Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/626

* FEUDALISM. 570 FEUDALISM. landholding and the ruling class. (2) The fact that a feudal array was a mounted body arose from the nature of the times in which feudalism ise. In the ninth and tenth centuries, North- men, Magyars, and Saracens were in the various parts of Europe making rapid forays into the old settled regions, and to meet them success- fully it was necessary to have a force that could move as rapidly as they. Therefore the counts and kings who were engaged in defending their territory against these invaders substituted mounted troops for the foot soldiers employed formerly in the civil wars., or in the invasions of the Roman Empire. There were some foot troops usually included in a feudal army, but their em- ployment in fighting was quite subordinate. An important exception to this, however, was the case of England, where the archers from a very early time constituted a valuable part of the field forces, and repeatedly showed themselves superior to the chivalry of France. (3) The third characteristic, the lack of a hierarchy of lead- ers, and of a series of divisions and subdivisions of the parts of an army, arose from the way in which it was recruited. Each count, baron, or gen- tleman brought with him a smaller or larger group of knights, and continued to act as the leader of his group during the fighting. The only regularity was in cases where the lesser knights and esquires were brought to an engagement in squads under the leadership of royal officials. But in most countries these were a small part only of the whole body of fighting men. Any such arrange- ment as the modern divisions of brigades, regi- ments, and companies was entirely unknown and inapplicable to the prevalent style of fighting, i 1 i With this organization, or lack of organiza- tion, there could be no system of tactics. There was usually some crude grouping of the whole body of troops into two or three 'battles,' under different leaders; but as a matter of fact the fighting men usually began the onset as soon as they came in sight of the enemy, and the engage- ment rapidly became a mere melee, or series of separate encounters. Fine personal valor and great personal skill and strength were often dis- played in such contests; but the army as a whole was very ineffective. Similarly strategy or plan- ning for a large campaign usually consisted -imply in passing into the enemy's country and, while rather languidly seeking an engagement, burning and plundering the property of the enemy's subjects. The great feudal weapons were the lance and battle-axe, with some use of the sword. (See Battle Axe.) There was a develop- ment of body protection from the mere coat of mail and headpiece of full plate armor. See ABMOB; BbEASTPLATE; Chain Mail: HELMET; and Shield. Such feudal armies were characteristic- of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, The Crusades made less change in warfare than might have been anticipated, the Western armies re- maining much the same in organization, By the fourteenth century, however, some new elements were grafted on this system. Hired bands of mercenaries were hugely employed (sec Braban- i.dns and Condottieri ). ami the-,- were somewhat better organized and handled. Certain new troops were used, or old forms brought into a new prom- inence. The Swiss pikemen and halberdiers, fight- ing in a solid phalanx, frequently overwhelmed a more purely feudal army of armored cavalry. especially when the fighting was in a mountain- ous country. The English bowmen, armed with the rapidly discharged and effective longbow, were used in connection with heavy-armed cavalry and men-at-arms. Their rapid and deadly tli«.'lit of arrows threw into confusion any stationary body of feudal troops opposed to them, and put this body at the mercy of the knights whom the archers were supporting. If the opposing cavalry- force was charging, the arrows retarded their advance so much as to make its onset ineffective. The effort to meet these new conditions or to utilize them to the best advantage, along with the other influences of the time, gradually led to a diversification of tactics, and eventually to the organization of the modern type of armies. The invention of gunpowder and its gradual intro- duction in warfare was rather an element in the gradual development of modern military systems than a source of any sudden change. The Decay of Feudalism. Feudalism was in its very nature anarchic. The possession of mili- tary power was an incitement to its use in the settlement of private feuds; the imperfect sub- jection of vassals only slightly less powerful than their lords led to frequent resistance on their part ; the absence of a strong central government, resulting from the possession of sovereign rights by the nobles, diminished the salutary power of enforcing order from above. The feudal eastle, fortified and guarded, held in the name of the ruler, but frequently used as a base of operations to despoil and tyrannize over the surrounding country, and to wage petty warfare with other feudal nobles, was as characteristic an element of feudalism as were the legal and economic fea- tures which have been described above. During the latter part of the Middle Ages, from the thir- teenth century onward, other institutions were being developed which did not fit into the feudal system. Town life, trade, and commerce, a well- to-do free middle class, and strong centralized monarchies grew up in the various Western coun- tries, so that feudalism became restricted to a less and less extensive proportion of human interests. Even in those fields in which feudal- ism had been dominant, in landholding. personal relations, and the powers of government, funda- mental changes were taking place. Land came to be generally held on condition of mere pecu- niary payments, and became a subject of purchase, sale, and bequest. Contractual relations, and those of subject and sovereign, took the place of the personal bond of earlier times. Military pow- ers, the right of taxation, the right of coinage, even the right of court jurisdiction were. with- drawn by the national governments from the feudal barons. During the thirteenth century in England, the fourteenth in France, and tin lit teenth in Germany, the kings were able to put an (■ml to private warfare, and to reduce feudal ju- risdiction to a definite inferiority to that of the King. Notwithstanding the decay of feudalism in these respects, however, class distinction! based upon it. certain privileges of taxation, and peculiarities of landholding continued to exist until in France they were swept away by the Revolution, in 17S0, while in Germany anil F.ng land traces of their influence may -till be found BIBLIOGRAPHY. The older works are of little use now. The following general works an daily valuable in themselves, and also contain many references to monographs treating different