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The Franks were one of several west Germanic tribes who entered
the late Roman Empire from Frisia
as foederati and established a lasting realm in an area that covers most of modern-day France and the region of
Franconia in Germany, forming the
historic kernel of both these two modern countries. The conversion to Christianity of the pagan Frankish king Clovis was a climacteric in the history of Europe.
The Frankish realm underwent many partitions and repartitions, since the Franks divided their property among surviving sons,
and lacking a broad sense of a res publica, they conceived of the realm as a
large extent of private property. This practice explains in part
the difficulty of describing precisely the dates and physical boundaries of any of the Frankish kingdoms and who ruled the
various sections. The contraction of literacy while the Franks ruled compounds the
problem: they produced few written records. In essence however, two dynasties of
leaders succeeded each other, first the Merovingians and then the Carolingians.
The word frank meant "free" in the Frankish language.
Freedom did not extend to women or to the population of slaves that moved with the free
Franks. Initially two main subdivisions existed within the Franks: the Salian ("salty") and the Ripuarian ("river")
Franks. By the 9th century, if not earlier, this division had in practice
become virtually non-existent, but continued for some time to have implications for the legal system under which a person could
go on trial.
The earliest records of the Franks
The earliest Frankish history remains relatively unclear. Our main source, the Gallo-Roman chronicler Gregory of Tours, whose
Historia Francorum (History of the Franks) covers the period up to 594, quotes
from otherwise lost sources like Sulpicius Alexander and
Frigeridus and profits from Gregory's personal contact with many Frankish
notables. Apart from Gregory's History there exist some earlier Roman sources, such as Ammianus and Sidonius Apollinaris
Modern scholars of the period of the migrations have suggested
that the Frankish people emerged from the unification of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups (Usipeti, Tencteri, Sugambri and Bructeri) inhabiting the
Rhine valley and lands immediately to the east, a social development perhaps related to
the increasing disorder and upheaval experienced in the area as a result of the war between Rome and the Marcomanni, which began in 166, and subsequent conflicts of the late 2nd century and the
3rd century. For his part, Gregory states that the Franks originally lived in
Pannonia, but later settled on the banks of the Rhine. A region in the northeast of
the modern-day Netherlands—north of the erstwhile Roman
border—bears the name Salland, and may
have received that name from the Salians.
Around 250, a group of Franks, taking advantage of a weakened Roman Empire, penetrated as
far as Tarragona in present-day Spain,
plaguing this region for about a decade before Roman forces subdued them and expelled them from Roman territory. About forty
years later, the Franks had the Scheldt region under control and interfered with the
waterways to Britain; Roman forces pacified the region, but did not expel the
Franks.
Foundation of the Frankish kingdom
In 355–358, the later Emperor Julian once again found the shipping lanes on the Rhine under control of the Franks and again
pacified them. Rome granted a considerable part of Gallia Belgica to
the Franks. From this time on they became foederati of the Roman Empire. A
region roughly corresponding to present-day Flanders and the Netherlands south of the rivers remains a Germanic-speaking region to this day. (The
West Germanic language known as Dutch predominates there now.) The Franks thus became the first Germanic people who permanently settled
within Roman territory.
See this external map (http://www.roman-emperors.org/nouest4.htm).
From their heartland, the Franks gradually conquered most of Roman Gaul north of the Loire valley and east of Visigothic Aquitaine. At first they helped defend the border as allies; for example, when a major invasion of mostly East
Germanic tribes crossed the Rhine in 406, the Franks fought against these invaders. The major
thrust of the invasion passed south of the Loire river. (In the region of Paris, Roman
control persisted until 486, a decade after the fall of the emperors of Ravenna, in part due to alliances with the Franks.)
The Merovingians
- Main article: Merovingian.
The reigns of earlier Frankish chieftains—Pharamond (about 419 until about 427) and Clodio (Chlodio) (about 427 until about 447)—seem to owe more to myth than fact, and their relationship to the Merovingian line remains uncertain.
Gregory mentions Chlodio as the first king who started the conquest of Gaul by
taking Camaracum (today's Cambrai) and expanding the border down to the Somme.
This probably took some time; Sidonius relates that Aetius surprised the Franks and
drove them back (probably around 431). This period marks the beginning of a situation that
would endure for many centuries: the Germanic Franks became rulers over an increasing number of Gallo-Roman subjects.
In 451, Aetius called upon his Germanic allies
on Roman soil to help fight off an invasion by the Huns. The Salian Franks answered the
call, the Ripuarians fought on both sides as some of them lived outside the Empire. Gregory's sources tentatively identify
Meroveus (Merovech) as king of the Franks and possibly a son of Chlodio. Meroveus
was succeeded by Childeric I, whose grave was found in 1653 containing a ring that identified him as king of the Franks.
Clovis
- Main article: Clovis
Childeric's son Clovis engaged in a campaign of consolidating the various
Frankish kingdoms in Gaul and the Rhineland, which included defeating Syagrius in 486. This victory ended Roman control in
the Paris region.
In the Battle of Vouillé (507), Clovis, with the help of the Burgundians, defeated the
Visigoths, expanding his realm eastwards down to the Pyrenees mountains.
The conversion of Clovis to Trinitarian Roman Christianity, after
his marriage to the Catholic Burgundian princess Clothilde in 493, may have helped to increase his standing in the eyes of the Pope and
the other orthodox Christian rulers. Clovis' conversion signalled the conversion of the rest of the Franks. Because they were
able to worship with their Catholic neighbors, the newly-Christianized
Franks found much easier acceptance from the local Gallo-Roman population than did the Arian Visigoths, Vandals or Burgundians. The Merovingians thus built what eventually proved the most stable of the successor-kingdoms in the west.
Stability, however, did not feature day-to-day in the Merovingian era. While casual violence existed to a degree in late Roman
times, the introduction of the Germanic practice of the blood-feud to obtain personal
justice led to a perception of increased lawlessness. Disruptions to trade occurred, and civic life became increasingly
difficult, which led to an increasingly localized and fragmented society based on self-sufficient villas. Literacy practically disappeared outside of churches and monasteries.
The Merovingian chieftains adhered to the Germanic practice of dividing their lands among their sons, and the frequent
division, reunification and redivision of territories often resulted in murder and warfare within the leading families. So though
Clovis drove the Visigoths out of Gaul, at his death in 511, his four sons divided his realm
between themselves, and over the next two centuries his descendants shared the kingship.
The Frankish area expanded further under Clovis' sons, eventually covering most of present-day France, but including areas
east of the Rhine river as well, such as Alamannia (today's southwestern Germany)
and Thuringia (from 531). Saxony, however, remained outside the Frankish realm until conquered by Charlemagne centuries later.
After a temporary reunification of the separate kingdoms under Clotaire I,
the Frankish lands split once again in 561 into Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy, which had been absorbed into the Frankish realms through a combination of political marriage and force
of arms.
In each Frankish kingdom the Mayor of the Palace served as
the chief officer of state. A series of premature deaths beginning with that of Dagobert I in 639 led to a series of underage kings. By the turn of the
8th century, this had allowed the Austrasian Mayors to consolidate power in
their own hereditary regency, laying the foundation for a new dynasty: their descendants the Carolingians.
The Carolingians
- Main articles: Carolingian, Carolingian Empire
The Carolingian kingship traditionally begins with the deposition of the last Merovingian king, with papal assent, and the
accession in 751 of Pippin the Short,
father of Charlemagne. Pippin had succeeded his own father, Charles Martel, as Mayor of the Palace of a reunited and re-erected Frankish kingdom comprised of the formerly independent
parts.
Pippin reigned as an elected king. Although such elections happened infrequently, a general rule in Germanic law stated that
the king relied on the support of his leading men. These men reserved the right
to choose a new "kingworthy" leader out of the ruling clan if they felt that the old one could not lead them in profitable
battle. While in later France the kingdom became hereditary, the kings of the later Holy Roman Empire proved unable to abolish the elective tradition and continued as elected rulers until
the Empire's formal end in 1806.
Pippin solidified his position in 754 by entering into an alliance with Pope Stephen III, who presented the king of the Franks a copy of the forged
"Donation of Constantine" at Paris and in a
magnificent ceremony at Saint-Denis anointed the king and
his family and declared him patricius Romanorum ("protector of the Romans"). The following year Pippin fulfilled his
promise to the pope and retrieved the Exarchate of Ravenna,
recently fallen to the Lombards, and returned it, not to the Byzantine emperor
again, but to the Papacy. Pippin donated the re-conquered areas around Rome to the Pope, laying the foundation for the Papal States in the "Donation of Pippin" which he laid on the tomb of St Peter. The papacy had good cause to expect that the
remade Frankish monarchy would provide a deferential power base (potestas) in the creation of a new world order, centered
on the Pope.
Charlemagne
- Main article Charlemagne
Upon Pippin's death in 768, his sons, Charles and Carloman, once again divided the kingdom between
themselves. However, Carloman withdrew to a monastery and died shortly thereafter, leaving sole rule to his brother, who would
later become known as Charlemagne or Karl der Große (Charles the Great), a
powerful and intelligent and modestly literate figure who became a legend for the later history of both France and Germany.
Charlemagne restored an equal balance between emperor and pope.
From 772 onwards, Charles conquered and eventually defeated the Saxons to incorporate their realm into the Frankish kingdom. This campaign expanded the practice of non-Roman
Christian rulers undertaking the conversion of their neighbors by armed force; Frankish Catholic missionaries, along with others
from Ireland and Anglo-Saxon
England, had entered Saxon lands since the mid-8th century, resulting in increasing conflict with the Saxons, who resisted the missionary efforts and parallel
military incursions. Charles' main Saxon opponent, Widukind, accepted baptism in
785 as part of a peace agreement, but other Saxon leaders continued to fight. Upon his
victory in 787 at Verden, Charles ordered the
wholesale killing of thousands of pagan Saxon prisoners. After several more
uprisings, the Saxons suffered definitive defeat in 804. This expanded the Frankish kingdom
eastwards as far as the Elbe river, something the Roman empire had only attempted once, and at which it failed in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (9 AD). In order to more effectively christianize the Saxons, Charles founded several bishoprics, among them Bremen, Münster, Paderborn, and Osnabrück.
At the same time (773–774), Charles conquered
the Lombards and thus could include northern Italy in his sphere of influence. He
renewed the Vatican donation and the promise to the papacy of continued Frankish protection.
In 788, Tassilo, dux (duke) of Bavaria rebelled against Charles. Quashing the
rebellion incorporated Bavaria into Charles' kingdom. This not only added to the royal fisc, but also drastically reduced
the power and influence of the Agilolfings (Tassilo's family), another leading family among the Franks and potential rivals. Until 796, Charles continued to expand the kingdom even farther southeast, into today's Austria and parts of Croatia.
Charles thus created a realm that reached from the Pyrenees in the southwest
(actually, including an area in Northern Spain (Marca
Hispanica) after 795) over almost all of today's France (except Brittany,
which the Franks never conquered) eastwards to most of today's Germany, including northern Italy and today's Austria. In the hierarchy of the church, bishops and
abbots looked to the patronage of the king's palace, where the sources of patronage and security lay. Charles had fully emerged
as the leader of Western Christendom, and his patronage of monastic cnters of
learning gave rise to the "Carolingian Renaissance"
of literate culture.
On Christmas Day, 800, Pope Leo III
crowned Charles as "Emperor of the Romans" in Rome in a ceremony presented as if a
surprise (Charlemagne did not wish to be indebted to the bishop of Rome), a further papal move in the series of symbolic gestures
that had been defining the mutual roles of papal auctoritas and imperial potestas. Though Charlemagne, in deference
to Byzantine outrage, preferred the title "Emperor, king of the Franks and Lombards", the ceremony formally acknowledged the
Frankish Empire as the successor of the (Western) Roman one (although only the forged "Donation" gave the pope political
authority to do this). After an initial protest at the usurpation, in 812, the Byzantine Emperor Michael I Rhangabes
acknowledged Charlemagne as co-Emperor. The coronation gave permanent legitimacy to Carolingian primacy among the Franks. The
Ottonians later resurrected this connection in 962.
Upon Charlemagne's death on January 28, 814 in Aachen, he was buried in his own Palace Chapel at Aachen.
Later Carolingians
Charlemagne had several sons, but only one survived him. This son, Louis the Pious, followed his father as the ruler of a united Empire. But sole inheritance remained a
matter of chance, rather than intent. When Louis died in 840, the Carolingians adhered to the
custom of partible inheritance, and the Treaty of Verdun in
843 divided the Empire in three:
- Louis' eldest surviving son Lothar became Emperor and ruler of the Central Franks.
His three sons in turn divided this kingdom between them into Lotharingia,
Burgundy and (Northern) Italy. These areas
would later vanish as separate kingdoms.
- Louis' second son, Louis the German, became King of the East
Franks. This area formed the kernel of the later Holy Roman
Empire, which eventually evolved into modern Germany. For a list of successors,
see the List of German Kings and
Emperors.
- His third son Charles the Bald became King of the West Franks;
this area became the foundation for the later France. For his successors, see the
List of French monarchs.
Carolingian legacy
Although an historical accident, the unification of most of what is now western and central Europe under one chief ruler
provided a fertile ground for the continuation of what is known as the Carolingian Renaissance. Despite the almost constant internecine warfare that the Carolingian
Empire endured, the extension of Frankish rule and Roman Christianity over such a large area ensured a fundamental unity
throughout the Empire. Each part of the Carolingian Empire developed differently; Frankish government and culture depended very
much upon individual rulers and their aims. Those aims shifted as easily as the changing political alliances within the Frankish
leading families. However, those families, the Carolingians included, all shared the same basic beliefs and ideas of government.
These ideas and beliefs had their roots in a background that drew from both Roman and Germanic tradition, a tradition that began
before the Carolingian ascent and continued to some extent even after the deaths of Louis the Pious and his sons.
One may note that the term "Frank" (e.g. al-Faranj in Arabic or Falangji in Chinese) was used in the Middle Ages to describe
any European. During the crusades, which were at first led mostly by nobles from
northern France who claimed descent from Charlemagne, both Muslims and Christians called the crusaders "Franks".
Related articles
Further reading
- Geary, Patrick J. Before France and Germany: the Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1988. ISBN
0195044584.
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