diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 4fb26b555e..e69de29bb2 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-[submodule "framework"]
-	path = framework
-	url = https://github.com/Mbed-TLS/mbedtls-framework
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 848d8f29a9..5b6c48cb9c 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -313,15 +313,6 @@ if(LIB_INSTALL_DIR)
     set(CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR "${LIB_INSTALL_DIR}")
 endif()
 
-if (NOT EXISTS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/framework/CMakeLists.txt")
-    if (EXISTS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/.git")
-        message(FATAL_ERROR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}CMakeLists.txt not found (and does appear to be a git checkout). Run `git submodule update --init` from the source tree to fetch the submodule contents.")
-    else ()
-        message(FATAL_ERROR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMakeLists.txt not found (and does not appear to be a git checkout). Please ensure you have downloaded the right archive from the release page on GitHub.")
-    endif()
-endif()
-add_subdirectory(framework)
-
 add_subdirectory(include)
 
 add_subdirectory(3rdparty)