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IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 628: Royal Ideals, Functions, and Typologies of Power: Kingship in Comparison in the High Middle Ages, II

Tuesday 5 July 2016, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:Haskins Society / Battle Conference for Anglo-Norman Studies
Organiser:Emily J. Ward, Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge
Moderator/Chair:Björn Weiler, Department of History & Welsh History, Aberystwyth University
Paper 628-aBecoming King in 12th- and 13th-Century Norway: Elite Ideal Behaviour and Kingship in the Kings' Sagas
(Language: English)
Louisa Taylor, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University College London
Index terms: Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 628-b'Do you not know I am a healer?': Royal Authority and Miracles of Healing in High Medieval Lives of Kings
(Language: English)
Beth Hasseler, Department of History, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Index terms: Hagiography, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 628-cExpressions of Judgement: Kings, Emperors, and Warfare in 12th-Century English and German Chronicles
(Language: English)
Ryan Kemp, Department of History & Welsh History, Aberystwyth University
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Military History, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract

Historiography, hagiography, and royal sagas judged royal functions in accordance with a range of ideals which were common across Christendom. However, this session will highlight that kingdom-specific context was also important to the development of these ideals. Paper a (Taylor) examines the utility of Norwegian royal sagas as evidence for ideas of kingship, and how far they may have been influenced by the wider ideals of the warrior elite. Paper b (Hasseler) analyses the liminal figure of the royal saint in a comparison of the role of healing miracles in the legends of Olaf II Haraldsson and Edward the Confessor. Paper c (Kemp) compares the images of warrior kings found in twelfth-century English and German chronicles as evidence for deeper parallels and divergences between the two polities.