The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg

Warner, David A.

doi:10.7765/9781526112774.00008

Cited by 7 publications

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“…1‐3 and MGH SS 3), a number of more recent English translations of charters and narrative sources have increased their accessibility and utility, particularly for non‐specialists and classroom use, and include significant helpful apparatuses such as genealogies, maps, and commentary, as well as substantial introductions which place the works in historical context and provide good overviews of the political milieux in which the authors were writing (e.g. Bachrach & Bachrach, ; Fanning & Bachrach, ; Gilsdorf, ; Hill, ; MacLean, ; Squatriti, ; and Warner, ; for the usefulness of Widukind and Thietmar as windows into contemporary views about kingship see Bagge, :23‐94 and 95‐188 respectively). The picture we have today of Ottonian rule has been pieced together from these broad kinds of sources, and suggests a model of kingship that utilized a variety of methods and tools for governing.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The governance of Ottonian Germany in historiographical perspective

Wangerin

2017

History Compass

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The historiographic tradition for the tenth-century Saxon Ottonian dynasty has without doubt been influenced by Germany's more recent past. Events in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries shaped the worldviews of historians both within Germany and without. These events also had a direct effect on the methodologies employed by those historians in studying medieval Germany, and helped to suppress interest in the field by non-German historians.But in the last decades of the twentieth century, there was a kind of watershed for Ottonian studies. Historians who remain influential yet today began to ask new questions and approach the field with new methodologies that took work on the Ottonians in new directions. Additionally, these new approaches have stimulated lively and often contentious debates. There is much about Ottonian government that continues to puzzle scholars. This article provides a sketch of some of the main institutions of Ottonian governance, using these as a way to introduce the reader to the historiography and historiographical debates in the field.

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confidence: 99%

“…He had been living, unjustly and knowingly, with the wife of a man who had been excommunicated. (Warner, :243‐44)…”

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confidence: 99%

The governance of Ottonian Germany in historiographical perspective

Wangerin

2017

History Compass

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“…He did not listen to them, however, and gave her to his son in marriage, with the approval of all the leading men of Italy and Germany. 67 Why, then, would Otto I accept Theophanu instead of the hoped for purple-born princess? As Karl Leyser inimitably put it, "Ottonian emperorship, just because of its origins and bestowed by the hands of a louche pope from a family of erstwhile Greek clients, urgently needed authentication."…”

Section: Sanctity and Memory In Medieval Saxonymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thietmar of Merseburg reports in his Chronicon that John Tzimiskes "sent across the sea to our emperor, not the desired maiden, but rather his niece, Theophanu." 11 Widukind of Corvey (ca. 925-after 973 CE) identifies Theophanu simply as a "girl," without attempting to establish her family relationships.…”

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Empress Theophanu, Sanctity, and Memory in Early Medieval Saxony

Wangerin

2014

Cent Eur Hist

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The Empress Theophanu, wife of Otto II and regent for her son Otto III, was by all accounts a woman skilled at maneuvering through the complicated world of Ottonian politics. When she died in 991 CE, around the age of thirty, she had accomplished much: after arriving in Italy from Constantinople in 972 at around the age of twelve, she became Otto II's queen and was crowned empress of the Western Empire. During her lifetime, she was among the wealthiest women in Europe and one of the continent's most powerful people. After her husband's death, she secured the succession of her son, Otto III, and actively ruled as regent, successfully navigating the dangerous political world of the Western Roman Empire. Her activities included building churches, placing her daughters in positions of power in key nunneries, issuing acts as imperator and imperatrix, receiving ambassadors, waging war and negotiating peace—essentially doing everything expected of a male emperor with the exception of personally engaging in battle. Thietmar of Merseburg, writing around 1013, praises her rule as regent, stating that she held the kingdom for her son “in a manly fashion,” clearly intending this as a compliment. And yet, after her death and the premature death of her son a few years later, Theophanu seems to disappear from the historical record. Despite the great number of contemporary sources in which she figured during her lifetime and immediately after her death, including charters and donations, letters, chronicles, and annals, we know almost nothing about her. The few sources that do mention her in the period following her death have little good to say about her. Why did this woman fall into disfavor?

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“…Distinctive norms and perceptions lead communities not only to prefer particular packages of public goods, but to demand self‐rule – that is, the power to provide themselves with the public goods they desire. In the words of the medieval chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg: ‘Rule by foreigners is the greatest punishment’ (Warner, 2001, p. 81).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Europe and Its Empires: From Rome to the European Union*

Marks

2011

J of Common Market Studies

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This article claims that the territorial structure of government results from a tension between scale and community. The benefits of scale arise from the nature of public goods, and include economic exchange, political power and protection against external shocks. Communities are double-edged in that they are characterized by parochial altruism. Altruism and social solidarity facilitate government within communities, but parochial attachments constrain government among communities. Scale and community, as theorized here, provide a setting for strategic choice. Both are in flux as patterns of human interaction change, and government itself shapes those patterns. Evidence is drawn from the five largest polities in the history of western Europe: the Roman Empire, the Frankish Empire, Napoleonic France, the Third Reich and the European Union.

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The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg

Cited by 7 publications

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The governance of Ottonian Germany in historiographical perspective

The governance of Ottonian Germany in historiographical perspective

Empress Theophanu, Sanctity, and Memory in Early Medieval Saxony

Europe and Its Empires: From Rome to the European Union*

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