Governance of a Distant Province in the Middle Ages. Case Study on Upper Lusatia

Abstract

Governance of outlying provinces of the early and high medieval polities was never a favorite topic for either medieval chronicles or modern medievalists. The book “Governance of a Distant Province in the Middle Ages: Case Study on Upper Lusatia” by Krzysztof Fokt aims at exploring this problem in a form of an “extreme case study”. The region chosen for closer analysis is Upper Lusatia, which in the tenth through twelfth century was the furthest pertinence of German kings in the Slavic world and for some time also a distant province of other polities: Poland and Bohemia. The study has been based upon both written and material (archeological and numismatic) evidence, and tries to write some passages of the history of the chosen region anew, without applying the stereotypes present in the three national historiographies engaged (the German, the Czech and the Polish). The main objectives of the book are to identify and comment on the means that were used to effectively govern a distant province and to recognize the factors which influenced the strategies applied by particular monarchs and territorial rulers. Substantial part of the work is also a detailed analysis of the infrastructure of governance, based upon written and material evidence from the eastern part Upper Lusatia (at present divided between Poland and Germany).