Metz with the Middle Ages

This article reports the history of the town of Metz with the Moyen-âge .

At the origin, pay to us the Bénédictin S in their “chronicles”, they were Trojan families:

Gournais,
Baudoche,
Renguillon,
Chauverson,
Blanchard

who were the first patricians of the Metz-native city. Although they are there popular beliefs of the time, undoubtedly closer to the legends than of historical truth, one should not forget only these stories which are told through the generations often contain a bottom of truth, would be this only on the level of the symbols! One can thus consider that the above mentioned families were very old families of Messina stocks, and one includes/understands well that they had to encourage these mythological searchs all or for biblical origins, which did nothing but flatter their ego and their pride! Who would indeed refuse to have demigods or gods for ancestors? It is only to see today these quantities of people, all however republican convinced, which seek in their family trees this hypothetical ancestor of noble stock which would attach the family to a Blason.

As a capital Austrasie, the Metz-native city had seen in its center the rise to power of the religious capacities (twenty Paroisse S, sixty-seven church S, eight Abbaye S Bénédictin be will intra muros for a population in the neighborhoods of thirty thousand inhabitants at that time) and spiritual power to which went, soon, being attached a capacity much more temporal, with, in particular, the disappearance of the hereditary counts, about the 10th century: the Metz-native episcopate being enriched, had grounds with the envi, which paid to the city of the incomparable richnesses. But, other side of the coin, it was made also many enemies and envieux, of which it was protected by thick ramparts open from many doors.

The middle-class

This situation had brought the emergence of a middle-class, made:

“families” with the shared interests, of which most known had a name in connection with their activity or the place of their residence, or even related to physical characteristics, like:

the Falcons (stockbreeders and salesmen of these animals of hunting),
Malebouche (perhaps first dentists?),
the She-wolf (in charge of the right-of-way to the bridge of the same name),
the Barb (with the functions of hairdressers and barber),
of the Postern,
the Butcher,
Piedechaux,
Masson, etc

of tradesmen come from abroad (whom one called “open”), held intramurally to make oath in the “Bourgerie” beyond five last years ;
churls: inhabitants of the city (the stay of the churls was called in the laws of time “démourance” or “ménandie”.) ;
craftsmen, gathered in trade association, corporations, and been subject to the rules of those;
soldiers not making the war more;
knights;
and serfs or free men.

All men who were going soon to seek to make hear their voice and to conquer, beyond the richnesses of their work, always more capacities, until taking it for good, one day.

Middle-class men

To become middle-class, it was necessary to obtain “right of Bourgerie” (right to live the city). A churl had thus, after its residence was duly noted:

to establish that it had taken woman in the city;

or that it was nation of Metz.

to present to the magistrates an application;
to give up twentieth its goods for the maintenance of the walls of the city (if its request were allowed);
to lend, the helping hand on the furnace bridge, the following solemn oath:

Je make sçavoir and cognissant with all that, for the good and the honnour whose city of Mets is re-elected, I ay deliberated and concluis, in my pleasure and from my lime pit liking and volenté, from demourer and prenre my residence in the city of Mets, and fact I came themselves there to sit; and have me AD this gracefully recehu for their middle-class man the sieurs Maistre-Eschevin and Treze Jureis of dictates Cité, for and name of icelle. And for this promised ay, swears and promises, into good foidz and loialment, my hands touching known the Furnace bridge, and known my honnour, that I would keep bonnement and loialment Bourgerie and all the ordinances statutes and coustumes of dictate Cité and that jamaix against dictates Cité would not be, would not pursue malz, dampmaiges, in hault, in baix; and I sçavoie, neoyie to badly say, dapmaige, one damage of dictate Cité, of the habitans of icelle, I doie annuncier and annunceroie, with the plutost that bonnement polroie, the Braids, or the Seven of the war; of icelle and that jamaix against dictates Cité, them inhabitants and paiis and signorie pertaining to ycelle, I seray, do not mefferait, would not be to me with the meffaire, in recoy, as a Appert, queilconquez manner of it that it is, or puist estre, with nulz maix day; all malengin in yotes these things out put and exclus.

Act of this oath was then drawn up, and the sealed letter containing the promise of fidelity of the new middle-class man was filed in arch of Aman, so that one can have there recourse in the event of perjury or of any act of justice likely to be taken against the rapist of the law, which was exposed then to terrible sorrows (“evisceration with sharp” in public place, then of decapitation, skinning, the dismemberment, etc).

Sometimes, the title of middle-class man was gracefully offered to characters to which the city was indebted of some services. It was the case of the lord “Ferry of Bitche” in 1398, which received a pension in exchange of the promise nothing to undertake against the Metz-native city, but also to inform him of all that would threaten it and which would come to its knowledge and to provide and provide in vivres the Metz-native troops which would station in the neighborhoods of its fortress.

Noble and commoners could thus claim to belong to the Metz-native middle-class.

But the commoners acquired by there true titles of nobility, because they enjoyed then all the rights allotted to this one. The middle-class men of Metz could indeed invest their richnesses in the purchase of Fief S and of Seigneurie S, there to judge without call, to make grace, commute the Capital punishment or any other sorrow incurred in their seigniories to that which was appropriate to them and, as vassal, they did not have any more “that the mouth or the hands”, i.e. they owed to the suzerain no payment for the repurchase of the stronghold.

Intra muros, it went from there differently: they did not have any right of intervention in the government of the city, unless forming part, as of its reception, of Paraiges, or to be in an unspecified way attached to these bodies (atour of 1317).

After long fights towards 13th century, increase of degree of relationship that “tenure in trimming admitted”, whose history preserves the traces, then the admission of simple commoners owners of strongholds (which everywhere else could not be regarded as the noble ones with whole share), led to the creation of Paraige of the commun runs in the administration of the city while benefitting from a relative autonomy with respect to an Empire which had then extremely to make to regulate permanent problems with its borders of the east, Rome and the Pape, and especially, do not forget it, with its voters, on which it depended.

The Quarrel of the Nominations

The Querelle of the Nominations (1075 - 1122) carried a fatal blow to the Metz-native episcopal capacity by starting the process which was to lead to communal independence.

The Hériman bishop, also called Hermann, will be one of the adversaries of the emperor Henri IV which opens this quarrel by seizing Metz with the assistance of Thierry II (the duke of Lorraine) and of the count de Metz Folmar V. The bishop must then leave the city, then returns there; but the Concile of Mainz declares it again deposed, and it must thus be exiled near the Mathilde countess in Italy, before being able, finally, in 1089, regain the episcopal city and die there a few months later.

Évêché, him, was also pulled about between the papacy of Rome and the emperor of which its legitimacy and its influence depended, its government, disputed until this final obviousness: its rejection by the government of the city and its returns to its ground “out of the walls”. Because the Residents of Metz, which aspired already to a certain independence, as well as regards bishop as, perhaps, side of the empire, did not intend to bind their fate to that of the two successive bishops named by the emperor: they were raised and, the first, Walon, however abbot of Saint-Arnould, resigned. Replaced by the souabe Brunon de Calw, covetous and proud man, this last was continued until in the Cathédrale by the inhabitants of the city and could, contrary to his servants, to escape from extreme accuracy whereas those were massacred with the foot of the furnace bridge. The Poppon bishop thus succeeded Hériman, approved succession, this time, by the pope. But, with its death, the Residents of Metz were combined with the duke of Lorraine Thierry II , which took the title of duke of Metz and imposed, in the name of the emperor, the schismatic Adalbéron IV, itself deposited by the council of Rheims of 1115. It then a few years ago of episcopal vacancy: certain lords benefitted from it to recover grounds, to usurp fields belonging to évêché; the Metz-native middle-class men decided to organize in common, to defend oneself and, when the bishop Théotger (or Théoger), bishop reformist, presented himself under the walls, they refused the entry in the city to him. The bishop died in 1120, with the Abbaye of Cluny, without never to have succeeded in entering Metz. Its successor, Etienne de Bar, could enter in possession of his seat only at the end of the quarrel of the nominations, with the signature of the Concordat of Worms. One disturbed period followed, marked by the restoration of temporal by this energetic bishop: the inhabitants became aware of the big role which they had to play, as well with-outside as with-inside. They had already marked their turbulence by several weapon but rows, also, with respect to their neighbors:

of Dieulouard, in 1111, neighbors who had imprisoned one of theirs: they took this borough and destroyed it.

In 1133, it is the count de Salm which besieges the city and one needs the intervention of Bernard saint to make it give up his project.

Twenty years later, it is the count of Bar, the quarrelsome Renaud II, which demolishes the Residents of Metz with Pont-à-Mousson, and it is necessary, once again, which holy Bernard intervenes and makes impose peace.

All these quarrels opposed the “citains” of Metz, and not the bishop with these adversaries. The bishop, meanwhile, had associated the middle-class men with the government of the city… Consequently, they appeared in Chartres episcopal which would treat city and Metz-native country, like “witnesses”.

A chartre, in date of 1157, stated “that the middle-class men consequently had capacities of administration on the city and the suburbs”.

The Metz-native Republic had been born.

The Metz-native republic

With died of the bishop Etienne de Bar, a new crisis burst between the empire and papacy, causing a new weakening of the capacity of the bishops of Metz who avoided, as from this date, being made devote by fear of being taken for the “orthodoxe ones” by the emperor, for “anti-popes” by Rome (and thus to be excommunicated by Alexandre, the pope in exercise at that time). The middle-class benefitted from it to consolidate its capacities and to consolidate its authority, even if it means to enter in conflict with the bishop. The multiplicity of these conflicts was made enough frequent to incite the Bertram bishop to inaugurate the beginning of its episcopate by instituting new rules (March 21st 1180), in a document called Grand Atour of Metz .

In this act, the bishop formally recognized the existence of the “Commun run of Metz”.

Restorer of the episcopal capacity, Bertram was however driven out throne by the Emperor and was obliged to take refuge in Cologne before returning to Metz to dead of Frederic Barberousse. He made build a fortress with Vic-on-Pail, leaving “high criminal justice” in the hands of his “Large Dedicated”, the count de Dabo, which delegated at a “assembly of thirteen sworn” which was going to become more the high ranking authority of the State and to constitute, with the Master Alderman, the “Supreme council”, also said the “Large Council” of the Metz-native city. Hardly legatees, these “thirteen” entered in conflict with the bishop and the Clergé, refusing to them exemptions of financial expenses intended for the repair of the ramparts; they raise first once the middle-class men against them (1209 - 1210), but must yield, before taking their revenge in 1215, and the Emperor himself is obliged to intervene to alleviate a conflict which takes again eleven years later for the same reason for the clerical contribution to the maintenance of the walls. The divergent interests led, in fact, with a rupture: gradually, the bishop will devote himself to his grounds, the townsmen at the city.

That is done by stages. The successor of Bertram, Conrad de Scharfenberg, also bishop of Whorl and chancellor of the emperor Frederic II, too often absent, lets the middle-class men only defend themselves against the counts of Champagne and Luxembourg which besieges the city in 1221.

The death of Gertrude, the heiress of Dabo, last countess of Metz and the question of its succession involve the city in a war called “Guerre of the Friends” (1231 - 1234). The bishop Jean Ier d' Apremont double its territorial possessions by adding to its grounds those of the county. Part of the Metz-native middle-class makes him the war, with him and “those of Porsaillis” (which took its party, to the duke Mathieu II of Lorraine, and to the count Henri de Bar. But the Metz-native money makes its effect and the duke of Bar, bought by the middle-class men, changes camp, imitated soon by the duke of Lorraine. The middle-class men triumph then and can throw out of the walls those of Porsaillis and the trade associations which supported them, to banish them with life of the city after having lightened them of all their goods, having burned their banners and to be able to besiege the bishop taken refuge in his fortress of Saint-Germain. Jean d' Apremont is obliged to recognize his defeat, to make peace and to recognize the independence of the city.

From now on, nothing any more will block the development of the urban community, which will increase constantly until the time of its reunification to the Kingdom of France.

Assets of Metz

Metz, in this political context, profited from paramount assets:

Its position geographical was worth to him, with the steps of the Empire, to be used of relay city and warehouse with the international business whose heart was located at this time on the side of Liege, where met all the tradesmen of the Europe of the moment.
Its walls with the legendary glacis, always perfectly maintained by the transfer certain taxes or royalties with its maintenance, its reputation of “virgin city” (ever taken and always inviolate) made the trade sure inside the walls.
Metz had become a town of run and recognized fair: five large fairs came to be added to those reserved for bank holidays and the three market days weekly, whose some examples perdurent today still:

the fair of Saint-Clement (from May 5th to 8th).
the fair of Saint-Etienne (August 3rd).
the fair of Sainte-Marie (August 15th).
fairs of Saint-Arnould (August 16th and October 11th), oldest.
the Large Fair of October.

the quasi permanent transit of the goods brought its batch of taxes which made swell the treasure of “Metz the rich person”, as one said then.

One is unaware of the precise time to which Metz was constituted free downtown, but any door to believe that this city skilfully benefitted from the civil and religious anarchy in the middle of which formed the hereditary counties of the Luxembourg, Chiny, Arlon, Bar, etc, of the remains of duchy of High Lorraine, whose Metz was the capital. The first times of the Metz-native Republic are extremely obscure; we know only that it had long wars to support against the lords of its vicinity, dissatisfied with the stamping which it had conceded at the two hundred and fourteen villages of its territory, in exchange of personal services and land royalties. The bishop Etienne de Bar, far from imitating his fellow-members of then, helped the Residents of Metz liberally to maintain their freedom; he supported them against the bishop of Verdun and had recourse to the mediation of Bernard saint.

The eloquent abbot of Clairvaux came twice to Metz, in 1132 and 1153, and “the incipient Republic had its consolidation with the powerful word of the large Christian speaker”, as well as the known as one of Viville.

The dukes and the counts, by adapting their offices, towards the end of the “second race” (that of the Carolingian ), destroyed in France the municipal mode.

Right of commune

But, then the town of Metz had already passed under the patronage of the king of Germanie; the right of commune, which did not remain any more in France, had thus remained in Metz in all its force; also one can hold like a tradition of his old government the article first of his habit, bearing: “That any person are not frank, null of servile condition. ” (History of Metz by the Benedictines.)

Time of the franque invasion until the establishment of the Bertram bishop, the manners hard and wild, the lawsuits and the different ones was regulated in closed fields. Beaten paid the fine.

One knew of another torment only that of suffocation: the patient was locked up in a bag of leather and precipitate in water of the the Moselle. It is, says one, of this kind of execution that the “bridge of Dead” draws its name.

The bishops had become the Masters and the kingly lords of the country reduced the ferocity of these laws.

The Bertram bishop, as a true lawyer, 1178, made annual the load of Master Alderman (by election the March 12th, with the Benoît saint); charge which was reserved for life before.

1. Issued that it would be submitted:

with princely of the cathedral,
with the abbots:

of Gorze,
of Arnould saint,
of saint Clement,
of Symphorien saint,
of Vincent saint,

(The clergy being excluded from the municipal loads, it was interested to make equitable and impartial choices.) 2. With the load of this supreme magistrate a council of twelve members, legatee with “the justice of the Thirteen coupled”, 3. “The mercies” (established in 1197 by another chartre of the Bertram bishop created: notaries of the time; they were charged to receive the acts, the contracts and to preserve them; they did not make sign their acts, but copied all the writings from a register; they made a duplicate of them on Parchemin, below which they wrote “for arch”; these operations were concluded by a handshake, from where “with hands”, mercies. They established “public arches” (trunks where one kept the acts, which gave the word files thereafter) in each parish, which gave rise to the “written treaties”. In the past they selected among notable city, were elected by all their parishioners (except the clerks and the women); various atours regulated their election and their conditions.

To be “mercy”, it was necessary:

to have at least thirty years,
to be born of legitimate marriage and to belong to the city of Metz from the father and the mother.

After the rising which made pass all the authority between the hands of Paraiges, the men of chalk-lining only remained eligible.

This load involved, until in 1466, the obligation to lie all its life in the parish on which its office depended.

Each parish had in its church a “arch” closing itself of two keys entrusted to conciliation boards.

Later, they were more elected only by the parishioners chiefs of hotels.

If the election were not done by agreement, it was done then in the majority of the voices.

To be elected, at least thirty votes had to be joined together.

The new elected official then poured a guarantee of one hundred books of small tournaments between the hands of the changer of the thirteen.

Since the atour of 1422, the office of mercy is sold.

All the magistrates of Metz, except for the sworn counts, until in 1552, belonged to the body of the nobility which, since the episcopate of the bishop Wala (880), controlled the city under the generic qualification:

Men of the bishop;
of Pars of évêché.

It is of this nobility, that are gone down in hot or collateral line a hundred and eighteen families from Saint-Etienne.

Families of Saint-Etienne

These a hundred and eighteen families were divided into five paraiges, which had as names:

Carries-Muzelle, which had burlé blazon “of gold and azure of eight parts”.
of Jurue, which carried gold blazon “to sand eagle without members; this paraige car its street name Jurue, where it had its hotel and carried for against-scel, as of the beginning of the 14th century, a head of Juif to long and pointed beard and hat on broad board and also pointed form.
of Saint Martin's day, which carried blazon “of mouths with three gold bezans posed, and one, that of dextral, charged with a cross of mouths”.
of Port-Sailly, which carried gold blazon “to the sand tower”.
of In addition to-Pail, which carried senior blazon “of gold and azure of eight parts”.

Risings, true revolution inside the city, supported the emergence of a sixth body, that of the middle-class, which took, with time, a very dominating place, in the organization of the Metz-native city:

of the Commun run, which one by one carried gold blazon “holy Etienne of complexion to knees, out of dress of Levite, alongside of two stoners, also in complexion”. The paraige of the commun run had for against-scel a Paul saint holding of the right hand the sword, instrument of its martyrdom, and the left hand, the book of the Gospels. This paraige and that of Jurue were the only ones which had the distinction of against-scel.

Each of the six Paraiges had a vast hotel crenelated and surrounded by turns, whose its chief occupied the principal apartment.

Paraiges among which one chose:

the Master Alderman,
aldermen of the palate,
Thirteen, invested court at the same time of the executive power and the criminal jurisdiction of the city of Metz.

The January 25th, the Master Alderman gathered Paraiges in the church Saint-Pierre-with-Images to choose four people of each one of Paraiges and six of the commun run, able to carry Treizerie, old at least twenty years and pertaining to Paraiges by their father or their mother.

One drew with the fate among these twenty-six lignagers those which were to be “thirteen” for the year. They were to be confirmed by the bishop, but a “atour” of 1393 stipulates that “in the event of refusal of the bishop, one would pass in addition to”.

The criminal penalties inflicted by the thirteen comprised:

the banishment with various degrees,
execution of body by drowning, fire,
the mutilation (that of the ears in particular).

In addition to the execution of their “Cranct” (sentences) “per content” or “setting”, they were in charge of the sentences of the Master Alderman (judgments called by right) and of the aldermen.

They sat at the palate of the government.

The amount of work which was reserved for them made that, with the wire time, appeared under various denominations, more specialized bodies whose vocation remained to reduce the task of the court from the “thirteen”:

conciliation boards,
pardezours,
wardours, all writers or guards of the acts, guarantors of justice,
Septeries, true ministries for the city:

seven of the doors, holders of the keys of the doors of the city. (Eighteen doors or posterns in 1324, thirty-eight towers round or square with the names of the various trade associations,
the seven of the war, created in 1323, were the magistrates having jurisdiction in the city as for what related to the war. They were renewed every two years, entirely or partly. It is them which had the direction of the operations and forwardings “to the outside”. They dealt with the prisoner exchanges, delivered the safe-conduits, granted the truces, concluded the treaties, except ratification by Paraiges. They ended up taking a paramount role in the life of the city.
seven of the treasure, (1304) seven officers called treasurers, responsible on “Huge in the vault for Large Moutier” (the treasure of the cathedral).
seven pavers and of the rivers, person in charge of the maintenance of the rivers, streets and roads of the city.
seven of the bullette the, in charge ones of the perception of the fees registration of the contracts, treaties and various acts, thus named because of the bubble which was affixed on those, in order to prove their authenticity of it.
those of seven of maltoste the, in charge ones of the recovery whose the objects of everyday consumption were struck (a little like the VAT today).
seven of the currency, which made, in the name of the Master Alderman, to beat currency with the corner of the city and the weapons of this one.
seven of the walls and fortifications, which took care of the construction and the maintenance of this vital part of the city. (Six thousand meters long Enclosure at the 12th century.)
seven of the bridges,
seven of the municipal mills,
seven maistres of the hospital.

To counterbalance the power of the families of the paraiges, one elected annually:

twenty-five counts sworn selected among the people, which represented it in the assemblies of the Large Council of the City. (One should not confuse these counts de Metz with those known as of the palate, which was only treasurers or intendants of the bishop, accompanied it in its voyages, received the foreigners in visit and took care of temporal of the episcopal mense: their authority emanated from the bishop, while that of the hereditary counts emanated originally from the kings.).

They lent oath to Moutier de Saint-Pierreentre the hands of the Master Alderman and the “Thirteen”.

All these men and the other municipal officers treated concert the businesses of the city. Later, they had also access to the administration and justice, after the extinction of the hereditary counts of Metz.

The Master Alderman

The Master Alderman was the supreme leader of the city and the Metz-native country. There remained covered, in the presence of the Emperor.

Elected official, at the origin, of 1179 until in 1316, by agreement, i.e. with the plurality of the voices, annually. Since 1316, a atour (edict) the fact of electing by princely cathedral, and the abbots of Gorze, of Saint-Vincent, of Saint-Arnould, Saint-Symphorien and Saint-Clement, called perpetual voters. It was to be at least thirty years old and to belong to the Saint-Etienne parish. Its election was done with the drawing lot. At least six names of six different people were registered on tapes of parchment, placed in as many boxes (made, at the origin, of wood, then of money thereafter) which were thrown in a hat of which the princely one drew a box randomly, box which gave the name of the lucky one, which thus became Maître Alderman for a whole year.

The role of the Master Alderman

It regulated all the public affairs,
it treated peace or war,
it supremely judged all the lawsuits by call of the Thirteen,
it named or revoked the officers civil or military,
it made beat currency with the corner of the city and to strike with its own weapons of the money and gold coins, called eschevines,
it had one of the keys of the treasure of the city.

This magistrature, was initially “with life”, but some of those having deceived their capacities, the oppressed Residents of Metz made burst their dissatisfaction.

We said it, the Bertram bishop offered his mediation which leads to a chartre authorized by the citains of the city, in 1179, chartre which was confirmed by the emperor Frederic Barberousse in 1182 and by the pope Urbain III in 1186.

It was known as in this chartre that:

If the Master Alderman were not yet knight at the time of his election, it would make oath be made arm before the day with the Pentecost which would follow its election.
That in guarantee of its word, it was to deposit five hundred small tournaments between the hands of the receiver of the city.
That it was forced to him to lay out in its favor the first échevinage which has suddenly been occupied during its working year, if however it were not equipped with this office.

The aldermen of the Palate formed his council and the first body of magistrature of the city; they were appointed for lives and were twelve, resulting from the members of Paraiges.

The Court of the Thirteen

The Court of the Thirteen (legatee in 1197) constituted the second body of the magistrature. The Thirteen were selected among the chiefs of hotels of the first five Paraiges and by four deputies of that of the commun run. They met all the Tuesday S and Wednesday S in their room and judged all the matters indifferently.

There was possibility of call to the Master Alderman and his council of their civil, real or personal judgments. But they decided supremely in the criminal causes: they ordered the executions, made grace or commuted the sorrows of condemned.

They chaired, with the Master Alderman, with the police force of the city and the nomination of the changer of which they received the oath.

Control and the development, the debates of a business in front of the Thirteen comprised various characteristics and phases:

adjournement (today, one would say the setting in examination or the calling into question),
the investigation,
testimonys,
monstrances.

If “adjourné” did not appear, it was liable to a fine of ten grounds, with less than one valid excuse. If it went away knowingly to be withdrawn from the adjournment, it was deferred with its last residence and if it were not presented or were not made represent, it, for a first attempt, was struck of ten grounds of fine, then of twenty grounds to the second time, and the third time, the Thirteen did it “hucher on the stone” (one understood by there, public declamation with the sound of the drum). One called “stones of the palate” or “the huchements” a stone which was placed close to Saint-Gorgon (in the current alignment of the street Fournirue) from where one quoted in public marked people of a crime, with “asseurement” (times of injunction) of seven nights to come to purge itself facts which were reproached to them.

Sergeants of the Thirteen

They had at their disposal the “sergeants of the Thirteen”, or the justice, which were agents of execution which made carry out the stops. Thirteen or fourteen towards the end of the 15th century, they had at their head a Master sergeant. The sergenteries or offices of sergeant were given, normally; however, they ended up being sold rather expensive; it should be said that the wages were rather interesting because it consisted in the product of certain taxes whose the acts were struck that they achieved.

The sergeants annually lent oath to the “Thirteen”. They carried a money rod, had as a costume a dress of delivered to the colors of the town of Metz, black and white, and, in certain circumstances, a mourning cloth, any black.

They were to give their contest not only to the thirteen, but still to the sworn counts, to the eswardours, to the Master Alderman, to the same aldermen, the seven of the war, to the clerks of Paraiges delegated for various functions and, in general, to all the lords of the city, in the achievement of the acts of the public life:

they practiced the seizures,
the catches of pledge,
the arrests of the debtors and the criminals.

Moreover, they made the adjournements, the sales by order of the court, the conduits, the public huchements, the commands, the significances of exploit; they were present at the executions and made bury the torture victims.

Other bodies

The changer was an officer charged to hear the complaints of managed, to make investigations and information supporting those, to attend the adjudications of the maltôtes and to perceive the emoluments of the company from the “Thirteen”. Its pledges were of “hundred Metz-native pennies and a new dress”.

The conciliation board constituted the third body of the Metz-native magistrature. In the beginning (1244), they were with the number of twenty-six, but, thereafter, one reduced this number by half. They had the responsibility of take care of handling and of the good order in the city, to be held with the provision of justice to help it and assist it: they was, to some extent, the local judges of the time. Removed in 1325 in consequence of a treaty between the bishop Henri Dolphin and the residents of Metz, large the atour ordered the re-election of it, but they then did not have anything any more commun run with old the conciliation boards, all drawn from the aristocracy of Paraiges.

The pardezours were police chiefs rapporteurs attached to the court of the Thirteen.

They caused production of the writings with the parts, examined the files and put the lawsuits in a position to be judged.

Before the atour of 1405, in fact the eswardours, created thirteen, by a atour of 1385 made carry out the judgments of the Master Alderman and those of the aldermen. They received the complaints of the justiciable ones which had to complain about the judgments of the Thirteen and were believed pressed consequently:

either of delay in the forwarding of their business,
or of abuse in the pledges that one asked them,
or in the lifting of the sizes. (The size or “cuts common” was applicable to the “coustances” - fines, punishments - town of Metz. The most frequent punishments inflicted were the fine, the confiscation, the banishment or the exile, with various degrees.)

The atour of 1405 replaced the pardezours by the conciliation boards. When the latter were removed, in 1406, the eswardours were not restored.

The wardours owed “warder”, i.e. to keep and take care of the good of the city jointly with the Thirteen and the counts, to receive the complaints concerning the sizes, the banishments or the fines pronounced by the Thirteen and to decide which, of the plaintiffs or their first judges, were right wrong or.

These last three bodies were renewed each year and were drawn from the body of Paraiges, just as “the seven from the war”, “the seven of the doors”, “the seven of the treasure”, the “seven of the pavers” and “the seven of the bullette” and “the maltote” (body of the tax collectors), whose title says enough of their respective attributions.

In addition to these magistrates, there was still:

Three mayours or mayors who managed each one a department with-inside and -outside city, namely:

the town hall of Muzelle door, which extended since the street from the Guard until Holy-Ségolène and exerted its jurisdiction on fifty-seven villages.
the town hall of Port-Sailly, which extended on the districts from Serpenoise to the street Taison, and of Saulnerie to the door of the Germans, with a hundred and fourteen villages.
the town hall of In addition to-Pail, which included/understood the districts of the Citadel, of Fournirue, the suburbs beyond the Moselle and forty-three villages.

The mayors or “maieurs”, were elected officials charged to help the Thirteen in their functions.

Before large the atour, they were elected by the Master Alderman, the aldermen and the Thirteen.

They seem to have replaced, towards 1130, the villicus civitatis of which they were then distributed attributions.

Elected officials originally by the conciliation boards of the church of Metz, they bear also the name, towards 1130, of:

very ministri ,
then of very villici .

They had the exercise of the constraint in the mode of police force and of the legal things, as armed with the Round of applause.

They were charged with:

“the estault” or “estals” with the “auction”: it was the sale of personal property on legal seizure.
“the constraint”;
guard of the prisoners;
confiscation;
lifting of the fines.

They formed “the plaid banished with the aldermen”, only one, if need be, to make with him the “reprimands in leu of round of applause” and the adjournements like certain judicial and administrative documents. Giving the round of applause to the aldermen, they put in right in front of them whoever was entitled to present complaint to justice.

When the emperor came in visit to Metz, the mayor of Carries-Muzelle went, with three miles of the city, ahead of of him, to present the keys of the city to him.

Corporations

The other inhabitants of the city, the great majority, who were not entitled to the government, but owed the military service (as infantrymen) in the event of war were composed:

Of professionals, craftsmen organized in associations, with number of fifty-two, which had their own bosses and its banners, of which oldest went back to the 12th century, at the episcopal period. Various Chartres specify the organization in associations (festivities) of:

commercial;
butchers;
tanners;
blacksmiths;
shoe-makers;
blacksmiths;
wine merchants.

All these festivities were dissolved by the emperor Frederic II in 1214, but they were reformed almost at once by changing names and of organization: the Franc-Trade, old episcopal stronghold, gathered around a chief, called Master, who held his load of the bishop, who gathered eight trades:

drapers;
nailsmiths;
stock-brokers;
leather blacksmiths;
makers of braies (pants) out of leather;
gantiers;
parmentiers;
fripiers.

All these corporations had “right to work and make commercial acts” in the totality of évêché.

They were subjected to very strict payments, whose Master was agent of the rights of jurisdiction.

These people took part in risings which disturbed the order of the city in 1197, 1283 (where twenty-three of them were banished with perpetuity of the city, transfer their burned banners, their confiscated goods); the loads of the war of 1324 had been very badly supported by these people of modest means and, once again, in 1326, they drove out the Master Alderman of the city, the paraiges being rejoined with the enemies of the day before, they plundered the houses and gave each other governors gathering the ten principal trades:

bakers, which one knows that they were 175, to which were added 50 millers responsible for the municipal mills;
fishermen;
the wool ones (arceniers, beaters of wool, clothiers) gathered in the district of the Rocks;
carpenters;
masons;
butchers, 70;
fèbvres;
vine growers;
tanners;
shoe-makers.

Themselves under the orders of a large Master.

But the paraiges, remained under the walls, sowed ruin and disorder out the walls, towards Saint-Julien in particular, and the reason carried it: they made peace with them, “for the shared interest” (June 27th 1327).

The authority of Paraiges was restored.

Those benefitted from it for, in 1336, to remove the office of the large Master without that not causing any reaction.

In 1347, “the plot of the Huiguignon butcher”, that of 1356, more known under the denomination of “revolt of the butchers” fell through and their authors were carried out or drowned. Lastly, in 1360, the control of the Franc-Trade was definitively abolished.

The Metz-native patriciat could work and learn certain lessons from the events, to take ordinances for:

regulation of the trades;
the installation of a jurisdiction very particular to those;
removal of the brotherhoods;

to avoid at the Metz-native city the social disturbances which shook Western Europe of 1382.

A saying, engraved on one of the doors of the city, did not say it to the traveller of the time: “If we have peace inside, we will have peace with-outside. ”?

For all these people of modest means, it was necessary to add those which the city made come for its wellbeing and its interest. Thus, it was of use to find:

Jewish S, installed originally worm Jurue, before to form a specific district to the bottom of the current street of Gardens;
the Lombards;
the Cahorcins, which lived place of the Exchange or exerted under the arcades of the current Saint-Louis place, towards the field of Pail (traditional place of fair).

All bankers, lenders of money, changers, before the paraiges do not reserve this lucrative trade, at the end of the 14th century (sixty tables of changers in 1406), which took part in the acquisition of the speculative richnesses of origin.

An old German saying dating from the time known as: “If Frankfurt were mien, I would spend it in Metz. ”

Metz-native country

Two hundred and fourteen villages thus depended on the old Metz-native country, divided, for tax reasons in:

Valley-of-Metz,
Isle,
Saulnois,
the High-Way,
the Franc-Freehold,
the Round of applause of Bazeilles,
ground of Gorze.

The ordinary incomes of the city were composed, since the 12th century:

of feudal royalties and land royalties (size);
of a right on the successions (legacy), intended for the maintenance of the walls;
of taxation of the goods introduced into the city, called “granting” or “tonneu” (a/c of 1224);
of a right of toll (doors, bridges, mills) or of measuring: thus, each Jew which entered Metz paid thirty-three Metz-native sums of money, a horse was not taxed, him, which of four sums of money;
of the fines and the marked confiscations;
of the perception of “the estaublie”, kind of license striking people of the trades;
of the maltoste (perception on the sale of the objects);
of the “rights of bullette” (recording);
its incomes of the authorized appropriations.

The comfortable sums, not to say considerable, collected were mainly used for maintaining the fortifications the city, building castles, maintaining the troops, buying allies or spies.

The taxes known as extraordinary could not exceed the sum of a sum of money per week for each individual established in the city or one of the villages of its jurisdiction, and this, whatever its sex or its age, only in the event of war.

The clergy was subjected to all the public offices, although he protested on several occasions against those, in particular against the “tonneu”, by calling upon the franknesses and immunities of the Church; they however never obtained the suppression of this one. The only exemption whose annals of Metz makes mention relates to the exemption for those to assemble the guard in the seats, which was granted to the canons in 1056. The town of Metz had “four miles of circuit” before the demolition of its suburbs ordered by Henri II at the time of the seat of 1552; it was provided with ramparts with boulevards, of platforms, turns and batteries; its citadel was “with four bastions”, whose ditches could receive water of the Moselle.

Its population reached ninety thousand inhabitants of twenty thousand families in majority rich, industrial: the vicinity of the Lorraine , the Holland, the Germany and of cities like Liege giving great facilities to the trade, it sent its Vin S, its Fer S, its Papier S, its Arquebuse S, its crystallized Mirabelle S, its Dragée S and anise and received in exchange of the tanned Cuir S, of the Fromage S, the spice S, the fabric S of Laine, of the Morue, the Hareng, the Saumon salted, etc Goods which it dispatched towards the France and abroad while making, with the passage, of great benefit; it was the warehouse of the Librairie S of Liege and Amsterdam, of the salt S of Dieuze, of the cattle of the the Vosges, the horses of luxury of Germany and the brandies which one had found the trade secret in the area of Pont-à-Mousson, with marcs of Raisin.

The Metz-native country was consisted of the villages surrounding the city, where unpleasant (or poor lived people), which one called here “villons” (good people of the villages) in the legal texts, were composed serfs and free men, vine growers or plowmen.

These did not take part in the government of the Metz-native city which was to defend them. In exchange, they paid sometimes consequent sums as:

ordinary royalties;
extraordinary size.

Who did not include/understand:

the taxable quotas,
said them,
the drudgeries,

had to the lord of the place.

Those provided many Seigle, few wheat; the part known as of évêché was most fertile.

However, one collected many Noix, Cerise S and the Vignoble S amounted in great number, like those of Trolley, Longeville, Lessy, Ancy and Augny which were most famous.

There was in Ars a canton called of Varennes, which provided an excellent wine which had been considered to be “worthy of the table of the king”.

There were few Montagne S and Forêt S in the Country, but the pond S and the Rivière S provided good Poisson.

One extracted salt from Saulnois.

One exploited also some outcrops of ore of Fer which were transformed in Metz, in “fournirue”.

The gentlemen and the middle-class men lived “with the Frenchwoman”, sent their offspring to improve in the language, to study the practice of the Droit, or that of the sword, with Paris.

One spoke like language a German patois in some villages, like those of Ennery or Rugy, in the castles of the surroundings of Thionville and in several localities of the part known as of évêché.

The inhabitants of these communes were held to go to Metz, the day of the procession given in the honor of the owner of the city: Saint-Etienne. They crossed then the city with cross and banner S by singing Cantique S in their Idiome S, until the Cathédrale where they deposited on the Master furnace bridge an offering made up of several fatty geese. One regarded the Residents of Metz as “valiant, hard, impassioned their freedoms, strong monk, sober, careful, of a remarkable cleanliness, saved in their vivres, magnet being furnished well and well vêtus, in particular the women. Though inclined with peace, they could become cruel as until excess they had the war on their premises; extremely skilful to handle the horses, they were extremely suited to the cavalry. ”

Évêché could be put in a state of defense in two hours, the castle of Mills being used to some extent as head of bridge.

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