Nodes and Networks of Power at the Peripheries of the Carolingian Empire

Nodes and Networks of Power at the Peripheries of the Carolingian Empire Synopsis

The great Charlemagne's conquests of the eighth and ninth centuries doubled the size of the Frankish Kingdom. From Saxony to the Elbe River, from Northern Spain to Southern Italy and the Adriatic Sea, from the Danube basin to Brittany, the Carolingian Kings and Emperors were able to impose their authority on the local populations through various stratagems, and a pragmatic use of violence, diplomacy and bribery. Their ability to co-opt the elites of defeated and subjugated peoples and insert them into their networks of power, together with their use of ecclesiastical hierarchies and the conversion of the neighbouring peoples, were fundamental tools for the pacification of the frontier zones. But how this webs, knots and networks of power actually worked? Were they similar for every marches of the empire? The aim of this volume is to explore the diverse and complex ways in which the Carolingians were able to absorb the fragmented panorama of the peripheries, building new infrastructures of power and networks of control. It examines how borders and boundaries were constantly negotiated, contested, transformed and transcended by various actors and factors, such as political power, religious authority, economic exchange, cultural transmission and environmental change.