Salfranken

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Parts of the sword hilt of King Childerich I.

As Salfranken (also Salian Franks , Salier or West Franconia ), a sub-tribe of the Franks that was adopted as an independently in the 4th century is called. They are said to have originally lived from the Lower Rhine to Salland on the IJssel and then settled in Toxandria and later in the Tournai ( Hainaut ) area.

The royal family of the Merovingians , which subjugated all Franconian sub-tribes and other neighboring areas in the 5th and 6th centuries and thus founded the Franconian Empire , is traditionally assigned to the Salfranken. In the ancient sources and therefore also in the research literature , the Salfranken are called "Salier" ( Salii ). However, they have nothing to do with the high medieval rulers of the Salians .

The earlier research assumed that the "Salian" were beside the Ripuariern ( Ripuarii ) a kind of Frankish main stem formed. The two legal texts Lex Salica and Lex Ripuaria were interpreted as a result of this bipolarity . This view is obsolete today. Even the existence of an ethnic unit called Salier is now denied, if not without dissenting votes. Presumably the Salians were not a tribal name, but a (ethnically misinterpreted) designation of various Roman writers for the followers of certain, possibly Frankish, followers.

Settlement in Toxandria

The Salians are first attested to the year 357 and could originally have lived in the Salland in the Dutch province of Overijssel, which is named after them . In 358 they crossed the Rhine to the southwest and invaded the Roman Empire via the Betuwe .

The Romans were able to successfully defend themselves against the Frankish advances. Instead of driving out the Franks that had advanced to the west, the future Emperor Julian allowed them in 358 (at that time still Caesar , i.e. under Emperor, under Constantius II ) to settle in Toxandria, a sparsely populated area within the Roman province at that time Belgica II . In return, the Frankish warriors were in the military service of the Romans. This part of the Franks, since then referred to as Salian Francs or Sal Francs, was now spatially separated from the Franconian tribes further east on the right bank of the Rhine. The integration of the Salfranken within the Roman Empire by the Romans was successful in that it remained quiet in this area for almost a hundred years. In contrast, there were repeated clashes between the Romans and the Rhine Franks .

The Salfranken remained in Toxandria until the beginning of the 5th century. It is unclear whether they were involved in the warlike ventures of the remaining Franks. A king Faramund is named in later sources as a leader in the early 5th century, but he is considered a legendary figure and is not historically secured.

Settlement around Cambrai and Tournai

Map showing the relocation of the Salfranken (yellow) from the Toxandria and Betuwe areas to the Tournai area

From 440 onwards, under their king Chlodio , Salfranken advanced westward across the coal forest towards Arras and Cambrai . Aetius was able to defeat them in 448, but he allowed them as federates in the new settlement areas to remain in the area between the Somme and Scheldt . There existed several small kingdoms called Sal- Franconian . One was around Tournai - here Merowech and his son Childerich I are attested - another around Cambrai and at least one other was around a now unknown center. These Salfranken fought on the side of the Romans in the Catalaunian fields . The contracts with Aetius were valid until his death in 454 and until the death of Emperor Valentinian in 455.

Rise to great power

The "Salfränkische" petty king Childerich I achieved the influential rank of federate commander in Roman service with responsibility for a military district within the province of Belgica II . He apparently fought on the side of the Roman commander Aegidius against the Visigoths and against Saxons, who had settled at the Loire estuary. However, the sparse sources do not allow a precise assessment of Childerich's relationship to Aegidius, who rose against the Western Roman government in 462/63; it is entirely possible that both were rivals as well. Childerich's rank as Roman commander is likely to have outgrown the other Sal-Frankish kings. His son Clovis inherited this position in 481 or 482 and was finally able to assert himself against the other Sal Franconian small kings, such as Ragnachar and Chararich , so that he rose to become the only King of the Sal Franks. He then began to expand his sphere of influence to the southwest by attacking and defeating the Roman ruler Syagrius in 486/87 . Later, Clovis also succeeded in asserting himself against the Rhineland-Franconian petty kings and bringing the previously independent Francia Rhinensis under his rule. The Rhine Franconians made Clovis their king by elevating a shield , so that for the first time all of the Franconian tribes were united in one empire.

As early as the middle of the 5th century, the Salfranken tribe, which today's research calls "nebulous", disappears from the sources.

Salfränkische ruler

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ Ludwig Rübekeil: Early history and language history in the Netherlands. In: Amsterdam Contributions to Older German Studies , Vol. 71 (2013), pp. 53–98 (here: 67–72).
  2. ^ Eugen Ewig: The Merovingians and the Franconian Empire . 5th updated edition. Stuttgart 2006, p. 12 ff.
  3. ↑ David Frye: Aegidius, Childeric, Odovacer and Paul . In: Nottingham Medieval Studies 36, 1992, pp. 1-14.
  4. ^ Ludwig Rübekeil: Early history and language history in the Netherlands. In: Amsterdam Contributions to Older German Studies , Vol. 71 (2013), p. 56.