive over the clergy in civil mat
ters, ib. ; and also in criminal suits, 266 ; its rapit
progress in the twelfth century, 297, 298 ; re
strained in the fourteenth century, 316 ; accoun'
of some particular territorial jurisdictions i-
England, 352, 353, note.
Jury, origin and progress of trial by, among the
Anglo-Saxons, 325—327.
Jurisfirma. See Firma de derecho.
Justice (administration of) in Castile, 213, 214 ; fre-
quently violated by some of the kings, 214.
(in England), venal, under the Norman
kings, 337—339 ; prohibited to be sold by Magna
Charta, 342.
Justices of assize, when instituted, 346 ; their func-
tions, ib.
Justiciary of Aragon, office of, when instituted,
220 ; his power, 220—223 ; duration of his office,
223 ; responsibility of this magistrate, ib.
Justinian's institutes and pandects universally stud
ied, 521 , 522.
K.
Karismians invade Asia, 257.
Khalifs of Damascus, account of, 252; of Bagdad
252, 253.
Kings of Aragon, power of, limited, 218, 219.
King's court in England, jurisdiction and powers
of, 345, 346 ; what offenc^es cognizable ;here, 352
353, note.
Kings of France, anciently e'ected, 97 ; Iheir reT#
i
JISPEX.
561
na >«, 94 — 96 ; their limited power, 68 ; especially
m legislation, 99 ; gradual increase of their pow-
er, 68 ; legislative assemblies held by them, 96 ;
royal council of the kings of the third race, 98 ;
cours pl6ni6res held by them. 99 ; subsequent in-
crease of the legislative powe;of the crown, 100;
states-general convoked by \arious kings, 101 —
107; royal tribunals established by them. 111 ;
progress of them, 1 12 ; augmentation of their do-
mains, 115.
Knighthood, privileges of, 517.
Snights banneret, and knights bachelors, 518, 519.
Knights, when summoned to parliament, 359, 360 ;
whether elected by freeholders in general 360,
361.
Knights of shires, by whom ctiosen for parliament,
406 : amount of their wages, and how paid, 407,
408.'
Knights' fees divisions of lands into, invented by
William the Conqueror,' 77, note ; their value, ib.
Knights-templars, institution of the order of, 35 ;
their pride and avarice, ib. ; the kingdom of Ara-
gon bequeathed to them, 201.
Labourers, nired, when first mentioned in the Eng-
lish statute-book, 438 ; their wages regulated,
ib. ; were sometimes impressed into the royal
service, 424 ; belter paid in England in the four-
teenth century than now, 500, 501.
Lancaster (house of), progress of the English con-
stitution under, 393—410.
Lancastrians, civil wars of, with the Yorkists, 447.
Lances, mode cf reckoning cavalry by, 179.
Lands, possession of, constituted nobility in the
empire of the Franks, 69, 70 ; inalienable under
the feudal system, without the lord's consent, 78 ;
partition of, in Gaul, &.c., 64 ; in Germany, 235;
descent of lands in England during the Anglo-
Saxon and Anglo-Norman kings, 347.
Lands. See Allodial, Salic, and Fiscal, Benefices,
Alienation.
Landwehr, or insurrectional militia, antiquity of,
'20. note.
Languedoc, affairs of, in the twelfth century, 29 ; de-
vastated by the crusade against the Albigeois, ib.
L.aon, circumstances attending the charter of, 117,
118.
Latimer (lord), the first person impeached by par-
liament, 385, 386.
Latin language, the parent of French, Spanish, and
Italian, 454 ; its extent, ib., note ; its ancient pro-
nunciation, 454, 455; corrupted by the populace,
455; and the provincials, ib. ; its pronunciation
no longer regulated by quantity, 457; change of
Latin into Romance, 458 ; its corruption in Italy,
459 ; ignorance consequent on its disuse, 459, 400.
Latins, conquests of, in Syria, 33 ; decline of the
Latin principalities in the east, 34.
Laura, the mistress of Petrarch, account of, 538,
539, and notes.
Law-books (feudal), account of, 82, 83.
Laws, distinctions of, in France and Italy, 66, 67 ;
of the Anglo-Norman kings, 340 ; character and
defects of the English laws, 348, 349. See Feu-
dal, Kipuarian, and Saliqiie Law.
League of the public weal formed in France, 57 ;
of Lombardy, 134; of Tuscany, 138; quadruple
league of 1455, 191 ; of the free imperial cities of
Germany, 239.
Ijearnmg. See Literature.
Legates (papal), authority of, 286 ; insolence of, ib.
Legislation (g( neial), lirst measures of. in France,
100.
Legislation, right of, in the Norman kings of Eng-
"and, 339.
N «
Legislative assemblies, original, in France, 96 .
held by Charlemagne, 97 ; mode of profeeding
at them, ib. ; royal council of the kmgs of ih*
third race, 98 ; occasional assemblies held by the
barons, 99; states-general convoked by Philip
the Fair, 101 ; states-genera! of 1355 and 1356,
103 ; states-general under Charles VII., 105 ; pro-
vincial states, 100; stales-general ol Tours, lOfi
107.
Legislative authority in France, substitutes for. 99
of the crown, increase of, 100.
Leon (kingdom of), when founded, 198; finally 'i";
ted with that of Castile, 201.
Liberi homines, whether different from thairii, 321
note.
Liberties of England purchased by money rathei
than with the biood of our forefathers, 430.
Liberty of speech claimed by the house of con;
mons, 402.
Libraries, account of the principal, in the four
teenlh and fifteenth centuries, 543, and 7iotes.
Linen paper, when and where invented, 542, 543
and note.
Literature, causes of the decline of, in the lattei
period of the Roman empire, 451 ; neglect ol
heathen literature by the Christian church, 453 .
the spread of superstition, ib. ; inroads of the bar-
barous nations, 453, 454 ; corruption of the Latir:
language, 454 ; ignorance consequent on thedis
use of Latin, 459 ; want of eminent literacy men,
461 ; literature preserved by religion, ib. ir.llu
ence of lileiature in the improvement of societj
considered, 520; civil law, ib. ; public fchoole
and universities, 523 ; scholastic philosophy, 526 ;
cultivation of the new languages, 529, 530; po-
etical character of the troubadours, 530 ; north-
ern French poetry and prose, 531 ; Norman ro-
mances and tales, 532 ; Spanish language nnd
literature, 534; Italian literature, ib. ; English
literature, 540; revival of ancient learning, 512;
state of learning in Greece, 546; literature not
much improved beyond Italy, 548 ; promoted by
the invention of printing, .548, 549.
Liveries anciently given to the retainers of noble
families, 432, 433, note.
Lollards, tenets and practices of, 508.
Lombards, invade Italy, 20 ; reduce the exarchate
of Ravenna, ib. ; are defeated by Pepin, king of
France, ib. ; their kingdom conquered by Charle-
magne, ib.
Lombard bankers, account of, 484, 485.
Lombard cities, progress of, towards republics, 12C
— 131 ; their acquisitions of territory, 131 ; their
mutual animosities, 132 ; recognised the nominal
sovereignty of the emperors of Germany, ib. ; the
league of Lombardy formed, 134; the confedera-
ted cities (ielcat the Emperor Frederick Barba-
rossa, 135; secure ineir liberties by the peace of
Constance, ib. ; arrangement of the Lombard
cities according to the factions they supported,
141, 142; causes of their success, 143; theii
population, ib. ; mode of warfare which then oo-
tained, 144; their internal government, 144 — 146,
and dissensions, 1 16 — 148 ; Lombard cities be-
come severally subject to princes or usurpers,
150 ; state of Lombardy in the middle (if the four-
teenth century, 151. 152; and at the beginning
of the fifteenth century, 177.
Longchamp (William), bishop of Ely, banished
from England by the barons, 34 L
London, state of, before the Norman conquest, J65 ■
power and opulence of its citizens sul)seqi.ient ti,
that event, 365, 306; conjectures respecting ilf
population in the fourteenth century, 366, note.
Lord and vassal, mutual duties of, 75 ; consent o,'
the lord necessary to enable a vassal to alienat
lanil-* •?«
5d3
INDEX
Lorils.- See Ilcuse of Lords.
liothaire, elected emperor of Geimany, 229, 230 ;
excommunicated by Pope Gregory iV., 275; ab-
solved by Adrian II., ib.
Louis of Bavaria (emperor of Germany), contests
of with the popes, 304, 305.
Louis the Debonair, ascends the throne of France,
23 ; his misfortunes and errors, 23, 24 ; partitions
the empire among his sons, 24.
liouis IV. (king of France) reproved for hia igno-
rance, 459, note.
Ljuis VL, reign of, 27.
Louis VII., reign of, 28.
I oui8 VIII., conquers Foitou, 29; takes the cross
against the Albigeois, ib. ; ordinance of, against
the Jews, 100.
Louis IX. (St.), reign of, 30 ; review of his charac-
ter—its excellences, ib. ; defects, 31 ; supersti-
tion and intolerance, ib. ; his crusades against the
Turks, 35 ; his death, ib. ; account of his estab-
lishments, 110, 111 ; provisions of his pragmatic
sa'!Ction, 295.
Louis X., short reign of, 37 ; stale of France at his
death, ib.
Louis XL, character of, 56, 57; crushes the less
powerful vassals, 57, 58 ; avoids a war with Eng-
land, 58 ; claims the succession of Burgundy, CO ;
(lis conduct on this occasion, 60, 61 ; sickness
and wretched death, 61 ; instances of his super-
stition. 61, note, and 62.
Louis il ike of Anjou) invades Naples, 188.
Lowei (lasses, improvements in the condition of,
502.
Lutembourg, emperors of the house of, Henry VII.,
236; Charles IV., ib.; Wenceslaus, 236, 237.
Lyons council of, depose the emperor Frederick II.,
1 12, J 43 • consequences of that council, 231, 232.
M.
Madox (Mr.), theory of, on the nature of baronies,
357 ; observations thereon, 357, 358.
Magna Charts, notice of the provisions of, 341, 342 ;
confirmed by various sovereigns, 343.
Mahomet II. captures Constantinople, 259.
Maintenance of suits, 432.
Mandats (papal), nature of, 294, 295.
Manerial jurisdiction, extent and powers of, 352,
353, note.
Manichees, tenets of, 503 ; their tenets held by the
Albigcnses, 504, 505, and notes.
Manifestation, nature of the process of, in the law
of Aragon, 221, 222, and notes.
Manners (domestic) of Italy in the fourteenth cen-
tury, 486, 487; France and Germany, 487; re-
semblance between chivalrous and oriental man-
ners, 515.
Manufactures, state of, in the middle ages, 472 ; of
Flanders, 474 ; of England, 476 ; of the northern
provinces of France, 477 ; of Germany, ib. ; of
Italy, 479, 480.
Manumission of serfs or slaves, progress of, 90, 91 ;
and of villeins in England, 440.
Manuscripts, transcription of, in the fifteenth cen-
tury promoted the revival of literature, 544 ; in-
dustry of Petrarch, Poggio, and others in finding
and copying them, ib.
Marc (St.), observations on the Italian history of,
125, note.
Margaret (queen of Henry VI.), violent conduct of,
446.
Mariner's compass, when and by whom invented,
481, and notes
Maritime laws during the middle ages, account of,
481—483.
Marriage, custom relative to, in the feudal system,
81 ; prohibited to the clergy, 278 ; but continued,
especially in England, in df fiance of the pap«
prohibitions, ib. ; account of the papal dispensa
tion of marriage, 292 ; within what degrees pro
hibited, ib.
Marshal. See Earl Marshal.
Martel (Charles), king of France, defeats the San
cens, 19.
Martin V. (pope) dissolves the council of Con
stance, 310.
Mary (the Virgin), superstitious devotion to, 465
466, and notes.
Mary of Burgundy, territories of, claimed by Louij
XL, 60; his conduct towards her, 60, 61 ; mar
ries Maximilian of Austria, 61.
Matthias Corvinus (kingof Hungary), reign of, 240
Matilda (countess), bequest of, to the see of Rome,
137.
Maximilian (emperor of Germany), reign of, 240 —
242.
Mayors of the palace of the French kings, their
power, 19, 69.
Medici family, rise of, 193 ; Cosmo de' Medici, the
first citizen of Florence, ib. ; his administration,
194; government of Lorenzo de' Medici, ib. ; his
character, 195; and government, 195, 196.
Mediterranean, origin of English trade with, 478,
and note; nature of the intercourse between the
Mediterranean traders and England, 479 ; ac-
count of the principal trading towns on the Med-
iterranean, ib.
Members of parliament, wages of, and how paid,
407, 408; numbers of, irregular, 409, 410. See
also Election, Privilege of Parliament.
Mendicant orders, origin and progress of, 291 ; a
chief support of the papal supremacy, 291, 292.
Jlercenary troops, when first fmployed, 121 ; em-
ployed both in the French and English armies,
122 ; their wages, ib., not' ; employea by tl-e Ve.
netians, 178; and other itates of Italy, 178, 170;
account of the "companies of adventure" formed
by them, 180; Italian mercenary troops formed
in the fourteenth century, 182; employed by tLe
republics of Florence and Venice, ib.
Merchants, encouragements given to, by Edward
HI., 476; instances of their opulence, 478.
Merovingian dynasty, successions of, 18 ; their de
generacy, 19; deposed by the mayors of the pal
ace, ib.
Middle ages, the term defined, 451.
Milan, civil feuds in, 151 ; finally subdued by the
Visconti, ib. ; erected into a dutchy, 152; wars
of the dukes of Milan with the republic of Ven-
ice, 178 ; is conquered by Francisco Sforza, 185.
Milanese, refused to acknowledge bishops whom
they disliked, 130, and note ; their city besieged
and captured by Frederick Barbarossa, 133 ; who
violates the capitulation he had given them, ib. ;
they renew the war, are defeated, and their city
destroyed, 133, 134.
Military orders, when instituted, 201 ; accfvri o'
those instituted in Spain, ib.
Military service, limitations of, under thfj feuoal
system, 77 ; who .were excused from it.ib ; rates
of pecuniary compensation established foi default
of attendance, ib. ; military service of feudal ten-
ants commuted for money, 120 ; connexion of
military services with knighthood, 518.
Ministers of the kings of England impeached bj
parliament, 400.
Miracles (pretended) of the church of Rome, 465;
mischiefs arising from, ib.
Missi regii, functions of, 108, and notf.
Mocenigo (doge of Venice), dying advice ot, to hit
countrymen, 177.
Moguls of Timur, incursion.s of, 258.
Mahomet, first appearance of, 249 • causes of hia
success, 249, 250 ; principles of the leiiijion taughl
»ND1lA.
56a
by him, 249—251 ; conauests of his followers,
251.
Monarchy (French), hov« far anciently elective,
9' 98.
Monasteries, mischiefs of, 466, 467; ignorance and
jollity their usual characteris'.ics, 543, noir^
Money, privilege of coining, enjoyed bv the French
vassals, 93 ; little money coined except for small
payments, ib., note ; regulations of various kings
concerning the exercise of this privilege, ib. ; the
right of debasing money claimed by Philip the
Fair, ib., and note ; debasing money a source of
the revenue of the kings of France, 95, 96.
Money, levying of, in England, prohibited without
the consent of parliament, 393, 394 ; changes in
the value of, 497—500.
Money-bills, power of originating, vested in the
house of commons, 402, 404.
Monks, not distinguished for their charity in the
dark ages, 466, note ; their vices, 467, 468 ; im-
morality of the monkish historians, 468, note.
Montfort (Simon de), character of, 29.
Moors of Spain, gradually lose their conquests in
that country, 198—201 ; their expulsion, why
long delayed, 202.
Morals, degraded state of, in the dark ages, 469,
470 ; improved state of the moral character of
Europe towards the close of that period, 501 ; the
morals of chivalry mt always the most pure, 513.
Mortmain, alienations of land in, restrained, 301.
Muratori, observations an the historical works of,
125, 126, notes.
Murder, commuted for pecuniary consideration in
the feudal system, 66; when made capital, ib.,
note; antiquity of compositions for murder, 94,
notr.
N.
>!apies, investiture of the kingdom of, conferred by
the popes, 129 ; conquered by Charles of Anjou,
149 ; disputed succession to the throne on the
death of Charles II., 187; murder of Andrew,
king of Naples, ib. ; reign of Joanna, 187, 188 ;
Naples invaded by Louis, duke of Anjou, 188 ;
reign of Ladislaus, 189 ; of Joanna II., ib. ; she
adopts Alfonso of Aragon for her heir, ib. ; re-
vokes the appointment, and adopts Louis of An-
jou, 190 ; Alfonso of Aragon, king of Naples, ib. ;
he is succeeded by his son Ferdinand, 191 ; pre-
tensions of Charles VIII. upon the kingdom of
Naples, 196, 197.
.Navarre (kingdom oO> when founded, 198.
New Forest, devastated by William the Conqueror,
334.
Nicolas II. (pope), decree of, respecting the elec-
tion of pontiffs, 281.
Nobility (Aragonese), privileges of, 218.
Nobility, origin of, m France, 69 ; was founded on
the possession of land or civil employment. 69,
70; different classes of, 85, 86 ; their privileges,
86, 93, et seq. ; how communicated, 85; letters
ef nobility when first granted, 87 ; different orders
of, lb.; pride and luxury of the French nobility,
43, note.
. ■ (Castilian), confederacies o'' tor obtaining
rodress of grievances, 215.
(English), influence of, from tne state of
manners, 432 ; patronised robbera, 433, 434.
_ (German), state of, in the thirteenth cen-
tury, 234.
Norfolk (Mowbray, duke of), quarrel of, with the
Duke of Hereford, 391 ; bani.shod for life, ib.
Vormans, ravages of, in England and France, 25,
26 . finally settled in the province of Normandy,
2f'; settlement of at Aversa, in Italy, 128; they
vjpq-ier Apulia and Sicily, 129; account of the
N n3
Norman romances and tales, 5.V2 ; effects of the
Norman conquest on the English language, 54(..
Normandy (dukes of), their pride and power, 28 .
this province conquered bv Phihp Augiislua
king of France, ib.
O.
Oleron, laws of, 482.
Ordeal, trial by, in use in the time of Henry I. k nj
of England, 347, and Tiote.
Ordinances, in what respects different from rlaV
utes, 376, 377.
Orleans, siege of, by the English, 53 ; raised bj
Joan of Arc, ib. ; her cruel death, ib.
, duke of, murdered by the Duke of Burgun-
dy, 49 ; civil wars between the two factions 41
50.
Olho the Great elected emperor, 126, 227
IV., reign of, 139,231.
Ottoman dynasty, account of, 258.
Oxford University, account of. 524.
Palestine, accounts of the crusades against, 31 — 3tv
Pandects, whether discovered at Amalfi, 520.
Papal power. See Popes.
Paper from linen, when and where invented, 542.
543, and note.
Paper credit, different species of, 484, note.
Papyrus, manuscripts written on, 460, 461 aiwl
note.
Parchment, scarcity of, 460, 461.
Pardons, anciently sold by the Englisn kings, 45 J,
434, and note.
Paris (counts of), their power, 24.
(city), seditions at, 47, 104; subdued by
Charles VI., 47.
(university of), account of, 523.
Parliaments, or general meetings of fnc aarons, ni
England and France, account of, 99
Parliament (English), constitution of, 355; spirit-
ual peers, ib. ; lay peers, 356 ; origin and prog-
ress of parliamentary representation, 359, 360:
parliament, when divided into two houses, 371 ;
petitionsof parliament in the reign of Edward II.,
372, 373 ; the concurrence of both houses of par
liament necessary in legislation, 376; proceed
ings of the Kngli.sh parliament in the tenth year
of Richard II., 385; interference of parliament
with the royal expenditure, 397; consulted by
the kings of England on all public affairs, 399 :
privilege of parliament, 400,401. .See How^ ol
Commons and House of Lords.
Parliament of Paris, when instituted, 112; prog
ress of its jurisdiction, 113; royal edicts when
enregistered in it, ib. ; counsellors of parliament,
how appointed, 114; notice of some provincia.
parliaments, 114, 115, note.
Parliament Rolls of Henry VII., inaccuracy of, con
sidered, 449, note.
Partition of lands in Gaul, &c., how mada 64, 65
effects of, in Germany, 235.
Pastoureaux (a sect of enthusiasts), msurrectio-^
of, 464.
Patriarchate of Rome, extent of, 270.
Patrician, rank and office of, in France, 67, note.
Patronage, encroachments of the popes on the rigiit
of, 294.
Paulicians, tenets and practices of, 503, M)4, and
notes.
Peace, conservators of, their ofTice, 434.
Peasantry (Aragonese), state of, 218.
Peasantry (English), nature of their villanage, atnl
its gradual abolition, 435—441.
Peers^of England (spiritual), right of. tc r sea.* it
664
INDEX
parliament cjiisidered, 355, 356, and notes ; nom-
inate a protector during tlie mental derangement
of Henry VI., 444, 445.
Peers (lay), how created, 415 ; their right to a seat
in parliament, 355 — 358.
Peers of France, the twelve, when established, 113.
Pembroke (William, earl oO, his reason for making
an inroad on the royal domains, 431.
Penances, commutations of, 468, 469.
Vepin, raised to the French throne, 20 ; conquers
the exarchate of Ravenna, which he bestows on
the pope, ib.
H.^^tilence, ravages of, in 1348, 42 ; its progress in
other countries, 42, 43, note.
'eter the Cruel, king of Castile, reign of, 203, 204.
Peter the Hermit, preaching of, 32.
Peter de la Mare, speaker of the house of commons,
381.
Petition, memorable, of the house of commons to
King Henry IV., 398.
Petrarch, mistake of, corrected, 155, note ; caressed
by the great, 537, 538 ; review of his moral char-
acter, 538 ; his passion for Laura considered,
538, 539, and note ; character of his poetry, 539.
Pfahlburger, or burgesses of the palisades, who
they were, 239.
Philip Augustus (king of France), character of, 28 ;
conquers Normandy, ib. ; royal courts of justice
first established by him. 111.
Philip III. (king of'France), reign of, 36 ; war of,
with the King of Aragon on the succession to Si-
cily, 187.
I'hilip the Fair, or IV. (king of France), 36 ; ag-
grandizement of the French monarchy during his
reign, 36, 37- i:- def.'ated by the Flemings at the
battle of Courtray, 37 ; regulations of, concern-
jig the coining of money by the vassals of France,
93, and note ; debased the coin of his realm, 95 ;
states-general convoked by him, 101 ; represen-
tations of the towns first introduced by him, 101,
102, and nolc ; his probable motives in taking this
step, 102; his disputes with Pope Boniface VIII.,
302, 303 ; causes him to be arrested, 304.
VI. (king of France), character of, 40, 41 ;
his title disallowed by Edward III., 41, and note.
Pickering (Sir James), speaker of the house of
commons, protest of, in the name of the house,
381.
Piers Plowman's vision, character of, 501.
Pilgrimages, mischiefs of, 469.
Piracy, frequency of, 482.
Pisa (republic), naval power of, 166 ; conquers Sar-
dinia, lb.; defeated by the Genoese, 167; falls
under the do'minion of Florence, ib. ; account of
her commercial prosperity, 479, 480.
(council at), proceedings of, 309.
Pius If. (pope), character of, 260. no^e ; endeavours
to raise a crusade against the Turks, ib.
Podesta, power of, in the free Lombard cities, 145 ;
how appointed, 145, 146.
Poetry of the troubadours, account of, 530; of
Northern France, 531 ; of the Normans, 532,
533 ; of the Italians, 534—539.
Poggio Bracciolini, successful researches ©f, in
finding ancient manuscripts, 544.
Pole (.Michael de la, earl of Suffolk), impeached by
the English parliament, 385.
Police, state of, improved towards the close of the
dark ages, 502.
Polygamy obtained in France during the reign of
Charlemagne, 202, and note.
Popes, commencement of their power, 269 ; patri-
archate of Rome, 270; their gradual assumption
of power, ib. ; character of Gregory I., 271 ; false
decretals ascribed to the early popes, 273 ; en-
croachments of the popes on the hierarchy, 274;
and upon civil go\ srnmenta, 274. 275 ; excom-
munications, 275 ; interdicts, 276 ; 1 irther iisui.
pations of the popes, 276, 277 ; their degeneracy
in the tenth century, 277 ; corruption of morals,
ib. ; neglect of the rules of celibacy, 278 ; simony
279 ; investitures, 280; imperial confirmation o(
popes, ib. ; decree of Nicolas If , 281 ; charactej
of Hildebrand, or Gregory VII., ib. ; his differ-
ences with the Emperor Henry IV., ib. ; com-
promised by a concordat of Calixtus, 283 ; gen-
eral conduct of Gregory Vil., 285; authority of
the papal legates, 286 ; Adrian IV., ib. ; Innocen*
III., 287 ; his extraordinary pretensions, ib. ; the
supremacy claimed by the popes, supported by
promulgating the canon law, 290; by the mendi
cant orders, 291 ; by dispensations of marriage,
292 ; and by dispensations from promissory oaths,
293, 294 ; encroachments of the popes on the free-
dom of ecclesiastical elections, 294 ; by mandats
or requests for the collation of inferior benefices,
ib. ; by provisions, reserves, &c., 295 ; their tax
ations of the clergy, 296 ; disaflfection thus pro-
duced against the church of Rome, 297 ; disputes
of Boniface VIII. with the King of England, 302 ;
and of France, ib. ; contest of popes with Louis
of Bavaria, 304 ; spirit of resistance to papal
usurpations, 305 ; rapacity of the Avignon popes,
306 ; return of the popes to Rome, 307, 308 ; con-
tested election of Urban VI. and Clement VII.,
308; of Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII., 308,
309; both deposed by the council of Pisa, 309;
John XXIII. deposed by the council of Constance,
ib. ; real designs of these councils zs they re-
spected the popes, 310; council of Basle, 311 ;
concordats of Aschaffenburg, 313,314; papal en-
croachments on the church of Castile, 314 ;
checks on the papal authority in France, ib. ;
their usurpations checked in the Galilean church,
ib. ; decline of the papal influence in Italy, 31"
318.
Population of the free cities of Lombardy during
the middle ages, 143, 144 ; of Aragon, 219, note;
of Florence, 166, note; of London, 365, note j of
Bruges, 475.
Poulains, or mongrel Christians of Syria, 34, note.
Pragmatic sanction of St. Louis, provisions of, 295
Prerogative (royal), defined, 423, 424 ; limited in
England during the reign of Henry 111., 345 ; no
tice of its abuses, 424, 425.
Priests, rapacity of, in the dark ages, 467, 468.
Principalities (petty) in Germany, origin of, 235.
Printing, account of the invention of, 548 ; notices
of early printed books, 549.
Private war, right of, a privilege of the vassals of
France, 93, 94 ; attempts of Charlemagne and
other sovereigns to suppress it, ib. ; prevails in
Aragon, 225 ; and in Germany, 240; suppressed
by the diet of Worms, ib. ; was never legal ir
England, 352.
Privilege of parliament, when fully established
400—405.
Privilege of union in Aragon, account of, 219 ; wlier,
abolished, 220.
Privileges of knighthood, 517.
Promissory oaths, dispensations of, grinted l.y the
popes, 293, 294.
Pronunciation of the Latin language, 454 — 459.
Protests in parliament, when first introduced, 378
Provence (county of), historical notice ol, 63, note ;
account of the troutadours of, 530.
Provincial governors, influence of, in England du
ring the Anglo-Saxon government, 321
Provincial states in France, 106 ; in the Germac
empire, 239.
Provisions (papal), notice of, 295.
Provisors (statute of), observations or , 312, 313.
Purveyance, a branch of the ancient royal preroga
tive in England, 424 • its abuses, i\>.
INDEX.
562
R.
Rapacity of the Avignon poi>es, 306.
ttopine, prevalent habit of, in England, during the
middle ages, 433.
.■iavenna fexarchaie of), conquered by the Lom-
bards, 20 ; reconquered by Pepin, and conferred
. upon the pope, ib.
Raymond VI., count of Toulouse, disasters of, 29,
30.
Redress of grievances, attempted to be made a con-
lition of granting supplies by the house of com-
mons, 394.
Regency in England, historical instances of, 441 ;
during the absences of the kings in France, ib. ;
at the accession of Henry ill., ib. ; of Edward I.,
ib. ; and Edward III., 442 ; of Richard II., ib. ;
of Henry VI., 442— 445.
Regency in France, right of the presumptive heir
to, 48, note.
Reliefs, origin of, 77, 78 ; their nature, 78 ; and
value, ib. ; equivalent to the heriots of the Anglo-
Saxons, 331.
Religion, ..cntributed to the preservation of litera-
ture during the dark ages, 461, 462; connexion
of, with chivalry, 511.
Representation (parliamentary), origin and prog-
ress of, 359 ; a probable instance of, m the reign
of William the Conqueror, ib. ; a more decided
example in the fifteenth year of John, 359, 360 ;
another in the ninth year of Henry III., 360 ; and
in the thirty-eighth of Henry III., fb. ; especially
in the forty-ninth of Henry HI., ib. ; burgesses
and citizens, when first summoned to parliament,
366, 367 ; causes of summoning them, 370.
Reprisal, law of, 482.
Retainers, custom of having, in noble families,
432.
Fevenues of the church, under the Roman empire,
261 ; increased after its subversion, 261, 262 ;
were sometimes improperly acquired, ib. ; other
sources of revenues — tithes, 263.
ReTenues of the kings of France, sources of, 94 ;
augmented by exactions from the Jews, 95 ; by
debasing the coin, ib. ; direct taxation, 96 ; of the
various sovereigns of Europe in the fifteenth cen-
tury, 192, ncle.
Rjvolution in England, of 1399 and 1688— parallel
between, 392, 393.
Richard I. (Coeur de L on), crusade of, 35 ; refused
to abolish the right of private war, 94, note.
Richard II., disputes between, and the parliament
of England, 381 — 384; sketch of his character,
384 ; acquires more power on his majority, ib. ;
proceedings of parliament in the tenth year of
his reign, 385 ; appoints a commission of reform,
335, 386 ; wretched slate of the country during
his reign, 386; remarks on the conduct of the
king, 386, 387 ; answers of the judges to certain
questions proposed by him, 387 ; subsequent rev-
olution, ib. ; greater harmony between the king
nnd parliament, 388 ; disunion among the lead-
mg peers, ib. ; prosecution of Haxey for propo-
sing in the house of commons an obnoxious libel,
389 , arbitrary measures of the king, 389, 390 ;
appoints a commission to sit after parliament had
been dissolved, 390; tyranny of Richard, 391 ;
necessity for deposing him, ib. ; retrospect of the
progressoftheconstitution under Richard II., 303.
Richard (earl of Cornwall), elected emperor of
Germany, 232 ; his character, ib.
Richard (duke of York), made protector of Eng-
land during the mental derangement of Henry
VI , 444 ; claims the crown, 446 ; civil wars of
tho Lancastrians and Yorkists, 447.
ftichemont (the count det. retrieves the aftairs of
France. 53 54.
Ricos hombres, 01 great tarons of Aiag;>n, privileges
of, 218.
Rienzi (Nicola de), revolution eflected by, at Rome,
154, 155; his death, 155.
Ripuary law, difference between it and the Salique
law, 65.
Robbery, when made a capital offence in France
66, note ; prevalence of, in England, 433 : robben
there frequently purchased pardons, 433, 434.
Rochelle, fidelity of the citizens of, to the King oJ
France, 45.
Rodolph, count of Hapsburg, elected Emperor of
Germany, 234 ; invests his son with the dutchy
of Austria, ib. ; state of the empire after ma
death, 235.
Romagna, province of, ceded to the popes, 153.
Roman empire, subversion of, 17 ; partitioned among
various barbarous nations, ib. ; state of the church
under the empire, 261 ; causes of the decline of
learning in it, 451 — 460.
Roman de la Rose, account of, 533.
Romance language, gradual change of Latin into,
458 ; divided iruo two dialects, 529, 530 ; account
of the Provencal dialect, 530; and of the French
or northern romance dialect, 531.
Rome, state of, at the close of the ninth centuiy,
126, 127 ; internal slate of, in the middle age.s,
153, 154; power of the senators, 154; re.volulion
effected there by the tribune Rienzi, ib. ; subse-
quent affairs of, 155.
(bishops of), nature of their primacy, 269, 270 j
orrginally were patriarchs, 270. See Popes.
Roye (town), singular clause in the charter ot, 119,
note.
S.
Salique-law, whether it excluded women from tbfl
throne of France, 38 ; excluded them from pri
vale succession in some cases, 05 ; question ari
sing out of this law, 37 ; date of the ISalique-law,
65, note.
Sanctuary, privilege of, accorded to nionasteriea,
467.
Saracens, first conquests of, in the east, 251 ; and
in Africa, ib. ; they invade France, and are de-
feated by Charles Martel, 19; ravage that coun-
try again, 25 ; driven out of Italy and Sicily by
the Normans, 128, 129; the probable inventors
of gunpowder, 184; Spain conquered by them,
198, 251 ; decline of the Saracens, 252; separa-
tion of Spain and Africa from them, 253 ; decline
of the khalifs in the east, 253, 254 ; Sarncenic
architecture, not the parent of Gothic architec
ture, 493, note.
Saragosa (city oQ, captured from the Moors, 199.
Sardinia (island), conquered by the Pisans, 166;
from whom it was t^ken by the King of Arag'<-i
167.
Saxons, savage state of, before their conquest of
England, 327, 328.
conquered by Charlemagne, 21.
Saxony, emperors of the house of, viz., Otho I.
126, 227 ; Henry II., 127, 228.
Scabini, a species of judges, jurisdiction of, 108.
Scandinavian sea-kings, notice of, 319.
Scholastic philosophy, derived from the Arabs, 52C\
note; account of tiie principal schoolmen and
their principles, 520—529.
Schools (public), first f stabhshed by Charlemagne
523.
Scriptures, versions of, made in the eighth and
ninth centuries, 507,508; the general reading of
them not prohibited until the thirteenth century
508.
Sects, religious, sketch of, during the dark ages,
j03 Manichees, ib. ; Paulicians, their tenets and
6bt>
INDEX.
persecutions, 504 Endnote*; the Albigenses, 504,
505 ; prjofs that they held Manichean tenets,
505, and nolcs ; origin of the Waldenses, ib., and
note, 507, note ; their tenets, 506, and note ; the
Catharists, ib. ; other anonymous sects of the
same period, 507, 508; the Loiiards of England,
508 ; Hussites of Bohemia, 508, 509.
Selden (Mr.), theory of, concerning the nature of
baronies, 357 ; observations thereon, 357, 358.
Serfs, state of, in the feudal system, 89—92 ; pre-
dial servitude not abolished in France until the
revolution, 91, note ; became free by escaping to
chaitered towns, 119, note. See Villeins.
Sfoiza Attendolo, rivalry of, with Braccio di Mon-
tone, 185.
Sforza /Francesco) acquires the dutchy of Milan,
185, 186.
Sheriff, power of, in omitting boroughs that had
sent niembers to parliament, 407.
Sicily (i ''and of), conquered by the Normans under
Roger Guiscard, 129; whom Leo IX. creates
King of Sicily, ib. ; state of affairs after his death,
136; rebellion of the Sicilians against Charles,
count of Anjou, 186; massacre of the French,
called the Sicilian vespers, ib.
Sigismund (king of Hungary), reign of, 245.
Silk, manufacture of, when introduced into Italy,
480.
Silver passed chiefly by weight in the first ages of
the French monarchy, 93.
Simony of the clergy in the eleventh century,
282.
Sismondi (M.), observations on his Histoire des
Republiques Iialiennes, 125, 126, note.
Sithcundman or petty gentleman, rank of, among
the Anglo-Saxons, 331.
Slave-trade carried on during the dark ages, 473.
Saccage and soccagers, probable derivation of the
terms, 352, 353, and notes ; the question consid-
eied whether freeholders in soccage were liable
to contribute to the wages of knights in parlia-
ment, 408, note.
Society, different classes of, under the feudal sys-
tem, 85 ; nobility, 85—87 ; clergy, 88 ; freemen,
ib. ; serfs or villeins, 89 — 92 ; moral state of, im-
proved by the feudal system, 124, 125 ; ignorance
of all classes, 459—461 ; their superstition and
fanaticism, 4^2 ; degraded state of morals, 469 ;
love of field-sports, 470 ; state of internal trade,
472 ; and of foreign commerce, 473.
, general view of the degraded state of, from
the decline of the Roman empire to the end of
the eleventh century, 450 — 474 ; commercial im-
provement of society, 474 — 485 ; refinement in
manners, 485—501 ; improvement of the moral
character of Europe, 501 ; its causes — elevation
of the lower ranks, 502 ; improved state of the
police, ib. ; religious sects, 503 ; institution of
chivalry, 509 — 520 ; the encouragement of litera-
ture, 520 — 541 ; particularly by the revival of an-
cient learning, 542 ; the invention of linen paper,
M2, 543 ; and the invention of the art of print-
mg, 548, 549.
Soldiers. See Mercenary troops.
Spain, northern part of, conquered by Charle-
magne, 21 ; extent of the feudal system in, 84.
■ , history of, to the conquest of Granada, 197 ;
kingdom of the Visigoths, ib. ; conquered by the
Saracens, 198; decline of the Moorish empire,
ib. ; formation of the kingdom of Leon, ib. ; of
Navarre, ib. ; of Aragon, 199 ; and of Castile, ib. ;
capture of Toledo and Saragosa, ib. ; mode of
settling the new conquests, ib. ; chartered towns
or communities, 200, 201 ; military orders insti-
tuted, 201 ; final union of the kingdoms of Leon
and Castile, ib. , conquest of Andalusia and Va-
lencia, ib. ; expulsion of the Moors, why long de-
layed, 202 ; civil disturbii.ces of Castile, 203
reign of Peter the Cruel, ib. ; house of Tiasta
mare, 204; John II., ib. ; Henry IV., 205, con
stitution of Castile, 206 ; succession of the crown,
ib. ; national councils, ib. ; the cortes, 207; righi
of taxation, 208, 209 ; forms of the cortes, 211 ;
their rights in legislation, ib. ; council of Castile,
213 ; administration of justice, 213, 214 ; violen",
actions of some of the kings of Castile, 214 ; con
federacies of the nobility, 215 ; affairs of Aragoa
ib. ; disputed succession to the crown after tht
death of Martin, 216; constitution of Aragon,
218; liberties of the Aragonese kingdom, 21t
219; office of the justiciary, 220 ; rights of legik
lation and taxation, 223 ; cortes of Aragon, 224 ,
government of Valencia and Catalonia, ib. ; un
ion of Castile and Aragon, 225; conquest of
Granada, 225, 226; notice of Spanish literature
during the dark ages, 534.
States-general, convoked by Philip the Fair, 101,
102 ; representatives from the towns introduced
by him, 101, and note ; motives for this conduct,
102 ; the rights of the stales-general as to taxa-
tion, ib. ; states-general of 1355 and 1356, 103,
104 ; never possessed any legislative power, 103,
note; under Charles VII., 105; proceedings oj
states-general of Tours, 106, 107.
Statute of treasons explained, 76, notes.
Statute law (English), observations on, 348, 349.
Statutes, distinction between them and ordinances,
376, 377 ; were sometimes left to be drawn up
by the judges after a dissolution of parliament
395; fraudulently altered in consequence, 396.
Stephen, wretched state of England during the
reign of, 338.
Stratford (archbishop), case of, 355, 356, notes.
Students, number of, at the universities of ( sford
Bologna, and Paris, 524.
Subinfeudation, origin of, 72.
Subsidies (parliamentary), by whom assessed, 360 ,
how granted, 430. See Supply.
Succession to the throne, in Castile, 206; in Ara
gon, 218 ; anion;; the Anglo-Saxons, 320 ; hered-
itary succession established during the Anglo
Norman reign, 349, 350.
Sumptuary laws, observation on, 486, 187.
Superstition of the dark ages, one cause of the de
cline of learning in the Roman empire, 462 ; sin-
gular instances of superstition, ib. ; mischiefs
thence arising, 465 ; yet not unattended with
good, 466.
Supplies, granting of, claimed by the house of com-
mons, 393 ; application of, directed by that house,
394; attempt of the house to make supply de-
pend on redress of grievances, ib.
Supremacy of the state maintained by the sever
eigns of Europe, 267 ; especially by Charle
magne, ib. ; progress of the papal supremacy,
274—290; review of the circumstances which
favoured it, 290—299 ; endeavours made to re
press it in England, 299—301.
Surnames, when first used, 85.
Swabia (house of), emperors of: — Conrad III..
230 ; Frederick Barbarossa, ib. ; Philip, 231 ;
Otho, 139, 231 ; Frederick 11., 139—112.
Swisserland, sketch of the early history of, 246,
insurrection of the Swiss against the tyranny of
Albert, archduke of Austria, 246,247; formation
of the Swiss confederacy, 247, 248; excellence
of the Swiss troops, 248; the independence ot
the Swiss confederacy ratified, 248, 249.
Swords, when first generally worn, 463, note.
Tactics (military), of the fouitcenth century, ac
count of. 182, 183; invention of gunpofvder an«
INDEX.
56?
fc.earms, 184, 165 ; use of infantry not fully es-
tablished until the sixteenth century, 185.
Taille, perpetual, when imposed in France, 56.
Tallage, oppressive, of the Norman kings of Eng-
land, 339.
Tartars of Timur, incursions of, in Asia and Eu-
rope, 258.
Taxation, excessive, effects of, 47 ; taxation origi-
nated in the feudal aids, 80 ; immunity from tax-
ation claimed by the nobles o!" France, 94 ; direct
taxation a source of the royal revenues, 96 ;
rights of the states-general as to taxation, 102 ;
last struggle of the French nation against arbi-
trary taxation, 107 ; right of taxation in Castile,
in whom vested, and in what manner regulated,
208—210 ; taxation of the clergy by the popes,
296, 297.
''axes, levied without convoking the states-general
by John and Charles V., 105 ; remedial ordinance
concerning them by Charles VJ., ib. ; levied by
his own authority by Louis XI., 106 ; what taxes
levied in England under the Norman kings, 338,
339.
Tenants in chief by knight's service, whether par-
liamentary barons by virtue of their tenures, 357,
358; whether they attended parliament under
Henry III., 358, 359.
Tenures (feudal), gradual establishment of, 69—
73 ; nature of tenure bj grand sergeantry, 190,
note.
Terence, observations on tLe versification of, 455.
Territorial jurisdiction, origin and progress of, in
France, 108, 10!) ; its division and administra-
tion, 109.
Thanes, two classes of, among the Anglo Saxons,
321 ; were judges of civil controversies, 325 ; for-
feited their military freeholds by misconduct in
battle, 330 ; the term synonymous in its deriva-
tion to vassal, 330, 331.
Tithes, payment of, when and in what manner es-
tablished, 263, 264.
Toledo (city of) captured from the Moors, 199.
Torture never known in England, nor recognised
to be law, 428, and note.
Tournaments, influence of, on chivalry, 516, 517.
Tours, proceedings of the states-general of, 106;
107.
Towns, progress of, in England, to the twelfth cen-
tury, 362, 303 ; when let in fee-farm, 363, 3G4 ;
charters of incorporation granted to them, 364,
365 ; their prosperity in the twelfth century, 365.
Trade (internal), state of, in the dark ages, 472, 473.
Trade (foreign). See Commerce.
Treaty of Bretigni, 43 ; of Calais, 44 ; of Troyes, 51.
Trial by combat. See Combat.
Trial by jury. See Jury.
Troubadours of Provence, account of, 530 ; their
poetical character considered, 530, 531.
Turks, progress of, 255 ; first crusade against them,
ib. ; they conquer Constantinople, 259 ; suspen-
sion of their conquests, 260, 201.
Tuscany, league of, formed to support the see of
Rome, 138 ; state of, in the middle ages, espe-
cially the cities of Florence, 156; and of Pisa,
166.
Tyranny of the Norman government in England,
337, 338
Tything, real nature of, 328, 329.
Ty'.hing-man, nowers of, 324.
U.
Uladislaus, king of Hungary, reign of, 245.
Universities, when first established, 523 ; account
of the university of Paris, ib. ; Oxford, 524 ; of
Bologna, ib. ; encouragement given to universi-
ai?s, ib. ; causes of their celebrity, 526 — 529.
Urban VI. (pope), contested election of, 308.
Usurpations (papal), account of, 274 — 277.
Usury of the Jews, account of, 95, ordinano
against it, 100; sentiments and regulations coa-
cerning it, 484, 485, and note.
Valencia (kingdom oO. constitution of, 224. 225.
V^arlets, education of, 516.
Vassal and lord, mutual duties of, 75; particulai
obligations of a vassal, 76 ; he could not alienati
his lands without his lord's consent, 78,
Vavassors, rank of, 87.
Vel, the Latin particle, used instead of rJ, 96, Tior*
Velly (the historian of France), character of, 63, 64.
note.
Venice (republic of), origin of, 171 ; her deper.dancd
on the Greek empire, 172 ; conquest of Dalmatia,
ib. ; acquisitions in the Levant, ib. ; form of gov
ernment, 173 ; powers of the doge, ib. ; and of
the great council, ib. ; other councils, 174; re
strictions of the ducal power, ib. ; tyranny of the
council of ten, 175; reflections on the govern
ment of Venice, 175, 176.
, war of this republic with Genoa, 168 — 170:
the Genoese besieged in Chioggia, and obliged
to surrender, 169, 170; territorial acquisitions of
Venice, 177; her wars with Milan, 178; account
of her commercial prosperity, 479, 480; traded
with the Crimea, and with China, 480, and note.
Versification of the ancient Latin poetS; observa-
tions on, 455.
Vienna, description of, in the fifteerth ceni'.ry
487, 488, note.
Villaret (the French historian), character wf, 63, 64
note.
Villanage, prevalence of, 89 ; causes of it, 89, 90 ;
its gradual abolition, 91, 92; nature of the vil
lanage of the English peasantry, and its gradual
extinction, 435—441 ; was rare in Scotland, 440,
note.
Villeins, different classes of, 89; their condition
and duties, 90, 91 ; enfranchised by testament,
91, note ; but not without the superior lord's con-
sent, ib., note; in what cases they could or could
not be witnesses, ib , note; their condition by the
laws of William the Conqueror, 322; and during
subsequent reigns, 435 — 441.
Villein tenure of lands, 92.
Virgin, superstitious devotions to, 465, 466, and
7iotes.
Virtues deemed essential to chivalry, 514.
Visconti family, acquire sovereign power at Milar.
151 ; their sovereignty gradually acknowledgea
151, 152; created dukes of Milan, 152; tyranny
of several princes of this family, 165.
Visigoths, kingdom of, in Spain, 197.
W.
Wages of members of parlinment, rates of, and how
raised, 408, and notes , Oi labourers in Eng.and
belter in the reign of Edward III. than now, 500
501.
Waldenses, origin of, 505, 506, and note ; their to
nets, 506, and iiote.
Vi'ales, ancient condikion of, and its inhabitants
434, note; members of parliament, when sim
moned from that country, ib.
Walter de Brienne (duke of Athens), notice of, 159
160; elected signior of Florence, 159; his tyran
nical government, 160 ; abdicates his office, ib.
Wamba (king of the Visigoths), whether depoiBi
by the bishops, 268, note.
Wardship, custom of, explained, 80,
Warna, notice of the battle of, 243.
508
iNDEX.
.t»o.* (flemish) settle ia England, 475, note,
176, note.
rt'enceslaus (emperor of Germany) deposfj, ?36,
237.
^'^eregild or commutation for murder, rates of, 66 ;
amount of thanes or nobles among the Anglo-
Saxons, 321 ; for a ceorl or peasant, ib.
♦tiitelocke, observation of, on the bulk of our stat-
ute law, 349, note; his mistake concerning the
thr ?e estates of the realm determmed, 403, 404,
ncUs.
A xliife (John), influence of the principles of, in
restraining the power of the clergy in England,
313 ; their probable influence in effecting the abo-
lition of villanage, 439.
William (duke of Normandy), conquers England,
332; his conduct at first moderate, 333; after-
ward more tyrannical, ib. ; confiscates English
properly, 334 ; devastates Yorkshire and the New
V'orest, lb. ; his domains, 335 ; his mercenary
troops, ib. ; establishes the feudal system in Eng-
land, ib. ; preservation of public peace during his
leign, 336 ; account of his laws, 340.
Wmton, statute of, 434.
Wisbuy, ordinances of, 482.
■^'ittenagemot, or assembly of wise men. how com-
{>:aed, 322, 323; qualifications for s seat ir. that
OCPiEcii, .323
Women, excluded from the throne ol Ftan(* t»
the Salique-law, 38; and from inheriting \^i
lands assigned to the Salian Franks on tiieircon
quest of Gaul, 65; but not from lands subse-
quently acquired, ib. ; hew treatea by tne ancient
Germans, ib., note ; did not inherit fiefs, 82, nott
Wool (unwrought), exported from England, 475
476 ; penalties on such exportation, 47C, 477.
note.
Woollen manufaCi'jres of Flanders, 474; catisesol
their being tarried into England, 474, 475, note.
introduced there by the Flemings, 475, note-
progress of the English woollen manufactures.
476 ; regulations concerning their export, ib.
Worms. See Diet of Worms.
Writing, an accomplishment possessed by (dw it
the dark ages, 459.
Y.
Yorkists, civil wars between, and ihe La&cactn
ans, 447.
Yopkshire devastated by William the Cocq"!*:*
334.
Zisca (John), character and achievementa t(, S44
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