314 THE CROWN. 



upon going with their husbands, and if their husbands 

 refused to take them, went with some one else. Mur- 

 derers, robbers, and pirates declared that they would 

 wash out their sins in pagan blood. In some cases, 

 the poor rustic shod his oxen like horses, and placed 

 his whole family in a cart, and whenever he came to 

 a castle or a town, inquired whether that was Jeru- 

 salem. The barons sold or mortgaged their estates, 

 indifferent about the future, hoping to win the wealth 

 of Eastern princes with the sword. During two hun- 

 dred years, the natives of Europe appeared to have no 

 other object than to conquer or to keep possession of 

 the Holy Land. 



The Christian knights were at length driven out of 

 Asia ; in the meantime, Europe was transformed. The 

 kings had taken no part in the first crusades ; the 

 estates of the barons had been purchased partly by 

 them, and partly by the burghers. An alliance was 

 made between Crown and Town. The sovereignty of 

 the castle was destroyed. Judges appointed by the 

 king travelled on circuit through the land ; the 

 Roman law, from municipal became national ; the 

 barons became a nobility residing chiefly at the court ; 

 the middle class came into life. The burghers acknow- 

 ledged no sovereign but the king : they officered their 

 own trainbands ; they collected their own taxes ; they 

 were represented in a national assembly at the capital. 

 New tastes came into vogue ; both mind and body 

 were indulged with dainty foods. The man of talent, 

 whatever his station, might hope to be ennobled ; the 

 honour of knighthood was reserved by the king, and 

 bestowed upon civilians. The spices of the East, 

 the sugar of Egypt and Spain, the silk of Greece and 

 the islands were no longer occasional luxuries, but re- 



