28 Germany. 
The first real king, who did not, however, assume the 
title, was Clovis, a Duke of the Franks, who had occu- 
pied 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 mainly to the westward by conquest, but also 
to the eastward, the warlike tribes of Saxons and other 
Germans conceding 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 Hast. 
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 extinct with the death of Louis the 
Child (911), that the final separation from France was 
effected and Germany became a separate kingdom, 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 own Duke and its 
own laws, comprising this new kingdom, namely the 
Franks, Suabians, Bavarians, Saxons and Lorainers on 
the left bank of the Rhine, while the country East of 
the Elbe river was mostly occupied by Slovenians. 
With Clovis began the new order of things signalized 
by the aggrandizement of kings, dukes and barons. 
In addition to the rule regarding unseated lands there 
develops, also under Roman law doctrine, the concep- 
tion of seignorial right, the power of the king to juris- 
diction over his property. This right first claimed by 
