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CHAP. XVII.: Of the Military Service of Freemen. - Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Complete Works, vol. 2 The Spirit of Laws [1748]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 2.

Part of: Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols.

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CHAP. XVII.

Of the Military Service of Freemen.

TWO sorts of people were bound to military service; the great and lesser vassals, who were obliged in consequence of their fief; and the freemen, whether Franks, Romans, or Gauls, who served under the count, and were commanded by him and his officers.

The name of freemen was given to those, who on the one hand had no benefices or fiefs, and on the other were not subject to the base services of villainage; the lands they possessed were what they called allodial estates.

The counts* assembled the freemen, and led them against the enemy; they had officers under them who were called vicars; and as all the freemen were divided into hundreds, which constituted what they called a borough, the counts had also officers under them, who were denominated centenarii, and led the freemen of the borough, or their hundreds, to the field.

This division into hundreds is posterior to the establishment of the Franks in Gaul. It was made by Clotharius and Childebert, with a view of obliging each district to answer for the robberies committed in their division; this we find in the decrees of those princes. A regulation of this kind is to this very day observed in England.

As the counts led the freemen against the enemy, the feudal lords commanded also their vassals or rearvassals; and the bishops, abbots, or their§ advocates likewise commanded theirs** .

The bishops were greatly embarrassed, and†† inconsistent with themselves; they requested of Charlemaign not to oblige them any longer to a military service; and when he granted their request, they complained that he had deprived them of the public esteem: so that this prince was obliged to justify his intentions upon this head. Be that as it may, when they were exempted from marching against the enemy, I do not find that their vassals were led by the counts; on the contrary, we see* that the kings or the bishops chose one of their feudatories to conduct them.

In a capitulary of Lewis the Debonnaire, this prince distinguishes three sorts of vassals, those belonging to the king, those to the bishops, and those to the counts. The vassals of a feudal lord were not led against the enemy by the count, except some employment in the king’s houshold hindered the lord himself from commanding them.

But who is it that led the feudal lords into the field? No doubt the king himself, who was always at the head of his faithful vassals. Hence we constantly find in the capitularies a distinction made between the king’s vassals and those of the bishops. Such brave and magnanimous princes as our kings, did not take the field to put themselves at the head of an ecclesiastic militia; these were not the men they chose to conquer or to die with.

But these laws carried their vassals and rear-vassals with them; as we can prove by the capitulary* , in which Charlemaign ordains that every freeman, who has four manors either in his own property, or as a benefice from some body else, should march against the enemy or follow his lord. It is evident, that Charlemaign means, that the person who had a manor of his own should march under the count, and he who held a benefice of a lord, should set out along with him.

And yet the Abbé du Bos pretends, that when mention is made in the capitularies, of tenants who depended on a particular lord, no others are meant than bondmen; and he grounds his opinion on the law of the Visigoths, and the practice of that nation. It is much better to rely on the capitularies themselves; that which I have just quoted, says expressly the contrary. The treaty between Charles the Bald and his brothers, takes notice also of freemen, who might chuse to follow either a lord or the king; and this regulation is conformable to a great many others.

We may therefore conclude, that there were three sorts of military services; that of the king’s vassals, who had no other vassals under them; that of the bishops or of the other clergy, and their vassals, and, in fine, that of the count, who commanded the freemen.

Not but the vassals might be also subject to the count; as those who have a particular command are subordinate to him, who is invested with a more general authority.

We even find that the count and the king’s commissaries might oblige them to pay the fine, when they had not fulfilled the engagements of their fief. In like manner if the king’s vassals committed any outrage, they were subject to the correction of the count, unless they chose rather to submit to that of the king.

[* ]See the capitulary of Charlemaign in the year 812. art. 3. & 4. edition of Baluzius, tom. 1. p. 491. and the edict of Pistes in the year 864. art. 26. tom. i. p. 186.

[]Et habebat unusquisque comes Vicarios & Centenarios secum. Book ii. of the capitularies, art. 28.

[]They were called Compagenses.

[]Published in the year 595. art. 1. See the capitularies, edition of Baluzius, page 20. These regulations were undoubtedly made by agreement.

[§ ]Advocati.

[** ]Capitulary of Charlemaign, in the year 812. art. 1. & 5. edition of Baluzius, tom. 1. page 490.

[†† ]See the capitulary of the year 803. published at Worms, edition of Baluzius, page 408 & 410.

[* ]Capitulary of Worms in the year 803, edition of Baluzius, page 409. and the council in the year 845, under Charles the Bald, in verno palatio, edition of Baluzius, tom. ii. page 17. art. 8.

[]The 5th capitulary of the year 819. art. 27. edition of Baluzius, p. 618.

[]De Vassis Dominicis qui adhuc intra casam serviunt & tamen beneficia habere noscuntur, statutum est ut quicumque ex eis cum Domino Imperatore domi remanserint, vassallos suos casatos secum non retineant; sed cum comite, cujus pagenses sunt, ire permittant. Second Capitulary in the year 812. art. 7. edition of Baluzius, rom. 1. page 494.

[]Capitulary 1. of the year 812. art. 5. de bominibus nostris, & episcoporum & abbatum qui vel beneficia vel talia propria habent, &c. edition of Baluzius, tom. 1. p. 490.

[* ]In the year 812. chap. 1. edition of Baluzius, page 490. Ut omnis bomo liber quatuor mansos vestitos de proprio suo, sive de alicujus beneficio babet, ipse se præparet, & ipse in hostem pergat, sive cam seniore suo.

[]Tom. 3. book 6. chap. 4. p. 299. establishment of the French monarchy.

[]Capitulary of the year 882. art. 11. apud vernum palatium, edition of Baluzius, tom. ii. page 289.