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REMARKS on the preceding PIECE.
(a) “A valiant count.”] In all the states of Germany, that were subject to the monarchical form of government, besides the King, who was hereditary, the nation chose to themselves a Chief or Leader, who sometimes bore the title of Count, and sometimes that of Duke[1]. The King was descended of one certain family; but the choice of the Chieftain was always conferred upon the bravest warrior. Reges ex nobilitate, Duces ex virtute sumunt, says Tacitus, De Mor. Germ. This passage, as Montesquieu hath clearly shown, is a clue that unravels the history of the middle ages. Under the first race of the Kings of France, the crown was hereditary, the office of Mayor of the Palace elective. This custom the Franks had brought with them from their original country.
(b) “Brotherly confederacy.—Fr. Confraternitè.”] Here we plainly discover those Fraternities in Arms, which are so often mentioned in the hiftory of Chivalry, in France, England, and elsewhere. Joinville is possibly the oldest Author who speaks of them in France, where they still subsisted in the time of Brantôme. M. de Ste. Palaye, in his excellent Memoirs of Chivalry, relates the terms and conditions of these associations. They differed in no respect from those in use in the north. Our most ancient Chronicles afford us examples of these Confraternities, and in general, every thing that constituted Chivalry was established in the north in those early ages, when they had not the least idea of it in the more southern nations.
(c) “Buried his gold
- ↑ Islandicè, Iarl: whence our title Earl. T.
