Armies and Politics in the Early Medieval West

In these articles Professor Bachrach starts by looking at aspects of the barbarian occupation of the land of the Roman Empire, from Britain to the Alan settlements in southern Gaul. His particular interest, however, is in the political and, above all, in the military structures that grew out of the Early Middle Ages. He has sought to demonstrate that there was a fundamental continuity in military organisation and tactics from the Merovingian through the Carolingian period. As he shows, there is no reason to connect the origins of feudalism with Charles Martels wish to create a force of cavalry, and it is a fallacy that he grasped the potential of the stirrup for enabling mounted shock combat. On the contrary, its use in the West progressed only slowly, and it had nothing to do with the origins or growth of feudalism. Le professeur Bachrach dbute par lanalyse de certains aspects de loccupation barbare des terres de lempire romain, de la Grande-Bretagne aux campements alans en Gaule mridionale. Il sattache en suite aux structures politiques et, surtout, militaires qui furent issues du Haut Moyen Age. Selon lui, et il tente den faire ici la dmonstration, lorganisation et les tactiques militaires ont fait preuve dune continuit fondamentale de lpoque mrovingienne celle des Carolingiens. Comme il le demontre, il ny a pas lieu dtablir de liens entre lorigine du fodalisme et le dsir quavait Charles Martel de crer une cavalerie; il est galement tout fait erron de dire que ce dernier stait rendu compte du potentiel de ltrier en tant que facteur de mener des combats cheval de choc. Bien contraire, lutilisation de ltrier lOuest ne fit que progresser lentement et aucun rapport nexiste entre cet instrument et lorigine ou la croissance de la fodalit.