In 840, Charlemagne’s only surviving son, Louis the Pious, passed away. His eldest son, Lothair, was to inherit the empire. However, the Frankish tradition was to divide the land between the male heirs, and Lothair’s brothers Charles and Louis, claimed their part. After 3 years of internecine conflict, Lothair was forced to cede two thirds of the empire. Charles the Bald inherited Western Francia, which would become known simply as France. Louis the German received East Francia, making up most of present-day Germany. Lothair kept the title of emperor (which is indivisible), but his domain was now restricted to Middle Francia, a strip of land covering the present-day Benelux, Rhineland, Alsace, Lorraine, Burgundy, Switzerland, Provence, and the northern half of Italy as far as Rome.

Middle Francia, also known as Lotharingia, encompassed the old Frankish homeland, Clovis’ original kingdom, where the Imperial capital of Aachen was located. It is due to this symbolic value of Old Francia and Rome that Lothair kept this strangely shaped territory for himself.

After Lothair’s death in 855, his realm was split again between his three sons. The eldest, Lothair II, inherited the Kingdom of Lotharingia, which was now geographically limited to Alsace, Lorraine and the Low Countries, his brothers inheriting everything from Burgundy to Italy. In 870, a year after Lothair II’s death, Charles the Bald and Louis the German obtained the leftovers of Lotharingia, most of which actually acquired by Louis. Owing to the fact that the original Frankish homeland was now being held by the rulers of East Francia, the Imperial crown was allowed to return to Germany, under the rule of Otto I (912-973).

Whoever ruled over the Low Countries could claim the Imperial crown. It is by the same logic that the Habsburgs of Austria later monopolised the title of emperor. Between the rule of Charlemagne (800-814) until the Habsburg emperor, 16 out of the 28 Holy Roman Emperors were of Frankish descent (Carolingian, Salian Frankish, and Luxembourg dynasties). The first Habsburg to be elected as Holy Roman Emperor was Frederick III in 1440, who married the only daughter and heiress of Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg. The House of Luxembourg, although originating from a tiny duchy, had the prestige of ruling over a section of the original Frankish Kingdom, and had three of their members elected as emperors. By marrying into the House of Luxembourg, the Habsburgs increased their own prestige and could be seen as having inherited the title of emperor. To consolidate this prestige, the second Habsburg emperor, Maximilian I, married Mary of Burgundy, sole heiress of the Duchy of Burgundy and most of the Low Countries (all but the Prince-Bishopric of Liège). Now ruling directly over practically all the original Frankish homeland, and marrying the descendants of Charlemagne himself, the Habsburgs became seen as the legitimate heirs of Charlemagne and were allowed to remain Holy Roman Emperor until the dissolution of the empire in 1806. The Low Countries and the German Rhineland were annexed by France in 1792. With France now in possession of the Frankish homeland for the first time in its history, there only needed a new monarch to claim the title of emperor. When Napoleon did it by proclaiming himself emperor and heir of Charlemagne (see below) in 1804, the Habsburgs, who saw themselves as the sole legitimate heirs of the Franks, created the title of Emperor of Austria the same year.

The European nobility, born in the Middle Ages and surviving to this day, has its roots in the Frankish nobility system. The Franks were in fact the first to use the Latin titles of dux (duke) and comes (count) to mean “feudal lord” ruling over a duchy or county. The Romans did not have any duchies or counties. For the Romans, a dux was merely a “military leader”, while comes meant “imperial companion”, such as courtiers and provincial officials. The Franks used these terms for the military rulers of their provinces, who later became sovereign rulers after the parcelling of the Carolingian Empire.

In the Carolingian era, a new title was created for the military governors of a March (from the Old Frankish marka, meaning “border”). This title was that of Markgrave (from German Markgraf, “border count”), which would later become Marquis in French and in American English, then Marquess in British English.

As the European population grew and fiefs multiplied, a need for lower titles emerged. The French coined the name of vicomte (“vice + count”), which would be rendered into English as Viscount, while in German and Dutch speaking areas the title just under that of Count (Graf in German) became that of Burggraf or Burggraaf (literally “Town Count”).

The Frankish word baro (“freeman”) evolved to mean “nobleman” (as opposed to peasants, who were serfs). It became the title of Baron, which took the lowest place in the hierarchy of the titled nobility. Knight was not originally a title, but a sort of “occupation”. Not all nobles were knights, as not all fought in battles. From the 17th century, when the time of feudal warfare and chivalry came to an end, knighthood became a form of gentility in countries like England, and developed into a title of its own in other countries like France.