ght be, the women of the bourgeoisie were not permitted, without
incurring a fine, to use the ornaments and stuffs exclusively reserved for
the nobility. During the reigns of Philip Augustus and Louis IX., although
these arbitrary laws were not positively abolished, a heavy blow was
inflicted on them by the marks of confidence, esteem, and honour which
these monarchs found pleasure in bestowing on the bourgeoisie. We find the
first of these kings, when on the point of starting for a crusade,
choosing six from amongst the principal members of the _parloir aux
bourgeois_ (it was thus that the first Hotel de Ville, situated in the
corner of the Place de la Greve, was named) to be attached to the Council
of Regency, to whom he specially confided his will and the royal treasure.
His grandson made a point of following his grandsire's example, and Louis
IX. showed the same appreciation for the new element which the Parisian
bourgeoisie was about to establish in political life by making the
bourgeois Etienne Boileau one of his principal ministers of police, and
the bourgeois Jean Sarrazin his chamberlain.

Under these circumstances, the whole bourgeoisie gloried in the marks of
distinction conferred upon their representatives, and during the following
reign, the ladies of this class, proud of their immense fortunes, but
above all proud of the municipal powers held by their families, bedecked
themselves, regardless of expense, with costly furs and rich stuffs,
notwithstanding that they were forbidden by law to do so.

Then came an outcry on the part of the nobles; and we read as follows, in
an edict of Philippe le Bel, who inclined less to the bourgeoisie than to
the nobles, and who did not spare the former in matters of taxation:--"No
bourgeois shall have a chariot nor wear gold, precious stones, or crowns
of gold or silver. Bourgeois, not being either prelates nor dignitaries of
state, shall not have tapers of wax. A bourgeois possessing two thousand
pounds (tournois) or more, may order for himself a dress of twelve sous
six deniers, and for his wife one worth sixteen sous at the most." The
sou, which was but nominal money, may be reckoned as representing twenty
francs, and the denier one franc, but allowance must be made for the
enormous difference in the value of silver, which would make twenty francs
in the thirteenth century represent upwards of two hundred francs of
present currency.

[Illustration: Fig. 59.--The new-bor