The collapse of the early medieval European kingdoms (8th-9th centuries)

Abstract

This monographic section contains some partial approaches to the problem of the collapse of early medieval kingdoms during 8th and 9th centuries. Different cases of study are analysed: the Visigothic kingdom and Northwestern Iberia, the Lombard kingdom, Mercia, the Post-Carolingian evolution in a regional scale and the Great Moravia. The understanding of early medieval polities and their fluidity is the aim of all papers. The frequent breakdown of the kingdoms was not a proof of a supposed fragility, if not a usual solution to sociopolitical stress. Sometimes, the end of the kingdoms involved a decline of socio-political complexity, so the theoretical framework of the study of collapse could be useful.