S05 E04 Middle Francia transcript
Listen along with our episode on Greco Bactria. Warning: we sometimes ignore the script.
Phil:
Welcome to Countries That Don’t Exist Anymore.
Since we've been receiving more reviews and some nice comments from listeners, I wanted to start by asking a question from a real, actual listener. “Ed, how do you come up with these countries?” And that's from listener, Fi Lomara.
Ed:
Thanks for the question, Phil.
Phil:
Fi
Ed:
Right. If you ever want to see a simulation of countries emerging, merging, dividing and dissolving on the European map, play a game called Crusader Kings 2. Or 3. It’s from that game that I saw the Eastern Roman Empire retreat from Asia Minor to be replaced by some country called “Rum.” And I thought – “Rum What’s Rum?” And that actually gave me the idea for this podcast.
Phil:
So rather than a history degree or doing history-based stand-up comedy, the whole reason we’re doing this podcast is because you wasted time on a computer game?
Ed:
Yes, I’m afraid it’s going to make for a very disappointing Beatles Anthology style origin story.
Phil:
Yes, or hopefully you die and then I change the story.
Phil as Paul:
So, I woke up this morning with a great idea for a podcast. I thought I wonder why countries don’t exist anymore when they used to exist but not anymore? Then I jumped on the piano and wrote the first 5 series before breakfast.
Ed:
Right well, back to the disappointing reality. What we’re going to talk about today was another tale from my time on Crusader Kings. I was playing the game one day and saw Charlemagne’s Holy Roman Empire suddenly implode into three new kingdoms. West Francia – which looked a bit like France. East Francia, which looked like Germany, and then this weird, elongated country wedged in the middle called Middle Francia.
And I remember thinking “Middle Francia?”
Phil:
Middle Francia? Who are they?
Ed:
Exactly.
So now Ed has kindly let us have a behind-the-scenes look at why he decided to write an episode that no one asked for, let’s get on with it!
Today on Countries That Don’t Exist Anymore, we’ll be rewinding back to 9th century Europe where we’ll be covering Middle Francia. And we’ll answer one extremely important question - was Middle Francia the most important kingdom in European history? And if you just want the answer to that question, you can skip straight to 42:20.
And for today's song, I found a little unfinished song that Ed left behind and l knew that he’d want me to turn it into a deluxe edition multiformat theme tune….
(Now and then)
Countries that don't
Exist Anymore
They used to exist
But now they don't….anymore.
It’s history
Mixed with a little comedy
The hosts work for free
Because the writing isn’t good…. enough.
Phil’s the best
On this show
Oh, Ed’s the one
that holds it back, (he holds it back.)
Definitely shoulda had the sack…(optional to continue) from…
Countries that don't
Exist Anymore
They used to exist
But now they don't….anymore.
Before we had Middle Francia. Or West Francia. Or East Francia, we had the Holy Roman Empire. And before that we had the Kingdom of the Franks.
What was… any of the stuff you just said?
So, in short… the Franks were a Germanic people who originated along the Rhine and were very much around as the Western Roman Empire was imploding in the 5th century.
The Franks were at various times both enemies of Rome but also Federati – fighting for Rome. In the process they seemed to have heavily Romanised themselves – taking Roman titles, learning Latin and eventually taking on Roman Catholicism.
And keeping their Roman tribute act going, this Frankish Kingdom expanded across Western Europe for hundreds of years before it was inherited by the most famous Frankish King of them all, in English Charles the Great… or in Frankish Charle-magne.
Ed:
That’s because he da man.
Jeremy:
No, you da man.
Charlemagne was both expansionist and very much keen on the “we’re literally the Romans” narrative. But not the “check out my Colosseum” Romans that we think of.
More the “we’re part of Jesus Christ’s kingdom on earth” Roman Empire post Constantine the Great.
The Christianised Romans are no longer our go-to Romans, but in the Early Medieval period, they were the cool Romans. Because Romans didn't necessarily mean “people who live in Rome” it was synonymous with an empire of Christ.
Jesus:
Blessed be the meek. And the peacemakers. And the empire builders. Hang on. Is this something I’d say?
Assistant:
That’s right, Lord. We think this might shore up the support of the powerful, should your obscure Messianic cult reach a global audience.
Jesus: (cont)
Well, blessed aren’t the speech writers.
Ed:
What’s ironic about that is that since Christianity preached submission to the Roman Empire, whereas Judaism was more comfortable with it being burned to the ground, Jesus might well have said that.
Phil:
Wait. Are you saying that Christianity was invented to counteract constant Jewish rebellions and to offer a pro-imperial alternative for Jews? Are you saying that this is the only reason why the Roman Empire might have conceivably adopted an otherwise obscure Eastern mystery cult? Are you also saying that there’s no solid basis for historical accounts of Christian persecution and in fact St Paul was aligned with the Roman-backed Herodians? Are you saying that the second coming of Christ was in fact the Emperor Titus? I’m sorry, Ed, I’m going to have to pin you down here. Is that what you’re claiming?
Ed:
As Christ once said to Pontious Pilate:
I am, whatever you say I am. If I wasn’t why would you say I am.
Phil:
I thought that was Eminem
Red Dwarf Lister:
Me too, man - I always get those guys confused
But Christ’s empire on earth or not, all this empire building by the Franks could be a bit nerve wracking for peoples around them. There’s an old Byzantine proverb that says "If you have a Frank as your friend then he is not your neighbour" which, like the Eastern roman EMPIRE itself, was a bit rich.
However, Frankish expansion was slightly better news for the Jews. The Franks were relatively tolerant of Jewish people since they considered themselves to be God’s new chosen people.
Franks:
So, you’re Jewish, yeah? One time God’s chosen people, yeah? Tell me about it bro! It’s the responsibility of being like the best, yeah? Give me a break, Lord! Why did you make me so damn good! Right? Oh, he’s gone.
This “we’re the best” thing was partly religious zeal, and partly because the Franks couldn’t seem to lose a battle if they tried. In the Franks view of things, anyone who wasn’t a Frank was basically an infidel. And whether those were the Muslims of Barcelona or the Pagans of the Saxon lands or even the slightly different Christians of Lombardy, they all shared the same egregious crime of not being Franks. And when you know you’re definitely doing God’s work and he likes you best of all, the sky’s the limit.
And that limit was surpassed on Christmas Day 800 AD, when Charlemagne happened to be attending a church service in Rome, Pope Leo III took him by surprise, crowning him “Emperor of the Romans.”
Charlemagne’s biographer tells us that had he but known, there’s no way he would have attended that service.
Charlemagne:
“What’s this? A crown? No! No! You didn’t. Shut up! SHUT UP you guys! Emperor of the Romans? No! Shut up!”
Of course the whole “I did not seek power. Me so humble” thing is a much-loved historical lie that we see time and time again. Because imagine if Charlemagne hadn’t known…
Pope:
Hey, your shoelace is undone. Ha! I crown you… emperor of the Romans.
Charlemagne:
Wait, what? Emperor of the Romans… Roman Emperor?
Pope:
Err… yeah basically. We all chipped in for it. Thought you’d like it.
Charlemagne:
So does that include Spain, North Africa, Britain or what?
Pope:
It can do.
Charlemagne:
Oh. So I have to conquer it myself? You haven’t already done that and are going to hand it over?
Pope:
No.
Charlemagne:
So it’s really more of a money-off voucher. Great.
But this didn't come out of nowhere.Leo III, a commoner, was attacked and beaten in Rome. Taken to Aachen where he was nursed back to health.
In fact, Charlemagne's dad had intervened I'm Italy to give the papacy land, hence the founding of the Papal States. So the papacy owed the Carolingians.
And for the first time in more than 300 years, Western Europe had a new Roman Emperor. Cool for prestige and stuff. But by allowing a religious figure to crown such a powerful secular figure, it perpetuated a bit of a problem in Medieval Christendom:
Who’s really calling the shots - the church or the state?
Did Charlemagne owe his legitimacy to the Pope for crowning him or did he owe it to the state for putting him in that position.
The irony is that on Charlemagne’s coins, he has himself on one side and Christ on the other!
Church or state? Heads or tales?
[something about being head of the church and telling tall tales]
For a charismatic, geographical entrepreneur like Charlemagne – it almost didn’t matter. Because although the church figured very heavily in his rule, even having a formal role in regional government, Charlemagne was only really using the legitimacy of the ROMAN Catholic Church to kickstart his HOLY Roman Empire.
[is there an everybody wants to be the holy roman empire coming up?]
And while this may all sound a bit dour and churchy, Charlemagne’s inner circle was anything but. His court was sexually promiscuous, with even Charlemagne’s daughters going through lovers like socks, and the emperor himself having mistresses right up to his death.
You really have to feel for the person who landed that job right at the end.
[literally at Charlemagne’s end]
But why did kings allow churchy types to crown them?
There are a few good reasons, but saying to people “Hey look, I’m god’s representative on earth so you should do what I say” works wonders when in reality you’re just guy who has the most support.
Wait a minute. What about Middle Francia?
Yes, just coming. The story of how the Holy Roman Empire splits in three starts with Charlemagne. Charlemagne had three sons – Louis, Charles and Peppin. And despite being Lord Emperor now, Charlemagne still favoured the Frankish custom of dividing his land between his sons.
The only reason that this didn’t happen is that two of Charlemagne’s sons died before he could – leaving only Louis to inherit. And it’s only a matter of dumb luck that for a few generations on the trot only one male heir ended up inheriting a single territorial blob.
This is a bit like the Roman Golden Age, where one competent emperor adopted a popular and competent emperor to take over. So Nerva shores himself up by adopting Trajan and Trajan, Hadrian and Hadrian, Antonus Pius and Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius.
And then Marcus Aurelius has a son from hell in Commodus and things go down the toilet. But this wasn’t some enlightened system that Marcus Aurelius tanked. It was just dumb luck that no one had had a brattish son in the picture up until then.
It’s the same principle with the Franks. Had one of the precursor king of the Franks had more than one son to hand things off to, it’s unlikely there would have been a large enough expanse in Europe to even make the value claim to being the Holy Roman Empire.
When Charlemagne’s son Louis the Pius inherited the empire, he actually had 3 sons that he decided to split it between. It's just this time they all managed to survive, for a while at least.
Why was Louis the Pious called Pious?
Louis the Pious was famous for not smiling. Unlike Charlemagne, who was said to have loved a laugh. Hence Charles the great…sense of humour.
But both men took their Christianity very seriously. Both saw the empire pretty much as the late Western Romans had done, i.e. as Christ's work being done on earth. They just had different approaches to religious zeal.
Charlemagne wanted everyone to go to church, but he thought it should be more fun. So it was he who pushed for Gregorian chant at every service.
[or some gregorian chant singing as a crowd cheers at some massive festival]
Pie Jesus
“We’re singing in services.
Now they’re not so boring.
Listen to our lovely chants.
They drown out the snoring.”
So, big on Jesus but not big on boring services or not having loads of mistresses.
But not Louis. When Charlemagne died in 814, Louis determined that his court should have no running, no diving and definitely no heavy petting. Louis famously didn’t smile, and he thought that if things weren't boring, you weren’t doing Christianity properly.
Maybe one reason why he was called Pious, but there’s another reason which showed that he wasn’t all that good at dealing with the church, which we'll come to shortly.
Why was Louis called Louis?
On a side note, Louis sounds like an odd name for a Germanic Frank. Ok, you got Charles’, but Frankish kings were generally called weird sounding early medieval names like Clovis and Lothar. So what's all this Frenchified Louis stuff coming from? Well, Louis is a form of the Latin Ludovicus which comes from Clodovic or Clodivicus. Hence Clovis.
When Louis was crowned, people shouted Vivat imperator Ludovicus.
And they're all forms of the same name, meaning Glorious Warrior. Very Frankish.
Even Lothar. Same name!
In German, it's Ludvic and Lotar.
And Italian, it's Luigi and Lothario. [which is why plumbers make such great lovers… if you believe them lying cartoons]
Relevant because all these areas were in Middle Francia. Hence the spread of the name.
So what did Louis do when he became emperor?
His first reform was monastic in 816 and that was very entertaining and well worth talking about…
His second major act was in 817, the Ordinatio Imperii, where he determined that his empire would be split between his three sons: his eldest Lothar (who would be King of Italy), Pippin (king of Aquitaine) and Louis (king of Bavaria.)
Unfortunately this would disinherit his nephew Bernard, who was already king of Italy. Peeved by this, Bernard went into revolt and Louis ordered him to be blinded. Not uncommon for the period. The Eastern Romans were really into blinding with the idea that it was much more Christian than murder and only meant that the blind person was no longer fit to rule. The humane assassination.
In Bernard’s case, this humane blinding was botched and accidentally led to an excruciating death. Not cool.
Louis had to then do penance in 822, groveling for forgiveness while wearing sackcloth. Good for his immortal soul. Bad for his authority. As we said, we're still at a point in time where it's not too clear who's running things. Is it the church or is it the state?
Is Louis a glorious warrior or deplorable groveller?
The church had just got into the habit of crowning monarchs, which had led to people asking where authority really lay. In the mortal authority of a king. Or the immortal authority of the church.
But that wasn't the only bone of contention. There was also division at court between his family. Louis’ first wife had died and Judith, his second wife.
Ed:
Did you know that before online multiplayer games, second wife was the way that people would escape their humdrum lives.
Anyway, Court factions were emerging around Judith and family on the one hand and Lothar on the other. Much squabbling resulted with Louis stepping in to solve things for the first time in 830.
But things kicked off again in 833, when Louis had to march with an army to Alsace to meet Lothar and his brothers, who were joined by Pope Gregory IV. But in a shocking twist of fate Louis' army melted away and he was deposed in favour of Lothar, who (as Louis' oldest son) had already been named co-emperor so probably just wanted to move things on a bit.
Now at the time, when you wanted to get rid of someone, you'd have them tonsured, their hair shaved, and sent to a monastery. Louis refused to take monastic vows but was confined at St-Denis.
Fortunately for him, brothers will be brothers and an extended period of squabbling led to the restoration of Louis in 834, where he was ceremonially recrowned. The pope must have been all like "back again? Heh heh." Lothar was popped back in Italy and everything was more or less stable. For a bit.
Then in 838, Pippin of Aquitaine died allowing Louis to substitute in Charles, his son from his marriage to Judith. This disinherited Pippin's son - Pippin the Younger.
And upon casually throwing this succession grenade into the mix, Louis then strategically died in 840.
So we have Louis the German in Bavaria. Lothar in Italy and the man known as Charles the Bald in Aquitaine. Charles the Bald was only 13 at the time. So either they gave him the name later, or he picked up the name as a baby. Which hardly seems fair. Or he was a bald 13 year-old. Gutted.
Ed:
Charles the gurgler. Charles the gassy. Charles the nappy wearer.
Unfortunately Lothar once again decided that as first son and already co-emperor at his father's death, he should be running the show.
So there was war, a very bloody battle at Fontenoy which led to the Treaty of Verdun at 842 - this giving us West Francia, East Francia and.... Middle Francia.
Da da
Phil:
Classic Ed. Halfway through the script and we're finally talking about the country the episode’s about.
Ed:
Next time, I'm hoping to delay it until just before the ending credits.
How long did Middle Francia last?
From 843 to 855, where it was dismantled in the Treaty of Prum. (Prum).
VO:
Bloated, swollen borders? If you've got an unsatisfactory treaty blocking your territorial ambition, try Prum. Prum, for ratified relief.
Ed:
That works because Prum sounds a tiny bit like prune.
Phil:
Hmm.
Middle Francia was certainly on a map, but it wasn’t an identity. Not even a visiting American would say: “Actually my great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandfather was from there, so I’m totally Middle Francian.”
How many languages were spoken in Middle Francia?
At least 8. These included Old Franconian, Old Dutch, Old Frisian, Old French, Old Occitan, Old Low German, Old High German and Gallo-Italic.
Ed:
The Gallo Italic must have been like, “I thought this disco was gonna attract a younger crowd.”
What kind of government did Middle Francia have?
A monarchy. Its first and last king was Lothar I. There were law courts and all the rest of it, including a form of local government that involved both a landowner and a cleric, but almost everything had to be put before the king for his final say. So this king stuff involved lots of admin, even if lots of them couldn't read and write.
So where did Middle Francia come from?
Middle Francia was created during the Treaty of Verdun, in 843. And when you look at it, it’s obviously not a country that came about organically. Not that countries are in any way organic, but at least you can look at some and convince yourself it is organic.
Look at West Francia, which was based around Aquitaine, and you think, “Oh yeah. France.”
Look at East Francia, which is made of Bavaria, Alemannia and Saxony and you go, “Oh yeah, that’s roughly Germany, innit.”
But Middle Francia is this L shaped territory that includes Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemboug, an Eastern chunk of France and a western slice of Germany, a sprinkling of Switzerland and the top half of Italy. It's a literal smorgasbord.
Now, it’s not weird that it should include all those countries (because those countries didn’t exist) but at least 8 languages in a territory that obviously would be murder to defend or hold together? It's not a long-term country.
But what seems odd to us as prime real estate to the Carolingians. Like a sandwich, the middle bit was the tastiest bit. It contained Austrasia (the power base of the Carolingians), Provence, Burgundy, Italy and Aachen (Charlemagne’s capital).
What was Aachen like?
Aachen had started life as a Roman military camp, so it was fitting that it became the Frankish capital.
The palace that Lothar I of Middle Francia would have briefly sat in was modeled on old Roman palaces, with marbles and columns imported from Italy. In the courtyard, there was even a statue of the not quite emperor of Rome, Theoderic.
The church was modeled on St Vitale in Ravenna and called it the Paletine Chapel, after the Paletine Hill of Rome.
Ed:
They even probably had a Bella Italia. Which isn't a joke our American or Canadian listeners would get. So… they even had a Fazolis.
Phil:
Australians?
Ed:
They even had a fasta pasta.
Phil:
Germans?
Ed:
Schlecter pasta.
And by the way, we’re not saying that this was all just a Roman facade. We call it the Carolingian Renaissance for a reason. Charlemagne liked to see himself as the New Constantine, and was keen on people getting educated and a well ordered state with proper laws.
Many of the Roman texts we have access to now only exist because Charlemagne had copies made.
From 0 - 800 AD, we have 2,000 surviving manuscripts - which was mainly the work of the church.
But from 800 - 900 AD, we have 7,000 manuscripts. And these include many pre-Christian classical works.
So why was Middle Francia seen as the best Francia?
In terms of monopoly board land value, if you were going to bagsy anywhere in the Holy Roman Empire, you probably would have bagsied Middle Francia. Richest lands and fewest savages to fend off from your borders especially once you start to factor in Moors to the west, Avars and nomads to the east and the not altogether polite Vikings to the north, who were really starting to become a problem at this time - especially for West Francia.
From that point of view, the fact that this slice went to Lothar (Louis’s oldest son) makes sense.
But this was a treaty, and not one supposed to be in Lothar's favour. So Middle Francia was made particularly thin so that the kings of East and Francia also got a slice of the wealthy Frankish heartlands too. And here's the vital thing. No one thought this would be a permanent split. That's just the way it panned out.
And to reinforce that, the Imperial title continued to exist. After Lothar died, his son Louis II (king of Italy) became Imperator. And he had two other sons who survived - and Middle Francia was split again - into Italy (the southern bit), Provence (the middle bit) and Lotharangia (the top bit, named after Lothar II).
And even by 887-8 when the empire had broken up into 5 kingdoms with 6 or 7 claimants, the Holy Roman Emperor was still a title much in use.
In 885, there was only one legitimate male heir. Louis the German's last surviving son Louis the Fat (king of Alemannia) reunited the empire in 884. For 2 years. And then it was bye bye Holy Roman Emperor. For now at least.
Ed:
Yes, all fine and dandy but I think we all want to know is…
Why did the Carolingians have such insulting names?
Fat, Bald, other Carolingian kings had names like Charles the Simple, Charles the Short, Louis the Stammerer and Louis the Child who, in fairness, was a child.
There's lots of possible answers to this. Some contemporary sources don't mention these names at all. So maybe it was more of a hindsight thing.
But it also may have been a Roman thing. At least two names were necessary for Roman men, the praenomen (first name) and nomen (family name) usually ending in -ius. Many had a third name, the cognomen (a nickname).
This cognomen sometimes denoted a branch of a family, but it also was used as a nickname because there really weren't that many praenome around. By the first century BC, there were about a dozen male names in common usage:
Appius, Aulus, Caeso, Decimus, Gaius, Gnaeus, Lucius, Mamercus, Manius, Marcus, Numerius, Publius, Quintus, Servius, Sextus, Spurius, Titus, and Tiberius.
Add a result, people were referred to by their cognomen.
Gaius Julius Caesar. Caesar.
Gaius Julius Caesar. Augustus.
Gaius Julius Caesar. Caligula.
Ok, we've cheated there a little bit, but hopefully you get the point.
In the same way the Franks seemed to have been few names in circulation. We've already seen how most of them were basically Louis in one form or another. So the Fat, the Bald, the Stammerer? Well, you're not going to forget them.
But the reality is that it's probably a mix. Charles the Bald has probably been lost in translation and probably just refers to shorter hair, unusual for a Carolingian monarch, whereas the Simple was probably no insult but just meant straightforward.
When you get to the Charles the Fat though, this was most definitely a later invention.
Speaking of insults, why the *** are we talking about Middle Francia anyway?
Aside from it being a really odd idea for a country, there are two main reasons.
It says something really interesting about the growing power of the landed nobles in Europe.
It might be the most important kingdom in European history!
Ed:
And remember you can skip to XX:XX for the answer!
Phil:
Yeah, we’re really excited about the answer to this one.
Ed:
Chills.
What does Middle Francia say about the power of landed nobles?
When you look at the Holy Roman Empire you might think “oh cool, it’s the Roman Empire again!” but really it was only ever doing a really bad impersonation of an empire, like Ed’s impersonation of Donald Trump.
Ed:
What do you mean? It’s great!...”We’s gots to stops China…”
See, in the Roman Empire, everybody understood that power flowed from the man in Rome. Yes, you had governors or military generals out and about, and these could be the source of challenges when there was a poor leader or things were going badly, but the power of the emperor of Rome wasn’t based on these people. These were just the tools of Rome, out to execute its will in the far flung corners of the empire.
Not so in the Holy Roman Empire.
The Frankish king might like to dress up as a Roman Emperor (or literally as a Byzantine Emperor in the case of Louis the Pious) but all he was dressing up was the fact that he was the guy giving his followers land and (most importantly) loot.
Charlemagne didn’t have to put up with challenges to his rule, because he delivered. The Frankish kingdom was like stock. Everyone was happy when they were getting a good return, but questions about the CEO started as soon as the money and land and favours started running dry. You just need a strong successful king like Charlemagne, and everything is fine. Everything is based on the performance of one man. The Roman Empire had an imperial administration to keep things working. The Holy Roman Empire had nothing of the sort.
It relied on the support of landed nobles - counts and dukes.
These are both Roman titles. Count comes from the Latin Comes, commander.
Duke comes from Dux, also military but really more used to mean governor.
The key thing here is that these titles were appointed offices. Even in the time of Charlemagne, these were just jobs that the king could give out and take away. But increasingly, powerful regional magnates were taking these titles and passing them onto their kids. A hereditary aristocracy was starting to form.
That generally works out ok when there’s only one horse to back. The problem with telling people you’re going to split up your empire is that powerful regional landowners now had a choice of potential monarchs to side with. And since kings could still confiscate titles and offices, the stakes were raised.
A landowner might think “ I don’t think Louis is up to this, I’m putting my chips on Lothar. Lothar seems a bit of a pain, I reckon Charles the Bald is my guy.”
One influential courtier and landowner called Einhard couldn’t seem to pick, so in the 830s sent gifts to every king to spread his bets, asking his spies to report back on how each monarch reacted.
(Galloping horse, slamming door, footsteps, opening door)
Einhard:
What news of King Lothar?
Spy:
I don’t think he’s a fan of licorice.
Yes, sibling rivalry is real. But none of the brothers would have had the power to do anything without nobles backing them. The war of 840-1 between Lothar and Charles was basically a game of who could tempt the most aristocrats. It was up to each pretender to the imperial throne to convince a duke or count that gambling on having their office confiscated would be worth it in the long run.
This is exactly what happened to Louis when at the Field of Lies in 833 when all his followers deserted him at a stroke. Unsmiling Louis the Pious just wasn’t playing the game as well as his sons.
During the time when the empire was one land blob, it wasn’t uncommon to have territory in several different places. So you might have a few acres in Aachen and a portacabin in Cannes.
But as the empire continued to get subdivided into smaller territories, what happened was that followers generally lost their lands in other kingdoms, and so it made sense to get rid of lands elsewhere and concentrate on one place you can actually keep. So families increasingly regionalised themselves, boosting regional identities over imperial identities. And over time, this meant smaller kingdoms over larger.
Nobles are increasingly taking powers like tax and the right to judge away from kings and people are looking at them as the real authority.
The Welfs, a powerful family who had land in Alemannia and Burgundy had to choose between Louis and Charles in 858, so they chose Charles and so consolidated everything into Burgundy.
Ed:
Incidentally, the Welfs stayed powerful for hundred of years, leading to their direct descendant.. Queen Victoria.
....
Of Britain.
Phil:
Wow! So you're saying that had they not moved everything to Burgundy, there would be no Great Britain?
Ed:
I can't possibly say that!
Phil:
Mind. Blown.
OR
Phil:
Wow! So Queen Victoria was born into a thousand years of power and privilege? Up until now, I just assumed she was the daughter of a paperclip entrepreneur.
Why was Middle Francia the most important kingdom in European history?
There’s this theory that the division of the empire under the Treaty of Verdun has defined European history ever since.
Instead of one land empire across Europe, the division cut Europe down the middle. To the left of the line, France. To the right of the line, Germany.
But what about the bit in the Middle? What about Middle Francia?
In this idea of things, European history has been defined by East Francia and West Francia trying to control Middle Francia. Think France fighting Germany on the fields of Middle Francia in WW1.
If The History Channel could leave ancient aliens alone for two minutes, they might get a half decent show out of it.
VO:
West Francia, France. East Francia, Germany, have been locked in an epic one thousand year struggle over the fate of Middle Francia.
Viewer:
Might see what else is on…
VO:
But some historian-scientist-bloggers believe the Middle Francians could have been the descendants of Atlantis…
Viewer:
Oooh.
The name Lotharangia morphed into Lorraine – a territory that has been constantly changing hands between France and Germany. Belgium, a country of middle Francia, is divided between Germanic Flemish speakers and French speakers, East Francia, West Francia. Switzerland (another country of Middle Francia) has lots of languages – even their stamps refer to a neutral name for Switzerland – the Roman name of Helvetia.
In the 15th century, the territory of Burgundy seemed to be an effort by the northern part of Middle Francia to extricate itself from control from France, aka West Francia, leading to the germination of a Dutch and Belgium national identity.
Are the nations of Middle Francia forever cursed? Is the spectre of Middle Francia haunting us still?
Probably not.
While a fascinating idea, it’s easy to overstate the importance of Middle Francia. Following the division, France didn’t just pop out of West Francia. And Germany only finally became a country in 1871. To say that the Treaty of Verdun has defined history ever since? Pushing it.
While it sure makes things interesting, looking at how things were and trying to draw a line to how things now, as if always inevitable, is a bad idea.
It’s like people who say, “Every decision I’ve made has made me the person I am today” like it’s a magical thing.
Ed:
Get this! Recently I went on holiday. My flight was delayed over night. I bumped into an old work colleague at the airport. I had a bottle of wine that broke open in my bag. I lost my work pass. What are the odds of those things happening in exactly the way they did in that order?
Phil:
[Infinity to one. Exactly the same odds as every other bloody thing.]
The odds are irrelevant, unless you decide to connect those things with some greater meaning.
So has Middle Francia had an incredible impact on world history?
No and a bit yes.
In its creation and division and then further division, we can see the shape of things to come. No more permanent Roman Empires. Instead, it’s all about powerful regional aristocrats, smaller duchies and principalities, and from that stock we get the ruling houses of later European superpowers and new Roman empire wannabes spanning the globe.
And, it’s just so weird!
Stuck in the Middle With You
Well I don't know why I came here tonight
I’m guess I’m backing Lothar in a fight
I'm so scared in case I lose all my land
And I'm bringing along my war band
West Francia to the left of me
East Francia to the right
Here I am in Middle Francia with you
Trying to make some sense of it all
Cos these new kingdoms are increasingly small.
Are you going to split your kingdom again?
Do we know where it’s gonna happen and when
Charles to the left of me
Louis to the right
Here I am stuck in the middle with you
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