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 and State forests, rem- 
nants of Roman 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 until 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-aliena- 
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 1,200,000 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 
