The Franks (review)

154 Reviews men who promised them marriage. Yet the case in which a poor woman acquiesced in the demands of a married man in return for 'the making of a petticoat' seems to require a comment on desperate poverty rather than foolishness. M e n he describes as 'youthful sowers of wild oats' (p. 269) but no such exonerating category is offered for women. Ingram shows that penalties in the courts worked in a context of socid reputation. A m o n g the middling sort, convictions led to humiliating penances and costs of proceedings. H e makes a convincing case for the role of the courts in creating the moral framework of Stuart society. This is a good, scholarly book and, for others who want to use the records of the ecclesiasticd courts for a different kind of interrogation, it provides an excellent introduction. Patricia Crawford Department of History University of Western Australia James, E., The Franks (The peoples of Europe), Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1988; pp. xii, 265; 25figures;47 plates; R.R.P. A U S $45.00. Blackwell's series of books on the peoples of Europe began well with volumes on the Mongols and Basques. Expectations roused by these, and the earlier writings of Edward James on the Franks, are not disappointed. This book, which effectively covers the Merovingian period, admirably synthesizes literary, archaeological, toponomistic and other types of evidence, and freely draws comparisons with other barbarian peoples, especially the Anglo-Saxons, in line with so much of the best recent work on the Franks. It is written in a light and chatty style which will certainly hold the interest of students who are not accustomed to positive evaluations of the early Franks. There are few footnotes but the select secondary bibliography will allow readers to take various questions much further. Easy answers to hard questions are avoided: the difficulty of establishing just who the Franks were, a problem which recurs in this book in various contexts, is accepted, as is the ambiguity of the religious persuasion of those buried in settings which could be either Christian or pagan. It is certdnly good to be reminded that the presence of grave goods does not necessarily imply pagan convictions. Indeed, it may be said that the extenttowhich archaeological data is deployed here is detrimental to the kind of hard-and-fast, overly precise, analysis which still mars many expositions of early barbarian history. However, what may appear to be lost in precision is more than made up for in subtlety. One of the strongest features of this book, and one which sets it apart from other recent studies in this area, is that it is generously illustrated, in a way which will encourage an aesthetic response to the unusual beauty of so much of the materid. The presentation will also allow the visual evidence to stand in its own right and be used as primary source material; for example, what is a coin of Reviews 155 Justinian doing set within a Frankish disc brooch of c. 600 now found at Trier? Literary evidence is also used in suggestive ways: the juxtaposition of the negative evaluation of King Chilperic found in Gregory of Tours with Venantius Fortunatus' panegyric of him, and the discussion of Marculf s formulary are particularly effective. Occasionally Homer nods: the Ostrogoths were sent to Itdy by Zeno, not Anastasius (cf p. 95), and I would prefer to see Parthenius as the grandson, rather than son, of bishop Ruricius (p. 107). But these are smdl qdbbles which in no way diminish the enthusiasm with which this book is to be welcomed. John Moorhead Department of History University of Queensland Johnson, P. A., Richard Duke of York 1411-1460, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988; pp. xii, 270; R.R.P. A U S $ 95.00. A politicd biography of Richard duke of York has been a desideratum for some time. H e must certdnly rate as one of the most important politicalfiguresof English history to lack any extended biographical treatment. The problem is not stricdy one of documention. There is a great ded of materid that bears, at least obliquely, on his career. The main difficulty is...