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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 personal contact with many Frankish
notables known to Gregory personally. 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 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 C.E., and
subsequent conflicts of the late 2nd century and the
3rd century C.E. 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 CE 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 Belgica to the Franks. From this
time on they become 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.
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 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, i.e. a decade after the fall of
the emperors of Ravenna, in part due to alliances with
the Franks.)
The
reigns of earlier Frankish chieftains -- Pharamond
(about 419 until about 427) and 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. At this time Merovech reigned as king of the
Franks. Gregory's (oral) sources tentatively identify
Merovech as a possible son of Chlodio.
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 Burgundy, defeated the Visigoths, expanding his
realm eastwards up to the Pyrenees mountains.
The conversion of Clovis to 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 on Clovis's 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.
In each Frankish kingdom the Mayor of the Palace
served as the chief officer of state. From about the
turn of the eighth century, the Austrasian Mayors
tended to wield the real power in the kingdom, laying
the foundation for a new dynasty: their descendants
the Carolingians.
The
Carolingian kingship traditionally begins with the
deposition of the last Merovingian king 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 leader 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 against the
Lombards; this papal support proved crucial to
silencing any objections to his new position. Pippin
donated the re-conquered areas around Rome to the
Pope, laying the foundation for the Papal States, of
which only the Vatican City remains today, and in turn
received the title patricius Romanorum (protector of
the Romans).
 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 and
become an almost mythical figure for the later history
of both France and Germany.
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. After the quashing of the rebellion
Bavaria became incorporated 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 spanned from the
Pyrenees in the southwest (actually, including an area
in Northern Spain 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.
On December 23 and 24, 800, Pope Leo III crowned
Charles as Emperor in Rome in a ceremony that
formally acknowledged the Frankish Empire as the
successor of the (Western) Roman one. The coronation
gave the Empire the backing of the church, and gave
permanent legitimacy to Carolingian primacy among the
Franks. The Ottonians later resurrected this
connection in A.D. 962. In 812 the Byzantine Emperor
Michael I Rhangabes acknowledged Charlemagne's
position as Emperor.
Upon Charlemagne's death on January 28, 814 in Aachen,
he was buried in his own Palace Chapel at Aachen.
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 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.
On the map to the right, Louis II controlled the
area outlined in green, Louis the German
controlled the area in yellow, and Charles the
Bald controlled the portion in purple.
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 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.
When
modern historians (from the late 18th century on)
hearken back to an example of a unified Europe, they
turn to the Carolingian Empire, not to the Roman
Empire. Whether the Carolingian Empire lasted (or, one
could argue, ever really existed as an Empire per se)
in a geographical or political sense has no material
bearing on this view. The model of several individual
kingdoms (or regna, to give them their proper names)
under one rule clearly resonates today.
One might argue that
the divisions of Verdun still provide the general
borders of Germany, France, and Italy, but one can
scarcely suppose that they provide any clear cultural
divide. They cannot divide the Germanic-Roman
Christian legacy begun by the Carolingians.
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