ABSTRACT
Alcuin and his collected writings are a rich source of evidence about contacts between England and Francia at the end of the eighth century. His presence at the Frankish court before 796 and at Tours until his death in 804, facilitated the transit of people and information between England and the Continent. Frankish material is sparse in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle before the mid-ninth century when Viking raids in the Channel and marriage links between the West Saxon and West Frankish dynasties provided a local political imperative for recording Frankish events. All the Frankish events recorded in the York Annals are known about and corroborated by other sources produced in Francia and in Rome. Related to the Continuatio Bedae are the York Annals, so named by Hunter-Blair by virtue of their focus on that city and its environs.13 This set of annals covers the years 732–802 and is now embedded within the twelfth-century historical compilation known as the Historia regum.
