Robert G.Calkins
[See also: MANUSCRIPTS, PRODUCTION AND ILLUMINATION]
Schaeffer, C. “Œuvres du début du la carrière de l’enlumineur Jean Colombe.” Cahiers
d’archéologie et d’histoire du Berry 35(1973 [1974]):45–57.
——. “Nouvelles observations au sujet des Heures de Louis de Laval.” Arts de l’Ouest 1–
2(1980):33–80. [With bibliography.]
COMITES
. The comites (pl. of Lat. comes ‘companion’), or “counts,” were the chief representatives
of royal power on the local level in the Frankish kingdom. Appointed by the king and
serving directly under him, the comites were virtual viceroys in their districts, the
civitates. These royal officials of the early Middle Ages gave rise to the counts of the
high Middle Ages, who presided over often semi-independent counties, attached to the
king by ties of vassalage and perhaps even of loyalty. But they were far removed from
the comtes of the ancien régime, holders of this title of nobility conferred by the king.
The comites were originally recipients of the title comes from the Roman emperor in
recognition of their being close associates, or companions, of his. Constantine the Great
(r. 306–37) began to attach official duties to the title. By the 5th century, a great variety
of comites appeared in the bureaucracy and military, including the comites civitatum, who
governed the civitates, the subdivisions of the province. The Germanic kingdoms created
in the territory of the western Roman Empire in the 5th and 6th centuries, including that
of the Franks, adopted this official along with the rest of the Roman administration in
their lands.
The comites served at the pleasure of the king, although they were often members of
the local aristocracy. In the civitas, they exercised all royal functions. They were
delegated the royal bannum, the right to command all subjects. They collected tolls and
taxes, presided over the royal court (the mallus or placitum), supervised mints and
markets, assembled local levies for the royal armies and sometimes even led them into
war. They were generally responsible for law and order. Comites served without salary
but were compensated by receiving a portion of legal fines and compositions (the fredus)
and a third of the revenues of specifically reserved royal lands. In the Carolingian period,
the comites also disseminated and enforced royal capitularies and decrees, as well as
administered oaths of fidelity.
In the Germanic regions of the Frankish kingdom, the comes was called grafio. The
comites were assisted by vice comites (viscounts), whom they appointed, as well as by
vicars who administered the subdivisions of the civitates.
Steven Fanning
[See also: CITE; COUNT/COUNTY; DUKE/DUCHY]
Ganshof, François-Louis. Frankish Institutions Under Charlemagne, trans. Bryce and Mary Lyon.
New York: Norton, 1968.
James, Edward. The Origins of France from Clovis to the Capetians, 500–1000. New York: St.
Martin, 1982.
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