Francia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks (Latin: Regnum Francorum), or Frankish

Empire was the largest post-Roman Barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by
the Franks during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.
The core Frankish territories inside the former Western Roman Empire were close to the Rhine
and Maas rivers in the north. After a period where small kingdoms inter-acted with the
remaining Gallo-Roman institutions to their south, a single kingdom uniting them was founded
by Clovis I who was crowned King of the Franks in 496. Under the nearly continuous
campaigns of Pepin of Herstal, Charles Martel, Pepin the Short, Charlemagne, and Louis the
Pious—father, son, grandson, great-grandson and great-great-grandson—the greatest
expansion of the Frankish empire was secured by the early 9th century, by this point dubbed
as the Carolingian Empire.
The tradition of dividing patrimonies among brothers meant that the Frankish realm was ruled,
nominally, as one polity subdivided into several regna (kingdoms or subkingdoms). The
geography and number of subkingdoms varied over time, but the particular term Francia came
generally to refer to just one regnum, that of Austrasia, centred on the Rhine and Meuse in
northern Europe.[citation needed] Even so, sometimes the term was used as well to
encompass Neustria north of the Loire and west of the Seine.
Francia is regarded as the common predecessor of the modern states of France and Germany.
[citation needed]
After the Treaty of Verdun in 843, West Francia became the predecessor of France,
and East Francia became that of Germany. Most Frankish Kings were buried in the Basilica of
St Denis near Paris. Francia was among the last surviving Germanic kingdoms from
the Migration Period era until its partitioning in 843.
The singular use of the name Francia eventually shifted towards Paris, and settled on the
region of the Seine basin surrounding Paris, which still today bears the name Île-de-
France and gave its name to the entire Kingdom of France.[citation needed] The most prominent other
places named after the Franks are the region of Franconia, the city of Frankfurt,
and Frankenstein Castle.