Royal Sanctity and the Writing of History on the Peripheries of Latin Christendom, C
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ROYAL SANCTITY AND THE WRITING OF HISTORY ON THE PERIPHERIES OF LATIN CHRISTENDOM, C. 1000 - 1200 Elizabeth Hasseler A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2018 Approved by: Marcus G. Bull Jessica A. Boon Flora Cassen Jehangir Malegam Brett E. Whalen © 2018 Elizabeth Hasseler ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Elizabeth Hasseler: Royal Saints and the Writing of History on the Peripheries of Latin Christendom, c. 1000 - 1200 (Under the Direction of Marcus G. Bull) In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the edges of Latin Christendom were expanding outwards as new peoples along its northern and eastern peripheries converted to the Christian faith, including the Danes, Norwegians, and Hungarians. Closely related to this process of Christianization was the centralization of traditionally disunited peoples into unitary polities under the rule of new royal dynasties. These early kings used their novel political authority to patronize religious men and houses, found episcopal institutions, and enforce Christian observance amongst their peoples, and in turn they wielded the spiritual legitimacy offered by their new faith to bolster their dynastic ambitions. Founder-kings such as Knútr IV of Denmark, Óláfr II Haraldsson of Norway, Stephen I of Hungary, and Ladislaus I of Hungary were central to the emergence of their Christian kingdoms: and in death, they came to be venerated as their peoples’ first Christian saints. This dissertation explores the centrality of royal sanctity to the historical traditions of medieval Norway, Denmark, and Hungary. It asks what role was attributed to holy kings in the foundation of the northern and eastern kingdoms by native historians who, for the first time, were textually codifying their peoples’ pasts in chronicles, sagas, and saints’ lives. Royal sanctity was both a powerful and fraught category in that it united two types of authority, secular and spiritual, which had had a fraught interrelationship within the tradition of western Christian iii thought. Throughout the early Middle Ages, kings who had achieved posthumous sanctification had traditionally done so by renouncing their royal office in order to perfect themselves spiritually. This dissertation argues that the eleventh and twelfth century represents a distinct historical moment during which the concept of royal sanctity provided a particularly useful vocabulary for conceptualizing the emergence of new Christian polities on the edges of Latin Christendom. It did so because of, rather than in spite of, the internal tension between the identities of the king and the saint. Its duality allowed historians on the Christian peripheries to speak to both the religious and political transformation of their societies, and to explore in subtle ways the interrelations between kingship and salvation. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want to express thanks to the large number of people who have supported me throughout this project. Thank you above all to my family – Mother, Father, and Tristan, I couldn't have accomplished everything I have without your support. Thanks as well to my friends and colleagues in Chapel Hill: to Kirstin Cooper, Ansev Demirhan, Lorn Hillaker, Erika Huckestein, and Lars Stiglich for your continually perceptive feedback on my work. This project would not be nearly as strong without your input and ideas. And of course to Josh Hevert, Lindsay Holman, Daniel Morgan, Allie Locking, Caroline Nilsen, Gabe Moss, Sara Moss, Peter Raleigh, and Whitney Ronshagen. You are the most outstanding friends, collaborators, and supporters I could hope for, and both I and my work are better for having known you. Finally, thank you to all of my teachers and advisors. Brett Whalen, thank you for being so enthusiastic and supportive of my work and for making me a better researcher and teacher. And thank you to Marcus Bull, for your constant encouragement, humor, eloquence, and expertise. I really could not have had a better advisor. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................ ix INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 The Latin Peripheries ...........................................................................................................3 Sources ............................................................................................................................... 7 Memory and Narrative ...................................................................................................... 12 Historiography .................................................................................................................. 17 Plan of the Work ............................................................................................................... 21 CHAPTER 1: THE CREATION OF ROYAL CULTS AND CULTIC COMMUNITIES .......... 26 The Creation of Royal Cults ............................................................................................... 28 Norway: St. Óláfr (d. 1030) .................................................................................. 28 Hungary: St. Stephen (d. 1038) and St. Ladislaus (d. 1095) ................................. 41 Denmark: St. Knútr IV (d. 1086) and St. Knútr Lavard (d. 1131) ........................ 53 The Creation of Cultic Communities .................................................................................. 66 CHAPTER 2: THE DYNASTIC POLITICS OF ROYAL SANCTITY ....................................... 75 Disputing Kingship ........................................................................................................... 77 Norway: Magnús Óláfsson and St. Óláfr ............................................................... 78 Denmark: Erik II and St. Knútr Lavard ................................................................. 85 Ritualizing Kingship ......................................................................................................... 93 Coronation ............................................................................................................ 95 vi Translatio ........................................................................................................... 112 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 118 CHAPTER 3: THE ROYAL SAINT AS REX IUSTUS .............................................................. 122 Norway: The Legends of St. Óláfr .................................................................................. 126 Synoptic Chronicles: Theodoricus Monachus, Ágrip, and Historia Norwegie .... 127 Kings’ Sagas: Snorri Sturluson’s Óláfs saga helga ............................................. 136 Hungary: The Lives of St. Stephen .................................................................................. 150 Legenda maior .................................................................................................... 152 Legenda minor .................................................................................................... 158 Hartvic’s Vita sancti Stephani ............................................................................. 163 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 167 CHAPTER 4: VIOLENCE, PEACE, AND ROYAL SANCTITY ............................................. 171 The Royal Saint on the Battlefield .................................................................................. 174 War-Making and King-Making .......................................................................... 174 The Pollution of Bloodshed? ............................................................................... 181 The Royal Saint as Militant Missionary .......................................................................... 191 Law and Order ................................................................................................................ 204 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 212 CHAPTER 5: ROYAL SANCTITY AND MASCULINITY .................................................... 214 Modes of Royal-Saintly Masculinity .............................................................................. 216 Martial Masculinity ............................................................................................ 216 Devotional Masculinity ...................................................................................... 224 Narrating Masculinity ..................................................................................................... 236 vii The Character Sketch .......................................................................................... 237 Holy Kings and their Queens .............................................................................. 241 Royal Competition and “Man-Evening” ............................................................. 248 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 253 CONCLUSION .........................................................................................................................