 Chapter 19 Part 1 of Volume 2 of a Popular History of France from the Earliest Times. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alan Winteroud. Volume 2 of a Popular History of France from the Earliest Times by Francois Guiseaux Translated by Robert Black. Chapter 19 The Communes and the Third Estate Part 1 The history of the Merovingians is that of barbarians invading Gaul and settling upon the ruins of the Roman Empire. The history of the Karlovingians is that of the greatest of the barbarians taking upon himself to resuscitate the Roman Empire and of Charlemagne's descendants disputing among themselves for the fragments of this fabric as fragile as it was grand. Amidst this vast chaos and upon this double ruin was formed the feudal system, which by transformation after transformation became ultimately France. Hugh Capet, one of its chieftains, made himself its king. The Capetians achieved the French kingship. We have traced its character and progressive development from the 11th to the 14th century through the reigns of Louis the Fat, of Philip Augustus, of Saint Louis, and of Philip the Handsome, princes very diverse and very unequal in merit, but all of them able and energetic. This period was likewise the cradle of the French nation. This was the time when it began to exhibit itself in its different elements and to arise under monarchical rule from the midst of the feudal system. Its earliest features and its earliest efforts in the long and laborious work of its development are now to be set before the reader's eyes. The two words inscribed at the head of this chapter, the Commune's and the Third Estate, are verbal expressions for the two great facts at that time revealing that the French nation was in labor of formation. Closely connected one with the other and tending toward the same end, these two facts are nevertheless very diverse and even when they have not been confounded, they have not been with sufficient clearness distinguished and characterized, each of them apart. They are diverse both in their chronological date and their social importance. The Commune's are the first to appear in history. They appear there as local facts, isolated one from another, often very different in point of origin, though analogous in their aim and in every case neither assuming nor pretending to assume any place in the government of the state. Local interest and rights, the special affairs of certain populations, agglomerated in certain spots, are the only objects, the only province of the Commune's. With this purely municipal and individual character, they come to their birth, their confirmation, and their development from the 11th to the 14th century. And at the end of two centuries, they enter upon their decline. They occupy far less room and make far less noise in history. It is exactly then that the Third Estate comes to the front and uplifts itself as a general fact, a national element, a political power. It is the successor not contemporary of the Commune's. They contributed much towards but did not suffice for its formation. It drew upon other resources and was developed under other influences that knows which gave existence to the Commune's. It has subsisted, it has gone on growing throughout the whole course of French history. And at the end of five centuries, in 1789, when the Commune's had for a long while sunk into languishment and political insignificance, at the moment at which France was electing her Constituent Assembly, the Abbey Cicé, a man of powerful rather than scrupulous mind, could say, what is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it hitherto been in the body politic? Nothing. What does it demand? To be something. These words contain three grave errors. In the course of government anterior to 1789, so far was the Third Estate from being nothing that it had been every day becoming greater and stronger. What was demanded for it in 1789 by Monsieur Cicéus and his friends was not that it might become something, but that it should be everything. That was a desire beyond its right and its strength. And the very revolution, which was its own victory, proved this. Whatever may have been the weaknesses and faults of its foes, the Third Estate had a terrible struggle to conquer them. And the struggle was so violent and so obstinate that the Third Estate was broken up therein and had to pay dearly for its triumph. At first it obtained thereby despotism instead of liberty. And when liberty returned, the Third Estate found itself confronted by two-fold hostility, that of its foes under the old regimen, and that of the absolute democracy, which claimed in its turn to be everything. Outrageous claims bring about intractable opposition and excite unbridled ambition. What there was in the words of the Abbe Cicéus in 1789 was not the verity of history. It was a lying program of revolution. We have anticipated dates in order to properly characterize and explain the facts as they present themselves by giving a glimpse of their scope and their attainment. Now that we have clearly marked the profound difference between the Third Estate and the Communes, we will return to the Communes alone, which had the priority in respect of time. We will trace the origin and the composition of the Third Estate, when we reach the period at which it will become one of the great performers in the history of France, by reason of the place it assumed and the part it played in the state's general of the kingdom. In dealing with the formation of the Communes from the 11th to the 14th century, the majority of the French historians, even Monsieur Thierry, the most original and clear-sighted of them all, often entitled this event the communal revolution. This expression hardly gives a correct idea of the fact to which it is applied. The word revolution, in the sense or at least the aspect given to it amongst us by contemporary events, points to the overthrow of a certain regimen and of the ideas and authority predominant thereunder and the systematic elevation in their stead of a regimen essentially different in principle and in fact. The revolutions of our day substitute or would feign substitute a republic for a monarchy, a democracy for aristocracy, political liberty for absolute power. The struggles which from the 11th to the 14th century gave existence to so many Communes had no such profound character. The populations did not pretend to any fundamental overthrow of the regimen they attacked. They conspired together. They swore together as the phrase is, according to the documents of the time, they rose to extricate themselves from the outrageous oppression and misery they were enduring, but not to abolish feudal sovereignty and to change the personalities of their masters. When they succeeded, they obtained those treaties of peace called charters which brought about in the condition of the insurgents salutary changes accompanied by more or less effectual guarantees. When they failed, or when the charters were violated, the result was violent reactions, mutual excesses. The relations between the populations and their lords were tempestuous and full of vicissitudes. But at bottom neither the political regimen nor the social system of the Communes was altered. And so there were at many spots without any connection between them local revolts and civil wars, but no communal revolution. One of the earliest facts of this kind which have been brought forth with some detail in history clearly shows their primitive character. A fact the more remarkable in that the revolt described by the chroniclers originated and ran its course in the country among peasants with a view of recovering complete independence but not amongst an urban population with a view of resulting in the erection of a Commune. Toward the end of the 10th century under Richard II, Duke of Normandy called the good and whilst the good King Robert was reigning in France in several courtships of Normandy says William of Jumeige all the peasants, assembling in their conventicals resolved to live according to their inclinations and their own laws as well in the interior of the forests as along the rivers and to wreck not of any established right. To carry out this purpose these mobs of madmen chose each two deputies who were to form at some central point an assembly charged to see the execution of their decrees. As soon as the Duke, Richard II, was informed thereof he sent a large body of men at arms to repress this audaciousness of the county districts and to scatter this rustic assemblage. In execution of his orders the deputies of the peasants and many other rebels were forthwith arrested their feet and hands were cut off and they were sent away thus mutilated to their homes in order to deter their life from such enterprises and to make them wiser for fear of worse. After this experience the peasants left off their meetings and returned to their plows. It was about eighty years after the event when the monk William of Jumeige told the story of this insurrection of peasants so long anterior and yet so similar to that which more than three centuries afterwards broke out in nearly the whole of northern France and which was called the Jacquerie. Less than a century after William of Jumeige a Norman poet, Robert Waste told the same story in his Romance of Rue a history inverse of Rallo and the first dukes of Normandy. The Lord's do us not but ill, he makes the Roman peasants say with them we have nor gain nor profit from our labors every day is for us a day of suffering of travail and of fatigue every day our beasts are taken from us for forced labor and services why put up with all this evil and why not get quit of travail? Are we not men even as they are? Have we not the same stature, the same limbs the same strength for suffering? Bind we ourselves by oath? Swear we to aid one another and if they be minded to make war on us have we not for every night thirty or forty young peasants ready and willing to fight with club or boar spear or arrow or axe or stones if they have not arms? Learn we to resist the knights and we shall be free to hew down trees to hunt game and to fish after our fashion and we shall work our will on flood and in field and wood. These two passages have already been quoted in chapter fourteen of this history in the course of describing the general condition of France under the Capatians before the Crusades and they are again brought forward here because they express and paint to the life the chief cause which formed the end of the tenth century led to so many insurrections among the rural as well as urban populations and brought about the establish of so many communes. We say the chief cause only because oppression and insurrection were not the sole origin of the communes. Evil, moral and material abounds in human communities but it never has the sole dominion there. Force never drives justice into utter banishment and the ruffianly violence of the strong never stifles in all hearts every sympathy for the weak. Two causes, quite distinct from feudal opposition vis Roman traditions and Christian sentiments had their share in the formation of the communes and in the beneficial results thereof. The Roman municipal regimen which is described in Monsieur Rousseau's L'essai sur l'histoire de France 1st essay, pages 1-44 did not everywhere perish with the empire it kept its footing in a great number of towns especially in those of southern Gaul, Marseille, Arles, Nîmes, Narbonne, Toulouse, etc. At Arles the municipality actually bore the name of commune, Camunitas. Toulouse gave her principal magistrates the name of capitals after the capital of Rome and in the greater part of the other towns in the south they were called consuls. After the great invasion of barbarians from the 7th to the end of the 11th centuries the existence of these Roman municipalities appears but rarely and confusedly in history but in this there is nothing peculiar to the towns and the municipal system for confusion and obscurity were at that time universal and the nascent feudal system was plunged therein as well as the dying little municipal systems were. Many Roman municipalities were still subsisting without influencing any event of at all a general kind and without leaving any trace and as the feudal system grew and grew they still went on in the midst of universal darkness and anarchy. They had penetrated into the north of Gaul in fewer numbers and with a weaker organization than in the south but still keeping their footing and wanting themselves on their Roman origin in the face of their barbaric conquerors. The inhabitants of Rheem remembered with pride that their municipal magistracy and its jurisdiction were anterior to Clovis dating as they did from before the days of Saint Remigius the Apostle of the Franks. The burgers of Mets boasted of having enjoyed civil rights before there was any district of Lorraine. Lorraine, says they, is young and Mets is old. The city of Bourges was one of the most complete examples of successive transformations and denominations attained by a Roman municipality from the 6th to the 13th century under the Merovingians, the Keralavingians and the earliest Capatians. At the time of the invasion it had arenas, an amphitheater and all that characterized a Roman city. In the 7th century the author of the Life of Saint Estadiolla Borna Bourges says that she was the child of illustrious parents who, as worldly dignities accounted were notable by reason of senatorial rank and Gregory of Tour quotes a judgment delivered by the principles primaries of the city of Bourges. Coins of the time of Charles de Balde are struck with the name of the city of Bourges and its inhabitants, Bittorige. In 1107 under Philip I the members of the municipal city of Bourges are named Proudhon. In two charters, one of Louis the Young in 1145 and the other of Philip Augustus in 1218, the old senators of Bourges have the name at one time of Bonhomme at another of Baron of the city. Under different names in accordance with change of language the Roman municipal regimen held on and adapted itself to new social conditions. End of chapter 19 part 1 Recording by Alan Winteroud boomcoach.blogspot.com Chapter 19 part 2 of volume 2 of a popular history of France from the earliest times. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Alan Winteroud Volume 2 of a popular history of France from the earliest times by François Guizot translated by Robert Black. Chapter 19 The Communes and the Third Estate Part 2 In our own day there has been far too much inclination to dispute and Monsieur Augustin Thierry has in Monsieur Guizot's opinion made far too little of the active and effective part played by the kingship in the formation and protection of the French communes. Not only did the kings, as we shall presently see, often interpose as mediators in the quarrels of the communes with their lack or ecclesiastical lords, but many amongst them assumed in their own domains and to the prophet of the communes an intelligent and beneficial initiative. The city of Orleans was a happy example of this. It was of ancient date and had prospered under the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, the continuance of the Roman municipal regimen does not appear there clearly as we have just seen that it did in this case of Bourges. It is chiefly from the middle ages and their kings at Orleans held its municipal franchises and its privileges. They never raised it to a commune properly so called, by a charter sworn to and guaranteed by independent institutions, but they set honestly to work to prevent local oppression, to reform abuses and make justice prevail there. From 1051 to 1281 there can be found in the Recue des Ordinaux des Rois seven important charters relating to Orleans. In 1051 at the demand of the people of Orleans and its bishop who appears in the charter as the head of the people, the defender of the city, Henry I, secures to the inhabitants of Orleans freedom of labor and of going to and fro during the vintages and interdicts his agents from exacting anything upon the entry of wines. From 1137 to 1178 during the administration of Sougare, Louis the Young in four successive ordinances gives in respect of Orleans precise guarantees for freedom of trade, security of persons and property and the internal peace of the city and in 1183 Philip Augustus exempts all from tallyage that is from all personal impost the present and future inhabitants of Orleans and grants them diverse privileges amongst others that of not going to law courts farther from their homes than atomp. In 1281 Philip the Bold renews and confirms the concessions of Philip Augustus. Orleans was not within the royal domain the only city where the kings of that period both of favor the progress of the population of wealth and of security. Several other cities and even less considerable bergs obtain similar favor and then 1155 Louis the Young probably in confirmation of an activist father Louis the Fat granted to the little town of Loris in Gatenay nowadays chief place of a canton in the department of the Loiret a charter full of detail which regulated its internal regimen in financial, commercial, judicial and military matters and secured to all its inhabitants good conditions in respect of civil life. This charter was in the course of the 12th century regarded as so favorable that it was demanded by a great number of towns and bergs. The king was asked for the customs of Loris and in the space of 50 years they were granted to 7 towns some of them a considerable distance from Orleans the towns which obtained them did not become by this qualification communes properly so called in the special and historical sense of the word they had no jurisdiction of their own no independent magistracy they had not their own government in their hands the king's officers, provosts bailiffs or others were the only persons who exercised their real and decisive power but the king's promises to the inhabitants the rights which he authorized them to claim from him and the rules which he imposed upon his officers in their government were not concessions which were of no value or which remained without fruit as we follow in the course of our history the towns which without having been raised to communes properly so called had obtained advantages of that kind we see them developing in population and wealth and sticking more and more closely to that kingship from which they had received their privileges and which for all its imperfect observance and even frequent violation of promises was nevertheless accessible to complaint repressed from time to time the misbehavior of its officers, renewed at need and even extended privileges and in a word promoted in its administration the progress of civilization and the councils of reason and thus attached the burgers to itself without recognizing on their side those positive rights and those guarantees of administrative independence which are in a perfect and solidly constructed social fabric the foundation of political liberty nor was it the kings alone who in the middle ages listened to the councils of reason and recognized in their behavior toward their towns the right of justice many bishops had become the feudal lords of the Episcopal city and the Christian spirit enlightened and animated many amongst them just as the monarchial spirit sometimes enlightened and guided the kings troubles had arisen in the town of Cambrai between the bishops and the people there was amongst the member of the metropolitan clergy says Monsieur Augustin Thierry a certain Baudry de Sarcianville a native of Artois who had the title of Chaplain of the Bishopric he was a man of high character and of wise and reflecting mind he did not share the violent aversion felt by most of his order for the institution of communes he saw in this institution a sort of necessity beneath which it would be inevitable sooner or later willy nilly to bow and he thought it was better to surrender to the wishes of the citizens to postpone for a while an unavoidable revolution in 1098 he was elected bishop of Noyan he found this town in the same state in which he had seen that of Cambrai the burgers were at daily launderheads with the metropolitan clergy and the registers of the church contained a host of documents entitled peace made between us and the burgers of Noyan but no reconciliation was lasting the truce was soon broken either by the clergy or by the citizens who were the more touchy in that they had less security for their persons and their property the new bishop thought that the establishment of a commune sworn to by both the rival parties might become a sort of compact of alliance between them and he set about realizing this noble idea before the word commune had served at Noyan as a rallying cry of popular insurrection of his own mere motion he convoked in assembly all the inhabitants of the town clergy, knights, traders and craftsmen he presented them with a charter which constituted the body of burgers an association forever under magistrates called jurymen like those of Cambrai whosoever says the charter shall desire to enter this commune shall not be able to be received as a member of it by a single individual in the presence of the jurymen the sum of money he shall then give shall be employed for the benefit of the town and not for the private advantage of anyone whatsoever if the commune be outraged all those who have sworn to it shall be bound to march to it's defense and none shall be empowered to remain at home unless he be in firm or sick or so poor that he must needs be himself the watcher of his own wife and children lying sick and have wounded or slain anyone on the territory of the commune the jurymen shall take their vengeance therefore the other articles guarantee to the members of the commune of Noyon the complete ownership of their property and the right of it not being handed over to justice saved before their own municipal magistrates the bishop first swore to this charter and the inhabitants of every condition took the same oath after him the virtue of his pontifical authority he pronounced the anathema and all curses of the old and new testament against whoever should come in time to come dare to dissolve the commune or infringe it's regulations furthermore in order to give this new pact a stronger warranty Baudry requested the king of France Louis the fat to corroborate it as they used to say at the time by his approbation and by the great seal of the crown the king consented to this request of the bishop and that was all the part taken by Louis the fat in the establishment of the commune of Noyon the king's charter is not preserved but under the date of 1108 there is extant one of the bishop's own which may serve to substantiate the account given Baudry, by the grace of god bishop of Noyon to all those who do preserve and go on in the faith most dear brethren we learn by the example and words of the holy fathers that all good things ought to be committed to writing for fear lest hereafter they come to be forgotten no then all Christians present and to come that I have formed at Noyon a commune constituted by the council and in an assembly of clergy, knights and burgers that I have confirmed it by oath by pontifical authority and by the bond of anathema I have prevailed upon our lord king Louis to grant this commune and corroborate it with the king's seal this establishment formed by me sworn to by a great number of persons and granted by the king let none be so bold as to destroy or alter I give warning thereof on behalf of god and myself and I forbid it in the name of pontifical authority whoever shall transgress and violate the present law be subjected to excommunication and whosoever on the contrary shall faithfully keep it be preserved forever amongst those who dwell on the house of the lord this good example was not without fruit the communal regimen was established in several towns notably at Saint Quentin and at Soissant without trouble or violence and with one accord amongst the laic and ecclesiastical lords and the inhabitants and chief source of the communes at the case of those which met futile opposition with energetic resistance and which after all the sufferings vicissitudes and outrages on both sides of a prolonged struggle ended by winning a veritable administration and to a certain extent political independence the number of communes thus formed from the 11th to the 13th century was great and we have a detailed history of the fortunes among them to give a correct and vivid picture of them we will choose the commune of Leon which was one of those whose fortunes were most checkered as well as most tragic and which after more than two centuries of a very tempestuous existence was sentenced to complete abolition first by Philip the handsome then by Philip the long and Charles the handsome and finally by Philip of Valois for certain misdeeds and excesses notorious enormous and detestable and unfold the liberation of our council the early portion of the history connected with the commune of Leon has been narrated for us by Ghibert an avid of nos gens sous coupsets in the diocese of Leon a contemporary writer sprightly embold in all that I have written and am still writing says he I dismiss all men from my mind caring not a whit about pleasing anybody I have taken my side in the opinions of the world and with calmness and indifference on my own account I expect to be exposed to all sorts of language to be as it were beaten with rods I proceed with my task being fully proposed to bear with equanimity the presence of all who come snarling after me Leon was at the end of the 11th century one of the most important towns in the kingdom of France it was full of rich and industrious inhabitants the neighboring people came thither for provisions or diversion and such concourse led to the greatest disturbances the nobles and their servitors says Monsieur Augustus Thierry sword and hand committed robbery upon the burgers the streets of the town were not safe by night or even by day and none could go out without running a risk of being stopped and robbed or killed the burgers in their turn committed violence upon the peasants who came to buy or sell at the market of the town let me give his example says Guybert of Nogent a single fact which had to take in place among the barbarians or the Scythians would assuredly have been considered the height of wickedness for those who recognize no law on Saturday the inhabitants of the country places used to leave their fields and come from all sides to Leon to get provisions at the market the townsfolk used then to go around the place carrying in baskets or bowls or otherwise samples of vegetables or grain or any other article as if they wish to sell they would offer them to the first peasant who was in search of such things to buy the price agreed upon and then the seller would say to the buyer come with me to my house to see and examine the whole of the articles I am selling you the other would go and then when they came to the bin containing the goods the honest seller would take off and hold up the lid saying to the buyer step hither and put your head or arms into the bin to make quite sure that all is exactly of the same goods as I showed you outside and then when the other stepping on to the edge of the bin remained leaning on his belly with his head and shoulders hanging down the worthy seller who kept in the rear would hoist up the thoughtless rustic by the feet push him suddenly into the bin and clapping on the lid as he fell keep him shut up in this safe prison until he had bought himself out End of Chapter 19 Part 2 Recording by Alan Winteroud boomcoach.blogspot.com Part 3 of Volume 2 of a popular history of France from the earliest times this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Alan Winteroud Volume 2 of a popular history of France from the earliest times by Francois Guizot translated by Robert Black Chapter 19 The Communes and the Third Estate Part 3 In 1106 the bishopric of Leon had been two years vacant it was sought after and obtained for a sum of money say contemporaries by Godre, a Norman by birth referendary of Henry I King of England and one of those churchmen who according to Monsieur Augustine Thierry's progression had gone in the train of William the Bastard to seek their fortunes amongst the English by seizing the property of the vanquished it appears that henceforth the life of Godre had been scarcely edifying he had it is said the taste and habits of a soldier he was hasty and arrogant and he liked beyond everything to talk of fighting and hunting of arms of horses and of hounds when he was repairing numerous following to Rome to ask for confirmation of his election he met it longer Pope Pascal II come to France to keep the festival of Christmas at the Abbey of Cluny the Pope had no doubt heard something about the indifferent reputation of the new bishop for the very day after his arrival it longer he held a conference with the ecclesiastics who had accompanied Godre implied them with questions concerning him he asked us first said Giber of Nogent who was in the train why we had chosen a man who was unknown to us as none of the priests some of whom did not even know the first rudiments of the Latin language made any answer to this question he turned to the abbots I was seated between my two colleagues as they likewise kept silence I began to be urged right and left to speak I was one of those whom this election had displeased but with culpable timidity I had yielded to the authority of my superiors and dignity with the bashfulness of youth I could only with great difficulty and much blushing prevail upon myself to open my mouth the discussion was carried on not in our mother tongue but in the language of scholars I therefore though with great confusion of mind and face betook myself to speak in a manner to tickle the pallet of him who was questioning us wrapping up an artfully arranged form of speech expressions which were softened down but were not entirely removed from the truth I said that we did not know it was true to the extent of having been familiar by sight at intercourse with him the man of whom we had made choice but that we had received favorable reports of his integrity the Pope strove to confound my arguments with this quotation from the gospel he that hath seen giveth testimony but as he did not explicitly raise the objection that Godre had been elected by desire of the court all subtle subterfuge on any such point became useless so I gave it up and confessed that I could say nothing in opposition to the Pontiff's words which pleased him very much for he had less scholarship than would have become his high office clearly perceiving however that all the phrases I had piled up in defense of our election had but little weight I launched out afterwards upon the urgent straits wherein our church was placed and on this subject I gave myself the more reign and proportion as the person elected was unfitted for the functions of the Episcopate Godre was indeed very scantily fitted for the office of bishop as the town of Leon was not slow to perceive and initially had he been installed when he committed strange outrageous he had a man's eyes put out on suspicion of connivance with his enemies and he tolerated the murder of another in the metropolitan church in imitation of rich crusaders on their return from the east he kept a black slave whom he employed upon its deeds of vengeance the burgers began to be disquieted and a wax Roth during a trip the bishop made to they offered a great deal of money to the clergy and knights who ruled in his absence if they would consent to recognize by a genuine act the right of the commonality of the inhabitants to be governed by authorities of their own choice the clergy and knights says a contemporary chronicler came to an agreement with the common folk in hopes of enriching themselves in a speedy and easy fashion a commune was therefore set up to proclaim the Leon on the model of that of Noyan and invested with effective powers the bishop on his return was very Roth and for some days abstained from re-entering the town but the burgers acted with him as they had with his clergy and his knights they offered him so large a sum of money that it was enough says Giber of Nozent to appease the tempest of his words he accepted the commune the burgers wished to have a higher warranty so they sent to Paris to King Louis the Fat a deputation laden with rich presence the king said the chronicler went over by this plebeian bounty confirmed the commune by his own oath and the deputation took back to Leon their charter sealed with a great seal of the crown and augmented by two articles to the following purport the folks of Leon shall not be liable to be forced to law away from their own town if the king have a suit against anyone amongst them justice shall be done him in the Episcopal court for these advantages and others further granted to the aforesaid inhabitants by the king's munificence the folks of the commune have confident to give the king besides the old plenary court dues and man and horse dues dues paid for exemption for the service in case of war three lodgings a year if he come to town and if he do not come they will pay him instead twenty levers for each lodging for three years the town of Leon was satisfied and tranquil the burgers were happy in the security they enjoyed and proud of the liberty they had won but in eleven twelve the knights the clergy of the metropolitan church and the bishop himself were happy they had received and keenly regretted the power they had lost and they meditated reducing to the old condition the serfs emancipated from their yoke the bishop invited king Louis the fat to come to Leon for the keeping of holy week calculating upon his presence for the intimidation of the burgers but the burgers who were in fear of ruin says you bear of no gent promised the king and those about him four hundred levers or more not quite sure which whilst the bishop and the grandees on their side urged the monarch to come to an understanding with them and engaged to pay him seven hundred lever king Louis was so striking in person that he seemed made expressly for the majesty of the throne he was courageous in war a foe to all slowness in business and stout hearted in adversity sound however as he was on every other point praiseworthy in this one respect that he opened to readily both heart and ear to vile fellows corrupted by avarice this vice was a fruitful source of hurt as well as blame to himself to say nothing of unhappiness to many the cupidity of this prince always caused him to incline toward those who promised him most all his own oaths and those of the bishops and the grandees were consequently violated the charters sealed with the king's seal was annulled and on the part of the king and the bishop an order was issued to all the magistrates of the commune to cease from their functions to give up the seal and banner of the town and to no longer ring the belfry chimes which rang out in the opening and closing of their audiences but at this proclamation so violent was the uproar in the town that the king who had hitherto lodged in a private hotel had it prudent to leave and to go to pass the night in the Episcopal palace which was surrounded by strong walls not content with this precaution and probably a little ashamed of what he had done he left Leon the next morning at daybreak with all his train without waiting for the festival of Easter for the celebration of which he had undertaken his journey all the day after his departure the shops of the trades people and the houses of the innkeepers were kept closed no sort of article was offered for sale everybody remained shut up at home but when there is a wrath at the bottom of men's souls the silence and stupor of the first paroxysm are of short duration next day a rumor spread that the bishop and the grandees were busy in calculating the fortunes of all citizens in order to demand that to supply the sum promised to the king each had pay on account of the destruction of the commune as much as he had given for its establishment in a fit of violent indignation the burgers assembled and 40 of them bound themselves by oaths for life or death to kill the bishop and all those grandees who had labored for the ruin of the commune the Archdeacon Anselm was a good sort of man of obscure birth who heartily disapproved of the bishop's perjury went nevertheless and warned him quite privately and without betraying anyone of the danger that threatened him urging him not to leave his house and particularly not to accompany the procession on Easter day Poo! answered the bishop I die by the hands of such fellows next day nevertheless he did not appear at matins and did not set foot within the church but when the hour for the procession came fearing to be accused of cowardice he issued forth at the head of his clergy closely followed by his domestics and some knights with arms and armor under their clothes as the company filed past one of the 40 conspirators thinking a moment favorable for striking the blow brushed out suddenly from under an arch with a shout of commune, commune a lone murmur ran through the throng but not a soul joined in the shout or the movement and the ceremony came to an end without any explosion the day after another solemn procession was to take place to the church of St. Vincent somewhat reassured but still somewhat disquieted the bishop fetched from the domains of the bishopric a body of peasants some of whom he charged to protect the church others his own palace and once more accompanied the procession without the conspirators daring to attack him this time he was completely reassured and dismissed the peasants he had sent for on the fourth day after Easter says G. Bair of Nauseant my corn having been pillaged in consequence of the disorder that reigned in the town I repaired to the bishops and prayed him to put a stop to the state of violence what do you suppose said he to me those fellows can do with all their outbreaks why if my black amour John were to pull the nose of the most formidable among them the poor devil of Durst not even grumble have I not forced them to give up what they call their commune for the whole duration of my life I held my tongue many folks besides me warned him of his danger but he would not deign to believe anybody three days later all seemed quiet and the bishop was busy with his arch deacon in discussing the sums to be exacted from the burgers all at once a tumult arose in the town and a crowd of people throng the streets shouting commune, commune bands of burgers armed with swords, axes, bows, hatches clubs and lances rushed into the Episcopal Palace at the news of this the knight who had promised the bishop to go to his assistance if he needed it came up one after another to his protection and three of them in succession were hotly attacked by the burger bands and fell after a short resistance the Episcopal Palace was set on fire the bishop not being in a condition to repulse the attacks of the populace assumed the dress of one of his own domestics fled to the cellar of the church shut himself in and ensconced himself in a cask the bunghole of which he was stopped up by a faithful servitor the crowd wandered about everywhere in search of him on whom they wished to wreak their vengeance a bandit named Togard notorious in those times for his robberies assaults and murders of travelers had thrown himself headlong into the cause of the commune the bishop who knew him had by way of pleasantry and on account of his evil mane given him the nickname of Isengren this was the name which was given in the fables of the day to the wolf and which responded to that of master Reynard Togard and his men penetrated into the cellar of the church they went along tapping upon all the casks and on what suspicion there is no knowing but Togard hauled up in front of that in which the poor bishop was huddled up and had it open crying is there anyone here only a poor prisoner answered the bishop trembling haha said the playful bandit who recognized the voice so it is you master Isengren who are hiding here and he took him by the hair and dragged him out of the cask the bishop implored the conspirators to spare his life and offered to swear on the gospels to abdicate the bishopric promising them all the money he possessed and saying that if they pleased he would leave the country the reply was insult and blows he was immediately dispatched and Togard seeing the episcopal ring glittering on his finger cut off the finger to get possession of the ring the body stripped of all covering thrust into a corner where passerbys threw stones or mud at it accompanying their insult with rivalry and curses murder and arson are contagious all the day of the insurrection and all the following night armed bands wandered about the streets of Leone searching everywhere for relatives, friends or servitors of the bishop for all whom the angry populace knew or supposed to be such and wreaking on their persons a ghastly and a brutal vengeance in a fit of terror many poor innocents fled before the blind wrath of the populace some were caught and cut down palmel amongst the guilty others escaped through the vineyards planted between two hills on the outskirts of the town the progress of the fire kindled on two sides at once was so rapid as you bear and the winds drove the flames so furiously in the direction of the convent of St. Vincent that the monks were afraid of seeing all they possessed become the fire's prey and all the persons who had taken refuge in this monastery trembled as if they had seen swords hanging over their heads some insurgents stopped a young man who had been body servant to the bishop and asked him whether the bishop had been killed or not they knew nothing about it nor did he know anymore he helped them to look for the corpse and then so mutilated that not a figure was recognizable I remember, said the young man that when the prelate was alive he liked to talk of deeds of war for which to his hurt he always showed too much bent and he often used to say that one day in a sham fight just as he was all in the way of sport attacking a certain knight the latter hit him with his lance and wounding him under the neck the body of Godre was eventually recognized by this mark and Archduke and Anselm went to the next day says you bear no gent to beg of the insurgents permission at least to bury if only because it had once borne the title and worn the insignia of bishop they consented but reluctantly it was impossible to tell how many threats and insults were launched against those who undertook the obsequies and what outrageous language was vented by the dead himself his corpse was thrown into a half dug hole and at church there was none of the preachers or ceremonies prescribed for the burial of I will not say a bishop but the worst of Christians a few days afterwards Raoul Archbishop of Rem came to Leon to purify the church the wise and venerable Archbishop said you bear after having on his arrival seemed to more decently disposing of some of the dead and celebrated divine service and memory to all amidst the tears and other grief of the relatives and connections suspended the holy sacrifice of the mass in order to deliver a discourse touching those extroval institutions of communes whereby we see serfs contrary to all right and justice withdrawing themselves by force from the lawful authority of their masters here is a striking instance of the changeableness of men's feelings and judgments and it causes a shock even when it is natural and almost allowable the contemporary historian who was but lately loud in his blame of the bishop of Leon's character and conduct now takes issue with the reaction aroused by popular excesses and vindictiveness and is indignant with those execrable institutions of many disturbances and crimes the burgers of Leon themselves having reflected upon the number and enormity of the crimes they had committed shrank up with fear says you bear and dreaded the judgment of the king to protect himself against the consequences of his resentment they added a fresh wound to the old by summoning to their aid thomas tomorrow son of Earl Ingerand de Coussi this thomas from his earliest youth enriched himself by plundering the poor and the pilgrim contracted several incestuous marriages and exhibited a ferocity so unheard of in our age that certain people even amongst those who have a reputation for cruelty appear less lavish of the blood of common sheep than thomas was of human blood such was the man whom the burgers of Leon implored to come and put himself with their head and whom they welcomed with joy when he entered their town as for him when he had heard their request he consulted his own people to know what he ought to do and they all replied that his forces were not sufficiently numerous to defend such a city against the king thomas then induced the burgers to go out and hold a meeting in a field where he would make known to them his plan when they were about a mile from the town he said to them Leon is the head of the kingdom it is impossible for me to keep the king from making himself master of it if you dread his arms follow me to my own land and you will find in me a protector and a friend these words threw them into an excess of consternation soon however the popular party troubled by the recollection of the crime they had committed and fancying that they already saw the king threatening their lives fled away to the number of a great many in the wake of thomas to guard himself that murderer of bishop godry hastened to put himself under the wing of the lord of melis before long the rumors spread abroad amongst the population of the country places near leon that the town was quite empty of inhabitants and all the peasants rushed thither and took possession of the houses they found without defenders who could tell or be believed if he were to attempt to tell how much money raiment and provisions of all kinds was discovered in this city before long there arose between the first and last comers disputes about the partition of their plunder all of the small folks had taken soon passed into the hands of the powerful if two men met a third quite alone they stripped him the state of the town was truly pitiable the burgers who had quitted it with thomas tomorrow had beforehand destroyed and burned the houses of the clergy and grandees whom they hated and now the grandees escaped from the massacre carried off in their turn from the houses of the fugitives all means of subsistence and all movables to the very hinges and bolts end of chapter 19 part 3 recording by alan winteroud boomcoach.blogspot.com chapter 19 part 4 of volume 2 of a popular history of france from the earliest times this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by alan winteroud volume 2 of a popular history of france from the earliest times by françois guizot translated by robert black chapter 19 the communes and the third estate part 4 the rumor of so many disasters, crimes and reactions succeeding one another spread rapidly throughout all districts thomas tomorrow was put under the ban of the kingdom and visited with excommunication by a general assembly of the church of the Gauls says gibetre of nogent assembled at bovet and this sentence was read every sunday after mass in all the metropolitan and parochial churches public feeling against thomas tomorrow became so strong that ingaron de bo lord of cusay who passed says suger for his father joined those who declared war against him in the name of church and king louis the fat took the field in person against him men at arms and in very small numbers too says gibetre of nogent for with difficulty induced to second the king and did not do so heartily but the light armed infantry made up a considerable force and the arch bishop of rim and the bishops had summoned all the people to this expedition whilst offering to all absolution from their sins thomas tomorrow though at that time helpless and stretched upon his bed was not a ring of scoffs and insult towards his assailants and at first he absolutely refused to listen to the king summons but louis persisted without wavering in his enterprise exposing himself freely and in person leading his infantry to the attack when the men at arms did not come on or bore themselves slackly he carried successively the castles of cracy and nogent domains belonging to thomas tomorrow and at last reduced him to the necessity of buying himself off at a heavy ransom indemnifying the churches he had spoiled giving guarantees for future behavior and earnestly praying for readmission to the communion of the faithful as for those folks of leon perpetrators of or accomplices in the murder of bishop godre who had sought refuge with thomas tomorrow the king showed them no mercy he ordered them says suger to be strung up to the gibbet and left for food to the veracity of kites and crows and vultures there are certain discrepancies between the two accounts both contemporaneous which we possess of this incident in the earliest years of the 12th century one in the life of louis the fat by suger and the other in the life of gibbert de nogent by himself they will be easily recognized on comparing what was said after suger in chapter 18 of this history with what has just been said here after gibbet but these discrepancies are of no historical importance for they make no difference in respect of the essential facts characteristic of social condition at the period and of the behavior and position of the actors louis the fat after his victory over thomas tomorrow and the fugitives from leon with the archbishop of rim and the presence of the king whilst restoring power to the foes of the commune inspired them no doubt with a little of the spirit of moderation for there was an interval of peace during which no attention was paid to anything but expatiatory ceremonies and the restoration of the churches which had been a prey to the flames the archbishop celebrated a solemn mass for the repose of the souls of those who had perished during the conferences and he preached a sermon exhorting serfs to submit themselves to their masters and warning them on pain of anathema from resisting by force the burgers of leon however did not consider every sort of resistance forbidden and the lords had no doubt been taught not to provoke it for an 1128 16 years after the murder of bishop godre fear of a fresh insurrection determined his successor to consent to the institution of a new commune the charter of which was ratified by louis the fat in an assembly held at campaign only the name of the commune did not recur in this charter it was replaced by that of peace establishment the territorial boundaries of the commune were called peace boundaries and to designate its members recourse was had to the formula all those who have signed this preamble of the charter runs in the name of the holy and indivisible trinity we louis by the grace of god king of the french do make known to all our liege present and to come that with the consent of the barons of our kingdom and the inhabitants of the city of leon we have set up in the said city a peace establishment and after having enumerated the limits forms and rules of it the charter concludes with this declaration of the preamnesty all former trespasses and offenses committed before the ratification of the present treaty are holy pardoned if anyone banished for having trespassed in past time desired to return to the town he shall be admitted and shall recover possession of his property accepted from pardon however are the 13 whose names do follow and then come the names of the 13 accepted and still under banishment perhaps says monsieur these 13 under banishment shut out forever from their native town at the very moment it became free had been distinguished amongst all the burgers of leon by their opposition to the power of the lords perhaps they had sullied by deeds of violence this patriotic opposition perhaps they had been taken at haphazard to suffer a loan for the crimes of their fellow citizens the second hypothesis appears the most probable for that deeds of violence and cruelty had been committed alternately by the burgers and their foes is an ascertained fact and that the charter of 1128 was really a work of liberal pacification is proved by its contents and wording after such struggles and at the moment of their subsidence some of the most violent actors always bear the burden of the past and some are often the most sincere for 47 years after the charter of louis the fat the town of leon enjoyed the internal peace and the communal liberties it had thus achieved but in 1175 a new bishop Roger de Rousseau a man of high berth and related to several of the great lords his neighbors took upon himself to disregard the regimen of freedom established at leon and in 1175 a general taught by experience applied to the king louis the young and offered him a sum of money to grant them a charter of commune bishop roger by himself and through his friends as a chronicler a canon of leon implored the king to have pity on his church and abolished the serfs commune but the king clinging to the promise he had received of money would not listen to the bishop or his friends and in 1177 a charter which confirmed their peace establishment of 1128 bishop roger however did not hold himself beaten he claimed the help of the lords his neighbors and renewed the war against the burgers of leon who on their side asked and obtained the aid of several communes in the vicinity in an access of democratic rashness instead of awaiting within their walls the attack of their enemies they marched out without cavalry to the encounter ravaging as they went the lands of the lords whom they suspected of being ill-disposed toward them but on arriving in front of the bishops allies all this rustic multitude says the canon chronicler terror-stricken at the bare names of the knights they found assembled took suddenly to flight and a great number of the burgers were massacred before reaching their city louis the young then took the field to help them but Baldwin count of heno went to the aid of the bishop of leon with 700 knights and several thousand infantry king louis after having occupied and for some time held in sequestration the lands of the bishop thought it advisable to make peace rather than continue so troublesome a war and at the intersession of the pope and the count of heno he restored to roger de rossoy his lands and his bishopric on condition of living in peace with the commune and so long as louis the sixth lived the bishop did refrain from attacking the liberties of the burgers of leon but at the king's death in 1180 he applied to his successor philip augustus and offered to see to him the lordship of fair sir oise of which he was the possessor provided that philip by charter abolished the commune of leon philip yielded to the temptation and in 1190 published an ordinance to the following purport desiring to avoid to our soul every sort of danger we do entirely quash the commune established in the town of leon as being contrary to the rights and liberties of the metropolitan church of saint mary in regard for justice and for the sake of a happy issue to the pilgrimage which we be bound to make to jerusalem but next year upon entreaty and offers from the burgers of leon philip changed his mind and without giving back the lordship of fair sir oise to the bishop guaranteed and confirmed in perpetuity the peace establishment granted in 1128 to the town of leon on the condition that every year at the festival of all saints they shall pay to us and our successors 200 lever of Paris for a century all strife of any consequence ceased between the burgers of leon and their bishop or good understanding between them but the public peace was not troubled and neither the kings of france nor the great lords of the neighborhood interfered in its affairs in 1294 some nights in clergy of the metropolitan chapter of leon took to quarrelling with some burgers and on both sides they came to deeds of violence which caused sanguinary struggles in the streets of the town and even in the precincts of the episcopal palace the bishop and his chapter applied to the pope bought a face the eighth who applied to the king philip the handsome to put an end to these scandalous disturbances philip the handsome in his turn applied to the parliament of paris which after inquiry deprived the town of leon of every right of commune and college under whatsoever name the king did not like to execute this decree in all its rigor he granted the burgers of leon a charter which maintained them provisionally in the enjoyment of their political rights but with this destructive clause said commune and said shri valty shall be enforced only so far shall be our pleasure for nearly 30 years from philip the handsome to philip the valoi the bishops and burgers of leon were in litigation before the crown of france the former for the maintenance of leon in its precarious condition and at the king's good pleasure the latter for the recovery of its independent and durable character at last in 1331 philip the valoi considering that the old and commune of leon by reason of certain misdeeds and excesses notorious enormous and detestable had been removed and put down forever by decree of the court of our most clear lord and uncle philip the handsome confirmed and approved by our most dear lords king philip and charles whose souls are with god we on great deliberation of our council have ordained that no commune corporation college shri valty mayor, juryman or any other estate or symbol belonging thereto be at any time set up or established at leon by the same ordinance the municipal administration of leon was put under the sole authority of the king and his delegates and to blot out all remembrance of the old and independence of the commune a later ordinance forbade that the tower from which the two huge communal bells had been removed should henceforth be called belfry tower the history of the commune of leon is that of the majority of the towns which in northern and central france struggled from the 11th to the 14th century to release themselves from feudal opposition and violence cambray bauvais, amiens soissons, rames vezele and several other towns displayed at this period a great deal of energy and perseverance in bringing their lords to recognize the most natural and the most necessary rights of every human creature and community but within their walls dissensions were carried to extremity and existence was ceaselessly tempestuous and troublesome the burgers were hasty brutal and barbaric as barbaric as the lords against whom they were defending their liberties amongst these mayors, sheriffs jurats and magistrates of different degrees and with different titles set up in the communes many came before long to exercise dominion arbitrarily, violently and in their own personal interests the lower orders were in a habitual state of jealousy and sedition of a ruffianly kind toward the rich the heads of the labor market the controllers of capital and of work this reciprocal violence this anarchy these internal evils and dangers with their incessant renewals called incessantly for intervention from without and when after releasing themselves from oppression and iniquity coming from above the burgers fell a parade of pillage and masquer coming from below they sought for a fresh protector to save them from this fresh evil hence that frequent recourse to the king the great suzerain whose authority could keep down the bad magistrates of the commune or reduce the mob to order and hence also before long the progressive downfall or at any rate the utter enfeeblement of those communal liberties France was at that stage of existence and of civilization at which security can hardly be purchased save at the price of liberty we have a phenomenon peculiar to modern times in the provident and persistent effort to reconcile security with liberty and the bold development of individual powers with a regular maintenance of public order this admirable solution of the social problem still so imperfect and unstable in our time was unknown in the middle ages liberty was then so stormy and so fearful that people conceived before long if not a disgust for it at any rate a horror of it and sought at any price a political regimen which would give them some security the essential aim of the social estate when we arrive at the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century we see a host of communes falling into decay or entirely disappearing they cease really to belong to and govern themselves some like Leon, Cambrai, Beauvais and Rem fought a long while against decline and tried more than once to re-establish themselves in all their independence but they could not do without the king's support in their resistance to their lords laic or ecclesiastical and they were not in a condition to resist the kingship which had grown whilst they were perishing others, Mulan and Soissant for example in 1320 and 1335 perceived their weakness early and themselves requested the king to deliver them from their communal organization and itself assume their administration and so it is about this period under Saint Louis and Philip the handsome that there appear in the collection of acts of the French kingship those great ordinances which regulate the administration of all communes within the kingly domains hitherto the kings had ordinarily dealt with each town severally and as the majority were almost independent or invested with privileges of different Kiwis and carefully respected neither the king nor any great Souserain dreamed of prescribing general rules for communal regimen nor of administering after a uniform fashion all the communes in their domains it was under Saint Louis and Philip the handsome that general regulations on this subject began the French communes were associations too small and too weak to suffice for self maintenance and self government amidst the disturbances of the great Christian community and they were too numerous and too little enlightened to organize themselves into one vast confideration capable of giving them a central government the communal liberties were not in a condition to found in France a great republican community to the kingship appertained the power and fell the honor of presiding over the formation and the fortunes of the French nation but the kingship did not alone accomplish this great work at the very time that the communes were perishing and the kingship was growing a new power, a new social element, the Third Estate was springing up in France and it was called to take a far more important place in the history of France and to exercise far more influence upon the fate of the French Fatherland than it had been granted to the communes to acquire during their short and incoherent existence End of Chapter 19 Part 4 Recording by Alan Winteroud BoomCoach.blogspot.com Chapter 19 Part 5 of Volume 2 of a popular history of France from the earliest times This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Alan Winteroud Volume 2 of a popular history of France from the earliest times by François Guiseau translated by Robert Black Chapter 19 The Communes and the Third Estate Part 5 It may astonish many who study the records of French history from the 11th to the 14th century not to find anywhere the words Third Estate and a desire may arise to know whether those inquirers of our day who have devoted themselves professively to this particular study have been more successful in discovering that grand term at the time when it seems we ought to expect to meet with it The question was therefore submitted to a learned member of the Académie d'Inscription et belle-être Monsieur Littre in fact whose dictionnaire intémologique de la langue française is consulted with respect by the whole literary world and to a young magistrate, Monsieur Pico to whom the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques but lately assigned the first prize for his great work on the question that it propounded as to the history and influence of states general in France and here are inserted textually the answers given by two gentlemen of so much enlightenment and authority upon such a subject Monsieur Littre writing on the 3rd of October 1871 says I do not find in my account of the word Third Estate before the 16th century I quote these two instances of it as to the third order called Third Estate and Clarks and deputies for the Third Estate same for the estate of laborers in the 15th century or at the end of the 14th in the poems of Eustace Deschamps I have Prince, thus thou yearn for good old times again in good old ways the three estates restrain at date of 14th century in Ducagne we read under the word status Pertre status concili generale predatorium baronum nobilium et universitum cometatum according to these documents I think it is a 14th century that they begin to call the three orders play statue and that it was only in the 16th century that they begin to speak in French of the Third Estate but I cannot give this conclusion as final seeing that it is supported only by the documents I consulted for my dictionary Monsieur Pico replied on the 3rd of October 1871 it is certain that act contemporary with King John frequently speak of the three estates but do not utter the word Thiers etat Third Estate the great chronicles and the bars say nearly always the church men, the nobles and the good towns the royal ordinances employ the same terms but sometimes in order not to limit their enumeration to the deputies of closed cities they add the good towns and the open country when they apply to the provincial estates of the oil tongue it is as the custom to say the burgers and inhabitants when it is a question of the estates of Languedoc the commonalities of the Sénéchalty such were in the middle of the 14th century the only expressions for designating the third order under Louis XI Juvinal de Orsin in his orang addresses the deputies of the third by the title of burgers and inhabitants of the good towns at the estates of Tour the spokesmen of the estates Jean de Reilly says the people of the common estate the estate of the people the special memorial presented to Charles VIII by the three orders of Languedoc likewise uses the word people it is in Masselon's report and the memorial of grievances presented in 1485 that I meet for the first time with the expression third estate Masselon says it was decided that each section should furnish six commissioners two ecclesiastics two nobles and two of the third estate the commencement of the chapter headed of the commons is for the third in common estate the said folks do represent and a few lines lower comparing the kingdom with the human body the compilers of the memorial say the members are the clergy and the nobles and the folks of the third estate thus at the end of the 15th century the expression third estate was constantly employed but is it not of older date there are words which spring so from the nature of things that they ought to be contemporaneous with the ideas they express their appearance in language is inevitable and is scarcely noticed there on the day when the deputies of the commons entered an assembly of themselves beside the two orders the newcomer by virtue of the situation and rank occupied took the name of third order and as our fathers used to speak of the third order and the third day so they must have spoken of the third estate it was only at the end of the 15th century that the expression became common but I am inclined to believe that it existed in the beginning of the 14th for an instant I had imagined in the course of my researches that under King John the ordinance has designated the good towns by the name of third estate I very soon saw my mistake but you will see how near I found myself to the expression of which we are seeking the origin four times in the great ordinance of December 1335 the deputies rest from the king a promise that in the next assemblies the resolution shall be taken according to the unanimity of the orders without two estates if they be of one accord being able to bind the third at first sight it might be supposed that the deputies of the town had an understanding to secure themselves from the dangers of common action on the part of the clergy and no bless but a more attentive examination made me fly back to a more correct opinion it is certain that the three orders had combined for mutual protection against an alliance of any two of them besides the states of 1576 saw how the clergy readopted to their prophet against the two leic orders the proposition voted in 1355 it is beyond a doubt that this doctrine served to keep the majority from oppressing the minority whatever may have been its name only in point of fact it was most frequently the third estate that must have profited by the regulation in brief we may before the 15th century make suppositions but they are no more than mere conjectures it was at the great state of tour in 1468 that for the first time the third order bore the name which has been given to it by history the fact was far before its name had the third estate been centered entirely in the communes that striped with their lords had the fate of bergardum in France depended on the communal liberties won in that strife we should see at the end of the 13th century that element of French society in the state of feebleness and decay but it was far otherwise the third estate drew its origin and nourishment from all sorts of sources and whilst one was within an ace of drying up the others remained abundant and fruitful independently of the commune properly so called and invested with the right of self-government many towns had privileges serviceable through limited franchises and under the administration of the king's officers they grew in population and wealth these towns did not share towards the end of the 13th century in the decay of the once warlike and victorious communes local political liberty was to seek in them the spirit of independence and resistance did not prevail in them but we see growing up in them another spirit which has played a grand part in French history a spirit of little or no ambition of little or no enterprise timid even and scarcely dreaming of actual resistance but honorable inclined to order persevering attached to its traditional franchises and quite able to make them respected sooner or later it was especially in the towns administered in the king's name and by his provost there was a development of this spirit which has long been the predominant characteristic of French burglardom it must not be supposed that in the absence of real communal independence these towns lacked all internal security the kingship was ever fearful lest its local officers should render themselves independent and remembered what had become in the 9th century of the crown's offices the duchies and the count ships and of the difficulty it had at that time to recover the scattered remnants of the old imperial authority and so the Capetian kings with any intelligence such as Louis VI Philip Augustus Saint Louis and Philip the handsome were careful to keep a hand over their provosts, sergeants and officers of all kinds in order that their power should not grow so great as to become formidable at this time besides parliament and the whole judicial system was beginning to take form and many questions relating to the administration of the towns many disputes between the provosts and burgers were carried before the parliament of Paris and there decided with more independence and equity than they would have been by any other power a certain measure of impartiality is inherent in judicial power the habit of delivering judgment according to written texts of applying laws to facts produces a natural and almost instinctive respect for old acquired rights in parliament the towns often obtained justice and the maintenance of their franchises against the officers of the king the collection of kingly ordinances at this time abounds with instances of the kind these judges besides these bailiffs these provosts, these seneshals and all these officers of the king or of the great suzerains formed before long a numerous and powerful class now the majority amongst them were burgers and their number and their power were turned to the advantage of burgerdom and led day by day to its further extension and importance of all the original sources of the third estate this it is perhaps which has contributed most to bring about the social preponderance of that order just when burgerdom, but lately formed was losing in many of the communes a portion of its local liberties at that same moment it was seizing by the hand of parliaments provosts, judges and administrators of all kinds a large share of central power it was through burgers admitted into the king's service and acting as administrators or judges in his name that communal independence and charters were often attacked and abolished but at the same time they fortified and elevated burgerdom they caused it to acquire from day to day more wealth, more credit more importance and power in the internal and external affairs of the state Philip the handsome, that ambitious and despotic prince was under no delusion when in 1302, 1308 and 1314 on convoking the first states general of France he summoned thither the deputies of the good towns he did not yet give them the name of third estate but he was perfectly aware that he was thus summoning to his aid against Boniface VIII in the Templars and the Flimmings a class already invested throughout the country with great influence and ready to lend him efficient support his son Philip the long was under no delusion when in 1317 and 1321 he summoned to the states general the commonalities and good towns of the kingdom to decide upon the interpretation of the saddle law as to the succession to the throne which implies as to the means of establishing a uniformity of coins, weights and measures he was perfectly aware that the authority of burgerdom would be of great assistance to him in the accomplishment of acts so grave and the third estates played the prelude to the formation painful and slow as it was of constitutional monarchy when in 1338 under Philip of Valois they declared in the presence of the said king Philip of Valois who assented there too there should be no power to impose or levy teleage in France if urgent necessity or evident utility did not require it and then only by grant of the peoples of the estates in order to properly understand the French third estate and its importance more is required than to look on at its birth a glance must be taken at its grand destiny and the results at which it at last arrived let us therefore anticipate centuries and get a glimpse now at once of that upon which the course of events from the 14th to the 19th century will shed full light taking the history of France in its entirety and under all its phases the third estate has been the most active and determining element in the process of French civilization if we follow it in its relation with the general government of the country we see it at first allied for six centuries to the kingship struggling without cessation against the feudal aristocracy and giving predominance in place thereof to a single central power pure monarchy closely bordering though with some frequently repeated but rather useless reservations on absolute monarchy but so soon as it had gained this victory and brought about this revolution the third estate went in pursuit of a new one attacking that single power to the foundation of which it had contributed so much and entered upon the task of changing pure monarchy into constitutional monarchy under whatever aspect we regard it during those two great enterprises so different one from the other whether we study the progressive formation of French society or that of its government the third estate is the most powerful and the most persistent of the forces which have influenced French civilization this fact is unique in the history of the world we recognize in the career of the chief nations of Asia and ancient Europe nearly all the great facts which have agitated France we meet in them mixture of different races conquest of people by people immense inequality between classes frequent changes in the forms of government and extent of public power but nowhere is there any appearance of a class which starting from the very lowest from being feeble, despised and almost imperceptible at its origin rises by perpetual motion and by labor without respite strengthens itself from period to period acquires in succession whatever it lacked wealth, enlightenment, influence changes the face of society and the nature of government and arrives at last at such a pitch of predominance that it may be said to be absolutely the country more than once in the world's history the external semblances of such and such a society have been the same as those which have just been reviewed here but it is a mere semblance in India for example foreign invasions and the influx and establishment of different races upon the same soil have occurred over and over again but with what result? the permanence of caste has not been touched and society has kept its divisions into distinct and almost changeless classes after India take China there too history exhibits conquest similar to the conquest of Europe by the Germans and there too more than once the barbaric conquerors settled amidst the population of the conquered what was the result? the conquered all but absorbed the conquerors and changelessness was still the predominant characteristic of the social condition in western Asia after the invasions of the Turks the separation between victors and vanquished remained insurmountable no ferment in the heart of society no historical event could have faced this first effective conquest in Persia similar events succeeded one another different races fought and intermingled and the end was irredeemable social anarchy which has endured for ages without any change in the social condition of the country without a shadow of any development of civilization so much for Asia let us pass to the Europe of the Greeks and Romans at the first blush we seem to recognize some analogy between the progress of these brilliant societies and that of French society but the analogy is only apparent there is once more nothing resembling the fact and the history of the French Third Estate one thing only has struck sound judgment as being somewhat like the struggle of Burgardom in the Middle Ages against the feudal aristocracy and that is the struggle between the plebeians and patricians at Rome they have often been compared but it is a baseless comparison the struggle between the plebeians and patricians commenced in the very cradle of the Roman Republic it was not as happened in the France of the Middle Ages the result of a slow, difficult, incomplete development on the part of a class which through a long course of great inferiority and strength wealth and credit little by little extended itself and raised itself and ended by engaging in a real struggle with the superior class it is now acknowledged that the struggle at Rome between the plebeians and patricians was a sequel and a prolongation of the War of Conquest was an effort on the part of the aristocracy of the cities conquered by Rome to share the rights of the conquering aristocracy the families of plebeians were the chief families of the vanquished people and though placed by defeat in a position of inferiority they were not any the less aristocratic families powerful but lately in their own cities encompassed by clients and calculated from the very first to dispute with their conquerors the possession of power there is nothing in all this like that slow, obscure, heart-breaking travail of modern burglarum escaping full-heartedly from the midst of slavery or a condition approximating to slavery and spending centuries not in disputing political power but in winning its own civil existence the more closely the French Third Estate is examined the more it is recognized as a new fact in the world's history appertaining exclusively to the civilization of modern Christian Europe not only is the fact new but it has for France an entirely special interest since, to employ an expression much abused in the present day it is in fact imminently French essentially national nowhere has burglarum so wide and so productive a career that which fell to its lot in France there have been communes in the whole of Europe in Italy, Spain, Germany and England as well as in France not only have there been communes everywhere but the communes of France are not those which, as communes under that name and in the Middle Ages have played the chiefest part and taken the highest place in history the Italian communes were the parents of glorious republics the German communes became free and sovereign towns which had their own special history and exercised a great deal of influence upon the general history of Germany the communes of England made alliance with a portion of the English feudal aristocracy formed with it the prepondering house in the British government and thus played full early a mighty part in the history of their own country far were the French communes under that name and in their day of special activity from rising to such political importance and to such historical rank and yet it is in France that the people of the communes the burglarum reached the most complete and most powerful development and ended by acquiring the most decided preponderance in the general social structure there have been communes we say throughout Europe but there has not really been a victorious third of state anywhere save in France the revolution of 1789 the greatest ever seen was the culminating point arrived at by the third of state and France is the only country in which a man of large mind could in a burst of burgers pride exclaim what is the third of state? everything since the explosion and after all the changes liberal and illiberal due to the revolution of 1789 there has been a commonplace ceaselessly repeated to the effect there are no more classes in French society there is only a nation of 37 millions of persons if it be meant that there are now no more privileges in France no special laws and private rights for such and such families proprietorships and occupations and that legislation is the same and there is perfect freedom of movement for all at all steps of the social ladder it is true oneness of laws and similarity of rights is now the essential and characteristic fact of civil society in France an immense and excellent and a novel fact in the history of human associations but beneath the dominance of this fact in the midst of this social unity and this social equality there evidently and necessarily exist numerous and important diversities and inequalities which oneness of laws and similarity of rights neither prevent nor destroy in point of property real or personal land or capital there are rich and poor there are the large the middling and the small property though the great proprietors may be less numerous and less rich and the middling and the small proprietors more numerous and more powerful than they were of your this does not prevent the difference from being real and great enough to create in the civil body social positions widely different and unequal in the professions which are called liberal and which live by brains and knowledge amongst barristers doctors scholars and literates of all kinds some rise to the first rank attract to themselves practice and success and when fame wealth and influence others make enough by hard work for the necessities of their families and the calls of their position others vegetate obscurity in a sort of lazy discomfort in the other vocations those in which the labor is principally physical and manual there also it is according to nature that there should be different and unequal positions some by brains and good conduct make capital and get a footing upon the ways of competence and progress others being dull or idle or disorderly remain in the straightened and precarious condition of existence depending solely on wages throughout the whole extent of the social structure in the ranks of labor as well as of property differences in any qualities of position are produced or kept up and coexist with oneness of laws and similarity of rights examine any human associations in any place and at any time and whatever diversity there may be in point of their origin organization, government, extent and duration there will be found in all three types of social position always fundamentally the same though they may appear under different and differently distributed forms first, men living on income from their properties real or personal, land or capital without seeking to increase them by their own personal and assiduous labor second, men devoted to working up and increasing by their own personal and assiduous labor the real or personal properties land or capital they possess third, men living by their daily labor without land or capital to give them an income and these differences, these inequalities in the social position of men are not matters of accident or violence or peculiar to such and such a time or such and such a country they are matters of universal application produced spontaneously in every human society by virtue of the primitive and general laws of human nature in the midst of events and under the influence of social systems utterly different these matters exist now and in France as they did of old and elsewhere whether you do or do not use the name of classes the new French social fabric contains and will not cease to contain social positions widely different and unequal what constitutes its blessing and its glory is that privileges and fixity no longer cling to the difference of positions that there are no more special rights and advantages legally assigned to some and inaccessible to others that all roads are free and open to all to rise to everything that personal merit and toil have an infinitely greater share than was ever formally allowed to them in the fortunes of men the third estate of the old regimen exists no more it disappeared in its victory over privilege and absolute power it has for heirs the middle classes as they are now called but these classes, whilst inheriting the conquests of the old third estate hold them on new conditions also as legitimate as binding to secure their own interests as well as to discharge their public duty they are bound to be at once conservative and liberal they must on the one hand enlist and rally beneath their flag the old once privileged superiotics which have survived the fall of the old regimen and on the other hand fully recognize the continual upward movement which is fermenting in the whole body of the nation that in its relations with the aristocratic classes the third estate of the old regimen should have been and for a long time remained uneasy disposed to take umbrage jealous and even envious is no more than natural it had won its rights to urge and its conquests to gain nowadays, its conquests have been won the rights are recognized, proclaimed and exercised the middle class have no longer any legitimate ground for uneasiness or envy they can rest with full confidence in their own dignity and their own strength they have undergone all the necessary trials and passed all the necessary tests in respect of the lower orders and the democracy properly so called the position of the middle class is no less favorable they have no fixed line of separation for who can say where the middle classes begin and where they end in the name of the principles of common rights and general liberty they were formed and by the working of the same principles they are being constantly recruited and are incessantly drawing new vigor from the sources once they sprang to maintain common rights and free movement upward against the retrograde tendencies of privilege and absolute power on the one hand and on the other against the insensate and destructive pretensions of levelers and anarchists is now the double business of the middle classes and it is at the same time for themselves the sure way of preserving ponderance in the state in the name of general interests of which those classes are the most real and most efficient representatives on reaching in our history the period at which Philip the handsome by giving admission amongst the states general to the burgers of the good towns substituted the third estate for the communes and the united action of the three great classes of Frenchmen for their local struggles we did well to halt a while in order clearly to mark the position and part of the new actor in the great drama of national life we will now return to the real business of the drama that is to the history of France which became in the 14th century more complex, more tragic and more grand than it had ever yet been End of chapter 19