Past Convictions: The Penance of Louis the Pious and the Decline of the Carolingians (The Middle Ages Series)

How do people, in both the past and the present, think about moments of social and political crisis, and how do they respond to them? What are the interpretive codes by which troubling events are read and given meaning, and what part do these codes play in suggesting specific strategies for coping with the world? In Past Convictions Courtney Booker attempts to answer these questions by examining the controversial divestiture and public penance of Charlemagne's son, the Emperor Louis the Pious, in 833. Historians have customarily viewed the event as marking the beginning of the end of the Carolingian dynasty. Exploring how both contemporaries and subsequent generations thought about Louis's forfeiture of the throne, Booker contends that certain vivid ninth-century narratives reveal a close but ephemeral connection between historiography and the generic conventions of comedy and tragedy. In tracing how writers of later centuries built upon these dramatic Carolingian accounts to tell a larger story of faith, betrayal, political expediency, and decline, he explicates the ways historiography shapes our vision of the past and what we think we know about it, and the ways its interpretive models may fall short.

How do people, in both the past and the present, think about moments of social and political crisis, and how do they respond to them? What are the interpretive codes by which troubling events are read and given meaning, and what part do these codes play in suggesting specific strategies for coping with the world? In Past Convictions Courtney Booker attempts to answer these questions by examining the controversial divestiture and public penance of Charlemagne's son, the Emperor Louis the Pious, in 833.

Historians have customarily viewed the event as marking the beginning of the end of the Carolingian dynasty. Exploring how both contemporaries and subsequent generations thought about Louis's forfeiture of the throne, Booker contends that certain vivid ninth-century narratives reveal a close but ephemeral connection between historiography and the generic conventions of comedy and tragedy. In tracing how writers of later centuries built upon these dramatic Carolingian accounts to tell a larger story of faith, betrayal, political expediency, and decline, he explicates the ways historiography shapes our vision of the past and what we think we know about it, and the ways its interpretive models may fall short.

As much historiography as reception history, Past Convictions analyzes and explicates the production of historical narratives, the subsequent contestation and appropriation of these narratives, and the insight such activities allows us into how people understand change and its remembrance. As much historiography as reception history, Past Convictions analyzes and explicates the production of historical narratives, the subsequent contestation and appropriation of these narratives, and the insight such activities allows us into how people understand change and its remembrance. Contents Introduction Part I. Remembering Chapter 1. Telling the Truth About the Field of Lies Chapter 2. Th e Shame of the Franks Chapter 3. Histrionic History, Demanding Drama Part II. Justifying Chapter 4. Documenting Duty’s Demands Chapter 5. Forgotten Memories Part III. Discoursing Chapter 6. Eloquence in Equity, Fluency in Iniquity Epilogue: Convictions Past and Present Appendix Abbreviations Notes Select bibliography Index Acknowledgments