Book Series Comparative Perspectives on Medieval History, vol. 3

Legitimation of the Elites in High Medieval Poland and Norway

Comparative Studies

Wojtek Jezierski, Hans Jacob Orning, Grzegorz Pac (eds)

  • Pages: approx. 523 p.
  • Size:156 x 234 mm
  • Illustrations:16 b/w, 29 col., 1 tables b/w.
  • Language(s):English
  • Publication Year:2025


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  • € 140,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
  • ISBN: 978-2-503-61161-7
  • Hardback
  • Forthcoming (Jul/25)
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Open Access


Through a reflection on the similarities and differences between the Polish and Norwegian cases, our ambition is to offer novel conceptual tools and comparative frameworks for the general understanding of conditions and factors shaping structured religiopolitical behaviour on the peripheries and on the relations between peripheral elites and European centres.

Summary

Between the years 1000 and 1300, the two developing polities of Norway and Poland often followed similar trends. Both realms were located on what was considered the periphery of Europe, both joined Latin Christendom — and with it, the wider sphere of European cultural influence — at the turn of the first millennium, and both, by the end of the thirteenth century, had largely coalesced as stable kingdoms. Yet while the histories of these two countries have long been studied along national lines, it remains rarer for them to be considered outside of their traditional geographical context, and studied via comparison with events elsewhere.

This innovative volume seeks to explore the means and uses of symbolic power that were employed by religiopolitical elites in order to assert their legitimacy and dominance by taking an explicitly comparative approach and dual perspective on these two polities. What stories did elites tell themselves and others about their deservedness to rule, what spaces and objects did they utilize in order to project their elevated status, and how did struggle and rivalry form part of their societal dominance? Formed from chapters co-written by experts in Polish and Norwegian history, this unique volume not only reflects on the similarities and differences between events in these two polities, but also more broadly offers conceptual tools and comparative frameworks that can enhance our wider understanding of the conditions and factors that shaped religiopolitical behaviour on the peripheries.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Editors’ Preface

1. Introduction. Comparing Elite Legitimation in Poland and Norway in the High Middle Ages
Wojtek Jezierski, Grzegorz Pac, and Hans Jacob Orning

Partt I: Stories of Legitimation

2. Ancient Pasts and Traditions as Elite Legitimation in Poland and Norway. Peripheral Senses of Belonging and Non-Belonging
Grzegorz Bartusik, Rafał Rutkowski and Wojtek Jezierski
3. Missionary Rulers and Holy Men. Christianization as Elite Legitimization and Political Ideology in Poland and Norway, 1000–1300
Wojtek Jezierski and Roman Michałowski
4. When the Knight Won His Spurs. Elite Military Ideology in Poland and Norway, c. 965–1300
Benjamin Allport and Paweł Żmudzki

Part II: Spaces of Legitimation

5. Sacral Strongholds. Nunneries as Sources of Legitimacy in Twelfth-Century Poland and Norway
Anna Agnieszka Dryblak and Steffen Hope
6. Saints and Legitimization of Bishoprics in Poland and Norway until c. 1200
Grzegorz Pac and Steffen Hope
7. Legitimization and Consolidation of Rulership in Norway and Poland c. 990–1140 as Indicated through Coinage
Mika Viktoria Boros
8. Coinage, the Cult of Saints, and the Legitimization of Elites in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Poland and Norway
Steffen Hope, Mateusz Bogucki, and Svein Harald Gullbekk

Part III: Struggles for Legitimation


9. The Contrast Between the Ideology and and the Practice of Rulership in Medieval Poland and Norway
Zbigniew Dalewski and Hans Jacob Orning
10. Struggles for Episcopal Legitimization during the Gregorian Reform in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Norway and Poland
Jerzy Pysiak and Krzysztof Skwierczyński
11. Dynastic Conflicts. Civil Wars or Constant Struggles?
Hans Jacob Orning and Marcin Rafał Pauk
12. Queens and Duchesses in the High Middle Ages. The Role of Elite Women in Shaping Dynastic Legitimation during Periods of Political Change
Anna Agnieszka Dryblak and Benjamin Husvik

Afterword

13. Is Legitimation Reducible Only to a ‘Will to Power’? State Formation and Values in the Comparative History of the European Periphery during the High Middle Ages
Alice Taylor