The inheritance of the fiefs, and the general
establishment of rear-fiefs, extinguished the political and formed a
feudal government. Instead of that prodigious multitude of vassals who
were formerly under the king, there were now a few only, on whom the
others depended. The kings had scarcely any longer a direct authority; a
power which was to pass through so many other and through such great
powers either stopped or was lost before it reached its term. Those
great vassals would no longer obey; and they even made use of their
rear-vassals to withdraw their obedience. The kings, deprived of their
demesnes and reduced to the cities of Rheims and Laon, were left exposed
to their mercy; the tree stretched out its branches too far, and the
head was withered. The kingdom found itself without a demesne, as the
empire is at present. The crown was, therefore, given to one of the most
potent vassals.
The Normans ravaged the kingdom; they sailed in open boats or small
vessels, entered the mouths of rivers, and laid the country waste on
both sides. The cities of Orleans and Paris put a stop to those
plunderers, so that they could not advance farther, either on the Seine,
or on the Loire.
[201]
Hugh Capet, who was master of those cities, held
in his hands the two keys of the unhappy remains of the kingdom; the
crown was conferred upon him as the only person able to defend it. It is
thus the empire was afterwards given to a family whose dominions form so
strong a barrier against the Turks.
The empire went from Charlemagne's family at a time when the
inheritance of fiefs was established only as a mere condescendence. It
even appears that this inheritance obtained much later among the Germans
than among the French;
[202]
which was the reason that the empire,
considered as a fief, was elective. On the contrary, when the crown of
France went from the family of Charlemagne, the fiefs were really
hereditary in this kingdom; and the crown, as a great fief, was also
hereditary.
But it is very wrong to refer to the very moment of this revolution
all the changes which happened, either before or afterwards. The whole
was reduced to two events; the reigning family changed, and the crown
was united to a great fief.
