Refiguring Local Power and Legitimacy in the Kingdom of Italy, c.900–c.1150

The aim of this article is to discuss the re-figuration of local power in the Kingdom of Italy, between the beginning of the ninth century and the early twelfth century, by focusing on changing discourses about its legitimacy. It argues that until the late eleventh century the monarchy maintained a central role, but that the outbreak of civil wars in the 1080s led to a strong dislocation of the structures of power, with the rise of territorial lordship, and a crisis in the traditional role of the king as the source of authority. The fragmentation of traditional frameworks of power and the new importance of local assets went hand in hand with a forceful investment by local lords in other legitimizing discourses. Legitimization was sought by lords no longer through a ‘top-down’ relationship with the king/emperor, but rather through pacts with their peers and subjects. However, the rise of territorial lordship was also connected with a sharp increase in the use of violence and the coercion of peasant subjects in order to impose new seigneurial burdens. Pact and violent coercion coexisted in the complex interrelation between lords and subjects.

Ancient history · Coercion (linguistics) · Economic history · Eleventh · Emperor · Legitimacy · Monarchy · Nobility · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · Historical and Archaeological Studies · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History

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