Early medieval militarisation

The societies of ancient Europe underwent a continual process of militarisation, a process that intensified during the early Middle Ages and came to be a defining characteristic of the period. It encompassed features like the lack of demarcation between the military and civil spheres of the population, the significance attributed to weapons beyond their military function and the wide recognition of martial values. This book uses the term 'militarisation' to refer to a process that is neither linear nor mono-causal but impacts on a society as a whole. The underlying concept provides a means to study corresponding societal transformations in their full complexity by taking into account several factors of change at the same time. Assembling twenty-one studies by established and emerging scholars, the book makes original use of both written and archaeological evidence to explore the phenomenon of militarisation and its impact on developments in early medieval England, the Frankish world, Spain, Italy, Scandinavia and Byzantium. Early medieval militarisation applies modern approaches to structural history and the history of mentalities. It offers a wide-ranging alternative to conventional military histories and will be of interest to students and scholars of related fields.