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Next to the infantry militia in Candia there was another form of militia, the so-called
'feudal cavalry' ('cavalleria feudata') made up of noblemen who
lived on feudal lands. Initially these noblemen maintained a certain number of
horses commensurate with the size of their own estates. Later, the feuds were
divided between heirs, because there was no law of succession that favoured
eldest sons or one heir alone, based on the type of fideicommissum or majorat then widespread in Italy and contemporary Europe. Such a break-up
of feudal incomes naturally had disastrous consequences for the efficiency of
the militias. Captain Paolo Contarini described the situation of the Candian
nobles, saying that 'for the most part they are so poor that not only can they
not even maintain a good horse, but they are compelled by poverty to stay in
their villas not having a way to appear in the city: they are wretched and many
of them have lost their nobility through poverty'1. Such impoverishment forced
them to forfeit their noble standing permanently - 'they are less suited to any
other thing than to the cavalry, both because of their natural indolence, and
because they are forced to wait for another occupation in order to find a way
to live'2.
Footnotes:
1 'per la maggior parte sono poveri si fattamente che non solo non possono
mantener un cavallo che sia buono, ma sono astretti per la povertà a
star nelle ville non havendo modo di comparir nella città; sono
miserabili e molti di essi hanno per la povertà perduta la
nobiltà'
2 'sono atti a ogni altra cosa più che all'esercitio della cavallaria,
sì per la loro natural negligentia, come per esser sforzati di attendere
ad altro esercitio per trovar modo di vivere'
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