medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
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George FERZOCO
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Models of Conflict in Medieval Europe
Tuesday 21st August 2007, Durham University History Department
Keynote Speaker: Professor Michael Prestwich
Conflict was a central feature of the European Middle Ages. War was
endemic throughout the period whilst feud, near universal in the
early Middle Ages, persisted in some regions well into the sixteenth
century. This martial culture is reflected not only in violent
literary themes but also in the Christian imagery of spiritual
warfare common in medieval sermons and hagiography. Conflict,
however, did not inevitably involve bloodshed. For example, though
the threat was often present, land disputes were frequently settled
without recourse to violence, but could be just as bound by ritual
and social expectation as any bloodfeud.
This postgraduate conference will explore the way in which conflicts
were conceptualised by medieval men and women by examining the models
that both shaped their expectations of how real-life conflicts would
play out and influenced the way they represented conflict in literary
and religious texts. Topics could include, but are not limited to:
· Legal models governing the proper conduct of feuds and
disputes.
· Ideals relating to the proper conduct of warfare: e.g. the
elite-cultural models of the heroic and chivalric ‘codes’ or
religious notions of just and holy war.
· The influence of gender and class models on the roles
individuals were expected to play in conflicts.
· The use of, or deviation from, such models for effect in
both literary and religious texts.
· The relationship between theory and practice. How
accurately do any of these models describe the reality of medieval
conflicts?
· Modern models of conflict – sociological, anthropological,
historiographical – and their usefulness for our understanding of the
Middle Ages.
We welcome papers from all disciplines that take an imaginative
approach to such models and their significance in the Middle Ages.
A tour of Durham Cathedral will be running on the following day,
Wednesday 22nd August, for interested delegates. The conference is to
be held in the Cousin’s Library of the Palace Green Archives and bed
and breakfast accommodation will be available in the Castle.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to
[log in to unmask] by May 20th 2007.
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