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Types of charters 4: confirmations and disputes

About 12% of our charters record confirmations. A charter of confirmation is quite simply an endorsement of a previous grant or an existing possession, agreement or other right. Many royal diplomas confirm the rights and possessions of religious houses, as these were keenly sought by bishops and abbots when an opportunity to meet the king arose. Confirmations could equally be sought by institutions and lay people in order to reiterate or clarify a previous donation or privilege. These charters often had the effect of reaffirming or renewing a social, political, economic or spiritual relationship between two parties. A confirmation might also be granted if an original document had been lost or destroyed.

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Types of charters 3: sales and exchanges

Continuing our tour of Carolingian charters, today we look briefly at sales and exchanges.

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Types of charters 2: leases and precarial grants

This week, we’re going to look at a type of conditional property grant which became fairly widespread in Frankish Europe.

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Types of charters 1: property grants

Early medieval charters document a wide range of transactions. In the next few instalments, this blog will examine a few of the most common types of activities recorded in the charters preserved from Charlemagne’s reign and explore the contexts of the production of these documents.

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What is a charter?

This is the first in a series of blog posts intended to introduce some basic aspects of both 'The Making of Charlemagne’s Europe' and the age of Charlemagne itself. Here we'll explain what we’re doing and what users will be able to do with our database. We'll also offer primers on some important facets of early medieval life in order to help users understand the material they find in the database.

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