dark ages. The feudal polity was first
established by the sagacious Conqueror, as a military structure to
overawe the vanquished Saxon; and though its rigor became relaxed in
after reigns, yet its very existence rested on military organization, and
the education of the soldier was its chief aim; the cultivation of the
soil and the pursuits of commerce, being regarded as secondary and
inferior occupations, and were treated with disdain by the feudal chiefs.
Hence the universal predominance of military power and rank in the middle
ages, and their monopoly of distinction and wealth. Hence also the
paucity of mercantile greatness in those times.

As the martial discipline and organization of his retainers and vassals
was necessary to the supremacy of the Baron, so the co-operative forces
of the Barons were necessary for the maintenance of the throne, and the
safety of the kingdom. The former was in continual peril from domestic
ambition and discord, and the latter from foreign foes. A Montfort and a
Neville, a Percy and a Douglas, were only restrained from subverting the
royal power, and grasping the sceptre in their own hands, by the support
given by the other Barons to the sovereign,--evinced on many a
well-fought field. The invasion of the kingdom by continental armies,
was only prevented by the confederate array of the King and his Barons.

In the absence of that division of employment which in modern times
produced a standing army, the feudal organization with its martial aspect
alone supplied the nation with its defence. No sooner did the Frank or
Northman display his banner on the wave, for the conquest of Britain,
than hill signalled hill, from Devon to the Orkneys, to summon the united
Barons to the defence of the realm. With such alacrity was the alarm
obeyed, that before a hostile flag could be planted on the headlands of
the island, the enemy was driven into the sea, or to the refuge of his
ships; leaving full many behind to attest the folly of the expedition.
Not less ready were the feudal chiefs to follow the British ensign into
foreign wars, there to sustain the glory of its fame. Poietiers and
Azincour, Steinkirk and Landen, Ramilies and Blenheim, witnessed the
heroic prowess of English chivalry on their hard-fought fields, while the
terrible charge of the British infantry passed into the proverbs of those
lands. From this system sprang an Essex and a Raleigh, a Chandos and a
Churchill, with other g