European Kingdoms

Early Medieval Germans (Germany)
c.AD 500s - 700s

Indo-Europeans - Germanic Tribes (Intro) Anatolian Tribes Balkans Tribes Baltic Tribes Celtic Tribes Germanic Tribes Italic Tribes Indo-Iranian/Aryan Tribes Slavic Tribes Tocharians (Intro)

The Germanic ethnic group began as a division of the western edge of late proto-Indo-European dialects around 3300 BC, splitting away from a general westwards migration across Europe to head towards the southern coastline of the Early Baltics and then enter southern Scandinavia (see feature link, right, for more detail).

By the time in which the early Germanic tribes were becoming key players in Western European politics in the last two centuries BC, the previously dominant Celts were on the verge of being conquered and dominated by Rome (see map link for general locations of all known tribes in the first centuries BC and AD).

Strabo says that the Romans introduced the name 'mani' for these 'new' barbarians because their tribes were the 'authentic Celts', seeming to mean that they were what the Celts used to be - strong, aggressive and bold.

By the end of the fifth century AD, the recently-founded Germanic kingdoms of Western Europe were starting to settle down, establishing those borders which would create medieval and modern Europe. The Franks had largely set their northern borders in the fifth century, although they continued to push south and east, especially towards Aquitaine. The Visigoths soon firmly established themselves in Iberia, along with the Suevi, while the Vandals and Alani were supreme in North Africa.

In Northern Europe, the Saxons and Frisians were consolidating their territory, even while Saxons (and some Frisians) were flooding into Britain in small-but-frequent numbers. The Danes were expanding heavily from southernmost Sweden to claim territory which had been abandoned by the Angles and Jutes, while the Swedes themselves - and the Norse - were edging farther northwards to absorb (and be changed by) Kven and Sámi groups.

In central and Eastern Europe, consolidated groups of Germanic tribes and absorbed Celts and earlier indigenous peoples formed various kingdoms, some of which were short-lived in the face of growing Slav dominance, or when threatened by waves of nomadic invaders from the Far East.

Due to the later Slav dominance here, borders remained fluid for far longer, well into the tenth and eleventh centuries AD, by which time many of the West Germanic kingdoms had been established for half a millennium (if they still survived at all).

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(Information by Peter Kessler and Edward Dawson, with additional information from Germania, Tacitus, from Agricola, from Roman Soldier versus Germanic Warrior: 1st Century AD, Lindsay Powell, from The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, David W Anthony, from Genealogy of the Kings of France, Claude Wenzler (Editions Ouest-France, Rennes, 2008), from Geography, Ptolemy, and from External Links: The Works of Julius Caesar: Gallic Wars, and Ancient Origins, and Geography, Strabo (H C Hamilton & W Falconer, London, 1903, Perseus Online Edition), and The Balts, Marija Gimbutas (1963, previously available online thanks to Gabriella at Vaidilute, but still available as a PDF - click or tap on link to download or access it).)

c.500

Describing a Europe of about AD 500, principally Central Europe and the nearer north, the Old English poem Widsith mentions several Germanic peoples, not all of whom can be properly identified.

Defeat by Clovis of the Franks at Tolbiac in 496 signalled the beginning of the end of Alemannic independence (The Battle of Tolbiac by Ary Scheffer, 1836)

The list of rulers covers a span of up to a century, and is probably cobbled together from all the famous warriors who are known to the poem's composer, while Widsith himself may make his trip to the court of the Ostrogothic King Ermanaric around AD 375, just before the latter's death.

531

The Franks of Austrasia conquer the Thuringians. Portions of territory are lost to the Saxons, while there also seems to be a reverse migration of Germanics from Britain, where the recent British victory at Mons Badonicus has cut them off from the acquisition of new lands.

These returning Angles and Saxons appear to be given land in Thuringia by King Theuderich. However, it is also at this time, in this century, that the migration of Britons from the mainland to Brittany is at its heaviest, weakening the British defensive position for the future.

This Anglo-Saxon silver sceat dates to about AD 700 and was indicative of the general emergence of Germanic coinage by this time

536

The Eucii, or Saxones Eucii, are associated with the Saxons by this point, which is when they become dependants of the Franks. Some scholars identify these people with the Jutes who have been settled in Britain for almost a century despite the recent backwash of settlers returning to continental Europe after the major British victory of about 496.

Instead, these Eucii may be an obscure tribe known as the Euthiones who are also associated with the Saxons in a poem by Venantius Fortunatus which is written in 583.

550s

Jordanes, a bureaucrat in the Eastern Roman capital of Constantinople, writes of the barbarian tribes in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, mentioning a wide number of them which include the following:

The Gepidae (the Gepids of the 270s) who dwell In the land of Scythia to the west, while on the northern edges of Dacia, around the western shore of the Black Sea at the mouth of the Danube, the populous Venethi occupy a great expanse of land.

The Germanic Gepids migrated into Poland where they occupied land to the east of the Vistula in the first century AD, close to their allies, the Goths

These Venethi are confused with the Slavic Sclaveni and Antes who are becoming dominant in the east. The Sclaveni branch now occupies territory between the city of Noviodunum and the lake called Mursianus to the Danaster, and northwards as far as the Vistula, mostly in swamps and forests. The Antes occupy the curve of the sea of Pontus, between the Danaster and the Danaper.

In 'the island of Scandza' (Scandinavia) there dwell nineteen tribal groups, only some of which are named. In Sweden are the Screrefennae (Sámi peoples) and the Suehans (Swedes) on the eastern edge, the latter being noted for their splendid horses.

Farther south are far more tribes which are living shoulder to shoulder: the Theustes (in the Tjust region of Småland), Vagoth (Gotlanders?), Bergio (probably in the region of Skåne), Hallin (southern Halland), and Liothida (again probably in Skåne).

The Sámi people began inhabiting northern Scandinavia from at least 1500 BC, occupying a land they called (and still call) Sápmi, covering areas of modern Norway (Finnmark and beyond), Sweden, Finland, and Russia - the traditional English version of the name was Lapland, although this is now frowned upon in some quarters

Even farther southwards are the Ahelmil (probably in the region of Halmstad), Finnaithae (in Finnveden), Fervir (Fjäre Hundred), and Gauthigoth (the Västergötland Geats). Then come the Mixi, Evagre, and Otingis.

Southernmost in Scandinavia live the Ostrogoths (the Östergötland Geats), Aeragnaricii, and the most gentle Finns, 'milder than all the inhabitants of Scandza'. Similarly located are the Vinovilith, Suetidi (Swedes again), and Dani (Danes), the latter being responsible for driving out the Heruli.

In modern Norway the Adogit live in the far north. Farther south are the Grannii (Grenland), Augandzi (Agder), Eunixi, Taetel, Rugii (Rogaland), Arochi (Hördaland, who have been linked to the Charudes) and Ranii, with the Raumarici (the later kingdom of Raumarike) close to modern Oslo.

568

The death of Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I in 565 ends a period of strong rule in Italy. The advent of the Avars in south-eastern Europe triggers a wave of migration which sees the remnants of the Gepids join the Langobards and both groups enter northern Italy along with various flotsam and jetsam.

The Pannonian basin is a marked topographical low in Central Europe which is surrounded on all sides by mountain ranges, making it ideally defensible

It also permanently ends Germanic dominance in Pannonia (modern Hungary). Following the Langobard migration southwards, a new confederation, the Bavarii, forms in their place to the north of the Danube, in modern south-eastern Germany.

585

The Suevi kingdom in the Iberian peninsula falls to the Visigoths. It is incorporated into the Visigoth territories as its sixth province, although the Suevi population is generally left alone to provide this corner of Iberia with a distinctive cultural addition.

700s

The process of civilising and Christianising the Germanic peoples has long been underway. By the eighth century they have formed kingdoms which have existed for over three centuries in some cases, and can no longer be considered to be barbarians. Instead, they rule half of Europe.

The baptism of Clovis in Reims in 496 made him the only barbarian Christian king and won him increased support from his former Roman subjects in Gaul. This romantic recreation of the event was by François-Louis Dejuinne (1786-1844), completed in 1837

After the disappearance of Germanic ethnic origins (in the form of their tribes) in the High Middle Ages, the cultural identity of Europe is built on the idea of Christendom as opposed to Islam, with this construction serving to unite a European external view of the world. Right now, though, it is the Merovingian kingdom which forms the leading Germanic state in western and Central Europe.