Franks

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The Franks were a cultural people that inhabited the Kingdom of Francia following the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE.

Dismissed by the Romans as "barbarians", they emerged in the turmoil of the Crisis of the Third Century as the legions stationed on the Rhine frontier were redeployed to the heart of the Roman Empire to fight a civil war. As such, the Franks, along with tribes like the Alemanni, filled in the power vacuum left behind.

When Diocletian eventually restored the Roman Empire and instituted the Tetrarchy, he made the city of Trier one of those capitals in the west, as a buffer against the Germanic tribes on the Rhine frontier. In 358 CE, the Franks were defeated by future emperor, Julian, and by the 380s, were granted the status of foederati, or barbarian vassals of Rome. They were then granted land in Toxandria, modern day Belgium and the Low Countries, to act as a buffer against the other tribes and to serve in the Roman army. This proved instrumental, as one Frankish king, Merovech, aided the Western Roman Empire in 451 at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, as one of the many foederati leaders who sided with the Romans against Attila the Hun. This helped to establish the Merovingians, who took their name from their eponymous founder, Merovech.

As the 5th century progressed, the Franks, led by their king, Childeric, and later his son and successor, Clovis, gradually inherited Roman Gaul through a process of settlement undertaken by the Roman state and by conquest. This culminated at the Battle of Soissons in 486, when Clovis' army fought against the army of Syagrius, and won, ending Roman continuity in the West, and founding the state of Francia.

Under Clovis, the Merovingians, established political hegemony across the old Roman frontier along the Rhine for the first time, and while their political center remained in northern Gaul, they soon expanded into the former Roman Gaul into what is today Bavaria, as well as Northern Italy, and their political influence was felt further afield, as far away as Britain.

Following Frankish custom of Salic Law, Clovis' death saw the division of his kingdom between his sons in 511, and this continued following the death of every Frankish king. Each time a Merovingian king died, the realm was divided, and the sons would go to war with each other, with each one attempting to conquer the other and rule the whole kingdom for themselves. Between 511 and 679, the Franks experienced 22 years of peace and 146 years of war.

During this time, the Franks began to experiment with Roman ideas, intervening in Justinian's reconquest of Italy in the 6th century, and used Roman imagery and symbolism in Austrasia - which controlled both sides of the Rhine. This symbolized that the Franks were here to stay, and were effectively seen as the new successor state of the Western Roman Empire. However, the Eastern Roman Empire, based in Constantinople, became deeply offended by what their emperors saw as barbarian pretensions to imperial rule.

By 589, when a noble named Rauching attempted a failed coup, it showed that the Frankish aristocracy became more powerful at the expense of the king, a symptom that would become evident three centuries later.

In 630, King Dagobert I founded the Abbey of Saint-Denis, which later became the burial place for subsequent Frankish and French kings for centuries. After Dagobert's death in 639, the Merovingian kings became less powerful, and the office of Mayor became the equivalent of a regent, eventually culminating at the Battle of Tertia in 687, when the Mayor of Austraisa, Pepin II, became Mayor of all Franica. His son, Charles Martel, came to power after winning a stunning victory against the Umayyad Caliphate at the Battle of Tours in 732, eventually ousting the Merovingians and the rise of the Carolingians as the new royal dynasty of Francia.

Charles Martel's sons, Pepin III and Carloman I, continued the Carolingian policy of military expansion, and gained the recognition of the Popes as kings of Francia. So, in 751, Childeric III, the Merovingian king set up by Pepin, was forcibly ousted from power, and the Carolingians came to power as kings. This led to many in Europe viewing Carolingian Francia as an attempt to revive the Roman Empire, and had the legitimacy of the Church backing it.

The Carolingians thus cemented themselves as the protectors of Rome, and the Papacy as the protector of Carolingian rule.

After Charlemagne united his people, he became one of the greatest kings of the Franks. Charlemagne waged wars of religious conquest against the Saxons, and another to protect the Papacy from the Lombards in Italy led by King Desiderius in 773. After this, he waged military campaigns against Bavaria and the Avars. Charlemagne was eventually declared Emperor of Rome by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day 800, which founded the Carolingian Empire. Carolingian rulers during this time were under the influence of the Order of the Ancients, and were even leaders of the Order at some points.

By the time Charlemagne died in 811, his son, Louis the Pious, was made emperor, but after he died, the Carolingian Empire was divided between his sons, one of which was Charles the Bald, who ruled over West Francia. During this period, Paris was invaded by Vikings in 845, which was famously led by Ragnar Lothbrok, and later in 885–886 when ruled by Charles the Fat.^[1]

Louis II of Italy appointed the Order's Paladin, Fulke, to decipher Isu text that was transcribed by a palatinus during Charlemagne's reign, ultimately leading to her arrival in England, her encounter with and subsequent torture of Sigurd Styrbjornsson, culminating in her eventual death at the hands of Sigurd's adopted sister, Eivor Varinsdottir in 875.

In 884, Charles the Fat began a series of military campaigns against the Norse in Francia, with plans to conquer England thereafter. This led to one Toka Sinricsdottir to appeal to Eivor for help. Eivor, now jarlskona of the Raven Clan, thus took part in the siege of Paris to prevent Ravensthorpe from being conquered by the Franks, eventually leading to the deposition of Charles the Fat from power.

After the death of Charles the Fat, the Carolingian Empire ultimately collapsed, never to rise again, with Odo of France being recognized as King of West Francia.

By the 10th century, the Templars held great influence among the Franks, a situation which prompted the Hidden Ones to move to curtail the Order's reach extending into Norse lands.^[2]