Editing History of Germany (section)

===Frankish Empire===
{{Main|Francia}}
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| image1 = Aula Palatina (Basilica of Constantine), Augusta Treverorum, Trier (8749080929).jpg
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| caption1 = The [[Aula Palatina]] of [[Trier]], a [[basilica]] constructed during the reign of the [[Roman emperor]] [[Constantine I]] (r. 306–337 AD)| image2 = Aix dom int vue cote.jpg| width2 = 156
| caption2 = The [[Palatine Chapel, Aachen]], built during the reign of the [[Carolingian Empire|Carolingian]] emperor [[Charlemagne]] (r. 800–814 AD)}}

The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 with the [[deposition of Romulus Augustus]] by the Germanic ''[[foederati]]'' leader [[Odoacer]], who became the first [[King of Italy]].<ref>Clover, Frank M. (1999), "A Game of Bluff: The Fate of Sicily after A.D. 476", ''Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte'', 48 (1): 235–244, JSTOR 4436542, p. 237.</ref> Afterwards, the Franks, like other post-Roman Western Europeans, emerged as a tribal confederacy in the Middle Rhine-Weser region, among the territory soon to be called [[Austrasia]] (the "eastern land"), the northeastern portion of the future Kingdom of the [[Merovingian]] [[Franks]]. As a whole, Austrasia comprised parts of present-day [[France]], [[Germany]], [[Belgium]], [[Luxembourg]] and the [[Netherlands]]. Unlike the [[Alamanni]] to their south in [[Swabia]], they absorbed large swaths of former Roman territory as they spread west into [[Gaul]], beginning in 250. [[Clovis I]] of the [[Merovingian dynasty]] conquered northern Gaul in 486 and in the [[Battle of Tolbiac]] in 496 the [[Alemanni]] tribe in [[Swabia]], which eventually became the [[Duchy of Swabia]].

By 500, Clovis had united all the Frankish tribes, ruled all of Gaul{{Sfn|Wilson|2016|p=24}} and was proclaimed ''King of the Franks'' between 509 and 511.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gregory of Tours (539–594): The Conversion of Clovis, 42. When they were dead Clovis received all their kingdom and treasures |url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/gregory-clovisconv.asp |access-date=2 March 2019 |publisher=Sourcebooks}}</ref> Clovis, unlike most Germanic rulers of the time, was baptized directly into [[Roman Catholicism]] instead of [[Arianism]]. His successors would cooperate closely with [[Pope|papal]] missionaries, among them [[Saint Boniface]]. After the death of Clovis in 511, his four sons partitioned his kingdom including [[Austrasia]]. Authority over Austrasia passed back and forth from autonomy to royal subjugation, as successive [[Merovingian]] kings alternately united and subdivided the Frankish lands.{{Sfn|Kibler|1995|p=1159|ps=: "From time to time, Austrasia received a son of the Merovingian king as an autonomous ruler."}}

During the 5th and 6th centuries the Merovingian kings conquered the [[Thuringii]] (531 to 532), the [[Kingdom of the Burgundians]] and the principality of Metz and defeated the Danes, the Saxons and the Visigoths.<ref name="Bachrach1972">{{Cite book |first=Bernard S. |last=Bachrach |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jbz9IyOvfPoC&pg=PR9 |title=Merovingian Military Organization, 481–751 |publisher=U of Minnesota Press |date=1972 |isbn=978-0-8166-5700-1 |page=9}}</ref> King [[Chlothar I]] (558 to 561) ruled the greater part of what is now Germany and undertook military expeditions into [[Old Saxony|Saxony]], while the South-east of what is modern Germany remained under the influence of the [[Ostrogoths]]. Saxons controlled the area from the northern sea board to the [[Harz|Harz Mountains]] and the [[Eichsfeld]] in the south.<ref name="Thompson1928">{{Cite book |first=James Westfall |last=Thompson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l4QfAAAAMAAJ |title=Feudal Germany |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=1928 |pages=167ff |chapter=Old Saxony |access-date=4 March 2019}}</ref>

[[File:Empire carolingien 768-811.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Expansion of the [[Frankish Empire]]:<br/>Blue = realm of [[Pepin the Short]] in 758;<br/>Orange = expansion under [[Charlemagne]] until 814;<br/>Yellow = [[March (territory)#Frankish Empire and successor states|Marches]] and dependencies;<br/>Red = [[Papal States]].]]

The Merovingians placed the various regions of their Frankish Empire under the control of semi-autonomous dukes – either Franks or local rulers,{{Sfn|Van Dam|1995|p=222|ps=: "Surrounding the core of Frankish kingdoms were other regions more or less subservient to the Merovingian kings. In some regions the Merovingians appointed, or perhaps simply acknowledged, various dukes, such as the duke of the Alamans, the duke of the Vascones in the western Pyrenees, and the duke of the Bavarians. [...] Since these dukes, unlike those who served at the court of the Merovingians or administered particular regions in the Merovingian kingdoms, ruled over distinct ethnic groups, they had much local support and tended to act independently of the Merovingians, and even to make war on them occasionally."}} and followed [[Roman Empire|imperial Roman]] strategic traditions of social and political integration of the newly conquered territories.<ref>{{Cite journal |first1=John |last1=Moreland |first2=Robert |last2=Van de Noort |date=1992 |title=Integration and Social Reproduction in the Carolingian Empire |journal=World Archaeology |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=320–334 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1992.9980183 |jstor=124766}}</ref>{{Sfn|Damminger|2003|p=74|ps=: "The area of Merovingian settlement in southwest Germany was pretty much confined to the so called 'Altsiedelland', those fertile regions which had been under the plough since neolithic times [...]."}} While allowed to preserve their own legal systems,{{Sfn|Drew|2011|pp=8–9|ps=: "Some of the success of the Merovingian Frankish rulers may be their acceptance of the personality of law policy. Not only did Roman law remain in use among Gallo-Romans and churchmen, Burgundian law among the Burgundians, and Visigothic law among the Visigoths, but the more purely Germanic peoples of the eastern frontier were allowed to retain their own 'national' law."}} the conquered Germanic tribes were pressured to abandon the [[Arianism|Arian]] Christian faith.{{Sfn|Hen|1995|p=17|ps=: "Missionaries, mainly from the British Isles, continued to operate in the Merovingian kingdoms throughout the sixth to the eighth centuries. Yet, their efforts were directed at the fringes of the Merovingian territory, that is, at Frisia, north-east Austrasia and Thuringia. These areas were hardly Romanised, if at all, and therefore lacked any social, cultural or physical basis for the expansion of Christianity. These areas stayed pagan long after Merovingian society completed its conversion, and thus attracted the missionaries' attention. [...] Moreover, there is evidence of missionary and evangelising activity from Merovingian Gual, out of places like Metz, Strasbourg or Worms, into the 'pagan regions' [...]."}}

In 718 [[Charles Martel]] waged war against the Saxons in support of the [[Neustria]]ns. In 743 his son [[Carloman (mayor of the palace)|Carloman]] in his role as [[Mayor of the Palace]] renewed the war against the Saxons, who had allied with and aided the duke [[Odilo of Bavaria]].<ref name="Frassetto2003">{{Cite book |first=Michael |last=Frassetto |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yW-GfElbafQC&pg=PA90 |title=Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation |publisher=ABC-CLIO |date=2003 |isbn=978-1-5760-7263-9 |page=90}}</ref> The Catholic Franks, who by 750 controlled a [[Francia|vast territory]] in Gaul, north-western Germany, Swabia, [[Burgundy]] and western [[Switzerland]], that included the [[Alps|alpine]] passes allied with the Curia in [[Rome]] against the [[Kingdom of the Lombards|Lombards]], who posed a permanent threat to the Holy See.{{Sfn|Wilson|2016|p=24}} Pressed by [[Liutprand, King of the Lombards]], a Papal envoy for help had already been sent to the de facto ruler [[Charles Martel]] after his victory in 732 over the forces of the Umayyad Caliphate at the [[Battle of Tours]], however a lasting and mutually beneficial alliance would only materialize after Charles' death under his successor Duke of the Franks, Pepin the Short.{{Sfn|Wilson|2016|p=25}}

In 751 [[Pippin III]], [[Mayor of the Palace]] under the Merovingian king, himself assumed the title of king and was anointed by the Church. [[Pope Stephen II]] bestowed him the hereditary title of ''Patricius Romanorum'' as protector of Rome and St. Peter<ref name="ArnasonRaaflaub2010">{{Cite book |first1=Johann P. |last1=Arnason |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ulrX1QUgVLgC&pg=PT212 |title=The Roman Empire in Context: Historical and Comparative Perspectives |last2=Kurt A. Raaflaub |date=23 December 2010 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4443-9020-9 |page=212}}</ref> in response to the [[Donation of Pepin]], that guaranteed the sovereignty of the [[Papal States]]. [[Charles the Great]] (who ruled the Franks from 774 to 814) launched a decades-long military campaign against the Franks' heathen rivals, the [[Saxons]] and the [[Avars (Carpathians)|Avars]]. The campaigns and insurrections of the [[Saxon Wars]] lasted from 772 to 804. The Franks eventually overwhelmed the Saxons and Avars, forcibly converted the people to [[Christianity]], and annexed their lands to the [[Carolingian Empire]].