Making and Breaking the Rules: Succession in Medieval Europe, c.1000-c.1600

Abstract

This collection of seventeen essays, focused around the topic of succession in medieval Europe, is the product of a conference held at the Institute of Historical Research in April 2006. The collection is divided into three sections: ‘Election and Dynastic Right’, ‘Norms, Rituals, and Practices’, and finally ‘Intersections and Influences’. This volume seeks to explore the variety of ways in which positions of power within medieval societies were transferred from one generation to the next. And what is evident from the essays in this volume is that every claimant to a position of power, no matter how shaky the reality of his claim, sought to justify his succession to a position of power by making claims to legitimacy. But the choice of how to legitimise succession was one that was not simply in the gift of the man who would wield power; rather, legitimacy came to the holder through a range of mechanisms negotiated within the communities where the succession to power was of concern. As Corinne Péneau shows by examining the Swedish law of election, for example, at the end of the fourteenth century, while male members of the late king of Sweden's family were the most likely to succeed to the kingdom, potentates within the kingdom retained the right to elect the man of their choice. Simple primogeniture in this society was rejected in favour of a system that gave the leading families a say in who would be their next king. In Scotland, according to Michael Penman, while there had been an acceptance that the rules of primogeniture ought to benefit the eldest son of the defunct king, little had been done to work out the implications of that policy for collateral lines, so that, when the succession crisis of 1286 occurred, Scotland was plunged into chaos. Here, however, election played no part in the succession: it was law which was to decide ‘The Great Cause’, as it was the law, through legislation passed by Scottish parliaments, that determined succession for the remainder of the middle ages. In Hungary, according to Martyn Rady, primogeniture was the normal rule for succession to the kingship throughout the middle ages, yet even here there was room for inconsistency, and, because of the repeated failure of kings of Hungary to produce legitimate male heirs, there was an element of election in king-making. Moreover, coronation had to occur with the right crown (the Holy Crown of Stephen) for the king successfully to make good his claim.