Search Results: Frankish empire

The Franks were a Germanic people who originated along the lower Rhine River. They moved into Gaul during the Migration Age, where they established one of the largest and most powerful kingdoms in Europe after the fall of the Western Roman...

The Battle of Poitiers aka the Battle of Tours took place over roughly a week in early October of 732. The opposing sides consisted of a Frankish army led by Charles Martel (r. 718-741) against an invading Muslim army under the nominal sovereignty...

Childeric I (r. c. 458-481) was a late antiquity king of the Salian Franks during the period of the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Childeric's reign solidified the Salians as a dominant Frankish tribe and helped pave the way for the unification...

Samo (reigned 623/624-658 CE) was a king of the Slavs who was responsible for the foundation of the first recorded political entity of the Slavic people, usually referred to as Samo's Empire. Since writing was not introduced into Slavic culture...

Chlothar I (l. c. 498-561) was a Merovingian king of the Franks, the second to rule over a unified Frankish kingdom after his father, Clovis I (l. c. 466-511). When Clovis died in 511, his kingdom was divided up between his four sons, but...

Dagobert I (l. 605-639) ruled as King of Austrasia from 623 to 634 and as King of All the Franks from 629 to 639. Together with the reign of his father, Chlothar II, the period of Dagobert's rule has been characterized as the peak of Merovingian...

Guntram I (also given as Gontrand, Gunthram, or Gunthchramn) was a Merovingian king who ruled over the Frankish kingdom of Orléans, later referred to as Burgundy, from 561 to 592. He often took on the role of mediator in the disputes between...

The Carolingian Dynasty (751-887) was a family of Frankish nobles who ruled Francia and its successor kingdoms in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. The dynasty expanded from Francia as far as modern Italy, Spain, and...

The founder of the Merovingian Frankish kingdom was Clovis. He followed an aggressive policy of conquest to build up the kingdom over much of modern France, but his death in 511 saw his realm chopped up into several smaller kingdoms. It...

With the accession of Clovis, son of Childeric I of the Salian Franks, the Germanic occupiers of north-eastern Gaul had found a king who would change their fortunes out of all recognition. Rather than follow his father's policy of allying...