Rule over Foreign Peoples and Realms. Forms, Objectives and Problems of Conquest Politics in the Middle Ages

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This volume documents systematically the forms, goals and problems of conquests in the European Middle Ages that were designed to subjugate foreign peoples or realms. It fulfills this objective on the one hand, by looking at the most important conquests the most important conquests of this period from the British Isles via Spain to the Baltic States. On the other, by the comparative approach of the individual contributions that thus provide model-like statements on the motives, aims, course of events and regimes of rule associated with conquests for certain periods and regions. On this basis, the volume allows the typical characteristics of medieval conquests to emerge: firstly, the close intertwining of political, economic and religious motives and, secondly, the social range of the actors among whom the kings dominated, but in many regions the high nobility, bishops and orders of knights could also play a determining role. And thirdly, the overall picture shows the broad spectrum of forms of rule that conquerors applied to secure the acquisition of territory. Given the limited logistical and administrative resources, indirect forms of supremacy seemed to have been the means of choice. Only in cases of strong resistance did conquerors resort to direct rule as ultima ratio which could then also lead to a profound transformation of the political and social order in the subjugated territories. Nevertheless, cooperation with the elites of the conquered empires, and thus the search for consensus, remained an objective of conquest policy, even if the form and success varied from case to case. The example of the Norman and Hohenstaufen conquests in southern Italy also shows how the conquered were able to exploit the confusion caused by the power struggle to their own advantage and influence the course of the conquest. Completely new insights are also provided by the legal-historical explanations, which show how conquests themselves productively developed the law, so that a right of conquest determined by feudal law and particularly applicable to non-Christians was established in stages, although its validity was by no means undisputed. The ambivalent status of conquest in the political and literary discourse of the Middle Ages is highlighted by various contributions that deal primarily with the justification of conquest. Even if the subjugation of foreign peoples brought fame and could be justified as an expression of a ruler’s determination, a conquest usually only appeared legitimate if it put an end to existing injustice, was presented as a reconquest or was motivated as a step towards salvation. The last aspect corresponds to the religiously charged character of war, which was diagnosed several times for conquests of non-Christian territories and was accompanied by the sacralisation of the landscape to be conquered.