Yet feudalism had not always been a mere
tyranny of the military class over the unarmed population. Like the Roman
Empire, that of the Franks had forfeited respect and popularity by
misgovernment, by feeble government, by insupportable demands on the personal
service of the subject. The land-owner was a less exacting master than the
Empire; often he could defend his tenants from imperial exactions. During the invasions
of the Northmen and Hungarians, he was impelled by his own interest to guard
his estates to the best of his ability.
Therefore common men looked to their
landlord, or looked about them for a landlord, to whom they could commend
themselves. The great estate was the ark of refuge from the general flood of
social evils. In the eleventh century the situation changed. The Hungarian tide
of invasion was rolled back by a Henry the Fowler and an Otto the Great; the Northmen
enrolled themselves as members of the European commonwealth. The petty feudal
despot was no longer needed. From a protector he had degenerated into a pest of
society. The great political problem of the age was to make him innocuous. It
was taken in hand, and it was settled, by a variety of means.
