Note 074
The Antrustiones, qui in truste Dominica sunt, leudi,
fideles, undoubtedly represent the first order of Franks;
but it is a question whether their rank was personal or
hereditary. The Abbé de Mably (tom. i. p. 334-347) is not
displeased to mortify the pride of birth (The Spirit of
Laws, l. xxx. c. 25) by dating the origin of French nobility
from the reign of Clotaire II (A.D. 615).
The History Of The Decline and Fall Of The
Roman Empire—Volume 1—
Chapter 38