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Description
This project comparatively studies the symbolic means and practices of legitimation of the religopolitical elites in two stateless peripheral European polities – Poland and Norway – between their Christianization and their consolidation as stable monarchies, c. 1000-1300. This project transgresses these two paradigms in a significant and novel way. It contends that the key to understanding the means of political structuring in stateless societies and the center-periphery relations during the high Middle Ages, 1000-1300 lies in the setup and the role of the elites in those peripheral regions as key players in the emergent polities and active intermediaries in the contacts with ‘core’ European regions. We thus compare the case studies of religopolitical elites in Poland and Norway in order to comprehend the general conditions, means, variables, and effects of elite legitimation on the European peripheries. Following questions guide the investigation: 1. What kind of symbolic resources did the Polish and Norwegian elites employ in order to elevate themselves above their peers and subjects? 2. To what extent and how did the members of the elite collaborate, compete and seek to de-legitimize the efforts of their contenders? 3. How were these projections of entitlement received by the elites and the rest of the society? 4. What means did they use to assure their dominance over time? These questions will be considered in comparative fashion, investigating the similarities, differences, and idiosyncrasies of the two cases of peripheral elites’ ways of self-legitimation as well as how the elites locally adapted and leveraged their relations with and inspirations from the political and ecclesiastical centers in Europe to boost their positions at home. The project gathers a Polish-Norwegian team of medievalists (historians, archeologists, numismatists) who will present their results as co-written articles
Summary of project results
The project focused on the forms and means of symbolic power the members of the political elites in the two peripheral areas of Europe (Norway and Poland) employed to manifest their privilege right to rule to their peers and subjects. These claims to rule of the elites, their ideological justification and legitimacy in the eyes of others, were the crucial problem in face-to-face societies inhabiting medieval Europe deprived of formal institutions and lasting state structures. What symbolic means did these elites manifest their entitlement to rule? How did they compete with other members of the elite? How did the assure their dominance over time?
Chronologically, this project focused on the period 1000-1300, that is, the era between both Poland and Nor-way formally became Christian polities and the moment both were united as stable monarchies after long periods of civil wars and feudal partitions. Thematically, the project comparatively investigated e.g. dynastic ideologies, cults and venerations of national saints, ruler ideologies, elite graves and symbolic expressions on coins, legitimation of episcopal and abbatial power, ceremonies of coronation and rituals of conviviality, narrations about the past etc. The project taked a broad view on the elites which include kings/dukes, mem-bers of the aristocracy, ecclesiastical elites etc. who continuously cooperated as well as competed for power with each other.
- The three crucial scientific outputs of the ELITES project, which respond to and thus deliver on the project’s main objective, are
mainly collected in the two edited volumes and in the special issue of a journal. - The most comprehensive of these three main deliverables is the edited volume Elite Legitimation in High Medieval Poland and Norway: Comparative Studies, which “explores how elites in medieval Poland and Norway sought to legitimize their power
and dominance. - A second ambition of the book is to offer novel conceptual tools and comparative frameworks for understanding the conditions shaping religopolitical behaviour of elites in the periphery. The volume develops a critical stance to two major medieval research
traditions. - The third main output is an edited collection The Cult of Saints and Legitimization of Elite Power in East Central and Northern Europe up to 1300. The volume “explores the intersection of religion, power, and the reception and development of new
impulses from abroad within Northern and East Central Europe.
The overall stated goal of this project was to comparatively “investigate how the legitimacy, that is, the deservedness of rule was practically achieved, justified, and reproduced by the members of the peripheral political elites in Poland and Norway between
the Christianization in the 11th c. and the consolidation of the two countries as stable monarchies at the verge of the 13th/14th c.”. This goal was implemented.
Throughout the entire project its main research questions and idea and its unique collaborative formula were received with considerable enthusiasm by the members of the academic community.
Among the expected impacts of this project, one should thus count first and foremost the novel and comprehensive comparative approaches it developed. Our publications are likely to become a methodological milestone and standard references
in terms of how in different ways and through which different phenomena and different variables medieval polities – be them peripheral or central – can be compared. It is likely that the sheer scope and thoroughness of the comparison and thematical variability will be of inspiration for studies in the future. Second, the unique comparative focus on the peripheries such as Poland and Norway, which hitherto were only (and rarely) compared in regional units such as East Central Europe and Scandinavia, respectively, should have impact of how peripheral polities will be studied in the future.
The most important social significance of the project is related to the dimension of centre-periphery paradigm. By focusing on this axis and relationship, the project takes the peripheral polities out of the historiographical shadow and includes their past and specific historical trajectories and data into crucial academic debates. This is of great importance for medieval studies, in which, due to political bias, the areas of Scandinavia and especially East Central Europe are still treated as marginal against the European background.
Summary of bilateral results
The collaboration between the Polish and Norwegian team members is visible in joint publications, participation in conferences and workshops, and even in applications for new grants. Scholars from both countries worked on multiple workpackages reflecting active bilateral collaboration. All three grant applications submitted, including one successful, as well as some others under consideration are based on the experienced from the ELITES. They have been prepared with the cooperation of the applicant with other members of the team, from whom they received, among other things, consultation and feedback. All these projects imply further cooperation between the Polish and Norwegian team members.