Absentee Authority Across Medieval Europe

Citation

Lachaud F & Penman MA (eds.) (2017) Absentee Authority Across Medieval Europe. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer. https://boydellandbrewer.com/absentee-authority-across-medieval-europe-hb.html

Abstract
In the medieval world, what happened when a figure of recognised authority was absent? What terminology, principles and solutions of proxy authority were developed and adopted? Did these solutions differ and change over time depending on whether the absence was short or long and caused by issues of incapacity, minority, disputed succession, geography or elective absenteeism? Did the models of proxy authority adopted by ruling dynasties and large institutions influence the proxy choices of lesser authority? This innovative volume offers a comparative examination of a major aspect of the systems of medieval power: the circumstances and consequences of absentee authority. Ranging across the realms of medieval Europe (but with a focus upon the British Isles and France), its papers embrace a wide variety of experience - royal, parliamentary, conciliar, magnatial, military, ecclesiastical [papal to parochial], burghal, household, minor or major, male or female, exiled, captive or infirm - and explore not merely political developments, but the dynastic, diplomatic, financial, ideological, religious and iconographic ramifications of such episodes. This book provides an interdisciplinary approach to an essential aspect of the systems of medieval power. List of contributors: James Bothwell (University of Leicester), Michelle Bubenicek (École nationale des Chartes, Paris), Léonard Dauphant (Université de Lorraine), Bruno Dumézil (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre, La Défense), Laurent Hablot (École Pratique des Hautes Études / PSL Research University, Paris), Torsten Hiltmann (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster), Tom Horler-Underwood (Warminster School, Wiltshire), Robert Houghton (University of Winchester), Olivier de Laborderie (independent scholar), Frédérique Lachaud (Université de Lorraine), Hans Jacob Orning (University of Oslo), Michael Penman (University of Stirling) and Norman Reid (Institute of Scottish Historical Research, University of St Andrews).

Keywords
authority; power; absentee; vacancy; regency; minority; kingship; lordship; council; parliament; governmenta; medieval

People

Dr Michael Penman

Senior Lecturer, History