Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/544

 406 General History of Europe the king's court as we have seen. Those whose predecessors had once been veritable sovereigns within their own domains had deserted their war horses and laid aside their long swords; in their velvet coats and high-heeled shoes they were contented with the privilege of helping the king to dress in the morning and at- tending him at dinner. The battlemented castle, once the strong- hold of independent chieftains, was transformed into a tasteful country residence where if the king honored the owner with a visit the host was no longer tempted, as his ancestors had been, to shower arrows and stones upon the royal intruder. By their prolonged absence from their estates the nobles in France lost the confidence of their tenants, while their stewards roused the hatred of the peasants by strictly collecting all the ancient manorial dues in order that the lord might enjoy the gayeties at court. 703. The English Peerage. In England the feudal castles had disappeared earlier than in France, and the English law did not grant to anyone, however long and distinguished his lineage, special rights or exemptions not enjoyed by every freeman. Nevertheless there was a distinct noble class in England. The monarch had been accustomed to summon his earls and some of his barons to take council with him, and in this way the peerage developed ; this included those whose title permitted them to sit in the House of Lords and to transmit this honorable privi- lege to their eldest sons. But the peers paid the same taxes as every other subject and were punished in the same manner if they were convicted of an offense. Moreover, only the eldest living son of a noble father inherited his rank, while on the Continent all the children became nobles. In this way the num- ber of the English nobility was greatly restricted. 704. The German Nobles. In Germany, however, the nobles continued to occupy very much the same position which their ancestors held in the Middle Ages. There had been no king to do for Germany what the French kings had done for France; no mighty man had risen strong enough to batter down castle walls and bend all barons, great and small, to his will. The