Song of the Moselle

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SotM positions itself upon a Francophone Holy Roman Empire, rather than a German one. The Moselle-Romance language survives due to the presence of a Romance focused Empire, with the Moselle area the capital region. Moselle Romance was very likely a Langue d'oïl dialect, evidence suggests so, and it was probably very close to Walloon. This timeline accepts this probability and thus Moselle Romance is part of the Francophone world.

The timeline was inspired by an idea to make a map with extinct Romance languages given life again, such as the aforementioned Moselle, but also African, Pannonian, Dalmatian but also existing ones without a sovereign state, such as Occitan.

On Moselle Romance[]

Moselle Romance is described thus, via Wikipedia: Moselle Romance (German: Moselromanisch; French: Roman de la Moselle) is an extinct Gallo-Romance (most probably Langue d'oïl) dialect that developed after the fall of the Roman Empire along the Moselle river in modern-day Germany, near the border with France. It was part of a wider group of Romance relic areas within the German-speaking territory. Despite heavy Germanic influence, it persisted in isolated pockets until the 11th century. The local Gallo-Roman placenames suggest that the left bank of the Moselle was Germanized following the 8th century, but the right bank remained Romance-speaking into at least the 10th century. Said names include Maring-Noviand, Osann-Monzel, Longuich, Riol, Hatzenport, Longkamp, Karden, and Kröv or Alf. This being a wine-growing region, a number of viticultural terms from Moselle Romance have survived in the local German dialect. Latin text from the 9th century written in the monastery of Prüm by local monks contains several Vulgar Latin terms which are attested only in modern Gallo-Romance languages, especially northeastern French and Franco-Provençal, such materiamen 'timber' or porritum 'chives'. Based on evidence from toponyms and loanwords into Moselle Franconian dialects, the latest detectable form of Moselle Romance can be classified as a Langue d'oïl dialect. This can seen e.g. in the placenames Kasnode < *cassanētu and Roveroth < *roburētu, which display a characteristic change of Vulgar Latin stressed /e/ in open syllables.

Saint-Empire Romain Francs[]

The sudden death of Emperor Otto II on 7 December 983 left a despondent throne in the malleable grip of his son, three-year-old Otto III. Heinrich the Quarrelsome, Duke of Bavaria, became regent of the child-emperor, abducting Otto III in the hopes of himself being proclaimed King and Emperor. In an attempt to dislodge Heinrich, Adalberon of Reims reached out for support, seeking Lothaire, King of West Francia, offering Lotharingia in return for aid. In mid-984 the mother of Otto III, Empress Theophanu, and Archbishop Willingis of Mainz instigated an attempted rescue of the child-emperor Otto III in order to regain control over Empire. This rescue failed and cemented the ascension of Heinrich as Holy Roman Emperor, to be the second, but last, German ruler of the Realm. War erupted openly with Lothaire, the supposed champion of Otto III.

Lothaire, with the support of Hugh Capet, Odo I of Blois, and Herbert III of Meaux, waged a successful war against the usurper Heinrich. The mysterious death of Otto III altered the trajectory of the conflict and, upon the death of Heinrich at Verdun, the conflict changed course once again. Banding together the most influential Archbishops of the realm, each were forced to recognize that he, Lothair, was the true and only heir of the Carolingian Empire, culminating in his crowning by the Pope, as Holy Roman Emperor, on December 986.