Politics and History in the Tenth Century

Book excerpt: This book stands at the intersection of recent work in historiography and the study of political culture in the early Middle Ages. It takes the autograph manuscript of a tenth-century monk, Richer, as a point of entry into the author's world, and asks how he and his contemporaries in the religious and intellectual community of Reims engaged in Frankish politics. By shifting focus from the events and actors that typically occupy centre stage in political theatre to the writing of history and its authors, it offers a sustained reflection on the relationship between politics and history. As a case study it aims, ultimately, to articulate new possibilities for the study of early medieval politics and, at the same time, to provide a model for a type of historical inquiry in which the development of questions and the exploration of possibilities stand more prominent than the conclusions drawn from them.