servience to the castle lord. They could not leave their property by will, dispose of their daughters in marriage, or perform a single business transaction without the permission of their liege. But little by little their power increased. When war was being waged, it became needful to fortify the town-for the town was the baron's estate, and he did not wish his property to be destroyed. When once the burghers. were armed and their town walled, they were able to defy their lord. They obtained charters, sometimes by revolt, sometimes by purchase, which gave them the town to do with it as they pleased; to elect their own magistrates, to make their own laws, and to pay their liege-lord a fixed rent by the year, instead of being subjected to loans, and benevolences, and loving contributions.* The Roman law, which had never quite died out, was now revived; the old municipal institutions of the Empire were restored. Unhappily the citizens often fought among themselves, and towns joined barons in destroying towns. Yet their influence rapidly increased, and the power of the castle was diminished. Whenever a town received privileges from its lord, other towns demanded that the same rights should be embodied in their charter, and rebelled if their request was refused. Trade and industry expanded; the products of the burgher enterprise and skill were offered in the castle halls for sale. The lady was tempted with silk and velvet; the lord with chains of gold, and Damascus blades, and suits of Milan steel; the children clamoured for the sweet white powder which was brought from the countries of the East. These new tastes and fancies impoverished the nobles. They reduced their establishments, and the discarded retainers, in no sweet temper, went over to the town.

"And there were others who went to the town as well. In classical times the slaves were unable to rebel with any prospect of success. In the cities of Greece every citizen was a soldier. In Rome an enormous army served as the * Charters were granted to towns by the King only. Louis VI. was the first to give them, as related elsewhere.

4

slave-police. But in the scattered castle states of Europe the serfs could rise against their lords, and often did so with effect. And then the town was always a place of refuge: the runaway slave was there welcomed; his pursuers were duped or defied; the file was applied to his collar; his blue blouse was taken off; his hair was suffered to grow; he was made a burgher and a free man. Thus the serfs had often the power to rebel, and always the power to escape; in consequence of which, they ceased to be serfs and became tenants.

"The extinction of villeinage was not a donation, but a conquest: it did not descend from the court and the castle; it ascended from the village and the town. The Church, however, may claim the merit of having mitigated slavery in its worst days, when its horrors were increased by the pride of conquest and the hostility of race. The clergy belonged to the conquered people, whom they protected from harsh usage to the best of their ability. They taught as the Moslem doctors also teach, and as even the pagan Africans believe, that it is a pious action to emancipate a slave. But there is no reason to suppose that they ever thought of abolishing slavery, and they could not have done so had they wished."

MONARCHY ASSAILS FEUDALITY.

MIDDLE AGES.

66

FROM the copious extract given, the reader can hardly fail to obtain a more familiar comprehension of the Feudal System. That system he will now have learned was nothing else than the exercise of arbitrary power by the great landowners called feudal Lords. During the greater part of the Middle Ages, these Noblemen were wholly independent and irresponsible, acknowledging no law but force, and wielding despotic sway over their fiefs or estates; masters equally of the property and lives of their tenants or vassals. They were," says a distinguished writer, "isolated despots, each of whom was a sovereign in his own domains, doing what was right in his own eyes, giving no account of his actions, and asking no opinion as to the nature of his conduct towards his subjects. the course of time this system met with greater popular detestation than others which had reduced the people to more monotonous and lasting servitude. The peasants led a precarious and uncertain life, involved in all the quarrels of their chief, and enduring all the vengeance of his enemies. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries there were numerous peasant insurrections, in which atrocious crimes were perpetrated upon the nobles, their families, and retainers.

In

These led to atrocious retaliations, and we see at this time the beginning of that fierce antagonism between class and class which existed for so long in France, and which culminated at the revolution of 1789."

There was only one authority in Europe that struggled steadily to check the supremacy of the feudal Nobility: that was the Royal Power. For several centuries in all the States of Europe a conflict was maintained between the Crown and the Barons. In France the Kings, in Germany the Emperors, in Italy the Popes, constantly sought by force or diplomacy to curtail the dictatorship of the Aristocracy; and in each of these countries the Aristocracy as fiercely defended their rights.

The nature of the contest which took place in England between the Crown and the Barons I will reserve for a future chapter, relating here what occurred in France. It was in the latter country that the feudal despots held larger possessions, exercised greater authority, and kept their vassals under better discipline than elsewhere.

When a weak man was on the throne of France, he shrank from any collision with the Barons, lest he might be deprived of his crown; for many of the more powerful carried their ambition so far as to aspire to the Regal Authority. There were many French Kings, however, of ability and courage, who made bold efforts to reduce the exorbitant power of these Lords of the soil.

One of the first who assailed them with success was Louis VI., whose reign, 1108-37, was memorable for the Rise of a Middle Class. At this time there was no such thing as a standing army, and the King had fewer retainers at his command

than many of his powerful Nobles.

Under these cir

aid to carry out

cumstances, Louis looked round for his purpose of strengthening the Royal Power, so utterly defied by the contumacious Barons. His eye fell on various small clusters of men, called Communes, scattered here and there over the country, composed chiefly of the serfs who had fled from the violence and exactions of their despotic landlords. Collecting in groups of a few hundred, more or less, these fugitive slaves had built walls round their habitations, and thus defied the power of their Suzerain.

Among the first of these Communes was Le Mans, which was established in 1066. Others followed; and at the beginning of the twelfth century several had grown to considerable size, and all of them had a Militia force trained by frequent contests with the vassals of some predatory Baron.

Louis VI. proposed to incorporate these Communes* —to give them a Mayor and Municipal privileges, but on the condition that they put their Militia at his service. This condition the Communes gladly accepted, as the object of the King was to fight the common enemy. Thus fortified, the King began his attacks on the Barons.

It cost him a siege of three years before he took the castle of the Lord of Puiset. He afterwards assailed the Counts of Mantes, Montfort, Montmorency, &c., and demolished the castle of the Lord of Montlhery, who claimed jurisdiction over 133 fiefs or estates, and 300 parishes. Finally, he attempted to seize on Normandy, which then belonged to Henry I. of Eng

* Louis VI. also gave charters to several old towns to make them independent of feudal and ecclesiastical pretensions, such as Soi sons and Laon. Soissons was a flourishing city of Gaul at the time of the Roman invasion.