The Franks were a group of barbarians who flooded into France in the 5th century AD. Firmly established throughout France by the 8th century, they engaged a series of embarrassing wars with the newly proclaimed state of Septimania, a rebellious kingdom forged from the only French province remaining in the hands of the Visigoths. After this shameful series of defeats, the Franks recovered magnificently, having asserted their influence in failing Visigothic Spain. Having established marcher lords in Spain following the collapse of the Visigoths, the Franks then went on to make France one of the foremost countries in Renaissance Europe.