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Frankish Colonization: A New Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

The Franks were the most successful of the Germanic invaders of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries of our era, and the problem of the nature and date of their settlement, bound up as it is with that of the origins of the linguistic frontier in Belgium, is one of the most complex of early medieval history. It is also one of the most interesting, for whatever solution we find for it must influence our interpretation of the historical evolution which gave rise to the Frankish monarchy on the one hand and to the modern Belgian state on the other. It involves a multitude of interrelated questions: the origins of the population, language and customary law of the Germanic (Flemish) part of Belgium; the alignment of the linguistic frontier between Flemish, Walloon and German; the extent of Germanic colonization in the former Latin-speaking regions of northern Gaul; and the agrarian organization and the forms of land settlement in the same region.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1954

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References

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page 4 note 1 This is at least the view accepted by the majority of philologists, and, on their authority, by many historians who have not thought of checking them by the texts. The article just cited of my friend and colleague Jean Dhondt, though it does to some extent modify the traditionally accepted zones of Frankish settlement, is almost entirely constructed without reference to strictly historical sources of evidence.

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page 5 note 1 No doubt the Salians also became dedititii, or at any rate a certain number of them did so, and still were in this position in 358. Cf. Schmidt, L., ‘Aus den Anfängen des salfränkischen Königtums’, Klio, xxxiv (1942), 306Google Scholar.

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page 12 note 4 Cf. above, p. 11.

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page 17 note 1 I wish to express my thanks to my friend Philip Grierson for his kindness in translating this paper into English.