example,
and Genoa, Pisa and Venice all obtained capitulations. The explanation
of the practice is to be found in the fact that the sovereignty of the
state was held in those ages to apply only to its subjects; foreigners
were excluded from its rights and obligations. The privilege of
citizenship was considered too precious to be extended to the alien, who
was long practically an outlaw. But when the numbers, wealth and power
of foreigners residing within the state became too great, it was found
to be politic to subject them to some law, and it was held that this law
should be their own. When the Turkish rule was substituted for that of
the Byzantine emperors, the system already in existence was continued;
the various non-Moslem peoples were allowed their semi-autonomy in
matters affecting their personal status, and the Genoese of Galata were
confirmed in their privileges. But the first capitulation concluded with
a foreign state was that of 1535 granted to the French. Lest it should
be imagined that this was a concession wrested by the victorious
Christian monarch from the decadent Turk, it should be borne in mind
that Turkey was then at the height of her power, and that Francis I. had
shortly before sustained a disastrous defeat at Pavia. His only hope of
assistance lay in Suleiman I., whose attack on Vienna had been checked
by the victorious Charles V. The appeal to Suleiman on the ground of the
common interest of France and Turkey in overcoming Charles V.'s
overweening power was successful; the secret mission of Frangipani, an
unofficial envoy who could be disowned in case of failure, paved the way
for De la Forest's embassy in 1534, and in 1536 the capitulations were
signed.[1] They amounted to a treaty of commerce and a treaty allowing
the establishment of Frenchmen in Turkey and fixing the jurisdiction to
be exercised over them: individual and religious liberty is guaranteed
to them, the king of France is empowered to appoint consuls in Turkey,
the consuls are recognized as competent to judge the civil and criminal
affairs of French subjects in Turkey according to French law, and the
consuls may appeal to the officers of the sultan for their aid in the
execution of their sentences. This, the first of the capitulations, is
practically the prototype of its successors. Five years later, similar
capitulations were concluded with Venice. The capitulations were at
first held to be in force only during the lifetime of the