Property Conditions. 29 



appropriated land; they then distributed to their 

 followers or donated to the newly established church 

 portions of this land, so that by the year 900 A.D., 

 a complete change in property relations had been 

 effected. By that time the large baronial estates of 

 private owners had come into existence which were 

 of such great significance in the economic history of 

 the Middle Ages, changing considerably the status of 

 the free men, and changing the free mark societies 

 into communities under the dominion of the barons. 



The first real king, who did not, however, assume 

 the title, was Clovis, a Duke of the Franks, who had 

 occupied the lower Rhine country. About 500 A.D., 

 picking a quarrel with his neighbors, the Allemanni, 

 he subdued them and aggrandized himself by taking 

 their Mark. In this way he laid the foundation for 

 a kingdom which he extended by conquest mainly 

 to the westward, but also by strategy to the eastward, 

 the warlike tribes of Saxons and other Germans con- 

 ceding in a manner the leadership of the Franks. 



A real kingdom, however, did not arise until Charle- 

 magne, in 772, became the ruler, extending his govern- 

 ment far to the East. 



At times, the kingdom was divided into the western 

 Neustria, and the eastern Austria, and then again 

 united, but it was only when the dynasty of Charle- 

 magne became extent with the death of Louis the 

 Child (911), that the final separation of from France 

 was effected, and Germany became a separate king- 

 dom, the eastern tribes between the Rhine and Elbe 

 choosing their own king, Conrad, Duke of Franconia. 

 There were then five tribes or nations, each under its 



