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The Salian Century: Main Currents in an Age of Transition (The Middle Ages Series)

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The Salian 's century of rule (1024-1125) witnessed events of paramount importance for the history of medieval Germany. Weinfurter's account of these developments, primarily political and institutional, is always enlightening and occasionally brilliant, particularly in the use of art and architecture to supplement the literary evidence, but not always convincing. Two parallel, competing themes can be traced: the growth of royal power and prestige under the Salian kings on the one hand, opposed by the growing importance and self-assertiveness of the German nobility on the other. The growth of royal power under the Salians is best seen in Weinfurter's account of the reign of Conrad II, the first Salian king. The author demonstrates that the Salian's territorially based lordship and dynastic self-consciousness, combined with the newly evolving concept of transpersonal kingship, aided the new royal family's consolidation of power. Less certain, however, is whether these developments are the novel departure that the author contends they are. Indeed, the evidence presented also supports the argument that Conrad ruled in a manner entirely in keeping with that of his predecessor, albeit one that was more systematic and intensive -precisely what one would expect of a newly established royal family in need of legitimization. The Salian's authority peaked during the reign of Conrad's son, Henry III, only to be followed by a reversal of fortune during the reigns of his grandson and great-grandson, Henry IV and Henry V. This decline of royal authority in the face of the growing confidence and self-assertiveness of the secular and ecclesiastical nobility is the book's other central theme. Although Weinfurter never argues it explicitly, one cannot help but to be struck by the notion that the Salians, so successful in imposing their ideas of dynastic, territorially based, institutionalized lordship upon the German nobility, had those ideas used against them in the noble reaction that followed. This in turn resulted in the rise of the territorial princes, political and juridical decentralization, and the eclipsing of royal power. The very things that made the Salians so successful proved their undoing. The translation of this substantial work is a welcome addition to the literature on this crucial period in German history.