Part 41 (1/2)

[Sidenote: The league to be enlarged]

=18.= We decree that each city shall try to persuade each of its neighboring cities to swear to keep the peace. If they do not do so, they shall be entirely cut off from the peace, so that if any one does them an injury, either in their persons or their property, he shall not thereby break the peace.

=19.= We wish all members of the league, cities, lords, and all others, to arm themselves properly and prepare for war, so that whenever we call upon them we shall find them ready.

[Sidenote: Military preparations of the league]

=20.= We decree that the cities between the Moselle and Basel shall prepare 100 war boats, and the cities below the Moselle shall prepare 500, well equipped with bowmen, and each city shall prepare herself as well as she can and supply herself with arms for knights and foot-soldiers.

FOOTNOTES:

[470] Such guarantees of personal liberty were not peculiar to the charters of communes; they are often found in those of franchise towns.

[471] The chief magistrate of Laon was a mayor, elected by the citizens. In judicial matters he was a.s.sisted by twelve ”jurats.”

[472] This is intended to preserve the judicial privileges of lords of manors.

[473] The citizens of the town were to have freedom to dispose of their property as they chose.

[474] This provision was intended to put an end to arbitrary taxation by the bishop. In the earlier twelfth century serfs were subject to the arbitrary levy of the taille (tallage) and this indeed const.i.tuted one of their most grievous burdens. Arbitrary tallage was almost invariably abolished by the town charters.

[475] By ”men of the peace” is meant the citizens of the commune. The term ”commune” is scrupulously avoided in the charter because of its odious character in the eyes of the bishop. Suits were to be tried at home in the burgesses' own courts, to save time and expense and insure better justice.

[476] This trifling payment of sixpence a year was made in recognition of the lords.h.i.+p of the king, the grantor of the charter. Aside from it, the burgher had full rights over his land.

[477] The burghers, who were often engaged in agriculture as well as commerce, are to be exempt from tolls on commodities bought for their own sustenance and from the ordinary fees due the lord for each measure of grain harvested.

[478] The object of this provision is to restrict the amount of military service due the king. The burghers of small places like Lorris were farmers and traders who made poor soldiers and who were ordinarily exempted from service by their lords. The provision for Lorris practically amounted to an exemption, for such service as was permissible under chapter 3 of the charter was not worth much.

[479] The Gatinais was the region in which Lorris was situated.

etampes, Milly, and Melun all lay to the north of Lorris, in the direction of Paris. Orleans lay to the west. The king's object in granting the burghers the right to carry goods to the towns specified without payment of tolls was to encourage commercial intercourse.

[480] This protects the landed property of the burghers against the crown and crown officials. With two exceptions, fine or imprisonment, not confiscation of land, is to be the penalty for crime. _Hotes_ denotes persons receiving land from the king and under his direct protection.

[481] This provision is intended to attract merchants to Lorris by placing them under the king's protection and a.s.suring them that they would not be molested on account of old offenses.

[482] This chapter safeguards the personal property of the burghers, as chapter 5 safeguards their land. Arbitrary imposts are forbidden and any of the inhabitants who as serfs had been paying arbitrary tallage are relieved of the burden. The nominal _cens_ (Chap. 1) was to be the only regular payment due the king.

[483] An agreement outside of court was allowable in all cases except when there was a serious breach of the public peace. The provost was the chief officer of the town. He was appointed the crown and was charged chiefly with the administration of justice and the collection of revenues. All suits of the burghers were tried in his court. They had no active part in their own government, as was generally true of the franchise towns.

[484] Another part of the charter specifies that only those burghers who owned horses and carts were expected to render the king even this service.

[485] This clause, which is very common in the town charters of the twelfth century (especially in the case of towns on the royal domain) is intended to attract serfs from other regions and so to build up population. As a rule the towns were places of refuge from seigniorial oppression and the present charter undertakes to limit the time within which the lord might recover his serf who had fled to Lorris to a year and a day--except in cases where the serf should refuse to recognize the jurisdiction of the provost's court in the matter of the lord's claim.

[486] The sergeants were deputies of the provost, somewhat on the order of town constables.

[487] These ”Hollanders” inhabited substantially the portion of Europe now designated by their name.

[488] This was the diocese from which the colonists proposed to remove.