TheThuringii, orThuringians were aGermanic people who lived in their own kingdom in what is now centralGermany. They are first mentioned in written records starting in the fifth century, during a period when theHuns were the most influential force in central Europe and theWestern Roman Empire lost control of this region. The kingdom was not mentioned during the time of Attila himself, or during the conflicts between the small kingdoms which formed immediately after his death, so it's early history and boundaries are uncertain. However, the medieval kingdom, and the modernGerman federal state which is still calledThuringia, lies between theHarz in the north, and theThuringian forest in the south.
The medieval Thuringian kingdom came into conflict with theMerovingianFranks, and it later became astem duchy within the Frankish realm.
The Thuringians do not appear in classical Roman texts under that name. This has led to several proposals connecting them to peoples know from earlier periods.
The name of the Thuringians appears to have first been mentioned in the veterinary treatise (Mulomedicina) ofVegetius, written about 383-450 AD. The text specifically mentions Thuringian horses, which it pairs together with the Burgundian horses: “the Thuringian and the Burgundian horses … can be recognized by their patient endurance of poor treatment” (Toringos dehinc et Burgundiones iniuriae tolerantes). Historians such as Matthias Springer have noted that other early medieval evidence also exists which implies a connection between the Thuringians and Burgundians.[4]
The second mention of the Thuringians is as allies ofAttila the Hun who joined his invasion ofGaul in 451.Sidonius Apollinaris listed them among the invaders writing only a few years later, in Gaul itself.[5] From this it can be inferred that the Thuringians were present in theBattle of the Catalaunian Plains.[6]
The first near contemporary source to describe the location of the Thuringians is the early 6th century writerEugippius, who was writing about the 460s and 470s. He reported that the Thuringians carried out raids over the Danube, into Roman imperial territory nearPassau andLinz, implying that they lived close to the Danube at this time. Eugippius had lived in this region until the death of SaintSeverinus of Noricum in 482.[6]
The formation of the Thuringian kingdom may have had also been influenced by two longer-known tribes more associated with the eastern bank of the lower Elbe river, northeast of Thuringia, because theCarolingian law code written for them was called the "law of theAngles andVarini that is the Thuringians". Much earlier, in hisGermania for example, Tacitus had grouped the Anglii and Varini among the more distant Suebic tribes, living beyond the Elbe, and near a sea where they worshipped a goddess calledNerthus. These two tribes are among Germanic groups known to have been found north of the Danube in this period.
During the reign ofChilderic I,Gregory of Tours andFredegar record that the Frankish King married the runaway wife of the King of the Thuringians, but the story may be distorted. (For example, the area ofTongeren, now in Belgium, may have been intended.[7]
More clearly, correspondence is recorded with a kingdom of Thuringians by Procopius andCassiodorus during the reigns ofTheoderic the Great (454–526) andClovis I (approx. 466–511), after the downfall of Attila and Odoacer.[8]
The Thuringii established an empire in the late fifth century. It reached its territorial peak in the first half of the sixth before it was conquered by theFranks in 531–532. Examination of Thuringian grave sites reveal cranial features which suggest the strong presence ofHunnic women or slaves, perhaps indicating that many Thuringians took Hunnic wives or Hunnic slaves following the collapse of theHunnic Empire.[9] There is also evidence from jewellery found in graves that the Thuringians sought marriages withOstrogothic andLombard women.[citation needed] Under the leadership ofAlboin, a large group of Thuringii joined the Lombards on their migration into Italy.[10] The Lombard kingAgilulf (590–616) was of Thuringian descent.[11][12]
After their conquest, the Thuringii were placed under Frankish dukes, but they rebelled and had regained their independence by the late seventh century underRadulf.[13] Towards the end of this century, parts of Thuringia came underSaxon rule.
By the time ofCharles Martel andSaint Boniface, they were again subject to the Franks and ruled by Frankish dukes, with their seat atWürzburg in the south. Under Martel, the Thuringian dukes' authority was extended over a part ofAustrasia and theBavarian plateau. The valleys of theLahn,Main, andNeckar rivers were included. TheNaab formed the south-eastern border of Thuringia at the time. TheWerra andFulda valleys were within it also and it reached as far as theSaxon plain in the north. Its central location inGermania, beyond theRhine, was the reason it became thepoint d'appui of Boniface's mission work.
The Thuringii had a separate identity as late as 785–786, when one of their leading men,Hardrad, led an abortive insurrection againstCharlemagne. TheCarolingians codified the Thuringian legal customs (but perhaps did not use them extensively) as theLex Thuringorum and continued to exact a tribute of pigs, presumably aMerovingian imposition, from the province. In the tenth century, under theOttonians, the centre of Thuringian power lay in the north-east, nearErfurt. As late as the end of the tenth century, the porcine tribute was still being accepted by theKing of Germany.
Christianity had reached the Thuringii in the fifth century, but their exposure to it was limited. Their realChristianisation took place, alongside the ecclesiastical organisation of their territory, during the early and mid eighth century under Boniface, who felled their "sacred oak" atGeismar in 724, abolishing the vestiges of their paganism.
In the 1020s,Aribo, Archbishop of Mainz, began the minting of coins atErfurt, the oldest market town in Thuringia with a history going back to the Merovingian period. The economy, especially trade (such as with the Slavs), greatly increased after that.
The Thuringian nobility, which had an admixture of Frankish, Thuringian, and Saxon blood, was not aslanded as that ofFrancia. There was also a larger population of free peasant farmers than in Francia, though there was still a large number ofserfs. The obligations of serfs there were also generally less oppressive. There were also fewer clergymen beforeBoniface came. There was a small number of artisans and merchants, mostly trading with the Slavs to the east. The town of Erfurt was the easternmost trading post in Frankish territory at the time.
The history of the Thuringii is best known from the writings concerning their conquerors, the Franks.Gregory of Tours, aGallo-Roman, includes the nearest account in time of the fall of the Thuringian Empire.Widukind of Corvey, writing intenth-century Saxony, inundates his similar account with various legends.
The Thuringii make brief appearances in contemporary Italian sources when their activities affect the land south of theAlps.Procopius, theEastern Roman author, mentions them and speaks of their fall. The seventh-centuryOrigo Gentis Langobardorum mentions a king of the Thuringii,Fisud, as a contemporary ofTheudebert I.
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