The societies of ancient Europe underwent a continual process of militarisation, and this would come to be a defining characteristic of the early Middle Ages. The process was neither linear nor mono-causal, but it affected society as a whole, encompassing features like the lack of demarcation between the military and civil spheres of the population, the significance attributed to weapons beyond their military function and the wide recognition of martial values. Early medieval militarisation assembles twenty studies that use both written and archaeological evidence to explore the phenomenon of militarisation and its impact on the development of the societies of early medieval Europe. The interdisciplinary investigations break new ground and will be essential reading for scholars and students of related fields, as well as non-specialists with an interest in early medieval history.
Author(s): Ellora Bennett, Guido M. Berndt, Stefan Esders, Laury Sarti
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 376
City: Manchester
Front matter
Contents
List of figures
List of contributors
Preface
Abbreviations
Introducing early medieval militarisation, 400–900
PART I: THE MILITARY AND SOCIETY
Soldier and civilian in the Byzantine Empire c. 600–c. 900: a militarised society?
The exercitus Gothorum in Italy: a professional army in a demilitarised society?
Military organisation as an indicator of militarisation (and demilitarisation) in Lombard Italy
The ‘dark matter’ evidence for Alfredian military reforms in their ninth-century context
PART II: WARFARE AND SOCIETY
War and the transformation of society in early Byzantine Arabia
The role of the military factor in the political and administrative shaping of the Visigothic kingdom (sixth to seventh centuries)
Recent archaeological research on fortifications in France, Belgium and Switzerland, 750–1000
Gens Germana gente ferocior: Lombards and warfare between representation and reality
The blinkers of militarisation: Charles the Bald, Lothar I and the Vikings
PART III: ETHICS OF WAR
Manlike discipline and loyalty against the ‘enemies of God’: some observations on the militarised frontier society of eastern Francia around 600
Swords in Christian hands: reflections on the emergence of the ‘Schwertmission’ in the early Middle Ages
‘Holy wars’? ‘Religious wars’? The perception of religious motives of warfare against non-Christian enemies in ninth-century chronicles
PART IV: PERCEPTIONS OF THE WARRIOR
Change of habit equals change of values? Burials of ‘military men’ between 300 and 500
Warlike and heroic virtues in the post-Roman world
Military equipment in late antique and early medieval female burial evidence: a reflection of ‘militarisation’?
The construction of the enemy in pre-Viking England
Warriors and warlike kings in the Gesta Karoli of Notker the Stammerer
Early medieval ‘warrior’ images and the concept of Gefolgschaft
Conclusion – militarisation: process or discourse?
Select bibliography
Index
