The Frankish World, 750-900

by Nelson, Janet L.

• ISBN13: 9781852851057
• ISBN10: 1852851058
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-11-01
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

In these essays Carolingian government is explored through the workings of courts and assemblies; through administrative texts; through contemporaries' historical writing; through the rituals, looking back to Roman times and reflecting the long continuity of administration in the areas constituting Francia that supplemented and reinforced social and political solidarities; and through the ideological and material dilemmas confronted by ninth-century churchmen: the material wealth of the church, a necessary precondition to its influence, attracted a variety of private interests that inhibited its ability to perform its public duty. Janet Nelson extends her perspective to include the settlement of disputes, often without recourse to courts or to conflict, and the application of law. An introduction sets Francia in context and outlines its main features. More recent work on gender history is represented here by studies of the political, intellectual and religious activities of women in the Frankish world. Although circumscribed, the activities of women acting on their own will can be clearly detected. While the male authorship of nearly all early medieval texts has usually been taken for granted, Janet Nelson makes a case for the possibility that a number were written by women.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
Literacy in Carolingian Government	p. 1
The Last Years of Louis the Pious	p. 37
Dispute Settlement in Carolingian West Francia	p. 51
Ninth-Century Knighthood: The Evidence of Nithard	p. 75
Translating Images of Authority: The Christian Roman Emperors in the Carolingian World	p. 89
The Lord's Anointed and the People's Choice: Carolingian Royal Ritual	p. 99
'Not Bishops' Bailiffs but Lords of the Earth': Charles the Bald and the Problem of Sovereignty	p. 133
Making Ends Meet: Wealth and Poverty in the Carolingian Church	p. 145
The Intellectual in Politics: Context, Content and Authorship in the Capitulary of Coulaines, November 843	p. 155
Rewriting the History of the Franks	p. 169
Gender and Genre in Women Historians of the Early Middle Ages	p. 183
Women and the Word in the Earlier Middle Ages	p. 199
Women at the Court of Charlemagne: A Case of Monstrous Regiment?	p. 223
Index	p. 243
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