The Crisis of the Twelfth Century : Power, Lordship, and the Origins of European Government

Medieval civilization came of age in thunderous events like the Norman Conquest and the First Crusade. Power fell into the hands of men around castles who imposed coercive new lordships in quest of nobility, heedless of the old public order. In The Crisis of the Twelfth Century, acclaimed historian Thomas Bisson asks what it was like to live in a Europe without government, and he asks how people experienced power, and suffered. Rethinking a familiar history as a problem of origins, he explores the circumstances that impelled knights, emperors, nobles, and churchmen to infuse lordship with social purpose. Bisson traces the origins of European government to a crisis of lordship and its resolution. King John of England was only the latest and most conspicuous in a gallery of bad lords who dominated the populace instead of ruling it. Men like him had been all too commonplace in the twelfth century. More and more knights pretended to powers and status, encroached on clerical domains and exploited peasants, and came to seem threatening to social order and peace. Yet as Bisson shows, it was not so much the oppressed people as their tormentors who were in crisis. Covering all of Western Christendom, this book suggests what these violent people--and the outcries they provoked--contributed to the making of governments in kingdoms, principalities, and towns. The Crisis of the Twelfth Century is an unparalleled cultural history of power in medieval Europe, and a monumental achievement by one of today's foremost medievalists. Preface Contents List of Illustrations Usage and Conventions Abbreviations I. Introduction II. The Age of Lordship (875–1150) Old Order The Quest for Lordship and Nobility Constraint, Violence, and Disruption Cultures of Lordship III. Lord- Rulership (1050–1150): The Experience of Power The Papacy West Mediterranean Realms León and Castile In Sight of the Pyrenees Imperial Lands Bavaria Lombardy France Anjou Flanders Northern Kingdoms Capetian France Norman England IV. Crises of Power (1060–1150) Uneasy Maturity Dynastic Anxiety Anxious Fulfillments The Church Troubled Societies The Saxon Revolt and Its Consequences (1073–1125) Castled France (ca. 1100–1137) Troubles on the Pilgrims’ Road (1109–36) Flanders: The Murder of Charles the Good (1127–28) England : ‘When Christ and His Saints Slept’ (1137–54) An Age of Tyranny? V. Resolution: Intrusions of Government (1150–1215) Great Lordship in Prosperity and Crisis ‘Shadows of Peace’ Aquitaine: Princes of Ill Repute Anjou: The Tyranny of Giraud Berlai A Tyrannical Bishop(?): Aldebert of Mende (1151–87) The Justice of Accountability The Accountability of Fidelity (1075–1150) Prescriptive Accountancy Towards an Accountability of Office (1085–1200) A Dynamic of Fiscal Growth (ca. 1090–1160) Towards a New Technique (ca. 1110–75) England: pipe rolls and exchequer Flanders: the grote brief and its origins Ficily: pluri- cultural conservancy? Catalonia: from exploitation to agency Constraint, Compromise, and Office Charters of Franchise: Some Lessons Thresholds of Office In Sight of Our Lady’s Towers Working with Power Catalonia England France The Roman Church VI. Celebration and Persuasion (1160–1225) Cultures of Power Sung Fidelity Courtly Talk Learned Moralising Expertise: Two Facets Knowing Knowing How Pacification The Capuchins of Velay Politicised Power The Crisis of Catalonia (1173–1205) The Crisis of Magna Carta (1212–15) States and Estates of Power The States of Troubled Realms The Great Lordship of Consensus Towards Estates of Associative Power Towards a Parliamentary Custom of Consent VII. Epilogue Glossary Bibliography Index Medieval civilization came of age in thunderous events like the Norman Conquest and the First Crusade. Power fell into the hands of men who imposed coercive new lordships in quest of nobility. Rethinking a familiar history, Thomas Bisson explores the circumstances that impelled knights, emperors, nobles, and churchmen to infuse lordship with social purpose. Bisson traces the origins of European government to a crisis of lordship and its resolution. King John of England was only the latest and most conspicuous in a gallery of bad lords who dominated the populace instead of ruling it. Yet, it was not so much the oppressed people as their tormentors who were in crisis. The Crisis of the Twelfth Century suggests what these violent people—and the outcries they provoked—contributed to the making of governments in kingdoms, principalities, and towns. -- Publisher The Age Of Lordship (875-1150) -- Lord-rulership (1050-1150): The Experience Of Power -- Crises Of Power (1060-1150) -- Resolution: Intrusions Of Government (1150-1215) -- Celebration And Persuasion (1160-1225). Thomas N. Bisson. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [587]-640) And Index.