Contents: Foreword; Part I History and Hagiography: The work of Audoenos of Rouen and Eligius of Noyon in extending episcopal influence from the town to the country in 7th-century Neustria; Merovingian history and Merovingian hagiography; The origins of the Carolingian attempt to regulate the cult of saints; Forgetting and remembering Dagobert II: the English connection; Why were so many bishops killed in Merovingian Francia? Part II Merovingians and Carolingians: Merovingians, mayors of the palace and the notion of a ’low-born’ Ebroin; The long shadow of the Merovingians; Comparing the resources of Merovingian and Carolingian states: problems and perspectives; The context of the OHG Ludwigslied. Part III Power, Justice and the Maintenance of Order: ’Placita’ and the settlement of disputes in later Merovingian Francia; Carolingian justice: the rhetoric of improvement and contexts of abuse; Eternal light and earthly needs: practical aspects of the development of Frankish immunities; The nature of Frankishpolitical institutions in the 7th century; Cultural conformity and social conservatism in early medieval Europe; Marmoutier and its serfs in the 11th century; The uses of the term beneficium in Frankish sources. A society based on favours?; Index.