Those who have been watching the modern use of the jirga in Afghanistan may well be interested in Daniel Eichler's little gem of a study of royal assemblies during the reign (ad 814–40) of Louis the Pious. With clarity and precision, Eichler raises and addresses a series of key questions: does the variation in Carolingian terminology (‘concilium’, ‘conventus’, ‘synodus’, ‘colloquium’, ‘placitum’, or the modifiers ‘generalis’, ‘publicus’) signify distinctions in form or type? Should we distinguish between military and governmental assemblies? Were secular and ecclesiastical purposes and personnel segregated? What was the rôle of the emperor? Were assemblies convened on a predictable schedule? How often and where did they meet? Was Aachen a fixed capital because it was the site of such gatherings? How many participants attended, and what was the real scope of their power? How were assemblies announced, and how great was the obligation to attend? How long did assemblies last? Were there changes in the patterns of assemblies during this period that might illuminate shifting governmental options or opportunities? What sorts of situations did assemblies consider? How were the decisions of assemblies expressed, shaped, reported and used? How should we understand the political value and functions of assemblies? Using well-selected and carefully assessed primary sources, Eichler compiles useful data, presents nuanced evaluation of their meaning, and corrects a number of widely-held but casually-determined interpretations, often rooted in insufficiently critical readings of Hincmar's De ordine palatii. Both concise and wide-ranging, this study presents a view of assemblies that simultaneously refutes any strictly systematic, tightly articulated form or function for assemblies, and proposes that, as sites of legislative, judicial, military and political decisions, assemblies were flexible, viable, effective devices for establishing and maintaining governmental authority. Fränkische Reichsversammlungen is equipped with clear tables and maps showing the dates, sites, types and seasonal patterns of Louis's assemblies and an index. Let us hope that such studies of other regnal periods emerge, as did this one, from Theo Kölzer's Lehrstuhl, to enable us to trace further the development, application and changes in the use of royal assemblies in the Carolingian period.