Neustria
Neustria or Neustrasia was a Frankish kingdom of the Merovingian era. The territory of Neustria included the northwestern region of present-day France and its capital was Soissons.
On the death of Clovis I (Clovis, in French) the Great, king of the Franks (511), he divided the Regnum Francorum among his sons: a Clotario I the Elder gave him Neustria and southern Aquitaine, with its capital at Soissons; Theodoric I was given Austrasia and Auvergne (eastern Aquitaine), with its capital in Reims; to Clodomiro corresponded the lands of the Loire (the north of Aquitaine), with capital in Orleans; and to Childebert I he gave Armorica between Brittany and the Somme, with its capital in Paris.
Etymology
The exact etymology of the place name is imprecise, but it is related to the sense of land or western region, as opposed to the other part of the kingdom, Austrasia; the eastern region. According to Thierry, the origin is in a form of the Frankish language; *Neoster rike, which would mean Kingdom of the West. the [land] of the Northwest. Christian Pfister, for his part, in the Encyclopedia Britannica, maintains that the oldest form is *Niuster, derived from niust; new. in the sense of "the 'most recent' conquest of the Franks.
Neustria was also the name of the northwestern region of the Lombard kingdom of Italy, considered different from the northeastern region, known as Austria. See Neustria (Italy).
History
The use of Neustria is attested for the first time in the VII century, in a text by the monk Jonas De Bobbio, to designate the "Frankish kingdom of the West", although it is possible that it was used in earlier times. Chlothar II's triumph in 613 was the triumph of Neustria, to which Aquitaine was annexed. But after Chlothar III's death, Neustria fell under an Austrasia-imposed king, and Aquitaine thus became independent in 670. Ebroin made an attempt to restore Neustria to independent kingdom status, but it was short-lived., since he was defeated by Pepin, Duke of Austrasia, in 687 at Tertry, a Picardy village located 13 km south of Péronne. Thereafter, Neustria became a vassal state of Austrasia, led by the house of Héristal. However, the distinction between Neustria, Austrasia or Burgundy subsisted, although tending to be lost. Thus, after the treaty of Verdun of 843, the name of Neustria designated just the west of Lower Neustria. Finally, a part of its territory was ceded to the Norman Rollon in 912 to constitute the future duchy of Normandy (in French, Normandie, originally Northmannie). It is around this time that the term Neustria begins to disappear in favor of the region's emerging principalities: County of Anjou, County of Maine, and the duchies of Blois and Orleans.
Merovingian Kingdom
Neustria's ancestor was a Roman state, the Kingdom of Soissons. In 486, its ruler, Siagrio, lost the Battle of Soissons against the Frankish king Clovis I, and the domain was thereafter under Frankish control. The constant redistributions of territories by the descendants of Clovis gave rise to numerous rivalries that, for more than two hundred years, kept Neustria at almost constant war with Austrasia, the eastern portion of the kingdom.
Despite the wars, Neustria and Austrasia were briefly reunited on several occasions. The first was under Clotaire I during his reign from 558 to 562. The struggle for power continued with Queen Fredegunde of Neustria, widow of King Chilperic I (reigned 566-584) and mother of the new King Clotaire II (reigned 584 to 628), unleashing a bitter war.
Following the death of his mother and her burial in the Basilica of Saint Denis near Paris in 597, Clotaire II continued the fight against Queen Brunhilde, finally triumphing in 613 when Brunhilde's followers betrayed the former queen in her hands. Clotaire had Brunnhilde put on the rack and stretched for three days, then chained between four horses and finally torn limb from limb. Clotaire now ruled a united kingdom, but only for a short time, as he named his son Dagobert I King of Austrasia. Dagobert's arrival in Neustria led to another temporary unification.
In Austrasia under Arnulfing mayor Grimoald the Elder attempted a coup against his lord, Clovis II deposed him and reunified the kingdom of Neustria, but again temporarily. During or shortly after the reign of Clovis's son Chlothar III, the Neustrian dynasty, like the Austrasia before it, relinquished authority to its own mayor of the palace.
In 678, Neustria, under Mayor Ebroin, subdued the Austrasians for the last time. Ebroin was assassinated in 680. In 687 Pippin of Herstal, mayor of the Austrasia king's palace, defeated the Neustrians at Tertry. Neustria's mayor Berchar was assassinated soon after and following a marriage alliance between Pippin's son Drogo and Berthal's widow, Pippin became mayor of Neustria Palace.
Pippin's descendants, the Carolingians, continued to rule the two kingdoms as stewards. With the blessing of Pope Stephen II, after 751 the Carolingian Pippin the Short formally deposed the Merovingians and seized control of the empire, ruling himself and his descendants as kings.
Neustria, Austrasia and Burgundy were then united under one authority and, although it would again be divided into various eastern and western divisions, the names of "Neustria" and "Australia" they were disappearing
Carolingian subkingdom
In 748, the brothers Pepin the Short and Carloman granted their younger brother Grifo twelve counties in Neustria centered on that of Le Mans. This polity was called the ducatus Cenomannicus, or Duchy of Maine, and this was an alternate name for the regnum of Neustria until well into the IX.
The term "Neustria" it acquired the meaning of "land between the Seine and the Loire" when it was granted as regnum (kingdom) by Charlemagne to his second son, Charles the Younger, in 790. At this time, the main city of the Kingdom appears to be Le Mans, where the royal court of Charles. Under the Carolingian dynasty, the main duty of the Neustrian king was to defend the sovereignty of the Frankish Empire over the Bretons.
In 817, Louis the Pious granted Neustria to his eldest son Lothair I, but after his rebellion in 831, he handed it over to Pepin I of Aquitaine, and after his death in 838, to Charles the Bald. Neustria, together with Aquitaine, formed the greater part of Charles's kingdom of West Francia, separated from the Empire by the Treaty of Verdun (843). Charles continued the tradition of naming an eldest son to rule Neustria with his own court at Le Mans when he made Louis the Stammerer king in 856. Louis married the King of Brittany's daughter Erispoe and received the regnum of the Breton monarch with the consent of the Frankish magnates. This unique relationship for Neustria highlighted how by this time it had shrunk in size to definitively exclude the Île de France and Paris, as it was further from the central authority of Charles the Bald and closer to that of Erispoe. Louis was the last Frankish monarch to be appointed to Neustria by his father, and the practice of creating subkingdoms for sons declined among the later Carolingians.
Dismantling (885-955)
In 885, the Normans resumed hostilities against both Brittany and France, this time mainly from north of the Cotentin, the Orne estuary and the Seine. Paris was besieged in 885, Saint-Lô was taken in 889. The double march of Neustria was entrusted in 886 to the Count of Bayeux, Berenger of Neustria, then in 888 to Robert. The latter was the son of Robert the Strong, assassinated by the Normans at Brissarthe, he was named Count of Paris by his brother Odon, usurper of the throne recognized by his peers. He reorganized it on two fronts. A first march faced the Bretons from Tours, who, under the reign of Alain I of Brittany, respected a relative peace, especially since their presence as far as the Sarthe was not disputed. The second march, from le Mans, engaged the Normans.
On this second front, hostilities ended in 911 with the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, which affected Neustria. A part of it, between its borders of Bessin and the Seine, north of Perche and the Hiémois, which would remain Franc-alleu until the XI, it was ceded to the warlord Rollon, to unite the estuary of the Seine, populated by the Vikings, and that of the Orne, populated by the Saxons, and constitute Northmannia or Normandy. This made Wace, who only knew this northern part of Neustria, improperly said a century and a half later:
Normendie ount nun Neustrie, Neüstrie perdi cest nun (...)
.
The western remnant of the Neustrian march, that is, its part west of the Paris-Tours axis, was simultaneously entrusted to the sole command of the count. Roberto, qualified with the title of Demarche (demarcus), that is, of the two steps or of the double step (not to be confused with demarchus from Greek). Δήμαρχος, chief of dem'). In reality, the region, apart from the Loire Valley and the environs of Mans, escaped French administration. In 932, the count of the Normans William Longsword annexed the Cotentin and the Avranchin to Normandy. Bretons, along with Mont Saint-Michel.
Kings of Neustria
- 511-561 Cloth I The old
- 561-584 Chilperico I
- 584-629 Clothes II The Young
- 629-639 Dagoberto I (Good King Dagoberto)
- 639-657 Clodoveo II
- 657-673 Clothary III
- 673-673 Theoderico III
- 673-675 Childerico II
- 675-691 Theoderico III (second time)
- 691-695 Clodoveo IV
- 695-711 Childeberto III
- 711-715 Dagoberto III
- 715-721 Chilperico II
- 721-737 Theodoric IV
- 737-741 Carlos Martel (interregno)
- 743-751 Childerico III
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