scholarly journals Artsruni-Senaichereim Family in the Byzantine Administration of the Eleventh-Century Balkan Themes

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 141-146
Author(s):  
Valerii Pavlovich Stepanenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
The Family

In 2009, Valentina S. Shandrovskaia published a seal of Sebatas Senaichereim, protospatharios and strategos of the theme of Servia and dated it from the late of the tenth to the early eleventh centuries. Anton S. Mokhov dated this molybdoboullon to the second half of the 980s. Additionally, the latter used John Skylitzes’s account that Nikephoros Xiphias, following the order of the Emperor Basil II the Bulgar Slayer, destroyed and razed to the ground all the fortresses in the regions of Servia and Soska to claim that the destruction of the fortress of Servia and the liquidation of this theme date to 1018. This paper doubts the said interpretations. The paper’s author considers that the family name of Senaichereim included into the patronymic of Sebatas contradicts the dates proposed by A. S. Mokhov. The Senaichereim family descended from the king of Vaspurakan (Armenia) Senekerim Artsruni. He and his family appeared in Byzantium in 1021. His descendants could become the Senaicheriem family only after his death ca 1024. Therefore, Sebatas’ reign in Servia possibly dates to the 1020s, and the theme of Servia could hardly be liquidated in 1018.

Reddatur Parentibus: The Vengeance of the Family in Cnut's Homicide Legislation

2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Jurasinski
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
British Library ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Corpus Christi ◽  
The Family ◽  
Ultimate Outcome ◽  
English Law ◽  
One Year

TheAnglo-Saxon Chroniclestates that during his 1018 meeting in Oxford with the leading English ecclesiastical and lay authorities, roughly one year after his accession to the throne in England, Cnut agreed to uphold “the laws of Edgar” during his reign. The ultimate outcome of this and subsequent meetings is the code issued at Winchester in 1020, referred to by editorial convention as I and II Cnut. This code contains, respectively, the religious and secular laws of England promulgated under Cnut. The code is contained in four manuscripts in Old English. The earliest are British Library, Cotton Nero A.i and Cambridge, Corpus Christi College (CCCC) 201, both dated to the mid-eleventh century; the latest, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College (CCCC) 383 and British Library, Harley 55, belong to the early twelfth century. Cnut's code reappears in three twelfth-century Norman Latin tracts intended to acquaint French authorities with English law, theInstituta Cnuti, Consiliatio Cnuti, andQuadripartitus. TheLeges Henrici Primi, prepared by the same author as theQuadripartitus, also draws heavily on Cnut's legislation.

The Realms of Identities

1995 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-294
Author(s):  
Eric D. Weitz
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Inherited Wealth

At the very end of Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard the priests come and remove the relics preserved and protected by the Prince of Salina's aged daughters, virtually the last survivors of the family. Nothing is left of the fabled world of the Sicilian aristocrats. Even the material and symbolic artifacts of their eminence—the religious relics they guarded and the palace over which they presided—have turned into rubble or taken on the musty air of decay. The world of the Prince of Salina, a world of inherited wealth and power stretching back to the Norman conquests of the eleventh century, of aristocratic balls, of shimmering palaces in Palermo and vast estates in the interior—that world has come to an end.

The Baptism of Relics of Oleg and Yaropolk: Ethical, Theological and Political Aspects

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 272-286
Author(s):  
Roman Dodonov ◽  
◽  
Vira Dodonova ◽  
Oleksandr Konotopenko ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
Ethical Point ◽  
Stereoscopic View ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

A stereoscopic view on a particular historical event, in which contemporary assessments are combined with mental stereotypes of a medieval man, allows a slightly different assessment of the chronicle plot about the posthumous “baptism of bones” of Oleg and Yaropolk, Princes of Kyivan Rus, in 1044. While from theological positions it is perceived as an absurdity and a direct violation of the rules of the church, in the Middle Ages this act did not contradict the mass religious beliefs. From an ethical point of view, the action of Yaroslav the Wise was regarded as concern for the souls of the ancestors who died pagans and therefore did not claim for the salvation. The soteriological optimism that prevailed in the eleventh century in countries of the late Christianization, including Kyivan Rus, gave hope that living people were able to influence the fate of the souls of the dead. From a political point of view, the baptism of the ashes of the ancestors and their reburial in the family tomb of the Princes of Kyiv in the Church of the Tithes was aimed at expanding the circle of heavenly patrons and protectors of the princely dynasty, expanding the period of the Christian history of Kyivan Rus, and, as a result, legitimizing the power of Yaroslav the Wise.

I. Gregorian Reform in Action: Clerical Marriage in England, 1050–1200

1956 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. N. L. Brooke
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Modest Proposal ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Divine Origin ◽  
Gregorian Reform

Few men have ever shown a more sublime faith in the divine origin of their mission than the papal reformers of the eleventh century. They set to work with a ‘modest proposal’ to destroy two of the most intimate and powerful foundations of clerical society: they aimed to abolish simony and with it the lay control of patronage; they tried to destroy the family life of the clergy. From one point of view they were doing only what every policeman does—they were trying to enforce the established law. From another point of view their platform was a devastating social revolution. If we may admire the high idealism of Leo IX, Humbert, Hildebrand and Peter Damian, we must also concede that their work had many victims; the legislation of the eleventh-century Popes on clerical marriage must have produced as many broken homes and personal tragedies as the morals of Hollywood. Both Damian the ascetic and Heloise the deserted wife have a claim on our sympathy as historians; and both found their supporters in their own day. Between the unbending demand for the enforcement of celibacy and the view of the Anonymous of York that it was entirely proper for the clergy to be married there were many possible positions. The Anonymous (writing at the turn of the eleventh and twelfth centuries) was propounding opinions already obsolescent; and clerical marriage found few defenders in the middle and late twelfth century. But if the field narrowed, the subtleties of the problem were more fully appreciated. The twelfth century was an age of growing sophistication in lay circles as well as clerical. Nowhere was this more true than in the world of love and of marriage; in that century (whatever the lot of womankind as a whole) the romantic ideal was born, under whose spell we still live. It is the variety and the subtlety of the view-points which give my subject its interest, and also its intractability. Clerical marriage is an exceedingly delicate topic, though it has not always been delicately treated.

Presidential Address: Feudal Society and the Family in Early Medieval England: II. Notions of Patrimony

1983 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 193-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Holt
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Feudal Society ◽  
The Family ◽  
Scant Attention

Notions are potent but nebulous, often direct and determining in their effect but themselves indeterminate in origin and structure. My title is designed to circumvent two lines of thought which have largely circumscribed the study of inheritance in the eleventh and twelfth centuries hitherto. First, I shall say something here and there about succession, but it will be only a subsidiary part of the argument. Heritable title was not diminished by unsettled rules of succession. On the contrary, in the eleventh century as in the thirteenth, it was emphasised and nourished by the claims and counter-claims of competitors. In such disputes the opposing arguments were couched in a common language; it is the language, therefore, that will be my first concern. Second, for this same reason I shall also pay scant attention to the jurisdictional aspects of inheritance. To be sure, in post-Conquest England inheritance amounted not to a title but to a claim upon a lord; heritable title was realised when the lord admitted it; no concession by a tenant was as secure as it could be made until his lord had confirmed it.

scholarly journals Dioclea between Rascia and Byzantium in the first half of the twelfth century

2006 ◽  
pp. 451-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tibor Zivkovic
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Family Relations ◽  
Balkan Peninsula ◽  
Middle Part ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Long Duration ◽  
The Family

The conflict between Rascia and Dioclea began in the reign of King Bodin of Dioclea (1081-1099) and it was brought to an end during the rule of Stephen Nemanja, Grand Zhupan of Serbia about 1185. The historical sources, primarily the Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea, give no indication of the causes of this conflict, nor do they explain why Byzantium found it necessary to intervene from time to time in Dioclea or Rascia. Although the family relations of the Rasican and Dioclean dynasties frequently provoked one state to interfere into the internal affairs of the other, they were certainly not the main generator of this century-long conflict. Since it was a process of long duration, it is quite likely that the main cause of the war between Rascia and Dioclea had to do with economic considerations, and the paper discusses this possibility. The rulers of Dioclea wanted to secure the raw materials for the maritime towns, primarily Cataro, which they had acquired around the middle of the eleventh century, and they sought to achieve that by conquest and the expansion of their influence in the inland regions ? in Travounia, Bosnia and Rascia. On the other hand, Serbia had become rapidly more powerful in the early twelfth century, and its rulers sought to impose their control on these maritime towns as nearest centres of commerce and production. During this contest, Byzantium interfered only when the geostrategic stability in the broader territory of the Balkan Peninsula seemed to be brought into question and when Dioclea or Rascia established closer links with the Venetians, Hungarians or Normans, thus jeopardizing its interests. Byzantium looked upon Rascia and Dioclea as its western outposts and was therefore anxious to have a reliable ruler in Rascia, so that it could control the Nis ? Branicevo ? Belgrade route to Hungary. Similarly, a dependable ruler in Doclea was a guarantor of the safety of the theme of Dyrrachion and of unimpeded communication with the remaining Byzantine possessions in the middle part of Dalmatia.

scholarly journals The Xylinitai on the Service to Byzantine Emperors: A Seal of Niketas Xylinites, Protospatharios and epi tou koitonos

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 102-111
Author(s):  
Nikolaу Alekseienko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Career Stages ◽  
Class Rank ◽  
High Court ◽  
The Family ◽  
Supply Information ◽  
Byzantine History

Introduction. Among the most ancient and noble Byzantine families there were the Xylinitai, who belonged to the first rank of “pure” civil nobility. Nevertheless, only restricted information of this family members survived. Therefore, any new account is of importance not only for the Byzantine prosopography but also for the Byzantine history in general. In this connection, interesting is one sigillographic find which uncovers a new page in the life of one of this family members. According to the seal legend, its owner Niketas Xylinites held the second-class rank of protospatharios and was engaged in the court service at the emperor’s bedchamber, the koiton. There is no doubt that the stylistic features date the molybdoboullon in question to the eleventh century. Analysis and Results. The sources in possession supply information on a few persons bearing this name and belonging to the family in question, who left their footprint in the annals of history in this or that way. All of them were high-ranked courtiers and persons of importance, whose career stages were reflected in different periods of Byzantine history. The comparison of the seal data with other sources allows us to suppose that the owner of the seal was Niketas Xylinites, a member of the milieu of Empress Theodora, related to her ascension to the Byzantine throne following the death of Constantine IX. The sources only inform of his career that he got from the Empress of one of the highest civil offices (logothetes tou dromou) and a high court title of proedros. According to the seal under study, it reflects the earliest stage in Niketas’ career at the court, when he was selected to serve at the emperor’s bedchamber and got the rank of protospatharios. The Seal of Niketas Xylinites probably dates to the late 1030s – very early 1040s, the period before he got the title of patrikios, his works in the Iveron monastery, and Theodora’s ascension to the throne.

scholarly journals Tra corte, casa e monastero La vita di una donna nel Giappone del Medioevo

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolina Negri
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Family System ◽  
Married Couple ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Japanese History ◽  
Patriarchal System ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
The Family ◽  
Realistic Description ◽  
Consequent Increase

In Japanese history the establishment of the ie, or family system, on which patriarchal authority was based, represents one of the most important turning points. The ie that came into being from the late eleventh century onwards, differs from the uji that had characterised previous eras, not so much on account of its patriarchal system but because it would place the married couple in prime position. The family, previously made up of a man engaging in occasional relationships with a number of women, would gradually become a more stable nucleus comprising of a husband with a wife who enjoyed a legally recognised position of privilege compared with all the other concubines. After her husband’s death, she would naturally become a sort of substitute figure, often gaining considerable authority and prestige. With the threat of the Mongolian invasions (from 1274 and 1281) and the consequent increase in limitations on women’s inheritance rights, many widows were forced to take vows as a sign of loyalty and tangible proof of their choice not to remarry if they were to secure their husband’s property. The literary production of Nun Abutsu (1225 ca.-1283 ca.) written in a period which led to the inevitable breakdown of the economic, social, and political balance of Japan, offers a realistic description of women’s ambitions, duties and concerns in an era of great transformation. In a close reading of her major works Abutsu no fumi (The letter of Abutsu, 1264 ca.), Utatane (Fitful slumbers, XIII century) and Izayoi nikki (The Diary of the sixteenth night moon, 1280 ca.), the book casts light on some important issues in Japanese women’s history: the gradual shift from uxorical to virilocal marriage, the consequences of this process for inheritance patterns, the meaning of women’s participation in the intellectual life of their time.

Matrimonial Politics in Thirteenth-Century Aragon: Moncada v. Urgel

1980 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Brundage
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
The Family ◽  
Individual Family ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Church

Since apostolic times Christians have treated the family as a micro-community which reflects the values and problems of the larger Christian community as a whole. Most communities, including Christian ones, are reluctant to contemplate the possibility that their own existence will end. But although Jesus is said to have promised St Peter that His Church would survive death, and although the notion of the Church as a community that never dies became a commonplace in subsequent ecclesiology, there was no such guarantee of immortality to the individual family. The breakup and restructuring of family units through death or the dissolution of marriage was a reality which medieval Christian communities had to face in each generation. Even so, high-ranking social groups sought to minimise generational disruptions by adopting the fiction of the family that never dies, a notion that is especially familiar to historians of the theory of monarchy in the Middle Ages. The medieval Church was a keen champion of the continuity of domestic units. As Georges Duby has recently pointed out, the Church in the early Middle Ages struggled mightily to make its own theory of marriage prevail over the alternative marriage theory popular among the laity. The ecclesiastical model of marriage, which emphasised the free consent of the contracting parties and the indissolubility of unions, triumphed over the lay model of marriage, which, according to Duby, valued family concerns above the wishes of the individual at the end of the eleventh century in France. The pattern of marriage arrangements that Duby calls the lay model seems to have persisted vigorously until much later in other places, including Catalonia and Aragon. This paper will examine a case from mid-thirteenth century Arago-Catalonia in which the conflict of lay and ecclesiastical marriage ideals features prominently.

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