Kingdom of Alamannia Regnum Alamanniae (Latin) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 213–911 | |||||||||
 Alemannia (orange) and Upper Burgundy (green) in the 10th century | |||||||||
| Status | Part of theFrankish Empire (496, 539–843), theOstrogothic Kingdom (496–539), andEast Francia (843–911) | ||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||
| Historical era | Migration Period,Early Middle Ages | ||||||||
• Alemanni invadeGermania superior | 213 | ||||||||
• UnderFrankish suzerainty | 496 | ||||||||
• Under direct Carolingian rule | 746 | ||||||||
| 843 | |||||||||
• Election ofConrad I of Germany, formation of theHoly Roman Empire | 911 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Alamannia, orAlemania, was the kingdom established and inhabited by theAlemanni, aGermanic tribal confederation that had broken through the Romanlimes in 213.
The Alemanni expanded from theMain River basin during the 3rd century and raided Roman provinces and settled on the left bank of theRhine River from the 4th century.
Ruled by independenttribal kings during the 4th and the 5th centuries, Alamannia lost its independence in the late 5th century and became a duchy of theFrankish Empire in the 6th century. As theHoly Roman Empire started to form under KingConrad I ofEast Francia (reigning 911 to 918), the territory of Alamannia became theDuchy of Swabia in 915. Scribes often used the termSuebia interchangeably withAlamannia in the 10th to the 12th centuries.[1]
The territory of Alamannia as it existed from the 7th to 9th centuries centred onLake Constance and included theHigh Rhine, theBlack Forest and theAlsace on either side of theUpper Rhine, the upperDanube River basin as far as the confluence with theLech River, with an unclear boundary towardsBurgundy to the south-west in theAare River basin (theAargau).Raetia Curiensis, although not part of Alemannia, was ruled by Alemannic counts, and became part of theDuchy of Swabia since it was established byBurchard I (Duke of Alemannia from 909 to 911).
The territory corresponds to what is still the area ofAlemannic German in the modern period, FrenchAlsace, GermanBaden andSwabia,German-speaking Switzerland and the AustrianVorarlberg.
In the area of present-daySwitzerland, the Alemannic territory expanded during the High Middle Ages, with theWalser migration into the Alps, with theZähringer and later the influence ofBern towardsUpper Burgundy, and intoGrisons as lower Raetia came under the rule of theWerdenberg counts.
The Alamanni were pushed south from their original area of settlement in theMain basin and in the 5th and 6th century settled new territory on either side of the Rhine. Alemannia, under Frankish rule (later the Duchy of Swabia) within the Holy Roman Empire, covered a territory that was more or less undisputed during the 7th to 13th centuries, organised into counties orpagi.
InSwabia:Hegowe (Hegau), between Lake Constance, the upper Danube and theSwabian Jura.Perahtoltaspara (Berchtoldsbaar) in the upper Neckar basin, left of the upper Danube as far asUlm, including thesource of the Danube.Nekargowe (named for theNeckar, capitalCanstatt).Swiggerstal (the modernErmstal),Filiwigawe (Filsgau, named for theFils),Trachgowe (Drachgau, nearSchwäbisch Gmünd) andAlba (Albuch) between the Neckar and the Danube.Duria (Duriagau) between Ulm and Augsburg.
Albegowe (Allgäu),Keltinstein (between Geltnach andWertach) andAugestigowe (capitalAugsburg) along theLech forming the border toBavaria.Rezia (Ries, ultimately from the name of the Roman province ofRaetia) in the Northeastern corner, left of the Danube (capitalNördlingen).Linzgowe (Linzgau) andArgungowe (named forArgen River) north of Lake Constance.Eritgau,Folcholtespara (Folcholtsbaar),Rammegowe (Rammachgau) andIllargowe (named for theIller, capitalMemmingen) on the right side of the Danube.
InBaden:Brisigowe (Breisgau) along the Upper Rhine opposite Sundgau, andMortunova, the laterOrtenau, along the Upper Rhine opposite Nordgau.Alpegowe (Albgau), centered onSt. Blaise Abbey, Black Forest.
In modern France (the Alsace):Suntgowe (Sundgau) andNordgowe (Nordgau).
In modern Switzerland:Augestigowe (the territory surroundingAugst) andTurgowe (modernThurgau, named for theThur;Zürichgau was detached from Thurgau in the 8th century).
The territory between Alamannia andUpper Burgundy was known asArgowe (modernAargau, named for theAare). The pertinence of this territory to either Alamannia or Upper Burgundy was disputed.
The county ofRaetia Curiensis was absorbed into Alamannia in the early 10th century. It comprised theRingowe (Rheingau, named for theRhine) andRetia proper.
Originally a loose confederation of unrelated tribes, the Alemanni underwent coalescence orethnogenesis during the 3rd century, and were ruled by kings throughout the 4th and 5th centuries until 496, when they were defeated byClovis I of theFranks at theBattle of Tolbiac.
The Alemanni during the Roman Empire period were divided into a number of cantons orgoviae, each presided by a tribal king. But there appears to have been the custom of the individual kings uniting under the leadership of a single king in military expeditions.
Some kings of the Alemanni of the 4th and 5th centuries are known by name, the first beingChrocus (died 306), a military leader who organized raids across the limes during the 3rd century.Chnodomarius (fl. 350) supportedConstantius II in the rebellion ofMagnentius.Chnodomarius was the leader of the Alemannic army in thebattle of Strasbourg in 357.
Macrian,Hariobaudes,Urius,Ursicinus,Vadomarius, andVestralpus were Alemannic kings who in 359 made treaties withJulian the Apostate. Macrian was deposed in an expedition ordered byValentinian I in 370. Macrian appears to have been involved in building a large alliance of Alemannic tribes against Rome, which earned him the title ofturbarum rex artifex ("king and crafter of unrest").
The Romans installed Fraomar as a successor of Marcian, but theBucinobantes would not accept him and he was expelled and Macrian restored and Valentinian made theBucinobantes hisfoederati in the war against theFranks. Macrian was killed on campaign against the Franks, in an ambush laid by the Frankish kingMallobaudes.
Gibuld (fl. 470) is the last known king of the Alemanni. His raid onPassau is mentioned in thevita ofSaint Lupus. The name of Gibuld's successor who was defeated at Tolbiac is not known.
After their defeat in 496, the Alemanni bucked the Frankish yoke and put themselves under the protection ofTheodoric the Great of theOstrogoths[2] but after his death they were again subjugated by the Franks underTheudebert I in 536.[3] Thereafter, Alamannia was a nominal dukedom within Francia.
Though ruled by their own dukes, it is not likely that they were very often united under one duke in the 6th and 7th centuries. The Alemanni most frequently appear as auxiliaries in expeditions to Italy. TheDuchy of Alsace was Alemannic, but it was ruled by a line of Frankish dukes and the region around the upperDanube andNeckar rivers was ruled by theAhalolfing family and not by the ducal house which ruled central Alamannia aroundLake Constance.Rhaetia too, though Alamannic, was ruled by theVictorids coterminously with theDiocese of Chur.
Alamannia wasChristianised during the 7th century, although not as thoroughly[dubious –discuss] as either Francia to its west orBavaria to its east. The first Alamannic law code,Pactus Alamannorum, dates to this period. The Roman dioceses ofStrasbourg andBasel covered Alsace and that of Chur, as mentioned, Rhaetia. Alamannia itself had a diocese only in the east, atAugsburg (early 7th century). There were two Roman bishoprics,Windisch andOctodurum, which were moved early to other sites (Avenches andSitten respectively).
Western Alamannia did eventually (7th century) receive a diocese (Constance) through the cooperation of the bishops of Chur and theMerovingian monarchs. The foundation of Constance is obscure, though it was the largest diocese in Germany throughout the Merovingian and earlyCarolingian era. The dioceses of Alamannia, including Chur, which had been a suffragan of theArchdiocese of Milan, were placed under the jurisdiction of theArchdiocese of Mainz by the Carolingians.
After the death ofDagobert I in 638, Alamannia, like Bavaria,Aquitaine, andBrittany, broke its ties with its Frankish sovereigns and struggled for independence. This was largely successful until the early 8th century, when a series of campaigns waged by theArnulfingmayors of the palace reduced Alamannia to a province of Francia once again.It was, however, during this period ofde facto independence that the Alamanni began to be ruled by one duke, though Alsace and Rhaetia remained outside of the scope of Alamannia.
Between 709 and 712,Pepin of Heristal fought againstLantfrid, who appears asdux of the Alamanni, and who committed to writing the second Alamannic law code, theLex Alamannorum. In 743,Pepin the Short andCarloman waged a campaign to reduce Alamannia and in 746 Carloman began a final thrust to subdue the Alamannic nobility. Several thousand Alamanni noblemen were summarily arrested, tried, and executed for treason at aCouncil at Cannstatt.
During the reign ofLouis the Pious, there were tendencies to renewed independence in Alamannia, and the 830s were marked by bloody feuds between the Alamannic and Rhaetian nobility vying for dominion over the area. Following theTreaty of Verdun of 843, Alamannia became a province ofEast Francia, the kingdom ofLouis the German, the precursor of theKingdom of Germany. It was called aregnum in contemporary sources, though this does not necessarily mean that it was a kingdom or subkingdom. At times, however, it was.
It was granted toCharles the Bald in 829, though it is not certain whether he was recognised as duke or king. It was certainly a kingdom, including Alsace and Rhaetia, when it was granted toCharles the Fat in the division of East Francia in 876. Under Charles, Alamannia became the centre of the Empire, but after his deposition, it found itself out of favour. Though ethnically singular, it was still plagued by Rhaetian-Alamannic feuds and fighting over the control of the Alamannic church.
Alamannia in the late 9th century, like Bavaria,Saxony, andFranconia, sought to unite itself under one duke, but it had considerably less success than either Saxony or Bavaria. Alamannia was one of thejüngeres Stammesherzogtum, one of the "younger" stem duchies, or tribal duchies, which formed the basis of the political organisation of East Francia after the collapse of the Carolingian dynasty in the late 9th and early 10th centuries.
In the 10th century, no noble house of Alamannia succeeded in founding a ducal dynasty, as theOttonians did in Saxony or theLiutpolding in Bavaria, though theHunfridings came closest.
The duchy encompassed the area surrounding Lake Constance, theBlack Forest, and the left and right banks of theRhine, including Alsace and parts of theSwiss plateau, bordering onUpper Burgundy. The boundary with Burgundy, fixed in 843, ran along the lowerAare, turning towards the south at the Rhine, passing west ofLucerne and across theAlps along the upperRhône to theSaint Gotthard Pass. In the north, the boundary ran from theMurg (some 30 km south ofKarlsruhe) toHeilbronn and theNördlinger Ries. The eastern boundary was at theLech.Argovia was disputed territory between the dukes of Alamannia and Burgundy.
Burchard II, son of the late Burchard I and count in Raetia Curiensis, took the title ofduke of Swabia,[4] Duke acknowledged by the newly elected kingHenry the Fowler in 919. Theduchy of Swabia was ruled by theHohenstaufen during 1079–1268 and was disestablished with the execution ofConradin and its territory was politically fragmented during the succeedinginterregnum period.
Alemannic German persists as a separate family ofdialects withinHigh German.The distribution of theLow Alemannic andHigh Alemannic subgroups largely correspond to the extent of historical Alemannia, while theHighest Alemannic dialects spread beyond its limits during the High Middle Ages. TheBrünig-Napf-Reuss line is a cultural boundary within High Alemannic which marks the division of Alemannia proper and theArgovia marches between Alemannia and Burgundy.
Thenames for Germany in modernArabic (ألمانيا),Catalan (Alemanya),Welsh (Yr Almaen),Cornish (Almayn),French (Allemagne),Persian (ألمان),Galician-Portuguese (Alemanha),Spanish (Alemania), andTurkish (Almanya) all derive from Alamannia. A similar correspondence exists for "German", both as the language and the adjectival form of "Germany".
The following are the known names of early Alemannic kings. They did not necessarily rule all of Alamannia, but were more likely petty kings ruling over smaller tribes or cantons, e.g.Macrian (fl. 370), king of the Alamannic tribe of theBucinobantes.
The Alemanni were under direct Carolingian rule during 746 (Council of Cannstatt) to 892.Intermittently, junior members of the Carolingian dynasties were appointedregulus orsubregulus of Alemannia while at other times, Alemannia was under the direct administration of the Carolingian kings (after 843 kings ofEast Francia).
From the later 8th century, Alemannic dynasties were able to establish themselves once again.Variously called counts, or margraves, or dukes, these native dynasties during the later years of Carolingian rule managed to establish themselves as de facto independent, establishing the "younger stem duchy" of Alemannia/Swabia by the early 10th century.The rivalry between theHunfridings andAhalolfings was decided in favour ofBurchard II Hunfriding in theBattle of Winterthur of 919.
