Diocese of Utrecht (695–1580)
The historic Diocese of Utrecht was a diocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church from 695 to 1580, and from 1559 archdiocese in the Low Countries before and during the Protestant Reformation.
Commemorative plaque at the Domkerk in Utrecht. Translation: In the year 1939, twelve centuries after his death, the blessed work of the apostel Willibrord, the preacher of the Gospel in these lands, is unitedly and thankfully commemorated.
Statue of Saint Willibrord in Utrecht
The Kingdom of the Franks, also known as the Frankish Kingdom, the Frankish Empire or Francia, was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Frankish Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties during the Early Middle Ages. Francia was among the last surviving Germanic kingdoms from the Migration Period era.
The partition of the Frankish kingdom among the four sons of Clovis with Clotilde presiding, Grandes Chroniques de Saint-Denis (Bibliothèque municipale de Toulouse)
The political divisions of Gaul at the inception of Clovis's career (481). Note that only the Burgundian kingdom and the province of Septimania remained unconquered at his death (511).
The division of the Frankish kingdom on Clovis's death (511). The kingdoms were not geographic unities because they were formed in an attempt to create equal-sized fiscs. The discrepancy in size reveals the concentration of Roman fiscal lands.
The division of Gaul on Chlothar I's death (561). Though more geographically unified realms were created out of the second fourfold division, the complex division of Provence created many problems for the rulers of Burgundy and Austrasia.
