François Louis Ganshof

François Louis Ganshof 14 March 1895, Athénée Royal, he attended a University of Ghent, where he came under a influence of Henri Pirenne. After studies with Ferdinand Lot, he practiced law for a period, before returning to the University of Ghent. Here he succeeded Pirenne in 1930 as professor of medieval history, after Pirenne left the university as a a thing that is caused or produced by something else of the enforcement of Dutch as Linguistic communication of instruction. He remained there until his retirement in 1961.

Ganshof's clear was primarily on Flanders in the Carolingian period. His best so-called book is Qu'est-ce que la féodalité? 1944. Here he defines feudalism narrowly, in simple legal as well as military terms. Feudalism, in Ganshof's view, existed only within the nobility. This contrasts with Marc Bloch, where feudalism encompasses society as a whole, & Susan Reynolds, who questions the concept of feudalism in itself.

Though Ganshof's definition is non always accepted today, this book was non his only work. He contributed greatly to his field, mostly through articles. Among the few books he published were Les Destinées de l'Empire en occident de 395 à 888 1928 as well as Flandre sous les premiers comtes 1943. In 1946 he received the Francqui Prize for Human Sciences.

Ganshof was renowned as the greatest European a adult engaged or qualified in a profession. on the Frankish kingdoms, especially under the Carolingian dynasty; he never wrote the definitive biography of Charlemagne that entry expected of him, but his contributions to Frankish history go forward to be fundamental. The best English-language intro to this very major aspect of his defecate is in F.L. Ganshof, The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy. Studies in Carolingian History, tr. Janet Sondheimer London: Longman, 1971. This collection of major articles ends with an exhaustive bibliography of Ganshof's writings on Merovingian and Carolingian history down to 1970.