Unjust Seizure: Conflict, Interest, and Authority in an Early Medieval Society (review)

Unjust Seizure is a study of dispute resolution in eighth- and ninth-century Bavaria, a region that extended roughly from the Regensburg on the Danube south to Salzburg and beyond in modern Austria. The choice of topic responds to an ongoing debate among medievalists about the effectiveness of Carolingian institutions —in particular, the comital court—as mechanisms for securing public order. Since Frankish rule arrived in this region only in the late eighth century, the choice of Bavaria means that Brown can study disputing before the Carolingians, observe the effect of the imposition of Carolingian forms of government under Charlemagne, and trace the subsequent history of Carolingian institutions in Bavaria across the reigns of Louis the Pious, Charlemagne's son, and Louis the German, Charlemagne's grandson.

Brown finds that in the eighth century, under the Agilolfing dukes of Bavaria, disputes were generally resolved without recourse to the courts. Some conflicts resulted in violence, and others were compromised. The outside authorities who did intervene were as likely to be local bishops as dukes. In either case, the bishop's or duke's role was that of a mediator rather than a judge. Carolingian rule, beginning in 791, introduced a new factor in the form of royal missi. These individuals were often members of the same local families that had been prominent under the Agilolfings, but now they acted with the enhanced authority of a royal or imperial mandate, employing formal judicial proceedings on a regular basis. Archbishop Arn of Salzburg, to whose activities Brown devotes a chapter, appears in records of fifteen judicial assemblies during this period, acting widely throughout the territories in his capacity of missus. The formulaic character of the evidence leaves room for suspicion that judicial decrees often, or usually, ratified settlements already reached, rather than imposing new judgments. Other evidence (discussed in Chapter 5) suggests that older patterns of compromise and submission survived alongside the new Carolingian institutions. After the death of Charlemagne, however, the role of royal representatives apparently receded; records of court actions become progressively rare during the reigns of Louis the Pious and Louis the German. Brown concludes that the ability of Carolingian kings "to influence people's behavior, through a set of statelike institutions, was relatively short-lived" (197).

Although the book jacket promises a work that draws upon studies of dispute resolution and colonization by anthropologists and political scientists, the author himself makes no such claims. In fact, Unjust Seizure is principally devoted to the careful analysis of the various kinds of evidence available—mainly charters but also some capitularies, saint's lives, and other narrative sources. It is hard to see how another strategy would have been possible; the difficulties of the available evidence are formidable. Not only is most of the documentary evidence drawn from a few large collections, but the rules governing the preparation of documents appear to have shifted over time. It is not always certain whether the facts have changed or the formulas employed to describe them. The author does a good job of linking his findings with those who have written about dispute settlement in the early Middle Ages. Specialists in this area will principally benefit from this study.