



36 On the ORIGIN and STRUCTURE of 



of the king .was frequently conferred on the fons of thofe 

 who had enjoyed it ; and that the fons of the fubordinate chiefs, 

 when "candidates for the offices of their deceafed fathers, derived 

 great advantages from their defcent. 



THE arguments which have been ufed for a noblejje d' origins, 

 neither aim at obviating the foregoing obfervations, nor reft on 

 circumftances that have been found to bear examination. 

 The monopoly of offices which the fidels enjoyed is evidently 

 of no confequence, when it is understood, that the term Ji- 

 del was applied to every perfon that took the oath of alle- 

 giance *. The leudes were certainly, in their origin, the per- 

 fonal companions of the kings ; and there is furely neither evi- 

 dence nor argument for their having become a hereditary order 

 previous to the Gothic conquefts f . The high competitions, af- 

 terwards prefcribed for wrongs committed againft them, and (till 

 higher for thofe againft the upper clafs of them, called antrnj}ions y 

 were no more than confequences of their perfonal connection 

 with the fovereign, and their refidence at court, where crimes 

 incurred a triple penalty ^. And the expreffions, which are fre- 

 quently to be found, relative to diftinclions of rank among the 

 freemen, inftead of vindicating the exiftence of a patrician or- 

 der, do, in fadt, {how, from the loofenefs with which they are 

 ufed, that no fuch order was recognifed in the ftate. Nothing 

 may more fafely be depended on as evidence that orders of nobi- 

 lity were unknown, than the want which authors betray of precife 



terms 



flinflion ; the families of chiefs will naturally, in the courfe of a few generations, acquire 

 that marked fuperiority in charafter and figure, which travellers have often obferved 

 and miftaken for an indication of an original diverfity in the race, and for the remains 

 of ancient conquefts and intermixtures of nations. 

 * BOUQUET Droit publique, p. 105. 



f ON the contrary, it is remarkable, that the fignification of the term feems to have been 

 enlarged on the continent till it loft its peculiar import, and became at laft co-extenfive with 

 that oifdelis. .Thus we read, "Cumque Lingonas civitatem venifiet Dagobertus, tantam 

 " in univerfis Leudibus fuis, tarn fublimibus quam pauperibus juftitiam," 'lye. FREDEG. 

 Chron. 5 58. See alfo \ 87. In this way, it probably produced the term lieges homines j 

 and it was no doubt natural enough for a king to call his g ens d'armes companions, 



J BOUQUET Droit publique, p. 103. 



