Considering the lack of written surviving sources (dark ages for a reason), this is a quite well put together video about this time period. Lots of people cover the "end" of the roman empire, but hardly anyone deals with the things that happend at the same time more or less close by. Thank you for this and please continue :) On a side note: This is also the time period when the events portrayed in the Nibelung Song supposedly took place. Among the main characters are the last kings of the burgundians, several merovingian queens and the hun king Attila. It's either 13th century fan fiction about the "heroic age" of the german peoples or it has it's roots in actual events but has been changed and embellished a LOT by continuous oral retelling over the course of like 1500 years. So what you described in this video is, from a german point of view, a VERY interesting time period :)
@@veronicalogotheti1162 Ok? Let me rephrase: What does this have to do with the comment made by @dorderre? Or was this clarification directed at the video instead?
Note about Syagrius that gets overlooked: he successfully defended his father's territory for over twenty years before he was defeated by Clovis. While the rest of the West fell all around him, including Marcellinus in Dalmatia, and Ricimer in Italy, he held down the last territory of the Romans and considered himself not as a king, but as a hereditary Master of Soldiers for Gaul and defended his position until his demise. He served under his father during Majorian's reign and they split off from Italy after Majorian's execution, and that experience allowed him to compel sufficient Roman authority on his own. The fiefdom of the Soissons lasted twenty five years between Aegidius and Syragrius. Even after their deaths, their surviving family prospered as Romano-Gallic nobility under the Merovingian dynasty.
It’s in Wikipedia so it must be true. Guntram sent a Count Syagrius on an Embassy to Constantinople in the 500s, which I guess is in Gregory of Tours. A Frankish abbot founded a monastery near Turin in the 720s with money donated by a woman named Syagria, who was clearly rich and powerful and who might be related.
fun fact today many of romantic languages call germans by the name of alemanes or alemans or simply comming from the depiction of the germanic people being alemanni
@Mira Moche To be exact we call them (the people) Franzosen. Französich is for something that is french. And Frankreich means literally Frank Realm = Realm of the Franks❤
Honestly there's probably a weird timeline where Syagrious is remembered as the founder of some modern roman esque nation and Franks are just a blip in a wikipedia article.
its overlooked for a reason, the Franks did nothing special. they took over land that Rome abandoned, nothing honorable or noteworthy of that. then, to make matters worse, they stole the Roman empire's name, which is so disrespectful, especially considering the fact that their military might was nothing compared to Rome and their culture was dogs*** compared to Rome. Compare the way Caesar conquered Gaul to the way the Franks "conquered" Gaul, it really shows why no one cares to talk about the Franks conquering. Plus, the Franks played a somewhat significant role in the collapse of Rome, so this is another reason why people don't want to hear about how these guys squatted in Roman territory and then pretended that they were Romans a couple of centuries later.
They hired Charles Martel to be the Mayor of the Palace and let him do all the work until he just declared himself King. Kind of like how Ned Stark did all the work for Robert Baratheon as Hand of the King. Just imagine him taking the crown himself after doing that for ten years.
Basicly -> Dynastic unstability due to the salic sharing law which mean the kingdom is share between all sons at each succession -> A LOT of civil wars, scheme, plot, murder between dynatic members causing the kingdom to split all the time -> Short reigns, including a lot of children and mostly spend in civil war -> Nobility (and mayor of palace) became stronger as crown become weaker -> Crown becoming a puppet of their mayor of the palace -> Mayor of the palace take the crown -> Et voila ! Karling dynastie
The Merovingians didn’t end well. There was some king of life limiting genetic condition down the Y chromosome, so many of their kings died in their late twenties (Clovis only made it to 45). So child kings were run by three people: their mothers, the head of the household (major domo) and the local archbishop (of Metz). The major domo got to be hereditary, and so did the bishops (priests could still marry, so they had kids before becoming a Bishop). Then the MD and bishops families merged (the pippinids and the arnulfings). The outcome of all this was the illegitimate Charles, who was not allowed to be MD,so was put in charge of the army. In 732, the Muslims of Spain attacked Francia and Charles defeated them at Poitiers, killing nearly everyone except a handful shoved back over the border to tell their masters. After that he was nicknamed Martel, hammer. He ruled Francia without a tame Merovingian to front it for many years. His son, Pippin, inherited the job and the last Merovingian was his brother in law. Pippin wrote to the Pope ‘there is one who is called king, but has no power. I have the power, but am not called king. What is to be done?’ The Pope, being no fool, replied ‘The kingship and the power belong together’. Pippin took this as a hint to seize the throne. He simply,y pensioned off his brother in law
@@Progamermove_2003 Yes. Francia was his ally. In 750, the Lombards, who already controlled much of Italy, seized control of the central part including Rome. They said that, as Arians, they would not intervene in Church affairs, and the pope didn’t trust them. A strong Francia was his insurance, wisely so as some years later the Lombard rulers did try it on so the later pope called in Charlemagne to seize most of Italy, which he did and in 800, on. Christmas Day, an even later pope made him emperor.
@@Joanna-il2ur So Pippin indirectly threatened the pope to remove his support and to allow, or potentially even encourage the Lombards to attack him. The pope in return seemingly replied that he doesn't care about who is the king as long as Francia stayed stable and could help him in the future. Diplomacy is so intense. How these innocent sounding questions could carry a LOT of weight behind them.
Seems like the cause of death for many of the Merovingian kings is entirely unknown, a lot of them just say ‘natural causes’ or ‘illness.’ Clovis died in his 40’s but 2 of his King sons died in their 60’s.
This was an excellent video and a great introduction for me to this topic! Please continue with the Merovingian and Frankish history! I am very interested in this early medieval societies and how they tried to imitate the Roman Empire and fought for its legacy!
Very well done! I enjoyed the thoroughness and detail. The takeaway I get from this is: Clovis has made friends with your king and we will have peace from now on. “Ummmm honey, pack our bags. We’re going to be invaded soon!”
@@schrodingersmoose A casual search usually finds nothing on the topic which is quite interesting considering Breton still exists today and are fighting to preserve their culture. I'll be keeping an eye out on your channel.. Thanks..
@@schrodingersmoose You should round out the topic by including what happened to Septimania and whatever the coastal land just to the east of that was - Provence?
I am curious what the situation of all these kingdoms armies were. Did they promise land like the Romans had? Were they recruiting conscripts? Mercenaries? Were there Roman military veterans/warlords joining these kingdoms?
Unfortunately written history during this period is sparse, let alone documentation on details of their armies. We know that they were promised anything that they pillaged, so that was what attracted people to the armies of the Germanic kingdoms.
Along with your video, which I very much enjoyed: I definitely like your choice of music. The "Devil's Trill Sonata" by Giuseppe Tartini is my favorite piece :) I have listened to that specific sonata an absurd amount of times, so I recognized it immediately.
What’s funny about the franks is that normally conquered people assimilate themselves into the culture of their new rulers however for some reason the franks assimilated themselves to the culture of the Roman Gauls (mostly) which is why French is still a Latin language not a Germanic one although there are still many Frankish words in there but also a whole lot of the native Celtic Gaulish actually survives in French today as well. Perhaps it was easier to get the people of Gaul to accept them as their new rulers if they assimilated the local language and this made ruling the province more stable and less rebellious. We will probably never really know the reason.
Its due to roman civilization left in gaul. The franks were one the germanic groups who were buddy buddies with the romans. So after the roman empire fell The franks that invaded adopted the roman language roman culture, also they did not come in large nos they were the ruling class, so there wasnt a lot of mixing so the native french remained the same gaulo roman. The ripuarian frankish language is still spoken in rhine regions of germany, luxembourish is also a dialect of the frankish.
This is mainly because the Frankish settlement of Gaul was limited. Frankish as a language and people still exist, Dutch is the modern form of Salian Frankish and Luxemburgish is probably a form of Ripurian Frankish. The other Ripurian Franks were absorbed into the larger German culture over the centuries but they were a core part of the formation of that identity. So the Franks didn’t adopt a Gallo Roman culture, only the Franks that settled in Gaul eventually did, I say eventually because this process took centuries.
@@sebe2255Yeah and the franks that settled into Gaul were the majority of them so 😂. Stop making something simple complex. French people are majority Gallo-Roman with a little Frank. People act like conquered people magically assimilate.
@@WarriorofChrist612 Most Franks didn’t move to Gaul though. Which is why large parts of west Germany and most of the Low Countries speak Frankish regional language or have a Frankish standard language (Dutch) It can appear simple when you have no clue what you are talking about lol
@@sebe2255 You have no idea what you’re talking about. A large part of the Franks moved into Gaul with the rest staying back in their mud hits in Germania. The Franks In Gaul embraced the civilized Roman culture and submerged themselves with the Gallo-Romans. You don’t know what you’re talking about 😂
As we delve into the history of the Franks, I find it fascinating that they were once a collection of independent nordic nationalities, with a 'Frankisk' speaking man as the Frankish (and French) founding father. However, while the nobility changed to local Parisian Patois as the main language, the majority of peasants and subjects merely remained a property of the nation and state, only becoming equal members of the French nation after the French Revolution of 1789. It's a curious evolution, but one that highlights the complexities of the formation of nations and the role of language in defining them.
Right point for the language ! And : until 1870 and the Educational Laws, less than 50% of the French were able to... speak French. Identity is a construction, very interesting !
Would that be the same King Clovis which when converting to Christianity and learning about the death of Christ said "if me and my Franks were there, his death would've been revenged"
He supposedly said that after a monk told him about the crucifixion of Christ. Which is an early Medieval equivalent to Mark Wahlberg saying he would’ve stopped 9/11.
Excellent video ! It be nice if you can make a video about "la fède royale", the civil war and bloody vendetta story between two merovingians queens and their families, its game of throne material 😅😅
An explanation of the creation of the Frank confederation is that, having being defeated in details, the remnants of many German tribes gathered in the marshy lower Rhine region, out of reach of the Roman raids. Hence the name, "Frank", "the Free" for the people who chose to hide away rather than submit. And the symbol of Frankish kings, the lily, a marsh flower. Same way, Allemani, "All men" confederated survivors of all tribes of upper Rhine to resist the Romans. In that time of wandering nation, it is fairly possible that Thuringians expanded to the Eastern shore of the Rhine, filling the gap after the departure of the Burgunds, and that Clovis defeated them to suppress a threat before confronting the Allemani.
The Franks may have had a Gaulish element. According to Gregory of Tours, when Clovis was baptised, the Archbishop said ‘Bow the knee, Sicamber’. The Sicambri were a Gaulish people, and there was nothing very racial going on. Local groups may simply have merged. There had been Franks in high places for a century. Bauto was made Consul. His son, Arbogastes, was protector of the juvenile Valentinian II, and Bauto’s daughter, Eudoxia, was the eastern Empress as wife of Arcadius and thus mother of Theodosius II. The story is that Merovech commanded some troops contracted to keep imperial control of the road from Cologne to Boulogne. That was inherited by his son, who started to call himself rex, king. Clovis (Clodovecchus) was the grandson of Merovech.
This is a pretty good theory. I suspect for the allemani, the name came after the marcomannic wars. The marcomannic wars is largely believed to have been waged due to gothic and Burgundian attacks and raids on suebic and vandalic peoples. The suebi and vandals under the marcomanni, raided the roman empire. After they were defeated by Marcus Aurelius, the various Germanic peoples were in a predicament. The old order had been broken. A new tribal confederacy was needed to protect them from other Germanic tribes. The confederacy needed all the men, suebian or not to survive. This was a move out of necessity being that the suebian people looked down on all other Germans and viewed themselves as being "pure" as they would not breed with non suebian peoples usually. This would also seem to create another tribe. One that was out of spite to the "all-men" tribe. The Juthungi. The Juthungi came from a Serbian tribe the semnones, one of the most powerful suebians tribes . The name Juthungi means something like descendent. Showing that they considered themselves the true suebian people and not some horde of mutts like the allemani.
@@sebe2255 Salian Law suggests that some settled near the sea. In Roman times there were Frankish ships in the North Sea, mentioned by Pactatus in his panegyric to Theodosius. Where did they sail from if not the Low Countries?
can you do video on the slavs that migrated to the region of Macedonia? In my country we still have speakers of the ancient vulgar Latin now called Aromanian
intéressant, parmi toutes les vidéos que j'ai vu sur l'évolution territoriale de la france ,je n'en ai vu aucune qui montrait le nord comme étant divisé entre plusieurs roi.
C'est important que nous n'oublions pas le fait que Clovis n'était pas le seul roi des Franks dans sa jeunesse. Les territoires de les rois sont simplifié, mais ils sont assez précis pour le vidéo.
@@schrodingersmoose lol, j'me demandais si t'étais un francophone natif mais tu parlais tellement bien anglais que je me suis dit que c'était pas le cas.
French here : in French (thought it was the same in English), saying "Armorique" instead of "Brittany" isn't pedantic at all ! It's because in French it is the geographic's name of the region, the brits came "in Armoric/Armorique" and only then we call this territory "Brittany/Bretagne" : because of Brittons. In French. So, thank you a lot, I don't want to be pedantic whatever the language hahaha !
You can read French huh ? You pronounce Childeric the way they say it and you know about all the patronage and Gregory of tours. Also english understanding doesn’t usually bother splitting the 2 major types of franks. I had a class in college on dark ages europe with a French professor and he made a big deal about how one type of franks was blended into the Duchy of Soissons. Can’t remember it all but I like the vid and the maps
I am Quebecois, so I'm fluent in both English and French (currently learning Spanish). However, A lot of sources from England are quite thorough on this topic, so you don't need to know French to learn about details like this. It definitely does help though, even if I switch between French and English pronunciations out of uncertainty.
The split itself is fairly arbitrary though. Especially the Ripurian part just seems to mean “all the Franks that didn’t fall directly under the initial Merovingian kingdom.”
Tournai , Doornik Belgica now Belgium. Merovingen Clovis , pepijn van Landen , pepiniden on to Karel de Grote... all in Belgica aka Belgium now . Yes .. it started all in Belgium
I often wonder if Clothar’s brutal killing of his young nephews (ages 7 and 10) was strategic given the values and understanding of what confronted Merovingian kings. In other words, it’s likely those two young nephews may have grow.n up and formed armies to conquer Clothar’s realm and kill him and his family. In that context, Clothar’s killing his young nephews may have been necessary.
That’s entirely possible, but hard borders are impossible to make accurately at this time. The fact is that areas of control beyond urban centers were very murky.
@@schrodingersmoose It is pretty sure that Holland was still Frisian at the time of the Frankish conquest of Gaul. The process of the Frisians being driven out started much later, around the time of Charlemagne and Charles Martel (7th and 8th centuries). But even then, the counts of Holland (even though they themselves were Frisian in origin) were still fighting the Frisians in Holland in the 13th century
Soisson isn't the last bastion of roman rule. Mauro-Roman remnants and Nepos Dalmatia is Roman. And if you believe the theory than also some places in western Britain was led by a Roman governor but that maybe a theory but if that counts than that too. Though unlikely as most Romans evacuated. Still. Soisson wasn't the only Roman remnant state around.
That depends on if you think the kingdom which was centered in Altava claimed the legacy of the Roman Empire. The kingdom was ruled by Berbers who, although romanized, did separate from the Roman Empire and eventually tried to invade Eastern Rome. An argument can be made that it was the last, but its connection is difficult to determine because of a lack of sources. Also, Nepos died before the dissolution of Soissons. I have heard about the the theory of western Britain’s Roman Governors, but as you said, the validity is difficult to confirm. At the end of the day, a “bastion of Roman rule” is a vague term that doesn’t mean much. The truth is that history isn’t simple and absolute statements like that are destined to be wrong depending on how you view it. Thank you for engaging with the contents of the video and I hope you have a wonderful day.
@@schrodingersmoose doesn't help various "post Roman" warlords claimed to be Roman because of random titles and a few remaining institutions but were ultimately Germanic.
10:11 long hair was not only a sign of royalty amongst Germanics, it was an essential part of the King's Hail. So this act can be seen as the same as an Irish royal getting his nipples cut off or a Byzantine royal being blinded - it robbed them permanently of their birthright to rule
@@scrapyarddawgs7769 depends on the tribe. Some did indeed not cut their hair until they had killed their first man in battle, while others were renown for their hair like the Cheruski with their warrior hair knot. My comment is specifically about Frankish tradition and our originally pagan King's hail which continued its existence into Christianity all the way up to the Karolinger (who as the Hausmeier didn't possess the King's hail of the Merowinger, which they usurped, and hence had to base their claim on a new power which they chose the pope and Catholic Christianity for, hence the sudden and rather dramatic shift towards almost fundamentalistic Christianity as the topic of religion suddenly also became a political one with every remaining worshipper of the old Gods indirectly challenging their legitimacy)
@varalderfreyr8438 no it was a Germanic, specifically Frankish, custom that only ended with the usurpation of the last Kings with the inherited Heil of the Merowinger dynasty by their Hausmeier (~huskarl/ mayor of the palace (? I think that's the English translation)) of the Karolinger dynasty (Charlemagne/ Karl der Große's dynasty) as they lacked it and hence had to resort to a new power, which they found in Christianity/ the Pope, to legitimise their regency
Funnily enough, the Merovingians had told some interesting stories in order to justify their subjugation of the people in Gaul. One of them was to claim that the Franks were also Trojans that had fled the sacking by the Greeks. It didn't stick, but it shows how they took a lot of inspiration from Rome.
@@schrodingersmoose Ahah I didn't know this. May or may not be a coincidence but this gives me ideas of why the word "Troy" in Italian has become a synonym for a woman (can be both genders though) who has or must have had relationships with virtually everyone you come across.
@@ilFrancotti Interesting! It would make sense if they were related, but even if it isn't, it's still very interesting etymologically speaking. Thank you for teaching me something new!
@@schrodingersmoose Thank you. For your work in these videos and your knowledge of these niche stories. If you ever decide to produce a video about Frankish "myths and legends" to legitimise their rule I'll definitely look into it.
Fun fact: even though we call the language "French" after the Franks, the language does not decent from the language the Franks spoke. It in fact is a modern version of Gallic vulgar Latin. The modern language that could be considered a descendant of the Frankish language is Dutch, or at least it's south-western dialects.
@@esbendit Indeed, Dutch and German therefore form a dialect continuum with each other, and the boundaries between the 2 languages is not often all to clear.
This is false. That history is much more complexe than that. And the Franks did spoke "lingua romana", vulgar latin which is proto-French or old French.
There was a genocide when Caesar invaded, however most of the population simply absorbed roman influence like many other places did. After many centuries, there was barely any difference between romans and romano-gaulic people.
No. They just Germanised their names. In some cases a son going into royal service took a Germanic name and a brother destined for the Church took a Latin one. Gregory of Tours met a new royal courtier called Gundulph who turned out to be his uncle with a new name.
@@schrodingersmoose I did a module at Birkbeck University London as part of one of my degrees. It was called Between Empires (between 476 and 842) and we had to read Gregory of Tours and books by JM Wallace Hadrill and others. I was secretary of the London Society for Medieval Studies too.
Can you explain why there are so many Franks in and around Kent in the post-Roman period? New-ish genetic studies show loads of Franks in south east England in that period.
Franks were very well known as being good mercenaries. There are records showing their involvement in England before and after the Western Roman Empire's collapse. I haven't done enough research to even guess why there are so many around Kent specifically, but that information doesn't surprise me that much.
Might I ask how it is you do research for these videos? When it comes to Germanic history, I find it hard to find many reputable sources (at least online).
for me, is just shocking and disgusting to see how easy it was for the tribesmen to conquer so much of the roman land after the fall of the west, not disgusting because of their conquest but because the Roman elites literally made their ppl wish they were ruled by the barbarians or anyone else but Rome itself, anyway I also hate france and germany but that's a story for another time
Considering the lack of written surviving sources (dark ages for a reason), this is a quite well put together video about this time period. Lots of people cover the "end" of the roman empire, but hardly anyone deals with the things that happend at the same time more or less close by.
Thank you for this and please continue :)
On a side note:
This is also the time period when the events portrayed in the Nibelung Song supposedly took place. Among the main characters are the last kings of the burgundians, several merovingian queens and the hun king Attila. It's either 13th century fan fiction about the "heroic age" of the german peoples or it has it's roots in actual events but has been changed and embellished a LOT by continuous oral retelling over the course of like 1500 years. So what you described in this video is, from a german point of view, a VERY interesting time period :)
Germanic is not german
@@veronicalogotheti1162 German is a subset of germanic... But what does this have to do with anything?
@@duplodragon germanic is germanic
@@veronicalogotheti1162 Ok? Let me rephrase: What does this have to do with the comment made by @dorderre? Or was this clarification directed at the video instead?
@@duplodragonProbably that the Burgundians or Merovingians weren’t German
"Finding exactly which territory each son took is frankly impossible". I see what you did there. Good video
😉
Note about Syagrius that gets overlooked: he successfully defended his father's territory for over twenty years before he was defeated by Clovis. While the rest of the West fell all around him, including Marcellinus in Dalmatia, and Ricimer in Italy, he held down the last territory of the Romans and considered himself not as a king, but as a hereditary Master of Soldiers for Gaul and defended his position until his demise. He served under his father during Majorian's reign and they split off from Italy after Majorian's execution, and that experience allowed him to compel sufficient Roman authority on his own. The fiefdom of the Soissons lasted twenty five years between Aegidius and Syragrius. Even after their deaths, their surviving family prospered as Romano-Gallic nobility under the Merovingian dynasty.
Have you some source about his family or house under the franks ? I'm really interested about that
@@Hugo-ek1pw yeah me too
It’s in Wikipedia so it must be true. Guntram sent a Count Syagrius on an Embassy to Constantinople in the 500s, which I guess is in Gregory of Tours. A Frankish abbot founded a monastery near Turin in the 720s with money donated by a woman named Syagria, who was clearly rich and powerful and who might be related.
So basically, a Roman noble family still ruled much of Gaul even after the Western Roman Empire fell? Cool 👀
@@thalmoragent9344I’m sure there were many if not outright nobles than town leaders, mayors etc.
Sigilbert: "I used to be a king like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee."
The Frankish succession system is the most counter productive system I've seen of so far
Seems perfectly intuitive if u consider the realm to be the domain of your father rather than a separate entity.
Well it was great for a powerful family, it just didn't scale for a nation or let alone empire
It kind of made sense when you own a farm and have two sons.
When you apply the same to an empire and four sons, things get messy.
The Franks are pigs, and treat everybody else like pigs. But that is excusable because they treat themselves like pigs.
--Alaric II
roasted.
So France inherited *that* from the Franks?
@@dakjac5087 no, genius. Franks are Germanic, so that would be Germany or England or Northern Europe. The French are primarily Celtic and Latin.
@@godskingssages4724the north of france has a lot of germanic blood mister. The language itself has a lot of germanic influence
@@godskingssages4724 Nope the French used to be mostly franky, celtic(gaulish) and latin. Frankish is the main ethnicity here
fun fact today many of romantic languages call germans by the name of alemanes or alemans or simply comming from the depiction of the germanic people being alemanni
Yep in quite a lot of languages actually. Also some languages calls the germans after the saxons.
@@TheBarser As in Finnish. Saksa.
@Mira Moche To be exact we call them (the people) Franzosen. Französich is for something that is french. And Frankreich means literally Frank Realm = Realm of the Franks❤
@@Taistelukalkkuna Taistelukalkkuna hyvä nimi
@Mira Moche you got germanised frenchue
Honestly there's probably a weird timeline where Syagrious is remembered as the founder of some modern roman esque nation and Franks are just a blip in a wikipedia article.
Possibly. It would make for a fun alternate history story for sure
4:57 so that's the true origin of Skyrim's "arrow to the knee" meme
I just want to say that your specific choice of classical music selections is great, and thanks for actually having them in the description.
Great explanation to an often overlooked part of history! I would like to see it continued because I'm curious how the Merovingian dynasty ended.
its overlooked for a reason, the Franks did nothing special.
they took over land that Rome abandoned, nothing honorable or noteworthy of that.
then, to make matters worse, they stole the Roman empire's name, which is so disrespectful, especially considering the fact that their military might was nothing compared to Rome and their culture was dogs*** compared to Rome.
Compare the way Caesar conquered Gaul to the way the Franks "conquered" Gaul, it really shows why no one cares to talk about the Franks conquering.
Plus, the Franks played a somewhat significant role in the collapse of Rome, so this is another reason why people don't want to hear about how these guys squatted in Roman territory and then pretended that they were Romans a couple of centuries later.
They hired Charles Martel to be the Mayor of the Palace and let him do all the work until he just declared himself King. Kind of like how Ned Stark did all the work for Robert Baratheon as Hand of the King. Just imagine him taking the crown himself after doing that for ten years.
Basicly -> Dynastic unstability due to the salic sharing law which mean the kingdom is share between all sons at each succession -> A LOT of civil wars, scheme, plot, murder between dynatic members causing the kingdom to split all the time -> Short reigns, including a lot of children and mostly spend in civil war -> Nobility (and mayor of palace) became stronger as crown become weaker -> Crown becoming a puppet of their mayor of the palace -> Mayor of the palace take the crown -> Et voila ! Karling dynastie
@@Hello-ig1pxAll incorrect buddy.
@@AThousandYoung Wasn't it Lord Arryn who was Robert's Hand?
The Merovingians didn’t end well. There was some king of life limiting genetic condition down the Y chromosome, so many of their kings died in their late twenties (Clovis only made it to 45). So child kings were run by three people: their mothers, the head of the household (major domo) and the local archbishop (of Metz). The major domo got to be hereditary, and so did the bishops (priests could still marry, so they had kids before becoming a Bishop). Then the MD and bishops families merged (the pippinids and the arnulfings). The outcome of all this was the illegitimate Charles, who was not allowed to be MD,so was put in charge of the army. In 732, the Muslims of Spain attacked Francia and Charles defeated them at Poitiers, killing nearly everyone except a handful shoved back over the border to tell their masters. After that he was nicknamed Martel, hammer. He ruled Francia without a tame Merovingian to front it for many years. His son, Pippin, inherited the job and the last Merovingian was his brother in law. Pippin wrote to the Pope ‘there is one who is called king, but has no power. I have the power, but am not called king. What is to be done?’ The Pope, being no fool, replied ‘The kingship and the power belong together’. Pippin took this as a hint to seize the throne. He simply,y pensioned off his brother in law
Amazing
I don't get the last part. Was Pippin indirectly threatening the pope to do something?
@@Progamermove_2003 Yes. Francia was his ally. In 750, the Lombards, who already controlled much of Italy, seized control of the central part including Rome. They said that, as Arians, they would not intervene in Church affairs, and the pope didn’t trust them. A strong Francia was his insurance, wisely so as some years later the Lombard rulers did try it on so the later pope called in Charlemagne to seize most of Italy, which he did and in 800, on. Christmas Day, an even later pope made him emperor.
@@Joanna-il2ur So Pippin indirectly threatened the pope to remove his support and to allow, or potentially even encourage the Lombards to attack him.
The pope in return seemingly replied that he doesn't care about who is the king as long as Francia stayed stable and could help him in the future.
Diplomacy is so intense. How these innocent sounding questions could carry a LOT of weight behind them.
Seems like the cause of death for many of the Merovingian kings is entirely unknown, a lot of them just say ‘natural causes’ or ‘illness.’ Clovis died in his 40’s but 2 of his King sons died in their 60’s.
Visigoths: hey Franks! Want eternal friendship?
Franks: Sure why not?
Also Franks: 7:47
History of early Germanic Kingdoms or Tribes during that age would be pretty insane. Would dwarf Game of Thrones in plottwists or lack of plot armour
Repeating the joke
with the intention of war
Very underrated channel, i wish you many more views
Thank you! I'm glad you have enjoyed the videos!
@@schrodingersmoose I just discovered this channel today and would absolutely love to see more content
Excellent! Please continue the history of the Franks.
What a captivating storyteller accompanied by great visualisations. Please do keep on posting!
This was an excellent video and a great introduction for me to this topic! Please continue with the Merovingian and Frankish history! I am very interested in this early medieval societies and how they tried to imitate the Roman Empire and fought for its legacy!
I just have to say I love your music playlist, it’s hard to find people with the same taste.
You, Good Sir, have Earned a Subscriber... Great Work, Keep It Rockin and Rollin...
🤘🏻💯🤘🏻
Being Burgundian I love to learn more about the foundation of my region. 😌
Shame that the legitimate Kingdom only lasted a few decades
@@iDeathMaximuMII like the Vandals in North Africs
Very well done! I enjoyed the thoroughness and detail. The takeaway I get from this is:
Clovis has made friends with your king and we will have peace from now on. “Ummmm honey, pack our bags. We’re going to be invaded soon!”
Very accurate assessment! 😆
I'd like to see a video about the Bretons during this time and how they were able to stay independent.
That is quite an interesting topic. I'll look into it!
@@schrodingersmoose A casual search usually finds nothing on the topic which is quite interesting considering Breton still exists today and are fighting to preserve their culture. I'll be keeping an eye out on your channel.. Thanks..
The bretons migrated later i think... they came from cornwall
@@schrodingersmoose You should round out the topic by including what happened to Septimania and whatever the coastal land just to the east of that was - Provence?
@@GAMER123GAMING Not from Cornwall. A part, yes. Not all ! And yes, later, about 5th century
That was the best Frankish conquest doc I’ve seen. More please!
Eine ausgezeichnete Produktion. Vielen Dank und weiterhin viel Erfolg!
The story of Clovis could potentially be made into an epic television series.
I am curious what the situation of all these kingdoms armies were. Did they promise land like the Romans had? Were they recruiting conscripts? Mercenaries? Were there Roman military veterans/warlords joining these kingdoms?
Unfortunately written history during this period is sparse, let alone documentation on details of their armies. We know that they were promised anything that they pillaged, so that was what attracted people to the armies of the Germanic kingdoms.
Why didn’t they make a series about these fellas a-la-Vikings?
Very nice! Also, great taste of music.
smartly simplified and brilliantly explained ! Leaving the big rivers in the map would have helped to better figure out the different territories
That’s a good idea! Content creation is a journey of constant improvement, so I appreciate comments like this.
Clovis was brutal lol
What an awesome video!!! Absolutely incredible crafting and narration
Well told! You should do a whole podcast on post-roman Gaul/Europe 🤤
Along with your video, which I very much enjoyed: I definitely like your choice of music. The "Devil's Trill Sonata" by Giuseppe Tartini is my favorite piece :) I have listened to that specific sonata an absurd amount of times, so I recognized it immediately.
This is fire just found this
Oui !
What’s funny about the franks is that normally conquered people assimilate themselves into the culture of their new rulers however for some reason the franks assimilated themselves to the culture of the Roman Gauls (mostly) which is why French is still a Latin language not a Germanic one although there are still many Frankish words in there but also a whole lot of the native Celtic Gaulish actually survives in French today as well. Perhaps it was easier to get the people of Gaul to accept them as their new rulers if they assimilated the local language and this made ruling the province more stable and less rebellious. We will probably never really know the reason.
Its due to roman civilization left in gaul. The franks were one the germanic groups who were buddy buddies with the romans. So after the roman empire fell The franks that invaded adopted the roman language roman culture, also they did not come in large nos they were the ruling class, so there wasnt a lot of mixing so the native french remained the same gaulo roman. The ripuarian frankish language is still spoken in rhine regions of germany, luxembourish is also a dialect of the frankish.
This is mainly because the Frankish settlement of Gaul was limited. Frankish as a language and people still exist, Dutch is the modern form of Salian Frankish and Luxemburgish is probably a form of Ripurian Frankish. The other Ripurian Franks were absorbed into the larger German culture over the centuries but they were a core part of the formation of that identity. So the Franks didn’t adopt a Gallo Roman culture, only the Franks that settled in Gaul eventually did, I say eventually because this process took centuries.
@@sebe2255Yeah and the franks that settled into Gaul were the majority of them so 😂. Stop making something simple complex. French people are majority Gallo-Roman with a little Frank. People act like conquered people magically assimilate.
@@WarriorofChrist612 Most Franks didn’t move to Gaul though. Which is why large parts of west Germany and most of the Low Countries speak Frankish regional language or have a Frankish standard language (Dutch)
It can appear simple when you have no clue what you are talking about lol
@@sebe2255 You have no idea what you’re talking about. A large part of the Franks moved into Gaul with the rest staying back in their mud hits in Germania. The Franks In Gaul embraced the civilized Roman culture and submerged themselves with the Gallo-Romans. You don’t know what you’re talking about 😂
great video keep it up
Thanks . Really interesting
Thank you for making a video about this period (Atm I'm reading "History of the Franks" by Gregory)
Definitely continue brother
wow.Awesome!Please do more!
The name Odoacer is supposed to be said with a hard C. Odoacer is from the gothic *Audawakrs.
Early medieval Christians really liked to canonise any murderous barbarian who converted
He wasn’t officially canonized but The Catholic Church could use more insane metal saints.
Thank you for the video. The Merovingian dynasty is also an interesting one.
Belgica
As we delve into the history of the Franks, I find it fascinating that they were once a collection of independent nordic nationalities, with a 'Frankisk' speaking man as the Frankish (and French) founding father. However, while the nobility changed to local Parisian Patois as the main language, the majority of peasants and subjects merely remained a property of the nation and state, only becoming equal members of the French nation after the French Revolution of 1789. It's a curious evolution, but one that highlights the complexities of the formation of nations and the role of language in defining them.
Germanic, not Nordic
Right point for the language ! And : until 1870 and the Educational Laws, less than 50% of the French were able to... speak French. Identity is a construction, very interesting !
Would that be the same King Clovis which when converting to Christianity and learning about the death of Christ said "if me and my Franks were there, his death would've been revenged"
He supposedly said that after a monk told him about the crucifixion of Christ.
Which is an early Medieval equivalent to Mark Wahlberg saying he would’ve stopped 9/11.
@@thenablade858 is mark wahlberg really the equivalent. I guess he’s truly one of the greatest of our times.
Please continue the rest of Merovingian history
You got most names pretty okayish, but Odoacer made me shiver.
Nice Information ❤❤
So finally I learn how that happened. Nice Video!
The Dudes did so much. My guy was like, I need to end it somewhere!"
My guy clovis had no chill, 💯 brutal.😅❤
nice graphs and music, thanks
Very good.
I'm ready to go all the way to Big Chuck himself!
Man this is more complicated than 'the bold and the beautiful'
Excellent video ! It be nice if you can make a video about "la fède royale", the civil war and bloody vendetta story between two merovingians queens and their families, its game of throne material 😅😅
Thank you, very interesting
Ravel is the background music btw: Daphnis et Chloé
I just don’t understand how you can formulate any kind of reasonable battle plan when everyone’s called Frank.
Maybe they were numbered 🤔
An explanation of the creation of the Frank confederation is that, having being defeated in details, the remnants of many German tribes gathered in the marshy lower Rhine region, out of reach of the Roman raids. Hence the name, "Frank", "the Free" for the people who chose to hide away rather than submit. And the symbol of Frankish kings, the lily, a marsh flower. Same way, Allemani, "All men" confederated survivors of all tribes of upper Rhine to resist the Romans.
In that time of wandering nation, it is fairly possible that Thuringians expanded to the Eastern shore of the Rhine, filling the gap after the departure of the Burgunds, and that Clovis defeated them to suppress a threat before confronting the Allemani.
The Franks may have had a Gaulish element. According to Gregory of Tours, when Clovis was baptised, the Archbishop said ‘Bow the knee, Sicamber’. The Sicambri were a Gaulish people, and there was nothing very racial going on. Local groups may simply have merged. There had been Franks in high places for a century. Bauto was made Consul. His son, Arbogastes, was protector of the juvenile Valentinian II, and Bauto’s daughter, Eudoxia, was the eastern Empress as wife of Arcadius and thus mother of Theodosius II. The story is that Merovech commanded some troops contracted to keep imperial control of the road from Cologne to Boulogne. That was inherited by his son, who started to call himself rex, king. Clovis (Clodovecchus) was the grandson of Merovech.
They were not all the same goth
Us we see
This is a pretty good theory. I suspect for the allemani, the name came after the marcomannic wars. The marcomannic wars is largely believed to have been waged due to gothic and Burgundian attacks and raids on suebic and vandalic peoples. The suebi and vandals under the marcomanni, raided the roman empire. After they were defeated by Marcus Aurelius, the various Germanic peoples were in a predicament. The old order had been broken. A new tribal confederacy was needed to protect them from other Germanic tribes. The confederacy needed all the men, suebian or not to survive. This was a move out of necessity being that the suebian people looked down on all other Germans and viewed themselves as being "pure" as they would not breed with non suebian peoples usually. This would also seem to create another tribe. One that was out of spite to the "all-men" tribe. The Juthungi. The Juthungi came from a Serbian tribe the semnones, one of the most powerful suebians tribes . The name Juthungi means something like descendent. Showing that they considered themselves the true suebian people and not some horde of mutts like the allemani.
They didn’t really settle in the marshy parts of the Low Countries though. They settles in the parts with major rivers and pretry good farmland
@@sebe2255 Salian Law suggests that some settled near the sea. In Roman times there were Frankish ships in the North Sea, mentioned by Pactatus in his panegyric to Theodosius. Where did they sail from if not the Low Countries?
More please sir!
Very interesting !
can you do video on the slavs that migrated to the region of Macedonia? In my country we still have speakers of the ancient vulgar Latin now called Aromanian
Very interested, I never knew that, I’ll look into it!
intéressant, parmi toutes les vidéos que j'ai vu sur l'évolution territoriale de la france ,je n'en ai vu aucune qui montrait le nord comme étant divisé entre plusieurs roi.
C'est important que nous n'oublions pas le fait que Clovis n'était pas le seul roi des Franks dans sa jeunesse. Les territoires de les rois sont simplifié, mais ils sont assez précis pour le vidéo.
tu sais, t'écris super bien en français, juste souviens toi, de + les = des
@@firecreeper2249 merci, même si je suis québécois, vivre aux États-Unis n’a pas aidé mon français 😅
@@schrodingersmoose lol, j'me demandais si t'étais un francophone natif mais tu parlais tellement bien anglais que je me suis dit que c'était pas le cas.
@@firecreeper2249 Je suis moitié-moitié 😆
The fall of the Western Roman empire, dark times indeed, such a shame.
I CANNOT say the name of Soissons in the French way without making it Carl Wheezer saying it like he does Croissant
Brave plunge. Well done.
Cool video, subbed. I like the Dark ages, but question all writings about the topic
As you should 😅
They had some Gaul!!!!
That they did! 😆
French here : in French (thought it was the same in English), saying "Armorique" instead of "Brittany" isn't pedantic at all ! It's because in French it is the geographic's name of the region, the brits came "in Armoric/Armorique" and only then we call this territory "Brittany/Bretagne" : because of Brittons. In French. So, thank you a lot, I don't want to be pedantic whatever the language hahaha !
If only Gundobad was Gundogood.
Algorithm sent me here. im gonna need more my guy.
You can read French huh ? You pronounce Childeric the way they say it and you know about all the patronage and Gregory of tours. Also english understanding doesn’t usually bother splitting the 2 major types of franks. I had a class in college on dark ages europe with a French professor and he made a big deal about how one type of franks was blended into the Duchy of Soissons. Can’t remember it all but I like the vid and the maps
I am Quebecois, so I'm fluent in both English and French (currently learning Spanish). However, A lot of sources from England are quite thorough on this topic, so you don't need to know French to learn about details like this. It definitely does help though, even if I switch between French and English pronunciations out of uncertainty.
The split itself is fairly arbitrary though. Especially the Ripurian part just seems to mean “all the Franks that didn’t fall directly under the initial Merovingian kingdom.”
this would make a great movie
Cool video
Frankly impossible... clap clap clap. Nice. very good
Tournai , Doornik Belgica now Belgium. Merovingen Clovis , pepijn van Landen , pepiniden on to Karel de Grote... all in Belgica aka Belgium now . Yes .. it started all in Belgium
Frankly impossible... :-) Good video
How can you only have 1300 subs.
So the frogs are really heiniekoplotz. Wow.
Nice video
I often wonder if Clothar’s brutal killing of his young nephews (ages 7 and 10) was strategic given the values and understanding of what confronted Merovingian kings. In other words, it’s likely those two young nephews may have grow.n up and formed armies to conquer Clothar’s realm and kill him and his family. In that context, Clothar’s killing his young nephews may have been necessary.
1:34 I think the Franks did not live in the costal area in what is now North-/South-Holland. That was Frisian then.
That’s entirely possible, but hard borders are impossible to make accurately at this time. The fact is that areas of control beyond urban centers were very murky.
@@schrodingersmoose It is pretty sure that Holland was still Frisian at the time of the Frankish conquest of Gaul. The process of the Frisians being driven out started much later, around the time of Charlemagne and Charles Martel (7th and 8th centuries). But even then, the counts of Holland (even though they themselves were Frisian in origin) were still fighting the Frisians in Holland in the 13th century
Our eastern roman ancestors called westerners franco-latins.
Soisson isn't the last bastion of roman rule.
Mauro-Roman remnants and Nepos Dalmatia is Roman.
And if you believe the theory than also some places in western Britain was led by a Roman governor but that maybe a theory but if that counts than that too. Though unlikely as most Romans evacuated.
Still. Soisson wasn't the only Roman remnant state around.
That depends on if you think the kingdom which was centered in Altava claimed the legacy of the Roman Empire. The kingdom was ruled by Berbers who, although romanized, did separate from the Roman Empire and eventually tried to invade Eastern Rome. An argument can be made that it was the last, but its connection is difficult to determine because of a lack of sources. Also, Nepos died before the dissolution of Soissons. I have heard about the the theory of western Britain’s Roman Governors, but as you said, the validity is difficult to confirm. At the end of the day, a “bastion of Roman rule” is a vague term that doesn’t mean much. The truth is that history isn’t simple and absolute statements like that are destined to be wrong depending on how you view it. Thank you for engaging with the contents of the video and I hope you have a wonderful day.
@@schrodingersmoose doesn't help various "post Roman" warlords claimed to be Roman because of random titles and a few remaining institutions but were ultimately Germanic.
10:11 long hair was not only a sign of royalty amongst Germanics, it was an essential part of the King's Hail. So this act can be seen as the same as an Irish royal getting his nipples cut off or a Byzantine royal being blinded - it robbed them permanently of their birthright to rule
In germanic tribes long hair was a sign that a boy hadnt become a man yet funny that.
@@scrapyarddawgs7769 depends on the tribe. Some did indeed not cut their hair until they had killed their first man in battle, while others were renown for their hair like the Cheruski with their warrior hair knot.
My comment is specifically about Frankish tradition and our originally pagan King's hail which continued its existence into Christianity all the way up to the Karolinger (who as the Hausmeier didn't possess the King's hail of the Merowinger, which they usurped, and hence had to base their claim on a new power which they chose the pope and Catholic Christianity for, hence the sudden and rather dramatic shift towards almost fundamentalistic Christianity as the topic of religion suddenly also became a political one with every remaining worshipper of the old Gods indirectly challenging their legitimacy)
@varalderfreyr8438 no it was a Germanic, specifically Frankish, custom that only ended with the usurpation of the last Kings with the inherited Heil of the Merowinger dynasty by their Hausmeier (~huskarl/ mayor of the palace (? I think that's the English translation)) of the Karolinger dynasty (Charlemagne/ Karl der Große's dynasty) as they lacked it and hence had to resort to a new power, which they found in Christianity/ the Pope, to legitimise their regency
These Frankish kings must have heard about Romulus and Remus's story.
Funnily enough, the Merovingians had told some interesting stories in order to justify their subjugation of the people in Gaul. One of them was to claim that the Franks were also Trojans that had fled the sacking by the Greeks. It didn't stick, but it shows how they took a lot of inspiration from Rome.
@@schrodingersmoose Ahah I didn't know this.
May or may not be a coincidence but this gives me ideas of why the word "Troy" in Italian has become a synonym for a woman (can be both genders though) who has or must have had relationships with virtually everyone you come across.
@@ilFrancotti Interesting! It would make sense if they were related, but even if it isn't, it's still very interesting etymologically speaking. Thank you for teaching me something new!
@@schrodingersmoose Thank you.
For your work in these videos and your knowledge of these niche stories.
If you ever decide to produce a video about Frankish "myths and legends" to legitimise their rule I'll definitely look into it.
The birth of Europe
By Old Belgica
Nicely made, many interesting details - and many murderous saints. 😁
Maybe I should make a series on murderous saints 🤔
@@schrodingersmoose good idea! - I'm looking forward to it! 😁
Sigh ! My ancestors, the Alemanni, always end up getting their butts kicked.
At least the name lives on!
Odoaker's father was Edeko. Romulus Agustulus' father was Orestes. Edeko and Orestes were officials of King Attila the Hun.
History in general: and so the germanic, turkish, mongolian, x bedoin society came and curb stomped us
Fun fact: even though we call the language "French" after the Franks, the language does not decent from the language the Franks spoke. It in fact is a modern version of Gallic vulgar Latin. The modern language that could be considered a descendant of the Frankish language is Dutch, or at least it's south-western dialects.
Interesting! I didn’t know that, though it makes sense when I think about it.
There are also frankish dialects in central germany.
Correct. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Franconian
@@esbendit Indeed, Dutch and German therefore form a dialect continuum with each other, and the boundaries between the 2 languages is not often all to clear.
This is false.
That history is much more complexe than that.
And the Franks did spoke "lingua romana", vulgar latin which is proto-French or old French.
Where did all the Gauls go? Was there a genocide?
There was a genocide when Caesar invaded, however most of the population simply absorbed roman influence like many other places did. After many centuries, there was barely any difference between romans and romano-gaulic people.
No. They just Germanised their names. In some cases a son going into royal service took a Germanic name and a brother destined for the Church took a Latin one. Gregory of Tours met a new royal courtier called Gundulph who turned out to be his uncle with a new name.
@@Joanna-il2ur interesting! That’s good to know!
@@schrodingersmoose I did a module at Birkbeck University London as part of one of my degrees. It was called Between Empires (between 476 and 842) and we had to read Gregory of Tours and books by JM Wallace Hadrill and others. I was secretary of the London Society for Medieval Studies too.
@@Joanna-il2ur awesome! Maybe I’ll consult you once I revisit this topic.
Algorithm time
Can you explain why there are so many Franks in and around Kent in the post-Roman period? New-ish genetic studies show loads of Franks in south east England in that period.
Franks were very well known as being good mercenaries. There are records showing their involvement in England before and after the Western Roman Empire's collapse. I haven't done enough research to even guess why there are so many around Kent specifically, but that information doesn't surprise me that much.
@@schrodingersmoose Thanks
Probably lots or merchants too and people hopping over to England to avoid conflict in northern France.
Might I ask how it is you do research for these videos? When it comes to Germanic history, I find it hard to find many reputable sources (at least online).
@@grizzlytooth3768 my sources are in the description
for me, is just shocking and disgusting to see how easy it was for the tribesmen to conquer so much of the roman land after the fall of the west, not disgusting because of their conquest but because the Roman elites literally made their ppl wish they were ruled by the barbarians or anyone else but Rome itself, anyway I also hate france and germany but that's a story for another time
Im a direcr result of frankish conquest so its good it happend for me
Chill, hate is not good for your health
Pronounces all the names in English fashion...but Sheeldérique!
The Gallic Britons (Gauls) were weakened from fighting in the Roman Civil war.