he condition which was
at first annexed to the grant. It seemed equitable, that one who had
cultivated and sowed a field, should reap the harvest: hence fiefs,
which were at first entirely precarious were soon made annual. A man
who had employed his money in building, planting, or other improvements,
expected to reap the fruits of his labor or expense: hence they were
next granted during a term of years. It would be thought hard to expel a
man from his possessions who had always done his duty, and performed the
conditions on which he originally received them: hence the chieftains,
in a subsequent period, thought themselves entitled to demand the
enjoyment of their feudal lands during life. It was found, that a man
would more willingly expose himself in battle, if assured that his
family should inherit his possessions, and should not be left by his
death in want and poverty; hence fiefs were made hereditary in families,
and descended, during one age to the son, then to the grandson, next to
the brothers, and afterwards to more distant relations.[*] The idea of
property stole in gradually upon that of military pay; and each century
made some sensible addition to the stability of fiefs and tenures.

[* Lib. Feud. lib. i. tit. i.]

In all these successive acquisitions, the chief was supported by his
vassals; who, having originally a strong connection with him, augmented
by the constant intercourse of good offices, and by the friendship
arising from vicinity and dependence, were inclined to follow their
leader against all his enemies, and voluntarily, in his private
quarrels, paid him the same obedience to which, by their tenure, they
were bound in foreign wars. While he daily advanced new pretensions to
secure the possession of his superior fief, they expected to find the
same advantage in acquiring stability to their subordinate ones;
and they zealously opposed the intrusion of a new lord, who would be
inclined, as he was fully entitled, to bestow the possession of their
lands on his own favorites and retainers. Thus the authority of the
sovereign gradually decayed; and each noble, fortified in his own
territory by the attachment of his vassals, became too powerful to be
expelled by an order from the throne; and he secured by law what he had
at first acquired by usurpation.

During this precarious state of the supreme power, a difference would
immediately be experienced between those portions of territory which
wer