The present Bounds.
These Northern Countries have however for many Ages been under distinct Kings of their own [ruled separately], so that Germany has been taken to reach only to the Baltick Sea; and even here the King of Denmark has deprived it of a considerable part of the Promontory of Jutland [the Cimbrian Peninsula], which he claims as a part of his Kingdom, tho’ it lieth on this side of the Sound or Mouth of the Baltick Sea.6 But then [as if] by way of Reprisals she has enlarged her Borders to the South-East, beyond the Danube, to the Borders of Italy and Illyrica,7 and beyond the Rhine, to the West and North [cis Rhenum],8 she has gained [both the Alsatia’s, Lorrain, and the 17 united Provinces, which last were formerly called Gallia Belgica].a <Yet a significant portion thereof has recently been joined by the French to their kingdom again.>9
The ancient State of it.
2. This vast Tract of Land was in those early times possessed by various Peoples <3> and Nations, who were much celebrated on the account of their numbers and valour; yet each of them [was under a distinct Regiment, very different from that used by their Neighbours],a but then [except that] they had one common Original, and the same Language; and there was a great similitude in their Manners. The greatest part of them were under popular Governments; some had Kings, but that were rather to perswade their Subjects by their Authority, than to command them by the Soveraign Power [jubendi potestate];10 for that Nation was never able to brook an Absolute [total] Servitude.11 This Ancient Germany was never reduced into one Empire [or Kingdom]+, wherein it was like the rest of her Neighbours, Italy, France, Spain, Greece, and Britain,b before they were conquered by the Romans. [But then, as Germany never was reduced by a Conquest, so it retained more lively traces and marks of the Primitive State of Mankind, which from separate and distinct Families by degrees united into larger Bodies or Kingdoms.]c
The old German state dangerous & weak
But then, tho’ [this Independent Knot of States and small Kingdoms, by reason of its freedom, was very grateful to the Germans of those times],d yet it was absolutely necessary they should frequently be engaged in mutual and destructive Wars, when they were so many and so small. This again exposed them to the Invasions of their neighbour Nations, though [they were a warlike People],a because their scattered Forces were not united in one Empire for their defence. Neither had the <4> greatest part of these small States so much Politicks [foresight] as in due time to unite in Leagues against the dangers of their potent Enemies; but they perceived the Benefit of such a Concord, [only] when it was too late, and they by fighting separately for their Liberty, were one after another all conquered.12
The Franks the first Conquerors of Germany, of an unknown extraction.
3. The first that reduced Germany from that ancient state were the FRANKS, which Nation is of so controverted an Origine, that it is not easie to determine whether it were of Gallick or of German extraction.13 For, tho’ we should grant that all those Nations which the Greeks comprehended under the title of Celtae, that is, the Illyrians, Germans, Gauls, [Old]+ Spaniards, and Britains, did as it were, flow from the same Fountain, yet it is very notorious [well known], they afterwards much differed each from the others in Language and Manners, so that no man that is any thing versed in Antiquity, can in the least doubt of it.
The foolish Pride of some of the Gauls [i.e., French] occasioned this difference [controversy], who being ignorant that many of the Gallick People in the first Ages had ambitiously boasted they were of German extraction, [did in the later times envy Germany the honour of having been the Mother of the FRANKS].a These men pretend, that great multitudes of men out of Gaule invaded Germany in ancient (but unknown) times [formerly], and passing beyond the Rhine, possessed themselves of all the Countries upon [the area around] the River Mayn, to the Hercynian Forest,14 and that after [this they returned, and conquering the Parts on the West of the <5> Rhine, recovered]b the possession of their ancient Country, but so that a part of their Nation still inhabited on the Mayn, and left their Name15 to that Country [the surrounding region]. For the confirmation of this Opinion, they cite Livy, lib. 5. c. 134. Caesar de bello Gallico, lib. 6. Tacitus de moribus Germanorum, c. 28.16
The Franks were a German People.
1. Trebocci, Alsatia, the chief Towns of which were Breucomagus, (Bruomat) and Elcebus, (Schelstat). 2. Nemetes, the Inhabitants of the Bishoprick of Speyr. 3. Vangiones, the Inhabitants of Worms and Strasburg. 4. Treveri, the Inhabitants of the Archbishoprick of Triers. 5. The Chauci were the Inhabitants of East-Friesland, Groeningen, Breme, Lunenburg, and Hamburg, as they are placed by Ptolemy.
4. But to all this the Germans may truly reply, That the Testimony of these Latin Writers is not without just exceptions, because they testifie very faintly [hesitantly] of a thing which hapned long before their times, and concerning a [foreign] People too whose Antiquities were not preserved in any written Records. Nor is it at all probable, when the (1) Trebocci, (2) Nemetes, (3) Vangiones, & (4) Treveri,17 and some other [People who in those times lived on the West side of the Rhine, and yet owned themselves to be of German extraction; That the Franks should on the contrary pass the Rhine, and out of Gaul, make a Conquest in Germany].c And yet, after all, though we should grant, that the Franks were at first a Gallick Colony, yet seeing they lived about 800 years in Germany, and both in their Language and Customs differed from the Gauls, and in both these agreed exactly with the Germans, they are for that cause to be reckon’d amongst the German Nations<; at least, their descendants have no reason to be ashamed of their German origins>.
This is certain in the mean time, that [till about 300 <6> Years after Christ],a there is scarce any mention of the Franks made in any ancient History. |[From hence there arose two very different Opinions: whilst some believe those People, who are by Tacitus call’d the (5) Chauci, changed that name in after times, and call’d themselves the Franks; [and others]b think, that a number of German People, or some parts [a coalition] of them, united in this name, and [out of a vain affectation of]c Liberty, took up the name of FRANKS: for in the German Tongue FRANK signifies free [a free man]. And to this purpose they produce the Testimonies of Francis I, and Henry II, Kings of France, who in their Letters to the Diet of Germany say, they are of German Extraction. Tho’ it is very well known at the same time, to all wise men, to what purposes such ancient and overworn Relations of Kindred are for the most part pretended.]|d
The Franks conquer Gaul, now France, and after it Germany.
5. But however this [may] be, the Franks for certain first passed the Rhine upon [among] the Ubii, [or Inhabitants of the Archbishoprick of Cologne,]+ and after they had conquered the far greatest part of Gaul, [(now call’d France)]+ <they founded the famous kingdom of France. Its kings, called Merovingians after its first dynasty,> turning as it were the course of their victorious Arms back again, [and having crossed the Rhine once more,] they conquered the greatest part of Germany, and subdued all the Countries between the Mayn and the Danube, and went Northward as far as Thuringia: After this Charles the Great extended his Conquests much further by subduing the Saxons,