A code of laws promulgated by Clovis, generally called the founder of the French Monarchy, circ. 500. By the Salic Law women were forbidden to inherit land, a prohibition which was afterwards interpreted as including the right of succession to the throne. The English Kings refused to accept this interpretation, and the various attempts they made to enforce their claim to the French throne led to the prolonged conflict known as the Hundred Years War, which broke out in the reign of Edward III. Edward claimed the throne through his mother Isabella, daughter of Philip IV, all of whose sons died without male issue.
Sallee Rovers.
The name given to the Moorish pirates who infested the Mediterranean till well into the nineteenth century. Sallee or Sali, one of their principal ports, is on the Atlantic coast of Morocco.
Samoan Conference.
A conference held at Berlin in 1889, at which Germany, Great Britain and the United States were represented. An arrangement was arrived at by which the three Powers recognized the independence of Samoa, and the right of the natives to elect their king. At the same time provision was made for a Supreme Court of Justice, under European control, and for the regulation of the trade in arms and intoxicating liquors. It was superseded in 1899 by the Samoan Treaty.
Samoan Treaty.
A treaty between Germany, Great Britain and the United States signed in 1899, after the suppression of the civil war between Mataafa and Malietoa. Germany obtained possession of Samoa, and the United States secured a naval port at Tutuila, in Pago Pago, while England’s rights over Tonga were recognized. Equal liberty of trading was secured to all the contracting parties.
Samurai.
The military, governing and literary class in Old Japan, the retainers of the Daimios. They were the highest of the four classes into which the nation was divided, and formed in fact the gentry of Japan. The army and navy of to-day are almost exclusively officered by members of the Samurai families.