Conflict and Violence in Medieval Italy 568-1154

Christopher Heath teaches at the Manchester Metropolitan University. His interests include historiography, and socio-economic and religious change between 450 and 950. His monograph The Narrative Worlds of Paul the Deacon was published in 2017 by AUP. Currently he is working on a study of the Lombard king Liutprand. Robert Houghton is a Lecturer in Early Medieval History at the University of Winchester. His research focusses on the social and political history of the kingdom of Italy c.900 to c.1150 with particular emphasis on representations of urban society and the changing role and ideology of the bishop.

• Abbreviations, Preface, 1 Introduction: Discordant Minds and Hostile Nations (Christopher Heath and Robert Houghton), 2 Morbidity and Murder: Lombard Kingship's Violent Uncertainties 568-774 (Christopher Heath), 3 Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Lombard Italy (c600-700) (Guido M. Berndt), 4 Troubled Times: Narrating Conquest and Defiance between Charlemagne and Bernard (774-818) (Francesco Borri), 5 ‘Nec patiaris populum Domini ab illis divinitus fulminandis Agarenis discerpi': Handling 'Saracen' Violence in Ninth-Century Southern Italy (Kordula Wolf), 6 Formosus and the 'Synod of the Corpse': Tenth Century Rome in History and Memory (David Barritt), 7 Sex, Denigration and Violence: A Representation of Political Competition between Two Aristocratic Families in Ninth Century Italy (Edoardo Manarini), 8 'Italy and her [German] Invaders': Otto III's and Frederick Barbarossa's Early Tours of Italy &–Pomp, Generosity and Ferocity (Penelope Nash), 9 'I Predict a Riot': What Were the Parmense Rebelling Against in 1037? (Robert Houghton), 10 The Strange Case of Deusdedit and Pandulf: Two Accounts of Honorius II's Election (Enrico Veneziani), Afterword (Ross Balzaretti), Index.

Conflict and Violence in Medieval Italy 568-1154 provides a rich analysis of the multifaceted nature of violence in early medieval Italy, spanning cases of social, political, religious, and even postmortem violence. The volume successfully demonstrates how violence influenced significant political, social, and economic changes in this period, offering both specialist and nonspecialist readers new insights into medieval Italian society.,- Peter Sposato, Speculum, issue 2, 2026