The Crisis of the 12th Century. Power and Lordship at the Dawn of European Government.
Beautiful Letters| N° d'inventaire | 18652 |
| Format | 16 x 23.5 |
| Détails | 577 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2014 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
Medieval civilization reached maturity in an era marked by momentous events such as the Norman Conquest and the First Crusade. Power fell to men gravitating around castles, who exercised coercive lordships with little regard for public order. Power-hungry, seeking nobility, encroaching on clerical domains, and exploiting peasants, the growing number of knights eventually emerged as a threat to social order and peace. In The Crisis of the Twelfth Century, historian Thomas Bisson shows how, in a Europe without government, people experienced power and suffered from it. Rethinking a familiar story, he traces the origins of European government to a crisis of lordship and its resolution. He explores the circumstances that prompted knights, nobles, kings, and clergymen to infuse lordship with social objectives. The violence of the powerful and the cries of protest it provoked thus contributed to the emergence of government in kingdoms, principalities, and cities. Masterfully encompassing the whole of Christendom, The Crisis of the Twelfth Century is an unparalleled cultural history of power in medieval Europe.
Medieval civilization reached maturity in an era marked by momentous events such as the Norman Conquest and the First Crusade. Power fell to men gravitating around castles, who exercised coercive lordships with little regard for public order. Power-hungry, seeking nobility, encroaching on clerical domains, and exploiting peasants, the growing number of knights eventually emerged as a threat to social order and peace. In The Crisis of the Twelfth Century, historian Thomas Bisson shows how, in a Europe without government, people experienced power and suffered from it. Rethinking a familiar story, he traces the origins of European government to a crisis of lordship and its resolution. He explores the circumstances that prompted knights, nobles, kings, and clergymen to infuse lordship with social objectives. The violence of the powerful and the cries of protest it provoked thus contributed to the emergence of government in kingdoms, principalities, and cities. Masterfully encompassing the whole of Christendom, The Crisis of the Twelfth Century is an unparalleled cultural history of power in medieval Europe.