y and that country, the two great monarchs of France and England
formed, in another part of Europe, a separate system, and carried on
their wars and negotiations, without meeting either with opposition or
support from the others.

On the decline of the Carlovingian race, the nobles in every province of
France, taking advantage of the weakness of the sovereign, and obliged
to provide each for his own defence against the ravages of the Norman
freebooters, had assumed, both in civil and military affairs, an
authority almost independent, and had reduced within very narrow limits
the prerogative of their princes. The accession of Hugh Capet, by
annexing a great fief to the crown, had brought some addition to
the royal dignity; but this fief, though considerable for a subject,
appeared a narrow basis of power for a prince who was placed at the head
of so great a community. The royal demesnes consisted only of Paris,
Orleans, Estampes, Compiegne, and a few places scattered over the
northern provinces: in the rest of the kingdom, the prince's authority
was rather nominal than real: the vassals were accustomed, nay,
entitled, to make war, without his permission, on each other: they were
even entitled, if they conceived themselves injured, to turn their arms
against their sovereign: they exercised all civil jurisdiction, without
appeal, over their tenants and inferior vassals: their common jealousy
of the crown easily united them against any attempt on their exorbitant
privileges; and as some of them had attained the power and authority
of great princes, even the smallest baron was sure of immediate and
effectual protection. Besides six ecclesiastical peerages, which,
with the other immunities of the church, cramped extremely the general
execution of justice, there were six lay peerages, Burgundy, Normandy
Guienne, Flanders, Toulouse, and Champagne, which formed very extensive
and puissant sovereignties. And though the combination of all those
princes and barons could on urgent occasions, muster a mighty power,
yet was it very difficult to set that great machine in movement; it was
almost impossible to preserve harmony in its parts; a sense of common
interest alone could, for a time, unite them under their sovereign
against a common enemy; but if the king attempted to turn the force
of the community against any mutinous vassal, the same sense of common
interest made the others oppose themselves to the success of his
pretensions.