Lesson 7: The Frankish Kingdom

The Frankish Kingdom

Before and after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Germans established many kingdoms of different sizes in Western Europe, which were called "barbarian kingdoms", the most powerful of which was the Frankish kingdom established in 481 in the Gaul region.

The founder of the Frankish kingdom, Clovis, was a very visionary and talented king at that time. In order to secure his rule, Clovis converted to Christianity and recognized the importance of the Roman Church in Europe. Under his leadership, the entire Frankish kingdom converted to Christianity.

Clovis retained the lands of the former large Roman landowners and gave the lands that were formerly in the Roman state and unowned lands to his own soldiers and officials. In this way, he gained the widespread support of the Roman Church, the Christian Gaulish Romans and his ministers. During the reign of Clovis, the Frankish kingdom continued to expand. By the time of his death, the Frankish kingdom had extended to the southern part of Gaul and most of the area between the Rhine and the Danube to the east, and was powerful.

Feudal kings and vassals

In the early 8th century, the Frankish kingdom reformed the form of land enfeoffment. Instead of giving land to nobles for free, as before, the enfeoffment holders were required to provide military service. In the 11th century, this system of feudalism was already widespread in Western Europe, and the feudal vassal had to be loyal to the feudal lord and the feudal lord had to protect the feudal vassal.

The feudal lord had to be loyal to the feudal lord, serving him in military service and providing him with money when he needed it, and he had obligations to his feudal lord, who could not violate his honor, personal safety and property. The relationship between the feudal lord and his vassals was strictly hierarchical, and the rights and obligations were intertwined with a certain contractual meaning.

Charlemagne's Empire

In the 8th century, Charles, son of the Frankish king Pippin, succeeded to the throne and became the king of the Franks. Around 800, the Frankish kingdom expanded to a large area in northern Italy, northern Spain and western Germany, and became the largest kingdom in Western Europe at that time, comparable to the European part of the original Western Roman Empire. Charles continued his policy of encouraging the development of Christianity by dividing the kingdom into many dioceses and ordering the people of each diocese to contribute 1/10th of their annual income to the church, called "tithe". On Christmas Day in 800, the Pope crowned Charles in Rome and called him "Emperor of the Romans". Therefore, Charles was called "Charles the Great" or "Charlemagne". The Frankish kingdom during his reign was known as the "Charlemagne Empire".

In 814, Charlemagne died, and the empire, which had flourished for a while, was soon divided, and in 843, three of Charlemagne's grandsons concluded a treaty dividing the empire into three, forming the three later states of Germany, France and Italy. According to the agreement, the three kingdoms were not subordinate to each other.