Towards a new western Empire, 714–800

Abstract

The change of dynasty in Francia in 751 inevitably coloured the perspective of all of those historical works that were composed in the period that followed it. Moreover, the final century of the rule of the preceding dynasty has left us so few accounts of itself that it is fair to say that the last Merovingians do not speak for themselves. So much that we know about them is through the distorting mirror of the Carolingian historiographical tradition. Even a work that is firmly Merovingian in its original date of composition, such as the so-called Chronicle of Fredegar, received continuations that were Carolingian in their inspiration and intent. The core text, that was completed around the year 660, was augmented by an equally anonymous author in the middle of the eighth century, working, as he notes, on the orders of count Childebrand (d. 751/2) and of his son count Nibelung. Childebrand was the half-brother of Charles Martel, the Mayor of the Palace and father of the first Carolingian king.¹