Lecture XIX.—Page [154]
Government of Charlemagne.
Apparent revival of free institutions.
Individual independence and social liberty.
Organization of monarchical power under Charlemagne.
His active surveillance over his vassals and agents.
Rapid decline of monarchical institutions after his death.
Definitive predominance of the feudal system.
Central institutions during the same epoch: royalty.
Causes of the progress of royalty, and of the principle of hereditary succession among the Franks.
Influence of the clergy.
Lecture XX.—Page [163]
National assemblies of the Franks; their primitive character, and rapid decline under the Merovingians.
They regain importance under the Carlovingians; and are held regularly under Charlemagne.
Letter of Archbishop Hincmar De ordine Palatii.
Lecture XXI.—Page [171]
Decay of national assemblies under Louis the Débonnair and Charles the Bald.
Definitive predominance of the feudal system at the end of the tenth century.
Cause of this predominance.
Character of feudalism.
No trace of true representative government in France, from the fifth to the tenth century.
Lecture XXII.—Page [177]
Political institutions of the Visigoths.
Peculiar character of Visigothic legislation.
Its authors and its influences.
Destruction and disappearance of the middle class in the Roman empire, at the time of the Barbarian invasion.
History of the Roman municipal system.
Three epochs in that history.