070051 GR Guided Reading [GR] (2014W)

During this guided reading group, the role of kings, emperors and other people in a position of authority will be looked at more closely, as well as the way the subjects of these rulers perceived the hierarchical relations that governed their lives. Using key source texts as well as secondary literature on both the historical context and the nature of power and authority in general (both in German and in English), the goal of this guided reading group is to look at the development of ideas about medieval rulership through the centuries, at tensions between kings and subjects, and at events that caused people to re-appraise the way authority would be exercised. In the course of discussions about these cases, a deeper understanding of the nature of medieval power and authority will emerge, as well as the many ways these supposedly "medieval" ways of thinking are still present in modern Western notions of politics, state and ideology.