Mayr-Hartung, Henry. Ottonian Book Illumination: An Historical Study. 2nd rev. ed. London:
Harvey Miller, 1999.
Nees, Lawrence. Early Medieval Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
France By contrast with the English and German kings, those in France had a hard
time coping with invasions. Unlike Alfred’s dynasty, which started small and built
slowly, the French kings had half an empire to defend. Unlike the Ottonians, who
asserted their military prowess in decisive battles such as the one at Lechfeld, the
French kings generally had to let local men both take the brunt of the attacks and
reap the prestige and authority that came with military leadership. Nor did the French
kings have the advantage of Germany’s tributaries, silver mines, or Italian
connections. Much like the Abbasid caliphs at Baghdad, the kings of France saw their
power wane. During most of the tenth century, Carolingian kings alternated on the
throne with kings from a family that would later be called the “Capetians.” At the end
of that century the most powerful men of the realm, seeking to stave off civil war,
elected Hugh Capet (r.987–996) as their king. The Carolingians were displaced, and
the Capetians continued on the throne until the fourteenth century. (See Genealogy
5.4: The Capetian Kings of France, on p. 177.)
The Capetians’ scattered but substantial estates lay in the north of France, in the
region around Paris. Here the kings had their vassals and their castles. This “Ile-de-
France” (which was all there was to “France” in the period; see Map 4.6) was indeed
an “island,”—an île—surrounded by independent castellans. In the sense that he, too,
had little more military power than other castellans, Hugh Capet and his eleventh-
century successors were similar to local strongmen. But the Capetian kings had the
prestige of their office. Anointed with holy oil, they represented the idea of unity and
God-given rule inherited from Charlemagne. Most of the counts and dukes—at least
those in the north of France—swore homage and fealty to the king, a gesture,
however weak, of personal support. Unlike the German kings, the French could rely
on vassalage to bind the great men of the realm to them.
NEW STATES IN EAST CENTRAL EUROPE
Around the same time as Moravia and Bulgaria lost their independence to the
Magyars and the Byzantines (respectively), three new polities—Bohemia, Poland,
and Hungary—emerged in East Central Europe. In many ways they formed an
interconnected bloc, as their ruling houses intermarried with one another and with the
