Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/464

412 and romances. Those who had fiefs, and were consequently obliged to do military service, were not then of age, till they were twenty one years old.

E 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 declared kings, because they of too tender an age to be present at the assembly. They were not yet kings, but they had a right to be kings as soon as they were able to bear arms; and in the mean time Clotildis their grandmother governed the state. But their uncles Clotarius and Childebert assassinated them, and divided their kingdom. This action was the cause that in the following ages, princes in their minority were declared kings immediately after the death of their fathers. Thus duke Gondovald saved Childebert II. from the cruelty of Chilperic, and caused him to be declared king when he was only five years old. Rh