ing the Crusades, many rights and privileges were granted to the knights and noblemen to induce them to engage in the enterprise.
In cases of inheritance, the property was divided equally among the children; but if a daughter had received her dowry at marriage, she had no further claim upon the estate of her father. In the division of property, the oldest son, called the “elder,” divided the property into equal shares, and the youngest son or daughter, as the case might be, had the first choice; then came the next youngest, and so on, the “elder” taking the last share. It is evident that it was to his interest to make as equitable a division as possible.
Questions of state were decided at the General Assembly. This was made up of the clergy, nobility, and the small land-owners, or zemans. The people who did not own land did not possess political rights, hence could not take part in the Assembly. As representation was unknown, it sometimes happened that the Assembly was made up of several thousand men, and consequently had to be held in the open air. The administration of the law was placed into the hands of twelve kmets. Their acts are referred to even as late as the fifteenth century.
