This volume presents a selection of papers exploring the ways by which medieval powers sought to legitimize themselves, the political discourses through which this was effected, and a wide range of related problems. The six chapters in Part I analyse particular cases in which processes of legitimation can be seen at work, in order to disentangle the wide range of strategies and resources deployed by competing actors in a given context. Part II gathers five articles discussing the specific discourses of legitimation contained in a text or group of related texts, in order to expose their intricacies and their bearing on the way historians look at their sources. The book is of relevance for readers interested in new ways of approaching the History of Power.
With contributions by Frances Andrews, Carlos Estepa, Paul Fouracre, Chris Given-Wilson, Piotr Górecki, Patrick Henriet, José Antonio Jara Fuente, Cristina Jular Pérez-Alfaro and Stephen D. White.
Contributors include: Paul Fouracre, Stephen White, Isabel Alfonso, Chris Given-Wilson, Cristina Jular Pérez-Alfaro, José Antonio Jara Fuente, Carlos Estepa, Julio Escalona, Piotr Górecki, Patrick Henriet, Frances Andrews.
Isabel Alfonso Antón, Ph.D. (1980) in Political Science, Universidad Complutense (Madrid), is Investigadora Científica at Instituto de Historia (CSIC), Madrid. Her research covers medieval rural history, the Cistercians, and legal and political culture, including the co-editing of
Lucha política. Condena y legitimación en la España Medieval (Lyon, 2003).
Julio Escalona Monge, Ph.D. (1996) in Medieval History, Universidad Complutense (Madrid), is Investigador Contratado at Instituto de Historia (CSIC), Madrid. He has published on medieval territoriality, and on document forgeries and the invention of the past, and co-edited
Lucha política. Condena y legitimación en la España Medieval (Lyon, 2003).
Hugh Kennedy is Professor of Arabic at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and has published extensively on the Islamic World in the Middle Ages, including
The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates (London, 1986) and
Muslim Spain and Portugal: a political history of al-Andalus (London, 1996).
List of Contributors .. vii
Introduction .. ix
Isabel Alfonso and Julio Escalona
Part One: Legitimation in Context
Conflict, Power and Legitimation in Francia in the Late Seventh and Eighth Centuries .. 3
Paul Fouracre
A Crisis of Fidelity in c. 1000? .. 27
Stephen White
Judicial Rhetoric and Political Legitimation in Medieval León-Castile .. 51
Isabel Alfonso
Legitimation, Designation and Succession to the Throne in Fourteenth-Century England .. 89
Chris Given-Wilson
The King’s Face on the Territory: Royal Officers, Discourse and Legitimating Practices in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century Castile .. 107
Cristina Jular Pérez-Alfaro
The Importance of Being Earnest: Urban Elites and the Distribution of Power in Castilian Towns in the Late Middle Ages .. 139
José Antonio Jara Fuente
Part Two: Discourses of Political Legitimation
The Strengthening of Royal Power in Castile under Alfonso XI .. 179
Carlos Estepa
Family Memories: Inventing Alfonso I of Asturias .. 223
Julio Escalona
An Interpreter of Law and Power in a Region of Medieval Poland: Abbot Peter of Henryków and is Book .. 263
Piotr Górecki
Political Struggle and the Legitimation of the Toledan Primacy: The Pars Lateranii Concilii .. 291
Patrick Henriet
Albertano of Brescia, Rolandino of Padua and the Rhetoric of Legitimation .. 319
Frances Andrews
Index .. 341
All those interested in the history of political language, ideas and practices, the construction of social memory and shared notions of power and authority, as well as discourse-based approaches to textual sources.