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Radulf was the Duke of Thuringia (dux Thoringiae) from 632 or 633 (certainly before 634) until his death after 642.
According to the Chronicle of Fredegar, he was a son of one Chamar, a Frankish aristocrat, and rose to power under the Merovingian king Dagobert I, who appointed him as dux in the former Thuringian kingdom which Francia had conquered in 531. [1]
His installation was meant to protect the eastern border of the Frankish realm against the threatening Wends under Samo, who had defeated the king at the 631 Battle of Wogastisburg and formed an alliance with Dervan, prince of the Sorbian tribes settling in the adjacent region east of the Saale river. Radulf fought successfully against the Slavs, but subsequently refused the incorporation of the secured territories into the Austrasian kingdom. To retain his independence he allied with Fara, a descendant of the powerful Agilolfing dynasty in Bavaria who ruled over large estates along the Main river, as well as forming treaties of alliance with the Wends, still under Samo. [2]
About 641 King Sigebert III of Austrasia with his Mayors of the Palace, Adalgisel and Grimoald the Elder, marched against the insurgents and at first easily routed Fara's troops, while the Agilolfing himself was killed in battle. Reaching Thuringia however, Duke Radulf, entrenched in his fortress at the Unstrut river, was not overcome, partially because he had gained the support of significant numbers of the king's forces. [3] In 642, he rebelled against Sigebert and defeated his army, taking the title of rex or king of Thuringia. [4] His success is usually considered an indicator of the roi fainéant phenomenon and of undoing of the Merovingians' accomplishments. His sons, Theotbald and Heden I, succeeded him.
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Pepin Iof Landen, also called the Elder or the Old, was the Mayor of the palace of Austrasia under the Merovingian King Dagobert I from 623 to 629. He was also the Mayor for Sigebert III from 639 until his death.
Dagobert I was King of the Franks. He ruled Austrasia (623–634) and Neustria and Burgundy (629–639). He has been described as the last king of the Merovingian dynasty to wield real royal power, after which the Mayor of the palace rose as the political and war leader. Dagobert was the first Frankish king to be buried in the royal tombs at the Basilica of Saint-Denis.
Chlothar II, sometimes called "the Young", was king of the Franks, ruling Neustria (584–629), Burgundy (613–629) and Austrasia (613–623).
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The dynasty consolidated its power in the 8th century, eventually making the offices of mayor of the palace and dux et princeps Francorum hereditary, and becoming the de facto rulers of the Franks as the real powers behind the Merovingian throne. In 751 the Merovingian dynasty which had ruled the Franks was overthrown with the consent of the Papacy and the aristocracy, and Pepin the Short, son of Martel, was crowned King of the Franks. The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak in 800 with the crowning of Charlemagne as the first Emperor of the Romans in the West in over three centuries. Nearly every monarch of France from Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious until the penultimate monarch of France Louis Philippe have been his descendants. His death in 814 began an extended period of fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and decline that would eventually lead to the evolution of the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.
Childebert II (c.570–596) was the Merovingian king of Austrasia from 575 until his death in March 596, and the king of Burgundy from 592 to his death, as the adopted son of his uncle Guntram.
The Kingdom of the Franks, also known as the Frankish Kingdom, the Frankish Empire or Francia, was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Frankish Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties during the Early Middle Ages. Francia was among the last surviving Germanic kingdoms from the Migration Period era.
Samo founded the first recorded political union of Slavic tribes, known as Samo's Empire, ruling from 623 until his death in 658. According to Fredegarius, the only contemporary source, Samo was a Frankish merchant who unified several Slavic tribes against robber raids and violence by nearby settled Avars, showing such bravery and command skills in battle that he was elected "King of the Slavs". In 631, Samo successfully defended his realm against the Frankish Kingdom in the three-day Battle of Wogastisburg.
Sigebert III was the Merovingian king of Austrasia from 633 to his death around 656. He was described as the first Merovingian roi fainéant —do-nothing king—, in effect the mayor of the palace ruling the kingdom throughout his reign. However he lived a pious Christian life and was later sanctified, being remembered as Saint Sigebert of Austrasia in the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church.
Dervan or Derwan was an early ruler of the Sorbs.
John Michael Wallace-Hadrill, was a British academic and one of the foremost historians of the early Merovingian period.
The Chronicle of Fredegar is the conventional title used for a 7th-century Frankish chronicle that was probably written in Burgundy. The author is unknown and the attribution to Fredegar dates only from the 16th century.
Genial was the Duke of Gascony (Vasconia) in the early seventh century. He is mentioned in the Chronicle of Fredegar.
Adalgisel or Adalgis was a Frankish duke and the mayor of the palace of Austrasia. He assumed that office in December 633 or January 634 at the same time that Sigebert III assumed the kingship. Along with Cunibert, Bishop of Cologne, he acted as regent for the young king. Adalgisel, Cunibert, and Sigebert were all appointed by Dagobert I.
The pagan religion of the Germanic tribal confederation of the Franks has been traced from its roots in polytheistic Germanic paganism through to the incorporation of Greco-Roman components in the Early Middle Ages. This religion flourished among the Franks until the conversion of the Merovingian king Clovis I to Nicene Christianity, though there were many Frankish Christians before that. After Clovis I, Frankish paganism was gradually replaced by the process of Christianisation, but there were still pagans in the late 7th century.
The Duchy of Thuringia was an eastern frontier march of the Merovingian kingdom of Austrasia, established about 631 by King Dagobert I after his troops had been defeated by the forces of the Slavic confederation of Samo at the Battle of Wogastisburg. It was recreated in the Carolingian Empire and its dukes were appointed by the king until it was absorbed by the Saxon dukes in 908. From about 1111/12 the territory was ruled by the Landgraves of Thuringia as Princes of the Holy Roman Empire. When Frederick IV, the last independent ruler of Thuringia died in 1440, the territory passed to his nephew, the Saxon elector Frederick II.
Samo's Empire is the historiographical term for the West Slavic tribal union established by King ("Rex") Samo. It existed between 623/631 AD and 658 in Central Europe. The extent of Samo's power before and after 631 is disputed.
The Sorbs, also known as Serbs or White Serbs in Serbian historiography, were an Early Slavic tribe settled between the Saale-Elbe valley and the Lusatian Neisse. They were part of the Polabian Slavs and Wends group of Early Slavs. In the 7th century CE, the tribe joined Samo's Empire, and some Sorbs emigrated from their homeland to Southeast Europe. The tribe is last mentioned in the late-10th century, but its descendants can be found among Germanized people of Saxony, among the Slavic ethnic group of the Sorbs in Lusatia, and among the Serbs of Southeastern Europe.
The Battle of Autun was a pitched battle in 642 or 643, concluding a feud between Flaochad and Willebad, two magnates of the Merovingian kingdom of Burgundy. The battle is recounted in detail in the final chapter of the contemporary Chronicle of Fredegar and also in the biographies of saints Eligius of Noyon and Sigiramn. While Fredegar seems hostile to Willebad, the hagiographers are hostile to Flaochad. The anonymous author of Fredegar may have been an eyewitness.
Amalgar, also Amalgarius, was a Burgundian duke from the area around Dijon. He was also the proprietor of multiple monasteries, and was a progenitor of the Etichonid clan, from which the Habsburgs originate.
The Avar Wars were fought between Francia and the Avar Khaganate in Central Europe from 788 to 803, and ended with the Frankish conquest of the khaganate's western regions. The first conflicts between the Avars and the Franks occurred in the 560s, shortly before the Avar conquest of the Pannonian Basin. Armed conflicts between the two powers were not unusual during the following centuries.
