6. When Gaul was overrun by the Franks, a great part of the lands was possessed on this tenure by the Roman soldiery, as the rest was by the native Gauls. The conquerors, accustomed to the same policy, would naturally adopt it in the partition of their new conquests; each man, on receiving his share, becoming bound to military service, as a condition necessarily annexed to territorial property. [This obligation on the proprietors of land can be traced back to a very early period in the history of the Franks. Chilperick, who began his reign in 561, exacted a fine, bannos jussit exigi, from certain persons who had refused to accompany him in an expedition. Childebert II., 576-96, proceeded in the same manner, which shows that the land was held conditionally even at that early time.] With respect to those Gauls who retained their possessions, no other change was necessary, than to exact the same obligation of military vassalage to their new conquerors that they had rendered to their former masters, the emperors; and, before the Roman conquest, to their native chiefs. Thus no other change took place than that of the overlord. The system was the same which had prevailed for ages.

7. But these beneficia, or fiefs, were personal grants, revocable by the sovereign or overlord, and reverting to him on the death of the vassal. The weakness of the Frank kings of the Merovingian race imboldened the possessors of fiefs to aspire at independence and security of property. In a convention held at Andely in 587, to treat of peace between Gontran and Childebert II., the nobles obliged these princes to renounce the right of revoking their benefices, which henceforward passed by inheritance to their eldest male issue.

8. It was a necessary consequence of a fief becoming perpetual and hereditary, that it should be capable of subinfeudation; and that the vassal himself, holding his land of the sovereign by the tenure of military service, should be enabled to create a train of inferior vassals, by giving to them portions of his estate to be held on the same condition, of following his standard in battle, rendering him homage as their lord, and paying, as the symbol of their subjection, a small annual present, either of money, or the fruits of their lands. Thus, in a little time, the whole territory in the feudal kingdoms was either held immediately and in capite of the sovereign himself, or mediately by inferior vassals of the tenants in capite.

9. It was natural, that in those disorderly times, when the authority of government and the obligation of general laws were extremely weak, the superior or overlord should acquire a civil and criminal jurisdiction over his vassals. The Comites, to whom, as the chief magistrates of police, the administration of justice belonged of right, paid little attention to the duties of their office, and shamefully abused their powers. The inferior classes naturally chose, instead of seeking justice through this corrupted channel, to submit their law-suits to the arbitration of

their overlord; and this jurisdiction, conferred at first by the acquiescence of parties, came at length to be regarded as founded on strict right. Hence arose a perpetual contest of jurisdiction between the greater barons in their own territories and the (king's) established judicatories; a natural cause of that extreme anarchy and disorder which prevailed in France during the greater part of the Merovingian period, and which sunk the regal authority to the lowest pitch of abasement. In a government of which every part was at variance with the rest, it is not surprising that a new power should arise, which, in able hands, should be capable of enslaving and bringing the whole under subjection.

10. The mayor of the palace, or first officer of the household, gradually usurped, under a series of weak princes, the whole powers of the sovereign. This office, from a personal dignity, became hereditary in the family of Pepin d' Heristal; and his grandson, Pepin le Bref, removing from the throne those phantoms of the Merovingian race, assumed, by the authority of a papal decrée, the title of king, and reigned for seventeen years with dignity and success, the founder of the second race of the French monarchs, known by the name of the Carlovingian, which filled the throne of France for a period of 253 years.

SECTION V.

CHARLEMAGNE-THE NEW EMPIRE OF THE WEST,
768-814. A. C.

1. PEPIN le Bref, with the consent of his nobles, divided, on his death-bed, the kingdom of France between his sons Charles and Carloman, 768 a. C. The latter dying a few years after his father, Charles succeeded to the undivided sovereignty in 771. In the course of a reign of forty-five years, Charlemagne (or Charles the Great, for so he was deservedly styled) extended the limits of his empire beyond the Danube; subdued Dacia, Dalmatia, and Istria; conquered and subjected all the barbarous tribes to the banks of the Vistula; made himself master of a great portion of Italy, and successfully encountered the arms of the Saracens, the Huns, the Bulgarians, and the Saxons. His war with the Saxons [whose territories extended from the Lower Rhine to the Elbe and the Baltic,] was of thirty years' duration, and their final conquest was not achieved without an inhuman waste of blood. At the request of the pope, and to discharge the obligation of his father Pepin to the Holy See, Charlemagne, though allied by marriage to Desiderius king of the Lombards, crossed the Great Saint Bernard from Geneva, and dispossessed that prince of all his dominions, and put a final period to the

Lombard dominion in Italy, in 774, which had been founded by the Pannonian Alboin in 568.

2. He made his entry into Rome at the festival of Easter, was there crowned king of France and of the Lombards, and was, by pope Adrian I., invested with the right of ratifying the election of the popes. Irene, empress of the East, sought to ally herself with Charlemagne, by the marriage of her son Constantine to the daughter of that monarch; but her subsequent inhuman conduct in putting Constantine to death, gave ground to suspect the sincerity of her desire for that alliance.

3. In the last visit of Charlemagne to Italy, he was consecrated Emperor of the West by the hands of pope Leo III., on Christmas day, in the year 800. It is probable, that had he chosen Rome for his residence and seat of government, and at his death transmitted to his successor an undivided dominion, that great but fallen empire might have once more been restored to lustre and respect; but Charlemagne had no fixed capital, and in 806, divided his dominions among his three sons, two of whom however died shortly after, the one in 810, and the other in 811.

4. The economy of government and the domestic administration of Charlemagne merit attention. Pepin le Bref had introduced the system of annual assemblies or parliaments, held at first in March, and afterwards in May, where the chief estates of clergy and nobles were called to deliberate on the public affairs and the wants of the people. Charlemagne appointed the assemblies to be held twice in the year, in spring and in autumn. In the latter all affairs were prepared and digested; in the former was transacted the business of legislation: and of this assembly he made the people a party, by admitting from each province or district twelve deputies or representatives. The assembly now consisted of three estates, who each formed a separate chamber, which discussed apart the concerns of its own order, and afterwards united to communicate their resolutions, or to deliberate on their common interests. The sovereign was never present, unless when called to ratify the decrees of the assembly. [His laws (capitularies) corrected a vast number of abuses, and gave new ideas of justice; but the judgments of God, the valuations of crimes at sums of money, and other barbarities, were unfortunately suffered to remain.]

5. Charlemagne divided the empire into provinces, and these into districts, each comprehending a certain number of counties. The districts were governed by royal envoys called missi dominici, chosen by the emperor from the clergy and nobles, and bound to an exact visitation of their territories every three months, [to examine into the state of religion, and to see that ecclesiastics performed faithfully their duties; to superintend the execution of the laws, and to see that equal justice was administered to all without distinction.] They also held yearly

conventions, at which were present the higher clergy and barons, to discuss the affairs of the district, examine the conduct of its magistrates, and redress the grievances of individuals. At the general assembly, or Champ de Mai, the royal envoys made their report to the sovereign and states; and thus the public attention was constantly directed to all the concerns of the empire.

*

6. The private character of Charlemagne was most amiable and respectable. His secretary, Eginhart, has painted his domestic life in beautiful and simple colouring. The economy of his family, when the daughters of the emperor were assiduously employed in spinning and housewifery, and the sons trained by their father in the practice of all manly exercises, is characteristic of an age of great simplicity. [In Charlemagne wereunited the talents of the warrior, the genius of the legislator, and the largeness of mind necessary to form a great politician—born in the midst of barbarism and ignorance, he poured around him a stream of light and of glory. He pursued with constancy and with increasing ability, the end he proposed to himself, viz, establishing the reign of the laws, and a flourishing civilization; but barbarism was too strong for him; and when he died, in 814, it was re-established throughout the empire. His perpetual wars had almost destroyed the middle class of freemen; so that society now consisted of a few great proprietors and an immense mass of slaves. In the grants of Charlemagne he invariably bestows lands "with all the inhabitants, houses, slaves, meadows, moveables, and immoveables."] Contemporary with him was Harun al Rashid, caliph of the Saracens, equally celebrated for his conquests, excellent policy, and the wisdom and humanity of his government.

7. Of all the lawful sons of Charlemagne, Lewis the Debonaire was the only one who survived him, and who therefore succeeded without dispute to the imperial dominions, excepting Italy, which the emperor had settled on Bernard, his grandson by Pepin, his second son.

SECTION VI.

MANNERS, GOVERNMENT, AND CUSTOMS OF THE AGE OF

CHARLEMAGNE.

1. IN establishing the provincial conventions under the royal envoys, Charlemagne did not entirely abolish the authority of the ancient chief magistrates, the dukes and counts. They con

This character will admit of some modification, when it is known that he had nine wives, whom he divorced with little ceremony. His daughters too were far from being models of virtue, their lives bringing scandal on the royal palace See Hallam.

tinued to command the troops of the province, and to make the levies in stated numbers from each district. Cavalry was not numerous in the imperial armies, twelve farms being taxed to furnish only one horseman with his armour and accoutrements. The province supplied six months' provisions to its complement of men, and the king maintained them during the rest of the campaign.

2. The engines for the attack and defence of towns were, as in former times, the ram, the balista, catapulta, testudo, &c. Charlemagne had his ships of war stationed in the mouths of all the large rivers. He bestowed great attention on commerce The merchants of Italy and the south of France traded to the Levant, and exchanged the commodities of Europe and Asia. Venice and Genoa were rising into commercial opulence; and the manufactures of wool, of glass, and iron, were successfully cultivated in many of the principal towns in the south of Europe.

3. The value of money was nearly the same as in the Roman empire in the age of Constantine the Great. The numerary livre, in the age of Charlemagne, was supposed to be a pound of silver, in value about £3 sterling of English money. At present the livre is worth 10d. English. Hence we ought to be cautious in forming our estimate of ancient money from its name; and from the want of this caution have arisen the most erroneous ideas of the commerce, riches, and strength, of the ancient kingdoms.

4. The Capitularia of Charlemagne, compiled into a body in 827, were recovered from oblivion in 1531 and 1545. They present many circumstances illustrative of the manners of the times. Unless in great cities, there were no inns; the laws obliged every man to give accommodation to travellers, and it was considered the highest breach of civil and religious duty to refuse to do so. The chief towns were built of wood, and even the walls were of that material. The state of the mechanical arts was very low in Europe: the Saracens had brought them to greater perfection. Painting and sculpture were only preserved from absolute extinction by the existing remains of ancient art. Charlemagne appears to have been anxious for the improvement of music; and the Italians are said to have instructed his French performers in the art of playing on the organ. Architecture was studied and successfully cultivated in that style called Gothic, which admits of great beauty, elegance, and magnificence. The composition of Mosaic appears to have been an invention of those

ages.

5. The knowledge of letters was extremely low, and confined to a few of the ecclesiastics: but Charlemagne gave the utmost encouragement to literature and the sciences, inviting into his dominions of France, men eminent in those departments from Italy, and from the Britannic Isles, which, in those dark ages,