The history of the counts of the Perche from c. 1066 to 1217 is considered. It is placed in the historiographical perspective of the disintegration into territorial principalities which took place in the kingdom of the Franks around the year 1000 and the subsequent emergence of small units such as the Perche in border zones, where the authority of the greater princes had never been successfully asserted. An outline of the geography of the Perche is followed by a brief account of the Rotrou lineage. The internal workings of the Perche, which indicate the nature of the Rotrous' power, are considered. Family property is located and comital rights are described, together with the administration by means of which the lineage's wealth and power were exploited. The exercise of lordship over the other landed families of the Perche was an important factor in the smooth running of the county and the association between the counts and the nobility is also discussed. An analysis of the relations between the Perche and its neighbours, the great power blocs of Northern France, forms the third section. The adroit manipulation of these relationships permitted the counts to maintain their independence and to gain access to the resources of the English crown. During the twelfth century the counts were obliged to adapt as the old political rivalries polarised into the struggle between the Capetian and Plantagenet kings. When King John lost Normandy to King Philip Augustus in 1204 the counts' bargaining power was lost because the strategic significance of the county had been destroyed. The failure of the direct line in 1217, which led to the eventual dismemberment of the county when the comital title was extinguished in 1226, demonstrates the importance of the vigorous Rotrou lineage in the creation and continued independence of the Perche.

The aim of this dissertation is to interpret the Old Saxon Heliand as a catalyst for change. Whereas recent studies have interpreted the poem as an agent of spiritual change, this study will examine the Heliand as an agent of social and political change. The basis of this study will be the text itself, with consideration of its main source, the Diatessaron. The approach will not only be textual in nature, but historical as well. The first order of the study will be to place the poem in its proper historical and cultural context. This will generate two possible contexts, as current scholarship is divided over the date of composition. This study will discuss both dates, but will select only one with which to continue. Following this, the study will examine the medium of epic and its influence on the poem. Here, significant motifs and elements of the epic will be outlined, discussed and applied to the text. In addition, this study will analyze significant figures of the poem, such as Jesus Christ, the apostles, King Herod, and Pontius Pilate. The study will also examine significant episodes of the poem, such as the birth and execution of Christ, Christ's battle with Satan in the forest, and the elimination of John the Baptist. Through examples from the text, the study will also demonstrate the poet's ability to reconcile pre-Christian concepts of spirituality with Christian Scripture, Germanic notions of power and authority with those of the Franks, and the social status of the Saxon as subjects of Frankish rule. In all, the study will demonstrate how the Heliand marks confluence of varying and conflicting notions of social order into a seamless reorganization of society.

Inaug.-Diss.--Heidelberg. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 4-16.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Leipzig. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. vi-viii).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, 1933. / Without thesis note. Bibliographies: p. 166-178.

Proefschrfit--Groningen. / Summary in French. "Stellingen": [2] p. laid in. Bibliography: p. 191-203.

No description available.

The traditional social and political divisions between the Late Roman and ‘Barbarian’ inhabitants of the post-Roman successor states has in the last few decades been challenged from several new angles. In this thesis, a comparative approach to the question of post-migration period urban settlement is constructed, taking into account recent scholarly research and developments. Following a short introduction broad issues such as terminology, ethnicity, historiography, cultural exchanges, and archaeological evidence are examined in the first two chapters of this work. After this the case studies of Visigothic Spain, Lombard Italy, and Merovingian Francia are presented in three respective chapters. Having looked at some of the specific details for these regions and how they illustrate some of the underlying concepts, trends, or variations in urban administration, the sixth chapter of this thesis presents the comparative approach itself. The main goal of the approach is to alter the ways in which historians perceive the processes of ethnic interactions and identity formation taking place from the mid-sixth to eighth centuries AD, and consists of six main points based upon both the earlier broader chapters, but also incorporates the specific details from the case studies as well. Ultimately it states that while each of the newly established aristocracies inherited a largely fragmentary and localized region following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, the administrative structures and means of interaction with the Roman populace varied widely in each of the three case studies. The greatest variations were detected in how each group administered non-capital cities within their respective region, particularly the degrees to which they altered the Late Roman urban framework. This work advocates the importance of focusing on ‘the new elite and interactions with different types of cities’, rather than the traditional approach of studying their impact upon cities as a general and broad term.