Part 26 (2/2)

When, notwithstanding their poverty, the clergy did contribute something, it was still, always the third estate that bore more than its share of the financial burden. That extraordinary tax, the _taille_,[588] became annual. The King summoned the Estates every year, sometimes twice a year. They met not without difficulty.[589]

The roads were dangerous. At every corner travellers might be robbed or murdered. The officers, who journeyed from town to town collecting the taxes, had an armed escort for fear of the Scots and other men-at-arms in the King's service.[590]

[Footnote 588: _Taille_, so called from a notched stick (Eng. tally), used by the tax-collector, the number of notches indicating the amount of the tax due. There were two _tailles_: _la taille seigneuriale_, a contribution paid by serfs to their lord; and _la taille royale_, paid by the third estate to the King. The latter was first levied by Philippe le Bel (1285-1314), but was only an occasional tax until the reign of Charles VII, who converted it into a regular impost. But although collected at stated intervals its amount varied from reign to reign, becoming intolerably burdensome under the spendthrift kings, while wise rulers, like Henri IV, considerably reduced it. It was not abolished until the Revolution (W.S.).]

[Footnote 589: _Recueil des ordonnances_, vol. xiii, p. xcix, and the index of this volume under the word _Impots_. Loiseleur, _Compte des depenses_, pp. 51 _et seq._ A. Thomas, _Les etats generaux sous Charles VII_ in the _Cabinet historique_, vol. xxiv, 1878. _Les etats provinciaux de la France centrale sous Charles VII_, Paris, 1879, 2 vols. in 8vo, _pa.s.sim_.]

[Footnote 590: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. iii, p. 318. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 390. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 428; vol. ii, pp. 646 _et seq._]

In 1427 a free lance, Sabbat by name, in garrison at Langeais, was the terror of Touraine and Anjou. Thus the representatives of the towns were in no hurry to present themselves at the meeting of the Estates.

It might have been different had they believed that their money would be employed for the good of the realm. But they knew that the King would first use it to make gifts to his barons. The deputies were invited to come and devise means for the repression of the pillage and plunder from which they were suffering;[591] and, when at the risk of their lives they did come to the royal presence, they were forced to consent to the _taille_ in silence. The King's officers threatened to have them drowned if they opened their mouths. At the meeting of the Estates held at Mehun-sur-Yevre in 1425 the men from the good towns said they would be glad to help the King, but first they desired that an end be put to pillage, and my Lord Bishop of Poitiers, Hugues de Comberel, said likewise. On hearing his words the Sire de Giac said to the King: ”If my advice were taken, Comberel would be thrown into the river with the others of his opinion.” Whereupon the men from the good towns voted two hundred and sixty thousand livres.[592] In September, 1427, a.s.sembled at Chinon, they granted five hundred thousand livres for the war.[593] By writs issued on the 8th of January, 1428, the King summoned the States General to meet six months hence, on the following 18th of July, at Tours.[594] On the 18th of July no one attended. On the 22nd of July came a new summons from the King, commanding the Estates to meet at Tours on the 10th of September.[595]

But the meeting did not take place until October, at Chinon, just when the Earl of Salisbury was marching on the Loire. The States granted five hundred thousand livres.[596]

[Footnote 591: _Le jouvencel_, vol. i, Introduction, pp. xix, xx.]

[Footnote 592: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 237. Loiseleur, _Compte des depenses_, p. 61. Vallet de Viriville, _Memoire sur les inst.i.tutions de Charles VII_, in _Bibliotheque de l'ecole des Chartes_, vol. x.x.xiii, p. 37.]

[Footnote 593: Dom Vaissette, _Histoire du Languedoc_, vol. iv, p.

471.]

[Footnote 594: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.

167.]

[Footnote 595: Dom Vaissette, _Histoire du Languedoc_, vol. iv, p.

471. A. Thomas, _Les etats generaux sous Charles VII_, pp. 49, 50.]

[Footnote 596: Dom Vaissette, _Histoire du Languedoc_, vol. iv, p.

472. Raynal, _Histoire du Berry_, vol. iii, p. 20. Loiseleur, _Comptes des depenses_, pp. 63 _et seq._ De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp. 170 _et seq._]

But the time could not be far off when the good people would be unable to pay any longer. In those days of war and pillage many a field was lying fallow, many a shop was closed, and few were the merchants ambling on their nags from town to town.[597]

[Footnote 597: Th. Basin, _Histoire de Charles VII_, Bk. II, ch. vi.

Antoine Loysel, _Memoires des pays, villes, comtes et comtes de Beauvais et Beauvoisis_, Paris, 1618, p. 229. P. Mantellier, _Histoire de la communaute des marchands frequentant la riviere de Loire_, vol.

i, p. 195.]

The tax came in badly, and the King was actually suffering from want of money. To extricate himself from this embarra.s.sment he employed three devices, of which the best was useless. First, as he owed every one money,--the Queen of Sicily,[598] La Tremouille,[599] his Chancellor,[600] his butcher,[601] the chapter of Bourges, which provided him with fresh fish,[602] his cooks,[603] his footmen,[604]--he made over the proceeds of the tax to his creditors.[605] Secondly, he alienated the royal domain: his towns and his lands belonged to every one save himself.[606] Thirdly, he coined false money. It was not with evil intent, but through necessity, and the practice was quite usual.[607]

[Footnote 598: Dom Morice, _Preuves de l'histoire de Bretagne_, vol.

ii, cols. 1145, 1194. _Ordonnances_, vol. xv, p. 147.]

[Footnote 599: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 373. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 175. Duc de la Tremolle, _Chartier de Thouars, Doc.u.ments historiques et genealogiques_, p. 17. _Les La Tremolle pendant cinq siecles_, vol.

i, p. 175.]

[Footnote 600: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.

632.]

<script>