History of Germany Part-2

When Clovis died around 512 AD, his kingdom was divided among his four  sons in accordance with Frankish  tradition. This process of the vision of  lands among the sons of the Frankish  rulers would impede the unified growth  of their domain and the emergence of  something like a true nation-state or  even a true Kingdom in a more modern  sense for quite some time and in fact  much of the situation of early medieval  Germany is defined by this practice  which is called portable inheritance as  opposed to primogeniture where the first  foreign child gets about everything.  Sometimes these rulers would work  cohesively as they were expected to the  intention was after all to create  separate domains of one larger kingdom  but other times saw crippling civil wars.

 

The Franks would continue pushing into  Germany but infighting would continue in  the kingdom would eventually be divided  into three regions Neustria  Austria and burgundy with modern Germany  belonging mostly to Austria  along with conflict between themselves. They were also constantly involved in  Wars with foreigners including the westward banning Slavs and a VARs depending on  the circumstances and the frankish  domains at the time the Germans would  rule with more or less autonomy paganism  was still common in Germany itself  especially among the majority of the  country outside Frankish rule and there  was yet to be a written German language  apart from the aforementioned gothic  which was being forgotten in favor of  Latin in 613 Cloade. Torah the second of  Neustria reunited the Franks and  established what is called the mayor of  the palace to help with administration  of the kingdom in effect a kind of Prime  Minister Germany would continue  throughout this period at the center of  a Dark Age the German people's were  caught in a power struggle between many  competing forces on the continent but  were still united somewhat by a common  culture in similar languages by the 8th  century the Merovingians had become  effectively puppet kings, the men with  the real power were the mayors of the  palace in 718 Charles Martel secured  this position.

 

Charles the hammer as his  name meant an old French is remembered  most famously for his victory at the  Battle of Tor where he defeated the Muslim Lu my odds preventing nations such as France or even Germany from  Islamic takeover however Charles would  struggle not only with Muslims but  Germans as well before that battle which  took place in 732.

 

He was involved in war  against Bavarians Saxons allemande Ian  Friesians from 718 to 730 the Bavarians  were often independent minded and  uncooperative not something that would  change anytime soon and the Saxons were  pagans who frequently raided Frankish  territory in 751 the Vale was officially  taken off by Martel successor with the support of the Pope Charles. Martel's son  Pepin the short deposed the last  Merovingian Kings children the third  with the end of the Merovingians came a  new dynasty.

 

The Carolingians Pepin would  rule for 10 years his most major contribution which would have a  permanent effect on Europe was the  donation of Pepin which was essentially a land grant to the Pope which would be  known as the papal States however it would be his son who laid the foundations for much of modern Europe  including the German nations  and he's remembered for no less than this achievement often called potty rope.  I the father of Europe he's referred to  as Charles the great Karl DeRosa  or Charlemagne Charles United both  halves of the Frankish Empire in 771  when his brother carlomon died of  natural causes  almost immediately, he set his sights on expanding into Germany where he would  come into contact with one of his greatest foes the Restless pagan Saxons led by rulers such as one called V Duke end which meant forest child back  then that implied something fierce more  like a wolf as opposed to you know  freedom flower child in 772 Charlemagne  invaded Saxony subjugating one of the many tribes and desecrating pagan religious monuments such as a hollow  tree known as ear monsoon which the Saxons believed held up a sky Charlemagne did not stay long turning  his attention to Italy specifically  toward the troubles of lombards  descendants of German invaders with a  name meaning long beards who were  agitating the Pope and Italy  nevertheless things weren't quite so  finished in Saxony in fact war would  continue for thirty years until 804. The primary reason for this was paganism but  also the fractured structure of Saxon  society they were not unified in the  various groups acted independently and  had to be subdued individually when  Charlemagne was distracted by other  conflicts especially they tended to  revolt attacking Frankish soldiers  priests and churches.

 

The Franks would  respond bitterly in one incident in  Verdun and 780 to Charlemagne ordered  that 4,500 people be beheaded for a  rebellion even by his contemporaries  this act was seen as excessive brutality  as he subdued the Saxons Hina's  missionaries and forced Christianity on  them harshly.

 

The penalty for refusing  baptism was death and 785 V tokens  surrendered and willingly agreed to be  baptized the other Saxons fought on  Charlemagne continued to expand eastward  into other parts of Germany as well and  even beyond in 788. He went to war with the Bavarians. He would then expand  further eastward from there fighting the a VARs and Slavs after years of conquests and conversions  on Christmas Day in 800 AD Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Romans by  Pope Leo the 3^rd. This was the beginning  of something that would outlive him for  a little over a thousand years it was  not just a pompous title as time went on  some historians would consider  Charlemagne to be the first Holy Roman  Emperor, that is not agreed upon some consider out of the first whom we will  talk about soon to be the first true ruler a century later because Charlemagne was not actually the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire in a sense that it would later take the term holy would not be added until a few hundred years  later but the intention was for  Charlemagne's empire to be viewed as the reincarnation of Rome although  admittedly heinous subjects tended to  prefer their Frankish identity as time goes on the Holy Roman Empire would not  really live up to any of its names as we shall see the intention of Pope Leo the  3rd was to be the spiritual leader of  the Christian world and Charlemagne the secular and for the Emperor and Pope to  work in tandem ruling over a new Rome  the intended mutually beneficial  relationship here however would  eventually become a source of conflict  this event also caused dispute with the  Byzantines and not for the last time who  were fairly offended by the notion of  Charlemagne calling himself emperor of  Rome when they considered themselves the  Romans remember of course that the Roman  Empire only fell in the West the East or  the Byzantines had continued and were  still standing strong Pope Leo wasn't  concerned by this the Byzantine head of  state at the time was a woman so he felt  that the title was vacant attention  between east and west would not quickly  disappear in fact it would carry on  until the death of Byzantium itself  following his coronation.

 

 Charlemagne  would continue to expand his domain in  total his empire would encompass almost  all of Western and Central Europe and  even beyond Charlemagne was not only a  man of the sword however he oversaw a  number of intellectual achievements that  have led to his reign being referred to  as the Carolingian Renaissance.  Charlemagne died in 84 ten AD, the Empire he constructed form  the basis for a rebirth of Europe. He had intended to divide his kingdom up among his sons a practice so firmly rooted in  tradition that not even he would break  it but only one Louie or Ludwig would  outlive him while that may seem as  though having one heir would hold the  empire together.