Marchfield (assembly)
The Marchfield (
Latin: Campus Martius), later called the Mayfield (Campus Madius), was an annual assembly of the Franks between the 6th and 8th centuries and of the Lombards
in the 8th century.
There is no reference to an annual "field of March" (campus Martius) from the
Carolingian period (751–888).[1] The evidence for the Marchfield in the Merovingian period is indirect. For example, King Childebert II (575–596) promulgated edicts at three assemblies on March 1 in the last decade of his reign.[2] The assembly may not have happened every year nor necessarily opened March 1, but there was an expectation that a major assembly would be held around that time.[3]
The Marchfield was a military and political assembly and men came armed.capitularies.[4]
The Marchfield appears to have been instituted in Lombard Italy in the 8th century. This was an assembly for enacting laws. All of the dated laws of kings
References
- ^
- ^
- ^ Janet L. Nelsonand Marios Costambeys (eds.), The Medieval World, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge), pp. 511–529, at 514.
- ^ J. P. Whitney (eds.), The Cambridge Medieval History, Volume II: The Rise of the Saracens and the Foundation of the Western Empire (New York: Macmillan), pp. 133–158, at 135.
- ^ a b Guy Halsall (2003), Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450–900 (New York: Routledge), pp. 43, 82, 128, 135 and 145.
Further reading
- Stoclet, Alain J. Du Champ de Mars mérovingien au Champ de Mai carolingien: Éclairages sur un objet fugace et une réforme de Pépin, dit «le Bref».Brepols, 2020.