Advocating change: monasteries, territories and justice between East and West Francia, 11th-12th centuries

Abstract

This article looks at the question of the formation of territorial principalities in western Europe through the issue of ecclesiastical advocacy. Using three eleventh-century case-studies (St-Riquier, Bec, Montier-en-Der), it suggests that the different roles that advocacy played in different regions of the former Carolingian empire carried important consequences for subsequent political development. It notes that the importance of advocacy can broadly speaking be mapped along an axis from south and west to north and east, and explores possible explanations for this pattern.