Banished worlds: The political culture of Carolingian exile, 750–900
Abstract
In an age that saw bonds of loyalty stretched to their limits and broken by competing interests, rulers in early medieval Europe searched long in earnest for the means of dealing with domestic political opponents in a way that would not only answer immediate threats, but enhance the legitimacy of their rule and the stability of their realms as well. Recognizing that the finality of execution often only served to alienate powerful groups of rebellious aristocrats, the descendants of Charles Martel learned to use exile as a flexible instrument of political discipline in their quest to assert control over much of western Europe in the eighth and ninth centuries. The emerging Carolingian dynasty could thus both remove its enemies from the main currents of political discourse without permanently estranging them or their noble kin, and recall them from banishment in case a turn of political tides should require a new set of alliances. Yet the success of such a strategy lay not solely in its exigency, but in its cultural resonance as well. More clearly than any other practice of its time, exile came to embody the novel political culture created as the Carolingians emulated and emanated earlier Germanic, Roman, and Christian traditions to substantiate their own claims to authority, as illustrated in the promulgation, duration, and revocation of banishment. Paradoxically, however, the very sense of resonance that had justified the Carolingians' imposition of exile also came to validate a debate among the imperial ruling classes as to the proper use of this unique form of discipline—a debate often ending with direct challenges to the ruler's legitimacy. The contested terrain of the Carolingian experience of exile thus set in motion much of the subsequent debate between centralization and particularism in the history of the West.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Contreni, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Middle Ages|European history
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