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The Age of Liutprand provides a thematic analysis of Lombard Italy in the pivotal early part of the 8th century. It surveys the crucial role and rule of Liutprand [712-44], the powerful and effective Lombard king. By restoring this successful exemplar of Lombard kingship to the centre of events and developments in the Italian peninsula, this book pulls together all the pertinent evidence for a 'new' kingship in Lombard Italy that used a sophisticated set of strategies to enhance, deepen and expand its effectiveness. In presenting an evaluation of Italy on the cusp of dramatic change, this book explains how not only the kingship of Liutprand, but also his legal reforms and his relationships with the Church and neighbouring peoples all contributed to a model of kingship successfully and subsequently deployed by Charlemagne and his successors later in the 8th century.

Dark Age Liguria surveys the history of the Liguria region from c. 400 to c. 1050 AD, to provide a detailed case study of what happened here as Roman imperial rule ended. The book pulls together all the surviving evidence, written, archaeological, artistic and ecological, to propose that, in contrast with later periods, Ligurians looked north as much as they gazed out to sea. Genoese history under Byzantines, Lombards, Carolingians and Ottonians is compared with that of other coastal settlements, including Albenga, Noli, Perti and Savona and the less-studied but fascinating inland valleys, the Aveto, Polcevera, Stura and Vara. The book draws also on more than fifteen years of fieldwork in and around the small town of Varese Ligure (La Spezia province) to suggest some new methods for investigating the Dark Age past.

This study is a vital reassessment of neglected medieval ruler King Carloman, who is so often found in the shadow of Charlemagne. Te information we have about him, transmitted by the Carolingian narrative texts or documents, has rarely been investigated before now. Marco Stoffella draws on a wide range of sources including letters, charters and diplomas to show that Carloman played a central political role in the Frankish kingdom which he ruled for three years. Stoffella suggests that it was Carloman, not Charlemagne, who was the Frankish king who married Gerberga, the Lombard princess. This emerging hypothesis leads to a reconsideration of further aspects of both Carloman's and Charlemagne's early careers. Evidence from minor annals that have been relatively disregarded until now, together with a fresh scrutiny of Pippin's and Carloman's diplomas, suggests that it was possibly Carloman rather than Charlemagne who was Pippin's first-born son. Following this interpretation, Carloman, Charlemagne and Dynastic Rivalries in the Eighth Century reflects on the extent and successfulness of Carolingian royal and imperial propaganda which re-shaped the early stages of Charlemagne's career, stressing his authority and blaming Carloman and his followers for the conflicts that emerged in Francia and in Italy between 768 and 771. The pro-Charlemagne sources even obscured the fate of the young king, and completely ignored the destiny of his wife and children. These new findings and arguments are expertly framed here and are of huge significance to our understanding of Charlemagne's conquest of the Lombard kingdom and policy south of the Alps.