(Source: ÖEAW)
We learned of a call for papers
for an international conference in Vienna on personal structures of informal
decision-making at late medieval courts.
The papers that shall be
presented at the conference are expected to either contribute to the working
model/definition of Grey Eminences or to present case studies in order to enhance
the comparative approach of the GREMIA project. Hence, papers may address the
following research topics:
1. Proposing biographies to be
compared with the case studies investigated within the GREMIA project: The
starting point of the GREMIA project was the idea to trace the careers and
biographies of several important decision-makers of the political entourage of
late medieval Emperors and King of the Romans: Sigmund Huler (Bohemian
vice-chamberlain or royal treasurer to King Wenceslas), Brunoro della Scala
(key figure of the Italian party at the court of Emperor Sigismund), Sigmund
Prüschenk (counsellor to Emperor Frederick III), Zyprian von Northeim (named
Serntein, aulic and Tyrolean chancellor to Maximilian I) and Kaspar Schlick
(imperial chancellor and leading diplomat to the Roman Kings and Emperors
Sigismund, Albert II and Frederick III). We are keen to confront the chosen
sample of people at the Imperial court with comparable and matching figures
from other European royal and princely households.
2. Discussing and assessing one
or several of the proposed characteristics attributed to Grey eminences: -
Social ascent: Grey eminences often (but not always) rise to their position as
the result of an advancement from comparably low social milieu (in contrast to
courtiers belonging to the higher aristocracy). - Technicians of power
(diplomacy, engineering, finance, legal matters, etc.): their specific
technical knowledge helped them climbing the ladder and accessing the direct
service of the prince, even more so, if they had training in more than just one
of these areas of knowledge or retained a good general overview of political
concepts and the modes of decision-making at court; - Secundus regi/imperatori,
second to the ruler or to a minister in terms of power: it seems, however, that
Grey eminences could not only rely on their close cooperation with the king
himself; they rather had to work hand in hand with potentially rivalling
courtiers; - Powerbroker/gatherer of symbolic capital, or the Grey eminence as
a node of a wide-ranging network. Grey eminences often promoted family members
or clients from their patronage systems, but they could also function as
go-betweens for regional elites, promoting political interests of their
countrymen at court and thus ensuring or intensifying interaction between the
court as a political centre and its more or less distant peripheries and vice
versa; - Founders of a bureaucratic and courtly dynasty: they pursued their own
interests and expected to have their share in the redistribution of power and
honours at court. Consequently, if the Grey eminence had gained a hold on
power, they tried to retain it or to pass it on to their offspring, often
seeking to achieve heredity of (formal) court offices or at least of landed property
given to them. - Part of a group of Grey eminences: the ruler promoted more
than one Grey eminence at a time, as a deliberate strategy to establish a
counterbalance between favourites, so that none of them could entirely dominate
the court or the counsel. - Rival of the sovereign: Grey eminences entering in
a relationship of rivalry with the sovereign, a constellation typically
appearing with the succession of a new sovereign when the office of the Grey
eminence did not end with the death of the ruler.
3. Grey Eminences belonging to
other political bodies/spheres of decision centres: the five reference
characters selected for the GREMIA project as well as most of the theoretical
material gathered refer to Grey eminences as members of a royal or princely
court. However, it is true that other forms of decision centres (ecclesiastic
court, city councils, republican institutions, representative assemblies) could
have produced other forms of Grey eminences. Papers on such topics will also be
highly welcomed.
The conference will take place at
the Institut für Mittelalterforschung of the Österreichische Akademie der
Wissenschaften (Hollandstraße 11-13, 1st floor, Vienna, Austria), 12-14 October
2020. Conference languages will be English, German and French. Proposals
(including an abstract of 1500 characters max. and a short bio-bibliographical
presentation) for papers of 25 min should be sent to
sonja.duennebeil@oeaw.ac.at and jonathan.dumont@oeaw.ac.at before 15 April.
The full call can be found here
More info here
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