Francus

thumb|Dice Offering a Banquet to Francus, in the Presence of Hyante and Climene, from 'La Franciade' by Pierre de Ronsard, painted by Toussaint Dubreuil (16th century) Francus, also called Francio, is a mythical figure of Frankish medieval historians which referred to a legendary eponymous king of the Franks, a descendant of the Trojans and forefather of the Merovingian dynasty. In the Renaissance, Francus was generally considered to be another name for the Trojan Astyanax (son of Hector) saved from the destruction of Troy. He is not considered to be historical, but medieval and Renaissance chroniclers attempted to model the founding of France upon the same illustrious tradition as that used by Virgil in his Aeneid (which had Rome founded by the Trojan Aeneas).

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".