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IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 128: Practices and Legacies of Kingship, I: Rulers and Ideals of Kingship

Monday 4 July 2016, 11.15-12.45

Organiser:Kerstin Hundahl, Historiska Institutionen, Lunds Universitet
Moderator/Chair:Felicity Hill, School of History, University of East Anglia
Paper 128-aBetter Dead than Alive: Inventing Ideal Kingship in Rus' and Bohemia
(Language: English)
Asya Bereznyak, Department of History, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 128-bThe rex crucesignatus: Servant of God, Protector of the Dynasty - The Case of King Håkon Håkonsson
(Language: English)
Pål Berg Svenungsen, Institutt for arkeologi, historie, kultur- og religionsvitenskap, Universitetet i Bergen
Index terms: Crusades, Ecclesiastical History, Military History, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 128-cConverting without Wearing the Cross: The Role of Pagan Kings in the Process of Christianisation of Scandinavia
(Language: English)
Dimitri Tarat, Department of History, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Politics and Diplomacy, Religious Life
Paper 128-dRedbad, the Once and Future King of the Frisians
(Language: English)
Han Nijdam, Fryske Akademy, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)
Abstract

This session seeks to look at ideals of kingship in three different kingdoms. The first paper looks at dynastic saints and their importance as ideals and to the relationship between the dynasty and church and takes a comparative approach looking at both Bohemia and the Rus dynastic saints. The second paper looks at how the ideals of crusading became intertwined with ideals of kingship during the 12th and 13th centuries, and the paper will discuss King Håkon Håkonsson's crusade vow and try to place it within a broader understanding of the political culture and the image of the rex crucesignatus in 13th century Europe. The third paper discusses the conversion of Scandinavia arguing that the conversion of the ruler was not always necessary in order to introduce Christianity. The fourth paper looks at the ever changing role that the early Frisian king Redbad had as both an ideal and less than ideal king and seeks to uncover how these stories of Redbad arose and what they meant to for the perception of kingship.