The formation of feudo-vassallitic institutions in the 12th and 13th century? Words, concepts, phenomena in learned law, in royal charters and in private acts

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jürgen Dendorfer
• Subject Area: Medieval History
• Term: from 2014 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 264932155

Widespread preconceptions of elder constitutional history still claim that feudalism shaped the social interaction of free men during the Middle Ages. In addition, the belief that medieval society was structured via a hierarchy which could be envisioned as a feudal pyramid of feudo-vassalitic relationships between kings, bishops, princes, and lesser free men still remains active as well. However, more recent research has begun to question the significance of feudalism for the constitutional history of the Early and High Middle Ages. It is justified to claim that there is no consensus at the moment as to when a system of feudal tenure came into existence or whether such a phenomenon existed at all. Nevertheless, current research does identify phenomena akin to feudalism in the medieval Roman Empire during the period of 1150-1250. The proposed project aims at analyzing this formation of feudalism in the High Middle Ages as it has been suggested during the recent debate. Until today, there is a lack of fundamental research that allows the exploration of this formation of feudal systems: the project, therefore, focuses on a comprehensive study of written manifestations of feudal words and concepts from the time between1150 and 1250. The study will include an analysis of jurisprudential texts written in northern Italy (Consuetudines feudorum) which have been ignored by the research of feudal history until today; in addition, it will also take charters dealing with feudo-vassalitic relations into account. Within the scope of the present research project, three interlocking sub-projects will aim to clarify: 1. if the written records support the theory of a formation of feudalism in the period in question; 2. what influence the emerging jurisprudence of northern Italy and feudal treatises had in re-structuring the perception of social bonds; 3. Whether, and if so, to what extent existing practices of granting land were influenced by this development. In order to reach all of these objectives it must be clarified how the emerging scholastic jurisprudence defined feudal law and what constituted this scholastic feudal law in the first place. In order to show the influence of the Consuetudines feudorum on the development in the Empire, the text of the Consuetudines also needs to be edited (sub-project A). In addition, the imperial charters of the 12th and 13th century will be analyzed employing methods of corpus linguistics; this will be approached in close collaboration with the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (Munich) and the project Computational Historical Semantics (Frankfurt) in order to be able to present and demonstrate the development of feudal words and concepts (sub-project B). These projects will be complemented by an analysis of private charters from the prince-bishopric of Bamberg which will demonstrate the practical implementation of the aforementioned feudal concepts (sub-project C).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants