Proto-Carolingian

  General Description   This polity represents the late period of the Merovingian Kingdom, from 687 to 751 CE.
Population and political organization
Merovingian France was a largely decentralized kingdom based on the pre-existing Roman administrative system, in which cities were the basic units. ^[1] The city rulers, known as counts or grafio, who sent the king his tax revenue and carried out judicial and administrative functions, had access to both administrative officials and city archives (gesta municipalia). ^{[2] [1]} Groups of cities and counts could be placed under a duke for military and administrative purposes. ^[3]
In contrast, there was no elaborate central administration, the highest non-royal official being a figure known as the mayor of the palace. ^[4] The king’s capital and main residence was at Paris, where the population may have reached 30,000 by the 8th century CE, ^[5] although the court was always a peripatetic institution. ^[6] The king consulted a group of magnates (obtimates) at an annual gathering around 1 March. Written references to royal edicts are known from 614 CE onwards, but earlier royal legislation has not survived. ^[7] Merovingian kings had the authority to appoint dukes and counts as well as bishops, who were often ’royal servants with no known connections with their sees’. ^[8]
From 622 CE onwards the basic territorial divisions of the Merovingian Kingdom were Neustria (centred on the Seine and Oise rivers and associated with the Pactus Legis Salicae law code), ^[9] Burgundy (where the Liber Constitutionum was developed), and Austrasia (by the Rhine and Meuse, which came to possess its own mayor of the palace ^[10] and followed the Lex Ribvaria). ^[9] A fourth area, Aquitaine, had a special status due to its distance from the royal centres and was under less direct Merovingian control. ^[11]

[1]: (Loseby 1998, 245-49) Loseby, S. T. 1998. “Gregory’s Cities: Urban Functions in Sixth-Century Gaul.” In Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian Period: An Ethnographic Perspective, edited by I. N. Wood, 239-69. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/DT5E5GNS.

[2]: (Wood 1994, 204) Wood, Ian. 1994. The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751. London: Longman. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/ARUIRN35.

[3]: (Bachrach 1972, 67) Bachrach, Bernard S. 1972. Merovingian Military Organization 481-751. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SG5XNFPG.

[4]: (Halsall 2003, 28) Halsall, Guy. 2003. Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450-900. London: Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/Z5EZBP2R.

[5]: (Clark and Henneman, Jr. 1995, 1316) Clark, William W., and John Bell Henneman, Jr. 1995. “Paris.” In Medieval France: An Encyclopedia, edited by William W. Kibler, Grover A. Zinn, Lawrence Earp, and John Bell Henneman, Jr., 1314-30. New York: Garland Publishing. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/HS8644XK.

[6]: (Wood 1994, 150-53) Wood, Ian. 1994. The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751. London: Longman. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/ARUIRN35.

[7]: (Fouracre 1998, 286-89) Fouracre, P. J. 1998. “The Nature of Frankish Political Institutions in the Seventh Century.” In Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian Period: An Ethnographic Perspective, edited by Ian Wood, 285-316. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/GT2AINW4.

[8]: (Wood 1994, 78) Wood, Ian. 1994. The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751. London: Longman. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/ARUIRN35.

[9]: (Wood 1994, 112-15) Wood, Ian. 1994. The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751. London: Longman. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/ARUIRN35.

[10]: (Fanning 1995, 157) Fanning, Steven. 1995. “Austrasia.” In Medieval France: An Encyclopedia, edited by William W. Kibler, Grover A. Zinn, Lawrence Earp, and John Bell Henneman, Jr., 156-57. New York: Garland Publishing. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/GR2MKFDX.

[11]: (Wood 1994, 100, 146) Wood, Ian. 1994. The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751. London: Longman. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/ARUIRN35.