Family Trees and the Roots of Politics: The Prosopography of Britain and France from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century

by K.S.B. Keats-Rohan (Contributor), Alan V. Murray (Contributor), Ann Williams (Contributor)

Articles on the significance of genealogy and kinship ties in determining political events in the middle ages.

In recent decades historians have become increasingly aware of the value of prosopography as an auxiliary science standing at the crossroads between anthropology, genealogy, demography and social history. It is now developing as an independent research discipline of real benefit to medievalists. The geographically and chronologically wide-ranging subjects of the essays in this collection, by scholars from the British Isles and the Continent, are united bya common theme, namely the significance of genealogy and kinship ties in determining political events in the middle ages. The papers, including a review of the history of prosopography and some of its major successes as a method by Karl Ferdinand Werner, range from general considerations of prosopographical and genealogical methodology (including discussion of Anglo-Norman royal charters) to specific analyses of individual political and kinship groups (including the genealogy of the counts of Anjou and a rehabilitation of the prosopographical material in Wace's Roman de Rou). The main geographic focus is England and France from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, but other areas as diverse as Celtic Ireland and the Latin Principality of Antioch also come under prosopographical scrutiny.

Contributors: DAVID E. THORNTON, ANNE WILLIAMS, C.P. LEWIS, DAVID BATES, ELISABETH VAN HOUTS, EMMA COWNIE, JUDITH GREEN, JOHN S. MOORE, K.S.B. KEATS-ROHAN, CHRISTIAN SETTIPANI, HUBERT GUILLOTEL, KATHLEEN THOMPSON, VERONIQUE GAZEAU, MICHEL BUR, ALAN V. MURRAY, DANIEL POWER.

394 pages, Hardcover

First published July 3, 1997

Reviews

[Grady Loy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating treatment of the prosopography of French elites down to the high middle ages. Dr Settipani's article comprises part (if memory serves) of an entertaining and informative debate between him and Dr. Bacharach on the origins of some collateral lines of the earliest French Angevins.

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The seventeen papers in this collection (five of them in French) were read at a conference at Oxford in 1995, and one of the most important is "L’apport de la prosopographie à l’histoire sociale des élites" by Karl Ferdinand Werner, one of the principal founders of the field. Others of special note include David E. Thornton’s "Kings, Chronicles and Genealogies: Reconstructing Mediaeval Celtic Dynasties," Christian Settipani’s "Les comtes d’Anjou et leurs alliances aux Xe et XIe siècles," and "The Formation of the County of Perche: the Rise and Fall of the House of Gouet," by Kathleen Thompson. Boydell Press, incidentally, has made a niche for itself in publishing works on the subject of prosopography.