The authority belonged, at one and the same time, to assemblies of free men, to landholders over the dwellers on their domains, and to the king over the "leudes" and their following.

These three powers appeared and acted side by side in every locality as well as in the totality of the State.

Their relations and their prerogatives were not governed by any generally- recognized principle, and none of the three was invested with sufficient might to prevail habitually against the independence or resistance of its rivals.

Force alone, varying according to circumstances and always uncertain decided matters between them.

Such was France at the accession of the second line.