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Franks
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This article is about the Frankish people and society. For the political development of the Franks, see Francia. For other uses, see Franks (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Franc.
Franks
Franci
Aristocratic Frankish grave goods from the Merovingian period
Languages
Old Frankish
Religion
Frankish paganism, Roman Catholicism
Related ethnic groups
Germanic peoples
The Franks (Latin: Franci or Latin: gens Francorum) were a collection of Germanic peoples, whose name was first mentioned in 3rd century Roman sources, associated with tribes on the the Lower and Middle Rhine in the 3rd century AD, on the edge of the Roman empire. Later the term is associated with Romanized Germanic dynasties within the collapsing Roman empire, who eventually commanded the whole region between the rivers Loire and Rhine, and imposed power over many other post-Roman kingdoms and Germanic peoples, later being recognized by the Catholic church as successors to the old rulers of the Western Roman Empire.[1][2][3][a]
Although the Frankish name only appears in the 3rd century, at least some of the original Frankish tribes had long been known under their own names to the Romans, both as allies providing soldiers, and as enemies. The new name first appears when the Romans and their allies were losing control of the Rhine region. The Franks were first reported as working together to raid into Roman territory, but from the beginning this was associated also with attacks upon them from outside their frontier area, for example by Saxons, and a desire by frontier tribes to move into Roman territory.
Known Frankish peoples inside the Roman Rhine river frontier were the Salian Franks who were permitted to live in Roman territory, and the Ripuarian or Rhineland Franks who, after many attempts, eventually conquered the Roman frontier city of Cologne and settled the left bank of the Rhine. Later, in a period of factional conflict all over Gaul in the 450s and 460s, Childeric I, a Frank, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces with various ethnic affiliations. Childeric and his son Clovis I faced competition from Aegidius and his son as competitors for the kingship of the Franks, and commanders of the Roman Loire forces. (According to Gregory of Tours, Aegidius held this kingship for 8 years while Childeric was in exile, while in contrast Gregory refers to his son Syagrius as "King of the Romans".) This new type of kingship, perhaps inspired by Alaric I,[4] represents the start of the Merovingian dynasty, 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. It was on the basis of this Merovingian empire that the resurgent Carolingians eventually came to be seen as the new Emperors of Western Europe in 800.
In the Middle Ages, the term Frank came to be used as a synonym for Western European, as the Carolingian Franks were rulers of most of Western Europe, and established a political order which was the basis of the European ancien regime that only ended with the French revolution. Western Europeans shared their allegiance to the Roman Catholic church and worked as allies in the Crusades beyond Europe in the Levant, where they still referred to themselves and the Principalities they established as Frankish. This has had a lasting impact on names for Western Europeans in many languages.[5][6][7]
Contents
[hide]
1 Name
2 Mythological origins
3 History
3.1 Early history
3.2 Salians
3.3 Ripuarians
3.4 Merovingian kingdom (481–751)
3.5 Carolingian empire (751–843)
4 Military
4.1 Participation in the Roman army
4.2 Military practices of the early Franks
4.3 Merovingian military
4.3.1 Composition and development
4.3.2 Strategy, tactics and equipment
5 Culture
5.1 Language
5.2 Art and architecture
6 Religion
6.1 Paganism
6.2 Christianity
7 Laws
8 Legacy
9 See also
10 Notes
10.1 Footnotes
11 Sources
11.1 Primary sources
11.2 Secondary sources
12 External links
Name[edit]
Main article: Name of the Franks
A 19th century depiction of different Franks (AD 400–600)
The name Franci was not a tribal name, but within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the original peoples who constituted it. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm,[8] the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English.[9] There have also been proposals that Frank comes from the Germanic word for "javelin" (such as in Old English franca or Old Norse frakka).[10] Words in other Germanic languages meaning "fierce", "bold" or "insolent" (German frech, Middle Dutch vrac, Old English frǣc and Old Norwegian frakkr), may also be significant.[11]
Eumenius addressed the Franks in the matter of the execution of Frankish prisoners in the circus at Trier by Constantine I in 306 and certain other measures:[12][13] Latin: Ubi nunc est illa ferocia? Ubi semper infida mobilitas? ("Where now is that ferocity of yours? Where is that ever untrustworthy fickleness?"). Latin: Feroces was used often to describe the Franks.[14] Contemporary definitions of Frankish ethnicity vary both by period and point of view. A formulary written by Marculf about 700 AD described a continuation of national identities within a mixed population when it stated that "all the peoples who dwell [in the official's province], Franks, Romans, Burgundians and those of other nations, live ... according to their law and their custom."[15] Writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham 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; Romani [Romans] were essentially the inhabitants of Aquitaine after that".[16]
Mythological origins[edit]
Two early sources that describe the origin of the Franks are a 7th-century work known as the Chronicle of Fredegar and the anonymous Liber Historiae Francorum, written a century later.
The author of the Chronicle of Fredegar claimed that the Franks came originally from Troy and quoted the works of Vergil and Hieronymous, and the Franks are mentioned in those works, by Hieronymous.[17] The chronicle describes Priam as a Frankish king whose people migrated to Macedonia after the fall of Troy. In Macedonia, the Franks then divided. The European Franks reached Francia under King Francio, just as Romulus went to Rome. Another branch, under King Turchot, became the Turks. Fredegar stated that Theudemer, named king of the Franks by Gregory, was descended from Priam, Friga and Francio.
Another work, the Gesta, described how 12,000 Trojans, led by Priam and Antenor, sailed from Troy to the River Don in Russia and on to Pannonia, which is on the River Danube, settling near the Sea of Azov. There they founded a city called Sicambria. (The Sicambri were the most well-known tribe in the Frankish homeland in the time of the early Roman empire, still remembered though defeated and dispersed long before the Frankish name appeared.) The Trojans joined the Roman army in accomplishing the task of driving their enemies into the marshes of Mæotis, for which they received the name of Franks (meaning "savage"). A decade later the Romans killed Priam and drove away Marcomer and Sunno, the sons of Priam and Antenor, and the other Franks.
History[edit]
Early history[edit]
The major primary sources on the early Franks include the Panegyrici Latini, Ammianus Marcellinus, Claudian, Zosimus, Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours. The Franks are first mentioned in the Augustan History, a collection of biographies of the Roman emperors. None of these sources present a detailed list of which tribes or parts of tribes became Frankish, or concerning the politics and history, but to quote Edwards (1988, p. 35):
A Roman marching-son joyfully recorded in a fourth-century source, is associated with the 260s; but the Franks' first appearance in a contemporary source was in 289. [...] The Chamavi were mentioned as a Frankish people as early as 289, the Bructeri from 307, the Chattuarri from 306-15, the Salii or Salians from 357, and the Amsivarii and Tubantes from c. 364-75.
In 288 the emperor Maximian defeated the Salian Franks, Chamavi, Frisians and other Germans living along the Rhine and moved them to Germania inferior to provide manpower and prevent the settlement of other Germanic tribes.[18][19] In 292 Constantius, the father of Constantine I [20] defeated the Franks who had settled at the mouth of the Rhine. These were moved to the nearby region of Toxandria.[21] Eumenius mentions Constantius as having "killed, expelled, captured [and] kidnapped" the Franks who had settled there and others who had crossed the Rhine, using the term nationes Franciae for the first time.
It seems likely that the term Frank in this first period had a broader meaning, sometimes including coastal Frisians:[22]
The Franks were described in Roman texts both as allies (laeti) and enemies (dediticii). About the year 260 one group of Franks penetrated as far as Tarragona in present-day Spain, where they plagued the region for about a decade before they were subdued and expelled by the Romans. In 287 or 288, the Roman Caesar Maximian forced a Frankish leader Genobaud and his people to surrender without a fight. Maximian then forced the Salians in Toxandria (the present Low Countries) to accept imperial authority, but was not able to follow on this success by reconquering Britain.
The Life of Aurelian, which was possibly written by Vopiscus, mentions that in 328, Frankish raiders were captured by the 6th Legion stationed at Mainz. As a result of this incident, 700 Franks were killed and 300 were sold into slavery.[23][24] Frankish incursions over the Rhine became so frequent that the Romans began to settle the Franks on their borders in order to control them.
The Franks are mentioned in the Tabula Peutingeriana, an atlas of Roman roads. It is a 13th-century copy of a 4th or 5th century document that reflects information from the 3rd century. The Romans knew the shape of Europe, but their knowledge is not evident from the map, which was only a practical guide to the roads to be followed from point to point. In the middle Rhine region of the map, the word Francia is close to a misspelling of Bructeri. Beyond Mainz is Suevia, the country of the Suebi, and beyond that is Alamannia, the country of the Alamanni. Four tribes at the mouth of the Rhine are depicted: the Chauci, the Amsivarii ('Ems dwellers'), the Cherusci and the Chamavi, followed by qui et Pranci ('who are also Franks'). This implies that the Chamavi were considered Franks. The Tabula was probably based on the Orbis Pictus, a map of twenty years' labour commissioned by Augustus and then kept by the Roman's treasury department for the assessment of taxes. It did not survive as such. Information about the imperial divisions of Gaul probably derives from it.
Detail of the Tabula Peutingeriana, showing Francia at the top

Salians[edit]
Main article: Salian Franks
The Salians were first mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus, who described Julian's defeat of "the first Franks of all, those whom custom has called the Salians," in 358.[25][26] He promoted them to the status of fœderati within the Empire.[27] The 5th century Notitia Dignitatum lists their soldiers as Salii.
Some decades later, the Salian Franks controlled the River Scheldt and were disrupting transport links to Britain in the English Channel.[citation needed] Although Roman forces managed to pacify them, they failed to expel the Franks, who continued to be feared as pirates at least until 358, when, according to the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus, Julian the Apostate allowed the Franks to remain as foederati in Toxandria, having moved their from the Rhine-Maas delta.[28]
In the 5th century Salians under Chlodio pushed towards the Somme river defeating a Roman force at Cambrai in 428. When the Merovingian dynasty later published the Salian law (Lex Salica) it applied from the river Liger Loire to the "Silva Carbonaria" or "Charcoal forest" which ran through the area of modern Belgium. The forest was therefore the boundary of the original Salian territories to the north and the more Romanized area to the south which was conquered by Chlodio, Childeric and Clovis, becoming the later Frankish sub-kingdom of Neustria, the basis of what would become France.
Ripuarians[edit]
Main article: Ripuarian Franks
Approximate location of the original Frankish tribes in the 3rd century
The Rhineland Franks, living near the stretch of the Rhine from roughly Mainz to Duisburg, and 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 ever officially accepted their residence within the empire. 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 their legal code was called the Lex Ribuaria.
Jordanes, in Getica mentions the Riparii as auxiliaries of Flavius Aetius during the Battle of Châlons in 451: "Hi enim affuerunt auxiliares: Franci, Sarmatae, Armoriciani, Liticiani, Burgundiones, Saxones, Riparii, Olibriones ..." [29] The Riparii may not have been the Ripuarian Franks, as they do not appear for certain under that name until their final subjugation by Clovis I.
Their territory on both sides of the Rhine became a central part of Merovingian Austrasia, which stretched to include Roman Germania Inferior (Germania Secunda, which included the original Salian and Ripuarian lands) as well as Gallia Belgica Secunda, and lands on the east bank of the Rhine.
Merovingian kingdom (481–751)[edit]
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Main article: Merovingians
A 6th-7th century necklace of glass and ceramic beads with a central amethyst bead. Similar necklaces have been found in the graves of Frankish women in the Rhineland.
A 6th century bow fibula found in north-eastern France and the Rhineland. They were worn by Frankish noblewomen in pairs at the shoulder or as belt ornaments.
Numerous small Frankish kingdoms existed during the 5th century around Cologne, Tournai, Le Mans, Cambrai and elsewhere.[citation needed] The kingdom of the Merovingians eventually came to dominate the others, probably because of its association with Roman power structures in northern Gaul. Aegidius, was originally the magister militum of northern Gaul appointed by Majorian, but after Majorian's death apparently seen as a Roman rebel who relied on Frankish forces. Gregory of Tours reported that Childeric I was exiled for 8 years while Aegidius held the title of "King of the Franks". Eventually Childeric returned and took the same title. Aegidius died in 464 or 465.[30] Childeric and his son Clovis I were both described as rulers of the Roman Province of Belgica Secunda, by its spiritual leader in the time of Clovis, Saint Remigius.
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, the Frankish king of Cambrai, and his brothers. By the 490s, he had conquered all the Frankish kingdoms to the west of the River Maas except for the Ripuarian Franks 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. After conquering the Kingdom of Soissons and expelling the Visigoths from southern Gaul at the Battle of Vouillé, he established Frankish hegemony over most of Gaul, excluding Burgundy, Provence and Brittany, which were eventually absorbed by his successors.
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 and Chilperic I, 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: Austrasia, Neustria 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 centre of political gravity in the kingdom gradually shifted eastwards to the Rhineland.
The Frankish realm was reunited in 613 by Chlothar II, the son of Chilperic, who granted his nobles the Edict of Paris in an effort to reduce corruption and reassert his authority. Following the military successes of his son and successor Dagobert I, royal authority rapidly declined under a series of kings, traditionally known as les rois fainéants. After the Battle of Tertry in 687, each mayor of the palace, 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 deposed the last Merovingian king Childeric III and had himself crowned. This inaugurated a new dynasty, the Carolingians.
Carolingian empire (751–843)[edit]
Main article: Carolingian Empire
The unification achieved by the Merovingians ensured the continuation of what has become known as the Carolingian Renaissance. 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.[citation needed]
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 by Pope Leo III in 800 AD, he and his successors were recognised as legitimate successors to the emperors of the Western Roman Empire. 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 Holy Roman Empire and Burgundy, though the Frankish identity remained most closely identified with France.
After the death of Charlemagne, his only adult surviving son became Emperor and King Louis the Pious. Following Louis the Pious's death however, accordingly with Frankish culture and law that demanded equality among all living male adult heirs, the Frankish Empire was now split between Louis' three sons.
Military[edit]
Participation in the Roman army[edit]
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. After the Roman administration collapsed in Gaul in the 260s, the armies under the Germanic Batavian Postumus 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 Carausius created a Batavian–British rump state on Roman soil that was supported by Frankish soldiers and raiders. Frankish soldiers such as Magnentius, Silvanus and Arbitio held command positions in the Roman army during the mid 4th century. From the narrative of Ammianus Marcellinus it is evident that both Frankish and Alamannic tribal armies were organised along Roman lines.
After the invasion of Chlodio, 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 till the days of the scholar Procopius (c. AD 500 – c. AD 565), more than a century after the demise of the Western Roman Empire, who wrote describing the former Rhine army as still in operation with legions of the style of their forefathers during Roman times. The Franks under the Merovingians melded Germanic custom with Romanised organisation and several important tactical innovations. Before their conquest of Gaul, the Franks fought primarily as a tribe, unless they were part of a Roman military unit fighting in conjunction with other imperial units.
Military practices of the early Franks[edit]
The primary sources for Frankish military custom and armament are Ammianus Marcellinus, Agathias and Procopius, the latter two Eastern Roman historians writing about Frankish intervention in the Gothic War.
Writing of 539, Procopius says:
At this time the Franks, hearing that both the Goths and Romans had suffered severely by the war ... forgetting for the moment their oaths and treaties ... (for this nation in matters of trust is the most treacherous in the world), they straightway gathered to the number of one hundred thousand under the leadership of Theudebert I and marched into Italy: they had a small body of cavalry about their leader, and these were the only ones armed with spears, while all the rest were foot soldiers having neither bows nor spears, but each man carried a sword and shield and one axe. Now the iron head of this weapon was thick and exceedingly sharp on both sides, while the wooden handle was very short. And they are accustomed always to throw these axes at a signal in the first charge and thus to shatter the shields of the enemy and kill the men.[31]
His contemporary, Agathias, who based his own writings upon the tropes laid down by Procopius, says:
The military equipment of this people [the Franks] is very simple ... They do not know the use of the coat of mail or greaves and the majority leave the head uncovered, only a few wear the helmet. They have their chests bare and backs naked to the loins, they cover their thighs with either leather or linen. They do not serve on horseback except in very rare cases. Fighting on foot is both habitual and a national custom and they are proficient in this. At the hip they wear a sword and on the left side their shield is attached. They have neither bows nor slings, no missile weapons except the double edged axe and the angon which they use most often. The angons are spears which are neither very short nor very long. They can be used, if necessary, for throwing like a javelin, and also in hand to hand combat.[32]
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'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 (Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours) and the archaeological evidence. The Lex Ribuaria, the early 7th century legal code of the Rhineland or Ripuarian Franks, specifies the values of various goods when paying a wergild in kind; whereas a spear and shield were worth only two solidi, a sword and scabbard were valued at seven, a helmet at six, and a "metal tunic" at twelve.[33] Scramasaxes and arrowheads are numerous in Frankish graves even though the Byzantine historians do not assign them to the Franks.
The frontispiece of Gregory's Historia Francorum
The evidence of Gregory and of the Lex Salica 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 Lex Ribuaria specifies that a mare's value was the same as that of an ox or of a shield and spear, two solidi and a stallion seven or the same as a sword and scabbard,[33] 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.[34]
Merovingian military[edit]
Composition and development[edit]
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 (castra) and in general these centres were held by garrisons of milities or laeti, who were former Roman mercenaries of Germanic origin. 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 leudes, his sworn followers, who were generally 'old soldiers' in service away from court.[35] Some historians[who?] have gone to the length of relating their oath-making to the later development of feudalism. The king had an elite bodyguard called the truste. Members of the truste often served in centannae, 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 aristocrats in military service) and pueri (junior soldiers and not aristocrats).[36] All high-ranking men had pueri.
The Frankish military was not composed solely of Franks and Gallo-Romans, but also contained Saxons, Alans, Taifals and Alemanni. After the conquest of Burgundy (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 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. 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 counts of the districts. A much rarer occurrence was the general levy, which applied to the entire kingdom and included peasants (pauperes and inferiores). General levies could also be made within the still-pagan trans-Rhenish stem duchies on the orders of a monarch. The Saxons, Alemanni and Thuringii 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 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). However, all the forms of the levy gradually disappeared in the course of the 7th century after the reign of Dagobert I. Under the so-called rois fainéants, 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 magnates 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[edit]
Merovingian armies used coats of mail, helmets, shields, lances, swords, bows and arrows and war horses. The armament of private armies resembled those of the Gallo-Roman potentiatores of the late Empire. A strong element of Alanic cavalry settled in Armorica influenced the fighting style of the Bretons down into the 12th century. Local urban levies could be reasonably well-armed and even mounted, but the more general levies were composed of pauperes and inferiores, who were mostly farmers by trade and carried ineffective weapons, such as farming implements. The peoples east of the Rhine – Franks, Saxons and even Wends – who were sometimes called upon to serve, wore rudimentary armour and carried weapons such as spears and axes. Few of these men were mounted.[citation needed]
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.[37] In their civil wars, the Merovingian kings concentrated on the holding of fortified places and the use of siege engines. 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[citation needed], but troops readily dismounted to fight on foot. The Merovingians were capable of raising naval forces: the naval campaign waged against the Danes by Theuderic I in 515 involved ocean-worthy ships and rivercraft were used on the Loire, Rhône and Rhine.
Culture[edit]
Language[edit]
Main article: Frankish language
In a modern linguistic context, the language of the early Franks is variously called "Old Frankish" or "Old Franconian" and refers to the West Germanic dialects of the Franks prior to the advent of the Second Germanic consonant shift, which took place between 600 and 700 CE. After this consonant shift the Frankish dialect diverges, with the dialects which would become modern Dutch not undergoing the consonantal shift, while all others did so to varying degrees and thereby became part of the larger German dialectal domain.[38]
The Frankish language has not been directly attested, apart from a minute amount of runic inscriptions found within contemporary Frankish territory such as the Bergakker inscription. The distinction between Old Dutch and Old Frankish is largely negligible, with Old Dutch (also called Old Low Franconian) being the term used to differentiate between the affected and non-affected variants following the aforementioned Second Germanic consonant shift.[39]
A significant amount of Old Frankish vocabulary has been reconstructed by examining early Germanic loanwords found in Old French as well as through comparative reconstruction through Dutch.[40][41] The influence of Old Frankish on contemporary Gallo-Roman vocabulary and phonology, have long been questions of scholarly debate.[42] 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.[43]
Art and architecture[edit]
A chalice from the Treasure of Gourdon.
The pinnacle of Carolingian architecture: the palatine chapel at Aachen, Germany.
Main articles: Merovingian art and architecture and Carolingian art
Early Frankish art and architecture belongs to a phase known as Migration Period art, 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 type. The most completely surviving example, a baptistery in Poitiers, is a building with three apses of a Gallo-Roman style. A number of small baptistries can be seen in Southern France: as these fell out of fashion, they were not updated and have subsequently survived as they were.
Jewelery (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, contain a great deal of zoomorphic representations. Such Frankish objects show a greater use of the style and motifs of Late Antiquity and a lesser degree of skill and sophistication in design and manufacture than comparable works from the British Isles. So little has survived, however, that the best quality of work from this period may not be represented.[44]
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. Carolingian illuminated manuscripts and ivory plaques, which have survived in reasonable numbers, approached those of Constantinople in quality. The main surviving monument of Carolingian architecture 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, since rebuilt. These large structures and complexes made frequent use of towers.[45]
Religion[edit]
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[edit]
Main article: Frankish Mythology
Drawing of golden bees or flies that was discovered in the tomb of Childeric I
Echoes of Frankish paganism 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. 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.[46] 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.[47]
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 (meaning "sting"), from its distinctive spearhead. It is possible that the fleur-de-lis is derived from the angon.
Christianity[edit]
Statue in the Cathedral of Reims depicting the baptism of Clovis I by Saint Remi in around 496
Further information: Christianity in Merovingian Gaul and Frankish Church
Some Franks, like the 4th century usurper Silvanus, converted early to Christianity. In 496, Clovis I, who had married a Burgundian Catholic named Clotilda in 493, was baptised by Saint Remi after a decisive victory over the Alemanni at the Battle of Tolbiac. According to Gregory of Tours, over three thousand of his soldiers were baptised with him.[48] 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 aristocracy and this led to a naturally amicable relationship between the Catholic Church and the increasingly powerful Franks.
Though 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.[49] The Chronicle of St. Denis relates that, following Clovis' conversion, a number of pagans who were unhappy with this turn of events rallied around Ragnachar, who had played an important role in Clovis' initial rise to power. Though the text remains unclear as to the precise pretext, Clovis had Ragnachar executed.[50] Remaining pockets of resistance were overcome region by region, primarily due to the work of an expanding network of monasteries.[51]
Gelasian Sacramentary, c. 750
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 missionary activities and papal requirements.[52] 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. The 5th, 6th and 7th centuries saw two major waves of hermitism in the Frankish world, which led to legislation requiring that all monks and hermits follow the Rule of St Benedict.[53] 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 with the Roman rite. When the mayors took over, the Church was supportive and an Emperor crowned by the Pope was much more to their liking.
Laws[edit]
As with other Germanic peoples, the laws of the Franks were memorised by "rachimburgs", who were analogous to the lawspeakers of Scandinavia.[54] By the 6th century, when these laws first appeared in written form, two basic legal subdivisions existed: Salian Franks were subject to Salic law and Ripuarian Franks to Ripuarian law. Gallo-Romans south of the River Loire and clergy remained subject to traditional Roman law.[55] 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 curiales, or municipal councilors".[56]
Legacy[edit]
Carolingian Empire (green) in 814
The term Frank has been used by many of the Eastern Orthodox and Muslim neighbours of medieval Latin Christendom (and beyond, such as in Asia) as a general synonym for a European from Western and Central Europe, areas that followed the Latin rites of Christianity under the authority of the Pope in Rome.[57] Another term with similar use was Latins.
Modern historians often refer to Christians following the Latin rites in the eastern Mediterranean as Franks or Latins, regardless of their country of origin, whereas they use the words Rhomaios and Rûmi ("Roman") for Orthodox Christians. On a number of Greek islands, Catholics are still referred to as Φράγκοι (Frangoi) or "Franks", for instance on Syros, where they are called Φραγκοσυριανός (Frangosyrianos). The period of Crusader rule in Greek lands is known to this day as the Frangokratia ("rule of the Franks"). Latin Christians living in the Middle East (particularly in the Levant) are known as Franco-Levantines.
During the Mongol Empire in the 13-14th centuries, the Mongols used the term "Franks" to designate Europeans.[58] The term Frangistan ("Land of the Franks") was used by Muslims to refer to Christian Europe and was commonly used over several centuries in Iran and the Ottoman Empire.
The Chinese called the Portuguese Folangji 佛郎機 ("Franks") in the 1520s at the Battle of Tunmen and Battle of Xicaowan. Some other varieties of Mandarin Chinese pronounced the characters as Fah-lan-ki.
“ During the reign of Chingtih (Zhengde) (1506), foreigners from the west called Fah-lan-ki (or Franks), who said they had tribute, abruptly entered the Bogue, and by their tremendously loud guns shook the place far and near. This was reported at court, and an order returned to drive them away immediately, and stop the trade. ”
— Samuel Wells Williams, The Middle Kingdom: A Survey of the Geography, Government, Education, Social Life, Arts, Religion, &c. of the Chinese Empire and Its Inhabitants, 2 vol. (Wiley & Putnam, 1848).
The Mediterranean Lingua Franca (or "Frankish language") was a pidgin first spoken by 11th century European Christians and Muslims in Mediterranean ports that remained in use until the 19th century.
Examples of derived words include:
Frangos (Φράγκος) in Greek
Frëng in Albanian
Frenk in Turkish
al-Faranj, Afranj and Firinjīyah in Arabic[59]
Farang, Farangī in Persian, Faranji in Tajik.[60]
Ferengi or Faranji in some Turkic languages
Feringhi or Firang in Hindi and Urdu (derived from Persian)
Phirangee in some other Indian languages
Parangiar in Tamil
Parangi in Malayalam; in Sinhala, the word refers specifically to Portuguese people
Barang in Khmer
Feringgi in Malay
Folangji[61] or Fah-lan-ki (佛郎機) and Fulang[62] in Chinese
Farang (ฝรั่ง) in Thai.[63]
Pirang ("blonde"), Perangai ("temperament/al") in Bahasa Indonesia
In the Thai usage, the word can refer to any European person. When the presence of US soldiers during the Vietnam War placed Thai people in contact with African Americans, they (and people of African ancestry in general) came to be called Farang dam ("Black Farang", ฝรั่งดำ). Such words sometimes also connote things, plants or creatures introduced by Europeans/Franks. For example, in Khmer, môn barang, literally "French Chicken", refers to a turkey and in Thai, Farang is the name both for Europeans and for the guava fruit, introduced by Portuguese traders over 400 years ago. In contemporary Israel, the Yiddish[citation needed] word פרענק (Frenk) has, by a curious etymological development, come to refer to Mizrahi Jews and carries a strong pejorative connotation.
Some linguists (among them Drs. Jan Tent and Paul Geraghty) have suggested that the Samoan and generic Polynesian term for Europeans, Palagi (pronounced Puh-LANG-ee) or Papalagi, might also be cognate, possibly a loan term gathered by early contact between Pacific islanders and Malays.[64]
See also[edit]
Ancient Germanic culture portal
Germanic Christianity
List of Frankish kings
List of Frankish queens
Name of France
List of Germanic peoples
Frankokratia
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ "Holy Roman Empire"
Jump up ^ Coronation of Charlemagne
Jump up ^ "Charlemagne"
Jump up ^ Halsall (2007, p. 267)
Jump up ^ Angeliki Laiou, Henry P. Maguire (1992). Byzantium: A World Civilization. Dumbarton Oaks. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-88402-200-8. CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
Jump up ^ Richard W. Bulliett et alii (2011). The Earth and Its Peoples. Cengage Learning. p. 333. ISBN 978-0-495-91310-8.
Jump up ^ Janet L. Nelson (2003). The Frankist World. Continuum International. p. xiii. ISBN 978-1-85285-105-7.
Jump up ^ Perry 1857, p. 42.
Jump up ^ Examples: "frank". American Heritage Dictionary. "frank". Webster's Third New International Dictionary. And so on.
Jump up ^ Online Etymology Dictionary entries for "frank"
Jump up ^ Murray, Alexander Callander (2000). From Roman to Merovingian Gaul: A Reader. Broadview Press Ltd. p. 1. The etymology of 'Franci' is uncertain ('the fierce ones' is the favourite explanation), but the name is undoubtedly of Germanic origin.
Jump up ^ Panegyric on Constantine, xi.
Jump up ^ Howorth 1884, p. 217.
Jump up ^ Perry 1857, p. 43.
Jump up ^ James 1988, p. 187.
Jump up ^ Wickham, Chris (2010) [2009]. The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400–1000. Penguin History of Europe, 2. Penguin Books. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-670-02098-0.
Jump up ^ Rydberg, Viktor; Anderson, Rasmus B. (Translator) (1889). Teutonic Mythology. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. pp. 33–36.
Jump up ^ Williams, 50–51.
Jump up ^ Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius, 7.
Jump up ^ Nicol, Matthews, Donald, J.F. "Constantine I". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica inc. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
Jump up ^ Howorth 1884, pp. 215–216
Jump up ^ Lanting; van der Plicht (2010), "De 14C-chronologie van de Nederlandse Pre- en Protohistorie VI: Romeinse tijd en Merovingische periode, deel A: historische bronnen en chronologische schema's", Palaeohistoria, 51/52: 67
Jump up ^ As the 6th Gallicana is only known from this work, its existence is sometimes questioned along with the genuineness of the work; however, the question remains unanswered: Lendering, Jona. "Legio VI Gallicana". Livius.org.
Jump up ^ Howorth 1884, p. 213.
Jump up ^ Res Gestae, XVII.8.
Jump up ^ The Latin, petit primos omnium Francos, eos videlicet quos consuetudo Salios appellavit is slightly ambiguous, resulting in an interpretation "first of all he proceeded against the Franks ..." with "first" presented improperly as an adjective instead of an adverb. As it stands, the Salians are the first Franks of all; if an adverb is intended, the Franks are they who are the Salians.
Jump up ^ Pfister 1911, p. 296.
Jump up ^ Previté-Orton. The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History, vol. I. pp. 51–52.
Jump up ^ Paragraph 191.
Jump up ^ James
Jump up ^ Procopius HW, VI, xxv, 1ff, quoted in Bachrach (1970), 436.
Jump up ^ Agathias, Hist., II, 5, quoted in Bachrach (1970), 436–437.
^ Jump up to: a b James, Edward, The Franks. Oxford; Blackwell 1988, p. 211
Jump up ^ Bachrach (1970), 440.
Jump up ^ Halsall, Guy. Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450–900 (London: Routledge, 2003), p.48
Jump up ^ Halsall, pp. 48–9
Jump up ^ Halsall, p.43
Jump up ^ Rheinischer Fächer – Karte des Landschaftsverband Rheinland Archived February 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
Jump up ^ B. Mees, The Bergakker inscription and the beginnings of Dutch, in: Amsterdamer beiträge zur älteren Germanistik: Band 56- 2002, edited by Erika Langbroek, Annelies Roeleveld, Paula Vermeyden, Arend Quak, Published by Rodopi, 2002, ISBN 9042015799, 9789042015791
Jump up ^ van der Horst, Joop (2000). Korte geschiedenis van de Nederlandse taal (Kort en goed) (in Dutch). Den Haag: Sdu. p. 42. ISBN 90-5797-071-6.
Jump up ^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/508379/Romance-languages/74738/Vocabulary-variations?anchor=ref603727
Jump up ^ Noske 2007, p. 1.
Jump up ^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/508379/Romance-languages/74738/Vocabulary-variations?anchor=ref603727
Jump up ^ Otto Pächt, Book Illumination in the Middle Ages (trans fr German), 1986, Harvey Miller Publishers, London, ISBN 0-19-921060-8
Jump up ^ Eduard Syndicus; Early Christian Art; pp. 164–74; Burns & Oates, London, 1962
Jump up ^ Schutz, 152.
Jump up ^ Gregory of Tours, in his History of the Franks, relates: "Now this people seems to have always been addicted to heathen worship, and they did not know God, but made themselves images of the woods and the waters, of birds and beasts and of the other elements as well. They were wont to worship these as God and to offer sacrifice to them." (Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, Book I.10)
Jump up ^ Gregory of Tours. "Book II, 31". History of the Franks.
Jump up ^ Sönke Lorenz (2001), Missionierung, Krisen und Reformen: Die Christianisierung von der Spätantike bis in Karolingische Zeit in Die Alemannen, Stuttgart: Theiss; ISBN 3-8062-1535-9; pp. 441–446
Jump up ^ The Chronicle of St. Denis, I.18–19, 23
Jump up ^ Lorenz (2001:442)
Jump up ^ J.M. Wallace-Hadrill covers these areas in The Frankish Church (Oxford History of the Christian Church; Oxford:Clarendon Press) 1983.
Jump up ^ Michel Rouche, 435-436.
Jump up ^ Michel Rouch, 421.
Jump up ^ Michel Rouche, 421-422.
Jump up ^ Michel Rouche, 422-423
Jump up ^ König, Daniel G., Arabic-Islamic Views of the Latin West. Tracing the Emergence of Medieval Western Europe, Oxford: OUP, 2015, chap. 6, p. 289-230.
Jump up ^ Igor de Rachewiltz - Turks in China under the Mongols, in: China Among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and its Neighbors, 10th-14th Centuries, pp.281
Jump up ^ Rashid al-din Fazl Allâh, quoted in Karl Jahn (ed.) Histoire Universelle de Rasid al-Din Fadl Allah Abul=Khair: I. Histoire des Francs (Texte Persan avec traduction et annotations), Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1951. (Source: M. Ashtiany)
Jump up ^ Kamoludin Abdullaev; Shahram Akbarzaheh (27 April 2010). Historical Dictionary of Tajikistan. Scarecrow Press. pp. 129–. ISBN 978-0-8108-6061-2.
Jump up ^ Endymion Porter Wilkinson (2000). Chinese History: A Manual. Harvard Univ Asia Center. pp. 730–. ISBN 978-0-674-00249-4.
Jump up ^ Park, Hyunhee (27 August 2012). Mapping the Chinese and Islamic Worlds: Cross-Cultural Exchange in Pre-Modern Asia. Cambridge University Press. pp. 95–. ISBN 978-1-107-01868-6.
Jump up ^ ฝรั่ง fa rang, thai-language.com, 2008
Jump up ^ Tent, J., and Geraghty, P., (2001) "Exploding sky or exploded myth? The origin of Papalagi", Journal of the Polynesian Society, 110, 2: pp. 171–214.
Footnotes[edit]
Jump up ^ The coronation of Charlemagne in 800 AD
Sources[edit]
Primary sources[edit]
Fredegar
Fredegarius; John Michael Wallace-Hadrill (1981) [1960]. Fredegarii chronicorum liber quartus cum continuationibus (in Latin and English). Greenwood Press.
Unknown (1973). Liber Historiae Francorum. Translated by Bachrach, Bernard S. Coronado Press.
Woodruff, Jane Ellen; Fredegar (1987). The Historia Epitomata (third book) of the Chronicle of Fredegar: an annotated translation and historical analysis of interpolated material. Thesis (Ph.D.). University of Nebraska.
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours. "Libri Historiarum". The Classics Page: The Latin Library (in Latin). thelatinlibrary.com.
Gregory of Tours (1997) [1916]. Halsall, Paul, ed. History of the Franks: Books I–X (Extended Selections). Medieval Sourcebook. Translated by Ernst Brehaut. Columbia University Press; Fordham University.
Gregory (1967). The History of the Franks. Translated by O. M. Dalton. Farnborough: Gregg Press.
Ammianus Marcellinus
Marcellinus, Ammianus (2007) [1862]. Roman History. Translated by Roger Pearse. Bohn; tertullian.org.
Procopius
Procopius (2008). History of the Wars. Wikisource.
Secondary sources[edit]
Bachrach, Bernard S. Merovingian Military Organization, 481–751. University of Minnesota Press, 1971. ISBN 0-8166-0621-8
Collins, Roger. Early Medieval Europe 300–1000. MacMillan, 1991.
Geary, Patrick J. Before France and Germany: the Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-19-504458-4
Geipel, John (1970) [1969]. The Europeans: The People — Today and Yesterday: Their Origins and Interrelations. PEGASUS: a division of Western Publishing Company, Inc.
Greenwood, Thomas (1836). The First Book of the History of the Germans: Barbaric period. Longman, Rees, Orne, and Co. .
Halsall, Guy (2007), Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West 376-568
Howorth, Henry H. (1884). "XVII. The Ethnology of Germany (Part VI). The Varini, Varangians and Franks. — Section II". Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Trübner & Co. 13: 213–239. doi:10.2307/2841727.
James, Edward (1988). The Franks. The Peoples of Europe. Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Basil Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-17936-4.
Lewis, Archibald R. "The Dukes in the Regnum Francorum, A.D. 550–751." Speculum, Vol. 51, No 3 (July 1976), pp 381–410.
McKitterick, Rosamond. The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751–987. London: Longman, 1983. ISBN 0-582-49005-7.
Murray, Archibald Callander, and Goffart, Walter A. After Rome's Fall: Narrators and Sources of Early Medieval History. University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 1998.
Nixon, C. E. V. and Rodgers, Barbara. In Praise of Later Roman Emperors. Berkeley, 1994.
Noske, Roland (2007). "Autonomous typological prosodic evolution versus the Germanic superstrate in diachronic French phonology". In Aboh, Enoch; van der Linden, Elisabeth; Quer, Josep; et al. Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory (PDF). Amsterdam; Philadelphia: Benjamins.
Perry, Walter Copland (1857). The Franks, from Their First Appearance in History to the Death of King Pepin. Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts.
Pfister, M. Christian (1911). "(B) The Franks Before Clovis". In Bury, J.B. The Cambridge Medieval History. Volume I: The Christian Roman Empire and the Foundation of the Teutonic Kingdoms. Cambridge University Press.
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 Long-Haired Kings. London: Butler & Tanner Ltd, 1962.
Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. The Barbarian West. London: Hutchinson, 1970.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Franks.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Franks.
Åhlfeldt, Johan (2010). "Regnum Francorum Online — interactive maps and sources of early medieval Europe 614–840".
Kurth, G. (1909). "The Franks". The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Martinsson, Örjan. "The Frankish Kingdom". Historical Atlas. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
Nelson, Lynn Harry (2001). "The Rise of the Franks, 330-751". Lectures in Medieval History. vlib.us.
"The Franks". International World History Project. 2001.
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