A subsequent volume will focus on the Capetians, This selection of articles deals with the political and institutional history of France between the 6th and 12th centuries, and is above all concerned with the changing extent of the rulers" power from the rise of the Carolingians onwards. A subsequent volume will focus on the Capetians, while a further pair of volumes deal with economic history. The first studies here examine two general topics: the emergence of Paris as the undisputed capital of France, and the ceremony of Royal coronation and consecration. The following articles, on Carolingian France, reconsider the significance of the battle of Roncevaux and the importance of the region of Neustria, then study the decomposition of the Carolingian empire in Southern France and Catalonia. The last group is concerned with various aspects of the re-expansion of central power under the early Capetian kings and, finally, with the evolution of one of the fundamental organs of medieval municipal government, the "echevinage".