Annals
A history of the German kingdom by a monk of Hersfeld, breaking off in 1077. It gives a long narrative of Henry IV’s winter journey and penance at Canossa, written from the side of the king’s opponents.
Read the text at dmgh.de ↗The same edition with searchable text (Internet Archive) ↗
Lampert was a monk of the abbey of Hersfeld in Hesse. His annals grow from brief notes into a full narrative for the 1070s and end with the election of Rudolf as king in March 1077, where he says he will leave the rest to another writer. He was a contemporary of the events at Canossa, writing in a German monastery far from them.
He writes well and with a purpose: his sympathies are with the princes who opposed Henry IV (emperor). Oswald Holder-Egger, who edited the text in 1894, marks in his notes the places where Lampert’s account of Canossa departs from the letter of Gregory VII, which he judges Lampert had read, and treats several details as Lampert’s own additions. The annals are cited here for what Lampert says, set beside Gregory’s letter.
Cited in
- 1075 to 1077, firm date