HRE was roman, because the franks were roman, and for the same reason all barbarian kingdoms were roman, they were part of "Romania" and fuctioned like it, there's no rupture between Roman past and the middle ages. So the germans were Roman. The austrians too. The Byzantines suffered a much bigger rupture with Islam than the west part ever had. The arabs still called all europeans "Franks", because that ethinicity at the time was connected with a way of life, ideology and religion which was only different from the Roman one if you consider everything post-Augustus to be unroman. Meanwhile, the Byzantines after the islamic trauma were unrecognizable, so much so we call it Byzantium, not Rome, even in modern debates.

>>17800440
Both Merovech, Childeric I. and Clovis' tenures should be seen in the context of that of a Roman general.
Especially among the Gallo-Romans in Gaul, Roman law and courts were alive and well (Salic law existed alongside it), the conversion of Clovis to Catholicism (instead of Arianism) led to the possibility of a partnership of the Frankish Kings and Gallo-Roman clergy to create the most powerful state in Western Europe at the time.