316 A. D. 1095. 



the nobles in every feudal kingdom of Europe, had reduced the autho- 

 rity of the fovereign to a mere fhadow, and the condition of the great 

 body of the people to the mofi: abject humiliation and mifery. Of the 

 condition of the fovereign, and thofe clafles of the people who lived in 

 the country, it is not neceflary at prefent to fay any thing. Every city 

 and town, or burgh, had a fuperior lord, to whom the inhabitants were 

 bound in fidelity or allegiance, and to whom they looked up for pro- 

 tection from the oppreflions of other lords. But for that protecSlion, 

 which the vveaknefs, or want, of government rendered neceflary, they 

 paid a flipulated rent, and performed many galling fervices (of which 

 every place mentioned in Domefday book furniflies an example) befides 

 fubmitting to the privation of rights, which ought upon no account 

 whatever to be alienable. They could not pretend to be mafters of 

 their otv^n property ; nor could they even call their children their own, 

 for without the confent of their lord they durfl not difpofe of them in 

 marriage, appoint guardians to them, or leave any thing to them at 

 their death *. Such a conflitution, by crufliing, or annihilating, the 

 native energy of the mind, effectually prevented any wifh or attempt to 

 make the fmalleft progrefs in fcience or commerce : for the citizen, (if 

 the name may be applied to fuch abjedt characters) no more than the 

 farmer, had any inducement to improve the property, which was en- 

 tirely at the mercy of his lord. Such was the ftate of almoft all the 

 cities and burghs of the Chriftian part of Europe, a few in Italy ex- 

 cepted, when the frenzy of the holy war broke out. Then many of 

 the princes and barons, in their eagernefs to raife money for their equip- 

 ment, fold their fuperiority over their vafTal towns, fome to other lords, 

 fome to the clergy, but mofl to the community of the inhabitants them- 

 felves. By fuch fales the exorbitant power of the great lords was much 

 lowered, while that of the fovereign was proportionally exalted ; and 

 the inhabitants, freed from the flavifh fubjedion to a ftibjeCt, generally 

 applied to the fovereign for charters, which he gladly granted, em- 



* In many places the fiiperiors were not fatis- children, felling their wine and fait, and making 



fied with having a negative voice iii the difpofal of tlitir wills : \_Failera ^ngl'ri, V. i, pp. 105, in, 



their vafials' children in marriage, the moll im- 112] and Richard earl of Cornwall, when acling 



portant event in tiie life of the individual, but ac- as emperor of Germany, gratioufly renounced in 



tually bedowed them according to their own in- favour of the burgefies of Frankfort his preroga- 



tcreft or caprice, without paying any more atten- tive of difpofing of their daughters without their 



tion to the wiflics of the parents or the inclina- confent. [_Pf^i:l Ahrc^e de I'hijl et droit d'Alk- 



tion of the parties to be married, tlian a farmer magne, p. 373, ed. 1758.J And to come home to 



pays to thofe of his cattle, when he couples them England, King John, in his charter to Dunwich, 



for propagation,' or when he fells, or {laughters, permits his burgeffcs of that town to difpofe of 



their calves or foiils. Any relaxation of the rigour their children as they think proper, within his 



of the lord's prerogative was granted as a Iponta- dominion-,, and to give or fell ihcir lands andhoufes 



ncous favour (though generally well paid for) and In the town. He alfo allows t'.c ^vidovvs to marry 



by no means as the retloration of an inherent right, by the advice of their friends. For this charter. 



Thus Otto, AUenura, and her fon Jnhn king of and renovations of it, the burgefTes paid large fums 



England, as princes of Aquitalne, granted to their to King JohH. [CbiirU in Brady on burghs, ap- 



mcu of Olcrou the liberty of difpofing of their pend. pp. ic, II.^ 



