"In early times, before the existence of the Latin comites, the Germans had officers chosen, at least in some tribes, by the people. These were a kind of inferior judges. After the Franks became the ruling nation they made a change in their character. The king now appointed them, and they exercised jurisdiction over certain districts in the king's name, with the title of grafen. These ancient officers are perhaps as fairly entitled as the comites to be considered the root of the subsequent counts. The German title graf corresponds to the title "count" in other countries of Europe. These grafen (plural for graf) superintended the administration of justice, the police and the taxes. After the time of the Carlovingian dynasty different classes of counts or grafen were formed; thus pfalzgrafen, or comites Palatii, the judges of the court who decided whether a case should be brought before the king; markgrafen, counts of the frontiers; holzgrafen, counts of the forest, that is inspectors, etc. These royal officers soon usurped power which did not belong to them, and treated the people so badly that the emperors and kings were obliged to go themselves into the provinces and hold courts, or to send particular officers for this purpose, called sendgrafen..."
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