Francus

Who is Francus?

Francus is an invention of Merovingian scholars which referred to a legendary eponymous king of the Franks, a descendant of the Trojans, founder of the Merovingian dynasty and forefather of Charlemagne. In the Renaissance, Francus was generally considered to be another name for the Trojan Astyanax saved from the destruction of Troy. He is not considered to be historical, but in fact an attempt by medieval and Renaissance chroniclers to model the founding of France upon the same illustrious tradition as that used by Virgil in his Aeneid.

The 7th century Chronicle of Fredegar contains the oldest mention of a medieval legend thus linking the Franks to the Trojans. The Carolingian Liber historiae Francorum elaborates new details, and the tradition continued to be elaborated throughout the Middle Ages, when it was taken seriously as genealogy and became a "veritable form of ethnic consciousness".

The 8th century Nennius' Historia Brittonum makes mention of Francus as one of the four sons of Hisicion, grandsons of Alanus, the first man to live in Europe.

The Grandes Chroniques de France, a vast compilation of historic material, make reference of the Trojan origins of the French dynasty.