FEUDALISM IN FRANCE.
Feudalism, as already intimated, reached its height in France, where
we find it in its palmy pride, during the tenth and eleventh
centuries. Had we travelled through the country at that time, we
should have been especially struck with the vast number of castles
scattered over the land. Within them were concentrated the elements
of strength. Feudal owners were the captains, rulers, and
magistrates of the age. These important personages might be divided
into two classes, according to the nature of the fiefs which they
held. The holders of royal fiefs formed the first class, the holders
of arrière, or subordinate fiefs, formed the second class. The
former comprised dukes, marquises, counts; the latter included those
of the lesser barons, who were denominated châtelains, as having a
right to occupy fortified houses. The latter class of nobles were
dependent on the former, and stood to them in the relation of
vassals; they again, in their turn, had a number of dependents,
subject to their authority, and owing them military service. Each of
these nobles was a sovereign in his own domain, the fountain of law,
polity, and order. His superior lord did not interfere with him in
his internal rule, but simply required from him certain external
feudal services. Sovereignty in France had sunk, at this time, to a
very low ebb, and retained but a shadow of authority. The kings of
that country were then little more than nobles, holding fiefs of
their own, subject to no superior; over their own territories they
had complete feudal power, like other lords, but beyond that, their
authority was feeble. A tie of supremacy scarcely more than a
name--a memento of the past, resulting from the original grant of
benefices by the crown, alone remained.
The noble, or aristocratic class, was not limited by the rank of
secondary barons, who had the privilege of establishing themselves in
their own castles. There were other persons deemed to be possessors
of noble or gentle blood. Every knightly dependent belonged to the
privileged order. "The 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
a coat of mail--while the commonalty, if summoned at all to war, came
on foot, and with no armour of defence. Every 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."[1] Members of all these noble classes were eligible to hold
offices of state; but none beside them had this privilege, except the
clergy. These advantages being hereditary, all marriages between the
noble and the plebeian class were forbidden. Thus an immense
aristocracy was formed, having no sympathies with the lower classes.
Such of the latter who retained the name of freemen were chiefly the
inhabitants of towns; beside these, were a few scattered allodialists
and rural tenants, subject to certain pecuniary payments. The
inhabitants of towns, were least dependent, and suffered least from
feudal oppression; freemen in the country were quite at the mercy of
their powerful military neighbours. Next to these were the villeins,
or cultivators of the land, who were attached to the soil, but yet
were permitted to hold property of their own; and below them came the
serfs, who were in a state of abject slavery. The power of the lord
over them was so absolute, that, in the language of a feudal
law-book,[2] "he might take all they had, alive or dead, and imprison
them when he pleased, being accountable to none but God." In this
degraded class, slavery existed, in a form quite as revolting as we
ever find it in the worst days of the Roman republic; though,
perhaps, the power of the master was less severely exercised by the
feudal lord than by the ancient patrician.
Thus, then, all power, political and civil, centred in the feudal
aristocracy. They only were lords of the soil, and rulers of the
state; property, military command, judicial authority, were all
vested in them. The "people" had no political existence. The
popular element of society, as developed in the ancient world, as
seen in the Roman commonwealth, had perished in the convulsions which
succeeded the fall of the empire; and the popular element of modern
society had not yet appeared. Aristocracy had little or nothing to
struggle with, either above or below it. The principle reigned in
all its power; it exerted an unchecked influence. Yet it was not the
union of the noble class that gave them strength. The feudal lords
of the same rank were independent of each other, and assumed isolated
positions. Entrenched within his own fortress, each stood aloof from
the rest; and when they did meet, it was not unfrequently front to
front, as enemies in the field. They inherited and displayed much of
that spirit of proud individual independence which had burned in the
bosom of their German ancestors: each one relied upon himself rather
than upon his order; and thus they greatly differed from the
aristocracies of ancient and modern times; in all of which we see a
principle of union at work--a measure of personal importance, derived
from association with others of the same class, and a measure of
individual strength and influence, derived from a feeling of common
interest.
In the feudal aristocracy were included the higher orders in the
church--the prelates, and the abbots of large monasteries. The fiefs
they held rendered them to all intents feudal lords, and the spirit
and practice of the system were displayed by them in whatever related
to their territorial possessions. They swore fealty to the king as
the lord paramount, and divided their estates among vassals on
military tenures, while at the same time they claimed and exercised
in their own territory the same sort of civil jurisdiction as
belonged to the temporal barons. Their sovereign demanded that they
should equip a certain number of men for his service in war; and
hence it was customary for an abbot to choose some baron in the
character of "advocate," to lead the vassals of the monastic fiefs to
battle, and generally to protect the interests of the abbey.
Having presented this brief outline of the distinctions of feudal
society, we shall attempt a sketch of the forms, relations, and
usages of feudal life, as exhibited in France, during the period of
their most striking exemplification.
Let us, then, suppose ourselves carried back, through the interval of
some eight or nine centuries, to one of the provinces of France. Let
the reader's imagination supply the place of those powers of
enchantment whose existence was fully believed at the time of which
we treat. We land in France in the eleventh century, and fancy
ourselves walking on the banks of a river skirted by hills and woods.
Yonder, on the summit of the rising ground, stands a stern looking
castle, just catching the beams of the setting sun. It is a building
of some considerable size, constructed of stone. The outer wall is
flanked by towers, and a fosse, or ditch, runs round the enclosure,
and communicates with the river. The chief entrance is through a
gateway in the wall, guarded on each side by a tower, and spanned by
a plain semicircular arch. On entering the gate, we observe the iron
points of the immense portcullis ready to fall, in case of the
fortress being attacked. On entering the castle-yard, the lofty keep
stands before us, appropriated as the residence of the feudal owner
and his family. It is the very type of stability, but has no
pretensions to architectural taste and display. Safety, not
elegance, is what the lord of this rough dwelling regards. Many of
the apartments in the keep are small, and all are comfortless. The
windows are mere loopholes, through which the light of heaven
struggles for admission. The great hall is the chief room in the
baronial residence, where, seated on the dais at the upper end, the
lordly owner presides at the table of his family and household, and
sometimes entertains his guests with banquets and festivities, in
accordance with the character of the age. Rude, for the most part,
is the furniture which even the best of the apartments contain, and
when the nearest approach is made to magnificence, there is little of
ease or comfort associated with it. Let us ascend the battlements of
the tower, and look over the surrounding country, diversified by
field and flood, all of which, far as the eye can reach, and far
beyond, is subject to the owner of this castle. Gazing on the
prospect, we at length perceive the gleaming of lances among the
trees that skirt the road up to the barbican, or entrance of the
fortress; a band of horsemen, some in plain mailed armour, ride up to
the gate. It is the lord and his retinue, just returned from the
sovereign's court, where he has been doing homage for his barony.
It was a scene of splendour, characteristic of the times, which he
witnessed there. At two seasons of the year, Easter and Christmas,
the French king holds his court, when he appears robed in his regal
mantle, glittering with gold, and adorned with his richly-jewelled
crown. These occasions are made choice of for a display of royal
magnificence before the vast crowd of barons, prelates, and state
officers. The monarch entertains them with feasts, and bestows on
them rich suits of raiment, (_livrées_--liveries,) suited to their
rank and the season of the year. The king sits at table with his
court, and is waited on by the great officers of the household: other
acts of condescension and liberality are performed. Gifts are
bestowed upon the royal favourites; heralds are sent among the
concourse gathered together by the pageantries of the occasion, to
shout the well-known "largesse;" and hanaps (cups) full of silver are
scattered among the people.[3]
From such a scene has yonder baron just returned, and there, by a
significant ceremony, he has sealed the feudal compact with his
sovereign as liege lord. He has been doing homage and swearing
fealty. His head was uncovered, his belt was ungirt, his sword and
his spurs laid aside, while, kneeling, he placed his clasped hands
within those of his lord, and swore to serve him with life and limb,
and worldly honour, faithfully and loyally for ever. This done, the
monarch, on his part, accepted the baron as his vassal, promised to
protect his property and his person, and then sealed the compact with
a royal kiss. Connected with all this was the act of investiture, by
which the baron became possessed of his lands; it consisted in the
monarch's delivering to him some type of the property, such as a
stone, or the branch of a tree. A relief, as it is called--a sum
equal to one year's produce of the estate--was paid at the time of
the investiture. He now enters on his lordship over the surrounding
domain. As we have already intimated, it is very extensive. It
contains several other castles, inhabited by the holders of arriere
fiefs. Over all the inhabitants of that territory, he is the ruler.
His authority is real, while that of the king over him is merely
nominal. He is bound by no laws which his sovereign may make, unless
he give his consent; and it is very probable that he will never
attend any of the royal councils, and, therefore, will not be brought
under any legal obligation to regard the statutes enacted. He is
subject to no taxes whatever--feudal aids, like those which we shall
presently notice, as payable to himself from his vassals, are all the
pecuniary tributes which he owes to his prince. Military service is
the chief thing which he is required to render. The sovereign has no
power over the baron's territory, either legislative or judicial; and
the provinces of France are in truth separate states, among which a
loose sort of federative connexion exists, at the head of which the
monarch appears possessed of nominal, rather than virtual
sovereignty. There are, however, certain moral obligations which ran
through all the grades of the feudal relation, which he is bound by
honour to observe.
He is bound not to divulge any secret with which his lord intrusts
him, nor to conceal from him the traitorous designs of his enemies,
nor to injure his person or property, nor to violate the honour of
any of his family. Breaches of fidelity, in these respects, are
deemed acts of the highest treason. Moreover, he is under obligation
to give up his horse to his lord, in case he is dismounted in
battle--to fight by his side to the last, and to go into captivity as
a hostage for him when taken prisoner.
We have seen that the baron is supreme lord over the whole of his own
territory; all the minor barons, knights, and tenants of every
description are his vassals. They hold their lands of him on feudal
conditions. He renders them protection, and they return allegiance
and service. Without going so far as one of the castles held by the
subordinate nobles in his domain, let us look a little at the
relation borne to him by a neighbouring tenant, who holds what is
termed a knight's fee, or such an extent of land as is sufficient to
maintain a man-at-arms as well as his horse. An old vassal of that
class, who has long tenanted the little estate which lies on the bank
of the river, at no great distance from the castle, has lately died,
and the property now comes to the eldest son; for, whatever might be
the original nature of fiefs, whether revocable at pleasure or not,
they have long since become, not merely estates for life, but
hereditary possessions. The young man cannot enter on the enjoyment
of the paternal lands without doing homage to his lord, and receiving
investiture at his hands. He therefore enters the baron's presence,
and passes through a ceremony similar to that which was performed a
little while ago, when the baron himself became the vassal of his
sovereign. Connected with the proceeding is the payment of the
relief, which in this case, as in the former, amounts to one year's
produce of the land. He is now in full possession of his fief, and
may go his way and inherit the paternal domain.
Other pecuniary payments, in the shape of aids, as they are called,
may, under certain circumstances, be exacted from the tenant.
Whenever the baron's daughter, whom we saw just now walking on the
parapet of the castle, her half-drawn veil blown aside by the evening
breeze, shall be married to the young count, whom she was watching as
he kissed and waved his hand on his prancing steed, and then vanished
among the trees--whenever the eldest son, the heir of his father's
estates and honours, shall be made a knight--or whenever it shall
happen that the baron himself is taken captive, and a ransom is
demanded for his release, the tenant will be bound to contribute
pecuniary aids to his lord, which aids appear to be unfixed in their
amount, and to depend much on the arbitrary will of the exactor.
Soon a quarrel breaks out between the baron and another noble, and as
there is no common jurisdiction to decide the matter, in these times,
when the royal authority over its vassals has sunk into utter
inefficiency, an appeal is made to arms. It is one of the savage but
boasted rights of the barons, that they are at liberty thus to settle
their disputes by the sword. The vassals must be armed to attend
their lord to the field, and, therefore, the young knight must mount
his horse and follow his feudal master to the scene of conflict.
Forty days' service may be demanded from all who hold a knight's fee;
but the law as to the distance to which they are bound to follow
their lord, is by no means fixed: according to the usage, in some
baronies, the vassal is not bound to go beyond the limits of the
lordship; in other cases, he must follow wherever his superior may
lead, provided it be not more than a day's journey from home. Upon
the knights in this barony, we will suppose, it is obligatory to
attend upon their suzerain to a much greater distance. The battle
has been fought--the victory gained: and now the knight returns to
his home, and suspends his shield and helmet in the paternal hall.
Ere long, he receives another summons, not to perform the service of
a soldier, but to discharge the functions of a judge. It has been
noticed already that the baron has a legislative and judicial
authority over his own territories; but it is necessary that his
knightly vassals, who are peers of his court, should attend to aid
his councils, and to unite with him in the decision of such cases as
may be submitted to his tribunal. The assembled vassals may be seen
standing about that little mound of earth in the court-yard, which is
the place of justice, and there our young knight mingles among them.
By this baron's court is possessed the power of life and death--or
_la haute justice_, as it is called--a prerogative not confined to
barons of the highest class, but extended to all châtelains, or
possessors of castles, and sometimes even to the inferior nobility;
an odd distinction, however, is kept up among them, in the form of
the instrument of death which they employ, for the baron's gallows
may have three posts, or supporters, the châtelains but two, and the
inferior lord only one.
In the present instance, the court is summoned to determine a case of
disputed civil right between two tenants. It is difficult to decide
the point: the defendant impugns the statement of the plaintiff,
declares him perjured, and, throwing down his gage, appeals to the
judgment of God, and claims trial by combat. This practice has
succeeded the trial by ordeal, and is of the same absurd and cruel
character; for the man who, perhaps, has already been deprived of his
rights, is now in danger of being deprived of life. The privilege of
making this appeal extends still further, and even were the case
adjudged by the baron's court, the party who conceived he had
suffered wrong, might call his judges into the field, and decide the
question by the sword. The wager of battle just thrown down by the
defendant is accepted by his adversary, and the day of combat is
appointed by the baron. They are to meet on horseback, accoutred as
knights, for they are of gentle blood--were they plebeians, they
would be armed with club and target. They must fight till one party
is slain or cries for mercy. In the latter case the person who gives
in will lose his cause, and be further subject to a fine. Women,
ecclesiastics, and men above sixty years of age, may employ champions
to assert their cause in the field of combat; but should the proxy
yield, he is liable to have his right hand cut off.
One of the tenants of the baron wishes to part with his lands to a
stranger, in other words, to alienate his fief. The assent of his
lord is requisite. He has received his fief, it is supposed, for
reasons relating to himself and family, at least his heart and arm
are bound to his superior, and his service is not to be changed for
that of another, who might be unwilling or unable to render it. By
the law of France, the lord is entitled, upon every alienation made
by the tenant, either to redeem the fief, by paying the
purchase-money, or to claim a certain part of the value, by way of
fine upon the change of tenancy.
Another event occurs. An old vassal dies, and leaves no one to
inherit his lands. What becomes of his estate? It is _escheated_,
to use the legal phrase, that is, it reverts to the lord. He is the
fountain whence property and power emanate, and the reservoir to
which, under these circumstances, they return.
The fiefs now described are regular and military; but before we leave
the baron's domains we must glance at another development of the
feudal principle. Among the horsemen whom we saw accompanying the
baron to the castle there were certain retainers, holding land upon
conditions different from those which we have just enumerated: and
there are others filling domestic offices in his household, who, on
that tenure, hold certain estates. Among the former, are the baron's
marshal and master of the horse, who, by filling such offices, secure
possession of some of the neighbouring fields. Among the latter are
his cup-bearer and steward, who swell his retinue on state occasions,
and receive their reward in landed property. By keeping up this kind
of pomp, the baron emulates the splendour of the sovereign.
Mechanical arts, also, are carried on in the castle, (coining money,
for instance, which is one of the baronial rights,) and the workmen
engaged in such occupations, like the rest of the baron's dependents,
are repaid for their skill and toil by receiving lands on condition
of their rendering these useful services.
Feudalism has also extended its influence over other persons than
warriors and domestics, and over other things than landed estates.
The fisherman mooring his bark on yonder bank of the river, and
throwing out his nets, is a vassal of the lord, and holds as a fief
the right of fishing in the stream, for which he pays certain dues;
and the woodman, whose axe resounds in the neighbouring forest,
possesses the right of cutting down the trees, upon condition of
rendering some feudal service. The system has entered the church,
and the priest of the village pays to his ecclesiastical superior an
acknowledgment for the revenues he receives from baptisms, marriages,
and the churching of women. In fact, society is pervaded by the
spirit of feudalism. The state, the church, every thing takes a
feudal form.
Such was feudalism in France, and its leading features are to be
traced in the state of things prevalent in other European
countries--in Germany, Spain, Italy, and England. The modifications
it received, in each of these countries, we have not space to
describe; but a brief account of the form which it took in our own
land ought not to be omitted.
[1] Hallam, Middle Ages.
[2] Beaumanoir.
[3] Du Cange, sur Joinville, Dies. 5.