Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Early medieval politics'

In the tumultuous political environment of late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Britain, animal literature saw rapid development and innovation. Beast fable and epic, which already had a long tradition in Latin and French, gained new vigor and popularity in English and Scots renditions. Simultaneously, a new strain of political theory appeared in the vernacular. This dissertation makes a tripartite argument about the relationship between these two discourses. First, writers of literature and political theory alike struggled to reconcile an optimistic view of human society, inherent in the prevailing philosophical tradition of natural law, with the widespread corruption they witnessed in ecclesiastical and royal courts. The fruits of this struggle were darkly humorous works of beast epic and fable in the former case, and pragmatic political theory in the latter. Second, because of its literary character, beast literature actually proved more adventurous than political theory in demonstrating how one might use dissimulation to dominate the predatory world of politics, and in showing the moral and linguistic exhaustion that could result from such manipulation of others. Third, as political writers adapted their theories to reflect politics as it was actually practiced, they explicitly turned to beast literature for images and exempla, so that the animal characters of Aesopian fable and Reynardian epic stealthily crept into works of serious political inquiry.

This thesis examines the political functions of the performance of skaldic poetry during the Viking Age. It aims to establish the vital role that skaldic verse plays in the establishment and maintenance of power, as well as the importance of skaldic performance in the negotiation of that power in the inter-community relations between various courts both within and outside of Viking Age Scandinavia. The first chapter provides a contextual understanding of Viking Age power structures by considering the central ideological constructs surrounding the concept of óðal (ancestral property). Óðal-derived power, it will be shown, is based on ruler-presence (which extends to ancestral presence) in the landscape, which is perceived as a crucial element in the legitimisation of authority and power. My second chapter will consider the political significance of skaldic performance within the context of ruler itinerancy, which develops in response to political practices based on the importance of óðal-derived legitimacy. Of particular importance in this respect, will be the use of 'presencing' proper- and praise-names in skaldic poetry that effect both spatial and temporal itinerancies in a highly distributable format. My third chapter will establish the representational features of skaldic performance and elaborate on the definition of Performance not only as action (in the Austinian sense), but also as a type of action that is defined by its artifice, its temporal continuity and its emergent dialogism. This will provide the theoretical context for my fourth and final chapter which will aim to examine the employment of skaldic Performance in Viking Age diplomatic praxes. Here the phenomenologically perceived 'binding' of the Self through the dialogic rhythmicity that arises out of skaldic ambiguity and crypticism will be of central importance.

Fifteenth-century diplomatic protocol required the city of Florence to send diplomats to congratulate both new and militarily victorious rulers. Diplomats on such missions poured praise on their triumphant allies and new rulers at friendly locations. However, political realities also meant that these diplomats would sometimes have to praise rulers whose accession or victory opposed Florentine interests. Moreover, different allies and enemies required different levels of praise. Jealous rulers compared the gifts, status, and oratory that they received from Florence to the Florentine entourages sent to their neighbors. Sending diplomats with too little or too much social status and eloquence could spell diplomatic disaster. Diplomats met these challenges by varying the style, structure, and content of their speeches. Far from formulaic pronouncements of goodwill, diplomatic orations varied from one speech to the next in order to meet the demands of the complex diplomatic world into which they fit. Contextualizing these orations reveals the subtle reservations of diplomats praising a hostile ruler, the insertion of specific citations to flatter specific audiences, and the changing intellectual and stylistic interests of humanists throughout the fifteenth century. This essay will examine the different shades of flattery practiced by Florentine diplomats and the contexts that explain these variations.

This thesis examines the careers of the first four Lindsay earls of Crawford, 1380-1453. Each of these four Scottish earls played an important role in Scottish politics, though they have not been closely examined since A. W. C. Lindsay’s Lives of the Lindsays, or a memoir of the Houses of Crawford and Balcarres, published in 1849. This is despite the fact that these men figured in some of the major events in late medieval Scotland. David 1st earl of Crawford can be linked to the murder of David Stewart duke of Rothesay in 1401-2. David 3rd earl of Crawford (d. 1446) was a marriage ally of William 6th earl of Douglas who was judicially murdered in 1440 by William Crichton and James Douglas earl of Avondale in 1440. Evidence suggests this marriage alliance was a factor in the decision to commit the murder. Alexander 4th earl of Crawford (d. 1453) was involved in the famous Douglas-Crawford-Ross tripartite bond which cost William 8th earl of Douglas his life. All of the first four earls were involved, in different ways, in the disputes to determine the succession of the earldom of Mar during their careers. Although the barony of Crawford was in Lanarkshire, the earls’ main sphere of influence was south of the Mounth, where they held lands stretching from Urie near present-day Stonehaven to Megginch near Perth. Glen Esk, their largest holding, was in Forfarshire, which was where they exerted the most influence. They also maintained a degree of influence in Aberdeenshire, where they were the hereditary sheriffs. A few factors explain their ability to maintain this sphere of influence. The first was an ability to call out a significant armed band of men, something which the first, third and fourth earls of Crawford are all recorded to have done. Most also had an income from annuities from various burghs including Aberdeen, Dundee, and Montrose totaling about £200, and they can be demonstrated to have owned a house in Dundee and maintained connections with burgesses there. This may suggest they were involved in trade. David Lindsay, 1st earl of Crawford (d. 1407), who used all of the above means to propel himself to the top ranks of Scottish politics, also promoted himself through active engagement with the culture of chivalry and crusade. This earned him much praise from the contemporary chronicler, Andrew Wyntoun. There are hints that the third and fourth earl may have maintained this interest as well.

This dissertation examines the ceremonies and rituals involving the princes of early Rus’ and their entourage, how these ceremonies and rituals are represented in the literature and artefacts of early Rus’, the possible cultural influences on ceremony and ritual in this emergent society, and the role of ceremony and ritual as representative of political structures and in shaping the political culture of the principalities of early Rus’. The process begins by introducing key concepts and historiographic considerations for the study of ceremony and ritual and their application to the medieval world. The textological survey that follows focusses on the chronicles of Rus’, due to their compilatory nature, and discusses the philological, linguistic, and contextual factors governing the use of chronicles in this study. This examination of the ceremonies and rituals of early Rus’, the first comprehensive study of its kind for this region in the early period, engages with other studies of ceremony and ritual for the medieval period to inform our understanding of the political culture of early Rus’ and its influences. The structure of this dissertation is dictated by the chronology of ceremonies and rituals that structure the reigns of Rus’ princes in literary sources. The first chapter investigates—both comparatively and locally—the development of enthronement rituals depicted in textual sources and on coins. The second chapter focusses on rituals of association that are represented as mediating relations between princes in a non-central functioning dynastic culture. Oath-taking (and breaking) and association through commensality—dining and gift-giving—are examined in terms of historical context and the internal categorisation of associative acts in textual sources from Rus’. The final chapter builds on recent studies of ritualised warfare in early Rus’ and examines the ritualisation of princely movement—the most common action associated with the princes of Rus’ in textual sources—in times of war. The celebration of triumph and princely entry along with ritualised invocations for intercession in war are acts examined—both in textual sources and iconographic artefacts—as rituals of triumphal rulership reflecting both Byzantine and wider medieval culture. This study concludes with a discussion of the themes explored in its three chapters and offers further considerations about the influence of the Church and monastic culture inherited from Byzantium (and developed in Rus’) on the preservation, creation, and promulgation of ritualised political power.

After the English-led invasion of Ireland, between 1169 and 1172, the country was run by Anglo-Irish lords—English and Welsh men gifted with Irish land and titles for their service to the English King. Of these families, the Butlers were one of the three most powerful in the country. The 3rd and 4th Earls of Ormond, both named James Butler, each held the highest title in Ireland, Lord Lieutenant, multiple times as well as being successful military leaders. Add to this a large income from all the wine revenues of the country, and the Butlers were a force to be reckoned with. This thesis examines the Butlers in their seat of power, Kilkenny, to determine the connection between the two. It is apparent, by examining not only their policies but their surroundings, that the Butlers and Kilkenny had a mutually beneficial relationship. The Butlers profited from the extensive land they owned, the feudal nature of Ireland, and the trade in the city, and similarly helped the town prosper by building defensive fortifications, strengthening and expanding the city, and running the government efficiently. The actions of the Butlers and the town of Kilkenny prove that the Butlers were caught between the cultures of both England and Gaelic Ireland, as was typical of most of the Anglo-Irish ruling class.

This study will use Pelhisson’s account of the Toulouse inquisition of 1230-1238 as a case study into the causes of the inquisition, the mindset of the Dominicans who carried it out, and the institutionalization of the inquisition process.

Thesis advisor: Richard Lennan
By the time Gregory the Great (590-604) began his ministry as bishop of Rome, the political, economic, and social circumstances in Italy were dire, as evidenced by ongoing barbarian threats, Rome’s failing infrastructure, monuments and aqueducts in need of repair, abandoned farms, and decimated populations. As a result, demands were made on Gregory to tend to both the spiritual and physical needs of the people in Rome and in Italy. I argue that through his actions and writings, Gregory took control of the situation, and transcended pre-established ecclesiastical policies and procedures that permitted religious authorities to enter into political affairs. An examination of the fourth-century paradigm of Ambrose, bishop of Milan, and the fifth-century paradigm of Leo the Great, bishop of Rome, introduces earlier examples in which pastoral leaders became active in state matters. Gregory, while not explicitly stating their influence on him, goes beyond them both and develops a paradigm uniquely his own. Gregory’s eschatology significantly shaped his understanding of the need to be involved in both religious and political matters. In analyzing his Pastoral Rule, Moralia, and homilies on the Gospels and the Prophet Ezekiel, I have identified the virtues and qualities that Gregory felt all pastoral leaders must possess. The resulting profile of leadership emphasizes the moral conduct and the intentionality that those in authority need to operate. Through examining a large selection of his letters, I have been able to present a political theology that was key to Gregory’s entrance into political affairs and his development of social programs that tended to the physical needs of the people. I conclude that Gregory’s profile of leadership and political theology reveal a new paradigm which is his contribution to the ongoing development of the relationship between the Church and the state as both emerge from the age of late antiquity

This thesis focuses on Lombard Southern Italy during the early middle ages and it analyses the history of political and social conflicts between the eighth and ninth century, taking into account the transformation of Lombard political power and social practices in this area. Starting from the eight-century judicial sources, this work explores political and social competition in the Beneventan region by taking into account its geographical position at the center of the Mediterranean see. Southern Italy was considered as a periphery, and sometimes as a frontier, by both the Carolingian and Byzantine empires, and endured almost a century of Muslims' attempts to conquer the peninsula. The first chapter focuses on the ducal period and investigates the formation and consolidation of the duke of Benevento's political authority before 774. During the seventh and eight centuries, the dukes developed a military and political autonomy in Southern Italy. This was due to the geographical position of the Duchy of Benevento in the Lombard Kingdom: it was far from Pavia, the king's capital city, and it was relatively isolated from other Lombard territories. Since a dynasty was established here as early as the seventh century, these dukes developed a strong and precocious political consciousness. As a result, they were particularly concerned with the formal representation of their authority, which is early attested in both coinage and diplomas. In this chapter, the analysis of the eight-century judicial records opens two important perspectives on the duke of Benevento's practices of power. Firstly, judicial assemblies were one of the most important occasions for the duke to demonstrate and exercise his authority in a public context. In contrast to all other Lombard dukes, who rendered judgement together with a group of officers, the duke of Benevento acted alone before the competing parties. By behaving exactly as the Lombard king would in Pavia, the duke was able to utilise the judicial domain as a sort of theatre in which to practice, legitimise and represent his own public authority in front of the local aristocracy. Secondly, the analysis of seven judicial case-studies suggests that the duke was not simply the sole political authority in Benevento but also the leading social agent in the whole Lombard southern Italy. Almost all the disputes transmitted by the twelfth-century cartularies implied a ducal action, donation or decision in the past, which became the main cause for later conflicts between the members of the lay élite and the monastic foundations of the region. Consequently, the analysis of judicial conflicts reveals more about the duke of Benevento's strategies and practices of power than about the lay and ecclesiastical élites' competition for power. Since there are no judicial records between 774 and the last decade of the ninth century, both conflicts and representations of authority in Lombard Southern Italy are analysed through other kinds of sources for this period. Chronicles, hagiographies, diplomas, and material sources are rich in clues about political and social competition in Benevento. By contrast, the late-ninth-century judicial records transmitted by cartularies and archives are quite different from the eighth-century documents: they have a bare and simple structure, which often hides the peculiarities of the single dispute by telling only the essentials of each conflict and a concise final judgement. In contrast to the sources of the ducal period, the ninth- and tenth-century judicial records often convey a flattened image of Lombard society. Their basic structure certainly prevents a focus on the representation of authority and the practices of power in southern Italy. On the contrary, these fields of inquiry are crucial to research both competition within the Beneventan aristocracy during the ninth century, and the relationship between Lombards and Carolingian after 774. After the fall of the Lombard Kingdom in 774, Charlemagne did not complete the military conquest of the Italian peninsula: the Duchy of Benevento was left under the control of Arechis (758-787), who proclaimed himself princeps gentis Langobardorum and continued to rule mostly independently. The confrontation and competition with the Frankish empire are key to understanding both the strengthening of Lombard identity in southern Italy and the formation of a princely political authority. The second account the historiography on the Regnum Italiae, the third section of this chapter focuses precisely on the ambitions of Louis II in Southern Italy and it analyses the implication that the projection of his rulership over this area had in shaping his imperial authority. Despite Louis II's efforts to control the Lombard principalities, his military and political experience soon revealed its limits. After the conquest of Bari in 871, Prince Adelchi imprisoned the emperor in his palace until he obtained a promise: Louis II swore not to return to Benevento anymore. Although the pope soon liberated the emperor from this oath, he never regained a political role in Southern Italy. Nevertheless, his prolonged presence in the region during the ninth century radically changed the political equilibrium of both the Lombard principalities and the Tyrrhenian duchies (i.e. Napoli, Gaeta, Amalfi). The fourth section focuses firstly on the competition between Louis II and Adelchi of Benevento, who obstinately defined his public authority in a direct competition with the Carolingian emperor. At the same time, the competition within the local aristocracy in Benevento radically changed into a small-scale struggle between the members of Adelchi's kingroup, the Radelchids. At the same time, some local officers expanded their power and acted more and more autonomously in their district, such as in Capua. When Louis II left Benevento in 871, both the Tyrrhenian duchies and the Lombard principalities in Southern Italy were profoundly affected by a sudden change in their mutual relations and even in their inner stability. The competition for power and authority in Salerno and Capua-Benevento also changed and two different political systems were gradually established in these principalities. Despite the radical transformation of internal competition and the Byzantine conquest of a large part of Puglia and Basilicata at the end of the ninth century, the Lombard principalities remained independent until the eleventh century, when Southern Italy was finally seized by Norman invaders.

This thesis is concerned with one key aspect of the reception of the vernacular poetry of Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), namely translations and imitations of the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta (Rvf) and Triumphi in English. It aims to provide a more comprehensive survey of the vernacular Petrarch’s legacy to English literature than is currently available, with a particular focus on some hitherto critically neglected texts and authors. It also seeks to ascertain to what degree the socio-historical phenomena of religion, politics, and culture have influenced the translations and imitations in question. The approach has been both chronological and comparative. This strategy will demonstrate with greater clarity the monumental effect of the Elizabethan Reformation on the English reception of Petrarch. It proposes a solution to the problem of the long gap between Geoffrey Chaucer’s re-writing of Rvf 132 and the imitations of Wyatt and Surrey framed in the context of Chaucer’s sophisticated imitative strategy (Chapter I). A fresh reading of Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophil and Stella is offered which highlights the author’s misgivings about the dangers of textual misinterpretation, a concern he shared with Petrarch (Chapter II). The analysis of Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti and Epithalamion in the same chapter reveals a hitherto undetected Ovidian subtext to Petrarch’s Rvf 190. Chapter III deals with two English versions of the Triumphi: I propose a date for Lord Morley’s translation which suggests it may be the first post- Chaucerian English engagement with Petrarch; new evidence is brought to light which identifies the edition of Petrarch used by William Fowler as the source text for his Triumphs of Petrarcke. The fourth chapter constitutes the most extensive investigation to date of J. M. Synge’s engagement with the Rvf, and deals with the question of translation as subversion. On the theoretical front, it demonstrates how Synge’s use of “folk-speech” challenges Venuti’s binary foreignising/domesticating system of translation categorisation.

This thesis examines whether and how historians’ reliance on medical treatises has limited the historiography of contagion as it relates to fourteenth through sixteenth century England. It analyses the context, contents, audience, and codicology of six English tractates, four on the plague and two on the sweating sickness. Before the early seventeenth century, most English tractates were translations/adaptations of Continental works, with ‘uniquely English’ content added. Although the plague dominates studies of pre-modern disease, focusing on the plague hinders comparative analyses that can reveal much about contemporary understanding of contagion. The socio-political-professional contexts in which the tractates were written and disseminated affected their contents, circulation and, ultimately, audiences. Although largely ignored by historians, the tractates’ prefatory dedications, together with their codicology, reveals that the texts were likely accessible to non-elite audiences. Rather than being limited to its medical sense, contagion formed part of the larger discourse about the human condition.

碩士
臺灣大學
歷史學研究所
98
The concept of “The politics of Princesses” in this thesis refereed to the power status surrounding the Princesses in various political circumstances. The concept illustrated how Princesses in Han and Tang Dynasties could intervene politics from time to time by gaining supports from the Chinese Imperial system and culture. Chapter Two firstly defined the title of “Princess” (Gong-zhu 公主) from a historical perspective. Secondly it evaluated the identity and social status of a Princess by looking into the funerals and mourning rituals and regarding comments made by government officials at the time. Chapter Three regarded the economical resource of Princesses during the period between Han and Tang Dynasties. It was described in the bronze inscriptions and bamboo strips and also recorded in hydraulic pestle (Shui-dui水碓) and pawnshop (Di-she 邸舍) that Princesses were involved in the manorial system and that had become crucial elements to understanding the political status of Princesses during Early Medieval China. The forth chapter discussed how Princesses, as a media, influenced the political situation in the Period of Disunion by comparing the selection of consorts and the following development of their political careers in tables. Chapter Five focused on Princesses’ behaviors and given authorities in their own residences or in the imperial courts and, respectively, how they intervened in political affairs as imperial relatives or female officials. The thesis aims to illustrate a political and cultural history of females by combining the perspectives of politics, institutions and family history. It appears that the Imperial system provided not only the room for political activities, but also the economic resources to the Princesses. Under the Imperial political system, there was a thin line between family business and state affairs. The officials who were also members of the imperial family undertook dual obligations in the political matters. Thus Princesses expanded their power to interfere politics in the name of dealing family matters. As a result, they played a role in the politics along the obscure boundaries between the family and states. However, as this phenomenon was encouraged by family bonds, it was hard to go beyond the patriarchal limitations. As a result, the power which Princesses possessed was offered by the imperial institutions and is rather culturally recognized. It was clear from this study that before the Confucianism has became dominant in the Chinese culture, the sophisticated factors composed of ethnicities, classes and regions in Early Medieval China had already reinforced the tension between genders and classes.

This dissertation’s thesis is that the marital rhetoric and gendered imagery of late classical, Christian political discourse appear in narrative, conciliar, and legal texts produced in Visigothic Spain between 579 and 654 A.D. for the purpose of expressing conflict, rather than “unity.” This thesis opposes views of the Visigothic kingdom as a model of successful Christian unification by showing how the male-authored, Spanish sources - far from being silent on religio-political conflicts - use marriage, women, and wealth as metaphors in disputes over orthodoxy and status. These early medieval texts suggest a new paradigm of Christian “unity” in which Jews function as the “enemy,” and in so doing, establish a political model decidedly different from that of late antiquity. Examples of this political model appear in the Third and Fourth Councils of Toledo (589 and 633 A.D.), which are published here for the first time in Latin-English translation. Despite the historical significance of the Visigothic sources in the Spanish and broader contexts, little attention has been paid to late classical marital rhetoric and gendered imagery in them as evidence of conflicts. Understanding the purpose of these rhetorical strategies helps us to perceive how the paradigm of Christian “unity” masked deep conflicts over status, orthodoxy, and wealth - conflicts that persisted until a new invading force appeared to challenge Visigothic power in 711 A.D.
text

Working at the intersection of narrative studies and political theory, this thesis performs an original critical intervention in Gulliver’s Travels studies to establish the work as an intertextual response to the hegemonic articulations of European travel writing produced between the 15th and 18th centuries under the discourse of Discovery. My argument proceeds through two movements. First, an archeology of studies on Gulliver’s Travels that identifies key developments and points of significance in analyses of the satire’s intertextual relationship with travel writing. Second, a discursive analysis of the role of Discovery generally, and travel writing specifically, in constructing European hegemony within a newly global context. Together these movements allow me to locate Gulliver’s Travels firmly within the discourse of Discovery and to specify the politics of the text and the poetics of its operations. For this analysis I adopt a conceptualization of hegemony elaborated by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe in Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (1985), which defines discourse as a structured totality of elements of signification, wherein the meaning and identify of each element is constituted by articulatory practices competing to fix the differences and equivalences between it and others within the discourse. An hegemonic discourse is one that successfully limits the possibility of novel articulations according to a particular governing logic. In the Age of Discovery, this governing logic, I argue, is a socio-spatial logic that constructed the “European” subject through its difference from the “Non-European,” the “civilized” subject through its difference from the “savage,” and the “free land” of the “savage” peoples through its difference from the occupied lands of the “civilized.” To conduct the concomitant critical analysis of Gulliver’s Travels, I draw upon Jacques Rancière’s conception of the “distribution of the sensible,” which refers both to the partitions determined in sensory experience that anticipate the distributions of parts and wholes, the orders of visibility and invisibility, and the relationships of address or comportment beneath every community; and to the specific practices that partake of these distributions to establish the “common sense” about the objects that make up the common world, the ways in which it is organized, and the capacities of the people within it. This enables me to establish travel writing as an articulatory practice that utilized a narrative modality to “reveal” the globe in a Eurocentric image dependent upon the logic of Discovery: a discursively constructed paradigm that I identify as what others have labeled “travel realism,” which organized the globe into a single field of discursivity predicated upon the “civilizational” and “rational” superiority of Europeans over their non-European Others. Gulliver’s Travels, I conclude, intervenes in this distribution of the sensible by utilizing the satirical form as a recomposing logic to upend the paradigm of travel realism and break away from the “sense” that it makes of the bodies, beings, and lands it re-presents.
Graduate

The modern nation-state is the product of a gradual process in which the religiously concerned medieval political and ecclesiastical synthesis became more secular and centralized. Mirroring this external institutional development, the theoretical conception of the state changed from one of a natural organic unity of diverse corporate members to a consent-based compact among atomized individuals. This change can be traced in the Body Politic metaphor of four authors: John of Salisbury, Christine de Pizan, Johannes Althusius, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In this project, I argue that the Body Politic metaphor, particularly the inclusion or exclusion of a soul of the Body Politic, is uniquely appropriate for capturing the complexity of political life in general across differing levels of aggregation and for elucidating the political and religious commitments of the authors who employ it, as they critique their own contemporary political and religious institutions and describe their ideal societies. In the conclusion, I suggest that the loss of a strongly organic conception of the state has denied modern society and political theory a well established means for incorporating corporate entities and for explaining the existence of the modern nation-state in any kind of transcendental moral context, thus the lost soul of the Body Politic.