Austrasia

Austrasia was a territory which formed the north-eastern section of the Kingdom of the Franks from the 6th to 8th centuries, ruled by the Frankish Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties during the Early Middle Ages. It was centred on the Meuse, Middle Rhine, and the Moselle rivers, and was the original territory of the Franks, including both the so-called Salians and Rhineland Franks, which Clovis I, King of the Franks (481–511) conquered after first taking control of the bordering part of Roman Gaul (present-day northwestern France), which is sometimes described in this period as Neustria. In 561, Austrasia became a separate kingdom within the Frankish kingdom and was ruled by the Merovingian king Sigebert I (561–575). In the 7th and 8th centuries, it was the powerbase from which the Carolingians, originally mayors of the palace of Austrasia, took over the rule of all Franks, all of Gaul, most of Germany, and northern Italy. After this period of unification, the now larger Frankish Empire was once again divided between eastern, central, and western sub-kingdoms (West Francia, Middle Francia, and East Francia), with the new version of the eastern kingdom eventually becoming the foundation of the Kingdom of Germany. The name Austrasia is not well attested in the Merovingian period. It is recorded first by Gregory of Tours in 580 and then by Aimoin of Fleury in c. 1000. It is presumably the latinization of an Old Frankish name, reconstructed as *Oster-rike ("Eastern Kingdom"). As with the name Austria, it contains the word for "east", i.e. meaning "eastern land" to designate the original territory of the Franks in contrast to Neustria, the "(new) western land" in northern Gaul conquered by Clovis I in the wake of the Battle of Soissons of 486. Austrasia was centered on the Middle Rhine, including the basins of the Moselle, Main, and Meuse rivers. It bordered on Frisia and Saxony to the north, Thuringia to the east, Swabia and Burgundy to the south and to Neustria to the southwest.