Germanic monarchy, also called barbarian monarchy, was a monarchical system of government which predominated among the Germanic tribes of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. It is often used in contrast with feudal monarchy and national monarchy, the later medieval systems which developed out of it. The term Germanic tribes (or Teutonic tribes) applies to the ancient Germanic peoples of Europe. ... Late Antiquity is a rough periodization (c. ... Justinians wife Theodora and her retinue, in a 6th century mosaic from the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. ... Roland pledges his fealty to Charlemagne; from a manuscript of a chanson de geste. ... A nation–state is a specific form of state, which exists to provide a sovereign territory for a particular nation, and which derives its legitimacy from that function. ...

The term "barbarian monarchy" was proposed early in the twentieth century by Russian medievalists who saw similarities between the Germanic tribal monarchies and those of the nomadic peoples of the Steppe.^[1] A medievalist is a person who specializes in medieval studies. ... A steppe in Western Kazakhstan in early spring In physical geography, a steppe (Russian: - , Ukrainian: - , Kazakh: - ), pronounced in English as , is a plain without trees (apart from those near rivers and lakes); it is similar to a prairie, although a prairie is generally considered as being dominated by tall grasses...

Germanic monarchies were primitive states. At the apex of a society of mostly free men stood the monarch (almost always a king), who had a few limited functions. The Germanic monarchies were originally pagan in nature, but their contact, during the Völkerwanderung or Migration Period, with the Roman Empire and the Christian Church greatly altered their structure and they soon developed into different entities in which the king was more than the leader of a war band and the law more than oral tradition. Human migration denotes any movement of groups of people from one locality to another, rather than of individual wanderers. ... Motto Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR) The Roman Empire at its greatest extent. ... St. ...

Germanic kings

The Germanic king originally had three main functions:

• To serve as judge during the popular assemblies.
• To serve as a priest during the sacrifices.
• To serve as a military leader during wars.

The office was hereditary, but originally a Germanic king had to have the consent of the people before he could assume the throne. All the sons of the king had the right to claim the throne, which often led to co-rulership (diarchy) where two brothers were elected kings at the same time. This evolved into the territories being considered the hereditary property of the kings, patrimonies, a system which fuelled feudal wars, because the kings could claim ownership of lands beyond their de facto rule. Diarchy (or dyarchy) is a society or an organization with two rulers on an equal standing. ... 1. ...

As a sort of pagan high priest, the king often claimed descent from some deity. In the Scandinavian nations, he administered blóts at important cult sites, such as the Temple at Uppsala. Refusal to administer the blóts could lead to the king losing his power (see Haakon the Good and Anund Gårdske). Scandinavia is a historical and geographical region centered on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe and includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. ... The Blót was the pagan Germanic sacrifice to Norse gods and Elves. ... The Temple at Uppsala was a temple in Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala), near modern Uppsala, Sweden, that was created to worship the Norse gods of ancient times. ... Haakon I (c. ... Anund GÃ¥rdske came from Kievan Rus, but is only mentioned by Adam of Bremen. ...

Development

With the decline of the Roman Empire, much of her provinces came under the rule of Germanic kings: Hispania to the Visigoths, Italia to the Ostrogoths, Gallia to the Franks, Britannia to the Anglo-Saxons, and Africa to the Vandals. These nations had by then been in contact with Rome for a century or more and had adopted many Roman customs. They had been Christianised too and pagan practice was slowly being replaced. Romulus Augustus was deposed as Western Roman Emperor in 476 while still young. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Iberian Peninsula. ... Migrations The Visigoths (Western Goths) were one of two main branches of the Goths, an East Germanic tribe (the Ostrogoths being the other). ... This article deals with the continental Ostrogoths. ... Gaul in the Roman Empire Roman Gaul consisted of an area of provincial rule in what would become modern day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and western Germany. ... This article is about the Frankish people and society. ... Roman Britain refers to those parts of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire between 43 and 410. ... The famous parade helmet found at Sutton Hoo, probably belonging to King Raedwald of East Anglia circa 625. ... Roman North Africa The Roman Empire ca. ... The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe (Germanic as defined by Tacitus) that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. ...

The Frankish state under her Merovingian dynasty had many of the characteristics of Germanic monarchy under heavy influence from secular and ecclesiastic Rome. Her kings, through their division of the territory, treated her not as a state independent of themselves, but as their patrimony, land won by conquest (theirs and their forefathers'). The king was primarily a war leader and a judge. Much energy and much ink has been expended studying and seeking to explain the collapse of Merovingian power and most theories have blamed the inability of later Merovingians in war as an important factor. The commonly-cited occasion of Sigebert III sobbing in his saddle after a defeat (the king was then only ten years old) highlights the importance of victory in battle for a king who is chiefly a warrior. For other uses of the term Merovingian, see Merovingian (disambiguation). ... Sigebert III (c. ...

The principle of election, which determined Germanic succession, was abandoned in those states under heaviest influence from the papacy (such as Merovingian Gaul, where hereditary succession and the divine right of the reigning dynasty was recognised). However, in Visigothic Spain (so long under Arian rule) the principle survived longer and has been seen as the root of Visigothic weakness at the time of the Moorish invasion. In Anglo-Saxon Britain, the principle survived until the Norman Conquest removed it. Anglo-Saxon kings were elected by the witena gemót. Finally, the principle survived in some form or other for centuries after the demise of the last Germanic monarchies. The civil wars of medieval Scandinavia and the electorate of the Holy Roman Empire are part of its legacy. This article is about theological views like those of Arius. ... The Moorish invasion of Iberia (711–718) commenced when the Moors, the Muslim inhabitants of North and West Africa, invaded Visigothic Christian Hispania (Portugal and Spain) in the year 711 CE. Under the authority of the caliph at Damascus, and led by the Berber general Tariq ibn Ziyad, they landed... Bayeux Tapestry depicting events leading to the Battle of Hastings The Norman Conquest of England was the conquest of the Kingdom of England by William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy), in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings and the subsequent Norman control of England. ... Biblical pharaoh depicted as an Anglo-Saxon king with his witan (11th century) The Witenagemot (also called the Witan, more properly the title of its members) was a political institution in Anglo-Saxon England which operated between approximately the 7th century and 11th century. ... The extent of the Holy Roman Empire in c. ...

Germanic monarchies

For other uses of the term Merovingian, see Merovingian (disambiguation). ... The Carolingians were a dynasty of rulers that eventually controlled the Frankish realm and its successors from the 8th to the 10th century, officially taking over the kingdom from the Merovingian dynasty in 751. ... The Migration period kings of the Lombards, some of them doubtlessly legendary, are listed in the 7th century Origo Gentis Langobardorum. ... The Bavarian Dynasty is the name given to those kings of the Lombards who were descended from Garibald I, duke of Bavaria. ... The Agilolfings were a family of Frankish or Bavarian nobility that ruled the historical teritory of Bavaria on behalf of their Frankish overlords from about 550 until 788. ... The foremost of the kings of Anglo-Saxon England was Ælle of Sussex in 477, who was much later followed by Alfred the Great (who took the place of Ethelred) in 871. ...

Terminology

Etymology

The name king is derived from the Anglo-Saxon cyning, which in turn is derived from the Proto-Germanic *kuningaz. The original meaning is contested. One theory is that the element *kun relates to the word kindred or that it originally meant descendant of a ruler. Another theory is that it is originally meant belonging to the woman, i.e. belonging to the mother goddess and referring to the king's role as a priest. Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon[1], Old English: ) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ... Map of the Pre-Roman Iron Age culture(s) associated with Proto-Germanic, c. ... It has been suggested that Mother (neopaganism) be merged into this article or section. ...

Modern forms of *kuningaz:

• Dutch: koning
• English: king
• German: König (or Koenig)
• Icelandic: konungur or kóngur
• Norwegian/Danish: kong or konge
• Swedish: kung or konung
• Faroese: kóngur

The word *kuningaz was a very early borrowing in non-Germanic languages (note that Slavic kral, król and korol are not derived from this word, but from Karl, the name of Charlemagne): The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... König is a German word for King. ... People You may be looking for someone called König (note the German umlaut) or Konig. ... Kong is the Danish word for king, but can also refer to the following: A common Chinese surname kÇ’ng (å­”), Clan name of Confucius. ...  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup... A portrait of Charlemagne by Albrecht Dürer that was painted several centuries after Charlemagnes death. ...

• Finnish/Estonian: kuningas
• Latvian: kungs (lord) and ķēniņš (king)
• Lithuanian: kunigaik-
• Russian: knyaz
• Saami: gonagas or konagas
• Serbian: knez
• Tatar: kenäz
• Persian: kiAn

Interestingly, the word differs from other Indo-European words for "king", most of which are clearly related (Latin rex, Sanskrit rājan and Irish rí, for example). Kniaz’ or knyaz is a word found in some Slavic languages, denoting a nobility rank. ... Sami is a general name for a group of Finno-Ugric languages spoken in parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, in Northern Europe. ... Serbian (српски језик; srpski jezik) is one of the standard versions of the Shtokavian dialect, used primarily in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and by Serbs in the Serbian diaspora. ... The Tatar language (Tatar tele, Tatarça, Татар теле, Татарча) is a Turkic language spoken by the Tatars. ... Persian (Local names: فارسی Fârsi or پارسی Pârsi)* is an Indo-European language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan as well as by minorities in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, India, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Southern Russia, neighboring countries, and elsewhere. ... The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Look up rex in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Sanskrit language ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... A Raja (Sanskrit ) is a king, or princely ruler from the Kshatriya / Rajput lineages. ...

Other names

In Germanic traditions there are many kennings for king, such as Giver of Rings used in Beowulf: a king was expected to give golden rings to reward his warriors. In literature, a kenning is a compound poetic phrase, a figure of speech, substituted for the usual name of a person or thing. ... The first page of Beowulf Beowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem composed in the later Early Middle Ages (in the 8th, 9th or 10th century). ...

Notes

1. ^ Painter, A History of the Middle Ages 284−1500.

Sources

• William A. Chaney, The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England: The Transition from Paganism to Christianity, University of California Press (1970).
• Joseph H. Lynch, Christianizing Kinship: Ritual Sponsorship in Anglo-Saxon England, Cornell University Press (1998), ISBN 0-8014-3527-7.
• Painter, Sidney. A History of the Middle Ages 284−1500. New York, 1953.

Sidney Painter (1902-1960) was a twentieth-century American medievalist at Johns Hopkins University. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... Year 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• Germanic law