From the later third century, Germans whom the literary sources called Franks had joined with other barbarians to challenge Roman rule in Gaul. This chapter acknowledges the importance of the Bishop Gregory's extensive writings in the discussions of the formation of Frankish kingdoms, the working of kingship, the roles of aristocrats and bishops, and the limits of Merovingian rule. The kingdom in north-eastern Gaul was sometimes known simply as 'Francia'. It also came to be known as Austria or Austrasia. Although by the fifth century Orthodox Christianity provided a dominant world-view among the Roman population in Gaul, as the Franks expanded into Gaul they nevertheless retained their pagan cults, and even into the sixth century they continued to worship at pagan shrines, especially in northern Gaul. In the kingdom of Austrasia various combinations of Frankish aristocrats, Roman aristocrats and bishops competed for influence at the royal court.

This chapter offers an inverse picture of the Carolingian polity. The brief survey of all the frontier regions of the Carolingian empire reveals some persistent themes in Carolingian frontier policy which transcend the individuality of each peripheral region. In the first place, negotiation combined with a readiness to use force to prosecute Carolingian interests always characterised Frankish strategy. Secondly, the Carolingians participated in the common early medieval diplomatic practices of receiving, entertaining and dismissing envoys; royal gift-exchange; demanding hostages to keep at court; extracting tribute and oaths of loyalty; welcoming and sheltering political exiles from other kingdoms; and concluding truces and treaties. Thirdly, the Carolingian imperial rhetoric of a Christian, Latin empire broke down at the frontier. The nineteenth-century efforts by the French and the Germans each to appropriate Charlemagne for themselves contributed to their respective efforts to build the historiography of the nation-state.

In July 843, the Treaty of Verdun was agreed between Lothar, Louis and Charles: it was a trade-off between the competing interests of those Carolingians and also of their men. Carolingian family politics have predominated. They provide the context in which other themes can be considered. From the king's point of view, the Scandinavians' impact was serious. It depleted the royal treasury the largest single payment of the reign. Clearly enmeshed with Carolingian family politics is the history of the regna within Charles the Bald's realm. Charles' realm was just that: the regnum Karoli. Aquitaine was the largest and politically most important of the component Regna. Italy and the East and West Frankish kingdoms had by contrast had continuous histories since 843. They did not fragment further in 888. In East Francia, the deposition of Charles the Fat resulted from uncertainties over the succession and the play of faction. In the west Charles was abandoned for other reasons.