Princely Brothers and Sisters: The Sibling Bond in German Politics, 1100-1250

by Jonathan R. Lyon

Overview

In Princely Brothers and Sisters, Jonathan R. Lyon takes a fresh look at sibling networks and the role they played in shaping the practice of politics in the Middle Ages. Focusing on nine of the most prominent aristocratic families in the German kingdom during the Staufen period (1138–1250), Lyon finds that noblemen—and to a lesser extent, noblewomen—relied on the cooperation and support of their siblings as they sought to maintain or expand their power and influence within a competitive political environment. Consequently, sibling relationships proved crucial at key moments in shaping the political and territorial interests of many lords of the kingdom.

Family historians have largely overlooked brothers and sisters in the political life of medieval societies. As Lyon points out, however, siblings are the contemporaries whose lives normally overlap the longest. More so than parents and children, husbands and wives, or lords and vassals, brothers and sisters have the potential to develop relationships that span entire lifetimes. The longevity of some sibling bonds therefore created opportunities for noble brothers and sisters to collaborate in especially potent ways. As Lyon shows, cohesive networks of brothers and sisters proved remarkably effective at counterbalancing the authority of the Staufen kings and emperors. Well written and impeccably researched, Princely Brothers and Sisters is an important book not only for medieval German historians but also for the field of family history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801467844
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	01/15/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	312
File size:	17 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jonathan R. Lyon is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Chicago.

Table of Contents

Introduction1. The Origins of Twelfth-Century Princely Lineages2. Forging the Bonds between Siblings: Succession, Inheritance, and Church Careers3. Baby Boomers: The First Generation of the Staufen Upper Aristocracy4. Frederick Barbarossa and Henry the Lion: Cousins in an Age of Brothers5. Cooperation, Conflict, and the Rise of a New Generation, ca. 1180–12106. From Bamberg to Budapest: Four Brothers and Four Sisters in the Early Thirteenth Century7. The Uncertain Future of Lineages: Siblings during the Reign of Frederick IIConclusionAppendix: Genealogical Charts
The Andechs lineage
The Ascanian lineage
The Babenberg lineage
The Ludowing lineage
The Staufen lineage
The Welf lineage
The Wettin lineage (part 1)
The Wettin lineage (part 2)
The Wittelsbach lineage
The Zähringen lineageWorks Cited
Index

What People are Saying About This

Constance Brittain Bouchard

Jonathan R. Lyon uses the history of the medieval family, which all medievalists recognize as crucial, to give new life to medieval political history. Lyon's focus on family structures breaks free of paradigms about the patrilineal medieval family, while his focus on politics restores centrality to something that must have occupied medieval people themselves. Using German sources to address questions that have previously been addressed almost exclusively through French sources, he not only argues against received opinion but offers new models for aristocratic family structure. The result is a book that is both new and important.

Sean Gilsdorf

Jonathan R. Lyon's synopses of historical events and developments, and his evaluations of historians' debates on the same, are assured and magisterial. By integrating political history with issues of kinship and family dynamics, moreover, his book builds on and goes beyond the available scholarship in English on the German regnum as well as on the medieval family.

Editorial Reviews

The results of Lyon's study are impressive, and they are clear.... The rarity of serious fraternal dispute is striking, and clearly contradicts what Duby and others have asserted concerning conflicts between brothers. Thanks to the large scope of Lyon’s study, this negative finding has considerable weight and cannot be dismissed as exceptional. Lyon’s Princely Brothers and Sisters is an important and interesting book that offers a refreshing view of both medieval politics and medieval kinship.

German History - Christof Rolker

This book is useful for those interested in twelfth- and thirteenth-century nobility and family ties because it convincingly demonstrates the importance of sibling bonds in the formation of power. As a consequence Lyon touches upon matters important for the study of lordship in the Middle Ages, such as the division of patrimony, the proximity to the emperor, the absence of heirs and the effects of mobility.

The Medieval Review - Jitske Jasperse

"Jonathan Lyon's outstanding new book turns several scholarly trends of the past several decades on their head. Taking insights about family and sibling relationships from current historical and social science literaturehe applies them not to a micro-historical case studybut to the high nobility of the German empire in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries... Lyon has offered here a substantial and tremendously important reappraisal of our models of kinshipthe familyand noble power relations in the medieval German empire." —John EldevikHamilton CollegeGerman Studies Review

From the Publisher