:^ 



PERIOD 11. 



FROM THE FALL OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE 

 TO THE INVENTION OF FIRE-ARMS. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Feudal Cavalry. 



m 



1^ 





K I 





SECTION I,— ORIGIN OF FEUDAL SYSTEM. — BATTLE OF 



POICTIERS, 732. 



In the last period the history of cavalry was brought 

 down to the time when the Roman Dominion of the 

 West had fallen to pieces, and it will be well to consider 

 now the condition and growth of the cavalry service, in 

 the various nationalities that arose upon the ruins, and 

 were formed of the disjointed fragments of the shattered 

 empire. 



After the conquest of Rome by the various German 

 tribes, the habits and customs of the German people 

 naturally exercised a most important influence upon the 

 civilisation of the age, and for many centuries the effect 

 can be traced in the development of a difi'erent type of 

 government, both in a civil and military point of view, 

 from that which had existed under the Romans. 



One important institution of German origin, namely, 

 the "Feudal System," which soon became established, 

 rapidly spread all over Europe, and has more or less 

 afliected the tenure of land to the present day. This 

 institution, being for many generations the basis of the 



