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VASSALIC
TIES, KNIGHTHOOD AND CHIVALRY
The emergency of the knight, was by
the end of the 11th
century a
phenomenon universal in Europe (p.38). Early development concentrated
around
the castle as basic unit of power after
the break-up of the Carolingian empire.
Public powers became fragmented
and polarized being taken over by counts,
viscounts and petty lords. A demand for warriors
was created by the local personal wars fought between the various
castles (p.62). However if the knight was a universal phenomenon by the
end of the 11th century, chivalry was
not. Chivalry only seems to have come into existence about 1180.
By
the
end of the 12th century (note: halfway the troubadour era), knighthood
came to be associated with a
distinct social class with a
certain ethos, ideology, rites and customs, rather than the simple
notion of a cavalry soldier. Chivalry (=knighthood) was
born in France and Anglo-Norman England.
An interchange of concepts
between nobility/aristocracy and knighthood
came about partially due to the
required wealth for someone to own a
horse and all that what belongs to it. (p.37) A 3-stage development of
knighthood can be identified:
1.
the emergence of a specialized and professional cavalry
2. the rise of chivalry 3. identification of knighthood with nobility. |
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KNIGHTHOOD
IN OCCITANIA
The concept of chivalric
knighthood was however
close to absent in mediaeval Occitania. The Occitan word cavalaria is
entirely devoid of ethical and ideological connotations. It is
uncommon and certainly not a key concept pertaining to the courtly
ethos of the
troubadours such as fins amors, joi or joven. Strikingly there is no
evidence of any tournaments
ever taking place on Occitan soil, and little of southerners
taking part in
tournaments. The literary evidence strongly suggests that knighting
(dubbing) ceremonies did not become an
important part of Occitan mentality.
The lack of the chivalric
concept is possibly explained by the absence
of vassility , i.e.
vassility in the strict feudal (French) sense of the word. Historians
have traditionally stressed the weakness of vassalic ties in the
Languedoc (p.15). In fact vassalic ties may
have been unknown until the Capetian
conquest of Occitania
in the 13th century. It is very difficult to assimilate the southern convenientiae
to oaths of homage and fealty on the Northern French model (p.16).
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There
have been
forwarded
various reasons for the absence of vassality
and its concomittant vassalic homage.
It could be due to the presence in the South of servile homage, i.e.
homage made by serfs implying a strict dependence. Also 90% of land at
least in the Toulousain
in the
mid 11th century was alodial (this decreased to 50% by the end of the
12th
century), indicating independent property ownership
rather than an ownership
based on personal ties. In the South and Burgundy-Arles one finds a
predominance of free fiefs,
in which the holder is exempt from military and court duties,
indicating again the weakness
of vassalage.
A terminology research in both Occitan epic and lyrical poetry conform to the view that vassalic structures are limited; property ownership is more often important than personal ties (p.19). In passing we note that the place of woman in land transactions was in the 11-12-13th centuries far greater than it was in Napoleonic times. It seems both in the North as in the South women's capacity to inherit estates and enter in vassalage were quite common in the Middle Ages (p.224). There probably was a considerable diversity in social arrangements from the one region to the other, but Occitania was not dominated by a strict system of vassalage. Aristocrats were considerably independent property owners, and many lesser knights seem to have been employed by ad hoc money payments rather than a vassalic exchange of fiefs for services. Among the various types of knight, the mercenary knight plays thus an important role in Occitania. Illustrative is that this type of knight hardly plays a role in the old French epic (p.42). Convenientiae
are egalitarian contracts involving no personal dependence.
Banal lordship : the right to exercise justice and impose arbitrary exaction. Land lordship : the right to collect rent for soil. |
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PEASANTRY
AND STRUCTURE OF THE COUNTRYSIDE
The general pattern in Europe seems to have been that with the growth of banal lordship in the 11th century peasants gradually grew in a new type of dependence (p.136). However in Occitania this did not evolve into a demesne system, i.e. the local lord did not possess a local reserve with a large number of peasants working on it (p.136). One of the reasons could be the following. The occitanian agricultural lands are relatively poor, leading to a biannal crop system (p.122). Failure to switch to a triannal system obstructed the food productions for animals and hence the exploitation of animal power in agriculture. Freeing the lands from forests was not a solution as especially forests provided grazing opportunities. Forest clearance -> increasingly poor land -> scrub -> exhausted by animal use. |
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Peasants were not confined to
relations with the soil and its masters.
They were involved in an important market exchange
system (p.130), but note that historians are divided over the
strength of Occitan commerce (p.157) (e.g. despite the many advantages
of southern wine and its production, there
was no great increase in wine export/sale at least until late 13th
century (p.124)). Occitania as a whole is
marked by more contrasts and fragmentation in
the land than northern France (p.120). Tension between peasants and the
lords'
foresters was less severe in the
South than in the North. There were sufficient wooded areas, and
animals could be sent some distance
to pasture (p.129). In the mountaneous parts of Occitania, the transhumance of
livestock, i.e. the descending of great numbers of lifestock from the
high valleys to the lower land at the onset of winter was a welcome
blessing (p.125).
1041 A.D. Truce of God
->
prohibiting fighting from thurdaynight to mondaymorning; The ferocity of French penalties, including mutilation and blinding for minor offences seems unkown in the South (p.129). Occitan peasants were better off than their Northern counterparts. There were less burdens by labour services because the classical demesne system was rare or non-existent in the South. The power of the ban (rights of lodging, to take by force e.g. for army or corvees, work with oxen, tolls use of mills and ovens) was not exploited (p.146). Banal lordships in the South gave rise to the movements of Peace and Truce, in which the church and the peasantry collaborated to limit the violent disorders of uncontrolled warfare, plundering and extortions. 990 A.D. Peace of God -> protection of peasant and church properties (p.147). |
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TOWN
STRUCTURE IN OCCITANIA There exists a remarkable
difference between the north and the south regarding the dwelling of
the nobility.
Knights of noble birth lived in all Occitan towns, a situation similar to that of Spain and Italy. It contrasts with Northen France, where the nobility almost always lived in the countryside (p.153). These 'city knights' had become the dominant element in the 12th century. However, as the economy of occitan towns expanded during the 12th century (e.g. trades organizations ('gilds') were installed in the 2nd part of the 12th century (p.163)), there gradually emerged a new urban oligarchy (p.165). The aristrocratic advisers (prosomes) gradually defined themselves more as representatives of the town's citizens and less as the Lord's subjects. The prosomes increased their powers and from them a smaller more powerfull oligarchy emerged: the consuls. At this stage, written status and customs of the towns appeared. The emergency of consulates is unknown to Northern France: Avignon 1129, Arles 1131 etc. Unlike the North where communes took power through bourgeois revolt, the occitan consulates almost all detached themselves gradually and peacefully from the power of the local lords. The power of the consuls came to an end with the advent of royal power. The increase in urbanity can be found detailled here (in French): Villes neuves en Europe. Indicative numbers regarding the size of Occitan cities and that of Paris by the year 1271 (p.152): Montpellier: 30,000-35,000 Toulouse : 25,000 Bordeaux, Narbonne, Marseilles, Lyon: 20,000 Paris : 80,000-200,000 Montpellier was a major centre of medical teaching .. the proportion of doctors teaching in Occitania before 1250 far exceeds that of the North and 2/3ds of them are found in Montpellier (p.190). Occitania is well placed to receice vast stores of (medical) knowledge from Italy on the one hand and Arabic Spain on the other (p.186). In the 1st half of the 12th century many of Aristotles scientific work, as transmitted by the Arabs were translated in Toledo, which was under Arab rule from 711-1085 (p.187). |
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VARIA
Occitania and the reconquista Spanish rulers made it attractive for foreigners to populate the empty spaces of the Reconquest lands and Gascons in particular emigrated in large numbers (p.121). In the face of seigneurial abuses, occitan peasants emigrated to repopulate lands conquered from the Moors during the Reconquest. Occitan town authorities in return welcomed immigrants and defended them against claims (P.146). [Q: Are there any records of emigration to Spain?] Occitania and Jewish culture With 1. Spanish translation activities in 12-13th; 2. 12th scientific translation in Toulouse and Beziers; 3. involvement of Jews for translation to the Romance vernaculars; 4. frequent contacts between Spain and occitania leads one to suppose a collaboration in Occitania between Jews and Christians. Before 1250 six Jewish medical treatises were published in the South, none in the North (p.192). 1306: Expulsion of Jews from France by Philippe le Bel. In the south however there existed a certain atmosphere of trust, collaboration and respect between Jews and Christians (p.195). An unusual feature of Southern archery was the use of the Turkish bow or short-bow (p.52) Occitania, Catharism and women The available statictics do not support the idea that Catharism had any disproportionate allure for women (p.250). Women had no role in (cathar) administrative leadership. Male perfects, especiallt deacons and bishops, travelled, preached and carried out administrative functions, while women did not. In practice their role was little different form that of their Roman catholic counterparts (p.251). Gregorian Reform After the Gregorian Reform in the late 11th century, the church sought energetically to imose authority in the sexual conduct of society. A clash of the lay and clerical model of marriage. The church imposes a strict exogamy, indissolubility, free indivdual consent without family interference -> a deepening church control. Q: The church sought to control marriage, health/medicine, education especially in the 11th century. What pushed this? Could this be the year 1000 effect and subsequent blame put on the church for Jesus' failure to return? (p.229) |
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