On his book Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe
Cover Interview of November 18, 2020
A close-up
A “just browsing” feminist could turn to the chapter on
female sovereigns to find out about how some countries, at some times, were
ruled by women. I counted 27 examples. Or they could turn to the chapter called
“Choosing a Bride” to see the way high-born females were inspected, traded and,
if necessary, discarded. There is no doubt that medieval Europe was a
patriarchal society.
A “just browsing” nerd might want to start with the section
on the numbering of monarchs, the most nerdish thing I have ever written. We
usually take this practice for granted—Henry VIII, Louis XIV, Napoleon III, and
so forth—but the custom had to start somewhere and decisions had to be made
about which number to apply. In 1198 there was a German king numbered Phillip
II. He was “the second” because the German king also claimed the right to
become Holy Roman Emperor and there had been a Roman emperor called Phillip in
244-9, almost a thousand years earlier. So that “second” was a political
assertion of continuity: that the Roman empire was not dead. In 1330 the
English king Edward adopted the style “the third since the conquest”, meaning
the Norman Conquest of 1066. Kings of England called Edward before 1066 (there
were several) thus did not count—literally. English history restarted in 1066.
So that is a view of national history encapsulated in the numbering of a
monarch.
A dutiful “just browsing” reader could start at the
beginning, since that is where I set out what the book is about and how I
intend to organize it, but the chapters can be read independently. And, of
course, since part one is called “The Life Cycle”, and a cycle can be entered
at any point, a reader fascinated by mistresses, wicked uncles, or death could
go straight to the relevant section. I must confess that I do not always read a
book from cover to cover, and this is one reason I take extra care over the
index, since that will be the key to the book for many readers. Mine runs from
“Aachen, Rhineland” to “Zoe Zaoutzaina (d. 899), wife of Leo VI”.
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
A close-up
A “just browsing” feminist could turn to the chapter on female sovereigns to find out about how some countries, at some times, were ruled by women. I counted 27 examples. Or they could turn to the chapter called “Choosing a Bride” to see the way high-born females were inspected, traded and, if necessary, discarded. There is no doubt that medieval Europe was a patriarchal society.
A “just browsing” nerd might want to start with the section on the numbering of monarchs, the most nerdish thing I have ever written. We usually take this practice for granted—Henry VIII, Louis XIV, Napoleon III, and so forth—but the custom had to start somewhere and decisions had to be made about which number to apply. In 1198 there was a German king numbered Phillip II. He was “the second” because the German king also claimed the right to become Holy Roman Emperor and there had been a Roman emperor called Phillip in 244-9, almost a thousand years earlier. So that “second” was a political assertion of continuity: that the Roman empire was not dead. In 1330 the English king Edward adopted the style “the third since the conquest”, meaning the Norman Conquest of 1066. Kings of England called Edward before 1066 (there were several) thus did not count—literally. English history restarted in 1066. So that is a view of national history encapsulated in the numbering of a monarch.
A dutiful “just browsing” reader could start at the beginning, since that is where I set out what the book is about and how I intend to organize it, but the chapters can be read independently. And, of course, since part one is called “The Life Cycle”, and a cycle can be entered at any point, a reader fascinated by mistresses, wicked uncles, or death could go straight to the relevant section. I must confess that I do not always read a book from cover to cover, and this is one reason I take extra care over the index, since that will be the key to the book for many readers. Mine runs from “Aachen, Rhineland” to “Zoe Zaoutzaina (d. 899), wife of Leo VI”.