Medieval Geopolitics: The Conflict between Pope Boniface VIII and King Philip IV of France
The clash between Pope Boniface VIII and the King Philip IV of France would lead to a consequential geopolitical question: where did the epicentre of supreme political authority lie in Medieval Latin Christendom?
Medieval Geopolitics: Crusades Against Christians
The most notable example of an ecclesiastical war waged against a heretical social movement was that waged against the Cathars or Albigensians in the Languedoc region in what is now southwestern France.
Medieval Geopolitics: The Iberian Crusades
The pre-history of the Iberian Crusades can be traced to the disintegration of Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031 and the subsequent emergence of a constellation of weak successor kingdoms.
Medieval Geopolitics: The High Phase of Northern Crusading
Examining the Prussian Crusades (1230-83), the Lithuanian Crusades (1280-1435), and the Novgorod Crusades (1243-16th century).
Medieval Geopolitics: The Northern Crusades as a “Penitential War”
In this column, I look at the next phase in history of the Northern Crusades: that of “penitential war.”
Medieval Geopolitics: What were the Northern Crusades?
I am going to sketch a very brief history of the so-called “Northern Crusades” – that is, the crusades undertaken by the Christian kings of Denmark, Poland and Sweden, the various German military orders, and their allies against the pagan peoples of the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea.
Medieval Geopolitics: The Crusades to the Holy Land, Phase Three
The third phase of crusading in the Holy Land – that of its “maturity” – began with the expiration of Frederick’s truce in 1239 and ended with the fall of the last remnant of Outremer, the city of Acre, in 1291.
The Crusades with Andrew Latham
Episode 4 of The Medieval Podcast – Danièle is joined by Andrew Latham to talk about the Crusades.
Medieval Geopolitics: The Crusades to the Holy Land, Phase Two
The history of the crusades from the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187 to the city’s restoration to the Crusader States in 1229.
Medieval Geopolitics: The Counterfactual History of the Third Crusade
What would have happened if Richard had defeated Saladin and taken Jerusalem in early 1192?
Medieval Geopolitics: Could King Richard have captured Jerusalem during the Third Crusade?
What if Richard had pressed his attack in December 1191? Would the city have fallen to the crusaders? Or would the Christian host have smashed itself to pieces on the walls of the Holy City?
Medieval Geopolitics: Richard the Lionheart and the Third Crusade
Why did King Richard decide to abandon his attempt to liberate Jerusalem in 1192?
Medieval Geopolitics: The Crusades to the Holy Land – Phase 1
In my next few columns, I’m going to explore the way in which crusading manifested itself in the Holy Land.
Medieval Geopolitics: The Institution of the Crusade
How did the crusades emerge as an institution in the medieval world?
Medieval Geopolitics: The Medieval Church as a Military Power
By the late 11th century the Roman Catholic Church began to evolve into a distinctive – and powerful – controller of military power.
Medieval Geopolitics: The Medieval “Church-State”
If you’re interested in why the medieval Church did what it did – and how it was able to do so in the political sphere – I think you’ll enjoy this series.
Medieval Geopolitics: War in the Medieval Mind
How was war understood in late medieval culture?
Medieval Geopolitics: The Medieval State
What did medieval states look like? A look at the most common and significant forms: kingdoms, principalities, communes and leagues.
Medieval Geopolitics: The Invention of the Idea of Sovereignty
In this column, I trace on the evolution of the idea of “sovereignty,” which I believe to be the conceptual linchpin of this historical process.
Medieval Geopolitics: The Moral Purpose of the State
What were the fundamental social goods toward which it was ordered and from which it derived it legitimacy? In short, what was the moral purpose of the later medieval state?
How the medieval past can be used for today’s challenges
Let us, in other words, return to the medieval era…
Medieval Geopolitics: The Invention of the Idea of “Political Community”
How a distinctively post-feudal, later medieval understanding of “political community” evolved in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Medieval Geopolitics: The Medieval “Fiscal Revolution”
So far in this series, we have talked about medieval “revolutions” in military power and judicial authority. A third great change in the late medieval era was in the control of money.
Medieval Geopolitics: The Medieval “Judicial Revolution”
During the early medieval era, judicial power and authority – the right and ability to adjudicate legal disputes and enforce the law – had hemorrhaged from the public authorities of the Carolingian empire into the hands first of great magnates and then lesser lords.
