the barbarian west was dominated throughout the period 700–900 by an hereditary aristocracy, that is, by a ruling elite, membership of which depended on birth. Byzantium, by contrast, was not; only towards the end of the eighth century can we see a truly hereditary aristocracy emerging there. But early medieval western society was not dominated by closed castes exclusively based on birth or service. The ruling aristocracies were ‘open’, not monolithic, to the extent that royal patronage could promote lowly men; noble birth did not in itself guarantee a glittering career.

The essentials of the secular aristocratic way of life in the west remain fairly constant from 700 to 900 and indeed beyond: pride in ancestry, possession of landed wealth, leadership and participation in warfare and government, not forgetting conspicuous consumption and hunting. But in this chapter we shall be studying the dynamics of the aristocracy, primarily in the Carolingian realms, by examining its relations with royal patrons and the workings of its family structures. Thus some lines of approach may be opened up that have not been fully covered by the otherwise prodigious work of other scholars on this topic, work to which this chapter is nonetheless heavily indebted.

The expansion of Carolingian rule offered great opportunities to the aristocracy, whose leading members were able to enrich themselves and to widen the scope of their activities. Was this aristocracy therefore a Carolingian creation? An older historiographical tradition stressed the importance of Carolingian patronage together with its restriction to a few favoured families from the Carolingians’ own ‘homeland’ in Austrasia.