"What if... Charlemagne's other sons had survived?" Charlemagne's sons and the problems of royal succession

"Was wäre, wenn... die anderen Söhne Karls des Großen überlebt hätten?" Die Söhne Karls des Großen und Probleme der Herrschaftsnachfolg

[journal article]

Ohnacker, Elke

(562 KByte)

Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-286785

Abstract	'The article is concerned with the problem of Early and Medieval royal succession in different circumstances: the death of two of Charlemagne's designated heirs in 810 and 811, the succession of Louis the Pious in 814 and the conflicts between Louis and his sons resulting in Louis's deposition in 833 and the division of the Carolingian Empire. Counterfactuals are employed in the interpretation of the events surrounding and leading up to the central political and legal problems of royal and imperial succession. Asking questions like 'What if... event x would not have taken place?' and - if possible - developing likely and less likely scenarios proves to be a valuable tool of historic research, especially with regard to the Early Middle Ages' grave lack of written sources. The overall effect of a methodic use of counterfactuals in this form is a d-construction or what still may be seen as a 'logical succession' of events.' (author's abstract)
Keywords	historical development; historical analysis; method; thinking; domination; crisis; science of history; Europe; Western Europe; historiography; guarantee of domination; middle ages; problem; son
Classification	Research Design; General History
Method	historical
Document language	English
Publication Year	2009
Page/Pages	p. 184-202
Journal	Historical Social Research, 34 (2009) 2
Status	Published Version; reviewed
Licence	Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications
Document Type	journal article