View of the State of Europe During the Middle Ages, Volume 1

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John Murray, 1822 - Civilization, Medieval - 1666 pages

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Page 188 - We lose a good deal of our sympathy with the spirit of freedom in Greece and Rome, when the importunate recollection occurs to us, of the tasks which might be enjoined, and the punishments which might be inflicted, without control either of law or opinion, by the keenest patriots of the Comitia, or the Council of Five Thousand.
Page 73 - Cressy and Poitiers, for these were fully matched in the ranks of France, but the yeomen who drew the bow with strong and steady arms, accustomed to its use in their native fields, and rendered fearless by personal competence and civil...
Page 150 - It was a breach of faith to divulge the lord's counsel, to conceal from him the machinations of others, to injure his person or fortune, or to violate the sanctity of his roof and the honour of his family. In battle he was bound to lend his horse to his lord when dismounted ; to adhere to his side while fighting, and to go into captivity as a hostage for him when taken. His attendance was due to the lord's courts, sometimes to witness and sometimes to bear a part in the administration of justice.
Page 162 - There is something in this custom very conformable to the feudal spirit, since none was so fit as the lord to train up his vassal to arms, and none could put in so good a claim to enjoy the fief, while the military service for which it had been granted was suspended.
Page 72 - So great was the disparity of numbers upon those famous days, that we cannot, with the French historians, attribute the discomfiture of their hosts merely to mistaken tactics and too impetuous valour. They yielded rather to that intrepid steadiness in danger which had already become the characteristic of our English soldiers, and which, during five centuries, has insured their superiority, whenever ignorance or infatuation has not led them into the field.
Page 113 - Liberty never wore a more unamiable countenance than among these burghers, who abused the strength she gave them by cruelty and insolence."— Hattam.
Page 161 - Charta three only are retained ; to make the lord's eldest son a knight, to marry his eldest daughter, and to redeem his person from prison. They were restricted to nearly the same description by a law of William I. of Sicily, and by ' the customs of France/ These feudal aids are deserving of our attention, as the beginnings of taxation, of which for a long time they in a great measure answered the purpose, till the craving necessities and covetous policy of kings substituted for them more durable...
Page 390 - ITALY, lesser; but the latter were gradually increased to fourteen. The seven greater arts were those of lawyers and notaries, of dealers in foreign cloth, called sometimes Calimala, of bankers or moneychangers, of woollen drapers, of physicians and druggists, of dealers in silk, and of furriers.
Page 411 - I. xi. c. 9fl. political exclusion, these artisans alleged, that they were oppressed by their employers of the art, and that when they complained to the consul, their judge in civil matters, no redress could be procured. A still lower order of the community was the mere populace, who did not practise any regular trade, or who only worked for daily hire. These were called Ciompi, a corruption, it is said, of the French compere. " Let no one," says Machiavel in this place, " who begins an innovation...
Page 204 - A series of alternate persecution and tolerance was borne by this extraordinary people .with an invincible perseverance, and a talent of accumulating riches which kept pace with the exactions of their plunderers. Philip Augustus released all Christians in his dominions from their debts to the Jews, reserving a fifth part to himself. He afterwards expelled the whole nation from France.

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