Field of May (Francs)
See also: Field of May
Field of May , or Field of March, names which one gave to the large assemblies frank warriors since the conquest of the Gaulle S at the 5th century, because they were held either in March (under the Mérovingiens) or in May (after 755).
In Latin one called them placita ( plaids ); the Francs gave them the name of but . These assemblies had a double character: they were sometimes military reviews or solemn meetings in which all the free men came to pay homage to the supreme leader of the Francs, and to bring their annual gifts to him; sometimes more active meetings where the sovereign convened either the Leude S and the warriors to consult them on some military forwarding, or bishops to settle their disagreements with the royalty, or to take their councils on the direction of the businesses of the State. These assemblies, behaviors irregularly under the Mérovingiens, became much more frequent under the first Carolingien S; but after Charles the Bald person, any trace of this institution disappears.