Early Carolingian Warfare

Early Carolingian Warfare Prelude to Empire Bernard S. Bachrach Winner of the 2001 Goodzeit Book Award of the New York Military Affairs Symposium "The evidence supporting Bachrach's conclusions is every bit as overwhelming as Carolingian forces were."--American Historical Review "An excellent and valuable book. It is hard to argue with Bachrach's most important point: the early Carolingian armies had to have been well organized, trained, supplied, and led for the eighth-century Carolingian rulers to have achieved what they did. In demonstrating that point Bachrach has highlighted the complex military, political, and social structure of early Carolingian society itself. He has thus presented us with a history of the early Carolingian military, not only for its own sake, but also to show us that understanding it is a crucial part of understanding the Carolingian world as a whole."--Speculum Bachrach includes fresh accounts of Charles Martel's defeat of the Muslims at Poitiers in 732, and Pippin's successful siege of Bourges in 762, demonstrating that in the matter of warfare there never was a western European Dark Age that ultimately was enlightened by some later Renaissance. The early Carolingians built upon surviving military institutions, adopted late antique technology, and effectively utilized their classical intellectual inheritance to prepare the way militarily for Charlemagne's empire. Bernard S. Bachrach is Professor of History at the University of Minnesota. Among his recent books are Fulk Nerra, the Neo-Roman Consul, 987-1040; Merovingian Military Organization, 481-751; and State-Building in Medieval France: Studies in Early Angevin History. The Middle Ages Series 2001 | 432 pages | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 ISBN 978-0-8122-2144-2 | Paper | $29.95s | £19.50 World Rights | History, Military Science Short copy: Charlemagne could not have revived the Roman empire in the West without the military machine built up over the course of the eighth century. Early Carolingian Warfare is the first book to study how the Frankish dynasty established its power and cultivated its military expertise in order to reestablish the regnum Francorum.