Annals of Aachen

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The Annals of Aachen, or Annales Aquenses, is an anonymous Latin chronicle from St Mary’s Church in Aachen. It was begun in 1169 and extended to 1196. The early section mainly lists Roman emperors from AD 1 to 684. The years 688–809 are borrowed from Carolingian imperial annals and are closely related to the Annals of Saint-Amand. After that, the work covers Carolingian and German rulers down to 1109. Its portraits of Henry V (1105–1125) and the Staufer rulers are generally positive. The annals also contain the earliest German use of the expression “to make a knight,” in 1184, when Frederick I’s sons Henry VI and Frederick VI were knighted (facti sunt milites), one of the earliest recorded knighting ceremonies in Germany.