This collection of essays from both established and emerging scholars analyses the dynamic connections between conflict and violence in medieval Italy Together the contributors present a new critique of power that sustained both kingship and locally based elite networks throughout the Italian peninsula A broad temporal range covering the sixth to the twelfth century allows this book to cross a number of traditional fault lines in Italian historiography 774 888 962 and 1025 The essays provide wide ranging analysis of the role of conflict in the period the operation of power and the development of communal consciousness and collective action by protagonists and groups It is thus essential reading for scholars students and general readers who wish to understand the situation on the ground in the medieval Italian environment