At the close of the thirteenth century, on the authority of Philippe de Beaumanoir, the celebrated editor of “Coutumes de Beauvoisis,” there were three states or orders amongst the laity, namely, the nobleman (Fig. 22), the free man, and the serf.  All noblemen were free, but all free men were not necessarily noblemen.  Generally, nobility descended from the father and franchise from the mother.  But according to many other customs of France, the child, as a general rule, succeeded to the lower rank of his parents.  There were two orders of serfs:  one rigorously held in the absolute dependence of his lord, to such a degree that the latter could appropriate during his life, or after death if he chose, all he possessed; he could imprison him, ill-treat him as he thought proper, without having to answer to any one but God; the other, though held equally in bondage, was more liberally treated, for “unless he was guilty of some evil-doing, the lord could ask of him nothing during his life but the fees, rents, or fines which he owed on account of his servitude.”  If one of the latter class of serfs married a free woman, everything which he possessed became the property of his lord.  The same was the case when he died, for he could not transmit any of his goods to his children, and was only allowed to dispose by will of a sum of about five sous, or about twenty-five francs of modern money.

As early as the fourteenth century, serfdom or servitude no longer existed except in “mortmain,” of which we still have to speak.

[Illustration:  The Court of Mary of Anjou, Wife of Charles VII.

Her chaplain the learned Robert Blondel presents her with the allegorical Treatise of the “Twelve Perils of Hell.”  Which he composed for her (1455).  Fac-simile of a miniature from this work.  Bibl. de l’Arsenal, Paris.]

Mortmain consisted of the privation of the right of freely disposing of one’s person or goods.  He who had not the power of going where he would, of giving or selling, of leaving by will or transferring his property, fixed or movable, as he thought best, was called a man of mortmain.

[Illustration:  Fig. 22.—­Italian Nobleman of the Fifteenth Century.  From a Playing-card engraved on Copper about 1460 (Cabinet des Estampes, National Library of Paris).]

This name was apparently chosen because the hand, “considered the symbol of power and the instrument of donation,” was deprived of movement, paralysed, in fact struck as by death.  It was also nearly in this sense, that men of the Church were also called men of mortmain, because they were equally forbidden to dispose, either in life, or by will after death, of anything belonging to them.

There were two kinds of mortmain:  real and personal; one concerning land, and the other concerning the person; that is to say, land held in mortmain did not change quality, whatever might be the position of the person who occupied it, and a “man of mortmain” did not cease to suffer the inconveniences of his position on whatever land he went to establish himself.