Paths to Kingship in Medieval Latin Europe, c. 950-1200

491 Pages·2021·2.904 MB·English

by  Björn Weiler

PATHS TO KINGSHIP IN MEDIEVAL
–
LATIN EUROPE, c. 950 1200
MedievalEuropewasaworldofkings,butwhatdidthismeantothose
whodidnotthemselveswearacrown?Howcouldtheypreventcorrupt
andevilmenfromseizingthethrone?Howcouldtheyensurethatrulers
would not turn into tyrants? Drawing on a rich array of remarkable
sources,thisengagingstudyexploreshowthefearsandhopesofaruler’s
subjects shaped both the idea and the practice of power. It traces the
inherentuncertaintyofroyalrulefromthecreationofkingshipandthe
recurringcrisesofroyalsuccessions,throughtheeducationofheirsand
theintrigueofmedievalelections,tothesplendourofaking’scoronation,
andthepivotalearlyyearsofhisreign.Monks,crusaders,knights,kings
(andthosewhowantedtobekings)areamongarichcastofcharacters
whosoughttomakesenseofandbenefitfromaninstitutionthatwasan
objectofbothdesireandfear.
bjo¨rn weiler isProfessorinHistoryatAberystwythUniversityinthe
UK, with visiting stints at Cambridge, Bergen (Norway), Freiburg
(Germany), Harvard and Chapel Hill. He has received grants, among
others, from the AHRC, the British Academy, the Huntingdon Library
and the Leverhulme Trust. Publications include Political Culture in the
MedievalWest,ByzantiumandtheIslamicWorld(2021)(withCatherine
Holmes and others); Representations of Power in Medieval Germany
(2006) (with Simon MacLean); and Kingship, Rebellion and Political
Culture(2007;rev.edition2012).

PATHS TO KINGSHIP IN
MEDIEVAL LATIN EUROPE,
–
c. 950 1200
BJÖRN WEILER
AberystwythUniversity
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781316518427
DOI:10.1017/9781009008853
©BjörnWeiler2021
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
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Firstpublished2021
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyTJBooksLimited,PadstowCornwall
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Weiler,BjörnK.U.,author.
Title:PathstokingshipinmedievalLatinEurope,c.950–1200/BjörnWeiler,Universityof
Wales,Aberystwyth.
Description:Firstedition.|NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,2021.|Includes
bibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2020058383(print)|LCCN2020058384(ebook)|ISBN9781316518427
(hardback)|ISBN9781009009218(paperback)|ISBN9781009008853(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Kingsandrulers,Medieval.|Monarchy–Europe–History–To1500.|
Legitimacyofgovernments–Europe–History–To1500.|Europe–Politicsand
government–476–1492.
Classification:LCCD131.W452021(print)|LCCD131(ebook)|DDC321/.609409021–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020058383
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020058384
ISBN978-1-316-51842-7Hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof
URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication
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accurateorappropriate.
CONTENTS
ListofMaps pagevii
Acknowledgements viii
ListofAbbreviations x
Timeline xi
Introduction 1
parti
Foundations
1 PoliticsandPowerinHighMedievalEurope,c.1000–1200 25
2 FoundationalTexts 39
partii
CreatingKingship
3 BecomingKing 67
4 ConferringKingship 95
partiii
Succession
5 Duties,NormsandProcess 121
6 DesignatinganHeir 165
partiv
Election
7 UnanimityandProbity 233
8 ChoosingaKing 259
v
vi contents
partv
Inauguration
9 EnthroningtheKing 309
10 BeyondEnthronement 351
Conclusion 399
SelectReading 412
Index 464
MAPS
1 HighmedievalEurope,c.1100 pagexiv
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ManymoreyearsagothanInowdaretoadmit,thisbookbeganasafootnote
to a footnote inmy PhD. Other projects intervened, and I returned to kings
only during a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at
Harvard (2008–9), and a Senior Fellowship at the Freiburg Institute for
AdvancedStudies(2010–11).GenerousfundingfromtheAHRCandresearch
leavefromAberystwythallowedforthecompletionofafirstdraft.
Toomanyfriendsandcolleaguesnowknowmoreaboutmedievalkingship
than they may have thought possible, let alone desirable. I offer my sincere
apologies, and my deepest gratitude, at Harvard, to David Fischer, Eric
Goldberg, Mario Gonzalez, Ilana Gershon, Jim Haber, Hap, Mona Krook,
Sarah, Pip and Soci Messer, Joanne Rappaport, Steve Zipperstein and the
muchmissedDavidWarnerfortheirquestions,companionshipandcounsel;
toZacSmith,DanSmailandthe‘Gang’fortheirwelcomeandhospitality;and
toMatiasVeraforalloftheaboveandthecommunalexorcising.AtFreiburg,
PatrickBernhard,MarkGreengrass,LeonhardHorowsky,HeinzKrieg,Lucy
Riall and Till Van Rahden made for another wonderful year and equally
inspiring company. Haki Antonsson first set me thinking about concepts
and representations of royal authority; Stephen Church gave me the idea to
useoverlappingstagesasameansofstructuringthebook;JohannaDaleand
ThomasFoerstergenerouslysharedmanuscriptsoftheirthenstillforthcom-
ingbooks;andPeterLambertkeptaskingabouthowideascoulddriveactions.
HeandRichardRathbonealsokindlyreadthemanuscriptinfull,whileNora
Berend, Piotr Górecki, Lars Kjaer and Mia Münster-Swendsen offered wel-
comefeedbackonindividualchaptersandsections.Thebookisamuchbetter
onebecauseoftheirhelp,adviceandcriticism.
Gerd Althoff, Jack Bernhardt, Thomas Foerster, Helmut Hughes, Ryan
Kemp, Konstantin Klein, Stephan Patscher, Martyn Powell, Tim Reuter,
Stephan Schmuck, Simon Taylor, David Trotter, Alex Woolf and Thomas
Zotzareonlysomeofthecolleaguesandfriendswhosequestions,suggestions
and criticisms fed into the book. I have learned much from them. Peter
Lambert and Patricia Duncker put me even further in their debt by coming
upwithatitleforthisbookthatdidnotrivalaseventeenth-centurytreatiseon
alchemyinlength.FriendsandcolleaguesatHarvard,inFreiburg,Berlinand
viii
acknowledgements ix
Aberystwythalsoprovidedmuchneededroutesofescape.Writingwouldhave
beenmuchlessenjoyablewithouttheKaiserSchnitzel,theCasablancaBurger
ortheculinarydelightsofSissi,April,JayzandtheShip&Kennel.
Sections,draftsandoffshootswerepresentedatAberystwyth,Bergen,Bonn,
Bristol,Cambridge(bothUKandMA),Cardiff,Coburg,Düsseldorf,Freiburg,
Glasgow, Heidelberg, Kraków, Kyoto, Leeds, London, Madrid, Minneapolis,
Münster, Nicosia, Osaka, Oxford, Palo Alto, Pasadena, Riverside, San Jose,
SofiaandWarsaw.Ihavelearnedmuchontheseoccasions,andamimmensely
gratefulfortheopportunitytotestseveraloftheideasunderpinningthisbook.
For permission to reprint previously published materials I am grateful to
CarolinePalmerandBoydell&Brewerfor‘Kingship,usurpationandpropa-
gandaintwelfth-centuryEurope:thecaseofStephen’,Anglo-NormanStudies
31 (2000), 299–326; and to Allison McCann and the UCLA Center for
Medieval and Renaissance Studies for ‘The rex renitens and medieval ideals
of kingship, c. 950–1250’, Viator 31 (2000), 1–42; ‘Crown-giving and king-
makinginthewest,c.1000–c.1250’,Viator41(2010),57–88;and‘Talesoffirst
kingsandthecultureofkingshipinthewest,c.1050–1200’,Viator46/2(2015),
101–28.
LizFriend-SmithatCambridgeUniversityPressdeservesmanifoldthanks
for her trust and patience: I am sorry that the manuscript nearly became a
mythical promise, always just beyond the horizon, seemingly forever out of
reach. But, as a popular beat combo put it: nun das Warten hat ein Ende. I
wouldalsoliketothankAtifaJiwaforherhelp,and,aboveall,KathleenFearn,
whohasbeenawonderfullyeagle-eyedandpatientcopy-editor.AtFreiburg,
Jan Wacker was the perfect Mitarbeiter. He also compiled a list of royal
successionsthatmadewritingthebooksomucheasier.Iwouldfurthermore
like to thank the librarians at Harvard’s Widener Library, their colleagues at
Cambridge,Freiburg,theStaatsbibliothekPreußischerKulturbesitzBerlin,the
Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut at the Freie Universität Berlin, and in the Inter
LibraryLoansdepartmentatAberystwyth,withoutwhoseassistancethisbook
wouldhavetakenevenlongertocomplete.Despiteitsbestefforts,Microsoft
Word could only delay the manuscript’s completion. And special mention
must,ofcourse,bemadeofJuggles,Coco,Dilys,Lola,Sergej,Suki,Ted,Wolfie
andtheirfellowshipmates.Needlesstosay,anyremainingmistakesaretheir
responsibility,notmine.
ABBREVIATIONS
AfD ArchivfürDiplomatikundUrkundenforschung
AKG ArchivfürKulturgeschichte
ANS Anglo-NormanStudies
CCCM CorpusChristianorum,ContinuatioMediaevalis
CCSL CorpusChristianorum,SeriesLatina
CSEL CorpusScriptorumEcclesiasticorumLatinorum
DA DeutschesArchivfürErforschungdesMittelalters
EHR EnglishHistoricalReview
EME EarlyMedievalEurope
f. folio
FmSt FrühmittelalterlicheStudien
HSJ HaskinsSocietyJournal
HZ HistorischeZeitschrift
JEGP JournalofEnglishandGermanicPhilology
JMedH JournalofMedievalHistory
MGH MonumentaGermaniaeHistorica
MGH DiplomataMonumentaGermaniaeHistorica:DieUrkundender
deutschenKönigeundKaiser
MGHSS Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores rerum
Germanicarum
MGHSSsep.ed. Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores rerum
Germanicaruminusumscholarumseparatimediti
MIÖG MitteilungendesInstitutsfürÖsterreichischeGeschichtsforschung
PL PatrologiaLatina
RI RegestaImperii
TRHS TransactionsoftheRoyalHistoricalSociety
ZSRG ZeitschriftderSavigny-StiftungfürRechtsgeschichte
x