Franconia
For other places named Franconia, see Franconia (disambiguation). |
The 'Franconian Rake' is originally is a heraldic symbol of the bishops of Würzburg, who - though nominally Dukes of Franconia - only ruled in parts of Franconia. The rake appears in emblems of many Franconian cities, which were ruled by the bishops. It was only the Bavarian King Louis I, who made the rake a symbol for entire Franconia by adding it to the royal coat of arms in 1835 representing the king's rule in Franconia as a whole. |
Franconia (
German:
Franken) is a historic region in
Germany, which today forms three administrative regions of the
German federal state of
Bavaria:
Lower Franconia (
Unterfranken),
Middle Franconia (
Mittelfranken), and
Upper Franconia (
Oberfranken).
Though its area has shifted, Franconia was one of the five original
stem duchies that eventually made up the
Holy Roman Empire. Franconia, east of the
Rhine (with the cities of
Mainz,
Speyer and
Worms on the west bank), was part of the Eastern Frankish kingdom,
Austrasia. At the failure of the direct Carolingian male line in
911,
Conrad, Duke of Franconia was acclaimed
King of the Germans but failed to establish an heir in the imperial title. Instead, the Emperor
Otto I crushed the rebellion of Conrad's brother,
Duke Eberhard; then, rather than appoint a new duke from his own circle, in
939 Otto divided the threatening power of the Duchy of Franconia among the great ecclesiastics with and through whom he ruled, who had remained faithful to his cause: the
Bishop of
Würzburg, and the
Abbot of
Fulda; they were later joined (
1008) by a new bishopric erected on former ducal territory,
Bamberg. The great abbeys and episcopal seats that
Boniface and his successors had established in southwestern Germany had a monopoly on literacy and were territorial magnates in Franconia on a par with the counts of lands farther west (Cantor 1993). They had another virtue in the Ottonian scheme: as celibates they were less likely to establish hereditary lineages. By contrast, Otto's son-in-law, Conrad the Red, whom he had installed as duke of Lorraine (
944-
955), extended his power base in Franconia, establishing the
Salian dynasty of the following century.
Two Franconian duchies emerged, at least on paper, Rhenish Franconia along the Rhine, and Eastern Franconia.
Rhenish Franconia (
Rheinfranken), which gave the empire the Franconian or
Salian dynasty of Emperors (
1024–
1125;
Conrad II,
Henry III,
Henry IV and
Henry V), was virtually an empty title held by the Ottonian emperors until
1024, when Conrad, the Salian count of Speyer and of Worms, became emperor. Rhenish Franconia's lands were actually governed in a constellation of
free cities (like
Frankfurt and Worms), bishoprics (Mainz, Speyer and Worms), the Rhenish
Palatinate,
Hesse and many smaller territories. The Salian Franconian territories were granted as a
fief in
1093 to the
count palatine at
Aachen, a territory that would evolve into the important German principality of the Rhenish
Palatinate. In this way the Rhenish Franconia was divided and extinguished.
In
1115 Emperor Henry V awarded the territory of
Eastern Franconia (
Ostfranken) to his nephew
Conrad of Hohenstaufen, who used the title "Duke of Franconia"; as the
Hohenstaufen were increasingly preoccupied in Sicily, however, it came increasingly under the control of the bishops of Würzburg, whose rights were formalized in
1168. The name "Franconia" fell out of usage, but the Bishop of
Würzburg revived it in his own favour in
1442 and held it until
Napoleon's reforms.
In
1803, Napoleon incorporated the Bishop of Würzburg's Eastern Franconia into
Bavaria, to which it still belongs today. Culturally it is in many ways different from Bavaria proper, however. The ancient name was resurrected in
1837 by
Ludwig I, King of Bavaria. While "
Old Bavaria" is overwhelmingly
Catholic, Franconia is a mixed area. Lower Franconia and the western half of Upper Franconia (Bamberg, Lichtenfels, Kronach) is predominantly Catholic, while most of Middle and the eastern half of Upper Franconia (Bayreuth, Hof, Kulmbach) are predominantly
Protestant, the city of Fuerth in Middle Franconia historically (before 1933/38) had a large Jewish population -
Henry Kissinger was born there. The dialect
East Franconian German is very different from
Austro-Bavarian language. Although most Franconians do not accept being called
Bavarians, they will most likely take umbrage at insults directed at Bavaria; but please note that this antagonism is more proverbial and usually not dead serious, especially in modern times.
Even if there is no Franconian state, red and white are regarded as state colours (Landesfarben) of Franconia.
*
East Franconian German*
Franconian German*
The Franks*
Dukes of Franconia*
Cantor, Norman,
The Civilization of the Middle Ages 1993. ISBN 0-06-017033-6
