interpretations, which a generation earlier might have been deemed merely "conservative-traditionalist", were being critiqued, if at all, merely as "old-fashioned". Kern's earlier published work, setting out a curiously deterministic vision of the expansion, during the early and middle medieval periods, of what later became the highly centralised French state, became a standard work and has in some ways retained the respect of subsequent scholars more effectively than some of his more recent and more ambitiously scoped works. For German scholars there is an obvious contrast to be drawn with the success of the decentralised evolution of the Holy Roman empire and its successors. Nevertheless, the patterns identified by Kern also attract dissent. In 2009 Jean-Marie Moeglin wrote an essay in which he evaluated and dismissed as "myth" Kern's thesis of a French "expansionist policy" during the medieval period at the expense of "the empire". Personal In 1909 Fritz Kern became engaged to and then married Bertha the sixth recorded child and youngest daughter of the recently deceased philosopher Eduard von Hartmann (1842–1906). The marriage would be followed in due course by the births of two daughters, and Gisela, along with one son, Berthold. Fritz Kern's first marriage ended in divorce in 1941. Later that same year he married Elisabeth Charlotte Ahrens (1904 - ), the daughter of Dr. Reinhold Ahrens, a health official from Remscheid. The marriage was followed by the birth of the couple's son, Fritz Kern's fourth recorded child and second son. Published output (selection) Dorsualkonzept und Imbreviatur. Zur Geschichte der Notariatsurkunde in Italien, doctoral dissertation, Berlin 1906. Die Anfänge der französischen Ausdehnungspolitik bis zum Jahr 1308. Mohr, Tübingen 1910. als Herausgeber: Acta Imperii Angliae et Franciae ab anno 1267 ad annum 1313. Dokumente vornehmlich zur Geschichte der auswärtigen Beziehungen Deutschlands. Mohr, Tübingen 1911 (reprinted. Olms, Hildesheim and others 1973, ). Gottesgnadentum und Widerstandsrecht im früheren Mittelalter. Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Monarchie (= Mittelalterliche Studien. vol. 1, H. 2, ). Koehler, Leipzig 1914 (7th edition, unchanged reprint of the 2nd edition of 1954. Produced by Rudolf Buchner. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1980, ). Dante. 4 Vorträge zur Einführung in die Göttliche Komödie. Mohr, Tübingen 1914. Humana civilitas (Staat, Kirche und Kultur). Eine Dante-Untersuchung (= Mittelalterliche Studien. vol. 1, section 1). Koehler, Leipzig 1913. Recht und Verfassung im Mittelalter. In: Historische Zeitschrift. vol. 120, 1919, pp. 1–79, , (Special rerelease of the 1952 edition. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2008, ). Stammbaum