<i>Mediaeval Kingship</i> (review)
James G. Ryan
Henry A. Myers, in co-operation with Herwig Wolfram, Mediaeval Kingship, Chicago, Nelson-Hall, 1982, pp. ix and 467. The dust-cover subtitles this book helpfully as "The origins development of Western monarchy all stages from the fall Rome to Fifteenth Century". It also makes it clear that principal author is fields "political science history" "social research" at James Madison University, while his collaborator a Viennese medievalist. Hence come twin thrusts considerable work - an investigation kingship, "how why came dominate politics culture for thousand years", contention mediaeval kingship had its royal traditions Germanic tribes northern Europe, "but owed much largely rational concept derived later Roman civilization, (p. 2) Thus writers go beyond familiar kings living institutions which could, appropriate, keep peace render justice their subjects, defend results against foreign invaders, or, later, maintain strengthen faith. And so, after over-view, treatment follows through, sequentially dual origin kingshp; becoming "God's own form government"; early "the art stabilizing balancing"; problems regna imperium Carolingian "feudal pyramid" right resistance; influential theories John Salisbury, Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Marsiglio Padua Sir Fortescue; withering feudal nobility, consequent "symbiotic relationship" middle class newer types emerged end Middle Ages. In this, concern ever mechanisms order; trusts responsibilities; operation law; facts myths given period (e.g. Attila Hun hordes opposed personal magnetism magnificence accorded him by writer Nibelungenlied); making intriguing parallels ages, between claims Church direct those present-day Communist parties power government over Marxist-Leninist doctrine; or twentieth century Fascist leaders "caricatures kingship" 351). While these last observations may seem less than weighty scholarship, occasional cast expression be Germantype English, are scarcely flaws such institution held heart (European) history, legend mythology, idiom, imagery fantasy. For, must stressed, text interspersed progressive semantic illuminations, Heil, cyning, thiudans, nobilitas, imperator "emperor", Thing, De Regno, move Aristotle Thomist nuances concepts like "politics", regimen populi, Dantean ideals universal through 202 secular absolute monarchy. For whose medieval studies English European, whole continental will appeal especially, approach developments law. notion hierarchy law links our world, true deeper meaning Aristotle's Politics. there teased out variations immutable variable (i) eternal (divine guidance created things); (ii) natural (man's perception "sharing in" virtue reason nature); (iii) positive (laws type generally encountered among different peoples, ius gentium, well body laws special contingencies, civile). Related sphere set associations assumption normal political unit people want discuss citystate . is, indeed,this limited increasingly comes under threat from: change; larger kingdoms; passing tribe; rise middle-class; restraining yet divisive functions representative of...
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