Franks

History

This group of Germanic peoples were thought to have originated in Pomerania on the Black Sea. During the period of migration by the Germanic tribes, they settled on the Rhine by the C3rd and spread into the Roman Empire by the C4th. The Salian (western) Franks conquered Roman Gaul during the C4-5th. Their leader, Clovis (d 511), united the Salians with the Ripuarian (eastern) Franks and they were converted to Christianity in 497. Their kingdom, which was to form the core of the Catholic Christian expansion into Asia, expanded under Clovis and his sons to include Neustria (northern France), Austrasia (Netherlands, Austria, northern Germany), Burgundy and Provence by 714. It became divided under Clovis' successors, the Merovingian Dynasty, named after his grandfather Merovech, but was reunified by Pepin (ruled 751-68), who founded the Carolingian Dynasty. His son, Charlemagne, made France the centre of the Holy Roman Empire and his lands covered all of France except Brittany, all of Germany, much of Eastern Europe and the Kingdom of Lombardy in northern Italy by 814. By the C9th, the kingdom of the West Franks was fused into a single people with the Gallo-Romans, speaking a modified form of Latin from which modern French is descended.

Frankish Names

Male

Female

Rulers

Merovingian

Carolingian

Aquitaine

Poitiers

Anjou

Frisia

Male

Bavaria

Male

This collection of names was compiled by Kate Monk and is ©1997, Kate Monk.

Copies may be made for personal use only.