A Source Book of Mediaeval History Part 39

[447] Louis started on his first crusade in August, 1248. After a series of disasters in Egypt he managed to reach the Holy Land, where he spent nearly four years fortifying the great seaports. He returned to France in July, 1254. Sixteen years later, in July, 1270, he started on his second crusade. He had but reached Carthage when he was suddenly taken ill and compelled to halt the expedition. He died there August 25, 1270. Louis was as typical a crusader as ever lived, but in his day men of his kind were few; the great era of crusading enterprise was past.

[448] This was Philip, son of Philip Augustus. The lands of the count of Boulogne lay on the coast of the English Channel north of the Somme.

[449] An important church center about seventy miles north of Paris.

[450] A town a few miles south of Paris.

[451] In the early years of the thirteenth century, an Asiatic chieftain by the name of Genghis Khan built up a vast empire of Mongol or Tartar peoples, which for a time stretched all the way from China to eastern Germany. The rise and westward expansion of this barbarian power spread alarm throughout Christendom, and with good reason, for it was with great difficulty that the Tartar sovereigns were prevented from extending their dominion over Germany and perhaps over all western Europe. After the first feeling of terror had pa.s.sed, however, it began to be considered that possibly the Asiatic conquerors might yet be made to serve the interests of Christendom. They were not Mohammedans, and Christian leaders saw an opportunity to turn them against the Saracen master of the coveted Holy Land. Louis IX.'s reception of an emba.s.sy from Ilchikadai, one of the Tartar khans, or sovereigns, was only one of several incidents which ill.u.s.trate the efforts made in this direction. After this episode the Tartars advanced rapidly into Syria, taking the important cities of Damascus and Aleppo; but a great defeat, September 3, 1260, by the sultan Kutuz at Ain Talut stemmed the tide of invasion and compelled the Tartars to retire to their northern dominions.

[452] May 21, 1249.

[453] Joinville here gives an account of the first important undertaking of the crusaders--the capture of Damietta. After this achievement the king resolved to await the arrival of his brother, the count of Poitiers, with additional troops. The delay thus occasioned was nearly half a year in length, i.e., until October.

[454] This was a common designation of Cairo, the Saracen capital of Egypt.

[455] December 6.

[456] The order of the Templars was founded in 1119 to afford protection to pilgrims in Palestine. The name was taken from the temple of Solomon, in Jerusalem, near which the organization's headquarters were at first established. The Templars, in their early history, were a military order and they had a prominent part in most of the crusading movements after their foundation.

[457] At this point Joinville gives an extended description of the Nile and its numerous mouths. King Louis found himself on the bank of one of the streams composing the delta, with the sultan's army drawn up on the other side to prevent the Christians from crossing. Louis determined to construct an embankment across the stream, so that his troops might cross and engage in battle with the enemy. To protect the men engaged in building the embankment, two towers, called cat castles (because they were in front of two cats, or covered galleries) were erected. Under cover of these, the work of constructing a pa.s.sageway went on, though the Saracens did not cease to shower missiles upon the laborers.

[458] An instrument intended primarily for the hurling of stones.

[459] Greek fire was made in various ways, but its main ingredients were sulphur, Persian gum, pitch, petroleum, and oil. It was a highly inflammable substance and when once ignited could be extinguished only by the use of vinegar or sand. It was used quite extensively by the Saracens in their battles with the crusaders, being usually projected in the form of fire-b.a.l.l.s from hollow tubes.

[460] An acid liquor made from sour apples or grapes.

[461] Charles, count of Anjou--a brother of Saint Louis.

[462] Joinville's story of the remainder of the campaign in Egypt is a long one. Enough has been given to show something of the character of the conflicts between Saracen and crusader. In the end Louis was compelled to withdraw his shattered army. He then made his way to the Holy Land in the hope of better success, but the four years he spent there were likewise a period of disappointment.

[463] The treaty here referred to is that of Paris, negotiated by Louis IX. and Henry III. in 1259. By it the English king renounced his claim to Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and Poitou, while Louis IX.

ceded to Henry the Limousin, Perigord, and part of Saintonge, besides the reversion of Agenais and Quercy. The territories thus abandoned by the French were to be annexed to the duchy of Guienne, for which Henry III. was to render homage to the French king, just as had been rendered by the English sovereigns before the conquests of Philip Augustus. Manifestly Louis IX.'s chief motive in yielding possession of lands he regarded as properly his was to secure peace with England and to get the homage of the English king for Guienne. For upwards of half a century the relations of England and France had been strained by reason of the refusal of Henry III. to recognize the conquests of Philip Augustus and to render the accustomed homage. The treaty of Paris was important because it regulated the relations of France and England to the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War. It undertook to perpetuate the old division of French soil between the English and French monarchs--an arrangement always fruitful of discord and destined, more than anything else, to bring on the great struggle of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries between the two nations [see p.

417 ff.].

[464] A fur much esteemed in the Middle Ages. It is not known whether it was the fur of a single animal or of several kinds combined.

[465] A woven fabric made of camel's hair.

[466] After his retirement from the royal service in 1254 Joinville frequently made social visits at Louis's court.

[467] On the Franciscans and Dominicans [see p. 360].

[468] To the east from Paris--now a suburb of that city. The chateau of Vincennes was one of the favorite royal residences.

[469] That is, a case in law.

CHAPTER XX.

MUNIc.i.p.aL ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITY

57. Some Twelfth Century Town Charters

In the times of the Carolingians the small and scattered towns and villages of western Europe, particularly of France, were inhabited mainly by serfs and villeins, i.e., by a dependent rather than an independent population. With scarcely an exception, these urban centers belonged to the lords of the neighboring lands, who administered their affairs through mayors, provosts, bailiffs, or other agents, collected from them seigniorial dues as from the rural peasantry, and, in short, took entire charge of matters of justice, finance, military obligations, and industrial arrangements. There was no local self-government, nothing in the way of munic.i.p.al organization separate from the feudal regime, and no important burgher cla.s.s as distinguished from the agricultural laborers. By the twelfth century a great transformation is apparent. France has come to be dotted with strong and often largely independent munic.i.p.alities, and a powerful cla.s.s of bourgeoisie, essentially anti-feudal in character, has risen to play an increasing part in the nation's political and economic life. In these new munic.i.p.alities there is a larger measure of freedom of person, security of property, and rights of self-government than Europe had known since the days of Charlemagne, perhaps even since the best period of the Roman Empire.

The reason for this transformation--in other words, the origin of these new munic.i.p.al centers--has been variously explained. One theory is that the munic.i.p.al system of the Middle Ages was essentially a survival of that which prevailed in western Europe under the fostering influence of Rome. The best authorities now reject this view, for there is every reason to believe that, speaking generally, the barbarian invasions and feudalism practically crushed out the munic.i.p.al inst.i.tutions of the Empire. Another theory ascribes the origin of mediaeval munic.i.p.al government to the merchant and craft guilds, particularly the former; but there is little evidence to support the view. Undeniably the guild was an important factor in drawing groups of burghers together and forming centers of combination against local lords, but it was at best only one of several forces tending to the growth of munic.i.p.al life. Other factors of larger importance were the military and the commercial. On the one hand, the need of protection led people to flock to fortified places--castles or monasteries--and settle in the neighborhood; on the other, the growth of commerce and industry, especially after the eleventh century, caused strategic places like the intersection of great highways and rivers to become seats of permanent and growing population. The towns which thus sprang up in response to new conditions and necessities in time took on a political as well as a commercial and industrial character, princ.i.p.ally through the obtaining of charters from the neighboring lords, defining the measure of independence to be enjoyed and the respective rights of lord and town. Charters of the sort were usually granted by the lord, not merely because requested by the burghers, but because they were paid for and const.i.tuted a valuable source of revenue. Not infrequently, however, a charter was wrested from an unwilling lord through open warfare. It was in the first half of the twelfth century that town charters became common. As a rule they were obtained by the larger towns (it should be borne in mind that a population of 10,000 was large in the twelfth century), but not necessarily so, for many villages of two or three hundred people secured them also.

The two great cla.s.ses of towns were the _villes libres_ (free towns) and the _villes franches_, or _villes de bourgeoisie_ (franchise, or chartered, towns). The free towns enjoyed a large measure of independence. In relation to their lords they occupied essentially the position of va.s.sals, with the legislative, financial, and judicial privileges which by the twelfth century all great va.s.sals had come to have. The burghers elected their own officers, const.i.tuted their own courts, made their own laws, levied taxes, and even waged war. The leading types of free cities were the communes of northern France (governed by a provost and one or more councils, often essentially oligarchical) and the consulates of southern France and northern Italy (distinguished from the communes by the fact that the executive was made up of "consuls," and by the greater partic.i.p.ation of the local n.o.bility in town affairs). A typical free town of the commune type, was Laon, in the region of northern Champagne. In 1109 the bishop of Laon, who was lord of the city, consented to the establishment of a communal government. Three years later he sought to abolish it, with the result that an insurrection was stirred up in which he lost his life. King Louis VI. intervened and the citizens were obliged to submit to the authority of the new bishop, though in 1328 fear of another uprising led this official to renew the old grant. The act was ratified by Louis VI. in the text (a) given below.

The other great cla.s.s of towns--the franchise towns--differed from the free towns in having a much more limited measure of political and economic independence. They received grants of privileges, or "franchises," from their lord, especially in the way of restrictions of rights of the latter over the persons and property of the inhabitants, but they remained politically subject to the lord and their government was partly or wholly under his control. Their charters set a limit to the lord's arbitrary authority, emanc.i.p.ated such inhabitants as were not already free, gave the citizens the right to move about and to alienate property, subst.i.tuted money payments for the corvee, and in general made old regulations less burdensome; but as a rule no political rights were conferred. Paris, Tours, Orleans, and other more important cities on the royal domain belonged to this cla.s.s. The town of Lorris, on the royal domain a short distance east of Orleans, became the common model for the type. Its charter, received from Louis VII. in 1155, is given in the second selection (b) below.

Sources--(a) Text in Vilevault and Brequigny, _Ordonnances des Rois de France de la Troisieme Race_ ["Ordinances of the Kings of France of the Third Dynasty"], Paris, 1769, Vol. XI., pp.

185-187.

(b) Text in Maurice Prou, _Les Coutumes de Lorris et leur Propagation aux XIIe et XIIIe Siecles_ ["The Customs of Lorris and their Spread in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries"], Paris, 1884, pp. 129-141.

(a)

=1.= Let no one arrest any freeman or serf for any offense without due process of law.[470]

[Sidenote: Provisions of the charter of Laon]

=2.= But if any one do injury to a clerk, soldier, or merchant, native or foreign, provided he who does the injury belongs to the same city as the injured person, let him, summoned after the fourth day, come for justice before the mayor and jurats.[471]

=7.= If a thief is arrested, let him be brought to him on whose land he has been arrested; but if justice is not done by the lord, let it be done by the jurats.[472]

=12.= We entirely abolish mortmain.[473]

=18.= The customary tallages we have so reformed that every man owing such tallages, at the time when they are due, must pay four pence, and beyond that no more.[474]

=19.= Let men of the peace not be compelled to resort to courts outside the city.[475]

(b)

=1.= Every one who has a house in the parish of Lorris shall pay as _cens_ sixpence only for his house, and for each acre of land that he possesses in the parish.[476]

=2.= No inhabitant of the parish of Lorris shall be required to pay a toll or any other tax on his provisions; and let him not be made to pay any measurage fee on the grain which he has raised by his own labor.[477]

=3.= No burgher shall go on an expedition, on foot or on horseback, from which he cannot return the same day to his home if he desires.[478]

=4.= No burgher shall pay toll on the road to etampes, to Orleans, to Milly (which is in the Gatinais), or to Melun.[479]

[Sidenote: The charter of Lorris]

=5.= No one who has property in the parish of Lorris shall forfeit it for any offense whatsoever, unless the offense shall have been committed against us or any of our _hotes_.[480]