The Franks are a Germanic people appearing in the form of a confederation of tribes at the time of the Great Invasions. Some of them play a central role in the history of France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany from their settlement in Roman Gaul.
The Franks appear at the beginning of the first millennium in Latin sources. The term probably designates a league - or confederation - of Germanic peoples settled on the right bank of the lower Rhine, beyond the borders of the Roman Empire, and who were not subject to the Empire or to any other more important. The Latin francus, franci tends to prove that they were so named, since frank means free in the Germanic language (we can also find the origin of the word Frank in the word Frekkr (meaning bold, valiant) from the Germanic language).
In the 4th century, the Salian Franks, beaten by the Emperor Julian, became the Lètes of Rome, who let them settle in Belgian Gaul. It was thus the first Germanic people to settle permanently in Roman territory, and therefore also the first to become Latinized. These peoples had in common to compete with the Alamans (germ. Alle Männer, all men), another group of ethnic groups established further south on the right bank of the Rhine.
The language - or the dialects - originally spoken by the Franks as well as their cultural facies are attached to the Western Germanic Indo-European ethno-linguistic group, such as the Angles, the Frisians and the Saxons as opposed to the Eastern Germanic group to which the Goths belong in particular. .
The ethnic groups of the League of the Franks
The peoples who made up the league of the Franks likely included:
* Chamaves
* Pussies
* the Ansivarians or Ampsivarians or Angrivarians
* les Bructères
* the Cheruscans
* the Angrivarians
* the Hattuaries
* Tubantes
* Tenctera
* the Usipetes
The Sugambres or Sicambres were not considered Franks, the Chauques, established in the northeast of the Frisians, more often attached to the Saxons than to the Franks.
Later we will talk about the Salian Franks, established near the Sale river and the mouths of the Yssel and the Ripuarian Franks settled on the right bank of the Rhine.
The Great Invasions
In the 3rd century, the Franks took part in the great so-called "barbarian" invasions (257), alongside other peoples who entered the Roman Empire. The role of the Franks, however, remains controversial. There followed a recovery for Rome, as the Germanic leagues of the time could not stand up to the imperial army.
Towards the end of the Empire, in the 4th and 5th centuries, we find Franks like Lètes in the defense of the limes, then largely Romanized, and in fight against other more threatening barbarians. For more details on these Franks subject to the empire, see:Federated Franks.
The term barbarian disappeared with the end of Roman civilization and the Gallo-Roman cultural space.
The Merovingians
Among the Franks who entered the service of the Empire from the end of the 3rd century, are the Salian Franks. Their legendary ancestor, undoubtedly quasi-divine according to the Germanic rites, is for them the principal source of legitimacy of the royal capacity. It is called Mérovée.
However, in the 5th century their king also became proconsul of Gaul, that is to say a Roman civil servant of Germanic origin but very well assimilated (find out more about this dynamic of integration). The Franks were then firmly established in the territories that were to become Neustria and their military functions gave them significant power in these troubled times:the young Clovis (germ. Hlodowecus, who later gave the first names Ludovic or Ludwig in Germany and Louis in France) became their king at Tournai, probably in 481. But he needed more than the power of divine essence conferred on him by Germanic tribal mythology, to impose himself against the bishops, the patricians or the Gallo-Roman population. partly Christianized.
The "Frankish domains" from 511 to 561 from Clovis, Duke of the Salian Franks.
The "Frankish domains" from 511 to 561 from of Clovis, Duke of the Salian Franks.
Settled in Soissons, where he overthrew a Roman general named Syagrius, Clovis is undoubtedly first sensitive to the advice of his Burgundian wife, Clothilde, who converted to Catholicism, and to those of the bishop of Reims, Rémi.
Perhaps during an important battle against the Alemanni, the battle of Tolbiac, he promises to convert to the Catholic Christian religion if he is victorious. He kept his word and received baptism in 496 in Reims, with 3,000 warriors. Thereafter, he tries to instill Christian principles in his people who remain largely pagan.
After a series of victories over his barbarian rivals, notably over the Burgundians during the battle of Autun, Clovis thus appears as one of the first Germanic kings of the West to have adopted the dominant Christian religion, that of Rome, unlike the Visigoths or to the Arian Lombards and the pagan Alamanni.
He thus managed to win the support of the Gallo-Roman elites and to found a lasting dynasty (which took the name of its Germanic ancestor):the Merovingians.
The Merovingians then reigned over all of ancient Gaul until the middle of the 8th century. Their most famous sovereigns are:Dagobert I and Queen Brunhild. It should be noted that at this time, as under the following dynasty, it was not a question of France, but of a kingdom of the Franks:the German kings, in fact, did not reign over a territory, but over topics.
The Carolingians
From the end of the 7th century, when politics was marked by bloody quarrels between the Neustrian (in the west) and Austrasian (in the east) Franks, the last Merovingians were confined to the role of ceremonial sovereign. They have a bloodless kingdom:crumbled power is in the hands of the landed aristocrats. Latin culture had gradually regressed over the previous two centuries. An unprecedented economic crisis has undermined all the landmarks of the ancient West:it is notably due to the closure of trade routes with the Mediterranean world because of the Arab conquests.
It is in this context that the rise of a new family begins. Among the real holders of power, the Austrasian palace mayors took de facto control of the entire Frankish kingdom, before publicly dethroning the last Merovingian and forming their own dynasty:the Pippinids, later known as the name of Carolingians. Anxious to legitimize their coup, the Pippinids link their origin to Francus, a legendary Trojan, and thereby link themselves once again to Rome.
The power of the Carolingians marks the real entry into the Middle Ages:the center of power moves eastwards, from the ancient episcopal cities to the rural domains of the Carolingian counts. It is remarkable that at the same time, men of letters, aware of the disappearance of ancient culture, tried to revive it:this was the Carolingian Renaissance. Charlemagne, the second and most prestigious Carolingian sovereign was himself crowned Emperor of the Franks and Romans in the year 800 in Rome. But these attempts to restore the Western Empire fail.
Birth of France
In 842, the oaths of Strasbourg, made between the sons and grandsons of Charlemagne, heirs of the Empire who were torn apart, testify to the use of languages which are totally different in the West and in the East. They were followed by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, which effectively divided the Carolingian Empire into three[1]and then soon two kingdoms. The latter is thus the birth certificate of France and also foreshadows the future Germany.
In the 10th century, the coming to power of a Saxon dynasty, the Ottonians, in Germania, and that of the Capetians in West Francia marked the end of the Carolingian dynasty. The term Franks, however, remains in use to distinguish the inhabitants of France during the Middle Ages and it is by the name of franj that Arab chroniclers describe the Crusaders in the 13th century.
The best known Carolingian rulers are:Pepin the Short and Charlemagne.
Military organization
The Franks themselves used framees (large spears), scramasaxes (medium-sized swords), angons (hook spears to immobilize the opponent by sticking in his shield) and francisques (axes of jet from one side sharp). These weapons, which were technologically developed for the time, combined with combat know-how developed by the Franks, constantly threatened at the time by their German, Celtic and Roman neighbours, enabled this people to impose themselves quite quickly but at the cost of hard fights... The victories of Clovis are partly due to the fact that he aligned on the battlefield not only his Saliens, but also cohorts of Gallo-Romans, and that he attached himself to keep alive the rigor and strategy of the Roman army, in which many Saliens had served as Letes.