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The Frankish Empire was the territory of the ''' Franks ''', from the 5th to the 10th centuries, from 481 ruled by Clovis I of the Merovingian Dynasty , the first King Of All The Franks . From 751 , under the Carolingian Dynasty , it is known as the ''' Carolingian Empire '''. After the Treaty Of Verdun of 843 it was split into ''' East , West and Middle Francia'''. East Francia gave rise to the ''' Holy Roman Empire ''' with Otto I The Great in 962 . Since the term "Empire" properly applies only to times after the coronation of Charlemagne in 800 , and since the unified kingdom was repeatedly split and re-united, most historians prefer to use the term Frankish Kingdoms or '''Frankish Realm''' to refer to the entirety of Frankish rule from the 5th to the 9th Century . ORIGINS The Merovingian dynasty owes its name to Merovech (sometimes Latinized as Meroveus or Merovius), leader of the Salian Franks from about 447 to 457 , and emerges into wider history with the victories of Childeric I (reigned about 457– 481 ) against the Visigoth s, Saxon s and Alamanni . MEROVINGIANS ( 481 – 751 ) See Also: Merovingians 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 subjects. In 451 , Aëtius 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, rediscovered in 1653 , contained a ring that identified him as king of the Franks. Childeric's son Clovis engaged in a campaign of consolidating the various Frankish kingdoms in Gaul and the Rhineland , which included defeating Syagrius at the Battle Of Tolbiac in 486 , and decisively defeating the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse in the Battle Of Vouillé in 507 . 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 neighbours, 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. On his death, Clovis partitioned his kingdom among his four sons, according to Frankish custom. Over the next two centuries, this tradition would continue. Even when multiple Merovingian kings ruled, the kingdom — not unlike the late Roman Empire — was conceived of as a single realm ruled collectively by several kings and the turn of events could result in the reunification of the whole realm under a single king. 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 .
Clotaire II defeated Brunhilda and her offspring and reunified the kingdom. However, in 623 he created the sub-kingdom of Austrasia , in order to appease particularistic forces and also to secure the borders. His son and successor Dagobert I emulated this move by appointing sub-kings for Aquitaine in 629 and Austrasia in 634 .
However, it must be noted that, from the days of Pepin the Elder, the King was effectively powerless, and the Mayor of the Palace, one of the Carolingians, effectively ruled the Realm. This finally resulted in Pepin the Short asking the Pope, "who should be King, he who has the power, or he who has the name?" Shortly thereafter, the Pope, who depended on Frankish armies to assure his own power, crowned Pepin as the first Carolingian King of the Franks, and his son, Charlamagne, went on to become the first Holy Roman Emperor, though it was actually a Frankish Empire, and its tributories and allies. CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE ( 751 – 843 ) See Also: Carolingian Empire The term "Carolingian Empire" may be used to refer to the realm of the Franks under the dynasty of the Carolingians , but the term "Empire" applies particularly to the times after thee coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor in 800 by Pope Leo III . The "Carolingian Empire" ended with the death of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles III The Fat in 888, although some Carolingians managed to gain the Imperial crown in later times. 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, centred on the Pope.
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 Charles the Great, a powerful, 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 neighbours 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 Verdun , 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 Bishopric s, 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 . until (green), East Franks ruled by Louis The German (yellow), and Charles The Bald led West Franks (purple).]] 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 centres of learning gave rise to the " Carolingian Renaissance " of literate culture. Charles also created a large palace at Aachen, a series of roads, and a canal. 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), thus triggering a series of disputes with the Byzantines around the Roman Name . 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 Ottonian s 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 Lothair I 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 . Subsequently, at the Treaty Of Mersen (870) the partitions were recast, to the detriment of Lotharingia. On December 12 , 884 , Charles The Fat reunited most of the Carolingian Empire, aside from Burgundy . In late 887 , his nephew, Arnulf Of Carinthia revolted and assumed the title as King of the East Franks ('Germany'). Charles retired and soon died on January 13 , 888 . Odo, Count Of Paris was chosen to rule in the west ('France'), and was crowned the next month. The Carolingians were 10 years later restored in France, and ruled until 987, when the last Frankish King, Louis V , died
The three surviving sons of Louis the Pious divided the empire at the Treaty Of Verdun in 843 . WEST FRANCIA (843-987) See Also: West Francia West Francia was the land under the control of Charles The Bald . It is the precursor of modern France. It was divided into the following great fiefs: Aquitaine , Brittany , Burgundy , Catalonia , Flanders , Gascony , Gothia ( Septimania ), the Île-de-France , and Toulouse . After 987 , the kingdom came to be known as France, because the new ruling dynasty (the Capetians ) were originally dukes of the Île-de-France. MIDDLE FRANCIA ( 843 – 869 ) See Also: Middle Francia Middle Francia was the territory ruled by Lothair I , wedged between East and West Francia. The kingdom, which included the Kingdom Of Italy , Burgundy , the Provence , and the west of Austrasia , was an unnatural creation of the Treaty of Verdun, with no historical or ethnic identity. The kingdom was split on the death of Lothair II in 869 into those of Lotharingia , Provence (with Burgundy divided between it and Lotharingia), and Italy . EAST FRANCIA ( 843 – 962 ) See Also: East Francia East Francia was the land of ( Alamannia ), Franconia , Saxony and Bavaria (including Moravia and Carinthia ); to which after the death of Lothair II were added the eastern parts of Lotharingia . This division persisted until 1268 , the end of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor was crowned on 2 February 962 , marking the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire (['' Translatio Imperii ''). From the 10th Century , East Francia became also known as ''regnum Teutonicum'' (" Teutonic kingdom" or "Kingdom of Germany "), a term that became prevalent in Salian times. The title of Holy Roman Emperor was used from that time, beginning with Conrad II . SOCIETY IN THE FRANKISH EMPIRE (EXCLUDING ITALY) Stability did not exist day-to-day. 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. The Roman systems of taxation and administration were gradually replaced by the Feudal system. Literacy practically disappeared outside of churches and monasteries, despite Charlemagne's efforts to revive learning. The Catholic Church exercised a huge moral influence. One manifestation of that influence was found in the replacement of slavery with the somewhat more humane system of Serfdom . During the Merovingian period, the Gallo-Romans and the Franks were governed by separate law codes. However, in the ninth century, territorially-based legal systems emerged in parts of the realm. Trade declined after the fall of the Roman Empire, and economic life centered on self-sufficient Villas . However, foreign merchants (such as Syrians and Vikings) carried goods such as papyrus and silver into the Frankish Empire. In addition, domestic trade grew around market towns. The standard of living of the peasants was appalling; however, the occasional church holidays and fairs ensured that peasant life was not joyless. Agricultural production began to grow after the eighth century with the introduction of a Heavy Plough . This paved the way for a period of demographic and economic recovery, and the end of the Dark Ages. SEE ALSO |
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