Medieval frontiers : concepts and practices

In recent years, the 'medieval frontier' has been the subject of extensive research. But the term has been understood in many different ways: political boundaries; fuzzy lines across which trade, religions and ideas cross; attitudes to other peoples and their customs. This book draws attention to the differences between the medieval and modern understanding of frontiers, questioning the traditional use of the concepts of 'frontier' and 'frontier society'. It contributes to the understanding of physical boundaries as well as metaphorical and ideological frontiers, thus providing a background to present-day issues of political and cultural delimitation. In a major introduction, David Abulafia analyses these various ambiguous meanings of the term 'frontier', in political, cultural and religious settings. The articles that follow span Europe from the Baltic to Iberia, from the Canary Islands to central Europe, Byzantium and the Crusader states. The authors ask what was perceived as a frontier during the Middle Ages? What was not seen as a frontier, despite the usage in modern scholarship? The articles focus on a number of themes to elucidate these two main questions. One is medieval ideology. This includes the analysis of medieval formulations of what frontiers should be and how rulers had a duty to defend and/or extend the frontiers; how frontiers were defined (often in a different way in rhetorical-ideological formulations than in practice); and how in certain areas frontier ideologies were created. The other main topic is the emergence of frontiers, how medieval people created frontiers to delimit areas, how they understood and described frontiers. The third theme is that of encounters, and a questioning of medieval attitudes to such encounters. To what extent did medieval observers see a frontier between themselves and other groups, and how does real interaction compare with ideological or narrative formulations of such interaction? Preface / Nora Berend -- Introduction: Seven Types Of Ambiguity, C. 1100-c. 1500 / David Abulafia -- Crossing The Frontier Of Ninth-century Hispania / Ann Christys -- Emperors And Expansionism: From Rome To Middle Byzantium / Jonathan Shepard -- Byzantium's Eastern Frontier In The Tenth And Eleventh Centuries / Catherine Holmes -- Were There Borders And Borderlines In The Middle Ages? The Example Of The Latin Kingdom Of Jerusalem / Ronnie Ellenblum -- Government And The Indigenous In The Latin Kingdom Of Jerusalem / Jonathan Riley-smith -- Latins And Greeks On Crusader Cyprus / Peter W. Edbury -- Genuensis Civitas In Extremo Europae: Caffa From The Fourteenth To The Fifteenth Century / Michel Balard -- Granting Power To Enemy Gods In The Chronicles Of The Baltic Crusades / Rasa Mažeika -- The Blue Baltic Border Of Denmark In The High Middle Ages: Danes, Wends And Saxo Grammaticus / Kurt Villads Jensen -- Hungary, 'the Gate Of Christendom' / Nora Berend -- Boundaries And Men In Poland From The Twelfth To The Sixteenth Century: The Case Of Masovia / Grzegorz Myśliwski -- The Frontiers Of Church Reform In The British Isles, 1170-1230 / Brendan Smith -- Neolithic Meets Medieval: First Encounters In The Canary Islands / David Abulafia. Edited By David Abulafia And Nora Berend. Selected Papers Of A Colloquium Held Nov. 1998 At St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, With Several Additional Articles. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Machine generated contents note: 1 Introduction: Seven Types of Ambiguity, c. 1100-c. 1500 1 David Abulafia 2 Crossing the Frontier of Ninth-Century Hispania 35 Ann Christys 3 Emperors and Expansionism: From Rome to Middle Byzantium 55 Jonathan Shepard 4 Byzantium's Eastern Frontier in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries 83 Catherine Holmes 5 Were there Borders and Borderlines in the Middle Ages? The Example of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 105 Ronnie Ellenblum 6 Government and the Indigenous in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 121 Jonathan Riley-Smith 7 Latins and Greeks on Crusader Cyprus 133 Peter W Edbury 8 Genuensis civitas in extremo Europae: Caffa from the Fourteenth to the Fifteenth Century 143 Michel Balard 9 Granting Power to Enemy Gods in the Chronicles of the Baltic Crusades 153 Rasa Mazeika 10 The Blue Baltic Border of Denmark in the High Middle Ages: Danes, Wends and Saxo Grammaticus 173 Kurt Villads Jensen 11 Hungary, 'the Gate of Christendom' 195 Nora Berend 12 Boundaries and Men in Poland from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century: The Case of Masovia 217 Grzegorz Mysliwski 13 The Frontiers of Church Reform in the British Isles, 1170-1230 239 Brendan Smith 14 Neolithic meets Medieval: First Encounters in the Canary Islands 255 David Abulafia. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of Maps and Figures 8 Contributors 9 Preface 11 1 Introduction: Seven Types of Ambiguity, c. 1100–c. 1500 18 2 Crossing the Frontier of Ninth-Century Hispania 52 3 Emperors and Expansionism: From Rome to Middle Byzantium 72 4 Byzantium’s Eastern Frontier in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries 100 5 Were there Borders and Borderlines in the Middle Ages? The Example of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 122 6 Government and the Indigenous in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 138 7 Latins and Greeks on Crusader Cyprus 150 8 Genuensis civitas in extremo Europae: Caffa from the Fourteenth to the Fifteenth Century 160 9 Granting Power to Enemy Gods in the Chronicles of the Baltic Crusades 170 10 The Blue Baltic Border of Denmark in the High Middle Ages: Danes, Wends and Saxo Grammaticus 190 11 Hungary, ‘the Gate of Christendom’ 212 12 Boundaries and Men in Poland from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century: The Case of Masovia 234 13 The Frontiers of Church Reform in the British Isles, 1170–1230 256 14 Neolithic meets Medieval: First Encounters in the Canary Islands 272 Index 296