Duchy of Thuringia

The Duchy of Thuringia was a polity in central Germany that emerged from the ruins of the Thuringian kingdom destroyed by the Franks and Saxons at the battle on the Unstrut in 531. In the first half of the sixth century the remaining Thuringian lands were organized as an eastern frontier district of the Merovingian kingdom of Austrasia. Around 631 King Dagobert I appointed the local noble Radulf as duke to guard the frontier along the Saale against the Slavs; Radulf later rebelled and ruled as a semi-autonomous ruler, even styling himself king. His successors of the Hedenen dynasty supported Christian missions, but their autonomy ended in the conflict with Charles Martel around 717-719, after which the duchy was absorbed into the Carolingian system. The duchy is recorded again as a unit of the East Frankish realm, and in 839 it was assigned with its marches to Lothair I and then, by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, to East Francia. The last recorded duke, Burchard, was killed fighting the Magyars on 3 August 908, and the duchy was absorbed by Saxony.