EARLY MARESCHALS AND THEIR RANK. ,371 



the superior rank he held in the domesticity of the palace, 

 this fortunate son of a serf vine-grower in the island of 

 Re, who had run away several times to escape slavery, 

 and had one of his ears cut off in consequence, was made 

 Count of Tours, one of the most considerable cities in the 

 kingdom ruled by Haribert/ 



The compound word, then, was originally used, it 

 appears, to signify a groom or horse attendant ; ^ after- 

 wards, as the importance of the office increased, it was 

 applied to a man who had charge of twelve horses, as 

 exemplified in the following extract from an ancient Ger- 

 man law: 3 'Si mariscalus, qui super xn caballos est, 

 occiditur.' 



Subsequently, and particularly in the time of the 

 Merovingians, the individual who had under his charge 

 all the ' mareskalks ' was designated by the title of ' Comes 

 Marestalli ' or ' Stabulorum ;''* probably in imitation of 

 the ' contostaulos ' of the Byzantine empire.^ The posi- 



' Megnin. Op. Cit., pp. 30, 6^. 



' See Leges Salic. JFalter. Corp. Jur. German., vol. i. p. 22. 



' Anton. Geschichte der Deutschen Landwirthschaff, vol. ii. p. 

 298. 



* A. Thierry. Recits de Tenis Merovingiens, vol. ii. p. 198. 



s The fondness for display in the matter of horses and stables mani- 

 fested by the Byzantine Emperors, and which was quickly imitated by 

 the Goths and Franks, gave a great impulse to veterinary science. In 

 the reign of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the Master of the Horse was 

 one of the first dignitaries of the court, and was styled xojiriQ tov 

 GTaftuv. ' Magnus contostaulos comes stabuli, Gallis connetable, nomen 

 conflatum ex contos seu conto comes, et staulos stabulum, rrruvKoQ seu 

 (jTavKof ex latino stabulum detortum. Habebant quoque veteres Franci 

 comitem stabuh, ut videre est in epist. 3. Hincmari, c. 16, quem vul- 

 gus corrupte appellabat constabulum, ut est apud Regionem, 1. 2, et apud 

 Tyrium passim legere est constabularis.' — Codini. 



