188 France. 



decade of the 6th century defeated the Visigoths and 

 took possession of the country (see p. 28), he found com- 

 munal forests of the villagers (vicus), property of seig- 

 neurs (equites), royal forests amd State forests, rem- 

 nants of Eoman origin. The latter properties he 

 claimed for himself and divided two-thirds among his 

 vassals; but the larger part of the other third became 

 also gradually property of the nobility and church. 



Not untU the 12th century began the royal or State 

 property to grow again in various ways, and in 1539 

 Francis I declared the same inalienable. But his suc- 

 cessors paid little heed to this prohibition and, whenever 

 financial troubles made it expedient, they disposed of 

 some of their holdings. 



By the ordinance of 1566 King Charles IX again de- 

 clared the domain of the crown inalienable. Neverthe- 

 less he himself repeatedly sold parts of his domain. 

 Henry III in 1579 renewed the ordinance of non-alienar 

 tion and restored some of the lost parcels to the domain 

 by the exercise of the royal right. Himself and his 

 successors, however, continually broke this con- 

 tract and the royal domain decreased while that of the 

 seigneurs grew. Similarly to what happened in Ger- 

 many, the church property was taken by machination 

 or force to increase the holdings of kings or seigneurs. 

 Nevertheless at the beginning of the revolution in 1789 

 the royal domain comprised about 1,2,00,000 acres, pro- 

 ducing a net income of 1.2 million dollars. In 1791 

 this royal property became the national domain and by 

 further spoliation of church property and otherwise, 

 attained an area of 4,300,000 acres. In the law of 

 1791 a distinction was made between the inalienable 



