 It was probably Saint Boniface who carried the Christian mission deep into the heart of the ordinary population of Franconia.In the mid-9th century the tribal Duchy of Franconia emerged, one of the five tribal or stem duchies of East Francia.The territory of the stem duchy was far bigger than modern Franconia and covered the whole of present-day Hesse, northern Baden-Württemberg, southern Thuringia, large parts of Rhineland-Palatinate and parts of the Franconian provinces in Bavaria.