Where is austrasia

Here excavations have uncovered some very rich furnished graves, but also abundant evidence about the settlement and the people, who lived there at mid 6th century. This winter it is especially pertinent to make the detour as the city hosts a remarkable exhibition on the early Middle Ages in Eastern Francia. To understand the context it is necessary to recount abit of history. When Clovis died in AD , his four sons inherited his realm, which was divided into foru parts.

While Clotaire inherited the old core of the Frankish kingdom around Tournai, Clodomir the region reaching from Paris to the Atlantic, and Childebert received Normandy and, Theuderic held the north-eastern part from Thuringia to Reims. When Theuderic died in , his throne curiously enough passed unhindered to his son Theudebert, whose son, Theudebald, peacefully took over in However, at his death in , the throne passed to his granduncle Clotaire, which meant the first end of Austrasia.

However, a few years later the sons of Clotaire were obliged to divide their inheritance and Sigebert ended up with the eastern part, now called Austrasia for the first time. Merovingian history is often told as a series of royal partitions among the heirs of a dead king followed by a contractions; however, in the end the Merovingian kingdom was ruled from the eastern part, Austrasia, were from also — in a later phase — the Carolingians led to unite Neustria and Austrasia.

It might be claimed that the Carolingians were not so much the heirs of the Merovingian dynasty, but the heirs to the Austrasian throne. However, this is not how the history has usually been told. Quite the opposite has been the case, the challenge being that Austrasia arguably bridged across the Ardennes, Alsace and Lorraine and far into the region around the Middle Rhine towards the Middle Elbe.

Both French and German, it has been — as history tells us — contested land between France and Germany from the 9th to the 20th century. At his succession in , Pope Adrian I demanded the return of certain cities in the former exarchate of Ravenna in accordance with a promise at the succession of Desiderius.

Instead, Desiderius took over certain papal cities and invaded the Pentapolis, heading for Rome. Adrian sent ambassadors to Charlemagne in the autumn, requesting he enforce the policies of his father, Pepin. Charlemagne demanded that Desiderius comply with the pope, but Desiderius promptly swore he never would. Charlemagne and his uncle Bernard crossed the Alps in and chased the Lombards back to Pavia, which they then besieged.

The siege lasted until the spring of , when Charlemagne visited the pope in Rome. Some later chronicles falsely claimed that he also expanded them, granting Tuscany, Emilia, Venice, and Corsica.

After the pope granted Charlemagne the title of patrician, he returned to Pavia, where the Lombards were on the verge of surrendering. In return for their lives, the Lombards conceded and opened the gates in early summer.

Charlemagne and Pope Adrian I The Frankish king Charlemagne was a devout Catholic who maintained a close relationship with the papacy throughout his life. In , when Pope Adrian I was threatened by invaders, the king rushed to Rome to provide assistance. Shown here, the pope asks Charlemagne for help at a meeting near Rome. In the Saxon Wars, spanning thirty years and eighteen battles, Charlemagne overthrew Saxony and proceeded to convert the conquered to Christianity.

The Germanic Saxons were divided into four subgroups in four regions. Nearest to Austrasia was Westphalia, and furthest away was Eastphalia. Engria was between these two kingdoms, and to the north, at the base of the Jutland peninsula, was Nordalbingia. In his first campaign against the Saxons, in , Charlemagne cut down an Irminsul pillar near Paderborn and forced the Engrians to submit. The campaign was cut short by his first expedition to Italy.

He returned to Saxony in , marching through Westphalia and conquering the Saxon fort at Sigiburg. He then crossed Engria, where he defeated the Saxons again. Finally, in Eastphalia, he defeated a Saxon force and converted its leader, Hessi, to Christianity. Charlemagne returned through Westphalia, leaving encampments at Sigiburg and Eresburg, which had been important Saxon bastions. With the exception of Nordalbingia, Saxony was under his control, but Saxon resistance had not ended.

Following his campaign in Italy to subjugate the dukes of Friuli and Spoleto, Charlemagne returned rapidly to Saxony in , where a rebellion had destroyed his fortress at Eresburg. The Saxons were once again brought to heel, but their main leader, Widukind, managed to escape to Denmark, home of his wife. Charlemagne built a new camp at Karlstadt.