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OTL, the Frankish empire was split into 3 kingdoms: East, West, and Middle Francia. East Francia became Germany, west Francia became France. Central Francia collapsed, and so was only remembered by its initial, and very unoriginal, name.

Suppose the Frankish Empire was split differently, and instead of Middle Francia, we got a South Francia that looks something like this:

south frankia high quality.jpg

This state would be a lot likelier to survive than OTL middle Francia, so it would probably live long enough to get a better name. What would that name be?

A few possibilities I see are:

  • Lotharingia (an OTL unofficial name for the northern part of Middle Francia under Lothaire II, from which we get Lorraine). Since the lingua franca of South Francia would probably be some kind of Italian with French and German Influence, what would Lotharingia be in Italian? Just Lotaringia? IK Lorraine is Lorena.
  • Lombardy/Langobardia. The name of a part of northern Italy, sometimes used for the whole region since the lombards ruled the whole area in the early middle ages.
  • Padania A general name for the Po river valley.
  • Cisalpine Gaul or Cisalpinia
  • Just Italy is an option, but one I don't find too interesting
Which is most likely to stick? Do you have any other Ideas?

Since Lothaire I would have 3 sons (Lothaire II, Louis, & Charles), they would each be given regions to govern, My guess is Provence for Louis and Spoleto for Charles. I assume these principalities would develop some regional identity of their own and thus commonly used separate names. What would Provence end up as if it was under Italo-Frankish influence? (I assume Spoleto would still be Spoleto).

Sorry abt the long 1st post.
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