Salian Franks

The Salian Franks, also called the Salians (Latin: Salii, Greek: Salioi), were a northwestern subgroup of the early Franks who first appear in the historical records in the third century. They are contrasted with their neighbours to the east, the Ripuarian Franks, whose capital was in Cologne.

At first the Salians lived between the Rhine and the IJssel in the modern day Dutch region of the Veluwe, Gelderland. As the Salians initially lived north of the Rhine delta, they were also north of the limes of Roman Gaul, which ran along the Rhine. They were characterised as both warlike Germanic people and pirates. Shortly thereafter, some were settled permanently on Roman land, and were seen as Laeti. They next settled in Batavia, a border island in the Rhine, and in 358, they came to some form of agreement with the Romans, which allowed them to settle south of the Rhine in Toxandria (roughly the area of the current Dutch province of Noord-Brabant, and adjacent parts of the two bordering Belgian provinces of Antwerpen and Belgian Limburg, the so-called "Kempen" (French Campine)).

Over time, the Salians fully adopted the Frankish identity and ceased to appear by their original name from the 7th century onward, when they evolved into the Franks par excellence. The Merovingian kings responsible for the conquest of Gaul are thought to have had Salian ancestry, although they also clearly had connections with the Ripuarians. The Lex Ripuaria originated about 630 around Cologne and has been described as a later development of the Frankish laws known from Lex Salica.

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