Power and Persuasion

The transformation of the myriad of medieval kingdoms, principalities, local lordships, city-‘states’ and peasant ‘republics’ into ‘modern’ states, claiming some measure of sovereignty, remains one of the core themes of European history, because it gets down to the very root of the (idea on the) Europe we live in. Some 20 leading experts cast new light on various aspects of this process, such as political communication, foreign diplomacy, dynastic self-representation, political economy, national identities, and military resources. The articles are a tribute to the prominent medieval historian, Wim Blockmans, on the occasion of his retirement as professor of medieval history at Leiden University and rector of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS) at Wassenaar.

Peter Hoppenbrouwers holds the chair of medieval history at Leiden University.

Antheun Janse and Robert Stein are both senior lecturers in the Department of Medieval History at Leiden University. All three have written extensively on the political, social, and intellectual history of the Northern Netherlands in the Late Middle Ages.

Antheun Janse and Robert Stein, Introduction; Peter Hoppenbrouwers, Wim Blockmans: an Intellectual Portrait.

1. The Dynastic Order

Jean-Marie Moeglin, Entre 1250 et 1350 : Système des États et ordre dynastique ; Werner Paravicini, ‘Mon souverain seigneur’ ; Jean-Marie Cauchies, État bourguignon ou États bourguignons ? De la singularité d’un pluriel ; M. J. Rodríguez-Salgado, The Art of Persuasion: Charles V and his Governors.

 2. Crown and Polity

José Manuel Nieto Soria, Three Models of Monarchy in Fifteenth-century Castile; Philippe Contamine, Le premier procès de Jean II, duc d’Alençon (1456-1458) : quels enjeux, quels enseignements politiques ? W. Mark Ormrod, Parliament, Political Economy and State Formation in Later Medieval England; Bjørn Poulsen, Meeting the King in Late Medieval Denmark; Miguel Ángel Ladero Quesada, The Military Resources of the Kings of Castile around 1500.

3. Clients and Networks

Walter Prevenier, The Two Faces of Pardon Jurisdiction in the Burgundian Netherlands. A Royal Road to Social Cohesion and an Effectual Instrument of Princely Clientelism; Marc Boone, La Hollande, source de capital social pour un flamand ambitieux ? Les intérêts et les aventures de Pierre Lanchals, grand commis de l’État Burgundo-Habsbourgeois (vers 1441/42-1488).

4. Towns and Commerce

Giorgio Chittolini, Urban Population, Urban Territories, Small Towns: Some Problems of the History of Urbanisation in Central and Northern Italy, 13th-16th centuries; Dick E.H. de Boer, Joan Fogassot and ‘los fets de Fflandres’. A Forgotten Episode of the Catalan Mercantile Connections with Flanders in 1460-1461.

5. Church and Religion

Jean-Philipe Genet, Image, représentation et communication politique ; Norman Housley, Crusading and State-Building in the Middle Ages; Wacław Uruszczak, Die Gesetzgebung der kirchlichen Synoden in Polen im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert; David Abulafia,The Coming of the Gypsies: Cities, Princes and Nomads.

 6. Perspectives

Wolfgang Reinhard, Konvergenz und Divergenz von Machtgeschichte und Rechtsgeschichte im Aufstieg und Niedergang des modernen Staates.