Kingdom of the Franks & Carolingian Empire

Much of the Christian empire established by the Carolingians in the eighth century was not only built through royal initiative but also through the work of local priests. Living among the laity these clerics provided pastoral care and religious instruction. Yet despite their vital contribution to the development of Christianity in Western Europe these clergymen and the communities they served remain understudied.

This book investigates the manuscripts they used offering a glimpse into everyday life around the local church. Far from being poor and illiterate priests had access to texts specifically adapted to their needs. By examining how these materials were compiled this study reveals what mattered most in the early medieval countryside. Drawing on excerpts from collections of liturgy canon law and patristic expositions — often preserved in the great monastic and court libraries — it uncovers the diversity of local religious practice. These texts reflect how the efforts instigated by Carolingians to foster ‘good Christianity’ were interpreted and implemented outside the centres of power. In exploring these seemingly modest manuscripts this study opens new pathways into the world of the Carolingian local church and the people who inhabited it.

Judith of West Francia is one of the most enigmatic of Charlemagne’s early descendants. The daughter of the king of West Francia and future emperor Charles the Bald and his wife Ermentrude she was one of only a handful of Carolingian princesses who were destined for marriage. Over the course of her teenage years she married two successive kings of Wessex became the first consecrated queen of England was widowed twice returned to Francia with an immense dowry and sparked a major diplomatic incident when she eloped with a nobleman from Flanders called Baldwin. Eventually she married Baldwin in early 864 and together they established the dynasty of the counts of Flanders. In doing so the couple laid the groundwork for what would become one of the mightiest and most prestigious territorial principalities in north-western Europe in the tenth and eleventh centuries. But even in the tenth century exceedingly few written memories of Judith’s life survived. This explains why she was never the subject of a biography in the medieval or early modern eras and why scholarship’s understanding of her life and legacy remains highly fragmented. This volume sets the record straight offering an accessible and interdisciplinary discussion of all relevant and documented aspects of Judith’s life and legacy.