Another Change which happened in the Fiefs.
IN Charlemaign’s time they were obliged, 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 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 in time of war, but when the war was defensive. In others, they were at liberty to follow their lord, or to mind their own business. This treaty relates to another, concluded five years before, between the two brothers, Charles the Bald and Lewis 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 an 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 should 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.