ABSTRACT
After the barbarian invasions their numbers were no doubt augmented by a proportion of the German immigrants who settled permanently on Gallic soil. This is not to imply that all or even most of the barbarians lived merely on the margins of the seigneurial system; we have Tacitus' word for it that even in their original habitat the Germans were accustomed to render obedience and 'gifts', i.e. customary dues, to their village chiefs, who were thus well on the way to becoming lords. It is quite impossible for us to arrive at even an approximate estimate of the proportion of allodial holdings to the rest (in the early Middle Ages alleu was already being applied, as later, to land unencumbered by any superior titie). But what we can clearly recognise is that these petty proprietors were under the continual threat oflosing their independence, and that this was due to conditions chronic from at least the later days of the Empire. The constant unrest, the habitual resort to force, the insecurity which impelled everyone to seek a protector more powerful than himself, the abuse of power fostered by the absence of government and all too soon sanctioned by custom, all combined to draw an ever-increasing throng of peasants, whether they liked it or not, into the bonds of seigneurial subjection. The seigneurie is indeed older than the Frankish period; but it was during the Frankish period that it acquired its indelible character.
