Kingship (Medieval History)

"Representations", N. 129, Winter 2015.

The essay analyzes the project of maintaining the body of V. I. Lenin in the Mausoleum in Moscow for the past ninety years, focusing on the unique biological science that developed around this project, and the unexpected political role this body has performed.

This is the text of my PhD thesis.  It is a interdisciplinary study which re-examines the origins of old English kingship.  This is achieved through a systematic survey and analysis of the archaeological and historical evidence pertaining to the period c.400-c.750 from early medieval England.  The general argument of the thesis is that kingship developed in early medieval England sooner, and was more sophisticated, than scholars have typically thought to be the case.  By extension, it additionally suggests that broader assumptions regarding the period c.400-c.750 may also need to be re-examined.

This dissertation received the Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Award in the Humanities from the Middle East Studies Association of North America in 2016.

It examines the Ottoman transition to a new mode of kingship in the first decades of the sixteenth century by examining the life and work of Idrīs Bidlīsī (861-926/1457-1520), one of the most dynamic scholars and statesmen of the period. It situates Bidlīsī’s life within the context of the sweeping geo-political changes that precipitated the dissolution of the most powerful polities in Islamic lands and the emergence of the Ottomans as preeminent.

In his lifetime, Bidlīsī resided or worked at three of the four major sultanates of the region: the Aqquyunlu of western and central Iran, the Ottomans of the Balkans and Anatolia, and the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria. While his itinerant career was somewhat emblematic of this period, his extensive professional and literary activities within these three courts offer a unique view to a political culture in crisis and the efforts of one of these powers, namely the Ottomans, to transcend the basic volatile power dynamics common to all late medieval Islamic polities. Through the composition of two major chronicles of the Ottoman dynasty in Persian, Hasht bihisht (The Eight Paradises) and the Salīmshāhnāma (The Book of Sultan Selīm), Bidlīsī recorded his observations of the seminal events of his day and argued for a vision of rule undergirded by innovative discourses that emphasized the cosmic and sacral aspects of kingship.

By focusing on the life, historiographical outlook, and political thought of Bidlīsī, the dissertation elucidates the delicate and often volatile political and patronage dynamic that existed between rulers and their retainers in late medieval Islamic lands and represented the primary challenge to forming centralized administrations. It describes the role of court patronage in the production of historical works and the significance of those works to ideological discourses of rule. Lastly, it traces the spread of a novel vocabulary of sovereignty from its fifteenth-century origins to its emergence as the ideological basis for empire across large parts of Asia in the sixteenth century.

La presente tesis pretende abordar el estudio de la Capilla Real de la Corte, las capellanías reales de salud, y las capellanías y capillas reales funerarias (capilla real de Sevilla, capilla de Reyes Viejos de la catedral de Toledo, capilla real de Córdoba, capilla del rey don Pedro del convento de Santo Domingo el Real de Madrid, capilla de Reyes Nuevos y de doña Catalina de Lancaster de la catedral de Toledo, capellanías de Enrique IV en Guadalupe, y fundación de la capilla real de Granada) e ntre los reinados de Alfonso X (1252-1284) e Isabel I (1474-1504), desde un punto de vista material (tesoro sagrado, panteones y sepulcros reales), con especial atención a los aspectos iconográficos, e institucional (capellanías y otros cargos eclesi ásticos en estrecha relación con las capillas reales: limosneros, predicadores y confesores), protagonistas de las estrategias de representación del poder real en el contexto de surgimiento del Estado Moderno.

À l'orée du colloque dont les actes paraissent aujourd'hui, Jeanne d'Arc, dont l'on fêtait alors le 550 e anniversaire de la réhabilitation, à coup sûr une femme dont le destin créa celui d'un roi, d'un peuple, d'une nation, était sous les feux de l'actualité. On apprenait alors, dans les journaux télévisés et dans la presse écrite, que le Laboratoire d'anatomie et de cytologie pathologique de l'hôpital Poincaré, à Garches, allait procéder à une analyse génétique et paléopathologique des fragments de peau et des ossements supposément récupérés au pied du bûcher où la future sainte connut le martyre en 1431. Il y a quelques semaines, quelques mois, Aung San Suu Kyi, l'opposante au régime politique de son pays, la Birmanie, prix Nobel de la paix en 1991, était libérée de la résidence surveillée sous laquelle elle avait été placée. Qu'elles soient d'hier ou d'aujourd'hui, qu'elles l'obtiennent ou en soient privées, qu'elles en aient fait le choix ou non, qu'elles l'aient exercé contraintes et forcées ou avec passion, les femmes ont à travers les siècles, bien plus souvent que ne le pense le profane, noué une relation privilégiée avec le pouvoir, avec la sphère du politique. 4 É. BOUSMAR, J. DUMONT, A. MARCHANDISSE, B. SCHNERB Et pourtant. Dans l'histoire des structures politiques de l'Europe, le rôle des femmes de pouvoir était resté pour le Moyen Âge et le début de l'Époque moderne une réalité trop peu étudiée ou encore trop souvent réduite à ses dimensions purement biographiques ou anecdotiques, de rares exceptions mises à part. Aussi avions-nous choisi, durant les quatre jours du colloque tenu à Lille et à Bruxelles, dont le présent volume constitue les actes, de mener et de susciter des travaux approfondis sur ces questions, dans une double perspective inspirée de la politologie et de l'histoire des femmes et de la famille 1 . Ce colloque, organisé conjointement par l'Université de Liège, les Facultés universitaires Saint-Louis (Bruxelles) et l'Université Charles-de-Gaulle -Lille 3, s'inscrivait déjà dans une série assez riche de manifestations semblables, qui n'a pas tari 2 . Trois mois plus tard se tenait un autre colloque, abordant la même thématique, dans une perspective chronologique plus étendue ; l'un des signataires de la présente introduction avait été invité à en rédiger les conclusions 3 . D'autres colloques, d'autres ouvrages collectifs ont suivi 4 . Dans ce relatif foisonnement, l'originalité de notre projet tient à la 1. Sur l'évolution de ce domaine de recherches, voir F. Thébaud, Écrire l'histoire des femmes,

Sonderdruck aus dem Jahrbuch deS RömiSch-GeRmaniSchen ZentRalmuSeumS mainZ 59. Jahrgang 2012 MecHtHild scHulze-dörrlaMM schwErtEr dEs 10. JahrhundErts als hErrschaFtszEichEn dEr ottonEn zu den vorläufern des reichsschwerts und zu dessen imitationsformen Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums 59 · 2012 609 MECHTHILD SCHULZE-DÖRRLAMM SCHWERTER DES 10. JAHR HUN DERTS ALS HERRSCHAFTSZEICHEN DER OTTONEN ZU DEN VORLÄUFERN DES REICHSSCHWERTS UND ZU DESSEN IMITATIONSFORMEN 1 Eichmann 1942, 103 ff. 2 Die Datierung beruht auf den Detailanalysen aller Verzierungselemente der Schwertscheide: Schulze-8 Maßgeblich für die Datierung ist die Ähnlichkeit des Spiralrankenwerks mit der Rankenornamentik des siebenarmigen Bronzeleuchters im Essener Dom, der eine Stifterinschrift der Äbtissin Mathilde

The kings of East Anglia and Northumbria both died at the hands of the Great Heathen Army in the late 860s; one became a renowned martyr saint and one a villain. The latter, the Northumbrian Ælla, also became the antagonist in legends concerning the ancestors of the Uí Ímair, principal successors of the northern Great Army and leaders of the tenth-century Insular Norse.  According to a previously neglected text, 'De Northumbria post Britannos', another of northern England’s great dynasties claimed descent from Ælla. The Eadwulfings of Bamburgh were based in northern Northumbria, and appear to have gained leadership of their political community in the late ninth or early tenth century. With the rival position held by the Uí Ímair in the south, it is possible that Ælla’s later reputation and associated legends arose as a bi-product of tenth-century political conflict.

There are two objectives behind this article. First, it seeks to trace down the pedigree of a theory described in scholarly discourse as the 'ethnogenesis model'. As is often believed, the theory originally was, essentially, an innovative concept proposed by Reinhard Wenskus, the German researcher. My article puts forth the idea whereby it was Walter Schlesinger who had laid the foundations for the theory, whose concept was further developed by Wenskus. My other purpose was to verify the basics of the theory itself, based on relevant empirical material; specifi cally, I mainly deal with original sources reporting on the ethnic composition and history of the Vandal people.

Because the royal ideology of ancient Israel was largely identical to that of the broader ancient Near East, the points of divergence are the more remarkable. In particular, the legal corpus of Deuteronomy conceptualizes the king in a way that rejects all prevailing models of monarchic power, both Israelite and Near Eastern. Deuteronomy submits a utopian manifesto for a constitutional monarchy that sharply delimits the power of the king. This redefinition of royal authority takes place as part of a larger program (Deut. xvi 18-xviii 22) whereby the authors of Deuteronomy redefine the jurisdiction of each branch of public office (local and central judicial administration, kingship, priesthood, and prophecy). Each is subordinated, first, to the requirements of cultic centralization, and, second, to the textual authority of deuteronomic Torah. This utopian delimitation of royal power never passed from constitutional vision into historical implementation: it represented such a radical departure from precedent that the Deuteronomistic Historian, precisely while seeming to implement deuteronomic law, pointedly reversed the deuteronomic program and restored to the monarch all that Deuteronomy had withheld.

Keywords:
Law of King Deuteronomy 17:14-20; Deut 17:14-20; Dtn 17, 14-20; Kingship, Deuteronomy, Deuteronomistic History, Ämtergesetze; constitutional theory, democracy, Deut 16:18-18:22; Ezekiel 37; democratic kingship; Greek ideology of kingship; constitutional monarchy; Elyon, Psalm 1, royal psalms, Laws of Public Officials.

This thesis re-evaluates Tibetan histories as intertextual literature, broadly following Ricoeur’s concept of mimesis. It then examines the portrayal of Khri Srong lde brtsan in these histories, whether as a Tibetan emperor, a Buddhist king or a tantric disciple. -----

To do this, it brings together all extant Tibetan sources on Khri Srong lde brtsan from the eighth to twelfth century. It rejects the attributed antiquity of some histories, on the basis of textual analysis. It also adds hitherto undiscovered texts to the already existing data, based on the author’s own discoveries. The thesis then describes Khri Srong lde brtsan’s imperial, royal and religious depictions as a process of metamorphosis over time. -----

Imperial texts depict him as a great Tibetan emperor (btsan po), endowed with the authority of his ancestors. The inscriptions at Brag lha mo and ’Phyongs rgyas even describe him as a bodhisattva, leading many of his subjects towards enlightenment. Post-imperial sources found at Dunhuang transform the emperor into a Dharma king. They identify him with idealised royal predecessors like Aśoka or King Tsa. Twelfth-century histories, such as the sBa bzhed and Nyang ral Nyi ma ’od zer’s Zangs gling ma, remember him as the patron and pupil of spiritually superior Buddhist masters. One Indian tantric master, Padmasambhava, even blames the king’s lack of faith for the future decline of the Dharma. These religious figures gradually displace the king as the central protagonists of his life history. -----

This thesis also uncovers the concerns that lie beneath early portrayals of Khri Srong lde brtsan. These include self-presentation, lineage legitimisation and complex relationships with the “golden age” of empire. The transformation of Khri Srong lde brtsan in Buddhist histories depends upon seismic shifts affecting Tibetan culture, including the cult of religious figures and the influx of Indian literary genres into Tibet.

This paper is an inquiry about King Yemreḥanna Krestos. Who was he? When did he reign? Was he a priest? How did his cult develop? In order to answer such questions, a more general study of the Zāgwē dynasty, to which he belonged, is indispensable. The documents informing us about this dynasty are presented and commented so as to unearth from the context concrete elements and be in the position to obtain a fresher understanding of the matters involved. For, more often than not, the Zāgwē are depicted as southern usurpers speaking a strange tongue  compared with that of their predecessors and successors. As it happens, several facts permit to highlight the northern rooting of this dynasty which shares with the Aksumite kings more than one is usually inclined to think. However, the figure of King Yemreḥanna Krestos remains mysterious.

This article demonstrates the overlooked contribution of the ancient Near East to the development of constitutional law. The legal corpus of Deuteronomy provides a utopian model for the organization of the state, one that enshrines separation of powers and their systematic subordination to a public legal text—the “Torah”—that delineates their jurisdiction while also ensuring their autonomy. This legislation establishes an independent judiciary while bringing even the monarch under the full authority of the law. Deuteronomy’s implicit model for a political constitution is unprecedented in legal history. Two of its cornerstones are fundamental to the modern idea of constitutional government: (1) the clear division of political powers into separate spheres of authority; and (2) the subordination of each branch to the authority of the law. This legislation was so utopian in its own time that it seems never to have been implemented; instead, idealism rapidly yielded to political pragmatism. Nonetheless, Deuteronomy’s draft constitution provides an important corrective to standard accounts of constitutional legal history.

Keywords:
Constitutional theory; rule of law; separation of powers; Deut 16:18-18:22; Laws of public officials; Law of the king; independence of the judiciary; Deut 17:14-20; Ämtergesetze; Verfassungstheorie; Torah monarchy; Sophocles Antigone law; Herodotus Demaratus; Greek kingship; Mishnah King; mishnah Aboth 1:1; American constitution; Josephus πολιτεία [politeia]; origin of judicial system; Hammurabi; founding myth; independent judiciary.

A draft version of the published paper  „The Early Kings of Norway, the Issue of Agnatic Succession and the Settlement of Iceland“, Viator. Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 47:3 (Autumn 2016), 171-88.

The early Norwegian kings are scarcely attested in sources earlier than the twelfth century, in contrast to the rich and varied descriptions of them from twelfth-and thirteenth-century sources. It will be argued that the historical narrative of their reign had direct relevance for at least two contemporary issues during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. One was the precedence of sons of kings in the order of succession to the Norwegian throne. This claim was strengthened by the genealogical lines of the Norwegian kings which existed from the 1120s or 1130s onwards and demonstrated that the Norwegian monarchy had always passed to heirs in the direct male line. Another important issue was the aspiration of the Norwegian kings to extend their rule to Iceland in the thirteenth century. Paradoxically, at this very time the view gained ground in saga narratives that Icelandic settlers had been opponents of the earliest Norwegian kings.

In this article the process of Iceland becoming a part of the kingdom in Norway is analyzed in view of internal factors which lead to the consolidation of power and the creation of territorial states in the early thirteenth century. The church brought to Iceland a new agenda through its campaign for peace and social stability, but an unintentional consequence of the separation of secular and ecclesiastical power was that some families and regional networks became stronger at the expense of others. A new elite sought territorial power but the new system was inherently unstable as the preeminent chieftains each sought to become sole ruler of the country. The nature of warfare changed, with the introduction of pitched battles and the constant harassing of farmers on a regional basis. As a result, the rule of a monarch began to seem the only guarantee for peace and stability.

By comparing two knights of two different eras, can we record the evolution of chivalry?

William Marshal (c.1147-1217) lived during the age in which chivalry was mid-way through it evolution. He lived the life of a knight who had to fight for his living and propelled himself through the ranks of the aristocracy due to his achievements on both the battlefield and the tournament. When he was knighted before the battle of Drincourt (1167) he held no land. However, upon his death he held the prestigious earldom of Pembrokeshire, lands in Ireland as well as being the Marshal of England during Henry III's infancy.

Richard Beauchamp on the other hand was born into a noble family. His father was part of the Lord's Appellant which rebelled against Richard II (1387) and from this the Beauchamp family lost all of their land. However, upon Henry Bolingbroke (future Henry IV) usurping the crown from Richard in 1399, Thomas Beauchamp found himself in royal favour. Like Marshal, Richard proved himself on the battlefield. He was present at the battle of Shrewsbury (1403) and ventured on a pilgrimage (similar to Marshal). Upon his return he loyally served Henry V in France and became the lieutenant of Calais.

Both of these knights lived in two different eras. Richard was more educated and learned of the ways of the chivalric culture than Marshal due to it's evolution. However, both were great warriors and leaders of men who extended their wealth. This dissertation discusses both of the lives of these great knights while comparing the differences of the late Twelfth and early Fifteenth Centuries.

This article reexamines the construction of the spectacular five-bay choir of the Temple Church in London (finished 1240). Using previously neglected documentary evidence, it demonstrates that the decision of King Henry III of England (r. 1216–72) to entrust his future burial to the Templars was instrumental to the conception of the building project, rendering him its de facto architectural patron. This conclusion leads to an assessment of the relationship that existed between the order and the Crown. Thereafter follows an architectural analysis of the choir itself--a structure whose distinctive design is interpreted in terms of the multifaceted agendas of both parties. The choir-building project, it is finally argued, had a decisive impact on Henry's formation as an architectural patron in at least two respects. First, it exposed him to the possibilities of building commissions, thereby encouraging his later experimentation with different means of architectural promotion. Second, it exposed him to the perils of building collaborations, thereby encouraging his later experimentation with different methods of architectural production. Both circumstances would eventually lead the king to seek interment not at the Temple Church but at Westminster Abbey--the reconstruction of which, carried out by the newly enlarged King's Works, was to have a profound effect on the future of Gothic architecture in England. Thus, seen in this light, the Temple Church choir constitutes a valuable case study in the dynamics of medieval artistic patronage.

The tyrant Cuneglasus appears in a polemic written by a sixth century monk called Gildas in his work: De excidio et Conquestu Britanniae ('On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain' – shortened to De Excidio), where all of Cuneglasus' various crimes and sins are laid bare by its author for all to see, along with those of four other tyrannical rulers of the Britons. In looking at the life of Cuneglasus from Gildas' words we will try to disentangle the historical Cuneglasus from perceived links with King Arthur by various authors.

Le pionnier de la théocratie royale. Guillaume de Nogaret et les conflits de Philippe le Bel avec la papauté Paru dans Guillaume de Nogaret. Un Languedocien au service de la monarchie capétienne, dir. Bernard Moreau, Nîmes, Lucie Éditions, 2012, p. 101-128.

The 927 AD conquest of Scandinavian Northumbria by the ascendant Anglo-Saxon king, Æthelstan, seems a straightforward action of military annexation. Yet Æthelstan's actions, both leading into, and subsequent to, his annexation of York, demonstrate a nuanced strategy of assimilation of which military dominance formed only a part. Examining chronicle accounts of Æthelstan's reign, alongside a key royal diploma, numismatics, and archaeology, this paper argues that the Anglo-Saxon king's intent was not to establish hegemony over Viking York through force and subsequent occupation alone. Rather, Æthelstan wielded a combination of military power and strategies of social integration to bring the Scandinavian north into his developing English kingdom as a functionally homogenised territory.

The essay examines the fresco cycle of the Ducal Chapel of the milanese Sforza Castle, complementing the stylistic analysis of the paintings with a historical-documentary research regarding Galeazzo Maria Sforza and the peculiar nature of his patronage. On the one hand, the stylistic observations – in accordance with the latest studies – notice that the paintings, despite their late-gothic tone, turn out to be influenced in many aspects by the novelty of the Renaissance coming from the most important artistic centres of the Po Valley. On the other hand, the documentary material, which attests the duke’s strict control over the iconography and the style of the frescoes, allows to identify the programmatic cause of the decoration’s cortoise tone. Then, the study proceeds analysing the patronage’s archaic figurative tendency, taking into account the duke’s political purposes, and eventually identifies some specific points of connections between the cycle’s iconography and the thesis explained by "De regimine principum", a treatise of political science dedicated to Galeazzo Maria, which provides a justification of the princely power under a theological and metaphysical profile.

Which animals – real or imaginary – helped construct the power
of the Popes over the centuries? And during the Middle Ages,
the Protestant Reformation or in more recent years, which animals
inspired polemics and satire about the papacy?
Several animals of the papacy are part of our collective memory (the dove, the eagle, the lion). Many others have been forgotten, and yet parrots and peacocks, phoenixes and griffins, leopards and elephants have accompanied the papacy for very long periods of time.
This historical reconstruction is based on a first-hand reinterpretation of a wealth of
textual and iconographic sources. Each chapter follows the historical pathway of one of the various animals, from its very first mention (the 3rd century for the dove, the 6th for the horse, the 11th for the parrot) until its symbolic decline, or tracing its survival to the present day.
These stories of animals are an observatory – fascinating but also incisive –illustrating
how the papacy constructed its power, and the efforts of people to inspire its reform or
make it an object of derision.


«Dal 13 marzo 2013 siede sull’antica cattedra di Pietro un pontefice che,
primo nella storia, ha scelto il nome di Francesco, il santo che ancora oggi tutti associano all’amore nei confronti dell’ancor piú antico miracolo
della natura creata e dei suoi animali. Certo, i tempi cambiano, e l’enciclica Laudato si’ del 2015 è stata debitamente definita “ecologista” dai media per le novità che contiene. Ma in realtà, papa Francesco si riallaccia a una tradizione, tanto remota quanto ininterrotta, che associa animali e pontefici in un rapporto simbolico e metaforico di stupefacente coerenza, pur nell’estrema varietà dei messaggi. Una storia, anzi un insieme di storie per narrare le quali nessuno strumento ci è parso altrettanto opportuno della piú veneranda delle enciclopedie: un bestiario. Nel corso delle pagine che seguiranno, cercheremo di costruirne uno assai particolare, popolato di colombe, draghi, cavalli, asini e cammelli, pappagalli, fenici e pavoni, aquile, leoni, leopardi, corna di ceraste e corni di unicorni, oltre che di orsi ed elefanti, allo scopo di comprendere in qual modo tutti questi animali abbiano contribuito a creare e poi accompagnato – talvolta senza soluzione di continuità e per molti secoli – l’autoaffermazione simbolica del papato nel suo divenire storico e istituzionale; oppure, al contrario, siano stati usati per criticare o delegittimare il pontefice e la Chiesa».

Pour accéder à la royauté, Arthur tire miraculeusement l’épée du perron. C’est en accomplissant un geste identique que Galaad découvre sa vocation de quêteur du Graal. Dans les années 1200-1230, le Merlin et la Quête racontent ces deux épisodes dans une perspective théocratique, où le clergé s’érige en guide de la royauté et de la chevalerie célestielle. Ces romans intègrent ainsi un thème issu de la mythologie païenne dans la théorie la plus savante et ecclésiastique des deux glaives. À l’époque, cette théologie politique se concrétise dans des rites et les prières du sacre royal, de l’adoubement et de la conversion monastique où l’épée part de l’autel et revient vers lui. L’article entend prouver que bien des lecteurs et auditeurs de la légende arthurienne ont pu identifier le perron et l’autel. À la fin du Moyen Age, quelques miniatures donnent même au roc d’Excalibur la forme de l’autel chrétien.

This article examines the notion of bodhisattva-kingship in Tibet, through the various early depictions of Emperor (btsan po) Tri Songdetsen (Khri Srong lde brtsan ; Khri Srong lde brtsan (742–c.800 C.E.). Before the fall of the empire in the mid-ninth century this famous Tibetan ruler began to be portrayed as a bodhisattva, someone at least on the path to enlightenment and benefiting his subjects by spreading the Dharma in Tibet. In post-imperial sources he becomes increasingly idealized, and is first described as a celestial bodhisattva spreading specifically Vajrayāna Buddhist practices in Tibet.

English: The Archivo General de Simancas (Valladolid, Spain) contains in the Patronato Real section (legajo nº 29, document nº 28) a document entitled "Relación de efectos que Pedro Fernández recibía y entregaba de orden del rey" ("List of Items Received and Delivered by Pedro Fernández on the King´s Orders"). This unpublished record contains information regarding the household of King Enrique III of Castile (1390-1406) between 27 August, 1397 and 18 August, 1398. This study aims at examining some of the institutional, cultural, material and historical aspects of the Court of Castile at the end of the fourteenth century | Spanish: En la sección Patronato Real del Archivo General de Simancas (Valladolid, España), bajo la signatura legajo nº 29, documento nº 28 se conserva el documento que, con el título atribuido de "Relación de efectos que Pedro Fernández recibía y entregaba de orden del rey", en la actualidad inédito, alude a la realidad de la cámara regia del rey Enrique III de Castilla (1390-1406), entre los días 27 de agosto de 1397 y 18 de agosto de 1398. El presente trabajo buscará estudiar algunos aspectos institucionales, culturales, materiales e históricos de la corte castellana a fines del siglo XIV.

This comparative synthesis examines archaeological and ethnohistoric data pertaining to Native American coastal adaptations along the southern coasts of the eastern United States. We consider the totality of experiences of people living along coasts, examining such issues as technological innovation, environmental variability and change as it relates to site visibility, the built environment, the use of coastal food resources, the nature of complex coastal Calusa and Guale polities, and European contact. We link our topical discussions to broader issues in anthropology, arguing that the archaeology of southern coasts has much to contribute to our understanding of worldwide adaptations to coastal environments and broad-scale shifts in the trajectories of human societies.

The Old Norse sagas that deal with the stories of medieval Norwegian royalty can make a valuable contribution to thanatology, i.e. the study of attitudes towards death, and to the history of medieval thought. The authors of the so-called Synoptic Histories of Norway seem actually to agree about the importance attached to the moment of death in arriving at a final estimate of their characters. They also show that ideas about the final destiny of particular kings in the afterlife could be made political use of after their deaths. The king's death seems to be considered a very delicate moment not only with respect to questions related to the succession and continuity of government. It might also influence the legitimacy of his successors, the dignity of his dynasty, and following events. The synoptic historians were clearly aware of contemporary discussion about the afterlife, and they were involved in the cultural and religious environment of medieval Europe in which the discussion about Purgatory was being developed and changes in burial customs were taking place.

The reign of Henry VII, which began in 1485, was preceded by the short reigns of the uncrowned Edward V and of Richard III. The period of turmoil in the country did not contribute to the development of the portrait genre. The local English school of illuminated manuscripts fell into decay, and the Flemish city of Bruges became the main center of origin for most of the manuscripts in England.
The rise to power of Henry VII and the end of the War of Roses contributed to the cultural upsurge. However, after a relatively long period of instability, the new king needed to consolidate his position on the throne. For this purpose, many manuscripts were produced, which spoke about the rights of Henry to the English throne and his great ancestors, and created manuscripts on astrological topics, which predicted a long reign and prosperity of the monarch.
The article’s main objective is to show, using the example of illustrations of manuscripts, easel portraits, and written testimonies of contemporaries, how exactly the glorification of the power of Henry VII took place.

In the medieval period, the monarch was seen as the embodiment of the community of his kingdom, the body politic. And while we've long since shed that view, it nonetheless continues to influence our understanding of contemporary politics. This book offers thirteen case studies from premodern and contemporary Europe that demonstrate the process through which political corporations-bodies politic-were and continue to be constructed and challenged. Drawing on history, archaeology, literary criticism, and art history, the contributors survey a wide geographical and chronological spectrum to offer a panoramic view of these dynamic political entities.

King John's own discourse enables us to recover his ideas about his royal power.  His statements, though disordered and occasionally discordant, support a lofty view of kingship,  He found historical precedents to support his view of authoritarian monarchy with royal supremacy based on custom.

Con todo esto el rey muestra desamor al infante don Alonso, y anduvo apartado del rey. Pero con todo esto, siempre el rey le mostró desamor e hizo menos buen tratamiento y acogimiento que a los otros hijos naturales que tenía, y anduvo apartado de él y en su desgracia. Y se vino a Zaragoza por el mes de mayo del año de 1258; y siempre se intitulaba primogénito y heredero del rey, para más publicar el agravio que le hacía su padre. Zurita, Anales de Aragón, Lib. III, cap. LVII

The role and identity of the warrior: self-reflection and awareness in Old Norse literary and social spaces Stefka G. Eriksen Medieval war could be led on many levels, for numerous reasons, and in different ways. War could imply fighting in battles or duels, raiding or harrying; sometimes even the threat of harrying, or keeping peace at certain frontiers was the ultimate war strategy. 1 War could also be pursued in writing, by means of the word, or on a spiritual and inner level. No matter how war was pursued and on what level, it was an important preoccupation that conditioned and was conditioned by the social attitude to war and the role of the warrior in a given society as well as the warrior's own self-reflection and awareness of his individual private and social standing.

One of the many remarkable discoveries made during previous archaeological excavations at the Hill of Tara, County Meath, is a craft workshop buried beneath the bank of the Iron Age ceremonial enclosure of Ráith na Ríg (Rath/Fort of the Kings). The workshop dates from around the second century BC and was used for iron and bronze smithing, and possibly glass working. Craft activity appears to have been on a small scale and, in keeping with the evidence from other Irish ‘royal’ centres whose Iron Age complexes have been the focus of more extensive excavation, lends little support to the idea of centralised production focused on high-status sites during this period. Arguably more significant to an understanding of this activity is the location of the workshop on sacred ground, within the cemetery and ceremonial precinct of Tara. This paper examines the ritual and funerary landscape that formed the immediate setting for craftworking at Tara, as well as a range of related themes that emerge from a wider study of the archaeological and ethnographic records and early Irish sources. Among the topics explored are the intrinsic qualities that link skilled crafting, in particular metalworking, with places/rites of passage; the ambiguity that surrounds the status and craft of individuals perceived as ‘other’; and the essence of power as it is expressed at Tara. Although the association between crafting and kingship is often conceived of through the prism of élite patronage of skilled artisans, early Irish and ethnographic sources suggest this may belie a more complex relationship based on shared or complementary traits, which can directly impact the society, for better or worse.

[Norr, S., 1998. To Rede and to Rown. Expressions of Early Scandinavian Kingship in Written Sources. Occasional Papers in Archaeology 17. Uppsala, 253 pp., 4 plates. Monograph, ISSN 1100-6358, ISBN 91-506-1277-8.]
The subject of this thesis is early Scandinavian kingship, and the analysis is based on a number of written sources and runic inscriptions. A study of early Germanic kingship focuses primarily on the development of Gothic kingship from the fourth to the sixth century. The royal attributes expressed in kennings and heiti in Ynglingatal are analysed, showing that the poem presents the development of kingship as a process in four stages. The dating of this work and its style of composition is also discussed. A study of the chapters in Ynglinga saga which deal with King Ingiald illráði examines the role of counsel, the political structure of the Svear and high kingship as a structural problem. Vita Anskarii is analysed with particular emphasis on the interaction between kings, noblemen and the ‘people’ in political decision-making. Finally, the associations between kings and runes are discussed, and the inscription of the Sparlösa stone is reinterpreted as a monument over a royal succession.

D ans les années 660, le chroniqueur franc Frédégaire est le premier à évoquer le morbus gothicus, la "maladie des Goths". 1 Selon lui, cette curieuse pathologie conduirait les habitants de l'Espagne à régulièrement déposer (ou assassiner) leur souverain et à le remplacer par un nouveau roi issu de l'aristocratie. Pour Frédégaire, le schéma général semble clair. Certains peuples barbares jouissent d'une famille royale pérenne, ce qui confère à un État une remarquable stabilité. Et Frédégaire pense naturellement à son propre peuple, les Francs, doté de la gens éminente des Mérovingiens. À l'inverse, d'autres peuples ne parviennent pas à stabiliser une dynastie sur le trône, ce qui conduit à un désordre intérieur permanent, même lorsque l'on tente d'instaurer à la place une royauté élective. La vision du chroniqueur franc Frédégaire n'est pas unique pour le haut Moyen Âge: avec quelques nuances, on la trouve également formulée par Jordanès ou par Paul Diacre, pour qui la continuité biologique des souverains nationaux est gage de paix et de prospérité. Dans l'espace anglo-saxon, Bède le Vénérable participe d'une même conception. Remarquons, au passage, que le point de vue des auteurs anciens se trouve assez largement partagé chez les historiens contemporains, qui envisagent souvent la rupture dynastique comme vecteur de crise majeur pour les sociétés anciennes. 2 Ainsi le destin heurté du royaume wisigoth serait-il l'exemple même des conséquences néfastes d'une rupture dynastique apparue en 531. 3 Une telle vision de l'histoire politique n'est pourtant pas dépourvue d'a priori. En premier lieu, pour que l'on puisse parler de rupture dynastique, il faudrait qu'il existe * Bruno Dumézil (Blaye, 1976) és professor titular d'història medieval a l'Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense. Entre les seves obres destaquen : Les racines chrétiennes de l'Europe. Conversion et liberté dans les royaumes barbares V-VIII e siècle (Paris, 2005) ; La reine Brunehaut (Paris, 2008) ; Pouvoirs, Église et société dans les royaumes de France, de Bourgogne et de Germanie aux Xe et XIe siècles (888-vers 1110) (Paris, 2008) ; Le problème de la christianisation du monde antique (Paris, 2010). 1 FréDégaire, Chronique, IV, 82 (Bruno Krusch (éd.), Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum, Hahn, Hanovre, 1888, vol. 2, p.163): … morbum Gotorum, quem de regebus degradandum habebant.