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Archaeology
Law Codes
Histories
Roman Records
Overall concern over whom texts written for,by and about
Sources
Ethnic
Geographical/“National”
Kinship
Lordship
Questions of Identity
Family/clan/tribe as primary tie on loyalty
Kinship
Merovingians
Merovech
Impact of family:
Protection - danger of feuds - wergeld
Marriage - limited rights of women
Inheritance
Kinship
Lordship (Voluntary Relationship)
Swear loyalty in return for protection andplunder
Permanent relationship from end 1st c.
Classes: NoblesFreemenFreed-menSlaves
Warrior nobility supported by others
Justice
Popular courts - assemblies of free warriors
Compurgation and ordeal
Assembled people as witnesses to holy rite
Role of Government
Warriors having limited influence on choiceof leadership
Councils of war as “pep rallies”
Limited roles of government: leadership inwar, restraint on feuds
Role of Clergy
Increasingly influential in civic affairs, esp.bishops:
Major leader in diocese
Representative of town’s patron saint
Director of religious festivals: reinforcingloyalties
Some bishops were married
Nobility
Warrior nobility living on estates, supportedby peasantry