Rapid and general extension of the feudal hierarchy. The freedmen. Different modes of enfranchisement: _First_, the _denariales_, enfranchised with respect to the king: _Second_, the _tabularii_, enfranchised with respect to the church: _Third_, the _chartularii_, enfranchised by a charter. Different consequences resulting from these different modes of enfranchisement. The Leudes Or Antrustions. The first whom we meet with at this time occupying the highest place in the social scale are the _Leudes_, or _Antrustions_. Their name indicates their quality--_trust_ expresses fidelity. They were men who had proved faithful, and they succeeded the associates of the German chiefs. After the conquest, each of the chiefs established himself, together with his own men, on a certain territory. The king had a larger and more considerable number of followers. Many remained with him. He had different means, which he very assiduously employed, of attaching to himself his Leudes, or of acquiring them. 1st. This was evidently the result aimed at in conferring benefices. In 587, Gontran, giving his advice to Childebert II. on his conduct to those who were about him, points out to him "those whom he ought to honour by appointments and by gifts, and those to whom he ought to refuse them." 2nd. The organization of the house, the palace, the court, borrowed in part from the traditions of the Roman empire, the passing amusements and the permanent advantages which were attached to them, induced many men of influence to become Leudes, or gave importance to the original Leudes of the king. The following are names of some of their offices; "count of the palace, referendary, seneschal, mareschal, falconer, butler, chamberlain, porter, head-porter, &c." {142} Obligations Of The Leudes. 3rd. Marculf has preserved to us the formula by which a man of importance, _cum arimanniâ suâ_, "with his freemen, his band," was accustomed to enrol himself among the king's Leudes. Charlemagne took various precautions in order that persons who came to him in order to become his trusty followers (_de truste faciendâ_), should meet with no obstacle. 4th. It was to their Leudes that the kings were in the habit of giving important public occupations, such as belonged to dukes, counts, &c. There is reason for believing that these functions originally belonged to the principal chief who established himself in a territory. In the natural course of events these chiefs became themselves Leudes of the king or were supplanted by those who were such.