Articles
Beautiful power: panegyric at the court of Emperor Henry III (1039–56)
Erik Niblaeus
Pages: 1-21
https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2020.1844280
This article is an analysis of a series of texts, in prose and poetry, by German, French and Italian authors, which praise Emperor Henry III (1039–56) in the stylised form of the Latin panegyric. It argues that the rhetorical training of the authors – often on deliberate display in their praise – lent their literary products an intellectual sophistication and political resonance which are not always immediately visible in the often highly stereotypical texts. Further, it considers the interpretative problems inherent in reading texts so bound by typological and stylistic precedent. Finally, it argues that thinking about panegyric as a social practice can help us understand some of role played by the imperial court in the radical upheavals in the Western Empire in the second half of the eleventh century.
‘I would be rather pleased if the world were to be rid of monks.' Resistance to Cluniac integration in late eleventh- and early twelfth-century France
Steven Vanderputten
Pages: 22-41
https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2020.1841672
This paper takes a bottom-up look at Cluniac integration in the decades either side of the year 1100 in order to explore the diverse institutional, contextual and personal dynamics at play. Taking as its case study the French diocese of Saintes, it charts the transformation of the ecclesia Cluniacensis, the impact on relations with monastic houses in the region and the response by diverse stakeholders. Local groups of monks and their patrons actively participated in the ongoing integration of monastic administration, facilitating the exchange of personnel and know-how. But they also expected these processes to be subject to negotiation and compromise, and when the Cluniacs challenged these expectations the destabilising effect on Saintes society was profound. As such, this study helps to adjust a former narrative that contrasted the Cluniacs' reform of monastic administration in this period with the resistant attitude of individual communities and their local patrons.
The ‘custodial experiment' of 1204: comital administration and financial reform under King John of England
Daniel Booker
Pages: 42-61
https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2020.1848905
This article re-examines the origins of an important but little studied administrative reform introduced by King John in the wake of the loss of Normandy in 1204: the ‘custodial experiment'. Whereas previous studies of the reform have located its origins within established royal practices, this article instead argues that the experiment represented an attempt to align shire administration with contemporary developments in baronial land management, as direct exploitation replaced indirect management. This new perspective is used to consider how the king and his officials thought the novel arrangements would work in practice, as well as how the experiment related to broader royal concerns regarding administration and finance within the kingdom of England. In doing so this article contributes towards wider discussions regarding the agency of individual rulers and the exercise of power through administrative systems and institutions.
Diplomacy, counsel and the nobility of fourteenth-century England: the diplomatic service of Edward III's earls, 1337–60
Matthew Raven
Pages: 62-88
https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2020.1857298
This article provides an analytical study of a group of earls in diplomatic processes in the mid fourteenth century, within a wider framework of diplomatic relations and political thinking on the role of the earls as important counsellors of the king. It aims to bridge a historiographical divide between diplomatic history and the history of the nobility in domestic political structures by demonstrating how the traditional role of the earls as the king's foremost counsellors was integrated into the diplomatic processes which accompanied the onset of the Hundred Years' War. It explores a pivotal aspect of the public lives of the fourteenth-century nobility, integrates their diplomatic service into the history of medieval diplomacy and highlights the middle years of the fourteenth century as a crucial period of intensifying aristocratic diplomatic service.
Pro sustentatione castrorum: the role of the Hospitaller priory of Hungary in King Matthias Corvinus' anti-Ottoman defensive policies, c.1464–90
Davor Salihović
Pages: 89-118
https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2020.1859402
The properties of the Hospitaller priory of Hungary had since the reign of Sigismund of Luxembourg (r. 1387–1437) been occasionally allocated to secular governors as remuneration for maintenance of the defensive system against the Ottomans. While it is widely known that a similar policy was continued by King Matthias Corvinus after 1464, it has not been studied in detail. This paper discusses the secular governors of the priory between 1464 and 1490, identifies the priory's estates entrusted to governors and seeks to offer answers about their role in Matthias' anti-Ottoman defensive structures. Detailed analysis shows that with this scheme, the king aimed to ensure additional revenue for officials tasked with defence of the frontier towards the Ottoman Empire, and that it was an improvised rather than consistent policy.
