Frankish Kingdom

History

The Frankish Kingdom was a major post-Roman polity in Western Europe, ruled by the Merovingian and later Carolingian dynasties. From its core in Gaul - Gaul (Latin: Gallia) was inhabited by Celtic tribes before being conquered by Julius Caesar between 58 and 50 BC. Under Augustus, it was reorganized into several provinces and became one of the most prosperous and Romanized regions of the empire, serving as a vital base for the campaigns into Germania., it expanded across much of modern France, the Low Countries, and western Germany.

In the Umayyad period, Frankish forces under Charles Martel defeated an Umayyad army near Tours (732), marking a key limit to further Umayyad expansion north of the Pyrenees.