An Account of Denmark

14 Of the Constable, and Peers of France

285 CHAPTER XIV Of the Constable, and Peers of France  Besides the great Office of Mayor of the Palace before spoken of, there was another which we must take Notice of; because it seems, in the Memory of our Forefathers, to have succeeded in Place of the former: And that was the Office of Count of the Kings Stable; called at first, Comes stabuli; and by Corruption at last, Connestabuli. Now all those who enjoy’d any extraordinary Honours or Employments in the King’s Court, and assisted in the Administration of the Commonwealth, were commonly called Comites, Counts; which was likewise the Custom of the Ancients, as I have in some other of my Works demonstrated. So Cicero, in many Places, calls Callisthenes, Comitem Alexandri magni [count of Alexander the Great]. This Comes stabuli was in a manner the same with the Magister Equitum among the Romans, that is, General of the Horse; to whom were subject those Keepers of the Horses commonly called Querryes. Greg.Turon. lib. 5. cap. 39. says, “The Treasurer of Clodoveus being taken out of the City of Bourges, by Cuppau, Count of the Stable, was sent in Bonds to the Queen, etc.” And again, cap. 48. where he speaks of Leudastes, “She took him (says he) into Favour, rais’d him, and made him Keeper of the best Horses; which so filled him with Pride and Vanity, that he put in for the 286  Francogallia Constableship; [Comitatum Stabulorum] and having got it, began to despise and undervalue every body.” From these Quotations it appears, that though the Custody of the Horses was a very honourable Employment, yet ’twas much inferior to that of Constable. Aimoinus, lib. 3. cap. 43. gives the same Account of this Leudastes. “Being grown very intimate with the Queen, he was first made Keeper of the Horse; and afterwards obtaining the Constableship above the rest of the Keepers, he was (after the Queen’s Death) made by King Charibert, Count of Tours.” And cap. 70. “Leudege- filus, Praefect of the King’s Horses, whom they commonly call Constable, being made General of that Expedition by the King, order’d the Engines to be drawn down, etc.” Also lib. 4. cap. 95. where he speaks of Charles the Great, “The same Year (says he) he sent Burchard, Comitem Stabuli sui, which we corruptly call Constabulum, with a Fleet against Corsica.” The Appendix to Gregory calls him, Comestabulum, lib. 11. “Brunechildis (says he) was brought out of the Village, ab Erporre Comestabulo.” This being so, Albertus Krantzius, lib. Suet. 5. cap. 41. ventures to affirm, that this Constable was the same with what the Germans call Mareschal. “They named (says he) a Governor, one of the best Soldiers, who might have the Power of Convocating the Assembly of the Kingdom, and of acting in all Matters like the Prince. Our Countrymen call him a Mareschal, the French call him Constable, etc.” This seems the more probable, because I do not remember any Mention to have been made in ancient Times, of a Mareschal in our Francogallia; so that ’tis very likely to have been an Institution of our latter Kings, accommodated to the Custom of the Germans. That this Comitatus Stabulorum, a Constableship, had its rise from the Institution of the Roman Emperors, I do not at all question; although it grew by Degrees among us from slender Beginnings, to the Height of chief Governor of the Palace. In former times that Dignity was a Sort of Tribunatus Militaris. Ammianus, lib. 26. has this Expression, where he speaks of Valentinian the Emperor, “Having fixed his Stages, or Days Journeys, he at last entered into Nicomedia; and about the Kalends of March, appointed his Brother Valens to be Governor of his Stables, cum tribunatus dignitate, with tribunitial Dignity.” What Kind of Dignity that was, we may find in the Code of Justinian, lib. 1. Cod. de comitibus & tribunis Schol. Where ’tis reckoned as a great Honour for them to preside Chapter XIV  287 over the Emperor’s Banquets, when they might adore his Purple. Also in lib. 3. Cod. Theodos. de annon. & tribut. perpensa, 29. Cod. Theod. de equorum Collatione, & lib. 1. Cod. Theod. wherein we may find a Power allowed them, of exacting Contribution to a certain Value from the Provincials who were to furnish War-Horses for the Emperor’s Service. It now remains that we...