lands. In contrast to Austrasia, Neustria was predominantly Gallo-Roman in population,
and the form of Latin spoken there, affected by Celtic and Germanic influences, came to
be called “Langue d’oïl,” the ancestor of modern French. “Languedoil” also came to refer
to the region of Neustria, distinguished from southern France (“Languedoc”) by its
language and its use of unwritten, customary law influenced by Germanic practices. In
France during the high and late Middle Ages, a “Frank” generally meant a Neustrian and
“Francia” meant Neustria. As the region that gave birth to the French language and
formed the power base of the Capetian dynasty, Neustria was in many ways the
birthplace of France.
The first Neustria, with its chief royal residence at Paris, was the kingdom given to
Chilperic I upon the death of Clotar I in 561, and it passed to his son Clotar II and
grandson Dagobert I. It generally dominated Frankish politics from the mid-6th to the late
7th century. The rise of the Austrasian Carolingians ended this first Neustria.
The threat of attacks from Brittany led Charlemagne to recreate a second and smaller
Neustria as a subkingdom for his son Charles, and this second Neustria maintained its
existence as a kingdom or subkingdom through successive partitions of royal land in the
9th century. The need for an adequate defense against the Vikings led Charles the Bald to
grant Neustria as a march to Robert le Fort, and the region continued to be held by his
descendants, King Eudes, King Robert I, Hugues le Grand, and Hugh Capet, with their
capital at Paris. From the 930s and 940s, the title of marquis of Neustria came to be
overshadowed by that of duke of the Franks (dux Francorum), given to Hugues le Grand
by Louis IV. Both titles were extinguished when Hugh Capet became king in 987 and
Neustria ceased to form an administrative unity within the kingdom.
Steven Fanning
[See also: AUSTRASIA; FRANKS; LANGUEDOIL]
Boussard, Jacques. “Les destinées de la Neustrie du IXe au XIe siècle.” Cahiers de civilisation
médiévale 11 (1968):15–28.
——. “L’ouest du royaume franc aux VIIe et VIIIe siècles.” Journal des savants (January-March
1973):3–27.
Joris, André. “On the Edge of Two Worlds in the Heart of the New Empire: The Romance Regions
of Northern Gaul During the Merovingian Period.” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance
History 3 (1966):3–52.
McKitterick, Rosamond. The Frankish Kingdoms Under the Carolingians, 751–987. London:
Longman, 1983.
Werner, Karl-Ferdinand. “Les origines de la Neustrie.” In La Neustrie: les pays au nord de la Loire
de Dagobert a Charles le Chauve (VIIe-IXe siècles), ed. Patrick Périn and Laure-Charlotte
Feffer. Rouen: Les Musées et Monuments Dépar-tementaux de Seine-Maritime, 1985, pp. 29–
38.
NEUWILLER-LÈS-SAVERNE
. All that remains of the once fortified Benedictine abbey of Neuwiller (Bas-Rhin),
founded in 723, is the church of Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul. An early church was enlarged
in the 9th century to welcome the many pilgrims attracted by the relics of St. Adelphus,
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