Product Code Database
East Francia (Latin: Francia orientalis) or the Kingdom of the East Franks (Regnum Francorum orientalium) was a successor state of the Carolingian Empire ruled by the Carolingian dynasty until 911. It was established through the 843 Treaty of Verdun which divided the former kingdom of Francia into three kingdoms: Francia Orientalis (the East Frankish kingdom); Middle Francia (the Middle Frankish kingdom); and West Francia (the West Frankish kingdom).
The east–west division with the Treaty of Verdun, enforced by the Germanic-Latin language split, "gradually hardened into the establishment of separate kingdoms",Bradbury 2007, 21: "... division which gradually hardened into the establishment of separate kingdoms, notably East and West Francia, or what we can begin to call Germany and France." with East Francia becoming (or being) the Kingdom of Germany, and West Francia becoming the Kingdom of France.Goldberg 2006, 6: "Louis the kingship laid the foundations for an east Frankish kingdom that, in the eleventh century, was transformed into the medieval Kingdom of Germany".
The term orientalis Francia originally referred to Franconia and orientales Franci to its inhabitants, the ethnic Franks living east of the Rhine. The use of the term in a broader sense, to refer to the eastern kingdom, was an innovation of Louis the German's court. Since eastern Francia could be identified with old Austrasia, the Frankish heartland, Louis's choice of terminology hints at his ambitions.Goldberg 2006, 73. Under his grandson Arnulf of Carinthia the terminology was largely dropped, and the kingdom was simply known as Francia.Müller-Mertens 1999, 237.
When it was necessary, as in the 921 Treaty of Bonn with the West Franks, the "eastern" qualifier appeared. Henry I refers to himself as rex Francorum orientalium, "king of the East Franks", in the treaty.Müller-Mertens 1999, 241. By the 12th century, historian Otto of Freising in using the Carolingian terminology, had to explain that the "eastern kingdom of the Franks" ( orientale Francorum regnum) was "now called the kingdom of the Germans" ( regnum Teutonicorum).Scales 2012, 158.
The contemporary East Frankish Annales Fuldenses describes the kingdom being "divided in three" and Louis "acceding to the eastern part". AF a. 843: in tres partes diviso ... Hludowicus quidem orientalem partem accepti. The West Frankish Annales Bertiniani describes the extent of Louis's lands: "at the assigning of portions, Louis obtained all the land beyond the Rhine river, but on this side of the Rhine also the cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz with their counties". AB a. 843: ubi distributis portionibus, Hludowicus ultra Rhenum omnia, citra Rhenum vero Nemetum, Vangium et Moguntiam civitates pagosque sortitus est. The cities are Speyer, Worms and Mainz. The kingdom of West Francia went to Charles the Bald, and between their realms a kingdom of Middle Francia, incorporating Regnum Italicum, was given to Lothair.
While East Francia contained about a third of Austrasia, the rest consisted mostly of lands annexed to the Frankish empire between the 5th and the 8th century.Goldberg 1999, 41. These included the duchies of Alamannia, Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia, as well as the northern and eastern marches with the Danes and Slavs. Contemporary chronicler Regino of Prüm writes that the "different people" ( diversae nationes populorum) of East Francia, mostly Germanic- and Slavic-speaking, could be "distinguished from each other by race, customs, language and laws" ( genere moribus lingua legibus).Reynolds 1997, 257.
In 869, Lotharingia was divided between West and East Francia under the Treaty of Meerssen. The short lived Middle Francia turned out to be the theatre of Franco-German wars up until the 20th century. All the Frankish lands were briefly reunited by Charles the Fat, but in 888 he was deposed by nobles, and in East Francia Arnulf of Carinthia was elected king. The increasing weakness of royal power in East Francia meant that dukes of Bavaria, Swabia, Franconia, Saxony and Lotharingia turned from appointed nobles into hereditary rulers of their territories. Kings increasingly had to deal with regional rebellions.
In 911 Saxon, Franconian, Bavarian and Swabian nobles no longer followed the tradition of electing someone from the Carolingian dynasty as a king to rule over them, and on 10 November 911 elected one of their own (Conrad I) as king. Because Conrad was one of the dukes, he found it very hard to establish his authority over them. Duke Henry of Saxony was in rebellion against Conrad until 915, and struggle against Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria, cost Conrad his life. On his deathbed, Conrad chose Henry as the most capable successor. This kingship changed from Franks to Saxons, who had suffered greatly during the conquests of Charlemagne. Henry, who was elected to kingship by only Saxons and Franconians at Fritzlar, had to subdue other dukes and concentrated on creating a state apparatus which was fully utilized by his son and successor Otto I. By his death in 936, Henry had prevented collapse of royal power, as was happening in West Francia, and he left a much stronger kingdom to Otto. After Otto was crowned Emperor in Rome in 962, the era of the Holy Roman Empire began.
From an early date, the East Frankish kingdom had a more formalised notion of royal election than West Francia. Around 900, a liturgy for the coronation of a king, called the early German ordo, was written for a private audience. It required the coronator to ask the "designated prince" ( princeps designatus) whether he was willing to defend the church and the people and then to turn and ask the people whether they were willing to be subject to the prince and obey his laws. The latter then shouted, " Fiat, fiat!" (Let it be done!), an act that later became known as "Recognition". This is the earliest known coronation ordo with a Recognition in it, and it was subsequently incorporated in the influential Pontificale Romano-Germanicum.Ullmann 1969, 108–09.
In June 888, King Arnulf convened a council at Mainz. In attendance were the three archbishops of East Francia—Wilbert of Cologne, Liutbert of Mainz and Ratbod of Trier—and West Francia archbishops of Reims (Fulk) and Rouen (John I) along with the bishops of Beauvais and Noyon. According to Walter Ullmann, the presence of the West Franks was on account of the "barren ecclesiastical thought" of the East, and the council proceeded to adopt West Frankish ideas of royal sacrality and anointing. It was "the first phase in the process of assimilation of the two halves of the Carolingian inheritance".Ullmann 1969, 124–27. In another church council at Tribur in 895, the prelates declared that Arnulf was chosen by God and not by men and Arnulf in turn swore to defend the church and its privileges from all its enemies. When Arnulf died in 899, his minor son Louis IV was crowned but not anointed, and placed under the tutelage of Archbishop Hatto I of Mainz. Louis's coronation was the first in German history. When Louis died in 911, Duke Conrad I, then the Duke of Franconia, was elected to replace him on 10 November and he became the first German king to receive unction.
|
|
