The Historians' Sketchpad

Among the projects I’ve been working on recently is an introduction to Carolingian diplomacy for an edited volume on late antique diplomacy (the publication date is a long way off so more details closer to then).

Today on the blog, the arrival of The Carolingian South, published by Manchester University Press, edited by myself and the inimitable Graeme Ward, and featuring a wonderful collection of contributions, including one from The Historian’s Sketchpad’s very…

Photo of Rosamond McKitterick, taken by the author on 1 February 2020 overlooking the Forum at Rome.

In the year 756 ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Muʿawiya entered the city of Córdoba and declared himself to be the new emir.

Those of you who have been following the blog for a few years might remember about eighteen months ago, when I posted something saying that the general understanding of the succession crisis after the death of Duke Henry of Burgundy in 1002 was wrong.

As a general rule, if what an official diplomatic document is saying is at all interesting, something has gone horribly wrong.

…Scholars and professional researchers, on the other hand, have to actually make a considerable effort to remain so ignorant.

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I have been thinking about the politics of the Caliphate in the late ninth century, with a particular focus on relations between the ʿAbbasids in Baghdad and the various military dynasties that had taken…

Empires transform the populations they rule, binding them into a changed order with new patterns of power and ways of thinking, connecting them to a wider world.

In his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, foe of the blog Edward Gibbon (d. 1794) began discussing Charlemagne by observing that ‘The appellation of great has been often bestowed, and sometimes deserved.’