This is a collection of original essays on the relationship between property and power, a fundamental theme in medieval history. It addresses four main issues: the meaning of power over property; the ways in which property conveyed power; the nature of immunities; and the power of royal authority to affect property relations. The areas studied include Wales, England, France, Germany, Italy, and Byzantium, and the essays range across the period 650-1150.

List of maps; Preface; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. The ideology of sharing: apostolic community and ecclesiastical property in the early middle ages David Ganz; 2. Teutsind, Witlaic and the history of Merovingian precaria Ian Wood; 3. Eternal light and earthly needs: practical aspects of the development of Frankish immunities Paul Fouracre; 4. The wary widow Janet Nelson; 5. Lordship and justice in the early English kingdom: Oswaldslow revisited Patrick Wormald; 6. Adding insult to injury: power, property, and immunities in early medieval Wales Wendy Davies; 7. Property transactions and social relations between rulers, bishops and nobles in early eleventh-century Saxony: the evidence of the Vita Meinwerci Timothy Reuter; 8. Monastic exemptions in tenth- and eleventh-century Byzantium Rosemary Morris; 9. Property ownership and signorial power in twelfth-century Tuscany Chris Wickham; 10. Conclusion: property and power in early medieval Europe; Glossary.