rule from districts in which the infantry arm had maintained its ancient
predominance in unbroken continuity. The cities of Flanders and Brabant,
and those of the Lombard plain, had escaped feudal interference with
their methods of fighting, and their burgher militia had developed into
solid bodies of heavy-armed pikemen. These were very different from
those of the feudal levy, and individual knightly bravery usually failed
to make the slightest impression on a band of infantry held together by
the stringent corporate feeling of a trade-gild. The more adventurous of
the young men, like those of the Greek cities, took service abroad and
fought with credit in their customary manner. The reign of the
"Brabancon" as a mercenary was indeed short, but he continued, in his
own country, to fight in the old way, and his successor in the
profession of arms, the Genoese crossbowman, was always highly valued.
In England, moreover, the infantry of the old _fyrd_ was not suffered to
decay into a rabble of half-armed countrymen, and in France a burgher
infantry was established by Louis VI. under the name of the _milice des
communes_, with the idea of creating a counterpoise to the power of the
feudatories. Feudalism, therefore, as a military system, was
short-lived. Its limitations had always necessitated the employment of
mercenaries, and in several places a solid infantry was coming into
existence, which was drawn from the sturdy and self-respecting middle
classes, and in a few generations was to prove itself a worthy opponent
not only to the knight, but to the professional man-at-arms.