Formation of the Frankish state of the Merovingians. Clovis and his successors. Chapter IX. The emergence and development of feudal relations in Frankish society (VI-IX centuries) The establishment of feudal land ownership in Frankish society in the VIII-IX centuries

Origin of the Franks. Formation of the Frankish kingdom

In historical monuments, the name of the Franks appeared starting from the 3rd century, and Roman writers called many Germanic tribes Franks, which bore various names. Apparently, the Franks represented a new, very extensive tribal association, which included in its composition a number of Germanic tribes that merged or mixed during the migrations. The Franks split into two large branches - the seaside, or salic, Franks (from the Latin word "salum", which means sea), who lived at the mouth of the Rhine, and the coastal, or Ripuarian, Franks (from the Latin word "ripa", which means coast) who lived south along the banks of the Rhine and Meuse. The Franks repeatedly crossed the Rhine, raiding Roman possessions in Gaul or settling there in the position of allies of Rome.

In the 5th century the Franks captured a significant part of the territory of the Roman Empire, namely North-Eastern Gaul. At the head of the Frankish possessions were the leaders of the former tribes. Of the leaders of the Franks, Merovei is known, under which the Franks fought against Attila in the Catalaunian fields (451) and on whose behalf the name of the Merovingian royal family came. The son and successor of Merovei was the leader Childeric, whose grave was found near Tournai. The son and heir of Childeric was the most prominent representative of the Merovingian family - King Clovis (481-511).

Having become the king of the Salic Franks, Clovis, together with other leaders who acted like him, in the interests of the Frankish nobility, undertook the conquest of vast areas of Gaul. In 486, the Franks captured the Soissons region (the last Roman possession in Gaul), and later the territory between the Seine and the Loire. At the end of the 5th century the Franks inflicted a severe defeat on the Germanic tribe of the Alemanni (Alamans) and partially forced them out of Gaul back across the Rhine.

In 496, Clovis was baptized, having accepted Christianity along with 3 thousand of his warriors. Baptism was a clever political move on the part of Clovis. He was baptized according to the rite adopted by the Western (Roman) Church. The Germanic tribes moving from the Black Sea region - the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, as well as the Vandals and Burgundians - were, from the point of view of the Roman Church, heretics, since they were Arians who denied some of its dogmas.

At the beginning of the VI century. Frankish squads opposed the Visigoths, who owned all of southern Gaul. At the same time, the great benefits that flowed from the baptism of Clovis affected. All the clergy of the Western Christian Church, who lived beyond the Loire, took his side, and many cities and fortified points that served as the seat of this clergy immediately opened the gates to the Franks. In the decisive battle of Poitiers (507), the Franks won a complete victory over the Visigoths, whose dominance from then on was limited only to the borders of Spain.

Thus, as a result of the conquests, a large Frankish state was created, which covered almost all of the former Roman Gaul. Under the sons of Clovis, Burgundy was annexed to the Frankish kingdom.

The reasons for such rapid successes of the Franks, who still had very strong community ties, was that they settled in North-Eastern Gaul in compact masses, without dissolving among the local population (like the Visigoths, for example). Moving deep into Gaul, the Franks did not break ties with their former homeland and all the time drew new forces for conquest there. At the same time, the kings and the Frankish nobility were often content with the vast lands of the former imperial fiscus, without entering into conflicts with the local Gallo-Roman population. Finally, the clergy provided Clovis with constant support during the conquests.

"Salic truth" and its meaning

The most important information about the social system of the Franks is reported by the so-called "Salic Truth" - a record of the ancient judicial customs of the Franks, which is believed to have been made under Clovis. This law book examines in detail various cases from the life of the Franks and lists fines for a wide variety of crimes, ranging from the theft of a chicken to a ransom for killing a person. Therefore, according to the "Salic Truth" it is possible to restore the true picture of the life of the Salic Franks. The Ripuarian Franks, the Burgundians, the Anglo-Saxons, and other Germanic tribes also had such judicial codes - Pravda.

The time for recording and editing this ordinary (from the word custom) folk law is the 6th-9th centuries, that is, the time when the tribal system of the Germanic tribes had already completely decomposed, private ownership of land appeared and classes and the state arose. To protect private property, it was necessary to firmly fix those judicial penalties that were to be applied to persons who violated the right to this property. Required firm fixation and such new social relations that arose from tribal, such as territorial, or neighboring, communal peasant ties, the ability for a person to refuse kinship, the subordination of free Franks to the king and his officials, etc.

The Salic Truth was divided into titles (chapters), and each title, in turn, into paragraphs. A large number of titles were devoted to determining the fines that had to be paid for all sorts of thefts. But the “Salic Truth” took into account the most diverse aspects of the life of the Franks, so there were also such titles in it: “On murders or if someone steals someone else’s wife”, “On if someone grabs a free woman by the hand, by the brush or by the finger”, “About quadrupeds, if they kill a man”, “About a servant in witchcraft”, etc.

In the title "On Insult with Words" punishments for insult were determined. The title "On Mutilation" stated: "If someone plucks out another's eye, he is awarded 62 1/2 solidi"; “If he tears off his nose, he is awarded for payment ... 45 solidi”; “If the ear is torn off, 15 solidi are awarded,” etc. (The solidus was a Roman monetary unit. According to the 6th century, it was believed that 3 solidi was equal to the cost of a “healthy, sighted and horned” cow.)

Rule of the Swabian dynasty in Germany. Italian politics. Christianization of the Baltics. Establishment of the Habsburg dynasty.

The rulers of the Margraviate of Brandenburg already in the middle of the XIV century. were among the seven most significant elector princes who participated in the election of the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. The capital of the margraviate was Berlin, founded in 1240 on the river. Spree. From the beginning of the XV century. the Swabian house of Hohenzollern settled here.

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

The Franconian line of Hohenzollerns, which was destined to rule in the state of Brandenburg-Prussia, stood out in 1227 and owned the Burgraviate of Nuremberg.

Around the same time, created at the end of the XII century. the spiritual and knightly "Order of the House of the Holy Virgin Mary of Teutonic Order", 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 extended its possessions along the southern and eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea.

In 1415, Burgrave Frederick VI of Nuremberg (1371-1440) from the Hohenzollern family received the Brandenburg brand, becoming Elector Frederick I (reigned 1415-1440). He achieved his recognition as a sovereign in a stubborn 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 in 1442 subjugated Berlin, depriving it of city autonomy *.

By the end of the XV century. Germany was becoming more and more fragmented, while Spain, France and England had already developed into nationalized states. Germany was not a national complex, as it included French and Slavic territories and considered Rome its center. The formation of a nation-state became impossible in Germany because of the Roman imperial title and the aspirations for world domination associated with it. In addition, and this was the most important thing, individual German principalities and groups of provinces remained isolated from each other. The Hansa, the Rhine and Swabian unions of cities were also disunited.

At the same time, the natural development of trade - and the main international trade routes passed through German lands - the forced Germanization of the conquered Slavic lands, as well as the loss of Italy and the French regions created the prerequisites 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; emperors of the Holy Roman Empire in the 13th-19th centuries (permanently in 1438-1806).

The beginning of the ruling dynasty was laid by Rudolf I of Habsburg, who in 1273-1291 occupied the throne of the Holy Roman Emperor. In 1282, he assigned the Duchies of Austria and Styria to the Habsburgs. Since 1438, the Habsburgs have approved the title of emperors of the Holy Roman Empire (with the exception of a short period of 1742-1745). Since 1453, the Habsburgs, as the rulers of Austria, began to call themselves archdukes, based on the privilege received back in the 12th century, which equalized their rights with the electors.

As a result of the marriage of Maximilian I of Habsburg with Mary of Burgundy, the Netherlands was annexed to the possessions of the Habsburgs. As a result of dynastic marriages, Charles V of Habsburg became King of Spain in 1516. In 1519 he was elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and united under his rule vast territories in the New and Old Worlds. 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. From 1556, the Spanish and Austrian branches of the Habsburgs finally became isolated.

The Spanish branch of the Habsburgs died out 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 Stefan of Lorraine and laid the foundation for the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Representatives of this line ruled until 1918.

During the Napoleonic Wars, Franz II of Habsburg was forced to renounce the title of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, but as early as 1804 he proclaimed himself Emperor Franz 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 Republic of Austria passed a law depriving the Habsburgs of all rights, property and expelling them abroad. In 1955, this provision was confirmed in the treaty for the restoration of Austrian independence.

At the end of the 5th century in Northern Gaul (modern Belgium and Northern France), the early state of the Franks was formed - the most powerful union of the northern Germanic tribes. 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 c. they settled in Gaul as federates of Rome, gradually spreading their possessions and getting out of the power 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 whole communities, clans, taking part of the empty lands, part of the land of the former Roman treasury, and part of the local population. However, in the main relations between the Franks and the Gallo-Roman population were peaceful. This further ensured the formation of a completely new socio-ethnic community of the Celtic-Germanic synthesis.

During the conquest of Gaul, the Franks raised the leader of one of the tribes - Clovis. By 510, he succeeded in destroying the other leaders and declaring himself, as it were, the representative of the Roman emperor (nominally maintaining political ties with the empire was one way of proclaiming his special rights). During the VI century. remnants of military democracy were preserved, the people still participated in the legislation. However, the importance of royal power gradually grew. To a large extent, this was facilitated by an increase in the income of the kings, who established a regular collection of taxes in the form of polyudya. In 496 (498 -?), Clovis with his retinue and part of his fellow tribesmen adopted Christianity, which ensured the support of the Gallo-Roman church for the emerging statehood.

Previously, the state of the Franks was weakly centralized, reproducing the tribal division in the territorial structure. The country was subdivided into counties, the counties into districts (pagi), former Roman communities; the lowest unit, but very important, was the hundred. Districts and hundreds retained self-government: the district and hundreds of people's assemblies resolved court cases, were in charge of the layout 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 dominal rights, he had judicial powers and administrative powers in relation to the subject population.

The basis of state unity was originally predominantly military organization. The annual meeting of the militia - the "March fields" - played a significant role in solving 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 seventh century restored again, although they have acquired a different content. By the 7th century not only Franks, but also the Gallo-Roman population began to be recruited for military service, and not only free, but also dependent land holders - litas. Military service began to turn into a national duty, and the "March Fields" became for the most part reviews of the military service population.

By the 8th century there has been 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, leading from Clovis from the Merovean family, more retained royal power. Legal monuments of the era began to mention the legislative rights of kings, the sacred nature of royal power, the exclusivity of its rights. There was even an idea of high treason (which means that obligatory submission to state institutions of royal power was implied).

The center of public administration in the VI century. became royal court. Under King Dagobert (7th century), they established themselves as permanent positions of a referendary (he is also the keeper of the king's seal), a royal count (high judge), head of finance, treasure keeper, and abbot of the palace. The courtyard and the immediate surroundings, mostly church, formed royal council, which influenced the conclusion of contracts, the appointment of officials, land grants. Officials for special cases, financial, commercial and customs agents were appointed by the king and removed at his discretion. The dukes had a somewhat special position - the rulers of several united districts.

Occurred up to twice a year gatherings of nobility(bishops, counts, dukes, etc.), where general political matters, mainly ecclesiastical ones, were decided, and about grants. The most numerous and important were the spring ones, the autumn ones were narrow in composition and more palace-like.

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

By the end of the VI - the beginning of the VII century. changes affected the position of the county authorities. The counts became the main figure in the local administration, they were given the powers of the former committees of the empire in command of garrisons, the judiciary, and control over officials. This tradition in the formation of statehood was all the more real because more than half of those known for the 6th century. Frankish regional rulers-counts were Gallo-Romans in origin. Such connection with local communities naturally strengthened decentralization tendencies.

But by its very nature, the early Frankish state was not stable. 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 fluid collapse of the state first of all caused a weakening of royal power (all the more so since back in 511, when dividing power between the heirs of Clovis, the church council declared a peculiar structure in the form of a "shared kingdom"). At the end of the 7th century real powers were in the hands of the royal mayordoms- rulers of palaces in certain areas. Mayordoms took over the business 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 the successors of Clovis, with frequent divisions of the state between the brothers, four regions stood out 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 in their campaigns and in resolving internal misunderstandings were supported by their warriors, who demanded remuneration for their services. The king rewarded them, as well as many of his officials in general, with the distribution of land; little by little, the king's supply of land was depleted, and along with the impoverished king there were large landowners who sometimes could compete with the king in strength. Royal power began to weaken; she had to fight with her land nobility more and more often and more intensely. At the beginning of the 7th century, under King Chlothar II, the land nobility obtained major concessions from him, listed in the edict of 614, and, one might say, limited his power .. Gradually, the regional rulers, counts, became independent rulers independent of the king and even transferred his position as ruler by inheritance to his children. Feeling weakening of the central government some tribes regained their independence.
In the midst of this confusion and unrest, one position stood out in particular and reached the highest power: that was the position of the manager of the palace. Palace manager, ward mayor, or mayor(major domus), in the VI century, did not yet stand out from a number of many other positions; in the 7th century, he began to occupy the first place after the king. The very management of the palace, where for quite a long time the center of state life was concentrated, gave many reasons for strengthening the influence of this position. Mayordom was in charge of royal property, 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 infancy, he took care of his upbringing; in the absence of the king, he replaced him as president of the royal court; unwittingly, the counts and dukes also fell into some dependence on the mayors. Thus, the power of the mayordoms grew, gradually pushing the power of the king into the background. The further rise of the mayordoms was also helped by the fact that the Merovingians in the 7th century, with few exceptions, were weak and incapable, "lazy" sovereigns, wasting their strength uselessly in civil strife; Mayordoms in the same 7th century put up 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 had its own ward mayor. At this time, in Austrasia, the major moved forward pvpin Medium, or Geristalsky, who, having defeated the other majordoms and completely removed the weak Merovingians from business, seized all power in the state and made the position of majordom hereditary in his family. Son and successor Karl Martell 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 region of Gaul. By his victory over the Arabs, Charles Martell pushed them back to the south, to the peninsula, and thereby saved Christian Europe from a possible Muslim conquest, or at least devastation.
The army for all these campaigns demanded a reward. Not having enough land to distribute to the soldiers, since his predecessors had already distributed royal land as a reward, Charles Martel began to select spiritual lands for the treasury, which were owned in abundance by churches and monasteries. For some time, Karl Martell found a new source for rewarding his soldiers. At the same time, a change took place in the Frankish army under the influence of clashes with the Arabs: along with the foot army, cavalry appeared in it, 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, that is, the Hammer.
Son and successor of Charles Martel Pepin Short very deftly and skillfully completed the work begun by his predecessors, that is, he replaced the Merovingian dynasty, which had finally vegetated, with a new dynasty of its kind. To do this, he equipped an embassy in Rome to Pope Zacharias, from whom, on behalf of Pepin, it asked for advice "regarding the kings that existed among the Franks at that time 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 king who has power than the one who is deprived of it." Having received a favorable answer from the pope, Pepin immediately set about decisive action. He called a meeting in Soissons, which proclaimed him king." The last representatives of the Merovingian dynasty, Childeric III and his son, were tonsured and imprisoned in a monastery (752). A new dynasty appeared on the Frankish throne, which received the name of the Carolingian dynasty, or Carolingian.
Pepin the Short was proclaimed king in 751.

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

In the IV century, the Franks, as federates, the official allies of Rome, finally entrenched themselves 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 took the side of the Romans against the army of Attila.

At first, the Frankish tribes did not have a single leader. The disparate 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 subjugated or destroyed the rest of the Frankish rulers and gathered a powerful army under his banners. With this army, in a few years, he conquered all of his Gallic lands from Rome.

Having subjugated those parts of Gaul that belonged to Rome, Clovis immediately led the fight against the Visigoths, who had settled in the Gallic lands even earlier. These vast, but completely neglected during the Roman period, the excellent pastures and the abundance of forests were worth fighting for. Soon, almost all of Gaul belonged to the Franks, with the exception of a small area in the south, which remained behind the Visigoths. The political influence of Clovis also extended to neighboring Burgundy, which he did not manage to completely conquer.

In 496, Clovis, along with his people, was baptized, thus acquiring a reliable ally - the Roman Catholic Church. The Franks were perhaps the first barbarians who accepted Catholicism with the whole people. Other Germanic peoples, who adopted Christianity much earlier than them, were baptized mainly into Arianism, one of the currents 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 most extensive barbarian kingdoms by that time.

The heirs of Clovis, his sons, and after them - grandchildren, continued his work. By the middle of the VI century, the kingdom of the Franks became the most significant in Europe. In addition to Burgundy and Gaul, the Frankish kings quickly conquered most of the Germanic tribes that lived 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 occupied a leading position among the peoples of new Europe, displacing the Goths from the historical stage.
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 land plot that was fully owned by the owner. Land could be donated, sold, exchanged and bequeathed. The whole agriculture of the feudal West grew out of allods. They formed a free peasantry, thanks to which agriculture gradually began to emerge from the crisis that had begun even before the Great Migration of Nations.

The introduction of allodial land ownership testified to major changes in the entire Frankish society. Like all Germanic peoples, the Franks retained tribal foundations. The arable land on which the community lived has always been public property. Each family or clan, which had its own plot, had all the rights to the harvest, but in no case to the land. However, with the development of Frankish society, with the strengthening of royal power to the detriment of the power of communal elders, the old tribal ties began to collapse. Ordinary community members preferred to run their own household, to be independent of a huge family. From them, the Frankish peasantry began to form - personally free people, possessing both tools of labor and all rights to the land that they cultivated.

In economic terms, the disintegration of the clan, the separation 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 committed, he was obliged to pay on his own, without the support of the family. Small allods gradually passed into the hands of the rich and the nobility, who took land - the main wealth in the Middle Ages - from debtors.

Large plots of land were also received by the royal warriors. These allotments, called benefices, Clovis gave only for the service and only for the duration of the service of the soldiers. His heirs transferred the 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 gradually poured. Under the Merovingians, the practice of patronage was introduced, when a peasant came to a large landowner from the nobility under patronage, transferring his plot to him. The church also willingly accepted small landowners under its guardianship. 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 out the annual corvée or pay dues. The widespread enslavement of the peasantry began. By the beginning of the 10th century, there were almost no allods left in Europe as such. They were supplanted by feuds - a new form of land ownership, which owes its emergence to a new, vassal-seigneurial hierarchy of relations in medieval society.

Do you know that:

Merovingians - the first royal dynasty of the Frankish state, which ruled from 457 to 715.
Arianism - a trend 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 the Early Middle Ages in Western Europe.
Benefice - conditional urgent land grant for the performance of military or administrative service.
precarium - the use of land provided by the owner for an agreed period for a fee.

Origin of the Franks. Formation of the Frankish kingdom

Having become king of the Salic Franks, Clovis, together with other leaders who acted like him, in the interests of the Frankish nobility, undertook the conquest of vast areas of Gaul. In 486, the Franks captured the Soissons region (the last Roman possession in Gaul), and later the territory between the Seine and the Loire. At the end of the 5th century the Franks inflicted a severe defeat on the Germanic tribe of the Alemanni (Alamans) and partially forced them out of Gaul back across the Rhine.

At the beginning of the VI century. Frankish squads opposed the Visigoths, who owned all of southern Gaul. At the same time, the great benefits that flowed from the baptism of Clovis affected. All the clergy of the Western Christian Church, who lived beyond the Loire, took his side, and many cities and fortified points, which served as the seat of this clergy, immediately opened the gates to the Franks. In the decisive battle of Poitiers (507), the Franks won a complete victory over the Visigoths, whose dominance from then on was limited only to the borders of Spain.

Thus, as a result of the conquests, a large Frankish state was created, which covered almost all of the former Roman Gaul. Under the sons of Clovis, Burgundy was annexed to the Frankish kingdom.

The reasons for such rapid successes of the Franks, who still had very strong communal ties, was that they settled in North-Eastern Gaul in compact masses, without dissolving among the local population (like the Visigoths, for example). Moving into the depths of Gaul, the Franks did not break ties with their former homeland and all the time drew new forces for conquest there. At the same time, the kings and the Frankish nobility were often content with the vast lands of the former imperial fiscus, without entering into conflicts with the local Gallo-Roman population. Finally, the clergy provided Clovis with constant support during the conquests.

"Salic truth" and its meaning

The most important information about the social system of the Franks is provided by the so-called "Salic Truth" - a record of the ancient judicial customs of the Franks, which is believed to have been made under Clovis. This law book examines in detail various cases from the life of the Franks and lists fines for a wide variety of crimes, ranging from the theft of a chicken to a ransom for killing a person. Therefore, according to the "Salic Truth" it is possible to restore the true picture of the life of the Salic Franks. The Ripuarian Franks, the Burgundians, the Anglo-Saxons, and other Germanic tribes also had such judicial records - Pravda.

The time for recording and editing this ordinary (from the word custom) folk law is the 6th-9th centuries, that is, the time when the tribal system among the Germanic tribes had already completely decomposed, private ownership of the land appeared and classes and the state arose. To protect private property, it was necessary to firmly fix those judicial penalties that were to be applied to persons who violated the right to this property. Firm fixation also required such new social relations that arose from tribal relations, such as territorial, or neighborly, ties of communal peasants, the opportunity for a person to renounce kinship, the subordination of free Franks to the king and his officials, etc.

In the title "On Insult with Words" punishments for insult were determined. The title "On Mutilation" stated: "If someone plucks out another's eye, he is awarded 62 1/2 solidi"; “If he tears off his nose, he is awarded for payment ... 45 solidi”; “If the ear is torn off, 15 solidi are awarded,” etc. (The solidus was a Roman monetary unit. According to the 6th century, it was believed that 3 solidus was equal to the cost of a “healthy, sighted and horned” cow.)

Of particular interest in Salic Pravda are, of course, the titles, on the basis of which one can judge the economic system of the Franks and the social and political relations that existed among them.

The economy of the Franks according to the "Salic truth"

According to the Salic Pravda, the economy of the Franks was at a much higher level than the economy of the Germans, described by Tacitus. The productive forces of society by this time had significantly developed and grown. Animal husbandry undoubtedly played an important role in it. Salichnaya Pravda established in unusual detail what fine should be paid for the theft of a pig, for a one-year-old piglet, for a pig stolen together with a piglet, for a suckling pig separately, for a pig stolen from a locked barn, etc. truth” considered all cases of theft of large horned animals, theft of sheep, theft of goats, cases of horse theft.

Fines were set for stolen poultry (hens, roosters, geese), which indicated the development of poultry farming. There were titles that spoke of the theft of bees and hives from the apiary, of damage and theft of fruit trees from the garden (the Franks already knew how to graft fruit trees by cuttings.), Of the theft of grapes from the vineyard. Penalties were determined for the theft of a wide variety of fishing tackle, boats, hunting dogs, birds and animals tamed for hunting, etc. This means that the Frank economy had a wide variety of industries - animal husbandry, beekeeping, gardening, and viticulture. At the same time, such branches of economic life as hunting and fishing have not lost their significance. Cattle, poultry, bees, garden trees, vineyards, as well as boats, fishing boats, etc., were already the private property of the Franks.

Agriculture played the main role in the economy of the Franks, according to Salic Pravda. In addition to grain crops, the Franks sowed flax and planted vegetable gardens, planting beans, peas, lentils and turnips.

Plowing at that time was carried out on bulls, the Franks were well acquainted with both the plow and the harrow. Damage to the harvest and damage to the plowed field were punishable by fines. The resulting harvest from the fields was taken away by the Franks on carts to which horses were harnessed. The harvests of grain were quite plentiful, for the grain was already stacked in barns or rigs, and there were outbuildings at the house of every free Frankish peasant. The Franks made extensive use of water mills.

The Mark community of the Franks

"Salic Truth" also provides an answer to the most important question for determining the social system of the Franks, who owned the land - the main means of production in that era. The manor land, according to the Salic Pravda, was already in the individual ownership of each franc. This is indicated by high fines paid by all persons who in one way or another spoiled and destroyed fences or penetrated with the aim of stealing into other people's yards. On the contrary, meadows and forests continued to be collectively owned and used by the entire peasant community. The herds that belonged to the peasants of neighboring villages were still grazing on common meadows, and every peasant could take any tree from the forest, including a felled one, if it had a mark on it that it had been cut down more than a year ago.

As for arable land, it was not yet private property, since the entire peasant community as a whole retained the supreme rights to this land. But arable land was no longer redistributed and was in the hereditary use of each individual peasant. The supreme rights of the community to arable land were expressed in the fact that none of the members of the community had the right to sell their land, and if a peasant died without leaving behind his sons (who inherited the piece of land that he cultivated during his lifetime), this land was returned to the community and fell into the hands of "neighbors", i.e., all its members. But each communal peasant had his own plot of land for the time of plowing, sowing and ripening of grain, he fenced it and passed it on to his sons by inheritance. Land could not be inherited by a woman.

The community that existed at that time was no longer the tribal community that Caesar and Tacitus once described. New productive forces demanded new production relations. The tribal community was replaced by the neighboring community, which, using the ancient Germanic name, Engels called the brand. A village that owned certain lands no longer consisted of relatives. A significant part of the inhabitants of this village still continued to remain connected with tribal relations, but at the same time, strangers already lived in the village, immigrants from other places, people who settled in this village either by agreement with other community members, or in accordance with the royal charter.

In the title "On Settlers" "Salicheskaya Pravda" established that any person could settle in a foreign village, if none of its inhabitants protested against it. But if there was at least one person who opposed this, the settler could not settle in such a village. Further, the procedure for eviction and punishment (in the form of a fine) of such a migrant, whom the community did not want to accept as its members, “neighbors”, and who moved into the village without permission, was considered. At the same time, the “Salicheskaya Pravda” stated that “if no protest is presented to the resettled person within 12 months, he must remain inviolable, like other neighbors.”

The settler remained inviolable even if he had a corresponding letter from the king. On the contrary, anyone who dared to protest against such a charter had to pay a huge fine of 200 solidi. On the one hand, this indicated the gradual transformation of the community from a tribal to a neighboring, or territorial, community. On the other hand, this testified to the strengthening of royal power and the allocation of a special layer, towering over ordinary, free community members and enjoying certain privileges.

Disintegration of tribal relations. The emergence of property and social inequality in Frankish society

Of course, this does not mean that tribal relations no longer played any role in the society of the Franks. Tribal ties, tribal remnants were still very strong, but they were more and more replaced by new social ties. The Franks still continued to have such customs as paying money for the murder of a person to his relatives, inheriting property (except land) on the maternal side, paying part of the ransom (wergeld) for the murder for his insolvent relative, etc.

At the same time, "Salicheskaya Pravda" recorded both the possibility of transferring property to a non-relative, and the possibility of voluntary withdrawal from the tribal union, the so-called "renunciation of kinship." Title 60 discussed in detail the procedure associated with this, which, apparently, had already become common in Frankish society. The person who wanted to renounce kinship had to appear at a meeting of judges elected by the people, break three branches over his head there, measuring a cubit, scatter them in four directions and say that he renounces the inheritance and all accounts with his relatives. And if later one of his relatives was killed or died, the person who renounced kinship should not have participated either in the inheritance or in receiving the wergeld, and the inheritance of this person himself went to the treasury.

Who benefited from leaving the clan? Of course, the richest and most powerful people who were under the direct patronage of the king, who did not want to help their less wealthy relatives and were not interested in receiving their small inheritance. There were already such people in Frankish society.

The property inequality among the members of the community is described in one of the most important titles for the characterization of the social system of the Franks, the title of "Salic Truth", entitled "About a handful of land." If someone takes the life of a person, this title says, and, having given all the property, you will not be able to pay what is due according to the law, he must present 12 relatives who will swear that he has no property either on earth or underground that they have already been given. Then he must enter his house, pick up a handful of earth from its four corners, stand on the threshold, facing inside the house, and throw this earth with his left hand over his shoulder at his father and brothers.

If the father and brothers have already paid, then he must throw the same land on his three closest relatives by mother and father. “Then, in [one] shirt, without a belt, without shoes, with a stake in his hand, he must jump over the wattle fence, and these three [maternal relatives] must pay half of what is not enough to pay the vira followed by law. The same should be done by the other three, who are relatives on the father's side. If one of them is too poor to pay the share falling on him, he must, in turn, throw a handful of land on one of the more prosperous, so that he pays everything according to the law. The stratification of free francs into poor and rich is also indicated by titles about debt and methods of its repayment, about loans and their recovery from the debtor, etc.

There is no doubt that Frankish society at the beginning of the VI century. already disintegrated into several distinct layers. The bulk of Frankish society at that time consisted of free Frankish peasants who lived in neighboring communities and among whom numerous remnants of the tribal system were still preserved. The independent and full position of the free Frankish peasant is indicated by the high wergeld, which was paid for him in the event of his murder. This wergeld, according to the Salic Pravda, was equal to 200 solidi and had the character of a ransom, and not punishment, since it was also paid in case of an accidental murder, and if a person died from a blow or bite of any domestic animal (in the latter case, iergeld, as usually paid by the owner of the animal in half the amount). So, the direct producers of material goods, i.e., free Frankish peasants, at the beginning of the 6th century. enjoyed more rights.

At the same time, a layer of new service nobility formed in Frankish society, whose special privileged position was emphasized by a much larger wergeld than that paid for a simple free franc. “Salicheskaya Pravda” does not say a word about the former tribal nobility, which also indicates the already completed disintegration of tribal relations. Part of this tribal nobility died out, part was destroyed by the risen kings, who were afraid of rivals, and part joined the ranks of the service nobility that surrounded the kings.

For a representative of the nobility who was in the service of the king, a triple wergeld was paid, that is, 600 solidi. Thus, the life of a count - a royal official or the life of a royal warrior was already valued much more than the life of a simple Frankish peasant, which testified to the deep social stratification of Frankish society. Wergeld, paid for the murder of a representative of the service nobility, was tripled a second time (that is, it reached 1,800 solidi) if the murder was committed at a time when the murdered was in the royal service (during a campaign, etc.).

The third layer in the society of the Franks was made up of semi-free, the so-called litas, as well as freedmen, that is, former slaves set free. For semi-freemen and freedmen, only half the wergeld of a simple free franc, that is, 100 solidi, was paid, which emphasized their incomplete position in the society of the Franks. As for the slave, it was no longer the wergeld that was paid for his murder, but simply a fine.

So, tribal ties in Frankish society disappeared, giving way to new social relations, the relations of the emerging feudal society. The beginning process of the feudalization of Frankish society was most clearly reflected in the opposition of the free Frankish peasantry to the service and military nobility. This nobility gradually turned into a class of large landowners - feudal lords, for it was the Frankish nobility, who was in the service of the king, who, when seizing Roman territory, received large land holdings already on the rights of private property. The existence in Frankish society (along with a free peasant community) of large estates that were in the hands of the Frankish and surviving Gallo-Roman nobility is evidenced by the chronicles (chronicles) of that time, as well as all those titles of the Salic Truth, which speak of the master's servants or yard servants - slaves (vine growers, blacksmiths, carpenters, grooms, swineherds and even goldsmiths), who served the vast master's economy.

The political structure of Frankish society. Rise of royalty

Profound changes in the field of socio-economic relations of Frankish society led to changes in its political system. On the example of Clovis, one can easily trace how the former power of the military leader of the tribe turned already at the end of the 5th century. into hereditary royalty. A wonderful story has been preserved by one chronicler (chronicler), Gregory of Tours (6th century), which characterized this transformation in a visual form.

Once, says Gregory of Tours, while still fighting for the city of Soissons, the Franks captured rich booty in one of the Christian churches. Among the captured booty there was also a valuable bowl of amazing size and beauty. The bishop of the Reims church asked Clovis to return this cup, which was considered sacred, to the church. Clovis, who wished to live in peace with the Christian Church, agreed, but added that in Soissons there should still be a division of the booty between them among his soldiers, and that if, in the division of booty, he received a cup, he would give it to the bishop.

Then the chronicler tells that in response to the request of the king addressed to them to give him a cup to transfer to her church, the warriors answered: “Do whatever you please, for no one can oppose your power.” The story of the chronicler thus testifies to the greatly increased authority of royal power. But among the warriors, memories of the times when the king stood only a little higher than his warriors were still alive, was obliged to share the booty with them by lot, and at the end of the campaign often turned from a military leader into an ordinary representative of the tribal nobility. That is why one of the warriors, as it is said later in the chronicle, did not agree with the rest of the warriors, raised the ax and cut the cup, saying: “You will not get anything from this, except what is due to you by lot.”

The king was silent this time, took the spoiled cup and gave it to the messenger of the bishop. However, as follows from the story of Gregory of Tours, Clovis' "meekness and patience" were feigned. After a year, he ordered his entire army to assemble and inspected the weapons. Approaching during the inspection to the recalcitrant warrior, Clovis declared that the weapon of this warrior was kept in disarray by him, and, having pulled out the ax from the warrior, threw it on the ground, and then chopped off his head. “So,” he said, “you did with the cup in Soissons,” and when he died, he ordered the rest to go home, “inspiring great fear in himself.” So, in a clash with a warrior who was trying to defend the old order of dividing the booty between members of the squad and its leader, Clovis emerged victorious, affirming the principle of the king's exclusive position in relation to the members of the squad that served him.

By the end of his reign, Clovis, a cunning, cruel and treacherous man, no longer had rivals in the face of other members of the nobility. He sought sole power by any means. Having conquered Gaul and received huge land wealth in his hands, Clovis destroyed the other leaders of the tribe who stood in his way.

Destroying the leaders, as well as many of his noble relatives for fear that they would not take away his royal power, Clovis extended it to all of Gaul. And then, having gathered his close ones, he said to them: “Woe to me, for I have remained as a wanderer among strangers and have no relatives who could give me help if a misfortune happened.” “But he said this,” the chronicler wrote, “not because he grieved for their death, but out of cunning, hoping that he could not accidentally find one more of his relatives in order to take his life.” In this way Clovis became the sole king of the Franks.

The Salic Truth testifies to the increased importance of royal power. According to the data available in it, the royal court was the highest authority. In the regions, the king ruled through his officials - counts and their assistants. The tribal people's assembly no longer existed. It was replaced by military reviews, convened and conducted by the king. These are the so-called "March fields". True, in the villages and hundreds (the union of several villages) the people's court (mallus) was still preserved, but gradually this court also began to be headed by a count. All "objects that belonged to the king", according to "Salicheskaya Pravda", were protected by a triple fine. Representatives of the church were also in a privileged position. The life of a priest was guarded by a triple wergeld (600 solidi), and if someone took the life of a bishop, he had to pay an even larger wergeld - 900 solidi. Robbery and burning of churches and chapels were punished with high fines. The growth of state power required its consecration with the help of the church, so the Frankish kings multiplied and protected church privileges.

So, the political system of the Franks was characterized by the growth and strengthening of royal power. This was facilitated by the king's warriors, his officials, his entourage and representatives of the church, that is, the emerging layer of large landowners-feudal lords, who needed royal power to protect their newly emerged possessions and to expand them. The growth of royal power was also facilitated by those prosperous and wealthy peasants who separated from the free community members, from whom a layer of small and medium feudal lords subsequently grew.

Frankish society in the VI-VII centuries.

An analysis of the Salic Pravda shows that both Roman and Frankish social order played an important role in the development of Frankish society after the conquest of the territory of Gaul by the Franks. On the one hand, the Franks ensured the more rapid destruction of slaveholding remnants. “Ancient slavery has disappeared, ruined, impoverished free people have disappeared,” wrote Engels, “those who despised labor as a slave occupation. Between the Roman column and the new serf stood a free Frankish peasant” (F. Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, pp. 160-161.). On the other hand, not only the final disintegration of tribal relations among the Franks, but also the rapid disappearance of their communal ownership of arable land must be largely attributed to the influence of the Roman social order. By the end of the VI century. it has already turned from a hereditary possession into a complete, freely alienable landed property (allod) of the Frankish peasant.

The very resettlement of the Franks on Roman territory tore and could not but break alliances based on consanguinity. Constant movements mixed tribes and clans among themselves, unions of small rural communities arose, which still continued to own land in common. However, this communal, collective ownership of arable land, forests and meadows was not the only form of ownership among the Franks. Along with it, in the community itself, there was an individual property of the Franks that arose long before the resettlement for a personal plot of land, livestock, weapons, a house and household utensils.

In the territory conquered by the Franks, the private landed property of the Gallo-Romans, preserved from antiquity, continued to exist. In the process of conquering Roman territory, large-scale private ownership of the land of the Frankish king, his warriors, servants and close associates arose and established itself. The coexistence of different types of property did not last long, and the communal form of ownership of arable land, which corresponded to a lower level of productive forces, gave way to allod.

The edict of King Chilperic (second half of the 6th century), which established, in a change to the Salic Truth, the inheritance of land not only by the sons, but also by the daughters of the deceased, and in no case by his neighbors, shows that this process took place very quickly.

The appearance of a land allod among the Frankish peasant was of the utmost importance. The transformation of communal ownership of arable land into private ownership, that is, the transformation of this land into a commodity, meant that the emergence and development of large-scale landownership, associated not only with the conquest of new territories and the seizure of free land, but also with the loss by the peasant of the right of ownership to cultivated land, it became a matter of time.

Thus, as a result of the interaction of socio-economic processes that took place in ancient German society and in the late Roman Empire, Frankish society entered the period of early feudalism.

Immediately after the death of Clovis, the early feudal Frankish state was fragmented into the inheritances of his four sons, then united for a short time and then again fragmented into parts. Only the great-grandson of Clovis Chlothar II and the great-great-grandson Dagobert I managed to achieve a longer unification of the territory of the state in one hand at the beginning of the 7th century. But the power of the Merovingian royal family in Frankish society was based on the fact that they had a large land fund created as a result of the conquests of Clovis and his successors, and this land fund during the 6th and especially the 7th centuries. melted continuously. The Merovingians with a generous hand handed out awards to their warriors, and to their service people, and to the church. As a result of the continuous land grants of the Merovingians, the real basis of their power was greatly reduced. Representatives of other, larger and richer landowning families gained strength in society.

In this regard, the kings from the Merovingian clan were pushed into the background and received the nickname "lazy", and the actual power in the kingdom was in the hands of individual people from the landowning nobility, the so-called majordomes (major-houses were originally called the senior rulers of the royal court, who were in charge of the palace housekeeping and palace servants).

Over time, the mayordoms concentrated in their hands all the military and administrative power in the kingdom and became its de facto rulers. “The king,” the chronicler wrote, “had to be content with just one title and, sitting on the throne with long hair and a loose beard, was only one semblance of a sovereign, listened to the ambassadors who came from everywhere and gave them answers, as if on their own behalf, , memorized in advance and dictated to him ... The management of the state and everything that needed to be done or arranged in internal or external affairs, all this lay in the care of the mayor's house. At the end of the 7th and at the beginning of the 8th century. especially strengthened the mayordoms, who came out of the rich noble family of the Carolingians, who laid the foundation for a new dynasty on the throne of the Frankish kings - the Carolingian dynasty (VIII-X centuries).

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

In the V-VI centuries. the Franks still retained communal, tribal ties, relations of exploitation among the Franks themselves were not developed, and the Frankish service nobility, which formed into the ruling elite during the military campaigns of Clovis, was not numerous.

Politically, the Frankish kingdom under the Merovingians was not a single state. The sons of Clovis, after his death, began an internecine war, which continued with short breaks for more than a hundred years. But it was during this period that the formation of new social-class relations took place. In order to attract the Frankish nobility, the kings practiced a wide distribution of land. Donated lands became hereditary and freely alienable property ( allodome). Gradually, the combatants were transformed into feudal landowners.

Important changes also took place among the peasantry. In the mark (a peasant community among the Franks), private ownership of land (allod) was established. The process of property stratification and landlessness of the peasants intensified, which was accompanied by the attack of the feudal lords on their personal freedom. There were two forms of enslavement: with the help of precaria and commendations. Precarie was called an agreement under which the feudal lord provided the peasant with a piece of land on the terms of performing certain duties, formally this agreement did not establish personal dependence, but created favorable conditions.

Commentary meant the transfer of oneself under the patronage of the feudal lord. It provided for the transfer of ownership of the land to the master with its subsequent return in the form of a holding, the establishment of a personal dependence of the "weak" on his patron and the performance of a number of duties in his favor.

All this gradually led to the enslavement of the Frankish peasantry.

The social and class differences in the early class society of the Franks, as evidenced by the Salic truth, the legal monument of the Franks, dating back to the 5th century, manifested themselves most clearly in the position of slaves. Slave labor, however, was not widespread. A slave, in contrast to a free community-franc, was considered a thing. His theft was equivalent to the theft of an animal. The marriage of a slave to a free man entailed the loss of freedom by the latter.

Salic truth also points to the presence of other social groups among the Franks: serving nobility, free francs(community) and semi-free litas. The differences between them were not so much economic as socio-legal. They were connected mainly with the origin and legal status of a person or the social group to which this person belonged. An important factor influencing the legal differences of the Franks was belonging to the royal service, the royal squad, to the emerging state apparatus. These differences were most clearly expressed in the system of monetary compensation, which served to protect the life, property and other rights of individuals.

Along with slaves, there was a special category of persons - semi-free litas, whose life was estimated by half a free wergeld, at 100 solidi. Lit was an inferior resident of the Frankish community, who was personally and materially dependent on his master. Litas could enter into contractual relations, defend their interests in court, participate in military campaigns together with their master. Lit, like a slave, could be freed by his master, who, however, retained his property. For a crime, the litu was supposed, as a rule, the same punishment as a slave, for example, the death penalty for kidnapping a free person.

The law of the Franks also testifies to the beginning of the property stratification of Frankish society. The Salic Truth speaks of the master's servants or yard servants-slaves (vine growers, grooms, swineherds and even goldsmiths) serving the master's economy.

At the same time, the Salic truth testifies to the sufficient strength of the communal order, to communal ownership of fields, meadows, forests, wastelands, to the equal rights of communal peasants to communal land allotment. The very concept of private ownership of land in the Salic truth is absent. It only fixes the origin of the allod, providing for the right to transfer the allotment by inheritance through the male line. The further deepening of social class differences among the Franks was directly related to the transformation of the allod into the original form of private feudal land ownership. Allod - the alienable, inheritable land ownership of the free Franks - took shape in the process of decomposition of communal ownership of land. It underlay the emergence, on the one hand, of the patrimonial land tenure of feudal lords, and on the other hand, the land holding of peasants dependent on them.

The processes of feudalization among the Franks receive a powerful impetus during the wars of conquest of the 6th-7th centuries, when a significant part of the Gallo-Roman estates in Northern Gaul passes into the hands of the Frankish kings, the serving aristocracy, and royal warriors. Serving nobility, bound to some extent by vassal dependence on the king, who seized the right to dispose of the conquered land, becomes a major owner of land, livestock, slaves, colonies. It is replenished with a part of the Gallo-Roman aristocracy, which goes into the service of the Frankish kings.

The clash of the communal orders of the Franks and the late Roman private property orders of the Gallo-Romans, the coexistence and interaction of social structures so different in nature, accelerated the creation of new feudal relations. Already in the middle of the 7th century. in northern Gaul begins to take shape feudal fiefdom with its characteristic division of land into master (domain) and peasant (hold). The stratification of the "ordinary freemen" during the period of the conquest of Gaul also occurred due to the transformation of the communal elite into petty estates due to the appropriation of communal land.

The processes of feudalization in the VI-VII centuries. in the south of Gaul did not receive such rapid development as in the north. At this time, the size of the Frankish colonization here was insignificant, the vast estates of the Gallo-Roman nobility remained, the labor of slaves and columns continued to be widely used, but profound social changes took place here, mainly due to the widespread growth of large church land ownership.

5th-6th centuries in Western Europe were marked by the beginning of a powerful ideological offensive of the Christian Church. The ministers of dozens of newly emerging monasteries and churches preached about human brotherhood, about helping the poor and suffering, about other moral values.

The population of Gaul, under the spiritual influence of the clergy, headed by bishops, began to perceive more and more Christian dogmas, the idea of redemption, relying on the intercession of the holy fathers for the sake of gaining forgiveness during the transition to another world. In the era of endless wars, destruction, widespread violence, diseases, under the dominance of religious consciousness, people's attention naturally focused on such issues as death, posthumous judgment, retribution, hell and heaven. The church began to use the fear of purgatory and hell for its own selfish interests, collecting and accumulating numerous donations, including land donations, at the expense of both rulers and ordinary people. The growth of church landownership began with the land waivers of the church from Clovis.

The growing ideological and economic role of the church could not fail to manifest itself sooner or later in its power claims. However, the church at that time was not yet a political entity, did not have a single organization, representing a kind of spiritual community of people led by bishops, of which, according to tradition, the most important was considered the bishop of Rome, who later received the title of pope.

In the activities of the church as "Christ's governors" on earth, kings also increasingly interfered, who, in order to strengthen their extremely unstable power, appointed bishops from their close associates, convened church councils, presided over them, sometimes speaking on theological problems. In 511, at the Orleans church council convened by Clovis, it was decided that not a single layman could be inducted into the church without royal permission. The subsequent decision of the Orleans Church Council in 549 finally secured the right of kings to control the appointment of bishops.

It was a time of increasingly close intertwining of secular and religious power, when bishops and other religious figures sat in government bodies, and local civil administration was carried out by diocesan administrations.

Under Dagobert I at the beginning of the 7th century. the administration of church functions has become an integral part of the path to honor, after which the close king became local rulers - counts and bishops at the same time; it was not uncommon for bishops to rule cities and the surrounding rural settlements, mint money, collect taxes from taxable lands, control market trade, etc.

The bishops themselves, owning large church holdings, began to occupy an ever higher place in the emerging feudal hierarchy, which was facilitated by the unforbidden marriages of priests with laity, representatives of the feudal elite.

The rapid growth of feudal relations is characterized by the 7th-9th centuries. At this time, in Frankish society there is agricultural revolution, which led to the widespread establishment of large-scale feudal land ownership, to the loss of land and freedom by the community, to the growth of the private power of feudal magnates. This was facilitated by the action of a number of historical factors. Started from the VI-VII centuries. the growth of large landownership, accompanied by strife among landowners, revealed the fragility of the Merovingian kingdom, in which internal borders arose here and there as a result of the disobedience of the local nobility or the resistance of the population to the collection of taxes. Moreover, by the end of the 7th c. the Franks lost a number of lands and actually occupied the territory between the Loire and the Rhine.

One of the attempts to solve the problem of strengthening state unity in the face of widespread disobedience to the central authorities was the church council of "prelates and noble people", held in Paris in 614. The edict adopted by the council called for "severe suppression of rebellions and arrogant attacks by malefactors", threatened with punishment for "embezzlement and abuse of power by officials, tax collectors in trading places", but at the same time limited the right of civil judges and tax collectors on church lands, laying thus the statutory basis of their immunity. Bishops, moreover, according to the decision of the council, were to henceforth be elected "by the clergy and the people" while retaining the king's only right to approve the results of the elections.

First of all, the depletion of their land resources led to the weakening of the power of the Frankish kings. The distribution of land by the Frankish kings led to an increase in the power of noble families and a weakening of the position of royal power. Over time, the positions of the nobles strengthened so much that they essentially ruled the state, occupying post of major. Only on the basis of new awards, the granting of new rights to landowners, the establishment of new seigneurial-vassal ties, could the strengthening of royal power and the restoration of the unity of the Frankish state at that time take place. Such a policy was pursued by the Carolingians, who actually ruled the country even before the transfer of the royal crown to them in 751.

At the turn of the VII-VIII centuries. the post of mayor becomes the hereditary property of the noble and wealthy family of the Carolingians, who laid the foundation for a new dynasty.

Army. In the early stages of the development of the feudal state, the army was not separated from the people. It was a people's militia that took an active part in political life. At the end of the 5th - beginning of the 6th century. it was still built on a tribal basis. Under the Merovingians, the free peasant was the mainstay of royal power. The people's militia consisted of free community members-Franks, they participated in the court, in the protection of order. So long as this support was maintained, the royal power could resist the claims to power of the landed magnates.

The removal of the armed people from administration was a direct consequence of the collapse of the tribal basis of the Frankish army, replenished in the 7th century. Gallo-Romans, free precarists. The military organization of the Franks was influenced by Roman institutions. So, garrison service was introduced, the subordination of military detachments to local officials, the appointment of thousands of commanders and centurions by the king.

The source of law is custom. During the period of the V-IX centuries. on the territory of the Frankish state, the customs of the tribes are recorded in the form of the so-called "barbarian truths". Salic, Rinoir, Burgundian, Alleman and other truths are created.

The sources of early feudal law also include immunity letters and formulas. Immunity charters issued by the king to the feudal lords removed this territory from the judicial, financial and police jurisdiction of the state, transferring these powers to the feudal lords.

The formulas were samples of charters, contracts and other official documents.