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This volume is the first to study the phenomenon of early medieval militarisation from a wide geographic and disciplinary perspective. It explores the impact of an enhanced role attributed to warfare and the military as characteristic features of a European world in the process of becoming medieval.

1 Introducing early medieval militarisation, 400–900 AD – Laury Sarti, Ellora Bennett, Guido M. Berndt and Stefan Esders Part I: The military and society 2 Soldier and civilian in the Byzantine Empire
<i>c.</i> 600–
<i>c.</i> 900: a militarised society? – Philip Rance 3 The
<i>exercitus Gothorum</i> in Italy: a professional army in a demilitarised society? – Kai Grundmann 4 Military organisation as an indicator of militarisation (and demilitarisation) in Lombard Italy – Guido M. Berndt 5 The ‘dark matter’ evidence for Alfredian military reforms in their ninth-century context – Ryan Lavelle Part II: Warfare and society 6 War and the transformation of society in the early Byzantine Arabia – Conor Whately 7 The role of the military factor in the political and administrative shaping of the Visigothic Kingdom (sixth to seventh centuries) – Pablo Poveda Arias 8 Recent archaeological research on fortifications in France, Belgium and Swizerland, 750–1000 – Luc Bourgeois 9
<i>Gens Germana gente ferocior</i>: Lombards and warfare between representation and reality – Stefano Gasparri 10 The blinkers of militarisation: Charles the Bald, Lothar I and the Vikings – Simon Coupland Part III: Ethics of war 11 Manlike discipline and loyalty against the ‘enemies of God’: some observations on the militarised frontier society of eastern
<i>Francia</i> around 600 – Stefan Esders 12 Swords in Christian hands: reflections on the emergence of the ‘Schwertmission’ in the early Middle Ages – Uta Heil 13 ‘Holy wars’? ‘Religious wars’? The perception of religious motives of warfare against non-Christian enemies in ninth-century chronicles – Hans-Werner Goetz Part IV: Perceptions of the warrior 14 Change of habit equals change of values? Burials of ‘military men’ between 300 and 500 AD – Benjamin Hamm 15 Warlike and heroic virtues in the post-Roman world – Edward James 16 Military equipment in late antique and early medieval female burial evidence: a reflection of ‘militarisation’? – Susanne Brather-Walter 17 The construction of the enemy in pre-Viking England – Ellora Bennett 18 Warriors and warlike kings in the
<i>Gesta Karoli</i> of Notker the Stammerer – Thomas Wittkamp 19 Early medieval ‘warrior’ images and the concept of
<i>Gefolgschaft </i>– Michel Summer 20 Conclusion: militarisation: process or discourse? – Guy Halsall Index

Ellora Bennett is a D.Phil Candidate at the Freie Universität Berlin Guido M. Berndt is a Research Fellow at the Freie Universität Berlin Stefan Esders is Professor of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages at the Freie Universität Berlin Laury Sarti is Lecturer at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

The societies of ancient Europe underwent a continual process of militarisation, a process that intensified during the early Middle Ages and came to be a defining characteristic of the period. It encompassed features like the lack of demarcation between the military and civil spheres of the population, the significance attributed to weapons beyond their military function and the wide recognition of martial values. This book uses the term ‘militarisation’ to refer to a process that is neither linear nor mono-causal but impacts on a society as a whole. The underlying concept provides a means to study corresponding societal transformations in their full complexity by taking into account several factors of change at the same time. Assembling twenty-one studies by established and emerging scholars, the book makes original use of both written and archaeological evidence to explore the phenomenon of militarisation and its impact on developments in early medieval England, the Frankish world, Spain, Italy, Scandinavia and Byzantium.
<i>Early medieval militarisation</i> applies modern approaches to structural history and the history of mentalities. It offers a wide-ranging alternative to conventional military histories and will be of interest to students and scholars of related fields.