Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century

Simon MacLean is Lecturer in History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.

• List of maps and figures; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Note on names, terminology and citations; Outline chronology; 1. Introduction; 2. Un-Frankish activities: Charles the Fat in the eyes of contemporary annalists; 3. The men who would be kings: the 'supermagnates' and the 'rise of the aristocracy'; 4. Royal politics and regional power in the late Carolingian empire; 5. The end of the Empire I: politics and ideology at the east Frankish court; 6. The end of the Empire II: response and failure; 7. History, politics and the end of the empire in Notker's Deeds of Charlemagne; 8. Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

'… MacLean provides an important rereading of the reign of the last Carolingian emperor which has far reaching consequences for historians of post-Carolingian Europe … his arguments have important implications for the prevailing interpretations of the tenth century …' History