Carolingian Catalonia: Politics, Culture, and Identity in an Imperial Province, 778–987 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series, Series Number 111)

Drawing on a range of evidence related to royal authority, political events and literate culture, this study traces how kings and emperors involved themselves in the affairs of the Spanish March, and examines how actively people in Catalonia participated in politics centred on the royal court. Rather than setting the political development of the region in terms of Catalonia's future independence as a medieval principality, Cullen J. Chandler addresses it as part of the Carolingian 'experiment'. In doing so, he incorporates an analysis of political events alongside an examination of such cultural issues as the spread of the Rule of Benedict, the Adoptionist controversy, and the educational programme of the Carolingian reforms. This new history of the region offers a robust and absorbing analysis of the nature of the Carolingian legacy in the March, while also revising traditional interpretations of ethnic motivations for political acts and earlier attempts to pinpoint the constitutional birth of Catalonia;Gothic Catalonia and Septimania to 778 -- Creating the Spanish March, 778-840 -- March and monarchy, 840-878 -- Counts, church, and kings, 877-947 -- Learned culture in Carolingian Catalonia -- The march toward sovereignty, 947-988 -- Conclusion : Carolingian Catalonia, 778-988 "A pedestrian strolling along Carrer Trafalgar, window shopping in Barcelona's Barri Gotic, may, if alert, catch a glimpse of a street sign indicating the Carrer Lluis el Piados - Louis the Pious Street. The street sign informs the reader that Louis was king of Aquitaine and conqueror of Barcelona in 804 (the date is now known to be 801). His street is very short, only a couple of blocks, in a city where more important avenues recall Catalonia's heroes of the high and late Middle Ages, when Catalonia was the centre of the Crown of Aragon's wealth and power in the western Mediterranean, or revolutionaries of the nineteenth century"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Half-title page 3 Series page 4 Title page 5 Copyright page 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 Acknowledgements 10 List of Abbreviations 13 Maps 15 Introduction 19 Chapter 1 Gothic Catalonia and Septimania to 778 42 Chapter 2 Creating the Spanish March, 778–840 78 Chapter 3 March and Monarchy, 840–878 129 Chapter 4 Counts, Church, and Kings, 877–947 169 Chapter 5 Learned Culture in Carolingian Catalonia 207 Chapter 6 The March towards Sovereignty? (947–988) 247 Conclusion: Carolingian Catalonia, 778–987 282 Bibliography 293 Index 333