Barbarous as the feudal customs were, they were the first attempts at
organising European society. The northern nations, in their irruptions
and settlements in Europe, were barbarians independent of each other,
till a sense of public safety induced these hordes to confederate. But
the private individual reaped no benefit from the public union; on the
contrary, he seems to have lost his wild liberty in the subjugation; he
in a short time was compelled to suffer from his chieftain; and the
curiosity of the philosopher is excited by contemplating in the feudal
customs a barbarous people carrying into their first social institutions
their original ferocity. The institution of forming cities into
communities at length gradually diminished this military and
aristocratic tyranny; and the freedom of cities, originating in the
pursuits of commerce, shook off the yoke of insolent lordships. A famous
ecclesiastical writer of that day, who had imbibed the feudal
prejudices, calls these communities, which were distinguished by the
name of _libertates_ (hence probably our municipal term the
_liberties_), as "execrable inventions, by which, contrary to law and
justice, slaves withdrew themselves from that obedience which they owed
to their masters." Such was the expiring voice of aristocratic tyranny!
This subject has been ingeniously discussed by Robertson in his
preliminary volume to Charles V.; but the following facts constitute the
picture which the historian leaves to be gleaned by the minuter
inquirer.
The feudal government introduced a species of servitude which till that
time was unknown, and which was called the servitude of the land. The
bondmen or serfs, and the villains or country servants, did not reside
in the house of the lord: but they entirely depended on his caprice; and
he sold them, as he did the animals, with the field where they lived,
and which they cultivated.
It is difficult to conceive with what insolence the petty lords of those
times tyrannized over their villains: they not only oppressed their
slaves with unremitted labour, instigated by a vile cupidity, but their
whim and caprice led them to inflict miseries without even any motive of
interest.
In Scotland they had a shameful institution of maiden-rights; and
Malcolm the Third only abolished it, by ordering that they might be
redeemed by a quit-rent. The truth of this circumstance Dalrymple has
attempted, with excusable patriotism, to render doubtful. There seems,
however, to be no doubt of the existence of this custom; since it also
spread through Germany, and various parts of Europe; and the French
barons extended their domestic tyranny to three nights of involuntary
prostitution. Montesquieu is infinitely French, when he could turn this
shameful species of tyranny into a _bon mot_; for he boldly observes on
this, "_C'étoit bien ces trois nuits-là, qu'il falloit choisir; car pour
les autres on n'auroit pas donné beaucoup d'argent_." The legislator in
the wit forgot the feelings of his heart.
Others, to preserve this privilege when they could not enjoy it in all
its extent, thrust their leg booted into the bed of the new-married
couple. This was called the _droit de cuisse_. When the bride was in
bed, the esquire or lord performed this ceremony, and stood there, his
thigh in the bed, with a lance in his hand: in this ridiculous attitude
he remained till he was tired; and the bridegroom was not suffered to
enter the chamber till his lordship had retired. Such indecent
privileges must have originated in the worst of intentions; and when
afterwards they advanced a step in more humane manners, the ceremonial
was preserved from avaricious motives. Others have compelled their
subjects to pass the first night at the top of a tree, and there to
consummate their marriage; to pass the bridal hours in a river; or to be
bound naked to a cart, and to trace some furrows as they were dragged;
or to leap with their feet tied over the horns of stags.
Sometimes their caprice commanded the bridegroom to appear in drawers at
their castle, and plunge into a ditch of mud; and sometimes they were
compelled to beat the waters of the ponds to hinder the frogs from
disturbing the lord!
Wardship, or the privilege of guardianship enjoyed by some lords, was
one of the barbarous inventions of the feudal ages; the guardian had
both the care of the person, and for his own use the revenue of the
estates. This feudal custom was so far abused in England, that the king
sold these lordships to strangers; and when the guardian had fixed on a
marriage for the infant, if the youth or maiden did not agree to this,
they forfeited the value of the marriage; that is, the sum the guardian
would have obtained by the other party had it taken place. This cruel
custom was a source of domestic unhappiness, particularly in
love-affairs, and has served as the ground-work of many a pathetic play
by our elder dramatists.
There was a time when the German lords reckoned amongst their privileges
that of robbing on the highways of their territory; which ended in
raising up the famous Hanseatic Union, to protect their commerce against
rapine and avaricious exactions of toll.
Geoffrey, lord of Coventry, compelled his wife to ride naked on a white
pad through the streets of the town; that by this mode he might restore
to the inhabitants those privileges of which his wantonness had deprived
them. This anecdote some have suspected to be fictitious, from its
extreme barbarity; but the character of the middle ages will admit of
any kind of wanton barbarism.
When the abbot of Figeac made his entry into that town, the lord of
Montbron, dressed in a harlequin's coat, and one of his legs naked, was
compelled by an ancient custom to conduct him to the door of his abbey,
leading his horse by the bridle. Blount's "Jocular Tenures" is a curious
collection of such capricious clauses in the grants of their lands.[57]
The feudal barons frequently combined to share among themselves those
children of their villains who appeared to be the most healthy and
serviceable, or remarkable for their talent; and not unfrequently sold
them in their markets.
The feudal servitude is not, even in the present enlightened times,
abolished in Poland, in Germany, and in Russia. In those countries, the
bondmen are still entirely dependent on the caprice of their masters.
The peasants of Hungary or Bohemia frequently revolt, and attempt to
shake off the pressure of feudal tyranny.
An anecdote of comparatively recent date displays their unfeeling
caprice. A lord or prince of the northern countries passing through one
of his villages, observed a small assembly of peasants and their
families amusing themselves with dancing. He commands his domestics to
part the men from the women, and confine them in the houses. He orders
the coats of the women to be drawn up above their heads, and tied with
their garters. The men were then liberated, and those who did not
recognise their wives in that state received a severe castigation.
Absolute dominion hardens the human heart; and nobles accustomed to
command their bondmen will treat their domestics as slaves, as
capricious or inhuman West Indians treated their domestic slaves. Those
of Siberia punish theirs by a free use of the cudgel or rod. The Abbé
Chappe saw two Russian slaves undress a chambermaid, who had by some
trifling negligence given offence to her mistress; after having
uncovered as far as her waist, one placed her head betwixt his knees;
the other held her by the feet; while both, armed with two sharp rods,
violently lashed her back till it pleased the domestic tyrant to decree
_it was enough_!
After a perusal of these anecdotes of feudal tyranny, we may exclaim
with Goldsmith--
"I fly from PETTY TYRANTS--to the THRONE."
Mr. Hallam's "State of Europe during the Middle Ages" renders this short
article superfluous in a philosophical view.