Noblesse Oblige? 'Barons' and the Public Good in Medieval Afro-Eurasia (10th-14th Centuries)

贵族义务？

• 批准号: AH/W005190/1
• 负责人: Gregory Lippiatt
• 金额: $ 4.5万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FW005190%2F1
• 关键词: Noblesse; Oblige; Barons; Public; Good

The story of the medieval barons is commonly a negative one. Because aristocracies have been almost universally eclipsed by centralised states in the modern world, they are often cast as regressive forces whose self-interest held back 'progress'. Nor is this exclusively a European narrative, though the historiographical attention paid to the 'rise of the State' has privileged the Latin Christian experience of political formation and shaped the way in which non-royal élites are seen in other historical contexts. As a result, 'private' rulers such as lords, amirs, kshatriya, and samurai are often assumed to have been at odds with the needs of the wider society.This network seeks to challenge this understanding of the role of 'barons' in their relation to public good in two important and complementary ways. First, we intend to explore case studies of how these non-royal élites conceived and implemented responsible government, whether for themselves or for others. Second, we intend to compare these case studies in a bold transnational framework, reaching from western Europe to China, that spans the collapse of major centralised imperial projects in the ninth century to the destabilising experience of the Great Death in the fourteenth.We will bring together international scholars in two online working groups, followed by two international workshops in order to discuss, debate, and disseminate interpretations of the 'public' role of the baron in an Afro-Eurasian Middle Ages. The two working groups and workshops will be organised into two major axes of research: 'Barons and the Public Good in a Transnational Context' and 'Minority Élites and Government in a Transnational Context' which will work separately before uniting in two multiple-day workshops to share their findings. The research developed through this collaboration will then be refined and presented to a wider audience at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds.The legacy of this research will be preserved through the production of a collected volume of essays perfected over the course of the network's collaboration. The edited book will provide comparative and complementary case studies that will serve as a foundation for a new subdiscipline and a spur to further research. As such, it will be critical to both students and scholars approaching the medieval aristocracy, political history, and the 'Global Middle Ages'. An interactive website will showcase the research produced by the network's individual members, as all participants will produce blog posts and working papers suitable for a wide audience, in addition hosting teaching materials. Our outreach to the wider public will then be furthered through an article in a popular history magazine. Finally, through partnership with the Historical Association, we will organise webinars with secondary school teachers to help inform the presentation of medieval political and transnational history in the classroom.

中世纪男爵的故事通常是负面的。因为在现代世界中，贵族几乎普遍被中央集权国家所掩盖，他们经常被视为倒退的力量，其自身利益阻碍了“进步”。这也不仅仅是欧洲的叙事，尽管史学界对“国家的崛起”的关注使拉丁基督教的政治形成经验获得了特权，并塑造了在其他历史背景下看待非王室精英的方式。因此，“私人”统治者，如领主、埃米尔、刹帝利和武士往往被认为与更广泛的社会需求不一致。这个网络试图以两种重要而互补的方式挑战这种对“男爵”在其与公共利益关系中的作用的理解。首先，我们打算探讨这些非王室精英如何构想和实施负责任政府的案例研究，无论是为自己还是为他人。第二，我们打算在一个大胆的跨国框架中比较这些案例研究，从西欧到中国，跨越了世纪主要中央集权帝国项目的崩溃到14世纪大死亡的不稳定经历。我们将把国际学者聚集在两个在线工作组中，然后是两个国际研讨会，以讨论，辩论，并传播在非洲-欧亚中世纪的“公共”角色的解释。这两个工作组和讲习班将分为两个主要的研究方向：“跨国背景下的男爵和公共利益”和“跨国背景下的少数精英和政府”，这两个方向将分别开展工作，然后在两个为期多天的讲习班上联合起来，分享他们的研究成果。通过这次合作开发的研究将在利兹的国际中世纪大会上进行完善并向更广泛的受众展示。这项研究的遗产将通过制作一本在网络合作过程中完善的论文集来保存。编辑的书将提供比较和补充的案例研究，将作为一个新的分支学科的基础和进一步研究的动力。因此，它将是至关重要的学生和学者接近中世纪贵族，政治史和“全球中世纪”。一个互动网站将展示该网络的个人成员所做的研究，因为所有参与者都将制作适合广大受众的博客文章和工作文件，此外还将提供教学材料。然后，我们将通过在一本流行的历史杂志上发表一篇文章，进一步向更广泛的公众宣传。最后，通过与历史协会的合作伙伴关系，我们将组织与中学教师的网络研讨会，以帮助通知在课堂上的中世纪政治和跨国历史的介绍。