Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/694

 678 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

us that the whole political organization of the time, notably its whole system of frontiers, rested upon a certain economic consti- tution of property, itself derived, however, as I think I have proved elsewhere, from still more general forms of traffic. All the great fiefs of the west of France found themselves regularly in the possession of the king of England. On the other hand, the boundaries of the kingdom had been extended in the direction of Lyons by the accession of the county of Forez formerly attached to the German empire, but far distant from the center of action of that empire. It had gradually made itself independent before attaching itself to France. At this time France was approaching the Rhone, but did not yet touch it.

There were still other modifications in the political geography of the great fiefs and of the territories of the empire. We will note only the augmentation of the county of Maurienne, which spread successively over Chablais, the county of Aosta, Tarentaise, Bugey and Savoy, the marquisate of Susa and of Piedmont ; this development occurred, like all the others, by succession, marriage, fraud, or violence. A military state was formed there which was destined to grow into a general military structure. The title count of Savoy little by little came to be substituted for that of count of Maurienne. From its highlands the county commanded the entrance to Italy in the direction of the plains of Lombardy, where it extended itself as far as Turin. This intermediate zone was thus the cradle of a military power which formed itself upon the frontiers, in the least stable parts, at the points of passage, as in the case of a true march. In the eleventh and twelfth cen- turies the feudal system was at its apogee; the fiefs were subject to numerous changes all resulting from usurpations, conquests, marriages, inheritances, or exchanges. The boundaries became multiplied and complicated, as well as the ties of the feudal con- tract. Thus the county of Champagne, at the time of its greatest extent, in the twelfth century, comprising countries held in fief by it, or held in fief of it, included not less than sixteen territorial groups, or principal islets. It was dependent upon ten different suzerains, from the emperor of Germany, the king of France, and the duke of Burgundy, to two archbishops, four bishops, and an