Levi Roach
Biographic Data
| ID | 3765969 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Levi Roach |
| GIVEN NAMES | Levi |
| FAMILY NAME | Roach |
| SIGNATURE | ROACH L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Exeter |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9152-5088 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Charting Authority after Empire: Documentary Culture and Political Legitimacy in Post-Carolingian Europe
Research over the past three decades has transformed our understanding of western Europe in the years between the late ninth and early eleventh centuries. It was in this period that recognisable kingdoms of France, Germany and (to an extent) Italy were born; it was also in this period that many of the dynasties that would shape the future of the European mainland were established. Above all, it was in these years that the Carolingian dynasty whic…
Otto der Große 912–973: Kaiser der Römer, König der Völker
Empire of the Normans: Conquerors of Europe
Empire of the Normans: Conquerors of Europe
Anglo-Norman Studies, XLII: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2019, ed. S.D. Church
Journal Article Anglo-Norman Studies, XLII: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2019, ed. S.D. Church Get access Anglo-Norman Studies, XLII: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2019, ed. S.D. Church (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2020; pp. 185. £50). Levi Roach Levi Roach University of Exeter, UK [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9152-5088 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Histo…
Forgery and Memory at the End of the First Millennium
Forging Exemption: Fleury from Abbo to William
This chapter examines how Abbo, the well-connected abbot of Fleury (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire) in the Orléanais, sought out papal protection in the mid-990s. As the terms of the bull he solicited from Gregory V reveal, he was out to remove the monastery almost entirely from established networks of patronage and association. Saint-Benoît would henceforth be an exempt house, answering only to Rome and the pope. This was a dramatic decision, and it was…
Forging Episcopal Identity: Pilgrim at Passau
This chapter details how, in 1854, the young Berlin-educated historian Ernst Dümmler made an arresting discovery: most of the early documents concerning the bishopric of Passau had been forged. What is more, these forgeries could be associated with Bishop Pilgrim, who oversaw the Danube River see between 971 and 991. The chapter then briefly surveys Pilgrim's earliest years. Pilgrim identified Passau not only with an earlier bishopric at Lorch, b…
Forging Liberty: Abingdon and Æthelred
This chapter begins by recounting the time when Abbot Wulfgar of Abingdon set out for the synod of Winchester in spring 993. According to a diploma issued shortly after the synod, Æthelred II publicly admitted to wrongdoing, including the previous sale of Abingdon's abbacy, and committed to amending this. Specifically, he restored the abbey's liberty, apologizing for his earlier infringement of this. Buoyed by the success of the Winchester synod,…
True Lies: Leo of Vercelli and the Struggle for Piedmont
This chapter investigates how the appointment of Leo to the episcopal seat of S. Eusebio opened a new chapter in Vercelli's history. Leo certainly exploited the opportunity of producing his own diplomas to cast Vercelli in the best possible light. In the tumultuous politics of the late ninth century, the see had been sacked at least once, resulting in substantial archival losses. Where elsewhere forgery was used to plug such gaps, Leo resorted to…
Forgery in the Chancery? Bishop Anno at Worms
This chapter discusses the forgeries of Bishop Anno at Worms. The main texts comprised by the Worms forgeries have long been known. But new light is shed on the subject by a privilege of Louis the Pious of 814, which has only recently been the subject of scholarly scrutiny. The diploma in question confirms Worms's immunity and grants its dependents partial exemption from military service — they are only to serve in cases of need, and then are to …
Conclusions
This concluding chapter reflects on how forgery took many forms in western Europe around the year 1000. The forgers of the tenth and eleventh centuries behaved much like the authors of narrative history; they were acutely aware of, yet keen to reduce, the gulf between past and present. Forgery might even be seen as an extension of the classical tradition of rhetorical fiction ( fictio ), which allowed rhetors (and, by extension, historians) a deg…
Forgery and Memory at the End of the First Millennium
Æthelred: The Unready
An imaginative reassessment of Æthelred "the Unready," one of medieval England’s most maligned kings and a major Anglo-Saxon figure The Anglo-Saxon king Æthelred "the Unready" (978–1016) has long been considered to be inscrutable, irrational, and poorly advised. Infamous for his domestic and international failures, Æthelred was unable to fend off successive Viking raids, leading to the notorious St. Brice’s Day Massacre in 1002, during which Dane…
The Ottonians and Italy
The history of the Italian realm between its conquest by Otto I in 961–962 and the death of Otto III in 1002 has been surprisingly neglected. On one hand, Germanophone historians frequently discuss the activities of northern rulers within the region, but do so from the perspective of politics north of the Alps, with little interest in how these experiences shaped Ottonian rule more generally. Italian scholars, on the other, are little interested …
Making Early Medieval Societies: Conflict and Belonging in the Latin West, 300–1200, ed. Kate Cooper and Conrad Leyser
The volume under review originated in a conference held in Manchester in 2005 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Max Gluckman’s influential ‘Peace in the Feud’. Though only one of the constituent chapters was originally presented at the conference, the contributors seek to further the themes discussed there, probing our understanding of western (or ‘Latin’) Europe between Late Antiquity and the central Middle Ages. As Con…
Aethelred: The Unready
"Medieval historian Levi Roach suggests that the king has been wrongly maligned all along. Drawing on extensive research, Roach argues that Æthelred was driven by pious concerns about sin, society and the anticipated apocalypse, and that his strategies, in this light, were to honour God and find redemption. Chronologically charting Æthelred's life, illuminating his place in England and Europe at the start of the first millennium, this book is a .…
Feudalism
The Middle Ages without Feudalism: Essays in Criticism and Comparison on the Medieval West, by Susan Reynolds
For almost half a century, Susan Reynolds has been one of the most important and influential medieval historians working within the UK. The present volume, which brings together fifteen previously published articles (spanning the years 1997–2007) and two unpublished pieces, marks a welcome addition to her œuvre. As the title suggests, the volume’s articles all stand in some relationship with Reynolds’s famed attack on ‘feudalism’ and therefore sh…
Apocalypse and Atonement in the Politics of Æthelredian England
This paper discusses contemporary responses to the events of the reign of King Æthelred II (“the Unready”) of England (978–1016). It focuses on two particularly well-evidenced interpretations of the tribulations of the age: the penitential view of these as divine punishment, which might be lifted by an appropriate form of atonement; and the apocalyptic view of them as signs of the approaching Last Judgement and end of time. These have traditional…
Kingship and Consent in Anglo-Saxon England, 871–978: Assemblies and the State in the Early Middle Ages
This engaging study focuses on the role of assemblies in later Anglo-Saxon politics, challenging and nuancing existing models of the late Anglo-Saxon state. Its ten chapters investigate both traditional constitutional aspects of assemblies - who attended these events, where and when they met, and what business they conducted - and the symbolic and representational nature of these gatherings. Levi Roach takes into account important recent work on …
Kingship and Consent in Anglo-Saxon England, 871-978: Assemblies and the State in the Early Middle Ages
Emperor Otto Iii and the End of Time
There has been much controversy over the role of apocalyptic thought at the court of Otto III of Germany (983–1002). This is in no small part a product of modern scholarship discussing the subject almost exclusively with reference to the so-called ‘terrors of the year 1000’, the result being highly polarised ‘all or nothing’ arguments, which run the risk of underestimating both the complexity and dynamism of eschatological expectation in this per…
Penitential Discourse in the Diplomas of King Æthelred ‘the Unready’
This article consists of a detailed study of a series of extraordinary diplomas issued by King Æthelred ‘the Unready’ during the 990s. These diplomas restore lands and rights to churches which had earlier been despoiled by the king and his advisors and their wording indicates that they were intended as a conscious gesture of penitence. As such, the documents were of central political importance and it is argued that they can be fruitfully mined f…
Law codes and legal norms in later Anglo-Saxon England: Law codes and legal norms in later Anglo-Saxon England
This article seeks to provide a fresh perspective on long-standing debates about the role of the written word in later Anglo-Saxon legal culture. Using the law codes of King AEthelstan's reign as a ‘case study’, it argues that many of the unusual features of early English law are not so much products of orality, as of a fundamentally different approach to legal norms than is prevalent in the modern Western world. It thus seeks to move beyond rece…
Public rites and public wrongs: Ritual aspects of diplomas in tenth- and eleventh-century England
This paper investigates the symbolic nature of tenth- and eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon diplomas, arguing that they are important witnesses to public rituals of conveyance. Against this background we can more fully appreciate the significance of Æthelred II's diplomas of the 990s restoring lands to religious houses which had suffered at his hands. It is argued that these documents are witnesses to an important ‘penitential programme’ involving mul…
Apocalypse and Atonement in the Politics of Æthelredian England
This paper discusses contemporary responses to the events of the reign of King Æthelred II (“the Unready”) of England (978–1016). It focuses on two particularly well-evidenced interpretations of the tribulations of the age: the penitential view of these as divine punishment, which might be lifted by an appropriate form of atonement; and the apocalyptic view of them as signs of the approaching Last Judgement and end of time. These have traditional…
Penitential Discourse in the Diplomas of King Æthelred ‘the Unready’
This article consists of a detailed study of a series of extraordinary diplomas issued by King Æthelred ‘the Unready’ during the 990s. These diplomas restore lands and rights to churches which had earlier been despoiled by the king and his advisors and their wording indicates that they were intended as a conscious gesture of penitence. As such, the documents were of central political importance and it is argued that they can be fruitfully mined f…
Law codes and legal norms in later Anglo-Saxon England: Law codes and legal norms in later Anglo-Saxon England
This article seeks to provide a fresh perspective on long-standing debates about the role of the written word in later Anglo-Saxon legal culture. Using the law codes of King AEthelstan's reign as a ‘case study’, it argues that many of the unusual features of early English law are not so much products of orality, as of a fundamentally different approach to legal norms than is prevalent in the modern Western world. It thus seeks to move beyond rece…
The Ottonians and Italy
The history of the Italian realm between its conquest by Otto I in 961–962 and the death of Otto III in 1002 has been surprisingly neglected. On one hand, Germanophone historians frequently discuss the activities of northern rulers within the region, but do so from the perspective of politics north of the Alps, with little interest in how these experiences shaped Ottonian rule more generally. Italian scholars, on the other, are little interested …
Emperor Otto Iii and the End of Time
There has been much controversy over the role of apocalyptic thought at the court of Otto III of Germany (983–1002). This is in no small part a product of modern scholarship discussing the subject almost exclusively with reference to the so-called ‘terrors of the year 1000’, the result being highly polarised ‘all or nothing’ arguments, which run the risk of underestimating both the complexity and dynamism of eschatological expectation in this per…
Submission and Homage: Feudo‐Vassalic Bonds and the Settlement of Disputes in Ottonian Germany
This article seeks to shed light on the role of feudo‐vassalic relations in Ottonian Germany, approaching the subject from the angle of the role that homage played in dispute settlement. Taking as its starting point two descriptions of acts of submission which involved the ritual of homage, it argues that neither can sustain a traditional feudo‐vassalic interpretation; it would seem that homage was used in such contexts not because the parties in…
Hosting the king: Hospitality and the royal iter in tenth-century England
Traditional studies of royal itinerancy have depended on locating the king’s progress through his kingdom(s) as precisely as possible and it should therefore not surprise that the iter regis in pre-conquest England has received relatively little attention, since Anglo-Saxon diplomas only rarely record their date and place of issue, making the establishment of the royal itinerary all but impossible. However, more recent studies, particularly by Ge…
Anglo-Saxon and related entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) , originally designated the New Dictionary of National Biography , was published in 2004 as a successor to the renowned Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) , edited by Sir Leslie Stephen (1832–1904) and itself published in sixty-three volumes between 1885 and 1900, with supplements. All of the subjects in the old DNB were retained for the ODNB ; new entries were commissioned for a significant …
Hosting the king: Hospitality and the royal iter in tenth-century England
Traditional studies of royal itinerancy have depended on locating the king’s progress through his kingdom(s) as precisely as possible and it should therefore not surprise that the iter regis in pre-conquest England has received relatively little attention, since Anglo-Saxon diplomas only rarely record their date and place of issue, making the establishment of the royal itinerary all but impossible. However, more recent studies, particularly by Ge…
Public rites and public wrongs: Ritual aspects of diplomas in tenth- and eleventh-century England
This paper investigates the symbolic nature of tenth- and eleventh-century Anglo-Saxon diplomas, arguing that they are important witnesses to public rituals of conveyance. Against this background we can more fully appreciate the significance of Æthelred II's diplomas of the 990s restoring lands to religious houses which had suffered at his hands. It is argued that these documents are witnesses to an important ‘penitential programme’ involving mul…
Penance, submission and deditio: Religious influences on dispute settlement in later Anglo-Saxon England (871–1066)
Starting with evidence from law-codes, this article traces how penance was increasingly integrated into later Anglo-Saxon legal culture, arguing that this process opened the way for ritualized acts of satisfaction to become a regular feature of contemporary dispute settlement. The rituals used in such contexts often borrowed symbols and concepts from the world of penance, with the central idea being that an offender who repented and humbled himse…
Submission and Homage: Feudo‐Vassalic Bonds and the Settlement of Disputes in Ottonian Germany
This article seeks to shed light on the role of feudo‐vassalic relations in Ottonian Germany, approaching the subject from the angle of the role that homage played in dispute settlement. Taking as its starting point two descriptions of acts of submission which involved the ritual of homage, it argues that neither can sustain a traditional feudo‐vassalic interpretation; it would seem that homage was used in such contexts not because the parties in…
Wills and Will‐Making in Anglo‐Saxon England – By Linda Tollerton
Kingship and Consent in Anglo-Saxon England, 871–978: Assemblies and the State in the Early Middle Ages
This engaging study focuses on the role of assemblies in later Anglo-Saxon politics, challenging and nuancing existing models of the late Anglo-Saxon state. Its ten chapters investigate both traditional constitutional aspects of assemblies - who attended these events, where and when they met, and what business they conducted - and the symbolic and representational nature of these gatherings. Levi Roach takes into account important recent work on …
Kingship and Consent in Anglo-Saxon England, 871-978: Assemblies and the State in the Early Middle Ages
Emperor Otto Iii and the End of Time
There has been much controversy over the role of apocalyptic thought at the court of Otto III of Germany (983–1002). This is in no small part a product of modern scholarship discussing the subject almost exclusively with reference to the so-called ‘terrors of the year 1000’, the result being highly polarised ‘all or nothing’ arguments, which run the risk of underestimating both the complexity and dynamism of eschatological expectation in this per…
Penitential Discourse in the Diplomas of King Æthelred ‘the Unready’
This article consists of a detailed study of a series of extraordinary diplomas issued by King Æthelred ‘the Unready’ during the 990s. These diplomas restore lands and rights to churches which had earlier been despoiled by the king and his advisors and their wording indicates that they were intended as a conscious gesture of penitence. As such, the documents were of central political importance and it is argued that they can be fruitfully mined f…
Law codes and legal norms in later Anglo-Saxon England: Law codes and legal norms in later Anglo-Saxon England
This article seeks to provide a fresh perspective on long-standing debates about the role of the written word in later Anglo-Saxon legal culture. Using the law codes of King AEthelstan's reign as a ‘case study’, it argues that many of the unusual features of early English law are not so much products of orality, as of a fundamentally different approach to legal norms than is prevalent in the modern Western world. It thus seeks to move beyond rece…
Apocalypse and Atonement in the Politics of Æthelredian England
This paper discusses contemporary responses to the events of the reign of King Æthelred II (“the Unready”) of England (978–1016). It focuses on two particularly well-evidenced interpretations of the tribulations of the age: the penitential view of these as divine punishment, which might be lifted by an appropriate form of atonement; and the apocalyptic view of them as signs of the approaching Last Judgement and end of time. These have traditional…
Feudalism
The Middle Ages without Feudalism: Essays in Criticism and Comparison on the Medieval West, by Susan Reynolds
For almost half a century, Susan Reynolds has been one of the most important and influential medieval historians working within the UK. The present volume, which brings together fifteen previously published articles (spanning the years 1997–2007) and two unpublished pieces, marks a welcome addition to her œuvre. As the title suggests, the volume’s articles all stand in some relationship with Reynolds’s famed attack on ‘feudalism’ and therefore sh…
Aethelred: The Unready
"Medieval historian Levi Roach suggests that the king has been wrongly maligned all along. Drawing on extensive research, Roach argues that Æthelred was driven by pious concerns about sin, society and the anticipated apocalypse, and that his strategies, in this light, were to honour God and find redemption. Chronologically charting Æthelred's life, illuminating his place in England and Europe at the start of the first millennium, this book is a .…
The Ottonians and Italy
The history of the Italian realm between its conquest by Otto I in 961–962 and the death of Otto III in 1002 has been surprisingly neglected. On one hand, Germanophone historians frequently discuss the activities of northern rulers within the region, but do so from the perspective of politics north of the Alps, with little interest in how these experiences shaped Ottonian rule more generally. Italian scholars, on the other, are little interested …
Making Early Medieval Societies: Conflict and Belonging in the Latin West, 300–1200, ed. Kate Cooper and Conrad Leyser
The volume under review originated in a conference held in Manchester in 2005 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Max Gluckman’s influential ‘Peace in the Feud’. Though only one of the constituent chapters was originally presented at the conference, the contributors seek to further the themes discussed there, probing our understanding of western (or ‘Latin’) Europe between Late Antiquity and the central Middle Ages. As Con…
Æthelred: The Unready
An imaginative reassessment of Æthelred "the Unready," one of medieval England’s most maligned kings and a major Anglo-Saxon figure The Anglo-Saxon king Æthelred "the Unready" (978–1016) has long been considered to be inscrutable, irrational, and poorly advised. Infamous for his domestic and international failures, Æthelred was unable to fend off successive Viking raids, leading to the notorious St. Brice’s Day Massacre in 1002, during which Dane…
Forgery and Memory at the End of the First Millennium
Forging Exemption: Fleury from Abbo to William
This chapter examines how Abbo, the well-connected abbot of Fleury (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire) in the Orléanais, sought out papal protection in the mid-990s. As the terms of the bull he solicited from Gregory V reveal, he was out to remove the monastery almost entirely from established networks of patronage and association. Saint-Benoît would henceforth be an exempt house, answering only to Rome and the pope. This was a dramatic decision, and it was…
Forging Episcopal Identity: Pilgrim at Passau
This chapter details how, in 1854, the young Berlin-educated historian Ernst Dümmler made an arresting discovery: most of the early documents concerning the bishopric of Passau had been forged. What is more, these forgeries could be associated with Bishop Pilgrim, who oversaw the Danube River see between 971 and 991. The chapter then briefly surveys Pilgrim's earliest years. Pilgrim identified Passau not only with an earlier bishopric at Lorch, b…
Forging Liberty: Abingdon and Æthelred
This chapter begins by recounting the time when Abbot Wulfgar of Abingdon set out for the synod of Winchester in spring 993. According to a diploma issued shortly after the synod, Æthelred II publicly admitted to wrongdoing, including the previous sale of Abingdon's abbacy, and committed to amending this. Specifically, he restored the abbey's liberty, apologizing for his earlier infringement of this. Buoyed by the success of the Winchester synod,…
True Lies: Leo of Vercelli and the Struggle for Piedmont
This chapter investigates how the appointment of Leo to the episcopal seat of S. Eusebio opened a new chapter in Vercelli's history. Leo certainly exploited the opportunity of producing his own diplomas to cast Vercelli in the best possible light. In the tumultuous politics of the late ninth century, the see had been sacked at least once, resulting in substantial archival losses. Where elsewhere forgery was used to plug such gaps, Leo resorted to…
Forgery in the Chancery? Bishop Anno at Worms
This chapter discusses the forgeries of Bishop Anno at Worms. The main texts comprised by the Worms forgeries have long been known. But new light is shed on the subject by a privilege of Louis the Pious of 814, which has only recently been the subject of scholarly scrutiny. The diploma in question confirms Worms's immunity and grants its dependents partial exemption from military service — they are only to serve in cases of need, and then are to …
Conclusions
This concluding chapter reflects on how forgery took many forms in western Europe around the year 1000. The forgers of the tenth and eleventh centuries behaved much like the authors of narrative history; they were acutely aware of, yet keen to reduce, the gulf between past and present. Forgery might even be seen as an extension of the classical tradition of rhetorical fiction ( fictio ), which allowed rhetors (and, by extension, historians) a deg…
History (23 works) · Medieval Literature and History (20 works) · Political science (19 works) · Law (18 works) · History (13 works) · Archaeology (12 works) · Classics (11 works) · Politics (11 works) · Ancient history (10 works) · Art (10 works)