Chapter I: Front Matter

Life on a
Mediaeval Barony

A Picture of a Typical
Feudal Community in the
Thirteenth Century

By

William Stearns Davis, Ph.D.

_Professor of History in the
University of Minnesota_

ILLUSTRATED

Harper & Brothers Publishers
New York and London
MCMXXIII

LIFE ON A MEDIÆVAL BARONY

Copyright, 1922
By Harper & Brothers
Printed in the U. S. A.

_First Edition_
G-1

To Ephraim Emerton
Master Interpreter of Mediæval History
this book is dedicated by
an ever-grateful pupil.

Table of Contents

Chapter Page

I. The Fief of St. Aliquis; Its History and
Denizens 1

II. The Castle of St. Aliquis 16

III. How the Castle Wakes. Baronial Hospitality 41

IV. Games and Diversions. Falconry and
Hunting. The Baroness's Garden 51

V. The Family of the Baron. Life of the
Women 70

VI. The Matter of Clothes. A Feudal Wedding 88

VII. Cookery and Mealtimes 113

VIII. The Jongleurs and Secular Literature and
Poetry 132

IX. The Feudal Relationship. Doing Homage 146

X. Justice and Punishments 159

XI. The Education of a Feudal Nobleman 176

XII. Feudal Weapons and Horses. Dubbing a
Knight 189

XIII. The Tourney 208

XIV. A Baronial Feud. The Siege of a Castle 224

XV. A Great Feudal Battle--Bouvines 241

XVI. The Life of the Peasants 253

XVII. Charity. Care of the Sick. Funerals 275

XVIII. Popular Religion. Pilgrimages. Superstitions.
Relic Worship 286

XIX. The Monastery of St. Aliquis: Buildings,
Organization. An Ill-Ruled Abbey 312

XX. The Monastery of St. Aliquis: The Activities
of Its Inmates. Monastic Learning 330

XXI. The "Good Town" of Pontdebois: Aspect
and Organization 343

XXII. Industry and Trade in Pontdebois. The
Great Fair 357

XXIII. The Lord Bishop. The Canons. The Parish
Clergy 373

XXIV. The Cathedral and Its Builders 393

Illustrations

Life in the Middle Ages Frontispiece

The Castle of St. Aliquis Page xiv

Typical Castle of the Middle Ages " 17

View of the Court and the Donjon " 25

Upper Hall of the Donjon " 31

Interior of a Thirteenth-century Apartment Facing p. 36

A Thirteenth-century Bed Page 39

A Game of Chess " 54

A Game of Ball " 57

Lady with a Falcon on Her Wrist " 58

The Falcon Hunt " 59

Noble Holding a Falcon in Each Hand " 61

A Hunter " 63

The Stag Hunt " 66

Coiffure of a Noblewoman " 71

Cradle " 81

A King in the Twelfth Century Wearing Pellison " 90

Wreath Made of Metal Flowers Sewed on Braid " 91

Felt Shoe " 93

Winter Costume in the Twelfth Century " 94

Headdress of a Man " 95

Costume of a Nobleman " 96

Coiffure of a Woman " 97

A Royal Marriage in the Thirteenth Century " 99

Cooks " 114

Pork Butchers (Bourges) " 115

Servants Bringing the Food to the Table " 123

Young Girls of the Nobility Serving at the Table " 126

A Feast of Ceremony in the Twelfth Century Facing p. 128

Small Portable Organ of the Thirteenth Century Page 132

Acrobats Page 134

Dancer of the Twelfth Century " 137

Thirteenth-century Harp " 139

Listening to a Trouvère in a Château of the Thirteenth Century Facing p. 140

Banner of the Thirteenth Century Page 147

The Coat of Arms of the Dukes of Bretagne
(Thirteenth Century) " 148

Seal of the Duke Jean of Bretagne (Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries) " 149

Homage in the Twelfth Century Facing p. 156

Costume of a Nobleman (Thirteenth Century) Page 177

Gothic Writing " 179

A Teacher Holding a Ferule in His Hand " 180

Maneuvering with a Lance in the Thirteenth Century " 185

A Knight at the End of the Thirteenth Century " 190

German Helmets of the Thirteenth Century " 192

A Thirteenth-century Shield " 193

Thirteenth-century Swords " 194

Horse Trappings " 196

A Knight of the Thirteenth Century " 198

A Thirteenth-century Knight " 199

A Thirteenth-century Knight " 200

A Beggar " 201

A Tournament in the Twelfth Century Facing p. 214

Knightly Combat on Foot Page 219

A Combat in the Twelfth Century " 221

A Catapult " 236

An Attack with the Aid of a Tower " 237

A Mantelet in Wood " 238

Attack on a Wall with the Aid of the Sap " 239

Group of Peasants and of Shepherds " 255

Peasants at Work " 260

A Laborer (Thirteenth Century) " 264

Peasant Shoes " 265

A Reaper " 265

A Marriage in the Thirteenth Century " 266

A Plow " 267

A Leper " 278

A Thirteenth-century Doctor " 281

A Thirteenth-century Burial Scene Page 284

A Group of Priests (Thirteenth Century) " 287

A Shrine in the Form of an Altar (Thirteenth Century) in the Cathedral at Rheims " 299

Richard Coeur de Lion Facing p. 302

View of an Abbey of the Thirteenth Century Page 313

The Galleries of the Cloister of the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel (Thirteenth Century) " 316

The Refectory at the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel
(Thirteenth Century) " 318

A Benedictine Monk (Thirteenth Century) " 320

A Piece of Furniture Serving as a Seat and a Reading Desk " 335

Cloth Merchants " 358

A Commoner (Thirteenth Century) " 362

Money-changers (Chartres) " 365

A Fair in Champagne in the Thirteenth Century Facing p. 366

The Sale of Peltries (Bourges) Page 370

Episcopal Throne of the Thirteenth Century " 374

A Bishop of the Twelfth Century " 376

A Bishop of the Thirteenth Century " 379

A Deacon (Thirteenth Century) " 388

Notre Dame and the Bishop's Palace at the Beginning of the Thirteenth Century " 395

Thirteenth-century Window in the Cathedral of Chartres, Representing Saint Christopher Carrying Christ " 400

Preface

This book describes the life of the Feudal Ages in terms of the concrete. The discussions center around a certain seigneury of St. Aliquis. If no such barony is easily identifiable, at least there were several hundred second-grade fiefs scattered over western Christendom which were in essential particulars extremely like it, and its Baron Conon and his associates were typical of many similar individuals, a little worse or a little better, who abounded in the days of Philip Augustus.

No custom is described which does not seem fairly characteristic of the general period. To focus the picture a specific region, northern France, and a specific year, A.D. 1220, have been selected. Not many matters have been mentioned, however, which were not more or less common to contemporaneous England and Germany; nor have many usages been explained which would not frequently have been found as early as A.D. 1100 or as late as 1300.

Northern France was _par excellence_ the homeland of Feudalism and hardly less so of Chivalry, while by general consent the years around 1220 mark one of the great turning epochs of the Middle Ages. We are at the time of the development of French kingship under Philip Augustus, of the climax and the beginning of the waning of the crusading spirit, of the highest development of Gothic architecture, of the full blossoming of the popular Romance literature, and of the beginning of the entirely dissimilar, but even more important, Friar movement.

To make the life of the Middle Ages live again in its pageantry and its squalor, its superstition and its triumph of Christian art and love, is the object of this study. Many times has the author been reminded of the _intense contrasts_ between sublime good and extreme evil everywhere apparent in the Feudal Epoch. With every effort at impartiality, whether praising or condemning, it is dangerously easy to write in superlatives.

Although the preparation of this book was not undertaken without that knowledge and investigation of those mediæval authors, ecclesiastics, and laymen upon which every significant study of this kind must rest, every scholar will recognize the author's debt to many modern specialists. To Th. Wright, Lacroix, Luchaire, Justin H. Smith, Viollet-le-Duc, and Chéruel the acknowledgments are very specific. To Leon Gautier they must be more specific still. It is a great misfortune that his masterpiece, _Le Chivalrie_, is no longer current in a good English translation. The words in quotation, sprinkled through the text, are usually from pertinent mediæval writers, except where they purport to be direct snatches of conversation.

To my colleague in this university, Prof. August C. Krey, who has read and criticized the manuscript with friendly fidelity and professional alertness and acumen, there are due many hearty thanks.

W. S. D.

The University of Minnesota.
Minneapolis, Minn.

Life on a
Mediaeval Barony