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This thesis examines the careers of middling individuals in the Earldom of Chester c.1150 - c.1230. It identifies two key issues with the existing scholarship on medieval careers: firstly, an overreliance on those active in royal circles, and secondly the lack of a comparative approach which examines the similarities and differences in the career experiences of individuals active in different social milieus. This thesis builds on previous scholarship by adopting similar methodological approaches and applying them to a regional study of careers in the Earldom of Chester. One of the first of its kind to do so in this setting, it conducts case studies of individuals drawn from a wide variety of social milieus in Cheshire and the midlands, examining the careers of minor aristocrats, clerics, and burgesses to uncover the common foundations of career success. What is revealed is that a common set of factors underlay career success for individuals in each social milieu this thesis examines, albeit relied upon to differing degrees. These were service to social superiors, networking with others in the local community, and, to a lesser extent, familial links both ancestral and contemporary. In the process, this thesis has shed new light upon the inner workings of the earldom, its networks, and the careers of those within, as well as provided a methodological framework (in its comparative approach) for other studies of medieval careers to expand upon.

This thesis explores imperial representation and authority in early medieval Europe, c. 800 - c. 1000. Twentieth-century historiography surrounding imperial titulature and the exercise of emperorship as a form of rulership distinct from kingship is extensive, especially in German scholarship, where Carl Erdmann's ideas regarding his two proposed categories of early medieval emperorship - Roman and non-Roman - have been debated and developed at length. However, recent scholarship has shown that there is room for significant reinterpretation in our approach to contemporary conceptualisations of both emperorship and romanitas. The present study examines the interactions between emperorship and romanitas, especially the Roman imperial tradition. Four case studies are examined: the imperial coronation of Charlemagne; the reign of Symeon of Bulgaria; the imperial styles of the Anglo-Saxon kings Æthelstan and Edgar; and the evolving imperial representation of the first three Ottonian emperors. Within this comparative framework, it is argued that early medieval imperial authority and its representation drew upon a Roman 'vocabulary of empire' - the imagery and symbolism of both ancient and early medieval (Byzantine) Roman emperorship. However, this was not done out of a desire to become Roman, or to recreate or usurp Roman emperorship. Instead, imperial romanitas was used throughout early medieval Europe as a convenient language through which emperorship as an elevated form of political authority could be expressed. This was deployed alongside a variety of different and evolving meanings that 'Rome' and romanitas could take on - including the idea of Rome as the wellspring of orthodox Christendom, which was becoming increasingly central in the Latin Christian West in this period. At its heart, early medieval imperial authority outside of the Byzantine Empire was hegemonic rather than specifically Roman. Imperial representation generally seemed to revolve around articulating the ruler's special preeminence, and the means by which this was done could change depending on the setting and the audience of the imperial display in question.