While the other stem duchies were tribal or national identities, Lotharingia's identity was solely political.

Historically, this corresponds to the stem duchies of Swabia and Bavaria.

General levies could also be made within the still-pagan trans-Rhenish stem duchies at the bequest of a monarch.

The initial electors were the rulers of the stem duchies, who generally chose one of their own.

Saxon uprisings continued until 804, when the whole stem duchy had been incorporated into the Carolingian Empire.

The discontinuation of the central authority led to a new strengthening of the German stem duchies.

The territory around Burgau was originally part of the stem duchy of Swabia.

Thus he brought that realm, which had been lost in 910, back into the German kingdom as the fifth stem duchy.

Otto named his relatives the new leaders of the stem duchies, but this approach didn't completely solve the problem of disloyalty.

Some tribes, such as the Frisians, never formed a stem duchy with cultural allegiance to any single duke.