FRANKS
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FRANKS
Cis-Rhenish Franks, and the monarchy was divided
among his descendants, although the exact time of the
division is not known. There were now two prankish
groups: the Ripuarians, who occupied the banks of
the Rhine and whose kings resided at Cologne, and the
Salians who had established themselves in the Low
Countries. The Salians did not form a single kingdom ;
besides the Kingdom of Tournai there were kingdoms
with centres at Cambrai and Tongres. Their sover-
eigns, both Salian and Ripuarian, belonged to the
Merovingian family and seem to have been descended
from Clodion.
When Clovis began to reign in 481, he was, like his father, King of Tournai only, but at an early date he began his career of conquest. In 486 he overthrew the monarchy that Syagrius, son of .Egidius, had carved out for himself in Northern Gaul, and set up his court at Soissons; in 490 and 491 he took possession of the Salian Kingdoms of Cambrai and Tongres; in 496 he triumphantly repelled an invasion of the Alamanni; in 500 he interposed in the war of the Burgundian kings: in 506 he conquered Aquitaine; and at length he annexed the Ripuarian Kingdom of Cologne. Henceforth Gaul, from the PjTenees to the Rhine, was subject to Clovis, with the exception of the terri- tory in the south-east, i. e. the kingdom of the Bur- gundians and Provence. Established at Paris, Clovis governed this kingdom by virtue of an agreement con- eluded with the bishops of Gaul, according to which natives and barbarians were to beon terrasof equality, and all cause of friction between the two races was re- moved when, in 496. the king was converted to Catholi- cism. The Prankish kingdom thereupon took its place in history under more promising conditions than were to be found in any other state founded upon the ruins of the Roman Empire. All free men bore the title of Frank, had the same political status, and were eligible to the same offices. Besides, each individual obser\'ed the law of the people among whom he belonged ; the Gallo-Roraan lived according to the Roman code, the barbarian according to the Salian or Ripuarian law; in other words, the law was personal, not territorial. If there were any privileges they belonged to the Gallo-Romans, who, in the beginning were the only ones on whom the episcopal dignity was conferred. The king governed the provinces through his counts, and had a considerable voice in the selection of the clergy. The drawing up of the Salian Law (LexSalica), w'hich seems to date from the early part of the reign of Clovis, and the Council of Orleans, convoked by him and held in the last year of his reign, prove that the legislative activity of this king was not eclipsed by his military energj' (see Clovis). Although founder of a kingdom destined to such a brilliant future, Clovis did not know how to shield it against a custom in vogue among the barbarians, i. e. the division of power among the sons of the king. This custom originated in the pagan idea that all kings were intended to reign because they were descended from the gods. Divine bloud flowed in the veins of all the king's sons, each of whom, therefore, being a king by birth, must have his share of the kingdom. This view, incompatible with the formation of a powerful, durable monarchy, had been vigorously rejected by Genseric the Vandal, who, to secure the indivisibility of his kingdom, had estab- lished in his family a certain order of succession. Either because he died suddenly or for some other rea- son, Clovis took no measures to abolish this custom, which continued among the Pranks until the middle of the ninth century and, more than once, endangered their nationality.
After the death of Clovis, therefore, his four sons divided his kingdom, each reigning from a different centre: Thierry at Metz, Clodomir at Orleans, Childe- bert at Paris, and Clotaire at Soissons. They contin- ued the career of conquest inaugurated by their father, and, in spite of the frequent discords that divided
them, augmented the estates he had left them. The
principal events of their reign were: (1) The destruc-
tion of the Kingdom of Thuringia by Thierry in 5.31,
which extended Prankish power into the heart of what
is now Germany; (2) the conquest of the Kingdom
of the Burgundians by Childebert and Clotaire in 532,
after their brother Clodomir had perished in a previ-
ous attempt to overthrow it in 524 ; (3) the cession of
Provence to the Pranks by the Ostrogoths in 536, on
condition that the former would assist them in the
war just declared against them by Emperor Justinian.
But instead of helping the Ostrogoths, the Pranks
under Theudebert, son of Thierry, taking shameful ad-
vantage of this oppressed people, cruelly pillaged
Italy until the bands under the command of Leuthar
and Butilin were exterminated by Narses in 553. The
death of Theudebert, in 548, was soon followed by that
of his son Theobald, in 555, and by the death of Childe-
bert in 558, Clotaire I, the last of the four brothers,
becoming sole heir to the estate of his father, Clovis.
Clotaire reduced the Saxons and Bavarians to a state
of vas.salage, and died in 561 leaving four sons; once
more the monarchy was divided, being partitioned in
about the same way as on the death of Clovis in 511 :
Gontranreigneilat Orlfens,CharibertatParis,Sigebert
at Reims, and Chilperic at Soissons. Charibert's death
in 567 and the division of his estate occasioned quar-
rels between Chilperic and Sigebert, already at odds
on account of their wives. Unlike his brothers, who
had been satisfied to marry serving-women, Sigebert
had won the hand of the beautiful Brunehilde, daugh-
ter of Athanagild, King of the Visigoths. Chilperic
had followed Sigebert's example by marrying Gale-
swintha, Brunehilde's sister, but at the instigation of
his mistress, Fredegonda, he soon had Galeswintha
assassinated and placed Fredegonda upon the throne.
Brunehilde's determination to avenge the death of her
sister involved in bitter strife not only the two women
but their husbands. In 575 Sigebert, who was repeat-
edly provoked by Chilperic, took the field, resolved to
bring the quarrel to a conclusion. Chilperic, already
banished from his kingdom, had taken refuge behind
the walls of Tournai, whence he had no hope of escape,
when, just as Sigebert's soldiers were about to raise
him to the throne, he was felled by assassins sent
by Fredegonda. Immediately the aspect of affairs
changed: Brunehilde, humiliated and taken prisoner,
escaped only with the greatest difficulty and after the
most thrilling adventures, while Fredegonda and Chil-
peric exulted in their triimiph. The rivalry between
the two kingdoms, henceforth known respectively as
Austrasia (Kingdom of the East) and Neustria (King-
dom of the West), only grew fiercer. Gontran's king-
dom continued to be called Burgimdy. First the
nobles of Austrasia and then Brunehilde, who had
become regent, led the campaign against Chilperic,
who perished in 584 at the hand of an assassin. The
murderer could not be ascertained. During this period
of intestine strife, King Gontran was vainly endeav-
ouring to wrest Septimania from the Visigoths, as well
as to defend himself against the pretender Gondowald,
the natural son of Clotaire I, who, aided by the nobles,
tried to seize part of the kingdom, but fell in the at-
tempt. When Gontran died in 592, his inheritance
passed to Childebert II, son of Sigebert and Brune-
hilde, and after this king's death in 595 his states were
divided between his two sons, Theudebert II taking
Austrasia, and Thierry II Burgundy. In 600 and 604
the two brothers united their forces against Clotaire
II, son of Chilperic and Fredegonda, and reduced him
to the condition of a petty king. Soon, however, jeal-
ousy sprang up between the two brothers, they waged
war against each other, and Theudebert, twice de-
feated, was killed. The victorious Thierry was about
to inflict a like fate on Clotaire II, but died in 613,
being still young and undoubtedly the victim of the
excesses that had shortened the careers of most of the
