| Communications and Development |  |
Published by Communications and Development
An assumption, long held by historians about the political ideas of people in medieval France, is being challenged in a new book by Canterbury University academic Dr Chris Jones (History).
Dr Jones’ book, Eclipse of Empire? Perceptions of the Western Empire and its rulers in Late-Medieval France, looks at concepts of universal authority and national identity in 13th and 14th century France by exploring contemporary attitudes to the Holy Roman Empire and its rulers.
Using a wide range of contemporary sources, Dr Jones said his investigation raised questions about a long-established belief among historians.
“For the last 50 years the generally accepted argument among medievalists is that in about 1300 there was break away from medieval ideas of universalism, that the place of popes and emperors was supplanted by the idea of sovereign states and kings, and that France took centre stage in this process.
“However, in my book I suggest that people in France were not only still talking about a universal authority, but that such an authority still had an important role to play in their basic understanding of how a properly organised world should work.”
Dr Jones, who was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in the UK, said to gauge contemporary attitudes to the Empire, he examined sources that had largely been ignored by other historians interested in the development of political conceptions in this period; sources such as chronicle histories, illuminations, stained glass images, and poetry. Many of the sources he investigated were in French, the language of the nobility and the common people.
“Other historians who have approached this issue have generally looked at university tracts, legal statements, the work of lawyers and propaganda material, much of which was written in Latin for consumption by a clerical elite,” he said.
“But those sources only give part of the story. I adopted a different approach to look for underlying ideas about the status of kings and emperors in wider French thought and found a completely different world view of this period. By using a broader cross-section of sources I have been able to give a broader view of the period.”
Eclipse of Empire? is Dr Jones’ first book and is based largely on his PhD thesis, which he completed in 2003 through the University of Durham. It is the first volume in a new series of books published through University of California, Los Angeles’ Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies that will examine broad issues of interest to people working in medieval and Renaissance studies.
Dr Jones is now working on his second book, an examination of the work and world view of medieval monk Geoffroi de Collon. He recently received a Sydney Holgate Fellowship to spend three months at one of the Colleges at the University of Durham and planned to spend the time working on his next book.
For further information please contact:
Stacey Doornenbal
Communications Officer
University of Canterbury
Ph (03) 364 2987 ext 3809
stacey.doornenbal@canterbury.ac.nz