Description
Book SynopsisIn Princely Brothers and Sisters, Jonathan R. Lyon takes a fresh look at sibling networks and the role they played in shaping the practice of politics in the Middle Ages. Focusing on nine of the most prominent aristocratic families in the German kingdom during the Staufen period (11381250), Lyon finds that noblemenand to a lesser extent, noblewomenrelied on the cooperation and support of their siblings as they sought to maintain or expand their power and influence within a competitive political environment. Consequently, sibling relationships proved crucial at key moments in shaping the political and territorial interests of many lords of the kingdom.
Family historians have largely overlooked brothers and sisters in the political life of medieval societies. As Lyon points out, however, siblings are the contemporaries whose lives normally overlap the longest. More so than parents and children, husbands and wives, or lords and vassals, brothers and sisters have the potential to
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"Jonathan Lyon's outstanding new book turns several scholarly trends of the past several decades on their head. Taking insights about family and sibling relationships from current historical and social science literaturehe applies them not to a micro-historical case studybut to the high nobility of the German empire in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries... Lyon has offered here a substantial and tremendously important reappraisal of our models of kinshipthe familyand noble power relations in the medieval German empire." —John EldevikHamilton CollegeGerman Studies Review
The results of Lyon's study are impressive, and they are clear.... The rarity of serious fraternal dispute is striking, and clearly contradicts what Duby and others have asserted concerning conflicts between brothers. Thanks to the large scope of Lyon’s study, this negative finding has considerable weight and cannot be dismissed as exceptional. Lyon’s Princely Brothers and Sisters is an important and interesting book that offers a refreshing view of both medieval politics and medieval kinship.
-- Christof Rolker * German History *
This book is useful for those interested in twelfth- and thirteenth-century nobility and family ties because it convincingly demonstrates the importance of sibling bonds in the formation of power. As a consequence Lyon touches upon matters important for the study of lordship in the Middle Ages, such as the division of patrimony, the proximity to the emperor, the absence of heirs and the effects of mobility.
-- Jitske Jasperse * The Medieval Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction1. The Origins of Twelfth-Century Princely Lineages2. Forging the Bonds between Siblings: Succession, Inheritance, and Church Careers3. Baby Boomers: The First Generation of the Staufen Upper Aristocracy4. Frederick Barbarossa and Henry the Lion: Cousins in an Age of Brothers5. Cooperation, Conflict, and the Rise of a New Generation, ca. 1180–12106. From Bamberg to Budapest: Four Brothers and Four Sisters in the Early Thirteenth Century7. The Uncertain Future of Lineages: Siblings during the Reign of Frederick IIConclusionAppendix: Genealogical Charts
The Andechs lineage
The Ascanian lineage
The Babenberg lineage
The Ludowing lineage
The Staufen lineage
The Welf lineage
The Wettin lineage (part 1)
The Wettin lineage (part 2)
The Wittelsbach lineage
The Zähringen lineageWorks Cited
Index
