IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 528: Royal Ideals, Functions, and Typologies of Power: Kingship in Comparison in the High Middle Ages, I

Tuesday 5 July 2016, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:	Haskins Society / Battle Conference for Anglo-Norman Studies
Organiser:	Ryan Kemp, Department of History & Welsh History, Aberystwyth University
Moderator/Chair:	Stephen Church, School of History, University of East Anglia
Paper 528-a	'More with prudence than with steel': Comparative Kingship and Royal Characterization in Angevin Historical Narratives (Language: English) Peter Raleigh, Department of History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 528-b	Balance of Power: Anglo-Norman Kings and the Episcopacy (Language: English) Stefanie Schild, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 528-c	William Rufus, Henry II, and the Embrace of Fortuna (Language: English) Tom Forster, Selwyn College, University of Cambridge Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract	This session looks at royal characterisation by comparison in the Anglo-Norman and Angevin realms. Royal characterisations were not created in a vacuum. They built upon a range of contemporary, transnational, and historical comparisons. This session examines how contemporaries judged Anglo-Norman and Angevin kings by such comparisons. Paper -a (Raleigh) discusses how English historians, in the Angevin period, set their own rulers against examples from abroad in their pursuit of the universal royal ideal. Paper -b (Schild) addresses contemporaries’ understanding of the balance of power between Anglo-Norman kings and their episcopacy. Paper -c (Forster) examines the impact of Fortuna and Lucanian models of rulership in depictions of William Rufus and Henry II.