Portal:Germany/Selected article/2007/May
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Franks or the Frankish peoples were one of several west Germanic federations. They were not originally grouped into one official tribe, but "as with the other barbarians, they belonged to much smaller groups that would join constantly changing confederations." The confederation was formed out of Germanic tribes: Salians, Sicambri, Chamavi, Tencteri, Chattuarii, Bructeri, Usipetes, Ampsivarii, Chatti. Most of those peoples were living at the northern borders of the Rhine in what was then called Francia in the panegyrici Latini.
They entered the late Roman Empire from the north and east river bank of the Rhine into modern northern Belgium and southern Netherlands, where they were treated as foederati by Julian the Apostate (AD 358). Later invasions conquered and established a lasting realm (which again was referred to as Francia) in an area which eventually covered most of modern-day France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the western regions of Germany (Franconia, Rhineland, Münsterland, Hesse), forming the historic kernel of all these modern countries. The conversion to Christianity of the pagan Frankish king Clovis in the late 5th century was a crucial event in the history of Europe. More...