Kingdoms of Germany - Early Franconia

One of several territories which emerged within the borders of modern Germany, this was a western-central one by the name of Franconia. It formed the heartland of East Francia, being heavily settled during the sixth and seventh centuries AD and being given its name by Franks.

Franconia was bordered by the Saxony to its north, Thuringia to its north-east, and Alemannia and Bavaria to the south. The Franks who created it were one of several West Germanic federations, formed of various Germanic tribal elements. They largely coalesced into the Ripaurian Franks who remained on the east bank of the Rhine while their counterparts crossed into Gaul to found the initial Frankish kingdoms.

The Frankish conquest of the Alemanni in AD 496 led to that tribe's absorption into their expanding kingdom by AD 505. It seems that their subsequent migration southwards left relatively empty areas of the east bank of the Rhine around the River Main confluence, with these being ripe for settlement. The now-vast Frankish state was divided upon the death of Clovis in 511, with the northernmost and easternmost territories going to Austrasia.

In 531 the Thuringians were similarly defeated, apparently with the Austrasian Franks ruling the region directly, without appointing any sub-kings. This seems to have been the point at which Franks also started to settle the territory between the former Alemanni lands and the Thuringians themselves, in time creating a region which became known as Franconia.

Franconia remained an eastern region of the kingdom of Austrasia during the supremacy of the Merovingian Franks. In 751, with the Pope's blessing, the Carolingian mayor of the palace deposed the Merovingians and took control of the empire. The sub-kingdoms of Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy were now controlled directly, and the name of Austrasia faded from common usage.

The empire was divided between 840-843, with areas of Austrasia now being within East Francia. Following the fragmentation of the East Frankish kingdom in the late ninth and early tenth centuries, Franconia emerged as a large stem duchy while the Germanic Roman empire was being formally secured by purely German rulers in favour of the former Frankish rulers. Thereafter Franconia survived until another great political collapse in German lands in the thirteenth century.

The original pagi in Franconia were as follows: the pagus Nafinsis (Nahegau) and, to its east, the pagus Wormaciensis (Wormsgau), these being the two Franconian pagi which lay to the west of the Rhine during the early Carolingian period, within the ecclesiastical diocese of Mainz.

The counties of Veldenz and Leiningen, and the territories of the Wildgrafen and Raugrafen, developed in the area of Nahegau. Speyergau lay to the south of Wormsgau, on the west bank of the Rhine. Nordgau in Alsace lay below Speyergau. Ufgau was on the east bank of the Rhine, to the east of Speyergau. Rheingau lay along the eastern bank of the Rhine, east of the towns of Mainz and Worms, and north of the small area of Lobdengau. Maingau lay directly to the east of Rheingau, and south of Weteneiba.

Northern Franconia consisted of (from west to east) the three areas of Engersgau (later the county of Wied), Lahngau (later divided into Niederlahngau, in which the counties of Diez evolved in the northern area and Weilburg in the south, and Oberlahngau, which became the county of Gleiberg), and Hessengau (around the towns of Fritzlar and Kassel).

Grabfeldgau formed the northern part of eastern Franconia, south of Thuringia, with Saalgau to its south. South-eastern Franconia included Waltsazi, Weringau, Gozfelt, and Iphigau (west to east). To their south lay Wingarteiba, Tubergau, Gollachgau and Rangau (also from west to east). The southernmost part of eastern Franconia consisted of Elisanzgau, Breitachgau, Scuciengau, Murrachgau, Jägestgau, Cochingau and Mulachgau.

The local dialect in modern Franconia is Fränkisch (a division of the East Franconian group), which can sometimes be a little hard to understand for those who are familiar with standard German, although it is not as different as Bavarian. People have a tendency to pronounce a 't' like a 'd', a 'p' like a 'b', and sometimes a 'k' like a 'g'. This is also often noticeable when Franconians speak foreign languages. The prevalence of spoken English is around average for (West) Germans, with higher averages in the big cities and university towns such as Erlangen.

Records for all these territories in Germany before the twelfth century can often be somewhat patchy, and the list of Franconian rulers is one of the better examples of just how patchy. There are several apparent gaps, although this seems to be the result of Franconia's failure to emerge as a powerful duchy in its own right, and therefore not establishing its own ruling house.

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