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| | FRANCIA |
 | | By 774, the Franks were virtually the only organized Christian kingdom between Islâm in Spain, the pagan powers to the east, and the remaining Roman Empire, now Greek in character, to the southeast. |
 | | Historically, Lithuania holds the prize as the last country in Europe to become Christian, not definitively converting until the Grand Duke Jagiello (1377-1434). |
 | | Although soon surrounded by independent Christian states, in Britain and Ireland to the northwest, Spain in the southwest, Hungary and Poland in the east, and the Sandinavian states in the north, the Frankish kingdoms remained the central tentpole (we might even say the axis mundi) of European politics. |
| www.friesian.com /francia.htm (14221 words) |
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