History Research

History Subject - Book Launch

Friday 27 May 2022 at 5pm BST

Dr Stuart Airlie’s new book ‘Making and Unmaking the Carolingians: 751-888'

The book will be presented and discussed by Professor Simon MacLean, University of St Andrews, whose research focuses on the Carolingian Empire and its successor kingdoms.

How does power manifest itself in individuals? Why do people obey authority? And how does a family, if they are the source of such dominance, convey their superiority and maintain their command in a pre-modern world lacking speedy communications, standing armies and formalised political jurisdiction? Here, Stuart Airlie expertly uses this idea of authority as a lens through which to explore one of the most famous dynasties in medieval Europe: the Carolingians.

Ruling the Frankish realm from 751 to 888, the family of Charlemagne had to be ruthless in asserting their status and adept at creating a discourse of Carolingian legitimacy in order to sustain their supremacy. Through its nuanced analysis of authority, politics and family, Making and Unmaking the Carolingians, 751-888 outlines the system which placed the Carolingian dynasty at the centre of the Frankish world. In doing so, Airlie sheds important new light on both the rise and fall of the Carolingian empire and the nature of power in medieval Europe more generally.

This is event is free and open to all but please register on Eventbrite.

Refreshments will be served.

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First published: 11 May 2022