Struggle for Empire explores the contest for kingdoms and power among Charlemagne's descendants that shaped the formation of Europe through the reign of Charlemagne's grandson, Louis the German (826 876)."
Utilizing a “crusading ethos,” from 772 to 804 AD, Charlemagne, King of the Franks, waged war against the continental Saxons to integrate them within the growing Frankish Empire and facilitate their conversion to Christianity. While substantial research has been produced concerning various components of Carolingian history, this work offers a unique examination of Charlemagne’s Saxon Wars as a case study for understanding methods of conversion used in the Christianization of Europe, as well as their significance for subsequent conversion strategies employed around the globe. Converting the Saxons builds on prior scholarly research, is grounded in primary sources, and is contextualized with a robust historical introduction. Throughout the text, particular emphasis is given to Christian encounters with paganism and the way paganism was interpreted, confronted, and transformed. Within those encounters, we observe myriad forces of coercion and incentivization used in societal religious conversion, demonstrating the need for a serious reconsideration of the standard narratives surrounding Christian missions. This book provides a scholarly and accessible resource for students and researchers interested in transhistorical methods of conversion, the history of Christianity, Early Medieval paganism, Colonial religious encounters, and the nature of religious conversion.
This is a translation of the eleventh-century Latin Annals of Lampert, monk of Hersfeld, with detailed commentary and introduction. No translation has hitherto been published in English, despite the fact that it is one of the best known of all the narrative sources of the Middle Ages, constantly mentioned in the English secondary literature. Lampert produced the most detailed account of the events of 1056–77 (the minority of Henry IV of Germany and the first decade of his personal rule), a period of crisis and rebellion culminating in the conflict between the king and Pope Gregory VII. He is widely regarded as 'the unrivalled master among medieval historians' and 'a superb story-teller', noted for his vivid characterisation and narrative. An English translation of this work is of the greatest value to teachers and students of medieval history and also of interest to the general reader of European literature.
As the politico-economic exploits of vikings in and around the Frankish realm remain, to a considerable extent, obscured by the constraints of a fragmentary and biased corpus of (near-)contemporary evidence, this volume approaches the available interdisciplinary data on a cumulative and conceptual level, allowing overall spatiotemporal patterns of viking activity to be detected and defined – and thereby challenging the notion that these movements were capricious, haphazard, and gratuitous in character. Set against a backdrop of continuous commerce and knowledge exchange, this overarching survey demonstrates the existence of a relatively uniform, sequential framework of wealth extraction, encampment, and political engagement, within which Scandinavian fleets operated as adaptable, ambulant polities – or ‘hydrarchies’. By delineating and visualising this framework, a four-phased conceptual development model of hydrarchic conduct and consequence is established, whose validity is substantiated by its application to a number of distinct regional case studies. The parameters of this abstract model affirm that Scandinavian movements across Francia were the result of prudent and expedient decision-making processes, contingent on exchanged intelligence, cumulative experience, and the ongoing individual and collective need for socioeconomic subsistence and enrichment. Monarchs and Hydrarchs will appeal to both students and specialists of the Viking Age, whilst serving as an equally valuable resource to those investigating early medieval Francia, Scandinavia, and the North Sea world as a whole.
Historians, numismatists and philologists consider fundamental aspects of 9c political and economic history. The ninth century was a period of upheaval in England, as the kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex vied for supremacy, and East Anglia and Kent sought to regain their independence, with the arrival of the Vikings introducing a further element of unrest. This interdisciplinary collection of papers by historians, numismatists and philologists considers fundamental aspects of the period's political and economic history. Alliances and treaties are a central theme, political and monetary. A radical reassesment of events in London in the later ninth century is presented, prompted by a detailed examination of the numismatic evidence marshalled here along with the written sources; it is argued that the Vikings were not in control of the city prior to Alfred's "reoccupation" in AD 886. The volume includes an illustrated corpus of the coinage of Berhtwulf and another for the middle years of Alfred's reign; moneyers are identified as witnesses to charters, and the forms of their names are analysed according to the Old English dialects they represent. A listing of some 500 single coin-finds forms the basis for a discussion of the nature and extent ofmonetary use in ninth-century England. The late MARK BLACKBURN was Keeper of Coins and Medals at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; DAVID DUMVILLE is Emeritus Professor at the University of Aberdeen. Contributors: SIMON KEYNES, THOMAS CHARLES-EDWARDS, JAMES BOOTH, MARK BLACKBURN, LORD STEWARTBY, PAUL BIBIRE, D.M. METCALF, MICHAEL BONSER
Franks and Northmen explores the full spectrum of Franco-Scandinavian interaction, examining not just violence but also less well-known relationships centered on acts of diplomacy, commerce, and mission and demonstrating the transformative nature of cross-cultural encounter during the Viking Age. In the year 777, the Frankish sources mention the Northmen, better known to most as the Vikings, for the first time. By the tenth century these Northmen, once a mysterious people on the borders of the Carolingian Empire, would be a familiar presence in the Frankish world. As raiders and pillagers, the Vikings would fill the pages of Frankish authors, leaving a legacy that continues to fascinate even to the twenty-first century. But a closer look at sources, both textual and material, reveals that the relationships between Franks and Northmen were far more complex and multifaceted than a rigid focus on Viking violence might suggest. Merchants carried goods across the North Sea, missionaries encouraged new ways of understanding the world, and Franks and Northmen formed relationships and bonds even amidst conflict and violence. This study is a useful resource for both students and specialists of central and northern Europe in the early medieval period.