IMC 2005: Sessions

Session 1521: Vengeance in the Middle Ages

Organiser:	Susanna A. Throop, University of Cambridge
Moderator/Chair:	Paul R. Hyams, Department of History, Cornell University / Independent Scholar, Oxford
Paper 1521-b	Chivalric Feud in 10th-Century France: A Re-Reading of Flodoard and Richer of Rheims (Language: English) Dominique Barthélemy, Département d'histoire, Université Paris IV - Sorbonne Index terms: Anthropology, Mentalities, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1521-c	Zeal, Anger, and Vengeance: The Emotional Rhetoric of Crusading (Language: English) Susanna A. Throop, University of Cambridge Index terms: Crusades, Rhetoric
Abstract	The word vengeance grabs the eye and evokes images of bloodshed and a limitless thirst for violent retribution. But what did vengeance mean to contemporaries in the Middle Ages, and how did it function? These three papers address those questions and more, using inter-disciplinary research to examine the ways in which medieval vengeance worked, and the way in which it has been misinterpreted by modern historians. Ultimately this session calls for a different approach to the discussion of vengeance in the Middle Ages, and highlights the connections between violence, politics, social structure, and religious rhetoric.