The Cultural Power of Medieval Monarchy; Politics, Learning and Patronage in the Royal Courts of Europe, 1000-1300; 1

This book focuses on why the diffusion of the political theology of royal wisdom created "Solomonic" princes with intellectual interests all around the medieval West and how these learned rulers changed the face of Western Europe through their policies and the cultural power of medieval monarchy. Princely wisdom narratives have been seen simply as a tool of royal propaganda in the Middle Ages but these narratives were much more than propaganda, being rather a coherent ideology which transformed princely courts, shaped mentalities, and influenced key political decisions. This cultural power of medieval monarchy was channelled mainly through princely patronage of learning and the arts, but the rise of administrative monarchy and its bureaucracy are equally related to these policies. This can only be understood through a cultural approach to the history of medieval politics, that is, a history of the relationship between knowledge and power in the Middle Ages, a topic much analyzed regarding the medieval church but sometimes neglected in the princely sphere. This volume is a study that supplies an important comparative study of the reception in princely courts of a key aspect of European medieval civilization: The ideal of Christian sapiential rulership and its corollary, rationality in government. This volume is essential reading for students and scholars interested in understanding the medieval roots of the cultural process which gave rise to the modern state. The Cultural Power of Medieval Monarchy Contents 8 Acknowledgements 10 Introduction 12 Notes 22 1 Sapiential Rulership in the Carolingian Renaissance and Its Anglo-Saxon and Ottonian Continuators 24 Constantinian rulership as Christian sapiential kingship 24 Barbarian rulers and Roman wisdom 26 The Carolingian Renaissance and the political theology of royal wisdom 30 Alcuin of York and the formulation of the Carolingian sapiential ideal 35 Charlemagne and royal wisdom 40 Late Carolingian patronage of learning and sapiential narratives of kingship 44 The Carolingians and the power of the written word 49 Wisdom and kingship in the Ottonian age 52 The Ottonian narratives of sapiential rulership 67 The Alfredian Renaissance and Anglo-Saxon kingship 76 Notes 88 2 The Salian Reich and Frontier Europe 104 The continuity of a tradition: Holy kings, patronage of learning, and royal wisdom around the Year Thousand 104 Henry III and Henry IV, the last “sacral” emperors: Royal piety and royal wisdom 106 Kingship and wisdom in frontier Europe around Year Thousand 123 Notes 135 3 The King as Miles Litteratus 143 Latin literacy and power: The 143 dichotomy 143 The knightly appropriation of “clerisy” and Feudal kingship 147 Early Capetian kings and wisdom 151 The early Capetian kings and patronage of learning and the arts 158 Notes 163 4 The Twelfth-Century Renaissance 168 The liberal arts and rulership 168 The rhetoric of knowledge and power 174 The reception of Roman law and rulership 179 The written word and twelfth-century Renaissance rulership 191 Notes 193 5 The Clerk King 200 Administrative kingship and the art of statecraft 200 The rhetoric of sapiential rulership in Anglo-Norman and Plantagenet England 213 Sapiential narratives of rulership in Norman Sicily 228 Anglo-Norman and Plantagenet rulership and patronage of the arts and learning 232 Royal patronage of learning and the arts in Norman Sicily 242 Philip Augustus and administrative kingship in France 250 Wisdom and holiness: Capetian sapiential kingship and royal patronage 251 Notes 264 6 The Hohenstaufen Emperors 280 The sacredness of monarchy revisited 280 The wisdom of the ruler 284 Patronage of learning and the arts 295 Henry VI: The 300 The Hohenstaufen chancery 306 Notes 307 7 Two Philosopher-Kings in the Thirteenth-Century 316 The Sicilian philosopher-king: 316 The rhetoric of sapiential rulership 321 The patronage of learning and the arts 326 Frederick II’s chancery 334 Alfonso X the learned and Solomonic rulership in thirteenth-century Spain 337 Notes 350 Bibliography 359 Select Primary Sources (English editions provided when available) 359 Index 387 Medieval,History,Monarchy,Courts,Europe,Politics; Medieval, History, Monarchy, Courts, Europe, Politics