CHAP. XXVII.: Another Change which happened in the Fiefs.

IN Charlemaign’s time Capitulary of the year 802. art. 7. Baluzius’s edition, page 365. ^†1290 they were obliged, under great penalties, to repair to the general meeting in case of any war whatsoever; they admitted of no excuses, and if the count exempted any one he was liable himself to be punished. But the treaty of the three brothers Apud Marsnam, in the year 847. Baluzius’s edition, p. 42. ^†1291 made a restriction Volumus ut cujuscumque nostrum homo in cujuscumque regno sit, cum seniore suo in hostem, vel aliis suis utilitatibus pergat, nisi talis regni invasio quam Lamtuveri dicunt, quod absit, acciderit, ut omnis populus illius regni ad eam repellendam, communiter pergat, art. 5. ibid. page 44. ^†1292 upon this head, which

rescued the nobility, as it were, out of the king’s hands; they were no longer obliged to serve in time of war, but when the war was defensive. In others, they were at liberty to follow their lord, or to mind their own business. This treaty relates to another Apud argentoratum, in Baluzius, capitularies, tom. 2. page 39. ^†1293, concluded five years before, between the two brothers, Charles the Bald and Lewis king of Germany, by which these princes release their vassals from serving them in war, in case they should attempt hostilities against each other; an agreement which the two princes confirmed by oath, and, at the same time, made their armies swear to it.

The death of an hundred thousand French, at the battle of Fontenay, made the remains of the nobility imagine, that by the private quarrels of their kings, about their respective shares, their whole body should be exterminated, and that the ambition and jealousy of those princes would end in the destruction of all the best families of the kingdom. A law was therefore passed, that the nobility should not be obliged to serve their princes in war, unless it was to defend the state against a foreign invasion. This law See the law of Guy king of the Romans, among those which were added to the Salic law, and to that of the Lombards, tit. 6. sect. 2. in Echard. ^†1294 obtained for several ages.