The Bounds of Empire

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Lee
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Italian Nationalism ◽  
To Come

Scholars have long believed that ‘medieval’ universalism was supplanted by ‘Italian’ nationalism over the course of the fourteenth century. As this chapter demonstrates, however, nothing could be further from the truth. Although the humanists were often more concerned with the fate of Italy, or of individual cities, than of mankind as a whole, they did not waver in their belief that the Holy Roman Empire enjoyed universal dominion. Only at the very end of the Visconti Wars, when the Empire was seen to threaten the peace and liberty of the peninsula did ‘Italianness’ at last begin to come to the fore. Yet this is not to say that their universalism was unvarying. Depending on whether they chose to view it more as the successor of the ancient imperium Romanum or as an instrument of providence, they could paint it in idealistically ‘Roman’ colours, or endow it with a more ‘hegemonic’ tinge.

Der Weg zur Entscheidung: Verfahren oder Verhandlung?

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-414
Author(s):  
Richard Lüdicke
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
General Model ◽  
Decision Procedure ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
To Come ◽  
Stage Play ◽  
Made In

How to Come up for a Decision: Procedure or Negotiation? The Disputations in Cities in the 1520s The disputations held in imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire during the 1520 s, facing the turmoils caused by the reformation, served – like a stage play – to showcase and communicate the decision to implement Reformation that had already been made in advance. Usually, this is the judgement on the so called “Religionsgespräche”. Although this view shows up even in contemporary statements, the article argues, that a differentiated analysis of the various actors, their interests and possibilities to influence the events opens up a clearer perspective on what happened and why it happened. Using the sociological distinction of procedure and negotiation, this article shows, that the disputation had to keep the balance between reglemented procedure and more liberal negotiation to produce an accepted and also binding result for their community. Examples from the disputations of Zürich (1523), Kaufbeuren, Memmingen, Nürnberg (1525) and Bern (1528) allow this article to illustrate different ways of how this balancing on a razor’s edge could be done. The conclusion develops a general model of how the cities used disputations to try to deal with the religious turmoil while facing stiff opposition from local clerics and scholars, the papal church and the emperor.

scholarly journals Transfer, Entanglement and Regnal Traditions. The Mobility of Ideas, or How to Define Princely Rank in England and the Empire in the Fourteenth Century

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Jörg Peltzer
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Late Medieval

This paper addresses the theme of mobility in the context of late medieval political thought, more specifically, the rhetoric of royal charters issued in England and the Holy Roman Empire in the fourteenth century.

Starting New Lives

2020 ◽  
pp. 272-285
Author(s):  
Adam Teller
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Religious Difference ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
Jewish Refugees ◽  
To Come ◽  
At Home

This chapter explores how Jewish refugees dealt with the problems involved in starting their lives afresh in the Holy Roman Empire—a dynamic and creative process whose effects were felt well beyond their immediate circle. A key issue the refugees faced in the empire was their feelings of strangeness and sometimes even alienation. Many retained warm feelings toward their previous home, and the foreign environment in which they found themselves was hard to come to terms with. The refugees' feeling of strangeness was also a result of cultural and religious difference within Jewish society. Even when they did find a place to settle down in, the refugees did not always feel at home. However, there may have been deeper issues at work. There were those who ascribed their difficulties directly to their refugee experiences. The chapter then focuses on Jewish economic activity. Most refugees seem to have found themselves in one of two professions: trade, often just peddling, or some form of religious occupation, from the lowly jobs of teachers or slaughterers to highly prestigious rabbinical posts.

On What Were Oaths Taken in Christian Latin Europe in the High Middle Ages (12th-Early 14th Centuries)?

Mediaevistik ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-157
Author(s):  
Michalina Duda ◽  
Sławomir Jó źwiak
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Community Life ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
Private Corporation ◽  
Written Sources

It is not surprising that oaths were used in all legal systems and in very broadly understood public and social relationships in Christian Latin Europe in the Middle Ages. The oath was commonly presented in various aspects of community life, that is, in political, constitutional, legal, economic, commercial, private, corporation, and religious matters.1 The oath as such and its use can be examined in a great number of contexts. But, in this paper we will solely focus on one of these. The topic discussed here are objects (paraments) on which oaths were taken. Lots of information about this issue is provided by iconography and written sources. These objects were subject to notable changes depending on the time and territory. This article focuses on such territories as England, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Italy, Sweden, Bohemia, Poland, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the period of more than two centuries of the High Middle Ages, from the twelfth to the early fourteenth century.

Humanism and Empire

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Lee
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Imperial Authority ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
City States ◽  
Renaissance Italy ◽  
Political Conviction

For more than a century, scholars have believed that Italian humanism was predominantly ‘civic’ in outlook. Often serving in communal government, fourteenth-century humanists like Albertino Mussato and Coluccio Salutati are said to have derived from their reading of the Latin classics a rhetoric of republican liberty that was opposed to the ‘tyranny’ of neighbouring signori and of the German emperors. In this groundbreaking study, Alexander Lee challenges this long-held belief. From the death of Frederick II in 1250 to the failure of Rupert of the Palatinate’s ill-fated expedition in 1402, Lee argues, the humanists nurtured a consistent and powerful affection for the Holy Roman Empire. Though this was articulated in a variety of different ways, it was nevertheless driven more by political conviction than by cultural concerns. Surrounded by endless conflict—both within and between city states—the humanists eagerly embraced the Empire as the surest guarantee of peace and liberty, and lost no opportunity to invoke its protection. Indeed, as Lee shows, the most ardent appeals to imperial authority were made not by ‘signorial’ humanists, but by humanists in the service of communal regimes. The first comprehensive, synoptic study of humanistic ideas of Empire in the period c.1250–1402, this volume offers a radically new interpretation of fourteenth-century political thought, and raises wide-ranging questions about the foundations of modern constitutional ideas. As such, it is essential reading not just for students of Renaissance Italy and the history of political thought, but for all those interested in understanding the origins of liberty.

Rule by Consensus

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 449-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Schneidmüller
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Kings And Rulers ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Middle Ages

This article analyses specific characteristics of pre-modern rule in medieval central Europe. It becomes clear from the analysis that although the notion of monarchy implies a single ruler (mon-archia), it was actually the case, however, that in political practice, the kings and rulers of the Holy Roman Empire had to come to an arrangement with the elites and nobles. Therefore, the famous model developed by Max Weber regarding the three types of legitimate rule: legal, traditional and charismatic, fall short of encompassing the alterity and plurality of politics in the Middle Ages. Here, the concept of consensual rule is conceptualised through the use of additional case studies. These case studies more appropriately capture the fluid decision-making process in the Middle Ages through ongoing negotiation. Thus, the kings and emperors are clearly integrated into the framework of pre-modern oligarchies and therefore offer a counter-outline to the doctrine of divine right.

Personen, grenzen en politieke eenheden in de veertiende eeuw

2014 ◽  
Vol 127 (4) ◽  
pp. 579-602
Author(s):  
Aart Noordzij
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Personal Agency ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
History Of ◽  
Composite Nature ◽  
Political Units

Abstract Personal agency, borders and political units in the fourteenth century. The duchy of Guelders and the history of international relationsTheories that offer a historicized account of international relations often consider the late middle ages as a period of fundamental change. Territorial political units, geographically defined borders, and distinctions between internal and external gradually developed and became increasingly important. As a result international relations were not only governed by competition between individual lords, by feudal networks, or by imperial and papal universalism, but also by the agency of newly developing geopolitical units, such as kingdoms, territories, towns, and local lordships. On the basis of the Guelders War of Succession (1371-1379) this paper offers a snapshot of this process of transition, demonstrating the dense and composite nature of international relations during the fourteenth century in the western part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Lordship and Administration

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Hardy
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Urban Elites ◽  
Interconnected Networks ◽  
Territorial States

The Holy Roman Empire, and especially Upper Germany, was notoriously politically fragmented in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. A common way to interpret this fragmentation has been to view late medieval lordships, particularly those ruled by princes, as incipient ‘territories’, or even ‘territorial states’. However, this over-simplifies and reifies structures of lordship and administration in this period, which consisted of shifting agglomerations of assets, revenues, and jurisdictions that were dispersed among and governed by interconnected networks of political actors. Seigneurial properties and rights had become separable, commoditized, and highly mobile by the later middle ages, and these included not only fiefs (Lehen) but also loan-based pledges (Pfandschaften) and offices, all of which could be sold, transferred, or even ruled or exercised by multiple parties at once, whether these were princes, nobles, or urban elites. This fostered intensive interaction between formally autonomous political actors, generating frictions and disputes.

Borders and Freedom of Movement in the Holy Roman Empire

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Scholz
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Free Movement ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Territorial Expansion ◽  
Freedom Of Movement ◽  
German Nation ◽  
New Perspective

Abstract: Borders and Freedom of Movement in the Holy Roman Empire tells the history of free movement in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, one of the most fractured landscapes in human history. The boundaries that divided its hundreds of territories make the Old Reich a uniquely valuable site for studying the ordering of movement. The focus is on safe conduct, an institution that was common throughout the early modern world but became a key framework for negotiating free movement and its restriction in the Old Reich. The book shows that attempts to escort travellers, issue letters of passage, or to criminalize the use of ‘forbidden’ roads served to transform rights of passage into excludable and fiscally exploitable goods. Mobile populations—from emperors to peasants—defied attempts to govern their mobility with actions ranging from formal protest to bloodshed. Newly designed maps show that restrictions upon moving goods and people were rarely concentrated at borders before the mid-eighteenth century, but unevenly distributed along roads and rivers. In addition, the book unearths intense intellectual debates around the rulers’ right to interfere with freedom of movement. The Empire’s political order guaranteed extensive transit rights, but apologies of free movement and claims of protection could also mask aggressive attempts of territorial expansion. Drawing on sources discovered in more than twenty archives and covering the period between the late sixteenth to the early nineteenth century, the book offers a new perspective on the unstable relationship of political authority and human mobility in the heartlands of old-regime Europe.

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