Governance of outlying provinces of the early and high medieval polities was never a favorite
topic for either medieval chronicles or modern medievalists. The book Governance of a Distant
Province in the Middle Ages: Case Study on Upper Lusatia by Krzysztof Fokt aims at exploring
this problem in a form of an extreme case study. The region chosen for closer analysis is Upper
Lusatia which in the tenth through twelfth century was the furthest pertinence of German kings
in the Slavic world and for some time also a distant province of other polities: Poland and
Bohemia.The study has been based upon both written and material (archeological and numismatic)
evidence and tries to write some passages of the history of the chosen region anew without
applying the stereotypes present in the three national historiographies engaged (the German
the Czech and the Polish).The main objectives of the book are to identify and comment on the
means that were used to effectively govern a distant province and to recognize the factors
which influenced the strategies applied by particular monarchs and territorial rulers.
Substantial part of the work is also a detailed analysis of the infrastructure of governance
based upon written and material evidence from the eastern part Upper Lusatia (at present
divided between Poland and Germany). Preparation and publication of this book was financially
supported by the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University. Publication
of this book was subsidized by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of
Poland through the National Program for Development of Humanities (NPRH) in the years
2016-2017.
