Political structures and institutions in the Western Middle Ages [LHISB220]

Learning outcomes

- Develop specialised knowledge in areas of history and understand the issues at stake in the discipline;

- Develop critical thinking and scientific reasoning skills.

Objectives

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

- characterise the functioning and evolution of the main political structures and institutions of the medieval period;

- explain the mechanisms and processes at work;

- make nuanced comparisons between similar institutions from different periods or countries.

Content

The form of political organisation with which we are most familiar today is the state. For the period that followed the official disappearance of the Western Roman Empire, historians have had to question its very existence. Didn't Guy Fourquin write some thirty years ago: "The State disappeared completely in the 5th century"? Assuming that to be true, did that mean anarchy? Starting with a reflection on the nature of state organisation, the course will consider its avatars in the West from the 5th to the 15th century, from empires with a universal vocation (the Carolingian Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, etc.) to nation states, from the Germanic kingdoms to the birth of the modern state, via the feudal principality, the common lordship and the city-state. It will analyse the main bodies or mechanisms embodying political authority, from the king to the commune, and their ideological legitimisation, the way the State functioned (army, legislation, justice, taxation, etc.) and its relationship with the Church. Geographically, the presentation will focus on the Franco-German area.

Table of contents

Provisional table of contents:

I. Diverse forms of political organisation in late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages: the question of the State

II. The ancient legacy

III. The High Middle Ages: A. The Germanic kingdoms of the High Middle Ages: states? - B. Powers and counter-powers: the king, the aristocracy, the Church - C. Government, administration, justice - D. State resources - E. Vassalage and feudalism

IV. State, feudalism, seigniory: A. Feudalism and the development of principalities - B. The era of the Lords (France, 11th - 11th century) - C. The communal movement - D. The Empire

V. Genesis of the modern state (14th-19th century)