Fiftieth Generation  

Flavius married (name unknown).

Children from this marriage were:

281474976972801       i.  Miss ()

General Notes: Frank,

member of a Germanic-speaking people who invaded the western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. Dominating present-day northern France, Belgium, and western Germany, the Franks established the most powerful Christian kingdom of early medieval western Europe. The name France (Francia) is derived from their name.

The Franks emerged into recorded history in the 3rd century AD as a Germanic tribe living on the east bank of the lower Rhine River. At this time they were divided into three groups: the Salians, the Ripuarians, and the Chatti, or Hessians. These branches were related to each other by language and custom, but politically they were independent tribes. In the mid-3rd century the Franks tried unsuccessfully to expand westward across the Rhine into Roman-held Gaul. In the mid-4th century the Franks again attempted to invade Gaul, and in 358 Rome was compelled to abandon the area between the Meuse and Scheldt rivers (now in Belgium) to the Salian Franks. During the course of these drawn-out struggles the Franks were gradually influenced by Roman civilization. Some Frankish leaders became Roman allies (foederati) in the defense of the Roman frontier, and many Franks served as auxiliary soldiers in the Roman army.

The Vandals launched a massive invasion of Gaul in 406, and in the ensuing decades the Franks took advantage of the overstrained Roman defenses. They solidified their hold on what is now Belgium, took permanent control of the lands immediately west of the middle Rhine River, and edged into what is now northeastern France. The firm establishment of the Franks in northeastern Gaul by the year 480 meant that both the former Roman province of Germania and part of the two former Belgic provinces were lost to Roman rule. The small Gallo-Roman population there became submerged among the German immigrants, and Latin ceased to be the language of everyday speech. The extreme limit of Frankish settlement at this time is marked by the linguistic frontier that still divides the Romance-speaking peoples of France and southern Belgium from the Germanic-speaking peoples of northern Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany.

In 481/482 Clovis succeeded his father, Childeric, as the ruler of the Salian Franks of Tournai. In the following years Clovis compelled the other Salian and Ripuarian tribes to submit to his authority. He then took advantage of the disintegration of the Roman Empire and led the united Franks in a series of campaigns that brought all of northern Gaul under his rule by 494. He stemmed the Alemannic migrations into Gaul from east of the Rhine, and in 507 he drove southward, subduing the Visigoths who had established themselves in southern Gaul. A unified Frankish kingdom in northern Gaul was thus established and secured. Clovis converted to Catholicism, and the mass adoption of orthodox Christianity by the Franks further served to unite them into one people. It also won them the support of the orthodox clergy and the remaining Gallo-Roman elements in Gaul, since most other Germanic tribes had adopted Arianism.

Clovis belonged to the Merovingian dynasty, so named for his grandfather, Merovich. Under Clovis' successors, the Merovingians were able to extend Frankish power east of the Rhine. The Merovingian dynasty ruled the Frankish territories until they were displaced by the Carolingian family in the 8th century. The Carolingian Charlemagne (Charles the Great, ruled 768-814) restored the western Roman Empire in cooperation with the papacy and spread Christianity into central and northern Germany. His empire disintegrated by the mid-9th century.

In succeeding centuries the people of the west Frankish kingdom (France) continued to call themselves Franks, although the Frankish element merged with the older population. In Germany the name survived as Franconia (Franken), a duchy extending from the Rhineland east along the Main River.



Related Propaedia Topics

The Carolingian Empire and its later dissolution (c. 750-887), France in the 10th century

The Germans: their acquisition of Iron Age culture, migration into the Elbe-Rhine region by c. 500 BC, pressure on the Celts and Rome, inundation of the western half of the Roman Empire by the 5th century AD, Germanic social and political organization, religion and mythology

The Franks under the Merovingians and early Carolingians: the successors of Clovis, rise and establishment of the Carolingians under Charles Martel and Pepin III the Short (714-768), Carolingian relations with the papacy and entry into Italian affairs; origins of the Papal States

Establishment of the Germanic hegemony: the invasions of Vandals; the invasions of Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (Britain); the Visigothic invasions in the 5th century and settlement in Provence and Spain; the Frankish conquest of Gaul (c. 481/482-511) and the Burgundian flight to the south; the Huns; abolition of the Western Empire and Ostrogothic rule in Italy (493-553); other Germanic tribes--the issue of Arianism versus Catholic Christianity; Germanic law and society



Copyright (c) 1996 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All Rights Reserved


Merovech, King of the Franks

Acceded: 447
Died: 458
Notes:
See Europ„isch Stammtafeln Bund I tafel 1.

Child 1: , Childeric I of the Franks, King of the Franks

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Version: 14 Feb 99 Author: Brian Tompsett Sources: bibliography Question?: FAQ c 1994-99

Noted events in his life were:

1. Occupation. King of Salic Franks, 448-458

Merovech, married Verica.

Children from this marriage were:

281474976972808       i.  Childeric I, King Of The Franks Franks King Of Franks (born in 436 Westphalia, Germany - died on 26 Nov 481 , buried in Tournai - Grave Discovered N 1653)

Verica married Merovech, King Of Franks.

Weldelphus married (name unknown).

Children from this marriage were:

281474976972809       i.  Basina , Princess Of The Thuringians Thuringia [Queen Of The Franks] (born in 398 Thuringia, Germany - died)

Halfdan married Sigris about 523 in Denmark.

Children from this marriage were:

                i.  Alan De Dunstanville (born about 1080 Combe Castle, Wiltshire, England - died between 3 Apr 1150 and 1156 in Tewkesbury, Wiltshire, England)
               ii.  Signe Halfdansdatter (born about 524 Roskilde, Denmark - died)
281474978480160     iii.  Hroar Halfdansson [King Of Roeskilde] (born about 526 Roskilde, Denmark - died)
               iv.  Helgi Halfdansson (born about 528 Of Roskilde, Denmark - died)

Sigris married Halfdan Frodasson II [King Of Denmark] about 523 in Denmark.

Norbril married (name unknown).

Children from this marriage were:

281474978480161       i.  Ogne , Princess Of Northumberland (born about 530 Northumberland, England - died)

Ottar married Miss about 571 in Sweden.

Children from this marriage were:

281474978481152       i.  Adils "Athils" Ottarsson [King In Uppsala] (born about 572 Sweden - died)

Miss married Ottar Egilsson [King In Sweden] about 571 in Sweden.

Helgi married Miss.

Children from this marriage were:

281474978481153       i.  Yrsa Helgisdottir (born about 565 Denmark - died)
               ii.  Rolf Kraki ()

Miss married Helgi Halfdansson.