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Updated: August 20, 2024
Kriemhild had not done it, save to anger Brunhild. They met before the spacious minster. Through her great hate the mistress of the house in evil wise bade Kriemhild stand: "Forsooth no vassaless should ever walk before the queen." Thou hast disgraced thee and the fair body of thine. How might a vassal's leman ever be the wife of any king?" "Whom callest thou here leman?" spake the queen.
The man of leisure comes to the country in search of a little air and health, then returns to the city to spend the fruit of his vassal's toil. The man of toil, for his part, is too crushed, too wretched, and too frightened concerning the future, to enjoy the beauties of the landscape and the charms of rustic life.
Ye are a race of other lands; your sires Profaned their soil; and ne'er the invader's yoke Was easy never in the vassal's heart Languished the hope of sweet revenge; our sway Not rooted in a people's love, but owns Allegiance from their fears; with secret joy For conquest's ruthless sword, and thraldom's chains From age to age, they wait the atoning hour Of princes' downfall; thus their bards awake The patriot strain, and thus from sire to son Rehearsed, the old traditionary tale Beguiles the winter's night.
The request for his vassal's submission, conveyed to England by Peter Roger, Abbot of Fecamp, the future Clement VI., was even more unwelcome than such demands commonly were. At first Isabella used brave words: "My son, who is the son of a king, will never do homage to the son of a count". But a threat of a third seizure of Gascony soon brought the queen to her senses.
Seeing everything ready, the countess leaned heavily upon her vassal's arm, and said to him "Come quickly to my room; it is necessary that I should speak with you." And he, not knowing that his life was in peril, found no voice wherewith to reply, so much did the hope of approaching happiness choke him.
Henry VIII., who was struck by this vassal's haughty bearing and looks, said to Francis I., "If I had a subject like that in my kingdom, I would not leave his head very long on his shoulders." More serious causes of resentment came to aggravate a situation already so uncomfortable.
The feudal lord was a genuine representative of a very small part of his vassal's interests. This slight bond sufficed, however, to give him a great prestige and to stimulate in him all the habits and virtues of a responsible master; so that in England, where vestiges of feudalism abound to this day, there is an aristocracy not merely titular.
Unfortunately the bishop was also of a proud and unyielding character, and he nursed resentment in his heart against this spurner of his authority. It was not long before his smouldering rancour blazed into an open feud, and the mighty bishop, accompanied by a large band of followers, appeared before the proud castle of Altenahr. A ring of iron was formed round the offending vassal's hold.
He felt that the present extraordinary crisis was to be met only by extraordinary measures. He assented to the force of his vassal's arguments, and, on the sixteenth of February, 1546, wrote him another letter expressive of his approbation, and intimated his willingness to grant him powers as absolute as those he had requested. Gasca was to be styled President of the Royal Audience.
He has never exercised to the full his rights of seigneur; he has never called upon them for their full quota of work; no man has even been hung on his estate for two generations save for crime committed; no vassal's daughter has ever been carried into the castle.
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