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Alemanni

(Encyclopedia)Alemanni ălĭmănˈī [key], Germanic tribe, a splinter group of the Suebi (see Germans). The Alemanni may have been a confederation of smaller tribes. First mentioned (a.d. 213) as unsuccessfully as...

Theodoric the Great

(Encyclopedia)Theodoric the Great, c.454–526, king of the Ostrogoths and conqueror of Italy, b. Pannonia. He spent part of his youth as a hostage in Constantinople. Elected king in 471 after his father's death, h...

Americas, antiquity and prehistory of the

(Encyclopedia)Americas, antiquity and prehistory of the, study of the origins of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas. Archaeologists believe humans had entered and occupied much of the Americas by the end of the...

Anastasius I

(Encyclopedia)Anastasius I ănəstāˈshəs, –zhəs [key], c.430–518, Roman emperor of the East (491–518); successor of Zeno, whose widow he married. He broke the power that the Isaurians had enjoyed since Le...

Franks

(Encyclopedia)Franks, group of Germanic tribes. By the 3d cent. a.d., they were settled along the lower and middle Rhine. The two major divisions were the Salian Franks in the north and the Ripuarian Franks in the ...

Merovingians

(Encyclopedia)Merovingians, dynasty of Frankish kings, descended, according to tradition, from Merovech, chief of the Salian Franks, whose son was Childeric I and whose grandson was Clovis I, the founder of the Fra...

Saint-Cloud

(Encyclopedia)Saint-Cloud săN-klo͞oˈ [key], town (1990 est. pop. 28,673), Hauts-de-Seine dept., N central France, a suburb W of Paris on the Seine River. It is a residential town and resort, with a famous racetr...

Austrasia

(Encyclopedia)Austrasia ôstrāˈzhə [key], northeastern portion of the Merovingian kingdom of the Franks in the 6th, 7th, and 8th cent., comprising, in general, parts of E France, W Germany, and the Netherlands, ...

Neustria

(Encyclopedia)Neustria no͞osˈtrēə [key], western portion of the kingdom of the Franks in the 6th, 7th, and 8th cent., during the rule of the Merovingians. It comprised the Seine and Loire country and the region...

Charles Martel

(Encyclopedia)Charles Martel märtĕlˈ [key] [O.Fr.,=Charles the Hammer], 688?–741, Frankish ruler, illegitimate son of Pepin of Heristal and grandfather of Charlemagne. After the death of his father (714) he se...

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