Queens, Noblewomen and Mendicants in Late Medieval Germany. Female Piety in Court, Town and Monastery (1250-1400)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Nikolas Jaspert
• Subject Area: Medieval History
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 270181773

Isabell of Longchamp, Sancha of Naples and Agnes of Bohemia are only three well known medieval queens who showed a particular proximity to the mendicant orders. The friars not only influenced life in the expanding towns, as research has repeatedly underlined, but also marked the long distance networks of late medieval nobility. Due to aristocracy´s considerable impact and agency, this particular connection between court and mendicants had consequences that by far transcended the narrow field of piety. Research on the German Empire of the Middle Ages has already perceived this special relationship, but to date has only dealt with exceptional individuals. A comprehensive, comparative study of this phenomenon has not yet been written. The objective of this project is therefore to present a pioneer study that will determine the intensity, growth and impact of the piety that noble women showed bestowed upon the mendicant orders in the German Empire during the 13th and 14th centuries. Members of the three most important dynasties - Habsburg, Luxemburg and Wittelsbach - will be studied in their varying relationships to the four major mendicant orders and to related forms of the vita religiosa. Four fields of focus will give structure to the project. First, individual agency will be studied, then a focus will be laid on specifically mendicant forms of piety. Third, spaces of female aristocratic piety will be analyzed, particular attention being conveyed on the interdependencies between court, monastery and town. Finally, these noblewomen will be positioned within communicative networks that comprised both ecclesiastical and secular members of court. Such a study that takes the agents, modes and spaces of female mendicant piety in medieval Europe into account will fill a glaring lacuna. It will mark a major step in realizing that the intensive and varied forms of support provided to the mendicants by influential queens and noblewomen in fact sum up to an important pan-European, albeit generally overlooked movement.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants