Cultures of Power: Lordship, Status, and Process in Twelfth-Century Europe (The Middle Ages Series)

The authors of Cultures of Power proffer diverse perspectives on the prehistory of government in Northern France, Spain, Germany, the Low Countries, and England. Political, social, ecclesiastical, and cultural history are brought to bear on topics such as aristocracies, women, rituals, commemoration, and manifestations of power through literary, legal, and scriptural means. Preface. List of Abbreviations Introduction —Thomas N. Bisson PART I. ELITES OLD AND NEW 1.Nobles and Knights in Twelfth-Century France —Theodore Evergates 2. Instruments of Power: The Profile and Profession of ministeriales Within German Aristocratic Society (1050-1225) —Benjamin Arnold 3. Castles, Barons, and Vavassors in the Vendomois and Neighboring Regions in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries —Dominique Barthélmy 4. Women and Power —Georges Duby 5. Proposing the Ordeal and Avoiding It: Strategy and Power in Western French Litigation, 1050-1110 —Stephen D. White PART II. STRATEGY, MEANS, PROCESS 6. England, France, and the Problem of Sacrality in Twelfth-Century Ritual —Geoffrey Koziol 7. Law and Power in Twelfth-Century Flanders —R. C. Van Caenegem 8. Papal Judges Delegate and the Making of the "New Law" in the Twelfth Century —Charles Duggan PART III. CULTURES OF POWER 9. Sacred Sanctions for Lordship —John Ven Engen 10. León: The Iconography of a Capital —John W. Williams 11. Jongleur as Propagandist: The Ecclesiastical Politics of Marcabru's Poetry —Laura Kendrick 12. Courtliness and Social Change —C. Stephen Jaeger 13. Principes gentium dominantur eorum: Princely Power Between Legitimacy and Illegitimacy in Twelfth-Century Exegesis —Philippe Buc Conclusion —Thomas N. Bisson List of Contributors Index Marc Bloch could not have imagined the long shadow his discursive essays entitled Feudal Society (1939-40) would cast over the historiography of medieval France.