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Section 2 of 45 - Table of Contents
Dance called "La Gaillarde"
" of Fools, Thirteenth Century
" by Torchlight
Dancers on Christmas Night
David playing on the Lyre
Dealer in Eggs, Sixteenth Century
Deer, Appearance of, and how to hunt them with Dogs
Deputies of the Burghers of Ghent, Fourteenth Century
Dice-maker
Distribution of Bread, Meat, and Wine
Doge of Venice, Costume of the, before the Sixteenth Century
" in Ceremonial Costume of the Sixteenth Century
" Procession of the
Dog-kennel, Fifteenth Century
Dogs, Diseases of, and their Cure, Fourteenth Century
Dortmund, View of, Sixteenth Century
_Drille_, or _Narquois_, Fifteenth Century
Drinkers of the North, The Great
Druggist
Dues on Wine
Dyer
Edict, Promulgation of an
Elder and Juror, Ceremonial Dress of an
Elder and Jurors of the Tanners of Ghent
Eloy, St., Signature of
Empalement
Entry of Louis XI. into Paris
Equestrian Performances, Thirteenth Century
Estrapade, The, or Question Extraordinary
Executions
Exhibitor of Strange Animals
Falcon, How to train a New, Fourteenth Century
" How to bathe a New
Falconer, Dress of the, Thirteenth Century
" German, Sixteenth Century
Falconers, Thirteenth Century
" dressing their Birds, Fourteenth Century
Falconry, Art of, King Modus teaching the, Fourteenth Century
" Varlets of, Fourteenth Century
Families, The, and the Barbarians
Fight between a Horse and Dogs, Thirteenth Century
Fireworks on the Water
Fish, Conveyance of, by Water and Land
Flemish Peasants, Fifteenth Century
Franc, Silver, Henry IV.
Franks, Fourth to Eighth Century
" King or Chief of the, Ninth Century
" King of the, dictating the Salic Law
Fredegonde giving orders to assassinate Sigebert, from a Window of the
Fifteenth Century
Free Judges
Funeral Token
Gallo-Roman Costumes
Gaston Phoebus teaching the Art of Venery
German Beggars
" Knights, Fifteenth Century
" Soldiers, Sixth to Twelfth Century
" Sportsman, Sixteenth Century
Ghent, Civic Guard of
Gibbet of Montfaucon, The
Gipsies Fortune-telling
" on the March
Gipsy Encampment
" Family, A
" who used to wash his Hands in Molten Lead
Goldbeater
Goldsmith
Goldsmiths of Ghent, Names and Titles of some of the Members
of the Corporation of, Fifteenth Century
" Group of, Seventeenth Century.
Grain-measurers of Ghent, Arms of the
Grape, Treading the
Grocer and Druggist, Shop of a, Seventeenth Century
Hanging to Music
Hare, How to allure the
Hatter
Hawking, Lady setting out, Fourteenth Century
Hawks, Young, how to make them fly, Fourteenth Century
Hay-carriers, Sixteenth Century
Herald, Fourteenth Century
Heralds, Lodge of the
Heron-hawking, Fourteenth Century
Hostelry, Interior of an, Sixteenth Century
Hotel des Ursins, Paris, Fourteenth Century
Hunting-meal
Imperial Procession
Infant Richard, The, crucified by the Jews at Pontoise
Irmensul and Crodon, Idols of the Ancient Saxons
Iron Cage
Issue de Table, The
Italian Beggar
" Jew, Fourteenth Century
" Kitchen, Interior of
" Nobleman, Fifteenth Century
Jacques Coeur, Amende honorable of, before
Charles VII
" House of, at Bourges
Jean Jouvenel des Ursins, Provost of Paris, and Michelle de Vitry, his
Wife (Reign of Charles VI.)
Jerusalem, View and Plan of
Jew, Legend of a, calling the Devil from a Vessel of Blood
Jewish Ceremony before the Ark
" Conspiracy in France
" Procession
Jews taking the Blood from Christian Children
" of Cologne burnt alive, The
" Expulsion of the, in the Reign of the Emperor Hadrian
" Secret Meeting of the
John the Baptist, Decapitation of
John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, Assassination of
Judge, Fifteenth Century
Judicial Duel, The
Jugglers exhibiting Monkeys and Bears, Thirteenth Century
" performing in Public, Thirteenth Century
King-at-Arms presenting the Sword to the Duc de Bourbon
King's Court, The, or Grand Council, Fifteenth Century
Kitchen, Interior of a, Sixteenth Century.
" and Table Utensils
Knife-handles in Ivory, Sixteenth Century
Knight in War-harness
Knight and his Lady, Fourteenth Century
Knights and Men-at-Arms of the Reign of Louis le Gros
Labouring Colons, Twelfth Century
Lambert of Liege, St., Chimes of the Clock of
Landgrave of Thuringia and his Wife
Lawyer, Sixteenth Century
Leopard, Hunting with the, Sixteenth Century
Lubeck and its Harbour, View of, Sixteenth Century
Maidservants, Dress of, Thirteenth Century
Mallet, Louis de, Admiral of France
Mark's Place, St., Venice, Sixteenth Century
Marseilles and its Harbour, View and Plan of, Sixteenth Century
Measurers of Corn, Paris, Sixteenth Century
Measuring Salt
Merchant Vessel in a Storm
Merchants and Lion-keepers at Constantinople
Merchants of Rouen, Medal to commemorate the Association of the
Merchants of Rouen, Painting commemorative of the Union of, Seventeenth
Century
Merchants or Tradesmen, Fourteenth Century
Metals, The Extraction of
Miller, The, Sixteenth Century
Mint, The, Sixteenth Century
Musician accompanying the Dancing
New-born Child, The
Nicholas Flamel, and Pernelle, his Wife, from a Painting of the Fifteenth
Century
Nobility, Costumes of the, from the Seventh to the Ninth century
" Ladies of the, in the Ninth Century
Noble Ladies and Children, Dress of, Fourteenth Century
Noble Lady and Maid of Honour, Fourteenth Century
Noble of Provence, Fifteenth Century
Nobleman hunting
Nogent-le-Rotrou, Tower of the Castle of
Nut-crackers, Sixteenth Century
Occupations of the Peasants
Officers of the Table and of the Chamber of the Imperial Court
Oil, the Manufacture of, Sixteenth Century
Old Man of the Mountain, The
Olifant, or Hunting-horn, Fourteenth Century
" " details of
Orphaus, Gallois, and Family of the Grand Coesre, Fifteenth Century
Palace, The, Sixteenth Century
Palace of the Doges, Interior Court of the
Paris, View of
Partridges, Way to catch
Paying Toll on passing a Bridge
Peasant Dances at the May Feasts
Pheasant-fowling, Fourteenth Century
Philippe le Bel in War-dress
Pillory, View of the, in the Market-place of Paris, Sixteenth Century
Pin and Needle Maker
Ploughmen. Fac-simile of a Miniature in very ancient Anglo-Saxon Manuscript
Pond Fisherman, The
Pont aux Changeurs, View of the ancient
Pork-butcher, The, Fourteenth Century
Poulterer, The, Sixteenth Century
Poultry-dealer, The
Powder-horn, Sixteenth Century
Provost's Prison, The
Provostship of the Merchants of Paris, Assembly of the, Sixteenth Century
Punishment by Fire, The
Purse or Leather Bag, with Knife or Dagger, Fifteenth Century
Receiver of Taxes, The
Remy, St., Bishop of Rheirns, begging of Clovis the restitution of the
Sacred Vase, Fifteenth Century
River Fishermen, The, Sixteenth Century
Roi de l'Epinette, Entry of the, at Lille
Roman Soldiers, Sixth to Twelfth Century
Royal Costume
_Ruffes_ and _Millards_, Fifteenth Century
Sainte-Genevieve, Front of the Church of the Abbey of
Sale by Town-Crier
Salt-cellar, enamelled, Sixteenth Century
Sandal or Buskin of Charlemagne
Saxony, Duke of
Sbirro, Chief of
Seal of the Bateliers of Bruges in 1356
" Corporation of Carpenters of St. Trond (Belgium)
" Corporation of Clothworkers of Bruges
" Corporation of Fullers of St. Trond
" Corporation of Joiners of Bruges
" " Shoemakers of St. Trond
" Corporation of Wool-weavers of Hasselt
" Free Count Hans Vollmar von Twern
" Free Count Heinrich Beckmann
" " Herman Loseckin
" " Johann Croppe
" King Chilperic
" United Trades of Ghent, Fifteenth Century
Seat of Justice held by Philippe de Valois
Secret Tribunal, Execution of the Sentences of the
Semur, Tower of the Castle of
Serf or Vassal, Tenth Century
Serjeants-at-Arms, Fourteenth Century
Shepherds celebrating the Birth of the Messiah
Shoemaker
Shops under Covered Market, Fifteenth Century
Shout and blow Horns, How to
Simon, Martyrdom of, at Trent
Slaves or Serfs, Sixth to Twelfth Century
Somersaults
Sport with Dogs, Fourteenth Century
Spring-board, The
Spur-maker
Squirrels, Way to catch
Stag, How to kill and cut up a, Fifteenth Century
Staircase of the Office of the Goldsmiths of Rouen, Fifteenth Century
Stall of Carved Wood, Fifteenth Century
Standards of the Church and the Empire
State Banquet, Sixteenth Century
Stoertebeck, Execution of
Styli, Fourteenth Century
Swineherd
Swiss Grand Provost
Sword-dance to the Sound of the Bagpipe, Fourteenth Century
Sword-maker
Table of a Baron, Thirteenth Century
Tailor
Talebot the Hunchback
Tinman
Tithe of Beer, Fifteenth Century
Token of the Corporation of Carpenters of Antwerp
Token of the Corporation of Carpenters of Maestricht
Toll under the Bridges of Paris
Toll on Markets, levied by a Cleric, Fifteenth Century
Torture of the Wheel, Demons applying the
Tournaments in Honour of the Entry of Queen Isabel into Paris
Tower of the Temple, Paris
Trade on the Seaports of the Levant, Fifteenth Century
Transport of Merchandise on the Backs of Camels
University of Paris, Fellows of the, haranguing the Emperor Charles IV.
Varlet or Squire carrying a Halberd, Fifteenth Century
View of Alexandria, Sixteenth Century
Village Feast, Sixteenth Century
Village pillaged by Soldiers
Villain, the Covetous and Avaricious
Villain, the Egotistical and Envious
Villain or Peasant, Fifteenth Century
Villain receiving his Lord's Orders
Vine, Culture of the
Vintagers, The, Thirteenth Century
Votive Altar of the Nautes Parisiens
Water Torture, The
Weight in Brass of the Fish-market at Mans, Sixteenth Century
Whale Fishing
William, Duke of Normandy, Eleventh Century
Winegrower, The
Wire-worker
Wolves, how they may be caught with a Snare
Woman under the Safeguard of Knighthood, Fifteenth Century
Women of the Court, Sixth to Tenth Century
Woodcock, Mode of catching a, Fourteenth Century
Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages, and During the
Renaissance Period.
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 and Prerogatives attached to
Landed Possessions.--Freemen and Tenants.--The Laeti, the Colon, the
Serf, and the Labourer, who may be called the Origin of the Modern Lower
Classes.--Formation of Communities.--Right of Mortmain.
The period known as the Middle Ages, says the learned Benjamin Guerard, is
the produce of Pagan civilisation, of Germanic barbarism, and of
Christianity. It began in 476, on the fall of Agustulus, and ended in
1453, at the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet 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 Germans, was the destruction
of political unity, and this was destined to be afterwards replaced by
religions 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
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 Caesars; 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 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 people 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 divided into freeholds, tributary lands, lands of the
nobility, and servile lands, thus constituting the freeholds, the
benefices, the fiefs, and the tenures. It may be added that the customs,
and to a certain degree the laws, varied according to the 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.
[Illustration: 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.]
[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Costumes of Roman Soldiers. Fig. 4.--Costume of
German Soldiers. From Miniatures on different Manuscripts, from the Sixth
to the Twelfth Centuries.]
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,
civilisation 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.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Costumes of Slaves or Serfs, from the Sixth to the
Twelfth Centuries, collected by H. de Vielcastel, from original Documents
in the great Libraries of Europe.]
In fact, the conquerors contributed the worse share (Fig. 5); for, whilst
exercising the low and debasing instincts of their former barbarism, they
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.
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 independence, 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
remember 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.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.--King or Chief of Franks armed with the Seramasax,
from a Miniature of the Ninth Century, drawn by H. de Vielcastel.]
When the Franks took root in Gaul, 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 broken up into
clans. Gaul soon found itself parcelled off into domains which were
almost independent of one another. It was thus that Germanic genius became
developed.
[Illustration: 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).]
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 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 only 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
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 be 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 King'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.
Charlemagne was the first who recognised that social union, so admirable
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, 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 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
hands, so that society soon fell back into anarchy and confusion. The
nobles, 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.
[Illustration: 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).]
[Illustration: Fig. 9. Portrait of Charlemagne, whom the Song of Roland
names the King with the Grizzly Beard.--Fac-simile of an Engraving of the
End of the Sixteenth Century.]
The revolution in society which took place under the Carlovingian 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, individual servitude became lessened, and society assumed a
more stable condition. 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.
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