Merovingian period

The Frankish kingdom in the Merovingian period (482 - 714)

The approximately three centuries between the end of the Roman presence in Western Europe and the beginning of the Carolingian period are referred to as the Merovingian period. The Merovingian period begins in the middle of the 5th century AD, when the Frankish noble family of the Merovingians gained political strength under Prince Childeric, who had the rank of a Roman general, and his son Clovis (from AD 480) and finally supremacy over the Salian and Ripuarian tribes wins.

A phase of expansive power politics follows, in which Clovis first militarily subdues the last Roman governor in northern Gaul, Syagrius, and then the Alamanni in southwestern Germany, which consequently makes Catholic Christianity the official tribal religion.

Under Clovis`s successors, most of the rest of Gaul, as well as the Bavarian and Thuringian lands, were conquered and turned into Frankish provinces.

The Merovingians were thus able to establish themselves alongside the other important Germanic royal houses of the Ostrogoths, Visigoths and Vandals in Italy, Spain and North Africa in post-migration Europe. In 568 AD, the tribe of the Lombards from Pannononia (today`s Hungary) moved into Italy, which was briefly ruled by the Byzantines again after being reconquered by the Ostrogoths. Its former settlement area was occupied by the equestrian nomads, Turko-Mongolian Avars advancing from Central Asia.

With these two peoples, the Franks get into military conflicts on one side in the future, but there is also a lively cultural exchange with Lombard Italy, which leads north of the Alps to the adoption of multi-faceted Mediterranean costume and armament elements. The Merovingian ruling dynasty had to grant the landowning high nobility political rights to participate in the division of the empire as a result of internal quarrels during the 7th century AD.

In the regions of Neustria, Burgundy and Austria, influential families established themselves as "housekeepers" who held the office of royal court administrators.

Germanic and Roman Traditions

To control the conquered areas, the Merovingian kingdom based its sovereignty on Frankish landlords, who tied militarily trained warrior retinues to themselves and tactically encouraged the settlement of their own or allied tribesmen secured important places. The rest of the population consisted mostly of free farmers of varying levels of prosperity and, to a lesser extent, of dependent semi-free men (literi) and freedmen who were legally and financially capable, but also subject to service and taxes. In addition, there were the absolute dependent servants.

The Germanic economy was mainly based on agriculture and animal husbandry. In individual principalities there were business and craft centers. In rural areas bartering of goods and implements dominated. In addition, the organization of the Catholic cherry remained from ancient times as an important pillar of the Frankish nobility. The new religion continued to spread through missionary activity and the founding of monasteries in the pagan parts of the empire, where the Old Norse gods of Wotan, Donar and Freyr were still worshiped, primarily by preacher monks from the British Isles. Thus, during the Merovingian period, a symbiosis of Germanic culture with late Roman civilization developed, which led to the further development of medieval society into a feudal system based on Christianity.