Introduction; Part I. Strategic Rulership: Introduction: tools of control and coercion; 1. Managing royal agents; 2. Disciplining royal agents; 3. Fractured control: Charlemagne's response to dissent; Conclusion: control and its limits; Part II. Center and Region in Charlemagne's Empire: Introduction: unity and diversity in Charlemagne's empire; 4. An empire of regions?; 5. The conquered regions as arenas for experimentation; 6. The nature of the empire: centralization and communication; Conclusion: the imperial character of Charlemagne's realm; Part III. An Empire of Practice: Introduction: continuity, change, and the building of an empire; 7. The chronology of the reign; 8. Recta via: the dynamics of political change; Conclusion: an empire of practice; Conclusion: Charlemagne's invention of medieval rulership; Bibliography; Index.
A new interpretation of Charlemagne, examining how the Frankish king and his men learned to govern the first European empire.
Jennifer R. Davis is Assistant Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies, as well as Associate Director of the Center for Medieval and Byzantine Studies, at the Catholic University of America, Washington DC. She was trained at Harvard University, Massachusetts and the University of Cambridge, receiving her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2007. She is the co-editor, with Michael McCormick, of The Long Morning of Medieval Europe (2008). She is also the author of a number of articles on early medieval politics and on Charlemagne, as well as on Louis IX of France. Her current research is on the invention of the capitularies, a form of royal law, by the Merovingian Franks, and the transformation of these legal sources from the sixth to the twelfth centuries, based largely on the manuscript evidence. She has held fellowships from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, the American Philosophical Society, the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, and the American Academy in Rome, and was the holder of a Fulbright grant to France.
'Historians have rightly emphasized the importance of religion to
Charlemagne and his contemporaries. In this refreshingly original,
lucid and strongly argued book, Jennifer R. Davis shows that
ideology is only part of the story. Finding what worked empirically
was what drove Charlemagne's practice of empire, and produced some
enduring effects.' Janet Nelson, King's College London
'Jennifer R. Davis' study fundamentally revises older romantic
images of Charlemagne's empire as a short period of a Renaissance
of central authority and imperial unity. Exploring its formation as
the result of an experimental process that was much more shaped by
practical reason than by ideology, by pragmatic flexibility, and by
fuzzy conceptions than by the implementation of an imperial master
plan, Davis provides us with a fresh look at the formation of a new
imperial culture, which shaped European politics for many centuries
to come.' Helmut Reimitz, Princeton University, New Jersey
'Davis has written not yet another Charlemagne biography, but
rather an audacious reassessment of his reign as a crucial episode
in the history of European rulership and governance. Deeply
learned, meticulously researched, and subtly argued, it is a model
for how to write pre-modern political and institutional history in
the twenty-first century.' Adam J. Kosto, Columbia University, New
York
'With this prodigious study, Jennifer R. Davis has announced
herself as an important scholar of Carolingian politics.' Hans
Hummer, German History
'This book has already established itself as essential reading for
specialists of the period and for all historians concerned with the
question of empire and pre-modern states. It manages to combine the
study of institutions of government with that of networks of power,
too often seen as contradictory. It suggests approaching the great
sovereigns in terms of their concrete actions, leaving aside for
the moment how they were represented. The results are convincing
and even astonishing, because even if the author did not set out to
write a biography, by the end of the book, the reader is left with
an original impression of the personality of Charlemagne.' Martin
Gravel, Revue historique
'In some ways this is a radical book … But while the arguments are
bold, the underlying scholarship is sound and thorough … [Jennifer
R. Davis] has written an important book brimming with new ideas and
suggestions for further research.' C. M. A. West, The English
Historical Review
'This book has much to offer scholars of the early Middle Ages.
Davis gleans as much from of the sources as possible, but rather
than force the evidence into a particular vision or framework of
empire, she's able to elucidate both the specific political
practices and broader outlines of Charlemagne's rulership.
Additionally, she is able to address the extensive body of
scholarship on Charlemagne's reign, balancing older, still relevant
works, such as that of the eminent François-Louis Ganshof, with
more recent studies of Charlemagne's reign. This is an important
contribution to the still-growing body of work on early medieval
politics and Carolingian kingship.' Jace Stuckey, Speculum
'Jennifer Davis's new book combines the traditional and the new in
intriguing and productive ways … an important and distinctive view
of Charlemagne and his rule … Davis's study encourages us all to
think substantially harder about what exactly Charlemagne was
trying to do, the methods he used and both his successes and
failures.' Rachel Stone, Early Medieval Europe
'Charlemagne's Practice of Empire is a challenging read - the type
that forces the reader to immediately think about how to react to
it. It is as provocative as it is profound, and which will
hopefully become a standard work of reference for the years to
come, inspiring students and more advanced scholars alike.' Rutger
Kramer, Sehepunkte
'This is material with which Davis is intimately familiar, and her
command of the subtleties of these texts and their manuscript
traditions comes through clearly throughout the volume … Whether
one accepts some or all of Davis' conclusions, her study is now
essential reading for all specialists working on early medieval
Europe. Essential.' David S. Bachrach, H-France Review
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