The Franks were the most successful of the Germanic invaders of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries of our era, and the problem of the nature and date of their settlement, bound up as it is with that of the origins of the linguistic frontier in Belgium, is one of the most complex of early medieval history. It is also one of the most interesting, for whatever solution we find for it must influence our interpretation of the historical evolution which gave rise to the Frankish monarchy on the one hand and to the modern Belgian state on the other. It involves a multitude of interrelated questions: the origins of the population, language and customary law of the Germanic (Flemish) part of Belgium; the alignment of the linguistic frontier between Flemish, Walloon and German; the extent of Germanic colonization in the former Latin-speaking regions of northern Gaul; and the agrarian organization and the forms of land settlement in the same region.

Money', wrote Richard FitzNeal in the preface to the Dialogue of the Exchequer, ‘appears necessary not only in time of war but also in peace. In war it is poured out in fortifying castles, in soldiers’ wages and in numerous other ways, depending on the nature of the persons paid, for the preservation of the kingdom. In time of peace, the Treasurer added, money was spent on charitable purposes; but it is clear from even die limited evidence of the Pipe Rolls of Henry II that expenditure on defence greatly exceeded that on charity.

‘Quel grand ministère!’ wrote Princess Lieven to Lord Aberdeen on 26 December 1852. ‘Mais quel curieux spectacle, vous, Lord John, Lord Palmerston! Qui est le fou qui eût osé prédire cette trinité?’

The princess's surprise at this alliance was shared by her contemporaries, among whom the old Tory Lord Londonderry could hardly contain his indignation, writing of it to Clarendon as ‘this grandissima Coalition-Composition (which either seems to have dropped from the skies or been conjured in the regions below)’, and adding that ‘so utterly meretricious … and apparently indelicate and inexplicable alliance was never before contemplated, much less seen’. It is true that some form of alliance had long been expected as the logical solution to the problem of weak minority government that had persisted since 1846, but it was not envisaged in the form, which it ultimately took in December 1852, of an all-embracing union of the Whigs and the former followers of Peel. As late as February 1852 Gladstone had spoken of union with the Whigs as the ‘least natural position’ for Peel's followers, and his opinion was shared by others.

Althought anticipated by earlier writers, the clearest formulation of the idea of a metropolis as the focus of economic activity is to be found in Professor N. S. B. Gras' The Evolution of the English Corn Market. There he writes:

The metropolitan market may be described as a large district having one center in which is focussed a considerable trade. Trade between outlying parts of course may take place, but it is that between the metropolitan town and the rest of the area that dominates all. This is chiefly the exchange of the raw pro-ducts of the country for the manufactured or imported goods of the town. The prices of all goods sent to the metropolitan center are ‘made’ there, or, in other words, prices diminish as the distance from the center is increased.

The desire for booty was a motive in all medieval warfare. The preoccupation of the soldier with spoils, with prisoners, horses, equipment and movable wealth in general, is, however, less evident in the surviving sources of early medieval history than in the records of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Even a cursory knowledge of the period of Anglo-French hostilities between 1337 and 1453 leaves one under no illusions as to the overriding importance to the combatants of the winnings of war. Spoils mattered equally to the rank and file soldier, to the magnate and to the crown. The depredations of the chevauchee in Languedoc in 1355 benefited everyone in the Black Prince's army. ‘Chevaliers, escuiers, brigants, garchons’ were loaded with ‘leurs prisonniers et leurs richesses’.1 Froissart makes Gloucester in 1390 object to a peace with France because of the ensuing discouragement of the ‘poor knights and squires and archers of England whose comforts and station in society depend upon war’.2 And he tells us also how the Sire d'Albret looked back over his military career and regretted the peace which alliance with France had given him. ‘I'm well enough,’ he told an enquirer, ‘but I had more money, and so did my retinue, when I fought for the king of England.’ An army on the move, he explained, often gave the chance of capturing a rich merchant; hardly a day passed without its prize; thus one could afford the ‘superfluitez et jolitez.…Maintenant nous est mort.’

On 16 November 1700, Louis XIV publicly announced that his second grandson, Philip, duke of Anjou, was to succeed Charles II of Spain as the ruler of all the latter's dominions. On 15 May 1702, England, the Dutch re-public, and the emperor all declared war on France; England and the Dutch republic then also declared war on Spain, although they had recognized Philip as king; the emperor, however, who had not done so, declared war, not on Spain, but on the duke of Anjou and his adherents. If, then, Louis's action in November 1700 made war inevitable, it is curious that these declarations were so long in coming.

‘The contradictions in Jefferson's character’, wrote Henry Adams, ‘have always rendered it a fascinating study. Excepting his rival Alexander Hamilton, no American has been the object of estimates so widely differing and so difficult to reconcile.’ He was, said Adams in another passage,

curiously vulnerable, for he seldom wrote a page without exposing himself to attack. He was superficial in his knowledge, and a martyr to the disease of omniscience. Ridicule of his opinions and of himself was an easy task, … for his English was often confused, his assertions inaccurate, and at times of excitement he was apt to talk with indiscretion …