Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Publications
  3. Collections & Series
  4. Content listing

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

42566 results in Collections

Page 1930 of 2129

  • 7 - The Vikings in Francia and Anglo-Saxon England to 911

  • from PART I - POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 190-201

  • Summary

    Two areas of the Carolingian empire came under attack are Frisia, and Aquitaine. In Frisia the Vikings' principal targets were trading centres, particularly the prosperous market of Dorestad, which was first sacked in 834. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle provides nearly all the information about the Viking raids. From 876 to 911, the Scandinavians capitalised on the position of strength to colonise areas of England and Francia. In 876 the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle contained the significant report: 'In this year Halfdan shared out the lands of the Northumbrians, and they proceeded to plough and to support themselves'. Scandinavian chiefs ruled large tracts of Frisia for long periods without any apparent attempt by their followers to colonise the region, and until the mid-870s the armies which occupied Frankish or Anglo-Saxon territory over many years likewise gave no indication of wishing to take political control. The raids were motivated by militant paganism, there is equally little support for this in contemporary sources.

  • 28 - Theology and the organisation of thought

  • from PART IV - CULTURE AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENTS
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 758-785

  • Summary

    This chapter explores how Carolingian writers on theology defined their topics, and with what methodologies they hoped to resolve uncertainties in a domain allowing little speculation and less doubt. It focuses on attitudes to the Trinity, to the process of salvation and the damnation of the wicked, to the ways in which the Eucharist might assist in human salvation, and on the mysteries of the soul. The chapter explores differences between eastern and western ecclesiology. For most Carolingian writers, the understanding of the divine nature was a part of faith or doctrine. A crucial feature of Carolingian religion was the dichotomy between the thought of Frankish prelates, secure in a national tradition of church councils and continuities, and the concerns of converts whom the expansion of Frankish territories had made Christian. Most Carolingian theology is rebarbative, because it offers an accumulation, a plurality of human texts as the only adequate exegesis of the divine text.

  • (a) - England, 700–900

  • from 2 - The British Isles
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 18-42

  • Summary

    The concepts of the 'Heptarchy' and of the 'Bretwalda' are so deeply engrained in the historiography of early Anglo-Saxon England that they could never be removed from any discussion of the subject. It is questionable whether either concept would have had much meaning in the eighth or the ninth century, and it must be said that there are other ways of approaching the complexities of political history in the period, which proceed from different assumptions and which promise to explain developments in somewhat different terms. It seems clear that the Tribal Hidage is in some sense a 'Mercian' document, if only because the survey proceeds from Mercia itself. The course of events in the ninth century could be understood in its simplest terms as a story of the 'rise of Wessex' from foundations laid by King Egbert in the first quarter of the century to the achievements of King Alfred the Great in its closing decades.

  • 6 - Fines Imperii: the Marches

  • from PART I - POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 169-189

  • Summary

    This chapter offers an inverse picture of the Carolingian polity. The brief survey of all the frontier regions of the Carolingian empire reveals some persistent themes in Carolingian frontier policy which transcend the individuality of each peripheral region. In the first place, negotiation combined with a readiness to use force to prosecute Carolingian interests always characterised Frankish strategy. Secondly, the Carolingians participated in the common early medieval diplomatic practices of receiving, entertaining and dismissing envoys; royal gift-exchange; demanding hostages to keep at court; extracting tribute and oaths of loyalty; welcoming and sheltering political exiles from other kingdoms; and concluding truces and treaties. Thirdly, the Carolingian imperial rhetoric of a Christian, Latin empire broke down at the frontier. The nineteenth-century efforts by the French and the Germans each to appropriate Charlemagne for themselves contributed to their respective efforts to build the historiography of the nation-state.

  • 24 - Religion and lay society

  • from PART III - CHURCH AND SOCIETY
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 654-678

  • Summary

    In exploring the religion of the eighth and ninth centuries, this chapter inevitably explores its society too. Differentiations of religious experience by gender and by status are pointed out. The religion of the laity was as variegated as lay society itself. In surveying the religion of Europe over two centuries of pervasive change, one may well ask what the religion of the urban population of, say, early medieval Milan had in common with that of the new converts in Charlemagne's Saxony. Baptism provides an answer. Baptism distinguished Christians from non-Christians, the fideles from the pagani. Social status affected the way people participated in ecclesiastical celebrations. For the rich, festivals such as Christmas were opportunities to bedeck themselves in their finest apparel. In the course of the eighth and ninth centuries, the clergy of the Christian church took a steadily growing part in shaping the ritual and liturgy which encompassed so many aspects of human existence.

  • 3 - Frankish Gaul to 814

  • from PART I - POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 85-109

  • Summary

    The central theme in the history of eighth-century Francia is the rising power of its Carolingian rulers, above all of Charles Martel (715-41 ), Pippin III (741-68) and Charlemagne (768-814). Until the late seventh century Aquitaine had been an integral part of Frankish Gaul. The inventories of church lands, which later served as the basis for accusing Charles Martel of having plundered the church, were produced as part of a developing process of estate management, but which was much stimulated by the increasing use of written records from the mid-eighth century onwards. At the level of political and military history, the growth of Carolingian power may be understood in terms of an initial military success which allowed Charles Martel to take advantage of a balance of power operating progressively in his favour. In the south of Frankish Gaul, the old Visigothic province of Septimania had been added to Frankish territory and the Franks were able to intervene in Italy.

  • 15 - Kingship and royal government

  • from PART II - GOVERNMENT AND INSTITUTIONS
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 381-430

  • Summary

    This chapter presents Henri Pirenne's view of the economic changes of the eighth and ninth centuries. There was, as Pirenne thought, a transformation in the representation and self-presentation of kingship. In the eighth century, the Frankish empire, under Carolingian leadership, expanded to absorb neighbouring peoples. In the ninth century, the rulers of east and west competed in sending missions to convert the Slavs in central Europe. Byzantium had become an alien power. Latin legal texts that preserved, in the west, not just the style but something of the substance of Roman government began to be reread and reused by royal counsellors, rekindling ideas of restoration and renewal. In 793 Charlemagne rewarded non-defectors after a serious rebellion by giving out 'gold and silver and precious cloths'. The symbolic representation of the present, and the construction of the past, were ways in which kings attempted to involve contemporaries in shaping the future: as such they were essential elements in royal government.

  • 21 - The papacy in the eighth and ninth centuries

  • from PART III - CHURCH AND SOCIETY
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 561-586

  • Summary

    This chapter provides the understanding of papal history in the areas of political symbolism and manifestations of public authority and sheds some light on the economic life of papal Rome. The assumption of territorial rule and the entry of the local Roman nobility into the clergy brought about an increase in the routine business and a refinement of the structures of the Roman church. The Roman church also exercised significant jurisdiction and influence in and around Rome in ways that were only marginally connected to the spiritual functions of the church. In the ninth century, the popes began to reassert themselves. Gregory IV, for example, explicitly quoted Gelasius in a letter dated 833 to some Frankish bishops. Gregory, on his arrival in Francia, claimed that he had come to restore the peace of the Christian world, while the bishops told him he had no business sitting in judgement upon the emperor.

  • 8 - Scandinavia, c. 700–1066

  • from PART I - POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 202-227

  • Summary

    At the beginning of the eighth century Scandinavia was politically amorphous. The first recorded attempt to evangelise in Scandinavia took place at the beginning of the eighth century when Willibrord extended his activity into Denmark. Another century passed before Christianity took permanent root in Denmark and even longer in Sweden. According to Snorre the first successful attempt to unite Norway under a native king was made by Harald Fairhair who is said to have been the son of a petty king in Vestfold. The dynasty to which Gorm and Harald belonged is generally called the Jellinge dynasty because of its association with the monuments there. Olav Haraldsson did not bring large forces back to Norway from England so much as substantial means. In Norway, Magnus took up the idea of a North Sea empire and after Harthaknut's death secured power in Denmark. In Denmark, Svein Estridson managed to establish himself as king.

  • (b) - Ireland, Scotland and Wales, c. 700 to the early eleventh century

  • from 2 - The British Isles
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 43-63

  • Summary

    Ireland, Scotland and Wales were all Celtic countries, but their respective medieval populations did not know this and their Celticity is not the reason for grouping them together. The tenth century Dublin-York axis brought commercial urbanism to Ireland, the eleventh-century kings used its resources to fund their ambition to rule the entire island of Ireland, and this great struggle was the leitmotiv of Irish history until the Norman attack. Monasteries formed federations in the late seventh and eighth centuries. Society is seen, from an aristocratic perspective, in class terms: kings, lords and commons. In 700 the kingdom of Scotland was occupied by three peoples, Dál Riata, Britons of Strathclyde and Picts, and under pressure from a fourth, the Northumbrians. In Wales rex is the universal term for king, in literature and epigraphy. Like Ireland, Wales was raided from the Irish Sea. In the eleventh century, Wales became an unstable land of unresolved segmentary struggles and quick-moving dynastic warfare.

  • 14 - Byzantium and the west, 700–900

  • from PART I - POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 349-380

  • Summary

    Byzantium's interaction with the west appears chiefly political and cultural. In Byzantine eyes western Europeans' Christianity still created the basis for special relations with the empire. The upheavals of the seventh century had transformed Byzantium. Broader economic structures had once spanned the Mediterranean and fostered Byzantine commercial interaction with the west. Constantinople took the diplomatic initiative in order to defend its own vital interests on its western flanks, especially in Italy. Diplomatic interaction fostered cultural ramifications. The several dozen embassies which travelled between Constantinople and western courts constituted privileged intermediaries and much cultural exchange bears their stamp. Like political ones, cultural contacts between Byzantium and the west pivoted on Italy. Carolingian claim to have restored the Roman empire, despite brief periods of mutual acceptance, constituted a permanent challenge to all that was essential to the Byzantine identity. The stage was set for the co-operation and competition that would mark the future of Byzantium's interaction with the west.

  • 4 - The Frankish kingdoms, 814–898: the West

  • from PART I - POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 110-141

  • Summary

    In July 843, the Treaty of Verdun was agreed between Lothar, Louis and Charles: it was a trade-off between the competing interests of those Carolingians and also of their men. Carolingian family politics have predominated. They provide the context in which other themes can be considered. From the king's point of view, the Scandinavians' impact was serious. It depleted the royal treasury the largest single payment of the reign. Clearly enmeshed with Carolingian family politics is the history of the regna within Charles the Bald's realm. Charles' realm was just that: the regnum Karoli. Aquitaine was the largest and politically most important of the component Regna. Italy and the East and West Frankish kingdoms had by contrast had continuous histories since 843. They did not fragment further in 888. In East Francia, the deposition of Charles the Fat resulted from uncertainties over the succession and the play of faction. In the west Charles was abandoned for other reasons.

  • 13 - Byzantine Italy, c. 680–c. 876

  • from PART I - POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 320-348

  • Summary

    By the last quarter of the seventh century the Byzantine areas of Italy had experienced over a century of upheaval. By 680, however, the outlook appeared more hopeful. In that year, or shortly before, the empire had concluded a treaty with the Lombards which seems to have incorporated formal recognition of their kingdom. In the north Venetia and Istria retained their imperial allegiance, in the south Sicily and the duchies of Calabria, Otranto and Naples continued to come under the authority of the strategos of the Sicilian theme, and in central Italy the Exarchate, Pentapolis and duchies of Perugia and Rome were the subject of a tug of war between the Lombards, the papacy and entrenched local elites. The conquest of much of the Lombard territories in Apulia, Calabria and Lucania, including Bari and Taranto ushered in a new era of nearly two centuries of Byzantine domination in southern Italy.

  • 16 - The aristocracy

  • from PART II - GOVERNMENT AND INSTITUTIONS
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 431-450

  • Summary

    This chapter presents the dynamics of the aristocracy, primarily in the Carolingian realms, by examining its relations with royal patrons and the workings of its family structures. The creation of the Carolingian empire offered opportunities to regional nobilities to act on a European stage. For this elite, local origins were less important as a form of identity than membership of a group that governed the empire, a truly imperial aristocracy, the Reichsaristokratie. Definitions of identity and status were made within families and could be fluid. This emerges clearly from Dhuoda's text in two ways. First, she herself draws a distinction between a broad and a narrow view of family when she commemorates eight dead members of her son William's kin whom she seems to regard as a genealogia, before going on to talk of other relatives who form a stirps. Second, she selects one of William's relatives as being his most important connection in the family: his paternal uncle Theodericus.

  • 12 - Lombard and Carolingian Italy

  • from PART I - POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 290-319

  • Summary

    All over Lombard Italy, the dukes were the titular holders of local power, but their ties with the kings had different degrees of intensity and subordination. Only in northern Italy were the dukes really bound to the kingdom and the kings. After the conquests of Byzantine territory by King Rothari in the 640s, the Lombard kings for a long time limited their military activity to internal affairs and to occasional defence against invasions, by the Franks to the west and the Avars to the east. After the Frankish conquest, the Lombard kingdom survived as a distinct state, but at the price of losing its national foundation. Many aspects of the Carolingian government of Italy up to Lothar depended on the role the kingdom played within the empire. The political configuration of the kingdom of Italy took on a new character during the reign of Louis II. The aristocracy was prepared to grant prerogatives to the emperor than to the king.

  • (c) - England and the Continent

  • from 2 - The British Isles
  • Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge Medieval History
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    14 September 1995, pp 64-84

  • Summary

    This chapter provides the understanding of England and the Continent in the eighth and ninth centuries. It concentrations of the evidence, the context for and activities of the Anglo-Saxon missionaries on the Continent, the establishment of new religious foundations in Hesse, Thuringia and Franconia, the Anglo-Saxons' contributions to the Frankish church, their interaction with Frankish rulers and bishops, and their legacy for subsequent connections across the Channel in the ninth century and afterwards. The eighth century in England and Francia was a period of rapid political change. It saw the emergence in England of Mercia, and in Francia of the Carolingian family whose wealth and interests were focused in the Rhine, Moselle and Meuse region, that is, the region where the English missionaries were initially most active. Information about the early life of the first of these missionaries, Willibrord, is meagre. The eighth- and ninth-century relations between England and the Continent were personal connections and local influences that were predominant.

Page 1930 of 2129