Criticism of the Court and the Evil King in the Middle Ages Literary-Historical Analyses
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Biographical note
Albrecht Classen is University Distinguished Professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona, Tucson.An elegant apologia for the humanities and a reminder of why history is relevant for the present. Albrecht Classen sounds a warning about the consequences of incompetence in the corridors of power. The narrative is a shrewd and scholarly interpretation of medieval perceptions about leadership models that are deficient both in honor and in character. <i>Criticism of the Court and the Evil King in the Middle Ages</i> is a sobering analysis of unstable and collapsing political structures that remains pertinent for the modern age everywhere.
- Thomas A. Fudge, University of New England, Australia,
Albrecht Classen’s <i>Criticism of the Court and the Evil King in the Middle Ages</i> explores how medieval poets warned against rulers who abused power or turned into tyrants. By consulting literary works from a variety of European sources and genre, including Latin and German epic, Norse saga, Old French chason de geste and courtly romance, and Boccaccio’s Decameron, Classen demonstrates that the pre-modern political landscape was much more dynamic and tumultuous than commonly portrayed. A close reading of literary texts from the period reveals popular, as well as philosophical and theological, objections to royal misbehavior and abuse of power. While the writers that Classen studies do not advocate for democracy as currently defined, they reacted to and criticized what they viewed as power scenarios harmful to the good of the citizens. This is a unique approach to texts that hold valuable clues to medieval opposition to dangerous rulers and conceived injustices.
- Connie L. Scarborough, Texas Tech University,
Albrecht Classen’s marvelous new book is remarkable in its scope as well as depth. Displaying magnificent vision, he surveys vernacular poetry and prose composed throughout Europe between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries in order to weave together seamlessly the common threads of veiled (and sometimes not so hidden) critiques of the mores and misbehavior of myriad royals and the courtly class that surrounded them., Classen masterfully reveals how the shared political discourse of the Middle Ages (especially the language of tyranny) received wide dissemination in the literary expressions of the time. More extraordinarily still, the guiding themes of <i>Criticism of the Court and the Evil King in the Middle Ages</i> are linked to the political ills of our own day, yet without lapsing into anachronism. Classen brings to this multifaceted interdisciplinary endeavor the erudition of an experienced scholar steeped in a dazzling range of primary sources, many of them relatively unfamiliar, and of relevant secondary research. This volume is sure to interest not only students of medieval literature, but also those of intellectual history and cultural studies.
- Cary J. Nederman, Texas A&M University,
This is a timely study of the representation of rulership in medieval literary sources. It shows how authors vividly, intelligently and obsessively addressed the problem of bad government. In recounting their efforts, Classen’s book parallels attempts to understand medieval ways of thinking about evil rulership, its prevention and, when all else failed, its correction that historians of political theory and political theology have made. It is altogether a bravura performance.
- William Chester Jordan, Princeton University,
Is the king evil, or does he just have bad advisers? In either case, do his subjects offer resistance or stay loyal? Albrecht Classen now gives fresh analysis of these questions and medieval answers to them. Including texts as varied as Egil's <i>Saga</i> or Boccaccio's <i>Decameron</i>, the<i> Lais of Marie de France</i> or <i>The Nibelungenlied</i>, his <i>Criticism of the Court and the Evil Kin</i>g will be the essential guide to how pre-modern writers saw the problem of royal tyranny and found solutions to it.
- Andrew Breeze, University of Navarre, Pamplona,
Examining literary narratives from the tenth through the fifteenth centuries, this book explores how writers used their craft to voice harsh criticism of the ruling class and unearths a deep distrust of kings and other authority figures during the Middle Ages.
Introduction
Chapter One: The Medieval King, Monarchy, the Court, and Philosophical-Political Reflections. Unexpected Perspectives Toward a Critical Discourse: Political Reflections
Chapter Two: Waltharius: An Honest Warrior Fights Against an Evil King: Early Medieval Criticism of a Ruler
Chapter Three: The Neglectful, Ineffectual, Pathetic, and Useless King: Heinrich der Glîchezâre’s Reinhart Fuchs and the Criticism of a Ruler. The Story of a Complete Failure
Chapter Four: Herzog Ernst and the Cruel Emperor: Criticism of an Unhinged Ruler
Chapter Five: Disappointment about the Fictional King: Criticism of the Royal Ruler in Marie de France’s Lais
Chapter Six: A Tyrant King in the Viking World: Egil’s Saga and Other Epic Poems
Chapter Seven: The Idealized King Proves to be a Miserable Creature: Political Criticism in the Old French Huon de Bordeaux
Chapter Eight: The Public Discussion of the King in Boccaccio’s Decameron
Sacrosanct or Vile? The Banalization of Kingship in the Late Middle Ages
Chapter Nine: A Weak Husband, an Evil King, and a Miserable Character: The Downfall of Charlemagne in Late Medieval Prose Novels by Countess Elisabeth of Nassau-Saarbrücken and Others.
Königin Sibille and the Anonymous Malagis With an Interlude Focused on the Nibelungenlied
Epilogue
Bibliography
About the Author
The field of medieval literature continues to attract interest as we discover ever-newer perspectives and levels of meaning. The growing number of young and seasoned medievalists bringing innovative approaches to the study medieval literature needs a publication forum for their works. Our new book series invites scholars to publish their most powerful, exciting, and forward-looking studies, which will thus become an excellent platform for Medieval Studies at large. This new book series invites medievalist scholars to submit their research in the form of book-length manuscripts. In particular, we would like to invite proposals for projects that take interdisciplinary, ecocritical, gender studies, xenology, or communicative approaches to the study of medieval literature. We welcome monographs on medieval women’s literature; comparative aspects of medieval literature in different languages or from different national, cultural or religious backgrounds; projects that apply space- and time-oriented or animal studies approaches to literature of the medieval era; and projects in the field of manuscript studies, textual analysis, and interdisciplinary literary studies.
Series Editor: Albrecht Classen
Advisory Board: Werner Schaefke, Christopher R. Clason, Andrew Breeze, Connie Scarborough, Gloria Allaire, Fabian Alfie, Raymond Cormier, Janina Traxler, Marianne Ailes