Austrasia | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 511–751 | |||||||||||
 Austrasia, homeland of the Franks (darkest green), and their subsequent conquests (other shades of green) | |||||||||||
| Capital | Reims, Metz | ||||||||||
| Common languages | Old Frankish, Vulgar Latin (Gallo-Roman), Latin | ||||||||||
| Religion | Christianity | ||||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||||||
| King | |||||||||||
| Historical era | Early Middle Ages | ||||||||||
• Established | 511 | ||||||||||
• Disestablished | 751 | ||||||||||
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Austrasia was the northeastern kingdom within the core of the Frankish Empire during the Early Middle Ages, centring on the Meuse, Middle Rhine and the Moselle rivers. It included the original Frankish-ruled territories within what had been the northernmost part of Roman Gaul, and cities such as Cologne, Trier and Metz. It also stretched beyond the old Roman borders on the Rhine into Frankish areas which had never been formally under Roman rule. It came into being as a part of the Frankish Empire founded by Clovis I (481–511). At the same time, the initial powerbase of Clovis himself was the more Romanized part of northern Gaul, lying southwest of Austrasia, which came to be known as Neustria.
These two sub-kingdoms, along with several others, were subsequently ruled by the descendants of Clovis, the Merovingian dynasty, followed in the 8th and 9th centuries by their successors the Carolingian dynasty, whose own powerbase was in Austrasia itself. The two Frankish dynasties did not always have a single ruler ruling the whole Frankish empire. They also often allowed different family members to rule sub-kingdoms, and these were sometimes even in conflict with each other despite the underlying continuity of the overall Frankish empire. Already by 561, Austrasia was ruled as a separate kingdom within the Frankish realm by the Merovingian king Sigebert I (561–575).
The last emperor to hold the entire Frankish empire including Austrasia was Louis the Pious. For several generations his descendants negotiated different ways of dividing the empire. In 880, the Treaty of Ribemont was the last such major agreement, which established formal boundaries eastern, central, and western sub-kingdoms that remained important throughout the Middle Ages. West Francia, which contained Neustria, was the basis of the later medieval Kingdom of France. Lotharingia, which corresponded to Austrasia, was folded into the larger kingdom of East Francia. These became the core of the Holy Roman Empire, which also had claims over the kingdoms of Burgundy, and Italy.