Salian Franks
The
Salian Franks were a subgroup of the
Franks who had been living North and East of the
limes in the Dutch coastal area. From the
5th century they migrated throughout
Belgium and to northern
France, then formed a
kingdom in northern France and on coasts north of it. This kingdom was the nucleus of the future Kingdom of France.
They are distinguished from the
Ripuarian Franks. The name
Ripuarian is believed to mean 'river-dwelling'. The name
Salian may refer to
salt and, by extension, the
sea,
i.e. 'sea-dwelling'. Alternatively, it may be derived from the Roman name for a river in
The Netherlands:
Isala, a branch of the
Rhine currently named
IJssel in
Dutch. In the
third century A.D., the Romans may have named the Germanic tribe living in this area after this river. Even nowadays, this area is called
Salland.
From this area, the Salian Franks occupied the Rhine
delta in the
fourth and the
fifth centuries and moved further south, with the Belgian city of
Tournai becoming the center of their domain. Later still, they again moved south and gained control over
Roman Gaul, i.e.
France, which bears its current name after them.
The Salian Franks formed the foundation for early Dutch culture and society.
The adjective
Salian as applied to the Frankish people is the origin of the name of the
Salic Law.
By the 9th century, if not earlier, the division between Salian and Ripuarian Franks had in practice become virtually non-existent, but continued for some time to have implications for the legal system under which a person could go on trial.
In
451,
Aëtius,
de facto ruler of the
Western Roman Empire, called upon his Germanic allies on Roman soil to help fight off an invasion by
Attila's
Huns. The Salian Franks answered the call.
In Gaul a fusion of Roman and Germanic societies was occurring. During the period of Merovingian rule, the Franks reluctantly began to adopt Christianity following the baptism of
Clovis I, an event that inaugurated the alliance between the Frankish kingdom and the
Roman Catholic Church. Unlike their
Goth and
Lombard counterparts the Salians adopted Catholic Christianity early on; they had an intimate relationship with their ecclesiastical hierarchy, subjects, and conquered territories.
Clovis, a Salian Frank belonging to a family supposedly descended from a mythical hero named
Merovech, became the absolute ruler of a Germanic kingdom of mixed Roman-Germanic population in
486. He consolidated his rule with victories over the Gallo-Romans and all the Frankish tribes and established his capital in
Paris. His successors drove the
Visigoths from southern France and conquered the
Alemanni,
Burgundians, and
Thuringians. The remaining 250 years of the dynasty, however, were marked by internecine struggles and a gradual decline.
Since after the conversion there was no applicable custom for ordering the succession, Frankish society no longer hinged on the religious cult of the royal lineage. Royal succession became more of matter of customary law and the monarchy was henceforth sustained by the church hierarchy instead of by the people at large. This change in society kickstarted the system of European
Monarchies.
The division of the Frankish kingdom among Clovis's four sons (
511) was an unfortunate precedent that would influence Frankish history for more than three centuries, and it appears like an exercise in interpretation, rather than simple implementation of a new model of succession. No trace of an established practice of territorial division can in fact be discovered among Germanic peoples other than the Franks.
*Area Handbook of the US Library of Congress
*[
1] Medieval Germany - Merovingian, Carolingian, Saxon, Salian and Hohenstaufen Dynasty
