The article that follows tries to summarize the history of a part of Europe (fundamentally present-day France) through a long-lived dynasty such as the Merovingians, whose kings ruled between the 5th and 8th centuries. Analyzing the origins of the dynasty, without which it is impossible to understand its history, a brief political history will be given, based more on trends than on proper names. Finally, the configuration of the kingdom and the main characteristics of the powerful will be analyzed,
The origins.
The story of the Frankslike that of the other peoples who invaded the Roman Empire, it’s a complex story. We don’t know what they called themselves, or what they thought they were. Possibly they did not see themselves different from other West Germans, although their geographical proximity made them relate to each other. However, the Romans, in their eagerness to classify things, gave the name “franci” to a conglomeration of tribes that lived on the eastern bank of the Rhine (Wallace-Hadrill 1982: 148). East town in turn was divided into other smaller communitiessuch as the Salios, a term that refers to those Franks who lived near the sea, at the mouth of the Rhine.
Despite being one of the last peoples to enter Gaul, the Franks had long been in contact with the Romans. It is difficult to know for sure what looting, invasion attempts etc. were able to participate, hard what results isolate them from other Germanic peoples, but in this case it is not necessary to specify so much. Be that as it may, this town, like so many others, will become a semi-subject client of the Romans, located on the borders of the Empire (Heather 2009: 354). But in the 5th century everything changes and the Empire can no longer keep the Germanic peoples settled on its borders at bay.
As of 460, Childericthe first Merovingian without mythical origins, begins to appear in the sources, his actions are part of those fights of all against all that characterize the fifth century. His life remains largely in the shadows, having many doubts and few certainties about this character. Broadly speaking, he defines himself as one of the most successful military leaders among those who emerged from the maelstrom in which the entire western imperial site found itself (Heather 2009: 356).
But the true transformation of the Frankish world came with Childeric’s son: Clovis. In this case the main lines of his reign are much clearer than in the case of his father and are based on the expansion of the Frankish domains and conversion. Clovis will defeat Syagrius, a Gallo-Roman leader who controlled much of northern Gaul, at the Battle of Soissons. He will also fight against other political rivals of Germanic origin such as the Alemanni, whom he defeats in Tolbiac expanding his power to the east, or the Visigoths, who after his defeat in Vouillé abandon their possessions in the south of France. To all this we must add the efforts he made to finish off other Frankish leaders who could be potential rivals. The result is a dramatic expansion of Frankish power, reinforced by his diplomatic ties with the Ostrogoths and their king Theodoric, but also by the king’s conversion to Christianity. In fact, this conversion sealed the alliance with the Gallo-Roman elites, especially those of ecclesiastical origin. The papacy and Byzantium also sided with the Franks, showing that the conversion was a very successful move.
The Frankish kingdom: dynasty and political evolution.
Thus, at the beginning of the sixth century (Clovis dies in 511), the Frankish kingdom has spread throughout Gaul as well as other adjacent areas, making this kingdom a powerful political entity. After the years of the great instability of the 5th century, the situation it is completely different compared to a century before: the Western Empire has been divided into different political units headed by leaders, now kings, of Germanic origin. But not only the political map changes, but also much of the ideology that surrounds power, as well as the social and economic bases of the territories.
One of the greatest peculiarities of the Frankish kingdom with respect to the rest of the “successor” kingdoms is the survival in the throne of the Merovingian dynasty. In fact, until the eighth century we find no claim to the throne that does not link the candidate to the throne with the Merovingian dynasty. Elsewhere in Europe this is completely unusual. This does not mean that there is no political instability in the Frankish kingdom, which in fact is quite the opposite, but rather that it is admitted and respected that the ruling dynasty is and should be the Merovingian (Wickham 2013: 164). Although a few lines above it is commented that Childeric is the first of the Merovingians to stand out, he is not the founder of the dynastybut it will be his mythical father Meroveo, who was said to be the offspring of a sea monster named Quinotaur and the wife of another Frankish leader, Clodius (Wallace-Hadrill 1982: 37). In this way, the Merovigian kings gave themselves a supernatural origin, as others like Caesar or Augustus had done in the past. But in addition, the Merovingians associated royalty with long hair, to the point that for a time, cutting it was synonymous with royal dismissal (Wickham 2013: 164).
The political evolution of the Merovingian kingdom has nothing to envy to fiction; and if the plot of Game of Thrones may seem complicated, the internecine struggles of the Merovingians would make anyone who wanted to follow the thread lose their minds. Although it is curious that the conspirator Rauchingo was thrown naked out of a window or that Brunilda was torn to pieces by a horse in public, they are still curious anniversaries that hardly say anything by themselves. What is really important are the forms of political evolution that roughly followed these territories and in no case the succession of anecdotes.
Once Clovis died, his decision was to divide the kingdom between his sons. A practice that clearly did nothing but weaken the kingdom and wear it down in eternal civil wars, was put into practice for more than two centuries. The territorial fragmentation was constant, and there were hardly any moments in which the territorial unity of the Frankish domains was a reality and not a chimera. It is also necessary to mention that other agents acted in favor of this fragmentation, namely: the bishops and their remarkable power, the differences between Frankish groups… Broadly speaking, this policy of dividing up the territories is explained through the patrimonial conception of the kingdom developed by the dynasty. However, this constant movement of division/reunification did nothing but reaffirm that conception. And although logic indicates that this situation could only lead the Frankish kingdom to failure and disappearance, his power spread not only through Gaul (France) but Frankish hegemony was firmly recognized in the Burgundian kingdom, south of present-day Germany; while in other areas such as central Germany, eastern Thuringia or northern Italy, that hegemony was less effective, more lax (Wickham 2013: 163).
During the 6th century civil wars were constant, but the king remained the central figure of power, a situation that began to change in the 7th century and worsened with the death of Dagobert I in the 639, who will carry out the last attempt to restore royal power. It was from then on the aristocracies are made with ever greater quotas of power, but it was especially the mayordomos of the palace who were placing themselves in the centrality of the political game and organizing it. Acquiring more and more power, the kings were becoming puppets who held the position in a testimonial way, being the mayordomos who held power. In turn, the Austrasian stewards (all these concepts are developed below) achieved dominance, which will become uncontested once the two most important family branches of Austrasia unite, giving rise to the Arnulfid-Pipinid, a true dynasty of butlers.
The ambition of these higher house had no limits, and under its influence fell the stewardships of Neustria and Burgundyboth being unified with that of australian. Will be Pepin of Herstal whoever gets it at the end of the 7th century. He also dedicated himself to conquering Frisia (a territory around the mouth of the Rhine) and evangelizing it, that is, he carried out the actions of a monarch. Upon his death, he was succeeded by his illegitimate son Charles Martel, known to all for defeating the Muslims at Poitiers in 732. He was succeeded by his son Pepin, called the Brief, who ended up deposing Childeric III, the last Merovingian monarch, with the came from the Pope (Wood 1994: 300). From then on, a much better known dynasty was inaugurated by all: the Carolingians. For its part, this substitution has hardly any practical consequences since for several decades, those who held power were not the kings, but the mayordomos, who maintained or eliminated them practically at will.
Political organization and elites.
All the successor kingdoms of the Western Empire found themselves in a very similar political and social situation, since to those structures typical of the late Roman Empire, a new elite of a military court headed by a king of Germanic origin would be added. In the first place, it is worth mentioning the socio-political differences between the north and south of Gaul, it is also necessary to explain a fundamental element for the understanding of Merovingian politics: the existence of multiple cuts.
As for the differences between north and south, it could be said that the Loire exerted a kind of natural barrier between these two spaces. In fact, the realities to the north and south of said seem to have been remarkable. To begin with, the southern area did not suffer in the same way from the crisis of the 5th century, which affected more aggressively those areas north of the Loire; This situation meant that the Roman administrative “organization chart” and its social classes suffered much less erosion in this area than in the northern one. On the other hand, it should be mentioned that there is a certain agreement among scholars that the presence of people of Frankish origin in this area was really scarce, which contrasts with the area north of the Loire. In contrast to all this we find a much more “barbaric” northern region insofar as the presence of Germanic settlers and the existence of a purely Germanic material culture have been documented. (Heather 2009: 360 et seq.). Nevertheless, In recent years, this radical separation has been nuanced between the two regions, providing different evidence that denies the disappearance of the Gallo-Roman aristocracies north of the Loire…