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137-536: Under the Franks , Gâtinais was the pagus Wastinensis (eventually to become Wasteney in the 20th century), (or Vastinensis) one of five belonging to the Archbishop of Sens . The west part of Puisaye and the archbishop's other fiefs in the northwest of the modern department of Yonne , west of that river, are also often considered part of Gâtinais; as is the area around Étampes in the present department of Essonne . Around

274-569: A century later. Many say that the Franks originally came from Pannonia and first inhabited the banks of the Rhine. Then they crossed the river, marched through Thuringia, and set up in each county district [ pagus ] and each city [ civitas ] longhaired kings chosen from their foremost and most noble family. The author of the Chronicle of Fredegar claimed that the Franks came originally from Troy and quoted

411-628: A century. Nevertheless, Clovis's embrace of the Nicene Christian faith may have also gained him the support of the Nicene Christian Gallo-Roman aristocracy in his later campaign against the Visigoths, which drove them from southern Gaul in 507 and resulted in a great many of his people converting to Nicene Christianity as well. On the other hand, Bernard Bachrach has argued that his conversion from Frankish paganism alienated many of

548-563: 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

685-555: A king of the Salian Franks in 481, and eventually came to rule an area extending from what is now the southern Netherlands to northern France , corresponding in Roman terms to Gallia Belgica (northern Gaul ). At the Battle of Soissons (486) , he established his military dominance of the rump state of the fragmenting Western Roman Empire , which was then under the command of Syagrius . By

822-491: A kingdom under Syagrius, Aegidius's son. Though no primary sources expounding on the language spoken by Clovis exist, historical linguists consider it likely that, based on his family history and core territories, he spoke a form of Old Dutch . In this, the early Merovingians can be contrasted with the later Carolingians , such as Charlemagne , of the late 8th century and onward, who probably spoke various forms of Old High German . The ruler of Tournai died in 481 and

959-485: A known military unit based on the Rhône . The Ripuarian territory on both sides of the Rhine thus became a central part of Merovingian Austrasia . This stretched to include Roman Germania Inferior (later Germania Secunda ), which included the original Salian and Ripuarian lands, and roughly equates to medieval Lower Lotharingia. It also included Gallia Belgica Prima (roughly medieval Upper Lotharingia), and further lands on

1096-594: A lasting impact on the use of Frank-related names for Western Europeans in many non-European languages. The name Franci was not a tribal name, but within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the original peoples who constituted the Frankish population. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm , the name of the Franks has been linked with the English adjective frank , originally meaning "free". There have also been proposals that Frank comes from

1233-615: 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, 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. The Frankish military establishment incorporated many of the pre-existing Roman institutions in Gaul, especially during and after

1370-472: 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. In their civil wars, the Merovingian kings concentrated on the holding of fortified places and

1507-666: A political threat. Ragnachar denied Clovis's entry, prompting Clovis to make a move against him. He bribed Ragnachar's retainers and executed him alongside his brother Ricchar. Shortly before his death, Clovis called a synod of Gallic bishops to meet in Orléans to reform the Church and create a strong link between the Crown and the Nicene Christian episcopate. This was the First Council of Orléans . Thirty-three bishops assisted and passed 31 decrees on

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1644-509: A precarious position, Godegisel decided to ally himself to Clovis by marrying his exiled niece to the Frankish king. In 496, the Alamanni invaded and some Salians and Ripuarians reguli (kings) defected to their side. Clovis met his enemies near the strong fort of Tolbiac . During the fighting, the Franks suffered heavy losses. Clovis, together with over three thousand Frankish companions, may have converted to Christianity around this time. With

1781-468: A rediscovery of Clovis's cultus in the 16th century. During this period, the dual role St. Clovis could have for modern France was clarified as that of a deeply sinful man who attained sainthood by submitting himself to the will of God, as well as being the founder of the Gallican Church . He also attained an essentially mystic reputation. St. Clovis' role in calling for the First Council of Orléans

1918-635: A resurgence in St. Clovis's veneration was the Spanish Monarchy's use of the title Catholic Monarchs , a title French Monarchs hoped to usurp by attributing it to the much earlier figure of St. Clovis. The sole source for the early Frankish period is Gregory of Tours , who wrote around the year 590. His chronology for the reign of Clovis is almost certainly fabricated, often contradicting itself and other sources. Gregory often divides Clovis' life in spans of 5 years: he became king at age 15, defeated Syagrius in

2055-726: A small church in the vicinity of the subsequent Abbey of Saint-Remi in Reims ; a statue of his baptism by Saint Remigius can still be seen there. The details of this event have been passed down by Gregory of Tours , who recorded them many years later in the 6th century. The king's Nicene baptism was of immense importance in the subsequent history of Western and Central Europe in general, as Clovis expanded his dominion over almost all of Gaul. Nicene Christianity offered certain advantages to Clovis as he fought to distinguish his rule among many competing power centers in Western Europe. His conversion to

2192-473: A valuable ewer taken from the church. Despite his position, some Roman cities refused to yield to the Franks, namely Verdun ‒ which surrendered after a brief siege ‒ and Paris, which stubbornly resisted a few years, perhaps as many as five. He made Paris his capital and established an abbey dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul on the south bank of the Seine . Realizing that he would not be able to rule Gaul without

2329-562: A western European people during the Roman Empire and Middle Ages . They began as a Germanic people who lived near the Lower Rhine , on the northern continental frontier of the empire. They subsequently expanded their power and influence during the Middle Ages , until much of the population of western Europe, particularly in and near France , were commonly described as Franks, for example in

2466-546: Is also famous for its honey, produced by traditional methods in the whole area. A region called Gâtinais is a neighbour of the fictional land of Poictesme in James Branch Cabell 's Biography of the Life of Manuel . 48°06′N 2°36′E  /  48.1°N 2.6°E  / 48.1; 2.6 Franks The Franks ( Latin : Franci or gens Francorum ; German : Franken ; French : Francs ) were

2603-549: Is also significant because of his baptism in 508, largely at the behest of his wife, Clotilde , who would later be venerated as a saint for this act, celebrated today in both the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church . The adoption by Clovis of Nicene Christianity (as opposed to the Arianism of most other Germanic tribes) led to widespread conversion among the Franks, and eventually to religious unification across what

2740-653: Is at the origin of the French given name Louis (variant Ludovic ), borne by 18 kings of France , via the Latinized form Hludovicus (variants Ludhovicus, Lodhuvicus , or Chlodovicus ). The English Lewis stems from the Anglo-French Louis . Clovis was the son of Childeric I , a king of the Salian Franks , and Basina , a Thuringian princess. The dynasty he founded is, however, named after his supposed ancestor, Merovech . Some sources claim that Clovis' grandfather

2877-443: 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 . In

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3014-462: Is found in other West Germanic languages , with cognates including Old English Hloðwig , Old Saxon Hluduco , and Old High German Hludwīg (variant Hluotwīg ). The latter turned into Ludwig in Modern German , although the king Clovis himself is generally named Chlodwig. The Old Norse form Hlǫðvér was most likely borrowed from a West Germanic language. The Frankish name *Hlodowig

3151-457: Is generally believed to mean 'The Chamavi who are Franks' (despite the letter p). Further up the river the word "Francia" is clearly marked, indicating a country name on the bank opposite to Nijmegen and Xanten . 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. Julian allowed

3288-475: Is now France. He and his son Clovis I founded the Merovingian dynasty which succeeded in unifying most of Gaul under its rule during the 6th century following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, as well as establishing leadership over all the Frankish kingdoms on or near the Rhine frontier. The dynasty subsequently gained control over a significant part of what is now western and southern Germany. It

3425-555: Is now modern-day France, the Low Countries and Germany. The alliance between the Franks and Catholicism eventually led to Charlemagne 's crowning by the Pope as emperor in 800, and to the subsequent birth of the early Holy Roman Empire in the middle of the 10th century. Based on the attested forms, the original name is reconstructed in the Frankish language as * Hlōdowik or * Hlōdowig and

3562-538: 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

3699-428: Is supported by the fact that if the first element is taken to mean "famous", then the name of Chlodomer (one of Clovis' sons) would contain two elements ( *hlūdaz and *mērijaz ) both meaning "famous", which would be highly uncommon within the typical Germanic name structure. In Middle Dutch , a language closely related to Frankish, the name was rendered as Lodewijch (cf. modern Dutch Lodewijk ). The name

3836-685: Is that ferocity of yours? Where is that ever untrustworthy fickleness?"). Latin feroces was used often to describe the Franks. Contemporary definitions of Frankish ethnicity vary both by period and point of view. The formulary of Marculf written 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." Writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham pointed out that "the word 'Frankish' quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of

3973-402: Is the founder of the modern French state. Detracting, perhaps, from this legacy, is his aforementioned division of the state. This was done not along national or even largely geographical lines, but primarily to assure equal income amongst his sons after his death. While it may or may not have been his intention, this division was the cause of much internal discord in Gaul. This precedent led, in

4110-425: Is traditionally considered to be composed of two elements, deriving from both Proto-Germanic : *hlūdaz ("loud, famous") and *wiganą ("to battle, to fight"), resulting in the traditional practice of translating Clovis' name as meaning "famous warrior" or "renowned in battle". However, scholars have pointed out that Gregory of Tours consistently transcribes the names of various Merovingian royal names containing

4247-575: Is traditionally said to have died on 27 November 511. The day is found in one medieval calendar and two missals now in the Library of the Abbey of Saint Genevieve (which was founded by Clovis). However, two obituaries in the abbeys of Saint Genevieve and Saint Denis date his death to 29 November and 3 January, respectively. The latter date may be a confusion with the feast of Genevieve , which also falls on 3 January. Gregory of Tours states that Clovis died on

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4384-519: The Augustan History , a collection of biographies of the Roman emperors . None of these sources presents a detailed list of which tribes or parts of tribes became Frankish, or concerning the politics and history, but to quote James (1988 , p. 35): A Roman marching-song joyfully recorded in a fourth-century source, is associated with the 260s; but the Franks' first appearance in a contemporary source

4521-706: The Strategikon , supposedly written by the emperor Maurice , or in his time, the Franks are lumped together with the Lombards under the heading of the "fair-haired" peoples. If they are hard pressed in cavalry actions, they dismount at a single prearranged sign and line up on foot. Although only a few against many horsemen, they do not shrink from the fight. They are armed with shields, lances, and short swords slung from their shoulders. They prefer fighting on foot and rapid charges. [...] Either on horseback or on foot they are impetuous and un- disciplined in charging, as if they were

4658-559: 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 . The unification achieved by the Merovingians ensured

4795-671: The Battle of Vouillé , he established Frankish hegemony over most of Gaul, excluding Burgundy , Provence and Brittany , which were eventually absorbed by his successors. 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. Clovis I divided his realm between his four sons, who united to defeat Burgundy in 534. Internecine feuding occurred during

4932-692: The Habsburg monarchs depicts Clovis as St. Chlodoveus, St. Boniface's Abbey in Munich depicted St. Chlodoveus as a saint worthy of emulation because of his advocacy, and the Florentine Baroque painter Carlo Dolci painted a large depiction of St. Clovis for the Imperial Apartment in the Uffizi Gallery. St. Clovis had no known official canonisation , neither was he beatified , so his sainthood

5069-524: The House of Valois as their predecessors were the Direct Capetians who looked back to Charlemagne whose veneration had been widely recognised. In contrast to the theory of St. Clovis's cult being a primarily northern-supported movement, Amy Goodrich Remensnyder suggests that St. Clovis was used by Occitans to reject the northern concept of the monarchy and to reinstate their autonomy as something granted by

5206-649: The River Loire everyone seems to have been considered a Frank by the mid-7th century at the latest (except Bretons ); Romani (Romans) were essentially the inhabitants of Aquitaine after that". Apart from the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours , two early sources relate the mythological origin of the Franks: a 7th-century work known as the Chronicle of Fredegar and the anonymous Liber Historiae Francorum , written

5343-519: The Salian Franks to the west, who came south via the Rhine delta ; and the Ripuarian or Rhineland Franks to the east, who eventually conquered the Roman frontier city of Cologne and took control of the left bank of the Lower Rhine in that region. Childeric I , a Salian Frankish king, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces with various ethnic affiliations in the northern part of what

5480-615: The Somme river . Childeric I, Clovis's father, was reputed to be a relative of Chlodio and was known as the king of the Franks who fought as an army within northern Gaul. In 463, he fought in conjunction with Aegidius , the magister militum of northern Gaul, to defeat the Visigoths in Orléans . Childeric died in 481 and was buried in Tournai; Clovis succeeded him as king, aged just 15. Historians believe that Childeric and Clovis were both commanders of

5617-491: The Somme river . Chlodio is often seen as an ancestor of the future Merovingian dynasty. Childeric I , who according to Gregory of Tours was a reputed descendant of Chlodio, was later seen as administrative ruler over Roman Belgica Secunda and possibly other areas. Records of Childeric show him to have been active together with Roman forces in the Loire region, quite far to the south. His descendants came to rule Roman Gaul all

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5754-537: The 10th century, the main town of this province was Château-Landon , and a twenty-five-mile circle around Notre-Dame de Château-Landon basically comprised it. The western part, Gâtinais orléanais , approximately corresponds to the arrondissements of Montargis and a large part of Pithiviers , in Loiret. Pithiviers has for several centuries been the most representative town of Gâtinais. The eastern part, Gâtinais français , had Nemours as its chief town, and corresponds to

5891-603: 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 , Ricomer and Bauto held command positions in

6028-572: The 450s and 460s, Childeric I , a Salian Frank, was one of several military leaders commanding Roman forces with various ethnic affiliations in Roman Gaul (roughly modern France). Childeric and his son Clovis I faced competition from the Roman Aegidius as competitor for the "kingship" of the Franks associated with the Roman Loire forces (according to Gregory of Tours , Aegidius held the kingship of

6165-521: The 5th year of his reign, defeated the Alamanni in his 15th year, defeated the Visigoths in his 25th year, and died at the age of 45, in the 5th year after his victory at Vouillé , having reigned 30 years. The exact date on which Clovis became "king of all Franks" is not known, but it happened sometime after the Battle of Vouillé , which is securely dated to 507. After this battle, Clovis made Paris his capital, converted to Catholicism , and orchestrated

6302-582: The Burgundian territory. Gundobad then moved against Clovis and called his brother for reinforcements. The three armies met near Dijon , where both the Franks and Godegisel's forces defeated the dumbfounded Gundobad, who escaped to Avignon . Clovis pursued him and laid siege to the city. After some months, Clovis was convinced to abandon the siege and settled for an annual tribute from Gundobad. In 501, 502 or 503, Clovis led his troops to Armorica . He had previously restricted his operations to minor raids, but now

6439-478: The Byzantine historians do not assign them to the Franks. 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

6576-581: The Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are three persons of one being ( consubstantiality ). While the theology of the Arians was declared a heresy at the First Council of Nicea in 325, the missionary work of Bishop Ulfilas converted a significant portion of the pagan Goths to Arian Christianity in the 4th century. By the time of the ascension of Clovis, Gothic Arians dominated Christian Gaul, and Nicene Christians were

6713-520: 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

6850-466: The Franks for 8 years while Childeric was in exile). This new type of kingship, perhaps inspired by Alaric I , 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. Aegidius died in 464 or 465. Childeric and his son Clovis I were both described as rulers of

6987-455: The Franks fought primarily as a tribe, unless they were part of a Roman military unit fighting in conjunction with other imperial units. 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

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7124-425: The Franks knew little about their background and that they may have felt some inferiority in comparison with other peoples of antiquity who possessed an ancient name and glorious tradition. [...] Both legends are of course equally fabulous for, even more than most barbarian peoples, the Franks possessed no common history, ancestry, or tradition of a heroic age of migration. Like their Alemannic neighbours, they were by

7261-714: The Franks to remain in Texuandria as fœderati within the Empire, having moved there from the Rhine-Maas delta. The 5th century Notitia Dignitatum lists a group of soldiers as Salii . Some decades later, Franks in the same region, possibly the Salians, controlled the River Scheldt and were disrupting transport links to Britain in the English Channel . Although Roman forces managed to pacify them, they failed to expel

7398-471: 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

7535-577: The Franks, who continued to be feared as pirates. The Salians are generally seen as the predecessors of the Franks who pushed southwestwards into what is now modern France, who eventually came to be ruled by the Merovingians (see below). This is because when the Merovingian dynasty published the Salian law ( Lex Salica ) it applied in the Neustrian area from the river Liger ( Loire ) to the Silva Carbonaria ,

7672-404: The Gallo-Roman commander at Soissons . During the battle, Chalaric betrayed his comrades by refusing to take part in the fighting. Despite the betrayal, the Franks landed a decisive victory , forcing Syagrius to flee to the court of Alaric II . This battle is viewed as bringing about the end of the rump state of the Western Roman Empire outside of Italy. Following the battle, Clovis invaded

7809-540: The Germanic word for " javelin " (such as in Old English franca or Old Norse frakka ). 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. 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: Ubi nunc est illa ferocia? Ubi semper infida mobilitas? ("Where now

7946-492: The History of the Moissac Abbey , claimed that his own monastery was founded by St. Clovis and there were many monasteries named in his honour. Aymeric not only referred to Clovis as a saint but also prayed for St. Clovis's intercession. There were also known to be shrines dedicated to Clovis in Église Sainte-Marthe de Tarascon and Saint-Pierre-du- Dorât . Boniface Symoneta, Jacques Almain and Paulus Aemilius Veronensis gave hagiographic accounts of Clovis's life and at

8083-417: The Kingdom of France, the myriad German States, and the semi-autonomous kingdoms of Burgundy and Lotharingia . Clovis was born a pagan but later became interested in converting to Arian Christianity , whose followers believed that Jesus was a distinct and separate being from God the Father , both subordinate to and created by him. This contrasted with Nicene Christianity , whose followers believe that God

8220-461: The Netherlands and parts of neighbouring provinces of Antwerp and Limburg in Belgium. This put them in the northern part of the Roman civitas Tungrorum , with the Romanized population still dominant south of the military highway Boulogne-Cologne. Later, Chlodio seems to have attacked westwards from this area to take control of the Roman populations in Tournai , then southwards to Artois , and Cambrai , eventually controlling an area stretching to

8357-421: The Nicene form of Christianity served to set him apart from most other Germanic kings of his time, such as those of the Visigoths and the Vandals , who had converted from Germanic paganism to Arian Christianity. However, he was not the first Germanic king to convert to Nicene Christianity , that distinction belonging to the Suevic king of Gallaecia Rechiar , whose conversion predates Clovis's baptism by half

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8494-436: The Pious . Following Louis the Pious's death, however, according to Frankish culture and law that demanded equality among all living male adult heirs, the Frankish Empire was now split between Louis' three sons. 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

8631-434: The Rhine became so frequent that the Romans began to settle the Franks on their borders in order to control them. The Franks appear to be 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.) Several tribal names are written at the mouth of the Rhine. One of these says Hamavi; Quietpranci , which

8768-433: 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. After conquering the Kingdom of Soissons and expelling the Visigoths from southern Gaul at

8905-424: 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 until

9042-427: The Roman military in the province of Belgica Secunda and were subordinate to the magister militum. The Franks of Tournai came to dominate their neighbours, initially aided by the association with Aegidius. The death of Aetius in 454 led to the decline of imperial power in Gaul; leaving the Visigoths and the Burgundians competing for predominance in the area. The part of Gaul still under Roman control emerged as

9179-407: 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 officially accepted their residence within its borders. 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 a Merovingian legal code

9316-437: The Visigothic king Alaric II . According to Gregory of Tours, following the battle the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I made Clovis a patrician and honorary consul . Following the Battle of Vouillé, Clovis eliminated all his possible rivals, including the other Frankish kings who ruled alongside him. Sometime after 507, Clovis heard about Chararic 's plan to escape from his monastic prison and had him murdered. Around

9453-408: The Visigoths. King Alaric had previously tried to establish a cordial relationship with Clovis by serving him the head of exiled Syagrius on a silver plate in 486 or 487. However, Clovis was no longer able to resist the temptation to move against the Visigoths, for many Nicene Christians under Visigoth yoke were unhappy and implored Clovis to make a move. But just to be absolutely certain about retaining

9590-422: 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. Scramasaxes and arrowheads are numerous in Frankish graves even though

9727-454: The arrondissement of Fontainebleau in Seine-et-Marne. This is an essentially agricultural area, although the west is wooded. It was for several centuries known for its saffron, a crop that disappeared from this area because of the heavy charges on human work and the impossibility to mechanise this particular crop; these days saffron makes a timid reappearance in the local fields under the impulse of natural regional park of Gâtinais français. It

9864-511: The banks of the Danube and the Ocean Sea. Again splitting into, two groups, half of them entered Europe with their king Francio. After crossing Europe with their wives and children they occupied the banks of the Rhine and not far from the Rhine began to build the city of "Troy" (Colonia Traiana-Xanten). According to historian Patrick J. Geary , those two stories are "alike in betraying both the fact that

10001-466: The city symbolic weight. When his grandchildren divided royal power 50 years after his death in 511, Paris was kept as a joint property and a fixed symbol of the dynasty. The disunity continued under the Carolingians until, after a brief unity under Charlemagne , the Franks splintered into distinct spheres of cultural influence that coalesced around Eastern and Western centers of royal power. These later political, linguistic, and cultural entities became

10138-441: 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 and laeti , who were descendants of Roman soldiers with Germanic origin, granted a quasi-national status under Frankish law. These milites continued to be commanded by tribunes. Throughout Gaul,

10275-521: The context of their joint efforts during the Crusades starting in the 11th century. A key turning point in this evolution was when the Frankish Merovingian dynasty based within the collapsing Western Roman Empire first became the rulers of the whole region between the rivers Loire and Rhine . From this starting point they imposed power over many other post-Roman kingdoms both inside and outside

10412-473: 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

10549-467: 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

10686-453: The days of the scholar Procopius (c. 500 – c. 565), more than a century after the demise of the Western Roman Empire, who wrote describing the former Arborychoi , having merged with the Franks, retaining their legionary organization in 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,

10823-491: 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. 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

10960-463: The duties and obligations of individuals, the right of sanctuary, and ecclesiastical discipline. These decrees, equally applicable to Franks and Romans, first established equality between conquerors and conquered. After his death, Clovis was laid to rest in the Abbey of St Genevieve in Paris. His remains were relocated to Saint Denis Basilica in the mid- to late 18th century. When Clovis died, his kingdom

11097-421: The east bank of the Rhine. Gregory of Tours (Book II) reported that small Frankish kingdoms existed during the fifth century around Cologne , Tournai , Cambrai and elsewhere. The kingdom of the Merovingians eventually came to dominate the others, possibly because of its association with Roman power structures in northern Gaul, into which the Frankish military forces were apparently integrated to some extent. In

11234-677: 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

11371-415: The fifth year after the Battle of Vouillé , which gives 511 using inclusive counting . However, he also states that he died on the 11th year of the episcopate of Licinius of Tours (AD 518) and on the 112th year after the death of Martin of Tours (AD 508). The Liber Pontificalis records that Clovis' crown was sent to Pope Hormisdas ( r.   514–523), which could imply a later date. Clovis

11508-461: The first element as chlodo- . The use of a close-mid back rounded vowel (o), rather than the expected close back rounded vowel (u) that Gregory does use in various other Germanic names (i.e. Fredegundis , Arnulfus , Gundobadus , etc.) opens up the possibility that the first element instead derives from Proto-Germanic *hlutą ("lot, share, portion"), giving the meaning of the name as "loot bringer" or "plunder (bringing) warrior". This hypothesis

11645-405: The first time. It seems likely that the term Frank in this first period had a broader meaning, sometimes including coastal Frisii . 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. Frankish incursions over

11782-559: The goal was subjugation. Clovis failed to complete this objective via military means; therefore, he was constrained to statecraft. This proved fruitful, for the Armonici shared Clovis's disdain for the Arian Visigoths. Armorica and its fighters were thus integrated into the Frankish realm. In 507 Clovis was allowed by the magnates of his realm to invade the remaining threat of the Kingdom of

11919-483: The help of the Ripuarian Franks he narrowly defeated the Alamanni in the Battle of Tolbiac in 496. Now Christian, Clovis confined his prisoners, Chararic and his son, to a monastery. In 500 or 501, Godegisel began scheming against his brother Gundobad. He promised his brother-in-law territory and annual tribute for defeating his brother. Clovis was eager to subdue the political threat to his realm and crossed into

12056-460: The help of the clergy, Clovis took a Nicene Christian wife to please them. He also integrated many of Syagrius's units into his own army. The Roman kingdom was probably under Clovis's control by 491 because in the same year, Clovis successfully moved against a small number of Thuringians in eastern Gaul, near the Burgundian border. Around 493 AD, he secured an alliance with the Ostrogoths through

12193-448: The king was made up of antrustiones (senior soldiers who were aristocrats in military service) and pueri (junior soldiers and not aristocrats). 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

12330-622: 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). All the forms of the levy gradually disappeared, however, 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

12467-449: The long run, to the fall of his dynasty, for it was a pattern repeated in future reigns. Clovis did bequeath to his heirs the support of both people and the Church such that when the magnates were ready to do away with the royal house, the sanction of the Pope was sought first. In later centuries, Clovis was venerated as a saint in France. The Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Denis (where Clovis

12604-514: The loyalties of the Nicene Christians under Visigoths, Clovis ordered his troops to omit raiding and plunder, for this was not a foreign invasion, but a liberation. Armorici assisted him in defeating the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse in the Battle of Vouillé in 507, eliminating Visigothic power in Gaul. The battle added most of Aquitaine to Clovis's kingdom and resulted in the death of

12741-517: The marriage of his sister Audofleda to their king, Theodoric the Great . In the same year, the neighboring King of the Burgundians was slain by his brother, Gundobad ; bringing civil strife to that kingdom. Allegedly, Gundobad proceeded to drown his sister-in-law and force his niece, Chrona, into a convent. Another niece, Clotilde , fled to the court of the third brother, Godegisel . Finding himself in

12878-555: The men. 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

13015-742: The minority. Clovis's wife Clotilde , a Burgundian princess, was a Nicene Christian despite the Arianism that surrounded her at court. Her persistence eventually persuaded Clovis to convert to Nicene Christianity, which he initially resisted. Clotilde had wanted her son to be baptized, but Clovis refused, so she had the child baptized without Clovis's knowledge. Shortly after his baptism, their son died, which further strengthened Clovis's resistance to conversion. Clotilde also had their second son baptized without her husband's permission, and this son became ill and nearly died after his baptism. Clovis eventually converted to Nicene Christianity on Christmas Day 508 in

13152-527: The miracles attributed to St. Clovis, sometimes even writing lengthy rejections of their existence. Instead, they saw his sainthood as evident from his creation of a state more holy and Christian than that of Rome. Catholic writers in the 16th century expanded upon the lists of St. Clovis's attributed miracles, but in the early 17th century they also began to minimize their use of the miraculous elements of his hagiography. Mid-to-late-17th-century Jesuit writers resisted this trend and allowed for no doubt as to

13289-444: The miraculous nature of St. Clovis life or his sainthood. Jesuit writers stressed the more extreme elements of his hagiography, and that of other saints associated with him, even claiming that St. Remigius lived for five hundred years. These hagiographies would still be quoted and widely believed as late as 1896, the fourteenth centenary of his baptism, as a speech from Cardinal Langénieux demonstrates. Another factor that led to

13426-419: 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. Merovingian society had

13563-527: The murders of Frankish kings Sigobert and Ragnachar , uniting all Franks under his rule. Clovis' baptism, traditionally dated to December 496 on the account of Gregory, is now believed to have taken place in December 508. The election of Paris as capital must have also happened around 508. Given that the hostilities between Ragnachar and Clovis began after his conversion, it can be inferred that their confrontation took place shortly after, in 509. Clovis I

13700-512: The name of Franks (meaning "fierce"). A decade later the Romans killed Priam and drove away Marcomer and Sunno , the sons of Priam and Antenor, and the other Franks. The most important contemporary sources mentioning the early Franks include the Panegyrici Latini , Ammianus Marcellinus , Claudian , Zosimus , Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours . The Franks are first mentioned in

13837-454: The old empire. Although the Frankish name does not appear until the 3rd century, at least some of the original Frankish tribes had long been known to the Romans under their own names, both as allies providing soldiers, and as enemies. The term is first used to describe the tribes working together to raid Roman territory. Frankish peoples subsequently living inside Rome's frontier on the Rhine river are often divided by historians into two groups –

13974-412: 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

14111-409: The only people in the world who are not cowards. 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

14248-522: The other Frankish sub-kings and weakened his military position over the next few years. In the interpretatio romana , Saint Gregory of Tours gave the Germanic gods that Clovis abandoned the names of roughly equivalent Roman gods, such as Jupiter and Mercury . William Daly, more directly assessing Clovis's allegedly barbaric and pagan origins, ignored the Gregory of Tours version and based his account on

14385-485: 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. 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

14522-561: The political centre of 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

14659-472: 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. In 288, the emperor Maximian defeated the Salian Franks , Chamavi , Frisii and other Germanic people living along the Rhine and moved them to Germania inferior to provide manpower and prevent

14796-493: 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

14933-463: The saint. St. Clovis had the role of a more militarised royal saint than the pious Louis IX of France . As a saint, Clovis was important as he represented the spiritual birth of the nation and provided a chivalrous and ascetic model for French political leaders to follow. The veneration of St. Clovis was not exclusive to France as a print by the Holy Roman woodcut designer Leonhard Beck made for

15070-519: The same time, Clovis convinced Prince Chlodoric to murder his father Sigobert , earning him his nickname as "Chlodoric the Parricide". Following the murder, Clovis betrayed Chlodoric and had his envoys strike him down. Sometime later, Clovis visited his old ally Ragnachar in Cambrai. Following his conversion to Christianity in 508, many of Clovis' pagan retainers had defected to Ragnachar's side, making him

15207-602: The scant earlier sources, a sixth-century "vita" of Saint Genevieve and letters to or concerning Clovis from bishops (now in the Epistolae Austrasicae ) and Theodoric . Clovis and his wife were buried in the Abbey of St Genevieve (St. Pierre) in Paris; the original name of the church was the Church of the Holy Apostles. Under Clovis, the first codification of the Salian Frank law took place. The Roman Law

15344-610: The scene by the 8th century. 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

15481-413: The settlement of other Germanic tribes. In 292, Constantius , the father of Constantine I defeated the Franks who had settled at the mouth of the Rhine. These were moved to the nearby region of Toxandria . 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

15618-589: The sixth century a fairly recent creation, a coalition of Rhenish tribal groups who long maintained separate identities and institutions." The other work, the Liber Historiae Francorum , previously known as Gesta regum Francorum before its republication in 1888 by Bruno Krusch, described how 12,000 Trojans, led by Priam and Antenor , sailed from Troy to the River Don in Russia and on to Pannonia , which

15755-422: 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

15892-535: The stretch of the Rhine from roughly Mainz to Duisburg , the region of the city of Cologne , are often considered separately from the Salians, and sometimes in modern texts referred to as Ripuarian Franks. The Ravenna Cosmography suggests that Francia Renensis included the old civitas of the Ubii , in Germania II ( Germania Inferior ), but also the northern part of Germania I (Germania Superior), including Mainz . Like

16029-462: The successful canonisation campaign of Louis IX, occurred during a conflict with the Burgundians. The cause for Clovis's canonisation was taken up once again in the 17th century, with Jesuit support, a vita and an account of posthumous miracles, in opposition to the controversial historical works of Calvinist pastor Jean de Serres who portrayed Clovis as a cruel and bloodthirsty king. The Jesuit attempt to formally canonize Clovis came after

16166-406: The time it was common to include Clovis's life in collections of the lives of the saints. It has been suggested that the reason that the French state promoted the veneration of Clovis in the south was to establish a border cult that would cause Occitans to venerate the northern-led French state by venerating its founder. Another reason could be that Clovis was a preferable foundation figure for

16303-467: The time of his death in 511, Clovis had conquered several smaller Frankish kingdoms in the northeast of Gaul, stretching into what is now Germany. Clovis also conquered the Alemanni in eastern Gaul and the Visigothic kingdom of Aquitania in the southwest. These campaigns added significantly to Clovis's domains and established his dynasty as a major political and military presence in western Europe. Clovis

16440-409: The traitor Chalaric's territory and was able to imprison him and his son. Prior to the battle, Clovis did not enjoy the support of the Gallo-Roman clergy, so he proceeded to pillage the Roman territory, including the churches. The Bishop of Reims requested Clovis return everything taken from the Church of Reims; the young king aspired to establish cordial relationships with the clergy, so he returned

16577-402: 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. Clovis I Clovis ( Latin : Chlodovechus ; reconstructed Frankish : * Hlōdowig ; c.  466 – 27 November 511)

16714-460: The way to there, and this became the Frankish kingdom of Neustria , the basis of what would become medieval France. Childeric's son Clovis I also took control of the more independent Frankish kingdoms east of the Silva Carbonaria and Belgica II. This later became the Frankish kingdom of Austrasia , where the early legal code was referred to as "Ripuarian". The Rhineland Franks who lived near

16851-532: The western kingdom founded by them outside the original area of Frankish settlement. In the 5th century, Franks under Chlodio pushed into Roman lands in and beyond the " Silva Carbonaria " or "Charcoal forest", which ran through the area of modern western Wallonia . The forest was the boundary of the original Salian territories to the north and the more Romanized area to the south in the Roman province of Belgica Secunda , which now lies in northern France. Chlodio conquered Tournai , Artois , Cambrai , and as far as

16988-466: The works of Virgil and Hieronymus : Blessed Jerome has written about the ancient kings of the Franks, whose story was first told by the poet Virgil: their first king was Priam and, after Troy was captured by trickery, they departed. Afterwards they had as king Friga, then they split into two parts, the first going into Macedonia, the second group, which left Asia with Friga were called the Frigii, settled on

17125-506: Was Chlodio , but his exact relation with Merovech is not known. Numerous small Frankish petty kingdoms existed during the 5th century. The Salian Franks was the first-known Frankish tribe that settled with official Roman permission within the empire, first in Batavia in the Rhine-Maas delta, and then in 375 in Toxandria , which in the present day consists of the province of North Brabant in

17262-399: Was buried) had a shrine to St. Clovis to the east of the main altar. There was also a shrine to him in the Abbey of Saint Genevieve in Paris. This shrine had a statue and a number of epitaphs and was probably where the veneration of St. Clovis began. Despite Clovis's presence in Paris, his cultus was largely based in the south of France. Abbot Aymeric de Peyrat (d. 1406), the author of

17399-429: Was by building upon the basis of this Merovingian empire that the subsequent dynasty, the Carolingians , eventually came to be seen as the new emperors of Western Europe in 800, when Charlemagne was crowned by the pope. In 870 , the Frankish realm came to be permanently divided between western and eastern kingdoms, which were the predecessors of the later Kingdom of France and Holy Roman Empire respectively. It

17536-591: Was called the Lex Ribuaria , but it probably applied in all the older Frankish lands, including the original Salian areas. Jordanes , in his Getica mentions a group called the "Riparii" as auxiliaries of Flavius Aetius during the Battle of Châlons in 451, and distinct from the "Franci": "Hi enim affuerunt auxiliares: Franci, Sarmatae, Armoriciani, Liticiani, Burgundiones, Saxones, Riparii, Olibriones  ..." But these Riparii ("river dwellers") are today not considered to be Ripuarian Franks, but rather

17673-516: 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

17810-794: Was in 289. [...] The Chamavi were mentioned as a Frankish people as early as 289, the Bructeri from 307, the Chattuarri from 306 to 315, the Salii or Salians from 357, and the Amsivarii and Tubantes from c. 364 to 375. The Franks were described in Roman texts both as allies ( laeti ) and enemies ( dediticii ). About the year 260, during the Crisis of the Third Century , one group of Franks penetrated as far as Tarragona in present-day Spain, where they plagued

17947-475: Was only ever recognised by popular acclaim . Following the example of the monks of St. Geneviève, St. Clovis's feast day in France was held on 27 November. St. Clovis enjoyed a persistent campaign from French royal authorities that few non-French national or dynastic saints did. French monarchs, beginning in the 14th century at the latest, attempted to officially canonise Clovis a number of times. The most notable attempt, led by King Louis XI and modelled on

18084-512: Was partitioned among his four sons, Theuderic , Chlodomer , Childebert and Clotaire . This partition created the new political units of the Kingdoms of Rheims , Orléans , Paris and Soissons , and inaugurated a tradition that would lead to disunity lasting until the end of the Merovingian dynasty in 751. Clovis had been a king with no fixed capital and no central administration beyond his entourage. By deciding to be interred at Paris, Clovis gave

18221-403: Was succeeded by his young son, Clovis. His band of warriors probably numbered no more than half a thousand. In 486 he began his efforts to expand the realm by allying himself with his relative Ragnachar , king of Cambrai and another Frankish king, Chalaric . These rulers are sometimes referred to as regulus (diminutive of rex ). Together the triumvirate marched against Syagrius and met

18358-514: Was the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Franks under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a single king, and ensuring that the kingship was passed down to his heirs. He is considered to have been the founder of the Merovingian dynasty , which ruled the Frankish kingdom for the next two centuries. Clovis is important in the historiography of France as "the first king of what would become France." Clovis succeeded his father, Childeric I , as

18495-594: Was the inhabitants of western kingdom who eventually came to be known as "the French " ( French : Les Français , German : Die Franzosen , Dutch : De Fransen , etc.) and this kingdom is the forerunner of the nation state of France. However, in various historical contexts, such as during the medieval crusades, not only the French, but also people from neighbouring regions in Western Europe , continued to be referred to collectively as Franks. The crusaders in particular had

18632-487: Was understood to be strongly Gallican as he called it without Papal authority and with the understanding that he and his bishops had the authority to call councils that were binding for the Frankish people. For Protestant Gallicans, St. Clovis represented the role of the monarchy in governing the Church and curbing its abuses and was contrasted positively against the Papacy of his time. Protestants were unlikely to mention any of

18769-451: Was written with the assistance of Gallo-Romans to reflect the Salic legal tradition and Christianity, while containing much from Roman tradition. The Roman Law lists various crimes as well as the fines associated with them. The legacy of Clovis's conquests, a Frankish kingdom that included most of Roman Gaul and parts of western Germany, survived long after his death. To many French people, he

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