[322] Reversion to the original proprietor because of failure of heirs. [323] Such land might be acquired for temporary use only i.e., for guardianship, during the absence or disability of its proprietor. [324] Chartres was somewhat less than twenty miles southwest of Paris. [325] The terms used in the original are _incolume_, _tutum_, _honestum_, _utile_, _facile_, _et possibile_. [326] In the English customary law of the twelfth century we read that, "it is allowable to any one, without punishment, to support his lord if any one assails him, and to obey him in all legitimate ways, except in theft, murder, and in all such things as are not conceded to any one to do and are reckoned infamous by the laws;" also that, "the lord ought to do likewise equally with counsel and aid, and he may come to his man's assistance in his vicissitudes in all ways."--Thorpe, _Ancient Laws and Institutes_, Vol. I., p. 590. [327] The duke of Normandy. Outside of Normandy, of course, other feudal princes would be substituted. [328] It was the feudal system that first gave the eldest son in France a real superiority over his brothers. This may be seen most clearly in the change wrought by feudalism whereby the old Frankish custom of allowing all the sons to inherit their father's property equally was replaced by the mediaeval rule of primogeniture (established by the eleventh century) under which the younger sons were entirely, or almost entirely, excluded from the inheritance. [329] Relief is the term used to designate the payment made to the lord by the son of the deceased vassal before taking up the inheritance [see p. 225]. The "custom" says that sometimes the amount paid as an aid to the lord was equal to half that paid as relief and sometimes it was only a third. [330] The number of men brought by a vassal to the royal army depended on the value of his fief and the character of his feudal contract. Greater vassals often appeared with hundreds of followers. [331] This provision rendered the ordinary feudal army much more inefficient than an army made up of paid soldiers. Under ordinary circumstances, when their forty days of service had expired, the feudal troops were free to go home, even though their doing so might force the king to abandon a siege or give up a costly campaign only partially completed. By the thirteenth century it had become customary for the king to accept extra money payments instead of military service from his vassals. With the revenues thus obtained, soldiers could be hired who made war their profession and who were willing to serve indefinitely. [332] Every fief-holder was supposed to render some measure of military service. As neither a minor nor a woman could do this personally, it was natural that the lord should make up for the deficiency by appropriating the produce of the estate during the period of wardship. [333] Tenants _in capite_ in England were those who held their land by direct royal grant.