File:Medieval and modern history; an outline of its development (1903) (14772897001).jpg

Identifier: medievalmodernhi00adam (find matches)
Title: Medieval and modern history; an outline of its development
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Adams, George Burton, 1851-1925
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, The Macmillan company London, Macmillan and co., ltd.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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House.—At thissame date the Merovingian house, the family of Clovis, en-tered upon a period of rapid decay and exhaustion, theperiod of the faineant or do-nothing kings. The savagepassions of Clovis descended in his family. Its history isfull of treachery, murder, and crimes of all kinds. In thelast half of the sixth century two famous queens, Frede-gonda and Brunhilda, strove for supremacy and triumphover one another, in a most barbarous and brutal conflictfrom which begins the corruption of the strength of theline. Dagobert, who was king from 628 to 638, was the lastof the Merovingians who really ruled. After him the con-trol of the state passed into the hands of the great officers § 4i) TJie Decay of the Meivvijigian House 43 who were called the mayors of the palace, and the kingswere reduced to mere shadows, with no voice in the con-duct of affairs. One characteristic of the Frankish constitution made the TlieFrankish dissolution of government comparatively easy. The ma- count.
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EUROPE About 525 SCALE OF MILES0 Too 200 300 400b IO jEongitude East from Greenwich Borma,iC<,.,S,T. chinery of the state was very simple. The chief adminis-trative officer was the count, or graf, an officer of theprimitive Germans whose duties had been enlarged underRoman influence. The territory of the state was dividedinto districts called counties, each of which was adminis- 44 The Founding of the German States (§§ 42,43 Changes inItaly. Character ofthe Empirein the East. Justinian, 527-565-Bury, Empire, Bk.IV., Chap.II.; Oman,ByzantineEmpire(Nations),Chaps. VI.and VII. tered by a count. In his hands were concentrated all thevarious functions of the state. He collected the taxes, ad-ministered and enforced the laws, presided in the courts ofjustice, was the military head of his county, and repre-sented the interests of the state in all directions. So muchpower in the hands of an individual, who was often, to beginwith, one of the great landholders of his county, made itvery e

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