Reign of the Swabian dynasty in Germany. Italian politics. Christianization of the Baltic states. Establishment of the Habsburg dynasty.

The rulers of the Margraviate of Brandenburg already in the middle of the 14th century. were among the seven most significant prince-electors who participated in the election of the Holy Roman Emperor of the German nation. The capital of the margraviate was Berlin, founded in 1240 on the river. Spree. From the beginning of the 15th century. The Swabian House of Hohenzollern settled here.

According to legend, the Hohenzollerns came out of Switzerland during the early Middle Ages. Two brothers - knights who traded in highway robbery - settled in Swabia, building a fortress (burg) on ​​the Zoller rock in the Schwabisch-Alb mountains. From the name of this rock, 855 meters high, dominating the essentially flat surroundings, came the name of these knights and their descendants - Hohenzollern (from the South German "Hohenzoller" - high rock).

The Franconian Hohenzollern line, which was destined to rule the state of Brandenburg-Prussia, separated in 1227 and owned the Burgrave of Nuremberg.

Around the same time, created at the end of the 12th century. the spiritual-knightly “Order of the House of the Holy Virgin Mary of the Teutonics,” the so-called Teutonic, or German, Order, having taken possession of part of the Polish lands, launched an expansion against the pagan Prussians in the Baltic states. Having subjugated the Order of the Sword, the Teutonic Order spread its possessions along the southern and eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea.

In 1415, the Burgrave of Nuremberg, Frederick VI (1371-1440), from the Hohenzollern family, received the Brandenburg mark, becoming Elector Frederick I (reigned 1415-1440). He achieved his recognition as a sovereign through a bitter struggle, eliminating feudal anarchy in the interests of the nobility, as well as the cities that supported him. This did not prevent his successor, Elector Frederick II (1440-1470), from repaying the cities with black ingratitude. Taking advantage of internal contradictions, Frederick II subjugated Berlin in 1442, depriving it of city autonomy *.

By the end of the 15th century. Germany became increasingly fragmented, while Spain, France and England had already formed into nationally formed states. Germany was not a national complex, since it included French and Slavic territories and considered Rome its center. The formation of a national state became impossible in Germany due to the Roman imperial title and the associated desire for world domination. In addition, and this was the most important thing, individual German principalities and groups of provinces remained isolated from each other. The Hansa, Rhine and Swabian leagues of cities were also disunited.

At the same time, the natural development of trade - and the main international trade routes passed through the German lands - the forced Germanization of the conquered Slavic lands, as well as the loss of Italy and the French regions created the preconditions for the formation of a centralized national state in Germany.

HABSBURG (Habsburger), a dynasty that ruled in Austria in 1282-1918, in the Czech Republic and Hungary in 1526-1918, in Spain in 1516-1700, the Netherlands in 1477-1794; Holy Roman Emperors from the 13th to the 19th centuries (continuously from 1438 to 1806).

The ruling dynasty began with Rudolf I of Habsburg, who occupied the throne of Holy Roman Emperor from 1273 to 1291. In 1282, he secured the duchies of Austria and Styria for the Habsburgs. Since 1438, the Habsburgs established the title of Holy Roman Emperor (with the exception of the short period of 1742-1745). Since 1453, the Habsburgs, as rulers of Austria, began to call themselves archdukes, based on the privilege received back in the 12th century, which gave them equal rights with the electors.

As a result of the marriage of Maximilian I of Habsburg to Mary of Burgundy, the Netherlands was annexed to the Habsburg possessions. As a result of dynastic marriages, Charles V of Habsburg became king of Spain in 1516. In 1519, he was elected Holy Roman Emperor and united vast territories in the New and Old Worlds under his rule. But already in 1521-1522, Charles V divided his empire and transferred power over the Austrian hereditary lands to his brother Ferdinand I of Habsburg. In 1526, Ferdinand I became king of Bohemia and Hungary. Since 1556, the Spanish and Austrian branches of the Habsburgs have finally separated.

The Spanish branch of the Habsburgs ended in 1700. After the War of the Spanish Succession of 1701-1714, the Austrian Habsburgs managed to retain the Southern Netherlands and the former Spanish possessions in Italy. But soon the male line of the Austrian Habsburgs was also interrupted. Archduchess Maria Theresa (daughter of Charles VI of Habsburg) married Duke Franz Stephen of Lorraine and founded the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Representatives of this line ruled until 1918.

During the Napoleonic Wars, Francis II of Habsburg was forced to renounce the title of Holy Roman Emperor in 1806, but in 1804 he proclaimed himself Emperor Francis I of Austria. In 1867, the Austrian Empire was transformed into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a result of the 1918 revolution, the Habsburgs were overthrown from the throne. On April 3, 1919, the Constituent Assembly of the Austrian Republic passed a law depriving the Habsburgs of all rights, property and expelling them abroad. In 1955, this provision was confirmed in the treaty restoring Austrian independence.

At the end of the 5th century. in Northern Gaul (modern Belgium and Northern France) the early state of the Franks, the most powerful union of northern Germanic tribes, emerged. The Franks came into contact with the Roman Empire in the 3rd century, settling from the northern Rhine regions. In the second half of the 4th century. they settled in Gaul as federates of Rome, gradually expanding their possessions and leaving the control of Rome. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Franks (who also called themselves Salic) captured the remnants of Roman possessions in Gaul, defeating the independent semi-kingdoms that had formed there. On the conquered lands, the Franks settled mainly in entire communities-clans, taking partly empty lands, partly the land of the former Roman treasury, and partly the local population. However, in general, the relations of the Franks with the Gallo-Roman population were peaceful. This ensured the further formation of a completely new socio-ethnic community of Celtic-Germanic synthesis.

During the conquest of Gaul, the leader of one of the tribes rose to power among the Franks - Clovis. By 510, he managed to destroy other leaders and declare himself, as it were, a representative of the Roman emperor (the nominal preservation of political ties with the empire was one of the ways of proclaiming his special rights). Throughout the 6th century. Remnants of military democracy remained, the people still participated in legislation. However, the importance of royal power gradually grew. To a large extent, this was facilitated by the increase in income of the kings, who established regular collection of taxes in the form of polyudye. In 496 (498 –?) Clovis, with his retinue and part of his fellow tribesmen, adopted Christianity, which provided the nascent statehood with the support of the Gallo-Roman church.

Previously, the state of the Franks was weakly centralized, reproducing tribal division in the territorial structure. The country was divided into counties, counties into districts (pagi), the former Roman communities; the lowest unit, but very important, was the hundred. Districts and hundreds retained self-government: district and hundred people's assemblies resolved court cases and were in charge of the distribution of taxes. The count was not a general ruler, he ruled only the king's possessions in the county (in other areas such rulers were called satsebarons); by virtue of domain rights, he had judicial and administrative powers in relation to the subject population.

The basis of state unity initially consisted mainly military organization. The annual meeting of the militia - the “March Fields” - played a significant role in resolving state and political issues, in particular war and peace, the adoption of Christianity, etc. By the end of the 6th century. they are out of the ordinary. But in the 7th century. restored again, although they acquired a different content. By the 7th century Not only the Franks, but also the Gallo-Roman population began to be recruited for military service, and not only free, but also dependent land holders - the Lithuanians. Military service began to turn into a national obligation, and the “March Fields” became, for the most part, reviews of the military service population.

By the 8th century. there was a significant increase royal power. It has practically lost contact with the institution of the leader of military democracy, but the correct legacy of power has not yet been established: the dynasty Merovingian, descended from Clovis from the Merovei family, retained more royal power. Legal monuments of the era began to mention the legislative rights of kings, the sacred nature of royal power, and the exclusivity of its rights. Even the idea of ​​high treason appeared (and therefore implied the obligatory obedience to state institutions of royal power).

Center of public administration in the 6th century. became royal court. Under King Dagobert (7th century), the permanent positions of referendar (also the keeper of the king's seal), royal count (highest judge), head of finance, keeper of treasures, and abbot of the palace were established. The courtyard and immediate surroundings, mainly church, formed royal council, which influenced the conclusion of contracts, the appointment of officials, and land grants. Officials for special affairs, financial, trade and customs agents were appointed by the king and removed at his discretion. The dukes, the rulers of several united districts, had a somewhat special position.

Occurred up to twice a year meetings of the nobility(bishops, counts, dukes, etc.), where general political affairs, mainly church affairs, and grants were decided. The spring ones were the most numerous and important; the autumn ones were narrower in composition and more palace-like.

One of the most important powers of royal power was the issuance of grants - land holdings. First of all, such awards affected the royal warriors, who from serving soldiers began to turn into vassals - in the 7th century. The term itself came into use in relation to this layer of the royal entourage. Control over land holdings and services strengthened the national powers of the royal palace.

By the end of the 6th - beginning of the 7th century. changes affected the position of the county government. The counts became the main figure in the local administration; the powers of the former committees of the empire to command garrisons, judiciary power, and control over officials were transferred to them. This traditionalism in the formation of statehood was all the more real since more than half of those known in the 6th century. Frankish regional rulers-counts were Gallo-Roman in origin. Such connections with local communities naturally strengthened decentralization tendencies.

But by its nature, the early Frankish state was not strong. From the turn of the VI –VII centuries. a noticeable separation of three regions of the kingdom began: Neustria (northwest with a center in Paris), Austrasia (northeast), Burgundy. By the end of the 7th century. Aquitaine stood out in the south. The regions differed markedly in the composition of the population, the degree of feudalization, and the administrative and social system.

The ongoing collapse of the state primarily caused a weakening of royal power (especially since back in 511, dividing power between the heirs of Clovis, the church council declared a unique structure in the form of a “shared kingdom”). At the end of the 7th century. real powers were in the hands of the royal majordomos– rulers of palaces in certain regions. The mayors took over the matter of land grants, and with it control over the local aristocracy and vassals. The last Merovingian kings withdrew from power (for which they received the nickname “lazy kings” in history).

Successors of Clovis. Under Clovis's successors, with frequent divisions of the state between the brothers, four regions emerged from the Frankish state: Neustria in the west, on both sides of the Seine; Austrasia in the east, on both sides of the Rhine; Burgundy in the southeast, along the Rhone and Saone, in the southwest, between the Loire and the Pyrenees. After the death of Clovis, the Frankish kings were supported in their campaigns and in resolving internal misunderstandings by their warriors, who demanded compensation for their services. The king rewarded them, as well as his numerous officials in general, with the distribution of lands; Little by little, the king's stock of lands was depleted, and along with the impoverished king there were large landowners who could sometimes rival the king in strength. Royal power began to weaken; She had to fight more and more intensely with her land knowledge. At the beginning of the 7th century, under King Chlothar II, the landed nobility obtained from him major concessions listed in the edict of 614, and, one might say, limited his power. Gradually, regional rulers, counts, became independent rulers independent of the king and even transferred inherit his position as ruler to his children. Feeling weakening of the central government, some tribes regained their independence.
Amid this chaos and turmoil, one position particularly stood out and achieved the highest power: that of the palace manager. Palace Manager, Chamber Mayor, or majordomo(major domus), in the 6th century did not yet stand out from many other positions; in the 7th century he began to occupy first place after the king. The very management of the palace, where the center of state life was concentrated for quite a long time, gave many reasons for strengthening the influence of this position. The mayor was in charge of royal property and royal income; he was the head of the palace administration and had supervision over everyone who was in the palace; later, during the king’s childhood, he took care of his upbringing; in the absence of the king, he replaced him as chairman of the royal court; Unwittingly, the counts and dukes also became somewhat dependent on the mayors. Thus, the power of the mayors grew, little by little pushing the power of the king into the background. The further rise of the mayors was helped by the fact that the Merovingians in the 7th century, with few exceptions, were weak and incapable, “lazy” sovereigns who wasted their strength in civil strife; In the same 7th century, the mayors appointed a very active and capable person, who managed to make this position hereditary in his family.
In the second half of the 7th century, the Frankish state was divided into three kingdoms, Neustria, Austrasia and Burgundy; each of them had its own ward mayor. At this time in Austrasia he was promoted to major Pvpin Average, or Geristalsky, who, having defeated other majordomos and completely removed the weak Merovingians from affairs, seized all power in the state and made the position of majordomo hereditary in his family. His son and successor Charles Martell He also acted as an independent sovereign, not paying any attention to the Merovingian kings. Waging successful wars in the east and north with the Bavarians, Allemans and Frisians, Charles Martel became especially famous for his victory in 732 near Poitiers over the Arabs, who, having conquered the Iberian Peninsula at the beginning of the 8th century, then began to invade the regions of Gaul. With his victory over the Arabs, Charles Martell drove them back south to the peninsula, and thereby saved Christian Europe from possible Muslim conquest or at least devastation.
The army demanded rewards for all these campaigns. Not having enough land to distribute to soldiers, since his predecessors had already distributed royal land holdings as a reward, Charles Martell began to select spiritual lands for the treasury, which were owned in abundance by churches and monasteries. For some time, Charles Martel found a new source for rewarding his soldiers. At the same time, in the Frankish army, under the influence of clashes with the Arabs, a change took place: in it, along with the foot army, cavalry appeared, which could fight much more successfully and more conveniently with the light and mobile Arab cavalry.
For all his victories, Charles subsequently received the nickname Martell, i.e. Hammer.
Son and successor of Charles Martell Pepin the Short very deftly and skillfully completed the work begun by his predecessors, that is, he finally replaced the vegetating Merovingian dynasty with a new dynasty from his own family. To do this, he sent an embassy to Rome to Pope Zacharias, from whom, on behalf of Pepin, it asked for advice “regarding the kings that the Franks then had and who bore the royal name, without having royal power.” The pope, foreseeing what kind of help in the future, especially in view of the dangerous neighborhood with the Lombards, he could receive from the Frankish sovereign, answered Pepin that “it is better to call the one who has power king than the one who is deprived of it.” Having received a favorable response from the pope, Pepin immediately began to take decisive action. He convened a meeting in Soissons, which proclaimed him king." The last representatives of the Merovingian dynasty, Childeric III and his son, were tonsured and confined to a monastery (752). A new dynasty appeared on the Frankish throne, which received the name Carolingian dynasty, or Carolingian.
"Pippin the Short was proclaimed king in 751.

General History [Civilization. Modern concepts. Facts, events] Dmitrieva Olga Vladimirovna

Frankish Kingdom during the Merovingian Age

The Franks are a Germanic people who originally inhabited the middle reaches of the Rhine, the North Sea coast and the Scheldt basin. There were different tribes of Ripuarian and Salic Franks, united in a tribal union. In the III–IV centuries. they began to disturb Roman Gaul with regular attacks, and in the middle of the 5th century. captured its territory up to the Somme. During the campaigns, their leaders were “kings”, and in fact - military leaders, whose power was not yet hereditary - Sigibert, Ragnahar, Hararich and Clovis. Clovis (481–511) became the first king of all the Franks, eliminating his political rivals through bribery, betrayal, and murder. His biographer, Christian Bishop Gregory of Tours, left a story about the treachery with which he eliminated the rest of the Frankish kings and his own relatives, hypocritically lamenting later that “he was left alone, like a stranger among strangers, and has no relatives who could give help, if something bad happened." Clovis came from the Merovian family, which is why his descendants-kings are called Merovingians, and the period of their reign from the end of the 5th to the end of the 7th century is called the Merovingian.

Under Clovis, the Franks advanced south of the Seine and later to the Loire. The king generously distributed the captured lands to his antrustion warriors, and they divided the rest of the booty by lot, according to the ancient custom. Gregory of Tours cites in his “History of the Franks” an episode related to the division of trophies, which characterizes the attitude of his fellow tribesmen to royal power during this period. After the capture of the city of Soissons, the king wanted to receive a certain cup from church utensils in order, for political reasons, to return it to the local church, but he could not, because by lot it went to a simple warrior and he, not wanting to give it up to the king, cut the cup with an axe. From here it is clear that the king was considered only the first among equals, whose will was not law for the Franks, and whose figure did not have sacred features in their eyes. (Later, Clovis nevertheless took revenge on the intractable warrior by hacking him to death with an ax during a military review.)

To strengthen his authority, Clovis entered into an alliance with the Christian church, to which he made extensive land grants, while still a pagan. In 496, he was baptized in Reims, promising from now on to fight idols in the name of the cross - “to worship what he burned, and to burn what he worshiped.”

The adoption of Christianity in an orthodox form gave him a reason to launch a campaign in 507 against the Aryan-Visigoths, having expelled them, he included the vast region of Aquitaine into his possessions. For a quarter of a century, Clovis captured almost all of Roman Gaul (except Burgundy and Septimania). His political successes were forced to be recognized by the Byzantine emperor Anastasius, who proclaimed the Frankish king consul and gave him the honorary title of “Augustus,” a crown and a purple robe.

The expansion of the Franks continued under Clovis's successors, who annexed Burgundy (537) and Provence, taken from the Ostrogoths (536), in the southeast. Another direction was the conquest of the Germanic tribes that lived in the northeast beyond the Rhine - the Thuringians, Alamans, and Bavarians. The Frankish kingdom thus became the largest state in the territory of the former Western Roman Empire.

In Gaul, the Franks made up 15–20% of the local Gallo-Roman population (more than the Germans in other regions). The formation of a new way of life took place here under conditions of active German-Roman synthesis. An idea of ​​the economy and social life of the Franks is given by the so-called Salic truth - a set of customary law codified by order of Clovis at the beginning of the 6th century. This code of law reflects both the earlier archaic orders that existed among the Franks and the evolution of social relations in the 5th–6th centuries. – the disintegration of consanguineous ties, the increase in property and social inequality, the formation of the state.

As is clear from the Salic truth, the Franks already had developed agriculture. They cultivated rye, wheat, barley, legumes, and flax using a two-field system; They were also engaged in gardening and viticulture. Cattle breeding was at a high level: the Franks raised cattle and small livestock - cows, sheep, pigs, goats. As in ancient times, livestock was a measure of their wealth and often replaced money in payments. Poultry farming, beekeeping and hunting were helpful in the economy.

The main economic unit was the family that owned the estate: a house, barns and other outbuildings, a garden and a vegetable garden. All this personal and family property, including livestock and poultry, was strictly protected by law from encroachment: theft and robbery were punishable by heavy fines. Each family had an arable plot, and any cultivated plot of land - a field, a garden, a vineyard, etc. - was fenced. The redistribution of arable land, which ancient authors mentioned when speaking about the ancient Germans, was no longer observed. This allows a number of scientists to argue that already by the 5th century the Franks had private ownership of land. It is obvious, however, that this concept is generally difficult to apply to land relations of the era under consideration. On the one hand, the Franks had fairly developed ideas about property rights, especially to movable property, expressed in such external signs of ownership as brands, fences, fences, and boundaries. On the other hand, these rights to real estate were not unconditional. Firstly, they were limited to control by close relatives. In particular, a plot of land - the so-called allod - was transmitted only through the male line, while women did not have the right to inherit it (since a woman could get married and her clan group would lose this plot). Since private property presupposes the free alienation and transfer of property, it must be stated that the institution of private property was still in the process of formation among the Franks. The neighbors who made up the Frankish village also claimed certain rights to the surrounding territories, including those belonging to individual families. After the harvest was harvested, all fences were removed from the fields and they turned into collective grazing for livestock. Neighbors jointly determined the rules for the use of roads, water, pastures, wastelands, and forests. Without the consent of the entire village, not a single stranger could settle nearby, since this inevitably entailed a redistribution of shares in the common lands.

This gives reason to talk about the formation of a so-called neighborhood community among the Franks, which in mature forms would be characteristic of the entire period of the Middle Ages.

Salic truth provides much evidence that consanguinity still played an important role in Frankish society. The custom of blood feud continued to exist, relatives were owed a fine for the murdered person - wergeld; on the contrary, if someone close to him had to pay this fine, his relatives helped raise the necessary funds. The ritual of turning to them for help is recorded in the Salic truth in the chapter entitled “About a handful of earth.” If the person sentenced to the fine had already given up all his property in payment and had nothing else, he had to call his relatives, take a handful of earth from all the corners of his empty room and, standing on the porch, throw it over his shoulder towards the four closest relatives. If their property was not enough to pay the fine, they repeated this ritual, involving their loved ones in it. Relatives acted as guarantors and co-jurors in court and had the right to inheritance.

On the other hand, the Salic truth also records symptoms of the disintegration of consanguineous ties: some Franks, burdened by the responsibilities of helping their relatives and participating in ruinous mutual responsibility, declared “refusal of kinship,” which implied not receiving their share of the inheritance of a deceased relative or weregeld. The public procedure for refusal consisted of a person breaking a stick over his head (symbolizing previous connections) and scattering the fragments in different directions. Obviously, such a step could be taken by someone who was confident in his material well-being, and this chapter also testifies to the property stratification among the Franks.

The social structure of Frankish society during the Merovingian period was already quite complex. The majority were free Franks - farmers and warriors, whose lives were valued by the Wergeld at 200 solidi. Above them on the social ladder stood the royal warriors, officials in the royal service, Christian bishops, as well as noble Romans close to the Frankish kings - their “companions.” The elite of Frankish society thus included representatives of the Gallo-Roman nobility. The remaining Gallo-Romans were “valued” lower than the free Franks, at 100 solidi, along with the German semi-free litas. Slaves had no weregeld at all and were valued on a par with livestock or other property.

By the end of the 6th century, the Franks developed a “full allod” - freely alienable land property. According to the edict of King Chilperic, it was allowed to be freely given, transferred and bequeathed, including to women. This act was an important step towards the formation of large land ownership. Its formation was also facilitated by numerous military campaigns of the Franks, seizures of lands, which the kings generously endowed with the rights of allod - that is, full ownership. Large tracts of land, concentrated in the hands of the latter, were cultivated by the hands of both German and Gallo-Roman slaves, litas, colones.

Free francs began to increasingly become dependent on large landowners. Constant wars, vicissitudes of fate, low yields, and years of famine easily destabilized small peasant farming, forcing the farmer to seek help. Commendation became widespread - the voluntary entry of a poor person with little land under the personal protection of a large landowner. The commendation agreement assumed that the latter would take care of his client, give him shelter and food, and he would serve his patron in everything, maintaining the status of a free person, but would never be able to break this agreement and leave the patronage. This is how specific personal relationships of service and patronage arose, which were a characteristic feature of the feudal era.

Dependence could also arise in the sphere of purely land relations; in particular, precarious transactions led to it. Precaria - in this case - a land plot that a poor peasant could receive from a large landowner for cultivation on the condition of paying the owner a part of the harvest ("precaria given"). In other cases, a small landowner with land could transfer ownership of it to a magnate or monastery in order to receive his plot back and use it for the rest of his life, but with the rights of holding, and not ownership, along with guarantees of patronage, protection, provision in old age, etc. Such a precarity was called “returned.” After the death of the peasant, it passed into the hands of a new owner. Sometimes in such cases, a large landowner could add some more land to the peasant allotment (“precaria with compensation”). The precarist remained personally free, but found himself economically dependent. Thanks to precarious transactions and commendations, a layer of dependent peasantry and large landowners gradually formed - the feudalization of Frankish society began. However, during the Merovingian period it had not yet gone far.

Political structure of Frankish society in the 5th–6th centuries. retained many archaic features, but at the same time was influenced by Roman customs. During the Merovingian period, the Franks developed a state in a form called early feudal.

The king's power increased significantly, supported by the authority of the church and references to its divine origin, and his figure itself began to acquire sacred features. The sovereigns acquired insignia - signs of their dignity. Unlike ordinary Franks, a weregeld was no longer assigned to the king; his murder could not be redeemed with money. Even an attempt on the life of the monarch was punishable by death.

Royal power was based on huge land holdings and the strength of a professional squad consisting of antrustions. The nobility also participated in the development of the political line and direct management of the country - royal relatives, large land magnates, church prelates who were part of the Royal Council. In conditions when the monarchy had not yet become hereditary and the king’s successor was not necessarily his eldest son, the role of this body was extremely great: the Council chose the heir from the circle of the closest royal relatives - brothers, sons, uncles, nephews. The monarchs had to reckon with the opinion of the Council, which allows historians to talk about a kind of “democracy of the nobility” during this period.

The traditional institutions of popular democracy were also preserved in the Frankish state. The basis of the army was the militia of all free soldiers who had weapons. Every year they gathered for military reviews - “March fields”.

The basis of administration and public life remained judicial meetings, at which litigation was dealt with and economic problems were resolved. However, the judicial system has changed significantly. Along with the archaic positions of tungin (chairman of the court) and rahinburgs (elected experts and guardians of ancient law), centurion (centenary), counts and satsebarons appeared - bailiffs acting on behalf of the king. Royal power also actively interfered with the legal process: having codified and written down the legal norms of his people, Clovis bestowed them on the Franks in his own name as a royal law, and he began to take part of the court fines for violation of which in his own favor.

The Merovingians introduced a semblance of the Roman administrative division - hundreds and counties, and borrowed the system of Roman poll and land taxes from the population. However, the system of government in the Frankish state was still extremely primitive. The officials were represented by the king's managers and envoys, many of whom were his slaves by status. They did not have permanent functions, carrying out any instructions of the sovereign. The monarch himself was forced to constantly move around his vast domains, without a capital or official residence, in order to maintain connections with his subjects and collect payments due to him from them. Upon the arrival of the king, the local population delivered him food and fodder from all over the area. The sovereign and his retinue spent time at feasts with the local nobility, at which state affairs were decided, and the tour of the lands was resumed as everything was eaten and drunk.

Thus, the specificity of the early feudal state was to strengthen the power of the king and his entourage while maintaining the broad support of statehood in the person of all the free people who formed the backbone of the army; in the patrimonial nature of power, under which the king ruled the state as his fiefdom; in the primitiveness of the state apparatus, which did not have clearly defined functions and specialization; in the infancy of a financial system based on revenues from royal estates and court fines.

The difficulties of managing remote territories led to the fact that sometimes kings delegated their power functions to their associates, granting them the so-called. "immunities". Immunity rights assumed that royal officials would no longer enter the territory entrusted to the management of a private individual. The immunoist could be entrusted with administering justice on behalf of the sovereign, administering administration, collecting taxes, or all these functions together. This led to the strengthening of the private power of large magnates, who turned their local positions and privileges into hereditary ones, to the separatization of individual regions and the weakening of royal power.

Already under Clovis's successors, it became clear that broad land grants and the distribution of immunities exhausted the kings' ability to attract large landowners to their service. At the end of the 7th century, the Frankish kingdom practically disintegrated into several large territorial entities - Neustria, with its center in Paris, Austrasia, Burgundy and Aquitaine.

In the 3rd century, on the primordially German lands near the Rhine, a new powerful alliance of Germanic tribes arose, in which the Frankish tribes played the main role. Roman historians, who were not very well versed in the diversity of barbarian tribes and peoples, called all the Germanic tribes that lived in the Rhine region Franks. In the lower reaches of the Rhine lived tribes that were later united by historians into the group of so-called Salic (maritime) Franks. It was this part of the Frankish tribes, the strongest and most organized, that began to advance westward into the Gallic regions that belonged to Rome.

In the 4th century, the Franks, as federates, official allies of Rome, finally gained a foothold in Gaul. Their society was almost unaffected by Romanization, and politically and culturally the Franks were completely independent. As allies, they helped the Western Roman Empire a lot - in 451, the Frankish army acted on the side of the Romans against the army of Attila.

At first, the Frankish tribes did not have a single leader. The scattered principalities were united only at the end of the 5th century by the leader of one of the tribes, Clovis from the Merovingian dynasty. With the help of diplomacy, and sometimes military force, Clovis subdued or destroyed the remaining Frankish rulers and gathered a powerful army under his banners. With this army, in a few years he conquered all of Rome's Gallic lands.

Having subjugated those parts of Gaul that belonged to Rome, Clovis immediately led the fight against the Visigoths, who had previously settled in the Gallic lands. These vast, but completely neglected lands during Roman rule, excellent pastures and abundance of forests were worth fighting for. Soon the Franks owned almost all of Gaul, with the exception of a small area in the south, which remained with the Visigoths. Clovis's political influence also extended to neighboring Burgundy, which he was never able to completely conquer.

In 496, Clovis, together with his people, was baptized, thus acquiring a reliable ally - the Roman Catholic Church. The Franks were perhaps the first barbarians who adopted Catholicism among all the people. Other Germanic peoples, who adopted Christianity much earlier than them, were baptized primarily into Arianism, one of the movements of early Christianity, which the official church (both Eastern and Western) subsequently declared heresy. With the support of the church, Clovis further expanded his sphere of influence, leaving to his heirs in 511 one of the largest barbarian kingdoms up to that time.

Clovis's heirs, his sons, and after them his grandchildren, continued his work. By the middle of the 6th century, the kingdom of the Franks had become the most significant in Europe. In addition to Burgundy and Gaul, the Frankish kings quickly conquered most of the Germanic tribes living in the Rhine region. The lands of Bavaria, Thuringia, Saxony, the Alemanni, and all other small Frankish tribes were subject to a single royal authority, consecrated by the Roman Church. The Franks took a leading position among the peoples of new Europe, displacing the Goths from the historical scene.
Clovis, the first of the major Frankish conquerors, generously endowed his people with land holdings. Under him, the concept of allod appeared in the European economy. An allod was a plot of land that was fully owned by the owner. Land could be given, sold, exchanged and bequeathed. The entire agriculture of the feudal West grew from allods. They formed a free peasantry, thanks to which agriculture gradually began to emerge from the crisis that began even before the Great Migration.

The introduction of allodial land tenure signaled major changes throughout Frankish society. Like all Germanic peoples, the Franks retained tribal principles. The arable land on which the community lived was always public property. Each family or clan that had its own plot had all the rights to the harvest, but in no case to the land. However, as Frankish society developed, as royal power strengthened to the detriment of the power of community elders, old family ties began to collapse. Ordinary community members preferred to run their own households and be independent from their huge family. From them the Frankish peasantry began to form - personally free people, possessing both the tools of labor and all the rights to the land they cultivated.

In economic terms, the collapse of the clan and the emergence of individual allodist farmers was, of course, a positive change, especially at first. But on the other hand, from now on all the debts that the landowner incurred, he was obliged to pay on his own, without the support of his clan. Small allods gradually passed into the hands of the rich and nobility, who took land - the main wealth in the Middle Ages - from debtors.

The royal warriors also received large plots of land. Clovis gave these allotments, called benefices, only for service and only for the duration of the soldiers’ service. His heirs transferred benefices to the category of inherited gifts. The third (and largest, besides the king) landowner in the Merovingian kingdom was the church. The kings gave the church huge land holdings, into which plots of nearby allods were gradually added. Under the Merovingians, the practice of patronage was introduced, when a peasant came under the protection of a large landowner from the nobility, transferring his plot to him. The Church was also willing to accept small landowners under its tutelage. As a rule, in this case, the peasant gave his allod to the church, and in return received a precarium for life - a slightly larger plot, for which he was also obliged to work an annual corvee or pay quitrent. The widespread enslavement of the peasantry began. By the beginning of the 10th century, there were almost no allods as such left in Europe. They were supplanted by feuds - a new form of land ownership, which owed its emergence to the new, vassal-seigneurial hierarchy of relations in medieval society.

Do you know that:

• Merovingians - the first royal dynasty of the Frankish state, ruling from 457 to 715.
• Arianism - a movement in the Christian Church in the 4th - 6th centuries. The founder of the doctrine, the priest Arius, argued that God the Father is higher than God the Son (Christ).
• Allodium (from Old High German al- all and od- possession) - individual or family land ownership in the Dark Ages and Early Middle Ages in Western Europe.
• Benefice – conditional fixed-term land grant for performing military or administrative service.
• precarious - use of land granted by the owner for an agreed period of time for a fee.

DEVELOPMENT OF FEUDALISM IN THE FRANK STATE

Some Germanic tribes, in which the decomposition of the clan system occurred without significant influence of Roman social relations, were conquered by the Frankish early feudal state (for example, the Alemanni and Bavarians already in the 6th-7th centuries). This conquest accelerated the emergence of feudalism among these tribes.

FRANKIAN MEROVINGIAN STATE

In 486, as a result of the Frankish conquest, the Frankish state arose in Northern Gaul, headed by the leader of the Salic Franks, Clovis (486-511) from the Merovian family (hence the Merovingian dynasty). Thus began the first period in the history of the Frankish state - from the end of the 5th to the end of the 7th century - usually called the Merovingian period.

Under Clovis, Aquitaine was conquered (507), under his successors - Burgundy (534); The Osggoths ceded Provence to the Franks (536). By the middle of the 6th century. The Frankish state included almost the entire territory of the former Roman province of Gaul. The Franks also subjugated a number of Germanic tribes living beyond the Rhine: the supreme power of the Franks was recognized by the Thuringians, Alemanni and Bavarians; the Saxons were forced to pay them an annual tribute. The Frankish state lasted much longer than all the other barbarian kingdoms of continental Europe, many of which (first part of the Visigothic and Burgundian, then Lombard) it included in its composition. The history of the Frankish state allows us to trace the development of feudal relations from the earliest stage to its completion. The process of feudalization took place here in the form of a synthesis of decaying late Roman and Germanic tribal relations. The ratio of both was not the same in the north and south of the country. North of the Loire, where the Franks, with their still rather primitive social system, occupied continuous territories and made up a significant part of the population, late antique and barbarian elements interacted in approximately equal proportions. Since the Franks settled here isolated from the Gallo-Roman population, they retained the social order they brought with them longer than in the south, in particular the free community. In the areas south of the Loire, the Franks were few in number, and the Visigoths and Burgundians who had settled here earlier remained in the minority. These latter, long before the Frankish conquest, lived in constant and close contact with the Gallo-Roman population. Therefore, the influence of late antique relations played a much more significant role in the synthesis process here than in the north of the country, and the decomposition of barbarian social orders occurred faster.

"Salic Truth" - a source for studying the social system of the Franks

The most important source for studying the social structure of the Franks (mainly Northern Gaul) in the Merovingian period is one of the most famous barbarian truths, the “Salic Truth” (“Lex Salica”).

It is a record of the judicial customs of the Salic Franks, believed to have been produced at the beginning of the 6th century, that is, during the lifetime (and possibly on the orders of) Clovis. The Roman influence was felt here much less than in other barbarian truths, and is found mainly in external features: the Latin language, fines in Roman monetary units.

“Salic truth” in more or less pure form reflects the archaic orders of the primitive communal system that existed among the Franks even before the conquest. But in it we also find new data - information about the emergence of property and social inequality, private ownership of movable property, the right of inheritance to land and, finally, the state. During the VI-IX centuries. Frankish kings made more and more additions to the “Salic Truth”, therefore, in combination with other sources of a later period, it also allows us to trace the further evolution of Frankish society from the primitive communal system to feudalism.

Economy and communal organization of the Franks according to Salic Truth

The level of economic development among the Franks was significantly higher than that of the ancient Germans described by Tacitus. In agriculture, which in the 6th century. was the main occupation of the Franks, apparently, two-field farming was already dominant, and periodic redistribution of arable land, which hampered the development of more intensive forms of agriculture, ceased. In addition to grain crops - rye, wheat, oats, barley - legumes and flax were widespread among the Franks. Vegetable gardens, orchards, and vineyards began to be actively cultivated. The plow with an iron share, which loosened the soil well, became widespread. Various types of draft animals are used in agriculture: bulls, mules, donkeys. Soil cultivation methods have improved. Double or triple plowing, harrowing, weeding of crops, and threshing with flails became common; water mills began to be used instead of hand mills. Cattle breeding also developed significantly. The Franks raised large numbers of cattle and small livestock - sheep, goats, as well as pigs and various types of poultry. Common activities include hunting, fishing, and beekeeping.

Progress in agriculture was a consequence not only of the internal development of Frankish society, but also the result of the adoption by the Franks, and even earlier by the Visigoths and Burgundians in southern Gaul, of more advanced agricultural methods that they encountered in the conquered Roman territory.

During this period, the Franks had fully developed private ownership of movable property. This is evidenced, for example, by the high fines set by the Salic Truth for the theft of bread, livestock, poultry, boats, and nets. But Salichskaya Pravda does not yet know private ownership of land, with the exception of household plots. The owner of the main land fund of each village was the collective of its inhabitants - free small farmers who made up the community. In the first period after the conquest of Gaul, according to the ancient text of the Salic Truth, Frankish communities were settlements of very different sizes, consisting of families related to each other. In most cases, these were large (patriarchal) families, including close relatives of usually three generations - the father and adult sons with their families, running the household together. But small individual families were already appearing. Houses and garden plots were in the private ownership of individual large or small families, and arable and sometimes meadow plots were in their hereditary private use. These plots were usually surrounded by a fence and wattle fence and were protected from intrusion and encroachment by high fines. However, the right to freely dispose of inherited plots belonged only to the entire community collective. Individual-family ownership of land among the Franks at the end of the 5th and 6th centuries. was just emerging. This is evidenced by Chapter IX of “Salic Truth” - “On allods according to which land inheritance, land (terra), in contrast to movable property (it could be freely inherited or given as a gift), was inherited only through the male line - by the sons of the deceased head of a large family ; female offspring were excluded from inheriting the land. In the absence of sons, the land became the property of the community. This is clearly evident from the edict of King Chilperic (561-584), who, in modification of the above-mentioned chapter of the “Salic Truth,” established that in the absence of sons, the land should be inherited by the daughter or brother and sister of the deceased, but “not neighbors” (as was obviously the case). , earlier).

The community also had a number of other rights to lands that were in the individual use of its members. Apparently, the Franks had a “system of open fields”: all arable plots after harvesting and meadow plots after haymaking were turned into common pasture, and at this time all hedges were removed from them. The fallow lands also served as public pasture. This order is associated with striping and forced crop rotation for all members of the community. Lands that were not part of the household plot and arable and meadow allotments (forests, wastelands, swamps, roads, undivided meadows) remained in common ownership, and each member of the community had an equal share in the use of these lands.

Contrary to the statements of a number of bourgeois historians of the late 19th and 20th centuries. (N.-D. Fustel de Coulanges, V. Wittich, L. Dopsch, T. Mayer, K. Bosl, O. Brunner and others) that the Franks in the V-VI centuries. Full private ownership of land reigned, a number of chapters of the Salic Truth definitely indicate the presence of a community among the Franks. So Chapter XLV “On Migrants” reads: “If anyone wants to move to a villa (in this context, “villa” means village. - Ed.) to another and if one or more of the inhabitants of the villa want to accept him, but there is at least one who opposes the resettlement, he will not have the right to settle there.” If the newcomer does settle in the village, the protester can initiate legal proceedings against him and expel him through the courts. “Neighbors” here thus act as members of the community, regulating all land relations in their village.

The community, which according to the “Salic truth” was the basis of the economic and social organization of Frankish society, represented in the V-VI centuries. a transitional stage from the agricultural community (where collective ownership of all the land was maintained, including the arable plots of large families) to the neighboring community-mark, in which the ownership of individual small families on allotment arable land was already dominant, while communal ownership of the main stock of forests, meadows, wastelands, pastures, etc. Before the conquest of Gaul, the owner of the land among the Franks was a clan that split into separate large families (this was an agricultural community). The long campaigns of the period of conquest and settlement in the new territory accelerated what began in the 2nd-4th centuries. the process of weakening and disintegration of clans and the formation of new, territorial ties on which the later neighboring community-brand was based. According to F. Engels, “the clan dissolved in the community-brand, in which, however, traces of its origin from the kinship relations of community members are still quite often noticeable.”

In the Salic Truth, clan relations are clearly traced: even after the conquest, many communities consisted largely of relatives; relatives continued to play a large role in the life of the Free Frank. They consisted of a close union, which included all relatives “up to the sixth generation” (the third generation in our account), all members of which, in a certain order, were obliged to act in court as co-sworn (taking an oath in favor of a relative). In the case of the murder of a Frank, not only the family of the murdered person or murderer, but also their closest relatives on both the father's and mother's sides participated in the receipt and payment of the wergeld.

But at the same time, “Salic Truth” already shows the process of decomposition and decline of tribal relations. Property differentiation is emerging among the members of the clan organization. The chapter “About a Handful of Land” provides for the case when an impoverished relative cannot help his relative in paying the wergeld: in this case, he must “throw a handful of land on someone who is more prosperous, so that he will pay everything according to the law.” There is a desire on the part of the wealthier members to leave the union of relatives. Chapter IX of “Salic Truth” describes in detail the procedure for renouncing kinship, during which a person must publicly, in a court hearing, renounce the sworn oath, participation in the payment and receipt of wergeld, inheritance and other relations with relatives.

In the event of the death of such a person, his inheritance goes not to his relatives, but to the royal treasury.

The development of property differentiation among relatives leads to a weakening of clan ties and to the disintegration of large families into small individual families.

At the end of the 6th century. the hereditary allotment of free francs turns into full, freely alienable land property of small individual families - allod. Previously, in the “Salic Truth”, this term denoted any inheritance: in relation to movable property at that time, allod was understood as property, but in relation to land - only as an hereditary allotment that cannot be freely disposed of. The edict of King Chilperic, already mentioned above, significantly expanding the right of individual inheritance of community members, essentially deprived the community of the right to dispose of the allotment land of its members. It becomes the object of wills, donations, and then purchase and sale, that is, it becomes the property of a community member. This change was fundamental in nature and led to a further deepening of property and social differentiation in the community, to its decomposition. According to F. Engels, “allod created not only the possibility, but also the necessity of transforming the original equality of land holdings into its opposite.”

With the emergence of the allod, the transformation of the agricultural community into a neighboring or territorial one, usually called a mark community, which no longer consists of relatives, but of neighbors, is completed. Each of them is the head of a small individual family and acts as the owner of his own allotment - allod. The rights of the community extend only to undivided land-marks (forests, wastelands, swamps, public pastures, roads, etc.), which continue to remain in the collective use of all its members. By the end of the 6th century. meadow and forest areas often also become the allodial property of individual community members.

The commune-mark, which developed among the Franks by the end of the 6th century, represents the last form of communal land ownership, within which the decomposition of the primitive communal system was completed and class feudal relations emerged.

Social stratification in Frankish society of the Merovingian period

The germs of social stratification among the Frankish conquerors appear in the Salic Truth in the different sizes of the wergeld of different categories of the free population. For ordinary free Franks it is 200 solidi, for royal warriors (antrustions) or officials in the service of the king - 600. Apparently, the Frankish clan nobility joined the group of royal warriors and officials during the conquest. The life of the semi-free - litas - was protected by a relatively low wergeld - 100 solids.

The Franks also had slaves who were completely unprotected by the wergeld: the murderer only compensated for the damage caused to the slave’s master.

The development of slavery among the Franks was facilitated by the conquest of Gaul and subsequent wars, which provided a large influx of slaves. Subsequently, the source of slavery also became bondage, into which broke free people fell, as well as a criminal who did not pay a court fine or wergeld: they turned into slaves of those who paid these fees for them. However, slave labor among the Franks was not the basis of production, as in the Roman state. Slaves were used most often as courtyard servants or artisans - blacksmiths, goldsmiths, sometimes as shepherds and grooms, but not as the main labor force in agriculture.

Although the Salic Truth does not know any legal distinctions within ordinary free community members, in it and in other sources of the 6th century. There is evidence of the presence of property stratification in their environment. This is not only the above information about the stratification among relatives, but also indications of the spread of loans and debt obligations in Frankish society. Sources constantly mention, on the one hand, the rich and influential “best people” (meliores), on the other, the poor (minoflidi) and completely bankrupt vagabonds who are unable to pay fines.

The emergence of the allod stimulated the growth of large landownership among the Franks. Even during the conquest, Clovis appropriated the lands of the former imperial fiscus. His successors gradually seized all the free lands not divided between communities, which at first were considered the property of the entire people. From this fund, the Frankish kings, who became large landowners, generously distributed land grants as full, freely alienable (allodial) property to their associates and the church. So, by the end of the 6th century. In Frankish society, a layer of large landowners - future feudal lords - was already emerging. In their possessions, along with Frankish slaves, semi-free - litas - and dependent people from among the Gallo-Roman population were also exploited - freedmen under Roman law, slaves, Gallo-Romans obliged to bear duties (“Roman-tributarii”), possibly from among the former Roman columns.

The growth of large landownership especially intensified in connection with the development of allods within the community. The concentration of land holdings now occurs not only as a result of royal grants, but also through the enrichment of one part of the community at the expense of another. The process of ruining some of the free community members begins, the reason for which is the forced alienation of their hereditary allods.

The growth of large land ownership inevitably leads to the emergence of private power of large landowners, which, as an instrument of non-economic coercion, was characteristic of the emerging feudal system.

The oppression of large secular landowners, ecclesiastical institutions and royal officials forced free people to renounce personal independence and place themselves under the “patronage” (mundium) of secular and spiritual large landowners, who thus became their lords. The act of entering under personal protection was called “commendation.” In practice, it was often accompanied by the entry into land dependence, which for landless people often meant their gradual involvement in personal dependence. At the same time, the commendation strengthened the political influence of large landowners and contributed to the final disintegration of clan unions and communal organization.

Gallo-Roman population and its role in the feudalization of Frankish society

The process of feudalization occurred not only among the Franks themselves, but even faster among the Gallo-Romans, who made up the majority of the population of the Frankish state. The barbarian conquests destroyed the foundations of the slave system and partially undermined large-scale land ownership, especially in Southern Gaul, where the Burgundians and Visigoths divided the land, seizing a significant part of it from the local population. However, they did not destroy private ownership of land. Everywhere among the Gallo-Roman population, not only small peasant land ownership was preserved, but even large church and secular land ownership, based on the exploitation of slaves and people living on foreign land, close in position to the Roman colons.

The Salic Truth divides the Gallo-Roman population into three categories: the “royal table mates,” in which one can see a privileged group of Gallo-Romans close to the king, apparently large landowners; “possessors” - small-scale and peasant landowners; tax people (“tributars”), obliged to bear duties. Apparently, these were people using someone else's land under certain conditions.

The proximity of the Gallo-Romans, among whom private ownership of land had long existed, naturally accelerated the decomposition of communal relations and the feudalization of Frankish society. The position of Gallo-Roman slaves and coloni influenced the forms of dependence into which the impoverished Frankish community members were drawn. The influence of the decaying late antique relations in the process of feudalization was especially great in southern Gaul, where the conquerors lived in close proximity to the Gallo-Romans in common villages. Here, earlier than in the north among the Germans, private ownership of land in its Roman form was established, the transition to the commune-mark was completed earlier, its decomposition and the growth of large-scale land ownership of the barbarian nobility proceeded faster. The object of exploitation by German large landowners in the VI-VII centuries. were not yet dependent peasants, but slaves, colons, and freedmen planted on the land, whose status was largely determined by Roman legal traditions. At the same time, the Frankish conquest of Southern Gaul contributed to the fragmentation of large domains and the barbarian and Gallo-Roman nobility and strengthened the layer of small peasant owners, mixed in their ethnic composition. In the process of synthesis of Gallo-Roman and Germanic relations, legal and ethnic differences between the conquerors and the local population in all areas of the kingdom were gradually erased. Under the sons of Clovis, the obligation to participate in the military militia extended to all inhabitants of the kingdom, including the Gallo-Romans. On the other hand, the Frankish kings are trying to extend land and poll taxes, preserved from the Roman Empire and at first levied only on the Gallo-Roman population, to the Germanic conquerors.

In connection with this policy of royal power, uprisings broke out repeatedly in Gaul. The largest of them occurred in 579 in Limoges. The masses, outraged by the fact that King Chilperic raised the land tax, seized and burned the tax rolls and wanted to kill the royal tax collector. Chilperic brutally dealt with the rebels and subjected the population of Limoges to even more severe taxation. Social differences are increasingly coming to the fore in the life of Frankish society: there is an increasing convergence of the Gallo-Roman, Burgundian and Frankish landowning nobility, on the one hand, and Germanic and Gallo-Roman small farmers of different legal status, on the other. The main classes of the future feudal society begin to take shape - feudal lords and dependent peasants.

Frankish kingdom of the Merovingian period from the end of the 6th - beginning of the 7th century. was already an early feudal society, although the process of feudalization in it developed rather slowly. Until the end of the 7th century. The main layer of this society remained free small landowners, in the north still united in free communities-marks.

The emergence of a state among the Franks

The beginning of the feudalization of Frankish society was accompanied by the emergence of the early feudal state.

The governing bodies inherent in the primitive communal system at the stage of military democracy gradually give way to the increased power of the military leader, who is now turning into a king. This transformation was accelerated by the very fact of the conquest, which brought the Franks face to face with the conquered Gallo-Roman population, which had to be kept in subjection. In addition, in the conquered territory, the Franks were faced with a developed class society, the continued existence of which required the creation of a new state power to replace the state apparatus of the slave-owning empire destroyed by the Franks.

The king concentrated in his hands all the functions of government, the center of which became the royal court. The king's power was based primarily on the fact that he was the largest land owner in the state and stood at the head of a large squad personally devoted to him. He managed the state as a personal farm, gave his associates private ownership of lands that had previously constituted national, tribal property, and arbitrarily disposed of state revenues that came to him in the form of taxes, fines and trade duties. Royal power relied on the support of the emerging class of large landowners. From the moment of its inception, the state in every possible way defended the interests of this class of feudal lords and through its policies contributed to the ruin and enslavement of free community members, the growth of large land ownership, and organized new conquests.

In the central administration of the Frankish state, only faint traces of the former primitive communal organization were preserved in the form of annual military reviews - “March fields”. Since during the Merovingian period the bulk of the population of Frankish society were still free community members, who also made up the general military militia, all adult free Franks converged on the “March fields”. However, these meetings, unlike the national meetings of the period of military democracy, no longer had serious political significance.

Traces of ancient primitive communal orders were preserved more in the local government of the Frankish state.

The "hundreds" of tribal units among the ancient Franks became territorial administrative units after the conquest of Gaul. The administration of the county - a larger territorial unit - was entirely in the hands of a royal official - the count, who was the chief judge in the county and collected a third of all court fines in favor of the king. In the “hundreds,” people’s assemblies of all free people (mallus) met, performing mainly judicial functions and chaired by an elected official, the “tungin.” But even here there was a representative of the royal administration - the centurion ("centenary"), who controlled the activities of the assembly and collected a share of fines in favor of the king. With the development of social differentiation c. Among the Franks, the leadership role in these meetings passes to more prosperous and influential persons - “rachinburgs” (rachin-burgii), or “good people”.

Self-government was most fully preserved in the village community, which elected its officials at village meetings, held courts for minor offenses, and ensured that the customs of the mark were observed.

Fragmentation of the state under Clovis's successors

The growth of large landownership and the private power of large landowners already under the sons of Clovis led to a weakening of royal power. Having lost, as a result of generous land distributions, a significant part of their domain possessions and income, the Frankish kings found themselves powerless in the fight against the separatist aspirations of large landowners. After the death of Clovis, the fragmentation of the Frankish state began.

From the end of the 6th century. the separation of three independent regions within the Frankish state is planned: Neustria - North-Western Gaul with the center in Paris; Austrasia - the northeastern part of the Frankish state, which included the original Frankish regions on both banks of the Rhine and Meuse; Burgundy is the territory of the former kingdom of the Burgundians. At the end of the 7th century. Aquitaine stood out in the southwest. These four regions differed among themselves in the ethnic composition of the population and the characteristics of the social system, and the degree of feudalization.

In Neustria, which at the time of the Frankish conquest was heavily Romanized, the Gallo-Romans, who made up a significant part of the population even after the conquest, merged with the conquering Franks earlier than in other areas of the kingdom. Here already by the end of the 6th - beginning of the 7th century. Large church and secular land ownership acquired great importance and the process of disappearance of the free peasantry was rapidly progressing.

Austrasia, where the bulk of the population were the Franks and other Germanic tribes subject to them, and the influence of the Gallo-Roman order was weak, until the beginning of the 8th century. retained a more noticeable structure; here the mark community decomposed more slowly; allodist landowners, who were part of the mark communities and formed the basis of the military militia, continued to play a large role. The emerging class of feudal lords was mainly represented by small and medium feudal lords. Church land ownership was less represented here than in Neustria.

In Burgundy and Aquitaine, where the Gallo-Roman population was also mixed with the Germanic (first with the Burgundians and Visigoths and then with the Franks), small free peasant and average land ownership also persisted for a long time. But at the same time there were large land holdings there, especially church ones, and a free community already in the 6th century. disappeared almost everywhere.

These areas were weakly connected with each other economically (at that time natural-economic relations dominated), which prevented their unification in one state. The Merovingian kings, who led these regions after the fragmentation of the Frankish state, fought among themselves for supremacy, which was complicated by continuous clashes between the kings and large landowners within each region.

Unification of the country by the mayors of Austrasia

At the end of the 7th century. actual power in all areas of the kingdom was in the hands of the mayors. Initially, these were officials who headed the royal palace administration (majordomus - senior at home, managing the household of the court). Then the mayors became the largest landowners. All administration of each of the named regions of the kingdom was concentrated in their hands, and the majordomo acted as the leader and military leader of the local landed aristocracy. The kings of the Merovingian house, having lost all real power, were appointed and removed at the will of the majordomos and received the disparaging nickname “lazy kings” from their contemporaries.

After a long struggle among the Frankish nobility in 687, Pepin of Geristal became the mayor of the entire Frankish state. He succeeded because in Austrasia, where the process of feudalization proceeded more slowly than in other parts of the kingdom, the mayors could rely on a fairly significant layer of small and medium-sized feudal lords, as well as free allodists of the peasant type, interested in strengthening the central government to combat oppression large landowners, suppression of the enslaved peasantry and to conquer new lands. With the support of these social strata, the mayors of Austrasia were able to reunite the entire Frankish state under their rule.

Formation of the Frankish state