uncle would certainly exclude an aunt under
the Roman law; but most of the Germanic codes allowed them an equal
succession.[333] Nevertheless, when women did inherit under the former,
they acquired the land also. Moreover, the woman among the Germanic
nations must always be under guardianship; and whereas under the Empire
the power of the guardian was in practice reduced to nullity, as I have
shown, among the barbarians it was extremely powerful, because to assert
one's rights often involved fighting in the lists to determine the
judgment of God. It was a settled conviction among the Germanic peoples
that God would give the victory to the rightful claimant. As women could
not fight, a champion or guardian was a necessity. This was not true in
Roman courts, which preferred to settle litigation by juristic reasoning
and believed, like Napoleon, that God, when appealed to in a fight, was
generally on the side of the party who had the better artillery.

Children inherited not only the estate but also the friendships and
enmities of their fathers, which it was their duty to take up.
Hereditary feuds were a usual thing.[334] King Liutprand ordaine[335]
however, that if a daughter alone survived, the feud was to be brought
to an end and an agreement effected.

Some of the nations seem to have provided that children must not be
disinherited except for very strong reasons; for example, the law of the
Visigoths[336] forbids more than one third of their estate being
alienated by mother or father, grandmother or grandfather. The Alemanni
permitted a free man to leave all his property to the Church and his
heirs had no redress[337]; but the Bavarians compelled him before
entering monastic life to distribute among his children their
proportionate parts.[338]

[Sidenote: Property of the married woman.]

We may pass now to the property rights of the married woman. The
relation of her husband to the dowry I have already explained. The dowry
was conceived as being ultimately for the children; only when there were
no children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren did the woman have
licence to dispose of the dowry as she wished: this was the law among
the Visigoths.[339] The dowry, then, was to revert to the children or
grandchildren at the death of the wife; if there were none such, to the
parents or relatives who had given her in marriage; these failing, it
escheated to the Crown--so according to Rotharis.[340] By the laws of
the Vi