State and Society in the Early Middle Ages: The Middle Rhine Valley, 400–1000 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series, Series Number 47) PDF
Preview State and Society in the Early Middle Ages: The Middle Rhine Valley, 400–1000 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series, Series Number 47)
STATE AND SOCIETY IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES: The Middle Rhine Valley, 400–1000 Matthew Innes CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS This book is a pioneering study of politics in the early middle ages, based on the middle Rhine valley. Whereas it is believed widely that the source materials for early medieval Europe are too sparse to allow sustained study of the workings of social and political relationships on the ground, this book focuses on a uniquely well-documented area to investigate the basis of power. Topics covered include the foundation of monaster- ies, their relationship with the laity, and their role as social centres; the signiWcance of urbanism; the control of land, the development of property rights and the organisation of estates; community, kinship and lordship; justice and dispute settlement; the uses of the written word; violence and the feud; and the development ofpolit- ical structures from the Roman Empire to the high middle ages. Although a local study, the book oVers persuasive and challeng- ing generalisations about the nature of power in the early middle ages. It places its Wndings in an explicitly comparative perspective, identifying the peculiarities of the early medieval west and their implications for the broader sweep of European history. Matthew Innes is Lecturer in History, Birkbeck College, University of London This Page Intentionally Left Blank Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought STATE AND SOCIETY IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought Fourth Series General Editor: d. e. luscombe Leverhulme Personal Research Professor of Medieval History,University of SheYeld Advisory Editors: christine carpenter Reader in Medieval English History,University of Cambridge,and Fellow of New Hall rosamond mckitterick Professor of Medieval History,University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Newnham College The series Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought was inaugurated by G. G. Coulton in 1921; Professor D. E. Luscombe now acts as General Editor of the Fourth Series, with Dr Christine Carpenter and Professor Rosamond McKitterick as Advisory Editors. The series brings together outstanding work by medieval scholars over a wide range of human endeavour extending from political economy to the history of ideas. For a list of titles in the series,see end of book. STATE AND SOCIETY IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 400 1000 The Middle Rhine Valley, – MATTHEW INNES PUBLISHED BY CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS (VIRTUAL PUBLISHING) FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia http://www.cambridge.org © Matthew Innes 2000 This edition © Matthew Innes 2003 First published in printed format 2000 A catalogue record for the original printed book is available from the British Library and from the Library of Congress Original ISBN 0 521 59455 3 hardback ISBN 0 511 00844 9 virtual (netLibrary Edition) CONTENTS List of Wgures page ix List of abbreviations x A note on nomenclature and citations xiii Acknowledgements xiv 1 introduction 1 Region, sources and scope 4 Early medieval politics: problems of approach 2 monasticism, spiritual patronage and social 13 structure 13 Gifts to the church: patterns and potential 18 Spiritual patronage and gifts to the church 34 Funerary ritual, inheritance and gift exchange 40 Gifts of land and social power 47 The implications of monastic landholding 3 land, kinship and status 51 51 The elite: kinship, land and inheritance 51 Lorsch’s founders 61 The family of Otakar 65 The family of Hraban Maur 68 Land as property 77 The exploitation of land and the organisation of estates 82 Vertical integration: social status 85 Vertical integration: kinship and lordship 93 The relationship between land and power 4 local power: collective action, conflict 94 and consensus 94 Patterns of public action 95 Cities, monasteries and collective action 105 Rural settlements vii Contents 111 Scribes as guardians of legal tradition 118 Counts and public meetings 124 Local political leadership 129 Violence, ritual and dispute settlement 139 The texture of local power 5 locality and centre: mechanisms of extraction 141 141 Approaching early medieval government 143 Military service 153 The army tax 156 Royal levies 6 political power from the fifth to the eleventh 165 century 165 Introduction 165 Roman to Merovingian 172 The Merovingian middle Rhine 180 Forging the pax Karolina 188 Maintaining the pax Karolina 195 The politics of division 210 The zenith of Carolingian politics Crisis, conXict and consolidation 222 241 The transformation of the early medieval polity 7 conclusion: state and society in the early 251 medieval west 251 Structural characteristics of early medieval politics 254 Public and private, state and society 259 Interpreting the early medieval west List of primary sources 268 Bibliography of secondary works 274 Index 307 viii FIGURES 1 The Carolingian Rhineland page xv 2 The Carolingian middle Rhine valley xvi 3 Lorsch’s patrons, March 766 20 4 Fulda’s patrons, January–February 813 24 5 Lorsch’s founders: kinship and property 52 6 Otakar: kinship and property 60 7 The family of Hraban Maur: kinship and property 64 8 Maintaining Worms’walls, c.900 163 9 The middle Rhine valley, c.500 171 10 Descendants of Lorsch’s founders 264 11 Descendants of Hornbach’s founders 265 12 Ancestors of Conrad I 266 13 The Carolingians 267 ix
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