The Douglas family gained huge importance in Scotland during the war between England and Scotland in the years 1306-1329, during the reign of Robert Bruce. The founder of its greatness was James Douglas, one of the most important military leaders in the conflict. The subject of armorial legends of Blood-red Heart and Fence are Douglas’s two chivalrous deeds. The analysis of the stories’ narration, preserved in historical works and in those from the field of heraldry (especially in John Barbour’s poem The Bruce) reveals several motifs both interesting and useful to the family. They express for instance James’s intimacy with the person of the ruler (Robert Bruce), Douglas’s knightly valour or his military cunning and skillfulness in using stratagems. With time armorial legends underwent a particular heroisation. In traditions of subsequent Douglas generations ideological content of the aforementioned motifs was visibly emphasized. However, it does not change the fact that the stories in question refer to the events which are known to us also from document sources as well as the ones not directly connected with the Scottish family. Thus Douglas armorial legends hold the collective memory of the glorious past of the family community. Preservation of these oral traditions throughout the centuries was to a large extent a result of linking them with widely spread iconographic motifs – heraldic figures of a heart and a fence. The Douglas family encoded and communicated the history of their family in the language of heraldry (Blood-red Heart), and also secondarily noticed the signs of family history on their seals and shields (Fence). The analysis of the coats of arms in question and the legends accompanying them discloses an advanced culture and historical awareness of the Scottish family.
The aim of the study is to clarify the issue of liturgical competences of bishops in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary in relation to the benediction and consecration of sacral objects. The study deals with the analysis of clerical hierarchy of the historical Spiš region at the beginning of the 16th century as well as with the case of the discovery of reliquary put into the altar by Master Paul in St Jacob’s Basilica in Levoča during the consecration. Based on the new interpretation of this discovery and by means of liturgical texts serving during the consecration ceremony, it specifies the date of the altar’s origin. It clarifies the issue of liturgical competences of Hungarian bishops in the Middle Ages as well as the issue of the inceptions of the suffragan bishop’s service in the archdiocese of Esztergom at the beginning of the 16th century.
The article is devoted to Prof. Gerard Labuda, an outstanding historian, who passed away in October 2010. He was an excellent expert on the history of the Slavs and Poland, as well as on Polish-German relations, a scholar who combined the enormous knowledge of a medievalist with interest in the present. The author refers to the impressive bibliography of Prof. Labuda's works published within the span of seventy years of his scientific activity, and distinguishes the following thematic blocks: studies on Slav antiquities and early medieval history of Western Slavdom, the origins and early history of the Polish state and the Church in Poland, Polish-German relations and the history of Germany, problems of European medieval history, and also the history of his native Kashubia. The author brings out the thread of reflection on methodology, historiography, study of source texts and general issues of the history of culture that runs through Prof. Labuda's publications. Attention is also drawn to Prof. Labuda's dedication to such areas of activity as teaching, editorship and organization and propagation of science.
The aim of the following contribution is to approach and discuss the J. Morsel´s work, which provoked lively discussion in French historical circles immediately after its publication in the 2007. In his innovative essay, spread by the modern means of the Internet, Morsel attempts to answer a question, which is occupying an ever larger group of historians: that of the meaning, aims and roles of the historical science in today's society. In comparison with the varying theories of Guerreau, Le Goff, Noiriel and other historians, the author uncovers individual layers of problems, which have piled up around historiography and the epistemology of the historical science in recent years. In connection with the changes in today's crisis afflicted society, he seeks a more acceptable alternative for the appropriate fullfilment of the essence of historical research. He attempts to reserve a place for the historian as a defender and guardian of the social values acquired through the centuries, and assigns him the role of mediator in communication with the broad lay public, often swamped by superficial and consumerist information.
The study presented sets its aim as setting out the key themes and significance of the complex research of the municipal offices, using the example of Bohemia and Moravia, so the knowledge gained could become an indispensable base for further study of urban history. Despite the undoubted difficulty, which is placed on the researcher of research focused in this way, the reconstruction of the Hradec (Králové) municipal office activities to 1620 proved for instance that even with the greatly fragmentary nature of the material, it is possible to reach quite fundamental knowledge on the development of the Bohemian urban milieu, especially thanks to overcoming the formal diplomatic analysis and studies of the isolated sources and thanks to the use of knowledge from a number of historical disciplines. Another indisputable advantage is monitoring a longer time period of the development of the relevant office, which can easily reveal the progress or regress of the individual towns, that had not yet formed a homogeneous whole in Bohemia and Moravia even in the period of the Early Modern Period, namely not even in the case of royal towns. This certain individual nature is typical also for the area of municipal offices, the organizational structure of which and the method of keeping the documents reflect the importance and emancipation of the relevant urban milieu and generally also the number of its denizens. It was only the reform interventions of Maria Theresia and especially then Joseph II that created the new conditions for the development of municipal office practices and for their unification, which arose from the new classification of Bohemian and Moravian towns.
The article describes the institution of the Professors' General Meeting which constituted the highest collegial self-government body at universities in the Second Polish Republic. The basic formal and legal conditions for the functioning of the institution are described. The body of the article is divided into six parts. The introduction points to the unique nature of the General Meeting in the context of Polish academic legislation of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century as well as the grounds for commencing the research from the date of 15 September 1920. Subsequently, the system of public academic education is described, including the classification of universities within the scope relevant for the subject of the research, and academic privileges considered unique in comparison with other research and education units are specified. The second chapter discusses the institution of the Professors' General Meeting and its three stages of development that can be identified in the interwar period. The author also analyzes the member roster and its changes in time as well as the impact that the academic groups (teachers, administrative employees and students, including all ranks and categories) exercised upon the functioning of the university, comparing the 1920-1939 period and the Third Polish Republic. The next chapter describes the basic procedures of the Professors' General Meeting. The further deliberations concern the detailed competences of the body with special emphasis put on the reduction of these competences and their classification in terms of dependence on or independence from the approval of the Minister of Religious Denominations and Public Education. Additionally, the specific character of the Professors' General Meeting in one-faculty universities in 1933-1937 is also discussed since the rights of that body in such cases were extended by the responsibilities of the faculty council and the university senate. The article is concluded with a summary of basic facts from the history of the institution of the Professors' General Meeting at public universities in the interwar Poland and an attempt to explain the conspicuous tendencies in its development and the reasons for this development.
(Polish title: Królestwo Cypru jako obiekt zainteresowan panstw sródziemnomorskich w latach 1192-1489. Próba zarysowania). Under the rule of the French Lusignan dynasty, Cyprus quickly became the focus of interest to other countries: Sicily under the reign of the Hohenstaufen, Anjou and Aragon houses, Italian countries of Genoa, Venice and Duchy of Savoy, England and African Mamluk Sultanate. Initially the interest was based on political reasons, however, with the arrival of the Crusaders to the Holy Land and then the development of trade with Muslims there were economic reasons for seizing power over the island. What is more, the above deliberation clearly reveals the declining political position of the Lusignan dynasty who starting from the end of the 14thcentury could only observe how Mediterranean countries fought for control over Cyprus. After the death of Peter I of Cyprus (1359-1369), the most prominent king and the conqueror of Alexandria, the period of glory, when the island infl uenced international policy mostly - though not only - in the eastern region of the Mediterranean Sea, came to an end. From then on Cyprus was merely a subject of diplomatic, economic as well as military efforts and conflicts undertaken by Mediterranean countries. The present paper does not assume to exhaust the subject. However, it is an introduction to a broader research on the matter in question which is immensely relevant for depicting the medieval political and economic situation in the Mediterranean Sea region.
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