Ciarán Fitzwilliam

Ciarán Fitzwilliam was born in County Kildare and studied medieval European history at University College Dublin before spending a decade researching the political cultures of the early medieval German world at libraries and archives in Dublin, Belin, and Regensburg. His particular interest lies in the transition from the Carolingian order to the Ottonian successor states - a period he regards as among the most consequential and least understood in European history. He has written extensively on the Ottonian dynasty, the Magyar wars, and the foundations of the medieval German state, approaching each subject with the conviction that serious history need not sacrifice narrative urgency for scholarly rigour. Henry the Fowler: King of East Francia and Founder of the German State is his most ambitious work to date.