Preliminaries; Contents; Figures; Abbreviations; A note on nomenclature and citations; Acknowledgements; 1 Introduction; 2 Monasticism, spiritual patronage and social structure; 3 Land, kinship and status; 4 Local power: collective action, conflict and consensus; 5 Locality and centre: Mechanisms of extraction; 6 Political power from the fifth to the eleventh century; 7 Conclusions: State and society in the early medieval west; List of primary sources; Bibliography of secondary works; Index; Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, Fourth series
Summary
This book shows just how much can be discovered about the so-called 'Dark Ages', offering a detailed analysis of the workings of society at the heart of Charlemagne's empire, and suggesting the need to rethink our understanding of political power in the early middle ages