הכונה קרוב לודאי
לפראנקים ולא ל"פרענקים" פרנקים הנה
אתר המדבר עליהם ועל תקופתם בהרחבה והנה... מתוך ויקיפדיה, האנציקלופדיה החופשית. הפרנקים, אחד השבטים שנדדו באירופה, שמוצאו באזור השפך של נהר הריים. שבט זה התיישב במאה ה-5 באזור שהרומאים קראו לו גאליה. תחום שלטונו החל להיקרא מאז ממלכת הפרנקים, ומשם זה נגזר מאוחר יותר השם France (צרפת). כמו כל השבטים שפלשו לאימפריה הרומית, היו גם הפרנקים עובדי אלילים. כאשר התישבו בגאליה, התנצר המלך שלהם ואתו גם לוחמיו. בעקבותיהם התנצרו גם יתר בני השבט. ואולם, גם לאחר שהתנצרו המשיכו הפרנקים לשמור על מנהגים אליליים, כמו טקסי פריון, שנועדו להגביר את פוריות האישה, או טקסים לגירוש רוחות רעות. התנצרות הפרנקים וחייהם בגאליה לצד הרומאים הביאו להתקרבות בין הרומאים ובין הפרנקים. הם השתתפו באותם טקסים בכנסיות והיו ביניהם קשרי נישואים. כך החלה להתהות בגאליה חברה, ששילבה את מנהגי הפרנקים עם מנהגי הרומאים. לדוגמה, הרומאים לובשי הטוגות (גלימות רחבות בלי שרוולים) למדו מהפרנקים ללבוש מכנסיים, ואילו הפרנקים שותי הבירה למדו מהרומאים לשתות יין.
מהויקיפדיה באנגלית: In 486, Clovis I, leader of the Salian Franks to the east, conquered the Roman territory between the Loire and the Somme, subsequently uniting most of northern and central France under his rule and adopting (496) the Roman Catholic form of Christianity in preference to the Arianism preferred by rival Germanic rulers. After Clovis's death (511) his realm underwent repeated division while his Merovingian dynasty eventually lost effective power to their successive mayors of the palace, the founders of what was to become the Carolingian dynasty. The assumption of the crown in 751 by Pepin the Short (son of Charles Martel) established Carolingian rule in name as well as in fact. The new rulers' power reached its fullest extent under Pepin's son Charlemagne, (Charles the Great), who in 771 reunited the Frankish domains after a further period of division, subsequently conquering the Lombard kingdom in northern Italy (774), incorporating Bavaria (788) into his realm, defeating the Avars of the Danubian plain (796), advancing the frontier with Muslim Spain as south as Barcelona (801), and subjugating Lower Saxony (804) after prolonged campaigning. In recognition of his successes and his political support for the Papacy, Charlemagne was in 800 crowned Emperor of the Romans, or Roman Emperor in the West, by Pope Leo III: on the death of his son Louis I (emperor 814-840), however, the empire was divided among Louis's three sons (Treaty of Verdun, 843). After a last brief reunification (884-887), the imperial title ceased to be held in the western part which was to form the basis of the future French kingdom.
מהאתר של אוניברסיטת נורת' פארק The Franks, as they are known today, were a Germanic tribe who eventually became the French. They came to inhabit the former wealthy Roman provinces of Gaul and became the most powerful of the Germanic tribes. It was the Franks who created the strongest and most stable barbarian kingdom in the days after the Western Roman Empire had collapsed. The name "Frank" is closely related to the word that means "fierce" or "free" in the Frankish language. From a linguistic point of view, the most direct descendants of the Franks are the Dutch and the Flemish-speakers of Belgium. The early Franks were a loose confederation of tribes who shared a similar culture. Tribal loyalty came before loyalty to the confederation and because of this the confederation was extremely weak. The concept of the Franks as a people was first realized under the reign of the Merovingian dynasty. The Merovingians took their name from the chief of the tribe, Merovech (Merowen), who was one of the leaders (reguli) of the Salian Franks. Merovich and his successor, Childeric, (d. 481), extended Frankish dominion as far south as the Somme River. Childeric was the father of Clovis (481-511), the first ruler of the Merovingian dynasty. Clovis was a ruthless warrior and he and his immediate successors destroyed all resistance within their empire. He drove the Gallic Visigoths into Spain and absorbed much of the Burgundian kingdom as well as much of the territory of the Alemanni into his kingdom. In addition, Clovis also converted to Orthodox Christianity, an act which made him king of the Franks in the eyes of the pope. After AD 700, the Merovingians gradually lost control of the Frankish kingdom to the Carolingians, a family of ambitious landowners who served as court advisors to the Merovingians. Frankish troops secured the fate of Christian Europe in the Battle of Tours, in which the Muslim forces were defeated by the Carolingian general Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer). Pepin the Short, son of Charles Martel, became king with the votes of the Frankish nobles and papal approval. In return for this ecclesiastic recognition, Pepin crushed the Lombards of Italy and gave the newly conquered lands to the pope. These territories later became the Papal states and this agreement is known as the Donation of Pepin. However, the most notable of all the Frankish rulers was Charlemagne (Charles the Great). He built up a capable bureaucracy, a fair judicial system, and revived the arts. he was also the ruler of a vast domain that was gained by his military exploits. Charlemagne followed up his victories in these areas by converting most of the people to Christianity and he was justly honored for his military and religious activities. On Christmas day of the year AD 800, Pope Leo III (795-816) crowned Charlemagne "Charles Augustus, Emperor of the Romans," and made him the first Holy Roman Emperor. The end of the Carolingian era began in 843 when Charlemagne's grandsons divided the empire into three parts, and thus hastened the splintering of Western Europe into smaller kingdoms.