31.7. 7. Of the great Offices and Fiefs under the Mayors of the Palace.
The mayors of the palace were little disposed to establish the uncertain
tenure of places and offices; for, indeed, they ruled only by the
protection which in this respect they granted to the nobility. Hence the
great offices continued to be given for life, and this usage was every
day more firmly established.
But I have some particular reflections to make here in respect of
fiefs: I do not question but most of them became hereditary from this
time.
In the treaty of Andeli,
[58]
Gontram and his nephew Childebert
engage to maintain the donations made to the vassals and churches by the
kings their predecessors; and leave is given to the wives, daughters,
and widows of kings to dispose by will, and in perpetuity, of whatever
they hold of the exchequer.
Marculfus wrote his formularies at the time of the mayors.
[59]
We
find several in which the kings make donations both to the person and to
his heirs:
[60]
and as the formularies represent the common actions of
life, they prove that part of the fiefs had become hereditary towards
the end of the first race. They were far from having in those days the
idea of an unalienable demesne; this is a modern thing, which they knew
neither in theory nor practice.
In proof hereof we shall presently produce positive fact; and if we
can point out a time in which there were no longer any benefices for the
army, nor any funds for its support, we must certainly conclude that the
ancient benefices had been alienated. The time I mean is that of Charles
Martel, who founded some new fiefs, which we should carefully
distinguish from those of the earliest date.
When the kings began to make grants in perpetuity, either through
the corruption which crept into the government or by reason of the
constitution itself, which continually obliged those princes to confer
rewards, it was natural they should begin with giving the perpetuity of
the fiefs, rather than of the counties. For to deprive themselves of
some acres of land was no great matter; but to renounce the right of
disposing of the great offices was divesting themselves of their very
power.
Footnotes
[58]
Cited by Gregory of Tours, book ix. See also the edict of Clotharius
II, in the year 615, art. 16.
[59]
See the 24th and the 34th of the first book.
[60]
See the 14th formula of the first book, which is equally
applicable to the fiscal estates given direct in perpetuity, or given at
first as a benefice, and afterwards in perpetuity. See also the 17th
formula, ibid.
