Landgrave Louis I. of Hesse (1413/16-1458). Politics and historiographical perception

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Louis I of Hesse enjoys a certain fame among historians of that territory, as he is regarded as its second founder and as a highly successful prince. His epithet 'the peaceful' is seen as justified even in recent publications. However, in the view from the outside, not only from in the political system of the Empire, he is usually neglected. An assessment of these persistent ideas and perspectives reveals their dependence on historical works being written in the years around 1500. The prevailing image of this landgrave was formed by the chroniclers Nuhn and Gerstenberg with such a success that even modern researchers did not emancipate themselves from this. This book deals with two fundamental tasks: 1. To retrace the politics of Louis I, especially his relations on the outside of his territory, without following the traditional narrative. This could only be achieved by archival research and tracing sources all over Europe. ln this picture cultural (tournaments, hunting, heralds) and religious aspects (e.g. pilgrimage, piety, posthumous remembrance) were included, too. 2. The origins of the traditional image are analysed and retraced to the lifetime of Louis, who apparently introduced some of these features to form a positive image of himself backing up his regional hegemony. This research leads to a modern view on Landgrave Louis acting as a politician in a polycentric web combined with a fresh evaluation of the historiography of Hesse.