24. Of the Marriages of the Kings of the Franks. I have already mentioned that with people who do not cultivate the earth, marriages are less fixed than with others, and that they generally take many wives. "Of all the barbarous nations the Germans were almost the only people who were satisfied with one wife,33 if we except," says Tacitus, "some persons who, not from a dissoluteness of manners, but because of their nobility, had many."34

　　This explains the reason why the kings of the first race had so great a number of wives. These marriages were less a proof of incontinence than a consequence of dignity: and it would have wounded them in a tender point to have deprived them of such a prerogative.35 This also explains the reason why the example of the kings was not followed by the subjects.

　　25. Childeric. "The laws of matrimony amongst the Germans," says Tacitus, "are strictly observed. Vice is not there a subject of ridicule. To corrupt or be corrupted is not called fashion, or the custom of the age:36 there are few examples in this populous nation of the violation of conjugal faith."37

　　This was the reason of the expulsion of Childeric: he shocked their rigid virtue, which conquest had not had time to corrupt.

　　26. Of the Time when the Kings of the Franks became of age. Barbarians who do not cultivate the earth have, strictly speaking, no jurisdiction, and are, as we have already remembered, rather governed by the law of nations than by civil institutions. They are, therefore, always armed. Thus Tacitus tells us "that the Germans undertook no affairs either of a public or private nature unarmed."38 They gave their vote by the sound of their arms.39 As soon as they could carry them, they were presented to the assembly;40 they put a javelin into their hands;41 and from that moment they were out of their minority: they had been a part of the family, now they became a part of the republic.42

　　"The eagles," said the king of the Ostrogoths,43 "cease to feed their young ones as soon as their wings and talons are formed; the latter have no need of assistance when they are able themselves to seize their prey: it would be a disgrace if the young people in our armies were thought to be of an age unfit for managing their estates or regulating the conduct of their lives. It is virtue that constitutes full age among the Goths."

　　Childebert II was fifteen years old when Gontram, his uncle, declared that he was of age, and capable of governing by himself.44 We find in the Ripuarian laws that the age of fifteen, the ability of bearing arms, and majority, went together. It is there said45 "that if a Ripuarian dies, or is killed, and leaves a son behind him, that son can neither prosecute, nor be prosecuted, till he has completely attained the age of fifteen; and then he may either answer for himself or choose a champion." It was necessary that his mind should be sufficiently formed to be able to defend himself in court; and that his body should have all the strength that was proper for his defence in single combat. Among the Burgundians,46 who also made use of this combat in their judiciary proceedings, they were of age at fifteen.

　　Agathias tells us that the arms of the Franks were light: they might, therefore, be of age at fifteen. In succeeding times the arms they made use of were heavy, and they were already greatly so in the time of Charlemagne, as appears by our capitularies and romances. Those who had fiefs,47 and were consequently obliged to do military service, were not then of age till they were twenty-one years old.48

　　27. The same Subject continued. We have seen that the Germans did not appear in their assemblies before they were of age; they were a part of the family, but not of the republic. This was the reason that the children of Clodomir, king of Orleans, and conqueror of Burgundy, were not proclaimed kings, because they were of too tender an age to be present at the assembly. They were not yet kings, but they had a right to the regal dignity as soon as they were able to bear arms; and in the meantime, Clotildis, their grandmother, governed the state.49 But their uncles Clotarius and Childebert assassinated them, and divided their kingdom. This was the cause that in the following ages princes in their minority were proclaimed kings immediately after the death of their fathers. Thus Duke Gondovald saved Childebert II from the cruelty of Chilperic, and caused him to be proclaimed king when he was only five years old.50

　　But even in this change they followed the original spirit of the nation; for the public acts did not pass in the name of the young monarch. So that the Franks had a double administration: the one which concerned the person of the infant king, and the other which regarded the kingdom; and in the fiefs there was a difference between the guardianship and the civil administration.

　　28. Of Adoption among the Germans. As the Germans became of age by the wielding of arms, so they were adopted by the same sign. Thus Gontram, willing to declare his nephew Childebert of age and to adopt him for his son, made use of these words: "I have put this javelin into thy hands as a token that I have given thee all my kingdom."51 Then, turning towards the assembly, he added, "You see that my son Childebert is grown a man; obey him." Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, intending to adopt the king of the Heruli, wrote to him thus:52 "It is a noble custom of ours to be adopted by arms; for men of courage alone deserve to be our children. Such is the efficacy of this act, that whoever is the object of it had rather die than submit to anything ignominious. Therefore, in compliance with the national usage, and because you are a man of courage, we adopt you for our son by these bucklers, these swords, these horses, which we send you as a present."

　　29. Of the sanguinary Temper of the Kings of the Franks. Clovis was not the only prince amongst the Franks who had invaded Gaul. Many of his relatives had penetrated into this country with particular tribes; but as he had met with much greater success, and could grant considerable settlements to such as followed him, the Franks flocked to him from all parts, so that the other chiefs found themselves too weak to resist him. He formed a design of exterminating his whole race, and he succeeded.53 He feared, says Gregory of Tours,54 lest the Franks should choose another chief. His children and successors followed this practice to the utmost of their power. Thus the brother, the uncle, the nephew, and, what is still worse, the father or the son, were perpetually conspiring against their whole family. The law continually divided the monarchy; while fear, ambition, and cruelty wanted to reunite it.

　　30. Of the national Assemblies of the Franks. It has been remarked above that nations who do not cultivate the land enjoy great liberty.

　　This was the case of the Germans. Tacitus says that they gave their kings, or chiefs, a very moderate degree of power;55 and C?sar adds further that in times of peace they had no common magistrates; but their princes administered justice in each village.56 Thus, as Gregory of Tours57 sufficiently proves, the Franks in Germany had no king.

　　"The princes," says Tacitus, "deliberate on matters of no great concern; while affairs of importance are submitted to the whole nation, but in such a manner that these very affairs which are under the cognizance of the people are at the same time laid before the princes."58 This custom was observed by them after their conquests, as may be seen in all their records.59

　　Tacitus says that capital crimes might be carried before the assembly.60 It was the same after the conquest, when the great vassals were tried before that body.

　　31. Of the Authority of the Clergy under the first Race. The priests of barbarous nations are commonly invested with power, because they have both that authority which is due to them from their religious character, and that influence which among such a people is the offspring of superstition. Thus we see in Tacitus that priests were held in great veneration by the Germans, and that they presided in the assemblies of the people.61 They alone were permitted62 to chastise, to bind, to smite; which they did, not by order of the prince, or as his ministers of justice, but as by an inspiration of that Deity ever supposed to be present with those who made war.

　　We ought not, therefore, to be astonished when, from the very beginning of the first race, we meet with bishops the dispensers of justice,63 when we see them appear in the assemblies of the nation; when they have such a prodigious influence on the minds of sovereigns; and when they acquire so large a share of property.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

　　1. Book vii. 7.

　　2. Solon.

　　3. Or he who wrote the book De Mirabilibus.

　　4. Japan is an exception to this, by its great extent as well as by its slavery.

　　5. Polybius, x. 25.

　　6. It is thus that Diodorus, v. 35, tells us the shepherds found gold in the Pyrenean mountains.

　　7. Edifying Letters, coll. xx.

　　8. When a khan is proclaimed, all the people cry that his word shall be as a sword.

　　9. Book xvii. 5.

　　10. We ought not therefore to be astonished at Mahomet, the son of Miriveis, who, upon taking Ispahan, put all the princes of the blood to the sword.

　　11. Tit. 62.

　　12. Nullas Germanorum populis urbes habitari satis notum est, ne pati quidem inter se junctas sedes; colunt discreti, ut nemus placuit. Vicos locant, non in nostrum morem connexis et coharentibus ?difidis: suam quisque domum spatio circumdat. — De Moribus Germanorum, 16.

　　13. The Law of the Alemans, 10, and the Law of the Bavarians, tit. 10, §§ 1, 2.

　　14. This inclosure is called curtis in the charters.

　　15. See Marculfus, ii, form. 10, 12. Appendix to Marculfus, form. 49, and the ancient formularies of Sirmondus, form. 22.

　　16. Form. 55, in Lindembroch's collection.

　　17. De terra vero Salica in mulierem nulla portio hereditatis transit, sed hoc virilis sexus acquirit, hoc est filii in ipsa hereditate succedunt. — Tit. 68, § 6.

　　18. Sororum filiis idem apud avunculum quam apud patrem honor. Quidam sanctiorem arcti-oremque hunc nexum sanguinis arbitrantur, et in accipiendis obsidibus magis exigunt, tanquam ii et animum firmius et domum latius teneant — De Moribus Germanorum, 20.

　　19. See, in Gregory of Tours, viii. 18, 20 and ix, 16, 20, the rage of Gontram at Leovigild's ill-treatment of Ingunda, his niece, which Childebert her brother took up arms to revenge.

　　20. Salic Law, tit. 47.

　　21. Ibid., tit. 61, § 1.

　　22. Et deinceps usque ad quintum genuculum qui proximus fuerit in hereditatem succedat. — Tit. 56, § 6.

　　23. Tit. 56.

　　24. Tit. 7, § 1: Pater aut mater defuncti, filio non fili? hereditatem relinquant; § 4, qui defunctus, non filios, sed filias reliquerit, ad eas omnis hereditas pertineat.

　　25. In Marculfus, ii, form. 12, and in the Appendix to Marculfus, form. 49.

　　26. Lindembroch's collection, form. 55.

　　27. Du Cange, Pithou, &c.

　　28. Tit. 62.

　　29. Tit. 1, § 3; tit. 16, § 1; tit. 51.

　　30. Book iv, tit. 2, § 1.

　　31. The German nations, says Tacitus, De Moribus Germanorum, 22, had common customs, as well as those which were peculiar to each.

　　32. Among the Ostrogoths, the crown twice devolved to the males by means of females; the first time to Athalaricus, through Amalasuntha, and the second to Theodat, through Amalafreda. Not but that the females of that nation might have held the crown in their own right; for Amalasuntha reigned after the death of Athalaricus; nay, even after the election of Theodat, and in conjunction with that prince. See Amalasuntha's and Theodat's letters, in Cassiodorus, x.

　　33. Prope soli Barbarorum singulis uxoribus contenti stint. — De Moribus Germanorum, 18.

　　34. Exceptis admodum paucis qui non libidine, sed ob nobilitatem, plurimis nuptiis ambiuntur. — Ibid.

　　35. See Fredegarius, Chronicle of the year 628.

　　36. Severa matrimonia . . . nemo illic vitia ridet, nec corrumpere et corrumpi s?culum vocatur. — De Moribus Germanorum, 19.

　　37. Paucissima in tam numerosa gente adulteria. — Ibid.

　　38. Nihil neque public? neque privat? rei nisi armati agunt. — Ibid., 13.

　　39. Si displicuit sententia, fremitu aspernantur; sin placuit, frameas concutiunt. — Ibid., 11.

　　40. Sed arma sumere non ante cuiquam moris, quam civitas suffecturum probaverit. — Ibid., 13.

　　41. Tum in ipso concilia vel principum aliquis, vel pater, vel propinquus, scuto, frameaque juvenem ornant.

　　42. H?c apud illos toga, hic primus juvent? honos; ante hoc domni pars videntur, mox reipublic?.

　　43. Theodoric in Cassiodorus, i. 38.

　　44. He was scarcely five years old, says Gregory of Tours, v. 1, when he succeeded to his father, in the year 575. Gontram declared him of age in the year 585; he was, therefore, at that time no more than fifteen.

　　45. Tit. 81.

　　46. Tit. 87.

　　47. There was no change in the time with regard to the common people.

　　48. St. Louis was not of age till twenty-one; this was altered by an edict of Charles V in the year 1374.

　　49. It appears from Gregory of Tours, iii, that she chose two natives of Burgundy, which had been conquered by Clodomir, to raise them to the see of Tours, which also belonged to Clodomir.

　　50. Ibid., v. 1: Vix lustro ?tatis uno jam peracto qui die Dominic? Natalis regnare coepit.

　　51. See Ibid., vii. 23.

　　52. In Cassiodorus, iv. 2.

　　53. Gregory of Tours, ii.

　　54. Ibid.

　　55. Nec Regibus libera aut infinita potestas. C?terum neque animadvertere, neque vincire, neque verberare, &c. — De Moribus Germanorum, 7.

　　56. In pace nullus est communis magistratus, sed principes regionum atque pagorum inter suos jus dicunt. — De Bello Gall., vi. 22.

　　57. Book ii.

　　58. De minoribus principes consultant, de majoribus omnes; ita tamen ut ea quorum penes plebem arbitrium est, apud principes pertractentur. — De Moribus Germanorum, 11.

　　59. Lex consensu Populi fit et constitutione Regis. — Capitularies of Charles the Bald, year 864, art. 6.

　　60. Licet apud Concilium accusare et discrimen capitis intendere. — De Moribus Germanorum, 12.

　　61. Silentium per sacerdotes, quibus et coercendi jus est, imperatur. — Ibid., 11.

　　62. Nec Regibus libera aut infinita potestas. C?terum neque animadvertere, neque vincire, neque verberare, nisi sacerdotibus est permissum, non quasi in poenam, nec Ducis jussu, sed velut Deo imperante, quem adesse, bellatoribus credunt. — Ibid., 7.

　　63. See the Constitutions of Clotarius, year 560, art. 6.