| Sumario: | Traditionally, scholars have depicted the early Ottonian kingdom, ruled by Henry I (919–936) as being deficient in royal administrative structures, particularly those that depended on the use of documents. Instead, Henry is supposed to have ruled his kingdom through a wide range of rituals associated with sacral kingship. However, it long has been recognized that both ecclesiastical and royal estates in the eastern portions of the Carolingian empire, which developed into the early German kingdom, were organized in a manner consistent with the dictates of the famous capitulary de villis. Recent scholarship has made it clear that this capitulary required the production of large numbers of documents, which were crucial both for the administration of individual estates and for the use of these estates by the king. This essay draws out the numerous ways in which Henry I and his officials used the ‘written word’ to administer the king's estates, and shows an important element of royal administration that demonstrates enormous continuities with the adminstrative structures that were in place in the Carolingian Empire.
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