Exploring the Middle Ages Class Summary 12/1/14

with Kim Rodgers

Frank Beginnings

This week we used a map to travel back across all the landscapes we’ve been studying so far, which brought us to what is now modern-day France. Barbarians invaded Roman territory, where they began to learn Roman customs like building houses instead of being nomads, shaving and taking baths, and missionaries taught them about Christianity. They also learned how to speak Latin. The Franks were made up of different tribes who settled next to Roman citizens, along with other barbarian tribes called Burgundians and Allemanni. The problem was that they all didn’t like each other too much. They did become allies in order to fight against the Huns under the leadership of Merovius, but once the Huns retreated they went back to their warring ways. Merovius’s grandson, Clovis, remembered the days of unity and when he was 20 years old he became the leader of his tribe. His goal was to unite Gaul into one empire. He married a princess from the Burgundian tribe named Clotilda, fought other tribes and forced his leadership onto them, and defeated the last Roman soldiers left in the area. His empire became known as the Frankish empire, which is now called France.

City on a Hill

While he was conquering his empire Clovis became a Christian, which he then forced onto his people. His thought was that when a people are united in one religion it is less likely that they will attack each other. He also established a capital city, built on a hill by the river Seine. This city is now called Paris. Finally, like Justinian, he unified the laws into one code that everyone knew and followed. Some of the laws sound quite silly, such as “If a man calls another man ‘Fox’ or ‘Hare’ he will have to pay 120 denars.” It was against the law to call anyone names!

For all of Clovis’s efforts some of the tribes still didn’t want to live close to each other. The empire was united, but not very peaceful. 

The students then took a large sheet of paper and began work on creating their own empire. They drew maps of what their empire might look like, including a key in the corner. Many of them were still working on it when class ended. This week have them finish their map and include some laws they would put in place in their empire.

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Mapwork for the Kingdom of the Franks

Your child came home with a notebooking page and a map, but apparently when I was making copies I skipped the map work instructions. I’m including them here so your child can complete their maps.

1. Color the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean blue.
   
   
2. Color the North Sea and the Baltic Sea blue.
   
   
3. Underline the word “Allemanni” in yellow.
   
   
4. Underline the word “Burgundians” in pink.
   
   
5. Underline the work “Franks” in light blue.
   
   
6. Clovis united all three tribes into one empire. Outline the territory of the Frankish Kingdom in dark blue to show the unification. 

See you next week!