REVIEW: The Crisis of the Twelfth Century: Power, Lordship, and the Origins of European Government

Review by Dr Theo Riches - Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, first published on history.ac.uk

“Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies?” – Augustine, City of God, IV.4.

With this new book Thomas N. Bisson is nothing if not ambitious. By his own account it is in part an answer to a point made over ten years ago by the…