Includes bibliographical references (pages 561-606) and index.
Contents:
Choosing a bride -- Waiting for sons to be born -- Fathers and sons -- Female sovereigns -- Mistresses and bastards -- Family dynamics family dynamics family dynamics -- Royal mortality -- Names and numbering -- Saints, images, heraldry, family trees -- Responses to dynastic uncertainty : prophecy and astrology -- Pretenders and returners : dynastic imposters in the Middle Ages -- New families and new kingdoms -- Dynasties and the non-dynastic world.
Summary:
"The subject of this book is the family politics of royal and imperial dynasties in Latin Christendom and Byzantium in the period 500-1500. Family politics means competition and cooperation within the ruling family, shaped at every point by the human life-cycle of birth, marriage and death, and also by ideas of what a dynasty was. Hence the two parts of the book, the life-cycle and a sense of dynasty. The main dynasties are listed in Appendix A. A full bibliography on this subject would fill a library but references have been given for all direct quotations and for facts other than those easily accessible A few directly relevant titles have also been cited"-- Provided by publisher.
Series:
The James Lydon lectures in medieval history and culture
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.