Chapter 12

The Franks

 

There still remains one last important question which we must answer: if the Gauls are the descendants of the Reubenites who form, in essence, the French nation, who were the Franks in all this?  Weren’t these the ones who ended up giving their name to all transalpine Gaul?  The response to this question is affirmative.

Who then, were these Franks?  From whence did they come?  What is the degree of parentage (if common parentage there is) between them and the Gauls?  We will now briefly answer these diverse questions.

 

The Invasion of the Franks

 

Although Tacitus and Caesar speak of some Frankish tribes who inhabited the region between the River Main (in Germany) and the North Sea, it is important to note that, according to historians, the name Franks properly said does not appear in the pages of history before the year 241 B.C.

While remaining relatively silent on the origin of the Franks (that they don’t know), historians designate them “a group of Germanic peoples” who lived primitively near the Rhine, and divide them in several distinct tribes.

But what is the exact number of Franks who entered Gaul?  The answer is surprising:

“France became quite justifiably the name of a country in which there were only an imperceptible minority of Franks,” (“Qu’est-ce qu’une Nation?” Renan), writes Renan, adding that in spite of the notable influence they left on the conquered country, in the course of one or two generations, the Norman invaders would not distinguish themselves any more from the rest of the population.

This opinion is both supported and shared by several other historians.  Picard declares that it is not easy to determine what the great Frank invasions brought to Gaul after having destroyed a regime, which was no longer viable.

The character of the Franks was essentially destructive, states Picard.  According to him, “the Germanic peoples brought of themselves nothing useful to Gaul, other than a little young blood” (La Civilization Merovingienne, Picard, p. 53).

Nevertheless, the role the Franks played in France, although very different from that of the Celts, has a special significance.  Their entrance into the country, as we will establish it, represents the accomplishment of a phase of divine prophecy.

 

The Frankish Tribes

 

One of the principal reasons history considers the Franks a group of Germanic peoples, is the resemblance of their character and their mores with those of the Germanic peoples proper!  If this comparison carries of itself a certain weight, it may not always constitute an irrefutable proof without the support of other factors.

Diverse Frankish tribes are grouped under the general term “Franks,” and two of them were the most important and the most powerful: the Salian (pertaining to the Dutch river Yasel) Franks, and Rheinish Franks.

To say that all the Frankish tribes were of the Germanic race would be a gross error; that is not collaborated by one ethnological or historic proof.  Those among them who were of the Germanic race possessed, naturally, the character and mores of the Germanic peoples.  But the fact is that all the Frank tribes were not of the Germanic root.

Remember that, as a group, there were only an “imperceptible minority of Franks” in Gaul.  The others, the main body of the Germanic tribes, established themselves in Germany on the shores of the Rhine.

The Rheinish Franks, just as most of the other Frankish tribes, were of the Germanic race; but it is not the same concerning the Salian Franks.  As a whole, the Salian Franks were not Germanic: they were Israelites!  And, for reasons we are going to examine, they were composed of, notably, descendants of the tribe of Judah.

 

The Salian Franks

 

Of all the Frankish tribes, that of the Salians was the most important.  Their name, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, is derived from Lake Asphaltite (the Dead Sea known by its exceptionally strong saltiness), on the shores of which the Salians lived!

Where then is this lake “Asphaltite”?  In Palestine, indeed, the same country previously inhabited by the tribes of Israel!

The history of the Salians is linked to legends of seas, continues the Encyclopaedia Britannica, stating that the same name “Merovingians,” the first royal dynasty the Franks gave to France, means “from the sea,” and is derived from the name of King Merovee who reigned in the fifth century.

If we lack the precise facts to determine conclusively what were the different Israelite tribes making up this group of Salian Franks who invaded Europe, we can at least affirm that the Salian Franks, who had come from the shores of Lake Asphaltite (the Dead Sea), must have been some of the descendants of Judah. 

Why is this?  Because the Eternal declared that David — who was of the descendants of the tribe of Judah — “would never lack a successor on the throne of the house of Israel”! (Jeremiah 33:17).  This prophecy is explicit.  (For details, see the work of Mr. Armstrong entitled: “The United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy.”)

Indeed, it is the line of Merovingians, which make up still, today, the government of the Israelite nations.  In light of this fact, the Salian Franks, who founded the Merovingian monarchy, must have been necessarily of the family of Judah.

The authenticity of this line can be easily verified, since the historic annals of the British royal family clearly reveal that the throne of David is continuing by the dynasty of Merovingian and Carolingian Kings.

 

The Name of France

 

Historians recognize that the Frank tribes that invaded Gaul represented not only an “imperceptible minority,” but also that their influence was nearly negligible on the French spirit.

Speaking of all the Frankish tribes and of the Goths, Elisee Reclus states that “the Germans did not at all notably alter the Gaulic blood, for they were small in number” (Nouvelle Geographic Universelle, Article: France, Book II, Reclus).

For his part, Fustel de Coulanges mentions that “even the manner in which they (the Franks and the Goths) entered the country didn’t permit them to change its face.  All that is life in a nation and all ways of life there existed in Gaul after them” (Histoire des Institutions Politiques de l’Ancienne France, Coulanges).

Why then is it that the Franks (and not the Gauls) who, even though small in number, ended up giving their name to France?

Fustel de Coulanges gives us the answer in a simple and precise manner:

“The Franks, as is well-known, ended up even giving their name to all transalpine Gaul; but this fact has far less importance than one may attribute to it.  Near the end of the Carolingian epoch, the name Gaul replaced it again . . .” (op. cit.).

But then what happened?  How did the name “France” come to the fore again?  It was, the famous French historian tells us, because of the predominance that the province called “L’ile de France” would have much later among the other great fiefs!

The name of the country of France does not indicate the origin of its inhabitants.  A strange thing: that even the Reubenites had lost their name and identity, arriving in Europe under the name Gaul, that even Gaul lost its name following the invasion of the Frank tribes!

As the Royal Monarchy that the Salian Franks gave to France, to Great Britain, and to other Israelite nations, conforms to divine prophecy, the influence of the Frank tribes was almost negligible on the life and the character of the French.

The French are Israelites.  The true ancestors are, before all, the Gauls, who were descendants of the Reubenites.