CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Varró, Orsolya |
|---|---|
| Title | Using and Abusing Power in Early 11th-Century Poitou |
| Summary | The Duchy of Aquitaine – and Poitou within it – has been often used as an example in the debate on the “feudal transformation”. The central topic of this thesis is the early 11th-century notion of possible social changes in Poitou as it is present in the contemporary evaluation of the political practices of landholders in the early 11th-century, centered around the question, what factors determined the rightfulness or wrongfulness of an act of exercising power in early 11th-century Poitou. I examine narrative sources as the Chronicle of Ademar of Chabannes and the Conventum, instructive and regulating sources as council decrees, charters, and the letter of Fulbert, bishop of Chartres to Duke William V of Aquitaine on the lord—vassal relationship. I analyse the authors’ expectations toward political figures and, based on these, the image of society which they had on their mind. In the last part of the work, I describe the methods the anonymous author of the Conventum and Ademar of Chabannes applied to deal with non-conform behaviours. I argue that early 11th-century sources convey a change in the political climate of Poitou, nevertheless, the tension was caused by an increased upward mobility within the existing social system rather than by a structural change. |
| Supervisor | Klaniczay, Gábor; Laszlovszky, József |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/varro_orsolya.pdf |
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