Spacious house in

sunny Sarasota

to rent by the week or month

e-mail, German, French and Spanish also spoken, airport pick-up in Tampa or Sarasota on request.
Search this 5000 page website with
search tips advanced search
site search by freefind

List of pedigreesBland of Northern Neck Va.
Nicholas of Roundway
Hester of Fleming Co Ky
Thruston
Author's DNA match comparisons
Visitors since 22nd March 2009:

It is really something to sing and dance about.
Dig up those old bones and get them dancing!

Change the two party system
so people against something like abortion
but for something like environmental protection never again get bigger and badder storms
and two bankrupting wars instead.



Find your roots!
Get DNA tested too!

This family tree has been made available for free to help you find your ancestors. Now it is time for you to help others with whatever additions, corrections and speculations you may have !
Please use this blank formating file for additions and corrections in HTML and copy it into your e-mail!
If you want your entire peidgree to be posted in the Internet, please use this free blank table pedigree and attach it to an e-mail to the author of this site! Only this HTML format has the flexibility for easy editing and data transfer between files: Use it! Getting your tree on my list of pedigrees posted on this site will help you find those distant cousins with the information your are looking for! This list also includes links to freely accessible trees in the Internet, just let me know what your address is.

Franks 1

Antenor, King of the Cimmerians on the Black Sea, d 433BC This pedigree is entirely legend recorded long after the times and likely just an extract of warriors' campfire yarns told to inspire the young and handed down from generation to generation, probably not devoid of truth but rather watered down well mixed with invention. Like many Germanic peoples, the Franks developed an origin story to connect themselves with peoples of antiquity. In the case of the Franks, these peoples were the Sicambri and the Trojans. An anonymous work of 727 called Liber Historiae Francorum states that following the fall of Troy, 12,000 Trojans led by chiefs Priam and Antenor moved to the Tanais (Don) river, settled in Pannonia near the Maeotis, now Sea of Azov, and founded a city called "Sicambria". In just two generations (Priam and his son Marcomer) from the fall of Troy (by modern scholars dated in the late Bronze Age) they arrive in the late fourth century at the Rhine. An earlier variation of this story can be read in Fredegar. In Fredegar's version an early king named Francio serves as namegiver for the Franks, just as Romulus has lent his name to Rome.
1. Marcomir I, King of the Cimmerians d 412BC
A. Antenor, King of the Cimmerians
m. Cambra
i. Priamus, King of the Sicambri d 358BC
The tribe changed its name to the Sicambri in honour of Priamus's mother.
a. Helenus, King of the Sicambri d 339BC
1 Diocles, King of the Sicambri d 300BC
A Bassanus Magnus , King of the Sicambri d 241BC
i Clodomir I, King of the Sicambri d 232BC
Holdt shows Clodomir as the husband of Bassanus's daughter Sedanus.
a Nicanor, King of the Sicambri d 198BC
1 Marcomir II, King of the Sicambri d 170BC
A Clodius I, King of the Sicambri d 159BC
i Antenor, King of the Sicambri d 143BC
a Clodomir II, King of the Sicambri d 123BC continued below
The Franks enter recorded history around the year 50 due to an invasion across the Rhine into the Roman Empire. They are first mentioned on the Tabula Peutingeriana as the Chamavi qui est Pranci (meaning "Chamavi, who are Pranci", probably an error for Franci). 
A. Clodomir II, King of the Sicambri d 123BC continued above
i. Cassander, King of the Sicambri d 74BC
a. Antharius, King of the Sicambri d 39BC
1 Francus, King of the Franks d 11BC
The tribe changed its name to the Franks in his honour.
A Clodius II, King of the Franks d 20AD
i Marcomir III, King of the Franks d 50AD
a Clodomir III, King of the Franks d 63AD
1 Antenor, King of the Franks d 69
A Ratherius, King of the Franks d 90
i Richemel, King of the Franks d 114
Holdt reports that his wife was called Ascyla.
a Odomar, King of the Franks d 128 continued below
Over the next century other Frankish tribes besides the Chamavi surface in the records. The major primary sources include Panegyrici Latini, Ammianus Marcellinus, Claudian, Zosimus, Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours.
A. Odomar, King of the Franks d 128 continued above
i. Marcomir IV, King of the Franks d 149
In general Germanic peoples on the borders are known to have served in the Roman army since the days of Julius Caesar. The tribes at the Rhine delta that 
later became Franks were no exception to that general rule. Despite the fact that from the 3rd century onward large numbers of Germanic peoples served in the Roman army, others kept on invading and raiding Roman soil. This caused con frontations between Franks and their neighbours on Roman soil such as the Batavi and Menapii. When Roman administration collapsed in Gaul in the 260's due to joint invasions of Franks and Alamanni, the Germanic Batavian Postumus was forced to usurp power and restore order. From that time on Germanic soldiers in the Roman army, most notably Franks, were visibly promoted from the ranks. 
A few decades later the Menapian Carausius (born in Batavia) created a Batavian-British rumpstate on Roman soil that was supported by Frankish soldiers and raiders. 
In the mid 4th century Frankish soldiers like Magnentius, Silvanus and Arbitio held command positions in the Roman military. From the narrative of Ammianus Marcellinus it becomes clear that both Frankish and Alamannic tribal armies were organised along Roman lines and fought comparably.
m. 129 Athildus of Brittany b c90, dau of Coilus, King of Britons
a. Clodomir IV, King of the Franks d 166
Holdt reports that his wife was Hafilda, princess of Rugij.
1 Farabert, King of the Franks d 186
A Sanno, King of the Franks d 213. The Franks (Latin: Franci or gens Francorum) were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the third century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River.
i Hilderic, King of the Franks d 253
a Bertherus, King of the Franks d 272
1 Clodius III , King of the Franks d 298
A Walter, King of the Franks d 306
i Dagobert 1, King of the Franks d 317 continued below
  From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a kingdom on Roman-held soil that was acknowledged by the Romans after 357. 
Modern scholars of the Migration Period are in agreement that the Frankish identity emerged at the first half of the 3rd century out of various earlier, smaller Germanic groups, including the Salii, Sicambri, Chamavi, Bructeri, Chatti, Chattuarii, Ampsivarii, Tencteri, Ubii, Batavi and the Tungri, who inhabited the lower and middle Rhine valley between the Zuyder Zee and the river Lahn and extended eastwards as far as the Weser, but were the most densely settled around the IJssel and between the Lippe and the Sieg. The Frankish confederation probably began to coalesce in the 210s.
The Salian Franks invaded the Roman Empire and were accepted as Foederati by Julian the Apostate in 358. By the end of the fifth century, the Salian Franks had largely moved onto Roman soil to a territory now comprising of the Netherlands south of the Rhine, Belgium and Northwestern Gaul where, during the chaos of the migration period, they formed a kingdom, eventually giving rise to the Merovingian dynasty. Clodius IV , King of the Franks. Franks appear in Roman texts as both allies and enemies (laeti or dediticii). Around 250, one group of Franks, taking advantage of a weakened Roman Empire, penetrated as far as Tarragona in present-day Spain, plaguing this region for about a decade before Roman forces subdued them and expelled them from Roman territory. 
i. Dagobert 1, King of the Franks d 317 continued above. About seventy years later, the Franks had the region of the Scheldt river (present day west Flanders and southwest Netherlands) under control, and were raiding the Channel, disrupting transportation to Britain. Roman forces pacified the region, but did not expel the Franks, who continued to be feared as pirates along the shores at least until the time of Julian the Apostate (358), when Salian Franks were granted to settle as foederati in Toxandria, according to Ammianus Marcellinus.
In the climate of the collapse of imperial authority in the West, the Frankish tribes
were united under the Merovingians and conquered all of Gaul except Septimania
in the 6th century. The Salian political elite would be one of the most active 
forces in spreading Christianity over western Europe.
a.
b. Clodomir V, King of the West Franks
1 Richimel II, King/Duke of the West Franks d 350
m. Matilda
A Theodomir, King/Duke of the West Franks d 360
i Clodius, King/Duke of the West Franks d 378
a Dagobert, King/Duke of the West Franks d 389
1 Genebald, King/Duke of the West Franks d 419
A Argotta
EGHJRSWY
m. Pharamond, King of the Franks d 425just below
EGHJRSWY
c. Genebad, Duke of the East Franks d 358
Genebad not shown by Holdt as Dagobert's son.
1 Dagobert, Duke of the East Franks d 379
A Clodius, Duke of the East Franks d 389
i Marcomir, Duke of the East Franks d 404
a Pharamond, King of the Franks d 425
m. Argotta dau of Genebald, King/Duke of the West Franks just above  This lasted at least till the days of Procopius, when the Western Roman Empire was gone for more than a century, because this historian reports that the former Rhine army was still in operation and that "legions" kept on using the same standard and insignia as had their forefathers during Roman times.
 Militarily, the Franks under the Merovingians melted Germanic custom with Romanized organisation and several important tactical innovations. Before their conquest of Gaul, the Franks fought primarily as a tribe unless they were part of a Roman military unit fighting in conjunction with other imperial units.
In the 5th century, numerous small Frankish kingdoms existed, among them the ones 
in Cologne, Tournai, Le Mans and Cambrai. The kings of Tournai eventually came 
to subdue the other Frankish kings. This was probably enabled by their association with Aegidius, the magister militum of northern Gaul; King Childeric I fights on 
Aegidius' side in 463. 
1 Clodius, King of the Franks d 445
EGHJRSWY
2+ other issue
After the invasion of Chlodio the Roman armies at the Rhine border became a Frankish "franchise", and Franks were known to levy Roman-like troops that were supported by a Roman-like armour and weapons industry.

Sources: 'Royal Genealogies' with support from 'Holdt'.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Franks
return to top of page