I might here examine whether, after the Gauls and Romans were
conquered, they continued to pay the taxes to which they were subject
under the emperors. But, for the sake of brevity, I shall be satisfied
with observing that, if they paid them in the beginning, they were soon
after exempted, and that those taxes were changed into a military
service. For, I confess, I can hardly conceive how the Franks should
have been at first such great friends, and afterwards such sudden and
violent enemies, to taxes.
A capitulary
[52]
of Louis the Debonnaire explains extremely well the
situation of the freemen in the monarchy of the Franks. Some troops of
Goths or Iberians, flying from the oppression of the Moors, were
received into Louis' dominions. The agreement made with them was that,
like other freemen, they should follow their count to the army; and that
upon a march they should mount guard and patrol under the command also
of their count; and that they should furnish horses and carriages for
baggage to the king's commissaries,
[53]
and to the ambassadors in their
way to or from court; and that they should not be compelled to pay any
further impost, but should be treated as the other freemen.
It cannot be said that these were new usages introduced at the
commencement of the second race. This must be referred at least to the
middle or to the end of the first. A capitulary of the year 864
[54]
says in express terms that it was the ancient custom for freemen to
perform military service, and to furnish likewise the horses and
carriages above-mentioned; duties particular to themselves, and from
which those who possessed the fiefs were exempt, as I shall prove
hereafter.
This is not all; there was a regulation which hardly permitted the
imposing of taxes on those freemen.
[55]
He who had four manors was
obliged to march against the enemy:
[56]
he who had but three was joined
with a freeman that had only one; the latter bore the fourth part of the
other's charges, and stayed at home. In like manner, they joined two
freemen who had each two manors; he who went to the army had half his
charges borne by him who stayed at home.
Again, we have an infinite number of charters, in which the
privileges of fiefs are granted to lands or districts possessed by
freemen, and of which I shall make further mention hereafter.
[57]
These
lands are exempted from all the duties or services which were required
of them by the counts, and by the rest of the king's officers; and as
all these services are particularly enumerated without making any
mention of taxes, it is manifest that no taxes were imposed upon them.
It was very natural that the Roman system of taxation should of
itself fall out of use in the monarchy of the Franks; it was a most
complicated device, far above the conception, and wide from the plan of
those simple people. Were the Tartars to overrun Europe, we should find
it very difficult to make them comprehend what is meant by our
financiers.
The anonymous author of the life of Louis the Debonnaire,
[58]
speaking of the counts and other officers of the nation of the Franks,
whom Charlemagne established in Aquitania, says, that he entrusted them
with the care of defending the frontiers, as also with the military
power and the direction of the demesnes belonging to the crown. This
shows the state of the royal revenues under the second race. The prince
had kept his demesnes in his own hands, and employed his bondmen in
improving them. But the indictions, the capitations and other imposts
raised at the time of the emperors on the persons or goods of freemen
had been changed into an obligation of defending the frontiers and
marching against the enemy.
In the same history,
[59]
we find that Louis the Debonnaire, having
been to wait upon his father in Germany, this prince asked him, why he,
who was a crowned head, came to be so poor: to which Louis made answer
that he was only a nominal king, and that the great lords were possessed
of almost all his demesnes; that Charlemagne, being apprehensive lest
this young prince should forfeit their affection, if he attempted
himself to resume what he had inconsiderately granted, appointed
commissaries to restore things to their former situation.
The bishops, writing
[60]
to Louis, brother of Charles the Bald, used
these words: "Take care of your lands, that you may not be obliged to
travel continually by the houses of the clergy, and to tire their
bondmen with carriages. Manage your affairs," continue they, "in such a
manner that you may have enough to live upon, and to receive embassies."
It is evident that the king's revenues in those days consisted of their
demesnes.
[61]
