Barbarian Kingdoms

• Post-Roman Kingdoms


  States founded by several Germanic peoples in Western Europe and North Africa following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century
• King


  The very word is from a Germanic origin, while Latin uses 'rex'
• It was only after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 that the barbarians really transitioned into proper territorial kingdoms
• Frankish Kingdom


  • Franks were settled in what is known as Belgium/North of France
  • Clovis I created the Merovingian dynasty by uniting the Franks
  • Clovis had a long reign from 481-511
  • An important chronicle about those times was written by Gregory, bishop of Tours
  • Clovis developed an aggressive program to expand his realm
  • By Clovis' death in 511, the Merovingian kingdom encompassed all of Gaul except Burgundy and all of Germania Magna, except Saxony
• Clovis' conversion to Nicene Christianity

  • Occurred at an unknown date between 496 and 506
  • He was the first barbarian king to do so
  • His intentions are still unclear (sincere idea/eager to benefit from the bishops' support)
  • That decision gained Clovis a great reputation all over Western Europe and in History
• Merovingian Kingdom after Clovis' death


  1. Bloody competition between his 4 sons

  2. Conceived of as a single entity (Roman conception), though it could be equally split between heirs (Germanic conception)

  3. Resulted in more division than unity

  4. Merovingian kingdom at its peak in the 7th century
• Mayor of the Palace

  • A function in the Merovingian cult, before to deal with the palace daily life
  • A person close to the king whose power increased
  • In later texts, these kings are said to have lost so much power that they would have become "Roi fainéants" (lazy kings)
• Pepin the Short, son of the mayor of the palace, overthrew the last Merovingian king Childeric III and inaugurated the Carolingian Dynasty


  751
• Visigothic Kingdom


  • Recognised as a kingdom in 418, with their first capital at Toulouse
  • Asked to restore Roman laws and rules in their territory
  • Under King Euric, became the most powerful of the successor states of the Western Roman Empire
  • Clovis vanquished and killed Alaric II at Vouillé in 507, allowing him to seize all the Gallic Territories of the Visigoths
  • Remained the dominant power in the Iberian Peninsula
  • Around 580, managed to conquer the Suevi Kingdom
  • Visigoth kings supported a Heresy (Christianity that considers that father and son are not sharing the same substance)
  • Proclaimed their conversion to Nicene Christianity in 589
  • Collapsed soon after 711, when most of the Iberian Peninsula came under Islamic rule
• Ostrogothic Kingdom


  • Officially referred to as the "Kingdom of Italy", existed from 493 to 533
  • Founded when Theodoric the Great killed Odovacar in 493
  • Reached its peak under Theodoric's reign
  • Most of the political and social institutions of the late Western Roman Empire were preserved during his reign
  • Theodoric called himself "Gothorum Romanorumque rex" (King of the Goths and Romans)
  • Had great difficulties to overcome Theodoric's death in 526 without a son
  • Invaded by the Eastern Roman Empire in 535, vanquished in 554
  • Italy was devastated and considerably depopulated by the end of the conflict
• Barbarian Kingdoms


  • Deeply Romanised, mostly because of the urban network and the urban way of life maintained
  • Roman laws continued to remain predominant through the Theodosian Code
  • Several barbarian kings showed interest in legal matters and issued their own law codes, based on Roman laws but blended with Germanic legal conceptions (Weigeld and Ordeal)
• Barbarian Rulers


  • Made great efforts to strengthen their legitimacy by adopting elements of the former Roman Empire
  • The most used title was 'Rex'
  • Assumed a selection of Roman imperial titles and honours in the early 6th century
  • Both Theodoric and Clovis received honours and recognition by the imperial court in Constantinople (magister militum, patricius, consul...)
• Barbarian Kings


  • Their power was almost absolute since kindship was considered being a personal property
  • Ruled people, not lands as Roman emperors
  • No special conception of the power
  • Tended to settle down in capital cities, with the palace as the centre of their power
• Culture in Barbarian Kingdoms


  • People living under the power of the barbarian kingdoms maintained strong cultural and religious connections with each other and continued to speak Latin, with local modifications
  • Barbarian kings adopted several strategies to uproot paganism (to give church resources to convert people by predication)
  • From the end of the 7th century, almost no one was still claiming to be pagan
  • Arianism disappeared progressively from Western Europe
  • Distinction between barbarian and Roman are no longer visible: mix marriage allowed the blending, so the use of barbarian is no longer needed here
  • Blended because of Christianity, but pagan practices can remain
  • The church wants to remove them, deciding that some pagan days should be associated to Christianity
• Contributions of Germanic People


  • Warfare elements
  • Language and words
  • Art
• The barbarian kingdoms proved to be extremely fragile states, with the Frankish kingdom being the sole survivor
• Charlemagne, king of the Franks, was crowned as Roman emperor by Pope Leo III

  800
• The time of the barbarian kingdoms came to an end with the coronation of Charlemagne as Roman emperor