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Life on a Mediaeval Barony Life on a Mediaeval Barony A Picture of a Typical Feudal Community in the Thirteenth Century Author: William Stearns Davis Project Gutenberg's Life on a Mediaeval Barony, by William Stearns Davis This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license Title: Life on a Mediaeval Barony A Picture of a Typical Feudal Community in the Thirteenth Century Author: William Stearns Davis Release Date: July 30, 2014 [EBook #46455] Language: English *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE ON A MEDIAEVAL BARONY *** Produced by Clarity, MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) [Illustration: LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES] Life on a Mediaeval Barony A Picture of a Typical Feudal Community in the Thirteenth Century By William Stearns Davis, Ph.D. _Professor of History in the University of Minnesota_ ILLUSTRATED [Illustration] Harper & Brothers Publishers New York and London MCMXXIII LIFE ON A MEDIÆVAL BARONY Copyright, 1922 By Harper & Brothers Printed in the U. S. A. _First Edition_ G-1 To Ephraim Emerton Master Interpreter of Mediæval History this book is dedicated by an ever-grateful pupil. Table of Contents Chapter Page I. The Fief of St. Aliquis; Its History and Denizens 1 II. The Castle of St. Aliquis 16 III. How the Castle Wakes. Baronial Hospitality 41 IV. Games and Diversions. Falconry and Hunting. The Baroness's Garden 51 V. The Family of the Baron. Life of the Women 70 VI. The Matter of Clothes. A Feudal Wedding 88 VII. Cookery and Mealtimes 113 VIII. The Jongleurs and Secular Literature and Poetry 132 IX. The Feudal Relationship. Doing Homage 146 X. Justice and Punishments 159 XI. The Education of a Feudal Nobleman 176 XII. Feudal Weapons and Horses. Dubbing a Knight 189 XIII. The Tourney 208 XIV. A Baronial Feud. The Siege of a Castle 224 XV. A Great Feudal Battle--Bouvines 241 XVI. The Life of the Peasants 253 XVII. Charity. Care of the Sick. Funerals 275 XVIII. Popular Religion. Pilgrimages. Superstitions. Relic Worship 286 XIX. The Monastery of St. Aliquis: Buildings, Organization. An Ill-Ruled Abbey 312 XX. The Monastery of St. Aliquis: The Activities of Its Inmates. Monastic Learning 330 XXI. The "Good Town" of Pontdebois: Aspect and Organization 343 XXII. Industry and Trade in Pontdebois. The Great Fair 357 XXIII. The Lord Bishop. The Canons. The Parish Clergy 373 XXIV. The Cathedral and Its Builders 393 Illustrations Life in the Middle Ages Frontispiece The Castle of St. Aliquis Page xiv Typical Castle of the Middle Ages " 17 View of the Court and the Donjon " 25 Upper Hall of the Donjon " 31 Interior of a Thirteenth-century Apartment Facing p. 36 A Thirteenth-century Bed Page 39 A Game of Chess " 54 A Game of Ball " 57 Lady with a Falcon on Her Wrist " 58 The Falcon Hunt " 59 Noble Holding a Falcon in Each Hand " 61 A Hunter " 63 The Stag Hunt " 66 Coiffure of a Noblewoman " 71 Cradle " 81 A King in the Twelfth Century Wearing Pellison " 90 Wreath Made of Metal Flowers Sewed on Braid " 91 Felt Shoe " 93 Winter Costume in the Twelfth Century " 94 Headdress of a Man " 95 Costume of a Nobleman " 96 Coiffure of a Woman " 97 A Royal Marriage in the Thirteenth Century " 99 Cooks " 114 Pork Butchers (Bourges) " 115 Servants Bringing the Food to the Table " 123 Young Girls of the Nobility Serving at the Table " 126 A Feast of Ceremony in the Twelfth Century Facing p. 128 Small Portable Organ of the Thirteenth Century Page 132 Acrobats Page 134 Dancer of the Twelfth Century " 137 Thirteenth-century Harp " 139 Listening to a Trouvère in a Château of the Thirteenth Century Facing p. 140 Banner of the Thirteenth Century Page 147 The Coat of Arms of the Dukes of Bretagne (Thirteenth Century) " 148 Seal of the Duke Jean of Bretagne (Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries) " 149 Homage in the Twelfth Century Facing p. 156 Costume of a Nobleman (Thirteenth Century) Page 177 Gothic Writing " 179 A Teacher Holding a Ferule in His Hand " 180 Maneuvering with a Lance in the Thirteenth Century " 185 A Knight at the End of the Thirteenth Century " 190 German Helmets of the Thirteenth Century " 192 A Thirteenth-century Shield " 193 Thirteenth-century Swords " 194 Horse Trappings " 196 A Knight of the Thirteenth Century " 198 A Thirteenth-century Knight " 199 A Thirteenth-century Knight " 200 A Beggar " 201 A Tournament in the Twelfth Century Facing p. 214 Knightly Combat on Foot Page 219 A Combat in the Twelfth Century " 221 A Catapult " 236 An Attack with the Aid of a Tower " 237 A Mantelet in Wood " 238 Attack on a Wall with the Aid of the Sap " 239 Group of Peasants and of Shepherds " 255 Peasants at Work " 260 A Laborer (Thirteenth Century) " 264 Peasant Shoes " 265 A Reaper " 265 A Marriage in the Thirteenth Century " 266 A Plow " 267 A Leper " 278 A Thirteenth-century Doctor " 281 A Thirteenth-century Burial Scene Page 284 A Group of Priests (Thirteenth Century) " 287 A Shrine in the Form of an Altar (Thirteenth Century) in the Cathedral at Rheims " 299 Richard Coeur de Lion Facing p. 302 View of an Abbey of the Thirteenth Century Page 313 The Galleries of the Cloister of the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel (Thirteenth Century) " 316 The Refectory at the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel (Thirteenth Century) " 318 A Benedictine Monk (Thirteenth Century) " 320 A Piece of Furniture Serving as a Seat and a Reading Desk " 335 Cloth Merchants " 358 A Commoner (Thirteenth Century) " 362 Money-changers (Chartres) " 365 A Fair in Champagne in the Thirteenth Century Facing p. 366 The Sale of Peltries (Bourges) Page 370 Episcopal Throne of the Thirteenth Century " 374 A Bishop of the Twelfth Century " 376 A Bishop of the Thirteenth Century " 379 A Deacon (Thirteenth Century) " 388 Notre Dame and the Bishop's Palace at the Beginning of the Thirteenth Century " 395 Thirteenth-century Window in the Cathedral of Chartres, Representing Saint Christopher Carrying Christ " 400 Preface This book describes the life of the Feudal Ages in terms of the concrete. The discussions center around a certain seigneury of St. Aliquis. If no such barony is easily identifiable, at least there were several hundred second-grade fiefs scattered over western Christendom which were in essential particulars extremely like it, and its Baron Conon and his associates were typical of many similar individuals, a little worse or a little better, who abounded in the days of Philip Augustus. No custom is described which does not seem fairly characteristic of the general period. To focus the picture a specific region, northern France, and a specific year, A.D. 1220, have been selected. Not many matters have been mentioned, however, which were not more or less common to contemporaneous England and Germany; nor have many usages been explained which would not frequently have been found as early as A.D. 1100 or as late as 1300. Northern France was _par excellence_ the homeland of Feudalism and hardly less so of Chivalry, while by general consent the years around 1220 mark one of the great turning epochs of the Middle Ages. We are at the time of the development of French kingship under Philip Augustus, of the climax and the beginning of the waning of the crusading spirit, of the highest development of Gothic architecture, of the full blossoming of the popular Romance literature, and of the beginning of the entirely dissimilar, but even more important, Friar movement. To make the life of the Middle Ages live again in its pageantry and its squalor, its superstition and its triumph of Christian art and love, is the object of this study. Many times has the author been reminded of the _intense contrasts_ between sublime good and extreme evil everywhere apparent in the Feudal Epoch. With every effort at impartiality, whether praising or condemning, it is dangerously easy to write in superlatives. Although the preparation of this book was not undertaken without that knowledge and investigation of those mediæval authors, ecclesiastics, and laymen upon which every significant study of this kind must rest, every scholar will recognize the author's debt to many modern specialists. To Th. Wright, Lacroix, Luchaire, Justin H. Smith, Viollet-le-Duc, and Chéruel the acknowledgments are very specific. To Leon Gautier they must be more specific still. It is a great misfortune that his masterpiece, _Le Chivalrie_, is no longer current in a good English translation. The words in quotation, sprinkled through the text, are usually from pertinent mediæval writers, except where they purport to be direct snatches of conversation. To my colleague in this university, Prof. August C. Krey, who has read and criticized the manuscript with friendly fidelity and professional alertness and acumen, there are due many hearty thanks. W. S. D. The University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Minn. Life on a Mediaeval Barony [Illustration] Chapter I: The Fief of St. Aliquis: Its History and Denizens. In the duchy of Quelqueparte there lay, in the later days of the great King Philip Augustus, the barony of St. Aliquis. Perhaps you may have trouble in finding any such places upon the maps of Mediæval France. In that case, I must tell you that they did not lie so far from Burgundy, Champagne, and Blois that the duke and his vassal, the baron, could not have many brave feuds with the seigneurs of those principalities, nor so far from Paris that peddlers and pilgrims could not come hence or go thither pretty often, nor the baron of St.
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