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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 350: A Scandinavian Sonderweg?, III: The Fiction of the 'State'

Monday 6 July 2020, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:Peder Sather Center for Advanced Study, University of California, Berkeley
Organiser:Geoffrey Koziol, Department of History, University of California, Berkeley
Moderator/Chair:Hans Jacob Orning, Institutt for arkeologi, konservering og historie, Universitetet i Oslo
Paper 350-aLordship in Late Medieval France: Re-Centring the State
(Language: English)
Justine Firnhaber-Baker, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Index terms: Administration, Charters and Diplomatics, Political Thought, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 350-bUn-Centring the State: Associative Institutions in Medieval Europe, 11th-13th Centuries
(Language: English)
Geoffrey Koziol, Department of History, University of California, Berkeley
Index terms: Administration, Charters and Diplomatics, Political Thought, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 350-cThe Field of Power in Early 12th-Century Denmark
(Language: English)
Kim Esmark, Department of Culture & Identity, Roskilde Universitet
Index terms: Administration, Charters and Diplomatics, Political Thought, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract

This third session of 'A Scandinavian Sonderweg?' addresses issues of political order, with the purpose less of making comparisons than of establishing terms and categories of analysis that enable comparison. Firnhaber-Baker will discuss the limits of monarchical power in later medieval France and argue that lordship is a more important category for analyzing power. Building on this theme, Koziol will emphasize the importance of horizontal political associations, from treaties and convenientiae to peace-leagues and communes. Esmark will discuss conflicts among magnates in 12th-century Denmark and the role kings played in them.