Chapter 2 - Chris Jones
Models & Concepts of Rulership
Examining models and concepts of rulership formulated in societies where monarchy was deeply relevant can offer new insights into not only how monarchical institutions operated but why they proved so effective and long-lasting. The eight chapters that comprise this section focus on two such societies: western Europe and the Muslim world. Each provides a case study in three aspects of monarchy: the development of the “model” ruler; the evolution of institutional frameworks; and the perennial problem of establishing legitimacy. A range of examples are drawn from western Europe in the later medieval and the Early Modern eras alongside the Almohad caliphate of the twelfth- and thirteenth-century Maghreb and the modern post-War Arab monarchies. Each highlights not only the vibrancy of monarchy as a concept but its elasticity as a model of rulership. This introductory chapter explores the section’s underlying themes by considering the way in which medieval theorists such as Giles of Rome and John of Paris understood the role and nature of monarchy. It argues that monarchy is so flexible and adaptive that it has been able to accommodate religious doctrines that have either little place for the worldly or that tend to subsume government within their doctrinal framework.
By Chris Jones
Chris Jones
Dr. Chris Jones is an Associate Professor at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand whose research explores the history of political ideas. His work has a particular focus upon France in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and he is especially interested in the thought of medieval chroniclers. His extensive publications in this area include his monograph, Eclipse of Empire? Perceptions of the Western Empire and Its Rulers in Late Medieval France (Brepols, 2007), and, most recently, a triptych of articles concerning the thought of the late thirteenth-century Benedictine chronicler of Sens, Geoffroi de Courlon. Among his other interests is the thought of the Dominican theologian John Quidort of Paris, concerning which he edited John of Paris: Beyond Royal and Papal Power (Brepols, 2015). Chris’s research also explores medieval and Early Modern legacies in Aotearoa New Zealand. In connection with the latter, he has co-edited Treasures of the University of Canterbury Library (with Bronwyn Matthews and Jennifer Clement; Canterbury University Press, 2011) and the interdisciplinary volume Magna Carta and New Zealand - History, Law and Politics in Aotearoa (with Stephen Winter; Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). He initiated, and is Director of, the Canterbury Roll Project, an innovative and ongoing research-led digital venture. The project produced a new edition and translation of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most significant medieval manuscript in 2017. Its blending of digital humanities and cutting-edge scientific research with traditional scholarship has received extensive coverage in the international press, including a lead article in The Times. He has also edited A Road Less Travelled: The Medieval and Early Modern World Reflected in New Zealand Collections, which appeared as a special issue of the journal Parergon in 2015, and curated several exhibitions. Chris is the serving President of the Australian & New Zealand Association for Medieval & Early Modern Studies Inc. (ANZAMEMS), a position to which he was elected in 2015, and is presently developing Making the Medieval Relevant (De Gruyter) with Conor Costick and Klaus Oschema.
Further author information
Bibliography
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Related Chapters
Elena Woodacre: Understanding the Mechanisms of Monarchy (See Chapter 1)
Lucinda Dean: Introduction (See Chapter 11)
Russell Martin: Introduction (See Chapter 24)
Zita Rohr: Introduction (See Chapter 35)