110 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



Feudal System. The name generally 

 given to the system of land tenure and social 

 arrangements which prevailed in Europe during 

 the period commonly known as the Middle Ages. 

 Its essence lay in 'the close connection whu-h 

 1 under it between social status and the 

 ownership of land. The man who held land 

 from another was looked upon as the dependant 

 and subordinate of the latter. In England the 

 system was not unknown under the Anglo-Saxon 

 kings, but it received its complete development 

 only at the Norman Conquest. The death of 

 Harold left William in possession of vast crown 

 lands, which he bestowed upon his principal 

 officers. What the king did for his great lords 

 they did for their captains, and these, again, 

 for 'their vassals. Counties were divided into 

 manors, and manors into farms; and in the 

 most commanding part of every manor a strong 

 castle arose, in which the baron ruled all but 

 supreme, surrounded by armed retainers, and 

 having always at his call the franklins, or free- 

 tenants, who held the lands which constituted 

 his estate. Under the Feudal System both spear 

 and plough helped to pay the rent. Knight 

 Service and Socage were required from every 

 tenant the former obliging him to serve, at 

 the call of his landlord, for so many days each 

 year in the field of battle ; the latter to give occa- 

 sional days of labor on the castle grounds, or to 

 send fixed supplies of such things as beef or poul- 

 try, meal or honey, to the castle larder. Num- 

 bers of serfs, called Villeins, tilled little patches 

 of ground under certain conditions, and these 

 were held nominally to be freemen; but the 

 lowest class of serfs took rank with the oxen 

 and the swine which they tended, being, like 

 them, the property of the master. Under this 

 system, Aids had to be given to the crown; 

 and also various Reliefs, or Fines, which w r ere 

 paid by an incoming heir before he could take 

 possession of his estate, or when a tenant sold . 

 or gave any part of his lands to a stranger, t 

 The Feudal System, though it has so long j 

 ceased to exist as a system of political and j 

 social relations, still survives as the basis of j 

 most of the laws relating to land ; and the laws , 

 both of escheat and copyhold, as they at present I 

 exist, are direct outgrowths of the Feudal System, j 



Fifth -monarchy Men. A clique of 

 political fanatics who sided with Cromwell dur- 

 ing the Protectorate. They derived this epi- 

 thet from their entertaining a belief that Crom- 

 well's accession to supreme power was a mani- 

 festation of the advent of the fifth monarchy, 

 in which the Saviour should reign with the saints 

 on earth for the period of one thousand years. 



Florida. The name Florida, derived from 

 a Spanish word meaning "flowery," or perhaps 

 because it was first visited on "Pascua Florida," 

 or Easter Sunday, was originally applied to a 

 much larger region than the present State, its 

 boundaries extending to the Mississsippi, and on 

 the north indefinitely. It was first discovered 

 by Ponce de Leon in 1512, who landed near St. 

 Augustine. It was subsequently visited by 

 other Spanish adventurers, but it was not till 

 1528 that an actual attempt at colonization was 

 made by Panfilo de Narvaez, who had received 

 a large land grant from Charles V. He and his 



colonists were exterminated by the Indians. 

 In 1539, Fernando de Soto explored the State, 

 and a few years later many French Huguenots 

 sought refuge here. They were massacred by 

 the Spaniards. Spain had no permanent foot- 

 ing till 1 .">(,">. when the fort was built at St. 

 Augustine. Pensaeola was settled in 1696. In 

 1763, Florida was ceded to the English in ex- 

 change for Cuba, but by the treaty of 1783 it 

 was retroceded to Spain. A portion of Florida 

 was seized by the United States in 1803, and in 

 1819, Spain formally ceded the whole province. 

 Florida was admitted as a State in 1845, seceded 

 January 10, 1861, and resumed federal relations, 

 1868. 



Forum (fo'rum). In Roman cities, a public 

 place where causes were judicially tried, and 

 orations made to the people. It was a large, 

 open parallelogram, surrounded by porticos. 

 There were six of these forums, viz: the Ji'onni- 

 num, Julianum, Augustum, Palladium, Traja- 

 num, and Sallustii forums. The chief was the 

 Romanum, called, by way of eminence, the 

 forum. In it was the rostrum, or pulpit, where 

 the Roman orators pleaded before or harangued 

 the people. These forums were styled fora 

 civilia, in distinction from another description 

 of forum serving as markets, which were known 

 as fora venalia. 



France. Gallia was the name under which 

 France was designated by the Romans, who 

 knew little of the country till the time of Caesar, 

 when it was occupied by the Aquitani, Celtae, 

 I and Belgae. Under Augustus, Gaul was divided 

 into four provinces, which, under subsequent 

 emperors, were dismembered, and subdivided 

 into seventeen. In the Fifth Century it fell 

 completely under the power of the Visigoths, 

 Burgundians, and Franks. In 486 A. D., Clovis, 

 j a chief of the Salian Franks, raised himself to 

 supreme power in the North. His dynasty, 

 , known as the Merovingian, ended in the person 

 of Childeric III., who was deposed 752 A. D. 

 The accession of Pepin gave new vigor to the 

 monarchy, which, under his son and successor, 

 Charlemagne, crowned Emperor of the West in 

 800 (768-814), rose to the rank of the most 

 powerful empire of the West. With him, how- 

 ever, this vast fabric of power crumbled to 

 pieces, and his weak descendants completed the 

 ruin of the Frankish Empire by the dismember- 

 ment of its various parts among the younger 

 branches of the Carlovingian family. On the 

 death of Louis V. the Carlovingian Dynasty 

 was replaced by that of Hugues, Count of Paris, 

 whose son, Hugh Capet, was elected king by 

 the army, and consecrated at Rheims, 987 A. D. 

 At this period the greater part of France was 

 held by almost independent lords. Louis le 

 Gros (1108-37) was the first ruler who succeeded 

 in combining the whole under his scepter. He 

 promoted the establishment of the feudal sys- 

 tem, abolished serfdom on his own estates, 

 secured corporate rights to the cities under his 

 jurisdiction, gave efficiency to the central author- 

 ity of the crown, carried on a war against Henry 

 I. of England; and when the latter allied him- 

 self with the Emperor Henry V. of Germany 

 against France he brought into the field an army 

 of 200,000 men. The oriflamme is said to have 



