The original core of Francia, the Frankish Kingdom that came to dominate the West under Charlemagne, can be identified as those areas upon whose ruler the Pope at one time or another conferred a crown as the Roman Emperor. Part of the Mediaeval theory of Papal power came to include this ultimate authority to create and legitimate secular authority. Outlying areas, Spain, Britain, Scandinavia, etc., are considered separately as the Periphery of Francia. Charlemagne himself ruled modern France, northern Italy, and most of modern Germany. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, the imperial title was fitfully conferred on Kings of Italy, and then lapsed entirely in 922. The descent of King Otto I of Germany into Italy ushered in new combinations of territory and a new line of Emperors, as the Pope crowned Otto in 962. The "Empire" came to be regarded as consisting of four crowns: (1) East Francia, or Germany, (2) Lombardy (the "Iron Crown"), or Italy, (3) Rome, and, after 1032, (4) Burgundy. Lorraine, which had been a separate kingdom in the inheritance of Charlemagne, soon become part of the system of "Stem Duchies" in Germany. Most of the Stem Duchies, like Saxony, Franconia, and Bavaria, corresponded to preexisting German tribes. The title dux ("leader"), which was the Roman title of a frontier military commander, thus achieves its elevated Mediaeval meaning in relation to these units. A duke is only inferior to a sovereign prince. The next highest title, marquis or margrave (Markgraf), signified the count (comes, Graf, or "earl" in English) of a march (Mark) territory. The marches were border territories that involved a great deal of fighting. In Charlemagne's day, that included marches in Spain contesting the Islâmic advance. Later, the German marches north and south of Bohemia extended German settlement far to the east. Brandenburg became the most famous northern march, remaining a margravate until becoming the Kingdom of Prussia. Austria (Österreich, the "eastern realm") was the most famous southern march, becoming a duchy, then the only "archduchy," and finally an empire.
As the authority of the German Emperors declined, and that of the Kings of France grew, the "Middle Kingdom" (Francia Media) of Lorraine, Burgundy, and Italy began to pass either from German to French control (Upper Lorraine, Burgundy) or from German control to separate status (Lower Lorraine, i.e. the Netherlands and Belgium, and Italy). This process continued well into the modern period, when we see a multiplication of kingdoms, reaching five in Germany (not counting Bohemia) and two in Lower Lorraine. The Dukes of Savoy, beginning with a county in Burgundy, acquired more land and a capital (Turin) in Italy, named their new Kingdom after Sardinia and ultimately succeeded as the modern Kings of Italy.
The development of Francia can be represented in this flow chart. Of the eight modern states of the region (not counting Monaco, San Marino, and Liechtenstein), France has the most continuous historical tradition. The Mediaeval Empire at once point drew in all of Francia Media, except for the French Duchy of Burgundy, but then slowly broke up. Parts of Lower Lorraine, assembled by the Dukes of Burgundy, have come down as the Low Countries, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The original Kingdom of Burgundy, giving rise to Switzerland and Savoy, has mostly fallen to France, while Savoy went on to unite Italy. The principal German speaking states left over from the Empire, Prussia and Austria, assembled their own Empires, leading to the reduced modern republics of Germany and Austria, while Upper Lorraine is now enitrely in the hands of France.
The foundation of Frankish power was laid by Clovis, who not only occupied northern Gaul (486), absorbed the Alemanni (505), and defeated the Visigoths (507), but actually converted to orthodox Catholicism, making the Franks the first major German tribe to accept the spiritual authority of the Roman Church and so, as the closest Patriarch, the Pope in Rome itself. This was later viewed as a portent for Frankish greatness, and it was later believed that a vial of oil descended from heaven to anoint and sanctify Clovis as King. The thus "anointed" Kings of France later stoutly maintained that their authority was directly from God, without the mediation of either the Emperor or the Pope (both of whom had different ideas).
The division of the Kingdom, in time honored Germanic fashion, between the four sons of Clovis, fragmented Frankish power and slowed its growth. After the conquest of the Thuringians (531), the Burgundians (534), Provence (536), and the Bavarians (555), there was little expansion of the Kingdom for the remaining period of the Merovingian Dynasty. As external threats appeared, like the inroads of Islâm from Spain, power began to pass to the Mayors of the Palace. Since the Merovingian dynasty had been hallowed by time, and the kingship was consequently not thought of as elective, a change of dynasty was not a step to be undertaken lightly -- but the last King is so ephemeral that it is not even certain who his parents were.
| Franks, Carolingian Mayors, Kings and Emperors | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pepin I | Mayor, 628-639 | |
| Pepin II | Mayor, 687-714 | |
| Charles Martel | Mayor, 714-741 | |
| Carloman | Mayor, 741-747 | |
| Pepin III the Short | Mayor, 747-751; King, 751-768 | |
| Carloman I | 768-771 | I of France |
| Charles I the Great, Carolus Magnus, Charlemagne, Karl der Große | King, 768-; Emperor, 800-814 | I of France, Germany, Burgundy, Italy, & Empire |
The Lombards would not stay defeated, and Pepin's son Charles eventually had to conquer them and annex their kingdom (774). His conquest of the pagan Saxons (782-804) and expansion in other directions began to turn the Frankish Kingdom into a superstate. This began to give Charles and the Pope ideas, especially when the Empress Irene deposed and blinded her son, Constantine VI, in 797, assuming sole rule: the first time a woman ruled Romania in her own name. The Westerners were little disposed to regard a woman as a legitimate emperor -- women could not rule in the law of the Salic Franks (hence the "Salic Law" against female succession). So, on Christmas Day in the year 800 (this may actually mean 799 -- when 800 began is a little fluid), the Pope crowned Charles Roman Emperor, taking for himself a role and an authority that he had never had anything to do with before. In taking the title from the Pope, Charles (now "the Great," "Carolus Magnus," or "Charlemagne") fatefully assumed both pretensions, to Empire, and an obligation, to Popes, that would prove a source of endless dispute, grief, and hybris in the future.
The breakup of Charlemagne's kingdom was fateful to the history of Western Europe for centuries to come. Although soon surrounded by independent Christian states, in Britain and Ireland to the northwest, Spain in the southwest, Hungary and Poland in the east, and the Sandinavian states in the north, the Frankish kingdoms remained the central tentpole (we might even say the axis mundi) of European politics. As neat halves of Charlemagne's empire eventually formed, France in the West and Germany in the East, the stage for the greatest battles of modern war in the 19th and 20th centuries would be set along the seam, from Nieuwpoort (1600) to Ramillies (1706), Waterloo (1815), Verdun (1916), and the Bulge (1944).
Charlemagne's son, Louis (I) the Pious, faced a problem that ultimately had not existed for his father: multiple sons who, in the typical Germanic fashion, expected an equal division of the realm. That had been disastrous for Merovingian power, and Louis wished to introduce, if not the ideal primogeniture, at least a division that would leave his eldest son, the prospective Emperor Lothar, with the predominant share. This was not accepted in good grace, and Louis did not possess the kind of forceful personality that could have put the Fear of God into the younger sons. Indeed, despite his "piety," Louis was self-indulgent. Nor did Lothar possess the kind of ability that could have dominated his brothers.
| Carolingians | ||
|---|---|---|
| Louis I the Pious | 814-840 | I of France, Italy, Germany, Burgundy, & Empire |
| Pepin | 781-810 | of Italy |
| Bernard | 810-818 | of Italy |
| Lothar I | 840-855 | I of Italy, Burgundy, Lorraine, & Empire |
| Vikings appear in the Seine, 841 | ||
| Lothar II | 855-869 | II of Lorraine |
| Charles of Burgundy | 855-863 | of Burgundy |
| Louis II | 855-875 | II of Italy, Burgundy, & Empire |
Soon enough, however, the war led to a settlement heavy with portent for the future. The division was equal enough, Charles "the Bald" in the West (Francia Occidentalis), Louis "the German" in the East (Francia Orientalis), and Lothar in the Middle and South (Francia Media). Italy and Burgundy were prestigious possessions for Lothar, but they were not centers of Frankish power, and the northern area looks precariously and omniously sandwiched between the compact realms of his brothers. This turned out to be especially unfortunate when Lothar not only predeceased his brothers by a good margin but left behind him his own problem of multiple sons. Natural fragments were distributed between them. Louis, who now became the Emperor Louis II, needed to have Rome and so received Italy. Charles got Burgundy, and Lothar got the rest, i.e. that precarious northern area, with which Lothar's name was now permanently associated: It became Lotharingia, reduced to Lothringen in German and Lorraine in French (and, usually, English).
None of the sons of Lothar I managed to outlive their uncles. But the older men pounced even while the Emperor Louis II still lived, dividing Lorraine between them and depriving Louis of part of Burgundy. All of Lorraine and Burgundy, of course, should have reverted to him. This, of course, reveals the relative strengh of the Western and Eastern Frankish kingdoms, and the persistent ruthlessness of Charles the Bald and Louis the German. When the Emperor Louis then died, Charles got into Italy, to Rome, and to the Imperial crown first.
Charles the Bald and Louis the German did not last long after the death of the Emperor Louis II. Germany was divided between three brothers, and the West Frankish kingdom, after the brief reign of Louis (II) the Stammerer, passed to his two young sons. Again, this was bad news for the strength and stability of the Frankish realm. Italy ended up in the hands of one of the German heirs, Charles the Fat, who attained the Imperial honor after a brief hiatus (877-881). Meanwhile, part of Burgundy had been detached by a son-in-law of the Emperor Louis II. It is a sad comment on the state of the Carolingian dynasty that Charles the Fat should have ended up as the most vigorous and successful member of his generation.
| Carolingians, Francia Occidentalis, France | ||
|---|---|---|
| Charles II the Bald | 843-877; Emperor, 875-877 | II of France & Empire |
| Paris sacked by Vikings, 845 | ||
| Louis II the Stammerer | 877-879 | II of France |
| Louis III | 879-882 | III of France |
| Carloman II | 879-884 | II of France |
| Charles III the Fat | Germany, 876-887; France, 884-888; Italy, 879-888; Emperor, 881-888 | III of Germany & Empire; no # of France |
| Odo (Eudes), Count of Paris | 888-898 | of France |
| Charles III the Simple | 898-922 | III of France |
| Robert I, Count of Paris | 922-923 | I of France |
| Rudolf/Raoul, Duke of Burgundy | 923-936 | of France |
| Louis IV d'Outremer | 936-954 | IV of France |
| Lothair V | 954-986 | V of France |
| Louis V | 986-987 | V of France |
| Carolingians, Francia Orientalis, Germany | ||
| Louis II the German | 843-876 | II of Germany |
| Carloman of Bavaria | Germany, 876-880; Italy, 877-879 | of Germany & Italy |
| Louis III | 876-882 | III of Germany |
| Charles III the Fat | Germany, 876-887; France, 884-888; Italy, 879-888; Emperor, 881-888 | III of Germany & Empire |
| Arnulf of Carinthia | 887-899; Emperor, 896-899 | of Germany, Italy, & Empire |
| Louis IV the Child | 899-911 | IV of Germany |
The Germans elected an illegitimate nephew of Charles, Arnulf of Carthinthia, as the East Frankish king. The West Frankish nobility elected a non-Carolingian, Odo of Paris. This is the family that would soon become the long lasting Capetian house of France.
Feeling for the Carolongian house, however, was still strong, and although the West Franks turned to Odo's family again before the end of the Carolingian period, he was followed by the last son of Louis the Stammerer, Charles (III) the Simple.
Meanwhile,Burgundy and Italy spun off to more local Carolingian in-laws, among whom the title of Emperor was passed around for a time. After Berengar (I of Italy), however, the title simply lapsed. Since the Popes could have bought some influence with an Imperial coronation, it is a good question why they stopped bothering. There was thus an Imperial interregnum from 922 to 962.
Charles the Simple's most famous and important deed was to cede some land, which became Normandy, to the Norse chieftan Rollo in 911. This was also about the time that the last Carolingian in Germany, Louis the Child, died, and the Germans turned to Conrad of Franconian. That was the end of the Carolingians in East Francia. The nobility of Lorraine decided to uphold Carolingian legitimacy by attaching themselves to the Western kingdom; but soon it looked like West Francia would follow the East, when Charles, as much over his head as his cousin Charles the Fat had been, was deposed and Robert of Paris, Odo's brother, was elected. Robert was followed by his son-in-law, Rudolf of Burgundy, but then the West Franks turned to the Carolingians again, bringing Louis IV back from exile in England ("outre mer"). This started to look like Carolingians getting established again, since one of Louis's son, Charles, even became the ruler of the new "duchy" of Lorraine (no longer a separate kindom). But these were not strong rulers, and the monarchy itself was becoming weaker and weaker. When Louis V died, Charles of Lorraine was ignored, and the West Frankish throne, which one may as well call "France" at this point, passed permanently to the house of Paris. It had little land and little effective power any longer attached to it.
| Carolingians, Francia Media, Lorraine | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Zwentibold of Lorraine | 895-900 | King of Lorraine | |
| Charles of Lorraine | 975-991 | Duke of Lower Lorraine | |
| Otto of Lorraine | 991-1005 | Duke of Lower Lorraine | the Last Carolingian |
| HOUSE OF PARIS | |
|---|---|
| Odo (Eudes), Count of Paris | 888-898 |
| Robert I, Count of Paris | 922-923 |
| Rudolf/Raoul, Duke of Burgundy | 923-936 |
| CAPETIAN KINGS | |
| Hugh Capet | 987-996 |
| Robert II the Pious | 996-1031 |
| Henry I | 1031-1060 |
| Philip I | 1060-1108 |
| Louis VI | 1108-1137 |
| Louis VII | 1137-1180 |
| Philip II Augustus | 1180-1223 |
| Louis VIII | 1223-1226 |
| St. Louis IX | 1226-1270 |
| Philip III | 1270-1285 |
| Philip IV the Fair | 1285-1314 |
| Louis X | 1314-1316 |
| John I | 1316 |
| Philip V | 1316-1322 |
| Charles IV | 1322-1328 |
The Capetians are usually reckoned to begin with Hugh Capet, but his family (the house of Paris or "Robertians," after Robert the Strong) had been nudging the Carolingians for some time, and his uncle (by marriage), grandfather, and great uncle had already been Kings of France. By the time the Carolingians died out and Hugh was elected, little remained of the Royal Domain but the miniscule Île de France. However, this was held together and, without succession problems, the Capetians settled into legitimacy and bided their time. The payoff, with Philip Augustus was the recovery of Normandy, Anjou, and much else.
Valois Dynasty et al . . .