Queens, Noblewomen and Mendicants in Late Medieval Germany. Female Piety in Court, Town and Monastery (1250-1400)

隆尚的伊莎贝尔、那不勒斯的桑查和波希米亚的艾格尼丝是中世纪仅有的三位与托钵僧团关系密切的著名王后。正如研究反复强调的那样，修道士不仅影响了不断扩张的城镇的生活，而且也标志着中世纪晚期贵族的长途网络。由于贵族的巨大影响和代理，宫廷和乞丐之间的这种特殊联系所产生的后果远远超出了虔诚的狭隘领域。对中世纪德意志帝国的研究已经认识到了这种特殊的关系，但迄今为止只涉及特殊的个人。对这一现象的全面的比较研究尚未写成。因此，本项目的目标是提出一个先驱性的研究，将确定的强度，增长和虔诚的影响，贵族妇女表现出赋予乞丐订单在德意志帝国在13和14世纪。三个最重要的王朝-哈布斯堡王朝，魏茨伯格王朝和维特尔斯巴赫王朝-的成员将在他们的不同关系，四个主要的乞丐订单和相关形式的宗教生活进行研究。四个重点领域将为该项目提供结构。首先，个人机构将进行研究，然后将重点放在具体的乞讨形式的虔诚。第三，女性贵族的虔诚空间将被分析，特别注意被传达的相互依存关系的法院，修道院和城镇。最后，这些贵族女性将被定位在由教会和世俗宫廷成员组成的交流网络中。对中世纪欧洲女性乞食行为的主体、方式和空间的研究，将填补这一空白。它将标志着一个重要的步骤，即认识到有影响力的女王和贵族妇女向乞丐提供的密集和各种形式的支持实际上是一个重要的泛欧运动，尽管通常被忽视。

Isabell of Longchamp, Sancha of Naples and Agnes of Bohemia are only three well known medieval queens who showed a particular proximity to the mendicant orders. The friars not only influenced life in the expanding towns, as research has repeatedly underlined, but also marked the long distance networks of late medieval nobility. Due to aristocracy´s considerable impact and agency, this particular connection between court and mendicants had consequences that by far transcended the narrow field of piety. Research on the German Empire of the Middle Ages has already perceived this special relationship, but to date has only dealt with exceptional individuals. A comprehensive, comparative study of this phenomenon has not yet been written. The objective of this project is therefore to present a pioneer study that will determine the intensity, growth and impact of the piety that noble women showed bestowed upon the mendicant orders in the German Empire during the 13th and 14th centuries. Members of the three most important dynasties - Habsburg, Luxemburg and Wittelsbach - will be studied in their varying relationships to the four major mendicant orders and to related forms of the vita religiosa. Four fields of focus will give structure to the project. First, individual agency will be studied, then a focus will be laid on specifically mendicant forms of piety. Third, spaces of female aristocratic piety will be analyzed, particular attention being conveyed on the interdependencies between court, monastery and town. Finally, these noblewomen will be positioned within communicative networks that comprised both ecclesiastical and secular members of court. Such a study that takes the agents, modes and spaces of female mendicant piety in medieval Europe into account will fill a glaring lacuna. It will mark a major step in realizing that the intensive and varied forms of support provided to the mendicants by influential queens and noblewomen in fact sum up to an important pan-European, albeit generally overlooked movement.