Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 – 1153) belongs to the most important historical figures of the first half of the twelfth century. Almost 500 letters were preserved form his monumental works until today. These letters were sent to most important personalities of the secular and spiritual world of his day. This article seeks to analyse and interpret the relation of Saint Bernard with popes as leader of the Catholic Church and with the papacy as an institution destined to lead the faithful to the eternal salvation. The abbot of Clairvaux kept vivid contacts with all the popes reigning between 1124 and 1153. In the case of Innocent II and Eugene III one can say that he even actively enabled their instalment on the throne of St. Peter. Just like in the case of monasticism, episcopate or lay princes, Bernard took a similar approach towards the popes. He enforced his vision of the papacy. Bernard was also able to transform these visions to real life and so he exercised a double impact on the most important institution of the Christian world.
The oldest daughter of the Polish king Casimir IV (1447 – 1492) and Elisabeth of Habsburg (1454 – 1492) Hedwig (1457 – 1502) was the first among the group of Polish royal daughters who married into the most important noble families of the Holy Roman Empire at the verge of the 15th and 16th century. The wedding of Hedwig with George, Duke of Bavaria-Landshut started a period of relentless diplomatic activities of Jagiellonians. By doing so they penetrated into the community of the most influential ruling families of Central Europe. The study traces the life and especially the circumstances surrounding the death and post mortem commemoration of this popular princess. It examines the ways of perception of this Jagiellonian princess in the historical memory of her new homeland and the various forms and tools used in keeping this memory alive.
This article aims to reconstruct the picture of the bishop and his office captured in the correspondence of Bernard of Clairvaux, providing two crucial insights. The first is the Clairvaux abbot’s personal view of bishops and their position in medieval society. He himself rejected this rank and ministry on several occasions, but this did not prevent him from publicly articulating the basic principles and, above all, the moral demands on any candidate for this responsible office. As on other issues, Bernard’s outlook was on the side of strict discipline and firm orthodoxy, while still keeping in mind the vulnerability and imperfection of individual bishops. This opens up a second level of significance in examining Bernard’s correspondence in his letters. He did not merely portray an ideal state or an idealised theory of the episcopal vocation. On the contrary, most of his letters were addressed to specific bishops and responded to concrete events, problems, and pitfalls in the exercise of their office. In this way we learn a great deal about contemporary society, about the workings of the Church and, more specifically, about the everyday problems of bishops. By analysing the information from the letters under study, we can thus come closer to reconstructing a realistic picture of the position, functioning and importance of bishops in the society of the first half of the twelfth century.
The daughter of King Sigismund I of Poland (1506–1548) and Queen Bona Sforza (1518–1548), Sophie Jagiellon (1522–1575) is one of the most remarkable figures among the important women of the 16th century. Like her sisters of the Jagiellonian family, she served as a representative of the Polish ruling dynasty and as a guarantee of good relations in the field of dynastic politics and contemporary diplomacy. This study aims to explore the diverse forms of her identity as captured by contemporary sources. We will gradually focus on the reconstruction of her dynastic identity as a royal daughter living in the milieu of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, her position as a wife of the eminent imperial aristocrat Henry of Brunswick, and then address issues related to her death and, above all, her posthumous legacy and place in collective memory in the centuries that followed. The long-standing dynastic, legal and economic dispute between Sophie’s heirs in Poland and in the territory of the Holy Roman Empire, which significantly shaped the regional political situation after her death, will also play an important role.
The aim of this article is to give an account of the ritualized ways of communication of the ruling communities of the high and later middle Ages in the Central European region. It focuses on the neighbouring realms of Bohemia, Hungary and Austria in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (c. 1250 – c. 1350). It argues that the ruling communities were formed from diverse political groups, most prominently represented by the ruler and his entourage (dynasty, court) on the one hand and the elites (both lay and spiritual) on the other. The rule (lordship) over a particular realm was a mixture of co-operation, competition and compromise between these groups. Secondly, these political communities therefore felt the constant need for public representation of their status, rank and symbolic role within the society. Effective ways to express belonging to a political group included a range of symbols, gestures and specific rhetoric.
Religious warfare was one of the various forms of ruler ship during the essential transformation of the High Middle Ages. The realms of East Central Europe witnessed augmented use of rituals of war, holy war rhetoric and crusading ideology in the course of their political, cultural and military integration into the sphere of the Latin Christendom. This article aims to provide several examples from the 12th century to illustrate the close connection between the exercise of power, ruling strategies and religious warfare in the Přemysl, Árpad and Piast realms. These processes served to sacralise, legitimize and integrate the ruling dynasties and their rulers and to create a common Christian identity.
The aim of this article is to give an account of the ritualized ways of communication of the ruling communities of the high and later Middle Ages in the Central European region. It focuses on the neighbouring realms of Bohemia, Hungary and Austria in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (c. 1250 – c. 1350). It argues that the ruling communities were formed from diverse political groups, most prominently represented by the ruler and his entourage (dynasty, court) on the one hand and the elites (both lay and spiritual) on the other. The rule (lordship) over a particular realm was a mixture of co-operation, competition and compromise between these groups. Secondly, these political communities therefore felt the constant need for public representation of their status, rank and symbolic role within the society. Effective ways to express belonging to a political group included a range of symbols, gestures and specific rhetoric.
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