Primogeniture was not a "late" invention of Christian monarchies, but was in fact practiced by the old Germanic tribes and comes to us through the Salic law of the Franks. This codified the pre-existing practices of the Frankish tribes around the year 500 AD, which prior to Clovis, had been passed down orally. Salic law most notably forbids women from inheriting, but also forms the legal basis of primogeniture. Salic law remained the basis of the Frankish legal system through the medieval period and influenced modern European legal systems today in the areas of trust law, inheritance statutes, and criminal law.