Neustria

Neustria was the western part of the Kingdom of the Franks during the early middle ages, in contrast to the eastern Frankish kingdom, Austrasia. It initially included land between the Loire and the Silva Carbonaria, in the north of present-day France, with Paris, Orléans, Tours, Soissons as its main cities. The population was therefore originally largely Romanised. The same term later referred to a smaller region between the Seine and the Loire rivers known as the regnum Neustriae, a constituent subkingdom of the Carolingian Empire and then West Francia. The Carolingian kings also created a March of Neustria which was a frontier duchy against the Bretons and Vikings that lasted until the Capetian monarchy in the late 10th century, when the term was eclipsed as a European political or geographical term. The name Neustria is mostly explained as "new western land", although Taylor (1848) suggested the interpretation of "northeastern land". Nordisk familjebok (1913) even suggested "not the eastern land" (icke östland). Augustin Thierry (1825) assumed Neustria is simply a corruption of Westria, from West-rike "western realm". In any case, Neustria contrasts with the name Austrasia "eastern realm". The analogy to Austrasia is even more explicit in the variant Neustrasia. Neustria was also employed as a term for northwestern Italy during the period of Lombard domination. It was contrasted with the northeast, which was called Austrasia, the same term as given to eastern Francia. The predecessor to Neustria was a Roman rump state, the Kingdom of Soissons. In 486 its ruler, Syagrius, lost the Battle of Soissons to the Frankish king Clovis I and the domain was thereafter under the control of the Franks. Constant re-divisions of territories by Clovis's descendants resulted in many rivalries that, for more than two hundred years, kept Neustria in almost constant warfare with Austrasia, the eastern portion of the Frankish Kingdom. Despite the wars, Neustria and Austrasia re-united briefly on several occasions.