FRANKS
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FRANKS
where, after Maximilian II, the coronation ceremony
also took place, instead of at Aachen. A celebrated
description of this ceremony is to be found in
Goethe's " Wahrheit und Dichtung". The unfortu-
nate difficulties between Frankfort and the electoral
princes of the Palatinate and the nobles of the vicinity,
in 1389, reduced the city to great straits, but could
not shatter its power. Internal dissensions, like the
insurrection of the guilds (1358-66) and the uprisings
between 1389 and 1408, were finally brought to an end
by the victory of the ruling families.
The Reformation found speedy acceptance among the majority of the city council and the middle classes, chiefly owing to the strained relations which the un- just distribution of taxes had brought about between the clergy and people. In 1525 the doctrines of Luther were preached in Frankfort for the first time; in 1533, by command of the council, Catholic services were entirely suspended for some time; finally, after 1548, of the three Catholic chapters only that of St. Bartholomew, with the cathedral, remained in pos- session of the Catholics. On the defeat of the Smal- kaldic League (1546), which Frankfort had joined in 1536, the city was forced to surrender to an imperial army and pay 80,000 gold gulden. During the revolt of Maurice of Saxony (1552) against Charles V, Frankfort supported the emperor and withstood a siege by his enemies. During the succeeding decades the city gained in prosperity what it lost in political prestige. A serious danger, however, menaced it in the revolt of the middle classes against the misrule of the patricians (1612-16), headed by the pastry-cook and gingerbread-baker, Vincenz Fettmilch. This shook the city government to its very foundations, and only ended with the decapitation of seven of the leaders, and the victory of the ruling families who re- tained their supremacy until the dissolution of the German Empire. During the Thirty Years War the citizens were decimated by famine and plague, par- ticularly in 1635, and the city suffered severely from Louis XIV's wars of conquest. Frankfort was in- vested by the French (1759-62) during the Seven Years War, and likewise during the Revolutionary period (1792 and 1795). By the Imperial Delegates Enactment (1803) Frankfort was declared a free neu- tral city of the empire, and at the same time all mon- asteries, with the exception of the property of the Teu- tonic Knights, were secularized. After the dissolu- tion of the German Empire, the city was granted to Karl Dalberg, previously Elector of Mainz, and in 1810 was made the capital of the Grand Duchy of Frankfort. Under Dalberg's mild rule. Christians of all denominations were granted equal recognition, and the year 1811 was marked by the emancipation of the Jews. The Vienna Congress made Frankfort a free imperial city of the new German Confederation and the seat of tlie Federal Diet, which meant for the city great political prestige and brilliant possibilities from a social point of view. Beginning in 1818 various conferences were held at Frankfort to make some ar- rangement with the Holy See for the ecclesiastical reorganization of the states represented; these were Baden, Wurtemberg, Hesse-Cassel, Hesse-Darmstadt, Nassau, Frankfort, Hohenzollern-Heckingen, Ilohen- zollern-Sigmaringen, and others. Negotiations cover- ing several years finally resulted in the erection of the province of the LTpper Rhine (Oberrheinische Kirchen- provinz). The Frankfort Riot of 1833 presented some serious aspects for the city; the proceedings of the Federal Diet against the press and the whole system of unions and associations gave rise to a revolutionary movement, which the Diet undertook to suppress. After the attempted insurrection had been easily put down, the city had to maintain, at its own expense, a Prusso-.\ustrian garrison from 1833 to 1842. In 1848-49 Frankfort was the seat of the Vorparlament (a provisional assembly preparatory to the National
Assembly) and the German National Assembly, and
in 1863 of the German Furstentag (Diet of Princes).
Frankfort having voted in the Federal Diet against
Prussia (14 June, 1866), on 16 July the city was in-
vested by the Prussians and condemned to pay a
heavy fine, and on 8 October was annexed to the
Prussian Monarchy. At Frankfort the peace between
France and Germany was signed, 10 May, 1871.
Under Prussian rule the city has attained a high com-
mercial and industrial importance.
RiTTER, Evangelisches Denkmal der Stadt Frankfurt am Mayn (Frankfort, 1726); Kirchner, Gesch. der Stadt Frankfurt (Frankfort, 1807-10); von Fichard, Entstehung der Reichs- stadt Frankfurt (Frankfort. 1819); Kriegk, Frankfurter Bur- gerzwistc und Zusldnde im M. A. (Frankfort, 1862); Idem, Gesch. von Frankfurt a. M. (Frankfort, 1871); Fanssen, Frank- furta Reichscorrespondent, 1376-1519. part III (Freiburg, 1863- 73); Frankfurt und seine Bauten herausgegebcn vom Architekten- ynd higrnieurvcrein (Frankfort, 1886); Bijcher, Die Bevolker- ung mm Frankfurt a. M.im 14. und 15. Jahrh. (Tubingen, 1886); Webek and Uiefenbach, Zur Reformationsgesch. der Reichs- stadt Frankfurt a. M. (Frankfort, 1895); Horne, Geschichte von Frankfurt a. M. (Frankfort. 1902); Boehmer-Lau, Codex diplomaticus Mwnofrancofurtanus (2 vols., 1901. 1905); Neues Archiv fur Frankfurts Gesch. und Kunst (Frankfort); Mitleil- ungen des Vereins fur Gesch. und Altertumskunde in Frankfurt a. M. (Frankfort, ISGO— ).
Joseph Lins.
Franks, The, were a confederation formed in West- ern Germany of a certain number of ancient barba- rian tribes who occupied the right shore of the Rhine from Mainz to the sea. Their name is first mentioned by Roman historians in connexion with a battle fought against this people about the year 241. In the third century some of them crossed the Rhine and settled in Belgic Gaul on the banks of the Meuse and the Scheldt, anti the Romans had endeavoured to expel them from the territory. Constantius Chlorus and his descendants continued the struggle, and, although Julian the Apos- tate inflicted a serious defeat on them in 359. he did not succeed in exterminating them, and eventually Rome was satisfied to make them her more or less faithful allies. After their overthrow by Julian the Apostate, the Franks of Belgium, becoming peaceful settlers, appear to have given the empire no further trouble, satisfied with having found shelter and suste- nance on Roman soil. They even espoused Rome's cause during the great invasion of 406, but were over- powered by the ruthless hordes who devastated Bel- gium and overran Gaul and a part of Italy and Spain. Thenceforth the Belgian provinces ceased to be under the control of Rome and passed under the rule of the Franks.
When they first attracted attention in history the Franks were established in the northern part of Belgic Gaul, in the districts where their Germanic dialect is still spoken. Gregory of Tours tells us that their chief town was Dispargum, which is perhaps Tongres, and that they were under a family of kings distinguished by their long hair, which they allowed to flow over their shoulders, while the other Frankish war- riors had the back of the head shaved. This family was known as the Merovingians, from the name of one of its members, to whom national tradition had as- cribed a sea-god as ancestor. Clodion, the first king of this dynasty known to history, began his series of con- quests in Northern Gaul about the year 430. He pene- trated as far as Artois, but was driven back by Aetius, who seems to have succeeded in keeping him on friendly terms with Rome. In fact, it seems that his son Merovaeus fought with the Romans against Attila on the Mauriac plains. Childeric, son of Merovseus, also served the empire under Count jEgidius and sub- sequently under (^ount Paul, whom he assisted in repelling the Saxons from Angers. Childeric died at Tournai, his capital, where his tomb was found in 1653 (Cochet, Le tombeau de Childeric, Paris, 1859). But ChildiTic did not transmit to his son Clovis, who succfi'diMl him in 481, the entire inheritance left by Clodion. The latter seems to have reigned over all the
