TheThuringii, orThuringians were aGermanic people[1] who lived in the kingdom of the Thuringians that appeared during the lateMigration Period south of theHarz Mountains of centralGermania, a region still known today asThuringia. The Thuringian kingdom came into conflict with theMerovingianFranks, and it later came under their influence and Frankish control as astem duchy. The name is still used for one of modern Germany's federal states (Bundesländer).
The Thuringians do not appear in classical Roman texts under that name, but some have suggested that they were the remnants of theSuebicHermanduri, the last part of whose name (-duri) could represent the same sound as (-thuri) and the Germanic suffix-ing, suggests a meaning of "descendants of (the [Herman]duri)".[2] This people were living near theMarcomanni.Tacitus, in hisGermania, describes their homeland as being where theElbe starts, but also having colonies at theDanube, and even within theRoman province ofRhaetia.Claudius Ptolemy mentions neither the Hermunduri nor the Thuringians in his geography, but instead theTeuriochaemae, who are described as living just north of theSudetes mountains in, what is thought to be, theOre Mountains. These may also be connected to later Thuringians. ("Chaemae" may represent a version of the Germanic word for "home". Ptolemy also for example mentions a people called theBainochaimai, located to the west of the Elbe.)[clarification needed]
The name of the Thuringians appears to be first mentioned in the veterinary treatise ofVegetius, written early in the fifth century.[3]
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.Procopius in hisGothic Wars describes the land of the Varini in the 6th century as being south of the Danes, but north of theSlavs, who were in turn north of the uncultivated lands which lay north of the Danube. Procopius describes a marriage alliance between the Angles ofBritain and the Varni in the sixth century.[4]
They appear in some lists of the peoples involved inAttila's invasion ofGaul.[5]Walter Pohl has also proposed that they may be the same as theTurcilingi (or Torcolingi) who were one of the tribes near the middle Danube after the collapse of the empire of Attila, to whom they had apparently all been subject. They are specifically associated withOdoacer, who later became King of Italy, and are sometimes thought to have formed a part of theSciri. Other tribes in this region at the time included theRugii and theHeruls.Sidonius Apollinaris, in his seventh poem, explicitly lists them among the allies who fought under Attila when he entered Gaul in 451. 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.[6])
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.[citation needed]
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.[7] 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.[8] The Lombard kingAgilulf (590–616) was of Thuringian descent.
After their conquest, the Thuringii were placed under Frankish dukes, but they rebelled and had regained their independence by the late seventh century underRadulf. 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.
Thuringians... A Germanic people in central Germania...
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