A couple of books have arrived over the last few days and “I am excited”!

Firstly this scholarly work on the Frankish Kingdoms:

Bachrach makes the point that for the Early Carolingian armies to have been successful there needed to be a complex military, political and social structure in place. As far as I know this is the only book which comprehensively looks at the way in which the Early Frankish dynasties established their power and developed there military expertise which eventually enabled Charlemagne to revive the Western Roman Empire.

The book has extensive notes, bibliography and Index which makes searching for events or people very easy.

This is not one that I will ever read “cover to cover” but to have on your shelf as a reference it is priceless.

I cannot recommend this one enough to anyone interested in 8th century Anglo Saxon history.

Another one from the same time period tomorrow.