The Final Argument: The Imprint of Violence on Society in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Civilization consists of the attempt to reduce violence to the ultimo ratio, the final argument, the great Spanish political philosopher JoséOrtega y Gasset once declared. This volume explores a variety of ways and purposes for which violence was employed in medieval and early modern societies, ranging from England to Spain, from Portugal to Iran. The contributions deal with the place of medieval clergy in war and peace; the institutionalisation of clan violence in medieval Iberia which eventally gave rise to the law of modern duelling, the code duello; and the emergence of norms of punishment for violence which pointed the way to the modern criminal law and penology. There is also a piece of historical detective work with a "definitive" solution for one of the crucial murder mysteries of the early Middle Ages - the wreck of the White Ship in 1120. Contributors: KENT G. HARE, MICHAEL FRASSETTO, JAMES R. KING, L.J. ANDREW VILLALON, DONALD J. KAGAY, THERESA M. VANN, JOHN K. BRACKETT, JOHN R. PERRY, TIMOTHY J. COATES, PATRICIA R. ORR, CYNTHIA J. NEVILLE, VICTORIA CHANDLER

Table of Contents:
Clerics, War and Weapons in Anglo-Saxon England - Kent G. Hare Violence, Knightly Piety and the Peace of God Movement in Aquitaine - Michael Frassetto The Friar Tuck Syndrome: Clerical Violence and the Barons' War - James R. King Deudo and the Roots of Feudal Violence in Late Medieval Castile - L.J. Andrew Villalon The Iberian Diffidamentum: From Vassalic Defiance to the Code Duello - Donald Kagay Criminal Settlement in Medieval Castilian Towns - Theresa M Vann The Language of Violence in the Late Italian Renaissance: The Example of the Tuscan Romagna - John K. Brackett Artificial Antagonism' in Pre-Modern Iran: the Haydari-Ne'mati Urban Factions - John R. Perry Crime and Punishment in the Fifteenth-Century Portuguese World: The Transition from Internal to Imperial Exile - Timothy J. Coates Non Potest Appellum Facere: Criminal Charges Women could not - but did - bring in Thirteenth-Century English Royal Courts of JusticeJustice - Patricia R. Orr War, Women and Crime in the Northern English Border Lands in the Later Middle Ages - Cynthia J Neville The Wreck of the White Ship. A Mass Murder Revealed? - Victoria Chandler

Review :
Contain[s] intelligent, well-written essays that will repay the attention of anyone interested in the phenomenon of violence in the middle ages.