Rom 1312: Die Kaiserkrönung Heinrichs VII. und die Folgen; Die Luxemburger als Herrscherdynastie von gesamteuropäischer Bedeutung, ed. Sabine Penth and Peter Thorau

Abstract

This stimulating and wide-ranging collection sets itself the task of assessing the European significance of Emperor Henry VII’s coronation in Rome of 1312 and the subsequent rise of the Luxemburg dynasty. Such a focus is welcome, for the Luxemburg dynasty, despite ruling vast tracts of land across western and central Europe for centuries, frequently suffers from a lack of attention, squeezed as they are between the characterful and exotic dynasts of the Hohenstaufen and the powerful and long-lasting Habsburgs who attract more consideration from historians. The volume, edited by Sabine Penth and Peter Thorau, is composed of an introduction and twenty-two chapters, divided into two sections. The first deals with Henry’s preparations for his journey to Rome, the mechanics and machinations that supported his stay in Italy, and perceptions of the coronation in contemporary sources. The second (much longer) section engages with various topics relating to Luxemburg dynasts and central Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. From the first section, Knut Görich’s chapters is particularly impressive. Richly illustrated with scenes from a near-contemporary illustrated chronicle and with useful maps and images of seals and coins, Görich skilfully places Henry’s passage to Rome against the political background of the time. In doing so, he draws out beautifully the hopes and fears aroused by Henry’s imperial coronation in the ruling courts in Paris, Savoy, Rome, Naples, Aragon and further afield, as well as making some insightful comparisons between Henry’s coronation with those which came before and after. Robert Antonín highlights the political manœuvring which took place between Henry and the Czech nobility before Bohemia could be secured for his son, King John the Blind (1296–1346), while Michel Pauly argues that Henry’s substantial material and military preparations for his coronation suggests that his plan to restore imperial authority in northern Italy was not necessarily doomed to fail. In his chapter on the Guelphs and Ghibellines, Peter Herde pays particular attention to the rhetoric and diplomacy underpinning Florentine resistance to Henry, while Susanna Passigli reconstructs the rich and varied landscape of the Roman Campagna at the start of the fourteenth century. To conclude the section, Michel Margue deftly spells out some of the deeper ramifications behind fourteenth- and fifteenth-century constructions of Henry’s coronation and his dynasty in art and historical writing from Metz, Trier and Liège.