An antrustion (, plural ''antrustiones'') was a member of the bodyguard or military household of the

Merovingian kings The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...

of the

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

. The bodyguard itself is called the ''trustis'' (), a

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages, a group of Low Germanic languages also commonly referred to as "Frankish" varieties * Francia, a post-Roman ...

word with a Latin ending, possibly signifying comfort, aid, fidelity, trust (compare

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

''trost''). An alternative etymology relates it to proto-Germanic *''druhtiz'', warband, whence old high German and perhaps Slavonic . Information about the antrustions is derived from one of the ''formulae'' of Marculfus and from various provisions of the

Salic law The Salic law ( or ; ), also called the was the ancient Frankish Civil law (legal system), civil law code compiled around AD 500 by Clovis I, Clovis, the first Frankish King. The name may refer to the Salii, or "Salian Franks", but this is deba ...

.See

du Cange Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange (; December 18, 1610 in Amiens – October 23, 1688 in Paris, aged 77), also known simply as Charles Dufresne, was a distinguished French philologist and historian of the Middle Ages and Byzantium. Life Educate ...

, ''Glossarium, s.'' "trustis". Anyone desiring to enter the antrustions had to present himself armed at the royal palace, and there, with his hands in those of the king, take a special oath or ''trustis'' and ''fidelitas'', in addition to the oath of fidelity sworn by every subject at the king's accession. This done, he was considered to be ''in truste dominica'' and bound to provide the services this involved. In return for these, the antrustion enjoyed certain advantages, entitled to royal assistance and protection; his ''wergeld'' was three times that of an ordinary Frank; the slayer of a Frank was paid compensation of 200 ''

solidi The ''solidus'' (Latin 'solid'; : ''solidi'') or ''nomisma'' () was a highly pure gold coin issued in the Later Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire. It was introduced in the early 4th century, replacing the aureus, and its weight of about 4 ...

'', that of an antrustion had to find 600. The antrustion was always of

descent, and only in certain exceptional cases were Gallo-Romans admitted into the group. These Gallo-Romans then took the name of ''convivae regis'', and the ''wergeld'' of 300 ''solidi'' was three times that of a ''homo romanus''. The antrustions, belonging as they did to one body, had strictly defined responsibilities towards one another; e.g., one antrustion was forbidden to bear witness against another under penalty of 15 ''solidi'' compensation.{{EB1911, inline=y, wstitle=Antrustion, volume=2, page=154 The antrustions seem to have played an important part at the time of

Clovis Clovis may refer to: People * Clovis (given name), the early medieval (Frankish) form of the name Louis ** Clovis I (c. 466 – 511), the first king of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler ** Clovis II (c. 634 – c. 657), ...

. Apparently they formed the army that conquered the land, an army composed chiefly of Franks, with a few Gallo-Romans who had taken the side of Clovis. After the conquest, the role of the antrustions became less important. For each expedition, the king raised an army of citizens in which the Gallo-Romans mingled more and more with the Franks; they only kept one small permanent body which acted as their bodyguard (''trustis dominica''). Some members were assigned other tasks, such as that of forming garrisons in frontier towns. The institution seems to have disappeared during the anarchy with which the 8th century opened. It has wrongly been held to be the origin of

vassalage A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerai ...

. Only the king had antrustions; while every lord could have vassals. The antrustions were a military institution; vassalage was a social institution with complicated origins.

References

Historians of Merovingian institutions and law wrote of the antrustions, and each has a different system. The principal authorities are: *Waitz, ''Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte'', 3rd ed. vol. ii. pp. 335 et seq. *Brunner, ''Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte'', vol. ii. p. 97 et seq. *Fustel de Coulanges, ''La Monarchie franque'', p. 80 et seq. *Maxirne Deloche, ''La Trustis et Vantrustion royal sous les deux premieres races'' (Paris, 1873), collecting and discussing the principal texts *Guilhermoz, ''Les Origines de la noblesse'' (Paris, 1902), suggesting a system which is new in part.

Notes

Merovingian dynasty