The Franks were divided into two branches, the Salians and the Ripuarians. The Salians settled in the Low Countries on the lower Rhine, near the North Sea. The Ripuarians moved into the region around what are now the cities of Trier and Cologne, Germany, on the middle Rhine. He defeated Gauls, Romans, Visigoths, and others to create a kingdom stretching from east of the Rhine River to the Pyrenees Mountains. When Clovis died in 511, the Franks, though outnumbered by their Gallo-Roman neighbors 20 to 1, had such a firm hold on Gaul that the region was called France after them.
Frankish history is divided into two periods.
Charlemagne, who was king of the Franks from 768 to 814, created a vast empire. In 800, Pope Leo III crowned him emperor of the Romans. After the time of Charlemagne, the Frankish empire began to break up into what later became the kingdoms of France, Germany, and Italy. William G. Sinnigen, Ph.D., Professor of History, City Univ. How to cite this article.