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Two Lessons from Late Medieval Politics

Two Lessons from Late Medieval Politics

Paper given by Maria Golubeva

Delivered at a TEDx Talk, Riga, May 2017

Mass culture tells us that medieval political life was somewhat like ‘Game of Thrones’ – kings and dynasties fiercely fighting each other for power. This image is rather far from the complexities of late medieval politics, where institutions played at least as big a role as kings and queens. Some of these institutions, having survived disappeared states and borders, are still with us today. They can teach us a lesson or two about politics – and so can the great crisis to which late medieval Europe succumbed with the Reformation.

Maria Golubeva is a policy analyst and historian. She received her PhD in History from Cambridge University and has published a number of policy studies, as well as the book, Models of Political Competence, on the history of political ideas in late medieval Europe.

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