To this the sainted king replied after this fashion: "Sirs, I am certain that the king of England's predecessors lost most justly the conquests I hold; and the land which I give up to him I do not give because I am bound either towards himself or his heirs, but to create love between his children and mine, who are first cousins. And it seems to me that I am making a good use of what I give to him, because before he was not my vassal, but now he has to render homage to me."...[463]

After the king's return from beyond sea, he lived so devoutly that he never afterwards wore furs of different colors, nor minnever,[464] nor scarlet cloth, nor gilt stirrups or spurs. His dress was of camlet[465] and of a dark blue cloth; the linings of his coverlets and garments were of doeskin or hare-legs.

When rich men's minstrels entered the hall after the repast, bringing with them their viols, he waited to hear grace until the The king's personal traits minstrel had finished his chant; then he rose and the priests who said grace stood before him. When we were at his court in a private way,[466] he used to sit at the foot of his bed, and when the Franciscans and Dominicans[467] who were there spoke of a book that would give him pleasure, he would say to them: "You shall not read to me, for, after eating, there is no book so pleasant as quolibets,"—that is, that every one should say what he likes. When men of quality dined with him, he made himself agreeable to them....

Many a time it happened that in the summer he would go and sit down in the wood at Vincennes,[468] with his back to an oak, and make us take our seats around him. And all those who had complaints to make came to him, without hindrance from ushers or other folk. Then he asked them with his own lips: "Is there any one here who has a cause?"[469] Those who had a cause stood His primitive method of dispensing justice up, when he would say to them: "Silence all, and you shall be dispatched one after the other." Then he would call Monseigneur de Fontaines, or Monseigneur Geoffrey de Villette, and would say to one of them: "Dispose of this case for me." When he saw anything to amend in the words of those who spoke for others, he would correct it with his own lips. Sometimes in summer I have seen him, in order to administer justice to the people, come into the garden of Paris dressed in a camlet coat, a surcoat of woollen stuff, without sleeves, a mantle of black taffety around his neck, his hair well combed and without coif, a hat with white peacock's feathers on his head. Carpets were spread for us to sit down upon around him, and all the people who had business to dispatch stood about in front of him. Then he would have it dispatched in the same manner as I have already described in the wood of Vincennes.

CHAPTER XX.
MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITY

57. Some Twelfth Century Town Charters

In the times of the Carolingians the small and scattered towns and villages of western Europe, particularly of France, were inhabited mainly by serfs and villeins, i.e., by a dependent rather than an independent population. With scarcely an exception, these urban centers belonged to the lords of the neighboring lands, who administered their affairs through mayors, provosts, bailiffs, or other agents, collected from them seigniorial dues as from the rural peasantry, and, in short, took entire charge of matters of justice, finance, military obligations, and industrial arrangements. There was no local self-government, nothing in the way of municipal organization separate from the feudal régime, and no important burgher class as distinguished from the agricultural laborers. By the twelfth century a great transformation is apparent. France has come to be dotted with strong and often largely independent municipalities, and a powerful class of bourgeoisie, essentially anti-feudal in character, has risen to play an increasing part in the nation's political and economic life. In these new municipalities there is a larger measure of freedom of person, security of property, and rights of self-government than Europe had known since the days of Charlemagne, perhaps even since the best period of the Roman Empire.

The reason for this transformation—in other words, the origin of these new municipal centers—has been variously explained. One theory is that the municipal system of the Middle Ages was essentially a survival of that which prevailed in western Europe under the fostering influence of Rome. The best authorities now reject this view, for there is every reason to believe that, speaking generally, the barbarian invasions and feudalism practically crushed out the municipal institutions of the Empire. Another theory ascribes the origin of mediæval municipal government to the merchant and craft guilds, particularly the former; but there is little evidence to support the view. Undeniably the guild was an important factor in drawing groups of burghers together and forming centers of combination against local lords, but it was at best only one of several forces tending to the growth of municipal life. Other factors of larger importance were the military and the commercial. On the one hand, the need of protection led people to flock to fortified places—castles or monasteries—and settle in the neighborhood; on the other, the growth of commerce and industry, especially after the eleventh century, caused strategic places like the intersection of great highways and rivers to become seats of permanent and growing population. The towns which thus sprang up in response to new conditions and necessities in time took on a political as well as a commercial and industrial character, principally through the obtaining of charters from the neighboring lords, defining the measure of independence to be enjoyed and the respective rights of lord and town. Charters of the sort were usually granted by the lord, not merely because requested by the burghers, but because they were paid for and constituted a valuable source of revenue. Not infrequently, however, a charter was wrested from an unwilling lord through open warfare. It was in the first half of the twelfth century that town charters became common. As a rule they were obtained by the larger towns (it should be borne in mind that a population of 10,000 was large in the twelfth century), but not necessarily so, for many villages of two or three hundred people secured them also.