| Paper 525-a | Subduing Mars: The Representation of Rome in English Writings against War, c. 1330-1430
(Language: English)
Trevor Russell Smith, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Middle English, Language and Literature - Latin, Political Thought |
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| Abstract | Paper -a:
I will argue that the development of English writers' (Chaucer, Hoccleve, Lydgate, et al.) anti-war discourse was influenced by humanistic Roman texts, and that they often inserted their arguments into narratives set in classical times while heavily borrowing from earlier texts. These writers' reuse and representation of ideas of empire and government were used to criticize contemporary governance and the execution of the Hundred Years' War in France by showing how empire and warmongering caused human suffering. Although these English texts have sometimes been seen as benign, they were deliberately, although subversively, critical of contemporary practices.
Paper -b:
In 1520 King Charles convoked Cortes in Santiago of Compostela just before he embarked in Coruña to Flanders from where he would travel to Aachen to be crowned as Emperor. The Castilians held prejudices against Imperial adventures and ambitions as long back the reign of Alphonsus X. Most were monarchists that wished the King would not leave Spain for good naming viceroys to govern in his name. After bribing many representatives of the cities and towns represented in Cortes, the King left Castile were rumors arose going as far as that he was negotiating the sale of the Indies and that he would never return from Germany. The abuses and scandals of the Flemish courtiers close to the King who coveted all the appointments and riches that mostly were legally exclusive of the Castilian vassals. Despair and anger pushed the main cities of the Kingdom to organize a government in 'Comunidad' and to ask Queen Juan the Insane to back their demands and to take power from the hands of her eldest son, Charles of Habsburg. as the Queen hesitated, an elite of the Comuneros started questioning if it was not wise to develop another form as rule following the example of the Italian republics. When all was lost, after the defeat of Villalar, the Comuneros asked help from the King of France and the King of Navarre, but their revolution was quenched by the nobles, that had remained aside until then.
Paper -c:
Positing that medieval narrative may be read as a form of thought experiment presenting a fictive model of society, this paper focuses upon six versions of the Herzog Ernst narrative dating from the high medieval period, which collectively demonstrate the multiplicity of ways in which medieval authors sought to problematize internecine strife. By incorporating new perspectives drawn from recent work in anthropology and the social sciences, the author reveals shifting and ambiguous perspectives towards violence as a means of seeking recompense, arguing that seemingly divergent views did not merely evolve over time, but rather co-existed within the same region, era, and even the same text. Through a close-reading of the narratives' treatment of actions challenging the stability of Herzog Ernst's fictive empire, including violence both within and between kinship-groups, attempted regicide, and even reconciliation, this paper reveals attitudes both varied and contradictory, yet nevertheless united by a vision of imperial integrity and aristocratic practice as fragile in peace as resilient in war.
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