Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 331 



horses, for which Germany, Flanders, Holland, Friesland, and 

 Denmark have been famous from the early Middle Ages, are 

 all descended. 



The need of horses capable of carrying men of large size led 

 to continual efforts to breed larger and stronger horses, which 

 were rendered still more necessary by the fact that from the 

 early centuries after Christ horsemen began to wear some form 

 of defensive armour. This in the north took the form of a 

 hauberk or shirt of mail, and added to the weight which the 

 steed had to carry. 



The history of Teutonic chivalry is closely bound up with 

 that of these great horses, whose pedigree we trace from the 

 horses of the Tencteri, in whose equestris disciplines we can 

 recognise the first germ of that military system which was to 

 dominate all Europe through many centuries. A chief feature of 

 the feudal system was that he who possessed a certain amount 

 of land should serve as a fully-armed horse-soldier. We have 

 seen that among the Tencteri in the time of Tacitus horses 

 were bequeathed along with the slaves, the dwelling and the 

 usual rights of inheritance, not to the eldest son, as was the 

 other property, but "to the most warlike and courageous," and 

 it was to the same people the historian probably referred when 

 he stated that the bridegroom brought such gifts as a capa- 

 risoned horse, a shield, a lance, and a sword, or in other words 

 the full equipment of a horse-soldier. The laws of the German 

 tribes show us the transition from the tribal system into 

 feudalism. Thus in the "laws of the Anglii, and Werini, that is 

 the laws of the Thuringians" (which as they stand were probably 

 promulgated by Charlemagne in 802, though the institutions 

 which they reveal go back to a much earlier period), it is 

 ordained that "to whomsoever the inheritance in the land shall 

 come, to him ought to pertain the coat of mail, i.e. birnie, and 

 the avenging of the next of kin, and the payment of wergelt 1 ." 



Since in the time of Tacitus the German did not hold land 

 in severalty, that writer does not mention any obligations con- 

 nected with the possession of land, but we are told that the 



1 Pertz, Mon. Hist. Germ., Leges, Vol. iv. pp. 118 sqq. 



