Institute for Medieval Studies

Session	1515
Title	Networks and Neighbours, V: Creating Networks in the Merovingian Kingdoms
Date/Time	Thursday 10 July 2014: 09.00-10.30
Sponsor	Networks & Neighbours Network
Organiser	Tim Barnwell, Kısmet Press, Leeds / School of History, University of Leeds
	Jason Berg, School of History, University of Leeds
	Ricky Broome, Leeds Institute for Clinical Trials Research (LICTR), University of Leeds
	Michael J. Kelly, Department of Comparative Literature, State University of New York, Binghamton
Moderator/Chair	E. T. Dailey
Paper 1515-a	Strategies for Transferring Goods in Episcopal and Secular Testaments from the Merovingian Period (Language: English) Karen Torres da Rosa, Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo Index Terms: Ecclesiastical History; Social History
Paper 1515-b	Ecclesiastical Networks in Merovingian Poitiers (Language: English) Hope Williard, University Library, University of Lincoln Index Terms: Ecclesiastical History; Hagiography
Paper 1515-c	Outsiders in the Community: Franks and Non-Franks in the Late Merovingian Period (Language: English) Ricky Broome, Leeds Institute for Clinical Trials Research (LICTR), University of Leeds Index Terms: Historiography - Medieval; Political Thought
Abstract	Of all the kingdoms that came into existence in the aftermath of the end of Roman imperial power in the West, that of the Merovingian Franks in Gaul has left the greatest literary record in terms of both quantity and variety. This amount and range of source material allows historians to see first-hand the networks that were created in in Gaul from the 6th to the early-8th centuries, sometimes in quite an intimate way. The networks represented in the sources are above all those of the upper echelons of early medieval society: bishops, kings and noble. Yet we can see the ways the people in these networks interacted not only through idealised examples given in law codes or what was written about them after their deaths in histories, chronicles and saints' lives, but also through more contemporary witnesses such as wills, placita, letters and poetry. The purpose of this panel, then, is to explore the ways social networks were built and maintained through the interactions of the nobility in Merovingian Gaul, and the way these networks and interactions were understood by those within them. The first paper provides a comparison between two testaments - one episcopal, one secular - allowing us to consider the different strategies used in each for the transfer of goods within the social circles the testators developed in life. The second paper considers the poems of Venantius Fortunatus and what they can tell us about how an individual interacted with several different networks and integrated himself within them. Finally, the third paper addresses wider networks by considering the relationship between Frankish identity and perceptions of other peoples, especially those in southern Gaul and across the Rhine, in the late-7th and early 8th centuries.