Frankish Kingdom
Carolingian Dyn.







The Alamanni



A Germanic people appearing in historical documents ca. 200 A.D. in the region between upper Rhine and upper Danube, emerging from an amalgamation of previous tribes, the Hermunduri and Suebi. The Alamanni overran the Roman border fortifications and settled the AGRI DECUMATES (Black Forest area) which the Romans gave up (around 250). From time to time they raided the Roman Empire; such a raid is reported for 357.
When the Barbaric people's migration took off in 406, the Alamanni conquered and settled the ALSACE and began to move into the Swiss Aare valley, where over time they pushed forward the frontier.

The Alamanni were pagans; in areas they conquered they expelled, killed or subjugated the indigenous population, redistributed the farmland among their warriors, extinguished non-Alamannic civilization (cities, christian communities). The Alamanni were farmer-warriors.
They lacked an institutionalized state; a HERZOG (duke) had limited authority, based on his charisma and success. The position was not always occupied, and at times there were several. What the Alamanni did have in common were their pagan religion and their ALAMANNIC LAW, most important in determining their identity.

The Alamanni were defeated (486) and conquered by the Franks under CLOVIS in 502/507 (with the exception of some Alemannic territory in modern Switzerland which had come under Burgundian rule and was to stay within the Duchy of Burgundy even after this was conquered by the Franks in 536); Frankish administration (counts) and christianity were introduced; the DIOCESIS OF STRASSBURG is first documented for 614 (Augsburg in 736, Basel only in 805). All of Alemannia was placed under the Archdiocesis of Mainz (established 745). The territory of the Alemanni remained a distinctive administrative unit, the DUCHY of ALAMANNIA (SWABIA). In times of a partition of the Frankish kingdom, it could even become a distinct political entity, such as in 876, when CHARLES THE FAT became King of Alamannia (in 879 he inherited Italy, by 882 he was sole ruler of the East Frankish Kingdom, due to the death of his brothers).
Even under several centuries of Frankish rule, Alemannia (Swabia) preserved a distinctive Swabian character. Alemannic Law was codified under Charlemagne; the Swabian dialect is still characteristic for the region.






EXTERNAL
LINKS 		The Alamanni, from Peoples of the Dark Ages
Dioceses of Strasburg; Basle-Lugano, Augsburg, from Catholic Encyclopedia
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 12th 2004

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