Finally, it tried to exterminate the nobles with the help of the levelling guillotine. I. 6. When the passions of the Revolution had glutted themselves with the blood of eminent men, and its theory of equality had dulled its sharp edge on the iron of facts,attempts were made, even in France, to restore the nobility in a new form on the levelled ruins of the past, but without lasting success. The most interesting was the attempt of Napoleon Napoleon, who saw in aristocracy at once an essential support and a limitation to monarchy. In the order of the Legion of Honour he created a sort of modern knighthood, which was open to every one who did eminent service to the State, but was essentially a personal and honorary distinction. He also thought of founding a higher hereditary Aristocracy, in which the surviving families of the old historic nobility should be united with the descendants of the new French marshals, ministers, and other high officials. One can see that Napoleon's idea was to combine the institutions of the early Roman Empire with the traditions of French history. Meanwhile he had hardly taken the first step for the renewal of the nobility when his own fall came 14. 14 Napoléon, Mém. de Sainte Hélène, Las Casas, v. p. 4: 'Je le répète de nouveau, j'ai fait trop ou trop peu : j'aurais dû m'attacher l'émigration à sa rentrée; l'aristocratie m'eût facilement adoré; aussi bien il m'en fallait une; c'est le vrai, le seul soutien d'une monarchie, son modérateur, son levier, son point résistant; l'État sans elle, est un vaisseau sans gouvernail (?), un vrai ballon dans les airs. Or, le bon de l'aristocratie, sa magie, est dans son ancienneté, dans le temps; et c'étaient les seules choses que je ne pusse pas créer.... La démocratie raisonnable se borne à menager à tous l'égalité pour prétendre et pour obtenir. La vraie marche eût été d'employer les débris de l'aristocratie avec les formes et l'intention de la démocratie. Il fallait surtout recueillir les noms anciens, ceux de notre histoire. . . . J'avais dans mon portefeuille un projet qui m'eût rallié beaucoup de tout ce monde-là, et qui, après tout, n'eût été que juste. C'est que tout descendant d'ancien maréchal ou ministre, etc., etc., eût été apte, dans tous les temps, à se faire déclarer duc, en présentant la dotation requise. Tout fils de général, de gouverneur de province, etc., etc., eût pu en tout temps se faire reconnaître comte, et ainsi de suite. Ce qui eût avancé les ans, maintenu les espérances des autres, excité l'émulation de tous, et n'eût blessé l'orgueil de personne.' Cf. also v. p. 161, and Thiers, Hist. du Consulat et de l'Empire, viii. p. 116. Benjamin Constant, De l'esprit de conquête, part ii. ch. 2: 'L'hérédité s'introduit dans des siècles de simplicité et de conquête, mais on ne l'institue pas au Louis 1830 and 1848. Napoleon Louis XVIII (1814) in his Peerage (Pairie) came nearer to the English pattern. But he failed to establish a political peerage. The constituents of the old Peerage had been too completely destroyed by the Revolution: the spirit of the people was so entirely given up to the principle of equal rights and free circulation of property, that any renewal of the nobility seemed like an attack on popular rights: many of the old nobility had borne arms against their country, and their new claims rested on the conquest of France by the foreign armies 15. The old hatred was as strong as ever, and the aristocracy had not done any new services which would have reconciled the people to a political rehabilitation. The July Revolution of 1830 again abolished the hereditary peerage and the system of Majorats, and the personal peerage for life, which followed it, was swept away by the storms of February, 1848. The Republic again pronounced against all titles and privileges of nobility 16. The French nobility has never again been reorganised. The dignity of Senator, which Napoleon III adopted in his constitution, was a step towards it, but this attempt ended with the fall of the second empire. Since then the French nobility has only been so far restored that the old titles have been sanctioned 17 and secured against abuse. There are still aristocratic elements and tendencies among the people, but they have no chance of making way against the democratic spirit of the masses. The remains of the French nobility are now nothing more than a titular nobility, without special rights, and are kept up rather by family vanity than by public institutions 18. milieu de siècles de civilisation. Elle peut alors se conserver mais non s'établir.' Cf. De Parieu, Polit., 108. 15 Hence, during the Hundred Days, an imperial decree was issued, 13 March, 1815: 'La noblesse est abolie. Les titres féodaux sont supprimés.' [For the institution of Majorats, see Thiers, Hist. du Consulat et de l'Empire, viii. p. 137.] 16 Fr. Const. of 1848, art. 10: 'Sont abolis à toujours tout titre nobiliaire, toute distinction de naissance, de classe ou de caste.' 17 Decree of 24 Jan., 1852; Law of 28 May, 1858, and Decree of 8 Jan., 1859: instituting a special authority to control titles of nobility. 18 De Parieu, Polit., p. 112 ff. CHAPTER XI. ENGI B. THE ENGLISH NOBILITY «. NGLAND is almost the only modern European State where the nobility have held their place as a great national institution. This result is due to various causes. races. 1. The English nobility of the middle ages, like the French, Fusion of comprised elements of two nationalities, English and Norman; but the connection between them was much closer than in the French nobility. No doubt in the early centuries after the Conquest (1066) the Normans maintained a predominance over the Saxons, but their relations were much more intimate than those between the Romans and Franks in France. The Saxon Eorls had been long distinguished from the free Ceorls as a national nobility: their education, their life, and their ideas were the same as those of the Norman nobles; and they maintained their old rights even against their new kings. The Conquest only served to strengthen their free spirit; and the increased zeal and vigour with which they maintained their rights gave to the nobility, as a whole, that spirit of political freedom which has made England great. 2. On the other hand, one great effect of the Conquest was Power of that the royal power, on which the unity and security of the the Crown. State mainly rested, held its own against the nobles, and the sovereignty was not split up, as in France, among a number of great vassals. * [See the Articles on Nobility and Peerage, by Professor Freeman, in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.] William I. The feudal system found its way into England, but it took a different form. The old idea that it was first introduced into England by the Normans has been exploded by more recent research. The old Saxon Thegns were to a large extent holders of fiefs, and were thereby bound to the kings by a tie of special loyalty and military service. But it remains true that the Norman rule gave a much more marked feudal character to the State as a whole. At the time of the Conquest feudalism was more developed in Normandy than in England, and the conquerors brought their ideas with them. William the Conqueror himself established the principle that not only the tenants in chief, but also the sub-tenants and larger freeholders (die grösseren Freisassen), must swear the oath of feudal allegiance immediately to the king, so that in the sphere of military duty all subjects held immediately of the king (reichsunmittelbar)1. In the course of a century all landed estates were drawn into the feudal bond, and thus the phrase ran, 'The king is universal lord and original proprietor of all estates in his kingdom, and no one can occupy a part of them except by grant, direct or indirect, from the king.' Thus all landed property was made uniformly subservient to the State 1a. The feudal sovereignty thus exercised by William was much more powerful than that of the French king of his day, whose sovereignty over the duke of Normandy, who as such was a French vassal, was but a slight one, more formal than real. Thus the Norman and Saxon nobles, though they held and exercised rights of jurisdiction and police over their dependents, after the medieval manner, still remained in a condition of real subjection to the king, and the unity of the State was not sacrificed to the barons. 3. But if the rights of the English nobility in this respect 1 Legg. Wilh. i. § 2: 'Statuimus etiam ut omnis liber homo foedere et sacramento affirmet quod intra et extra Angliam Wilhelmo regi fideles esse volunt, terras et honorem illius omni fidelitate cum eo servare et ante eum contra inimicos defendere.' [Stubbs, Select Charters, 80.] la Cf. Gneist, Englische Verfassungsgeschichte, p. 94 ff. Stubbs, Const. Hist. of England, i. 258 ff. were narrow, their political rights, on the other hand, were all the more important. It is these which are the ground of their greatness and permanent significance. the Nobles These political rights found their sphere in the great Power of Councils, which early bore the modest name of Parliaments. in Parlia In the Parliament the old Anglo-Saxon Witanagemot was ment. revived in a new and nobler form, which gradually helped to unite the two races by the tie of common interests and fortunes. The earlier assemblies of the great vassals may have had no object beyond that of adding to the glory and dignity of the crown at the festivals of Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas. But gradually they gained a great political significance, and the most serious affairs of State came to be discussed and decided there, though at first without fixed rules or exact definition of their sphere. In the thirteenth century they took a more regular form. The Magna Charta of 1215, wrung Magna from King John Lackland by the victorious nobles who had taken up arms in defence of their rights, enacted that 'Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Counts, and great Barons should be summoned to Parliament (commune concilium regni) individually, by royal letters (sigillatim per litteras nostras), and the other immediate vassals of the king by a general summons through the king's officers (in generali per vicecomites et ballivos nostros),"' and that new taxes might not be levied without their consent. Charta. and Lower The first class, who as hereditary councillors of the king The Upper and holders of the highest offices of the court and kingdom House. had the chief management of public affairs, became in course of time the Upper House: the second class became a part of the Lower House. Both had at first a personal right to sit in the Council (Reichstandschaft): but in the case of the second class it became a right to representation (Representationsrecht), shared with the knights, the inferior vassals of the great vassals of the crown, and with the inhabitants of the cities and towns. The lords henceforth formed the higher aristocracy (der hohe Adel): while the rich bourgeoisie took their place by the side of the lower aristocracy of the Gentry. The Nobility found its natural position in the State when the constitution of Parliament became complete at the end of |