Introduction

Abstract

This book examines power and property in medieval Germany and the economic and social changes that they caused between 900 and 1300. The first chapter, which stretches from the 8th to the 11th centuries, shows what sort of effect the Carolingian age stamped upon medieval Germany, particularly through its economic, social and legal legacy, and in what might be termed political expectations. The four successive chapters seek to unravel the realities, in so far as the surviving sources allow, about the relationship of peasant and lord; the crown and its resources; the urban establishment on the rise from the 11th century; and the collaboration of the aristocracy with the Church, particularly in the Age of Reform inaugurated by emperor and pope in 1946.