What If: A Surviving Francia?

This is a question that's been bobbing around my head for a while: How would the Frankish territories have evolved if Charlemagne had not conquered so much and been crown Emperor? I have an idea that if he had been a less successful conqueror, maybe only taking Saxony, Bavaria and the Spanish march, or less, Francia would have had a lot more territorial integrity.
Things to think about:
-What language would they speak, perhaps a heavily romanized Frankish dialect or perhaps an even more Germanized (than French) romance dialect.
-Would it still be split be each kings son, or would it someone have the sense to establish primogeniture?
-How would Italy and Iberia evolve in this scenario?
All thoughts and comment arre welcome!
Scipio
 
It would still be split. I think that's unavoidable at this point unless Charlemagne has only 1 surviving son. But how do you avoid Hadrian begging Charles for help? Especially if Pepin has still given him help in the 750s.
 
Ok well then lets say as per otl he has one surviving son. And he spends more time improving the administration of his kingdom. Then, his descendants have one person inherit the throne while the others get lesser territories, like French kings in the middle ages (i.e. Saint Louis and his sons)
Scipio
 
Bump (again)

I do think that without the "recreation" of the Empire it would have been a lot simpler for the Frankish state to come together again. Francia had been split and reunited throughout its post-Clovis history. Isn't it possible that without the large scale conflicts, this could have happened again, only that eventually it would be fully unified. Also, does anyone have any thoughts about what this state might look like?
Scipio
 
Perhaps if we have Charles and Carloman's younger brother Pepin survive childhood?
This would mean another 3-fold division of Francia and mean that if Charlemagne starts to get more ambitious he has to face 2 brothers instead of one.
It could also preclude Charles from marrying one of the daughters of the King of the Lombards and thus gaining that Kingdom which led to him being offered the Imperial Crown.

Much depends on who gets what Kingdom but we could well see a northern Francia composed of Neustria, Austrasia, Saxony, and Allemania, versus Aquitaine and Lombardy in the south (with Burgundy divided up somehow).
Such a Francia would be more German dominated and whilst there would be Romance dialects they would not be the dominant language of the Kingdom.

Aquitaine could assist a possibly slower or faster Reconquista - it depends on whether its more southern focus on the marches outweighs its fewer resources.

The survival of Lombardy is much more difficult to predict. Would it fracture? How strong is the Pope relative to the King? Does it focus north into German lands or south into East Roman?
 
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