Emperor of the West

Emperor of the West
Author: Hywel Williams
Publisher: Quercus Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Carolingians
ISBN: 9781849161909

Through his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne is a defining figure of both Western Europe and the Middle Ages. Crowned king of the Franks in 768, he expanded their kingdoms into an empire that incorporated much of western and central Europe, recreating a single Christian imperium in the heartlands of the old Western Roman empire for the first time since the decline and fall of that polity in the late fifth century AD. After his imperial coronation Charlemagne was seen as a rival, in power and majesty, of the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople. Charlemagne's empire, and the cultural golden age that is associated with it, encouraged the formation of a common European identity. In this magisterial new study, Hywel Williams explores every facet of the rule and legacy of one of the most remarkable rulers in European history. Emperor of the West is a major contribution to early medieval history, and is essential reading for anyone interested in the wider history of Europe.

Child Emperor Rule in the Late Roman West, AD 367-455

Child Emperor Rule in the Late Roman West, AD 367-455
Author: Meaghan McEvoy
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2013-05-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199664811

McEvoy addresses the phenomenon of the Roman child-emperor during the late fourth century. Tracing the course of their reigns, the book looks at the sophistication of the Roman system of government which made their accessions possible, and the adaptation of existing imperial ideology to portray boys as young as six as viable rulers.

Emperor of the World

Emperor of the World
Author: Anne A. Latowsky
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2013-02-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0801467780

Emperor of the World, traces the curious history of the story of the alliances forged by Charlemagne while visiting Jerusalem and Constantinople, revealing how the memory of the Frankish Emperor was manipulated to shape the institutions of kingship and empire in the High Middle Ages. The legend incorporates apocalyptic themes such as the succession of world monarchies at the End of Days and the prophecy of the Last Roman Emperor. Charlemagne's apocryphal journey to the East increasingly resembled the eschatological final journey of the Last Emperor, who was expected to end his reign in Jerusalem after reuniting the Roman Empire prior to the Last Judgment. Latowsky finds that the writers who incorporated this legend did so to support, or in certain cases to criticize, the imperial pretentions of the regimes under which they wrote. Latowsky removes Charlemagne's encounters with the East from their long-presumed Crusading context and shows how a story that began as a rhetorical commonplace of imperial praise evolved over the centuries as an expression of Christian Roman universalism.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty
Author: Victor Cunrui Xiong
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0791482685

Looking at the life and legacy of Emperor Yang (569–618) of the brief Sui dynasty in a new light, this book presents a compelling case for his importance to Chinese history. Author Victor Cunrui Xiong utilizes traditional scholarship and secondary literature from China, Japan, and the West to go beyond the common perception of Emperor Yang as merely a profligate tyrant. Xiong accepts neither the traditional verdict against Emperor Yang nor the apologist effort to revise it, and instead offers a reassessment of Emperor Yang by exploring the larger political, economic, military, religious, and diplomatic contexts of Sui society. This reconstruction of the life of Emperor Yang reveals an astute visionary with literary, administrative, and reformist accomplishments. While a series of strategic blunders resulting from the darker side of his personality led to the collapse of the socioeconomic order and to his own death, the Sui legacy that Emperor Yang left behind lived on to provide the foundation for the rise of the Tang dynasty, the pinnacle of medieval Chinese civilization.

Child Emperor Rule in the Late Roman West, AD 367-455

Child Emperor Rule in the Late Roman West, AD 367-455
Author: Meaghan A. McEvoy
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2013-05-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 019164210X

In this book, McEvoy explodes the myth that the remarkable phenomenon of the late Roman child-emperor reflected mere dynastic sentiment or historical accident. Tracing the course of the frequently tumultuous, but nevertheless lengthy, reigns of young western emperors in the years AD 367-455, she looks at the way in which the sophistication of the Roman system made their accessions and survival possible. The book highlights how these reigns allowed for individual generals to dominate the Roman state and in what manner the crucial role of Christianity, together with the vested interests of various factions within the imperial elite, contributed to a transformation of the imperial image - enabling and facilitating the adaptation of existing imperial ideology to portray boys as young as six as viable rulers. It also analyses the struggles which ensued upon a child-emperor reaching adulthood and seeking to take up functions which had long been delegated during his childhood. Through the phenomenon of child-emperor rule, McEvoy demonstrates the major changes taking place in the nature of the imperial office in late antiquity, which had significant long-term impacts upon the way the Roman state came to be ruled and, in turn, the nature of rulership in the early medieval and Byzantine worlds to follow.

King and Emperor

King and Emperor
Author: Janet L. Nelson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 704
Release: 2021-06-08
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0520383214

Charles I, often known as Charlemagne, is one of the most extraordinary figures ever to rule an empire. Driven by unremitting physical energy and intellectual curiosity, he was a man of many parts, a warlord and conqueror, a judge who promised 'for each their law and justice', a defender of the Latin Church, a man of flesh-and-blood. In the twelve centuries since his death, warfare, accident, vermin, and the elements have destroyed much of the writing on his rule, but a remarkable amount has survived. Janet Nelson's wonderful new book brings together everything we know about Charles, sifting through the available evidence, literary and material, to paint a vivid portrait of the man and his motives. Charles's legacy lies in his deeds and their continuing resonance, as he shaped counties, countries, and continents, founded and rebuilt towns and monasteries, and consciously set himself up not just as King of the Franks, but as the head of the renewed Roman Empire. His successors--in some ways even up to the present day--have struggled to interpret, misinterpret, copy, or subvert his legacy.

Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon of Devis, Divinities, and Dynastic Mothers

Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon of Devis, Divinities, and Dynastic Mothers
Author: N. Harry Rothschild
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2015-06-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0231539185

Wu Zhao (624–705), better known as Wu Zetian or Empress Wu, is the only woman to have ruled China as emperor over the course of its 5,000-year history. How did she—in a predominantly patriarchal and androcentric society—ascend the dragon throne? Exploring a mystery that has confounded scholars for centuries, this multifaceted history suggests that China's rich pantheon of female divinities and eminent women played an integral part in the construction of Wu Zhao's sovereignty. Wu Zhao deftly deployed language, symbol, and ideology to harness the cultural resonance, maternal force, divine energy, and historical weight of Buddhist devis, Confucian exemplars, Daoist immortals, and mythic goddesses, establishing legitimacy within and beyond the confines of Confucian ideology. Tapping into powerful subterranean reservoirs of female power, Wu Zhao built a pantheon of female divinities carefully calibrated to meet her needs at court. Her pageant was promoted in scripted rhetoric, reinforced through poetry, celebrated in theatrical productions, and inscribed on steles. Rendered with deft political acumen and aesthetic flair, these affiliations significantly enhanced Wu Zhao's authority and cast her as the human vessel through which the pantheon's divine energy flowed. Her strategy is a model of political brilliance and proof that medieval Chinese women enjoyed a more complex social status than previously known.

Understanding Collapse

Understanding Collapse
Author: Guy D. Middleton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 463
Release: 2017-06-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 110715149X

In this lively survey, Guy D. Middleton critically examines our ideas about collapse - how we explain it and how we have constructed potentially misleading myths around collapses - showing how and why collapse of societies was a much more complex phenomenon than is often admitted.

The Ruin of the Roman Empire

The Ruin of the Roman Empire
Author: James J. O'Donnell
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 454
Release: 2008-09-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 0060787376

Recounts the sixth-century events and circumstances that led to the fall of the Roman Empire.