I ' THE FRANKISH STATE AND CHARLEMAGNE 193 ease as he traveled, could find no faster conveyance in those days than a chariot drawn by oxen. This state of affairs suited well enough most of the great (landholders and the local officials, of whom the dukes, [counts, and bishops were the chief. Their main Local offi- desire was to be let alone: in the case of the land- great land- holders, not to be called upon to pay any taxes; holders in the case of the officials, not to be called upon to turn over to the royal treasury the taxes which they had collected. It should be added, however, that the local officials usually
- amassed large estates for themselves, and that the great
- landholders made every effort to be appointed local officials,
! so that the two classes tended to merge into one. In any lease they were both ready enough to dispense with a king. But there had to be some one to repel invaders like the Arabs, to protect and control the Church, to keep some order among the great landed proprietors, to see The mayor that the local officials did not abuse their offices, of the and in general to do those things that the kings ought to do, but were now neglecting. The chief official at the Frankish palace, to whom the agents in charge of the royal domains and the other local officials reported, was the major domus, or mayor of the palace. In the end this stew- ard of the king's estates took the supreme charge of all state business at the palace into his own hands, and he also led the army to war. All this he was enabled to do, not only because of his handy situation at the palace, but because most of the nobility were his supporters and he could count upon their armed aid to crush his rivals. Under Dagobert's predecessor, who was originally King of Neustria only, both Burgundy and Austrasia were really governed by mayors of the palace. In Austrasia origin of the the mayor's name was Pepin of Landen, or Carolmgians Pepin I, and the other leading man of that kingdom was Arnulf , Bishop of Metz. Arnulf 's son — for Roman Catho- lic bishops married in that age — married one of Pepin's daughters and became mayor for a time. Pepin's son, Grimoald, tried to supplant a "good-for-nothing" king
