Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps and tables
- Preface and acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 THE LATE MEROVINGIAN ORDER
- 2 CONQUEST AND CONTINUITY
- 3 THE CAROLINGIANS AND ECCLESIASTICAL PROPERTY
- 4 REACTION AND RESISTANCE
- 5 THE POLITICS OF OLD GERMAN
- 6 IMPERIAL UNITY AND REGIONAL POWER
- 7 THE LATE CAROLINGIAN ORDER
- 8 THE TENTH-CENTURY TRANSFORMATION
- 9 CONCLUSIONS
- Appendix: Records of the dispute between Rodoin and Gebahart and the monastery of Weissenburg
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought Fourth series
2 - CONQUEST AND CONTINUITY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps and tables
- Preface and acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 THE LATE MEROVINGIAN ORDER
- 2 CONQUEST AND CONTINUITY
- 3 THE CAROLINGIANS AND ECCLESIASTICAL PROPERTY
- 4 REACTION AND RESISTANCE
- 5 THE POLITICS OF OLD GERMAN
- 6 IMPERIAL UNITY AND REGIONAL POWER
- 7 THE LATE CAROLINGIAN ORDER
- 8 THE TENTH-CENTURY TRANSFORMATION
- 9 CONCLUSIONS
- Appendix: Records of the dispute between Rodoin and Gebahart and the monastery of Weissenburg
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought Fourth series
Summary
For contemporaries, the story of Carolingian expansion was largely a tale of conquest. From the reign of Charles Martel on, chroniclers trained a steady eye on the Carolingians' relentless subjugation of the territories beyond the Frankish heartlands of Neustria and Austrasia. To Carolingian military pressure succumbed Alemannia (730, 742–6), Aquitaine (731–6, 760–8), Bavaria (725, 728, 743, 749, 788), Brittany (786, 799), Burgundy and Provence (732–6), Frisia (734) and Saxony (720–4, 738, 747, 753, 758, 772–804). Modern treatments of the period, taking their cue from the chronicles, also have made military success central to the story of Carolingian expansion. Because these conquests often left in their wake a residue of documents drawn up to defend rights and claims, the territories beset by the Carolingians have presented the points of departure for a range of insightful studies which have illuminated the processes by which the Carolingians absorbed conquered territories.
Alsace, a territory brought under Carolingian control peacefully, allows us to view Carolingian expansion from another angle, from the perspective of the family's affective, rather than military, power. In contrast to the many regions where high-handed conquest left triumphant Carolingians in a dominant position to impose peace, in Alsace Carolingian power – itself generated and sustained by an impressive network of family monasteries – flowed easily into the channels of power etched out by local monasteries and kin-groups.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Politics and Power in Early Medieval EuropeAlsace and the Frankish Realm, 600–1000, pp. 56 - 75Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006