Tacitus, in its description of the changing structure of Germany, shows us that the main characters of the tribes who inhabited it, were surrounded by “companions” (comites) who were an ornament for peace, and a bulwark in war. These men swore to defend their Chief, and while the Chief fought for the victorious, his companions fought for him: to come out alive from the melee where he had succumbed, was for them a cause of eternal reproach.

The “Trustis”, warrior companionship and the “Antrustion”, voluntary companions of the Merovingian Kings of France, represented in Gaul a fundamental institution of the conquerors and corresponded to one of the essential organs of the old Germanic society.

On his side, the Chief maintained the people of his escorts, gave them ranks all the more that they brought them closer to him and brought them into his familiarity. after the battle, the companions demanded that the Chief liberated the war horses and the bloody armor, “the prize of victory”.

The Trustis of the Franks of Clovis were a reproduction of the military “comitatus” of their ancestors, the Germans of the 1st century of Christianity, with this difference however, that in principle, the peoples of beyond the Rhine river all had “companions”, while we see only the King’s Trusts appear among the Salians, it is at that moment when the skilful and valiant founder of the monarchy ordered the drafting of the old customs of his nation and of the laws which were to govern the relations of the invaders with the indigenous populations, that this Prince had conquered a power which surpassed that of many Kings and of many tribes.

Among the Franks everyone could still have and many of them probably had military troops: but there was only one, whose existence was consecrated by the legislator and whose members were provided with dignity and prerogatives, particularly, it was the Royal Trustee.

However, as Antrustion occupied only one certain degree at the social and political scale, most historians considering all Gallo Frank institutions have devoted this subject only to a relatively unimportant part of their work in legislative acts and in the other monuments of these noble race.

In this noble race, the Antrustions was only a grade, and the Antrustions was a kind of life-long aristocracy, even precarious, very different from the hereditary superiority of France.

The Merovingian Antrustionate is not an new institution; nor does it come from the German nobility: we find its incontestable historical federation in the companionship (comitatus) of the German chiefs, which were not recruited exclusively from the nobility; Tacitus’ statements are explicit on this point. The warriors, who, in the time of Clovis and his successors, came to swear the Trustis, were no more necessarily nobles than the committees of Tacitus’ time; the only condition required was to be a Franc or Barbarian Salien.

There was a kind of nobility formed by the Antrustions. We could very well be speaking of Antrustions and call them a new nobility, a nobility of the sword. But all the elements of nobility are not there. There is no question of heredity, and consequently of the essential condition of the existence of a class. It is true that more than once the son has been able to succeed his father; but this did not rest on any rights and did not establish any nobility.

The Kings Leudes (Antrustions) formed from the outset a distinct class, invested with legal privileges, their only advantages were the chances of fortune and power, their privileges, the result for them, to become ever increasing pre-eminence and a pre-eminence tending to become hereditary. It is thus, that the class of Leudes (Antrustions), forming, without taking into account the origin or any legal condition, gave birth to modern nobility.

This group includes: the old Salic law around 484; the edict of Chilperic, of 574; the Rin law, the last wording of which was promulgated by Dagobert in 630. The rules for Trustis and Antrustions were clearly defined in Law.

We find in the laws of the historians no example of a young girl, woman or widow who is in truste regis, nor any indication of their admissibility, the text of the old salic law rejects the thought.

Among the Franks, there were three classes:

1° rusting;
2° the man born free of free parents, owner and warrior, in possession of the full right of city;
3° the man born free, but not owner, living on the ground of a man more powerful and more fortunate than him, deprived of a part of the city rights, and especially of political rights.

Among the Gallo-Romans, there were three corresponding classes;

1° the Kings guest or acquaintance;
2° the free man, owner (Romanus possessor);
3° the man born out of slavery, residing on the land of others, cultivating it under the precarious title of colonist, and paying, in this capacity, a cens to the owner; this man (tributarius) is deprived of the rights of city.

These classes, both among the Franks and also among the Gallo-Romans, are determined by accidental circumstances, of uncertain and variable duration. Thus, the tributary Roman can become owner and rise to the rank of Romanus possessor. This, by mismanagement or by excess of taxes, can descend to the rank of tributary.

Among the Franks, the free man of the first rank, having lost his property, could also lose part of his rights; in the opposite direction, the free man of the second rank, non-owner, could rise from his misery and take his place among the men in possession of all the rights of the city.
A free man could be admitted to the Antrustions; but he lost this dignity in several circumstances, notably by the death of the King who had received his oath, or by the forfeiture incurred following breach of the duties which his oath created.

After the defeat of the Visigoths and the conquest of central and southern Gaul by Clovis, to be more precisely still, after the annexation of the Kingdom of Burgundy (534), the population of

Gaul was divided into two parts, one made up of the Franks and Salian Barbarians, the other including all categories of people other than the previous ones.

The original quality was immutable. The sovereign himself was powerless to concede to a Roman of the quality of Frank. The original inferiority of Romain followed him even in the highest situations, since having reached the trusting he received only half of the composition of the Frank antrustion. That could well explain a famous passage from the Life of Louis the Pious, where Thégan, addressing Ebbon, son of a slave, freed and raised by the Emperor to the dignity of the archbishop of Reims, reproaches him for his ingratitude towards its benefactor: I made you free, but not noble, which is impossible after liberation, The distinction of races therefore constituted, strictly speaking, the fundamental division of Merovingian society, and the various conditions that we come to list answered only to ranks, established among the free men of each of them. This is why, if we admitted, at this time in our history, the existence of a kind of nobility, it is not in a title like that of Antrustions, concessionable and of precarious duration, that it should be seen, but rather in an immutable, non-concessional quality, transmissible by birth, that of men of Frankish race or Salian barbarians, forming a higher caste, in law and in fact, other parts of the population. In this caste, it is true, the Antrustions occupied a dominant position with regard to their fellows; position different from that which gives birth, and which must therefore be designated by a word other than that of nobility. It was, in the race of nobility, a sort of life aristocracy which formed its head.

The Marculf form (Formula Marculfi) is a Merovingian collection of legal acts composed between the second half of the 7th century and the beginning of the 8th century by a monk named Marcellin, or in this context Marculf. This document is considered to be “the most important form of the Merovingian era and the most interesting from a diplomatic point of view”

A “form” was at that time a compilation of examples of codified acts, which served in particular as a manual for the drafters of charters, diplomas or other administrative acts (the first known forms, dating from the Roman Empire, are still used in the early Middle Ages). It is assumed that they were also used for dictamen or ars dictaminis, that is to say, the teaching of law associated with that of composition, style, epistolary rhetoric which seems to have taken a great place as from the 11th century.

Marculf dedicated the work to Landry de Paris (bishop of Paris in the years 650 to 656).

This form is divided into two books:

The first book contains models of documents for the use of the royal chancellery (57 royal diploma forms);
The second book is a collection of models of private acts (carta pagenses) (52 formulas).

This form contains in particular the model act of appointment of counts, which constitutes proof that part of the King’s functions were assumed locally by a count.

This form was used at the Chancellery of the Merovingian King’s, and later most probably by that of the mayors of the palace.

According to the marculfian formula the future Antrustion who came to the palace with his arms to swear assistance and loyalty to the King was above all a military companion whose role and situation were quite clearly defined.

The Mayor of the Palace (Major Domus) the Chief of the household of the King, around 600 became the commander of the Antrustions and his influence grow significantly.

Around 700 the Antrustions as an organisation was dismantled.