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).