In this biography of the German emperor Conrad II (990–1039), internationally renowned medievalist Herwig Wolfram paints a fascinating portrait of a consummate politician set against the background of a Europe entering a new millennium. Conrad was the founder of the Salian Dynasty, under whose almost century-long dominion Germany became the most powerful state in Western Europe. He was also the first emperor of the high Middle Ages to rule the three kingdoms of Germany, Italy, and Burgundy.
Conrad’s reign marked the triumph of the concept of “kingdom” and the zenith of what has been termed “imperial grandeur.” He broadened the internal bases of imperial power and brought the full weight of his office to bear upon popes, clerics, and abbots in the pursuit of his ecclesiastical policies. His astounding ability to achieve his political goals was practically unparalleled among the emperors of the High Middle Ages. 
Wolfram sees Conrad as a politician in almost the modern sense of the word, capable of exploiting the political, social, and economic structures of his day in order to exert his authority and marginalize his opponents. The result is an intimate portrait filled with fresh insights about Conrad and his consort, Gisela, who—as Wolfram demonstrates—played an influential advisory role with her husband. First published in 2000, this work demonstrates Wolfram’s masterly command of the sources and the storyteller’s craft, making Conrad II a compelling history of an emperor and his magnificent epoch.

Conrad II, 990–1039: Emperor of Three Kingdoms

Biographies & Memoirs

Wolfram, Herwig

Historical

Penn State University Press

Wolfram, Herwig; Tr. By Thomas Dunlap, History Of The Goths

History of the Goths

History

Translated by Thomas J. Dunlap

Americas

University of California Press

Incorporating exciting new material that has come to light since the last German edition of 1980, Herwig Wolfram places Gothic history within its proper context of late Roman society and institutions. He demonstrates that the barbarian world of the Goths was both a creation of and an essential element of the late Roman Empire.

Dunlap, Thomas J.

Ancient Civilizations

The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples

An account of the Germanic peoples and their kingdom between the 3rd and 8th centuries, as they invaded, settled in and transformed the Roman empire.

The names of early Germanic warrior tribes and leaders resound in songs and legends; the real story of the part they played in reshaping the ancient world is no less gripping. Herwig Wolfram's panoramic history spans the great migrations of the Germanic peoples and the rise and fall of their kingdoms between the third and eighth centuries, as they invaded, settled in, and ultimately transformed the Roman Empire. As Germanic military kings and their fighting bands created kingdoms, and won political and military recognition from imperial governments through alternating confrontation and accommodation, the "tribes" lost their shared culture and social structure, and became sharply differentiated. They acquired their own regions and their own histories, which blended with the history of the empire. In Wolfram's words, "the Germanic peoples neither destroyed the Roman world nor restored it; instead, they made a home for themselves within it." This story is far from the "decline and fall" interpretation that held sway until recent decades. Wolfram's narrative, based on his sweeping grasp of documentary and archaeological evidence, brings new clarity to a poorly understood period of Western history.

Dunlap, Thomas

Medieval kingship

Examines the origins and reasons for the predominance of royal rule in medieval Europe and traces the rise and decline of feudalism

Medieval Kingship

Politics & Social Sciences

Myers, Henry A.

Politics & Government

Nelson/Hall

HISTORY OF THE GOTHS, New and completely Revised from the Second German Edition

Europe

UNIV OF CA PRESS+

Histoire des Goths

Reference

Language Study & Reference

ALBIN MICHEL

Who were the Germanic tribes? What was the Migration Period? What is European continuity? The history of the Roman Empire and its Germanic tribes ended the migration of the nations. The Roman state gave up the monopoly on violence. Tax collection has been privatized. The general Justinian imperial law applied in Byzantine Rome and Ravenna, but no longer in Longobard Pavia and Milan, even less on the Rhine and Danube and on the British Isles. The cities shrank, the provincialization increased. Herwig Wolfram describes in this book the emergence, the duration and the history of the Germanic kingdoms that took over the legacy of Rome. The history of these forms of rule, their supposed splendor and their tragic demise, which only the Franconian Empire could avoid, still arouse our interest. The author introduces the origins and myths, life and work of the Teutons, portrays their tribes and tells the story of the "migration of the nations". A basic and knowledgeable account of the Germanic world, which contributes to a deeper understanding of this world.

Das Romerreich Und Seine Germanen: Eine Erzahlung Von Herkunft Und Ankunft (German Edition)

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Gmbh & Co

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Books by Wolfram, Herwig