Franks

Rare card · No. 23916

The Franks (Latin: Franci) were a Western European people who began in the third century as a group of Germanic tribes near the Lower Rhine River, but gradually became a multilingual, Catholic Christian people, who controlled a large territory both inside and outside the former Roman Empire. Much of what is now the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and in a broader sense much of the population of medieval Western Europe, could eventually be described as Frankish, depending on the context. Pre-existing Germanic tribes such as the Bructeri and Chattuari began being referred to as Franks during the crisis of the 3rd century, when Rome lost control of regions near the lower Rhine, within the Roman province of Germania Inferior. The Rhine was a militarized border defended by the Romans, and the Frankish tribes had been living across the Rhine under Roman hegemony for centuries, under other tribal names. During the crisis they made frequent incursions, and in some cases settled...

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