Books on the Carolingians

Bullough, Donald. “Europae Pater: Charlemagne and His Achievement in the Light of Recent Scholarship.” English Historical Review 85 (1970): 59–105. Prompted by but not confined to Braunfels, et al. 1965–1968 (cited under Exhibition Catalogues and Summations), this article is one of two (see Sullivan 1989) broad historiographical reflections on the period.
Sullivan, Richard E. “The Carolingian Age: Reflections on Its Place in the History of the Middle Ages.” Speculum 64 (1989): 267–306. Along with Bullough 1970, a major discussion of the scholarship on the whole period. DOI: 10.2307/2851941
McKitterick, Rosamond. The New Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. 2. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995. The chapters by Paul Fouracre, Janet Nelson, and Johannes Fried constitute a connected narrative; the other chapters take up themes.
Bjork, Robert E., ed. Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. 4 vols. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2010. The most recent medieval encyclopedia.
McKitterick, Rosamond. The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751–987. London: Longman, 1983. Dense and difficult for the uninitiated, this book is comprehensive and excellent on intellectual history.
Reuter, Timothy. Germany in the Early Middle Ages, 800–1056. London: Longman, 1991.The best introduction to Carolingian and post-Carolingian Germany in any language.
Riché, Pierre. The Carolingians: A Family Who Forged Europe. Translated by Michael Idomir Allen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993. The most readable, accessible survey by a great historian.
Fouracre, Paul. The Age of Charles Martel. Harlow, UK: Longman, 2000. Excellent and up to date.
Gerberding, Richard A. The Rise of the Carolingians and the Liber Historiae Francorum. Oxford: Clarendon, 1987. Especially good on the years 650 to 725.
Barbero, Alessandro. Charlemagne: Father of a Continent. Translated by Allan Cameron. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
Comprehensive, readable and very much a life-and-times approach. Originally published as Carlo Magno: un padre dell’Europa (Rome and Bari, Italy: Laterza, 2000).
Collins, Roger. Charlemagne. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. Brief and written close to the sources, about which the author is skeptical.
Favier, Jean. Charlemagne. Paris: Fayard, 1999. Lively and very wide ranging, this history of the era sometimes loses sight of the titular character.
McKitterick, Rosamond. Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008. A thematic presentation that does not add up to a biography; but it does make important contributions to explaining what the sources actually reveal.
Booker, Courtney. Past Convictions: The Penance of Louis the Pious and the Decline of the Carolingians. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. A revisionist study that traces tropes in the interpretation of Louis from his own time down to the mid-20th century.
De Jong, Mayke. The Penitential State: Authority and Atonement in the Age of Louis the Pious, 814–840. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009. A deeply sensitive reading of the “penitential discourse” in the sources for Louis’s reign.
Godman, Peter and Roger Collins, eds. Charlemagne’s Heir: New Perspectives on the Reign of Louis the Pious. Oxford: Clarendon, 1990. Thirty-one frequently revisionist studies of almost all aspects of Louis’s reign.
Goldberg, Eric J. Struggle for Empire: Kingship and Conflict under Louis the German, 817–876. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006. A masterful analysis of the process of state building in East Francia.
MacLean, Simon. Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century: Charles the Fat and the End of the Carolingian Empire. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Not a biography but an acute analysis of the era of Charles the Fat.
Nelson, Janet L. Charles the Bald. London: Longman, 1992. Superb and insightful treatment by a master historian.
Nelson, Janet L., and Margaret Gibson. Charles the Bald: Court and Kingdom. 2d rev. ed. Aldershot, UK: Variorum, 1990. Twenty-one excellent studies covering a wide array of topics.
Dunbabin, Jean. France in the Making, 843–1180. 2d ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. The first five chapters of this book constitute the best narrative and thematic history of 10th-century France.
Bachrach, Bernard S. Early Carolingian Warfare: Prelude to Empire. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. A fine study of military institutions.
Davies, R. R. “The Medieval State: The Tyranny of a Concept?” Journal of Historical Sociology 16 (2002): 280–300. Important implications for Carolingian statecraft. DOI: 10.1111/1467-6443.00206
Ganshof, François Louis. Frankish Institutions under Charlemagne. Translated by Bryce Lyon and Mary Lyon. New York: Norton, 1968. Still the best introduction to the subject, albeit controversial in light of recent scholarship.
Innes, Matthew. “Charlemagne’s Government.” In Charlemagne: Empire and Society. Edited by Joanna Story, 71–89. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2005. A wonderful introduction.
Airlie, Stuart. “Charlemagne and the Aristocracy: Captains and Kings.” In Charlemagne: Empire and Society. Edited by Joanna Story, 90–102. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2005. Excellent on relations between Carolingians and political/social elites.
Althoff, Gerd. Family, Friends, and Followers: Political and Social Bonds in Early Medieval Europe. Translated by Christopher Carroll. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004. This book stresses social and political over institutional and governmental bonds.
Innes, Matthew. State and Society in the Early Middle Ages: The Middle Rhine Valley, 400–1000. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000. A penetrating analysis of authority, power, and government at the local level.
Nelson, Janet L. “Was Charlemagne’s Court a Courtly Society?” In Court Culture in the Early Middle Ages: The Proceedings of the First Alcuin Conference, Edited by Catherine Cubitt, 39–57. Studies in the Early Middle Ages 3. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2003. This study opens up important perspectives on the royal/imperial court.
Garipzanov, Ildar H. The Symbolic Language of Authority in the Carolingian World (ca. 751–877). Brill Studies on the Early Middle Ages 6. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 2008. Creatively using numismatic and liturgical sources, the author explores how Carolingians articulated their ruling ethos in ways measured to the expectations of their audiences.
McCormick, Michael. Eternal Victory: Triumphal Rulership in Late Antiquity, Byzantium, and the Early Medieval West. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986. A remarkable study of, among other things, the persistence of Roman ideals in the Carolingian era.
Morrison, Karl F. The Two Kingdoms: Ecclesiology in Carolingian Political Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1964. An investigation of theology’s contribution to political thought with particular emphasis on dualist theories—secular and divine.
Ullmann, Walter. The Carolingian Renaissance and the Idea of Kingship. London: Methuen, 1969. An attempt to bring classical and biblical themes to bear on the religious dimensions of royal ideology; emphasizes baptismal themes.
Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. Early Germanic Kingship in England and on the Continent. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971. Important perspectives from a major historian; takes Germanic themes as seriously as Christian ones.
Barthélemy, Dominique. “Carolingian Knighthood.” In The Serf, the Knight, and the Historian. By Dominique Barthélemy, 154–175. Translated by Robert Graham Edwards. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009. To be taken with the articles of Fleckenstein, Leyser, and Nelson on the Carolingian roots of knighthood.
Nelson, Janet L. “Ninth-Century Knighthood: The Evidence of Nithard.” In Studies in Medieval History Presented to R. Allen Brown. Edited by Christopher Harper-Bill, Christopher J. Holdsworth, and Janet L. Nelson, 255–266. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer, 1989. To be taken with Barthélemy 2009, Fleckenstein 1981, and Leyser 1984 on the Carolingian roots of knighthood.
Schmid, Karl. “Über die Struktur des Adels im früheren Mittelalter.” Jahrbuch für fränkische landesforschung 19 (1959): 1–23. Schmid’s studies open up perspectives on the “Tellenbach” or “Münster School” and its structural studies based on prosopographical analysis.
Garver, Valerie L. Women and Aristocratic Culture in the Carolingian World. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009. The first serious attempt to produce a cultural history of elite women in the period.
Heene, Katrien. The Legacy of Paradise: Marriage, Motherhood, and Woman in Carolingian Edifying Literature. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang, 1997. Broader than the title suggests.
Smith, Julia M. H. “Gender and Ideology in the Early Middle Ages.” Studies in Church History 34 (1998): 51–73. Superb introduction to gender theory and its application to the early medieval period.
Wemple, Suzanne Fonay. Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister, 500 to 900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981.
 Dopsch, Alfons. The Economic and Social Foundations of European Civilization. New York: Howard Fertig, 1969. This is a reprint of the 1937 English translation of the author’s magisterial 1924 work in German. Dopsch remains relevant for contemporary discussions both for his rich details and for his insistence on long-term continuity from the time of Caesar to the reign of Charlemagne. Neither the “fall” of Rome not the rise of Islam seemed to him decisive.
Duby, Georges. The Early Growth of the European Economy: Warriors and Peasants from the Seventh Century to the Twelfth. Translated by Howard B. Clark. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1974. A marvelous summary by a master historian.
Hodges, Richard. Dark Age Economics: The Origins of Towns and Trade, AD 600–1000. London: Duckworth, 1982. One of the first books to depart from a strictly documentary approach and include archaeology and also anthropological theory.
Hodges, Richard, and David Whitehouse. Mohammed, Charlemagne, and the Origins of Europe. London: Duckworth, 1983. Based largely on archaeological data, this book argues that Pirenne was wrong to argue for continuity in economic life and rejects the interpretations of historians who embrace the late antique paradigm of gentle transformation.
McCormick, Michael. The Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce, AD 300–900. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001. A monumental achievement both methodologically and in its specific details. The author tabulates 828 verifiable contacts across the Mediterranean world and goes to work on what this can tell us about connections of every sort; astonishingly creative use of sources.
Pirenne, Henri. Mohammed and Charlemagne. Cleveland, OH: Meridian, 1957. One of the most influential history books of the 20th century. Published posthumously in 1937 in French, in English translation in 1939, and continuously in print. Pirenne argued that the ancient world persisted until the Arab conquests of the 7th century closed the Mediterranean.
Verhulst, Adriaan. The Carolingian Economy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002. The best starting point for further investigations with a fine historiographical orientation.
Henning, Joachim, ed. Post-Roman Towns: Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium. 2 vols. New York: de Gruyter, 2007. Volume 1, covering the West, contains papers that are learned and alert to controversial problems of definition, continuity, and change.
Hill, David, and Robert Cowie, eds. Wics: The Early Mediaeval Trading Centres of Europe. Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001. Wide-ranging collection of papers that deal with the issues as they stood in 1991, which was the date of the conference the volume is based on.
Hodges, Richard. Towns and Trade in the Age of Charlemagne. London: Duckworth, 2003. Brief but valuable for historiography and archaeology. Also has a good bibliography.
Verhulst, Adriaan. The Rise of Cities in North-West Europe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999. A good overall survey from late Roman times to the 11th century. Puts the Carolingian period in perspective. Fairly traditional in its approach.
Lovelock, Christopher. “Rural Settlement Hierarchy in the Age of Charlemagne.” In Charlemagne: Empire and Society. Edited by Joanna Story, 230–258. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2005. A sophisticated but accessible introduction to both the techniques and discoveries of rural historians.
McKitterick, Rosamond. The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms, 789–895. London: Royal Historical Society, 1977. An excellent presentation of the major kinds of sources that reveal the history of the Carolingian church, with careful discussions of each.
Noble, Thomas F. X., and Julia M. H. Smith, eds. Early Medieval Christianities, 600–1100. The Cambridge History of Christianity 3. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Thematically structured, most of these chapters address the Carolingian period in some way. Massive bibliography. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521817752
Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. The Frankish Church. Oxford: Clarendon, 1983. The first half of the volume treats the Merovingian era, the second half the Carolingian. Occasionally quirky, the work is also sometimes brilliant.
Van Rhijn, Carine. Shepherds of the Lord: Priests and Episcopal Statutes in the Carolingian Period. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2007. The first major study of the Carolingian priesthood to make use of the episcopal statutes in their modern editions.
Claussen, Martin A. The Reform of the Frankish Church: Chrodegang of Metz and the Regula Canonicorum in the Eighth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004. The fullest treatment of a major figure, document, and development in Carolingian history.
Horn, Walter, and Ernest Born. The Plan of St. Gall: A Study of the Architecture of, and Life in a Paradigmatic Carolingian Monastery. 3 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. Basing themselves on the Plan of St. Gall, the authors reconstruct the hypothetical monastery and then study it in many contemporary contexts.
Horn, Walter, and Ernest Born. The Plan of St. Gall: A Study of the Architecture of, and Life in a Paradigmatic Carolingian Monastery. 3 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. Basing themselves on the Plan of St. Gall, the authors reconstruct the hypothetical monastery and then study it in many contemporary contexts.
Noble, Thomas F. X. The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal State, 680–825. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984. A detailed discussion of the origins of papal temporal rule and of the inception and nature of the Frankish-papal alliance.
Fletcher, Richard. The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity. New York: Henry Holt, 1997. The best overall treatment of the spread of Christianity beyond Rome’s frontiers, from late Antiquity to the dawn of the millennium.
Sullivan, Richard E. “Carolingian Missionary Theories.” Catholic Historical Review 42 (1956): 273–295. Still unsurpassed as a discussion of this important topic.
Sullivan, Richard E. “The Carolingian Missionary and the Pagan.” Speculum 28 (1953): 705–740. A finely nuanced treatment of the nature of Carolingian encounters with pagans. DOI: 10.2307/2849201
Wood, Ian N. The Missionary Life: Saints and the Evangelisation of Europe, 400–1050. Harlow, UK: Longman, 2001. The title is a double entendre: the book is about the lives of missionaries and about the vitae that reveal those lives.
Godman, Peter. Poets and Emperors: Frankish Politics and Carolingian Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon, 1987. In addition to penetrating insights into the era’s poetry, the book connects that poetry to the central political and ideological discussions of the day.
Laistner, M. L. W. Thought and Letters in Western Europe, AD 500 to 900. 2d ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1957. Although superseded in parts, this remains the best overall survey.
McKitterick, Rosamond. History and Memory in the Carolingian World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Makes a case for the importance and originality of Carolingian historical writing.
McKitterick, Rosamond, ed. Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Eleven fine essays that survey the field: from books and schools to art and music.
Riché, Pierre. Education and Culture in the Barbarian West: Sixth through Eighth Centuries. Translated by John J. Contreni. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1976. A fundamental study on its own terms and offers a good background on the Carolingians. Originally published as Éducation et culture dans l’Occident barbare, VIe–VIIIe siècles (Paris : Éditions du Seuil, 1962).
Morrison, Karl F. “The Church, Reform, and Renaissance in the Early Middle Ages.” In Life and Thought in the Early Middle Ages. Edited by Robert S. Hoyt, 143–159. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1967. An elegant argument for emphasizing reform over renaissance.
Nelson, Janet L. “On the Limits of the Carolingian Renaissance.” Studies in Church History 14 (1977): 51–67. Notes areas, especially law, where the Carolingians lagged.
Trompf, G. W. “The Concept of the Carolingian Renaissance.” Journal of the History of Ideas 34 (1973): 3–26. Interesting if slightly naïve attempt to defend the term “renaissance” by drawing comparisons with the Italian renaissance. DOI: 10.2307/2708941
Contreni, John J. The Cathedral School of Laon from 850 to 930: Its Manuscripts and Masters. Münchener Beiträge zur Mediävistik und Renaissance-Forschung 29. Munich: Arbeo-Gesellschaft, 1978. A model study of one important school.
Ganz, David. Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance. Beihefte der Francia 20. Sigmaringen, Germany: Thorbecke, 1990. Comparable to Contreni’s work on Laon, a model study of one key intellectual center.
McKitterick, Rosamond. The Carolingians and the Written Word. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989 Important and controversial study concluding that, on the basis of a wide array of sources, literacy was more widespread than heretofore believed.
Richter, Michael. The Formation of the Medieval West: Studies in the Oral Culture of the Barbarians. Dublin, Ireland: Four Courts, 1994. Countering tendencies to emphasize early medieval literacy, the author is skeptical about the extent and impact of writing.
Wormald, Patrick, and Janet L. Nelson, eds. Lay Intellectuals in the Carolingian World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. The first eight essays in this book take up the important subject of learning beyond clerical circles.
Wright, Roger. Late Latin and Early Romance in Spain and Carolingian France. Liverpool, UK: Francis Cairns, 1982. Controversial study of the implications of Latin’s transformation into Romance.
Carabine, Deirdre. John Scottus Eriugena. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Delightful introduction to the most complex thinker of the period.
Freeman, Ann. Theodulf of Orléans: Charlemagne’s Spokesman against the Second Council of Nicaea. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate/Variorum, 2003. Eight of Freeman’s essential studies of Theodulf.
O’Meara, John J. Eriugena. Oxford: Clarendon, 1988. Intellectual portrait of a difficult thinker with excellent summaries of his major works.
Conant, Kenneth John. Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture, 800–1200. 2d ed. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1966. Long the reigning survey, this study portrays Carolingian architecture less as an heir of classicism than as the precursor to the Romanesque.
Levy, Kenneth. Gregorian Chant and the Carolingians. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998. Outstanding introduction accessible to the nonspecialist.
McClendon, Charles B. The Origins of Medieval Architecture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005. This prizewinning study places Carolingian architecture in its classical context and then shows what was original about it.
Nees, Lawrence. Early Medieval Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. A superb introduction with a rich treatment of the Carolingian era.
Noble, Thomas F. X. Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. A comprehensive treatment of what the Carolingians said about art—situated against late Antique and Byzantine backgrounds.
Rankin, Susan. “Carolingian Music.” In Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation. Edited by Rosamond McKitterick, 274–316. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994. An excellent and comprehensive orientation for the nonspecialist

S. Coupland, ‘The rod of God’s wrath or the people of God’s wrath? The Carolingian theology of the Viking invasions’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 42 (1991), 535–54 S. Coupland, ‘From poachers to gamekeepers: Scandinavian warlords and Carolingian kings’, Early Medieval Europe 7 (1998), 85–114


J. Burns (ed.), The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought (1988) D. Canndine and S. Price (eds.), Rituals and Royal: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies (1987) A. Duggan, Kings and Kingship in Medieval Europe (1993) M. McCormick, Eternal Victory: Triumphal Rulership in Late Antiquity, Byzantium and the Early Medieval West (1986) J. Nelson, ‘Kingship and empire’, in Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation, ed. R. McKitterick (1994), pp. 52–87
P. Sawyer and I. Wood (eds.), Early Medieval Kingship (1977) W. Ullmann, The Carolingian Renaissance and the Idea of Kingship (1971) J. Wallace-Hadrill, Early Germanic Kingship in England and on the Continent (1971)
A. Duggan, Queens and Queenship in Medieval Europe (1996) T. Earenfight, Queenship in Medieval Europe (2013)
S. MacLean, ‘Queenship, nunneries and royal widowhood in Carolingian Europe’, Past and Present 178 (2003), 3–38
R. McKitterick, The Carolingians and the Written Word (1989) [ch. 2] R. McKitterick, The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe (1990) L. Oliver, The Body Legal in Barbarian Law (2011) A. Rio, Legal Practice and the Written Word in the Middle Ages: Frankish Formulae, c. 500–1000 (2009) A. Rio (ed.), Law, Custom and Justice in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (2011) P. Wormald, Legal Culture in the Early Medieval West (1999)
G. Brogiolo and B. WardPerkins, The Idea and Ideal of the Town between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (1999) N. Christie and S. Loseby (eds.), Towns in Transition: Urban Evolution in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (1996) G. Brogiolo, N. Gauthier and N. Christie, Towns and their Territories between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (2000)
H. Haamerow, Early Medieval Settlements: The Archaeology of Rural Communities in North-West Europe, 400–900 (2003) R. Hodges, Dark Age Economics: The Origins of Towns and Trade AD 600–1000 (2nd ed., 1989) R. Hodges and B. Hobley (eds.), The Rebirth of Towns in the West (1988) C. Loveluck, Northwest Europe in the Early Middle Ages, c. AD 600–1150: A Comparative Archaeology (2013) M. McCormick, The Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce, AD 300–900 (1999) T. Pestell and K. Ulmschneider, Markets in Early Medieval Europe (2003)
A. Verhulst, The Rise of Cities in North-West Europe (1999) A. Verhulst, The Carolingian Economy (2002) C. Wickham, ‘The other transition: from the ancient world to feudalism’, Past and Present 103 (1984), 3–36 C. Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400–800 (Oxford, 2005)
Dhuoda, Liber manualis, trans. C. Neel, Dhuoda: Handbook for William. A Carolingian Woman’s Counsel for her Son (1991)


Sources:
Einhard, Life of Charlemagne, trans. D. Ganz, Two Lives of Charlemagne (2008) [among other available translations]
Collected sources, trans. B. Scholz, Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard’s Histories (1970)
Collected sources, trans. P. Dutton, Carolingian Civilization: A Reader (1994)
Introductions:
M. Costambeys, M. Innes and S. MacLean, The Carolingian World (2011)
R. McKitterick (ed.), The New Cambridge Medieval History. Volume II: c. 700–c. 900 (1995)
R. McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751–987 (1983)
J. Nelson, The Frankish World, 750–900 (1996)
The emergence of the Carolingians:
P. Fouracre, The Age of Charles Martel (1999) R. Gerberding, The Rise of the Carolingians and the Liber Historiae Francorum (1987)
R. McKitterick, ‘The illusion of royal power in the Carolingian annals’, English Historical Review 115 (2000), 1–20
Expansion and warfare:
P. Godman and R. Collins (eds.), Charlemagne’s Heir: New Perspectives on the Reign of Louis the Pious (814–840) (1990) [chapters by Noble and Reuter]
G. Halsall, Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450–900 (2003) [esp. ch. 4]
T. Reuter, ‘Plunder and tribute in the Carolingian empire’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 35 (1985), 391–405
Charlemagne:
S. Airlie, ‘Narratives of triumph and rituals of submission: Charlemagne’s mastering of Bavaria’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 9 (1997), 93–119
R. McKitterick, Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity (2008)
J. Nelson, ‘Women at the court of Charlemagne: a case of monstrous regiment?’, in Medieval Queenship, ed. J. Parsons (1993); rptd in J. Nelson, The Frankish World (1996), pp. 223–42
J. Story (ed.), Charlemagne: Empire and Society (2005)
Louis the Pious:
P. Godman and R. Collins (eds.), Charlemagne’s Heir: New Perspectives on the Reign of Louis the Pious (814–840) (1990) [chapters by Noble and Reuter]
M. Innes, ‘Charlemagne’s will: piety, politics and the imperial succession’, English Historical Review 112 (1997), 833–55 M. de Jong, The Penitential State: Authority and Atonement in the Age of Louis the Pious, 814–840 (2009)
The Early Middle Ages
The later Carolingians:
E. Goldberg, Struggle for Empire: Kingship and Conflict under Louis the German, 817–876 (2006)
S. MacLean, Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century: Charles the Fat and the End of the Carolingian Empire (2003)
S. MacLean, ‘Charles the Fat and the Viking Great Army: the military explanation for the end of the Carolingian empire’, War Studies Journal 3 (1998), 74–95
J. Nelson, Charles the Bald (1992) T. Reuter, Germany in the Early Middle Ages (1991)
C. West, Reframing the Feudal Revolution: Politics and Social Transformation between Marne and Moselle, c. 800–c. 1100 (2013)
Kingship, government and law:
F. Ganshof, The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy (1972)
M. Innes, State and Society in the Early Middle Ages (1999) [esp. pp. 118–28 and 172–241]
R. McKitterick, The Carolingians and the Written Word (1989) [chs. 2 and 6]
J. Nelson, ‘Kingship and empire’, in Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation, ed. R. McKitterick (1993), pp. 52–87
J. Nelson, ‘Literacy in Carolingian government’, in The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe (1990), pp. 258–96; rptd in J. Nelson, The Frankish World, 750–900 (1996), pp. 1–36 The ‘Carolingian renaissance’:
P. Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, AD 200– 1000 (2nd ed., 2003) [ch. 19]
J. Contreni, ‘The Carolingian renaissance: education and literary culture’, in The New Cambridge Medieval History. Volume II: c. 700–c. 900, ed. R. McKitterick (1995), pp. 709–57
J. Contreni, Carolingian Learning, Masters and Manuscripts (1992)
R. McKitterick, ‘The Carolingian renaissance of culture and learning’, in Charlemagne: Empire and Society, ed. J. Story (2005), pp. 151–66
R. McKitterick, ‘Royal patronage of culture in the Frankish kingdoms under the Carolingians: motives and consequences’, Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull’alto Medioevo 39 (1992), pp. 93–135
R. McKitterick (ed.), Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation (1993)
J. Nelson, ‘On the limits of the Carolingian renaissance’, in Renaissance and Renewal in Christian History, ed. D. Baker (1977), pp. 51–69; rptd in J. Nelson, Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe (1986), pp. 49–67
Church and reform:
M. de Jong, ‘Charlemagne’s church’, in Charlemagne: Empire and Society, ed. J. Story (2005), pp. 103–35
M. de Jong, ‘Monasticism and the power of prayer’, in The New Cambridge Medieval History. Volume II: c. 700–c. 900, ed. R. McKitterick (1995), pp. 622–53 R.
McKitterick, The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms, 789–895 (1977)