. European history : an outline of its development. House.—At thissame date the Merovingian house, the family of Clovis, en-tered upon a period of rapid decay and exhaustion, theperiod of the faineant or do-nothing kings. The savagepassions of Clovis descended in his family. Its history isfull of treachery, murder, and crimes of all kinds. In thelast half of the sixth century two famous queens, Frede-gonda and Brunhilda, strove for supremacy and triumphover one another, in a most barbarous and brutal conflictfrom which begins the corruption of the strength of theline. Dagobert, who was king fr
. European history : an outline of its development. House.—At thissame date the Merovingian house, the family of Clovis, en-tered upon a period of rapid decay and exhaustion, theperiod of the faineant or do-nothing kings. The savagepassions of Clovis descended in his family. Its history isfull of treachery, murder, and crimes of all kinds. In thelast half of the sixth century two famous queens, Frede-gonda and Brunhilda, strove for supremacy and triumphover one another, in a most barbarous and brutal conflictfrom which begins the corruption of the strength of theline. Dagobert, who was king from 628 to 638, was the lastof the Merovingians who really ruled. After him the con-trol of the state passed into the hands of the great officers § i3S] The Decay of the Merovingian House 143 who were called the mayors of the palace, and the kingswere reduced to mere shadows, with no voice in the con-duct of affairs. One characteristic of the Frankish constitution made the prankishdissolution of government comparatively easy. The ma- count. The. EUROPE About 525 SCALE OF MILESb 100 200 300 400 /O longitude East from Green inch Barmay i Co., N. Y. chinery of the state was very simple. The chief adminis-trative officer was the count, or graf, an officer of theprimitive Germans whose duties had been enlarged underRoman influence. The territory of the state was dividedinto districts called counties, each of which was adminis- 144 ^/^^ Founding of the German States [§§ 136,137 Changes inItaly. Cha acter ofthe Empirein the East. justi lian,527-565,Bury. Em/>: e, , ; Oman,ByzantneEmpir.(Natiois),Chaps. VII. tered by a count. In his hands were concentrated all thevarious functions of the state. He collected the taxes, ad-ministered and enforced the laws, presided in the courts ofjustice, was the military head of his county, and repre-sented the interests of the state in all directions. So muchpower in the hands of an individual, who was often, to beginwith,
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