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 |
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Moderator/Chair: | Felicity Hill, School of History, University of East Anglia |
Paper 128-a | Better Dead than Alive: Inventing Ideal Kingship in Rus' and Bohemia (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Politics and Diplomacy |
Paper 128-b | The rex crucesignatus: Servant of God, Protector of the Dynasty - The Case of King Håkon Håkonsson (Language: English) Index terms: Crusades, Ecclesiastical History, Military History, Politics and Diplomacy |
Paper 128-c | Converting without Wearing the Cross: The Role of Pagan Kings in the Process of Christianisation of Scandinavia (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Politics and Diplomacy, Religious Life |
Paper 128-d | Redbad, the Once and Future King of the Frisians (Language: English) |
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. |