From Barbarians to the Franks

At the beginning of the 5th century, the Roman Empire was already no longer very Roman. To defend what it could still control, it settled certain “barbarian” peoples as allies. In 443, the general Aetius established the Burgundians in Sapaudia, a vast territory stretching from Lake Geneva to Savoy. From this base, the Burgundians gradually expanded southward, to the gates of Provence. To the east, the Ostrogoths gained the upper hand from 488 onward by settling in Italy. Between these two Germanic powers, our valley found itself quite literally in a border zone, without it being possible to say with certainty whether the Burgundians or the Ostrogoths exerted any real influence over La Grave. Meanwhile, in the north, another power was rising: the Franks. Their leader Clovis, after his conversion to Christianity, set out to bring Gaul under his rule. He first fought the tribes he considered pagan, including the Burgundians. As early as 500, he defeated them, though without annexing their kingdom. It was only in 534 that the sons of Clovis definitively divided the Burgundian kingdom among themselves, bringing it to an end as a state. From that moment on, La Grave entered the regnum Francorum, integrated into the vast subdivision then known as the “Kingdom of Burgundy” (534–843). Christianity began to penetrate the mountains, but probably slowly: the villages were scattered, access was difficult, and religious supervision remained very limited. It was a period of deep transition, in which the last remnants of the Roman world faded before a new political and religious order — but in our valleys, this transformation must have been felt late, almost in muted tones.