GEOGRAPHY. 3 



Q 



existence at that period, extending over France, Switzerland, Germany, 

 Italy, and great part of Hungary. The basis of the empire of the Franks 

 was laid by Clodio, their first historical king, who, about 437, conquered the 

 northern provinces of France. He was succeeded by his son Merovteus, 

 from whom the first royal race of the Franks received the name of Mero- 

 vingian. After ruling from 447 to 456. he was succeeded by Childeric, 

 456 to 481, after whom came his son Chlodvig I. (Clovis), king of the 

 Salian Franks, and real founder of the Frankian monarchy. By his 

 victory over Syagrius at Nogent, not far from Soissons, Clovis put an end 

 to the Roman dominion in the now Frankish Empire. The battle of 

 Tolbiacum, now Zulpech, in 496, gave him the sovereignty over the 

 Allemanni ; in 508, he conquered all Aquitania, and all the West Gothic 

 provinces in Gaul; and in 510 enlarged his empire by murdering all the 

 other kings of the Franks. 



On the death of Clovis, in 511, his dominions were parcelled out among 

 his four sons, Clodomir, Childebert, Lothar I., and Theodoric, forming four 

 kingdoms, with Paris, Orleans, Soissons, and Metz, as the capitals. The 

 fourth kingdom w^as called Austrasia, and included, in addition to the 

 original region, the Ripuarian Franks, the Duchies of Friesia, Thuringia, 

 and Bavaria ; the three first were subsequently united under the name of 

 Neustria, to which was afterwards attached Britannia Minor or Armorica, 

 the Brittany of the present day. In addition to Austrasia and Neustria, 

 Gaul included two other principal countries, Burgundy and Aquitania. 

 Burgundy, from 443 to 534, constituted a separate government, but was 

 conquered in 534 by the British kings, and united with the kingdom of 

 Orleans ; it embraced Burgundy proper, the provinces taken in 544 from 

 the east Goths, western Switzerland, and Dauphiny. In 508, Aquitania, the 

 south-western part of France, was taken from the west Goths : in it were 

 included the provinces of Auvergne and Gascony. Theodebert, the son 

 and successor of Theodoric, destroyed the government of Thuringia, and 

 turned it into a Frankish province. From 558 to 561, Clothar or Lothar L, 

 son of Clovis, reigned alone; after his death, however, the kingdom was 

 divided among his four sons. Subsequently we find only the two kingdoms 

 of Austrasia and Neustria (with Burgundy) which Dagobert I. again united 

 in 628, his brother Charibert residing at Toulouse as king of Aquitania., 

 Fresh partitions again occurred, but in 687 Pepin of Heristal became actual 

 ruler of the three kingdoms, under the title of Major Domus, subsequently 

 a Duke and Prince of the Franks : Dietrich III. and his successors being 

 kings only in name. To Pepin succeeded his natural son Charles Martel, 

 who elevated himself to the position of Duke and sole lord of Neustria and 

 Austrasia, after the death of Dietrich IV., in 737, and converted Friesland 

 on the North Sea into a Frankish province. His sons Pipin the- Short 

 and Carlmann divided the kingdom ; the latter, however, entering 

 the cloister, and Childebert III. having been deposed, Pipin was crowned 

 king of the Franks by St. Bonifacius in 752, and subsequently by 

 Pope Zacharias. Shortly after, he conquered Septemania : this was 

 the former Gallia Narbonensis, the region between the Cevennes, 



INGONORAPHIC ENCYCLOPEDIA. VOL. III. 3 33 



