R. Schieffer, Die Karolinger (Paul Fouracre)

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Francia-Recensio 2009/2 Mittelalter – Moyen Âge (500–1500)

Rudolf Schieffer, Die Karolinger. Vierte, überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage, Stuttgart (Kohlhammer) 2006, 266 p., ISBN 3-17-019099-7, EUR 17,00.

rezensiert von/compte rendu rédigé par

Paul Fouracre, Manchester

Rudolf Schieffer has updated and revised his handbook history of the Carolingians. The literature is brought up to 2005, and Schieffer seamlessly works into his text the findings of more recent research. His account of the eleven generations of the Carolingian family in fact follows the contours of scholarly consensus very closely, and despite being necessarily compressed, it is both accurate and readable. One can scarcely fault the account in these terms, but as with every potted history, it raises issues of how it should be read: whether as an ex cathedra statement of Carolingian history; as an introduction to the subject; or as handbook that will direct to more detailed works. There are areas in which this reader felt that the author should have revealed more of the complexities involved in establishing the narrative in order to indicate to the audience that while we know a great deal about the Carolingians, the level of knowledge is variable, and the level of certainty and agreement amongst historians is equally variable. Schieffer’s confidence in the telling of the story thus sometimes seems too strong. Only once did this reader detect the author admitting that we simply do not know what happened (Page 60: whether or not Pippin was anointed in the year 751). More generally, it would help a reader coming to this subject for the first time to be given a brief account of what the main narrative source material is like, and how it is much thicker for some periods than others, which means that some parts of the account are of necessity more speculative than others. Allied to this, more help with context would have been appreciated. One cannot tell from this account whether the world that the first Carolingians entered was substantially the same as the world that saw the last of the dynasty. But Schieffer does allow terms to creep in which signal to the historian that conditions were changed: thus Oberlehnsherrn appear on page 209, though what they were and how they got there is not discussed. More analysis of significant change at the end of each chapter would have helped here. It was not, of course, Schieffer’s task to write a structural analysis, nor to discuss the sources. He says that he is sticking to the family history pure and simple, and will not, as Riché did, claim that that history formed Europe. Stripped of its context and complications, and without the intrusion of the doubts and qualifications of Quellenkritik, the story flows very nicely indeed. Schieffer reminds us of what an interesting and dramatic story it was, and one can indeed have confidence in his command of it. The problem is that one has to know the history well before one can really appreciate the economy and directness of this account. But the author may have made it just too clear, easy and accessible for the uninitiated to comprehend the complexity of Carolingian history.