Period of Anarchy and the Rise of Feudalism

PERIOD OF ANARCHY AND THE RISE OF FEUDALISM The loth and i r th centuries were a period of profound anarchy, during which feudalism took a more definite shape. The sovereigns no longer made laws, the old capitularies and leges fell into disuse and in their place territorial customs arose which were at first ill defined and strictly local. Apart from the influence of the church, government rested on brute force. In this anarchy, men drew together and formed themselves into groups for mutual de fence. A nucleus was formed which was to become the new social unit, that is to say, the feudal group. Of this the centre was a chief, around whom gathered men capable of bearing arms, who commended themselves to him according to the old form of vas salage. They owed him fidelity, assistance and the support of their arms ; while he owed them protection. Some of them lived in his castle or fortified house, receiving their equipment only and eating at his table. Others received lands from him, which be came the fiefs of a later time. The fief was generally held for life and did not become universally hereditary till the second half of the r i th century. All these conditions had already existed prev iously in much the same form ; but the new development is that the chief was no longer, as before, merely an intermediary between his men and the royal power. The group had become in effect independent, so organized as to be socially and politically self sufficient. It constituted a small army, led, naturally, by the chief, and composed of his feudatories, supplemented in case of need by the rustici. It also formed an assembly in which common interests were discussed, the lord, according to custom, being bound to con sult his feudatories and they to advise him to the best of their power. It also formed a court of justice, in which the feudatories gave judgment under the presidency of their lord; and all of the them claimed to be subject only to the jurisdiction of this tribunal composed of their peers. Generally they also judged the villeins (villani) and the serfs dependent on the group, except in the rare cases where the latter obtained as a favour judges of their own status. Under these conditions a nobility was formed, those men becoming nobles who were able to devote themselves to the pro fession of arms and this nobility was not a caste but could be indefinitely recruited by the granting of fiefs and admission to knighthood (see KNIGHTHOOD AND CHIVALRY).

Private War.

The state of anarchy was by now so far ad vanced that the custom of private war arose. Every man claimed the right of making war to defend his rights or to avenge his wrongs. Later on, this was a privilege of the noble but the texts defining the limits which the Church endeavoured to set to this abuse, namely, the Peace of God and the Truce of God, show that at the outset it was a power possessed by men of all classes. Even a man who had appeared in a court of law and received judgment had the choice of refusing to accept the judgment arid of making war instead.

In this state of political disintegration each part of the country which had a homogeneous character tended to form itself into a higher unit. In this unit there arose a powerful lord, generally a duke, a count or a viscount, either a former official of the mon archy, whose function had become hereditary, or a usurper who had formed himself on this model. He laid claim to an authority other than that conferred by the possession of real property. His court of justice was held in the highest honour, and to it were referred the most important affairs. But in such a district there were generally a number of more or less powerful lords, with as yet no particular feudal title who had generally commended themselves to this duke or count by doing homage.

The Royal Power.

On On the other hand, the royal power con tinued to exist. Under the last Carolingians it had in fact become 'elective, as is shown by the elections of Odo and Robert before that of Hugh Capet. The electors were the chief lords and pre lates of the regnum Francorum. But each king during his lifetime secured the coronation of his eldest son so that the first of the Capetians revived the principle of heredity in favour of the eldest son, while establishing the hereditary indivisibility of the kingdom. But the only real authority of the king lay where his own posses sions were, or where there had not arisen a duke, a count or lord of equal rank with them. He maintained, however, a court, the jurisdiction of which seems to have been universal, though the parties in a suit could accept or reject the judgment given. The king dispensed justice surrounded by the officers of his household, who formed a permanent council. Periodically, at the great yearly festivals, he called together the chief lords and prelates of his kingdom, thus carrying on the tradition of the Carolingian placita or conventus; but little by little the character of the gathering changed; it was no longer an assembly of officials but of inde pendent lords. This was the origin of the curia regis.

The Church.

While the power of the State was almost dis appearing, that of the Church continued to grow. Her jurisdic tion gained ground, since her procedure was reasonable and com paratively scientific. Not only was the privilege of clergy, by which accused clerks were brought under her jurisdiction, almost absolute, but she had cognizance of a number of causes in which laymen only were concerned, marriage and everything nearly or re motely affecting it, wills, crimes and offences against religion and even contracts, when the two parties wished it or when the agree ment was made on oath. The Church, moreover, remained in close connection with the crown, while the royal prerogatives with re gard to the election of bishops were maintained more successfully than other rights of the crown, though in many of the great fiefs they none the less passed to the count or the duke. It was at this time too that the Church tried to break the last ties which still kept her more or less dependent on the civil power (see INVESTI