Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/243

 THE FRANKISH STATE AND CHARLEMAGNE 203 state business, such as issuing new laws, was transacted, not tut the mustering, but at the meeting of the nobles. More- over, it was no longer the custom for every freeman to serve n the army, but only those with a certain amount of land. 3thers combined to support one soldier. When Charles deposed the Duke of Bavaria, he did away with the last of the old tribal leaders of the other Germanic beoples absorbed by the Franks, and native Local iukes were left only in Celtic Brittany and government among the Basques. He appointed a few new dukes, but ithey were exceptional ; his regular local officer was the count. The Frankish territories were divided into counties, and in bach the count was the royal representative, attending es- pecially to judicial and military matters. Charles appointed whom he pleased, but the term of the office was for life, a dangerous reature liable to result in the office becoming lereditary. Charles also depended a great deal upon the
 * »ishops in the localities and instructed his counts to co-

operate with them. Newly conquered territory or districts leeding to be kept in a state of military preparation for frontier defense, were organized as marks under margraves, OX. counts of the marks. Sometimes a mark included more than one county and was placed under a duke. The chief marks at this time were the Breton, Spanish, Friulian, Avarian, Sorbian, and Saxon. The lesser administrative officials under the count need not be listed here, but we should note that the people in the localities still kept their folk-courts under the summons and presidency of the count. The officials called missi were links between the central and local government, who traversed the realm by twos and threes, looking after the king's interests and seeing to it that his local officials were faithful and efficient. When sent in pairs, these itinerants were often clergyman and layman. The king was not yet accustomed to levy a general money tax or payment in kind upon his people, but this deficiency was largely due to the primitive economic condi- ~ , ., Royal power tions and lack of money, and to the poor com- munications which would have made it difficult to bring a