Royal Frankish Annals

The Annales regni Francorum ( " Annals of the Frankish Empire " ), also called annals, have a written collection of events ( cf. Annals ) in the Frankish Empire of the 8th and 9th century. The name goes back to Leopold von Ranke; previously they were known after the place where the oldest manuscript in a Grand Lorsch Annals ( Annales Lauri Senses maiores ). The Annales regni Francorum continue to distinguish it from the Little Lorsch francs chronicle ( Annales Lauri Senses minores ).

The later revision of the annals is often referred to as Einhardsannalen.

Content

In the Annales time 741-829 is described and it also offered a kind of deeds of Charlemagne. So mention the Annales for the year 772 the conquest of Eresburg and the destruction of Irminsul. Sequels were, inter alia, the Annales Fuldenses (for the East Frankish kingdom, in sequels to 901 ) and the Annales Bertiniani (for the West Frankish kingdom until 882 ).

The annals have a distinctive official character; they must be interpreted as an instrument of the Carolingian rulers to justify their practices of political and military nature. The Annales regni Francorum were probably mostly used to create non-existent basis for decision making, for example, alleged provocations of other rulers, not about to let a war appear as a war of aggression. You are one of the most important sources for early Carolingian period, despite their often dubious credibility.

The authors of the annals are not known by name. In some manuscripts is a stylistically (up to 812), and partly also in content (up to 801) revised version of the annals ago, the so-called Einhardsannalen. The name is due to the fact that sooner Einhard was suspected as the author of these manuscripts, which is rejected in modern research. Einhard had but the revised annals used for his Vita Karoli Magni.

The annals was made at various stages of the court of Charles, well within the court orchestra. The first author probably began his work in the years 787-793, but could be based on older annals. The first 50 years from 741 are thus described in retrospect, since 787/793 reporting in the annals took place but almost simultaneously. For a change of the author, there was 795, 808 and presumably also 820

Editions and translations

• Annales regni Francorum. In: Sources for the Carolingian Empire History, Part 1 New edited by Reinhold Rau ( Selected sources on German history of the Middle Ages, FSGA, Vol 5). Darmstadt 1955 ( several reprints ), pp. 9-155.
• Source collection for medieval history. Fontes medii aevi. Berlin 1998; 1 CD- ROM, ISBN 3-9806427-0-4.
• Annales regni Francorum. In: Friedrich Short (ed.): Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi 6: Annales regni Francorum inde usque ad from a 741 a 829, qui dicuntur Annales Lauri Senses maiores et Einhardi. Hannover 1895 ( Monumenta Historica Germaniae, digitized )