. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. theiradventurous steps. Famine, plague, leprosy, and fever destroyed the Christianarmies on their journey to Palestine, and during their stay there; and theseevils would have been greater still had it not been for the creation of thedifferent military orders which sprang into existence under the pressure ofthese almost inevitable calamities, and which supplied hospital attendants,chaplains, and soldiers. The continuation of the feudal wars (Fig. 43) inEurope gave the last blow to the disorganization of the a
. Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance. theiradventurous steps. Famine, plague, leprosy, and fever destroyed the Christianarmies on their journey to Palestine, and during their stay there; and theseevils would have been greater still had it not been for the creation of thedifferent military orders which sprang into existence under the pressure ofthese almost inevitable calamities, and which supplied hospital attendants,chaplains, and soldiers. The continuation of the feudal wars (Fig. 43) inEurope gave the last blow to the disorganization of the armies of Christ. While Philippe le Bel was destroying the Knights Templars, whom he held H WAR AND ARMIES. to be obstacles to bis political plans, he was at the same time seeking in everyway the means of restraining a haughty aristocracy, always under arms, whosesystematic want of discipline was a danger both to the throne and to thecountry. As soon as he had obtained from the representatives of the nation,assembled together in States-General, the right to impose taxes according to. Fig. 43.—Richard Coeur-de-Lion, King of England and Duke of Normandy, mortally wounded byan arrow shot by Bertrand de Gourdon, at the Siege of the Castle of Chalus, in Limousin(1199).—Chroniqucs do Normandie, Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (Library ofM. Ambroise Firmin-Didot). the requirements of the sovereign, he set to work on the definitive organiza-tion of a permanent paid army (Fig. 44). He fixed the age of military serviceat eighteen, and decreed that none of his subjects, except the old and thesick, should be exempt from it, unless they paid a certain sum to the royaltreasury, and supplied, according to their rank and means, one or more sub-stitutes (decree of 1302, 1303, 1306) to serve under the flag of the ost of the WAR AND ARMIES. 5 king (Fig. 46). Till that time, military service had onlybeen obligatory forforty consecutive days, or, at the most, for three months. This service w
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