墨洛温王朝中后期“王权虚无论”考议

An Analysis of Nothingness of Royal Power in the Middle and Late Period of Merovingian Dynasty

在中世纪早期法兰克政治史研究领域,传统观点通常是将达戈贝尔一世去世后的百余年称为“懒王时代”,意在表明该时期的墨洛温诸王虽有国王之名,却无国王之权。20世纪中期以来,随着现代史学的发展,一些西方学者从文本信度的角度对此观点进行重新审视,认为墨洛温晚期的诸位国王并不比其列祖列宗更软弱。然而,在对法兰克核心历史文献的相关文字信息进行细致梳理之后可以看出,上述两种说法均存在不同程度的罅隙。实际上,自7世纪中叶开始,尽管墨洛温诸王手中依旧握有一定的显性权力,但是,继承制度的缺陷及其引发的一系列连锁反应都在不断侵蚀墨洛温王室的统治根基。墨洛温王朝中后期王权渐趋衰败是一个不争的事实。

In the studies of the Frankish political history in the early Medieval period,more than one hundred years after the death of Dagobert I are traditionally regarded as″the era of do-nothing kings″(639-751 AD),which means that the Merovingian kings possessed the title of king but wielded no royal power.Since the mid-20th century,with the development of new history,some western scholars have re-examined this point of view from the perspective of text reliability and believed that the last Merovingians were no feebler than their predecessors.However,with an in-depth analysis of the text of the most valuable Frankish historical literature,it is found that the above two views are more or less inadequate.In fact,since the mid-7th century,although most of the kings still held some explicit power,the defects of succession system and a series of problems caused by it were eroding the foundation of the whole Merovingian royal family.It is an indisputable fact that the Merovingian royal power gradually declined in the middle and late periods of the Merovingian dynasty.