Twenty-nine great fiefs, which have played a special part in French history, date back to this epoch.
These petty states were not all of equal importance or in possession of a perfectly similar independence; there were certain ties uniting them to other states, resulting in certain reciprocal obligations which became the basis, or, one might say, the constitution of the feudal community; but their prevailing feature was, nevertheless, isolation, personal existence.

They were really petty states begotten from the dismemberment of a great territory; those local governments were formed at the expense of a central power.
From the end of the ninth pass we to the end of the tenth century, to the epoch when the Capetians take the place of the Carlovingians.

Instead of seven kingdoms to replace the empire of Charlemagne, there were then no more than four.

The kingdoms of Provence and Trans-juran Burgundy had formed, by re-union, the kingdom of Arles.

The kingdom of Lorraine was no more than a duchy in dispute between Allemannia and France.