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

朗尚的伊莎贝尔，那不勒斯的桑莎和波西米亚的阿格尼斯是中世纪三位著名的女王，她们与乞丐会表现出特别的亲密关系。正如研究反复强调的那样，修士们不仅影响了不断扩大的城镇的生活，而且还标志着中世纪晚期贵族的远距离网络。由于贵族的巨大影响和代理权，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意识到这种特殊关系，但迄今为止只涉及特殊的个体。目前还没有人对这一现象进行全面的比较研究。因此，该项目的目的是提出一项开创性的研究，以确定13世纪和14世纪德意志帝国贵族妇女对乞丐的虔诚程度、增长和影响。三个最重要的朝代——哈布斯堡王朝、卢森堡王朝和维特尔斯巴赫王朝——的成员将研究他们与四大行乞秩序的不同关系，以及与宗教生活相关的形式。四个重点领域将为该项目提供结构。首先，我们将研究个人能动性，然后将重点放在具体的乞讨者形式的虔诚上。第三，分析女性贵族虔诚的空间，特别关注宫廷、修道院和城镇之间的相互依存关系。最后，这些贵妇将被定位在由教会和世俗成员组成的交际网络中。将中世纪欧洲女性行乞虔诚的主体、模式和空间纳入研究，将填补一个明显的空白。它标志着我们迈出了重要的一步，让我们认识到，有影响力的女王和贵妇对乞丐提供的密集和各种形式的支持，实际上总结了一个重要的泛欧洲运动，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.