. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. rmies, as well as of the system which these armies represented, andwhich they had failed in sustaining. French feudalism had already ceased to beanything more than a storehouse of traditions which were still held in respect,and of old customs which had fallen into disuse among the ancient nobility. In England, Scotland, and Ireland, high feudalism was rapidly in courseof decay, before Henry VIII. dealt it its death-blow; in Germany itstruggled for existence during the reign of Maximilian (Fig. 31) ; inFrance
. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. rmies, as well as of the system which these armies represented, andwhich they had failed in sustaining. French feudalism had already ceased to beanything more than a storehouse of traditions which were still held in respect,and of old customs which had fallen into disuse among the ancient nobility. In England, Scotland, and Ireland, high feudalism was rapidly in courseof decay, before Henry VIII. dealt it its death-blow; in Germany itstruggled for existence during the reign of Maximilian (Fig. 31) ; inFrance it was crushed by Louis XI. with the help of the third the Alps, in Italy, its existence was prolonged for a short period,partly under a clerical disguise, partly by the hired help of the condottieri,and in some places by the support of the urban democracy, that is theindustrial and trading part of the population. Everywhere, however, itdisappeared with the Middle Ages, of which, both in its acts and in its firstprinciples, it bore the ineffaceable imprint (Fig. 32).. Fig. 32.—Doorways of the Old Castle of Loches, in Touraine, a favouriteManor of Louis XI. (Fifteenth Century). WAR AND ARMIES. The Invasions of the Barbarians.—Attila.—Theodoric seizes Italy.—Organization of MilitaryFiefs.—Defences of Towns.—Totila and his Tactics.—The Military G-cnius of Charlemagne.—Military Vassalage.—Communal Militia.—Earliest Standing Armies.—Loss of TechnicalTradition. — The Condotticri.—The Gendarmerie. — The Lances Fournies.—Weakening ofFeudal Military Obligations.—The French Army in the Time of Louis XL and his Suc-cessors.—Absence of Administrative Arrangement.—Reforms.—Mercenary Troops.—SiegeOperations and Engines. HE art of war had attained itshighest degree of perfection amongthe Romans, when the successiveinvasions of the barbarians began toburst like an overflowing river overthe richest of the Roman barbarians, mo
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