Carolingian Politics

从751年到888年，加洛林王朝统治着西欧，其最伟大的统治者查理曼大帝的名声世世代代萦绕在欧洲人的脑海中。751年，查理曼的父亲皮平三世从贵族阶层一跃成为国王，并建立了王室血脉。888年，这条线失去了排他性，非加洛林王朝的小王族在法兰克世界兴起。这本书不同于其他关于加洛林王朝的杰出著作：它涵盖了加洛林王朝统治的整个时期；它侧重于中心而不是区域；它认为，这不是一个由共识规范的世界，而是一个以强烈主张一种独特形式的无懈可击的权威为特征的世界：王室本身的特殊地位。从751年到888年这段时期，加洛林王室是那个时代的标志性机构，这本书探讨了它是如何成功地从贵族阶层过渡到皇室的崇高地位的，一个多世纪以来，它小心翼翼地成功地守护着这一地位。但保持这种地位是一项永无止境的任务；王朝不能放松；它的特殊地位必须不断地加以阐明和宣布。说王室本身是王国最重要的机构，因为它赋予了王国独特的身份，并不是说这个世界是原始的，世袭的，简单的。相反，这个家族在其世界中普遍存在的复杂而富有创造性的方式证明了加洛林王朝政治文化的政治创造力。这是一个家庭作为一个机构不断地以各种方式表现其身份。伟大的国王和他们的战争，集会，宝藏和宫殿是最熟悉的人物，但他们只是一个更大的皇家阵容的一部分。年幼的孩子在定义、传播和表演法兰克皇室的魅力方面发挥了关键作用；强壮的战士们扛着加洛林幼女的洗礼披肩一路来到罗马；在巴伐利亚，一个年轻的皇室男孩从宫殿的窗户意外坠落，引发了当代人对这个王朝黯淡前景的反思。王室成员的生命周期为政治设定了节奏。这一切都在王国的大宫殿和神圣的地方展示和表演。王室家谱的复制证明了加洛林王朝过去的特殊性，以及隐含的未来。这本书结合了对这种做法的分析和对这一时期政治冲突的调查。这些冲突，从817年意大利的伯纳德的叛乱到870年代从秃头查理的儿子卡洛曼那里剥夺他的加洛林王朝身份，都改变了王朝成员的地位。事实上，卡洛林王朝成功地让世人相信了他们的与众不同。贵族们接受了各种不满和被边缘化的加洛林家族成员的要求，结果是虔诚的路易（814-840）和他的继任者试图更狭隘地定义他们的家族，而这正是王朝的力量所在：它独特的魅力。

The Carolingian dynasty dominated western Europe from 751 to 888 and the reputation of its greatest ruler, Charlemagne, haunted European imaginations for generations. In 751, Charlemagne's father, Pippin III, rose from the ranks of the aristocracy to become king and found a royal line. In 888, that line lost its exclusivity and non-Carolingian 'kinglets' sprang up in the Frankish world. This book differs from other distinguished recent work on the Carolingians: it covers the whole period of exclusive Carolingian rule; it focuses on centres rather than regions; and it argues that this was less a world regulated by consensus than one characterised by the vigorous assertion of a distinctive form of unassailable authority: the special status of the royal family itself. That period of 751 to 888 had the Carolingian royal family as the defining institution of its age, and this book explores how it triumphantly negotiated its transition from the ranks of the aristocracy to the exalted status of royalty, a status that it guarded jealously and succesfully for over a century. But guarding that status was an endless task; the dynasty could not relax; its special status had to be constantly articulated and proclaimed. To argue that the royal family was itself the most important institution in the realm, because it gave that realm its specific identity, is not to argue that this world was 'primitive', patrimonial and simple. On the contrary, the complex and creative ways in which this family made itself universally present in its world testify to the political creativity of Carolingian political culture. This was a family as an institution that constantly performed its identity in a variety of ways. The great kings and their wars, assemblies, treasures and palaces are the most familiar figures buth they were only part of a much larger royal cast. Young children played key roles in defining, broadcasting and performing the charismatic specialness of Frankish royalty; tough warriors carried the baptismal shawl of an infant Carolingian girl all the way to Rome; the accidental fall of a young roayl boy from a palace window in Bavaria triggered contemporary reflections on the gloomy prospects of the dynasty. The life-cycle of the royals set the pace for politics. And all this was displayed and performed in the great palaces and sacred places of the realm. The copying of royal genealogies testified to belief in the specialness of the Carolingian past, and an implied future. This book combines analysis of such practices with survey of the political conflicts of the period. Such conflicts, ranging from, e.g., the revolt of Bernard of Italy in 817 to the stripping of his Carolingian identity from Carloman, son of Charles the Bald in the 870s, turned on the status of the dynasty's members. In fact, the Carolingians were too successful in convincing their world that they were special. The aristocracy accepted the claims of a variety of discontented and marginalised Carolingian family members with the result that attempts by Louis the Pious (814-840) and his successors to define their family more narrowly foundered on the very feature that was the dynasty's strength: its unique charisma.