Frankish warrior, 6th century.
Probably the title of a confederacy of Germanic tribes from the Middle Rhine, they had a unified material culture and proved the most substantial of the German tribes to invade and fracture the Western Roman Empire. They finished their conquest of Gaul by the time this particular warrior would’ve been fighting.
By the 5th century, these tribes were loosely united into a “nation” by the Merovingians (“The Sons of Merovech”), a confederated tribe from north of the Rhine which for some reason had joined the confederacy and eventually adopted its unique culture. The Late Romans referred to them as the “long-haired kings,” and apparently their long hair was considered the source of their “royal power” until their downfall in the 8th century after a long decline. At that point Peppin of Herstal, a powerful regional mayor of North France, descendant of another tribe, defeated the last Merovingian king and forced him to shave his long hair. His adopted son was Charles Martel, the founder of the Carolingian Dynasty. It was around this time that France as a unique political unit is mentioned in the records.
Note: If you like Game of Thrones, buy a scholarly book about Dark Age French history. Good luck keeping up with this complex political insanity.
(Source: thevirginprince, via gloriesofthewest)
