The Roman Empire and the “Holy” Roman Empire: The revived Roman Empire was not ruled by Romans (or Italians), but by German kings.
Early 6th century: several Germanic kingdoms dominate Western Europe. The Visigoths were in Spain and the Franks controlled France. The Ostrogoths were in Italy, Austria and Yugoslavia and the Vandals were in North Africa. There were other Germanic tribes in the picture also, including the Lombards in North Eastern Europe. The Ostrogoths were soon removed from Italy and replaced by Lombard, Byzantine and Papal powers.
There were two groups of Franks in the lower Rhineland: The Salian (dwellers by the sea) and the Ripuarian (dwellers of the Meuse and Rhine Rivers). From the “Low Countries (Holland, Belgium and the Rhineland) the two Frankish kingdoms moved southward gaining more land.
Salian Franks of the House of Merovech, or the Merovingians, consolidated Gaul and the Low Countries. This territory would become known as France.
Clovis: Reigned from 481-511. Besides defeating his enemies at war, he converts from his Aryan beliefs to Catholicism. The Church and the Franks are now partners.
When it came to the inheritance of royal power the Merovingians have a tradition of partitioning. This practices means that instead of the entire kingdom passing on to the eldest son, it is divided among all the king’s sons. Clovis had four.
Charles Martel: reigned from 714 – 741. Charles Martel was a mayor of a Merovingian king. He grew to great power although he was never a king. Led Frankish nobles on the defeat of the Arabs from Moslem Spain near Tours (100 miles in distance from Paris) in the year 732. From Martel came the House of Charles or the Carolingian Empire.
Pepin the Short: 741-768 was the son of Charles Martel and was the first of the Carolingians to be known as a King of the Franks.
751: Pepin the Short deposed Childeric III, the last Merovingian king.
753: Pope Stephen II enlists Pepin to fight the Lombards in Northern Italy. Pepin defeats them and hands the territory to the Church.
Charlemagne (Charles the Great): Charlemagne, Pepin’s son, ruled from the years 768-814. As the king of the Franks he sought to expand his kingdom.
774: Charlemagne defeats the remaining Lombards.
Circa 780: Charlemagne conquers the Saxons, Bavarians and other German tribes. With the help of monks and priests he converts them (sometimes by force) to Christianity. He also defeated the Avars (central-Asian nomads) along the Danube. His main threat was from Moslem–controlled Spain.
12- 25- 800: Charlemagne is crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III and his kingdom is known as the “Roman Empire”. The empire spread from France to Bavaria and from Saxony to Northern Italy and there were also tributary nations.
814 Charlemagne dies. His son Louis I (the Pious) becomes emperor.
843: Louis dies and the empire is divided among his three sons. Charles the Bald controlled the western portion (what is now France and Belgium) of the Empire, Lothair was given the center (more or less Northern Italy, Switzerland, West Germany and Amsterdam) and Louis controlled the east (East Germany, Austria and the western parts of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia).
German duchies: Franconia, Saxony, Thuringia, Swabia and Bavaria. They were at first loyal to the Franks, but they sought power as the Carolingian dynasty began to disintegrate. The Frankish kingdom would be divided between France and Germany until the Germans were strong enough to dominate the entire of Western Europe.
911: The last descendant of Charlemagne in the eastern kingdom dies. The Frankish dukes elected a new king, Conrad Duke of Franconia, who ruled until the year 918. After Conrad died, Henry Duke of Saxony became king and ruled from 919 - 936. In the year 925 Henry conquers Lorraine, the middle kingdom.
Otto I (936-973): Henry’s son becomes king and eventually claims the imperial title.
938: Franconia and Bavaria rebel against Otto.
951: Otto married the widow of Lothair, king of Italy. He becomes the king of the Franks and Lombards, expanding his kingdom westward. At his coronation he took the title of the King of Italy, the first “Holy” Roman emperor.
953: The Germans also made inroads into the Church. Otto’s brother Bruno (the Archbishop of Cologne) became the ruler of his realm. Bruno’s son, Duke Liudolf of Swabia, challenged Otto and lost his dukedom.
955: Defeats the Magyars (Hungarians) and the Slavs in battle and the Empire expanded eastward.
962: Berengar II, a king of Italy threatened the Papal States and was defeated by Otto. The Roman Empire is revived again with Otto as emperor and Pope John XII as pope.
Otto II ruled from 973 – 983. Defeated rivals in Bavaria and France, but loses to the Moslems in southern Italy.
983: Otto dies and is succeeded by his three-year-old son, Otto III who is crowned in 996 and reigned until 1002.
984: Henry II “the Quarrelsome”, who was the deposed duke of Bavaria, seizes Otto. Henry, a member of the reigning house soon returned the king to his mother, who along with a council, ruled until Otto was of age.
996: Otto III is crowned as emperor and recognized as king of the Lombards. He was crowned by his cousin Bruno a.k.a. Pope Gregory V.
986: Louis V dies, the last of the Carolingians. Hugh Capet becomes the French king.
1000: Otto III makes Rome his permanent residence and looks to revive the splendor and customs of long defunct Rome, such as the senate, consulate and the office of patrician. He also called himself “consul of the Roman senate and people” and issued a seal with the inscription, “restoration of the Roman empire.”
12th century: The Roman Empire is now known as the "Holy" Roman Empire.
1806: Thanks to Napoleon I the Roman Empire ended. After a decade of war and land grabbing, several German states secede from the Empire making Francis II the last “Holy” Roman Emperor.