cal and military, which was strengthening
itself. With the unworthy sons of the "good king Dagobert" this
authority gradually disappeared entirely under the rising power of the
mayors of the palace, who succeeded in making their office hereditary
under an Austrasian family, that of the Carlovingians, already powerful
in their own right.

Charlemagne's court was constituted much in the same manner as that of
the Merovingians: his royal officers included bishops, comtes, ducs,
_missi dominici_, any of whom were eligible for the council that could
at need be transformed into a tribunal to judge the causes of the
Francs. The efforts of this monarch to repress the persistent progress
of the aristocracy were more intelligent and successful than those of
his successors, but the general movement of society was in their favor.
Charles le Chauve, desirous of obtaining the imperial crown, which was
without an owner in 875, assembled his vassals at a diet at
Kiersy-sur-Oise and there signed a capitulaire which gave to the sons of
those of his comtes who followed him into Italy the right to succeed to
their fathers' titles. This formal recognition of a practice already
ancient deprived the king of the powers which he had once conferred.

[Illustration: THE YOUNG SAINT-LOUIS AND HIS MOTHER, BLANCHE OF
CASTILLE, DELIVERING ECCLESIASTICAL PRISONERS FROM NOTRE-DAME.

From a painting by L. O. Merson.]

The Capetiens were also elected to the throne, but the Roman tradition,
preserved by the Church, recognized in their accession to power "a
decree of Providence," and the _sovereign_ was recognized in the feudal
suzerain, "even when he was not obeyed." The great royal officers, the
_Ministerium regale_, included the Chancelier, who signed the state
papers; the Senechal, a species of mayor of the palace, of which he had
charge of the service; the Connetable, chief of the royal stables and,
later, head of the military forces; the Chambrier, keeper of the
treasury and the archives; the Bouteillier, who administered the
vineyards and the revenues of the royal domains. All these high offices
were made the objects of persistent attempts on the part of the holders
to retain them as hereditary privileges. In the eleventh, as in the
sixth century, we find three classes of society in Gaul, the
Gallo-Romans,--the barbarians,--the _clercs_,--the Church being replaced
by the seigneurs,--and the serfs, each with its own organization and
manners and c