Frankish empire in the context of "Saint Remy"

The Burgundians (Latin: Burgundiones or less commonly Burgundii) were a Germanic people of the Roman imperial era, who established the powerful Kingdom of the Burgundians within the Roman empire, in what is now western Switzerland and south-eastern France. This kingdom is the source of much later names related to the region of Burgundy, including medieval entities such as the Duchy of Burgundy.

In earlier periods, peoples with the same name were reported by Roman sources to have lived in different parts of what is now Germany and Poland, and there are believed to be connections between at least some of these groups. For one thing, the kingdom's core group were followers of the Gibichung dynasty, who had previously led them as foederati in Roman territory on the Rhine border, probably near Worms in present day Germany. They left the Rhine after the Romans and their Hun allies killed many of the Burgundians along with their king Gundahar in 436, accusing them of rebellion. The death of Gundahar at the hands of the Huns became a central theme in medieval Germanic heroic legend, including the Nibelungenlied (where he is “Günther”) and the Völsunga saga (where he is “Gunnar”). After the remnants resettled in Sapaudia near Lake Geneva in about 443, their territory expanded to include Lyon as a new capital. The entire kingdom was incorporated into the Frankish empire in 534.

Old Saxony was the homeland of the Saxons who fought the Frankish empire during the Early Middle Ages, until they conquered it and converted it into a Carolingian stem duchy in the 8th century, the Duchy of Saxony. Contemporary authors such as Bede and the author of the Ravenna Cosmography used the term "Old Saxons" to distinguish them from the Saxons living in Britain, also known as Anglo-Saxons, who they believed had migrated from Old Saxony. Roman sources as far back as the fourth century had described these continental Saxons as northern neighbours of the Franks, who lived near the Lower Rhine. They do not appear to have been politically unified, although they sometimes worked together to fight the Franks. Bede described them as ruled by "satraps".

Old Saxony, like the later duchy of Saxony, included the inland regions later known as Eastphalia, Westphalia and Angria (or Angaria), between the Rhine and Elbe rivers. They possibly also already lived in Nordalbingia, north of the mouth of the Elbe. There is a single uncertain report of a smaller Saxon tribe living in this region in the second century, and this may represent the origin of their name. During their wars with the Frankish empire, the Saxons were described as living north of the Thuringians, as far east as the Elbe. By the time of the Carolingians, most of the North Sea coast between the Rhine and Elbe was inhabited not by the Saxons, but by the medieval Frisians, who were seen as distinct from the Saxons.

The denier (/dəˈnɪər/; Latin: denarius, Italian: denaro, Greek: δηνάριο, romanized: dinario; abbr. d.) or penny was a medieval coin which takes its name from the Frankish coin first issued in the late seventh century; in English it is sometimes referred to as a silver penny. Its appearance represents the end of gold coinage, which, at the start of Frankish rule, had either been Roman (Byzantine) or "pseudo-imperial" (minted by the Franks in imitation of Byzantine coinage). Silver would be the basis for Frankish coinage from then on. The denier was minted in France, Cyprus and parts of the Italian peninsula for the whole of the Middle Ages, in states such as the patriarchate of Aquileia, the Kingdom of Sicily, the Republic of Genoa, the Republic of Siena, Kingdom of Cyprus, and the crusader state Kingdom of Jerusalem, among others.

The Baiuvarii, Baiovari or early Bavarians were a Germanic people who first appeared in the 6th century. They originally lived in what had been the Roman province Raetia, south of the Danube, in what is now southern Bavaria. From there, their territory expanded. Their culture, language and political institutions are the predecessors of those of the medieval Duchy of Bavaria. Their polity developed under the influence of the Frankish empire, and eventually became a stem duchy.

The Baiuvarii are first mentioned in contemporary records starting in the 6th century, soon after the end of the Western Roman Empire, which had included Raetia and many of the surrounding countries.