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IMC 2014: Sessions

Session 507: Anjou before the Empire, c. 1000-1150, I: Documents

Tuesday 8 July 2014, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:Haskins Society
Organiser:Kathryn Dutton, School of Arts, Languages & Cultures, University of Manchester
Moderator/Chair:Daniel Power, Centre for Medieval & Early Modern Research (MEMO), Swansea University
Paper 507-aOrigo consulum: Rumours of Murder, Lordship in Crisis, and the Legendary Origins of the Counts of Anjou
(Language: English)
Nicholas Paul, Department of History, Fordham University
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 507-bAngevin Scribes and Collaborative Charter Production, c. 1109-1151
(Language: English)
Kathryn Dutton, School of Arts, Languages & Cultures, University of Manchester
Index terms: Archives and Sources, Charters and Diplomatics, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Abstract

Greater Anjou was home to a rich and varied tradition of charter production, and its records are some of the fullest of any 12th-century principality. Richard Barton argues that these so-called 'documents of practice' should not be regarded as legal instruments, but highly-charged narratives central to institutional memory and regional discourse. Matthew McHaffie considers clauses of consent as expressions of seigneurial control and solidarity, which formed an increasingly important element in the exercise of power. Finally, Kathryn Dutton identifies some of the men who were involved in the production of the count's charters, and considers evidence that they worked together with individuals from beneficiary institutions, thus rethinking the beneficiary/benefactor model of charter production.