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Stem DuchyDuring the Early Middle Ages, the stem duchies formed the major divisions of the eastern Carolingian kingdom (roughly the region of modern Germany). Most of them corresponded to the main Germanic tribes or confederations called "stems" (German: Stamm), the Franks, Saxons and Thuringians, and the confederations called Swabians—heirs of the Suevi called "Alemanni" by their neighbors—and the Bavarians—heirs of the Rugii dispersed by Odoacer in 487. Lotharingia—as Upper Lorraine and Lower Lorraine—is also accounted a stem duchy, though Lotharingia's short-lived territories, 955-970, corresponded to no ethnic or cultural unity. Each tribe or confederacy accepted as leader a warrior chieftain acclaimed from the worthiest men of fighting age in a ruling family. The military leaders had acquired the Roman title of dux under Carolingian rule, part of the conscious revival of Romanized customs and formulas that characterize Charlemagne's court. The stem dukes loosely controlled a group of great nobles, and expected to appoint bishops and abbots within their territories. When the last of the Carolingian line died in 911, the stem dukes asserting their Germanic rights to elect a king from among their number, acclaimed Conrad I, duke of Franconia King of the Germans. At his death in 918, they met again to ratify his successor, Henry the Fowler. From the stem duchies evolved the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire. External link
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