Oshiro Tatsuhir’s “Novel of Ryuku Disposal” and Official documents : State Violence of the early Japanese modern state formation in Novel of Ryuku disposal

Seigneurial governance and the state in late medieval Guelders (14th–16th century)

Continuity and Change ◽

10.1017/s0268416021000084 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 36 (1) ◽

pp. 33-59

Author(s):

Jim van der Meulen

Keyword(s):

State Formation ◽

Cross Sections ◽

Local Communities ◽

The State ◽

16Th Century ◽

Modern State ◽

Low Countries ◽

Late Medieval ◽

Central Argument

AbstractThis article charts the long-term development of seigneurial governance within the principality of Guelders in the Low Countries. Proceeding from four quantitative cross-sections (c. 1325, 1475, 1540, 1570) of seigneurial lordships, the conclusion is that seigneurial governance remained stable in late medieval Guelders. The central argument is that this persistence of seigneurial governance was an effect of active collaboration between princely administrations, lords, and local communities. Together, the princely government and seigneuries of Guelders formed an integrated, yet polycentric, state. The article thereby challenges the narrative of progressive state centralisation that predominates in the historiography of pre-modern state formation.

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Conclusion

The Conquest of Death ◽

10.12987/yale/9780300217063.003.0010 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Matthew Lockwood

Keyword(s):

Roman Empire ◽

State Formation ◽

State Power ◽

State Violence ◽

Holy Roman Empire ◽

And Control

The conclusion reiterates the centrality of the coroner system and its oversight in the monopolization of violence, state formation, and the growth of state power by creating and delineating new definitions of legitimate and illegitimate violence. It also examines the resulting decline of extra-judicial violence—blood feud, vendetta etc.—and subsequent attempts by the English state to target and control non-lethal forms of non-state violence such as riot and assault. Finally, the conclusion offers some initial comparisons with continental Europe and suggests that the trends seen in England may have been mirrored by similar attempts to monopolize violence in the Holy Roman Empire.

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Introduction

The Conquest of Death ◽

10.12987/yale/9780300217063.003.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Matthew Lockwood

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Early Modern ◽

State Formation ◽

Modern State ◽

Early Modern Europe ◽

Modern Europe

The introduction outlines previous definitions of the modern state as well as historians’ current explanations of state formation in early modern Europe and England. It demonstrates that earlier scholars have focused almost entirely on the state’s ability to engage in active warfare and have thus neglected an important aspect of the monopoly of violence, the restriction of non-state or illegitimate violence. The introduction also explores the medieval background of the coroner system, the mechanism designed to regulate violence in England and explains why the system had failed to achieve its proposed ends prior to the sixteenth century.

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