Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 11 - 2024 i Medieval World Culture & Conflict Magazine

Charles IV of Bohemia (1316–1378, r. 1346-1378) was King of the Romans and of Bohemia, as well as Holy Roman Emperor. Born Wenceslaus to parents connected with the notable Luxembourg and Přemyslid dynasties, he took on the name Charles to honor his French relatives and the great Charlemagne. A learned, pious, and well-traveled individual, Charles transformed the cultural, artistic, literary, and political landscapes of Bohemia. Especially in Prague, his main political and cultural center, he developed a new area of the city – the New Town – established a university, commissioned palaces and churches – including the famous cathedral of Saint Vitus at his imperial residence at Prague Castle – and built a new bridge and gathering spaces for the citizenry. The artistic and architectural projects that he promoted brought…

Researchers in Poland have discovered new details about a nearly complete medieval chess set. By obtaining DNA from pieces of the Sandomierz chess set, they could determine what animals were used to make them. Discovered in 1962 during an archaeological in Sandomierz, a town in southeastern Poland, the chess set includes 29 pieces, just three shy of a full set. The very small pieces – the two kings are 25 mm and 23 mm in height, while the rest are below 20 mm – were created in the twelfth or early thirteenth century. On one side of the chessboard, there were figures with deep and clear carvings, while the other side had shallow carvings that even disappeared in places.…

Researchers believe that an object in a fifteenth-century painting is actually a handaxe that could be as much as 500,000 years old. Half a million years ago, our human ancestors began to use large, stone tools known as “Acheulean handaxes” to cut meat and wood, and dig for tubers. Often made from flint, these prehistoric oval and pear-shaped tools are flaked on both sides and have a pointed end. Handaxes have long been a source of fascination in our social and cultural history. Prior to the Enlightenment in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, people thought that they were of natural origin and referred to them as “thunderstones shot from the clouds,” according to texts, with the earliest records dating to the mid-1500s. Researchers from Dartmouth College and the University of…

Armour was essential to the identity of the medieval knight. In medieval sources, they are often referred to as armati or loricati – ‘armoured men’ or ‘mail-clad men'. Knights, and those with the income of a ‘knight's fee’ (traditionally £20 per year) – were expected to own their own armour. Fourteenth-century English indentures contracting the services of a man-at-arms required that they appear ‘coveneblement armez et appareiller’ – appropriately armed and equipped – which included having the appropriate level of armour. Military service as a knight clad in armour was so important to some that they would hire the harness if they did not own their own. Several records survive detailing such transactions. In England, a knight who broke the ordinances that laid out how the army would behave might…

Born to a father connected to the Luxembourg dynasty (the royal family of the Holy Roman Empire) and a mother tied to the Přemyslid dynasty (the royal family of Bohemia), Charles had only a minimum of Czech blood. But this did not impede him from becoming one of Bohemia's most celebrated and impressive medieval rulers. He transformed the cultural and artistic landscape of his homeland, and positioned his realm as a powerful player in European politics. His long sojourns in Paris and northern Italy also impacted his leadership, court, and reputation. He learned how to be a skilled commander, diplomat, and leader, as well as value courtly culture, art, and holy relics. Thousands of pages could be dedicated to the life and deeds of this illustrious European ruler, but in…

After his death, Charles IV's embalmed body was on view in Prague Castle for eleven days. Then, on 11 December 1378, a city-wide procession began, which lasted four days. The emperor's body made its way from Hradčany through the Lesser Town and onto the new stone bridge, then through the Old and New Towns, finally arriving at Vyšehrad – the ancient cult centre and residence of the Přemyslid dynasty. The emperor's body remained in the church on Vyšehrad for one night before being taken through the New and Old towns again, and across the bridge back to the cathedral. This procession was said to have included 564 men dressed in black, carrying candles, marching in front of the richly dressed body of the emperor, carried on biers, his head surrounded…

The rule of Charles IV could be characterized as a ‘golden age’ of medieval Bohemian historiography. The importance of the past and its instrumentalisation in the context of regal and dynastic representation were key aspects of his ruling style. There are numerous surviving written works, especially chronicles, composed at the royal court. Many authors have attributed the authorship of these historical works to the emperor, who was known to have preferred this type of literature. It is known that Charles commissioned two chronicles through which he established the claim of the ‘foreign’ dynasty of the Luxembourgs in the Kingdom of Bohemia and his personal predestination for the imperial title. The so-called Bohemian Chronicle of Přibík Pulkava of Radenín offers an account of Czech history from its mythical beginnings up until…

Blanche of Valois (1316–1348) Daughter of Charles, count of Valois and Mahaut of Châtillon, Blanche grew up at the royal court of France and married Charles in May 1329, when they were 12 and 13 years of age, respectively. They became margrave and margravine of Moravia in 1334, and lived together from then on. Blanche was popular at the Bohemian court as she learned Czech and German, and integrated herself successfully as a ruler. However, the lack of a male heir for Blanche and Charles, as only two daughters survived infancy, Margaret and Katharine, posed issues. Blanche died on 1 August 1348, following a short illness, and was buried in Prague Castle. Anna of Świdnica (1339–1352) Charles's third marriage, to the daughter of duke Henry II of Świdnica-Jawor and Katherine…

THE EARLIEST ROOTS OF THE ISLAMIC FAITH What makes a Muslim a good Muslim? Once the Arabs ruled the world from the Atlantic to Persia, this became an important question. After all, the sacred book of Islam, the Quran, is not a law code. Fortunately, there was the exemplary life of the Prophet. If someone took inspiration from Muhamad's conduct, he had to be a good believer. Conundrums So, Islamic scholars started to study anecdotes about the Prophet's life. There were many hadith, although some were suspect. However, there was some consensus about what was reliable, and in the mid-eighth century, a scholar named Ibn Ishaq used the hadith to compose a biography of the Prophet that seemed reliable. When nineteenth-century European scholars started to investigate the origins of Islam,…

After coming to the end of any great work of the imagination it is hard not to ask, “What now?” One option is to become just as obsessed with how the book or movie or piece of music was made. Tom Shippey has already written a history of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (The Road to Middle-Earth), and he has now done the same for Beowulf. Beowulf and the North before the Vikings By Tom Shippey ISBN: 978-1802700138 ARC Humanities Press, 2022 $19.95 (paperback) www.arc-humanities.org From the outset of Beowulf and the Old North before the Vikings, Shippey admits the limitations in our knowledge of Scandinavia and England in the centuries before the Vikings burst onto the scene. The picture he paints about the background to Beowulf remains, then, largely…

Prague: The Crown of Bohemia, 1347–1437 Edited by Barbara Drake Boehm and Jirí Fajt Yale University Press, 2005 ISBN: 978-0300111385 Autobiography of Emperor Charles IV and his Legend of St Wenceslas Edited by Balázs Nagy Central European University Press, 2001 ISBN: 978-9639116320 Art and Propaganda: Charles IV of Bohemia, 1346-1378 By Iva Rosario Boydell Press, 2001 ISBN: 978-0851157870 The Parisian Summit, 1377-78: Emperor Charles IV and King Charles V of France By František Šmahel Karolinum Press, 2015 ISBN: 978-8024625225 Luxembourg Court Cultures in the Long Fourteenth Century Edited by Karl Kügle, Ingrid Ciulisová, and Václav Žurek Boydell Press, 2024 ISBN: 978-1837650057 Prague and Bohemia: Medieval Art, Architecture and Cultural Exchange in Central Europe Edited by Zoë Opačić Routledge, 2009 ISBN: 978-1906540586 The Prague of Charles IV By Jan Royt Karolinum…

BLOODY STEPPING STONE TO JAPAN As the thirteenth century drew to a close, Northeast Asia looked very different than it had for the previous millennium. The Mongols had exploded across the region in shocking fashion, altering the geo-political landscape in a way that sent ripples well ahead of the arrival of any steppe riders. Kingdoms and polities that had survived for hundreds of years fell in quick succession, and the old order – chaotic as it may have seemed at times – lay on the verge of being completely overturned. Northeast Asia in turmoil The Jurchen, a semi-nomadic grouping of tribes from the mountainous regions of Manchuria, had raided their neighbors for over a thousand years. The fury of a Jurchen raid sparked fear amongst the civilian population and successive…

“WHO WOULD NEVER CONSENT TO FLEE” Perceptions of cowardice on the field of battle could prove the ruin of a medieval lord, but in the case of Baldwin of Flanders and Hainaut, it did not prevent him being elected the new emperor of Constantinople. A powerful lord who had taken his pilgrim's vows only after securing his duchy's southern border from the encroaching hands of France, he brought to the Crusade battle hardened warriors more numerous and seasoned than any other lord in the Crusading host. Yet when the army came before Constantinople in the summer of 1203 his prudence would be mistaken for cowardice in an episode that would have dramatic consequences for Baldwin's future command decisions. ‘One…we knew to be a good man' From the sea, the Venetians…

Charles united the dynasty of a powerful Central European country with the dynasty that had previously attained the crown of the Holy Roman Empire. Beginning in the late tenth century, the Bohemian lands – traditionally including Bohemia and Moravia – extended to other surrounding territories. These lands were ruled by the Přemyslids dynasty and formed a part of the Holy Roman Empire. When the dynasty died out in 1306, John of Luxembourg, the son of the Holy Roman King Henry VII, ascended to the Bohemian throne. Thus began the reign of the Luxembourg dynasty, which ruled for three generations until 1437. John married Elisabeth, daughter of the Přemyslid King Wenceslaus II (1271–1305), and their union yielded one of Europe's preeminent medieval monarchs. John of Luxembourg was celebrated as an excellent…

The introduction to the Vita Karoli, the autobiography of Charles IV, opens up the theme of the moral evaluation of an individual's performance in the world: “To my successors who sit upon my double throne: recognize the dual nature of life on earth and choose the better form. When we reflect upon an obscure double image, we remember the dual nature of life.” This can also be seen as a reference to the double character of the author's own reign. In the work, Charles himself speaks of a double throne in reference to his two main titles – King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor. The two roles that he combined helped establish his legitimacy and carried different political meanings – one rooted in a local Bohemian context, and the…

SWORDS & ARMOUR AT BENEVENTO In February 1266, factions backed by the emperor and the pope were fighting for control of the Kingdom of Sicily and its lands in the Italian peninsula. The pope had called Count Charles of Anjou to lead an army into Italy, and the usurper Manfred, king of Sicily, had been slow to react. Charles rushed his army across the Apennines and found himself trapped between the rainy mountains and the River Calore, but Manfred crossed the river by the bridge at Benevento and attacked. Some of the hardest fighting was between Manfred's German knights and their French counterparts. Oman describes the fighting as follows: Manfred's army was composed of very heterogeneous elements. The best part of it consisted of his German mercenary horse, twelve hundred…

Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade By John France ISBN: 978-0521589871 Cambridge University Press, 1997 $37.99 (paperback) www.cambridge.org The First Crusade was a military undertaking greater than any of its participants had yet experienced, and certainly bigger than anything seen in Western Europe since the days of the Romans. It will not cease to fascinate and encourage the next generation to plant their flag of interpretation on ground already welltrodden. On this over-crowded field, John France's Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade, still more than holds its own even thirty years after publication. The reasons are many but obvious after the first reading; a thorough command of the sources and personal knowledge of the ground over which the Crusaders fought…

Coded letters penned by Mary Queen of Scots while she was imprisoned in England by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I have been uncovered by a team of international codebreakers. The contents of the letters were believed to have been lost for centuries. That was until George Lasry, a computer scientist and cryptographer, Norbert Biermann, a pianist and music professor, and Satoshi Tomokiyo, a physicist and patents expert, stumbled upon them while searching the Bibliothèque nationale de France's (BnF) online archives for enciphered documents. The trio only discovered Mary was the author after solving her sophisticated cipher system. 57 deciphered letters were published last year in the journal Cryptologia, revealing approximately 50 new scripts previously unknown to historians. Mary's correspondences, which come from the years 1578 to 1584, expose fascinating insights…

In 1592, with Hideyoshi Toyotomi having unified Japan into a single, centrally run state, plans were underway for a new invasion. This time, from Japan to the Korean Peninsula. Tsushima Island would once again find itself in the way. Hideyoshi's initial invasion force staged on Tsushima, landing in Busan on 23 May 1592. Successive waves of samurai-led troops would continue to flow through and eventually station themselves on the island, yet Tsushima's own warriors were no longer there. As a result, Sō Yoshitoshi, the daimyō of Tsushima at the time, led 5,000 men to Korea under the banner of Konishi Yukinaga, a Christian warlord from Kyushu chosen to lead Hideyoshi's vanguard. After multiple official complaints to the new Ashikaga Shogunate produced no Six years of fighting on land and sea…

When Basil II destroyed and absorbed the Bulgarian empire in 1014, the victory earned him the title of the ‘Bulgar Slayer.’ Almost two hundred years later, the ruler of a restored Bulgaria dubbed himself the ‘Roman slayer’ in revenge. It was a title well earned, for though his older brothers had restored Bulgarian independence, the Tsar Kaloyan aimed to restore its greatness. That ambition cut repeated swathes of destruction through Roman territory in the years before the Fourth Crusade, conquering cities and enslaving the survivors. Simultaneously to these annual blitzkriegs, he initiated a lengthy correspondence with Pope Innocent under the pretense of seeking to align his nation with the Christian West by accepting the Latin rite and the defacto overlordship of the Pope. The arrival of the Crusaders then, and…

Charles became king of Bohemia (1346), king of the Romans (1346), and later Holy Roman Emperor (1355), and promoted a concept of royal power based on respect for the sacred. Moreover, in the footsteps of his father, Charles combined the territorial gains in Silesia, as well as Upper and Lower Lusatia, and established the Lands of the Bohemian Crown in 1348 – a political entity ruled by the King of Bohemia. Prague as a new Rome Charles realised early on that only a bet on the Czech lands as an economic base could bring him success in European politics. Therefore, he chose Prague as his main residence (although he frequently traveled). Prague became the seat of the chancery operating for both the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire.…

INDIVIDUALIZED AND IDEALIZED DEPICTIONS Throughout his reign, Charles's likeness was used to convey various political, spiritual, and ideological messages to his audiences. The many extant portraits and images of Charles – some individualized, some more idealized – reflect aspects of his imperial ambitions, faith and piety, and familial relations. These images were also made to preserve his likeness and characterization as a powerful and devout ruler for posterity. After his imperial coronation in Rome in 1355, a new imperial seal of majesty was created for Charles. It shows the new ruler as an ideal leader, seated frontally on a throne between two eagles and the coats-of-arms of his lands: Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire. To signify his earthly powers, Charles holds an imperial orb in one hand and a…

The proficiency of Latin among medieval writers varied widely. But the writers who could write the kind of Latin that Cicero or Augustine wrote had been trained to imitate ancient writers. Christian monks copied pagan poets because those poets were full of the rhetorical tricks and allusions to myth that separated the Latin of a gentleman from that of a shopkeeper. The clever language was delightful even if the messages were not always good Christian doctrine. Sometimes writers cite an authority, as when Andrew of Hungary cites Vegetius; other times they borrow a few words or hint at a passage. Spotting these connections requires careful attention to the Latin text and either a classical education or a lot of database searches. Translations often hide the different between awkward, functional Latin…