chieftains, very much in the condition
of slaves, being compelled to toil in the cultivation of their
masters' lands, or to go out as soldiers to fight in their quarrels,
without receiving any compensation. The great ambition of every noble
and knight was to have as many of these retainers as possible under
his command. The only limit to the number which each chieftain could
assemble was his power of feeding them. For in those days men could be
more easily found to fight than to engage in any other employment, and
there were great numbers always ready to follow any commander who was
able to maintain them.

[Sidenote: Their courts.]

Each great noble lived in state in his castle, like a prince or a
petty king. Those of the highest class had their privy councilors,
treasurers, marshals, constables, stewards, secretaries, heralds,
pursuivants, pages, guards, trumpeters--in short, all the various
officers that were to be found in the court of the sovereign. To these
were added whole bands of minstrels, mimics, jugglers, tumblers,
rope-dancers, and buffoons. Besides these, there was always attached
to each great castle a large company of priests and monks, who
performed divine service according to the usages of those times, in a
gorgeously-decorated chapel built for this purpose within the castle
walls.

[Sidenote: Great power of the nobles.]

Thus the whole country was divided, as it were, into a vast number of
separate jurisdictions, each with an earl, or a baron, or a duke at
the head of it, who ruled with an almost absolute sway in every thing
that related to the internal management of his province, while,
however, he recognized a certain general dominion over all on the part
of the king. Such being the state of the case, it is not surprising
that the nobles were often powerful enough, as will appear in the
course of this narrative, to band together and set up and put down
kings at their pleasure.

[Sidenote: The Earl of Warwick.]

Perhaps the most powerful of all the great nobles who flourished
during the time of Margaret of Anjou was the Earl of Warwick. So great
was his influence in deciding between the rival claims of different
pretenders to the crown, that he is known in history by the title of
the _King-maker_. His wealth was so enormous that it was said that the
body of retainers that he maintained amounted sometimes in number to
thirty thousand men.

[Sidenote: Amusements of the nobility.]

The employ