Europe · The early medieval west
East Francia
843–962
East Francia (Francia Orientalis) comprised the Frankish lands east of the Rhine, allocated to Louis the German (r. 843–876) by the Treaty of Verdun. It encompassed the stem duchies of Saxony, Bavaria, Swabia (Alemannia), Franconia, and later Lotharingia and Thuringia.
- Existed
- 843–962
- Shown on the map
- AD 850–881, 887–910 (2 periods)
- Peak area
- 742k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
East Francia (Francia Orientalis) comprised the Frankish lands east of the Rhine, allocated to Louis the German (r. 843–876) by the Treaty of Verdun. It encompassed the stem duchies of Saxony, Bavaria, Swabia (Alemannia), Franconia, and later Lotharingia and Thuringia. It was the direct predecessor of the medieval Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.
Decline and legacy
Louis the German was an able ruler who repeatedly intervened in West Frankish and Middle Frankish affairs. After his death the kingdom was divided among his sons, then reunited under Charles the Fat, and after 887 passed to the illegitimate Carolingian Arnulf of Carinthia (r. 887–899), who defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Leuven (891). The last East Frankish Carolingian was Louis the Child (r. 900–911), during whose minority the Magyars raided freely. On his death the dynasty in the east ended, and the nobility elected Conrad I of Franconia (r. 911–918), then the Saxon Henry the Fowler (919), inaugurating the Ottonian dynasty. The transition is conventionally dated to 962, when Otto I was crowned emperor, transforming East Francia into the Holy Roman Empire.
Common questions
- What was East Francia?
- East Francia (Francia Orientalis) comprised the Frankish lands east of the Rhine, allocated to Louis the German (r. 843–876) by the Treaty of Verdun. It encompassed the stem duchies of Saxony, Bavaria, Swabia (Alemannia), Franconia, and later Lotharingia and Thuringia.
- When did East Francia exist?
- East Francia existed 843–962. On this map it is drawn AD 850–881, 887–910.
- How large was East Francia?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, East Francia covered about 742,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
- How did East Francia end?
- Louis the German was an able ruler who repeatedly intervened in West Frankish and Middle Frankish affairs. After his death the kingdom was divided among his sons, then reunited under Charles the Fat, and after 887 passed to the illegitimate Carolingian Arnulf of Carinthia (r. 887–899), who defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Leuven (891).
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity as the primary basis, cross-checked against Encyclopædia Britannica and the World History Encyclopedia, while flagging entries built on thin or contested evidence — Samo's Empire on a single Fredegar passage, Venice's 697 founding date as legendary, the Pacta conventa as a probable forgery. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — East Francia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Francia
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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