ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Boniface was not an isolated figure but rather that he was in fact himself an active figure within the Frankish establishment and that he helped to create Carolingian elite. It examines Boniface from three angles: communication and contacts; the court; the making of a new Frankish empire. Boniface's need for patronage was thus the very thing that made him known to the aristocracy. Boniface's condemnation of the exuberantly aristocratic qualities of Frankish churchmen was communicated to and internalised by that church itself. Boniface, then, encountered a court in transition, one that was sensitive to the nuances of new claims of power and authority. Boniface had helped to build such a palatium for the Frankish elite. The Frankish princeps was permitted to have one or two bishops with him, with priests and capellani, and each prefectus was to have one priest with him.
