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Frontiers and fortifications in the Carolingian imperial imagination

  • Simon MacLean

The relative absence of written references to fortifications in the Carolingian Empire is well known, but seems difficult to square with increasing evidence that such buildings were familiar features in the ninth-century Frankish landscape. I argue that one reason for this is that contemporary narratives participated in a Carolingian “way of seeing” which associated castle building with frontier territories and lands beyond rather than with the imperial heartlands. Fortified residences were linked in the Carolingian imperial imagination with negative characteristics such as secrecy and hiddenness, in contrast to the supposed openness of Frankish royal palaces.

  • Keywords:
  • Middle Ages,
  • 9th century,
  • Italy,
  • Francia,
  • Carolingians,
  • Empire,
  • Castles,
  • Fortifications,
  • Frontiers,
  • Imperialism,
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Simon MacLean

University of St Andrews, United Kingdom - ORCID: 0000-0002-3543-7734

PDF
  • Publication Year: 2024
  • Pages: 141-159
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2024 Author(s)

XML
  • Publication Year: 2024
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2024 Author(s)

Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Frontiers and fortifications in the Carolingian imperial imagination

Authors

Simon MacLean

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0416-3.11

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2024

Copyright Information

© 2024 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Carolingian Frontiers: Italy and Beyond

Editors

Maddalena Betti, Francesco Borri, Stefano Gasparri

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

354

Publication Year

2024

Copyright Information

© 2024 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0416-3

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0415-6

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0416-3

eISBN (xml)

979-12-215-0418-7

Series Title

Reti Medievali E-Book

Series ISSN

2704-6362

Series E-ISSN

2704-6079

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