ABSTRACT
In city militias, soldiers were of two kinds, horse and foot. In Latin the word for soldier had come to mean horseman by this time, showing that mounted troops were more valuable than footmen. Because the military also headed secular government, their ample range embraced all of the titled hierarchy. Judged by peers, they also limited the court or military service they owed, in north France the usual obligation being forty days of free military service. The armed militia's salaries became hereditary and privileged. In urban republics, to compensate for expensive armour and horses, nobles were exempt from some taxes. Nobles, including knights, came under the protection of their own law, the 'law of the camp' as the Romans had put it. In Italian republics, litigation between military families was settled in courts of their peers. Nobles also insistently pressed offspring into the clergy and careers in law and arms, another reason for their contentiousness.
