Annals of the Kingdom of the Franks

Annals of the Kingdom of the Frames ( Latin: Annales regni Francorum; ARF ) - annals describing the history of the Frankish state from 741 to 829; the main source throughout the reign of Charles I the Great and the first half of the reign of Louis I the Pious .

Previously, the "Annals of the Kingdom of Franks" in historical science were called the "Great Lorsh Annals" (in the Lorsh Monastery , the alleged place of creation) or the "Annals of Einhard" (named for Einhard , their supposed author), however, after both hypotheses were refuted, for annals preserved only this name. Annals were created at the court of the kings of the Frankish state, in order to exalt them and justify their expansionist policies towards their neighbors.

The Annals of the Kingdom of Franks was created by several chroniclers and was edited several times. The first part of the annals was compiled in 789 by an unknown author and described the events of 741-788. It is based on the work of Fredegar 's Followers and the annals that have not come down to us. Then the same author began to keep weather records, continuing the annals until 793 years. After him, the work on the annals was carried out by three more annalists: one described the events for 795–807, the second - for 808–820, the third (it was the abbot of the monastery of Saint-Denis Guildwin ) described the events from 821 to 829. This is the so-called “First edition of the Annals of the Kingdom of the Franks”. It is written in rough Latin with the inclusion of barbarism. In an effort to exalt King Charlemagne, the first chronicler lowered a number of events that could damage this goal: he did not mention the defeat of the Franks in the Ronseval Gorge in 778 and the uprising of Pepin Gorbaty in 792, and the defeat of the Saxons in the battle of Süntel in 782 declared victory francs.

Around 812, another unknown chronicler (presumed to be Einhard), who had one of the copies of the original text of the annals, edited their part covering 741-801 years (this is the so-called Second Edition of the Annals of the Kingdom of Franks), correcting the text is more literary and eliminating all the omissions of previous authors of the annals.

Thus, the "Annals of the Kingdom of the Franks" turned into a fairly complete description of the history of the Frankish state from the middle of the VIII to the first third of the IX century. These annals are preserved in a variety of manuscripts, becoming the basis for the later annals, of which the main ones are the Bertinsky annals for the West-Frankish kingdom and the Fulda annals for the East-Frankish kingdom .