Representations of Power in Medieval Germany 800-1500

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Publisher : Brepols Publishers
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Representations of Power in Medieval Germany 800-1500 by : Björn K. U. Weiler

Download or read book Representations of Power in Medieval Germany 800-1500 written by Björn K. U. Weiler and published by Brepols Publishers. This book was released on 2006 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together a group of leading experts on the political history of Germany and the medieval empire from the Carolingian period to the end of the Middle Ages. Its purpose is to introduce and analyse key concepts in the study of medieval political culture. The representation of power by means of texts, buildings and images is a theme which has long interested historians. However, recent debates and methodological insights have fundamentally altered the way this subject is perceived, opening it up to perspectives unnoticed by its pioneers in the middle of the twentieth century. By taking account of these debates and insights, this volume explores a series of fundamental questions. How was power defined in a medieval context? How was it claimed, legitimized and disputed? What were the moral parameters against which its exercise was judged? How did different spheres of political power interact? What roles were played by texts, images and rituals in the maintenance of, and challenges to, the political order? The contributors bring varied and original approaches to these and other questions, illuminating the complex power relationships which determined the changing political history of medieval Germany.

The Origins of the German Principalities, 1100-1350

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317021991
Total Pages : 426 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis The Origins of the German Principalities, 1100-1350 by : Graham A. Loud

Download or read book The Origins of the German Principalities, 1100-1350 written by Graham A. Loud and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-06 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of medieval Germany is still rarely studied in the English-speaking world. This collection of essays by distinguished German historians examines one of most important themes of German medieval history, the development of the local principalities. These became the dominant governmental institutions of the late medieval Reich, whose nominal monarchs needed to work with the princes if they were to possess any effective authority. Previous scholarship in English has tended to look at medieval Germany primarily in terms of the struggles and eventual decline of monarchical authority during the Salian and Staufen eras – in other words, at the "failure" of a centralised monarchy. Today, the federalised nature of late medieval and early modern Germany seems a more natural and understandable phenomenon than it did during previous eras when state-building appeared to be the natural and inevitable process of historical development, and any deviation from the path towards a centralised state seemed to be an aberration. In addition, by looking at the origins and consolidation of the principalities, the book also brings an English audience into contact with the modern German tradition of regional history (Landesgeschichte). These path-breaking essays open a vista into the richness and complexity of German medieval history.

The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity

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Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191015016
Total Pages : 664 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity by : John H. Arnold

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity written by John H. Arnold and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-08-21 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity takes as its subject the beliefs, practices, and institutions of the Christian Church between 400 and 1500AD. It addresses topics ranging from early medieval monasticism to late medieval mysticism, from the material wealth of the Church to the spiritual exercises through which certain believers might attempt to improve their souls. Each chapter tells a story, but seeks also to ask how and why 'Christianity' took particular forms at particular moments in history, paying attention to both the spiritual and otherwordly aspects of religion, and the material and political contexts in which they were often embedded. This Handbook is a landmark academic collection that presents cutting-edge interpretive perspectives on medieval religion for a wide academic audience, drawing together thirty key scholars in the field from the United States, the UK, and Europe. Notably, the Handbook is arranged thematically, and focusses on an analytical, rather than narrative, approach, seeking to demonstrate the variety, change, and complexity of religion throughout this long period, and the numerous different ways in which modern scholarship can approach it. While providing a very wide-ranging view of the subject, it also offers an important agenda for further study in the field.

Family Power

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108495923
Total Pages : 389 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Family Power by : Peter Haldén

Download or read book Family Power written by Peter Haldén and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-19 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains why successful states and empires have developed by fostering collaboration between families and dynasties, and the state.

History and politics in late Carolingian and Ottonian Europe

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Author :
Publisher : Manchester University Press
ISBN 13 : 1526112809
Total Pages : 327 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (261 download)

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Book Synopsis History and politics in late Carolingian and Ottonian Europe by :

Download or read book History and politics in late Carolingian and Ottonian Europe written by and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abbot Regino of Prüm (d.915) was the last great historian of the Carolingian Empire, which spanned around a million square kilometres of continental western Europe during the eighth and ninth centuries. His Chronicle is the essential account of the empire’s collapse, while its brief continuation by Adalbert, archbishop of Magdeburg, is one of the key accounts of the rise to power of the Ottonians, the first great German dynasty. Both texts are here translated into English for the first time. Regino’s lively and anecdotal style will appeal to a variety of audiences, and this book is aimed at professional researchers, non-specialists and undergraduates alike. A substantial introduction provides both basic orientation and an original scholarly interpretation of the text, while readers are helped along by a detailed footnote commentary. Alongside other Carolingian texts translated in this series, the book will open up the later ninth and earlier tenth centuries to undergraduates and others engaged in the study of this increasingly popular period.

Empires and Communities in the Post-Roman and Islamic World, C. 400-1000 CE

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190067942
Total Pages : 467 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis Empires and Communities in the Post-Roman and Islamic World, C. 400-1000 CE by : Walter Pohl

Download or read book Empires and Communities in the Post-Roman and Islamic World, C. 400-1000 CE written by Walter Pohl and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Empires are not an under-researched topic. Recently, there has been a veritable surge in comparative and conceptual studies, not least of pre-modern empires. The distant past can tell us much about the fates of empires that may still be relevant today, and contemporary historians as well as the general public are generally aware of that. Tracing the general development of an empire, we can discern a kind imperial dynamic which follows the momentum of expansion, relies on the structures and achievements of the formative period for a while, and tends to be caught in a downward spiral at some point. Yet single cases differ so much that a general model is hardly ever sufficient.There is in fact little consensus about what exactly constitutes an empire, and it has become standard in publications about empires to note the profusion of definitions.Some refer to size-for instance, 'greater than a million square kilometers', as Peter Turchin suggested. Apart from that, many scholars offer more or less extensive lists of qualitative criteria. Some of these criteria reflect the imperial dynamic, for instance, the imposition of some kind of unity through 'an imperial project', which allows moving broad populations 'from coercion through co-optation to cooperation and identification'"--

Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351942492
Total Pages : 659 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (519 download)

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Book Synopsis Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald by : Stephen Baxter

Download or read book Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald written by Stephen Baxter and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 659 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Patrick Wormald was a brilliant interpreter of the Early Middle Ages, whose teaching, writings and generous friendship inspired a generation of historians and students of politics, law, language, literature and religion to focus their attention upon the world of the Anglo-Saxons and the Franks. Leading British, American and continental scholars - his colleagues, friends and pupils - here bear witness to his seminal influence by presenting a collection of studies devoted to the key themes that dominated his work: kingship; law and society; ethnic, religious, national and linguistic identities; the power of images, pictorial or poetic, in shaping political and religious institutions. Closely mirroring the interests of their honorand, the collection not only underlines Patrick Wormald's enormous contribution to the field of Anglo-Saxon studies, but graphically demonstrates his belief that early medieval England and Anglo-Saxon law could only be understood against a background of research into contemporary developments in the nearby Welsh, Scottish, Irish and Frankish kingdoms. He would have been well pleased, therefore, that this volume should make such significant advances in our understanding of the world of Bede, of the dynasty of King Alfred, and also of the workings of English law between the seventh and the twelfth century. Moreover he would have been particularly delighted at the rich comparisons and contrasts with Celtic societies offered here and with the series of fundamental reassessments of aspects of Carolingian Francia. Above all these studies present fundamental reinterpretations, not only of published written sources and their underlying manuscript evidence, but also of the development of some of the dominant ideas of that era. In both their scope and the quality of the scholarship, the collection stands as a fitting tribute to the work and life of Patrick Wormald and his lasting contribution to early medieval studies.

Famous Assassinations in World History [2 volumes]

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Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1610692861
Total Pages : 906 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (16 download)

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Book Synopsis Famous Assassinations in World History [2 volumes] by : Michael Newton

Download or read book Famous Assassinations in World History [2 volumes] written by Michael Newton and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-04-17 with total page 906 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Representing a unique reference tool for readers interested in history, criminology, or terrorism, this book provides the most complete and up-to-date coverage of assassinations of key figures throughout history and around the world. Effecting the death of a political figure, a leader of a nation, or a public figure usually captures people's attention. But how often is assassination effective to achieve the larger objective beyond the death of the targeted individual? Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia offers more than 200 entries on assassinations of all kinds that will allow readers to grasp the often-complex motivating factors behind each event and better understand historical and contemporary social unrest. Each entry identifies the assassination target and summarizes that person's significance; discusses the person's assassination, including the factors that led up to it and its political and cultural contexts; and explains the powerful effects of the assassination in world history. The encyclopedia also includes various sidebars that spotlight relevant individuals, groups, and movements and present intriguing factoids such as the final disposition of notorious assassins' weapons and various films and novels that were inspired by famous assassinations. In addition, 23 primary source documents provide accounts of assassinations throughout world history.

Roman de toute chevalerie

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Author :
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
ISBN 13 : 1487501897
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (875 download)

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Book Synopsis Roman de toute chevalerie by : Charles Russell Stone

Download or read book Roman de toute chevalerie written by Charles Russell Stone and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2019-03-07 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The medieval reception of Alexander the Great inspired a complicated literary corpus not simply because it involved so many source-texts and languages, but because it incorporated such diverse perspectives on the conqueror. Beginning with a discussion of the evolution of this corpus, this book examines the manuscripts, readership, and historical contexts of the earliest surviving Alexander romance in England, Thomas de Kent's Anglo-Norman Roman de toute chevalerie. To shed light on the origins and treatment of this romance, Charles Russell Stone reads each manuscript within the contexts of its production, scribal interpolations, and patronage and readership in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. While Thomas recalls a range of attitudes towards his protagonist in the late twelfth century, when the recovery of classical histories and composition of vernacular romance informed conflicting attitudes towards Alexander's legacy, scribes and readers of his poem appropriated it as a continuing commentary on power, politics, and the relevance of the Alexander legend in their own time. Each of the three major manuscripts of Thomas's poem thus offers a unique text informed by unique literary and political contexts, which this book situates within the ongoing debate over Alexander's reception as a paradigm of imperial authority or failure in late medieval England.

Making and Unmaking the Carolingians

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Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1786736462
Total Pages : 456 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (867 download)

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Book Synopsis Making and Unmaking the Carolingians by : Stuart Airlie

Download or read book Making and Unmaking the Carolingians written by Stuart Airlie and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-12-24 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does power manifest itself in individuals? Why do people obey authority? And how does a family, if they are the source of such dominance, convey their superiority and maintain their command in a pre-modern world lacking speedy communications, standing armies and formalised political jurisdiction? Here, Stuart Airlie expertly uses this idea of authority as a lens through which to explore one of the most famous dynasties in medieval Europe: the Carolingians. Ruling the Frankish realm from 751 to 888, the family of Charlemagne had to be ruthless in asserting their status and adept at creating a discourse of Carolingian legitimacy in order to sustain their supremacy. Through its nuanced analysis of authority, politics and family, Making and Unmaking the Carolingians, 751-888 outlines the system which placed the Carolingian dynasty at the centre of the Frankish world. In doing so, Airlie sheds important new light on both the rise and fall of the Carolingian empire and the nature of power in medieval Europe more generally.

Frederick Barbarossa

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300122764
Total Pages : 727 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis Frederick Barbarossa by : John B. Freed

Download or read book Frederick Barbarossa written by John B. Freed and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 727 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fourth Italian Campaign

Emperor of the World

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Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801467799
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Emperor of the World by : Anne A. Latowsky

Download or read book Emperor of the World written by Anne A. Latowsky and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-26 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charlemagne never traveled farther east than Italy, but by the mid-tenth century a story had begun to circulate about the friendly alliances that the emperor had forged while visiting Jerusalem and Constantinople. This story gained wide currency throughout the Middle Ages, appearing frequently in chronicles, histories, imperial decrees, and hagiographies-even in stained-glass windows and vernacular verse and prose. In Emperor of the World, Anne A. Latowsky traces the curious history of this myth, revealing how the memory of the Frankish Emperor was manipulated to shape the institutions of kingship and empire in the High Middle Ages. The legend incorporates apocalyptic themes such as the succession of world monarchies at the End of Days and the prophecy of the Last Roman Emperor. Charlemagne's apocryphal journey to the East increasingly resembled the eschatological final journey of the Last Emperor, who was expected to end his reign in Jerusalem after reuniting the Roman Empire prior to the Last Judgment. Instead of relinquishing his imperial dignity and handing the rule of a united Christendom over to God as predicted, this Charlemagne returns to the West to commence his reign. Latowsky finds that the writers who incorporated this legend did so to support, or in certain cases to criticize, the imperial pretentions of the regimes under which they wrote. New versions of the myth would resurface at times of transition and during periods marked by strong assertions of Roman-style imperial authority and conflict with the papacy, most notably during the reigns of Henry IV and Frederick Barbarossa. Latowsky removes Charlemagne's encounters with the East from their long-presumed Crusading context and shows how a story that began as a rhetorical commonplace of imperial praise evolved over the centuries as an expression of Christian Roman universalism.

The Holy Roman Empire [2 volumes]

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Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 677 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (16 download)

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Book Synopsis The Holy Roman Empire [2 volumes] by : Brian A. Pavlac

Download or read book The Holy Roman Empire [2 volumes] written by Brian A. Pavlac and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2019-06-01 with total page 677 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reference entries, overview essays, and primary source document excerpts survey the history and unveil the successes and failures of the longest-lasting European empire. The Holy Roman Empire endured for ten centuries. This book surveys the history of the empire from the formation of a Frankish Kingdom in the sixth century through the efforts of Charlemagne to unify the West around A.D. 800, the conflicts between emperors and popes in the High Middle Ages, and the Reformation and the Wars of Religion in the Early Modern period to the empire's collapse under Napoleonic rule. A historical overview and timeline are followed by sections on government and politics, organization and administration, individuals, groups and organizations, key events, the military, objects and artifacts, and key places. Each of these topical sections begins with an overview essay, which is followed by alphabetically arranged reference entries on significant topics. The book includes a selection of primary source documents, each of which is introduced by a contextualizing headnote, and closes with a selected, general bibliography.

Women and Aristocratic Culture in the Carolingian World

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Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801460174
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Women and Aristocratic Culture in the Carolingian World by : Valerie L. Garver

Download or read book Women and Aristocratic Culture in the Carolingian World written by Valerie L. Garver and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-08 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the wealth of scholarship in recent decades on medieval women, we still know much less about the experiences of women in the early Middle Ages than we do about those in later centuries. In Women and Aristocratic Culture in the Carolingian World, Valerie L. Garver offers a fresh appraisal of the cultural and social history of eighth- and ninth-century women. Examining changes in women's lives and in the ways others perceived women during the early Middle Ages, she shows that lay and religious women, despite their legal and social constrictions, played integral roles in Carolingian society. Garver's innovative book employs an especially wide range of sources, both textual and material, which she uses to construct a more complex and nuanced impression of aristocratic women than we've seen before. She looks at the importance of female beauty and adornment; the family and the construction of identities and collective memory; education and moral exemplarity; wealth, hospitality and domestic management; textile work, and the lifecycle of elite Carolingian women. Her interdisciplinary approach makes deft use of canons of church councils, chronicles, charters, polyptychs, capitularies, letters, poetry, exegesis, liturgy, inventories, hagiography, memorial books, artworks, archaeological remains, and textiles. Ultimately, Women and Aristocratic Culture in the Carolingian World underlines the centrality of the Carolingian era to the reshaping of antique ideas and the development of lasting social norms.

King and Emperor

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Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520973941
Total Pages : 705 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (29 download)

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Book Synopsis King and Emperor by : Janet L. Nelson

Download or read book King and Emperor written by Janet L. Nelson and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2019-09-17 with total page 705 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "King and Emperor takes on the compelling suspense of good detective work as well as good history."—The Wall Street Journal Charles I, often known as Charlemagne, is one of the most extraordinary figures ever to rule an empire. Driven by unremitting physical energy and intellectual curiosity, he was a man of many parts, a warlord and conqueror, a judge who promised "for each their law and justice," a defender of the Latin Church, a man of flesh and blood. In the twelve centuries since his death, warfare, accident, vermin, and the elements have destroyed much of the writing on his rule, but a remarkable amount has survived. Janet Nelson's wonderful new book brings together everything we know about Charles I, sifting through the available evidence, literary and material, to paint a vivid portrait of the man and his motives. Building on Nelson’s own extraordinary knowledge, this biography is a sort of detective story, prying into and interpreting fascinating and often obdurate scraps of evidence, from prayer books to skeletons, gossip to artwork. Charles’s legacy lies in his deeds and their continuing resonance, as he shaped counties, countries, and continents; founded and rebuilt towns and monasteries; and consciously set himself up not just as King of the Franks, but as the head of the renewed Roman Empire. His successors—even to the present day—have struggled to interpret, misinterpret, copy, or subvert his legacy. Janet Nelson gets us as close as we can hope to come to the real figure of Charles the man as he was understood in his own time.

Empress Adelheid and Countess Matilda

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137585145
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (375 download)

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Book Synopsis Empress Adelheid and Countess Matilda by : Penelope Nash

Download or read book Empress Adelheid and Countess Matilda written by Penelope Nash and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-02-15 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book compares two successful, elite women, Empress Adelheid (931-999) and Countess Matilda (1046-1115), for their relative ability to retain their wealth and power in the midst of the profound social changes of the eleventh century. The careers of the Ottonian queen and empress Adelheid and Countess Matilda of Tuscany reveal a growth of opportunities for women to access wealth and power. These two women are analyzed under three categories: their relationships with family and friends, how they managed their property (particularly land), and how they ruled. This analysis encourages a better understanding of gender relations in both the past and the present.

Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192562169
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (925 download)

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Book Synopsis Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire by : Duncan Hardy

Download or read book Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire written by Duncan Hardy and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-21 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What was the Holy Roman Empire in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries? At the turning point between the medieval and early modern periods, this vast Central European polity was the continent's most politically fragmented. The imperial monarchs were often weak and distant, while a diverse array of regional actors played an autonomous role in political life. The Empire's obvious differences compared with more centralized European kingdoms have stimulated negative historical judgements and fraught debates, which have found expression in recent decades in the concepts of fractured 'territorial states' and a disjointed 'imperial constitution'. Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire challenges these interpretations through a wide-ranging case study of Upper Germany — the southern regions of modern-day Germany plus Alsace, Switzerland, and western Austria — between 1346 and 1521. By examining the interactions of princes, prelates, nobles, and towns comparatively, Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire demonstrates that a range of actors and authorities shared the same toolkit of technologies, rituals, judicial systems, and concepts and configurations of government. Crucially, Upper German elites all participated in leagues, alliances, and other treaty-based associations. As frameworks for collective activity, associations were a vital means of enabling and regulating warfare, justice and arbitration, and even lordship and administration. On the basis of this evidence, Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire offers a new and more coherent depiction of the Holy Roman Empire as a sprawling community of interdependent elites who interacted within the framework of a shared political culture.