I copied this from “The Columbia Encyclopedia” online:
http://www.bartleby.com/65/fr/Franks.html
By the 3rd century A.D., the Franks were settled along the lower and middle Rhine. The two major divisions were the Salian Franks in the north and the Ripuarian Franks in the south. The two groups expanded independently, although they sometimes united against a common enemy. The Salian Franks became allies of the Roman Empire late in the 4th cent. In the following century they moved southward into Gaul, and under their leader Clovis I they overthrew (486) the Romans. Clovis permanently united the Salian and Ripuarian Franks, accepted Roman Catholicism, and founded the Frankish empire. Clovis began the Merovingian Dynasty followed by the Carolingian Dynasty 752-911. Charlemagne inherited the Frankish crown in 768 and crowned Holy Roman Emperor 800 AD. Charlemagne was the greatest Frankish ruler. His empire was partitioned in 843, by the Treaty of Verdun, and again in 870 by the Treaty of Mersen. From these partitions developed the kingdom of the West Franks, who merged with the far more numerous Gallo-Roman population of Gaul and became France; and the kingdom of the East Franks, who retained their Germanic speech and became Germany. Both France and the region of Franconia in Germany derive their names from the Franks.