Sacrality of the Royal Power

The book presents a plethora of perspectives on the phenomenon of kingship and state in the Bible and in history. Considered here are most important parts of Old Testament literature, i.e. Pentateuch, Deuteronomistic history, Prophecy and Wisdom. Accordingly, the time span dealt with is quite broad, ranging from the pre-Monarchic era up until Hellenism. In addition some conributions reaching in their scope far beyond the boundary of the Old Testament are present, engaging thoroughly the archaeology of the “Holy Land” as well as the Ancient Near Eastern and Hellenistic context of the Old Testament. The Septuagint and the New Testament, repeatedly consulted in this volume turn the attention to the questions of the history of reception. The volume is based on an international symposium held in April 2014 in Prague

EXPLORING HOW PLACE was implicated in discourses of power and kingship, this paper investigates the ways in which ideologies and cosmologies informed the production of sacred authority and the iconographies of royal sites in the period c AD 400‐800. This paper pertains to the evolution of early medieval kingship but also that institution’s relationship with prehistoric antecedents. It is suggested that the construction of localised small-scale kingships was as meaningful as those of the more prominent institutions such as Tara and Cashel. Through highlighting a NE‐SW axis redolent in royal landscapes, it is argued that kingship’s relationship with place was central to discourses over power, ideology and the ‘holy man’. This saw the early Irish church appropriate aspects of a cosmological scheme linked to the creation and (re)-imagining of royal sites.

In this article, I explore the potential that Magian symbolism offered for Edward III's political purposes in the middle decades of the fourteenth century. Now most familiar as a symbol of devotion, the Three Kings' appeal as a legendary model of kingship has been ignored, and their prominence in Edward's reign should not be seen as merely incidental to his program of building a symbolic vocabulary of sacral kingship. The story of the Magi paired exotic mystical authority with a European currency that complemented his other, more Anglocentric, models of mythic kingship, St. George and Arthur. Edward's image-making program helps explain why the fourteenth century Historia Trium Regum might have attained such great popularity in England, how this text was likely read, and why several other works of fourteenth century art and literature attempt to link Magian symbolism with Plantagenet kingship. Within this context, we should read the Historia Trium Regum as a robustly political text, rather than only a devotional one. Reading the Historia as a work designed to appeal to the political imagination helps us understand a " Magian " model of kingship that was promoted under Edward, but has been glossed over by political historians because it amounted to little in terms of practical politics. It has been ignored by literary scholars as well, because it doesn't fit prevailing new historicist models of how sacral kingship operated ideologically.

Bauch, Martin, Hegemoniales Königtum jenseits von Politik- und Verfassungsgeschichte. Zur sakralen Herrschaftspraxis Karls IV., in: Reinle, Christine (Hg.), Stand und Perspektiven der Sozial- und Verfassungsgeschichte zum römisch-deutschen Reich. Der Forschungseinfluss Peter Moraws auf die deutsche Mediävistik, Affalterbach 2016 (Studien und Texte zur Geistes- und Sozialgeschichte des Mittelalters, 10), S. 97-110.

Presumably between 1310 and 1313, scribes produced a manuscript for Bolesław II of Mazovia, which contained a prayer for the ruler. The intercession was formulated as "una cum papa, et episcopo, et duce," which suggested that ducal power and ecclesiastical authority, while not explicitly equal, shared a similar importance. In a world dominated by rituals, this had quite an important meaning, especially in light of the fact that the chant was performed during the most solemn liturgy of the year, the Easter Vigil, which is meant to represent the deeds of Redemption. The text itself suggested that those who participated in the solemnities were a part of the history of salvation. The invocation of the political and ecclesiastical elite marked the path from Adam to the heavenly Jerusalem, where bishop John, duke Bolesław and his sons Siemowit and Wańko should be present. The insertion of their names in gold was meant to grant them eternal presence with God. However, the name of the duke was written in gold majuscule script with the use of red ink, suggesting that the prayer was meant to reinforce political majesty of Bolesław II even after the restoration of the Polish kingdom by other rulers. The prayer was also a part of the phenomenon of sacrality of ducal power in Mazovia which had a longer tradition. This phenomenon was modeled on the approaches used by Piast dynasty after the loss of their royal title in the second half of the eleventh century. The sacrality of ducal power in Mazovia, however, is not very different from that of other contemporary European duchies. Mazovia may have been located on the edge of the Christian world, but the course of its history in the Middle Ages – marked by crusades against Baltic pagans, preparations for campaigns against the Mongols, attempts at the unification of the kingdom of Ruthenia with Rome, and diplomatic relations with both the papacy and the most important rulers of Central Europe – demonstrates that it should not be marginalised in scholarship, especially in regard to the phenomenon of sacralised political power.

Resumen: En este artículo presentamos la imagen del rex christianus en los textos producidos en la corte de Alfonso X, analizando el amplio debate historiográfico en torno a la cuestión del carácter de la monarquía bajomedieval castellana, considerado por gran parte de los autores como “laico”. El punto de partida son los principales elementos que caracterizan la sacralidad monárquica, como el uso de objetos simbólicos del poder, el panteón real, el poder taumatúrgico atribuido a los reyes y, especialmente, las ceremonias de consagración real (rex et sacerdos). Asimismo, se analiza la cuestión del origen divino del poder monárquico y la forma como ese origen viene tratado en los textos alfonsíes (rex Dei gratia). Su condición elevada hace que el rey goce de una protección especial dispensada por Dios y/o por la Virgen, tanto contra enfermedades como contra sus enemigos (rex invictus). En contrapartida, se espera que el rey sea el más virtuoso de los cristianos, para que pueda servir de ejemplo a todo su pueblo (rex imitabilis).

Abstract: This paper presents the image of the rex christianus in the works produced in the court of Alfonso X and analyses the broad historiographical debate on the character of late medieval Castilian monarchy, considered by most authors as “secular”. The starting point are the main elements that characterize the royal sacredness, such as the use of symbolic objects of power, the royal pantheon , the thaumaturgic power attributed to the kings and especially the ceremonies of royal consecration (rex et sacerdos). In this connection, the divine origin of royal power and how that origin is treated in Alfonsine texts will be also analysed (rex Dei gratia). The king’s high status makes him enjoy the special protection provided by God and/or the Virgin Mary, both against diseases and his enemies (rex invictus). On the other way round, the king is expected to be the most virtuous of Christians, so that he can lead his people by example (rex imitabilis).

The paper provides an anthropological analysis of the socio-political system of the Kingdom of Benin during the longest and most important period of her history: from coming to power of the ruling up to now Second (Oba) dynasty presumably in the 13th century till the British colonial conquest in 1897. The course of this system formation and its basic characteristic features are outlined. It is argued that the Benin Kingdom of the 13th – 19th centuries was a supercomplex society which yet was not a state, as it was lack of the latter’s fundamental parameters. Particularly, the Benin society was not based on suprakin (territorial) social ties and there was no professional (bureaucratic) administration in it. The kin-based extended family community always remained this society’s focus, and the supracommunal institutions were built up by its matrix, what is impossible in a state. So, notwithstanding its overall socio-cultural supercomplexity, Benin was not a state but rather a specific alternative to it, labeled “megacommunity”. Its structure can be depicted as four concentric circles forming an upset cone: the extended family, the community, the chiefdom, and finally the kingdom. A number of other African and non-African examples of this underconceptualized and understudied by now type of socio-political organization are offered.

В монографии выявляется и описывается социоантропологическая модель функционирования древнебенинского общества, раскрывается механизм соотнесения, взаиморегуляции и взаимопроникновения миров социальной и мифологической реальности. Анализируются основные подсистемы бенинского социума: ментальная, социально-экономическая и управленческая. Исследуются природа, динамика и особенности становления надобщинных социальных и управленческих институтов и структур. Показывается место древнего Бенина как самобытной части цивилизации Тропической Африки в мировом историческом процессе. Монография написана в достаточно новом жанре исторической антропологии: в работе предпринята попытка синтезирования теоретических основ и методов истории, этнологии и культурологии.

This PhD thesis (published in German by Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht and to be soon published in French by the Presses Universitaires de Paris-Sorbonne) explores how changing representations of the relationships between Heaven and earth influenced political calculation in Catholic Europe in the first half of 17th century. Through a religious history of political planing and decision making, it seeks to reinterpret a range of political conflicts in France, Germany and Poland-Lithuania and tries to give an answer to such questions as "why did the Polish monarchy know a decline in mid-17th century whereas French monarchy could survive the civil wars of the Fronde without beeing seriously damaged?" Beneath that, it analizes the evolution of political legitimacy especially through the history of Marian state patronage.

The PSALM-Network conference was organized in memory of Ernst H. Kantorowicz and took place in Poznań, where Kantorowicz was born and raised. The year 2017 was marked by the 60th anniversary of  "The King’s Two Bodies" and by the 90th anniversary of "Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite". The topic of the meeting was devoted to political theology in the Middle Ages, and was focused on the medieval liturgical sources which were studied by Kantorowicz for the purpose of writing political history of the Middle Ages. These two areas of research - study on liturgy and politics - remain widely separated in contemporary academia, although Kantorowicz paved the way for the finest inclusion of the liturgical material into the study on medieval political ideology. This conference is meant to trigger the research on this overlooked legacy of Kantorowicz.