In Charlemagne's time they were obliged,
[181]
under great penalties, to repair to the
general meeting in case of any war whatsoever; they admitted of no
excuses, and if the count exempted any one, he was liable himself to be
punished. But the treaty of the three brothers
[182]
made a restriction
upon this head which rescued the nobility, as it were, out of the king's
hands; they were no longer obliged to serve him in time of war, except
when the war was defensive.
[183]
In others, they were at liberty to
follow their lord, or to mind their own business. This treaty relates to
another,
[184]
concluded, five years before, between the two brothers,
Charles the Bald and Louis, King of Germany, by which these princes
release their vassals from serving them in war, in case they should
attempt hostilities against each other; an agreement which the two
princes confirmed by oath, and at the same time made their armies swear
to it.
The death of a hundred thousand French, at the battle of Fontenay,
made the remains of the nobility imagine that by the private quarrels of
their kings about their respective shares, their whole body would be
exterminated, and that the ambition and jealousy of those princes would
end in the destruction of all the best families of the kingdom. A law
was therefore passed that the nobility should not be obliged to serve
their princes in war unless it was to defend the state against a foreign
invasion. This law obtained for several ages.
[185]
