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The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718-1050

Archibald R. Lewis

Southern French and Catalan Society (975-1050)

[382] By the middle of the eleventh century Southern France and Catalonia were on the threshold of a

new and important era. Within some fifty years its nobles and milites were to be storming the walls of

Antioch and Jerusalem and carrying their pennons deep into Moslem Spain. With political weakness a

thing of the past they were creating powerful principalities in Aquitaine, in Languedoc, and in

Catalonia, whose rulers were strong enough to deal with the kings of France and England, the

monarchs of Aragón and Castile, or the emperors of Germany, on terms of equality. Their newly

expanding cities of Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lyon, Marseille, Narbonne, and Barcelona were becoming

important centers in a world of revived commerce and industry. And in Aquitaine poets were busy

creating a new and important literary form -- the troubadour lyric -- whose effect upon the entire

western world was to be incalculable. By 1100 lands which lay south of Poitou and Burgundy were

ready to play an important role in Western European civilization.

What was the nature of this protean society which evolved during the years 975 to 1050? How did it

differ from that which preceded it, as it coped with its new militarism and saw most of its efforts to

create strong principalities end in failure? Above all to what extent by 1050 was the society of Southern

France and Catalonia feudal, and what was the exact nature of its feudalization?

Here it might be well to emphasize what an examination of the military system, the government, and

the Church during this period has already made quite clear: which is that the feudalization of most of

these aspects of life was by no means complete. There was a new military system, but this

militarization did not always mean feudalization. It was quite compatible with allodial ownership in

many cases. The Church too was threatened by militarization during this period and made a rather

[383] successful attempt to curb its effects upon its land and its organization, but it did so without

abandoning the older system of family control of its establishments which it had inherited from an

earlier period. All efforts to form principalities failed except in parts of Aquitaine and Catalonia, but

this did not mean that feudal government took its place. Rather we find the substitute for government in

the Midi and Catalonia tended to be those informal periodic meetings of magnates in assemblies or

courts which, if they did contain feudal elements, were still essentially nonfeudal in nature. Though

there were elements which we might call feudalistic in the military system, the Church, and the

organization of such government as is to be found, by 1050 it would be difficult to characterize the

lands which lay south of Poitou as feudal in any classic sense of the word.

This leads us directly to still another aspect of the society of the Midi and Catalonia -- landholding,

which, when examined in detail, should furnish us with another indication of the extent and nature of

such feudalization as is to be found by the mid-eleventh century. Again in this period, as in earlier ones,

our source of information regarding this are the numerous charters, dating from this period, which

show us the kind of land people gave to Church establishments or to other individuals. Taking some 1,800 charters as the basis of our analysis we note the following: of these 1,783 charters, to be exact,

some 120 deal with land that seems to be in some respect feudally held, while the rest concern allods.

Based on these figures, then, feudally held land formed only 7 per cent of the total in the hands of

private individuals in Southern France and Catalonia during the years 975 to 1050. While this is almost

double the percentage of property held in this fashion in the preceding period, it is very little more

when one considers the over-all picture. Judging from this pattern of landholding one must regard the

feudalization of the Midi and Catalonja as still relatively limited in 1050.

A more detailed analysis of these figures, though, should prove revealing for various areas of the Midi

and the Spanish March. For Western Aquitaine, that is to say Saintonge, Angoulême, Périgord, and the

Limousin, we have some 184 charters which refer to gifts or transfers of property.(1) Only 11 of this

total refer to land which seems to be feudally held. [384] Of the rest, which seem clearly to be allodial,

some 50 are small holdings, 55 medium-sized holdings, and 68 large tracts or estates. For Eastern

Aquitaine -- that is to say the Massif Central region of Auvergne, Rouergue, and the Albigeois -- some

395 charters show only 32 which deal with feudally held land.(2) Here, among those which concern

allods, we find 71 which deal with large estates, 79 medium-sized property, and 213 small holdings.

The over-all percentage of feudally-held land runs about 6 per cent for Western Aquitaine and 8 per

cent for the area of the Massif Central.

Turning east to the Middle Rhone region of Velay, the Lyonnais, Savoy, Dauphiny, Valence, and

Vivarais, we find some 432 charters which date from this period.(3) Down to 1050 only 19 of them, or

approximately 5 per cent, represent land feudally held, and the rest is allodial property -- a little less

than the percentage found in Aquitaine. In this region, judging from our charters, small holdings seem

to be more numerous than property of large size, since 242 of these charters deal with small holdings,

85 with property of medium size, and 95 with large holdings or roughly the same proportion as in the

Massif Central.

Turning to the south of these regions, let us shift our attention to Provence, Languedoc, and Gascony

which form the rest of the Midi north of the Pyrenees. For Provence we possess much more abundant

materials dating from these years than was true earlier. In examining some 202 charters we find that 20

of them, or 10 per cent, deal with land which is feudal in character, the rest concern allods.(4) Here

again the size of allodial holdings is of some interest to us, for 81 of these charters concern large

estates, 61 of them medium-sized property, and 61 land which is small in size. This represents not only

a slightly larger proportion of feudally held land than seems to be found in Aquitaine and the Middle

Rhone region, but a larger proportion of large-size holdings too. When we consider Languedoc, which

here is taken to mean Septimania and the [385] Toulousain, we have some 266 charters upon which we

can draw for information.(5) These reveal some 42, or 16 per cent, which are concerned with feudally

held property, a higher proportion than we have found anywhere else in the Midi. As for size of

holdings, 98 of our charters concern large-sized property, 65 medium sized, and 61 small-sized pieces

of land, or somewhere between Provence and Western Aquitaine on the one hand and the Middle

Rhone region and the Massif Central on the other, as far as the proportion of large to small holdings is

concerned. For Gascony we have less information, but some 31 charters give us a scattering of property

holdings which present us with a partial picture at least.(6) Of these, 30 charters deal with allodial

property and only 1 with feudally held land, with the size of holdings being 4 small in size, 7 medium

sized, and 20 of a villa or more. Judging from this evidence then, Gascony seems to have the smallest

percentage of feudally held land and the largest percentage of large estates of any region north of the

Pyrenees.

Finally we have the Spanish March. Here some 535 charters give us some interesting information.(7)

Only 37, or 6 per cent, of these charters seem to be concerned with land which is feudally held. The other 498 concern allods. Of the charters which concern allods, 198 seem to refer to small holdings,

183 to medium-sized property, and 117 to larger holdings, which seems about the median for the rest of

our regions north of the Pyrenees.

From an analysis of these charters, then we can perhaps hazard a few observations on how individuals

held their land in Southern France and Catalonia during this period. They seem to show that Gascony

was the region which was the least feudalized, with the Spanish March, the Middle Rhone region, and

Western Aquitaine following in that order. [386] They also indicate that Languedoc was the most

feudalized, with Provence and the Massif Central close behind in the percentage of land feudally held.

Except for Gascony and Languedoc, however, each of which represents an extreme case, judging from

our evidence, none of these regions differed very much one from the other in the degree of their

feudalization, and in only one area, Languedoc, did the amount of land feudally held exceed 10 per cent

of the total.

We should not leave this question of the amount of land which was feudally held, however, without

approaching it in still another way, through an examination of the amount of Church land which

charters show us was given out to members of the laity as commandes, guardas, precaria, or fiefs. This

too is an indication of the degree of feudalization of the land of various parts of Southern France and

Catalonia. Judging from our documents certain areas were more feudalized than others in this respect.

Those that seem to have the highest percentage of feudalized Church lands during this period are

Languedoc,(8) as a whole, probably first, then the Limousin,(9) then Rouergue,(10) and then the Middle

Rhone Valley.(11) Then finally we have Catalonia, Gascony, Provence, the rest of Western Aquitaine

and Auvergne(12) following in that order. Adding together evidence of the feudalization of Church land

and the amount of feudally held property belonging to private individuals, which is revealed to us in

our charters, we find that Gascony is still the region which is the least affected by feudalism,

Languedoc the area most affected by it. The other regions lie somewhere in between without too much

differentiation among them being possible in this respect.

One final point also needs to be made concerning our evidence of the feudalization of land. That is that

our charters showing transfers of such property during this period reveal that most of those which

concern feudal land, perhaps 75 per cent of them, date from the years 1025 to [387] 1050. Thus we

seem to find the tendency or pressures toward feudalization were stronger toward the end of this period

than they were earlier. This, as a matter of fact, is what we would expect to be the case, since we know

that it was during this same period, starting about the 1020's and 1030's that the Church began to react

most strongly to militarization, and that the better organized feudalism of the dukes of Aquitaine and

the counts of Barcelona became a factor of some importance in Aquitaine and the Spanish March. By

1050, then, it seems probable that the movement toward a more feudal society in Southern France and

Catalonia was still growing in importance and in scope, and was to continue to do so throughout the

remainder of the eleventh century.

This examination of feudalization, as seen in the landholding system used by the society of Southern

France and Catalonia, then, seems to emphasize the following -- down to 1050 feudalism, while still

growing, remained a factor of little importance in the way land was owned or held. The allod still

reigned supreme. Despite this fact, however, in certain parts of the Midi we find evidence that

feudalism had some importance, and was to become even more important in the years ahead. Like other

aspects of the society of the Midi and the Spanish March, upon which we have commented during this

period, the system of landholding shows us a society which contained feudalistic elements but which,

in essence, was not feudal at all.

Nevertheless, we have evidence that even this degree of feudalization, such as it was, met considerable

resistance. This was true not only of the Church, which organized opposition to certain manifestations

of it in a military sense, but also of allodial landowners. In whatever region feudalism began to gain

strength, such landowners opposed its manifestations as they had done in earlier periods. In Eastern

Languedoc, which was becoming one of the most feudalized regions of the Midi, they did so, in part,

by adding to charters referring to property which they were giving to the Church a phrase forbidding

that this land be given out as a fief or benefice. More common, however, was their continued citing of

the authority of Roman and Visigothic law as giving a man the right to do as he wished with his own

property. We find statements to this effect in charters from the Limousin dating from 988 and 1050,(13)

from Rouergue and the Albigeois in 984 and 1037,(14) from Velay about 1030,(15) from [388] Provence

in 1018 and 1028,(16) from the Narbonnaise in 989, 1027, and 1030(17) and from the Toulousain in

1000 and 1015.(18) All evidence seems to point to the fact that the actual provisions of Roman and

Visigothic law as they affected private property were hazy indeed for the society of the Midi north of

Roussillon during this period,(19) but the remembrance of these legal systems as the protectors of

allodial right still remained a reality, which society in Southern France could invoke in opposing the

feudalization of its land and in protecting the right of a landowner to dispose of his property as he

wished.

The charters of this period, however, do more than help illuminate and clarify the degree of

feudalization of private property in Southern France and Catalonia. They help explain still other aspects

of the social system. By comparing information found in these documents with that which can be found

in those of the period from 900 to 975, we are able to say with some degree of confidence that by 1050

the villa system was tending to disappear in many areas. This does not mean that we do not still find a

mention of such estates in our charters, for we do, particularly in Gascony(20) and in the Limousin(21)

where they still seem not uncommon. They are also found, according to our documents in the Upper

Rhone Valley(22) and in that part of Provence near the older settled regions of Arles, Avignon, and

Marseille.(23) But they seem rare elsewhere south of [389] Poitou and Burgundy, especially in

Languedoc, Catalonia, Rouergue, Auvergne, and most of Western Aquitaine.

Why is this so? Why did villas, which had been the more normal method of exploiting the soil in the

Midi and Catalonia, tend to disappear by the middle of the eleventh century? No final answer can be

given to this question until a great deal more research has been done upon certain aspects of the

landholding system of these regions. But at least there are some possibilities which might be advanced.

The first possible cause of their disappearance lies in the way in which the inheritance system of the

period functioned. The division of property among all the heirs of an individual worked to destroy the

unity of the villa. We can see that dearly in the type of estates left by some landowners during this

period. These estates tend to consist of scattered mansi located in a number of villas instead of a

compact villa with all its contiguous and pertaining mansi.(24) Fragmentation was inevitable under such

rules of inheritance.

In the second place in a number of regions, particularly in Catalonia and parts of Provence, the castle

began to replace the villa as the unit of rural exploitation. Where this happened the basis of older

agricultural life changed inevitably. The castellan and his milites had a different point of view toward

the area which they dominated than did the old allodial villa owner. They tended to dominate a larger

region, or a mandamenta, which might consist of a number of villas or villages.(25) Their purpose was,

in most cases, military rather than economic. Hence, where castles were most numerous, we naturally

find the older villa system disappearing too. And interestingly enough the castle itself, like the villa, by

1050 had begun to be subject to the fragmentation process inevitable under the Midi's rules for

inheritance. As we find a villa divided into a number of mansi owned by various different proprietors,

so we find castles divided and subdivided in the same way, especially in Provence, where our records

are particularly complete for this period.(26)

[390] As the villa began to disappear, or better perhaps began to be absorbed into the mandamenta

system of the Midi and Catalonia, we also find something else happening. We find the old traditional

system of serfdom disappearing with it. It is interesting to note that, in contrast to earlier periods,

charters from these years seldom mention serfs. One charter from Navarre speaks of them,(27) as does a

document from Gascony dating from the year 1000.(28) Still others from Western Aquitaine contain

references to this class: one from Saintonge dating from 989,(29) one from Angoulême dating from

1040,(30) and four from the Limousin in 1000, 1020, 1035, and 1040.(31) In addition, we do have a

mention of serfs in an Auvergnat charter of 1040,(32) and in two from Dauphiny which date from 1009

and 1011.(33) This is all. What we seem to be seeing is a gradual disappearance of this class everywhere

in the Midi except the Limousin, that old center of the Roman villa system, where some still remained,

though, judging from our documents, even here they were much less numerous than earlier.

It is tempting, of course, to relate the disappearance of the older serfdom to that of the villa, and it is

true that where villas disappeared serfs tended to do so also. But we should also, in this period, as in

earlier ones, mention the fact that this disappearance as a class was probably also the result of free land;

the clearing of new soil which gave them a chance to improve their lot by cultivating such land on an

aprisio or medium plantum basis and so rise to at least tenant status. Even more important, however, in

explaining the end of the older servile class was the growth of mandamenta. Such castle jurisdiction

over nearby areas forced all cultivators, serf and censive alike, to accept burdens of an onerous nature

which made the older distinction between mancipius or colonus and free tenant paying a cens

meaningless.(34) Where castles were numerous, then, [391] a new serfdom arose and the old serfdom

simply tended to be forgotten. This, in many parts of the Midi and Catalonia, is what appears to have

happened, until the new movement which helped the peasants achieve greater freedom in the bastides

of the twelfth and thirteenth century became a reality in the Midi and the Spanish March.

Last of all, before we leave the question of landholding, we should add a word concerning the role of

women in the society of the Midi during this period, a role which remained an extremely important

one. One might expect that the growth of a more militarized society during these years would tend to

make them less important than had been the case earlier. Such, however, was not the case. Our charters

make it abundantly clear that they could still freely inherit and dispose of property and act as free

agents controlling their own estates. Their position in the governing system of the period continued to

be an important one. A Queen Irmengaude of Burgundy could control a number of castles and even

whole counties in her own right.(35) So could a Countess Emma of Toulouse, as heiress to a portion of

Provence.(36) Our documents seem to show, for instance, that Countess Garsinde of Anduze was a more

important personage than her husband, Marquis Bernard,(37) while Viscountess Adelaise of Narbonne

could act as if in no small measure Eastern Languedoc was in her control.(38) Similar ladies of great

authority existed in the Limousin and Auvergne during these years,(39) while Count Pons of Toulouse

as a bridal gift to his wife Majore felt it fitting to bestow upon her a number of important fortresses in

Languedoc and Provence.(40) No wonder Raoul Glaber regarded Queen Constance -- the new wife of

King Robert of France -- who was a product of a region where women were so powerful, with

suspicion and hostility.(41)