Richard Gerberding, a modern editor of the text, vindicates the coherence and accuracy of its account while giving reasons[1] for locating the anonymous author in Soissons, who was likely a part of the royal monastery of Saint-Medard.
Richard Gerberding characterises the author as Neustrian and as "a staunch Merovingian legitimate, secular as opposed to ecclesiastically minded, and an enthusiastic admirer and probably a member of that aristocratic class based on the Seine-Oise valley whose deeds, wars and kings he describes".
[3] It offers a Neustrian perspective of the era of mayors of the palace, where the factions of the great territorial magnates could only be held in check and balanced by the consecrated legitimacy of the Merovingian king.
Liber Historiae Francorum has been explored and interpreted by Richard Gerberding and more recently by Rosamond McKitterick, in History and Memory in the Carolingian World.
[4] As a widely read narrative, it helped create a sense of cultural solidarity among the readership for whom it was intended, whose biases it caters to, and whose political agenda it promotes.
In 617, Chlothar made the Mayor of the Palace a role held for life, an important step in the progression of this office from being first the manager of the royal household to the effective head of government, and eventually the monarch, under Pepin the Younger in 751.
He was generally an ally of the church and, perhaps inspired by the example of his uncle Guntram, his reign seems to lack the outrageous acts of murder perpetrated by many of his relations, with the exception of the execution of Brunhilda.
Liber Historiae Francorum became a primary source for the Continuations to Fredegar's Chronicle, as redacted by Count Childebrand in 751 on behalf of his half-brother, Charles Martel.