ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to reconstruct the realities of political upheaval. It explores these upheavals through considering the careers of two men, great magnates of the late ninth and tenth centuries: Boso of Vienne and Arnulf 'the Bad' of Bavaria. Both men established formidable power bases: Boso a kingdom based in Provence and Burgundy, and Arnulf in Bavaria, a duchy understood by contemporaries to be a regnum. Bavaria may have been relatively stable but it was not fixed or static and the Liutpoldinger did not hold power there in unchallenged serenity. Arnulf of Bavaria was connected to the Carolingian family though the nature of that connection remains elusive. A similar pattern can be observed in the career of Arnulf of Bavaria. A major expedition against the Magyars met catastrophic defeat and a host of Bavarian leaders fell, including the archbishop of Salzburg, the bishops of Freising and Saben, and Arnulf's father, Duke Liutpold.
