Warfare in Tenth-Century Germany [Book Review]

Abstract

In this book, Bachrach argues that for the Ottonian kings of tenthcentury Germany to have fought their wars in the ways the sources say they did, they must have been able to field large armies led by welltrained officers, and muster and transport over long distances the materials necessary to support them. To do this, they preserved and built on the military, administrative and cultural legacy of their Roman and Carolingian predecessors. Their kingdom was not 'archaic', that is, lacking in state-like institutions and maintained solely by personal relationships (a position he attributes to representatives of the German Neue Verfassungsgeschichte or 'New Constitutional History'). Nor were their military campaigns and those of their magnates driven by a simple desire to amass plunder with which to reward and support followers (an argument advanced most visibly by Timothy Reuter). Instead, they commanded sophisticated administrative, logistical, and educational resources, which they used to field and support armies in the pursuit of clear strategic goals: to revive the east Frankish kingdom and renew the empire of Charlemagne.

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