Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Note on nomenclature
- 1 Neustria, Brittany, and northern Aquitaine
- 2 Redon and environs
- Introduction
- 1 Settlement and society in dark age Brittany
- 2 Neustria and the Breton march
- 3 The Bretons in the Christian empire of Louis the Pious
- 4 Carolingian hegemony and Breton revolts, 840–874
- 5 An anatomy of power
- 6 Churches and learning in Carolingian Brittany
- 7 The end of Carolingian Brittany
- List of manuscripts cited
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought Fourth series
7 - The end of Carolingian Brittany
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Note on nomenclature
- 1 Neustria, Brittany, and northern Aquitaine
- 2 Redon and environs
- Introduction
- 1 Settlement and society in dark age Brittany
- 2 Neustria and the Breton march
- 3 The Bretons in the Christian empire of Louis the Pious
- 4 Carolingian hegemony and Breton revolts, 840–874
- 5 An anatomy of power
- 6 Churches and learning in Carolingian Brittany
- 7 The end of Carolingian Brittany
- List of manuscripts cited
- Bibliography
- Index
- Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought Fourth series
Summary
In the half century after Charles the Bald's death, profound changes transformed the political landscape of the West Frankish kingdom. By the time his grandson Charles the Simple was captured and imprisoned in 922, Charles the Bald's aggressive and powerful kingship had been reduced to the direct rule of the lands between the middle Seine and the Meuse, whilst further afield the king exercised a suzerainty that was generally recognised but carried virtually no powers of government or practical clout. In the intervening fifty years, kings not of the Carolingian dynasty had come to power, notably Odo son of Robert the Strong in West Francia (888–98) and Boso (Charles the Bald's brother-in-law) in Provence (879–87). Carolingian power was now neither uncontested nor widely effective.
This half-century was also one of persistent and often devastating Viking raids throughout atlantic Europe, of continuing tensions and conflicts within the Carolingian dynasty itself, and of the crystallisation of much of West Francia into aristocratic lordships controlled by the descendants of those to whom Charles the Bald had shown greatest generosity. All these processes were interlinked.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Province and EmpireBrittany and the Carolingians, pp. 187 - 206Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992