Homeland and Holy Land. Crusading families in Champagne and Burgundy 1096-1270

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The purpose of this project is to explore the impact of the crusades on power and authority of two crusading families of the High Middle Ages from a gender perspective. It operates on the basic assumption that the departure of the crusaders caused shifts in the power structures in the homelands of the crusading families. This project aims to analyze the political transformation processes in their various manifestations, in their structural architecture and in their dynamics. It further expounds upon the effects these processes had on the political agency of the male and female family members who stayed at home.The Crusading families of Champagne-Blois and Burgundy serve as case studies for this project. The relative wealth of existing sources allows to not only to analyze the repercussions of the crusades on the families over a 200 year period, but also to investigate the agency of male and female family members in the course of the crusades. As in both families wives and mothers were appointed as regents in the absence of the crusaders, it is necessary to consider the resources on which their exercise of power was based. Furthermore, it has to be examined, if and in what way the crusaders` status was used on the political field in the homelands and if the family members referred to it in order to consolidate and expand their power and prestige.In studying the changing configurations of power and authority of the crusading families, it has been helpful to work with Pierre Bourdieu`s theoretical approach of the four types of capital (economic, social, cultural and symbolic). In their various correlations, they can be understood as potential resources of power, providing the necessary means for its implementation and giving the opportunity to gain an advantageous position in the political field. The analysis of the transformation of power configurations and resources over the course of the crusades allows for an in depth discussion of the practices of aristocratic lordship and the families` strategies of coping with contingencies.Drawing on the rich body of source material and employing a gender perspective as well as a Bourdieu inspired theoretical approach, this project promises new findings on the impact of the crusades on power and authority in the homelands. This study`s innovative potential lies in the intersection of crusade and gender research. Therefore, the aim of this project is to write a new political history for the homelands of the crusades, which combines cultural history and gender research.