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Franks

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   Franks kingdoms c. 600.
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   Franks kingdoms c. 600.

   The Franks or the Frankish people were one of several west Germanic
   federations. The confederation was formed out of Germanic tribes:
   Salians, Sicambri, Chamavi, Tencteri, Chattuarii, Bructeri, Usipetes,
   Ampsivarii, Chatti. They entered the late Roman Empire from present
   central Germany and the Southern Netherlands and settled in northern
   Gaul where they were accepted as a foederati and established a lasting
   realm (sometimes referred to as Francia) in an area which eventually
   covered most of modern-day France, the Low Countries, and the western
   regions of Germany ( Franconia, Rhineland, Hesse), forming the historic
   kernel of all these modern countries. The conversion to Christianity of
   the pagan Frankish king Clovis in the late 5th century was a crucial
   event 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
   precisely describing 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 Merovingian kings claimed descent of their dynasty from the
   Sicambri, a Scythian or Cimmerian tribe, asserting that this tribe had
   changed their name to "Franks" in 11 BC, following their defeat and
   relocation by Drusus, under the leadership of a certain chieftain
   called Franko. The ethnonym has also been traced to a
   *frankon—"javelin, lance" ( Old English franca, compare the Saxons,
   named after the seax, and the Lombards, named after the battle-axe—the
   throwing axe of the Franks is known as the Francisca) but, conversely,
   the weapon may also have been named after the tribe.

   The meaning of "free" (English frank, frankly) arose because, after the
   conquest of Gaul, only Franks had the status of freemen.

   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.

Earliest records of the Franks

   Statue of Charlemagne in Frankfurt, Germany.
   Enlarge
   Statue of Charlemagne in Frankfurt, Germany.

   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, some surviving earlier Roman
   sources such as Ammianus and Sidonius Apollinaris mention the Franks.

   Gregory states that the Franks originally lived in Pannonia, but later
   settled on the banks of the Rhine. Additional early sources likewise
   relate that the Franks migrated in prehistoric times from the mouth of
   the Danube on the Black Sea, to the Rhine, where they adopted their
   name (circa. 11 BC) in honour of a hereditary chieftain called Franko –
   replacing the earlier tribal name Sicambri (or Sugambri) – said to be
   an offshoot of the Cimmerians or Scythians. This legend of a Scythian
   or Cimmerian background is thus consistent with the origin legends of
   nearly all other European nations as well.

   Modern scholars of the period of the migrations are in agreement that
   the Frankish confederacy emerged at the beginning of the third century
   from the unification of various earlier,smaller Germanic groups,
   including the Sicambri, Usipetes, Tencterii, and Bructerii), who
   inhabited the Lower Rhine valley and lands immediately to the east. The
   confederacy was a social development perhaps accelerated by increasing
   upheaval in the area arising from the war between Rome and the
   Marcomanni beginning in 166, and subsequent conflicts of the late
   second century and the third century. A region in the northeast of the
   modern-day Netherlands – north of the erstwhile Roman border – still
   bears the name Salland, and may have received that name from the
   Salians, who formed the core of the Frankish sea raiders. Around 250,
   one 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, who were feared as pirates along the shores at least till
   Julian time, when some of them were settled in Toxandria according to a
   treaty with Roman authority. They began to press harder on the land
   route; they participated in the spectacular episode as Conspiratio
   Barbarica (367-369).

   Since the very end of the second century, Franks appear in Roman
   textual and archeological sources as enemies and allies (laeti or
   dediticii) on Roman soil.

Language

   The Old Frankish language spoken by the early Franks is not directly
   attested, but it left its imprint on many Old French and even Latin
   loanwords. It evolved into Old Low Franconian (also called Old Dutch)
   in the Low Countries from the 7th century and was replaced by Old
   French further south.

Frankish Empire

   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
   Dutch language predominates there, a direct descendant of Frankish) The
   Franks thus became the first Germanic people who permanently settled
   within Roman territory.

   See this external map.

   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. One of their allies was
   Theodoricthe Ostrogoth. 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.

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 Chlodio as the first king who started the conquest of
   Gaul by taking Camaracum ( Cambrai) and expanding the border of
   frankish territory south to the Somme. This probably took some time;
   Sidonius relates that Aëtius 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, Aëtius called upon his Germanic allies on Roman soil to help
   fight off an invasion by Attila the Hun. 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.

   The Merovingians themselves seemed to be lazy, and actually didn't rule
   at all. The real ruler behind the scenes was the current "Govenor of
   the Palace." This was the real ruler who took charge of the kingdom.
   The Merovingians were only kings by name, who enjoyed all the pleasure
   of being kings, but not the responsibility. In fact, the governers
   would even lead the Franks to war. The Merovingians were corrupt, and
   they fell to the next Frankish line, the Carolingians.

Carolingians

   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 II, 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 (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 Christian
   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 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.
   Charlemagne's kingdom survived its founder and covered much of Western
   Europe from 795 until 843 when a treaty split it amongst his grandsons:
   Central Franks ruled by Lothair I (green), East Franks ruled by Louis
   the German (yellow), and Charles the Bald led West Franks (purple).
   Charlemagne's kingdom survived its founder and covered much of Western
   Europe from 795 until 843 when a treaty split it amongst his grandsons:
   Central Franks ruled by Lothair I (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.

   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 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.

   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:
    1. 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.
    2. Louis' second son, Louis the German, became King of the East
       Franks. This area formed the kernel of the later Holy Roman Empire,
       the cradle of Germany. For a list of successors, see the List of
       German Kings and Emperors.
    3. 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 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.
   Charles retired and soon died on January 13, 888. Odo, Count of Paris
   was chosen to rule in the west, 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.

Carolingian legacy

   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.

Crusaders and other Western Europeans as "Franks"

   Because the Frankish kingdom dominated Western Europe for centuries,
   terms derived from "Frank" were used by many in Eastern Europe, the
   Middle East, and beyond as a synonym for Roman Christians (e.g.,
   al-Faranj in Arabic, farangi in Persian, Feringhi in Hindustani, farang
   in Thai, and Frangos in Greek). During the crusades, which were at
   first led mostly by nobles from northern France who claimed descent
   from Charlemagne, both Muslims and Christians used these terms as
   ethnonyms to describe the Crusaders. This usage is often followed by
   modern historians, who call Western Europeans in the eastern
   Mediterranean "Franks" regardless of their country of origin. Compare
   with Rhomaios, Rûmi ("Roman"), used for Orthodox Christians. Catholics
   on various islands in Greece are still referred to as Φραγκοι,
   "Frangoi" (Franks). Examples include the naming of a Catholic from the
   Island of Syros as "Frangosyrianos" (Φραγκοσυριανος).

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franks"
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