All the King's Women: Polygyny and Politics in Europe, 900-1250: Polygyny and Politics in Europe, 900-1250

In All the Kings Women Jan Rüdiger investigates medieval elite polygyny and its uses in Northern Europe with a comparative perspective on England and France as well as Iberia. Copyright 5 All the King’s Women: Polygyny and Politics in Europe, 900–1250 4 Contents 6 Acknowledgements 10 Abbreviations 11 Introduction 14 1 Libido and Satyriasis 14 2 Scholarship 19 3 'Polygyny' 22 4 Structure 25 5 'Aspects' of Polygyny 28 6 Objective 30 7 Postscript 2020 33 King Harald Fairhair's Women: a Word on the Sources 35 1 ".and then he took her to bed" 35 2 "Concubine or Wife?" 40 3 On Sources 44 4 Scholarship on the Sagas 47 1 The Generative Aspect 55 1 Thorns, Pigs, and Two Dreams 55 2 Royal Blood 60 3 Danish Particularism polygyny in the Chronicles 65 4 Practices of the Valdemar Era 74 5 Dissenting Voices Sven Aggesen and Saxo Grammaticus 78 6 The 'Generative Aspect' of Polygyny 87 7 Harald, the All-Father 90 8 The 'Good' Bastard King 95 9 The Mill Maid's Tale 100 10 Suitability 104 11 Co-optative Kinship 106 12 Twofold Legitimacy Sverrir of Norway 112 13 Married, Crowned, Unsuccessful 115 14 Low-Born and Successful 118 15 Polygyny as a Guarantor of Parity 122 16 Polygyny without Women? 124 2 The Habitual Aspect 133 1 Models 133 2 Polygyny and Historiography the Oddaverjar 135 3 A Song of Praise 142 4 "Very Susceptible to Love" Jón Loptsson's Women 149 5 A Lovers' Saga? 154 6 Portrait of a Competitor 159 7 Were There Wives? 165 8 'Retrospective Marriage' 168 9 A Vocable for the Ineffable Elja 169 10 The Brother-in-Laws' Confrontation 172 11 What Was at Stake i Bishop Þorlák 178 12 What Was at Stake ii Jón Loptsson 182 13 Resource Polygyny 187 14 Women and Plunder 188 15 From Canterbury to Camelot 191 Chapter 3 The Agonistic Aspect 200 1 Snorri Takes a Bath 200 2 Mannjafnað-"Comparison of Men" 201 3 Social Rhetoric the Contest for Borghild í Dali 205 4 Women in Mannjafnað 208 5 Renegotiating Status Loss i Saint Olav's Lover 211 6 The Women's Agon 215 4 The Expressive Aspect 219 1 Political Relations? 219 2 What Ælfgifu Means 223 3 Polygyny as a Semantic System 226 4 Domestic and Foreign Policy Harald Hardrada's Women 227 5 A Successful Takeover Harald Hardrada and Þóra Þorbergsdóttir (1047) 232 6 The Near-Failure of a Party Formation Eindriði Einarsson and Sigríð Erlingsdóttir (c.1023) 233 7 An 'Unproductive' Communication Valdemar the Great and Helena Guttormsdatter (c.1200) 238 8 Renegotiating Status Loss ii the Bridal Journey of Óláf Haraldsson (c.1017) 240 9 A Woman in Reserve the Icelander's Booty and the Orkney Alliance (c.980) 244 10 A Family on the Rise Sigurð Haraldsson's Woman (c.1150) 245 11 A New Party the Daughters of Saxi í Vík (from c.1095) 248 12 "And He Will Take Your Daughters." Magnús the Good and Margrét Þrándsdóttir (c.1040) 254 13 Danish Encounters 259 14 The Emperor's Daughter and the Elbe Frontier Erik Ejegod and Queen Bothild (c.1100) 264 15 The Cheese and the Anchor Harald Hardrada's Booty (1047) 269 5 The Performative Aspect 276 1 "Castles and Maidens" 276 2 Abishag at the Court of Hákon Hákonarson 277 3 Northern European Hierogamy? 283 4 Hákon Hlaðajarl 285 5 Death in the Pigsty 292 6 Jarl Hákon and His Patron Goddess 296 7 Perpetual Hierogamy 303 6 The Comparative View: Western Europe 308 1 In the Heartland of Medieval Studies 308 2 Scholarship 309 3 Sources 312 4 Figurations of Polygyny Arthurian Literature 316 5 Strategies of Representation under the Spell of Monogamism 319 6 The Invisible Women 324 7 In Comparison the Generative Aspect 330 8 In Comparison the Habitual Aspect 332 9 In Comparison the Agonistic Aspect 336 10 In Comparison the Expressive Aspect 341 11 In Comparison the Performative Aspect 344 12 Polygyny as Political Principle Normandy 346 13 The Spoils of the Conqueror Rollo and Poppa 351 14 Mother of the Nation Gunnor 357 15 The Henchman's Daughter Herleve 361 7 The Comparative View: Southern Europe 366 1 "Unbearable Heat" 366 2 Concubinage at the Highest Level James i and Aurembiaix of Urgell (1228) 367 3 Ornamental Mediterraneanness Christian Princes and Moorish Maids 376 4 Iberian Renunciation-Llibre dels Feits and Primera Crónica general (c.1250) 379 5 Ornamental Europeanness polygyny in Andalusia 384 6 Paritarian Polygyny-Autocratic Abstinence 388 Polygyny and Europe 396 Appendix 407 Bibliography 408 Primary Sources 408 Secondary Sources 416 Index 461 "Polygyny, in Europe? The grand narrative of Western history is the development of monogamous marriage, culminating in the central Middle Ages. Other kinds of relationships have often, perhaps too lightly, been dismissed as 'just lust'. In this book, Jan Rüdiger investigates the plurality of man-woman relationships in medieval Scandinavia and analyses the social and political 'uses' of elite polygyny. By way of comparison the findings from the North are then applied to England, France, and the Iberian Peninsula, in order to propose a new overall image of elite polygyny, including marriage, in the medieval West"-- Provided by publisher Polygyny, in Europe? The grand narrative of Western history is the development of monogamous marriage, culminating in the central Middle Ages. Other kinds of relationships have often, perhaps too lightly, been dismissed as ‘just lust'. In this book, Jan Rüdiger investigates the plurality of man-woman relationships in medieval Scandinavia and analyses the social and political ‘uses'of elite polygyny. By way of comparison the findings from the North are then applied to England, France, and the Iberian Peninsula, in order to propose a new overall image of elite polygyny, including marriage, in the medieval West.