SC - Long Post--Charlemange's De Villis

[Decker, Terry D.]

Here's that second transcript I promised.

Bear


(Excerpted from Ogg, Frederic A.; Source Book of Mediaeval History:
American Book Co., New York, 1907.)


The Capitulary Concerning the Royal Domains (cir. 800)

The revenues which came into Charlemange's treasury were derived chiefly
from his royal domains.  There was no system of general taxation, such
as modern nations maintain, and the funds realized from gifts, fines,
rents, booty, and tribute money, were quite insufficient to meet the
needs of the court, modest though they were.  Charlemange's interest in
his villas, or private farms, was due therefore not less to his
financial dependence upon them than to his personal liking for thrifty
agriculture and thoroughgoing administration.  The royal domains of the
Frankish kingdom, already extensive at Charlemange's accession, were
considerably increased during his reign.  It has been well said that
Charlemange was doubtless the greatest landed proprietor of the realm
and that he "supervised the administration of these lands as a sovereign
who knows that his power rest partly on his riches." (1)  He gave the
closest personal attention to his estates and was always watchful lest
he be defrauded out of even the smallest portion of their products which
was due him.  The capitulary De Villis, from which the following
passages have been selected, is a lengthy document in which Charlemange
sought to prescribe clearly and minutely the manifold duties of the
stewards in charge of these estates.  We may regard it, however, as in
the nature of an ideal catalogue of what the king would like to have on
his domains rather than as a definite statement of what was always
actually to be found there.  From it may be gleaned many interesting
facts regarding rural life in western Europe during the eight and ninth
centuries.  Its date is uncertain, but it was about 800-- possibly
somewhat earlier.

Source--Text in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Leges (Boretius), Vol.
I., No. 32, pp. 82-91.  Translated by Roland P. Falkner in Univ. of Pa.
Translations and Reprints, Vol. III., No. 2, pp. 2-4.


We desire that each steward shall make an annual statement of all our
income, with an account of our lands cultivated by the oxen which our
plowmen drive, and of our lands which the tenants of farms ought to
plow; (2) an account of the pigs, of the rents, (3) of the obligations
and fines; of the game taken in our forests without our permission; of
the various compositions; (4) of the mills, of the forest, of the
fields, and of the bridges and ships; of the freemen and the districts
under obligation to our treasury; of markets, vineyards, and those who
owe wine to us; of the hay, firewood, torches, planks, and other kinds
of lumber;  of the wastelands; of the vegetables, millet, and panic; (5)
and of the wool, flax, and hemp; of the fruits of the trees; of the nut
trees, larger and smaller; of the grafted trees of all kinds; of the
gardens; of the turnips; of the fish-ponds; of the hides, skins, and
horns; of the honey and wax; of the fat, tallow, and soap; of the
mulberry wine, cooked wine, mead, vinegar, beer, wine new and old; of
the new grain and the old; of the hens and eggs; of the geese; of the
number of fishermen, smiths, sword-makers, and shoe-makers; of the bins
and boxes; of the turners and saddlers; of the forges and mines, that is
iron and other mines; of the lead mines; of the colts and fillies.  They
shall make all these known to us, set forth separately and in order, at
Christmas, in order that we may know what and how much of each thing we
have.

On each of our estates our stewards are to have as many cow-houses,
pig-sties, sheep-folds, stables for  goats as possible, and they ought
never to be without these.  And let them have in addition cows furnished
by our serfs (6) for performing their service, so that the cow-houses
and plows shall be in no way diminished by the service on our demesne.
And when they have to provide meat, let them have steers, lame but
healthy, and cows and horses which are not mangy, or other beasts which
are not diseased and, as we have said, our cow-houses and plows are not
to be diminished for this.

They must provide with greatest care that whatever is prepared or made
with the hands, that is , lard, smoked meat, salt meat, partially salted
meat, wine, vinegar, mulberry wine, cooked wine, garns, (7) mustard,
cheese, butter, malt, beer, mead, honey, wax, flour, all should be
prepared and made with the greatest cleanliness.

That each steward on each of our domains shall always have, for the sake
of ornament, swans, peacocks, pheasants, ducks, pigeons, partridges,
turtle-doves.

That in each of our estates, the chambers shall be provided with
counterpanes, cushions, pillows, bed-clothes, coverings for the tables
and benches; vessels of brass, lead, iron, and wood; andirons, chains,
pot-hooks, adzes, axes, augers, cutlasses, and all other kinds of tools,
so that it shall never be necessary to go elsewhere for them, or to
borrow them.  And the weapons, which are carried against the enemy,
shall be well cared for, so as to keep them in good condition,; and when
they are brought back, they shall be placed in the chamber.

For our women's work they are to be given at the proper time, as has
been ordered, the materials, that is linen, wool, woad, (8) vermilion,
madder, (9) wool-combs, teasels, (10) soap, grease, vessels, and the
other objects which are necessary.

Of the food products other than meat, two-thirds shall be sent each year
for our own use, that is of the vegetables, fish, cheese, butter, honey,
mustard, vinegar, millet, panic, dried and green herbs, radishes, and in
addition of the wax, soap, and other small products; and they shall tell
us how much is left by a statement, as we have said above; and they
shall not neglect this as in the past; because from those two-thirds, we
wish to know how much remains.

That each steward shall have in his district good workmen, namely,
blacksmiths, gold-smiths, silver-smiths, shoe-makers, turners,
carpenters, sword-makers, fishermen, foilers, soap-makers, men who know
how to make beer, cider, berry, and all other kinds of beverages, bakers
to make pastry for our table, net-makers who know how to make nets for
hunting, fishing, fowling, and the others who are too numerous to be
designated.

Notes:
(1)  Bemont and Monod, Mediaeval Europe (New York, 1902), p. 202.

(2)  The ordinary estate in this period, whether royal or not, consisted
of two parts.  One was the demense, which the owner kept under his
immediate control; the other was the remaining lands, which were divided
among tenants who paid certain rentals for their use and also performed
stated services on the lord's demense.  Charlemange instructs his
stewards to report upon both sorts of land.

(3)  Probably payments for the right to keep pigs in the woods.  The
most common meat in the Middle Ages was pork and the use of the oak
forests as hog pasture was a privilege of considerable value.

(4)  Fines imposed upon offenders to free them of the crime or to repair
damage done.

(5)  Panic was a kind of grass, the seeds of which were not infrequently
used for food.

(6)  The serfs were a semi-free class of country people.  They did not
own the land on which they lived and were not allowed to move off it
without the owner's consent.  They cultivated the soil and paid rents of
one kind or another to their masters--in the present case, to the agents
of the king.

(7)  A variety of fermented liquor made of salt fish.

(8)  A blue coloring matter derived from the leaves of a plant of the
same name.

(9)  A red coloring matter derived from a plant of the same name.

(10)  Burrs of the teasel plant, stiff and prickly, with hooked brachts;
used in primitive manufacturing for raising a nap on wool cloth.

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