Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of

Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of ...

who lived near the Rhine-river military border of

Germania Inferior ''Germania Inferior'' ("Lower Germania") was a Roman province from AD 85 until the province was renamed ''Germania Secunda'' in the 4th century AD, on the west bank of the Rhine bordering the North Sea. The capital of the province was Colonia Cl ...

, which was the most northerly province of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

in continental Europe. These Frankish tribes lived for centuries under varying degrees of Roman hegemony and influence, but after the collapse of Roman institutions in western Europe they took control of a large empire including areas which had been ruled by Rome, and what it meant to be a Frank began to evolve. Once they were deeply established in

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

, the Franks became a multilingual, Catholic Christian people, who subsequently came to rule over several other post-Roman kingdoms both inside and outside the old empire. In a broader sense much of the population of western Europe could eventually described as Franks in some contexts. The term "Frank" itself first appeared in the third century AD, during the

crisis of the third century The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis, was a period in History of Rome, Roman history during which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressure of repeated Barbarian invasions ...

– a time when Rome lost full control of regions near the lower Rhine, during periods internal Roman conflict. In the fourth century Roman authors also began to distinguish tribes still further north with another new collective term "

Saxons The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

", although there are signs that the terms Frank and Saxon were not always mutually exclusive at first. Over centuries, the Romans recruited large numbers of Frankish soldiers, some of whom achieved high imperial rank. Already in the 4th century Franks were living semi-independently in parts of Germania Inferior. The Roman administration of Britain and northern Gaul once again began to break down, and in about 406 it was the Franks who attempted to defend the Roman border when it was crossed by

Alans The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranian peoples, Iranic Eurasian nomads, nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today North Caucasus – while some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded ...

and

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

from eastern Europe. Frankish kings subsequently divided up Germania Inferior between them, and at least one,

Chlodio Chlodio (probably died after 450), also Clodio, Clodius, Clodion, Cloio or Chlogio, was a Frankish king who attacked and then apparently ruled Roman-inhabited lands around Cambrai and Tournai, near the modern border of Belgium and France. He is ...

, also began to rule more Romanized populations to the south, in what is now northern France. In 451, Frankish groups participated on both sides in the

Battle of the Catalaunian Plains The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (or Fields), also called the Battle of the Campus Mauriacus, Battle of Châlons, Battle of Troyes or the Battle of Maurica, took place on June 20, 451 AD, between a victorious coalition, led by the Roman ...

, where

Attila Attila ( or ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in early 453. He was also the leader of an empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Gepids, among others, in Central Europe, C ...

and his allies were defeated by a Roman-led alliance of various peoples established in Gaul. By the early 6th century the whole of Gaul north of the

Loire The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône. It rises in the so ...

, and all the Frankish kingdoms, were united within the kingdom of the Frank

Clovis I Clovis (; reconstructed Old Frankish, Frankish: ; – 27 November 511) was the first List of Frankish kings, king of the Franks to unite all of the Franks under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a ...

, the founder of the

Merovingian dynasty The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...

. By building upon the basis of this empire the subsequent Frankish dynasty, the

Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty ( ; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid c ...

s, eventually came to be seen as the new emperors of Western Europe in 800, when

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

was crowned by the pope. As the original Frankish communities merged into others, the term "Frank" lost its original meaning. In 870, the Frankish realm was permanently divided between

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and eastern kingdoms, which were the predecessors of the later

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the Middle Ages, medieval and Early modern France, early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe from th ...

and

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

respectively. In the European languages of the time, the Latin term came to refer mainly to the people of the Kingdom of France, the forerunner of present day

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. However, in various historical contexts, such as during the medieval

crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

, not only the French, but also people from neighbouring regions in

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

, continued to be referred to collectively as Franks. The crusades in particular had a lasting impact on the use of Frank-related names which are used for all Western Europeans in many non-European languages.

Name of the Franks

The origins of the term (singular ) are unclear, but by the 4th century it was commonly used as a collective term to refer to several tribes who were also known to the Romans by their own tribal names, or under the older but much broader collective name ''

Germani The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of ...

'', which also covered many non-Frankish peoples such as the

Alemanni The Alemanni or Alamanni were a confederation of Germanic peoples, Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River during the first millennium. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Roman emperor Caracalla of 213 CE ...

and

Marcomanni The Marcomanni were a Germanic people who lived close to the border of the Roman Empire, north of the River Danube, and are mentioned in Roman records from approximately 60 BC until about 400 AD. They were one of the most important members of th ...

. Within a few centuries the term had eclipsed the names of the original peoples who constituted the Frankish population. After their conquest of northern Gaul, many Germanic-speaking Franks lived in communities where the majority population was not Frankish, and the dominant language was Gallo-Roman. However, as the Franks became more powerful, and more integrated with the peoples they ruled over, the name came to be more broadly applied, especially in what is now northern France.

Christopher Wickham Christopher John Wickham (born 18 May 1950) is a British historian and academic. From 2005 to 2016, he was the Chichele Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford; he is now emeritus prof ...

pointed out that "the word 'Frankish' quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of the River Loire everyone seems to have been considered a Frank by the mid-7th century at the latest (except

Bretons The Bretons (; or , ) are an ethnic group native to Brittany, north-western France. Originally, the demonym designated groups of Common Brittonic, Brittonic speakers who emigrated from Dumnonia, southwestern Great Britain, particularly Cornwal ...

); ''Romani'' (Romans) were essentially the inhabitants of

Aquitaine Aquitaine (, ; ; ; ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne (), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former Regions of France, administrative region. Since 1 January 2016 it has been part of the administ ...

after that". The original meaning of the word is unclear, although it is commonly believed to have a Germanic etymology. Following the precedents of

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English essayist, historian, and politician. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, is known for ...

and

Jacob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He formulated Grimm's law of linguistics, and was the co-author of the ''Deutsch ...

, the name of the Franks was traditionally linked with the English adjective '' frank'', meaning "free", which came from

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th

franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th century ...

''. This term is however derived from the term Frank itself, as it referred to their free status. Similarly the word has been connected to a Germanic word for "javelin", reflected in words such as

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

, but these terms possibly also derive from the name of the Franks, as the name of a Frankish weapon. (Alternatively, this Germanic word may share its origins with Latin '' framea'', which was the word Romans used to describe the javelin used by ''Germani''.) A common proposal to explain the ultimate origin of all these terms is that it meant "fierce". According to one version of this proposal the name is related to a

proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

word which has been reconstructed, '' *frekaz'', which meant "greedy", but sometimes tended towards meanings such as "bold". It has descendants such as German (cheeky, shameless),

Middle Dutch Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or , there was no overarching sta ...

(miserly), Old English (greedy, bold), and

(brazen, greedy). The idea that the name of the Franks meant fierce is partly derived from classical allusions to their ferocity and unreliability as defining traits. For example, Eumenius rhetorically addressed the Franks when Frankish prisoners were executed in the area at

Trier Trier ( , ; ), formerly and traditionally known in English as Trèves ( , ) and Triers (see also Names of Trier in different languages, names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle (river), Moselle in Germany. It lies in a v ...

Constantine I Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

in 306: ("Where now is that ferocity of yours? Where is that ever untrustworthy fickleness?").

Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville (; 4 April 636) was a Spania, Hispano-Roman scholar, theologian and Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seville, archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of the 19th-century historian Charles Forbes René de Montal ...

(died 636) said that there were two proposals known to him. Either the Franks took their name from a war leader who founded them, called Francus, or else their name referred to their wild manners (''feritas morum''). As societies changed the name acquired new meanings, and the old Frankish community ceased to exist in its original form. In Europe in later times it was mainly the inhabitants of the

who came to be referred to in Latin as the ''Franci'' (Franks), although new terms soon became more common, which connect the French to the earlier Franks, but also distinguish them. The modern English word "French" comes from the

word for "Frankish", . Modern European terms such as French and German , derive from

Medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. It was also the administrative language in the former Western Roman Empire, Roman Provinces of Mauretania, Numidi ...

meaning "from ", the country of the Franks, which for medieval people was

. In Medieval Latin French people were also commonly referred to as , or "France-born".

"Westerner" in Eastern understanding

In more international contexts such as during the

in the Eastern Mediterranean, the term ''Frank'' was also used for any Europeans from Western and Central Europe who followed the Latin rites of Christianity under the authority of the pope in Rome. The use of the term Frank to refer to all western Europeans spread eastwards to many Asian languages (see

Farang Farang () is a Persian word that originally referred to the Franks (the major Germanic people) and later came to refer to Western or Latin Europeans in general. The word is borrowed from Old French or Latin , which are also the source of ...

Mythological origins

Several accounts from Merovingian times report that some medieval Franks believed that their ancestors originally moved to their Rhineland homeland from the Roman province of

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a Roman province, province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, on the west by Noricum and upper Roman Italy, Italy, and on the southward by Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia and upper Moesia. It ...

on the Danube. These include the ''History of the Franks'' which was written by

Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours (born ; 30 November – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours during the Merovingian period and is known as the "father of French history". He was a prelate in the Merovingian kingdom, encom ...

in the 6th century, a 7th-century work known as the ''

Chronicle of Fredegar The ''Chronicle of Fredegar'' is the conventional title used for a 7th-century Frankish chronicle that was probably written in Burgundy. The author is unknown and the attribution to Fredegar dates only from the 16th century. The chronicle begi ...

'', and the anonymous , written a century later. While Gregory did not go deeply into the story, possibly because he rejected it, the other two sources report variants of the idea that, just as in the mythical origin story of the Romans created by

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

, the Franks descended from Trojan royalty, who escaped from westwards after the

Fall of Troy The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Me ...

. Fredegar's version, which mentions the poet Virgil by name, connected the Franks not only to the Romans but also to the

Phrygians The Phrygians (Greek: Φρύγες, ''Phruges'' or ''Phryges'') were an ancient Indo-European speaking people who inhabited central-western Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) in antiquity. Ancient Greek authors used "Phrygian" as an umbrella term t ...

, Macedonians, and Turks. He also reported that they built a new city on the Rhine named Troy after their ancestral home. The city he had in mind is likely to be the real Roman city now known as

Xanten Xanten (, Low Rhenish: ''Santen'') is a town in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the district of Wesel. Xanten is known for the Archaeological Park, one of the largest archaeological open air museums in the ...

, based by the old Roman fort of Colonia Traiana, which was really named after

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

, but was known as (lesser Troy) in the Middle Ages. The other work, the , adds an episode to the story whereby the Pannonian Franks instead founded a city called Sicambria in Pannonia, and while there they fought successfully for a Roman emperor named Valentinian against the

, near the

Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov is an inland Continental shelf#Shelf seas, shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, and sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Ru ...

, where the Franks themselves had, according to the story, previously lived themselves before moving to Pannonia. This city name appears to be based upon the

Sicambri The Sicambri or Sugambri were a Germanic people who lived in the area between the Rhine, Lippe, and Wupper rivers, in what is now Germany, near the border with the Netherlands. They were first reported by Julius Caesar, who encountered them in 55 ...

who were one of the most well-known tribes in the Frankish Rhine homeland in the time of the early Roman empire. According to the story the Franks were forced to leave Pannonia, after rebelling against Roman taxes. In reality, the Franks had been living near the Rhine for centuries before the Valentinian dynasty really did confront the

, which happened in the late 4th century. It has been suggested that this element in the story may preserve stories from Frankish officers who served the dynasty against the Alans in southeastern Europe, such as Merobaudes. The story might also be influenced by memories of the later Frankish defence of the Roman empire during the subsequent entrance of Alans and other peoples into Gaul in about 406 AD, many of whom had previously been living in or near Pannonia. In particular, the Alans and other peoples who arrived from Pannonia were well-known to later generations of Franks and Romans in northern Gaul. A kingdom of Alans was founded near Orleans after 406, and Attila's Hun alliance, also based near Pannonia, invaded Gaul in 451. The name "Sicambria" can be explained as a derivative of the idea found in Graeco-Roman literature, that the

were ancestors of the later Franks, although in reality they had lived near the Rhine, like the Franks. On the other hand, concerning the Trojan element in the Frankish origin stories, historian Patrick J. Geary has for example written that they are "alike in betraying both the fact that the Franks knew little about their background and that they may have felt some inferiority in comparison with other peoples of antiquity who possessed an ancient name and glorious tradition."

History

Early Franks (250–350)

The term "Franks" was probably first used during the third century AD, during the

Crisis of the Third Century The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis, was a period in History of Rome, Roman history during which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed under the combined pressure of repeated Barbarian invasions ...

(235–284). However, most of the sources which mention Franks in this period were written much later, and such sources can't provide conclusive evidence about third-century terminology. In some cases, specific older tribes were explicitly categorized as Franks, including the Chamavi,

Bructeri The Bructeri were a Germanic people, who lived in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, just outside what was then the Roman Empire. The Romans originally reported them living east of the lower Rhine river, in a large area centred around present day ...

, and Chattuari. The Chamavi are called Franks in the , a 13th-century copy of a 4th or 5th century

atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

Roman road Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...

s that reflects information from the 3rd century. The Chattuari were described as Franks living across from Xanten in an account of a Roman attack upon them in 360, and the Bructeri were also described as Franks living across from Cologne in an account of a Roman attack in 392/393. Archaeological evidence confirms that from around 250 there was a massive decrease in population in many northern parts of Germania Inferior including cities. Several regions around the Rhine-Meuse and Scheldt deltas, remained relatively unpopulated until around 400. Roymans and Heeren proposed that one possible explanation for this sudden depopulation is that the Roman emperors Maximian and Constantius Chlorus deported very large numbers of locals, and not only immigrants, out of the region. Productive agricultural land was abandoned on a large scale, making the Roman military along the Rhine highly dependent on grain imports from other provinces. Although the Rhine forts did not cease to function completely, the districts around the delta were "dispensed with once and for all as tax-paying administrative units". It has been noted by scholars of the earliest records mentioning Franks that there are surprisingly frequent references to them raiding by sea. In contrast, later records describe the Frankish tribes living inland, separated from the sea by the Frisians and Saxons. It appears that in the third and fourth centuries the Romans did not yet clearly distinguish the sea-going Saxons, another new category of people in this period, from the Franks and Frisians. There are indications that the coastal

Frisians The Frisians () are an ethnic group indigenous to the German Bight, coastal regions of the Netherlands, north-western Germany and southern Denmark. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland an ...

who were always distinguished from the Franks in later records, as well as their original eastern neighbours the

Chauci The Chauci were an ancient Germanic tribe living in the low-lying region between the Rivers Ems and Elbe, on both sides of the Weser and ranging as far inland as the upper Weser. Along the coast they lived on artificial mounds called '' terpen'' ...

, may have contributed to the ethnogenesis of both the Saxons and the Franks. It is even speculated that the so-called Salian Franks, who appear only in records from around 378, may have originally been a Frisian or Chauci tribe. The earliest mention of Franks in the '' Augustan History'' is very uncertain. This is a much-later written collection of biographies of Roman emperors, which modern scholars believe to be largely fabricated. In its biography of the emperor

Aurelian Aurelian (; ; 9 September ) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 270 to 275 AD during the Crisis of the Third Century. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited the Roman Empire after it had nearly disinte ...

(reigned 270-275) it says that before being emperor he was at

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

as "tribune of the Sixth Legion, the Gallican", a legion known from no other record, when he "crushed the Franks, who had burst into Gaul and were roving about through the whole country". He supposedly killed seven hundred of them and captured three hundred, selling them as slaves, and a song was supposedly composed about him: "Franks, Sarmatians by the thousand, once and once again we've slain. Now we seek a thousand Persians" (''Mille Sarmatas, mille Francos semel et semel occidimus, mille Persas quaerimus''). While the naming of the Franks within a supposedly popular song may seem unlikely to be fabricated, even this is considered likely by some scholars. If real though, the song would have come into being before 270 when Aurelian became emperor, and the events themselves would have been around 245 to 253. Other late sources for this period are considered somewhat more reliable. However, most of them did not use the term Frank, but less specific terms such as ''Germani'' or "barbarians". Around 256/257 ''Germani'' crossed the Rhine and attacked Gaul. Some were Alemanni, who went on to invade Italy from Gaul. By 258/259 other ''Germani'' had gotten as far as

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in Catalonia (Spain). It is the capital and largest town of Tarragonès county, the Camp de Tarragona region and the province of Tarragona. Geographically, it is located on the Costa Daurada ar ...

in Spain, and these even acquired ships in Spain with which they attacked North Africa. According to

Aurelius Victor Sextus Aurelius Victor ( 320 – 390) was a historian and politician of the Roman Empire. Victor was the author of a now-lost monumental history of imperial Rome covering the period from Augustus to Constantius II. Under the emperor Julian (361 ...

writing in the 4th century this latter group were Franks. In the aftermath,

Postumus Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus ( 259–269) was a Roman commander of Batavian origin, who ruled as emperor of the splinter state of the Roman Empire known to modern historians as the Gallic Empire. The Roman army in Gaul threw off its al ...

(emperor of the breakaway

Gallic Empire The Gallic Empire or Gallo-Roman Empire are names used in modern historiography for a secession, breakaway part of the Roman Empire that functioned ''de facto'' as a separate state from 260 to 274. It originated during the Crisis of the Third Cent ...

260-268) apparently managed to stabilize the border, and recruited Franks into his army, using them against his rival

Gallienus Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empire. He ...

. Throughout the 260s and 270s very few surviving records explicitly mention the Franks, although the barbarians of the later Frankish region were very active. Gallienus reigned solo from 260 to 268, and during this period the document known as the

Laterculus Veronensis The ''Laterculus Veronensis'' or Verona List is a list of Roman provinces and barbarian peoples from the time of the emperors Diocletian and Constantine I, most likely from AD 314. The list is transmitted only in a 7th-century manuscript preser ...

, which was made about 314, notes that the Romans lost five '' civitates'' (small countries) along the eastern bank of the Lower Rhine. The three which are legible are those of the Usipii, Tubantes, and Chattuari. These probably all became Frankish. During this period, the 260s, archaeologists also note an increase in coin hoards in populations on the Roman side the Rhine, in

Tongeren Tongeren (; ; ; ) is a city and former municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg, in the southeastern corner of the Flemish region of Belgium. Tongeren is the oldest town in Belgium, as the only Roman administrative capital wit ...

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; , or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department in the region ...

Beauvais Beauvais ( , ; ) is a town and Communes of France, commune in northern France, and prefecture of the Oise Departments of France, département, in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, north of Paris. The Communes of France, commune o ...

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

Toul Toul () is a Communes of France, commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle Departments of France, department in north-eastern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the department. Geography Toul is between Commercy and Nancy, Fra ...

, and

Chalon-sur-Saône Chalon-sur-Saône (, literally ''Chalon on Saône'') is a city in the Saône-et-Loire Departments of France, department in the Regions of France, region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefectu ...

attesting to Frankish activity in this region. Under the last Gallic emperor Tetricus, (who reigned 270–274), there are even more hoard finds, and evidence of military conflicts. In 275/276, after the death of Tetricus and the reunification of the empire under

Probus Probus may refer to: People * Marcus Valerius Probus (c. 20/30–105 AD), Roman grammarian * Marcus Pomponius Maecius Probus, consul in 228 * Probus (emperor), Roman Emperor (276–282) * Probus of Byzantium (–306), Bishop of Byzantium from 293 t ...

(reigned 276–282) archaeologists believe that a larger incursion into Gaul occurred, with the main thrust seemingly along the Meuse. In the context of these conflicts, Trier itself fell to an attack. The only involved barbarian group who is named by Roman sources are the Franks, mentioned by Zosimus. Probus subsequently appears to have restabilized the border. About 280, while Probus was confronted with a rebel named Proculus, the 8th Latin Panegyric, of 297, reports that some captive Franks seized some ships, and "plundered their way from the Black Sea right to Greece and Asia and, driven not without causing damage from very many parts of the Libyan shore, finally took Syracuse itself", and eventually made it back to their homeland via the Ocean. In 281 Proclus captured and killed Proculus and the ''Historia Augusta'' account of this says that it was the Franks who handed him over, because he had fled to them, having Frankish origins himself. Before 286, Eutropius the historian, writing in the 4th century, and Orosius, writing around 400, reported that emperor

Maximian Maximian (; ), nicknamed Herculius, was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was ''Caesar (title), Caesar'' from 285 to 286, then ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocleti ...

assigned

Carausius Marcus Aurelius Mausaeus Carausius (died 293) was a military commander of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century. He was a Menapian from Belgic Gaul, who usurped power in 286, during the Carausian Revolt, declaring himself emperor in Britain and ...

to lead a naval force to pacify the English channel coasts of Roman Belgica, and Armorica, because these waters were infested by Frankish and Saxon pirates. This is also one of the first uses of the term

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

, which was subsequently used for seagoing Germanic raiders. The first contemporary record using the term Frank is the so-called 11th Latin Panegyric written in 291. Taken in combination with the 10th panegyric 289, these records indicate that in the winter of 287/288 Maximian, based in

at this time, forced a Frankish king Genobaud and his people to become Roman clients. Probably connected to this, Maximian had recently had at least one successful campaign east of the Rhine. Elsewhere the 11th panegyric also specifically mentions Franks being subdued in this period.Williams, 50–51.Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'', 7. In 293/294,

Constantius Chlorus Flavius Valerius Constantius ( – 25 July 306), also called Constantius I, was a Roman emperor from 305 to 306. He was one of the four original members of the Tetrarchy established by Diocletian, first serving as Caesar (title), ''caesar'' ...

, son-in-law of Maximian, and father of

defeated Franks in the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta. Various groups had settled south of the Rhine within the empire, but were living outside of Roman governance while Carausius rebelled. Eumenius mentions Constantius as having "killed, expelled, captured ndkidnapped" the Franks who had settled there and others who had crossed the Rhine, using the term for the first time, indicating that the Franks were seen as more than one tribe or nation. The 6th Latin Panegyric written in 310 says that the diverse tribes of Franks who had been ruling Batavia were under the leadership of Carausius. The 8th Latin Panegyric written in 297 is commonly interpreted as naming two of these peoples conquered in this campaign as the Chamavi and Frisians, which makes it likely (but not certain) that both these peoples were considered Franks in this period. In 308,

Constantine the Great Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

executed two "kings of Francia", Ascaric and Merogaisus, who violated the peace after the death of his father Constantius, and then "so that the enemy should not merely grieve over the punishment of their kings" made a devastating raid on the Bructeri, and built a bridge over the Rhine at Cologne to "lord it over the remnants of a shattered nation". The Panegyric celebrating Constantine's pacification of the Rhine claims that Roman farmers can now safely farm on the banks of both arms of the Rhine, or in other words in Batavia. The later "4th" panegyric of 321 lists Bructeri, Chamavi, Cherusci, Lancionae, Alamanni, and Tubantes as peoples Constantine had fought against successfully, and who eventually formed an alliance against him. Several or all of these people were probably involved in the major field battle on the Rhine in 313, which is reported in the "12th" panegyric. The same panegyric of 321 gives the Franks "who are more ferocious than other nations", one last seagoing role, saying they "held even the coasts of Spain infested with arms when a large number of them spread abroad beyond the Ocean itself in an outburst of fury in their passion to make war", and noting that the Franks are a "nation which is fecund to its own detriment". In a list of barbarian nations under Roman domination the

, which was made about 314, lists Saxons and Franks separately from several of the older Rhineland tribal names including the Chamavi ("Camari"), Cattuari ("Gallouari"), Amsiuari, Angriuari, Bructeri, and Cati. In 341 the emperor

Constans I Flavius Julius Constans ( 323 – 350), also called Constans I, was Roman emperor from 337 to 350. He held the imperial rank of '' caesar'' from 333, and was the youngest son of Constantine the Great. After his father's death, he was made ''a ...

, one of the sons of Constantine, attacked the Franks in the Rhine delta, and in 342 the situation was pacified. Scholars speculate that some Franks were given permission to remain in the area at this time.

Late fourth century (350–400)

In 350

Magnentius Magnus Magnentius ( 303 – 10 August 353) was a Roman general and usurper against Constantius II. Of Germanic descent, Magnentius served with distinction in Gaul, where the army chose him as a replacement for the unpopular emperor Constans. Ac ...

, described by contemporaries as someone having Frankish and Saxon ancestry, became a rebel emperor. He killed Constans I, and took control of much of the western empire, battling the brother of Constans,

Constantius II Constantius II (; ; 7 August 317 – 3 November 361) was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germanic peoples, while internally the Roman Empire went through repeated civ ...

for control. During his revolt, which lasted until 353, the Rhine borders were undermanned and barbarians were able to enter Gaul. At the

Battle of Mursa Major The Battle of Mursa was fought on 28 September 351 between the eastern Roman armies led by the Emperor Constantius II and the western forces supporting the usurper Magnentius. It took place at Mursa, near the Via Militaris in the province of ...

Roman soldiers, including many with Frankish and Saxon backgrounds, fought each other, further weakening Rome's ability to defend itself. Magnentius finally died in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

in 353. Silvanus, one of his main commanders, who had defected to Constantius, and also had Frankish ancestry, was given the task of rebuilding defences in Gaul. However, being accused of plotting to become emperor, he decided to really make an attempt in 355 and was killed soon afterwards. In the spring of 358 the Salian Franks were described under that name for the only time in written history, and important new agreements were made between Franks and Romans.

Julian the Apostate Julian (; ; 331 – 26 June 363) was the Caesar of the West from 355 to 360 and Roman emperor from 361 to 363, as well as a notable philosopher and author in Greek. His rejection of Christianity, and his promotion of Neoplatonic Hellenism ...

commanding Roman forces in Gaul, and not yet an emperor, made a rapid attack against both the Salians and the Chamavi, who were both making inroads within Roman territory around the Rhine-Meuse delta. The reason for this was primarily that he needed to ensure the arrival of 600 grain carrying ships coming up the rivers from Britain, and he preferred not to simply pay the tribes off, as previous administrators had been doing., Similar accounts are given by Julian himself in his letter to the Athenians,

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus, occasionally anglicized as Ammian ( Greek: Αμμιανός Μαρκελλίνος; born , died 400), was a Greek and Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from antiquit ...

who served under him,

Libanius Libanius (; ) was a teacher of rhetoric of the Sophist school in the Eastern Roman Empire. His prolific writings make him one of the best documented teachers of higher education in the ancient world and a critical source of history of the Greek ...

who wrote his funeral oration, and the later Greek historians Eunapius and Zosimus. He first confronted the people who Ammianus called "Franks who are customarily called Salians". Julian says he received the submission of part of the Salian tribe, but does not call them Franks. Zosimus says the Salians were descended from the Franks. According to Eunapius the Salians were allowed by Julian to holds lands which they had not fought for. Ammianus indicates that they had been settling in Texandria which modern scholars believe was lightly populated. However, Zosimus explains that they had been settled on the large island of Batavia in the delta, until recent raiding by the Saxons who Zosimus called the "Quadi". This island, he said, had once been Roman controlled, but more recently it was Salian held. Zosimus also reports that the Salians had previously lived outside the empire, and had in the past been forced by the Saxons to move to Batavia, within the empire. (Historians speculate that they may have been permitted by the Romans to settle in Texandria since 342.) According to Zosimus the Franks near the delta had been defending the Roman lands against Saxon raids, so that the "Quadi" had been forced to build boats, in which they sailed along the Rhine beyond the territory of the Franks, and entered the Roman empire there. Eunapius says that Julian instructed his men not to hurt the Salians. The people who Zosimus calls Saxons or Quadi are called Chamavi by the other sources. (The Chamavi are treated as Franks in other records, but Zosimus contrasted them with the Franks.) Despite these differences in terminology, Zosimus and Eunapius both remark how the barbarian Charietto was brought from Trier to neutralize this group's raiding, and how Julian captured the son of their king. Julian reported to the Athenians that he subsequently ejected them from lands, and took captives, and cattle. However both Eunapius and Julian make it clear that he also needed an agreement with the Chamavi in order to secure a safe passage for food supplies. All later references to the Salians as a people, as opposed to the much later legal code, could be connected to these events. The 5th century mentions three military units whose names include the term "Salii", all three of which were created by Julian, who also created three parallel Tubantes units: the ''Salii'' and the ''Salii seniores'', who both belonged to the ''auxilia palatina'', and the ''Salii (iuniores) Gallicani''. However in this period units did not necessary recruit from the barbarian groups they were often named after. The tribe was also mentioned in a poetic way twice by fifth century poets, Claudius Claudianus and

Sidonius Apollinaris Gaius Sollius Modestus Apollinaris Sidonius, better known as Sidonius Apollinaris (5 November, 430 – 481/490 AD), was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Born into the Gallo-Roman aristocracy, he was son-in-law to Emperor Avitus and was appointed Urb ...

. According to historian Matthias Springer the evidence suggests that the Salian name was not really their tribal name, but rather a Germanic word meaning something like "comrades". He proposed that the Salians were just called Franks. According to Springer, the Salic law first mentioned centuries later is derived from the same word, but has no specific ethnic connotation, being simply the customary law holding for non-Roman free men. In 360/361 Julian crossed the Rhine near Xanten and defeated the Chattuari, who were described as Franks in records of this event. During the late 360s, after the death of Julian, the "second" Latin Panegyric indicates that

Count Theodosius Count Theodosius (; died 376), Flavius Theodosius or Theodosius the Elder (), was a senior military officer serving Valentinian I () and the Western Roman Empire during Late Antiquity. Under his command the Roman army defeated numerous threats, ...

fought and won an infantry campaign in Batavia, and perhaps also a naval campaign in the Maas and Waal rivers which surround it. The details are not explained in this or any other record, but other records mention that northern Gaul was afflicted by Saxon sea raiders and Frankish land raiders in this period. The archaeological evidence for the late fourth century suggestions that the population remained low in the northern part of Roman Germania Inferior until almost 400. During the reigns of Emperors of the Valentinian dynasty four franks served as ''magistri militum'' (commanders-in-chief of the imperial army): * Merobaudes (372–383, under

Valentinian I Valentinian I (; 32117 November 375), also known as Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. He ruled the Western Roman Empire, Western half of the empire, while his brother Valens ruled the Byzantine Empire, East. During his re ...

and

Gratian Gratian (; ; 18 April 359 – 25 August 383) was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian was raised to the rank of ''Augustus'' as a child and inherited the West after his father's death in ...

in Trier) * Ricomer (382–394, under Theodosius the Great in Constantinople) * Bauto (383–387/388, under Valentinian II in Milan) * Arbogast (388–394, under

Valentinian II Valentinian II (; 37115 May 392) was a Roman emperor in the western part of the Roman Empire between AD 375 and 392. He was at first junior co-ruler of his half-brother, then was sidelined by a usurper, and finally became sole ruler after 388, ...

and then under

Eugenius Eugenius (died 6 September 394) was a Western Roman emperor from 392 to 394, unrecognized by the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius I. While Christian himself, Eugenius capitalized on the discontent in the West caused by Theodosius' religious p ...

in Trier, who Arbogast himself placed in the position of emperor). In 388, Arbogast entered the Frankish frontier region personally, and faced a Frankish invasion. In this year, Arbogast went to Trier on the orders of Theodosius and assassinated Victor, the son and heir of the recently executed Gaulish usurper

Magnus Maximus Magnus Maximus (; died 28 August 388) was Roman emperor in the West from 383 to 388. He usurped the throne from emperor Gratian. Born in Gallaecia, he served as an officer in Britain under Theodosius the Elder during the Great Conspiracy ...

. In the previous year, while Maximus had been attempting to take control of Italy, Franks under the command of three war leaders, Marcomer, Sunno and Genobaud, had crossed the Rhine and raided deep into Roman Gaul. Some returned over the Rhine successfully with their plunder, while others entered the

Silva Carbonaria Silva Carbonaria, the "charcoal forest", was the dense old-growth forest of beech and oak that formed a natural boundary during the Late Iron Age through Roman times into the Early Middle Ages across what is now western Wallonia. The Silva Carbo ...

, a forest in present day Belgium, where they were tracked down by Roman forces. Roman forces that tried to pursue the Franks over the Rhine were however cut to pieces. After the death of Maximus, Arbogast urged action. He met Marcomer and Sunno and demanded hostages, and then based himself in Trier. After the death of Valentinian II, Arbogast took advantage of the leaves falling, and went to Cologne. He crossed the bridge there into the country of the Bructeri, and plundered it, and then also plundered the region inhabited by the Chamavi. The Franks did not engage with him although some Ampsivarii and Chatti under the command of Marcomer appeared on the ridge of a distant hill. By this time Arbogast had created his own usurper emperor, Eugenius. Eugenius was captured and executed by Theodosius after the Battle of the Frigidus in 394, and Arbogast subsequently committed suicide.

Fifth century

Under Theodosius the Great (emperor 379–395), the new on the Rhine,

Stilicho Stilicho (; – 22 August 408) was a military commander in the Roman army who, for a time, became the most powerful man in the Western Roman Empire. He was partly of Vandal origins and married to Serena, the niece of emperor Theodosius I. He b ...

managed to pacify Germania Inferior for a short time. However, the prefecture of Gaul was relocated from Trier, near the Franks, to Vienne in what is now southern France, and then further to

Arles Arles ( , , ; ; Classical ) is a coastal city and Communes of France, commune in the South of France, a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône Departments of France, department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Reg ...

, closer to Italy. After the death of Theodosius, Stilicho became more powerful, because

Honorius Honorius (; 9 September 384 – 15 August 423) was Roman emperor from 393 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla. After the death of Theodosius in 395, Honorius, under the regency of Stilicho ...

the son of Theodosius was still young. In about 401/402 Stilicho moved Rhine forces to assist with the wars against the Goths in other parts of the empire. The Rhine was confronted in about 406 with a large force of

and

from eastern Europe. The Franks attempted to block them from passing into Gaul, and they succeeded in killing one of the Alan kings, Respendial. In 407, with Gaul and Brittania in chaos and unprotected, another usurper arose there to try to pacify the situation, Constantine III. Stilicho was killed in 408. By about 409 most of these Alans and Vandals had moved to Roman

Hispania Hispania was the Ancient Rome, Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two Roman province, provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divide ...

, but one Alan king remained in Gaul,

Goar Goar (born before 390, died between 446 and 450) was a leader of the Alans in 5th-century Gaul. Around the time that the Vandals and other Alans under Respendial crossed the Rhine in 405 or 406, Goar's band of Alans quickly joined the Romans, an ...

. The

Burgundians The Burgundians were an early Germanic peoples, Germanic tribe or group of tribes. They appeared east in the middle Rhine region in the third century AD, and were later moved west into the Roman Empire, in Roman Gaul, Gaul. In the first and seco ...

, who had been living south of the Franks in the Rhine area for more than a century, took control of some of the main Roman cities within the empire,

Worms The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive catalogue and list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scien ...

Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ; ; ), historically known in English as Spires, is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in the western part of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the r ...

, and

Strassburg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

. The Franks took control of the area around Trier. Constantine III died in 411, and a new usurper Jovinus was proclaimed with Alan and Burgundian support. Within a few decades Trier was taken and plundered by the Franks at least three times. Northern Gaul was no longer effectively being governed by the Roman empire although Roman military commanders were clearly still present there sometimes. Archaeological evidence indicates sudden immigration of people into Germania Inferior who introduced rye consumption, and new building and clothing styles. Their jewellery and pottery styles match styles found in what is now northern Germany. There are also signs that Roman gold which started entering the area east of the Rhine around 370, also now started to arrive within the empire itself. Royman and Heeren suggest that usurpers such as Constantine III will have needed to pay off Frankish allies, and that such Franks later started to settle west of the Rhine. By the 440s a Frankish king named

pushed beyond Germania Inferior into more Romanized lands south of the ''"

"'' or "Charcoal forest", which was south of modern

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. He conquered

Tournai Tournai ( , ; ; ; , sometimes Anglicisation (linguistics), anglicised in older sources as "Tournay") is a city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, Province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies by ...

Artois Artois ( , ; ; Picard: ''Artoé;'' English adjective: ''Artesian'') is a region of northern France. Its territory covers an area of about 4,000 km2 and it has a population of about one million. Its principal cities include Arras (Dutch: ...

Cambrai Cambrai (, ; ; ), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord department and in the Hauts-de-France region of France on the Scheldt river, which is known locally as the Escaut river. A sub-pref ...

, and probably reached as far as the

Somme river The Somme ( , ; ) is a river in Picardy, northern France. The river is in length, from its source in the high ground of the former at Fonsomme near Saint-Quentin, to the Bay of the Somme, in the English Channel. It lies in the geologica ...

, in the Roman province of ''Belgica Secunda'' in what is now northern France. Chlodio is believed to be the ancestor of the future Merovingian dynasty. From his base in Pannonia and the

Middle Danube The Danube ( ; see also other names) is the second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest south into the Black Sea. A large and historically important riv ...

and his allies launched a major invasion into Gaul, where they were defeated by a Roman led alliance under the command of

Flavius Aetius Flavius Aetius (also spelled Aëtius; ; 390 – 21 September 454) was a Roman Empire, Roman general and statesman of the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He was a military commander and the most inf ...

at the

in 451. Franks fought on both sides.

Jordanes Jordanes (; Greek language, Greek: Ιορδάνης), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat, claimed to be of Goths, Gothic descent, who became a historian later in life. He wrote two works, one on R ...

, in his ''

Getica ''De origine actibusque Getarum'' (''The Origin and Deeds of the Getae''), commonly abbreviated ''Getica'' (), written in Late Latin by Jordanes in or shortly after 551 AD, claims to be a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of the ori ...

'' mentions a group called the "Riparii" as auxiliaries of during the Battle of Châlons in 451, and distinct from the "Franci", but these ("river dwellers") are today not considered to be Ripuarian Franks, but rather a known military unit based on the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

Childeric I Childeric I (died 481 AD) was a Frankish leader in the northern part of imperial Roman Gaul and a member of the Merovingian dynasty, described as a king (Latin ''rex''), both on his Roman-style seal ring, which was buried with him, and in fragm ...

, who according to

was a reputed descendant of Chlodio, was later seen as administrative ruler over Roman ''

Belgica Secunda Gallia Belgica ("Belgic Gaul") was a province of the Roman Empire located in the north-eastern part of Roman Gaul, in what is today primarily northern France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, along with parts of the Netherlands and Germany. Before the R ...

'' and possibly other areas. Records mentioning Childeric show he was active together with Roman forces in the Loire region. The area between the Loire and the ''Silva Carbonaria'' became the core of what would become medieval France. Childeric's son

also took control of the more independent Frankish kingdoms east of the Silva Carbonaria and Belgica II. This later became the Frankish kingdom of

Austrasia Austrasia was the northeastern kingdom within the core of the Francia, Frankish Empire during the Early Middle Ages, centring on the Meuse, Middle Rhine and the Moselle rivers. It included the original Frankish-ruled territories within what had ...

, where the early legal code was referred to as "Ripuarian".

Merovingian kingdom (481–751)

Frankish leader grave, , with golden Spangenhelm in Krefeld, Germany">Krefeld.html" ;"title="Spangenhelm in Krefeld">Spangenhelm in Krefeld, Germany Frankish - Digitated Fibula - Walters 542443

Frankish - Digitated Fibula - Walters 542443

Childeric and his son

faced competition from the Roman Aegidius as competitor for the "kingship" of the Franks associated with the Roman Loire forces (according to

, Aegidius held the kingship of the Franks for 8 years while Childeric was in exile). This new type of kingship, perhaps inspired by

Alaric I Alaric I (; , 'ruler of all'; ; – 411 AD) was the first Germanic kingship, king of the Visigoths, from 395 to 410. He rose to leadership of the Goths who came to occupy Moesia—territory acquired a couple of decades earlier by a combine ...

, represents the start of the

which succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century, as well as establishing its leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on the Rhine frontier. Aegidius died in 464 or 465. Childeric and his son Clovis I were both described as rulers of the Roman Province of , by its spiritual leader in the time of Clovis,

Saint Remigius Remigius ( or ; – 13 January 533) was the Bishop of Reims and "Apostle of the Franks". On 25 December 496, he baptised Clovis I, King of the Franks. The baptism, leading to about 3000 additional converts, was an important event in the Christ ...

. Clovis later defeated the son of Aegidius, Syagrius, in 486 or 487 and then had the Frankish king Chararic imprisoned and executed. A few years later, he killed

Ragnachar Ragnachar or Ragnarius (died 509) was a Frankish petty king (''regulus'') who ruled from Cambrai. According to Gregory of Tours, Ragnachar "was so unrestrained in his wantonness that he scarcely had mercy for his own near relatives".Gregory, II, 4 ...

, the Frankish king of Cambrai, and his brothers. After conquering the

Kingdom of Soissons The Kingdom or Domain of Soissons is the historiographical name for the de facto independent Roman remnant of the Diocese of Gaul, which existed during late antiquity as a rump state of the Western Roman Empire until its conquest by the Franks i ...

and expelling the

Visigoths The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied Barbarian kingdoms, barbarian military group unite ...

from southern Gaul at the

Battle of Vouillé The Battle of Vouillé (from Latin ''Campus Vogladensis'') was fought in the northern marches of Visigothic territory, at Vouillé, near Poitiers (Gaul), around Spring 507 between the Franks, commanded by Clovis, and the Visigoths, commanded ...

, he established Frankish hegemony over most of Gaul, excluding

Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...

, Provence and

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

, which were eventually absorbed by his successors. By the 490s, he had conquered all the Frankish kingdoms to the west of the

River Maas The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a total length of . History From 1301, the upper ...

except for the

Ripuarian Franks The Rhineland or Ripuarian Franks, also often referred to using the Latin plurals ''Ribuarii'', or ''Ripuarii'', were the Franks who established themselves in and around the formerly Roman city of Cologne, on the Rhine river in what is now Germa ...

and was in a position to make the city of Paris his capital. He became the first king of all Franks in 509, after he had conquered Cologne. Clovis I divided his realm between his four sons, who united to defeat Burgundy in 534. Internecine feuding occurred during the reigns of the brothers

Sigebert I Sigebert I ( 535 – 575) was a Frankish king of Austrasia from the death of his father in 561 to his own death. He was the third surviving son out of four of Clotaire I and Ingund. His reign found him mostly occupied with a successful civil ...

and

Chilperic I Chilperic I ( 539 – September 584) was the king of Neustria (or Soissons) from 561 to his death. He was one of the sons of the Franks, Frankish king Clotaire I and Queen Aregund. Life Immediately after the death of his father in 561, he ...

, which was largely fuelled by the rivalry of their queens, Brunhilda and Fredegunda, and which continued during the reigns of their sons and their grandsons. Three distinct subkingdoms emerged:

Neustria Neustria was the western part of the Kingdom of the Franks during the Early Middle Ages, in contrast to the eastern Frankish kingdom, Austrasia. It initially included land between the Loire and the Silva Carbonaria, in the north of present-day ...

and Burgundy, each of which developed independently and sought to exert influence over the others. The influence of the Arnulfing clan of Austrasia ensured that the political centre of gravity in the kingdom gradually shifted eastwards to the Rhineland. The Frankish realm was reunited in 613 by

Chlothar II Chlothar II, sometimes called "the Young" ( French: le Jeune), (May/June 584 – 18 October 629) was king of the Franks, ruling Neustria (584–629), Burgundy (613–629) and Austrasia (613–623). The son of Chilperic I and his third wife, Fred ...

, the son of Chilperic, who granted his nobles the

Edict of Paris The Edict of Paris (in Latin: Chlotarii II Edictum, in French: Édit de Clotaire II) was promulgated 18 October 614 in Paris by Chlothar II, the Merovingian king of the Franks. It is a body of legislation focused on administering justice and ensu ...

in an effort to reduce corruption and reassert his authority. Following the military successes of his son and successor

Dagobert I Dagobert I (; 603/605 – 19 January 639) was King of the Franks. He ruled Austrasia (623–634) and Neustria and Burgundy (629–639). He has been described as the last king of the Merovingian dynasty to wield real royal power, after which the ...

, royal authority rapidly declined under a series of kings, traditionally known as ''les

rois fainéants Rois may refer to: People * Carrie Rois, victim of Gary Ridgway * Joan Roís de Corella (1435–1497), Valencian author * Juancho Rois (1958-1994), Colombian musician * Sophie Rois, Austrian actress *Róis (Rose Connolly), Northern Irish composer a ...

''. After the

Battle of Tertry The Battle of Tertry was an important engagement in Merovingian Gaul between the forces of Austrasia under Pepin of Herstal, Pepin II on one side and those of Neustria and Kingdom of Burgundy, Burgundy on the other. It took place in 687 at Tertry ...

in 687, each

mayor of the palace Under the Merovingian dynasty, the mayor of the palace or majordomo, ( or ) was the manager of the household of the Frankish king. He was the head of the Merovingian administrative ladder and orchestrated the operation of the entire court. He ...

, who had formerly been the king's chief household official, effectively held power until in 751, with the approval of the Pope and the nobility,

Pepin the Short the Short (; ; ; – 24 September 768), was King of the Franks from 751 until his death in 768. He was the first Carolingian dynasty, Carolingian to become king. Pepin was the son of the Frankish prince Charles Martel and his wife Rotrude of H ...

deposed the last Merovingian king

Childeric III Childeric III ( 717 – 754) was King of the Franks from 743 until he was deposed in 751 by Pepin the Short. He was the last Frankish king from the Merovingian dynasty. Once Childeric was deposed, Pepin became king, initiating the Carolingian dy ...

and had himself crowned. This inaugurated a new dynasty, the

Carolingians The Carolingian dynasty ( ; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid ...

Carolingian kingdom (751–987)

The unification achieved by the Merovingians ensured the continuation of what has become known as the

Carolingian Renaissance The Carolingian Renaissance was the first of three medieval renaissances, a period of cultural activity in the Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne's reign led to an intellectual revival beginning in the 8th century and continuing throughout the 9th ...

. The Carolingian Empire was beset by internecine warfare, but the combination of Frankish rule and Roman Christianity ensured that it was fundamentally united. Frankish government and culture depended very much upon each ruler and his aims and so each region of the empire developed differently. Although a ruler's aims depended upon the political alliances of his family, the leading families of Francia shared the same basic beliefs and ideas of government, which had both Roman and Germanic roots. The Frankish state consolidated its hold over the majority of western Europe by the end of the 8th century, developing into the Carolingian Empire. With the coronation of their ruler Charlemagne as

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...

Pope Leo III Pope Leo III (; died 12 June 816) was bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 26 December 795 to his death on 12 June 816. Protected by Charlemagne from the supporters of his predecessor, Adrian I, Leo subsequently strengthened Charlem ...

in 800, he and his successors were recognised as legitimate successors to the emperors of the

Western Roman Empire In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. ...

. As such, the Carolingian Empire gradually came to be seen in the West as a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire. This empire would give rise to several successor states, including France, the

and

. After the death of

, his only adult surviving son became Emperor and King

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (; ; ; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only ...

. Following Louis the Pious's death, however, according to Frankish culture and law that demanded equality among all living male adult heirs, the

Frankish Empire The Carolingian Empire (800–887) was a Frankish-dominated empire in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the Lomba ...

was now split between Louis' three sons.

Military

Participation in the Roman army

Germanic peoples, including those tribes in the Rhine delta that later became the Franks, are known to have served in the Roman army since the days of

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

. After the Roman administration collapsed in Gaul in the 260s, the armies under the Germanic Batavian

revolted and proclaimed him emperor and then restored order. From then on, Germanic soldiers in the Roman army, most notably Franks, were promoted from the ranks. A few decades later, the Menapian

proclaimed himself a co-emperor and based himself in Britain. His military included Frankish soldiers. Later Frankish soldiers such as

, Silvanus, Ricomer and Bauto held command positions in the Roman army during the mid 4th century. From the narrative of

it is evident that both Frankish and Alamannic tribal armies were organised along Roman lines. In the fifth century, the Roman armies at the Rhine border became a Frankish "franchise", and Franks were known to levy Roman-like troops that were supported by a Roman-like armour and weapons industry. This lasted at least until the days of the scholar

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...

(c. 500 – c. 565), more than a century after the demise of the Western Roman Empire, who wrote describing the former '' Arborychoi'', having merged with the Franks, retaining their legionary organization in the style of their forefathers during Roman times. The Franks under the Merovingians melded Germanic custom with Romanised organisation and several important tactical innovations.

Military practices of the early Franks

The primary sources for Frankish military custom and armament are

Agathias Agathias Scholasticus (; Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), p. 23–25582/594) was a Greek poet and the principal historian of part of the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian I between 552 and 558. Biography Agathias was a native of Myrina ( ...

and Procopius, the latter two Eastern Roman historians writing about Frankish intervention in the Gothic War. Writing of 539, Procopius says: His contemporary, Agathias, who based his own writings upon the tropes laid down by Procopius, says: In the '' Strategikon'', supposedly written by the emperor Maurice, or in his time, the Franks are lumped together with the

Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...

under the heading of the "fair-haired" peoples. While the above quotations have been used as a statement of the military practices of the Frankish nation in the 6th century and have even been extrapolated to the entire period preceding

Charles Martel Charles Martel (; – 22 October 741), ''Martel'' being a sobriquet in Old French for "The Hammer", was a Franks, Frankish political and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace, was the de facto ruler of ...

's reforms (early mid-8th century), post-Second World War historiography has emphasised the inherited Roman characteristics of the Frankish military from the date of the beginning of the conquest of Gaul. The Byzantine authors present several contradictions and difficulties. Procopius denies the Franks the use of the spear while Agathias makes it one of their primary weapons. They agree that the Franks were primarily infantrymen, threw axes and carried a sword and shield. Both writers also contradict the authority of Gallic authors of the same general time period (

and

) and the archaeological evidence. The , the early 7th century legal code of the Rhineland or Ripuarian Franks, specifies the values of various goods when paying a

wergild Weregild (also spelled wergild, wergeld (in archaic/historical usage of English), weregeld, etc.), also known as man price ( blood money), was a precept in some historical legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, ...

in kind; whereas a spear and shield were worth only two , a sword and scabbard were valued at seven, a helmet at six, and a "metal tunic" at twelve.James, Edward, ''The Franks''. Oxford; Blackwell 1988, p. 211 Scramasaxes and arrowheads are numerous in Frankish graves even though the Byzantine historians do not assign them to the Franks. The evidence of Gregory and of the implies that the early Franks were a cavalry people. In fact, some modern historians have hypothesised that the Franks possessed so numerous a body of horses that they could use them to plough fields and thus were agriculturally technologically advanced over their neighbours. The specifies that a mare's value was the same as that of an ox or of a shield and spear, two and a stallion seven or the same as a sword and scabbard, which suggests that horses were relatively common. Perhaps the Byzantine writers considered the Frankish horse to be insignificant relative to the Greek cavalry, which is probably accurate.

Merovingian military

Composition and development

The Frankish military establishment incorporated many of the pre-existing Roman institutions in Gaul, especially during and after the conquests of Clovis I in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. Frankish military strategy revolved around the holding and taking of fortified centres () and in general these centres were held by garrisons of and , who were descendants of Roman soldiers with Germanic origin, granted a quasi-national status under Frankish law. These ''milites'' continued to be commanded by tribunes. Throughout Gaul, the descendants of Roman soldiers continued to wear their uniforms and perform their ceremonial duties. Immediately beneath the Frankish king in the military hierarchy were the , his sworn followers, who were generally 'old soldiers' in service away from court. The king had an elite bodyguard called the ''

truste TrustArc Inc. (formerly TRUSTe) is a privacy compliance technology company based in Walnut Creek, California. The company provides software and services to help corporations update their privacy management processes so they comply with government ...

''. Members of the ''truste'' often served in , garrison settlements that were established for military and police purposes. The day-to-day bodyguard of the king was made up of '' antrustiones'' (senior soldiers who were

aristocrat The aristocracy (''from Greek'' ''ἀριστοκρατία'' ''aristokratía'', "rule of the best"; ''Latin: aristocratia'') is historically associated with a "hereditary" or a "ruling" social class. In many states, the aristocracy included the ...

s in military service) and (junior soldiers and not aristocrats). All high-ranking men had ''pueri''. The Frankish military was not composed solely of Franks and Gallo-Romans, but also contained

Taifals The Taifals or Tayfals ( or ''Theifali''; ) were a people of Germanic peoples, Germanic or Sarmatian origin, first documented north of the lower Danube in the mid third century AD. They experienced an unsettled and fragmented history, for the mo ...

and

. After the conquest of

(534), the well-organised military institutions of that kingdom were integrated into the Frankish realm. Chief among these was the standing army under the command of the Patrician of Burgundy. In the late 6th century, during the wars instigated by

Fredegund Fredegund or Fredegunda (Vulgar Latin, Latin: ''Fredegundis''; French language, French: ''Frédégonde''; died 8 December 597) was the queen consort of Chilperic I, the Merovingian Franks, Frankish king of Neustria. Fredegund served as regent ...

and Brunhilda, the Merovingian monarchs introduced a new element into their militaries: the local levy. A levy consisted of all the able-bodied men of a district who were required to report for military service when called upon, similar to

conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...

. The local levy applied only to a city and its environs. Initially only in certain cities in western Gaul, in Neustria and Aquitaine, did the kings possess the right or power to call up the levy. The commanders of the local levies were always different from the commanders of the urban garrisons. Often the former were commanded by the

count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

s of the districts. A much rarer occurrence was the general levy, which applied to the entire kingdom and included peasants ( and ). General levies could also be made within the still-pagan trans-Rhenish stem duchies on the orders of a monarch. The

, Alemanni and

Thuringii The Thuringii, or Thuringians were a Germanic people who lived in the kingdom of the Thuringians that appeared during the late Migration Period south of the Harz Mountains of central Germania, a region still known today as Thuringia. The Thuring ...

all had the institution of the levy and the Frankish monarchs could depend upon their levies until the mid-7th century, when the stem dukes began to sever their ties to the monarchy. Radulf of Thuringia called up the levy for a war against

Sigebert III Sigebert III ( 630–656) was the Merovingian dynasty, Merovingian king of Austrasia from 633 to his death around 656. He was described as the first Merovingian ''roi fainéant'', or "do-nothing king", with the mayor of the palace in fact ruling ...

in 640. Soon the local levy spread to Austrasia and the less Romanised regions of Gaul. On an intermediate level, the kings began calling up territorial levies from the regions of Austrasia (which did not have major cities of Roman origin). All the forms of the levy gradually disappeared, however, in the course of the 7th century after the reign of

. Under the so-called , the levies disappeared by mid-century in Austrasia and later in Burgundy and Neustria. Only in Aquitaine, which was fast becoming independent of the central Frankish monarchy, did complex military institutions persist into the 8th century. In the final half of the 7th century and first half of the 8th in Merovingian Gaul, the chief military actors became the lay and ecclesiastical

magnate The term magnate, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

s with their bands of armed followers called retainers. The other aspects of the Merovingian military, mostly Roman in origin or innovations of powerful kings, disappeared from the scene by the 8th century.

Strategy, tactics and equipment

Merovingian armies used coats of mail, helmets,

shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry like spears or long ranged projectiles suc ...

lance The English term lance is derived, via Middle English '' launce'' and Old French '' lance'', from the Latin '' lancea'', a generic term meaning a wikt:lancea#Noun">lancea'', a generic term meaning a spear">wikt:lancea#Noun">lancea'', a generi ...

sword A sword is an edged and bladed weapons, edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter ...

s, bows and arrows and war horses. The armament of private armies resembled those of the Gallo-Roman of the late Empire. A strong element of Alanic cavalry settled in

Armorica In ancient times, Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; ; ) was a region of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, and much of historical Normandy. Name The name ''Armorica'' is a Latinized form of the Gauli ...

influenced the fighting style of the

down into the 12th century. Local urban levies could be reasonably well-armed and even mounted, but the more general levies were composed of and , who were mostly farmers by trade and carried ineffective weapons, such as farming implements. The peoples east of the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

– Franks, Saxons and even

Wends Wends is a historical name for Slavs who inhabited present-day northeast Germany. It refers not to a homogeneous people, but to various people, tribes or groups depending on where and when it was used. In the modern day, communities identifying ...

– who were sometimes called upon to serve, wore rudimentary armour and carried weapons such as

spear A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with Fire hardening, fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable materia ...

s and

axe An axe (; sometimes spelled ax in American English; American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for thousands of years to shape, split, a ...

s. Few of these men were mounted. Merovingian society had a militarised nature. The Franks called annual meetings every Marchfeld (1 March), when the king and his nobles assembled in large open fields and determined their targets for the next campaigning season. The meetings were a show of strength on behalf of the monarch and a way for him to retain loyalty among his troops. In their civil wars, the Merovingian kings concentrated on the holding of fortified places and the use of

siege engine A siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent heavy castle doors, thick city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. Some are immobile, constructed in place to attack enemy fortifications from a distance, while othe ...

s. In wars waged against external foes, the objective was typically the acquisition of booty or the enforcement of tribute. Only in the lands beyond the Rhine did the Merovingians seek to extend political control over their neighbours. Tactically, the Merovingians borrowed heavily from the Romans, especially regarding siege warfare. Their battle tactics were highly flexible and were designed to meet the specific circumstances of a battle. The tactic of subterfuge was employed endlessly. Cavalry formed a large segment of an army , but troops readily dismounted to fight on foot. The Merovingians were capable of raising naval forces: the naval campaign waged against the

Danes Danes (, ), or Danish people, are an ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural. History Early history Denmark ...

Theuderic I __NOTOC__ Theuderic I ( 487 – 534) was the Merovingian king of Metz, Rheims, or Austrasia—as it is variously called—from 511 to 534. He was the son of Clovis I and one of his earlier wives or concubines (possibly a Franco-Rhenish Pr ...

in 515 involved ocean-worthy ships and rivercraft were used on the

and

Culture

Language

In a modern

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

context, the

Germanic language The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, ...

of the early Franks is variously called "Old Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and these terms refer to the language of the Franks prior to the advent of the

High German consonant shift In historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift is a phonological development (sound change) that took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic languages, West Germanic dialect continuum. The ...

, which took place in the 7th century. After this consonant shift the Frankish dialects diverged. The dialects which would become modern Dutch didn't undergo the consonantal shift, while all others did so, to varying degrees, creating the so-called

Rhenish fan The subdivision of West Central German into a series of dialects, according to the differing extent of the High German consonant shift, is particularly pronounced. It is known as the Rhenish fan (, ) because on the map of dialect boundaries, the li ...

pattern. As a result, the distinction between

Old Dutch In linguistics, Old Dutch ( Modern Dutch: ') or Old Low Franconian (Modern Dutch: ') is the set of dialects that evolved from Frankish spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from around the 6th Page 55: "''Uit de zesde eeu ...

and Old Frankish is largely negligible, and "Old Dutch" (also called "

Old Low Franconian In linguistics, Old Dutch ( Modern Dutch: ') or Old Low Franconian (Modern Dutch: ') is the set of dialects that evolved from Frankish spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from around the 6th Page 55: "''Uit de zesde eeuw ...

") is the term used to distinguish the variants which were not affected by this Second Germanic consonant shift.B. Mees
"The Bergakker inscription and the beginnings of Dutch"
in: , edited by Erika Langbroek, Annelies Roeleveld, Paula Vermeyden, Arend Quak, Published by Rodopi, 2002, The early Frankish language has not been directly attested, apart from a very small number of

runic inscriptions A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of E ...

found within contemporary Frankish territory such as the

Bergakker inscription The Bergakker inscription is an Elder Futhark inscription discovered on the scabbard of a 5th-century sword. It was found in 1996 in the Dutch town of Bergakker, in the Betuwe, a region once inhabited by the Batavi. There is consensus that t ...

. Nevertheless, a significant amount of Frankish vocabulary has been reconstructed by examining early Germanic loanwords found in

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th comparative reconstruction through Dutch. The influence of Old Frankish on contemporary

Gallo-Roman Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization (cultural), Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire in Roman Gaul. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, Roman culture, language ...

vocabulary A vocabulary (also known as a lexicon) is a set of words, typically the set in a language or the set known to an individual. The word ''vocabulary'' originated from the Latin , meaning "a word, name". It forms an essential component of languag ...

and

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

, have long been the subjects of scholarly debate. Frankish influence is thought to include the designations of the four cardinal directions: ''nord'' "north", ''sud'' "south", ''est'' "east" and ''ouest'' "west" and at least an additional 1000 stem words. Although the Franks would eventually conquer all of

, speakers of Frankish apparently expanded in sufficient numbers only into northern Gaul to have a linguistic effect. For several centuries, northern Gaul was a bilingual territory (

Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...

and Frankish). The language used in writing, in government and by the Church was Latin. Urban T. Holmes has proposed that a Germanic language continued to be spoken as a second tongue by public officials in western

and Northern

as late as the 850s, and that it completely disappeared as a spoken language during the 10th century from regions where only French is spoken today. The Germanic tribes who were called Franks in

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

are associated with the Weser–Rhine Germanic/ Istvaeonic cultural-linguistic grouping.H. Schutz: Tools, Weapons and Ornaments: Germanic Material Culture in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, 400–750. Brill, 2001, p. 42.

Art and architecture

Early Frankish art and architecture belongs to a phase known as

Migration Period art Migration Period art denotes the artwork of the Germanic peoples during the Migration period (c. 300 – 800). It includes the Migration art of the Germanic tribes on the continent, as well the start of the Insular art or Hiberno-Saxon art of the ...

, which has left very few remains. The later period is called Carolingian art, or, especially in architecture, pre-Romanesque. Very little Merovingian architecture has been preserved. The earliest churches seem to have been timber-built, with larger examples being of a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

type. The most completely surviving example, a

baptistery In Church architecture, Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek language, Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned ...

Poitiers Poitiers is a city on the river Clain in west-central France. It is a commune in France, commune, the capital of the Vienne (department), Vienne department and the historical center of Poitou, Poitou Province. In 2021, it had a population of 9 ...

, is a building with three

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

s of a Gallo-Roman style. A number of small baptistries can be seen in

Southern France Southern France, also known as the south of France or colloquially in French as , is a geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', Atlas e ...

: as these fell out of fashion, they were not updated and have subsequently survived as they were. Jewelry (such as brooches), weapons (including swords with decorative hilts) and clothing (such as capes and sandals) have been found in a number of grave sites. The grave of Queen Aregund, discovered in 1959, and the Treasure of Gourdon, which was deposited soon after 524, are notable examples. The few Merovingian illuminated manuscripts that have survived, such as the

Gelasian Sacramentary The so-called Gelasian Sacramentary (Latin: ''Sacramentarium Gelasianum'') is a book of Christianity, Christian liturgy, containing the priest's part in celebrating the Eucharist. It is the second oldest western liturgical book that has survived: ...

, contain a great deal of zoomorphic representations. Such Frankish objects show a greater use of the style and motifs of

and a lesser degree of skill and sophistication in design and manufacture than comparable works from the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

. So little has survived, however, that the best quality of work from this period may not be represented. The objects produced by the main centres of the Carolingian Renaissance, which represent a transformation from that of the earlier period, have survived in far greater quantity. The arts were lavishly funded and encouraged by Charlemagne, using imported artists where necessary, and Carolingian developments were decisive for the future course of

Western art The art of Europe, also known as Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period bet ...

. Carolingian illuminated manuscripts and ivory plaques, which have survived in reasonable numbers, approached those of

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

in quality. The main surviving monument of

Carolingian architecture Carolingian architecture is the style of north European Pre-Romanesque architecture belonging to the period of the Carolingian Renaissance of the late 8th and 9th centuries, when the Carolingian dynasty dominated west European politics. It wa ...

is the Palatine Chapel in Aachen, which is an impressive and confident adaptation of San Vitale, Ravenna – from where some of the pillars were brought. Many other important buildings existed, such as the monasteries of Centula or St Gall, or the old

Cologne Cathedral Cologne Cathedral (, , officially , English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia belonging to the Catholic Church. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archd ...

, since rebuilt. These large structures and complexes made frequent use of towers.

Religion

A sizeable portion of the Frankish aristocracy quickly followed Clovis in converting to Christianity (the Frankish church of the Merovingians). The conversion of all under Frankish rule required a considerable amount of time and effort.

Paganism

Echoes of

Frankish paganism The pagan religion of the Germanic tribal confederation of the Franks has been traced from its roots in polytheistic Germanic paganism through to the incorporation of Greco- Roman components in the Early Middle Ages. This religion flourished am ...

can be found in the primary sources, but their meaning is not always clear. Interpretations by modern scholars differ greatly, but it is likely that Frankish paganism shared most of the characteristics of other varieties of

Germanic paganism Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological dating, chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia, the Bri ...

. The mythology of the Franks was probably a form of Germanic polytheism. It was highly ritualistic. Many daily activities centred around the multiple deities, chiefest of which may have been the Quinotaur, a water-god from whom the Merovingians were reputed to have derived their ancestry. Most of their gods were linked with local cult centres and their sacred character and power were associated with specific regions, outside of which they were neither worshipped nor feared. Most of the gods were "worldly", possessing form and having connections with specific objects, in contrast to the God of Christianity. Frankish paganism has been observed in the burial site of Childeric I, where the king's body was found covered in a cloth decorated with numerous bees. There is a likely connection with the bees to the traditional Frankish weapon, the

angon The ''angon'' (Medieval Greek , Old High German ''ango'', Old English ''anga'' "hook, point, spike") is a type of javelin that was used during the Early Middle Ages by the Anglo-Saxons, Franks, Goths, and other Germanic peoples. It was similar ...

(meaning "sting"), from its distinctive spearhead. It is possible that the

fleur-de-lis The ''fleur-de-lis'', also spelled ''fleur-de-lys'' (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a common heraldic charge in the (stylized) shape of a lily (in French, and mean and respectively). Most notably, the ''fleur-de-lis'' ...

is derived from the angon.

Christianity

Some Franks, like the 4th century usurper Silvanus, converted early to Christianity. In 496, Clovis I, who had married a Burgundian

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

named Clotilda in 493, was baptised by

Saint Remi In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

after a decisive victory over the Alemanni at the

Battle of Tolbiac The Battle of Tolbiac was fought between the Franks, who were fighting under Clovis I, and the Alamanni, whose leader is not known. The date of the battle has traditionally been given as 496, though other accounts suggest it may either have been ...

. According to Gregory of Tours, over three thousand of his soldiers were baptised with him. Clovis' conversion had a profound effect on the course of European history, for at the time the Franks were the only major Christianised Germanic tribe without a predominantly

Arian Arianism (, ) is a Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is considered he ...

aristocracy and this led to a naturally amicable relationship between the Catholic Church and the increasingly powerful Franks. Although many of the Frankish aristocracy quickly followed Clovis in converting to Christianity, the conversion of all his subjects was only achieved after considerable effort and, in some regions, a period of over two centuries. The ''Chronicle of St. Denis'' relates that, following Clovis' conversion, a number of pagans who were unhappy with this turn of events rallied around

, who had played an important role in Clovis' initial rise to power. Although the text remains unclear as to the precise pretext, Clovis had Ragnachar executed. Remaining pockets of resistance were overcome region by region, primarily due to the work of an expanding network of monasteries. Sacr Gelasianum 131v 132

The Merovingian Church was shaped by both internal and external forces. It had to come to terms with an established Gallo-Roman hierarchy that resisted changes to its culture, Christianise pagan sensibilities and suppress their expression, provide a new theological basis for Merovingian forms of kingship deeply rooted in pagan Germanic tradition and accommodate Irish and

Anglo-Saxon mission Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon missionaries were instrumental in the spread of Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century, continuing the work of Hiberno-Scottish missionaries which had been spreading Celtic Christianity across the Fr ...

ary activities and papal requirements. The Carolingian reformation of monasticism and church-state relations was the culmination of the Frankish Church. The increasingly wealthy Merovingian elite endowed many monasteries, including that of the Irish missionary

Columbanus Saint Columbanus (; 543 – 23 November 615) was an Irish missionary notable for founding a number of monasteries after 590 in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil Abbey in present-day France and Bobbio Abbey in presen ...

. The 5th, 6th and 7th centuries saw two major waves of

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Chr ...

ism in the Frankish world, which led to legislation requiring that all monks and hermits follow the

Rule of St Benedict The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' () is a book of precepts written in Latin by Benedict of Nursia, St. Benedict of Nursia (c. AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The spirit of Saint Benedict's Rule is summed up ...

. The Church sometimes had an uneasy relationship with the Merovingian kings, whose claim to rule depended on a mystique of royal descent and who tended to revert to the polygamy of their pagan ancestors. Rome encouraged the Franks to slowly replace the

Gallican Rite The Gallican Rite is a historical form of Christian liturgy and other ritual practices in Western Christianity. It is not a single Ritual family, liturgical rite but rather several Latin liturgical rites that developed within the Latin Church, w ...

with the

Roman rite The Roman Rite () is the most common ritual family for performing the ecclesiastical services of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The Roman Rite governs Rite (Christianity) ...

Laws

As with other Germanic peoples, the laws of the Franks were memorised by "rachimburgs", who were analogous to the

lawspeaker A lawspeaker or lawman ( Swedish: ''lagman'', Old Swedish: ''laghmaþer'' or ''laghman'', Danish: ''lovsigemand'', Norwegian: ''lagmann'', Icelandic: , Faroese: '' løgmaður'', Finnish: ''laamanni'', ) is a unique Scandinavian legal offic ...

s of

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

. By the 6th century, when these laws first appeared in written form, two basic legal subdivisions existed: Salian Franks were subject to

Salic law The Salic law ( or ; ), also called the was the ancient Frankish Civil law (legal system), civil law code compiled around AD 500 by Clovis I, Clovis, the first Frankish King. The name may refer to the Salii, or "Salian Franks", but this is deba ...

and Ripuarian Franks to Ripuarian law. The Salic legal code applied in the Neustrian area from the river Liger (

) to the ''

'', a forest south of present-day Brussels. It represented the boundary of the original area of Frankish settlement, which Chlodio pushed past in the 5th century.. The Ripuarian law was apparently used on the other side of the Silva Carbonaria, in the older Frankish kingdoms. The Rhineland or "Ripuarian" Franks who lived near the stretch of the Rhine from roughly

Duisburg Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

, the region of the city of

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, are often considered separately from the Salians, and sometimes in modern texts referred to as Ripuarian Franks. The

Ravenna Cosmography The ''Ravenna Cosmography'' (, "The Cosmography of the Unknown Ravennese") is a work describing the Ecumene, known world from India to Ireland, compiled by an anonymous cleric in Ravenna around 700 AD. It consists of five books describing ...

suggests that ''Francia Renensis'' included the old ''civitas'' of the

Ubii 350px, The Ubii around AD 30 The Ubii were a Germanic tribe first encountered dwelling on the east bank of the Rhine in the time of Julius Caesar, who formed an alliance with them in 55 BC in order to launch attacks across the river. They were ...

, in Germania II (

), but also the northern part of Germania I (Germania Superior), including

. Like the Salians they appear in Roman records both as raiders and as contributors to military units. Unlike the Salii, there is no record of when, if ever, the empire officially accepted their residence within its borders. They eventually succeeded to hold the city of Cologne, and at some point seem to have acquired the name Ripuarians, which may have meant "river people". In any case a Merovingian legal code was called the '' Lex Ribuaria'', but it probably applied in all the older Frankish lands, including the original Salian areas. Gallo-Romans south of the River Loire and the clergy remained subject to traditional

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...

. Germanic law was overwhelmingly concerned with the protection of individuals and less concerned with protecting the interests of the state. According to Michel Rouche, "Frankish judges devoted as much care to a case involving the theft of a dog as Roman judges did to cases involving the fiscal responsibility of , or municipal councilors".Michel Rouche, 422–423

References

Sources

Secondary sources

* * Bachrach, Bernard S. ''Merovingian Military Organization, 481–751''. University of Minnesota Press, 1971. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Schutz, Herbert. ''The Germanic Realms in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, 400–750''. American University Studies, Series IX: History, Vol. 196. New York: Peter Lang, 2000. * * * * * Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. ''The Barbarian West''. London: Hutchinson, 1970.

Primary sources

Fredegar The ''Chronicle of Fredegar'' is the conventional title used for a 7th-century Franks, Frankish chronicle that was probably written in Burgundy. The author is unknown and the attribution to Fredegar dates only from the 16th century. The chronic ...

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External links

* * * * * {{Authority control Early Germanic peoples Historical ethnic groups of Europe Early Middle Ages Medieval history of Belgium Medieval history of the Netherlands German tribes