[10] Collins de Plancy.
[11] Feudal Dictionary, p. 179.
[12] Claiming the right of the first night with each new spouse.—Boems Decisions 297, I-17.
[13] Raepsaet, p. 179.
[14] The popes anciently had universal power over the pleasures of marriage.—Feudal Dictionary, 174.
[15] In the transaction the alternative was with the husband; it was he who might submit, or pay the fine, as he preferred or could afford. Relation of the Sexes.—Westminster Review.
[16] These (courts) powerfully assisted the seigneur to enforce his traditional privileges at the expense of the villeins.—H. S. Maine.
The courts of Bearn openly maintained that this right grew up naturally.
[17] Sometimes the contumacious husband was harnessed by the side of a horse or an ox, compelled to do a brute’s work and to herd with the cattle.
[18] He is followed by bursts of laughter, and the noisy rabble down to the lowest scullion give chase to the “cuckold.”—Michelet.