A Brief History of Forestry.: In Europe, the United States and Other CountriesFernow, B. E. (Bernhard Eduard)
History
A Brief History of Forestry.: In Europe, the United States and Other Countries
Fernow, B. E. (Bernhard Eduard)
Forests and forestry -- History
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 conceding in a manner the
leadership of the Franks.
A real kingdom, however, did not arise until Charlemagne, in 772, became
the ruler, extending his government 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 Charlemagne 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 on the
right, and the 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 which was signalized by the
aggrandizement of kings, dukes and barons.
In addition to the rule regarding the ownership of unseated lands there
developed, also under Roman law doctrine, the conception of seignorial
right, _i.e._, the power of the king to jurisdiction over his property.
This right, first claimed by the duke or king for himself, is then
transferred with the territory given to his friends and vassals, who
thereby secure for themselves his powers and jurisdiction, immunity from
taxes and from other duties, as well as the right to exact taxes and
services from others, the favored growing into independent knights and
barons.
* * * * *
The forest, then, originally was communal property and the feeling of
this ownership in common remains even to the present day. Indeed,
actually it remained in most cases so until the 13th century, although
the changes noted had their origin in the 7th century when the kings
began to assert their rights of princely superiority.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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