ANTRUSTION, the name of the members of the military household of the Merovingian kings. Any one desiring to enter the body of antrustions had to present himself armed at the royal palace, and there, with his hands in those of the king, take a special oath in addition to the oath of fidelity sworn by every subject at the king's accession. In return for the services to which he was bound the antrustion became specially entitled to the royal assistance and protection, and his wergeld was three times that of an ordinary Frank. The antrustion was always of Frankish descent, and only in certain exceptional cases were Gallo-Romans admitted into the king's bodyguard. The antrus tions, belonging as they did to one body, had strictly defined duties towards one another; thus one antrustion was forbidden to bear witness against another under penalty of 15 solidi.
The antrustions seem to have played an important part at the time of Clovis. Afterwards, their role became less important. For each of their expeditions, the kings raised an army of citizens in which the Gallo-Romans mingled more and more with the Franks; they only kept one small permanent body which acted as their bodyguard, some members of which were from time to time told off for other tasks, such as that of forming garrisons in the frontier towns. The institution seems to have disappeared during the anarchy with which the 8th century opened.
See M. Deloche, La Trustis et l'antrustion royal sous les deux premieres races (5873) ; H. Brunner, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte, vol. ii., pp. 97 et seq., in Handbuch systematisches der deutschen Rechts wissenschaft (1893) ; G. Waitz, Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichtc, 3rd ed. vol. ii. pp. 335 et seq. (1896) ; P. Guilhermoz, Essai sur les origines de la noblesse au moyen age (1902). (C. PF.)