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IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 1221: Reforming Rulership?: Constraints on the Monarch in the Age of Magna Carta

Wednesday 8 July 2015, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:School of Slavonic & East European Studies, University College London
Organiser:Martyn Rady, School of Slavonic & East European Studies, University College London
Moderator/Chair:Christopher Nicholson, School of Slavonic & East European Studies, University College London
Paper 1221-aThe First Election Charter in Scandinavia (1282) and the Rise of Constitutionalism
(Language: English)
Sverre Bagge, Senter for middelalderstudier, Universitetet i Bergen
Index terms: Charters and Diplomatics, Political Thought
Paper 1221-bNegotiation and Reform in Polish Immunity Charters
(Language: English)
Piotr Górecki, Department of History, University of California, Riverside
Index terms: Charters and Diplomatics, Political Thought
Paper 1221-cCharles IV of Bohemia: Religion, Renewal, and Rulership
(Language: English)
Eleanor Janega, School of Slavonic & East European Studies, University College London
Index terms: Political Thought, Sermons and Preaching
Abstract

The 800th anniversary of Magna Carta invites consideration of the ways in which royal power was constrained elsewhere in Europe and how opposition to the ruler might be converted into programmes of reform. The panel looks at such formal limitations on the monarch as the role played by charters that sought to hem in the royal power through territorial exemptions, electoral compacts that fixed boundaries to it, and more theoretical conceptions of right rulership. The panel draws on Scandinavian, Polish and Bohemian examples. Other possibilities that may be raised in discussion include coronation oaths, customary law and traditions, institutional limits, and a putative right of resistance.