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 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.
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 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.Ammianus Marcellinus Res Gestae (late 4th century), XVII.8 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 northern Gaul, and he was also perhaps governor of the province of Belgica Secunda.
Birth of the Frankish kingdom with Clovis
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.
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 Loire and the Somme, allowed Clovis to control all of northern Gaul.
Merovingian period
Clovis I (481–511)
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.Gregory of Tours, Book II 38-43. 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.
The Merovingians were a hereditary monarchy. The Frankish kings adhered to the practice of partible inheritance, dividing their lands among their sons. Even when multiple Merovingian kings ruled, the kingdom—not unlike the late Roman Empire—was conceived of as a single realm ruled collectively by several kings, and a turn of events could result in the reunification of the whole realm under a single king. The Merovingian kings ruled by divine right, and their kingship was symbolised by their long hair and initially by their acclamation, which was carried out by raising the king on a shield in accordance with the ancient Germanic practice of electing a war-leader at an assembly of the warriors.
Clovis' successors (511–561)
At the death of Clovis, his kingdom was divided territorially by his four adult sons in such a way that each son was granted a comparable portion of fiscal land, which was probably land once part of the Roman fisc which had been seized by the Frankish government. Clovis's sons made their capitals near the Frankish heartland in northeastern Gaul. Theuderic I made his capital at Reims; Chlodomer at Orléans; Childebert I at Paris; and Chlothar I at Soissons. During their reigns, the Thuringii (532), Burgundes (534), and Saxons and Frisians (c. 560) were incorporated into the Frankish kingdom. The outlying trans-Rheine tribes were loosely attached to Frankish sovereignty, and though they could be forced to contribute to Frankish military efforts, in times of weak kings they were uncontrollable and liable to attempt independence. The Romanised Burgundian kingdom, however, was preserved in its territoriality by the Franks and converted into one of their primary divisions, incorporating the central Gallic heartland of Chlodomer's realm with its capital at Orléans.
The fraternal kings showed only intermittent signs of friendship and were often in rivalry. On the death of Chlodomer in 524, Chlothar had Chlodomer's sons murdered in order to take a share of his kingdom, which was, in accordance with custom, divided between the surviving brothers. Theuderic died in 534, but his adult son Theudebert I was capable of defending his inheritance, which formed the largest of the Frankish subkingdoms.
Theudebert was the first Frankish king to formally sever his ties to the Roman emperor in Constantinople by striking gold coins with his own image on them and calling himself magnus rex (great king) because of his supposed suzerainty over peoples as far away as Pannonia. Theudebert interfered in the Gothic War on the side of the Gepids and Lombards against the Ostrogoths, receiving the provinces of Raetia, Noricum, and part of Veneto as spoils. His son and successor Theudebald was unable to retain them, and on Theudebald's death in 555 all the lands passed to Chlothar. With the death of Childebert in 558, the entire Frankish realm was reunited under the rule of Clothar.
Chlothar's successors (561–592)
In 561 Chlothar died, and his realm was divided between his four sons in a replay of the events of 50 years prior, with the chief cities remaining the same. The eldest son Charibert I inherited the kingdom with its capital at Paris and ruled western Gaul. Guntram inherited the old kingdom of the Burgundians, augmented by the lands of central France around Orléans, which became his chief city, and most of Provence. The rest of Provence, the Auvergne, and eastern Aquitaine were assigned to Sigebert I, who also inherited Austrasia with its chief cities of Reims and Metz. The smallest kingdom was Soissons, which went to the youngest son, Chilperic I.