Royal Succession in Medieval Europe. A comparative approach

这本书将中世纪的王位继承置于欧洲比较的基础上进行讨论，从而打开了宪法史的“旧”主题，以新的方法和研究成果。在过去的几年里，对中世纪的看法完全改变了。越来越多的欧洲中世纪被认为是一个独立的时代，而不仅仅是现代时期的前奏。在某种程度上，这可以被称为中世纪研究的人类学转折，这对宪法史产生了重大影响。目前的研究越来越多地集中在以手势、仪式和游戏规则为中心的各种领主之间的个人关系上。然而，当代人在多大程度上已经区分了国王作为社会永久代表的公共职能和他作为凡人的状态或性质，这是有争议的。王室继承对中世纪王国的宪法至关重要。在最近研究的背景下，它再次需要进行详细的分析，而这只能通过大规模的比较来完成。因为它是不可能实现既没有时间上的完整性，也没有地理上的完整性，这卷侧重于重要的主题，如女王的角色，统治者的神圣地位的功能和有争议的王室继承现象。

The volume at hand puts the succession to the throne in medieval times up for discussion on a European comparative basis, thus opening an "old" subject of Constitutional History to new methods and research findings. During the last few years, the view on the Middle Ages has changed altogether. More and more the European Middle Ages are regarded as a self-contained era instead of simply a prelude to the Modern Period. In a way this could be referred to as an anthropological turn in medieval studies, that has had a major impact on Constitutional History. Current research increasingly focuses on personal relations between the various lords centring on gestures, rituals and rules of the game. However, it is controversial to what extent contemporaries already distinguished between the king¿s public function as permanent representative of a community and his condition or quality of being mortal. The royal succession is crucial to the constitution of medieval realms. Against the background of recent studies it once more needs a detailed analysis which can only be accomplished by a large-scale comparison. Since it is impossible to achieve neither chronological nor geographical completeness this volume focuses on important topics such as the queen¿s role, the function of the ruler¿s sacred status and the phenomenon of disputed royal successions.