Armies and Politics in the Early Medieval West

In these articles Professor Bachrach starts by looking at aspects of the ’barbarian’ occupation of the land of the Roman Empire, from Britain to the Alan settlements in southern Gaul. His particular interest, however, is in the political and, above all, in the military structures that grew out of the Early Middle Ages. He has sought to demonstrate that there was a fundamental continuity in military organisation and tactics from the Merovingian through the Carolingian period. As he shows, there is no reason to connect the origins of ’feudalism’ with Charles Martel’s wish to create a force of cavalry, and it is a fallacy that he grasped the potential of the stirrup for enabling mounted shock combat. On the contrary, its use in the West progressed only slowly, and it had nothing to do with the origins or growth of feudalism. Le professeur Bachrach débute par l’analyse de certains aspects de l’occupation barbare des terres de l’empire romain, de la Grande-Bretagne aux campements alans en Gaule méridionale. Il s’attache en suite aux structures politiques et, surtout, militaires qui furent issues du Haut Moyen Age. Selon lui, et il tente d’en faire ici la démonstration, l’organisation et les tactiques militaires ont fait preuve d’une continuité fondamentale de l’époque mérovingienne à celle des Carolingiens. Comme il le demontre, il n’y a pas lieu d’établir de liens entre l’origine du féodalisme et le désir qu’avait Charles Martel de créer une cavalerie; il est également tout à fait erroné de dire que ce dernier s’était rendu compte du potentiel de l’étrier en tant que facteur de mener des combats à cheval de choc. Bien contraire, l’utilisation de l’étrier à l’Ouest ne fit que progresser lentement et aucun rapport n’existe entre cet instrument et l’origine ou la croissance de la féodalité.

Contents: Gildas, Vortigern and constitutionality in sub-Roman Britain; The questions of King Arthur’s existence and of Romano-British naval operations; The Alans in Gaul; Another look at the barbarian settlement in southern Gaul; The origin of Amorican chivalry; Two Alan motifs in Ã…berg’s Aquitanian style; Procopius and the chronology of Clovis’s reign; Procopius, Agathias and the Frankish military; Was the Marchfield part of the Frankish constitution?; Who were the Ripariolibriones?; A reassessment of Visigothic Jewish policy; Charles Martel, mounted shock combat, the stirrup and feudalism; Military organisation in Aquitaine under the early Carolingians; Charlemagne’s cavalry: myth and reality; On the role of the Jews in the establishment of the Spanish March (768-814); A picture of Avar-Frankish warfare from a Carolingian psalter of the early 9th century in light of the Strategicon; Animals and warfare in early medieval Europe; Index.

Bernard S. Bachrach