The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014084747 
 
Cornell University Library 
 D 127.L14 
 Manners, customs, and dress during the M 
 
 3 1924 014 084 747 
 
In epypbaim co mint ao ft abfolutc mcipxat ebfcojt 
 mat:nonoi; pomint La; ana v Aferto oomino filij ttv. 
 Ina : ntC: Pe-sTadiutoiiug f adcmtc dt.tmt in aula fcFa ctusi 
 
 THE QUEEN OF SHEBA BEFORE SOLOMON. 
 
 (Costume of IS' 1 century.) 
 Facsimile of a miniature from the Breviary of the cardinal Qrimani, attributed lo MemJing. Bibl. I. 
 of S. Mate, Venice. (From a copy in the possession ofJtf. Amhroise Firmin-Didot.) 
 
 The King inclines his sceptre towards the Queer, indicating his appreciation of her person and her gifts; five lad.es 
 attend the Queen and five of the King's courtiers station his right hand. 
 
MANNERS, CUSTOMS, 
 
 AND DRESS 
 
 DURING 
 
 THE MIDDLE AGES, 
 
 AND DURING 
 
 THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD. 
 
 By PAUL LACROIX 
 
 (Bibliophile Jacob), 
 :URATOR OF THE IMPERIAL LIBRARY OF THE ARSENAL. PARIS 
 
 illustrate* Voith 
 FTEEX CHRUMOLITHOGRA I J H(C I'KIXIs BY F K ELL K R H r>V F.X. 
 
 AND LTWARDS or 
 
 FOUR HUXDRED ENGRAVIXCS OX WOOD. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 [J APPLETON AND CO., 1JROADWAY 
 
 ,8 74 . 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 HE several successive editions of "Tlie 
 Arts of the Middle Ages and Period 
 of the Renaissance " sufficiently 
 testify to its appreciation bv the 
 public. The object of that work was 
 to introduce the reader to a branch 
 of learning' to which access had 
 hitherto appeared only permitted to 
 the scientific. That attempt, which 
 was a bold one, succeeded too well 
 not to induce us to push our researches further. In fact, art alone cannot 
 acquaint us entire!)" with an epoch. "The arts, considered in their generality, 
 are the true expressions of society. The}' tell us its tastes, its ideas, and its 
 character." "We thus spoke in the preface to our first work, and we find 
 nothing to modify in this opinion. Art must be the faithful expression 
 of a society, since it represents it by its works as it has created them — unde- 
 niable witnesses of its spirit and manners for future generations. l!ut it must 
 be acknowledged that art is only the consequence of the ideas which it 
 expresses ; it is the fruit of civilisation, not its origin. To understand the 
 Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it is necessary to go back to the source 
 of its art, and to know the life of our fathers ; these are two inseparable 
 things, which entwine one another, and become complete one by the other. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Manners and Customs of the Middle Ages : — this subject is of the 
 greatest interest, not only to the man of science, hut to the man of the world 
 also. Tn it, too, " we retrace not only one single period, hut two periods 
 quite distinct one from the other." In the first, the public and private 
 customs offer a curious mixture of barbarism and civilisation. We find bar- 
 barian, Roman, and Christian customs and character in presence of each 
 other, mixed up in the same society, and very often in the same individuals. 
 Everywhere the most adverse and opposite tendencies display themselves. 
 What an ardent struggle during that long period ! and how Ml, too, of 
 emotion is its picture ! Society tends to reconstitute itself in every aspect. 
 She wants to create, so to say, from every side, property, authority, justice, 
 &c, etc., in a word, everything which can establish the basis of public life; 
 and this new order of things must be established by means of the elements 
 supplied at once by the barbarian, Roman, and Christian world — a prodio-ious 
 creation, the working of which occupied the whole of the Middle Ao-es 
 
 b ' 
 
 Hardly does modern society, civilised by Christianity, reach the fulness of 
 its power, than it divides itself to follow different paths. Ancient art and 
 literature resuscitates because custom insensibly takes that direction. Under 
 that influence, everything is modified both in private and public life. The 
 history of the human race does not present a subject more vast or more 
 interesting. It is a subject we have chosen to succeed our first book, and 
 which will be followed by a similar study on the various aspects of Religious 
 and Military Life. 
 
 This work, devoted to the vivid and faithful description of the Manners 
 and Customs of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, answers fully to the 
 requirements of contemporary times. We are, in fact, no longer content 
 with the chronological narration and simple nomenclatures which formerly 
 were considered sufficient for education. We no longer imagine that the 
 history of our institutions has less interest than that of our wars, nor 
 that the annals of the humbler classes are irrelevant to those of the 
 privileged orders. We go further still. What is above all sought for in 
 historical works nowadays is the physiognomy, the inmost character of past 
 generations. "How did our fathers live?" is a daily question. "What 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 institutions had they? What were their political rights? Can you not 
 place before us their pastimes, their hunting parties, their meals, and all sorts 
 ol scenes, sad or gay, which composed their Inane life? We should like In 
 follow" them in public and private occupations, and t«> know their manner ol' 
 living hourly, as we know our own." 
 
 In a high order of ideas, what great facts serve as a foundation to our 
 history and that of the modern world ! We have first royalty, which, weak 
 and debased under the Merovingians, rises and establishes itself energetically 
 under Pepin and Charlemagne, to degenerate under Louis le Debonnaire and 
 Charles le Chauve. Alter having dared a second time to found the Empire 
 of the Caesars, it quickly sees its sovereignty replaced by feudal rights, and 
 all its rights usurped by the nobles, and has to struggle tor many centuries 
 to recover its rights one by one. 
 
 Feudalism, evidently of Germanic origin, will also attract our attention, 
 and we shall draw a rapid outline of this legislation, which, barbarian at tin 1 
 onset, becomes by degrees subject to the rules of moral progress. We shall 
 ascertain that military service is the essence itself of the "fief," and that 
 thence springs feudal right. On our way we shall protest against civil wars, 
 and shall welcome emancipation and the formation of the communes. Fol- 
 lowing the thousand details of the life of the people, we shall see the slave 
 become serf, and the serf become peasant. We shall assist at the dispensation 
 of justice by royalty and nobility, at the solemn sittings of parliaments, and 
 we shall see the complicated details of a strict ceremonial, which formed an 
 integral part of the law, develop themselves before us. The counters of 
 dealers, fairs and markets, manufactures, commerce, and industry, also merit 
 our attention ; we must search deeply into corporations of workmen and 
 tradesmen, examining their statutes, and initiating ourselves into their 
 business. Fashion and dress are also a manifestation of public and private 
 customs; for that reason we must give them particular attention. 
 
 And to accomplish the work we have undertaken, we are lucky to have 
 the conscientious studies of our old associates in the great work of the 
 Middle Ages and the Renaissance to assist us : such as those of Emile Begin, 
 Elzear Blaze, Bepping, Benjamin Guerard, Be Roux do Taney, IT. Martin, 
 
Till 
 
 PRE FA CE. 
 
 Mary-Lafon, Francisque Michel, A. Monteil, Rabutau, Ferdinand Sere, 
 Horace de Yiel-Castel, A. de la Villegille, Vallet de Virivillc. 
 
 As in ilie volume of (lie Arts of the Middle Ages, engraving- and chrorno- 
 lithography will come to our assistance by reproducing, by means of strict 
 fac-similes, the rarest engravings of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and 
 the most precious miniatures of the manuscripts preserved in the principal 
 libraries of France and Europe. Here again we have the aid of the eminent 
 artist, M. Kellerhoven, who cpiite recently found means of reproducing with 
 so much fideHtjr the gems of Italian painting. 
 
 PAUL LACROIX 
 
 (Bibliophile Jacob). 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CONDITION OF PERSONS AND LANDS . 
 
 Disorganization of the "West at the Beginning of the Middle Ages. — Mixture of Koraan, 
 Germanic, and Gallic Institutions. — Fusion organized under Charlemagne. — Royal 
 Authority.— -Position of the Great Feudalists. — Division of the Territory and Pre- 
 rogatives attached to Landed Possessions. — Freemen and Tenants. — The Ba'ti, the 
 Colon, 'the Serf, and the Labourer, who may be called the Origin of the Modern 
 Lower Classes. — Formation of Communities. — Right of Mortmain. 
 
 PRIVILEGES AND RIGHTS (Feudal and Municipal) .... 
 
 Elements of Feudalism. — Eights of Treasure-trove, Sporting, Safe-Conducts, Kansoni, 
 Disinheritance, &c. — Immunity of the Feudalists. — Dues from the Nobles to their 
 Sovereign. — Law and University Dues. — Curious Exactions resulting from the 
 Universal System of Dues. — Struggles to Enfranchise the Classes subjected to Dues. — 
 Feudal Spirit and Citizen Spirit. — Resuscitation of the System of Ancient Municipali- 
 ties in Italy, Germany, and France. — Municipal Institutions ami Associations. — The 
 Community. — The Middle-Class Cities {Cites Bourgeoises). — Origin of National Unity. 
 
 Page 
 1 
 
 '2S 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE CASTLES, THE TOWNS, AND THE RURAL 
 
 DISTRICTS ... 56 
 
 The Merovingian < 'unties. — Pastimes of the Nobles : ii anting", War. — Domestic Arrange- 
 ments. — -Private Life of Charlemagne. — Domestic Habits under the Carlo vingians. — 
 Influence of Chivalry.— Simplicity of the Court of Philip Augustus not imitated by his 
 Successors. — Princely Life of the Fifteenth Century. — The bringing up of Latour 
 Landry, a Noble of Aujou. — Variety, Pages, Esquires, Maids of Honour. — Opulence 
 of the Bourgeoisie. — " Le Menagier de Paris "— Ancient 1 ) wettings. — State of Rustics 
 at various Periods. — "Rustic Sayings,'' by Noel du Pad. 
 
 FOOD AND COOKERY . . 105 
 
 History of Bread.— Vegetables and Plants used in Cooking.— Fruits.— Butchers' Meat- 
 Poultry, Game. — Milk, Butter, Cheese, and Fggs. — Fish and Shellfish. — Beverages: 
 Beer 1 , Cider, Wine, Sweet Wine, Refreshing Brinks, Brandy. — Cookery. — Soups, 
 Boiled Food, Pies, Stews, .Salads, Boasts, Grills. — Seasoning, Truffles, Sugar, Ver- 
 juice. — Sweet.-:, Desserts, Pastry. — Meals and Feasts. — Bules of Serving at Table from 
 the Fifteenth to the Sixteenth Centuries. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 HUNTING .... 178 
 
 Venery and Hawking-. — Origin of Aix-la-Chapelle. — Gaston Phoebus anil his Book. — 
 The Presiding Deities of Sportsmen. — Sporting Societies and Brotherhoods.— Sporting- 
 Kings : Charlemagne, Louis IX., Louis XL, Charles VI] I., Louis XII., Francis I., 
 &c— Treatise on Venery. — Sporting Popes. — Origin of Hawking. — Training Birds. — 
 Hawking Retinues. — Book of King Modus. — Technical Terms used in Hawking. — 
 Persons who have excelled in this kind of Sport. — Fowding. 
 
 GAMES AND PASTIMES 217 
 
 Games of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. — Games of the Circus. — Animal Combats. — 
 Daring of King Pepin. — The King's Lions. — Blind Men's Fights. — Cockneys of 
 Paris. — Champ deMars. — Cours Pleniercs and Cours Couronnees. — Jugglers, Tumblers, 
 and Minstrels. — Rope-dancers. — Fireworks. — Gymnastics. — Cards and Dice. — Chess, 
 Marbles, and Billiards. — La Soule, La Pirouette, &a. — Small Games for Private 
 Society. — History of Dancing. — Ballet des Ardents.— The " Orchcsographie " (Art of 
 Dancing) of Thoinot Arbeau. — List of Dances. 
 
 COMMEECE 248 
 
 State of Commerce after the Fall of the Roman Empire ; its Revival under the Frankish 
 Kings ; its Prosperity under Charlemagne ; its Decline down to the Time of the 
 Crusaders. — The Levant Trade of the East. — Flourishing State of the Towns of Pro- 
 vence and Languedoc. — Establishment of Fairs. — Fairs of Landit, Champagne, 
 Bi-aucairc, and Lyons. — Weights and Measures. — Commercial Flanders. — Laws of 
 Maritime Commerce. — Consular Laws. — Banks and Bills of Exchange. — French 
 Settlements on the Coast of Africa. — Consequences of the Discovery of America. 
 
 GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS ....... 269 
 
 Uncertain Origin of Corporations. — Ancient Industrial Associations. — The Germanic 
 Guild. — Colleges. — Teutonic Associations. — The Paris Company for the Transit of 
 Merchandise by Water. — Corporations properly so called. — Etienne Boileau's "Book 
 of Trades," or the First Code of Regulations. — The Laws governing Trades. — Public 
 and Private Organization of Trade Corporations and other Communities. — Energy of 
 the Corporations. — Masters, Journeymen, Supernumeraries, and Apprentices. — 
 Religious Festivals and Trade Societies. — Trade Unions. 
 
 TAXES, MONEY, AN]) FINANCE 300 i i 
 
 Taxes under the Roman Rule. — Money Exactions of the Merovingian Kings. Varieties 
 
 of Money. — Financial Laws under Charlemagne. — Missi Dominici.— Increase of Taxes 
 owing to the Crusades. — Organization of Finances by Louis IX. — Extortions of Philip 
 le Bel. —Pecuniary Embarrassment of his Successors. — Charles V. re-establishes Order 
 in Finances. — Disasters of France under Charles VI., Charles VII. , and Jacques 
 
 Ctfur. — Changes in Taxation from Louis XL to Francis 1. — The Great Financiers. 
 
 Florimond Robertet. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PitgC 
 
 LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE . . . S41 
 
 The. Family the Origin of Government. — Origin of Supreme Power amongst tho 
 Franks. — The Legislation of Barbarism humanised by I Christianity.— Right of Justice 
 inherent to the Right of Property. — The Laws under ( lharlemagnc. — .1 udiciul Forms. 
 — Witnesses.— Duels, &c. — Organization of Royal Justice under St. Lewis.— Tie: 
 Chatelet and the Provost of Paris. — Jurisdiction of Parliament, its Duties and its 
 Responsibilities. — The Bailiwicks. — Struggles between Parliament and the ( 'hfitelot.— 
 Codification of the Customs and Usages. — Official Cupidity. — Comparison between 
 the Parliament and the Chatelet. 
 
 SECRET TRIBUNALS . .981 
 
 The Old Man of the Mountain and his Followers in Syria.— The Castle of Alamond, 
 Paradise ot' Assassins. — Charlemagne the Founder of Secret Tribunals amongst the 
 Saxons. — The Holy Yehmc. — Organization of the Tribunal of the Tern- I'nitge, and 
 Modes adopted in its Procedures. — Condemnations and Execution of Sentences. — 
 The Truth respecting the Free Judges of Westphalia.— Duration and Fall of the 
 Yehmic Tribunal. — Council of Ten, in Yeniee ; its < 'ode and Secret Decisions. — End 
 of the Council of Ten. 
 
 PUNISHMENTS .407 
 
 Refinements of Penal Cruelty. — Tortures for different Purposes.— Water, Screw-boards, 
 and the Rack. — The Executioner. — Female Executioners. — Tortures. — Amende 
 Honorable.— Torture of Fire, Real and Feigned.— Auto-da-fe.— Red-hot Brazier or 
 Basin.— Beheading.— Quartering.— The Wheel.— Garotting.— Hanging.— The Whip. 
 — The Pillory. — The Arquebuse. — Tickling. — Flaying. — Drowning. — Imprisonment. 
 — Regulations of Prisons. — The Iron Cage. — " The Leads" of Venice. 
 
 JEWS 434 
 
 Dispersion of the dens.— Jewish Quarters in the Medieval Towns. — The Ghetto of 
 Rome. — Ancient Prague. — The Giudccca of Yeniee. — Condition of the Jews; 
 Animosity of the People against them; Vexatious Treatment ami Severity of the 
 Sovereigns. — The Jews of Lincoln. — The Jews of Blois. — Mission of the Pas- 
 toureaux. — Extermination of the Jews.— The Price at which the Jews purchased 
 Indulgences. — Maries set upon them. — Wealth, Knowledge, Industry, and Financial 
 Aptitude of the Jews. — Regulations respecting Usury as practised by the Jews. — 
 Attachment of the Jews to their Religion. 
 
 GIPSIES, TRAMPS, BEGGARS, AND COURS DES MIRACLES . . 45G 
 
 First Appearance of Gipsies in the West.— Gipsies in Paris.— Manners and Customs 
 of these Wandering Tribes.— Tricks of Captain Charles.— Gipsies expelled by Royal 
 
 Edict.— Language of Gipsies.— The. Kingdom of Slung.— The Great Coesre, Chief of 
 the Vagrants; bis Vassals and Subjects.— Divisions of the Slang People ; its Decay, 
 and the Causes thereof.— ('ours des Miracles.— The Camp of Rogues.— Cunning 
 Language, or Slang.— Foreign Rogues, Thieves, and Pickpockets. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CEREMONIALS 
 
 Page 
 
 . 481 
 
 Origin of Modern Ceremonial. — Uncertainty of Fiench Ceremonial up to the End of the 
 Sixteenth Century. — Consecration of the Kings of Fiance. — Coronation of the 
 Emperors of Germany. — Consecration of the Doges of Venice.— Marriage of the Doge 
 with the Sea. — State Entries of Sovereigns. — An Account of the Entry of Isabel 
 of Bavaria into Paris. — Scats of Justice. — Visits of Ceremony between Persons of 
 Rank. — Mourning. — Social Courtesies. — Popular Demonstrations and National Com- 
 memorations. — New Year's Day. — Local Festivals. — Vim d'Honneur, — Processions of 
 Trades. 
 
 COSTUMES 510 
 
 Influence of Ancient Costume. — Costume in the Fifth Century-— Hair. — Costumes in 
 the Time of Charlemagne. — Origin of Modern National Dress. — Head-dresses and 
 Beards : Time of St. Louis. — Progress of Dress : Trousers, Hose, Shoes, Coats, 
 Surcoats, Capes. — Changes in the Fashions of Shoes and Hoods. — Lwrie. — Cloaks and 
 Capes. — Edicts against Extravagant Fashions. — Female Dress : Gowns, Bonnets, 
 Head-dresses, &c. — Disappearance of Ancient Dress. — Tight-fitting Gowns. — General 
 Character of Dress under Francis I. — Uniformity of Dress. 
 
TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 I. CHROMOLITHOGRAPHS. 
 
 Plate To face page Plate To lace page 
 
 1. The Queen of Sheba before Solomon. 8. The Chess-playere. After a Miniature 
 
 Fac-simile of a Miniature from the of the "Three Ages of Man." (End 
 
 Breviary of Cardinal Grimani, attri- of the Fifteenth Century) 238 
 
 buted to Memling. Costumes of the 9. MartyrdomofSS. Crispin and Crepinieu. 
 
 Fifteenth Century. . . . Frontispiece From a Window in the Hopital des 
 
 2. The Court of Marie of Anjou, Wife of Quinze-Vingts (Fifteenth Century) . . 2SS 
 
 Charles VII. Fac-simile of a Minia- 10 - Settlement of Accounts by the Brother - 
 
 hire from the " Dnnze Perilz d'Enfer." hoocl of Charite-Dieu, Rouen, in 1466. 
 
 Costumes of the Fifteenth Century.. 24 A Miniature from the " Livre des 
 
 o t ■ vit i n i ■ .1 Comntcs " of this Society (Fifteenth 
 
 3. Louis XII. leaving Alexandria, on the ) -- j \ 
 
 24th April, 1507, to chastise the Century) 326 
 
 Citv of Genoa. From a Miniature U. Decapitation of Guillaume de Pomrmera 
 
 in the "Voyage de Genes" of Jean and his Confessor at Bordeaux m 1377 
 
 -,r , . (" Chroniques de Froissart ") 418 
 
 , , C-' ' \rl-i •',",. ''".'''" 12. The Jews' Passover. Fac-simile of a 
 
 4. A loung Mothers Ketmue. Miniature ... . . , T . . . ,, „■« 
 
 " ,. „ ,, „_, , TTT Miniature m a Missal ot the 1'if- 
 
 froma Latin " lerence ot Charles Y L ,. ,-, , ,, ., .. , , r ir 
 
 „ teenth Century of the School of V an 
 
 Costumes of tire .Fourteenth Cen- -^ . , - n 
 
 Eyck 4ou 
 
 tury ' ' J 13. Entry of Charles VII. into Paris. A 
 
 5. Table Service of a Lady of Quality. Miniature from the "Chroniques 
 
 Fac-simile of a Miniature in the d'Enguerrand de Monstrelet." Cos- 
 
 " Roman de Benaud de Montauban." tlimes of the y lxte enth Century .... 494 
 
 Costumes of the Fifteenth Century.. 138 H gt Catherine surrounded by the Doctors 
 
 6. Ladies Hunting. From a Miniature in of Alexandria. A Miniature from 
 
 a Manuscript Copy of " Ovid's the Breviary of Cardinal Grimani, 
 
 Epistles." Costumes of the Fifteenth attributed to Memling. Costumes 
 
 Century 184 of the Fifteenth Century 534 
 
 7. A Court Fool. Fac-simile of a Minia- 15. Italian Lace-work, in Gold-thread. The 
 
 ture in a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Cypher and Arms of Henri III. 
 
 Century 2L'8 (Sixteenth Century) 544 
 
 II. ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 Aigues-Mortes, Ramparts of the Town of . . 42 
 
 Alms Bag, Fifteenth Century 27 
 
 Amende honorable before the Tribunal .... 414 
 
 America, Discovery of 263 
 
 Anne of Brittany and the Ladies of her Court 86 
 
 Page 
 Archer, in Fighting Dress, Fifteenth Cen- 
 tury 30 
 
 Armourer 280 
 
 Anns of Louis XI. and Charlotte of Savoy 542 
 Amis, Various, Fifteenth Century 55 
 
ENGRA YIXGS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Bailiwick 3(jg 
 
 Bailliage, or Tribunal of the King's Bailiff, 
 
 Sixteenth Century 53 
 
 Baker, The, Sixteenth Century 108 
 
 Balancing, Feats of. Thirteenth Century . . 223 
 Ballet, representation of a, before Henri 
 
 III. anil his Court 606 
 
 Banner of the Coopers of Bayonne lot 
 
 La Bochelle Ml 
 
 „ Corporation of Bakers of Arras 109 
 
 Bakers of Paris 109 
 ,, ,, Boot and Shoe 
 
 Makers of Issoudun 2 So 
 
 ,, Corporation of Publichouse- 
 
 keepers of Montmedy .... 150 
 Corporation of Publichouse- 
 
 keepers of Tonnerre 1 50 
 
 „ Drapers of Caen 299 
 
 ,, Harness-makers of Paris .. .. 2S6 
 
 ,, Nail-makers of Paris 236 
 
 ,, Pastrycooks of Caen 161 
 
 La Bochelle . . 161 
 
 ,, ,, Tonnerre .... 177 
 
 Tanners of Vic 286 
 
 Tilers of Paris 2SG 
 
 ,, Weavers of Toulon 280 
 
 Wheelwrights of Paris 286 
 
 Banquet, Grand, at the Court of France .. 17G 
 
 Barber 278 
 
 Barnacle Geese 129 
 
 Barrister, Fifteenth Century 378 
 
 Basin-maker 281 
 
 Bastille, The 431 
 
 Bears and other Beasts, how they may lie 
 
 caught with a Dart 195 
 
 Beggar playing the Fiddle 4 74 
 
 Beheading 418 
 
 Bell and Canon Caster 281 
 
 Bird-catching, Fourteenth Century 213 
 
 Bird-piping, Fourteenth Century 212 
 
 Blind and Poor Sick of St. John, Fifteenth 
 
 Century 408 
 
 Bob Apple, The Game of 247 
 
 Bootmaker's Apprentice working at a Trial- 
 piece, Thirteenth Century 239 
 
 Bourbon, Constable do, Trial of, before the 
 
 Beers of France 3G2 
 
 Bourgeois, Thirteenth Century 21 
 
 Brandenburg, Marquis of 393 
 
 Brewer, The, Sixteenth Century 115 
 
 Brotherhood of Death, Member of the .... 402 
 Burgess of Ghent and his Wife, from a 
 
 Window of the Fifteenth Century 84 
 
 Burgess at Meals lit) 
 
 Burgesses with Hoods, Fourteenth Century 78 
 
 Burning Ballet, The 214 
 
 Butcher, The, Sixteenth Century 124 
 
 Butler at his Duties ... 153 
 
 Page 
 Cards for a Game of Piquet, Sixteenth Cen- 
 tury 236 
 
 Carlovingian King in his Palace 349 
 
 Carpenter. Fifteenth Century 297 
 
 Carpenter's Apprentice working at a Trial- 
 piece, Fifteenth Century 290 
 
 Cast to allure Beasts 183 
 
 Castle of Alamond, The 383 
 
 Cat-o'-nine-tails 433 
 
 Celtic Monument (the Holy Ox) 123 
 
 Chamber of Accounts, Hotel of the 320 
 
 Chandeliers in Bronze, Fourteenth Century 75 
 
 Charlemagne, The Emperor 347 
 
 ,, Coronation of 485 
 
 ,, Dalmatica and Sandals of . . 487 
 receiving the Oath of Fidelity 
 
 from one of his great Barons 17 
 
 Portrait of 9 
 
 Charles, eldest Son of King Pepin, receiving 
 
 the News of the Death of his Father 8 
 
 Charles V. and the Emperor Charles IV., 
 
 Interview between 498 
 
 Chateau- G-aillard anx Andelys 10 
 
 Chatelet, The Great 357 
 
 Cheeses, The Manufacture of, Sixteenth 
 
 Century 139 
 
 Chilperie, Tomb of, Eleventh Century .... 303 
 
 Clasp-maker 279 
 
 Cloth to approach Beasts, How to carry a. . 181 
 
 Cloth-worker 277 
 
 Coins, Gold Merovingian, 628-638 305 
 
 ,, G-old, Sixth and Seventh Centuries . . 313 
 ,, ,, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Cen- 
 turies 318 
 
 ,, Gold and Silver, Thirteenth Century 313 
 ,, ,, Fifteenth and Six- 
 teenth Centuries 339 
 „ Silver, Eighth to Eleventh Centuries 313 
 
 Cologne, View of, Sixteenth Century 397 
 
 Comb in Ivory, Sixteenth Century 88 
 
 Combat of a Knight with a Dog, Thirteenth 
 
 Century 353 
 
 Companion Carpenter, Fifteenth Century . . 295 
 
 Cook, The, Sixteenth Century 165 
 
 Coppersmith, The, Sixteenth Century . .156, 281 
 Corn-threshing and Bread-making, Six- 
 teenth Century 106 
 
 Costume of Emperors at their Coronation 
 
 since the Time of Charlemagne 489 
 „ King Childebert, Seventh Cen- 
 tury 513 
 
 King Clovis, Sixth Century 513 
 
 Saints in the Sixth to Eighth 
 
 Century 515 
 
 Prelates, Eighth to Tenth Cen- 
 tury 517 
 
 a Scholar of the Carlovingian 
 
 Feriod 5]9 
 
EXGAAVLYGS. 
 
 T. 
 
 Costume of a Scholar, Ninth Century .. 
 
 a Bishop or Abbot, Ninth Century 
 ,, Charles the Simple, Tenth Century 
 
 ,, Louis le Jeune 
 
 a Princess 
 
 "William Malgencste, the King's 
 
 Huntsman 
 
 an English Servant. Fourteenth 
 
 Century 
 
 Philip the Good 
 
 ,, Charles V., King of France .... 
 
 Jeanne de Bourbon 
 
 Charlotte of Savoy 
 
 Mary of Burgundy 
 
 the Ladies of the Court of Cathe- 
 rine de Medieis 
 
 a Gentleman of the French Court, 
 
 Sixteenth Century 
 
 the German Bourgeoisie, Six- 
 teenth Century 
 
 Costumes, Italian. Fifteenth 1 'entury 
 
 Costumes of the Thirteenth ( 'entury 
 
 ,. the Common People, Fourteenth 
 
 Century 
 
 a rich Bourgeoise, of a Peasant- 
 woman, and of a Lady of the 
 Nobility, Fourteenth Century 
 ,. a Young Nobleman and of a 
 
 Bourgeois, Fourteenth Century 
 ,, a Bourgeois or Merchant, of a 
 
 Nobleman, and of a Lady of 
 the Court or rich Bourgeoise, 
 
 Fifteenth Century. 
 
 ,, a Mechanic's Wife and a rich 
 
 Bourgeois, Fifteenth < 'entury 
 
 ,, Young Noblemen of the Court 
 
 of Charles YIII 
 
 ,, a Nobleman, a Bourgeois, and 
 
 a Noble Lady, of the time- of 
 
 Louis Xn 
 
 ,, a rich Bourgeoise and a Noble- 
 man, time of Francis 1 
 
 Counter-seal of the Butchers of Bruges in 
 
 1350 
 
 Country Life- 
 
 Cour ties Miracles of Paris 
 
 Court Fool 
 
 ,, of Love in Provence, Fourteenth Cen- 
 tury 
 
 „ of the Nobles, The 
 
 ,, Supreme, presided over by the King 
 
 ,, of a Baron, The 
 
 „ Inferior, in the Great Bailiwick .... 
 Courtiers amassing Riches at the Expense of 
 
 the I'oor, Fourteenth Century 
 
 Courts of Love in Provence, Allegorical 
 
 Scene of, Thirteenth Century 
 
 Craftsmen, Fourteenth Century 
 
 521 
 521 
 
 521 
 
 52b 
 
 52G 
 
 531 
 53'' 
 
 538 
 538 
 545 
 5-13 
 
 554 
 542 
 527 
 
 534 
 
 540 
 543 
 54S 
 
 550 
 
 551 
 
 121 
 
 9 4 
 
 472 
 
 229 
 
 67 
 350 
 370 
 372 
 
 238 
 271 
 
 rag-e 
 
 Cultivation of Fruit, Fifteenth Century .. 115 
 (.{rain, and Manufacture of 
 
 Bailey and (Jilt Ulead 111 
 
 Dance called "La Gaillarde " 210 
 
 ,, of Fools, Thirteenth Century 228 
 
 „ by Torchlight 213 
 
 Dancers on Christmas Night 210 
 
 David playing on the Lyre 09 
 
 Dealer in Eggs, Sixteenth Century 133 
 
 Deer. Appearance of, and how to hunt them 
 
 with Dogs 187 
 
 Deputies of the Burghers of Ghent. Four- 
 teenth Century 51 
 
 Dice-maker 279 
 
 Distribution of Bread, 31 eat, and Wine . ... 222 
 Doge of Venice, Costume of the, before the 
 
 Sixteenth Century .... 405 
 ,, in Ceremonial Costume of 
 
 the Sixteenth Century. . 405 
 
 Procession of the- 492 
 
 Dog-kennel, Fifteenth Century 191 
 
 Dogs, Diseases of, and their Cure, Four- 
 teenth Century 208 
 
 Dortmund, View of, Sixteenth ('entury.... 389 
 
 Drille, or Xmrpiois, Fifteenth Century .... 470 
 
 Drinkers of the North, Tie.- Great 1 1 4 
 
 Druggist 278 
 
 Dues on Wine 3,3 
 
 Dyer 277 
 
 Edict, Promulgation of an 334 
 
 Elder and Juror, Ceremonial Dress of an . . 287 
 
 Elder and Jurors of the- Tanners of Giant 294 
 
 Floy, St., Signature of 304 
 
 Empalement 42S 
 
 Entry of Louis XL into Paris 500 
 
 Equestrian Performances, Thirteenth ( Vn- 
 
 tury 226 
 
 Estrapade, The, or Question Extraordinary 408 
 
 Executions 419 
 
 Exhibitor of Strange Animals 480 
 
 Falcon, How to train a New, Fourteenth 
 
 Century 202 
 
 ,, How to bathe a New 204 
 
 Falconer, Dress of the, Thirteenth Century 207 
 
 ,, German, Sixteenth Century .... 209 
 
 Falconers, Thirteenth Century 203 
 
 ,, dressing their Birds, Fourteenth 
 
 Century 200 
 
 Falconry, Art of, King Modus teaching the, 
 
 Fourteenth Century 191) 
 
 Varlets of, Fourteenth Century . . 201 
 
 Families, The, and the Barbarians 343 
 
 Fight between aHorsc and Dogs, Thirteenth 
 
 Century 220 
 
 Fireworks on the Water 281 
 
ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 Tngf 
 
 Fish, Conveyance of, by Water and Land . . 14 1 
 
 Flemish Peasants, Fifteenth Century 31 
 
 Franc, Silver, Henry IV 310 
 
 Franks, Fourth to Eighth Century 2 
 
 Kint? or Chief of the, Ninth Century ' r> 
 ,. King of the, dictating the Salic Law 6 
 \Fredegonde giving orders to assassinate 
 Sigebert, from a Window of the Fif- 
 teenth Century 60 
 
 Free Judges 391 
 
 Funeral Token 270 
 
 Gallo-Roman Costumes oil 
 
 Gaston Phoebus teaching the Art of Venery 180 
 
 German Beggars 477 
 
 ,, Knights, Fifteenth Century 398 
 
 Soldiers, Sixth to Twelfth Century 3 
 
 Sportsman, Sixteenth Century. . . . 18-3 
 
 Ghent, Civic Guard of 48 
 
 Gibbet of Montfaucon, The 423 
 
 Gipsies Fortune-telling 459 
 
 on the March 4;] 7 
 
 Gipsy Encampment 402 
 
 ., Family, A 401 
 
 who used to wash bis Hands in 
 
 Molten Lead 4 05 
 
 Goldbeater 278 
 
 Goldsmith 278 
 
 Goldsmiths of Ghent, Names and Titles of 
 some of the Members of the Cor- 
 poration of, Fifteenth Century 293 
 ,, Group of, Seventeenth Century . . 2S3 
 Grain-measurers of Ghent, Aims of the. . . . 113 
 
 Grape, Treading the 117 
 
 Grocer and Druggist, Shop of a, Seven- 
 teenth Century 164 
 
 Hanging to Music 425 
 
 Hare, How to allure the 182 
 
 Hatter 277 
 
 Hawking, Lady setting out. Fourteenth 
 
 Century 200 
 
 Hawks, Young, how to make them fly, 
 
 Fourteenth Century 205 
 
 Hay-earriers, Sixteenth Century 259 
 
 Herald, Fourteenth Century 483 
 
 Heralds, Lodge of the 14 
 
 Heron-hawking, Fourteenth Century .... 210 
 
 Hostelry, Interior of an, Sixteenth Century 149 
 
 Hotel des Lrsins, Paris, Fourteenth Century 9 1 
 
 Hunting-meal 103 
 
 Imperial Procession 491 
 
 Infant Richard, The, crucified by the Jews 
 
 at Pontoise 412 
 
 Irmensul and Crodou, Idols of the Ancient 
 
 Saxons 3S7 
 
 Page 
 
 Iron Cage 432 
 
 Issue de Table, The 167 
 
 Italian Beggar 4 76 
 
 Jew, Fourteenth Centuiy 450 
 
 Kitchen, Inferior of 162 
 
 Nobleman, Fifteenth Century 25 
 
 Jacques Coaur, Amende honorable of, before 
 
 Charles VII 333 
 
 ,, House of, at Bourges 331 
 
 Jean Jouvenel des Ursins, Provost of Paris, 
 and Michelle do Vitry, his Wife (Reign 
 
 of Charles VI.) .....' 35 
 
 Jerusalem, View and Plan of 453 
 
 Jew, Legend of a, calling the Devil from a 
 
 Vessel of Blood 452 
 
 Jewish Ceremony before the Ark 455 
 
 ,, Conspiracy in France 446 
 
 Procession 4 tg 
 
 Jews taking the Blood from Christian Chil- 
 dren 438 
 
 ., of Cologne burnt alive, The 444 
 
 ,, Expulsion of the, in the Reign of the 
 
 Emperor Hadrian 435 
 
 ., Secret Meeting of the 440 
 
 John the Baptist, Decapitation of 411 
 
 John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, 
 
 Assassination of 328 
 
 Judge. Fifteenth Century 37/ 
 
 Judicial Duel, The ' 3.32 
 
 Jugglers exhibiting Monkeys and Bears, 
 
 Thirteenth Century 225 
 
 performing in Public, Thirteenth 
 
 Century 22" 
 
 King-at-Arms presenting the Sword to the 
 
 Due de Bourbon 502 
 
 King's Court, The, or Grand Council, Fif- 
 teenth Century 3,59 
 
 Kitchen, Interior of a, Sixteenth Century . . 155, 159 
 
 ,, and 'fable Utensils 157 
 
 Knife-handles in Ivory, Sixteenth Century 175 
 
 Knight in War-harness 16 
 
 Knight and ins Lady, Fourteenth Century 73 
 Knights and Men-at-Arms of the Reign of 
 
 Louis le Gros 11 
 
 Labouring Colons, Twelfth Century .... 12, 13 
 
 Lambert of Liege, St., Chimes of the Clock of 50 
 
 Landgrave of Thuringia and his Wile .... 390 
 
 Lawyer, Sixteenth Century 378 
 
 Leopard, Hunting with the, Sixteenth Cen- 
 
 inr Y 193 
 
 Lubeek and its Harbour, View of, Sixteenth 
 
 Century 2 61 
 
 Maidservants, Dress of, Thirteenth Century 90 
 
 Mallet, Louis de, Admiral of France 82 
 
EXGRAV/XGS. 
 
 xvn 
 
 Page 
 
 Mark's Place, St. .Venice, Sixteenth Century 44 
 Marseilles and its Harbour, View and Plan 
 
 of, Sixteenth Century 255 
 
 Measurers of Corn, Paris, Sixteenth ( 'entury 259 
 
 Measuring- Salt 321 
 
 Merchant Vessel in a Storm 254 
 
 Merchants and Lion-keepers at Constanti- 
 nople 221 
 
 Merchants of Rouen, Medal to commemorate 
 
 the Association of the 'J07 
 
 Merchants of Rouen, Painting commemora- 
 tive of the Union of Seventeenth Ceiiturv 29S 
 Merchants orTradesmen.Pourteenth ( 'entury 273 
 
 Metals, The Extraction of 3U1 
 
 Miller, The, Sixteenth Century 1U7 
 
 Mint. The, Sixteenth Century 335 
 
 Musician accompanying' the- Dancing 245 
 
 New-born Child. The 86 
 
 Nicholas Flamel, and Pernelle, his Wife, 
 
 from :i Painting of the Fifteenth ('entury 93 
 Nobility, Costumes of the. from the Seventh 
 
 to the Ninth Century 02 
 
 Ladiesof tlit-, in the Ninth Century 64 
 Noble Ladies and Children, Dress of, Four- 
 teenth Century 77 
 
 Noble Lady and Maid of Honour, Four- 
 teenth Century 7ft 
 
 Noble of Provence, Fifteenth Century .... 198 
 
 Nobleman hunting 33 
 
 Nogent-le-Rotrou. Tower of the Castle of. . 65 
 
 Nut-crackers, Sixteenth Century 175 
 
 Occupations of the Peasants 95 
 
 Officers of the Table and of the Chamber of 
 
 the Imperial Court 171 
 
 Oil. The Manufacture of. Sixteenth Century 135 
 
 Old Man of the Mountain, The 3*5 
 
 Oliiant, or Hunting-horn, Fourteenth Cen- 
 tury 166 
 
 details of 197 
 
 Orphans, Callots, and Family of the Grand 
 
 Coesre, Fifteenth Century 467 
 
 Palace, The, Sixteenth Century 355 
 
 Palace of the Doges, Interior I 'ourt of the 460 
 
 Paris, View of 471 
 
 Partridges, Way to catch 160 
 
 Paying Toll on passing a Bridge 315 
 
 Peasant Dances at the May Feasts 212 
 
 Pheasant-fowling, Fourteenth Century .... 214 
 
 Philippe )e Pel in War-dress 71 
 
 Pillory, View of the, in the Market-place of 
 
 Paris, Sixteenth Century 426 
 
 Pin and Needle Maker 279 
 
 Ploughmen. Fac-simile of a Miniature in 
 
 very ancient Anglo-Saxon Manuscript . . 19 
 
 Pond Fisherman, The 140 
 
 l ' a S B 
 
 Pool aux Lhangeurs, A law ol the ancient. . 316 
 
 Pork-butcher, The, Fourteenth Century .. 122 
 
 Poulterer, The, Sixteenth Century 12S 
 
 Poultry-dealer, The 160 
 
 Powder-horn, Sixteenth Century 216 
 
 Piovost's Prison, The 429 
 
 Provosfship of the Merchants of Paris, As- 
 sembly of the, Sixteenth ( 'entury 379 
 
 Punishment by Fire, The 415 
 
 Purse or Leather Pag, with Knife or Dagger, 
 
 Fiiteenth ( 'entury ... 101 
 
 Receiver of Taxes. The 336 
 
 Remy, St., Bishop of Pheims, begging of 
 Clovis the restitution of the Sacred Vase, 
 
 Fifteenth Century 57 
 
 Liver Fisherman, Tee, Sixteenth (.'entury 141 
 
 Roi de l'Epinette, Entry of the, at Lille. ... 034 
 
 Roman Soldiers, Sixth to Twelfth Century 3 
 
 Royal Costume 524 
 
 luif.s and MiUards, Fifteenth Century . . . 469 
 
 Sainte-Genevievc, Front of the Church el' 
 
 the Abbey of 40 
 
 Sale by Town-Crier . . 309 
 
 Salt-cellar, enamelled, Sixteenth ( 'i ntury, . 173 
 
 Sandal or Buskin of ( 'harlernagne 509 
 
 Saxony, fluke of 393 
 
 Sbirro, Chief of 464 
 
 Seal of the Butchers of Bruges in 1356 .... 125 
 Corporation of Carpenters of St. 
 
 Trend (Belgium) 270 
 
 ., Corporation of Clothworkers of 
 
 Bruges °.76 
 
 Corporation of Fullers of St. 
 
 Trend 276 
 
 Corporation of Joiners of Bruges 'J70 
 .. ... Slioemcakeis of 
 
 St. Trend 276 
 
 Corporation of Woolweavers of 
 
 Hasselt 276 
 
 ., Free Count Hans Vollmar von 
 
 Twern 362 
 
 Free Count Heinrich Beckmann 166, 
 
 ,, Herman Loseekin . . 392 
 
 ,, Johann On ippe ... 392 
 
 King Chilpcric 3S0 
 
 United Trades of Client, Fif- 
 teenth Century 271 
 
 Seat of Justice held by Philippe de Valois. . 196 
 Secret Tribunal, Execution of the Sentences 
 
 of the 365 
 
 Scmur, Tower of the Castle of 65 
 
 Serf or Vassal, Tenth Century 20 
 
 Serjeants-at-Arms, Fourteenth Century .... 373 
 Shepherds celebrating the Birth of the. 
 
 Messiah 103 
 
 Shoemaker 2M> 
 
XYUI 
 
 ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 Page 
 Shops under Covered Market, Fifteenth 
 
 Century 292 
 
 Shout and blow Hums, How to 184 
 
 Simon, Martyrdom of, at Trent 443 
 
 Slaves or Serfs, Sixth to Twelfth Century . . 4 
 
 Somersaults 233 
 
 Sport with Dogs, Fourteenth Century 211 
 
 Spring-hoard, The 234 
 
 Spur-maker 2S0 
 
 Squirrels, Way to eateh 189 
 
 Stag, How to kill and cut up a, Fifteenth 
 
 Century 133 
 
 Staircase of the Office of the Goldsmiths of 
 
 Rouen, Fifteenth Century 291 
 
 Stall of Carved Wood, Fifteenth Century. . 120 
 
 Standards of the Church and the Empire . . 493 
 
 State Banquet, Sixteenth Century 131 
 
 Stcertebeck, Execution of 262 
 
 Styli, Fourteenth Century 76 
 
 Swineherd 119 
 
 Swiss Grand Provost 412 
 
 Sword-danee to the Sound of the Bagpipe, 
 
 Fourteenth Century 224 
 
 Sword-maker 280 
 
 Table of a Baron, Thirteenth Century .... 169 
 
 Tailor 277 
 
 Talehot the Hunchback 472 
 
 Tinman 281 
 
 Tithe of Beer, Fifteenth Century 37 
 
 Token of the Corporation of Carpenters of 
 
 Antwerp .. 276 
 ,, Carpenters of 
 
 Mae'stricht 276 
 
 Toll und, r the Bridges of Paris 321 
 
 ,, on Markets, levied by a Cleric, Fif- 
 teenth Century 307 
 
 Torture of the Wheel, Demons applying 
 
 the 421 
 
 Tagc c 
 Tournaments in Honour of the Entry ol 
 
 Queen Isabel into Paris 495 ; 
 
 Tower of the Temple, Paris 312 | 
 
 Trade on the Seaports of the Levant, Fif- 
 teenth Century 252 ! 
 
 Transport of Merchandise on the Hacks of 
 
 Camels 250 
 
 University of Paris, Follows of the', haran- 
 guing the Emperor Charles IV 38 
 
 Varlet or Squire carrying a Halberd, Fif- 
 teenth Century 30 
 
 View of Alexandria, Sixteenth Century .... 210 
 
 Village Feast, Sixteenth Century 101 
 
 Village pillaged by Soldiers 338 
 
 Villain, the Covetous and Avaricious 99 
 
 ,, the Egotistical and Envious 98 
 
 ,, or Peasant, Fifteenth Century .... 23 
 
 receiving his Lord's Orders 96 
 
 Vine, Culture of the 117 
 
 Vintagers, The, Thirteenth Century 117 
 
 Votive Altar of the Xautes Parisiens 142 
 
 Water Torture, The 409 
 
 Weight in Brass of the Fish-market at 
 
 Mans, Sixteenth Century 208 
 
 Whale Fishing 25? 
 
 William, Duke of Normandy, Eleventh 
 
 Century 46 
 
 Winegrower, The 118 
 
 Wire-worker 279 
 
 Wolves, how they may be caught with a 
 
 Snare 191 
 
 Woman under the Safeguard of Knight- 
 hood, Fifteenth Century 66 
 
 Women of the Court, Sixth to Tenth Century 39 
 Woodcock, Mode of catching a, Fourteenth 
 
 Century 215 
 
MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND DRESS 
 
 THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND DRESS 
 
 THE MIDDLE AGES, 
 
 ANI) DURING 
 
 THE RENAISSANCE PEEIOD. 
 
 CONDITION OF PERSONS AND LANDS. 
 
 Disorganization of the West at the Beginning of the Middle Ages. — Mixture of Roman, Germanic, 
 and Gallic Institutions. — Fusion organized under Charlemagne. — Royal Authority. — Position 
 of the Great Feudalists. — Division of the Territory mid Prerogatives attached to Landed 
 Possessions. — Freemen and Tenants. — The L;eti, the Colon, tie; Self, and the Lahourer, who 
 may he called the Origin of the Modern Lower Classes. — Formation of Communities. — 
 Right of Mortmain. 
 
 [HE period known as the Middle Ages, 
 says the learned Benjamin Guerard, 
 is the produce of Pagan civilisation, 
 of Germanic barbarism, and of Chris- 
 tianity. It began in 470, on the fall 
 of Agustulus, and ended in 1453, at 
 the taking of Constantinople by Ma- 
 homet II., and consequently the fall 
 of two empires, that of the West and 
 that of the East, marks its duration. 
 Its first act, which was due to the Ger- 
 mans, was the destruction of political unity, and this was destined to be after- 
 wards replaced by religious unity. Then we find a multitude of scattered and 
 disorderly influences growing on the ruins of central power. The yoke of 
 imperial dominion was broken by the barbarians ; but the populace, far from 
 acquiring liberty, fell to the lowest degrees of servitude. Instead of one 
 
 i; 
 
 
 ^&^rT^^^^A^^3^ ) 1 
 
 
 faSh- "^BHH 
 
 
 WSFi 
 
 
 
 
CONDITION OF 
 
 despot, it found thousands of tyrants, and it was but slowly and with much 
 trouble that it succeeded in freeing itself from feudalism. Nothing could be 
 more strangely troubled than the West at the time of the dissolution of the 
 Empire of the Crsars ; nothing more diverse or more discordant than the 
 interests, the institutions, and the state of society, which were delivered to the 
 Germans (Figs. 1 and 2). In fact, it would be impossible in the whole pages 
 of history to find a society formed of more heterogeneous or incompatible 
 
 Figs. 1 and 2. — Costumes of the Franks from the Fourth to the" Eighth Centuries, collected by 
 H. de Vielcastel, from original Documents in the great Libraries of Europe. 
 
 elements. On the one side might be placed the Goths, Burgundians, 
 Vandals, Germans, Franks, Saxons, and Lombards, nations, or more strictly 
 hordes, accustomed to rough and successful warfare, and on the other, the 
 Romans, including those peoples who by long servitude to Roman dominion 
 had become closely allied with their conquerors (Fig. 3). There were, on 
 both sides, freemen, freedmen, colons, and slaves ; different ranks and degrees 
 being, however, observable both in freedom and servitude. This hierarchical 
 principle applied itself even to the land, which was divide! into freeholds, 
 
P£RSOXS AXD I.AXDS. 
 
 tributary lauds, lands of the nobility and servile lands, thus constituting 
 the freeholds, the benefices, the fiefs, and the tenures. It may lie added 
 that the customs, and to a certain degree the laws, varied according to the 
 
 Fie*. 3. — Costumes of Roman Soldiers. 
 
 Fig. i. — Costume of Grerman Soldiers. 
 
 From Miniatures on different Manuscripts, from the Sixth to the Twelfth Centimes. 
 
 masters of the country, so that it can hardly be wondered at that everywhere 
 diversity and inequality were to be found, and, as a consequence, that anarchy 
 and confusion ruled supreme. 
 
CONDITION OF 
 
 The Germans (Fig. 4) had brought with them over the Rhine none of the 
 heroic virtues attributed to them by Tacitus when he wrote their history, with 
 the evident intention of making a satire on his countrymen. Amongst the 
 degenerate Romans whom those ferocious Germans had subjugated, civilisa- 
 tion was reconstituted on the ruins of vices common in the early history of a 
 new society by the adoption of a series of loose and dissolute habits, both 
 by the conquerors and the conquered. 
 
 In fact, the conquerors contributed the worse share (Fig. 5) ; for, whilst 
 exercising the low and debasing instincts of their former barbarism, they 
 
 Fig. .5.— Costumes of Slaves or Serfs, from the Sixtli to the Twelfth Centuries, collected by 
 H. do Vielcastel, from original Documents in the great Libraries of Europe. 
 
 undertook the work of social reconstruction with a sort of natural and innate 
 servitude. To them, liberty, the desire for which caused them to brave the 
 greatest dangers, was simply the right of doing evil—of obeying their ardent 
 thirst for plunder. Long ago, in the depths of their forests, they had 
 adopted the curious institution of vassalage. When they came to the West 
 to create States, instead of reducing personal power, every step in their social 
 edifice, from the top to the bottom, was made to depend on individual 
 superiority. To bow to a superior was their first political principle ; and 
 on that principle feudalism was one day to find its base. 
 
PERSONS AND LANDS. 
 
 Servitude was in fact to be found in all conditions and ranks, equally 
 in the palace of the sovereign as in the dwellings of his subjects. The 
 vassal who was waited on at his own table by a varlet, himself served 
 at the table of his lord ; the nobles 
 treated each other likewise, according' 
 to their rank ; and all the exactions 
 which each submitted to from his 
 superiors, and required to be paid to 
 him by those below him, were looked 
 upon not as onerous duties, but as 
 rights and honours. The sentiment 
 of dignity and of personal independ- 
 ence, which has become, so to say, the 
 soul of modern society, did not exist 
 at all, or at least but very slightly, 
 amongst the Germans. If we could 
 doubt the fact, we have but to re- 
 member that these men, so proud, 
 so indifferent to suffering or death, 
 would often think little of staking 
 their liberty in gambling, in the hope 
 that if successful their gain might 
 afford them the means of gratifying 
 some brutal passion. 
 
 "When the Franks took root in 
 Graul, their dress and institutions were 
 adopted by the Roman society (Fig. 6). 
 This had the most disastrous influence 
 in every point of view, and it is easy 
 to prove that civilisation did not 
 emerge from this chaos until by 
 degrees the Teutonic spirit disappeared 
 from the •world. As long as this spirit 
 
 reigned, neither private nor public liberty existed. Individual patriotism 
 only extended as far as the border of a man's family, and the nation became 
 
 Fig. 6. — King- or Chief of Franks armed with 
 the Scramasax, from a Miniature of the Ninth 
 Century, drawn hy H. de Vielcastel. 
 
 broken up into clans. Graul soon found itself parcelled off into domains 
 
CONDITION OF 
 
 which were almost independent of one another. It was thus that Germanic 
 genius became developed. 
 
 The advantages of acting together for mutual protection first established 
 itself in families. If any one suffered from an act of violence, he laid the 
 matter before his relatives for them jointly to seek reparation. The question 
 was then settled between the families of the offended person and the offender, 
 all of whom were equally associated in the object of vindicating a cause 
 
 Fig. 7.— The King- of the Franks, in the midst of the Military Chiefs who formed his Treuste, or 
 armed Court, dictates the Salic Law (Code of the Barbaric Laws). — Fac-simile of a Miniature in 
 the " Chronicles of St. Denis," a Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century (Library of the Arsenal). 
 
 which interested them alone, without recognising any established authority, 
 and without appealing to the law. If the parties had sought the protection or 
 advice of men of power, the quarrel might at once take a wider scope, and 
 tend to kindle a feud between two nobles. In any case the King- onlv 
 interfered when the safety of his person or the interests of his dominions 
 were threatened. 
 
 Penalties and punishments were almost always to be averted by a money 
 
PERSONS AND LANDS. 
 
 payment. A son, for instance, instead of avenging the death of his father, 
 received from the murderer a certain indemnity in specie, according to legal 
 tariff ; and the law was thus satisfied. 
 
 The tariff of indemnities or compensations to he paid for each crime formed 
 the basis of the code of laws amongst the principal tribes of Franks, a code 
 essentially barbarian, and called the Salic law, or law of the Salians (Fig. 7). 
 Such, however, was the spirit of inequality among the German races, 
 that it became an established principle for justice to be subservient to the 
 rank of individuals. The more powerful a man was, the more he was 
 protected by the law ; the lower his rank, the less the law protected him. 
 
 The life of a Frank, by right, was worth twice that of a Roman ; the life 
 of a servant of the King was worth three times that of an ordinary individual 
 who did not possess that protecting tie. On the other hand, punishment was 
 the more prompt and rigorous according to the inferiority of position of the 
 culprit. In case of theft, for instance, a person of importance was brought 
 before the Xing's tribunal, and as it respected the rank held by the accused 
 in the social hierarchy, little or no punishment was awarded. In the case of 
 the same crime by a poor man, on the contrary, the ordinary judge gave 
 immediate sentence, and he was seized and hung on the spot. 
 
 Inasmuch as no political institutions amongst the Germans were nobler or 
 more just than those of the Franks and the other barbaric races, we cannot 
 accept the creed of certain historians who have represented the Germans 
 as the true regenerators of society in Europe. The two sources of modern 
 civilisation are indisputably Pagan antiquity and Christianity. 
 
 After the fall of the Merovingian kings great progress was made in the 
 political and social state of nations. These kings, who were but chiefs 
 of undisciplined bands, were unable to assume a regal character, properly 
 so called. Their authority was more personal than territorial, for incessant 
 changes were made in the boundaries of their conquered dominions. It was 
 therefore with good reason that they styled themselves kings of the Franks, 
 and not kings of France. 
 
 Charlemajme was the first who recognised that social union, so admir- 
 able an example of which was furnished by Roman organization, and who 
 was able, with the very elements of confusion and disorder to which he 
 succeeded, to unite, direct, and consolidate diverging and opposite forces, 
 to establish and regulate public administrations, to found and build towns, 
 
CONDITION OF 
 
 and to form and reconstruct almost a new world (Fig. 8). We hear of him 
 assigning to each his place, creating for all a common interest, making of a 
 crowd of small and scattered peoples a great and powerful nation ; in a 
 
 f 
 
 m mm iRvi 
 
 . Wl* ; p- *%mi S\ IIP 
 
 \ - hi ,2LiLik.i 
 
 K . w Jf§|R 
 
 
 Wf^: 
 
 Fig. 8. — Charles, eldest Son of King Pepin, receives the News of the Death of his Father, and the 
 Great Feudalists offer him the Crown. — Costumes of the Court of Burgundy in the Fifteenth 
 Century. — Fac-simile of a Miniature of the " History of the Emperors " (Library of the Arsenal). 
 
 word, rekindling the beacon of ancient civilisation. When he died, after 
 a most active and glorious reign of forty-five years, he left an immense 
 empire in the most perfect state of peace (Fig. 9). But this magnificent 
 inheritance was unfortunately destined to pass into unworthy or impotent 
 
PEHSOA T S AND LANDS. 
 
 hands, so that society soon fell Lack into anarchy and contusion. The nohles, 
 in their turn invested with power, were continually at war, and gradually 
 weakened the royal authority — the power of the kingdom — by their endless 
 disputes with the Crown and with one another. 
 
 The revolution in society which took place under the Oarlovingian 
 
 Eig. 9. — Portrait of Charlemagne, whom the Song of Roland names the King with the Grizzly 
 Beard. — Fac-similc of an Engraving of the End of the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 dynasty had for its especial object that of rendering territorial what was 
 formerly personal, and, as it were, of destroying personality in matters of 
 government. 
 
 The usurpation of lands by the great having been thus limited by the 
 influence of the lesser holders, everybody tried to become the holder of land. 
 Its possession then formed the basis of social position, and, as a consequence, 
 
CONDITION OF 
 
 individual servitude became lessened, and society assumed a more stable con- 
 dition. The ancient laws of wandering tribes fell into disuse ; and at the 
 same time many distinctions of caste and race disappeared, as they were 
 incompatible with the new order of things. As there were no more Salians, 
 Ripuarians, nor Visigoths among the free men, so there were no more colons, 
 laeti, nor slaves amongst those deprived of liberty. 
 
 Heads of families, on becoming attached to the soil, naturally had 
 other wants and other customs than those which they had delighted 
 in when they were only the chiefs of wandering adventurers. The 
 strength of their followers was not now so important to them as 
 the security of their castles. Fortresses took the place of armed 
 bodies ; and at this time, every one who wished to keep what he had, 
 
 v '!y ; S^Iv ^ l ,>•' |, T'•' 
 
 Figs. 10 and 11. — Present State of the Feudal Castle of Chateau- Gaillard aux Andelys, which 
 was considered one of the strongest Castles of France in the Middle Ages, and was rebuilt in 
 the Twelfth Century by Richard Cceur de Lion. 
 
 entrenched himself to the best of his ability at his own residence. 
 The banks of rivers, elevated positions, and all inaccessible heights, were 
 occupied by towers and castles, surrounded by ditches, which served as 
 strongholds to the lords of the soil (Figs. 10 and 11). These places of 
 defence soon became points for attack. Out of danger at home, many of 
 the nobles kept watch like birds of prey on the surrounding country, and 
 were always ready to fall, not only upon their enemies, but also on their 
 neighbours, in the hope either of robbing them when off their guard, or of 
 obtaining a ransom for any unwary traveller who might fall into their hands. 
 Everywhere society was in ambuscade, and waged civil war — individual 
 against individual — without peace or mercy. Such was the reign of feudalism. 
 It is unnecessary to point out how this system of perpetual petty warfare 
 
PERSONS AND LANDS. 
 
 tended to reduce the power of centralisation, and bow royally itself was 
 weakened towards ibe end of the second dynasty. When tbo descendants of 
 Hugh Capet wished to restore their power by giving- it a larger basis, they 
 were obliged to attack, one after the other, all these strongholds, and practi- 
 cally to re-annex each bet', city, and province held by these petty nionarchs, 
 in order to force their owners to recognise the sovereignty of the King. 
 Centuries of war and negotiations became necessary before the kingdom of 
 France could be, as it were, reformed. 
 
 Fig 12. — Knights and Men-at-arms, cased in Mail, in the Reign of Louis le Gros, from a Miniature 
 in a Psalter written towards the End of the Twelfth Century. 
 
 The corporations and the citizens had great weight in restoring the 
 monarchical power, as well as in forming French nationality ; but by far the 
 best influence brought to bear in the Middle Ages was that of Christianity. 
 The doctrine of one origin and of one final destiny being common to all 
 men of all classes constantly acted as a strong inducement for thinking that 
 all should be equally free. Religious equality paved the way for political 
 equality, and as all Christians were brothers before God, the tendency was for 
 them to become, as citizens, equal also in law. 
 
CONDITION OF 
 
 This transformation, however, was but slow, and followed concurrently 
 the progress made in the security of property. At the onset, the slave only 
 possessed his life, and this was but imperfectly guaranteed to him by the 
 laws of charity ; laws which, however, year by year became of greater power. 
 He afterwards became colon, or labourer (Figs. 13 and 14), working for 
 himself under certain conditions and tenures, paying fines, or services, which, 
 it is true, were often very extortionate. At this time he was considered to 
 belono- to the domain on which he was born, and he was at least sure that 
 that soil would not be taken from him, and that in giving part of his time to 
 his master, he was at liberty to enjoy the rest according to his fancy. The 
 farmer afterwards became proprietor of the soil he cultivated, and master, not 
 only of himself, but of his lands ; certain trivial obligations or fines being all 
 
 Fig. 13. — Labouring Colons (Twelfth Century), after a Miniature in a Manuscript of the 
 Ste. Chapelle, of the National Library of Paris. 
 
 that was required of him, and these daily grew less, and at last disap- 
 peared altogether. Having thus obtained a footing in society, he soon began 
 to take a place in provincial assemblies ; and he made the last bound on 
 the road of social progress, when the vote of his fellow- electors sent him to 
 represent them in the parliament of the kingdom. Thus the people who 
 had begun by excessive servitude, gradually climbed to power. 
 
 We will now describe more in detail the various conditions of persons of 
 the Middle A ges. 
 
 The King, who held his rights by birth, and not by election, enjoyed 
 relatively an absolute authority, proportioned according to the power of his 
 abilities, to the extent of his dominions, and to the devotion of his vassals. 
 Invested with a power which for a long time resembled the command of a 
 
P£XSONS AXD LANDS. 
 
 '3 
 
 general of an army, he had at first no other ministers than the officers to 
 whom he gave full power to act in the provinces, and who decided arbitrarily 
 in the name of, and representing, the King, on all questions of administra- 
 tion. One minister alone approached the King, and that was the chancellor, 
 who verified, sealed, and dispatched all royal decrees and orders. 
 
 As early, however, as the seventh century, a few officers of state appeared, 
 who were specially attached to the King's person or household ; a count of the 
 palace, who examined and directed the suits brought before the throne ; a 
 mayor of the palace, who at one time raised himself from the administration 
 of the royal property to the supreme power ; an arch-chaplain, who presided 
 over ecclesiastical affairs ; a lord of the bedchamber, charged with the 
 
 Fig. 14. — Labouring Colons (Twelfth Century), after a Miniature in a Manuscript of the 
 Ste. Chapelle, of the National Library of Paris. 
 
 treasure of the chamber ; and a count of the stable, charged with the super- 
 intendence of the stables. 
 
 For all important affairs, the King generally consulted the grandees of his 
 court ; but as in the five or six first centuries of monarchy in France the 
 royal residence was not permanent, it is probable the Council of .State was 
 composed in part of the officers who followed the King, and in part of the 
 noblemen who came to visit him, or resided near the place lie happened to 
 be inhabiting. It was only under the Capetians that the Royal Council 
 took a permanent footing, or even assembled at stated periods. 
 
 In ordinary times, that is to say, when he was not engaged in war, the 
 King had few around him besides his family, his personal attendants, and the 
 
'4 
 
 CONDITION OF 
 
 ministers charged with the dispatch of affairs. As he changed from one of 
 his abodes to another he only held his court on the great festivals of the 
 year. 
 
 Fig. 1.5.— The Lords and Barons prove their Nobility by banging their Banners and exposing 
 their Coats- of-arms at the Windows of the Lodge of the Heralds.— After a Miniature of the 
 " Tournaments of King Erne " (Fifteenth Century), BBSS, of the National Library of Paris. 
 
 I T p to the thirteenth century, there was, strictly speaking, no taxation 
 and no public treasury. The King received, through special officers 
 
PERSONS AND LANDS. 15 
 
 appointed for the purpose, tributes either in money or in kind, which were 
 most variable, but often Aery heavy, and drawn almost exclusively from his 
 personal and private properties. In eases of emergency only, lie appealed to 
 his vassals for pecuniary aid. A great number of the grandees, who lived far 
 from the court, either in state offices or on their own fiefs, had establish- 
 ments similar to that of the King. Numerous and considerable privileges 
 elevated them above other free men. The offices and fiefs having become 
 hereditary, the order of nobility followed as a, consequence ; and it then 
 became highly necessary for families to keep their genealogical histories, 
 not only to gratify their pride, but also to give them the necessary titles for 
 the feudal advantages they derived by birth (Fig. 15). Without this right of 
 inheritance, society, which was still unsettled in the Middle Ages, would 
 soon have been dissolved. This great principle, sacred in the eves both of 
 great and small, maintained feudalism, and in s<> doing it maintained itself 
 amidst all the chaos and confusion of repeated revolutions and social dis- 
 turbances. 
 
 "We have already stated, and wc cannot sufficiently insist upon this 
 important point, that from the day on which the adventurous habits of the 
 chiefs of Germanic origin gave place to the desire for territorial possessions, 
 the part played by the land increased insensibly towards defining the position 
 of the persons holding it. Domains became small kingdoms, over which the 
 lord assumed the most absolute and arbitrary rights. A rule was soon 
 established, 'that the nobility was inherent to the soil, and consequently that 
 the land ought to transmit to its possessors the rights of nobility. 
 
 This privilege was so much accepted, that the long tenure of a fief ended 
 by ennobling the commoner. Subsequently, by a sort of compensation which 
 naturally followed, lands on which rent had hitherto been paid became free 
 and noble on passing to the possession of a noble. At last, however, the 
 contrary rule prevailed, which caused the lands not to change quality in 
 chansing owners : the noble could still possess the labourer's lands without 
 losing his nobility, but the labourer could be proprietor of a fief without 
 thereby becoming a noble. 
 
 To the comites, who, according to Tacitus, attached themselves to the 
 fortunes of the Germanic chiefs, succeeded the Merovingian leudes, whose 
 assembly formed the King's Council. These leudes were persons of great 
 importance owing to the number of their vassals, and although they composed 
 
1 6 
 
 CONDITION OF 
 
 his ordinary Council, the)- did not hesitate at times to declare themselves 
 openly opposed to his will. 
 
 Fig. 16. — Knight in War-harness, after a Miniature, in a Psalter written and illuminated 
 
 under Louis le Gros. 
 
 The name of leudes was abandoned under the second of the then French 
 dynasties, and replaced by that of fidbles, which, in truth, soon became a 
 common designation of both the vassals of the Crown and those of the nobility. 
 
P£7iS02VS AND LANDS. 
 
 17 
 
 Under the kings of the third dynasty, the kingdom was divided into 
 about one hundred and fifty domains, which were called great fiefs of the 
 crown, and which were possessed in hereditary right by the members of 
 the highest nobility, placed immediately under the royal sovereignty and 
 dependence. 
 
 \ assals emanating directly from the Xing, were then generally designated 
 by the title of barons, and mostly possessed strongholds. The other nobles 
 indiscriminately ranked as cheraliers or oughts, a generic title, to which was 
 
 Fig. 17. — Ivin^ Charlemagne receiving the < >ath of Fidelity ami Homage from one of his great 
 Feudatories or High Barons. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in ( 'am™, of tin.' " Chronicles of St. 
 Denis." Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century (Lihrary of the Arsenal). 
 
 added that of banneret. The fiefs of hauberk were bound to supply the 
 sovereign with a certain number of knights covered with coats of mail 
 and completely armed. All knights were mounted in war (Fig. 16) ; but 
 knights who were made so in consequence of their high birth must not 
 be confounded with those who became knights by some great feat in arms 
 in the house of a prince or high noble, nor with the members of the 
 different orders of chivalry which were successively instituted, such as the 
 Knights of the Star, the Genet, the Golden Fleece, Saint-Esprit, St. John 
 
CONDITION OF 
 
 of Jerusalem, &c. Originally, the possession of a benefice or fief meant 
 no more than the privilege of enjoying the profits derived from the land, 
 a concession which made the holder dependent upon the proprietor. He 
 was in fact his " man," to whom he owed homage (Fig. 17), service in 
 case of war, and assistance in any suit the proprietor might have before the 
 King's tribunal. The chiefs of German bands at first recompensed their 
 companions in arms by giving them fiefs of parts of the territory which 
 they had conquered ; but later on, everything was equally given to be held in 
 fief, namely, dignities, offices, rights, and incomes or titles. 
 
 It is important to remark (and it is in this alone that feudalism shows 
 its social bearing), that if the vassal owed obedience and devotion to his lord, 
 the lord in exchange owed protection to the vassal. The rank of " free man" 
 did not necessarily require the possession of land ; but the position of free men 
 who did not hold fiefs was extremel)' delicate and often painful, for they were 
 by natural right dependent upon those on whose domain they resided. In 
 fact, the greater part of these nobles without lands became by choice 
 the King's men, and remained attached to his service. If this failed them, 
 they took lands on lease, so as to support themselves and their families, 
 and to avoid falling into absolute servitude. In the event of a change 
 of proprietor, they changed with the land into new hands. Neverthe- 
 less, it was not uncommon for them to be so reduced as to sell their 
 freedom ; but in such cases they reserved the right, should better times 
 come, of re-purchasing their liberty by paying one-fifth more than the sum 
 for which they had sold it. 
 
 We thus see that in olden times, as also later, freedom was more or less 
 the natural consequenee of the possession of wealth or power on the part of 
 individuals or families who considered themselves free in the midst of 
 general dependence. During the tenth century, indeed, if not impossible, 
 it was at least difficult to find a single inhabitant of the kingdom of France 
 who was not "the man" of some one, and who was either tied by rides of a 
 liberal order, or else was under the most servile obligations. 
 
 The property of the free men was originally the " rrkv," which was under 
 the jurisdiction of the royal magistrates. The aleu gradually lost the greater 
 part of its franchise, and became liable to the common charges due on lands 
 which were not freehold. 
 
 In ancient times, all landed property of a certain extent was composed of 
 
PERSONS AND LANDS. 
 
 iy 
 
 two distinct parts : one, occupied by the owner, constituted the domain or 
 manor ; the other, divided between persons who were more or less dependent, 
 formed what were called tenures. These tenure* were again divided accord- 
 ing to the position of those who occupied them: if they were possessed by free 
 men, who took the name of vassals, they were called benefices or fiefs ; if 
 they were let to kcti, colons, or serfs, they were then called colonies or 
 demesnes. 
 
 The Iivti occupied a rank between the colon and the serf. They had less 
 liberty than the colon, over whom the proprietor only had an indirect and very 
 
 5fito) s$tbt f e #o^:£ mk n fywotA 
 
 Fig. 18. — Ploughmen. — Far-simile of a Miniature in a very ancient Anglo-Saxon Manuscript, 
 published by Shaw, with legend " God Spede ye Plough, and send us Korne enow." 
 
 limited power. The colon only served the land, whilst the kcti, whether 
 agriculturists or servants, served both the land and the owner (Fig. 18). 
 They nevertheless enjoyed the right of possession, and of defending them- 
 selves, or prosecuting by law. The serf, on the contrary, had neither city, 
 tribunal, nor family. The lseti had, besides, the power of purchasing their 
 liberty when they had amassed sufficient for the purpose. 
 
 Serfs occupied the lowest position in the social ladder (Fig. 19). They 
 succeeded to slaves, thus making, thanks to Christianity, a step towards 
 
CONDITION OF 
 
 liberty. Although the civil laws barely protected them, those of the Church 
 continually stepped in and defended them from arbitrary despotism. The 
 time came when they had no direct masters, and when the almost absolute 
 dependence of serfs was changed by the nobles requiring them to farm 
 the land and pay tithes and fees. And lastly, they became farmers, and 
 regular taxes took the place of tithes and fees. 
 
 The colons, hcti, and serfs, all of whom were more or less tillers of the 
 soil, were, so to speak, the ancestors of "the people " of modern times; 
 those who remained devoted to agriculture were the ancestors of our peasants; 
 
 Fig. 19.— Serf or Vassal of Tenth Century, from Miniatures in the "Dialogues of St. Gregory," 
 Manuscript No, 9917 (Eoyal Lifjrary of Brussels). 
 
 and those who gave themselves up to trades and commerce in the towns, 
 were the originators of the middle classes. 
 
 As early as the commencement of the third royal dynasty we find in 
 the rural districts, as well as in the towns, a great number of free men ; and 
 as the charters concerning the condition of lands and persons became more 
 and more extended, the tyranny of the great was reduced, and servitude 
 decreased. During the following centuries, the establishment of civic bodies 
 and the springing up of the middle classes (Fig. 20) made the acquisition 
 of liberty more easy and more general. Nevertheless, this liberty was rather 
 theoretical than practical ; for if the nobles granted it nominally, they gave it 
 
P£XSOA T S AX J) LANDS. 
 
 at the cost of excessive fines, and the community, which purchased at a high 
 price the right of self-administration, did net get rid of any of tin- feudal 
 charges imposed upon it. 
 
 Fortunately for the progress of liberty, the civic bodies, as if they had 
 been providentially warned of the future in store for them, never hesitated 
 to accept from their lords, ei\ il or ecclesiastical, conditions, onerous though 
 they were, which enabled them to exist in the interior of the cities to which 
 
 Fig 20. — Bourgeois at the End of Thirteenth Century. — Fac-simile of Miniature in Manuscript 
 No. 6820, in the Xational Library of Paris. 
 
 they belonged. They formed a sort of small state, almost independent for 
 private affairs, subject to the absolute power of the King, and more or less 
 tied by their customs or agreements with the local nobles. They held public 
 assemblies and elected magistrates, whose powers embraced both the adminis- 
 tration of civil and criminal justice, police, finance, and the militia. They 
 generally had fixed and written laws. Protected by ramparts, each possessed 
 
CONDITION OF 
 
 a town-hall (hotel de ville), a seal, a treasury, and a watch-tower, and it 
 could arm a certain number of men, either for its own defence or for the 
 service of the noble or sovereign under whom it held its rights. 
 
 In no case could a community such as this exist without the sanction of 
 the King, who placed it under the safeguard of the Crown. At first the 
 kings, blinded by a covetous policy, only seemed to see in the issue of these 
 charters an excellent pretext for extorting money. If they consented to 
 recognise them, and even to help them against their lords, it was on 
 account of the enormous sacrifices made by the towns. Later on, however 
 they affected, on the contrary, the greatest generosity towards the vassals 
 who wished to incorporate themselves, when they had understood that these 
 institutions might become powerful auxiliaries against the great titulary 
 feudalists ; but from the reign of Louis XL, when the power of the nobles 
 was much diminished, and no longer inspired any terror to royalty, the 
 kings turned against their former allies, the middle classes, and deprived 
 them successively of all the prerogatives which could prejudice the rights 
 of the Crown. 
 
 The middle classes, it is true, acquired considerable influence afterwards 
 by participation in the general and provincial councils. After having 
 victoriously struggled against the clergy and nobility, in the assemblies 
 of the three states or orders, they ended by defeating royalty itself. 
 
 Louis le Gros, in whose orders the style or title of bourgeois first appears 
 (1134), is generally looked upon as the founder of the franchise of com- 
 munities in France ; but it is proved that a certain number of communities 
 or corporations were already formally constituted, before his accession to the 
 throne. 
 
 The title of bourgeois was not, however, given exclusively to inhabitants 
 of cities. It often happened that the nobles, with the intention of improving 
 and enriching their domains, opened a kind of asylum, under the attractive 
 title of Free Towns, or New Towns, where they offered, to all wishing to 
 establish themselves, lands, houses, and a more or less extended share of 
 privileges, rights, and liberties. These congregations, or families, soon 
 became boroughs, and the inhabitants, though agriculturists, took the name 
 of bourgeois. 
 
 There was also a third kind of bourgeois, whose influence on the exten- 
 sion of royal power was not less than that of the others. There were free 
 
P£ASOA r S A. YD LAXDS. 
 
 2 3 
 
 men who, under the title of bourgeois of the King (bourgeois ihi Roy), kept their 
 liberty by virtue of letters of protection given them by the King, although they 
 were established on lands of nobles whose inhabitants were deprived of liberty. 
 Further, when a vilain — that is to say, the serf of a noble— bought a lease 
 of land in a royal borough, it was an established custom that after having 
 lived there a year and a dav without being' reclaimed by his lord and master, 
 
 Fig. 21. — Costume of a Vilain or Peasant, Fifteenth Century, from a Miniature of " La Danse 
 Macabre," Manuscript 7310 of the National Library of Paris. 
 
 lie became a bourgeois of the King and a free man. In consequence of this 
 the serfs and vilains (Fig. ','lj emigrated from all parts, in order to profit by 
 these advantages, to such a degree, that the lands of the nobles became 
 deserted by all the serfs of different degrees, and were in danger of remaining 
 uncultivated. The nobility, in the interests of their properties, and to arrest 
 this increasing emigration, devoted themselves to improving the condition of 
 
2+ CONDITION OF 
 
 persons placed under their dependence, and attempted to create on their 
 domains boroughs analogous to those of royalty. But however liberal these 
 ameliorations might appear to be, it was difficult for the nobles not only 
 to concede privileges equal to those emanating from the throne, but also 
 to ensure equal protection to those they thus enfranchised. In spite 
 of this, however, the result was that a double current of enfranchisement 
 was established, which resulted in the daily diminution of the miserable 
 order of serfs, and which, whilst it emancipated the lower orders, had the 
 immediate result of giving increased weight and power to royalty, both in 
 its own domains and in those of the nobility and their vassals. 
 
 These social revolutions did not, of course, operate suddenly, nor did they 
 at once abolish former institutions, for we still find, that after the establish- 
 ment of communities and corporations, several orders of servitude remained. 
 
 At the close of the thirteenth century, on the authority of Philippe de 
 Beaumanoir, the celebrated editor of " Coutumes de Beauvoisis," there were 
 three states or orders amongst the laity, namely, the nobleman (Fig. 22), the 
 free-man, and the serf. All noblemen were free, but all free men were not 
 necessarily noblemen. Generally, nobility descended from the father and 
 franchise from the mother. But according to many other customs of 
 France, the child, as a general rule, succeeded to the lower rank of his 
 parents. There were two orders of serfs : one rigorousty held in the 
 absolute dependence of his lord, to such a degree that the latter could 
 appropriate during their life, or after death if he chose, all they possessed ; 
 he could imprison them, ill-treat them as he thought proper, without having 
 to answer to any one but God ; the other, though held equally in bondage, 
 was more liberally treated, for " unless he was guilt} r of some evil-doing, the 
 lord could ask of him nothing during his life but the fees, rents, or fines 
 which he owed on account of his servitude." If one of these latter class of 
 serf's married a free woman, everything which they possessed became the 
 property of their lord. The same was the case when they died, for they could 
 not transmit any of their goods to their children, and were only allowed to 
 dispose by will of a sum of about five sous, or about twenty-five francs of 
 modern money. 
 
 As early as the fourteenth century, serfdom or servitude no longer existed 
 except in " mortmain," of which we still have to speak. 
 
 Mortmain consisted of the privation of the right of freely disposing 
 
rw®jj* 
 
 THE COURT OF MARY OF AN.IOU, WIFE OF CHARLES VII. 
 
 Her chaplain the learned Robert Blonde] presents hot with the allegorical Treatise 
 
 of the "Twelve Perils of Ikfl." 
 
 Which he composed for her ( I i.i5). 
 
 Fae-simile of a miniature from this work. Bibl. de l'Arsenal, Paris. 
 
PEXSOXS and lands. 2 - 
 
 of one's person or goods. He who had not tho power of going where he 
 would, of giving or selling, of leaving by will or transferring his property, 
 fixed or movable, as he thought best, was called a man of mortmain. 
 
 
 Fig. 22. — Italian Nobleman of the Fifteenth ( lentury. From a Playing-card engraved on Copper 
 about 1460 (Cabinet des Estampes, National Library of Paris). 
 
 This name was apparently chosen because (lie hand, " considered tho symbol 
 of power and the instrument of donation," was deprived of movement, 
 paralysed, in fact struck as by death. It was also nearly in this sense, that 
 
26 
 
 CONDITION OF 
 
 men of the Church were also called men of mortmain, because they were 
 equally forbidden to dispose, either in life, or by will after death, of anything 
 belonging to them. 
 
 There were two kinds of mortmain : real and personal ; one concerning 
 land, and the other concerning the person ; that is to say, land held in 
 mortmain did not change quality, whatever might be the position of the 
 person who occupied it, and a "man of mortmain" did not cease to suffer 
 the inconveniences of his position on whatever land he went to establish 
 himself. 
 
 The mortmains were generally subject to the greater share of feudal 
 obligations formerly imposed on serfs ; these were particularly to work for a 
 certain time for their lord without receiving any wages, or else to pay him 
 the tax when it was due, on certain definite occasions, as for example, when 
 he married, when he gave a dower to his daughter, when he was taken 
 prisoner of war, when he went to the Holy Land, &c, &c. What particularly 
 characterized the condition of mortmains was, that the lords had the right to 
 take all their goods when they died without issue, or when the children held 
 a separate household ; and that they could not dispose of anything they 
 possessed, either by will or gift, beyond a certain sum. 
 
 The noble who franchisee! mortmains, imposed on them in almost all 
 cases very heavy conditions, consisting of fees, labours, and fines of all sorts. 
 In fact, a mortmain person, to be free, not only required to be franchisee! 
 by his own lord, but also by all the nobles on whom he was dependent, as 
 well as by the sovereign. If a noble franchised without the consent of his 
 superiors, he incurred a fine, as it was considered a dismemberment or depre- 
 ciation of the fief. 
 
 As early as the end of the fourteenth century, the rigorous laws of 
 mortmain began to fall into disuse in the provinces ; though if the name 
 began to disappear, the condition itself continued to exist. The free men, 
 whether they belonged to the middle class or to the peasantry, were never- 
 theless still subject to pay fines or obligations to their lords of such a nature 
 that they must be considered to have been practically in the same position as 
 mortmains. In fact, this custom had been so deeply rooted into social habits 
 by feudalism, that to make it disappear totally at the end of the eighteenth 
 century, it required three decrees of the National Convention (July 17 and 
 October 2, 1793 ; and 8 Ventose, year II.— that is, March 2, 1794). 
 
PERSONS AND LANDS. 
 
 2 7 
 
 It is only just to state, that twelve or fourteen years earlier, Louis XVI. 
 had clone all in his power towards the same purpose, by suppressing mortmain, 
 both real or personal, on the lands of the Crown, and personal mortmain 
 (i.e. the right of following moil mains out of their original districts) all over 
 the kingdom. 
 
 !•>. 23.— Alms Bag taken from sume Tapestry in Orleans, Fifteenth Century. 
 
PRIVILEGES AND EIGHTS, 
 
 FEUDAL AND MUNICIPAL. 
 
 Elements of Feudalism. — Eights of Treasure-trove, Sporting, Safe Conducts, Ransom, Disin- 
 heritance, &e, — Immunity of (lie Feudalists. — Dues from the Nobles to their Sovereign. — Law 
 and University' Dues. — Curious Exactions resulting from the Universal System of Dues. — 
 Struggles to Enfranchise the Classes subjected to Dues. — Feudal Spirit and Citizen Spirit. — 
 Resuscitation of the System of Ancient Municipalities in Italy, German} 1 , and France. — 
 Municipal Institutions and Associations. — The Community. — The Middle-Class Cities (Cites 
 Bourgeoises). — Origin of National Unity. 
 
 as to understand the numerous charges, 
 dues, and servitudes, often as quaint 
 as iniquitous and vexatious, which 
 weighed on the lower orders during 
 the Middle Ages, we must remember 
 how the upper class, who assumed to 
 itself the privilege of oppression on 
 lands and persons under the feudal 
 system, was constituted. 
 
 The Roman nobles, heirs to their 
 fathers' agricultural dominions, suc- 
 ceeded for the most part in preserving through the successive invasions of 
 the barbarians, the influence attached to the prestige of birth and wealth ; 
 they still possessed the greater part of the land and owned as vassals the 
 rural populations. The German nobles, on the contrary, had not such 
 extended landed properties, but they appropriated all the strongest positions. 
 The dukes, counts, and marquises were generally of German origin. The 
 Roman race, mixed with the blood of the various nations it had subdued, 
 was the first to infuse itself into ancient society, and only furnished barons 
 of a secondary order. 
 
 These heterogeneous elements, brought together with the object of 
 
PRIVILEGES AND RIGHTS, FEUDAL AXD MUNICIPAL. 2q 
 
 common dominion, constituted a body who found life and motion only in the 
 traditions of Rome and ancient Germany. From those two historical sources, 
 as is very judiciously pointed out by M. Mary-Luton, issued all the habits 
 of the new society, and particularly the rights and privileges assumed by 
 the nobility. 
 
 These rights and privileges, which we are about to pass summarily in 
 review, were numerous, and often curious : amongst them may be men- 
 tioned the rights of treasure-trove, the rights of wreck, the rights of esta- 
 blishing fairs or markets, rights of marque, of sporting, &c. 
 
 The rights of treasure-trove were those which gave full power to dukes 
 and counts over all minerals found on their properties. It was in asserting 
 this right that the famous Richard Occur de Lion, King of England, met his 
 death. Adhemar, Viscount of Limoges, had discovered in a field a treasure, 
 of which, no doubt, public report exaggerated the value, for it was said to 
 be large enough to model in pure gold, and life-size, a Roman emperor ami 
 the members of his family, at table. Adhemar was a vassal of the Luke of 
 Guienne, and, as a matter of course, set aside what was considered the 
 sovereign's share in his discovery; but Richard, refusing to concede any 
 part of his privilege, claimed the whole treasure. On the refusal of the 
 viscount to give it up he appeared under arms before the gates of the Castle 
 of Chalus, where he supposed that the treasure was hidden. On seeing 
 the royal standard, the garrison offered to open the gates. " No," answered 
 Richard, "since you have forced me to unfurl my banner, I shall only enter 
 by the breach, and you shall all be hung on the battlements." The siege 
 commenced, and did not at first seem to favour the English, for the 
 besieged made a noble stand. One evening, as his troops were assaulting 
 the place, in order to witness the scene, Richard was sitting at a short 
 distance on a piece of rock, protected with a target — that is, a. large shield 
 covered with leather and blades of iron — which two archers held over him. 
 Impatient to see the result of the assault, Richard pushed down the shield, 
 and that moment decided his fate (1199). An archer of Chalus, who had 
 recognised him and was watching from the top of the rampart, sent a bolt 
 from a crossbow, which hit him full in the chest. The Mound, however, 
 would perhaps not have been mortal, but, shortly after, having carried 
 the place by storm, and in his delight at finding the treasure almost intact, 
 he gave himself up madly to degrading orgies, during which he had already 
 
PRIVILEGES AXD RIGH'IS, 
 
 dissipated the greater part of Lis treasure, and died of his wound twelve 
 days later; first haying, however, graciously pardoned the low man who 
 caused his death. 
 
 The right of shipwrecks, which the nobles of seaboard countries rarely 
 renounced, and of which they were the more jealous from the fact that 
 they had continually to dispute them with their vassals and neighbours, was 
 
 Figs. 24 and 25. — Tarletor Squire carrying a Halberd with a thick Blade; and Archer, in Fighting 
 Dress, drawing the String of his Crossbow with a double-handled "Winch, — From the Miniatures 
 of the " Jouvencel," and the ' c Chroniqu.es " of Froissart, Manuscripts of the Fifteenth Century 
 (Imperial Library of Paris). 
 
 the pitiless and barbaric right of appropriating the contents of ships 
 happening to be wrecked on their shores. 
 
 When the feudal nobles granted to their vassals the right of assembling 
 on certain days, in order to hold fairs and markets, they never neglected to 
 reserve to themselves some tax on each head of cattle, as well as on the 
 
FEUDAL AND MUNICIPAL 
 
 3i 
 
 various articles brought in and put up for sale. As thoso lairs and markets 
 never failed to attract a great number of buyers and sellers, this formed a 
 very lucrative tax for the noble (Fig. 26). 
 
 The right 01 marque, or reprisal, was a most barbarous custom. A famous 
 example is given of it. In 1022, William tin' Pious, Count of Angouleme, 
 before starting for a pilgrimage to Rome, made his three brothers, who were 
 his vassals, swear to live in honourable peace and good friendship. But, not- 
 withstanding their oath, two of the brothers, bavin"? invited the third to the 
 
 Fig. 26.— Flemish Peasants at the Cattle Market.— Miniature of the ' ; Chroniques de ITainaut," 
 Manuscripts of the Fifteenth Century, vol. ii. fol. 20-1 (Library of the Dukes of Burgundy, 
 Brussels) . 
 
 Easter festivities, seized him at night in bis bed, put out his eyes so that he 
 might not find the way to his castle, and cut out his tongue so that he might 
 not name the authors of this horrible treatment. The voice of God, however, 
 denounced them, and the Count of Angouleme, shuddering with horror, 
 referred the case to his sovereign, the Duke of Aquitaine, William IV., who 
 immediately came, and by fire and sword exercised his right of marque on the 
 lands of the two brothers, leaving them nothing but their lives and limbs, after 
 
PRIVILEGES AXD RIGHTS, 
 
 having first put out their eyes and cut out their tongues, so as to inflict on them 
 the penalty of retaliation. 
 
 The rio-ht of sporting or hunting was of ail prerogatives that clearest to, 
 anil most valued by the nobles. Not only were the severest and even cruellest 
 penalties imposed on " vilains " who dared to kill the smallest head of game, 
 but quarrels frequently arose between nobles of different degrees on the 
 subject, some pretending to hare a feudal privilege of hunting on the lands 
 of others (Fig. '27). From this tyrannical exercise of the right of hunting, 
 which the least powerful of the nobles only submitted to with the most 
 violent and bitter feelings, sprung those old and familiar ballads, which 
 indicate the popular sentiment on the subject. In some of these songs tho 
 inveterate hunters are condemned, by the order of Fairies or of the Fates, 
 either to follow a phantom stag for everlasting, or to hunt, like King Artus, 
 in the clouds and to catch a fly every hundred years. 
 
 The right of jurisdiction, which gave judicial power to the dukes and 
 counts in cases arising in their domains, had no appeal save to the King 
 himself, and this was even often contested by the nobles, as for instance, in 
 the unhappy case of Enguerrand de Coucy. Enguerrand had ordered 
 three young Flemish noblemen, who were scholars at the Abbey of 
 " St. Nicholas des Bois," to be seized and hung, because, not knowing that 
 they were on the domain of the Lord of Coucy, they had killed a few 
 rabbits with arrows. St. Louis called the case before him. Enguerrand 
 answered to the call, but only to dispute the King's right, and to claim the 
 judgment of his peers. The King, without taking any notice of the remon- 
 strance, ordered Enguerrand to be locked up in the big tower of the Louvre, 
 and was nearly applying the law of retaliation to his case. Eventually he 
 granted him letters of pardon, after condemning him to build three chapels, 
 where masses were continually to be said for the three victims ; to give the 
 forest where the young scholars had been found hunting, to the Abbey of 
 " St. Nicholas des Bois ;" to lose on all his estates the rights of jurisdiction 
 and spoi'ting ; to serve three years in the Holy Land ; and to pay to the King 
 a fine of 12,500 pounds tournois. It must be remembered that Louis IX., 
 although most generous in cases relating simply to private interests, was one 
 of the most stubborn defenders of royal prerogatives. 
 
 A right which feudalists had the greatest interest in observing, and 
 causing to be respected, because they themselves might with their wandering 
 
FEUDAL AND MUNICIPAL. 
 
 33 
 
 habits require it at any moment, was that of safe convoy, or guidance. 
 This right was so powerful, that it even applied itself to the lower orders, 
 and its violation was considered the most odious crime ; thus, in the 
 thirteenth century, the King of Aragon was severely abused by all persons 
 and all classes, because in spite of this right he caused a Jew to be burned 
 so as not to have to pay a debt which the man claimed of him. 
 
 Fig. 27.— Nobleman in Hunting Costume, preceded by his Servant, trying to iind the Scent of a 
 
 Stag.— From a Miniature in the Book of Gaston Phoebus ("Pes Deduitz de la Chasse des 
 Bestes Sauvaiges ").— Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century (National Library of Paris). 
 
 The right of " the Crown" should also be mentioned, which consisted of 
 a circle of gold ornamented in various fashions, according to the different 
 degrees of feudal monarchy, which vassals had to present to their lord on 
 the day of his investiture. The right of seal was a fee or hue they had to 
 pay for the charters which their lord caused to be delivered to them. 
 
 The duty of aubaine was the fine or clue paid by merchants, either in 
 
3 + PRIVILEGES AXD RIGHTS, 
 
 kind or money, to the feudal chief, when they passed near his castle, landed 
 in his ports, or exposed goods for sale in his markets. 
 
 The nobles of second order possessed among their privileges that of 
 wearing spurs of silver or gold according to their rank of knighthood ; the 
 right of receiving double rations when prisoners of war ; the right of claiming 
 a year's delay when a creditor wished to seize their land ; and the right of 
 never having to submit to torture after trial, unless they were condemned to 
 death for the crime they had committed. If a great baron for serious 
 offences confiscated the goods of a noble who was his vassal, the latter had a 
 right to keep his palfrey, the horse of his squire, various pieces of his 
 harness and armour, his bed, his silk robe, his wife's bed, one of her dresses, 
 her ring, her cloth stomacher, &c. 
 
 The nobles alone possessed the right of having seats of honour in 
 churches and in chapels (Fig. 28), and to erect therein funereal monuments, 
 and we know that they maintained this right so rigorously and with so much 
 effrontery, that fatal quarrels at times arose on questions of precedence. 
 The epitaphs, the placing of tombs, the position of a monument, were all 
 subjects for conflicts or lawsuits. The nobles enjoyed also the right of 
 disinheritance, that is to say, of claiming the goods of a person dying on 
 their lands who had no direct heir ; the right of claiming a tax when a fief or 
 domain changed hands ; the right of common oven, or requiring vassals to 
 make use of the mill, the oven, or the press of the lord. At the time of the 
 vintage, no peasant might sell his wine until the nobles had sold theirs. 
 Everything was a source of privilege for the nobles. Kings and councils 
 waived the necessity of their studying, in order to be received as bachelors of 
 universities. If a noble was made a prisoner of war, his life was saved by 
 his nobility, and his ransom had practically to be raised by the "vilains" 
 of his domains. The nobles were also exempted from serving in the 
 militia, nor were they obliged to lodge soldiers, &c. They had a thousand 
 pretexts for establishing taxes on their vassals, who' were generally 
 considered "taxable and to be worked at will." Thus in the domain of 
 Montignac, the Count of Perigord claimed among other things as follows: 
 " for every case of censure or complaint brought before him, 10 deniers ; 
 for a quarrel in which blood was shed, 60 sols; if blood was not shed, 
 ? sols ; for use of ovens, the sixteenth loaf of each baking ; for the sale 
 of corn in the domain, 4-3 setiers : besides these, 6 setiers of rye, 161 setiers 
 
FEUDAL AND MUNICIPAL. 
 
 35 
 
 of oats, 3 setiers of beans, 1 pound of wax, 8 capons, IT liens, and 37 loads of 
 wine." There were a multitude of ether rights due to him, including the 
 provostship fees, the fees on deeds, the tolls and furnaces of towns, the taxes 
 on salt, on leather, corn, nuts; fees for the right of fishing ; for the right of 
 
 <'■-' % r£ Z3 
 
 
 
 <,iS)l 
 
 vv „£ - TV, (■»> .<?-- .a 
 
 -v5^ w' ei>c, .-vrj 
 
 
 
 . o . 
 
 
 Fig. 28. — Jean Jouvenel des Ursins, Provost of the Merchants of Paris, and Michelle de Vitry, his 
 Wife, in the Reign of Charles VI. — Fragment of a Picture of the Period, which was in the 
 Chapel of the Ursins, and is now in the Versailles Museum. 
 
 sporting, which last gave the lord a certain part or quarter of the game killed, 
 and, in addition, the dime, or tenth part of all the corn, wine, etc., &c. 
 
 This worthy noble gathered in besides all this, during (lie religious festivals 
 of the year, certain tributes in money on the estate of Montignac alone, 
 
jf 
 
 PRIVILEGES A XD RIGHTS, 
 
 amounting to as much as 20,000 pounds tournois. One can judge by this 
 rough sketch, of the income he must have had, both in good and bad years, 
 from his other domains in the rich county of Perigord. 
 
 It must not be imagined that this was an exceptional case ; all over the 
 feudal territory the same state of things existed, and each lord farmed both 
 his lands and the persons whom feudal right had placed under his dependence. 
 
 Fig. 29.— Does on Wines, granted to the Chapter of Tournai by King Chilperie.- From the 
 Windows of the Cathedral of Tournai, Fifteenth Century. 
 
 To add to these already excessive rates and taxes, there were endless 
 dues, under all shapes and names, claimed by the ecclesiastical lords 
 (Figs. 29 and 30). And not only did the nobility make without scruple 
 these enormous exactions, but the Crown supported them in avenging any 
 act, however opposed to all sense of justice; so that the nobles were really 
 placed above the great law of equality, without which the continuance of 
 social order seemed normally impossible. 
 
FEUDAL AND MUNICIPAL. 
 
 37 
 
 The history of the city of Toulouse gives us a significant example on this 
 subject. 
 
 On Easter Day, 1335, some students of the university, who had passed 
 the night of the anniversary of the resurrection of our Saviour in drinking, 
 left the table half intoxicated, and ran about the town during 1 the hours of 
 
 Fig. 30. — The Bishop of Tournai receiving the Tithe of Beer granted by King Chilnerie. — From 
 the Windows of the Cathedral of Tournai, Fifteenth Century. 
 
 service, beating pans and cauldrons, and making such a noise and disturbance, 
 that the indignant preachers were obliged to stop in the middle of their 
 discourses, and claimed the intervention of the municipal authorities of 
 Toulouse. One of these, the lord of Gaure, went out of church with five 
 sergeants, and tried himself to arrest the most turbulent of the band. But 
 as he was seizing him by the body, one of his comrades gave the lord a 
 
PRIVILEGES AND RIGHTS, 
 
 blow with a dagger, which cut off his nose, lips, and part of his chin. This 
 occurrence aroused the whole town. Toulouse had been insulted in the 
 person of its first magistrate, and claimed vengeance. The author of the 
 deed, named Aimeri de Berenger, was seized, judged, condemned, and 
 beheaded, and his body was suspended on the qnkes of the Chateau Nar- 
 bonnais. 
 
 Toulouse had to pay dearly for the respect shown to its municij^al 
 dignity. The parents of the student presented a petition to the King against 
 
 Fig. 31.— Fellows of the University of Paris haranguing the Emperor Charles TV. in 1377.— From 
 a Miniature of the Manuscript of the " Chroniques de St. Denis," No. 8395 (National Library 
 of Paris). 
 
 the city, for having dared to execute a noble and to hang his body on a 
 gibbet, in opposition to the sacred right which this noble had of appealing to 
 the judgment of his peers. The Parliament of Paris finally decided the 
 matter with the inflexible partiality to the rights of rank, and confiscated 
 all the goods of the inhabitants, forced the principal magistrates to go on 
 their knees before the house of Aimeri de Berenger, and ask pardon; them- 
 selves to take down the body of the victim, and to have it publicly and 
 honourably buried in the burial-ground of the Daurade. Such was the 
 sentence and humiliation to which one of the first towns of the south 
 
FEUDAL AND MUNICIPAL. 30 
 
 was subjected, for having- practised immediate justice on a noble, whilst 
 it would certainly Lave suffered no vindication, if the culprit condemned 
 to death had belonged to the middle or lower orders. 
 
 We must nevertheless remember that heavy dues fell upon the privi- 
 leged class themselves to a certain degree, and that if they taxed their 
 poor vassals without mercy, they had in their turn often to reckon with 
 their superiors in the feudal hierarchy. 
 
 Alberc, or right of shelter, was the principal charge imposed upon the 
 noble. When a great baron visited his lands, his tenants were not only 
 obliged to give him and his followers shelter, but also provisions and food, 
 the nature and quality of which were all arranged beforehand with the most 
 extraordinary minuteness. The lesser nobles took advantage sometimes of 
 the power they possessed to repurchase this obligation ; but the rich, on the 
 contrary, were most anxious to seize the occasion of proudly displaying 
 before their sovereign all the pomp in their power, at the risk even of 
 mortgaging their revenues for several years, and of ruining their vassals. 
 History is full of stories bearing witness to the extravagant prodigalities of 
 certain nobles on such occasions. 
 
 Payments in kind fell generally on the abbeys, up to 1158. That of 
 St. Denis, which was very rich in lands, was charged with supplying the 
 house and table of the King. This tax, which became heavier and heavier, 
 eventually fell on the Parisians, who only succeeded in ridding themselves of 
 it in 1374, when Charles V. made all the bourgeois of Paris noble. In the 
 twelfth century, all furniture made of wood or iron which was found in 
 the house of the Bishop at his death, became the property of the King. But 
 in the fourteenth century, the abbots of St. Denis, St. Germain des Pres, 
 St. Genevieve (Fig- ; 3'2), and a few priories in the neighbourhood of Paris, 
 were only required to present the sovereign with two horse-loads of produce 
 annually, so as to keep up the old system of fines. 
 
 This system of rents and dues of all kinds was so much the basis of social 
 organization in the Middle Ages, that it sometimes happened that the lower 
 orders benefited by it. 
 
 Thus the bed of the Bishop of Paris belonged, after his death, to the 
 poor invalids of the Hotel Dieu. The canons were also bound to leave theirs 
 to that hospital, as an atonement for the sins which they had committed. 
 The Bishops of Paris were required to give two very sumptuous repasts to 
 
-1° 
 
 PRIVILEGES AND EIGHTS, 
 
 their chapters at the feasts of St. Eloi and St. Paul. The holy men of 
 St. Martin were obliged, annually, on the 10th of November, to offer to the 
 
 " ciovt'nTV' ^ An f ^ ChUrCh ° f thG Al ' hey ° f Sa -te-G e nevi fe ve, in Pans, founded bv 
 
 D s 1 "" T, ^'; f EleVenth t0 Thil ' tee " th Centuri«._State of the Building before it, 
 Destruction at the End of the last Century. 
 
 hrst President of the Court of Parliament, two square caps, and to the first 
 usher, a writing-desk and a pair of gloves. The executioner too received, 
 
FEUDAL AND MUNICIPAL. 4 , 
 
 from various monastic communities of the capital, bread, bottles of wine, 
 and pigs' heads ; and even criminals who were taken to Montfaucon to be 
 hung had the right to claim bread and wine from the nuns of St. Catherine 
 and the Filles Dieux, as they passed those establishments on their way to the 
 gibbet. 
 
 Fines were levied everywhere, at all times, and for all sorts of reasons. 
 Under the name of epiccs, the magistrates, judges, reporters, and counsel, 
 who had at first only received sweetmeats and preserves as voluntary offerings, 
 eventually exacted substantial tribute in current coin. Scholars who wished 
 to take rank in the University sent some small pies, costing ten sols, to 
 each examiner. Students in philosophy or theology gave two suppers to 
 the president, eight to the other masters, besides presenting them with 
 sweetmeats, &c. It would be an endless task to relate all the fines due by 
 apprentices and companions before the)' could reach mastership in their 
 various crafts, nor have we yet mentioned certain tines, which, from their 
 strange or ridiculous nature, prove to what a pitch of folly men may be led 
 under the influence of tyranny, vanity, or caprice. 
 
 Thus, we read of vassals descending to the humiliating occupation of 
 beating the water of the moat of the castle, in order to stop the noise of the 
 frogs, during the illness of the mistress; we elsewhere find that at times the 
 lord required of them to hop on one leg, to kiss the latch of the castle-gate, 
 or to go through some drunken play in his presence, or sing a somewhat 
 broad song before the lady. 
 
 At Tulle, all the rustics who had married during the year were bound to 
 appear on the Puv or Mont St. Clair. At twelve o'clock precisely, three 
 children came out of the hospital, one beating a. drum violently, the other 
 two carrying a pot full of dirt ; a herald called the names of the bride- 
 grooms, and those who were absent or were unable to assist in breaking the 
 pot by throwing stones at it, paid a fine. 
 
 At Perigneux, the voung couples had to give the consuls a pincushion of 
 embossed leather or cloth of different colours ; a woman marrying a second 
 time was required to present them with an earthen pot containing twelve 
 sticks of different woods; a. woman marrying for the third time, a, barrel of 
 cinders passed thirteen times through the sieve, and thirteen spoons made of 
 wood of fruit-trees ; and, lastly, one coming to the altar for the fifth time was 
 obliged to bring with her a small tub containing the excrement of a white hen! 
 
 G 
 
4-2 
 
 PRIVILEGES AND RIGHTS, 
 
 " The people of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period were literally 
 tied down with taxes and dues of all sorts," says M. Mary-Lafon. " If a few 
 gleams of liberty reached them, it was only from a distance, and more in the 
 hope of the future than as regarded the present, As an example of the way 
 people were treated, a certain Lord of Laguene, spoken of in the old chronicles 
 of the south, may be mentioned. Every year, this cunning baron assembled 
 his tenants in the village square. A large maypole was planted, and on 
 the top was attached a wren. The lord, pointing to the little bird, declared 
 solemnly, that if any ' vilain ' succeeded in piercing him with an arrow 
 he should be exempt from that year's dues. The vilains shot away, but, to 
 
 Fig. 33. — Ramparts of the Town of Aigues-Mortos, one of the Municipalities of 1 anguedor. 
 
 the great merriment of their lord, never hit, and so had to continue paying 
 the dues.'' 
 
 One can easily understand how such a system, legalised by law, hampered 
 the efforts for freedom, which a sense of human dignity was constantly raising 
 in the bosoms of the oppressed. The struggle was long, often bloody, and 
 at times it seemed almost hopeless, for on both sides it was felt that the 
 contest was between two principles which were incompatible, and one of 
 which must necessarily end by annihilating the other. Any compromise 
 between the complete slavery and the personal freedom of the lower orders, 
 could only be a respite to enable these implacable adversaries to reinforce 
 themselves, so as to resume with more vigour than ever this desperate 
 combat, the issue of which was so long to remain doubtful. 
 
LOUIS XII LEAVING ALEXANDRIA. ON THE 3i lb OF APRIL 1507, 
 
 To cliastise the city of Genoa. 
 
 1 », . . r^ an Marot. N« 5091, Bibl. n;\\'' de Paris. 
 
FEUDAL AND MUNICIPAL. +3 
 
 These efforts to obtain individual liberty displayed themselves more 
 particularly in towns ; but although they became almost universal in the 
 west, they had not the same importance or character everywhere. The feudal 
 system had not everywhere produced the same consequences. Thus, whilst 
 in ancient Gaul it had absorbed all social vitality, we find that in Germany, 
 the place of its origin, the Teutonic institutions of older date gave a com- 
 parative freedom to the labourers. Tn southern countries again we find the 
 same beneficial effect from the Roman rule. 
 
 On that long area of land reaching from the southern slope of the 
 Cevennes to the Apennines, the hand of the barbarian had weighed much 
 less heavily than on the rest of Europe. In those favoured provinces where 
 Roman organization had outlived Reman patronage, it seems as if ancient 
 splendour had never ceased to exist, and the elegance of customs re- flourished 
 amidst the ruins. There, a sort of urban aristocracy always continued, as a 
 balance against the nobles, and the council of elected prnd'hommes, the syndics, 
 jurors or capitouk, who in the towns replaced the Roman honorati and curiales, 
 still were considered by kings and princes as holding sonic position in the 
 state. The municipal body, larger, more open than the old "ward," no 
 longer formed a corporation of unwilling aristocrats enchained to privileges 
 which ruined them. The principal cities on the Italian coast had already 
 amassed enormous wealth by commerce, and displayed the most remarkable 
 ardour, activity, and power. The Eternal City, which was disputed by 
 emperors, popes, and barons of the Roman States, bestirred itself at times to 
 snatch at the ancient phantom of republicanism ; and this phantom was 
 destined soon to change into reality, and another Rome, or rather a new 
 Carthage, the lovely Venice, arose free and independent from the waves of 
 the Adriatic (Fig. 34). 
 
 In Lombardy, so thickly colonised by the German conquerors, feudalism, 
 on the contrary, weighed heavily ; but there, too, the cities were populous 
 and energetic, and the struggle for supremacy continued for centuries in an 
 uncompromising manner between the people and the nobles, between the 
 Guelphs and the Ghibellines. 
 
 In the north and east of the Gallic territory, the instinct of resistance did 
 not exist any the less, though perhaps it was more intermittent. In fact, 
 in these regions we find ambitious nobles forest tiling the action of til.' 
 Kin"-, and in order to attach towns to themselves and their houses, suppressing 
 
4+ 
 
 PRIVILEGES AXD RIGHTS, 
 
 the most obnoxious of the taxes, and at the same time granting legal 
 guarantees. For this the Counts of Flanders became celebrated, and the 
 famous Heribert de Yermandois was noted for being so exacting in his 
 demands with the great, and yet so popular with the small. 
 
 iew of St. Mark's Place, Venice, Sixteenth Century, after Cesare Vecellio. 
 
 The eleventh century, during which feudal power rose to its height, 
 was also the period when a reaction set in of the townspeople against the 
 nobility. The spirit of the city revived with that of the bourgeois (a name 
 
FEUDAL AND MUNICIPAL. 
 
 45 
 
 derived from the Teutonic word burg, habitation) and infused a feeling of 
 opposition to the system which followed the conquest of the Teutons. 
 "But," says M. Henri Martin, "what reappeared was not the Roman muni- 
 cipality of the Empire, stained by servitude, although surrounded with 
 glittering pomp and gorgeous arts, but it was something coarse and almost 
 semi-barbarous in form, though strong and generous at core, and which, as far 
 as the difference of the times would allow, rather reminds us of the small 
 republics which existed previous to the Roman Empire." 
 
 Two strong impulses, originating from two totally dissimilar centres of 
 action, irresistibly propelled this great social revolution, with its various 
 and endless aspects, affecting all central Europe, and being more or less 
 felt in the west, the north, and the south. < hi one side, the Greek and 
 Latin partiality for ancient corporations, modified by a democratic element, 
 and an innate feeling of opposition characteristic id' barbaric tribes ; and 
 on the other, the free spirit and equality of the old Celtic tribes rising 
 suddenly against the military hierarchy, which was the offspring of conquest. 
 Europe was roused by the double current of ideas which simultaneously' 
 urged her on to a, new state of civilisation, and more particularly to a new 
 organization of city life. 
 
 Italy was naturally destined to be the country where the new trials of 
 social regeneration were to be made ; but she presented the greatest possibl 
 variety of customs, laws, and governments, including Emperor, l'ope, 
 bishops, and feudal princes. In Tuscany and Liguria, the march towards 
 liberty was continued almost without effort; whilst in Lombardy, on the 
 contrary, the feudal resistance was very powerful. Everywhere, however, 
 cities became more or less completely enfranchised, though some more rapidly 
 than others. In Sicily, feudalism swayed over the counties; but in the greater 
 part of the peninsula, the democratic spirit of the cities influenced the 
 enfranchisement of the rural population. The feudal caste was in fact 
 dissolved; the barons were transformed into patricians of the noble towns 
 which gave their republican magistrates the old title of consuls. The 
 Teutonic Emperor in vain sought to seize and turn to his own interest the 
 sovereignty of the people, who had shaken off the yokes of his vassals : 
 the signal of war was immediately given by the newly enfranchised masses; 
 and the imperial eagle was obliged to fly before the banners of the 
 besieged cities. Happy indeed might the cities of Italy have been had they 
 
 e 
 
4 6 
 
 PRIVILEGES AND RIGHTS, 
 
 not forgotten, in their prosperity, that union alone could give them the 
 possibility of maintaining that liberty which they so freely risked in con- 
 tinual quarrels amongst one another ! 
 
 The Italian movement was immediately felt on the other side of the Alps. 
 In Provence, Septinianie, and Aquitaine, we find, in the eleventh century, 
 cities which enjoyed considerable freedom. Under the name of communities 
 and universities, which meant that all citizens were part of the one body, 
 they jointly interfered in the general affairs of the kingdom to which they 
 
 blCEST; 
 
 Fig. 35. — William, Duke of Normandy, accompanied by Bustatius, Count of Boulogne, and 
 followed by his Knights in arms. — Military Diess of the Eleventh Century, from Bayeux 
 Tapestry said to have been worked by Qacen Matilda. 
 
 belonged. Their magistrates were treated on a footing of equality with the 
 feudal nobility, and although the hitter at first would only recognise them as 
 "good men " or notables, the consuls knew how to make a position for them- 
 selves in the hierarchy. If the consulate, which was a powerful expression of 
 the most prominent system of independence, did not succeed in suppressing 
 feudalism in Provence as in Italy, it at least so transformed it, that it 
 deprived it of its most unjust and insupportable elements. At Toulouse, for 
 instance (where the consuls were by exception called enpitouk, that is to 
 
FEUDAL AND MUNICIPAL. 
 
 47 
 
 say, heads of the chapters or councils of the city), the lord of the country 
 seemed less a feudal prince in his capital, than an honorary magistrate of the 
 bourgeoisie. Avignon added to her consuls two porfextufx (from the Latin 
 potestm, power"). At Marseilles, the University of the high city was ruled by 
 a republic under the presidency of the Count of Provence, although the lower 
 city was still under the sovereignty of a viscount. Perigueux, which was 
 divided into two communities, "the great and the small fraternity," took up 
 arms to resist the authority of the Counts of Perigord ; and Aries under its 
 podestafs was governed for some time as a free and imperial town. Amongst 
 the constitutions which were established by the cities, from the eleventh to 
 the sixteenth centuries, we find admirable examples of administration and 
 government, so that one is struck with admiration at the efforts of intelligence 
 and patriotism, often uselessly lavished on such small political arenas. 
 The consulate, which nominally at least found its origin in the ancient 
 grandeur of southern regions, did not spread itself beyond Lyons. In 
 the centre of France, at Poictiers, Tours, Moulin, &c, the urban pro- 
 gress only manifested itself in efforts which were feeble and easily 
 suppressed; but in the north, on the contrary, in the provinces between 
 the Seine and the Rhine, and even between the Seine and the Loire, 
 the system of franchise took footing and became recognised. In some 
 places, the revolution was effected without difficulty, but in others it 
 gave rise to the most determined struggles. In Normandy, for instance, 
 under the active and intelligent government of the dukes of the race of 
 Pioll or Eollon, the middle class was rich and even warlike. It had access 
 to the councils of the duchy ; and when it was contemplated to invade 
 England, the Duke William (Fig. 35) found support from the middle class, 
 both in money and men. The ease was the same in Flanders, where the 
 towns of Ghent (Fig. 36), of Bruges, of Ypres, after being enfranchised 
 but a short time developed with great rapidity. But in the other counties 
 of western France, the greater part of the towns were still much oppressed 
 by the counts and bishops. If some obtained certain franchises, these 
 privileges were their ultimate ruin, owing to the ill faith of their nobles. 
 A town between the Loire and the Some gave the signal which caused 
 the regeneration of the North. The inhabitants of Mans formed a com- 
 munity or association, and took an oath that they would obtain and maintain 
 certain rights. They rebelled about 1070, and forced the count and his 
 
PRIVILEGES AXD RIGHTS, 
 
 noble vassals to grant them the freedom which they had sworn to obtain, 
 though William of Normandy very soon restored the rebel city to order, 
 and dissolved the presumptuous community. However, the example soon 
 bore fruit. Cambrai rose in its turn and proclaimed the " Commune," and 
 although its bishop, aided by treason and by the Count of Hainault, reduced 
 
 Fig. 36.— Civic Guard of Ghent (Brotherhood of St. Sebastian), from a Painting on the Wall of 
 the Chapel of St. John and St. Paul, Ghent, near the Gate of Bruges. 
 
 it to obedience, it only seemed to succumb for a. time, to renew the struggle 
 with greater success at a subsequent period. 
 
 We have just mentioned the Commune ; but we must not mistake the true 
 meaning of this word, which, under a Latin form (communitaH) , expresses 
 originally a Germanic idea, and in its new form a Christian mode of living. 
 Societies of mutual defence, guilds, occ., had never disappeared from Germanic 
 
FEUDAL AND MUNICIPAL. 
 
 49 
 
 and Celtic countries ; and, indeed, knighthood itself was but a brotherhood 
 of Christian warriors. The societies of the Paix de Dieu, and of the Trive do 
 Dieii, were encouraged by the clergy in order to stop the bloody quarrels (if the 
 nobility, and formed in reality great religious guilds. This idea of a body of 
 persons taking some common oath to one another, of which feudalism gave so 
 striking an example, could not fail to influence the minds of the rustics and 
 the lower classes, and they only wanted the opportunity which the idea of 
 the Commune at once gave them of imitating their siiperiors. 
 
 They too took oaths, and possessed their bodies and souls in " common ;" 
 they seized, by force of strategy, the ramparts of their towns ; they elected 
 mayors, aldermen, and jurors, who were charged to watch over the interests 
 of their association. They swore to spare neither their goods, their labour, nor 
 their blood, in order to free themselves ; and not content with defending them- 
 selves behind barricades or chains which closed the streets, they boldly took 
 the offensive against the proud feudal chiefs before whom their fathers 
 had trembled, and they forced the nobles, who now saw themselves threatened 
 by this armed multitude, to acknowledge their franchise by a solemn 
 covenant. 
 
 It does not follow that everywhere the Commune was established by 
 means of insurrection, for it was obtained after all sorts of struggles ; and 
 franchises were sold in some places for gold, and in others granted by a more 
 or less voluntary liberality. Everywhere the object was the same ; every- 
 where they struggled or negotiated to upset, by a written constitution or 
 charter, the violence and arbitrary rule under which the)' had so long 
 suffered, and to replace by an annual and fixed rent, under the protection 
 of an independent and impartial law, the unlimited exactions and disguised 
 plundering so long made by the nobility and royalty. Circumstanced as 
 they were, what other means had they to attain this end but ramparts and 
 gates, a common treasury, a permanent military force, and magistrates who were 
 both administrators, judges, and captains ? The hotel de ville, or mansion- 
 house, immediately became a sort of civic temple, where the banner of the 
 Commune, the emblems of unity, and the seal which sanctioned the muni- 
 cipal acts were preserved. Then arose the watch-towers, where the watchmen 
 were unceasingly posted night and day, and whence the alarm signal was 
 ever read)' to issue its powerful sounds when danger threatened the city. 
 These watch-towers, the monuments of liberty, became as necessary for the 
 
PRIVILEGES AND RIGHTS, 
 
 Fig. 37.— Chimes of the Clock of St. Lambert of Lies 
 
 burghers as the clock-towers 
 of their cathedrals, whose 
 brilliant peals and joyous 
 chimes gave zest to the 
 popular feasts (Fig. 37). 
 The mansion-houses built 
 in Flanders from the four- 
 teenth to the sixteenth 
 centuries, under municipal 
 influence, are marvels of 
 architecture. 
 
 Who is there who could 
 thoroughly describe or even 
 appreciate all the happy or 
 unhappy vicissitudes rela- 
 ting to the establishment 
 of the Communes ? We read 
 of the Commune of Cam- 
 brai, four times created, four 
 times destroyed, and which 
 was continually at war with 
 the bishops ; the Commune 
 of Beauvais, sustained on 
 the contrary by the diocesan 
 prelate against two nobles 
 who possessed feudal rights 
 over it ; Laon, a commune 
 bought for money from 
 the bishop, afterwards con- 
 firmed by the King, and 
 then violated by fraud 
 and treachery, and eventu- 
 ally buried in the blood of 
 its defenders. We read also 
 of St. Qucntin, where the 
 Count of Vermandois and 
 
FEUDAL AND MUNICIPAL. 
 
 5i 
 
 his vassals voluntarily swore to maintain tlie right of the bourgeois, and 
 scrupulously respected their oath. In many other localities the feudal digni- 
 taries took alarm simply at the name of Commune, and whereas they would 
 
 Fi?. 38.— The Deputies of the Burghers of Ghent, in revolt against their Sovereign, Louis II , 
 Count of Flanders, come to beg him to pardon them, and to return to their Town, 1397. — 
 Miniature from Froissart, No. 2614 (National library of Paris). 
 
 not agree to the very Lest arrangements under this terrible designation, they 
 did not hesitate to adopt them when called either the "laws of friendship," 
 the "peace of God," or the " institutions of peace." At Lisle, for instance, 
 the bourgeois magistrates took the name of appetisers, or watchers over friend- 
 
52 PRIVILEGES AND RIGHTS, 
 
 ship. At Aire, in Artois, the members of friendship mutually, not only 
 helped one another against the enemy, but also assisted one another in 
 
 distress. 
 
 Amiens deserves the first place amongst the cities which dearly pur- 
 chased their privileges. The most terrible and sanguinary war was sustained 
 by the bourgeois against their count and lord of the manor, assisted by King 
 Louis le Gros, who had under similar circumstances just taken the part of the 
 
 nobles of La on. 
 
 From Amiens, which, having been triumphant, became a perfect muni- 
 cipal republic, the example propagated itself throughout the rest of Picardy, 
 the Isle of France, Normandy, Brittany, and Burgundy, and by degrees, 
 without any revolutionary shocks, reached the region of Lyons, where the 
 consulate, a characteristic institution of southern Communes, ended. 
 
 From Flanders, also, the movement spread in the direction of the German 
 Empire ; and there, too, the struggle was animated, and victorious against the 
 aristocracy, until at last the great system of enfranchisement prevailed ; and 
 the cities of the west and south formed a confederation against the nobles, 
 whilst those in the north formed the famous Teutonic Hanse, so celebrated 
 for its maritime commerce. 
 
 The centre of France slowly followed the movement ; but its progress 
 was considerably delayed by the close influence of royalty, which sometimes 
 conceded large franchises, and sometimes suppressed the least claims to inde- 
 pendence. The kings, who willingly favoured Communes on the properties 
 of their neighbours, did not so much care to see them forming on their own 
 estates ; unless the exceptional position and importance of any town required 
 a wise exercise of tolerance. Thus Orleans, situated in the heart of the 
 royal domains, was roughly repulsed in its first movement ; whilst Mantes, 
 which was on the frontier of the Duchy of Normandy, and still under the 
 King of England, had but to ask in order to receive its franchise from the 
 King of France. 
 
 It was particularly in the royal domains that cities were to be found, 
 which, although they did not possess the complete independence of communes, 
 had a certain amount of liberty and civil guarantees. They had neither the 
 right of war, the watch-tower, nor the exclusive jurisdiction over their elected 
 magistrates, for the bailiffs and the royal provosts represented the sovereign 
 amongst them (Fig. 39). 
 
FEUDAL AND MUNICIPAL. 
 
 53 
 
 In Paris, less than anywhere, could the kings consent to the organization 
 
 Fig. 39.— Bailliage, or Tribunal of the King's Bailiff.— Fac-simile of an Engraving on Wood in 
 the Work of Josse Damhoudere, " Praxis Eerum Civilium" (Antwerp, 155", in 4to.). 
 
 of an independent political system, although that city succeeded in creating 
 for itself a municipal existence. The middle-class influence originated in 
 
54 PRIVILEGES AXD RIGHTS, 
 
 a Gallo-Koman corporation. The Company of Nantes, or " the Corporation of 
 the "Water Trade," formed a centre round which were successively attached 
 various bodies of different trades. Gradually a strong concourse of civic 
 powers was established, which succeeded in electing a municipal council, 
 composed of a provost of merchants, four aldermen, and twenty-six council- 
 lors of the town. This council afterwards succeeded in overstepping the 
 royal influence at difficult times, and was destined to play a prominent part 
 in history. 
 
 There also sprang up a lower order of towns or boroughs than these bour- 
 geois cities, which were especially under the Crown. Not having sufficient 
 strength to claim a great amount of liberty, they were obliged to be satisfied 
 with a few privileges, conceded to them by the nobles, for the most part with 
 a political end. These were the Free Towns or New Towns which we have 
 already named. 
 
 However it came about, it is certain that although during the tenth century 
 feudal power was almost supreme in Europe, as early as the twelfth century 
 the municipal system had gained great weight, and was constantly progress- 
 ing until the policy of the kingdom became developed on a more and more 
 extended basis, so that it was then necessary for it to give up its primitive 
 nature, and to participate in the great movement of consolidisation and national 
 unity. In this way the position of the large towns in the state relatively lost 
 their individual position, and became somewhat analogous, as compared with 
 the kingdom at large, to that formerly held by bourgeois in the cities. 
 Friendly ties arose between provinces; and distinct and rival interests 
 were effaced by the general aspiration towards common objects. The towns 
 were admitted to the states general, and the citizens of various regions 
 mixed as representatives of the Tiers Mat. Three orders thus met, who 
 were destined to struggle for predominance in the future. 
 
 We must call attention to the fact that, as M. Henri Martin says, by an 
 apparent contradiction, the fall of the communes declared itself in inverse 
 ratio to the progress of the Tiers Mat. By degrees, as the government 
 became more settled from the great fiefs being absorbed by the crown, and 
 as parliament and other courts of appeal which emanated from the middle 
 class extended their high judiciary and military authority, so the central 
 power, organized under monarchical form, must necessarily have been less 
 disposed to tolerate the local independence of the Communes. The State 
 
FEUDAL AND MUNICIPAL. 
 
 55 
 
 replaced the Commune for everything concerning justice, war, and adminis- 
 tration. No doubt some valuable privileges were lost ; but that was only an 
 accidental circumstance, for a great social revolution was produced, which 
 cleared off at once all the relics of the old age ; and when the work of 
 reconstruction terminated, homage was rendered to the venerable name of 
 " Commune," which became uniformly applied to all towns, boroughs, or 
 villages into which the new spirit of the same municipal system was infused. 
 
 Fig. 40. — Various Arma of the Fifteenth Century. 
 
PRIVATE LIFE 
 
 IN THE CASTLES, THE TOWNS, AND THE RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 The Merovingian Castles. — Pastimes of the Nobles ; Hunting-, War. — Domestic Arrangements.— 
 Private Life of Charlemagne.— Domestic Habits under the Carlovingians.— Influence of 
 Chivalry. — Simplicity of the Court of Philip Augustus not imitated by his Successors. — 
 Princely Life of the Fifteenth Century. — The bringing up of Latour Landry, a Noble of 
 Anjou. — Varlsts, rages, Esquires, Maids of Honour. — Opulence of the Bourgeoisie. — "Le 
 Menagier de Paris." — Ancient Dwellings. — State of Rustics at various Periods. — "Rustic 
 Sayings," by Noel du Pail. 
 
 TIGLTSTIN THIERRY, taking Gre- 
 gory of Tours, the Merovingian Hero- 
 dotus, as an authority, thus describes 
 a royal domain under the first royal 
 dynasty of France : — 
 
 " This dwelling in no way pos- 
 sessed the military aspect of the 
 chateau of the Middle Ages ; it was 
 a large huilding surrounded with 
 porticos of Roman architecture, some- 
 times built of carefully polished and 
 sculptured wood, which in no way was wanting in elegance. Around the 
 main body of the building were arranged the dwellings of the officers of 
 the palace, either foreigners or Romans, and those of the chiefs of companies, 
 who, according to Germanic custom, had placed themselves and their 
 warriors under the King, that is to say, under a special engagement of 
 vassalage and fidelity. Other houses, of less imposing appearance, were 
 occupied by a great number of families, who worked at all sorts of trades, 
 such as jewellery, the making of arms, weaving, currying, the embroidering 
 of silk and gold, cotton, &c. 
 
 " Farm-buildings, paddocks, cow-houses, sheepfolds, barns, the houses of 
 agriculturists, and the cabins of the serfs, completed the royal village, which 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AND RURAL 
 
 DISTRICTS. 
 
 57 
 
 perfectly resembled, although on a larger scale, the villages of ancient 
 Germany. There was something too in the position of these dwellings 
 which resembled the scenery beyond the Rhine; the greater number of 
 them were on the borders, and some few in the centre of great forests, which 
 havesince been partly destroyed, and the remains of which wo so much admire." 
 
 Fig. 41.— St. Eemy, Bishop of Rheims, "begging of Clovis the restitution of the Sacred Vase 
 taken by the Franks in the Pillage of Soissons.— Costumes of the Court of Burgundy in the 
 Fifteenth Century.— Fac-simile of a Miniature on a Manuscript of the "History of the Em- 
 perors" (Library of the Arsenal). 
 
 Although historical documents are not very explicit respecting those 
 remote times, it is only sufficient to study carefully a very small portion of 
 the territory in order to form some idea of the manners and customs of the 
 Franks ; for in the royal domain we find the existence of all classes, from 
 
 i 
 
5 8 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 the sovereign himself down to the humblest slave. As regards the private 
 life, however, of the different classes in this elementary form of society, we 
 have but appri iximate and very imperfect notions. 
 
 It is clear, however, that as early as the beginning of the Merovingian 
 race, there was much more luxury and comfort among the upper classes than 
 is generally supposed. All the gold and silver furniture, all the jewels, and 
 all the rich stuffs which the Gallo-Eomans had amassed in their sumptuous 
 dwellings, had not been destroyed by the barbarians. The Frank Kings 
 had appropriated the greater part ; and the rest had fallen into the hands of 
 the chiefs of companies in the division of spoil. A welbknown anecdote, 
 namely, that concerning the Yase of Soissons (Fig. 41), which King Clovis 
 wished to preserve, and which a soldier broke with an axe, proves that many 
 gems i if ancient art must have disappeared, owing to the ignorance and 
 brutality of the conquerors ; although it is equally certain that the latter soon 
 adopted the tastes and customs of the native population. At first, they appro- 
 priated everything that flattered their pride and sensuality. This is how the 
 material remains of the civilisation of the Gauls were preserved in the royal 
 and noble residences, the churches and the monasteries. Gregory of Tours 
 informs us, that when Fredegonde, wife of Chilperic, gave the hand of her 
 daughter Rigouthe to the son of the Gothic king, fifty chariots were required 
 to carry away all the valuable objects which composed the princess's dower. 
 A strange family scene, related by the same historian, gives us an idea of 
 the private habits of the court of that terrible queen of the Franks. " The 
 mother and daughter had frequent quarrels, which sometimes ended in the 
 most violent encounters. Fredegonde said one day to Rigouthe, ' Why do you 
 continually trouble me? Here are the goods of your father, take them and 
 do as you like with them.' And conducting her to a room where she locked 
 up her treasures, she opened a large box filled with valuables. After having 
 pulled out a great number of jewels which she gave to her daughter, she 
 said, ' I am tired ; put your own hands in the box, and take what you find.' 
 Rigouthe bent down to reach the objects placed at the bottom of the box ; 
 upon which Fredegonde immediately lowered the lid on her daughter, and 
 pressed upon it with so much force that the eyes began to start out of the 
 princess's head. A maid began screaming, ' Help ! my mistress is being- 
 murdered by her mother ! ' and Regouthe was saved from an untimely end." 
 It is further related that this was only one of the minor crimes attributed 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AXD RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 59 
 
 by history to Fredegonde the Terrible, who always carried a dagger or poison 
 about with her. 
 
 Amongst the Franks, as amongst all 
 barbaric populations, hunting was the 
 pastime preferred when war was not 
 being waged. The Merovingian nobles 
 
 were therefore determined hunters, and 
 
 it frequently happened that bunting 
 
 occupied whole weeks, and took them far 
 
 from their homes and families. But when 
 
 the season or other circumstances pre- 
 vented them from waging war against 
 
 men or beasts, they only cared for feast- 
 ing and gambling. To these occupations 
 
 they gave themselves up, with a deter- 
 mination and wildness well worthy of 
 
 those semi-civilised times. It was the 
 
 custom for invited guests to appear armed 
 
 at the feasts, which were the more fre- 
 quent, inasmuch as they were necessarily 
 
 accompanied with religious ceremonies. 
 
 It often happened that these long repasts, 
 
 followed by games of chance, were stained 
 
 with blood, either in private quarrels or in 
 
 a general melee. One can easily imagine 
 
 the tumult which must have arisen in a 
 
 numerous assembly when the hot wine 
 
 and other fermented drinks, such as beer, 
 
 &C, had excited every one to the highest 
 
 pitch of unchecked merriment. 
 
 Some of the Merovingian kings listened 
 
 to the advice of the ministers of the 
 
 Catholic religion, and tried to reform these 
 
 noisy excesses, and themselves abandoned 
 
 the evil custom. For this purpose they received at their tallies bishops, 
 
 who blessed the assembly at the commencement, of the meal, and were charged 
 
 Fig. 42. — Costumes of the Women of the 
 Court from the Sixth to the Tenth 
 Centuries, from Documents collected by 
 II. ile Vielcastel, in the great Libraries 
 of Europe. 
 
6o 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 besides to recite chapters of holy writ, or to sing hymns out of the divine 
 service, so as to edify and occupy the minds of the guests. 
 
 Gregory of Tours hears witness to the happy influence of the presence of 
 bishops at the tables of the Frank kings and nobles ; he relates, too, that 
 Chilperic, who was very proud of his theological and secular knowledge, 
 
 Fig. 43.— Queen Fredegonde, seated on her Throne, gives orders to two young Men of Terouanne 
 to assassinate Sigebert, King of Australia. -Window in the Cathedral of Tournai, Fifteenth 
 Century. 
 
 liked, when dining, to discuss, or rather to pronounce authoritatively his 
 opinion on questions of grammar, before his companions in arms, who, for 
 the most part, neither knew how to read or write ; he even went as far as to 
 order three ancient Greek letters to be added to the Latin alphabet. 
 
 The private properties of the Frank kings were immense, and produced 
 enormous revenues. These monarchs, besides, had palaces in almost all the 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AXD RURAL DISTRICTS. 61 
 
 large towns; at Bourges, Chalons-sur-Saone, Chaloiis-sur-Marnc, Dijon, 
 Etampes, Metz, Lang-res, Mayence, Rheiins, Soissons, Toms, Toulouse, 
 Treves, Valenciennes, Worms, &c. In Paris, tliey occupied the vast residence 
 now known as the Thcrmes do Jiilicn (Hotel de Gluny), which then extended 
 from the hill of St. Genevieve as far as the Seine; but they frequently left 
 it for their numerous villas in the neighbourhood, on which occasions they 
 were always accompanied by their treasury. 
 
 All these residences were built on the same plan. High walls surrounded 
 the palace. The Roman atrium, preserved under the name of proaulutm 
 (preau, anti-court), was placed in front of the salutorhtm (hall of reception) 
 where visitors were received. The consistoriuin, or great circular hall sur- 
 rounded with seats, served for legislation, councils, public assemblies, and 
 other solemnities, at which the kings displayed their royal pomp. 
 
 The trichorium, or dining-room, was generally the largest hall in the 
 palace; two rows of columns divided it into three parts; one for the royal 
 family, one for the officers of the household, and the third for the guests, 
 who were always very numerous. No person of rank visiting the King- 
 could leave without sitting at his table, or at least draining a cup to his 
 health. The King's hospitality was magnificent, especially on great religious 
 festivals such as Christmas and Easter. 
 
 The royal apartments were divided into winter and summer rooms. In 
 order to regulate the temperature hot or cold water was used, according to 
 the season; this circulated in the pipes of the hi/pocausfe, or the subterranean 
 furnace which warmed the baths. The rooms with chimneys, were called 
 epicaustoria (stoves), and it was the custom hermetically to close these when 
 any one wished to be anointed with ointments and aromatic essences. In the 
 same manner as the Gallo-Roman houses, the palaces of the Frank kings 
 and principal nobles of ecclesiastical or military order had thermos, or bath- 
 rooms ; to the thermes were attached acoli/mbitm, or washhouse, a gymnasium 
 for bodily exercise, and a hi/podrome, or covered gallery for exercise, which 
 must not be confounded with the hippodrome, a circus where horse-races took 
 place. 
 
 Sometimes after the repast, in the interval between two games of dice, 
 the nobles listened to a bard, who sang the brilliant deeds of their ancestors 
 in their native tongue. 
 
 L T nder the government of Charlemagne, the private life of his subjects 
 
62 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 seems to have been less rough and coarse, although they did not entirely 
 give up their turbulent pleasures. Science and letters, for a long time buried 
 in monasteries, reappeared like beautiful exiles at the imperial court, and 
 social life thereby gained a little charm and softness. Charlemagne had 
 created in bis palace, under the direction of Alcuin, a sort of academy called 
 the ".School of the Palace," which followed him everywhere. The intellectual 
 exercises of this school generally brought together all the members of the 
 imperial family, as well as all the persons of the household. Charle- 
 magne, in fact, was himself one of the most attentive followers of the lessons 
 
 Fig. 4i.-Costumea of the Nobility from the Seventh to the Ninth Centuries, from Documents 
 gathered by H. de Vielcastel from the great Libraries of Europe. 
 
 given by Alcuin. He was indeed the principal interlocutor and discourse!' 
 at the discussions, which were on all subjects, religious, literary, and philo- 
 sophical. 
 
 Charlemagne took as much pains with the administration of his palace, 
 as he did with that of his States. In Ins « Capitulaircs," a work he wrote 
 on legislature, we find him descending to the minutest details in that respect. 
 For instance, he nut only interested himself in his warlike and hunting 
 equipages, but also in his kitchen and pleasure gardens. He insisted upon 
 knowing every year the number of his oxen, horses, and goats ; he calculated 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. 63 
 
 the produce of the sale of fruits gathered in his orchards, which were not 
 required for the use of his house ; he had a return of the numher of fish 
 caught in his ponds ; he pointed out the shrubs host calculated for ornament- 
 ing his garden, and the vegetables which were required for his table, &c. 
 
 The Emperor generally assumed the greatest simplicity in his dross. 
 His daily attire consisted of a linen shirt and drawers, and a woollen tunic 
 fastened with a silk holt. ( tver this tunic he threw a. cloak of blue stuff, 
 very long behind and before, but very short on each side, thus giving 
 freedom to his arms to use his sword, which he always wore. On his feet 
 he wore hands of stuffs of various colours, crossed over one another, and 
 covering his legs also. In winter, when he travelled or hunted on horseback, 
 he threw over his shoulders a covering of otter or sheepskin. The changes 
 in fashion which the custom of the times necessitated, but to which lie would 
 never submit personally, induced him to issue several strenuous orders, which, 
 however, in reality had hardly any effect. 
 
 He was most simple as regards his food and drink, and made a habit 
 of having pious or historical works read to him during his repasts. He 
 devoted the morning, which with him began in summer at sunrise, and 
 in winter earlier, to the political administration of his empire. He dined 
 at twelve with his family; the dukes and chiefs of various nations first 
 waited on him, and then took their places at the table, and were waited 
 on in their turn by the counts, prefects, and superior officers of the court, 
 who dined after them. When these had finished the different chiefs of 
 the household sat down, and they were succeeded lastly by servants of the 
 lower order, who often did not dine till midnight, and had to content them- 
 selves with what was left. When occasion required, however, this powerful 
 Emperor knew how to maintain the pomp and dignity of his station ; but as 
 soon as he had done what was necessary, either for some great religious 
 festival or otherwise, he returned, as if by instinct, to his clear and native 
 simplicity. 
 
 It must lie understood that the simple tastes of Charlemagne "were not. 
 always shared by the princes and princesses of his family, nor by the 
 magnates of his court (Fig. 45). Poets and historians have handed down 
 to us descriptions of hunts, feasts, and ceremonies, at which a truly Asiatic- 
 splendour was displayed. Eginhard, however, assures us that, the sons and 
 daughters of the King were brought up under their father's eye in liberal 
 
6 4 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 studies ; that, to save them from the vice of idleness, Charlemagne required 
 his sons to devote themselves to all bodily exercises, such as horsemanship 
 handling of arms, &c, and his daughters to do needlework and to spin. 
 From what is recorded, however, of the frivolous habits and irregular morals 
 of these princesses, it is evident that they but imperfectly realised the end 
 of their education. 
 
 Science and letters, which for a time were brought into prominence by 
 Charlemagne and also by his son Louis, who was very learned and was con- 
 
 Fig. 45.— Costumes of the Ladies of the Nobility in the Ninth Century, from a Miniature in the 
 Bible of Charles the Bold (National Library of Paris). 
 
 sidered skilful in translating and expounding Scripture, were, however, after 
 the death of these two kings, fur a long time banished to the seclusion of the 
 cloisters, owing to the hostile rivalry of their successors, which favoured the 
 attacks of the Norman pirates. All the monuments and relics of the Gallo- 
 Eoman civilisation, which the great Emperor had collected, disappeared in 
 the civil wars, or were gradually destroyed by the devastations of the 
 northerners. 
 
 The vast empire which Charlemagne" had formed became gradually split 
 up, so that from a dread of social destruction, in order to protect churches 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AXJ) RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 65 
 
 and monasteries!, as well as castles and homesteads, from the attacks of internal 
 as well as foreign enemies, towers and impregnable fortresses began to rise in 
 all parts of Europe, and particularly in France. 
 
 During the first period of feudalism, that is to say from the middle of 
 the ninth to the middle of the twelfth centuries, the inhabitants of castles 
 had little time to devote to the pleasures of private life. They had not only 
 to be continually under arms for the endless quarrels of (lie King and the 
 great chiefs; but they had also to oppose the Normans on one side, and 
 
 •TS^S 
 
 f?*fci 
 
 Fig. 46.- 
 
 fimmb 
 
 -Towers of the Castle of Semur, and of the Cattle of Nogcnt-le-Kolrou (Present 
 Condition). — Specimens of Towers of the Thirteenth Century. 
 
 the Saracens on the other, who, being masters of the Spanish peninsula, 
 spread like the rising tide in the southern counties of Langucdoc and 
 Provence. It is true that the Carlovingian warriors obtained a handsome 
 and rich reward for these long and sanguinary efforts, for at last they seized 
 upon the provinces and districts which had been originally entrusted to their 
 charge, and the origin of their feudal possession was soon so far forgotten, that 
 their descendants pretended that they held the lands, which they had really 
 usurped regardless of their oath, from heaven and their swords. It is needless 
 
 K 
 
bt> 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 to say, that at that time the domestic life in these castles must have been 
 dull and monotonous ; although, according to M. Guizot, the loneliness which 
 was the result of this rough and laborious life, became by degrees the pioneer 
 of civilisation. 
 
 " "When the owner of the fief left his castle, his wife remained there, 
 though in a totally different position from that which women generally held. 
 She remained as mistress, representing her husband, and was charged with 
 the defence and honour of the fief. This high and exalted position, in the 
 
 Fig. 47- — Woman under the Safeguard of Knighthood, allegorical Scene. — Costume of the End of 
 the Fifteenth Century, from a Miniature in a Latin Psalm Book (Manuscript No. 175, National 
 Library of Paris). 
 
 centre of domestic life, often gave to women an opportunity of displaying 
 dignity, courage, virtue, and intelligence, which would otherwise have 
 remained hidden, and, no doubt, contributed greatly to their moral develop- 
 ment, and to the general improvement of their condition. 
 
 "The importance of children, and particidarly of the eldest son, was 
 greater in feudal houses than elsewhere. .... The eldest son of the noble 
 was, in the eyes of his father and of all his followers, a prince and heir- 
 presumptive, and the hope and glory of the dynasty. These feelings, and 
 the domestic pride and affection of the various members one to another, 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 67 
 
 united to give families much energy and power Add to this the 
 
 influence of Christian ideas, and it will be understood how this lonely, dull, 
 and hard castle life was, nevertheless, favourable to the development of 
 domestic society, and to that improvement in the condition of women which 
 plavs such a great part in the history of our civilisation." 
 
 "Whatever opinion may be formed of chivalry, it is impossible to deny the 
 influence -which this institution exercised on private life in the Middle 
 Ages. It considerably modified custom, by bringing the stronger sex to 
 respect and defend the weaker. These warriors, who were both simple and 
 externallv rough and coarse, required association and intercourse with 
 women to soften them (Fig. 47). In taking women and helpless widows 
 
 Tig. 48.— Court of Love in Provence in the Fourteenth Century (Manuscript of the National 
 
 Library of Paris). 
 
 under their protection, they were necessarily more and more thrown in 
 contact with them. A deep feeling of veneration for woman, inspired by 
 Christianity, and, above all, by the worship of the Virgin Mary, ran 
 throughout the songs of the troubadours, and produced a sort of sentimental 
 reverence for the gentle sex, which culminated in the authority which women 
 had in the courts of love (Fig. 48) . 
 
 We have now reached the reign of Philip Augustus, that is to say, the 
 end of the twelfth century. This epoch is remarkable, not only for its 
 political history, but also for its effect on civilisation. Christianity had then 
 considerably influenced the world ; arts, sciences, and letters, animated by 
 its influence, again began to appear, and to add charms to the leisure of 
 
68 
 
 PRIVATE LTFE IN THE 
 
 private life. The castles were naturally the first to be affected by this 
 poetical and intellectual regeneration, although it has been too much the 
 custom to exaggerate the ignorance of those who inhabited them. We are 
 too apt to consider the warriors of the Middle Ages as totally devoid of 
 knowledge, and as hardly able to sign their names, as far as the kings and 
 princes are concerned. This is quite an error ; for many of the knights 
 composed poems which exhibit evidence of their high literary culture. 
 
 It was, in fact, the epoch of troubadours, who might be called professional 
 poets and actors, who went from country to country, and from castle to castle, 
 relating stories of good King Artus of Brittany and of the Knights of the 
 Round Table ; repeating historical poems of the great Emperor Charlemagne 
 and his followers. These minstrels were always accompanied by jugglers and 
 instrumentalists, who formed a travelling troop (Fig. 49), having no other 
 mission than to amuse and instruct their feudal hosts. After singing a 
 ihw fragments of epics, or after the lively recital of some ancient fable, 
 the jugglers would display their art or skill in gymnastic feats or con- 
 juring, which were the more ajypreciated by the spectators, in that the 
 latter were more or less able to compete with them. These wandering 
 troops acted small comedies, taken from incidents of the times. Sometimes, 
 too, the instrumentalists formed an orchestra, and dancing commenced. It 
 may be here remarked that dancing at this epoch consisted of a number of 
 persons forming large circles, and turning to the time of the music or the 
 rhythm of the song. At least the dances of the nobles are thus represented 
 in the MSS. of the Middle Ages. To these amusements were added games 
 of calculation and chance, the fashion for which had much increased, and 
 particularly such games as backgamrnon, draughts, and chess, to which certain 
 knights devoted all their leisure. 
 
 From the reign of Philip Augustus, a remarkable change seems to 
 have taken place in the private life of kings, princes, and nobles. Although 
 his domains and revenues had always been on the increase, this monarch 
 never displayed, in ordinary circumstances at least, much magnificence. 
 The accounts of his private expenses for the years 1202 and 1203 have 
 been preserved, which enable us to discover some curious details bearing 
 witness to the extreme simplicity of the court at that period. The household 
 of the King or royal family was still very small : one chancellor, one 
 chaplain, a squire, a butler, a few Knights of the Temple, and some 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 69 
 
 sergeants-at-arms were the only officers of the palace. Tlie King and 
 princes of his household only changed apparel three limes during the year. 
 
 Fig. 49. — King David playing on the Lyre, surrounded by four Musicians.— Costumes of the 
 Thirteenth Century (from a Miniature in a Manuscript Psalter in the Imperial Library, Paris). 
 
 The children of the King slept in sheets of serge, and their nurses were 
 dressed in gowns of dark-coloured woollen stuff, called brunette. The royal 
 cloak, which was of scarlet, was jewelled, but the King only wore it on 
 
PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 great ceremonies. At the same time enormous expenses were incurred for 
 implements of war, arrows, helmets with visors, chariots, and for the men- 
 at-arms whom the King kept in his pay. 
 
 Louis IX. personally kept iip almost similar habits. The Sire de Joinville 
 tells us in his " Chronicles," that the holy King on his return from his first 
 crusade, in order to repair the damage done to his treasury by the failure of 
 this expedition, would no longer wear costly furs nor robes of scarlet, and con- 
 tented himself with common stuffs trimmed with hare-skin. He nevertheless 
 did not diminish the officers of his household, which had already become 
 numerous ; and being no doubt convinced that royalty required magnificence, 
 he surrounded himself with as much pomp as the times permitted. 
 
 Under the two PhiHps, his successors, this magnificence increased, and 
 descended to the great vassals, who were soon imitated by the knights 
 " bannerets." There seemed to be a danger of luxury becoming so great, 
 and so general in all classes of feudal society, that in 1294 an order of 
 the King was issued, regulating in the minutest details the expenses of 
 each person according to his rank in the State, or the fortune which he 
 could prove. But this law had the fate of all such enactments, and was 
 either easily evaded, or was only partially enforced, and that with great 
 difficulty. Another futile attempt to put it in practice was made in 130G, 
 when the splendour of dress, of equipages, and of table had become still 
 greater and more ruinous, and had descended progressively to the bourgeois 
 and merchants. 
 
 It must be stated in praise of Philip le Bel (Fig. 50) that, notwithstand- 
 ing the failure of his attempts to arrest the progress of luxury, he was not 
 satisfied with making laws against the extravagances of his subjects, for we 
 find that he studied a strict economy in his own household, which recalled 
 the austere times of Philip Augustus. Thus, in the curious regulations 
 relating to the domestic arrangements of the palace, the Queen, Jeanne de 
 Navarre, was only allowed two ladies and three maids of honour in her 
 suite, and she is said to have had only two four-horse carriages, one for 
 herself and the other for these ladies. In another place these regulations 
 require that a butler, specially appointed, " should buy all the cloth and furs 
 for the king, take charge of the key of the cupboards where these are kept, 
 know the quantity given to the tailors to make clothes, and check the accounts 
 when the tailors send in their claims for the price of their work." 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 T 
 
 After the death of the pious Jeanne do Navarre, to whom perhaps we 
 
 iilillli 
 
 Fig. .50.— King Philip le Bel in War-dress, on the Occasion of his entering Paris in 1304, after 
 having conquered the Communes of Flanders.— Equestrian Statue placed in Notre Dame, 
 Paris, and destroyed in 1772.— Fac-simile of a Woodcut from Thovefs " Cosmographio 
 TJniverselle," 1575. 
 
 must attribute the wise measures of he; husband, Philip lc Bel, the expenses 
 of the royal household materially increased, especially on the occasions of the 
 
?2 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 marriages of the three young sons of the King, from 1305 to 1307. Gold, 
 diamonds, pearls, and precious stones were employed profusely, both for the 
 King's garments and for those of the members of the royal family. The 
 accounts of 1307 mention considerable sums paid for carpets, counterpanes, 
 robes, worked linen, &c. A chariot of state, ornamented and covered with paint- 
 ings, and elided like the back of an altar, is also mentioned, and must have 
 been a great change to the heavy vehicles used for travelling in those days. 
 
 Down to the reign of St. Louis the furniture of castles had preserved a 
 character of primitive simplicity which did not, however, lack grandeur. 
 The stone remained uncovered in most of the halls, or else it was whitened 
 with mortar and ornamented with moulded roses and leaves, coloured in 
 distemper. Against the wall, and also against the pillars supporting the 
 arches, arms and armour of all sorts were hung, arranged in suits, and inter- 
 spersed with banners and pennants or emblazoned standards. In the great 
 middle hall, or dining-room, there was a long massive oak table, with benches 
 and stools of the same wood. At the end of this table, there was a large arm- 
 chair, overhung with a canopy of golden or silken stuff, which was occupied 
 by the owner of the castle, and only relinquished by him in favour of his 
 superior or sovereign. Often the walls of the hall of state were hung with 
 tapestry, representing groves with cattle, heroes of ancient history, or 
 events in the romance of chivalry. The floor was generally paved with 
 hard stone, or covered with enamelled tiles. It was carefully strewn with 
 scented herbs in summer, and straw in winter. Philip Augustus ordered 
 that the Hotel Dieu of Paris should receive the herbs and straw which was 
 daily removed from the floors of his palace. It was only very much later 
 that this troublesome system was replaced by mats and carpets. 
 
 The bedrooms were generally at the top of the towers, and had little else 
 by way of furniture, besides a very large bed, with or without curtains, a 
 box in which clothes were kept, and which also served as a seat, and aprie- 
 dieu chair, which sometimes contained prayer and other books of devotion. 
 These lofty rooms, whoso thick walls kept out the heat in summer, and the 
 cold in winter, were only lighted by a small window or loophole, closed 
 with a square of oiled paper or of thin horn. 
 
 A great change took place in the abodes of the nobility in the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth centuries (Fig. 51). "We find, for instance, in Sauval's " History 
 and Researches of the Antiquities of the City of Paris," that the abodes of 
 
CAS7T.ES. TOWNS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 73 
 
 the kings of the first dynast}'' had been transformed info Palaces of Justice 
 by Philip le Eel ; the same author also gives us a vivid description of the 
 Chateau du Louvre, and the Hotel St. Paul, which the kings inhabited 
 when their court was in the capital. But even without examining into 
 all the royal abodes, it will suffice to give an account of the Hotel de 
 
 Fig'. 51.— The Knight and his Lady.— Costumes of the Court of Burgundy in the Fourteenth 
 Century; Furnished Chamber.— Miniature in " Othea," Form by Christine de Pisan (Brussels 
 Library). 
 
 Boheme, which, after having been the home of the Sires de Nesles, of 
 Queen Blanche of Castillo, and other great persons, was given by Charles \ I., 
 in 1388, to his brother, the famous Duke Louis of Orleans. 
 
 " I shall not attempt," says Sauval, " to speak of the cellars and wine 
 cellars, the bakehouses, the fruiteries, the salt-stores, the fur rooms, the 
 
 L 
 
7+ PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 porters' lodges, the stores, the guard-rooms, the wood-yard, or the glass-stores ; 
 nor of the servants ; nor of the place where hypocms was made ; neither shall 
 I describe the tapestry-room, the linen-room, nor the laundry ; nor, indeed, 
 any of the various conveniences which were then to he found in the yards of 
 that palace as well as in the other abodes of the princes and nobles. 
 
 " I shall simply remark, that amongst the many suites of rooms which 
 composed it, two occupied the two first stories of the main building; the first- 
 was raised some few steps above the ground-floor of the court, and was 
 occupied by Valentine do Milan ; and her husband, Louis of Orleans, generally 
 occupied the second. Each of these suites of rooms consisted of a great hall, a 
 chamber of state, a large chamber, a, wardrobe, some closets, and a chapel. 
 The windows of the halls were thirteen and a half feet* high by four and a 
 half wide. The state chambers were eight ' toises,' that is, about fifty feet 
 and a half long. The duke and duchess's chambers were six ' toises ' by 
 three, that is, about thirty-six feet by eighteen; the others were seven toises 
 and a half square, all lighted by long and narrow windows of wirework with 
 trellis-work of iron ; the wainscots and the ceilings were made of Irish wood, 
 the same as at the Louvre." 
 
 In this palace there was a room used by the duke, hung with cloth of 
 gold, bordered with vermilion velvet, embroidered with roses ; the duchess had 
 a room hung with vermilion satin embroidered with crossbows, which were 
 on her coat of arms ; that of the Duke of Burgundy was hung with cloth of 
 gold embroidered with windmills. There were, besides, eight carpets of 
 glossy texture, with gold Mowers ; one representing " The Seven Virtues and 
 the Seven Vices ; " another the history of Charlemagne ; another that of St. 
 Louis. There were also cushions of cloth of gold, twenty-four pieces of 
 vermilion leather of Aragon, and four carpets of Aragon leather, "to be 
 placed on the floor of rooms in summer." The favourite arm-chair of the 
 princess is thus described in an inventory : — " A chamber chair with four 
 supports, painted in fine vermilion, the seat and arms of which are covered 
 with vermilion morocco, or cordovan, worked and stamped with designs 
 representing the sun, birds, and other devices, bordered with fringes of silk 
 and studded with nails." 
 
 Among the ornamental furniture were — " A large vase of massive silver, 
 for holding sugar-plums or sweetmeats, shaped like a square table, supported 
 
 * French feet. 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, ANT) RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 75 
 
 by four satyrs, also of silver; a fine wooden casket, covered with vormilion 
 cordovan, nailed, and bordered with a narrow gilt band, shutting with a 
 key." 
 
 In the daily lite of Louis of < 'rleans and his wife, everything corresponded 
 with the luxury of their house. Thus, for the amusement of their children, 
 two little books of pictures were made, illuminated with gold, azure, and ver- 
 milion, and covered with vermilion leather of Cordova, which cost sixty nols 
 [itirisis, i.f. four hundred Cranes. But it was in the custom of New Year's 
 
 Fig. 52.— Bronze Chandeliers of the Fourteenth Century (Collection of M. Aeh. Jubinal). 
 
 gifts that the duke and duchess displayed truly royal magnificence, as we find 
 described in the accounts of their expenses. For instance, in 138S they paid 
 four hundred francs of gold for sheets of silk to give to those who received 
 the New Year's gifts from the King and Queen. In 1402, one hundred pounds 
 (tournois) were given to Jehan Taienne, goldsmith, for six silver cups pre- 
 sented to Jacques de Poschin, the Duke's squire. To the Sire de la Tremouille 
 Valentine gives " a cup and basin of gold ;" to Queen Isabella, "a golden 
 
PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 image of St. John, surrounded with nine rubies, one sapphire, and twenty 
 one pearls ;" to Mademoiselle de Luxembourg-, "another small golden sacred 
 imao-e, surrounded with pearls;" and lastly, in an account of 1394, headed, 
 " Portion of gold and silver jewels bought by Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans 
 as a New Year's gift," we find "a clasp of gold, studded with one large ruby 
 and six large pearls, given to the King ; three paternosters for the King's 
 daughters, and two large diamonds for the Dukes of 
 Burgundy and Berry." 
 
 Such were the habits in private life of the royal 
 princes under Charles VI. ; and it can easily be 
 shown that the example of royalty was followed 
 not only by the court, but also in the remotest 
 provinces. The great tenants or vassals of the 
 crown each possessed several splendid mansions in 
 their fiefs ; the Dukes of Burgundy, at Souvigny, 
 at Moulins, and at Bourbon l'Archambault ; the 
 Counts of Champagne, at Troves ; the Dukes of 
 Burgundy at Dijon ; and all the smaller nobles 
 made a point of imitating their superiors. From the 
 fifteenth to the sixteenth centuries, the provinces 
 which now compose France were studded with 
 castles, which were as remarkable for their interior 
 architecture as for the richness of their furniture ; 
 and it may be asserted that the luxury which was 
 displayed in the dwellings of the nobility was the 
 evidence, if not the result, of a great social revo- 
 lution in the manners and customs of private life. 
 At the end of the fourteenth centuiy there lived 
 a much-respected noble of Anjou, named Geoffroy de Latour-Landry, who 
 had three daughters. In his old age, he resolved that, considering the 
 dangers which might surround them in consccpience of their inexperience 
 and beauty, he would compose for their use a code of admonitions which 
 might guide them in the various circumstances of life. 
 
 This book of domestic maxims is most curious and instructive, from the 
 details which it contains respecting the manners and customs, mode of 
 conduct, and fashions of the nobility of the period (Fig. 54). The author 
 
 Fig-. 53. — Styli used in writing- 
 in the Fourteenth Century. 
 
\p^ ^ 
 
 
 A YOUNG MOTHER'S RETINUE. 
 
 Representing the Parisian costumes at the end of the foirrtenntli century. 
 
 Fac-simile of a miniature fmrn the latin Terence of king Charles \ !. 
 
 From a manuscript in the I'.iM, J,e I'Arscmil 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AXD RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 11 
 
 mostly illustrates each of his precepts by examples from the life of contem- 
 porary personages. 
 
 The first advice the knight gives his daughters is, to begin the day with 
 prayer ; and, in order to give greater weight to his counsel, he relates the 
 following anecdote: "A noble had two daughters; the one was pious, 
 always saying her prayers with devotion, and regularly attending the services 
 of the church ; she married an honest man, and was most happy. The 
 other, on the contrary, was satisfied with hearing low mass, and hurrying 
 
 ajHMiHai ^^ 
 
 Fig. 54.— Dress of Noble Ladies and Children in the Fourteenth Century.— Miniature in the 
 " Merveilles du Monde " (Manuscript, National Library of Paris). 
 
 once or twice through the Lord's Prayer, after which she went off to indulge 
 herself with sweetmeats. She complained of headaches, and required 
 careful diet. She married a most excellent knight; but, one evening, 
 taking advantage of her husband being asleep, she shut herself up in one 
 of the rooms of the palace, and in company with the people of the household, 
 began eating and drinking in the most riotous and excessive manner. The 
 knight awoke ; and, surprised not to find his wife by his side, got up, and, 
 armed with a stick, betook himself to the scene of festivity. He struck one 
 of the domestics with such force that he broke his stick in pieces, and one 
 
PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 of the fragments flew into the lady's eye and put it out. This caused her 
 husband to take a dislike to her, and he soon placed his affections elsewhere." 
 "My pretty daughters," the moralising parent proceeds, "be courteous 
 and meek, for nothing is more beautiful, nothing so secures the favour of God 
 and the love of others. Be then courteous to great and small; speak o-ently 
 
 with them I have seen a great lady take off her cap and bow to a 
 
 simple ironmonger. One of her followers seemed astonished. ' I prefer ' 
 she said, ' to have been too courteous towards that man, than to have been 
 guilty of the least incivility to a knight.' " 
 
 Fig. 5.5. — 'Noble Lady and Maid of Honour, and two Burgesses with Hoods (Fourteenth Century), 
 from a Miniature in the " MerveiUes du Monde " (Manuscript in the Imperial Library of Paris). 
 
 Latour-Landry also advised his daughters to avoid outrageous fashions 
 in dress. "Do not be hasty in copying the dress of foreign women. I 
 will relate a story on this subject respecting a bourgeoise of Guyenne and 
 the Sire de Beaumanoir. The lady said to him, 'Cousin, I come from 
 Brittany, where I saw my fine cousin, your wife, who was not so well 
 dressed as the ladies of Guyenne and many other places. The 
 borders of her dress and of her bonnet are not in fashion.' The Sire 
 answered, ' Since you find fault with the dress and cap of my wife, and as 
 they do not suit you, I shall take care in future that they arc changed ; but 
 
 I shall be careful not to choose them similar to yours Understand, 
 
 madam, that I wish her to be dressed according to the fashion of the good 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 70 
 
 ladies of France and tin's country, and not like those of England. It was 
 these last who first introduced into Brittany the large borders, the bodices 
 opened on the hips, and the hanging sleeves. I remember the time, and saw 
 it myself, and I have little respect for women who adopt these fashions.' !' 
 
 Respecting the high head-dresses "which cause women to resemble stags 
 who are obliged to lower their heads to enter a wood," the knight relates 
 what took place in 139'2 at the fete of St. Marguerite. " There was a young 
 and pretty woman there, quite differently dressed from the others; every one 
 stared at her as if she had been a wild beast, One respectable lady 
 approached her and said, ' My friend, what do you call that fashion ?' She 
 answered, 'It is called the " gibbet dress." ' 'Indeed; but that is not a 
 fine name ! ' answered the old lady. Very soon the name of ' gibbet dress ' 
 got known all round the room, and every one laughed at the foolish creature 
 who was thus bedecked." This head-dress did in fact owe its name to its 
 summit, which resembled a gibbet. 
 
 These extracts from the work of this honest knight, suffice to prove that 
 the customs of French society had, as early as the end of the fourteenth 
 century, taken a decided character which was to remain subject only to 
 modifications introduced at various historical periods. 
 
 Amongst the customs which contributed most to the softening and elegance 
 of the feudal class, we must cite that of sending into the service of the 
 sovereign for some years all the youths of both sexes, under the names of 
 varlets, pages, squires, and maids of honour. No noble, of whatever wealth 
 or power, ever thought of depriving his family of this apprenticeship and 
 its accompanying chivalric education. 
 
 Fp to the end of the twelfth century, the number of domestic officers 
 attached to a castle was very limited ; we have seen, fur instance, that 
 Philip Augustus contented himself with a few servants, and his queen with 
 two or three maids of honour. Under Fouis IX. this household was much 
 increased, and under Philippe le Bel and his sons the royal household had 
 become so considerable as to constitute quite a large assemblage of young 
 men and women. Under Charles VI., the household of Queen Isabella of 
 Bavaria alone amounted to forty-five persons, without counting the almoner, 
 the chaplains, and clerks of the chapel, who must have been very numerous, 
 since the sums paid to them amounted to the large amount of four hundred 
 and sixty francs of gold per annum. 
 
So 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 Fig. 56.— Court of the Ladies of Queen Anne of Brittany ; Miniature representing- this lady 
 weeping on account of the absence of her husband during the Italian war.— Manuscript of the 
 " Epistres Envoyees an Roi " (Sixteenth Century), obtained by the Coislin Fund for the Library 
 of St. Germain des Pres in Paris, now in the Library of St. Petersburg. 
 
 Under Charles VIII., Louis XII., and Francis I., the service of the 
 young nohility, which was called " apprenticeship of honour or virtue," 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 had taken a much wider range ; for the first families of the French nobility 
 were most eager to get their children admitted into the royal household, 
 either to attend on the King or Queen, or at any rate on one of the princes 
 of the royal blood. Anne of Brittany particularly gave special attention to 
 her female attendants (Fig. 56). "She was the first," says Brantome in 
 his work on "Illustrious Women," "who began to form the great court of 
 ladies which has descended to our days ; fur she had a considerable retinue 
 both of adult ladies and young girls. She never refused to receive any' one ; 
 on the contrary, she inquired of the gentlemen of the court if they had any 
 daughters, ascertained who they were, and asked for them." It was thus 
 that the Admiral de Graville (Fig. 57) confided to the good Queen the 
 education of his daughter Anne, who at this school of the Court of Ladies 
 became one of the most distinguished women of her day. The same Queen, 
 as Duchess of Brittanv, created a company of one hundred Breton gentle- 
 men, who accompanied her everywhere. " They never failed," says the 
 author of " Illustrious Women," "when she went to mass or took a walk, 
 to await her return on the little terrace of Blois, which is still called the 
 Perche aux Bretons. She gave it this name herself; for when she saw them 
 she said, ' There are my Bretons on the perch waiting for me.' ' 
 
 We must not forget that this queen, who became successively the wife of 
 Charles VIII. and of Louis XII., had taken care to c>tablish a strict 
 discipline amongst the young men and women who composed her court. 
 She rightly considered herself the guardian of the honour of the former, and 
 of the virtue of the latter ; therefore, as long as she lived, her court was 
 renowned for purity and politeness, noble and refined gallantry, and was 
 never allowed to degenerate into imprudent amusements or licentious and 
 culpable intrigues. 
 
 Unfortunately, the moral influence of this worthy princess died with her. 
 Although the court of France continued to gather around it almost every 
 sort of elegance, and although it continued during the whole of the six- 
 teenth century the most polished of European courts, notwithstanding the 
 great external and civil wars, yet it afforded at the same time a sad example 
 of laxity of morals, which had a most baneful influence on public habits ; so 
 much so that vice and corruption descended from class to class, and contami- 
 nated all orders of society. If we wished to make investigations into the 
 private life of the lower orders in those times, we should not succeed as we 
 
 M 
 
PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 Fig. .57.— Louis de Mallet, Lord of Graville, Admiral of France, 1487, in Cosluroe of War and 
 Tournament, from an Engraving of the Sixteenth Century (National Library of Paris, Cabinet 
 des Estampes). 
 
 have been able to do with that of the upper classes ; for we have scarcely any 
 data to throw light upon their sad and obscure history. Bourgeois and 
 peasants were, as we have already shown, long included together with the 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 83 
 
 miserable class of serfs, a herd of human beings without individuality, 
 without significance, who from their birth to their death, whether isolated 
 or collectively, were the "property" of their masters. What must have 
 been the private life of this degraded multitude, bowed down under the must 
 tyrannical and humiliating dependence, we can scarcely imagine ; it was in 
 fact but a purely material existence, which has left scarcely any trace in 
 history- 
 Many centuries elapsed before the dawn of liberty could penetrate the 
 social strata of this multitude, thus oppressed and denuded of all power of 
 action. The development was slow, painful, and dearly bought, but at last 
 it took place ; first of all towns sprang up, and with them, or rather by their 
 influence, the inhabitants became possessed of social life. The agricultural 
 population took its social position many generations later. 
 
 As we have already seen, the great movement for the creation of communes 
 and bourgeoisies only dates from the unsettled period ranging from the 
 eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, and simultaneously we see the bour<reoi.s 
 appear, already rich and luxurious, parading on all occasions their personal 
 opulence. Their private life could only be an imitation of that in the 
 chateaux ; by degrees as wealth strengthened and improved their condition, 
 and rendered them independent, we find them trying to procure luxuries 
 equal or analogous to those enjoyed by the upper classes, and which appeared to 
 them the height of material happiness. In all times the small have imitated 
 the great. It was in vain that the great obstinately threatened, by the exercise 
 of their prerogatives, to try and crush tin's tendency to equality which alarmed 
 them, by issuing pecuniary edicts, summary laws, coercive regulations, and 
 penal ordinances; by the force of circumstances the arbitrary restrictions 
 which the nobility laid upon the lower classes gradually disappeared, and 
 the power of wealth displayed itself in spite of all their efforts to suppress it. 
 In fact, occasions were not wanting in which the bourgeois class was able to 
 refute the charge of unworthiness with which the nobles sought to stamp it. 
 When taking a place in the council of the King, or employed in the 
 administration of the provinces, many of its members distinguished them- 
 selves by firmness and wisdom ; when called upon to assist in the national 
 defence, they gave their blood and their gold with noble self-denial; and 
 lastly, they did not fail to prove themselves possessed of those high and delicate 
 sentiments of which the nobility alone claimed the hereditary possession. 
 
PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 " The bourgeois," says Arnaud de Marveil, one of the most famous trouba- 
 dours of the thirteenth century, " have divers sorts of merits : some dis- 
 tinguish themselves by deeds of honour, others are by nature noble and 
 
 Fig. 68.— Burgess of Ghent and his Wife, in ceremonial Attire, kneeling in Church, from a painted 
 Window belonging to a Chapel in that Town (Fifteenth Century). 
 
 behave accordingly. There arc others thoroughly brave, courteous, frank, 
 and jovial, who, although poor, find means to please by graceful speech, 
 frequenting courts, and making themselves agreeable there ; these, well 
 versed in courtesy and politeness, appear in noble attire, and figure con- 
 
CASTLES, TfllVXS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. «s 
 
 spicuously at the tournaments and military games, proving themselves 
 good judges and good company." 
 
 Down to the thirteenth century, however rich their fathers or husbands 
 might be, the women of the bourgeoisie were not permitted, without 
 incurring a tine, to use the ornaments and stuffs exclusively reserved for tbe 
 nobilitv. During the reigns of Philip Augustas and Louis IX., although these 
 arbitrary laws were not positively abolished, a heavy blew was inflicted on them 
 by the marks of confidence, esteem, and honour which these monarchs found 
 pleasure in bestowing on the bourgeoisie. We find the first of these kings, 
 when on the point of starting for a crusade, chousing six from amongst the 
 principal members of the parloir aux bourgeois (it was thus that the first Hotel 
 de Yille, situated in the corner of the Place do la Greve, was named) to 
 be attached to the Council of Regency, to whom be specially confided his 
 will and the royal treasure. His grandson made a point of following his 
 grandsire's example, and Louis IX. showed the same appreciation for the 
 new element which the Parisian bourgeoisie was about to establish in political 
 life by making tbe bourgeois Etienne Boileau one of his principal ministers 
 of police, and the bourgeois Jean Sarrazin his chamberlain. 
 
 Under tbese circumstances, the wbole bourgeoisie gloried in the marks of 
 distinction conferred upon their representatives, and (luring tbe following 
 reign, the ladies of this class, proud of their immense fortunes, but above 
 all proud of the municipal powers held by their families, bedecked themselves 
 regardless of expense, with costly furs and rich stuff's, notwithstanding that 
 thev were forbidden by law to do so. 
 
 Then came an outcry on the part of tbe nobles ; and we read as billows, in 
 an edict of Philippe le Pel, wbo inclined less to the bourgeoisie than to the 
 nobles, and who did net spare the former in matters of taxation: — "No 
 bourgeois shall have a chariot nor wear gold, precious stones, or crowns of 
 gold or silver. Bourgeois, not being either prelates nor dignitaries of state, 
 shall not bave tapers of wax. A bourgeois possessing two thousand pounds 
 (tournois) or more, may order for himself a dress of twelve sous six deniers, 
 and for his wife one worth sixteen sous at the most,'' Tbe sou, which was 
 but nominal money, may be reckoned as representing twenty francs, and the 
 denier one franc, but allowance must be made for the enormous difference in 
 the value of silver, which would make twenty francs in the thirteenth century 
 represent upwards of two hundred francs of present currency. 
 
86 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 But these regulations as to the mode of living were so little or so 
 carelessly observed, that all the successors of Philippe le Bel thought it 
 necessary to re-enact them, and, indeed, Charles VII., one century later, was 
 oblio-ed to censure the excess of luxury in dress by an edict which was, 
 however, no better enforced than the rest. " It has been shown to the said 
 lord" (the King Charles VII.), "that of all nations of the habitable globe 
 there are none so changeable, outrageous, and excessive in their manner of 
 
 Fig. 59. —The new-born Child, from a Miniature in the " Histoire de la Belle Helaine ' 
 (Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, National Library of Paris). 
 
 dress, as the French nation, and there is no possibility of discovering by 
 their dress the state or calling of persons, be the}' princes, nobles, bour- 
 geois, or working men, because all are allowed to dress as they think 
 proper, whether in gold or silver, silk or wool, without any regard to their 
 calling." 
 
 At the end of the thirteenth century, a rich merchant of Valenciennes 
 went to the court of the King of France wearing a cloak of furs covered 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 with gold and pearls ; seeing that no one offered him a cushion, he proudly 
 sat on his cloak. On lea vino- ho did not attempt to take up the cloak ; and 
 on a servant calling his attention to the fact he remarked, "It is not the 
 custom in my country for people to cany away their cushions with them." 
 
 Respecting a journey made by Philippe le Bel and his wife Jeanne de 
 Navarre to the towns of Bruges and Ghent, the historian Jean Mayer 
 relates that Jeanne, on seeing the costly array of the bourgeois of those 
 two rich cities, exclaimed, " I thought I was the only queen here, but I see 
 more than six hundred ! " 
 
 In spite of the laws, the Parisian bourgeoisie soon rivalled the Flemish 
 in the brilliancy of their dress. Thus, in the second halt of the fourteenth 
 century, the famous Christine do Pisan relates that, having gone to visit 
 the wife of a merchant during her confinement, it was not without some 
 amazement that she saw the sumptuous furniture of the apartment in which 
 this woman lay in bed (Fig. 011). The walls were hung with precious 
 tapestry of Cyprus, on which the initials and motto of the lady were 
 embroidered ; the sheets were of fine linen of Bheims, and had cost more 
 than three hundred pounds ; the quilt was a now invention of silk and 
 silver tissue ; the carpet was like gold. The lady wore an elegant dress of 
 crimson silk, and rested her head and arms on pillows, ornamented with 
 buttons of oriental pearls. It should be remarked that this lady was not the 
 wife of a large merchant, such as those of Venice and Genoa, but of a simple 
 retail dealer, who was not above selling articles for four sous ; such being the 
 case, we need not be surprised that Christine should have considered the 
 anecdote " worthy of being immortalised in a book." 
 
 It must not, however, be assumed that the sole aim of the bourgeoisie 
 was that of making a haughty and pompous display. This is refuted by 
 the testimony of the " Menagier de Paris," a curious anonymous work, the 
 author of which must have been an educated and enlightened bourgeois. 
 
 The "Menagier," which was first published by the Baron Jerome Pichon, 
 is a collection of counsels addressed by a husband to his young wife, as to her 
 conduct in society, in the world, and in the management of her household. 
 The first part is devoted to developing the mind of the young house- 
 wife ; and the second relates to the arrangements necessary for the welfare 
 of her house. It must be remembered that the comparatively trifling duties 
 relating to the comforts of private life, which devolved on the wife, were not 
 
ss 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 so numerous in those days as they are now ; but on the other hand they 
 required an amount of practical knowledge on the part of the housewife which 
 she can nowadays dispense with. Under this head the " Menagier " is full 
 of information. 
 
 After having spoken of the prayers which a Christian woman shoidd say 
 morning and evening, the author discusses the great question of dress, 
 which has ever been of supreme importance in the eyes of the female sex : 
 "Know, dear sister," (the friendly name he gives his young wife), "that 
 in the choice of your apparel you must always consider the rank of your 
 parents and mine, as also the state of my fortune. Be respectably dressed, 
 
 Fig. 60. — Sculptured Comb, in Ivory, of the Sixteenth Century (Sauvageot Collection). 
 
 without devoting too much study to it, without too much plunging into new 
 fashions. Before leaving your room, see that the collar of your gowa 
 be well adjusted and is not put on crooked." 
 
 Then he dilates on the characters of women, which are too often wilful 
 and unmanagable ; on this point, for he is not less profuse in examples than 
 the Chevalier de Latour-Landry, he relates an amusing anecdote, worthy of 
 being repeated and remembered : — 
 
 " I have heard the badiff of Tournay relate, that he had found himself 
 several times at table with men long married, and that he had wagered with 
 them the price of a dinner under the following conditions : the company 
 
CASTLES, TOWxYS, AXD JURA/. DISTRICTS. S 9 
 
 was to visit the abode of each of the husbands successively, and any one who 
 had a wife obedient enough immediately, without contradicting or making any 
 remark, to consent to count up to four, would win the bet ; but, on the other 
 hand, those whose wives showed temper, laughed, or refused to obey, would 
 lose. Under these conditions the company gaily adjourned to the abode 
 of Robin, whose wife, called Marie, had a high opinion of herself. The 
 husband said before all, ' Marie, repeat after me what I shall say.' ' Willingly, 
 sire.' 'Marie, say, 'One, two, three!' But by this time Marie was out of 
 patience, and said, ' And seven, and twelve, and fourteen ! Why, you are 
 making a fool of me ! ' So that husband lost his wager. 
 
 " The company next went to the house of Maitre Jean, whose wife, 
 Agnescat, well knew how to play the lady. Jean said, 'Repeat after me, 
 one!' 'And two!' answered Agnescat disdainfully ; so he lost his wager. 
 Tassin then tried and said to dame Tassin, ' Count one ! ' ' Go upstairs ! ' she 
 answered, ' if you want to teach counting, I am not a child.' Another said, 
 ' Clo away with you; you must have lost your senses,' or similar words, 
 which made the husbands lose their wagers. Those, on the contrary, who 
 had well-behaved wives gained their wager and went away joyful." 
 
 This amusing quotation suffices to show that the author of the " Menagier 
 de Paris" wished to adopt a jocose style, with a view to enliven the serious- 
 ness of the subject he was advocating. 
 
 The part of his work in winch he discusses the administration of the 
 house is not less worthy of attention. One of the most curious chapters 
 of the work is that in which ho points out the manner in which the 
 young bourgeoise is to behave towards persons in ho- service. Rich people 
 in those days, in whatever station of life, were obliged to keep a numerous 
 retinue of servants. It is curious to find that so far back as the period to 
 which we allude, there was in Paris a. kind of servants' registry office, 
 where situations were found for servant-maids from the country. The 
 bourgeois gave up the entire management of the servants to his wife ; but, 
 on account of her extreme youth, the author of the work in question 
 recommends his wife only to engage servants who shall have been chosen 
 by Dame Agnes, the nun whom he had placed with her as a kind ot 
 governess or companion. 
 
 "Before engaging them," he says, " know whence they come; in what 
 houses they have been; if they have acquaintances in town, and if they are 
 
 x 
 
•>o 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 steady. Discover what they are capable of doing ; and ascertain that they 
 are not greedy, or inclined to drink. If they como from another country, 
 try to find out why they left it ; for, generally, it is not without some serious 
 reason that a woman decides upon a change of abode. When you have 
 engaged a maid, do not permit her to take the slightest liberty with you, 
 nor allow her to speak disrespectfully to you. If, on the contrary, she be 
 epiiet in her demeanour, honest, modest, and shows herself amenable to 
 reproof, treat her as if she were your daughter. 
 
 " Superintend the work to be done ; and choose among your servants 
 
 Fig. 61._Dress of Maidservants in the Thirteenth Century.— Miniature in a Manuscript of the 
 
 National Library of Paris. 
 
 those qualified for each special department. If you order a thing to be clone 
 immediately, do not be satisfied with the following answers: 'It shall be 
 done presently, or to-morrow early ;' otherwise, be sure that you will have 
 to repeat your orders." 
 
 To these severe instructions upon the management of servants, the 
 bourgeois adds a few words respecting their morality. He recommends 
 that they be not permitted to use coarse or indecent language, or to insult 
 one another (Fig. 61). Although he is of opinion that necessary time 
 should be given to servants at their meals, he does not approve of their 
 remaining drinking and talking too long at table: concerning which 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 01 
 
 practice he quotes a proverb in use at that time : " Quand varlet presclie a 
 table et cheval paist en gue, il est temps qu'on Ten oste: assez y a este ;" 
 which means, that when a servant talks at table and a horse feeds near a 
 
 Fig. 62.— Hotel deb Uxsins, Paris, built during the Fourteenth Century, restored in the Sixteenth, 
 and now destroyed.— Stats of the North Front at the End of the last Century. 
 
 watering-place it is time ho should be removed ; he has been there long 
 enough. 
 
 The manner in which the author concludes his instruction proves his 
 kindness of heart, as well as his benevolence : " If one of your servants fall 
 sick, it is your duty, setting everything else aside, to see to his being cured." 
 
 It was thus that a bourgeois of the fifteenth century expressed himself; 
 
92 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 and as it is clear that he could only have been inspired to dictate his 
 theoretical teachings by the practical experience which he must have gained 
 for the most part among the middle class to which he belonged, we must 
 conclude that in those days the bourgeoisie possessed considerable knowledge 
 of moral dignity and social propriety. 
 
 It must be added that by the side of the merchant and working bour- 
 geoisie — who, above all, owed their greatness to the high functions of the 
 municipality — the parliamentary bourgeoisie had raised itself to power, and 
 that from the fourteenth century it played a considerable part in the State, 
 holding at several royal courts at different periods, and at last, almost 
 hereditarily, the highest magisterial positions. The very character of these 
 great offices of j^resident, or of parliamentary counsel, barristers, &c, proves 
 that the holders must have had no small amount of intellectual culture. In 
 this wa) T a refined taste was created among this class, which the protection 
 of kings, princes, and lords had alone hitherto encouraged. We find, for 
 example, the Grosliers at Lyons, the De Thous and Seguiers in Paris, 
 regardless of their bourgeois origin, becoming judicious and zealous patrons 
 of poets, scholars, and artists. 
 
 A description of Paris, published in the middle of the fifteenth century, 
 describes amongst the most splendid residences of the capital the hotels of 
 Juvenal des Ursins (Fig. 02), of Bureau de Dampmartin, of Guillaume 
 Seguin, of Mille Baillet, of Martin Double, and particularly that of Jacques 
 JJuchie, situated in the Rue des Prouvaires, in which were collected at 
 great cost collections of all kinds of arms, musical instruments, rare 
 birds, tapestry, and works of art. In each church in Paris, and there 
 were upwards of a hundred, the principal chapels were founded by cele- 
 brated families of the ancient bourgeoisie, who had left money for one or 
 more masses to be said daily for the repose of the souls of their deceased 
 members. In the burial-grounds, and principally in that of the Innocents, 
 the monuments of these families of Parisian bourgeoisie were of the most 
 expensive character, and were inscribed with epitaphs in which the living 
 vainly tried to immortalise the deeds of the deceased. Every one has heard 
 of the celebrated tomb of Nicholas Flam el and Pernelle his wife (Fig. 63), 
 the cross of Bureau, the epitaph of Yolande Bailly, who died in 1514, at 
 the age of eighty-eight, and who " saw, or might have seen, two hundred 
 and ninety-five children descended from her." 
 
CASTLES, TOU'XS, AXD RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 93 
 
 In fact, the religious institutions of Paris afford much curious and 
 interesting' information relative to the history of lite bourgeoisie. For 
 instance, Jean Alais, who levied a tax. of one denier on each basket of fish 
 brought to market, and thereby amassed an enormous fortune, left the whole 
 of it at his death for the purpose of erecting a chapel called St. Agnes, which 
 soon after became the church of St. Eustace. He farther directed that, by 
 way of expiation, bis body should be thrown into the sewer which drained 
 
 pe 
 
 c (if ( -i^ vi « /p>) 
 
 Fig. 63. — Nicholas Flarael and Peinelle, his Wife, from a Painting executed at the End of thi 
 Fifteenth Century, under the Vaults of the Cemetery of the Innocents, in Paris. 
 
 the offal from the market, and covered with a large stone ; this sewer up to 
 the end of the last century was still called Pont Alais. 
 
 Very often when citizens made gifts during their lifetime to churches 
 or parishes, the donors reserved to themselves certain privileges which were 
 calculated to cause the motives which had actuated them to be open to 
 criticism. Thus, in 1304, the daughters of Nicholas Arrode, formerly 
 provost of the merchants, presented to the church of St. Jaeques-la-Boiieherie 
 the house and grounds which they inhabited, but one of them reserved the 
 
94 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 right of having a key of the church that she might go in whenever she 
 pleased. Guillaume Haussecuel, in 140.3, bought a similar right for the 
 sum of eighteen sols parisis per annum (equal to twenty-five francs) ; and 
 Alain and his wife, whose house was close to two chapels of the church, under- 
 took not to build so as in any way to shut out the light from one of the 
 chapels on condition that they might open a small window into the chape], 
 and so be enabled to hear the service without leaving their room. 
 
 Fig-. 64.— Country Life.— Fac-simile of a Woodcut in a folio Edition of Virgil, published 
 
 at Lyons in 1517. 
 
 We thus see that the bourgeoisie, especially of Paris, gradually took 
 a more prominent position in history, and became so grasping after power 
 that it ventured, at a period which does not concern us here, to aspire to 
 every sort of distinction, and to secure an important social standing. What 
 had been the exception during the sixteenth century became the rule two 
 centuries later. 
 
 "V\ e will now take a glance at the agricultural population (Fig. 04), who, 
 
CAS2TFS, TOWNS, AXD RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 05 
 
 as we have already stated, were only emancipated from serfdom at the end of 
 the eighteenth century. 
 
 But whatever might have been formerly the civil condition of the rural 
 population, everything leads us to suppose that there were no special changes 
 in their private and domestic means of existence from a comparatively remote 
 period down to almost the present time. 
 
 A small poem of the thirteenth century, entitled, " De l'Oustillement 
 au Yilain," gives a clear though rough sketch of the domestic state of the 
 peasantry. Strange as it may seem, it must he acknowledged that, with a 
 few exceptions resulting from the progress of time, it would not he difficult, 
 even at the present day, to find the exact type maintained in the country 
 
 Fig. 65.— Sedentary Occupations of the Peasants. — Fac-sinrile from an Engraving on Wood, 
 attributed to Holbein, in the " Cosmographie " of Munster (Basle, 15.32, folio). 
 
 districts farthest away from the capital and large towns ; at all events, they 
 were faithfully represented at the time of the revolution of 1789. 
 
 We gather from this poem, which must be considered an authentic and 
 most interesting document, that the manse or dwelling of the villain com- 
 prised three distinct buildings ; the first for the corn, the second for tlio hay 
 and straw, the third for the man and his family. In this rustic abode a fire 
 of vine brandies and faggots sparkled in a large chimney furnished with 
 an iron pot-hanger, a tripod, a shovel, large tire-irons, a cauldron and a. 
 meat-hook. Xext to the fireplace was an oven, and in close proximity to this 
 an enormous bedstead, on which the villain, his wife, his children, and even 
 the stranger who asked for hospitality, could all lie easily accommodated ; a 
 
9 6 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 kneading trough, a table, a bench, a cheese cupboard, a jug, and a few 
 baskets made up the rest of the furniture. The villain also possessed other 
 utensils, such as a ladder, a mortar, a hand-mill — for every one then was 
 obliged to grind bis own corn ; a mallet, some nails, some gimlets, fishing 
 lines, hooks and baskets, &c. 
 
 Fig. 66— Villains before going to Work receiving their Lord's Orders.— Miniature in the 
 " I'roprietuire des Gnoses."— Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (Library of the Arsenal, in 
 
 Jtis working implements were a plough, a scythe, a spade, a hoe, large 
 shears, a knife and a sharpening stone ; he had also a waggon, with harness 
 for several horses, so as to be able to accomplish the different tasks required 
 of him under feudal rights, either by his proper lord, or by the sovereign; 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 7 
 
 for the villain was liable to be called upon to undertake every kind of work 
 of this sort. 
 
 His dress consisted of a blouse of cloth or skin fastened by a leather belt- 
 round the waist, an overcoat or mantle of thick woollen stuff, which fell 
 from his shoulders to half-way down his legs ; shoes or large boots, short 
 woollen trousers, and from his belt there hung his wallet and a sheath for 
 his knife (Figs. 66 and 71). He generally went bare-headed, but in cold 
 weather or in rain he wore a sort of hat of similar stuff to his coat, or one of 
 felt with a broad brim. lie seldom wore mouffles, or padded gloves, except 
 when engaged in hedging. 
 
 A small kitchen-garden, which he cultivated himself, was usually attached 
 to the cottage, which was guarded by a large watch-dog. There was also a shed 
 for the cows, whose milk contributed to the sustenance of the establishment; 
 and on the thatched roof of this and his cottage the wild cats bunted the rats 
 and mice. The family were never idle, even in the bad season, and the children 
 were taught from infancy to work by the side of their parents (Fig. 65). 
 
 If, then, we find so much resemblance between the abodes of the villains 
 of the thirteenth century and those of the inhabitants of the poorest com- 
 munes of France in the present day, we may fairly infer that there must be 
 a great deal which is analogous between the inhabitants themselves of the 
 two periods ; for in the chateaux as well as in the towns we find the material 
 condition of the dwellings modifying itself conjointly with that of the moral 
 condition of the inhabitants. 
 
 Another little poem entitled, " On the Twenty-four Finds of Yillains," 
 composed about the same period as the one above referred to, gives us a 
 graphic description of the varieties of character among the feudal peasants. 
 One example is given of a man who will not tell a traveller the way, but 
 merely in a surly way answers, "You know it better than I" (Fig. 67b 
 Another, sitting at his door on a Sunday, laughs at those passing by, and 
 says to himself when he sees a gentleman going hawking with a bird on his 
 wrist, " Ah ! that bird will eat a hen to-day, and our children could all feast 
 upon it ! " Another is described as a sort of madman who equally despises 
 Ood, the saints, the Church, and the nobility. His neighbour is an honest 
 simpleton, who, stopping in admiration before the doorway of Notre Dame 
 in Paris in order to admire the statues of Pepin, Charlemagne, and their 
 successors, has his pocket picked of his purse. Another villain is supposed 
 
 o 
 
q8 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 to make trade of pleading the cause of others before " Messire le Bailli;" he 
 is very eloquent in trying to show that in the time of their ancestors the 
 cows had a free right of pasture in such and such a meadow, or the sheep on 
 such and such a ridge ; then there is the miser, and the speculator, who 
 
 Fig. 67. — The egotistical and envious Villain. — From a Miniature in " Proverbes et Adages, &c," 
 Manuscript of the La Valliere Fund, in the National Library of Paris, with this legend : 
 
 "Attrapez y sont les plus fins : (" The cleverest burn their fingers at it, 
 
 Qui trop embrasse mal estraint." And those who grasp all may lose all.") 
 
 converts all his possessions into ready money, so as to purchase grain against 
 a bad season ; but of course the harvest turns out to be excellent, and he 
 does not make a farthing, but runs away to conceal his ruin and rage 
 (Fig. 68). There is also the villain who leaves his plough to become a 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 99 
 
 poacher. There are many other curious examples which altogether tend 
 to prove that there has been but little change in the villager class since the 
 first periods of history. 
 
 Notwithstanding the miseries to which they were generally subject, the 
 rural population had their days of rest and amusement, which were then 
 much more numerous than at present. At that period the festivals of the 
 
 .item 
 
 <; ..,;: ; 
 
 Fig. 68.— The covetous and avaricious Villain.— Prom a Miniature in " Proverbes et Adages, &c.,' ' 
 Manuscript in the Kational Library of Paris, with this legend : 
 
 " Je suis icy levant lea yeulx (" Even on this lofty height 
 En ce haut lieu des attendens, We yet look higher, 
 
 En convoitant pour avoir mieulx As nothing will satisfy us 
 
 Prendre la lune avec les dens." But to clutch the moon.") 
 
 Church were frequent and rigidly kept, and as each of them was the pretext 
 for a forced holiday from manual labour, the peasants thought of nothing, 
 
J00 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 after church, but of amusing themselves ; they drank, talked, sang, danced, 
 and above all, laughed, for the laugh of our forefathers quite rivalled the 
 Homeric laugh, and burst forth with a noisy joviality (Fig. 69). 
 
 The "wakes," or evening parties, which are still the custom in most of the 
 French provinces, and which are of very ancient origin, formed important events 
 iu the private lives of the peasants. It was at these that the strange legends 
 and vulgar superstitions, which so long fed the minds of the ignorant classes, 
 were mostly created and propagated. It was there that those extraordinary 
 and terrible fairy tales were related, as well as those of magicians, witches, 
 spirits, &c. It was there that the matrons, whoso great age justified then- 
 experience, insisted on proving, by absurd tales, that they knew all the 
 marvellous secrets for causing happiness or for curing sickness. Consecpiently, 
 in those days the most enlightened rustic never for a moment doubted the 
 truth of witchcraft. 
 
 In fact, one of the first efforts at printing was applied to reproducing 
 the most ridiculous stories under the title of the " Evangile des Conuilles ou 
 Quenouilles," and which had been previously circulated in manuscript, and 
 had obtained implicit belief. The author of this remarkable collection asserts 
 that the matrons in his neighbourhood had deputed him to put together 
 in writing the sayings suitable for all conditions of rural life which were 
 bebeved in by them and were announced at the wakes. The absurdities and 
 childish follies which he has dared to register under their dictation are 
 almost incredible. 
 
 The "Evangile des Quenouilles," which was as much believed in as 
 Holy Writ, tells us, amongst other secrets which it contains for the advantage 
 of the reader, that a girl wishing to know the Christian name of her future 
 husband, has but to stretch the first thread she spins in the morning across 
 the doorway ; and that the first man who passes and touches the thread will 
 necessarily have the same name as the man she is destined to marry. 
 
 Another of the stories in this book was, that if a woman, on leaving off 
 work on Saturday night, left her distaff loaded, she might be sure that the 
 thread she would obtain from it during the following week would only pro- 
 duce linen of bad quality, which could not be bleached ; this was considered 
 to be proved by the fact that the Germans wore dark-brown coloured shirts, 
 and it was known that the women never unloaded their distaffs from Saturday 
 to Monday. 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 Should a woman enter a cow-house to milk her cows without saying 
 " God and St. Bridget bless you !" she was thought to run the risk of the 
 cows kicking and breaking the milk-pail and spilling the milk. 
 
 This silly nonsense, compiled like oracles, was printed as lato as 1493. 
 Eighty years later a gentleman of Brittany, named Noel du Fail, Lord of 
 Herissaye, councillor in the Parliament of Rennes, published, under the title 
 of "Rustic and Amusing Discourses," a work intended to counteract the 
 influence of the famous " Evan^-ile des Quenouilles." This new work was a 
 
 Tig. 69. — Village Fea.st. — Fac-simile of u Woodcut of the " Sandrin on Void Galant," facetious 
 Work of the End of the Sixteenth Century (edition of 1009). 
 
 simple and true sketch of country habits, and proved the elegance and artless 
 simplicity of the author, as well as his accuracy of observation. lie begins 
 thus: " Occasionally, having to retire into the country more conveniently 
 and uninterruptedly to finish some business, on a particular holiday, as I 
 was walking I came to a neighbouring village, where the greater part of 
 the old and young men were assembled, in groups of separate ages, for, 
 according to the proverb, ' Each seeks his like.' The young wore practising 
 the bow, jumping, wrestling, running races, and playing other games. The 
 old were looking on, some sitting under an oak, with their legs crossed, and 
 
PRIVATE LIFE IN THE 
 
 their hats lowered over their eyes, others leaning on their elbows criti- 
 cizing every performance, and refreshing the memory of their own youth, 
 and taking a lively interest in seeing the gambols of the young people." 
 
 The author states that on questioning one of the peasants to ascertain who 
 was the cleverest person present, the following dialogue took place : " The 
 one you see leaning on his elbow, hitting bis boots, which have white strings, 
 with a hazel stick, is called Anselme ; he is one of the rich ones of the 
 village, he is a good workman, and not a bad writer for the flat country ; and 
 the one you see by his side, with his thumb in his belt, hanging from which 
 is a large game bag, containing spectacles and an old prayer book, is called 
 Pasquicr, one of the greatest wits within a day's journey — nay, were I to say 
 two I should not be lying. Anyhow, he is certainly the readiest of the whole 
 company to open his purse to give drink to his companions." " And that 
 one," I asked, " with the large Milanese cap on his head, who holds an old 
 book?" "That one," he answered, "who is scratching the end of his nose 
 with one hand and his beard with the other ?" " That one," I replied, 
 "and who has turned towards us?" "Why," said he, "that is Roger 
 Bontemps, a merry careless fellow, who up to the age of fifty kept the parish 
 school ; but changing his first trade he has become a wine-grower. How- 
 ever, he cannot resist the feast days, when he brings us his old books, and 
 reads to us as long as we choose, such works as the ' Calendrier des Bergers,' 
 ' Fables d'Esope,' ' Le Roman de la Rose,' ' Matheolus,' ' Alain Chartier,' 
 ' Les Yigiles du feu Roy Charles,' 'Les deux Grebans,' and others. Neither, 
 with his old habit of warbbng, can he help singing on Sundays in the choir ; 
 and he is called Huguet. The other sitting near him, looking over his 
 shoulder into his book, and wearing a sealskin belt with a yellow buckle, is 
 another rich peasant of the village, not a bad villain, named Lubin, who 
 also lives at home, and is called the little old man of the neighbourhood." 
 
 After this artistic sketch, the author dilates on the goodman Anselme. 
 He says : " This good man possessed a moderate amount of knowledge, was 
 a goodish grammarian, a musician, somewhat of a sophist, and rather given 
 to picking holes in others." Some of Anselme's conversation is also given, 
 and after beginning by describing in glowing terms the bygone days which he 
 and his contemporaries had seen, and which he stated to be very different to 
 the present, he goes on to say, " I must own, my good old friends, that I 
 look back with pleasure on our young days ; at all events the mode of doing 
 
CASTLES, TOWNS, AND RURAL DISTRICTS. 
 
 I0 3 
 
 things in those days was very superior and better in every way to that of the 
 
 present happy days ! fortunate times when our fathers and 
 
 grandfathers, whom may God absolve, were still among us ! " As he said 
 this, he woidd raise the rim of his hat. He contented himself as to dress 
 
 
 m 
 
 ^'^<y 
 
 A 
 
 til mfF^K^^^ 
 
 
 Fig. 70.— The Shepherds celebrating the Birth of the Messiah by Songs and Dances.— Fifteenth 
 Century.— Facsimile of an Engraving on Wood, from a Book of Hours, printed by Anthony 
 Verard. 
 
 with a good coat of thick wool, well lined according to the fashion ; and 
 for feast days and other important occasions, one of thick cloth, lined with 
 some old gabardine. 
 
 " So we see," says M. Le Houx de Lincy, » at the end of the fifteenth 
 century that the old peasants complained of the changes in the village 
 customs, and of the luxury which every one wished to display in his furniture 
 
10+ 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE IN THE CASTLES, ETC. 
 
 or apparel. Od this point it seems that there has been little or no change. 
 We read that, from the time of Homer down to that of the excellent author 
 of ' Rustic Discourses,' and even later, the old people found fault with the 
 manners of the present generation and extolled those of their forefathers 
 which they themselves had criticized in their own youth." 
 
 Fig. 71.— Pu 
 
 rse or Leather Bag, with Knife or Dagger of the Fifteenth Century. 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 History of Bread.— Vegetables and Plants used in Cooking.— Fruits.— Butchers' Meat.— Poultry, 
 Game— Milk, Putter, Che. so and Eggs.— Fish and Shellfish.— Beverages, Beer, Cider, Wine 
 Sweet "Wine, E, flushing Prinks, Brandy.— Cookery.— Soups, Boiled Food, Ties, Stews, Salads, 
 
 Roasts, Grills.— Seasoning, Truffles, Sugar, Verjuie.e. — Sweets, Desserts, Pastry. Meals and 
 
 Feasts.— Pules of Serving at Table from the Fifteenth to the Sixteenth Centuries. 
 
 H&^ftiaat-AA^^vJe^frBoaay 1 88 
 
 
 
 os**^*!! 
 
 TIE private life of a people," says 
 Legrand d'Aussy, who had studied 
 that of the French from a gastronomic 
 point of view only, " from the founda- 
 tion of monarchy down to the 
 eighteenth century, must, like that 
 of mankind generally, commence with 
 obtaining the first and most pressing 
 i (fits requirements. Not satisfied with 
 providing food for his support, man 
 has endeavoured to add to his food 
 something which pleased his taste. lie does not wait to be hungry, but he 
 anticipates that feeling, and aggravates it by condiments and seasonings. 
 In a word his greediness has created on this score a very complicated and 
 wide-spread science, which, amongst nations which are considered civilised, 
 has become most important, and is designated the culinary art." 
 
 At all times the people of every country have strained the nature of the 
 soil on which they lived by forcing it to produce that which it seemed 
 destined ever to refuse them. Such food as human industry was unable to 
 obtain from any particular soil or from any particular climate, commerce 
 undertook to bring from the country which produced it. This caused Rabelais 
 to say that the stomach was the father and master of industry. 
 
 We will rapidly glance over the alimentary matters which our fore- 
 fathers obtained from the animal and vegetable kingdom, and then trace 
 
 r 
 
io6 
 
 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 the progress of culinary art, and examine the rules of leasts and such matters 
 as belong to the epicurean customs of the Middle Ages. 
 
 ALIMENTS. 
 
 Bread.— The Gauls, who principally inhabited deep and thick forests, 
 fed on herbs and fruits, and particularly on acorns. It is even possible that 
 the veneration in which they held the oak had no other origin. This primi- 
 tive food continued in use, at least in times of famine, up to the eighth 
 century, and we find in the regulations of St. Chrodegand that if, in con- 
 sequence of a bad year, the acorn or beech-nut became scarce, it was the 
 bishop's duty to provide something to make up for it. Eight centuries later, 
 
 Fi£;s. 72 and 73. — Corn-threshing and Bread-making. — Miniatures from the Calendar of a Book 
 of Hours. — Manuscript of the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 when Rene du Bellay, Bishop of Mans, came to report to Francis I. the fearful 
 poverty of his diocese, he informed the king that the inhabitants in many 
 places were reduced to subsisting on acorn bread. 
 
 In the earliest times bread was cooked under the embers. The use of 
 ovens was introduced into Europe by the Romans, who had found them m 
 Egypt, But, notwithstanding this importation, the old sj^stem of cooking 
 was long after employed, for in the tenth century Raimbold, abbot of the 
 monastery of St. Thierry, near Rhcirns, ordered in his will that on the day 
 of his death bread cooked under the embers — panes subcinericios — should be 
 given to his monks. By feudal law the lord was bound to bake the bread 
 of his vassals, for which they were taxed, but the latter often preferred to 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 i o 7 
 
 cook their flour at home in the embers of their own hearths, rather than 
 to carry it to the public oven. 
 
 It must be stated that the custom of leavening the dou<4'h by the addition of 
 a ferment was not universally adopted amongst the ancients. For this reason, 
 as the dough without leaven could only produce a heavy and indigestible bread, 
 they were careful, in order to secure their loaves being thoroughly cooked, 
 to make them very thin. These loaves served as plates for cutting up the 
 other food upon, and when they thus became saturated with the sauce and 
 
 Fig. 74.— The Miller.— From an Engraving of the Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman. 
 
 gravy thev were eaten as cakes. The use of the tourteaux (small crusty 
 loaves), which were at first called tranchoirs and subsequently tail-loirs, 
 remained long in fashion even at the most splendid banquets. Thus, in 
 1336, the Dauphin of Vienna, Humbert II., had, besides the small white 
 bread, four small loaves to serve as tranchoirs at table. The " Menagier de 
 Paris " mentions " des pains de tranchouers half a foot in diameter, and four 
 fingers deep," and Froissart the historian also speaks of tailloirs. 
 
 It would be difficult to point out the exact period at which leavening 
 bread was adopted in Europe, but we can assert that in the Middle Ages it 
 
io8 
 
 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 was anything but general. Yeast, which, according to Pliny, was already 
 known to the Gauls, was reserved for pastry, and it was only at the end of 
 the sixteenth century that the bakers of Paris used it for bread. 
 
 At first the trades of miller and baker were carried on by the same person 
 (Figs. 74 and 75). The man who undertook the grinding of the grain had 
 ovens near his mill, which he let to his lord to bake bread, when he did not 
 confine his business to persons who sent him their corn to grind. 
 
 At a later period public bakers established themselves, who not only 
 baked the loaves which were brought to them already kneaded, but al 
 
 .so 
 
 sV 
 
 
 Fig. 75. — The Baker. — From an Engraving of the Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman. 
 
 made bread which they sold by weight ; and this system was in existence 
 until very recently in the provinces. 
 
 Charlemagne, in his " Capitulaircs " (statutes), fixed the number of 
 bakers in each city according to the population, and St. Louis relieved 
 them, as well as the millers, from taking their turn at the watch, so that 
 they might have no pretext for stopping or neglecting their work, which he 
 considered of public utility. Nevertheless bakers as a body never became 
 rich or powerful (Figs. 7G and 77). It is pretty generally believed that the 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY 
 
 IOQ 
 
 name of boulangcr (baker) originated from the fact that the shape of the loaves 
 made at one time was very like that of a. round hall. But loaves varied so 
 much in form, quality, and consequently in name, that in his " Dictionary of 
 Obscure "Words " the learned Du Cange specifies at least twenty sorts made 
 during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and amongst them may be 
 mentioned the court loaf, the pope's loaf, the knight's loaf, the squire's loaf, 
 the peer's loaf, the varlet's loaf, &c. 
 
 The most celebrated bread was the white bread of Chailly or Chilly, a 
 village four leagues (ten miles) south of Paris, which necessarily appeared at 
 all the tables of the elite of the fourteenth century. The pain mottet, or soft 
 bread made with milk and butter, although much in use before this, only 
 
 Fig. 76. — Banner oi the Corporation 
 of Eaters of Paris. 
 
 Fig. 77. — Banner of the Corporation 
 of Bakers of Arras. 
 
 became fashionable on the arrival of Marie de Medicis in France (1600), 
 on account of this Tuscan princess finding it so much to her taste that she 
 would eat no other. 
 
 The ordinary market bread of Paris comprised the rousset bread, made of 
 nieslin, and- employed for soup; the bourgeoisie bread; and the chaland 
 or customer 's bread, which last was a general name given to all descrip- 
 tions which were sent daily from the neighbouring villages to the capital. 
 Amongst the best known varieties we will only mention the Corbcil bread, 
 the dog bread, the bread of tiro colours, which hist was composed of alter- 
 nate layers of wheat and rye, and was used by persons of small means ; 
 there was also the Oonesse bread, which has maintained its reputation to 
 this day. 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 The " table loaves," which in the provinces were served at the tables of 
 the rich, were of such a convenient size that one of them would suffice for 
 a man of ordinary appetite, even after the crust was cut off, which it was 
 considered polite to offer to the ladies, who soaked it in their soup. For 
 the servants an inferior bread was baked, called "common bread." 
 
 In many counties they sprinkled the bread, before putting it into the 
 oven, with powdered linseed, a custom which still exists. They usually 
 added salt to the flour, excepting in certain localities, especially in Paris, 
 where, on account of its price, they only mixed it with the expensive 
 qualities. 
 
 The wheats which were long most esteemed for baking purposes, were 
 those of Brie, Champagne, and Bassigny ; while those of the Dauphine were 
 held of little value, because they were said to contain so many tares and 
 worthless grains, that the bread made from them produced headache and 
 other ailments. 
 
 An ancient chronicle of the time of Charlemagne makes mention of a 
 bread twice baked, or biscuit. This bread was very hard, and easier to keep 
 than any other description. It was also used, as now, for provisioning ships, 
 or towns threatened with a siege, as well as in religious houses. At a later 
 period, delicate biscuits were made of a sort of dry and crumbling pastry 
 which retained the original name. As early as the sixteenth century, 
 llheims had earned a great renown for these articles of food. 
 
 Bread made with barley, oats, or millet was always ranked as coarse 
 food, to which the poor only had recourse in years of want (Fig. 78). 
 Barley bread was, besides, used as a kind of punishment, and monks who 
 had committed any serious offence against discipline were condemned to live 
 on it for a certain period. 
 
 Bye bread was held of very little value, although in certain provinces, 
 such as Lyonnais, Forez, and Auvergne, it was very generally used among 
 the country people, and contributed, says Bruyerin Champier in his treatise 
 "Be re Cibaria," to "preserve beauty and freshness amongst women." At 
 a later period, the doctors of Paris frequently ordered the use of bread made 
 half of wheat and half of rye as a means " of preserving the health." Black 
 wheat, or buck wheat, which was introduced into Europe by the Moors and 
 Saracens when they conquered Spain, quickly spread to the northern pro- 
 vinces, especially to Flanders, where, by its easy culture and almost certain 
 
FOOD AND COOKER}'. 
 
 yield, it averted much suffering from the inhabitants, who were continually 
 being threatened with famine. 
 
 It was only later that maize, or Turkey wheat, was cultivated in the 
 south, and that rice came into use ; but these two kinds of grain, both 
 equally useless for bread, were employed the one for fattening poultry, and 
 the other for making cakes, which, however, were little appreciated. 
 
 Fig. 7S. — Cultivation of Gram in use amongst the Peasants, and the Manufacture of Barley and 
 Oat Bread. — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in an edition of Virgil published at Lyons in 1517. 
 
 Vegetables and Plants lsed in Cookixg. — From the most ancient 
 historical documents we find that at the very earliest period of the French 
 monarchy, fresh and dried vegetables were the ordinary food of tbc popula- 
 tion. Pliny and Columella attribute a Gallic origin to certain roots, and 
 among them onions and parsnips, which the Romans cultivated in their 
 gardens for use at their tallies. 
 
 It is evident, however, that vegetal ilea were never considered as being 
 capable of forming solid nutriment, since they were almost exclusively used 
 by monastic communities when under vows of extreme abstinence. 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 A statute of Charlemagne, in which the useful plants which the emperor 
 desired should be cultivated in his domains are detailed, shows us that at that 
 period the greater part of our cooking vegetables were in use, for we find 
 mentioned in it, fennel, garlic, parsley, shallot, onions, water-cress, endive, 
 lettuce, beetroot, cabbage, leeks, carrots, artichokes; besides long-beans, 
 broad-beans, peas or Italian vetches, and lentils. 
 
 In the thirteenth century, the plants fit for cooking went under the 
 general appellation of aigrun, and amongst them, at a later date, were ranked 
 oranges, lemons, and other acid fruits. St. Louis added to this category even 
 fruits with hard rinds, such as walnuts, filberts, and chestnuts ; and when the 
 guild of the fruiterers of Paris received its statutes in 1G0S, they were still 
 called "vendors of fruits and aigrun." 
 
 The vegetables and cooking-plants noticed in the " Menagier de Paris," 
 which dates from the fourteenth century, and in the treatise " De Obsonhs," 
 of Platina (the name adopted by the Italian Bartholomew Sacchi), which dates 
 from the fifteenth century, do not lead us to suppose that alimentary horti- 
 culture had made much progress since the time of Charlemagne. Moreover, 
 we are astonished to find the thistle placed amongst choice dishes ; though 
 it cannot be the common thistle that is meant, but probably this somewhat 
 general appellation refers to the vegetable-marrow, which is still found on 
 the tables of the higher classes, or perhaps the artichoke, which we know 
 to be only a kind of thistle developed by cultivation, and which at that period 
 had been recently imported. 
 
 About the same date melons begin to appear ; but the management of 
 this vegetable fruit was not much known. It was so imperfectly cultivated 
 in the northern provinces, that, in the middle of the sixteenth century, 
 Bruyerin Champier speaks of the Languedocians as alone knowing how to 
 produce excellent sucrins — "thus called," say both Charles Estienne and 
 Liebault in the " liaison Pustique," "because gardeners watered them with 
 honeyed or sweetened water." The water-melons have never been cultivated 
 but in the south. 
 
 Cabbages, the alimentary reputation of which dates from the remotest 
 times, were already of several kinds, most of which have descended to us ; 
 amongst them may be mentioned the apple-headed, the Poman, the white, 
 the common white head, the Easter cabbage, &c. ; but the one held in the 
 highest estimation was the famous cabbage of Senlis, whose leaves, says an 
 
FOOD AND COOKER!'. 
 
 "3 
 
 ancient author, when opened, exhaled a smell more agreeable than musk or 
 amber. This species no doubt fell into disuse when the plan of employing 
 aromatic herbs in cooking, which was so much in repute by our ancestors, 
 was abandoned. 
 
 By a strange coincidence, at the same period as marjoram, carraway seed, 
 sweet basil, coriander, lavender, and rosemary were used to add their 
 
 Fig. 79. — Coat-of-arms of the Grain-measurers of Ghent, on their Ceremonial Banner, dated 1568. 
 
 pungent flavour to sauces and hashes, on the same tables might be found 
 herbs of the coldest and most insipid kinds, such as mallows, some kinds of 
 mosses, &c. 
 
 Cucumber, though rather in request, was supposed to be an unwholesome 
 vegetable, because it was said that the inhabitants of Forez, who ate much 
 of it, were subject to periodical fevers, which might really have been caused 
 
 Q 
 
, + FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 by noxious emanations from the ponds with which that country abounded. 
 Lentils, now considered so wholesome, were also long looked upon as a 
 doubtful vegetable ; according to Licbault, they were difficult to digest and 
 otherwise injurious ; they inflamed the inside, affected the sight, and brought 
 on the nightmare, &c. On the other hand, small fresh beans, especially those 
 sold at Landit fair, were used in the most delicate repasts ; peas passed as a 
 royal dish in the sixteenth century, when the custom was to eat them with 
 salt pork. 
 
 Turnips were also most esteemed by the Parisians. " This vegetable is 
 to them," says Charles Estienne, " what large radishes are to the Limousins." 
 The best were supposed to come from Maisons, Vaugirard, and Aubervilliers. 
 Lastly, there were four kinds of lettuces grown in France, according to 
 Licbault, in 1074: the small, the common, the curled, and the Roman; the 
 seed of the last-named was sent to France by Francois Rabelais when he 
 was in Rome with Cardinal du Bellay in 1037 ; and the salad made from it 
 consequently received the name of Roman salad, which it has ever since 
 retained. In fact, our ancestors much appreciated salads, for there was not 
 a banquet without at least three or four different kinds. 
 
 Fruits. — Western Europe was originally very poor in fruits, and it only 
 improved by foreign importations, mostly from Asia by the Romans. The 
 apricot came from Armenia, the pistachio-nuts and plums from Syria, the peach 
 and nut from Persia, the cherry from Cerasus, the lemon from Media, the 
 filbert from the Hellespont, and chestnuts from Castana, a town of Magnesia. 
 "We are also indebted to Asia for almonds ; the pomegranate, according to 
 some, came from Africa, to others from Cyprus ; the quince from Cydon in 
 Crete; the olive, fig, pear, and apple, from Greece. 
 
 The statutes of Charlemagne show us that almost all these fruits were 
 reared in his gardens, and that some of them were of several lands or 
 varieties. 
 
 A considerable period, however, elapsed before the finest and more luscious 
 productions of the garden became as it were almost forced on nature by 
 artificial means. Thus in the sixteenth century we find Rabelais, Charles 
 Estienne, and La Framboisiere, physician to Henry IV., praising the Corbeil 
 peach, which was only an inferior and almost wild sort, and describing it as 
 having "dry and solid flesh, not adhering to the stone." The culture of this 
 fruit, which was not larger than a damask plum, had then, according to 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 "5 
 
 Champier, only just boon introduced into Franco. If must be remarked here 
 that Jacques Coythier, physician to Louis XL, in order to curry favour with 
 his master, who was very fond of now fruits, took as bis crest an apricot-tree, 
 from which he was jokingly called Abri-Coythier. 
 
 Fig. 80.— Cultivation of Fruit, from a Miniature of the " Proprietairc de Chosos " (Manuscript of 
 the Fifteenth Century, in the Library of the' Arsenal of Fails). 
 
 It must be owned that great progress has been made in the culture of 
 the plum, the pear, and the apple. Champier says that the best plums are 
 the royale, the pcrdrirjon, and the damas of Tours ; Olivier de Serres mentions 
 
Il6 FOOD AND COOKERY 
 
 eighteen kinds — amongst which, however, we do not find the celebrated Reine 
 Claude (greengage), which owes its name to the daughter of Louis XII., first 
 •wife of Francis I. 
 
 Of pears, the most esteemed in the thirteenth century were the Jiastiveau, 
 which was an early sort, and no doubt the golden pear now called St. Jean ; 
 the caillou or chaillou, a hard pear, which came from Gailloux in Burgundy ; 
 and I'angoisse (agony), so called on account of its bitterness — which, however, 
 totally disappeared in cooking. In the sixteenth century the palni is given 
 to the cuisse dame, or madame ; the bon chritien, brought, it is said, by 
 St. Francois de Paule to Louis XL ; the bergamote, which came from 
 Bergamo, in Lombardy ; the taut-bonne, so named from its aroma; and 
 the caillou remit, our rosewater pear. 
 
 Amongst apples, the blandureau (hard white) of Auvergne, the rouveau, 
 and the paradk of Provence, are of oldest repute. This reminds us of the 
 couplet by the author of the "Street Cries of Paris," thirteenth century: — 
 
 " Primes ai pommes dp rouviau, (" C4ive me first the russet apple, 
 
 Et d' Auvergne le Llano durian." And the hard white fruit of Auvergne.") 
 
 The quince, which was so generally cultivated in the Middle Ages, was 
 looked upon as the most useful of all fruits. Not only did it form the basis 
 of the farmers' dried preserves of Orleans, called cotignac, a sort of marmalade, 
 but it was also used for seasoning meat. The Portugal quince was the 
 most esteemed ; and the cotignac of Orleans had such a reputation, that 
 boxes of this fruit were always given to kings, queens, and princes on 
 entering the towns of France. It was the first offering made to Joan of Arc 
 on her bringing reinforcements into Orleans during the English siege. 
 
 Several sorts of cherries were known, but these did not prevent 
 the small wild or wood cherry from being appreciated at the tables of the 
 citizens ; whilst the eornouille, or wild cornelian cherry, was hardly touched, 
 excepting by the peasants ; thence came the proverbial expression, more 
 particularly in use at Orleans, when a person made a silly remark, "He has 
 eaten cornelians," i.e. he speaks like a rustic. 
 
 In the thirteenth century, chestnuts from Lombardy were hawked in 
 the streets ; but in the sixteenth century, the chestnuts of the Lyonnais and 
 Auvergne were substituted, and were to be found on the royal table. Four 
 different sorts of figs, in equal estimation, were brought from Marseilles, 
 
FOOD AXD COOKER)' 
 
 "7 
 
 Nism.es, Saint-Andeol, ami Pent Saint-Esprit ; and in Provence, filberts- 
 were to bo bad in snob profusion that tbey supplied from there all tbe tables, 
 of tbe kingdom. 
 
 Tbe Portuguese claim tbe honour of having introduced oranges from 
 China; however, in an account of the bouse of Humbert, Dauphin of 
 Yiennois, in 1333, that is, long before tbe expeditions of tbe Portuguese to 
 India, mention is made of a sum of money being paid for transplanting 
 orange-trees. 
 
 In tbe time of Bruyerin Champier, physician to Henry II., raspberries 
 were still completely wild ; the same author states that wood-strawberries 
 
 Figs. 81 and 82.— Culture of the Vine and Treading the Grape.— Miniatures taken from the 
 Calendar of a Prayer-Book, in Manuscript, of the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 bad only just at that time been introduced into gardens, "by which," he 
 says, " they had attained a larger size, though they at the same time lost 
 tbeir quality." 
 
 The vine, acclimatised and propagated by the Gauls, ever since the fol- 
 lowers of Brenmis bad brought it from Italy, five hundred years before tbe 
 Christian era, never ceased to be productive, and even to constitute the natural 
 wealth of the country (Fig. 81 and 82). In the sixteenth century, Liebault 
 enumerated nineteen sorts of grapes, and Olivier de Serres twenty-four, 
 amongst wbieh, notwithstanding the eccentricities of the ancient names, we 
 believe that we can trace tbe greater part of those plants which are now 
 cultivated in France. For instance, it is known that the excellent vines of 
 Tbomery, near Fontainebleau, which yield in abundance tbe most beautiful 
 
FOOD AXD COOKERY. 
 
 table grape which art and care can produce, were already in use in the reign 
 of Henry IV. (Fig. S3). 
 
 In the time of the Gauls the custom of drying grapes by exposing them 
 to the sun, or to a certain amount of artificial heat, was already known; and 
 very .soon after, the same means were adopted for preserving plums, an 
 industry in which then, as now, the people of Tours and Eheims excelled. 
 ] hying apples in an oven was also the custom, and formed a delicacy which 
 was reserved for winter and spring banquets. Dried fruits were also 
 
 V\± S3.— The Winegrower, drawn and engraved in the Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman. 
 
 brought from abroad, as mentioned in the " Booh of Street Cries in 
 Paris :"— 
 
 ' Figues de Jlelites sans tin, 
 J'ai roiain d'outre nier, roisin.' 
 
 (" Figs from Malta without end, 
 And grapes from over the sea.") 
 
 Butchers' Meat.— According to Strabo, the Gauls were great eaters of 
 meat, especially of pork, whether fresh or salted. "Gaul," says he, " feeds 
 so many flocks, and, above all, so many pigs, that it supplies not only 
 Rome, but all Italy, with grease and salt meat." The second chapter of 
 the Salic law, comprising nineteen articles, relates entirely to penalties for 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY 
 
 1 19 
 
 pig-stealing; and in the laws of the Visigoths we find lour articles on the 
 same subject. 
 
 In those remote days, in which the land was still covered with enormous 
 forests of oak, great facilities were offered for breeding pigs, whose special liking 
 for acorns is well known (Fig. 84). Thus the bishops, princes, and lords caused 
 numerous droves of pigs to be fed on their domains, both for the purpose of 
 supplying their own tables as well as for the fairs and markets. At a sub- 
 sequent period, it became the custom for each household, whether in town or 
 country, to rear and fatten a pig, which was killed and salted at a stated 
 period of the year ; and this custom still exists in many provinces. In Paris, 
 for instance, there was scarcely a bourgeois who had not two or three young 
 
 Fiir. 84. — Swineherd. 
 
 Fig. 85.— A liiu'L 
 
 at Meals. 
 
 Miniatures from the Calendar of a Book of Hours. — Manuscript of the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 pigs. During the day these unsightly creatures were allowed to roam in 
 the streets ; which, however, they helped to keep clean by eating up the 
 refuse of all sorts which was thrown out of the houses. One of the sons of 
 Louis le Gros, while passing, on the 2nd of October, 1131, in the Hue du 
 Martroi, between the Hotel do Ville and the church of St. Gervais, fractured 
 his skull by a fall from his horse, caused by a pig running between that 
 animal's legs. This accident led to the first order being issued by the 
 provosts, to the effect that breeding pigs within the town was forbidden. 
 Custom, however, deep-rooted for centuries, resisted this order, and many- 
 others on the same subject which followed it : for we find, under Francis I., 
 a license was issued to the executioner, empowering him to capture all the 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 stray pigs which ho could find in Paris, and to take them to the Hotel Dieu, 
 when he should receive either live sous in silver or the head of the animal. 
 
 It is said that the holy men of St. Antoine, in virtue of the privilege 
 attached to the popular legend of their patron, who was generally repre- 
 sented with a pig, objected to this order, and long after maintained the 
 exclusive right of allowing their pigs to roam in the streets of the capital. 
 
 The obstinate determination with which ever}' one tried to evade the 
 administrative laws on this subject, is explained, in fact, by the general taste 
 of the French nation for pork. This taste appeal's somewhat strange at a 
 
 Fig. 86.— Stall of Carved Wood (fifteenth Century), representing the Proverb, "Margaritas ante 
 Porcos," "Throwing Pearls before Swine," from Rouen Cathedral. 
 
 time when this kind of food was supposed to engender leprosy, a disease with 
 which France was at that time overrun. 
 
 Pigs' meat made up generally the greater part of the domestic banquets. 
 There was no great feast at which hams, sausages, and black puddings were 
 not served in profusion on all the tables ; and as Easter Day, which brought 
 to a close the prolonged fastings of Lent, was one of the great feasts, this 
 food formed the most important dish on that occasion. It is possible that the 
 necessity for providing for the consumption of that day originated the cele- 
 brated ham fair, which was and is still held annually on the Thursday of 
 Passion ^Veek in front of Xotre-Dame, where the dealers from all parts of 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 France, and especially from Normandy and Lower Brittany, assembled with 
 their swine. 
 
 Sanitary measures were taken in Paris and in the various towns in order 
 to prevent the evil effects likely to arise from the enormous consumption of 
 pork; public officers, called languaycurs, were ordered to examine the animals 
 to ensure that they had not white ulcers under the tongue, these being con- 
 sidered the signs that their flesh was in a condition to communicate leprosy 
 to those who partook of it. 
 
 For a long time the retail sale of pork was confined to the butchers, like 
 that of other meat. Salt or fresh pork was at one time always sold raw, 
 though at a later period some retailors, who carried on business principally 
 among the lowest orders of the people, took to selling cooked pork and sausages. 
 They were named ckarcuitiers or saucissicrs. This new trade, which was most- 
 lucrative, was adopted by so many people that parliament was forced to limit 
 the number of ckarcuitiers, who at last formed a corporation, and received their 
 statutes, which were confirmed by the King in 1475. 
 
 Amongst the privileges attached to their calling was that of selling red 
 herrings and sea-fish in Lent, during which time the sale of pork was strictly 
 forbidden. Although they had the exclusive monopoly of selling cooked 
 pork, they were at first forbidden to buy their meat of any one hut of the 
 butchers, who alone had the right of killing pigs ; and it was only in 1513 
 that the ckarcuitiers were allowed to purchase at market and sell the meat 
 raw, in opposition to the butchers, who in consequence gradually gave up 
 killing and selling pork (Fig. ST). 
 
 Although the consumption of butchers' meat was not so great in the 
 Middle Ages as it is now, the trade of a butcher, to which extraordinary 
 privileges were attached, was nevertheless one of the industries which 
 realised the greatest profits. 
 
 We know what an important part the butchers played in the municipal 
 history of France, as also of Belgium; and we also know how great their 
 political influence was, especially in the fifteenth century. 
 
 The existence of the great slaughter-house of Paris dates back to the 
 most remote period of monarchy. The parish church of the corporation of 
 butchers, namely, that of St. Pierre aux Bocufs in the city, on the front 
 of which were two sculptured oxen, existed before the tenth century. A 
 Celtic monument was discovered on the site of the ancient part of Paris, 
 
 i; 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 with a bas-relief representing a wild bull carrying three cranes standing 
 lmon(r oa k branches. Archaeology lias chosen to recognise in this sculpture 
 a Druidical allegory, which has descended to us in the shape of the triumphal 
 car of the Prize Ox (Fio\ 88). The butchers who, for centuries at least in 
 France, only killed sheep and pigs, proved themselves most jealous of their 
 privileges, and admitted no strangers into their corporation. The proprietor- 
 ship of stalls at the markets, and the right of being admitted as a master 
 butcher at the age of seven years and a day, belonged exclusively to the 
 male descendants of a few rich and powerful families. The Kings of France 
 
 Fig. 87.— The Pork-butcher (Cliamificr).— Facsimile of a Miniature in a Charter of the Abbey 
 
 of Solignac (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 alone, on their accession, could create a new master butcher. Since the 
 middle of the fourteenth century the " Grande Boucherie " was the seat of an 
 important jurisdiction, composed of a mayor, a master, a proctor, and an 
 attorney ; it also had a judicial council before which the butchers could bring 
 up all their cases, and an appeal from which could only be considered by 
 Parliament. Besides this court, which had to decide cases of misbehaviour 
 on the part of the apprentices, and all their appeals against their masters, the 
 corporation had a counsel in Parliament, as also one at the Chatelet, who were 
 specially attached to the interests of the butchers, and were in their pay. 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY 
 
 123 
 
 Although liound, at all events with their money, to follow the calling' of 
 their fathers, we find many descendants of ancient butchers' families of Paris, 
 in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, abandoning- their stalls to fill high 
 places in the state, and even at court. It must not he concluded that the rich 
 butchers in those days occupied themselves with the minor details of their 
 trade ; the greater number employed servants who cut up and retailed the meat, 
 and they themselves simply kept the accounts, and were engaged in dealing 
 
 Fig. 88.— Tie Holy Ox.— Celtic Monument found in Paris under the Choir of Notrc-Dame 
 in 1711, and preserved in the Musee de Cluny et dea Thermes. 
 
 through factors or foremen for the purchase of beasts for their stalls (Fig. 89). 
 One can form an opinion of the wealth of some of these tradesmen by reading 
 the enumeration made by an old chronicler of the property and income of 
 Guillaume de Saint-Yon, one of the principal master butchers in 1370. "He 
 was proprietor of three stalls, in which meat was weekly sold to the amount 
 of 200 livres parisis (the livre being equivalent to 24 francs at least), witli an 
 average profit of ten to fifteen per cent. ; he had an income of 000 livres parisis; 
 
124 
 
 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 he possessed besides his family house in Paris, four country-houses, well supplied 
 with furniture and agricultural implements, drinking-cups, vases, cups of silver, 
 and cups of onyx with silver feet, valued at 100 francs or more each. His wife 
 had jewels, belts, purses, and trinkets, to the value of upwards of 1,000 gold 
 francs (the gold franc was worth 'id livresj ; long and short gowns trimmed with 
 fur ; and three mantles of grey fur. Guillauine de Saint- Yon had generallv 
 in his storehouses 300 ox-hides, worth 2d francs each at least ; 800 measures 
 of fat, worth ol sols each; in his sheds, he had 800 sheep worth 100 sols 
 each ; in his safes ;j00 or 600 silver florins of ready money (the florin was 
 
 Fig-. 89. — The Butcher and his Servant, drawn and engraved by J. Amman (Sixteenth Century). 
 
 worth 12 francs, which must be multiplied five times to estimate its value in 
 present currency), and his household furniture was valued at 12,000 florins. 
 He gave a dowry of 2,000 florins to his two nieces, and spent 3,000 florins 
 m rebuilding his Paris house ; and lastly, as if he had been a noble, he used 
 a silver seal." 
 
 We find in the " Menagier do Paris " curious statistics respecting the 
 various butchers' shops of the capital, and the daily sale in each at the period 
 referred to. This sale, without counting the households of the King, the 
 =lueen, and the royal family, which were specially provisioned, amounted to 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY 
 
 "25 
 
 26,624 oxen, 162,760 sheep, 27,406 pigs, and 15,912 calves per annum; to 
 which must be added not only the smoked and salted flesh of 200 or 300 pigs, 
 which were sold at the fair in Holy Week, but also 6,420 sheep, 823 oxen, 
 832 calves, and 624 pigs, which, according to the " Menagier," were used in 
 the royal and princely households. 
 
 Sometimes the meat was sent to market already cut up, but the slaughter 
 of beasts was more frequently done in the butchers' simps in the town; for 
 they only killed from day to day, according to the demand. Besides the 
 butchers' there were tripe shops, where the feet, kidneys, &c, were sold. 
 
 According to Bruyerin Champier, during the sixteenth century the most 
 celebrated sheep in France were those of Berri and Limousin ; and of all 
 
 Figs. 90 and 91. — Seal ami Counter-Seal of the Hatchers of Bruges in 1356, from an impression 
 on green wax, preserved in the archives of that town. 
 
 butchers' meat, veal was reckoned the best. In fact, calves intended for the 
 tables of the upper classes were fed in a special manner : they were allowed 
 for six months, or even for a year, nothing but milk, whirh made their flesh 
 most tender and delicate. Contrary to the present taste, kid was more 
 appreciated than lamb, which caused the rotmeurs frequently to attach the 
 tail of a kid to a lamb, so as to deceive the customer and sell him a less 
 expensive meat at the higher price. This was the origin of the proverb 
 which described a cheat as " a dealer in goat by halves." 
 
 In other places butchers were far from acquiring the same importance 
 which they did in France and Belgium (Figs. 00 and 91), where much more 
 meat was consumed than in Spain, Italy, or even in Germany. Nevertheless, 
 
I26 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 in almost all countries there were certain regulations, sometimes eccentric, 
 but almost always rigidly enforced, to ensure a supply of meat of the best 
 quality and in a healthy state. In England, for instance, butchers were 
 only allowed to kill bulls after they had been baited with dogs, no doubt 
 with the view of making the flesh more tender. At Mans, it was laid down 
 in the trade regulations, that " no butcher shall bo so bold as to sell meat 
 unless it shall have been previously seen alive by two or three persons, who 
 will testify to it on oath ; and, anyhow, they shall not sell it until the 
 persons shall have declared it wholesome," &C. 
 
 To the many regulations affecting the interests of the public must be 
 added that forbidding butchers to sell meat on days when abstinence from 
 animal food was ordered by the Church. These regulations applied less to 
 the vendors than to the consumers, who, by disobeying them, were liable 
 to fine or imprisonment, or to severe corporal punishment by the whip or in 
 the pillory. We rind that Clement Marot was imprisoned and nearly burned 
 alive for having eaten pork in Lent. In 1534, Guillaumc des Moulins, 
 Count of Brie, asked permission for his mother, who was then eighty years 
 of age, to cease fasting ; the Bishop of Paris only granted dispensation 
 on condition that the old lady should take her meals in secret and out of 
 si°-ht of every one, and should still fast on Fridays. " In a certain town," 
 says Brantome, " there had been a procession in Lent. A woman, who had 
 assisted at it barefooted, went home to dine off a quarter of lamb and a ham. 
 The smell got into the street ; the houso was entered. The fact being 
 established, the woman was taken, and condemned to walk through the 
 town with her quarter of lamb on the spit over her shoulder, and the ham 
 hung round her neck." This species of severity increased during the times 
 of religious dissensions. Erasmus says, " He who has eaten pork instead of 
 fish is taken to the torture like a parricide." An edict of Henry II., 1549, 
 forbade, the sale of meat in Lent to persons who should not be furnished with 
 a doctor's certificate. Charles IX. forbade the sale of meat to the Huguenots ; 
 and it was ordered that the privilege of selling meat during the time of 
 abstinence should belong exclusively to the hospitals. Orders were given to 
 those who retailed meat to take the address of every purchaser, although 
 he had presented a medical certificate, so that the necessity for his eating 
 meat might be verified. Subsequently, the medical certificate required to 
 be endorsed by the priest, specifying what quantity of meat was required. 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. I2? 
 
 Even in these cases the use of butchers' moat alone was granted, pork, poultry, 
 and game being strictly forbidden. 
 
 Poultry. — A monk of the abbey of Cluny once went on a visit to his 
 relations. On arriving lie asked for food; but as it was a fast day he was 
 told there was nothing in the house but tish. Perceiving some chickens in 
 the yard, he took a stick and killed one, and brought it to his relations, 
 saying, " This is the fish which I shall eat to-day." " Eh, but, my son," 
 they said, " have you dispensation from fasting on a Friday ? " "No," he 
 answered; "hut poultry is not flesh; fish and fowls were created at the 
 same time ; they have a common origin, as the hymn which I sing in the 
 service teaches me." 
 
 This simple legend belongs to the tenth century; and notwithstanding 
 that the opinion of this Benedictine monk may appear strange nowadays, 
 yet it must be acknowledged that he was only conforming himself to the 
 opinions laid down by certain theologians. In 817, the Council of Aix-la- 
 Chapelle decided that such delicate nourishment could scarcely lie called 
 mortification as understood by the teaching of the Church. In consequence 
 of this an order was issued forbidding the monks to eat poultry, except during 
 four days at Easter and four at Christmas. But this prohibition in no way 
 changed the established custom of certain parts of Christendom, and the 
 faithful persisted in believing that poultry and fish were identical in the 
 eyes of the Church, and accordingly continued to eat them indiscriminately. 
 We also see, in the middle of the thirteenth century, St. Thomas Aepiinas, 
 who was considered an authority in questions of dogma and of faith, ranking 
 poultry amongst species of aquatic origin. 
 
 Eventually, this palpable error was abandoned; but when the Church 
 forbade Christians the use of poultry on fast days, it made an exception, out 
 of consideration for the ancient prejudice, in favour of teal, widgeon, moor- 
 hens, and also two or three kinds of small amphibious quadrupeds. Hence 
 probably arose the general and absurd beliefs concerning the origin of teal, 
 which some said sprung from the rotten wood of old ships, others from the 
 fruits of a tree, or the gum on fir-trees, whilst others thought they came from 
 a fresh- water shell analogous to that of the oyster and mussel. 
 
 As far back as modern history can. be traced, we find that a similar 
 mode of fattening poultry was employed then as now, and was one which the 
 Gauls must have learnt from the Romans. Amongst the charges in the 
 
128 
 
 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 households of the kings of France one item was that which concerned the 
 poultry-house, and which, according to an edict of St. Louis in 12G1, bears 
 the name of poulaillier. At a s-ubsequcnt period this name was given to 
 breeders and dealers in poultry (Fig. 92). 
 
 The " Menagier " tells us that, as is the present practice, chickens were 
 fattened by depriving them of light and liberty, and gorging them with 
 succulent food. Amongst the poultry yards in repute at that time, the 
 author mentions that of Ilesdin, a property of the Dukes of Luxemburg, 
 in Artois ; that of the Xing, at the Hotel Saint-Pol, Rue Saint- Antoine, 
 Paris ; that of Master Hugues Aubriot, provost of Paris ; and that of Chariot, 
 
 Fig. 92. — The Poulterer, drawn and engraved in the Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman. 
 
 no doubt a bourgeois of that name, who also gave his name to an ancient 
 street in that quarter called the Marais. 
 
 Ccqjons are frequently mentioned in poems of the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries ; but the name of the poularde does not occur until the sixteenth. 
 
 We know that under the Roman rule, the Gauls carried on a considerable 
 trade in fattened geese. This trade ceased when Gaul passed to new masters; 
 but the breeding of geese continued to be carefully attended to. For many 
 centuries geese wore more highly prized than any other description of 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY 
 
 '20 
 
 poultry, and Charlemagne ordered tliat his domains should bo well stocked 
 with flocks of geese, which were driven to feed in the fields, 1 ike Hocks of 
 sheep. There was an old proverb, " Who eats the king's goose returns the 
 feathers in a hundred years." This bird was considered a great delicacy by the 
 working classes and bourgeoisie. The rutmeurs (Fig. 94) had hardly anything 
 in their shops but geese, and, therefore, when they were united in a company, 
 they received the name of oi/ers, or oi/eurs. The street in which they were 
 established, with their spits always loaded with juicy roasts, was called Rue 
 des Ones (geese), and this street, when it ceased to be frequented by the o>/crs, 
 became by corruption Rue Auxours. 
 
 Fig. 93.— Barnacle Ueese.- Far-simile of an Engraving on Wood, from the " Cosmographie 
 Universalis " of Minister, folio, Basle, 1552. 
 
 There is every reason for believing that the domestication of the wdd 
 duck is of quite recent date. The attempt having succeeded, it was wished 
 to follow it up by the naturalisation in the poultry-yard of two other sorts of 
 aquatic birds, namely, the sheldrake (tadorna) and the moorhen, but without 
 success. Some attribute the introduction of turkeys into France and Europe 
 to Jacques Cceur, treasurer to Charles VII, whose commercial connections 
 with the East were very extensive ; others assert that it is due to King Rene, 
 Count of Provence; but according to the best authorities these birds were first 
 brought into Franco in the time of Francis T. by Admiral Philippe de Chabot, 
 and Bruyerin Champier asserts that they were not known until even later. It 
 was at about the same period that guinea-fowls were brought from the coast 
 of Africa by Portuguese merchants; and the travelling naturalist, Pierre 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 Belon, who wrote in the year 1555, asserts that in his time "they had 
 already so multiplied in the houses of the nobles that they had become quite 
 common." 
 
 The pea-fowl played an important part in the chivalric banquets of the 
 Middle Ages (Fig. 95). According to old poets the flesh of this noble bird 
 
 Fig. 94.— The Poultry-dealer.— Facsimile of an Engraving on Wood, after Cesare Vecellio. 
 
 is " food for the brave." A poet of the thirteenth century says, " that thieves 
 have as much taste for falsehood as a hungry man has for the flesh of the 
 peacock." In the fourteenth century poultry-yards were still stocked with 
 these birds ; but the turkey and the pheasant gradually replaced them, as 
 their flesh was considered somewhat hard and stringy. This is proved by 
 the fact that in 1581, « La Nouvelle Coutume du Bourbonnois" only reckons 
 
FOOD AX/) COOKERF 
 
 >',' 
 
 the value of these beautiful birds at two sous and a hall', or about three francs 
 of present currency. 
 
 Game. — Our forefathers included anion"' the birds winch now constitute 
 
 Fig. 9.;.— Stat-; Banquet.— Serving the Peacock.— Fac-simile of a \V lent in an edition of Virgil, 
 
 folio, published at Lyons in 1517. 
 
 feathered game the heron, the crane, the crow, the swan, the stork, the 
 cormorant, and the bittern. These supplied the best tables, especially the 
 first three, which were looked upon as exquisite food, fit even for royalty, 
 and were reckoned as thorough French delicacies. There were at that time 
 
1 32 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 heronries, as at a Liter period there were pheasantries. People also ate birds 
 of prey, and only rejected those which fed on carrion. 
 
 Swans, which were much appreciated, were very common on all the 
 principal rivers of France, especially in the north ; a small island below 
 Paris had taken its name from these birds, and has maintained it ever since. 
 It was proverbially said that the Charente was bordered with swans, and 
 for this same reason Valenciennes was called Veil des Cygnes, or the Swan 
 Valley. 
 
 Some authors make it appear that for a long time young game was avoided 
 owing to the little nourishment it contained and its indigestibility, and assert 
 that it was only when some French ambassadors returned from Venice that 
 the French learnt that young partridges and leverets were exquisite, and 
 quite fit to appear at the most sumptuous banquets. The "Menagier" 
 gives not only various receipts for cooking them, but also for dressing 
 chickens, when game was out of season, so as to make them taste like young 
 partridges. 
 
 There was a time when the}' fattened pheasants as they did capons ; it 
 was a secret, says Liebault, only known to the poultry dealers ; but although 
 they were much appreciated, the pullet was more so, and realised as much 
 as two crowns each (this does not mean the gold crown, but a current coin 
 worth three livres). Plovers, which sometimes came from Beauce in cart- 
 loads, were much relished ; they were roasted without being drawn, as also 
 were turtle-doves and larks ; "for," says an ancient author, "larks only eat 
 small pebbles and sand, doves grains of juniper and scented herbs, and plovers 
 feed on air." At a later period the same honour was conferred on woodcocks. 
 Thrushes, starlings, blackbirds, quail, and partridges were in equal 
 repute according to the season. The bec-figue, a small bird like a nightingale, 
 was so much esteemed in Provence that there were feasts at which that bird 
 alone was served, prepared in various ways ; but of all birds used for the 
 table none could be compared to the young cuckoo taken just as it was full 
 fledged. 
 
 As fhr as we can ascertain the Gauls had a dislike to the flesh of rabbits, 
 and they did not even hunt them, for, according to Strabo, Southern Gaid was 
 infested with these mischievous animals, which destroyed the growing crops, 
 and even the barks of the trees. There was considerable change in this respect 
 a few centuries later, for every one in town or country reared domesticated 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY 
 
 '33 
 
 rabbits, and the wild ones formed an article of food which was much in request. 
 In order to ascertain whether a rabbit is young, Strabo tells us we should feel 
 
 Fig. 96.— "The way to skin and cut up a Stag."— Fac-sirnile of a Miniature of " Phcobus, and 
 
 his Staff for hunting Wild Animals " (Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, National Library 
 of Palis). 
 
 the first joint of the fore-leg, when we shall find a small bene free and 
 movable. This method is adopted in all kitchens in the present day. Hares 
 were preferred to rabbits, provided they were young ; for an old French proverb 
 says, "An old hare and an old goose are food for the devil." 
 
, 34 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 The hedgehog and squirrel were also eaten. As for roe and red deer, 
 they were, according to Dr. Bruyerin Champier, morsels fit for kings and 
 rich people (Fig. 96). The doctor speaks of "fried slices of the young horn 
 of the stag" as the daintiest of food, and the " Menagier do Paris" shows 
 how, as early as the fourteenth century, beef was dished up like bear's-flesh 
 venison, for the use of kitchens in countries where the black bear did not 
 exist. This proves that bear's flesh was in those days considered good food. 
 
 Milk, Butter, Egos, and Cheese. — These articles of food, the first 
 which nature gave to man, were not always and everywhere uniformly per- 
 mitted or prohibited by the Church on fast days. The faithful were for 
 several centuries left to their own judgment on the subject. In fact, there 
 is nothing extraordinary in eggs being eaten in Lent without scruple, 
 considering that some theologians maintained that the hens which laid them 
 were animals of aquatic extraction. 
 
 It appears, however, that butter, either from prejudice or mere custom, 
 was only used on fast days in its fresh state, and was not allowed to be used 
 for cooking purposes. At first, and especially amongst the monks, the dishes 
 were prepared with oil ; but as in some countries oil was apt to become 
 very expensive, and the supply even,to fail totally, animal fat or lard had to 
 be substituted. At a subsequent period the Church authorised the use of 
 butter and milk ; but on this point the discipline varied much. In the four- 
 teenth century, Charles A"., King of France, having asked Pope Gregory XL 
 for a dispensation to use milk and butter on fast days, in consequence of 
 the bad state of his health, brought on owing to an attempt having been 
 made to poison him, the supreme Pontiff rccjuired a certificate from a 
 phj'sician and from the King's confessor. He even then only granted the 
 dispensation after imposing on that Christian king the repetition of a certain 
 number of prayers and the performance of certain pious deeds. In defiance 
 of the severity of ecclesiastical authority, wo find, in the "Journal of a 
 Bourgeois of Paris," that in the unhappy reign of Charles VI. (1120), 
 "for want of oil, butter was eaten in Lent the same as on ordinary non-fast 
 days." 
 
 In 1491, Queen Anne, Duchess of Brittany, in order to obtain permission 
 from the Pope to eat butter in Lent, represented that Brittany did not 
 produce oil, neither did it import it from southern countries. Many northern 
 provinces adopted necessity as the law, and, having no oil, used batter ; and 
 
FOOD AXD COOKERY. 
 
 •35 
 
 thence originated that famous toast with slices of bread and butter, which 
 formed such an important part of Flemish food. These papal dispensations 
 were, however, only earned at the price of prayers and alms, and this was 
 the origin of the troncs pour 1c bcurrr, that is, " alms-box for butter," which 
 are still to be seen in some of the Flemish churches. 
 
 It is not known when butter was first salted in order to preserve it or 
 to send it to distant places ; but this process, which is so simple and so 
 natural, dates, no doubt, from very ancient times ; it was particularly prac- 
 
 Fig. 97. — The Manufacture of Oil, drawn and engraved by J. Amman in the Sixteenth 
 
 Century. 
 
 tised by the Xormans and Bretons, who enclosed the butter in large earthen- 
 ware jars, for in the statutes which were given to the fruiterers of Paris in 
 1412, mention is made of salt butter in earthenware jars. Lorraine only 
 exported butter in such jars. The fresh butter most in request for the table, 
 in Paris, was that made at Yanvres, which in the month of May the people 
 ate every morning mixed with garlic. 
 
 The consumption of butter was greatest in Flanders. " I am surprised," 
 says Bruyerin Champier, speaking of that country, " that they have not yet 
 tried to turn it into drink ; in France it is mockingly called beurriere ; and 
 
136 
 
 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 when any one has to travel in that country, he is advised to take a knife 
 with him if he wishes to taste the good rolls of butter;" 
 
 It is not necessary to state that milk and cheese followed the fortunes of 
 butter in the Catholic world, the same as eggs followed those of poultry. 
 But butter having been declared lawful by the Church, a claim was put in 
 for eggs (Fig 98), and Pope Julius III. granted this dispensation to all 
 
 Fig. 98.— A Dealer in Eggs.— Fac-simile of a Woodcut, after Cesare Veeellio, Sixteenth Century. 
 
 Christendom, although certain private churches did not at once choose to 
 profit by this favour. The Greeks had always been more rigid on these 
 points of discipline than the people of the West. It is to the prohihition of 
 eggs in Lent that the origin of " Easter eggs," must be traced. These were 
 hardened by boiling them in a madder bath, and were brought to receive 
 
FOOD AND COOKERS'. , 37 
 
 the blessing of the priest on Good Friday, and were then eaten on the follow- 
 ing Sunday as a sign of rejoicing. 
 
 Ancient Ganl was celebrated for seme of its home-made cheeses. Pliny 
 praises those of Xism.es, and of Mount Lozerc, in Gevaudan; Martial mentions 
 those of Toulouse, occ. A simple anecdote, handed clown by the monk of 
 St. Gall, who wrote in the ninth century, proves to us that the traditions 
 with regard to cheeses were not lost in (lie time of Charlemagne : " The 
 Emperor, in one of his travels, alighted suddenly, and without being 
 expected, at the house of a bishop. It was on a Friday. The prelate bad 
 no fish, and did not dare to set meat before the prince. lie therefore 
 offered him what he had got, some boiled corn and green cheese. 
 Charles ate of the cheese; but taking the green part to be bad, he took 
 care to remove it with his knife. The bishop, seeing this, took the 
 liberty of telling his guest that this was the best part. The Emperor, tasting 
 it, found that the bishop was right; and consequently ordered him to send 
 him annually two cases of similar cheese to Aix-la-Chapelle. The Bishop 
 answered, that he could easily send cheeses, but he could not be sure of 
 sending them in proper condition, because it was only by opening them that 
 you could be sure of the dealer not having deceived you in the quality of 
 the cheese. 'Well,' said the Emperor, 'before sending them, cut them 
 through the middle, so as to see if they are what I want ; you will only have 
 to join the two halves again by means of a wooden peg, and you can then 
 put the whole into a case.' ' 
 
 Under the kings of the third French dynasty, a cheese was made at the 
 village of Chaillot, near Paris, which was much appreciated in the capital. 
 In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the cheeses of Champagne and of 
 Brie, which are still manufactured, were equally popular, and were hawked 
 in the streets, according to the "Book of Street-Cries in Paris," — 
 
 " J'ai ton fromage de Champaigne ; (" Buy my cheese from ( 'humpagne, 
 
 Or i a fromage de Brie !" And my cheese from Biie ! ") 
 
 Eustache Deschamps went so far as to say that cheese was the only good 
 thing which could possibly come from Brie. 
 
 The " Menagier de Paris" praises several kinds of cheeses, the names of 
 which it would now be difficult to trace, owing to their frequent changes 
 during four hundred years; but, according to the Gallic, author of this curious 
 
 'i 
 
, 3 8 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 collection, a cheese, to be presentable at table, was required to possess certain 
 qualities (in proverbial Latin, "Non Argus, nee Helena,, nee Maria Magda- 
 lena," &c.), thus expressed in French rhyme : — 
 
 " Non mic (pas) blanc cumme Helaine, 
 Non mie (pas) plourant comme Jlagdelaine, 
 Non Argus (a cent yeux), mais du tout avugle (aveugle) 
 Et aussi pesant comme un bugle (bceuf), 
 Contre le pouce soit rebellc, 
 Et qu'il ait tigneuse cotelle (epaisse croute) 
 Sans yeux, sans plourer, non pas blanc, 
 Tigneulx, rebelle, bien pesant." 
 
 (" Neither white like Helena, 
 Nor weeping as Magdelena, 
 Neither Argus, nor yet quite blind, 
 And having too a thickish rind, 
 Resisting somewhat to the touch, 
 And as a bull should weigh as much ; 
 Not eyeless, weeping, nor quite white, 
 But firm, resisting, not too light.") 
 
 In 1509, Platina, although an Italian, in speaking of good cheeses, 
 mentions those of Chauny, in Picardy, and of Brehemont, in Touraine ; 
 Charles Estienne praises those of Craponnc, in AuTergne, the angelots of 
 Normandy, and the cheeses made from fresh cream which the peasant- women 
 of Montreuil and Vincennes brought to Paris in small wickerwork baskets, 
 and which were eaten sprinkled with sugar. The same author names also 
 the rougerets of Lyons, which were always much esteemed ; but, above all 
 the cheeses of Europe, he places the round or cylindrical ones of Auvergne, 
 which were only made by very clean and healthy children of fourteen years 
 of age. Olivier de Serres advises those who wish to have good cheeses to 
 boil the milk before churning it, a plan which is in use at Lodi and Parma, 
 " where cheeses are made which are acknowledged by all the world to be 
 excellent." 
 
 The parmesan, which this celebrated agriculturist cites as an example, 
 only became the fashion in France on the return of Charles VIII. from his 
 expedition to Naples. Much was thought at that time of a cheese brought 
 from Turkey in bladders, and of different varieties produced in Holland and 
 Zetland. A few of these foreign products were eaten in stews and in pastry, 
 others were toasted and sprinkled with sugar and powdered cinnamon. 
 
 "Le Roman de Claris," a manuscript which belongs to the commencement 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 '39 
 
 of the fourteenth century, says that in a town which was taken by storm the 
 following stores were found : — 
 
 " Maint bon tonnel de vin, 
 Maint lion bacon (coclion), maint fromagc a rostir." 
 
 (" Many a ton of wine. 
 
 Many \\ slice of good bacon, plenty of good roasted cheese.'') 
 
 Besides cheese and butter, the Normans, who had a great many cows in 
 their rich pastures, made a sort of fermenting liquor from the butter-milk, 
 which they called serai, by boiling the milk with onions and garlic, and 
 lettin»' it cool in closed vessels. 
 
 If the author of the " Menagier" is to be believed, the women who sold 
 milk bv retail in the towns were well acquainted with the method of in - 
 
 Pig, 99. _ Manufacture of Cheeses in Switzerland.— Fac-simile of aAVoodcut in the " Cosmographie 
 TJniverselle " of Minister, folio, Basle, 1549. 
 
 creasing its quantity at the expense of its quality. He describes how his 
 froumeniee, which consists of a sort of soup, is made, and states that when he 
 sends his cook to make her purchases at the milk market held in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the Rues de la Savonnerie, des Eerivains, and de la Yieille- 
 Monnaie, he enjoins her particularly "to get very fresh cow's milk, and to 
 tell the person who sells it not to do so if she has put water to it ; for, unless 
 it be quite fresh, or if there be water in. it, it will turn." 
 
 Fish ant. Shellfish.— Freshwater fish, which was much more abundant 
 
1 40 
 
 FOOD AXD COOKERY. 
 
 in former clays than now, was the ordinary food of those who lived on the 
 borders of lakes, ponds, or rivers, or who, at all events, were not so far distant 
 but that they could procure it fresh. There was of course much diversity at 
 different periods and in different countries as regards the estimation in which 
 the various kinds of hsh were held. Thus Ausone, who was a native of 
 Bordeaux, spoke highly of the delicacy of the perch, and asserted that shad, 
 pike, and tench should be left to the lower orders ; an opinion which was 
 subsequently contradicted by the inhabitants of other parts of Gaul, and even 
 by the countrymen of the Latin poet Gregory of Tours, who loudly praised 
 the Geneva trout. But a time arrived when the higher classes preferred the 
 
 Fig. 100. — The Pond Fisherman. — Fac-sirnile of a "Woodcut of the " Cosmographie 
 Universelle " of Minister, folio, Basic, 1549. 
 
 freshwater fish of Orchies in Flanders, and even those of the Lyonnais. Thus 
 we see in the thirteenth century the barbel of Saint-Florentin held in great 
 estimation, whereas two hundred years later a man who was of no use, or a 
 nonentity, was said to resemble a barbel, " which is neither good for roasting 
 nor boiling." 
 
 Iu a collection of vulgar proverbs of the twelfth century mention is made, 
 amongst the fish most in demand, besides the barbel of Saint-Florentin above 
 referred to, of the eels of Maine, the pike of Chalons, the lampreys of Nantes, 
 the trout of Andeli, and the dace of Aise. The "Menagier" adds several 
 others to the above list, including blay, shad, roach, and gudgeon, but, above 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 141 
 
 all, the carp, which was supposed to be a native of Southern Europe, and 
 which must have been naturalised at a much later period in the northern 
 waters (Figs. 100, 101, and 102). 
 
 The most ancient documents bear witness that the natives of the sea-coasts 
 of Europe, and particularly of the Mediterranean, fed on the same tish as at 
 present : there were, however, a few other sea-fish, which were also used for 
 food, but which have since been abandoned. Our ancestors were not 
 difficult to please: they had good teeth, and their palates having become 
 
 •r*.-. 
 
 I^^^^^jferm^^' *" 
 
 Fig. 101.— The River Fisherman, designed and 
 engraved, in the Sixteenth Century, by 
 J. Amman. 
 
 Pig. 102. — Conveyance of Fish by Water and 
 Land. — Fac-simile of an Engraving in the 
 Loyal Statutes of the Provostship of Mer- 
 chants, 1528. 
 
 accustomed to the flesh of the cormorant, heron, and crane, without difficulty 
 appreciated the delicacy of the nauseous sea-dog, the porpoise, and even the 
 whale, which, when salted, furnished to a great extent all the markets of 
 Europe. 
 
 The trade in salted sea-fish only began in Paris in the twelfth century, 
 when a company of merchants was instituted, or rather re-established, on the 
 principle of the ancient association of Nautes. This association had existed 
 from the period of the foundation under the Gauls of Lutetia, the city of 
 
i-r- 
 
 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 fluvial commerce (Fig. 103), and it is mentioned in the letters patent of 
 Louis VII. (1170). One of the first cargoes which this company brought 
 in its boats was that of salted herrings from the coast of Normandy. These 
 herrings became a necessary food during Lent, and 
 
 " Ror et blanc harenc ties pouldre (couvort de sel) !" 
 (" Herrings smoked, fresh, and salted !") 
 
 was the cry of the retailers in the streets of Paris, where this fish became 
 a permanent article of consumption to an extent which can be appreciated 
 from the fact that Saint Louis gave annually nearly seventy thousand herrings 
 to the hospitals, plague-houses, and monasteries. 
 
 The profit derived from the sale of herrings at that time was so great 
 
 iiisiriisi 
 
 Fig. 103. — A Votive Altar of the Nautes Parisiens,.or the Company for the Commercial Navigation 
 of the Seine, erected in Lutetia during the reign of Tiberius. — Fragments of this Altar, which 
 were discovered in 1711 under the Choir of the Church of Notre-Plame, are preserved in the 
 Museums of Clunv and of the Palais des Thermos. 
 
 that it soon became a special trade ; it was, in fact, the regular practice of the 
 Middle Ages for persons engaged in any branch of industry to unite together 
 and form themselves into a corporation. Other speculators conceived the 
 idea of bringing fresh fish to Paris by means of relays of posting conveyances 
 placed along the road, and they called themselves /brains. Laws were made 
 to distinguish the lights of each of these trades, and to prevent any quarrel 
 in the competition. In these laws, all sea-fish were comprised under three 
 names, the fresh, the salted, and the smoked (sor). Louis IX. in an edict 
 divides the dealers into two classes, namely, the sellers of fresh fish, and the 
 sellers of salt or smoked fish. Besides salt and fresh herrings, an enormous 
 amount of salted mackerel, which was almost as much used, was brought 
 
FOOD AND COOKER!'. , +j 
 
 from the sea-coast, in addition to flat fish, gurnets, skate, fresh and salted 
 whiting and codfish. 
 
 In an old doeument of the thirteenth century about fifty kinds of fish 
 are enumerated which were retailed in the markets of the kingdom ; and 
 a century later the " : Menagier " gives receipts for cooking forty kinds, 
 amongst which appears, under the name of craspois, the salted flesh of the 
 whale, which was also called le lard dc careme. This coarse food, which was 
 sent from the northern seas in enormous slices, was only eaten by the lower 
 orders, for, according to a writer of the sixteenth century, " were it cooked 
 even for twenty-four hours it would still be very hard and indigestible." 
 
 The " Proverbes " of the thirteenth century, which mention the fresh- 
 water fish then in vogue, also names the sea-fish most preferred, and whence 
 they came, namely, the shad from Bordeaux, the congers from La Pochelle, the 
 sturgeon fromBlaye, the fresh herrings from Fecamp, and the cuttle-fish from 
 Coutances. At a later period the conger was not eaten from its being sup- 
 posed to produce the plague. The turbot, John-dory, skate, and sole, which 
 were very dear, were reserved for the rich. The fishermen fed on the sea- 
 dragon. A great quantity of the small sea crayfish were brought into market; 
 and in certain countries these were called saute, because the doctors recom- 
 mended them to invalids or those in consumption ; on the other hand, fresh- 
 water crayfish were not much esteemed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 
 excepting for their eggs, which were prepared with spice. It is well known 
 that pond frogs were a favourite food of the Gauls and Franks ; they were 
 never out of fashion in the rural districts, and were served at the host tables, 
 dressed with green sauce ; at the same period, and especially during Lent, 
 snails, which were served in pyramid-shaped dishes, were much appreciated ; 
 so much so that nobles and bourgeois cultivated snail beds, somewhat 
 resembling our oyster beds of the present day. 
 
 The inhabitants of the coast at all periods ate various kinds of shell-fish, 
 which were called in Italy sea-fruit ; but it was only towards the twelfth 
 century that the idea was entertained of bringing oysters to Paris, and 
 mussels were not kneevn there until much later. It is notorious that Henry I"\ . 
 was a great oyster-eater. Sully relates that when he was created a duke 
 " the king came, without being expected, to take his scat at the reception 
 banquet, but as there was much delay in going to dinner, he began by 
 eating some huitres de chasse, which he found very fresh." 
 
144 
 
 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 By huitres cle ckasse were meant those oysters which wore brought by the 
 cliasse-maries, carriers who brought the fresh fish from the coast to Paris at 
 great speed. 
 
 Beverages. Beer is not only one of the oldest fermenting beverages 
 
 used bv man, but it is also the one which was most in vogue in the Middle 
 Ao-es. If we refer to the tales of the Greek historians, we find that the 
 Gauls who, like the Egyptians, attributed the discovery of this refreshing- 
 drink to their god Osiris — had two sorts of beer : one called zythus, made 
 with honey and intended for the rich ; the other called corma, in which 
 there was no honey, and which was made for the poor. But Pliny asserts 
 that beer in Gallic was called ccrevisia, and the grain employed for making- 
 it brasce. This testimony seems true, as from brasce or brasse comes the 
 
 Fig. 104.— The Great Drinkers of the North. — Fae-simile of a Woodcut of the " Histoires des 
 Pays .Septentrionaux," by Olaus Magnus, lCmo., Antwerp, 1560. 
 
 name brasseur (brewer), and from cerevisia, cervoise, the generic name by which 
 beer was known for centuries, and which only lately fell into disuse. 
 
 After a great famine, Domitian ordered all the vines in Gaul to he 
 uprooted so as to make room for corn. This rigorous measure must have 
 caused beer to become even more general, and, although two centuries later 
 Probus allowed vines to be replanted, the use of beverages made from grain 
 became an established custom ; but in time, whilst the people still only 
 drank cervoke, those who were able to afford it bought wine and drank it 
 alternately with beer. 
 
 However, as by degrees the vineyards increased in all places having a 
 suitable soil and climate, the use of beer was almost entirely given up, so 
 that in central Gaul wine became so common and cheap that all could drink 
 it. In the northern provinces, where the vine would not grow, beer naturally 
 continued to be the national beverage (Fig. 101). 
 
FOOD AXD COOKERY 
 
 '45 
 
 In the time of Charlemagne, for instance, we find the Emperor wisely 
 ordered that persons knowing how to brew should be attached to ouch of 
 his farms. Everywhere the monastic houses possessed breweries; but as 
 early as the reign of St. Louis there were only a very few brewers in Paris 
 itself, and, in spite of all the privileges granted to their corporation, even 
 these were soon obliged to leave the capital, where there ceased to bo 
 any demand for the produce of their industry. They reappeared in 1428, 
 probablv in consequence of the political and commercial relations which 
 had become established between Paris and the rich towns of the Flemish 
 
 Y\%. 105.— The Biwe 
 
 r, designed and engraved, in the Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman. 
 
 bourgeoisie ; and then, either on account of the dearness of wine, or the 
 caprice of fashion, the consumption of beer again became so general m 
 France, that according to the " Journal d'un Bourgeois de Pans," it pro- 
 duced to the revenue two-thirds more than wine. It must be understood, 
 however, that in times of scarcity, as in the years 1415 arid 1482, brewing 
 was temporarily stopped, and even forbidden altogether, on account of the 
 quantity of grain which was thereby withdrawn from the food supply of the 
 people (Fig. 105). 
 
 Under the Pomans, the real cerroisf, or beer, was made with barley ; but, 
 
 t: 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY 
 
 at a later period, all sorts of grain was indiscriminately used ; and it was 
 only towards the end of the sixteenth century that adding the flower or seed 
 of hops to the oats or barley, which formed the basis of this beverage, was 
 thought of. 
 
 Estienne Boileau's " Book of Trades," edited in the thirteenth century, 
 shows us that, besides the cenoisc, another sort of beer was known, which 
 was called godale. This name, we should imagine, was derived from the two 
 German words god ad, which mean " good beer," and was of a stronger 
 description than the ordinary cerroke ; this idea is proved by the Picards and 
 Flemish people calling it " double beer." In any case, it is from the word 
 godale that the familiar expression of godailler (to tipple) is derived. 
 
 In fact, there is hardly any sort of mixture or ingredient which has not 
 been used in the making of beer, according to the fashions of the different 
 periods. When, on the return from the Crusades, the use of spice had become 
 the fashion, beverages as well as the food were loaded with it. Allspice, 
 juniper, resin, apples, bread- crumbs, sage, lavender, gentian, cinnamon, and 
 laurel were each thrown into it. The English sugared it, and the Germans 
 salted it, and at times they even went so far as to put darnel into it, at the 
 risk of rendering the mixture poisonous. 
 
 The object of these various mixtures was naturally to obtain high- 
 flavoured beers, which became so much in fashion, that to describe the want 
 of merit of persons, or the lack of value in anything, no simile was more 
 common than to compare them to "small beer." Nevertheless, more delicate 
 and less blunted palates were to be found which could appreciate beer 
 sweetened simply with honey, or scented with ambergris or raspberries. It is 
 possible, however, that these compositions refer to mixtures in which beer, 
 the produce of fermented grain, was confounded with hydromel, or fermented 
 honey- Both these primitive drinks claim an origin equally remote, which 
 is buried in the most distant periods of history, and they have been used in 
 all parts of the world, being mentioned in the oldest historical records, in 
 the Bible, the Edda, and in the sacred books of India. In the thirteenth 
 century, hydromel, which then bore the name of borgerafre, borgermtc, 
 or bochet, was composed of one part of honey to twelve parts of water, 
 scented with herbs, and allowed to ferment for a month or six weeks. This 
 beverage, which in the customs and statutes of the order of Cluny is termed 
 potus dulcissimus (the sweetest beverage), and which must have been both 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 '47 
 
 agreeable in taste ami smell, was speoially appreciated by tlio monks, who 
 feasted on it on the great anniversaries of the Church. Besides this, an 
 inferior quality of bochct was made for the consumption of the lower orders 
 and peasants, out of the honey-comb after the honey had boon drained away, 
 or with the scum which rose during the fermentation of the hotter qualities. 
 
 Cider (in Latin sicera) and perry can also both claim a very ancient 
 origin, since they are mentioned by Pliny. It does not appear, however, 
 that the Gauls were acquainted with them. The first historical mention of 
 them is made with reference to a repast which Thierry II., King of Burgundy 
 
 ^^ 
 
 Fi". 1(j6. The Vintagers, after a Miniature of the "Dialogues de Saint Gregoire " (Thirteenth 
 
 Century).— Manuscript of the Royal Library of Brussels. 
 
 and Orleans (096 — 613), son of Chihlebert, and grandson of Queen Brunehaut, 
 gave to St. Colomban, in which both cider and wine were used. In the 
 thirteenth century, a Latin poet (Guillaume le Breton) says that the inhabitants 
 of the Auge and of Normandy made cider their daily drink ; but it is not 
 likely that this beverage was sent away from the localities where it was made ; 
 for, besides the fact that the " Menagier" only very curtly mentions a drink 
 made of apples, we know that in the fifteenth century the Parisians were 
 satisfied with pouring water on apples, and steeping them, so as to extract a 
 sort of half-sour, half-sweet drink called defense. Besides this, Paulmier de 
 Grandmesnil, a Norman by birth, a famous doctor, and the author of a Latin 
 
I4 8 FOOD AND COOKERY 
 
 treatise on wine and cider (1588), asserts that half a century before, cider 
 was very scarce at Rouen, and that in all the districts of Caux the people 
 only drank beer. Duperron adds that the Normans brought cider from 
 Biscay, when their crops of apples failed. 
 
 By whom and at what period the vine was naturalised in Gaul has been 
 a long-disputed question, which, in spite of the most careful research, remains 
 unsolved. The most plausible opinion is that which attributes the honour of 
 having imported the vine to the Phoenician colony who founded Marseilles. 
 
 Pliny makes mention of several wines of the Gauls as being highly 
 esteemed. He nevertheless reproaches the vine-growers of Marseilles, 
 Beziers, and Narbonnc with doctoring their wines, and with infusing various 
 drug's into them, which rendered them disagreeable and even unwholesome 
 (Fig. 106). Dioscorides, however, approved of the custom in use among the 
 Allobroges, of mixing resin with their wines to preserve them and prevent 
 them from turning sour, as the temperature of their country was not warm 
 enough thoroughly to ripen the grape. 
 
 Booted up by order of Domitian in 92, as stated above, the vine only 
 reappeared in Gaul under Protus, who revoked, in 282, the imperial edict of 
 his predecessor ; after which period the Gallic wines soon recovered their 
 ancient celebrity. Under the dominion of the Franks, who held wine in 
 great favour, vineyard property was one of those which the barbaric laws 
 protected with the greatest care. Wo find in the code of the Salians and in 
 that of the Visigoths very severe penalties for uprooting a vine or stealing a 
 bunch of grapes. The cultivation of the vine became general, and kings 
 themselves planted them, even in the gardens of their city palaces. In 1160, 
 there was still in Paris, near the Louvre, a vineyard of such an extent, that 
 Louis VII. could annually present six hogsheads of wine made from it to the 
 rector of St. Nicholas. Philip Augustus possessed about twenty vineyards of 
 excellent quality in various parts of his kingdom. 
 
 The culture of the vine having thus developed, the wine trade acquired 
 an enormous importance in France. Gascony, Aunis, and Saintonge sent 
 their wines to Flanders ; Quyenne sent hers to England. Froissart writes 
 that, in 1372, a merchant fleet of quite two hundred sail, came from London 
 to Bordeaux for wine. This flourishing trade received a severe blow in the 
 sixteenth century ; for an awful famine having invaded France in 1566, 
 Charles IX. did not hesitate to repeat the acts of Domitian, and to order all 
 
 s 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 '+9 
 
 the vines to be uprooted and their place to be sown with corn; fortunately 
 Henry III. soon after modified this edict by simply recommending the 
 governors of the provinces to see that " the ploughs were not being neglected 
 in their districts on account of the excessive cultivation of the vine." 
 
 Although the trade of a wine-merchant is one of the oldest established 
 in Paris, it does not follow that the retail sale of wine was exclusively 
 
 Fig. 107.— Interior of an Hostelry.— Fae-simile of a Woodcut in a folio edition of Virgil, published 
 
 at Lyons in IS 17. 
 
 carried on by special tradesmen. On the contrary, for a long time the 
 owner of the vineyard retailed the wine which he had not been able to 
 sell in the cask. A broom, a laurel-wreath, or some other sign of the sort 
 hung over a door, denoted that any one passing could purchase or drink 
 wine within. When the wine-growers did not have the quality and price 
 of their wine announced in the village or town by the public crier, they 
 placed a man before the door of their cellar, who enticed the public to enter 
 and taste the new wines. Other proprietors, instead of selling for people 
 
FOOD AND COOKER}'. 
 
 to take away in their own vessels, established a tavern in some room of their 
 house, where they retailed drink (Fig. 107). The monks, who made wine 
 extensively, also opened these taverns in the monasteries, as they only 
 consumed part of their wine themselves ; and this system was universally 
 adopted by wine-growers, and even by the king and the nobles. The latter 
 however, had this advantage, that, whilst they were retailing their wines, no 
 one in the district was allowed to enter into competition with them. This 
 prescriptive right, which was called droit de ban-tin, was still in force in the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
 Saint Louis granted special statutes to the wine merchants in 1264; but it 
 was only three centuries later that they formed a society, which was divided into 
 four classes, namely, hotel-keepers, publichuuse-kccpers, tavern proprietors, and 
 
 Fig'. 108. — Banner of the Corporation of the Fig. 109. — Banner of the Corporation of the 
 
 Publichouse-keepers of Alontmedy. Puhlichouse-keepers of Tonnene. 
 
 dealers in wine a pot, that is, sold to people to take away with them. Hotel- 
 keepers, also called aabergistes, accommodated traA r ellers, and also put up 
 horses and carriages. The dealers a pot sold wine which could not be drunk 
 on their premises. There was generally a sort of window in their door through 
 which the empty pot was passed, to be returned filled : hence the expression, 
 still in use in the eighteenth century, rente d huis coupe (sale through a cut 
 door). Publichouse-keepers supplied drink as well as nappe et assiette (table- 
 cloth and plate), which meant that refreshments were also served. And lastly, 
 the taverniers sold wine to be drunk on the premises, but without the right of 
 supplying bread or meat to their customers (Figs. 108 and 109). 
 
 The wines of France in most request from the ninth to the thirteenth 
 centuries, were those of Macon, Cahors, Piheims, Choisy, Montargis, Marne, 
 
FOOD AXD COOKER!' 
 
 Meulan, and Orleanais. Amongst the latter there was one which was much 
 appreciated by Henry T., and of which he kept a store, to stimulate his courage 
 when he joined his army. The little fable of the Battle of Wines, composed 
 in the thirteenth century by Henri d'Andelys, mentions a number of wines 
 which have to this day maintained their reputation: for instance, the Beaune, 
 in Burgundy; the Saint-Emilion, in Guyenne; the Chablis, Epernay, Sezanne, 
 in Champagne, &c. But he places above all, with good reason, according to 
 the taste of those days, the Saint-Poureain of Auvergne, which was then most, 
 expensive and in great request. Another French poet, in describing the 
 luxurious habits of a young man of fashion, says that he drank nothing but 
 
 Fig. 110. — Banner of the Coopers 
 of Bavonne. 
 
 Fig. 111. — Banner of the Coopers 
 of La Rochelle. 
 
 Saint-Poureain ; and in a poem composed by Jean Bruyant, secretary of the 
 Chatelet of Paris, in 1332, we find 
 
 " Du saint-pour<;uin 
 Que Ten met en son sein pour sain." 
 
 (" Saint-l'ourcain wine, which you imhibe for the good of your health.") 
 
 Towards 1400, the vineyards of A'i became celebrated for Champagne as 
 those of Beaune were for Burgundy; and it is then that we find, according 
 to the testimony of the learned Paulmicr de Grandmesnil, kings and queens 
 making champagne their favourite beverage. Tradition has it that Francis I., 
 Charles Quint, Henry VIII., and Pope Leon X. all possessed vineyards in 
 Champagne at the same time. Burgundy, that pure and pleasant wine, was 
 not despised, and it was in its honour that Erasmus said, "Happy province ! 
 she may well call herself the mother of men, since she produces such 
 milk." Nevertheless, the above-mentioned physician, Paulmicr, preferred to 
 
, S2 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 burgundy, "it" not perhaps for their flavour, yet for their wholesomeness, the 
 wines of the lie de France or vinsfrangais, which agree, he says, with scholars, 
 invalids, the bourgeois, and all other persons who do not devote themselves 
 to manual labour ; for they do not parch the blood, like the wines of Gascony, 
 nor fly to the head like those of Orleans and Chateau-Thierry ; nor do they 
 cause obstructions like those of Bordeaux." This is also the opinion of 
 Baccius, who in his Latin treatise on the natural history of wines (1596) 
 asserts that the wines of Paris " are in no way inferior to those of any other 
 district of the kingdom." These thin and sour wines, so much esteemed in 
 the first periods of monarchy and so long abandoned, first lost favour in the 
 reign of Francis L, who preferred the strong and stimulating productions of 
 the South. 
 
 Notwithstanding the great number of excellent wines made in their own 
 country, the French imported from other lands. In the thirteenth century, in 
 the "Battle of Wines" we find those of Aquila, Spain, and, above all, those of 
 Cyprus, spoken of in high terms. A century later, Eustace Deschamps praised 
 the Rhine wines, and those of Greece, Malmsey, and Grenache. In an edict 
 of Charles VI. mention is also made of the muscatel, rosette, and the wine of 
 Lieppe. Generally, the Malmsey which was drunk in France was an artificial 
 preparation, which had neither the colour nor taste of the Cyprian wine. 
 Olivier de Series tells us that in his time it was made with water, honey, clary 
 juice, beer grounds, and brandy. At first the same name was used for the 
 natural wine, mulled and spiced, which was produced in the island of Madeira 
 from the grapes which the Portuguese brought there from Cyprus in 1420. 
 
 The reputation which this wine accpiired in Europe induced Francis I. to 
 import some vines from Greece, and he planted fifty acres with them near 
 Fontaineblcau. It was at first considered that this plant was succeeding so 
 well, that "there were hopes," says Olivier de Serres, " that France would 
 soon be able to furnish her own Malmsey and Greek wines, instead of having 
 to import them from abroad." It is evident, however, that they soon gave up 
 this delusion, and that for want of the genuine wine they returned to artificial 
 beverages, such as vin cuit, or cooked wine, which had at all times been 
 cleverly prepared by boiling down new wine and adding various aromatic 
 herbs to it. 
 
 Many wines were made under the name of herbes, which were merely 
 infusions of wormwood, myrtle, hyssop, rosemarv, &c, mixed with sweetened 
 
FOOD A XI) COOKER}' 
 
 '53 
 
 wine and flavoured with honey. The most celebrated of these beverages 
 bore the pretentious name of "nectar;" those composed of spices, Asiatic; 
 aromaties, and honey, were generally called " white wine," a name indis- 
 criminately applied to liquors having for their liases some slightly coloured 
 wine, as well as to the hypocras, which was often composed of a mixture of 
 foreign liqueurs. This hypocras plays a prominent part in the romances 
 of chivalry, and was considered a drink of honour, being always offered to 
 kings, princes, and nobles on their solemn entry into a town. 
 
 The name of wine was also given to drinks composed of the juices of 
 certain fruits, and in which grapes were in no way used. These were the 
 
 Fig. 112. — Butler at hisDuties. — Fac-simile from a "Woodcut in the " Cosmograjjliie Umvei-Bclle " 
 
 of Munster, folio, Basle, 1549. 
 
 cherry, the currant, the raspberry, and the pomegranate wines; also the 
 more, made with the mulberry, which was so extolled by the poets of the 
 thirteenth century. We must also mention the sour wines, which were made 
 by pouring water on the refuse grapes after the wine laid been extracted ; 
 also the drinks made from filberts, milk of almonds, the syrups of apricots and 
 strawberries, and cherry and raspberry waters, all of which were refreshing, 
 and were principally used in summer; and, lastly, tixniw, sold by the con- 
 fectioners of Paris, and made hot or cold, with prepared barley, dried grapes, 
 plums, dates, gum, or liquorice. This tisane may be considered as the origin 
 of that drink which is now sold to the poor at a sons a glass, and which 
 most assuredly has not much improved since olden tunes. 
 
 x 
 
, 54 FOOD AND COOKERY 
 
 It was about the thirteenth century that brandy first became known in 
 France ; but it does not appear that it was recognised as a liqueur before the 
 sixteenth. The celebrated physician Arnauld do Villeneuve, who wrote at 
 the end of the thirteenth century, to whom credit has wrongly been 
 given for inventing brandy, employed it as one of his remedies, and thus 
 expresses himself about it: "Who would have believed that we could 
 have derived from wine a liquor which neither resembles it in nature, 
 colour, or effect? .... This can tie inn is called by some can cle vie, 
 
 and justly so, since it prolongs life It prolongs health, dissipates 
 
 superfluous matters, revives the spirits, and preserves youth. Alone, or 
 added to some other proper remedy, it cures colic, dropsy, paralysis, ague, 
 gravel, &c. 
 
 At a period when so many doctors, alchemists, and other learned men made 
 it their principal occupation to try to discover that marvellous golden fluid 
 which was to free the human race of all its original infirmities, the discovery 
 of such an elixir could not fail to attract the attention of all such manufac- 
 turers of panaceas. It was, therefore, under the name of can d'or [aqua ami) 
 that brandy first became known to the world ; a name improperly given to it, 
 implying as it did that it was of mineral origin, whereas its beautiful goldeu 
 colour was caused by the addition of spices. At a later period, when it lost 
 its repute as a medicine, they actually sprinkled it with pure gold leaves, and 
 at the same time that it ceased to be exclusively considered as a remedy, it 
 became a favourite beverage. It was also employed in distilleries, especially 
 as the basis of various strengthening and exciting liqueurs, most of which 
 have descended to us, some coming from monasteries and others from 
 chateaux, where they had been manufactured. 
 
 THE KITCHEX. 
 
 Soups, Bkoths, Stews, &c. — The French word potage must originally 
 have signified a soup composed of vegetables and herbs from the kitchen 
 garden, but from the remotest times it was applied to soups in general. 
 
 As the Gauls, according to Athenasus, generally ate their meat boiled, we 
 must presume that they made soup with the water in which it was cooked. 
 It is related that one day Gregory of Tours was sitting at the table of King 
 Chilperie, when the latter offered him a. soup specially made in his honour 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 '55 
 
 from chicken. The poems of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries mention 
 soups made of peas, of bacon, of vegetables, and of groats. In the southern 
 provinces there were soups made of almonds, and of olive oil. When Du 
 Gueselin went out to tight the English knight William of Blancbourg in 
 single combat, he first ate three sorts of soup made with wine, " in honour 
 of the three persons in the Holy Trinity." 
 
 We find in the " Menagier," amongst a long list of the common soups, 
 the receipts for which are given, soup made of " dried peas and the water in 
 which bacon has been boiled," and, in Lent, " salted-whale water ;" water- 
 cress soup, cabbage soup, cheese soup, and g ramose soup, which was prepared 
 by adding stewed meat to the water in which meat had already been 
 hoiled, and adding beaten eggs and verjuice; and lastly, the souppe despourrue, 
 
 Fig. 113. — Interiur of a Kitchen of the Sixteenth Century.— Fac-simile from a Woodcut in the 
 " Calcndarium Romanum " of Jean StaefBer, folio, Tubingen, 1.518. 
 
 which was rapidly made at the hotels, for unexpected travellers, and was 
 
 a sort of soup made from the odds and ends of the larder. In those days 
 
 there is no doubt but that hot soup formed an indispensable part of the 
 
 daily meals,'and that each person took it at least twice a day, according to 
 
 the old proverb : — 
 
 "■Soupe le soir, soupe le matin, 
 C'est l'ordinaire du hon chrc-tien." 
 
 (" Soup in the evening, and soup in the morning, 
 Is the every-day food of a good Christian.") 
 
 The cooking apparatus of that period consisted of a. whole glittering 
 array of cauldrons, saucepans, kettles, and vessels of red and yellow copper, 
 which hardly sufficed for all the rich soups for which France was so famous. 
 Thence the old proverb, " En France sent les grands soupiers." 
 
IS6 
 
 FOOD AXD COOKER]'. 
 
 But besides these soups, which were in fact looked upon as " common, and 
 without spice," a number of dishes were served under the generic name of 
 soup, which constituted the principal luxuries at the great tables in the 
 fourteenth century, but which do not altogether bear out the names under 
 which we find them. For instance, there was haricot mutton, a sort of stew; 
 thin chicken broth ; veal broth with herbs ; soup made of veal, roe, stag, 
 wild boar, pork, hare and rabbit soup flavoured with green peas, &c. 
 
 The greater number of these soups were very rich, very expensive, several 
 being served at the same time ; and in order to please the eye as well as the 
 taste they were generally made of various colours, sweetened with sugar, and 
 
 Fig. 114. — Coppersmith, designed find mgraved in the Sixteenth Century by J. Amman. 
 
 sprinkled with pomegranate seeds and aromatic herbs, such as marjoram, 
 sage, thyme, sweet basil, savoury, &c. 
 
 These descriptions of soaps were perfect luxuries, and were taken instead 
 of sweets. As a proof of this we must refer to the famous soupe doree, the 
 description of which is given by Taillcvent, head cook of Charles VII., in 
 the following words, " Toast slices of broad, throw them into a jelly made 
 of sugar, white wine, yolk of egg, and rosewater ; when they are well 
 soaked fry them, then throw them again into the rosewater and sprinkle 
 them with suirar and saffron." 
 
FOOD AND COOKERV. 
 
 '5/ 
 
 Fig. 115— Kitchen and Tahle Utenails :- -1, Carving-knife (Sixteenth Century) ; '2, < 'halice or ( 'up, 
 with Cover (Fourteenth Century) ; :), Douhle-handled Pot, in ( 'opper (Ninth Century) ; 4, Metal 
 Boiler, or Tin Pot, taken from " L'Hiatoire de la Belle Helaine" (Fifteenth Century) 
 (Sixteenth Century) ; 0, Pot, with Handles (Fourteenth Century) ; 7, Copper Boiler, t 
 " L'Hiatoire de la Belle Helaine " (Fifteenth Century); 8, Ewer, -with Han 
 Fashion (Ninth Century) ; 9, Pitcher, sculptured, from among the Decorations of the Church of 
 St. Benedict, Paris (Fifteenth Century); 10, TwO-hranched Candlestick (Sixteenth Century); 
 11, Cauldron (Fifteenth Century). 
 
 5, Knife 
 
 ken from 
 
 in ( Mental 
 
FOOD AXD COOKER!'. 
 
 It is possible that even now this kind of soup might find some favour; 
 but we cannot say the same for those made with mustard, hemp-seed, millet, 
 verjuice, and a number of others much in repute at that period ; for we see 
 iu Rabelais that the French were the greatest soup-caters in the world, and 
 boasted to be the inventors of seventy sorts. 
 
 We have already remarked that broths were in use at the remotest 
 periods, for, from the time that the practice of boiling various meats was first 
 adopted, it must have been discovered that the water in which they were 
 so boiled became savoury and nourishing. " In the time of the great King 
 Francis I.," says Noel du Fail, in bis " Contes d'Eutrapel," " in many places 
 the saucepan was put on to the table, on which there was only one other 
 large dish, of beef, mutton, veal, and bacon, garnished with a large bunch 
 of cooked herbs, the whole of which mixture composed a porridge, and a real 
 restorer and elixir of life. From this came the adage, ' The soup in the 
 great pot and the dainties in the hotch-potch.' " 
 
 At one time they made what they imagined to be strengthening broths 
 for invalids, though their virtue must have been somewhat delusive, for, after 
 having boiled down various materials in a close kettle and at a slow fire, they 
 then distilled from this, and the water thus obtained was administered as a 
 sovereign remedy. The common-sense of Bernard Palissy did not fail to make 
 him see this absurdity, and to protest against this ridiculous custom : "Take a 
 capon," he says, " a partridge, or anything else, cook it well, and then if you 
 smell the broth you will find it very good, and if you taste it you will find it 
 has plenty of flavour ; so much so that you will feel that it contains something 
 to invigorate you. Distil this, on the contrary, and take the water then 
 collected and taste it, and you will find it insipid, and without smell except 
 that of burning. This should convince you that your restorer does not give 
 that nourishment to the weak body for which you recommend it as a means 
 of making good blood, and restoring and strengthening the spirits." 
 
 The taste for broths made of flour was formerly almost universal in France 
 and over the whole of Europe ; it is spoken of repeatedly in the histories and 
 annals of monasteries ; and we know that the Normans, who made it their 
 principal nutriment, were surnamed bouilleux. They were indeed almost like 
 the Romans who in olden times, before their wars with eastern nations, gave 
 up making bread, and ate their corn simply boiled in water. 
 
 In the fourteenth century the broths and soups were made with millet- 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 ■50 
 
 flour and mixed wheats. The pure wheat flour was steeped in milk seasoned 
 with sugar, saffron, honey, sweet wine or aromatic herbs, and sometimes 
 butter, fat, and yolks of eggs were added. It was on account of this that the 
 bread of the ancients so much resembled cakes, and it was also from this fact 
 that the art of the pastrycook took its rise. 
 
 Wheat made into gruel for a long time was an important ingredient in 
 cooking, being the basis of a famous preparation called froiucntec, which was 
 a bouillie of milk, made creamy by (lie addition of yolks of eggs, and which 
 served as a liquor in which to roast meats and fish. There were, besides, 
 several sorts of fromeniee, all equally esteemed, and Taillevent recommended 
 the following receipt, which differs from the one above given: — "First boil 
 
 Fig. 116. — Interior of a Kitchen. — Fuc -simile from a \V leut in the " Calendarium Romanum " 
 
 of J. Staeffler, folio, Tubingen, l.jls. 
 
 your wheat in water, then put into if the juice or gravy of fat meat, or, if you 
 like it better, milk of almonds, and by this means you will make a soup fit for 
 fasts, because it dissolves slowly, is of slow digestion and nourishes much. 
 In this way, too, you can make orcliat, or barley soup, which is more generally 
 approved than the s&idfromentee." 
 
 Semolina, vermicelli, macaroni, &c, which were called Italian because 
 they originally came from that country, have been in use in France longer 
 than is generally supposed. They were first introduced after the expedition 
 of Charles VIII. into Italv, and the conquest of the kingdom of Naples ; that 
 is, in the reign of Louis XII., or the first years of the sixteenth century. 
 
 Piks, Stews, Roasts, Salads, &e. — Pastry made with fat, which might 
 be supposed to have been the invention of modern kitchens, was in great 
 repute amongst our ancestors. The manufacture of sweet and savoury pastry 
 was entrusted to the care of the good menagicrs of all ranks and conditions, and 
 
I 60 
 
 FOOD AND COOKERY 
 
 to the corporation of pastrycooks, who obtained their statutes only in the middle 
 of the sixteenth century ; the united skill of these, both in Paris and in the 
 provinces, multiplied the different .sorts of tarts and meat pies to a very great 
 extent. So much was this the case that these ingenious productions became a 
 special art, worthy of rivalling even cookery itself (Figs. 117, 118, and 130). 
 One of the earliest known receipts for making pies is that of Gaces de la 
 Bigne, first chaplain of Kings John, Charles V., and Charles VI. ^Ye find 
 it in a sporting poem, and it deserves to be quoted verbatim as a record of 
 the royal kitchen of the fourteenth century. It will be observed on perusing 
 it that nothing was spared either in pastry or in cookery, and that expense 
 was not considered when it was a question of satisfying the appetite. 
 
 ' Trois perdriaulx gros et reffais 
 Au milieu du pate me mets ; 
 Mais gardes bien que tu ne failles 
 A moi prendre six grosses cailles, 
 De quoi tu les apuyeras. 
 Et puis apres tu me prendras 
 TJne douzaine d'alouetes 
 Qu' environ les cailles me mettes, 
 Et puis pendras de ees maches 
 Et de ees petits oiseles : 
 Selon ee que tu en auras, 
 Le pate m'en billeteras. 
 Or le fault faire pourveanee 
 D'un peu de lart, sans point de ranee, 
 Que tu tailleras comme de : 
 Sj'en sera le paste pouldre. 
 Si tu le veux de bonne guise, 
 Du vertjus la grappe y soit mise, 
 D'un bien peu de set soit pouldre . . . 
 . . . Fay mettre des oeufs en la Tjaste, 
 Les croutes un peu rudement 
 Faietes de flour de pur froment . . . 
 . . . N'y mets espiees ni fromaige . . . 
 Au four bien a point chaud le met, 
 Qui de cendre ait l'atre bien net ; 
 Et quand sera bien a point euit, 
 II n'est si bon mangier, ce euit." 
 
 ("Put me in the middle of the pie three 
 
 young partridges large and fat; 
 But take good care not to fail to take six 
 
 fine quail to put by their side. 
 After that you must take a dozen sky- 
 
 hirks, which round the quail you must 
 
 place ; 
 And then y T ou must take some thrushes 
 
 and such other little birds as you can 
 
 get to garnish the pie. 
 Further, you must provide yourself with 
 
 a little bacon, which must not be in 
 
 the least rank (reasty), and you must 
 
 cut it into pieces of the size of a die, 
 
 and sprinkle them into the pie. 
 If you want it to be in quite good form, 
 
 you must put some sour grapes iu and 
 
 a very little salt . . . 
 . . . Have eggs put into the paste, and the 
 
 crust made rather hard of the flour of 
 
 pure wheat. 
 Put in neither spice nor cheese . . . 
 Put it into the oven just at the proper heat, 
 The bottom of which must be quite free 
 
 from ashes ; 
 And when it is baked enough, isn't that 
 
 a dish to feast on ! ") 
 
 From this period all treatises on cookery are full of the same kind of 
 receipts for making " pies of young chickens, of fresh venison, of veal, of 
 eels, of bream and salmon, of young rabbits, of pigeons, of small birds, 
 of geese, and of narrois (a mixture of cod's liver and hashed fish). We may 
 
FOOD AXD COOKERY 
 
 1 6i 
 
 mention also the small pies, which were made of minced beef and raisins, 
 similar to our mince pies, and which were hawked in the streets of Paris, 
 until their sale was forbidden, because the trade encouraged greediness on 
 the one hand and laziness on the ether. 
 
 Ancient pastries, owing to their shapes, received the name of tourte or 
 tarte, from the Latin toria, a larsre hunch of bread. This name was after- 
 wards exclusively used for hot pies, whether they contained vegetables, meat, 
 or fish. But towards the end of the fourteenth century tourte and tarte was 
 applied to pastry containing herbs, fruits, or preserves, and pate to those 
 containing any kind of meat, game, or fish. 
 
 It was only in the course of the sixteenth century that the name of pot age 
 
 Fig. 117. — Banner of the Corporation of 
 Pastrycooks of Caen. 
 
 Fig. 118.- -Banner of the Corporation of 
 Pastrycooks of Bordeaux. 
 
 ceased to be applied to stews, whose number equalled their variety, for on a 
 bill of fare of a banquet of that period we find more than fifty different sorts 
 of potages mentioned. The greater number of these dishes have disappeared 
 from our books on cookery, having gone out of fashion ; but there are two 
 stews which were popular during many centuries, and which have maintained 
 their reputation, although they do not now exactly represent what they 
 formerly did. The pot-pourri, which was composed of veal, beef, mutton, 
 bacon, and vegetables, and the galimafrie, a fricassee of poultry, sprinkled 
 with verjuice, flavoured with spices, and surrounded by a sauce composed of 
 vinegar, bread crumbs, cinnamon, ginger, &c. (Fig. 11 J). 
 
 The highest aim of the cooks of the Tailleveut school was to make dishes 
 not only palatable, but also pleasing to the eye. These masters in the art of 
 
 v 
 
I 62 
 
 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 cooking' might be said to be both sculptors and painters, so much did they 
 decorate their works, their object being to surprise or amuse the guests by 
 concealing the real nature of the dishes. Froissart, speaking of a repast 
 
 Fig. 119.— Interior of Italian Kitchen. — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the Book on Cookery of 
 C'hristoforo di Messisburgo, " Banchetti composition! di Vivende," 4to., Ferrara, 1549. 
 
 given in his time, says that there were a number of "dishes so curious 
 and disguised that it was impossible to guess what they were." For instance, 
 the bill of fare above referred to mentions a lion and a sun made of white 
 
FOOD AND COOKER)'. 
 
 163 
 
 chicken, a pink jelly with diamond-shaped points; and, as if the object of 
 cookery was to disguise food and deceive epicures, Taillevent facetiously gives 
 us a receipt for making fried or roast butter and for cooking eggs on (lie spit. 
 The roasts were as numerous as the stews. xV treatise of the fourteenth 
 century names about thirty, beginning with a sirloin of beef, which must 
 have been one of the most common, and ending with a swan, which appeared 
 on table in full plumage. This last was the triumph of cookery, inasmuch 
 as it presented this magnificent bird to the eyes of the astonished guests 
 just as if he were living and swimming. His beak was gilt, his body silvered, 
 resting on a mass of brown pastry, painted green in order to represent a 
 
 Fig. 120.— Hunting-Meal. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Manuscript of the " Livrc 
 Modus " (National Library of Paris). 
 
 da Roy 
 
 grass field Eio-ht banners of silk were placed round, and a cloth of the 
 same material served as a carpet for the whole dish, which towered above the 
 other appointments of the table. 
 
 The peacock, which was as much thought of then as it is little valued now, 
 was similarly arrayed, and was brought to table amidst a flourish of trumpets 
 and the applause of all present, The modes of preparing other roasts much 
 resembled the present system in their simplicity, with this difference, that 
 strong meats were first boiled to render them tender, and no roast was ever 
 handed over to the skill of the carver without first being thoroughly basted 
 with orange juice and rose-water, and covered with sugar and powdered spices. 
 
 We must not forget to mention the broiled dishes, the invention of which 
 
164 
 
 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 is attributed to hunters, and which Rabelais continually refers to as acting 1 
 as stimulants and irresistibly exciting the thirst for wine at the sumptuous 
 feasts of those voracious heroes (Fig. 120). 
 
 The custom of introducing salads after roasts was already established in 
 the fifteenth century. However, a salad, of whatever sort, was never brought 
 to table in its natural state ; for, besides the raw herbs, dressed in the same 
 manner as in our days, it contained several mixtures, such as cooked vegetables, 
 and the crests, livers, or brains of poultry. After the salads fish was served ; 
 sometimes fried, sometimes sliced with eggs or reduced to a sort of pulp, 
 
 Fig. 121.— Shop of a Grocer and Druggist, from a .Stamp of Vriese (Seventeenth Century). 
 
 which was called carper or charpie, and sometimes it was boiled in water or 
 wine, with strong seasoning. Near the salads, in the course of the dinner, 
 dishes of eggs prepared in various ways were generally served. Many of these 
 are now in use, such as the poached egg, the hard-boiled egg, egg sauce, &c. 
 Seasonings.— We have already stated that the taste for spices much 
 increased in Europe after the Crusades ; and in this rapid historical sketch of 
 the food of the Freueh people in the Middle Ages it must have been observed 
 to what an extent this taste had become developed in France (Fig. 121). 
 This was the origin of sauces, all, or almost all of which were highly spiced, 
 and were generally used with boiled, roast, or grilled meats. A few of these 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 165 
 
 sauces, such as the yellow, the green, and the carnitine became so necessary 
 in cooking that numerous persons took to manufacturing them by wholesale, 
 and they -were hawked in the streets of Paris. 
 
 These sauce-criers were first called sau/eiers, then vinaigriers-moustardicrs, 
 and when Louis XII. united them in a body, as their business had con- 
 siderably increased, they were termed sauciers-nwutardicrs-vinair/riers, distillers 
 of brandy and spirits of wine, and buffetiers (from buffet, a sideboard). 
 
 But very soon the corporation became divided, no doubt from the force of 
 circumstances; and on one side we find the distillers, and on the other the 
 
 Fig. 122. — The Cook, drawn and engraved, in the Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman. 
 
 master-cooks and cooks, or porte-chapes, as they were called, because, when 
 they carried on their business of cooking, they covered their dishes with a 
 chape, that is, a cope or tin cover (Fig. 122), so as to keep them warm. 
 
 The list of sauces of the fourteenth century, given by the " Menagier do 
 Paris," is most complicated ; but, on examining the receipts, it becomes 
 clear that the variety of those preparations, intended to sharpen the appetite, 
 resulted principally from the spicy ingredients with which they were 
 flavoured ; and it is here worthy of remark that pepper, in these days ex- 
 clusively obtained from America, was known and generally used long before 
 
i 06 
 
 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 the time of Columbus. It is mentioned in a document of the time of 
 Clotaire III. (660) ; and it is clear, therefore, that before the discovery of 
 the New "World pepper and spices were imported into Europe from the East. 
 Mustard, which was an ingredient in so many dishes, was cultivated and 
 manufactured in the thirteenth century in the neighbourhood of Dijon and 
 
 Angers. 
 
 According to a popular adage, garlic was the medicine (theriaque) of 
 peasants ; town-people for a long time greatly appreciated aillee, which was 
 a. sauce made with garlic, and sold ready prepared in the streets of Paris. 
 
 The custom of using anchovies as a flavouring is also very ancient. This 
 was also done with botargue and ccwial, two sorts of side-dishes, which consisted 
 of fishes' eggs, chiefly mullet and sturgeon, properly salted or dried, and mixed 
 with fresh or pickled olives. The olives for the use of the lower orders were 
 brought from Languedoc and Provence, whereas those for the rich were im- 
 ported from Spain and some from Syria. It was also from the south of France 
 that the rest of the kingdom was supplied with olive oil, for which, to this 
 day, those provinces have preserved their renown ; but as early as the twelfth 
 and thirteenth centuries oil of walnuts was brought from the centre of France 
 to Paris, and this, although cheaper, was superseded by oil extracted from 
 the poppy. 
 
 Truffles, though known and esteemed by the ancients, disappeared from 
 the gastronomic collection of our forefathers. It was only in the fourteenth 
 century that they were again introduced, but evidently without a knowledge 
 of their culinary qualities, since, after being preserved in vinegar, they were 
 soaked in hot water, and afterwards served up in butter. We may also 
 here mention sorrel and the common mushroom, which were used in cooking 
 during the Middle Ages. 
 
 On the strength of the old proverb, " Sugar has never spoiled sauce," 
 sugar was put into all sauces which were not plquantes, and generally some 
 perfumed water was added to them, such as rose-water. This was made in 
 great quantities by exposing to the sun a basin full of water, covered over by 
 another basin of glass, under which was a little vase containing rose-leaves. 
 This rose-water was added to all stews, pastries, and beverages. It is very 
 doubtful as to the period at which white lump sugar became known in the 
 West. However, in an account of the house of the Dauphin Viennois (1333) 
 mention is made of "white sugar;" and the author of the " Menagier de 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY 
 
 167 
 
 Paris" frequently speaks of this white sugar, which, before the discovery, or 
 rather colonisation, of America, was brought, ready refined, from the Grecian 
 islands, and especially from Candia. 
 
 Fig. 123.— The Issue tie Table.— Facsimile of a Woodcut in the Treatise of Christoforo di 
 Messisburgo, " Banchetti composition! di Vivende," 4to., Ferrara, lo49. 
 
 Verjuice, or green juice, which, with vinegar, formed the essential basis 
 of sauces, and is now extracted from a species of green grape, which never 
 
,68 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 ripens, was originally the juice of sorrel ; another sort was extracted by 
 pounding the green blades of wheat. Vinegar was originally merely soured 
 wine, as the word cin-aiijre denotes. The mode of manufacturing it by artificial 
 means, in order to render the taste more pungent and the quality better, is 
 very ancient. It is needless to state that it was scented by the infusion of 
 herbs or flowers — roses, elder, cloves, &c. ; but it was not much before the 
 sixteenth century that it was used for pickling herbs or fruits and vegetables , 
 such as gherkins, onions, cucumber, purslain, &c. 
 
 Salt, which from the remotest periods was the condiment par excellence, 
 and the trade in which had been free up to the fourteenth century, became, 
 from that period, the subject of repeated taxation. The levying of these 
 taxes was a frequent cause of tumult amongst the people, who saw with 
 marked displeasure the exigencies of the excise gradually raising the price 
 of an article of primary necessity. We have already mentioned times during 
 which the price of salt was so exorbitant that the rich alone could put it in 
 their bread. Thus, in the reign of Francis I., it was almost as dear as 
 Indian spices. 
 
 Sweet Dishes, Desserts, &c. — In the fourteenth century, the first courses 
 of a repast were called mets or assiettes ; the last, "entremets, doreures, issue de 
 table, desserte, and boute-hors." 
 
 The dessert consisted generally of baked pears, medlars, pealed walnuts, 
 figs, dates, peaches, grapes, filberts, spices, and white or red sugar-plums. 
 
 At the issue de table wafers or some other light pastry were introduced, 
 which were eaten with the hypocras wine. The boute-hors, which was served 
 when the guests, after having washed their hands and said grace, had passed 
 into the drawing-room, consisted of spices, different from those which had 
 appeared at dessert, and intended specially to assist the digestion ; and for 
 this object they must have been much needed, considering that a repast lasted 
 several hours. Whilst eating these spices they drank Grenache, Malmsey, 
 or aromatic wines (Fig. 123). 
 
 It was only at the banquets and great repasts that sweet dishes and dorures 
 appeared, and they seem to have been introduced for the purpose of exhibiting 
 the power of the imagination and the talent in execution of the master-cook. 
 
 The dorures consisted of jellies of all sorts and colours ; swans, pea- 
 cocks, bitterns, and herons, on gala feasts, were served in full feather 
 on a raised platform in the middle of the table, and hence the name of 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 169 
 
 "raised dishes." As for the side-dishes, properly so culled, the long list 
 collected in the " Menagier " shows us thai they wore served at table indis- 
 criminately, for stuffed chickens at times followed hashed porpoise in sauce, 
 lark pies succeeded lamb sausages, and piko's-eggs fritters appeared after 
 orange preserve. 
 
 At a later period the luxury of side-dishes consisted in the quantity and 
 in the variety of the pastry; Rabelais names sixteen different worts atone 
 repast; Tailleveiit mentions pastry called covered pastry, Bourboniiaise pastry, 
 double-faced pastry, pear pastry, and apple pastry ; Platina speaks of the icltite 
 pastry with quince, elder flowers, rice, roses, chestnuts, &c. The fashion 
 of having pastry is, however, of very ancient date, for in the hook of the 
 
 Fig. 124.— The Table of a Baron, as laid out in the Thirteenth Century.— Miniature from tin; 
 "Histoire do St. Graal" (Manuscript from the Imperial Library, Paris). 
 
 "Proverbs," of the thirteenth century, we find that the pics of Dourlens and 
 the pastry of Chartres were then in great celebrity. 
 
 In a charter of Robert le Bouillon, Bishop of Amiens, in loll, mention 
 is made of a cake composed of puff flaky paste ; these cakes, however, are 
 less ancient than the firm pastry called bean cake, or king's cake, winch, 
 from the earliest days of monarchy, appeared on all the tables, not only at 
 the feast of the Epiphany, but also on every festive occasion. 
 
 Amongst the dry and sweet pastries from the small oven which appeared at 
 the issue de table, the first to be noticed were those made of almonds, nuts, &c, 
 and such choice morsels, which were very expensive; then came the cream or 
 cheesecakes, tho peflts chouse, made of butter and eggs; the iclumdis, of which 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 the people were very fond, and St. Louis even allowed the bakers to cook 
 them on Sundays and feast days for the poor ; wafers, which are older than 
 the thirteenth century ; and lastly the oublies, which, under the names of 
 nieules, esterets, and supplications, gave rise to such an extensive trade that 
 a corporation was established in Paris, called the oublayeurs, oublayers, or 
 oublieux, whose statutes directed that none should bo admitted to exercise the 
 trade unless he was able to make in one day 500 large oublies, 800 supplications, 
 and 200 esterets. 
 
 REPASTS AND FEASTS. 
 
 We have had to treat elsewhere of the rules and regulations of the 
 repasts under the Merovingian and Carlovingian kings. We have also 
 spoken of the table-service of the thirteenth century (see chapter on "Private 
 Life"). The earliest author who has left us any documents on this curious 
 subject is that excellent bourgeois to whom we owe the "Menagier de Paris." 
 He describes, for instance, in its fullest details, a repast which was given in 
 the fourteenth century by the Abbe de Lagny, to the Bishop of Paris, the 
 President of the Parliament, the King's attorney and advocate, and other 
 members of his council, in all sixteen guests. We find from this account that 
 " my lord of Paris, occupying the place of honour, was, in consequence of his 
 rank, served on covered dishes by three of his squires, as was the custom for 
 the King, the: royal princes, the dukes, and peers ; that Master President, 
 who was seated by the side of the bishop, was also served by one of his own 
 servants, but on uncovered dishes, and the other guests were seated at table 
 according to the order indicated by their titles or charges." 
 
 The bill of fare of this feast, which was given on a fast day, is the more 
 worthy of attention, in that it proves to us what numerous resources cookery 
 already possessed. This was especially the case as regards fish, notwithstand- 
 ing that the transport of fresh sea-fish was so difficult, owing to the bad state 
 of the roads. 
 
 First, a quarter of a. pint of Grenache was given to each guest on sitting 
 down, then " hot eichaudes, roast apples with white sugar-plums upon them, 
 roasted figs, sorrel and watercress, and rosemary." 
 
 " Soups. — A rich soup, composed of six trout, six tenches, white herring, 
 freshwater eels, salted twenty-four hours, and three whiting, soaked twelve 
 hours ; almonds, ginger, saffron, cinnamon powder and sweetmeats. 
 
FOOD AND COOKERV. 
 
 >7> 
 
 "Salt-water Fish. — Soles, gurnets, congers, turbots, and salmon. 
 
 " Fresh-water Fish. — Lu.r faudis (pike with roc), carps from the Marne, 
 breams. 
 
 "Side-Dishes. — Lampreys a Ik bwe, orange-apples (one for each guest), 
 porpoise with sauee, mackerel, soles, bream, and shad a In eameline, with 
 verjuice, rice and fried almonds upon them ; sugar and apples. 
 
 Fig. 125.— Officers of the Table and of the Chamber of the Imperial Court: Cup-bearer, Cook, 
 Barber, and Tailor, from a Picture in the " Triomphe de MaximiKen I," engraved by J. Eesch, 
 imrgmayer, and others (1512), from Drawings by Albert Diirer. 
 
 " Dessert. — Stewed fruit with white and vermilion sugarplums; tigs, 
 dates, grapes, and filberts. 
 
 " Hypocras for issue de table, with oublies and supplications. 
 
 " Wines and spices compose the boute-hors." 
 
 To this fasting repast we give by way of contrast the lull of tare at 
 the nuptial feast of Master Helye, "to which forty guests were bidden on a. 
 Tuesday in May, a 'day of flesh.' " 
 
 "Soups. — Capons with white sauce, ornamented with pomegranate and 
 crimson sweetmeats. 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 "Roasts. — Quarter of roe-deer, goslings, young chickens, and sauces of 
 orange, camcline, and verjuice. 
 
 " Side-dishes. — Jellies of crayfish and loach ; young rabbits and pork. 
 
 " Dessert. — Froumentee and venison. 
 
 " Issue. — Hypocras. 
 
 '' Boute-iioks. — Wine and spices." 
 
 The clever editor of the " Menagier de Paris," M. le Baron Jerome 
 Piehon, after giving us this curious account of the mode of living of the 
 citizens of that day, thus sums up the whole arrangements for the table 
 in the fourteenth century : " The different provisions necessary for food 
 are usually entrusted to the squires of the kitchen, and were chosen, 
 purchased, and paid for by one or more of these officials, assisted by the 
 cooks. The dishes prepared by the cooks were placed, by the help of the 
 esquires, on dressers in the kitchen until the moment of serving. Thence 
 they were carried to the tables. Let us imagine a vast hall hung with 
 tapestries and other brilliant stuffs. The tables are covered with fringed 
 table-cloths, and strewn with odoriferous herbs ; one of them, called the 
 Great Table, is reserved for the persons of distinction. The guests are taken 
 to their seats by two butlers, who bring them water to wash. The Great Table 
 is laid out by a butler, with silver salt-cellars (Figs. 126 and 127), golden 
 goblets with lids fur the high personages, spoons and silver drinking 
 cups. The guests eat at least certain dishes on tranchoirs, or large slices 
 of thick bread, afterwards thrown into vases called couloueres (drainers). 
 For the other tables the salt is placed on pieces of bread, scooped out for that 
 purpose by the intendants, who are called portr-c/t/ippcs. In the hall is a 
 dresser covered with plate and various kinds of wine. Two squires standing 
 near this dresser give the guests clean spoons, pour out what wine they ask 
 lor, and remove the silver when used ; two other squires superintend the 
 conveyance of wine to the dresser; a varlet placed under their orders is 
 occupied with nothing but drawing wine from the casks." At that time wine 
 was not bottled, and they drew directly from the cask the amount necessary 
 for the day's consumption. " The dishes, consisting of three, four, five, and 
 even six courses, called mets or assiettes, are brought in by varlets and two of 
 the principal squires, and in certain wedding-feasts the bridegroom walked 
 in front of them. The dishes are placed on the table by an asseeur (placer), 
 assisted by two servants. The latter take awav the remains at the conclusion 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY 
 
 ] 73 
 
 of the course, and hand them over to the squires of the kitchen who have 
 charge of them. After the mefs or nssiettes the table-cloths are changed, 
 and the entremets are then brought in. This course is the must brilliant of 
 the repast, and at some ol the princely banquets the dishes arc made to 
 imitate a sort of theatrical representation. It is composed of sweet dishes, 
 of coloured jellies of swans, of peacocks, or of pheasants adorned with their 
 feathers, having the beak and feet gilt, and placed on the middle of the table 
 on a sort of pedestal. To the entremets, a course which docs not appear on 
 all hills of fare, succeeds the dessert. The issue, or exit from table, is mostly 
 
 ;,J(|f«! ft';''!!'! f'liP'i!' "i [If 
 
 Figs. 126 and 127.— Sides of an Enamelled Salt-cellar, with six facings representing the Labours 
 of Hercules, made at Limoges, by Pierre Raymond, for Francis I. 
 
 composed of hypocras and a sort of oublie called mestier ; or, in summer, 
 when hypocras is out of season on account of its strength, of apples, cheeses, 
 and sometimes of pastries and sweetmeats. The boute-hors (wines and spices) 
 end the repast. The guests then wash their hands, say grace, and pass into 
 the chambre de parement or drawing-room. The servants then sit clown and 
 dine after their masters. They subsequently bring the guests wine and 
 epices de chambre, after which each retires home. ' 
 
 But all the pomp and magnificence of the feasts of this period would have 
 appeared paltry a century later, when royal banquets were managed by 
 Taillevent, head cook to Charles VII. The historian of French cookery, 
 
I?4 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 Legrand d'Aussy, thus describes a great feast given in 1455 by the Count of 
 Anjou, third son of Louis II., King of Sicily : — 
 
 " On the table was placed a centre-piece, which represented a green 
 lawn, surrounded with large peacocks' feathers and green branches, to 
 which were tied violets and other sweet-smelling flowers. In the middle 
 of this lawn a fortress was placed, covered with silver. This was hollow, 
 and formed a sort of cage, in which several live birds were shut up, their 
 tufts and feet being gilt. On its tower, which was gilt, three banners 
 were placed, one bearing the arms of the count, the two others those of 
 Mesdemoiselles de Chateaubrun and de Villecpiier, in whose honour the feast 
 was given. 
 
 " The first course consisted of a civet of hare, a quarter of stag which 
 had been a night in salt, a stuffed chicken, and a loin of veal. The two 
 last dishes were covered with a German sauce, with gilt sugar-plums, and 
 
 pomegranate seeds At each end, outside the green lawn, was an 
 
 enormous pie, surmounted with smaller pies, which formed a crown. The 
 crust of the large ones was silvered all round and gilt at the top; each 
 contained a whole roc-deer, a gosling, three capons, six chickens, ten 
 pigeons, one young rabbit, and, no doubt to serve as seasoning or stuffing, 
 a minced loin of veal, two pounds of fat, and twenty-six hard-boiled eggs, 
 covered with saffron and flavoured with cloves. For the three following 
 courses, there was a roe-deer, a pig, a sturgeon cooked in parsley and 
 vinegar, and covered with powdered ginger ; a kid, two goslings, twelve 
 chickens, as many pigeons, six young rabbits, two herons, a leveret, a fat 
 capon stuffed, four chickens covered with yolks of eggs and sprinkled 
 with powder de Due (spice), a wild boar, some wafers (darioles), and stars; 
 a jelly, part white and part red, representing the crests of the three 
 above-mentioned persons ; cream with Due powder, covered with fennel seeds 
 preserved in sugar ; a white cream, cheese in slices, and strawberries ; and 
 lastly, plums stewed in rose-water. Besides these four courses, there was a 
 fifth, entirely composed of the prepared wines then in vogue, and of preserves. 
 These consisted of fruits and various sweet pastries. The pastries represented 
 stags and swans, to the necks of which were suspended the arms of the Count 
 of Anjou and those of the two young ladies." 
 
 In great houses, dinner was announced by the sound of the hunting-horn ; 
 this is what Froissard calls corner I'assiette, but which was at an earlier period 
 
FOOD AXJ) COOKERY 
 
 '75 
 
 called cor ne r Yean, because it was the custom to wash the hinds before sitting 
 down to table as well as on leaving the dining-room. For these ablutions- 
 
 vx 
 
 a^K 
 
 ft 
 
 Kk 
 
 Fig. 128. — Knife-handles in Sculp- 
 tured Ivor}", Sixteenth Century 
 (Collection of M. Becker, of 
 Frankfort) . 
 
 Fig. 129.— Nut-crackers, in Boxwood, Sixteenth Century (Collection of M. Achille Jubiual). 
 
 scented water, and especially rose-water, was used, brought in ewers of precious 
 and delicately wrought metals, by pages or squires, who handed them to the 
 
, 7 6 FOOD AND COOKERY. 
 
 ladies in silver basins. It was at about this period, that is, in the times of 
 chivalry, that the custom of placing the guests by couples was introduced, 
 generally a gentleman and lady, each couple having but one cup and one 
 plate ; hence the expression, to eat from the same plate. 
 
 Historians relate that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, at certain 
 o-ala feasts, the dishes were brought in by servants in full armour, mounted on 
 caparisoned horses ; but this is a custom exclusively attached to chivalry. As 
 early as those days, powerful and ingenious machines were in use, which 
 lowered from the story above, or raised from that below, ready-served tables, 
 which were made to disappear after use as if by enchantment. 
 
 At that period the table service of the wealthy required a considerable 
 staff of retainers and varlets ; and, at a later period, this number was much 
 increased. Thus, for instance, when Louis of Orleans went on a diplomatic 
 mission to Germany from his brother Charles VI., this prince, in order that 
 France might be worthily represented abroad, raised the number of his house- 
 hold to more than two hundred and fifty persons, of whom about one hundred 
 were retainers and table attendants. Olivier de la Marche, who, in his 
 "Memoires," gives the most minute details of the ceremonial of the court 
 of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, tells us that the table service was 
 as extensive as in the other great princely houses. 
 
 This extravagant and ruinous pomp fell into disuse during the reigns of 
 Louis XL, Charles VIII. , and Louis XII., but reappeared in that of Francis I. 
 This prince, after his first wars in Italy, imported the cookery and the gas- 
 tronomic luxury of that country, where the art of good living, especially in 
 Venice, Florence, and Rome, had reached the highest degree of refinement 
 and magnificence. Henry II. and Francis II. maintained the magnificence 
 of their royal tables ; but after them, notwithstanding the soft effeminacy of 
 the manners at court, the continued wars which Henry III. and Charles IX. 
 had to sustain in their own states against the Protestants and the League, 
 necessitated a considerable economy in the households and tables of those 
 kings. 
 
 " It was only by fits and starts," says Brantome, " that one was well fed 
 during this reign, for very often circumstances prevented the proper pre- 
 paration of the repasts ; a thing much disliked by the courtiers, who prefer 
 open table to be kept at both court and with the army, because it then costs 
 them nothing." Henry IV. was neither fastidious nor greedy; we must 
 
FOOD AND COOKERY 
 
 T, 
 
 therefore come down to the reign of Louis XTIT. to find a vestige of the 
 splendour of the banquets of Francis I. 
 
 From the establishment of the Franks in Gaul down to the fifteenth 
 century inclusive, there were but two meals a. day; people dined at ten 
 o'clock in the morning, and supped at four in the afternoon. In the sixteenth 
 century they put back dinner one hour anil supper three hours, to which 
 many people objected. Hence the old proverb : — 
 
 ' Lever a six, diner a dix, 
 Souper a six, eoueker a dix, 
 Fait vivre l'homme dix fois dix." 
 
 ("To rise at six, dine at ten, 
 Sup at six, to l>ed at ten, 
 Makes man live ten times ten.") 
 
 ^ifS© 
 
 Fjo-. 131— Banner of the Corporation of Pastrycooks of Tonnerre. 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 Venery and Hawking. — Origin of Aix-la-Chapelle. — Gaston Phoebus and his Book. — The 
 Presiding Deities of Sportsmen. — Sporting Societies and Brotherhoods. — Sporting Kings : 
 Charlemagne, Louis IX., Louis XI., Charles VIII., Louis XII., Francis I., &c. — Treatise on 
 Venery. — Sporting Popes. — Origin of Hawking. — Training Birds. — Hawking Retinues. — 
 Book of King Modus. — Technical Terms used in Hawking. — Persons who have excelled in 
 this kind of Sport. — Fowling. 
 
 Y the general term hunting is in- 
 cluded the three distinct branches of 
 an art, or it may be called a science, 
 which dates its origin from the earliest 
 times, hut which was particularly 
 esteemed in the Middle Ages, and was 
 especially cultivated in the glorious 
 days of chivalry. 
 
 Venery, which is the earliest, is 
 defined by M. Elzear Blaze as "the 
 science of snaring, taking, or killing 
 one particular animal from amongst a herd." Hatching came next. This 
 was not only the art of hunting with the falcon, but, that of training birds of 
 prey to hunt feathered game. Lastly, Foisellerie (fowling), which, according 
 to the author of several well-known works on the subject we are discussing, 
 had originally no other object than that of protecting the crops and fruits 
 from birds and other animals whose nature it was to feed on them. 
 
 Venery will be first considered. Sportsmen always pride themselves in 
 placing Xenophon, the general, philosopher, and historian, at the head of 
 sporting writers, although his treatise on the chase (translated from the Greek 
 into Latin under the title of " De Venatione "), which gives excellent advice 
 respecting the training of dogs, only speaks of traps and nets for capturing 
 
 wild 
 
 lals. Al 
 
 st the Greeks Arrian and Oppian, and amongst the 
 
//c.xTJxa. , 79 
 
 Romans, Gratfus Faliscusand Ncmesianus, wrote on the same subject. Their 
 works, however, except in a few isolated or scattered passages, do not contain 
 anything about vencry properly so called, and the first historical information 
 on the subject is to be found in the records of the seventh century. 
 
 Long after that period, however, they still hunted, as it were, at random, 
 attacking the first animal they met. The sports of Charlemagne, for instance, 
 were almost always of this description. On some occasions they killed animals 
 of all sorts by thousands, after bavin!;- tracked and driven them into an enclosure 
 composed of cloths or nets. 
 
 This illustrious Emperor, although usually at war in all parts of Europe, 
 never missed an opportunity of hunting: so much so that it might be said that 
 he rested himself by galloping through the forests. He was on these occa- 
 sions not only followed by a large number of huntsmen and attendants of his 
 household, but he was accompanied by bis wife and daughters, mounted on 
 magnificent coursers, and surrounded by a numerous and elegant court, who 
 vied with each other in displaying their skill and courage in attacking the 
 fiercest animals. 
 
 It is even stated that Aix-la-Chapelle owes its origin to a hunting adven- 
 ture of Charlemagne. The Emperor one day while chasing a stag required 
 to cross a brook which came in his path, but immediately his horse had set 
 his foot in the water he pulled it out again and began to limp as if it were 
 hurt. His noble rider dismounted, and on feeling the foot found it was 
 quite hot. This induced him to put his hand into the water, which he found 
 to be almost boiling. On that very spot therefore be caused a chapel to be 
 erected, in the shape of a horse's hoof. The town was afterwards built, and 
 to this day the spring of hot mineral water is enclosed under a rotunda, the 
 shape of which reminds one of the old legend of Charlemagne and his horse. 
 
 The sons of Charlemagne also held hunting in much esteem, and by 
 degrees the art of venery was introduced and carried to great perfection. It 
 was not, however, until the end of the thirteenth century that an anonymous 
 author conceived the idea of writing its principal precepts m an instructive 
 poem, called "Le Diet de la Chace du Cerf." In 1328 another anonymous 
 writer composed the " Livre du Roy Modus," which contains the rules for 
 hunting all furred animals, from the stag to the hare. Then followed other 
 poets and writers of French prose, such as Gacc do la Vigne (1359), Gaston 
 Phcebtis (1387), and Hardouin, lord of Fontaine-Guerin ( 1 394). None of these, 
 
I 80 
 
 HUNTING. 
 
 however, wrote exclusively on veneiy, but described the different sports known 
 in their day. Towards 1340, Alphonse XL, king of Castile, caused a book on 
 
 Fig. 132.— Gaston Phoebus teaching the Art of Yenery.— Facsimile of a Miniature of " Phoebus 
 and his Staff for hunting Wild Animals and Birds of Prey " (Manuscript, Fifteenth Century, 
 National Library of Paris). 
 
 hunting to be compiled for his use ; but it was not so popular as the instruction 
 of Gaston Phoebus (Fig. 132). If hunting with hounds is known everywhere 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 181 
 
 by the French name of the chase, it is because the honour of having organized 
 it into a system, if not of having originated it, is duo to the early French 
 sporting authors, who were able to form a code of rules for it. This also 
 accounts for so many of the technical terms now in use in venery Vicing of 
 French origin, as they are no others than those adopted by these ancient 
 authors, whose works, so to speak, have perpetuated them. 
 
 The curious miniatures which accompany the text in the original manu- 
 script of Gaston Phoebus, and which have been reproduced in nearly all the 
 ancient copies of this celebrated manuscript, give most distinct and graphic 
 
 if, ^T\ 
 
 'iij 
 
 \" M 
 
 
 IJ IK 
 
 Fig. 133. — '■ How to carry a Cloth to approach Boasts."- Fac-simile of a Miniature in tho 
 Manuscript of Phu'bus (Fifteenth Century). 
 
 ideas of the various modes of hunting. We find, for instance, that the use of 
 an artificial cow for approaching wild-fowl was understood at that time, the 
 only difference being that a model was used more like a horse than a cow 
 (Fig. 133) ; we also see sportsmen shooting at bears, wild boars, stags, and 
 such live animals with arrows having sharp iron points, intended to enter 
 deep into the flesh, notwithstanding the thickness of the fur and the creature's 
 hard skin. In the case of the hare, however, the missile had a heavy, massive 
 end, probably made of lead, which stunned him without piercing his body 
 (Fig. 134). In other cases the sportsman is represented with a cross-bow 
 seated in a cart, all covered up with boughs, by which plan he was supposed 
 
l82 
 
 HUNTING. 
 
 to approach the prey without alarming it any more than a swinging branch 
 would do (Fig. 135). 
 
 Gaston Phcebus is known to have been one of the bravest knights of his 
 time ; and, after fighting, he considered hunting as his greatest delight. 
 Somewhat ingenuously he writes of himself as a hunter, " that he doubts 
 having any superior." Like all his contemporaries, he is eloquent as to the 
 moral effect of his favourite pastime. " Bj r hunting," he says, " one avoids 
 the sin of indolence ; and, according to our faith, he who avoids the seven 
 mortal sins will be saved ; therefore the good sportsman will be saved." 
 
 From the earliest ages sportsmen placed themselves under the protection 
 of some special deity. Among the Greeks and Romans it was Diana and 
 
 iiplfwiilll 
 
 Fig. 131. — " How to allure the Hare." — Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Manuscript of 
 Phoebus (Fifteenth Century). 
 
 Phoebe. The Gauls, who had adopted the greater number of the gods and 
 goddesses of Home, invoked the moon when they sallied forth to war or to 
 the chase ; but, as soon as they penetrated the sacred obscurity of the forests, 
 they appealed more particularly to the goddess Ardhuina, whose name, of 
 unknown origin, has probably since been applied to the immense well-stocked 
 forests of Ardenne or Ardennes. They erected in the depths of the woods 
 monstrous stone figures in honour of this goddess, such as the heads of stags 
 on the bodies of men or women ; and, to propitiate her during the chase, 
 they hung round these idols the feet, the skins, and the horns of the beasts 
 they killed. Cernunnos, who was always represented with a human head 
 surmounted by stags' horns, had an altar even in Lutetia, which was, no 
 
HI 'NTIXG. 
 
 >*3 
 
 doubt, in consequence of the great woods which skirted the hanks of the 
 Seine. 
 
 The Gallic Cernunnos, which we also find amongst the Romans, since 
 Ovid mentions the votary stags' horns, continued to bo worshipped to a 
 certain extent after the establishment of the Christian religion. In the 
 fifth century, Germain, an intrepid hunter, who afterwards became Bishop of 
 Auxerre, possessed not far from his residence an oak of enormous diameter, 
 
 ^4$3£ 
 
 i. 
 
 ; i 
 
 sjyj 
 
 I." 
 
 ±v* 
 
 3^fpEJ;«iSM 
 
 
 Fig. 13J.-"Hon' to take a Cart to allure Beasts."— Fac-simile of a Miniature in the 
 Manuscript of Phoebus (Fifteenth Century). 
 
 a thorough Cernunnos, which he hung with the skins and other portions of 
 animals he had killed in the chase. In some countries, where the Cernunnos 
 remained an object of veneration, everybody bedecked it in the same way. 
 The largest oak to be found in the district, was chosen on which to suspend 
 the trophies both of warriors and of hunters; and, at a more recent period, 
 sportsmen used to hang outside their doors stags' heads, boars' feet, birds ot 
 prey, and other trophies, a custom which evidently was a relic of the one 
 referred to. 
 
 On pagan idolatry being abandoned, hunters used to have a presiding 
 
i8+ 
 
 HUNTING. 
 
 genius or protector, whom they selected from amongst the saints most in 
 renown. Some chose St. Germain d'Auxerre, who had himself been a 
 sportsman ; others St. Martin, who had teen a soldier before he became 
 Bishop of Tours. Eventually they all agreed to place themselves under 
 the patronage of St. Hubert, Bishop of Liege, a renowned hunter of the 
 eighth century. This saint devoted himself to a religious life, after one day 
 having encountered a miraculous stag whilst hunting in the woods, which 
 
 Fig. 130. — " [low to shout and blow Horns." — Fae-simile of a Miniature in the Manuscript of 
 
 Phoebus (Fifteenth Century). 
 
 appeared to him as bearing between his horns a luminous image of our 
 Saviour. At first the feast of St. Hubert was celebrated four times a year, 
 namely, at the anniversaries of his conversion and death, and on the two 
 occasions on which his relics were exhibited. At the celebration of each 
 of these feasts a large number of sportsmen in "fine apparel" came from 
 great distances with their horses and dogs. There was, in fact, no magni- 
 ficence or pomp deemed too imposing to be displayed, both by the kings and 
 nobles, in honour of the patron-saint of hunting (Fig. 136.) 
 
bq 
 
 
 m 
 
 C/j C 
 
 fa « 
 
 
HUXTING. 
 
 185 
 
 Hunters and sportsmen in those days formed brotherhoods, which had their 
 rank defined at public ceremonials, and especially in processions. In 1455, 
 Gerard, Puke of Cloves and Burgravo of Ravensberg, created the order of the 
 Knights of St. Hubert, into which those of noble blood only were admitted. The 
 insignia consisted of a gold or silver chain formed of hunting horns, to which 
 was hung a small likeness of the pa (run-saint in the act of (hung homage to our 
 Saviour's image as it shone on the head of a stag. It was popularly believed 
 that the Knights of St. Hubert had the power of curing madness, which, for 
 some unknown reason, never showed itself in a pack of hounds. This, however, 
 
 Fig. 137. — German Sportsman, drawn and engraved by J. Amman In the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 was not the only superstitious belief attached to the noble and adventurous 
 occupations of the followers of St. Hubert. Amongst a number of old 
 legends, which mostly belong to Germany (Fig. 137), mention is made of 
 hunters who sold their souls to the devil in exchange for some enchanted 
 arrow which never missed its aim, and which reached game at extraordinary 
 distances. Mention is also made in these legends of various animals which, 
 on being pursued by the hunters, were miraculously waved by throwing 
 themselves into the arms of some saint, or by running into some holy 
 sanctuary. There were besides knights who, having hunted all their 
 
 1! B 
 
,86 HUNTING. 
 
 lives, believed that they were to continue the same occupation in another 
 world. An account is given in history of the apparition of a fiery phantom 
 to Charles IX. in the forest of Lyons, and also the ominous meeting of 
 Henry IV. with the terrible grand-veneur in the forest of Fontainebleau. We 
 may account for these strange tales from the fact that hunting formerly con- 
 stituted a sort of freemasonry, with its mysterious rites and its secret language. 
 The initiated used particular signs of recognition amongst themselves, and 
 they also had lucky and unlucky numbers, emblematical colours, &c. 
 
 The more dangerous the sport the more it was indulged in by military 
 men. The Chronicles of the Monk of Saint-Gall describe an adventure 
 which befell Charlemagne on the occasion of his setting out with his hunts- 
 men and hounds in order to chase an enormous bear which was the terror of 
 the Vosges. The bear, after having disabled numerous dogs and hunters, 
 found himself face to face with the Emperor, who alone dared to stand up 
 before him. A fierce combat ensued on the summit of a rock, in which both 
 were locked together in a fatal embrace. The contest ended by the death of 
 the bear, Charles striking him with his dagger and hurling him down the 
 precipice. < hi this the hills resounded with the cry of " Vive Charles le 
 Grand! " from the numerous huntsmen and others who had assembled; and 
 it is said that this was the first occasion on which the companions of the 
 intrepid monarch gave him the title of Grand (Magnus), so from that time 
 King Charles became King Charlemagne. 
 
 This prince was most jealous of his rights of hunting, which he would 
 waive to no one. For a long time he refused permission to the monks of the 
 Abbey of St. Denis, whom he nevertheless held in great esteem, to have some 
 stags killed which were destroying their forests. It was only on condition 
 that the flesh of these animals would serve as food to the monks of inferior 
 order, and that their hides should be used for binding the missals, that he 
 eventually granted them permission to kill the offending animals (Fig- 138). 
 
 If we pass from the ninth to the thirteenth century, we find that Louis IX., 
 king of France, was as keen a sportsman and as brave a warrior as any 
 of his ancestors. lie was, indeed, as fond of hunting as of war, and 
 during his first crusade an opportunity occurred to him of hunting the 
 lion. " As soon as he began to know the country of Cesarca," says Joinville, 
 " the King set to work with his people to hunt lions, so that they captured 
 many ; but in doing so they incurred great bodily danger. The mode of 
 
i/rxTixc. 
 
 ,s 7 
 
 liking' them was (his: tln-y pm'sued tlicni on the swiftest horses. When 
 they came near one tlicy shot a boll or arrow at him, and the animal, feeling 
 himself wounded, ran at the first person he could see, who immediately turned 
 his horse's head and tied as fast as he could. During his (light he dropped a. 
 portion of his clothing, which the lion caught up and (ore, thinking it was 
 the person who had injured him ; and whilst the lion was thus engaged the 
 hunters again approached the infuriated animal and shot more holts and 
 arrows at him. Soon the lion left the cloth and madly rushed at some 
 other hunter, who adopted the same strategy as before. Tin's was repeated 
 
 
 Fig. 138. — "Nature and Appearance of Deur, and how they can be hunted with Dogs."- 
 Fac-simile of a Miniature in the "Livre du Ruy Modus." — Manuscript of the Fourteenth 
 Century (National Library of Paris). 
 
 until the animal succumbed, becoming exhausted by the wounds he had 
 received." 
 
 Notwithstanding the passion which this king had for hunting, he was the 
 first to grant leave to the bourgeoisie to enjoy the sport. The condition he 
 made with them was that they should always give a. haunch of any animal 
 killed to the lord of the soil. It is to this that we must trace the origin of 
 giving the animal's foot to the huntsman or to the person who has the lead 
 of the hunting party. 
 
 Louis XL, however, did not at all act in this liberal manner, and although 
 it might have been supposed that the incessant wars and political intrigues in 
 which ho was constantly engaged would have given him no time for amuse- 
 ments of this kind, yet he was nevertheless the keenest sportsman of his day. 
 
1 88 HUNTING. 
 
 This tyrant of the Castle of Plessis-les- Tours, who was always miserly, except 
 m matters of hunting', in which he was most lavish, forbade even the higher 
 classes to hunt under penalty of hanging. To ensure the execution of his 
 severe orders, he had all the castles as well as the cottages searched, and any 
 net, engine, or sporting arm found was immediately destroyed. His only son, 
 the heir to the throne, was not exempted from these laws. Shut up in the 
 Castle of Amboise, he had no permission to leave it, for it was the will of 
 the King that the young prince should remain ignorant of the noble exercises 
 of chivalry. One day the Dauphin prayed his governor, M. du Bouchaare 
 with so much earnestness to give him an idea of hunting, that this noble 
 consented to make an excursion into the neighbouring wood with him. The 
 King, however, managed to find it out, and Du Bouchage had great difficulty 
 in keeping his head on his shoulders. 
 
 One of the best ways of pleasing Louis XL was to offer him some present 
 relating to his favourite pastime, either pointers, hounds, falcons, or varlets 
 who were adepts in the art of venery or hawking (Figs. 139 and 140). 
 When the cunning monarch became old and infirm, in order to make his 
 enemies believe that he was still young and vigorous, he sent messengers 
 everywhere, even to the most remote countries, to purchase horses, dogs, and 
 falcons, for which, according to Comm.es, he paid large sums (Fig. 141). 
 
 On his death, the young prince, Charles YIIL, succeeded him, and he 
 seems to have had an innate taste for hunting, and soon made up for lost time 
 and the privation to which his father had subjected him. lie hunted daily, and 
 generously allowed the nobles to do the same. It is scarcely necessary to say 
 that these were not slow in indulging in the privilege thus restored to them, 
 and which was one of their most ancient pastimes and occupations ; for it 
 must be remembered that, in those days of small intellectual culture, hunting 
 must have been a great, if not at times the onby, resource against idleness 
 and the monotony of country life. 
 
 Everything which related to sport again became the fashion amongst the 
 youth of the nobility, and their chief occupation when not engaged in war. 
 They continued as formerly to invent every sort of sporting device. For 
 example, they obtained from other countries traps, engines, and hunting- 
 weapons; they introduced into France at great expense foreign animals, which 
 they took great pains in naturalising as game or in training as auxiliaries in 
 hunting After having imported the reindeer from Lapland, which did not 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 ,89 
 
 succeed in. their temperate climate, and the pheasant from Tartary, with, which 
 they stocked the woods, they imported with greater success the panther and 
 the leopard from Africa, which were used for furred game as the hawk was 
 for feathered game. The mode of hunting with these animals was as follows : 
 The sportsmen, preceded by their dogs, rode across country, each with a 
 leopard sitting behind him on his saddle. When the dugs had started the 
 game the leopard jumped off the saddle and sprang after it, and as soon as it 
 was caught the hunters threw the leopard a piece of raw flesh, for which he 
 gave up the prey ami remounted behind his master (Fig. 1T2). 
 
 Lotus XL, Charles VIII. , and Louis XII. often hunted thus. The 
 
 X^^" J 
 
 
 Fis. 139. 
 
 The Way to catch Squirrels on the Ground in the Woods."— Facsimile of a Miniature 
 in the Manuscript of the " Livre du Roy Jlodus " (Fourteenth Century) . 
 
 leopards, which formed a part of the royal venery, were kept in an enclosure 
 of the Castle of Amboise, which still exists near the gate des Lions, so called, 
 no doubt, on account of these sporting and carnivorous animals being mistaken 
 for lions by the common people. There were, however, always lions in the 
 menageries of the kings of France. 
 
 Francis I. was quite as fond of hunting as any of his predecessors. His 
 innate taste for sport was increased during his travels in Italy, where he lived 
 with princes who displayed great splendour in their hunting equipages. He 
 even acquired the name of the Father of Sportsmen. His netting establishment 
 alone, consisted of one captain, one lieutenant, twelve mounted huntsmen, 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 I | M |'| sis varlets to attend the 
 bloodhounds ; six whips, 
 who had under their 
 charge sixty hounds; and 
 one hundred bowmen on 
 foot, carrying large stakes 
 for fixing the nets and 
 tents, which were car- 
 ried by fifty six-horsed 
 chariots. He was much 
 pleased when ladies fol- 
 lowed the chase ; and 
 amongst those who were 
 most inclined to share 
 its pleasures, its toils, 
 and even its perils, was 
 Catherine de Aledicis, then lJauphine, who was distinguished 
 for her agility and her graceful appearance on horseback, and 
 who became a thorough sportswoman. 
 
 The taste for hunting having become very general, and 
 the art being considered as the most noble occupation to which 
 persons could devote themselves, it is not surprising to find 
 sporting works composed by writers of the greatest renown 
 and of the highest rank. The learned William Bude, whom 
 Erasmus called the wonder of Firmer, dedicated to the children 
 of Francis I. the second book of his " Philologie," which con- 
 tains a treatise on stag-hunting. This treatise, originally 
 tin, was afterwards translated into French by 
 order of Charles IX., who was acknowledged 
 to be one of the boldest and most scientific 
 hunters of his time. An extraordinary feat, 
 which has never been imitated by any one, 
 is recorded of him, and that was, that alone, 
 
 Fig. 140 —" The Way of catching Far- n horseback and without dogs, he hunted 
 fridges with an Osier is et-work Appa- n , rrn ., rn T1 -. ,, ,1 
 
 ° ,, ,, . ., , . li down a staff. The " Chasse Eoyale, the 
 
 ratus. — Jbac-siniue 01 Miniature in ° J 
 
 the "Livre du liny Modus." authorship of which is attributed to him, is 
 
 ^ 
 
HUXTTNG. 
 
 mi 
 
 replete with scientific information. "Wolf- hunting'," a work by (lie celebrated 
 Glamorgan, anil "Venery," by Hu Fouilloux, were dedicated to Charles IX., 
 
 Fig-. Ml.—" Kennel in which Dogs should live, and how they should he kept."- Fac-simile of a 
 Miniature in Manuscript of Phei'bns (Fifteenth Century). 
 
 and a great number of special treatises on such subjects appeared m his 
 reign. 
 
 His brother, the effeminate Henry III., disliked hunting, as be considered 
 it too fatio'uincr and too dangerous. 
 
19^ HUNTING. 
 
 On the other hand, according to Sully, Henry TV., le Bearnais, who 
 learned hunting in early youth in the Pyrenees, "loved all kinds of sport, 
 and, ahove all, the most fatiguing and adventurous pursuits, such as those 
 after wolves, bears, and boars." lie never missed a chance of hunting, "even 
 when in face of an enemy. If he knew a stag to be near, he found time to 
 hunt it," and we find in the " Memoirs of Sully " that the King hunted the 
 day after the famous battle of Ivry. 
 
 One day, when he was only King of Navarre, he invited the ladies of Pan 
 to come and see a bear-hunt. Happily they refused, for on that occasion 
 their nerves would have been put to a serious test. Two bears killed two of 
 the horses, and several bowmen were hugged to death by the ferocious 
 animals. Another bear, although pierced in several places, and bavin"- six 
 or seven pike-heads in his body, charged eight men who wore stationed on 
 the top of a rock, and the whole of them with the bear were all dashed to 
 pieces down the precipice. The only point in which Louis XIII. resembled 
 his father was his love of the chase, for during his reign hunting continued 
 in France, as well as in other countries, to be a favourite royal pastime. 
 
 We have remarked that St. Germain d'Auxcrre, who at a certain period was 
 the patron of sportsmen, made hunting his habitual relaxation. He devoted 
 himself to it with great keenness in his youth, before ho became bishop, that 
 is, when he was Duke of Auxerre and general of the troops of the provinces. 
 Subsequently, when against his will he was raised to the episcopal dignity, 
 not only did he give up all pleasures, but he devoted himself to the strictest 
 religious life. Unfortunately, in those days, all churchmen did not under- 
 stand, as he did, that the duties of their holy vocation wore not consistent 
 with these pastimes, for, in the year 507, we find that councils and synods 
 forbade priests to hunt. In spite of this, however, the ancient historians 
 relate that several noble prelates, yielding to the customs of the times, 
 indulged in hunting the stag and flying the falcon. 
 
 It is related in history that some of the most illustrious popes were also 
 great lovers of the chase, namely, Julius II., Leo X., and, previously to them, 
 Pius II., who, before becoming Pope, amongst other literary and scientific 
 works, wrote a Latin treatise on vencry under his Christian names, Hhreas 
 Silvius. It is easy to understand how it happened that sports formerly 
 possessed such attractions for ecclesiastical dignitaries. In early life they 
 acquired the tastes and habits of people of their rank, and they were accord- 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 '93 
 
 ingly extremely jealous of the rights of chase in their domains. Although 
 Pope Clement A'., in his celebrated " Institutions." called " Clementines," 
 
 Fig. 142.— Hunting with the Leopard, from ajStamp of Jean Stradan (Sixteenth Century). 
 
 had formally forbidden the monks to hunt, there were few who did not 
 evade the canonical prohibition by pursuing furred game, and that without 
 
 c c 
 
'94 
 
 HUNTING. 
 
 considering that they were violating the laws of the Church. The papal edict 
 permitted the monks and priests to limit under certain circumstances, and 
 especially where rabbits or beasts of prey increased so much as to damage 
 the crops. It can easily be imagined that such would always be the 
 case at a period when the people were so strictly forbidden to destroy 
 
 Fig. 1 13.—" How Wolves may be caught with a Snare."— Fac-simile of a Miniature in the 
 Manuscript of Phoebus (Fifteenth Century). 
 
 game; and therefore hunting was practised at all seasons in the woods 
 and fields in the vicinity of each abbey. The jealous peasants, not them- 
 selves having the right of hunting, and who continually saw Master Abbot 
 passing on his hunting excursions, said, with malice, that "the monks 
 never forgot to pray for the success of the litters and nests (pro pullis et 
 nidis), in order that game might always be abundant," 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 '05 
 
 If venery, as a regular science, dates from a comparatively recent period, 
 it is not so with falconry, (lie lirst traces of which are lust in obscure antiquity. 
 This kind of sport, which had become a, most learned and complicated art, 
 was the delight of the nobles of the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance 
 period. It was in such esteem that a nobleman or his lady never appeared 
 in public without a hawk mi the wrist as a mark of dignity (Fig. 147). 
 
 Fig. 144. — " How Bears and other Beasts maybe caught with a Dart," — Fac-aimile of a Miniature 
 in the Manuscript of Phoebus (Fifteenth Century). 
 
 Even bishops and abbots entered the churches with their hunting birds, 
 which they placed on the steps of the altar itself during the service. 
 
 The bird, bke the sword, was a distinctive mark which was inseparahlc 
 from the person of gentle birth, who frequently even went to war with the 
 falcon on his wrist. During the battle he would make his squire hold the 
 bird, which he replaced on his gauntlet when the tight was over. In fact, it 
 was forbidden by the laws of chivalry for persons to give up their birds, even 
 as a ransom, should they be made prisoners ; in which case they had to let 
 the noble birds fly in order that they might not share their captivity. 
 
 The falcon to a certain degree partook of his owner's nobility ; he was, 
 moreover, considered a noble bird by the laws of falconry, as were all birds 
 
igb 
 
 HUNTING. 
 
 of prey which could be trained for purposes of sport. All other birds, with- 
 out distinction, were declared ignoble, and no exception was made to this 
 rule by the naturalists of the Middle Ages, even in favour of the strongest 
 and most magnificent, such as the eagle and vulture. According to this 
 
 Fig. 145.— Olifant, or Hunting-horn, in Ivory (Fourteenth Century).— From an Original 
 
 existing in England. 
 
 capricious classification, they considered the sparrow-hawk, which was the 
 smallest of the hunting birds, to rank higher than the eagle. The nick- 
 name of this diminutive sporting bird was often applied to a country-gentle- 
 man, who, not being able to afford to keep falcons, used the sparrow-hawk to 
 capture partridges and quail. 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 '97 
 
 It was customary for gentlemen of all classes, whether sportsmen or not, 
 to possess birds of some kind, " to keep up their rank," as the saying then 
 was. Only the richest nobles, however, were expected to keep a regular 
 falconry, that is, a collection of birds suited for taking all kinds of game, 
 such as the hare, the kite, the heron, &c, as each sport not only required 
 special birds, but a particular and distinctive retinue and establishment. 
 
 Besides the cost of falcons, winch was often very great (for they were 
 brought from the most distant countries, such as Sweden, Iceland, Turkey, 
 and Morocco!, their rearing and training involved considerable outlay, as 
 
 
 1LJC I 
 
 may be more readily understood from the illustrations (Figs. 148 to loo), 
 showing some of the principal details of the long and difficult education which 
 had to be given them. 
 
 To succeed in making the falcon obey the whistle, the voice, and the 
 signs of the falconer was the highest aim of the art, and it was only by the 
 exercise of much patience that the desired result was obtained. All birds 
 of prey, when used for sport, received the generic name of falcon ; and amongst 
 them were to be found the gerfalcon, the saker-hawk, the lanner, the merlin, 
 
I')S 
 
 HUNTING. 
 
 and the sparrow-hawk. The male birds were smaller than the females, 
 and were called tiercelet — this name, however, more particularly applied to 
 the gosshawk or the largest kind of male hawk, whereas the males of the 
 
 Fig. 147.— A Noble of Provence (Fifteenth Century).— Bonnart's " Costumes from the Tenth 
 
 to the Sixteenth Century." 
 
 above-mentioned were called lancrct, sacret, emouchct. Generally the male 
 birds were used for partridges and quail, and the female birds for the hare, 
 the heron, and crane. Oi&eaim de poing, or hand-birds, was the name given to 
 
HUXl'JXG. 
 
 199 
 
 the gosshawk, common hawk, the gerfalcon, and the merlin, beeau.se they 
 returned to the hand of their master alter having pursued game. The lanner, 
 sparrow-hawk, and salver-hawk were called oiseaujc do leure, from the fact 
 that it was always necessary to entice them back again. 
 
 The lure was an imitation of a bird, made of red cloth, that it might be 
 more easily seen from a distance. It was stuffed so that the falcon could settle 
 easily on it, and furnished with the wings of a. partridge, duck, or heron, 
 according to circumstances. The falconer swung his mock bird like a, sling, 
 and whistled as lie did so, and the falcon, accustomed to find a piece of flesh 
 attached to the lure, flew down in order to obtain it, and was thus secured. 
 
 Fig. 148. — Kins; Modus teaching the; Art of Falconry. — Fac-simile ol a Miniature in the 
 Manuscript of " Livre da Hoy Modus " (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 The trainers of birds divided them into two kinds, namely, the nitiis, or 
 simple bird, which had been taken from the nest, and the wild bird (Iiayard), 
 captured when full-grown. The education of the former was naturally very 
 much the easier, but they succeeded in taming both classes, and even the 
 most rebellious were at last subdued by depriving them of sleep, by keeping 
 away the light from them, by coaxing them with the voice, by patting 
 them, by giving them choice food, &c. 
 
 Regardless of his original habits, (lie bird was first accustomed to have no 
 fear of men, horses, and dogs, lie was afterwards fastened to a string by 
 one leg, and, being allowed to fly a short distance, was recalled to the lure, 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 where he always found a dainty bit of food. After he had been thus exercised 
 for several months, a wounded partridge was let loose that he might catch 
 it near the falconer, who immediately took it from him before he could tear 
 it to pieces. When he appeared sufficiently tame, a quail or partridge, pre- 
 viously stripped of a few feathers so as to prevent it flying properly, was put 
 in his way as before. If he was wanted for hunting hares, a stuffed hare was 
 dragged before him, inside of which was a live chicken, whose head and liver 
 was his reward if he did his work well. Then they tried him with a hare 
 whose fore-leg was broken in order to ensure his being quickly caught. 
 For the kite, they placed two hawks together on the same perch, so as to 
 accustom them peaceably to live and hunt together, for if they fought 
 
 Fig. 149. — Falconers dressing their Birds. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Manuscript of 
 " Livre du Roy Modus " (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 with one another, as strange birds were apt to do, instead of attacking the 
 kite, the sport would of course have failed. At first a hen of the colour of 
 a kite was given them to tight with. When they had mastered this, a real 
 kite was used, which was tied to a string and his claws and beak were filed 
 so as to prevent him from wounding the young untrained falcons. The 
 moment they had secured their prey, they were called off it and given 
 chickens' flesh to eat on the lure. The same system was adojited for hunting 
 the heron or crane (Fig. 159). 
 
 It will be seen that, in order to train birds, it was necessary for a large 
 number of the various kinds of game to be kept on the premises, and for each 
 branch of sport a regular establishment was required. In falconry, as in 
 
Ill 'NTING. 
 
 venerr, great care was taken to secure that a lard should continue at one 
 object of prey until he had secured it, that is to say, it was most essential to 
 teach it not to leave the game he was alter in order to pursue another which 
 might come in his way. 
 
 To establish a falconry, therefore, not only was a very large poultry-yard 
 required, but also a considerable staff of huntsmen, falconers, and whips, 
 besides a number of horses and dogs of all sorts, which wore either used for 
 starting the game for the hawks, or for running it down when it was forced 
 to ground by the birds. 
 
 A well-trained falcon was a bird of great value, and was the finest present 
 
 ' .til'. 
 
 LL**?'*'' , 'Ul*tVi' 
 
 Fig. 150. — Yarlets of Falconry. — Fac-sirnilc of a Miniature in the Manuscript of " Livre 
 (lit Boy Modus" (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 that could be made to a lady, to a nobleman, or to the King himself, by any 
 one who bad received a favour. For instance, the King of France received 
 six birds from the Abbot of St. Hubert as a token of gratitude for the pro- 
 tection granted by him to the abbey. The King of Denmark sent him several 
 as a gracious offering in the month of April ; the Grand Master of Malta in 
 the month of May. At court, in those days, the reception of falcons either 
 in public or in private was a great business, and the first trial of any new 
 birds formed a topic of conversation among the courtiers for some time after. 
 The arrival at court of a hawk-dealer from some distant country was also 
 a great event. It is said that Louis XI. gave orders that watch should be 
 kept night and day to seize any falcons consigned to the Duke of Brittany 
 
 D D 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 from Turkey. The plan succeeded, and the birds thus stolen were brought 
 to the King, who exclaimed, "By our holy Lady of Clery ! what will the 
 Duke Francis and his Bretons do? They will be very angry at the good 
 
 trick I have played them." 
 
 European princes vied with each other in extravagance as regards falconry; 
 but this was nothing in comparison to the magnificence displayed in oriental 
 establishments. The Count de Severs, son of Philip the Bold, Duke of 
 Burgundy, having been made prisoner at the battle of Nicopolis, was pre- 
 sented to the Sultan Bajazet, who showed him his hunting establishment 
 consisting of seven thousand falconers and as many huntsmen. The Duke of 
 Burgundy, on hearing this, sent twelve white hawks, which were very scarce 
 
 MMra 
 
 -"iuiitli>.i&l jyX : ,'i l 
 
 Fig. 151.—" How to train a New Falcon."— Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Manuscript 
 of " Livre du Boy Modus" (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 birds, as a present to Bajazet. The Sultan was so pleased with them that 
 he sent him back his son in exchange. 
 
 The "Livre du Boy Modus" gives the most minute and curious details 
 on the noble science of hawking. For instance, it tells us that the nobility 
 of the falcon was held in such respect that their utensils, trappings, or feeding 
 dishes were never used for other birds. The glove on which they were 
 accustomed to alight was frequently elaborately embroidered in gold, and 
 was never used except for birds of their own species. In the private establish- 
 ments the leather hoods, which were put on their heads to prevent them 
 seeing, were embroidered with gold arid pearls and surmounted with the 
 feathers of birds of paradise. Each bird wore on his legs two little bells 
 with his owner's crest upon them ; the noise made by these was very distinct, 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 203 
 
 and could be hoard even when the bird was too high in the air to be scon, for 
 they wore not made to sound in unison ; they generally came from Italy, Milan 
 especially being celebrated for their manufacture. Straps were also fastened 
 to the falcon's legs, by moans of which he was attached to the perch ; at the 
 end of tins strap was a brass or gold ring with the owner's name engraved 
 upon it. In the royal establishments each ring bore on one sale, "I belong 
 to the king," and on the other the name of the Grand Falconer. This was a 
 necessary precaution, for the birds frequently strayed, and, if captured, they 
 could thus be recognised and returned. The ownership of a falcon was con- 
 sidered sacred, and, by an ancient barbaric law, the stealer of a falcon was 
 
 Fi<*. 152.— Falconers.— Fac-simile fruni a Miniature in Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century, 
 which treats of the " Cour de Jaime, Koi de Majorque." 
 
 condemned to a very curious punishment. The unfortunate thief was obliged 
 to allow the falcon to eat six ounces of the flesh of his breast, unless he could 
 pay a heavy fine to the owner and another to the king. 
 
 A man thoroughly acquainted with the mode of training hawks was in 
 high esteem everywhere. If he was a freeman, the nobles outbid each other 
 as to who should secure his services; if he was a serf, his master kept him as a 
 rare treasure, only parted with him as a most magnificent present, or sold him 
 for a considerable sum. Like the clever huntsman, a good falconer (Fig. 150) 
 was bound to bo a man of varied information 011 natural history, the veterinary 
 art, and the chase ; but the profession generally ran in families, and the son 
 added his own experience to the lessons of his father. There were also special 
 schools of vencry and falconry, the most rcnov 
 royal household. 
 
 mod being of course in the 
 
 The office of Grand Falconer of Franco, the origin o 
 
 f which date:.; from 
 
20+ 
 
 HUNTING. 
 
 1250, was one of the highest in the kingdom. The Marechal do Flenranges 
 srys, in his curious " Memoirs" — "The Grand Falconer, whose salary is four 
 thousand florins" (the golden florin was worth then twelve or fifteen francs, 
 and this amount must represent upwards of eight)' thousand francs of present 
 currency), "has fifty gentlemen under him, the salary of each being from five 
 to six thousand livres. Tie has also fifty assistant-falconers at two hundred 
 livres each, all chosen by himself. His establishment consists of three hundred 
 birds ; he has the right to hunt wherever lie pleases in the kingdom ; he 
 levies a tax on all bird-dealers, who are forbidden, under penalty of the con- 
 fiscation of their stock, from selling a single bird in any town or at court 
 
 ^3^"^ SSII 4-# a™ -risr" ~F-- ■■■■ .A -'---^*p--"-... 
 
 
 
 5'Wl'Mh 
 
 Fig. 153. — " How to bathe a Xew Falcon." — Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Manuscript 
 of " Livre du Roy Modus " (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 without his sanction." The Grand Falconer was chief at all the hunts or 
 hawking meetings ; in public ceremonies he always appeared with the bird 
 on his wrist, as an emblem of his rank ; and the King, whilst hawking, could 
 not let loose his bird until after the Grand Falconer had slipped his. 
 
 Falconry, like venery, had a distinctive and professional vocabulary, 
 which it was necessary for every one who joined in hawking to understand, 
 unless he wished to lie looked upon as an ignorant yeoman. "Flying the 
 hawk is a royal pastime," says the Jesuit Claude Binet, "and it is to talk 
 royally to talk of the flight of birds. Every one speaks of it, but few speak 
 well. Many speak so ignorantly as to excite pitv among their hearers. 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 "5 
 
 Sometimes one says the hand of the bird instead of saying the talon, sometimes 
 the talon instead of the claw, sometimes the claw instead of the nail" &c. 
 
 The fourteenth century was tho great epoch of falconry. There were 
 then so many nobles who hawked, that in the rooms of inns there were 
 perches made under the large mantel-pieces on which to place the birds 
 while the sportsmen were at dinner. Histories of the period are full of 
 characteristic anecdotes, which prove the enthusiasm which was created by 
 hawking in those who devoted themselves to it. 
 
 Emperors and kings wore as keen as others for this kind of sport. As 
 earlv as the tenth century the Emperor Henry I. had acquired tho soubriquet 
 
 iifc 
 
 
 ^F~eT^- 
 
 1 f m 
 
 W£3m 
 
 Mm 
 
 'iti^rfyl 
 
 
 
 ■v-J?"/' 
 
 Fig. 154. — "How to make Young Hawks fly." — Fuc-simile of a. Miniature in the Manuscript 
 of " Livro da Boy Modus" (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 of "the Bird-catcher," from the fact of his giving much more attention to his 
 birds than to his subjects. His example was followed by one of his successors, 
 the Emperor Henry YE, who was reckoned the first falconer of his time. 
 When his father, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (Red-beard), died in 
 the Holy Band, in 1189, the Archdukes, Electors of the Empire, went out to 
 meet the prince so as to proclaim him Emperor of Germany. They found 
 him, surrounded by dogs, horses, and birds, ready to go hunting. " The 
 day is fine," he said ; " allow us to put off serious affairs until to-morrow." 
 
 Two centuries later we find at the court of France the same ardour for 
 hawking and the same admiration for tho performances of falcons. The Con- 
 stable Bertram! du Guesclin gave two hawks to King Charles YI. ; and the 
 
20b 
 
 HUNTING. 
 
 Count do Taiicarville, whilst witnessing a combat between these noble birds 
 and a crane which had been powerful enough to keep two greyhounds at bay, 
 exclaimed, " I would not give up the pleasure which I feel for a thousand 
 florins ! " 
 
 The court-poet, William Cretin, although he was Canon of the holy 
 chapel of Yincennes, was as passionately fond of hawking as his good 
 master Louis XLT. lie thus describes the pleasure he felt in seeing a heron 
 succumb to the vigorous attack of the falcons : — 
 
 1 Qui auroit la mort aux dents, 
 II revivroit d' avoir un tel passe-temps ! " 
 
 (" He who is about to die 
 
 AVould live again with such amusement.") 
 
 I Ijjl 
 
 wis 
 
 
 **\m 
 
 (1 I \i '¥h. -5J»- '■-" "" 
 
 ■f4'fV. 
 
 ;,",t.'!iiiU-^« 
 
 
 Fig. 155.— Lady setting out Hawking. — Fac-siinile of a Miniature in the Manuscript of 
 " Livre du Roy Modus " (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 At a hunting party given by Louis XII. to the Archduke Maximilian, 
 Mary of Burgundy, the Archduke's wife, was killed by a fall from her horse. 
 The King presented his best falcons to the Archduke with a view to divert his 
 mind and to turn his attention from the sad event, and one of the historians 
 tells us that the bereaved husband was soon consoled: "The partridges, 
 herons, wild ducks, and quails which he was enabled to take on his journey 
 home by means of the King's present, materially lessening his sorrow." 
 
 Falconry, after having been in much esteem for centuries, at last became 
 amenable to the same law which affects all great institutions, and, having 
 reached the height of its glory, it was destined to decay. Although the art 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 207 
 
 disappeared completely under Louis the Great, who only liked stag-hunting, 
 and who, by drawing all the nobility to court, disorganized country life, no 
 greater adept bad ever been known than King Louis XIII. 1 1 is first favourite 
 and Grand Falconer was Albert de Luyncs, whom lie nude prime minister 
 and constable. Even in the Tuileries gardens, on his way to mass at the 
 convent of the Feuillants, this prince amused himself by catching linnets 
 and wrens with noisy magpies trained to pursue small birds. 
 
 It was during this reign that some ingenious person discovered that the 
 words Loos treizieue, roy de France ei' de Navarre, exactly gave this 
 anagram, Roy tres-rake, estivie dieude la faticonnerie. It was also at this 
 time that Charles d'Arcussia, the last author who wrote a 
 technical work on falconry, after praising his majesty for de- 
 voting himself so thoroughly to the divine sport, compared 
 the King's birds to domestic angels, and the carnivorous 
 birds which they destroyed be likened to the devil. From 
 this he argued that the sport was like the angel Gabriel de- 
 stroying the demon Asmodeus. He also added, in his dedi- 
 cation to the King, "As the nature of angels is above that 
 of men, so is that of these birds above all other animals." 
 
 At that time certain religious, or rather superstitious 
 ceremonies were in use for blessing the water with which 
 the falcons were sprinkled before hunting, and supplica- 
 tions were addressed to the eagles that they might not 
 molest them. The following words were used : "I adjure 
 you, eagles ! by the true God, by the holy God, by 
 the most blessed Virgin Mary, by the nine orders of 
 angels, by the holy prophets, by the twelve apostles, &c 
 the field clear to our birds, and not to molest them : in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." It was at this time that, 
 in order to recover a lost bird, the Sire de la Brizardiere, a professional 
 necromancer, proposed beating the owner of the bird with birch-rods until 
 he bled, and of making a charm with the blood, which was reckoned infallible. 
 
 Elzear Blaze expressed his astonishment that the ladies should not have 
 used their influence to prevent falconry from falling into disuse. The chase, 
 he considered, gave them an active part in an interesting and animated 
 scene, which only required easy and graceful movements on their part, and 
 
 Fig. 156.— Dress of 
 the Falconer (Thir- 
 teenth Century). — 
 Sculpture of the 
 Cathedral of Rouen. 
 
 .... to leave 
 
20S 
 
 HUNTING. 
 
 to which no danger was attached. " The ladies knowing," he says, "how to 
 fly a bird, how to call him hack, and how to encourage him with their voice, 
 bein!? familiar with him from having continually carried him on their wrist, 
 
 
 Fig. 1.57. — Diseases of I logs and their Cure. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Manuscript 
 of Phcrbus (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 and often even from having broken him in themselves, the honour of hunting 
 belongs to them by right. Besides, it brings out to advantage their grace 
 and dexterity as they gallop amongst the sportsmen, followed by their pages 
 and varlets and a whole herd of horses and dugs." 
 
HUNTIA'G. 
 
 209 
 
 The question of precedence and of superiority had, at every period, been 
 pretty evenly balanced between venery and falconry, each having ils own 
 staunch supporters. Thus, in the " Livredu Roy Modus," two ladies contend 
 in verse (tor the subject was considered too exalted to be treated of in simple 
 prose), the one for the superiority of the birds, the other for the superiority of 
 dogs. Their controversy is at length terminated by a celebrated huntsman and 
 falconer, who decides in favour of venery, for the somewhat remarkable reason 
 that those who pursue it enjoy oral and ocular pleasure at the same t ime. In an 
 ancient treatise by Gace de la Vigne, in which the same question occupies no 
 
 Fig. 158.— German Falconer, designed and engraved, in the Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman. 
 
 fewer than ten thousand verses, the King (unnamed) ends the dispute by order- 
 ing that in future they shall be termed pleasures of dugs and pleasures of birds, 
 so that there may be no superiority on one side or tin' other (Fig. 160). The 
 court-poet, William Cretin, who was in great renown during the reigns ol 
 Louis XII. and Francis I., having asked two ladies to discuss the same subject 
 in verse, does not hesitate, on the contrary, to place falconry above venery. 
 
 It may fairly be asserted that venery and falconry have taken a position 
 of some importance in history ; and in support of this theory it will suffice to 
 mention a few facts borrowed from the annals of the chase. 
 
 E E 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 The King of Navarre, Charles the Bad, had sworn to be faithful to the 
 alliance made between himself and King Edward III. of England ; but the 
 English troops having been beaten by I)u Gruesclin, Charles saw that it 
 was to his advantage to turn to the side of the King of France. In order 
 not to appear to break his oath, he managed to be taken prisoner by the 
 French whilst out hunting, and thus he sacrificed his honour to his personal 
 interests. It was also due to a hunting party that Henry III., another King 
 of Navarre, who was afterwards Henry IV., escaped from Paris, on the 
 
 •'£ 
 
 
 
 Fig. 159.— Heron-hawking.— Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Manuscript of the " Livre 
 du Roy Modus " (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 3rd February, 1570, and fled to Senlis, where his friends of the Reformed 
 religion came to join him. 
 
 Hunting formed a principal entertainment when public festivals were cele- 
 brated, and it was frequently accompanied with great magnificence. At the 
 entry of Isabel of Bavaria into Paris, a sort of stag hunt was performed, when 
 " the streets," according to a popular story of the time, " were full to profu- 
 sion of hares, rabbits, and goslings." Again, at the solemn entry of Louis XL 
 into Paris, a representation of a doe hunt took place near the fountain St. 
 
HUXTIXG. 
 
 Innocent; " after which the queen received a present of a magnificent sta", 
 made of confectionery, and having (lie myal arms hung round its neck." At 
 the memorable festival given at Lille, in 1458, by flic Duke of Burgundy, a 
 very curious performance took place. "At one end of the table," says the 
 historian Mathieu de Coucy, " a heron was started, which was hunted as it 
 by falconers and sportsmen ; and presently from the other end of the table a 
 falcon was slipped, which hovered over the heron. In a lew minutes another 
 falcon was started from the other side of the table, which attacked the heron 
 so fiercely that he brought him down in the middle of the hall. After the 
 
 
 Fig. 160.— Sport with Dogs.— " How the Wild Boar is hunted by means of Dogs."— Fac-simile of 
 a Miniature in the Manuscript of the " Livre du Roy Modus " (Fourteenth ( 'entury). 
 
 performance was over and the heron was killed, it was served up at the 
 dinner-table." 
 
 We shall conclude this chapter with a few words on bird-fowling, a, kind 
 of sport which was almost disdained in the Middle Ages. The anonymous 
 author of the " Livre du Roy Modus," called it, in the fourteenth century, 
 the pastime of the poor, "because the poor, who can neither keep hounds nor 
 falcons to hunt or to fly, take much pleasure in it, particularly as it serves at 
 the same time as a means of subsistence to many of them." 
 
 In this book, which was for a. long time the authority in matters of 
 sport generally, we find that nearly all the methods and contrivances now 
 employed for bird-fowling were known and in use in the Middle Ages, in 
 addition to some which have since fallen into disuse. We accordingly read 
 in the "Roy Modus " a description of the drag-net, the mirror, the screech-owl. 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 the bird-pipe (Fig. 161), the traps, the springs, &c, the use of all of which 
 is now well understood. At that time, when falcons were so much required, 
 it was necessary that people should be employed to catch them when voune- ■ 
 and the author of this book speaks of nets of various sorts, and the pronged 
 piece of wood in the middle of which a screech-owl or some other bird was 
 placed in order to attract the falcons (Fig. 162). 
 
 Two methods were in use in those days for catching the woodcock and 
 pheasant, which deserve to be mentioned. "The pheasants," says "Kino- 
 Modus," "are of such a nature that the male bird cannot bear the company 
 of another." Taking advantage of this weakness, the plan of placing a 
 
 Fig. 161.— Bird-pipmg.— "The manner of catching Birds by piping."— Fac-simile of Miniature 
 in the Manuscript of the " Livrc du Hoy Modus " (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 mirror, which balanced a sort of wicker cage or coop, was adopted. The 
 pheasant, thinking he saw his fellow, attacked him, struck against the glass 
 and brought down the coop, in which he had leisure to reflect on his 
 jealousy (Fig. 163). 
 
 Woodcocks, which are, says the author, "the most silly birds," were 
 caught in this way. The bird-fowler was covered from head to foot with 
 clothes of the colour of dead leaves, only having two little holes for his eyes. 
 When he saw one he knelt down noiselessly, and supported his arms on two 
 sticks, so as to keep perfectly still. When the bird was not looking towards 
 him he cautiously approached it on his knees, holding in his hands two little 
 dry sticks covered with red cloth, which he gently waved so as to divert the 
 
HUiXTIXG. 
 
 213 
 
 bird's attention from himself. In this way ho gradually got near enough to 
 pass a noose, which he kept ready at the end of a stick, round the bird's 
 neek (Fig. 164). 
 
 However ingenious these tricks may appear, they are eclipsed bv one we 
 find recorded in the " Ixeutieon," a Aery elegant Latin poem, by Angelis de 
 Barga, written two centuries later. In order to catch a large number of star- 
 lings, this author assures us, it is only necessary to have two or three in a 
 cage, and, when a flight of these birds is seen passing, to liberate them with 
 a very long- twine attached to their claws. The twine must be covered with 
 
 Kg. 162 — Bird-catching with ;i Machine like a Long Arm. — Fac-simile of Miniature in the 
 Manuscript of the " Livre du Roy Modus" (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 bird-lime, and, as the released birds instantly join their friends, all those they 
 come near get glued to the twine and fall together to the ground. 
 
 As at the present time, the object of bird-fowling was twofold, namely, 
 to procure game for food and to capture birds to be kept either for their voice 
 or for fancy as pets. The trade in the latter was so important, at least in 
 Paris, that the bird-catchers formed a. numerous corporation having its 
 statutes and privileges. 
 
 The Pont au Change (then covered on each side with houses and shops 
 occupied by goldsmiths and money-changers) was the place where these 
 
2I + 
 
 HUNTING. 
 
 people carried on their trade ; and they had the privilege of hanging their 
 cages against the houses, even without the sanction of the proprietors. This 
 curious right was granted to them by Charles VI. in 1402, in return for 
 which they were bound to " provide four hundred birds " whenever a king 
 was crowned, " and an equal number when the queen made her first entry 
 into her good town of Paris." The goldsmiths and money-changers, how- 
 ever, finding that this became a. nuisance, and that it injured their trade, 
 tried to get it abolished. They applied to the authorities to protect their 
 
 Fig. 163. — Pheasant Fowling. — '• Showing how to catch Pheasants." — Fac-simile of a Miniature 
 in the Manuscript of the " Livre du Hoy Modus " (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 rights, urging that the approaches to their shops, the rents of which they 
 paid regularly, were continually obstructed by a crowd of purchasers and 
 dealers in birds. The case was brought several times before parliament, which 
 only confirmed the orders of the kings of France and the ancient privi- 
 leges of the bird-catchers. At the end of the sixteenth century the quarrel 
 became so bitter that the goldsmiths and changers took to "throwing down 
 the cages and birds and trampling them under foot," and even assaulted and 
 openly ill-treated the poor bird-dealers. But a decree of parliament again 
 justified the sale of birds on the Pont au Change, by condemning the ring- 
 
HUNTING. 
 
 2 '5 
 
 leader, Pierre Filacier, the muster goldsmith who had commenced the pro- 
 ceedings against the bird-catchers, to pay a double fine, namely, twenty 
 crowns to the plaintiffs and ten to the King. 
 
 It is satisfactory to observe that at that period measures were taken to 
 preserve nests and to prevent bird-fowling from the 15th of March to the 
 15th of August. Besides this, it was necessary to have an express per- 
 mission from the King himself to give persons the right of catching birds 
 on the King's domains. Before any one could sell birds it was required for 
 him to have been received as a master bird-catcher. The recognised bird- 
 catchers, therefore, bad no opponents except dealers from other countries, who 
 
 /' ^ifn^w^ 
 
 y e 
 
 Fig. 164.— The Mode of catching a Woodcock.— Fae-simile of a Miniature in the Manuscript 
 of the " Livre du Roy Modus " (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 brought canary-birds, parrots, and other foreign specimens into Paris. These 
 dealers were, however, obliged to conform to strict rules. They were required 
 on their arrival to exhibit their birds from ten to twelve o'clock on the 
 marble stone in the palace yard on the days when parliament sat, in order 
 that the masters and governors of the King's aviary, and, after them, the 
 presidents and councillors, might have the first choice before other people 
 of anything they wished to buy. They were, besides, bound to part the 
 male and female birds in separate cages with tickets on them, so that pur- 
 chasers might not be deceived ; and, in ease of dispute on this point, some 
 sworn inspectors were appointed as arbitrators. 
 
:i6 
 
 HUNTING. 
 
 ISo doubt, emboldened by the victory which they hud achieved over the 
 goldsmiths of the Pont au Change, the bird-dealers of Paris attempted to 
 forbid any bourgeois of the town from breeding canaries or any sort of eao-e 
 birds. The bourgeois resented this, and brought their case before the 
 Marshals of France. They urged that it was easy for them to breed 
 canaries, and it was also a pleasure for their wives and daughters to teach 
 them, whereas those bought on the Pont au Change were old and difficult to 
 educate. This appeal was favourably received, and an order from the 
 tribunal of the Marshals of France permitted the bourgeois to breed canaries 
 but it forbade the sale of them, which it was considered would interfere with 
 the trade of the master- fowlers of. the town, faubourgs, and suburbs of Paris. 
 
 Fig. 165.— Powder-horn.— Work of the Sixteenth Century (Artillery Museum of Brussels). 
 
GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 Games of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. — Games of the Circus. — Animal < iombats. — Paring of 
 Kins; Pepin. — The King's Lions. — 1 Hind Men's Fights — Cockneys of Paris. — Champ de 
 Mars. — Corns Pleniercs and Cours Couronuees. — Jugglers, Tumblors, and Minstrels. — Rope- 
 dancers. — Fireworks. — Gymnastics. — Cards and Dice.— Chess, Marbles, and Billiards. — 
 Fa Soule, La Pirouette, kc— Small Games for Private Society.— History of Dancing.— Ballet 
 des Ai'dents. — The " Orchesogranbie " (Art of Dancing) of Thoinot Arboau. — List of Dances. 
 
 IaIIP 
 
 EOPLE of all countries and at all 
 periods have been fond of public 
 amusements, and have indulged in 
 games and pastimes with a view to 
 make time pass agreeably. These 
 amusements have continually varied, 
 according to the character of each 
 nation, and according to the capri- 
 cious changes of fashion. Since the 
 learned antiquarian, J. Meursius, has 
 devoted a large volume to describing 
 the games of the ancient Greeks ("De Ludis Graseorum"), and Rabelais has 
 collected a list of two hundred and twenty games which were in fashion at 
 different times at the court of his gay master, it will be easily understood 
 that a description of all the games and pastimes which have ever been in use 
 by different nations, and particularly by the French, would form an encyclo- 
 paedia of some size. 
 
 TTe shall give a rapid sketch of the different kinds of games and pastimes 
 which were most in fashion during the Middle Ages and to the end of the 
 sixteenth century — omitting, however, the religious festivals, which belong to 
 a different category ; the public festivals, which will come under the chapter 
 on Ceremonials ; the tournaments and tilting matches and other sports of 
 warriors, which belong to Chivalry; and, lastly, the scenic and literary 
 representations, which specially belong to the history of the stage. 
 
 V 1' 
 
2 ,8 GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 We shall, therefore, limit ourselves hero to giving in a condensed form a 
 few historical details of certain court amusements, and a short description of 
 the sanies of skill and of chance, and also of dancing. 
 
 The Romans, especially during the times of the emperors, had a passionate 
 love for performances in the circus and amphitheatre, as well as for chariot 
 races, horse races, foot races, combats of animals, and feats of strength and 
 ability. The daily life of the Roman people may he summed up as consisting 
 of taking their food and enjoying games in the circus (panem et circenses). A 
 taste for similar amusements was common to the Gauls as well as to the whole 
 Roman Empire ; and, were historians silent on the subject, we need no further 
 information than that which is to be gathered from the ruins of the numerous 
 amphitheatres, which are to be found at every centre of Roman occupation. 
 The circus disappeared on the establishment of the Christian religion, for the 
 bishops condemned it as a profane and sanguinary vestige of Paganism, and, 
 no doubt, this led to the cessation of combats between man and beast. They 
 continued, however, to pit wild or savage animals against one another, and 
 to train dogs to fight with lions, tigers, bears, and bulls ; otherwise it woidd 
 be difficult to explain the restoration by King Chilperic (a.d. 577) of the 
 circuses and arenas at Paris and Soissons. The remains of one of these 
 circuses was not long ago discovered in Paris whilst they were engaged in 
 laying the foundations for a new street, on the west side of the hill of 
 St. Genevieve, a short distance from the old palace of the Caesars, known 
 by the name of the Thermes of Julian. 
 
 Gregory of Tours states that Chilperic revived the ancient games of the 
 circus, but that Gaul had ceased to be famous for good athletes and race- 
 horses, although animal combats continued to take place for the amusement 
 of the kings. One day King Pepin halted, with the principal officers of his 
 army, at the Abbey of Ferrieres, and witnessed a fight between a lion and a 
 bull. The bvdl was of enormous size and extraordinary strength, but never- 
 theless the lion overcame him ; whereupon Pepin, who was surnamed the 
 Short, turned to his officers, who used to joke him about his short stature, 
 and said to them, "Slake the lion loose his hold of the bull, or kill him." No 
 one dared to undertake so perilous a task, and some said aloud that the man 
 who would measure his strength with a lion must be mad. Upon this, Pepin 
 sprang into the arena sword in hand, and with two blows cut off the heads of 
 the lion and the bull. "What do you think of that?" he said to his 
 
GAJIES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 2 1 g 
 
 astonished officers. "Am I not fit to be your master? Size cannot compare 
 with courage. Remember what little David did to the Giant Goliath." 
 
 Eight hundred years later there were occasional animal combats at the 
 court of Francis I. "A fine lady," says Brantome, " went to see the Kino's 
 lions, in company with a gentleman who much admired her. She suddenly 
 let her glove drop, and it fell into the lions' den. ' T beg of you,' she said, in 
 the calmest way, to her admirer, 'to go amongst the lions and bring me back 
 my glove.' The gentleman made no remark, but, without even drawing his 
 sword, went into the den and gave himself up silently to death to please the 
 lady. The lions did not move, and he was aide to leave their den without a 
 scratch and return the lady her missing glove. ' Here is your glove, madam,' 
 he coldly said to her who evidently valued his life at so small a price; 'see 
 if you can find any one else who would do the same as I have done for you.' 
 So saying he left her, and never afterwards looked at or even spoke to her." 
 
 It has been imagined that the kings of France onl)^ kept lions as living 
 symbols of royalty. In 1333 Philippe de Valois bought a barn in the Hue 
 Froidmantel, near the Chateau du Louvre, where he established a menagerie 
 for his lions, bears, leopards, and other wild beasts. This royal menagerie 
 still existed in the reigns of Charles VIII. and Francis I. Charles V. an 1 
 his successors had an establishment of lions in the quadrangle of the Grand 
 Hotel de St. Paul, on the very spot which was subsequently the site of the 
 Rue des Lions St. Paul. 
 
 These wild beasts were sometimes employed in the combats, and were 
 pitted against bulls and dogs in the presence of the King and his court. It 
 was after one of these combats that Charles IX., excited by the sanguinary 
 spectacle, wished to enter the arena alone in order to attack a lion which had 
 torn some of his best dogs to pieces, and it was only with great difficulty that 
 the audacious sovereign was dissuaded from his foolish purpose. Henry III. 
 had no disposition to imitate his brother's example; for dreaming one night 
 that his lions were devouring him, he had them all killed the next day. 
 
 The love for hunting wild animals, such as the wolf, bear, and boar (see 
 chapter on Hunting), from an early date took the place of the animal combats 
 as far as the court and the nobles were concerned. The people were there- 
 fore deprived of the spectacle of the combats which had had so much charm 
 for them ; and as they could not resort to the alternative of the chase, they 
 treated themselves to a feeble imitation of the games of the circus in such 
 
GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 amusements as setting dogs to worry old horses or donkeys, &c. (Fig. 166). 
 Bull-fights, nevertheless, continued in the southern provinces of France, as 
 also in Spain. 
 
 At village feasts not only did wrestling matches take place, but also queer 
 kinds of combats with sticks or birch boughs. Two men, blindfolded, each 
 armed with a stick, and holding in his hand a rope fastened to a stake 
 entered the arena, and went round and round tiding to strike at a fat goose 
 or a pig which was also let loose with them. It can easily be imagined that 
 the greater number of the blows fell like hail on one or other of the principal 
 actors in this blind combat, amidst shouts of laughter from the spectators. 
 
 Nothing amused our ancestors more than these blind encounters ; even 
 
 Fig'. 16G. — Fight between a Horse and Dogs. — Fac-simile of a Manuscript in the British 
 Museum (Thirteenth Century). 
 
 kings took part at these burlesque representations. At Mid-Lent annually 
 they attended with their court at the Quinze-Vingts, in Paris, in order to see 
 blindfold persons, armed from head to foot, fighting with a lance or stick. 
 This amusement was quite sufficient to attract all Paris. In 1425, on the 
 last day of August, the inhabitants of the capital crowded their windows to 
 witness the procession of four blind men, clothed in full armour, like knights 
 going to a tournament, and preceded by two men, one playing the hautbois 
 and the other bearing a banner on which a pig was painted. These four 
 champions on the next day attacked a pig, which was to become the property 
 of the one who killed it. The lists were situated in the court of the Hotel 
 d'Armagnac, the present site of the Palais Royal. A great crowd attended 
 the encounter. The blind men, armed with all sorts of weapons, belaboured 
 each other so furiously that the game would have ended fatally to one or 
 
GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 22 I 
 
 more of them had they not heen separated and made to divide the pig which 
 they had all so well earned. 
 
 The people of the Middle Ages had an insatiable love of sio-ht-seeino- ■ 
 they came great distances, from all parts, to witness any amusing' exhibition. 
 They woidd suffer any amount of privation or fatigue to indulge this feeling 
 
 Fig. 167. — Merchants and Lion-keepers at Constantinople. — Fac-simile of an Engraving on Wood 
 from the " Cosmographie Universelle" of Thevet: folio, 1575. 
 
 and they gave themselves up to it, so heartily that it became a solace to 
 them in their greatest sorrows, and they laughed with that hearty laugh 
 which may be said to be one of their natural characteristics. In all public 
 processions in the open air the crowd (or rather, as we might say, the 
 Cockneys of Paris), in their anxiety to see everything that was to be seen, 
 would frequently obstruct all the public avenues, and so prevent the proces- 
 sion from passing along. In consequence of this the Provosts of Paris on 
 
GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 these occasions distributed hundreds of stout sticks amongst the sergeants 
 who used them freely on the shoulders of the most obstinate sight-seers (see 
 chapter on Ceremonials). There was no religious procession, no parish fair 
 no municipal feast, and no parade or review of troops, which did not brino- 
 together crowds of people, whose ears and eyes were wide open, if only to 
 hear the sound of the trumpet, or to see a "dog rush past with a frying-pan 
 tied to his tail." 
 
 ... '--^r 
 
 
 Fig. 168.— Free Distribution of Bread, Meat, and Wine to the People.— Reduced Copy of a 
 Woodcut of the Solemn Entry of Charles V. and Pope Clement VII. into Bologna, in 1530. 
 
 This curiosity of the French was particularly exhibited when the kings 
 of the first royal dynasty held their Champs tie Mars, the kings of the second 
 dynasty their Corns Plenieres, and the kings of the third dynasty their Cours 
 Couronnees. In these assemblies, where the King gathered together all his 
 principal vassals once or twice a year, to hold personal communication 
 with them, and to strengthen his power by ensuring their feudal services, 
 large quantities of food and fermented liquors were publicly distributed 
 among the people (Fig. 168). The populace were always most enthusiastic 
 spectators of military displays, of court ceremonies, and, above all, of the 
 various amusements which royalty provided for them at great cost in those 
 
(1AM KS AND PASTIMES. 
 
 22 3 
 
 days: and it was on these slate occasions that jugglers, tumblers, and 
 minstrels displayed their talents. The Champ dc Mars was one of the prin- 
 cipal fetes of the year, and was held sometimes in the centre of sumo large 
 town, sometimes in a royal domain, and sometimes in the open country. 
 Bishop Gregory of Tours describes one which was given in his diocese during 
 the reign of Chilperie, at the Easter festivals, at which we may he sure that 
 the games of the circus, re-established by Chilperie, excited the greatest 
 interest. Charlemagne also held Champs dc Mars, but called them Cours 
 Royales, at which he appeared dressed in cloth of gold studded all over with 
 pearls and precious stones. Under the third dynasty King Robert celebrated 
 
 Fig. 169. — Feats in Balancing. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in a Manuscript in the Bodleian 
 Library at Oxford (Thirteenth Century). 
 
 court days with the same magnificence, and the people were admitted to the 
 palace during the royal banquet to witness the King sitting amongst his great 
 officers of state. The Cours Plenieres, which were always held at Christmas, 
 Twelfth-day, Easter, and on the day of Pentecost, were not less brilliant 
 during the reigns of Robert's successors. Louis IX. himself, notwithstanding 
 his natural shyness and his taste for simplicity, was noted for the display he 
 made on state occasions. In 1-300, Philippe de Valois wore his crown at the 
 Cours Plenieres, and from that time they were called Cours Couronnecs. The 
 kings of jugglers were the privileged performers, and their feats and the 
 other amusements, which continued on each occasion for several days, were 
 provided for at the sovereign's sole expense. 
 
 These kings of jugglers exercised a supreme authority over the art of 
 jugglery and over all the members of this jovial fraternity. It must not 
 be imagined that these jugglers merely recited snatches from tales and 
 
224 
 
 GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 fables in rhyme ; this was the least of their talents. The cleverest of them 
 played all sorts of musical instruments, sung songs, and repeated by heart 
 a multitude of stories, after the example of their reputed forefather, 
 King Borgabcd, or Bedabie, who, according to these troubadours, was 
 King of Great Britain at the time that Alexander the Great was Kino- of 
 Macedonia. The jugglers of a lower order especially excelled in tumbling 
 and in tricks of legerdemain (Figs. 169 and 170). They threw wonderful 
 somersaults, they leaped through hoops placed at certain distances from one 
 another, they played with knives, slings, baskets, brass balls, and earthen- 
 ware plates, and they walked on their hands with their feet in the air or with 
 their heads turned downwards so as to look through their legs backwards. 
 These acrobatic feats were even practised by women. Accordino- to a legend 
 the daughter of Herodias was a renowned acrobat, and on a bas-relief in the 
 
 Fig. 170.— Sword-dance to the sound of the Bagpipe.— Fac-simile of a Manuscript in the 
 British Museum (Fourteenth Century). 
 
 Cathedral of Eouen we find this Jewish dancer turning somersaults before 
 Herod, so as to fascinate him, and thus obtain the decapitation of John the 
 Baptist, 
 
 "The jugglers," adds M. de Labedolliere, in his clever work on "The 
 Private Life of the French," " often led about bears, monkeys, and other 
 animals, which they taught to dance or to fight (Figs. 171 and 172). A 
 manuscript in the National Library represents a banquet, and around the 
 table, so as to amuse the guests, performances of animals are going on, such 
 as monkeys riding on horseback, a bear feigning to be dead, a goat playing 
 the harp, and dogs walking on their hind legs." We find the same grotesque 
 
GAMES AXE PASTIMES. 
 
 22.S 
 
 figures on sculptures, on the capitals of churches, 011 the illuminated margins 
 of manuscripts of theology, and on prayer-hooks, which seems to indicate that 
 jugglers were the associates of painters and illuminators, even if they them- 
 selves were not the writers and illuminators of the manuscripts. "Jugglery," 
 M. de Lahedolliere goes on to say, "at that time embraced poetry, music, 
 dancing, sleight of hand, conjuring, wrestling, boxing, and the training of 
 animals. Its humblest practitioners were the mimics or grimacers, in many- 
 coloured garments, and brazen-faced mountebanks, who provoked laughter at 
 the expense of decency." 
 
 At first, and down to the thirteenth century, the profession of a juggler 
 was a most lucrative one. There was no public or private feast of any 
 importance without the profession being represented. Their mimicry and 
 
 Fig. 171.— Jugglers exhibiting Monkeys and Bears.— Far-simile of a Manuscript in the 
 British Museum (Thirteenth Century). 
 
 acrobatic feats were less thought of than their long poems or lays of wars and 
 adventures, which they recited in doggerel rhyme to the accompaniment of a 
 stringed instrument. The doors of the chateaux were always open to them, 
 and they had a place assigned to them at all feasts. They were the principal 
 attraction at the Cows Pkniere.% and, according to the testimony of one of 
 their poets, they frequently retired from business loaded with presents, such 
 as riding-horses, carriage-horses, jewels, cloaks, fur robes, clothing of violet 
 or scarlet cloth, and, above all, with large sums of money. They loved to 
 recall with pride the heroic memory of one of their own calling, the brave 
 Norman, Taillefer, who, before the battle of Hastings, advanced alone on 
 horseback between the two armies about to commence the engagement, and 
 drew off the attention of the English by singing them the song of Roland. 
 
 1; <; 
 
lib 
 
 GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 He then beo-an juggling, and taking his lance by the hilt, he threw it into 
 the air and caught it by the point as it fell ; then, drawing his sword, he 
 spun it several times over his head, and caught it in a similar way as it fell. 
 After these skilful exercises, during which the enemy were gaping in mute 
 astonishment, he forced Lis charger through the English ranks, and caused 
 great havoc before he fell, positively riddled with wounds. 
 
 Notwithstanding this noble instance, not to belie the old proverb, jugglers 
 were never received into the order of knighthood. They were, after a time, 
 as much abused as they had before been extolled. Their licentious lives 
 reflected itself in their obscene language. Their pantomimes, like their 
 songs, showed that they were the votaries of the lowest vices. The lower 
 
 Fig. 172. — Equestrian Performances. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in an English Manuscript 
 of the Thirteenth Century. 
 
 orders laughed at their coarseness, and were amused at their juggleries ; but 
 the nobility were disgusted with them, and they were absolutely excluded 
 from the presence of ladies and girls in the chateaux and houses of the 
 bourgeoisie. We see in the tale of " Le Jugleor " that they acquired ill 
 fame everywhere, inasmuch as they were addicted to every sort of vice. The 
 clergy, and St. Bernard especially, denounced them and held them up to 
 public contempt. St. Bernard spoke thus of them in one of his sermons 
 written in the middle of the twelfth century : " A man fond of jugglers will 
 soon enough possess a wife whose name is Poverty. If it happens that the 
 tricks of jugglers are forced upon your notice, endeavour to avoid them, and 
 think of other things. The tricks of jugglers never please God." 
 
 From this remark we may understand their fall as well as the disrepute 
 
GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 2.2 7 
 
 in which they were held at that time, and we are not surprised to find in an 
 old edition of the " Memoires du Sire de Joinvillo " this passage, which is, 
 perhaps, an interpolation from a contemporary document: "St. Louis drove 
 from his kingdom all tumblers and players of sleight of hand, through whom 
 many evil habits and tastes had become engendered in the people." A 
 troubadour's story of this period shows that the jugglers wandered about the 
 country with their trained animals nearly starved ; they were half naked, 
 and were often without anything on their heads, without coats, without shoes, 
 and always without money. The lower orders welcomed them, and eon- 
 
 Fig. 173. — Jugglers performing in public. — From a Jlii 
 Loherane " (Thirteenth Century). —Libra 
 
 e of the Man in 
 the Arsenal, P. 
 
 nt of " < ruarin de 
 
 tinued to admire and idolize them for their clover tricks (Fig. 173), but the 
 bourgeois class, following the example of the nobility, turned their backs 
 upon them. In 1-345 Guillaume de Gourmont, Provost of Paris, forbad their 
 singing or relating obscene stories, under penalty of hue and imprisonment. 
 Having been associated together as a confraternity since 1331, they lived 
 huddled together in one street of Paris, which took the name of llm ilea 
 Jongleurs. It was at this period that the Church and Hospital of St. Julian 
 were founded through the exertions of Jacques Goure, a native of Pistoia, 
 and of Huet lc Lorrain, who were both jugglers. The newly-formed brother- 
 hood at once undertook to subscribe to this good work, and each member did 
 
22S 
 
 GAMES AA'IJ PASTIMES. 
 
 so according to his means. Their aid to the cost of the two buildings was 
 sixty livres, and they wore both erected in the Rue St. Martin, and placed 
 under the protection of St. Julian the Martyr. The chapel was consecrated 
 on the last Sunday in September, 1335, and on the front of it there were 
 three figures, one representing a troubadour, one a minstrel, and one a 
 juggler, each with his various instruments. 
 
 The bad repute into which jugglers had fallen did not prevent the kino-s 
 of France from attaching buffoons, or fools, as they were generally called to 
 their households, who were often more or less deformed dwarf's, and who, 
 to all intents and purposes, were jugglers. They were allowed to indulge in 
 every sort of impertinence and waggery in order to excite the risibility of 
 
 Fiy. 174.— Dance of Fools.— Fae-simile of a Miniature in Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century, 
 in the Bodleian Library of Oxford. 
 
 their masters (Figs. 174 and 170). These buffoons or fools were an insti- 
 tution at court until the time of Louis XIV., and several, such as Caillette, 
 Triboulet, and Brusquet, arc better known in history than many of the 
 statesmen and soldiers who were their contemporaries. 
 
 At the end of the fourteenth century the brotherhood of jugglers divided 
 itself into two distinct classes, the jugglers proper and the tumblers. The 
 former continued to recite serious or amusing poetry, to sing love-songs, to 
 play comic interludes, either singly or in concert, in the streets or in the 
 houses, accompanying themselves or being accompanied by all sorts of 
 musical instruments. The tumblers, on the other hand, devoted themselves 
 exclusively to feats of agility or of skill, the exhibition of trained animals, 
 the making of comic grimaces, and tight-rope dancing. 
 
A COURT-FOOL, OF W CKNTUHY. 
 Fac-simileofa miniature from a ms. in the Bihl. <lo J'Arsenal, Tli. !at., n" I2fi. 
 
GA 31 ES A ND P. I A 7 7MES. 
 
 22Q 
 
 The art of rope-dancing is very ancient ; it was patronised by the Franks, 
 who looked upon it as a marvellous effort of human genius. The mosf 
 remarkable rope-dancers of that time were of Indian origin. All performers 
 in this art came originally from the East, although they afterwards trained 
 pupils in the countries through which thov passed, recruiting themselves 
 chiefly from the mixed tribe of jugglers. According to a document quoted 
 bv the learned Foneemagne, rope-dancers appeared as early as 1327 at the 
 entertainments given at state banquets by the kings of France. But, lent;' 
 before that time they are mentioned in the poems of troubadours as the 
 necessary auxiliaries of any feast given by the nobility, or even by the 
 
 Fig. 17o.— Court Fool.— F.tc-similo of a. Woodcut in the " CusmograpMc Universale " of 
 Minister: folio (Busle, 1.532). 
 
 monasteries. From the fourteenth to the end of the sixteenth century they 
 were never absent from any public ceremonial, and it was at the state entries 
 of kings and queens, princes and princesses, that they were especially called 
 upon to display their talents. 
 
 One of the most extraordinary examples of the daring of these tumblers 
 is to be found in the records of the entry of Queen Isabel of Bavaria into 
 Paris, in 1385 (see chapter on Ceremonials); and, indeed, all the chronicles 
 of the fifteenth century are full of anecdotes of their doings. Mathicu de 
 Coucy, who wrote a history of the time of Charles VII., relates some very 
 curious details respecting a show which took place at Milan, and which 
 
230 GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 astonished the whole of Europe : — " The Duke of Milan ordered a rope to be 
 stretched across his palace, about one hundred and fifty feet from the ground, 
 and of equal length. On to this a Portuguese mounted, walked straight 
 alono-, o-oino' backwards and forwards, and dancing to the sound of the 
 tambourine. lie also hung from the rope with his head downwards, and 
 went through all sorts of tricks. The ladies who were looking on could not 
 help hiding their eyes in their handkerchiefs, from fear lest they should see 
 him overbalance and fall and kill himself." The chronicler of Charles XII., 
 Jean d'Arton, tells us of a not less remarkable feat, performed on the 
 occasion of the obsequies of Duke Pierre de Bourbon, which were celebrated 
 at Moulins, in the month of October, 1008, in the presence of the king and 
 the court. "Amongst other performances was that of a German tight-rope 
 dancer, named Georges Menustre, a very young man, who had a thick rope 
 stretched across from the highest part of the tower of the Castle of Macon to 
 the windows of the steeple of the Church of the Jacobites. The height of 
 this from the ground was twenty-rive fathoms, and the distance from the 
 castle to the steeple some two hundred and fifty paces. On two evenings in 
 succession lie walked along this rojie, and on the second occasion when he 
 started from the tower of the castle his feat was witnessed by the king and 
 upwards of thirty thousand persons. He performed all sorts of graceful tricks, 
 such as (lancing grotesque dances to music and hanging to the rope by his 
 feet and by his teeth. Although so strange and marvellous, these feats were 
 nevertheless actually performed, unless human sight had been deceived by 
 magic. A female dancer also performed in a novel way, cutting capers, 
 throwing somersaults, and performing graceful Moorish and other remarkable 
 and peculiar dances." Such was their manner of celebrating a funeral. 
 
 In the sixteenth century these dancers and tumblers became so numerous 
 that they were to lie met with everywhere, in the pjrovinces as well as in the 
 towns. Many of them were Bohemians or Zingari. They travelled in 
 companies, sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback, and sometimes with 
 some sort of a conveyance containing the accessories of their craft and a 
 travelling theatre. But people began to tire of these sorts of entertainments, 
 the more so as they were required to pay for them, and they naturally 
 preferred the public rejoicings, which cost them nothing. They were par- 
 ticularly fond of illuminations and fireworks, which are of much later origin 
 than the invention of gunpowder ; although the Saracens, at the time of the 
 
GAMES AND PASTLlfES. 
 
 231 
 
 Crusades, used a Greek tire for illuminations, which considerably alarmed 
 the Crusaders when they first witnessed its effects. Regular fireworks 
 
 WW 
 
 
 
 »y 
 
 L^ti^wi/- 1 ^ ' 
 
 
 immwm 
 
 Fig. 170.— Fireworks on the Water, with an Imitation of a Naval ( lomhat— Fac-simile ..1 
 an Engraving on Copper of the " Pyrotechnie " of Hanzclet le Lorrain : 4to (Pont-a- 
 Mousson, 1630). 
 
 appear to have been invented in Italy, where the pyrotechnic art lias retained 
 its superiority to this day, and where the inhabitants are as enthusiastic as 
 
232 GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 ever for this sort of amusement, and consider it, in fact, inseparable from 
 every religious, private, or public festival. This Italian invention was first 
 introduced into the Low Countries by the (Spaniards, where it found many 
 admirers, and it made its appearance in France with the Italian artists who 
 established themselves in that country in the reigns of Charles VIII., 
 Louis XII., and Francis I. Fireworks could not fail to be attractive at the 
 Court of the Yalois, to which Catherine de Medici's had introduced the 
 manners and customs of Italy. The French, who up to that time had only 
 been accustomed to the illuminations of St. John's Lay and of the first 
 Sunday in Lent, received those fireworks with great enthusiasm, and they 
 soon became a regular part of the programme for public festivals (Fig. 176). 
 We have hitherto only described the sports engaged in for the amuse- 
 ment of the spectators ; we have still to describe those in which the actors 
 took greater pleasure than even the spectators themselves. These were 
 specially the games of strength and skill as well as dancing, with a notice 
 < if which we shall conclude this chapter. There were, besides, the various 
 games of chance and the games of fun and humour. Most of the bourgeois 
 and the villagers played a variety of games of agility, many of which have 
 descended to our times, and are still to be found at our schools and colleges. 
 Wrestling, running races, the game of bars, high and wide jumping, leap- 
 frog, blind-man's buff, games of ball of all sorts, gymnastics, and all exercises 
 which strengthened the body or added to the suppleness of the limbs, were 
 long in use among the youth of the nobilit}' (Figs. 177 and 178). The Lord 
 of Fleuranges, in his memoirs written at the court of Francis I., recounts 
 numerous exercises to which he devoted himself during his childhood and 
 youth, and which were then looked upon as a necessary part of the education 
 of chivalry. The nobles in this way acquired a taste for physical exercises, 
 and took naturally to combats, tournaments, and hunting, and subsequently 
 their services in the battle-field gave them plenty of opportunities to gratify 
 the taste thus developed in them. These were not, however, sufficient for 
 their insatiable activity ; when they could not do anything else, they played 
 at tennis and such games at all hours of the day ; and these pastimes had so 
 much attraction for nobles of all ages that they not unfrequentty sacrificed 
 their health in consequence of overtaxing their strength. In 1506 the King 
 of Castile, Philippe le Beau, died of pleurisy, from a severe cold which he 
 caught while playing tennis. 
 
GAMES A XT) PASTIMES. 
 
 2 55 
 
 Tennis also became the favourite game amongst the bourgeois in the 
 towns, and tennis-courts were built in all parts, of such spacious proportions 
 and so well adapted for spectators, that they were often converted into 
 theatres. Their game of billiards resembled the modern one only in name, 
 for it was played on a level piece of ground with wooden balls which were 
 struck with hooked sticks and mallets. It was in great repute in the four- 
 teenth century, for in 1396 Marshal do Boucicault, who was considered one 
 of the best players of his time, won at it six hundred francs (or more than 
 
 Fig. 177.— Somersaults.— Fac-Bimile of a Woodcut in "Exercises in Leaping and Vaulting," 
 by A. Tuecaro: 4 to (Paris, 1599). 
 
 twenty-eight thousand francs of present currency). At the beginning ot the 
 following century the Duke Louis d'Orleans ordered bilks et billars to be bought 
 for the sum of eleven sols six deniers tournois (about fifteen francs of our 
 money), that he might amuse himself with them. There were several games ot 
 the same sort, which were not less popular. Skittles ; la Souk or Souktte, winch 
 consisted of a large ball of hay covered over with leather, the possession of which 
 was contested for by two opposing sides of players; Football; open Tennis; 
 
 it it 
 
*34 
 
 GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 Shuttlecock, &c. It was Charles V. who first thought of giving a more 
 serious and useful character to the games of the people, and who, in. a 
 celebrated edict forbidding games of chance, encouraged the establishment 
 of companies of archers and bowmen. These companies, to which was 
 subsequently added that of the arquebusiers, outlived political revolutions, 
 and arc still extant, especially in the northern provinces of France. 
 
 Fig. 178. — The Spring- board. — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in "Exorcises in Leaping and 
 Vaulting," by A. Tuccaro : 4to (Paris, 1599). 
 
 At all times and in all countries the games of chance were the most 
 popular, although they were forbidden both by ecclesiastical and royal 
 authority. New laws were continually being enacted against them, and 
 especially against those in which dice were used, though with little avail. 
 " Dice shall nut be made in the kingdom," says the law of 1256; and "those 
 
GAJ/ES A A'/) PASTIMES. 2;5 
 
 who arc discovered using them, and frequenting- taverns and bad places, will 
 be looked upon as suspicious characters." A law of 12!)1 repeats, "That 
 games with dice be forbidden." Nevertheless, though these prohibitions 
 were frequently renewed, people continued to disregard them and to lose 
 much money at such games. The law of to!)b' is aimed particularly against 
 loaded dice, which must have been contemporary with tho origin of dice, 
 themselves, for no games ever gave rise to a greater amount of roguery than 
 those of this description. They were, however, publicly sold in spite of all 
 the laws to the contrary ; for, in the " I>it du Mercier," the dealer oilers bis 
 merchandise thus : — 
 
 •'J'ay dez do plus, j'ay dez de moms, (" I have heavy dice, I have light dice, 
 
 De Faris, de Chartres, de Kains." From Paris, from Churtn s, and from Rains.") 
 
 It has been said that the game of dice was at first called the game of Go//, 
 because the regulation of lottery was one of God's prerogatives; but this 
 derivation is purely imaginary. What appears more likely is, that dice 
 were first forbidden by the Church, and then by the civil authorities, on 
 account of the fearful oaths which were so apt to bo uttered by those players 
 who had a run of ill luck. Nothing was commoner than for people to ruin 
 themselves at this game. The poems of troubadours are full of imprecations 
 against the fatal chance of dice; many troubadours, such as Guillaume Magrct 
 and Gaucelm Faydit, lost their fortunes at it, and their lives in consequence. 
 Rutebeuf exclaims, in one of his satires, "Dice rob me of all my clothes, dice 
 kill me, dice watch me, dice track me, dice attack me, and dice defy me.' 
 The blasphemies of the gamblers did not always remain unpuinshed. "Philip 
 Augustus," says Pigord, in his Latin history of this king, "earned bis 
 aversion for oaths to such an extent, that if any one, whether knight or of 
 any other rank, let one slip from his lips in the presence of tho sovereign, 
 even by mistake, he was ordered to be immediately thrown into the river. 
 Louis XII., who was somewhat less severe, contented himself with having a 
 hole bored with a hot iron through the blasphemer's tongue. 
 
 The work "On the Manner of playing with Dice," has handed down to us 
 the technical terms used in these games, which varied as much in practice 
 as in name. They sometimes played with three dice, sometimes with six; 
 different games were also in fashion, and in some the cast of the dice alone 
 decided. The games of cards were also most numerous, but it is not our 
 
z 3 6 
 
 GABIES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 intention to give the origin of them here. It is sufficient to name a few of the 
 most popular ones in France, which were, Flux, Prime, Sequence, Triomphe 
 Piquet, Trente-et-un, Passc-dix, Condemnade, Lansquenet, Marriage, Gay 
 or J'ai, Malcontent, Here, &c. (Fig. 179 and 180). All these games, which 
 were as much forbidden as dice, were played in taverns as well as at court ■ 
 and, just as there were loaded dice, so were there also false cards, pre- 
 pared by rogues for cheating. The greater number of the games of cards 
 formerly did not require the least skill on the part of the players, chance 
 
 Figs. 179 and 180.— French Cards for a Game of Piquet, early Sixteenth Century.— Collection 
 of the National Library of Paris. 
 
 alone deciding. The game of Tables, however, required skill and calculation, 
 for under this head were comprised all the games which were played on a 
 board, and particularly chess, draughts, and backgammon. The invention of 
 the game of chess has been attributed to the Assyrians, and there can he no 
 doubt but that it came from the East, and reached Gaul about the beginning 
 of the ninth century, although it was not extensively known till about the 
 twelfth. The annals of chivalry continually speak of the barons playing at 
 these games, and especially at chess. Historians also mention chess, and 
 
GAMES AXJ) PASTIMES. , 37 
 
 s 
 
 show that it was played with the same zest in the camp of the Saracens as in 
 that of the Crusaders. We must not be surprised if chess shared the pro- 
 hibition laid upon dice, for those who were ignorant of its ingenious com- 
 binations ranked it amongst games of chance. The Council of Paris, in 
 1212, therefore condemned chess for the same reasons as dice, and it, was 
 specially forbidden to church people, who had begun to make it their 
 habitual pastime. The royal edict of 1254 was equally unjust with regard 
 to this game. " "We strictly forbid," says Louis IX., " any person to play at 
 dice, tables, or chess." This pious king set himself against these games, 
 which he looked upon as inventions of the devil. After the fatal day of 
 Mansorah, in 1249, the King, who was still in Egypt with the remnants 
 of his army, asked what bis brother, the Comte d'Anjou, was doing. "He 
 was told," says Join vide, "that he was playing at tables with his Royal 
 Highness Gaultier de Nemours. The King was highly incensed against his 
 brother, and, though most feelde from the effects of his illness, went to him, 
 and taking the dice and the tables, had them thrown into the sea." Never- 
 theless Louis IX. received as a present from the Yieu.r de la Montague, chief 
 of the Ismalians, a chessboard made of gold and rock crystal, the pieces being 
 of precious metals beautifully worked. It has been asserted, but incorrectly, 
 that this chessboard was the one preserved in the Musee de Cluny, after 
 having long formed part of the treasures of the Kings of France. 
 
 Amongst the games comprised under the name of tables, it is sufficient to 
 mention that of draughts, which was formerly played with dice and with the 
 same men as were used for chess ; also the game of honchet, or joneliees, that 
 is, bones or spillikins, games which required pieces or men in the same way 
 as chess, but which required more quickness of hand than of intelligence ; 
 and epingleft, or push-pin, which was played in a similar manner to the 
 honchets, and was the great amusement of the small pages in the houses of 
 the nobility. "When they had not epinglcs, honchets, or draughtsmen to 
 play with, they used their fingers instead, and played a game which is still 
 most popular amongst the Italian people, called the morra, and which was 
 as much in vogue with the ancient Romans as it is among the modern 
 Italians. It consisted of suddenly raising as many fingers as had been shown 
 by one's adversary, and gave rise to a great amount of amusement among the 
 players and lookers-on. The games played by girls were, of course, different 
 from those in use among boys. The latter played at marbles, Juettes, peg or 
 
23« 
 
 GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 humming tops, quoits, fouquet, merelks, and a number of other games, many 
 of which are now unknown. The girls, it is almost needless to say, from 
 the earliest times played with dolls. Bridie, a game in which a brick and a 
 
 Fig. 181. — Allegorical Scene of one of the Courts of Love in Provence. — In the First Compart- 
 ment, the God of Love, Cupid, is sitting on the Stump of a Laurel-tree, wounding with his 
 Farts those who do Mm homage ; the Second Compartment represents the Love Vows of Men 
 and Women. — From the Cover of a Looking- glass, carved in Ivory, of the End of the Thirteenth 
 Century. 
 
 small stick was used, was also a favourite. Martians, or small quoits, wolf 
 or fox, blind man's buff, hide and seek, quoits, &c, were all girls' games. 
 The greater part of these amusements were enlivened, by a chorus, which all 
 the girls sang together, or by dialogues suno- or chanted in unison. 
 
THE CHESS-PLAYERS. 
 
 After a miniature of "77«: Thn-r ,\ U rs of Mini", a ms. of the fifteenth eentun 
 attributed tu Estiennii Porch ier. 'Bib), of M. Ambroife Eiriiiiii-Diilot. 
 
 Th 
 
 e seem. = lad 
 
 one ol the saloons of the castle 
 
 'Plessis-lc--Toure, the residence ol Louis XI, n the i la 
 — --'''the king are recognisable. 
 
GAMES AND PAST/MA'S. 2 „ 
 
 If children had their games, which for many generations continued com- 
 paratively unchanged, so the dames and the young ladies had theirs, consisting 
 of gallantly and politeness, which only disappeared with those harmless 
 assemblies in which the two sexes vied with each other in urbanity, friendly 
 roguishness, and wit. It would require long antiquarian researches to 
 discover the origin and mode of playing many of these pastimes, such as 
 des oes, des trois dues, des accords bigarres, du jardin madame, de la fricade, 
 d/i feiseau, de In mick, and a number of others which are named but not 
 described in the records of the times. The game a T oreille, the invention of 
 which is attributed to the troubadour Guillaume Adhemar, the j'eu des 
 Valentines, or the game of lovers, and the numerous games of forfeits, which 
 have come down to us from the Courts of Love of the Middle Ages, we find 
 to be somewhat deprived of their original simplicity in the way they are now 
 played in country-houses in the winter and at village festivals in the summer. 
 But the Courts of Love are no longer in existence gravely to superintend all 
 these diversions (Fig. 181). 
 
 Amongst the amusements which time has not obliterated, but which, on 
 the contrary, seems destined to be of longer duration than monuments of 
 stone and brass, we must name dancing, which was certainly one of the 
 principal amusements of society, and which has come down to us through all 
 religions, all customs, all people, and all ages, preserving at the same time 
 much of its original character. Dancing appears, at each period of the 
 world's history, to have been alternately religious and profane, lively and 
 solemn, frivolous and severe. Though dancing was as common an amuse- 
 ment formerly as it is now, there was this essential difference between the 
 two periods, namely, that certain people, such as the Romans, were very fond 
 of seeing dancing, but did not join in it themselves. Tiberius drove the 
 dancers out of Home, and Domitian dismissed certain senators from their 
 seats in the senate who had degraded themselves by dancing ; and there 
 seems to be no doubt that the Romans, from the conquest of Julius Caesar, 
 did not themselves patronise the art. There were a number of professional 
 dancers in Gaul, as well as in the other provinces of the Roman Empire, 
 who were hired to dance at feasts, and who endeavoured to do their best to 
 make their art as popular as possible. The lightheadedness of the Crauls, 
 their natural gaiety, their love for violent exercise and for pleasures of all 
 sorts, made them delight in dancing, and indulge in it with great energy ; 
 
240 
 
 GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 and thus, notwithstanding the repugnance of the Roman aristocracy and the 
 prohibitions and anathemas of councils and synods, dancing has always been 
 one of the favourite pastimes of the Gauls and the French. 
 
 Leuce Carin, a writer of doubtful authority, states that in the early 
 history of Christianity the faithful danced, or rather stamped, in measured 
 time during religious ceremonials, gesticulating and distorting themselves. 
 This is, however, a mistake. The only thing approaching to it was the 
 
 Fig. 182. — Dancers on Christmas Kight punished for their Impiety, and condemned to dance for 
 a whole Year (Legend of the Fifteenth Century). — Fac-simile of a Woodcut by P. Wohlge- 
 muth, in the " Liber Chronieorum Mundi :" folio (Nuremberg, 14913). 
 
 slight trace of the ancient Pagan dances which remained in the feast of the 
 first Sunday in Lent, and which probably belonged to the religious ceremonies 
 of the Druids. At nightfall fires were lighted in public places, and numbers 
 of people danced madly round them. Rioting and disorderly conduct often 
 resulted from this popular feast, and the magistrates were obliged to interfere 
 in order to suppress it. The church, too, did not close her eyes to the abuses 
 which this feast engendered, although episcopal admonitions were not always 
 listened to (Fig. 182). We see, in the records of one of the most recent 
 
(JAJfES AX-D PASTIMES. 2Jfl 
 
 Councils of Narbonne, that the custom of dancing in the churches and in 
 the cemeteries on certain feasts had not been abolished in some parts of the 
 Languedoc at the end of the sixteenth century. 
 
 Dancing was at all times forbidden by the Catholic Church on account of 
 its tendency to corrupt the morals, and for centuries ecclesiastical authority 
 was strenuously opposed to it ; but, on the other hand, it could not complain 
 of want of encouragement from the civil power. When King Childebert, in 
 554, forbade all dances in his domains, hi' was only induced to do so by the 
 influence of the bishops. We have but little information respecting the 
 dances of this period, and it would lie impossible accurately to determine as 
 to the justice of their being forbidden. They were certainly no longer those 
 war-dances which the Franks had brought with them, and which antiquarians 
 have mentioned under the name of Pi/rrhie/iieiuie dances. In any case war- 
 dances reappeared at the commencement of chivalry ; for, when a new knight 
 was elected, all the knights in full armour performed evolutions, either on 
 foot or on horseback, to the sound of military music, and the populace 
 danced round them. It has been said that this was the origin of court 
 ballets, and La Colombiere, in his " Theatre d'llonneur et de Chevalerie," 
 relates that this ancient dance of the knights was kept up by the Spaniards, 
 who called it the Moresque. 
 
 The Middle Ages was the great epoch for dancing, especially in France. 
 There were an endless number of dancing festivals, and, from reading the 
 old poets and romancers, one might imagine that the French had never 
 anything better to do than to dance, and that at all hours of the day and 
 night. A curious argument in favour of the practical utility of dancing is 
 suggested by Jean Tabouret in his " Orchesographie," published at Langres 
 in 1088, under the name of Thoinot Arbeau. lie says, "Dancing is prac- 
 tised in order to see whether lovers are healthy and suitable for one another: 
 at the end of a dance the gentlemen are permitted to kiss their mistresses, in 
 order that they may ascertain if they have an agreeable breath. In this 
 matter, besides many other good results which follow from dancing, it 
 becomes necessary for the good governing of society." Such was the doctrine 
 of the Courts of Love, which stoutly took up the defence of dancing against 
 the clergy. In those days, as soon as the two sexes were assembled in 
 sufficient numbers, before or after the feasts, the balls began, and men and 
 women took each other by the hand and commenced the performance in regular 
 
 i I 
 
24 2 
 
 GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 steps (Fig. 183). The author of the poem of Provence, called "Flamenca," 
 thus allegorically describes these amusements : " Youth and Gaiety opened 
 
 Fig-. 183.— Peasant Dances at the May Feasts.— Pac-simile of a Miniature in a Prayer-book 
 of the Fifteenth Century, in the National Library of Paris. 
 
 the ball, accompanied by their sister Bravery ; Cowardice, confused, went of 
 her own accord and hid herself." The troubadours mention a great number 
 of dances, without describing them ; no doubt they were so familiar that 
 
H| 
 
 60 
 
GAJ/£S AND PASTIMES. 2+j 
 
 they thought a description of them needless. They often speak of the danse 
 an virlet, a kind of round dance, during the performance of which each 
 person in turn sang a verse, the chorus being repeated by all. In the code 
 of the Courts of Love, entitled " Arresta Amorum," that is, the decrees of 
 love, the pas de Brabant is mentioned, in which each gentleman bent his 
 knee before his lady ; and also the danse mi chapelet, at the end of which each 
 dancer kissed his lady. Romances of chivalry frequently mention that knights 
 used to dance with the dames and young ladies without taking off their 
 helmets and coats of mail. Although this costume was hardly fitted for the 
 purpose, we find, in the romance of " Perceforet," that after a repast, whilst 
 the tables were being removed, everything was prepared for a ball, and that 
 although the knights made no change in their accoutrements, yet the ladies 
 went and made fresh toilettes. "Then," says the old novelist, "the young- 
 knights and the young ladies began to play their instruments and to have 
 the dance." From this custom may be traced the origin of the ancient Gallic 
 proverb, "Apres la pause vient la danse" ("After the feast comes the dance"). 
 Sometimes a minstrel sang songs to the accompaniment of the harp, and the 
 young ladies danced in couples and repeated at intervals the minstrel's songs. 
 Sometimes the torch-dance was performed ; in this each performer bore in his 
 hand a long lighted taper, and endeavoured to prevent his neighbours from 
 blowing it out, which each one tried to do if possible (Fig. 18-1). This dance, 
 which was in use up to the end of the sixteenth century at court, was 
 generally reserved for weddings. 
 
 Dancing lost much of its simplicity and harmlessness when masquerades 
 were introduced, these being the first examples of the ballet. These mas- 
 querades, which soon after their introduction became passionately indulged 
 in at court under Charles VI., were, at first, only allowed during Carnival, 
 and on particular occasions called Charivaris, and they were usually made 
 the pretext for the practice of the most licentious follies. These masquerades 
 had a most unfortunate inauguration by the catastrophe which rendered the 
 madness of Charles YI. incurable, and which is described in history under 
 the name of the Burning Bullet. It was on the 29th of January, 1393, that 
 this ballet made famous the festival held in the Royal Palace of St. Paul in 
 Paris, on the occasion of the marriage of one of the maids of honour of Queen 
 Isabel of Bavaria with a gentleman of Vermandois. The bride was a widow, 
 and the second nuptials were deemed a fitting occasion for the Charivaris, 
 
24+ 
 
 GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 A o-entleman from Normandy, named Hugonin de Gcnsay, thought he could 
 create a sensation by having a dance of wild men to please the ladies. " He 
 admitted to his plot," says Froissart, " the king and four of the principal 
 nobles of the court. These all had themselves sewn up in close-fitting linen 
 o-;u*ments covered with resin on which a quantity of tow was glued, and in 
 
 Fig. 185.— The Burning Ballet.— Fae-simile of a Miniature in the Manuscript of the 
 " Chroniquos" of Froissart (Fifteenth Century), in the National Library of Paris. 
 
 this guise they appeared in the middle of the ball. The king was alone, but 
 the other four were chained together. They jumped about like madmen, 
 uttered wild cries, and made all sorts of eccentric gestures. No one knew 
 who these hideous objects were, but the Duke of Orleans determined to find 
 out, so he took a candle and imprudently approached too near one of the men. 
 
GAMES AXD PASTIMES. 
 
 2 45 
 
 The tow caught fire, and the flames enveloped Lira and the other throe who 
 were chained to him in a moment." " They wen; burning for nearly an hour 
 like torches," says a chronicler. " The king had the good fortune to escape 
 the peril, because the Duchesso de Berry, his aunt, recognised him, and had 
 the presence of mind to envelop him in her train" (Fig. ISO). Such a 
 calamity, one would have thought, might have been sufficient to disgust 
 people with masquerades, but they were none the less in favour at court 
 formally years afterwards; and, two centuries later, the author of the 
 " Orchesographie " thus writes on this subject: "Kings and princes <nve 
 dances and masquerades for amusement and in order to afford a joyful welcome 
 to foreign nobles ; we also practise the same amusements on the celebration 
 
 Kg. 18G. — Musicians accompanying the Dancing. — Fac-similo of a Wood Engraving in the 
 " Orchesographie" of Thoinut Arbeau (Julian Tahourot) : Ito (Laugres, loss). 
 
 of marriages." In no country in the world was dancing practised with more 
 grace and elegance than in France. Foreign dances of every kind were 
 introduced, and, after being remodelled and brought to as great perfection 
 as possible, they were often returned to the countries from which the}' had 
 been imported under almost a new character. 
 
 In 1548, the dances of the Bearnais, which were much admired at the 
 court of the Comtes de Foix, especially those called the dilute mmirvxqiir and 
 the dame des sauvages, were introduced at the court of France, and excited 
 great merriment. So popular did they become, that with a little modifica- 
 tion they soon were considered essentially French. The German dances, 
 which were distinguished by the rapidity of their movements, were also 
 
24-6 
 
 GAMES AND PASTIMES. 
 
 thoroughly established at the court of France. Italian, Milanese, Spanish 
 and Piedmontese dances were in fashion in France before the expedition of 
 Charles VIII. into Italy ; and when this king, followed by his youthful 
 nobility, passed over the mountains to march to the conquest of Naples, lie 
 found everywhere in the towns that welcomed him, and in which balls and 
 masquerades were given in honour of his visit, the dance « la mode de France 
 which consisted of a sort of medley of the dances of all countries. Some 
 hundreds of these dances have been enumerated in the fifth book of the 
 " Pantagruel " of Rabelais, and in various humorous works of those who 
 succeeded him. They owed their success to the singing with which they 
 were generally accompanied, or to the postures, pantomimes, or drolleries 
 with which they were supplemented for the amusement of the spectators. A 
 
 Fig. 187.— The Dance called "La Gaillarde."— Facsimile of Wood Engravings from tlit 
 " Orckesographie " of Thoinot Aiijoau (Jehan Tabouret) : 4to (Langres, 1588). 
 
 few, and amongst others that of the five steps and that of the three faces, are 
 mentioned in the " History of the Queen of Navarre." 
 
 Dances were divided into two distinct classes — danses basses, or common 
 and regular dances, which did not admit of jumping, violent movements, 
 or extraordinary contortions — and the danses par haut, which were irregular, 
 and comprised all sorts of antics and buffoonery. The regular French dance 
 was a basse dance, called the gaillarde; it was accompanied by the sound of 
 the hautbois and tambourine, and originally it was danced with great form 
 and state. This is the dance which Jean Tabourot has described ; it began 
 with the two performers standing opposite to each other, advancing, bowing, 
 and retiring. " These advancings and retirings were done in steps to the 
 tunc ol the music, and continued until the instrumental accompaniment 
 
GAMES AXD PASTIMES. 
 
 2 47 
 
 stopped ; then the gentleman made his bow to the lady, took her by the hand, 
 thanked her, and led her to her seat." The foiirdiun was similar to the 
 gaillarde, only faster, and was accompanied with more action. Each 
 province of France had its national dance, such as the bourree of Auver<me, 
 the trioris of Brittany, the brailles of Poitou, and the raises of Lorraine, 
 which constituted a very agreeable pastime, and one in which the French 
 excelled all other nations. Tin's art, "so ancient, so honourable, and so 
 profitable," to use the words of Jean Tabourot, was long in esteem in the 
 highest social circles, and the old men liked to display their agility, and the 
 dames and young ladies to find a temperate exercise calculated to contribute 
 to their health as well as to their amusement. 
 
 The sixteenth century was the great era of dancing in all the courts of 
 Europe; but under the Yalois, the art had more charm and prestige at the 
 court of France than anywhere else. The Queen-mother, Catherine, 
 surrounded by a crowd of pretty young ladies, who composed what she called 
 her flying squadron, presided at these exciting dances. A certain Balthazar 
 de Beaujoyeux was master of her ballets, and they danced at the Castle of 
 Blois the night before the Due de Guise was assassinated under the eyes 
 of Henry III., just as they had danced at the Chateau of the Tuileries the 
 clay after St. Bartholomew's Bay. 
 
 Fig. IRs.— The Game of Bob Apple, or Swin^im* Apple— Mnmiseript of the Fourteenth 
 Century, in the British Museum. 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 State of Commerce after the Fall of the Roman Empire. — Its Revival under the Frankish Kings. — 
 Its Prosperity under Charlemagne. — Its Decline down to the Time of the Crusaders. — The 
 Levant Trade of the East. — Flourishing State of the Towns of Provence and Languedoc. — 
 Establishment of Fairs. — Fairs of Bandit, Champagne, Beaucaire, and Lyons. — Weights and 
 Measures. — Commercial Flanders. — Laws of Maritime Commerce. — Consular Laws. — Banks 
 and Bills of Exchange. — French Settlements on the Coast of Africa. — Consequences of the 
 Discovery of America. 
 
 OMMERCE in the Middle Ages," 
 says M. Charles Grandniaison, " dif- 
 fered but little from that of a more 
 remote period. It was essentially a 
 local and limited traffic, rather inland 
 than maritime, for long and perilous 
 sea voyages only commenced towards 
 the end of the fifteenth century, or 
 about the time when Columbus dis- 
 covered America." 
 
 On the fall of the Roman Empire, 
 commerce was .rendered insecure, and, indeed, it was almost completely put 
 a stop to by the barbarian invasions, and all facility of communication 
 between different nations, and even between towns of the same country, was 
 interrupted. In those times of social confusion, there were periods of such 
 poverty and distress, that for want of money commerce was reduced to the 
 simple exchange of the positive necessaries of life. "When order was a little 
 restored, and society and the minds of people became more composed, we 
 see commerce recovering its position ; and France was, perhaps, the first 
 country in Europe in which this happy change took place. Those famous 
 cities of Gaul, which ancient authors describe to us as so rich and so indus- 
 trious, quickly recovered their former prosperity, and the friendly relations 
 which were established between the kino's of the Franks and the Eastern 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 249 
 
 Empire encouraged the Gallic cities in cultivating a commerce, which was at 
 that time the most important and most extensive in the world. 
 
 Marseilles, the ancient Phoenician colony, once the rival and then the 
 successor to Carthage, was undoubtedly at the head of the commercial cities 
 of France. Next to her came Aries, which supplied ship-builders and 
 seamen to the fleet of Provence; and Narbonne, which admitted into its 
 harbour ships from Spain, Sicily, and Africa, until, in consecpicnce of the 
 Aude having changed its course, it was obliged to relinquish the greater part 
 of its maritime commerce in favour of Montpellier. 
 
 Commerce maintained frequent communications with the East ; it sought 
 
 :*• 
 
 AC MARE 'JUS; 
 
 .<T> 
 
 jj 
 
 [-ENTT-, \EEDVBJL ■ f . "i : i- 
 
 \\ //' Jg ' CS-IONMEJIEPC: -, 
 
 W % A / ff' 1 i'l'HTAilELmE " "gAl 
 
 tWlSAVEE 
 
 ..'It---' 1 " ; fi| 
 
 ^Jt., PAI \S !)i AJiV \b UKij^ 
 
 5=V%!!*!>». 
 
 i«f ,111 
 
 LA MKJi MEBITIRRAJNJSE. 
 
 Fig. 180. — View of Alexandria in Egypt, in the Sixteenth Century. — Facsimile of a Woodcut in 
 the Travels of P. Belon, " Observations do Plusieurs Singularitez,'' &o. : 4to (Paris, I0S8). 
 
 its supplies on the coast of Syria, and especially at Alexandria, in Egypt, 
 which was a kind of depot for goods obtained from the rich countries lying 
 beyond the Red Sea (Figs. 189 and 190). The Frank navigators imported 
 from these countries, groceries, linen, Egyptian paper, pearls, perfumes, and 
 a thousand other rare and choice articles. In exchange they offered chiefly 
 the precious metals in bars rather than coined, and it is probable that 
 at this period they also exported iron, wines, oil, and wax, The agricul- 
 tural produce and manufactures of Caul had not sufficiently developed 
 
 ic K 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 to provide anything more than what was required for the producers them- 
 selves. Industry was as yet, if not purely domestic, confined to monasteries 
 and to the houses of the nobility ; and even the kings employed women or 
 serf workmen to manufacture the coarse stuffs with which they clothed them- 
 selves and their households. We may add, that the bad state of the roads, 
 the little security they offered to travellers, the extortions of all kinds to 
 which foreign merchants were subjected, and above all the iniquitous system 
 
 Fig. li)0. — Transport of Merchandise on the Backs of Camels. — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the 
 " Cosmographie Universelle," of Thevet: folio, 1575. 
 
 of fines and tolls which each landowner thought right to exact, before letting 
 merchandise pass through his domains, all created insuperable obstacles to 
 the development of commerce. 
 
 The Frank kings on several occasions evinced a desire that communica- 
 tions favourable to trade should be re-established in their dominions. We 
 find, for instance, Chilperic making treaties with Eastern emperors in favour 
 
COlfMERCE. 251 
 
 of the merchants of Agde and Marseilles, Queen Brunehaut making viaducts 
 worthy of the Romans, and which still hear her name, and Dagoburt opening 
 at St. Denis free fairs — that is to say, free, or nearly so, from all tolls and 
 taxes — to which goods, both agricultural and manufactured, were; scut from 
 every corner of Europe and the known world, to be afterwards distributed 
 through the towns and provinces by the enterprise of internal commerce. 
 
 After the reign of Dagobert, commerce again declined without positively 
 ceasing, for the revolution, which transferred the power of the kings to the 
 mayors of the palace was not of a nature to exhaust the resources of public pros- 
 perity ; and a charter of 710 proves that the merchants of Saxony, England, 
 Normandy, and even Hungary, still nocked to the fairs of St. Denis. 
 
 Under the powerful and administrative hand of Charlemagne, the roads 
 being better kept up, and the rivers being made more navigable, commerce 
 became safe and more general; the coasts were protected from piratical 
 incursions ; lighthouses were erected at dangerous points, to prevent ship- 
 wrecks ; and treaties of commerce with foreign nations, including even the 
 most distant, guaranteed the liberty and security of French traders abroad. 
 
 Under the weak successors of this monarch, notwithstanding their many 
 efforts, commerce was again subjected to all sorts of injustice and extortions, 
 and all its safeguards were rapidly destroyed. The Moors in the south, 
 and the Normans in the north, appeared to desire to destroy everything 
 which came in their way, and already Marseilles, in S-'!S, was taken and 
 pillaged by the Greeks. The constant altercations between the sons of Louis 
 le Debonnaire and their unfortunate father, their jealousies amongst them- 
 selves, and their fratricidal wars, increased the measure of public calamity, so 
 that soon, overrun by foreign enemies and destroyed by ber own sons, France 
 became a vast held of disorder and desolation. 
 
 The Church, which alone possessed some social influence, never ceased to 
 use its authority in endeavouring to remedy this miserable state of things ; 
 but episcopal edicts, papal anathemas, and decrees of councils, had only a 
 partial effect at this unhappy period. At any moment agricultural and com- 
 mercial operations were liable to be interrupted, if not completely ruined, by 
 the violence of a wild and rapacious soldiery ; at every step the roads, often 
 impassable, were intercepted by toll-bars for some due of a vexatious nature, 
 besides beino; continually infested by bands of brigands, who carried off the 
 merchandise and murdered those few merchants who were so bold as to attempt 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 to continue their business. It was the Church, occupied as she was with 
 the interests of civilisation, who again assisted commerce to emerge from 
 the state of annihilation into which it had fallen ; and the " Peace or Truce 
 of God," established in 1041, endeavoured to stop at least the internal 
 
 Fig. 191. — Trade on the Sea-ports of the Levant. — After a Miniature in a Manuscript of the 
 Travels of Marco Polo (Fifteenth Century), Library of the Arsenal of Paris. 
 
 wars of feudalism, and it succeeded, at any rate for a time, in arresting these 
 disorders. This was all that could be done at that period, and the Church 
 accomplished it, by taking the high hand ; and with as much unselfishness 
 as energy and courage, she regulated society, which had been abandoned by 
 the civil power from sheer impotence an'd want of administrative capability. 
 
COMMERCE. 253 
 
 At all events, thanks to ecclesiastical foresight, which increased the 
 number of fairs and markets at the gates of abbeys and convents, the first 
 step was made towards the general resuscitation of commerce. Indeed, the 
 Church may be said to have largely contributed to develop the spirit of 
 progress and liberty, whence were to spring societies and nationalities, and, 
 in a word, modern organization. 
 
 The Eastern commerce furnished the first elements of that trading 
 activity which showed itself on the borders of the Mediterranean, and wo 
 find the ancient towns of Provence and Languedoc springing up again by the 
 side of the republics of Amalfi, Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, which had become 
 the rich depots of all maritime trade. 
 
 At first, as we have already stated, the wares of India came to Europe 
 through the Greek port of Alexandria, or through Constantinople. The 
 Crusades, which had facilitated the relations with Eastern countries, developed 
 a taste in the Vest for their indigenous productions, gave a fresh vigour to 
 this foreign commerce, and rendered it more productive by removing the 
 stumbling blocks which had arrested its progress (Eig. 191). 
 
 The conquest of Palestine by the Crusaders had first opened all the 
 towns and harbours of this wealthy region to Western traders, and many of 
 them were able permanently to establish themselves there, with all sorts of 
 privileges and exemptions from taxes, which were gladly offered to them by 
 the nobles who had transferred feudal power to Mussulman territories. 
 
 Ocean commerce assumed from this moment proportions hitherto 
 unknown. Notwithstanding the papal bulls and decrees, which forbade 
 Christians from having any connection with infidels, the voice of interest was 
 more listened to than that of the Church (Fig. 192), and traders did not fear 
 to disobey the political and religious orders which forbade them to carry 
 arms and slaves to the enemies of the faith. 
 
 It was easy to foretell, from the very first, that the military occupation 
 of the Holy Land would not be permanent. In consequence of this, there- 
 fore, the nearer the loss of this fine conquest seemed to lie, the greater were 
 the efforts made by the maritime towns of the West to re-establish, on a more 
 solid and lasting basis, a commercial alliance with Egypt, the country which 
 they selected to replace Palestine, in a mercantile point of view. Marseilles 
 was the greatest supporter of this intercourse with Egypt; and in the twelfth 
 and thirteenth centuries she reached a very high position, which she owed to 
 
-5 + 
 
 COMMERCE. 
 
 n 
 
 J O mtiif moi( ( rSnmnf <nr mott or cff compare n namu ftfr met ou' tiufcrt pf of* 
 J,(enfepotiant rtdjemrtrrfifl-ttStfr.l frquefftfpruff ScititanpoztquePe mattfiant 
 Dcfiretffmrjjratrapit ftcfje. lid train™ .quant entrctij tirer. htfquee arft'ij befoiiSopct 
 Qt,tfttt) «ran8 pcrif bcfFrr nopcr ou -pitfr bee mttentpe| iTat fri titer foitf f owjroifts 
 jjett%. "CfP eft fcroips be ffjomnic Siuanf an m'on&e/ fa marrRatioife qailfotu 
 eft fot) ante/ tteZutueii Sotines omuree* %tpott c\f patatiej ^uqudquipparl 
 mew eff fouuerapnement ticfjr] %wm» eft fc montfe pfatjj t)c Swce tf pcefc. 
 qw qui fimff a fc pcrffer ffkt) period Dagtcrg&eco W crmCfl Ocjfeeirop&eij tomcttftf- 
 4iitle/cioi^OicU'|iat;[a;g L TOce«oue2iuiffcso>r5Wf2lmfi),* 
 
 Fig. 192. — Merchant Vessel in a Storm. — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the " Grand Kalendrier et 
 Compost des Bergers," in folio : printed at Troves, about 1190, by Nicolas de Rouge. 
 
 * " Mortal man, living in the world, is compared to a vessel on perilous seas, hearing rich mer- 
 chandise, by which, if it can come to harbour, the merchant will be rendered rich and happy. The 
 ship from the commencement to the end of its voyage is in great peril of being lost or taken by an 
 enemy, for the seas are always beset with .perils. So is the body of man during its sojourn in the 
 world. The merchandise he bears is bis soul, his virtues, and his good deeds. The harbour ia 
 paradise, and he who reaches that haven is made supremely rich. The sea is the world, full of 
 vices and sins, and in which all, during their passage through life, are in peril and danger ot 
 losing body and soul and of being drowned in the infernal sea, from which God in His grace keep 
 us ' Amen." 
 
COMMERCE, 
 
 2 5 5 
 
 her shipowners and traders. In the fourteenth century, however, the princes 
 of the house of Anjou ruined her like the rest of Provence, in the great and 
 fruitless efforts which they made to recover the kingdom of Naples ; and it 
 was not until the reign of Louis XL that tho old Phoenician city recovered 
 its maritime and commercial prosperity (Pig. 193). 
 
 -«jsl. 
 
 *M 
 
 
 %:■ 
 
 '*&&%&& 
 
 :i /x* ^-ry ^ l\tyrv 
 
 1'ig. 193. — View and Plan of Marseilles and its Harbour, in the Sixteenth Century. — From a 
 Copper-plate in the Collection of G. Bruin, in folio : " Theatre des Citcz du Monde " 
 
 Languedoc, depressed, and for a time nearly ruined in the thirteenth 
 century by the effect of the wars of the Albigenses, was enabled, subse- 
 quently, to recover itself. Beziers, Agde, Narbonne, and especially Mont- 
 pellier, so quickly established important trading connections with all the 
 
256 COMMERCE. 
 
 ports of the Mediterranean, that at the end of the fourteenth century consuls 
 were appointed at each of these towns, in order to protect and direct their 
 transmarine commerce. A traveller of the twelfth century, Benjamin de 
 Tudele, relates that in these ports, which were afterwards called the stepping- 
 stones to the Levant, every language in the world might be heard. 
 
 Toulouse was soon on a par with the towns of Lower Languedoc, and the 
 Garonne poured into the markets, not only the produce of Guienne, and of 
 the western parts of France, but also those of Flanders, Normandy, and 
 England. We may observe, however, that Bordeaux, although placed in a 
 most advantageous position, at the mouth of the river, only possessed, when 
 under the English dominion, a very limited commerce, principally confined 
 to the export of wines to Great Britain in exchange for corn, oil, &c. 
 
 La Bochelle, on the same coast, was much more flourishing at this period, 
 owing- to the numerous coasters which carried the wines of Aunis and 
 iSaintonge, and the salt of Brouage to Flanders, the Netherlands, and the 
 north of Germany. Vitre already had its silk manufactories in the fifteenth 
 century, and Nantes gave promise of her future greatness as a depot of 
 maritime commerce. It was about this time also that the fisheries became 
 a new industry, in which Bayonnc and a few villages on the sea-coast took 
 the lead, some being especially engaged in whaling, and others in the cod 
 and herring fisheries (Fig. 194). 
 
 Long before this, Normandy had depended on other branches of trade for 
 its commercial prosperity. Its fabrics of woollen stuffs, its arms and cutlery, 
 besides the agricultural productions of its fertile and well cultivated soil, 
 each furnished material for export on a large scale. 
 
 The towns of Bouen and Caen were especially manufacturing cities, and 
 were very rich. This was the case with Bouen particularly, which was 
 situated on the Seine, and was at that time an extensive depot for provisions 
 and other merchandise which was sent down the river for export, or was 
 imported for future internal consumption. Already Paris, the abode of 
 kings, and the metropolis of government, began to foreshadow the immense 
 development which it was destined to undergo, by becoming the centre of 
 commercial affairs, and by daily adding to its labouring and mercantile 
 population (Figs. 195 and 196). 
 
 It was, however, outside the walls of Paris that commerce, which needed 
 liberty as well as protection, at first progressed most rapidly. The northern 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 2 r, 
 
 provinces hod early united manufacturing industry with traffic, and this 
 double source of local prosperity was the origin of their enormous wealth. 
 Ghent and Bruges in the Low Countries, and Bcauvais and Arras, were cele- 
 brated for their manufacture of cloths, carpets, and serge, and Camhrai for 
 its fine cloths. The artizans and merchants of these industrious cities then 
 
 Fig. 194. — Whale-Fishing. — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the " Cosmographie Univeraelle" oi' 
 
 Thevet, in folio : Paris, 1574. 
 
 established their powerful corporations, whose unwearied energy gave rise to 
 that commercial freedom so favourable to trade. 
 
 More important than the woollen manufactures — for the greater part of 
 the wool used was brought from England — was the manufacture of flax, 
 inasmuch as it encouraged agriculture, the raw material being produced 
 in France. This first flourished in the north-cast of France, and spread 
 slowly to Picardy, to Beauvois, and Brittany. The central countries, with 
 
 L I. 
 
2 ^s COMMERCE. 
 
 the exception of Bruges, whose cloth manufactories were already celebrated 
 in the fifteenth century, remained essentially agricultural ; and their principal 
 towns were merely depots for imported goods. The institution of fairs, 
 however, rendered, it is true, this commerce of some of the towns as wide- 
 spread as it was productive. In the Middle Ages religious feasts and cere- 
 monials almost always gave rise to fairs, which commerce was not slow in 
 multiplying as much as possible. The merchants naturally came to exhibit 
 their goods where the largest concourse of people afforded the greatest pro- 
 mise of their readily disposing of them. As early as the first dynasty of 
 Merovingian kings, temporary and periodical markets of this kind existed ; 
 but except at St. Denis, articles of local consumption only were brought to 
 them. The reasons for this were, the heavy taxes which were levied by the 
 feudal lords on all merchandise exhibited for sale, and the danger which 
 foreign merchants ran of being plundered on their way, or even at the fair 
 itself. These causes for a long time delayed the progress of an institution 
 which was afterwards destined to become so useful and beneficial to all 
 classes of the community. 
 
 We have several times mentioned the famous fair of Landit, which is 
 supposed to have been established by Charlemagne, but which no doubt was 
 a sort of revival of the fairs of St. Denis, founded by Dagobert, and which 
 for a time had fallen into disuse in the midst of the general ruin which 
 
 o 
 
 preceded that emperor's reign. This fair of Landit was renowned over the 
 whole of Europe, and attracted merchants from all countries. It was held 
 in the month of June, and only lasted fifteen days. Goods of all sorts, both 
 of homo and foreign manufacture, were sold, but the sale of parchment 
 was the principal object of the fair, to purchase a supply of which the 
 University of Paris regularly went in procession. On account of its special 
 character, this fair was of less general importance than the six others, which 
 from the twelfth century were held at Troyes, Provins, Lagny-sur-Marne, 
 Pheims, and Bar-sur-Aube. These infused so much commercial vitality 
 into the province of Champagne, that the nobles for the most part shook 
 off the prejudice which forbad their entering into any sort of trading 
 association. 
 
 Fairs multiplied in the centre and in the south of France simultaneously. 
 Those of Puy-en-Velay, now the capital of the Hautc-Loire, are looked upon 
 as the most ancient, and they preserved their old reputation and attracted a 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 250 
 
 considerable concourse of people, which was also increased by the pilgrimages 
 then made to Notre-Dame du l'uy. These fairs, which were mure of a 
 religious than of a commercial character, were then of loss importance as 
 regards trade than those held at Beaucaire. This town rose to great repute 
 in the thirteenth century, and, with the Lyons market, became at that time 
 the largest centre of commerce in the southern provinces. Placed at the 
 junction of the Saone and the Rhone, Lyons owed its commercial develop- 
 ment to the proximity of Marseilles and the towns of Italy. Its four annual 
 
 Fig. 195.— Measurers of Corn in Paris. Pig. 196.— Hay Carriers. 
 
 Pac-simile of Woodcuts from the " Royal Orders concerning the Jurisdiction of the Company ot 
 Merchants and Shrievalty in the City of Paris," in small folio goth. : Jacques Nyverd, 1028. 
 
 fairs were always much frequented, and when the kings of France transferred 
 to it the privileges of the fairs of Champagne, and transplanted to within 
 its walls the silk manufactories formerly established at Tours, Lyons really 
 became the second city of France. 
 
 It may be asserted as an established fact that the gradual extension of 
 the power of the king, produced by the fall of feudalism, was favourable to 
 the extension of commerce. As early as the reign of Louis IX. many laws 
 and regulations prove that the kings were alive to the importance of trade. 
 
2 6o COMMERCE. 
 
 Among the chief enactments was one which led to the formation of the 
 harbour of Aigues-Mortes on the Mediterranean ; another to the publication 
 of the book of " Weights and Measures," by Etienne Boileau, a work in 
 which the ancient statutes of the various trades were arranged and codified ; 
 and a third to the enactment made in the very year of this king's death, to 
 guarantee the security of vendors, and, at, the same time, to ensure purchasers 
 against fraud. All these bear undoubted witness that an enlightened policy 
 in favour of commerce had already sprung up. 
 
 Philippe le Bel issued several prohibitory enactments also in the interest 
 of home commerce and local industry, which Louis X. confirmed. Philippe 
 le Long attempted even to outdo the judicious efforts of Louis XL, and 
 tried, though unsuccessfully, to establish a uniformity in the weights and 
 measures throughout the kingdom ; a reform, however, which was never 
 accomplished until the revolution of 1780. It is difficult to credit how 
 many different weights and measures were in vise at that time, each one 
 varying according to local custom or the choice of the lord of the soil, who 
 probably in some way profited by the confusion which this uncertain state 
 of things must have produced. The fraud and errors to which this led may 
 easily be imagined, particularly in the intercourse between one part of the 
 country and another. The feudal stamp is here thoroughly exhibited ; as 
 M. Charles do Grandmaison remarks, " Xothing is fixed, nothing is uniform, 
 everything is special and arbitrary, settled by the lord of the soil by virtue 
 of his right of just esse, by which he undertook the regulation and super- 
 intendence of the weights and measures in use in his lordship." 
 
 Measures of length and contents often differed much from one another, 
 although they might be similarly named, and it would require very com- 
 plicated comparative tables approximately to fix their value. The pied de 
 was from ten to twelve inches, and was the least varying measure. Th 
 fathom differed much in different parts, and in the attempt to determine the 
 relations between the innumerable measures of contents which we find 
 recorded — a knowledge of which must have been necessary for the commerce 
 of the period — we are stopped b} T a labyrinth of incomprehensible calculations, 
 which it is impossible to determine with any degree of certainty. 
 
 The weights were more uniform and less uncertain. The pound was 
 everywhere in use, but it was not everywhere of the same standard (Fig. 201). 
 For instance, at Paris it weighed sixteen ounces, whereas at Lyons it only 
 
 roi 
 
 e 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 id i 
 
 weighed fourteen ; and in weighing silk fifteen ounces to the pound was the 
 rule. At Toulouse and in Upper Langucdoc the pound was only thirteen 
 and a half ounces ; at Marseilles, thirteen ounces; and at other places it even 
 tell to twelve ounces. There was in Paris a. public scale called poids <lu roi; 
 hut this scale, though a most important means of revenue, was a great 
 hindrance to retail trade. 
 
 In spite of these petty and irritating impediments, the commerce of 
 France extended throughout the whole world. 
 
 ?,*££ 
 
 
 Fig. 197.— View of Lubeck and its Harbour (Sixteenth. Century).— From a Copper-plate in the 
 Work of P. Eertius, " Commentaria Rerum Germanicarum," in 4to : Amsterdam, 1616. 
 
 The compass — known in Italy as early as the twelfth century, but little 
 used until the fourteenth — enabled the mercantile navy to discover new 
 routes, and it was thus that true maritime commerce may be said regularly 
 to have begun. The sailors of the Mediterranean, with the help of this little 
 instrument, dared to pass the Straits of Gibraltar, and to venture on the 
 ocean. From that moment commercial intercourse, which had previously 
 only existed by land, and that with great difficulty, was permanently esta- 
 blished between the northern and southern harbours of Europe. 
 
 Flanders was the central port for merchant vessels, which arrived in great 
 
262 COMMERCE. 
 
 numbers from the Mediterranean, and Bruges became the principal depot. 
 The Teutonic league, the origin of which dates from the thirteenth century, 
 and which formed the most powerful confederacy recorded in history, also 
 sent innumerable vessels from its harbours of Lubeck (Fig. 197) and Hamburg. 
 These carried the merchandise of the northern countries into Flanders, and 
 this rich province, which excelled in every branch of industry, and especially 
 in those relating to metals and weaving, became the great market of Europe 
 (Fig. 198). 
 
 The commercial movement, formerly limited to the shores of the Mediter- 
 ranean, extended to all parts, and gradually became universal. The northern 
 states shared in it, and England, which for a long time kept aloof from a 
 stage on which it was destined to play the first part, began to give indications 
 of its future commercial greatness. The number of transactions increased as 
 the facility for carrying them on became greater. Consumption being 
 extended, production progressively followed, and so commerce went on 
 gaining strength as it widened its sphere. Everything, in fact, seemed to 
 contribute to its expansion. The downfall of the feudal system and the 
 establishment in each country of a central power, more or less strong and 
 respected, enabled it to extend its operations by land with a degree of 
 security hitherto unknown ; and, at the same time, international legislation 
 came in to protect maritime trade, which was still exposed to great dangers. 
 The sea, which was open freely to the whole human race, gave robbers com- 
 paratively easy means of following their nefarious practices, and with less fear 
 of punishment than they could obtain on the shore of civilised countries. For 
 this reason piracy continued its depreciations long after the enactment of 
 severe laws for its suppression. 
 
 This maritime legislation did not wait for the sixteenth century to come 
 into existence. Maritime law was promulgated more or less in the twelfth 
 century, but the troubles and agitations which weakened and disorganized 
 empires during that period of the Middle Ages, deprived it of its power and 
 efficiency. The Code des Rhodiens dates as far back as 1167 ; the Code de 
 la Mer, which became a sort of recognised text-book, dates from the same 
 period; the Lois d' Oleroii is anterior to the twelfth century, and ruled the 
 western coasts of France, being also adopted in Flanders and in England ; 
 Venice dated her most ancient law on maritime rights from 1250, and the 
 Statutes of Marseilles date from 1254. 
 

CO.V.irERCE. zt,. 
 
 The period of the establishment of commercial law and justice corresponds 
 with that of the introduction of national and universal codes of law and 
 consular jurisdiction. These may be said to have originated in the sixth 
 century in the laws of the Visigoths, winch empowered foreign traders to be 
 judged by delegates from their own countries. The Venetians had consuls 
 in the Greek empire as early as the tenth century, and wo may fairly presume 
 that the French had consuls in Palestine during the reign of Charlemagne. 
 In the thirteenth century the towns of Italy had consular agents in France ; 
 and Marseilles had them in Savoy, in Aries, and in Genoa. Thus traders of 
 each country were always sure of finding justice, assistance, and protection 
 in all the centres of European commerce. 
 
 Numerous facilities tor barter were added to these advantages. Merchants, 
 who at hist travelled with their merchandise, and who afterwards merely 
 sent a factor as their representative, finally consigned it to foreign agents. 
 Communication by correspondence in this way became more general, and 
 paper replaced parchment as being less rare and less expensive. The intro- 
 duction of Arabic figures, which were more convenient than the Roman 
 numerals for making calculations, the establishment of banks, of which the 
 most ancient was in operation in Venice as early as the twelfth century, the 
 invention of bills of exchange, attributed to the Jews, and generally in use in 
 tlie thirteenth century, the establishment of insurance against the risks and 
 perils of sea and land, and lastly, the formation of trading companies, or what 
 are now called partnerships, all tended to give expansion and activity to 
 commerce, whereby public and private wealth was increased in spite of 
 obstacles which routine, envy, ami ill-will persistently raised against great 
 commercial enterprises. 
 
 For a long time the French, through indolence or antipathy — for it was 
 more to their liking to lie occupied with arms and chivalry than with matters 
 of interest and profit — took but a. feeble part in the trade which was carried 
 on so successfully on their own territory. The nobles were ashamed to mix 
 in commerce, considering it unworthy of them, and the bourgeois, tor want, 
 of liberal feeling and expansiveness in their ideas, were satisfied with appro- 
 priating merely local trade. Foreign commerce, even of the most lucrative 
 description, was handed over to foreigners, and especially to Jews, who were 
 often banished from the kingdom and as frequently ransomed, though 
 universally despised and hated. Notwithstanding this, they succeeded in 
 
264 
 
 COMMERCE. 
 
 rising to wealth under the stigma of shame and infamy, and the immense 
 gains which they realised by means of usury reconciled them to, and consoled 
 them for, the ill-treatment to which they were subjected. 
 
 At a very early period, and especially when the Jews had been absolutely 
 expelled, the advantage of exclusively trading with and securing the rich profits 
 from France had attracted the Italians, who were frequently only Jews in 
 
 Fie;. 199. — Discovery of America, 12th of May, 1492. — Columbus erects the Cross and baptizes the 
 Isle of Guanahani (now Cat Island, one of the Bahamas) by the Christian Name of St. Salvador.— 
 From a Stamp engraved on Copper by Th.de Bry, in the Collection of " Grands Voyages," 
 in folio, 1590. 
 
 disguise, concealing themselves as to their character under the generic name 
 of Lombards. It was under this name that the French kings gave them on 
 different occasions various privileges, when they frequented the fairs of 
 Champagne and came to establish themselves in the inland and seaport 
 towns. These Italians constituted the great corporation of money-changers 
 in Paris, and hoarded in their coffers all the coin of the kingdom, and in this 
 
COMMERCE. 2 6 5 
 
 way caused a perpetual variation in the value of money, by which they 
 themselves benefited. 
 
 In the sixteenth century the wars of Italy rather changed matters, and 
 we find royal and important concessions increasing- in favour of Castilians 
 and other Spaniards, whom the people maliciously called negroes, and who had 
 emigrated in order to engage in commerce and manufactures in Saintonge, 
 Normandy, Burgundy, Agenois, and Languedoc. 
 
 About the time of Louis XL, the French, becoming more alive to their 
 true interests, began to manage their own affairs, following the sus'2'es- 
 tions and advice of the King, whose democratic instincts prompted him to 
 encourage and favour the bourgeois. This result was also attributable to 
 the state of peace and security which then began to exist in the kingdom, 
 impoverished and distracted as it had been by a hundred years of domestic 
 and foreign warfare. 
 
 From 1365 to 1382 factories and warehouses were founded by Norman 
 navigators on the western coast of Africa, in Senegal and Guinea. Numerous 
 fleets of merchantmen, of great size for those days, were employed in trans- 
 porting cloth, grain of all kinds, knives, brandy, salt, and other merchandise, 
 which were bartered for leather, ivory, gum, amber, and gold dust. Con- 
 siderable profits were realised by the shipowners and merchants, who, like 
 Jacques Cceur, employed ships for the purpose of carrying on these large and 
 lucrative commercial operations. These facts sufficiently testify the condition 
 of France at this period, and prove that this, like other branches of human 
 industry, was arrested in its expansion by the political troubles which 
 followed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 
 
 Fortunately these social troubles were not universal, and it was just at 
 the period when France was struggling and had become exhausted and 
 impoverished that the Portuguese extended their discoveries on the same 
 coast of Africa, and soon after succeeded in rounding the Cape of Good 
 Hope, and opening a new maritime road to India, a country which was 
 always attractive from the commercial advantages which it ottered. 
 
 Some years after, Christopher Columbus, the Genoese, more daring and 
 more fortunate still, guided by the compass and impelled by his own genius, 
 discovered a new continent, the fourth continent of the world (Fig. 199). 
 This unexpected event, the greatest and most remarkable of the age, neces- 
 sarily enlarged the field for produce as well as for consumption to an 
 
 M M 
 
2 66 COMMERCE. 
 
 enormous extent, and naturally added, not only to the variety and quantity 
 of exchangeable wares, but also to the production of the precious metals, and 
 brought about a complete revolution in the laws of the whole civilised world. 
 
 Maritime commerce immediately acquired an extraordinary development, 
 and merchants, forsaking the harbours of the Mediterranean, and even those 
 of the Levant, which then seemed to them scarcely worthy of notice, sent 
 their vessels by thousands upon the ocean in pursuit of the wonderful riches 
 of the New World. The day of caravans and coasting had passed ; Venice 
 had lost its splendour ; the sway of the Mediterranean was over ; the com- 
 merce of the world was suddenly transferred from the active and industrious 
 towns of that sea, which had so long monopolized it, to the Western 
 nations, to the Portuguese and (Spaniards first, and then to the Dutch and 
 English. 
 
 France, absorbed in, and almost rained by civil war, and above all by 
 religious dissensions, only played a subordinate part in this commercial and 
 pacific revolution, although it has been said that the sailors of Dieppe and 
 Ilonfleur really discovered America before Columbus. Nevertheless the 
 kings of France, Louis XII., Francis I., and Henry II., tried to establish 
 and encourage transatlantic voyages, and to create, in the interest of French 
 commerce, colonies on the coasts of the New World, from Florida and 
 Virginia to Canada. 
 
 But these colonies had but a precarious and transitory existence ; fisheries 
 alone succeeded, and French commerce continued insignificant, circumscribed, 
 and domestic, notwithstanding the increasing requirements of luxury at 
 court. This luxury contented itself with the use of the merchandise which 
 arrived from the Low Countries, Spain, and Italy. National industry did 
 all in its power to surmount this ignominious condition ; she specially turned 
 her attention to the manufacture of silks and of stuff's tissued with gold and 
 silver. The only practical attempt of the government in the sixteenth 
 century to protect commerce and manufactures was to forbid the import of 
 foreign merchandise, and to endeavour to oppose the progress of luxury by 
 rigid enactments. 
 
 Certainly the government of that time little understood the advantages 
 which a country derived from commerce when it forbade the higher classes 
 from engaging in mercantile pursuits under penalty of having their privileges 
 of nobility withdrawn from them. In the face of the examples of Italy, 
 
COMMERCE. 
 
 267 
 
 Genoa, Venice, and especially of Florence, where the nobles were all traders 
 or sons of traders, the kings of (lie line of Valois thought proper to make 
 this enactment. The desire seemed to be to make the merchant class a 
 separate class, stationary, and consisting exclusively of bourgeois, shut up 
 in their counting-houses, and prevented in every way from participating in 
 
 Pig. 200.— Medal to commemorate the Association of the Merchants of the City of Rouen. 
 
 public life. The merchants became indignant at this banishment, and, 
 in order to employ their leisure, they plunged with all their energy into 
 the sanguinary struggles of Reform and of the League. 
 
 It was not until the reign of II. airy IV. that they again confined them- 
 selves to their occupations as merchants, when Sully published the political 
 suggestions of his master for renewing commercial prosperity. From this 
 
268 
 
 COMMERCE. 
 
 time a new era commenced in the commercial destiny of France. Commerce 
 fostered and protected by statesmen, sought to extend its operations with 
 greater freedom and power. Companies were formed at Paris, Marseilles 
 Lyons, and Rouen to carry French merchandise all over the world, and the 
 rules of the mercantile associations, in spite of the routine and jealousies 
 which guided the trade corporations, became the code which afterwards 
 
 3S'ulated 
 
 commerce 
 
 (Fig. 200). 
 
 £ 
 
 Fig. 201. -Standard Weight in Brass of the Fish-market at Mans : Sign of the Syren (End of the 
 
 Sixteenth Century). 
 
GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 Uncertain Origin of Corporations. — Ancient Industrial Associations. — The Germanic Guild. — 
 Colleges. — Teutonic Associations. — The Paris Company for the Transit of Merchandise by 
 Water. — Corporations properly so called. — Etienne Boileau's "Book of Trades," or the First 
 Code of Regulations. — The Laws governing Trades. — Public ami Private Organization of Trade 
 Corporations and other Communities. — Energy of the Corporations. — Masters, Journeymen, 
 Supernumeraries, and Apprentices. — Religious Festivals and Trade Societies. — Trade Unions. 
 
 EARNED authorities have frequently 
 discussed, without agreeing, on the 
 question of the origin of the Corpora- 
 tions of the Middle Ages. It may 
 be admitted, we think a priori, that 
 associations of artisans were as ancient 
 as the trades themselves. It may 
 readily be imagined that the nume- 
 rous members of the industrial classes, 
 having to maintain and defend their 
 common rights and common interests, 
 would have sought to establish mutual fraternal associations among them- 
 selves. The deeper we dive into ancient history the clearer we perceive 
 traces, more or less distinct, of these kinds of associations. To cite only two 
 examples, which may serve to some extent as an historical parallel to the 
 analogous institutions of the present day, we may mention the Roman 
 Colleges, which were really leagues of artisans following the same calling ; 
 and the Scandinavian guilds, whose object was to assimilate the different 
 branches of industry and trade, either of a city or of some particular district. 
 Indeed, brotherhoods amongst the labouring classes always existed under 
 the German conquerors from the moment when Europe, so long divided into 
 Roman provinces, shook off the yoke of subjection to Rome, although she 
 still adhered to the laws and customs of the nation which had held her in 
 subjection for so many generations. We can, however, only regard the few 
 
2 7 o GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 traces which remain of these brotherhoods as evidence of their having once 
 existed, and not as indicative of their having been in a flourishing state. In 
 the fifth century, the Hermit Ampelius, in his " Legends of the Saints," 
 mentions Consuls or Chiefs of Locksmiths. The Corporation of Goldsmiths is 
 spoken of as existing in the first dynasty of the French kings. Bakers are 
 named collectively in 630 in the laws of Dagobert, which seems to show that 
 they formed a sort of trade union at that remote period. We also see 
 Charlemagne, in several of his statutes, taking steps in order that the 
 number of persons engaged in providing food of different kinds should 
 everywhere be adequate to provide for the necessities of consumption, which 
 would tend to show a general organization of that most important branch of 
 industry. In Lombardy colleges of artisans were established at an early 
 period, and were, no doubt, on the model of the Roman ones. Ravenna, in 
 943, possessed a College of Fishermen ; and ten years later the records of that 
 town mention a Chief of the Corporation of Traders, and, in 1001, a Chief of 
 the Corporation of Butchers. France at the same time kept up a remembrance 
 of the institutions of Roman Gaul, and the ancient colleges of trades still 
 formed associations and companies in Paris and in the larger towns. In 
 1061 King Philip I. granted certain privileges to Master Chandlers and 
 Oilmen. The ancient customs of the butchers are mentioned as early as the 
 time of Louis VII., 1162. The same king granted to the wife of Ives 
 Laccobre and her heirs the collectorship of the dues which were payable by 
 tanners, purse-makers, curriers, and shoemakers. Under Philip Augustus 
 similar concessions became more frequent, and it is evident that at that time 
 trade was beginning to take root and to require special and particular 
 administration. This led to regulations being drawn up for each trade, to 
 which Philip Augustus gave his sanction. In 1182 he confirmed the statutes 
 of the butchers, and the furriers and drapers also obtained favourable conces- 
 sions from him. 
 
 According to the learned Augustin Thierry, corporations, like civic com- 
 munities, were engrafted on previously existing guilds, such as on the colleges 
 or corporations of workmen, which were of Roman origin. In the guild, which 
 signifies a banquet at common expense, there was a mutual assurance against 
 misfortunes and injuries of all sorts, such as fire and shipwreck, and also 
 against all lawsuits incurred for offences and crimes, even though they were 
 proved against the accused. Each of these associations was placed under 
 
GUILDS AXD TRADE CORPORA 770XS. 
 
 2 7' 
 
 the patronage of a god or of a hero, and had its compulsory statutes; each 
 had its chief or president chosen from among- the members, and a common 
 treasury supplied by annual contributions. Roman colleges, as wo have 
 already stated, were established with a more special purpose, and were more 
 exclusively confined to the peculiar trade to which they belonged ; but these, 
 equally with the guilds, possessed a common exchequer, enjoyed equal rights 
 and privileges, elected their own presidents, and celebrated in common their 
 sacrifices, festivals, and banquets. We have, therefore, good reason for 
 
 Fig. 202. — Craftsmen in the Fourteenth Century. — Fae-simile of a Miniature of a Manuscript in 
 
 the Library of Brussels. 
 
 agreeing in the opinion of the celebrated historian, who considers that in the 
 establishment of a corporation "the guild should be to a certain degree the 
 motive power, and the Roman college, with its organization, the material 
 which should be used to bring it into existence." 
 
 It is certain, however, that during several centuries corporations were 
 either dissolved or hidden from public notice, for they almost entirely 
 disappeared from the historic records during the partial return to barbarism, 
 when the production of objects of daily necessity and the preparation of food 
 were entrusted to slaves under the eye of their master. Not till the twelfth 
 
2 72 GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 century did they again begin to nourish, and, as might be supposed, it was 
 Italy which gave the signal for the resuscitation of the institutions whose 
 birthplace had been Rome, and which barbarism, had allowed to fall into 
 decay. Brotherhoods of artisans were also founded at an early period in 
 the north of Gaul, whence they rapidly spread beyond the Rhine. Under 
 the Emperor Henry I., that is, during the tenth century, the ordinary con- 
 dition of artisans in Germany was still serfdom ; but two centuries later the 
 greater number of trades in most of the large towns of the empire had con- 
 gregated together in colleges or bodies under the name of unions {Einnungen 
 or Imvungen) (Fig. 202), as, for example, at Gozlar, at Wurzburg, at Bruns- 
 wick, &c. These colleges, however, were not established without much 
 difficulty and without the energetic resistance of the ruling powers, inasmuch 
 as they often raised their pretensions so high as to wish to substitute their 
 authority for the senatorial law, and thus to grasjj the government of the cities. 
 The thirteenth century witnessed obstinate and sanguinary feuds between these 
 two parties, each of which was alternately victorious. Whichever had the 
 upper hand took advantage of the opportunity to carry out the most cruel 
 reprisals against its defeated opponents. The emperors Frederick II. and 
 Henry VII. tried to put an end to these strifes hy abolishing the corporations 
 of workmen, but these powerful associations fearlessly opposed the imperial 
 authority. In France the organization of communities of artisans, an 
 organization which in many ways was connected with the commercial move- 
 ment, but which must not be confounded with it, did not give rise to any 
 political difficulty. It seems not even to have met with any opposition 
 from the feudal powers, who no doubt found it an easy pretext for levying 
 additional rates and taxes. 
 
 The most ancient of these corporations was the Parisian Hanse, or cor- 
 poration of the bourgeois for canal navigation, which probably dates its 
 origin back to the college of Parisian Nautex, existing before the Roman 
 conquest. This mercantile association held its meetings in the island of 
 Lutetia, on the very spot where the church of Notre-Dame was afterwards 
 built. From the earliest days of monarchy tradesmen constituted entirely 
 the bourgeois of the towns (Fig. 203). Above them were the nobility or 
 clergy, beneath them the artisans. Hence we can understand how the 
 bourgeois, who during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were a distinct 
 section of the community, became at last the important commercial body 
 
GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 2 li 
 
 itself. The kings invariably treated them with favour. Louis VI. granted them 
 new rights, Louis A IT. confirmed their ancient privileges, and Philip Augustus 
 increased them. The Parisian Hanse succeeded in monopolizing all the 
 commerce which was carried on by water on the Seine and the Yonno between 
 Mantes and Auxerre. No merchandise coming up or down the stream in 
 boats could be disembarked in the interior of Paris without becoming, as it 
 were, the property of the corporation, which, through its agents, superintended 
 its measurement and its sale in bulk, and, up to a certain point, its sale by 
 
 'wimi^tmB' 
 
 Fig. 203— Merchants or Tradesmen of the Fourteenth I 'entury.— Fac-bimile of ;i Miniature in a 
 Manuscript of the Library at Brussels. 
 
 retail. No foreign merchant was permitted to send his goods to Paris without 
 first obtaining kttres dc LTansr, whereby he had associated with him a bourgeois 
 of the town, who acted as his guarantee, and who shared in his profits. 
 
 There were associations of the same kind in most of the' commercial towns 
 situated on the banks of rivers and on the sea-coast, as, for example, at Rouen, 
 Aries, Marseilles, Narbonne, Toulouse, Ratisbon, Augsburg, and Utrecht. 
 Sometimes neighbouring towns, such as the great manufacturing cities of 
 Flanders, agreed together and entered into a leagued bond, which gave them 
 greater power, and constituted an offensive and defensive compact (bis. 20 ). 
 
 \ \ 
 
2 7+ 
 
 GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 A typical example of this last institution is that of the commercial association 
 of the Han&eatic Tonus of Germany, which were grouped together to the 
 number of eighty around their four capitals, viz., Lubeck, Cologne, Dantzic 
 and Brunswick. 
 
 Although, as we have already seen, previous to the thirteenth century 
 many of the corporations of artisans had been authorised by several of the 
 kings of France to make special laws whereby they might govern them- 
 
 Fig. 204.— Seal of the United Trades of Ghent (End of the Fifteenth Century). 
 
 selves, it was really only from the reign of St. Louis that the first general 
 measures of administration and police relating to these communities can 
 be dated. The King appointed Etienne Boileau, a rich bourgeois, provost 
 of the capital in 1261, to set to work to establish order, wise administration, 
 and " good faith " in the commerce of Paris. To this end he ascertained 
 from the verbal testimony of the senior members of each corporation the 
 customs and usages of the various crafts, which for the most part up to that 
 
GUILDS A XT) TRADE CORPORATIONS. 2 ~ 5 
 
 time had not been committed to writing. He arranged and probably 
 amended them in many ways, and thus composed the famous " Book of 
 Trades," which, as M. Depping, the able editor of this valuable compilation, 
 first published in 1837, says, " has the advantage of being to a great extent 
 the genuine production of the corporations themselves, and not a list of rules 
 established and framed by the municipal or judicial authorities." From that 
 time corporations gradually introduced themselves into the order of society. 
 The royal decrees in their favour were multiplied, and the regulations with 
 regard to mechanical trades daily improved, not only in Paris and in the 
 provinces, but also abroad, both in the south and in the north of Europe, 
 especially in Italy, Germany, England, and the Low Countries (Figs. 205 to 
 213). 
 
 Etienne Boileau's " Book of Trades " contained the rules of one hundred 
 different trade associations. It must be observed, however, that several of 
 the most important Trades, such as the butchers, tanners, glaziers, &c, were 
 omitted, either because they neglected to be registered at the Chatelet, where 
 the inquiry superintended by Boileau was made, or because some private 
 interest induced them to keep aloof from this registration, which probably 
 imposed some sort of tine and a tax upon them. In the following century 
 the number of trade associations considerably increased, and wonderfully so 
 during: the reig-ns of the last of the Valois and the first of the Bourbons. 
 
 The historian of the antiquities of Paris, Henry Sauval, enumerated no 
 fewer than fifteen hundred and fifty-one trade associations in the capital alone 
 in the middle of the seventeenth century. It must be remarked, however, 
 that the societies of artisans were much subdivided owing to the simple fact 
 that each craft could only practise its own special work. Thus, in Boileau's 
 book, we find four different corporations of patenotriers, or makers of chaplcts, 
 six of hatters, six of weavers, &c. 
 
 Besides these societies of artisans, there were in Paris a few privileged 
 corporations, which occupied a more important position, and were known 
 under the name of Corps dess Marchancls. Their number at first frequently 
 varied, but finally it was settled at six, and they were termed les Six Corps. 
 They comprised the drapers, which always took precedence of the five others, 
 the grocers, the mercers, the furriers, the hatters, and the goldsmiths. These 
 five for a long time disputed the question of precedence, and finally they 
 decided the matter by lot, as they were not able to agree in any other way. 
 
ijh 
 
 GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 Fig. 205. — Seal of the Corpo- 
 ration of Carpenters of St. 
 Trond (Belgium) — From an 
 Impression preserved in the 
 ArchivesofthatTown(1481). 
 
 Fig. 206.— Seal of the Cor- 
 poration of Shoemakers 
 of St. Trond, from a Map 
 of 1481, preserved in the 
 Archives of that Town . 
 
 Fig. 207.— Seal of the Cor- 
 poration of Wool-weavers 
 of Hasselt (Belgium), from 
 a Parchment Title-deed of 
 June 25, 1574. 
 
 Fig. 208.— Seal of the Cor- 
 poration of Clothworkers 
 of Bruges (1356). — From an 
 Impression preserved in the 
 Archives of that Town. 
 
 Fig. 209—Seal of the Cor- 
 poration of Fullers of St. 
 Trond (about 1350). — 
 From an Impression pre- 
 served in the Archives of 
 that Town. 
 
 Fig. 210. — Seal of the Corpora- 
 tion of Joiners of Bruges 
 (1356). — From an Impres- 
 sion preserved in the Ai chives 
 of that Town. 
 
 Fig. 211.— Token of the Cor- Fig. 212.— Token of the Cor- Fig. 213.— Funeral Token of 
 poration of Carpenters of poration of Carpenters of the Corporation of Carpen- 
 
 Antwerp. ters of Maestricht. 
 
 SI aestricht. 
 
GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 2 11 
 
 Trades. 
 Fac-simile of Engravings on 'Wood, designed and engraved by .T. Amman, in fhe Sixteenth < 'ml urv 
 
 Kj. 214— Clothworker. 
 
 Fig. 21.5.— Tailor. 
 
 Fig. 216.— Hatter 
 
 Fig. 217.— Dyer. 
 
2 ? S 
 
 GUILDS AXD TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 Trades. 
 Fac-simile of Engravings on Wood, designed and engraved by J. Amman, in the Sixteenth Centurv. 
 
 Fig. 219.— Barber. 
 
 Fig. 220.— Goldsmith. 
 
 Fig. 221.— Goldbeater. 
 
GUILDS AXD TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 279 
 
 Trades. 
 Fae-simileof Engravings onAVood, designed and engraved by J. Amman, in the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 Fig. 222.— Pin and Needle Maker 
 
 Fig. 223.— Clasp-maker. 
 
 Fig. 224.— Wire-worker. 
 
 Fig. 225. — Dice-maker. 
 
280 
 
 GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 Trades. 
 Fac-simile of Engravings on Wood, designed and engraved by J. Amman, in the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 Fisf. 226. — Sword-maker. 
 
 Fig. 227. — Armourer. 
 
 Fig. 228. — Spur-maker. 
 
 Fig. 229. — Shoemaker. 
 
GUILDS A XT) TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 Trades. 
 Fae-simile of Engravings on Wood, designed and engraved by J. Amman, in (he Sixteenth ( 'entury. 
 
 Fig. 230. — Basin-maker. 
 
 Fig. 231. — Tinman. 
 
 Fig. 232.— Coppersmith. 
 
 Fig. 233.— Bell and Cannon Caster. 
 
282 GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 Apart from the privilege which these six bodies of merchants exclu- 
 sively enjoyed of being called upon to appear, though at their own expense, 
 in the civic processions and at the public ceremonials, and to carry the canopy 
 over the heads of kings, queens, or princes on their state entry into the capital 
 (Fig. 234), it would be difficult to specify the nature of the privileges 
 which were granted to them, and of which they were so jealous. It is clear, 
 however, that these six bodies were imbued with a kind of aristocratic spirit 
 which made them place trading much above handicraft in their own class, 
 and set a high value on their calling as merchants. Thus contemporary 
 historians tell us that any merchant who compromised the dignity of the 
 company " fell into the class of the lower orders ;" that mercers boasted of 
 excluding from their body the upholsterers, " who were but artisans;" that 
 hatters, who were admitted into the Six Corps to replace one of the other 
 trades, became in consequence " merchants instead of artisans, which they 
 had been up to that time." 
 
 Notwithstanding the statutes so carefully compiled and revised by Etienne 
 Boileau and his successors, and in spite of the numerous arbitrary rules which 
 the sovereigns, the magistrates, and the corporations themselves strenuously 
 endeavoured to frame, order and unity were far from governing the commerce 
 and industry of Paris during the Middle Ages, and what took place in Paris 
 generally repeated itself elsewhere. Serious disputes continually arose 
 between the authorities and those amenable to their jurisdiction, and between 
 the various crafts themselves, notwithstanding the relation which they bore 
 to each other from the similarity of their employments. 
 
 In fact in this, as in many other matters, social disorder often emanated 
 from the powers whose duty it was in the first instance to have repressed it. 
 Thus, at the time when Philip Augustus extended the boundaries of his 
 capital so as to include the boroughs in it, which until then had been 
 separated from the city, the lay and clerical lords, under whose feudal 
 dominion those districts had hitherto been placed, naturally insisted upon pre- 
 serving all their rights. So forcibly did they do this that the King was obliged 
 to recognise their claims ; and in several boroughs, including the Bourg 
 l'Abbe, the Beau Bourg, the Bourg St. Grermain, and the Bourg Auxerrois, 
 etc., there were trade associations completely distinct from and independent 
 of those of ancient Paris. If we simply limit our examination to that of the 
 condition of the trade associations which held their authority immediately 
 
GUILDS AXI) TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 283 
 
 from royalty, we still see that the causes of confusion were by no means 
 trifling ; for the majority of the high officers of the crown, acting as delegates 
 of the royal authority, were always disputing amongst themselves the right 
 of superintending, protecting, judging, punishing, and, above all, of exacting 
 tribute from the members of the various trades. The King granted to various 
 officers the privilege of arbitrarily disposing of the freedom of each trade 
 for their own profit, and thereby gave them power over all the merchants 
 and craftsmen who were officially connected with them, not only in Paris, 
 
 Fig. 234.— Group of Goldsmiths preceding the Chuss, <le tit. Mnrcel in the Reign of Louis XIII.— 
 From a Copperplate of the Period (Cabinet of Stamps in the National Library of Paris). 
 
 but also throughout the whole kingdom. Thus the lord chamberlain had 
 jurisdiction over the drapers, mercers, furriers, shoemakers, tailors, and other 
 dealers in articles of wearing apparel ; the barbers were governed by the 
 king's varlet and barber; the head baker was governor over the bakers; and 
 the head butler over the wine-merchants. 
 
 These state officers granted freedoms to artisans, or, in other words, they 
 gave them the right to exercise such and such a craft with assistants or 
 companions, exacting for the performance of this trifling act a very con- 
 siderable tax. And, as they preferred receiving their revenues without the 
 
28 4 
 
 GUILDS AXD TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 annoyance of having- direct communication with their humble subjects, they 
 appointed deputies, who were authorised to collect them in their names. 
 The most celebrated of these deputies were the rots des merciers, who lived on 
 
 Fig. 235.— Banner of the Corporation of the United Boot and Shoe Makers of Issoudun. 
 
 the fat of the land in complete idleness, and who were surrounded by a mer- 
 cantile court, which appeared in all its splendour at the trade festivals. 
 
 The great officers of the crown exercised in their own interests, and 
 without a thought for the public advantage, a complete magisterial juris- 
 diction over all crafts ; they adjudicated in disputes arising between masters 
 and men, decided quarrels, visited, either personally or through their 
 
GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 deputies, the houses of the merchants, in order to discover frauds or infrac- 
 tions in the rules of the trade, and levied tines accordingly. We must 
 remember that the collectors of court dues had always to contend for the free 
 exercise of their jurisdiction against the provost of Paris, who considered 
 their acquisitions of authority as interfering with his personal prerogatives, 
 and who therefore persistently opposed them on all occasions. For instance, 
 if the head baker ordered an artisan of the same trade to be imprisoned in 
 the Chatelet, the high provost, who was governor of the prison, released him 
 immediately ; and, in retaliation, if the high provost punished a baker, the 
 chief baker warmly espoused his subordinate's cause. At other times the 
 artisans, if they were dissatisfied with the deputy appointed by the great 
 officer of the crown, whose dependents they were, would refuse to recognise 
 his authority. In this way constant quarrels and interminable lawsuits 
 occurred, and it is easy to understand the disorder which must have arisen 
 from such a state of things. By degrees, however, and in consequence of 
 the new tendencies of royalty, which were simply directed to the diminution 
 of feudal power, the numerous jurisdictions relating to the various trades 
 gradually returned to the hand of the municipal provostship ; and this con- 
 centration of power had the best results, as well for the public good as for 
 that of the corporations themselves. 
 
 Having examined into corporations collectively and also into their general 
 administration, we will now turn to consider their internal organization. It 
 was only after long and difficult struggles that these trade associations 
 succeeded in taking a definite and established position ; without, however, 
 succeeding at any time in organizing themselves as one body on the same 
 basis and with the same privileges. Therefore, in pointing out the influential 
 character of these institutions generally, we must omit various matters 
 specially connected with individual associations, which it would be impossible 
 to mention in this brief sketch. 
 
 In the fourteenth century, the period when the communities of crafts 
 were at the height of their development and power, no association of artisans 
 could legally exist without a license either from the king, the lord, the prince, 
 the abbot, the bailiff, or the mayor of the district in wdiieh it proposed to 
 establish itself. 
 
 These communities had their statutes and privileges ; they were dis- 
 tinguished at public ceremonials by their liveries or special dress, as well as 
 
2 80 GUILDS AXD TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 Fig. 236. — Banner of the Tilers 
 of Paris, with the Aimorial 
 
 Bearings of the Corporation. 
 
 Fig' 237. — Banner of the Kail- 
 makers of Paris, with Armorial 
 Bearings of the Corporation. 
 
 Fig. 238.— Banner of theHarnesa- 
 makers of Paris, with the 
 Armorial Bearings of the Cor- 
 poration. 
 
 Fig. 239.— Banner of the Wheel- 
 wrights of Paris, with the 
 Armorial Bearings of the Cor- 
 poration. 
 
 Fig. 240. — Banner of theTanners 
 of Vic, with the Patron Saint 
 of the Corporation. 
 
 Fig. 241. — Banner of the Weavers 
 of Poulon, with the Patron 
 Saint of the Corporation. 
 
GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 287 
 
 by their arms and banners (Figs. 235 to 241). They possessed the riffht 
 freely to discuss their general interests, and at meetings composed of all their 
 members they might modify their statutes, provided that such changes were 
 confirmed by the King or by the authorities. It was also necessary that these 
 meetings, at which the royal delegates were present, should lie duly authorised ; 
 and, lastly, so as to render the communication between members more easy, 
 and to facilitate everything -which concerned the interests of the craft, artisans 
 
 Fig. 242. — Ceremonial Dress of an Elder and a Juror of the Corporation ..fold Shoemakers of Client. 
 
 of the same trade usually resided in the same quarter of the town, and even 
 in the same street. The names of many streets in Paris and other towns of 
 France testify to this custom, which still partially exists in the towns of 
 Germany and Italy. 
 
 The communities of artisans had, to a certain extent, the character and 
 position of private individuals. They had the power in their corporate 
 capacity of holding and administrating property, of defending or bringing 
 
288 GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 actions at law, of accepting inheritances, &c. ; they disbursed from a common 
 treasury, which was supplied by legacies, donations, fines, and periodical 
 subscriptions. 
 
 These communities exercised in addition, through their jurors, a magis- 
 terial authority, and even, under some circumstances, a criminal jurisdiction 
 over their members. For a long time they strove to extend this last power or 
 to keep it independent of municipal control and the supreme courts, by which 
 it was curtailed to that of exercising a simple police authority strictly confined 
 to persons or things relating to the craft. They carefully watched for any 
 infractions of the rules of the trade. They acted as arbitrators between master 
 and man, particularly in quarrels when the parties had had recourse to violence. 
 The functions of this kind of domestic magistracy were exercised by officers 
 known under various names, such as kings, masters, elders, guards, syndics, 
 and jurors, who were besides charged to visit the workshops at any hour 
 they pleased in order to see that the laws concerning the articles of work- 
 manship were observed. They also received the taxes for the benefit of the 
 association ; and, lastly, they examined the apprentices and installed masters 
 into their office (Fig. 242). 
 
 The jurors, or syndics, as they were more usually called, and whose 
 number varied according to the importance or numerical force of the cor- 
 poration, were generally elected by the majority of votes of their fellow- 
 workmen, though sometimes the choice of these was entirely in the hands of 
 the great officers of state. It was not unfrequent to find women amongst 
 the dignitaries of the arts and crafts ; and the professional tribunals, which 
 decided every question relative to the community and its members, were 
 often held by an equal number of masters and associate craftsmen. The 
 jealous, exclusive, and inflexible spirit of caste, which in the Middle Ages 
 is to be seen almost everywhere, formed one of the principal features of 
 industrial associations. The admission of new members was surrounded with 
 conditions calculated to restrict the number of associates and to discourage 
 candidates. The sons of masters alone enjoyed hereditary privileges, in 
 consequence of which they were always allowed to be admitted without being 
 subjected to the tyrannical yoke of the association. 
 
 Generally the members of a corporation were divided into three distinct 
 classes — the masters, the paid assistants or companions, and the apprentices. 
 Apprenticeship, from which the sons of masters were often exempted, began 
 
GUILDS AXD TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 2 Sf, 
 
 between the ages of twelve ami seventeen years, and lasted from two to five 
 years. In most of the trades the master could only receive one apprentice in 
 his house besides his own son. Tanners, dyers, and goldsmiths were allowed 
 one of their relatives in addition, or a second apprentice if they had no 
 relation willing to learn their trade; and although some commoner trades, 
 such as butchers and 1 iakei'8, were allowed an unlimited number of apprentices, 
 the custom of restriction had become a sort of general law, with the object 
 of limiting the number of masters and workmen to the requirements of the 
 
 Fig. 243.— Bootmaker's Apprentice working at a Trial-piece.— From a Window of the. Thirteenth 
 Century, published by Messrs. Cahier and Martin. 
 
 rablic. The position of paid assistant or companion was required to be held 
 in many trades for a certain length of time before promotion to mastership 
 could be obtained. 
 
 WLen apprentices or companions wished to become masters, they were 
 called aspirants, and were subjected to successive examinations. They were 
 particularly required to prove their ability by executing what was termed a 
 chef -d' mitre, which consisted in fabricating a perfect specimen of whatever 
 craft they practised. The execution of the chef- d' autre gave rise to many 
 technical formalities, which were at times most frivolous. The aspirant 
 
 p p 
 
2go 
 
 GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 in certain cases had to pass a technical examination, as, for instance, 
 the barber in forging and polishing lancets ; the wool- weaver in making 
 and adjusting the different parts of his loom ; and during the period of 
 executing the chef-d'oeuvre, which often extended over several months, the 
 aspirant was deprived of all communication with his fellows. He had to 
 work at the office of the association, which was called the bureau, under the 
 eyes of the jurors or syndics, who, often after an angry debate, issued their 
 judgment upon the merits of the work and the capability of the workman 
 (Figs. 243 and '244). 
 
 J"ig. 244. — Carpenter's Apprentice working at a Trial-piece. — From one of the Stalls called 
 Misericordes, in Kouen Cathedral (Fifteenth Century). 
 
 On his admission the aspirant had first to take again the oath of allegiance 
 to the King before the provost or civil deputy, although he had already done 
 so on commencing his apprenticeship. He then had to pay a duty or fee, 
 which was divided between the sovereign or lord and the brotherhood, from 
 which fee the sons of masters always obtained a considerable abatement. 
 Often, too, the husbands of the daughters of masters were exempted from 
 paying the duties. A few masters, such as the goldsmiths and the cloth- 
 workers, had besides to pay a sum of money by way of guarantee, which 
 remained in the funds of the craft as long as they carried on the trade. 
 
GUILDS AXD TRADE CORPORATIOXS 
 
 291 
 
 After these forms had been complied with, the masters acquired the exclu- 
 sive privilege of freely exercising their profession. There were, however, 
 certain exceptions to this ride, for a king on his coronation, a prince or 
 princess of the royal blood at the lime of his or her marriage, and, in certain 
 towns, the bishop on his installation, had the right of creating one or more 
 
 S> s4p=^7S 
 
 Pig. 245.— Staircase of the Office of the Goldsmiths of Rouen (Fifteenth Century). The Shield 
 which the Lion holds with his paw shows the Arms of the Goldsmiths of Rouen (Present 
 Condition) . 
 
 masters in each trade, and these received their licence without going through 
 any of the usual formalities. 
 
 A widower or widow might generally continue the craft of the deceased 
 wife or husband who had acquired the freedom, and which thus became the 
 
 The condition, however, was that he or she 
 
 inheritance of the survivor. 
 
2Q2 
 
 GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 did not contract a second marriage with any one who did not belong to the 
 craft. Masters lost their rights directly they worked for any other master 
 and received wages. Certain freedoms, too, were only available in the towns 
 in which they had been obtained. In more than one craft when a family 
 holding the freedom became extinct, their premises and tools became the 
 property of the corporation, subject to an indemnity payable to the next 
 of kin. 
 
 Fiff. 246.— Shops under Covered Market (Goldsmith, Dealer in Stuffs, and Shoemaker) —From a 
 Miniature in Aristotle's " Ethics and Politics," translated by Nicholas Oresme (Manuscript of the 
 Fifteenth Century, Library of Rouen). 
 
 At times, and particularly in those trades where the aspirants were 
 not required to produce a chef-d'eeurre, the installation of masters was 
 accompanied with extraordinary ceremonies, which no doubt originally 
 possessed some symbolical meaning, but which, having lost their true 
 signification, became singular, and appeared even ludicrous. Thus with 
 the bakers, after four years' apprenticeship, the candidate on purchasing the 
 
GUILDS AXD TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 2 Q3 
 
 freedom from the King, issued from his door, escorted by all the other Lakers 
 of the town, hearing a new put filled with walnuts and wafers. On arriving 
 before the chief of the corporation, he said to him, " Master, I have accom- 
 plished mv four years ; here is my pot filled with walnuts and wafers." The 
 assistants in the ceremony having vouched for the truth of this statement, 
 the candidate broke the pot against the wall, and the chief solemnly pro- 
 nounced his admission, which was inaugurated by the older masters emptying 
 a number of tankards of wine or beer at the expense of their new brother. 
 The ceremony was also of a jovial character in the case of the millwrights, 
 who only admitted the candidate after he had received a caning on the 
 shoulders from the last-elected brother. 
 
 dit/iixvalt^ti^at^i^^^ctiiir l \ lick? 
 
 g JteqL^xlautf H 
 
 Ficr. 247.— Fac-simile of the first six Lines on the Copper Tablet on which was engraved, from the 
 year 1470, the Names and Titles of those who were elected Members of the Corporation of 
 Goldsmiths of Ghent. 
 
 The statutes of the corporations, which had the force of law on account 
 of being approved and accepted by royal authority, almost always detailed 
 with the greatest precision the conditions of labour. They fixed the hours 
 arid days for working, the size of the articles to be made, the quality of 
 the stuffs used in their manufacture, and even the price at which they were 
 to be sold (Fig. '240). Night labour was pretty generally forbidden, as 
 likely to produce only imperfect work. We nevertheless find that carpc liters 
 were permitted to make coffins and other funeral articles by night. On the 
 eve of religious feasts the shops were shut earlier than usual, that is to say, 
 at three o'clock, and were not opened on the next day, with the excep- 
 tion of those of pastrycooks, whose assistance was especially required on 
 feast days, and who sold curious varieties of cakes and sweetmeats. Not- 
 
20 + 
 
 GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 withstanding the strictness of the rules and the administrative laws of each 
 trade, which were intended to secure good faith and loyalty between the 
 various members, it is unnecessary to state that they were frequently 
 violated. The fines which were then imposed on delinquents constituted an, 
 important source of revenue, not only to the corporations themselves, but 
 also to the town treasury. The penalty, however, was not always a pecuniary 
 one, for as late as the fifteenth century we have instances of artisans being 
 condemned to death simply for baving adulterated their articles of trade. 
 
 Fig. 248. — Elder and Jurors of the Tanners of the Town of Ghent in Ceremonial Dress. — Fac-simile 
 of a Miniature in a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century. 
 
 This deception was looked upon as of the nature of robbery, which we know 
 to have been for a long time punishable by death. Robbery on the part of 
 merchants found no indulgence nor pardon in those days, and the whole 
 corporation demanded immediate and exemplary justice. 
 
 According to the statutes, which generally tended to prevent frauds and 
 falsifications, in most crafts the masters were bound to put their trade-mark 
 fin their goods, or some particular sign which was to be a guarantee for the 
 purchaser and one means of identifying the culprit in the event of complaints 
 
GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 205 
 
 arising on account of the bad quality or bad workmanship of the articles 
 sold. 
 
 Besides taking various steps to maintain professional integrity, the trainers 
 of the various statutes, as a safeguard to the public interests, undertook 
 also to inculcate morality and good feeling amongst their members. A 
 youth could not be admitted unless he could prove Lis legitimacy of birth 
 by his baptismal register ; and, to obtain the freedom, lie was bound to bear 
 
 Fig-. 249. — Companion Carpenter. — Fragment of a Woodcut of the Fifteenth Century, after a 
 Drawing by Wohlgemuth for the " Chronique de Nuremberg." 
 
 an irreproachable character. Artisans exposed themselves to a reprimand, 
 and even to bodily chastisement, from tire corporation, for even associating 
 with, and certainly for working or drinking with those who had been ex- 
 pelled. Licentiousness and misconduct of anj r kind rendered them liable 
 to be deprived of their mastership. In some trade associations all the 
 members were bound to solemnize the day of the decease of a brother, to 
 assist at his funeral, and to follow him to the grave. In another com- 
 
2 Q 6 GUILDS AND TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 munitjr the slightest indecent or discourteous word was punishable by a 
 fine. A new master could not establish himself in the same street as his 
 former master, except at a distance, which was determined by the statutes ; 
 and, further, no member was allowed to ask for or attract customers when 
 the latter were nearer the shop of his neighbour than of his own. 
 
 In the Middle Ages religion placed its stamp on every occupation and 
 calling, and corporations were careful to maintain this characteristic feature. 
 Each was under the patronage of some saint, who was considered the special 
 protector of the craft ; each possessed a shrine or chapel in some church of 
 the quarter where the trade was located, and some even kept chaplains at 
 their own expense for the celebration of masses which were daily said for 
 the souls of the good deceased members of the craft. These associations, 
 animated by Christian charity, took upon them to invoke the blessings of 
 heaven on all members of the fraternity, and to assist those who were 
 either laid by through sickness or want of work, and to take care of the 
 widows and to help the orphans of the less prosperous craftsmen. They also 
 gave alms to the poor, and presented the broken meat left at their banquets 
 to the hospitals. 
 
 Under the name of gargons, or compagnons de devoir (this surname was at 
 first specially applied to carpenters and masons, who from a very ancient 
 date formed an important association, which was partly secret, and from which 
 Freemasonry traces its origin) (Fig. 250), the companions, notwithstanding 
 that they belonged to the community of their own special craft, also formed 
 distinct corporations among themselves with a view to mutual assistance. 
 They made a point of visiting any foreign workman on his arrival in their 
 town, supplied his first requirements, found him work, and, when work was 
 wanting, the oldest companion gave up his place to him. These associations 
 of companionship, however, soon failed to carry out the noble object for 
 which they were instituted. After a time the meeting together of the 
 fraternity was but a pretext for intemperance and debauchery, and at times 
 their tumultuous processions and indecent masquerades occasioned much 
 disorder in the cities. The facilities which these numerous associations 
 possessed of extending and mutually co-operating with one another also led 
 to coalitions among them for the purpose of securing any advantage which 
 they desired to possess. Sometimes open violence was resorted to to obtain 
 their exorbitant and unjust demands, which greatly excited the industrious 
 
GUILDS AXD TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 2Q7 
 
 classes, and eventually induced the authorities to interfere. Lastly, these 
 brotherhoods gave rise to many violent quarrels, which ended in blows 
 and too often in bloodshed, between workmen of the same craft who took 
 different views on debateable points. The decrees of parliament, the edicts 
 of sovereigns, and the decisions of councils, as early as at the end of 
 the fifteenth century and throughout the whole of the sixteenth, severely 
 proscribed the doings of these brotherhoods, but these interdictions were 
 
 ^•■i\\ o- 
 
 Fig. 2.50.-Carpenters.-Fao-simileof a Miniature in the " Chroninues de Hainaut," Manuscript 
 of the Fifteenth Century, in the Burgundy Library, Brussels. 
 
 never duly and rigidly enforced, and the authorities themselves often 
 tolerated infractions of the law, and thus license was given to every kind 
 
 of abuse. 
 
 We have frequently mentioned in the course of this volume the 
 political part played by the corporations during the Middle Ages. We 
 know the active and important part taken by trades of all descriptions 
 in France in the great movement of the formation of communities. The 
 spirit of fraternal association which constituted the strength of the cor- 
 porations (Fig. 2-11), and which exhibited itself so conspicuously in every 
 act of their public and private life, resisted during several centuries the 
 
 n Q 
 
2f)S 
 
 GUILDS AM) TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 V U 
 
 w. 
 
 ^ : ^(xderd-0§M^E> 
 
 v 
 
 I'ig. 251.— Painting commemorative of the Union of the Merchants of Rouen at the End of the 
 
 Seventeenth Century. 
 
GUILDS AXD TRADE CORPORATIONS. 
 
 2<)<) 
 
 individual ami collective attacks made on it by craftsmen themselves. These 
 rich and powerful corporations began to decline from the moment they 
 ceased to be united, and they were dissolved by law at, the beginning of the 
 revolution of 17S'.t, an act which necessarily dealt a heavy blow to industry 
 and commerce. 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■:.N^ 
 
 
 
 
 % 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' ■ N ^— — i 
 
 
 
 
 
 =WU 
 
 
 Fijr. 2o2.— Banner of the Drapers of Caen. 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 Taxes under the Roman Rule.— Money Exactions of the Merovingian Kings.— Varieties of Money. 
 —Financial Laws under Charlemagne.— Missi Dominici. — Increase of Taxes owing to the 
 Crusades.— Organization of Finances hy Louis J X.— Extortions of Philip le Bel.— Pecuniary 
 Embarrassment of his Successors.— Charles V. re-estahlishes Order in Finances.— Disasters of 
 France under Charles VI., Charles VII., and Jacques Ceeur. — Changes in Taxation from 
 Louis XI to Francis I. — The great Financiers. — Florimond Robertet. 
 
 F we believe Caesar's Commentaries 
 on the Gallic War, the Gauls were 
 groaning in his time under the pres- 
 sure of taxation, and struggled hard 
 to remove it. Rome lightened their 
 burden ; but the fiscal system of the 
 metropolis imperceptibly took root in 
 all the Roman provinces. There was 
 an arbitrary personal tax, called the 
 poll tax, and a land tax which was 
 named cens, calculated according to 
 the area of the holding. Besides these, there were taxes on articles of 
 consumption, on salt, on the import and export of all articles of mer- 
 chandise, on sales 1 >y auction ; also on marriages, on burials, and on houses. 
 There were also legacy and succession duties, and taxes on slaves, accord- 
 ing to their number. Tolls on highways were also created; and the 
 treasury went so far as to tax the hearth. Hence the origin of the name 
 fen, which was afterwards applied to each household or family group 
 assembled in the same house or sitting before the same fire. A number of 
 other taxes sprung up, called sorclides, from which the nobility and the 
 government functionaries were exempt. 
 
 This ruinous system of taxation, rendered still more insupportable by the 
 exactions of the proconsuls, and the violence of their subordinates, went on 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AX J) FINANCE 
 
 3°' 
 
 increasing down to the time of the fall of the Human Empire. The Middle 
 Ages gave birth to a new order of tilings. The municipal administration, 
 composed in great part of G alio- Roman citizens, did not perceptibly deviate 
 from the customs established for live centuries, but each invading nation by 
 degrees introduced new habits and ideas into the countries they subdued. 
 The Germans and Franks, having become masters of part of Gaul, established 
 themselves on the lands which they had divided between them. The great 
 
 Fig. 253.— The Kxtraction of Metals.— Fac-siuiile of a Wuodc-ut in the " (Josmoyraphie 
 Universelle " of Minister, folio : Basle, 1532. 
 
 domains, with their revenues which had belonged to the emperors, naturally 
 became the property of the barbarian chiefs, and served to defray the ex- 
 penses of their houses or their courts. These chiefs, at each general assembly 
 of the Leudes, or great vassals, received presents of money, of arms, oi 
 horses, and of various objects of home or of foreign manufacture. For a 
 long time these gifts were voluntary. The territorial fief, which was given 
 
302 
 
 TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 to those soldiers who Lad deserved it by their military services, involved 
 from the holders a personal service to the King. They had to attend him on 
 his journeys, to follow him to war, and to defend him under all circum- 
 stances. The fief was entirely exempt from taxes. Many misdeeds — even 
 robberies and other crimes, which were ordinarily punishable by death — 
 were pardonable on payment of a proportionate hue, and oaths, in many 
 cases, might be absolved in the same way. Thus a large revenue was 
 received, which was generally divided equally between the State, the 
 procurator fiscal, and the King. 
 
 War, which was almost constant in those turbulent times, furnished the 
 barbarian kings with occasional resources, which were usually much more 
 important than the ordinary supplies from taxation. The first chiefs of the 
 Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, and the Franks, sought means of replenishing 
 their treasuries by their victorious arms. Alaric, Totila, and Olovis thus 
 amassed enormous wealth, without troubling themselves to place the govern- 
 ment finances on a. satisfactory basis. We see, however, a semblance of 
 financial organization in the institutions of Alaric and his successors. 
 Subsequently, the great Theodoric, who had studied the administrative 
 theories of the Byzantine Court, exercised his genius in endeavouring to 
 work out an accurate system of finance, which was adopted in Italy. 
 
 Gregory of Tours, a writer of the sixteenth century, relates in several 
 passages of his " History of the Franks," that they exhibited the same 
 repugnance to compulsory taxation as the Germans of the time of Tacitus. 
 The Lcudcs considered that the)- owed nothing to the treasury, and to 
 force them to submit to taxation was not an easy matter. About the 
 year 465, Childeric I., father of Clovis, lost his crown for wishing all 
 classes to submit to taxation equally. In 67o, Childeric II., King of 
 Austrasia, had one of these Leiidcs, named Bodillon, flogged with rods for 
 daring to reproach him with the injustice of certain taxes. He, however, 
 was afterwards assassinated by this same Bodillon, and the Lcudex main- 
 tained their right of immunity. A century before the Lcudcs were already 
 quarrelling with royalty on account of the taxes, which they refused to pay, 
 and they sacrificed Queen Brunehaut because she attempted to enrich the 
 treasury with the confiscated property of a few nobles who had rebelled 
 against her authoritv. The wealth of the Frank king's, which was always 
 ery great, was a continual object of envy, and on one occasion Chilperic 1., 
 
 v 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 3° 3 
 
 King of Soissons, having' the Leitdes 
 in league with him, laid bis hands 
 on the wealth amassed l>v his 
 father, Clotaire L, which was kept 
 in the Palace of Braine, lie was, 
 nevertheless, ohliged to share his 
 spoil with his brothers and their 
 followers, who came in arms to 
 force him to refund what he had 
 taken. Ghilperic (Fig. 204) was so 
 much in awe of these Lewies that 
 he did not ask them for money. His 
 wife, the much-feared Fredegonde, 
 did not, however, exempt them more 
 than Brunehaut had done ; and her 
 judges or ministers, Audon and 
 Muinmius, having met with an in- 
 surmountable resistance in endea- 
 vouring to force taxation on the 
 nobles, nearly lost their lives in 
 consequence. 
 
 The custom of numbering the 
 population, such as was carried on in 
 Borne through the censors, appears 
 to have been observed under the 
 Merovingian kings. At the request 
 of the Bishop of Poitiers, Childebert 
 gave orders to amend the census 
 taken under Siffebert, King of 
 Austrasia. It is a most curious 
 document mentioned by Gregory of 
 Tours. "The ancient division," he 
 says, " had been one so unequal, 
 owing to the subdivision of properties 
 and other chances which time had 
 made in the condition of the tax- 
 
 ig. 2.11. — Tomb of Ohilperic— Sculpture 
 Eleventh Century, in the Abbey of St. D( 
 
 ■ f the- 
 
, 0+ TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 payers, that tlio poor, the orphans, and the helpless classes generally alone 
 bore the real burden of taxation. Florentius, comptroller of the King's 
 household, and Romulfus, count of the palace, remedied this abuse. After a 
 closer examination of the changes which had taken place, they relieved the 
 taxpayers who were too heavily rated and placed the burden on those who 
 could better afford it. 
 
 This direct taxation continued on this plan until the time of the kings 
 of the second dynasty. The Franks, who had not the privilege of exemption, 
 paid a poll tax and a house tax ; about a tenth was charged on the produce of 
 hio-hly cultivated lands, a little more on that of lands of an inferior description, 
 and a certain measure, a cruclie, of wine on the produce of every half acre of 
 vineyard. There were assessors and royal agents charged with levying such 
 
 Fig. 255.— Signature of St. Eloy (Eligius), I 
 
 Financier and Minister to Dagobert I. ; from 
 the Charter of Foundation of the Abbey of 
 Solignac (Mabiflon, "De Re Diplomatica"). 
 
 taxes and regulating the farming of them. In spite of this precaution, how- 
 ever, an edict of Clovis II., in the year 615, censures the mode of imposing 
 rates and taxes ; it orders that they shall only be levied in the places where 
 they have been authorised, and forbade their being used under any pretext 
 whatever for any other object than that for which they were imposed. 
 
 Under the Merovingians specie was not in common use, although the 
 precious metals were abundant among the Gauls, as their mines of gold and 
 silver were not yet exhausted. Money was rarely coined, except on great 
 occasions, such as a coronation, the birth of an heir to the throne, the 
 marriage of a prince, or the commemoration of a decisive victory. It 
 is even probable that each time that money "was used in large sums the 
 pound or the sou of gold was represented more by ingots of metal than by 
 stamped coin. The third of the sou of gold, which was coined on state 
 occasions, seems to have been used only as a commemorative medal, to be dis- 
 tributed amongst the great officers of state, and this circumstance explains 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 3°S 
 
 their extreme rarity. The general character of the coinage, whether of gold, 
 silver, or of the baser metals, of the Burgundian, Austrasian, and Frank kings, 
 differs little from what it had been at the time of the last of the Roman 
 emperors, though the Angel bearing the crow gradually replaced the Renommee 
 rictorieuse formerly stamped on the coins. Christian monograms and symbols 
 of the Trinity were often intermingled with the initials of the sovereign. It 
 also became common to combine in a monogram letters thought to be sacred 
 or lucky, such as C, 3T, S, T, &c. ; also to introduce the names of places, 
 which, perhaps, have since disappeared, as well as some particular mark or 
 
 Mekoyingiax Gold Coin's, Strvck v,y St. Elov, Moneyer to Dagohert I. (628-63S). 
 
 Fig. 256. — Parisinna ceye pit. Head of 
 Dagobert with double diadem of pearls, 
 hair hanging down the hack of the neck. 
 i?et'.,DAGOEEE.TYSREX. Cross ; above,omega; 
 under the arms of the cross, eligi. 
 
 Fig. 257.— Paribsin. ( 'iy. Head of Clovis II., 
 with diadem of pearls, hair braided and 
 hanging down the back of the neck. Rev., 
 Chlodoyevs rex. Cross with anchor ; under 
 tile arms of the cross, eligi. 
 
 Fig. 258. — Parisiys fit. Head of King. Ser., 
 Eligivs mone. Cross ; ahoYe, omega ; under, 
 a hah. 
 
 Fig. 259.— MoN. Palati. Head of King, iter., 
 Scolare. LA. Cross with anchor; under 
 the arms of the cross, eligi. 
 
 sign special to each mint. Some of these are very difficult to understand, and 
 present a number of problems which have yet to be solved (Figs. 256 to 2o9) . 
 Unfortunately, the names of places on Merovingian coins, to the number of 
 about nine hundred, have rarely been studied by coin collectors, expert both 
 as geographers and linguists. We find, for example, one hundred distinct 
 mints, and, up to the present time, have not been able to determine where 
 the greater number of them were situated. 
 
 From the time that Clovis became a Christian, lie loaded the Church with 
 favours, and it soon possessed considerable revenues, and enjoyed many 
 
 K K 
 
,o6 TAXES, MONET, AND FINANCE. 
 
 valuable immunities. The sous of Clovis contested these privileges ; but the 
 Church resisted for a time, though she was eventually obliged to give way 
 to the iron hand of Charles Martel. In 732 this great military chieftain, 
 after his struggle with Rainfroy, and after his brilliant victories over the 
 Saxons, the Bavarians, the Swiss, and the Saracens, stripped the clergy of 
 their landed possessions, in order to distribute them amongst his Leudes, who 
 by this means he secured as his creatures, and who were, therefore, ever 
 willing and eager to serve him in arms. 
 
 On ascending the throne, King Pepin, who wanted to pacify the Church, 
 endeavoured as far as possible to obliterate the recollection of the wrongs of 
 which his father had been guilty towards her ; he ordered the dimes and 
 the nones (tenth and ninth denier levied on the value of lands) to be placed 
 to the account of the possessors of each ecclesiastical domain, on their under- 
 taking to repair the buildings (churches, chateaux, abbeys, and presbyteries), 
 and to restore to the owners the properties on which they held mortgages. 
 The nobles long resented this, and it required the authority and the example 
 of Charlemagne to soothe the contending parties, and to make Church and 
 State act in harmony. 
 
 Charlemagne renounced the arbitrary rights established by the Mayors 
 of the Palace, and retained onby those which long usage had legitimised. 
 He registered them clearly in a code called the Capitulaires, into Avhich 
 he introduced the ancient laws of the Ripuaires, the Burgundians, and the 
 Franks, arranging them so as to suit the organization and requirements of 
 his vast empire. Prom that time each freeman subscribed to the military 
 service according to the amount of his possessions. The great vassal, or 
 hscal judge, was no longer allowed to practise extortion on those citizens 
 appointed to defend the State. Freemen could legally refuse all servile or 
 obligatory work imposed on them by the nobles, and the amount of labour to 
 be performed by the serfs was lessened. Without absolutely abolishing the 
 authority of local customs in matters of finance, or penalties which had been 
 illegally exacted, they were suspended by laws decided at the Champs de 
 Mai, by the Counts and by the Leudes, in presence of the Emperor. Arbitrary 
 taxes were abolished, as they were no longer required. Food, and any 
 articles of consumption, and military munitions, were exempted from taxa- 
 tion ; and the revenues derived from tolls on road gates, on bridges, and on 
 city gates. &c, were applied to the purposes for which they were imposed, 
 
TAXES, MOXEV, AXD FINANCE. 
 
 3°7 
 
 namely, to the repair of the roads, the bridges, and the fortified enclosures. 
 The hh'iban, a fine of sixty sols — which in those days would amount to more 
 than 6,000 francs— was imposed on any holder of a fief who refused military 
 service, and each noble was obliged to pay this for every one of his vassals 
 who was absent when summoned to the King's banner. These tines must 
 have produced considerable sums. A special law exempted ecclesiastics from 
 
 Fig. 260.— Toll on Markets levied by a Cleiic.— From one of the Painted Windows oi the 
 Cathedra] of Tom-nay Fifteenth Century). 
 
 bearing arms, and Charlemagne decreed that their possessions should be 
 sacred and untouched, and everything was done to ensure the payment of the 
 indemnity — dime and none — which was due to them. 
 
 Charlemagne; also superintended the coining and circulation of money. 
 He directed that the silver sou should exactly contain the twenty-second 
 part by weight of the pound. He also directed that money should only be 
 
3 o S TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 coined in the Imperial palaces. He forbade the circulation of spurious 
 coin ; he ordered base coiners to be severely punished, and imposed heavy 
 fines upon those who refused to accept the coin in legal circulation. The 
 tithe due to the Church (Fig. 260), which was imposed at the National 
 Assembly in 779, and disbursed by the diocesan bishops, gave rise to many 
 complaints and much opposition. This tithe was in addition to that paid to 
 the King, which was of itself sufficiently heavy. The right of claiming the 
 two tithes, however, had a common origin, so that the sovereign defended his 
 own rights in protecting those of the Church. This is set forth in the text 
 of the Capitukdres, from the year 794 to 829. "What had originally been 
 only a voluntary and pious offering of a few of the faithful," says the author 
 of the "Histoire Financiere de la France," "became thus a perpetual tax 
 upon agriculture, custom rather than law enforcing its payment ; and a tithe 
 which was at first limited to the produce of the soil, soon extended itself to 
 cattle and other live stock." 
 
 Ptoyal delegates (mis&i dominici), who were invested with complex 
 functions, and with very extensive power, travelled through the empire 
 exercising legal jurisdiction over all matters of importance. They assembled 
 all the placites, or provincial authorities, and inquired rjarticularly into the 
 collection of the public revenue. During their tours, which took place four 
 times a year, they either personally annulled unjust sentences, or submitted 
 them to the Emperor. They denounced any irregularities on the part of 
 the Counts, punished the negligences of their assessors, and often, in order 
 to replace unworthy judges, they had to resort to a system of election of 
 assessors, chosen from among the people. They verified the returns for the 
 census ; superintended the keeping up of the royal domains ; corrected frauds in 
 matters of taxation ; and punished usurers as much as base coiners, for at that 
 time money was not considered a commercial article, nor was it thought right 
 that a money-lender should be allowed to carry on a trade which required a 
 remuneration proportionate to the risk which he incurred. 
 
 These missi dominici were too much hated by the great vassals to outlive 
 the introduction of the feudal system. Their royal masters, as they them- 
 selves gradually lost a part of their own privileges and power, could not 
 sustain the authority of these officers. Dukes, counts, and barons, having 
 become magistrates, arbitrarily levied new taxes, imposed new fines, and 
 appropriated the King's tributes to such an extent that, towards the end of 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 309 
 
 PR1TGO- 
 
 Fig. 261.- Sal,.- by Town-Crier. Pw), the Crier, blowing a trumpet ; Subhuxtutor, public officer 
 charged with the sale. In the bark-round is seen another sale, by the Bellman.- Kac-simileot 
 a Woodcut in the Work ofjo.se Damhoudere, " Traxia Uerum Civilium," 4lo : Antwerp, lo57. 
 
 the tenth century, the laws of Charlemagne had no longer any weight, We 
 then find a number of new taxes levied for the benefit of the nobles, the 
 
3io TAXES, MONET, AND FINANCE. 
 
 very names of which hare fallen into disuse -with the feudal claims which they 
 represented. Among these new taxes were those of escorte and entree, of mort- 
 main, of loch et rentes, of relief, the clmmparta, the tenth, the fouage, and the 
 various fees for wine-pressing, grinding, baking, &e., all of which were payable 
 without prejudice to the tithes clue to the King and the Church. However, 
 as the royal tithe was hardly ever paid, the kings were obliged to look to 
 other means for replenishing their treasuries ; and coining false money was 
 a common practice. Unfortunately each great vassal vied with the kings 
 in this, and to such an extent, that the enormous quantity of bad money 
 coined during the ninth century completed the public ruin, and made this a 
 sad period of social chaos. The freeman was no longer distinguishable from 
 the villain, nor the villain from the serf. Serfdom was general ; men found 
 themselves, as it were, slaves, in possession of land which they laboured at 
 with the sweat of their brow, only to cultivate for the benefit of others. 
 The towns even — with the exception of a few privileged cities, as Florence, 
 Paris, Lyons, Eheims, Metz, Strasburg, Marseilles, Hamburg, Frankfort, 
 and Milan — were under the dominion of some ecclesiastical or lay lord, and 
 only enjoyed liberty of a more or less limited character. 
 
 Towards the end of the eleventh century, under Philip I., the enthusiasm 
 for Crusades became general, and, as all the nobles joined in the holy 
 mission of freeing the tomb of Jesus Christ from the hands of the infidels, 
 large sums of money were required to defray the costs. JN T ew taxes were 
 accordingly imposed ; but, as these did not produce enough at once, large 
 sums were raised by the sale of some of the feudal rights. Certain 
 franchises were in this way sold by the nobles to the boroughs, towns, and 
 abbeys, though, in not a few instances, these very privileges had been 
 formerly plundered from the places to which they were now sold. Fines 
 were exacted from any person declining to go to Palestine ; and foreign 
 merchants — especially the Jews — were required to subscribe large sums. A 
 number of the nobles holding fiefs were reduced to the lowest expedients 
 with a view to raising money, and even sold their estates at a low price, or 
 mortgaged them to the very Jews whom they taxed so heavily. Every 
 town in which the spirit of Gallo-Roman municipality was preserved took 
 advantage of these circumstances to extend its liberties. Each monarch, 
 tco, found this a favourable opportunity to add new fiefs to the crown, 
 and to recall as many great vassals as possible under his dominion. It 
 
TAXES, MONET, AND FINANCE. 3 ,, 
 
 was at this period that communities arose, and that the first charters of 
 freedom which were obligatory and binding contracts between the Kin"- 
 and the people, date their origin. Besides the annual tines due to the 
 King and the feudal lords, and in addition to the general subsidies, such 
 as the quit-rent and the tithes, these communities had to provide for the 
 repair of the walls or rampirts, for the paving of the streets, the cleaning 
 of the pits, the watch on the city gates, and the various expenses of local 
 administration. 
 
 Louis le Gros endeavoured to make a re-arrangement of the taxes, and to 
 establish them on a definite basis. By his orders a new register of the lands 
 throughout the kingdom was commenced, but various calamities caused this 
 useful measure to be suspended. In 1140, Louis le Jeune, in consequence of 
 a disaster which had befallen the Crusaders, did what nine of his predeces- 
 sors had dared to attempt: he exacted from all his subjects a sol per pound 
 on their income. This tax, which amounted to a twentieth part of income, 
 was paid even by the Church, which, for example's sake, did not take advan- 
 tage of its immunities. Forty years later, at a council, or great ■parliament, 
 called by Philip Augustus, a new crusade was decided up in ; and, under 
 the name of Saladin's tithe, an annual tax was imposed on all property, 
 whether landed or personal, of all who did not take up the cross to go t.o 
 the Holy Land. The nobility, however, so violently resisted this, that the 
 King was obliged to substitute for it a general tax, which, although it was 
 still more productive, was less offensive in its mode of collection. 
 
 On returning to France in 1191, Philip Augustus rated and taxed every 
 one — nobility, bourgeois, and clergy — in order to prosecute the great wars 
 in which he was engaged, and to provide for the first paid troops ever known 
 in France. He began by confirming the enormous confiscations of the 
 properties of the Jews, who had been banished from the kingdom, and 
 afterwards sold a temporary permission to some of the richest of them to 
 return. 
 
 The Jews at that time were the only possessors of available funds, as 
 they were the only people who trafficked, and who lent money on interest. 
 On this account the Government were glad to recall them, so as to have at 
 hand a valuable resource which it could always make use of. As the King 
 could not on his own authority levy taxes upon the vassals of feudal lords, 
 on emergencies he convoked the barons, who discussed financial matters with 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 the King, and, when the sum required was settled, an order of assessment was 
 issued, and the barons undertook the collection of the taxes. The assessment 
 was always fixed higher than was required for the King's wants, and the 
 barons, having paid the King what was due to him, retained the surplus, 
 which they divided amongst themselves. 
 
 The creation of a public revenue, raised by the contributions of all 
 classes of society, with a definite sum to be kept in reserve, thus dates 
 from the reign of Philip Augustus. The annual income of the State at 
 
 Fig. 262. — The Tower of the Temple, in Paris. — From an Engraving of the Topography of Paris, 
 in the Cabinet des Estampes, of the National Library. 
 
 that time amounted to 30,000 marks, or 72,000 pounds' weight of silver — 
 about sixteen or seventeen million francs of present currency. The treasury, 
 which was kept in the great tower of the temple (Fig. 262), was under the 
 custody of seven bourgeois of Paris, and a king's clerk kept a register of 
 receipts and disbursements. This treasury must have been well filled 
 at the death of Philip Augustus, for that monarch's legacies were very 
 considerable. One of his last wishes deserves to be mentioned : and this 
 was a formal order, which he gave to Louis VIII., to employ a certain 
 sum, left him for that purpose, solely and entirely for the defence of the 
 kino'doin. 
 
TAXES, MONET, AND FINANCE 
 
 3'; 
 
 When Louis IX.. in \'l\'l, at Taillebourg and at Saintes, had defeated the 
 great vassals who had rebelled against him, he hastened to regulate the 
 taxes by means of a special eode which bore the name dt' the Etahlinsementis. 
 The taxes thus imposed fell upon the whole population, and even lands 
 belonging to the Church, houses which the nobles did not themselves occupy, 
 
 Gold Coins or tub Si\th and Seventh Centi ries. 
 
 Fig. 263. — Merovee, Son of 
 Chilperic I. 
 
 Fig. 255.— Clotaire III. 
 
 Silver Coins from the Kh.iith to the Klkventii Centuries 
 
 
 Mill \^mmm\ ft 
 
 Fig. 266.— Pepin the short. Fig. 207.— Charlemagne. Fig. 20S.— Henri I. 
 
 Gold am. Silver Coins of the Thirteenth Century. 
 
 Fjg 269.— Gold Florin of Louis IX. 
 
 Fig. 27U. — Silver Gros of Tours. — Philip III. 
 
 rural properties and leased holdings, were all subjected to them. There 
 were, however, two different kinds of rates, one- called the occupation rate, 
 and the other the rate of exploitation ; and they were both collected accord- 
 ing to a register, kept in the most regular and systematic manner possible. 
 Ancient custom had maintained a tax exceptionally in the following eases : 
 when a noble dubbed his son a knight, or gave his daughter in marriage, 
 
3 , 4 TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 •when he had to pay a ransom, and when he set out on a campaign against 
 the enemies of the Church, or for the defence of the country. These 
 taxes were called reticle, mix quatre cas. At this period despotism too often 
 overruled custom, and the good King Louis IX., by granting legal power to 
 custom, tried to bring it back to the true principles of justice and humanity. 
 He was, however, none the less jealous of his own personal privileges, 
 especially as regarded coining (Tigs. 263 to 270). He insisted that coining 
 should be exclusively carried on in his palace, as in the times of the Carlo- 
 vinerian kinn\s, and he required every coin to be made of a definite standard 
 of weight, which he himself fixed. In this way he secured the exclusive 
 control over the mint. For the various localities, towns, or counties directly 
 under the crown, Louis IX. settled the mode of levying taxes. Men of 
 integrity were elected by the vote of the General Assembly, consisting of the 
 three orders — namely, of the nobility, the clergy, and the tiers Mat — to 
 assess the taxation of each individual ; and these assessors themselves were 
 taxed by four of their own number. The custom of levying proprietary 
 subsidies in each small feudal jurisdiction could not be abolished, notwith- 
 standing the King's desire to do so, owing to the power still held by the 
 nobles. Nobles were forbidden to levy a rate under any consideration, 
 without previously holding a meeting of the vassals and their tenants. The 
 tolls on roads, bridges (Fig. 271), fairs, and markets, and the harbour dues 
 were kept up, notwithstanding their obstruction to commerce, with the 
 exception that free passage was given to corn passing from one province to 
 another. The exemptions from taxes which had been dearly bought were 
 removed; and the nobles were bound not to divert the revenue received 
 from tolls for any purposes other than those for which they were legitimately 
 intended. The nobles were also required to guard the roads " from sunrise 
 to sunset," and they were made responsible for robberies committed upon 
 travellers within their domains. 
 
 Louis IX., by refunding the value of goods which had been stolen 
 through the carelessness of his officers, himself showed an example of the 
 respect due to the law. Those charged with collecting the King's dues, 
 as well as the mayors whose duty it was to take custody of the money con- 
 tributed, and to receive the taxes on various articles of consumption, 
 worked under the eye of officials appointed by the King, who exercised a 
 financial jurisdiction which developed later into the department or office 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 3'5 
 
 called the Chamber of Accounts. A tax, somewhat similar to the tithe on 
 lands, was imposed for the benefit of the nobles on property held by corpora- 
 tions or under charter, in order to compensate the treasury for the loss of the 
 succession duties. This tax represented about the fifth part of the value of 
 the estate. To cover the enormous expenses of the two crusades, Louis IX., 
 however, was obliged to levy two new taxes, called declines, from his already 
 
 Fig. 271.- Paying Toll on passing a Bridge.— From a Painted Window in the Cathedral of 
 Tournay (Fifteenth Century). 
 
 overburdened people. It does not, however, appear that this excessive taxa- 
 tion alienated the affection of his subjects. Their minds were entirely taken 
 up with the pilgrimages to tbe East, and the pious monarch, notwithstanding 
 his fruitless sacrifices and his disastrous expeditions, earned for himself the 
 title of Prince of Peace find of Justice. 
 
 From the time of Louis IX. down to that of Philippe le Bel, who was 
 
3 i6 
 
 TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 the most extravagant of kings, and at the same time the most ingenious 
 in raising funds for the State treasury, the financial movement of Europe 
 took root, and eventually became centralised in Italy. In Florence was 
 presented an example of the concentration of the most complete municipal 
 privileges which a great flourishing city could desire. Pisa, Genoa, and 
 Venice attracted a part of the European commerce towards the Adriatic 
 and the Mediterranean. Everywhere the Jews and Lombards — already 
 well initiated into the mysterious system of credit, and accustomed to lend 
 money — started banks and pawn establishments, where jewels, diamonds, 
 
 Fig. 272.— View of the ancient Pont aux (Jhangeurs.— From an Engraving of the Topography of 
 Paris, in the Cabinet des Estampes, of the National Library. 
 
 glittering arms, and paraphernalia of all kinds were deposited by princes 
 and nobles as security for loans (Fig. 272). 
 
 The tax collectors (maUdtiers, a name derived from the Italian mala tolta, 
 unjust tax), receivers, or farmers of taxes, paid clearly for exercising their 
 calling, which was always a dishonourable one, and was at times exercised 
 with a great amount of harshness and even of cruelty. The treasury required 
 a certain number of cleniers, oboles, or pities (a small coin varying in value 
 in each province) to be paid by these men for each bank operation they 
 effected, and for every pound in value of merchandise they sold, for they and 
 the Jews were permitted to carry on trades of all kinds without being 
 subject to any kind of rates, taxes, work, military service, or municipal dues. 
 
TAXES, .VOX/:}', AXD FINANCE. 3 , 7 
 
 Philippe le Bel, owing to his interminable wars against the Kino- of 
 Gastille, and against England, Germany, and Flanders, was frequently so 
 embarrassed as to be obliged to resort to extraordinary subsidies in order 
 to carry them on. In 129o, he called upon his subjects for a forced lean, 
 and soon after he shamelessly required them to pay the one-hundredth 
 part of their incomes, and after but a short interval he demanded another 
 fiftieth part. The King assumed the exclusive right to debase the value 
 of the coinage, which caused him to be commonly called the base coiner, 
 and no sovereign ever coined a greater quantity of base money. He 
 changed the standard or name of current coin with a view to counter- 
 balance the mischief arising from the illicit coinage of the nobles, and 
 especially to baffle the base traffic of the Jews and Lombards, who occa- 
 sionally would obtain possession of a great part of the coin, and mutilate each 
 piece before restoring it to circulation ; in this way the}' upset the whole 
 monetary economy of the realm, and secured immense profits to themselves 
 (Fig. 273 to 278). 
 
 In 1303, the aide au /cur, which was afterwards called the aide de I'ost, or 
 the army tax, was invented by Philippe le Eel for raising an army without 
 opening his purse. It was levied without distinction upon dukes, counts, 
 barons, ladies, damsels, archbishops, bishops, abbots, chapters, colleges, and, 
 in fact, upon all classes, whether noble or not. Nobles were bound to furnish 
 one knight mounted, equipped, and in full armour, for every five hundred 
 marks of land which they possessed ; those who were not nobles had to 
 furnish six foot-soldiers for every hundred households. T>j another enact- 
 ment of this king the privilege was granted of paying money instead of 
 complying with these demands for men, and a sum of 100 livres — about 
 10,000 francs of present currency — was exacted for each armed knight ; and 
 two sols — about ten francs per diem — for each soldier which any one failed 
 to furnish. An outcry was raised throughout France at this proceeding, and 
 rebellions broke out in several provinces : in Paris the mob destroyed the 
 house of Stephen Barbette, master of the mint, and insulted the King in Lis 
 palace. It was necessary to enforce the royal authority with vigour, and, after 
 considerable difficulty, peace was at last restored, and Philip learned, though 
 too late, that in matters of taxation the people should first be consulted. In 
 1313, for the first time, the bourgeoisie, syndics, or deputies of communities, 
 under the name of tiers etui — third order of the state — were called to 
 
3 i8 
 
 TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 exercise the right of freely voting the assistance or subsidy which it pleased 
 the King to ask of them. After this memorable occasion an edict was issued 
 ordering a levy of six deniers in the pound on every sort of merchandise sold 
 in the kingdom. Paris paid this without hesitation, whereas in the provinces 
 there was much discontented murmuring. But the following year, the Kinc? 
 
 Gold (Joins of the Fourteenth and Fiftefth Centuries 
 
 Fig. 273.— Masse d'Or. Philip IV. 
 
 Fig. 274.— Small Aiguel d'Or. Charles IV. 
 
 Fig. 275.— Large Aignel d'Or. John the Good. 
 
 Fig. 27C— Franc a Cheral d'Or. Charles V. 
 
 Fig. 277.— Ecu d'Or. Philip VI. 
 
 Fig. 278. — Salut d'Or. Charles VI. 
 
 having tried to raise the six deniers voted by the assembly of 1313 to twelve, 
 the clergy, nobility, and tiers etat combined to resist the extortions of the 
 government. Philippe le Bel died, after having yielded to the opposition of 
 bis indignant subjects, and in his last moments he recommended his son to 
 exercise moderation in taxing and honesty in coining'. 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. vq 
 
 On the accession of Louis X., in 1315, war against the Flemish was 
 imminent, although the royal treasury was absolutely empty. The Kin^ 
 unfortunately, in spite of his father's advice, attempted systematically to 
 tamper with the coinage, and he also commenced the exaction of fresh taxes, 
 to the great exasperation of his subjects. He was obliged, through fear of 
 a general rebellion, to do away with the tithe established for the support of 
 the army, and to sacrifice the superintendent of finances, Enguerrand de 
 ilarigny, to the public indignation which was felt against him. This man, 
 without being allowed to defend himself, was tried by an extraordinary com- 
 mission of parliament for embezzling the public money, was condemned to 
 death, and was hung on the gibbet of Montfaucon. Not daring to risk a 
 convocation of the States-General of the kingdom, Louis X. ordered the 
 seneschals to convoke the provincial assemblies, and thus obtained a few 
 subsidies, which he promised to refund out of the revenues of his domains. 
 The clergy even allowed themselves to be taxed, and closed their eves to the 
 misappropriation of the funds, which were supposed to he held in reserve for 
 a new crusade. Taxes giving commercial franchise and of exchange were 
 levied, which were paid by the Jews, Lombards, Tuscans, and other Italians; 
 judiciary offices were sold by auction ; the trading class purchased letters of 
 nobility, as they had already done under Philippe le Bel ; and, more than this, 
 the enfranchisement of serfs, which had commenced in 1298, was continued 
 on the payment of a tax, which varied according to the means of each 
 individual. In consequence of this system, personal servitude was almost 
 entirely abolished under Philippe le Long, brother of Louis X. 
 
 Each province, under the reign of this rapacious and necessitous monarch, 
 demanded some concession from the crown, and almost always obtained it at 
 money value. Normandy and Burgundy, which were dreaded more than 
 any other province on account of their turbulence, received remarkable con- 
 cessions. The base coin was withdrawn from circulation, and Louis X. 
 attempted to forbid the rigid of coinage to those who broke (he wise laws of 
 St. Louis. The idea of bills of exchange arose at this period. 
 
 Thanks to the peace concluded with Flanders, on which occasion that 
 country paid into the hands of the sovereign thirty thousand florins in gold 
 for arrears of taxes, and, above all, owing to the rules of economy and order, 
 from which Philip V., surnamed the Long, never deviated, the attitude 
 of France became completely altered. We find the King initiating reform 
 
3 20 
 
 TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 by reducing the expenses of his household. He convened round his person 
 a, great council, which met monthly to examine and discuss matters of public 
 interest ; he allowed only one national treasury for the reception of the State 
 
 revenues ; he require 
 
 d the treasurers to make a half-yearly statement of thei: 
 
 279. — Hotel of the Chamber of Accounts in the Courtyard of the Palace in Paris. Prom a 
 Woodcut of the " Cosmographie Universelle " of Muaster, in folio : Basle 1552. 
 
 accounts, and a daily journal of receipts and disbursements ; he forbad clerks of 
 the treasury to make entries either of receipts or expenditure, however trifling, 
 without the authority and supervision of accountants, whom ho also compelled 
 to assist at the checking of sums received or paid by the money-changers 
 (Fig. 279). The farming of the crown lands, the King's taxes, the stamp 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 3 2 ' 
 
 registration, and the gaol duties were sold by auction, subject to certain 
 regulations with regard to guarantee. The bailiffs and seneschals sent in 
 their accounts to Paris annually, they were not allowed to absent themselves 
 without the King's permission, and they were formally forbidden, under pain 
 of confiscation, or even a severer penalty, to speculate with the public money. 
 The operations of the treasury were at this period always involved in the 
 greatest mystery. 
 
 The establishment of a central mint for the whole kingdom, the expulsion 
 
 rtd!^ 
 
 Fig. 280.— Measuring Salt.— Fac-simile of a Fig. 281.— Toll under the Bridges of Paris.— 
 Woodcut of the "Ordonnances do la Prevoste Facsimile of a Woodcut of the " Ordonnances 
 
 des Marchands de Paris," in folio : 1500. do la Prevoste des Marehands de Paris," in 
 
 folio : 1500. 
 
 of the money-dealers, who were mostly of Italian origin, and the confiscation 
 of their goods if it was discovered that they had acted falsely, signalised the 
 accession of Charles le Eel in 1332. This beginning was welcomed as most 
 auspicious, but before long the export duties, especially on grain, wine, hay, 
 cattle, leather, and salt, became a source of legitimate complaint (Figs. 280 
 and 281). 
 
 Philip VI, surnamed de Valois, a more astute politician than his pre- 
 decessor, felt the necessity of gaining the affections of the people by sparing 
 
 T T 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AXD FINANCE 
 
 their private fortunes. In order to establish the public revenue on a firm basis, 
 he assembled, in 1330, the States-General, composed of barons, prelates, and 
 deputies from the principal towns, and then, hoping' to awe the financial 
 agents, he authorised the arrest of the overseer, Pierre de Montigny, whose 
 property was confiscated and sold, producing to the treasury the enormous 
 sum of 1 ,200,000 livrcs, or upwards of 100,000,000 francs of present currency. 
 The Ion o- and terrible war which the King was forced to carry on against 
 the English, and which ended in the treaty of Bretigny in 1301, gave 
 rise to the introduction of taxation of extreme severity. The dues on 
 ecclesiastical properties were renewed and maintained for several years ; all 
 beverages sold in towns were taxed, and from four to six deniers in the 
 pound were levied upon the value of all merchandise sold in any part of the 
 kingdom. The salt tax, which Philippe le Pel had established, and which 
 his successor, Louis X., immediately abolished at the unanimous wish of the 
 people, was again levied by Philip VI., and this king, having caused the 
 salt produced in his domains to be sold, " gave great offence to all classes of 
 the community." It was on account of this that Edward III., King of 
 England, facetiously called him the author of the Salic law. Philippe de 
 Valois, when lie first ascended the throne, coined his money according to the 
 standard weight of St. Louis, but in a short time he more or less alloyed it. 
 This lie did secretly, in order to be able to withdraw the pieces of full weight 
 from circulation and to replace them with others having less pure metal in 
 them, and whose weight was made up by an extra amount of alloy. In this 
 dishonest way a considerable sum was added to the coffers of the state. 
 
 King John, on succeeding his father in 1350, found the treasury empty 
 and the resources of the kingdom exhausted. lie was nevertheless obliged 
 to provide means to continue the war against the English, who continually 
 harassed the French on their own territory. The tax on merchandise not 
 being sufficient for this war, the payment of public debts contracted by the 
 government was suspended, and the State was thus obliged to admit its 
 insolvency. The mint taxes, called srigneitriage, were pushed to the utmost 
 limits, and the King levied them on the new coin, which he increased at will 
 by largely alloying the gold with base metals. The duties on exported and 
 imported goods were increased, notwithstanding the complaints that commerce 
 was declining. These financial expedients would not have been tolerated 
 by the people had not the King taken the precaution to have them approved 
 
7AXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 3 2 3 
 
 by the States-General of tlio provincial states, which lie annually assembled. 
 In 1355 the States-General were convoked, and the King, who had to maintain 
 thirty thousand soldiers, asked them to provide for this animal expenditure, 
 estimated at 5,000,000 licres jxirisis, about 300,000,000 francs of present 
 currency. The States-General, animated by a generous feeling of patriotism, 
 "ordered a tax of eight deniers in the pound on the sale and transfer of all 
 goods and articles of merchandise, with the exception of inheritances, which 
 
 "v t 
 
 
 ECEU}33SLJ1 
 
 Fig. 2S2. — The Courtiers amassing Hiches at the Expense of the Poor. — From a Miniature 
 "Tresor" of Brunette Latini, Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century, in the Lihrary 
 Arsenal, Faris. 
 
 in the 
 of the 
 
 t her 
 
 was to be payable by the vendors, of whatever rank they might be, whe 
 ecclesiastics, nobles, or others, and also a salt tax to be levied throughout the 
 whole kingdom of France." The King promised as long' as this assistance 
 lasted to levy no other subsidy and to coin good and sterling money — i.e. 
 deniers of fine gold, white, or silver coin, coin of billon, or mixed metal, and 
 deniers and mailles of copper. The assembly appointed travelling agents 
 
3 2 4 
 
 TAXES, MONET, AND FINANCE. 
 
 and three inspectors or superintendents, who had under them two receivers 
 and a considerable number of sub-collectors, whose duties were defined with 
 scrupulous minuteness. The King at this time renounced the right of seizin, 
 his dues over property inherited or conveyed by sale, exchange, gift, or will, 
 his right of demanding war levies by proclamation, and of issuing forced loans, 
 the despotic character of which offended everybody. The following year, 
 the tax of eight deniers having been found insufficient and expensive in its 
 collection, the assembly substituted for it a property and income tax, varying 
 according to the property and income of each individual. 
 
 The finances were, notwithstanding these additions, in a low and unsatis- 
 factory condition, which became worse and worse from the fatal clay of 
 Poitiers, when King John fell into the hands of the English. The States- 
 General were summoned by the Dauphin, and, seeing the desperate condition 
 in which the country was placed, all classes freely opened their purses. The 
 nobility, who had already given their blood, gave the produce of all their feudal 
 dues besides. The church paid a tenth and a half, and the bourgeois showed 
 the most noble unselfishness, and rose as one man to find means to resist the 
 common enenry. The ransom of the King had been fixed at three millions of 
 ecus d'or, nearly a thousand million francs, payable in six years, and the 
 peace of Bretigny was concluded by the cession of a third of the territory of 
 France. There was, however, cause for congratulation in this result, for 
 " Franco was reduced to its utmost extremity," says a chronicler, "and had 
 not something led to a reaction, she must have perished irretrievably." 
 
 King John, grateful for the love and devotion shown to him by his 
 subjects under these trying circumstances, returned from captivity with the 
 solemn intention of lightening the burdens which pressed upon them, and in 
 consequence he began by spontaneously reducing the enormous wages which 
 the tax-gatherers had hitherto received, and by abolishing the tolls on high- 
 ways. He also sold to the Jews, at a very high price, the right of remaining 
 in the kingdom and of exercising any trade in it, and by this means he 
 obtained a large sum of money. lie solemnly promised never again to 
 debase the coin, and he endeavoured to make an equitable division of the 
 taxes. Unfortunately it was impossible to do without a public revenue, and 
 it was necessary that the royal ransom should be paid off within six years. 
 The people, from whom taxes might be always extorted at pleasure, paid a 
 good share of this, for the fifth of the three millions of ecus d'or was realised 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 from the tax on salt, the thirteenth part from the duty on the sale of 
 fermented liquors, and twelve deniers per pound from the tax mi the value of 
 all provisions sold and resold within the kingdom. Commerce was subjected 
 to anew tax called imposition famine, a measure most detrimental to the trade 
 and manufactures of the country, which were continually strugo-lin"' under 
 the pitiless oppression of the treasury. Royal despot ism was not always 
 able to shelter itself under the sanction of the general and provincial 
 councils, and a few provinces, which forcibly protested against tin's excise 
 duty, were treated on the same footing as foreign slates with relation to the 
 transit of merchandise from them. Other provinces compounded for this tax, 
 and in this way, owing to the different arrangements in different places, a com- 
 plicated system of exemptions and prohibitions existed which, although most 
 prejudicial to all industry, remained in force to a great extent until 1789. 
 
 "When Charles A'. — surnamed the Wise — ascended the throne in 1364, 
 France, ruined by the disasters of the war, by the weight of taxation, by the 
 reduction in her commerce, and by the want of internal security, exhibited 
 everywhere a picture of misery and desolation; in addition to which, 
 famine and various epidemics were constantly breaking out in various 
 parts of the kingdom. Besides this, the country was incessantly overrun 
 by gangs of plunderers, who called themselves eeorchcuns, routicr.i, fnrrl- 
 venus, &c., and who were more dreaded by tne country people even than the 
 English had been. Charles V., who was celebrated for his justice and for his 
 economical and provident habits, was alone capable of establishing order in 
 the midst of such general confusion. Supported by the vote of the Assembly 
 held at Compiegne in 1367, he remitted a moiety of the salt tax and 
 diminished the number of the treasury agents, reduced their wages, and cur- 
 tailed their privileges. Tie inquired into all cases of embezzlement, so as 
 to put a stop to fraud; and he insisted that the accounts of the public 
 expenditure in its several departments should be annually audited. lie 
 protected commerce, facilitated exchanges, and reduced, as far as possible, 
 the rates and taxes on woven articles and manufactured goods. lie per- 
 mitted Jews to hold funded properly, and invited foreign merchants to trade 
 with the country. For the first time he required all sold and silver articles 
 to be stamped, and called in all the old gold and silver coins, in order that by 
 a new and uniform issue the value of money might no longer be fictitious or 
 variable. For more than a century coins had so often changed in name, 
 
3 >6 TAXES, MONET, AND FINANCE. 
 
 value, and standard weight, that in an edict of King John we read, " It was 
 difficult for a man when paying money in the ordinary course to know what 
 he was about from one day to another." 
 
 The recommencement of hostilities between England and France in 1370 
 unfortunately interrupted the progressive and regular course of these financial 
 improvements. The States-General, to whom the King was obliged to appeal 
 for assistance in order to cany on the war, decided that salt should be taxed 
 one sol per pound, wine by wholesale a thirteenth of its value, and by retail 
 a fourth; that afouage, or hearth tax, of six francs should bo established in 
 towns, and of two francs in the country,* and that a duty should be levied 
 in walled towns on the entrance of all wine. The produce of the salt tax 
 was devoted to the special use of the King. Each district farmed its excise 
 and its salt tax, under the superintendence of clerks appointed by the King, 
 who regulated the assessment and the fines, and who adjudicated in the first 
 instance in all cases of dispute. Tax-gatherers were chosen by the inha- 
 bitants of each locality, but the chief officers of finance, four in number, 
 were appointed by the King. This administrative organization, created on a 
 sound basis, marked the establishment of a complete financial system. The 
 Assembly, which thus transferred the administration of all matters of taxation 
 from the people at large to the King, did not consist of a. combination of the 
 three estates, but simply of persons of position — namely, prelates, nobles, and 
 bourgeois of Paris, in addition to the leading magistrates of the kingdom. 
 
 The following extract from the accounts of the loth November, 1372, 
 is interesting, inasmuch as it represents the actual budget of France under 
 Charles V. :_ 
 
 Article 18. Assigned for the payment of men at arms . . 50,000 francs. 
 ,, 19. For payment of men at arms and cross-bowmen 
 
 newly formed 42,000 
 
 ,, For sea purposes 8,000 
 
 20. For the King's palace 6,000 
 
 ,, To place in the King's coffers 5,000 
 
 ,. 21. It pleases the King that the receiver-general 
 should have monthly for matters that daily 
 
 arise in the chamber 10,000 
 
 ,, For the payment of debts 10,000 
 
 Total 131,000 
 
 Thia is the origin of the saying " smoke farthing. 
 
TTLEMENT OF ACCOUNTS BY THE BROTHERHOOD OF "CHARITE-DIEU AND NOTRE-DAME 
 OF THE RECOVERY OF ROUEN" (1466). 
 A miniature from the "Lrore dcs comptes" of the Society, a ms. of i:;" 1 century. 
 
/'.l.VA'.v, .VOX/-:}', AXD FIXAXCE. ^ 7 
 
 Tims, tor the year, 131,000 francs in com </'or, representiiif in present 
 money about 12,000,000 francs, were appropriated to the expenses of the 
 State, out ol' which the sum of 5,000 francs, equal to 275,000 francs of present 
 money, was devoted to what we may call the ('in/ Lint. 
 
 On the death of Charles V., in 1380, his oldest son Charles, who was a 
 minor, was put under the guardianship of his uncles, and one of these, the 
 Duke d'Anjou, assumed the regency by force. lie seized upon the royal 
 treasury, which was concealed in the Castle of Mclun, and also upon all 
 the savings of the deceased king; and, instead of applying them to alleviate 
 the general burden of taxation, he levied a duty for the first time on the 
 common food of the people. Immediately there arose a general outcry of 
 indignation, and a formidable expression of resistance was made in Paris and 
 in the large towns. Mob orators loudly proclaimed the public rights thus 
 trampled upon by the regent and the King's uncles; the expression of the 
 feelings of the masses began to take the shape of open revolt, when the 
 council of the regency made an appearance of giving way, and the new taxes 
 were suppressed, or, at all events, partially abandoned. The suocess of the 
 insurrectionary movement, however, caused increased concessions to be de- 
 manded by the people. The Jews and tax-collectors were attacked. Some 
 of the hitter were hung or assassinated, and their registers torn up; and 
 ninny of the former were ill-treated and banished, notwithstanding the price 
 they had paid for living in the kingdom. 
 
 The assembly of the States, which was summoned by the King's uncles to 
 meet in Paris, sided with the people, and, in consequence, the regent and his 
 brother pretended to acknowledge the justice of the claims which were made 
 upon them in the name of the people, and, on their withdrawing the taxes, 
 order was for a time restored. No sooner, however, was this the case than, 
 in spite of the solemn promises made by the council of regency, the taxes 
 were suddenly reimposed, and the right of farming them was sold to persons 
 who exacted them in the most brutal manner. A sanguinary revolt, called 
 that of the Maillotum, burst forth in Paris ; and the capital remained for some 
 time in the power of the people, or rather of the bourgeois, who led the 
 mob on to act for them (1381-13S2). The towns of Rouen, Ilheims, Troves, 
 Orleans, and JJlois, many places in Beauvoise, in Champagne, and in Nor- 
 mandy, followed the example of the Parisians, and it is impossible to say 
 to what a length the revolt would have reached had it nol been for the 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 victory over the Flemish at Hosebeequc. This victory enabled the King's 
 uncles to re-enter Paris in 1383, and to re-establish the royal authority, at 
 
 Fig-. 283.— Assassination of the Duke of Burgundy, John the Fearless, on the Bridge of Montereau, 
 in 1 119.— Far-simile of a Miniature in the "Chronicles" of Monstrelet, Manuscript of the 
 Fifteenth Century, in the Library of the Arsenal of Paris. 
 
 the same time making the Maillotins and their accomplices pay dearly for 
 their conduct. The excise duties, the hearth tax, the salt tax, and various other 
 imposts which bad been abolished or suspended, were re-established; the 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AXD FINANCE. 
 
 y- c ) 
 
 taxes on wine, beer, and other fermented liquors was lowered ; bread was 
 taxed twelve deniers per pound, and the duty on salt was fixed at the exces- 
 sive rate of twenty francs in gold — about 1,200 francs of present money — 
 per hogshead of sixty hundredweight. Certain concessions and compromises 
 were made exceptionally in favour of Artois, Dauphine, Poitou, and Saintonge, 
 in consideration of the voluntary contributions which those provinces had 
 made. 
 
 Emboldened by the success of their exacting and arbitrary rule, the Dukes 
 of Anjou, Burgundy, and Berry, under pretext of requiring money for war 
 expenses, again increased the taxes from the year 1385 to 1388 ; and the 
 salt tax was raised to forty golden francs, about 24,000 francs of present 
 money, per hogshead. The ecclesiastics paid a half decime to the King, and 
 several declines to the Pope, but these did not prevent a forced loan being- 
 ordered. Happily, Charles VI. about this period attained his majority, and 
 assumed his position as king; and his uncle, the Duke of Bourbon, who 
 was called to the direction of affairs, re-established comparative order in 
 financial matters ; but soon after the King's brother, the Duke of Orleans, 
 seized the reins of government, and, jointly with his sister-in-law, Isabel 
 of Bavaria, increased the taxation far beyond that imposed by the Duke 
 d' Anjou. The Duke of Burgundy, called John the Fearless, in order to 
 gratify his personal hatred to his cousin, Louis of Orleans, made himself 
 the instrument of the strong popular feeling by assassinating that prince 
 as he was returning from an entertainment. The tragical death of the 
 Duke of Orleans no more alleviated the ills of France than did that of 
 the Duke of Burgundy sixteen years later— for he in his turn was the 
 victim of a conspiracy, and was assassinated on the bridge of Montereau m 
 the presence of the Dauphin (Fig. 283). The marriage of Isabel of France 
 with the young king Richard of England, the ransom of the Christian 
 prisoners in the East, the money required by the Emperor of Constantinople 
 to stop the invasions of the Turks into Europe, the pay of the French army, 
 which was now permanent, each necessarily required fresh subsidies, and 
 money had to be raised in some way or other from the French people. 
 Distress was at its height, and though the people were groaning under 
 oppression, they continued to pay not only the increased taxes on pro- 
 visions and merchandise, and an additional general tax, but to submit 
 to the most outrageous confiscations and robbery of the public money 
 
 V V 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 from the public treasuries. The State Assemblies held at Auxerre and 
 Paris in 1412 and 14FJ, denounced the extravagance and maladminis- 
 tration of the treasurers, the generals, the excisemen, the receivers of 
 royal dues, and of all those who took part in the direction of the finances ; 
 though they nevertheless voted the taxes, and promulgated most severe 
 regulations with respect to their collection. To meet emergencies, which 
 were now becoming chronic, extraordinary taxes were established, the non- 
 payment of which involved the immediate imprisonment of the defaulter ; 
 and the debasement of the coinage, and the alienation of certain parts of 
 the kingdom, were authorised in the name of the King, who had been 
 insane for more than fifteen years. The incessant revolts of the bourgeois, 
 the reappearance of the English on the soil of France, the ambitious rivalry 
 of Queen Isabel of Bavaria leagued with the Duke of Burgundy against 
 the Dauphin, who had been made regent, at last, in 1420, brought about 
 the humiliating treaty of Troves, by which Henry V., kino- of England 
 was to become king of France on the death of Charles VI. 
 
 This treaty of Troyes became the cause of, and the pretext for, a vast 
 amount of extortion being practised upon the unfortunate inhabitants of the 
 conquered country. Henry V., who had already made several exactions from 
 Normandy before he had obtained by force the throne of France, did not 
 spare the other provinces, and, whilst proclaiming his good intentions 
 towards his future subjects, he added a new general impost, in the shape of 
 a forced loan, to the taxes which already weighed so heavily on the people. 
 lie also issued a new coinage, maintained many of the taxes, especially those 
 on salt and on liquors, even after he had announced his intention of abolishing 
 them. 
 
 At the same time the Dauphin Charles, surnamed Roi de Bourges, 
 because he had retired with his court and retinue into the centre of the 
 kingdom (1422), was sadly in want of money. He alienated the State 
 revenues, he levied excise duties and subsidies in the provinces which 
 remained faithful to his cause, and he borrowed largely from those members 
 of the Church and the nobility win. manifested a generous pity for the 
 sad destiny of the King and the monarchy. Many persons, however, 
 instead of sacrificing themselves for their king and country, made con- 
 ditions with him, taking advantage of his position. The heir to the throne 
 was obliged in many points to give way, either to a noble whose services 
 
TAXES, MOXEV, AXI) FJXAXCE. 
 
 33' 
 
 
 Fig. 284. — The House of Jacques Cteur at Bourses, now converted into tin 1 Hotel ilc Vil'e. 
 
 he bargained for, or to a town or an abbey whoso aid he sought. At times lie 
 bought over influential bodies, such as universities and oilier corporations, 
 by granting exemptions from, or privileges in, matters of taxation, &c. So 
 
332 TAXES, MO NET, AND FINANCE, 
 
 much was this the case that it may be said that 'Charles VII. treated 
 by private contract for the recovery of the inheritances of his fathers. 
 The towns of Paris and Rouen, as well as the provinces of Brittany, Lan- 
 guedoc, Normandy, and Guyenne, only returned to their allegiance to the 
 King on conditions more or less advantageous to themselves. Burgundy, 
 Picardy, and Flanders — which were removed from the kingdom of 
 Charles VII. at the treaty of peace of Arras in 1435 — cordially adopted 
 the financial system inaugurated by the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the 
 Good. 
 
 Charles VII. reconquered his kingdom by a good and wise policy as 
 much as by arms. He, doubtless, had cause to be thankful for the valour 
 and devotion of his officers, but he principally owed the success of his cause 
 to one man, namely, his treasurer, the famous Jacques Cocur, who possessed 
 the faculty of always supplying money to his master, and at the same 
 time of enriching himself (Fig. 284). Thus it was that Charles VII., 
 whose finances had been restored by the genius of Jacques Cceur, was at 
 last able to re-enter his capital triumphantly, to emancipate Guyenne, 
 Normandy, and the banks of the Loire from the English yoke, to re- 
 attach to the crown a portion of its former possessions, or to open the way 
 for their early return, to remove bold usurpers from high places in the 
 State, and to bring about a real alleviation of those evils which his 
 subjects had so courageously borne. He suppressed the fraud and extor- 
 tion carried on under the name of justice, put a stop to the sale of offices, 
 abolished a number of rates illegally levied, required that the receivers' 
 accounts should be sent in biennially, and whilst regulating the taxa- 
 tion, he devoted its proceeds entirely to the maintenance and pay of 
 the army. From that time taxation, once feudal and arbitrary, became a 
 fixed royal due, which was the surest means of preventing the pillage and 
 the excesses of the soldiery to which the country people had been subjected 
 for many years. Important triumphs of freedom were thus obtained over 
 the tyrannical supremacy of the great vassals ; but in the midst of all this 
 improvement we cannot but regret that the assessors, who, from the time of 
 their creation by St. Louis, had been elected by the towns or the corporations, 
 now became the nominees of the crown. 
 
 Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, taxed his subjects but little: 
 "Therefore," says Philippe de Commines, "they became very wealthy, and 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AXD FINANCE. 
 
 333 
 
 lived in much comfort." But Louis XT. did not imitate him. His first care 
 was to reinstate that great merchant, that clover financier, Jacques Occur, to 
 whom, as much as to Joan of Are, the kingdom owed its freedom, and 
 whom Charles TIL, for the most contemptible reasons, had had the weakness 
 
 Fir,'. 280. — Amende honorable of Jacquea Ccrur before Charles VII. — Fac-similc of a Miniature 
 of the "C'hroniques" of Monstrelet, Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the National 
 Library of Pans. 
 
 to allow to be judicially condemned (Fig. 285). Louis XL would have been 
 very glad to entrust the care of bis finances to another Jacques Cceur ; for 
 being sadly in want of money, he ran through bis father's earnings, and, to 
 refill his coffers, he increased taxation, imposed a duty on the importation 
 
334 TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 of wines, and levied a tax on tliose holding offices, &o. A revolution broke 
 out in consequence, which was only quenched in the blood of the insurgents. 
 In this manner he continued, by force of arms, to increase and strengthen 
 his own regal power at the expense of feudalism. 
 
 He soon found himself opposed by the Ligue clu Blen Public, formed by 
 the great vassals ostensibly to get rid of the pecuniary burden which oppressed 
 the people, but really with the secret intention of restoring feudalism and 
 lessening the King's power. He was not powerful enough openly to resist 
 this, and appeared to give way by allowing the leagued nobles immense 
 privileges, and himself consenting to the control of a sort of council of 
 " thirty-six notables appointed to superintend matters of finance." Far 
 from acknowledging himself vanquished, however, he immediately set to 
 work to cause division among his enemies, so as to be able to overcome 
 them. He accordingly showed favour towards the bourgeois, whom he had 
 already flattered, by granting new privileges, and abolishing or reducing 
 certain vexatious taxes of which they complained. The thirty-six notables 
 appointed to control his financial management reformed nothing. They 
 were timid and docile under the cunning eye of the King, and practically 
 assisted him in his designs ; for in a very few years the taxes were 
 increased from 1,800,000 ecus — about 45,000,000 francs of present money — 
 to 3,600,000 ecus — about 95,000,000 francs. Towards the end of the 
 reign they exceeded 4,700,000 ecus — 130,000,000 francs of present monej'. 
 Louis XL wasted nothing on luxury and pleasure ; he lived parsimoniously, 
 but he maintained 110,000 men under arms, and was ready to make the 
 greatest sacrifices whenever there was a necessity for augmenting the 
 territory of the kingdom, or for establishing national unity. At his death, 
 on the 25th of August, 1483, he left a kingdom considerably increased in 
 area, but financially almost ruined. 
 
 When Anne de Beaujeu, eldest sister of the King, who was a minor, 
 assumed the reins of government as regent, an immediate demand was made 
 for reparation of the evils to which the finance ministers had subjected the 
 unfortunate people. The treasurer-general Olivier le Lain, and the attorney- 
 general Jean Doyat, were almost immediately sacrificed to popular resent- 
 ment, six thousand Swiss were subsidised, the pensions granted during the 
 previous reign were cancelled, and a fourth part of the taxes was removed. 
 Public opinion being thus satisfied, the States- General assembled. The 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 335 
 
 bourgeois here showed grout practical good sense, especially in matters of 
 finance ; they proved clearly that the assessment was illegal, and that the 
 
 Fig. 286.— The Hint. — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the Translation of the Latin Work of Francis 
 Patricius, " Lie l'lnstitution ct Administration de la Chose Politique :" folio, 1020. 
 
 accounts were fictitious, inasmuch as the latter only showed 1,G50,000 livres 
 of subsidies, whereas they amounted to three times as much. It was satisfac- 
 torily established that the excise, the salt tax, and the revenues of the public 
 
33& 
 
 TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE.) 
 
 Fig. 287. — The Receiver of Taxes. — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in Damhoudere's "Praxis 
 
 Kerurn Civilium." 
 
 lands amply sufficed for the wants of the country and the crown. The 
 young King Charles was only allowed 1,200,000 livres for his private purse 
 for two years, and 300,000 livres for the expenses of the festivities of his 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 331 
 
 coronation. On the Assembly being dissolved, the Queen Regent found ample 
 means of pleasing the bourgeois and the people generally by breaking 
 through the engagements she had entered into in the King's name, by 
 remitting taxation, and finally by force of arms destroying the power of 
 the last remaining vassals of the crown. 
 
 Charles \ III., during a reign of fourteen years, continued to waste the 
 public money. His disastrous expedition for the conquest of the kingdom 
 of Naples forced him to borrow at the rate of forty-two per cent. A short 
 time previous to his death lie acknowledged his errors, but continued to 
 spend money, without consideration or restraint, in all kinds of extravagances, 
 but especially in buildings. During his reign the annual expenditure almost 
 invariably doubled the revenue. In 1492 it readied 7,300,000 francs, about 
 244,000,000 francs of present money. The deficit was made up each year 
 by a general tax, " which was paid neither by the nobles nor the Church, 
 but was obtained entirely from the people " (letters from the ambassadors 
 of Venice) . 
 
 When the Duke of Orleans ascended the throne as Louis XII., the people 
 were again treated with some consideration. Having chosen George d'Amboise 
 as premier and Florimond Robertet as first secretary of the treasury, he 
 resolutely pursued a course of strict economy ; ho refused to demand of his 
 subjects the usual tax for celebrating the joyous accession, the taxes fell 
 by successive reductions to the sum of 2,600,000 livres, about 70,000,000 
 francs of present money, the salt tax was entirely abolished, and the 
 question as to what should be the standard measure of this important article 
 was legislated upon. The tax-gatherers were forced to reside in their 
 respective districts, and to submit their registers to the royal commissioners 
 before beginning to collect the tax. By strict discipline pillage by soldiers 
 was put a stop to (Fig. 288), 
 
 Notwithstanding the resources obtained by the King through mortgaging 
 a part of the royal domains, and in spite of the excellent administration of 
 Robertet, who almost always managed to pay the public deficit without any 
 additional tax, it was necessary in 1513, after several disastrous expeditions 
 to Italy, to borrow, on the security of the royal domains, 400,000 livres, 
 10,000,000 francs of present money, and to raise from the excise and from 
 other dues and taxes the sum of 3,300,(101) livres, about 80,000,000 francs 
 of present money. Tliis caused the nation some distress, but it was only 
 
 'x x 
 
33« 
 
 TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 temporary and was not much, felt, for commerce, both domestic and foreign, 
 much extended at the same time, and the sale of collectorships, of titles of 
 nobility, of places in parliament, and of nominations to numerous judicial 
 offices, brought in considerable sums to the treasury. The higher classes 
 surnamed the king Le Roitelet, because he was sickly and of small stature, 
 parsimonious and economical. The people called him their " father and 
 master," and he has always been styled the father of the people ever since. 
 
 wiSJF 8 
 
 lV**\ 
 
 ^'(Bf-^ 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 *i; f x 
 
 Fig. 288.— A Village pillaged by Soldiers.— Fac-siniile of a Woodcut in Hamelmann's 
 " Oldenburgisches Chronicon :" in folio, 1599. 
 
 In an administrative and financial point of view, the reign of Francis I. 
 was not at all a period of revival or of progress. The commencement of a 
 sounder system of finance is rather to be dated from that of Charles V. ; and 
 good financial organization is associated with the names of Jacques Cceur, 
 Philip the Good, Charles XL, and Florimond Eobertet. As an example of 
 this, it may be stated that financiers of that time established taxes on regis- 
 tration of all kinds, also on stamps, and on sales, which did not before exist in 
 France, and which were borrowed from the Roman emperors. We must 
 also give them the credit of having first commenced a public debt, under the 
 
TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 33<J 
 
 name of rentes pcrpetuclles, which at that time realised eight per cent. 
 During- this brilliant and yet disastrous reign the additional taxes were 
 enormous, and the sale of offices produced such a large revenue that the 
 post of parliamentary counsel realised the sum of '-.',000 -olden ecus or 
 
 Gold ami Silver Coins or the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centukies. 
 
 J& 
 
 
 Fig. 2S9.— Eoval d'Or. Charles VII." Fig. 200.— Ecu d'Argtnt a la Couronne. Louis XI. 
 
 %U/UfliP 
 
 ,^H?*5%^ 
 
 
 Fig. 291. — Ecu d'Or a la Couronne._ Charles VIII. Fig. 292. — Ecu d'Or au Porc-6|jic. Louis XII. 
 
 Teston d' Argent au Croissant. Henry 11. 
 
 nearly a million francs of present currency. It was necessary to obtain 
 money at any price, and from any one who would lend it. Tlie ecclesiastics, 
 the nobility, tbe bourgeois, all gave up their plate and their jewels to 
 furnish the mint, which continued to coin money of every description, and, 
 in consequence of the discovery of America, and tbe working of the gold 
 and silver mines in tbat country, tbe precious metals poured into tbe bands 
 
34° 
 
 TAXES, MONEY, AND FINANCE. 
 
 of the money-changers. The country, however, was none the more 
 prosperous, and the people often were in want of even the commonest 
 necessaries of life. The King and the court swallowed up everything, and 
 consumed all the resources of the country on their luxury and their wars. 
 The towns, the monasteries, and the corporations, were bound to furnish a 
 certain number of troops, either infantry or cavalry. By the establishment of 
 a lottery and a bank of deposit, by the monopoly of the mines and by the taxes 
 on imports, exports, and manufactured articles, enormous sums were realised 
 to the treasury, which, as it was being continually drained, required to be as 
 continually replenished. Francis I. exhausted every source of credit by his 
 luxury, his caprices, and his wars. Jean de Beaune, Baron de Semblancay, 
 the old minister of finance, died a victim to false accusations of having 
 misappropriated the public funds. Robertet, who was in office with him, 
 and William Bochetel, who succeeded him, were more fortunate : they so 
 managed the treasury business that, without meeting with any legal diffi- 
 culty, they were enabled to centralise the responsibility in themselves instead 
 of having it distributed over sixteen branches in all parts of the kingdom, a 
 system which has continued to our clay. In those days the office of superin- 
 tendent of finance was usually only a short and rapid road to the gibbet of 
 Montfaucon. 
 
LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 The Family the Origin of Government. — Origin of Supreme Power amongst tin; Franks. — The 
 Legislation of Barbarism humanised by Christianity. — Right of Justice inherent to the Right 
 of Property. — The Laws under Charlemagne. — Judicial Forms. — Witnesses. — Duels, &c. — 
 Organization of Royal Justice under St. Louis. — The Chitelet and the Provost of Paris. — 
 Jurisdiction of Parliament, its Duties and its Responsibilities. — Tiro Bailiwicks. — Struggles 
 between Parliament and the Chatelet. — Codification of the Customs and Usages. — Official 
 cupidity. — Comparison between the Parliament and the Chitelet. 
 
 MOXGST the ancient Celtic mid Ger- 
 man populations, before any Greek 
 or Roman innovations had become 
 engrafted on to their customs, every- 
 thing, even political power as well 
 as the rightful possession of lands, 
 appears to have been dependent on 
 families. Julius Gesar, in bis " Com- 
 mentaries," tells us that "each year 
 the magistrates and princes assigned 
 portions of land to families as well as 
 to associations of individuals having a common object whenever they thought 
 proper, and to any extent they chose, though in the following year the same 
 authorities compelled them to go and establish themselves elsewhere." We 
 again find families (familice) and associations of men (cognat tones hoiitiimm) 
 spoken of by Caesar, in the barbaric laws, and referred to in the histories of 
 the Middle Ages under the names of genealogies, faravianni, fam, etc; but the 
 extent of the relationship (parentela) included under the general appellation 
 of families varied amongst the Franks, Lombards, Visigoths, and Bavarians. 
 Generally, amongst all the people of German origin, the relationship only 
 extended to the seventh degree ; amongst the Celts it was determined merely 
 by a common ancestry, with endless subdivisions of the tribe into distinct 
 
342 LA W AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 families. Amongst the Germans, from whom modern Europe has its origin, 
 we find only three primary groups ; namely, first, the family proper, com- 
 prising the father, mother, and children, and the collateral relatives of all 
 degrees; secondly, the vassals (minister idles) or servants of the free class; 
 and, thirdly, the servants (mansionarii, coloni, liti, serin) of the servile class 
 attached to the family proper (Fig. 296). 
 
 Domestic authority was represented hy the mund, or head of the family, 
 also called rex (the king), who exercised a special power over the persons and 
 goods of his dependents, a guardianship, in fact, with certain rights and pre- 
 rogatives, and a sort of civil and political responsibility attached to it. Thus 
 the head of the family, who was responsible for his wife and for those of his 
 children who lived with him, was also responsible for his slaves and domestic 
 animals. To such a pitch did these primitive people carry their desire that 
 justice should be done in all cases of infringement of the law, that the head 
 was held legally responsible for any injury which might be done by the bow 
 or the sword of any of his dependents, without it being necessary that he 
 should himself have handled either of these weapons. 
 
 Long before the commencement of the Merovingian era, the family, 
 whose sphere of action had at first been an isolated and individual one, 
 became incorporated into one great national association, which held official 
 meetings at stated periods on the Mailer g (Parliament hill). These assemblies 
 alone possessed supreme power in its full signification. The titles given to 
 certain chiefs of rex (king), dux (duke), graff (count), brenn (general of the 
 army), only defined the subdivisions of that power, and were applied, the last 
 exclusively, to those engaged in war, and the others to those possessing 
 judicial and administrative functions. The duty of dispensing justice was 
 specially assigned to the counts, who had to ascertain the cause of quarrels 
 between parties and to inflict penalties. There was a count in each district 
 and in each important town ; there were, besides, several counts attached to 
 the sovereign, under the title of counts of the palace (comites palatii), an 
 honourable position, which was much sought after and much coveted on 
 account of its pecuniary and other contingent advantages. The counts of 
 the palace deliberated with the sovereign on all matters and all questions of 
 State, and at the same time they were his companions in hunting, feasting, 
 and religious exercises ; they acted as arbitrators in questions of inheritance 
 of the crown ; during the minority of princes they exercised the same 
 
LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 3+3 
 
 authority as that which the constitution gave to sovereigns who wore of full 
 age ; they confirmed the nominations of the principal functionaries and oven 
 those of the bishops ; they gave their advice on the occasion of a proposed 
 alliance between one nation and another, on matters connected with treaties of 
 peace or of commerce, on military expeditions, or on exchanges of territory, 
 as well as in reference to the marriage of a prince, and they incurred no re- 
 sponsibility beyond that naturally attached to persons in so distinguished a 
 position among a semi-barbarous community. At first the legates (legati), and 
 afterwards the King's ambassadors [missi dominici), the bishops and the dukes 
 or commanders of the army were usually selected from the higher court officials, 
 
 Fig. 296.— The Families and the Barbarians.— Fae-simile of a Woodcut in the " Cosmographie 
 Universelle " of Minister : in folio, Basle, 1552. 
 
 such as the counts of the palace, whereas the ministeriales, forming the second 
 class of the royal officials, filled inferior though very honourable and lucrative 
 posts of an administrative and magisterial character. 
 
 Under the Merovingians the legal principle of power was closely bound up 
 with the possession of landed property. The subdivision of that power, how- 
 ever, closely followed this union, and the constant ruin of some of the nobles 
 rapidly increased the power of others, who absorbed to themselves the lost 
 authority of their more unfortunate brethren, so much so that the Frank kings 
 perceived that society would soon escape their rule unless they speedily found 
 a remedy for this state of things. It was then that the his Sa/ique and 
 Eipuaire appeared, which were subjected to successive revisions and gradual 
 
344 LA W AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 or sudden modifications, necessitated by political changes or by the increasing 
 exigencies of the prelates and nobles. But, far from lessening the supremacy 
 of the King, the national customs which were collected in a code extended 
 the limits of the royal authority and facilitated its exercise. 
 
 In 596, Childebert, in concert with his leiicks, decided that in future the 
 crime of rape should be punished with death, and that the judge of the 
 district (pagus) in which it had been committed should kill the ravisher, 
 and leave his body on the public road. He also enacted that the homicide 
 should have the same fate. "It is just," to epiote the words of the law, 
 "that he who knows how to kill should learn how to die." Bobbery, 
 attested by seven witnesses, also involved capital punishment, and a judge 
 convicted of having let a noble escape, underwent the same punishment 
 that would have been inflicted on the criminal. The punishment, how- 
 ever, differed according to the station of the delinquent. Thus, for the 
 non-observance of Sunday, a Salian paid a fine of fifteen sols, a Roman 
 seven and a half sols, a slave three sols, or " his back paid the penalty 
 for him." At this early period some important changes in the barbaric 
 code had been made : the sentence of death when once given had to be 
 carried out, and no arrangements between the interested parties could avert 
 it. A crime could no longer be condoned by the payment of money ; 
 robbery even, which was still leniently regarded at that time, and beyond 
 the Rhine even honoured, was pitilessly punished \>y death. We therefore 
 cannot have more striking testimony than this of the abridgment of the 
 privileges of the Frankish aristocracy, and of the progress which the 
 sovereign power was making towards absolute and uncontrolled authority 
 over cases of life and death. By almost imperceptible steps Roman legisla- 
 tion became more humane and perfect, Christianity engrafted itself into 
 barbarism, licentiousness was considered a crime, crime became an offence 
 against the King and society, and it was in one sense by the King's hand 
 that the criminals received punishment. 
 
 From the time of the baptism of Clovis, the Church had much to do with 
 the re-arrangement of the penal code ; for instance, marriage with a sister- 
 in-law, a mother-in-law,, an aunt, or a niece, was forbidden ; the travelling 
 shows, nocturnal dances, public orgies, formerly permitted at feasts, were for- 
 bidden as being profane. In the time of Clotaire, the prelates sat as members 
 of the supreme council, which was strictly speaking the highest court of the 
 
LAW AND TIIF. ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. H5 
 
 land, having the power of reversing the decisions of the judges of the 
 lower courts. Tt pronounced sentence in conjunction with (he Kin"-, and 
 from these decisions there was no appeal. The nation had no longer a voice 
 in the election of the magistrates, for the assemblies of Malberg did not meet 
 except on extraordinary occasions, and all government and judicial business 
 was removed to the supreme and often capricious arbitration of the King and 
 his council. 
 
 As long as the mayors of the palace of Australia, and of thai of Bur- 
 gundy, were only temporarily appointed, royal authority never wavered, and 
 the sovereign remained supreme judge over his subjects. Suddenly, however, 
 after the execution of Brunehaut, who was sacrificed to the hatred of the 
 feudal lords, the mayoralty of the palace became a life appointment, and, in 
 consequence, the person holding the office became possessed almost of supreme 
 power, and the rightful sovereigns from that time practically became subject to 
 the authority of the future usurpers of the crown. The edict of 615, to which 
 the ecclesiastical and State nobility were parties, was in its laws and customs 
 completely at variance with former edicts. In resuming their places in the 
 French constitution, the Merovingian kings, who had been deprived both 
 of influence and authority, were compelled by the Germanic institutions to 
 return to the passive position which their predecessors had held in the forests 
 of Germany, but they no longer had, like the latter, the prestige of military 
 authority to enable them to keep the position of judges or arbitrators. The 
 canons of the Council of Paris, which were confirmed by an edict of the King 
 bearing date the loth of the calends of November, 015, upset the political and 
 legal system so firmly established in Europe since the fifth century. The 
 royal power was shorn of some of its most valuable prerogatives, one of which 
 was that of selecting the bishops ; lay judges were forbidden to bring an 
 ecclesiastic before the tribunals ; and the treasury was prohibited from 
 seizing intestate estates, with a view to increasing the rates and taxes ; and it 
 was decreed that Jews should not lie employed in collecting the public taxes. 
 By these canons the judges and other officers of State were made responsible, 
 the benefices which had been withdrawn from the kudes were restored, the 
 King was forbidden from granting written orders (prrecepta) for carrying oft 
 rich widows, young virgins, and nuns ; and the penalty of death was ordered 
 to be enforced against those who disobeyed the canons of the council. Thence 
 sprung two new species of legislation, one ecclesiastical, the other civil, 
 
 v v 
 
346 LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 between which royalty, more and more curtailed of its authority, was 
 compelled for many centuries to struggle. 
 
 Amongst the Germanic nations the right of justice was inherent to 
 landed property from the earliest times, and this right had reference to 
 things as well as to persons. It was the patronage (patrocinium) of the pro- 
 prietor, and this patronage eventually gave origin to feudal jurisdictions and 
 to lordly and customary rights in each domain. We may infer from this 
 that under the two first dynasties laws were made by individuals, and that 
 each lord, so to speak, made bis own. 
 
 The right of jurisdiction seems to have been so inherent to the right of 
 property, that a landed proprietor could always put an end to feuds and 
 personal quarrels, could temporarily bring any lawsuit to a close, and, bv 
 issuing his ban, stop the course of the law in his own immediate neighbour- 
 hood — at least, within a given circumference of his residence. This was 
 often done during any family festival, or any civil or religious public 
 ceremony. On these occasions, whoever infringed the ban of the master, 
 was liable to be brought before his court, and to have to pay a fine. The 
 lord who was too poor to create a court of sufficient power and importance 
 obtained assistance from his lord paramount, or relinquished the right of 
 justice to him ; whence originated the saying, " The fief is one thing, and 
 justice another." 
 
 The law of the Visigoths speaks of nobles holding local courts, similar to 
 those of the official judge, count, or bishop. King Dagobert required the 
 public and the private judges to act together. In the law of Lombardy 
 landlords are mentioned who, in virtue of the double title of nobles and 
 judges, assumed the right of protecting fugitive slaves taking shelter in their 
 domains. By an article of the Salic law, the noble is made to answer for 
 his vassal before the court of the count. Wc must hence conclude that the 
 landlord's judgment was exercised indiscriminately on the serfs, the colons, 
 and the vassals, and a statute of 855 places under his authority even the 
 freemen who resided with other persons. 
 
 From these various sources w T e discover a curious fact, which has 
 hitherto remained unnoticed by historians — namely, that there existed an 
 intermediate legislation between the official court of the count and his subor- 
 dinates and the private courts, which was a kind of court of arbitration 
 exercised by the neighbours (vicini) without the assistance of the judges of 
 
LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 347 
 
 Fig 297 -The Emperor Charlemagne holding in one hand the Glohe and in the Cher the 
 Sword-After a Miniature in the Registers of the University of Paris (Archives of the Minister 
 of Public Instruction of the University,. The Motto, In »«/«« exargo, scelen, d,sa;mu,a purgo, 
 is written on a Scroll round the Sword. 
 
3+' 
 
 LA W AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 the county, and tins was invested with a sort of authority which rendered 
 its decisions binding. 
 
 Private courts, however, were limited in their power. They were neither 
 absolutely independent, nor supreme and without appeal. All conducted 
 their business much in the same way as the high, middle, and lower courts 
 of the Middle Ages ; and above all these authorities towered the King's 
 jurisdiction. The usurpation of ecclesiastical bishops and abbots — who, 
 having become temporal lords, assumed a domestic jurisdiction — was curtailed 
 by the authority of the counts, and they were even more obliged to give 
 way before that of the missi dominici, or the official delegates of the monarch. 
 Charles the Bald, notwithstanding his enormous concessions to feudalism 
 and to the Church, never gave up his right of final appeal. 
 
 During the whole of the Merovingian epoch, the malil (malhts), the 
 general and regular assembly of the nation, was held in the month of 
 March. Persons of every class met there clad in armour ; political, com- 
 mercial, and judicial interests were discussed under the presidency of the 
 monarch ; but this did not prevent other special assemblies of the King's 
 court (curia rcijalis) being held on urgent occasions. This court formed a 
 parliament (parlamentum) , which at first was exclusively military, but from 
 the time of Clovis was composed of Franks, Burgundians, Gallo-Eomans, as 
 well as of feudal lords and ecclesiastics. As, by degrees, the feudal system 
 became organized, the convocation of national assemblies became more 
 necessary, and the administration of justice more complicated. Charlemagne 
 decided that two mahk should be held annually, one in the month of May, the 
 other in the autumn, and, in addition, that in each county two annual plaids 
 should meet independently of any special mahls and plaids which it should 
 please him to convoke. In 788, the emperor found it necessary to call three 
 general plaids, and, besides these, he was pleased to summon his great vassals, 
 buth clerical and lay, to the four principal feasts of the year. It may be 
 asserted that the idea of royalty being the central authority in matters of 
 common law dates from the reign of Charlemagne (Fig. 297). 
 
 The authority of royalty based on law took such deep root from that 
 time forth, that it maintained itself erect, notwithstanding the weakness 
 of the successors of the great Charles, and the repeated infractions of it 
 by the Church and the great vassals of the crown (Fig. 298). 
 
 The authoritative and responsible action of a tribunal which represented 
 
LAW AXD THE A DMIXISTRATIOX or [US77CE. 
 
 349 
 
 society (Fig. 299) thus took the place of the unchecked animosity of private 
 feuds and family quarrels, which were often avenged by the use of the gibbet, 
 a monument to be found erected at almost every corner. Nut unfrequently, 
 
 Fig. 298,-Carlovingian Kin- in his Palace personifying Wisdom appealing to the whole Human 
 Race—After a Miniature in a Manuscript of the Ninth Century in the Burgundian Library of 
 Brussels, from a Drawing by Count Horace de Vielcastel. 
 
 in those early times, the unchecked passions of a, chief of a party would be 
 the only reason for inflicting a penalty ; often such a person would constitute 
 himself sole judge, and, without the advice of any one, he would pass sentence, 
 
35° 
 
 LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 and even, with his own sword or any other available instrument, he would 
 act as his own executioner. The tribunal thus formed denounced duelling-, 
 the pitiless warfare between man and man, and between family and family, 
 and its first care was to protect, not each individual man's life, which 
 was impossible in those days of blind barbarism, but at least his dwelling. 
 Imperceptibly, the sanctuary of a man's house extended, first to towns of 
 refuge, and then to certain public places, such as the church, the mahlum, 
 or place of national assemblies, the market, the tavern, &c. It was next 
 required that the accused, whether guilty or not, should remain unharmed 
 from the time of the crime being committed until the day on which judgment 
 was passed. 
 
 Fig. 299. — The Court of the Nobles. — Fac-simile of a Miniature iu an old Poetical Romance of 
 Chivalry, Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century, in the Library of the Arsenal of Paris. 
 
 This right of revenge, besides being thus circumscribed as to locality, 
 was also subject to certain rules as to time. Sunday and the principal feasts 
 of the year, such as Advent, Christmas week, and from that time to the 
 Epiphany, from the Ascension to the Day of Pentecost, certain vigils, &c, 
 were all occasions upon which the right of revenge could not be exercised. 
 " The power of the King," says a clever and learned writer, " partook to a 
 certain degree of that of God and of the Saints ; it was his province to calm 
 human passions ; by the moral power of his seal and his hand he extended 
 peace over all the great lines of communication, through the forests, along 
 the principal rivers, the highways and the byways, &c. The Treve de Bint 
 in 1035, was the logical application of these humane principles." 
 
LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 35' 
 
 We must not suppose that justice in those days was dispensed without 
 formalities, and that there were no regular intervals between the various steps 
 to he gone through before final judgment Mas given, and in consequence of 
 which some guarantee was afforded that the decisions arrived at were care- 
 fully considered. No one was tried without having been previously sum- 
 moned to appear before the tribunal. Under the Carlovingians, as in 
 previous times, the periods when judicial courts were held were regulated by 
 the moon. Preference was given to the day on which it entered the first 
 quarter, or during the lull moon ; the summonses were returnable by moons 
 or quarter moons — that is, every seventh day. The summons was issued 
 four times, after which, if the accused did not appear, he lost the right of 
 counterplea, or was nonsuited. The Salic law allowed but two summonses 
 before a count, which had to be issued at an interval of forty nights the one 
 from the other. The third, which summoned the accused before the Kins', 
 was issued fourteen nights later, and if he had not. put in an appearance 
 before sunset on the fourteenth day, he was placed lion tie sa parole, his goods 
 were confiscated, and he forfeited the privilege of any kind of refuge. 
 
 Among the Visigoths justice was equally absolute from the count to the 
 tithe-gatherer. Each magistrate had his tribunal and his special juris- 
 diction. These judges called to their assistance assessors or colleagues, 
 either rachimbourgs, who were selected from freemen ; or provosts, or 
 echerins (scabini), whose appointment was of an official and permanent 
 character. The scabins created by Charlemagne were the first elected magis- 
 trates. They numbered seven for each bench. They alone prepared the 
 cases and arranged as to the sentence. The count or his delegate alone 
 presided at the tribunal, and pronounced the judgment. Every vassal 
 enjoyed the right of appeal to the sovereign, who, with his court, alone 
 decided the quarrels between ecclesiastics and nobles, and between private 
 individuals who were specially under the royal protection. Criminal 
 business was specially referred to the sovereign, the mmi, or the 
 Count Palatine. Final appeal lay with the Count Palatine in all cases 
 in which the public peace was endangered, such as in revolts or in armed 
 encounters. 
 
 As early as the time of the invasion, the Franks, Bavarians, and 
 Visigoths, when investigating cases, began by an inquiry, and, previously to 
 having recourse to trials before a judge, they examined witnesses on oath. 
 
3S 2 
 
 LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 Then, he who swore to the matter was believed, and acquitted accordingly. 
 This system was no doubt flattering to human veracity, but, unfortunately, 
 it gave rise to abuses ; which it was thought would lie avoided by calling 
 the family and friends of the accused to take an oath, and it was then 
 administered by requiring them to place their hands on the crucifix, on 
 some relics, or on the consecrated Host. These witnesses, who were called 
 conjuratores, came to attest before the judges not the fact itself, but the 
 
 Fig. 300. — The Judicial Liuel. The Plaintifl' opening his Case before the Judge. — Fac-simile of a 
 Miniature in the " Ceremonies des Gages des Batailles," Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, 
 in the National Library of Paris. 
 
 veracity of the person who invoked their testimony. The number and 
 respectability of the conjuratores varied according to the importance of the 
 case in dispute. Gregory of Tours relates, that King Gontran being 
 suspicious as to the legitimacy of the child who afterwards became 
 Clotaire II., his mother, Fredegonde, called in the impartial testimony of 
 certain nobles. These, to the number of three hundred, with three bishops 
 at their head (tribus episcojyis ft trecentis viris optimis), swore, or, as we say, 
 made an affidavit, and the queen was declared innocent. 
 
LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 35 5 
 
 The laws of the Burgundians and of the Angliaus were more severe 
 than those of the Germanic race, for they granted to the disputants trial by 
 combat. After having employed the ordeal of red-hot iron, and of sealdino- 
 water, the Franks adopted the judicial duel (Fig. .'!()()). This was imposed 
 first upon the disputing parties, then on the witnesses, and sometimes even 
 on the judges themselves. Dating from the reign of the Emperor Otho 
 the Great in 967, the judicial duel, which had been at first restricted to the 
 most serious cases, was had recourse to in almost all suits that were brought 
 before the courts. Neither women, old men, children, nor infirm persons 
 were exempted. When a person could not himself fight he had to provide a 
 
 !!•' fW, ' 
 
 i 
 
 
 301. — Judicial Duel. — Combat of a Knight with a Dog. — Fur-simile of a Miniature in tin 
 Eomance of "Kacaire," of the Thirteenth Century (Library of the Arsenal of Paris). 
 
 champion, whose sole business was to take in hand the quarrels of others. 
 Ecclesiastics were obliged, in the same manner, to fight by deputy. The 
 champion or substitute required, of course, to be paid beforehand. It the 
 legend of the Dog of Montargis is to be believed, the judicial duel seems to 
 have been resorted to even against an animal (Fig. 301). 
 
 In the twelfth century Europe was divided, so to speak, into two vast 
 judicial zones : the one, Southern, Gallo-ltoman, and Visigoth ; the other, 
 Northern and Western, half Germanic and half Scandinavian, Anglian, or 
 Saxon. Christianity established common ties between these different legisla- 
 tions, and imperceptibly softened their native coarseness, although they 
 retained the elements of their pagan and barbaric origin. Sentences were 
 not as yet given in writing : they were entrusted to the memory of the 
 
 7, / 
 
554 LA W AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 judges who hud issued them; and when a question or dispute arose between 
 the interested parties as to the terms of the decision which had been pro- 
 nounced, an inquiry was held, and the court issued a second decision, called 
 a, recordation. 
 
 As Ions as the King's court was a movable one, the King carried about 
 with him the original text of the law in rolls (rotu/i). It was in consequence 
 of the seizure of a. number of these by the English, during the reign of 
 Philip Augustus in 1194, that the idea was suggested of preserving the text 
 of all the laws as state archives, and of opening authentic registers of 
 decisions in civil and criminal cases. As early as the time of Charles the 
 1) dd, the inconvenience was felt of the high court of the count beino: 
 movable from place to place, and having no special locality where instruc- 
 tions might be given as to modes of procedure, for the hearing of witnesses, 
 and for keeping the accused in custody, &c. A former statute provided for 
 this probable difficulty, but there seems to be no proof that previous to the 
 twelfth century any fixed courts of justice had been established. The 
 Kings, and likewise the counts, held courts in the open air at the entrance 
 to the palace (Fig. 302), or in some other public place — under a large tree, 
 for instance, as St. Louis did in the wood of Yincemies. 
 
 M. Desmaze, in his valuable researches on the history of the Parliament 
 of Paris, says — " In 1191, Philip Augustus, before starting for Palestine, 
 established bailiwicks, which held their assizes once a month ; during 1 their 
 sitting they heard all those who had complaints to make, and gave summary 
 judgment. The bailiffs' assize was held at stated periods from time to time, 
 and at a fixed place ; it was composed of five judges, the King deciding the 
 number and quality of the persons who were to take part in the deliberations 
 of the court for each session. The royal court only sat when it pleased the 
 King to order it ; it accompanied the King wherever he went, so that it had 
 no settled place of residence." 
 
 Louis IX. ordered that the courts of the nobles should be consolidated 
 with the King's court, and succeeded in carrying out this reform. The bailiffs, 
 who were the direct delegates of the sovereign power, assumed an authority 
 before which even the feudal lord was obliged to bend, because this authority 
 was supported by the people, who were at that time organized in corpora- 
 tions, and these corporations were again bound together in communes. 
 Under the bailiffs a system was developed, the principles of which more 
 
LAW AND THE ADMIXISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 nearly resembled the Hum;,,, legislation than the right of custom, which it 
 nevertheless respected, and the judicial trial by duel completely disappeared. 
 Inquiries and appeals were much resorted (,» in all kinds ,,1' proceedings, ami 
 Louis IX. succeeded in controlling the power of ecclesiastical courts^vhioh 
 had been much abused in reference to excommunication. lie also sup- 
 pressed the arbitrary and ruinous confiscations which the nobles had unjustly 
 made on their vassals. The edict of l'„>76 very clearly established theiuriJ- 
 
 Fig. 302.— The Palace as it was in the Sixteenth Century.— After an En-raving of that Period, 
 National Library of Paris (( 'abinet des Estampes). 
 
 diction of parliaments and bailiwicks; it defined the important duties of the 
 bailiffs, and at the same time specified the mode in which proceedings should 
 be taken; it also regulated the duties of counsel, maitrcs des requites, auditors, 
 and advocates. 
 
 To the bailiwicks already in existence Louis IX. added the four great 
 assizes of Vercnandois, of Sens, of Saint-Pierre-le-iloustier, and of Macon, 
 "to act as courts of final appeal from the judgment of the nobles.' Philippe 
 
35& 
 
 LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 lc Eel went still further, for, in 1287, he invited "all those who possess 
 temporal authority in the kingdom of France to appoint, for the purpose of 
 exercising civil jurisdiction, a bailiff, a provost, and some Serjeants, who 
 were to be laymen, and not ecclesiastics, and if there should be ecclesiastics 
 in the said offices, to remove them." He ordered, besides, that all those who 
 had cases pending before the court of the King and the secular judges of the 
 kingdom should be furnished with lay attorneys; though the chapters, as 
 well as the abbeys and convents, were allowed to be represented by canons. 
 M. Desmaze adds, "This really amounted to excluding ecclesiastics from 
 judicial offices, not only from the courts of the King, but also from those of 
 the nobles, and from every place in which any temporal jurisdiction 
 existed." 
 
 At the time of his accession, Hugh Capet was Count of Paris, and as 
 such was invested with judicial powers, which he resigned in 987, on the 
 understanding that his county of Paris, after the decease of the male heirs of 
 his brother Eudes, should return to the crown. In 1032, a new magistrate 
 was created, called the Provost of Paris, whose duty it was to give assistance 
 to the bourgeois in arresting persons for debt. This functionary combined in 
 his own person the financial and political chief of the capital, he was also the 
 head of the nobility of the county, he was independent of the governor, and 
 was placed above the bailiffs and seneschals. He was the senior of the urban 
 magistracy and police, leader of the municipal troops, and, in a word, the pre- 
 fect (prcsfectus urlm), as he was called under the Emperor Aurelian, or the first 
 magistrate of Eutetia, as he was still called under Clotaire in 663. Assessors 
 were associated with the provost, and together they formed a tribunal, which 
 was afterwards known as the Chatelet (Fig. 303), because they assembled in 
 that fortress, the building of which is attributed to Julius Cassar. The func- 
 tions of this tribunal did not differ much from those of the royal ch&telkmes : its 
 jurisdiction embraced quarrels between individuals, assaults, revolts, disputes 
 between the universities and the students, and improper conduct generally 
 (ribaudailles), in consequence of which the provost acquired the popular sur- 
 name of Hoi dps Ribands. At first his judgment was final, but very soon 
 those under his jurisdiction were allowed to appeal to Parliament, and that 
 court was obliged to have certain eases sent back for judgment from the 
 Chatelet. This was, however, done only in a few very important instances, 
 notwithstanding frequent appeals being made to its supreme arbitration. 
 
LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 35 7 
 
 In addition to the courts of the counts and bailiffs established in certain 
 of the large towns, aldermanic or magisterial courts existed, which rather 
 resembled the Chatelet of Paris. Thus the capitoithtf of Toulouse, the senior 
 alderman of Metz, and the burgomaster of Strasburg and Brussels, possessed 
 
 Fig. 303. — The Great Chatelet of Paris. — Principal Front opposite the Pont-aii-Change. — Fa 
 simile of an Engraving on Copper by Merian, in the " Topographia Giillire " el' Zeller. 
 
 in each of these towns a tribunal, which judged without appeal, and united 
 the several functions of a civil, criminal, and simple police court. Several 
 places in the north of France had provosts who held courts, whose duties were 
 various, but who were principally charged with the maintenance of public- 
 order, and with suppressing disputes and conflicts arising from the privileges 
 
LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 granted to the trade corporations, whose importance, especially in Flanders, 
 had much increased since the twelfth century. 
 
 " On his return from ahroad, Louis IX. took his seat upon the bench, 
 and administered justice, by the side of the good provost of Paris." This 
 provost was no other than the learned Estienne Boileau, out of respect to 
 whom the provostship was declared a charge de maghtrature. The increase of 
 business which fell to the provost's office, especially after the boundaries of 
 Paris were extended by Philip Augustus, caused him to be released from the 
 duty of collecting the public taxes. He was authorised to furnish himself 
 with competent assistants, who were employed with matters of minor detail, 
 and he was allowed the assistance of juges aiuliteurs. " "We order that they 
 shall be eight in number,'' says an edict of Philippe le Bel, of February, 
 1324, " four of them being ecclesiastics and four laymen, and that they shall 
 assemble at the Chatelet two days in the week, to take into consideration the 
 
 suits and causes in concert with our provost " In 1343, the provost's 
 
 court was composed of one King's attorney, one civil commissioner, two 
 King's counsel, eight councillors, and one criminal commissioner, whose 
 sittings took place daily at the Chatelet. 
 
 From the year 1340 this tribunal had to adjudicate in reference to all the 
 affairs of the university, and from the Gth of October, 1380, to all those of 
 the salt -fish market, which were no less numerous, so that its importance 
 increased considerably. Unfortunately, numerous abuses were introduced 
 into this municipal jurisdiction. In 1313 and 1320, the officers of the 
 Chatelet were suspended, on account of the extortions which they were 
 guilty of, and the King ordered an inquiry to be made into the matter. The 
 provost and two councillors of the Parliament sat upon it, and Philip de 
 Valois, adopting its decisions, prescribed fresh statutes, which were naturally 
 framed in such a way as to show the distrust in which the Chatelet was then 
 held. To these the officers of the Chatelet promised on oath to submit. The 
 ignorance and immorality of the lay officers, who had been substituted for 
 the clerical, caused much disturbance. Parliament authorised two of its 
 principal members to examine the officers of the Chatelet. Twenty years 
 later, on the receipt of fresh complaints, Parliament decided that three 
 qualified councillors, chosen from its own body, should proceed with the 
 King's attorney to the Chatelet, so as to reform the abuses and infoimalities 
 of that court. 
 
LA W AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE, 3 
 
 50 
 
 In the time of Philippe lo Bel there existed in reality but one Parlia- 
 ment, and that was the King's Court. Its action was at once political, 
 
 Fig. 304.— The King's Court, or Grand Council.- Facsimile of a miniature in the " (Jhruninues " 
 of Froissart, Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (formerly in the possession of Charles V.), in 
 the Lihrary of the Ar.-enal, Paris. 
 
 administrative, financial, and judicial, and was necessarily, therefore, of a 
 most complicated character. Philippe le Bel made it exclusively a judicial 
 court, defined the territorial limit of its power, and gave it as a judicial body 
 
3 I i 
 
 LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 privileges tending- to strengthen its independence and to raise its dignity. 
 He assigned political functions to the Great Council (Conseil d' 'Mat) ; finan- 
 cial matters to the chamber of accounts ; and the hearing of cases of heresy, 
 wills, legacies, and dowries to the prelates. But in opposition to the wise 
 edict of 1295, ho determined that Jews should he excluded from Parliament, 
 and prelates from the palace of justice ; by which latter proceeding he was 
 depriving justice of the abilities of the most worthy representatives of the 
 Gallican Church. But Philippe le Bel and his successors, while incessantly 
 quarrelling either with the aristocracy or with the clergy, wanted the great 
 judicial bodies which issued the edicts, and the urban or municipal magis- 
 trates — which, being subject to re-election, were principally recruited from 
 among the bourgeois — to be a common centre of opposition to any attempt 
 at usurpation of power, whether on the part of the Church, the nobility, or 
 the crown. 
 
 The Great Days of Troyes ((lies mag id Trccenses), the assizes of the 
 ancient counts of Champagne, and the exchequer of Normandy, were also 
 organized by Philippe le Bel ; and, further, he authorised the maintenance 
 of a Parliament at Toulouse, a court which he solemnly opened in person on 
 the 10th of January, 1302. In times of war the Parliament of Paris sut 
 once a year, in times of peace twice. There were, according to circumstances, 
 during the year two, three, or four sittings of the exchequer of Normandy, 
 and two of the Great Days of Troyes, tribunals which were annexed to the 
 Parliament of Paris, and generally presided over by one of its delegates, and 
 sometimes even by the supreme head of that high court. At the King's council 
 (Fig. 304) it was decided whether a case should be reserved for the Parliament 
 of Paris, or passed on either to the exchequer or to the Great Days of Troyes. 
 
 As that advanced reformer, Philippe le Bel, died before the institutions 
 he had established had taken root, for many years, even down to the time of 
 Louis XL, a continual conflict for supremacy was waged between the 
 Parliament of Paris and the various courts of the kingdom — between the 
 counts and the Parliament, and between the latter and the King, which, 
 without lessening the dignity of the crown, gradually tended to increase the 
 influence which the judges possessed. Immediately on the accession of 
 Louis le Ilutin, in 1314, a reaction commenced — the higher clergy re-entered 
 Parliament; but Philippe le Long took care that the laity should be in a 
 majority, and did not allow that in his council of State the titled councillors 
 
LAW AM) THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 361 
 
 should be more numerous than tho lawyers. The latter succeeded in com- 
 pletely carrying the day on account of the services they rendered, and the 
 influence which their knowledge of the laws of the country gave them. As 
 for centuries the sword had ruled the gown, so, since the emancipation of 
 the bourgeois, the lawyers had become masters of the administrative and 
 judicial world ; and, notwithstanding the fact that they were still kept in a 
 somewhat inferior position to the peers and barons, their opinion alone 
 predominated, and their decision frequently at once settled the most 
 important questions. 
 
 An edict issued at Val Notre-Dame on the 11th of March, 1344, increased 
 the number of members of Parliament, which from that time consisted of 
 three presidents, fifteen clerical councillors, fifteen lay councillors, twenty - 
 four clergymen and sixteen laymen of the Court of Inquiry, and five 
 clergymen and sixteen laymen of the Court of Petitions. The King tilled up 
 the vacant seats on the recommendation of the Chancellor and of the Parlia- 
 ment. The reporters were enjoined to write the decisions and sentences 
 which were given by the court " in large letters, and far apart, so that they 
 might be more easily read." The duties of police in the courts, the keeping 
 of the doors, and the internal arrangements generally for those attending the 
 courts and the Parliament, were entrusted to the ushers, " who divided among 
 themselves the gratuities which were given them by virtue of their office." 
 Before an advocate was admitted to plead he was required to take oath and 
 to be inscribed on the register. 
 
 The Parliament as then established was somewhat similar in its character 
 to that of the old national representative government under the Germans 
 and Franks. For centuries it protected the King against the undue inter- 
 ference of the spiritual power, it defended the people against despotism, but 
 it often lacked independence and political wisdom, and it was not always 
 remarkable for its correct appreciation of men and things. This tribunal, 
 although supreme over all public affairs, sometimes wavered before the threats 
 of a minister or of a court favourite, succumbed to the influence of intrigues, 
 and adapted itself to the prejudices of the times. We see it, in moments of error 
 and of blindness, both condemning eminent statesmen and leading citizens, 
 such as Jacques Cceur and Kobertet, and handing over to tho executioner 
 distinguished men of learning and science in advance of the times 111 which 
 they lived, because they were falsely accused of witchcraft, and also doing 
 
 3 A 
 
362 LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 the same towards unfortunate maniacs who fancied they had dealings with 
 the devil. 
 
 Fig. 305.— Trial of the Constable de Bourbon before the Peers of France (1523).— From an 
 Engraving in "La Monarchic Francoise" of Jlontfaucon. 
 
 In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries all the members of Parliament 
 formed part of the council of State, which was divided into the Smaller Council 
 
LA W AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 363 
 
 and the Greater Council. The Greater Council only assembled in cases of 
 urgency and for extraordinary and very important purposes, the Smaller 
 Council assembled every month, and its decisions were registered. From tins 
 arose the custom of making a similar registration in Parliament, confirmino- 
 the decisions after they had been formally arrived at. The most ancient 
 edict placed on the register of the Parliament of Paris dates from the year 
 1334, and is of a very important character. It concerns a question of royal 
 authority, and decides that in spiritual matters the right of supremacy does 
 not belong more to the Pope than to the King. Consequently Philippe tie 
 Valois ordered "his friends and vassals who shall attend the next Parliament 
 and the keepers of the accounts, that for the perpetual record of so memorable 
 a decision, it shall be registered in the Chambers of Parliament and kept 
 for reference in the Treasury of the Charters." From that time " cases of 
 complaint and other matters relating to benefices have no longer been dis- 
 cussed before the ecclesiastical judges, but before Parliament or some other 
 secular court." 
 
 During the captivity of Xing John in England, royal authority having 
 considerably declined, the powers of Parliament and other bodies of the 
 magistracy so increased, that under Charles VI. the Parliament of Paris 
 was bold enough to assert that a royal edict should not become law until 
 it had been registered in Parliament. This bold and certainly novel 
 proceeding the kings nevertheless did not altogether oppose, as they 
 foresaw that the time would come when it might afford them the means 
 of repudiating a treaty extorted from them under difficult circumstances 
 (Fig. 306). 
 
 The close connection which existed between the various Parliaments and 
 their political functions — for they had occasion incessantly to interfere between 
 the acts of the government and the respective pretensions of the provinces or 
 of the three orders— naturally increased the importance of this supreme magis- 
 tracy. More than once the kings had cause to repent having rendered it so 
 powerful, and this was the case especially with the Parliament of Paris. In this 
 difficulty it is interesting to note how the kings acted. They imperceptibly 
 curtailed the various powers of the other courts of justice, they circumscribed 
 the power of the Parliament of Paris, and proportionately enlarged the juris- 
 diction of the great bailiwicks, as also that of the Chatelet. The provost of 
 Paris was an auxiliary as well as a support to the royal power, which never- 
 
3 b + LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 1'ig. 3011-Prunmlgation ot an Edict—Facsimile of a Miniature in " Anciennetes des Juris, 
 (French Translation from Josephus), Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, executed for the 
 Duke of Burgundy (Library of the Arsenal of Paris). 
 
 theless held him in its grasp. The Chatelet was also a centre of action and 
 of strength, which counteracted in certain cases parliamentary opposition. 
 
LA W AND THE 
 
 A DMIXISTRA TION OF J I -STICK. 365 
 
 Thence arose the most implacable rivalries and dissensions between these 
 various parties. 
 
 It is curious to notice with what ingenuity and how readily Parliament 
 took advantage of the most trifling circumstances or of charges based upon 
 the very slightest grounds to summon the officers of the Chatelet before its 
 baron suspicion of prevarication or of outrages against religion, morals, or 
 the laws. Often were these officers and the provost himself summoned to 
 appear and make amende honorable before the assembly, notwithstanding 
 which they retained their offices. More than once an officer of the Chatelet 
 was condemned to death and executed, but the King always annulled that part 
 of the sentence which had reference to the confiscation of the goods of the 
 condemned, thus proving that in reality the condemnation had been unjust, 
 although for grave reasons the royal authority had been unable to save the 
 victim from the avenging power of Parliament. Hugues Aubriot, the provost, 
 was thus condemned to imprisonment for life on the most trivial grounds, 
 and he would have undergone capital punishment if Charles V. had abandoned 
 him at the time of his trial. During the English occupation, in the disastrous 
 reign of Charles VI., the Chatelet of Paris, which took part with the people, 
 gave proof of extraordinary energy and of great force of character. The 
 blood of many of its members was shed on the scaffold, and this circumstance 
 must ever remain a reproach to the judges and to those who executed their 
 cruel sentences, and a lasting crown of glory to the martyrs themselves. 
 
 An edict of King John, issued after his return from Loudon in 1363, a 
 short time before his death, clearly defined the duties of Parliament. They 
 were to try cases which concerned peers of France, and such jirelates, 
 chapters, barons, corporations, and councils as had the privilege of appealing 
 to the supreme court; and to hear cases relating to estates, and appeals 
 from the provost of Paris, the bailiffs, seneschals, and other judges (Fig. 307). 
 It disregarded minor matters, but took cognizance of all judicial debates 
 which concerned religion, the King, or the State. "We must remark here 
 that advocates were only allowed to speak twice in the same cause, and that 
 they were subjected to fine, or at least to remonstrance, if they were tedious or 
 indulged in needless repetition in their replies, and especially if they did not 
 keep carefully to the facts of the case. After pleading they were permitted 
 to give a summary in writing of " the principal points of importance as well 
 as their clients' grounds of defence." Charles V. confirmed these orders and 
 
 s 
 
366 
 
 LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 regulations with respect to advocates, and added others which were no less 
 important, among which we find a provision for giving "legal assistance to 
 poor and destitute persons who go to law." These regulations of Charles 
 also limited the time in which officers of justice were to get through their 
 business under a certain penalty ; they also proclaimed that the King should 
 no longer hear minor causes, and that, whatever might be the rules of the 
 court, they forbad the presidents from deferring their judgment or from 
 retarding the regular course of justice. Charles VI., before he became insane, 
 contributed no less than his father to the estabbshment on a better footing of 
 the supreme court of the kingdom, as well as that of the Chatelet and the 
 bailiwicks. 
 
 Fig. 307. — Bailiwick. — Fac-simile of a "Woodcut in the " Cosmogiaphie Uuiver.iella " of Minister : 
 
 in folio, Basle, 1552. 
 
 In the fifteenth century, the Parliament of Paris was so organized as not 
 to require material change till 1789. There were noble, clerical, and lay 
 councillors, honorary members, and maitres de requite, only four of whom 
 sat ; a first president, who was supreme head of the Parliament, a master of 
 the great chamber of pleas, and three presidents of the chamber, all of whom 
 were nominated for life. There were fifteen masters (maistres) or clerical 
 councillors, and fifteen who were laymen, and these were annually approved 
 by the King on the opening of the session. An attorney- general, several 
 advocates-general, and deputies, who formed a committee or college, consti- 
 tuted the active part of this court, round which were grouped consulting 
 
LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 367 
 
 advocates (consiliarii), pleading advocates (proponcutcs), advocates who were 
 mere listeners (audientes), ushers and Serjeants, whose chief, on his appoint- 
 ment, became a member of the nobility. 
 
 The official costume of the first president resembled that of the ancient 
 barons and knights. He wore a scarlet gown lined with ermine, and a black 
 silk cap ornamented with tassels. In winter he wore a scarlet mantle lined 
 with ermine over his gown, on which his crest was worked on a shield. This 
 mantle was fastened to the left shoulder by three gold cords, in order to leave 
 the sword-side free, because the ancient knights and barons always sat in 
 court wearing their swords. Amongst the archives of the mayoralty of 
 London, we find in the " account of the entry of Henry V., King of England, 
 into Paris'' (on the 1st of December, 14-0), that " the first president was in 
 royal dress (estoit en habit ruin!), the first usher preceding him, and wearing 
 a fur cap; the church dignitaries wore blue robes and hoods, and all the 
 others in the procession scarlet robes and hoods." This imposing dress, in 
 perfect harmony with the dignity of the office of those who wore them, 
 degenerated towards the fifteenth century. 80 much was this the case, that 
 an order of Francis I. forbad the judges from wearing pink "slashed hose" 
 or other " rakish garments." 
 
 In the early times of monarchy, the judicial functions were performed 
 gratuitously; but it was the custom to give presents to (lie judges, consisting 
 of sweetmeats, spices, sugar-plums, and preserves, until at a subsequent 
 period, 1498, when, as the judges " preferred money to sweetmeats," says the 
 Chancellor Etienne Pasquier, the money value of the spices, &c, was fixed 
 by law and made compulsory. In the bills of expenses preserved among the 
 national archives, we find that the first president of the Parliament of Paris 
 received a thousand livres parisU annually, representing upwards of one hun- 
 dred thousand francs at the present rate of money ; the three presidents of 
 the chamber five hundred livres, equal to fifty thousand francs; and the other 
 nobles of the said Parliament five sols parisis, or six sols three doniers — about 
 twenty-five francs — per day for the days only on which they sat. They 
 received, besides, two mantles annually. The prelates, princes, and barons 
 who were chosen by the King received no salaries — i/s lie prennent mils 
 ymiges (law of 27th January, 1807). The seneschals and high bailiffs, like 
 the presidents of the chambers, received five hundred livres — fifty thousand 
 francs. They and the bailiffs of inferior rank were expressly forbidden from 
 
3 68 LAW AXD THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 receiving money or fees from the parties in any suit, but they were allowed 
 to accept on one day refreshment and bottles of wine. The salaries were paid 
 monthly ; but this was not always done regularly ; sometimes the King was 
 to blame for this, and sometimes it was owing to the ill-nature of the chiefs 
 of finance, or of the receivers and payers. "When the blame rested with the 
 King, the Parliament humbly remonstrated or closed the court. When, on the 
 contrary, an officer of finance did not pay the salaries, Parliament sent him the 
 bailiff's usher, and put him under certain penalties until he had done so. The 
 question of salaries was frequently arising. On the 9th of February, 1369, 
 " the court having been requested to serve without any remuneration for one 
 Parliament, on the understanding that the King would make up for it another 
 time, the nobles of the court replied, after private deliberation, that they 
 were ready to do the King's pleasure, but could not do so properly without 
 receiving their salaries " (Eegister of the Parliament of Paris). 
 
 At the commencement of the fifteenth century, the scale of remuneration 
 was not increased. In 1411 it was raised for the whole Parliament to twenty- 
 five thousand livres, which, calculated according to the present rate, amounted 
 to nearly a million francs. In consequence of financial difficulties and the 
 general distress, the unpleasant question in reference to claims for payment 
 of salaries was renewed, with threats that the course of justice would be 
 interrupted if they were not paid or not promised. On the 2nd of October, 
 1119, two councillors and one usher were sent to the house of one of the 
 chiefs of finance, with orders to demand payment of the salaries of the 
 court. In October, 1130, the government owed the magistrates two years 
 of arrears. After useless appeals to the Regent, and to the Bishop of 
 Therouanne, the then Chancellor of France, the Parliament sent two of its 
 members to the King at Rouen, who obtained, after much difficult)^ " one 
 month's pay, on the understanding that the Parliament should hold its 
 sittings in the month of April." In the month of July, 1131, there was 
 another deputation to the King, "in order to lay before him the necessities of 
 the court, and that it had for some time been prorogued, and was still pro- 
 rogued, on account of the non-payment of salaries." After two mouths of 
 repeated remonstrance, the deputies only bringing back promises, the court 
 assumed a menacing aspect ; and on the 11th of January, 1437, it pointed 
 out to the chancellor the evil which would arise if Parliament ceased to hold 
 its sittings ; and this time the chancellor announced that the salaries would 
 
LA W A XD THE A DMINISTR. I TION OF JUSTICE. 369 
 
 be paid, though six months passed without any result or any practical step 
 being taken in the matter. This state of affairs grew worse until the 
 year 1443, when the King was obliged to plead with the Parliament in 
 the character of an insolvent debtor, and, in order to obtain remission of 
 part of his debt to the members, to guarantee to them a part of the salt 
 duties. 
 
 Charles VII., after having reconquered his states, hastened to restore order. 
 He first occupied himself with the system of justice, the Parliament, the 
 Chatelet, and the bailiwicks ; and in April, 1453, in concert with the princes, 
 the prelates, the council of State, the judges, and others in authority, he 
 framed a general law, in one hundred and twenty-five articles, which was 
 considered as the great charter of Parliament (Fig. 308). According to the 
 terms of these articles, *' the councillors are to sit after dinner, to get through 
 the minor causes. Prisoners are to lie examined without delay, and to hold 
 no communication with any one, unless by special permission. The cases are 
 to be carefully gone through in their proper order; for courts are instructed 
 to do justice as promptly for the poor as for the rich, as it is a greater hard- 
 ship fur the poor to be kept waiting than the rich." The fees of attorneys 
 were taxed and reduced in amount. Those of advocates were reduced 
 " to such moderation and fairness, that there should lie no cause for com- 
 plaint." The judgments by commissary were forbidden. The bailiffs and 
 seneschals were directed to reside within their districts. The councillors 
 were ordered to abstain from all communication with the parties in private, 
 and consultations between themselves were to be held in secret. The judg- 
 ments given in law-suits were inscribed in a register, and submitted every 
 two months to the presidents, who, if necessary, called the reporters to account 
 for any neglect of duty. The reporter was ordered to draw attention to any 
 point of difficulty arising in a. suit, and the execution of sentences or judg- 
 ments was entrusted to the ushers of the court. 
 
 In 1454 the King, in consequence of a difficulty in paying the regular 
 instalments of the usual salaries of the Parliament, created "after-dinner 
 fees" (den gages d'aprh diiiees) of five sols parisis — more than ten francs 
 of our money— per day, payable to those councillors who should hold a 
 second hearing. Matters did not improve much, however ; nothing seemed 
 to proceed satisfactorily, and members of Parliament, deprived of their 
 salaries, were compelled to contract a loan, in order to commence pro- 
 
37° 
 
 LA W AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 ceedings against the treasury for the non-payment of the amount due to 
 them. In 1493, the annual salaries of Parliament were raised to the sum of 
 40,(>30 livrcs, equal to about 1,100,000 francs. The first president received 
 
 -Fig. 308. — Supreme (Joint, presided over by the King, who is in the act of issuing a Decree which 
 is heing registered by the Usher. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in Gama'ieu of the " Information 
 des Rois," Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the Library of the Arsenal of Paris. 
 
 4 livres, '22 sols parisis — about 140 francs — per day ; a clerical councillor 
 25 sols parisis — about 40 francs — and a lay councillor 20 sols— about 
 32 francs. This was an increase of a fifth on the preceding year. 
 Charles YITL, in thus improving the remuneration of the members of the 
 
LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 37 , 
 
 first court of the kingdom, reminded them of their duties, which had been too 
 long neglected ; he told them " that of all the cardinal virtues justice was the 
 most noble and most important ;" and he pointed out to them the line o r 
 conduct they were to pursue. The councillors were to be present daily in 
 their respective chambers, from St. Martin's day to Easter, before seven 
 o'clock in the morning; and from Easter to the closing of Parliament, 
 immediately after six o'clock, without intermission, under penalty of punish- 
 ment. Strict silence was enforced upon them during the debates; and 
 they were forbidden to occupy themselves with anything which did not 
 concern the case under discussion. Amidst a mass of other points upon 
 which directions are given, we notice the following : the necessity of keeping 
 secret the matters in course of deliberation ; the prohibition to councillors 
 from receiving, either directly or indirectly, anything in the shape of a 
 douceur from the parties in any suit ; and the forbidding all attorneys from 
 receiving any bribe or claiming more than the actual expenses of a journey 
 and other just charges. 
 
 The great charter of the Parliament, promulgated in April, 1453, was 
 thus amended, confirmed, and completed, by this code of Charles VHP, with 
 a wisdom which cannot lie too highly extolled. 
 
 The magistrature of the supreme courts had been less favoured during 
 the preceding reign. Louis XP, that cautious and crafty reformer, after 
 having forbidden ecclesiastical judges to examine cases referring to the 
 revenues of vacant benefices, remodelled the secular courts, but he ruthlessly 
 destroyed anything which offended him personally. For this reason, as he 
 himself said, he limited the power of the Parliaments of Paris and Toulouse, 
 by establishing, to their prejudice, several other courts of justice, and by 
 favouring the Chatelet, where lie was sure always to find those who would 
 act with him against the aristocracy. The Parliament would not give way 
 willingly, nor without the most determined opposition. It was obliged, how- 
 ever, at last to succumb, and to pass certain edicts which were most 
 repugnant to it. On the death of Louis XP, however, it took its revenge, 
 and called those who had been his favourites and principal agents to answer 
 a criminal charge, for no other reason than that they had exposed themselves 
 to the resentment of the supreme court. 
 
 The Chatelet, in its judicial functions, was inferior to the Parliament, 
 nevertheless it acquired, through its provost, who represented the bourgeois 
 
.37* 
 
 LA W AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 of Paris, considerable importance in the eyes of the supreme court. In 
 fact, for two centuries the provost held the privilege of ruling the capital, 
 Loth politically and financially, of commanding the citizen militia, and 
 of being chief magistrate of the city. In the court of audiences, a canopy 
 was erected, under which he sat, a distinction which no other magis- 
 trate enjoyed, and which appears to have been exclusively granted to him 
 because he sat in the place of Monsieur Saint Loi/s (Saint Louis), dispensing 
 ■iustice to the good people of the City of Paris. When the provost was 
 installed, he was solemnly escorted, wearing his cap, to the great chamber 
 
 Fig. 309. — The Court of a Baron. — Fac-similo of a Woodcut in the " Cosmographie TJniversellc " 
 
 of Munater : in folio, Baale, 1552. , 
 
 of Parliament, accompanied by four councillors. After the ceremony of 
 installation he gave his horse to the president, who had come to receive 
 him. His dress consisted of a short robe, with mantle, collar turned 
 down, sword, and hat with feathers ; he also carried a staff of office, pro- 
 fusely ornamented with silver. Thus attired ho attended Parliament, and 
 assisted at the levees of the sovereign, where he took up his position on 
 the lowest step of the throne, below the great chamberlain. Every day, 
 excepting at the vintage time, he was required to be present at the Chatelct, 
 either personally or by deputy, punctually at nine in the morning. There 
 he received the list of the prisoners who had been arrested the day before ; 
 
LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 after that he visited the prisons, settled business of various kinds, and then 
 inspected the town. His jurisdiction extended to several courts, which were 
 presided over by eight deputies or judges appointed by him, and who were 
 
 Kg. 310— Serjeants-at-Arms of the Fourteenth ( lentury, carved in Stone—From the Church ot 
 St. Catherine du Val des Ecoliers, in Paris. 
 
 created officers of the Chatelet by Louis XII. in 1498. Subsequently, these 
 received their appointments direct from the King-. Two auditing judges, 
 one king's attorney, one registrar, and some bailiffs, completed the provost's 
 staff. 
 
;;+ 
 
 LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF fUSTICE. 
 
 The bailiff's at the Obltclet were divided into five classes : the king's 
 sergeant- at-arms, the sergeants de la douzaine, the sergeants of the mace, or foot 
 .sergeants, the sergeants fieffe's, and the mounted sergeants. The establishment 
 cf these officers dated from the beginning of the fourteenth century, and 
 they were originally appointed by the provost, but afterwards by the King 
 himself. The King's sergeants-at-arms (Fig. 310) formed his body-guard ; 
 they were not under the jurisdiction of the high constable, but of the 
 ordinary judges, which proves that they were in civil employ. The ser- 
 geants de la doiizii/nc were twelve in number, as their name implies, all of 
 whom were in the service of the provost ; the foot sergeants, who were 
 civilians, were gradually increased to the number of two hundred and twentv 
 as early as the middle of the fifteenth century. They acted only in the 
 interior of the capital, and guarded the city, the suburbs, and the surround- 
 ing districts, whereas the mounted sergeants had " to watch over the safety 
 of the rural parishes, and to act throughout the whole extent of the provost's 
 jurisdiction, and of that of the viscount of Paris." 
 
 In the midst of the changes of the Middle Ages, especially after the 
 communes became free, all those kings who felt the importance of a strict 
 system of justice, particularly St. Louis, Philippe le Bel, and Charles VIII., 
 had seen the necessity of compiling a record of local customs. An edict of 
 1453 orders that "the custom shall be registered in writing, so as to be 
 examined by the members of the great council of the Parliament." Never- 
 theless, this important work was never properly carried out, and to Louis XII. 
 is due the honour of introducing a customary or usage law, and at the same 
 time of correcting the various modes of procedure, upon which customs and 
 usages had been based, and which had become singularly antiquated since 
 the edict of 1302. 
 
 No monarch showed more favour to Parliament than Louis XII. During 
 his reign of seventeen years we never find complaints from the magistracy 
 for not having been paid punctually. Put in contrast with this, on the 
 accession of Francis I., the court complained of not having been paid its first 
 quarter's salary. From that moment claims were perpetually being made ; 
 there were continually delays, or absolute refusals ; the members were ex- 
 pecting " remuneration for their services, in order absolutely to enable thern 
 to support their families and households." We can thus judge of the state 
 of the various minor courts, which, being less powerful than the supreme 
 
LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 375 
 
 Fig. 311. — Inferior Court in the Great Bailiwick. Adoption of Orphan Children. — Fac-simile of 
 a Woodcut in J. Damhoudere'a "Refuge et Garand des Pupilles, Orphelins :" Antwerp, 
 J. Bellere, 1557. 
 
 tribunals, and especially than that of Paris, were quite unable to get their 
 murmurings even listened to by the proper authorities. This sad state of 
 things continued, and, in fact, grew worse, until the assembly of the League, 
 
LA W AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 when Mayenne, the chief of the leaguers, in order to gratify the Parliament, 
 promised to double the salaries, although he was unable to fulfil his promise. 
 
 Towards the end of the sixteenth century the highest French tribunal 
 was represented by nine superior courts — namely, the Parliament of Bor- 
 deaux, created on the 9th of June, 1642 ; the Parliament of Brittany, which 
 replaced the ancient Grands- Jours, in March, 1553, and sat alternately at 
 Nantes and at Rennes ; the Parliament of the Dauphin e, established at Grenoble 
 in 1451 to replace the Delphinal Council; the Parliament of Burgundy, 
 established at Dijon in 1477, which took the place of the Grands- Jours at 
 Beaune; the movable Parliament of Dombes, created in 1528, and consist- 
 ing at the same time of a court of excise and a chamber of accounts ; the 
 Parliament of Normandy, established by Louis XII. in April, 1504, intended 
 to replace the Exchequer of Rouen, and the ancient ducal council of the 
 province ; the Parliament of Provence, founded at Aix in July, 1501 ; the 
 Parliament of Toulouse, created in 1301 ; and the Parliament of Paris, 
 which took precedence of all the others, both on account of its origin, its 
 antiquity, the extent of its jurisdiction, the number of its prerogatives, and 
 the importance of its decrees. In 1551, Henry II. created, besides these, an 
 inferior court in each bailiwick, the duties of which were to hear, on appeal, 
 all matters in which sums of less than two hundred livres were involved 
 (Fig. 311). There existed, besides, a branch of the Grands- Jours, occasion- 
 ally sitting at Poitiers, Bayeux, and at some other central towns, in order to 
 suppress the excesses which at times arose from religious dissensions and 
 political controversy. 
 
 The Parliament of Paris — or Great French Parliament, as it was called by 
 Philip Y. and Charles V., in edicts of the 17th of November, 1318, and of the 
 8th of October, 1371 — was divided into four principal chambers : the Grand 
 Chamber, the Chamber of Inquiry, the Criminal Chamber, and the Chamber 
 of Appeal. It was composed of ordinary councillors, both clerical and lay ; of 
 honorary councillors, some of whom were ecclesiastics, and others members of 
 the nobility ; of masters of inquiry ; and of a considerable number of officers 
 of all ranks (Figs. 312 to 314). It. had at times as many as twenty-four pre- 
 sidents, one hundred and eighty-two councillors, four knights of honour, four 
 masters of records ; a piiblic prosecutor's office was also attached, consisting of 
 the king's counsel, an attorney-general and deputies, thus forming an assembly 
 of from fifteen to twenty persons, called a colleeje. Amongst the inferior officers 
 
LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 we may mention twenty-six ushers, four receivers-general of trust money, 
 three commissioners tor the receipt of goods which had been seized under 
 distress, one treasurer and paymaster, three controllers, one physician, two 
 surgeons, two apothecaries, one matron, one receiver of lines, one inspector of 
 estates, several keepers of refreshment establishments, who resided within the 
 
 Fig. 312.— Judge.— From a Drawing in '• Proverues, Adages, &c.," Manuscript of the Fifteenth 
 Century, in the Imperial Library of Paris. 
 
 or five hundred advocates, 
 Down to the 
 
 precincts of the palace, sixty or eighty notaries, lour o 
 two hundred attorneys, besides registers and deputy registers. 
 reign of Charles VI. (1380—1422) members of Parliament held their appoint- 
 ment by commissions granted by the King, and renewed each session. From 
 Charles VI. to Francis I. these appointments became royal charges; but 
 from that time, owing to the office being so often prostituted for reward, it 
 got more and more into disrepute. 
 
57 s 
 
 LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 Louis XL made the office of member of the Parliament of Paris a per- 
 manent one, and Francis I. continued this privilege. In 1580 the supreme 
 magistracy poured 140,000,000 francs, which now would be worth fifteen or 
 twenty times as much, into the State treasury, so as to enable members to 
 sit permanently sur les fleurs cle lis, and to obtain hereditary privileges. The 
 hereditary transmission of office from father to son dealt a heavy blow at 
 
 'Sf 85 " 1 *^ 
 
 Fig. 313.— Lawyer.— From the " Ilanse dea Pig. 314.— Barrister.— From a Woodcut in the 
 Morts " of Basle, engraved by Herian : in 4to, « Banse Macabre :" Guyot's edition, 1490. 
 
 Frankfort, 1596. 
 
 the popularity of the parliamentary body, which had already deeply suffered 
 through shameful abuses, the enormity of the fees, the ignorance of some 
 of the members, and the dissolute habits of many others. 
 
 The Chatelet, on the contrary, was less involved in intrigue, less occupied 
 with politics, and was daily engaged in adjudicating in cases of litiga- 
 tion, and thus it rendered innumerable services in promoting the public 
 
LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 379 
 
 Fig. 315.— Assembly of the Provostship of the Merchants of Paris.— Fae-simile of a Woodcut in 
 " Ordonnances Royaux de la Jurisdiction de la Prevote des Marchands et Eschevinage de la Ville 
 de Paris:" in small folio, goth. edition of Paris, Jacques Nyveid, 1528. 
 
 welfare, and maintained, and even increased, the respect which it had 
 enjoyed from the commencement of its existence. In 1408, Louis XII. 
 required that the provost should possess the title of doctor in vtroqw jure, 
 
380 LAW AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 and that his officers, whom he made to hold their appointments for life 
 should be chosen from amongst the most distinguished counsellors at law. 
 This excellent arrangement bore its fruits. As early as 1510, the " Usages 
 of the City, Trovosty, and Viscounty of Paris," were published in cvtenso 
 and were then received with much ceremony at a solemn audience held on 
 the Nth of March in the episcopal palace, and were deposited amono- the 
 archives of the Chatelet (Fig. 315). 
 
 The Parliament held a very different line of policy from that adopted by 
 the Chatelet, which only took a political part in the religious troubles of 
 Protestantism and the League with a view to serve and defend the cause of 
 the people. In spite of its fits of personal animosity, and its rebellious freaks, 
 Parliament remained almost invariably attached to the side of the Kino- and 
 the court. It always leaned to the absolute maintenance of things as they 
 were, instead of following progress and changes which time necessitated. It 
 was for severe measures, for intimidation more than for gentleness and 
 toleration, and it yielded sooner or later to the injunctions and admonitions 
 of the King, although, at the same time, it often disapproved the acts which 
 it was asked to sanction. 
 
 Fig. 316.— Seal of King Chilperic, found in his Tomb at Tournay in 1651. 
 
SECKET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 The Old Man of the Mountain una his Followers in Syria. — The Castle of Alamond, Paradise of 
 
 Assassins. — Charlemagne the Founder of Seeret Tribunals amongst the .Saxons. The Holy 
 
 Vehme. — Organization of the Tribunal of the Terre Jinnr/e, and .Modes adopted in its Pro- 
 cedures.— Condemnations and Execution of Sentences.— The Truth respecting the Free 
 Judges of Westphalia.— Duration and Fall of the Vehmie Tribunal.— Council of Ten in 
 Venice ; its Cede and Seeret Decisions. — hind of the Council of Ten. 
 
 ITJXG the Middle Ages, human life 
 was generally held in small respect ; 
 various judicial institutions — if not 
 altogether secret, at least more or 
 less enveloped in mystery — were re- 
 markable for being founded on the 
 monstrous right of issuing the most 
 severe sentences with closed doors, 
 and of executing these sentences with 
 inflexible rigour on individuals who 
 had not been allowed the slightest 
 chance of defending themselves. 
 
 While passing judgment in seeret, they often openly dealt blows as 
 unexpected and terrible as they were fatal. Therefore, the most innocent 
 and the most daring trembled at the very name of the Free Judges of the 
 Terre-Rouge, an institution which adopted Westphalia as the special, or rather 
 as the central, region of its authority ; the Council of Ten exercised their power 
 in Venice and the states of the republic ; and the Assassins of Syria, in the 
 time of St. Louis, made more than one invasion into Christian Europe. V\ e 
 must nevertheless acknowledge that, terrible as these mysterious institutions 
 were, the general credulity, the gross ignorance of the masses, and the love of 
 the marvellous, helped not a little to render them even more outrageous and 
 alarming than they really were. 
 
3 8z SECRET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 Marco Polo, the celebrated Venetian traveller of the thirteenth century, 
 says, " We will speak of the Old Man of the Mountain. This prince was 
 named Alaodin. He had a lovely garden full of all manner of trees and 
 fruits, in a beautiful valley, surrounded by high hills ; and all round these 
 plantations were various palaces and pavilions, decorated with works of art 
 in gold, with paintings, and with furniture of silk. Therein were to be seen 
 rivulets of wine, as well as milk, honey, and gentle streams of limpid water. 
 He had placed therein damsels of transcendent beauty and endowed with 
 great charms, who were taught to sing and to play all manner of instru- 
 ments ; the}' were dressed in silk and gold, and continually walked in these 
 gardens and palaces. The reasons for which the Old Man had these palaces 
 built were the following. Mahomet having said that those who should obey 
 his will should go to paradise, and there find all kinds of luxuries, this prince 
 wished it to be believed that he was the prophet and companion of Mahomet, 
 and that he had the power of sending whom he chose to paradise. No one 
 could succeed in entering the garden, because an impregnable castle had 
 been built at the entrance of the valley, and it could only be approached bv 
 a covered and secret way. The ( )ld Man had in his court some young men 
 from ten to twenty years of age, chosen from those inhabitants of the hills 
 who seemed to him capable of bearing arms, and who were bold and 
 courageous. From time to time he administered a certain drink to ten or 
 twelve of those young men, which sent them to sleep, and when they were 
 in deep stupor, he had them carried into the garden. "When they awoke, 
 they saw all wo have described : they were surrounded by the young damsels, 
 w-ho sang, played instruments together, caressed them, played all sorts of 
 games, and presented them with the most exquisite wines and meats (Fig. 
 317). 80 that these young men, satiated with such pleasures, did not doubt 
 that they were in paradise, and would willingly have never gone out of it 
 again. 
 
 " At the end of four or five days, the Old Man sent them to sleep again, 
 and had them removed from the garden in the same way in which they had 
 been brought in. He then called them before him, and asked them where 
 they had been. 'By your grace, lord,' they answered, 'we have been in 
 paradise.' And then they related, in the presence of everybody, what they 
 had seen there. This tale excited the astonishment of all those who heard 
 it, and the desire that they might le equally fortunate. The Old Man would 
 
SEC 'REE '1 'RIB I A \ 1 1. S. 
 
 3*3 
 
 then formally announced to those who were present, as follows: 'Thus saith 
 the law of our prophet, lie causes all who fight for their Lord to enter into 
 paradise; if you obey me you shall enjoy that happiness.' By such words 
 aud plans this prince had so accustomed them to believe in him, that ho 
 whom he ordered to die for his service considered himself lucky. All the 
 nobles or other enemies of the Old Man of the Mountain were put to death 
 by the assassins in his service ; for none of them feared death, provided 
 he complied with the orders and wishes of his lord. However powerful a 
 
 - mm 
 
 ■■'tfe 
 
 
 Fig. 317. — The Castle of Alamond and its Enchantments. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in " Marci 
 Polo's Travels," Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the Library of the Arsenal of Paris. 
 
 man might be, therefore, if he was an enemy of the Old Man's, he was sure 
 to meet with an untimely end." 
 
 In his story, which wc translate literally from the original, written in 
 ancient French, the venerable traveller attributes the origin of this singular 
 system of exercising power over the minds of person.s to a prince who in 
 reality did but keep up a tradition of his family; for the Alaodin herein 
 mentioned is no other than a successor of the famous Hassan, son of All, 
 who, in the middle of the eleventh century, took advantage of the wars 
 which devastated Asia to create himself a kingdom, comprising the three 
 
SECRET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 provinces of Turkistan, Djebel, and .Syria. Hassan had embraced the doctrine 
 of the Ishniaelian sect, who pretended to explain allegorically all the precepts 
 of the Mahometan religion, and who did away with public worship, and 
 originated a creed which was altogether philosophical. Ho made himself the 
 chief exponent of this doctrine, which, by its very simplicity, was sure to 
 attract to him many people of simple and sincere minds. Attacked by the 
 troops of the Sultan Sindgar, he defended himself vigorously and not unsuc- 
 cessfully ; but, fearing lest he should fall in an unequal and protracted struggle 
 against an adversary more powerful than himself, he had recourse to cunning 
 so as to obtain peace. He entranced, or fascinated probably, by means 
 analogous to those related by Marco Polo, a slave, who had the daring, during 
 Sindgar's sleep, to stick a sharp dagger in the ground by the side of the 
 Sultan's head. On waking, Sindgar was much alarmed. A few days after, 
 Hassan wrote to him, " If one had not good intentions towards the Sultan, 
 one might have driven the dagger, which was stuck in the earth by his head, 
 into his bosom." The Sultan Sindgar then made peace with the chief of the 
 Ishmaelians, whose dynasty lasted for one hundred and seventy years. 
 
 The Castle of Alamond, built on the confines of Persia, on the top of a 
 hia-h mountain surrounded with trees, after having: been the usual residence 
 of Hassan, became that of his successors. As in the native language the 
 same word means both prince and old man, the Crusaders who had heard the 
 word pronounced confounded the two, and gave the name of Old Man of the 
 Mountain to the Ishniaelian prince at that time inhabiting the Castle of 
 Alamond, a name which has remained famous in history since the period 
 when the Sire de Joinville published his " Memoires." 
 
 Ancient authors call the subjects of Hassan, Haschichini, Heismsini, 
 Assissini, Assassini, various forms of the same expression, which, in fact, 
 has passed into French with a signification which recalls the sanguinary 
 exploits of the Ishmaelians. In seeking for the etymology of this name, one 
 must suppose that Haschichini is the Latin transformation of the Arabic 
 word Hacb3 r chy, the name of the sect of which we are speaking, because 
 the ecstacies during wdiich they believed themselves removed to paradise 
 were produced by means of haschisch or haschischa. We know that this 
 inebriating preparation, extracted from hemp, really produces the most 
 strange and delicious hallucinations on those who use it. All travellers who 
 have visited the East agree in saying that its effects are very superior to 
 
£>•£( 'RET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 38,S 
 
 those of opium. We evidently must attribute to some ecstatic vision the 
 supposed existence of the enchanted gardens, which Marco Polo described 
 from popular tales, and which, of course, never existed but in the imagina- 
 tion of the young men, who were either mentally excited alter fasting and 
 prayer, or intoxicated by the haschischa, and consequently for a time lulled 
 in dreams of celestial bliss which they imagined awaited them under the 
 guidance of Hassan and his descendants. 
 
 Fig. 318. — The Old Man of the Mountain giving Orders to his Followers. — Fae-simile of a 
 Miniature in the " Travels of Marco Polo," Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (Library of 
 the Arsenal of Paris). 
 
 The Haschischini, whom certain contemporary historians describe to us as 
 infatuated by the hope of some future boundless felicity, owe their melan- 
 choly celebrity solely to the blind obedience with which they executed the 
 orders of their chiefs, and to the coolness with which they sought the 
 favourable moment for fulfilling their sanguinary missions (Fig. 318). The 
 Old Man of the Mountain (the master of daggers, magister cultellorum, as he is 
 also called by the chronicler Jacques de Vintry), was almost continually at 
 war with the Mussulman princes who reigned from the hanks of the Nile 
 to the borders of the Caspian Sea. He continually opposed them with the 
 
 3 n 
 
3 Sb SECRET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 v 
 
 steel of his fanatical emissaries ; at times, also, making a traffic and mer- 
 chandise of murder, he treated for a money payment with the sultans or 
 emirs, who were desirous of ridding themselves of an enemy. The Ishmaelians 
 thus put to death a number of princes and Mahometan nobles ; but, at the 
 time of the Crusades, religious zeal having incited them against the 
 Christians, they found more than one notable victim in the ranks of the 
 Crusaders. Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat, was assassinated by them ; the 
 great Salah-Eddin (Saladin) himself narrowly escaped them ; Pilchard Cosur 
 de Lion and Philip Augustus were pointed out to the assassins by the Old 
 Man, who subsequently, on hearing of the immense preparations which 
 Louis IX. was making for the Hol} r War, had the daring to send two of his 
 followers to France, and even into Paris, with orders to kill that monarch in 
 the midst of his court. This king, after having again escaped, during his 
 sojourn in Palestine, from the murderous attempts of the savage messengers 
 of the Prince of Alamond, succeeded, by his courage, his firmness, and his 
 irtues, in inspiring these fanatics with so much respect, that their chief, 
 looking upon him as protected by heaven, asked for his friendship, and 
 offered him presents, amongst which was a magnificent set of chessmen, in 
 crystal, ornamented with gold and amber. 
 
 The successors of Hassan, simultaneously attacked by the Moguls under 
 Houlayon, and by the Egyptians commanded by the Sultan Bibars, were con- 
 quered and dispossessed of their States towards the middle of the thirteenth 
 century ; but, long after, the Ishmaelians, either because their chiefs sought to 
 recover their power, or because they had placed their daggers at the disposal 
 of some foreign foe, continued notorious in histoiy. At last the sect became 
 extinct, or, at least, retired into obscurity, and renounced its murderous 
 profession, which had for so long made its members such objects of terror. 
 
 We have thus seen how a legion of fanatics in the East made themselves 
 the blind and formidable tools of a religious and political chieftain, who was no 
 less ambitious than revengeful. If we now turn our attention to Germany, 
 we shall here find, almost at the same period, a local institution which, 
 although very different from the sanguinary court of the Old Man of the 
 Mountain, was of an equally terrible and mysterious character. We must 
 not, however, look at it from the same point of view, for, having been 
 founded with the object of furthering and defending the establishment of a 
 regular social state, which had been approved and sanctioned by the sove- 
 
SECRET TRIBUNA LS. 
 
 387 
 
 reigns, and recognised by the Church, it at times rendered great service to 
 the cause of justice and humanity at a period when might usurped right, 
 and when the excesses and the crimes of shameless evil-doers, and of petty 
 tyrants, entrenched in their impregnable strongholds, were but too often 
 made lawful from the simple fact that there was no power to oppose them. 
 
 The secret tribunal of Westphalia, which held its sittings and passed 
 sentence in private, and which carried out its decrees on the spot, and 
 
 
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 X ip| 
 
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 Jw 
 
 
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 XwmM 
 VmjM 
 
 
 Sili/V^ 6sd f J l sf\. tl \iJ 
 
 
 
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 Figs. 319 and 320.— Hermensul or Irmensul and Crodon, Idols of the Ancient Saxons.— Fac-simile 
 of a Woodcut in the " Annalea Circuli Westphalise," by Herman Stangefol : in 4to, 1656.— The 
 Idol Hermensul appears to have presided over Executive Justice, the attributes of which it holds 
 in its hands. 
 
 whose rules, laws, and actions were enveloped in deep mystery, must 
 unquestionably be looked upon as one of the most remarkable institutions 
 of the Middle Ages. 
 
 It would be difficult to state exactly at what period this formidable 
 institution was established. A few writers, and amongst these Sebastian 
 Mnnster, wish us to believe that it was founded by Charlemagne himself. 
 They affirm that this monarch, having subjugated the Saxons to his sway, 
 
88 SECRET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 s 
 
 and havino- forced them to be baptized, created a secret tribunal, the duties 
 of which were to watch over them, in order that they might not return to 
 the errors of Paganism. However, the Saxons were incorrigible, and, 
 althouoh Christians, they still carried on the worship of their idoh 
 (Fio-s. 319 and 320) ; and, for this reason, it is said by these authorities 
 that the laws of the tribunal of Westphalia were founded by Charlemagne. 
 It is well known that from the ninth to the thirteenth century, all that 
 part of Germany between the Rhine and the Weser suffered under the most 
 complete anarchy. In consequence of this, and of the increase of crime 
 which remained unpunished, energetic men established a rigorous juris- 
 diction, which, to a certain extent, suppressed these barbarous disorders, 
 and oave some assurance to social intercourse ; but the very mystery 
 which o-ave weight to the institution was the cause of its origin being 
 unknown. It is only mentioned, and then cursorily, in historical docu- 
 ments towards the early part of the fifteenth century. This court of 
 judicature received the name of Femgericht, or Vehmgericht, which means 
 Yehmic tribunal. The origin of the word Fern, Vehvi, or Fam, which has 
 o-iven rise to many scientific discussions, still remains in doubt. The most 
 generally accepted opinion is, that it is derived from a Latin expression — 
 remi (nr mihi), "woe is me ! " 
 
 The special dominion over which the Vehmic tribunal reigned supreme was 
 Westphalia, and the country which was subjected to its laws was designated 
 as the Terre Rouge. There was no assembly of this tribunal beyond the limits 
 of this Tcrre Rouge, but it would be quite impossible to define these limits 
 with any accuracy. However, the free judges, assuming the right of sup- 
 pressing certain crimes committed beyond their territory, on more than 
 one occasion summoned persons living in various parts of Germany, and 
 even in provinces far from Westphalia, to appear before them. We do not 
 know all the localities wherein the Yehmic tribunal sat ; but the most 
 celebrated of them, and the one which served as a model for all the rest, 
 held its sittings under a lime-tree, in front of the castle-gate of Dortmund 
 (Fig. 321). There the chapters-general of the association usually assembled; 
 and, on certain occasions, several thousands of the free judges were to be 
 seen there. 
 
 Each tribunal was composed of an unlimited number of free judges, 
 under the presidency of a free count, who was charged with the higher 
 
SECRET TRIBUNA LS. 
 
 3 8g 
 
 administration of Yehmic justice. A free county generally comprised several 
 free tribunals, or friestii/ik. The free count, who was chosen by the 
 prince of the territory in which the tribunal sat, had two courts, one 
 secret, the other public. The public assizes, which took place at least 
 three times a year, "were announced fourteen days beforehand, and any 
 person living within the county, and who was summoned before the free 
 count, was bound to appeal-, and to answer all questions which might be put 
 to him. It was required that the free judges (who are generally mentioned 
 as femnoten — that is to say, satjes — and who are, besides, denoted by writers 
 
 Fig. 321.— View of the Town of Dortmund in the Sixteenth Century.— From au Engraving on 
 Copper in 1 J . Bertius's " Theatrum Geographicum." 
 
 of the time by the most honourable epithets: such as, "serious men," 
 "very pious," "of very pure morals," " lovers of justice," &c.) should be 
 persons who had been born in lawful wedlock, and on German soil; they 
 were not allowed to belong to any religious order, or to have ever them- 
 selves been summoned before the Vehrnic tribunal. They were nominated 
 by the free counts, but subject to the approval of their sovereigns. They 
 were not allowed to sit as judges before having been initiated into the 
 mysteries of the tribunals. 
 
 The initiation of a free judge was accompanied by extraordinary formali- 
 ties. The candidate appeared bareheaded ; he knelt down, and, placing two 
 
3Qo 
 
 SECRET TRIE UNA L S. 
 
 fingers of his right hand on his naked sword and on a rope, ho took oath to 
 adhere to the laws and customs of the holy tribunal, to devote his five senses 
 to it, and not to allow himself to be allured therefrom either by silver, gold, or 
 even precious stones ; to forward the interests of the tribunal " above every- 
 thing illumined by the sun, and all that the rain reaches;" and to defend them 
 " ao-ainst everything which is between heaven and earth." The candidate 
 was then given the sign by which members of the association recognised 
 
 Id 
 
 in^foi 'vo 'Nmqtflant. 
 
 Fig. 322. — The Landgrave of Thuringia and his Wife. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Collection 
 of the Minnesinger, Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century, 
 
 each other. This sign has remained unknown ; and nothing, even in the 
 deeds of the Vehmic archives, leads one even to guess what it was, and 
 every hypothesis on this subject must be looked upon as uncertain or 
 erroneous. By one of the fundamental statutes of the Terre-Rouge, a 
 member convicted of betraying the secrets of the order was condemned to 
 the most cruel punishment ; but we have every reason for asserting that 
 this sentence was never carried out, or even issued against a free judge. 
 
SECRET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 39' 
 
 In one case alone during the fourteenth century, was an accusation of this 
 sort made, and that proved to be groundless. 
 
 It would have been considered the height of treason to have given a 
 relation, or a friend, the slightest hint that he was being pursued, or that 
 he had been condemned by the Holy Yehme, in order that lie might seek 
 refuge by flight. And in consequence of this, there was a general mistrust 
 of any one belonging to the tribunal, so much so that, " a brother," says a 
 German writer, " often feared his brother, and hospitality was no longer 
 possible." 
 
 The functions of free judges consisted in going about the country seeking 
 
 Fip;s. 323 and 321.— Free Judges. — l-'ac-simile of two \\ oodtuts in Uie " CoBmographie 
 Universelle " of Minister: in folio, 1552. 
 
 out crimes, denouncing them, and inflicting immediate punishment on any 
 evil-doer caught in the act (Figs. 323 and 324). The free judges might 
 assemble provided there were at least seven in number to constitute a tribunal ; 
 hut we hear of as many as three hundred assisting at a meeting. 
 
 It has been erroneously stated that the sittings of the Yehmie tribunals 
 were held at night in the depths of forests, or in subterranean places; but it 
 appears that all criminal business was first beard in public, and could only lie 
 subjected to a secret judgment when the accused had failed either publicly 
 to justify himself or to appear in person. 
 
 When three free judges caught a malefactor in the very act, they could 
 seize him, judge him, and inflict the penalty on the spot. In other cases, 
 
302 
 
 SECRET TRIE i WA L S. 
 
 when a tribunal considered that it should pursue an individual, it summoned 
 him to appear before it. The summons had to be written, without erasures, 
 on a large sheet of vellum, and to bear at least seven seals — that of the free 
 count, and those of six free judges ; and these seals generally represented 
 either a man in full armour holding a sword, or a simple sword blade, or 
 other analogous emblems (Figs. 325 to 327). Two free judges delivered the 
 summons personally where a member of the association was concerned ; but 
 if the summons affected an individual who was not of the Vehniic order, a 
 sworn messenger bore it, and placed it in the very hands of the person, or 
 slipped it into his house. The time given for putting in an appearance was 
 originally six weeks and three days at least, but at a later period this time 
 
 Fig. 32-5.— Seal of Herman Fig. 32b'.— Seal of the Free Fig. 327. — Seal of Johann 
 
 Loseckin, Free Count of Count, Hana Vollmar von Croppe, Free Count of 
 
 Medebaeh, in 1410. Twern, at Freyenhagen, in Kogelnberg, in 1413. 
 
 1476—1499. 
 
 was shortened. The writ of summons was repeated three times, and each 
 time bore a greater number of seals of free judges, so as to verify the 
 legality of the instrument. The accused, whether guilty or not, was liable 
 to a hue for not answering the first summons, unless he could prove that it 
 was impossible for him to have done so. If he failed to appear on the third 
 summons, he was finally condemned en corps et en honneur. 
 
 We have but imperfect information as to the formalities in use in the 
 Tehmic tribunals. But we know that the sittings were invested with a 
 certain solemnity and pomp. A naked sword— emblematical of justice, and 
 recalling our Saviour's cross in the shape of its handle— and a rope- 
 emblematical of the punishment deserved by the guilty— were placed on the 
 
SECRET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 393 
 
 talile before the president. The judges were bareheaded, with bare hands, 
 and each wore a cloak over his shoulder, and carried no arms of any sort. 
 
 The plaintiff and the defendant were each allowed to produce thirty 
 witnesses. The defendant could either defend himself, or entrust his case to 
 
 Fig. 328.— The Duke of Saxony and the SJaiquia ol lUandenbuig.— From the "Theatrum Orbis 
 Ten-arum give Tabula vetcris Geographic," in folio. Engraved by Wiericx, after Geiard de 
 Jode. 
 
 an advocate whom he brought with him. At first, any free judge being- 
 defendant in a suit, enjoyed the privilege of justifying himself on oath; 
 but it having been discovered that this privilege was abused, all persons, of 
 whatever station, were compelled to be confronted with the other side. 
 
 3 E 
 
3Q4 SECRET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 The witnesses, who were subpoened by either accuser or accused, had to give 
 their evidence according to the truth, dispassionately and voluntarily. In 
 the event of the accused not succeeding in bringing sufficient testimony to 
 clear himself, the prosecutor claimed a verdict in his favour from the free 
 count presiding at the tribunal, who appointed one of the free judges to 
 declare it. In case the free judge did not feel satisfied as to the guilt, 
 he could, by making oath, temporarily divest himself of his office, which 
 devolved upon a second, a third, or even a fourth free judge. If four free 
 judges were unable to decide, the matter was referred to another sitting; 
 for judgment had to be pronounced by the appointed free judge at the 
 sitting. 
 
 The various penalties for different crimes were left to the decision of the 
 tribunal. The rules are silent on the subject, and simply state that the 
 culprits will be punished "according to the authority of the secret bench." 
 The rot/ale, i.e. capital punishment, was strictly applied in all serious cases, 
 and the manner of execution most in use was hanging (Figs. 3'39, 330). 
 
 A person accused who did not appear after the third summons, was out- 
 lawed by a terrible sentence, which deprived him of all rights, of common 
 peace, and forbad him the company of all Christians ; by the wording of this 
 sentence, his wife was looked upon as a widow, his children as orphans ; his 
 neck was abandoned to the birds of the air, and his body to the beasts of the 
 field, "but his soul was recommended to God." At the expiration of one 
 year and a day, if the culprit had not appeared, or had not established his 
 common rights, all his goods were confiscated, and appropriated by the King 
 or Emperor. When the condemnation referred to a prince, a town, or a 
 corporation (for the accusations of the tribunal frequently were issued 
 against groups of individuals), it caused the loss of all honour, authority, 
 and privileges. The free count, in pronouncing the sentence, threw the 
 rope, which was before him, on to the ground ; the free judges spat upon it, 
 and the name of the culprit was inscribed on the book of blood. The sen- 
 tence was kept secret ; the prosecutor alone was informed of it by a written 
 notice, which was sealed with seven seals. When the condemned was 
 present, the execution took place immediately, and, according to the custom 
 of the Middle Ages, its carrying out was deputed to the youngest of the 
 free judges. The members of the Yehmic association enjoyed the privilege 
 of being hung seven feet higher than those who were not associates. 
 
SECRET TRIBVNA LS. 
 
 395 
 
 The Vehmic judgments wove, however, liable to be appealed against : the 
 accused might, at the sitting, appeal either to what was termed the imperial 
 chamber, a general chapter of the association, which assembled at Dortmund, 
 or (and this was the more frequent custom) to the emperor, or ruler of the 
 country, whether he were king, prince, duke, or bishop, provided that these 
 authorities belonged to the association. The revision of the judgment could 
 only be entrusted to members of the tribunal, who, in their turn, could only 
 act in "Westphalia. The condemned might also appeal to the lieutenant- 
 general of the emperor, or to the grand master of the Holy Vehme, a title 
 which, from the remotest times, was given to the Archbishop of Cologne. 
 
 ^K^?» 
 
 - \^±-^ ;-" -K^ - 
 
 ~=i 5 
 
 Figs. 329 and 330.— Execution of the Sentences of the Secret Trihunal.— Facsimile of Woodcuts 
 in the " Cosmographie TJniveraelle " of Munster : in folio, Basle, 1552. 
 
 There are even instances of appeals having been made to the councils and to 
 the Popes, although the Vehmic association never had any communication or 
 intercourse with the court of Home. We must not forget a very curious 
 privilege which, in certain cases, was left to the culprit as a last resource; 
 he might appeal to the emperor, and solicit an order which required the 
 execution of the sentence to be applied after a delay of one hundred years, six 
 weeks, and one day. 
 
 The chapter-general of the association was generally summoned once a 
 year by the emperor or his lieutenant, and assembled either at Dortmund or 
 Arensberg, in order to receive the returns of causes judged by the various 
 
39 6 SECRET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 Yehmic tribunals ; to hear the changes which had taken place among the 
 members of the order ; to receive the free judges ; to hear appeals ; and, 
 lastly, to decide upon reforms to be introduced into the rules. These reforms 
 usually had reference to the connection of imperial authority with the 
 members of the secret jurisdiction, and were generally suggested by the 
 emperors, who wore jealous of the increasing power of the association. 
 
 From what we have shown, on the authority of authentic documents, we 
 understand how untrue is the tradition, or rather the popular idea, that the 
 Secret Tribunal was an assembly of bloodthirsty judges, secretly perpetrating 
 acts of mere cruelty, without any but arbitrary laws. It is clear, on the 
 contrary, that it was a regular institution, having, it is true, a most mysterious 
 and complex organization, but simply acting in virtue of legal prescriptions, 
 which were rigorously laid down, and arranged in a sort of code which did 
 honour to the wisdom of those who had created it. 
 
 It was towards the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth 
 centuries that the Yehmic jurisdiction reached its highest degree of power ; 
 its name was only pronounced in a whisper and with trembling ; its orders 
 were received with immediate submission, and its chastisements always fell 
 upon the guilty and those who resisted its authority. There cannot be a 
 doubt but that the Westphalian tribunal prevented many great crimes and 
 public misfortunes by putting a wholesome check on the nobles, who were 
 ever ready to place themselves above all human authority ; and by punishing, 
 with pitiless severity, the audacity of bandits, who would otherwise have 
 been encouraged to commit the most daring acts with almost the certainty of 
 escaping with impunity. But the Holy Vehme, blinded by the terror it 
 inspired, was not long without displaying the most extravagant assumption 
 of power, and digressing from the strict path to which its action should have 
 been confined. It summoned before its tribunals princes, who openly denied 
 its authority, and cities, which did not condescend to answer to its behests. 
 In the fifteenth century, the free judges were composed of men who could 
 not be called of unimpeachable integrity ; many persons of doubtful morals 
 having been raised to the dignity by party influence and by money. The 
 partiality and the spirit of revenge which at times prompted their judg- 
 ments, were complained of; they were accused of being open to corrup- 
 tion ; and this accusation appears to have been but too well founded. It 
 is known tha f , according to a feudal practice established in the Vehmic 
 
SECRET TRIP, I \Y, 1 /. .V. 
 
 397 
 
 system, every new free judge was obliged to make a present to the free count 
 who had admitted him into the order ; and the free counts did not hesitate to 
 make this an important source of revenue to themselves by admitting 
 according' to an historian, " many people as fudyex who, in reality, deserved 
 to he judged." 
 
 
 
 Fig. 331.— View of Cologne in the .Sixteenth Century.— From a Copper-plate in the "Theatrum 
 Geographicum " of P. Bertius. The three large stars represent, it is supposed, the Three 
 Persons of the Trinity, and the seven small ones the Electors of the Empire. 
 
 Owing to the most flagrant and most insolent abuses of power, the ancient 
 authority of the institution became gradually more and more shaken. On 
 one occasion, for instance, in answer to a summons issued by the Imperial 
 Tribunal against some free judges, the tribunal of the Terre-Eouge had the 
 
39« 
 
 SECRET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 I'ir ' 
 
 < win ' ;M*.iu >■ 
 
 Fig. 332.— German Knights (Fifteenth Century).— From a Plate in the "Life of the Emperor 
 Maximilian," engraved by Burgmayer, from Drawings by Albert Diirer. 
 
SECRET TRIBUNALS. 3Qg 
 
 daring to summon the Emperor Frederick 111. before it to answer for this 
 want of respect. On another occasion, a certain free count, jealous of one of 
 his associates, hung him with his o\\ n hands while oul on a. hunting excursion, 
 alleging that his rank of free judge authorised him to execute summary 
 justice. From that time there was a. perpetual cry of horror and indignation 
 against a judicial institution which thus interpreted its duties, and before 
 long the State undertook the suppression of these secret tribunals. The first 
 idea of this was formed by the electors of the empire at the diet of Treves in 
 1512. The Archbishop of Cologne succeeded, however, in parrying the 
 blow, by convoking the chapter-general of the order, on the plea of the 
 necessity of reform. But, besides being essentially corrupt, the Holy Vehme 
 had really run its course, and it gradually became effete as, by degrees, a 
 better organized and more defined social and political state succeeded to the 
 confused anarchy of the Middle Ages, and as the princes and free towns 
 adopted the custom of dispensing justice either in person or through regular 
 tribunals. Its proceedings, becoming more and more summary and rigorous, 
 daily gave rise to feelings of greater and greater abhorrence. The common 
 saving over all Germany was, ''They first hang you, and afterwards inquire 
 into your innocence." On all sides opposition arose against the jurisdiction 
 of the free judges. Princes, bishops, cities, and citizens, agreed instinctively 
 to counteract this worn-out and degenerate institution. The struggle was 
 long and tedious. During the last convulsions of the expiring Holy Vehme, 
 there was more than one sanguinary episode, both on the side of the free 
 judges themselves, as well as on that of their adversaries. Occasionally the 
 secret tribunal broke out into fresh signs of life, and proclaimed its existence 
 by some terrible execution ; and at times, also, its members paid dearly for 
 their acts. On one occasion, in L370, fourteen free judges, whom Kaspar 
 Schwitz, Count of CEttingen, caused to lie seized, were already tied up in 
 bags, and about to be drowned, when the mob, pitying their fate, asked 
 for and obtained their reprieve. 
 
 The death-blow to the A r ehmic tribunal was struck by its own hand. It 
 condemned summarily, and executed without regular procedure, an inhabitant 
 of Minister, who used to scandalize the town by his profligacy. He was 
 arrested at night, led to a small wood, where the free judges awaited him, 
 and condemned to death without being allowed an advocate ; and, after being- 
 refused a respite even of a few hours, that be might make his peace with 
 
400 
 
 SECRET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 heaven, he was confessed b} T a monk, and his head was severed from his 
 body by the executioner on the spot. 
 
 Dating from this tragical event, which excited universal indignation, the 
 
 Pig. 333.— Interior Court of the Palace of the Doges of Venice : Buildings in which are the Cells 
 and the Leads. — Prom Cesare Vecellio. 
 
 authority of the free judges gradually declined, and, at last, the institution 
 became almost defunct, and merely confined itself to occasionally adjudicating 
 in simple civil matter.-. 
 
 We must not omit to mention the Council of Ten of Venice when speaking 
 
SECRET TRIBUNALS. +0 i 
 
 on the subject of arbitrary executions and of tyrannical and implacable 
 justice. In some respects it was more notorious than the Vehmic tribunal, 
 exercising as it did a no less mysterious power, arid inspiring equal terror, 
 though in other countries. 
 
 This secret tribunal was created after a revolt which burst on the republic 
 of Venice on the 15th of June, 1310. At first it was only instituted for two 
 months, but, after various successive prorogations, it was confirmed for five 
 years, on the 31st of January, loll. In 1316 it was again appointed for 
 five years ; on the 2nd of May, 1327, for ten years more; and at last was 
 established permanently. In the fifteenth century the authority of the 
 Council of Ten was consolidated and rendered more energetic by the creation 
 of the Inquisitors of State. These were three in number, elected by the 
 Council of Ten ; and the citizens on whom the votes fell could not refuse the 
 functions which were thus spontaneously, and often unexpectedly, assigned 
 to them. The authority of Inquisitors of State was declared to be 
 "unlimited." 
 
 In order to show the power and mode of action of this terrible tribunal, 
 it is perhaps better to make a few extracts from the code of rules which it 
 established for itself in June, 1404. 
 
 This document — several manuscript copies of which are to be found in 
 the public libraries of Paris — says, " The inquisitors may proceed against 
 any person whomsoever, no rank giving the right of exemption from their 
 jurisdiction. They may pronounce any sentence, even that of death ; 
 only their final sentences must 1)0 passed unanimously. They shall 
 have complete charge of the prisons and Hie leads (Fig. 333). They 
 may draw at sight from the treasury of the Council of Ten, without 
 having to give any account of the use made of the funds placed in their 
 hands. 
 
 " The proceedings of the tribunal shall always be secret ; its members 
 shall wear no distinctive badge. No open arrests shall be made. The 
 chief of the bailiffs (shim) shall avoid making domiciliary arrests, but 
 he shall try to seize the culprit unawares, away from his home, and so 
 securely get him under the leads of the Palace of the Doges. When the 
 tribunal shall deem the death of any person necessary, the execution 
 
 pr 
 Orfano Canal. 
 
 3 !■' 
 
 shall never be public; the condemned shall bo drowned at night m the 
 
4-02 
 
 SECRET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 " The tribunal shall authorise the generals commanding in Cyprus or in 
 Canclia, in the event of its being for the welfare of the Republic, to cause 
 any patrician or other influential person in either of those Venetian provinces 
 to disappear, or to be assassinated secretly, if such a measure should con- 
 
 Fig. 334. — Member of the Brotherhood of Death, whose duty it was to accompany ikose sentenced 
 
 to death. — From Cesare Veeellio. 
 
 scientiously appear to them indispensable ; but they shall be answerable 
 before God. for it. 
 
 "If any workman shall practise in a foreign land any art or craft to the 
 detriment of the Republic, lie shall lie ordered to return to his country; and 
 should he not obey, all his nearest relatives shall be imprisoned, in order that 
 
SECRET TRIBUNALS. 40j 
 
 his affection for them may bring' him to obedience. Should lie still persist in 
 his disobedience, secret measures shall be taken to put him to death, wherever 
 he may be. 
 
 "If a Venetian noble reveal to the tribunal propositions which have 
 been made to him by some foreign ambassador, the agent, excepting it 
 should be the ambassador himself, shall be immediately carried off and 
 drowned. 
 
 " If a patrician having committed any misdeed shall take refuge 
 under the protection of a foreign ambassador, he shall be put to death 
 forthwith. 
 
 "If any noble in full senate take upon himself to question the authority 
 of the Council of Ten, and persist in attacking it, he shall be allowed to 
 speak -without interruption; immediately afterwards he shall be arrested, 
 and instructions as to his trial shall be given, so that he may be judged by 
 the ordinary tribunals ; and, if this does not succeed in preventing his pro- 
 ceedings, he shall be put to deatli secretly. 
 
 "In case of a. complaint against one of the heads of the Council of Ten, 
 the instructions shall be made secretly, and, in case of sentence of death, 
 poison shall be the agent selected. 
 
 " Should any dissatisfied noble speak ill of the Government, he shall first 
 lie forbidden to appear in the councils and public places for two years. 
 Should he not obey, or should he repeat the offence after the two years, he 
 shall be drowned as incorrigible . . . ." &c. 
 
 One can easily understand that in order to carry out these laws the most 
 careful measures were taken to organize a system of espionage. The nobles 
 were subjected to a rigorous supervision; the privacy of letters was not 
 respected; an ambassador was never lost sight of, and his smallest acts were 
 narrowly watched. Any one who dared to throw obstacles in the way of the 
 spies employed by the Council of Ten, was put on the rack, and "made 
 afterwards to receive the punishment which the State inquisitors might con- 
 sider befitting." "Whole pages of the secret statutes bear witness that lying 
 and fraud formed the basis of all the diplomatic relations of the Venetian 
 Government. Nevertheless the Council of Ten, which was solely instituted 
 with the view of watching over the safety of the Republic, could not inter- 
 meddle in civil cases, and its members were forbidden to hold any sort ol 
 communication with foreigners. 
 
+0 + 
 
 SECRET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 The list of names of Venetian nobles and distinguished persons who 
 became victims to the suspicious tyranny of the Council of Ten, and of the 
 State inquisitors, would be very long and of little interest. We maj r mention 
 a few, however. We find that in 1385, Peter Justiniani, and, in 1388, 
 
 Figs. 335 and 336.— Chiefs of Sbirri, in the Secret Service of the Council of Ten.— 
 From Cesare Vecellio. 
 
 Stephen Monalesco, were punished for holding secret transactions with the 
 Lord of Padua ; ia 1413, .John Nogarola, for having tried to set fire to Verona; 
 m 1471, Borromeo Memo, for having uttered defamatory speeches against the 
 Podestat of Padua. Not only was this Borromeo Memo punished, hut 
 three witnesses of the crime which was imputed to him were condemned to a 
 
Fig. 391.— Grand Procession of the Doge, Venice (Sixteenth Century).— Reduced from one of fourteen Engiavinga 
 
 representing this Ceremony, designed and engraved by J. Amman. 
 
SECRET TRIBUNA LS. 
 
 4°5 
 
 •year's imprisonment and three yours' banishment, for not having denounced the 
 deed "between evening and morning." In 1457 we find the Council of Ten 
 attacking the Doge himself, by requiring the abdication of Francis Foscari. 
 A century earlier it had caused the Doge, Marino Falicro, who was convicted 
 
 Fig. 337. Doge of Venice. Costume before the Fig. 338.— Doge of Venice in Ceremonial Cos 
 Sixteenth Century. tume of the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 From Cesare Vccellio. 
 
 of having taken part in a plot to destroy the influence of the nobility, to be 
 executed on the very staircase of the ducal palace, where allegiance to the 
 Republic was usually sworn. 
 
 Like the Holy Vehme, the Council of Ten compromised its authority by 
 
406 
 
 SECRET TRIBUNALS. 
 
 the abuse of power. In 1540, unknown to the Senate, and in spite of the 
 well-prescribed limit of its authority, it concluded a treaty with the Turkish 
 Sultan, Soliman II. The Senate at first concealed its indignation at this 
 abuse of power, but, in 1-j8'2, it took measures so as considerably to 
 restrain the powers of the Council of Ten, which, from that date, only existed 
 in name. 
 
 U.— Seal of the Free Count Hoimich Beekmai 
 of Jledetiach (1520—1533). 
 
lTXismiEXTS. 
 
 Rpfinements of Penal Cruelty. — Tortures for different Pm-posos. — "Water, Screw-boards, and the 
 
 Rack.— The Executioner. — Female Executioners. — Tortures. — Amende Honorable. Torture 
 
 of Fire, Real and Feigned. — Auto-da-fe. — Red-hot Brazier or Basin. — Beheading.— 
 Quartering.— Wheel.— Garotte.— Hanging:.— The Whip.— The Pillory.— The Arquebuse.— 
 Tickling - . — Flaying. — Drowning. — Imprisonment. — Regulations of Prisons. — The Iron 
 Case.— The Leads of Venire. 
 
 I T is very sad," says the learned 
 M. de Yillegille, "to observe the 
 infinite variety of tortures which 
 have existed since the beginning of 
 the world. It is, in fact, difficult to 
 realise the amount of ingenuity exer- 
 cised by men in inventing new 
 tortures, in order to give themselves 
 the satisfaction of seeing their fellow- 
 creatures agonizing in the most awful 
 sufferings." 
 
 In entering upon the subject of ancient modes of punishment, we must first 
 speak of the torture, which, according to the received phrase, might be either 
 previous or preparatory : prmo».s, when it consisted of a torture which the con- 
 demned had to endure previous to capital punishment ; and preparatory, when 
 it was applied in order to elicit from the culprit an avowal of his crime, or of 
 that of his accomplices. It was also called ordinary, or extraordinary, according 
 to the duration or violence with which it was inflicted. In some cases the 
 torture lasted five or six consecutive hours ; in others, it rarely exceeded an 
 hour. Hippolyte de Marsillis, the learned and venerable jurisconsult of 
 Bologna, who lived at the beginning of the fifteenth century, mentions 
 fourteen ways of inflicting torture. The compression of the limbs by special 
 instruments, or by ropes only ; injection of water, vinegar, or oil, into the 
 
loS PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 e 
 
 body of the accused; application of hot pitch, and starvation, were the pro- 
 cesses most in use. Other means, which were more or less applied according to 
 the fancy of the magistrate and the tormentor or executioner, were remark- 
 able for their singular atrocities. For instance, placing hot eggs under the 
 arm-pits ; introducing dice between the skin and flesh ; tying lighted 
 candles to the fingers, so that they might be consumed simultaneously with 
 the wax ; letting water trickle drop by drop from a great height on the 
 stomach ; and also the custom, which was, according to writers on criminal 
 matters, an indescribable torture, of watering the feet with salt water and 
 allowing gnats to lick them. However, every country had special customs 
 as to the manner of applying torture. 
 
 In France, too, the torture varied according to the provinces, or rather 
 according to the parliaments. For instance, in Brittany the culprit, tied in 
 an iron chair, was gradually brought near a blazing furnace. In Normandy, 
 one thumb was squeezed in a screw in the ordinary, and both thumbs in the 
 jxtraordinary torture. At Autun, after high boots made of spongy leather had 
 been placed on the culprit's feet, he was tied on to a table near a large fire, 
 and a quantity of boiling water was poured on the boots, which penetrated 
 the leather, ate away the flesh, and even dissolved the bones of the victim. 
 
 At Orleans, fur the ordinary torture the accused was stripped half naked, 
 and his hands were tightly tied behind his back, with a ring fixed between 
 them. Then, by means of a rope fastened to this ring, they raised the poor 
 man, who had a weight of one hundred and eighty pounds attached to his 
 feet, a certain height from the ground. For the extraordinary torture, which 
 then took the name of estrapade, they raised the victim, with two hundred 
 and fifty pounds attached to his feet, to the ceiling by means of a capstan ; 
 he was then allowed to fall several times successively by jerks to the level of 
 the ground, by which means his arms and legs were completely dislocated 
 (Fig. 340). 
 
 At Avignon, the ordinary torture consisted in hanging the accused by the 
 wrists, with a heavy iron ball at each foot ; for the extraordinary torture, 
 which was then much in use in Italy under the name of reglia, the body 
 was stretched horizontally by means of ropes passing through rings riveted 
 into the wall, and attached to the four limbs, the only support given 
 to the culprit being the point of a stake cut in a diamond shape, which 
 just touched the end of the back-bone. A doctor and a surgeon were 
 
. 3iO.-The Esto r »^ r ~--<>-"*i„r, J ft rt wu mm ffiW — Fan-simile of ,a Woodcut in the Work ot J. R i seus, 
 
 frimmis I i N^endi :" folio, Paris, 1541. 
 
 Praxis 
 
PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 409 
 
 always present, feeling the pulse at the temples of the patient, so as to bo 
 able to judge of the moment when he could not any longer bear the pain. 
 
 Fig. 341.— The Water Torture.— Fac-simile of a Woodcut in P. Damhoudere's " Praxis Eerum 
 Criminalium :" in 4to, Antwerp, 1S56. 
 
 At that moment he was untied, hot fomentations were used to revive him, 
 restoratives were administered, and, as soon as he had recovered a little 
 
 3 G 
 
PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 strength, lie was again put to the torture, which went on thus for six 
 consecutive hours. 
 
 In Paris, for a long- time, the water torture was in use ; this was the most 
 easily borne, and the least dangerous. A person undergoing it was tied to 
 a hoard which was supported horizontally on two trestles. By means of 
 a horn, acting as a funnel, and whilst his nose was being pinched, so as 
 to force him to swallow, they slowly poured four coquemars (about nine 
 pints) of water into his mouth ; this was for the ordinary torture. For 
 the extraordinary, double that quantity was poured in (Fig. 341). When 
 the torture was ended, the victim was untied, " and taken to be warmed in 
 the kitchen," says the old text. 
 
 At a later period, the brodequins were preferred. For this torture, the 
 victim was placed in a .sitting posture on a massive bench, with strong 
 narrow 1 loards fixed inside and outside of each leg, which were tightly bound 
 together with strong rope ; wedges were then driven in between the centre 
 boards with a mallet ; four wedges in the ordinary and eight in the extra- 
 ordinary torture. Not unfrequently during the latter operation the bones of 
 the legs were literally burst. 
 
 The brodequins which were often used for ordinary torture were stock- 
 ings of parchment, into which it was easy enough to get the feet when it 
 was wet, but which, on being held near the fire, shrunk so considerably 
 that it caused insufferable agony to the wearer. 
 
 Whatever manner of torture was applied, the accused, before undergoing 
 it, was forced to remain eight or ten hours without eating. Damhoudere, in 
 his famous technical work, called " Practique et Enchiridion des Causes 
 Criminellcs " (P544), also recommends that the hair should be carefully 
 shaved from the bodies of persons about to undergo examination by torture, 
 for fear of their concealing some countercharni which would render them 
 insensible to bodily pain. The same author also recommends, as a rule, 
 when there are several persons " to be placed on the rack" for the same 
 deed, to begin with those from whom it would be most probable that con- 
 fession would lie first extorted. Thus, for instance, when a man and a 
 woman were to suffer one after the other, he recommended that the womau 
 be first tortured, as being the weaker of the two ; when a father and son 
 were concerned, the- son should be tortured in presence of the father, "who 
 naturally fears more for his son than for himself." We thereby see that 
 
PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 411 
 
 the judges were adepts in the art of adding moral to physical tortures. 
 The barbarous custom ul' punishment by torture was on several occasions 
 condemned by the Church. As early as 866, we find, from 1'ope Nicholas Y.'s 
 letter to the Bulgarians, that their custom of torturing the accused was 
 considered contrary to divine as well as In human law : " For," says he, " a 
 
 Fig. 342.— Type of Executioner in the Decapitation of John the Baptist (Thirteenth Century). - 
 Fac-simile of a Miniature in the Psalm-book of St. Louis. Manuscript preserved in the Musee 
 ues Souverains. 
 
 confession should be voluntary, and not forced. By means of the torture, an 
 innocent man may suffer to the utmost without making any avowal; and, in 
 such a case, what a crime for the judge ! < )r the person may be subdued by 
 pain, and may acknowledge himself guilty, although he be not so, which 
 throws an equally great sin upon the judge." 
 
 After having endured the previous torture, the different phases of which 
 
4 , 2 PUNISHMENTS, 
 
 were carried out by special tormentors or executioners, the condemned was 
 at last handed over to the maidre des haultes ceuvres — that is to say, the 
 executioner — whose special mission was that of sending culprits to another 
 world (Fig. 342). 
 
 The executioner did not hold the same position in all countries. For, 
 
 Fig. 343.— Swiss Grand Provost (Fifteenth Century).— From a Painting in the " Danse des Morts ' 
 
 of Basle, eDgraved by Merian. 
 
 whereas in France, Italy, and Spain, a certain amount of odium was attached 
 to this terrible craft, in Germany, on the contrary, successfully carrying out 
 a certain number of capital sentences was rewarded by titles and the 
 privileges of nobility (Fig. 343). At Reutlingen, in Suabia, the last of the 
 councillors admitted into the tribunal had to carry out the sentence with his 
 
PUNISHMENTS. 413 
 
 own hand. In Franconia, this painful duty fell upon the councillor who had 
 last taken a -wife. 
 
 In Franco, the executioner, otherwise called the King's Sworn Tormentor, 
 was the lowest of the officers of justice. His letters of appointment, which 
 he received from the King-, had, nevertheless, to he registered in Parliament; 
 hut, after having- put the seal on them, it is said that the chancellor threw 
 them under the table, in token of contempt. The executioner was generally 
 forbidden to live within the precincts of the city, unless it was 011 the 
 grounds -where the pillory was situated ; and, in some cases, so that he 
 might not he mistaken amongst the people, he was forced to wear a particular 
 coat, cither of red or yellow. On the other hand, his duties ensured him 
 certain privileges. In Paris, he possessed the right of havage, which con- 
 sisted in taking all that he could hold in his hand from every load of grain 
 whieh was brought into market ; however, in order that the grain might 
 be preserved from ignominious contact, he levied his tax with a wooden 
 spoon. lie enjoyed many similar rights over most articles of consumption, 
 independently of benefiting by several taxes or hues, such as the toll 
 on the Petit-Pont, the tux on foreign traders, on boats arriving with fish, 
 on dealers in herrings, watercress, &c. ; and the tine of five sous whieh 
 was levied on stray pigs (see previous chapter), &c. And, lastly, besides the 
 personal property of the condemned, he received the rents from the shops 
 and stalls surrounding the pillory, in whieh the retail fish trade was 
 carried on. 
 
 It appears that, in consecpienee of the receipts from these various duties 
 forming a considerable source of revenue, the prestige of wealth by degrees 
 dissipated the unfavourable impressions traditionally attached to the duties 
 of executioner. At least, we have authority for supposing this, when, for 
 instance, in 1418, we see the Paris executioner, who was then captain of the 
 bourgeois militia, coming in that capacity to touch the hand of the Puke 
 of Burgundy, on the occasion of his solemn entry into Paris with Queen 
 Isabel of Bavaria. We may add that popular belief generally ascribed to 
 the executioner a certain practical knowledge of medicine, which was sup- 
 posed inherent in the profession itself; and the acquaintance with certain 
 methods of cure unknown to doctors, was attributed to him ; people went to 
 buy from him the fat of culprits who had been hung, which was supposed to 
 be a marvellous panacea. We may also remark that, in our day, the 
 
4' + 
 
 PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 proficiency of the executioner in setting dislocated limbs is still proverbial 
 in many countries. 
 
 More than once during the thirteenth century the duties of the executioner 
 were performed by women, but only in those cases in which their own sex 
 was concerned ; for it is expressly stated in an order of St. Louis, that persons 
 
 Fig 344.— Amende Honorable before the Tribunal. — Fae-simile of a Woodcut in J. Damhoudeie's 
 " Praxis Re-rum Criminalium :" in 4to, Antwerp, 1556. 
 
 convicted of blasphemy shall be beaten with birch rods, "the men by men, 
 and the women by women only, without the presence of men." This, how- 
 ever, was not long tolerated, for we know that a period soon arrived when 
 women were exempted from a duty so little adapted to their physical 
 weakness and moral sensitiveness. 
 
PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 4'5 
 
 The learned writer on criminal rases, Jossc Damhoudere, whom we have 
 already mentioned, and whom we shall take as our special guide in the 
 enumeration of the various tortures, specifies thirteen ways in which the 
 executioner " carries out his executions," and places them in the following- 
 order : — " Fire " — " the sword" — " mechanical force" — " quartering " — 
 " the wheel " — " the fork " — " the gibbet " — " drawing " — " spiking " — 
 "cutting off the ears" — "dismembering" — "flogging or beating" — and 
 the " pillory." 
 
 But before entering upon the details of this revolting subject, we must 
 state that, whatever punishment was inflicted upon a culprit, it was very rare 
 
 Fig. 345.— The Punishment by Fire.— Fuc-simile of a Woodcut ol the " Cosmographie Universelle 
 
 of Minister : in folio, Basic, 1.552. 
 
 that its execution had not keen preceded by the amende honorable, which, in 
 certain cases, constituted a distinct punishment, but which generally was but 
 the prelude to the torture itself. The amende honorable which was called 
 simple or short, took place without the assistance of the executioner in the 
 council chamber, where the condemned, bareheaded and kneeling, had to 
 state that "he had falsely said or done something against the authority of 
 the King or the honour of some person (Fig. 344). For the amende honor- 
 able in ftguris— that is to say, in public— the condemned, in his shirt, bare- 
 footed, the rope round his neck, followed by the executioner, and holding m 
 his hand a wax taper, with a weight, which was definitely specified in the 
 sentence which had been passed upon him, but which was generally of 
 
4 ,6 PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 two or four pounds, prostrated himself at the door of a church, where in a 
 loud voice he had to confess his sin, and to beg the pardon of God and 
 man. 
 
 When a criminal had been condemned to be burnt, a stake was erected 
 on the spot specially designed for the execution, and round it a pile was 
 prepared, composed of alternate layers of straw and wood, and rising to 
 about the height of a man. Care was taken to leave a free space round 
 the stake for the victim, and also a passage by which to lead him to 
 it. Having been stripped of his clothes, and dressed in a shirt smeared 
 with sulphur, he had to walk to the centre of the pile through a narrow 
 opening, and was then tightly bound to the stake with ropes and chains. 
 After this, faggots and straw were thrown into the empty space through 
 which he had passed to the stake, until he was entirely covered by them ; 
 the pile was then fired on all sides at once (Fig. 345). 
 
 Sometimes, the sentence was that the culprit should only be delivered to 
 the flames after having been previously strangled. In this case, the dead 
 corpse was then immediately placed where the victim would otherwise have 
 been placed alive, and the punishment lost much of its horror. It often 
 happened that the executioner, in order to shorten the sufferings of the con- 
 demned, whilst he prepared the pile, placed a large and pointed iron bar 
 amongst the faggots and opposite the stake breast high, so that, directly the 
 fire was lighted, the bar was quickly pushed against the victim, giving a 
 mortal blow to the unfortunate wretch, who would otherwise have been 
 slowly devoured by the flames. If, according to the wording of the sentence, 
 the ashes of the criminal were to be scattered to the winds, as soon as it was 
 possible to approach the centre of the burning pile, a few ashes were taken 
 in a shovel and sprinkled in the air. 
 
 They were not satisfied with burning the living, they also delivered to 
 the flames the bodies of those who had died a natural death before their 
 execution could be carried out, as if an anticipated death should not be 
 allowed to save them from the punishment which they had deserved. It also 
 happened in certain cases, where a person's guilt was only proved after his 
 decease, that his body was disinterred, and carried to the stake to be 
 burnt. 
 
 The punishment by fire was always inflicted in cases of heresy or 
 blasphemy. The Spanish Inquisition made such a constant and cruel use of 
 
PIWISHMENTS. + i 7 
 
 it, that the expression auto-da-fe (act of faith), strangely perverted from 
 its original meaning-, was the only one employed to denote the punishment 
 itself. In France, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, fifty-nine 
 Templars were bnrned at the same time tor the crimes of heresy and witch- 
 craft. And three years later, on the IStli March, 1314, Jacques Molay, and 
 a few other dignitaries of the Order of the Templars, also perished in the 
 flames at the extremity of the island of Notre Dame, on the very spot where 
 the equestrian statue of Henry IX . now stands. 
 
 Every one is acquainted with the fact that judges were found iniquitous 
 enough to condemn Joan of Are to death by tire as a witch and a heretic. 
 Her execution, which took place in the market-place of Rouen, is remark- 
 able from a circumstance which is little known, and which had never taken 
 place on any other occasion. "When it was supposed that the tire which 
 surrounded the young heroine on all sides had reached her and no doubt 
 suffocated her, although sufficient time had not elapsed fur it to consume her 
 body, a part of the blazing wood was withdrawn, " in order to remove any 
 doubts from the people," and when the crowd had satisfied themselves by 
 seeing her in the middle of the pile, " chained to the post and quite dead, 
 ■the executioner replaced the fire . . . ." It should be stated in reference to 
 this point, that Joan having been accused of witchcraft, there was a general 
 belief among the people that the flames would bo harmless to her, and that 
 she would be seen emerging from her pile unscathed. 
 
 The sentence of punishment by fire did not absolutely imply death at the 
 stake, for there was a punishment of this description which was specially 
 reserved for base coiners, and which consisted in hurling the criminals into 
 a cauldron of scalding water or oil. 
 
 "We must include in the category of punishment by fire certain penalties, 
 which were, so to speak, but the preliminaries of a more severe punishment, 
 such as the sulphur-fire, in which the hands of parricides, or of criminals 
 accused of high treason, were burned. We must also add various punish- 
 ments which, if they did not involve death, were none the less cruel, such as 
 the red-hot brazier, bassin ardent, which was passed backwards and forwards 
 before the eyes of the culprit, until they were destroyed by the scorching- 
 heat; and the process of branding various marks on the flesh, as an inefface- 
 able stigma, the use of which has been continued to the present day. 
 
 In certain countries decapitation was performed with an axe; but in 
 
4 i S 
 
 PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 France, it was carried oat usually by means of a two-handed sword or 
 glave of justice, which was furnished to the executioner for that purpose 
 (Fig. 346). We find it recorded that in 147G, sixty sous parisis were paid to 
 the executioner of Paris " for having bought a large espie dfeuille," used for 
 beheading the condemned, and "for having the old sword done up, which 
 was damaged, and had become notched whilst carrying out the sentence of 
 justice upon Messire Louis de Luxembourg." 
 
 Originally, decapitation was indiscriminately inflicted on all criminals 
 condemned to death ; at a later period, however, it became the particular 
 
 
 Fig. 346.— Beheading.— Fac-simile of a Miniature on Wood in the " Cosmographie Universelle" 
 
 of Munster: in folio, Basle, 1552. 
 
 privilege of the nobility, who submitted to it without any feeling of degrada- 
 tion. The victim— unless the sentence prescribed that he should be blind- 
 folded as an ignominious aggravation of the penalty— was allowed to choose 
 whether he would have his eyes covered or not. He knelt down on the 
 scaffold, placed his head on the block, and gave himself up to the executioner 
 (Fig. 847). The skill of the executioner was generally such that the head 
 was almost invariably severed from the body at the first blow. Nevertheless, 
 skill and practice at times failed, for cases are on record where as many as 
 eleven blows wore dealt, and at times it happened that the sword broke. It 
 was no doubt the desire to avoid this mischance that led to the invention 
 
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 DECAPITATION OF GUILLAUME DE POMMIERS 
 
 \itfi his Confessor, at Bordeaux in 1377, by order of the Kins of England's Lieutenant. 
 Froissart's Chronicles. N° i><>44, Bibl. iipp. do Paris. 
 
PIWISHMEXTS. 
 
 1 19 
 
 tig. 'HI. — Public Executions.— Fac- simile of a Woodcut in the Latin Work of J. Milliuus, 
 " Praxis Criminis Ptj-sequtudi :" small folio, Parisiis, Simon de Colines, 1541. 
 
 of the mechanical instrument, now known under the name of the guillotine, 
 which is merely an improvement on a complicated machine which was much 
 more ancient than is generally supposed. As early as the sixteenth century 
 
+20 PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 the modern guillotine already existed in Scotland under the name of the 
 Maiden, and English historians relate that Lord Morton, regent of Scotland 
 during the minority of James VI., had it constructed after a model of a 
 similar machine, which had long been in use at Halifax, in Yorkshire. They 
 add, and popular tradition also has invented an analogous tale in France, that 
 this Lord Morton, who was the inventor or the first to introduce this kind of 
 punishment, was himself the first to experience it. The guillotine is, besides, 
 very accurately described in the " Chronicles of Jean d'Auton," in an 
 account of an execution which took place at Genoa at the beginning of the 
 sixteenth century. Two German engravings, executed about 1550 by Pencz 
 and Aldegrever, also represent an instrument of death almost identical with 
 the guillotine ; and the same instrument is to be found on a bas-relief of that 
 period, which is still existing in one of the halls of the Tribunal of 
 Luneburg, in Hanover. 
 
 Possibly the invention of such a machine was prompted by the desire to 
 curtail the physical sufferings of the victim, instead of prolonging them, as 
 under the ancient system. It is, however, difficult to believe that the 
 mediasval judges were actuated by any humane feelings, when we find that, 
 in order to reconcile a respect for propriety with a clue compliance with 
 the ends of justice, the punishment of burying alive was resorted to for 
 women, who could not with decency be hung up to the gibbets. In 1460, a 
 woman named Perette, accused of theft and of receiving stolen goods, was 
 condemned by the Provost of Paris to be " buried alive before the gallows," 
 and the sentence was literally carried out. 
 
 Quartering may in truth be considered the most horrible penalty invented 
 by judicial cruelty. This punishment really dates from the remotest ages, 
 but it was scarcely ever inflicted in more modern times, except on regicides, 
 who were looked upon as having committed the worst of crimes. In almost 
 all cases, the victim had previously to undergo various accessory tortures : 
 sometimes his right hand was cut off, and the mutilated stump was burnt in 
 a cauldron of sulphur ; sometimes his arms, thighs, or breasts were lacerated 
 with redhot pincers, and hot oil, pitch, or molten lead was poured into the 
 wounds. 
 
 After these horrible preliminaries, a rope was attached to each of the 
 limbs of the criminal, one being bound round each leg from the foot to the 
 knee, and round each arm from the wrist to the elbow. These ropes were then 
 
PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 42 1 
 
 fastened to four bars, to each of which, a strong- horse was harnessed, as if for 
 towing a barge. These horses were first made to give short jerks ; and when 
 the agony had elicited heartrending cries from the unfortunate man, who 
 felt his limbs being dislocated without being broken, the four horses were 
 all suddenly urged on with the whip in different directions, and thus all the 
 limbs were strained at one moment. If the tendons and ligaments still 
 resisted the combined efforts of the four horses, the executioner assisted, and 
 
 Fig. 348.— Demons applying- the Torture of the Wheel.— Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the " Grand 
 Kalendrier ou Compost dea Bergers :" small folio, Troyes, Nicholas le Rouge, 1529. 
 
 made several cuts with a hatchet on each joint. When at last— for this 
 horrible torture often lasted several hours — each horse had drawn out a 
 limb, they were collected and placed near the hideous trunk, which often 
 still showed signs of life, and the whole were burned together. Sometimes 
 the sentence was, that the body should be hung to the gibbet, and that the 
 limbs should be displayed on the gates of the town, or sent to four prin- 
 cipal towns in the extremities of the kingdom. When this was done, " an 
 
422 PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 inscription was placed on each of the limbs, which stated the reason of its 
 being thus exposed." 
 
 The wheel is the name applied to a torture of very ancient origin, but 
 which was applied during the Middle Ages to quite a different torture from 
 that used in olden times. The modern instrument might indeed haye been 
 called the cross, for it only served for the public exhibition of the body of 
 the criminal whose limbs had been previously broken alive. This torture, 
 which does not date earlier than the days of Francis I., is thus described :— 
 The victim was first tied on his back to two joists forming a St. Andrew's cross, 
 each of his limbs being stretched out on its arms. Two places were hollowed 
 out under each limb, about a foot apart, in order that the joints alone might 
 touch the wood. The executioner then dealt a heavy blow over each hollow 
 with a square iron bar, about two inches broad and rounded at the handle, 
 thus breaking each limb in two places. To the eight blows required for this, 
 the executioner generally added two or three on the chest, which were called 
 coups de grace, and which ended this horrible execution. It was only after 
 death that the broken body was placed on a wheel, which was turned round 
 on a pivot. Sometimes, however, the sentence ordered that the condemned 
 should be strangled before being broken, which was done in such cases by 
 the instantaneous twist of a rope round the neck. 
 
 Strangling, thus carried out, was called (/inviting. This method is still 
 in use in Spain, and is specially reserved for the nobility. The victim is 
 seated on a scaffold, his head leaning against a beam and his neck grasped 
 by an iron collar, which the executioner suddenly tightens from behind by 
 means of a screw. 
 
 For several centuries, and down to the Fcevolution, hanging was the most 
 common mode of execution in France ; consequently, in every town, and 
 almost in every village, there was a permanent gibbet, which, owing to the 
 custom of leaving the bodies to hang till they crumbled into dust, was 
 very rarely without having some corpses or skeletons attached to it. These 
 gibbets, which were called fourche-s patibulaires, or justices, because they 
 represented the authority of the law, were generally composed of pillars of 
 stone, joined at their summit by wooden traverses, to which the bodies of 
 criminals were tied by ropes or chains. The gallows, the pillars of which 
 varied in number according to the will of the authorities, were always placed 
 by the side of frequented roads, and on an eminence. 
 
Pl'XISHMRWTS. 
 
 +-.; 
 
 According to prescribed rule, the gallows of Paris, which played such an 
 important part in the political as well as the criminal history of that city, 
 were erected on a height north of the town, near the high road leading into 
 Germany. Montfaucon, originally the name of the hill, soon became that 
 of the gallows itself. This celebrated place of execution consisted of a heavy 
 mass of masonry, composed of ten or twelve layers of rough stones, and 
 
 Fig. 349. — The Gibbet of Montfaucon. — From an Kngraving of the Topography of Paris, in the 
 Collection of Engravings of the National Library. 
 
 formed an enclosure of forty feet by twenty-five or thirty. At the upper part 
 there was a platform, which was reached by a. stone staircase, the entrance 
 to which was closed by a massive door (Fig. 349). < »n three sides of this 
 platform rested sixteen square pillars, about thirty feet high, made of blocks 
 of stone a foot thick. These pillars were joined to one another 1 y double 
 bars of wood, which were fastened into them, and bore iron chains three feet 
 
4H 
 
 PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 and a half long, to which the criminals were suspended. Underneath, half- 
 way between these and the platform, other Lars were placed for the same 
 purpose. Long and solid ladders riveted to the pillars enabled the execu- 
 tioner and his assistants to lead up criminals, or to carry up corpses destined 
 to be hung there. Lastl} r , the centre of the structure was occupied by a deep 
 pit, the hideous receptacle of the decaying remains of the criminals. 
 
 One can easily imagine the strange and melancholy aspect of this monu- 
 mental gibbet if one thinks of the number of corpses continually attached to 
 it, and which were feasted upon by thousands of crows. On one occasion 
 only it was necessary to replace fifty-two chains, which were useless; and the 
 accounts of the city of Paris prove that i\i.<& expense of executions was more 
 heavy than that of the maintenance of the gibbet, a fact easy to be understood 
 if one recalls to mind the frequency of capital sentences during the Middle 
 Ages. llontfaucon was used not only for executions, but also for exposing 
 corpses which were brought there from various places of execution in every 
 part of the country. The mutilated remains of criminals who had been 
 boiled, quartered, or beheaded, were also hung there, enclosed in sacks of 
 leather or wicker-work. They often remained hanging for a considerable 
 time, as in the case of Pierre des Essarts, who had been beheaded in 1413, 
 and whose remains were handed over to his family for Christian burial after 
 having hung on Montfaucon for three years. 
 
 The criminal condemned to be hanged was generally taken to the place of 
 execution sitting or standing in a waggon, with his back to the horses, his 
 confessor by his side, and the executioner behind him. He bore three ropes 
 round his neck : two the size of the little finger, and called toriouses, each of 
 which had a slip-knot ; the third, called the jet, was only used to pull the 
 victim off the ladder, and so to launch him into eternity (Fig. 350). When 
 the cart arrived at the foot of the gallows, the executioner first ascended the 
 ladder backwards, drawing the culprit after him by means of the ropes, and 
 forcing him to keep pace with him; on arriving at the top, he quickly 
 fastened the two tortouses to the arm of the gibbet, and by a jerk of his knee 
 he turned the culprit off the ladder, still holding the jet in his own hand. 
 He then placed his feet on the tied hands of the condemned, and suspending 
 himself by his hands to the gibbet, he finished off his victim by repeated 
 jerks, thus ensuring complete strangulation. 
 
 When the words " shall be hung until death doth ensue " are to be found 
 
PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 4 2 5 
 
 in a sentence, it must not bo supposed that they wort' used merely as a form, 
 for in certain cases the judge ordered that (be sentence should be only carried 
 out as far as would prove to the culprit the awful sensation of hanging. In 
 such cases, the victim was simply suspended by ropes passing under the arm- 
 pits, a kind of exhibition which was not tree from danger when it was too 
 prolonged, for the weight of the body so tightened the rope round ihe chest 
 that the circulation might bo stopped. Many culprits, after hanging thus 
 an hour, when brought down, were dead, or only survived this painful 
 process a short time. 
 
 Fig. 3-50. — Hanging to Music. (A Minstrel condemned to the Gallows obtained permission tli.it 
 one of his companions should accompany him to his execution, and play his favourite instru- 
 ment on the ladder of the Gallows.) — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in Miehault's "Doctrinal du 
 Temps Present:" small folio, goth., Bruges, aljout 1490. 
 
 We have seen elsewhere (chapter on Privileges and Rights, Feudal ami 
 Municipal) that, when the criminal passed before the convent of tho Filles- 
 Lieu, the nuns of that establishment were bound to bring him out a. glass of 
 wine and three pieces of bread, and this was called le dernier morceau den 
 patient*. It was hardly ever refused, and an immense crowd assisted at this 
 sad meal. After this the procession went forward, and on arriving near the 
 gallows, another halt was made at tbe foot of a stone cross, in order that the 
 culprit might receive the religious exhortations of his confessor. The moment 
 
 •'! 1 
 
426 
 
 PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 the execution was over, the confessor and the officers of justice returned to the 
 Chatelet, where a repast provided by the town awaited them. 
 
 Sometimes the criminals, in consequence of a peculiar wording of the 
 
 Fig. 351. — View of the Pillory in the Market-place of Paris in the Sixteenth Century, after ; 
 Drawing by an unknown Artist of 1670. 
 
 sentence, were taken to Montfaueon, whether dead or alive, on a ladder 
 fastened behind a cart. This was an aggravation of the penalty, which was 
 called trainer sur la elate. 
 
PUXISHMElXTS. 
 
 4*7 
 
 The penalty of the lush was inflicted in two ways : first, under 
 the eustode, that is to say within the prison, and by the hand of the 
 gaoler himself, in which ease it Mas simply a correction; and secondly, 
 in public, when its administration became ignominious as well as pain- 
 ful. In the latter case the criminal was paraded about the town, stripped 
 to the waist, and at each crosswav he received a, certain number of blows 
 on the shoulders, given by the public executioner with a cane or a knotted 
 rope. 
 
 When it was only required to stamp a culprit with infamy he was put 
 into the pillory, which was generally a kind of scaffold furnished with chains 
 and iron collars, and bearing on its front the arms of the feudal lord. In 
 Paris, this name was given to a round isolated tower built in the centre of 
 the market. The tower was sixty feet high, and had large openings in its 
 thick walls, and a. horizontal wheel was provided, which was capable of 
 turning on a pivot. This wheel was pierced with several holes, made so as 
 to hold the hands and head of the culprit, who, on passing and repassing 
 before the eyes of the crowd, came in full view, and was subjected to their 
 hootings (Tig. 351). The pillories were always situated in the most 
 frequented places, such as markets, erossways, &c. 
 
 Notwithstanding the long and dreadful enumeration we have just made of 
 mediaeval punishments, we are far from having exhausted the subject ; lor we 
 have not spoken of several more or less atrocious punishments, which w-ere 
 in use at various times and in various countries ; such as the Ptiui. of the 
 Cross, specially employed against the Jews; the Arquebasade, which was well 
 adapted for carrying out prompt justice on soldiers ; the ChatouiUement, which 
 resulted in death after the most intense tortures ; the Pal (Fig. 352), flaying 
 alive, and, lastly, drowning, a kind of death frequently employed in France. 
 Hence the common expression, gens de sac et de corde, which was derived 
 from the sack into which persons were tied who were condemned to die 
 
 by immersion But we will now turn away from these horrible 
 
 scenes, and consider the several methods of penal sequestration and prison 
 arrangements. 
 
 It is unnecessary to state that in barbarous times the cruel and pitiless 
 feeling which induced legislators to increase the horrors of tortures, also 
 contributed to the aggravation of the fate of prisoners. Each adminis- 
 trator of the law had his private gaol, which was entirely under his will and 
 
1-28 
 
 PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 control (Fig. 353). Law or custom did not prescribe any fixed rules for the 
 internal government of prisons. There can be little doubt, however, that 
 these prisons were as small as they were unhealthy, if we may judge from 
 that in the Rue de la Tannerie, which was the property of the provost, the 
 merchants, and the aldermen of Paris in 1383. Although this dungeon was 
 
 Fig. 352. — EmpalemeDt. — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the " (Josmographie dnivereelle " 
 uf Minister : in folio, Basle, 1552. 
 
 only eleven feet long by seven feet wide, from ten to twenty prisoners were 
 often immured in it at the same time. 
 
 Paris alone contained twenty-five or thirty special prisons, without 
 counting the vade in pace of the various religious communities. The most 
 important were the Grand CMtelet, the Petit Chalelet, the Bastille, the 
 Conciergerie, and the For-1'Eveque, the ancient seat of the ecclesiastical 
 jurisdiction of the Bishop of Paris. Nearly all these places of confinement 
 
PUNISHJfEXTS. 
 
 + 2 
 
 contained subterranean cells, which wen- almost entirely deprived of air and 
 light. As examples of these may be mentioned the chartres basses of the 
 Petit Chatelet, where, under the reign of Charles VI., it was proved that no 
 
+3 o PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 man could pass an entire day without being suffocated ; and the fearful cells 
 excavated thirty feet below the surface of the earth, in the gaol of the 
 Abbey of Saint Germain des Pres, the roof of which was so low that a man 
 of middle height could not stand up in them, and where the straw of the 
 prisoners' beds floated upon the stagnant water which had oozed through 
 the walls. 
 
 The Grand Chatelct was one of the most ancient prisons of Paris, and 
 probably the one which held the greatest number of prisoners. By a curious 
 and arbitrary custom, prisoners were compelled to pay a gaol fee on entering 
 and going out of this prison, which varied according to their rank, and which 
 was established by a law of the year 1425. We learn from this enactment 
 the names by which the various places of confinement composing this 
 spacious municipal prison were known. A prisoner who was confined in the 
 Beau coir, La Mate or La Salle, had the right of "having a bed brought 
 from his own house," and only had to pay the droit de place to the gaoler; 
 any one who was placed in the Boucherie, in the Beaumont, or in the Griesche, 
 "which are closed prisons," had to pay four deniers ''pour place;" any 
 one who was confined in the Beauvais, "lies on mats or on layers of rushes 
 or straw" {gist sur nates on stir eouelte de feu r re ou de pa/Ik) ; if he preferred, 
 he might be placed au Puis, in the Gourdaine, in the Bereueil, or in the 
 Oubliette, where he did not pay more than in the Fosse. For this, no doubt, 
 the smallest charge was made. Sometimes, however, the prisoner was left 
 between two doors (" eutre deux huis "), and he then paid much less than he 
 would in the Barbaric or in the Gloriette. The exact meaning of these curious 
 names is no longer intelligible to us, notwithstanding the terror which they 
 formerly created, but their very strangeness gives us reason to suppose that 
 the prison system was at that time subjected to the most odious refinement of 
 the basest cruelty. 
 
 From various reliable sources we learn that there was a place in the 
 Grand Chatelet, called the Chausse d'Hypocras, in which the prisoners 
 had their feet continually in water, and where they could neither stand 
 up nor lie down ; and a cell, called Fin d'aise, which was a horrible 
 receptacle of filth, vermin, and reptiles ; as to the Fosse, no staircase 
 being attached to it, the prisoners were lowered down into it by means 
 of a rope and pulley. 
 
 By the law of 1 425, the gaoler was not permitted to put more than two or 
 
PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 43' 
 
 three persons in the same bed. He was bound to give " bread and water" to 
 the poor prisoners who had no means of subsistence; and, lastly, ho was 
 enjoined " to keep the large stone basin, which was on the pavement, full of 
 water, so that prisoners might get it whenever they wished." In order 
 to defray his expenses, he levied on the prisoners various charges for 
 attendance and for bedding, and lie was authorised to detain in prison 
 any person who failed to pay him. The power of compelling payment 
 of these charges continued even after a judge's order for the release of a 
 prisoner had been issued. 
 
 The subterranean cells of the Bastille (Fig. 3-14) did not differ much 
 
 Tfllll 
 
 Fig. 'ill. — The Bastille.— From an ancient Engraving of the Topography of Paris, in tin 
 Collection of Engravings of the National Library. 
 
 from those of the Chatelet. There were several, the bottoms of which were 
 formed like a sugar-loaf upside down, thus neither allowing the prisoner to 
 stand up, nor even to adopt a. tolerable position sitting or lying down. 
 It was in these that King Louis XL, who seemed to have a partiality for 
 filthy dungeons, placed the two young sons of the Duke de Nemours 
 (beheaded in 1477J, ordering, besides, that they should be taken out twice a 
 week and beaten with birch rods, and, as a supreme measure of atrocity, he 
 had one of their teeth extracted every three months. It was Louis XL, too, 
 who, in 147ti, ordered the famous iron cage to be erected in one of the 
 towers of the Bastille, in which Guillaume, Bishop of Verdun, was incar- 
 cerated for fourteen vears. 
 
43 2 
 
 PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 The Chateau de Loches also possessed one of these cages, which received 
 the name of Cage de Balue, because the Cardinal Jean de la Balue was 
 imprisoned in it. Philippe de Commines, in his " Meruoires," declares 
 that he himself had a taste of it for eight months. Before the invention 
 of cages, Louis XL ordered very heavy chains to he made, which were 
 fastened to the feet of the prisoners, and attached to large iron halls, 
 called, according to Commines, the King's little daughters (les fillettes clu 
 ron). 
 
 The prison known by the name of The Leads of Venice is of so notorious 
 a character that its mere mention is sufficient, without its being necessary 
 for us to describe it. To the subject of voluntary seclusions, to which 
 
 Fig. 355. — ilovable Iron Cage. — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the " Cosmographie Universelle ' 
 of Munster : in folio, Basle, 1552. 
 
 certain pious persons submitted themselves as acts of extreme relio-ious 
 devotion, it will only be necessary to allude here, and to remark that 
 there are examples of this confinement having been ordered by legal 
 authority. In 1485, Pence de Vermandois, the widow of a squire, bad 
 been condemned to be burnt for adultery and for murdering her husband ; 
 but, on letters of remission from the King, Parliament commuted the sentence 
 pronounced by the Provost of Paris, and ordered that Pence de Vermandois 
 should be " shut up within the walls of the cemetery of the Saints-Innocents, 
 in a small house, built at her expense, that she might therein do penance and 
 end her days." In conformity with this sentence, the culprit having been 
 conducted with much pomp to the cell which had been prepared for her, the 
 door was locked by means of two keys, one of which remained in the hands 
 
PUNISHMENTS. 
 
 433 
 
 of the churchwarden (marguiUier) of the Church of the Innocents, and the 
 other was deposited at the office of the Parliament. The prisoner received 
 her food from public charity, and it is said that she became an ohject of 
 veneration and respect by the whole town. 
 
 X-'ir,. 356.— Cat-o' -nine-tails.— Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the 
 " Cosmographie Universelle " of Munster. 
 
 ■'> K 
 
JEWS. 
 
 Dispersion of the Jews.- Jewish Quarters in the Mediaeval Towns.— The Ghetto of Rome.— Ancient 
 Prague.— The Giudecca of Venice.— Condition of the Jews.— Animosity of the People against 
 them.— Severity and vexatious Treatment of the Sovereigns.— The Jews of Lincoln.— The 
 Jews of Blois.— Mission of the Pastoureaiix.— Extermination of the Jews.— The Price at which 
 the Jews purchased Indulgences.— Maries set upon them —Wealth, Knowledge, Industry, and 
 Financial Aptitude of the Jews.— Regulations respecting Usury as practised hy the Jews.— 
 Attachment of the Jews to their Religion. 
 
 PAINFUL and gloomy history com- 
 mences for the Jewish race from the 
 day when the Romans seized upon 
 Jerusalem and expelled its unfortu- 
 nate inhabitants, a race so essentially 
 homogeneous, strong, patient, and 
 religious, and dating its origin from 
 the remotest period of the patri- 
 archal ages. The Jews, proud of the 
 title of " the People of God," were 
 scattered, proscribed, and received 
 universal reprobation (Fig. 357), notwithstanding that their annals, collected 
 under divine inspiration by 3Ioses and the sacred writers, had furnished a 
 glorious prologue to the annals of all modern nations, and had given to the 
 world the holy and divine history of Christ, who, bv establishing the Gospel, 
 was to become the regenerator of the whole human family. 
 
 Their Temple is destroyed, and the crowd which had once pressed beneath 
 its portico as the flock of the living God has become a miserable tribe, rest- 
 less and unquiet in the present, but full of hope as regards the future. The 
 Jewish nation exists nowhere, nevertheless, the Jewish people are to be found 
 everywhere. They are wanderers upon the face of the earth, continually 
 pursued, threatened, and persecuted. It would seem as if the existence of 
 
IEWS. 
 
 43 5 
 
 the offspring of Israel is perpetuated simply to present to Christian eyes a 
 clear and awful warning of the Divine vengeance, a special, and at the same 
 
 Fig. 357. — Expulsion of the Jews in the Reign of, the Emperor Hadrian (a. p. 135) : "How Heraelius 
 turned the Jews out of Jerusalem." — Fac-eimile of a Miniature in the " Histoire dea Empereuis," 
 Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the Library of the Arsenal, Paris. 
 
 time an overwhelming example of the vicissitudes which God alone can 
 determine in the life of a people. 
 
+ ,6 JEWS. 
 
 M. Depping, an historian of this race so long accursed, after having been 
 for centuries blessed and favoured by God, says, " A Jewish community in 
 an European town during the Middle Ages resembled a colony on an island 
 or on a distant coast. Isolated from the rest of the population, it generally 
 occupied a district or street which was separated from the town or borough. 
 The Jews, like a troop of lepers, were thrust away and huddled together into 
 the most uncomfortable and most unhealthy quarter of the city, as miserable 
 as it was disgusting. There, in ill-constructed houses, this poor and 
 numerous population was amassed ; in some cases high walls enclosed the 
 small and dark narrow streets of the quarter occupied by this branded 
 race, which prevented its extension, though, at the same time, it often 
 protected the inhabitants from the fury of the populace." 
 
 In order to form a just appreciation of what the Jewish quarters 
 were like in the mediaeval towns, one must visit the Ghetto of Rome or 
 ancient Prague. The latter place especially has, in all respects, preserved 
 its antique appearance. We must picture to ourselves a large enclosure of 
 wretched houses, irregularly built, divided by small streets with no atttempt 
 at uniformity. The principal thoroughfare is lined with stalls, in which are 
 sold not only old clothes, furniture, and utensils, but also new and glittering 
 articles. The inhabitants of this enclosure can, without crossing its limits, 
 procure everything necessary to material life. This quarter contains the old 
 synagogue, a square building begrimed with the dirt of ages, and so covered 
 with dirt and moss that the stone of which it is built is scarcely visible. The 
 building, which is as mournful as a prison, has only narrow loopholes by way 
 of windows, and a door so low that one must stoop to enter it. A dark passage 
 leads to the interior, into which air and light can scarcely penetrate. A few 
 lamps contend with the darkness, and lighted fires serve to modify a little the 
 icy temperature of this cellar. Here and there pillars seem to support a 
 roof which is too high and too darkened for the eye of the visitor to 
 distinguish. On the sides are dark and damp recesses, where women 
 assist at the celebration of worship, which is always carried on, according 
 to ancient custom, with much wailing and strange gestures of the body. 
 The book of the law which is in use is no less venerable than the edifice in 
 which it is contained. It appears that this synagogue has never under- 
 gone the slightest repairs or changes for many centuries. The successive 
 generations who have prayed in this ancient temple rest under thousands 
 
fEWS. 
 
 437 
 
 of sepulchral stones, in a cemetery which is of the- same date as the 
 synagogue, and is about a league in circumference. 
 
 Paris has never possessed, properly speaking, a regular Jewish quarter; 
 it is true that the Israelites settled down in the neighbourhood of the 
 markets, and in certain narrow streets, which at some period or other 
 took the name of Juiverie or Vieille Juiverie {Old. Jewry) ; but they were 
 never distinct from the rest of the population ; they only had a separate 
 cemetery, at the bottom or rather on the slope of the hill of Sainte-Geneviewe. 
 On the other hand, most of the towns of France and of Europe had their 
 Jewry. In certain countries, the colonies of Jews enjoyed a share of immu- 
 nities and protections, thus rendering their life a little less precarious, and 
 their occupations of a rather more settled character. 
 
 In Spain and in Portugal, the Jews, in consequence of their having been 
 on several occasions useful to the kings of those two countries, were allowed 
 to carry on their trade, and to engage in money speculations, outside their 
 own epiarters ; a few were elevated to positions of responsibility, and some 
 were even tolerated at court. 
 
 In the southern towns of France, which they enriched by commerce and 
 taxes, and where they formed considerable communities, the Jews enjoyed the 
 protection of the nobles. We find them in Lauguedoc and Provence buying 
 and selling property like Christians, a privilege which was not permitted to 
 them elsewhere : this is proved by charters of contracts made during the 
 twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which bear the signature of certain Jews 
 in Plebrew characters. On Papal lands, at Avignon, at Carpcutras, and at 
 Cavaillon, they had bailes, or consuls of their nation. The Jews of 
 Pousillon during the Spanish rule (fifteenth century) were governed by two 
 syndics and a scribe, elected by the community. The latter levied the taxes 
 due to the Eing of Aragon. In Burgundy they cultivated the vines, which 
 was rather singular, for the Jews generally preferred towns where they could 
 form groups more compact, and more capable of mutual assistance. The 
 name of Sabath, given to a vineyard in the neighbourhood of Macon, still 
 points out the position of their synagogue. The hamlet of Mouys, a 
 dependency of the communes of Prissey, owes its name to a rich Israelite, 
 Moses, who had received that land as an indemnity for money lent to the 
 Count Gerfroy de Macon, which the latter had been unable to repay. In 
 Vienna, where the Israelites had a special quarter, still called the Jetcx' 
 
4?S 
 
 JEWS. 
 
 Fig. 358.— Jews taking the Blood from Christian Children, for their Mystic Rites.— From a 
 Pen-and-ink Drawing, illuminated, in the Book of the Cahala of Abraham the Jew (Library of 
 the Arsenal, Paris). 
 
 Square, a special judge named by the duke was set over them. Exempted 
 from the city rates, they paid a special poll tax, and they contributed, but 
 on the same footing as Christian vassals, to extraordinary rates, war taxes, 
 
JEWS. 4 39 
 
 and travelling expenses of the nobles, &c. This community even became 
 so rich that it eventually held mortgages on the greater pari of the houses 
 of the town. 
 
 In Venice also, the Jews had their quarter — the Oiudccca — which is still 
 one of the darkest in the town; but they did nut much care about such 
 trifling inconveniences, as the republic allowed them to bank, that is, to 
 lend money at interest ; and although they were driven out on several 
 occasions, they always found means to return and recommence their opera- 
 tions. When they were authorised to establish themselves in the towns of 
 the Adriatic, their presence did not tail to annoy the Christian merchants, 
 whose rivals they were ; but neither in Venice nor in the Italian repub- 
 lics had they to fear court intrigues, nor the hatred of corporations of trades, 
 which were so powerful in France and in German v. 
 
 It was in the north of Europe that the animosity against the .lews was 
 greatest. The Christian population continually threatened the Jewish 
 quarters, which public opinion pointed to as haunts and sinks of iniquity. 
 The Jews were believed to be much more amenable to the doctrines of the 
 Talmud than to the laws of Moses. However secret they may have kept 
 their learning, a portion of its tenets transpired, which was supposed to incul- 
 cate the right to pillage and murder Christians ; and it is to the vajme 
 knowledge of these odious prescriptions of the Talmud that we must attribute 
 the readiness with which the most atrocious accusations against the Jews 
 were always welcomed. 
 
 Besides this, the public mind in those days of bigotry was naturally 
 filled with a deep antipathy against the Jewish deicides. "When monks and 
 priests came annually in Holy week to relate from the pulpit to their hearers 
 the revolting details of the Passion, resentment was kindled in the hearts of 
 the Christians against the descendants of the judges and executioners of the 
 Saviour. And when, on going out of the churches, excited by the sermons 
 they had just heard, the faithful saw in pictures, in the cemeteries, and 
 elsewhere, representations of the mystery of the death of our Saviour, 
 in which the Jews played so odious a part, there was scarcely a. spec- 
 tator who did not feel an increased hatred against the condemned race. 
 Hence it was that in many towns, even when the authorities did not compel 
 them to do so, the Israelites found it prudent to shut themselves up in their 
 own quarter, and even in their own houses, during the whole of Passion week ; 
 
44" 
 
 JEWS. 
 
 for, in consequence of the public feeling roused during those days of mourn- 
 ing and penance, a false rumour was quite sufficient to give the people a 
 pretext for offering violence to the Jews. 
 
 In fact, from the earliest days of Christianity, a certain number of accu- 
 sations were always being made, sometimes in one country, sometimes in 
 another, against the Israelites, which always ended in bringing down the 
 same misfortunes on their heads. The most common, and most easily 
 credited report, was that which attributed to them the murder of some 
 Christian child, said to be sacrificed in Passion week in token of their hatred 
 
 Fig. 359. — Secret Meeting of the Jews at the Iiabbi's House. — Fac-simile of a Miniature of the 
 ' ' Pelerinage de la Vie Humaine,' ' Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century, in the National Library 
 of Paris. 
 
 of Christ ; and in the event of this terrible accusation being once uttered, 
 and maintained by popular opinion, it never failed to spread with remark- 
 able swiftness. In such cases, popular fury, not being on all occasions 
 satisfied with the tardiness of judicial forms, vented itself upon the first Jews 
 who had the misfortune to fall into the hands of their enemies. As soon as 
 the disturbance was heard the Jewish quarter was closed ; fathers and 
 mothers barricaded themselves in with their children, concealed whatever 
 riches they possessed, and listened tremblingly to the clamour of the multitude 
 which was about to besiege them. 
 
/EWS. 
 
 44' 
 
 In 1255, in Lincoln, the report was suddenly spread that a, child of the 
 name of Hughes had been enticed into the Jewish quarter, and there scourged, 
 crucified, and pierced with lances, in the presence of all the Israelites of the 
 district, who were convoked and assembled to lake part in this horrible 
 barbarity. The King and Queen of England, on their return from a journey 
 to Scotland, arrived in Lincoln at the very time when the inhabitants were 
 so much agitated by this mysterious announcement. The people called for 
 vengeance. An order was issued to the bailiffs and officers of the King to 
 deliver the murderer into the hands of justice, and the quarter in which 
 the Jews had shut themselves up, so as to avoid the public animosity, was 
 immediatelv invaded by armed men. The rabbi, in whose house the child 
 was supposed to have been tortured, was seized, and at once condemned to be 
 tied to the tail of a horse, and dragged through the streets of the town. 
 After this, his mangled body, which was only half dead, was hung 
 (Fig. 3-39). Many of the Jews ran away and hid themselves in all parts of 
 the kingdom, and those who had the misfortune to be caught were thrown 
 into chains and led to London. Orders were given in the provinces to 
 imprison all the Israelites who were accused or even suspected of having taken 
 any part, whether actively or indirectly, in the murder of the Lincoln child ; 
 and suspicion made rapid strides in those days. In a. short space of time, 
 eighteen Israelites in London shared the fate of the rabbi of their community 
 in Lincoln. Some Dominican monks, who were charitable and courageous 
 enough to interfere in favour of the wretched prisoners, brought down odium 
 on their own heads, and were accused of having allowed themselves to be 
 corrupted by the money of the Jews. Seventy- one prisoners were retained 
 in the dungeons of London, and seemed inevitably fated to die, when the 
 king's brother, Richard, came to their aid, by asserting his right over all the 
 Jews of the kingdom— a right which the King had pledged to him for a 
 loan of 5,000 silver marks. The unfortunate prisoners were therefore saved, 
 thanks to Richard's desire to protect his securities. History does not tell 
 what their liberty cost them ; but we must hope that a sense of justice alone 
 guided the English prince, and that the Jews found other means besides 
 money by which to show their gratitude. 
 
 There is scarcely a country in Europe which cannot recount similar tales. 
 In 1171, we find the murder of a child at Orleans, or Idols, causing capital 
 punishment to be inflicted on several Jews. Imputations of this horriblo 
 
 3 L 
 
+4^ 
 
 JEWS. 
 
 character were continually renewed during the Middle Ages, and were of 
 very ancient origin ; for we hear of them in the times of Ilonorius and 
 Theodosius the younger ; we find them reproduced with equal vehemence 
 in 1475 at Trent, where a furious mob was excited against the Jews, who 
 were accused of having destroyed a child twenty-nine months old named 
 Simon. The tale of the martyrdom of this child was circulated widely, and 
 woodcut representations of it were freely distributed, which necessarily 
 
 Fig. 360.— The Infant Richard crucified by the Jews, at Pontoise.— Fac-simile of a Woodcut, with 
 Figures by Wohlgemuth, in the " Liber Chronicarum Mundi :" large folio, Nuremberg, 1493. 
 
 increased, especially in Germany, the horror which was aroused in the minds 
 of Christians against the accursed nation (Fig. 361). 
 
 The Jews gave cause for other accusations calculated to keep up this 
 hatred ; such as the desecration of the consecrated host, the mutilation of the 
 crucifix. Tradition informs us of a miracle which took place in Paris in 1290, 
 m the Rue des Jardins, when a Jew dared to mutilate and boil a consecrated 
 host. This miracle was commemorated by the erection of a chapel on the 
 
[EWS. 
 
 44? 
 
 spot, which was afterwards replaced by the church and convent ol the 
 Billettes. In 1370, the people of Brussels were startled in consequence of 
 the statements of a Jewess, who accused her co-religionists of having made 
 her carry a pyx full of stolen hosts to the Jews of ( 'ologne, for the purpose of 
 
 Fig. 361.-JIartyrdom of Sin.on at Trent--Fnc- S imile, reduced, of a Woodcut of Wohlgemuth, 
 in the " Fil'er Chroniriirmn Mraidi :" large folio, Nuremberg, 1493. 
 
 submitting them to the most horrible profanations. The woman added, that 
 the Jews having pierced these hosts with sticks and knives, such a quantity 
 of blood poured from them that the culprits were struck with terror, and 
 ealed themselves in their quarter. The Jews were all imprisoned, 
 
 conceal 
 
4++ 
 
 JEWS. 
 
 tortured, and burnt alive (Fig. 362). In order to perpetuate the memory of 
 the miracle of the bleeding hosts, an annual procession took ]3lace, which 
 was the origin of the great kermesse, or annual fair. 
 
 In the event of any unforeseen misfortune, or any great catastrophe 
 occurring amongst Christians, the odium was frequently cast on the Jews. 
 If the Crusaders met with reverses in Asia, fanatics formed themselves into 
 bands, who, under the name of Pastoureaux, spread over the country, killing 
 and robbing not only the Jews, but many Christians also. In the event of 
 
 Fig. 362. — The Jews of Cologne "burnt alive.— From a Woodcut in the " Liher Chroniearum 
 Mundi:" large folio, Nuremberg, 1493. 
 
 any general sickness, and especially during the prevalence of epidemics, the 
 Jews were accused of having poisoned the water of fountains and pits, and 
 the people massacred them in consequence. Thousands perished in this way 
 when the black plague made ravages in Europe in the fourteenth century. 
 The sovereigns, wdio were tardy in suppressing these sanguinary proceedings, 
 never thought of indemnifying the Jewish families which so unjustly 
 suffered. 
 
 In fact, it was then most religiously believed that, by despising and 
 
JEWS. 445 
 
 holding the Jewish nation under the yoke, banished as it was from Judcea 
 for the murder of Jesus Christ, the will of the Almighty was being 
 carried out, so much so that the greater number of kings and princes 
 looked upon themselves as absolute masters over the Jews who lived under 
 their protection. All feudal lords spoke with scorn of their Jews; they 
 allowed them to establish themselves on their lands, bat on the condition 
 that as they became the subjects and property of their lord, the latter should 
 draw his best income from them. 
 
 We have shown by an instance borrowed from the history of England that 
 the Jews were often mortgaged by the kings like land. This was not all, for 
 the Jews who inhabited Great Britain during the reign of Henry III., in the 
 middle of the thirteenth century, were not only obliged to acknowledge, by 
 voluntarily contributing large sums of money, the service the King's brother 
 had rendered them in clearing them from the imputation of having had any 
 participation in the murder of the child Richard, but the loan on mortgage, 
 for which they were the material and passive security, became the cause of 
 odious extortions from them. The King had pledged them to the Earl of 
 Cornwall for 5,000 marks, but they themselves had to repay the royal loan 
 by means of enormous taxes. When they had succeeded in cancelling the 
 King's debt to his brother, that necessitous monarch again mortgaged them, 
 but on this occasion to his son Edward. Soon after, the son having rebelled 
 against his father, the latter took back his Jews, and, having assembled six 
 elders from each of their communities, he told them that he required 
 20,000 silver marks, and ordered them to pay him that sum at two stated 
 periods. The payments were rigorously exacted ; those who were behind- 
 hand were imprisoned, and the debtor who was in arrear for the second 
 payment was sued for the whole sum. On the King's death his successor 
 continued the same system of tyranny against the Jews. In 1279 they were 
 charged with having issued counterfeit coin, and on this vague or imaginary 
 accusation two hundred and eighty men and women were put to death in 
 London alone. In the counties there were also numerous executions, and 
 many innocent persons were thrown into dungeons ; and, at last, in 1290 
 King Edward, who wished to enrich himself by taking possession of their 
 properties, banished the Jews from his kingdom. A short time before 
 this, the English people had offered to pay an annual fine to the King on 
 condition of his expelling the Jews from the country ; but the Jews outbid 
 
4+6 
 
 JEWS. 
 
 them, and thus obtained the repeal of the edict of banishment. However, on 
 this last occasion there was no mere}' shown, and the Jews, sixteen thousand 
 in number, were expelled from England, and the King seized upon their 
 
 goods. 
 
 At the same period Philippe le Bel of France gave the example of this 
 system of persecuting the Jews, but, instead of confiscating all their goods, 
 he was satisfied with taking one-fifth; his subjects, therefore, almost accused 
 
 him of generosity. 
 
 The Jews often took the precaution of purchasing certain rights and 
 
 Fig. 36S. — Jewish Conspiracy in France. — From a Miniature in the " Pelerinage de la Vie 
 Humaine " (Imperial Library, Paris). 
 
 franchises from their sovereign or from the feudal lord under whose sway 
 they lived ; but generally these were one-sided bargains, for not being pro- 
 tected by common rights, and only forming a very small part of the popu- 
 lation, they could nowhere depend upon promises or privileges which had 
 been made to them, even though they had purchased them with their own 
 money. 
 
 To the uncertainty and annoyance of a life which was continually being 
 threatened, was added a number of vexatious and personal insults, even m 
 ordinary times, and when they enjoyed a kind of normal tolerance. They 
 
JEWS. +47 
 
 were almost everywhere obliged to wear a visible mark on their dress, such as 
 a patch of gaudy colour attached to the shoulder or chest, in order to prevent 
 their being mistaken for Christians. By this or some other means they were 
 continually subject to insults from the people, and only succeeded in ridding 
 themselves of it by paying the most enormous fines. Nothing was spared 
 to humiliate and insult them. At Toulouse they were forced to send a repre- 
 sentative to the cathedral on every Good Friday, that he might there publicly 
 receive a box on the ears. At Beziers, during Passion week, the mob 
 assumed the right of attacking the Jews' houses with stones. The Jews 
 bought off this right in 1160 by paying a certain sum to the Vicomte de 
 Beziers, and by promising an annual poll-tax to him and to his successors. 
 A Jew, passing on the road of Etampes, beneath the tower of Montlhery, had 
 to pay an obole ; if he had in his possession a Hebrew book, he paid four 
 deniers ; and, if he carried his lamp with him, two oboles. At Chateauneuf- 
 sur-Loire a Jew on passing had to pay twelve deniers and a Jewess six. It 
 has been said that there were various ancient rates levied upon Jews, in which 
 they were treated like cattle, but this requires authentication. During the 
 Carnival in Borne they were forced to run in the lists, amidst the jeers of 
 the populace. This public outrage was stopped at a subsequent period by 
 a tax of 300 ecus, which a deputation from the Ghetto presented on their 
 knees to the magistrates of the city, at the same time thanking them for 
 their protection. 
 
 When Pope Martin IV. arrived at the Council of Constance, in 1417, the 
 Jewish community, which was as numerous as it was powerful in that old 
 city, came in great state to present him with the book of the law (Fig. 364). 
 The holy father received the Jews kindly, and prayed God to open their eyes 
 and bring them back into the bosom of his church. We know, too, how 
 charitable the popes were to the Jews. 
 
 In the face of the distressing position they occupied, it may be asked 
 what powerful motive induced the Jews to live amongst nations who almost 
 invariably treated them as enemies, and to remain at the mercy of sovereigns 
 whose sole object was to oppress, plunder, and subject them to all kinds of 
 vexations ? To understand this it is sufficient to remember that, in their 
 peculiar aptness for earning and hoarding money, they found, or at least 
 hoped to find, a means of compensation whereby they might be led to forget 
 the servitude to which they were subjected. 
 
4+S 
 
 JEWS. 
 
 There existed amongst them, and especially in the southern countries, 
 some very learned men, who devoted themselves principally to medicine ; and 
 in order to avoid having to struggle against insuperable prejudice, they were 
 careful to disguise their nationality and religion in the exercise of that art. 
 
 Fig. 364.— The Jewish Procession going to meet the Tope at the Council of Constance,. in 1417.— 
 After a Miniature in the Manuscript Chronicle of ITlric de Reichental, in the Library of the 
 Mansion-house of Basle, in Switzerland. 
 
 They pretended, in order not to arouse the suspicion of their patients, to be 
 practitioners from Lombardy or Spain, or even from Arabia ; whether they 
 were really clever, or only made a pretence of being so, in an art which was 
 then very much a compound of quackery and imposture, it is difficult to say, 
 
JEWS. w 
 
 but they acquired wealth as well as renown in its practice. But there was 
 another science, to the study of wliich they applied themselves with the 
 utmost ardour and perseverance, and tor which they possessed in a mar- 
 vellous degree the necessary qualities to insure success, and that science was 
 the science of finance. In matters having reference to the recovering of arrears 
 of taxes, to contracts for the sale of goods and produce of industry, to turning 
 a royalty to account, to making hazardous commercial enterprises lucrative, 
 or to the accumulating of large sums of money for the use of sovereigns or 
 poor nobles, the Jews were always at hand, and might invariably be reckoned 
 upon. They created capital, for they always bad funds to dispose of, even 
 in the midst of the most terrible public calamities, and, when all other 
 means were exhausted, when all expedients for filling empty purses had 
 been resorted to without success, the Jews were called in. Often, in con- 
 sequence of the envy which they excited from being known to possess hoards 
 of gold, they were exposed to many dangers, whieb they nevertheless faced, 
 buoving themselves up with the insatiable love of gain. 
 
 Few Christians in the Middle Ages were given to speculation, and they 
 were especially ignorant of financial matters, as demanding interest on loans 
 was almost always looked upon as usury, and, consequently, such dealings 
 were stigmatized as disgraceful. The Jews were far from sharing these high- 
 minded scruples, and they took advantage of the ignorance of Christians by 
 devoting themselves as much as possible to enterprises and speculations, 
 which were at all times the distinguishing occupation of their race. For this 
 reason we find the Jews, who were engaged in the export trade from the 
 twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, doing a most excellent business, even in the 
 commercial towns of the Mediterranean. We can, to a certain extent, m 
 speaking of the intercourse of the Jews with the Christians of the Middle 
 Ages, apply what Lady Montague remarked as late as 1717, when com- 
 paring the Jews of Turkey with the Mussulmans: " The former," she says, 
 "have monopolized all the commerce of the empire, thanks to the close 
 ties which exist amongst them, and to the laziness and want of industry of 
 the Turks. No bargain is made without their connivance. They arc the 
 physicians and stewards of all the nobility. It is easy to conceive the 
 unity which this gives to a nation which never despises the smallest 
 profits. They have found means of rendering themselves so useful, that 
 they are certain of protection at court, whoever the ruling minister may 
 
 ■ > M 
 
450 
 
 JEWS. 
 
 he. Many of them are enormously rich, but they are careful to make but 
 little outward display, although living in the greatest possible luxury." 
 
 The condition of the Jews in the East was never so precarious nor so 
 
 Fig. 365.— Costume of an Italian Jew of the Fourteenth Century.— From a Painting by Sano di 
 Pietro, preserved in the Academy of the Fine Arts, at Sienna. 
 
 difficult as it was in the West. From the Councils of Paris, in 615, down 
 to the end of the fifteenth century, the nobles and the civil and ecclesias- 
 tical authorities excluded the Jews from administrative positions; but it 
 continually happened that a positive want of money, against which the Jews 
 
±_^L_i 
 
 THE JEWS' PASSOVEli. 
 Fac-simile of a miniature from a missel ol' fifteenth ivntuiS ornamented vi'li paintings 
 
 of tlic School of Van liytk. 
 Bibl. do 1' Arsenal, Th. Int., n° J09. 
 
JEWS. 
 
 45' 
 
 were over ready to provide, caused a repeal or modification of these arbitrary 
 measures. Moreover, Christians did not feel any scruple in parting with their 
 most valued treasures, and giving (hem as pledges to the Jews for a loan 
 of money when they were in need of it. This plan of lending on pledge, or 
 usury, belonged specially to the Jews in Europe during the Middle Ages, 
 and was both the cause of their prosperity and of their misfortune. Of 
 their prosperity, because they cleverly contrived to become possessors of all 
 the coin ; and of their misfortune, because their usurious demands became so 
 detrimental to the public welfare, and were often exacted with such unscru- 
 pulous severity, that people not unfrequently became exasperated, and acts of 
 violence were committed, which as often fell upon the innocent as upon the 
 guilty. The greater number of the acts of banishment were those for which 
 no other motive was assigned, or, at all events, no other pretext was made, 
 than the usury practised by these strangers in the provinces and in the 
 towns in which they were permitted to reside. "V\ nen the Christians heard 
 that these rapacious guests had harshly pressed and entirely stripped certain 
 poor debtors, when they learned that the debtors, ruined by usury, were still 
 kept prisoners in the houses of their pitiless creditors, general indignation 
 often manifested itself by personal attacks. This feeling was frequently 
 shared by the authorities themselves, who, instead of dispensing equal justice 
 to the strangers and to the citizens, according to the spirit of the law, often 
 decided with partiality, and even with resentment, and in some cases 
 abandoned the Jews to the liny of the people. 
 
 The people's feelings of hatred against the sordid avarice of the Jews 
 was continually kept up by ballads which were sung, and legends which 
 were related, in the public streets of the cities and in the cottages of the 
 villages — ballads and legends in which usurers were depicted in hideous 
 colours (Fig. 366). The most celebrated of these popular compositions was 
 evidently that which must have furnished the idea to Shakespeare of the 
 Merchant of Venice, for in tin's old English drama mention is made of a 
 bargain struck between a Jew and a Christian, who borrows money of him, 
 on condition that, if he cannot refund it on a certain day, the lender shall 
 have the right of cutting a. pound of flesh from his body. All the evil 
 which the people said and thought of the Jews during the Middle Ages 
 seems concentrated in the Sbylock of the English poet. 
 
 The rate of interest for loans was, nevertheless, everywhere settled by law, 
 
45 2 
 
 JEWS. 
 
 and at all times. This rate varied according to the scarcity of gold, and was 
 always high enough to give a very ample profit to the lenders, although they 
 too often required a very much higher rate. In truth, the small security 
 ottered by those borrowing, and the arbitrary manner in which debts were 
 at times cancelled, increased the risks of the lender and the normal diffi- 
 culties of obtaining a loan. We find everywhere, in all ancient legislations, 
 a mass of rules on the rate of pecuniary interest to be allowed to the Jews. 
 
 Fig. 366. — Legend of the Jew calling the Devil from a Vessel of Blood. — Far-simile of a Woodcut 
 in Boaistuau's " Histoires Prodigieuses :" in 4to, Paris, Annet Briere, 1560. 
 
 In some countries, especially in England, precautionary measures were taken 
 for regulating the compacts entered into between Christians and Jews. 
 One of the departments of the Exchequer received the register of these 
 compacts, which thus acquired a legal value. However, it was not un- 
 frequent for the kings of England to grant, of their own free will, letters of 
 release to persons owing money to Jews ; and these letters, which were often 
 equivalent to the cancelling of the entire debt, were even at times actually 
 
JEWS. 
 
 +Si 
 
 purchased from the sovereign. Mention of sums received by the royal 
 treasury for the liberation of debtors, or for enabling them to recover their 
 mortgaged lands without payment, may still bo found in the registers of the 
 Exchequer of London ; at the same time, Jews, on the other hand, also paid 
 the King large sums, in order that lie might allow justice to take its course 
 against powerful debtors who were in arrear, and who could not be induced 
 to pay. We thus see that if the Jews practised usury, the Christians, and 
 
 HI£rU)SOUrt.i 
 
 l"" YjT LJglB -.'-' ' 
 
 Wn'* I te^ : 
 
 rfipfi 
 
 ^msmmm 
 
 
 ^1 S^m 
 
 Fig. 367. — View and Plan of Jerusalem. — Fm-simile of a Woodcut in tin 
 Mundi :" large folio, Nuremberg, 1493. 
 
 ■ Liber Chroniearum 
 
 especially kings and powerful nobles, defrauded the Jews in every way, and 
 were too often disposed to sell to them the smallest concessions at a great 
 price. Indeed, Christians often went so far as to persecute them, in order to 
 obtain the greatest possible amount from them ; and the Jews of the Middle 
 Ages put up with anything provided they could enrich themselves. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that, great as were their capabilities, 
 the Jews exclusively devoted themselves to financial matters. When they 
 
45+ JEWS. 
 
 were permitted to trade they were well satisfied to become artisans or agricul- 
 turists. In Spain they proved themselves most industrious, and that kingdom 
 suffered a great loss in consequence of their being expelled from it. In 
 whatever country they established themselves, the Jews carried on most of 
 the mechanical and manual industries with cleverness and success ; but they 
 could not hope to become landed proprietors in countries where they were in 
 such bad odour, and where the possession of land, far from offering them any 
 security, could not fail to excite the envy of their enemies. 
 
 If, as is the case, Oriental people are of a serious turn of mind, it is 
 easy to understand that the Jews should have been still more so, since they 
 were always objects of hatred and abhorrence. We find a touching allegory 
 in the Talmud. Each time that a human being is created God orders his 
 angels to bring a soul before his throne, and orders this soul to go and 
 inhabit the body which is about to be bom on earth. The soul is grieved, 
 and supplicates the Supreme Being to spare it that painful trial, in which it 
 only sees sorrow and affliction. This allegory may be suitably applied to a 
 people who have only to expect contempt, mistrust, and hatred, everywhere. 
 The Israelites, therefore, clung enthusiastically to the hope of the advent of a 
 Messiah who should bring back to them the happy days of the land of 
 promise, and they looked upon their absence from Palestine as only a passing 
 exile. "But," the Christians said to them, "this Messiah has Ions' since 
 come." "Alas!" they answered, "if He had appeared on earth should we 
 still be miserable ?" Fulbert, Bishop of Chartres, preached three sermons to 
 undeceive the Jews, by endeavouring to prove to them that their Messiah was 
 no other than Jesus Christ ; but he preached to the winds, for the Jews remained 
 obstinately attached to their illusion that the Messiah was yet to come. 
 
 In any ease, the Jews, who mixed up the mysteries and absurdities of the 
 Talmud with the ancient laws and numerous rules of the religion of their 
 ancestors, found in the practice of their national customs, and in the celebra- 
 tion of their mysterious ceremonies, the sweetest emotions, especially when 
 they could devote themselves to them in the peaceful retirement of the 
 Ghetto ; for, in all the countries in which they lived scattered and isolated 
 amongst Christians, they were careful to conceal their worship and to 
 conduct their ceremonial as secretly as possible. 
 
 The clergy, in striving to convert the Jews, repeatedly had conferences 
 with the rabbis of a controversial character, which often led to quarrels, and 
 
/ f:\vs. 
 
 455 
 
 aggravated the lot of the Jewish community. If Catholic proselytism suc- 
 ceeded in completely detaching a few individuals or a few families; from the 
 Israelitish creed, these ardent converts rekindled the horror of the people 
 against their former co-religionists by revealing some of the precepts of the 
 Talmud. Sometimes the conversion of whole masses of Jews was effected, 
 but this happened much less through conviction on their part than through 
 the fear of exile, plunder, or execution. 
 
 These pretended conversions, however, did not always protect them from 
 clanger. In Spain the Inquisition kept a close watch on converted Jews, 
 and, if they were not true to their new faith, severe punishment was inflicted 
 upon them. In 1506, the inhabitants of Abrantes, a town of Portugal, 
 massacred all the baptized Jews. Manoel, a king of Portugal, forbad the 
 converts from selling their goods and leaving his dominions. The Church 
 excluded them from ecclesiastical dignities, and, when they succeeded in 
 obtaining civil employments, they were received with distrust. In France 
 the Parliaments tried, with a show of justice, to prevent converted Jews from 
 being reproached for their former condition ; but Louis XII., during his 
 pressing wants, did not scruple to exact a special tax from them. And, in 
 1611, we again find that they were unjustly denounced, and under the form of 
 a Remonstrance to f/tr King and the Parliament of Provence, on account of the 
 great family alliances of the new concerts, an appeal was made for the most 
 cruel reprisals against this unfortunate race, " which deserved only to be 
 banished and their goods confiscated." 
 
 308.— Jewish Ceremony before the Ark.— Fac-simile of a 
 Woodcut printed at Troves. 
 
GIPSIES, TRAMPS, BEGGARS, 
 
 AND COURS DES MIRACLES. 
 
 First Appearance of Gipsies in the West. — Gipsies in Paris. — Manners and Customs of these 
 Wandering Tribes. — Tricks of Captain Charles. — Gipsies expelled by Royal Edict. — Language 
 of Gipsies. — The Kingdom of Slang. — The Great Coesre, Chief of the Vagrants ; his Vassals 
 and Subjects. — Divisions of the Slang People ; its Decay and the Causes thereof. — Cours des 
 Miracles. — The Camp of Rogues. — Cunning Language, or Slang. — Foreign Rogues, Thieves, 
 and Pickpockets. 
 
 N the year 1417, the inhabitants of 
 the countries situated near the mouth 
 of the Elbe were disturbed by the 
 arrival of strangers, whose manners 
 and appearance were far from pre- 
 possessing. These strange travellers 
 took a course thence towards the 
 Teutonic Hanse, starting from Lune- 
 burg : they subsequently proceeded 
 to Hamburg, and then, going from 
 east to west along the Baltic, they 
 visited the free towns of Lubeck, Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, and 
 Greifswald. 
 
 These new visitors, known in Europe under the names of Zinc/art, Cigani, 
 Gipsies, Gitanos, Egyptians, or Bohemians, but who, in their own language, 
 called themselves Rami, or gens manes, numbered about three hundred men 
 and women, besides the children, who were very numerous. They divided 
 themselves into seven bands, all of which followed the same track. Very 
 dirty, excessively ugly, and remarkable for their dark complexions, these 
 people had for their leaders a duke and a count, as the}' were called, who 
 were superbly dressed, and to whom the}' acknowledged allegiance. Some of 
 
G/PSIJZS, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 45 7 
 
 them rode on horseback, whilst others went on foot. The women and 
 children travelled on beasts of burden and in waggons (Fi°-. 369). If we 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Fig. 3G9 — Gipsies on the March. — Fifteenth Century Piece of ol 
 d'Effiat, contributed by 31. A. Jubinal 
 
 ild Tapestry in the Chateau 
 
 are to believe 
 to Paganism 
 
 their own story, their wandering life was caused by their return 
 after having been previously converted to the Christian faith, 
 3 N 
 
GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 and, as a punishment for their sin, they were to continue their adventurous 
 course for a period of seven years. They showed letters of recommendation 
 from various princes, among others from Sigismund, King of the Romans, 
 and these letters, whether authentic or false, procured for them a welcome 
 wherever they went. They encamped in the fields at night, because the 
 habit they indulged in of stealing everything for which they had a fancy, 
 caused them to fear being disturbed in the towns. It was not long, however, 
 before many of them were arrested and put to death for theft, when the rest 
 speedily decamped. 
 
 In the course of the following year we find them at Meissen, in Saxony, 
 whence they were driven out on account of the robberies and disturbances 
 they committed ; and then in Switzerland, where they passed through the 
 countries of the Grrisons, the cantons of Appenzell, and Zurich, stopping in 
 Argovie. Chroniclers who mention them at that time speak of their chief, 
 Michel, as Duke of Egvpt, and relate that these strangers, calling themselves 
 Egyptians, pretended that they were driven from their country by the 
 Sultan of Turkey, and condemned to wander for seven years in want and 
 misery. These chroniclers add that they were very honest people, who 
 scupulously followed all the practices of the Christian religion ; that they 
 were poorly clad, but that they had gold and silver in abundance ; that they 
 lived well, and paid for everything they had ; and that, at the end of seven 
 years, the}' went away to return home, as they said. However, whether 
 because a considerable number remained on the road, or because they had 
 been reinforced by others of the same tribe during the year, a troop of fifty 
 men, accompanied by a number of hideous women and filthy children, made 
 their appearance in the neighbourhood of Augsburg. These vagabonds gave 
 out that they were exiles from Lower Egypt, and pretended to know the art 
 of predicting coming events. It was soon found out that they were much 
 less versed in divination and in the occult sciences than in the arts of 
 plundering, roguery, and cheating. 
 
 In the following year a similar horde, calling themselves Saracens, 
 appeared at Sisteron, in Provence ; and on the 18th of July, 1422, a 
 chronicler of Bologna mentions the arrival in that town of a troop of 
 foreigners, commanded by a certain Andre, Duke of Egypt, and composed of 
 at least one hundred persons, including women and children. They 
 encamped inside and outside the gate di Galiem with the exception of the 
 
 le 
 
GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 +59 
 
 duke, who lodged at the inn del Re. During the fifteen days which they 
 spent at Bologna a number of the people of the town wont to see them, and 
 especially to see " the wife of the duke," who, it was said, knew how to 
 foretell future events, and to tell what was to happen to people, what their 
 fortunes would be, the number of their children, if they were good or bad, 
 and many other things (Fig. 370). Few men, however, left the house of the 
 so-called Duke of Egypt without having their purses stolen, and but few 
 women escaped without having the skirts of their dresses cut. The Egyptian 
 
 Fig. 370, — Gipsies Fortune- telling. — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the " Gosmographie Universelle ' 
 
 of Minister : in folio, Basle, 1552. 
 
 women walked about the town in groups of six or seven, and whilst some were 
 talking to the townspeople, telling them their fortunes, or bartering in shops, 
 one of their number would lay her hands on anything which was within reach. 
 So many robberies were committed in this way, that the magistrates of the 
 town and the ecclesiastical authorities forbad the inhabitants from visiting 
 the Egyptians' camp, or from having any intercourse with them, under 
 penalty of excommunication and of a tine of fifty livres. Besides this, 
 by a strange application of the laws of retaliation, those who had been 
 
4 (.o GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 robbed by these foreigners were permitted to rob them to the extent of the 
 value of the things stolen. In consequence of this, the Bolognians entered a 
 stable in which several of the Egyptians' horses were kept, and took out one 
 of the finest of them. In order to recover him the Egyptians agreed to 
 restore what they had taken, and the restitution was made. But perceivino- 
 that they could no longer do any good for themselves in this jnrovince, they 
 struck their tents and started for Borne, to which city they said they were 
 bound to go, not only in order to accomplish a pilgrimage imposed upon 
 them by the Sultan, who had expelled them from their own land, but 
 especially to obtain letters of absolution from the IIolv Father. 
 
 In 1422 the band left Italy, and we find them at Basle and in Suabia. 
 Then, besides the imperial passports, of which they had up to that time 
 alone boasted, they pretended to have in their possession bulls which they 
 stated that they had obtained from the Bopo. They also modified their 
 original tale, and stated that they were descendants of the Egyptians who 
 refused hospitality to the Holy Virgin and to St. Joseph during their flight 
 into Egypt : they also declared that, in consequence of this crime, God had 
 doomed their race to perpetual misery and exile. 
 
 Five years later we find them in the neighbourhood of Paris. " The 
 Sunday after the middle of August," says "The Journal of a Bourgeois of 
 Paris," "there came to Paris twelve so-called pilgrims, that is to say, a 
 duke, a count, and ten men, all on horseback; they said that they were very 
 good Christians, and that they came from Lower Egypt ; . . . . and on the 
 29th of August, the anniversary of the beheading of St. John, the rest of 
 the band made their appearance. These, however, were not allowed to enter 
 Paris, but, by order of the provost, were lodged in the Chapel of St. Benis. 
 They did not number more than one hundred and twenty, including women 
 and children. They stated that, when they left their own country, they 
 numbered from a thousand to twelve hundred, but that the rest had died on 
 
 tllc roacl Whilst they were at the chapel never was such a concourse 
 
 of people collected, even at the blessing of the fair of Bandit, as went from 
 Paris, St. Benis, and elsewhere, to see these strangers. Almost all of them 
 had their ears pierced, and in each one or two silver rings, which in their 
 country, they said, was a, mark of nobility. The men were very swarthy, 
 with curly hair ; the women were very ugly, and extremely dark, with long 
 black hair like a horse's tail ; their only garment being an old rug tied 
 
GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 4b 1 
 
 round the shoulder by a strip of cloth or a bit of rope (Fig. 371). Amongst 
 them were several fortune-tellers, who, by looking into people's hands, told 
 them what had happened or what was to happen to them, and by this 
 means often did a good deal to sow discord in families. What was worse, 
 either by magic, by Satanic agency, or by sleight of hand, they managed 
 
 to empty people's purses whilst talking to them So, at least, every 
 
 one said. At last accounts respecting them reached the ears of the Bishop 
 of Paris. He went to them with a Franciscan friar, called Lo Petit 
 Jacobin, who, by the bishop's order, delivered an earnest address to them, 
 and excommunicated all those who had anything to do with them, or who 
 
 Fig. 371. — A Gipsy Family. — Fao-aimile of a Woodcut in the " Cosmographie Univorsellc ' 
 of Munster: in folio, Basle, 1552. 
 
 had their fortunes told, lie further advised the gipsies to go away, and, 
 on the festival of Notre-Dame, they departed for Pontoise." 
 
 Here, again, the gipsies somewhat varied their story. They said that 
 they were originally Christians ; hut that, in consequence of an invasion by 
 the Saracens, they had been forced to renounce their religion ; that, at a 
 subsequent period, powerful monarchs had come to free them from the 
 yoke of the infidels, and had decreed that, as a punishment to them for 
 having renounced the Christian faith, they should not be allowed to 
 return to their country before they had obtained permission from the Pope. 
 They stated that the Holy Father, to whom they had gone to confess their 
 sins, had then ordered them to wander about the world for seven years, 
 
462 GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 without sleeping in beds, at the same time giving direction to every bishop 
 and every priest "whom they met to offer them ten livres ; a direction which 
 the abbots and bishops were in no hurry to obey. These strange pilgrims 
 stated that they had been only rive years on the road when they arrived in 
 Paris. 
 
 Enough has been said to show that, although the object of their lono- 
 pilgrimage was ostensibly a pious one, the Egyptians or gipsies were not 
 very slow in giving to the people whom they visited a true estimate of their 
 questionable honesty, and we do not think it would be particularly interesting 
 to follow step by step the track of this odious band, which from this period 
 made its appearance sometimes in one country and sometimes in another, not 
 only in the north but in the south, and especially in the centre of Europe. 
 Suffice it to say that their quarrels with the authorities, or the inhabitants of 
 the countries which had the misfortune to be periodically visited by tbem, 
 have left numerous traces in history. 
 
 On the 7th of November, 1453, from sixty to eighty gipsies, coming from 
 Courtisolles, arrived at the entrance of the town of Cheppe, near Chalons- 
 sur-Marne. The strangers, many of whom carried "javelins, darts, and 
 other implements of war," having asked for hospitality, the mayor of the 
 town informed them " that it was not long since some of the same company, 
 or others very like them, had been lodged in the town, and had been guilty 
 of various acts of theft." The gipsies persisted in their demands, the indig- 
 nation of the people was aroused, and they were soon obliged to resume their 
 journey. During their unwilling retreat, they were pursued by many of the 
 inhabitants of the town, one of whom killed a gipsy named Martin de la 
 Barre : the murderer, however, obtained the King's pardon. 
 
 In 1532, at Plempalais, a suburb of Geneva, some rascals from among a 
 band of gipsies, consisting of upwards of three hundred in number, fell upon 
 several of the officers who were stationed to prevent their entering the town. 
 The citizens hurried up to the scene of disturbance. The gipsies retired to 
 the monastery of the Augustin friars, in which they fortified themselves : the 
 bourgeois besieged them, and would have committed summary justice on 
 them, but the authorities interfered, and some twenty of the vagrants were 
 arrested, but they sued for mercy, and were discharged. 
 
 In 1632, the inhabitants of Viarme, in the Department of Lot-et-Garonne, 
 made an onslaught upon a troop of gipsies who wanted to take up their 
 
GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 463 
 
 quarters in that town. The whole of them were killed, with the exception 
 of their chief, who was taken prisoner and brought before the Parliament of 
 Bordeaux, and ordered to be hung-. Twenty-one years before this, the 
 mayor and magistrates of Bordeaux gave orders to the soldiers of the watch 
 to arrest a gipsy chief, who, having shut himself up in the tower of Yeyrines, 
 at Merignac, ransacked the surrounding country. * >n the 21st of July, 1622, 
 the same magistrates ordered the gipsies to leave the parish of Eysines within 
 twenty- four hours, under penalty of the lash. 
 
 It was not often that the gipsies used violence or openly resisted authority ; 
 they more freopiently had recourse to artifice and cunning in order to attain 
 their end. A certain Captain Charles acquired a great reputation amongst 
 them for the clever trickeries which he continually conceived, and which his 
 troop undertook to carry out. A chronicler of the time says, that by means 
 of certain herbs which he gave to a half-starved horse, he made him into a 
 fat and sleek animal ; the horse was then sold at one of the neighbouring 
 fairs or markets, but the purchaser detected the fraud within a week, for the 
 horse soon became thin again, and usually sickened and died. 
 
 Tallemant des Beaux relates that, on one occasion, Captain Charles and 
 his attendants took up their quarters in a village, the cure of which being 
 rich and parsimonious, was much disliked by his parishioners. The cure 
 never left his house, and the gipsies could not, therefore, get an opportunity 
 to rob him. In this difficulty, they pretended that one of them had com- 
 mitted a crime, and had been condemned to be hung a quarter of a league 
 from the village, where they betook themselves with all their goods. The 
 man, at the foot of the gibbet, asked for a confessor, and they went to fetch 
 the cure. He, at first, refused to go, hut his parishioners compelled him. 
 During his absence some gipsies entered his house, took five hundred ecus 
 from his strong box, and quickly rejoined the troop. As soon as the rascal 
 saw them returning, he said that he appealed to the king of la petite 
 Egypte, upon which the captain exclaimed, "Ah! the traitor! I expected 
 he would appeal." Immediately they packed up, secured the prisoner, and 
 were far enough away from the scene before the cure re-entered his house. 
 
 Tallemant relates another good trick. Near Boye, in Picardy, a gipsy 
 who had stolen a sheep offered it to a butcher for one hundred sous (about 
 sixty francs of our money), but the butcher declined to give more than four 
 livres for it. The butcher then went away; whereupon the gipsy pulled the 
 
464 
 
 GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 sheep from a sack into which he had put it, and substituted for it a child 
 helono-ino' to his tribe. He then ran after the butcher, and said, " Give me 
 five livres, and you shall have the sack into the bargain." The butcher paid 
 him the money, and went away. When he got home he opened the sack, 
 and was much astonished when he saw a little boy jump out of it, who, in 
 an instant, caught up the sack and ran off. " Never was a poor man so 
 thoroughly hoaxed as this butcher," says Tallemant des Reaux. 
 
 The gipsies had thousands of other tricks in stock as good as the ones 
 we have just related, hi proof of which we have but to refer to the testimony 
 of one of their own tribe, who, under the name of Peehon do Ruby, published, 
 towards the close of the sixteenth century, " La Vie Genereuse des Mattois, 
 Gueux, Bohemiens et Cagoux." " When they want to leave a place where 
 they have been stopping, they set out in an opposite direction to that in 
 wdiich they are going, and after travelling about half a league they take 
 their right course. They possess the best and most accurate maps, in which 
 are laid down not only all the towns, villages, and rivers, but also the houses 
 of the gentry and others ; and they fix upon places of rendezvous every ten 
 
 days, at twenty leagues from the point from whence they set out The 
 
 captain hands over to each of the chiefs three or four families to take charge 
 of, and these small bands take different cross-roads towards the place of 
 rendezvous. Those who are well armed and mounted he sends off with a 
 good almanac, on which are marked all the fairs, and they continually 
 change their dress and their horses. When they take up their quarters in 
 any village they steal very little in its immediate vicinity, but in the 
 neighbouring parishes they rob and plunder in the most daring manner. 
 If they find a sum of money they give notice to the captain, and make a 
 rapid flight from the place. They coin counterfeit money, and put it into 
 circulation. They play at all sorts of games ; they buy all sorts of horses, 
 whether sound or unsound, provided they can manage to pay for them in 
 their own base coin. When they buy food they pay for it in good money 
 the first time, as they are held in such distrust ; but, when they are about to 
 leave a neighbourhood, they again buy something, for which they tender 
 false coin, receiving the change in good money. In harvest time all doors 
 are shut against them ; nevertheless they contrive, by means of picklocks 
 and other instruments, to effect an entrance into houses, when they steal 
 linen, cloaks, silver, and any other movable article which they can lay their 
 
 6 
 
GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 4 6 5 
 
 hands on. They give a strict account of everything- to their captain, who 
 takes his share of all they get, except of what they earn by fortune- 
 telling. They are very clever at making a good bargain; when they know 
 of a rich merchant being in the place, they disguise themselves, enter into 
 communications with him, and swindle him after which they change 
 
 ^5 f_2^gg 
 
 Fig. 373. -The Gipsy who used to wash his Hands in Molten Lead.— Fac-aimile of a Woodcut 
 in the " Histoires Jlerveilleusea " of Pierre Boaistnau : in J to, 1560. 
 
 their clothes, have their horses shod the reverse way, and the shoes covered 
 with some soft material lest they should lie heard, and gallop away." 
 
 In the "Histoire Generate des Larrons" we read that the vagabonds called 
 gipsies sometimes played tricks with goblets, sometimes danced on the tight- 
 rope, turned double somersaults, and performed other feats (Fig. 373), which 
 proves that these adventurers adopted all kinds of methods of gaining a live- 
 lihood, highway robbery not excepted. We must not, therefore, be surprised 
 
4&t> 
 
 GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 if in almost all countries very severe police measures were taken against this 
 dangerous race, though we must admit that these measures sometimes partook 
 of a barbarous character. 
 
 After having forbidden them, with a threat of six years at the galleys, 
 to sojourn in Spain, Charles Y. ordered them to leave Flanders under penalty 
 of death. In 1545, a gipsy who had infringed the sentence of banishment 
 was condemned by the Court of Utrecht to be flogged till the blood appeared, 
 to have his nostrils slit, his hair removed, his beard shaved off, and to be 
 banished for life. "We can form some idea," says the German historian 
 Grellman, " of the miserable condition of the gipsies from the following 
 facts : many of them, and especially the women, have been burned by their 
 own request, in order to end their miserable state of existence ; and we can 
 give the case of a gipsy who, having been arrested, flogged, and conducted 
 to the frontier, with the threat that if he re-appeared in the country he 
 would be hanged, resolutely returned after three successive and similar 
 threats, at three different places, and implored that the capital sentence 
 might be carried out, in order that he might be released from a life of such 
 misery. These unfortunate people," continues the historian, "were not even 
 looked upon as human beings, for during a hunting party, consisting of 
 members of a small German court, the huntsmen had no scruple whatever in 
 killing a gipsy woman who was suckling her child, just as they would have 
 done any wild beast which came in their way." 
 
 M. Francisque Michel says, " Amongst the questions which arise from 
 a consideration of the existence of this remarkable people, is one which, 
 although neglected, is nevertheless of considerable interest, namely, how, with 
 a strange language, unlike any used in Europe, the gipsies could make them- 
 selves understood by the people amongst whom they made their appearance 
 for the first time : newly arrived in the west, the)' could have none of 
 those interpreters who are only to be found amongst a long-established 
 people, and who have political and commercial intercourse with other 
 nations. Where, then, did the gipsies obtain interpreters? The answer 
 seems to us to be clear. Receiving into their ranks all those whom crime, 
 the fear of punishment, an uneasy conscience, or the charm of a roaming life, 
 continually threw in their path, they made use of them cither to find their 
 way into countries of which they were ignorant, or to commit robberies 
 which would otherwise have been impracticable. Themselves adepts in all 
 
G/PS/ES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 4.67 
 
 sorts of bad practices, they were nut slow to form an alliance with profli- 
 gate characters who sometimes worked in concert with them, and sometimes 
 alone, and who always framed the model for their own organization from that 
 of the gipsies.'' 
 
 This alliance — governed by statutes, the honour of compiling which 
 has been given to a certain llagot, who styled himself captain — was composed 
 of mafois, or sharpers; of incrccMs, or hawkers, who were very little bettor than 
 the former; of gueia; or dishonest beggars, and of a host of other swindlers, 
 constituting the order or hierarchy of the Argot, or Slang people. Their chief 
 was called the Grand Coesir, "a vagabond broken to all the tricks of his trade," 
 
 Fig. 371. — Orphans, Callots, arid the Family of the Grand Coesre. — From painted Hangings and 
 Tapestry from the Town of Rheims, executed during the Fifteenth Century. 
 
 says M. Francisque Michel, and who frequently ended his days on the rack or 
 the gibbet. History has furnished us with the story of a "miserable cripple" 
 who used to sit in a wooden bowl, and who, after having boon (J rand Coesre for 
 three years, was broken alive on the wheel at Bordeaux for his crimes, lie 
 was called Roi da Tunes (Tunis;, and was drawn about by two large dogs. One 
 of his successors, the Grand Coesre surnamed Anacreon, who suffered from the 
 same infirmity, namely, that of a cripple, rode about Talis on a donkey begging. 
 He generally held his court on the Port-au-Foin, where he sat on his throne 
 dressed in a mantle made of a thousand pieces. The Grand Coesre had a 
 lieutenant in each province called cagou, whose business it was to initiate 
 
j.68 
 
 GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 apprentices in tlie secrets of the craft, and who looked after, in different 
 localities, those whom the chief had entrusted to his care. He gave an 
 account of the property he received in thus exercising his stewardship, and of 
 the money as well as of the clothing which he took from the Argot iers who 
 refused to recognise his authority. As a remuneration for their duties, the 
 cagoux were exempt from all tribute to their chief; they received their 
 share of the property taken from persons whom they had ordered to be 
 robbed, and they were free to beg in any way they pleased. After the 
 cagoux came the archisuppdts, who, being recruited from the lowest dregs of 
 
 Fig. 375.— The Blind and the Poor Sick of St. John.— From painted Hangings and Tapestry 
 in the Town of Rheims, executed during the Fifteenth Century. 
 
 the clergy and others who had been in a better position, were, so to speak, 
 the teachers of the law. To them was intrusted the duty of instructing the 
 less experienced rogues, and of determining the language of Slang ; and, as a 
 reward for their good and loyal services, they had the right of begging 
 without paying any fees to their chiefs. 
 
 The Grand Coesre levied a tax of twenty-four sous per annum upon 
 the young rogues, who went about the streets pretending to shed tears 
 (Fig. 374), as "helpless orphans," in order to excite public sympathy. 
 The marcandiers had to pay an ecu ; they were tramps, clothed in a tolerably 
 good doublet, who passed themselves off as merchants ruined by war, by 
 
GIPSIRS, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 469 
 
 tire, or by having been robbed mi the highway. The maliiHjreux bad to pay 
 forty sous ; they were covered with sores, most of which were self-inflicted, 
 or they pretended to have swellings of some kind, and staled that they wore 
 about to undertake a pilgrimage to St. Meen, in Brittany, in order to be cured. 
 The pietres, or lame rogues, paid half an ecu, and walked with crutches. 
 The sabouleux, who were commonly called the jmor aid; of St. John, were 
 in the habit of frequenting fairs and markets, or the vicinity of churches ; 
 
 ^Slifelllfi§§ 
 
 Fig. 376.— The Ruffis and the Millards.— From painted Hangings and Tapestry of Eheims, executed 
 
 about tlie Fifteenth Century. 
 
 there, smeared with blood and appearing as if foaming at the mouth by 
 means of a piece of soap they had placed in it, they struggled on the ground 
 as if in a fit, and in this way realised a considerable amount of alms. 
 These consequently paid the largest fees to the Coesre (Fig. 3< 5). 
 
 Besides these, there were the callots, who were either affected with a 
 scurfy disease or pretended to be so, and who were contributors to the civil 
 list of their chief to the amount of seven sous ; as also the coquiUards, or pre- 
 
47° 
 
 GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 tended pilgrims of St. James or St. Michael; and the hubins, who, according to 
 the forged certificate which they carried with them, were going to, or returning 
 from, St. Hubert, after having been bitten b} r a mad dog. The polissons paid 
 two ecus to the Coesre, but they earned a considerable amount, especially 
 in winter ; for benevolent people, touched with their destitution and half- 
 nakedness, gave them sometimes a doublet, sometimes a shirt, or some 
 
 other article of clothing, which of course 
 
 s^s-te— they immediately sold. The francs mitoux, 
 
 who were never taxed above five sous, were 
 
 sickly members of the fraternity, or at all 
 
 events pretended to be such ; they tied their 
 
 arms above the elbow so as to stop the pulse, 
 
 and fell down apparently fainting on the public 
 
 footpaths. We must also mention the ruffes 
 
 and the mittards, who went into the country in 
 
 groups begging (Fig. 376). The capons were 
 
 cut-purses, who hardly ever left the towns, 
 
 and who laid hands on everything within their 
 
 reach. The courtauds de boutanche pretended 
 
 to be workmen, and were to be met with 
 
 everywhere with the tools of their craft on their 
 
 back, though they never used them. The 
 
 convertis pretended to have been impressed by 
 
 the exhortations of some excellent preacher, 
 
 and made a public profession of faith ; they 
 
 afterwards stationed themselves at church 
 
 doors, as recently converted Catholics, and in 
 
 this way received liberal contributions. 
 
 Lastly, we must mention the drittes, the 
 narquois, or the people of the petite flambe, who for the most part were old 
 pensioners, and who begged in the streets from house to house, with their 
 swords at their sides (Fig. 377). These, who at times lived a racketing and 
 luxurious life, at last rebelled against the Grand Coesre, and would no longer 
 be reckoned among his subjects — a step which gave a considerable shock to 
 the Argotic monarchy. 
 
 There was another cause which greatly contributed to diminish the power 
 
 Fig. 377. — The Drill: or Narquois. 
 — From painted Hangings from 
 the Town of Eheims (Fifteenth 
 Century). 
 
GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. +? , 
 
 as well as the prestige of tin's eccentric sovereign, and this was, that the 
 cut-purses, the night-prowlers and wood-thieves, not rinding sufficient moans 
 of livelihood in their own department, and seeing that the Argotiers, on the 
 contrary, were always in a more luxurious position, tried to amalgamate 
 robbery with mendicity, which raised an outcry amongst these sections of 
 their community. The archisuppots and the cagoux at first declined such 
 an alliance, but eventually they were obliged to admit all, with the 
 exception of the wood-thieves, who were altogether excluded. In the seven- 
 teenth century, therefore, in order to become a thorough Argotier, it was 
 necessary not only to solicit alms like any mere beggar, hut also to 
 possess the dexterity of the cut-purse and the thief. These arts were 
 to he learned in the places which served as the habitual rendezvous of 
 the very dregs of society, and which were generally known as the Coins 
 des Miracles. Those houses, or rather resorts, had been so called, if we 
 are to believe a writer of the early part of the seventeenth century, 
 " Because rogues . . . and others, who have all day been cripples, maimed, 
 dropsical, and beset with every sort of bodily ailment, come home at night, 
 carrying under their arms a sirloin of beef, a joint of veal, or a leg of 
 mutton, not forgetting to hang a bottle of wine to their belt, and, on enter- 
 ing the court, they throw aside their crutches, resume their healthy and lusty 
 appearance, and, in imitation of the ancient, Bacchanalian revelries, dance 
 all kinds of dances with their trophies in their hands, whilst, the host, is 
 preparing their suppers. Can there be a greater miracle than is to be seen 
 in this court, where the maimed walk upright ? " 
 
 In Paris there were several Cuius des Miracles, but the most celebrated was 
 that which, from the time of Sauval, the singular historian of the "Antiquities 
 of Paris," to the middle of the seventeenth century, preserved this generic name 
 par excellence, and which exists to this day (Fig. 370). He says, " It is a, place 
 of considerable size, and is in an unhealthy, muddy, and irregular blind alley. 
 Formerly it was situated on the outskirts of Paris, now it is in one of the 
 worst built, dirtiest, and most out-of-the-way quarters of the town, between the 
 Pue Montorgueil, the convent of the Filles-Dicu, and the Rue Neuve-Saint- 
 Sauveur. To get there one must wander through narrow, close, and 
 by-streets ; and in order to enter it, one must descend a somewhat winding 
 and rugged declivity. In this place I found a, mud house, half buried, very 
 shaky from old age and rottenness, and only eight mitres square ; but in 
 
47 2 
 
 GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 Fig. 379.— C'oitr ties Mirut-hs of Paris. Talebot the Hunchback, a celebrated Scamp during the 
 Seventeenth Century. — From an old Engraving in the Collection of Engravings in the 
 National Library of Paris. 
 
 winch, nevertheless, some fifty families are living, who have the charge of 
 a large number of children, many of whom are stolen or illegitimate .... 
 I was assured that upwards of five hundred large families occupy that 
 
G/PSfES, TRAMPS, AXl) HEUU ARS. +73 
 
 mid other houses adjoining- Largo as this court is, it was formerly 
 
 oven bigger. .... Hero, without any earo for the future, every one enjoys 
 the present ; and eats in the evening what lie lias earned during the day with 
 so much trouble, and often with so many blows ; lor it is one of the funda- 
 mental rules of the ('our des Miracles never to lay by anything for the 
 morrow. Every one who lives there indulges in the utmost licentiousness; 
 
 both religion and law" are utterly ignored It is true that, outwardly 
 
 they appear to acknowledge a God; for they have sot tip in a niche an 
 image of God the Father, whirh they have stolen from some church, and 
 before which they come daily to oiler up certain prayers; but this is only 
 because they superstitiously imagine that by this means they are released 
 from the necessity of performing the duties of Christians to their pastor and 
 their parish, and are even absolved from the sin of entering a church for the 
 purpose of robbery and purse-eutting." 
 
 Paris, the capital of the kingdom of rogues, was not the only town which 
 possessed a (Jour des .Miracles, for we find here and there, especially at 
 Lyons and Bordeaux, some traces of these privileged resorts of rogues and 
 thieves, which then flourished under the sceptre of the Grand Coesre. Sauval 
 states, on the testimony of people worthy of credit, that at Sainte-Anne 
 d'Auray, the most holy place of pilgrimage in Brittany, under the superin- 
 tendence of the order of reformed Carmelite friars, there was a large held 
 called the Uoyaus Field. This was covered with mud huts; and here the 
 Grand Coesre resorted annually on the principal solemn festivals, with his 
 officers and subjects, in order "to hold his council of state, that is to say, 
 in order to settle and arrange respecting robbery. At these state meetings, 
 which were not always held at Sainte-Anne d'Auray, all the subjects of the 
 Grand Coesre were present, and paid homage to their lord and master. 
 Some came and paid him the tribute which was required of them by the 
 statutes of the craft ; others rendered him an account of what they had done, 
 and what they had earned during the year. When they had executed then- 
 work badly, he ordered them to be punished, either corporally or pecuniarily, 
 according to the gravity of their offences. When he had not himself pro- 
 perly governed his people, he was dethroned, ami a successor was appointed 
 by acclamation. 
 
 At these assemblies, as well as in the Cours des .Miracles, French was 
 not spoken, but a strange and artificial language was used called jaryon, 
 
47+ 
 
 GIPSIES, TEA II [PS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 langue matoise, narquois, &o. This language, which is still in use under the 
 name of argot, or slang, had for the most part been borrowed from, the jargon 
 or slano- of the lower orders. To a considerable extent, according to the learned 
 
 Fig. 380. — Beggar playing the Fiddle, and his Wife accompanying him with the Bones. — From 
 an old Engraving of the Seventeenth Century. 
 
 philologist of this mysterious language, M. Francisque Michel, it was com- 
 posed of French words lengthened or abbreviated ; of proverbial expressions ; 
 of words expressing the symbols of things instead of the things themselves; 
 of terms either intentionally or unintentionally altered from their true 
 
GIPSIES, TPAJIPS, AXJ) BEGGARS. 475 
 
 meaning-; and of words which resembled other words in Round, but which 
 had not the same signification. Tims, for mouth, they said priittiere, from 
 pain (bread), which they put into it ; the arms were li/aus (binders) ; an ox 
 was a commit (horned) ; a purse, a fouille, or foiiillouse ; a cock, a, Iiorlorje, or 
 timepiece; the legs, den quillet (nine-pins); a sou, a roiid, or round thing; 
 the eyes, lies luixants (sparklers), &c. In jargon several words were also 
 taken from the ancient language of the gipsies, which testifies to the part 
 which these vagabonds played in the formation of the Argotic community. 
 For example, a shirt was called lime; a chambermaid, limoijerc ; sheets, 
 limans — words all derived from the gipsy word limn, a shirt : they called 
 an ecu, a rusquin or rouijcsme, from rujia, the common word for money ; a 
 rich man, rupin ; a house, turtle ; a knife, chourin, from nip, ///run, and 
 el/ori, which, in the gipsy tongue, mean respectively silver, castle, and 
 knife. 
 
 From what we have related about rogues and the ('ours des Miracles, 
 one might perhaps bo tempted to suppose that France was specially 
 privileged ; but it was not so, for Italy was far worse in this respect. The 
 rogues were called by the Italians bianti, or eeretani, and were subdivided 
 into more than forty classes, the various characteristics of which have been 
 described by a certain Rafael Frianoro. It is not necessary to state that the' 
 analogue of more than one of these classes is to he found in (lie short 
 description we have given of the Argotic kingdom in France. We wdl 
 therefore only mention those which were more especially Italian. It must 
 not be forgotten that in the southern countries, where religious superstition 
 was more marked than elsewhere, the numerous family of rogues had no diffi- 
 culty in practising every description of imposture, inasmuch as they trusted to 
 the various manifestations of religious feeling to effect their purposes. Thus 
 the riffrati, in order to obtain more alms and offerings, went about m tiiv 
 garb of monks and priests, even saying mass, and pretending that it was the 
 first time they had exercised their sacred office. So the monjhiijeri walked 
 behind a donkey, carrying a bell and a, lamp, with their string of beads in 
 their hands, and asking how they were to pay for the bell, which they were 
 always "just going to buy." The fehi pretended that they were divinely 
 inspired and endowed with the gift of second sight, and announced that 
 there were hidden treasures in certain houses under the guardianship of evil 
 spirits. They asserted that these treasures could not be discovered without 
 
47'' 
 
 GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 V\s. ■Oil. — Italian Btuear, — From an Engraving by Callot. 
 
 danger, except by means of fastings and offerings, which they and their 
 brethren could alone make, in consideration of which they entered into a 
 bargain, and received a certain sum of money from the owners. Ihe 
 
GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AX J) BEGGARS. 
 
 47? 
 
 accatoai deserve mention on account of the cleverness with which they eon-' 
 trived to assume the appearance of captives recently escaped from slavery. 
 Shaking the chains with which they said they had been bound, jabbering 
 unintelligible words, telling heart-rending tales of their sufferings and priva- 
 tions, and showing the marks of blows which they had received, they went 
 on their knees, begging for money that they might buy off their brethren 
 or their friends, whom they said they had left in the hands of the Saracens 
 or the Turks. "We must mention, also, the ullacr'uiuniti, or weepers, who 
 owed their name to the facility which they possessed of shedding tears at 
 will; and the testatori, who, pretending to be seriously ill and about to die, 
 
 1 
 
 / j 
 
 
 
 Si 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^^fki^j^mx 
 
 m 
 
 I 
 
 
 1 
 
 k 
 
 rtf 
 
 '111 
 
 #'" 
 
 m 
 
 ll 
 
 w\ ' 
 
 y 
 
 
 ^ 1 
 
 M 
 
 1 
 
 — =~^ ^L^r^^i^^t 
 
 
 — r=— 
 
 - — ^~^ 
 
 
 
 Figs. 382 and 383.— German Beggars. — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the " Cosmographie 
 Universelle " of Munster: in folio, Basle, 1552. 
 
 extorted money from all those to whom they promised to leave their for- 
 tunes, though, of course, they had not a sou to leave behind them. We 
 must not forget the protobiauti (master rogues), who made no scruple of ex- 
 citing compassion from their own comrades (Fig. 381), nor the vergognosi, 
 who, notwithstanding their poverty, wished to be thought rich, and con- 
 sidered that assistance was due to them from the mere fact of their being 
 noble. We must here conclude, for it would occupy too much time to 
 go through the list of these Italian vagabonds. As for the German 
 (Figs. 382 and 383), Spanish, and English rogues, wc may simply remark 
 that no type exists among them which is not to be met with amongst 
 
+;S GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 the Argotiers of France or the Bianti of Italy. In giving a description, 
 therefore, of the mendicity practised in these two countries during the 
 Middle Ages, we are sure to be representing what it was in other parts of 
 Europe. 
 
 The history of regular robbers and highwaymen during this long period 
 is more difficult to describe ; it contains only disconnected anecdotes of a 
 more or less interesting character. It is probable, moreover, that robbers 
 did not always commit their depredations singly, and that they early under- 
 stood the advantages of associating together. The Tafura, or Ealegrina, whom 
 we notice as followers of Godefroy de Bouillon at the time of the Crusades, 
 towards the end of the eleventh century, were terribly bad characters, and 
 are actually accused by contemporary writers of violating tombs, and of 
 livin"- on human flesh. On this account they were looked upon with 
 the utmost horror by the infidels, who dreaded more their savage ferocity 
 than the valour of the Crusaders. The latter even, who had these hordes 
 of Tafurs under their command, were not without considerable mistrust 
 of them, and when, during their march through Hungary, under the 
 protection of the cross, these miscreants committed depreciations, Godefroy de 
 Bouillon was obliged to ask pardon for them from the king of that 
 country. 
 
 An ancient poet has handed down to us a story in verse setting forth 
 the exploits of Eustace the monk, who, after having thrown aside his frock, 
 embraced the life of a robber, and only abandoned it to become Admiral of 
 France under Philip Augustus. He was killed before Sandwich, in 1217. 
 We have satisfactory proof that as early as the thirteenth century sharpers 
 were very expert masters of their trade, for the ingenious and amusing 
 tricks of which they were guilty are quite equal to the most skilled of those 
 now recorded in our police reports. In the two following centuries the 
 science of the pince and of the croc (pincers and hook), as it was then called, 
 alone made progress, and Pathelin (a character in comedy, and an incom- 
 parable type of craft and dishonesty) never lacked disciples any more than 
 Villon did imitators. We know that this charming poet, who was at the 
 same time a most expert thief, narrowly escaped hanging on two occasions. 
 Bis contemporaries attributed to him a poem of twelve hundred verses, 
 entitled " Les Replies Franches," in which are described the methods in use 
 among his companions for procuring wine, bread, meat, and fish, without 
 
GIPSIES, TRAMPS, AXD BEGGARS. 479 
 
 having to p.iy for them. They tuna a series of interesting stories, the moral 
 of which is to be gathered from the following lines : 
 
 " ("est bien disne, qmtnd on eseliappu 
 Sans desbourcer pas uni* denier, 
 Et dire adieu an tavernier, 
 En torchant son nez a la nappe." 
 
 The meaning of this doggrel, which is somewhat broad, may be rendered 
 
 "He dines well who escapes without paying a penny, and who bids farewell 
 to the innkeeper by wiping his nose on the tablecloth." 
 
 >Side by side with this poem of Villon we ought to cite one of a 
 later period — "La Legende de Maitre Faifeu," versified by Charles 
 Boudigne. This Faifeu was a kind of Villon of Anion, who ex- 
 celled in all kinds of rascality, and who might possibly have taught 
 it even to the gipsies themselves. The character of 1'anurge, in the 
 " Pantagruel," is no other than the type of Faifeu, immortalised by the 
 genius of Rabelais. We must also mention one of the pamphlets of 
 Guillaume Bouehet, written towards the end of the sixteenth century, which 
 gives a very amusing account of thieves of every description, and also 
 " L'Histoire Generalc des Larrons," in which are related numerous 
 flronderful tales of murders, robberies, and other atrocities, which made our 
 admiring ancestors well acquainted with the heroes of the Grreve and of 
 Montfaueon. It must not be supposed that in those days the life of a robber 
 who pursued his occupation with any degree of industry and skill was un- 
 attended with danger, for the most harmless cut-purses were hung without 
 mercy whenever they were caught ; the fear, however, of this fate did not 
 prevent the En/ants de In Matte from performing wonders. 
 
 Brantome relates that King Charles IX. had the curiosity to wish to 
 "know how the cut-purses performed their arts with so much skill and dex- 
 terity," and begged Captain La Chanibre to introduce to him, on the occasion 
 of a banquet and a ball, the cleverest cut-purses, giving them full liberty to 
 exhibit their skill. The captain went to the Cours des Miracles and fetched 
 ten of the most expert of these thieves, whom he presented to the King. 
 Charles, " after the dinner and the ball had taken place, wished to see all the 
 plunder, and found that they had absolutely earned three thousand ecus, 
 either in money from purses, or in precious stones, pearls, or other jewels; 
 some of the guests even lost their cloaks, at wkjch the King thought he 
 
4«o 
 
 GIPSIES, IP A MPS, AND BEGGARS. 
 
 should die of laughter." The King allowed them to keep what they had 
 thus earned at the expense of his guests ; but he forbad them " to con- 
 tinue this sort of life," under penalty of being hung, and he had them 
 enrolled in the army, in order to recompense them for their clever feats. 
 We may safely assert that they made but indifferent soldiers. 
 
 Fig. 384. — The Exhibitor of strange Animals (Twelfth Century 
 Manuscript, Royal Library of Brussels). 
 
CEREMONIALS. 
 
 Origin of Modern Ceremonial.— Uncertainty of French Ceremonial up to the End of the Sixteenth 
 Century.— Consi oration of the Kings of France.— Coronation of the Empi rors of Germany.— 
 Consecration of the Doges of Venice.— Marriage of the Doge with the Sea.— State Entries of 
 Sovereigns.— An Account of the Entry of Isabel of Bavaria into Paris.— Seats of Justice.— 
 Visits of Ceremony between Persons of Rank.— Mourning.— Social Courtesies.— Popular 
 
 Demonstrations and National Commemorations — New Year's Dav.- Lcral Festivals. This 
 
 d'EoiDu ur. — Processions of Trades. 
 
 *~rf&f$!f0^* 
 
 LTHOUGH society during the Middle 
 Ages was, as a whole, closely cemented 
 together, being animated by the same 
 sentiments and imbued with the same 
 spirit, it was divided, as we have 
 already stated, into three great classes, 
 namely, the clergy, the nobility, and 
 the tiers- Hat. These classes, each of 
 which formed a distinct body within 
 the State, carried on an existence 
 peculiar to itself, and presented in 
 its collective capacity a separate individuality. Hence there was a dis- 
 tinct ceremonial for each class. We will not attempt to give in detail 
 the innumerable laws of these three kinds of ceremonial, our attention 
 will be directed solely to their most characteristic customs, and to their 
 most remarkable and interesting aspects taken as a whole. T\ e must 
 altogether lay aside matters relating specially to ceremonies of a purely 
 religious character, as they are connected mere or less with the tradi- 
 tions and customs of the Church, and belong to quite a distinct order of 
 things. 
 
 "When the Germans, and especially the Franks," says the learned 
 
 3 Q 
 
4 g 2 CEREMONIALS. 
 
 paleographer Vallet de Viriville, "had succeeded in establishing their own 
 rule in place of that of the Romans, these almost savage nations, and the 
 barbarian chiefs who were at their head under the title of kings, necessarily 
 borrowed more or less the refined practices relating to ceremonial possessed 
 by the people whom they had conquered. The elevation of the elected chief 
 or king on the shield and the solemn taking of arms in the midst of the 
 tribe seem to be the only traces of public ceremonies which we can discover 
 among the Germans. The marvellous display and the imposing splendour 
 of the political hierarchy of the Roman Empire, especially in its outward 
 arrano-ements, must have astonished the minds of these uncultivated people. 
 Thus we find the Frank kings becoming immediately after a victory the 
 simple and clumsy imitators of the civilisation which they had broken 
 up." Clovis on returning to Tours in 007, after having defeated Alaric, 
 received the titles of Patrician and Consul from the Emperor Anastasius, 
 and bedecked himself with the purple, the chlamys, and the diadem. 
 The same principle of imitation was afterwards exhibited in the internal 
 and external court ceremonial, in proportion as it became developed in 
 the royal person. Charlemagne, who aimed at everything which could 
 adorn and add strength to a new monarchy, established a regular method 
 for the general and special administration of his empire, as also for the 
 internal arrangement and discipline of his palace. We have already 
 referred to this twofold organization (vide chapters on Private Life and on 
 Food), but we may here remark that, notwithstanding these ancient ten- 
 dencies to the creation of a fixed ceremonial, the trifling rules which made 
 etiquette a science and a law, were introduced by degrees, and have only 
 very recently been established amongst us. 
 
 In 138-j, when King Charles VI. married the notorious Isabel of 
 Bavaria, then scarcel} r fourteen years of age, he desired to arrange for her 
 a magnificent entry into Paris, the pomp and brilliancy of which should 
 be consistent with the rank and illustrious descent of his young bride. 
 He therefore begged the old Queen Blanche, widow of Philippe de Valois, 
 to preside over the ceremony, and to have it conducted according to the 
 custom of olden times. She was consequently obliged, in the absence of 
 any fixed rules on the subject, to consult the official records, — that is to 
 say, the " Chronique du Monastere de Saint-Denis." The first embodiment 
 of rules relating to these matters in use among the nobility, which had 
 
CEREMONIALS. 
 
 4 S 3 
 
 appeared in France under the title of " Honneurs de la Cour," only goes 
 back to the end of the fifteenth, century. It appears, however, that even 
 then this was not generally admitted 
 among the nobility as the basis of cere- 
 monial, for in 1548 we find that nothing- 
 had been definitely settled. This is 
 evident from the fact that when King 
 Henri III. desired to know the rank 
 and order of precedence of the princes 
 of the royal blood, both dukes and 
 counts — as also that of the other 
 princes, the barons, the nobles of the 
 kingdom, the constables, the marshals 
 of France and the admirals, and what 
 position they had held on great public 
 occasions during the reigns of his pre- 
 decessors — he commissioned Jean du 
 Tillet, the civil registrar of the Par- 
 liament of Paris, to search among the 
 royal archives for the various authentic 
 documents which might throw light 
 on this question, and serve as a pre- 
 cedent for the future. In fact, it was 
 Henri III. who, in 1585, created the 
 office of Grand Master of the Gere- 
 monies of France, entrusting it to 
 Gruillaume Pot, a noble of Rhodes, 
 which office for many generations 
 remained hereditary in his family. 
 
 Nevertheless the question of cere- 
 monial, and especially that of prece- 
 dence, had already more than once 
 occupied the attention of sovereigns, 
 
 not only within their own states, but also in relation to diplomatic matters. 
 The meetings of councils, at which the ambassadors of all the Christian 
 Powers, with the delegates of the Catholic Church, were assembled, did 
 
 Fig. 385.— Herald (Fourteenth Century).— 
 From a Miniature in the "Chroniques de 
 Saint-Penis " (Imperial Library of Paris). 
 
4 8 4 
 
 CEREMONIALS. 
 
 not fail to bring this subject up for decision. Pope Julius II. in 1501 
 instructed Pierre do Crassis, his Master of the Ceremonies, to publish a 
 decree, determining the rank to be taken by the various sovereigns of 
 Europe or by their representatives ; but we should add that this Papal decree 
 never received the sanction of the parties interested, and that the question 
 of precedence, even at the most unimportant public ceremonies, was during 
 the whole of the Middle Ages a perpetual source of litigation in courts of 
 law, and of quarrels which too often ended in bloodshed. 
 
 It is right that we should place at the head of political ceremonies 
 those having reference to the coronation of sovereigns, which were not only 
 political, but owed their supreme importance and dignity to the necessary 
 intervention of ecclesiastical authority. We will therefore first spaak of the 
 consecration and coronation of the kings of France. 
 
 Pepin le Bref, son of Charles Martel and founder of the second dynasty, 
 was the first of the French kings who was consecrated by the religious rite 
 of anointing. But its mode of administration for a long period underwent 
 numerous changes, before becoming established by a defiaite law. Thus 
 Pepin, after having been first consecrated in 752 in the Cathedral of 
 Soissons, by the Archbishop of Mayence, was again consecrated with his two 
 sons Charlemagne and Carloman, in 753, in the Abbey of St. Denis, by 
 Pope Stephen III. Charlemagne was twice anointed by the Sovereign 
 Pontiff, first as King of Lombardy, and then as Emperor. Louis le Debon- 
 naire, his immediate successor, was consecrated at Rheims by Pope Stephen IV. 
 in 816. In 877 Louis le Begue received unction and the sceptre, at 
 Compiegne, at the hands of the ArchbishojJ of Rheims. Charles le Simple in 
 893, and Robert I. in 922, were consecrated and crowned at Rheim? ; but the 
 coronation of Raoul, in 923, was celebrated in the Abbey of St. Medard de 
 Soissons, and that of Louis d'Outrenier, in 936, at Laon. From the accession 
 of King Lothairc to that of Louis VI. (called Le Gros), the consecration of 
 the kings of France sometimes took place in the metropolitan church of 
 Rheims, and sometimes in other churches, but more frequently in the former. 
 Louis VI. having been consecrated in the Cathedral of Orleans, the clergy 
 of Rheims appealed against this supposed infraction of custom and their own 
 special privileges. A long discussion took place, in which were brought 
 forward the titles which the Church of Rheims possessed subsequently to 
 the reign of Clovis to the exclusive honour of bavins: kings consecrated 
 
CEREMONIALS. 
 
 4«S 
 
 in it; and King- Louis lo Jcnne, son of Louis le Gros, who was himself con- 
 secrated at Eheims, promulgated a special decree on this question, in anticipa- 
 tion of the consecration of his son, Philippe Augusto. This decree finally 
 settled the rights of this ancient church, and at the same time defined the 
 order which was to be observed in future at the ceremony of consecration. 
 From that date, down to the end of the reign of the Bourbons of the elder 
 line, kings were invariably consecrated, according to legal rite, in the metro- 
 politan church of Eheims, with the exception of Henri IV., who w r as crowned 
 at Chartres by the bishop of that town, on account of the civil wars which 
 
 Fig. 386.— Coronation of Charlemagne. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in the " Chroniquea de Saint- 
 Denis," Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century (Imperial Library of Faris). 
 
 then divided his kingdom, and caused the gates of Rheims to be closed 
 
 against him. 
 
 The consecration of the kings of France always took place on a Sunday. 
 On the previous day, at the conclusion of evening prayers, the custody of the 
 cathedral devolved upon certain royal officers, assisted by the ordinary officials. 
 During the evening the monarch came to the church for devotion, and 
 "according to his religious feelings, to pass part of the night m prayer,' 
 an act which was called la veillie ties amies. A large platform, surmounted 
 by a throne, was erected between the chancel and the great nave. Upon 
 this assembled, besides the King and his officers of State, twelve ecclesiastical 
 
4 S6 CEREMONIALS. 
 
 peers, together with those prelates whom the King might be pleased to 
 invite, and six lay peers, with other officers or nobles. At daybreak, the King 
 sent a deputation of barons to the Abbey of St. Kemi for the holy vial, which 
 was a small glass vessel called ampoule, from the Latin word ampulla, containing 
 the holy oil to be used at the royal anointing. According to tradition, this 
 vial was brought from heaven by a clove at the time of the consecration of 
 Clovis. Four of the nobles remained as hostages at the abbey during the 
 time that the Abbot of St. Eemi, followed by his monks and escorted by the 
 barons, went in procession to the cathedral to place the sacred vessel upon 
 the altar. The abbot of St. Denis in Franco had in a similar manner to 
 bring from Rheims with great pomp, and deposit by the side of the holy vial, 
 the royal insignia, which were kept in the treasury of his monastery, and 
 had been there since the reign of Charlemagne. They consisted of the crown, 
 the sword sheathed, the golden spurs, the gilt sceptre, the rod adorned with 
 an ivorv handle in the form of a band, the sandals of blue silk, embroidered 
 with fleur do lis, the chasuble or dalmatique, and the surcot, or royal mantle, 
 in the shape of a cape without a hood. The King, immediately on rising 
 from his bed, entered the cathedral, and forthwith took oath to maintain the 
 Catholic faith and the privileges of the Church, and to dispense good and 
 impartial justice to his subjects. He then walked to the foot of the altar, and 
 divested himself of part of his dress, having his head bare, and wearing a 
 tunic with openings on the chest, on the shoulders, at the elbows, and in the 
 middle of the back ; these openings were closed by means of silver aigulets. 
 The Archbishop of Rheims then drew the sword from the scabbard and handed 
 it to the King, who passed it to the principal officer in attendance. The 
 prelate then proceeded with the religious part of the ceremony of consecration, 
 and taking a drop of the miraculous oil out of the holy vial by means of a 
 gold needle, he mixed it with the holy oil from his own church. This being 
 done, and sitting in the posture of consecration, he anointed the King, who 
 was kneeling before him, in five different parts of the body, namely, on the 
 forehead, on the breast, on the back, on the shoulders, and on the joints of 
 the arms. After this the King rose up, and with the assistance of his officers, 
 put on his royal robes. The Archbishop handed to him successively the ring, 
 the sceptre, and the rod of justice, and lastly placed the crown on his head. 
 it this moment the twelve peers formed themselves into a group, the lay peers 
 being in the first rank, immediately around the sovereign, and raising their 
 
 ±\ 
 
CEREMONIALS. 
 
 487 
 
 rig. 387. — Dalmatica and Sandals of Charlemagne, Insignia of the Kings of France at their 
 Coronation, preserved in the Treasury of the Abbey of St. Denis. 
 
.88 CEREMONIALS. 
 
 hands to the crown, they held it for a moment, and then they conducted the 
 King to the throne. The consecrating prelate, putting down his mitre, then 
 knelt at the feet of the monarch and took the oath of allegiance, his example 
 being followed by the other peers and their vassals who were in attendance. 
 At the same time, the cry of "Vice le Roi!" uttered by the archbishop, was 
 repeated three times outside the cathedral by the heralds-at-arms, who shouted 
 it to the assembled multitude. The latter replied, "Noel! Noel! Noel!" 
 and scrambled for the small pieces of money thrown to them by the officers, 
 who at the same time cried out, " Largesse, largesse mix manants ! " Every 
 part of this ceremony was accompanied by benedictions and prayers, the 
 form of which was read out of the consecration service as ordered by the 
 bishop, and the proceedings terminated by the return of the civil and 
 religious procession which had composed the cortege. When the sovereign 
 was married, his wife participated with him in the honours of the consecra- 
 tion, the symbolical investiture, and the coronation ; but she only partook of 
 the homage rendered to the King to a limited degree, which was meant to 
 imply that the Queen had a less extended authority and a less exalted rank. 
 
 The ceremonies which accompanied the accessions of the emperors of 
 Germany (Fig. 388) are equally interesting, and were settled Vy a decree 
 which the Emperor Charles IX. promulgated in 1-356, at the Diet of Nurem- 
 berg. According to the terms of this decree — which is still preserved among 
 the archives of Frankfort-on-the-Main, and which is known as the bu/le d'or, 
 or golden bull, from the fact of its bearing a seal of pure gold — on the death 
 of an emperor, the Archbishop of Mayence summoned, for an appointed day, 
 the Prince Electors of the Empire, who, during the whole course of the 
 Middle Ages, remained seven in number, "in honour," says the bull, "of 
 the seven candlesticks mentioned in the Apocalypse." These Electors — who 
 occupied the same position near the Emperor that the twelve peers did in 
 relation to the King of France — were the Archbishops of Mayence, of Treves, 
 and of Cologne, the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the 
 Duke of Saxony, and the Margrave of Brandenburg. On the appointed day, 
 the mass of the Holy Spirit was duly solemnized in the Church of St. Bar- 
 tholomew of Frankfort, a town in which not only the election of the Emperor, 
 but also his coronation, almost always took place, though one might have 
 supposed that Aix-la-Chapelle would have been selected for such ceremonies. 
 The Electors attended, and after the service was concluded, they retired to the 
 
CEREMOXIALS. 
 
 489 
 
 A 
 
 J' if . 388. — Costume of Emperors ul their Coronation since the Time of Charlemagne.— From an 
 Engraving in a Work entitled " Insignia Saerfo Majestatis Csesarum Principum ." Frankfort, 
 1 - j 7 9 , in folio. 
 
 3 R 
 
490 CEREMONIALS. 
 
 v 
 
 sacristy of the church, accompanied by their officers and secretaries. They 
 had thirty days for deliberation, but beyond that period they were not 
 allowed "to eat bread or drink water" until they had agreed, at least by a 
 majority, to give a temporal chief to the Christian people, that is to say, a King 
 of the Romans, who should in due time be promoted to be Emperor. The newly- 
 elected prince was, in fact, at first simply King of the Romans, and this title 
 was often borne by persons who were merely nominated for the office by the 
 oice of the Electors, or by political combinations. In order to be promoted 
 to the full measure of power and authority, the King of the Komans had to 
 receive both religious consecration and the crown. The ceremonies adopted 
 at this solemnity were very analogous to those used at the consecrations 
 of the kin os of France, as well as to those of installation of all Christian 
 princes. The service was celebrated by the Archbishop of Cologne, who 
 placed the crown on the head of the sovereign-elect, whom he consecrated 
 Emperor. The symbols of his authority were handed to him by the Electors, 
 and then he was proclaimed, " Cmar, most sacred, ever august Majesty, Emperor, 
 of the Holy Roman Empire of the nation of Germany." 
 
 The imperial cortege then came out from the Church of St. Bartholomew, 
 and went through the town, halting at the town-hall (called the Reenter, 
 in commemoration of the noble name of Rome), where a splendid banquet, 
 prepared in the Kaysersaal (hall of the Caesars), awaited the principal per- 
 formers in this august ceremony. 
 
 At the moment that the Emperor set foot on the threshold of the 
 Eremer, the Elector of Saxony, Chief Marshal of the Empire, on horse- 
 back, galloped at full speed towards a heap of oats which was piled up in 
 the middle of the square. Holding in one hand a silver measure, and in 
 the other a scraper of the same metal, each of which weighed six marks, he 
 filled the measure with oats, levelled it with the scraper, and handed it over 
 to the hereditary marshal. The rest of the heap was noisily scrambled for 
 hj the people who had been witnesses of this allegorical performance. 
 Then the Count Palatine, as chief seneschal, proceeded to perform his part 
 in the ceremony, which consisted of placing before the Emperor, who was 
 sitting at table, four silver dishes, each weighing three marks. The King of 
 Bohemia, as chief butler, handed to the monarch wine and water in a silver 
 cup weighing twelve marks ; and then the Margrave of Magdeburg presented 
 to him a silver basin of the same weight for washing his hands. The other 
 
CEREMONIALS. 
 
 491 
 
 three Electors, or arch-chancellors, provided at their own expense the silver 
 baton, weighing twelve marks, suspended to which one of them carried the 
 seals of the empire. Lastly, the Emperor, and with him the Empress if lie 
 was married, the princes, and the Electors, sat down to a banquet at separate 
 tables, and were waited upon by their respective officers. On another tabic 
 or stage were placed the Imperial insignia. The ceremony was concluded 
 
 Fig. 389—Imperial Procession—From en Engraving of the "Solemn Entry of Charles V. and 
 Clement VIE into Bologna," by L. dc Oranach, from a Freseo by Brusasorci, of Verona. 
 
 outside by public rejoicings: fountains were set to play; wine, beer, and 
 other beverages were distributed ; gigantic bonfires were made, at which 
 whole oxen were roasted ; refreshment tables were set out in the open air, 
 at which any one might sit clown and partake, and, in a word, every bounty 
 as well as every amusement was provided. In this way for centuries public 
 fetes were celebrated on these occasions. 
 
+q2 CEREMONIALS. 
 
 The doges of Venice, as well as the emperors of Germany, and some 
 other heads of states, differed from other Christian sovereigns in this respect, 
 that, instead of holding their high office by hereditary or divine right, they 
 were installed therein by election. At Venice, a conclave, consisting of forty 
 electors, appointed by a much more numerous body of men of high position, 
 elected the Doge, or president of the most serene Republic. 
 
 From the day when Laurent Tiepolo, immediately after his election in 
 1268, was spontaneously carried in triumph by the Venetian sailors, it 
 became the custom for a similar ovation to take place in honour of any newly- 
 elected doo-e. In order to do this, the workmen of the harbour had the new 
 Doge seated in a splendid palanquin, and carried him on their shoulders in 
 great pomp round the Piazza San Marco. But another still more characteristic 
 ceremony distinguished this magisterial election. On Ascension Day, the 
 Doge, entering a magnificent galley, called the Bucentaur, which was 
 elegantly equipped, and resplendent with gold and precious stuffs, crossed 
 the Grand Canal, went outside the town, and proceeded in the midst of 
 a nautical cortege, escorted by bands of music, to the distance of about a 
 league from the town on the Adriatic Gulf. Then the Patriarch of Venice 
 gave his blessing to the sea, and, the Doge taking the helm, threw a gold 
 ring into the water, saying, " sea ! I espouse thee in the name, and in 
 token, of our true and perpetual sovereignty." Immediately the waters 
 were strewed with flowers, and the shouts of joy, and the clapping of 
 hands of the crowd, were intermingled with the strains of instruments of 
 music of all sorts, whilst the glorious sky of Venice smiled on the poetic 
 scene. 
 
 The greater part of the principal ceremonies of the Middle Ages acquired, 
 from various accessory and local circumstances, a character of grandeur well 
 fitted to impress the minds of the populace. On these memorable occasions 
 the exhibition of some historical memorial, of certain traditional symbols, of 
 certain relics, &c, brought to the recollection the most celebrated events in 
 national history — events already possessing the prestige of antiquity as well 
 as the veneration of the people. Thus, as a memorial of the consecration of 
 the kings of Hungary, the actual crown of holy King Stephen was used ; 
 at the consecration of the kings of England, the actual chair of Edward 
 the Confessor was used ; at the consecration of the emperors of Germany, 
 the imperial insignia actually used by Charlemagne formed part of the 
 
CEREMONIALS. 
 
 403 
 
 display; at the consecration of the kings of France at a certain period, 
 the hand of justice of St. Louis, which lias been before alluded to, was 
 produced. 
 
 After their consecration by the Church and by (he spiritual power, the 
 sovereigns had simply to take actual possession of their dominions, and, so 
 
 -Fig. 390. — Standards of the Church and the Empire. — Reduced from an Engraving- of the " Entry of 
 Charles V. and Clement YII. into Bologna," by Lucas de Cranach, from a Fresco by Brusasorei, 
 of Verona. 
 
 to speak, of their subjects. This positive act of sovereignty was often 
 accompanied by another class of ceremonies, called joyous entry, or public 
 entry. These entries, of which numerous accounts have been handed down 
 to us by historians, and which for the most part were very varied in character, 
 naturally took place in the capital city. We will limit ourselves to transcrib- 
 ing the account given by the ancient chronicler, Juvenal des Ursins, of the 
 entry into Paris of Queen Isabel of Bavaria, wife of Charles VI., which was 
 a curious specimen of the public fetes of this kind. 
 
494 CEREMONIALS. 
 
 "In the year 1389, the King was desirous that the Queen should make 
 a public entry into Paris, and this he made known to the inhabitants, in 
 order that they should make prejrarations for it. And there were at each cross 
 road divers kistoires (historical representations, pictures, or tableaux vivants), 
 and fountains sending forth water, wine, and milk. The people of Paris in 
 great numbers went out to meet the Queen, with the Provost of the Mer- 
 chants, crying 'Noel!' The bridge by which she passed was covered with 
 blue taffeta, embroidered with golden fleurs-de-lys. A man of light weight, 
 dressed in the guise of an angel, came down, by means of some well- 
 constructed machinery, from one of the towers of Notre-Dame, to the said 
 bridge through an opening in the said blue taffeta, at the moment when the 
 Queen was passing, and placed a beautiful crown on her head. After he had 
 done this, he withdrew through the said opening by the same means, and 
 thus appeared as if he were returning to the skies of his own accord. 
 Before the Grand Chastelet there was a splendid court adorned with azure 
 tapestry, which was intended to be a representation of the lit- de-justice, and 
 it was very large and richly decorated. In the middle of it was a very large 
 pure white artificial stag, its horns gilt, and its neck encircled with a crown 
 of gold. It was so ingeniously constructed that its eyes, horns, mouth, and 
 all its limbs, were put in motion by a man who was secreted within its body. 
 Hanging to its neck were the King's arms — that is to say, three gold fieur- 
 
 de-lys on an azure shield Near the stag there was a large sword, 
 
 beautiful and bright, unsheathed ; and when the Queen passed, the stag was 
 made to take the sword in the right fore-foot, to hold it out straight, and 
 to brandish it. It was reported to the King that the said preparations were 
 made, and he said to Savoisy, who was one of those nearest to him, 
 ' Savoisy, I earnestly entreat thee to mount a good horse, and I will ride 
 behind thee, and we will so dress ourselves that no one will know us, and 
 let us go and see the entry of my wife.' And, although Savoisy did all he 
 could to dissuade him, the King insisted, and ordered that it should be done. 
 So Savoisy did what the King had ordered, and disguised himself as well as 
 he could, and mounted on a powerful horse with the King behind him. 
 They went through the town, and managed so as to reach the Chastelet at the 
 time the Queen was passing. There was a great crowd, and Savoisy placed 
 himself as near as he could, and there were sergeants on all sides with thick 
 birch wands, who, in order to prevent the crowd from pressing upon and 
 

 w 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 W 
 
CEREMONIALS. 
 
 495 
 
 injuring the court where the stag was, hit away with their wands as hard as 
 they could. Savoisy struggled continually to get nearer and nearer, and the 
 sergeants, who neither knew the King nor Savoisy, struck away at them, 
 and the King received several very hard and well-directed blows on the 
 shoulders. In the evening, in the presence of the ladies, the matter was 
 
 
 L <!=\ <^ <n f=5 ,~, «S 
 
 Fig. 392.- 
 in the 
 
 Paris} . 
 
 -Tournaments in honour of the Entry of Q,ueen Isabel into Paris. — From a Miniature 
 1 Chroniques " of Froissart, Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (National Library of 
 
 talked over, and they began to joke about it, and even the King himself 
 laughed at the blows he had received. The Queen on her entry was seated 
 on a litter, and very magnificently dressed, as were also the ladies and maids 
 of honour. It was indeed a splendid sight ; and if any one wished to 
 describe the dresses of the ladies, of the knights and squires, and of those 
 who escorted the Queen, it would take a long time to do so. After supper, 
 
4 g6 
 
 CEREMONIALS. 
 
 singing and dancing commenced, which continued until daylight. The next 
 day there were tournaments and other sports" (Fig. 392). 
 
 In the course of this simple and graphic description mention has been made 
 of the lit dc justice (seat of justice). All judicial or legislative assemblies at 
 which the King considered it his duty to be present were thus designated ; 
 when the King came there simply as a looker-on, they were more commonly 
 
 ppiiii 
 
 Fig. 393. — Seat of Justice, held by King Philippe de Valois, on the 8th April, 1332, for the Trial 
 of Robert, Comte d'Artois. — From a Pen-and-ink Sketch in an Original Manuscript (Arch, of 
 the Empire). 
 
 called plaidoyers, and, in this case, no change was made in the ordinary 
 arrangements ; but when the King presided they were called comeils, and then 
 a special ceremonial was required. In fact, by lit de justice (Fig. 393), or 
 cour des pairs, we understand a court consisting of the high officers of the 
 crown, and of the great executive of the State, whose duty it was to determine 
 whether any peer of France should be tried on a criminal charge ; gravely to 
 deliberate on any political matter of special interest ; or to register, in the 
 
CEREMONIALS. +9? 
 
 name of the absolute sovereignty of the King, any edict of importance. 
 We know the prominent, and, we may say, even the fatal, part played by 
 these solemnities, which were being- continually re-enacted, and on every 
 sort of pretext, during- the latter days of monarchy. These courts were 
 always held with impressive pomp. The sovereign usually summoned to 
 them the princes of the blood royal and the officers of his household ; the 
 members of the Parliament took their seats in scarlet robes, the presidents 
 being habited in their caps and their mantles, and the registrars of the court 
 also wearing their official dress. The High Chancellor, the hirst Chamber- 
 lain, and the Provost of Paris, sat at the King's feet, The Chancellor of 
 France, the presidents and councillors of the Parliament, occupied the bar, 
 and the ushers of the court were in a kneeling- posture. 
 
 Having thus mentioned the assemblies of persons of distinction, the inter- 
 views of sovereigns (Fig. 394), and the reception of ambassadors — without 
 describing them in detail, which would involve more space than we have at 
 our command — we will enter upon the subject of the special ceremonial 
 adopted by the nobility, taking as our guide the standard book called 
 "Honneurs de la Cour," compiled at the end of the fifteenth century by the 
 celebrated Alienor de Poitiers. In addition to her own observations, she 
 gives those of her mother, Isabelle de Souza, who herself had but continued 
 the work of another noble lady, Jeanne d'Harcourt — married in 1391 to the 
 Count "William de Nanmr — who was considered the best authority to be found 
 in the kingdom of France. This collection of the customs of the court forms 
 a kind of family diary embracing three generations, and extending back over 
 more than a century. 
 
 Notwithstanding the curious and interesting character of this book, and 
 the authority which it possesses on this subject, we cannot, much to our 
 regret, do more than borrow a few passages from it ; but these, carefully 
 selected, will no doubt suffice to give some idea of the manners and customs 
 of the nobility during the fifteenth century, and to illustrate the laws of 
 etiquette of which it was the recognised code. 
 
 One of the early chapters of the work sets forth this fundamental law of 
 French ceremonial, namely, that, "according to the traditions or customs 
 of France, women, however exalted their position, be they even king's 
 daughters, rank with their husbands." We find on the occasion of the 
 marriage of King Charles VII. with Mary of Anjou, in 1413, although 
 
 a s 
 
49 8 
 
 CEREMONIALS. 
 
 probably there bad never been assembled together so man}' princes and 
 ladies of rank, that at the banquet the ladies alone dined with the Queen, 
 "and no gentlemen sat with them." We may remark, whilst on this 
 subject, that before the reign of Francis I. it was not customary for the two 
 sexes to be associated together in the ordinary intercourse of court life ; and 
 
 Fig-. 394.— Interview of King Charles V. with the Emperor Charles IV. in Paris in 1378.— Fac- 
 simile of a Miniature in the Description of this Interview, Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, 
 in the Library of the Arsenal of Paris. 
 
 we have elsewhere remarked (see chapter on Private Life) that this departure 
 from ancient custom exerted a considerable influence, not only on manners, 
 but also on public affairs. 
 
 The authoress of the " Ilonncurs de la Cour " specially mentions the 
 respect which Queen Mary of Anjou paid to the Duchess of Burgundy when 
 
CEREMONIALS. 499 
 
 she was at Chalons in Champagne in U-FJ : " The Duchess came with all her 
 retinue, on horseback and in carriages, into the courtyard of the mansion 
 where the King and Queen were, and there alighted, her first maid of 
 honour acting as her train-bearer. M. de Bourbon gave her his right hand, 
 and the gentlemen went on in front. In this manner she was conducted to 
 the hall which served as the ante-chamber to the Queen's apartment. There 
 she stopped, and sent in M. de Creipii to ask the Queen if it was her pleasure 
 
 that she should enter When the Duchess came to the door she 
 
 took the train of her dress from the lady who bore it and let it trail 
 on the ground, and as she entered she knelt and then advanced to the 
 middle of the room. There she made the same obeisance, and moved straight 
 towards the Queen, who was standing close to the foot of her throne. When 
 the Duchess had performed a further act of homage, the Queen advanced 
 two or three steps, and the Duchess fell on her knees; the Queen then put 
 her hand on her shoulder, embraced her, kissed her, and commanded her to 
 rise." 
 
 The Duchess then went up to Margaret of Scotland, wife of the Dauphin, 
 afterwards Louis XI., " who Mas four or five feet from the Queen," and 
 paid her the same honours as she had done to the Queen, although the 
 Dauphine appeared to wish to prevent her from absolutely kneeling to her. 
 After this she turned towards the Queen of Sicily (Isabelle de Lorraine, 
 wife of Rene of Anjou, brother-in-law of the King), " who was two or 
 three feet from the Dauphine," and merely bowed to her, and the same to 
 another Princess, Madame de Calabre, who was still more distantly connected 
 with the blood royal. Then the Queen, and after her the Dauphine, kissed 
 the three maids of honour of the Duchess and the wives of the gentlemen. 
 The Duchess did the same to the ladies who accompanied the Queen and the 
 Dauphine, " but of those of the Queen of Sicily the Duchess kissed none, 
 inasmuch as the Queen had not kissed hers. And the Duchess would not 
 walk behind the Queen, for she said that the Duke of Burgundy was nearer 
 the crown of France than was the King of Sicily, and also that she was 
 daughter of the King of Portugal, who was greater than the King of Sicily." 
 
 Further on, from the details given of a similar reception, we learn that 
 etiquette was not at that time regulated by the laws of politeness as now 
 understood, inasmuch as the voluntary respect paid by men to the gentle 
 sex was influenced much by social rank. Thus, at the time of a visit of 
 
500 
 
 CEREMONIALS. 
 
 Louis XI., then Dauphin, to the court of Brussels, to which place he went 
 to seek refuge against the anger of his father, the Duchesses of Burgundy, of 
 
 Fig. 393.— The Entry of Louis XL into Paris.— Fac-simile of a Miniature in the "Chroniques " 
 of Monstrelet, Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (Imperial Library of Paris). 
 
 Charolais, and of Cleves, his near relatives, exhibited towards him all the 
 tokens of submission and inferiority which he might have received from a 
 vassal. The Dauphin, it is true, wished to avoid this homage, and a dis- 
 
CEREMONIALS. 501 
 
 cussion 011 the subject of " more than a quarter of an hour ensued ;" at 
 last ho took the Duchess of Burgundy hy the arm and led her away, in 
 order to cut short the ceremonies " about which Madame made so much to 
 do." This, however, did not prevent the princesses, on their withdrawing, 
 from kneeling to the ground in order to show their respect for the son of 
 the King of France. 
 
 We have already seen that the Duchess of Burgundy, when about to 
 
 appear before the Queen, took her train from her train-bearer in order that 
 
 she mio-ht carry it herself. In this she was only conforming to a general 
 
 principle, which was, that in the presence of a superior, a person, however 
 
 hio-h his rank, should not himself receive honours whilst at the same time 
 
 parin°' them to another. Thus a duke and a duchess amidst their court had 
 
 all the things which were used at their table covered ; hence the modern 
 
 expression, mettre le concert (to lay the cloth), even the wash-hand basin and 
 
 the addict*, a kind of case in which the cups, knives, and other table articles 
 
 were kept ; hut when they were entertaining a king all these marks of 
 
 superiority were removed, as a matter of etiquette, from the table at which 
 
 thev sat, and were passed on as an act of respect to the sovereign present. 
 
 The book of 1 lame Alienor, in a series of articles to which we shall merely 
 allude, speaks at great length and enters into detail respecting the interior 
 arrangements of the rooms in which princes and other noble children were 
 born. The formalities gone through on these occasions were as curious as 
 they were complicated ; and Dame Alienor regretted to see them falling into 
 disuse, "owing to which," she says, "we fear that the possessions of the 
 great houses of the nobility are getting too large, as every one admits, and 
 chicanery or concealment of birth, so as to make away with too many children, 
 is on the increase." 
 
 Mourning is the next subject which we shall notice. The King never 
 wore black for mourning, not even for his father, but scarlet or violet. The 
 Queen wore white, and did not leave her apartments for a whole year. 
 Hence the name of chateau, hotel, or tour de In Heine Blanche, which many of 
 the buildings of the Middle Ages still bear, from the fact that widowed 
 queens inhabited them during the first year of their widowhood. On occa- 
 sions of mourning, the various reception rooms of a house, were hung with 
 black. In deep mourning, such as that for a husband or a father, a lady 
 wore neither gloves, jewels, nor silk. The head was covered with a 1 
 
 ow 
 
502 
 
 CEREMONIALS. 
 
 black head-dress, with trailing lappets, called chaperons, barbettes, cotevre-ehefs, 
 and tourets. A duchess and the wife of a knight or a banneret, on going into 
 
 JWf^flOTSON 
 
 Fig. 396.— "How the King-at-Arms presents the Swoid to the Duke of Bourbon."— From a 
 Miniature in " Tournois du Eoi Rene," Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (Imperial Library 
 of Paris). 
 
 mourning, stayed in their apartments for six weeks ; the former, during the 
 whole of this time, when in deep mourning, remained lying down all day on 
 
CEREMONIALS. 503 
 
 a bed covered with a white sheet ; whereas the latter, at the end of nine days, 
 got up, and until the six weeks were over, remained sitting' in front of the 
 bed on a black sheet. Ladies did not attend the funerals of their husbands, 
 though it was usual for (hem to be present at those of their fathers and 
 mothers. For an elder brother, they wore the same mourning as for a 
 father, but they did not lie down as above described. 
 
 In their everyday intercourse with one another, kings, princes, dukes, 
 and duchesses called one another monsieur and mailauie, adding the Christian 
 name or that of the estate. A superior speaking or writing to an inferior, 
 might prefix to his or her title of relationship beau or belle; for instance, 
 moil bel OHc/r, ma belle eousine. People in a lower sphere of life, on being 
 introduced to one another, did not say, " Monsieur Jean, ma belle tante " — 
 " Mr. John, allow me to introduce you to my aunt" — but simply, "Jean, ma 
 tante." The head of a house bad Ins seat under a canopy or ilosserct (Fig. 396), 
 wbich he onlv relinquished to bis sovereign, when he bad the honour of 
 entertaining him. "Such," says Alienor, in conclusion, '-arc the points of 
 etiquette which arc observed in Germany, in France, in Xaples, in Italy, and 
 in all other civilised countries and kingdoms." We may here remark, that 
 etiquette, after having originated in France, spread throughout all Christian 
 nations, and when it bad become naturalised, as it were, amongst the latter, 
 it acquired a settled position, which it retained more firmly than it did in 
 France. In this latter country, it was only from the seventeenth century, 
 and particularly under Louis XIY., that court etiquette really became a 
 science, and almost a species of religious observance, whose minutiae were 
 attended to as much as if they were sacramental rites, though they were not 
 unfrequently of the most childish character, and whose pomp and precision 
 often caused the most insufferable annoyance. But notwithstanding the per- 
 petual changes of times and customs, the French nation has always been dis- 
 tinguished for nobility and dignity, tempered with good sense and elegance. 
 
 If we now direct our attention to the tiers Hat, that class which, to quote 
 a celebrated expression, "was destined to become everything, after having 
 for a Ions time been looked upon as nothing," we shall notice that there, too, 
 custom and tradition had much to do with ceremonies of all kinds. The 
 presence of the middle classes not only gave, as it were, a stamp of 
 grandeur to fetes of an aristocratic and religious character, but, in addition, 
 the people themselves had a number of ceremonies of every description, in 
 
50+ 
 
 CEREMONIALS. 
 
 which etiquette was not one whit less strict than in those of the court. The 
 variety of civic and popular ceremonies is so great, that it would require a 
 large volume, illustrated with numerous engravings, to explain fully their 
 characteristic features. The simple enumeration of the various public fetes, 
 each of which was necessarily accompanied by a distinct ceremonial, would 
 take up much time were we to attempt to give it even in the shortest manner. 
 
 Fig. 397.— Entry of the Roi de 1'Epinette at Lille, in the .Sixteenth Century.— From a Miniature 
 in a Manuscript of the Library of Eouen. 
 
 Besides the numerous ceremonies which were purely religious, namely, 
 the procession of the Fete-Dieu, in Kogation week, and the fetes which were 
 both of a superstitious and burlesque character, such as des Fous, de I'Ane, 
 des Innocents, and others of the same kind, so much in vogue chirms; the 
 Middle Ages, and which we shall describe more in detail hereafter, we should 
 like to mention the military or gymnastic fetes. Amongst these were 
 
CEREMONIALS. sos 
 
 what were railed the processions of the Confreres <!<■ V 'Arquebus?, the Archers, 
 the Papegaat, the /•<>/ ,/,• I'Epinette, at Lille (Fig. 397), and the Forestier at 
 Bruges. There were also -what may be termed the teles peculiar to certain 
 places, such as those of Behors, of (he Champs Galat at Epinal, of the 
 Laboureurs at ITontelimar, of 6?«// /'r?« hph/ at Anjou. Also of the fetes of 
 May, of the s/im/; of the spring, of the rows, of the ,/?ros q/' -SV. John, &c. 
 Then there were the historical or commemorative fetes, such as those of the 
 Geant JReuss at Dunkerque, of the Gatjant at Douai, &c. ; also of (?»<?< c?e &m£- 
 Maxime at Riez in Provence, the processions of Jeanne d : Are at Orleans, of 
 Jeanne Hachette at Beauvais ; and lastly, the numerous fetes of public cor- 
 porations, such as the Eeoliers, the Nations, the Unicersites ; also the Lendit, 
 the Sainf-Cliarh magne, the Baillee ilex roses au Parlemcnt ; the literary fetes of 
 the Prty-s c/ Chamures de rhetorique of Picardy and Flanders, of the Clemence 
 Isaure at Toulouse, and of the Capitole at Rome, &c. ; the fetes of the &t- 
 ments, Metiers, and Devoirs of the working men's corporation ; and lastly, 
 the PtYcs Patronales, called also Assemblies, Dueasses, Folies, Foires, Kermesses, 
 Pardons, &c. 
 
 From, this simple enumeration, it can easily be understood what a useless 
 task we should impose upon ourselves were we merely to enter upon so wide 
 and difficult a subject. Apart from the infinite variety of details resulting 
 from the local circumstances under which these ceremonies had been insti- 
 tuted, which were everywhere celebrated at fixed periods, a kind of general 
 principle regulated and directed their arrangement. Nearly all these fetes 
 and public rejoicings, which to a certain extent constituted the common 
 basis of popular ceremonial, bore much analogy to one another. There are, 
 however, certain peculiarities less known and more striking than the rest, 
 which deserve to be mentioned, and we shall then conclude this part of our 
 subject. 
 
 Those rites, ceremonies, and customs, which are the most commonly 
 observed, and which most persistently keep their place amongst us, are far 
 from being of modern origin. Thus, the custom of jovially celebrating the 
 commencement of the new year, or of devoting certain particular days to 
 festivity, is still universally followed in every country in the world. The 
 practice of sending presents on New Year's Day is to be found among 
 civilised nations in the East as well as in our own country. In the Middle 
 Ages the intimate friends of princes, and especially of the kings of France, 
 
506 
 
 CEREMONIALS. 
 
 Fig. 398.— Representation of a Ballet before Henri III. and his Court, in the Gallery of the 
 Louvre.— Fac-simile of an Engraving on Copper of the " Ballet de la Eoyne," by Balthazar de 
 
 Beaujoyeulx (folio, Paris, Mamert Patisson, 1582). 
 
 received Christmas gifts, for which they considered themselves bound to make 
 ;m ample return. In England these interchanges of generosity also take 
 place on Christmas Day. In Russia, on Easter Day, the people, on meeting 
 
CEREMOXIALS. 50; 
 
 in the street, salute one another by saying " Christ is risen." These practices, 
 as well as many others, have no doubt been handed down to us from the early 
 ages of Christianity. The same maybe said of a vast number of customs 
 of a more or less local character, which have been observed in various 
 countries for centuries. In former times, at Ochsonbach, in Wurternberg, 
 during the carnival, women held a feast at which they wore waited upon by 
 men, and, after it was over, they formed themselves into a sort of court of 
 plenary indulgence, from which the men were uniformly excluded, and sat 
 in judgment on one another. At Ramcrupt, a small town in Champagne, 
 every year, on the 1st of May, twenty of the citizens repaired to the adjoin- 
 ing hamlet of St. Remy, hunting as they went along. They were called the 
 took of Sa merit, and it was said that the greatest fool led the band. The in- 
 habitants of St. Remy were bound to receive them gratuitously, and to supply 
 them, as well as their horses and do<is, with what they required, to have a 
 mass said for them, to put up with all the absurd vagaries of the captain and 
 his troop, and to supply them with a. fine and handsome honied rum, which was 
 led back in triumph. On their return into Ramcrupt they set up shouts at 
 the door of the cure, the procurator fiscal, and the collector of taxes, and, 
 after the invention of gunpowder, fireworks were let off. They then went 
 to the market-place, where they danced round the ram, which was decorated 
 with ribbons. Xo doubt this was a relic of the feasts of ancient 
 heathenism. 
 
 A more curious ceremony still, whose origin, we think, may be traced to 
 the Dionysian feasts of heathenism, has continued to be observed to tins day 
 at Beziers. It bears the names of the Feast of Pepezuch, the Triumph of 
 Beziers, or the Feast of Caritats or Charites. At the bottom of the Rue 
 Franchise at Beziers, a statue is to be seen which, notwithstanding the 
 mutilations to which it has been subjected, still distinctly bears traces of 
 being an ancient work of the most refined period of art, This statue repre- 
 sents Pepezuch, a citizen of Beziers, who, according to somewhat questionable 
 tradition, valiantly defended the town against the Goths, or, as some say, 
 against the English ; its origin, therefore, cannot be later than the thirteenth 
 century. On Ascension J Jay, the day of the feast of Pepezuch, an immense 
 procession went about tin. town. Three remarkable machines were par- 
 ticularly noticeable; the first was an enormous wooden camel made to 
 walk by mechanism, and to move its limbs and jaws ; the second was a 
 
S o8 CEREMONIALS. 
 
 galley on wheels fully manned ; the third consisted of a cart on which a 
 travelling theatre was erected. The consuls and other civic authorities, the 
 corporations of trades having the pastors walking in front of them, the 
 farriers on horseback, all bearing their respective insignia and banners, 
 formed the procession. A double column, composed of a division of young 
 men and young women holding white hoops decorated with ribbons and 
 many-coloured streamers, was preceded by a young girl crowned with 
 flowers, half veiled, and carrying a basket. This brilliant procession 
 marched to the sound of music, and, at certain distances, the youthful 
 couples of the two sexes halted, in order to perform, with the assistance of 
 their hoops, various figures, which were called the Danse des Treittes. The 
 machines also stopped from time to time at various places. The camel was 
 especially made to enter the Church of St. Aphrodise, because it was said 
 that the apostle had first come on a camel to preach the Gospel in that 
 country, and there to receive the palm of martyrdom. On arriving before 
 the statue of Pepezuch the young people decorated it with garlands. When 
 the square of the town was reached, the theatre was stopped like the ancient 
 car of Thespis, and the actors treated the people to a few comical drolleries 
 in imitation of Aristophanes. From the galley the youths flung sugar- 
 plums and sweetmeats, which the spectators returned in equal profusion. The 
 procession closed with a number of men, crowned with green leaves, carry- 
 ing on their heads loaves of bread, which, with other provisions contained in 
 the galley, were distributed amongst the poor of the town. 
 
 In Germany and in France it was the custom at the public entries of 
 kings, princes, and persons of rank, to offer them the wines made in the 
 district and commonly sold in the town. At Lang-res, for instance, these 
 wines were put into four pewter vessels called cimaises, which are still to be 
 seen. They were called the lion, monkey, sheep, and pig wines — symbolical 
 names, which expressed the different degrees or phases of drunkenness which 
 they were supposed to be capable of producing : the lion, courage ; the 
 monkey, cunning ; the sheep, good temper ; the pig, bestiality. 
 
 We will now conclude by borrowing, from the excellent work of 
 M. Alfred Michiels on Dutch and Flemish painting, the abridged description 
 of a procession of corporations of trades, which took place at Antwerp in 
 1-320, on the Sunday after Ascension Day. " All the corporations of trades 
 were present, every member being dressed in his best suit. In front of each 
 
CEREMONIALS. 
 
 509 
 
 guild a banner floated ; and immediately behind an enormous lighted wax- 
 taper was carried. March music was played on long silver trumpets, flutes, 
 and drums. The goldsmiths, painters, masons, silk embroiderers, sculptors, 
 carpenters, boatmen, fishermen, butchers, curriers, drapers, bakers, tailors, 
 and men of every other trade marched two abreast. Then came cross- 
 bowmen, arquebusiers, archers, &c, some on loot and some on horseback. 
 After them came the various monastic orders ; and then followed a crowd of 
 bourgeois magnificently dressed. A numerous company of widows, dressed 
 in white from head to foot, particularly attracted attention ; they constituted 
 a sort of sisterhood, observing certain rules, and gaining their livelihood by 
 various descriptions of manual work. The cathedral canons and the other 
 priests walked in the procession in their gorgeous silk vestments sparkling 
 with gold. Twenty persons carried on their shoulders a huge figure of the 
 Virgin, with the infant Saviour in her arms, splendidly decorated. At the 
 end of the procession were chariots and ships on wheels. There were various 
 groups in the procession representing scenes from the Old and New- 
 Testament, such as the Salutation of the Angels, the Visitation of the Maiji, 
 who appeared riding on camels, the Flight into Egypt, and other well-known 
 historical incidents. The last machine represented a dragon being led by 
 St. Margaret with a magnificent bridle, and was followed by St. George 
 and several brilliantly attired knights. 
 
 Fig. 399. — Sandal ami 
 Buskin of Charlemagne. 
 — From the Abbey ol St. 
 Denis. 
 
COSTUMES. 
 
 Influence of Ancient Costume. — Costume in the Fifth Century. — Hair. — Costumes in the Time of 
 Charlemagne. — Origin of Modern National Dress. — Head-dresses and Beards : Time of 
 St. Louis.— Progress of Dress: Trousers, Hose, Shoes, Coats, Surcoats, Capes. — Changes in 
 the Fashions of Shoes and Hoods. — Zivrtie. — Cloaks and Capes. — Edicts against Extravagant 
 Fashions. — Female Dress : Gowns, Bonnets, Head-dresses, &c. — Disappearance of Ancient 
 Dress. — Tight-lilting Gowns.— General Character of Dress under Francis I. — Uniformity of 
 1 >ress. 
 
 ONG garments alone were worn by the 
 ancients, and up to the period when 
 the barbarous tribes of the North 
 made their appearance, or rather, 
 until the invasion of the Eoinan 
 Empire by these wandering nations, 
 male and female dress differed but 
 little. The Greeks made scarcely 
 any change in their mode of dress 
 for centuries ; but the Romans, on 
 becoming masters of the world, par- 
 tially adopted the dress and arms of the people they had conquered, where 
 they considered them an improvement on their own, although the original 
 style of dress was but little altered (Figs. 400 and 401). 
 
 Eoman attire consisted of two garments — the under garment, or tunic, 
 and the outer garment, or cloak — the latter was known under the various 
 names of chlanii/s, toga, and pallium, but, notwithstanding these several appel- 
 lations, there was scarcely any appreciable distinction between them. The 
 simple tunic with sleeves, which answered to our shirt, was like the modern 
 blouse in shape, and was called by various names. The chiridota was a tunic 
 with long and large sleeves, of Asiatic origin ; the manulcata was a tunic 
 with long and tight sleeves coming to the wrists ; the talaris was a tunic 
 
COSTUMES. 
 
 5" 
 
 1 
 
 reaching to the feet; the palmata was a. state tunic, emhroidcred with 
 palms, which ornamentation was often found in other parts of dress. The 
 lacenia, hrna, eueullus, c/ilami/s, sagiim, pdliithuiwufinit, were upper garments, 
 more or less coarse, either full or scan), and usually short, and were 
 analogous to our cloaks, mantles, &c, and were made hoth with and without 
 hoods. There were many varieties of the tunic and cloak invented by female 
 ingenuity, as well as of other articles of dress, which formed elegant acces- 
 sories to the toilet, hut there was no essential alteration in the national 
 costume, nor was there any change in the shape of the numerous descriptions 
 of shoes. The barbarian invasions brought about a. revolution in the dress 
 as well as in the social state of the people, and it is from the time of these 
 
 i^n 
 
 Figs. 400 and 401.— Gallo -Roman Costumes.— From Bas-reliefs discovered in Paris in 1711 
 underneath the Choir of Xotre-Dame. 
 
 invasions that we may date, properly speaking, the history of modern dress ; 
 for the Roman costume, which was in use at the same time as that of the 
 Franks, the Huns, the Vandals, the Goths, &c, was subjected to various 
 changes down to the ninth century. These modifications increased after- 
 wards to such an extent that, towards the fourteenth century, the original 
 type had altogether disappeared. 
 
 It was quite natural that men living in a temperate climate, and bearing 
 arms only when in the service of the State, should be satisfied witli garments 
 which they could wear without wrapping themselves up too closely. The 
 northern nations, on the contrary, had early learned to protect themselves 
 against the severity of the climate in which they lived. Thus the garments 
 known by them as braies, and by the I'arthians as sarabara, doubtless gave 
 
5 12 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 origin to those which have been respectively called by us chausses, haid-de- 
 ckausses, tromses, grtgues, culottes, pantalons, &c. These wandering people 
 had other reasons for preferring the short and close-fitting garments to those 
 which were long and full, and these were their innate pugnacity, which 
 forced them ever to he under arms, their habit of dwelling in forests and 
 thickets, their love of the chase, and their custom of wearing armour. 
 
 The ancient Greeks and Romans always went bareheaded in the towns ; 
 but in the country, in order to protect themselves from the direct rays of 
 the sun, they wore hats much resembling our round hats, made of felt, 
 plaited rushes, or straw. Other European nations of the same period also 
 went bareheaded, or wore caps made of skins of animals, having no 
 reo-ularity of style, and with the shape of which we are but little 
 acquainted. 
 
 Shoes, and head-dresses of a definite style, belong to a much more modern 
 period, as also do the many varieties of female dress, which have been known 
 at all times and in all countries under the general name of robes. The 
 girdle was only used occasionally, and its adoption depended on circum- 
 stances ; the women used it in the same way as the men, for in those days it 
 was never attached to the dress. The great difference in modern female 
 costume consists in the fact of the girdle being part of the dress, thus 
 giving a long or short waist, according to the requirements of fashion. In 
 the same manner, a complete revolution took place in men's dress according 
 as loose or tight, long or short sleeves were introduced. 
 
 We shall commence our historical sketch from the fifth century, at which 
 period we can trace the blending of the Roman with the barbaric costume — 
 namely, the combination of the long, shapeless garment with that which 
 was worn by the Germans, and which was accompanied by tight-fitting 
 braies. Thus, in the recumbent statue which adorned the tomb of Clovis, in 
 the Church of the Abbey of St. Genevieve, the Ring is represented as wearing 
 the tunic and the toga, but, in addition, Gallo-Roman civilisation had actually 
 given him tight-fitting braies, somewhat similar to what we now call panta- 
 loons. Besides this, his tunic is fastened by a belt ; which, however, was not 
 a novelty in his time, for the women then wore long dresses, fastened at the 
 waist by a girdle. There is nothing very remarkable about his shoes, since 
 we find that the shoe, or closed sandal, was worn from the remotest periods 
 by nearly all nations (Figs. 402 and 4031. 
 
aajiifa. jj 
 
 Fig. 402. — Costume of King Clovis (Sixth Fig.403.— Costume of King Childebert (Seventh 
 Century). — From a Statue on his Tomb, Century). — From a Statue formerly placed 
 
 formerly in the Abbey of St. Genevieve. in the Refectory of the Abbey of St. Germain- 
 
 des-Pres. 
 
 6 I 
 
SH COSTUMES. 
 
 The cloak claims an equally ancient origin. The principal thing worthy of 
 notice is the amount of ornament with which the Franks enriched their girdles 
 and the borders of their tunics and cloaks. This fashion they borrowed from 
 the Imperial court, which, having been transferred from Eome to Constan- 
 tinople during the third century, was not slow to adopt the luxury of 
 precious stones and other rich decorations commonly in use amongst Eastern 
 nations. Following the example of Horace de Vielcastel, the learned 
 author of a history of the costumes of France, we may here state that it 
 is very difficult, if not impossible, to define the exact costume during 
 the time of the early Merovingian periods. The first writers who have 
 touched upon this subject have spoken of it very vaguely, or not being 
 contemporaries of the times of which they wrote, could only describe 
 from tradition or hearsay. Those monuments in which early costume is 
 supposed to be represented are almost all of later date, when artists, whether 
 sculptors or painters, were not very exact in their delineations of costume, 
 and even seemed to imagine that no other style could have existed before 
 their time than the one with which they were daily familiar. In order to be 
 as accurate as possible, although, after all, we can only speak hypothetically, 
 we cannot do better than call to mind, on the one hand, what Tacitus says of 
 the Germans, that they " were almost naked, excepting for a short and tight 
 garment round their waists, and a little square cloak which they threw over 
 the right shoulder," and, on the other, to carry ourselves back in imagi- 
 nation to the ancient Roman costume. We may notice, moreover, the 
 curious description given of the Franks by Sidoine Apollinaire, who says, 
 " They tied up their flaxen or light-brown hair above their foreheads, into 
 a kind of tuft, and then made it fall behind the head like a horse's tail. 
 The face was clean shaved, with the exception of two long moustaches. 
 They wore cloth garments, fitting tight to the body and limbs, and a 
 broad belt, to which they hung their swords." But this is a sketch made 
 at a time when the Frankish race was only known among the Gauls 
 through its marauding tribes, whose raids, from time to time, spread terror 
 and dismay throughout the countries which they visited. From the moment 
 when the uncultivated tribes of ancient Germany fomialty took possession 
 of the territory which they had withdrawn from Pioruan rule, they showed 
 themselves desirous of adopting the more gentle manners of the con- 
 cpiered nation. "In imitation of their chief," says M. Jules Quicherat, 
 
COSTCJfES. 
 
 S'.S 
 
 the eminent antiquarian, "more than once the Franks doffed the war 
 coat ami the leather belt, and assumed the toga (it Roman dignity. More 
 than once their flaxen hair was shown to advantage by flowing over the 
 imperial mantle, and the gold of the knights, the purple of the senators 
 and patricians, the triumphal crowns, the fasces, and, in short, everything 
 which the Roman Empire invented in order to exhibit its grandeur, assisted 
 in adding to that of our ancestors." 
 
 One great and characteristic, difference between the Romans and the Franks 
 
 Figs. 404 and 405.— Saints in the Costume of the Sixth to the Eighth Centuries. — From Miniatures 
 in old Manuscripts of the Royal Library of Brussels (Designs by Count H. de Vieleastel). 
 
 should, however, be specially mentioned ; namely, in the fashion of wearing 
 the hair long, a fashion never adopted by the Romans, and which, during the 
 whole of the first dynasty, was a distinguishing mark of kings and nobles among 
 the Franks. Agathias, the Greek historian, says, " The hair is never cut from 
 the heads of the Frankish kings' sons. From early youth their hair falls grace- 
 fully over their shoulders, it is parted on the forehead, and falls equally on 
 both sides; it is with them a matter to which they give special attention." 
 We are told, besides, that they sprinkled it with gold-dust, and plaited it in 
 small bands, which they ornamented with pearls and precious metals. 
 
 Whilst persons of rank were distinguished by their long and flowing 
 
5 .6 COSTUMES. 
 
 hair, the people wore theirs more or less short, according to the degree of 
 freedom which they possessed, and the serfs had their heads completely 
 shaved. It was customary for the noble and free classes to swear by their 
 hair, and it was considered the height of politeness to pull out a hair and 
 present it to a person. Fredegaire, the chronicler, relates that Clovis thus 
 pulled out a hair in order to do honour to St. Germer, Bishop of Toulouse, 
 and presented it to him ; upon this, the courtiers hastened to imitate their 
 sovereign, and the venerable prelate returned home with his hand full of 
 hair, delighted at the nattering reception he had met with at the court of the 
 Frankish king. During the Merovingian period, the greatest insult that 
 could be offered to a freeman was to touch him with a razor or scissors. 
 The degradation of kings and princes was carried out in a public manner 
 by shaving their heads and sending them into a monastery ; on their regain- 
 ing their rights and their authority, their hair was always allowed to grow 
 again. We may also conclude that great importance was attached to the 
 preservation of the hair even under the kings of the second dynasty, for 
 Charlemagne, in his Capitulaires, orders the hair to be removed as a punish- 
 ment in certain crimes. 
 
 The Franks, faithful to their ancient custom of wearing the hair long, 
 gradually gave up shaving the face. At first, they only left a small tuft 
 on the chin, but by degrees they allowed this to increase, and in the 
 sixth and seventh centuries freemen adopted the usual form of beard. 
 Amongst the clergy, the custom prevailed of shaving the crown of the head, 
 in the same way as that adopted by certain monastic orders in the present 
 day. Priests lor a long time wore beards, but ceased to do so on their 
 becoming fashionable amongst the laity (Figs. 406, 407). Painters and 
 sculptors therefore commit a serious error in representing the prelates and 
 monks of those times with large beards. 
 
 As far as the monumental relics of those remote times allow us to judge, 
 the dress as worn by Clovis underwent bat trifling modifications during the 
 first dynasty ; but during the reigns of Pepin and Charlemagne considerable 
 changes were effected, which resulted from the intercourse, either of a friendly 
 or hostile nature, between the Franks and the southern nations. About this 
 time, silk stuffs were introduced into the kingdom, and the upper classes, in 
 order to distinguish themselves from the lower, had their garments trimmed 
 round with costly furs (see chapter on Commerce). 
 
COSTUMES. 
 
 5 '7 
 
 We have before stated (see chapter on Private Life) thai Charlemagne, 
 who always was very simple in his tastes, strenuously set his face against 
 these novel introductions of luxury, which he looked upon as tending to do 
 
 Fier. 406 
 
 and 407-OoBtume of the Prelates from the Eighth to the Tenth Centuries.-After 
 
 miniatures in the " Missal of St. Gregory, 
 
 the National Library of Paris. 
 
 harm. 
 
 Of what use are these cloaks?" he said; "in bed they cannot 
 
 jtcct us from the rain nor 
 
 the 
 
 cover us, on horseback they can neither pre 
 
 wind, and when we are sitting they can neither preserve our legs from 
 
 the cold nor the damp." He himself generally wore a large tunic made of 
 
Si 8 COSTUMES. 
 
 otters' skins. On one occasion his courtiers went out hunting with him, 
 clothed in splendid garments of southern fashion, which became much torn 
 by the briars, and begrimed with the blood of the animals they had killed. 
 " Oh, ye foolish men ! " he said to them the next day as he showed them his 
 own tunic, which a servant had just returned to him in perfect condition, 
 after having simply dried it before the fire and rubbed it with his hands. 
 " AYhose garments are the more valuable and the more useful? mine, for 
 which I have only paid a sou (about twenty-two francs of present monejr), or 
 yours, which have cost so much ? " From that time, whenever this great 
 king entered on a campaign, the officers of his household, even the most rich 
 and powerful, did not dare to show themselves in any clothes but those made 
 of leather, wool, or cloth ; for had they, on such occasions, made their 
 appearance dressed in silk and ornaments, he would have sharply reproved 
 them and have treated them as cowards, or as effeminate, and consequently 
 unfit for the work in which he was about to encase. 
 
 Nevertheless, this monarch, who so severely proscribed luxury in daily 
 life, made the most magnificent display on the occasions of political or reli- 
 gious festivals, when the imperial dignity with which he was invested 
 required to be set forth by pompous ceremonial and richness of attire. 
 
 During the reign of the other Carlovingian kings, in the midst of political 
 troubles, of internal wars, and of social disturbances, they had neither time 
 nor inclination for inventing new fashions. Monuments of the latter jjart of 
 the ninth century prove, indeed, that the national dress had hardly under- 
 gone an}' change since the time of Charlemagne, and that the influence of 
 Roman tradition, especially on festive occasions, was still felt in the dress of 
 the nobles (Figs. 408 to 411). 
 
 In a miniature of the large MS. Bible given by the canons of Saint-Martin 
 of Tours in 869 to Charles the Bald (National Library of Paris), we find 
 the King sitting on his throne surrounded by the dignitaries of his court, and 
 by soldiers all dressed after the Boman fashion. The monarch wears a cloak 
 which seems to be made of cloth of gold, and is attached to the shoulder by 
 a strap or ribbon sliding through a clasp ; this cloak is embroidered in red, 
 on a gold ground ; the tunic is of reddish brown, and the shoes are light red, 
 worked with gold thread. In the same manuscript there is another painting, 
 representing four women listening to the discourse of a prophet. From this 
 we discover that the female costume of the time consisted of two tunics, the 
 
COSTUMES. 
 
 5 "J 
 
 under one being longer but less capacious than the other, the sleeves of the 
 former coming down tight to the wrists, and being plaited in many folds, 
 
 Fi.m^tumeofaSchoWtheCarloviu^ 
 
 ^Inspiration of Chri s t,.-From a Miniature in a Manuscript of the Mnth Centun , „. 
 
 bis Gospel under 
 
 Hu- 
 
 ll ur: 
 
 ..■undian Library, Brussels (drawn by Count H. de Vieleastel). 
 
 whilst those of the latter open out, and only reach to the elbow. The lower 
 part, the neek, and the borders of the sleeves are trimmed with ornamented 
 
5 2o COSTUMES. 
 
 bands, the waist is encircled by a girdle just above the hips, and a long veil, 
 finely worked, and fastened on the head, covers the shoulders and hangs 
 down to the feet, completely hiding the hair, so that long plaits falling in 
 front were evidently not then in fashion. The under dress of these four 
 women — who all wear black shoes, which were probably made of morocco 
 leather — are of various colours, whereas the gowns or outer tunics are white. 
 
 Notwithstanding that under the Carlovingian dynasty it was always con- 
 sidered a shame and a dishonour to have the head shaved, it must not be 
 supposed that the upper classes continued to wear the long Merovingian 
 style of hair. After the reign of Charlemagne, it was the fashion to shave 
 the hair from above the forehead, the parting being thus widened, and the 
 hair was so arranged that it should not fall lower than the middle of the 
 neck. Under Charles the Bald, whose surname proves that he was not 
 partial to long hair, this custom fell into disuse or was abandoned, and men 
 had the greater part of their heads shaved, and only kept a sort of cap of 
 hair growing on the top of the head. It is at this period that we first find 
 the cowl worn. This kind of common head-dress, made from the furs of 
 animals or from woollen stuffs, continued to be worn for many centuries, and 
 indeed almost to the present day. It was originally only a kind of cap, 
 light and very small ; but it gradually became extended in size, and succes- 
 sively covered the ears, the neck, and lastly even the shoulders. 
 
 No great change was made in the dress of the two sexes during the tenth 
 century. "Nothing was more simple than the head-dress of women," says 
 M. Jules Quicherat ; "nothing was less studied than their mode of wearing 
 their hair ; nothing was more simple, and yet finer, than their linen. The 
 elegant appearance of their garments recalls that of the Greek and Eoman 
 women. Their dresses were at times so tight as to display all the elegance 
 of their form, whilst at others they were made so high as completely to cover 
 the neck ; the latter were called cottes-hardies. The cotte-hardie, which has at 
 all times been part of the dress of French women, and which was frequently 
 worn also by men, was a long tunic reaching to the heels, fastened in at the 
 waist and closed at the wrists. Queens, princesses, and ladies of the nobility 
 wore in addition a long cloak lined with ermine, or a tunic with or without 
 sleeves ; often, too, their dress consisted of two tunics, and of a veil or drapery, 
 which was thrown over the head and fell down before and behind, thus 
 entirely surrounding the neck." 
 
COSTUMES. 
 
 5^1 
 
 We cannot find that any very decided change was made in dress before 
 the end of the eleventh century. The ordinary dress made of thick cloths 
 and of coarse woollen stuffs wore very strong and durable, and not easily 
 spoiled; and it was usual, as we still find in some provinces which adhere 
 to (.ild customs, for clothes, especially tbose worn on festive occasions and at 
 
 Fig . 409—Costume of a Scholar. Fig. 410.-Cof.tuim- of a Bishop or AVbot. 
 
 Fac-similes of Miniatures in a Manuscript of the Ninth Century (" Biblia Sacra "), in the Royal 
 
 Library of Brussels. 
 
 ceremonials, to be handed down as heirlooms from father to son, to the third 
 or fourth generation. The Normans, who came from Scandinavia towards 
 the end of the tenth century, A.D. 070, with their short clothes and coats of 
 mail, at first adopted the dress of the French, and continued to do so in all 
 its various changes. In the following century, having found the Saxons and 
 
f v iff 
 
 c 
 
 Fig. 411. — Costume of OharleB the Simple (Tenth Century). — From a Miniature in the "Eoia de 
 France," by Du Tillet, Manuaeiipt of the Sixteenth Century (Imperial Library of Paris). 
 
COSTUMES. 523 
 
 Britons in England clad in the garb of their ancestors, slightly modified by 
 the Roman style of apparel, they began to make great changes in their manner 
 of dressing themselves. They mure and more discarded Roman fashions, and 
 assumed similar costumes to these made in France at the same period. 
 
 Before proceeding further in our history of mediaeval dross, we must fore- 
 stall a remark "which will not fail to be made by the reader, and tins is, that 
 we seem to occupy ourselves exclusively with the dress of kings, queens, and 
 other people of note. But we must reply, that though we arc able to form 
 tolerably accurate notions relative to the dress of the upper classes during 
 these remote periods, we do not possess any reliable information relative to 
 that of the lower orders, and that the written documents, as well as the 
 sculptures and paintings, are almost useless on this point. Nevertheless, we 
 may suppose that the dress of the men in the lowest ranks of society has 
 always been short and tight, consisting of brutes or tight drawers, mostly 
 made of leather, of tight tunics, of satjotis or doublets, and of capes or cloaks 
 of coarse brown woollen. The tunic was confined at the waist by a belt, to 
 which the knife, the purse, and sometimes the working tools were suspended. 
 The head-dress of the people was generally a simple cap made of thick, coarse 
 woollen cloth or felt, and often of sheep's skin. 1 luring the twelfth century, 
 a person's rank or social position was determined by the head-dress. The 
 cap was made of velvet for persons of rank, and of common cloth for the poor. 
 The comette, which was always an appendage to the cap, was made of cloth, 
 with which the cap might lie fastened or adjusted on the head. The mortier, 
 or round cap, dates from the earliest centuries, and was altered both in shape 
 and material according to the various changes of fashion ; but lawyers of 
 high position continued to wear it almost in its original shape, and it became 
 like a professional badge forjudges and advocates. 
 
 In the miniatures of that time we find Charles the Good, Count of 
 Flanders, who died in 1127, represented with a cap with a point at the top, 
 to which a long streamer is attached, and a peak turned up in front, A 
 cap very similar, but without the streamer, ami with the point turned towards 
 the left, is to be seen in a. portrait of Geoffrey le Bel, Comte de Maine, in 1150. 
 About the same period, Agnes de Baudement is represented with a sort of cap 
 made of linen or stuff, with lappets hanging down over the shoulders; she is 
 dressed in a robe fastened round the waist, and having long bands attached to 
 the sleeves near the wrists. Queen Ingeburge, second wife of Philip Augustus, 
 
l'ig. 412. — Costume of King Louis le Jeune.— Miniature 
 of tho "Rois de France," by Du Tillet (Sixteenth 
 Century), in the National Library of Paris. 
 
 Fig. 413. — Royal Costume. — From a Miniature 
 in a Manuscript of the Twelfth Century, in 
 the Burgundian Library, Brussels. 
 
COSTUMES. 525 
 
 also wore the tight gown, fastened at the collar by a round buckle, and two 
 bands of stuff forming a kind of necklace ; she also used the long cloak, and 
 the closed shoes, which had then begun to be made pointed. Robert, Comte do 
 Dreux, who lived at the same period, is also dressed almost precisely like the 
 Queen, notwithstanding the difference of sex and rank ; his robe, however, only 
 descends to the instep, and his belt has no hangings in front. The Queen is 
 represented with her hair long and flowing, but the count has his cut short. 
 
 Women, in addition to their head-dress, often wore a. broad band, which 
 was tied under the chin, and gave the appearance of a kind of frame for the 
 face. Both sexes wore coloured bands on their shoes, which were tied round 
 the ankles like those of sandals, and showed the shape of the foot. 
 
 The beard, which was worn in full at the beginning of the twelfth cen- 
 tury, was by degrees modified both as to shape and length. At first it was 
 cut in a point, and only covered the end of the chin, but the next fashion 
 was to wear it so as to join the moustaches. Generally, under Lotus le 
 Jeune (Fi°\ 41'-'), moustaches went out of fashion. We next find beards 
 worn only by country people, who, according to contemporary historians, 
 desired to preserve a. "remembrance of their participation in the Crusades." 
 At the end of this century, all chins were shaved. 
 
 The Crusades also gave rise to the general use of the purse, which was 
 suspended to the belt by a cord of silk or cotton, and sometimes by a metal 
 chain. At the time of the Holy War, it had become an emblem characteristic 
 of pilgrims, who, before starting for Palestine, received from the hands of the 
 priest the cross, the pilgrim's staff, and the purse. 
 
 We now come to the time of Louis IX. (Figs. 411 to 418), of that good 
 king who, according to the testimony of his historians, generally dressed 
 with the greatest simplicity, but who, notwithstanding his usual modesty 
 md economy, did not hesitate on great occasions to submit to the pomp 
 
 ai 
 
 required by the regal position which he held. " Sometimes," says the Sire 
 de Joinville, "he went into his garden dressed in a camel's-hair coat, a sur- 
 coat of linsey-woolsey without sleeves, a black silk cloak without a hood, 
 and a hat trimmed with peacocks' feathers. At other times he was dressed 
 in a coat of blue silk, a surcoat and mantle of scarlet satin, and a cotton 
 
 cap." 
 
 The surcoat (sur-cotte) was at first a garment worn only by females, 
 but it was soon adopted by both sexes : it was originally a huge wrapper 
 
;z6 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 with sleeves, and was thrown over the upper part of the robe (cotte), hence 
 its name, stir-cotfe. Very soon it was made without sleeves — doubtless, as 
 M. Quicherat remarks, that the under garment, which was made of more 
 costly material, might be seen ; and then, with the same object, and in 
 order that the due motion of the limbs might not be interfered with, the 
 
 Fig. 414. — Costume of a Princess dressed in a 
 Cloak lined with Fur. — From a Miniature of 
 the Thirteenth Century. 
 
 Fig. 41.3. — Costume of William Halgeneste, 
 the King's Huntsman, as represented on his 
 Tomb, formerly in the Abbey of Long-Pont. 
 
 surcoat was raised higher above the hips, and the arm-holes were made very 
 large. 
 
 At the consecration of Louis IX., in 1226, the nobles wore the cap 
 (niortier) trimmed with fur ; the bishops wore the cope and the mitre, and 
 carried the crosier. Louis IX., at the age of thirteen, is represented, in a 
 picture executed in 1262 (Saintc-Chapelle, Paris), with his hair short, and 
 wearing a, red velvet cap, a tunic, and over this a cloak open at the chest, 
 
COSTUMES. 
 
 527 
 
 having long sleeves, which are slit up for the arms to go through ; this cloak, 
 or surcoat, is trimmed with ermine in front, and has the appearance of what 
 we should now call a fur shawl. The young King has long hose, and shoes 
 similar in shape to high slippers. In the same painting Queen Margaret, 
 his wife, wears a gown with tight bodice opened out on the hips, and having 
 long and narrow sleeves ; she also has a cloak embroidered with fleurs-de-lis, 
 the long sleeves of which are slit up and bordered with ermine ; a kind of 
 
 ^"."'^'^ ■" ^rji.. ■ :^ 
 
 Fig. 4ic.— Costumes of the Thirteenth Century: Tristan and the beautiful Ysuult.— From a 
 Miniature in the Romance of "Tristan," Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century (Imperial 
 Library of Paris) . 
 
 hood, much larger than her head, and over this a veil, which passes under 
 the chin without touching the face ; the shoes are long, and seem to enclose 
 the feet very tightly. 
 
 From this period gowns with tight bodices were generally adopted ; the 
 women wore over them a tight jacket, reaching to a little below the hips, 
 often trimmed with fur when the gown was richly ornamented, and itself 
 richly ornamented when the gown was plain. They also began to plait 
 
528 COSTUMES. 
 
 the hair, which fell down by the side of the face to the neck, and they 
 profusely decorated it with pearls or gold or silver ornaments. Jeanne, 
 Queen of Navarre, wife of Philippe le Bel, is represented with a pointed 
 cap, on the turned-up borders of which the hair clusters in thick curls on 
 each side of the face ; on the chest is a frill turned down in two points ; 
 the gown, fastened in front by a row of buttons, has long and tight sleeves, 
 with a small slit at the wrists closed by a button ; lastly, the Queen wears, 
 over all, a sort of second robe in the shape of a cloak, the sleeves of which 
 are widely slit in the middle. 
 
 At the end of the thirteenth century luxury was at its height at the 
 court of France : gold and silver, pearls and precious stones were lavished 
 on dress. At the marriage of Philip III., son of St. Louis, the gentlemen 
 were dressed in scarlet ; the ladies in cloth of gold, embroidered and 
 trimmed with gold and silver lace. Massive belts of gold were also worn, 
 and chaplets sparkling with the same costly metal. Moreover, this magnifi- 
 cence and display (see chapter on Private Life) was not confined to the 
 court, for we find that it extended to the bourgeois class, since Philippe 
 le Bel, by his edict of 1294, endeavoured to limit this extravagance, which 
 in the eyes of the world had an especial tendency to obliterate, or at least 
 to conceal, all distinctions of birth, rank, and condition. Wealth strove hard 
 at that time to be the sole standard of dress. 
 
 As we approach the fourteenth century — an epoch of the Middle Ages at 
 which, after many changes of fashion, and many struggles against the 
 ancient Roman and German traditions, modern national costume seems at 
 last to have assumed a settled and normal character — we think it right to 
 recapitulate somewhat, with a view to set forth the nature of the various 
 elements which were at work from time to time in forming the fashions in 
 dress. In order to give more weight to our remarks, we will extract, almost 
 word for word, a few pages from the learned and excellent work which 
 M. Jules Quicherat has published on this subject. 
 
 " Towards the year 1280," he says, " the dress of a man— not of a man 
 as the word was then used, which meant serf, but of one to whom the exercise 
 of human prerogatives was permitted, that is to say, of an ecclesiastic, a bour- 
 geois, or a noble— was composed of six indispensable portions : the braies, or 
 breeches, the stockings, the shoes, the coat, the surcoat, or cotte-hardie, and 
 the chaperon, or head-dress. To these articles those who wished to dress more 
 
COSTUMES. 
 
 5 2 9 
 
 Fig. 417. —Costumes of the Common Feunle in the Fourteenth Century : Italian Gardener ami 
 Woodman. - From two Knc-ravine-s in the Bonnart Collection. 
 
 elegantly added, on the body, a shirt; on the shoulders, a mantle; and on 
 the head, a hat, ovfrontcau. 
 
 "The braies, or brayes, wore a kind of drawers, generally knitted, some- 
 
 8 v 
 
530 COSTUMES. 
 
 times made of woollen stuff' or silk, and sometimes even of undressed leather. 
 . . . Our ancestors derived this part of their dress from the ancient Gauls ; 
 only the Gallic braies came down to the ankle, whereas those of the thirteenth 
 century only reached to the calf. They were fastened above the hips by 
 means of a belt called the braier. 
 
 " By chausses was meant what we now call long stockings or hose. The 
 stockings were of the same colour and material as the braies, and were kept 
 up by the lower part of the braies being pulled over them, and tied with a 
 string. 
 
 " The shoes were made of various kinds of leather, the quality of which 
 depended on the way in which they were tanned, and were either of common 
 leather, or of leather which was similar to that we know as morocco, and was 
 called cordouan or cordua (hence the derivation of the word cordouannier, 
 which has now become cordomiier). Shoes were generally made pointed; 
 this fashion of the poulaiites, or Polish points, was followed throughout the 
 whole of Europe for nearly three hundred years, and, when first introduced, 
 the Church was so scandalized hj it that it was almost placed in the catalogue 
 of heresies. Subsequently, the taste respecting the exaggerated length of 
 the points was somewhat modified, but it had become so inveterate that the 
 tendency for pointed shoes returning to their former absurd extremes was 
 constantly showing itself. The pointed shoes became gradually longer 
 during the struggles which were carried on in the reign of Philippe le Bel 
 between Church and State. 
 
 " Besides the shoes, there were also the est'maux, thus named from estiva 
 (summer thing), because, being generally made of velvet, brocade, or other 
 costly material, they could only be worn in dry weather. 
 
 " The coat (cotte) corresponded with the tunic of the ancients, it was a blouse 
 with tight sleeves. These sleeves were the only part of it which were exposed, 
 the rest being completely covered by the surcoats, or cotte-hardle, a name the 
 origin of which is obscure. In shape the surcoat somewhat resembled a 
 sack, in which, at a later period, large slits were made in the arms, as well 
 as over the hips and on the chest, through which appeared the rich furs and 
 
 satins with which it was lined The ordinary material of the surcoat 
 
 for the rich was cloth, either scarlet, blue, or reddish brown, or two or 
 more of these colours mixed together ; and for the poor, linsey-woolsey or 
 fustian. The nobles, princes, or barons, when holding a court, wore surcoats 
 
COSTUMES. 
 
 53 r 
 
 of a colour to match tlicir arms, which wore embroidered upon them, hut the 
 lesser nobles who frequented the houses of the great spoke of themselves as 
 
 Fig. 41S.-Costume of English Servants in the Fourteenth Century. -From Manuscripts in the 
 
 British Museum. 
 
 in the robes of such and such a noble, because he whose patronage they 
 courted was obliged to provide them with surcoats and mantles. These were 
 
S3 2 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 Fig 419.— Costume of Philip the flood, with Hood and " Cockade."— From a Miniature in a 
 
 Manuscript of the Period. 
 
COSTUMES. 533 
 
 of their patron's favourite colour, and were called the livery (lirrer), on 
 account of their distribution (licruison), which took place twice a year. The 
 word has remained in use ever since, but with a different signification ; it 
 is, however, so nearly akin to the original meaning that its affinity is 
 evident." 
 
 An interesting anecdote relative to this custom is to be found in the 
 chronicles of Matthew Paris. When St. Louis, to the dismay of all his 
 vassals, and of his inferior servants, had decided to take up the cross, he 
 succeeded in associating the nobles of his court with him in his vow by a 
 kind of pious fraud. Having had a certain number of mantles prepared for 
 Christmas-day, he had a small white cross embroidered on each above the 
 right shoulder, and ordered them to be distributed among the nobles on the 
 morning of the feast when they were about to go to mass, which was cele- 
 brated some time before sunrise. Each courtier received the mantle given by 
 the King at the door of his room, and put it on in the dark without noticing 
 the white cross ; but, when the day broke, to his great surprise, be saw the 
 emblem worn by his neighbour, without knowing that he himself wore it 
 also. " They were surprised and amused," says the English historian, " at 
 finding that the King had thus piously entrapped them, . . . As it would 
 have been unbecoming, shameful, and even unworthy of them to have removed 
 these crosses, they laughed heartily, and said that the good King, on starting 
 as a pilgrim-hunter, had found a new method of catching men." 
 
 " The chaperon," adds M. Qnicherat, ''was the national head-dress of the 
 ancient French, as the cucullus, which was its model, was that of the Gauls. 
 TTe can imagine its appearance by its resemblance to the domino now worn 
 at masked balls. The shape was much varied during the reign of Philippe 
 le Bel, either by the diminution of the cape or by the lengthening of the 
 hood, which was always sufficiently long to fall on the shoulders. In the first 
 of these changes, the chaperon no longer being tied round the neck, required 
 to be held on the head by something more solid. Fur this reason it was set 
 on a pad or roll, which changed it into a regular cap. The material was so 
 stitched as to make it take certain folds, which were arranged as puffs, as 
 ruffs, or in the shape of a cock's comb ; this last fashion, called cockade, was 
 especially in vogue (Fig. 419)— hence the origin of the French epithet 
 coquard, which would be now expressed by the word dandy. 
 
 "Hats were of various shapes. They were made of different kinds of 
 
5 3+ 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 felt, or of otter or goat's skin, or of wool or cotton. The expression 
 chapeau de flews (hat of flowers), which continually occurs in ancient works, 
 did not mean any form of hat, but simply a coronet of forget-me-nots or 
 roses, which was an indispensable part of dress for balls or festivities 
 
 Fig. 420.— Costumes of a rich Bourgeoise, of a Peasant-woman, and of a Lady of the Nobility, 
 of the Fourteenth Century.— From various painted Windows in the Churches of Moulins 
 (Bourhonnais). 
 
 down to the reign of Philippe de Valois (1317). Frontlets (fronteaux), a 
 species of fillet made of silk, covered with gold and precious stones, super- 
 seded the chapeau de fleurs, inasmuch as they had the advantage of not fading. 
 They also possessed the merit of being much more costly, and were thus the 
 
\I\T CATHERINE SURROUNDED BY r l(ir: DOCTORS OP ALEXANDRIA. 
 
 \ n 1 1 ilia fun.' from the lirfiinrij of tlir ranlinal ( in mam, attributed to Memlin;.' 
 Ulbl. i.C S.iuii-M.n . . * ■;>«■<• 
 . . ...: ;iL r tu M. Amln ni ■■ i'l'ii hi Indn'i. 
 
COSTUMES. 
 
 535 
 
 means of establishing in a still more marked manner distinctions in the social 
 positions of the wearers. 
 
 " There were two kinds of mantles ; one was open in front, and fell over 
 the back, and a strap which crossed the chest held it fixed on the shoulders; 
 the other, enveloping the body like a bell, was slit up on the right side, 
 and was thrown back over the left arm; it was made with a fur collar, cut 
 in the shape of a tippet. This last lias been handed down to us, and is worn 
 by our judges under the name of toije and epitogc. 
 
 " It is a very common mistake to suppose that the skirt is an article of 
 dress of modern invention ; on the contrary, it is one of great antiquity, 
 and its coming into general use is the only thing new about it. 
 
 " Lastly, we have to mention the chape, which was always regarded as a 
 necessary article of dress. The chcq>e was the only protection against bad 
 weather at a period when umbrellas and covered carriages were unknown. 
 It was sometimes called chain: tie phtie, on account of the use to which it was 
 applied, and it consisted of a large cape with sleeves, and was completely 
 waterproof. It was borne behind a master by his servant, who, on account of 
 this service was called a portc-chape. It is needless to say that the common 
 people carried it themselves, either slung over their backs, or folded under 
 the arm.'' 
 
 If we now turn to female attire, we shall find represented in it all the 
 component parts of male dress, and almost all of them under the same 
 names. It must be remarked, however, that the women's coats and sur- 
 coats often trailed on the ground ; that the hat — which was generally called 
 a coucre-chef, and consisted of a frame of wirework covered over with stuff 
 which was embroidered or trimmed with lace — was not of a conical shape; 
 and, lastly, that the chaperon, which was always made with a tippet, or 
 c/iausse, never turned over so as to form a cap. We may add that the 
 use of the couvre-chef did not continue beyond the middle of the four- 
 teenth century, at which time women adopted the custom of wearing any 
 kind of head-dress they chose, the hair being kept back by a. silken net, or 
 cvcpnic, attached either to a frontlet, or to a metal fillet, or confined by a 
 veil of very light material, called a molkquin (big- 420). 
 
 With the aid of our learned guide we have now reached a, period (end 
 of the thirteenth century) well adapted for this general study of the dress 
 of our ancestors, inasmuch as soon afterwards men's dress at least, and 
 
<?6 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 Fig. 421. — Costumes of a young Nobleman and of a Bourgeois in the Fourteenth Century. — From 
 a painted Window in the Church of Saint-Ouen at Rouen, and from a Window at Moulins 
 (Bourbonnais). 
 
COSTUMES. 537 
 
 especially that of young courtiers, became most ridiculously and even in- 
 decently exaggerated. To such an extent was this the case, that serious 
 calamities having befallen the French nation about this time, and its 
 fashions having exercised a considerable influence over the whole continent 
 of Europe, contemporary historians do not hesitate to regard these public 
 misfortunes as a providential chastisement inflicted on Fiance for its dis- 
 graceful extravagance in dress. 
 
 "We must believe that God lias permitted this as a just judgment on 
 us for our sins," say the monks who edited the " Grande Chronique de St. 
 Denis" in 1346, at the time of the unfortunate battle of Cressv, " althouo-h 
 it does not belong to us to judge. But what we see we testify to ; for pride 
 was very great in France, and especially amongst the nobles and others, 
 that is to say, pride of nobility, and eovetousness. There was also much 
 impropriety in dress, and this extended throughout the whole of France. 
 Some had their clothes so short and so tight that it required the help of two 
 persons to dress and undress them, and whilst they were being undressed 
 they appeared as if they were being skinned. Others wore dresses plaited 
 over their loins like women ; some had chaperons cut out in points all 
 round ; some had tippets of one cloth, others of another ; and some had their 
 head-dresses and sleeves reaching to the ground, looking more like mounte- 
 banks' than anything else. Considering all this, it is not surprising if God 
 emploved the King of England as a scourge to correct the excesses of the 
 French people." 
 
 And this is not the only testimony to the ridiculous and extravagant 
 tastes of this unfortunate period. One writer speaks with indignation of the 
 goats' beards (with two points), which seemed to put the last finishing touch 
 of ridicule on the already grotesque appearance of even the most serious 
 people of that period. Another exclaims against the extravagant luxury 
 of jewels, of gold and silver, and against the wearing of feathers, which 
 latter then appeared for the first time as accessories to both male and 
 female attire. Some censure, and not without reason, the absurd fashion 
 of converting the ancient leather girdle, meant to support the waist, into 
 a kind of heavy padded band, studded with gilded ornaments and precious 
 stones, and apparently invented expressly to encumber the person wear- 
 ing it. Other contemporary writers, and amongst these Pope Urban V. 
 and King Charles V. (Fig. 422), inveigh against the poulaines, which had 
 
 o z 
 
538 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 more than ever come into favour, and which were only considered correct in 
 fashion when they were made as a kind of appendix to the foot, measuring 
 
 Fig. 422. — Costume of Charles V., King of Fig.i23. — Costume of Jeanne de Bourbon, Wife 
 France. — From a Statue formerly in the of Charles V. — From a Statue formerly in 
 
 Church of the Celestins, Paris. the Church of the Celestins, Paris. 
 
 at least double its length, and ornamented in the most fantastical manner. 
 The Pope anathematized this deformity as " a mockery of God and the holy 
 Church," and the King forbad craftsmen to make them, and his subjects to 
 
COSTUMES. 539 
 
 wear them. All this is as nothing in comparison with the profuse extrava- 
 gance displayed in furs, which was most outrageous and ruinous, and of which 
 we could not form an idea, wore it not for the items in certain royal documents, 
 from which we gather that, in order to trim two complete suits lot- King 
 John, no fewer than six hundred and seventy martens' skins were used. It 
 is also stated that the Duke of Berry, the youngest son of that monarch, pur- 
 chased nearly ten thousand of these same skins from a distant country in the 
 north, in order to trim only five mantles and as many surcoats. We read 
 also that a robe made for the Duke of Orleans, grandson of the same king, 
 required two thousand seven hundred and ninety ermines' skins. It is 
 unnecessary to state, that in consequence of this large consumption, skins 
 could only be purchased at the most extravagant prices ; for example, fifty 
 skins cost about one hundred francs (or about six thousand of present cur- 
 rency), showing to what an enormous expense those persons were put who 
 desired to keep pace with the luxury of the times (Fig. 424). 
 
 We have already seen that Charles V. used his influence, which was unfor- 
 tunately very limited, in trying to restrain the extravagance of fashion. This 
 monarch did more than decree laws against indelicate or unseemly and 
 ridiculous dress; he himself never wore anything but the Ion- ami ample 
 costume, which was most becoming, and which had been adopted in the pre- 
 ceding century. His example, it is true, was little followed, but it neverthe- 
 less had this happy result, that the advocates of short and tight dresses, as if 
 suddenly seized with instinctive modesty, adopted an upper garment, the 
 object of which seemed to be to conceal the absurd fashions which they had 
 not the courage to rid themselves of. This heavy and ungraceful tunic, 
 called a housse, consisted of two broad bands of a more or less costly material, 
 which, starting from the neck, fell behind and before, thus almost entirely 
 concealing the front and back of the person, and only allowing the under 
 garments to be seen through the slits which naturally opened on each side 
 
 of it. 
 
 A fact worthy of remark is, that whilst male attire, through a depravity 
 of taste, had extended to the utmost limit of extravagance, women's dress, on 
 the contrary, owing to a strenuous effort towards a. dignified and elegant 
 simplicity, became of such a character that it combined all the most 
 approved fashions of female costume which had been in use in former periods. 
 
 The statue of Queen Jeanne de Bourbon, wife of Charles V., formerly 
 
540 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 Fig. 424. — Costumes of Bourgeois or Merchant, of a Nobleman, and of a Lady of the Court or rich 
 Bourgeoise, with the Head-dress (escoffion) of the Fifteenth Century. — From a Painted Window 
 of the Period, at Moulins (Bourbonnais), and from a Painting on Wood of the same Period, in 
 the Musee de Cluny. 
 
 placed with that of her husband in the Church of the Celestins at Paris, 
 gives the most faithful representation of this charming costume, to which our 
 
COSTUMES. S + I 
 
 artists continually have recourse when they wish to depicl any poetical scenes 
 of the French Middle Ages (Fig. 423). 
 
 This costume, without positively differing in style from that of the thir- 
 teenth century, inasmuch as if was composed of similar elements, was never- 
 theless to he distinguished by a degree of elegance which hitherto had been 
 unknown. The coat, or under garment, which formerly only showed itself 
 through awkwardly-contrived openings, now displayed the harmonious out- 
 lines of the figure to advantage, thanks to the large openings in the overcoat. 
 The. surcoat, kept back on the shoulders by two narrow bands, became a sort 
 of wide and trailing skirt, which majestically draped tbe lower part of the 
 body ; and, lastly, the external corset was invented, which was a kind of 
 short mantle, falling down before and behind without concealing any of the 
 fine outlines of the bust. This new article of apparel, which was kept in 
 its place in the middle of the chest by a steel busk encased in some rich 
 lace-work, was generally made of fur in winter and of silk in summer. If 
 we consult the numerous miniatures in manuscripts of this period, in which 
 the gracefulness of the costume was heightened by the colours employed, we 
 shall understand what variety and what richness of effect coi dd be displayed 
 without departing from the most rigid simplicity. 
 
 One word more in reference to female head-dress. The fashion of wear- 
 ing false hair continued in great favour dining the middle of the fourteenth 
 century, and it gave rise to all sorts of ingenious combinations; which, how- 
 ever, always admitted of the hair being parted from the forehead to the back 
 of the head in two equal masses, and of being plaited or waved over the ears. 
 Xets were again adopted, and head-dresses which, whilst permitting a display 
 of masses of false hair, hid the horsehair or redded puffs. And, lastly, the 
 excoffion appeared — a heavy roll, which, being placed on a cap also padded, 
 produced the most clumsy, outrageous, and ungraceful shapes (Fig. 4'Jd). 
 
 At the beginning of the fifteenth century men's dress was still very 
 short. It consisted of a kind of tight waistcoat, fastened by tags, and 
 
 O Jo" 
 
 of very close-fitting breeches, which displayed the outlines of the figure. 
 In order to appear wide at the shoulders artificial pads were worn, called 
 tnahoitres. The hair was allowed to fall on the forehead in locks, which 
 covered the eyebrows and eyes. The sleeves were slashed, the shoes armed 
 with long metal points, and the conical hat, with turned- up rim, was 
 ornamented with gold chains and various jewels. The ladies, dining the 
 
 s 
 
542 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 Fig. 425. — Italian Costumes of the Fifteenth Century : Notary and Sbirro. — From two Engravings 
 
 in the Bonnart Collection. 
 
 reign of Charles VI., still wore long trains to their dresses, which they 
 carried tucked up under their arms, unless they had pages or waiting- 
 maids (see chapter on Ceremonials). The tendency, however, was to shorten 
 
COSTUMES. 
 
 5+3 
 
 Fig. 426.— Costumes of a Mechanic's Wife and a rich Bourgeois in the latter part of the Fifteenth 
 Century.— From Windows in the Cathedral of Moulins (Bourbonnais). 
 
 these inconvenient trains, as well as the long hanging and embroidered in- 
 fringed sleeves. On the other hand, ladies' dresses on becoming shorter were 
 trimmed in the most costly manner. Their head-dresses consisted of very large 
 
54 + 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 rolls, surmounted by a high conical bonnet called a hennin, the introduction 
 of which into France was attributed to Queen Isabel of Bavaria, wife of 
 Charles VI. It was at this period that they began to uncover the neck and 
 to wear necklaces. 
 
 Under Louis XL this costume, already followed and adopted by the 
 greatest slaves of fashion, became more general. 
 
 " In this year (1487)," saj^-s the chronicler Monstrelet, "ladies ceased to 
 wear trains, substituting for them trimmings of grebe, of martens' fur, of 
 velvet, and of other materials, of about eighteen inches in width ; some wore 
 on the top of their heads rolls nearly two feet high, shaped like a round cap, 
 which closed in above. Others wore them lower, with veils hanging from the 
 top, and reaching down to the feet. Others wore unusually wide silk bands, 
 with very elegant buckles equally wide, and magnificent gold necklaces of 
 various patterns. 
 
 "About this time, too, men took to wearing shorter clothes than ever, 
 having them made to fit tightly to the body, after the manner of dressing 
 monkeys, which was very shameful and immodest ; and the sleeves of their 
 coats and doublets were slit open so as to show their fine white shirts. They 
 wore their hair so long that it concealed their face and even their eyes, and 
 on their heads they wore cloth caps nearly a foot or more high. They also 
 carried, according to fancy, very splendid gold chains. Knights and squires, 
 and even the varlets, wore silk or velvet doublets ; and almost every one, 
 especially at court, wore poulaines nine inches or more in length. They also 
 wore under their doublets large pads (tnahoitres), in order to appear as if 
 they had broad shoulders." 
 
 Under Charles VIII. the mantle, trimmed with fur, was open in front, 
 its false sleeves being slit up above in order to allow the arms of the under 
 coat to pass through. The cap was turned up ; the breeches or long hose 
 were made tight-fitting. The shoes with poulaines were superseded by a 
 kind of large padded shoe of black leather, round or square at the toes, and 
 gored over the foot with coloured material, a fashion imported from Italy, 
 and which was as much exaggerated in France as the poulaine had formerly 
 been. The women continued to wear conical caps (hennins) of great height, 
 covered with immense veils; their gowns were made with tight-fitting bodies, 
 which thus displayed the outlines of the figure (Figs. 427 and 428) . 
 
 Under Louis XII., Queen Anne invented a low head-dress — or rather it 
 
ITALIAN LAGEWORK, IN GOLD THREAD. 
 The cypher and arms of Henry 111. (lP l \»century.) 
 
COSTUMES. 
 
 545 
 
 Fig. 427.— Costume of Charlotte of Savoy, second Wife of Louis XI.— From a 1 icture of the 
 Period formerly in the Castle of Bourbon-l'Aichambault, M. de Quedeville's .Collection, in Fans. 
 The Arms of Louis XL and Charlotte are painted behind the pictvue. 
 
 4 A 
 
S4& 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 Fig. 428.— Costume of Mary of Burgundy, Daughter of Charles the Bold, Wife of Maximilian of 
 Austria (end of the Fifteenth Century). From an old Engraving in the Collection of the 
 Imperial Library, Paris. 
 
COSTUMES. 54? 
 
 was invented for her— consisting of strips of velvet or of black or violet 
 silk over other bands of while linen, which encircled the lace and fell 
 down over the back and shoulders ; the large sleeves of the dresses had 
 a kind of turned-over borders, with trimmings of enormous width. Men 
 adopted short tunics, plaited and tight at the waist. The upper part of the 
 garments of both men and women was cut in the form of a square over the 
 chest and shoulders, as most figures are represented in the pictures of Raphael 
 and contemporarv painters. 
 
 The introduction of Italian fashions, which in reality did not much 
 differ from those which had been already adopted, but which exhibited 
 better taste and a greater amount of elegance, dates from the famous expedi- 
 tion of Charles VIII. into Italy (Figs. 429 and 130). Full and gathered or 
 puffed sleeves, which gave considerable gracefulness to the upper part of the 
 body, succeeded to the mahoitres, which had been discarded since the time 
 of Louis XL A short and ornamented mantle, a broad-brimmed hat covered 
 with feathers, and trunk hose, the ample dimensions of which earned for 
 them the name of trous&es, formed the male attire at the end of the fifteenth 
 century. Women wore the bodies of their dresses closely fitting to the figure, 
 embroidered, trimmed with lace, and covered with gilt ornaments ; the sleeves 
 were very large and open, and for the most part they still adhered to the 
 heavy and ungraceful head-dress of Queen Anne of Brittany. The principal 
 characteristic of female dress at the time was its fulness ; men's, on the con- 
 trary, with the exception of the mantle or the upper garment, was usually 
 tight and very scanty. 
 
 We find that a distinct separation between ancient and modern dress took 
 place as early as the sixteenth century ; in fact, our present fashions may be 
 said to have taken their origin from about that time. It was during this 
 century that men adopted clothes closely fitting to the body; overcoats with 
 tight sleeves, felt hats with more or less wide brims, and closed shoes and boots. 
 The women also wore their dresses closely fitting to the figure, with tight 
 sleeves, low-crowned hats, and richly-trimmed petticoats. These garments, 
 which differ altogether from those of antiquity, constitute, as it were, the 
 common type from which have since arisen the endless varieties of male and 
 female dress ; and there is no doubt that fashion will thus be continually 
 changing backwards and forwards from time to time, sometimes returning to 
 its original model, and sometimes departing from it. 
 
54§ 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 Figs. 429 anil 430.— Costumes of Young Nobles of the Court of Charles VIII., before and after the 
 Expedition into Italy.— From Miniatures in two Manuscripts of the Period in the National 
 Library of Paris. 
 
 During the sixteenth century, ladies wore the skirts of their dresses, 
 which were tight at the waist and open in front, very wide, displaying 
 the lower part of a very rich under petticoat, which reached to the ground, 
 
COSTUMES. 5+9 
 
 completely concealing the feet. This, like the sleeves with puff's, which 
 fell in circles to the wrists, was altogether an Italian fashion. Frequently 
 the hair was turned over in rolls, and adorned with precious stones, and 
 was surmounted by a small cap, coquettishly placed cither on one side 
 or on the top of the held, and ornamented with gold chains, jewels, and 
 feathers. The body of the dress was always long, and pointed in front. 
 Men wore their coats cut somewhat after the same shape: their trunk hose 
 were tight, but round the waist they were puffed out. They wore a cloak, 
 which only reached as far as the hips, and was always much ornamented; 
 they carried a smooth or ribbed cap on one side of the head, and a small 
 upright collar adorned the coat. This collar was replaced, after the first 
 half of the sixteenth century, by the high, starched ruff, which was kept out 
 by wires ; ladies wore it still larger, when it had somewhat the appearance of 
 an open fan at the back of the neck. 
 
 If we take a retrospective glance at the numerous changes of costume 
 which we have endeavoured to describe in this hurried sketch, we shall find 
 that amongst European nations, during the Middle Ages, there was but one 
 common standard of fashion, which varied from time to time according to the 
 particular custom of each country, and according to the peculiarities of each 
 race. In Italy, for instance, dress always maintained a certain character of 
 grandeur, ever recalling the fact that the influence of antiquity was not quite 
 lost. In Germany and Switzerland, garments had generally a heavy and 
 massive appearance ; in Holland, still more so (Figs. 436 and 437). England 
 uniformly studied a kind of instinctive elegance and propriety. It is a 
 curious fact that Spain invariably partook of the heaviness peculiar to 
 Germany, either because the Gothic element still prevailed there, or that 
 the Walloon fashions had a special attraction to her owing to associations and 
 general usage. France was then, as it is now, fickle and capricious, fantas- 
 tical and wavering, but not from indifference, but because she was always 
 ready to borrow from every quarter anything which pleased her. She, how- 
 ever, never failed to put her own stamp on whatever she adopted, thus making 
 any fashion essentially French, even though she had only just borrowed it 
 from Spain, England, Germany, or Italy. In all these countries we have 
 seen, and still see, entire provinces adhering to some ancient costume, causing 
 them to differ altogether in character from the rest of the nation. This is 
 simply owing to the fact that the fashions have become obsolete in the 
 
55° 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 <2ftlimlffl* 
 
 Fig. 431. — Costumes of a Nobleman or a very rich Bourgeois, of a Bourgeois or Merchant, and of a 
 Noble Lady or rich Bourgeoise, of the Time of Louis XII. — From Miniatures in Manuscripts 
 of the Period, in the Imperial Library of Paris. 
 
 neighbouring places, for every local costume faithfully and rigorously pre- 
 served by any community at a distance from the centre of political action or 
 government, must have been originally brought there by the nobles of the 
 
COSTUMES. 
 
 55' 
 
 Fig. 432. — Costume of a rich Bourgeoise, and of a Noble or Person of Distinction, of the Time ot 
 Francis I. — From a Window in the Church of St. Ouen at Rouen, by Gaignieres (National 
 Library of Paris). 
 
 country. Thus the head-dress of Anne of Brittany is still that of the peasant- 
 women of Penhoet and of Labrevack, and the hennin of Isabel of Bavaria is 
 still the he.id-dress of Normandy. 
 
s; 2 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 Although the subject has reached the limits we have by the very nature 
 of this work assigued to it, we think it well to overstep them somewhat, in 
 order briefly to indicate the last connecting link between modern fashions 
 and those of former periods. 
 
 Under Francis I., the costumes adopted from Italy remained almost 
 
 Figs. 433 and 134. — Costumes of the Ladies and Damsels of the Court of Catherine de Medicis. — 
 
 After Cesare Vecellio. 
 
 stationary (Fig. 432). Under Henri II. (Figs. 433 and 434), and especially 
 after the death of that prince, the taste for frivolities made immense progress, 
 and the style of dress in ordinary use seemed day by day to lose the feu- 
 traces of dignity which it had previously possessed. 
 
 Catherine de Medicis had introduced into France the fashion of ruffs, and 
 
COSTUMES. 
 
 55 3 
 
 ul the beginning of the fourteenth century, Marie de Jfedicis that of small 
 collars. Dresses tight at the waist began to be made very full round the 
 hips, by means of large padded rolls, and these were still more enlarged, 
 under the name of rrrtitgtttliiis (corrupted from miu-gttrdieits), by a mon- 
 strous arrangement of padded whalebone and steel, which subsequently 
 became the ridiculous jjiutierx, which were worn almost, down to the com- 
 mencement of the present century ; and the fashion seems likely to come 
 into vogue again. 
 
 Under the hist of the Talois, men's dress was short, the jacket was pointed 
 
 Fij,-. 13.5.— Costume of a Uentlemun of the lnneli Ccimt, ;i the lind "1 the Sixteenth Century. 
 Fur-simile of a Miniature in the " Livie de Poesies," Manuscript dedicated to Henri IV. 
 
 and trimmed round with small peaks, the velvet cap was trimmed with 
 aigrettes; the beard was pointed, a pearl hung from the left ear, and a small 
 cloak or mantle was carried on the shoulder, which only reached to the 
 waist. The use of gloves made of scented leather became universal. Ladies 
 wore their dresses long, very full, and very costly, little or no change being 
 made in these respects during the reign of Henri IT. At this period, the 
 men's high hose were made longer and fuller, especially in Spain and the 
 Low Countries, and the fashion of large soft boots, made of doeskin or of 
 black morocco, became universal, on account of their being so comfortable. 
 
 4 i; 
 
^5 + 
 
 COSTUMES. 
 
 We may remark that the costume of the bourgeois was for a long time 
 almost unchanged, even in the towns. Never having adopted either the 
 tight-fitting hose or the balloon trousers, they wore an easy jerkin, a large 
 cloak, and a felt hat, which the English made conical and with a broad brim. 
 
 Towards the beginning of the seventeenth century, the high hose which 
 were worn by the northern nations, profusely trimmed, was transformed into 
 the culof.tr, which was full and open at the knees. A division was thus 
 suddenly made between the lower and the upper part of the hose, as if the 
 garment which covered the lower limbs had been cut in two, and garters 
 were then necessarily invented. The felt hat became over almost the whole 
 of Europe a cap, taking the exact form of the head, and having a wide, flat 
 brim turned up on one side. High heels were added to boots and shoes, 
 which up to that time had been flat and with single soles. .... Two 
 centuries later, a terrible social agitation took place all over Europe, after 
 which male attire became mean, ungraceful, plain and more paltry than ever; 
 whereas female dress, the fashions of which were perpetually changing from 
 day to day, became graceful and elegant, though too often approaching to 
 the extravagant and absurd. 
 
 Fig-a. 436 and 437. — Costumes of the German Bourgeoisie in the Middle of il 
 Sixteenth Century. — Drawings attributed to Holbein. 
 
 ',- 
 
 LONDON : FEINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., CITY ROAD.