Aron Kesckes
Published: 21 January 2019
Interactions between military and political power in Southern Italy between ca. 1053 and 1127.
University of St Andrews
Interactions between military and political power in Southern Italy between ca. 1053 and 1127.
I intend to investigate and evaluate the role of violence in the construction of Norman lordships in Southern Italy, drawing on and testing recent arguments about the crisis of the eleventh century and the feudal revolution, with a specific reference to the abruptness of transformations and the completeness of a break with ideas of authority rooted in ideologies of public order in Southern Italy during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Doing so will yield an understanding of the development of Norman lordships in Southern Italy, covering origins, strategies and methods, with a specific focus on the role of violence.
I intend to employ these insights to further the critical historiographical discussion concerning the role of violence in relation to lordship in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. While the emergence of Norman Italy has been extensively studied, an examination of the methods that allowed the Normans to establish lordships which dominated Southern Italy is still lacking. My project undertakes just such an examination, with a view to inform the wider historiographical debate on lordship, the role of violence and the feudal revolution.
First published: 21 January 2019