The Frankish peoples were a group of Germanic tribes who inhabited the lower and middle Rhine Rivers around the 3rd century AD. The Franks were the most powerful political organization in Western Europe after the fall of Rome.
During centuries of expansion, they absorbed a large number of peoples into their culture, among them the Saxons, the Romans, the Germans and the Avars. The kingdom of the Franks was responsible for redesigning Europe.
The francs
They appear in the Roman provinces around the year 253 and their two prominent groups were the Salians and the Ripuarians, who exercised strong leadership over the others.
The Franks are mentioned from 257 onwards, as powerful enemies of Rome, north of the region of Gaul. His warlike efficiency was recognized by land and sea. It was up to the Salians to excel in naval combat, while the Ripuarians showed high performance in land battles.
At the end of the 3rd century, some tribes of the Franks joined the Saxons and dominated the shipping lanes off the coast of Great Britain and Gaul. The pressure made Emperor Maximilian sign an agreement in which, among the many hits, was the presence of Franks in the Roman army.
The measure, considered curious, influenced the Roman army, whose contingent in the fourth century was composed, in its majority, by Franks. In the middle of 350 AD, the Franks already had a solid presence in Gaul and, in the 5th century under the command of Childeric (440 - 482) they began a new phase of expansion and became a power in the region, under the Merovingian dynasty.
The Franks joined the Romans to successfully face, in 451 AD, the onslaughts of Attila, King of the Huns, on Gaul. Frankish military support for the Roman army continued in later battles, such as those against the Visigoths in 463 and the Saxons in 469.
See also:Barbarian PeoplesMerovingian dynasty
It was under the command of Clovis I (466 - 511) that the Franks began to experience another moment of expansion. Clovis, who was the son of Childeric, ascended the throne in 481, when he was 15 years old, and consolidated the Merovingian dynasty, which lasted for 200 years.
The Franks were pagans, when most of the barbarian tribes of the time already followed the precepts of Christianity. It was King Clovis I who was responsible for converting the Franks to Christianity. According to historians, the king's baptism took place after his marriage to Princess Clotilde Burgundy (457 - 545) and after the victory against the Germans, in 496, attributed to divine will.
Clovis I's strategy was, however, to facilitate acceptance by the Welsh and Romans after the conquest of the Eastern Roman Empire. Under Clovis' reign, many aspects of the Franks influenced the region, such as the language, religious beliefs, and the legislature, which became a turning point for Germanic and Roman cultures.
The Franks maintained the industry and manufacture of the Romans and Germans, as well as art and architecture. After Clovis' death, the kingdom was divided among his four sons. The eldest, Theodoric I, controlled the west bank of the North Sea as far as the Alps region.
Theodoric was succeeded by his son, Theudebert, who applied the old strategy of supporting allied armies. This time, however, support came to Romans and Ostrogoths, enemies in the battle of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I seeking to regain part of the western half of Rome in 536.
The Franks took control of Provence from the Ostrogoths in 539, and researchers point to their ruthless manner in warfare, even though they were already under Christian influence. Despite the methods, they were not successful and Theudebert ceded control of northern Italy in 548.
Theudebert died in 555 and his great-uncle Clothar I, king of all the Franks until 561, took his place. On Clothar I's death, the kingdom was again divided among Theudebald's four sons - Charibet I, Siberbert I, Chilperic I and Guntran.
The children respectively belonged to the kingdoms of Paris, Reims, Soissoins and Orlenas. The new political organization incited successive disputes and, in 567, with the death of Charibet I, the brothers began to dispute the territory.
At the end of the disputes, the four kingdoms became three:Austrasia, Neustria and Burgundy. The new division did not end the conflicts. Instability continued in the following years, culminating in the end of the Merovingian dynasty.
Carolingian Empire
The Carolingian dynasty was started by Pepin the Short, who became King of the Franks in 754, succeeded by his son Charlemagne in 768. Under Charlemagne, the Franks occupied most of Western Europe.
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- Carolingian Empire
- Germanic peoples
- Barbarian peoples