BOOK: Grischa VERCAMER and Dušan ZUPKA, Rulership in Medieval East Central Europe. Power, Ritual and Legitimacy in Bohemia, Hungary and Poland (Leiden: Brill, 2021). ISBN: 978-90-04-49980-5, € 166.00

(Source: Brill)

ABOUT THE BOOK

Series: East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450, Volume: 78

 

This book provides the first detailed overview of research on rulership in theory and practice, with a particular emphasis on the monarchies of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland in the High and Late Middle Ages. The contributions examine the legitimation of rule of the first local dynasties, the ritual practice of power, the ruling strategies and practices of power in the established monarchies, and the manifold influences on the rulership in East Central Europe from outside the region (such as from Byzantium, and the Holy Roman Empire). The collection shows that these ideas and practices enabled the new polities to become legitimate members of Latin Christendom.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Grischa Vercamer, Ph.D. (2008, Freie Universität Berlin), habilitation (2016), is Professor at the Technical University of Chemnitz. He has published monographs, articles, and collective volumes on the High and Late Middle Ages, including Perception of Good and Bad Power/Rulers in England, Poland and the Holy Roman Empire in the 12th century in the Historiography (Harrassowitz, 2020). 

Dušan Zupka, Ph.D. (2009, Comenius University in Bratislava) is Assistant Professor at that same University. He has published monographs and articles on power, rulership, and communication in medieval East Central Europe, including Ritual and Symbolic Communication in Medieval Hungary under the Árpád Dynasty, 1000–1301 (Brill, 2016).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments 
List of Figures and Maps 
Notes on Contributors 

PART 1: Introduction

1 Rulership in Medieval East Central Europe 
  Dušan Zupka 

2 Rulership and Power in Western Medieval Europe (A Theoretical and Conceptual Introduction) 
  Grischa Vercamer 

PART 2: Legitimacy and Rulership – Beginning and Development of the First Dynasties in the Early and High Middle Ages

3 After Avars: The Beginning of the Ruling Power on the Eastern Fringe of Carolingian Empire 
  Martin Wihoda 

4 The Rulership of the Árpádian Dynasty in the 10th–13th Centuries 
  Márta Font 

5 The Piast Rulership 
  Zbigniew Dalewski 

PART 3: Ritual and Politics: Established Rulership in the High and Late Middle Ages

6 Political, Religious and Social Framework of Religious Warfare and Its Influences on Rulership in Medieval East Central Europe 
  Dušan Zupka 

7 The Ritual Practice of Power in Bohemia during the 14th Century 
  Robert Antonín 

8 Language of Power and Communication in the Piast Dynasty: Toward a Reappraisal of Polish Political Culture of the 12th–13th Century 
  Marcin R. Pauk 

9 Assemblies in the Holy Roman Empire and the East Central European Kingdoms: A Comparative Essay on Political Participation and Representation 
  Julia Burkhardt 

PART 4: Structures of Power in the Late Middle Ages

10 The Irruption of the Sacred into the History of Hungarian Kings in the Mirror of the Angevin “Illuminated Chronicle” (around 1358) 
  Vinni Lucherini 

11 The Last Piasts: Legitimating Royal Rule in Fourteenth Century Poland 
  Paul W. Knoll 

12 Royal Power and Military Administration in Angevin Hungary 
  Attila Bárány 

13 Governance System in Poland during the 15th Century 
  Bożena Czwojdrak 

PART 5: Influences on Rulership in East Central Europe from Outside

14 Byzantium and East Central Europe: A Brief Outline of Political and Cultural Relations 
  Panos Sophoulis 

15 The Kingdom of Rus’: Towards a New Theoretical Model of Rulership in Medieval Europe 
  Christian Raffensperger 

16 The “Mongol Experience” of East Central Europe in Image and Political Reality during the Later Middle Ages 
  Felicitas Schmieder 

17 Holy Roman Empire and East Central Europe (High Middle Ages): Politics and Influences 
  Grischa Vercamer 

18 The Holy Roman Empire and East Central Europe (Late Middle Ages): Politics and Influences 
  Stephan Flemmig 

19 Authority without Power? Papal Rulership over East Central Europe in the Late Middle Ages 
  Monika Saczyńska-Vercamer 

General Bibliography 
Index 

More information with the publisher.