To the comites, who, according to Tacitus, attached themselves to the fortunes of the Germanic chiefs, succeeded the Merovingian leudes, whose assembly formed the King's Council.

These leudes were persons of great importance owing to the number of their vassals, and although they composed his ordinary Council, they did not hesitate at times to declare themselves openly opposed to his will.

The name of leudes was abandoned under the second of the then French dynasties, and replaced by that of fidèles, which, in truth soon became a common designation of both the vassals of the Crown and those of the nobility.

These chiefs, at each general assembly of the Leudes, or great vassals, received presents of money, of arms, of horses, and of various objects of home or of foreign manufacture.

The Leudes considered that they owed nothing to the treasury, and to force them to submit to taxation was not an easy matter.

In 673, Childéric II., King of Austrasia, had one of these Leudes, named Bodillon, flogged with rods for daring to reproach him with the injustice of certain taxes.

He, however, was afterwards assassinated by this same Bodillon, and the Leudes maintained their right of immunity.

A century before the Leudes were already quarrelling with royalty on account of the taxes, which they refused to pay, and they sacrificed Queen Brunehaut because she attempted to enrich the treasury with the confiscated property of a few nobles who had rebelled against her authority.

The wealth of the Frank kings, which was always very great, was a continual object of envy, and on one occasion Chilpéric I., King of Soissons, having the Leudes in league with him, laid his hands on the wealth amassed by his father, Clotaire I., which was kept in the Palace of Braine.

Chilpéric (Fig. 254) was so much in awe of these Leudes that he did not ask them for money.

In 732 this great military chieftain, after his struggle with Rainfroy, and after his brilliant victories over the Saxons, the Bavarians, the Swiss, and the Saracens, stripped the clergy of their landed possessions, in order to distribute them amongst his Leudes, who by this means he secured as his creatures, and who were, therefore, ever willing and eager to serve him in arms.

Without absolutely abolishing the authority of local customs in matters of finance, or penalties which had been illegally exacted, they were suspended by laws decided at the Champs de Mai, by the Counts and by the Leudes, in presence of the Emperor.

In 596, Childebert, in concert with his leudes, decided that in future the crime of rape should be punished with death, and that the judge of the district (pagus) in which it had been committed should kill the ravisher, and leave his body on the public road.

By these canons the judges and other officers of State were made responsible, the benefices which had been withdrawn from the leudes were restored, the King was forbidden from granting written orders (præcepta) for carrying off rich widows, young virgins, and nuns; and the penalty of death was ordered to be enforced against those who disobeyed the canons of the council.

It is likewise agreed that neither of the two kings shall solicit the Leudes of the other or receive them if they offer themselves; and if, peradventure, any of these Leudes shall think it necessary, in consequence of some fault, to take refuge with the other king, he shall be absolved according to the nature of his fault and given back.

It is likewise agreed that neither of the two kings shall solicit the Leudes of the other or receive them if they offer themselves; and if, peradventure, any of these Leudes shall think it necessary, in consequence of some fault, to take refuge with the other king, he shall be absolved according to the nature of his fault and given back.

To compensate, Brunehaut was detested by the majority of the Austrasian chiefs, those Leudes, landowners and warriors, whose sturdy and turbulent independence she was continually fighting against.

It was very often the Franks themselves, the royal "leudes," who plunged their kings into civil or foreign wars.

King Dagobert was not thus under the yoke of his "leudes."

Thus we meet, at this time, with mayors of the palace of very different political origin and intention, some appointed by the kings to support royalty against the "leudes," others chosen by the "leudes" against the kings.

Thus we meet, at this time, with mayors of the palace of very different political origin and intention, some appointed by the kings to support royalty against the "leudes," others chosen by the "leudes" against the kings.

He was obliged to attract or retain by rich presents, particularly by gifts of lands, the warriors, old and new "leudes," who formed his strength.

The Pope, whom St. Boniface, the great missionary of Germany, had prepared for the question, answered that "it was better to give the title of king to him who exercised the sovereign power;" and next year, in March, 752, in the presence and with the assent of the general assembly of "leudes" and bishops gathered together at Soissons, Pepin was proclaimed king of the Franks, and received from the hand of St. Boniface the sacred anointment.

He came thither accompanied by the officers who were to form his council of guardians, men chosen by Charlemagne, with care, amongst the Frankish 'leudes,' distinguished not only for bravery and firmness, but also for adroitness, and such as they should be to be neither deceived nor seared by the cunning, fickle, and turbulent populations with whom they would have to deal."

The authority belonged, at one and the same time, to assemblies of free men, to landholders over the dwellers on their domains, and to the king over the "leudes" and their following.