Renovatio regni Francorum

The motto Renovatio regni Francorum ("renewal of the kingdom of the Franks") was used by several monarchs of the Carolingian, Widonid and Ottonian dynasties in the 9th through 11th centuries.

[1] It served to emphasise the importance of the ethnic Franks and the Frankish tradition in the multinational empires of the Carolingians and Ottonians.

[2] It may have been used as early as 813 by Charlemagne, but it was definitely used by his successor as emperor, Louis the Pious, on a metal seal during his religious reforms.

[1] Louis's younger son, Charles the Bald, put it on his coins early in his reign probably to appeal to the ethnically Frankish nobility of his kingdom.

[4] The motto renovatio regni Francorum was used again by the emperors Charles the Fat (881–888), Guy (891–894), Lambert (892–898) and Arnulf (896–899).