So deeply rooted were these feelings, that, even in 1789, the very year the Revolution broke out, it was deemed a great concession that the nobles ‘will consent, indeed, to equal taxation.’ See a letter from Jefferson to Jay, dated Paris, May 9th, 1789, in Jefferson's Corresp. vol. ii. pp. 462, 463. Compare Mercier sur Rousseau, vol. i. p. 136.
321
‘Les nobles, qui avaient le privilége exclusif des grandes dignités et des gros bénéfices.’ Mém. de Rivarol, p. 97: see also Mém. de Bouillé, vol. i. p. 56; Lemontey, Etablissement Monarchique, p. 337; Daniel, Hist. de la Milice Françoise, vol. ii. p. 556; Campan, Mém. sur Marie-Antoinette, vol. i. pp. 238, 239.
322
‘L'ancien régime n'avait admis que des nobles pour officiers.’ Mém. de Roland, vol. i. p. 398. Ségur mentions that, early in the reign of Louis XVI., ‘les nobles seuls avaient le droit d'entrer au service comme sous-lieutenans.’ Mém. de Ségur, vol. i. p. 65. Compare pp. 117, 265–271, with Mém. de Genlis, vol. iii. p. 74, and De Staël, Consid. sur la Rév. vol. i. p. 123.
323
Thus, De Thou says of Henry III., ‘il remet sous l'ancien pied la cavalerie ordinaire, qui n'étoit composée que de la noblesse.’ Hist. Univ. vol. ix. pp. 202, 203; and see vol. x. pp. 504, 505, vol. xiii. p. 22; and an imperfect statement of the same fact in Boullier, Hist. des divers Corps de la Maison Militaire des Rois de France, Paris, 1818, p. 58, a superficial work on an uninteresting subject.
324
M. Tocqueville (L'Ancien Régime, p. 448) mentions, among other regulations still in force late in the eighteenth century, that ‘en Dauphiné, en Bretagne, en Normandie, il est prohibé à tout roturier d'avoir des colombiers, fuies et volière; il n'y a que les nobles qui puissent avoir des pigeons.’
325
‘Dès la fin du onzième siècle, à l'époque même où commencèrent les croisades, on trouve la chevalerie établie.’ Koch, Tab. des Révolutions, vol. i. p. 143; see also Sainte-Palaye, Mém. sur la Chevalerie, vol. i. pp. 42, 68. M. Guizot (Civilis. en France, vol. iii. pp. 349–354) has attempted to trace it back to an earlier period; but he appears to have failed, though of course its germs may be easily found. According to some writers it originated in northern Europe; according to others in Arabia! Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 202; Journal of Asiat. Soc. vol. ii. p. 11.
326
‘L'ordre de chevalerie n'étoit accordé qu'aux hommes d'un sang noble.’ Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. iv. p. 204. Compare Daniel, Hist. de la Milice, vol. i. p. 97, and Mills' Hist. of Chivalry, vol. i. p. 20.
327
‘In some places there were schools appointed by the nobles of the country, but most frequently their own castles served.’ Mills' Hist. of Chivalry, vol. i. p. 31; and see Sainte-Palaye, Mém. sur l'Anc. Chevalerie, vol. i. pp. 30, 56, 57, on this education.
328
This combination of knighthood and religious rites is often ascribed to the crusades; but there is good evidence that it took place a little earlier, and must be referred to the latter half of the eleventh century. Compare Mills' Hist. of Chivalry, vol. i. pp. 10, 11; Daniel, Hist. de la Milice, vol. i. pp. 101, 102, 108; Boulainvilliers, Ancien Gouv. vol. i. p. 326. Sainte-Palaye (Mém. sur la Chevalerie, vol. i. pp. 119–123), who has collected some illustrations of the relation between chivalry and the church, says, p. 119, ‘enfin la chevalerie étoit regardée comme une ordination, un sacerdoce.’ The superior clergy possessed the right of conferring knighthood, and William Rufus was actually knighted by Archbishop Lanfranc: ‘Archiepiscopus Lanfrancus, eo quòd eum nutrierat, et militem fecerat.’ Will. Malmes. lib. iv., in Scriptores post Bedam, p. 67. Compare Fosbroke's British Monachism, 1843, p. 101, on knighting by abbots.
329
The influence of this on the nobles is rather exaggerated by Mr. Mills; who, on the other hand, has not noticed how the unhereditary element was favourable to the ecclesiastical spirit. Mills' Hist. of Chivalry, vol. i. pp. 15, 389, vol. ii. p. 169; a work interesting as an assemblage of facts, but almost useless as a philosophic estimate.
330
‘In their origin all the military orders, and most of the religious ones, were entirely aristocratic.’ Mills' Hist. of Chivalry, vol. i. p. 336.
331
Mills' Hist. of Chivalry, vol. i. pp. 148, 338. About the year 1127, St. Bernard wrote a discourse in favour of the Knights Templars, in which ‘he extols this order as a combination of monasticism and knighthood… He describes the design of it as being to give the military order and knighthood a serious Christian direction, and to convert war into something that God might approve.’ Neander's Hist. of the Church, vol. vii. p. 358. To this may be added, that, early in the thirteenth century, a chivalric association was formed, and afterwards merged in the Dominican order, called the Militia of Christ: ‘un nouvel ordre de chevalerie destiné à poursuivre les hérétiques, sur le modèle de celui des Templiers, et sous le nom de Milice de Christ.’ Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, vol. i. pp. 52, 133, 203.
332
Several writers ascribe to chivalry the merit of softening manners, and of increasing the influence of women. Sainte-Palaye, Mém. sur la Chevalerie, vol. i. pp. 220–223, 282, 284, vol. iii. pp. vi. vii. 159–161; Helvétius de l'Esprit, vol. ii. pp. 50, 51; Schlegel's Lectures, vol. i. p. 209. That there was such a tendency is, I think, indisputable; but it has been greatly exaggerated; and an author of considerable reading on these subjects says, ‘The rigid treatment shown to prisoners of war in ancient times strongly marks the ferocity and uncultivated manners of our ancestors, and that even to ladies of high rank; notwithstanding the homage said to have been paid to the fair sex in those days of chivalry.’ Grose's Military Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 114. Compare Manning on the Law of Nations, 1839, pp. 145, 146.
333
Mr. Hallam (Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 464) says, ‘A third reproach may be made to the character of knighthood, that it widened the separation between the different classes of society, and confirmed that aristocratical spirit of high birth, by which the large mass of mankind were kept in unjust degradation.’
334
Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. iv. pp. 370, 371, 377; Turner's Hist. of England, vol. iv. p. 478; Foncemagne, De l'Origine des Armoiries, in Mém. de l'Académie des Inscriptions, vol. xx. p. 580. Koch also says (Tableau des Révolutions, vol. i. p. 139), ‘c'est de la France que l'usage des tournois se répandit chez les autres nations de l'Europe.’ They were first introduced into England in the reign of Stephen. Lingard's England, vol. ii. p. 27.
335
Mr. Hallam (Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 470) says they were ‘entirely discontinued in France’ in consequence of the death of Henry II.; but according to Mills' Hist. of Chivalry, vol. ii. p. 226, they lasted the next year; when another fatal accident occurred, and ‘tournaments ceased for ever.’ Compare Sainte-Palaye sur la Chevalerie, vol. ii. pp. 39, 40.
336
Mr. Hallam (Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 467) observes, that the knight, as compared with other classes, ‘was addressed by titles of more respect. There was not,
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