Francia

The Kingdom of the Franks (), also known as the Frankish Kingdom or Francia, was the largest post-Roman kingdom in Western Europe. It was established by the Franks, one of the Germanic peoples. Its founder was King Clovis I who united Frankish tribes and expanded the Frankish realm into the Roman Gaul. During the Early Middle Ages, the kingdom was ruled by the Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties. In 800, it evolved into the Carolingian Empire, thus becoming the longest lasting Germanic kingdom from the era of Great Migrations.

Originally, the core Frankish territories inside the former Western Roman Empire were located close to the Rhine and Meuse rivers in the north, but Frankish chiefs such as Chlodio expanded their influence within Roman territory as far as the Somme river in the 5th century.

Childeric I, a Salian Frankish king, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces of various ethnic affiliations in the northern territory. His son Clovis I succeeded in unifying most of Gaul under his rule by notably conquering Soissons in 486 and Aquitaine in 507, as well as establishing leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on or near the Rhine frontier; thus founding what became the Merovingian dynasty. The dynasty subsequently gained control over a significant part of what is now western and southern Germany. It was by building upon the basis of these Merovingian deeds that the subsequent Carolingian dynasty—through the nearly continuous campaigns of Pepin of Herstal, his son Charles Martel, grandson Pepin the Short, and great-grandson Charlemagne—secured the greatest expansion of the Frankish state by the early 9th century. Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800, thus creating the Frankish-Roman Empire, also referred to as the Carolingian Empire.

Francia was one large polity, generally subdivided into several smaller kingdoms ruled by different members of the ruling dynasties. Whilst these kingdoms coordinated, they also regularly came into conflict with one another. The old Frankish lands, for example, were initially contained within the kingdom of Austrasia, centred on the Rhine and Meuse. The bulk of the Gallo-Roman territory to its south and west was called Neustria. The borders and number of these subkingdoms varied over time, until a basic split between eastern and western domains became persistent.

After various treaties and conflicts in the late 9th and early 10th centuries, West Francia came under control of the Capetian dynasty, becoming the Kingdom of France, while East Francia and Lotharingia came under the control of the Saxon Ottonian dynasty, becoming the Kingdom of Germany (which would conquer Burgundy and Italy to then form the medieval Holy Roman Empire). Competing French and German nationalisms in later centuries would claim succession from Charlemagne and the original kingdom, but nowadays both have become seen by many as pan-European symbols.

thumb|upright=1.15|The partition of the Frankish kingdom among the four sons of [[Clovis I|Clovis with Clotilde presiding, Grandes Chroniques de France (Bibliothèque municipale de Toulouse)]]

The Franks before Clovis

The term "Franks" emerged in the 3rd century AD as a term for several Germanic tribes including the Bructeri, Chamavi, and Chattuarii, who had long lived near the Rhine, just outside the Roman Empire. During the Crisis of the Third Century, while the empire was weakened by internal turmoil, the Franks were able to cross the Rhine, raiding into Roman Gaul and settling in the Rhine delta. In the late 3rd century the so-called Tetrarchy emperors were eventually able to reassert Roman authority over their Rhine frontier, and their hegemony over the Frankish tribes, but they also effectively gave it up the Rhine delta and regions near it as an area for normal taxation and governance, and population and agricultural activity decreased dramatically. In the 4th century Franks re-entered the delta region and continued to make incursions into the empire. The emperor Julian the Apostate campaigned against various Frankish groups and renegotiated some of their agreements with the empire. He allowed the Salian Franks to settle not only in the delta, but also further south in Texandria in what is now the Netherlands. He also created new military units based on recruitment among the Frankish tribes. Under emperor Valentinian I Frankish people reached high military positions. Some of the Frankish elite were then closely intertwined with the Roman military and political system. The Frankish presence in northern Gaul, and within the Roman military, increased and when a large-scale invasion of Gaul was made in 406 it was the Frankish forces who defended the Rhine, killing Godigisel the king of the Hasdingi Vandals.

After the Franks were established in Germania Inferior under several kings, one of them named Chlodio launched an attack on territory which was still inhabited by Romans, south of the "Silva Carbonaria" or "Charcoal forest", which was south of modern Brussels. He conquered Tournai, Artois, Cambrai, and probably reached as far as the Somme river, 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. Other Franks took control of the important Roman cities of Cologne and Trier.

In 451 various groups of Franks were on both sides when the Roman general Aetius fought against the Huns at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, near Troyes.

Childeric I, the father of Clovis, was possibly a relative of Chlodio. He acted as a Roman general, ruling as king over Frankish forces in Norther Gaul, and he was also perhaps governor of the province of Belgica Secunda.

Birth of the Frankish kingdom with Clovis

thumb|right|300px|The Frankish kingdoms at the death of Clovis in 511

Clovis I unified the Frankish kingdoms by executing the other Salian or Ripuarian Frankish kings, his relatives: King Ragnachar (Cambrai) and his brothers Richaire and Rigomer, King Chararic, King Chlodoric.

Having unified the Salian and Rhenish Frankish kingdoms, Clovis I, with the support of the clergy and the great Gallo-Roman families, unified Gaul by destroying the other Germanic kingdoms whose kings, of the Arian faith, hardly enjoyed the trust of predominantly Catholic populations.

In 486, he seized the cities of Senlis, Beauvais, Soissons, and Paris. His victory in the Franco-Roman War against Syagrius, considered "king of the Romans", who controlled a Gallo-Roman enclave between the Meuse and the Loire regarded as the last fragment of the Western Roman Empire, allowed Clovis to control all of northern Gaul.

Unity of the Frankish kingdom despite partitions

The kingdom of the Franks founded by Clovis was later often divided into sub-kingdoms, called "parts of the kingdom" or "separate states", following the Frankish custom of equitable partition of the kingdom among the sovereign's sons. Periods of monarchical unity are therefore rather exceptional. However, the unity of these different sub-kingdoms was always recognized, despite sometimes violent conflicts. Several facts bear witness to this unity:

The sense of belonging to a common and higher entity, the kingdom of the Franks, covering most of Gaul and united by allegiance to the same royal dynasty, remained strong among the Franks and sustained the sense of Frankish unity. Moreover, as early as the second half of the 6th century, the inhabitants of northern Gaul recognized themselves as Franks, testifying to the accomplishment of the gradual fusion between Gallo-Romans and Franks, which would be completed in the 7th century, as well as to the birth, in the words of Ferdinand Lot, of a Gallo-Frankish patriotism.

These kingdoms also knew how to set aside their internal conflicts in order to unite against other kingdoms, such as during the assaults of the Frankish kings against the Burgundians.

Despite the partitions of the unified kingdom by Clovis I, all his descendants reigning over portions of Frankish territory bore the title of King of the Franks, thereby expressing their awareness of the unity and special identity of the Frankish kingdom.

This unity of the Frankish kingdom was also manifested by the indivisible character of Paris, the seat of the kingdom by the will of Clovis I, and later by the proximity of the different capitals in the Paris Basin.

Merovingian period

Clovis I (481–511)

thumb|upright=1.15|The political divisions of [[Gaul at the inception of Clovis's career (481). Note that only the Burgundian kingdom and the province of Septimania remained unconquered at his death (511).]]

Chlodio's successors are obscure figures, but what can be certain is that Childeric I, possibly his grandson, ruled a Salian kingdom from Tournai as a foederatus of the Romans. Childeric is chiefly important to history for bequeathing the Franks to his son Clovis, who began an effort to extend his authority over the other Frankish tribes and to expand their territorium south and west into Gaul. Clovis converted to Christianity and put himself on good terms with the powerful Church and with his Gallo-Roman subjects.

During his 30-year reign Clovis defeated Syagrius in the Franco-Roman War and conquered the Kingdom of Soissons. He defeated the Alemanni at the Battle of Tolbiac in 496 and established Frankish hegemony over them. Clovis defeated the Visigoths at the Battle of Vouillé in 507 and conquered all their territory north of the Pyrenees save Septimania, and he conquered the Bretons (according to Gregory of Tours) and made them vassals of the Franks. He also incorporated the various Roman military settlements (laeti) scattered over Gaul: the Saxons of Bessin; the Britons and the Alans of Armorica and the Loire Valley; and the Taifals of Poitou to name a few. By the end of his life, Clovis ruled all of Gaul save the Gothic province of Septimania and the Burgundian kingdom in the southeast.

The date on which Clovis became "king of all Franks" is not known, but it happened sometime after the Battle of Vouillé. In 508 Clovis made Paris his capital, and on Christmas Day 508 he converted to Catholicism, and some time later he orchestrated the murders of Frankish kings Sigobert and Ragnachar, uniting all Franks under his rule. The sole source for this early period is Gregory of Tours, who wrote around the year 590. His chronology for the reigns of the early kings is almost certainly fabricated, often contradicting itself and other sources. Clovis' baptism, traditionally dated to 496, is now believed to have taken place in 508. Carolingian Francia saw royal sponsorship for the construction of monastic cities, built to showcase a revival of the architecture of ancient Rome. Administration was conducted by bishops. The old Gallo-Roman aristocrats had survived in prestige and as an institution by taking up the episcopal offices, and they were now put in charge of fields such as justice, infrastructure, education and social services. Kings were legitimized by their links with the religious institutions. Episcopal elections became supervised by the kings, and royal confirmation helped to strengthen the bishops' authority as well.

There were improvements in agriculture, notably the adoption of a heavy plough and the growing use of the three-field system.

Currency

Byzantine coinage was in use in Francia before Theudebert I began minting his own money at the start of his reign. Theudebert's successor restored the Byzantine emperor's image on the coinage, and the Byzantine emperors continued to be depicted on some Frankish coins until the reign of Emperor Heraclius before disappearing in 613. The solidus and triens were minted in Francia between 534 and 679. The denarius (or denier) appeared later, in the name of Childeric II and various non-royals around 673–675. A Carolingian denarius replaced the Merovingian one, and the Frisian penning was used in Gaul from 755 to the 11th century.

The denarius subsequently appeared in Italy issued in the name of Carolingian monarchs after 794, later by so-called "native" kings in the tenth century, and later still by the German emperors from Otto I (962). Finally, denarii were issued in Rome in the names of pope and emperor from Leo III and Charlemagne onwards to the late 10th century.

Footnotes

Notes

References

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Ammianus Marcellinus. Roman History. trans. by Roger Pearse. London: Bohn, 1862.
Procopius. History of the Wars. trans. by H. B. Dewing.
Fredegar. The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar with its Continuations. trans. by John Michael Wallace-Hadrill. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1960.
Fredegar. Historia Epitomata. Woodruff, Jane Ellen. PhD Dissertation, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 1987.
Gregory of Tours. Historia Francorum.
Gregory of Tours. The History of the Franks. trans. by Ernest Brehaut. 1916. Excerpts here
Gregory of Tours. The History of the Franks. 2 vol. trans. O. M. Dalton. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967.
Bachrach, Bernard S. (trans.) Liber Historiae Francorum. 1973.

External links

Table. Capitals of the Frankish Kingdom according to the years, in 509–800.