Yesterday, I stumbled across a passage from the Liber Manualis, written by a ninth-century Frankish woman named Dhuoda to her fifteen-year-old son.
Questions and Answers with Alcuin
August 23, 2015 By
What are teeth? – The millstones of our biting.
Against the Currents of His Day: Brittany, Louis the Pious, and Elite Insurrection
August 5, 2015 By
During Louis the Pious’s 36-year reign, he spent much of his time convening assemblies, securing his borders, and trying to govern his empire, rather than conquering and expanding aggressively as his father and grandfather, Charlemagne and Pepin, had done.
The Frankish War-Machine of Charles Martel
May 27, 2015 By
The Franks had a war-machine that was a highly effective and mobile under the leadership of Charles Martel. It fought from the North Sea in the north to the Mediterranean Sea in the south and from Aquitaine in the west to Bavaria in the east.
Historian discovers evidence of malaria from the Early Middle Ages
March 17, 2015 By
In his paper, ‘Malaria and Malaria-Like Disease in the Frankish Empire, c.450-950, Timothy Newfield examines over fifty references to illnesses which appear in Merovingian and Carolingian sources
European Weather Extremes in the Lifetime of Charlemagne (c.742–814 CE)
December 6, 2014 By
An army of people, digging for a whole season, yet their efforts end in muddy ruin. Was it a project that was doomed from the start?
Charlemagne’s Denarius, Constantine’s Edicule, and the Vera Crux
December 1, 2014 By
In 806 a much-discussed silver denarius bearing the likeness of Charlemagne was issued. This is called the “temple-type” coin due to the (as yet unidentified) architectural structure illustrated on the reverse side, and which is explicitly labeled as representing the epitome of “Christian Religion.”
CONFERENCES: The Stellinga, the Saxon Elite, and Carolingian Politics
November 26, 2014 By
This is my summary of a paper presented at the Institute of Historical Research on the causes of the Stellinga uprising in the Carolingian period.
Raymund’s Daughter’s Divorce in the 9th-Century: a Woman’s Textual Role in the Breaking of an Alliance
November 23, 2014 By
This chapter will analyse an aspect of one of the divorce cases of the mid 9th century: I review its links with politics of the day and reconsider the roles given to wife and husband in the only text that deals with this case…
716: A Crucial Year For Charles Martel
November 3, 2014 By
The early years of Charles Martel’s life are all but obscured from the historian’s view.
An aspect of Alcuin: ‘Tuus Albinus’ – peevish egotist? or parrhesiast?
October 28, 2014 By
In over 270 letters from about a decade and a half, alcuin of york (†804) informed, advised, consoled and admonished contemporaries, reacted to current events, and maintained a circle of friends and partners in reciprocal prayer that extended from Jerusalem to Ireland and from rome to salzburg. Alcuin left york in the 780s to become a friend and chief advisor to Charlemagne.
Palaces, Itineraries and Political Order in the Post-Carolingian Kingdoms
October 17, 2014 By
What did the same-but-different post-Carolingian kingdoms owe to their predecessors, and how should we characterise that debt if not in simple terms of continuity or change?
The Contours, Frequency and Causation of Subsistence Crises in Carolingian Europe (750-950)
October 7, 2014 By
The Contours, Frequency and Causation of Subsistence Crises in Carolingian Europe (750-950) Timothy P. Newfield Crisis Alimentarias en la Edad Media: Modelos, Explicaciones y Representaciones (Milenio, Lleida, 2013), pp. 117-172. Abstract The subsistence crises of Carolingian Europe have been widely overlooked in modern histories of the early Middle Ages. Detailed treatment has yet to be […]
Scholars, Teachers and Students in Early Medieval Europe: Towards a Total Network
September 30, 2014 By
This talk, part of a larger project, is concerned with intellectuals (scholars, teachers and their students) active in the late eighth through ninth centuries, a period usually referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance.
Competition and tradition: Carolingian political rituals, 751-800
September 15, 2014 By
In 751, the Carolingians supplanted the traditional ruling dynasty of Francia. This article surveys Carolingian political rituals between 751 and 800, and argues that ritual was one means through which this new royal family sought to construct and legitimate its authority against its dynastic competitors.
Miracula, Saints’ Cults and Socio-Political Landscapes: Bobbio, Conques and post-Carolingian society
August 21, 2014 By
Despite the centrality of monastic sources to debates about social and political transformation in post-Carolingian Europe, few studies have approached the political and economic status of monasteries and their saints’ cults in this context, to which this thesis offers a comparative approach.
Charlemagne still kicking 1200 years later or Morangles Early Medieval Holidays
August 4, 2014 By
T.S. Morangles takes a trip to see all things Carolingian and Merovingian!
Asteriscos et obelos suis locis restitui – the revision of the Psalter during the Carolingian Renaissance
July 21, 2014 By
Today, I would like to discuss one type of early medieval psalter and the one feature that discerns this type – and that is the presence of critical signs.
Goths, Lombards, Romans, and Greeks: Creating Identity in Early Medieval Italy
July 16, 2014 By
This essay explores how two different non-Roman historians represented the past to their peoples: the Gothic historian Jordanes’ sixth-century work, the Getica, and the eighth-century Lombard historian Paul the Deacons’ History of the Lombards.
The Carolingian Army and the Struggle against the Vikings
June 18, 2014 By
There have been many previous studies of the Carolingian army, but none examining the ninth-century armies which faced the Viking invasions.
Blended and Extended Families in Carolingian Charters
May 27, 2014 By
This is a summary of a paper on Carolingian charters and the relationship between step and blended families.
How Destructive were the Vikings?
May 21, 2014 By
Danielle Trynoski reports on the paper “How Much Material Damage Did the Northmen Do in Northern Europe?” given by Lesley Anne Morden
Making a difference in tenth-century politics: King Athelstan’s sisters and Frankish queenship
May 10, 2014 By
In the early years of the tenth century several Anglo-Saxon royal women, all daughters of King Edward the Elder of Wessex (899-924) and sisters (or half-sisters) of his son King Athelstan (924-39), were despatched across the Channel as brides for Frankish and Saxon rulers and aristocrats. This article addresses the fate of some of these women through an analysis of their political identities.
Charles the Fat and the Viking Great Army: The Military Explanation for the End of the Carolingian Empire
April 22, 2014 By
In late July 885 a large Viking fleet gathered at the mouth of the River Seine and began to move upstream in the direction of Paris.
Queenship, Nunneries and Royal Widowhood in Carolingian Europe
March 30, 2014 By
Fulk‟s letter therefore introduces us to some central aspects of Carolingian thinking about the appropriate behaviour of laywomen especially, and serves as a way into the principal themes of this article. In particular, it is noticeable that the archbishop highlighted his expectations of Richildis in two roles: her supposed misdemeanour was concerned specifically with a failure to meet her obligations as a widow and as a queen.
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