Gaul: from Visigoths to Franks

Visigoth king Euric (466-480) dominated an important part of the Gaul, setting its capital in Toulouse and he started to take the control of the Iberian Peninsula. When he was dead, his heir, Alaric II, lost all his father achievements: he wasn't a good strateg and the Franks started their expansion.
The Franks, a small group who was living in the north of the Gaul. Clovis, a Merovingian king, was the one who expanded his kingdom. It took more than twenty years of wars and batlles to eliminate his opponents in Gaul: the Soissons, the Alemans and the Visigoths.
In the middle of the 7th century, the nobility was worried for the power that the king had, so they decided to stop him. The Mayor of the Palace was the name that the man who assumed the govern functions. Two of the most important families who took that place were the Pippinids and the Carolingian.

• Look for more information about the Mayor of the Palace and write a breif text about it. Pay attention to the two main families. (minimum 15 lines)

The early Germanic kingdoms

Germanic were all those countries which lived between Rin and Danubi. Further than that point it was the unknown and confused Slavic land.
Germanics were the main character in the disintegration of the Roman Empire. Especially important was the event in 476 when Odoacer, a Germanic military chief, defeated the last Roman emperor, Romul Augustus.
All the Occidental part of the Roman Empire was divided into small Germanic kingdoms, despite there wasn't many population. So, the Germanic power wasn't caused for the number of soldiers and citizens they were, but it was the suitable substitute for the political and military structure of the empire defeated. Also the Germanics converted to Christianity.
Anyway, those kingdoms supported themselves in basic barbarian elements. One of the most important  was the ban, power that each king had to administrate, make laws and orders, for example. So, the Germanic kings had a huge power. However, that power wasn't enough.