Modern historians suppose that the Salians descended from the Widonids, a prominent noble kindred emerging in the 7th century. Their estates were located at the confluence of rivers Moselle and Saar and they supported the Carolingians. The Widonids' eastward expansion towards the river Rhine started after they founded Hornbach Abbey in the Bliesgau around 750. Hornbach remained their proprietary monastery and royal grants to the abbey established their presence in the Wormsgau. As time passed, several branches split off the Widonids. The late 9th-century Holy Roman Emperor Guy (or Wido) of Spoleto descended from one of these branches, the Lambertines. The Salians' forefathers remained in Rhenish Franconia.