War and Peace: Critical Issues in European Societies and Literature 800-1800 (Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture Book 8)

The contributors to the present volume examine, from a wide variety of perspectives, the issues of war and peace in the Middle Ages and early modern time, probing the direction of the relevant discourse regarding the legitimacy and justification of military operations. Because man is a deeply aggressive and greedy creature, wars have been waged throughout times. Nevertheless, we can identify many voices in medieval literature, theology, philosophy, and in chronicle literature that questioned the validity and effectiveness of war, while many others argued for the traditional knightly ideals or called for crusades against the infidels. Those heroes who defend a people against an evil threat enjoyed profound respect, but there were also those figures calling for peace and the end of all fighting. As this volume demonstrates, war and peace have fundamentally determined medieval and early modern culture. Introduction 9 A. Theoretical and Historical Reflections 9 B. Literary Case Studies 19 C. Criticism of War in Medieval Literature 23 D. Historical Voices Against War and Pragmatic Aspects of War 25 E. Attempts to Establish Peace and To Reach out for Toleration or Tolerance (?) 28 F. Severe Criticism of War 33 G. Philosophical Reflections Upon War 41 H. Research on War and Peace in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period 43 I. Intellectuals' Protest of and Analysis of War 45 J. Critical Summaries of the Contributions 54 K. Conclusion 83 Chapter 1. The Conquest of Sodom: Symbiosis of Calumny and Canon in the Jus Belli from Ireland to the Indies 89 Chapter 2. Just War in Anglo-Saxon England: Transmission and Reception 107 Chapter 3. Histories of Violence: The Origins of War in Beowulf 129 Chapter 4. Warlords and Diplomats in the Four Branches of the Mabinogi 163 Chapter 5. Origins of Medieval Public Opinion in the Peace of God Movement 179 Chapter 6. “A Compulsory and Burdensome Imposition”: Billeting Troops in Medieval and Early Modern Ireland 201 Chapter 7. From Holy War to Patient Endurance: Henry IV, Matilda of Tuscany, and the Evolution of Bonizo of Sutri's Response to Heretical Princes 225 Chapter 8. Cligés Un-cut: Some Notes on the Battlefields in Chretien de Troyes Cligés 261 Chapter 9. Peace and Love: Communities and Couples in Old French Romance Plots 285 Chapter 10. Kiss and Make Up? Ritual Peacemaking in Frankish Morea and Its Narrative Reflections 301 Chapter 11. The Power of Sermons in War and Peace: The Example of Berthold of Regensburg 321 Chapter 12. Promoting Peace in Medieval Siena: Peacemaking Legislation and Its Effects 341 Chapter 13. A “Just War”? A Further Reassessment of the Alliterative Morte Arthure 357 Chapter 14. Waging Spiritual War: Philippe de Mézières, The Order of the Passion and the Power of Performance 385 Chapter 15. Christine de Pizan's Epistre a la reine: A Woman's Perspective on War and Peace? 403 Chapter 16. Armed Conflict as a Deadly Sin: Michel Beheim's Verses on Wrath (1454-ca.1470) 433 Chapter 17. Love and War in the Fifteenth-Century Burgundian Prose Cligés: The Duke of Saxony's Passion for Fenice 451 Chapter 18. Sailing Away from Byzantium: Renaissance Crusade Literature and the Peace Plans 471 Chapter 19 .The Art of Defying the Enemy: Albrecht Dürer s Concept of the Ars fortificatoria 499 Chapter 20. Sixteenth-Century Protests Against War and Its Tragic Consequences: The Testimony of Hans Sachs and His Contemporaries 525 Chapter 21. Racine's Holy Wars 549 Chapter 22. Out of the Kitchen and into the Fire: The Dutch Heroine Tradition 565 Chapter 23. The Animal Actor and the Spectacle of Warfare: Lewis's Timour the Tartar at Covent Garden 607 List of Illustrations 627 Contributors 631 Index 639

Die neue englischsprachige Reihe zur Mediävistik strebt eine methodisch reflektierte, anspruchsvolle Verbindung von Text- und Kulturwissenschaft an. Sie widmet sich den kulturellen Grundthemen der mittelalterlichen Welt aus der Perspektive der Literatur- und Geschichtswissenschaft. 'Grundthemen' sind die kulturprägenden Denkbilder, Weltanschauungen, Sozialstrukturen und Alltagsbedingungen des mittelalterlichen Lebens, also z. B. Kindheit und Alter, Sexualität, Religion, Medizin, Rituale, Arbeit, Armut und Reichtum, Aberglauben, Erde und Kosmos, Stadt und Land, Krieg, Emotionen, Kommunikation, Reisen usw. Die Reihe greift wichtige aktuelle Fachdiskussionen auf und stellt ein Forum der interdisziplinären Mittelalter-Forschung dar.

Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture steht Sammelbänden ebenso offen wie Monographien. Intention ist immer, kompendienhafte Werke zu zentralen Fragen der mittelalterlichen Kulturgeschichte vorzulegen, die einen soliden Überblick über einen geschlossenen Themenkreis aus der Perspektive verschiedener Fachdisziplinen vermitteln. Im Ganzen bietet die Reihe so eine Enzyklopädie der mittelalterlichen Literatur- und Kulturgeschichte und ihrer Hauptthemen. Es werden ca. zwei Bände pro Jahr erscheinen.

"The contributors to the present volume examine, from a wide variety of perspectives, the issues of war and peace in the Middle Ages and early modern time, probing the direction of the relevant discourse regarding the legitimacy of military operations. We can identify many voices in medieval literature, theology, philosophy, and in chronicle literature that questioned the validity and effectiveness of war, while others argued for the traditional knightly ideals or called for crusades against the infidels. As this volume demonstrates, war and peace have fundamentally determined medieval and early modern culture."_Contracub Biographical note: Albrecht Classen, University of Arizona, Tuscon, USA; Nadia Margolis, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass., USA