D. Seminar Topics

In this section you will find guidance to the seminars to be covered in the course. Please note that the seminars do not take place in every week. Spaces have been created to allow you time to complete your essays. The introductory comments suggests some ways into the topic – they define the issues as I presently see them (or as I saw them when the course was first devised). There are certainly other approaches to these topics and you are encouraged to develop your own. The items identified as Strongly Recommended Reading for All Students in the reading lists that follow the descriptions of each topic should be considered all but mandatory: that is, it is expected that you will come to the seminar having and thought about these texts.

Seminar Index

1. The Economic and Social Crisis of the Sixth Century
2. Earlier Merovingian Kingship, c. 490-600
3. Gregory of Tours and the Cult of Saints
4. High Merovingian Queenship
5. Later Merovingian Politics
6. Louis the Pious and the 'Field of Lies'
7. The Impact of the Vikings on the Frankish Kingdoms
8. Henry I and the Magyar Invasions
9. Ottonian Kingship as Seen Through the Eyes of Thietmar of Merseburg
10. Aquitaine during the Reign of Duke William V (993-1030)

Image: Goods recovered from a Frankish grave of about 570 A.D. discovered near Cologne.

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