Between the Rhine, Weser, and IJsselmeer, the people of the Franks emerged in the 3rd century as a coalition of Germanic tribes. In the 5th century, large Frankish groups settled between the Rhine and the Somme under kings from the Merovingian dynasty or their relatives. King Clovis, the son of Childeric of Tournai, defeated the last Gallo-Roman commander, eliminated the remaining Frankish tribal kings, and thus established the Frankish Empire in Gaul. Through the subjugation of the Alamanni, Thuringians, Bavarians, and Alpine Romans, vast non-Gallic territories were annexed to the Frankish Empire. During the second expansion, the Merovingian kingdom evolved into a multi-ethnic state: a crucial prerequisite for the emergence of the Western world in the early Middle Ages. The royal lands in Francia between the Rhine and Seine and in Northern Burgundy expanded.