TY  - JOUR
AU  - Scott G. Bruce
PY  - 2025
CY  - Berlin, Germany
PB  - Peter Lang Verlag
JF  - Mediaevistik
IS  - 1
VL  - 37
SN  - 2199-806X
TI  - Cullen J. Chandler, Introduction to the Carolingian Age. London and New York: Routledge, 2024, 167 pp., 6 figures; 3 maps.
DO  - 10.3726/med.2024.01.38
UR  - https://www.peterlang.com/document/1672622
N2  - It has been more than a decade since the publication of the most recent English language overview of Carolingian history (ca. 750‒900 C.E.). In 2011, Cambridge University Press published The Carolingian World, a sprawling survey that alternated meaty chapters on political narrative with those devoted to themes like rural life, the economy, and elite culture. In the book under review, Cullen J. Chandler offers a more concise introduction to the same period, comprising a prologue and six short chapters that focus primarily on the actions of kings and elites. The prologue (“Late Antiquity”) provides a brief but competent treatment of the transformation of the Roman world between the third and seventh centuries. This prologue is useful insofar as it allows Chandler to introduce some of the main themes of the book, especially the relationship between political leaders and the Christian religion, the role of the papacy as mediators in these affairs, the part of elites in affairs of state and church, and the distinction between Romans and barbarians. Chapter 1 (“The Frankish World”) has a misleading title because it extends far beyond the confines of the Frankish heartlands. The chapter introduces several different threads connected by the Mediterranean Sea between the fifth and eighth centuries: the origins and rule of the Merovingian dynasty in Gaul; the reigns of Justinian and Heraclius and their conquests; the rise of Islam (but with no mention of the Hajj or the Qur’an); barbarian kingdoms on the periphery of Gaul; and finally the emergence of the mayors of the palace as political actors in the seventh century. Chapter 2 (“The Age of Charlemagne”) treats the reign of the great king between 768 and 814 C.E. The Saxon wars take center stage, followed by discussions of kingship, governance, and royal officials. The chapter concludes with a section on the so-called Carolingian Renaissance and the role of scholars at the king’s court in formulating its ideals, like Alcuin of York and Theodulf of Orléans. Noticeably absent from this chapter is any discussion of recent research by Carine van Rhijn and others about the role played by parish priests in the implementation of Charlemagne’s reforming ideals among rural parishioners, an exciting avenue of inquiry in Carolingian history that has come to the fore in the last decade. The preservation and role of classical literature in learned culture during Charlemagne’s kingship is underserved in this chapter as well. In contrast, Chapter 3 (“Louis the Pious and Imperium Christianum”) offers a thorough treatment of Louis’s tumultuous reign informed by recent scholarship by Mayke de Jong and others. This chapter moves predictably from the Church reforms of his early reign to the civil wars that marked the final two decades of his life. Elite rivalries and the instabilities that they caused are the dominant themes of the chapter.
KW  - cullen, chandler, introduction, carolingian, london, york, routledge
ER  -