Note 64 — Chapter XV · HOMICIDE IN GENERAL (continued)

The right of private war generally supposed nobility of birth and equality of rank in both the contending parties (Beaumanoir, Coutumes du Beauvoisis, lix. 5 sq. vol. ii. 355 sqq.; Robertson, History of the Reign of Charles V. i. 329). But it was also granted to the French communes, and to the free towns in Germany, Italy, and Spain (Du Boys, Histoire du droit criminel des peuples modernes, ii. 348).