FRANCONIA, in German Franken, a name of very different application in different historical periods. It properly signifies the land of the Franks, and is consequently identical in original meaning with the word Francia or France. In the beginning of the 4th century the Frankish territory stretched from the Loire eastward to the basin of the Rhine and the Main; but it was shortly afterwards broken up into two divisions—Austrasia, Francia Orientalis, or the kingdom of the East Franks,and Neustria, Francia Occidentalis, or the kingdom of the West Franks. As time went on both kingdoms extended their boundaries; and when the treaty of Verdun in 845 settled the claims of the grandsons of Charles the Great, there was a kingdom of Western France with Latin tendencies, and a kingdom of Eastern France with Teutonic tendencies, each possessing a central district or duchy of its own name. These districts were separated from each other by the district of Lotharingia or Lorraine. The western was soon after lost sight of; but the eastern continued for a long period to be considered the very core and kernel of the German kingdom, and a theory became prevalent that it was the original seat of the Franks in Germany. Under the Saxon and Franconian emperors it was subdivided into Ost-Franken, Francia Orientalis, or Eastern Franconia par excellence, and Rhein-Franken, Francia Rhenensis, or Rhenish Franconia. The former, which was also distinguished as Saal-Frunken, stretched from the Fichtelgebirge and the Rhone to the Danube, and from the Upper Palatinate to the Spessart and the lands of the Neckar; while the latter was the country between the Spessart and the Rhine, and included the present district of Frankfort-onthe-Main. Though the name frequently occurs in our histories, there was ...