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Neustria was the western part of the during the Early Middle Ages, in contrast to the eastern Frankish kingdom, . It initially included land between the and the , in the north of present-day , with , Orléans, , as its main cities.

The same term later referred to a smaller region between the and the rivers known as the regnum Neustriae, a constituent subkingdom of the Carolingian Empire and then . The Carolingian kings also created a March of Neustria which was a frontier duchy against the and that lasted until the Capetian monarchy in the late 10th century, when the term was eclipsed as a European political or geographical term.


Name
The name Neustria is mostly explained as "new western land",y J. B. Benkard, Historical Sketch of the German Emperors and Kings (1855), p.2 ; e.g. Will Slatyer, Ebbs and Flows of Ancient Imperial Power, 3000 BC - 900 AD (2012), p. 323;
(1988). 9780631179368, Basil Blackwell.
although Taylor (1848) suggested the interpretation of "northeastern land".'"Ni-oster-rike" That' Nordisk familjebok (1913) even suggested "not the eastern land" ( icke östland).Meijer et al. (eds.), Nordisk familjebok, Ny, rev. och rikt illustrerad upplaga (1913), p. 841. (1825) assumed Neustria is simply a corruption of Westria, from West-rike "western realm".Augustin Thierry, History of the Conquest of England by the Normans (1825), p. 55. In any case, Neustria contrasts with the name "eastern realm". The analogy to Austrasia is even more explicit in the variant Neustrasia. Neustrasia appears to be preferred by some authors writing in , e.g. by (d. 1607); (ed.) Caesaris S.R.E. Card. Baronii t. 11, (1867), p. 583.

Neustria was also employed as a term for northwestern Italy during the period of domination. It was contrasted with the northeast, which was called Austrasia, the same term as given to .


Merovingian kingdom
The predecessor to Neustria was a Roman rump state, the Kingdom of Soissons.Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, 2.27 In 486 its ruler, , lost the struggle for power with , the Frankish king, in the Franco Roman War. He was beaten in the Battle of Soissons and the domain was thereafter under the control of the Franks. Constant re-divisions of territories by Clovis's descendants resulted in many rivalries that, for more than two hundred years, kept Neustria in almost constant warfare with Austrasia, the eastern portion of the Frankish .

Despite the wars, Neustria and Austrasia re-united briefly on several occasions. The first was under during his reign from 558 to 562. The struggle for power continued with Queen of Neustria, the widow of King (reigned 566–584) and the mother of the new king (reigned 584–628), unleashing a bitter war.

After his mother's death and burial in Saint Denis Basilica near Paris in 597, continued the struggle against Queen Brunhilda, and finally triumphed in 613 when Brunhilda's followers betrayed the old queen into his hands. Clotaire had Brunhilda put to the rack and stretched for three days, then chained between four horses and eventually ripped limb from limb. Clotaire now ruled a united realm, but only for a short time as he made his son king of Austrasia. Dagobert's accession in Neustria resulted in another temporary unification.

In Austrasia the mayor Grimoald the Elder attempted a by forcing the Austrasian king Siegebert III to adopt his son Childebert who succeeded as "Childebert the Adopted". Grimoald and his son Childebert were arrested by Neustrian forces and executed in Paris. , after this execution, again reunited the Austrasian kingdom with Neustria, although temporarily. During or soon after the reign of Clovis's son , the dynasty of Neustria, like that of Austrasia before it, ceded authority to its own mayor of the palace.

In 678, Neustria, under Mayor , subdued the Austrasians for the last time. Ebroin was murdered in 680. In 687, Pippin of Herstal, mayor of the palace of the King of Austrasia, defeated the Neustrians at Tertry. Thus he guaranteed the predominance of Austrasia, characterized by its territorial aristocracy, over Neustria. Henry Pirenne, History of Europe Neustria's mayor was assassinated shortly afterwards and following a marriage alliance () between Pippin's son Drogo and Berchar's widow Anstrud of Champagne, Pippin secured his position as mayor of the Neustrian palace.

(2025). 9780521564946, Cambridge University Press.

Pippin's descendants, the , continued to rule the two realms as mayors. With Pope Stephen II's blessing, after 751 the Carolingian formally deposed the Merovingians and took control of the empire, he and his descendants ruling as kings.

Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy then became united under one authority and, although it would split once again into various eastern and western divisions, the names "Neustria" and "Austrasia" gradually fell out of use.


Carolingian subkingdom
In 748, the brothers Pepin the Short and Carloman gave their younger brother Grifo twelve counties in Neustria centred on that of . This was termed the ducatus Cenomannicus, or Duchy of Maine, and this was an alternative name for the regnum of Neustria well into the 9th century.

The term "Neustria" took on the meaning of "land between the and " when it was given as a regnum () by to his second son, Charles the Younger, in 790. At this time, the chief city of the appears to be Le Mans, where the royal court of Charles was established. Under the Carolingian dynasty, the chief duty of the Neustrian king was to defend the sovereignty of the over the Bretons.

In 817, Louis the Pious granted Neustria to his eldest son , but following his rebellion in 831, he gave it to Pepin I of Aquitaine, and following the latter's death in 838, to Charles the Bald. Neustria, along with , formed the major part of Charles kingdom carved out of the Empire by the Treaty of Verdun (843). Charles continued the tradition of appointing an elder son to reign in Neustria with his own court at Le Mans when he made Louis the Stammerer king in 856. Louis married the daughter of the King of Brittany, , and received the regnum from the Breton monarch with the consent of the Frankish magnates. This unique relationship for Neustria stressed how it had shrunk in size to definitely exclude the Île de France and Paris by this time, as it was distanced from the central authority of Charles the Bald and closer to that of Erispoe. Louis was the last Frankish monarch to be appointed to Neustria by his father and the practice of creating subkingdoms for sons waned among the later Carolingians.


Carolingian march
In 861, the Carolingian king Charles the Bald created the Marches of Neustria that were ruled by officials appointed by the crown, known as , or . Originally, there were two marches, one against the and one against the , often called the Breton March and Norman March respectively.

In 911, Robert I of France became of both Marches and took the title demarchus. His family, the later Capetians, ruled the whole of Neustria until 987, when was elected to the kingship. The subsidiary counts of Neustria had exceeded the in power by that time and the peak of Viking and Breton raiding had passed. After the , no further margraves were appointed and "Neustria" was eclipsed as a European political term (present, however, in some Anglo-Norman chronicles and revived as synonymous with English possession of Normandy under Henry V by the St. Albans chronicler Thomas Walsingham in his Ypodigma Neustriae).


Rulers

Merovingian kings


Mayors of the palace


Carolingian sub-kings
  • Charles the Younger, 790–811
  • , 817–831
  • Pepin, 831–838
  • Charles the Bald, 838–856
  • Louis the Stammerer, 856–879
Louis was chased from in 858 following the assassination of Erispoe in November 857.


Robertians
  • Robert the Strong 853–866
  • Eudes of France 888–898
  • Robert of France, 911–922
  • Hugh the Great, 922–956
  • , 956–987


Historiography
The chief contemporary chronicles written from a Neustrian perspective are the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours, the Book of the History of the Franks, the Annals of St-Bertin, the Annals of St-Vaast, the Annals by Flodoard of Reims, and the History of the conflicts of the Gauls by Richer of Reims.Hodgkin, vol. vii, p 25.


Further reading
  • . The Dark Ages 476–918. Rivingtons: London, 1914.
  • Hodgkin, Thomas. Italy and her Invaders. Clarendon Press: 1895.

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