Stem duchies were essentially the domains of the old German tribes of the area, associated with the Frankish Kingdom, especially the East

Eastern Francia

East Francia , also known as the Kingdom of the East Franks or Francia Orientalis, was the realm allotted to Louis the German by the 843 Treaty of Verdun...

, in the Early Middle Ages

Early Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...

. These tribes were originally the Franks

Franks

The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. 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...

, the Saxons

Saxons

The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...

, the Alamanni

Alamanni

The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211 to 217 and claimed thereby to be...

, the Burgundians

Burgundians

The Burgundians were an East Germanic tribe which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr , and from there to mainland Europe...

, the Thuringii

Thuringii

The Thuringii or Toringi were a Germanic tribe which appeared late during the Völkerwanderung in the Harz Mountains of central Germania around 280, in a region which still bears their name to this day — Thuringia. They evidently filled a void left when the previous inhabitants — the...

, and the Rugii. In contrast to later duchies, these entities were not defined by strict administrative boundaries but by the area of settlement of major Germanic tribe

Tribe

A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...

s. Their duke

Duke

A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...

s were neither royal administrators nor territorial lords.

The Saxon, Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

n, Thuringians, Frankish

Franks

The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. 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...

 and Alamanni

Alamanni

The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211 to 217 and claimed thereby to be...

an territories became Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

, Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

, Franconia

Franconia

Franconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a small part of southern Thuringia, and a region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Tauberfranken...

 and Swabia

Swabia

Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...

 respectively.

Older stem duchies

The older stem duchies were regions inhabited by Germanic tribes that were associated with the Frankish Kingdom. The duchies were more or less independent entities ruled by native rulers who had acquired the Roman title of dux

Dux

Dux is Latin for leader and later for Duke and its variant forms ....

. All of them came to an end during the rule of the early Carolingians. These older stem duchies were:

Alamannia (or Swabia)

Duke of Swabia

The following is a list of Dukes of Swabia in southwest Germany.Swabia was one of the five stem duchies of the medieval German kingdom, and its dukes were thus among the most powerful magnates of Germany. The most notable family to hold Swabia were the Hohenstaufen, who held it, with a brief...

 : The Alamanns came under Frankish supremacy around 539 and were ruled by various dukes until 746, when the Frankish mayor Carloman terminated the duchy in the Blood court at Cannstatt

Blood court at Cannstatt

The blood court at Cannstatt took place as Carloman in 746 invited all nobles of the Alamanni to a council at Cannstatt. According to the annals of Metz, the annales Petaviani and an account by Childebrand, Carloman arrested several thousand noblemen and executed them for high treason...

.
Bavaria

History of Bavaria

The history of Bavaria stretches from its earliest settlement and its formation as a stem duchy in the 6th century through its inclusion in the Holy Roman Empires to its status as an independent kingdom and, finally, as a large and significant Bundesland of the modern Federal Republic of...

 : The Bavarians came under Frankish supremacy around 550 and were ruled by the Agilolfings

Agilolfings

The Agilolfings were a family of either Frankish or Bavarian nobility that ruled the Duchy of Bavaria on behalf of their Merovingian suzerains from about 550 until 788...

 until 788, when Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

 deposed the last Duke.
Saxony

Duchy of Saxony

The medieval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian stem duchy" covering the greater part of Northern Germany. It covered the area of the modern German states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt and most of Schleswig-Holstein...

 : The Saxons were loosely associated with the Merovingian Kingdom but practically remained independent until they were subdued by Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

 in the Saxon Wars

Saxon Wars

The Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the more than thirty years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of disaffected tribesmen was crushed. In all, eighteen battles were fought in what is now northwestern Germany...

 (772–804).

Some tribes, such as the Frisians

Frisians

The Frisians are a Germanic ethnic group native to the coastal parts of the Netherlands and Germany. They are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, East Frisia and North Frisia, that was a part of Denmark until 1864. They inhabit an area known as Frisia...

, never formed a stem duchy with cultural allegiance to any single duke.

Younger stem duchies

After the demise of the stem duchies, the Carolingians administered these regions through counts and prefects or sometimes distributed the rule to a member of the dynasty, e.g. Louis the German

Louis the German

Louis the German , also known as Louis II or Louis the Bavarian, was a grandson of Charlemagne and the third son of the succeeding Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye.He received the appellation 'Germanicus' shortly after his death in recognition of the fact...

 in Bavaria. After the division of the Kingdom in the Treaties of Verdun

Treaty of Verdun

The Treaty of Verdun was a treaty between the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious, the son and successor of Charlemagne, which divided the Carolingian Empire into three kingdoms...

 (843), Meerssen

Treaty of Meerssen

The Treaty of Meerssen or Mersen was a partition treaty of the Carolingian Empire concluded on 8 August 870 by the two surviving sons of Emperor Louis the Pious, King Charles the Bald of West Francia and Louis the German of East Francia, at Meerssen north of Maastricht, in the present-day...

 (870) and Ribemont

Treaty of Ribemont

There are two Treaties of Ribemont, the first is from 880 and the second is from 1179.-The treaty of 880:The Treaty of Ribemont in 880 was the last treaty on the partitions of the Frankish Empire...

 (880), Bavaria, Alemannia and Saxony together with Eastern parts of the Frankish territory formed the Eastern Frankish Kingdom. The kingdom was divided among the sons of Louis the German

Louis the German

Louis the German , also known as Louis II or Louis the Bavarian, was a grandson of Charlemagne and the third son of the succeeding Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye.He received the appellation 'Germanicus' shortly after his death in recognition of the fact...

 largely along the lines of the tribes. After 899, under the rule of Louis the Child

Louis the Child

Louis the Child , sometimes called Louis IV or Louis III, was the last Carolingian ruler of East Francia....

, royal power quickly disintegrated, which allowed local magnates to revive the duchies as autonomous entities, ruling their tribes under the supreme authority of the King. After end of the eastern branch of the Carolingians (911), the dukes competed for the crown with first the Franconian Conradines (911) and eventually the Saxon Liudolfings (919) winning out. Though their and their successors' strong government often reduced the dukes to royal lieutenants again, the stem duchies largely remained intact until the reign of the Hohenstaufen dynasty.

The younger stem duchies were:
Saxony

Duchy of Saxony

The medieval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian stem duchy" covering the greater part of Northern Germany. It covered the area of the modern German states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt and most of Schleswig-Holstein...

 (880–1180) : The Liudolfing family, which had long been employed in the administration of Saxony, rose to the position of Dukes and even attained the Kingship after 919. In the 11th century, the Duchy was ruled by the Billung

Billung

The House of Billung was a dynasty of Saxon noblemen in the 9th through 12th centuries.The first known member of the house was Count Wichmann, mentioned as a Billung in 811...

s and after 1137 the Welfs dominated the duchy. The fall of Duke Henry the Lion

Henry the Lion

Henry the Lion was a member of the Welf dynasty and Duke of Saxony, as Henry III, from 1142, and Duke of Bavaria, as Henry XII, from 1156, which duchies he held until 1180....

 in 1180 resulted in the dismantling of the stem duchy, into three smaller parts (Westphalia

Duchy of Westphalia

The Duchy of Westphalia was a historic territory in the greater region of Westphalia, located in the east of modern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Originally, Westphalia formed with Angria and Eastphalia one of the three main regions of Saxony...

, Brunswick

Brunswick-Lüneburg

The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , or more properly Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg, was an historical ducal state from the late Middle Ages until the late Early Modern era within the North-Western domains of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, in what is now northern Germany...

 and the Duchy of Saxony on the river Elbe

Elbe

The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...

).
Franconia

Duchy of Franconia

The Duchy of Franconia was one of the stem duchies of Germany during the formative period of the Holy Roman Empire in the 10th century, part of former Frankish Austrasia.But unlike the others Franconia did not evolve into a stable political entity...

 (906–39) : The Conradine family, close to the royal court, obtained ducal hegemony in Franconia but never managed to unify the region. After attaining the Kingship in 911, they had to yield the crown to the Saxon Luidolfings. After a failed rebellion, the Conradines were deposed and the Duchy made into a land of the crown. The region fragmented into a conglomerate of noble territories and ecclesiastical principalities.
Bavaria

Duchy of Bavaria

The Duchy of Bavaria was the only one of the stem duchies from the earliest days of East Francia and the Kingdom of Germany to preserve both its name and most of its territorial extent....

 (907–1180) : The Luitpolding family, responsible for the defense of the March of Carinthia

March of Carinthia

The March of Carinthia was a frontier district of the Carolingian Empire created in 889. Before it was a march, it had been a principality or duchy ruled by native-born Slavic princes at first independently and then under Bavarian and subsequently Frankish suzerainty...

, rose to the position of Dukes. They were succeeded by a branch of the Luidolfings dynasty and eventually the Welfs, whose struggle with the Hohenstaufen Kings resulted in Bavaria being stripped of Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 (1156) and Styria  and Tyrol

County of Tyrol

The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...

 (1180). The reduced territorial duchy was given to the Wittelsbach family.
Swabia

Duchy of Swabia

Swabia was one of the five stem duchies of the medieval German kingdom, and its dukes were thus among the most powerful magnates of Germany.-History:...

 (909–1268) : The Thurgau

Thurgau

Thurgau is a northeast canton of Switzerland. The population, , is . In 2007, there were a total of 47,390 who were resident foreigners. The capital is Frauenfeld.-History:...

-based Hunfridings first rose to the position of Dukes but soon lost the rule in their struggle with the Luidolfing Kings. After various families, the Duchy passed to the Hohenstaufen family in 1079. Their rise to the Kingship made Swabia a base of the crown but their fall in the 13th century left Swabia in complete disintegration, with remains falling to the Wittelsbach, Württemberg

History of Württemberg

Württemberg developed as a political entity in south-west Germany, with the core established around Stuttgart by Count Conrad . His descendants managed to expand Württemberg, surviving Germany's religious wars, changes in imperial policy, and invasions from France. The state had a basic...

 and Habsburg families.
Lotharingia

Lotharingia

Lotharingia was a region in northwest Europe, comprising the Low Countries, the western Rhineland, the lands today on the border between France and Germany, and what is now western Switzerland. It was born of the tripartite division in 855, of the kingdom of Middle Francia, itself formed of the...

 (903–959) : As a central component of the Frankish kingdom and with an essentially Frankish

Franks

The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. 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...

 tribal identity, Lotharingia was organized as a Duchy in 903 and kept a changing position between the Eastern and the Western Kingdom until 939, when it was firmly incorporated into the Eastern Kingdom. In 959 the Duchy was divided into Lower Lotharingia

Lower Lorraine

The Duchy of Lower Lorraine or Lower Lotharingia , established in 959 was a stem duchy of the medieval German kingdom, which encompassed part of modern-day Belgium, the Netherlands, the northern part of the German Rhineland and a part of northern France east of the Schelde river.It was created out...

 (which in turn fragmented further) and Upper Lotharingia (parts of which developed into the French territory called Lorraine

Lorraine (région)

Lorraine is one of the 27 régions of France. The administrative region has two cities of equal importance, Metz and Nancy. Metz is considered to be the official capital since that is where the regional parliament is situated...

)

Stem duchies in France

German historians have commonly restricted the term stem duchy to the Eastern kingdom with its variety of Germanic tribes in contrast to the romanized and more unified Western kingdom, whose duchies were considered regional units of administration withhout ethnic cohesion. J. Flach and W. Kienast however argued that the duchies of France (Brittany, Normandy

Duchy of Normandy

The Duchy of Normandy stems from various Danish, Norwegian, Hiberno-Norse, Orkney Viking and Anglo-Danish invasions of France in the 9th century...

, Gascogne, Aquitaine

Duke of Aquitaine

The Duke of Aquitaine ruled the historical region of Aquitaine under the supremacy of Frankish, English and later French kings....

, and Burgundy

Duchy of Burgundy

The Duchy of Burgundy , was heir to an ancient and prestigious reputation and a large division of the lands of the Second Kingdom of Burgundy and in its own right was one of the geographically larger ducal territories in the emergence of Early Modern Europe from Medieval Europe.Even in that...

) also had an ethnic basis before the French kings began creating dukes in the fourteenth century. The nature and role of Germanic stem duchies are now often characterized by contrasting them with the oldest duchies of Francia.

The twelve paladins of Charlemagne are said to have inspired the creation of twelve

Peerage of France

The Peerage of France was a distinction within the French nobility which appeared in the Middle Ages. It was abolished in 1789 during the French Revolution, but it reappeared in 1814 at the time of the Bourbon Restoration which followed the fall of the First French Empire...

 ancient pairie

Pairie

The French word pairie is the equivalent of the English word peerage, in the sense of an individual title carrying the rank of Pair , which derives from the Latin par 'equal', and signifies the members of an exclusive body of noblemen and prelates, considered to be the highest social order -not...

s, six temporal geographical units (Normandy, Burgundy, Aquitaine, Flanders

County of Flanders

The County of Flanders was one of the territories constituting the Low Countries. The county existed from 862 to 1795. It was one of the original secular fiefs of France and for centuries was one of the most affluent regions in Europe....

, Toulouse

Counts of Toulouse

The first Counts of Toulouse were the administrators of the city and its environs under the Merovingians. No succession of such royal appointees is known, though a few names survive to the present...

, Champagne

Champagne, France

Champagne is a historic province in the northeast of France, now best known for the sparkling white wine that bears its name.Formerly ruled by the counts of Champagne, its western edge is about 100 miles east of Paris. The cities of Troyes, Reims, and Épernay are the commercial centers of the area...

) and six ecclesiastic geographical units (Noyon

Ancient Diocese of Noyon

The former French Catholic diocese of Noyon lay in the north-east of France, around Noyon. It was formed when Saint Medardus moved the seat of the bishopric at Vermandois to Noyon, in the sixth century. For four centuries it was united with the bishopric of Tournai...

, Reims, Laon

Ancient diocese of Laon

The diocese of Laon in the present-day département of Aisne, was a Catholic diocese for around 1300 years, up to the French Revolution. Its seat was in Laon, France, with the Laon Cathedral. From early in the 13th century, the bishop of Laon was a Pair de France, among the elite.-History:The...

, Langres, Beauvais, Châlons

Roman Catholic Diocese of Châlons

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Châlons is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in France. The diocese comprises the department of Marne, excluding the arrondissement of Reims.It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Reims.-History:...

). This system was imported to the Crusader states

Crusader states

The Crusader states were a number of mostly 12th- and 13th-century feudal states created by Western European crusaders in Asia Minor, Greece and the Holy Land , and during the Northern Crusades in the eastern Baltic area...

, as the custom was known and prevalent among the Franks.

Sources and external link

• The Stem Duchies and Marches
• Westermann, Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte